DISCOURSE XIV.

FAITH AND HOLINESS ARE INSEPARABLE.

[AT CHESTERFORD.]

GALATIANS v. 6.

Faith worketh by love.

Words

LET not my first words alarm you. Do any of you know what an abstract word is? To speak more exactly, Had ever any one of you an abstract idea? are names of things; abstract words are names of abstract things; and abstract ideas are perceptions of the things so named. Have you any idea of whiteness, hardness, wisdom, love? You know what a white cloud, a white rose, a hard wood, a hard hand, a wise man, a loving child is; but you have no idea of any one of these things separate from the bodies, of which they are properties. Try now, whether you can conceive of whiteness or wisdom alone and apart from every thing except itself. Yet these are very convenient words, and express many real qualities; and there is no danger in the use of them, except when they are supposed to stand for something which is not to be found; and should that something be a part of religion, we should be perplexed and confused, "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth," the folly of which is "manifest unto all men."

Observe the text: "In Christ neither circumcision

availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love." Circumcision, uncircumcision, faith, love, these are names of things not to be found alone and apart; but circumcision is put for the condition of the Jews, uncircumcision for that of the Gentiles, who had not submitted to that rite of the religion of Moses: faith signifies belief of the truths of the Christian religion, and love, the instrument of faith, that friendly disposition, which a belief of the truths taught in the Christian religion produceth toward all mankind. It is as if the apostle had said, If you Jews believe the Gospel, you will love the Gentiles; if you Gentiles believe the Gospel, you will love the Jews; and if both of you believe the Gospel you will love God, and all your fellow-creatures; for in the Gospel of Christ, what you were by birth, education, and worldly distinctions avail nothing; the great point is, Do you believe the truths of the Christian religion? You need not hesitate about this; a belief of these truths never fails to produce the kind offices of love.

I speak thus, because many Christians perplex themselves in that necessary duty prescribed by our apostle, "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith." They turn their attention inward, and look for faith, and not being able to find any thing abstracted, apart and alone, that answers to their general notion of faith, they rashly conclude against themselves, that they are not Christians, and so go willingly down into a dungeon of doubts and fears, and lie there waiting for execution, as if faith wrought by despair. "Examine yourself whether you be in the faith," is equal to saying, Examine yourself whether you be in "temper;" and as in the latter case you would not inquire after calmness, or moderation, but whether you yourself were calm and moderate; so in the former case you should not search for faith as for something separate from yourself, but incorporating it with yourself, you should say, here on the table lies the Gospel, Do I believe it? or, if this be too much, say, Here in the Gospel, in the twenty-fifth chap, ter of Matthew, lies a description of the day of judg ment; do I believe this to be true?

Simple and artless as this may appear, it was, however, the principal question, the constant declaration, and the perpetual description in primitive religion. Jesus Christ said to those who came to him for healing, "Believe ye that I am able to do this? ... Dost thou believe on the Son of God? . . . If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth;" for believing him to be the Messiah was the ordinary condition of his working a miracle. After his resurrection, people were admitted to profess Christianity only on a declaration of faith. "May I be baptized?" said the eunuch. "If thou believest, thou mayest," replied Philip: "and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." The declarations concerning Christians run all throughout the New Testament in the same style; and in the same manner Christians are described, as, "Believers were added to the Lord, be thou an example of the believers, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life;" and, to say all in one word, the commission, which Christ gave his apostles to preach the Gospel, divides the world into only two parts; "He that believeth shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." This is the constant style of Scripture. You see, Christians are not described in general by their actions and affections, but by their faith. It is not said, they are the industrious, the frugal, the honest, the supporters of the poor, though all these are true; but they are named believers, because this expresses the point in which they all agree, the distinguishing excellence of their character, and that disposition from which all other good dispositions proceed. We have therefore, reason to affirm that faith and holiness are inseparable; and it is to the establishing of this truth that I shall this eveing address myself. May God crown our labour with

success!

Faith is belief, and Christian faith is "belief of the truth" of Christianity. Some Christians believe a few of the truths of Christianity, and their "faith is weak," because though they believe some truths, yet they do not believe others, which perhaps they have overlooked, or against which it may be they are prejudiced: their lan

66

guage ought to be, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." Lord I believe thou wilt judge the world, but forgive me for not believing that thou "wast lifted up," that "whosoever believeth in thee should not perish, but have eternal life," for I fear I was excepted. Others believe all the truths of Christianity, and they are strong in the faith," and they say, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; for this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son ;" and "these things are written that we may know we have eternal life." The truths of the Christian religion resemble the stones of a wellconstructed arch thrown over an impassable gulf, to serve for a bridge for travellers, and each truth supports and is supported by another truth, and all together make an assemblage of convenience, strength, and beauty. Let us not consider faith as the key-stone, that binds the two sweeps together; but let us consider it as a greater or less degree of knowledge of building an arch in the travellers who pass over it. The builder will have no fear, and travellers who understand his principles, or believe his report will have no fear; but they, who neither understand the principles of the builder, nor give him much credit for his report, may, yea, must go over with fear and trembling.

Let us come to particulars. There are some trushs which you need not believe, I mean, the belief of them is not necessary to salvation. A great scholar, and an excellent Christian in one of the Protestant churches abroad, printed a book, in which he said, Jesus Christ was born at Jerusalem. A friend asked him, whether he was not mistaken? He replied, No, certainly. However he was soon convinced, that Jesus Christ was not born at the city of Jerusalem, but at a village called Bethlehem. He must have known this; but he had forgot it; yet he never forgot Christ, but believed his Gospel, and imitated his example. Suppose a man should not know a hundred such truths concerning the year, and the day, and the place of the birth of Christ, the form of his person, the name of the mountain on

which he was crucified, the years of his ministry, the order in which the Gospels and Epistles were written, What then? Nothing. No such truths are proposed to us as grounds of our hope, and rules of our practice. By believing the Gospel, then, we do not mean a belief of all the incidents that fell in occasionally, and beside the main design; so that you may easily account for the conduct of your teachers, when they affirm that the knowledge and belief of these circumstances is not the faith spoken of by the apostle in our text. This kind of knowledge, far from "working by love," often works by levity, intemperance, superstition, and cruelty. When Jesus Christ said, "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins;" how hard would our lot have been, if he meant to say, If ye believe not that I was born at Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah, in the days of king Herod, in the reign of Augustus Cæsar, and when Cyrenius was governour of Syria, "ye shall die in your sins!” Set your hearts at ease on all these subjects, and when you examine whether you be in the faith, leave out that great mass of information, which comes under the description of incidents. If you have time and opportunity, examine every circumstance, the pleasure will amply repay the labour, for all knowledge brings pleasure; but you may know the true character of a benefactor without knowing any of the flowers that adorn his garden.

As there are truths, which you need not believe, so there are truths which you cannot believe because they are either not told, or not directed to you. It is true of some of you, that you Thomas, or you John such an one, are a good man, a believer in Christ, and will be saved; but who ever expected a Bible of this kind? If a man understands by believing the Gospel, believing something that is not in the book, and which, had it been there, would have marked it with folly, he may continue to read, and look, and search through life, he will never find, for this good reason, it is not there. Even a great number of articles, which are written, are not addressed to us. When Jesus Christ said, "I give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoev

1