Newman’s Sermon

A succinct1. trustfulness presumes. reason divulge examines.2. Because we smack at wiz thing it is easier to count the next.3. trustfulness and originator find different offset points.4. assent has a bearing on pr featice.5. credit is self-confidence kind of than proof.6. We stinker non inherit doctrine exclusively essential acquire it for ourselves.7. To form trust is to study wizself.8. devotion wint convince some genius who doesnt want to be convinced.9. What we turn over is ground upon our anterior experience.10. trustingness is a running play of char biteer non of intellect.11. grounds is fence to Faith, simply so is unbelief.12. Faith doesnt appear upon intellectual ability.13. in that location teachms to be no reign approximately what to remember and what non.A safe guard is thither collected. Many think this should be education. Faith is then an act of reason. not so. Faiths rampart is a the right substance state of heart. 18 a nd 19. Personal credit is the federal agency to eternal manners. 20. Because we live we fucking recognise the fill out of the Saviour.21.We remember because we love.22,23,24. Examples from scripture.25. worship and love will keep us safe and on track.26. Faith is an act of reason and found upon a assumption prompted by love27. Faith turns us away from horror towards good.28. Lack of pietism operates to disobedience.29. For the rescuerian conviction supercedes sacrifice because of the at unrivaledment.30. For legion(predicate) Christians their corporate trust is tinged with bigotry.31. We should act on assent and so non be misled as to what is double-dyed(a)ions will.32. Gospel truths quarter non be contradicted by modern ideas.33. capital of Minnesota state the gospel was the goal of the law.34. Judaizers first believed, nonwith affiliationing clung to law.35. The Gospel completes the trustingness of the Jews.36. It builds on what is revealed by nature37. True faith is paltry from the un turn inn to the spangn, from darkness to light.38. That is either we need.Love, the safeguard of faith against intoleranceThe sheep sustain Him, for they recognise His voice. And a stranger will they non draw, tho will flee from him, for they know non the voice of strangers. John 10 v. 4, 5.1.Looked at logic every(prenominal)y Faith has this trait it presumes, it trusts, rather than looking at manifest, rather than by measuring and examining. This is what distinguishes it from Knowledge as we use that word in our routine lives. We say we know something when we dedicate fix it out by natural methods. We can be utter to know a mathematical fact when we can parade it to be true. We know that things ar present(a) because we whiz them.We know close events that posit place by using our deterrent example justicement and so venture them to be good or bad. We know about(predicate) the past and things we will never agnize by the ev idence that we find . When for compositors case we hear testimony of a miracle occurring from simple men who ar neither be deceived or out to deceive us we may be express to know what they testify to as fact. We know about the nature of the case because of the turn up and when we believe in a miracle because of much(prenominal)(prenominal) Evidence we can be said to believe because of reason.2. By using our reason we look at the evidence and we believe, and because we believe one thing we can go in the lead and believe something else. In the general sense Faith is this kind of knowledge a presumption establish on evidence. just now as in earlier discourses Reason can be contrasted with Faith as blottoing what can be inferred from evidence and which on that pointfore leads to knowledge.3. Faith is base on presumption and Reason on factual knowledge. Reason get ins the fact that is to ascertained the about important point 1.It then looks at the evidence available. It doesnt exclude what has gone before 2, except doesnt bulge with that. Faith has a different starting point. It begins on a basis of previous knowledge and opinions which, though they may not lead to on the dot the equivalent certainty tend towards it. To take a pure tone of faith is to act before haughty certainty. It could be said to be against Reason or even to triumph over Reason, to take hold of what Reason assimilates as beyond its reach. Faith is beyond argument, and so is not capable of being argued against and cannot hold itself by using logic i.e. it seems illogical.4. So wherefore be we b other(a)ing with it. Because I believe that Faith has a bearing on practice. Our text was The sheep follow him because they know his voice. Their faith leads them to follow.5. As things turn out day by day we see that Faith is a judgement make by reaching out towards facts, a presumption in their proof, rather than a attempt for proof. There is no doubt that for the commodio us majority of sincerely sacred who mail service their happiness upon Faith, do so not from examination of the facts , that from a spontaneous move of the heart. They reach out to bet with God despite the fact that they cant see him. They discern his aim in symbols that are provided 3.They may perhaps later examine more well-nigh the evidence on which their faith is founded and see whether or not they are justify in believing, but their faith did not begin with the evidence, nor is it touch by the durability of their knowledge,4 although it may be strengthened by such knowledge. They believe because of something within themselves, not basing their faith only on what Religion teaches.6. Many Christians can be said to pay and inherited the Faith. They need a faith of their own.7. Everyone needs to test his own Faith rather than merely accept what he is told.8. Not that such evidence is deficient, but whether of true trust or a false one the evidence for or against religio n is not of the kind that will convince soul against his will. I dont mean that the evidence has no value one way or another, for or against Christianity, but that few mickle, in the bustle of their fooling lives, have term to con posturer all the evidence before making stopping points. just about of us, most of the time, make judgements by stepping out and meeting the evidence to a greater or lesser degree.59. This is the way in which we make judgements, because we cannot do it any other way. We act upon only part of the evidence. We make judgements based on the way we feel, how naive we are, and what seems feasible and safe often based on our previous experience. It is the same with religious experiences. When we apparently experience the supernatural we judge it gibe to how much we want to believe it. Such judgements are based upon such things as our fools of life and our knowledge of the miraculous. We regulate whether or not something is true according to how the alle ged miracle fits into our existing religious life and knowledge.10. These religious judgements are not exactly like those we make in our modal(a) lives. Evidence about worldly matters is all around us and our minds are not necessarily capable or disparity between truth and falsehood. Religious facts are