12 Feb y 1818

Church Ch.C.

2 S2

Part 2.

4

Subject religions

for persuasion more

say faith: the more

readily, the greater

the importance

Where the matter of fact, or the proposition, is

regarded as belonging to the topic subject of religion, - for instance

where the existence of the matter of fact, or the truth of the proposition, is regarded as having

been asserted by, or by authority from, the Almighty,

in either of these cases, in lieu of

the words persuasion belief or disbelief the word faith has commonly been

employed. And it is the more apt to be employed, the

greater the degree of importance which, in the minds of him by

whom or of them to whom the discourse is addressed, is

attached or supposed to be attached to the matter of fact

or the proposition which is the subject of it. Witness the

examples just brought to view.

5

Faith is oftener

positive than negative.

Faith, - though principally by reason of the mutual interconvertibility that

which, as above, has place between positive and negative expressions, as it

is not incapable of being employed, according to the subject

matter and form of the proposition, employed as synonymous

to negative persuasion - to disbelief, - to

seems most frequently to have been employed

as synonymous to positive persuasion - to belief.