^ 
 
 M 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 Class 
 
 tDUC. 
 
 PSYCH- 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 4 
 
^z^.^M^Ok^^ 
 
AN 
 
 ESTIMATE OF THE HUMAN MIND; 
 
 A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIEY 
 
 INTO THE LEGITIMATE APPLICATION AND EXTENT 
 Of ITS LEADING FACULTIES, 
 
 AS CONNECTED WITH THE PRINCIPLES AND OBLIGATIONS OF 
 THE CHEISTIAN KELIGION. 
 
 SY 
 
 JOHN DAVIES, D.D, 
 
 RECTOR OP GATESHEAD, AND MASTER OF KING JAMES'S HOSPITAL, 
 IN THE COUNTY OP DURHAM. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, WITH LARGE ADDITIONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. 
 
 M.DCCC.XXVII. 
 
yitAtw^^ 
 
 LONDON : 
 HARRISOM AND CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. martin's lank. 
 
 EDUC. 
 
 PSYCH. 
 
 LIBRARr 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In bringing before the Public a new and enlarged 
 edition of the following work, the Author is desirous 
 of briefly stating its general nature and object, and 
 the extent of the addition that has now been made 
 to it. Accustomed as he has been from a very 
 early period of life to contemplate the mind of 
 man as the noblest work of the Creator, and as 
 affording a subject of investigation inferior to no 
 other in interest and importance, he has ever been 
 anxious to view its various faculties and endowments 
 in immediate relation to the great and paramount 
 end for which they were created, and in their con- 
 nection with those important principles and facts 
 which have been made known to man by a direct 
 revelation. While it is unquestionably true, as has 
 frequently been averred, that the statements of reve- 
 lation are not and cannot be at variance with the 
 testimony of reason and experience, it is equally 
 true that theories of physical or intellectual science, 
 
 A 2 
 
IV PREFACE TO 
 
 always limited in the facts upon which they are 
 based, cannot be allowed to contradict or supersede 
 what has been distinctly and unequivocally revealed. 
 It is, however, a gratifying and consolatory fact, that 
 between the inductions of philosophy and the dis- 
 coveries of revelation, when properly understood and 
 applied, there is, in reality, no discrepancy. 
 
 In surveying the mind of man under this aspect, 
 it appeared to the Author of the following pages 
 that the great scheme of Christianity might be 
 considered as bearing a relation and as directly 
 addressing itself to one or other of the following- 
 faculties — his Reason — ^liis Will — his Conscience — 
 his Imagination — or his Affections. Circumstances 
 led him, in the first instance, to prepare and publish 
 a short dissertation on the first of these faculties. 
 Proceeding in the same general line of thought, he 
 extended his enquiries to three other leading facul- 
 ties or susceptibilities of the mind — the Will — the 
 Imaginations — and the Affections. In presenting to 
 the Public this Avork, so far completed, his views of 
 its character and object were expressed in the fol- 
 lowing terms: "That the object of these disser- 
 tations opens a very important and interesting view 
 of the philosophy of the human mind cannot, I 
 conceive, be doubted. In many of its departments 
 indeed, this c()m))rohensive subject has undergone 
 
THE SECOND EDITION. V 
 
 frequent and profound discussion. Upon these 
 points I have endeavoured, without, I trust, any 
 undue claim to originality, to express the result 
 of the unbiassed exercise of my own thoughts. In 
 some of its branches, however, especially that which 
 relates to the legitimate use of the Imagination, it 
 did not seem altogether destitute of novelty, and 
 I have attempted to mark out, with some distinct- 
 ness, the limits which must guard and regulate the 
 excursions of this noble faculty — a faculty which 
 has doubtless been implanted in our nature for the 
 highest and most important purposes." 
 
 '^That in such a difficult and extensive range 
 of inquiry there are many imperfections, I cannot 
 but be painfully conscious. At a time, hoAvever, 
 in which the powers of the human mind are so 
 closely examined, and the study of metaphysical 
 science is in so many instances alloyed by a spirit 
 of scepticism and infidelity, such a work, it may be 
 hoped, will not be without its use. Extreme opinions 
 upon speculative questions I have cautiously avoided, 
 and have endeavoured to point out their danger: 
 nor is there a single difficulty started in the course 
 of these discussions, the force of which has not, at 
 some time or other, weighed upon my own mind. 
 And if the fruit of what may be called this mental 
 experience should be, in any degree, instrumental 
 
VI PREFACE TO 
 
 in relieving similar embarrassments in the minds of 
 others, my labours will be amply repaid." 
 
 There was one department of the mind, however, 
 which was still left untouched, except so far as it 
 was involved in the discussions relating to the exer- 
 cises of the Will. The Author indeed hesitated for 
 for some time whether this faculty might not, with 
 greater propriety, be considered as belonging to the 
 practical department of the human character, and 
 as forming a part of moral science, which has refer- 
 ence to the duties of man as an individual and as 
 a member of society. Several years ago he was 
 invited by some members of the Council of the 
 London University to offer himself as a candidate 
 for the Professorship of Moral and Political Philo- 
 sophy in that Institution. Although by various con- 
 siderations he was induced ultimately to decline that 
 invitation, he was led by it to direct his attention in 
 a more special manner to the question of Christian 
 Ethics, as standing in close connection with those 
 investigations in which he had already been engaged. 
 The Dissertation on the Conscience as connected 
 with the Moral Law, now incorporated into this work, 
 was the first result of these inquiries. So far as the 
 Faculties of the Mind itself are concerned therefore, 
 the object wliich the Author had proposed to himself, 
 may be considered as completed. He has lono- con- 
 
THE SECOND EDITION. vii 
 
 templated another "Work, the design of which woukl 
 be to exhibit the practical application of the Princi- 
 ples here attempted to be established, in their bearing 
 on the Character and Conduct of Man in his several 
 relations as a Christian and as a member of civil and 
 domestic society. Whether he shall ever be able in 
 any degree to accomplish such an undertaking, must 
 be left to circumstances and events, which are alto- 
 gether beyond his control. From the pressure of 
 immediate duties, he is for the present obliged to put 
 it altogether in abeyance. He is thankful, however, 
 in having been enabled so far to carry his general 
 plan into effect as to bring within the range of in- 
 quiry all the leading Faculties of the Human Mind in 
 their bearing on the most important of all questions. 
 On the Theory of Morals, as connected with the 
 Conscience, without neglecting the various systems, 
 which have been long before the public, the Author 
 endeavoured to direct his attention to those sources, 
 from which alone correct views can be derived — the 
 constitution of the mind itself — the order and admi- 
 nistration of the universe, and the discoveries of 
 Divine Revelation. Paley, though by no means so 
 unsound as he has frequently been considered in his 
 general principle — that of utility as the foundation of 
 virtue — has carried that principle too far into the 
 naked details of moral calculation. Butler, on the 
 
viii PREFACE TO 
 
 other hand, the Author considers as havmg decidedly 
 assigned an undue supremacy to the Conscience as 
 an isolated Faculty, in a great degree dependent as it 
 is for the correctness of its judgments upon the views 
 of the understanding. From all that he has been 
 able to deduce from a careful contemplation of the 
 various phenomena of the Divine Government, the 
 result, to which he has been inevitably led, is, that 
 Happiness is the inseparable associate, and cannot 
 fail eventually to rise to the level, of Moral Excel- 
 lence, and that, correlatively. Misery is the conse- 
 quence, and by Divine appointment, the ultimate 
 limit of Moral Evil. 
 
 The former Edition of this Work met with a 
 reception on the part of a large proportion of the 
 public press, which more than satisfied the expecta- 
 tions of the Author. The present Edition, he ven- 
 tures to hope, from the slight corrections it has 
 undergone, and the important addition, which has 
 been made to it, presents a somewhat higher claim. 
 To students in theology, and others, who wish to 
 pursue their literary and philosophical inquiries in 
 subordination to the higher demands of sacred and 
 revealed trutli, he trusts that the Work may be of 
 some service; and lie cannot better express his own 
 views and feelings on this subject, than in the lan- 
 guage of the learned and eloquent liisliop Reynolds : 
 
THE SECOND EDITION. IX 
 
 " If then, we be careful to Moderate, and Regulate 
 our Affections, to take heed of the pride and infla- 
 tion of Secular learning, not to admire Philosophy, 
 to the prejudice of Evangelical knowledge, as if with- 
 out the revealed light of the Gospel, salvation might 
 be found, in the way of Paganism; if we suffer not 
 these lean Kine to devour the fat ones, nor the River 
 Jordan to be lost in the Dead Sea, — I mean Piety to 
 be swallowed up of profane Studies ; and the know- 
 ledge of the Scriptures, (which alone would make any 
 man conversant in all kind of Learning with much 
 greater Felicity, and success,) to be undervalued, and 
 not rather, the more admired, as a rich Jewel com- 
 pared with Glass. In this case, and with such care as 
 this, there is no doubt but secular studies prepared 
 and corrected from Pride and Profaneness, may be 
 to the Church, as the Gibeonites were to the Congre- 
 gation of Israel, for Hewers of Wood, and Drawers of 
 Water ; otherwise we may say of them as Cato Major 
 to his son, of the Grecian arts and learning, ^ Quan- 
 docunque ista Gens suas literas dab it, omnia cor- 
 rumpet.' " 
 
 The Author would only further add, that the In- 
 troductory and Concluding Dissertations have been 
 deemed no inappropriate appendages to the body of 
 the Work — the first as illustrative of the natural 
 tendency of a well-directed exercise of the Faculties 
 
X PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 of man to purify the outer court of his moral character 
 — the second as expressive of the indispensable ne- 
 cessity of a Divine influence, in order to give full 
 effect to every subordinate agency in the spiritual 
 transformation of the inner man. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Moral Benefits connected with Intellectual Pursuits .... 3 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 The Limits of Reason, in the Investigation of Revealed Truth, 
 stated and explained. 
 
 PART I. 
 How PAR Reason is allowed to Proceed. 
 
 Section 
 
 I. The general grounds of this Inquiry .... .... .... 55 
 
 II. Reason authorized to judge of the Character and Evi- 
 dences of a professed Revelation 68 
 
 III. Reason required to receive no alleged Doctrine of Reve- 
 
 lation, without suflBcient Evidence that it really 
 forms a part of that Communication .... .... 74 
 
 IV. No Doctrine to be received, which is palpably opposed 
 
 to the Principles of Common Sense 78 
 
 PART II. 
 How far Reason is not allowed to Proceed, 
 
 I. A Doctrine of Revelation is not to be rejected, be- 
 
 cause it could not have been discovered without 
 Supernatural Assistance .... .... .... .... 82 
 
 II, Reason not justified in rejecting a Doctrine of Revela- 
 
 tion because it cannot understand its exact mode .... 93 
 III. A Doctrine of Revelation not to be rejected because it 
 may be attended with Difficulties, which Reason can- 
 not solve .... .... .... .... .... ..■• 105 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 An Inrjuiri/ into the Nature and Extent of the Faculty of 
 Volition, as connected with Moral Agency and Religious 
 Obligation. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 How FAR Man is to be considered as Free in his Volitions, 
 
 Section Page 
 
 I. The Choice of Simple Tendency, as displayed in Mate- 
 rial Substances .... .... .... .... .... 123 
 
 II. Sensitive Preference — The next stage in the Elective 
 
 Process .... .... .... .... .... .... 137 
 
 III. Rational Choice 140 
 
 IV. The Possession of Life — an essential Requisite to Moral 
 
 Liberty 142 
 
 V. A Susceptibility of Enjojrment and Suffering — the next 
 
 Fundamental Principle of Rational Liberty .... 147 
 
 VI. An Invariable Desire of the greater apparent Good 
 
 essential to Moral Liberty .... .... .... .... 159 
 
 VII. The Prerogative of Reason, in the ultimate Determina- 
 tions of the Will, the distinguishing Characteristic of 
 accountable Liberty ... .... .... .... .... 161 
 
 VIII. Punishment not inflicted where Reason is incapable of 
 
 exercising its Control .... .... .... .... 170 
 
 IX. Reason capable of exciting new Volitions .... .... 183 
 
 X. The Prerogative Power of Reason extends over the 
 
 whole Range of the Character 191 
 
 XI. The Theory of Suggestion destructive of accountable 
 
 Agency 1.03 
 
 XII. The Influence of Reason as it relates to the Aff'cctions.... 222 
 
 XIII. The Actions of the Life subject to the control of Reason 224 
 
 XIV. Philosophical Necessity 228 
 
 PART 11. 
 
 Groundless and Erroneous Notions op Human Liberty. 
 
 I. The Subject of Inquiry stated .... .... .... .... 233 
 
 II, Man not free in such a senso as to render any of his 
 
 Actions Jinccrtain .... .... .... . 237 
 
CONTENTS. xui 
 
 Section Page 
 
 III. The Liberty of Man not exclusive of the Influence of 
 
 Motives 252 
 
 IV. Moral Liberty not requiring Indifference with respect to 
 
 the Objects of Choice 2G0 
 
 V. Recapitulation 267 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 The Conscience viewed hi connection loith the Sense of Duty and 
 the Obligations of the Moral Laic. 
 
 I. The Origin of the Notion of Duty, as centering in the 
 
 Conscience ... .... .... .... .... .... 277 
 
 II. On the Standard of Duty as the authoritative Guide 
 
 of Conscience .... .... .... .... .... 289 
 
 III. The Nature and Origin of the Moral Law as binding 
 
 upon the Conscience .... .... .... .... .... 299 
 
 IV. The Means by which the Moral Law, or the Law of 
 
 Conscience, has been made known unto Man .... 306 
 V. The Moral Law considered in its relation to the Chris- 
 tian System 326 
 
 VI. The Authority of the Moral Law 334 
 
 VII. The Sanctions of the Moral Law, as harmonizing with 
 
 the Voice of Conscience .... .... .... .... 341 
 
 VIII. The real nature of Evil as prohibited by the Moral Law 350 
 I^IX. The Consummation of Happiness an infallible result of 
 the perfect observance of the Moral Law, as an ex- 
 pression of the Divine Will, and as binding on the 
 Human Conscience .... .... .... .... .... 358 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 The Legitimate Use of the Imagination as subservient to the 
 Influence of Religion. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 The proper Use of Imagination. 
 
 I. The different Degrees in which Imagination is found in 
 
 different Individuals .... .... .... .... .... 369 
 
 II. The advantage of Imagination for purposes of Illus- 
 tration 377 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Section _ Pas* 
 
 III. Imagination serviceable in the Formation of a lively 
 
 and impressive Style .... ... ■•• •••• •• 391 
 
 IV. Imagination useful as the means of realizing and era- 
 
 bodying invisible Scenes .... ... ••.• • ••• 3di) 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The Evils of an ill-regulated Use op Imagination. 
 
 I. Extravagant Ideas of Individual Destiny 415 
 
 II. An extravagant Estimate of Means as related to the 
 
 proposed End .... .... .... .... .... 432 
 
 III. Injurious Irregularities and Alternations of Feeling 
 
 arising from an ill-governed Imagination .... .... 437 
 
 IV. Fanciful and forced Interpretations of Scripture .... 449 
 V. The injurious Effect of undisciplined Imagination upon 
 
 Style 464 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 An Inquiry into the Legitimate Use of the Affections, in con- 
 nection with the hifluence of Religion upon the Character. 
 
 PART I. 
 The just Use op the Appections. 
 
 I. The Subject of Inquiry stated 475 
 
 II. Sensitive Affection originally intended to be employed 
 
 in the service of Religion .... .... .... .... 487 
 
 III. The Use of the Affections always recognized and en- 
 
 forced in Scripture ... .... .... .... .... 509 
 
 IV. Sensitive Affection necessary, in order that Religion may 
 
 produce its proper Effect upon the Character .... 524 
 
 V. The Exorcise of the Affections, a chief constituent of 
 
 the happiness of Heaven 546 
 
 PART II. 
 The Evils liable to result from a mistaken and ill- 
 governed Exercise op the Affections in Religion. 
 
 I. The Error of making Religion almost entirely to con- 
 
 sist of internal Feelings .... .... .... ,... 5(,'i 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Section Page 
 
 II. Inward Impressions liable to supersede Practical Evidence 
 
 in the Estimate of the Individual's own Character .... 567 
 
 III. Strong Feelings, unaccompanied with sound Judgment, 
 
 in danger of completely unhinging the Mind .... 572 
 
 IV. The Distress occasioned by an attempt to fix the time 
 
 of Conversion by a regard to Experimental Feeling 577 
 V. The State of the Affections in the immediate prospect of 
 Death, no sure Test of Spiritual Character and Con- 
 dition 589 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Supernatural Influence necessary to render the Truths of Chris- 
 tianity efficacious upon the Human Mind and Character 595 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Range the spacious intellectual field, 
 
 And gather every fruit of sovereign power, 
 To heal the moral maladies of man. — Young. 
 
 Ilia vero quae proprie ac pure Scientia nominatur, quia ratione et intelligentia 
 paratur, mala esse quomodo potest? — Augustine. 
 
i:f^TRODUCTIOK 
 
 Before we enter on the discussion of the proper use 
 and application of the various faculties of the mind 
 in connexion with the principles and obligations of 
 religion, it may not be amiss to preface a brief in- 
 quiry into the influence which the general pursuit of 
 knowledge appears calculated to exert on the charac- 
 ter of the individual and the welfare of society. 
 The time in which we live, indeed, is not so remark- 
 able for the splendour of its discoveries, nor for any 
 extraordinary advances that have been made into 
 regions of truth hitherto unexplored. It is not so 
 much the marcli of intellect, except in some few 
 directions, that we have an opportunity of witnessing, 
 as the perambulations of intellect — the busy and 
 active evolutions of intellect within those remote 
 outposts, which transcendent genius, favoured by 
 the untrodden novelty of the path of investigation, 
 has already fixed. This is no reflection upon the 
 vigour and originality of living talent. The human 
 faculties, in their most enlarged dimensions, are 
 limited in their capabilities, and as the sphere over 
 which they are required to spread becomes expanded, 
 it is natural to expect that they should appear to 
 lose something of their profundity of research and of 
 their intensity of force. Since the days of Bacon 
 and his illustrious followers in the path of scientific 
 
 B 2 
 
4 INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 discovery, the field of science lias immensely widened, 
 and, with all the facilities that have been providcil, 
 it now requires no ordinary measure of labour and 
 industry and streno-th, in any of the more extensive 
 branches of knowledge, to learn what others have 
 taught. It is true, indeed, that, by every accession 
 to its store, the human mind is enriched, not merely 
 by such an amount of intellectual gain to be added 
 to its former resources, but also by the increased 
 ability which it imparts for the further acquisition of 
 treasures, which had been otherwise beyond its reach; 
 so that mental attainment becomes a species of float- 
 ing capital, having a tendency, when duly employed 
 and wisely directed, to accumulate in the ratio of 
 compound interest. But it is also true that life is 
 short — that its duties are numerous and distracting 
 — that the most vigorous powers must be in some 
 degree bewildered by multiplicity, and Avearied by 
 ceaseless effort ; and, therefore, it is no Avonder that 
 an age, which enjoys the fruits of the most intense 
 and concentrated energy which the human intellect 
 is capable of exerting upon some of the sublimest 
 and most interesting departments of science, should 
 present few instances of actual and important dis- 
 covery. 
 
 But though it were granted that the present is 
 not an age of extraordinary individual genius, it can 
 at least be denied by none, that it is an age of un- 
 jjaralleled general knowledge. Science, information, 
 taste, are no longer confined to a privileged few, 
 shining in rare and solitary brightness amidst the 
 expanse of surrounding vacancy; but ten thousand 
 
 i 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 lights, liable in some degree, indeed, to eclipse each 
 other, but increasing the splendour of the whole, have 
 almost simultaneously started into existence, and 
 covered the face of the hemisphere. From the me- 
 tropolis of the land to the remotest manufacturing 
 town, scientific institutions have sprung up, in which 
 knowledge, in its various departments, is cultivated 
 as an embellishment to rank — as a resource against 
 disquietude and care — as an instrument of self-culti- 
 vation — as a means of usefulness, respectability, and 
 success, and as a relaxation from manual toil. From 
 the universities of the realm to the lowest village- 
 school, literature and science, in their appropriate 
 branches, are pursued with an ardour and intensity, 
 which, upon a scale so general and extensive, were 
 unknown to ages 4hat are past, and assume the 
 character of a grand experiment upon human society. 
 Hence the importance of ascertaining, as nearly as 
 possible, what is likely to be the result, and what is 
 the genuine tendency of such a mighty power brought 
 to operate upon human minds. Knowledge has now 
 ceased to be a luxury confined to the few sons of 
 genius, who were accustomed to be regarded as the 
 lords of the creation, and has become the common 
 fare — the great marketable commodity — the staple 
 of social commerce. So much the more necessary it 
 is, therefore, to determine, so far as we are capable 
 of determining, whether it be of a nature, in this 
 extent and diffusiveness of circulation, to exert an 
 influence, salutary or noxious, upon the body politic; 
 — Avhether it be calculated, in its ultimate results, to 
 advance the real interests of the species. 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Many there are, indeed, to whom, though perhaps 
 on opposite grounds, such an inquiry must appear 
 altogether needless. They consider the question, 
 either in its favourahle or obnoxious bearing, so 
 clear and decisive, as that, instead of a problem to 
 be solved, or a theorem to be demonstrated, it as- 
 sumes, in their estimation, the form of an axiom, 
 which it were absurd to attempt to demonstrate. 
 To one class of warm and impassioned theorists, 
 the cultivation of the human mind, the expansion 
 of the popular intellect to the last verge of possible 
 enlargement, appears to be so pure, simple, and 
 unmixed a good, as to be scarcely capable of per- 
 version or misapplication — as to stand distinct and 
 isolated from all contact — to be unalloyed by the least 
 amalgamation with one element of evil, i^ot content 
 with the great philosophical maxim, that " knowledge 
 is power," they come little short of maintaining that 
 knowledge is virtue — that knowledge is piety — that 
 knowledge is happiness — that knowledge is, in fact, 
 what it had baffled the skill and escaped the penetra- 
 tion of so many ancient philosophers clearty to per- 
 ceive and satisftictorily to determine — the summiaii 
 honum of human nature. Others there arc, who 
 view the pursuits of knowledge in its more advanced 
 stages, and as impregnating the great mass of the 
 community with a spirit of eager, active, and ener- 
 getic eifort, with a very different eye. Not denying 
 that a cultivated understanding is a noble and exalted 
 distinction — that a refined taste is a source of exqui- 
 site gratification — and that literary accomplislnnents 
 are a rich possession unto those whose character and 
 
INTRODUCIION. 7 
 
 circumstances afford them an opportunity of usefully 
 laying tliem out, — they imagine that the endeavour 
 to extend these endowments beyond the mystic en- 
 closure of rank and profession, is an attempt not less 
 perilous than it is needless and unwise. 
 
 Amidst this conflicting array of sentiments upon 
 a subject which daily assumes a character of more 
 serious and weighty interest, sentiments on either 
 side of which great and respectable authorities are 
 marshalled, it becomes the business of the calm and 
 enlightened observer to endeavour to form his just 
 and impartial estimate with a due regard to the 
 legitimate claims and prospects of every class and 
 member of the community. Extreme opinions upon 
 a question of this difficult and complicated nature — 
 opinions which are almost invariably cherished by 
 habits and connexions, and tinctured by prejudices, 
 religious or political — are seldom correct or safe. It 
 seems, therefore, to be an investigation not less 
 interesting in itself than required by the spirit of 
 the jDresent times, and accordant with the object and 
 design of the following work, to take a survey of the 
 legitimate influence which the exercise of the human 
 faculties upon subjects of literature and science, in 
 their most general and unfettered developement, 
 appear calculated to exert upon the character and 
 happiness of society. Upon the most superficial view 
 of the matter, it appears, like almost every other ques- 
 tion, indeed, connected with man in his present state, 
 to be of a mixed nature ; combining, in this instance, 
 much positive and palpable good, with a liability to 
 great and portentous evil; not forgetting, however, 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as I trust it will be seen in the sequel, that on a 
 candid estimate of the case, the proportion of the 
 former seems vastly to preponderate over any likeli- 
 hood of the latter. A powerful writer of the present 
 day* has portrayed, with his usual energy of concep- 
 tion and depth of colouring, the "Evils of popular 
 Ignorance." 
 
 It is still an object not less important and not 
 less imperatively called for by the circumstances of 
 the age, and Avhich it were to be wished that the 
 same masterly hand had undertaken, to point out the 
 benefits and the possible attendant evils of popular 
 Knowledge. When I speak of the evils of know- 
 ledge, it must be sufficiently obvious that I refer not 
 to any inherent quality existing in the subject itself, 
 but to that deterioration or perversion to which every 
 organ of power, every instrument of influential 
 agency, usefulness, and perfection is, under some cir- 
 cumstances, liable in the hand of man. In accordanc 
 Avith the method adopted throughout nearly the whole 
 of this Avork, it will be our endeavour, in the prose- 
 cution of the following inquiry, to exhibit the subject 
 under a two-fold aspect: first, showing the beneficial 
 effects calculated to result from it when duly regu- 
 lated and controlled; and secondly, pointing out 
 some of the dangers against which it is necessary to 
 guard in tlic pursuit of it, and of the evils which, 
 witliout due care and vigilance, cannot foil to be 
 associated with it. The peculiar aspect under which, 
 as most ch)scly connected with tlie general design. 
 
 * Foster. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 wc propose to present the beneficial influence of 
 litenarj and scientific pursuits, is the relation in whicli 
 they stand to the interests of morality, and their 
 efficacy as a subordinate instrument in purifying- 
 the character from the defilements of depravity and 
 vice. 
 
 I am -willing to acknowledge, that it is principally 
 in this view of the case that I have been always 
 disposed to contemplate those literary Institutions of 
 various ranks and orders, Avhich have of late years so 
 thickly sprung up in our land, and the progress of 
 science throughout the world. It is true, indeed, 
 that scientific investigations, properly so called, are, 
 for the most part, directed to the elucidation of the 
 diversified forms and modifications of matter and 
 motion ; a department of philosophical research in 
 the highest degree useful and important. By a 
 minute and accurate observation of the powers of 
 nature, as exhibited in actual experiments, we lay 
 the foundation of a more intelligent and compre- 
 hensive view of the laws by which it is regulated. 
 We learn to generalize our ideas — to resolve what 
 is more complicated in operation into the simplicity 
 of a common cause — to melt down, as it were, the 
 endless and bewildering particulars of analogous 
 facts into one primary principle, and thus to trace 
 the footsteps of one governing and presiding agency 
 pervading the whole universe. But interesting, and 
 capable of the most salutary direction, as are the 
 more immediate pursuits of physical science, as con- 
 nected with the facts which they evolve, and the 
 practical uses to which they are subservient, it is 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 chiefly in reference to the moral influence which they 
 are calculated to exert upon the character of those 
 who are employed in them, that their importance is 
 to be estimated as engaging the attention of the 
 great mass of society. By thus associating the two 
 great departments of philosophy, the physical and 
 the moral, they will be found to enliven and illustrate 
 each other: the former will be raised from a state of 
 lifeless and grovelling materialism; and the latter, 
 from being a system of dry abstractions and subtile 
 distinctions, will become embodied in every pheno- 
 menon in nature, and interwoven with every exer- 
 cise of the intellectual faculties. The interests of 
 morality, both as a matter of state, and much more 
 as constituting an essential ingredient of that reli- 
 gion, without which man cannot possibly secure the 
 great end of his existence, appear to me so tran- 
 scendent and paramount in their claims, that the 
 expediency of the general pursuit of knowledge itself 
 must be altogether estimated by its tendency to 
 subserve and cherish them. Could the point for one 
 moment be regarded as problematical, whether the 
 pursuits of literature and science are calculated to 
 operate favourably or otherwise upon the moral and 
 religious habits of society, we should deem all other 
 considerations, of a political or secular nature, as 
 utterly incapable of establishing any legitimate claim 
 for support; and they would appear so upon this 
 ground, tliat, according to the known and clearly 
 revealed constitution of things, it is impossible any 
 order of pursuits sliould be really and finally advan- 
 tageous, which is adverse to these habits. If, on the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 other hand, wc are fully persuaded, and if we are 
 supported in the conviction by every thing in his- 
 tory and analogy and philosophy, which can throw 
 light upon the subject, that Science, soberly and 
 dispassionately pursued, has a tendency, however 
 resisted in particular instances, to exert an ele- 
 vating and pui'ifying influence upon the character 
 of man, without violating any duties of a prior and 
 more commanding obligation, then we know not 
 what further is necessary to demonstrate its utility, 
 and to enforce, in that exclusive view of the question, 
 a fair demand upon our attention. In reality, it re- 
 quires nothing more, than clearly to demonstrate the 
 genuine moral effects, which the cultivation of the 
 human mind upon the most extensive scale is calcu- 
 lated to produce, when duly regulated and wisely 
 directed; to neutralize all objections that can be 
 raised against it, and to recommend every legiti- 
 mate mode of promoting it, to the countenance and 
 support of every man who values the best interests 
 of his species. 
 
 When we speak of the moral influence of Science, 
 it is not meant to be affirmed that it operates with a 
 direct and invariable power in the production of this 
 effect, and that every man of genius, or of literary 
 habits and philosophical attainments, is of necessity 
 a moral man. History, and perhaps personal expe- 
 rience, have supplied us with too many melancholy 
 instances of the reverse. In heathen countries it 
 cannot be matter of surprise that the pursuit of 
 knowledge should have been frequently associated 
 with profligacy of manners. "VYhere the laws of 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 morality were in many respects but imperfectly un- 
 derstood^ obscurely and indistinctly defined, and 
 inadequately sanctioned — where the code of social 
 rights and civil obedience, suggested and limited by 
 reasons of state and A'iews of present interest, was the 
 only guide of conduct to which any real authority 
 attached — where the reigning superstition, from the 
 power of whose ascendent influence very few, even 
 of the most enlightened and best informed, were able 
 completely to emancipate themselves, embodied 
 many of the grosser vices as component parts of 
 that system of religious worship which it enjoined, 
 it is no wonder that the practice of genuine virtue 
 should, in many instances, have failed to keep pace 
 with the cultivation of knowledge. In the absence 
 of a specific principle of morality, which carries 
 its OAvn sanction, and stands independent of the 
 variable and fluctuating notions of political expe- 
 diency, it is no wonder that mere knowledge should 
 have proved insufficient to efl'ect an entire reforma- 
 tion in the habits of those by Avhom it was prosecuted 
 with so much success*. Socrates himself was far 
 
 * Tlierc are few subjects of importance upon which philosophers 
 liavc more widely differed from each other, and in many instances 
 more grievously wandered from the truth, than the ultimate ground 
 of moral obligation: and, as immediately connected with this 
 point, their opinions have no less varied with respect to the real 
 nature and essence of virtue; some ])lacing it, as Clarke and most 
 of the leading sects of ancient jdiilosophy, in the propriety and fit- 
 ness of things; others, among whom are Ciulworth and More and 
 Hutchcson, in disinterested benevolence; and a third class, at the 
 head of which may be set Epicurus, in mere prudence. The hito 
 Dr. Brown identities virtue with obligation, and resolves them bolli 
 into a mere feeling of niiprovcablcncss, a principle (lilleriiig in 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 from being- a correct and unexceptionable moralist. 
 That the lessons of wisdom uttered by bis lips 
 sbould bare effectually restrained tbe exorbitant 
 
 iiotliing but in terms from Dr. Hutclicson's " Moral Sense." It is 
 lamentable to see a writer of so much talent and good feeling, in a 
 work in many respects of such pre-eminent merit as his Lectures, on 
 the rhilosophy of the Human Mind, laying the weight of the whole 
 system of human duty upon so weak and precarious a basis, as a 
 mere feeling of individual approbation, liable to be modified, and 
 even utterly perverted, as it is, by every change of circumstances, 
 and by every variety of intellectual and physical condition. And 
 it ia remarkable that so acute a writer did not perceive, that, in 
 answering objections to his system, arising from some barbarous 
 practices prevalent among savage nations, to which the sentiment 
 of approveableness is unequivocally attached, he was altogether 
 shifting his ground, when he explained these abominable perver- 
 sions by referring them to a mistaken notion of utility. After his 
 eloquent and triumphant exposure of the system of Expediency 
 under the name of Selfishness, he does not seem to be aware that in 
 this instance he was assuming its leading principle as the very 
 foundation of that approveableness, by which he limits — " Obliga- 
 tion, Virtue, Merit." I am glad to find some of Brown's errors 
 upon this and other points judiciously corrected by Dr. Dewar, in 
 his useful work on Moral Philosophy and Christian Ethics, lately 
 published. That there is such a principle in human nature as a 
 " Moral Sense," I am fully persuaded ; but to maintain that this, or 
 any other Sense constitutes the only ohligation of morality, is as 
 false and absurd as it would be to affirm, that a feeling of gratitude 
 is the sole obligation by which a child is bound to obey his parent. 
 Let the feeling be extinguished, and the obligation at once ceases. 
 The only adequate foundation of human duty, unquestionably rests 
 in the independent will of a Supreme Being, regulated by wisdom, 
 rendered amiable and engaging by goodness, and enforced by in- 
 finite power. To render this effectual, indeed, as will be shewn in 
 a subsequent part of this work, there must be a correspondent sus- 
 ceptibility of moral approbation implanted in the mind; but the 
 ohligation, which is external and independent, is surely a widely 
 different thing from a disposition to recognise it, which is personal 
 and inherent. 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 passions and ungovernable excesses of his pupil 
 Alcibiades, the irregularity of whose conduct was 
 exceeded only by the extent and universality of his 
 talents, could hardly have been expected. It was, 
 doubtless, a rare, if a real, instance of the influence 
 of philosophy, which is related of the young man 
 of dissolute habits, whose character Avas completely 
 changed in consequence of his having been led 
 accidentally to hear a lecture of morality in one of 
 the schools of Greece. And eminent as Julius Caesar 
 was for the variety of his literary and scientific 
 attainments — distinguished no less for his love of 
 knowledge than for his love of conquest — pursuing 
 the study of astronomy and mathematics amidst the 
 tumult of camps and the din of battles — appearing 
 no less anxious to determine the laws of the planetary 
 motions than to settle the destinies of nations — com- 
 bining, in short, such a multiplicity of shining quali- 
 ties, as made Lord Bacon to esteem him the greatest 
 of all the characters of antiquity, he was at the same 
 time, if not the slave, at least the devotee of his pas- 
 sions, and disfigured by vices, which have tarnished 
 the lustre of his fame. 
 
 I am far from thinking, indeed, that philosophy 
 alone is sufficient to purify the manners of society. 
 I am persuaded that without the aid of a higher and 
 more commanding principle, it can by no means 
 adequately correct and regulate the hidden springs 
 of character, upon the accuracy and precision of 
 whose impulses, the rectitude of the outward move- 
 ments altogether depends. The experience of nearly 
 half a dozen centuries, during which it simultaneously 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 or successively flourished in Greece and Rome, to 
 say nothing of its effects in modern times, sufficiently 
 demonstrates this fact. The more inward and retired 
 habits of the mind must fall under the influence and 
 control of another principle. But to clear the outer 
 court of the human character — to lop off the wild 
 excrescences of passion — to remove the base funguses 
 of vice and immorality, which may adhere to the 
 goodly tree of human life — ^to perform this subordi- 
 nate and preparatory work, we are convinced that, in 
 general, the pursuits of knowledge are calculated to 
 be of essential service. 
 
 Who, for example, can look abroad into the world, 
 and contemplate its varying aspects at different 
 periods of its history, and not be impressed with 
 the conviction, that the progress of science has a ten- 
 dency to 7'efine and hum-anize the character. It is a 
 trite maxim drawn from a heathen source, but it in 
 no degree militates against the principles or pre- 
 cepts of the Christian religion, that * " to have tJio- 
 rouglily learnt the liberal sciences softens the man- 
 ners, and does not allow them to he harharous." This 
 is eminently the case with respect to nations and 
 civil communities. Survey man for a moment in the 
 state of ignorant and undisciplined nature — not as 
 he may dwell in the solitude of individual existence, 
 but as herding with a clan marked by the same 
 savage ferocity with himself, and distinguished mainly 
 by their shape from the quadrupeds which they chase 
 
 Didicisse fideliter artes 
 
 EmoUit moreS; nee sinit esse feros. 
 
IG INTRODUCTION. 
 
 along- the forests. AVliat are his occupations ? Kot 
 to exercise his faculties upon any noble and useful 
 pursuit — not to employ his intellectual powers in the 
 investigation of what is true, and in the contempla- 
 tion of what is beautiful and fair over the wide 
 domains, and in the inexhaustible stores of creation 
 ■ — not to direct those physical energies, with which 
 he is endued, to some department of salutary and in- 
 genious labour. These arc pursuits to which he is a 
 stranger, too refined and intricate for his apprehen- 
 sion — too sublime for his remotest conception. AYhat 
 are his pleasures ? Not the elevated gTatifications, 
 which arise from the commerce of minds — from the 
 interchange of ideas — from the communication of 
 knowledge and information — from the civilities and 
 comparative elegancies of social life, not the pure and 
 exquisite delights, which spring from the exercise of 
 the domestic and relative affections. These are en- 
 joyments, of A\hicli he knows as little as he docs of 
 the pursuits and employments prevalent among the 
 inhabitants of another planet. The indulgence of the 
 grossest appetites of nature, carried to an excess, 
 frequently destructive of health and even life — 
 instinctive sagacity exerting itself in schemes of 
 treachery and fraudulent advantage — native courage 
 displaying its vehement energies in every form of 
 cruelty, and ferocity, and rage — in mutual slaughter 
 and devastation, and expeditions of sanguinary re- 
 venge for the insults and injuries of a rival tribe 
 — these are the only occupations in which he de- 
 lights, and the advantages of which he has learnt 
 to understand. An African Chief, who adorns the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 walls of his palace with the scalps of his conquered 
 enemies, maj in fact be considered as a fair repre- 
 sentative of the habits and dispositions of man in 
 the state of ignorant, untutored, and unreclaimed 
 nature. And so far is this from being an exagge- 
 rated representation, and such as applies only to 
 some extraordinary instances of ferocity, it may be 
 safely asserted, that, with very slight variations, 
 before they were visited by the softening beams of 
 knowledge and civilization, this was the aboriginal 
 condition of every nation upon earth. It was the 
 light of truth gradually arising above the horizon, 
 and dissipating with its orient beams the mists of 
 ignorance and error, which developed the faculties, 
 that lay dormant in the torpor of unconscious exist- 
 ence, which prepared and capacitated man for per- 
 forming the real functions of humanity. It was this 
 genial sun, which, visiting the cold and cheerless 
 wastes of savage life, and penetrating what we may 
 call the polar regions of human intellect. 
 
