Verwandte Artikel zu Lectures on Scripture Doctrines
Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1818. Excerpt: ... LECTURE XIII. PERSEVERANCE. PHIL. I. 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he, which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Confidence, expressed as to any matter of mere opinion, is arrogant and indecent. It has been uniformly found, that those who are the most positive and dogmatical, are also the most ignorant, and the least intelligent, of mankind. Presumption, is the offspring of folly: modesty, is the child of wisdom. A fool sees no difficulty, where a wise man perceives many: the natural consequence is, that the one is rash in his conclusions, and confident in his assertions; where the other is cautious in his decision, and unassuming in his opinions: as ready to learn, as apt to teach: mild, in maintaining his sentiment, and open to conviction. Confidence, as to any subject clearly revealed, and explicitly affirmed in the Scriptures, stands upon other grounds, and partakes of another character. There, speculation is excluded; and, admitting the principle that the book is inspired, we cannot trust too implicitly, we cannot contend too strenuously; we cannot possess, or display, a confidence too unshaken. In the first case, we follow a fallible guide; and we can never be certain as to the deductions of reason, because the best and the clearest, have sometimes proved to be fallacious. In the last case, we follow an infallible guide; for such must the Bible be admitted to be, if it be a revelation at all: and our conclusions are deduced from a wisdom which cannot err, because the understanding whence it flows is infinite: nay, in every important case, we are not left to make our own deductions, but the inferences are drawn for us, by the same authority which established the principles whence they are derive...
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