4. Many of the errors which are usually entertained of the doctrine of faith seem to originate in the mistake, or the perversion of the term, which has various significations, the confusion or ignorance of which has occasioned much dissention in the christian world, and contributed only to perplex those, who, without a critical knowledge of the language of scripture, have attempted to explain the doctrines of christianity.

Sometimes the word faith is employed to signify the whole christian doctrine, which is an object of faith. Thus the apostle speaks in the Galatians, chap. iii. 23. Before faith, i. e. the gospel came, we were kept under the law. See also Rom. i. 5, Gal. i. 23, iii. 25, 1 Tim. i. 4, Acts vi. 7, and many other passages, where the word faith is used in the same sense. Again, it is taken generally for any strong persuasion of the mind, whether originating in a divine revelation, or produced by the force of argument. Thus Rom. iv. 20. "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith." See also Rom. xiv. 22, Heb. xi. 6, in which places faith

denotes nothing more than a sincere persuasion of a particular truth.

not seen.

In other places, faith is used to signify simply veracity or truth, which deserve assent, and as opposed to falsehood, which deserves none. Thus Rom. iii. 3. "Shall their unbelief make the faith (truth) of God of none effect?" It is also occasionally taken for those things, which are revealed by God, but are invisible to our perceptions. In this sense, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things Sometimes it is put for a simple lifeless assent to things which are not seen; as that there is a God; that he made the world, &c. Thus it is used by St. James, 2 chap. "What doth it profit though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him? Thou believest there is one God; thou dost well. The devils also believe and tremble." Faith is further used to signify trust in the divine promises. In this sense the word is repeatedly employed in Heb. xi. which contains an animated recommendation of this species of faith, illustrated by examples, and remarkable for the warmth of its piety, and the strength of its eloquence.

5. God never left himself without a witness in the

world, even amongst those nations to whom he never made known his will by a direct revelation. "The invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, were clearly seen, being understood by the things that were made. Rom. i. 20. In the beginning God showed himself as the maker of the world, and the father of mankind, as the lover of those that do good, and the avenger of such as do evil. In the interval between the fall and the deluge, God seems more than once to have manifested himself to his creatures. After the deluge, he appeared unto Abraham, with a command to forsake his kindred, and settle in a strange land, with an assurance that his posterity should possess it, and that in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed. His faith on this occasion, which was counted unto him for righteousness, was an unshaken trust in the promises of God, producing a willing obedience to his commands.

6. We next read of the great Maker of the world appearing under the partial name of the God of Israel, interposing to rescue the descendants of the favoured patriarch, from the oppression of the Egyptians ;

afterwards choosing Moses as the special instrument of his providence and messenger of his will, prescribing moral duties for the practice of the people, never to be dispensed with, and ceremonial laws to preserve unbroken the Jew and the Gentile, till the coming of him, who was to break down the wall of partition between them; to teach the world that God was no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness shall be accepted of him.

7. In each of these partial revelations, which preceded the christian, the Almighty exhibited many signs of love to his creatures, and gave some obscure presage of that glorious plan, which he had formed for reconciling the world to himself, in the person of his Son, in whom he was well pleased. In the Mosaic law, the great scheme of redemption was obscurely insinuated, rather than distinctly pourtrayed in types and figures, in the sacrifices of the altar, and the atonements of the priests. The Redeemer was indeed seen through the rites of the Mosaic dispensation, as through a veil or a glass darkly. They were like the cloud that covered the tabernacle, through which the

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eye could not penetrate, and which inspired sensations of awe, without exciting any lively perception of form and character. The prophets, who lived before the Mosaic dispensation, particularly Isaiah, expressly foretold a Redeemer to Israel; but the mode of redemption was left involved in obscurity and uncertainty, till in the fulness of time Christ was manifested in the flesh; the spotless sun of righteousness dispersed the shadows of the law, cleared up the mists of the vision, and the perplexities of the prophecy, and shed the light of immortality over the darkness and misery of the world.

8. Hence Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah foretold by the prophets as our redeemer from the grave, and the future judge of all mankind, is the principal object of christian faith. This is the most common acceptation, and the most important signification of the word faith, in the scriptures of the new covenant, and which we cannot too often remember, or too carefully retain, Faith in this sense of the word is necessary to salvation. Thus understood, it is a principle of new life in the soul. It exalts the thoughts, it purifies the affections, and sanctifies the conscience.