ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, I thy unworthy servant do give thee most humble and hearty thanks, for all thy goodness and loving kindness to me and to all men. I bless thee for my creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; and for all the servants departed this life in thy faith and fear; beseeching thee to give me grace so to follow their good example, that with them I may be partaker of thy kingdom; but above all, I bless thee for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And I beseech thee, give me that due sense of all thy mercies, that my heart may be unfeignedly thankful, and that I may shew forth thy praise, not only with my lips, but in my life, by giving up myself to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all my days, through Jesus Christ our Lord :-to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen. AN ESSAY ON FAITH, SHEWING Its Nature, Origin, Operation, and Connexion with GOOD WORKS. EXTRACTED FROM AN ESSAY ON FAITH, T Of the Nature of Faith. O understand this great question, what is FAITH? let us reject all human opinions and search the sacred records of truth for information, where we shall learn it from our Saviour himself. To any one who is contented to understand the Gospels in their plain and natural meaning, this enquiry cannot be long nor difficult. The Apostles were appointed to convert the world to the Christian Faith, and to convey to all mankind the glad tidings of Redemption. When therefore they received their commission, our Saviour's words to them were these, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." Were we possessed only of this plain account of Faith one would suppose no honest and well meaning Christian could be at a loss to understand it's na ture, a ture. It would then no longer be reckoned thing which can neither be explained nor comprehended, nor would there be any room for those confused and mystic descriptions of it, which are calculated rather to perplex than to inform. The Apostles are here directed to preach the Gospel, and to him that believeth the Gospel, and submits to the laws of this new Institution, Salvation is promised. Here all is clear and perfectly intelligible. The single act of the mind concerned in Faith, as it is here described by our Saviour himself, is that of believing; and the object of Faith is that history of redemption delivered by the first inspired preachers of the Gospel, and now recorded in their writings, So plain and simple is the account of Faith given us by the great Author and Finisher of it: and we cannot suppose that at a time when he delivered his last instructions to those who were to preach his Gospel, he would give them a defective account of that act by which converts were to be qualified for admission into his religion. This then is to be considered as the fundamental rule of Faith, to which all subsequent accounts of it are to be referred. And if we meet with difficulties in any part of the Scripture where this subject is treated of, to this test must we bring them, and by this great original must they be cleared up. Accordingly we shall find this rule of Faith strictly adhered to, and strongly confirmed in their practice, Every new convert will be a fresh proof that our conception of Faith is just, and that we K 2. have have represented the instructions of our Lord in the same sense in which his Apostles understood them. The first fruits of their mission, those three thousand Souls who, as an earnest of a plentiful harvest, came in at the first wonderful effusion of the Holy Ghost, are described as "they that gladly received the word;" and soon after, as "they that believed." The next history of an eminent conversion which we meet with, is that which followed upon Peter's healing the lame man, who was laid at the gate of the temple: the miracle having drawn a vast concourse of people together, Peter took the opportunity of exhorting them to embrace the Christian Faith. In the midst of his discourse he was seized by the magistrates, alarmed at his success; "howbeit, many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was. about five thousand." Soon after, the whole body of the faithful who had met together to thank God for the success with which he had blessed their ministry, are thus described, "And the multitude of them that believed, were of one heart and of one Soul! The progress of the work of conversion is thus described, "and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both men and women." When Philip first "preached Christ in Samaria," and delivered the unhappy people from the powerful delusions of the enchanter Simon, we are told, that "they believed Philip, preaching the the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ," and that "they were baptised." Many other passages in Scripture might be quoted to shew the nature of that Faith which our blessed Lord hath given us, but these, we trust, will convey a full idea of it to the pious and well disposed mind. The act of the mind then concerned in Faith is simple, but the object is complex and extensive.— The object of Faith includes a great variety of matter, through which there runs one grand division that we must carefully attend to. It contains a history and a revelation; an history of the whole progress of redemption from the first unfolding of the design soon after the fall, till its completion in the death and resurrection of our Lord; and a revelation of whatever belongs to a future state. When Faith looks back on all that our blessed Saviour hath done and suffered for us, it is closely connected with gratitude and love; when it looks forward to all those scenes of bliss that are in reserve for us, it is then more immediately united with trust and hope. Faith appeared very early in the world, for Abel possessed this virtue, and by Faith, "offered unto God a more excellent sacrafice than Cain." But the object of Faith was at that time very different from that which is now presented to us. Creation was then almost the only great act of mercy that Faith could look back upon: for "through Faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." The histo K3 rica' |