The Book of Religions: Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical SketchesHayward, John
Religion
The Book of Religions: Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical Sketches
Hayward, John
Christian biography; Religions; Sects
“Here I must be permitted to say, that the repeated and full
statements of my opinions, which I have already made to the
public, would seem to be sufficient to prevent or remove such
suspicions. The course you propose, however, may furnish
information to some who would desire it before they form an
opinion, as well as the means of correcting the misrepresentations
of others. I therefore readily comply with your request, and
submit to your disposal the following statement of my belief on
some of the leading doctrines of the gospel. I believe,—
“1. That there are three persons in one God,—the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost.
“2. That the eternal purposes of God extend to all actual events,
sin not excepted; or that God foreordains whatsoever comes to
pass, and so executes these purposes, as to leave the free moral
agency of man unimpaired.
“3. That all mankind, in consequence of the fall of Adam, are born
destitute of holiness, and are by nature totally depraved; in
other words, that all men, from the commencement of moral agency,
do, without the interposition of divine grace, sin, and only sin,
in all their moral conduct.
“4. That an atonement for sin has been made for all mankind by the
Lord Jesus Christ; that this atonement was necessary to magnify
the law, and to vindicate and unfold the justice of God in the
pardon of sin; and that the sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ is freely justified on the ground of his atoning sacrifice,
and on that ground alone.
“5. That the change in regeneration is a _moral_ change,
consisting in a new, holy disposition, or governing purpose of the
heart, as a permanent principle of action; in which change, the
sinner transfers the _supreme_ affection of his heart from all
inferior objects to the living God, chooses him as the portion of
his soul, and his service and glory as his supreme good, and thus,
in respect to moral character, becomes a _new man_.
“6. That this moral change is never produced in the human heart by
_moral suasion_, i. e., by the mere influence of truth and
motives, as the Pelagians affirm, but is produced by the influence
of the Holy Spirit, operating on the mind through the truth, and
in perfect consistency with the nature of moral action, and laws
of moral agency.
“7. That all men (in the words of the article of your church) may
accept of the offers of salvation freely made to them in the
gospel, but that no one will do this, except he be drawn by the
Father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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