hath given concerning him."-It comprehends the belief 1. Of the divine dignity of his person, as equal with the Father. In the record of his life by this same writer, he says "I and my Father are one;"* and that in a passage where he speaks of himself as fulfilling the same purpose, in the exercise of the same sovereignty, the same love, and the same power, with the Father that sent him. In another place, he speaks of God as his Father in a way so peculiar, that the Jews conceived him to make himself equal with God; and he never contradicted them, or did away the impression. And the Evangelist himself, speaking by inspiration, says of him "In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.-And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth"-language corresponding with that in the beginning of this epistle, where Jesus is introduced as "the Eternal Life whch was with the Father and was manifested unto us."-I confine myself to the testimony of this writer, and to but a small portion even of that. 2. The belief of the reality and design of his incarnation." Hereby know we the Spirit of truth. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God: and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; * John x. 30. ↑ See John v. 17, 18. John i. 1-3, 14. and even now already is it in the world."* "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."+ "And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Believing on the name of the Son of God, then, is believing him to be the Christ, the anointed Saviour of the world, himself divine, and divinely appointed, assuming our nature, and " putting away sin be the sacrifice of himself." 3. The belief of the completeness of his work, and the divine satisfaction in it. The "record," as given summarily in the eleventh verse, implies this: God's "giving eternal life" and this life being "in his Son," clearly presupposes his being satisfied with what his Son, as Mediator, hath done. "I have glorified thee on the earth," says Jesus, in his intercessory prayer," I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." And still nearer the termination of his course of deep and mysterious suffering, even when he bowed his head to give up the ghost, he said "It is finished." To these declarations the Father "set to his seal" when he raised him from the dead; on which account it is, that his resurrection forms so leading an article in the statements of the gospel, and by consequence, objectively, in what the apostle calls "the belief of the truth:"-" The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach,-that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy * 1 John iv. 2, 3. Chap. xvii. 4. Chap. iv. 9, 10. Chap. ii. 2. heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved:"*" Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him," (i. e. that his faith, namely Abraham's, was imputed to him for righteousness,)" but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification :"+" If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins."— The reason is, that Christ is represented as having "died for our sins:" but if he was not risen, his death had been no atonement, and the guilt of their sins remained unexpiated. 4. The belief of the perfect gratuitiousness of salvation, as bestowed in his name and on his account alone. The "record" or testimony, as explained on the preceding proposition, evidently contains this: “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Grace is essential to the gospel. It enters into its very essence. It is not believed at all, unless it be believed as a scheme of grace. It cannot exist without its grace, any more than the sun can exist without his light, or God himself without the essential properties of his nature. Take away gratuitous favour as the source of all blessing to sinners, and you take away the gospel. You leave nothing that can entitle it to the designation of" glad tidings of great joy." Such, then, is the testimony. I do not consider myself as having at present to do with those lax *Rom. x. 8, 9. † Rom. iv. 23-25. Verse 3 of the same chapter. 1 Cor. xv. 17. Rom. vi. 23. theologians, of the Socinian and other kindred schools, who, in order to stretch the line of comprehension to a convenient length, are wont to insist, that nothing more was required to constitute a Christian of old, and that nothing more ought to be required now, than the belief that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ,—the promised Messiah,-the Saviour of the world-leaving an almost interminable latitude of charity, in regard to the meaning of the terms, and consequently of the propositions expressed by them. No matter, according to this latitudinarian system, whether he was God equal with the Father, or a mere man; no matter what was the nature of the work which, as the Christ, he was commissioned to execute,-whether to teach and exemplify virtue, or to make atonement for sin ;-no matter whether his salvation be by works or by grace; no matter whether there be a Holy Ghost, or whether his influences be necessary for the illumination and conversion of sinners :-no matter what your belief may be on such articles as these; if you are only ready to confess that Jesus is the Christ. This is infantile. It is to make faith the belief of names, not of things, of titles, not of truths, of what Jesus should be called, not of what he is, or of what he hath done; the belief, in fact, of little that is worth believing, or that can have any salutary influence, when believed. I admit the belief to be sufficient, that " Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God:"-but I insist upon it, that in order to the belief of this being the belief of scripture doctrine, the terms and propositions must be understood in their scriptural sense. Otherwise, surely, the faith must be vain. It becomes the faith of no more than that certain words are in the Bible; not the faith of what these words were meant, by the God who dictated them, to convey. It is with faith in, or (which is the same thing) the belief of the testimony, that eternal life is connected. I should deem it unnecessary to enter into further proof that these two phrases are equivalent in meaning, were it not for the unhappily mystical conceptions of faith which are so extensively prevalent. The word is in the lips of many, whose minds appear to have no definite or intelligible notion attached to it. They speak at times as if it were something more than belief, though they cannot tell exactly what ;-or even as if it were something different from it,—according to some antecedent, and according to others, consequent.-Were I to announce the proposition that we are justified by believing, there would in many minds be no feeling produced, but one of satisfied acquiescence in the statement; whereas, were I to put the proposition in the form-we are justified by belief,-I am greatly mistaken if some at least of the same minds would not be startled, as if something had met their ear which sounded rather new:-"Eh! what said you?-by belief! I am not used to that word: wouldn't it be better to say by faith?"To such a degree are we the creatures of words. The very circumstance of any one being thus startled, of his jealousy for orthodoxy being thus awakened, by such a departure from the mere sounds to which his ear has been habituated, is sufficient to show that he has not been thinking discriminately, that he has not been analyzing his mental conceptions,-that his mind has been, too indolently, and to a degree of which he has not been aware, reposing on words rather than on things. If any two words can convey the same meaning, surely belief and believing do. Why, then, should the use of the former startle, and not that of the latter? Merely because the ear has become accustomed to the participle, but not to the noun. different noun has been substituted for it,—namely, A |