 Called nature from lier ivy-mantled den, 
 And soften'd human rock-work into men. 
 
 But there is a state of ignorance essentially different 
 from that of savage nature, but which exhibits few of 
 the fair and engaging features of humanity in a state 
 of advanced civilization and intellectual culture. It 
 is true, that the most polished state of society is not 
 without its vices — it is true, that luxury, voluptuous 
 refinement, and excess, frequently associate them- 
 selves with a considerable measure of literary refine- 
 ment and taste — that mind in some of its subordi- 
 nate departments becomes leagued with the depraved 
 
 c 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 propensities of nature, and employs its powers in 
 throwing a specious and imposing varnish over the 
 tube, which conveys moral pollution in the form of 
 intellectual gratification, to the character. It is true, 
 that human nature, even in its most enlightened 
 order, and after learning and philosophy have exerted 
 their utmost power in purifying it from the dregs of 
 sensual appetite, evinces too much of an instinctive 
 affinity with what is corrupt, too much of an elec- 
 tive attraction for what is base and deteriorating in 
 the moral elements, with which it is surrounded. 
 But amidst scenes of rude ignorance, where reason 
 and intellect have never attempted to assert their 
 dignity and independence, and to claim their legiti- 
 mate ascendancy over the inferior powers of nature : 
 where a system of physical energies and propensi- 
 ties, acting as by mechanical impulse, and operating 
 without salutary control, is regarded as constituting 
 the whole of the man, the original evils, and tenden- 
 cies of the human character will present themselves 
 in forms infinitely more odious and revolting. We 
 have read, indeed, of scenes of Arcadian innocence, 
 where unsophisticated nature, without the aid of 
 science and art, contributed everything that was ne- 
 cessary to consummate tlie idea of human felicity — 
 and while contemplating the enchanting colours in 
 which a vivid fancy has portrayed those forms of 
 shadowy existence, we have been tempted to exclaim 
 
 Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to bo wise. 
 
 But those, ^\hose oppcn-tunities have made them 
 acquainted Avitli the realities of human character in 
 these retreats of sequestered ignorance — in these 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 back-grounds of the intellectual scene, are perfectly 
 aware that the picture is illusory. They know that 
 these bright creations of untaught innocence and 
 rustic blessedness exist only in the regions of poetry 
 and romance, and that a state of gross and rude 
 ignorance is but another fonn of expression for a 
 state of degrading vice, and in many instances of 
 brutal violence. 
 
 In such a state of society you will in vain look for 
 anything like nicety of principle — a dignified sense of 
 honour — refinement of feeling or delicacy of language 
 — sentiments and habits, which the expansion of the 
 mind and the pursuit of knowledge have such an 
 obvious tendency to engender and to cherish. There 
 you will in vain, except in some very extraordinary 
 instances, look for those tender and soothing sensi- 
 bilities of domestic life peiwading and mutually 
 attaching the several members of a family to each 
 other; for those decencies of deportment, those pro- 
 prieties of outward habit, those ci\alities of intercourse 
 and address, which impart a character of serenity 
 and blandness to the atmosphere of human society. 
 The most valuable and fertile districts of the rational 
 and intellectual nature, are in those cases wholly 
 uncultivated; a wild and uncleared forest, into which 
 a noble, elevated, and refined idea never happens by 
 any possible chance to straggle, but where evil pas- 
 sions, like so many ferocious and venomous beasts, 
 range at will, and grow to a portentous magnitude. 
 Mutual animosity, ready upon the slightest occasion of 
 insult or provocation to kindle into a flame of violent 
 revenge — trials of strength, outraging every principle 
 
 c 2 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of virtue and humanity, exhibited, perhaps, to the g'aze 
 of admiring- spectators — cruelty sometimes carried to 
 the excess of the most wanton barbarity exercised 
 towards the lower animals — these are the features 
 which most prominently stand forth to the eye in the 
 character of an ignorant and unenlightened commu- 
 nity. And if the diffusion of the light of knowledge, 
 independently of the operations of a higher principle, 
 Avhich is now so rapidly spreading among us, should 
 do nothing more than soften down something of this 
 grosser hardihood — than remove some of these more 
 palpable asperities and disfigurements of our nature, 
 I think that an important step will have been gained 
 towards meliorating the habits of society, and more 
 generally elevating the moral standard of the land. 
 
 For an illustration of the point under our present 
 consideration, we need not travel beyond the boun- 
 daries of the British empire. Let us for a moment 
 ^ook into the neighbouring island. AYe do not mean 
 to enter into the political or religious questions con- 
 nected with that country, but simply to notice the 
 phenomena of the intellectual darkness and moral 
 degradation which it presents, as illustrative of the 
 point before us. From all the accounts we have seen 
 or heard of that country, amidst tlie numerous indi- 
 vidual instances of splendid talents and extensive 
 acquirements which it presents, tlie whole, or at least, 
 the chief part of its lower rank of population, is in- 
 volved in the most abject ignorance. Its condition, 
 in a civil and intellectual point of view, may justly be 
 described as that of semi-barbarism — just emerging 
 above the horizon of total darkness, but in vain 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 strug'g-ling to rise to the meridian of mental illumi- 
 nation and knowledge. And what is the consequence, 
 or rather what is the necessary attendant of this state 
 of rude and untutored ignorance? It is just what 
 might have been expected. There we behold in their 
 full force, and operating with mischievous and des- 
 tructive energy, those violent and untamed qualities 
 of human nature in its uncivilized or half-civilized 
 state, which Ave have represented it to be an obvious 
 tendency of knowledge and cultivation to soften, 
 refine, and humanize. There are far more fre- 
 quently witnessed than in any other part of the 
 united kingdom, scenes of rapine and bloodshed. 
 There, in short, is confusion and every evil work. 
 
 From Ireland, let us transfer our survey to the 
 northern parts of this island, and contemplate the 
 noble and generous spirit — the feeling of honorable 
 independence — the habits of regularity, sobriety, and 
 economy — the quietness and content — the domestic 
 tenderness and hospitality, which, from all we have 
 been able to learn, distinguish the population of 
 Scotland. How are we to account for this striking 
 and acknowledged superiority? It is unphilosophical 
 and absurd to seek for the cause of it in any diversity 
 in the original elements of the intellectual stamina 
 or the physical constitution. Whatever other causes 
 may have contributed to the depression of the one 
 community and the elevation of the other, wdiatever 
 corrupting or paralyzing influence may have been 
 exerted in the former case, by a wretched and degra- 
 ding superstition connected with a course of re- 
 strictive, and in times that are i)ast at least, not very 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pure administration, there can be no doubt that the 
 system of universal education, ^vhich has so long been 
 prevalent in Scotland, and the spirit of intelligence, 
 reflection, and inquiry, which it has been the means 
 of diffusing, is one very principal ground of the 
 decided advantage in point of civilization, comfort, 
 and moral refinement, which the great body of its 
 population possesses over that of the sister island. 
 So early, in the progress of its civil history, did the 
 cultivation of literature gain a footing in Scotland, 
 that it was said by one of its eminent writers, 
 that there they had learnt to compose Latin verses 
 before they could make a wheelbarrow. The fruit of 
 this timely devotedness and persevering attachment 
 to the cause of useful knoAvledge, is manifest in the 
 masculine sense — the sound wisdom — and the very 
 superior habits of morality, decency and propriety, 
 which are almost universally allowed to mark the 
 generality of the inhabitants of that country. 
 
 When the character has thus been softened into 
 humanity, imbued with the refining elements of social 
 kindness and affection, and defecated from the grosser 
 impurities of unreclaimed nature, it is prepared for 
 the influence of another most important circumstance 
 arising from the cultivation of science, Avith a view to 
 the melioration or maintenance of the moral habit, — 
 that it teaches most effectually the value and proper 
 use of time. "We know of no more fertile source of 
 crime — of no corrupt fountain, which wells out a 
 a more copious stream of vice and moral pollution, 
 in all its forms and modifications, tlian idleness. "We 
 are persuaded that it is the parent of a more nume- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 rous progeny of depraved habits and delinquencies, 
 than any other single circumstance whatever. It is 
 the want of a due impression of the importance and 
 legitimate employment of time, which is one of the 
 main occasions of the luxury and profligacy of one 
 order of society; and it is the same cause which 
 vitiates and defiles the manners of another, and a 
 subordinate rank in the scale. It is inquired by an 
 ancient poet, who was a keen and accurate observer 
 of human character, why JEgisthus so grievously and 
 wantonly deviated from the path of virtue, and he 
 immediately subjoins the reply — ^'The cause is obvious 
 — he was idle*." And it is a circumstance Avorthy of 
 remark, that wben Hogarth, who is so celebrated for 
 his striking delineations of human life and manners, 
 wished to give a portraiture of a veteran criminal, 
 he made him commence his career as a boy lolling on 
 the tomb-stones of the church-yard on the Sunday. 
 
 In no scene of life, perhaps, is the malignant 
 influence of time, not being duly appreciated, upon 
 the habits of the general conduct, more strikingly 
 apparent, than among the congregated mass of the 
 students, or rather residents of a university. It is a 
 notorious and unquestionable fact, that amidst this 
 promiscuous assemblage the men of incorrect morals 
 are those who are strangers to the pleasure, and ima- 
 gine themselves to be exempt from the necessity, of 
 a close and vigorous attention to their studies. And 
 nothing has more effectually contributed to the eleva- 
 tion of the moral and religious standard in our great 
 
 Quasritur ^Egisthus qua re sit factus adulter? 
 In promptu causa est, desidiosus erat. 
 
24 IXTRODUCTION. 
 
 seminaries of learning', tlian those liabits of generous 
 competition and active, unwearied industry in the 
 pursuit of scientific attainment, which now so gene- 
 rally prevail in them. Throughout the various grada- 
 tions of the nobility and gentry of the land, among 
 Avhom amusements, not always of the most unexcep- 
 tionable kind, are considered as the great business of 
 life, the want of some intellectual engagement to 
 cover the vacant spaces of unoccupied hours, is griev- 
 ously felt in its deteriorating effects upon the cha- 
 racter. Among the lower classes of society, the dan- 
 gers attendant on a spirit of indolence are still greater, 
 and the benefits resulting from the means of eff'ectual 
 security against them are proportionably important. 
 That a taste for literary and scientific pursuits has a 
 powerful tendency to ward ofl^ these evils, and to 
 realize the opposite advantages, requires, I conceive, 
 but little discrimination to perceive, and little force 
 of argumentation to demonstrate. 
 
 It is perfectly obvious that those who are engaged 
 in the most laborious undertakings, who are employed 
 in those departments of industry which require the 
 most assiduous and incessant attention, will have 
 some time at command. Every business or profes- 
 sion has in a degree, more or less, its seasons of lei- 
 sure and relaxation. And even when the hours of 
 the day are engrossed entirely by necessary duties, 
 as in some instances they doubtless are, it is at least, 
 in very few cases, that a small portion of disposable 
 time may not be innocently stolen from the hours 
 legitimately and fairly devoted to repose. It is also 
 to b(5 observed, that there arc few professions, or spe- 
 
INTliODUCTION. 25 
 
 cific modes of applying' labour and skill, ^vlnch arc 
 capable of being prosecuted at all times and in all 
 seasons of the year. There will, moreover, occur, 
 though not very frequently, in the case of an indus- 
 trious and active individual, but there will occasionally 
 occur seasons in which persons of the class to which I 
 am now referring, will be destitute of full and regular 
 employment, and of necessity have a considerable 
 quantity of time on their hands. 
 
 I^ow the question is, w^ho is likely to convert these 
 seasons of leisure and of exemption from the demands 
 of active duty to the best account? The man whose 
 mind is a perfect blank with respect to every idea 
 beyond the range of his physical occupations and 
 propensities, or the man whose mind is a mirror of 
 inteUigence, reflecting the fair and beautiful ideas of 
 creation in their diversified forms of combination 
 throughout the extinsive provinces of material and 
 animated existence. The former, it is evident, the 
 moment he breaks loose from the shackles of neces- 
 sary labour, or is shaken off as a useless weight from 
 the machinery of active employment, will be eager 
 to plunge into some scene of boisterous and exciting 
 enjoyment, or, perhaps, he Avill sink into a state of 
 insipid and degrading indolence — an insupportable 
 burden to himself — a nuisance to society, and ready 
 to fall into any snare of temptation, and to become 
 a prey to every corrupting association. In every 
 scene of debauchery and excess, so far as his means 
 extend, and much beyond his legitimate resources, he 
 is likely to be foremost. Depraved himself, and de- 
 praving others by his influence and example, it is 
 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 difficult to know where his career may end. Idleness 
 and ignorance having betrayed him into profligacy, it 
 is well if his profligacy does not lead him into some 
 outrage upon the rights and privileges of the commu- 
 nity, which will result in punishment and disgrace. 
 We should be sorry to be supposed to bring a general 
 charge of this nature against every person of ignorant 
 and uncultivated mind. We are perfectly aware, that 
 in many cases there is much of good feeling, where 
 the range of ideas is very narrow and confined ; and 
 there are few specimens of character, which it is more 
 delightful to contemplate than this noble triumph of 
 involuntary intellectual poverty over all the disadvan- 
 tages of its condition. But we are here endeavour- 
 ing to state what is the natural tendency, and Avhat, 
 in very many instances, proves to be the actual effect 
 of grovelling and unthinking ignorance in the absence 
 of a better principle. 
 
 Compare with this tendency and eff'ect what is 
 likely to be the conduct of the latter individual that 
 has been mentioned — the man to whose mind science 
 has just begun to open its treasures, in his seasons of 
 leisure from his regular duties. If he be imbued with 
 the genuine spirit of literary and philosophical re- 
 search, he will be anxious to avail himself of every 
 opportunity, which legitimately intervenes amidst the 
 pursuits in which he may be professedly employed, to 
 cultivate the soil of his own mind. He will be desi- 
 rous of being disengaged from the trammels of his 
 proper vocation, not for the purpose of indulging in 
 sloth, and much less with the eagerness of one who 
 wishes to rush into scenes of riot and intemperance, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 but uith a view of engaging in the more imdisturljetl 
 exercise of his own faculties — Avith the cahii delight, 
 but not the morbid impatience, of enjoying an intel- 
 lectual feast as soon as the just requirements of duty 
 and necessity have been fully and adequately met. 
 Such a person will feel that he cannot afford to Avaste 
 aAvay his time, to squander his best resources in the 
 extravagance of idleness and folly. The very consi- 
 deration, that he has but little, Avill make him habi- 
 tually more solicitous that he may lose none. And 
 thus his hours will be divided between the indispens- 
 able duties of his rank and situation in life, and the 
 cultivation of those habits of mind and character 
 which become a rational and accountable being — it 
 being perfectly understood and taken for granted in 
 this view of his conduct, that the most important of 
 all interests, so far from being neglected, receives its 
 appropriate and a very primary share of attention. 
 
 I do not think it very easy to over-rate the moral 
 importance of these unoccupied intervals of time, 
 which continually occur in the life of the most dili- 
 gent and fully employed. They appear to me to be 
 above all other seasons the inlets of corruption ; and, 
 therefore, it is of the utmost consequence to guard 
 and secure them by some salutary engagement. They 
 seem to be so many sluices, which, unless duly closed, 
 are in danger of admitting a torrent of evil habits ; 
 but Avhen properly filled up, they constitute a species 
 of artificial dykes, by which the overflowings of vice 
 and iniquity are effectually restrained. 
 
 In taking a survey of the nature of man and the 
 principles by Avhich he is governed, it is impossible 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 not to perceive that a desire of happiness occupies 
 a very commanding and influential position in his 
 character. On this ground it is evident, that what- 
 ever is calculated to meet this powerful and prevail- 
 ing tendency, will modify every fiiculty and afl'ection 
 of the mind, and give a predominant and specific 
 direction to the whole course of the conduct. It 
 may, therefore, be regarded as another very decisive 
 proof of the moral and beneficial influence of science 
 upon the character, that it opens new sources of 
 pleasure. Such is the craving eagerness of man for 
 enjoyment, that unless he can obtain it within the 
 legitimate bounds of morality and virtue, he will 
 seldom scruple, except he is restrained by a higher 
 principle of religion, to transgress those limits, so far 
 as is not absolutely inconsistent Avith the legal and 
 civil institutions of the land. 
 
 Yery frequently, indeed, he is instigated by pas- 
 sion, hurried by some precipitate impulse, or led by 
 a cool and deliberate calculation of some unlawful 
 advantage or gratification, to the gross and outrage- 
 ous violation of those salutary principles. But if 
 prudence and other subordinate considerations of 
 safety and interest should be effectual in keeping 
 him within the just boundaries prescribed by the 
 laws of the state, if his habits should not absolutely 
 degenerate into crimes impeachable at the bar of 
 the public magistrate, there will be still abundant 
 scope for the practice of every vice, and for the pur- 
 suit of x)leasure in every form of depravity, and 
 through every channel of sensual indulgence. If he 
 is a stranger to a purer, sublimer, and more intcl- 
 
INTIIODUCTIO]^. 29 
 
 Icctucal rano'e of enjoyments, he will l)e urg-ed by a 
 native tendency, operating in him with the force of 
 a species of moral necessity, but a necessity, which 
 neutralizes none of his guilt, to slake his thirst after 
 happiness from some more turbid source. Accord- 
 ing to the extent of his means and the peculiar bias 
 of his constitutional temperament, he will either 
 indulge in the excesses of prodigality and unre- 
 strained libertinism, or in the pursuit of those meaner 
 and more grovelling gratifications, which every one 
 has it in his power to command. Impatient of the 
 insipidity of the same dull round of employments, of 
 the torpor of unexercised faculties, and of the insup- 
 portable weight of unoccupied time, he will, perhaps, 
 plunge into the vortex of dissipating amusements, 
 where vice meets him in every seductive form, and 
 where the atmosphere is contaminated with princi- 
 ples fatal to the best interests of virtue ; or he may 
 frequent those resorts of intoxication and excess, 
 where the orgies of nocturnal revelry are celebrated, 
 and where the votaries of vice meet together as for 
 the express purpose of performing the last obsequies 
 of morality. 
 
 But let the ennobling and elevating spirit of 
 science once deeply imbue his mind, and I will 
 venture to affirm that, at least, a very powerful if not 
 completely influential counteracting principle will 
 become incorporated into his character. Let know- 
 ledge unfold its resources, and literature display its 
 inexhaustible treasures before him. Let the Me- 
 chanical Arts no longer remain mechanical, but, by 
 the discovery of their astonishing forces and capabi- 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lities of application, become mental and intellectual 
 employments in his hands. Let Mathematics, in 
 their abstruse and more remote combinations of 
 quantity, and in their practical adaptation to the 
 various uses of life, employ the acuter and more 
 investigating faculties of his mind. Let Chemistry, 
 containing the universal law of matter in every form 
 of composition and analysis, teach him to look with a 
 scientific eye to every object with which he is sur- 
 rounded. Let Astronomy reveal her stupendous 
 wonders to his view, and engage his mind in the 
 contemplation of her brilliant phenomena. Let His- 
 tory unroll her records, and cause to pass before him 
 in review the diversified scenery of ages and genera- 
 tions past, presenting in more prominent exhibition 
 those striking epochs which have exerted an exten- 
 sive and lasting influence upon the destinies of man- 
 kind. Let Poetry, chaste, pure, and sublime, enchant 
 him with the magic of her charms, and soothe him 
 with the melody of her voice, tinging every scene 
 with colours of a brighter hue, and arraying the face 
 of nature with beauties not her own. Let his various 
 faculties be thus directed toAvards their appropriate 
 objects, and flow forth in their respective channels of 
 enjoyment, and I do not assert, indeed, that he will 
 be everything that he may and ought to be, but it 
 may be safely affirmed, that he will have in himself 
 such resources — that he will, at all times, have at 
 command such diversified means of refined and exqui- 
 site enjoyment, as will be sufficient to preserve him 
 from any imaginary necessity of recurring to plea- 
 sures of a debasing or questionable character. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 To point out all the avenues, by which the pur- 
 suits of literature and science conduct to the sources 
 of intellectual gratification, would far exceed my 
 present limits. To the man of taste and imagina- 
 tion, or of patient research, there is an indefinable 
 pleasure in the conscious exercise of his faculties, 
 and in satiating his appetite for knowledge out of 
 the exhaustless stores which lie before him. In 
 whatever department of labour, or art, he may be 
 engaged, he will throw a portion of mind into every 
 undertaking, and sublimate with this ethereal spirit 
 the coarsest elements with Avhich he comes in contact. 
 In the pursuit of knowledge, he will doubtless be fre- 
 quently humiliated at the thought of the comparative 
 scantiness of his acquirements ; he will have to en- 
 counter many difficulties in his way. In the abstract 
 sciences he will more particularly have to engage in 
 these trials of intellectual dexterity and strength. 
 Few obstacles, however, will meet him, over which 
 labour and perseverance will not triumph ; and, inde- 
 pendently of the joy of victory, there is pleasure in 
 the very effort, in the vigorous attempt to master 
 what hitherto has baffled his endeavours*. And 
 though, in his upward progress along the acclivities 
 of that mountain, whose summit is lost in the clouds, 
 he will still find 
 
 Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps o'er Alps arise ; 
 yet it is not Avithout satisfaction that he occasionally 
 looks downward, and marks the impediments which 
 
 * HSeia S' eo-rt tov fiev napovros r] evepyeia, tov 8e fxeWovTos t] eXiris, 
 Tov 8e yeyevrjfxevov tj Hvt)(it]' r^hiarov be to Kara Tr}v evepyeiav. — ArISTOT. 
 
 Eth. Nic, ix. 7. 
 
32 INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 lie lias already surmounted, the heights which he has 
 already scaled. It is said of Pythagoras, that he 
 sacrificed a hecatomb in token of his exulting- grati- 
 tude for the discovery of an important problem con- 
 tained in the elements of Euclid. It is related of 
 another philosopher of antiquity, the renowned Ar- 
 chimedes, that such was the delight which he enjoyed 
 in his sublime speculations, that he regarded the 
 practical uses of his astonishing mechanical inventions 
 as altogether a subordinate consideration, and exhi- 
 bited them only for amusement. So completely ab- 
 sorbed was the mind of this wonderful man in his 
 geometrical calculations, that, when a Eoman soldier 
 was on the point of plunging his sword into his body, 
 he requested him to withhold the fatal stroke until 
 he had finished the problem, which he was engaged in 
 demonstrating. And how great and exquisite, as 
 Dugald Stewart justly remarks, must have been the 
 pleasure experienced by the celebrated mathemati- 
 cian and astronomer, La Grange, on having proved, 
 upon principles of sublime and complicated science, 
 that the present system has not, as by some had been 
 imagined, the elements of necessary destruction in 
 itself. The same remark is applicable to those emi- 
 nent persons who have distinguished themselves by 
 their inventions and discoveries in other branches of 
 knoAvledge and art. And though it would be extra- 
 vagant to compare with these every humble votary 
 who carries his offering to the altar of science*, yet 
 the pleasure of success, though in a subordinate and 
 
 Quis(juis adluic uno partain colit assc Miuorvain.— Juv. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 less splendid career, is as real, and, perliap.-;, as vivid 
 in his case, as with those ^vho are most powerfully 
 efficient in extending the empire of knowledge. 
 
 Science, by opening the som*ces of refined and 
 varied pleasure, renders him v>'ho pursues it, in a 
 great measure, independent of the senses, which dis- 
 closes another very important modification of moral 
 influence. It is remarked by Addison, that the plea- 
 sures of taste and imagination occupy a middle place 
 betAveen those of pure intellect and science, and the 
 pleasures of sense. And where there is a capacity 
 for enjoying both or either of the former, it may be 
 fairly assumed, that the latter will be in a consider- 
 able measure superseded. In the mixed and com- 
 pound nature of man, there is an incessant contest 
 between discordant elements and varying inclina- 
 tions, until the intellectual principle, or the animal 
 propensity, gains a decisive and almost complete 
 predominance ; and the general tenor of the conduct 
 will take its direction according to the superior and 
 preponderating influence, which these constituents 
 of character are respectively found to exert. Let a 
 man be supposed to be altogether destitute of any 
 relish for the pure gratifications of mind in its diver- 
 sified modes of exercise and application, and by an 
 almost unavoidable proclivity of 'nature, he will sink 
 into the mire of sensuality, where he will be held 
 fast in the chains of some sordid pursuit or affection. 
 But deprive him of his usual indulgences ; dry up, or 
 divert from their wonted and accessible channels the 
 polluted streams, from which he has been accustomed 
 
 D 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to drink — let him be incapacitated by age or infir- 
 mity, or any other uncontrollable circumstance, to 
 pursue his former habits, and satiate himself with the 
 same intoxicating draught, and, unless he is sup- 
 plied with resources of cheerfulness and consolation, 
 springing from a principle still nobler and better 
 than science itself, he will of necessity be plunged 
 into a state of sour melancholy and vacant wretched- 
 ness. 
 
 But the man, who, like the ancient philosopher, 
 carries with him his riches in his mind, and the chief 
 portion of his happiness, so far as it is connected 
 with the affairs of the present world, in the exercise 
 of his faculties, rises to a great degree superior to 
 those privations or vicissitudes, or those superabun- 
 dant and diversified opportunities of indulgence, 
 which affect the enjoyment of the senses. K he is 
 destitute of the means, he feels not the necessity, 
 except so far as the moderate supply of his jihysical 
 wants. He can expatiate in the liberty of thought, 
 amidst the confinement of the closest and most 
 binding employment; he can luxuriate amidst scenes 
 of intellectual affluence and delight, Avhile surrounded 
 on every hand with the insignia of contracted re- 
 sources. If, on the contrary, his circumstances be 
 ample, and the sources of sensitive gratification be 
 freely at his command, even though he should be 
 destitute of a sublimer and more unexceptionable 
 principle, a sense of the dignity of his nature, and 
 an elegance of feeling and taste springing from the 
 habitual contemplation of the abstract and ideal 
 beauty of moral excellence will in general effectually 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 preserve him from suffering the rational part of his 
 being to become entirely amalgamated with tlie 
 animal. He will assert the freedom of his mind 
 against every attempt of the senses to bring him 
 into bondage, and wath the consciousness of his 
 heavenly origin and immortal destiny, purified, it 
 may be hoped, from the pride and self-complacence, 
 which in the case of the Eoman philosopher it too 
 clearly embodied, he will exclaim with Seneca, "I 
 was born for higher things than to be the slave of 
 my body." And if this independence of the mind 
 over the propensities and allurements of the senses 
 be effectually maintained, the fortress of morality 
 and virtue will be considerably strengthened, and 
 some of the broadest avenues will be closed, through 
 which vice makes her inroads into the character. On 
 a most superficial view of society, it is impossible 
 not to observe, that a large portion of the various 
 gradations of vice and misery, by which unhappily 
 it is too generally characterized, arise from impro- 
 vidence and inconsiderateness, from the want of a 
 deliberate and due calculation of remote conse- 
 quences and effects. It is this combination of defects 
 which opens the door for so many positive evils and 
 delinquencies, from which otherwise the character 
 would have been exempt. Men, whose minds have 
 not been enlightened by knowledge, and whose un- 
 derstandings have not been trained to habits of 
 patient and comprehensive thought, are apt to be 
 led away by present appearances, and to be urged 
 by momentary impulses. Their views are too narrow 
 to survey an object in all its circumstances and 
 
 D 2 
 
36 INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 relations — too sliort to follow the obviours tendencies 
 of an action to its distant and eventual results. 
 They are not accustomed to look beyond the sphere 
 of actual and sensitive vision — they know not what it 
 is to weigh the probabilities of a question in the scales 
 of an impartial and deliberate judgment. They have 
 not sagacity to penetrate beneath the surface of 
 things. With them whatever is specious and im- 
 posing carries conviction — whatever promises imme- 
 diate gratification is substantial good — Avhatever 
 glitters is gold. Hence their character lies at the 
 mercy of surrounding influences and adventitious 
 circumstances. To them a strong temptation is 
 almost a certain fall. To this thoughtless and un- 
 calculating habit, is owing half the vice and attend- 
 ant wretchedness, which prey upon so large a portion 
 of mankind. 
 
 But let the mind be expanded by suitable exercise, 
 and the understanding be disciplined in the school of 
 sober reflection — ^let such a moderate degree of in- 
 sight into the present character, and of foresight 
 into the future consequences of things, be acquired, 
 as is not incompatible with the unavoidable ignorance 
 and iallibility of human nature, and many of the 
 most grievous moral maladies of individuals, as well 
 as of society, will be cured in the removal of their 
 causes. As iii(Jiri(Jf(((7s, men will no longer allow 
 themselves to be hunied headlong by passion, or 
 allured by corrupt communication, into acts of dis- 
 lionesty, profligacy, or intem})erance, which, in their 
 (•onse([uences, must of necessity entail poverty, 
 misery, or disgrace, upon themselves and their la- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 milies. They will look before they resolve — they 
 will pause before they act. In their social and clHl 
 capacity, they will possess equal advantages. They 
 will take a clear, dispassionate and enlightened view 
 of their duties and obligations, as well as of their 
 privileges, as members of a free, but not laAvless 
 government; nor will they be easily persuaded to 
 forego the certain blessings of safety and civil pro- 
 tection Avhich they enjoy, for the doubtful and 
 perilous advantages, which would result from violence 
 and insubordination. Knowing the value of their 
 own rights, they have learnt to respect the rights of 
 others. If they have too much knowledge to be 
 deluded into the approbation of oppressive and arbi- 
 trary decrees, they have also too much wisdom to be 
 precipitated by a rash and headlong spirit of inno- 
 vation, into the gulf of anarchy and confusion. 
 
 On this question, which I consider as a legitimate 
 and very important branch of social morality, it is 
 remarked by Professor Stewart, whom no one will 
 suspect of being an enemy to the rights and liberties 
 of mankind, that one great benefit resulting from 
 the general diffusion of light and knowledge through- 
 out the community is, that men are thereby rendered 
 less liable to be led away by the artifices of public 
 orators and popular demagogues, and that the inevi- 
 table effect of such a dissemination of sound princi- 
 ples among the mass of the people, is to lessen the 
 dangerous and injurious influence of these persons. 
 The same enlightened philosopher and laborious in- 
 vestigator of the principles of the human mind, has 
 observed that it is only upon ignorant minds — upon 
 
38 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 minds unaccustomed to the exercise of their faculties, 
 and incapable of a cool and deliberate application of 
 their reasoning powers, that inflammatory declama- 
 tions, addressed to the imagination, can produce their 
 effect. With hini agrees the late moderate and ex- 
 cellent Dr. Paley, who remarks that, although in a 
 state of peace and public tranquillity, and when all 
 external circumstances contribute to the maintenance 
 of regularity and quietness of conduct, ignorance may 
 afford a colour of security to the interests of the 
 community, and by its pliability of movement, may 
 seem to be conducive to the harmony of the system; 
 yet in those seasons of difficulty and depression, by 
 wdiich, from whatever causes they may arise, the his- 
 tory of states is so frequently chequered, when the 
 political horizon is darkened with clouds, and seems 
 fraught with the elements of destruction, in such an 
 order of things it is in the knowledge and sound dis- 
 cretion of the great body of the people that the 
 safety of a nation is centred. And I am persuaded, 
 that most of those dreadful convulsions, which at 
 different periods have deluged countries with blood — 
 those frantic ebullitions of barbarity and crime, which 
 are at once the terror and disgrace of our nature, are 
 mainly to be attributed, not to popular knowledge 
 and philosophy, as they have sometimes been erro- 
 neously traced, but to the want of this enlightened 
 wisdom in those, who must always constitute the 
 physical and disposable energy of a kingdom. So 
 far as they were ascribable to knowledge at all, the^^ 
 were the effects of the perverted knowledge of a few 
 operating upon the ignorance of the many. They 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 were, in fact, the fire and smoke, and pestilential ex- 
 halations, arising from the political laboratory of those 
 who experimented upon the elements of ignorance 
 and passion as their subjects*. 
 
 The last modification of moral influence which we 
 shall now be able to notice, as belonging to science, 
 is the favourable aspect which it bears, when properly 
 cultivated, to the interests of religion, as the grand 
 
 * As illustrative of the natural influence of the pursuits of sci- 
 ence, and of the general expansion of mind upon the political con- 
 dition of society, it gives me great pleasure to strengthen the pre- 
 ceding remarks, by the following passage from a luminous and 
 eloquent speech of a distinguished member of the British Parliament, 
 delivered on opening the Budget, March 15, 1826: — " There are, 
 indeed, some persons who think this diffusion of knowledge the 
 misfortune of the age ; but I know not how those minds can be 
 constituted, who look upon knowledge with an eye of fear. On 
 me, it produces an impression diametrically the reverse. I am 
 convinced — most thoroughly convinced, that the more people are 
 instructed in all that is essential to their good, the more likely they 
 are to see what that good is, and the ends by which it is to be 
 attained ; the more likely they are to abstain from the use of means 
 in their operation prejudicial to the strength of a country; since all 
 mankind, nay, I was going to use that despised word, philosophers, 
 are agreed, that — ' Knowledge is power.'" 
 
 In fact, the only danger to a state, arising from the dissemina- 
 tion of sound knowledge, must be owing to the absence of that 
 principle in the administration of its affairs, which alone can secure 
 the homage of a well-instructed mind — an equitable and enlightened 
 discharge of its legislative and authoritative functions. This is the 
 condition, upon which every well-constituted government expects, 
 and may with safety calculate upon, the veneration and cheerful 
 obedience of its subjects; and, in this view of the case, I see nothing 
 to be apprehended from the following unquestionable statement 
 of Cicero — "Huic veri videndi cupiditati adjuncta est appetitio 
 qugedam principatus, ut nemini parere animus bene a natura infor- 
 matus velit, nisi prsecipienti aut docenti, aut utilitatis causa jiiste el 
 legitime imperanti.'^ — De Offic, lib. i, cap. 4. 
 
40 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 foundation of morality. AYe hope that the time is 
 now gone hj, -when ignorance "was regarded as the 
 mother of piety — when it Avas deemed necessary for 
 the maintenance of the cause of truth, that the Scrip- 
 tures themselves should be kept 
 
 Bound ill the fetters of an unknown tongue, 
 
 and confined within the massive Avails of churches, 
 and cloistered monasteries; lest, clad in the garb of 
 plainness and simplicity, and speaking the vulgar 
 dialect, they should go abroad among the people, and 
 excite in them a spirit of needless and inexpedient 
 inquiry. The palpable gloom of this Egyptian night 
 was dissipated by the morning star of the Eeforma- 
 tion, Avhich heralded the approaching and more gene- 
 ral diffusion of the light of revealed truth. And I 
 cannot but regard it as a circumstance honourable to 
 literature, as connected with the interests of religion, 
 that as one of the subordinate causes, in the hands of 
 a superintending Providence, it was mainly instru- 
 mental in effecting the emancipation of a large portion 
 of the Christian Avorld from the bondage of Popish 
 superstition. It Avill be acknoAvledged, I conceive, by 
 all AAdio are acquainted Avith history, that the destruc- 
 tion of the Eastern Empire, and the capture of Con- 
 stantinople by the Turks, had the effect of transfer- 
 ring the seat of classical and theological learning from 
 Asia into Europe; and that the revival of letters con- 
 sequent upon that change, proved the happy occasion, 
 in connexion Avith other causes, of opening the eyes of 
 the early champions of the Keformation to the absurd 
 and impious dogmas of the Uomisli Cliurch. It Avas 
 this Avhich, in subordination to a higher inliucnce, en- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 41 
 
 lio-litened tlic minds and roused the spirits of LiUlicr, 
 the foremost among a band of Avortliics — of Melanc- 
 tlion, and I may add, of Erasmus, notwithstanding his 
 pitiable duplicity, and vacillating timidity of charac- 
 ter — it was this which, in a great measure, prepared 
 and qualified them for laying bare, and for demolish- 
 ing, to a considerable extent, that enormous mass of 
 ignorance and superstition which had accumulated 
 over the site of the Christian Church, as the muddy 
 stream of time gradually lodged its deposits. 
 
 An apprehension has been felt, indeed, by well- 
 disposed individuals, in almost every age of the church 
 — an apprehension, w-hich I by no means regard as 
 utterly destitute of all foundation, that philosophy and 
 secular literature, owing to the general habit and bias 
 of the human mind, are calculated rather to be inju- 
 rious than favourable to the real interests of religious 
 truth. 
 
