20 

 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 AN 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 ON FAITH 
 
 THOMAS ERSKINE, ESQ. 
 
 ADVOCATE; 
 
 AUTHOR OF "REMARKS ON THE IKTERNAL EVIDENCE FOR 
 THE TRUTH OF REVEALED REXIGION." 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 PRINTED FOR WAUGH AND 1NNES; 
 
 AND 
 
 OGLE, DUNCAN & CO. LONDON.
 
 ESSAY ON FAITH. 
 
 WE read in the Scriptures, " that a man 
 *' is justified by faith, without the deeds of 
 " the law,*' Rom. iii. 18. -that " by grace 
 " are ye saved through faith," Eph. ii. 8. 
 that the glory of the Gospel consists in this, 
 that " God's method of justification by faith 
 " is revealed in it," Rom. i. 17- and that 
 " he that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
 " lasting life, and he that believeth not the 
 " Son shall not see life," St. John iii. 36. 
 And these texts do not appear as insulated 
 observations, nor are they liable to be ex- 
 plained away as figurative expressions, or 
 B 
 
 1G77139
 
 strong language ; they constitute most im 
 portant parts in the reasoning of the sacred 
 writers ; and the general tone of the con- 
 text is that of sober and unimpassioned ar- 
 gument. We ought not then to wonder, 
 that there should be a very lively and in- 
 quisitive interest excited in the minds of 
 those who receive the Scriptures as the in- 
 spired word of God, about the precise mean- 
 ing of the term faith. Neither ought we 
 to wonder that many different meanings 
 have been assigned to it. For as faith on 
 the one hand, and unbelief on the other, 
 describe states of mind, which appear often 
 to be absolutely involuntary, being the ad- 
 mission of evidence which it is impossible 
 to reject, or the rejection of evidence which 
 it is impossible to admit ; men have found 
 it difficult to reconcile their minds to the 
 association of eternal happiness with the 
 one, and of eternal misery with the other, 
 as their just and equitable consequences. 
 To lessen this difficulty, or to remove it, 
 some have supposed that faith was a sym- 
 bolical expression for the whole regenerate 
 character, or all virtues ; and that unbelief 
 was a symbolical expression for the unre-
 
 3 
 
 generate character, or all vices. Others have 
 supposed that faith is one. of two necessary 
 conditions of pardon, the other condition be- 
 ing obedience, the absence of either of which 
 made the other nugatory, and effectually 
 excluded from the Divine favour. Others, 
 clearly perceiving that these views could 
 not be reconciled, either with the general 
 tenor of the Bible, or with many most de- 
 cided and unequivocal texts, have talked 
 disparagingly of holiness and obedience, and 
 have treated of faith as if it were the chan- 
 nel of justification, merely in virtue of an 
 arbitrary appointment of God, and without 
 any reference to its moral effect on the 
 human character. 
 
 In the observations which I am now to 
 make, I shall point out the sources of some 
 of the errors which have prevailed on this 
 subject I shall explain what appears to 
 me to be the correct view of Christian faith 
 in its exercise and object ami I shall at- 
 tempt to describe some of its counterfeits. 
 
 Doubtless the great source of error on 
 this subject, is the corruption of the heart. 
 2
 
 4 
 
 There is a great fallacy in supposing that 
 faith is an involuntary act. The Bible 
 speaks of faith as a duty, and of unbelief 
 as a sin. There are some who object to 
 this language, and prefer calling faith a 
 privilege ; and truly it is a most unspeak- 
 able privilege. But if " he who believes not 
 " is condemned already, because he believ- 
 " eth not in the name of the only-begotten 
 " Son of God," surely unbelief is a sin, and it 
 is our duty to avoid this sin ; John iii. 18. 
 vi. 28, 29. According to the Bible, then, 
 faith is an act of the will, for duty and sin 
 imply the action of the will. And our rea- 
 son speaks in the same way. If the belief 
 of any fact naturally and imperatively calls 
 for the performance of a particular duty, 
 who is the man that will most easily be 
 persuaded of the truth of the fact ? He 
 who takes a pleasure in the performance of 
 the duty, or he who detests it ? Have not 
 love and fear, and indolence and interest, 
 very considerable influence over our belief? 
 A surgeon who, in the midst of a tempes- 
 tuous night, is assailed by a rumour, that 
 a beggar, at the distance of ten miles off, 
 has broken his leg, and claims his assist-
 
 ance, will more readily admit of opposite 
 evidence, than if the circumstances were en- 
 tirely changed ; that is, if the night were 
 day, if the ten miles off were next door, 
 and the beggar a rich nobleman. I do not 
 mean merely to say that he would more 
 willingly go in the one case than in the 
 other, but that his conscientious belief could 
 be more easily engaged in the one case 
 than in the other. He who knew what 
 was in man, after declaring, that " he 
 " who believeth on the Son is not con- 
 " demned, but he that believeth not is con- 
 " demned already," adds immediately, " and 
 " this is the condemnation, that light is 
 " come into the world, and men have loved 
 " darkness rather than light, because their 
 " deeds were evil j" thus most explicitly 
 referring belief and unbelief to the state of 
 the heart and affections. But though the 
 sin of the heart is the root of all errors in 
 religion, yet it is of importance to consider 
 those errors separately, that we may know 
 them, and be prepared for them ; for it is 
 by blinding our understandings that the 
 deceitfulness of the heart operates. 
 
 B3
 
 6 
 
 In the Bible, Christianity is given us as 
 a whole ; but men are apt to take confined 
 and partial views of it. Faith is connected 
 in Scripture, both with the pardon of sin 
 and with the deliverance from the power of 
 sin ; or in other words, with justification 
 and sanctification, according to common lan- 
 guage. In its connection with justification, 
 it is opposed to merit, and desert, and work 
 of every description ; " It was by faith that 
 " it might be by grace, or gratuitous, or for 
 " nothing," Rom. iv. 16. Some exclusive- 
 ly take this view, which in itself is correct, 
 but which does not .embrace the whole 
 truth. Faith, as connected with sanctifi- 
 cation, " purifieth the heart," " worketh 
 " by love," and " overcometh the world," 
 and produces every thing which is excellent 
 and holy, as may be seen in that bright roll 
 which is given in Heb. xi. Some again 
 are so engrossed with this view of the sub- 
 ject, that they lose sight of the former. 
 This is a fruitful source of error. In order 
 to understand thoroughly the separate parts 
 of a whole, we must understand their con- 
 nection with the other parts, and their spe- 
 cific purpose in relation to the whole. The
 
 first of the two classes that have been de- 
 scribed, call the 6ther legalists, or persons 
 who depend on their own performances for 
 acceptance with God. And they are per- 
 haps right in this accusation ; but they 
 are not aware that they are very possibly 
 guilty of the same offence. They are al- 
 most unconsciously very apt to think, that 
 they have paid faith as the price of God's 
 favour. The man who considers faith mere- 
 ly as the channel by which the Divine tes- 
 timony concerning pardon through the blood 
 of the Lamb is conveyed to his understand- 
 ing, and operates on his heart, cannot look 
 on faith as a work, because he views it mere- 
 ly as the inlet by which spiritual light en- 
 ters his soul. Whilst he 'who considers 
 the declaration, " he that believeth shall 
 " be saved," as expressing the arbitrary con- 
 dition on which pardon will be bestowed, 
 without referring to its natural effects on 
 the character, requires to be very much on 
 his guard indeed against a dependance on 
 his faith as a meritorious act. He will 
 not to be sure speak of it in this way, but 
 he runs great risk of feeling about it in 
 this way. And it is not unworthy of ob- 
 it 4
 
 servation, that those, whose statements in 
 this respect have been the highest, have of- 
 ten, in their controversies, assumed towards 
 their opponents a tone of bitterness and 
 contempt, most unbecoming the Christian 
 character. This looks like self-righteous- 
 ness, and seems to mark that they are trust- 
 ing rather in their own faith, which elevates 
 them, than in the cross of Christ, which 
 would humble them. 
 
 In like manner, the second of these 
 classes charge the other with antinomi- 
 anism, though they themselves are liable to 
 the same charge. They hate the name of 
 antinomianism, and they wish to escape 
 from it, as far as possible, but they mistake 
 the way. They are so much occupied with 
 the Christian character, that they forget 
 the doctrine of free grace, by the influence 
 of which doctrine alone, that character can 
 be formed. They endeavour to become 
 holy by sheer effort. Now this will never 
 do. They can never love God by merely 
 trying to love him, nor can they hate sin 
 by merely trying to hate it. The belief of 
 the love of God to sinners and of the evil 
 of sin as manifested in the cross of Christ,
 
 can alone accomplish this change within 
 them. Those who substitute effort for the 
 Gospel, preach antinomianism; because they 
 preach a doctrine which can never, in the 
 nature of things, lead to the fulfilment of 
 the law. A'ti 
 
 I shall have occasion to illustrate these 
 topics farther in the conclusion of the Essay; 
 and, in the meantime, let us consider how, 
 and, to what extent, the introduction of 
 scholastic metaphysics into religion has ob- 
 scured and perplexed the subject of faith. 
 
 Theological writers have distinguished 
 and described different kinds of faith, as 
 speculative and practical, historical, sav- 
 ing and realizing faith. It would be of little 
 consequence what names we gave to faith, 
 or to any thing else, provided these names 
 did not interfere with the distinctness ef 
 our ideas of the things to which they are 
 attached ; but as we must be sensible that 
 they do very much interfere with these 
 ideas, we ought to be on our guard against 
 any false impressions which may be receiv- 
 ed from an incorrect use of them. Is it 
 not evident that this way of speaking has 
 a natural tendency to draw the attention
 
 10 
 
 away from the thing to be believed, and to 
 engage it in a fruitless examination of the 
 mental operation of believing? And yet 
 is it not true, that we see and hear of more 
 anxiety amongst religious people, about 
 their faith being of the right kind, than 
 about their believing the right things? 
 A sincere man, who has never questioned 
 the Divine authority of the Scripture, and 
 who can converse and reason well on its 
 doctrines, yet finds perhaps that the state 
 of his mind and the tenor of his life do not 
 agree with the Scripture rule. He is very 
 sensible that there is an error somewhere, 
 but instead of suspecting that there is some- 
 thing in the very essentials of Christian 
 doctrine which he has never yet understood 
 thoroughly, the probability is that he, and 
 his advisers if he ask advice, come to the 
 conclusion that his faith is of a wrong kind, 
 that it is speculative or historical, and not 
 true saving faith. Of course this conclu- 
 sion sends him not to the study of the Bible, 
 but to the investigation of his own feelings, 
 or rather of the laws of his own mind. He 
 leaves that truth which God has revealed 
 and blessed as the medicine of our natures,
 
 11 
 
 and bewilders himself in a metaphysical la- 
 byrinth. 
 
 The Bible is throughout a practical book, 
 and never, in all the multitude of cases 
 which it sets before us for our instruction, 
 does it suppose it possible for a man to be 
 ignorant, or in doubt whether he really be- 
 lieves or not. It speaks indeed of faith un- 
 feigned, in opposition to a hypocritical pre- 
 tence and it speaks of a dead faith when 
 it denies the existence of faith altogether. 
 We deny the existence of benevolence, ar- 
 gues the Apostle, when fair words are given 
 instead of good offices ; even so we may de- 
 ny the existence of faith when it produces 
 no fruit, and merely vents itself in profes- 
 sions, in such a case faith is departed, it 
 is no more, it is dead there is a carcass to 
 be sure to be seen, but the spirit is gone. 
 In the place to which I am now referring, 
 viz. in the second chapter of James, the 
 writer gives another account of dead faith, 
 which is very important; it occurs in the 
 19th verse. This faith he calls dead, be- 
 cause it relates to an object which, when 
 taken alone, can produce no effect upon our 
 minds : " Thou believest that there is one 
 
 B6
 
 " God, thou dost well, the devils also be- 
 " lieve and tremble." Now the mere be- 
 lief of the unity of the godhead, however 
 important when connected with othertruths, 
 cannot of itself make a man either better 
 or happier. What feeling or act is there 
 which springs directly from a belief of the 
 unity of the godhead? When connected 
 with other things, it does produce effects ; 
 thus the devils connect it with a belief in 
 the avenging justice of God, and hence they 
 tremble, because there is no other God, no 
 other power to appeal to. Christians con- 
 nect it with a belief in the love of God 
 through the Redeemer, and hence they have 
 good hope, for none can pluck them out of 
 His hands. But the abstract belief that 
 there is one God, leads to nothing. Since 
 the Epistle of St. James has been thus in- 
 troduced, it may appear proper that some 
 explanation should be given of the appa- 
 rent discrepancy between his doctrine and 
 that of St. Paul. The two Apostles are 
 speaking evidently of two different things 
 St. Paul is speaking of the way in which 
 a sinner may approach God St. James is 
 speaking of the way in which the Christian
 
 13 
 
 character is confirmed by the various events 
 and duties of life, and in which it manifests 
 its reality to the conviction of men. When 
 Paul says that " a man is justified by faith 
 " without works," he means that a man re- 
 ceives pardon through the channel of faith 
 without any good desert of his own. When 
 James says that " a man is justified by 
 " works, and not by faith only," he means 
 that the character is perfected, not by a 
 principle which lies inert in the mind, but 
 by a principle which exercises itself in ac- 
 tion. The use made of the instance of Abra- 
 ham seems to favour this interpretation. 
 " Was not Abraham our father justified 
 " by works, when he had offered up Isaac his 
 " son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith 
 " wrought with his works, and by works 
 " was faith made perfect ?" The word &. 
 xouKipui, I am justified or pardoned, as it 
 generally denotes, may signify, I am made, 
 or I become a just or good man; and it 
 does occur in this sense in the version of the 
 Old Testament by the Seventy. I am much 
 disposed to be of opinion that this is the 
 proper meaning of it, in the passage before 
 us. The general text or subject of the two
 
 14 
 
 first chapters is contained in the 2d and 3d 
 versesof the first chapter: " Brethren, count 
 "it all joy when you fall into divers trials, 
 " knowing this, that the trial of your faith 
 " worketh constancy, or giveth it (your 
 " faith) consistency and endurance." The 
 Apostle enlarges upon this text; he teaches 
 them, that faith unexercised grows weaker, 
 and at last dies; and, on the other hand, 
 that every exercise of it adds to its strength. 
 The character thus advances one way or 
 another, and we are ripening either for the 
 harvest of eternal life or of eternal misery 
 continually ; because either the principle of 
 faith or the principle of self-will is exercised 
 by every thought, or word, or deed, that 
 proceeds from us. This is certainly a very 
 important view of the subject, whether it 
 be the right view of the passage or not; 
 but I think that the context favours it. 
 Thus the reference to Abraham would have 
 this meaning: "Did the character of our 
 " father Abraham advance so, that he be- 
 <f came the friend of God, by sitting still 
 " and allowing his belief of the Divine kind- 
 "ness to him to lie dormant? No; it ad- 
 " vanced by action, it was both proved and
 
 15 
 
 " exercised by the offering up of Isaac, and 
 " by such exercise was the principle of faith 
 " carried on to its perfection.*' The com- 
 mon interpretation of the passage supposes 
 that " to be justified," here signifies to be 
 proved just, and means the same thing as 
 the expression in the 18th verse, '< to shew 
 " faith by works;" and this may be the true 
 meaning, though I prefer the other as be- 
 ing more coherent with the rest of the ar- 
 gument. 
 
 But to return from this digression. It is 
 not an easy, because it is not a natural- ex- 
 ercise of the mind, to look into itself, and 
 to examine its various susceptibilities, and 
 the mode or law according to which these 
 are excited by external objects; and whilst 
 we are engaged in this manner, we must 
 necessarily remain to a great degree unaf- 
 fected by those external objects,, which -we 
 are using merely as parts of the apparatus 
 required for making the experiment on our 
 own faculties. We must endeavour to be 
 in some degree affected by them, in order 
 that we may observe the mode in. which 
 they affect us; but that degree will neces- 
 sarily be very inconsiderable, in consequence 
 2
 
 16 
 
 of our attention being chiefly directed to- 
 wards our own feelings. If I am intent on 
 examining and investigating that pleasing 
 emotion, which is produced in the mind by 
 the contemplation of the beauties of nature, 
 it is impossible that I can feel much of that 
 pleasure. I may be surrounded by all that 
 is sublime and all that is lovely in creation 
 the rising sun may invite my enthusiasm, 
 but Memnon's lyre is silent, I remain un- 
 touched, for I am contemplating my own 
 mind, and not the scene before me: and 
 that power unseen, which Akenside de- 
 scribes as " throned in his bright descend- 
 ing car " must attract and absorb the at- 
 tention, before it can diffuse afar any ten- 
 derness of mind. The delightful feeling 
 is produced by contemplating the external 
 object ; not by observing nor by knowing 
 how we enjoy it. The more thoroughly we 
 are occupied by the object, the more tho- 
 roughly will our pleasurable susceptibili- 
 ties be excited; and the more interrupted 
 and distracted our contemplation of the ob- 
 ject is, the more inconsiderable will be the 
 gratification arising from it. We cannot 
 excite the pleasing emotion by mere effort,
 
 17 
 
 without the real or imagined presence of its 
 natural exciting object, and whilst we At- 
 tempt to analyse the origin and progress of 
 the emotion, the object fades from our view, 
 and the sensation dies along with it. Our 
 minds are in this respect like mirrors, and 
 the impressions made on them resemble 
 the images reflected by mirrors. No effort 
 of ours can produce an image in the mirror, 
 independent of its proper corresponding ob- 
 ject. When that object is placed before it, the 
 image appears, and when it is withdrawn, the 
 image disappears. And if, in the minuteness 
 of our examination of the image, we look 
 too narrowly into the mirror, we may find 
 that we have interposed ourselves between 
 the mirror and the object, and that, instead 
 of the image which we expected, our own 
 face is all that we can discover. I beg the 
 reader to bear in mind, that these observa- 
 tions do not at all interfere with the Christ- 
 ian duty of self-examination, which relates 
 not to the philosophy of the human mind, 
 but to the actual state of the human heart. 
 The science of the human mind requires 
 this reflex exertion, because its object is to 
 examine and discover the laws according to
 
 IS 
 
 which the mind acts, or is acted upon ; but 
 Christianity requires no such act, because its 
 object is not to discover the laws according 
 to which the mind is impressed, but actually 
 to make impressions on the mind, by pre- 
 senting to it, objects fitted and destined for 
 this purpose by Him who made the mind, 
 and fixed its laws. The objects of religion 
 were not revealed to us, to sharpen our fa- 
 culties, by observing how they were fitted to 
 impress the mind, but that our minds might 
 really be impressed by them with the charac- 
 ters of happiness and holiness. These cha- 
 racters are the subjects of self-examination, 
 and they are all contained in the Divine 
 precepts. Do we love God and our neigh- 
 bour, and do we give proof of the reality of 
 our love by corresponding action ? This is 
 a very different process from that to which 
 I am referring. My object is, to point out 
 the folly of attempting or expecting to 
 make any impressions on our minds by mere 
 effort, instead of bringing them into con- 
 tact with those objects which God has made 
 known to us in the Gospel as the proper 
 means of producing those impressions 
 and especially to warn against that parti-
 
 19 
 
 cular species of this general error, which 
 consists in considering rather how we be- 
 lieve than what we believe. 
 
