FAITH AND LOVE.
I SUPPOSE that all thoughtflfl readers of the chapter from which these words are taken, have before now been struck with surprise st the vried characteristics which are there ascribed fo the excellent grace called love, or charity. What is charity? St. Paul answers, by giving a great number of properties of if, all distinct and special. It is patient, if is kind, if has no env-y, no self-importance, no ostentation, no indeconm, no selfishness, no irritability, no malevolence. Vhich of all these is it? for if it is all at once, surely it is a name for tdl via'tues tt once. And vhat nmkes this conclusion still more plausible, is, that St. Parti elsewhere actually calls charity "the ftflfilling of the Law:" and our Saviour, in like manner, raakes our whole duty consist in loving God and loving out neighbour. And St. James calls it "the royal law:" and St. Jolm says, "Ve know that we hure passed from
308 f;'aith azd Loz,e. death unto life, beeause we love he brehren.", Thus the chaper ri'oin whieh t,he ext, is taken seems bu m exemplificatim in de,ail of wha is deelared in general erms by the inspired writers. Itis well oo, by way of eonrast,, to eosider he description of fait.h giveu elsewhere by the saine Apostle, who, in the clml)ter before us, describes charity. In his Epistle to the I [ebrcws he devotes a lnuch longer chapter t.o it. but his mcthod in treating itis altogether difl>rent. lit stn.rts wit.h a d,finition of it, and t.hel he ilhlstrates his clcar and precise a.ccount of it iu a series of instances. The cbaptcr is matie up of a repetition again and again, in Noah, in Abra.ham, in Moses, in David, and in the l'rophets, of one and the saine precisely marked excellence, called fifith, which is such as no one taxi mistake. Again mention is ruade of it lu t.he text; and then, though in a diFerent Epist.le, and in the midst of a train of thought altogether diFerent, ifs description, as far as it goes, accurately agrees with what is said in the Hebrews; " faifl, so that I could remove mount.ains;" which moreover is the very account of if given ly out rd, and expresses surely the saine habit of miud as that by which Noah, Abrahmn, Moses, and I)avid, preached righteousness, obtained 1)romises, renommed the world, vaxed valiant in flght. How then is if that faith is of so definite a eharacter, and love so large and eomprehensive? Now the reason seems fo be pret.t.y mueh what at first sight is the diculty. The diculty is whether, if love be such St. Paul deseribes, if is hOt. ail vimms at Rom. xiii. 10. Matt. xxii. 40. James ii. 8. 1 John iii. 14.
Fail]z ald.[,ove. 3o9 once; and I answer, t,hat, in one sense it is all virtnes at, once, and t,herefore St,. Paul emmot deseribe it, lnore definitely, more restriet, edly t,han he does. In other words, itis t, he foot, of all holy disposit,ious, and grows a.ud blossoms iut, o t,hem: t,hey are its parts; and when it is deseribed, t,hey of neeessit,y are mentioned. Love is t,he material (so t,o speak)out, of which all graees are ruade, t,he qualit,y of mind which is t,he ff'uit, of regeneration, and in which the Spirit dwells; aeeording t,o St. 3ohn's words, "Every oue t,hat loveth is h,n tf llod;" " he t, hat. dwelleth iii love, dwellet,h in I_lod, and God in hiln. '' Such is love, and, as being such, it. will last for ever. "Charity," or love, "never faileth." Faith and hope are graees of an imperfeet, st, are, and t,hey cease with that st,ate; but love is greater, beeause it, is perfeet,ion. Fait,h and hope are graees, as fir as we belong to this world,—which is for a t, ilne; but, love is a graee, beeause we are ereat, ures of (-lod whether here or elsewhere, and partakers in a redemption whieh is t,o last for ever. Faith will no be when t,here is sight,, nor hope when there is enjoyment; but love -«'ill (as we believe) inerease more and more t,o all etel'nit,y. Faith and hope are means by whieh we express out love: we believe God's word, because we love it; we hope after heaven, beeause we love it,. We should hOt have a.ny hope or eoneern about, it,, unless we loved it; we should hot, t,rust or eonfide h t,he God of heaven, unless we loved Him. Fait,h, flen, and hope are but ilst, ruments or expressions of love; but, as t,o love it,self, we do hot, love beeause we believe, for t,he devils believe, yet do not love; nor do we 1 John iv. 7, 16.
