Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/62

58 be formed of the person and character of Him, who is it's proper object. It was before observed, under the article of Redemption, that Jehovah God himself came down from heaven into the world, for this purpose, among others, namely, of rendering himself visible, and accessible to the human mind: which interposition of mercy arose from the necessity of the case, inasmuch as otherwise man would have perished eternally, in consequence of his entire removal from God. Hence it follows, that a true saving faith, on the part of man, must be directed to the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, because under this name and character the great Jehovah appeared among men, and because in and by no other form can he be approached, worshipped, and adored.

It is therefore of all things necessary, that a true faith be established in the mind, of which the first essential is an acknowledgment, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Son of God; by which we are to understand, that the Humanity, in which he appeared, was conceived of and from the Divinity, by a virtue or power proceeding from Jehovah himself; on which account the essential Divinity is in the Sacred Scripture constantly called the Father, while the Divine Humanity is called the Son. This first essential of a true faith is confirmed by the following passages: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life," John iii. 16. "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him," John iii. 36.

The next essential characteristic of a true faith, which springs out of the former, when exalted and perfected by the truths of the Word, is the further