 From this metaphysical habit of consi- 
 dering and attending to the mind itself, 
 and the mode in which it is impressed, ra- 
 ther than to the objects which make the 
 impression, arose the division of faith into 
 different kinds ; and thus the feelings of 
 men were substituted in the place of the 
 tangible word of revelation. 
 
 A true faith does not properly refer to 
 the mode of believing, but to the object be- 
 lieved. It means the belief of a true thing. 
 As a correct memory does not refer to the 
 process by which the impression is made, 
 but to the accurate representation of the fact 
 remembered. It means the remembrance 
 of a thing as it happened. When, after 
 hearing a person relate incorrectly any his- 
 tory with which we are acquainted, we say, 
 " he has a bad memory," we mean merely 
 that he has not remembered what happened. 
 So when we say that a man has a wrong 
 belief of a thing, we ought to mean merely 
 that he does not believe the thing which 
 really happened. The way to correct the
 
 20 
 
 memory is not to work with the faculty it- 
 self independently of its object, but to at- 
 tend more minutely and carefully to that 
 object. And this is the only way of cor- 
 recting the belief too. Were a man, when 
 endeavouring to recollect some circumstance 
 which had escaped him, to direct his atten- 
 tion to the act of recollection rather than 
 to the thing to be remembered, he would 
 infallibly fail in his purpose. In like man- 
 ner, if he wishes to believe any thing, there 
 can be no more successful way of thwart- 
 ing his own wish, than by directing his at- 
 tention to the mental operation of believ- 
 ing, instead of considering the thing to be 
 believed, and the evidence of its truth. 
 
 But is there no such thing as a wrong 
 or false way of believing what is true ? 
 Are not the most important truths often 
 believed without producing the slightest 
 effect on the character ? Do we not some- 
 times find men who are prepared to die as 
 martyrs to the truth of a doctrine which 
 never influenced a feeling of their hearts ? 
 Let us pick out two of our acquaintances, 
 and let us question them separately as to 
 their religious belief, concerning God and
 
 eternity, and their own duties and their 
 own hopes; the answers which they give are 
 in substance the same, and yet their paths 
 in life are diametrically opposite ; the life 
 of the one is in harmony with the belief 
 which he professes, the other's is not. They 
 are both incapable of deceit; how then are 
 we to account for this difference, except by 
 supposing that there is a right and a wrong 
 way of believing the same thing ? This is 
 certainly a very important question, and it 
 seems to me capable of a very satisfactory 
 solution. Although these two persons use 
 similar language, and appear to believe the 
 same things, yet in reality they differ es- 
 sentially in the subject-matter of their be- 
 lief. But this requires farther illustration. 
 We are so much accustomed to satisfy our- 
 selves with vague ideas on the subject of 
 religion, that we are easily deceived by a 
 general resemblance of statements with re- 
 gard to it; and the word faith has been so 
 much withdrawn from common use, and so 
 much devoted to religious purposes, that it 
 has very much lost its real import. To 
 have faith in a thing, to believe a thing, 
 and to understand a thing as a truth, are
 
 Ml 
 
 expressions of the same import. No man 
 can be properly said to believe any thing 
 which is addressed to his thinking faculty, 
 if he does not understand it. Let us sup- 
 pose a Chinese, who can speak no language 
 but his own, brought before an English 
 jury as a witness. Let him bring with him 
 certificates and testimonials of character 
 which place his truth and integrity above 
 all suspicion. There is nat a doubt enter- 
 tained of him. But he gives his evidence 
 in his own language. I ask, does any one 
 juryman believe him? Certainly not, it 
 is absolutely impossible nobody under- 
 stands a word that he utters. If, during 
 the course of the evidence, the jury were 
 asked whether or not they believed what he 
 was telling them, would they not smile at 
 the question ? And yet they know that it 
 is truth. They understand that the wit- 
 ness is an honest man, and they believe as 
 far as they understand, but they can believe 
 no farther. An interpreter is brought 
 he translates the evidence; now the jury 
 understand it, and their belief accompanies 
 their understanding. If one of the jury had 
 understood Chinese, the difference between
 
 23 
 
 his belief and that of the rest, would have 
 been accurately measured, by the diffe- 
 rence of their understandings. They all 
 heard the same sounds, and saw the same 
 motions, but there was only one of them, 
 to whom these symbols conveyed any mean- 
 ing". Now the meaning was the thing of 
 importance to be believed and the proof 
 of the man's integrity was of consequence 
 merely on account of the authority which 
 it gave to his meaning. 
 
 Faith and reason are so often talked of as 
 not only distinct from, but even opposed to 
 each other, that I feel it of importance to 
 press this point, by farther examples from 
 familiar life. Several merchants receive 
 from their correspondent at a distance, let- 
 ters recommending them to follow a parti- 
 cular course in their trade, in order to escape 
 a threatened loss, and to insure a consider- 
 able profit. And this advice is accompanied 
 by the information and reasons on which it 
 is founded. The speculation requires a 
 good deal of hardihood, and a most implicit 
 confidence in the information communicat- 
 ed. One of the merchants, on reading 
 his letter, cannot believe that he is in any
 
 such danger as is represented to him he 
 declares the letter a forgery, and throws it 
 into the fire. Another knows the hand- 
 writing too well, to doubt of its really 
 coming from the person whose name it 
 bears ; but he does not believe its contents, 
 and therefore does not act according to its 
 instructions. A third reads his letter as 
 an essay on mercantile affairs in general, 
 without observing the application of it to 
 his own immediate circumstances, or the 
 call that it makes on him for instantaneous 
 action; and therefore he also is unmoved 
 by it. A fourth acknowledges the signa- 
 ture and the authority of the information, 
 but reads the letter carelessly, and takes up 
 a wrong idea of the course recommended, 
 and sets about a speculation, before he has 
 made himself acquainted with his corre- 
 spondent's plan ; and consequently receives 
 as little benefit from the communication as 
 any of the former. Now it is quite clear 
 that not one of the four believed the in- 
 formation of their correspondent. Their 
 unbelief is of different kinds, but the re- 
 sult is the same in all. A letter is merely 
 the vehicle of a meaning, and if that mean-
 
 ing is not believed, the letter itself is not 
 believed. The two first understood the 
 meaning of the letter, and rejected it open- 
 ly and professedly on its own merits. The 
 two last openly and professedly assented to 
 it, but they believed their own interpreta- 
 tion of it, and not the meaning of the writer. 
 It is an absolute absurdity to say that a 
 meaning can be believed without being un- 
 derstood and therefore nothing which has 
 a meaning can be fully believed until the 
 meaning is understood. When a thing is 
 said or done, of which we don't perceive 
 the meaning, we say, we don't understand 
 that. We are sure that the word has been 
 spoken or the action performed, but we don't 
 apprehend its import. Can we possibly 
 then believe that import? In such cases, 
 understanding and belief are one and the 
 same thing. The third and fourth mer- 
 chants could, perhaps, both of them, repeat 
 their letter by memory; and the third espe- 
 cially, though ignorant, and therefore un- 
 believing as to its immediate application, 
 could probably talk well of its general prin* 
 ciples, and quote Adam Smith in illustra- 
 tion or defence of it. There is a fifth, who 
 c
 
 26 
 
 reads, acknowledges the signature, under- 
 stands the contents, believes them, and acts 
 accordingly. This man believes the mean- 
 ing of his correspondent, and if the infor- 
 mation was good, he reaps the full advan- 
 tage of it. 
 
 In religion there cannot be any cases pa- 
 rallel to that of the second merchant. No 
 man can believe that the Bible was written 
 by God, and at the same time openly pro- 
 fess to disbelieve its contents ; and there 
 are not very many who avow their unbelief 
 of the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. 
 But there are many nominal Christians in 
 situations very closely resembling that of 
 the jurymen above mentioned, and of the 
 third and fourth merchants. Are there not 
 many who would be astonished and hurt if 
 their Christianity were doubted, who evi- 
 dently attach as little meaning to the words 
 Judgment, Eternity, and Justification by 
 faith in Christ, as those men did to the 
 Chinese vocables ? Can these be said to be- 
 lieve ? Are there not many who can speak 
 and reason orthodoxly and logically on the 
 doctrines of the Gospel, and yet do not un- 
 derstand the urgency of these doctrines in
 
 27 
 
 application to their own souls ? These do 
 not believe the meaning of the Gospel sure- 
 ly. And are there not many who, mistaking 
 the whole scope of the Bible, find in it, 
 what is not there, a plan of justification, 
 in which man performs some part, if not the 
 whole, in the work of redemption ; or see 
 in it merely a list and a description of du- 
 ties, by the performance of which, a man 
 may recommend himself to the favour of 
 God ? Those who believe this, believe their 
 own vain imagination, and not the Gospel. 
 A man who is honest in his belief of that 
 which he professes to believe, is certainly 
 free from the charge of deceit and hypo- 
 crisy ; but his honesty will not convert a lie 
 into a truth : it cannot make that good 
 news, which is not good news ; it cannot 
 change the import of the Bible, or the will 
 of God. " Understandest thou what thou 
 " readest?" was Philip's question to the Eu- 
 nuch ; and it is a question which each read- 
 er of the Bible should put most jealously 
 to himself; for, as it is said in the parable 
 of the sower, when any one heareth the 
 ' word of the kingdom, and understandeth 
 " it not, then c'ometh the wicked one and 
 c 2
 
 " catcheth away thafwhich was sown in his 
 " heart." 
 
 The Jews believed in the Divine autho- 
 rity and inspiration by which Moses spoke 
 they had much more reverence for his 
 name and honour than the great bulk of 
 professing Christians have for the name and 
 honour of the Saviour and yet He who 
 knew the thoughts of the heart, declared 
 that they did not believe Moses ; " for," 
 says Jesus Christ, " had ye believed Mo- 
 " ses, ye would have believed me, for he 
 " wrote of me ; but if ye believe not his 
 " writings, how shall ye believe my words?" 
 He does not mean here to question their 
 belief that God had indeed spoken by Mo- 
 ses; but to deny their belief of Moses' 
 meaning. They did not understand Moses, 
 and therefore they could not believe him 
 they believed their own interpretation of 
 his law, not his own meaning in it. 
 
 I may understand many things which I 
 do not believe ; but I cannot believe apy 
 thing which I do not understand, unless it 
 be something addressed merely to my senses, 
 and not to my thinking faculty. A man may 
 with great propriety say, I understand the
 
 29 
 
 Cartesian system of vortices, though I don't 
 believe in it. But it is absolutely impos- 
 sible for him to believe in that system 
 without knowing what it is. A man may 
 believe in the ability of the maker of a sys- 
 tem, without understanding it ; but he can- 
 not believe in the system itself, without un- 
 derstanding it. Now, there is a meaning in 
 the Gospel, and there is declared in it the 
 system of God's dealings with men. This 
 meaning, and this system, must be under- 
 stood, before we can believe the Gospel. 
 We are not called on to believe the Bible 
 merely that we may give a proof of our 
 willingness to submit in all things to God's 
 authority, but that we may be influenced 
 by the objects of our belief. When the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles gives a reason why 
 he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, 
 he does not say because it is a message 
 from the King of kings ; he does not found 
 its importance simply on the authority of 
 the promulgator of it, but in a great mea- 
 sure on its own intrinsic and intelligible 
 value " For it is the power of God unto 
 " salvation to every one who believeth," 
 Rom. i. 16. Salvation here signifies healing, 
 c 3
 
 30 
 
 or deliverance, not from the condemnation, 
 but from the influence of sin. His reason 
 for not being ashamed of this Gospel then 
 was, because it was the mighty instrument 
 which God had prepared for healing the 
 spiritual diseases of men. The great im- 
 portance of the object to be attained by the 
 publication of the Gospel invested it with its 
 high dignity. But he does not leave his Ro- 
 man disciples here ; he explains to them, 
 liow this great object is attained he tells 
 them what it is in the Gospel which pro- 
 duces this effect " for," continues he in 
 the 17th verse, " herein is revealed God's 
 ' plan of justification by faith." Righteous- 
 ness, through this Epistle, almost without 
 exception, signifies the mercy of God ma- 
 nifested in pardoning sinners for the sake 
 of the atonement of Christ. He is after- 
 wards at much pains to demonstrate to 
 them, that the belief of this mercy has, from 
 the very nature of man, that healing influ- 
 ence which he had ascribed to it. I may 
 remark here, that the passage of Malachi, 
 in which the Messiah is predicted under 
 the figure of the Sun of Righteousness, or 
 forgiving mercy, bears a striking resem-
 
 31 
 
 blance in meaning to the verses which have 
 been quoted from the Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans. The Apostle represents justification, 
 or the remission of sins, as the prominent 
 feature and characteristic of the Gospel, 
 and to this he ascribes the whole of its 
 healing or salutary power, and the pro- 
 phet's eye, in like manner, is caught by the 
 absorbing glory and brilliancy of this plan 
 of redemption he sees from afar a new ma- 
 nifestation of the Divine character rising 
 on the dark world. Many and diversified 
 are the high attributes of that character ; 
 but as the different rays of the natural light, 
 when combined, appear but one brightness 
 so the many rays of that spiritual light, 
 when combined, appear but one Sun of 
 mercy and the beams which this Sun 
 shoots forth, are pardons, which heal the 
 hearts they enter. 
 
 In order then to the believing of the Gos- 
 pel, it is necessary that the plan of justifi- 
 cation by faith should be understood ; be- 
 cause this is the prominent feature of the 
 Gospel, and because the benefits bestowed 
 by the Gospel, are communicated to the 
 soul through the knowledge of this doctrine, 
 c 4
 
 32 
 
 What is the difference between know- 
 ledge or understanding, and faith ? Our 
 understanding of a thing means the concep- 
 tion which we have formed of it, or the im- 
 pression which it has made on our mind, 
 without any reference to its being a reality 
 in nature independent of our thought, or a 
 mere fiction of the imagination : And faith 
 is a persuasion, accompanying these impres- 
 sions, that the objects which produced them 
 are realities in nature, independent of our 
 thought or perception. This persuasion of 
 reality accompanies all the different modes 
 in which our knowledge is acquired, as well 
 as the testimony of others. When an ob- 
 ject is presented to my eye, the impression 
 which it makes upon me is accompanied by 
 the persuasion, that the object which pro- 
 duced it is truly described by the impres- 
 sion which it has made, and that it is a 
 reality independent of myself. When a 
 proposition in mathematics is demonstrated 
 to me, a persuasion accompanies my under- 
 standing of it, that these relations of quan- 
 tities are fixed and unalterable, and altoge- 
 ther independent of my reasoning. When 
 the generous or kind conduct of a friend
 
 33 
 
 meets my difficulties, my impression of the 
 fact is accompanied by a persuasion of the 
 reality of that generosity or kindness, as 
 qualities existing in my friend's heart alto- 
 gether independent of my thought or feel- 
 ing on the subject. When I hear through 
 a channel which appears to me authentic, of 
 some melancholy or some joyful event, there 
 is an accompanying persuasion that there is 
 a real cause for joy or sorrow. 
 
 Faith, then, is just an appendage to those 
 faculties of the mind by which we receive 
 impressions from external objects, whether 
 they be material or immaterial. It stands 
 at the entrances of the mind, as it were, and 
 passes sentence on the authenticity of ail 
 information which goes in. Now, as faith 
 is merely an appendage to another faculty, 
 is it not evident that its existence and ex- 
 ercise, with regard to any particular object, 
 must depend on the existence and exercise 
 of that faculty to which the object is ad- 
 dressed ? A man born blind has no impres- 
 sions from light, and therefore he can have 
 no faith with regard to such impressions. 
 He has not the slightest conception of what
 
 34. 
 
 is meant by a coloured body, and therefore 
 he cannot believe in a coloured body. He 
 may believe that bodies have a quality 
 which he is incapable of perceiving, but 
 what that quality is he does not know, and 
 therefore cannot believe in it. Faith is the 
 persuasion that the impression on the mind 
 was produced by a real object. But if no 
 impression is made upon the mind, what 
 room is there for the exercise of belief ? If 
 he, like another blind man, has formed an 
 idea that red is like the sound of a trumpet, 
 the impression is a false one, and the belief 
 appended to it is also false, that is, it is ap- 
 pended to a false impression. For faith 
 must always derive its character from the 
 impression to which it is appended. 
 
 If the impression is correct, the faith is 
 correct ; and if the impression is incorrect, 
 the faith is incorrect. And when we are 
 considering impressions as produced by ob- 
 jects supposed or known to be real, we may 
 very properly explain faith to be the im- 
 pression made on our minds by some such 
 object. 
 
 A man altogether destitute of the facul- 
 ty of discerning the relation of numbers
 
 and quantities, could not understand how 
 two and two make four; there could be 
 therefore no impression on his mind corre- 
 sponding to this truth, and therefore there 
 could be no faith in it. There are many 
 persons whose minds have been so little 
 exercised in this way, that, though they 
 may not by nature be incapable of receiving 
 such impressions, it would yet be absolutely 
 impossible to make them comprehend a ma- 
 thematical process of any intricacy. These 
 persons may believe certain abstract truths 
 on the authority of others; but they never 
 can believe in the processes by which they 
 are demonstrated, because there are no im- 
 pressions on their minds corresponding to 
 these processes. The same reasoning holds 
 good with regard to our knowledge and be- 
 lief on subjects which address our moral fa- 
 culties, and other internal sensations. We 
 must have impressions made on our minds 
 corresponding to moral qualities, or to the 
 conditions which address our sensitive na- 
 ture, before we can believe in those quali- 
 ties, or in the meaning of those events and 
 conditions. How, for instance, do we be- 
 come acquainted with the idea of danger, 
 c 6
 
 but by an impression of fear produced in 
 our minds ? Can we become acquainted 
 with it by any other way ? Impossible ; for 
 the only meaning of danger is, that it is 
 something fitted to excite fear. How do 
 we become acquainted with the meaning 
 of generous worth and excellence, but by 
 the love, esteem, and admiration, which they 
 excite in us ? To a man whose heart is ut- 
 terly dead to kindness, what meaning could 
 kindness convey ? Where there are no mo- 
 ral impressions on the mind, there can be 
 no belief on moral subjects ; and accord- 
 ing to the degree of the impression is the 
 measure of the belief: For, in fact, the im- 
 pression is the belief, and the belief is the 
 impression. 
 
