Excerpt from The Works of the Reverend William Law, Vol. 5
For they all express something that is true of the Sacrament, and therefore are every one of them, in a good Sense, rightly applicable to it; but all of them are far short of expressing the whole Nature of the Sacrament, and therefore the Help of all of them is wanted. He therefore that contends for one Name, as the only proper one in Exclusion of the rest, is in the same Mistake, as he that should contend for one Name and Character of our Saviour, as the only proper one, in Exclusion of all the rest. For as all the Names and Titles by which Christ is described, from the Seed of the Woman in Genesis, to the Alpha and Omega in the last Chapter of the Revelation, are only to help us to know, believe, and experience more of him as our Saviour, than can be expressed by all these different Characters of him: So all the various Names and Titles given to the Sacrament, are only to teach us to know, believe, and find more of our Redemption and Salvation in the Sacrament, than can be pointed out to us by any or all of these Expressions."
To those who require Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel the following passage is commended:
But it may be you will say, you would believe the Gospel if you could, but that its Evidence cannot have that Effect upon your Mind, You may say also, the Gospel is a Matter of Fact; you must examine into the Truth of it, as you do into the Truth of other Matters of History; and as both the internal and external Evidence of the Gospel is much defended and opposed by learned Men, its Evidence is so perplexed, and made a Matter of such laborious and intricate Enquiry, that your Mind cannot come at any Certainty of what you ought to believe concerning the Truth of it. I will therefore propose to you the shortest, and at the same time the surest of all Methods.... I don"t recommend to you to lay aside Prejudice, and begin again the Controversy from the Bottom, and read all on both Sides with all the Impartiality that you can. I would as soon send you on a Pilgrimage, to be a Penitent, as propose to you this Travel to be a Christian. The Truth of the Gospel lies much nearer to us than we imagine, and we only dispute and wrangle ourselves into a Distance from it.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Works of the Reverend William Law, Vol. 5 (Classic Reprint) (William Law)