 Under the influence of this feeling, the celebrated 
 Gregory, Bishop of Eome, wdshed to destroy all the 
 literary remains of heathen antiquity, and prohibited 
 the use of them in those seminaries of Christian edu- 
 cation, which were subject to his control. But in 
 this, as Lord Bacon, in his Treatise on the Advance- 
 ment of the Sciences, justly remarks, he is seldom 
 thought by the most enlightened part of the Avorld 
 to have acted wisely. And with a view of supplying 
 the defect, several of the fathers of the church at- 
 tempted to compose pieces in prose and verse upon 
 the plan of the ancient models. The great restorer 
 of learning, or rather founder of modern science, 
 acknowledges, indeed, that a slight and superficial 
 
42 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 survey of the world of knowledge, may, in some in- 
 stances, be productive of a species of vertiginous and 
 intoxicating effect, and give the mind an atheistic 
 and irreligious tendency. But a clearer insight into 
 the mysteries of nature, and a richer infusion of the 
 genuine spirit of philosophy, he affirms, never fail to 
 bring it back again into a sober and wholesome 
 frame*. It is also unquestionable, that subsequently 
 to his time, science and literature, in most of their 
 ordinary departments, have frequently dishonoured 
 their names, and compromised their character, by be- 
 coming allied, and, as it were, amalgamated with a 
 spirit of impiety and infidelity. The nobler and 
 more transcendent efforts of human genius, however, 
 have soared above this polluted atmosphere. The 
 great representatives of the various provinces of the 
 human mind, the most honourable functionaries in 
 the intellectual republic, they who have been most 
 successful in extending its territories, and have 
 erected the standard of knowledge in regions hitherto 
 unexplored, have not soiled their garments with this 
 base refuse. While we have our Bacons — our N^ew- 
 tons — our Lockes — our Miltons — our Pascals, and 
 
 * It is remarkable, that the truth of this representation is dis- 
 tinctly recognized by Hume himself, who remarks, " that men being 
 taught by sujicrstition to lay the stress on a wrong place, when 
 that fails them, and they discover, by a little reflection, that the 
 course of nature is regular and uniform, their whole faith totters 
 and falls to ruins. But being taught by more reflection, that this 
 very regularity and uniformity is the strongest proof of a design 
 and of a supreme Intelligence, they return to that belief which they 
 had deserted, and they are now able to establish it upon a firmer 
 and more durable foundation." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 other scarce inferior names, associated with a firm 
 belief in the doctrines of revelation — many of them 
 zealous defenders of its vital truths, we need be under 
 no apprehension that the spirit of infidelity should 
 ever with justice be identified with the spirit of 
 philosophy. 
 
 Philosophy baptized 
 
 In the pure fountain of eternal love, 
 
 Has eyes indeed; and viewing all she sees, 
 
 As meant to indicate a God to man, 
 
 Gives him his praise, and forfeits not her own. 
 
 Learning has borne such fruit in other days, 
 
 On all her branches ; piety has found 
 
 Friends in the friends of Science, and true prayer 
 
 Has flowed from lips wet with Castalian dews. 
 
 Such was thy wisdom, Newton, child-like sage ! 
 
 Sagacious reader of the works of God, 
 
 And in his word sagacious. Such, too, thine, 
 
 Milton, whose genius had angelic wings. 
 
 And fed on manna. And such, thine in whom 
 
 Our British Themis gloried with just cause. 
 
 Immortal Hale, for deep discernment praised, 
 
 And sound integrity, not more than famed 
 
 For sanctity of manners undefiled. 
 
 It is, indeed, only while Science confines herself 
 to her suitable oflice of being an handmaid to reli- 
 gion, and through the gradation of the exquisite 
 arrangement of subordinate and secondary causes, 
 conducts the mind to the admiration and acknow- 
 ledgment of the great first Cause — that she is 
 entitled to countenance and respect. It is her 
 business, if we may venture to apply a heathen 
 illustration, to lead the inquirer through that beau- 
 tiful range of harmonious and mutually dependent 
 operations, which pervade the economy of the uni- 
 verse, until he has found that the last link in nature's 
 
44 INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 diain is fastened to tlie foot of Jupiter's cliair. 
 And the moment she forgets this, her appropriate 
 province, by prying- into scenes which are of neces- 
 sity concealed from lier view, and by invalidating 
 truths, the evidence of which she is not qualified 
 to appreciate, instead of being an angel of light, 
 she becomes at once emphatically a minister of 
 darkness. 
 
 That this, however, should be generally or exten- 
 sively the case, is by no means to be apprehended. 
 That it should ever take place is only one of those 
 instances of unnatural perversion and abuse, to which 
 every excellency and advantage are liable, when they 
 become associated Avitli corrupt principles, and is in 
 reality no more an argument against it, than (as 
 Aristotle has truly remarked in reply to a similar 
 objection against the art of Ehetoric) it is an argu- 
 ment against the value of health or physical strength 
 that it is capable of being misapplied*. It is true, 
 that there is a vain philosophy — a science falsely so 
 called, against which an apostle cautions the com- 
 munitity to Avhich he is writing; but the true and 
 sober, and well directed knowledge of nature cannot 
 be included in that designation; and from a variety 
 of other declarations and examples, we have abundant 
 reason to conclude, that this latter form of '' divine 
 philosophy" has nothing in it inconsistent, but on the 
 
 * Et on jifyoKa fiXciyj/fuv nv o ;^pw/xf I'o? rj] Toiavryj Swafxci tchi' Xoycoi', 
 Tovrn re koivov tan Kara tviivtwv n-yadiou ttXiju apfTrjs, kcu /luXiaTa Kara tcov 
 ^prjaiixoTaTMv, oiov ia-)^vos, vyuuii, irXovrov, (TTfjaTiiyttis. Toiovrois yap av th 
 u)(j)cXi]Ocic ru ptyiarTa ^(/Jco/ifj'os fiiKuicoy, km j:i\a\j/(uv, adiKU)S, — Do Rliet. 
 lil). i. cap. i. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 otlicr liaiid is perfectly congenial, with a spirit of the 
 devoutest piety. 
 
 The interests of morality and religion, though 
 not identical, are inseparably connected together. 
 AVhatever is calculated to promote and secm-e the 
 one, must exert a favourable influence with respect 
 to the other. It is dangerous, and injurious in the 
 extreme, to rest in science or morality as an end. 
 Assuredly they do not, either separately or combined, 
 constitute the chief good of man, nor of themselves 
 can they raise him to that perfection, of which his 
 nature is capable; but they may be eminently con- 
 ducive to that end. The order of relation in which 
 they appear to stand is, that science, duly and soberly 
 cultivated, leads to morality, and morality, as an inter- 
 mediate stage, conducts into the confines of religion, 
 and religion as the transforming and perfecting 
 economy of the character of man, brings him by 
 an immediate and direct path to the completion of 
 his hopes, and the consummation of his felicity. 
 Morality is the outer court of the temple, of which 
 religion is the sanctuary. In order to enter the 
 latter, it is indispensable to pass through the former. 
 Or, to adopt an illustration from the technical phrase- 
 ology of Logic, religion, as the major proposition, 
 includes morality as the minor, though the converse 
 of this proposition is by no means necessarily true. 
 If science, therefore, as we have now endeavoured to 
 show, be in its general tendency favourable to the 
 interests of religion, it must by implication be con- 
 ducive to the interests of morality. 
 
 ^Ye now proceed to notice some of the dangers 
 
46 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which may incidentally arise from the pursuits of 
 science, and to suggest such cautions and correctives, 
 as appear calculated most effectually to secure suc- 
 cess in the prosecution of knowledge, and, therewith 
 associated, those beneficial results of a moral and 
 social nature Avhich have been already specified. 
 Much, however, of this part of the discussion has 
 been already anticipated, and interwoven with the 
 former portion of this inquiry. In reference to these 
 points, therefore, a few brief hints alone are neces- 
 sary. In the endeavour to acquire useful knowledge, 
 it is of great importance that we do not suffer our- 
 selves to be bewildered by attempting too many 
 things at once, or by neglecting those gradations in 
 the scale of intellect, without a due regard to which, 
 it is impossible to arrive at the higher departments. 
 It is the rule of epic poetry, as exemplified by the 
 Grecian bard, and enforced by the Roman critic, to 
 plunge at once into the midst of the scene*, and to 
 interweave whatever is necessary to the due compre- 
 hension of the subject, with the structure of the work, 
 by a skilful arrangement of episodes and interlocu- 
 tions. But the rule of scientific acquirement is the 
 very reverse. Here we must begin ah ovo — with first 
 principles, and lay the foundation of the edifice in a 
 clear and comprehensive acquaintance with elemen- 
 tary facts. And when this has been in some degree 
 secured, it requires no ordinary measure of resolution 
 and self-denial, to fix and concentrate the attention 
 
 mcdi 
 
 Non sccus ac notas auditorem rapit. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 47 
 
 in that peculiar branch of knowledge which promises 
 most usefulness and success. It is, doubtless, a mor- 
 tifying consideration, that we cannot know everything 
 which is fairly within the reach of the human facul- 
 ties — that w^e cannot make a complete and accurate 
 tour through the whole circle of the sciences; but it 
 is what has never yet been effected by man. A re- 
 spectable and adequate proportion of general know- 
 ledge, a share of information upon every subject of 
 importance, sufficient for the purposes of illustration 
 and intellectual expansion, is certainly attainable; 
 but to aspire after universality is assuredly to covet 
 forbidden fruit. One of the most eminent mathe- 
 maticians of modern times acknowledges, that the 
 science of quantity alone, in its higher and more 
 complicated departments, has ramified into too 
 great a variety of forms and methods of investiga- 
 tion, to be adequately pursued and appreciated by 
 one mind*. How completely out of the question is 
 it, therefore, that an individual, however eminently 
 endowed, and however favourably circumstanced, 
 should comprehend within the sphere of his distinct 
 and penetrating vision the whole domain of human 
 knowledge. Against such an illimitable enlargement 
 of the range of the intellectual faculties, the eternal 
 law of our constitution hath raised an insurmount- 
 able barrier; and it may without hesitation be 
 affirmed, that the profoundest philosopher or the 
 
 * Vide Douglas's Advancement of Societij in Knowledge and 
 Religion — a work, notwithstanding some questionable positions, dis- 
 tinguished by a vigour of intellect, and an extensiveness of research 
 seldom equalled. 
 
48 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 most accomplished scholar that ever lived, knew no 
 more than the alplicibet of universal 'knou'ledfje. It 
 is no less a true than it is a pleasing estimate, which 
 the greatest discoverer of modern times formed of 
 his own character and attainments, the man, of 
 whom it was said aptly, though extravagantly, 
 indeed — 
 
 Nature and nature's works lay liid in night, 
 God said — Let Newton be, and all was light, 
 
 when he represents himself as a child walking upon 
 the shore, and gathering pebbles, wherewith to amuse 
 himself, while the great ocean of truth lay before 
 him, in its wide and measureless expanse, untra- 
 versed, and for the most part unperceived. In the 
 earlier stages of literary attainment, before the 
 mind is yet fully acquainted with its own powers, the 
 danger of this presumption is greater. When science 
 and imagination first begin to unfold their treasures 
 to an individual possessed of a considerable aptitude of 
 acquirement, naturally fond of knowledge, and enthu- 
 siastic in his admiration of everything that is elegant 
 and sublime, he is like one who enters a room splen- 
 didly illuminated. He is for a while dazzled with the 
 profusion of lights, and with the beautiful variety of 
 the prismatic colours ; and it is some time before he 
 can apply his mind to the objects most worthy of his 
 attention. Such, indeed, is the case with most per- 
 sons in the earlier stages of their intellectual culti- 
 vation ; and it is of the utmost importance to their 
 real improvement that they reduce their expectations 
 and confine their researches to those sober limits 
 which arc obviously within their reach. The great 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 secret of doing miicli, said Locke, than wliom no one 
 could be a better judge, is to do one thing at a time. 
 It was a due regard to this principle — a patient and 
 concentrated application of the faculties to one prin- 
 cipal branch of investigation, which enabled him to 
 complete his own immortal work, and was mainly 
 conducive to the erection of the majestic edifice of 
 the philosophy of E'ewton. 
 
 With a view to the moral influence of scientific 
 pursuits, and to the prevention of those evils which 
 they may be incidentally liable to produce, we should 
 lay it down as a fundamental principle, never to 
 allow our love of knowledge, however laudable and 
 intense, materially to interfere with our proper 
 duties, whether they be those primary obligations 
 wdiich we owe to the great Author of our being, or 
 those which subordinately arise from our several 
 relations in life, or our rank in society. Most men 
 of literary habits, who are shaclded by other en- 
 gagements, and great demands upon their time, 
 (and few there are, beyond the period of their pupil- 
 age, wholly exempt from such requisitions,) have 
 felt the danger and inconvenience of this excessive 
 indulgence. Generally, indeed, prudence, and a 
 commanding sense of obligation, in many instances 
 absolute and unavoidable necessity, operates as a 
 sufficient guard against this evil. Wherever the 
 love of knowledge is so powerfully predominant, as 
 in some cases it is found, and the legitimate oppor- 
 tunities of acquiring it comparatively fev/ and rare, 
 it must be confessed that there is no slight danger 
 of withholding from less intellectual pursuits and 
 
 E 
 
50 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 avocations that undivided attention which they de- 
 mand — of curtailing the time, which they require — 
 of thus violating the principles of prudential and 
 domestic interests, and even of encroaching upon the 
 sacredness of seasons, and duties of still deeper 
 solemnity. The maxim of Bishop Sanderson should 
 be inscribed in prominent and legible characters 
 upon the closet door of every student, "Bene orasse 
 est bene studuisse." It certainly cannot be denied, 
 and it is greatly to be lamented, that a disposition to 
 cultivate science in its various departments, inde- 
 pendently of all connexion with religion, is very 
 widely and alarmingly prevalent in the present day. 
 In some of our great seats of learning, and more 
 especially in those which have recently sprung up, 
 there is by no means that prominent and practical 
 recognition of the importance of religion as a per- 
 sonal concern, and as essentially entering into the 
 system of education suited to an immortal being 
 which its nature so justly demands. There is a spirit 
 gone abroad among certain classes of illuminati, 
 which occasionally vents itself in very extravagant 
 terms, as descriptive of that era of light and glory 
 which the diffusion of intellect, by its own sovereign 
 and exclusive agency, is expected to usher in upon 
 the world. It is possible to carry this notion of the 
 unaided efficiency of knowledge and mental cultiva- 
 tion to an extent that will prove not only false, but 
 also, in the highest degree, prejudicial and injurious. 
 There is a danger, lest the young aspirant after 
 academical or literary distinction should forget that 
 there arc other duties to perform than the mere im- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 51 
 
 provement of liis own mind — than the mere expan- 
 sion and invigoration of his own intellectual facul- 
 ties ; and that the hour which he employs in the 
 subhme occupations of prayer and retired meditation, 
 so far from being wasted, as he may sometimes be 
 tempted to think, is the hour of all others most use- 
 fully and legitimately spent. In order, therefore, 
 that science may be religiously, morally, and socially 
 beneficial, it should be laid down as a principle, as 
 firm and immoveable as any of the axioms upon 
 which it rests, that the pursuits of knowledge, how- 
 ever delightful in themselves, must never interrupt 
 the regular course of the relative and subordinate 
 duties of life, and still less of those primary duties 
 which man owes to his Maker. But when these 
 claims have been fully, honestly, and conscientiously 
 met, science may lawfully come in for the surplus of 
 time which remains, and cannot be prosecuted with 
 an ardour too devoted and enthusiastic. 
 
 Still viewing the subject under the same aspect, 
 it is an essential element in the constitution of a 
 well-regulated mind, and therefore of a well-ordered 
 frame of character, to guard against the remotest 
 tendency towards a contemptuous feeling with respect 
 to those, who may be necessarily destitute of that 
 comparative measure of literary and scientific endow- 
 ment, which the individual himself may possess. 
 Independently of the irresistible testimony of obser- 
 vation and experience, we have the express declara- 
 tion of an apostle, that at a certain stage of the 
 character, and, for the most part, at the earlier pe- 
 riods of intellectual growth, before the habits of a 
 
 E 2 
 
52 ' INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sound judgment and mature reflection are formed, 
 " Knowledge puffeth up." It is mainly in this point 
 of view, that the celebrated couplet of Pope, which, 
 with many persons, carries an authority so unques- 
 tionable and commanding, and is so frequently in 
 the mouth of those who are hostile to the general 
 progress of knowledge, admits at all of a fair and 
 legitimate application — 
 
 A little learuing is a dangerous thing, 
 Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. 
 
 There is something in the elevation of genius — in 
 the dignity of science, the remotest affinity to which, 
 like the pride of ancestry, is apt to swell the mind 
 Avith a sense of imaginary and undue importance. 
 And he who has made the slightest advancement 
 towards this fancied eminence, is sometimes tempted 
 to think that he has a right to despise those, who, 
 either from defects of nature, or a less auspicious 
 order of circumstances, have been left behind in the 
 vale of ignorance; or to view with emotions, not 
 altogether foreign to envy and morbid dissatisfiic- 
 tion, those who, perhaps, with inferior intellectual 
 pretensions, have been able by other means more 
 rapidly to ascend the gradations of honour, distinc- 
 tion, and emolument. While I would be the last to 
 derogate from the intrinsic excellency of mental en- 
 dowment — from its unquestionable and decided 
 superiority over every external and adventitious ap- 
 pendage of the human character, I must maintain, at 
 the same time, that it can no more justify a con- 
 tempt of comparative and unavoidable ignorance in 
 any rank of life, than the power of tlic great, or tlie 
 
INTRODUCTION. 53 
 
 wealth of the affluent, can justify a similar feeling in 
 their possessors toAvarcls those who are debarred from 
 these more doubtful advantages. A calm and sober 
 estimate of science in any of its gradations and de- 
 partments, as an ingredient of character, and as 
 forming a claim to any sudden and extraordinary 
 elevation in life, is an indispensable requisite to that 
 purifying and meliorating influence, which it is cal- 
 culated to exert upon society. 
 
 Happily the temptation to intellectual and lite- 
 rary pride, the moment it is in danger of becoming 
 general, carries Avith it its own corrective. Let 
 knowledge be extensively disseminated — let the 
 whole mass of the people be elevated to the utmost 
 of their native capabilities in the scale of intellect, 
 and the possession of a moderate portion of literary 
 taste and scientific information will cease to be an 
 object of distinction. Let it cease to be an object of 
 distinction, and the danger of undue self-compla- 
 cence upon the ground of ordinary attainments will, 
 of necessity, disappear; and the mass of general 
 knoAvledge, thus acquired, Avill mingle as a valuable 
 accession Avith the principles of common sense. Let 
 there be a simultaneous movement toAvards the 
 higher regions of intellect in the several ranks and 
 orders of society, Avithout any attempt to disturb the 
 salutary economy of nature, and to set at nought the 
 collective Avisdom of ages, by a capricious change of 
 positions in the firmament of human life, but every 
 planet moving in its appropriate orbit, and every 
 luminary maintaining its allotted place; and though 
 occasionally an erratic star may shoot across the 
 
54 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 liemisphere, wliicli no weiglit of atmosphere can re- 
 tard, and no laws of regular arrangement can control, 
 jet the whole system, thus mutually illuminated, 
 consolidated, and sustained, will present a scene of 
 moral beauty to the eye, resembling that girdle of 
 refreshing light, which we sometimes see encircling 
 the nocturnal sky, and its peaceful and accordant 
 play of operations will convey a sound of moral 
 melody to the ear, more delightful than the harmony 
 of the spheres. 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE INVESTIGATION OP 
 REVEALED TRUTH STATED AND EXPLAINED. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The general Grounds op this Inquiry. 
 
 When a subject intimately connected with our inter- 
 ests, and deeply affecting our conduct, is proposed to 
 our consideration, it is important, in order to arrive 
 at a correct result, that it should be investigated by 
 those powers of the mind, to which it is properly 
 addressed. To secure this object, it is necessary that 
 the province of every faculty, as it stands related to 
 that question, should be accurately defined — that 
 each should have its limits distinctly marked out, 
 and its office clearly assigned to it. In the forma- 
 tion of our opinions, and in the regulation of our 
 judgment, nothing is more essential than a metho- 
 dical arrangement of our ideas — a well-balanced 
 exercise of the intellectual powers. When these are 
 allowed to act disproportionately — when one is un- 
 duly elevated, and another sunk below its just level 
 — when they are suffered mutually to run into what 
 more immediately comes under the jurisdiction of 
 each other, it is impossible that the examination 
 should issue in truth and certainty. 
 
56 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 Some things are exclusively directed to the affec- 
 tions — to what may be termed the sensitive part of 
 human nature. These consist in appeals to the pas- 
 sions, and in details of striking facts. Other things 
 there are bearing more of a speculative character, 
 which are submitted to the abstract operations of the 
 understanding, and are to be surveyed in the pure 
 light of the intellect: in this latter class are com- 
 prised the more refined branches of knowledge — the 
 more subtile and abstruse parts of scientific and 
 metaphysical inquiry. A third order of things there 
 is, which in a greater or less degree, concerns all the 
 faculties of the soul, whether sensitive or intellectual. 
 Such, in an eminent and peculiar sense, is the Chris- 
 tian religion. As this comprehensive scheme was 
 designed to influence the whole character of man — 
 as it was intended to fill his soul — to spread, as it 
 were, over the Avhole extent of his capacities, leaving 
 no part of his nature unoccupied and unaffected, so 
 it is admirably calculated to accomplish such an end. 
 It m composed of facts, the most wonderful and 
 affecting, to interest the heart; of speculations the 
 most sublime, to employ the Imagination; of doc- 
 trinal truths, combining the utmost simplicity with 
 the profoundest mystery, to exercise the Understand- 
 ing; and of moral principles, the most binding and 
 authoritative, to control the Will and to regulate the 
 conduct. 
 
 In the volume of inspiration we have a full and 
 accurate developcment of this system: it becomes 
 us, therefore, to study that divine connnunication 
 with the most serious and devout attention, to ex- 
 
*£^^f '^^--m'ESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 57 
 
 amine it uith impartiality and care, and to receive 
 Avitli meekness and simplicity Avliatever it expressly 
 declares. 
 
 As, however, it was the design of Eevelation to 
 teach us what we could not otherwise have disco- 
 vered, to inform us of what, without such a commu- 
 nication, we could not have known, it was to be 
 expected that it should bring to our view a variety of 
 objects far removed from, if not utterly at variance 
 with, our previous conceptions. The analogies of 
 nature, as a celebrated prelate* has most ably and 
 luminously shown, would have prepared us to find, 
 that it would present difficulties, which our present 
 faculties are by no means capable of solving, and 
 have taught us to expect a disclosure of truths far 
 surpassing the ordinary range of human comprehen- 
 sion; and as was to be naturally presumed, such 
 proves to be the fact. 
 
 We find accordingly that Eevelation brings within 
 the reach of a partial apprehension, if not within the 
 clear limits of the understanding, a variety of most 
 important points, of which otherwise we could not 
 have formed the most remote idea, and of which, 
 after they have been revealed, our notions are of 
 necessity obscure and indistinct, "^^^len we say that 
 our views of these matters are obscure and indistinct, 
 we do not mean to intimate, that the imperfection of 
 our knowledge is such as to preclude the most firm 
 and unhesitating belief. It is abundantly possible — 
 as we shall have occasion to remark in the course of 
 
 ^' Bishop Butler. 
 
$8 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 these observations — to give assent to a proposition, 
 when the various facts which stand inseparably con- 
 nected with, and many of the truths which essen- 
 tially enter into, that proposition, are but very par- 
 tially understood. 
 
 In the wide range of divine Eevelation, there are 
 many things, which are perfectly accordant with the 
 plain deductions of unenlightened reason; which it 
 requires no effort, no violence, to our previous ideas 
 to acknowledge, and of which we seem to recognize 
 the truth at first view; while in the investigation of 
 others, which are more mysterious and complex in 
 their nature, or more indefinitely expressed, the rea- 
 soning faculty must be kept within due restraints, 
 regulated in its requisite movements, and checked in 
 its tendency to dangerous and unallowed excursions. 
 
 Many persons, and, indeed, whole classes of re- 
 ligionists, have either rejected the most fundamental 
 truths, or embraced the most extravagant and un- 
 seemly errors, through a misconception, or neglect of 
 the peculiar nature, and limited extent of that agency, 
 which this distinctive faculty has a right to exert in 
 scrutinizing every principle of human belief. One 
 order of inquirers, by elevating the standard of Rea- 
 son to an inordinate height, and by endeavouring to 
 bring the Avhole range of divine Eevelation beneath 
 its distinct and commanding survey, has shut its 
 eyes to some of the richest and most glorious pro- 
 vinces of Truth, whicli the volume of inspiration has 
 disclosed, and has cither sunk, amidst tlie giddiness 
 of its own intellectual pride, into the depth of utter 
 scepticism, or has contracted the system of its belief 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 50 
 
 into a few cold, barren, and uninfluential generalities. 
 To say nothing of the milder and less malignant 
 forms, in which this spirit of chilling Rationalism dis- 
 plays itself among ourselves, — throughout Germany 
 and a large portion of the continent of Europe, it 
 seems to prevail to a most alarming extent, and to 
 operate vdtli a most injurious influence*. 
 
 Under the name of Geology, and with the pre- 
 tensions of a new principle of mental illumination, it 
 appeared for a while to have almost extinguished 
 every ray of revealed truth in that country, which 
 was first privileged to hail the light after the dark- 
 ness of almost a thousand years. To define the exact 
 character, or to trace the whole progress of the sys- 
 tem, would be a hopeless and unprofitable attempt. 
 Like most other theories of error and delusion, it sets 
 out with the assumption of a great and unquestion- 
 able truth — that Revelation cannot be really opposed 
 to Reason; but while, amidst the process of philoso- 
 phical refinement, this truth is made to pass through 
 successive stages of subtilization, and rises through 
 the varied gradations of transcendentalism, it soon 
 assumes a new form, and enters into new combina- 
 tions, losing every salutary and celestial element, 
 sending forth a noxious fume of infidel speculations 
 and absurdities, like those fetid gases which some- 
 times evolve under the operations of the crucible, 
 and leaving a dry residuum of religious formality and 
 
 * Recently, however, a sounder spirit has been gradually gaining 
 ground, and the distinguishing principles of a more enlightened, 
 because a more Christian, philosophy have to a considerable extent 
 regained their ascendency. 
 
60 THE LIMITS OF REASON IX THE 
 
 hypocrisy. In contemplating the deadly effects of 
 this system upon the minds of those who are initiated 
 into its mysteries, we are reminded of a fatal inci- 
 dent, said to have occurred in one of the German 
 universities at an early period in the history of che- 
 mical science, when two young men, engaged in the 
 pursuit of what had claimed the attention, and baffled 
 the skill of alchemists of every age, fell victims to 
 the poisonous influence of carbonic acid gas, supposed 
 by many to have been a spirit of darkness allowed to 
 destroy them for their avarice, but explained by a 
 more experienced naturalist to have been nothing 
 else than the spirit of charcoal. Equally injurious to 
 the life of religion, and to the spiritual welfare of the 
 soul, is that process of interpretation applied to the 
 doctrines and principles of Eevelation, which destroys 
 and neutralizes their very essence, by subjecting 
 them to the debasing influence of a proud and 
 bewildered philosophy, dignified with the name of 
 Reason. 
 
 Others there are who go to an opposite extreme, 
 who, in mistaken reverence for the authority of 
 Scripture, and under the idea of magnifying the im- 
 portance of divine Eevelation, and of closing up 
 every avenue against the pride and self-sufficiency of 
 human wisdom, discard Eeason altogether, and deny 
 the competency of her tribunal, to pass judgment 
 upon principles of a higher order. Eeason and Faith 
 they have been accustomed to consider as standing in 
 direct opposition to each other; and the very name of 
 tlic former used in connexion with any alleged doc- 
 trine of Scripture, they consider little short of [)ro- 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. Gl 
 
 fanencss, and as an encroachment upon tlie sove- 
 reignty of the latter. They forget that the one is as 
 miicli a divine endowment, bestowed upon us for use- 
 ful and necessary purposes, as the other, and that 
 however bright and clear may be the light of revealed 
 truth, yet, without the aid of Reason, as an organ of 
 mental perception, we can no more form an estimate 
 of the objects which it discloses, than we can discern 
 the diversified colours of a distant scenery, irradiated 
 by the beams of the natural sun, wdthout the instru- 
 mentality of our eyes. In consequence of this con- 
 fusion of ideas, arising from their want of a correct 
 view of the real functions of Reason, in relation to 
 the discoveries of the Bible, and in the economy of 
 the Christian character, they are liable to embrace 
 the most chimerical and absurd notions, as the imme- 
 diate dictates of inspiration; nor is it possible that 
 they should accurately distinguish between the au- 
 thoritative and direct communications of heaven, and 
 the visionary suggestions of their own fancy. The 
 effect is, that they often run into the most dangerous 
 errors of mysticism and enthusiasm. Under these 
 circumstances, it is obviously a matter which deeply 
 concerns the best interests of truth and piety, that 
 the legitimate use of human Reason, in forming a 
 judgment of the doctrines of Revelation, should be 
 clearly unfolded — that the limits be assigned within 
 which it may with advantage exercise its functions, 
 and with propriety pronounce its decisions, and that 
 the boundaries be established, beyond which it cannot 
 safely proceed. 
 
 In the following Inquiry it Avill be our endeavour 
 
62 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 to trace, and distinctly to mark out these important 
 limitations. But before we enter upon this investiga^ 
 tion, it may be necessary to settle the meaning of the 
 term generally employed to designate the facidty, the 
 use of which we proposed to examine. " Eeason" is 
 an expression of a very vague and indeterminate 
 import — capable, according to the connexion in which 
 it stands, of a variety of acceptations. In the most 
 enlarged sense it signifies the perception of the eter- 
 nal and unchangeable fitness of things, showing the 
 mutual relation of causes and effects, and teaching 
 how the best ends can be secured by the best means. 
 Thus the Supreme Being, in the constitution, govern- 
 ment, and general economy of the universe, may be 
 said to act in accordance with the principles of Eea- 
 son. Limited in its import, and considered as an 
 attribute of the human character, Eeason constitutes 
 that capacity of the mind, by which a judgment is 
 formed on a cool and discriminative survey of the 
 grounds of belief — that intellectual faculty, in the 
 exercise of which a conclusion is arrived at, after a 
 careful and diligent examination of premises. 
 
 To form such a judgment, whether it relates to 
 the truth or error of a proposition, or to the rectitude 
 and propriety, or the injustice and folly of an action, 
 it is not necessary that there should be a long and 
 complicated process of ratiocination. ^Vliatever the 
 understanding pronounces upon these questions, how- 
 ever brief or apparently instantaneous may be the 
 verdict, provided its decision will bear the test of 
 deliberate examination, must be considered as falling 
 within the unquestionable range of reason. Prompt- 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 63 
 
 ness and readiness of acquiescence in such cases, so 
 far from proving an independence of the jurisdiction 
 of Eeason, in reality evince the highest perfection of 
 Eeason, as resulting from a faculty of generalization, 
 which passes on to the ultimate fact of the case with 
 the same rapidity and certainty, as an expert mathe- 
 matician perceives the truth of a theorem, without 
 going through the tedious process of actual demon- 
 stration. Some persons there are, indeed, and, among 
 these, the ingenious Dr. Hancock, in his very inter- 
 esting Essay on Instinct, who confine the exercises 
 of Eeason to such things only as directly fall under 
 the notice of what is technically called the Discursive 
 Facult}^; and, as such, they almost entirely separate 
 it from all connexion with religion. It is true, that 
 there is such a power as Instinct, and that it is abso- 
 lutely necessary to the preservation and Avell-being 
 of man, prior to the development of Eeason, and of 
 those animals, to which the discursive faculty is not 
 granted, or at least granted in a ver}^ limited degree. 
 But it is surprisingly forgotten, that as far as man is 
 governed by instinct, or by any internal light analo- 
 gous to instinct — as is obvious in the case of infants — 
 he is not, and cannot be the subject of moral obliga- 
 tion. So far as he is capable of religion, or of feel- 
 ing a sense of duty, which religion throughout in- 
 volves, he must be able to form an estimate of the 
 grounds of that duty : and what is this but an exer- 
 cise of reason, in a degree more or less enlightened; 
 or, if the phrase be preferred, of the Discursive Fa- 
 culty? A child, no doubt, may be conscious of many 
 pleasing and amiable affections, especially of grateful 
 
64 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 love and tenderness towards its parents, without any 
 laborious calculation of the grounds of filial obliga- 
 tion ; but then it would be absurd to attem^Dt to bring 
 a system of moral principles, involving questions of 
 remote truth and investigation to operate upon such 
 a subject. This method of instruction must be re- 
 served, until its powers of thought and understanding 
 are so far unfolded, as to be able to appreciate its 
 import. It might love its parents Avitli an instinctive 
 attachment — it might act in a thousand ways, neces- 
 sary and perfectly suitable to its own welfare and 
 security; but it could neither believe it as a truth, 
 nor feel it as a duty, that it should thus act. These 
 perceptions and emotions imply the possession of a 
 power of estimating relations, which, in such a case, 
 was evidently wanting. 
 
 I^ow, whatever may have been the internal or 
 supernatural light vouchsafed unto man, it is unques- 
 tionable that Divine Eevelation is a system of illumi- 
 nation and instruction, which comes upon him from 
 without, and to the appreciation of which it is implied, 
 that he is possessed of correspondent powers : for in 
 the communication of this gracious scheme it is as- 
 sumed that man is not only endued with certain 
 faculties, but also that these faculties have arrived at 
 a certain degree of ripeness, in order that it may 
 exert any salutary influence upon the character. The 
 chief of these faculties, as most intimately connected 
 with the belief of truth and the recognition of duty, 
 we call Eeason, to the comparative feebleness and 
 inadequacy of which. Revelation is a friendly auxi- 
 liary, and not an overbearing antagonist. Tlie light 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 05 
 
 of Revelation, and that of right Reason, indeed, are 
 not so much opposite in their nature, as different in 
 their degree — -just as it is the same celestial influence 
 that emanates in fainter gleams from the moon, and 
 darts in brighter radiance from the glowing disk of 
 the sun. Such appears to be the legitimate import 
 of Reason, as expressive of that faculty, which distin- 
 guishes man as having arrived at that state of intel- 
 lectual maturity, which renders him a proper subject 
 of religion, and as capable of belief and of moral 
 obligation. In the ordinary transactions of life, the 
 term Reason is frequently employed to express the 
 cause of an event, without any direct and obvious 
 reference to the operations of a mind — the effect, 
 however, being considered as connected with its cause 
 by that chain of dependency, which forms the ground- 
 work of all intelligent reasoning. 
 
 It is obvious that, in the present inquiry. Reason 
 must be considered in the second of the senses here 
 assigned to it — as constituting that faculty of the 
 soul, in the exercise of which sound judgment or opi- 
 nion is formed. And were this faculty always correct 
 and consistent in its operations, there would be no 
 danger of its leading into errors and false conclusions. 
 If it was to be invariably regulated by sound princi- 
 ples — if it was supplied with an adequate measure of 
 light to discover what were and were not just and 
 sufficient grounds of belief — if, in short, the Reason 
 of man was in all cases guided by the truth of tilings, 
 it could not fail of being right in its deductions. But 
 the evil is, that this, like every power of the human 
 mind, is become feeble, disordered, and defective. 
 
 F 
 
66 THE LIMITS OF EEASON IN THE 
 
 Hence it is often guilty of acting in direct violation 
 of its own character, or rather of what was its 
 character in its original state of strength and un- 
 biassed rectitude: it is liable to become the dupe 
 of fancy on the one hand, or the slave of prejudice 
 on the other, and thus by receiving the reveries 
 of imagination as the light of truth, or by rejecting 
 the declarations of truth as the phantoms of imagina- 
 tion — to run into either extreme of scepticism, or 
 superstitious belief. It should seem, that no judg- 
 ment ought, or, indeed, can be formed without an 
 exercise of some species of reasoning, but the data 
 on which this reasoning is built must entirely depend 
 upon the nature of the subject ; and the nice point in 
 each case — a point in which man often fails — is, what 
 does and what does not constitute due evidence. 
 There are two kinds of evidence totally distinct from 
 each other, but both of them, in their order, consti- 
 tuting a firm and adequate basis of belief — the evi- 
 dence of sense, or that which is founded on external 
 phenomena, and the evidence of testimony. 
 
 In the works of nature, and in the primary inves- 
 tigations of science, the first of these evidences exclu- 
 sively has place. "We have an instinctive assurance 
 implanted in our bosoms by the hand of nature, that 
 the intimations of our senses are real demonstrations 
 of the state of things around us; and hence our 
 Eeason justly concludes, that things are as they 
 appear to be. Let the intimations be repeated, and 
 applied to subjects similar to those by which they 
 have been already suggested, and they will constitute 
 that inductive evidence which forms the basis of the 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. C7 
 
 modern philosophy of experiment, in opposition to 
 the ancient, which was in reality a philosophy of 
 theory. In historical or traditionary details on the 
 other hand, or in the declaration of truths before 
 unknown, the evidence is obviously that of testimony ; 
 and moreover, the claim of that testimony to be 
 received as a ground of belief, must wholly depend 
 upon the character of the narrator or proposer, and 
 upon the quality of the declarations which he makes.^ 
 Of this latter kind, authenticated, indeed, in its ori- 
 ginal enforcement, by the most powerful and convinc- 
 ing appeals to the senses, is the evidence on which 
 divine Eevelation principally rests its claims ; and the 
 object of the present Inquiry is to define what is the 
 legitimate province of Eeason in forming an estimate 
 of this evidence, and to show how far it is required or 
 alloAved to go, in receiving or rejecting the proposi- 
 tions which suspend their proof upon it. In the ]3ro- 
 secution of this inquiry, we shall range our observa- 
 tions under these two general divisions: — First, we 
 shall endeavour to show how far Eeason ongJit to go — 
 in other words, Jiow far the reasoning faculties may 
 he rightly and heneficialJy exercised in judging of 
 suhjects of Revelation ; and, secondly, we shall at- 
 tempt to point out the houndaries icithin which their 
 range must he confined — leaving whatever other 
 regions Eevelation has brought to view to the reign 
 of an implicit and adoring Faith. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Reason authorized to judge of the Character and 
 Evidences of a professed Revelation. 
 