 In illustration of this, let us suppose two 
 men travelling together whose minds are 
 differently constituted. One has the ordi- 
 nary degree of alarm at the idea of death; 
 the other is entirely devoid of any such 
 feeling. They come into a situation in 
 which their lives are endangered. A stran- 
 ger passing by, interposes between them 
 and the danger, and saves their lives, but 
 at the expense of his own. Our two tra-
 
 37 
 
 vellers have both of them the use of their 
 eyes and their ears ; they have both of them 
 seen and heard precisely the same things, 
 and when they tell their story, their two 
 narratives agree most minutely : And yet 
 they believe two essentially different things. 
 The one believes that the disinterested and 
 heroic generosity of a stranger has saved 
 them from what he cannot but consider as 
 a dark and awful fate. In consequence of 
 this, he rejoices in his safety as far as his 
 sorrow for his noble benefactor will permit 
 he feels himself laid under the most sa- 
 cred obligation to reverence the memory of 
 this benefactor, and to repay to his surviv- 
 ing friends or family that debt of gratitude 
 which he owes for his deliverance. The 
 other understands nothing, and consequent- 
 ly believes nothing of all this he saw no 
 evil in the death with which they were 
 threatened, and of course no generosity in 
 him who rescued them from it by encoun- 
 tering it himself he neither feels joy, nor 
 sorrow, nor gratitude, excited by any part 
 of the history. These two men do not be- 
 lieve the same thing in two different ways ; 
 they in fact believe two different things-
 
 38 
 
 Examine the two impressions. They may 
 be compared to the traces left by the same 
 intaglio on two different substances the 
 one substance too solid to yield to the pres- 
 sure, or receive the mould of the sculpture, 
 exhibits nothing perhaps but the oval out- 
 line of the stone whilst the other, possess- 
 ing the right consistency, and coming in 
 contact with every portion of the substance, 
 receives and retains its perfect image, and 
 exhibits, it may be, lineaments which ex- 
 press all that mind can grasp in thought, or 
 feel in tenderness. The mind of the one 
 traveller has come in contact with every 
 part of the action, and bears away accord- 
 ingly the impression of the whole; the 
 mind of the other was incapable of coming 
 in contact with the whole, and of course 
 has received a most imperfect and partial 
 impression. We can only know the quali- 
 ties of things by corresponding susceptibi- 
 lities in our own minds. The absence of 
 the susceptibility of fear absolutely incapa- 
 citated our traveller for understanding dan- 
 ger, and consequently for comprehending 
 the generosity of the stranger's interference, 
 or for perceiving that there was any thing
 
 39 
 
 joyful in his own deliverance. The actions 
 of men are not to be considered as mere ex- 
 ternal shells, or dead carcasses they in so 
 far resemble those who act them, that they 
 have a spirit and internal life, as well as an 
 outward form and that this spirit consti- 
 tutes their character. Of course then we 
 do not understand nor believe a moral ac- 
 tion, whilst we do not enter into its spirit 
 and meaning : and we can only enter into 
 the quality of its spirit, through the excite- 
 ment of the corresponding susceptibilities 
 of our own minds. In morals, we really 
 know only what we feel. We may talk 
 about feelings which we never experienced, 
 and perhaps even correctly enough ; but it 
 is just as a blind philosopher may talk about 
 colours. 
 
 I have here put the extreme case of the 
 total destitution of a particular suscepti- 
 bility, and in such a case there can be no 
 doubt of the result. But it is no less 
 clear, that, even when there is no absolute 
 destitution, there must always be a rela- 
 tive proportion between the degree of sus- 
 ceptibility possessed by the mind, and 
 the capacity for understanding and believ-
 
 40 
 
 ing in facts which address these susceptibi- 
 lities. 
 
 There is a considerable analogy between 
 faith and memory, which may serve to il- 
 lustrate the character of both. As faith 
 accompanies the exercise of the different 
 faculties by which we acquire a knowledge 
 of things external to ourselves, as a judge 
 of 'the reality or non-reality of the objects 
 which produce the impressions of which the 
 mind is conscious; so memory accompanies 
 these same faculties as a judge, whether 
 the impressions made on them are new to 
 the mind, or have been present to it before. 
 It is quite evident that no blind man could 
 be said to remember a colour and that no 
 man whatever could be said to remember 
 what he never received an impression of. 
 
 We see, then, that the impression which 
 any object makes on our minds, whatever 
 that impression may be, sums up and de- 
 fines our knowledge and belief of that ob- 
 ject. We ought then to guard against be- 
 ing deceived by names. A number of men 
 may receive impressions from the same ob- 
 ject, and all these impressions may be dif- 
 ferent, and yet each of them will give to his
 
 41 
 
 own impression, the common name of the 
 object which produced it. An indifferent 
 hearer may, when he listens to their story, 
 suppose that they all know and believe the 
 same thing ; but a judicious and curious 
 questioner might discover from their own 
 mouths, that amongst the whole, there are 
 not two impressions alike. Compare, by 
 way of a broad instance, the belief of a 
 moss-rose entertained by a blind man a 
 man without the sense of smell and a man 
 in the full exercise of his external senses. 
 There are evidently three different impres- 
 sions made on these three minds, that is, 
 there are three different beliefs; and yet 
 there is but one name given to the three, 
 and that is, the name of the object, to which 
 they all refer. 
 
 Every object is composed of many parts 
 and qualities, but all these subdivisions are 
 summed up in the name given to the ob- 
 ject which is their aggregate, and he who 
 uses the general name is presumed to im- 
 ply all the parts belonging to it. Thus a 
 pillar of a hundred feet in height is talked 
 of as if it were one and indivisible, whereas 
 it consists of an infinite number of parts,
 
 42 
 
 the existence of each of which may be a 
 distinct subject of knowledge and belief. 
 A blind man who runs against it, knows 
 and believes in a few square feet of it ; but 
 he does not believe in the remaining feet, 
 for he has received no impression from 
 them. After he is informed of the dimen- 
 sions of the pillar, he believes in a quite 
 different thing from what he did before ; or 
 rather, perhaps, to speak more correctly, he 
 believes in a number of things which he 
 could not believe in before, because his 
 mind had not come in contact with them. 
 
 In the same way, actions which combine 
 a variety of parts are commonly talked of 
 as indivisible unities, although each motive 
 may be a distinct subject of knowledge and 
 belief, and by its presence or absence make 
 an important change in the general im- 
 pression. The name remains the same, but 
 the ideas are very different. 
 
 The Gospel is a general name likewise 
 for an object which consists of several parts, 
 and contains various appeals to the moral 
 understanding of man. But this general 
 name may cover a great many different im- 
 pressions and beliefs and yet there is but
 
 43 
 
 one impression that can be the correct re- 
 presentation of the object ; all the rest must 
 be false in a greater or less degree. And 
 it is only the true impression that can be 
 profitable to us. And what is that true 
 impression ? This is only another way of 
 putting the question, What is the Gospel ? 
 for the true impression must be a correct 
 representation of the Gospel in all its mean- 
 ing. This is the important point ; for if 
 we really understand what the Gospel is, 
 and understand it as a truth, we need not 
 be very solicitous about the mode in which 
 we believe it. What is the intention of 
 the Gospel ? Its intention is to renew the 
 character of man after the likeness and 
 will of God. It is to give happiness and 
 holiness to the human heart. And this 
 intention is accomplished by the revelation 
 of the character of God in the work of re- 
 demption. This is evidently a moral in- 
 tention, and the object presented to our 
 view for the accomplishment of it is a mo- 
 ral object, even the character of God ; the 
 impression therefore on our minds must 
 correspond to this object, that is to say, it 
 must be a moral impression, otherwise we
 
 44 
 
 do not understand it, and therefore cannot 
 believe it. By impression t I never mean 
 the effect which an object when understood 
 produces on the mind ; I mean simply the 
 conception which the mind forms of the 
 object, independent altogether of its influ- 
 ence on the character. These two things 
 are distinct from each other, the one being 
 the cause and the other the effect. In or- 
 der then to a full belief of the Gospel, there 
 must be an impression or conception on our 
 mind, representing every moral quality, and 
 every truth contained and embodied in the 
 facts of the Gospel history ; for the Gospel 
 consists not in the facts, but in the mean- 
 ing of the facts. We are not left to inter- 
 pret the facts ourselves, but, along with the 
 history of them, we have received the inter- 
 pretation of them in the word of God. It 
 is there written, " that God so loved the 
 " world, as to give His only-begotten Son, 
 " that whosoever believeth in him should 
 " not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 In order to understand and believe this, 
 it is not enough to believe that Jesus 
 Christ died on the cross for sinners. We 
 must receive impressions on our minds
 
 45 
 
 corresponding to the circumstances of our 
 situation, which called for the interposition 
 of Divine compassion ; we are here describ- 
 ed as perishing. We may have the gene- 
 ral idea of perishing in our minds, without 
 fear or concern, and we may have the idea 
 of others perishing, without being much 
 moved ; but it is impossible that a man can 
 be impressed with the fact of his being him- 
 self in a perishing state, under a just con- 
 demnation of eternal misery, without much 
 fear and concern. If then the Gospel im- 
 plies that we are in this condition ; and if 
 the value of the deliverance which it pro- 
 claims, rests on the truth of its statement 
 in this respect ; we do not understand nor 
 believe the Gospel, unless we have on our 
 minds an impression corresponding to the 
 fact that this condition is our deserved 
 fate. 
 
 We must also receive on our minds im- 
 pressions corresponding to a deliverance 
 from this state. This impression must be 
 joy ; for deliverance from misery means 
 that which produces joy. If the Gospel 
 contains tidings of deliverance for persons 
 in our circumstances, we do not understand
 
 it unless there be on our minds, the corre- 
 sponding impression of joy. 
 
 If this interposition on our behalf pro- 
 ceeded from holy love, on the part of God ; 
 we cannot understand the nature of the 
 Gospel, unless we know both what holiness 
 and love mean ; and this we cannot know 
 by mere description. We must have on 
 our minds impressions corresponding to ho- 
 liness and love, before we can believe in 
 holy love. Had we no affections, the Gos- 
 pel would be in vain proclaimed to us, be- 
 cause it is addressed to the affections, and 
 without them we could not understand it. 
 And when they are unexercised upon it, it 
 comes to the same thing as if we were with- 
 out them. 
 
 Is it then with my heart or affections 
 that I believe the Gospel ? No. No more 
 than I believe colours with my eye. I can- 
 not understand or believe in colours with- 
 out the information which has been receiv- 
 ed through my eye. Neither can I under- 
 stand or believe in happiness, or misery, or 
 moral qualities, except by means of the in- 
 formation which has been received through 
 my affections. If I am told by a friend
 
 47 
 
 that he has lately seen a flower of a parti- 
 cular colour, to which he applies a name 
 that I never heard of before, I cannot un- 
 derstand his information until he explains 
 to me what colour he means, neither can I 
 believe it although I have perfect confi- 
 dence in his veracity. There is no impres- 
 sion on my mind corresponding to my 
 friend's information, and so there can be no 
 belief. And the case is the same with re- 
 gard to the affections. In the Bible, the 
 heart generally means the whole mind, and 
 does not stand for the affections exclusively, 
 as it does in our common language. In 
 Rom. x. 10. the internal reception of the 
 truth is opposed to the external confession 
 of it. The heart, in Rom. i. 21. evidently 
 means the understanding. We cannot be- 
 come acquainted with any thing, except by 
 the impressions which it makes upon us. 
 And these impressions are made on our dif- 
 ferent senses, external and internal. As 
 we know the taste of a substance by our 
 palate, and its colour by our eye ; so we 
 know the joyfulness of an event, by the 
 happiness which it produces in us, and the 
 amiableness of an object by the love or ad-
 
 48 
 
 miration which we feel for it. Where the 
 external sense is awanting, or diseased, or 
 dormant, the information which we ought 
 to receive from it is deficient ; and where 
 the internal sense is dormant or weak, there 
 is either no impression received, or a defi- 
 cient one. Our external senses come in 
 contact with the external form of objects 
 and actions, and our internal senses come 
 in contact with their spirit and meaning. 
 If we do not come in contact with the 
 whole, we do not understand the whole ; 
 we receive only a partial impression, and 
 that impression limits our belief. A be- 
 lief of the Gospel, then, comprehends, 
 not only the impressions corresponding to 
 the external facts of the history, but also 
 the impressions which correspond to all the 
 moral qualities and conditions, therein at- 
 tributed to God and man. If the Gospel 
 was made known to us that it might con- 
 form our characters to the image of that 
 God who is manifested in it, the perfection 
 of our characters will depend on the perfec- 
 tion of the impression which we receive 
 from the Gospel. And the perfection of 
 that impression will depend on our coming
 
 49 
 
 in contact with every part of the Gospel ; 
 and we only come in full contact with it, 
 when those affections which are addressed 
 by it, are really excited by it. 
 
 But can a corrupt mind receive any im- 
 pression which may with fairness be said to 
 represent the holy love of God ? We can- 
 not believe in holy love without knowing 
 what it means, and how can a polluted heart 
 acquire such an idea ? Is faith in the Gos- 
 pel a holy principle ? Is it a new faculty ? 
 I would answer this question by another. 
 Is the remembrance of the atonement, a holy 
 principle or a new faculty ? Both the belief 
 and the memory are here exercised on a ho- 
 ly thing, the impressions to which they be- 
 long are received from a holy object, and 
 that object has been presented to the heart 
 by the holy Spirit ; but yet belief and me- 
 mory are natural exercises of the mind, and 
 are conversant with the things of earth as 
 well as the things of heaven. 
 
 Conscience gives us an idea of sin, and 
 the idea of sin enables us, in some measure, 
 to form a conception of its opposite, holi- 
 ness. The corruption of man does not con- 
 sist in his acquiring wrong faculties, nor 
 D
 
 50 
 
 does the renewal of man consist in his having 
 new faculties bestowed on him. His cor- 
 ruption consists in the misdirection of his 
 faculties, and his renewal consists in their 
 being directed to their proper objects. Ho- 
 liness consists in this right direction of the 
 thoughts and affections, in a love for their 
 proper objects, and a distaste for their 
 wrong objects. Man, in his depravity, has 
 all the faculties which a child of God has, 
 in this life. And he has a natural ability 
 to use these faculties as he will. The in- 
 ability, therefore, of a polluted creature to 
 receive an impression of holy love, is not a 
 natural inability; if he would, he could; his 
 inability is moral, it lies in the opposition 
 of his will and affections, and this is his 
 crime. But whatever the cause of pollution 
 may be, and whether the impossibility be 
 natural or moral, a polluted heart cannot 
 receive an impression of holy love. How 
 then does the Gospel enter the heart ; for 
 are not all hearts polluted? Yes; but there 
 is a Divine and Almighty agent, who opens 
 the eyes of the understanding, and prepares 
 the affections to receive the truth, even the 
 Holy Spirit, who takes of the things that
 
 are Christ's, and shows them unto the souls 
 of men. And there is also a wonderful 
 adaptation apparent in the Gospel itself to 
 the heart of man in every condition. Its 
 first address is to the very elements of our 
 nature, to that instinct which seems com- 
 mon to us and the inferior animals, self- 
 preservation, and the desire of happiness. 
 
 This principle is a most powerful one. 
 Joy and sorrow are mere expressions of self- 
 love, and these are our ruling feelings, and 
 maintain their sway most universally and 
 constantly. They are the sources of our love 
 and hatred, our hope and fear. We love 
 and hope for that in which we find joy; we 
 dislike, and avoid, and fear, that in which 
 we find sorrow. These feelings exist, and 
 are in exercise, in every mind; and the cha- 
 racter depends on the objects by which they 
 are excited. 
 
 The form in which the Gospel was an- 
 nounced by the angel to the shepherds of 
 Bethlehem, marks its distinguishing cha- 
 racteristic to be joy, and points to these na- 
 tural instincts as the feelings to which it is 
 addressed. " Behold," said the heavenly 
 messenger, " I bring you good tidings of
 
 52 
 
 " great joy, which shall be to all people; for 
 " unto you is born this day in the city of 
 t( David, a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." 
 This message was dictated by Him who 
 made the heart of man, and knew what was 
 fitteeSto give it joy. It is therefore evident, 
 that unless we see joy in the substance of 
 the message, we do not understand it as God 
 meant it, and therefore cannot believe it. 
 We cannot believe that tidings are joyful 
 to ourselves, unless we see that in them 
 which excites our joy. The matter of joy 
 lay in the birth of the Deliverer. That per- 
 son had appeared on earth who, according 
 to Daniel's prediction, was to make an end 
 of sin, and to bring in an everlasting right- 
 eousness. If we are convinced that we are 
 in a state of ruin and condemnation, we can- 
 not -but consider the news of deliverance as 
 tidings of great joy. But deliverance sounds 
 poor to a man who does not feel that he re- 
 quires it. The words of the message, it will 
 be observed, do not merely refer to the moral 
 nature of the Gospel; it addresses particu- 
 larly the feelings of joy and sorrow. 
 
 Behold these feelings, and then contem- 
 plate the glorious character of God; and let
 
 53 
 
 us join in, praise to Him who hath conde- 
 scended, through such obscure avenues, to 
 introduce the light of that character into the 
 soul of man. If the Gospel addressed mere- 
 ly our generous feelings, our love of what is 
 right and excellent, our sense of what is 
 beautiful and lovely, it would be a very dif- 
 ferent thing from what it is; it would be 
 suited to another order of beings, and, with 
 regard to us, would scarcely be deserving the 
 name of glad tidings. But, blessed be the 
 name of our God He hath addressed us in 
 that character which cleaves closest to us 
 He hath spoken to us as base and polluted, 
 but above all, as selfish beings. The very 
 first principle which he addresses, is that of 
 instinctive self-preservation. He meets the 
 natural cry of misery, and the weary and un- 
 defined cravings of the unsatisfied spirit. 
 His loudest and most general invitations, 
 both in the Old and New Testaments, are 
 addressed, not to the moral, but to the na- 
 tural feelings; to the sense of misery, and 
 the desire of happiness. " Ho, every one 
 " that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," 
 Isaiah Iv. 1. " Come unto me, all ye that 
 " are weary and heavy laden, and I will give 
 D 3
 
 54 
 
 "you rest," Mat. xi. 28. "Whosoever 
 " will, let him take of the water of life free- 
 " ly," Rev. xxii. 17. At this despised door 
 of nature the Saviour knocks, and through 
 it He deigns to enter. He came to bind up 
 the broken heart, and to comfort all that 
 mourn. And many come, as it seems, led 
 by the mere instinctive longing after enjoy- 
 ment, and try the Gospel as a last and for- 
 lorn experiment, after the failure of every 
 other attempt to obtain happiness. And, 
 Oh, what an unlooked-for discovery do they 
 make ! he who had found no resting-place 
 in the world, and who had wandered through 
 it in quest of some object, however insigni- 
 ficant, that might interest him, and for a 
 moment at least remove the sense of that 
 hopeless languor which lay dead upon his 
 heart, finds now an object which his widest 
 desires cannot grasp, even filial communion 
 with God here, and the full enjoyment of 
 Him through a magnificent eternity, on the 
 very threshold of which he already stands. 
 He who has felt himself too weak to resist 
 the storms and roughnesses of life, learns to 
 lean with confidence on Omnipotence. He 
 whose conscience of sin has made life a bur-
 
 55 
 
 den to him, and at the same time has taught 
 him to look with a vague horror to futurity, 
 applies to that fountain which was opened 
 in the house of David for sin and for un- 
 cleanness, and he has peace with God, 
 through faith in Jesus Christ. The joy of 
 the Gospel, though it may be at first sought 
 and embraced in gratification of natural in- 
 stinct, contains in it the principles of the 
 Christian character. At first it may appear 
 mere deliverance from misery, and in this 
 view it attracts the miserable ; but as the 
 means by which this deliverance was effect- 
 ed are seen, its moral power develops itself, 
 and that Spirit whose unfelt influence led 
 them here for comfort, opens the eyes of their 
 understandings to discern the truth, and 
 prepares their affections to receive it in the 
 love of it. 
 
