Fact means something done. The term deed, so common in the reign of James I., is equivalent to our term fact. Truth and fact, though often confounded, are not the same. All facts are truths, but all truths are not facts. That God exists is a truth, but not a fact; that he created the heavens and the earth is a fact and a truth. That Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles is a truth, but not a fact; and that he preached Christ to the Gentiles is both a fact and a truth. The simple agreement of the terms of any proposition with the subject of that proposition, or the representation of any thing as it exists, is a truth. But something must be done or effected before we have a fact. There are many things true in religion, morals, politics, and general science, which are not facts; but these are all but the correspondence of words and ideas with the things of which they treat.
Facts have a power which logical truth has not; and therefore we say that facts are stubborn things. They are things, not words. The power of any fact is the meaning; and therefore the measure of its power is the magnitude of its import. All moral facts have a moral meaning; and those are properly called moral facts which either exhibit, develop, or form moral character. All those facts, or works of God, which are purely physical, exhibit what have been commonly called his natural or physical perfections; and all those facts or works of God, which are purely moral, exhibit his moral character. It so happens, however, that all his works, when properly understood, exhibit both his physical and moral character, when viewed in all their proper relations. Thus, the deluge exhibited his power, his justice, and his truth; and therefore displayed both his physical and moral grandeur. The turning of water into wine, apart from its design, is purely a demonstration /91/of physical power; but, when its design is apprehended, it has a moral force equal to its physical majesty.
The work of redemption is a system of works, or deeds, on the part of Heaven, which constitute the most splendid series of moral facts which man or angel ever saw. And they are the proof, the argument, or the demonstration, of that regenerating proposition which presents God and Love as two names for one idea.
When these facts are understood, or brought into immediate contact with the mind of man, as a moral seal or archetype, they delineate the image of God upon the human soul. All the means of grace are, therefore, only the means of impressing this seal upon the heart, - of bringing these moral facts to make their full impression on the soul of man. Testimony and faith are but the channel through which these facts, or the hand of God, draws the image on the heart and character of man. If, then, the fact and the testimony are both the gift of God, we may well say that faith and eternal life are also the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
To enumerate the gospel facts would be to narrate all that is recorded of the sayings and doings of Jesus Christ from his birth to his coronation in the heavens. They are, however, concentrated in a few prominent ones, which group together all the love of God in the gift of his Son. He died for our sins - he was buried in the grave - he rose from the dead for our justification - and is ascended to the skies to prepare mansions for his disciples - comprehend the whole, or are the heads of the chapters which narrate the love of God and display his moral majesty and glory to our view.
These moral facts unfold all the moral grandeur of Jehovah, and make Jesus the effulgence of his glory, the express image of his substance. These are the moral seal which testimony conveys to the understanding, and faith brings to the hearts of sinners, by. which God creates them anew and forms them for his glory. It is the Spirit which bears witness-the Spirit of God and of Christ which gives the testimony and confirms it in the disciples. But let us next proceed to testimony.