the CHRISTIAN FAITH; invisible in its object; tranfcendent in its power; and immortal in its end.

All other kinds of truth, fpringing from the evidence of external and internal fenfe, lie more immediately before our view, to direct our way through this material scene of things; in which we are fitly faid " to walk "by by fight." This kind, which is to conduct us from this visible world into the world of fpirits, is derived from the evidence of

things not feen," and we are accordingly commanded" to walk by faith and not by

fight." But, however invifible in its object, Faith is tranfcendent in its power, embracing immediately and at one grafp all the myfteries of religion, however dark and incomprehenfible, independent on the faculties of man, and devoted folely to the glory of God.-And this tranfcendent virtue is exalted to ftill higher confideration, in that it determines the prize of immortality.

"He

f Quantum myfterium aliquod divinum fuerit magis abfonum & incredibile; tanto plus credendo exhibetur ho

noris Deo, ut fit victoria fidei nobilior.

* that believeth on the Son hath everlasting

life; and he that believeth not the Son, ❝ fhall not fee life; but the wrath of God ❝ abideth on him." In this grand catastrophe and confummation of human nature, from being militant Faith will become triumphant. "Who is he," proceeds the beloved apostle, in terms of confidence and triumph, "that

overcometh the world, but he that believ¬ "eth that Jefus is the Son of God 1???

Such is the nature and constitution of the Chriftian Faith, which is the greatest of virtues; and which, when" it worketh by "Love," or Chriftian Charity, in the production of good-works or moral virtue, the condition of Natural Religion, as its genuine fruits, is the fole and indifpenfable condition of Revealed; on the performance of which alone, men, the moral agents, will be juftified of God, their moral governor, redeemed, ranfomed, and rewarded, " having their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlast "ing life."

h1 John v. 5, 6.

This

* John iii. 36. <iWORKS entitle us to a reward indefinitely, FAITH to the reward of eternal life; therefore the first step to the

(6 greater

This fupernatural PRINCIPLE, fo different from all others; the TRUTHS refulting from it, fo different from those of every other kind, and in fo different a way; and this FAITH which transcends every other species of affent, unfortunately for the true interefts of Theology the queen of sciences, were unknown to Ariftotle, whofe Dialectic has been for ages the impregnable fort of all probable reafoning, the umpire of all learning, and the high tribunal at which the pretenfions of all truth were to be tried. Thus to punish the vice and obftinacy of mankind in different periods of the world, it hath pleased the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, to fuffer a cloud to be drawn across the pure light of heaven, by which it has been obftructed or obfcured.

Had that great philofopher been bleft with the privilege of being born after the glorious Gofpel had fhed its rays over the Athenian provinces: or had he partaken with the righ

"greater bleffing muft needs be a title to the leffer." Warb. Div. Leg. Book ix. chap. 3. See the whole of this Chapter on the Doctrine of falvation by Faith only.

teous

teous Abraham the diftinguished favour of feeing, through type, vifion, or fcenical repres fentation, that future day, in which its immaculate founder fealed with his blood its immortal truths; doubtless, the patriarch and the philofopher would have rejoiced together *. Inftead of making that abfurd and unphilofophical ufe of his works, which has been done by his blinder followers in almost every age, in the greater enlargement of his vigorous and comprehensive mind, he would have difcarded the definitions, the general propofitions, and the formal fyllogifms, of his useless organon, to embrace immediately the Theologic Principle founded in the wisdom, and established by the power, of God'. Inftead of difputing about the ftupendous mysteries refulting from this principle, or ever calling them in queftion, he would have placed them all upon the fame divine infcrutable level, and have exclaimed at once, "Lord, I believe; help thou "mine unbeliefm!" Had this virtuous native of Stagyra been admitted with that of Tarfus to the further honour of foreseeing all the various oppofition, which his organon, in the

John viii. 56.

I Cor. i. 24.

- Mark ix. 24

hands

hands of narrow and contracted geniuses, enflaved by terms and ftupified by forms, would make, in its use and its abuse, to the truths of Christianity themselves, or rather to their reception, (for against them the gates of hell cannot prevail,) and to the establishment of their immortal principle; had he foreseen the great injury it would do in future times to "that wisdom which is from "above"; which is firft pure," by prophane mixtures of philosophy and vain deceit °;' • and then peaceable,' by ' ministering foolish • questions,' and fomenting rancorous difputations: the philofopher would have lamented with the apostle, and have laboured with him to guard mankind against them. Could he have beheld certain fophifts and fyl. logizers of the Athenian schools, difputers of James iii. 17.

Eodem etiam fpectant eorum commentationes, qui veritatem Chriftianæ religionis ex principiis & auctoritatibus philofophorum confirmare haud veriti funt-divina humanis impari conditione permifcentes. Baconi Nov, Org. lib. i.

2 Tim. ii. 23.

Qui cum theologiam in artis formam effinxerint, hoc infuper effecerunt, ut pugnax & fpinofa Ariftotelis philofophia corpori religionis immifceretur. Ibid.