 Joy precedes love. We must take de- 
 light in an object before we can love it. We 
 must take delight in God's gifts before we 
 can know them to be benefits, or feel grate- 
 ful for them. We must take delight in 
 his character before we can love Him. 
 When we perceive that the safety and hap- 
 piness of our souls for ever rest upon the 
 D 4
 
 56 
 
 character of God as manifested in the cross 
 of Christ, we must take delight in that ma- 
 nifestation, and in the character so mani- 
 fested; and thus we learn to love them. 
 When we see the faithfulness and justice 
 of God, formerly so alarming to our guilty 
 consciences, now not merely smiling on us, 
 but actually becoming the foundation of as- 
 sured hope through the satisfaction of the 
 Saviour's blood, we must delight in them, 
 and this delight will teach us love. This 
 love and this delight will grow more and 
 more disinterested. The glory of God will 
 be contemplated with a rapture unmixed 
 with selfish thoughts. " Thy loving kind- 
 " ness is better than life," says David, in 
 the generous spirit of a child of God. Thy 
 gifts are good and worthy of thyself, but 
 still that love which bestowed them is far 
 dearer to my heart than they without that 
 love even thy gifts would appear poor to me. 
 The love of God produces likeness to God, 
 and thus the joy of the Lord is the strength 
 of his people. 
 
 It will be observed, that what I have al- 
 ready said on this subject, applies equally to 
 those who were eye-witnesses of the events
 
 57 
 
 of the Saviour's life, and to those who have 
 since heard or read the report of them. I 
 am not speaking of the evidence on which 
 the Gospel is believed, but on belief itself. 
 We are too much accustomed in a loose way, 
 to oppose faith and sight to each other, with- 
 out considering what it is which is seen and 
 what it is which is believed. Our eyes can- 
 not see a meaning, nor can they see a moral 
 principle, although they may see the action 
 in which it is embodied. The disciples and 
 companions of Christ when upon earth, were 
 called upon to exercise faith, just as we are 
 in the present time and the same causes 
 which hindered their faith, hinder ours. 
 Their faith was exercised in receiving the 
 interpretation of the events and actions 
 which they witnessed. That interpretation 
 consisted in the delineation of the moral 
 government and character of God, and his 
 judgment on the character of man. This 
 was evidently addressed to their moral feel- 
 ings ; and the accuracy of the impression on 
 their minds, and consequently of their be- 
 lief, depended entirely on the state of these 
 feelings. If they had no such feelings at 
 all, they could not believe at all. And in 
 
 D5
 
 58 
 
 proportion to the strength and soundness of 
 these moral feelings, would be the correct- 
 ness of their understanding and their faith 
 on the subject. We are very apt to think 
 that one man is as much in a condition to 
 believe any moral history as another; but 
 if there be any difference in the strength or 
 habitual bent of their moral feelings, there 
 must be a proportional difference in the im- 
 pression which the history will make on 
 them, and of course in their belief. What 
 can hinder a man of ordinary understand- 
 ing from believing in a generous action, sup- 
 posing that there is sufficient evidence of 
 the fact ? If the man has never felt a ge- 
 nerous emotion in his own mind, he does not 
 know what generosity is, and therefore can- 
 not believe in it. If he has had some ge- 
 nerous feelings, but has left them unculti- 
 vated and unexercised, the impression of 
 generosity on his mind will be weak and 
 imperfect, and so also will be his belief of 
 it. If a man has never suffered from an 
 accusing conscience, nor perceived any de- 
 formity in sin, he cannot understand nor 
 believe the statements which the Bible 
 gives of the corruption of the human heart.
 
 59 
 
 Our moral faculties must then be in right 
 and healthful exercise, in order that we 
 may have a correct belief of moral truths. 
 Jesus saw in the vain-glorious feelings of 
 the Jews, a bar to their belief of his doc- 
 trines ; " How can ye believe," says he, 
 " who receive honour one of another, and 
 " seek not the honour which cometh from 
 " God only ?" John v. 44. How often, in 
 our intercourse with the world, do we hear 
 it said, " that such a man cannot estimate 
 " the character of such another, that he 
 " cannot comprehend his feelings ?" And 
 it is so. There is great diversity in human 
 characters and capacities. There is a fer- 
 vour in the feelings of some, which colder 
 spirits cannot conceive, and therefore can- 
 not believe. Oh ! what then shall we say 
 of the highest impression which man can 
 have of the character of God? What 
 heart can conceive the fervour of that love 
 wherewith he so loved the world, as to give 
 for it His only-begotten Son ? What no- 
 tions of sin, or of justice, have we, that can 
 enable us to receive an adequate impression 
 of the necessity of the sacrifice of Christ, in 
 order that the pardon of man might be re- 
 
 D6
 
 60 
 
 conciled with the honour of God? No 
 created mind can receive a full impression 
 of the Divine character, the highest arch- 
 angel cannot look on the cross of Christ, 
 as God looks on it, how much less can man, 
 who is a worm ! Perfect faith in a history of 
 high moral excellence, supposes moral facul- 
 ties in a high state of power and exercise ; 
 for no faculties except in that state are ca- 
 pable of receiving such an impression. 
 
 What then ? Is faith the result of cha- 
 racter, instead of being the cause and the 
 former of character ? It is both. The ob- 
 jects of faith do not create faculties in the 
 mind, which had no previous existence 
 there ; but they call into action, and direct 
 and strengthen those which they find there. 
 The greatest variety of colours presented to 
 a blind man cannot give him sight ; but if 
 they are presented to a man who sees, they 
 will exercise his sight, and give him a power 
 of discriminating their varieties, which is 
 inconceivable to those who have not been 
 trained to it. So also an estimable object 
 presented to a mind destitute of moral feel- 
 ings, cannot create esteem or love ; but if 
 the faculty be there, though in a weak and
 
 61 
 
 languid state from want of exercise, its pro- 
 per object will in some measure excite and 
 call it forth, and by exercise strengthen it. 
 This is the only way of correcting and 
 strengthening our faculties, either intellec- 
 tual or moral. If they have been allowed 
 to lie dormant, their exciting causes must 
 be presented to them if they have been 
 active, but directed to wrong objects, they 
 must be brought in contact with their pro- 
 per and legitimate objects. The impres- 
 sion made by these objects, may be at first 
 very weak and imperfect, and such of neces- 
 sity will also be the belief of them ; but by 
 exercise the faculties will gain their proper 
 bent, and will increase in strength, and the 
 faith which is attached to their impressions 
 will keep pace with them. How can a 
 feeling which has a wrong direction be turn- 
 ed into its proper channel, except by having 
 a proper exciting object presented to it ? 
 We cannot alter the course of a feeling, 
 without presenting to it some other object 
 more attractive. The superior attraction of 
 this object may not at first be felt, but it 
 will produce some effect; it will act at least 
 as a disturbing force; it will shake the su-
 
 62 
 
 premacy of the former object, and prepare 
 the way for its own more cordial reception 
 upon the next occasion. Where we cannot 
 use mechanical force, the only way that 
 we have of operating upon steel filings is by 
 a magnet and if they are detained by 
 magnetic attraction in the place from which 
 we wish to remove them, all that we can do, 
 is to find out and apply a stronger magnet. 
 The filings cannot be addressed in any other 
 way. So we cannot, as it were, lay hands 
 upon our feelings, and force them in what 
 directions we think fit ; they do not feel any 
 coercion of this kind : we must use magne- 
 tic influence ; we must apply a more proper 
 and a stronger exciting cause. The under- 
 standing of the true excellence of this new 
 object increases by degrees as it is exer- 
 cised, and faith along with it. Thus it 
 was that " Abraham's faith wrought with 
 " his works, and by works was faith made 
 " perfect," James ii. 22. Abraham's faith 
 in the character of God was different at 
 last from what it was at first. Every view 
 which had been given him of the Divine 
 perfections, had tended to expand his capa- 
 cities, to correct and strengthen his moral
 
 63 
 
 feelings, and thus to fit him for more true 
 and more lively impressions of that charac- 
 ter in future. As he grew in holiness, he 
 could better understand the meaning and 
 excellence of the Divine holiness ; and as 
 he grew in love, he could form more ade- 
 quate conceptions of the Divine love. And 
 thus would his faith be as the shining light, 
 which shineth more and more unto the per- 
 fect day. The holy love of God is the at- 
 tribute most glorified in the atonement. 
 This is the crown ; this gives its character 
 to the whole work. The more polluted and 
 depraved, therefore, a mind is, the less ca- 
 pable is it of understanding and believing 
 the Gospel. 
 
 And yet the Gospel was sent into the 
 world, that the polluted and depraved might 
 be saved by the faith of it, both from the 
 condemnation and the power of sin. And 
 well is it fitted for their case. Even in the 
 most polluted and the most depraved, there 
 are feelings still remaining which, in the 
 hour of sorrow or fear, may melt to the 
 voice of kindness and compassion. There 
 are in the store-house of Providence, events 
 which will bring the stoutest heart to a
 
 64 
 
 stand, and force it to feel its weakness 
 and then the charge of guilt may refuse 
 any longer to be despised, and the gracious 
 invitations of an Almighty Father may 
 not be disregarded. Besides, sin, though 
 it misdirects, does not weaken self-love. 
 Anguish, and doubt, and fear, and sorrow, 
 and pain, enter the sinner's soul. And to 
 these feelings are the glad tidings of the 
 Gospel addressed. All the parts of Divine 
 truth are linked together, so that if one 
 part is received, there is a preparation of 
 heart for the rest. They are not united 
 merely as parts of an intellectual system, 
 though they have this union, but they are 
 united also by a sympathy between the 
 feelings excited by the objects which the 
 truth presents. Thus, if I believe that the 
 sufferings and death of the incarnate Deity 
 were required to expiate sin, and that he 
 submitted to this for our sakes, my reason 
 is prepared for the conclusion, no doubt, 
 that sin is a very hateful and fearful thing ; 
 and this is the connection of the two doc- 
 trines as parts of an intellectual system. 
 But there is still a far more important con- 
 nection between the feelings produced by
 
 65 
 
 the two doctrines. If my mind is impress- 
 ed by the love of Christ in dying for me, 
 the sense of his overwhelming kindness and 
 compassion will lay me low in the dust be- 
 fore him, and make me loathe myself, both 
 as being the cause of his sufferings, and on 
 account of the total inadequacy of my gra- 
 titude, in proportion to the favour bestowed 
 on me. Even so also joy in the atonement, 
 merely as the means of escape from misery, 
 is blessed by the Spirit of God, to bring 
 forth the fruit of holy love, to the praise of 
 the glory of his grace, in the hardest and 
 the foulest heart. The joy of a free deli- 
 verance softens and expands the heart. It 
 is thus prepared to look at the blood which 
 was its ransom, with tenderness and grati- 
 tude and thus is it led to rejoice in the 
 love of Him whose blood was shed. There 
 are many entrances, through which the Spi- 
 rit introduces his powerful weapon, some of 
 them to human reason more likely than 
 others ; but where He works, there is suc- 
 cess ; and without His influence, the most 
 probable means fail. We only know so 
 much concerning the nature of that influ- 
 ence, as may humble us> and keep us in a
 
 continual state of dependence on Divine 
 aid. We see thus far, however, concerning 
 the mode in which it is applied, that God 
 works upon our minds by the operation of 
 the truth on those natural faculties which 
 he has bestowed on us. 
 
 The man who is continually exercising 
 his faith in those truths which he knows, is 
 daily becoming fitter to receive other truths : 
 Whilst the man whose affections are direct- 
 ed to wrong objects, is daily becoming less 
 susceptible of impressions from right ob- 
 jects, and is thus becoming more and more 
 hardened in unbelief. 
 
 Let us suppose that an angel had been 
 kept ignorant of the work of atonement un- 
 til now, and that the Gospel were for the 
 first time declared to him and to a harden- 
 ed sinner together. Oh, what a difference 
 would there be in their reception of it, and 
 feelings from it 1 With what humble and 
 grateful rapture would that holy being wel- 
 come and embrace this new and glorious 
 manifestation of his Father's character! 
 As he dwelt and fed upon it, he would 
 sensibly grow in love, and holiness, and 
 happiness. He would feel no difficulty,
 
 67 
 
 no doubt on the subject ; he would delight 
 in God, with exceeding joy. And why 
 would he be thus ready to receive it as soon 
 as he heard it ? Because his affections had 
 alreadybeen exercised by, and formed upon, 
 other manifestations of the Divine charac- 
 ter; and though this last work excelled them 
 in glory, yet it only carried into brighter 
 display, principles which had already been 
 adored and loved by the heavenly hosts. 
 The same affections with which, from his 
 creation, he had regarded God, and which 
 had been strengthened by continual exer- 
 cise, are addressed by the Gospel ; they are 
 only called into more intense action; they are 
 already tuned to this new song, only their 
 pitch is lower. But what reception does the 
 sinner give it ? Let each of our hearts an- 
 swer, how often, how obstinately, we have 
 rejected it. The angel was happy before ; 
 this new discovery only makes an addition 
 to a happiness which was already great : 
 but we, whose lawful inheritance was eter- 
 nal misery, and whose only hope of having 
 the darkness of hell exchanged for the light 
 of heaven, lay in this Gospel, we hear it 
 with carelessness and indifference, perhaps 
 with scorn and indignation ; and even if
 
 68 
 
 it has pleased God, of his abundant com- 
 passion, to force upon us some sense of its 
 excellency, Oh how indolent have we been 
 in the enjoyment of it ! how cold and for- 
 getful in the expressions of our gratitude 
 for it ! And why does this happen ? What 
 is the explanation of this miserable and pi- 
 tiable folly ? Our affections have been so 
 habitually directed to objects different from 
 and opposed to the character and will of 
 God, that they scarcely feel the attraction 
 of their proper objects when presented to 
 them. There is, however, no other mode 
 of recovery for a mind in that state, than 
 the contemplation of these proper objects. 
 If it feel its disease, it is prepared to receive 
 the good tidings with joy, and to cry ear- 
 nestly and importunately to Him, who can 
 save, and will save, all who come to Him. 
 The affections of the angel's mind have 
 been so habituated to excitement from their 
 proper objects the character of God, and 
 his works and ways, as interpreted by Him- 
 self, that they would feel no movement 
 from the presence of an improper object. 
 His heart is so full of God, that it rejects 
 every thing opposed to Him: Whilst the
 
 69 
 
 hardened sinners heart is scarcely stirred at 
 all by the presence of a proper object for 
 the affections, and is so full of self and sin, 
 that it requires the hand of Omnipotence to 
 force upon it the objects of eternity. The 
 human mind is indeed so far like a mirror, 
 that impressions can only be made upon it 
 by corresponding objects, and that no effort 
 of ours, without the instrumentality of these 
 objects, can make the impressions ; but in 
 this respect it differs from a mirror, that, -by 
 habit, it becomes increasingly susceptible of 
 impressions from any class of objects. Ob- 
 serve the growth of avarice and ambition. 
 Minds long habituated to receive impres- 
 sions from the objects of these disordered 
 affections, seem at last to yield themselves 
 entirely to them, and to refuse all other ex- 
 citement. The view of this law of our mo- 
 ral being, has something very striking and 
 awful in it. Every thought, every wish, 
 every action, is making us more accessible 
 either to the invitations of heaven or the 
 temptations of hell. The movements of 
 our minds may be forgotten by us, but they 
 have left traces behind them, which may 
 affect our eternal destiny. They do not
 
 70 
 
 terminate in themselves in their own rec- 
 titude, or their own sin ; they have strength- 
 ened some principle, and weakened its op- 
 posite. Think whether that principle forms 
 a part of the character of heaven or the cha- 
 racter of hell. If it be a part of the charac- 
 ter of heaven, an advance has been made in 
 overcoming the enmity of the heart; and if 
 it be a part of the character of hell, unbelief 
 is more confirmed, because the mind is less 
 open to impressions from the truth. The 
 affections, when habitually misdirected, 
 clothe the soul as with impenetrable ar- 
 mour against all assaults of the truth. It 
 is this armour which Isaiah describes, when 
 he predicts the rejection of Christ by the 
 Jews; " Make the heart of this people fat, 
 " and make their ears heavy, and shut their 
 " eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and 
 " hear with their ears, and convert and be 
 "healed," Isaiah vi. 10. This passage is 
 quoted in the New Testament by St. John, 
 who attributes the unbelief of the people to 
 the state of mind here described, John xii. 
 39, 40. 
 