 We remark then, in the first place, that it lies within 
 the legitimate province of Reason to judge of the 
 Character and Evidences of a professed Revelation. 
 Although this noble and distinguishing attribute, in 
 its present state of obtuseness and infirmity, is liable 
 to commit great and grievous errors, in the attempt 
 to penetrate into the deep obscurity of the divine 
 mysteries — even after those mysteries have been 
 partially unveiled, yet the interests of truth are not 
 likely to be promoted by discarding the use of it 
 altogether. It has been often asserted, indeed, that 
 Eeason has little or nothing to do with the nature of 
 the truths alleged to be communicated from above — 
 that it is not so much her business to inquire ichat 
 they are, as whether they have been really revealed. 
 It is very true, that Reason is bound — and, indeed, 
 it is one of her first dictates — to receive whatever 
 God hath declared, as truth. But how is it to be 
 ascertained, whether such a statement has proceeded 
 from Him? Is it replied, by the evidence of the 
 miracles with which it is authenticated? But then, 
 how does it appear that miracles are an adequate 
 proof of a Revelation? Is it not, that Reason, as an 
 instinctive principle of our nature, informs us that 
 there is an inseparable connexion between causes 
 and effects, and that the effects under consideration 
 could result only from the exertion of a supernatm-al 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 09 
 
 Power? And were it possible that doctrines, clearly 
 contrary to the very first and most decided intima- 
 tions of this original faculty of our minds, should be 
 confirmed by the most brilliant array of miracles 
 that the world hath ever seen, they could have no 
 adequate claim upon our assent, because they would 
 be subversive of that which is to us the foundation 
 of all certainty and belief. This representation hath 
 no analogy whatever to the sceptical allegation of 
 Hume, that miracles, being contrary to experience, 
 however strongly attested, can never be entitled to 
 belief. For miracles, such at least as are recorded in 
 the Old and 'New Testament, have nothing in them 
 that is contrary to Eeason, but are perfectly accor- 
 dant with its principles, provided only we suppose the 
 interposition of a power superior to that, which is 
 exerted in the ordinary operations of nature. If, 
 indeed, a miracle could be shown to be impossible 
 or absurd, that miracle would cease to deserve credit, 
 or be of any value as a proof of any branch of divine 
 Eevelation. Eeason is, therefore, fully entitled to 
 investigate the nature of the miracle, as well as of 
 the doctrine which it is intended to authenticate. It 
 must be always borne in mind, that the understanding 
 of man can no otherwise be addressed, even by the 
 voice of Eevelation itself, than through the medium 
 of his rational powers. How else, indeed, could he 
 appreciate the merits, perceive the importance, and 
 examine the proof of a Eevelation? How else could 
 he know it to be a genuine communication from 
 heaven ? How else could he distinguish the form of 
 immortal truth, descending in simple majesty from 
 
70 THE LIMITS OF KEASON IN THE 
 
 the skies, from tliose splendid combinations of error 
 and falsehood which, in different regions of the globe, 
 raise their pretensions so high, and lift up their heads 
 with such deceitful and imposing grandeur? Hoav 
 else could he discover the transcendent excellency of 
 the religion of Jesus, as compared with the supersti- 
 tion of the false prophet of Mecca, the preposterous 
 institutes of Brahma, or the frantic rites of Budhu. 
 Let us, for a moment, suppose man in a state of utter 
 ignorance of all religion, except what he could collect 
 from the light of nature, or the scattered beams of 
 tradition, antecedently to the first vouchsafement of 
 a divine communication, but with the powers of 
 reason, in the mean while, in the highest degree 
 cultivated and improved. 
 
 Under these circumstances, let us conceive an 
 individual to approach him, professing to be a mes- 
 senger from Heaven, and to come charged with the 
 disclosures of eternal truth. After the message has 
 been delivered and authenticated by such proofs as 
 are deemed necessary and expedient, after the Avhole 
 scheme has been developed and urged upon his recep- 
 tion, as the immediate communication of Heaven — 
 we may conceive him to enter on a train of reflection, 
 somewhat like the following: — "That there exists 
 some great and mysterious Being, veiled from the 
 eyes of mortals behind the visible scenes of the 
 material universe, the mere contemplation of nature 
 — of the various forms of animated existence — of the 
 phenomena of earth and seas, and of the wonderful 
 economy of the sun and moon and stars, is sufficient 
 to convince me. After all my researches into the 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 71 
 
 nature and purposes of that stupendous Being had 
 proved unavailing, and failed to satisfy my desires, I 
 have now received a communication, represented as 
 coming immediately from Himself. But on what 
 ground can I give credit to it as such? Is it probable 
 that He should make such a disclosure ? Is it, in all 
 respects, Avorthy of Him, to whom it is ascribed ? 
 Does it bear those marks of dignity ? Is it charac- 
 terized by that majesty, which might have been 
 expected to distinguish the communication of one so 
 great and glorious as the Governor of the Universe 
 must be? And what again are its tendencies, in 
 reference to the human character ? — Is it adapted to 
 the present circumstances, and to the future prospects 
 of man ? Is it calculated to operate beneficially upon 
 his happiness, and his moral habits? And, finally, 
 what are the credentials, by which its divine origin 
 and its binding authority are vindicated? Are its 
 evidences unexceptionable, satisfactory and convincing 
 — such as abundantly to sanction my acquiescence in 
 its truth, and even to demand my obedience to its 
 dictates ? If it be found to comprise all that is im- 
 plied in these queries — then I cannot reject it; I am 
 bound to receive it as a discovery of truth in the 
 highest degree important to man, and coming imme- 
 diately from God Himself; to do otherwise would be 
 to act in opposition to the clearest intimations of my 
 own judgment." 
 
 In this iDrocess of reflection — a process something- 
 similar to which every man that embraces a Divine 
 Eevelation upon a firm and well-grounded conviction 
 of his own mind must experience, who does not per- 
 
72 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 ceive that reason is the acting principle ? And while 
 it confines itself to such an investigation of the gene- 
 ral character, tendency, and evidences of a professed 
 Revelation, it is assuredly exercising its proper office, 
 and whatever scheme cannot thus far submit to its 
 severest scrutiny, it is unquestionably authorized to 
 reject. 
 
 I^or is it any real objection to this view, that so 
 many millions of our fellow-creatures, in the full pos- 
 session of their natural faculties, receive the most 
 monstrous and chimerical dogmas of superstition, as 
 the principles of their faith and practice. These 
 delusions maintain their ascendancy in the mind, not 
 because a door of admission was opened to them by 
 the hand of sound and Avell-regulated Eeason, and 
 because they are sanctioned by her authority, but be- 
 cause, through her infirmity, she did not vigorously 
 resist their entrance, and does not decisively assert 
 her right in their expulsion. Hence we find, that the 
 higher any heathen sages rose to the dignity of 
 reason, the more they were disposed to abjure the 
 tenets of the popular superstition; the nearer they 
 approached — though standing at an infinite distance, 
 indeed, in their greatest approximations — to the pu- 
 rity, the sublimity, and the sobriety of pure religion ; 
 and the more deeply they were convinced of the 
 necessity of divine and supernatural teaching, in 
 order to arrive at correct notions. Reason, as Locke 
 has well remarked, is the eye or the light of the mind. 
 It constitutes that faculty, by means of Avhich the 
 soul perceives no less the objects presented to it by 
 Revelation, than any other objects. One striking 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 73 
 
 effect of Revelation is, that in addition to the dis- 
 coveries which it makes, and to the new scenes which 
 it brings to the view, it also enables this faculty to 
 judge more correctly of the subjects which it examines, 
 than it could have previously done — like those glasses, 
 which not only reveal new objects by a just concen- 
 tration of the rays of light, but are found sometimes 
 to improve the natural powers of vision. Hence, as a 
 learned writer* has truly observed, if modern sceptics 
 and infidels, who professedly renounce all aid from 
 Revelation, have formed somewhat better notions of 
 what is termed ^N'atural Theology, and have argued 
 somewhat more accurately on some points of moral 
 philosophy, than the ancient heathen, it is not that 
 these later writers had more talent, or a greater depth 
 of discernment, but because they have received an 
 assistance from Revelation, which they are unwilling 
 to acknowledge. We may add, that it is easier for 
 Mm to draw the model of a building, bearing some 
 remote resemblance to what it ought to be, who has 
 had an opportunity of witnessing an edifice, combin- 
 ing in itself all the perfections of beauty and gran- 
 deur, though he should deny it to have been planned 
 by the most consummate architect in the world, and 
 though, under the influence of pride and caprice, he 
 should disdain to avow that his sketches had been 
 transferred from it, than it Avould be found by another. 
 
 * " For almost all the things, that are said wisely and truly by 
 modern Deists, are plainly borrowed from that Revelation, which 
 they refuse to embrace, and without which they never could have 
 said the same things." — Dr. Clarke. Unchangeable Obligations of 
 Natural Religion. Prop, 7. 
 
74 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 who had seen nothing but the huts of savages, or here 
 and there a vast congeries of corrupt and unarranged 
 materials. 
 
 From the preceding remarks, it appears that Rea- 
 son viewed, not as a principle standing in opposition 
 to Faith, as is sometimes the case, but simply as the 
 judging and discriminating faculty of man, is allowed, 
 and, indeed, required, in the case of a Eevelation, 
 however generally acknowledged and received, to 
 proceed so far as to inquire into its internal character, 
 and to weigh its external evidences ; and, in accord- 
 ance with the free and unbiassed result of this exami- 
 nation, to reject or to embrace it. But we cannot 
 dismiss this part of the subject, without seriously ad- 
 verting to the immense importance — the absolute 
 necessity that Reason, in performing this part of her 
 office, should disengage herself from all prejudice and 
 passion, from all pride and self-exalting views — that 
 with the earnestness and importunity of a suppliant, 
 and with the simplicity and docility of a child, she 
 should seek to be guided in her decisions from above. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Reason kequired to receive no alleged Doctrine of Reve- 
 lation, AviTnouT sufficient Evidence that it really 
 
 FORMS A part OF THAT COMMUNICATION. 
 
 Another point, to which Reason, tempered with 
 these qualifications, may fearlessly advance, in judg- 
 ing of subjects of Revelation, is, that it should receive 
 no particfdar tenet, represented as contained in a 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 75 
 
 Revelation, already embraced as a whole, Avithout 
 sufficient evidence that it really constitutes a part of 
 that Revelation. In communities, professedly Chris- 
 tian, this is the chief question of debate. And in 
 deciding this, Reason must quit the Avide generalities 
 of abstract speculation, by which, in some measure, it 
 formed its opinion of the claims and merits of Reve- 
 lation, as an immediate communication from heaven, 
 and confine its attention to the written documents, 
 in which its principles are embodied. It must here 
 descend from the more congenial element of philoso- 
 phical investigation, to the humbler walks of philology 
 and criticism, of reading, searching, and comparing 
 of texts. We now assume that the document, under 
 investigation, after passing through the process of 
 examination already detailed, is acknowledged to be 
 of divine authority ; and, therefore, that every state- 
 ment which it contains must be right, however con- 
 trary it may prove to what we might have previously 
 expected. The mind must be prepared implicitly to 
 receive whatever the sober and enlightened judgment 
 pronounces to be really contained Avithin the record. 
 It is true, that consistently with the most unqualified 
 recognition of the absolute certainty and infallibility 
 of inspired truth, there is a very extensive range for 
 the exercise of sound and judicious criticism, in the 
 investigation of the original languages — in the colla- 
 tion of manuscripts — in the reconciliation of apparent 
 discrepancies — in the interpretation of figurative and 
 emblematic representations — in the limitation Avithin 
 due and necessary bounds of parabolical illustrations 
 — in the discovery of the rich nucleus of doctrinal 
 
76 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 truth, or practical precept, as it is sometimes hidden 
 under the gorgeous imagery of prophetic diction, and 
 in the explication of the genuine import of conven- 
 tional phraseology and local allusion. Criticism, 
 modestly applied to these points, is no more than 
 Reason may justly demand, and Revelation freely 
 concedes, as necessary to its due apprehension. But 
 to rush among the inspired writers, who spake as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost, and to cut off, as 
 Avith the barbarian's tomahawk, whatever limb appears 
 out of proportion with a previously conceived system, 
 or to cast them, like Pelias, into the caldron of ration- 
 alism, boiling with pride and self-sufficiency, in order 
 that their antiquated forms may come forth in all 
 the freshness of philosophical youth and beauty ; or, 
 finally, to apply to them an instrument of torture, 
 framed by modern inquisitors, and technically called 
 by the name of Exegesis, in order to extort from them 
 a confession of what it has been beforehand deter- 
 mined that they ought to declare. This is profane- 
 ness the most unhallowed — this is an outrage the 
 most daring upon the sacredness of celestial truth. 
 
 But although the complete and unreserved admis- 
 sion of the truth of Revelation exempts it from all 
 further responsibility at the bar of human Reason, 
 so far as its clear and unequivocal declarations are 
 concerned, yet, in judging whether such a doctrine 
 be one of its distinct annunciations, that faculty 
 must still be allowed to have an important and 
 extensive jurisdiction. " I believe the Bible," — the 
 incjuirer may be supposed to say — " I am fully per- 
 suaded that every sentence which it contains is the 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 77 
 
 truth of God — I am not now to inquire, Avhctlicr 
 this invahiable book is a record of the works, the 
 will, and the purposes of Jehovah ; but is this par- 
 ticular doctrine one among* the manifold truths which 
 it declares ? Is this article of faith one of its clear, 
 express, and unquestionable propositions ? It is not 
 enough to convince me of its claim to my reception, 
 that it forms a component and essential part in some 
 human system — that it is enumerated among the 
 credenda of some Christian Church, whatever defer- 
 ence I may be willing to pay to its authority ; — it is 
 not sufficient, that it may have been adopted by a 
 multitude of others, many of them wise and learned 
 (though this, of course, entitles it to a respectful and 
 candid examination); that it is a corner-stone in the 
 scheme of one party, and a distinguishing principle 
 in the creed of another. I can conscientiously em- 
 brace it only on a full conviction, that, to the best of 
 my judgment, it has been revealed in this very form, 
 and, so far as I can comprehend it, in this sense by 
 God himself." 
 
 In this investigation, conducted in the exercise 
 of his rational powers, accompanied, it is to be ob- 
 served, by prayer for divine guidance and illumi- 
 nation, the inquirer appears to act consistently with 
 the oracles of truth, as well as with the principles 
 of his nature. For what more is here implied than 
 that a man cannot be required to believe a doctrine, 
 until, after due examination, he has ground to be 
 persuaded, that it is, indeed, a doctrine of Eevela- 
 tion ! The Scriptures themselves invariably address 
 man, as a being possessed of reason and intelligence. 
 
78 THE LnilTS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 and by so doing invite him to bring these faculties 
 to bear on their own contents; and any opinion 
 which is not the result of an inquiry into the word of 
 God, regulated by this principle, as a mere opinion, 
 can be of little value. The office of Eeason here, 
 therefore, seems to be to judge of the ^meaning, the 
 connexion, and the general analogy of revealed 
 truth; and the limits, to which it is allowed to 
 advance in the exercise of this function, is to reject 
 those doctrines, and those only, which have no place 
 in the volume of inspiration. Whatever it there finds, 
 it is bound to regard as sacred and inviolable. 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 No Doctrine to be received, wnicii is palpably opposed to 
 THE Principles of Common Sense. 
 
 A THIRD use to which Eeason may be lawfull}^ con- 
 verted, in judging of subjects of Revelation, is to 
 guard against the mistaken reception of any doc- 
 trines which are contrary to the dear evidence of 
 intuitive helief, — or, as it may be more simply ex- 
 pressed, to the principles of common sense. When 
 Ave employ this expression, we do not mean to allow, 
 that any such doctrines arc to be found on the pages 
 of the Bible. But it is a fact, as certain as it is 
 lamentable, that through the weakness, the igno- 
 rance, or the hypocrisy of professed believers, tenets 
 have been too frequently deduced from it, which are 
 justly obnoxious to this charge. In what other light 
 can we view the absurd notion of transuljstantiation, 
 
INVESTIGATION OF TtEYEALED TRUTH. 70 
 
 and several others of the senseless dogmas of tlie 
 llomish church, Avhich, after all the attempts of 
 scholastic ingenuity to reconcile to our understand- 
 ing by subtle disputations and refined theories, we 
 find it impossible to regard otherwise than with 
 feelings of pity and contempt? It must also be 
 admitted, that in the explication of the more obscure 
 and mysterious parts of Scripture, — in the expanded 
 illustration of topics which are there but concisely 
 stated — in the full and confident develop ement of 
 pui-poses to be hereafter executed in the order of the 
 divine proceedings, which are there but darkly hinted, 
 those, whom we may hope to be, on the whole, sin- 
 cere Christians, have sometimes allowed a range to 
 their imagination, over which it would have been well 
 if the voice of Eeason had been suffered to exercise 
 some control. In confirmation of this remark, it is 
 sufficient to advert to the views, which have been 
 sometimes taken, of the mystic correspondence sup- 
 posed to exist between the doctrines of Scripture 
 and the operations of nature, of the union which 
 subsists between Christ and his people, and of the 
 influences of the Holy Spirit. It is lamentable to 
 think of the utter sacrifice of all the principles of 
 common sense — the total prostration of all that is 
 sober and wise in the understanding, and of aU that 
 is discriminative in the reasoning faculty, which the 
 reception of some of the opinions held upon these 
 important points involves. 
 
 As belonging to the same class, we might also 
 refer to notions sometimes founded upon the intima- 
 tions of j)rophecy, especially those which respect 
 
80 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 the millennial reign of Christ, and the condition of 
 the world and its inhabitants during that period. 
 Upon this and similar questions, to which Scripture, 
 for wise ends doubtless, has supplied us with but 
 few brief allusions, a variety of hypotheses have 
 been formed, which calm and enlightened Reason 
 pronounces, to use the mildest term, no better than 
 the illusive anticipations of mistaken, though sin- 
 cerely ardent zeal. In these and the like matters, 
 the appropriate and la^^'ful employment of Reason, 
 is to watch over the progress of the Fancy, and to 
 prevent her unbridled vagaries from encroaching 
 upon the sacredness of truth. Whatever^ is palpably 
 opposed to those principles Avhich, by the necessity 
 of our nature, we are bound to regard as true. 
 Reason is assuredly required to proceed so far as to 
 reject. 
 
 But here let us not for a moment be supposed 
 to countenance the pernicious and unscriptural idea, 
 that nothing is to be admitted as a matter of faith, 
 which is not discoverable, nor fully comprehensible 
 by man's unassisted Reason. If there be any one 
 notion, in the catalogue of human errors, which 
 exhibits more strikingly than another the pride of 
 an ignorant and unhumbled mind (for that mind 
 must surcl}' be called ignorant and unhumbled which 
 shows so little acquaintance with its own capabilities, 
 and so grievously overrates them,) it is this, — if there 
 be any one form, in which a specious philosoph}", 
 while it professes to make wise, converts its votaries 
 into fools, it is this. While those who would totally 
 exclude Reason from all conununication Avitli subjects 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 81 
 
 of divine revelation, frequently receive truth unac- 
 companied with its proper evidence, and mixed Avith 
 much alloy; they, who labour under the delusion 
 last noticed, generally reject the distinguishing and 
 most important truths of Revelation altogether. 
 
82 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 A Doctrine of Revelation is not to be rejected, because it 
 
 COULD not have BEEN DISCOVERED WITHOUT SUPERNATURAL 
 
 Assistance. 
 
 Having, in the preceding remarks, attempted to show 
 how far the limits of Reason may be lawfully ex- 
 tended in its entrance upon the field of Revelation, 
 with a view of correcting the misapprehension of the 
 first class, above specified, we shall now endeavour, 
 as was proposed, to mark out, with a more immediate 
 reference to the errors of the last, certain points on 
 the same holy ground, to which that curious faculty 
 cannot, without danger of profanation, be allowed to 
 advance. 
 
 As one of these boundaries, we observe, that 
 Reason ought not to proceed so far as to reject a 
 doctrine conveyed in a professed communication 
 from Heaven, on the mere ground of its being 
 undiscovercd)le ivithout supernatural and Divine 
 assistance. The reverse of this position would 
 amount to a denial of the need and utility of Reve- 
 lation altogether ; for, if the human understanding 
 could, by its own c Sorts, find out whatever is of 
 importance to be known, Avhere was the necessity of 
 any further information? Or if nothing is to be 
 received with assent, but what was subject to the 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 83 
 
 previous view of the reasoning' faculty, to what pur- 
 pose was it to bring' any other truths to light ? But 
 here it is a question of peculiar interest, and attended 
 with considerable difliculty, what portion of those 
 doctrines, w-hich constitute the great mass of scrip- 
 tural truth, must be considered as discoverable by the 
 well-directed operations of unaided Reason, and 
 what as standing utterly beyond its reach. Some 
 have gone to the length of affirming, that without a 
 Eevelation man can absolutely know nothing relative 
 to the being and attributes of God, and to the 
 acceptable mode of worshipping Him. Others main- 
 tain that the great essentials of religion, which they 
 confine within a very limited compass, are sufficiently 
 legible on the page of nature, requiring only a mode- 
 rate share of skill and attention to be clearly deci- 
 phered ; and that the end of revelation is at best but 
 to embody in w^'itten language, and to state with 
 somewhat greater precision, what before existed, as it 
 were, in the form of hieroglyphics. 
 
 Extremes are, however, rarely safe; unless we 
 allow that the light of nature conveys some informa- 
 tion respecting the Author and Euler of the universe, 
 Eevelation will be left without its evidence ; for how 
 can w^e receive as true and obligatory the word of 
 One, Avhose very existence, independently of that 
 communication, we have not the means of ascer- 
 taining? Unless we acknowledge, on the other hand, 
 that the Bible does contain a variety of important 
 and most deeply-interesting truths, to the knowledge 
 of which w^e could never otherwise have attained, 
 Eevelation is comparatively witJiout its use. The 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 opinion of the great Lord Bacon on this question is, 
 tliat philosophy, by which he means a wise and intel- 
 ligent contemplation of the works of nature, is 
 sufficient to "confute Atheism, but not to inform 
 Eeligion." If the two schemes of natural and 
 revealed religion were so separate and distinct from 
 each other, as that the one stood in no need what- 
 ever of the concurrent testimony of the other, how 
 is it that the volume, in which the latter is contained, 
 so frequently directs its reader to study the lectures 
 of the former, as they are inscribed on the produc- 
 tions of the earth, on the succession of the seasons, 
 and on the brilliant phenomena of the noctm-nal 
 heavens ? If they were, on the other hand, so nearly 
 commensurate in the discoveries intimately affecting 
 the character and condition of man; if the one 
 displayed, in the palpable exhibition of facts and 
 sensible appearances, all, of any practical value, that 
 the other held forth in the fainter representation of 
 written phraseology, where was the necessity or 
 the expediency, that Revelation should at different 
 periods be introduced into the Avorld, attended Avith 
 circumstances so striking and extraordinary, so ex- 
 pressive of its importance, so demonstrative of its 
 dignity, and so convincing of its truth ? If it com- 
 municated nothing worth knowing, but what every 
 one could find out by the diligent application of a 
 well-disciplined understanding to the phenomena of 
 the natural Avorld, this surely could have been effected 
 without such a display of power as was exhibited in 
 the repeated suspension of the laws of the universe. 
 Our view of the comparative importance of these 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 85 
 
 two systems, or rather our view of the one grand 
 system, formed by the combined operations of both, 
 will be regulated by our notion of that influence 
 which religion is intended to exert upon the human 
 character. If we consider this influence as required 
 to reach no farther than the regulation of the out- 
 ward conduct, as calculated simply to adapt man 
 to his present circumstances, without any reference 
 to his future existence, by di'awing out in visible 
 colours the lines of personal and relative duty; if, 
 in a word, we consider religion as a mere scheme 
 of ethics, then it is natural to conclude, that the 
 Bible contains but few truths, that were of conse- 
 quence for man to know, which coidd not have been 
 leamt from other sources. It must be confessed, 
 that, for this meagre purpose, the summaries of 
 Aristotle, of Cicero, and others, though necessarily 
 feeble in their influence through the want of a firm 
 foundation and adequate sanctions, are in few ex- 
 ternal points defective. But, if there be other rela- 
 tions in which we stand, than those which immediately 
 concern this world ; if there be other principles by 
 which we are required to be actuated, than those 
 which enter into the schemes of heathen morality — 
 if there be other duties which it concerns us to 
 practise, than those which spring from our varied 
 circumstances and connexions with the things of 
 time and sense, it is upon these relations, these 
 principles, these duties, that we require to be 
 informed. 
 
 That man may be placed in a state in which 
 intelligence upon these points is useful and neces- 
 
86 THE LLAIITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 sary to him, no one possessed of the use of his 
 faculties Avill presume to deny. Let it even be 
 admitted, that he may discover the being and leading- 
 perfections of Jehovah, by the mere contemplation 
 of his works*: let him be supposed capable of ad- 
 justing, with the nicest precision, the limits of moral 
 obligation ; what a small progress does all this 
 imply, that he has made in that knowledge, which 
 the circumstances of a sinful, and, at the same time, 
 immortal Being evidently demand! Must he not 
 be conscious that he has oftentimes offended that 
 great Sovereign, whose existence he has argued 
 with a conclusiveness, which will not suffer him to 
 doubt ; that he has violated those attributes, to the 
 perception of which the light of nature has con- 
 ducted him? Must he not feel that he has fre- 
 quently trampled upon those very obligations, which 
 he so clearly knew to be binding upon him ? And 
 must he not, under this view, unless his moral sen- 
 sibilities be utterly extinguished, be oppressed with 
 an overwhelming weight of guilt ? But how is this 
 burden to be removed ? Can he discover the exact 
 method by which the balm of forgiveness may be 
 administered unto him ? Has he any certainty that 
 it can be administered at all ? In the whole range 
 of possibilities, can he perceive one channel, through 
 which he can pronounce, with assurance, that the 
 streams of mercy may flow unto him 'i The wisest 
 
 * OvKovv, CO ^(ve,hoK(i. pahiov (ivm a\r)d(vovnii Xeyfii' los fieri <?fot. nwy, 
 
 SiC. UpoiTOU p(v yrf km i]\ios aarpa re ra ^vp-rravra km t« ra>v uspov 
 
 hiaK(KO(Tpj]p.fva (cnXcor ovrcus, (viavrois rt km firjai. ^KiXijpfxfva^KM on navTfS 
 EWrjvfs T6 KM ^apfSapoL vopi^ovaiv tivM Btovs. — Plato, De Leg. lib. x. 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 87 
 
 of unenliglitcned sages*, he \y1io may be deemed 
 the representative of all that is laborious in research, 
 and of all that is elevated and refined in speculative 
 reasoning, without hesitation, avows that he cannot. 
 
 Under these circumstances of ignorance and 
 doubt, the page of Eevelation unfolds itself before 
 him. At once a new world bursts upon his view; 
 what he had before faintly conjectured, amidst the 
 twilight glimmer of Eeason, he now beholds as in 
 the brightness of the meridian sun. At once the 
 mist of time retires before the blaze of the heavenly 
 light, which has visited him. Guided by the day- 
 spring of Eevelation, he looks back to the very 
 threshold of the creation — he witnesses the effica- 
 cious energy of divine power — the wondrous display 
 of divine wisdom — the effusive flow of divine bene- 
 volence, respectively exhibited in the formation and 
 arrangement of the whole universe. He discovers 
 his own origin. He sees himself formed by the 
 plastic hand of the Deity — his body raised out of 
 the dust, and his soul, immortal as its Author, 
 breathed into him by his Maker. He is made ac- 
 quainted with the primary condition of his being; 
 he learns the terms of the covenant, under which, 
 yet pure, sinless, and reflecting the image of his 
 Creator, he was placed in the garden of Eden; 
 he witnesses the dismal breach of that covenant, 
 and in that breach he is instructed to place the 
 origin of evil in all its modifications. After he has 
 been thus made a spectator of the fall, the guilt, the 
 
 * Plato. 
 
88 THE LIMITS OF KEASON IN THE 
 
 condemnation, and the attendant moral degradation 
 of the species, he is led to a view of a glorious plan 
 of redemption, by which the ruins of that awful 
 catastrophe may be repaired; a plan, which Jehovah, 
 in his threefold character, designated by the appella- 
 tions of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, undertook to 
 accomplish. In this scheme, he is taught to consider 
 the office of the Father as more particularly con- 
 sisting in giving his only begotten Son, to expiate by 
 his sufferings the guilt of mankind — that of the Son, 
 in cheerfully engaging in, and successfully perform- 
 ing, that work — and that of the Holy Ghost, in 
 applying the benefits of the redemption, effected by 
 the death and righteousness of the Son, to the soul 
 of the penitent and believing sinner; in enlighten- 
 ing, sanctifying, and comforting him, so that by a 
 process of renovation, carried on through the whole 
 remaining portion of his earthly existence, he may 
 be made meet for the enjoyment of the future bles- 
 sedness of Heaven. In consequence of this gracious 
 interposition of Jehovah, he finds that man is no^v 
 placed under an entirely new dispensation — a dis- 
 pensation which requires but a sincere and deep 
 repentance, accompanied with a lively and operative 
 faith on his part, to endue him with the inestimable 
 blessings of forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation — 
 to remove his guilt — to justify him in the eye of the 
 divine law — and to invest him Avith a title to eternal 
 glory. To support his mind under tlic gloomy anti- 
 cipations of sickness and death, he is enabled to dart 
 his eye across that darksome valley, and to catch 
 a glimpse, as through an illuminated vista, of the 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 89 
 
 region of immortality, which lies beyond it. At the 
 end of that vista, the morning of the resurrection 
 opens with gladdening beams, and exhibits its 
 triumphs over the tomb. 
 
 Now, the question is, whether he is to reject this 
 whole mass of soothing, cheering, and elevating in- 
 formation, merely because it eluded the keenest scru- 
 tiny of his intellectual eye, and baffled the efforts 
 of his native powers of research ; or is he thank- 
 fully to receive it, after having submitted it to that 
 mode of examination, which we have already repre- 
 sented as just and necessary? It is astonishing to 
 find the reluctance with which men give credit to 
 the Divine Being, on his own testimony. So far as 
 his declarations coincide with the obvious intimations 
 of their own senses, and correspond with the pre- 
 vious deductions of their own understanding, they 
 are generally ready to admit them. But the moment 
 he soars above them, and brings to their view things, 
 which lay not within the scope of their limited capa- 
 city, they instantly begin to be filled with jealousy 
 and suspicion, and to express their apprehension, lest 
 their Reason should be imposed upon by empty and 
 unmeaning sounds. How far this disinclination to 
 receive new truths, delivered in the form of an im- 
 mediate communication from above, may arise from 
 a somewhat overweening sense of the strength of 
 their own mind, and of the extent of their own in- 
 vestigations, is assuredly a matter entitled to grave 
 consideration. To the admission of doctrines not 
 before known, and to an acquaintance with which 
 the profoundest researches of man's unaided intel- 
 
90 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 lect could afford no clue, tliey seem to be actuated 
 by that feeling of repugnance, with which a philo- 
 sopher would acknowledge the discoveries of a novice 
 in a science, to the elucidation of Avhich, the labours 
 of his own life had been directed; or a navigator, 
 who had circumscribed the globe, those of subse- 
 quent adventurers in regions, where he had pushed 
 his enterprises, as he had imagined, to the utmsst 
 bounds of possibility. Such persons, it is obvious, 
 without a large share of that modesty and self-diffi- 
 dence, which do not always fall to the lot of scientific 
 inquirers, are apt to view the limits of their own 
 knowledge as the limits of all that can be known. 
 Having, like Hercules, arrived at a point beyond 
 which they cainiot with safety or certainty launch 
 their narrow skiff, they there set up the terminating 
 pillars, which they vainly pronounce the pillars of the 
 world*. 
 
 Thus, the men to whom we have referred, many 
 of them highly ingenious, and some apparently not 
 ill-affected to the truth, having made the moral 
 relations and destinies of man an object of their 
 study and research, find no difficulty in acquiescing 
 in those propositions, which are palpable and essen- 
 tial to their present safety, but are inclined to con- 
 sider every accession of information upon points 
 which they could not satisfactorily clear up, as a 
 reflection upon their own understanding, and prefer 
 groping in midnight darkness — the darkness of 
 
 • TwSe vnfp^uXXovTi avruv (jtdoi'ovvTfs r]d(, Kai aniaTova-iu. — TlluclD. 
 lib. 2, Xf . 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 91 
 
 ignorance and doubt, rather than submit to avail 
 themselves of Nvhat they deem the humiliating ad- 
 vantage of a light, which did not spring from them- 
 selves. The eye of unassisted Reason, when ai)plicd 
 to spiritual and eternal things, is very dim and 
 clouded; its sphere of vision is exceedingly con- 
 tracted. It would be as absurd, therefore, to make 
 this faculty the standard of communicable or de- 
 monstrable truths, as it would be to judge of the 
 extent of the ocean by the line of the visible horizon, 
 or to estimate the dimensions of the stars by the 
 apparent magnitude of the points which bestud the 
 nocturnal skies. They, however, deem it more cre- 
 ditable to this feeble and idolized power, to enter- 
 tain no truth, to give a favourable reception to no 
 opinion, but what she has introduced to their ac- 
 quaintance. AYe may sometimes have had an oppor- 
 tunity of witnessing, wdth what perfect self-compla- 
 cence and contempt the untaught inquirer into the 
 laws of nature, habituated just to that degree of 
 reflection, which was sufficient to make him obstinate, 
 heard some of the most striking and best established 
 facts of astronomical science ; with what a smile of 
 disdain he listened to the description of the telescopic 
 appearances of the several planets of our system, and 
 especially to the intimation that the sun, in reference 
 at least to us, was, comparatively speaking, stationary; 
 and that, in order to produce the grateful succession 
 of day and night, the globe of the earth every four- 
 and-twenty hours whirled upon its own axis ; we may 
 recollect, with what confidence and assurance he 
 brought forward the testimony of reason and com- 
 
&2 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 mon sense, against these preposterous representa- 
 tions, ^ay, we may recollect a period in our oAvn 
 lives, Avlien, Avilling to give a general credence to the 
 statements above mentioned, we were, notwithstand- 
 ing, in no small degree puzzled how it was that we 
 did not fall upon our heads, when in the course of 
 the earth's rotary motion it became our turn to de- 
 scend into what we deemed the lower part of the 
 orbit which it described. 
 
 Will it be asked whence all this scepticism — this 
 reluctance to admit truths demonstrable by the 
 clearest evidence, arose? It may be confidently 
 answered, that it arose from the imperfect and ill- 
 directed use of reason, from an attempt at reconcil- 
 ing the propositions of science with the first dictates 
 of sensible perception. There appears to be a some- 
 what similar relation between the intimations of 
 sense and the deductions of Reason, that there is 
 between the deductions of Reason and the disclo- 
 sures of Revelation. As the first ought not to re- 
 ject the demonstrations of the second, because it 
 could not of itself have found out the facts Avhich 
 they prove, but seemed to suggest the very reverse, 
 so neither ought the second to refuse the discoveries 
 of the third, because they did not lie Avithin the 
 limits of its own researches; and the philosopher, 
 who withholds liis assent from an express truth of 
 Revelation, merely because it lay out of the common 
 range of the unassisted intellect, acts just as wisely 
 as the untutored rustic, who would maintain, in op- 
 position to the most unquestionable evidence, that 
 the earth is perfectly stationary, tliat the sun and 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 93 
 
 other celestial bodies whirl around it in four-and- 
 twentj hours, that the stars were so many glittering- 
 points fixed aloft in the firmament of heaven, and 
 that the magnitude of the moon did not much ex- 
 ceed that of a crown piece. The notions of the 
 latter are universally allowed among men of infor- 
 mation to be whimsical and absurd in the extreme, 
 because he listens to the suggestions of a fallible 
 sense, without examining those intimations in the 
 light of a superior and more investigating faculty. 
 Those of the former are scarce less so, where he ven- 
 tures to let loose his speculations upon the various 
 concerns of an unseen world, with the glimmering 
 taper of Eeason for his sole and exclusive guide. 
 To reject the noble discoveries which Eevelation has 
 made of the things of God, because they were pre- 
 viously impercej)tible to the mind, would, indeed, 
 resemble the conduct of the man, who would strenu- 
 ously deny the existence of the diversified objects of 
 a distant scenery, which the meridian sun clearly 
 exhibited to view, because the same were not equally 
 visible amidst the darksome gleams of evening, or 
 the twinklings of the nocturnal glow-worm. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Reason not justified in rejecting a Doctrine op Revelation 
 because it cannot understand its exact mode. 
 
 And as a doctrine of Revelation ought not to be 
 rejected on the mere score of its being previously 
 undiscoverable by man's unassisted efforts, so neither 
 
94 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 ouglit a doctrine clearly asserted in that heavenly 
 communication to be denied our firm and decided 
 assent, because Ave may be unable to comprehend 
 tlie exact mode in which the facts that it affirms or 
 involves may subsist. This, therefore, we would 
 establish as another Limit, to which Eeason, in the 
 investigation of divine truth, cannot advance in the 
 exercise of her right of rejection and disbelief, with- 
 out violating her own character, and profaning the 
 holy ground on which she has presumed to tread. 
 To imagine that we are allowed to proceed to this 
 length in regulating our views of the express decla- 
 rations of Jehovah, implies, indeed, that the measure 
 of our self-knowledge is exceedingly small, and our 
 confidence in Him equally narrow. He must, doubt- 
 less, be possessed of no common share of presump- 
 tion, who supposes that God can reveal no truth, or 
 that it is not necessary and expedient that any truth 
 should be revealed and credited, which he cannot 
 fully understand. Of such persons, it may be hoped 
 that the number is not considerable. There may be 
 more, perhaps, who find some difficulty in conceiving* 
 how a doctrine can be properly believed, which is not 
 fully comprehended. 
 