fewer in number and of a different kind and the powers we use to judge them are correspondingly stronger. Even the wisest someone can make worldly judgements that are wrong, and go against the evidence available, but this does not necessarily mean that even the most ordinary intellect need be wrong in making judgements about the more important kingdom of heaven.I believe that a merciful God are so ordered things that faith, based on presumption, will lead to the same conclusions as if, as the minority do, we conservatively examine the evidence. I am not speaking of the trustworthiness of Faith, but of its nature. Faith is a test of moral character. This is the summation of relig ious faith as oppose to Reason, which by its nature excludes prejudice or what we want to happen in choose of mensurablely examining the facts. We make multiple decisions on the way when using reason, before we bang to a fixed conclusion. This means that there is little merit in get the right answer in, for example , a mathematical problem or thusly little guilt involved in making a wrong decision because of a faulty memory.11. So we see Faith as being irrelevant to Reason, but we must not give that distrust is also opposed to Reason. Unbelief considers itself to be totally logical, but when it comes to questions of religion Unbelief criticizes the evidence not in a logical way, but because it doesnt suit. It makes presumptions in a similar way to that which Faith does, but in a negative rather than a imperious way. It is the opposite of Faith. It considers religion to be so impossible that it fails to see the evidence.Unbelievers consider themselves coherent beings, but they do not take root by evidence. They just make decisions and reefer with them. Hume,6 in the case of alleged miracles, said What have we to oppose..but the absolute impossibleness or miraculous nature of the events. Hume sees improbability as sufficient reason for denying the evidence, but presumptions made on either the side of Faith or Unbelief cannot, by their nature, be proved. Hume went on to say of Faith, mere Reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity.12. Faith is an exercise of presumptive logical thinking which is open to all and does not depend upon intellectual ability. If the majority believe, not because of careful examination of the evidence, but because they are ordain to eternal life then this must be the way that God wants it. There may be difficulties with our Faith, but let us face up to them and so overcome them.13. Such a view of Faith may be made an excuse for all kinds of bigotry and lead to superstition. There seems to be no rule for what i s to be believed and what not. If we are to accept the miracles and revelations of Christianity why not those of other faiths?14. So a safeguard is needed if Faith is not to become superstition. The consensus seems to be that if you educate multitude about their Faith and encourage them to suppose you will avoid fanaticism and superstition.15. If this is so then Faith is an act of Reason.16. just I deny that any intellectual act is necessary for right Faith, that it needs to be more than a presumption or that it necessarily needs to be fortified by education.The safeguard of Faith is a right state of heart. It is holiness and love which is the principles behind true faith.17.18.19. Christ is the way into the kingdom of God. Knowing him in a personal way and following him in Faith is the way to eternal life.20. The Jews didnt love Christ and so were unable(p) to see him as Saviour. merely as a child trusts his parents because of the affection he receives so we believe because we love .21. Just as sheep do not follow a stranger so we wint be misled if we know and follow Christ. We believe because we love.22. This doctrine is expounded in several(prenominal) places such as Ist Corinthians 2 which teaches us the worthlessness of natural Reason.23.24. Other examples from scripture.25. morality and love are what keep us on track and prevent us getting caught out by things that are wrong.26. Right Faith is the Faith of a right mind. It is an intellectual act, an act of logical thinking based upon presumption and stirred into work on by a spirit of love and purity. We will recognise true Revelation because it not be in opposition to the nature of God.27. Superstition is the worship of evil spirits. Faith is an instinct of Love towards both(prenominal) God and man. It will cause us to turn from what is evil and towards what is good.28. Lack of faith leads to disobeying Gods laws.29. However what is superstition for a Jew or Christian is not necessarily so for a heathen who is not bound by the rules of his Faith. personal line of credit sacrifices for a heathen are not necessarily superstitious, but for the Christian they have been superseded by the blood of Christ in the Atonement.30. Take the example of the viper which bit St Paul on Malta. The people might have been mistaken in believing him to be a god, but at least(prenominal) they were aware of the possibility of heavenly treatment in human life. They werent Christians but they recognised the presence of God with Paul.31. The cleaning lady with an issue of blood. Was that superstition? Her action did not fit with what she knew. She recognised in deliveryman someone who could save her, yet she stayed on the edge. She didnt want to bother him. Yet Christ commended her faith . In her faith tinged with superstition and humility we see numerous believers through the ages, who impair their true mess of God by concentrating on outwards emblems.32. In I Kings 13 we have the story o f prophet of Judah who was credulous decent to be misled by the lying prophet. Not a well known story, but an important one as it reminds us that even Gods people can be led astray.33 It is not Faith but superstition that leads to stories of omens, charms and so on. We have found Christ already. If the doctrine of today contradicts that which has already been revealed we must disguard it or face the consequences.34. That was what the Judaizers did. They received the flavour but went back to the Law. Paul fought against such ideas and proclaimed that the Gospel was the true fulfilment of the Law.35. In the case of the heathen he paid respect to their beliefs, but essay to show how the Gospel was the completion of Faith.7, a fulfilment of what had already been revealed to them by nature.This is really Faith, a moving forward, closer to God. A move from the known to the unknown. It is made perfect not by intellect but by obedience, the act of a pure, pliable and devout mind.37.Thi s is sufficient.1 As when a scientist states the venture which his experiment will prove2 As when Newton said I stand on the shoulders of giants. 3 Such as the dent and wine of communion. 4 And so is not affected by their intellectual capacity a child may have faith and so may a university don. 5 As when we meet someone for the first time and make judgements about his character based on only a design acquaintance. 6 David Hume, Philosopher, An enquiry concerning human understanding. 7 Acts 17 v 16 ff.