Additional Statements in Defence of My Doctrinal Position and in Vindication of My Plea for Doctrinal Reform (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.1878 Excerpt: ... rating, as it does, the Gospel from the general system of the universe, reducing it to a mere after-thought of God, and as grounding the divine action, in this respect, in a something which happens in time, contradicting, on the face of it, the whole Calvinistic theory, which, as properly held, makes no part of the divine action to turn upon what happens in time at all. Nor can it be justly advanced, as a note even of difference between Law and Gospel, not to speak of it as a point disproving identity, that "the law is God's demand of obedience." "The obedience of faith," as belonging to the Gospel, is as imperative as anything in the law; and although it is true, that "the Gospel is God's offer of mercy and eternal life," or rather God's gift of eternal life; it is equally true that the offer or the gift is to some extent conditional, and to that extent, according to the Confession itself, it entirely resembles the law, under which "life was promised to Adam, upon condition of perfect obedience." In both cases we come into the region of conditions, and that means coming under the reign of law. IV.--The Doctrine Of Human Depravity. "What is meant by characterizing the condensed answer as defective is, not that the preceding portion is regarded as of a different character, but that the answer as a whole, and as summed up and stated in a final shape, intended to convey the gist and drift of the whole, states a doctrine which is regarded as defective. The Confession explicitly asserts that 'a natural man is not able of his own strength to convert himself It seems doubtful whether Mr. Ferguson holds this doctrine." (Question 3). If the task is assigned to one of draining the whole ocean of truth, and he leaves one drop undrained, of course his work is defective...