This at least is manifest, that wherever there is belief on this particular evidence, there must be prior to it confidence or trust in the person who gives his testimony, and that confidence is the foundation of the belief..

The word faith therefore, I say, seems to me a just and peculiarly happy translation of the words.

But we require a verb to represent EUW. Is believe such a verb? I answer I do not conceive that it is, for the following reasons:

1. It is always used to express the assent of the mind to propositions, and is incapable of being used to express confidence in any person, further than assenting to his statements, whereas is capable, as we have seen, of expressing confidence generally.

τις ενω

2. Believe is not confined to the assent of the mind on the evidence of testimony as is when it signifies believe. We believe on the evidence of demonstration, of our senses, (we believe our senses for example in rejecting transubstantiation,) of our consciousness, or of

testimony. It has no reference to the nature of the evidence of the truth believed, but is opposed to knowledge as always implying that the proposition believed is or may be disputed. I do not say that I believe that I have two hands, because I can discover no ground on which I might dispute that fact-there can be no doubt about it; but I may say that I believe my body and mind to have a real existence, because some philosophers have denied that they have.

3. It is applicable to propositions of every kind, whether calculated to excite confidence or not, and respects only the truth of the proposition. It is a mistake to say that viewing faith as a mere belief is taking a more limited view of it, for in the respects which I have mentioned it is much more extensive. Faith is confined to believing on one species of evidence, and applied in scripture to a particular class of propositions; whereas belief is applicable to every kind of evidence and every description of proposition. The fact is the words are not commensurable with one another.

πιςεύω.

It always expresses confidence, believe never directly, and only sometimes by implication: believe, on the other hand, is applicable in a multitude of cases in which EU could not be used. The derivation of the word believe sufficiently accounts for its unfitness to represent It comes from the Saxon Lifan or Gelifan, to allow, permit, concede. It therefore always refers to some statement, and to its being disputed or capable of being disputed, and it rather repels the idea of confidence, than includes it. When we say we believe another making a statement, we do not necessarily mean that we confide in his testimony, but that by some evidence or other we are convinced of the truth of what he says.-We concede that point although we might dispute it.

Believe and I are not as two concentric circles that correspond in all their parts, the one of which may therefore in all cases be substituted for the other they are like two circles which touch at one point of their circumferences. In the centre of the one is

confidence, which radiates out into confidence in strength, power, mercy, wisdom, justice, and among others veracity. In the centre of the other, is assent to the truth of propositions, which radiates out into assent on the evidence of the senses, of demonstration, of circumstantial evidence, and among others of testimony. And it is only when

signifies

confidence in veracity or truth, which in common language is equivalent to believing the testimony; and when believe signifies assent on the evidence of testimony, that they coincide with one another. But as sw, when it has God or Christ for its object, in scripture always implies confidence in the veracity of God, because all our information respecting him is derived from his testimony; and, as believing in by far the greater number of instances is founded on the evidence of testimony, the one word has been used, (although as I conceive very erroneously,) in all cases, as an equivalent for the other. Our ear has become accustomed to such phrases as believing in Christ, believing on God, &c.; but they are phrases which sel

dom occur in ordinary language, and do not seem to me to convey a definite idea

at least not the idea conveyed by su s or it. The phrase believing on, I do not recollect to have met with except in the Bible or in theological writings; and believing in any person expresses, I apprehend, no more than believing that there is such a person.

I have asked several persons of plain education what they would understand by the assertion "I believe in the em-peror of China," and the uniform answer has been, that they would understand by it I believe that there is an emperor of China. But nobody supposes that the phrase believe in the Lord Jesus Christ signifies in scripture no more than believe that there is such a person.

The word believe is much more nearly allied to έλεγχομαι than to πίςευω. Έλεγχομαι signifies to be convinced by arguments or evidence of any kind, and is applied as we have seen, to convictions of sin by means of the law. And this difference between πιςεύω and έλεγχομαι affords us a distinct precise idea of the meaning of