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Here the servant entered with an invitation to supper. By mutual consent the discussion ceased: but it was proposed that each one, at some more convenient season, should resume the vindication of his peculiar doctrines.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE CHRISTIAN GRACES.*

CALVIN,

"Now we shall have a perfect definition of faith, if we say, that it is a steadfast and assured knowledge of God's kindness towards us, which being grounded upon the truth of the free promise in Christ, is both revealed to our minds, and sealed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost."

Institution, B. 3. ch. 2. sec. 3.

"The object of faith is not barely God, as the schoolmen coldly affirm, but God display. ing himself in Christ."

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"Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.”

Larger Cat. Q. 72.

This faith is the gift of God. Larger Cat. Q. 71. Con. C. Scot. Con. P. C. U. S. and Say. Plat.ch 11. sec. 1.

B. 3. ch. 2. sec. 1. "Faith beholdeth Christ in no other glass than the gospel." "There is a general relation of faith to the word, and faith can no more be separated from the word, than the sun-beams from the sun from which they proceed. Therefore in Isaiah (iv. 3.) God crieth out: hear is, by the working of the Holy

Faith is given only to the elect. The manner of giving

The primary Christian Graces, according to all theological writers, are FAITH, REPENTANCE, HOPE, and LOVE. To this order, however all do not assent, Some invert it, either wholly or in part; and others virtually reduce them all to one. These Christian graces are all comprehended under the general phrase, "evangelical obedience;" because the gospel re. quires them; and the person who believes, repents, has good hope through grace, and loves God and his neighbour, obeys the gospel,

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE CHRISTIAN GRACES.

HOPKINS,

"In order to believe on Christ, men must be born again."

AND

Dr. Hopkins' statement of his own creed, in the Memoirs of his life, published by Dr. West, p. 205.*

"I. Saving faith is represented in many passages of scripture as consisting in a belief and assurance of the truth and reality of those things which are revealed and asserted by God in the divine oracles. Or a conviction and an assured knowledge, that the gospel is true; that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world; and they who have this belief, assurance or knowledge, are considered and declared to be in a state of salvation." Syst. Vol. 2. p. 2.

OTHERS.

"Disinterested affection is the tree, which supports repentance and faith and all the other branches of Christianity." Mass. Miss. Magazine, Vol. 3.p. 341.

One of the first and most important duties included in this disinterested love, is unconditional submission to God, without any view to his mercy.

Emmons, p. 29. Hopkins' Syst. Part 2. ch. 4. and Hopkins' Sermons, p. 307 and 311.

* Dr. Hopkins has clearly taught that men must first be born again, and then believe, while Calvin taught, that the communication of the saving grace of faith, was itself the beginning of spiritual life. In the 4th chapter, of the 2nd Part of the System, we find five general observations concerning faith, and then a definition, which is afterwards supported by three general heads, some miscellaneous remarks, and an "improvement." That the reader may form some idea of the doctrine concerning faith, he is presented with most of the observations, which are connected, (by arithmetical concatenation) in their systematical order.

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me, and your soul shall live.' And that the same is the fountain of faith, John sheweth in these words: (John x. 13.) 'these things are written that ye may believe' And the prophet meaning to exhort the people to believe, saith, (Ps. xcv. 8.) this day if ye shall hear his voice.' &c. And to hear is commonly taken for to believe." "Therefore take away the word and then there shall remain no faith. We do not here dispute whether the ministry of man be necessary to sow the word of God that faith conceived thereby, which question we will elsewhere treat of; but we say that the word

*

may

be

OTHERS.

Spirit, and the manner of work. ing is ordinarily, through the ministry of the word, persuading and enabling the sinner to embrace the offered Saviour.

Con. C. Scot. Say Plat. Con. P. C. U. S. ch. 14. sec. 1 Lar ger Cat. Q. 67. and Shorter Cat. Q. 31.

Saving faith is of such a nature, that it is capable of increase and diminution, of being strengthened and weakened, and of growing up to a full as

surance.

Say. Plat. Con. C. Scot. and Con. P. C. U. S. ch. 14. Sec. 1, and 3. and Larger Cat. Q. 80.

"It was the office of the second Elias, (as Malachi witnesseth, iv. 6.) to enlighten the minds and to turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and unbelievers to the wisdom of the righteous. Christ pronounceth that he sendeth apostles, that they should bring forth fruit of their labour. John xv. 16. But what that fruit is Peter shortly defineth, saying that we are regenerated with incorruptible seed 1 Pet. i. 23. And therefore Paul glorieth that he by the gospel begat the Corinthians, and that they were the seal of his apostleship. 1 Cor. iv. 15. Yea, that he was not a literal minister. 1 Cor. ix. 2. such as did only beat the ears with the sound of voice, but that there was given him an effectualness of spirit, that his doctrine should not be unprofitable. 2 Cor. iii. 6. In which meaning also in another place he saith, that his gospel was not in word only, but in power. 1 Cor. ii. 4. He affirmeth also that the Galatians, by hearing received the spirit of faith Gal. iii. 2. Finally, in many places he maketh himself not only a worker together with God, but also assigneth himself the office of giving salvation. 1 Cor. iii. 9. Truly he never brought forth all these things to this intent, to give unto himself any thing, were it never so little, separately from God; as in another place he briefly declareth, saying, our labour was not unprofitable in the Lord, according to his power, mightily working in me.

HOPKINS,

II. Saving faith, in a number of places, is represented as consisting in the exercise of the heart, and choice of the will; this being essential to it, and inluding the whole."

Of this description are the passages, which speak of receiving Christ, coming to him, eating his flesh and drinking his blood, calling upon his name, looking unto him, trusting in him and seeking him. "There. fore a saving belief of the truth of the gospel, supposes and implies right exercises of heart, in tasting and relishing moral beauty, and embracing it as good and excellent."

AND

The gospel is an exhibition of "the sum of all the moral beauty and excellence that is to be seen by created intelligences, in the whole universe." He who has a true discerning of this beauty, and has a renewed heart which loves Christ, the central sun of all this moral

OTHERS.

According to the 11th Sermon of Dr. Emmons, love is the essence of obedience, which is first created in the heart, and comprehends in its own nature all the christian graces. "If we turn our attention inwardly and examine the operations of our own minds, we shall be convinced that love is something very different from either perception, reason, or conscience. These are natural faculties, which do their office independently of the will.* It depends upon our perception, not upon our will, whether an object shall appear either white or black. It depends upon our reason, not upon our will, whether a proposition shall appear either good or evil. But it depends entirely upon our choice, whether we shall love either a white or a black object, either a true or false proposition, either a good or an evil action. Hence we intuitively

1 Thess. iii. 5." Inst. B. 4. ch. 1. sec. 6. "In the mean time, the Father of lights cannot be forbidden, but as he enlighteneth the bodily eyes with the beams of the sun, so he may enlighten our minds with sacraments, as with a brightness set mean between. Which property the Lord taught was in his outward word, when in the parable he calleth it seed. Mat. xiii. 4. "As we say that from seed corn both springeth, increaseth and groweth up to ripeness; why may we not say that faith taketh from the word of God both beginning, increase, and perfection?"

Institution, B. 4. ch. 14. sec. 10, 11

* See Note C. at the end of this chapter.

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