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heinousness os salti, Without good mortis, and describes it asdevilisti. So also the rest of the apostles. Paul, in his epistieto the Romans, says that it is Dith which saves, but not actions, meaning thereby, not actions Without laith; but Luther, in his translation of the Bible, has added to the words of the apostle, faith without works though tho latior phrase is not to befound in the sacred texi; and I belleve that Luther never committed a greater sin thau When ho made this interpolation : but God bo the judge. Certain it is, that on examining and weighing est the ground s, it must appear, that salth Without Worksis rather condemnatory than saving. Let iis see therelare themeaning of the severat terms, action, will, principie of the wil fuith, aud Iasib, isve. Action is nothing but the execution or effect of the Will, orit is tho will itself at Work. Separalely considered in is no morethan a mechanical thing, inasmuch as it is bodily or corporeat, and ne ly resembling the effect of a machine; but the essetice of the action is tho Mil in the effeci; so that action may becialed perpetuat Will, much as motion is called perpetuat effortby Writers on physics. In man theresore Will and action are coincident, since sor action to be, Wid must bo involvod in it
consist With a disserent Wid; and similar Wilis, Or the fame Will, with a disserent action; in the fame Way as a similar motion may proceed hom disserent efforis; Or as the es Ort may. Ebesimilar, and yet a disserent motion may result DOm it; lar. resisting media ann circumstances determine or disserenoe .themotion resulting Dom the fame es Ort. But to return to action; it is evident in ali our human societies, that action is not Te-garded res action, but as Wili. Suppose that three men professthe Same Veneration 1 Or a monarch, ali prostrating themselves
at his stet, or boWing to the ground in his presen ce, or laudin ghis virtuos to the skies; but one, With the wili or Wish to deceivehim, the second with a vieW to his oWn reWard, the third, to dis- play in a besitting manner the honest veneration of his heart. The action os ali three is the fame; yet it is not the fame Whenviewed from the Will, Whicli is heterogeneous or disserent in orich. Therosore When the Ling has discovered the viill of each, he hates the action of the ono, and loves that of the other;
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and his lintred for tho sermur is ali the greater, in proportionas the acti On nearly assimilates to the action of those Who dis- play the ou tWard signs os a real inWard veneration. Nothingthere re is here considerest in the action, gesture, motion Osthe body, or speech, but the Will alone; Which shews that actionmay propexly be termed perpetuat Will, as motion may be termed perpetuat effort. The will also proceeds Dorii principies, or hom a principie, of iis oWn, RS action proceeds Dom Will. There may be disserent principies to a single Will, as different Wilis to a single action; in Whicli respect the principie is considered as determinant undesticient, and the action res the determinate and effeci; the willbeing the mean belWeen the two. Theresere action is no Other thau the principie alone; sor the cause of the cause is also the cause of the thing caused. Τhus relatively action is nothingbiit a mechanical thing, like the motion os a machine ; and the will is liko tho ospori in the motion; and it is the principie alone Whicli constitutes the essetice of action, because it constitutes the essetice of Wili; for by the common rute, there are est theessentials in es ori that there me in motion, Or What amounts to the fame, there are ali the essentials in Will that there a re in action. We repent then that the principie is the only thingillat constitutes the essen ce of action, hecause it constitutes theessence of Will. Ηetice in civiliged life ali actions are examin edand estimated by their principies, or in other Words, by their intentions, Or the ends for Whicli they are Willed and doue. ΜOreover in common discourse the Word Will is used synonymousty With principie or intention, being regarded as an identicia terni. Will, hoWever, is the distinctive property of man, Who Mone is privileged to Will Dom antecedent principies, Orsrom a foregone intuition Os ends : it does not exist in the brute
Τhe Word principie implies Whatever determines the Will, and gives it a characteristic quali ty. There are principies Whichare physical, that is to say, proper to the body and the blood;
suta are the different aspections of the animus, the pleasureS Ofthe Same, the allurements of the externat senses, the deligitis of the Worid, kc. Τhere are also rational principies, Or principies that rogard an eud, and Whicli relatively thereio, VieWed
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in conjuncti On With meatis, determine and enter the Will, whichthencelarili is properly denominated Wili. Again, there are principies that govern the will, Which may be called divine principies ; Where the end that should determine the will to actionis too ulterior to terminate in this lila. This principie, hoWever, belongs to a higher degree, and is Of a sublimer character; sor it does not depend upon Ourseives, and it goverus ali Other principies; so that indeed it must not be considered as a principie, but res a superior Will. Yet as it ultimately onters the human Will, and determines it, so it may be designated as a principie ascribable to God.
