An Essay On Faith
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ing of the term faith. Neither ought we to wonder that many different meanings have been assigned to it. For as faith on the one hand, and unbelief on the other, describe states of mind which appear often to be absolutely involuntary, being the admission of evidence which it is impossible to reject, or the rejection of evidence which it is impossible to admit ; men have found it difficult to reconcile their minds to the association of eternal happiness with the one, and of eternal misery with the other, as their just and equitable consequences. To lessen this difficulty, or to remove it, some have supposed that faith was a symbolical expression for the whole regenerate character, or all virtues; and that unbelief was a symbolical expression for the unre- generate character, or all vices. Others have suppos
...ed that faith is one of two necessary conditions of pardon, the other condition being obedience, the absence of either of which made the other nugatory, and effectually excluded from the Divine favor. Others, clearly perceiving that these views could not be reconciled, either with the general tenor of the Bible, or with many most decided and unequivocal texts, have talked disparagingly of holiness and obedience, and have treated of faith as if it were the channel of justification, merely in virtue of an arbitrary appointment of God, and without any reference to its moral effect on the human character. chapter{Section 4In the observations which I am now to make, I shall point out the sources of some of the errors which have prevailed on this subject?I shall explain what appears to me to be the correct view of Christian faith in its exercise and object?and I shall attempt to describe some of its counterfeits. Doubtless the great source of error on this subject, is the corrupt...
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