New Englander and Yale Review Volume 4 (Paperback)

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. 1846 Excerpt: ...in their day, furnished from the same quarter. It is at the basis of Brownson's argument for his present church. Such a certainty as this is not to be sought for. It is contrary to the very laws of our being as men. It is not required by us in the practical concerns of this life. He that will have it in religion, rebels against the laws of his nature. He would be as a God, knowing good and evil, and is not content to be a man, " shut up to faith." As long as it is pursued, so long will it undermine the foundations of all faith, render uncertain the holiest truths, and madden the inquirer, whether honest or dishonest, with a wretched scepticism. Nor is this certainty to be desired. For a rest in heaven it is desirable, and there it will be found, but it is not desirable for this life of test, of trial, of labor and of struggle, in preparation for that reward. Demonstration renders faith impossible, excludes its merit, and robs it of its crown. Had Blanco White seen and felt this, he would have sought more wisely, and perhaps would have found rest for his wearied spirit. Had he but seen that faith is and ought to be a moral act, and that therefore the truth which is its object, is and must be so presented, that it can be received or rejected, he would have been rid of one fatal and paralyzing incubus upon all his inquiries. Then would he have been prepared to ask whether Christianity, as a moral system with its great facts, is not armed with a power which should constrain the faith of every right-hearted man. Having seen this to be true, next he might have raised the question whether it was not revealed from God. This brings us to the second capital error in his inquiries. The error was this--' If there be a revelation from God to man, it must be a r...