Excerpt from Treatise on Justification That an age, claiming distinction above most which have preceded it, for benevolent enterprise in disseminating the Bible and Christianity, should, notwithstanding, be characterized by indistinct views of the great doctrines of religion, may at first seem contradictory. Such, however, it appears to me, is the true state of the christian world at present. A general laxness prevails as to doctrinal opinions. Indeed, not unfrequently, indifference is deemed a virtue; and a man felicitates himself upon his liberality, because he feels no peculiar attachment to any particular religious creed. Opinions in politics are of great consequence - opinions in law, in medicine, in science, in the arts; every where but in religion, to be without any fixed opinions, is deemed dishonourable and unworthy of a noble and generous spirit. There is no illiberality in every other department of thought and enterprise, in a man's holding and defending a series of fixed doctrines; but by a strange inconsistency, this age denounces as bigotry and narrowness of spirit, the steadfast maintainance of the revealed system of religious truth. This feature of the age - which may be correctly designated the bigotry of liberalism - may be traced in indistinct lines on the fair countenance of the daughter of Zion, and rudely defines the measure of her conformity to this world. Hence the diminished attention to doctrines. Hence the singular fact, that in a land teeming with Bibles, and Bible Societies, and Bible Classes, and helps to Bible interpretation, Bible exposition is nearly banished from all their pulpits. What pastor ever thinks of expounding the sacred books in any continuous series of exercises? What congregation would endure an uninterrupted course of lectures on any portion of scripture? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.