as the universal demerit of our species, and their entire indebtedness to the grace, the mere favour of God, for the gift of immortality. We may find more or less difficulty in connecting these and other propositions in the sacred writings into a dependent series, or disposing them into an harmonious system; and much consideration may be needful, as well as a diffident and charitable caution, in determining their relative magnitude, and in distinguishing those doctrines, the rejection of which would seem fatal to the character and hopes of a Christian. But why, we ask, is not a conviction of the reality and permanency of our moral obligations as properly and essentially a constituent of the faith which justifieth, as a persuasion of the reality and sufficiency of the atonement of Christ? We know of no higher authority for our belief than the word of our Redeemer; and not more certainly did he declare that "the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,"*—not more certainly did he make that invaluable declaration, than he expounded to his hearers the moral law which had been promulgated to their forefathers by the ministry

* Matt. xx. 28.

of Moses, enforcing it on their uniform and conscientious obedience,-not more certainly than he pronounced the blessedness of "the poor in spirit, the meek, the hungry and thirsty after righteousness, the

pure in heart, the peacemakers "-and foretold the everlasting punishment of the doers of iniquity. It was He who delivered the parable of the talents; and it was He who instructed the most faithful and laborious of his disciples to account themselves unprofitable servants. It was He who "called sinners to repentance;" and it was He who instituted memorials of his body which was to be broken, and his blood which was to be shed, for the remission of sins. Need it be added that, in the teaching of his Apostles, that summons is but reiterated and prolonged, which calls the guilty to repentance, and would awake the world to righteousness?

The faith, then, by which St. Paul declares us to be justified, in contradistinction to the works of that law, in virtue of which the Jews of his time so fondly, blindly, and pertinaciously strove to establish their own righteousness, but by which every individual of the human race in its successive generations is found wanting,that faith is an assent of the

understanding to the Gospel of Jesus Christ substantially or generally: whether as unfolding the medium of forgiveness, or the conditions of receiving it: whether as a grant of immunities and privileges, or a call to obedience. We are now regarding faith as a judgment of the understanding, irrespective of its appropriate influence on the dispositions and practice of the Christian;-but we may step aside for a moment to observe, that when St. Paul discourses of faith he regards it in its actual operation in the heart and conduct of the believer. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, for example, he extols the faith of the patriarchs and the saints of an early age, as a mighty and effective principle of endurance and activity. The eleventh chapter of that Epistle was evidently penned to illustrate the power of faith, or the efficacy of a reliance on the divine promises, to fortify the mind against the seductions of evil, to support it under the pressure of the worst calamities, and even to inspire a contempt of death and torture. It is a record of passive and active virtues a history of patient suffering and heroic daring supported by an unshaken confidence in God, as the Fountain of truth, and the unfailing Friend, the sure Rewarder of the just.

But to return-it was concluded that the faith to which our Redeemer has annexed the promise of eternal life, and which St. Paul inculcates as the instrument of justification, imports an assent of the judgment to the Gospel substantially or generally; and consequently includes a conviction of the obligation and necessity of personal holiness, or the fulfilment of our religious and moral duties as enjoined by Christ and his Apostles. Thus far the evangelical requirement of faith is in perfect harmony with the dictates of reason or natural religion. But we are concerned to proceed farther in this line of observation; not so much for the purpose of establishing the preceptive authority of the Gospel, as of vindicating the entire consistency of the sacred writings.

It may seem that by regarding as matter of faith the reality of moral obligation, or the duties of practical religion and virtue, we trench upon an established distinction between articles of faith and deductions of reason. But we are insisting on the usage of the term faith in the Scriptures; and in these it is important to remark, that propositions which are commonly supposed to be deducible by reason, are assumed to be articles

of faith, as well as those which are exclusively matter of divine revelation. That God exists, and that he is not regardless of those who seek to know, and aim to fulfil his will, may be justly considered as deductions of reason, or presumptions of natural religion, and indeed are actually affirmed in the Scriptures to be such; but these are specifically mentioned, and even singled out, as articles of faith in the following passage :-" But without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." A principle of religion, then, is not the less an object of faith in the judgment of the inspired writers because it may be discoverable by human reason.

But we learn from the Epistle of St. Jude that the reality of our moral obligations, in particular, is an essential tenet of "the faith which was once delivered to the saints," and for which that Apostle exhorts us "earnestly to contend." His exhortation, it should be remarked, is especially applicable and stirring against any who should explode or disesteem this doctrine of revealed, as well as of natural religion; for immediately after giving that † Heb. xi. 6.

* Rom. i.