love because we hope, for hypocrites hope, who do hot love. But we love for no cause beyond itself: we love, because if is our nature fo love; and if is our nature, because God the Holy Ghost has ruade if our nature. Love is the immediate fruit and the evidence of regeneratiou. It is exwessing the saine thing in other words, to say, as we may, thatfith and hope are hot h themselves necessarily graces, but only as grafted on and found in love. Balaam had faith and hope, but hot love. "May I die the dcath of the righteous!" is an act of h,Te. "The word that the Lord putteth into my mouth, that will l speak," is an act of faith; but his conduct showed that ncither his fi6th nor his hope was loving. The serva.nt in the paral)le, who fell down at his lord's feet, and begged to be excused his dcbt, had both faith and hope. He believed his lord ablc, and he hoped him willing, to forgive him. He went out, and saw a fellowservant who owed him a small sure, and he behaved at once unmercifully to him, and unthaukfiflly by his lord. tic had ncither love of God, because he was high-minded, nor love of his l)rother, because he was hard-hearted. There are then two kinds of faith in God, a good faith and a worthless fait.h; and two ldnds of hope in God, good and wort.hless: but there ara not two kinds of love of God. Love nmst always be heavenly; it is always the sign of the regenerate. Faith and hope are not in themselvcs sig ns, but only that faith "which worketh by love," and that hol)e which "loves the thing which God commandeth, and desires that which God doth promise." In the text it is said, " Though I had all f,nith, yet without love I ara
Faitl alzd Love. nothing:" if is nowhere said, "Though I bave ail love, without faith I aih nothing." Love, flen, is the seed of holiness, and grows into exeellenees, hot indeed destroying their peeuliarities, but nmking them what they are. A weed hs stalk, leaves, and flowers; so has a sxveet-slnelling pla.nt; beeause the latter is sweet-smelling, it does hot eease to have stalk, leaves, and flowers; but they are all 1.1casant., beeause they eome of if. In like manner, the soul whieh is quickened with the spirit of love lins fa.ith and hope, and a number of faeulties and hMits, some »f which if might have without love, and some not; but any how, in that soul one and all exist in love, though distinct fi'om if; as stMk, leaves, and flowers are as dist.inet and ent.ire in one plmt as in another, yet vary in their quality, aeeording fo the plant's nature. But here if may be asked, whether Seripture does not make faith, hot love, the roof, and all graees its fi-uits. I think hot; on the contrary, if pointedly intimates that something besides tith is the roof, hot only in the text, but in our Lord's parable of the Sower; in whieh we read of persons who, "when they hear, reeeive the word with joy," yet having no "roof, '' fall away. Now, reeeiving the word v«ith joy, surely implies fa.ith; faith, then, is eertainly distinct from the root, for these persons reeeive with joy, yet have "no roof." However, it is allowable to eall faith the roof, beeause, in a certain sense af least, works do proeeed from it. And henee Seripture speaks of "faith t'orlci9 by love," whieh would imply in the form of expression that faith was prior fo love. And Luke viii. 13.
3 z 'aith a«d Loze. again: in the chapter in which the text occurs, we read of "faith, hope, and charity," an order of words which seems to imply that faith precedes love, or charity. And again, St. l'ml says elsewhere, "The end of the coinmamhnent is «harity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of J?«ith mf«iyned; ''4 where faith is spoken of as if it were the origin of love. This nmst be grauted then; and aceordingty a question arises, how to adjust these opposite modes of speaking; in,w]tal seuse fi6th is the legilming of love, and in what sense hwe is the origin t" faith; whether 1,we springs ri'mn faith, r faith ri'oin love, whieh cornes first, and which last. I observe, then, as follows: Faith is the first element of 'diyion, and love, of holitc; an,l as holiness and religion are distinct, yet united, so are love and faith. IIoliness ean exist without religion; religion CallllO exist without holiness. Baptized infalltS, before they eome to years of understanding, are holy; they are hot religious. Holess is love of the Divine Law. When God regenerates an infant, He impas to it the gift of His H,ly Spirit; and what is the Spirit thus ilnparted but the Law n'itten on its heart? Such was the promise, "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in fleir hearts." And henee it is said, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. ''» God colnes o us as a Law, before He comes as a Lawgiver; that is, He sers up His throne within us, and enables us to obey Him, belote we have learned to reflect on out own sensations, and to know the voiee of God. Such, as if in a type, was Sanmel's ease; 4 1Tim. i. 5. Heb. viii. 10. 1Johnv. 3.
