THE OLD PATHS: OR, Lectures on the Protestant Faith. BOD BY THE REV. J. H. ROGERS, M.A., Wadham Coll., Oxon.· اهدان LONDON: S. W. PARTRIDGE & Co., PATERNOSTER Row. ERRATA. "JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH."-Page 21, for lines 8, 9, 10, 11, substitute the following: of itself, the second by itself valueless. Baptism, however, is a sign or seal: on God's side, a seal to His promises, to those who believe; on man's side, a visible sign and outward profession (at "THE LORD'S SUPPER."-Page 15, line 5, for corpula read copula.-Page 17, line 4 from bottom, for 20 read 21. "SUPERSTITIOUS BONDAGE AND GOSPEL FREEDOM."-Page 16, line 1, for met read met by. PREFACE. THE Lectures comprised in this book were not originally intended for publication: they were delivered as instruction to a Protestant Educational class, with a view to giving distinct dogmatic teaching on the principal strongholds of the Christian Faith. At the request of many who heard them they are set before the Public in the present form, with the hope that those who read them may be led to study the truths of Christ's religion for themselves, and so to be able to give "a reason of the hope that is in them." The dangers and doubts of the present day cannot be met by merely exposing and confronting error. Falsehood must be overthrown by truth, scepticism by faith, ignorance by knowledge. All the denial of error and all the refutation of falsehood will not arrive at anything positive, at any real personal experience of truth. Highly as we love and value the word Protes The tant, let us see to it that our religion means something more than mere protesting. knowledge of Christ as our own Saviour will involve our keeping near Him, and honouring His word above all things. If we have "won Christ," we shall live in Him; if we keep close to Him, we shall not have the desire to stray from Him. The object of this little book will be thoroughly answered if it leads any to search and try, what they themselves believe, by the standard of God's Word: not so much seeking into what others hold, as receiving from the Gospel, in all its simplicity, a positive personal faith. J. H. R. Malvern, 1873. The Word of God the Only -:0: THE title given to this course of lectures sufficiently explains their subject and nature. Their subject, the Protestant faith in its integrity -true faith, as distinguished from unbelief on the one hand and misbelief on the other-Protestant faith, that which, itself Scriptural and Apostolical, the faith of Jesus Christ, protests against being spoiled through "philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." They are lectures, not discussions, education rather than controversy; and the object in view is to bring forward and state the truth itself, to give reasons for what we believe, and to state fundamental doctrines with all the power and clearness that God may vouchsafe to give us, rather than to assail those who, as we believe, do err from the faith. The first step in lecturing on Faith must be to establish the Rule of Faith, and the subject |