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vide for himself but by begging. Of such a man we say, he lives by begging. He supports himself by asking alms. Now what is the difference between saying, he lives by begging, and saying, he v lives by charity; or between saying, he is supported by asking alms, and saying, he is supported by the alms which he receives? So with believers. They have no resources of their own, and they depend wholly on the favor of their Redeemer. They are justified and saved by his grace, and they are justified and saved by trusting in his grace.

LECTURE CII.

NATURE OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. IMPUTATION.

I HAVE repeatedly spoken of the nature of faith. But the subject deserves a more particular and distinct consideration.

What then is that faith in Christ, or in the gospel, which is the means of justification; or which secures forgiveness of sin and acceptance with God?

Here the natural presumption is, that an act or exercise which God so particularly requires of us, and which he has made the special means or condition of justification, must be a holy exercise an exercise possessing true moral excellence. Otherwise, why should he so particularly require it? And why should he put such a mark of favor upon it, as to promise salvation to those who exercise it?

Again. Justifying faith has a particular respect to Christ in his true character. It receives him and relies upon him as a holy Saviour, which plainly implies a love to holiness. Faith receives Christ as a friend and vindicator of the divine law, and so implies a love to that law. The end of faith, the good which it aims at, is a holy salvation-a deliverance not only from the penal consequences of sin, but from its polluting influence within the mind. Desire for such a salvation is a holy desire tachment to a holy object.

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Consider too the influence of faith in Christ. - the effects which it produces. It purifies the heart. It overcomes the world. It produces good works. It leads to progressive sanctification. Now

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it cannot be, that an exercise or state of mind which is productive of such excellent fruits, is itself destitute of excellence.

The Apostle John expressly declares, that he who believes is born of God; which shows, that the exercise of faith is a certain evidence of regeneration, true faith being found only in the regenerate. And James teaches that a faith which is separate from obedience is not justifying faith. True faith works by love; and love involves obedience. Love is itself obedience to the first and great command, and leads to universal obedience. "He that loveth me, keepeth my commands."

There are indeed various exercises of unconverted men which are called faith. Those who are without holiness may believe the mere facts of the gospel history, just as they believe the facts of any other history. They may have a speculative knowledge of the truths which the Scriptures reveal, and a faith corresponding with that knowledge. Men destitute of godliness may believe, that Jesus was born, and wrought miracles, and suffered and died for sinners; that he will forgive the offences of his followers, and make them happy in heaven. These and other truths of revelation are speculatively known and believed by multitudes who are strangers to holiness. But they do not discern these things spiritually. They do not see their true nature, their importance, their moral beauty and excellence. And they do not believe them otherwise than as they see and understand them. Of course, they do not believe in their true importance, excellence and glory.

In saving faith the act of the mind may be considered as complex. The mind itself is complex in regard to its faculties and operations. It is an intellectual or knowing agent, and it is a moral agent. The power of the mind to put forth acts which are of different kinds, or which stand in different relations, has given rise to the division of the mind into different faculties. The most general classification of these faculties is into the intellectual and moral. In the exercise of its intellectual faculty, the mind looks at things of a merely intellectual nature, as the principles of mathematics; or at things of a moral nature considered in a merely intellectual light. Moral and spiritual things may be ob

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jects both of intellectual discernment and of moral affection; and the mind may put forth an act which shall relate to them in both respects. The act may be one, but it may relate to the objects in different points of view, and so may be both intellectual and moral. Here the complexness of the act is to be resolved into its bearing upon the same object in different respects, in other words, upon different aspects of the object. The mind acts intellectually-it apprehends the object; and it acts morally, that is, it is pleased with the object-it loves what it perceives. And the mind may be in such a state that it loves a holy object as soon as it sees it in such a state that it cannot see without loving; and most certainly it cannot love without seeing. In the language of logicians, the perception must precede the affection, not in the order of time, but in the order of nature. To love that of which I have no apprehension would be to love that which to me has no existence. It would be to love nothing. The apprehension of the object is the ground, that is, the subjective ground of the love; while the objective ground is the contemplated loveliness of the object. But because the apprehension of the object is presupposed in the affection, we cannot infer that it is a distinct and separate act, preceding the other in point of time. There may be no time passing after I apprehend the object, before I love it. So far as my consciousness goes, apprehending and loving may be one actone putting forth of mental power. And I may properly denote that act by saying, that I see the object to be excellent and lovely, or by saying, I love it. It is clear, that no one can have a true spiritual discernment of the moral beauty and loveliness of Christ without a heart to love him. And love certainly implies a perception of loveliness.

But there is a kind of knowledge or discernment, often mentioned in Scripture, which does not imply real love or holiness, and has no connection with it. Judas and many others, who knew the person, the miracles, and the instructions of Christ, were not his friends. They were blind to the moral beauty of his character and his gospel. Spiritual things they knew not, and could not know, while in their natural state. The same occurs at the pres

ent day. Many persons speculatively know and believe the facts of the gospel history, the truth of its doctrines and the reasonableness of its precepts, who have no spiritual discernment and no saving faith. They have knowledge and faith; but they do not apprehend and believe the gospel spiritually. The devils believe and know that there is a God; but they see not his moral beauty and glory. In like manner unregenerate men may have a very correct understanding of the gospel, considered in a speculative point of view. But they do not see its importance, its beauty and excellence. In their view Christ has no form or comeliness; and when they see him, there is no beauty that they should desire him. He is truly possessed of infinite beauty and glory. But this is what the unholy do not discern, and of course do not love. Their knowledge is merely speculative, and implies no love. But it is not so with those who are sanctified. Their knowledge of God and of Christ involves in its very nature affection to its objects.

I have made these remarks with a direct view to the subject before us. I cannot but regard it as highly important to consider justifying, saving faith as a spiritual, holy exercise, an exercise which involves love in its very nature; so that, as "he that knoweth God loveth God," it may with equal truth be said, he that believeth, loveth. Justifying faith is both intellectual and moral a combined act of the understanding and the heart.

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I well know that some writers have taken a very different position, and have labored to prove that justifying faith is merely an intellectual act, an exercise of the understanding distinct and separate from all moral affection, of course destitute of holiness. The particular reason which seems to have operated in their minds in favor of this position, is, that it makes justification altogether a matter of grace. In their reasoning it is assumed, that if faith were a holy act, the believer must be justified on account of the holiness of faith, and so after all, that justification would be a matter of personal merit, and not of free grace, and that no distinction would remain between justification by faith, and justification by works of obedience, inasmuch as the holiness of faith is obedience.

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