'aith azd Loz,c. 3 3 he knew not who it was who ealled him, till Eli the pries old him. Eli stands for religi,m, Samuel tr holiness; Eli for faith, Samuel for love. Love then is the motion within us of t,he new spirit, the holy and renewed heart whieh (lod the Ih,ly Ghost gives us; a,nd, as being sueh, we see how it may exist iu infants, who obey the inward law without knowing it,, by a sort of natural serviee, as plants and trees flflfil the funetit,ns of their own nature; a scrviee which is most acceptal,le fo (, d, as being moral and sl,iritual, thongh hot intellcctual. And this, for what we kuow, may be the state of those little ones who are baptized and taken away before they have learned either to reason or fo sin. They nmy be as the stones of the Everlasting Pavement, crying out cont.inually in praise fo God; dimly visible, as if absorbed in the glory which encompasses God's throne; or as the wonderful wheels described by the Prophet, which were living, yet in a way instrumental; for in heaven, where there is no gross marrer, the very framework of the Temple is composed of spirits. Love, then, is the life of those who know hot an externM world, but who worship (lod as manifestcd within them. Such a life however can last but a little while ou earth. The eyes see and the reason embraces a lower wofld, sun, moon, stars, and earth, and men, and all that man does or makes; a.nd this external world does hot speak of God upon the face of it. If shows as if it were itself God, and an olject of worship, or ai least it becomes the creature of a usurper, who has marie himself" the god of this world." We are at once fi»rced fo reflect, reason, decide, and act; for we are between two, the in-
314 _Fait/z aza ,Love. ward voice speaking one thing within us, and he xvorld speakilg anct.her wighoug us; the world gempting, and the Spirig whispering warnings. Henee lkith leeomes neeessary; il other words, (lod has most mercifully sueeoured us in this eontesg, by Sleaking nog only in our heart.s, bug through the Selsible world; and this Voiee we eall revelatim. (lod bas overruled flis wofld of sense, 111[ put a word il its m«ufl, and lid it pr«phesy of llim. And thus there l'e two voices evel in the extcrnal worhl; the vçice of the tempter calling us to fa th»wl a.nd svorshil him, and he will give us all; and the voice,f lod, sl,e,kfig in aid of the w,ice in out hearts: and as hve is that which hears the voice within us, so fitith is thtt which hears the volte without us; and as hve WOl'ships tlod within the shrine, faith discerns Hiln in the world; and as love is the life of God in the solitary sofi, fith is the gua.Mian of love i our intercourse with men; and, while faith lninisters to love, love is that which impaoEs to faith its praise and excellence. And thus if is that fa.ith is to love as religion to holiness; f,r religion is the Divine Law as coming to us fronl without, as holiness is the acquiescence in the saine Law as written within. Love then is meditative, tmnquil, pure, gentle, aboundilg in a.ll oces of goodness and truth; and faith is strelmous and eneN'etic, formed for this world, confl)at,ing it, training the mind towa.rds love, fortifying it in obedience, and overcoming sense and reason by representations more nrgent than their own. Moreover it is plain, that, while love is the roof out of which faith gron-s, faith by receiving the wonderful
Faith a«d £oz,e. 315 tidings of the Gospel, and presenting belote he soul is saered Objeets, te myseries of le faih, he Holy çriniy, and le Incarnate Saviour, expands out love, and raises i o a perfection whieh oherwise i eould never rPach. And thus our duty lies in fa.ith working by love; love is the sacrifice we oflr to God, and faith is the sacrificer. %t they are not distinct from each other except in our wy of viewing them. Priest and sacrifice are one; the loving faith and the believing love. And thus I answer the question concerning the connexion of love and faith. Love is the condition of faith; and faith in t.mai is the cherisher and maturer of love; it brings l,ve out into w»rks, and therefore is called the root of u,orl«s of love; the substance of the works is love, the outline and direction of them is faith. This being so, surely we need hot be surprised at Paul's language, as in the text and verses ibllowing. Love is the true ruling principle of the regenerate soul, and faith ministers to it. Love is the end, faith the means; and if the neans be difficult, much more is the end. St. Paul sa.ys that fith which could remove mouutains will hot avail without love; and in truth, faith is oy half way (as it were) to heaven. By faith we give up this vorld, but by love we reach into the next world; and it often happens from one cause or another, men are able to get as fr as the one, without