inference may be true, but it is
not we who have a right to think, much less to utter it.

But I must now come to the more precise point on which we
differ--the meaning of a single expression, which I think I have
named in a former letter. I allude to the word FAITH, which, as I
was always taught to interpret it, appeared to my apprehension
analogous to CREDULITY, or a blind belief without question;--an
explanation which went against my conscience and conviction
whenever it occurred to me from time to time. As I grew older I
felt it to be wrong, although I was not sufficiently informed to
explain it differently. What perplexed me was that St. Paul should
advocate such a servile submission of the intellectual faculties
which God has bestowed upon man; such an apparent degradation of
the human mind to the level of the lower creation as to call upon
us to lay aside our peculiar attributes of reason, common sense,
and reflection, and to receive without inquiry any doctrine that
may be offered to us. On this principle, we should be as likely to
believe in the impostor as in the true saint, and having yielded up
our birthright of judgment, become incapable of distinguishing
between them. I have thought much on the subject with the
assistance of better authorities and scholars than myself, and will
now endeavour to explain what I consider St. Paul meant by FAITH,
or rather by the Greek word Piotis, which has been so translated.
After you have read my explanation, and carefully examined your own
mind, will it be too much to expect an admission that of the three
great elements of Christianity, faith, hope, and charity, you have
hitherto had more of hope than of the other two? The Greek word
used by St. Paul signifies something more than faith, or implicit
belief, as many render it. It means a self-reliant confidence
arising from conviction after investigation and study--the faith
that Paley advocates when he says, "He that never doubted never
half believed." It implies, in the first place, an unprejudiced
mind, an openness to conviction, and a readiness to receive
instruction; and then a desire to judge for ourselves. This must be
followed by a patient investigation of evidence pro and con, an
impartial summing up, and a conclusion fairly and confidently
deduced. If we are thus convinced, then we have acquired faith--a
real, unshakeable faith, for we have carefully examined the title
deeds and know that they are sound. You wi