previous to unbelief: for as the question relates to unbelief itself, that would be foreign to the point. Nor can you mean that it is the immediate and inseparable effect of unbelief; for that is fully granted; and it is not the effect, but the nature or essence of unbelief, that is the point in question. Your meaning therefore must be this, that unbelief in its very nature, is a temper or disposition of heart disagreeing with the truth.' To this I should answer, I do not consider unbelief as an evil temper of heart, but as a persuasion arising out of it, and partaking of it: and the same answer is applicable to the subject in hand. I shall first offer evidence that faith in Christ is a persuasion influenced by the moral state of the heart, and partaking of it; and then consider the principal objections advanced against it. If what has been said already on duty being confined to things in which the will has an influence, be just, the whole of the second part of the foregoing treatise may be considered as evidence in favour of the point now at issue; as whatever proves faith to be a duty, proves it to be a holy exercise of the soul towards Christ, arising from the heart being turned towards him. In addition to this, the following particulars are submitted to the reader : - First, Faith is a grace of the Holy Spirit.—It is ranked with hope, and charity, which are spiritual, or holy exercises. Indeed whatever the Holy Spirit as a sanctifier produces, must resemble his own nature. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. As the wisdom which is from above is pure, and of a practical nature; so faith, which is from above, resembles its divine origin.. Secondly, It is that in the exercise of which we give glory to God.*-If faith be what Mr. M. acknowledges it to be, a duty, and an exercise of obedience, its possessing such a tendency is easily conceived: but if it be a passive reception of the truth, on which the moral state of the heart has no influence, how can such a property be ascribed to it? There is a way in which inanimate nature glorifies God, and he may get himself glory by the works of the most ungodly; but no ungodly man truly gives glory to him, neither does a godly man, but in the exercise of holiness. Thirdly, Faith is represented as depending upon choice, or the state of the heart towards God.-Said I not unto thee, If thou woULDEST believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?-How CAN ye believe, WHO RECEIVE HONOUR ONE OF ANOTHER, and SEEK NOT THE HONOUR THAT COMETH FROM GOD ONLY?-If thou CANST believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. If faith be a mere passive reception of the truth into the understanding, on which the state of the will has no influence, * Rom. iv. 20. † John xi. 40. v. 44. Mark ix. 23. What fair interpretation can be given to these passages? If a disposition to seek the divine honour, be not necessary to believing, How is it that the want of it should render it impossible? And if believing had no dependance upon choice, or the state of the heart, How is it that our Saviour should suspend his healing of the child, upon the parents being able to exercise it? Did he suspend his mercy on the performance of a natural impossibility; or upon something on which the state of the heart had no influence? Fourthly, Faith is frequently represented as implying repentance for sin, which is acknowledged on all hands to be a holy exercise. It does not come up to the scripture representation to say, repentance is a fruit of faith, There is no doubt, but that faith where it exists, will operate to promote repentance, and every other holy exercise. It is true also, that a conviction of the being and attributes of God, must in the order of nature, precede repentance; because we cannot repent for offending a Being of whose existence we doubt, or of whose character we have no just conception: but the faith of the gospel, or a believing in Jesus for the salvation of our souls, is represented in the new testament as implying repentance for sin. Repent and believe the Gospel-And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not, THAT YE MIGHT BELIEVE-If peradventure, God will give them repentance TO THE ACKNOWLEDGING OF THE TRUTH.* Whenever the *Mark. i. 15. Matt. xxi. 32. 2 Tim. ii. 25. scriptures speak of repentance as followed by the remission of sins, it will be allowed that faith is supposed for repentance without faith could not please God, nor have any connexion with the promise of forgiveness: and it is equally evident that when they speak of faith as followed by justification, repentance is supposed; for faith without repentance would not be genuine. It is impossible to discern the glory of Christ's mediation, or to believe in the necessity, the importance, the loveliness, or the suitableness of his undertaking, while we feel not for the dishonour done to God by the sin of creatures, and particularly by our own sin. Ignorance, therefore, is ascribed to obduracy, or insensibility of heart.* Indeed it is easy to perceive, that where there is no sense of the evil and demerit of sin, there can be no form nor comeliness discerned in the Saviour, nor beauty that we should desire him; and while this is the case, the servants of Christ will have to lament, Who hath believed our report ? † · Fifthly, Faith is often expressed by terms which indicate the exercise of affection.-It is called receiving Christ, which stands opposed to rejecting him or receiving him not; and which is descriptive of the treatment he met with from the body of the Jewish nation. It is called receiving the love of the truth, that we may be saved; and by salvation being thus connected with it, it is implied that no other reception of the truth is saving. Christ's word is said to have no place in unbelievers, which implies that in true believers it has place, and which is expressive of more than a mere assent of the understanding. The good ground in the parable is said to represent them who, in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. It is here intimated that no one receives the word to purpose but in the exercise of an honest and good heart.* Sixthly, Belief is expressly said to be with the heart. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe IN THINE HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For WITH THE HEART man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvationIf thou believest WITH ALL THINE HEART thou mayest. It is allowed that the heart, in these passages, does not denote the affections, to the exclusion of the understanding; nor does the argument require that it should: but neither does it denote the understanding to the exclusion of the affections, which is required by the argument on the other side; but the inmost soul, in opposition to the mouth with which confession is made unto salvation. Doing any thing with the heart, or with all the heart, are modes of speaking never used in scripture, I believe, for the mere purpose of expressing what is internal or mental, and which may pertain only to * John i. 12. 2 Thess. ii. 10. † Rom. x. 9, 10. John viii. 37. Luke viii. 15. |