120 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



fo God must believe that he is, and that he is the 

 rewarder of them that diligently seek him.&quot; 

 Faith, as the term is used in scripture, denotes 

 confidence in the moral character of God, found 

 ed on the belief we attach to the declarations of 

 his word. It is defined, by the Apostle Paul, in 

 the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the He 

 brews, to be &quot; the confident expectation of things 

 hoped for,&quot; and &quot; the conviction of things which 

 are not seen.&quot;* Faith substantiates and realizes 

 those objects which are invisible to ihe eye of 

 sense, and which lie beyond the reach of our 

 present comprehension. It recognises the exis 

 tence and the omnipresence of an invisible Being, 

 by whose agency the visible operations of nature 

 are conducted ; and views him as possessed of 

 infinite wisdom, power, benevolence, faithfulness, 

 rectitude, and eternal duration. It realixes the 

 scenes of an invisible and eternal world the 

 destruction of the present fabric of our globe, the 

 resurrection of the dead, the solemnities of the 

 last judgment, the new heavens, and the new 

 earth, the innumerable company of angels, and 

 the grandeur and felicity of the heavenly world. 

 These invisible realities it recognises, on the 

 testimony of God exhibited in his word ; and 

 without a recognition of such objects, religion 

 can have no existence in the mind. In a parti 

 cular manner, faith recognises the declarations 

 of God in relation to the character and the con 

 dition of men as violators of his law, and as ex 

 posed to misery ; and the exhibition which is 

 made of the way of reconciliation, through the 

 mediation of Jesus Christ, who is &quot; set forth as 

 a propitiation to declare the righteousness of God 

 in the remission of sins.&quot; The man in whose 

 heart the principle of faith operates, convinced 

 that he is guilty before God, and exposed to mi 

 sery on account of sin, confides in the declarations 

 of God respecting &quot; the remission of sins through 

 the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ;&quot; he 

 confides in the goodness, mercy, faithfulness, and 

 power of God, which secure the accomplishment 

 of his promises, and the supply of all requisite 

 strength and consolation to support him amidst 

 the dangers and afflictions of life ; he confides in 

 the wisdom and excellence of those precepts 

 which are prescribed as the rule of his conduct, 

 and which are fitted to guide him to the regions 

 of happiness ; and in the exercise of this confi 

 dence, he &quot; adds to his faith, fortitude and reso 

 lution, knowledge, temperance, patience, godli 

 ness, brotherly kindness, and charity ;&quot; and pro 

 secutes with courage this course of obedience, 

 till at length &quot; an entrance is abundantly admin 

 istered to him into the everlasting kingdom of our 

 Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.&quot; But, without 

 a recognition of such objects, and an unshaken 

 confidence in the declarations of God respecting 

 them, it is obvious, from the nature of things, 



Doddridge straMlation of Heb. xi. l. 



that we &quot; cannot please God,&quot; nor yield to him 

 an acceptable and &quot; reasonable service.&quot; 



In like manner it might be shown, that repent&quot; 

 ance is essentially requisite in order to acceptable 

 obedience. Sin is directly opposed to the cha 

 racter of God, and is the great nuisance of the 

 moral universe. While the love of it predomi 

 nates in any mind, it leads to every species ol 

 moral turpitude and depravity ; and, conse 

 quently, completely unfits such a mind for yield 

 ing a cheerful obedience to the divine law. But 

 repentance, which consists in hatred of sin, and 

 sorrow for having committed it, naturally fits 

 and prepares the mind for the practice of univer 

 sal holiness. It tends to withdraw the soul from 

 the practice of sin, and warns it of the danger 01 

 turning again to folly. It is the commencement 

 of every course of virtuous conduct, and the ave 

 nue which ultimately leads to solid peace and 

 tranquillity of mind. It is intimately connected 

 with humility and self-denial, and is directly op 

 posed to pride, vanity, and self-gratulation. It 

 must, therefore, be indispensably requisite to 

 prepare us for conformity to the moral character 

 of God, for universal obedience to his law, and 

 for the enjoyment of substantial and never-ending 

 felicity. Hence the importance which is at 

 tached to the exercise of repentance by our Sa 

 viour and his Apostles. In connexion with 

 faith, it is uniformly represented as the first duty 

 of a sinner, and the commencement of the Chris 

 tian life. Repentance was the great duty to 

 which the forerunner of the Messiah called the 

 multitudes who flocked to his baptism, and on 

 which the Messiah himself expatiated during the 

 period of his public ministry. &quot; Repent ye, for 

 the kingdom of heaven is at hand.&quot; &quot;Except 

 ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.&quot; And 

 the apostles, in their instructions to every nation 

 and to every class of men, laid down the follow 

 ing positions as the foundation of every moral 

 duty. &quot; Repentance towards God, and faith to 

 wards our Lord Jesus Christ.&quot; 



IX. From the preceding illustrations we may 

 learn, that no merit, in the sense in which that 

 term is sometimes used, can be attached to hu 

 man actions in the sight of God ; and that the 

 salvation, or ultimate happiness of sinners, is the 

 effect of the grace or benevolence of God. 

 That the good works of men are meritorious in 

 the sight of God, is a notion, as unphilosophicai 

 and absurd, as it is impious and unscriptural. 

 They are requisite, and indispensably requisite, 

 as qualifications, or preparations for the enjoy 

 ment of felicity, without which the attainment of 

 true happiness either here or hereafter, is an ab 

 solute impossibility ; but the actions of no created 

 being, not even the sublimest services and adora 

 tions of the angelic hosts, can have the least merit 

 in the eyes of the Creator. &quot; Thy wickedness 

 may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteous 

 ness mav profit the son of man &quot; but &quot; if thou 