 It appears, then, that the belief of any one 
 moral or spiritual truth operating on the
 
 71 
 
 mind, prepares it for the readier reception 
 of any other, because it exercises the same 
 class of affections, and thus increases their 
 susceptibility of impressions from a farther 
 revelation. It was to be expected, therefore, 
 that those Jews who had received the truth 
 communicated through their own dispensa- 
 tion, would welcome the doctrine of Christ ; 
 and that those who did not believe in the 
 spiritual sense of their own Scriptures, would 
 reject the true Messiah when he appeared. 
 Thus Simeon and Anna, and those to whom 
 she spoke, and John the Baptist, and all 
 who understood and believed in the spiri- 
 tual nature of the Messiah's kingdom, be- 
 lieved in Jesus Christ whilst those whose 
 affections had been unexercised by the spi- 
 ritual character of God, and occupied by 
 worldly expectations, were prepared to re- 
 ject him. Our Lord seems to refer to this 
 distinction in the 10th chapter of John. 
 Those whose affections had been rightly ex- 
 ercised by the truth already revealed, knew 
 the voice of Christ whenever they heard it. 
 They were his sheep. They were prepared 
 to receive him, not merely by their belief 
 in the prophecies relating to him, but by 
 
 3
 
 having the temper of their minds harmoniz- 
 ed to the spirit of his doctrine. In the 16th 
 verse of the chapter, he may either allude 
 to those in the Gentile world, who had, by 
 the teaching of the Spirit, received that 
 truth which is revealed in the works and 
 ways of God, and in the testimony of con- 
 science, and had thus been prepared for 
 greater light ; or to those in general beyond 
 the Jewish boundary, whose hearts should 
 afterwards be opened to attend to the Gos- 
 pel. In Acts xiii. 48. there appears to be 
 a reference made to the distinction above 
 mentioned. The translation does not give 
 the meaning of the original. We surely 
 are not to suppose that all the Gentiles in 
 that place, who ever were to embrace the 
 Gospel, did so at that time, and that their 
 number was then summed and shut up. 
 The spirit of the passage would require 
 some such phrase as "bound towards," or 
 " under orders for," or " prepared for" eter- 
 nal life, substituted in place of " ordained." 
 The meaning seems to be this : Those of 
 the Gentiles who, by attending the Jewish 
 synagogue, had learned the doctrine of eter- 
 nal life through an atonement, or who,
 
 73 
 
 without this advantage, had been convinced 
 that they were sinners, and must be saved 
 if saved at all, by free grace, embraced the 
 Gospel whenever they heard it, as the de- 
 velopment, and fulfilment, and harmonizing 
 explanation of those truths which they had 
 already partially received. This view of 
 the subject does not at all interfere with 
 that most precious truth, that the work of 
 Christ is a foundation of hope broad enough 
 and strong enough for the chief of sinners, 
 and that the spiritual medicine of the Gos- 
 pel is adequate to the cure of the most des- 
 perate moral maladies. We daily see in- 
 stances of the Gospel being pertinaciously 
 rejected by those whose amiable affections 
 would lead us to anticipate for it a very 
 different reception ; as we often find it em- 
 braced by those whose tone of mind seem- 
 ed most averse to it. And we are hence 
 taught to look to the great Disposer of 
 hearts. But still there is a certain fitness 
 in some minds for the reception of the Gos- 
 pel, beyond what there is in others. Thus 
 a conviction of sin naturally prepares the 
 way to receive, with eagerness, the good 
 news of forgiveness. A conviction of the
 
 74 
 
 insufficiency of this world to give perma- 
 nent happiness, is certainly a preparation 
 of mind for entertaining a higher hope. 
 In these cases the truth has been partially 
 received already ; and the affections exer- 
 cised even by a fragment of the Divine 
 will, are prepared to receive impressions 
 from other manifestations of it. We may, 
 with humble confidence, trust to the Divine 
 promise, " that those who seek shall find," 
 as an encouragement to us in our search 
 after more spiritual light ; and we may 
 have this confidence confirmed, when we 
 consider the provision which has been made 
 in the constitution of our minds for its ful- 
 filment. The man who walks faithfully 
 under the influence of one moral truth, be- 
 comes necessarily more qualified for receiv- 
 ing a farther measure of truth. For it is 
 the will and appointment of God, that by 
 faithful action, and the steady exercise of 
 the affections, under the influence of known 
 truth, our capacity for moral knowledge, 
 and consequently for believing moral truth, 
 should be expanded. No one is justified 
 in sitting still, until he knows more. Let 
 present duty be influenced by the truth
 
 75 
 
 which is at present known. But then it 
 must be a truth ; for otherwise the princi- 
 ples opposed to the Gospel are exercised 
 and strengthened by it. A man who per- 
 forms the external duties of life strictly, 
 who is a liberal contributor to the necessi- 
 ties of others, and who attends Divine or- 
 dinances regularly, with the expectation ex- 
 pressed or understood of thus creating to 
 himself a claim on the favour of God, and 
 a plea for the pardon of past sins, is hourly 
 strengthening a principle in the most di- 
 rect opposition to the cross of Christ, and 
 is hourly becoming more inaccessible to the 
 glad tidings of salvation. It is quite ab- 
 surd to recommend to such a man to go on 
 in his course, with the hope that his faith- 
 ful walking will be rewarded by farther 
 light. The farther he advances on that 
 road, so much the deeper is he involved in 
 condemnation and darkness, and the more 
 unlikely is it that he will ever return. 
 
 The truths which must be received, with 
 respect to man, are his guilt and helpless- 
 ness ; and with respect to God, are his ho- 
 liness and his mercy. The man who be- 
 lieves in these truths, perhaps has not the 
 E2
 
 76 
 
 joy of the Gospel, but he believes in the 
 elements of the Gospel ; and when his affec- 
 tions are exercised by them, they are exer- 
 cised in conformity with the spirit of the 
 Gospel. But the Gospel itself is as intel- 
 ligible as these its elements, and as intelli- 
 gible also as any precept in the moral law. 
 Its address to our natural principle of self- 
 preservation is surely simpler than any mo- 
 ral exhortation can be and the manifesta- 
 tion of the love of God, and of his abhor- 
 rence of sin, in the cross of Christ, is sure- 
 ly as intelligible as the commandment to 
 love God, or the declaration that " cursed 
 " is every one who continueth not in all 
 " the words of the law to do them." Why 
 then may not the Gospel be preached, as 
 well as the law, upon any occasion? There 
 is something very inconsistent with reason 
 in supposing, that abstract preceptive mo- 
 ral truths can be more intelligible; or more 
 easily received, than the same moral truths 
 when exemplified in the Gospel history. 
 The same faculties qualify us for receiving 
 impressions from both. There is, however, 
 a difference in the .impressions made in 
 these two ways. The impression received
 
 77 
 
 from the precept, is necessarily a cold, and 
 joyless, and lifeless impression, because its 
 object addresses merely the sense of duty. 
 Whilst the Gospel, not only addresses the 
 sense of duty, but makes an irresistible ap- 
 peal to every feeling of self-love, and every 
 principle of gratitude and generosity. And 
 let this also be remembered, that " It is 
 " by grace we are saved, through faith" 
 
 Now, it is very possible that a man may 
 be in a state of confirmed hardness, and 
 darkness, and unbelief, and yet have what 
 may appear to himself and his friends very 
 clear views of the Gospel. It has been already 
 frequently repeated, that although moral ac- 
 tions are truly understood and believed only 
 when there is an impression on the mind 
 significant of the moral principle contained 
 in them, yet their external form can be be- 
 lieved and talked about, when their prin- 
 ciple is not at all perceived. Thus the 
 outward form of the facts of the Christian 
 history may be believed implicitly ; and 
 yet if the love of God is not perceived, and 
 the freeness and undeservedness of the re- 
 demption through His Son, the Gospel 
 is not believed. But if actions are liable 
 
 E3
 
 78 
 
 in this way to misinterpretation, words are 
 even more so. A man may say that he 
 believes the history of the Saviour, and 
 that he receives it as a manifestation of the 
 love of God, without being in the slightest 
 degree hypocritical, and yet he may not be 
 a believer. Love is a word symbolical of a 
 particular state of feeling. A meaning, 
 therefore, must be attached to it by every 
 individual corresponding to his own state 
 of feeling. If his state of feeling is disor- 
 dered, of course the meaning attached to 
 this word will be a wrong one. But it of- 
 ten happens that we do not attach to our 
 words even such meanings as our minds 
 are capable of attaching to them. The 
 meaning is perhaps a complex idea, and we 
 cannot allow ourselves time to receive a full 
 impression of it ; whereas the word is short 
 and convenient, and perfectly answers all 
 purposes of conversation or reasoning. We 
 accordingly use the word, and leave the 
 meaning for another occasion. Now, the 
 Gospel is addressed not to our conversa- 
 tional or argumentative powers, but to our 
 moral principles and natural feelings ; and 
 therefore it is not really received, unless
 
 79 
 
 the impression of its moral meaning is ac- 
 tually made on the mind. Oh, the waters 
 that proceed from this fountain are deadly 
 waters, and many there are who drink 
 thereat ! Philosophical thinking minds are 
 very apt, unconsciously, to fall into this er- 
 ror, especially such as fill the office of reli- 
 gious teachers, and most difficult it is to es- 
 cape from its paralyzing habit and influence. 
 Who is there, even amongst serious think- 
 ers, that does not often feel horrified at the 
 lightness and unmovedness with which he 
 can speak or write that name which repre- 
 sents the eternal Majesty of heaven, in con- 
 versation called religious, or in private study 
 called theological ! Could indifference, or 
 improper warmth, or a vain desire of vic- 
 tory, find place in a mind, to which the 
 idea of such an object as God was really 
 present ? Impossible and yet how often 
 are such feelings in the mind, when that 
 wor<l is in the mouth ! It is evident in such 
 a case that the great thing is not believed 
 at the time. What is the impression on 
 the mind? None corresponding to the 
 mighty object assuredly; the word only 
 has impressed the mind as a logical datum. 
 B 4
 
 80 
 
 It is no doubt most convenient for the in- 
 tercourse of life, and for the purposes of 
 conversation and reasoning, to have such 
 symbolical abbreviations to represent our 
 ideas ; but it is a dearly bought convenience, 
 if it cheats us out of the reality of heaven, by 
 enabling us to converse about it, without 
 thinking or feeling what it is. 
 
 What wonderful love was that which 
 brought Christ from heaven to earth to die 
 for sinners ! Do we think of this wonder and 
 feel it at all ? or when we speak of it even ? 
 He is at this moment looking into our 
 hearts. Oh what indifference he sees ! 
 But I do not talk of gratitude ; I ask, is 
 there in our minds even an idea of Christ's 
 love every time that we speak its name ? 
 Have we an impression corresponding to 
 the fact, that had it not been for that love, 
 we should all be within a few hours of eter- 
 nal damnation ? Have we this impression 
 when we speak of this atonement ? 
 
 Let the reader pause here and ask him- 
 self, how much of his religion is of this 
 kind how far his faith is conversant with 
 words, and how far with things how far it
 
 81 
 
 rests in mere symbols, and how far it em- 
 braces the spirit and meaning. What ef- 
 fect has your faith on your heart and con- 
 duct ? If your faith is conversant with the 
 true things of the Gospel, your heart will 
 be growing in humble and holy peace, and 
 your conduct in conformity to the whole 
 will of God. If these effects do not result 
 from your faith, look again at the Gospel, 
 for you have not yet come in contact with 
 it. A poor, ignorant, naked savage, who 
 knows and feels so much as this, that he is 
 a sinner, that God hates sin and yet has 
 mercy on the sinner, knows and believes 
 more of the Gospel, than the most acute 
 and most orthodox theologian, whose heart 
 has never been touched by the love of 
 God. 
 
 No; it is impossible really to have clear 
 views of the Gospel, whilst the affections 
 are muddy. What adequate impression 
 can an impure mind have of the holy love 
 of God ? Yet this is the chief attribute of 
 God revealed in the Gospel. " Blessed are 
 << the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
 The blessing here mentioned is not an ar- 
 bitrary reward, irrespective of the charac- 
 B 5
 
 82 
 
 ter, to which it is promised. There is a 
 connection between purity of heart and 
 communion with God on earth, as well as 
 the beatific vision hereafter. The purest 
 heart has the most correct faith, because it 
 is susceptible of the truest impressions from 
 holy love. It knows best what holy love 
 means, and therefore it can believe best. 
 Clear views of the Gospel do not consist in 
 having our logical lines, all drawn accurate- 
 ly from premises to conclusion, but in hav- 
 ing distinct and vivid impressions of the 
 moral facts of the Gospel, in all their mean- 
 ing, and all their importance, accompanied 
 with the strong conviction of their inde- 
 pendent reality. But how is purity of heart 
 to be attained ? It can only be attained by 
 faith, Acts xv. 9. So then, it may be an- 
 swered, we cannot believe without purity 
 of heart, and yet we can only have our 
 hearts purified by believing. There is, 
 however, no contradiction here. It is evi- 
 dent that we cannot believe in pure and 
 holy love, unless we know what it is ; and 
 our knowledge of this must be proportion- 
 ed to the purity and strength of our own 
 feelings. And yet these feelings can only
 
 83 
 
 be purified and strengthened by being di- 
 rected to pure objects, and by being much 
 exercised by them. The Gospel is suited 
 to man. He has affections and principles 
 corresponding to every address contained 
 in it, although, from corruption and habi- 
 tual misdirection, they may be, to a great 
 degree, unmoved by these addresses. There 
 is, however, no other way of regenerating 
 these misdirected affections, but by bring- 
 ing them in contact with their proper ob- 
 jects. There is no other resource, we have 
 no other means of operating on them. 
 They retain to the last somewhat of their 
 natural susceptibility of impressions from 
 their proper objects, and therefore they 
 ought to be assailed through these objects. 
 And we have seen that the first address of 
 the Gospel is to a principle, which continues 
 strong and vivacious in the midst of spiri- 
 tual corruption and death, the instinctive 
 desire of self-preservation and happiness. 
 Whilst, therefore, it is vain to expect 
 really clear views of Gospel truth in an un- 
 holy mind, it is equally hopeless to attempt 
 the cultivation of holy affections in any 
 other way than by exercising faith on the
 
 84 
 
 true character of God. These are two im- 
 portant errors, and their chief danger arises 
 from their having so much of truth con- 
 nected with them. There is an aphorism 
 quoted by that holy and heavenly-minded 
 man, Archbishop Leighton, but from what 
 author I do not recollect, which, under the 
 form of paradox, contains most sober and 
 valuable counsel : " If you would have 
 " much faith, love much ; and if you would 
 "have much love, believe much." We 
 cannot love unless we discern amiableness, 
 and this we can only do by the light of 
 love. There is no puzzle in this. Every 
 day we see cases analogous to it in common 
 life. A man whose stomach has been 
 ruined by artificial and highly exciting 
 food, has no appetite for plain wholesome 
 nourishment, and yet the only way to re- 
 cover his appetite, is to take this plain 
 nourishment. This food has a natural 
 suitableness to his appetite, and this appe- 
 tite has a natural desire after such food, 
 although that desire, from habitual misdi- 
 rection, feels little excitement from it. As 
 he takes the food, however, his appetite 
 gets better, and as his appetite gets better.
 
 85 
 
 he takes more food. Thus the food and 
 the appetite act and react upon each other, 
 till the man's health is restored. Even so 
 a diseased soul has no appetite for the 
 truths of the Gospel, and yet nothing but 
 that truth can restore it to health. As the 
 soul improves in health, its desire after its 
 proper food increases; that medicinal food 
 gives additional health to the spiritual sys- 
 tem, and this additional health is accom- 
 panied by an increase of desire after the 
 truth. Clear views of the character of God 
 can exist only in minds, whose affections 
 are pure and strong, and properly directed; 
 and in perfect consistency with this, and as 
 deeply rooted in the necessity of things, is 
 the fact, that the affections can only be 
 purified and strengthened, and rightly di- 
 rected, by being brought in contact with 
 the truth. Thus perfect faith supposes 
 perfect sanctification, and perfect sanctifi- 
 cation supposes perfect faith. What else is 
 the meaning of a holy mind, than that it 
 delights in and feeds on holy things ? They 
 are wrong who suppose, that the sanctifica- 
 tion of a soul consists simply in the truth's 
 abiding in it and they also are wrong who
 
 86 
 
 suppose, that a soul can be sanctified by 
 any other means. An unholy soul has lit- 
 tle susceptibility of impressions from holy 
 objects; and although they have a natural 
 suitableness to its affections, yet it is scarce 
 ly moved or stirred, when in contact with 
 them, and when absent from them, feels no 
 desire after them. Whereas a holy soul, 
 in their absence, longs after them, and in 
 their presence is increasingly susceptible of 
 impressions from them; and is at the same 
 time increasingly unsusceptible of impres- 
 sions from their opposites. 
 
 This sanctification of the heart is evident- 
 ly a progressive work, but the progress may 
 be more or less rapid in different persons. 
 One may advance more in an hour than 
 another in a long life. An indolent appli- 
 cation to the truth can produce but little 
 sanctification, and so faith cannot increase. 
 An admission of impressions from impro- 
 per objects, deadens the affections towards 
 the truth, and so faith retrogrades. Wilful 
 sin blinds the understanding, and confirms 
 the affections in their wrong bent, and in 
 their insensibility to the Gospel, and so 
 faith seems to die. The mercy of God, by
 
 87 
 
 the visitations of providence and the striv- 
 ings of the Spirit, may keep the spark from 
 utter extinction; but there is little progress 
 made, little conformity to the will of God, 
 and little enjoyment of his presence and fa- 
 vour. But when a man feels his danger, 
 and perceives the necessity of salvation in 
 its full urgency, he is prepared to yield to 
 the Gospel mould; he is convinced that his 
 eternal all rests on this truth ; he therefore 
 clings to it, and the closeness of his grasp 
 insures the depth and truth of the impres- 
 sion on his heart. 
 
 We may believe that the spirit of an in- 
 fant early removed from this world, a trophy 
 of the cross, and carried to heaven, will be 
 at once impressed by the beauties and glo- 
 ries of the Divine character, and conformed 
 to the same image by the knowledge of Him 
 who is the spirit and meaning of the Gos- 
 pel. But even in heaven there must be a 
 progressive advancement. Greater know- 
 ledge of God will produce greater resem- 
 blance to him, and greater resemblance to 
 him will increase the capacity of knowing 
 him. It is the same on earth. A free and 
 general pardon is proclaimed from heaven to
 
 88 
 
 the sinful children of men; but it is con- 
 veyed through the blood of atonement, a 
 channel which displays all the perfections of 
 God. The heart of man is naturally op- 
 posed to the holiness of the Divine charac- 
 ter; and therefore until that character is seen 
 to be in truth our only safety, our only sure 
 happiness for time and eternity, we reject the 
 proclamation. As soon, however, as we feel 
 our danger and misery, and see the safety, 
 and happiness guaranteed in the Divine 
 character, as displayed in the cross of Christ, 
 we listen to the proclamation with joy, and 
 we come at the same time under the shade 
 of its protection, and under the operation of 
 its sanctifying power. And then the work 
 of grace advances, just in proportion to the 
 earnestness and constancy with which we 
 cleave to and abide in the truth. We see, 
 then, that as the mind dwells on this great 
 theme, and as the affections are more exer- 
 cised by its wonders, there will be a gra- 
 dual dilatation of the whole moral system 
 that lighter and feebler impressions will 
 give place to deeper and stronger that the 
 external symbols of words and actions will 
 become more and more identified with the
 
 89 
 
 mighty realities of God and eternity that 
 religion, instead of being an interrupted 
 seeking after God, will become an unbroken 
 communion with him, a conformity to his 
 image, and a participation of his joy. The 
 lower orders of intelligent beings will thus 
 be gradually pressing upwards in the scale 
 of spiritual excellence, and filling the places 
 which have been just left by the higher 
 and the whole family of God, led by this 
 glorious light, will through eternity be ad- 
 vancing nearer to their Father. 
 
 We shall be saved from much perplexity 
 and error in our inquiries into the nature 
 and exercise of faith, by keeping in mind 
 what is its design or end. We are not 
 commanded to believe merely for the sake 
 of believing, or to show our ready submission 
 to the will of God; but because the objects 
 which are revealed to us for our belief, have 
 a natural tendency to produce a most im- 
 portant and blessed change on our happi- 
 ness and our characters. Every object which 
 is believed by us operates on our characters 
 according to its own nature. If, therefore, 
 we have taken a wrong view of revelation, 
 that wrong view will operate upon us, and
 
 90 
 
 produce a bad effect on our characters. 
 This shows the importance of a correct 
 knowledge of the truth contained in revela- 
 tion. A man's character is formed by his 
 beliefs. Let us suppose a person of good 
 natural affections to have his mind occupied 
 continually by the history of an injurious 
 fraud which he believes to have been prac- 
 tised against him, on some occasion. It is 
 impossible that he can escape being miser- 
 able, and becoming morally depraved. His 
 bad passions, by being constantly excited, 
 must grow in strength and in susceptibility 
 of similar impressions, and his happier af- 
 fections, by being unexercised, must fade 
 and die. Let us again suppose a man with 
 less amiable natural qualities, whose life or 
 fortune had been at one time saved by the 
 self-sacrificing generosity of a friend. If 
 this event makes such an impression on 
 him, as to be more present to his thoughts 
 than any other, it cannot fail of softening 
 and improving his character, and increasing 
 his happiness. His good affections are thus 
 continually exercised, and must, therefore, 
 be continually gaining strength, whilst bad 
 passions are at the same time displaced.
 