 There is a sense, in which the reverse of this 
 proposition is undoubtedly true — a sense in which 
 an assertion not understood cannot be believed, how- 
 ever true it may be in itself. If, for instance, one 
 of the plainest and most obvious facts be stated in a 
 foreign language, or if it be expressed in terms which 
 convey no idea to the mind of the hearer, it is im- 
 possible that that fact should be to him an object 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 95 
 
 of belief, however he iiitay repose a general con- 
 fidence in the veracity of the narrator. The exer- 
 cise of assent consists in associating and combining 
 together ideas in a regular and orderly relation, and 
 when the latter, constituting the requisite materials, 
 are wanting, the former cannot exist. But here let 
 it be carefully noticed, that there is no impossibility, 
 or even difficulty in acquiescing in a connexion de- 
 clared by competent authority to exist between a 
 train of ideas, each of them separately perceived by 
 the understanding, although the mode in which they 
 combine, so as to result in the general truth, should 
 be very indistinctly, or not at all observed. To 
 illustrate this, we fear, rather obscure enunciation, as 
 well as the remarks by which it was preceded, let us 
 suppose a philosophical lecturer to lay the following 
 truth before his pupil, in a language which he did 
 not understand, or previously to his learning the 
 meaning of the terms employed: "A ray of light is 
 formed by the combination of the seven primitive 
 colours." In this case there could be no exercise of 
 assent, because no distinct ideas were conveyed to 
 the mind. But let the pupil have a tolerably clear 
 notion of the objects respectively specified by the 
 terms of the proposition, and there is no difficulty in 
 his firmly acquiescing in the general truth, that a 
 ray of light is formed by the union of the seven 
 distinct colours, although he may have never seen 
 the prismatic experiment by which the fact is proved, 
 nor have it in his power to form the most distant 
 conception of the mode, by which the decomposition 
 or reunion is effected, and the final result produced. 
 
96 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 His assent rests upon the mere testimony of his 
 instructor, and as he has no reason to distrust that 
 testimony, he can believe with a certainty nearly as 
 great as if he had personally witnessed the whole pro- 
 cess, and perfectly comprehended the whole scheme. 
 Or, to exemplify the case by another similar analogy, 
 how easy is it to give the most prompt and unhe- 
 sitating assent to a geometrical proposition, illus- 
 trated by a diagram, without the slightest know- 
 ledge of the process of demonstration. AVliere is 
 the difficulty of believing, provided it be affirmed 
 on credible authority, that the three interior angles 
 of a triangle are equal to two right angles, with a 
 total ignorance of the properties in these figures, 
 which render such an equality necessary? It involves 
 no impossibility to believe the apparent paradox of 
 the two asymptotic lines — always approximating and 
 yet never meeting, than which nothing, according to 
 our ordinary mode of conceiving the relations of 
 quantity, can certainly be not only more strange, 
 but absolutely more absurd. And yet, in the scien- 
 tific view of the case, it is clearly seen to be demon- 
 strable. The fact is, that truth, as an object of 
 belief, is the mere agreement of things, or of ideas 
 as the representatives of things, put into the form of 
 naked propositions, without any necessary reference 
 to the mode of their agreement. Few things appear 
 at first sight more strange and incredible, than that 
 an astronomer should have it in his poAver to measure 
 the magnitude and tlie distances of the sun, moon 
 and planets, in his study-chair, or on the top of his 
 observatory. Suppose the philosopher, — JS'cwton for 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 1)7 
 
 instance, — were to have taken a person wholly unac- 
 quainted with the principles of mensuration, and 
 given him a cursory account of the process, by which 
 the ultimate points in question were attained ; would 
 it not be to such a person a mystery as incomprehen- 
 sible as any that is proposed to our faith in the whole 
 compass of the Old and Kew Testament ? And yet 
 could he not, ought he not, upon the mere testimony 
 of his knoAving instructor, to give credit to the simple 
 fact, that the sun, the moon, and the i^lanets actually 
 had been measured with, at least, a considerable 
 approximation toward perfect accuracy, and that 
 their respective dimensions amounted to such a 
 number of miles? Would not the opposite con- 
 duct be considered extremely obstinate and unbe- 
 coming ? Would it not be the plain dictate of in- 
 genuous and unperverted reason, that unimpeachable 
 veracity was to be implicitly depended upon, and 
 that whatever obscurity the several cases involved, 
 or appeared to involve, was to be attributed rather 
 to narrowness of intellect and imperfection' of know- 
 ledge, than to any thing- really incomprehensible or 
 impossible in themselves? 
 
 Our object in these analogical illustrations, to 
 which many others might be added, especially from 
 the sciences of Electricity and Chemistry, has been 
 to show that there is none of the impossibility, some- 
 times imagined, in believing a truth declared and 
 inculcated by infallible authority, although the mode 
 in which its constituent parts mutually combine, so as 
 to form that proposition, may be very indistinctly 
 understood. Llany doctrines of this description the 
 
 n 
 
98 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 volume of inspiration evidently contains. We arc 
 required to receive, with the full assent of our heads 
 and hearts, of our judgment and affections, a variety 
 of truths, which not only eluded our poAvers of dis- 
 covery, previously to their being revealed, but utterly 
 surpass our comprehension, even when revealed. Of 
 these, the scriptural account of the creation of the 
 material universe, out of mere and absolute nothing, 
 affords one striking example. This is a fact, which 
 but few, if any, professed Christians ever thought of 
 denying ; but it is, notwithstanding, a fact, which we 
 can no more understand, as to the precise manner in 
 which it took place, than we can comprehend how the 
 whole mass of existing matter could be inclosed 
 within a nutshell. We believe it, because we find it 
 asserted in a book, the veracity of which we cannot 
 venture to question. 
 
 The confidence reposed in the divine declaration, 
 however, in this instance, is not so repugnant to the 
 exercise of the intellect, as is sometimes supposed. 
 It is strikingly remarked by the Apostle, "by faith Ave 
 understand (not merely believe) that the AAorlds Avere 
 framed by the Avord of God; so that things Avhich 
 are seen, Avere not made of things Avhich do appear." 
 The process of understanding, in this connexion, 
 evidently means a full and deliberate conviction of 
 the judgment, arising from a clear perception of i\\Q 
 adequacy of the means, the diAine poAver accompany- 
 ing the all-creating fiat, to the ])roduction of the end 
 — the formation of Ji visible and material system out 
 of pure nihility. But it does not imply, that avc can 
 perceive the manner in Avhich real being Avas called 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 99 
 
 forth out of the depths of non-existence. So far is 
 this from being the case, that it was held as a maxim 
 among the whole host of the ancient philosophers, 
 which none but the most ignorant and absurd would 
 think of questioning, that '-nothing really existing 
 can be reduced to nothing, by any imaginable 
 power:" 
 
 gigni, 
 De nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse reverti. 
 
 It is contended, however, with great force of argu- 
 ment, by the learned Cudworth, that the sentiment 
 conveyed in this and similar maxims, was not in- 
 tended to deny the possible origination of matter, 
 but was directed against the atheists, and was de- 
 signed to assert the impossibility that any thing 
 should begin to exist, without an adequate cause. 
 By faith in the declarations of Jehovah, we, however, 
 understand that both the members of this vaunted 
 and apparently self-evident maxim are false, so far 
 as they relate to the substance of the material uni- 
 verse; while of the internal operation, by which its 
 incorrectness was practically proved, — while, in fact, 
 of everything connected with that stupendous trans- 
 action, beyond the exterior agency employed, (an 
 agency, we know, capable of everything which does 
 not involve a contradiction,) we are equally ignorant 
 with those who most resolutely adhered to it. 
 
 The doctrine of a divine influence communicated 
 by the Holy Spirit into the human mind, either to 
 enrich it with infallible knowledge and with miracu- 
 lous endowments, or merely to sanctify the affections, 
 and to enlighten the understanding with the gift of 
 
 H 2 
 
100 - THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 ordinary illumination, is another of those whicli -we 
 are required to believe on the testimony of Scripture, 
 but the precise mode of wliich we cannot pretend to 
 understand. With this tenet, in a perverted and 
 mutilated form, the heathens of antiquity Avere not 
 wholly unacquainted, as is manifest from their super- 
 stitious notions of oracular inspiration, and from the 
 continual appeal of their poets, for the elevating^ and 
 informing aid of certain superhuman beings, to which 
 they gave the name of Muses. But while they re- 
 tained some traditional knowledge of the f^ict, that 
 supernatural assistance is necessary to illumine the 
 human soul, and to purify it from earthly dross, they 
 were totally ignorant of the Giver of that assistance, 
 and of the means by which it is usually imparted. 
 In these latter points, we have greatly the advantage 
 over them. AYe know the Author, as well of that 
 extraordinary illumination, which is necessary to 
 qualify men for the office of delivering divine and 
 infallible truths, as of that mild transforming- intiu- 
 ence Avhich is, in every case, essential to the renova- 
 tion of the character, and the new creation of the 
 soul. We also know the means, in the use of which 
 this sacred influence, so far as its object is to produce 
 personal holiness, is for the most part communicated. 
 But how it is exerted; by what kind of agency it 
 affects the mind in the manner that it does; in ac- 
 cordance Avith what rules, or what principles, the 
 operation is carried on, is, to a very considerable 
 extent, an inex})li cable mystery. AVe can no more 
 unfold it to the view, than (to use the appropriate 
 figure of Divine Jvevelation) we can tell how the 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 101 
 
 various members and lineaments of the unborn infant 
 arc formed in the mother "s womb. But as Ave would 
 not deny the evidence of fact, that the infant is thus 
 mysteriously formed, so neither ought we to reject 
 the express testimony of inspiration, that the influ- 
 ences of the Holy Spirit do thus mysteriously operate 
 in the formation of the ncAv man in Christ Jesus. 
 
 The plan of redemption, through Christ, viewed 
 as a mediatorial scheme, constitutes also a branch of 
 revealed truth, which we do not pretend that we can 
 perfectly comprehend in all its parts. With the dis- 
 mal cause which gave rise to it, we are acquainted ; 
 the stupendous grace and love, which suggested it to 
 the mind of the Deity, and the wonderful wisdom 
 displayed in the arrangement of it, we can admire 
 and adore. Its amazing benefits, in reference to our 
 own destinies, we can appreciate. But when we 
 attempt to follow it up higher, to trace it to its ulti- 
 mate reasons, to discover its original grounds and 
 final principles, to sound its depths and scan its 
 heights — when we endeavour to find out the exact 
 congruity of a vicarious atonement to the propi- 
 tiation of a supremely just and holy Being, and to 
 the satisfaction of a violated law, and of a mutual 
 transfer of guilt and righteousness between the sin- 
 ner and the Saviour, between the criminal and the 
 innocent — when we Avould represent to ourselves the 
 perfect propriety of these and other things which 
 they involve, upon principles of human reason, we 
 must confess that, notwithstanding the many striking, 
 and, for the most part, satisfactory analogies, by 
 which they may be illustrated, we can form but a 
 
102 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 partial and indistinct estimate of them. But are 
 we, therefore, to reject the whole scheme — to deny 
 its truth, and to refuse its blessings? This, truly, 
 would be acting a wise part, and a part highly 
 becoming the present extent of our knoAvledge and 
 capacity. 
 
 To discard a system, in which we can discover so 
 much glory — so much beauty — so much excellency, 
 because we cannot perceive with accuracy the perfect 
 harmony and consistency of all its relative parts, 
 would be like shutting our eyes against the light of 
 the sun, and denying that any such body existed, 
 because we cannot tell by what laws that beneficent 
 luminary hangs self-poised in the expanse of Heaven, 
 or how he is upheld in air by some remote unde- 
 finable attraction. It would be going far towards 
 realizing, in our belief, or rather disbelief, the pro- 
 fane scepticism of. Hume, and the visionary idealism 
 of Berkeley. 
 
 In presuming to judge of the reasons of the divine 
 
 conduct, as far as they are revealed in the Bible, and 
 
 they are doubtless revealed, so far as is suitable to 
 
 our character and circumstances, we must always bear 
 
 in mind that only 
 
 One part — one little part we dimly scan 
 Through the dark medium of life's feverish dream. 
 
 When we hear plain and direct assertions, therefore, 
 we must implicitly believe them. AVlien, in these 
 assertions, we meet with anything that surpasses our 
 comprehension, we ought to ascrilje it to its just 
 cause; — we should feel it our privilege to become 
 little children — to receive with meekness and sim- 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 103 
 
 plicity, what the express declarations of our Heavenly 
 Father have made it our duty to receive — being fully 
 assured that whatever object of implicit faith our 
 
 capacities may now be unable completely to grasp 
 
 hereafter they Avill be so expanded and improved, as 
 to understand with facility and precision, — that what 
 we know not now, we shall know at a future period of 
 our being. 
 
 But once more, the Doctrine of a Eesurrection 
 from the dead is eminently one of those which, 
 though clearly asserted as truths on the pages of 
 divine revelation, yet elude the keenest researches 
 of the human intellect, as to the XKirticular mode 
 in which their 'component parts stand relatively con- 
 nected, or by which the facts asserted in them are to 
 be accomplished. This important point is, in the 
 most complete and exclusive sense, a discovery vouch- 
 safed to man by direct communication from Heaven. 
 It is a tenet lying quite out of the range of human 
 philosophy. In lier profoundest speculations, in Iter 
 sublimest views, in her noblest excursions, it never 
 became her lot so much as to catch a glimpse of it. 
 That the soul, the thinking principle, is to survive the 
 WTeck of its earthly tabernacle, she formed some plau- 
 sible, though uncertain and fluctuating conjectures, 
 conjectures which, even in her own estimation, bore 
 the character rather of a delightful vision — an Elysian 
 dreJtm, than of an established truth. But that the 
 body, after being once deserted by its celestial resi- 
 dent ; after having mouldered for ages, and incorpo- 
 rated by a gradual process of decomposition with its 
 congenial dust, was again to be consolidated into a 
 
104 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 human form, and awakened into life ; that, at a period 
 yet remote, a resuscitating influence was to descend, 
 and to rouse the sleeping ashes of mortality, was an 
 idea that she never dimly conceived ; and hence we find, 
 that when St. Paul brought forward this topic before 
 an assembly of learned Athenians, it was treated with 
 instant ridicule and contempt. 
 
 AVhen, on another occasion, the Apostle felt him- 
 self called upon formally to vindicate this doctrine 
 from the charge of absurdity and impossibility, which 
 had been urged against it, he confirms its truth, 
 indeed, by many powerful and convincing illustrative 
 and analogical arguments. He leaves, however, a 
 variety of particulars, most intimately connected with 
 this amazing transaction, of which we are still in 
 utter ignorance. While he gives a most sublime 
 and luminous statement of the fact, he shows us 
 what, in a considerable measure, is still " a mystery. " 
 What will constitute the identity of the body that 
 shall rise with the body that was deposited in the 
 grave; ^vhether the re-animated frame wuU be com- 
 posed of the same numerical particles of matter — an 
 hypothesis exceedingly improbable, and, so far as we 
 can judge, impossible ; or whether there be in the cor- 
 poreal system a simple elemental principle, that will 
 secure its sameness amidst all the fiuctuations of 
 other component parts ; whether, indeed, it be in- 
 different what parcel of dust will form the future 
 body, provided it be united to the same soul, are 
 points on A\hich, however we may theorize, we can 
 say nothing decisive. Even the nature of a body, 
 that will be exempt from the ordinary hiAVS of nuxtter, 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 105 
 
 that will be free from every species of infirmity and 
 disease, and will probably require no material suste- 
 nance, is to us a mystery as profound as any in the 
 whole scheme of theology. But this interferes not 
 in the least with our belief of the doctrine, as we 
 have already endeavoured to show. The only ques- 
 tion is, whether it be actually revealed ; and as this 
 will be denied by none in the present case, no doubt 
 remains, whether it is to be adopted into our creed, 
 and to be realized in our minds for the purpose of 
 strengthening our faith, confirming our hope, and 
 stimulating our diligence. 
 
 These and several other doctrines contained in the 
 volume of inspiration, some of wdiich will be noticed 
 under our following head of observation, surpass the 
 comprehension of Eeason with respect to the precise 
 modes and relations, which characterize them, and, 
 therefore, do not properly come within her limits, as 
 to the exercise of the power of rejection. They are 
 above Reason, but not contrary to her dictates; and 
 as it has been ascertained that they are revealed, the 
 question determines itself, whether they are to be 
 admitted as articles of faith. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 A Doctrine op Revelation not to be rejected because it may 
 BE attended with DIFFICULTIES^ WHICH Reason cannot solve. 
 
 Finally, the jurisdiction of Reason in matters of 
 Faith and of divine Revelation does not extend as 
 far as that a doctrine should be rejected, merely be- 
 
166 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 cause it may be attended ivith difficulties icldcli Rea- 
 son cannot solve. The distinction we would make 
 between this and the last Remark is, that in tliat the 
 difficulty consisted in the mere absence of light and 
 information, and a correspondent power of under- 
 standing, while in the present it consists in the actual 
 existence of apparent contradictions — of a seemingly 
 opposite evidence. Hence it is, that while several 
 doctrines of Eevelation, though allowed to involve 
 obscurities, which our mental eye cannot penetrate, 
 are admitted without much hesitation — yet when any 
 one of those which w^e would class under the latter 
 description is proposed in terms equally clear and 
 express to the same persons, it does not meet with 
 the same cordial reception. And here it is obvious, 
 that the doctrine of a threefold union of persons in 
 the essence of Jehovah, and that of the no less mys- 
 terious union of the divine and human nature in 
 the person of Christ, form the most prominent points 
 of attention. To these doctrines, the wary, inves- 
 tigating, and, for the most part, self-sufficient mind, 
 of the metaphysician and philosopher, has often been 
 reluctant to yield his assent. Against these, the 
 disputer of this Avorld — whether he called himself 
 a heathen or a Christian — a believer, or a free- 
 thinker — has ever directed his mightiest artillery, 
 and employed his carnal Aveapons with the most 
 confident hope of success. It appears, that it was 
 with difficulty, and not without considerable doubt, 
 that ISTewton, with all his childlike simplicity — that 
 Locke, with all his candour and his unquestionable 
 love of truth — that Milton, Avith all his profound 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 107 
 
 reverence for holy scripture, and his anxiety to ren- 
 der all the rich exuberance of his devout imagination 
 subservient to the illustration of its principles, pre- 
 vailed upon themselves to recognize doctrines, so far 
 as they distinctly recognized them at all, the depth of 
 which their powerful genius was incapable of sound- 
 ing*. A modern division of professing Christians, 
 which it is difficult to designate without offence, or 
 without danger of an apparent compromise of truth, 
 (for Socinian is, I believe, regarded by its members 
 as a term of reproach, and, therefore, ought not to 
 be wantonly attached to them ; and Unitarian is an 
 appellation, as expressive of a belief in one God, to 
 which I do not conceive that they are entitled, inas- 
 much as other classes of Christians, with reference 
 to the unity of the Divine Being, are as much Uni- 
 tarians as themselves,) has made great boast of 
 the authority of these distinguished individuals, as 
 all resting on their side of the question. To say 
 nothing of the illegitimate extent to which this 
 assumption is carried, as it is difficult to say, with 
 certainty, how far they severally went in their belief 
 or disbelief in the doctrines under consideration, 
 
 Reason could scarce sustain to see 
 The Almighty One — tli' eternal Three, 
 Or bear the infant Deity. 
 Scarce could her pride descend to own 
 Her Maker stooping from his throne, 
 And dressed in glories so unknown. 
 A ransomed world, a bleeding God, 
 And Heaven appeased with flowing blood 
 Were themes too painful to be understood. 
 
 Watts, on Locke's Annotations. Lyric Poems. 
 
108 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 if, indeed^ they had any settled and decided views 
 at all upon these points, it assuredly indicates great 
 ■weakness in a cause^ -when it requires to be propped 
 by pillars of human authority. It reminds us of the 
 vaunting decrees of the Eomish conclave, whose 
 members tAvo or three centuries ago maintained the 
 absurdities of a false philosophy, and resisted the 
 early progress of truth, by a triumphant appeal to 
 the authority of Aristotle and Aquinas, and other 
 worthies of the Scholastic theology. It is delightful, 
 indeed, to be able to range the great lights of 
 science among those whose genius and learning 
 illumine the bright firmament of revealed truth, 
 when their recognition of that truth has been dis- 
 tinct and unequivocal. But to gather up the frag- 
 ments of traditional hints, and of doubtful author- 
 ship, and to rear them into an imposing front, whe- 
 ther it be for the guardianship of truth, or the 
 defence of error, is surely very much to overrate 
 the importance which belongs to them. Of j^ewton 
 it might be truly said, with an illustrious foreigner, 
 that, in his own particular department of knowledge, 
 it is seldom safe to contradict what he has positively 
 asserted. But there may be some truth also in 
 what another foreigner has said, that, in some of 
 his theological writings, JN'ewton has made amends 
 unto mankind for his superiority to them in other 
 respects. There is still more truth in what his own 
 learned editor said of him, that in the science of 
 quantity he was unequalled, but that in matters 
 of religious inquiry he Avas but one of the people. 
 It has been remarked by Gil^bon, that the study of 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 10.0 
 
 the mathematics has a strong' tendency, l)y the 
 liabits of thought which it induces, to incapacitate 
 the mind for the nice perception and correct appre- 
 ciation of moral evidence. It can be matter of just 
 surprise to none, therefore, that a man, whose mighty 
 faculties were so completely absorbed in the investi- 
 gations of that science, as were those of I^ewton, 
 should have failed to attain to a correct view of a 
 system, whose evidence, from the very nature of the 
 things, can never be made to assume the form of 
 mathematical demonstration. A similar considera- 
 tion would apply to Milton and Locke, and would 
 account for any erroneous notion, or doubtful ortho- 
 doxy with respect to some of the great mysteries of 
 godliness, which may display itself in some of 
 their writings. The authority of the controversial 
 theologian in both instances ^^is lost — swallowed up in 
 the one case by the imagination of the poet — sunk 
 in the other into the profundity of the metaphysician. 
 Of the views of Bacon, however, a man, to the ori- 
 ginality and comprehensiveness of whose genius all 
 names of modern or ancient celebrity must yield, we 
 may speak with more certainty, inasmuch as he has 
 left a confession of his faith upon record, in which he 
 makes an unqualified acknowledgment of his belief in 
 those doctrines, at which the mind is most apt to 
 stagger"'-. AYe mention these illustrious names, not 
 
 * " I believe that nothing is without beginning but God — no 
 nature — no matter — no spirit— but one only and the same God. 
 That God, as he is eternally almighty, only wise, only good in his 
 nature, so He is eternally Father, Son and Spirit in persons." — 
 Lord Bacon, Confession of faith. ^ 
 
110 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 because we consider their opinion as at all decisive of 
 the truth on either side of the question, but merely 
 to show the reluctance with which Reason, in its 
 highest state of cultivation and improvement, sub- 
 mits to the mysteries of godliness. In the contemp- 
 lation of a truth so evidently transcending the efforts 
 of a finite capacity, as that which relates to the na- 
 ture and essence of the Deity, all human understand- 
 ings are brought very nearly to a level*. Perhaps, 
 indeed, the acutest and most enlarged is most liable 
 to be lost and bewildered, as the strongest sight, if 
 it give occasion to a presumptuous and incautious 
 gazing at the sun, is in greatest danger of being 
 injured. 
 
 The leading, the ever-recurring argument which 
 they w^ho, we fear, would be wise above what is 
 written, urge against a triplicity of personal sub- 
 sistencies in the undivided essence of Jehovah, is, 
 that such a notion is absolutely absurd, and con- 
 trary to the palpable dictates of common sense. 
 ISTow, we have already laid it down, in a former part 
 of this inquiry, that whenever a doctrine clearly 
 and unquestionably obnoxious to this charge is pro- 
 posed to our belief, it is the undoubted province of 
 Reason to reject it. But it has never yet been proved, 
 with Avhatever flippancy and triumph it may have been 
 asserted, that this is the case with the doctrine under 
 our present consideration. 
 
 * " One man may somewhat exceed another in physical power; 
 but show mc the man who can jump over a wall forty feet high." — 
 Skelton. 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. Ill 
 
 Before we can prove a proposition to be absurd, 
 it is obvious that we must have a clear perception 
 of the mutual relations of its component parts. If, 
 for example, it was asserted, that two parallel lines 
 would meet if prolonged to a certain point — we 
 have an intuitive certainty, that this never can be 
 the case, because we have an infallible evidence in 
 our breast, that the mutual relation of these lines is 
 such, that they never can meet. But if we beheld a 
 certain number of lines running for a considerable 
 distance separately from each other, and at length 
 lost in a mist; if, moreover, we had no means of 
 ascertaining with accuracy, whether they proceeded 
 in a parallel, diverging, or approximating direction 
 — nay, if to the very best of our judgment they 
 appeared to be all exactly parallel, we could not 
 prove it an absurdity, if we heard it asserted by 
 credible testimony, that, at a remote point, they met 
 together, like so many confluent streams, and formed 
 but one line. Our duty under these circumstances 
 would evidently be to admit the fact, and to acknow- 
 ledge the fallacy of our previous conclusion, a con- 
 clusion founded upon the imperfection of our visual 
 powers. 
 
 We readily allow, that the doctrine under consi- 
 deration, may be proposed in such terms, and repre- 
 sented in such an order, as may imply an absolute 
 contradiction; nor would we deny, that its maintainers 
 sometimes view and express it in such an order. 
 When, therefore, this mysterious tenet is formally 
 stated in language which appears best adapted to 
 scriptural phraseology — language, at the best, very 
 
112 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 inadequate to the subject — its candid oppugners take 
 tlie liberty of giving- their own meaning to the terms 
 employed, and are on the alert with an array of 
 quibbling analogies, by which they pretend to prove 
 its impossibility. 
 
 It requires no great depth of discernment to 
 perceive, no very superior powers of argumentation 
 to evince, that three distinct beings cannot constitute 
 one in the same sense, and in the same relation^ 
 that they were separately One. If such a union of 
 persons is what the champions of reason labour to 
 disprove — if this is the shadow^ Avith which our ad- 
 versaries contend, they may amuse themselves with 
 much freedom; the defenders of the faith once 
 delivered to the saints may willingly recede from the 
 arena, and allow them the full enjoyment of their 
 triumph, until they have learnt that the phantom 
 which they had pursued with so much zeal, has never 
 yet been embodied in the judgment of any man of 
 common understanding. 
 
 But we may be asked, what do we understand by 
 this doctrine, and how do we explain it, in consistency 
 with sound reason and good sense? It is sometimes 
 legitimate to reply to a question, by asking another. 
 When the chief priests and elders of the Jcavs came 
 to the Saviour, and asked, in reference to his mi- 
 racles, " By Avhat authority doest thou these things, 
 and who gave thee this authority?'' He retorted 
 upon them, by saying, " I will also ask you one thing, 
 which, if ye tell me, I, in like manner, will tell you 
 by wliat authority I do these things. ''.Phe Baptism 
 of John; whence was it? Of Heaven, or of men?"' 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 113 
 
 Their reply was, "We cannot tell." In reference to 
 the demand to explain what w^e understand by the 
 doctrine just specified, we may also say to our que- 
 rists — The principles of attraction and repulsion in 
 the same mass of matter, what are they? The two 
 polarities of the magnet; how are they to be accoun- 
 ted for? The positive and negative electricities; 
 how are their causes to be explained? The infinite 
 divisibility of matter and time and space ; how is it 
 to be rendered palpable to the apprehension, without 
 the danger of a reductio ad ahsurdum? AYe strongly 
 suspect, that their reply to these, and a hundi-ed 
 more questions relative to things which are believed, 
 and yet very imperfectly understood, must be that 
 of the Jewish high priests, " We cannot tell." But 
 they will allege, in respect of these points, "We 
 have the phenomena, and we profess not to go far- 
 ther;" and so have we, the believer may answer. 
 Our phenomena are the explicit statements of Him, 
 who is the truth — of Him, who is no less true in his 
 word, than He is in his works ; and beyond these we 
 do not venture to advance. 
 
 If, therefore, it be asked, what we do mean, when 
 we speak of three persons subsisting in the essence of 
 Jehovah, we frankly confess, without inquiring how 
 far these terms are best calcidated to express the truth, 
 and without fear of compromising our cause, that there 
 is in this scheme much that we do not understand, 
 and something that, without a divine Eevelation, we 
 should have been inclined to controvert. But we 
 have learnt that there is a difference between absur- 
 dity and obscurity, between the confined range of 
 
114 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 our feeble Reason, and the boundless expanse of 
 infinity; we know the fallibility of our own judgment: 
 we rely on the unimpeachable veracity of the Author 
 of our being. With these views and feelings, we 
 believe that we can discover in the pages of Scripture 
 a clear attestation to these two points, that there is 
 one Supreme infinite Jehovah, indivisible and incom- 
 prehensible; and also that, in the essence of this 
 great and glorious Being, there is a threefold dis- 
 tinction, which distinction is expressed in the Bible, 
 by the terms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The 
 appellation of persons is adopted simply, because this 
 word appears best suited to convey the idea of a 
 real agent; but the order of combination, in which 
 these two apparently discordant points coalesce, we 
 do not profess to understand : we can form some idea 
 of either, separately viewed, but how they harmo- 
 niously unite, we cannot perceive; just as we can 
 frame some indistinct conception of the eternity that 
 is past, and the eternity which is to come; but how 
 both eternities, if we may use such a term, join 
 together, so as to make one boundless circle of 
 duration, unmarked by fore or after — by present, 
 past, or future — one everlasting now — we cannot 
 clearly comprehend. We are fully aware, indeed, 
 that there is no analogy in nature, which can give 
 a proper idea of this truth. Analogy, however, is no 
 absolute test of truth, and we enter our decided pro- 
 test against its being employed as such in the present 
 instance. It is often of great use, indeed, in illustrat- 
 ing truth, and in vindicating it from the charge of 
 folly and inconsistency, a use to which we have 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 115 
 
 endeavoured frequently to convert it in the conrf^c of 
 these observations. " Solent tamen fiillere similitu- 
 dinmn species"~said the Roman rhetorician — 
 "ideoque adhibendum est his judicium." 
 
 Analogy, thus fairly and legitimately employed, 
 rather favours the reception of mysteries in religion 
 than oppugns them, inasmuch as it points out such 
 numberless mysteries in the whole economy of 
 nature. 
 
 When we assert, on the authority of divine Reve- 
 lation, as we are fully and deliberately convinced, 
 that in the one essence of Jehovah there is a three- 
 fold distinction of persons, mysteriously united with 
 each other, we mean not that Jehovah is One precisely 
 in the same sense as He is three, for this would 
 imply, that one and three numerically amounted to 
 the same quantity, an absurdity which an idiot can 
 hardly fail to perceive. The instances, however, in 
 which there is a unity in one sense and a plurality 
 in another, are so numerous and apparent, that we 
 surely need not particularly refer to many. Our 
 own form of government supplies an example of this 
 kind — one in its substantial and universal character, 
 but threefold in its constituent parts, framed by a 
 combination of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, 
 each making a distinct element in the general power 
 of administration. And we doubt not, that if an 
 unlettered barbarian, who lived under the uncon- 
 trolled sway of a petty despot, were to be told that the 
 government of England was decidedly one riding 
 authority — if again, he was to hear of the king- 
 pardoning criminals by an act of pure and unfettered 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 sovereignty, and appointing domestic officers and 
 foreign delegates by a choice for which he was ac- 
 countable to no man; and again, of the two houses 
 of parliament conducting the affairs of state according 
 to their respective rights — levying taxes — establishing 
 and abrogating law^s, with all the freedom apparently 
 of independent bodies — he would find it as impossible 
 to reduce what he conceived to be the discordant and 
 heterogeneous rudiments of this triple scheme to a 
 form of perfect unity, as we find it to reconcile the 
 idea of a triplicity to a unity of essence in the infinite 
 Jehovah. Let it, however, be distinctly understood, 
 that the analogy here introduced is not intended so 
 much to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity, as to 
 exemplify the obvious principle, that unity of cha- 
 racter does not necessarily exclude a triplicity of com- 
 ponent parts, though it may require more knowledge 
 and understanding than is possessed in some cases, to 
 perceive their perfect consistency. It is, in fact, 
 quite out of our power to discover the sense in which 
 unity of substance, and plurality of persons may or 
 may not consist with each other, in the nature of the 
 Divine Being, unless we had a clear and distinct 
 idea of the whole of that nature, which few, it may 
 be supposed, will have the presumption to maintain 
 that we can have. To reject the doctrine that we 
 have been briefly endeavouring to discuss, because it 
 is attended with Avhat have been shown to be mere 
 difficulties, and not by any means contradictions, 
 appears to militate against every dictate of wisdom, 
 against every, principle of sound reason. To prove 
 this doctrine by citations from Scripture, we shall not 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 117 
 
 attempt, nor do wc deem it necessary. The many 
 passages wliicli we vieAv as decisive on tins point, we 
 cannot suppose to be unknown, or otherwise than 
 ftimiliar to our opponents, without ascribing to them 
 a measure of ignorance, which they would, perhaps, 
 consider as disgraceful, as we think their rejection of 
 the evidence which these passages afford, to be un- 
 happy. Our business, at present, is not so much to 
 confirm the truth of any particular doctrines as to 
 establish principles, by which our judgment of doc- 
 trines should be governed; and on this ground we 
 shall decline entering upon a more particular consi- 
 deration of those other doctrines with which Eeason 
 is generally considered as more especially concerned. 
 If, in the progress of these remarks, we have, with 
 some tolerable accuracy, marked out the boundaries, 
 both in respect of liberty and restraint which should 
 limit the operations and the researches of Eeason, in 
 estimating the truth of Eevelation, our purpose has 
 been fully accomplished. If we have been enabled, 
 in some degree, to teach that noble faculty Avhat 
 measure of light and knowledge it is her duty and 
 her privilege to require, and with what she ought to 
 rest satisfied in our investigations, our design has 
 been answered. What has been said in illustration 
 of one doctrine may with ease be applied to another. 
 Such a sober, chastised, and limited exercise of 
 Eeason as has been here recommended and defined, 
 appears to be of great importance on this as well as 
 on other grounds, — ^that it will prove an effectual 
 preservative against enthusiasm, superstition, and 
 credulity on the one hand, and against the baneful 
 
118 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 influence of a proud, self-sufficient, and sceptical phi- 
 losophy on the other. It is calculated to produce a 
 general firmness, consistency, and humility of cha- 
 racter — to regulate the judgment Avithout damping 
 the ardour of the aff*ections — to enlighten the head 
 without petrifying the heart. Discarding every thing 
 that is inconsistent and absurd, every thing that is 
 vague and illusive, it secures a clearness of concep- 
 tion, a harmony, a simplicity, and decisive conviction 
 of mind; admitting nothing without suitable evi- 
 dence, it establishes belief upon a solid basis ; not 
 excluding mysteries, it affords an expansive range 
 to the vigorous eff'orts of the understanding. AYliile 
 it checks the presumptuous intrusions of a prying- 
 fancy, it discourages not the Avell regulated flights of 
 a sublime imagination ; while it banishes every wild, 
 chimerical, and legendary notion, it reposes a calm 
 and delightful confidence in the declarations of the 
 God of truth. Eeason thus exercised, renouncing 
 the low, mean, and contemptible character of a quib- 
 bler and a railer against truths which it does not 
 understand, and was never meant to understand, is 
 elevated into devotion, is sublimated into faith. 
 
 We would merely add, as we draw these observa- 
 tions to a close, that as the benefits calculated to 
 result from a just and legitimate use of Eeason, are 
 great and important ; so the evils springing from the 
 neglect or the undue application of it are grievous 
 and often fatal. Through the first of these faults, 
 the unqualified rejection of the aid of Eeason in 
 investigating the truths of Ecvelation, the most 
 visionary schemes have been invented and zealously 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 110 
 
 propagated — theories, the most senseless, groundless, 
 and extravagant, have been adopted and cherished. 
 Men have believed the most fanciful and unmeaning 
 conceits, with the same blind and pitiable credulity, 
 that the South Americans received the orders of the 
 man, who pretended to act under a commission from 
 the sun. To perceive the danger of an unnatural 
 mixture of reason and philosophy with the mysterious 
 parts of divine Eevelation, we have only to view its 
 effects in the case of different individuals, and in the 
 various ages of the church. It appears, that this 
 mischievous association had begun to corrupt the 
 purity and to destroy the simplicity of the Christian 
 faith, in some instances, even in the Apostolic age. 
 For, we find St. Paul earnestly exhorting the Colossian 
 Christians, that they should be established in the 
 faith, and not suffer themselves to be spoiled through 
 philosophy and vain deceit. At subsequent periods 
 in the history of primitive Christianity, the danger 
 against which the Apostle delivers this pointed and 
 affectionate warning, was realized to a lamentable 
 extent. Even the pious and devoted Justin Martyr 
 does not a]3pear to have wholly escaped the infection. 
 His scholastic habits, and his original profession as a 
 heathen philosopher, gave a tinge to the character of 
 his mind, and consequently to the productions of his 
 pen, by no means favourable to the unadulterated 
 purity of the Gospel, and far from congenial with the 
 transparent perspicuity of truth. 
 
 After him, the learned and laborious Origen, as 
 w^ell as the disciples of the Eclectic School in general, 
 poisoned the springs of divine knowledge to a still 
 
120 THE LIMITS OF REASON IN THE 
 
 more grievous extent, by an admixture of the same 
 error. Actuated in many cases, doubtless, by the 
 laudable desire of conciliating their learned contem- 
 poraries among the heathen, they proceeded to an 
 undue length in lowering the mysteries of faith to a 
 level with the speculations of reason — in assimilating, 
 by a species of moral alchemy, the doctrines of Christ 
 to the lucubrations of Plato. 
 
