origin of that doctrine, is to have a superstitious faith. Under this description may be ranked what has been denominated faith extorted by tyranny, and faith generated in the brain of the enthusiast. But we have, under this particular, a different kind of superstition in view. To believe a truth completely proved, but without having examined the proofs which support it, is to have the faith of superstition. A truth, of which I perceive not the proofs, is no truth with respect to me. What renders my disposition of soul acceptable in the sight of God, when I receive what he is pleased to reveal to me, is my reception of it as an intelligent being, after having weighed the motives which induced me to give it welcome; after having discovered, on putting them in the balance with the opposite motives, that the first had greatly the preponderancy over the others. But to believe a truth with precipitation, to believe it without knowledge, is mere superstition. If it should determine you to declare yourself on the side of truth, it must be entirely by chance, and which may, to-morrow plunge you into error, as it induces you, to-day, to embrace the truth.

Obscure faith, then, is not a persuasion unsupported by proof; it is, in truth, destitute of the proofs which constitute the evidence of object; but not of those which constitute the evidence of testimony, as was from the beginning affirmed, and which it was necessary, oftener than once, to repeat.

SERMON V.

PART II.

OBSCURE FAITH:

OR,

THE BLESSEDNESS OF BELIEVING, WITHOUT
HAVING SEEN.

JOHN XX. 29.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

WE

E have endeavored to explain the nature of obscure faith; and now proceed, as was

proposed,

II. To point out the excellency of this obscure faith. After having attempted to unfold the ambiguity of the expression in my text, to believe without having seen, we must endeavor to evince the truth of it, by demonstrating this proposition, announced by our blessed Lord, blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.

These words admit of a very simple, and a very natural commentary, which we shall first produce, in order to explain them. The point in question is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Thomas is to be convinced of the certainty of it, by nothing short of the testimony of his own eyes: this mode of producing conviction, was going, henceforward, to cease. Jesus Christ was shortly to leave the

world: a cloud was soon to receive him out of the sight of the inhabitants of this earth: The heavens must now receive him, until the times of the restitution of all things, Acts iii. 21. The angels declared to the apostles, as they stood rapt in astonishment at beholding their beloved Master disappear: This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven, Acts i. 11. The disposition of Thomas's mind, therefore, was going, henceforth, to become universally fatal. Every one who should say with him, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe, must die and perish in unbelief. There was to be, henceforward, no other way but this, of believing without having seen, no other means of arriving at a participation in the felicity of believers: Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

This commentary contains much good sense. It does not, however, seem to me to have exhausted the whole meaning of Jesus Christ. God is supremely good nothing appeared to him too dear for the salvation of the human race: he made choice of means the best adapted to the execution of this great work. If he has made choice of means the best adapted to the salvation of the human

race, he has likewise made choice of the properest method of enabling us to avail ourselves of the appointed means, and that method is obscure faith. Why so? This is the point which we must attempt to elucidate and some time ago, you will please to recollect, that we undertook this task. For when that difficulty was urged against us, which unbelievers make the subject of their triumph: "Wherefore did not Jesus Christ shew himself alive after his passion, to his judges, to his executioners?" We made this reply, that the gift of working miracles, bestowed on the apostles, and on the first Christians, constituted a proof more irresistible of his resurrection, than if he had shewn himself then, nay, than if he were to shew himself risen, at this day.

It might be retorted upon us, "That these two proofs, that of miracles performed by his disciples, and that of his personal manifestation, were not incompatible with each other: Jesus Christ might first have shewn himself alive after his resurrection; here would have been one kind of proof: he might afterwards, upon his ascension, have sent the Holy Spirit to his apostles; this would have consituted a second kind of proof. These two kinds of proof united, would have placed the truth of his resurrection far beyond the reach of all suspicion. Wherefore did he not employ them? Wherefore did he not give to a truth of his religion so interesting, and of such capital importance, every species of proof of which it is susceptible?" To this we still reply, that obscure faith was a method far more proper to conduct us to salvation, than a clear faith, founded on the testimony of the senses, or on the personal discoveries of the believer himself: Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

A principle which we have on other occasions laid down, will justify this reply. God has placed us in this world, as in a place of probation and sacrifice. It is his will that the manner in which we correspond to this view of his providence, should determine our everlasting destiny. Let us try

clearly to explain this principle, before we apply it to the subject in hand.

In strictness of speech, God will not proportion the celestial felicity which he reserves for us, to the exertions which we make to obtain it. D.d God observe the rules of an exact distribution in this respect, there is not a single person in the world who durst flatter himself with being a partaker in that felicity because there is no one, I speak of even the greatest saints, who does all that he ought, and all that he might do, toward the attainment of it. Much more, supposing us to have done all that we could, and all that we ought to do, to be admitted to a participation in this blessedness, our utmost efforts never could bear any proportion to it. We must still say of every thing we undertake, in order to salvation, what St. Paul says of the most cruel sufferings of the martyrs: They are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, Rom. viii. 18. The most extravagant thought, accordingly, that ever could find its way into the mind of man, is that of the persons who maintain the possibility of meriting heaven by their good works, nay, the possibility of a man's meriting the kingdom of heaven for others, after having earned it for himself.

But though there is not a proportion of rigorous justice, between the heavenly felicity, and the efforts which we make to attain it, there is a proportion of equity and of establishment. Permit me to explain what I mean by these words: God