going on to the other. Too true is it, that the mss of men live neither with fitith nor love; they lire to themselves, they love themselves selfishly, and do uot desire any thing beyond the visible fmmework of things. This world is their ail in all. But I speak of religious persons; and these, I think, will confcss that distaste for the wofld is quite a distinct thing ri'oto the spirit of love. As years go on, the disappointments, troubles, and cares of litç, wean a religious mind ri'oto attachment to this world. A man secs it is but vanity. I[e neither receives, ll,r looks for enjoynlcnt from it. l[e &,es hot look to the friture with hupe; he has no prospects; he tares hot for the world's stalle or fl'OWll; )r what it can do, what it eau withhold. Nay, evcn his f¥iends are nothing to him; he knows they cannot help him reallv in his greatest needs, and he has no dependence that they will be continued to him. And tllus in the course of tinle, with a very scanty measure of truc divine l,ve, he is enabled, whatever his sphere is, t.o act aloove the world, in his degree; t.o do his plain straightforward duty, because reason tells him he should do it, and beeause he has no great temptation sedueing him t¥oln it. Ol,serve, «lJI he keeps God's commandnlents; ff-oto reaso, beeause he knows he ought, and beeause he has no strong motives keeping him from doing so. Alas! hot fronl love towards those cOllllllalldments. He has only just so mueh of the spirit of love as suites to hinder his resignation tom being dèspondency, and his Paith from being dead. 0r again, he has had experience of the mism T of a laden conscience, the misery of the pollutim involved in the numberls little sins of every day, the odiousness of his pride, vanity, fretfitlness, wilfulness, arrogance, irritabflity, proNneness, hardness of heart, and all the other evils which beset him; and he desires earnestly to be cleansed;yet rather from dislike of sin than direct, love of God and Christ.
This then is that middle sate in whieh some of us may be standing in our progïess fl'on ea.rfl to heaven, and which the text varns us a.gains. Ig teHs us thag faith at lnOSt only lnakes saint; that faith can but put us above the worhl, bu that love brings ns under (1od's throne; that faith ca.n but make us sober, but love makes us happy. It warns us that it is possible for a man to bave the clearest, cahnest, exactest view of the realities of heaven; that he may most firlnly realize and act 11,o1 the trnths,f the Gospel; that he llly understand that all about hiln {s but a veil, hot a substance; that he may bave that full confidence in God's word as to be alle to do miracles; that he may bave such simple absolute faifl as to give up his 1,roperty, gi-e up all his g,«ds to feed the poor; that he lnay 8o scorn the world, flat ho may with so royal a heurt trample on it, as even fo give his body to be bnrned by a glorious martyrdom; and yeI do hot say, be without love; God forbid Apostle means there ever u, as aetually such a case, but that it is abstmctedly possible; that no one of the prcper acts of faith, in itself, and necessarily, implies love; that it is distinct ri'oin love. He says this,that, flough person be aH that has been said, yet unless he be also something besides, unless he have love, it profiteth him nothing. 0 fearful lesson, to all those who are tempted t.o pride themselves in their labours, or suflhrings, or sacrifices, or works We are Christ's, hot by faith merely, nor by works merely, but by love; hot by hating the world, nor by hating sin, nor by venturing for the vorld to corne, nor by eglnllleSS, nor by magnanilnity,though we must do and be all this; and if we bave love in perfection we shall,—but it is love makes faith, not faith love. We are saved, hOt by any of these things, but by tlmt heavenly flame within us, which, »'hile if consumes what is seen, aspires to what is unseen. Love is the gentle, tranquil, satisfied acquiescence and adherence of the soul in the contemplation of Goal; hot only a preference of Goal belote all things, but a delight in Him because IIe is God, and because His COlnlnandments are good; hot ny violent elnotion or transport, but as St. Paul describes it, lolg-sufl'erilg, kiud, modest, unassuming, immcent, simple, orderly, disinterested, meek, pure-hcarted, sweet-telnpered, patient, enduring. Faith without Charity is dry, harsh, and sapless; it has nothing sweet, engaging, winning, soothing; but it was Charity which brought Christ down. Charity is but another naine for the Comforter. It is eternal Charity which is the bond of all things in heaven and earth; it is Charity wherein the Father and the Son are one in the unity of the Spirit; by which the Angels in heaven are one, by which all Saints are one with God, by which the Church is one upon ealh.