T. _But what do you understand by that Expression of Christ's,_
Doing the Will of my Father.
_S._ I understand it to be the Will of God, that we should live
virtuous, upright, and good-doing Lives; as the Prophet understood
it, when he said, _What doth the Lord require of thee, O Man, but to
do justly, love Mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord thy God._
T. _But is not Faith recommended in the New Testament as well
as Morality?_
_S._ Tis true, it is. Faith is recommended as a Means of
producing Morality: Our Saviour was a Teacher of Morality or Virtue,
and they that were deficient and desired to be taught, ought first to
_believe_ in him as an able and faithful Teacher. Thus Faith would
be a Means of producing Morality, and Morality of Salvation. But
that from such Faith alone Salvation may be expected, appears to me
to be neither a Christian Doctrine nor a reasonable one. And I
should as soon expect, that my bare Believing Mr. _Grew_ to be an
excellent Teacher of the Mathematicks, would make me a Mathematician,
as that Believing in Christ would of it self make a Man a Christian.
T. _Perhaps you may think, that tho' Faith alone cannot save a
Man, Morality or Virtue alone, may._
_S._ Morality or Virtue is the End, Faith only a Means to
obtain that End: And if the End be obtained, it is no matter by what
Means. What think you of these Sayings of Christ, when he was
reproached for conversing chiefly with gross Sinners, _The whole,_
says he, _need not a Physician, but they that are sick;_ and, _I come
not to call the Righteous, but Sinners, to Repentance:_ Does not this
imply, that there were good Men, who, without Faith in him, were in a
State of Salvation? And moreover, did he not say of _Nathanael_,
while he was yet an Unbeliever in him, and thought no Good could
possibly come out of Nazareth, _Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom
there is no Guile!_ that is, _behold a virtuous upright Man.
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