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that way avenge his violated law ; but simply on the testimony of God. Thus when God promised to Abraham the possession of the land of Canaan, that he, a childless old man, should become the father of many nations, that through his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, his faith could have no other founda- tion than the authority of God. So of every illustration of faith given by the Apostle in the eleventh chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews. The same is true of the* whole Bible. We have no foundation for our faith in a spiritual world, in the heaven and hell described in Scripture, in the doctrines of redemption, in the security and ultimate triumph of the Church other than the testi- mony of God. If faith does not rest on testimony it has nothing on which to rest. Paul tells us that the whole Gospel rests on the fact of Christ's resurrection from the dead. If Christ be not risen our faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins. But our assur- ance that Christ rose on the third day rests solely upon the testi- mony which God in various ways has given to that fact.
This is a point of great practical importance. If faith, or our persuasion of the truths of the Bible, rests on philosophical grounds, then the door is opened for rationalism ; if it rests on feeling, then it is open to mysticism. The only sure, and the only satisfying foundation is the testimony of God, who cannot err, and who will not deceive.
Faith may, therefore, be denned to be the persuasion of the truth founded on testimony. The faith of the Christian is the persuasion of the truth of the facts and doctrines recorded in the Scriptures on the testimony of God.
§ 3. Different Kinds of Faith.
Though the definition above given be accepted, it is to be ad- mitted that there are different kinds of faith. In other words, the state of mind which the word designates is very different in one case from what it is in others. This difference arises partly from the nature of its objects, and partly from the nature or form of the testimony on which it is founded. Faith in a historical fact or speculative truth is one thing; faith in aesthetic truth another thing ; faith in moral truth another thing ; faith in spir- itual truth, and especially faith in the promise of salvation made to ourselves another thing. That is, the state of mind denomi- nated faith is very different in any one of these cases from what it is in the others. Again, the testimony which God bears to the truth is of different kinds. In one form it is directed especially
68 PART m. Ch. XVI. — FAITH.
to the understanding ; in another to the conscience ; in another to our regenerated nature. This is the cause of the difference between speculative, temporary, and saving faith.
Speculative or Bead Faith. There are many men who believe the Bible to be the Word of God ; who receive all that it teaches ; and who are perfectly or- thodox in their doctrinal belief. If asked why they believe, they may be at a loss for an answer. Reflection might enable them to say they believe because others believe. They receive then- faith by inheritance. They were taught from their earliest years thus to believe. The Church to which they belong inculcates this faith, and it is enjoined upon them as true and necessary. Others of greater culture may say that the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, both external and internal, satisfies their minds, and produces a rational conviction that the Scriptures are a revelation from God, and they receive its contents on his au- thority. Such a faith as this, experience teaches, is perfectly compatible with a worldly or wicked life. This is what the Bible calls a dead faith.
Temporary Faith. Again, nothing is more common than for the Gospel to produce a temporary impression, more or less deep and lasting. Those thus impressed believe. But, having no root in themselves, sooner or later they fall away. It is also a common experience that men utterly indifferent or even skeptical, in times of danger, or on the near approach of death, are deeply convinced of the certainty of those religious truths previously known, but hitherto disregarded or rejected. This temporary faith is due to common grace; that is, to those influences of the Spirit common in a measure greater or less to aU men, whfch operate on the soul without renewing it, and which reveal the truth to the conscience and cause it to produce conviction.
Saving Faith.
as E^T^T"88 etemal Ufe' Which ™ites ™ *o Christ as Imng meters of his body ; which makes us the sons of God •
StS^L f111.? g°°d WOrks'* funded, not on the
TSZl T^TdTe °f the truth' but on *» testimony the Spirit with and by the truth to the renewed soul. 7