 From that period to the present time, excepting 
 those ages in which the face of Europe, and of the 
 civilized world was wrapped in a veil of ignorance 
 and midnight gloom, and no one inquired what he 
 believed, or why he believed it, a tendency to abolish 
 mysteries from the scheme of revealed truth, and to 
 reduce it altogether to a meagre set of speculative 
 and ethical axioms, has been the bane of the rashly 
 inquisitive and superficially learned. Assuming the 
 honourable name of free and liberal thinking, this 
 petulant humour has blasted with its malignant influ- 
 ence many an active and vigorous mind, whose ener- 
 gies might have otherwise been advantageously cm- 
 ployed in developing the principles of piety, and in 
 extending the dominions of truth. To this, as its 
 natural parent, must be ascribed that spectrous form 
 of Christianity, which, though possessed of neither 
 warmth, nor life, nor wisdom, its patrons represent as 
 the daughter of light — as the good genius sent down 
 from heaven to banish ignorance and superstition 
 from the earth, and in time to regenerate the world. 
 
 To this also, however little it may be suspected, 
 and however strenuously it may be denied, arc to be 
 traced the bold and unwarrantable assertions of a 
 
INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 121 
 
 rank supralapsarianism. To this, in fact, is to l)e 
 attributed every attempt to systematize beyond what 
 the word of God has clearly authorized — to bring 
 down the high purposes of heaven to a scale co-ordi- 
 nate with the human capacity. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 AN INQUIKY IKTO THE NATUEE AND EXTENT OF THE 
 
 FACULTY OF VOLITION, AS CONNECTED WITH MORAL 
 
 AGENCY AND RELIGIOUS OBLIGATIONS. 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 HOW FAR MAN IS TO BE CONSIDERED AS FREE IN HIS 
 VOLITIONS. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The Choice of simple Tendency as displayed in Material 
 Substances. 
 
 The first thing, probably, tliat strikes a contem- 
 plative and reflecting mind, and fills it with astonish- 
 ment and awe, when it has withdi'awn from the tumult 
 and agitation of surrounding scenes, is the fact that 
 something exists. Some persons may recollect a period 
 in early life, when, without having heard anything of 
 the reasonings and demonstrations of philosophers 
 upon this question, their own thoughts were strangely 
 exercised and perplexed, and ran into very curious 
 speculations upon it. Such individuals, indeed, may 
 not have proceeded, according to the strict logical 
 method of Des Cartes, to reason out their own exist- 
 ence, and that of the universe at large from the con- 
 scious operations of their own minds — Cogito, ergo 
 sum. But viewing themselves and the various objects 
 
124 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 around them as actually existing, and forgetting for 
 the moment the clear and distinct disclosures of 
 divine Eevelation, they have been greatly at a loss to 
 account unto themselves for a scene of things so won- 
 derful and mysterious. They have speculated in 
 eager and bewildering inquiry: — What is its real sub- 
 stance ? What was its origin, if it originated at all, 
 and what is to be its final destiny? We know no 
 exercise of mind, which is more delightful than thus 
 to gather up the faint recollections of those inquiries, 
 which first engaged the unsophisticated mind. In 
 such an order of mental phenomena there will be 
 found problems and hypotheses, not only interesting 
 to remember and amusing in the retrospect, but like- 
 wise sometimes involving the profoundest and most 
 difficult points of investigation in the whole range of 
 human thought. 
 
 When the existence of a universe has thus been 
 noticed, the next thing which seems to claim the at- 
 tention is the ceaseless motion — the diversified ope- 
 ration of parts upon parts, that is going on in this 
 amazing scene. The whole system of nature appears 
 full of life, and energy, and activity. It resembles, 
 at first view, some immense machine, constructed by 
 a hand of consummate skill, and exhibiting every 
 wheel as performing its appropriate function. It is 
 this part of the subject, indeed, that has embarrassed 
 philosophical inquirers, unenlightened and unin- 
 structed from above, in every age of the world. It 
 Avas the origination of motion, Avhich the ancients 
 always considered as that which most clearly proved 
 and demonstrated the existence of a Supreme Being. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 125 
 
 This justly appeared the Deo digmis vindice nodus — 
 the fact, which absolutely required divine interference, 
 in order to be satisfactorily explained. It is in the 
 futile endeavour to account for this phenomenon, l)y 
 giving the atomic particles a native tendency to move 
 downward, that the Epicurean philosophy, as ex- 
 pounded by Lucretius, fails most grievously. Inde- 
 pendently of the error, fatal and destructive to all 
 sound reasoning, which this notion involves, — that of 
 introducing an effect, upon the varied modifications of 
 which the whole system depends, without an adequate 
 cause, — it is not considered by those, by whom it is 
 advanced, that upward and downward are altogether 
 relative terms, intended to express the motion or posi- 
 tion of objects with reference to other objects already 
 existing and maintaining a uniform local direction; 
 but that, in infinite space, Avhere there was no central 
 or gravitating point, where ascending, descending, 
 progressive, or oblique motion could, as such, have no 
 place, such a supposed tendency must be altogether 
 nugatory and unmeaning. Although, therefore, con- 
 trary to what we know, and involving, as the hypo- 
 thesis does, the most insuperable difficulties, we should 
 suppose, with Aristotle, and, indeed, most of the 
 ancients, that the matter of the universe has existed 
 from eternity, in the way of a necessary emanation 
 from Him, who spread his line over the dark con- 
 fusion, and reduced it to harmony and order; still the 
 life which animates, and the motion which pervades 
 and agitates the whole system, would be utterly un- 
 accounted for. There is found at work throughout 
 the whole mass, and in every department of the uni- 
 
126 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 verse, an active force combined and proportioned 
 witli the most perfect accuracy, and working Avith the 
 most astonishing precision, so that art, with her 
 utmost ingenuity, in arranging a few of the me- 
 chanical powers, can only make some faint approaches 
 to the uniformity of nature, when left to her own 
 spontaneous operations. There is nothing in matter, 
 considered merety as a mass of solidity and exten- 
 sion, which can give rise to the least suspicion, that 
 motion, in such precise directions, and in such exact 
 proportions of velocity, can have originally belonged 
 to it as such; and this circumstance, in connexion 
 with the collocation of the elements, as Chalmers has 
 well remarked, and those appearances of unquestion- 
 able design, which the universe presents, forms the 
 main argument of natural religion for the existence 
 of a Supreme Being. 
 
 But amidst all the variety and multiplicity of the 
 motions and operations which are thus carrying on in 
 the created universe, they may all be divided into two 
 kinds, and considered as flowing from either of two 
 immediate and direct causes. They may all be re- 
 garded as either mechanical or voluntary — either as 
 resulting from some hidden quality or force, originally 
 impressed by the Creator upon matter, or as pro- 
 ceeding from that peculiar modification of mental 
 action in living agents, called the exercise of the 
 will. These two originators of motion, in their gene- 
 ral character and mode of operation, are, indeed, as 
 clear and palpable as any two causes or effects can 
 l)ossibly be. Tlie merest child understands the dif- 
 ference between a motion or an effect produced by an 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 127 
 
 intellio-ent and voluntary agent, and that occasioned 
 by mechanical impulse and blind, undesigning force. 
 But clearly to understand the nature, and to mark 
 out the limits of each of these modes of action, and 
 to point out, in some minute instances, the exact 
 line of demarcation by which they are respectively 
 distinguished and separated from each other, is a far 
 more difficult task. 
 
 In this universal system of action and reaction, 
 it is therefore an inquiry in the highest degree in- 
 teresting and important, what kinds of operations 
 are to be considered as voluntary, and what as 
 mechanical or physically necessary. Upon this dis- 
 tinction, viewed in its various bearings, is founded 
 the whole question of liberty and moral agency — a 
 question, which has always been considered as one 
 of the most difficult and perplexing in the whole 
 range of human investigation. To those who view 
 the matter superficially, indeed, it might appear a 
 very palpable and adequate distinction, that the 
 one order of effects belongs to the inanimate part 
 of the creation, and the other to that which is 
 endued with life, and some faculty of thought and 
 volition. And as a broad outline of the bare phe- 
 nomena, this might undoubtedly be correct and 
 sufficient. But to those who enter deeper into the 
 subject, and penetrate beyond the bare exterior of 
 the question, it will at once appear, that it is by 
 no means so clear and definite, and free from per- 
 plexity, as the first aspect of it would intimate. 
 It will be seen by such, especially after the con- 
 flicting theories and hypotheses, by which philo- 
 
128 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 sophers and theologians of different schools have 
 embarrassed this naturally intricate inquiry, that it 
 is by no means so easy to determine, how far, and 
 in what sense, those actions, usually termed volun- 
 tary or elective, differ in their real mode of produc- 
 tion or causation from those which are mechanical ; 
 and, on the other hand, how far living agency, if 
 not mental volition, may be concerned in many of 
 those effects which are generally regarded as the 
 results of mechanical or physical necessity. It will 
 be found, in many cases, that these two modes of 
 agency and operation so run into each other, as 
 that it is almost impossible to define their precise 
 limitations. Like the colours of the rainbow, they 
 are palpable and easily distinguishable in the general 
 aspect which they present, but in their connecting 
 lines they become almost imperceptibly merged 
 into each other. We cannot help thinking, how- 
 ever, that much of the perplexity of this question, 
 so far as it relates to the accountableness and the 
 practical obligations of man, has arisen from a love 
 of theorizing, and from an attempt to reduce one 
 order of phenomena, under a system of operation 
 and arrangement belonging to another order entirely 
 different, and to which the former bears no more 
 than a general analogy. In the followmg inquiry, 
 it will be our endeavour to keep as closely as pos- 
 sible to acknowledged phenomena, or to modes of 
 operation which must be universally recognized as 
 characterizing the exercises of rolithn in the human 
 mind — noticing the various contradictory systems 
 which have been advanced upon this subject, only so 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 129 
 
 far as may appear necessary for the vindication or 
 illustration of the truth. The order in which Ave 
 shall pursue this important investigation, in accord- 
 ance Avith the general method observed in this Avork, 
 Avill be, first, to point out Avhat is essential to the 
 liberty of moral agency — or, in AA'hat sense and to 
 Avhat extent, man, as a rational and accountable 
 being, is free; and then to shoAv in Avhat sense, and 
 to Avhat extent, man is not free — in Avhat respect he 
 is to be regarded as a necessary agent, Avithout in 
 any degree interfering Avith his character as a respon- 
 sible creature. And if these points can be satisfac- 
 torily determined, and the limits Avithin Avliich the 
 exercises of the faculty of volition are carried on 
 be definitely ascertained, then, at least, the difficul- 
 ties of this abstruse subject, so far as they relate 
 to the responsibility of man, and the necessary in- 
 fluence of the grace of God, Avill have been in a 
 great measure relieved. Ultimate facts, for Avhich 
 no reason can be given, except the Avise and be- 
 nevolent and all-poAverful Avill of the Supreme 
 Disposer of all things, Avill still remain, indeed, at- 
 tached to this, as Avell as every other question 
 of human investigation. But so far as Ave proceed, 
 Ave shall feel confident and secure ; and upon those 
 points Avhich transcend our present capacity, or are 
 concealed from our vieAv in the depths of an im- 
 penetrable mystery, Ave must AA'ait for the mani- 
 festations of a brighter Avorld. At present Ave may 
 truly say, Avith reference to our keenest insight into 
 the physical and moral system, as Avell as into the 
 scenes of glory and blessedness hereafter, that " Ave 
 
 K 
 
130 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 see but through a glass darkly." We can do little 
 else than notice a few of the more palpable move- 
 ments, trace the revolutions of the . most superficial 
 wheels, and estimate the relations of a few of the 
 more obvious and approachable springs of the stu- 
 pendous machinery, from the operations of which 
 such astonishing effects continue to evolve them- 
 selves ; but the original and ultimate arrangements, 
 in every department of our inquiries and obser- 
 vations, are removed from us to an immensity of 
 distance, or involved in a complication and intri- 
 cacy of mutual subserviency and adaptation, which 
 renders them wholly imperceptible to om* eye, or 
 utterly baffles our comprehension. We enter upon 
 this part of our investigations with no overweening 
 confidence of complete success, but with an humi- 
 liating sense of the absolute necessity of resting in 
 those few general principles and facts relating to 
 our mental faculties — especially to that, the exercises 
 and operations of which we are noAv preparing to in- 
 vestigate — beyond which, it does not appear to be 
 the privilege of man here below to pass. 
 
 With reference to the exercises of volition, we 
 have represented them as characterized by an elec- 
 tive process — as accompanied with choice or prefer- 
 ence, in opposition to those actions or motions, which 
 are the result of external impulse or mechanical force. 
 That action is unquestionably voluntary, whatever 
 imaginary necessity may belong to it, which is done 
 spontaneously, and is accompanied with a feeling of 
 desire, complacence and satisfaction. As in the 
 functions of life, with which the exercises of volition 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 131 
 
 appear to be \cyj intimately connected, there is a 
 scale of gradations carried on from its lowest mani- 
 festations in vegetable organization and expansion, 
 through the various stages of the zoophytic and loco- 
 motive tribes, until it has arrived at the highest 
 point of perfection, in which it is displayed here on 
 earth; so in the elective process — in those actions, 
 which appear to involve obvious preference, there is a 
 similar order of arrangement. In inanimate nature, 
 we find very frequent instances of operations which 
 bear a very strong analogy, and would seem, in many 
 respects, to be closely allied to the exercises of the 
 human will. We find numerous actions and reactions 
 among material elements of various kinds, which are 
 scarcely explicable upon the mere principles of me- 
 chanical impulse or external power. We witness the 
 most striking effects produced upon each other, by 
 bodies removed to a considerable distance from all 
 possibility of tactual operation or connexion — effects 
 strongly indicating a spontaneity of movement and 
 action correspondent to those results, which flow from 
 the instinctive inclination or the rational will in ani- 
 mate beings. We may consider, therefore, the 
 elective process, like the vital principle, as extending 
 through a long scale — originating where it is scarcely 
 perceptible or determinable, and acting with greater 
 vigour and perfection as it advances, until it has 
 reached its terminating point in intellectual prefer- 
 ence, and the exercise of the liberty of Moral Agency 
 in man. 
 
 It is interesting to traverse this scale with the 
 eye of observation from what we may consider as its 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 commencing point, its lowest extremity, in the elec- 
 tion of simple native tendency — to its loftiest point 
 in the exercise of free and unfettered Moral Agency. 
 Under that modification of preference, which we have 
 called simple tendency, we may rank the whole range 
 of magnetic influences — chemical affinities — material 
 attraction, and the interesting phenomena of crystal- 
 lization. AYho can witness the curious, and, in many 
 instances, utterly inexplicahle effects of magnetism 
 and electricity, without being struck with the very 
 great resemblance which they frequently bear to the 
 functions of conscious volition ? Wlien Ave see the 
 magnet or the magnetized steel attracting and re- 
 pelling, with unaccountable tendency and apparent 
 caprice, objects, with which they do not come in con- 
 tact, and with which they can have no direct com- 
 munication, except through the medium of inter- 
 vening atmosphere or some imperceptible substance, 
 are we not ready to conclude, that there is here an 
 actual expression, both of choice and aversion, as 
 related to either the attracting or the repelling pole ? 
 When again, we see the paper images dance in 
 sportive motions, and raising their uplifted hands 
 under the action of the electric fluid, we can scarcely 
 fail to be impressed Avith the momentary illusion, that 
 here there is a modification of life and volition; and 
 we are ready to think, with John Hunter and his dis- 
 ciples, that the vital principle is very nearly akin, if 
 not absolutely identical, with electricity*. When, in 
 chemistry again, Ave behold the apparent eagerness 
 
 * Vide Abernetuy's Lectures!, Lcct. 6. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 133 
 
 and avidity with which different elements hasten to 
 escape from their present state of combination, and 
 to enter into new alliances, and to form fresh com- 
 pounds — when we see how soon the strongest and 
 most solid plates of iron Avill yield their superficial 
 particles, in order to form an oxide with the oxygen 
 of the air, and the plates of copper and zinc so ra- 
 pidly corroded by the acid in the interstices of the 
 galvanic trough, we feel certain, at least, that there is 
 a very strong display of spontaneous action. The 
 process of crystallization affords likewise a most re- 
 markable specimen of an inherent tendency to choose 
 a particular position and arrangement with respect 
 to other associated component parts. However this 
 curious phenomenon may be attempted to be ex- 
 plained upon principles of mechanism, and by a con- 
 sideration of the peculiar form and structure of the 
 globules, which constitute the crystallized mass, it 
 still remains clear, that there is an inherent and 
 native tendency in those particles to enter into this 
 pecidiar order of combination and juxtaposition. 
 This principle of a spontaneous tendency to attrac- 
 tion or repulsion — this exercise of preference with 
 respect to other objects and surrounding parts, 
 seems, indeed, to pervade the whole system of na- 
 ture. It is this which preserves, in a state of aggre- 
 gation and cohesion, the innumerable particles which 
 constitute the various masses of unorganized matter 
 — it is this, which occasions the solidity of the dia- 
 mond, as well as maintains in a state of loose and 
 more soluble composition, the most brittle or spongy 
 body in nature. It is this quality of an original 
 
134 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 elective tendency to move in a certain direction — to 
 attract towards a certain point, operating on a large 
 and extensive scale, which retains the planets in their 
 orbits, and controls the luminaries of the skies. 
 
 Considering these poii^ts, it seems to be a 
 groundless and altogether inadequate view of matter 
 as such, to regard it as a mere inert substance, solid 
 and extended — destitute of all active power, except 
 a susceptibility of motion from the application of 
 external and foreign force. Matter, indeed, in the 
 first and superficial view of it, may appear a mere 
 mass of quiescent and inactive substance. But it is 
 perfectly obvious, at the same time, on the least 
 consideration, that those heaps of matter, which 
 would appear most motionless and inert, are not by 
 any means in a state of absolute quietude. Some 
 process of combination or decomposition, of repro- 
 duction or decay — either of them equally involving 
 and evincing qualities distinct from, and indeed 
 inconsistent with, absolute inertness — will be found, 
 though perhaps slowly and imperceptibly, to be still 
 carrying on. It is saying nothing in reply to this 
 remark, to afiirm, that these changes are produced 
 by the action of other bodies — that iron, for ex- 
 ample, is oxidated by the action of atmospheric air ; 
 for, is it not at once obvious, that an active power is 
 attributed in this very instance to what is in itself 
 nothing more than a body ? Air, even in its highest 
 state of fluidity and elasticity — na}-, the inconceiv- 
 ably tenuous aither, to the operation of which some 
 of the followers of Newton ascribe the phenomena 
 of gravitation, is 'as much and as perfectly matter, 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 135 
 
 fis the dullest clod of earth. And if matter is to l)e 
 considered as universally and essentially an inert and 
 inactive substance, how is it possible that its ele- 
 ments, when in a state of peculiar arrangement and 
 juxtaposition, should exhibit motive phenomena, and 
 be attended Avith unquestionable evidences of active 
 energy ? AYhen we look around us, and 
 
 See through this air, this ocean and this earth, 
 All matter quick and bursting into birth — 
 
 when we contemplate the various effects which are 
 produced through the sole agency of matter in its 
 different modifications of operation, such as those 
 of magnetism, electricity, deflagration, and attrac- 
 tion, how is it possible that we should maintain a 
 notion so groundless and absurd, as that matter is 
 nothing more than a mere aggregate of inert par- 
 ticles, utterly destitute of every quality of motivity 
 and action? AYhether the powers, indeed, pro- 
 ductive of these remarkable effects, essentially and 
 inseparably belong to matter, so as in a manner to 
 form a part of it, or whether they be qualities and 
 energies superinduced upon its original substance, 
 is what we can no more determine, than we can 
 determine whether thought and volition be essential 
 constituents of the substance called mind. All thnt 
 we can positively know is, that as mind in some 
 circumstances speculates, wills, loves, hopes, fears, 
 and hates, so matter in certain circumstances, and 
 in some of its fomis, attracts, repels, combines, dis- 
 solves, precipitates, electrifies and burns, without 
 the intervention of any other force than that which 
 results from its native capabilities. And the pecu- 
 
136 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 liar direction, in which these original or superinduced 
 energies act, seems to occupy the lowest rank in that 
 Elective Process, in that graduated scale of prefer- 
 ence, by which the spontaneous actions of all beings 
 are regulated, and which is exhibited in its highest 
 order in the liberty and moral agency of rational 
 and accountable intelligences. 
 
 It may here be expedient to observe, that the 
 preceding observations upon the inherent activity of 
 matter, have nothing whatever to do with the system 
 of materialism, as related to the human mind. 
 Activity or motive power and sensation, accompanied 
 with a faculty of volition, are phenomena perfectly 
 distinct from, though strikingly analogous to one 
 another. It would, therefore, be an utter paralogism 
 to reason from the first of these phenomena, unto 
 either of the two last. We are of opinion, that 
 motivity or energetic power, requiring only to be 
 called into action by a suitable arrangement or collo- 
 cation of parts, and to be accounted for only by 
 considering it an effect of the original design of the 
 Deity, pervades all nature. Whether this energy 
 exists in matter, as consisting of living monads, 
 according to the notion of Leibnitz; or whether, 
 according to other systems of philosophy, it be the 
 result of a subtile ethereal fluid, pervading all matter ; 
 or an immediate quality belonging to the very being 
 of it ; or whether, as others suppose, it be a con- 
 tinued exercise of the direct power of God himself, 
 we have no means of ascertaining. But tliat such 
 phenomena do evolve themselves in the operations 
 of simple matter, as to give evident indication of a 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 137 
 
 peculiarity of tcnclency, strikingly similar to the 
 exercises of volition in sentient and intellectual 
 beings, is unquestionable. The illustrious Kepler, 
 indeed, went so far as to consider " the globe itself 
 as possessed of living faculties. According to hiin 
 it contains a circulating vital fluid. A process of 
 assimilation goes on in it as well as in animal bodies. 
 Every particle of it is alive." Without, however, 
 proceeding to the length of this profound but fanciful 
 philosopher, we deem it unquestional^le, that the 
 constituent elements of the material world are very 
 far from being a mere congeries of inert and torpid 
 particles, but that they possess, when placed in suit- 
 able combination and arrangement, a capability of 
 motion and action closely analogous to a principle of 
 vitality. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Sensitive Preference — The Next Stage in the Elective 
 Process. 
 
 'Next to the act of simple Tendency, manifesting 
 itself in the operations of material nature, and 
 occupying the lowest extremity in the scale of the 
 elective process, which we have mentioned, is to be 
 regarded that of sensitive Preference, peculiar to 
 sentient beings. We have already specified many 
 instances of evident, though unconscious choice in 
 the exercise of the inherent powers of material 
 agents. But there are other preferences of a higher 
 order, exercised by other classes of beings, and 
 
138 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 accompanied with the very important circumstance 
 of a lively desire or emotion, but still coming short 
 of what we usually mean, when we speak of volition 
 as an exercise of the faculties of rational and intel- 
 ligent agents. It may, indeed, be difficult to deter- 
 mine the line of demarcation which separates mere 
 sensitive propensity from a preference or predilection, 
 guided by some reasoning views of the desirableness 
 of the object preferred. It woidd be difficidt to 
 decide at what link in the great chain of animated 
 creation, blind impidse, guided by no other principle 
 than a strong instinctive emotion, ends, and where a 
 considerate view of the advantages connected with 
 the attainment of the object, to which the active 
 energies are directed, begins to blend its influence. 
 Between the propelling principles themselves, hoAv- 
 ever, there is a very clear and obvious difference, and 
 they may unquestionably act quite apart from each 
 other, and even occasionally in direct opposition, 
 when both are capable of being exercised. In man, 
 for example, in whose character the exercises of 
 volition are susceptible of influence, from both 
 quarters, — that of mere sensitive feeling and a 
 rational view of his best interests, how frequently 
 do Ave find these grounds and principles of choice 
 militate against each other! How often lias the 
 scene, so graphically described by Persius, been 
 realized in human life, Avhcn the views of interest 
 suggested by the calculating poAvers of the mind 
 urge to one line of pursuit, and passion dictates 
 another. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 139 
 
 Mane, piger, stertis? Surge, inqnit Avaritia; cja 
 
 Surge: Negas? Instat; surge, inquit. Non (jueo. Surge, 
 
 Et quid agam 1 Rogitas 1 Saperdas advche pouto, 
 
 Castoreum, stuppas, Lebeuuni, thus, lubrica Coa. 
 
 Tolle rccens primus piper e sitientc caraclo. 
 
 Verte aliquid. Jura. Sed Jupiter audiet. Elieu ! 
 
 Bare, regustatum digito terebrare salinum 
 
 Contentus perages, si vivere cum Jove tendis. 
 
 Sat. V. 132—140. 
 
 The whole range of animated natnre abounds with 
 exhibitions of that species of elective ijropensity 
 which Ave are now considering. Indeed, it may be 
 doubted, whether the whole class of what are called 
 instinctive feelings and habits, as well as most of the 
 unconscious motions of the muscular and nervous 
 systems in animals — we mean unconscious, so far as 
 that there is no deliberate exercise of the mental 
 aj)prehension, every time such an action takes place — 
 may not be ranged under this head. In the selection 
 of their food, in the construction of their habitations, 
 in the dexterous application of their various means of 
 defence against violence, and of offensive assault ; in 
 the remarkable provision which they make against a 
 period of inactivity and want, and in the consummate 
 skill which they display in the arrangement of their 
 stores, in their care of their young, and in the asto- 
 nishing sagacity, tenderness and affection with which 
 they adapt the whole system of treatment, and watch 
 over the course of their education, animals of different 
 ranks and species evince indications of cJioice accom- 
 panied Avith tokens of feeling, Avhich it Avould be as 
 absurd to attribute to mere mechanical action, or 
 simple tendency, as has sometimes been maintained, 
 on the one hand, as it would probably be, on the 
 
140 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 other, to ascribe them to the suggestions of a delibe- 
 rative and designing mind. In other views of their 
 nature, this rank of creatures by no means appears to 
 be endued with a mind capable of embracing within 
 the sphere of its reasonings and combinations, the 
 whole chain of relations and subserviences — of causes 
 and effects — of principles and consequences, that the 
 work in which they are engaged, in order to be planned 
 with such unerring accuracy, would unquestionably 
 appear to involve. In the mechanism of the human 
 frame also — in the disposition of its parts, and in the 
 exercise of its powers, there are various actions which 
 almost incessantly take place under the influence of 
 mere sensation, without any immediate and percept- 
 ible intervention of the rational or intellectual facul- 
 ties. All such modes of instinctive operation are to 
 be considered as so many exemplifications of that 
 sensitive preference, which occupies, as it were, a 
 middle space in the elective process, between that of 
 unsentient nature, and that of rational volition. And 
 to the consideration of this last, as standing upper- 
 most in that graduated scale of preference, Avhich the 
 phenomena of nature seem to present, we shall next 
 proceed. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Rational Choice. 
 
 The subject of our present investigation, therefore, 
 we may dci^ncBdfiondJ Choice — a preference founded 
 upon, and iniiuenced by, mot ices suggested by the 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 141 
 
 understanding' in the exercise of its delil)erative and 
 judicial functions. To this mode of exercising choice, 
 we usually give the name of Volition; and the faculty, 
 Avhich is considered as capacitating the mind for this 
 peculiar modification of feeling, is called the TT7//. 
 This species of elective agency is peculiar to man 
 alone, of all the creatures with the functions of which 
 Ave are acquainted, as an intelligent and responsible 
 being. It is, therefore, justly regarded as the foun- 
 dation of the Avhole system of the liberty of moral 
 agency. ¥or, although the elective preferences al- 
 ready noticed may, in a certain sense, be considered 
 as free, inasmuch as they are not the effects of exter- 
 nal force, or the results of a necessitating constraint, 
 in which the electing subjects exerted no inherent 
 poAver or quality of their OAvn, yet they were not free 
 in such a sense as to be the ground of responsibility 
 and moral agency. This latter, and by far the most 
 important, species of liberty, necessarily requires 
 reason and intellect as a guiding and controlling 
 poAver. What then is that principle or combination 
 of principles, Avhich essentially constitutes the liberty 
 of moral agency? And hoAv far, within Avhat limita- 
 tions, and upon Avhat grounds, may we regard man in 
 the present state, as enjoying this distinguishing pri- 
 vilege ? These are questions of no ordinary import- 
 ance ; and Avith a view to the solution of them, so far 
 as Ave have reason to think that they are capable of 
 being solved, Ave would lay doAvn tAvo or three first 
 principles, Avhich are essential to the exercise of ra- 
 tional volition and the enjoyment of moral liberty. 
 
142 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 The Possession of Life — an essential REauisiTE to Moral 
 Liberty. 
 
 1. We would lay it down as a first principle — as an 
 indispensable requisite to the exercise of rational 
 volition and the enjoyment of moral liberty, that the 
 subject of this species of agency be possessed of 
 Life. We are of opinion, indeed, that the possession 
 of this peculiar principle in man is more closely and 
 necessarily connected with the functions of the Will 
 than has generally been noticed. It has already been 
 observed, that so far as we are capable of tracing the 
 analogy of this faculty, through the inferior ranks of 
 being, it invariably implies the existence of motive 
 energy as naturally inherent in, or divinely attached 
 to, the beings in which it is manifested. The strength 
 and capabilities of this power, as fundamental to 
 the elective process, must obviously be correspon- 
 dent to the rank which its subject was intended to 
 occupy in the scale of nature, and to the peculiar 
 mode in which its acts of preference are to be exer- 
 cised. The chemical or magnetic energy, for exam- 
 ple, in the exercise of which bodies attract or repel 
 each other, sink into the embrace of eacli other in 
 the recognition of an original tendency to affinity or 
 combination, or rapidly decompose in evaporation or 
 combustion, is something very different, at least in 
 its effects, if not in its real nature, from that calm 
 display of vital activity, \s\\\c\\ is no less clearly 
 displayed in the progressive developemcnt, growth 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 143 
 
 and organization of the vegetable system. In its 
 latter form it may be wholly extinct, after which 
 it may exert itself in the former with increased 
 vigour. Life, indeed, in animals and vegetables, is 
 the grand antagonist to that process of active decom- 
 position, which, subsequently to its extinction or its 
 destruction in that mode of its exercise, invariably 
 takes place. But different as the life of vegetation 
 and organization may be from those other manifesta- 
 tions of active energy, which nature, as a system of 
 chemical elements, universally displays, the difference 
 between these is by no means so great as that by 
 which they are both separated from sensitive or 
 animal life. And in proportion to the difference in 
 the nature or developement of the vital principle, in 
 these classes of being is the difference, which marks 
 their respective agencies in the exercises of prefer- 
 ence or volition. The volitions of an animal, even 
 of the lowest tribe, for instance, owing to the super- 
 induction of sensation to mere locomotive power and 
 plastic energy, are as superior to the physical tenden- 
 cies and elective preferences of the various objects 
 of inanimate nature — using the term inanimate as 
 simply designative of the destitution of a capacity of 
 thought and feeling — as the life of the former is 
 higher and more extensive in its capabilities than 
 that of the latter. 
 
 In tracing the scale of nature, we find that every 
 being, that has life or active energy, requiring only 
 a suitable arrangement of circumstances to be called 
 into exercise, has also native tendencies, which are 
 either actual volitions, or are obviously analogous 
 
144 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 to volitions, and can, indeed, be hardly regarded 
 otlicnvise than as modifications of choice. And if 
 we consider any form of being utterly destitute of 
 this principle of vitality in its largest and most com- 
 prehensive sense, it is impossible to conceive such a 
 being as capable, in any degree, or in any imaginable 
 modification, of exerting a will, or manifesting an 
 inclination. It seems, therefore, inevitably to follow, 
 that as, without life in some one or other of its gra- 
 duated modifications, there can be no exercise of 
 choice — no display of native propensity swayed by 
 external circumstances, so where life exists, there 
 cannot fail to be tendencies, rising, in co-ordinate 
 gradations, towards rational volition and the exercise 
 of moral agency as manifested in the character of 
 man, with the endowments and capacities, by which 
 the subject is distinguished. Although, therefore, 
 life — viewed simply as a principle of motivity and 
 energy — does not involve the exercise of rational 
 volition and the responsibility of moral liberty, yet 
 the latter mode of agency does unquestionably imply 
 the possession of the former in a higher order of na- 
 tive capabilities. The life, by which man is capaci- 
 tated for the enjoyment of a rational and accountable 
 liberty, is, indeed, transcendently superior to that 
 principle which qualifies a chemical element to com- 
 bine with another element, and to that higher 
 principle, which causes a vegetable to grow and to 
 acquire a regularly-organized form ; to that even, 
 which instinctively prompts or sensitively urges the 
 various ranks of the lower animals to choose one 
 species of food in preference to another, and to exert 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 1 45 
 
 the numberless propensities, of which they are ()])\\- 
 ouslj susceptible. Let us not, therefore, ])e sup- 
 posed to confound man as a being endued with the 
 power of volition with other orders of creatures, 
 which manifest, indeed, a similar, but by no means 
 identical, susceptibility, Avhile we maintain the uni- 
 versality of the vital principle in some of its endlessly 
 diversified forms. 
 
 The fact is, that the animating principle by 
 which man is qualified to be a subject of volition is 
 as different from the same principle, as it exists in 
 other creatures, as his responsibilities are greater, 
 his capacities of enjoyment superior, and his desti- 
 nies more sublime. It is quite absurd, therefore, 
 to suppose that any specific circumstance connected 
 with life in its lower and less perfect forms, can lead 
 to any legitimate conclusion respecting the same 
 principle in an order of nature, in which qualities 
 and endowments totally distinct and incomparably 
 superior are found to belong to it. We have found 
 that a principle of activity analogous to life, may 
 inhere in matter, in a manner completely independ- 
 ent of structure and organization of parts, which ar- 
 rangement, indeed, is considered essential to it in its 
 form of a vegetative vitality. How little reason is 
 there to conclude then — ^liow contrary, indeed, to all 
 analogy is it to suppose, that in its higher rank of a 
 rational and intellectual, as well as a sensitive and 
 plastic principle, it should ever be annihilated, or 
 cease to exist. 
 
 The connexion of life with the faculty of volition 
 and the functions of moral agency in man is evident 
 
 L 
 
146 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 from the order of liis creation and his constitution 
 as an accountable being. When the material frame 
 had been completed — when the organic structure 
 had been prepared for the reception of its future 
 inmate, and for those actions which it was designed 
 subordinately and instrumentally to perform, it is 
 said, that " God breathed into his nostrils the breath 
 of life, and man became a living soul." It was by 
 this process of animation, that man became capable 
 of volition, and the fact of his having been made 
 after the image of God would seem prominently to 
 imply and to hold out this among other important 
 points, that he now received a faculty of originating 
 and directing his own motions, analogous to that 
 which is possessed by Jehovah himself, and by the 
 due government of which he might secure his own 
 happiness and well being. This view of a delegated 
 and communicated power does not in the slightest 
 degree interfere with the absolute dependence of 
 man upon his Maker; for it affirms nothing as 
 possessed by the creature, which he did not imme- 
 diately receive from the Creator, and some discre- 
 tionary power he must have received in order to con- 
 stitute him a moral agent ; otherwise, how could he 
 be accountable for the abuse of what he had never 
 received ? Life, therefore, may be regarded as a 
 first principle — as a fundamental and indispensable 
 re(|uisitc to a moral agent, to a being capable of 
 exerting rational volition. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 147 
 
 Section V. 
 
 A Susceptibility of Enjoyalent and Suffering — the next 
 Fundamental Principle to Rational Liberty. 
 
 2. As another fundamental principle of rational 
 liberty, as a ground -without which it cannot be exer- 
 cised, we would mention a susceptibility of Enjoy- 
 ment and Suffering — associated with an order of cir- 
 cumstances' from which the one or the other would 
 necessarily rise, from the direction which the faculty 
 of volition gave to the character and conduct. 
 Without such a capability of painful or pleasurable 
 feeling superadded to mere life, and without a state 
 of things adapted to call it into action, there can 
 be no just and adequate ground for the exercise of 
 such a power as that of volition. "Without a view of 
 happiness in some of its varied forms, as connected 
 with a certain order of pursuits, as appointed to 
 arise from a certain line of conduct followed under 
 circumstances, the multiplicity of whose combinations 
 afforded an opportunity of verging into a great 
 variety of directions, there would be no intelligible 
 ground of preference, in which the very essence of 
 volition consists. !N'or is it enough that the subject 
 of volition should be merely susceptible of happiness. 
 It is equally necessary to the due exercise of this 
 faculty, that, as a moral and responsible agent, he 
 should be capable of a sensation of pain and suffer- 
 ing. We find, indeed, that even the lower animals, 
 whose faculty of combination does not extend far to 
 the future or the past, and, therefore, fails to qualify 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 them for moral agents, yet so far as they are at all 
 capable of exerting a volmitary choice, and of being 
 made the subjects of discipline, are entirely urged 
 and swayed and controlled in their preferences by 
 this very susceptibility. That creatures of this order 
 have a faculty of willing one thing rather than ano- 
 ther is unquestionable, and that they are capable of 
 being trained up by a system of discipline, directed 
 to their natural capacities of pleasure and pain, to a 
 most extraordinary degree of docility, sagacity, and 
 tractableness, is equally undeniable. And avc find 
 that, in every system of human education, which has 
 for its main object the regulation and control of the 
 yet wayward and imsettled tendencies of the AVill, it 
 is the appeal by varied means to this same original 
 susceptibility, which constitutes the ground-work of 
 the process, and gives energy to every other subordi- 
 nate means. 
 
