Heb. xi. 31. By faith the harlot Rahah -perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
FAITH is usually considered merely as an assent to testimony ; human faith having respect to human testimony, and divine to that which is divine. Hence the subject of faith is supposed to lie within a small compass. But there is not a more comprehensive subject within the whole circle of man's duties : for whilst faith has respect to every thing which God has spoken, it operates in every thing which man does.
The chapter before us shews how inexhaustible the subject is. Faith was the one principle by which all the saints there enumerated were influenced : and in every distinct instance its operations were widely different : so that, though in appearance the same subject is brought under discussion, it is presented to us in so different a light as to assume a new cha- racter.
In considering the fate of Rahab, we shall be led to shew,
I. To what it had respect —
The whole account of Rahab is continued in the second chapter of Joshua : and to that chapter we must refer as forming the groundwork of this dis- course It will there be found, that, though
she was an inhabitant of Canaan, and had in her earlier life been notoriously dissolute, she was now a believer in the God of Israel. What she had heard of him had fully convinced her, that he was the only true God. This she openly avowed to the spies whom she had received : " The Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath ^" But it was not in a mere general way that she ac- knowledged Jehovah: she had just and distinct views of him ; and had respect to,
1. His purposes as sure —
[She knew that God had " given to Israel the land" of Canaan for their inheritance'': and that his purpose respecting it should infallibly be accomplished. As the Creator and Governor of the universe, he had a right to dispose of every thing in it: and, having transferred the land to Israel, he would surely invest them with the possession of it. Thus will true faith present God to our view as a mighty Sovereign, who orders every thing both in heaven and earth. It will discover him to us as having shewn distinguishing favour to his peculiar people, in that, whilst he has passed by the angels who sinned, and left the greater part of mankind also in utter darkness, he has revealed to thevi a Saviour, yea, and " re- vealed him in them" also as the hope of glory '^. He has also prepared an inheritance for them from the foundation of the
a Josh. ii. 11. »> ver. 9. = Gal. i. 16.