Title Page
[Way-1-1] Humanus.…
[Way-1-2] But these great points cannot be received in any TRUE degree…
[Way-1-3] On the other hand, I find in myself a vehement impulse to turn preacher amongst…
[Way-1-4] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-5] Your business is now to give way to this heavenly working of the Spirit of…
[Way-1-6] For be assured of this, as a certain truth…
[Way-1-7] For the soul of every man is the breath and life of the triune God…
[Way-1-8] Only remember this; look well to the ground on which you stand…
[Way-1-9] Therefore, my friend, set out right, and be assured of this truth…
[Way-1-10] Here now you have the test of truth, by which you may always know…
[Way-1-11] But if you please, Humanus, pray tell me, in what manner you would attempt to…
[Way-1-12] Humanus.…
[Way-1-13] And, on the other hand, should the Deist yield up such a cause as this…
[Way-1-14] For since the fall of man, implying a real change from his first state…
[Way-1-15] For the gospel has but one ground, or reason…
[Way-1-16] How unreasonable would it be, to offer the Christian redemption to glorious angels in heaven?…
[Way-1-17] Thus does it appear, that the fall of man…
[Way-1-18] Hence it is that the gospel has only one simple proposal of certain life…
[Way-1-19] To embrace the gospel is to enter with all our hearts into its terms of…
[Way-1-20] This therefore is the one TRUE essential distinction between the Christian and the infidel.…
[Way-1-21] On the other hand, the Christian renounces the world…
[Way-1-22] Where this faith is, there is the Christian, the new creature in Christ…
[Way-1-23] But where this faith is not, there is the true…
[Way-1-24] Here therefore I fix my TRUE ground of converting men to Christianity…
[Way-1-25] He therefore that opens a field of controversy to the Deist…
[Way-1-26] For I had frequently a consciousness rising up within me…
[Way-1-27] This is the infidelity that you have forced me to fly from…
[Way-1-28] But, dear Theophilus, I must now tell you that I want to make haste in…
[Way-1-29] An angel my first father was created, and therefore nothing but the angel belongs to…
[Way-1-30] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-31] It is no extravagance, or overstraining the matter, when we say…
[Way-1-32] Academicus.…
[Way-1-33] Pray, Academicus, give me leave also to say…
[Way-1-34] Would you know the TRUE nature of angelic goodness…
[Way-1-35] See here, Academicus, the folly of your quarrelling with the word "angelic…
[Way-1-36] A virtue that is only according to the state of this earthly life…
[Way-1-37] Bid the anatomist, that can skillfully dissect an human body…
[Way-1-38] Now learned reason, when pretending to be a master of morality…
[Way-1-39] It is wonderfully astonishing, that you men of learning seldom come thus far…
[Way-1-40] Oh! Academicus, forget your scholarship, give up your art and criticism…
[Way-1-41] Thus far the masters of morality and human discipline may go…
[Way-1-42] This, Academicus, is angelic goodness; and is the goodness of those who are born again…
[Way-1-43] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-44] Now this one great point consists of two essential parts…
[Way-1-45] For if man is fallen from a divine life…
[Way-1-46] If he is thus fallen, has died this death to a divine life…
[Way-1-47] Strange it is therefore beyond expression, that every man…
[Way-1-48] Thus do these two Testaments begin with the most open declarations of these two things…
[Way-1-49] But seeing man is dead to his first life…
[Way-1-50] Next after Moses came the prophets, or the spirit of prophecy…
[Way-1-51] Thus, my friend, you see the importance of this one point…
[Way-1-52] How many hundred barns must there be, to hold all the learned volumes…
[Way-1-53] Humanus.…
[Way-1-54] Why was the Son of God made man? It was because man was to be…
[Way-1-55] Thus, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden…
[Way-1-56] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-57] Humanus.…
[Way-1-58] Moses is the first historian of natural death, and has recorded the death of the…
[Way-1-59] Thus it is with the fall; we have no more occasion to go to Moses…
[Way-1-60] My first attempt therefore, upon any man, to convince him of the fall…
[Way-1-61] What is all this, but the strongest proof, that man is the only creature that…
[Way-1-62] Now all this evil and misery are purely the natural and necessary effect of his…
[Way-1-63] But the Christian has yet an additional proof of his matter…
[Way-1-64] Thus, "Let us make man in our image; according to our own likeness.…
[Way-1-65] Is not this a full proof, that the first created life of man is quite…
[Way-1-66] "The grossness, impurity, sickness, pain, and corruption of our bodies…
[Way-1-67] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-68] Humanus.…
[Way-1-69] The beasts have no ignorance of anything, that concerns them…
[Way-1-70] Reason, therefore, is so far from being able to help man to that knowledge…
[Way-1-71] Now suppose man to come thus into the world…
[Way-1-72] But I believe Academicus wants to say something, and therefore I have done.…
[Way-1-73] Academicus.…
[Way-1-74] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-75] But however, to remove your difficulty, I shall give you a little sketch of the…