 We are so thoroughly convinced of the absolute 
 necessity of this order of character to the exercise 
 of volition, and to moral agency, as combined with 
 that exercise, that we cannot conceive the higliest 
 rank of created beings otherwise than thus circum- 
 stanced. We are, indeed, but little acquainted with 
 the economy of angels ; our general view of their 
 character and condition is a floating notion, that 
 they are an order of beings endowed with most 
 sublime and transcendant powers — possessed of the 
 most perfect and unsullied purity — glowing with the 
 most intense and fervent love to that great and 
 glorious Being, in the rays of whose resplendent 
 light, and in the warmth of whose overflowing be- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 149 
 
 neficencc, they dwell in the fulness of dcliglit, and 
 thus eternally removed from all liability to pain or 
 sorroAv. That this may be as clear and correct a 
 view of their actual state, as we are capable of 
 forming with our present imperfect information, we 
 may, indeed, be willing* to concede; but if we are 
 to regard them as moral agents, dependent for the 
 continuance of their felicity upon the continuance 
 of their obedience, their loyalty, and their affec- 
 tion; if we are to view them as a race of intel- 
 ligent and rational beings, SAvayed by motives, and 
 enjoying the highest possible privilege which beings 
 of this order seem capable of enjoying — that of 
 unshackled liberty in the choice of their chief good, 
 we can by no means imagine that there is any 
 other impossibility of suffering connected with their 
 character, than their confirmed and established 
 choice of what they know to be most conducive to 
 their happiness. We have no ground whatever to 
 think otherwise than that their clear and distinct 
 view of what would be the inevitable effect upon 
 their happiness of an opposite line of conduct — a 
 view awfully confirmed by the dismal fate of their 
 fallen companions, is one of the strongest and most 
 efficient means of their inviolable and undeviating 
 attachment to the right. We do not know but that 
 the overthrow of the apostate host was designed, in 
 the wise and beneficent purposes of Jehovah, to 
 operate in the Avay of a salutary warning to the 
 higher orders of the intelligent universe, and to 
 serve the purpose of a powerful link, by which to 
 fasten them in firmer loyalty to his throne, a link 
 
150 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 which, in conjunction with other principles of attach- 
 ment, would be attended with all the certainty, 
 Avithout any of the galling and paralyzing bondage 
 of physical necessity and fate. The very fact of 
 the apostacy, at least, proves, beyond all doubt, that 
 in the history of the angelical economy, there has 
 been a period in which these exalted beings were 
 placed in a state of probation, and subject to a 
 system of discipline, administered by rewards and 
 punishments, similar to those which are now designed 
 to operate upon the character and conduct of man. 
 In the case of those who failed to stand the test 
 of that awful and important trial, we know what 
 has been the result; and the reward of those who 
 maintained their fidelity — of the Abdiels in that 
 arduous combat with temptation — is not, we may 
 presume, any such elevation into an absolute neces- 
 sitij of continued obedience, as would in any degree 
 interfere with their liberty, or neutralize the effect 
 of those motives which arise from their natural sus- 
 ceptibility of happiness or misery; for this would 
 close the noblest channel of the felicity of a rational 
 and intelligent being. We can see no ground for 
 the assertion of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, therefore, 
 that "liberty of will" is a circumstance peculiar to 
 man in his present state, being a proof of infirmity, 
 inasmuch as it is impossible that good or evil angels 
 should for once deliberate between good and evil, 
 they being severally determined to good and evil. 
 This statement seems founded upon a wrong view 
 of liberty, as if it was any thing like indifference to 
 cither side of the question proposed, or a nearly 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 151 
 
 equal measure of attachment to Loth sides; whereas, 
 in fact, liberty requires nothing more, as we shall 
 hereafter show, than that the judgment should clearly 
 Ijronounce one line of conduct most conducive to 
 happiness, and that there be a freedom unbiassed 
 and uncontrolled by any foreign or inherent influ- 
 ence to pursue that line. xVll the necessity, there- 
 fore, that can be consistently supposed to bind an- 
 gelic beings to purity, loyalty, and obedience, is the 
 distinct and unhesitating apprehension which they 
 have of the supreme and transcendent excellency 
 of that blessed Being, in whose presence they expe- 
 rience such fulness of joy, — combined unquestion- 
 ably with a spontaneous love of moral purity and 
 excellency. They are under no other necessity than 
 that which arises from their exquisite susceptibility 
 to all the benignant and rapturous emanations, which 
 continually flow forth from Him, to cheer and delight 
 those who are admitted into his blissful fellowship, 
 accompanied, doubtless, with the consciousness, when- 
 ever the reflection presents itself to their minds, of 
 the extreme wretchedness of those who had rebelled, 
 and must always be the doom of those who rebel, 
 against his majesty. And what can there be in all 
 this to interfere with the "liberty of will," beyond 
 what, in a lower degree, indeed, may, upon the same 
 principle, be supposed to interfere with the liberty 
 of will of every good man, whose habits are in any 
 measure conformed to piety and virtue, even in the 
 present state. We seem, therefore, upon the most 
 enlarged view of the government of God, to be jus- 
 tified in laying it down as one of the first axioms of 
 
152 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 liberty and moral agency, that there be a suscepti- 
 bility of enjoyment and suffering belonging to those 
 who are the responsible and accountable subjects of 
 that agency. 
 
 It may be worthy of consideration, whether this 
 view of the ground-work of liberty, responsibility, 
 and moral agency, as combined in the character of 
 man, may not throw some light upon, and go a con- 
 siderable way in accounting for the origin of evil 
 as necessarily connected Avith suffering. The ques- 
 tion TToOev TO KUKov? — whcncc is evil — is one which 
 has puzzled and embarrassed philosophers and moral 
 investigators. Heathen and Christian, in every age of 
 the world; and it may be one of those phenomena, 
 which must always continue mysteries, or idtimate 
 and unaccountable facts to man here below. In 
 moral science, however, he who teaches to analyze 
 into simpler principles a more complicated fact, or, 
 by a process of generalization, applies to the solu- 
 tion of a great variety of problems a principle, which 
 lies deeper in the system, and nearer to the founda- 
 tion of the whole, contributes as really though ever 
 so humbly, to the discovery of truth in his own line 
 of investigation, as he who decomposes a chemical 
 substance into elements, which had never before been 
 known, or demonstrates such relations of quantity as 
 hitherto had escaped observation. We inquire not 
 whether the preceding view of an essential requisite 
 to the exercise of rational liberty, and to moral 
 agency, fully explains and accounts for the existence 
 of evil, so as to make it perfectly accordant with the 
 views generally entertained of the divine justice and 
 
VriTII LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 153 
 
 benevolence. But we submit whether it does not 
 at least carry this awful phenomenon of the divine 
 government somewhat more deeply into our nature, 
 and does not mingle its possible existence more with 
 the very essence of moral agency than has generally 
 been considered. If a susceptibility of pain, as well 
 as of pleasure, associated with an order of circum- 
 stances, from a peculiar combination of which the one 
 as well as the other may arise, lies at the very foun- 
 dation of rational liberty and responsible agency, it 
 follows that a possibility of evil is an absolute and 
 indispensable part of a moral and probationary 
 scheme. Penal evil, as the only alternative of a 
 wrong choice, or of an abuse of liberty, seems to 
 constitute the very essence of the system. To sup- 
 pose Jehovah, therefore, in the exercise of his sove- 
 reignty, to prevent, as He unquestionably might do 
 in any particular instance, the introduction or the 
 existence of that, the entrance of which as the only 
 possible alternative of an abuse of discretionar}'' 
 power, constituted the antagonist muscle of the moral 
 frame, would be to suppose him to act in immediate 
 and direct opposition to the very system of moral 
 government which he had established. If the appoint- 
 ment of a moral system be capable of producing the 
 greatest and noblest happiness, and if the suscep- 
 tibility of suffering be so necessarily connected with 
 that plan, as that without such a possibility the 
 scheme cannot be maintained, and would leave no 
 adequate ground for the exercises of preference and 
 volition, then how is it inconsistent with the bene- 
 volence of the Deity, rightly understood, that He 
 
154 THE FxVCULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 should not sovereignly prevent that, the arbitrary and 
 universal prevention of which would utterly destroy 
 and neutralize the very principles of the economy 
 which He had instituted ? The capability of penal 
 suffering, and the absolute necessity of its introduc- 
 tion as the only alternative of disobedience, seems 
 as much an inherent quality of a system, which is to 
 govern rational creatures, through the instrumen- 
 tality of motives, as it is a laAv of force, that a body, 
 which is driven by two impulses, meeting each other 
 at right angles, should move in the diagonal of a 
 square. "Wliatever superficial notions we may form 
 of the benevolence and the equity of Jehovah, and 
 whatever tasks we may impose upon these attributes 
 in order to force them into a consistency with our 
 notions, it is not on a deeper and more deliberate 
 estimate of the case, a requirement, which can be 
 fairly demanded of these sublime perfections, that 
 God should absolutely annihilate a system so bene- 
 ficial in its general bearings, and that He should 
 deprive so many of the transcendent happiness which 
 it secured to them, and which it afforded to all 
 the opportunity of securing, because some would 
 choose to deprive themselves of that happiness, and 
 voluntarily take the alternative of misery. To expect 
 happiness as the invariable and necessary result of a 
 moral government, would evidently be requiring an 
 impossibility. The possible existence of evil is essen- 
 tial to such a government: — its actual existence is 
 an effect, which Jehovah was bound neither in justice 
 nor goodness to prevent; because such sovereign 
 prevention would, at once, undermine a sclicme. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 165 
 
 from wliicli there doubtless will ultimately flow a vast 
 preponderance of good. 
 
 A scheme of considerable jDlausibility and of very 
 high pretensions was advanced at the commencement 
 of this century, and developed at great length by the 
 Rev. Dr. Williams, professing to explain the Origin 
 of 'Evil, and to remove all the difficulties of the 
 question, upon the principle of the natural and essen- 
 tial defect ihility of the creature. To that tendency 
 to degenerate, and to fall away, which is inseparable 
 from the nature of a created being, as such, and the 
 effect of which tendency can be obviated only by the 
 communication of sovereign aid from the Creator, 
 the name of metaphysical evil is given — an evil 
 apparently innocent in itself, but which, left to its 
 own course, will inevitably result in moral and physi- 
 cal evil. And the way, in which this scheme attempts 
 to reconcile the actual existence of misery with the 
 justice and benevolence of the Deity, is to suppose, 
 that those who were originally by necessity defec- 
 tihle beings, and subjects of metaphysical evil, had 
 no rigJit, upon principles of equity, to expect any 
 such sovereign interposition on the part of Jehovah 
 to prevent the moral evil that would otherwise un- 
 avoidably result from their very condition as crea- 
 tures. 
 
 It is surprising that a man of Dr. Williams's un- 
 doubted piety and good sense could bring himself 
 seriously to believe, that such a view of the original 
 state of man, even if correct, could solve the grand 
 per]^)lexity, with which this subject is embarrassed. 
 It is wonderful, that this excellent individual did not 
 
156 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 at once perceive, that liis sclieme did not in any de- 
 gree remove or even alleviate the difficulty, but only 
 threw it back one step, and involved it, perhaps, in a 
 little greater obscurity. For, allowing the notion of 
 metaphysical evil as identical with the inherent de- 
 fectibility of a creature, of which Professor Stampfer 
 and others speak, by what process of metaphysical, 
 physical, or moral chemistry does this original and 
 unavoidable defect of nature become transmuted into 
 crime, and an equitable ground of suffering? To 
 view sin as a defect, indeed, or as the result of a 
 defect, which could only be obviated by sovereign 
 power and grace, and yet icas not in all cases obvi- 
 ated, instead of relieving the difficulty, seems rather 
 to increase it. What is the real difference between 
 creating a being, which, from the original impotence 
 of its nature, independently of any direct fault of 
 AYill, would evolve misery, if Ave may so speak, out of 
 the elements of its own existence, as combined with 
 the circumstances in which it was placed; and creat- 
 ing him at once subject to suffering, without any 
 such progressive evolution of inherent principles ? 
 The difference is no other than that of laying a train 
 of greater or less complication, and that of imme- 
 diately and directly applying the igneous spark; of 
 which combustion, in either case, would be the neces- 
 sary and inevitable effect. 
 
 AVe tremble, lest we should use unbecoming 
 terms, or employ unworthy similitudes even in the 
 exposure of an erroneous scheme, Mhich is so closely 
 connected and intertwined with the character and 
 conduct of Him, whose justice is unimpeachable. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 157 
 
 M'liose purity is without a stain, and uhosc benevo- 
 lence is, doubtless, commensurate with the universe, 
 which He has made. But it is difficult, without 
 incurring such danger, to evince the utter inadequacy 
 of a theory of such bold assumption to account for 
 what it professes completely to explain, — its futility 
 as an instrument of " vindicating the ways of God to 
 man," and the inexplicable confusion of metaphysical 
 and moral, and subsequently of natural evil, of mis- 
 fortune and of blameworthiness, of impotence and 
 criminality, which it involves. 
 
 But although this scheme may be useless, and no 
 other perhaps can fully clear up the difficulties and 
 embarrassments of the divine government, as con- 
 nected with the origin and operations of evil, any 
 more than the system of Copernicus and l^ewton can 
 carry us beyond a certain point in the explication of 
 the phenomena of the material universe, or that of 
 Locke can unfold to us all the mysteries of the 
 human understanding, yet whatever view of our na- 
 ture as living and voluntary beings has a tendency 
 to withdraw the sufferings to which we are exposed 
 from every thing that may be deemed arbitrary, or 
 even sovereign in the purposes of Jehovah, and to 
 attach them in the form of a general law to the very 
 essence of things, supposing these things to exist, 
 must certainly be considered a step in advance, and 
 so far a relief to what may still be acknowledged to 
 press heavily upon our feeble faculties, and to require 
 much simplicity of faith, much humility of mind, to 
 bear with the submission which becomes us. If an 
 
158 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 original susceptibility of pain, and an actual suffering 
 of pain, in case of a voluntary abuse of discretionary 
 power conferred, enters into the very nature and 
 essence of a moral agent, it seems to follow that the 
 possibility of evil is involved in the very existence of 
 living beings capable of exercising a Will, so that 
 the alternative is between the non-existence of such 
 beings, and the possibility of the existence of evil; 
 and whether the existence of unnumbered hosts of 
 intelligent and exalted creatures, all capable of the 
 most exquisite enjoyment, or the original abstinence 
 from the creation of such beings, because some of 
 them would choose to render their existence a curse 
 rather than a blessing, were more accordant with 
 such views as we are warranted from nature and re- 
 velation to form of the justice and benevolence of 
 the Deity, it surely cannot be a matter of doubt. 
 In order to square the conduct of Jehovah, whether 
 positive or permissive, with any unauthorized or in- 
 adequate idea, which we may have formed of these 
 attributes, we surely are not justified in imposing 
 upon him a task, which involves impossibility or 
 absurdity, l^ov is it wise in us to embarrass our- 
 selves with difficulties, which may arise in a great 
 measure from our error in supposing his character to 
 be formed of such a benevolence as is only concerned 
 in the prevention of suffering, while, in fact, it em- 
 braces other attributes equally essential to his per- 
 fection, though by no means destructive of that 
 sublime and lovely quality. It is a true and pro- 
 found remark of Bishop Butler, that the character of 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 159 
 
 the Deity, so far as we are capable of ascertaining^ it, 
 is not that of mere benevolence. We should do well 
 also to recollect the saying of the poet, that 
 
 A God all mercy is a God unjust. 
 
 Section YI. 
 
 An invariable Desire of the greater apparent Good 
 
 ESSENTIAL TO MoRAL LiBERTY. 
 
 3. We would state as another essential ground of 
 the exercises of volition, that the subject of those 
 exercises should be so formed, and have his sus- 
 ceptibilities so regulated, as to have an invariahle 
 desire and preference of the Greater Good, when 
 presented to the view. This is indeed a natural 
 result of the circumstance immediately preceding. 
 If there be a susceptibility of enjoyment and suffer- 
 ing which must, in their causes, be identified with 
 good and evil, it is obvious that in most circum- 
 stances they must be varied in every possible pro- 
 portion. Good and evil can rarely be considered 
 purely and entirely such in any case. A lesser evil 
 may be relatively a good, and, in the same manner, 
 a lesser good, contrasted with a higher and nobler 
 form of good, may be a serious evil. In a state of 
 things, therefore, in which these elements are asso- 
 ciated and frequently blended with each other in 
 endless and embarrassing combination, the subject of 
 volition would be bewildered in continual difficulty 
 and doubt, and would hardly ever come to any deter- 
 minate point in the exercises of his Will, unless there 
 
IGO THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 was in him a principle, wliicli instinctively directed 
 him to the choice of that ol)ject, which presented itself 
 to him in the light of a superior advantage. AVe 
 mean not that he must always, as a matter of course, 
 choose what is absolutely the greater good. But 
 there must he, in his nature, a principle which in- 
 clines him to the choice of that which, at the moment 
 of contemplation, at least, appears to promise the 
 more exquisite gratification, or the more valuable 
 good. It is this comparative estimate of different, 
 and not unfrequently of conflicting claims, indeed, 
 which calls the preferring faculty into exercise, 
 though it is by no means necessary that a regular 
 and formal comparison should be instituted every 
 time that the Will is to give its direction to the 
 conduct. In the common concerns of life, the great 
 line in which it is most advantageous that the course 
 of action should flow, is marked with such clearness, 
 and universally recognized as so certain, and con- 
 sequently has become so habitual, that any attempt 
 at balancing interests of this kind would be altogether 
 needless. 
 
 But in the first decisions of the Will, or in cir- 
 cumstances of a new and difficult nature, there must 
 always be a latent, if not a palpable and open 
 algebraic process of calculating the plus and the 
 minus of good expected to be enjoyed from the 
 respective candidates for preference and superior 
 regard. Volition or willing, indeed, is more an act 
 of mind yielding to this superior claim, and recog- 
 nizing its legitimate demand to attention or pursuit, 
 than any particular j^ower or facuJty distinctly 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. IGl 
 
 existing in the mind. It is tliat determination of 
 the judgment, frequently accompanied with a strong 
 feeling of the heart, which tells in clear and intelli- 
 gible language, that such an oljject, or such a line 
 of conduct, is that which has most aptitude to give 
 happiness, either with respect to liveliness or per- 
 manence, or perhaps to both. When the mind by 
 any means has been brought to this state, it may 
 truly be said to will or to prefer that thing which 
 it thus represents to itself as most desirable, and to 
 the immediate enjoyment or pursuit of which it 
 excites the other principles of the character. It is 
 on this view of superior desirableness that the whole 
 system of volition is built, and if w^e could conceive 
 a being possessed of life, and of a susceptibility of 
 happiness and misery, and yet, by some strange 
 formation of character, destitute of the inclination 
 of which we now speak, we can see no steady nor 
 adequate grounds upon which such an one should 
 exercise his volitions. 
 
 Section YII. 
 
 The Prerogative of Reason, in the ultimate Determina- 
 tions OP THE Will, the distinguishing Characteristic op 
 accountable Liberty. 
 
 These three points — the possession of life — a suscep- 
 tibility of enjoyment and suffering — and an invariable 
 tendency to the greater apparent good, are to be 
 regarded as first principles, as fundamental axioms in 
 the whole system of spontaneous agency and volition. 
 
162 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 Tliej are indispensable to every created being who 
 has a Will, and is regulated by adequate motives in 
 its exercises. Without these properties, action must 
 be nothing more than the result of an original 
 simple tendency, or of mechanical force, destitute of 
 all sensation and voluntary choice, or it must be 
 something wild and capricious, guided by no steadi- 
 ness of principle, and directed to no object of ulti- 
 mate desire. It can hardly be necessary here to 
 state, that in this discussion, we do not class the Su- 
 preme Being himself among those voluntary agents, 
 whose Wills must be entirely excited and controlled 
 by an appeal to the original susceptibilities of their 
 nature. His volitions must be something so com- 
 pletely different in their origin, in their nature, in 
 their mode of operation, in their reasons, and in their 
 ends, from those of which created beings, possessed 
 of certain qualities, and placed in an order of circum- 
 stances most deeply and unavoidably affecting their 
 character and emotions, are the subjects, that it 
 would be utterly useless and unmeaning to trace any 
 analogy beyond some very broad outlines, or to apply 
 to both cases the same process of reasoning and re- 
 mark. Jehovah, in the exercise of his supreme and 
 unaccountable, though at the same time most pure, 
 and holy, and benevolent Will, is a law unto himself, 
 and is the end of his own actions; and his perfections 
 are the measure of rectitude, the last rule of excel- 
 lence. The case of creatures is very different. 
 Merely sensitive beings know no other guide or 
 stimulant of their AVills than the original suscepti- 
 bilities implanted in them, brought under the corres- 
 
WITH LIBERIT AND NECESSITY. 1G3 
 
 pondent influence of objects and circumstances de- 
 signed to affect tliem. 
 
 But man is not merely a sensitive creature. This 
 lie might have been, without rising to the scale of a 
 free, accountable, and rational agent. He might 
 have been a living sentient being — he might have 
 had a native capacity of pleasure and pain — he might 
 have been powerfully and instrumentally urged to 
 prefer the greater good — the object which immedi- 
 ately appeared to his unreflecting sense to promise 
 much gratification. There might have been such a 
 correspondency as this established between his appe- 
 tites and external objects, and this relation of his 
 emotions to outward things might certainly call forth 
 in him the exercise of a sensitive tendency, such as we 
 represented to be characteristic of the brute creation. 
 But, without something beyond this — without some- 
 thing superior to these blind propensities — something 
 capable, in various ways, of regulating and control- 
 ling them, he would have been utterly unfit for sus- 
 taining the character of a moral agent, nor with any 
 propriety could he have been said to possess the 
 faculty of free and rational volition. And here we 
 feel that we have arrived at the grand point of in- 
 quiry : Is man free ? and, if he is, what is the dis- 
 tinguishing circumstance which constitutes his free- 
 dom, and qualifies him for moral agency, and for a 
 responsibility so awful as is involved in that agency ? 
 
 l^ow, with whatever real or imaginary difliculties 
 this question may be embarrassed, in whatever obscu- 
 rity nature may have involved it, in some of its 
 ulterior ramifications, or in whatever web of meta- 
 
 M 2 
 
1G4 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS COXXECTED 
 
 physical subtilty nice controverriialists and prejudiced 
 disputants may have entangled it, no man, ayIio forms 
 a just and enliglitened estimate of his own character, 
 faculties, and destinies, can seriously doubt whether 
 he be free. However scriptural and lamentably true 
 may be the doctrine of the bondage of the Will, and 
 of the enslaving power of lusts and passions, as a 
 tlieological tenet — however correctly it may be said, 
 as an illustration of the gross and utter depravity of 
 our moral nature, that, since the apostasy, man is 
 only free to sin, but not free to holiness and virtue, 
 — -still it cannot for a moment be questioned by any 
 one who dispassionately consults either the dictates of 
 nature, the records of conscience, the arrangements 
 of providence, or the declarations of Scripture, that 
 he is possessed of such a liberty of action, and such a 
 power of discretionary self-control, as are sufficient 
 to justify that course of divine government which 
 evidently regards him as a fit subject of rewards and 
 punishments; and when we consider the awful mag- 
 nitude of the evil to which he renders himself obnoxi- 
 ous, on the alleged perversion and abuse of his native 
 freedom of action, it cannot surely be an equivocal or 
 problematical question, whether he had been free to 
 act otherwise. It is with no less truth than sim- 
 plicity and admirable conciseness, that Bishop Butler 
 remarked, that we are treated as //'we were free, and, 
 therefore, we (ire free. Whatever logical artillery 
 the polemic may direct against this fact, wliatever 
 quibbles of reasoning, or wliatever array of weighty 
 argument may be advanced against it, and whatever 
 difficulty, upon principles of theory and system, there 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 1G5 
 
 may be to repel the assault, and to maintain it in all 
 the soundness of technical symmetry and consistency, 
 yet, like an impregnable bulwark of nature, it stands 
 upon its own basis, firm as the fortress of morality 
 itself, coeval with humanity, and destructible only 
 when man shall cease to be accountable, or God shall 
 cease to be just. 
 
 It is not enough to grant, as philosophical neces- 
 sitarians have done, that man is free to act as he 
 pleases, while it is at the same time maintained that 
 it as necessarily pleases him to act in one way, as 
 a stone falls down to the earth — that, in his most 
 spontaneous and unfettered actions, he is subject to 
 an influence, over which he has no m.ore command 
 or control than the criminal has over the chains by 
 which he is bound, or the wheels of the vehicle in 
 which he is conveyed to execution. It is in vain to 
 attempt to escape out of the palpable absurdity, or 
 to hide the glaring incongruity of this preposterous 
 representation, or, at least, of notions which amount 
 to the full import of this representation, by saying 
 that it is allowed to man, in all his volitions and 
 determinations, to follow the bent of his own mind, 
 and that it is as necessary he should choose in the 
 manner in w^hich it is assumed that he does choose, 
 as that any one event in nature should follow another. 
 If all that is meant hj the necessity which is at- 
 tached to the exercises of volition, imports no more 
 than this, it surely did not require much philosophy 
 to make cut such a mere truism. It vrould appear, 
 en this principle, that the profound and complicated 
 theorem, which it rec^uircd such a niigl ty apparatus 
 
166 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 of reasoning, liypotheses, and illustrations to demon- 
 strate, is no more than this, — that a man must of 
 necessity, nay, of philosophical necessity, choose, 
 what it is already taken for granted as a fact, that 
 he does choose. But surely there must be some- 
 thing more than this in the theory of necessity, as 
 relating to the exercises of volition; otherwise to 
 what purpose would be all the parade of learning 
 and philosophy, if the object was no more than to 
 prove a proposition, so purely and palpably trifling, 
 as that a man must prefer and will and act, as he 
 does prefer and will and act — a proposition Avhich is 
 but another and a modified formula of the axiom, 
 that the same thing cannot be and not be at the 
 time. If there is any meaning worthy of notice in 
 the assertion of necessity, as governing the acts of 
 the human will, it must be that there is some 
 external influence, or some combination of circum- 
 stances, independent of itself, the impulse of Avhich 
 it cannot control or resist, or by the presence of 
 which it is so completely paralyzed, as never to 
 attempt a resistance. Then, if this be a just theory 
 of volition, if this be the real economy of the human 
 mind, upon what imaginable basis can desert, or 
 blameworthiness rest? A\^here is the ground of 
 punishment? A¥liat is the distinguishing principle 
 upon Avhich man, in the full possession of his facul- 
 ties, and trans<2,'ressin2: in the midst of w 
 
 •arnings 
 
 and exhortations, the grounds and reasons of which 
 he was fully (lualificd to appreciate, is more justly 
 exposed to punislnnent than tlie maniac, who, driven 
 by an equally powerful impulse of Will, had com- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 167 
 
 mitted the same act? Surely misery is not so 
 trifling a thing as that it should be withheld, and 
 most properly Avithheld in one case, and largely 
 inflicted in the other, without some very serious 
 diff'erence in the moral estimate of the acts. Upon 
 the principles of the scheme, which we are now 
 resisting, the only difference of the Necessity which 
 produced these acts, is that, in the one instance, it 
 was a necessity which entailed no evil consequence 
 upon its subject, in the other it was the necessity 
 of the stoic philosopher and his slave, combining 
 the necessity of punishment with the necessity of 
 crime. It is futile and trifling to say that reasons 
 were suggested to the mind of the sane man, which 
 could not be suggested to that of the insane. To 
 what purpose are reasons, if they do not prove them- 
 selves suflaciently strong to form a chain of necessity, 
 which will prevail over the antagonist chain already 
 leading onward the mind to its determinations? 
 "What avails it to bind green withes upon the arms 
 of Samson? To say, as has sometimes been inad- 
 vertently and superficially done, that the blame- 
 worthiness and punishableness of a crime lie in its 
 own nature, and are estimated by what the act is in 
 itself, and by the real state of the mind, without 
 any reference to the manner in which it was brought 
 into existence, is surely to lose sight of the fact, that 
 in thus estimating an action, as odious in itself, and 
 as entitling its author to punishment, there is always 
 a latent supposition, that the perpetrator of such an 
 action micjlit have chosen otherwise, than he did 
 choose to act. The measure of its moral odiousness 
 
168 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 and guilt is always projiortionGcl to the supposed 
 unbiassed freedom of his mind, and so far as it is 
 deemed the result of circumstances and influences, 
 which have interfered with that freedom, he is con- 
 sidered Avorthy of pity rather than of punishment. 
 If, therefore, a clear distinction be made by God 
 and man in estimating the voluntary conduct of a 
 rational intellectual being, and that of those sensitive 
 creatures which are destitute of these endowments, 
 as it stands related to punishment, it follows that 
 there must be some material and most important 
 difference in the exercise of the faculty of AVill, as 
 the immediate instigator and regulator of that con- 
 duct in these two ranks of beings. Founding, there- 
 fore, our judgment upon this palpable phenomenon 
 of human nature in its sound state, in contrast with 
 other sentient beings not similarly endowed, or with 
 itself, in a state of mental incapacity and imbecility, 
 as subjecting to guilt and punishment, we are con- 
 strained to come to the conclusion, that it is the 
 Prerogative of Reason in the ultimate determina- 
 tions of the Will, which properly and distinguishingly 
 constitutes the liberty of moral agency, or as it has 
 usually been called, the freedom of the Will in man *. 
 
 * Since the first edition of this work was pnblished, the author 
 has been much struck with a coincidence of idea exhibited in con- 
 nection with this and some other parts of his subject, in a short 
 essay entitled The FhilosopJi)/ of the rian of Salvation, by an Ame- 
 rican citizen; an essay distinguished by a profound and accurato 
 view of the mental faculties as bearing on moral and religious truth. 
 • — "Man has a will and a conscience, and ho must ■iindenfaiul the 
 rule in order to ivill obedience. A law therefore adapted to man's 
 nature, must be adapted to his nndcrstandhuj.'" (p. 4G.) 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. IGO 
 
 It is the possession of this sublime endowment, 
 Avhich forms so broad and palpable a line of distinc- 
 tion between man and all other inferior voluntary 
 agents ; for it is very possible, as is obvious in the 
 case of those in whom this principle has not been 
 developed, or has lost its commanding influence, to 
 have a Will — to be a subject of volitions even the 
 strongest and most powerful, without moral liberty 
 or responsibility in the exercise of that faculty. It 
 seems evident that this principle forms the hinge, on 
 which really turns this important question in the 
 character of man, from the circumstance that ac- 
 countable liberty and moral agency are universally 
 regarded as coeval and coextensive in his nature with 
 the possession and exercise of right reason. They 
 begin and end at the same time, and are invariably 
 united in the same acts of conduct ; so that Avherever 
 the one is absent, the other cannot be present. 
 Eeason is pre-eminently the faculty of judgment and 
 combination. It is that which traces the connection 
 between causes and effects, between the various 
 divisions of duration into which time has been 
 marked out as past, present, or future. It is that 
 which decides upon the merits of actions, and pur- 
 sues them, through all their combinations of influ- 
 ence, to their remote and eventual consequences, 
 and by this means determines their comparative 
 desirableness, as they relate to the susceptibilities 
 of the soul, so as to exhibit an adequate ground for 
 clfoice and selection, amidst the diversified lines of 
 movement, which present their claims to the eye of 
 the mind. It is the business of this noble faculty 
 
170 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 to arbitrate "between interfering demands — ^Ijetween 
 opposite and conflicting tendencies. To liave tliis 
 discretionary power — to be able to summon the 
 experience of the past, the sensations of the present, 
 and the probable anticipations of the future, into 
 judgment, in order to determine upon a litigated 
 measure; to hold the scale with a firm and even 
 hand, and with the intellectual eye steadily fixed 
 upon the tongue of the balance, in order to perceive 
 to what side the weight of good preponderates, and 
 to give its verdict accordingly, — the faculty of con- 
 ducting this discriminating process enters into the 
 very nature, and forms almost the very definition of 
 rational intelligence. Without such a directing and 
 controlling power, man Avould be utterly unfit for the 
 rank which he occupies in the scale of being. 
 
 Section YIII. 
 
 Punishment not inflicted where Reason is incapable op 
 exercising its control. 
 
 To evince that it is this Prerogative of Reason to 
 exert a determining influence over the various af- 
 fections and susceptibilities, which enter into the 
 exercises of the Will, that must be regarded as 
 constituting the essence of human freedom and tlie 
 groundwork of moral agency, we would remark, in 
 the first place, that, in our estimate of character, we 
 never consider those as deserving of punishment,, in 
 Avhom lieason is not in a state of sufiicient strengtli 
 or development to exercise this salutary control. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 171 
 
 ]\Ioral agency, as connected with responsibility, is 
 altog'ctlier founded upon a liableness to punishment 
 on the one hand, and a capacity of remunerative 
 happiness on the other. Xow there are two cir- 
 cumstances indispensably necessary to constitute 
 just and rational and effective ground of punish- 
 ment. There must be first, a susceptibility of suf- 
 fering in the subject, upon which it is inflicted or 
 designed to be inflicted; and there must next be 
 liberty belonging to that being, in consequence of 
 the voluntary and conscious abuse of which he be- 
 comes a legitimate subject of punishment, for the 
 various purposes of reformation, discipline, and 
 example. The first of these circumstances is ne- 
 cessary, because without it there can be no real 
 punishment applied; however, in the ^jaroxysms of 
 passionate revenge, or in the cooler and more deli- 
 berate ferocity of baffled and disappointed resent- 
 ment, there may be the external machinery, the 
 show, and the mockery of punishment. But how 
 contemptible and absurd is the exhibition of this 
 impotent and imbecile rage ! How vain and ludi- 
 crous in its purpose, and how utterly foiled in its 
 end! A^^^ien v\-e see the child wreaking its little 
 passing vengeance upon the chair or the table, 
 against which it has run and hurt its head, and 
 with which, therefore, as the immediate occasion of 
 its pain, it associates the idea of guilt and punish- 
 ableness, or when it applies more calm chastisement 
 to the picture or the doll, which refuses to move and 
 to act in obedience to lawful authority, we smile at 
 the incongruity, or if we view it in a more serious 
 
172 THE FACULTY OF YOLITIOX AS CONNECTED 
 
 light, we endeavonr by such reasonings as are 
 adapted to the child's capacity, to check in its 
 earliest manifestations a tendency, which might 
 otherwise grow into a settled habit of violence and 
 vindictiveness. But when we contemplate the in- 
 flated and frantic Xerxes at the head of the armies 
 of the East, ordering the infliction of so many 
 lashes upon the Hellespont as a rebel, who had the 
 insufferable daring to disturb the arrangements of 
 his master's mighty armament, we not only laugh 
 at the folly and the complete futility of such an 
 act, but we are astonished at the effect of flattery 
 and despotic power, in paralyzing the faculties of 
 the understanding so completely, and in strengthen- 
 ing the malignant and vindictive passions to a 
 degree, that is destructive to all sense and reason. 
 When we think, again, of the unseemly indignities, 
 which the annals of tyranny and persecution record 
 as having been offered to the bodies, to the mutilated 
 trunks, the half putrified limbs, and even to the 
 scarce distinguishable ashes of the obnoxious dead ; 
 when we read of the inanimate frames, at one time, 
 of rebels and traitors, at another, of patriots and 
 saints, of generous and self-devoting champions for 
 their country's liberties, and of martyrs and con- 
 fessors, Avho had died in a still more glorious and 
 illustrious cause, torn by ruffian hands from their 
 several repositories of silent and quiet repose, in 
 order to be maimed by the axe or hung in a 
 gibbet, that the eyes of triumphant barbarity miglit 
 feast themselves, at least, with the illusive semblance 
 of further suilbring and humiliation, avc rise, indeed. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 1 73 
 
 with indignant detestation a^^ainst such scenes, as 
 insulting to the decencies of humanity, as in many 
 instances completely contravening the demands of 
 truth and justice, and as indications of a fierce 
 and dark revenge in the perpetrators of such acts, 
 which no extremity of agony and no measure of 
 prostrate mortification can satiate; but we feel, at 
 the same time, that in such cases punishment and 
 sufi*ering, except as they may regard the living, are 
 completely out of the question*. We are perfectly 
 conscious, that the vitally susceptible alone can feel 
 a pang, as well as experience a transport. The 
 atheistic philosopher even persuaded himself, that 
 while he was yet alive he had escaped in a great 
 degree from the dominion of punishment, and in reply 
 to the menace of the tyrant exclaimed, " It differs 
 nothing to Theodorus, whether he rots on the earth, 
 or in the air." 
 
 The second requisite above-mentioned, the pos- 
 session of liberty, is necessary, because that without 
 such a discretionary power over the active faculties, 
 however there may be a susceptibility of punishment, 
 it is contrary to every principle of justice to inflict 
 it. We have already remarked the absurdity and 
 incongruity of attempting to excite suff'ering, where 
 there was no capacity of feeling, and represented 
 
 * Among the most disgraceful and absurd exhibitions of this 
 kind, which have outraged religion and humanity, was the exhuma- 
 tion and subsequent burning of the remains of Bucer and Fagius 
 under the authority of a commission from Cardinal Pole. — Vid. 
 Strype, Eccles. Mem., iii. i. 510, Zurich Letters, Parker Soc, 
 
174 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 such objects to be entirely out of the range of blame 
 and guilt, and moral discipline. And, if in such 
 cases, it is impossible to apply punishment, so in the 
 destitution of the circumstance which we are now 
 considering — an entire freedom of mind extending 
 to every act of the conduct, it would be utterly 
 unjust to inflict it. If, therefore, liberty — an exemp- 
 tion from any overwhelming constraint from within, 
 or from without — a power of unquestionable self- 
 government and self-control be that, which alone 
 qualifies a living sentient being for punishment de- 
 signedly inflicted, there cannot be a surer method, a 
 method more strictly of the experimental kind, for 
 discovering the nature and bounds of freedom as a 
 principle of the human mind, than to mark out those 
 limits, within which alone punishment can be legiti- 
 mately aAvarded as the due desert of guilt. ^Vliat- 
 ever principle, or faculty, or endowment of human 
 nature is found coincident and coextensive with the 
 capability of contracting guilt, and consequently 
 with a just liability to punishment ; whatever quality 
 of the mind or character is found to run parallel 
 with these fundamental grounds and invariable ac- 
 companiments of responsible agency, that quality or 
 endowment must unquestionably be a main point in 
 the system of human liberty. If that principle be 
 found to limit guilt and punishableness in all cases, 
 and under all possible circumstances; if it be the 
 test, by which alone is tried the equity of that inten- 
 tional suffering, which all acknowledge can be justly 
 occasioned only to those, avIio were free in the actions 
 which call it forth, then surely it must be granted. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 1 75 
 
 that such a principle must be very closely connected 
 with liberty itself, if it does not enter into its essence 
 and form its very mainspring. In order to render 
 the matter clearer, we may in such a case technically 
 consider punishableness, as a species of middle term, 
 connecting the principle upon which it is founded 
 with liberty, to which it is also attached by the same 
 inseparable tie. In the government of God, and in 
 all the laA\^ul and equitable administrations of the 
 authority of man, they are the free alone w^ho are 
 punished, and if we are at any loss to determine who 
 the free are, what leading and distinguishing quality 
 of character this liberty involves, we have only to 
 inquire, what endowments of mind must belong to 
 the individuals who are considered proper subjects 
 of punishment, as being capable of contracting 
 guilt. And this investigation will at once deter- 
 mine who are the free, and what it is which consti- 
 tutes them such. 
 
