Note 72 — PRELIMINARY REMARKS
Reading edition
St. John v. 44. Comp. vii. 17: viii. 12. St. Matth. v. 8. Ps. xix. 8: cxix. 100. Also, Ecclus. i. 26: xxi. 11.—"There is," (says an excellent living writer,) "scarcely any doctrine or precept of our Saviour more distinctly and strongly stated, than that the capacity for judging of, and for believing the Truths of Christianity, depends upon Moral Goodness, and the practice of Virtue."—Let us hear our own Hooker on this subject:—"We find by experience that although Faith be an intellectual habit of the mind, and have her seat in the understanding, yet an evil moral disposition obstinately wedded to the love of darkness dampeth the very light of heavenly illumination, and permitted not the Mind to see what doth shine before it."—Eccl. Pol., B. v.c. lxiii. § 2.