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AN

ESSAY

ON FAITH.

BY

THOMAS ERSKINE, Esq.

ADVOCATE;

AUTHOR OF "REMARKS ON THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE FOR
THE TRUTH OF REVEALED RELIGION."

SECOND EDITION.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR WAUGH AND INNES;

AND

OGLE, DUNCAN & CO. LONDON.

1822.

BODLEIAN

1 2 JAN 1951

LIBRARY

AN

ESSAY ON FAITH.

WE read in the Scriptures,.

"that a man

" is justified by faith, without the deeds of "the law," Rom. iii. 18.-that "by grace "are ye saved through faith," Eph. ii. 8.that the glory of the Gospel consists in this, that "God's method of justification by faith "is revealed in it," Rom. i. 17.—and that "he that believeth on the Son hath ever

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lasting life, and he that believeth not the "Son shall not see life," St. John iii. 36. And these texts do not appear as insulated observations, nor are they liable to be explained away as figurative expressions, or

strong language; they constitute most im portant parts in the reasoning of the sacred writers; and the general tone of the context is that of sober and unimpassioned argument. We ought not then to wonder, that there should be a very lively and inquisitive interest excited in the minds of those who receive the Scriptures as the inspired word of God, about the precise meaning 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

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