[Way-1-76] Now supposing God to have brought a new intelligent creature into a new world…
[Way-1-77] This is the one only possible way for a good…
[Way-1-78] Which inquiry, being given into, ended in the real knowledge of this good and evil…
[Way-1-79] Supposing therefore the fall of man, which is a fact attested…
[Way-1-80] Academicus.…
[Way-1-81] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-82] The fall of angels must be supposed to have been as soon after their creation…
[Way-1-83] Now as the lust of Adam, when it had obtained its desire…
[Way-1-84] To ask therefore, why the fallen angels continue in their state…
[Way-1-85] To ask therefore, why the fallen angels were not helped by the mercy and goodness…
[Way-1-86] For what are we to understand by the mercy and goodness of God? His mercy…
[Way-1-87] And his light, and Holy Spirit, cannot enter into a creature…
[Way-1-88] This therefore you may rest upon, as a certain truth…
[Way-1-89] And therefore it is, that fallen man was immediately helped…
[Way-1-90] And therefore the goodness of God, or his light…
[Way-1-91] As to your last question, whether I believe the final restoration of all the fallen…
[Way-1-92] For it can neither be sufficiently affirmed, nor sufficiently denied…
[Way-1-93] Now if anyone can show, that the devils are not essentially evil…
[Way-1-94] But unless it could be shown from a TRUE ground in nature…
[Way-1-95] For time cannot alter the nature or essence of things…
[Way-1-96] Now if the fallen angels have nothing heavenly in them…
[Way-1-97] But we have launched far enough in a deep that does not belong unto us…
[Way-1-98] Humanus.…
[Way-1-99] Now to press a man to deny himself, and leave all that he hath in…
[Way-1-100] And indeed I very well know, from former experience…
[Way-1-101] Here therefore, in my humble opinion, should all begin…
[Way-1-102] The one business then upon his hands, if he will hold out against you…
[Way-1-103] This is the TRUE height, and depth, and total strength of Deism or infidelity…
[Way-1-104] If therefore Christianity is in the hands of scholars…
[Way-1-105] But the truth of the matter is this; Christian redemption is God's mercy to all…
[Way-1-106] For this salvation, which is God's mercy to the fallen soul of man…
[Way-1-107] Now in this sensibility, which every man's own nature leads him into…
[Way-1-108] This is the Christianity which every man must first be made sensible of…
[Way-1-109] Theophilus.…
[Way-1-110] Nothing can be more right than your resolution not to enter into debate about the…
[Way-1-111] And wherever the heart is weary of the evil and vanity of the earthly life…
[Way-1-112] Let me now only, before we break up, observe to you the TRUE ground and…
[Way-1-113] But when the Son of God had taken a birth in and from the human…
[Way-1-114] The Holy Ghost descended in the shape of cloven tongues of fire on the heads…
[Way-1-115] Hence it was, that sinners of all sorts, that felt the burden of their evil…
[Way-1-116] Here therefore, my friend, you are to place the TRUE distinction of gospel Christianity from…
[Way-1-117] He that adheres only to the history of the facts…
[Way-1-118] It is in vain therefore for the modern Christian…
[Way-1-119] But a learned Christianity, supported and governed by reason…
[Way-1-120] For the truth of Christianity is the Spirit of God living and working in it…
[Way-1-121] For the spiritual life is as much its own proof…
[Way-2-2] All my acquaintance have the same complaint that I here make…
[Way-2-3] Oh this impatient scholar! How many troubles do I escape…
[Way-2-4] "John," said I, "shall I bring a man to you…
[Way-2-5] "And, as I was that morning going to my sheep…
[Way-2-6] "When my Betty used to read this, or some such words of Christ…
[Way-2-7] "When he, like an Elijah, in his fiery chariot…
[Way-2-8] "As I have but one end in hearing the scriptures read to me…
[Way-2-9] "Now these lofty and mysterious words, instead of puzzling my head…
[Way-2-10] "Bring not therefore your cunning man, that has skill in words…
[Way-2-11] Thus ended honest old John the shepherd.…
[Way-2-12] But the truth is, you have only heard these fundamental matters…
[Way-2-13] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-14] Academicus.…
[Way-2-15] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-16] Now all this circle of science and arts, whether liberal or mechanic…
[Way-2-17] This is Christian redemption; on the one side, it is the heavenly divine life offering…
[Way-2-18] Now, whether this awakened, new man breathes forth his faith and hope towards this divine…
[Way-2-19] And therefore, sir, no truths concerning the divine and heavenly life are to be brought…
[Way-2-20] For the doctrines of redemption belong no more to the natural man…
[Way-2-21] Jesus Christ is the light of that heavenly man that died in paradise…
[Way-2-22] Academicus.…
[Way-2-23] Now this TRUE ground of the Christian redemption gives the greatest glory to God and…
[Way-2-24] But now, though this one ground of Christian redemption stands in the highest degree of…
[Way-2-25] It would take up near half a day, to tell you the work which my…
[Way-2-26] Following the advice of all these counselors, as well as I could…