Fuith is that peculiar faculty in man whereby he belleves in Almighty God, in Christ the Savior of the worid, and in allthat the revealed Word of the Sacred Scripture dictates : consequently it is a principie of the Will, but divine, or ascribableto God Mone. Wheu laith as a principie eulers the Will, and thereaster the action, then the action is not considered us actionbut as fuith. Love exactly Leeps pace With saith, sor Whoever has fuith amounting to confidence in God, has also the accompanimentos love res inseparabie Dom faith; sor the grace of God is universat, in that When He gives laith he also gives Iove, and thelove in creases in the fame degree as the fuith; and Whun thusaith is conjoined With Iove, it theti for the first time constitutessaving or true laith. Historical salth, hoWever, is only the science or linoWledge of What reatly is, and even the deviis
have it, for they know that there is a God Who is suci, as Hois described in the Holy Scriptures : but this cannot justly be
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Rre mere abstractions. To falle a vulgar illustration. We may say that this tendon possesses an elastic poWer, or nn endeRVOr to
cipie. The sume holds of suith and action. Faith is a principio of the will, and the wili is the principie of action. Is action
principio opposed to laith. Τhe tree then is known only by the fruit, and faith by Wortis, accordiim to the impressive WOrds os Our Savior and the apostles; but not by itself thout good Wortis; for this is contrary to the Word os God. This may bo illustraled stili more ad equalely by other than merely physical similes, like that whicli me lately borrowedfroin the tendons; thus it may be illustraled by Iove, friend-shis, and an infinity of other assections, Which enter the will, to constitute iis principies. The simile stiready adopted is hoWever sufficient, as being of a physical character, it the bellor impresses the senses, Whicli are Within the sphere os physios. For this reason it is that comparisons derived frOm trees, Domoil, hom seed, hom selds, and DOm sensis, are made use Osto illustrato the fame subject in the Holy Scripture. The comparison is more closely appropriate than at firsi might be sup- posed. Indeed the wili cannot be more fitly compared, than th endeavor, and action, than With motion. Only add living
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It sol lows therelare, that the doctrine that fuith without
the resistance being eques to tho ospori put forth by the subjeci: liko the olastici ty of a flexed tendon, Whicli constantly reactS, Or
demors to aut, removing ns it Were impossibilities; in Whiclica se that One mite Whicli the poor WidoW casis into the treasury, Will be of more avail thun the goiden gifts of the rich. More-over God supplies possibilities to prove our faith; possibilities fittod lo individuals; thus ho allowed Abraham to offer up his 8011; tO SV nothing of numberless other instances Whicli areto be found in the Sacred Scriptures. There is then no doubi remaining, that love to God involves Iove to the neighbor. Lovo to the neighbor is identicat withthe performance of good Wortis, Or With loving him in reality, that is to say, With performing toWards him the duties of Iove,
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be partiat in Our bonosiis, as is Ono individual Was more lovedos God than another; for in sucti a judgment We are almOStsure to be deceived. Our province Iies in judging of actions, With a vieW to the conservation os society; but it is reserved forGod lo judge of the principies of action. It is assigned to us
body to merited punishment, or even to death itself; but thusotat is alWays Iest to tho judgment of the omniscient God. The conclusion is, that there is no Iove to God is there bonone to the neighbor; or that there is no fuith, is there bo noworks; and that is there be love or faith a part DOm WOrtis, they are destroyed by various principies contrary to the love OfGod and to genuine laith; and in this Way love and satili are What condemn us. Theresere fuith without works is a phrase in-VOlving a contradiction; a phrase in Whicli the predicate ignores the subjeci; a position of something Dom nothing, of the possibJe Dom the impossibio; a distinction inadmissibio in this lisse. In the future liso, love to God may be suid to exist Without
the performatice of the duties of love to the neighbor. True; but in this case love and fuith aro not considered as saviii g; larthe SOut is ulready either faven or condemned; and nil themeans, Whicli consist in doing the duties of love to tho Deighbo 'are talien aWay, because the body, Whicli is the subject of action, is extinct. Theres ore sumptuous Dives Wished to return to lise, that he might be able to minister to pOOr LRZRTIIS.
But on this subjeci see the author's Work on Heaven and Heli, On the occupations of the Angeis in Heaven, Where it is shewn that every one there perlarmsa use; sor the Lord's kingdom is a Lingdom os uses. V Also that in heaven thereare ecclesiasticat, civit and domestic uses ; and that the emplOymenis there are too abundant for enumeration, those on earin being DW in comparisOn : furinermore that man after destin is in a perfect human forin, and possessed os ali the Sen8e8, memory, thought, and assection, that he had in the world; and that when he entersthe other lila, he is in a body, as he was in the wOrid.- Tro