 91 
 
 Of those who have acquired the character 
 of misanthropes, probably nine out of ten 
 have, like Timon, been men of generous 
 dispositions, who, having been deceived in 
 friendship, have ever after looked on fair 
 professions as the symbols of dishonest in- 
 tentions. Their feelings of contempt and 
 hatred, and wounded pride, being thus con- 
 tinually exercised by this unfortunate be- 
 lief, the whole frame of their character has 
 been ruined, and their peace of mind de- 
 stroyed. And it is possible that, if we could 
 look into the hearts of men, and trace their 
 histoiy, we might find some of the brightest 
 examples of benevolence amongst those 
 whose natural dispositions were most oppo- 
 site to it, but who had allowed the history 
 of the Redeemer's love so to abide in them, 
 that it had softened and changed their 
 hearts, and healed their diseased affections. 
 Any circumstance to which we attach 
 much importance, is naturally much present 
 to our minds. And on this point there is as 
 great room for deception as on any other. 
 I have perhaps been unfortunate, or I have 
 been injured, and I am distressed by it : 
 but is this matter really of that importance
 
 92 
 
 which it assumes in my mind ? I may have 
 been correctly informed in all the particulars 
 of this injury, which has been committed 
 against me. I may not over- rate the malice, 
 or the fraud, or the baseness of the perpetra- 
 tors. I therefore do not believe so far what 
 is false. Yet I may attach a false import- 
 ance to it. And then neither can my im- 
 pression of the act be a just impression, nor 
 my belief of it a correct belief. This is a 
 question which we have often occasion to 
 ask ourselves in the course of this world's 
 events, and this is a judgment and a conclu- 
 sion to which unbiassed reason must often 
 conduct us. But when we come to speak of 
 eternal things, the question must be put in 
 another form. Do I attach to this matter 
 the importance which really belongs to it ? 
 Its importance I cannot but admit to be 
 infinite ; my all depends upon it for ever ; 
 and yet it takes but slight hold of my mind. 
 Surely then I do not understand its im- 
 portance ; and if so, I cannot believe its 
 importance. I do not believe the thing as 
 it is. 
 
 Our minds receive an influence from
 
 93 
 
 every thing 1 by which they are occupied, 
 and according to the degree in which they 
 are occupied by it, and this degree is de- 
 termined by the importance which our feel- 
 ings attribute to it. If then the import- 
 ance of the Gospel is believed, it will occu- 
 py the mind much ; and if it does so, it 
 will keep the affections in healthy exercise, 
 and a right direction. If it does not occu- 
 py our minds, its importance is not seen, 
 and therefore its real nature is not believed. 
 Objects assume importance in our minds, 
 according to the relation which they bear 
 to the general bent of our affections. Thus 
 any event which promises either to increase 
 or dimmish his wealth, assumes great im- 
 portance in the mind of an avaricious man. 
 The small importance, therefore, which is 
 often attached to the Gospel, by those who 
 may even have heard and read much about 
 it, and profess to believe in it, arises from 
 the circumstance of their affections having 
 an opposite bent. There is something in 
 the Gospel, and in the holy character of 
 Him whose message it is, from which they 
 shrink. No doubt this proceeds from their 
 ignorance that happiness is a quality of ho-
 
 94 
 
 liness ; but this ignorance is not a guiltless 
 ignorance, nor is the unbelief connected 
 with it a guiltless unbelief. They are the 
 consequences of unholiness of heart. An 
 unholy heart hates holiness, and therefore 
 is blind to its excellence, and will not be- 
 lieve that happiness is inseparable from it. 
 Our unbelief of the Gospel, then, and of 
 its importance, ought not to be regarded 
 as an act for which we can never be morally 
 accountable, nor should it be spoken of as 
 a mere misfortune. There is a moral guilt 
 attached to it. It arises from a discordance 
 between the moral state of our minds, and 
 the character of God which is exhibited in 
 the Gospel. It arises from the depravity 
 of our affections. And this depravity it is 
 which makes the work of the Spirit neces- 
 sary. The things concerning Christ must 
 be taken by the Spirit and shewn to the 
 heart, and brought in contact with the af- 
 fections, and kept there, before their ines- 
 timable preciousness can be felt or believed. 
 But this depravity of our affections, and 
 our absolute need of Divine assistance, are 
 no excuses for unbelief. Sin consists in 
 this depravity. If a man were guiltless 
 4
 
 95 
 
 because he acted under the influence of a 
 strong and overbearing moral depravity, 
 then the more depraved we were, the less 
 guilty we should be. There is a great 
 difference between moral necessity and na- 
 tural necessity. We never say that a blind 
 man ought to see, because we know that he 
 lies under a natural inability ; but we say 
 that an unfeeling man ought to feel, and 
 that an implacable man ought to forgive 
 and forget injuries, because he lies under 
 no natural disability to do so, but only 
 under the moral disability of his own cor- 
 rupt heart, which is the very thing which 
 constitutes his culpability. God loves right 
 so perfectly, that he cannot sin ; he lies 
 under the necessity of his own moral attri- 
 butes to do always what is good, and in this 
 moral necessity does his infinite excellence 
 consist. A sinner loves sin so well, that 
 he cannot but sin ; and in this moral ne- 
 cessity does his culpability consist. This 
 moral necessity to evil is formed by the 
 misdirection of the affections to improper 
 objects, and it becomes stronger and strong- 
 er by every act in subordination to it. It 
 is the mark of perdition upon the soul.
 
 96 
 
 But how is this fearful barrier to be broken 
 down ? By no other means is it possible, 
 but by bringing the affections into contact 
 with the high and holy objects of eternity. 
 This is the true philosopher's stone, which 
 converts the iron fetters of sin into a gold- 
 en chain of love, binding the heart to God 
 and heaven. - The most hardened sinner 
 has yet some conscience left. He knows 
 that all is not quite right, and hence he 
 has occasional fears that all is not quite 
 safe. This sense of sin, and these fears, if 
 he allows them to operate on his mind, 
 would lead him to the Gospel, and there 
 would he find a cure. Every man can 
 judge tolerably well for another, how he 
 ought to act or feel in particular circum- 
 stances; and this same judgment must 
 sometimes take cognizance of his own con- 
 duct and feelings. Even that very self- 
 love which so often gives a wrong direction 
 to our conduct, shows us what is due to 
 others, by its demands in our own favour. 
 Moral ignorance, therefore, is never inno- 
 cent ; though it is more or less aggravated 
 according to the opportunities of moral 
 knowledge which have been neglected. A
 
 97 
 
 man who rejects the Gospel when it is 
 presented to him in its truth and simplici- 
 ty, is in a very different situation from a 
 man who has either never heard it at all, 
 or has heard it accompanied by absurd su- 
 perstitions. The one has fairly been con- 
 fronted by a message of holy love, and what 
 he cannot help suspecting to have some 
 strong claim upon his attention and re- 
 gards, and he has turned his back upon it. 
 This of course gives an additional firmness 
 and acrimony to the opposition which his 
 mind feels for it. Its presence in some de- 
 gree rebuked him, and this he cannot suf- 
 fer without irritation. The others, who ne- 
 ver heard the Gospel at all, or never heard 
 it intelligibly, cannot have the same acri- 
 mony of opposition to it. Besides, they 
 may have learned, perhaps, by the teach- 
 ing of the Spirit, that truth concerning the 
 Divine character which is revealed in the 
 testimony of conscience, and in the works 
 of creation and providence ; and in this 
 case they would receive the Gospel if they 
 heard it ; for true natural religion is elemen- 
 tary Christianity. 
 
 The perception of the importance of the 
 
 F
 
 98 
 
 Gospel is not only essential to the correct- 
 ness of our knowledge and belief of it, but 
 it is necessary also in order to the accom- 
 plishment of its great design in our hearts. 
 Unless the truth is much present to our 
 affections, unless it abides in us, it cannot 
 influence our characters. And unless we 
 feel its importance, it will not abide in us. 
 That Christianity is not worthy of the 
 name, which just chooses a particular day 
 in the week, or a particular hour in the day, 
 for itself, and leaves the rest of the time 
 and the duties of life to the influence of 
 other principles. It ought to be in us as 
 a well of water springing up unto eternal 
 life ; its joy, its hope, its love, should be 
 ever cheering the heart, purifying the affec- 
 tions, and stimulating the conduct. It ought 
 to be the root, from which the duties of life, 
 in all their branches, should derive their 
 life and vigour. The great truths of reve- 
 lation should be ever present with us, that 
 we may be assimilated to their principles, 
 and preserved from opposite impressions. 
 We are invited to walk with God, to walk 
 in the light of his countenance, to take him 
 for our portion, and hiding-place, and ex-
 
 99 
 
 ceeding joy, and under the shadow of his 
 wings to make our refuge until all calami- 
 ties be overpast. He has been pleased to 
 illustrate his relation to us by all the most 
 endearing ties of nature, that we may more 
 easily and constantly realize his presence. 
 He v has presented himself even to our 
 senses, clothed in our nature, walking and 
 conversing as a man amongst men, fulfilling 
 all the offices and suffering all the sorrows 
 of life, that we might think of him not 
 only without terror and strangeness, but 
 even with respectful confidence and inti- 
 macy. In the work of atonement, he has 
 given a tangible form to the high attributes 
 of Deity he has made them there stand 
 forth before our eyes in the substantial rea- 
 lity of living action, and at the same time 
 in all their grandeur and loveliness, he 
 has rendered them intelligible to our un- 
 derstandings, without lowering their dig- 
 nity, he has fitted them to address the 
 feelings of human nature, whilst they call 
 forth the praise and the rapture of angels 
 who surround the throne. And in the lan- 
 guage of his word, in its rich and beautiful 
 variety of parables, and allegories, and poe-
 
 100 
 
 tical allusions, what is the object in nature, 
 which has not been employed to explain 
 and illustrate his truth? He has thus, so 
 to speak, written his name upon every 
 thing that surrounds us. And are they 
 not all his works ? Ought they not to de- 
 clare his glory ? God hath thus enveloped 
 us with his glory, he hath made himself 
 our dwelling-place and all this, that we 
 may feed upon his love, that we may be 
 conformed to his likeness, and that we may 
 enter into his joy. And is it possible for 
 us, in such circumstances, to forget God ? 
 He even embitters other things, that we 
 may be drawn to himself he takes away 
 an earthly friend, that we may be led to a 
 Friend from whom nothing can separate us 
 our hopes are blasted here, that we may 
 learn to plant them in a soil where nothing 
 dies he arms sin with remorse, that we 
 may be persuaded that it is a bitter thing 
 to depart from God. If it were possible to 
 believe in the Gospel without remembering 
 it, faith would be of no use to us ; but the 
 belief of its importance fixes it in the heart. 
 The moral effects of it on the character, 
 constitute the great reason of its being
 
 101 
 
 urged on our belief. We are not to think 
 that pardon is created by believing the 
 Gospel, as if faith were the ground of for- 
 giveness. No ; the Gospel itself is the 
 proclamation of pardon through the perfect 
 atonement of Christ, and it is the belief of 
 the all- sufficiency of this proclaimed ground 
 of pardon remaining in the memory, and 
 operating on the heart, which makes meet 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 The apostle Peter, accordingly, in his second 
 epistle, stirs up the pure minds of Christ- 
 ians by way of remembrance, and presses 
 upon their attention truths with which he 
 knew they were acquainted. In the 9th 
 verse of the 1st chapter, he ascribes the 
 deficiency in Christian virtues and graces, 
 to a forgetfulness of the atonement, that 
 great work in the belief of which they had 
 before found deliverance from guilt. " He 
 " that lacks these things is blind, shutting 
 " his eyes, and forgetting that by which he 
 " was formerly washed from his sins." The 
 knowledge of the atonement it was, which 
 first produced these qualities in the heart, 
 and it is the continued remembrance of the 
 atonement which alone can keep them in 
 
 F3
 
 102 
 
 life, and strengthen and expand them. All 
 things pertaining to life and godliness, he 
 says, are given to us in the knowledge of 
 him who hath called us to glory and vir- 
 tue. And hence, when we forget him, we 
 lose the things which pertain to life and 
 godliness. 
 
 In the Epistle to Titus, ii. 11, it is said, 
 that " the grace or forgiving mercy of God, 
 " that bringeth salvation or a cure, hath 
 " appeared unto all men, teaching us that, 
 *' denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
 " we should live soberly, righteously, and 
 " godly in this present world." Now the 
 forgiving mercy of God is not a precept ; 
 it does not produce these effects by autho- 
 rity, but by its natural influence it moulds 
 the character into this form. But it can 
 only do so whilst it is remembered. In the 
 next chapter of the same Epistle, Paul ex- 
 horts Titus to inculcate upon the Cretans 
 an attention to the relative duties of life ; 
 and then, as if to remove his despondency 
 of success, he reminds him, that all the 
 most advanced Christians had been them- 
 selves but a short time before in a state of 
 enmity to God and man, and that they had
 
 103 
 
 been delivered from this state only by the 
 knowledge of the kindness and love of God 
 our Saviour. Then, in the 8th verse, " This 
 " is a faithful saying, and these doctrines 
 " (of free grace, contained in the four pre- 
 " ceding verses) I will that thou affirm con- 
 " stantly, in order that they who have be- 
 " lieved God in this matter, may be care- 
 " ful to maintain good works ;" or, in order 
 that the same good effects which have been 
 produced in us by the belief of this Gospel, 
 may also be produced in them. " These 
 " doctrines are good and profitable in their 
 " effects on the characters of men. But 
 " avoid doctrines of a different description, 
 " foolish questions and genealogies, and 
 "contentions and strivings about the law; 
 "for they are unprofitable and vain; they 
 " can have no salutary effect upon the 
 " character." In our English translation, 
 these things," in the last clause of the 8th 
 verse, seem to refer to the good works men- 
 tioned immediately before ; but this sense 
 is not consistent with the context. The 
 " good and profitable" things of the 8th verse, 
 are opposed evidently to the " unprofitable 
 " and vain" things of the following verse
 
 104. 
 
 And what are these unprofitable and vain 
 things ? Not bad works, which they must 
 have been, had the other been good works; 
 but foolish questions and genealogies, and 
 contentions and strivings about the law; all 
 of them disputes about doctrine, which in- 
 dicates that the other things are doctrines 
 also, but differing from them in their ten- 
 dency and importance. Besides, the tenor 
 of the Apostle's reasoning through the chap- 
 ter requires this interpretation. Titus was 
 appointed to the pastoral charge of a peo- 
 ple, among whom there were many things 
 to be reprehended and " rebuked sharply." 
 But in the midst of these discouragements, 
 Paul cheers him by displaying the power 
 and efficacy of that Gospel which he was 
 commissioned to teach. He reminds him 
 of their own former state and character, 
 and of the change which had been produced 
 in them, by the knowledge of the free grace 
 of God through Christ Jesus. Knowing 
 then and feeling that it was this great 
 truth alone which made you a friend and a 
 servant of God, from being his enemy, cease 
 not continually to inculcate it upon the 
 Cretans, and be assured that wherever it
 
 105 
 
 is received it will produce the same effects. 
 It is the confidence which I have in its sa- 
 lutary tendency, which makes me prize it, 
 and preach it, and urge others to preach it. 
 And it is the conviction, that disputes 
 about the observance of Jewish rites, and 
 speculative and unpractical arguments upon 
 religious subjects, cannot, in the nature of 
 things, produce any good effects upon the 
 character ; which makes me avoid them my- 
 self, and desirous that you should do so too. 
 If I thought that such questions could pu- 
 rify the heart, I should propose them in 
 every assembly; but their tendency is to 
 irritate and darken, and not, like the doc- 
 trine of the cross, to enlighten, and purify, 
 and tranquillize. 
 
 We have thus a simple scriptural test, by 
 which we may try all the views and inter- 
 pretations of Christian doctrine. Are they 
 good and profitable in their influence on the 
 heart and conduct ? If they have not this 
 tendency, if the impressions naturally made 
 by them are not of this description, we may 
 be assured that we have mistaken the doc- 
 trine. 
 
 Thus, if the view which we take of the 
 
 F5
 
 106 
 
 doctrine of election, or a particular provi- 
 dence, be such a one as leads us to be ne- 
 gligent in our callings, or to consider our- 
 selves free from moral responsibility, we 
 may be sure that this is a wrong view, 
 because it cannot be good or profitable to 
 the characters of men. 
 
 The doctrine of election is just another 
 name for the doctrine of free grace. It 
 teaches that all men are under deserved 
 condemnation, and therefore can have no 
 claim on God for pardon ; and that this, 
 and all other mercies, are the gifts of his 
 own free bounty and choice. It thus teaches 
 us humility and gratitude, by impressing 
 us with the conviction that we are debtors 
 to God's unmerited bounty, not only for 
 the gift of Christ and the knowledge of it, 
 but also for the influence of the Spirit which 
 inclines our hearts to accept it. 
 
 The doctrine of a particular providence 
 teaches, that the same God who gave his 
 Son to save us, orders every event in our 
 lot. The belief of this will dispel worldly 
 fears and anxieties, and inspire confidence, 
 and impress with a continued sense of the 
 Divine presence.
 
 107 
 
 It is possible that the doctrine of the 
 perseverance of the saints should he so per- 
 verted by the corruption of human nature, 
 as to lead to indolent security and un- 
 watchful habits. But this is not the doc- 
 trine of the Bible. The true doctrine is, 
 that as it was God who first opened the 
 eyes of sinners to the glory of the truth, so 
 their continuance in the truth requires and 
 receives the same almighty support to main- 
 tain it. It is not in their title to heaven, 
 as distinct from the path to heaven, that 
 they are maintained. No ; they " are kept 
 " by the power of God, through faith unto 
 " salvation." This doctrine then really 
 leads to humble dependence on God, as the 
 only support of our weakness ; and to vigi- 
 lance, from the knowledge that, when we 
 are not actually living by faith, we are out 
 of that way, in which believers are kept 
 by the power of God unto salvation. The 
 reality of our faith is proved only by our 
 perseverance ; if we do not persevere, we 
 are not saints. 
 
 Any view of the doctrine of the atone- 
 ment which can make us fearless or care- 
 less of sinning must be a wrong view, be- 
 F 6
 
 108 
 
 cause it is not good nor profitable to men. 
 That blessed doctrine declares sin pardon- 
 ed, not because it is overlooked or winked 
 at, but because the weight of its condemna- 
 tion has been sustained on our behalf by 
 our elder Brother and Representative. This 
 makes sin hateful, by connecting it with 
 the blood of our best Friend. 
 
