1817 Oct. 25

Not Paul

Ch Paul’s Doctrine

§ Faith & Works

Mischief of faith

The strength of a man’s faith is in proportion to the strength of the command obtained by his will over his judgment. But of the strength of that command the only assignable measure is the absurdity of the proposition which he has brought himself to believe.

At the top of the scale of absurdity / absurd propositions / stands beyond all dispute the sort of proposition stiled a self-contradictory proposition. This therefore is the point to which on the part of the believer in the merit of faith and its necessity to salvation all exertions all efforts tend.

Hence it is that / This being /, if he were consistent every man by / in / whom / whose mind / the idea of merit is attached to that of faith would be not only a Trinitarian but a Catholic or Lutheran: a believer in Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation.

Bentham footnote at bottom of page: ‘Note.

‘(a) If Transubstantiation is more strikingly contradictory to all physical experience, a proposition asserting a belief in Trinitarianism is more directly and palpably a self-contradictory proposition.’