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The word "faith" is sometimes used for the object of faith, for the thing to be believed; as when it is said in Acts, "A great company of priests were obedient to the faith." But it is quite evident, from the whole series of the examples by which the definition is followed, that it is not of the thing believed, but of the act of believing, that the apostle speaks in the chapter before us. Yet when used of the act of believing, faith will be found to have different senses. Thus it is applied to what may be called historical faith — a bare assent to the truths revealed in Scripture; and this would seem to be the strict use of the term when St. James says, "Faith, if it have not works, is dead." Then, besides historical faith, there is what may be called temporary faith — faith which for a time seems productive of true fruits, and then comes to nothing. There is also another kind of faith mentioned in the New Testament; but it does not similarly occur amongst ourselves. This is what divines call the faith of miracles, belief in some particular promise or power, through which, whether as an instrument or as a condition, some supernatural work is wrought. Many had faith in Christ's power to heal their bodies who knew nothing of Him as the Physician of their souls. But, confining ourselves to the cases of historical faith and temporary faith, as being those which are but too likely to pass with us for saving faith, will either of the two answer strictly to the definition which constitutes our text? Let us look carefully at the definition. It consists of two parts; and the one is not to be considered as a mere repetition of, or a different way of putting the other. First, the apostle calls faith "the substance of things hoped for." Now "things hoped for" are things which have no present subsistence; so far as our enjoyment or possession of them is concerned, they must be future. But "faith," the apostle says, "is the substance of things hoped for." It is that which gives a present being to these things. It takes them out of the shadowy region of probability, and brings them into that of actual reality. Faith is, moreover, the " evidence of things not seen." By "things not seen" we understand such as are not to be ascertained to us by our senses, or even by our reason — not seen either by the eye of the body or by the far more powerful eye of the mind. These are the truths and facts revealed to as by the Word of God, and of which, independently on that Word, we must have remained wholly ignorant. Its province is with invisible things, and of these it is "the evidence" — the demonstration, or conviction — as the original word signifies. It serves as a glass by which we can see what we cannot see without a glass; not putting stars where there are none, but enabling us to find them where we saw none. Now will the historical faith, or the temporary faith answer to this description of faith? We may put out the case of temporary faith, for this is excluded not so much by not corresponding to the definition while it lasts, as by not lasting. We may not be able to show its defects while alive, but we can of course detect them when dead. But historical faith — the believing what is represented of Jesus Christ, in the same sense, mode, or degree as they believe what is represented of Julius Caesar — this, which passes with many men for the faith which Scripture demands — will this answer to the Scriptural definition of faith? Is, then, this historical faith "the substance of things hoped for"? Nay, the heart, the affections must be interested, before there can be " things hoped for." And, by a similar brief process, we may prove the want of correspondence between historical faith and the second clause of St. Paul's definition. Is such faith "the evidence of things not seen"? Does it make things not seen as certain to a man as things seen? — for this is the force of the definition. Does it, for example, make hell, which is not seen, as certain to the sinner as the gallows, which is seen, to the criminal given over to the executioner? None of you will maintain this. Unseen .things, which, if they exist at all, must immeasurably transcend things seen, cannot be as certain to a man as things seen, if that man give them not the preference, and far more if he treat them with neglect: Now this turns the definition in our text to good account, forasmuch as it operates to the separating historical faith from saving faith, the faith of the great mass of men from that intended by the apostle when he said, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." If, then, we now turn to justifying faith, we shall have to give it a seat in the heart as well as the mind — and see whether this will not make it correspond with the apostle's definition. .And when a man thus believes with the heart as well as with the mind, faith will be to him "the substance of things hoped for." The things on which his expectation rests will be the things promised in the Bible. These, as the chief good, will seem to him immeasurably preferable to any good already in possession. They will, therefore, be the objects of his hope. But will they be mere shadows, brilliant and beautiful, but perhaps only meteors, which may cheat him to the last, and vanish within his grasp? Not so; faith gives them a present subsistence. .And this "faith is" moreover "the evidence of things not seen"; it gives to the invisible the sort of power possessed by the visible. A thing may be unseen and yet have just the same power as if it were seen. Let me be only sure that a man concealed by a curtain is taking aim at me with a murderous intent, and I am moved with the same fear, and make the same spring for my life, as if the curtain were away and I were face to face with the assassin. Now faith takes away the curtain; not that faith which is only the assent of the understanding, for this may leave me indifferent as to the emotions of the mind, but that faith which, having its seat in the affections, must excite dread of danger and desire to escape. This faith takes away the curtain; not so, indeed, as to make the man visible, but so as to make me as sure of his being there, and with the purpose of bloodshed, as if he were visible. Therefore is such a faith the conviction of things not seen; and the believer, he who believes in God's Word with the heart as well as with the understanding, may be said, in virtue of that great principle, to draw back the veil which to every other eye hangs so darkly between the temporal and the spiritual, and therefore suited to inspire him with confidence. It is in this way, then, that faith, which is such an assent of the mind to the truth of God's Word as flows into the heart, and causes the soul to build upon that Word, answers thoroughly to both parts of that definition of faith which St. Paul has ]aid down in our text. But now you will say to me, Is this justifying faith? have I not rather given a description generally of faith, than of that particular faith which is represented as appropriating the blessings of the gospel? Not so. True, saving faith has for its object the whole revealed truth of God, though we call it justifying faith, as it fixes specially on the promise of remission of sins by the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be my faith in one particular declaration or doctrine which justifies me, but, nevertheless, my faith in that one particular doctrine is noways different from my faith in every other doctrine similarly announced and similarly established. The "things hoped for" from Christ are especially the pardon of sin, the gift of righteousness, and admission to the kingdom of heaven. Of these things is faith the substance; to these it gives a sure and present subsistence, making them as though not only promised, but performed; so strong while faith is in true exercise, is the sense of acceptance, the assurance of being "heirs of God," yea, "joint heirs with Christ." And the "things not seen" are the past work of Christ in His humiliation and the present work of Christ in His glory. But of these "things not seen" faith is the evidence or conviction. The believer is just as sure of Christ's having died for him, as if he had seen Him die; just as sure of Christ's ever living for him, as if, with Stephen, he " saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." There is, however, one caution which should be here introduced; for otherwise, whilst we wish to give instruction, we may but darken knowledge, and minister to anxiety. You are not to confound faith and assurance, as though no man could be saved by believing, unless he believe himself saved. "It seems," says Archbishop Usher, "that justifying faith consisteth in these two things, in having a mind to know Christ and a will to rest upon Him; and whosoever sees so much excellency in Christ, that thereby he is drawn to embrace Him as the only rock of salvation, that man truly believes unto justification. Yet it is not necessary to justification to be assured that my sins are pardoned and that I am justified, for that is no act of faith as it justifieth, but an effect and fruit that followeth after justification. For no man is justified by believing that he is justified — he must be justified before he can believe it; no man is pardoned by believing that he is pardoned — he must be pardoned before he can believe it. Faith as it justifieth, is a resting upon Christ to obtain pardon. But assurance, which is not faith in Christ, but rather faith in my faith, may, or may not follow on the justifying faith. You see, then, that our text accurately defines what is justifying faith, though it does not distinguish that faith from faith generally, neither does it leave us to confound it with assurance. You are not to go away and say, "Oh! saving faith is something altogether strange and mystical, unlike any other species of faith; it is not a kind by itself, it is peculiar only in its object. All faith which is not merely historical, is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"; and he who has this faith in the truth that God made him, has the principle of which he has but to change the direction, and he has faith in the truth that Christ redeemed him.

(H. Melvill, B. D.)

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KJV: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

WEB: Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.