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Defence, would be an endless, and perhaps an useless Labour. It will be fufficient to form a few general Claffes; to fome or other of which all particular Texts may easily be referred and to confider thefe diftinctly and separately. If this be not fufficient, I prefume it will not be owing to the Impropriety of the Method, but to Defects or Miftakes in the Profecution of it,

AGREEABLY therefore to the Principles already laid down, I proceed to inquire in what Refpects, and on what Accounts, Faith is recommended to us in Scripture ?—Now the different Recommendations, which are given it, may, if I mistake not, be reduced to three, viz. its EXCELLENCE, as a Moral Virtue; its ADVANTAGE and SUFFICIENCY, as a Means of Salvation; and lastly, its NECESSITY, as a Condition of the GospelCovenant. If I can maintain it in Poffeffion of this threefold Character, I shall not be charged with derogating from the high Encomiums, which are bestowed upon it in Scripture; if I establish all the Parts of this Character on a rational Foundation, I ought not to be accused of deferting Reason; and laftly, if Reason and Scripture are fhewn to be both on the fame Side, the latter is then compleatly vindicated.

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INQUIRY

CONCERNING

FAITH.

SECT. I.

'T has already been admitted that Faith, when confidered in itself, I mean ab

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ftractedly from its Caufes and Confequences, cannot be ranked in the Number of the VIRTUES. Its Value therefore, in a moral Senfe, must be derived from fomething without itself.-But fhall we limit the Idea of Moral Excellence, to thofe Objects which are intrinfically good? Shall no Quality be efteemed praife-worthy, befides those which have an inherent Value?-If the Conceptions and Language of the Generality of Mankind were strictly just and philofophical, fuch a Limitation might perhaps take place; and it is equally

equally true, that all Figures of Speech muft be utterly banished from Conversation and Writing. For, according to this rigorous Procedure, they are only fo many Mifapplitions of Words and Ideas. The Metaphor, upon a very flender Refemblance, fhifts and changes the Properties of Things; the Metonymy jumbles Caufe and Effect, Subject and Adjunct; the Synecdoche confounds the Whole with its Parts: and fo on of all the rest. When these Improprieties are all out of ufe, it will then be reasonable to confine our Praise to the immediate Objects of Praife; that is, to the Determinations of the Will, But while our ways of fpeaking continue what they are, and what they always have been; nothing can be more obvious, or more natural, than to transfer the Excellence of the Caufe to the Effect, and v. v. that of the Effect to the Caufe.-The ufe of this Figure in moral Subjects is neither lefs proper, nor lefs frequent, than in Subjects of any other kind. So far from it, that a total Difufe of it would overturn at once our whole moral Language. So that whoever denies the Excellence of Faith, on no other Grounds than what I am here oppofing; muft, on the very fame Grounds, deny the Worth of all good Qualities whatever. I fay good Qualities: by which I understand good Affections; good Habits; good Difpofitions of Mind.

All

thefe

thefe derive their Excellence from the particular Series of good Actions, by which they are produced, improved, and cultivated: and yet this derivative Excellence is univerfally efteemed and acknowleged a juft Title to Approbation and Praife. Those two great Principles of all Duty, the Love of God and our Neighbour, are, if confidered abstractedly, utterly incapable of moral Worth. For Love is an Affection of the Mind; and Affections are not Actions. But because thefe Affections are the Result of fome Virtues, and the Foundation of many more; because they are the natural Effect, and the probable Means of Right Conduct they affume to themselves thofe Praises, to which they generally prefuppofe. and frequently produce a juft Title.-May we not then maintain that Faith is a moral Virtue; if we are able to fhew that it fprings from the nobleft Caufes, and is productive of the most valuable Confequences? That it is, in fhort, the Effect, and the Ground of Virtue ?-Nothing furely will hinder us from applying the fame Figure of Speech in both Cafes. But then we shall be forced to acknowlege, what has been too often either denied or overlook'd, that if Faith may accidentally fubfist; without those Causes, and thofe Effects: fuch a Faith is, morally fpeaking, of no Value at all. Juft as an innate Benevolence, or a Benevolence accidentally acquired, or a Benevolence

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