=5. The Atonement Necessary.=--"In the economy of God and the plan proposed by the Almighty, it was provided that man was to be placed under a law apparently simple in itself, yet the test of that law was fraught with the gravest consequences. The observance of that law would secure eternal life, and the penalty for the violation of that law was death.... If the law had not been broken, man would have lived; but would man thus living have been capable of perpetuating his species, and of thus fulfilling the designs of God in preparing tabernacles for the spirits which had been created in the spirit world? And further, could they have had the need of a mediator, who was to act as a propitiation for the violation of this law, which it would appear from the circumstances was destined to be broken; or could the eternal increase and perpetuity of man have been continued, and his high exaltation to the Godhead been accomplished, without the propitiatory atonement and sacrifice of the Son of God?"--_Mediation and Atonement_, Pres. John Taylor, pp. 128-129. =6. The Need of a Redeemer.=--For special treatment of this topic see "Jesus the Christ," pp. 17-31. LECTURE V. FAITH AND REPENTANCE. =Article 4.=--We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; ... FAITH. =1. Nature of Faith.=--The predominating sense in which the term faith is used throughout the scriptures is that of full confidence and trust in the being, purposes, and words of God. Such trust, if it be implicit, will remove all doubt concerning things accomplished or promised of God, even though such things be not apparent to or explicable by the ordinary senses of mortality; hence arises the definition of faith given by Paul: "Now faith is the substance [i.e. confidence, or assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence [i.e. the demonstration or proof] of things not seen."[268] It is plain that such a feeling of trust may exist in different persons in varying degrees; indeed, faith may manifest itself from the incipient feeble state which is little more than mere belief, scarcely free from hesitation and fear, to the strength of abiding confidence that sets doubt and sophistry at defiance. [268] Heb. xi, 1.