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want, how shall our beneficence keep pace with the demands of charity, unless we learn to retrench for the sake of beneficence? It is not my object, in this discourse, to produce in you, at this time, any extraordinary degree of munificence, but to recommend to you a virtue, which if you can be persuaded to practise, I shall feel secure of your future bounty. I shall fear no diminution in your charities, and the poor, for whom I am called to plead this evening, will bless me much more, than if I could now empty your purses in one profuse contribution. They value the man, who, in all his expenditures, has a regard to their perpetual claims; they prize that constant and well-principled bounty, which is nourished by frugality, much more than they esteem the occasional charity of the spendthrift, who is moved by some accidental feelings of compassion, but who forgets them as soon as his purse is emptied, and, at the next call of charity, has nothing to give.

To conclude, I have said, be frugal, that you may be charitable. Let me add, that charity is the truest frugality. As God lives, no man ever has lost, or can lose, by well-directed bounty. There is no waste in charity. Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it again. He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Abound, therefore, in the work of the Lord, inasmuch as ye know labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.

your

SERMON VIII.

NOW FAITH IS THE

HEB. xi. 1.

SUBSTANCE OF

THINGS HOPED FOR,

THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN.

AMONG the terms of theology, which have given rise to much useless controversy, and many differences of explanation, the word faith is not the least considerable. As, in different passages, it is used in different connexions, according to the object of the writer, and the subject of his reasoning, it is not surprising, that it should not always admit of an uniform interpretation, and that no particular definition of it should be found completely to explain its meaning in every passage in which it is used in the New Testament. The sense, however, in which it is employed in the celebrated chapter from which our text is taken, is one of the most extensive, and perhaps the most natural and intelligible of any; and this meaning of the word we propose, in the following discourses, to illustrate.

Faith, says the apostle, is the substance of things hoped for, and an evidence, or rather a conviction, of things not seen. Faith, therefore, is a principle, which naturally results from the constitution of the human mind; and the general import of the word is well understood, though it may not be well defined, by the most ordinary understanding, because it is of necessity exercised by all. It is not opposed to reason, which is its only just foundation, nor, except in a peculiar, theological sense, to works; but, properly, philo. sophically, and universally, it is opposed to knowledge. This principle is precisely the same, when exercised on other truths, as on those of religion. There is no peculiar strangeness in the faith of a christian, no especial mysteriousness in the nature of religious faith in general. The same constitution of the human mind, which enables us to believe, upon sufficient testimony, that there was such a person as Alexander, will not allow us to doubt, that there was such a teacher as Jesus. It is the same principle, which leads us to believe in the conquests of the one and the miracles of the other. With respect, also, to future events, the act of faith is of a similar nature, whether the event belong to this world, or to another. The same principle, which would lead us to look confidently for an eclipse, predicted by a man of science, will not suffer us to doubt the authorized messenger of God, who declares, that the day is coming, when all they that are in their graves shall hear the

voice of the son of man, and shall come forth. Religious faith is especially employed about every thing which relates to the will, the providence, and the character of God; and the faith of a christian is distinguished, from all other kinds of religious faith, only by its superiour extent, purity and influence. It embraces doctrines, of which, if true, it is infinitely dangerous for us to be ignorant; and it is supported on evidence, which gives it a stability, and inspires it with an interest, which cannot properly belong to any other description of belief.

In the following discourses we propose to enumerate some of the OBJECTS, to explain the REASONABLENESS, and to urge the IMPORTANCE of faith. These are the three divisions of our subject.

We might, with the greatest ease, and perhaps with some profit, fill this discourse with remarks upon the numerous and different instances of faith, which the apostle has collected in this chapter. You would discover, from a particular examination of each instance here recorded, that the leading idea in this much disputed word, is reliance upon the authority, or confidence in the testimony of another. You would find, that the objects, which faith embraces, are more or less numerous, according to the previous cultivation and present circumstances of the believer, and according to the plans of Providence with respect to him. The faith of Abel, or of Noah was not less real or valuable, than is that of the greatest saint, who lives under the dispensation of the

gospel, though the faith of the christian embraces a much greater variety of objects, and is suited to a much more enlarged comprehension. In general, with respect to God, it embraces whatever he has been pleased to communicate of himself in the age in which the believer happens to live.

If I should attempt to enumerate to you some of the more important truths, which you now receive by the aid of this all-operating principle, I should first carry your imaginations back to that memorable point of time, when God said, Let there be light, and there was light; and I would ask you, upon what do you rest the assurance you feel, that this charming scene of nature is the product of the hand of God? Wert thou present, when the foundations of the earth were fastened? Wert thou in the joyous circle, when the morning stars sang together, and all the new-born sons of God shouted for joy? Knowest thou this, because thou wast then born, or because the number of thy days is great? No, my friends. By faith, says the apostle, we understand, that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that the things which are 'seen were not made of any thing which now appears. Though the surest deductions of reason confirm the opinion, that this universe is the product of a great and intelligent author, yet it was not reasoning which discovered this truth. It was to the Jewish nationit is still to those, who are not able to comprehend the demonstration, by which it is sometimes supported-and, universally, I may add, to the early capaci

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