I attach to his testimony in the particular case ;— and that, in proportion to the degree of this credit, will be the confidence with which I commit the management of my business into the hands of the individual whose character he attests:-and in this case, I trust because I believe; my trust is the effect of my faith. And it is otherwise in the case before us? The subjects and ends to which it relates are, it is true, infinitely superior; but the process of mind is the same. God gives us, in his word, a testimony concerning his Son, as a divine and therefore all-sufficient Saviour, able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come to him. If we are convinced that this testimony is indeed from God; then, knowing that "it is impossible for God to lie," we believe it with a corresponding firmness: and in proportion to the firmness with which we believe it to be true, or (which is the same thing, since there can never be a doubt of the divine veracity) with which we believe it to be from God, will be the degree of our trust in the Saviour, who is the subject of the testimony.

Faith, then, is believing. It may arise from different descriptions of evidence. We may believe on the evidence of sense; directly, with regard to facts; indirectly, with regard to doctrines. When Thomas had the opportunity given him of seeing Jesus after his resurrection, of putting his finger into the print of the nails, and thrusting his hand into his side, and, his incredulity being overcome, exclaimed, in delighted wonder and adoring love," My Lord, and my God!"-he believed the fact of his Master's resurrection directly upon the testimony of his senses :-he saw him, he heard him, he handled him. And, although the claims and doctrines of Jesus could not thus, in regard to their truth or authority, be the direct objects of sense; yet in consequence of the connexion of the

visible fact with these claims and doctrines, (a connexion arising from this fact having been previously appealed to as the test by which they should be tried and estimated,) Thomas had indirectly, the evidence of his senses for the truth and divinity of them, as well as for the reality of the fact. But faith, as we have at present to do with it, rests not on the evidence of sense. It is the belief of a testimony, arising from a conviction of the veracity of the testifier. And saving faith is the belief of the divine testimony concerning Christ, resting on a full conviction of the veracity of God:-for, on the one hand, he who receives the testimony "sets to his seal that God is true;"* and on the other," he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he hath not believed the record that God hath given of his Son."-Saving faith is the belief of this record, as coming from God. In other words, saving faith is the belief of saving truth.

These things, simple as they appear, will be still more manifest, when we have considered a little, as we shall now proceed to do, how and why eternal life is connected with faith, or believing.-There is frequently a vast deal of unnecessary and perplexing mysticism associated with this matter: whereas in the word of God it seems to be abundantly plain, and free of every thing that should be felt bewildering by the simplest mind. We shall assign to this point a separate section.

*John iii. 33.

† 1 John v. 10.

SECTION II.

How and why eternal life is connected with faith or believing.

THERE exists, I apprehend, a very prevalent conception, as if the connexion of life or salvation with faith arose entirely from the sovereign and arbitrary appointment of God, that so it should be. But this conception has its origin in a confused and mystical notion of what faith is. It is, in the minds of such persons, a something, they cannot distinctly tell what, with which it has pleased God to connect salvation; and they often profess to be wishing for it and seeking after it, when their wishes and pursuit have no well understood or definite object. But when we regard faith as having respect to a testimony, and as incapable, from its very nature, of any existence otherwise, as being the reception of that testimony, the believing or crediting of it, as the truth of God;-every thing then is clear. The connexion of eternal life with believing arises not from any mere appointment or will that it should be so :-it arises, in a very great degree at least, from the nature of the thing. The gospel is a testimony from God. In that form it comes to us; and it demands our credence. It reveals to us certain blessings, to be enjoyed on a certain ground. How, then, is it conceivable, that blessings thus revealed should be received and enjoyed otherwise than by the reception or belief of the testimony which reveals them? I do not of course speak of infants, or of any who are naturally incapable of understanding and believing that or any other testimony :-1 speak of those to whom the gospel comes, and whose

minds are capable of having it addressed to them. and of comprehending its meaning. It is from the case of such, that the general representations of the Bible are framed-it is of such they speak, when they declare (as they uniformly and explicitly do) eternal life to be by faith. Now, the divine testimony is contained in the 11th and 12th verses of this chapter:-"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."-How, then, in the nature of the thing, can the life which this testimony makes known as the gift of God through his Son, be received in any other way than by the reception of the testimony which makes it known? From the nature of the blessings contained in eternal life, and especially, as we shall immediately see, of some of them, it is a thing that cannot (if I may so express myself) be forced into a man's possession. It is such, that no one can be made a partaker of it against his will, as qualities and possessions may be that are merely extraneous and physical. It must be accepted on the part of the sinner,-received, as the gift of God, with a willing mind. In no other way is it, from its nature, capable of being possessed: --and in what way it can be received otherwise than by receiving the testimony that reveals it for acceptance, I am quite at a loss to imagine.-He that hath the Son hath life." Now, how can any one have the Son, unless by receiving the testimony in which the Son is made known as the Saviour of sinners? Receiving Christ, and receiving the gospel that reveals Christ, are one and the same thing.

But on this important part of my subject, I must be a little more particular. The reader may remember that, in discussing a former proposition, eternal life was considered in three distinct points of view-in regard to the sinner's state in law-in

regard to spiritual character-and in regard to future prospects. Now faith is connected with the possession of it in all these views: and in all there is great simplicity.

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1. With regard to deliverance from the law's sentence of death, or what is usually called justification, and in one instance, by the Apostle Paul, justification of life."* We have formerly seen that the gospel testimony represents this as a matter entirely of grace,-the perfectly gratuitous "gift of God." With regard to the enjoyment of this blessing in the mind, or the sense of pardon, it is obvious that there is no possible way in which it can be possessed by the sinner, except the belief of the testimony in which grace is seen reigning through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. But even with respect to the simple state of pardon and acceptance with God, apart from the sense or enjoyment of it by the pardoned sinner, there is one important reason why it should be by faith. This reason is stated by Paul, Rom. iv. 16.

Wherefore, it is of faith, that it might be by grace." Its being by grace is essential to the very nature of the gospel; and its being by faith is re presented as securing this essential point. There is a perfect contrariety between grace and works, but there is a perfect, and simple, and beautiful harmony between grace and faith. Justification is by the latter, that it may be by the former. This is fully brought out in Paul's reasoning, Rom. iv. 1-8. "What shall we then say that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him

* Rom. v. 18.