[Way-2-27] "Could you therefore, be content to be one of the primitive Christians…
[Way-2-28] "Look up to Christ, as your redeemer, your regenerator…
[Way-2-29] "God is a spirit, in whom you live and move and have your being…
[Way-2-30] So ended Rusticus.…
[Way-2-31] What a project was it, to be grasping after the knowledge of all the opinions…
[Way-2-32] How easy was it for me to have seen with Rusticus…
[Way-2-33] But now I go back to that which I first spoke of…
[Way-2-34] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-35] Further, he may be considered, 4.…
[Way-2-36] There are two sorts of people to whom he forbids the use of his books…
[Way-2-37] In this advice, so different from that of other writers…
[Way-2-38] Secondly, the other sort of people, whom he excludes from his books…
[Way-2-39] And now, Academicus, you may see how needless it is to ask me…
[Way-2-40] Academicus.…
[Way-2-41] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-42] This is the great scene of his eternal wisdom and omnipotence…
[Way-2-43] Out of this transcendent eternal nature, which is as universal and immense as the Deity…
[Way-2-44] This is in part what you are first to understand concerning the mystery.…
[Way-2-45] But, secondly, it is a mystery, in which the creation and fall of angels…
[Way-2-46] Thirdly, it is a mystery, in which the ground of Christian redemption…
[Way-2-47] This, sir, is, in some degree, the mystery which it has pleased the Spirit of…
[Way-2-48] Academicus.…
[Way-2-49] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-50] Behold, now, what a flagrant proof you have given of the vanity…
[Way-2-51] Academicus.…
[Way-2-52] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-53] Again, you can have no real knowledge of nature…
[Way-2-54] To count the stars, to observe their places or motions…
[Way-2-55] This world, with all its stars, elements, and creatures…
[Way-2-56] If man himself was not all these three things…
[Way-2-57] For God can only manifest that, which there is to be manifested…
[Way-2-58] We are led into mistakes about this matter from the common practice of the world…
[Way-2-59] From this idea of knowledge it is, that when this rational man turns his thoughts…
[Way-2-60] He turns his mind to hearsay, to conjecture, to criticism…
[Way-2-61] This is the great delusion which has long overspread the Christian world…
[Way-2-62] Now this is strictly the incapacity of reason, to speak…
[Way-2-63] Secondly, natural reason, whenever judging or ruling in divine matters…
[Way-2-64] Academicus.…
[Way-2-65] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-66] For nothing that is brought into the mind from without…
[Way-2-67] One would have thought, Academicus, that this advice, if only from the uncommon nature of…
[Way-2-68] Truth, my friend, whatever you may think of it…
[Way-2-69] Hear therefore its own language: "If any man will be my disciple…
[Way-2-70] God created us in and for the light; and had Adam kept his first state…
[Way-2-71] The schools of this world are of no higher a nature…
[Way-2-72] Would you therefore be a divine philosopher, you must be a TRUE Christian…
[Way-2-73] Academicus.…
[Way-2-74] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-75] Academicus.…
[Way-2-76] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-77] Every other thing, besides the life and light of God…
[Way-2-78] Academicus.…
[Way-2-79] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-80] For nothing leads or carries you anywhere, nothing generates either life or death in you…
[Way-2-81] For where the will of man is not, there he hath nothing…
[Way-2-82] Academicus.…
[Way-2-83] Theophilus.…
[Way-2-84] And herein consisteth the infinite goodness of God, in the birth of all intelligent creatures…
[Way-2-85] And here, my friend, you have an easy entrance into the TRUE meaning of many…
[Way-2-86] Now magic power meaneth nothing but the working of the will…
[Way-2-87] The first manifestation of the invisible God, is that which is called…
[Way-2-88] This manifestation of God is a magic birth from the triune working will of the…
[Way-2-89] Now this same working will of the triune Deity…
[Way-2-90] Now everything that is not God, but after him…
[Way-2-91] Would you know now the TRUE ground of all this? It is this…
[Way-2-92] And now, sir, you are come into a full view of the most important matter…
[Way-2-93] For nothing is effected by fiction and invention, by any contrived arts or searchings of…
[Way-2-94] Now here you see, in the utmost degree of clearness…
[Way-2-95] Hence it is, that our author so often tells his reader…
[Way-2-96] I said, into the truth and reality of nature…
[Way-2-97] For the Word of God which saveth and redeemeth…
[Way-2-98] Again, see here in a still higher degree of proof the absolute necessity…
[Way-2-99] All the mysteries of religion, and the necessity of the whole process of Christ in…
[Way-2-100] Nor does this at all too much exalt the human will…
[Way-2-101] And thus, sir, you see, that every soul of man is partly human…
[Way-2-102] And thus, from this knowledge of the magic nature of things…
[Way-2-103] The short is this: the whole matter of religion relates only to life and death.…
Links
