Fit Heirs of Heaven

The great objects of that atoning and remedial system, which is revealed in the Gospel, are not secured by forgiveness alone. Christ died not merely to save sinners, but to sanctify them; not merely to rescue them from hell, but to make them, by the purification of their natures, the fit heirs of heaven. 

Salvation is a state, not a locality. It does not consist in dwelling in the new Jerusalem; but in having the right inward state; that is to say, in being fit to dwell there. A soul, that is truly and permanently saved, is a soul, that is made truly and permanently holy. And the hope of salvation, (even in that inferior and secondary form, which consists in freedom or salvation from suffering,) can be sustained only by the consciousness of possessing a heart, which, in some degree at least, is made right with God.

— The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 3.

Faith Works by Love

“Faith works by love.” If we have strong faith in God, we shall have great love to him. If our faith be assured or perfect, our love will correspond to it in degree. 

Now the natural tendency of love to God is to regulate and restrain all unregulated and unrestrained love of that, which is not God. The soul sees very clearly, that all such unregulated and unrestrained love of the creatures, whether it be the love of a man for himself or of others with a selfish reference to himself, is offensive to God; so that the love of God and the unregulated and wrong love of the creatures are antagonistical in their very nature; and the former love, if it exists in the highest degree, always implies the entire regulation and purification of the latter.

With these two sources of influence combined, viz., the direct influence of faith, and that influence, which, operating by means of love, is indirect, the soul, by the expulsion of selfishness, may be restored to its true position, and in the possession of the purity and fullness of love, may become right with God. It is here, in particular, that we find the source of power and control over the Appetites. They can be truly said, when the subject is rightly considered, to be subdued and to be kept in their place by faith, and by faith alone. But this result, in its full extent, cannot take place by the ordinary action of faith; but only by a high degree, perhaps by that degree alone, which is denominated ASSURANCE.
 

— The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 3.

Faith and the Promises

Faith attaches itself to all those scriptural declarations, which promise assistance in the struggle for inward and spiritual victory, and having entire confidence that God will be true to his declarations, it gives great decision and energy to the inward purpose. 

 The man, who has this faith, feels strong. He may be a man, who in the indulgence of his Appetites has been the slave of great sensuality, but in the exercise of faith, he feels strong; not in himself, but in God. And although he has experienced the mighty power of the principles, against which he is to contend, he has no doubt, that success will follow. In this position of mind, victory, with the divine blessing, is a matter of course.

— The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 3.

Selfishness: The Great Evil of Our Nature

Selfishness is the great evil of our nature. In the natural mind, or the mind which has not true faith in God, and which in not having faith in God necessarily makes man its God, it not only exists in the highest degree, but exists always. It reigns there, as if in its own kingdom, and on its own throne. 

And the history of the church generally, as well as of individual man, conclusively shows, that, if it is ever overthrown and removed from its position, it must be done in the way indicated in the passage from John, which we have quoted. “And this is the victory, that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 

It is faith, which possesses this wonderful power. It is faith in God, inspired by the operation of the Holy Ghost, which begins the contest with the dreadful evil, that naturally exists within us. It is faith, which sustains us in the progress of this trying and oftentimes doubtful conflict; it is faith, which ultimately gives the triumph.

 — The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 3.

Unity and Duality in God

Of... the Unity of the divine Nature, we shall have but little comparatively to say, because it is a subject on which much has been ably written, and is one which to thinking and philosophic minds is but little short of self-evident. The argument on the subject is commonly and very justly drawn from the evidences of oneness of design in the multiplied objects of creation.

There is a foundation for the argument from creation, because creation implies the fact of a creator, and because, looking at these objects in the light of their logical relation, creation does not contain anything which did not antecedently exist in the ideas of the creating Mind, so that creation, existing in the universe of objects around us, may justly be regarded as the out-going, the reflex, or if it be preferred, the shadows of the Infinite. And accordingly what God is in the eternal principles of his nature, including his Unity, is written not merely in the messages of Prophets and Apostles, but in his out-goings, in the emanations of Himself which exist in the things that are made, in the great robe of created forms and life which hangs as a garment around the brightness of his essential being. And there, as we read in accordance with the laws of our mental beings the multiplied facts of emanated or created existence, which are expressions of the oneness of thought and plan that lie hidden in the Source or Centre from which they come, our convictions become harmonized and consolidated in a particular direction; and at last it is impossible for us to doubt the Unity of that great Creative Centre. We cannot dwell, nor do we feel it to be necessary, upon the specific processes of thought by which this is done. Nevertheless, UNITY is the first word in the divine alphabet; and Nature, speaking in her silent voices, and writing her record in the book of the Absolute Religion, harmonizes with the Scriptures in saying, God is ONE God.

Selfishness and Desire

 

Selfishness shows itself, in a special manner, in the inordinate action of the desires. 

 Desire, it is well understood, is a distinct tendency or principle of the human mind, known by the circumstances of its origin and by its being distinguished in our consciousness from every other state of mind; but it is worthy of notice, that it exists, and that it exhibits itself under different and important modifications. In its connection with the wants and laws of the physical system, it assumes, for instance, the well known modification of the Appetites; a class of natural principles, which are necessary and right in their origin, but which are frequently perverse and debasing in their application. The desire of personal happiness, the desire of society, the desire of knowledge, the desire of esteem, and others which might be mentioned, are other modifications of the same general principle; less closely connected with the physical nature than the appetites are, and distinguished for this, and for other reasons, as the Propensive principles or the Propensities. But these, as well as the appetites, are subject, under the influence of inordinate self-love, to a perverted action; not so gross perhaps and so debasing, but still not less real and not less sinful. Our natural Affections also, the affection of parents for their children and of children for their parents and other similar affections, (a still higher and more noble class of natural principles than those which have just been mentioned,) have desire for their basis, and may very properly be regarded as its modifications. 

Each and all of these principles or classes of principles are liable to assume an inordinate and wrong position; and in point of fact it cannot be doubted, that they do frequently and almost continually go astray under various circumstances and in various degrees. But it seems to me, so far as a judgment can be formed in the case, that they never assume a wrong position, that they never become perverted and sinful, except under the influence, (an influence as secret and extensive, as it is baleful,) of the vice or crime of selfishness. Even when these principles err by undue weakness as well as by excess, which is sometimes the case, the result can be traced to the influence of the same inordinate love of self, operating in a different direction, but destroying by what it takes away as well as by what it gives.

— The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 3.

Victory by Faith

In considering the Power or Effects of faith in the regulation of Man’s Inward Nature, our attention is... directed to a striking passage in the writings of John. “Whatsoever is born of God,” says the Apostle John, Second Epistle 5:4, “OVERCOMETH THE WORLD. And this is the victory, that overcometh the world, even our faith.” The term world, as it is employed by the Apostle in this passage, is obviously of wide import; including the world inward, as well as the world outward; the human heart, as well as the objects around us, to which the inward state gives their character and their power. 

 And, accordingly, the victory over the world, whatever else the expressions may be supposed to indicate, includes especially and emphatically the victory over ourselves. Perhaps we ought to say, it is the victory over whatever sin has rendered inordinate and evil in ourselves. In other words, and still more definitely, it is the victory over SELFISHNESS; a victory, which places us in such a position, that the world, in the variety of its enticements and temptations both inward and outward, cannot reach us and touch us to our hurt. And this victory is by faith.

— The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 3.