Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1860-03-24

Abel SILVER.
.pencnt va and believe the gospel" "rhen said Jesus
those jews which heeyen on nl u w. m i, n
tIo truth and the truth shall make yonfree-MARR 10
aud JoHS vill. 81, w.
Ourtext comprise three thngs,--repentance,
faith. and obedience. Repentance has relation
IN liz will; faith to the understanding and
obedience to the action of man. These three
things in their united energy, are essential to
mans regeneration.
Now. there are two kinds of faith,-a faith
TINT is bLind and q faith that sees II faith that
il degd and Il faith that is dtire. This blind
fifth has had many strong advocates among
The learned theoogians. They say it is be-
catse n thing cannot be understood, tGat II is II
matter of faith for, say they, if we understood
II il would be matter of kno@tedJe, and rot mat
ter of faith. Therefore, they say, we "mustnot
try 10 understand the mysteries of godliness;'
We must not pry into the mysteries oil the
TRINITY. the new birth, the fall, the resurrcc-
tionn Sc. These things, say they, belong to
God only to know forgetting that our Lord
saws, that % his disciples cit shall be given to
know the mysteries and that the apostles
wore sent out to make them known.
Now. il Is because this blind faith is the idea
,hot generally occupies the mind of the com
munty. rs the faith of the Bible, that it is so
difficult TO present the idea of the true Bible
6ith which sees. This idea OF blind iaith
must first be got out of the mind before the ldea
of true gospel faith can enter; for so long rs
netsons suppose that faith is u belief in some
Thing that cannot be understood, they viii rot
receiye ANYTHING rs matter of faith that RAJ
tionally opens the eyes of the mind, and leads
them along, step by step, towards heaven. 80
ling AS they look upon faith as the sudden git
of God and upon regeneration, or salvatlohi rs
the Immediate result of that faith, and upon the
whole matter as an ncomprehenslble mystery,
il will be difIicult to open in their minds the
true eve of faith will therefore try to pre-
sent, as clearly as can, the distinction between
n true and false faith.
False faith proposes to give man salVaiioh
with his eyes closed; true taith gives II 70 nm
with his ewes open. False faith proposes 70
save men in the dark true faith saves them in
the liaht. False faith offers man salvation
without labor: true faith tells him he must
awork ont his salvation False faith iirsttells
a man he is saved and then tells INN ne must
work the works of righteousness because ne ~
sdpsd true faith tells him he is not saved, anu
that he must work the works OF righteousness
~ order 10 be sdped. False faith tells man tiat
the wedding garment by which he Is 10 enter
heaven is a garment of Christs righteousness,
put on at the time of conversion, ny an act oi
faith true faith tells him that the wedding gar
in n life of obedience TO the commandments
Christ working in him by faith and love, ana
giving him the righteousness MS lie WORKS u
into the garment; SO that is Chrsts righte-
business, wrought out by taith,which "Worketn
by love, and purifieth the heart raise iaitn
first makes clean the outside of the cup anu
platter by imputed righteousness, anu theh
talks about cleansing the inside py shhctiilca-
ton: true faith first makes clean the INSIDE Oh
- la tnNNrnnOlt
BUSINESS of Christ through repentance, iaitH,
and obedience and then the outside IS clean
also. Ill :,
Now. these two kinds Of faith are just as
different in their nature as light and darkness
and so they must be in their influence upon
mankind ; for il is a universal law that what
a man really believes essential to his good, MS
happiness, will be the ruling OF all ms hctlohs
For all men act with n view TO what tney pc
lieye to be their own good, whether they act
from the love of God or the love OF sell. How
important then, that man he taught the true
faithl Let MS, then, appeal to the holy WORD
and see which Of these two faiths IS gosplt
faith.
Those that have faith are called, in the Word
nchildren of the lgM,n They that believe, N
Christ are said not to "walk in darkness, bu
to have the light of life" Christ came "l'gh
into the world = and that light comes INTO th'
mind through faith: for faith is beliei IN I'M
trnth and truth is light isclf A faith in any
th;ng INT the truth. then, would be dark ant
dead; while true gosple i,tith IS truth IN 'h'
understanding, nationally seen, felt, ana &C
knowledged.
Again; the Bible represents persons withou
fnith as blind: and teachers without ialth ar
called "blind leaders of the b.indi ana the,
are said TO .sboth fall into the ditch Now,
is the want of faith that makes aman splrltuhi
ly blind; for the spiritual eye Is inc unuer
standing. Faith is the true spiritual sign.
that eye: truth is the light by which tnat sign
il exercised Where there is no truth, ther
can be mo faith for truth is the only light b
which the eve Of true faith can see. AS we
might the natural eye see witloutnatn ilgh
as the eve of faith without the light OF truth
If faith. then sees by the light OF TRUTH II mus
know what it sees, There is no DARK ihysuei
no blindness, no contradiction, where the ny
of truth is seem il is the absence oil trutli INA
makes the mystery, the darkness the plindhcs
And, surely, faith is good for nothing IN W
absence of truth; for, without reception
the truth, person cannot know whe'iler W. a.
he believes be true or false, And TINS Is y
mentally the case with much Of the faltn
the present day, according to the very ide'
which many express of it; and they try tosul
mort those ideas from Pauls definition OF iait
where he says, awe walk by faith, ana hot
sight.m Faith is the evidence OF things NJ
seem Now Paul here must allude 10 hdtW
vision !; for he cannot mean to say that iai
is the evidence of things not spiritually see
by the eve of faith, in the light OF truth i
how is this evidence to bebronght to the MN
if there IL no exercise Of the understandln
and no light OF TRUTH "Faith," Paul say
Gcomes BY hearing and hearing, by the Wo
of Cod Now, what does one hear that CIV
him faith IL must be the truth ana truth
no truth to the nearer, unless it be unde
stood and, if not understood, II cannot be a.
ground of faith Pauls definition OF faith II
yery much befogged the minds of many, wne
with true instruction, it might have enllghte
ed them; for what does Paul mean by ialti
beine "thc substance Of things hoped fort'
must mean that it is the truth understood q
aoscd. for there is no other substance OF thin
noped for but goodness and truth they q
tbe very substance of heaven, and OF All "
happiness, both here and hereafter. Fallh
truth Ia the mind united to goodness. I'M
is no other saving; no other faith can possi'
contain within it the very substance ana e
ments of heaven. He who has true faith' !
lust so much of the kingdom OF heaven IN II
us he has faith and it there in substance
What is the substance ola thing but the IN
itself? But how, then, is "iaith the suostal
of things hoped for?n Why, he who has u
faith has, to some extent the light ana
love, and the Joys Of heaven in his soul ana
hopes to enjoy them more fully. IL IS Deca
he sees and feels and loves them, tnat ne
have hope How can man nave nope
thing of which he has no experimental kho
edge or how can he have the substance o
thing that he has not got? We have been
1 as ltad