 There are many persons who may be said 
 rather to believe in an ecclesiastical polity, 
 than in the doctrines of the Bible. In such 
 cases the impression must be similar to that 
 which is produced by political partizanship 
 in the governments of this world. And 
 there are some whose faith extends to higher 
 things, who yet attach too much weight to 
 externals. 
 
 Any view of subjects that may be be- 
 lieved or disbelieved without affecting our 
 faith in the atonement, which can produce a 
 coldness or unkindness between those who 
 rest on the atonement, and live by the faith 
 of it, must be a wrong view, because it mars 
 that character of love which Christ declares 
 to be the badge of his people. Such a view 
 interferes with the doctrine of the atone- 
 ment. Love to Christ, as the exclusive
 
 109 
 
 hope and the compassionate all-sufficient 
 friend of lost sinners, is the life-blood of the 
 Christian family ; and wherever it flows, it 
 carries along with it, relationship to Christ, 
 and a claim on the affection of those who 
 call themselves his. What is a name or a 
 sect, that it should divide those who are to 
 live together in heaven through eternity, 
 and who here love the same Lord, and who 
 have been washed in the same blood, and 
 drink of the same river of the water of life, 
 and have access through the same Media- 
 tor by the same Spirit unto the Father! 
 This is a very serious consideration. It 
 touches on that final sentence which shall 
 be pronounced on the sheep and the goats : 
 " Come, ye blessed ;" why blessed ? " In as 
 " much as ye did it to one of the least of 
 " these my brethren, ye did it unto me" 
 " Depart, ye cursed ;" and why cursed ? 
 " In as much as ye did it not to one of the 
 " least of these, ye did it not to me." It is 
 not a general benevolence that is talked of 
 here ; no, it is love to Christ exerting itself 
 in kindness, and acts of kindness to his bre- 
 thren for his sake. This is the grand and 
 pre-eminently blessed feature of the Christ-
 
 110 
 
 ian character. Its presence, is the seal of 
 heaven on the soul ; its absence, is the ex- 
 elusion from heaven. We should take heed 
 to ourselves ; for any flaw in this respect 
 marks a corresponding flaw in our Christ- 
 ian faith. The importance of the blood 
 of Christ is not rightly perceived, if it does 
 not quench these petty animosities. God 
 is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwell- 
 eth in God, and God in him. An undue 
 importance attached to inferior points is 
 surely not good nor profitable to men. 
 
 We take a wrong view of the Gospel if 
 we suppose, that any moral qualifications 
 whatever are required on our part, to fit 
 us for believing on Christ unto salvation. 
 No one will ask supply without a sense of 
 need; that is not a necessary qualification, 
 but an exciting cause. A man will not ask 
 for food unless he feels hungry, but he has 
 full liberty to ask it without feeling hun- 
 gry. So also no one will look to Christ 
 for happiness, unless he is in some degree 
 sensible of wretchedness ; nor for pardon, 
 unless he is in some degree convinced of 
 his guilt. But these are only exciting 
 causes, not qualifications. In the same way,
 
 Ill 
 
 no one will come without the teaching and 
 leading of the Holy Spirit; but this is not 
 a necessary qualification either, but only 
 an exciting cause. That is to say, no one 
 is commanded to delay believing on Christ, 
 until he is influenced by the Spirit; on the 
 contrary, the command to repent and be- 
 lieve the Gospel is universal; which proves 
 that it is in the natural power of all men 
 to do so, and that their inability is a mo- 
 ral, and therefore a criminal inability. 
 The ground on which pardon is proclaimed 
 through Christ, is a thing independent al- 
 together of our believing in it, because it is 
 firm and sufficient in itself whether we be- 
 lieve in it or not. The sentence has been 
 already executed on the Surety, and the 
 prison-door has been thrown open ; but if 
 we refuse to come out, we exclude ourselves 
 from the benefit of it. The Sun of mercy 
 is risen with healing in his beams, but if 
 we will not open our eyes, we may not 
 know that he is risen. As soon, however, 
 as we open our eyes, we know that it is 
 light; and as soon as we understand and 
 believe the Gospel, we know that we 
 are pardoned. I mean, when the truth is
 
 112 
 
 clearly understood and firmly believed, 
 and when its native influence is not pre- 
 vented by bodily disease, or the perplex- 
 ing influence of human systems. The 
 first scriptural consolation received by the 
 believer, arises from his conviction that 
 the Gospel itself is true, and the mea- 
 sure of his comfort corresponds with the 
 strength and steadiness of his faith. 
 Such is the nature of this revelation, that 
 he who is taught its true glory must be 
 convinced that God had never unfolded 
 it, had he not designed to save all who 
 come to the knowledge of it. The pro- 
 mise of heaven confirms this view of the 
 grand object of the work of the Saviour. 
 Many clog the freeness of the Gospel, from 
 the fear of antinomianism ; but this is itself 
 a most dangerous species of antinomi- 
 anism. The law of God is written in the 
 heart by no other instrument but the free 
 mercy of the Gospel. The pardon has been 
 proclaimed simply, in order that the power 
 and influence of sin may be overcome ; we 
 are therefore falsifying the record, and un- 
 doing its purpose, if we teach men to cast 
 off their sins as a preparatory work previous
 
 113 
 
 to believing, and in order that they may 
 accept of the pardon. The command to 
 " Repent and believe," means nothing more 
 than that we should change our former 
 views for those which the Gospel presents 
 to us. Repentance means a change of 
 mind, and therefore it necessarily accompa- 
 nies a new belief. When we take new 
 views, we must make a change, we must 
 leave our old ones. We may say, " Arise 
 " and depart," though we know that the 
 person cannot depart without arising. But 
 the real sorrow of the heart, on account of 
 sin, can arise only from the sense of the 
 amazing contrast between the subduing 
 and overwhelming mercy of God and our 
 unworthiness. It is when we look on him 
 whom we have pierced, that we mourn 
 truly ; and it is when we know that God 
 is pacified towards us, for all that we have 
 done, that we remember and are confound- 
 ed, Zech. xii. 10. Ezek. xvi. 63. When 
 the Lord said to Peter, " Lovest thou me ?" 
 he could answer that he did, and could ap- 
 peal to his knowledge of the secrets of the 
 heart for the truth of what he said ; and it 
 was this love which made him weep bitterly,
 
 114 
 
 when his Master's eye caught his, after 
 he had denied him. We may, without 
 faith in Christ, regard the consequences of 
 sin with dislike and apprehension ; and we 
 may even feel it to be a pollution to the 
 dignity of our nature ; but our hearts can 
 never loathe it for its own sake, until we see 
 it connected with the blood of him who 
 loved us and gave himself for us. It is 
 not health, but disease, that we carry to the 
 physician ; and it is not any moral good, 
 but sin and sorrow, that we must carry to 
 the Saviour. It seems to have been the 
 purpose of God, in adapting the first appeal 
 of the Gospel to the mere natural sense of 
 misery, and the instinctive craving after 
 happiness, to make it impossible to attach 
 any merit to faith, beyond what is attached 
 to the desire a child feels for its mother's 
 milk. 
 
 The absolute freeness of grace must be 
 preached, in order to make the Gospel good 
 and profitable to men. If man is required 
 to bring any thing to the Saviour, he is not 
 utterly lost, he has something to bring ; or, 
 in other words, sin is not so very sinful, 
 and man hath whereof to glory even before
 
 God. The more freely grace is proclaim- 
 ed, the more deeply sin is condemned; and 
 it is the belief of having much forgiven, 
 that compels the heart to love much. Love 
 therefore, which is the fulfilling of the law, 
 has its source in free grace. Oh the pre- 
 sumptuous vanity of men, who would dream 
 of inventing a defence for the interests of 
 holiness, better and securer than that which 
 God himself has appointed ! That very pa- 
 rable which I have quoted from the conclu- 
 sion of the 7th chapter of Luke, is answer 
 sufficient to all objections against the doc- 
 trine of grace, in point both of fact and of 
 argument. This is a position which can- 
 not be pressed too much. It is no less 
 strong in reason than in revelation, and its 
 wisdom is as demonstrable on the acknow- 
 ledged principles of the human mind, as 
 the fact of its existence in the Bible is de- 
 monstrable on the acknowledged principles 
 of fair interpretation. I have already touch- 
 ed on it before, and I shall again before I 
 conclude this Essay. In the mean time, 
 I shall endeavour to describe some other 
 counterfeits of the faith of the Gospel. 
 It is possible to believe not only in the
 
 116 
 
 facts, but also in the system of Christianity 
 as a philosophical theory, and yet be des- 
 titute of faith in the truth. There is some- 
 thing very striking in the relative suitable- 
 ness which exists between the susceptibili- 
 ty of the human mind to receive certain 
 impressions, and the power of Christian 
 truth to make an impression; and it is 
 conceivable that a man may be captivated 
 by this intellectual and moral harmony, and 
 take much pleasure in tracing it through 
 all its detail, and yet derive no more profit 
 from it, than from the examination of any 
 curious piece of material mechanism. This 
 can be easily explained. The object of 
 his belief is not the Gospel itself, but the 
 adaptation of the Gospel to its purpose. 
 This is the shape which the idea of the 
 Gospel assumes in his mind, and from this 
 he derives his impression of it. He avows 
 his belief of the facts contained in the sa- 
 cred history, and he distinctly perceives the 
 moral qualities manifested in them; but 
 he does not consider them as things exist- 
 ing by themselves, and independent of all 
 human reasoning upon them. He is occu- 
 pied by the metaphysics of religion as the
 
 117 
 
 formalist is occupied by the ceremonies. 
 He considers the facts and principles of 
 revelation simply in their philosophical re- 
 lation to those feelings which they address 
 in human nature; he is therefore impressed 
 not with the condescending goodness of 
 God, but with the skill which appears in 
 the adaptation of the manifestation of that 
 goodness to the moral defects of man. A 
 philosophical critic would have had much 
 delight in remarking the skill with which 
 Demosthenes selected his topics and ar- 
 guments, so as to excite those feelings in 
 his audience which were favourable to 
 his own cause ; but this philosophical de- 
 light left his passions unmoved, and his 
 conduct uninfluenced. It was the ora- 
 tor's wish to gain his cause, and this he 
 could only do by moving the affections and 
 convincing the judgment of the Athenians. 
 But the affections could not be moved, nor 
 the judgment convinced, unless his state- 
 ments and arguments were received as sub- 
 stantial truth in themselves, altogether in- 
 dependent of philosophical relation and 
 harmony. Had he delivered a critical ana- 
 lysis of his famous oration for the crown,
 
 118 
 
 instead of the oration itself, it is probable 
 that he, and not Eschines, would have been 
 exiled. It is proper that this beautiful re- 
 lation should be seen and admired; but if 
 it comes to be the prominent object of be- 
 lief, the great truth of Christianity is unbe- 
 lieved. A teacher of religion, who should 
 fill his discourses with the delineation of this 
 relation, might be a very entertaining and 
 interesting preacher, but it is probable that 
 he would not make many converts to Christ- 
 ianity. Our affections are excited by hav- 
 ing corresponding objects presented to 
 them, not by observing that there does exist 
 such a relation between the affections and 
 their objects. A man under the sentence 
 of death may well and naturally rejoice 
 when he hears that he is pardoned ; but it 
 will be no consolation to him to be inform- 
 ed, that there is a natural connection be- 
 tween receiving a pardon in such circum- 
 stances, and rejoicing. As the blood flowed 
 no better through Hervey's veins than it 
 does through the veins of many who never 
 heard of the theory of circulation; so an ac- 
 quaintance with the relation which subsists 
 between moral impressions and their ex-
 
 119 
 
 citing causes does not give the philosopher 
 any advantage, in point of moral suscepti- 
 bility, over the peasant who never heard of 
 such a relation. 
 
 As it is possible to believe in the philo- 
 sophy of the Bible, without believing in its 
 substantial truth; it is also possible to be- 
 lieve in its poetry, without any saving con- 
 sequences. There is much high poetry in 
 the Bible. There is a sublime in the God 
 set forth in it, altogether unrivalled; there 
 is a strange and beautiful combination of 
 overwhelming omnipotence, and the sweet- 
 est tenderness; there is an intimacy of 
 union and endearment spoken of between 
 this God and his creatures, which, when 
 stript of all that is offensive to nature, may 
 take a strong hold of the imaginative fa- 
 culties, and give a high species of enjoy- 
 ment to the mind. This enjoyment is of 
 the same kind as that which a finely strung 
 mind derives from the treasures of Mil- 
 ton's genius. The truth of the Gospel is 
 not in this case the object of belief. The 
 love and justice of God, manifested in the 
 cross, have not impressed the mind for 
 their impression could only be joy, and
 
 120 
 
 gratitude, and awe. Alas, that a pleasing 
 reverie should ever be mistaken for the 
 counterpart of the Divine character in the 
 heart of man ! The person whom I am sup- 
 posing, believes in the simplicity, and beau- 
 ty, and awful magnificence, of the revealed 
 system of religion, and in the touching pro- 
 priety of the form under which it has been 
 communicated. But he does not under- 
 stand it as a thing on whrch the alterna- 
 tive of his own happiness or misery through 
 eternity depends. He does not under- 
 stand it as exhibiting to him the character 
 of that Being who deals out to him every 
 breath that he draws, and appoints for him 
 every event which he meets in the race of 
 his existence ; who surrounds him continu- 
 ally, and from whose enveloping presence 
 he can never retire himself for an instant 
 through eternity; who marks every passing 
 thought and dawning desire, and who will 
 for all these bring him one day into judg- 
 ment ; he does not understand the Gospel 
 as a message from heaven, inviting him, 
 through the atonement of Christ, to ap- 
 proach this great Being as a gracious Fa- 
 ther, from whose love nothing but his own
 
 obstinate apostacy can separate him; who 
 has promised to make all things work to- 
 gether for good to his children ; and who, by 
 this message of mercy, has converted the 
 appalling attributes of his infinite nature 
 into reasons of filial confidence. Unless 
 the history of the past facts of the Christ- 
 ian system be connected with its present 
 importance ; unless the work finished on 
 Calvary be perceived in its relation to the 
 personal fears and hopes of ourselves as in- 
 dividuals; we do not understand, and there- 
 fore cannot believe the Gospel. 
 
 There is a belief in Christianity as a sub- 
 ject of controversy, which deserves a severer 
 censure than merely that it is incapable of 
 doing any moral good. The great facts of 
 revelation are not the object of which this 
 belief is the impression. The real object 
 of faith in a believer of this order is, that 
 his view is right, and that of his opponents 
 wrong. The impression from this object 
 is naturally approbation of himself and con- 
 tempt of others. 
 
 A man who forms a judgment upon any 
 subject on reasonable grounds, cannot but 
 believe that an opposite judgment is wrong
 
 122 
 
 if he does not believe this, he has form- 
 ed no judgment on the matter. But this 
 ought not to be the prominent object of be- 
 lief. If it be, the character is ruined. There 
 is not in the world a more hateful thing, 
 than to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ con- 
 verted into a piece of ambitious scholarship 
 an angel of light and peace, transformed 
 into the demon of darkness and discord. 
 We are required to give our belief to the 
 Gospel, for a farther end. Our belief is not 
 to terminate in itself. Indeed, it cannot do 
 this; for every object which affects our belief 
 must necessarily affect our characters. The 
 object presented to our faith in the Gospel, 
 is the character of God manifested in Jesus 
 Christ, as the just God and yet the Saviour. 
 It is the remission of sins through the blood 
 of atonement shed for us by love unutter- 
 able. It is God in our nature standing on 
 our behalf as our elder Brother and Repre- 
 sentative, bearing the punishment which we 
 had deserved, satisfying the law which we 
 had broken, and on the ground of this finish- 
 ed work, proclaiming sin forgiven, and in- 
 viting the chief and the most wretched of 
 sinners to become a happy child of God for
 
 123 
 
 ever and ever. This object is presented to 
 our belief, that it may stamp on our souls 
 its own image, the likeness of God. The 
 precepts of Scripture describe accurately the 
 effect which this faith will produce on the 
 character. We are thus taught to refer the 
 defects in our character to corresponding de- 
 fects in our faith. We have either origin- 
 ally received an erroneous impression of the 
 Gospel, that is to say, we have misunder- 
 stood it, or else we have allowed, by forget- 
 fulness, the right impression to die away. 
 The doctrine of the atonement is the great 
 spiritual mould from which the living form 
 of the Christian character is to derive its 
 features. Could we closely and accurately 
 fill out and follow this mould in all its li- 
 neaments, though we had never heard of 
 the precepts, our hearts would present an 
 exact tally or counterpart to them. But 
 as our deceitful hearts are prone to leave 
 this true mould of holiness and happiness, 
 and to receive opposite impressions from 
 the perishing things about us, it has pleased 
 God to describe to us what we ought to be, 
 as well in duty to Him as for our own 
 peace, that by daily comparing ourselves
 
 with his law, we may daily see not only 
 how greatly we need the blood which cleans- 
 eth from sin, but also how far our moral 
 features are from the form of the Gospel 
 mould, and how unsteady and unfrequent 
 our view must have been of that truth 
 which sanctifieth. We are thus instructed 
 to look into the precepts for an explanation 
 of any difficulties which we may have as 
 to the true object of faith. If any view 
 which is taken of the Gospel, does not na- 
 turally produce on the mind that impres- 
 sion which is described in the precepts, it 
 is evidently an incorrect view. This is a 
 test which cannot fail, and in which we 
 cannot easily be deceived. Thus, Christ- 
 ians are commanded to rejoice al way ; and 
 in the history which is given of them, we 
 find that they did rejoice with joy unspeak- 
 able and full of glory. Now, we are cer- 
 tain that they could not rejoice merely be- 
 cause they were commanded to do so. A 
 precept of this kind could not possibly en- 
 force or elicit obedience to itself. The 
 great use of the precept, therefore is, that 
 we may by it, as by a test, try whether our 
 view of the Gospel is a right view, and whe-
 
 ther our application to it is steady and con- 
 stant. And this joy in the first Christians 
 was not the result of a long process they 
 rejoiced as soon as they heard the Gospel, 
 and continued rejoicing as long as they lived. 
 Their joy, therefore, did not proceed from the 
 observation of any moral improvement which 
 had taken place in themselves ; there was no 
 time for that ; but it proceeded from their 
 perceiving, that the Gospel contained good 
 news, perfectly adapted to persons in their 
 circumstances of sin and sorrow. In short, 
 it was an annunciation of pardon and fa- 
 vour from God to sinners, on account of a 
 great work which preserved from all stain 
 the Divine holiness, and which magnified 
 the law and made it honourable. Who- 
 ever understands this, and believes it, must, 
 in the nature of things, rejoice, unless the 
 spring of the mind is clogged or deranged 
 by the disease of the body. A condemned 
 criminal must rejoice in a pardon, unless 
 he thinks that death is no evil, and life no 
 blessing. But it is impossible that any 
 one can think eternal misery no evil, or 
 eternal happiness no blessing. And deli- 
 verance from the one, and an entrance into 
 
 G3
 
 126 
 
 the other, are embraced in the announce- 
 ment of the Gospel. " This is the testi- 
 ' mony that God hath given to us eternal 
 " life, and this life is in his Son," 1 John 
 v. 11. A want of joy must then proceed 
 from some defect in the view which we take 
 of the Gospel, or from the unfrequency of 
 our viewing it, and the admission of oppo- 
 site impressions from other things. If we 
 wish to see the reflection of an object in a 
 mirror, the object must be present to the 
 mirror ; so if we wish to rejoice, we must 
 have the joyful object present to our minds. 
 An attempt to feel the joy of the Gospel 
 when the testimony of the Gospel is not 
 present to our minds, is like an attempt to 
 have an object reflected in a mirror, with- 
 out presenting them to each other. 
 
