It will be observed that I have included under the term “reason” the whole of our mental processes which are necessary for the cognition and the discovery of truth. These include, not only our powers of inductive and deductive reasoning, but our intuitions, our forms of thought, those powers of our mind, which whether intuitional or instinctive, form the foundation of many of our most important convictions and our moral conceptions. These constitute our reason as distinct from our reasoning powers. No little confusion has been introduced into this controversy from the want of attending to this distinction. It has been asserted that we can accept things as matters of faith which to our reason would be utterly incredible. This assertion has arisen from the confusion of things which differ widely, viz. things which our reason might have been unable to discover, but which when discovered may be perfectly rational, and things directly contradictory to reason. The existence for example of a square circle is a thing absolutely incredible, and while thus contradictory to reason, it is impossible to accept it by faith. So would any doctrine which in a similar manner contradicted the first principles of our rational convictions. No more pernicious principle can be laid down than that things which are contradictory to our reason can be accepted by the principle of faith. Such a principle would divide the human mind into two hostile camps, and if carried to its logical consequences, must land us in universal scepticism. It by no means follows that things which transcend our rational powers to discover must be contrary to our reason when they have been discovered. We can only arrive at the knowledge of unknown facts by observation, or accept them on the testimony of others. Until they have been brought within our knowledge in this way, no amount of reasoning could lead to their discovery. In a similar manner with respect to several of the facts in the New Testament connected with the Incarnation, our reason might never have discovered them, but when they have been discovered, they may form suitable subjects on which to exert its energies. The whole of the confusion in which this question has become involved has originated in the assumption that faith is a faculty of the mind distinct and separate from our reason, and in a certain sense opposed to it; and that things which cannot be subjects of rational conviction may yet be the objects of faith. Whatever opinions may have been held by divines upon this subject, I can discover nothing which countenances them in the New Testament.