: was identified therewith. This notion was further promoted by the objective use of the word Faith, to signify the sum of those doctrines which are the object of belief, as well as the act whereby the mind and heart receive them (G). Thus, Faith being narrowed to the intellectual operation, and thereby deprived of its moral power, the provinces of Faith and of practical life grew to be regarded as totally distinct; and good works, being disjoined from Faith, were held to require some other source in Hope and Love: which yet themselves can only rise out of Faith. For how can we love, or how can we hope, unless we have already believed in Him whom we love and hope in (H)? The inevitable result of this severance was, that a dead Faith on the one hand was responded to on the other hand by dead works; inasmuch as neither can live, except in union with the other cut them asunder, and they both die. Such was the deplorable condition of the Church in what are called the middle ages; until Luther, arising with the spirit and power of Elias, lifted up his voice in the wilderness, which in those days was spread over Christendom, and preacht the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone. On this doctrine he rested wholly and solely, esteeming all other things of less account in comparison of Faith in Christ, and confident that all the graces of the kingdom of heaven would spring up in those who have that Faith graven on the living tablets of their hearts. From this doctrine he derived his strength: and then again it was seen, that Faith is indeed the victory which overcometh the world. The bonds and shackles of dead ordinances fell off from those who were baptized with this purificatory fire. But the progress of knowledge and civilization produced its usual effect. The pride of knowledge bred the lust of : knowledge; and the lust of knowledge pampered the pride of knowledge and again it became a very general opinion that the belief of the Understanding is one and the same thing with Christian Faith; and that this belief is to be grounded on testimony. Hence we were inundated with dissertations on the external evidences of Christianity; in which it was treated like any other historical fact, and witnesses were sifted and cross-examined; but without regard to the main witness, the witness in the heart of the believer himself, in his infirmities, his wants, his cravings,the witness along with which the Spirit bears witness in groanings that cannot be uttered. This, the only witness on which a living Faith in Christ can be establisht, was left out of sight: and so it is little to be wondered at if the Gospel half melted away into a system of philanthropical morality. From another and a very different quarter also have erroneous notions concerning the nature of Faith been recently propagated with much ability and earnestness by one of whom no reverer of piety and holiness should speak without respect. The main force of the vehement attack which has lately been made on the great protestant and apostolical doctrine of Justification by Faith, seems to lie in a total misconception of the nature and power of Faith (1). Against this misconception, whenever and in whatsoever form it shews itself, it behoves us to keep diligent guard. It behoves us to write the declaration of St Paul on the front of our Church, that a man is justified by Faith, without the deeds of the Law. It should be our inwrought conviction, that, as Luther says in the Articles of Schmalcald, after quoting these words of St Paul, "From this article no true Christian ought to depart, or to make any concession or admission contrary thereto, even though heaven and earth and all things should be confounded" (J). Now to Him who in His infinite grace vouchsafes to justify mankind by Faith, without the deeds of the Law, whereby no man living could be justified,-to Him who justifies us by clothing us with the righteousness of His only-begotten Son, and who by the indwelling of His Spirit sanctifies those whom He has justified,—in the glory of the eternal Trinity, be all praise and thanksgiving and adoration for ever. 26 SERMON II. . FAITH, A PRACTICAL PRINCIPLE. 1 John v. 4. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. IN my former sermon I endeavoured to shew that the Faith, which is here said to have the power of overcoming the world, and of which such great and wonderful things are declared in other passages of the New Testament, by St Paul, and by our Saviour himself, must be something very different from that mere intellectual assent to the truths of revelation, with which it has often been identified. One main, and, as appears to me, decisive proof that it must be so, is the powerlessness of the Understanding to produce any lasting renovating effect on the heart and soul of man. And are we not led to the same conclusion by those blessed words, so full of grace and love, in which our Lord gives thanks to his Heavenly Father, because he has hidden his salvation from the wise and prudent, and has revealed it to babes? Had the decision of the Understanding, the balancing of evidence, the cross-examination of witnesses, been the grounds on which Faith is to be founded, had the work of Faith been wholly a work of the Intellect, were there not a moral blindness, which will often disable the keenest Intellect for discerning the true meaning and spirit of what it sees, and a moral openness of heart by which the simple are fitted for seeing The things as they really are, the wise and prudent, as they are the best judges in matters of earthly science, would also be the best judges in heavenly science. As they alone rightly conceive the true system of the universe, while the unlearned continue all their lives deceived by the phantoms of the Senses, in like manner should we have found a readier and fuller apprehension of the divine nature and atonement of Christ in the philosopher than in the peasant. Whereas the fact is very often exactly the reverse. philosopher, beguiled by the phantoms of his Understanding, finds it difficult, if not impossible, to raise his spirit beyond the moral teacher, the man Jesus; while the poor and humble acknowledge and adore him, as their everpresent Saviour and God. One can hardly talk with the poor on any spiritual subject, without being sensible of this difference. They receive the truths of the Gospel, as young children receive what is said to them, not with their Understandings merely, but into their Hearts. The same thing is implied in our Lord's words to Thomas. Had the conviction of the Understanding been the one thing needful in Faith, the stronger and more immediate the evidence, the more valuable would the conviction have been. But inasmuch as it is the moral readiness to receive and embrace truth, that renders Faith acceptable in the eyes of God, therefore did our Lord pronounce that those who believe without seeing are blessed, above those who will not believe until they see. Were not this so, what would be the meaning of St Paul's declaration (1 Cor. i. 17), that he had been sent to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. Had the purpose for which he was to preach the Gospel been chiefly to convince the |