Remarks on this Definition.
With regard to the definition of faith which makes it a convic- tion founded on feeling, it may be remarked, —
First, That there are forms of faith of which this is not true. As remarked above, when treating of the cognate definition of faith as a voluntary assent of the mind, it is not true of faith in general. We often believe unwillingly, and what is utterly repugnant to our feelings.
Secondly, It is not true even of religious faith, or faith which has religious truth for its object. For there may be faith with- out love, i. e., a speculative, or dead faith.
Thirdly, It is not true of many of the exercises of faith in good men. Isaac believed that Jacob would be preferred to Esau, sorely against his will. Jacob believed that his descendants would be slaves in Egypt. The prophets believed in the seventy years captivity of their countrymen. The Apostles believed that a great apostasy in the Church was to occur between their age and the second coming of the Lord. The answer of Thomas Aquinas to this, is, that a man is constrained by his will (i. e., his feelings) to believe in the Scriptures, and then he believes all the Scriptures contain. So that his faith, even in the class of truths just referred to, rests ultimately on feeling. But this an- swer is unsatisfactory. For if the question is asked, Why did the prophets believe in the captivity, and the Apostles in the apos- tasy ? the answer would be, not from the effect of these truths upon their feelings, but on the authority of God. And if it be further asked, Why did they believe the testimony of God ? the answer may be because God's testimony carries conviction. He can make his voice heard even by the deaf or the dead. Or, the answer may be, because they were good men. But in either case, the question carries us beyond the ground of their faith. They believe because God had revealed the facts referred to. Their goodness may have rendered them susceptible to the evidence afforded, but it did not constitute that evidence.
Fourthly, It is admitted that the exercise of saving faith, t. e., of that faith which is the fruit of the Spirit and product of re- generation, is attended by feeling appropriate to its object. But this is to be referred to the nature of the object. If we believe a good report, the effect is joy ; if an evil report, the effect is sor- row. The perception of beauty produces delight ; of moral ex- cellence, a glow of approbation ; of spiritual things, in many cases,, a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
60 PART HI. Ch. XVI. — faith.
Fifthly, It is also true that all these truths, if not all truth, have a self -evidencing light, which cannot be apprehended with- out a conviction that it really is what it is apprehended as being. It may also be admitted, that so far as the consciousness of true believers is concerned, the evidence of truth is the truth itself ; in other words, that the ground of their faith is, in one sense, subjective. They see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and therefore believe that He is God manifested in the flesh. They see that the representations made by the Scriptures of the sinfulness, guilt, and helplessness of fallen man, correspond with their own inward experience, and they are therefore con- strained to receive these representations as true. They see that the plan of salvation proposed in the Bible suits their necessities, their moral judgments and religious aspirations, they therefore embrace it. All this is true, but it does not prove faith to be a conviction founded on feeling ; for there are many forms of faith which confessedly are not founded on feeling ; and even in the case of true believers, their feelings are not the ultimate ground of faith. They always fall back on the authority of God, who is regarded as the author of these feelings, through which the testimony of the Spirit is revealed to the consciousness. " We may be moved and induced," says the " Westminster Confes- sion,"1 " by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverend esteem of the Holy Scripture ; and the heavenliness of the mat- ter, the eflicacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the con- sent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellences, and the en* tire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God; yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts." The ulti- mate ground of faith, therefore, is the witness of the Spirit.
Faith a Conviction of the Truth founded on Testimony, The only other definition of faith to be considered, is that which makes it, a conviction of truth founded on testimony. We have already seen that Augustine says, "We know what rests upon reason ; we believe what rests upon authority." A defini- tion to which Sir Willi** Hamilton gives his adhesion.' In the
1ChapteH§5- Seepage 46.