Essays, Selected from Contributions to the Edinburgh Review (Volume 2); Theological and Political (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. 1850. Excerpt: ... 250 REASON AND FAITH; THEIR CLAIMS AND CONFLICTS 'Reason and Faith, ' says one of our old divines, with the quaintness characteristic of his day, 'resemble the two sons of the patriarch; Reason is the first-born, but Faith inherits the blessing.' The image is ingenious, and the antithesis striking; but nevertheless the sentiment is far from just. It is hardly right to represent Faith as younger than Reason: the fact undoubtedly being, that human creatures trust and believe, long before they reason or know. The truth is, that both Reason and Faith are coeval with the nature of man, and were designed to dwell in his heart together. They are, and ever were, and, in such creatures as ourselves, must be, reciprocally complementary;--neither can exclude the other. It is as impossible to exercise an acceptable faith without reason for so exercising it, --that is, without exercising reason while we exercise faith f, --as it is 'Edinburgh Review, ' Oct. 1849; with an Appendix. 1. Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte. Eighth edition, pp. 60. 8vo. London. 2. The Nemesis of Faith. By J. A. Froude, M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. 12mo. London: pp. 227. 3. Popular Christianity, its Transition State and Probable Development. By F. J. Foxton, B.A.; formerly of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Perpetual Curate of Stoke Prior and Docklow, Herefordshire. 12mo. London: pp.226. f Let it not be said that this is playing upon an ambiguity in the word Reason; considered in the first clause as an argument; and, to apprehend by our reason, exclusive of faith, all the truths on which we are daily compelled to act, whether in relation to this world or the next. Neither is it right to represent either of them as failing of the promised heritage, except as both may fail ...