The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 458

;

FAITH

4i8 troubled souls.

bom,

Or we may

call

it

philosophy

;

but then

it is

earth-

admit the absolute contrast between the Creator and the creature, and boldly interpreting Scripture's ministry of reconciliation in the sense of an essential system, i.e., the blending of one being with another. Scripture is diametrically opposed to this " And God divided the light from the darkness"; "And God divided the waters from the dry land"; " And God divided the day from the night." Hence all who acknowledge the absolute separation between faith and unbelief must array themselves in direct opposition to the Ethicals. This explains the cause of our ecclesiastical conflict. They that deny the contrasts and efface the divinely ordained boundaries must be irenical; i.e., they must contend that a breach The fatal inference of their in the Church can not be allowed. pantheistic tendency is " No breaches, but bridges." Hence our position antagonizes this standpoint along the whole line of our ecclesiastical and theological life, with definite, stem, and absolute consistency: particular grace, or Christ pro omnibus; only two in its pantheistic obstinacy refusing to

:

states,

direct regeneration,

or three;

or universal, preparatory

no divided Church, or a Church loyal to the Word of God; a God-man, or a Mediator between God and man; a Scripture absolutely inspired, or full of enlightened human opinions and regarding faith, a disposition expressly brought into the sinner, or the restoration of a soul-function. Hence there is opposition all operations

;

;

along the

From

line.

this the relation

certained.

and

to

between Scripture and

faith is easily as-

Both exist for the sake of the sinner by virtue of

remove sin Without Scripture ;

together.

faith Scripture is

sin,

the one not without the other, both belonging faith is

an aimless gazing.

Without

a closed book.

Experience proves it.

Persons endowed with the faculty of faith, make no progress

but ignorant of Scripture or wrongly instructed,

once instructed, they live and gain strength. On the contrary, to persons familiar with Scripture from their youth, but without faith, But the Bible is a closed book; the Word can not enter them.

when both

Scripture and saving faith bless the soul, then the glory

for it was He who first g^ranted the parand then also that of faith. This is the reason why the arguments for the truth of the Scripture never avail anything. A person endowed with faith gradually

of the

Holy

Spirit

appears

ticular grace of Scripture,

;

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