known to us in the Gospel, but its appropriate influence on the affections and conduct. We can scarcely account this a difficulty: but rather regard it as a fact which it were easy to explain, and instructive to reflect upon. The following considerations will, in our apprehension, sufficiently illustrate this comprehensive usage of the term faith-this synecdoche.

1. It is not to be forgotten that, while the Christian revelation is designed to purify the motives and reform the conduct of its professors, its reception as an act of the understanding is not independent of a previous state of the affections, or determination of the will -a momentous fact, which must constitute whatever accountableness lies upon man for his religious belief. There are some, indeed, who deny that any such accountableness exists; though the denial would be found, on examination, to involve egregious consequences, and to extend, as we apprehend, to the very foundation of morals. This responsibility, however, the divine Founder of our religion most distinctly taught, and on it he grounded his remarkable declaration, "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God;"* and also his accusation *John vii. 17.

of the unbelieving Jews, "Ye love not the truth." How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only ?* This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.Ӡ This may be accounted one reason for the emphasis laid upon faith, and the comprehensive import of that term in the sacred writings: a reason which cannot but appear of some weight when we consider the peculiar and inveterate prejudices which instigated the Jewish people to resist the pretensions of Jesus of Nazareth to be the predicted Messiah.

2. Again, it should be considered that at the first publication of the Gospel, those who had the fortitude and intrepid zeal to avow their belief of it, would be commonly actuated by a resolution to fulfil its precepts,—would be determined to exemplify its influence, and illustrate its excellence in their lives. The earliest professors of our religion, we well know, were exposed to the loss of property, liberty, and life itself, at the hand of the persecutor. They were called upon, at the very outset of their Christian course, to make a sacrifice of whatever could be dear to them † John iii. 19.

*John v. 34.

as tenants of the present life, or inhabitants of the earth, and even to prepare for the endurance of cruel torments. The public confession of their faith in Christ, therefore, might be fairly taken as a strong presumption of their sincere and effectual conversion to the principles of the Gospel: a presumption which, it is evident, very generally pervades the Apostolical writings:- we say a strong presumption only; for the fact that the Scripture discriminates between the belief and practice of the Gospel, and even presumes the possibility of a faith which might remove mountains, and enable a person to give his body to be burned, and yet be ineffectual to save him,* proves that the profession of the first Christians was not accounted an infallible test of sincerity.

3. But, yet more particularly, it should be remarked that the moral depravation of our species, which preceded the introduction of Christianity, had been confirmed and aggravated-in a degree we know not how greatby a prevailing ignorance and misapprehension of the true God; that the first and indispensable requisite to the reformation of mankind was, an authenticated communication from the Deity, unfolding his moral perfections, and laying open the gracious principles

* 1 Cor. xiii. 3.

on which he governed, and would judge the world; and, most especially, that the announcement in the Gospel of "a propitiation for the sins of the whole world," affords unspeakable encouragement to all piety and virtueto all human endeavours in the service of a just and holy God. The Christian revelation, however, could, it is obvious, be of no use or value in supplying the knowledge of which the world stood in need, any farther than it was actually believed, and relied upon as the word of Him who "cannot lie," and who

changeth not." Reflecting, then, that Christianity was the necessary and ordained means of commencing and carrying forward the moral restoration of mankind,-that it was the great desideratum for recovering them to the service of God, and qualifying them for the fruition of eternal happiness,-that in the want of it the world had long lain, and must have lain irrecoverably, in wickedness, can hardly wonder that the act of believing in the Son of God should have been so often demanded as the special condition of receiving the benefits of his mediation; and thereby assumed to comprehend that repentance, or important change in the human mind, which no system of religion then existing in the world,

S

we

and, we may safely add, excogitable by man— which nothing else than a belief of the truths made known to us by the Son of God, could have produced.

Lastly, it should be added that there is a natural and proper connexion between the deliberate conclusions of the understanding, and the habitual tenor of the conduct; that this connexion has very considerably influenced the usage of language in general; and, consequently, might have been expected to appear in the phraseology of Scripture. True it is, that the habits and practices of mankind are extensively at variance with their calm and deliberate convictions-a discrepancy, however, which must arrest our attention, whether we regard them as universally desirous of happiness in the world that now is, or in that which is to come. Nevertheless, so natural is it to presume a consistency between the opinions and doings of a man,-so ready are we to look to the conclusions of his understanding for his principles of action, that whenever an individual is carried by the impetus of his passions into conduct inconsistent with the maxims of prudence received by himself in common with mankind in general, we almost invariably impute to him a lack of knowledge, or error of