 We are commanded to love God with 
 all our hearts, and to hate sin and flee from 
 it. But it is not by the direct attempt to 
 excite and work up in ourselves these affec- 
 tions, that we can ever hope, in the nature 
 of things, to render an acceptable obedience 
 to this precept. For who can love, by en- 
 deavouring to love ; or hate, by endeavour- 
 ing to hate ? No : We are not left to such
 
 127 
 
 a thankless task. In the Gospel, a view 
 of God is presented which allures the love 
 of the heart, and calls forth its horror and 
 indignation against whatever opposes His 
 holy will. The law is written in our hearts 
 by the belief of the Gospel. If our hearts 
 really came in contact with the whole of 
 the Gospel, the impression would be the 
 whole of the law j and we may determine 
 how much of the Gospel we are yet stran- 
 gers to, by observing how much of the law 
 is yet unwritten on our hearts. This is 
 the true method of self-examination. The 
 distance which lay between the throne of 
 the universe and the death of the cross, is 
 the measure at once of the love of God, 
 and of the danger and guilt of sin. If there 
 is not an impression on our hearts of holy 
 love to God and of abhorrence of sin, it is 
 because we either have a wrong view of the 
 work of Christ, or because we do not view 
 it at all. Let then the discovery of our 
 spiritual deficiencies teach us to study the 
 truth as it is in Jesus more attentively, and 
 to cleave more closely to it. If we really 
 lived in the faith of the Gospel, we would
 
 128 
 
 live in uninterrupted joy, and love, and obe- 
 dience. 
 
 We are standing on the brink of eter- 
 nity ; in a few days we shall be launched in- 
 to it. Let us look over the precipice before 
 we make the awful plunge. It is a dark 
 and untried region. Do you see any light, 
 or will you commit yourself to chance ? 
 Oh, in the midst of that obscurity, there 
 shines a bright Star, which, even whilst we 
 gaze on it, sends its own blessed light into 
 the heart, and expels thence all doubts and 
 anxieties ! The King of that country is he 
 who died here for sinners. He loved us, 
 and gave himself for us. And he hath 
 gone to prepare a place for his people. If 
 you belong to him, you are safe, and you 
 may belong to him to-day. When he be- 
 comes your hope, you will have a joyful 
 hope a hope that maketh not ashamed. 
 But till then, there is no hope for you. 
 With him is the fountain of life, that is, of 
 happiness ; and we deceive ourselves when 
 we look for true happiness elsewhere. When 
 our hearts wander from him, they wander 
 from life and joy. Abide in me, he says, 
 and I will abide in you. What are all the
 
 129 
 
 promises which the world can make in com- 
 parison of this ? 
 
 It may appear to some that I have given 
 rather a complex view of faith. Some wri- 
 ters have thought that they simplified faith 
 very much, by saying that it is a mere as- 
 sent to the truth of Divine testimony. I 
 consider it to be no more, in its own na- 
 ture ; but does it not embrace a variety of 
 truth, and is it not obvious then that its 
 simplicity or complexness depends entirely 
 on the nature of the testimony to which 
 the assent is given ? An assent cannot be 
 given to any thing without receiving an 
 impression corresponding to it in all res- 
 pects ; for the meaning of belief is just the 
 impression made on the mind by the object 
 presented to it. If the object be simple, 
 the impression or belief will be simple ; 
 and if the object be a declaration involving 
 a variety of subjects, the impression or be- 
 lief will include them all. Now, as the 
 Gospel addresses a variety of affections in 
 the human mind, and manifests a variety 
 of the Divine attributes, it cannot in one 
 sense be called very simple ; at the same 
 time, as its meaning is level to the simplest 
 G 5
 
 130 
 
 capacity, that is to say, as the actions of 
 which it gives the narration, do most un- 
 equivocally declare the principles from 
 which they proceed ; in this respect it may 
 be called simple. Some, in contending for 
 the simplicity of faith, are not satisfied with 
 affirming that it is always the same in itself 
 whatever be its object, and that it is no- 
 thing more than the belief of the testimony 
 of a credible witness, which is certainly 
 true, but they go so far as to maintain that 
 the faith of the Gospel consists in the be- 
 lief of the bare facts only of which it testi- 
 fies, apart from their import. Now, this 
 view of the subject is very much fitted to 
 mislead. The faith of the Gospel, for in- 
 stance, is not merely the belief of the facts 
 that Jesus died and was raised from the 
 dead, but also, and chiefly, of the import 
 of these facts. It is not merely the belief 
 of an insulated truth, but of a testimony 
 including a variety of truths, to all of which 
 it gives credit. The Jewish elders and 
 priests believed a bare fact when they were 
 persuaded that the resurrection of Jesus 
 had in reality taken place, while they did 
 not believe the truths which are connected
 
 131 
 
 with and arise out of it. It is as truths 
 or realities, that the doctrines of the Gos- 
 pel are the objects of faith, but the belief 
 of them includes a belief of their qualities 
 or properties. The Gospel is not only a 
 true saying, but a saying divinely excellent 
 and supremely interesting and important ; 
 and if it is not perceived in this light, then 
 it is not believed to be what it is. In other 
 words, the truth is not believed 5 for it is as 
 essential a part of the Divine testimony, 
 that the Gospel is good news of a plan of 
 salvation, which is full of God, and altoge- 
 ther worthy of him, and adapted to the 
 chief of sinners, and free for their use, as 
 it is that there is salvation at all, or that 
 Jesus lived, and died, and rose again. He 
 who does not understand the glorious mean- 
 ing and design of these facts, does not be- 
 lieve the Gospel, because he does not be- 
 lieve what is an essential part of the truth. 
 Sometimes the expression simple faith is 
 used to denote faith unaccompanied with 
 strong feelings of hope and of joy, and such 
 like sensations. This may respect certain 
 parts of the truth which have the effect of 
 producing an acknowledgment of the faith- 
 G 6
 
 132 
 
 fulness and kindness of God, a conviction 
 that his favour is the one thing needful, a 
 renunciation of all other hopes, an expecta- 
 tion of deliverance, and a desire after God, 
 while yet there is no joy, because other 
 parts of the truth are not clearly discerned. 
 Such a state of mind, in regard to the reve- 
 lations made to David, is described in the 
 42d and 43d Psalms. Even in such cases, 
 however, there is a kind and degree of sen- 
 sation produced in correspondence to what 
 is really believed, so that the expression in 
 question is scarcely correct. Faith in the 
 Gospel will produce peace and joy in pro- 
 portion to its strength, except when disease 
 or constitutional tendencies prevent its na- 
 tural operation : and when these fruits are 
 wanting, we may consider the question as 
 put, Where is your faith ? The human mind 
 is easily shaken. Pain or weakness, sorrow 
 or anxiety, temptation or remorse, may dis- 
 tract the mind, and mingle their dark im- 
 pressions with the glory of the Gospel sal- 
 vation. It may please God to permit a 
 jarring nerve, or a morbid sensitiveness of 
 frame, to mar Christian joy even to the 
 grave. It is seldom, however, that this
 
 133 
 
 state of mind, though the effect of natural 
 causes, is altogether blameless. Has the 
 Gospel remedy been steadily applied ? Have 
 self-indulgence and indolence been steadily 
 resisted ? 
 
 When we apply the term simplicity to 
 faith, we are generally understood to mean 
 unreservedness and unfeignedness of prin- 
 ciple in religion, and an unquestioning de- 
 pendence on the love of God in Christ, as 
 the only hope and desire of the soul. This 
 is the child-like spirit which is so much 
 commended in Scripture, and holy peace 
 dwells with it. 
 
 Some persons, again, when they speak of 
 simple faith, seem to view it as a mere ab- 
 sence of expressed dissent, or as a readiness 
 to sign their names at the foot of a creed, 
 or a set of church -articles, as a proffer of 
 their sanction and countenance to this or 
 that system. To this it is a sufficient an- 
 swer, that nothing can be correctly believ- 
 ed, unless it makes a correct impression on 
 the mind. The belief is merely an append- 
 age and seal to the impression; and unless 
 our impression of Christianity correspond 
 to all the high objects revealed in the Gos-
 
 134. 
 
 pel, the simplicity of our faith will not en- 
 sure its goodness. 
 
 There is another way in which the ex- 
 pression simple faith is used, namely, to 
 express the freeness of justification. We 
 become interested in the salvation of the 
 Gospel simply by believing the Divine tes- 
 timony, and not as a reward of the spiritual 
 fruits or accompaniments of our faith. 
 For the glory of Divine grace, then, and 
 also for the steadiness of our own comfort 
 and peace, it is of great moment that our 
 ideas on this subject be simple. When we 
 confound faith with its effects, either im- 
 mediate or remote, we mar the simplicity 
 and the conclusiveness of the reasoning 
 of Scripture on the total opposition between 
 faith and works in the matter of justifica- 
 tion. 
 
 In the observations formerly made, we 
 see the connection between faith in the 
 Gospel and sanctification ; but how is it 
 related to justification or pardon ? What 
 is the meaning of such a sentence as this, 
 " A man is justified by faith without 
 " works ?" In such affirmations, the expres- 
 sion by faith" means simply, the gratui-
 
 135 
 
 tousness of the gift of pardon. Paul says, 
 " Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by 
 " grace," or free mercy, Rom. iv. 16. Faith 
 is here directly contrasted with works or 
 merits, as it is also in all passages where 
 justification is the subject. We have fre- 
 quent examples in the Bible of the Gospel 
 being stated without any mention of faith : 
 Thus, "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of 
 " all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
 " into the world to save sinners," 1 Tim. i. 
 15 ; as also 1 John v. 11. Matt. xi. 28. Luke 
 xix. 10; but in these instances the necessity 
 of faith is always implied, because they are 
 either invitations to come to the Saviour, 
 that is, to believe on him ; or they are de- 
 clarations, that no unworthiness is a bar to 
 his salvation, if men will come to him. 
 But another reason of the connection be- 
 tween justification and faith lies in this, 
 that faith in the Gospel produces a confor- 
 mity to the character of God. Pardon could 
 not be enjoyed by those whose characters 
 were unrenewed, and faith is the only in- 
 strument by which a spiritual change can 
 be effected. Pardon is bestowed on sinners, 
 because Christ hath suffered the punishment
 
 136 
 
 which they deserved, and hath magnified 
 the law which they had dishonoured and 
 not on account of any good thing in them- 
 selves. That pardon may be freely obtain- 
 ed through Christ, is the very thing which 
 we are called on to believe, and in believing 
 this we come to the actual possession of it. 
 The act of amnesty is antecedent to our be- 
 lief, and independent of it it remains firm 
 and good, though we scout it and reject it; 
 but by so doing, we exclude ourselves from 
 its operation. Each individual becomes 
 specially interested in this amnesty, by his 
 belief of it which special interest is called 
 by the Scripture justification. This belief 
 gives the right direction to the affections, 
 by presenting to them their proper objects 
 it restores their languid or feverish pul- 
 sation to a healthful tone it expands and 
 elevates them so, that they take delight in 
 God, and in the way of all his command- 
 ments it thus brings the worms of the 
 earth into union with the King of Heaven, 
 by introducing their hearts into the enjoy- 
 ment of that glorious work, in which His 
 infinite mind rests with eternal complacen- 
 cy. This is generally called sanctification,
 
 137 
 
 or the renewing of the heart, begun on 
 earth, completed in heaven. It is a pro- 
 cess perfectly reasonable and intelligible on 
 the acknowledged principles of the science 
 of the human mind. It is quite reason- 
 able, surely, in a moral point of view, that 
 justification should be thus connected with 
 faith in the Divine testimony, seeing that 
 faith is intelligibly connected, by the very 
 constitution of nature, with a restoration to 
 that spiritual character, which can alone 
 fit for communion with God, or the happi- 
 ness of heaven. 
 
 But still let it be distinctly remembered 
 and felt, that the pardon of sin rests on a 
 work altogether independent of the faith, 
 or love, or obedience of man. The Friend, 
 and Brother, and Representative of sinners, 
 has borne "the chastisement of their peace," 
 and satisfied the demands of justice on their 
 behalf. The sentence has been executed* 
 and the records of heaven bear that " it is 
 "finished." The Divine gracious deter- 
 mination to pardon sinners through Christ, 
 is freely and universally proclaimed as an 
 act already passed, in the history of that 
 great work on which it rests; and all are
 
 138 
 
 invited to come in and partake of the pro- 
 tection and healing influence of the par- 
 don thus freely proclaimed. Those who 
 believe in it are gradually sanctified by it. 
 But let it not be supposed that they are 
 gradually pardoned by it. The pardon was 
 virtually obtained by Christ before they 
 ever heard of it. By unbelief they would 
 have excluded themselves from its protec- 
 tion, as well as influence, altogether. What 
 is the object of faith but that our salva- 
 tion is from first to last the fruit of pure 
 favour; and how can the necessity of believ- 
 ing it to be a free gift, be inconsistent with 
 its being such ? By believing it, they come 
 under its protection; and, according to the 
 degree of their faith, is their enjoyment of 
 it, and their conformity to its spirit. He 
 who believes the Divine testimony that the 
 blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, is 
 within the scope of the pardon ; but, ac- 
 cording to the vividness, the constancy, and 
 the distinctness of the impressions which 
 this truth makes on his mind, will be 
 his Christian stature and spiritual joy. 
 We are told that in the heavenly world, 
 there are great varieties of glory and hap-
 
 139 
 
 piness. The lowest seat in that kingdom 
 into which neither sin nor sorrow enter, is 
 surely far beyond the brightest conceptions 
 of our earthly minds, and, Oh, how opposite 
 to our deserts ! but yet we are encouraged 
 to aim high, and to cultivate a holy ambi- 
 tion to be near and like our Lord. The way 
 to this attainment is to walk by faith whilst 
 we are here; to have the cross and the glory 
 of the Saviour ever present to the heart, as 
 the springs of holy love and holy hope; to 
 receive the events and duties of life as the 
 wholesome exercises by which he tries and 
 strengthens the faith of his people ; to look 
 to him continually for abundant supplies of 
 his comforting and quickening Spirit; to 
 consider ourselves as the blood-bought chil- 
 dren of our Father, whose eye is ever upon 
 us, whose ear is ever open to us, whose arm 
 ever supports us, whose love changeth not; 
 and to be in longing and watchful expecta- 
 tion of the hour, when he will call us hence 
 to the full enjoyment of our inheritance; 
 to feel that our eternity has already begun, 
 that our final choice is irrevocably made, 
 and that, in this world and out of this world, 
 and in all possible circumstances of exist-
 
 140 
 
 ence, Christ is and must be our only full 
 and satisfying portion for ever. 
 
 My object in this Essay has not been to 
 represent faith as a difficult or perplexed 
 operation, but to withdraw the attention 
 from the act of believing, and to fix it on 
 the object of belief, by showing that we can- 
 not believe any moral fact without entering 
 into its spirit, and meaning, and import- 
 ance ; that we cannot believe in our own 
 danger without apprehension, or in our own 
 deliverance without joy ; and that we can- 
 not believe in generous compassion, or self- 
 sacrificing benevolence, without having on 
 our minds at the time impressions corre- 
 sponding to these affections ; just as we can- 
 not believe in a colour, unless we recal to 
 our minds the impression corresponding to 
 that colour. Even had there been no men- 
 tion of faith made through the whole Bible, 
 it is yet evident to common sense that its 
 communications could be profitable to none 
 but to those who believed them; and it is 
 no less evident that, unless these communi- 
 cations are understood, they cannot be be- 
 lieved in their true meaning. Our business 
 then is to understand the meaning of those
 
 141 
 
 communications which God has been pleased 
 to make to us in his word, and to receive 
 them as substantial realities, altogether in- 
 dependent of our admission or rejection. 
 Certain facts have taken place, and certain 
 principles exist in the government of the 
 universe, whether we believe them or not. 
 Our disbelief of them neither destroys their 
 existence, nor takes from their importance ; 
 they continue the same, and will continue 
 to exercise an unlimited and uncontrollable 
 influence over our destinies forever. These 
 facts and principles declare the character of 
 God, and it is life eternal to know them. 
 To reject them, is to clash with Omnipo- 
 tence; and to be ignorant of them, is to be 
 in moral darkness. 
 
 We must prosecute our inquiries on this 
 subject, not as critics, or judges, or scholars, 
 but as sinners. It is not an interesting 
 exercise for our faculties, but a pardon for 
 our sins, and a cure for our spiritual diseas- 
 es, that we must seek after. If we seek, we 
 shall find, and we shall find them in Jesus 
 Christ. But the discovery, though it will 
 gladden, will not elevate. The great end 
 for which we are called on to believe the
 
 Gospel is, that we may be conformed by it 
 to the likeness of Him who was meek and 
 lowly in heart. Our obedience to the law 
 of God is thus the measure of our faith in 
 the Gospel. Holy love to God and man is 
 the natural fruit of faith in the Gospel, and 
 it is also the fulfilling of the law. 
 
 In conclusion, I would caution the reader 
 (and I desire to take the caution to my own 
 heart) against entering on these things in 
 his own strength. There is an agent ne- 
 cessary in this matter, whose operation is 
 wonderful, whose high and gracious office 
 it is, to take of the things that are Christ's 
 and show them to the souls of sinners, and 
 without whom no son of man has ever be- 
 lieved unto everlasting life. An absolute 
 and child-like dependence on the Holy 
 Spirit, for light, and strength, and comfort, is 
 a constituent part of the Christian charac- 
 ter. The work of restoration, in all its 
 parts, and in all its glory, is God's. The 
 deepest humility is thus necessarily con- 
 nected with the highest confidence. He 
 who knows that the Almighty hath enter- 
 ed the field in this cause, and that on his
 
 143 
 
 arm the cause rests, will, while he feels his 
 own utter insignificance, yet confidently an- 
 ticipate the result. That anticipation must 
 be weakened by whatever confidence he 
 may place in himself. The assistance of 
 this agent is one of the gifts which Christ 
 now reigns to bestow. It is given to those 
 who ask it, and those who receive it, live 
 with God for ever. Oh what will one day 
 be the feelings of those who have not asked 
 it, and therefore have not received it ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by Balfour & Clarke, 
 
 Edinburgh, 1822.
 
 A 000 031 432 8
 
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