 To discover this is no difficulty, for it is at once 
 obvious, and universally recognised, that they alone 
 can really contract blame, and be justly punished, 
 v>'ho have the leading and commanding faculty of 
 Reason in full growth, and capable of exerting its 
 discriminative poAver in forming a judgment of the 
 action, upon which punishment is entailed. We 
 mean not to say that it is necessary Eeason should 
 exist in every such instance in the highest possible 
 degree of improvement and cultivation, in order to 
 capacitate for guilt, and to expose to punishment. 
 For Eeason may be so paralyzed by inordinate pas- 
 sions habitually indulged — it may be so numbed by 
 
176 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS COXXECTED 
 
 inactivity and indolence and neglect — it may be so 
 blinded bv prejudices and evil habits — it may be so 
 besotted by sm-feiting- and intemperance, as to be 
 utterly disabled from performing its appropriate 
 office of conducting the preferences of the mind, 
 and directing them to their legitimate objects. But 
 the guilt contracted in this imbecile state of the 
 rational faculty is rather aggravated than relieved, 
 because the whole series of improper indulgences, 
 or of criminal acts, by which it has been reduced 
 to this state, or has been prevented from rising to 
 its ]3roper level in the character, were so many accu- 
 mulations of guilt, which are now punished in the 
 impotence, to which they have led, or in the exem- 
 plary sufferings which are almost the necessary result 
 of that impotence, — just as in one of the states of 
 Greece, double punishment was awarded to a crime 
 committed in a state of intoxication, one portion for 
 having actually perpetrated the crime, and the other 
 for the inebriety, which gave occasion to the perpe- 
 tration of it. In the original view of the case, the 
 possession of the unimpeded use of the faculty of 
 Eeason is universally considered as indispensably 
 necessary, both to the commission of actual crime, 
 in the moral sense of the expression, and to the 
 sufferance of the punishment, which is the result of 
 that crime. This is obvious, from the respective 
 cases of infants, idiots, and madmen, and of the 
 whole class of those sensitive beings, which are sup- 
 posed either incapable of discerning a difference 
 between right and wrong, or of discovering the 
 object of punishment, both retrospective as it re- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 177 
 
 gards the past, and prospective as it reg'ards their 
 future conduct. Whenever there is supposed to be 
 a faculty capable of perceiving these distinctions, 
 and of benefiting from the results of discipline and 
 experience, there punishment is deemed just and 
 salutary; but beyond these capabilities it cannot 
 with propriety and discretion — it cannot without a 
 gross violation of the law of equity and kindness, 
 without an unwarrantable exertion of arbitrary 
 power, proceed a single step. It is utterly wrong 
 to say that all which is necessary, or all that can 
 be conceived as belonging to the liberty of moral 
 agency, is no more than that the person acting 
 should do as he pleases, and be influenced in what 
 he does, by the strongest motives ; for the infant of 
 six months old, and the most frantic maniac, so far 
 as he is exempt from coercion, act as much under 
 the influence of feelings, which operate with them 
 in the shape of motives, as the most cool and dis- 
 passionate and calculating reasoner in the land. 
 But who would say that the former are equally sub- 
 jects of moral government, and consequently as 
 firmly bound by the sanctions of that government 
 as the latter. Moral freedom, in fact, which is the 
 kind of freedom we are now investigating, consists 
 more in a power of restraining, selecting, and con- 
 trolling actions than in impetuously urging them 
 forward. And hence intellectual impotence, an 
 inability to exert this sovereignty of 2)0wer and 
 dominion over the subordinate faculties of the soul — 
 over the afl*ections and propensities, which are the 
 more immediate stimulants to action, utterly dis- 
 
 N 
 
178 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 qualifies for the enjoyment of liberty, the obligations 
 of morality, and the penal sanctions of government. 
 In the exercise of accomitable freedom it is always 
 assumed ; it is laid doAvn as the acknowledged basis 
 of the whole system of discipline or responsibility, 
 that the Understanding or the rational Faculty is in 
 a state to command the sensual passions and other 
 inferior inclinations, so as to prevent their deviation 
 from the line of rectitude, and to secure their strict 
 and unvarying adherence, in all their operations 
 and effects, to the authorized principles, and the 
 established laws of conduct. There is something- 
 more, therefore, required to constitute such liberty 
 of Will as can alone qualify an individual for being 
 a moral agent, than the maintainers of philoso- 
 phical, or even of theological, necessity are willing 
 to grant. It is not enough for this freedom that 
 a man should simply act as he pleases — that he 
 should yield to the influence of the stronger motive, 
 for this the most raving madman, or the most imbe- 
 cile idiot is as capable of doing as the profoundest 
 philosopher, or the devoutest saint. It is only a part, 
 though an essential and indispensable part of libert}^, 
 that an agent should be able to do as he pleases, 
 however unfettered and unlimited that power may 
 be. The influence of motives, as immediately and 
 necessarily directing the conduct, is, in fact, the mere 
 superficial arrangement, the exterior instrumentality 
 which invariably, indeed, precedes the last result, but, 
 in order to attach the character of morality to that 
 result, it must itself have received its direction from 
 something superior and more recondite ; and to 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 179 
 
 represent it as that, Mliich alone is concerned in the 
 liberty of a moral agent, is the same thing as it 
 would be to represent the wheels as the sole agents 
 in guiding the movements of a system of machinery, 
 or the wonderful operations of the steam-engine as 
 traceable no further than the alternations of ascent 
 and descent produced in that part of this complicated 
 framework, which receives the first impression of 
 force, and is inseparably connected in the way of a 
 power more or less proximate with all the subsequent 
 results. One who was utterly unacquainted with the 
 nature, or the existence of the prime mover in this 
 astonishing arrangement of physical powers and 
 adaptations, and with the various joints and valves 
 which are necessary to the secure evolution of the 
 effects eventually designed to be produced, might 
 content liimself with barely inspecting the revolutions 
 of the wheels, and the disposition of the connecting- 
 links, and affirm this curious and indissoluble ar- 
 rangement of wheels, and screws, and pistons, to form 
 at least unto man the whole science of the steam- 
 engine, and that everything beyond these palpable 
 agents, as belonging to the instrument itself, was 
 mystery and impenetrable obscurity. We know 
 perfectly well, indeed, that in physical, as well as 
 intellectual or metaphysical operations, there is an 
 ultimate power, which can be traced only to the 
 sovereign will of a supreme Disposer ; and that in 
 our inquiries into both we must rest in that will, as 
 our ultimate basis. But we maintain that mere 
 motives as such, without any regard to the means 
 by which they have been produced, or the conside- 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 rations by -vvhicli they are accompanied, do no more 
 constitute tliat ultimate ground, in our estimate of 
 human liberty, than wheels and rods form the termi- 
 nating point of our investigations into the nature of 
 the steam-engine. AYe, in fact, recognise the prin- 
 ciple — we assume the point, that merely to have the 
 power of willing or of acting as he pleases, is not that 
 which constitutes the essence of the freedom of a 
 moral agent in all our administrations of penal jus- 
 tice. The most atrocious criminal unquestionably 
 acted under the instigation of motives, which, as 
 existing, and as prevailing, in the absence of all inter- 
 ference on the part of a better princijile, or a higher 
 faculty, operated in him with commanding influence; 
 and yet we consider him, and surely we justly consi- 
 der him, if possessed of reason and understanding, as 
 accountable for the result, and adjudge him a punish- 
 ment which is deemed proportionate to the enormity 
 of his guilt. A maniac, who escapes from his chain, 
 or in a fit of unaccountable phrenzy takes advantage 
 of that measure of physical liberty, which, it was 
 hoped, might be safely indulged to him, rushes upon 
 the first impotent individual that he meets with, 
 and, perhaps, takes away his life. It cannot be said 
 that in this lamentable deed he acts without a motive, 
 without a most powerful and commanding motive, 
 though that motive might not be malignant hate, or 
 a lust of gain ; nor can it be ailirmcd that he acts 
 otherwise than as he chooses, than as it appears best 
 to him to give scope to that excess of ferocious irri- 
 tation, under which his nervous and mental system 
 labours. lie most assuredly acted without any 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 181 
 
 external incitement; he acted under tlie undisturbed 
 influence of the motives — of the precipitate sugges- 
 tions of his disordered mind. He was, therefore, 
 in that respect, as free as the most deliberate and 
 cold-blooded murderer. But do Ave regard him, do 
 v,e criminate him, do we penally treat him as a free 
 agent? If we do not, there must be some other dif.- 
 ference betv/een his act, as an act of liberty and free 
 agency, and that of the designing and calculating 
 destroyer of human life, than the difference in the 
 state of the circulation of the blood, or the degrees 
 of irritability in the nervous system. And wherever 
 that difference is found to rest, that point must 
 constitute the definitive feature, the essential germ 
 of the liberty of moral agency. That point of 
 human nature, in the instance before us, we can 
 be at no loss to determine. The consideration of 
 it is embodied in the whole scheme of the govern- 
 ment of God, as it is more partially developed in 
 the progress of time, and as it will be more dis- 
 tinctly unfolded in the destinies of eternity. The 
 assumption of it is laid doAvn as the basis, and the 
 recognition of it is interwoven with the whole sys- 
 tem of human judicature. The murderer is endued 
 with a principle of Eeason, which, in the exercise of 
 its legitimate prerogative in his character, ought 
 and has the povrer, to act as the inquisitor of his 
 motives, the controller of his passions, the regulator 
 of his conduct, and the guardian of his security. 
 He is, therefore, free, and for the abuse of his 
 liberty is justly liable to punishment. The maniac 
 has unhappily lost this distinguishing princix>le of 
 
182 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 his nature as a moral being. In him the bahance 
 of power ha^ been destroyed. The commanding- 
 faculty has lost its necessary pre-eminence in the 
 system. The head has been severed from the 
 moral frame, aud nothing remains but an occa- 
 sional convulsive movement of disjointed faculties. 
 He has ceased deliberately to think, though he has 
 not ceased to feel, to move, and to be impelled. 
 He has become incapable of guiding himself with 
 judgment, though not of being actuated by motives. 
 He is still able to will and to act, though he knows 
 not hoAv rightly to direct his volitions, or to regu- 
 late his actions. In him the power is extinct, which 
 could say unto the tide of inclination. Hitherto 
 mayest thou safely go, and no further. In him 
 the ear is shut which could listen to the calls of 
 duty, the dictates of conscience, and the eloquence 
 of affection. In him the eye is closed which could 
 glance over the past, survey the present, and pene- 
 trate into the future, and mark out in this extensive 
 scenery such prominent points of observation as 
 might form rules of experience, incentives to action, 
 and directions of prudent conduct. We, therefore, 
 view him with kindness and compassion, instead of 
 prosecuting him with vengeance. And b}^ this we 
 are led to a second consideration, which serves to 
 prove and illustrate the fact, that it is Reason 
 exerting a supreme and commanding power, that 
 forms the distinguishing point, the very essence of 
 the liberty of man as a moral and accountable 
 agent. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 183 
 
 Section IX. 
 
 Reason capable of exciting New Volitions. 
 
 AYe now proceed to remark, tlierefore, that Eeason, 
 as constituting the deliberating, the judging faculty 
 of the human mind, can excite new volitions — 
 volitions essentially different from those which 
 would have inevitably risen, if the same faculty 
 had been dormant, careless, or indifferent. If it 
 be the province of Reason to exert this creative 
 power in the economy of the human mind, it must 
 be allowed to be far more closely connected with 
 the question of liberty and of the exercises of the 
 Will, than has often been supposed. Man is an 
 intellectual as well as a sensitive being — a being 
 of momentary passions and emotions. He is not, 
 therefore led, or at least, he ought not to be led 
 like the lower animals by mere instinct and present 
 feeling in the formation of his habits, in the direc- 
 tion of his preferences, and in the regulation of his 
 conduct. The manner, in which Heason operates 
 in exciting new volitions, and, through the medium 
 of these volitions, in governing the course of the 
 conduct, is not that of constraining or forcing the 
 mind to resolve against the strongest motives: 
 this, indeed, is impossible, and contrary to the 
 whole economy of mental agency, but that of sug- 
 gesting such views of things as will infallibly act 
 as motives. It is not in the nature of man — it 
 would involve a principle of self-contradiction and 
 neutralization to suppose that he should be able to 
 
184 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 will or to act in opposition to Avliat his judgment and 
 feelings unitedly recommend to him as best. But it 
 is in entire accordance with the elements of his intel- 
 lectual, moral, and sensitive being, that Eeason, by 
 exhibiting actions in their real character and as con- 
 nected with their proper consequences, should mate- 
 rially influence his preferences, and give a new 
 colouring to the whole order of his volitions. There 
 is in the understanding of man an active energy, a 
 prospective and calculating power, which enables it 
 to range over the wide scene of contemplation, and 
 to present to the elective faculty such views of things 
 as are calculated to call it into exercise. It is by 
 thus judiciously availing itself of that original ten- 
 dency of our nature, which inclines us to the choice 
 of the greater good, that Eeason successfully acts 
 upon the faculty of volition, and not by any unna- 
 tural attempt to urge us in a direction contrary to 
 our strongest motives. AYe affirm not that Reason 
 can change the original constitution of the human 
 soul, and so alter its susceptibilities, as that those 
 things should appear desirable to it, which it was 
 made to abhor ; but it assuredly has such a power to 
 appeal to those susceptibilities, and so to adapt the 
 scene of contemplation to them, as that a ne\v order 
 of desires and preferences will immediately spring 
 up in the mind. Eeason, especially if it be enlight- 
 ened by faith, is the eye of the soul, by Avhich it is 
 enabled to range over surrounding scenes, hy which 
 it discovers a thousand perils, Avliich would have been 
 liidden from the dull vision of sense, and discerns 
 advantages as numerous, which would have escaped 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 185 
 
 the same contracted faculty. It is the telesco2)e, 
 which the moral combatant in the arduous war of 
 temptation employs to reconnoitre the positions, and 
 to watch the movements of his enemies. It is that 
 transparent and approximating medium, which to the 
 eye of the calm and deliberate observer brings out 
 upon the firmament of futurity a countless multitude 
 of objects, Av])ich otherwise would have been lost in 
 the immensity of their distance ; and by presenting 
 this new aspect of things, and exhibiting every object 
 under a nearer angle, it naturally calls forth a new 
 series of volitions and determinations. AYithout 
 neutralizing and utterly destroying the Eeason of 
 man, it is impossible to deny that it is capable of 
 exerting a most important influence upon the course 
 of the Will, and upon the whole system of prefer- 
 ences as regulating the actions of the life. To prove 
 this, if it stood in any need of confirmation, we have 
 only to consider how different are the volitions formed 
 in the human mind, when Eeason is active and alive, 
 and exerts its full force in selecting, arranging, and 
 discriminating the various claims, Avhich offer them- 
 selves to the choice, and when that faculty is heedless 
 through indifference, paralyzed by sensual indulgence 
 and intemperance, or incapacitated by any other cir- 
 cumstance for the exercise of its discerning care or 
 its predominant authority. How different are the 
 choices of the sober man from those of the same 
 man in a state of intoxication ! The ground of this 
 difference is, that in the one state Reason is utterly 
 disabled from performing its appropriate office, in 
 directing the general course of volition, by bringing 
 
186 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 those considerations prominently fonvard to the view 
 of the mind, which woukl have caused the scale of 
 desire to preponderate to the opposite side. In the 
 other state, this enlightened faculty takes a deliberate 
 survey of the conflicting pretensions, which labour to 
 force themselves upon the choice, and estimates them 
 according to their greater or less adaptation, in their 
 ultimate consequences as well as their present effects, 
 to meet those exigencies and susceptibilities, which 
 are implanted in man as a ])art of his very nature. 
 
 It is therefore by judging and by determining in 
 favour of the source of the greater good, so far as it 
 can be ascertained, that Eeason becomes the author 
 of new volitions, and a creator of new motives. As 
 it is the great end of man to be happy, to enjoy the 
 greatest measure of good, which is compatible with 
 the wise and benevolent arrangements of his Creator, 
 and with his own nature and capacities, it is 
 assigned to Reason, as the leading attribute of his 
 character, and the distinguishing faculty of his 
 peculiar rank of being, to be the guardian of this 
 happiness, to watch the progress of events in their 
 various relations to it, to give warning, in a clear 
 and audible tone, of the injurious results that may 
 spring from actions and pursuits, in which there 
 may be a strong sensitive propensity to indulge, 
 and to exhibit in all their inherent excellency, and 
 substantial and permanent advantages, such habits 
 and modes of conduct as may for the present be 
 attended with considerable pain and self-denial. It 
 is the office of Eeason thus to liold the balance be- 
 tween the several objects and degrees of enjoyment 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 187 
 
 and essential good, Avhieli alternately advance their 
 opposite and often embarrassing claims to human 
 preference, an office which, when duly enlightened 
 and informed, she is fully competent to discharge. 
 To deny her such an active power of superintendence 
 and effective control, is surely to deny a fact in the 
 history of the human mind, of Avhich every one, who 
 reflects upon the intellectual processes which take 
 place in his own character, must be perfectly aware. 
 It is to annihilate and destroy all that is valuable 
 and distinctive in intellect, as the glorious attribute 
 of man, as the umpire of conduct, as the jndge of 
 truth, as the salutary director of liberty, as the only 
 earthly guide to happiness. The mutual adaptation 
 of the character of man, and of external objects as 
 capable of receiving and communicating gratification, 
 we know, indeed, to be entirely independent of any 
 exercises of intellect or volition on the part of the 
 former. Outward circumstances, or personal acts of 
 conduct as related to those circumstances, are good 
 or evil, are occasions of more or less comparative 
 happiness or misery to man, simply because the will 
 of God has rendered them such; because the esta- 
 blished constitution of nature, as ordained by Him, has 
 stamped upon them these qualities. It is not neces- 
 sary to liberty that man should be without invincible 
 and unchangeable inclinations of nature. Such in- 
 clinations, indeed, are essential as the very ground- 
 work of mental freedom, but it is equally essential 
 that all these inclinations should meet and unite in 
 the one commanding and preponderating emotion of 
 
188 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 the choice of the greater good, Avher^ various degrees 
 of enjoyment, as springing from different sources, 
 place the mind under the unavoidable necessity of 
 choosing the one or the other. 
 
 The relations of the intellectual and physical 
 universe have already been settled, and the laws of 
 human preference are as firm and secure as any of 
 the rest. But then, it is one of these immutable 
 arrangements, that the love of the greater good 
 should always operate in man with a ceaseless and 
 unvarying influence, and that Eeason, as improved, 
 by diligent cultivation, and as enlightened by what- 
 ever additional aid may be graciously vouchsafed, 
 should direct him, and mark out to him with 
 clearness and decision, amidst the manifold illusions 
 with which he is surrounded, what that good is. AYe 
 know not what higher idea of liberty than this can 
 be formed, that man should be the subject of a con- 
 tinual and intense desire of happiness, that he should 
 feel perfectly free in his choice, and that Eeason, 
 aided by the requisite measure of assistance from 
 above should be always at hand, as a vigilant and 
 faithful sentinel, to warn him of danger, and to direct 
 him to those measures, which may ultimately secure 
 the complete attainment of his object. The desire 
 of happiness, and a capacity for its enjoyment, form 
 the ultimate fact, so far as we are capable of investi- 
 gating it, the gravitating tendency of the human 
 mind; but Eeason, somewhat like the original im- 
 pulse, hypothetically assumed in the JSTewtonian phi- 
 losophy, as having been impressed upon the planetary 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 189 
 
 bodies for the purpose of controlling their centripetal 
 force, was designed so to regulate and restrain this 
 tendency, as to secure the harmony of the system. 
 
 It is therefore by exhibiting new views of things, 
 by taking an enlarged survey of the scene of human 
 character and destiny, by bringing the results of ex- 
 perience to bear upon the determinations of present 
 conduct, by removing the veil of futurity, so far as it 
 is the privilege of human sagacity, aided by all the 
 auxiliary lights that have been afforded, to remove it, 
 and by tracing actions to all their remote conse- 
 quences upon the happiness and security of the indi- 
 vidual, — it is by this train of operations that Eeason 
 exerts her supremacy in the exercises of human 
 liberty, so far as it is concerned in the creation of 
 fresh motives, and in the excitement of new volitions. 
 Who is not sensible — who has not a thousand times 
 experienced in his own mind, that the suggestion of 
 a new topic of consideration, the development of a 
 new order of results as likely to follow upon the pro- 
 posed act, or the communication of new intelligence, 
 has, by shifting the scene of contemplation, changed 
 the nature and tendency of his volitions, as related 
 to any object of pursuit, or any line of conduct, and 
 given a new direction to the whole current of his 
 preferences ? To deny that the Intellect does thus 
 indirectly operate upon the determinations of the 
 Will, is to oppose the immediate testimony of every 
 man's experience, no dictate of which is more clear 
 and certain, than that the exercises of volition are 
 very materially modified, and in many instances en- 
 tirely transformed by those inquiries and delibera- 
 
190 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 tions, the capacity to engage in which, enters into 
 the very essence, and forms the very definition of 
 Eeason, as an endowment of the hmnan character. 
 
 To argue against such a fact with some degree of 
 plausibility, to entangle it in a net of logical subtilty 
 and metaphysical sophistry, indeed, we deem to be 
 possible, as many have written elaborate treatises, 
 which it requires no small measure of philosophical 
 acumen to refute, to prove that matter does not exist. 
 But we hold it to be equally impossible to convince 
 any man of reflecting mind, unbiassed by theory, 
 that there is no material universe, as it is to persuade 
 him that he cannot reason himself into numberless 
 volitions by the mere energy of his intellectual 
 faculty, applied to the investigation of those actions 
 and pursuits which are most conducive to happiness, 
 and with which is connected the enjoyment of the 
 greater good. We find, in truth, that it is this very 
 appeal to our reason and understanding, through the 
 medium of rewards and punishments, which Jehovah 
 himself is pleased to employ, for exciting such voli- 
 tions, and creating such motives in the mind, as may 
 at least have a natural tendency to secure the practice 
 of virtue, and the pursuit of " glory, and honour, and 
 immortality," 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 191 
 
 Section X. 
 
 The Prerogative Power op Reason extends over the whole 
 
 RANGE OF the CHARACTER. 
 
 In further illustration of the leading princij)le advo- 
 cated in the preceding pages, as constituting the 
 main pillar of the freedom essential to moral agency, 
 as inherent in the character of man, we observe that 
 this prerogative of Eeason extends in a manner more 
 or less influential over the whole range of the mind 
 and conduct of every individual possessed of the un- 
 fettered use of his faculties. This appears obvious 
 from the fact universally acknowledged, — that when 
 we witness any very remarkable deviation from the 
 established laws of human character, whether it be in 
 thought, or feeling, or action, we conclude, in accord- 
 ance with the general sentiments of mankind, that 
 such an individual has lost that mastery, which we 
 assume that sound Reason was capable of exercising 
 over these parts of his nature. When we see a per- 
 son run into such extravagances of mind or conduct, 
 as are utterly inconsistent with the supposition of a 
 sane and well-ordered intellect, we consider such 
 an one as no longer legally or morally accountable 
 for his behaviour; we regard him as one who has lost 
 the essential and distinctive principle of liberty, as 
 involving responsible agency. And what is the 
 faculty — what is the peculiar intellectual or mental 
 operation in which we view him as deficient? In 
 what department of his character do we consider him 
 to have failed ? In what part of the system has that 
 
192 THE FACULTY OP VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 disorganization taken place^ on the ground of Avliich 
 we no longer deem him a proper subject of reward or 
 punishment, of virtuous merit, or of guilt and moral 
 delinquency ? It is not that any one of his affections 
 has been paralyzed: it is not that he has lost the 
 power to love and to hate, to hope or to fear. It is 
 not that he has become incapable of glowing with 
 desire, or of being infuriated with rage. The capacity 
 of being warmed with such affections, of being trans- 
 ported by such passions, and of being torn by tumul- 
 tuous and conflicting emotions, he may possess, in- 
 deed, in a far greater degree than was the case, prior 
 to the melancholy catastrophe, Avhicli has befallen 
 him. i^or is it any decay of bodily health or strength, 
 any diminution of physical energy, for this endow- 
 ment also may remain unto him unimpaired. He 
 may, moreover, in many things, have much acuteness 
 and sagacity. The extreme irritability and high ex- 
 citement, of which he has become susceptible, may 
 occasionally give a quickness of apprehension, a rapi- 
 dity of conception, and a felicity of combination, far 
 exceeding the usual order of his mental operations. 
 But he has evidently lost his control over these 
 vigorous and energetic powers. It is obvious that 
 he cannot command them. He wants the magic 
 wand, wherewith these mighty spirits may be laid 
 and kept within those bounds of propriety and equity, 
 to which, in all their movements, they should be 
 restrained. He wants that commanding and all-per- 
 vading faculty which might cause the rest to blend 
 their exercises in one delightful and harmonious 
 play of operations ; and that faculty, experience, ob- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 193 
 
 servation, and the universal usage of mankind agree 
 in representing to be the faculty of Eeason. It is 
 the loss of this, which constitutes the awful malady of 
 mental aberration. It is the -want of the due strength, 
 or exercise of this, that occasions every irregularity in 
 feeling and action. It is the overthrow of this that 
 shatters the whole system of moral agency, and, to 
 all accountable purposes, overturns the whole fabric 
 of human liberty. 
 
 Section XI. 
 
 The Theory of Suggestion destructive of accountable 
 Agency. 
 
 In a late extensive and, in many respects, very 
 valuable system of mental philosophy, a theory has 
 been advanced and developed, with great ingenuity 
 of reasoning, and occasionally with much eloquence 
 of style, by which the faculty of volition, in addition 
 to many other supposed principles of the human 
 mind, w^hich it professedly labours to disprove and 
 supersede, appears to me to be utterly annihilated. 
 Among the original qualities of the mind of man, 
 it is said by the author of the very elaborate inves- 
 tigation, of which this theory forms a part, that 
 there is a tendency in one state of thought or feel- 
 ing, to give rise to another, connected wdth the for- 
 mer by some tie of proximity or resemblance. This 
 tendency to excite congenial or contrasted ideas, he 
 terms the faculty of Suggestion, wdiich he divides 
 into simple and relative. That there does exist a 
 
 o 
 
194 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 mysterious aptitude in one idea to give rise to 
 anotlier, which is related to it in the way of simi- 
 litude or contrast, is unquestionable, and it has 
 generally been referred to a principle of the mind 
 called that of Association; but this author, by what 
 he conceives to be a nicer and more accurate ana- 
 lysis, annihilates that as well as many other powers, 
 such as those of attention, memory, and imagination, 
 which had been considered in former systems as 
 original elements of the mental constitution, and 
 resolves all their phenomena into that, which he calls 
 the faculty of Suggestion. In his reasoning upon 
 the doctrines of the association of ideas we are of 
 opinion that this acute and very eloquent writer 
 utterly fails, and that his argument proceeds alto- 
 gether upon a false and unwarrantable assumption. 
 He seems to consider the doctrine of the associ- 
 ation of ideas as involving the fact that the ideas, 
 between which this relation subsists, must have 
 co-existed together in the mind, in the very form 
 and manner in which the one afterwards suggests 
 the other, in order that this affinity may be formed, 
 and that the subsequent suggestion of the one by 
 the other, is nothing more than a recognition of 
 a former acquaintance. But who ever thought of 
 such a co-existence as necessary to the excitement 
 of one idea or emotion, on account of some like- 
 ness or striking contrariety it has to some former 
 idea or emotion*? AVe had always considered the 
 phrase of association of ideas as meaning nothing 
 
 Vitlc Broavn's Fhilosophi/ of the Iluman Mind. Lect. 40, &c. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 195 
 
 more than that one idea had an aptitude indeed to 
 excite another, on the ground of some resemblance, 
 analogy, or contrast, and that in the mind there 
 was a natural susceptibility of such a combination 
 of associate conceptions or emotions, just as the 
 sound of thunder generally follows the flash of light- 
 ning; but, surely, without supposing that the two 
 ideas must have before existed at the same instant 
 in the mind. It is quite enough that the two ideas 
 have ever existed at all in the mind, and under any 
 modification, which is sufficiently specific to lay the 
 foundation of a relationship more or less direct, in 
 order to answer all the demands of the doctrine of 
 association properly understood. Any other con- 
 nexion represented as subsisting between such ideas 
 is altogether arbitrary. 
 
 But the error, which the theory of suggestion as 
 propounded by this author involves respecting the 
 phraseology of association of ideas, is trifling, in 
 comparison of the enormous length, to which it is 
 carried in reference to the faculty of volition, and the 
 liberty of human thought. According to the hy- 
 pothesis so confidently stated, and so plausibly and 
 eloquently advocated by this philosopher, the human 
 mind is merely a sort of channel, through which there 
 flows an incessant stream of feelings and ideas sug- 
 gesting and propelling each other, like the particles 
 of water in a current, or the successive portions of 
 time, in a manner altogether independent of any 
 exercise of Will; or to change the simile, it may be 
 regarded as a mere mirror, which reflects in suc- 
 cession the various forms and appearances of things, 
 
 o 2 
 
19G THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 that by a regular la'.v of nature pass over its sur- 
 face, but utterly excluding every notion of voluntary 
 control over any one part of the series. The theory 
 represents it as absurd to suppose that the faculty 
 of volition can have anything to do in the pro- 
 cess, because before any idea can be willed into 
 existence, independently of this established and 
 immutable law of spontaneous suggestion, it must 
 have already existed. It is a consequence, spring- 
 ing quite naturally from this representation, that, 
 in the formation of a system of opinions upon 
 any subject, the mind is altogether passive, and is 
 bound to receive, with meek submission, whatever 
 the all-controlling and unaccountable power of sug- 
 gestion may deign to exhibit to its view. Difference 
 of opinion, therefore, is a necessary and unavoidable 
 effect, because the suggesting principle differs, in 
 its strength and direction, in different individuals. 
 The train of ideas, which unitedly constitutes the 
 chain of evidence in a process of investigation, 
 whether mathematical and demonstrative, or moral 
 and analogical, forms and generates itself in the 
 mind by a law of suggestion as firm and necessary in 
 itself, and in a manner as entirely independent of any 
 exertion 'of will on the part of the investigator, as 
 any order of phenomena or physical successions esta- 
 blished in the economy of nature. To suppose the 
 intervention of any operation of volition, in calling 
 into existence, in modifying the character, or in con- 
 trolling and regulating the direction of this series 
 of views, for the due rise and progress of which 
 nature has already provided, by a law as certain 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND ^ECESSITl'. 1 97 
 
 and unvarying as any process of chemical combina- 
 tion or decomposition, is deemed an utter absurdity, 
 inasmuch as the slightest voluntary effort in search 
 of any new idea, as a medium of demonstration 
 and conviction, implies the existence of that idea 
 already in the mind. The discovery of the relation 
 of two remote idea<, therefore, is not owing to any 
 peculiar faculty of finding out by a voluntary search 
 such media of proof as may demonstrate that rela- 
 tion, but is altogether dependent upon the simple 
 fact, that these necessary media happen to rise in 
 the mind, at the proper and exact conjuncture, 
 which fact is entirely to be accounted for upon the 
 principle of the original law of suggestion. In this 
 view of the case, nothing can be more obvious than 
 that, in the process of intellectual investigation, and, 
 indeed, in the whole range of mental exercises, the 
 faculty of volition is altogether annihilated, except 
 as it may coexist in the form of a wish or desu-e 
 with the feelings or ideas, to which suggestion alone 
 gives rise. It is vain to say that volition is thus 
 combined and interwoven with the operations of 
 the suggesting tendency, while it is maintained that 
 every subsequent state of the mind is as necessarily 
 and regularly an effect of a preceding state, as the 
 growth of the physical and organic structure is 
 an effect of that law of expansion, which was 
 originally impressed upon the bodily constitution. 
 The desire or delight that may accompany the deve- 
 lopment of the mental phenomena, can no more 
 attach to them a voluntary, moral, and accountable 
 character, than the same emotions associated with 
 
198 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS COMECTED 
 
 the evolution of the bodily organs, can impart the 
 same character to the results of assimilation and 
 nutrition. Such feelings never can make it a virtue 
 that the corporeal trunk should rise in an upright 
 direction, hj a vrell arranged superposition of par- 
 ticles, and that the various branches which shoot 
 forth out of it, should form themselves into a size 
 and shape of sj^nmetry, because such a disposition 
 of the aggregate atoms, constituting the physical 
 system, is a just and legitimate object of desire; 
 nor again, on the other hand, can they render it a 
 vice that there should be any remarkable defect in 
 any of these formations. Wlien the exercise, or at 
 least the capacity of exercising a controlling and 
 commanding power of Will is excluded, except as it 
 may exist in the form of an accompanying and unin- 
 fluential appendage — as, in fact, a mere colouring of 
 the sentiment, or emotion, the substance of which is 
 altogether independent of it, liberty, morality, and 
 responsibility, must surely be altogether neutralized. 
 And in truth the philosophy of mind is in this 
 respect, to a very considerable extent, entirely con- 
 sistent with itself. It is freely conceded, rather it 
 is unhesitatingly advanced with much specious 
 candour and benevolence by the author of the 
 Theory under consideration, that diversity of 
 opinion upon the most important points is the 
 necessary, and, therefore, blameless result of that 
 constitution of mind, which he endeavours to prove ; 
 and that this diversity will be in exact proportion 
 to the diversity of strength, or weakness, or spon- 
 taneous tendency belonging to the suggesting prin- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 19D 
 
 ciple. In one man, the state of the mind is such 
 as that Avithout any availing, or, indeed, possible 
 agency or intervention of Will, another state is 
 suggested, or another idea or train of ideas called to 
 the view, just as the state of one body is such as 
 to grow stout, and the state of another such as to 
 grow tall. And if choice was altogether excluded 
 in the nature of the ideas, or the media of evidence 
 and proof, which presented themselves to the mind, 
 or in the measure of the influence, Avhich these ideas 
 exerted upon the judgment, it is obvious, that the 
 last result — the deliberate opinion formed upon any 
 subject, however vital and important, is equally out 
 of the control of the Will, and, therefore, exempt 
 from anything, which can attach to it a character 
 of liberty or responsibility, of guilt or blame. And 
 if opinions are thus involuntary, and, therefore, 
 out of the jurisdiction of morality and account- 
 ableness, Avhy may not feelings, principles, actions, 
 every element in short, which enters into the con- 
 stitution of the character of man, be equally so? 
 The class of emotions, it is allowed, quite as much 
 as that of ideas or intellectual states, are subject to 
 the very same law of suggestion in its various 
 modifications of simple and relative. Upon this 
 scheme the natural and unavoidable order of human 
 character and conduct appears to be this — The state 
 of the mind, at any given period, is such as to 
 suggest certain opinions. — These opinions, when 
 thoroughly matured, suggest principles; for Avhat, 
 indeed, are principles but established opinions? 
 Principles thus formed suggest strong feelings, Avhere 
 
200 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 tlie question is such as can engage and interest the 
 feelings; and feelings, as every one knows, when 
 they become predominant in the mind, operate 
 as motives, and suggest actions congenial AAith 
 themselves. Throughout the whole series of these 
 suggestions, as they relate to the character of man, 
 there does not appear to be a single point, at 
 which the moral faculty of volition can introduce 
 its influence, interpose its power, and effectually 
 break the chain. So that allowing the principle of 
 suggestion its full sway, as maintained in this 
 Theory, over the sentiments and emotions of every 
 kind, virtue and vice are at once excluded from the 
 universe. It is to no purpose to say that there is in 
 every human breast a feeling of approbation of vir- 
 tue, and disapprobation of vice, which in reality are 
 but another phraseology for the principle of a moral 
 sense, for this approbation or disapprobation involves 
 the notion of some standard of right and wrong ; in 
 accordance with which the individual knows and feels 
 that he ought and had free choice to regulate his 
 thoughts, feelings, and actions, so far as they can be 
 objects of a moral estimate. 
 
 The notion of " self-approveableness" as consti- 
 tuting the only ohligation to the practice of morality 
 and religion, indeed we consider as replete with ab- 
 surdity, and if carried to its legitimate consequences 
 as utterly subversive of the very basis of religion and 
 all accountable agency. We should be sorry to 
 charge such an intention upon the very amiable and 
 ingenious individual, Avho is the author of this hy- 
 pothesis, which is, indeed, very closely allied to the 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 201 
 
 theory of a moral sense as advocated by his country- 
 man Dr. Hutchcson. That there is in human nature 
 as originally formed, and as subsequently influenced 
 by the established order of the divine government^ a 
 principle, which, unless grievously perverted by evil 
 habits and circumstances, sounds in unison with the 
 will of God as the last standard of right, we are fully 
 persuaded. But this principle, in the present state of 
 our nature, is far too unsteady and fluctuating in its 
 operatic ns, and carries too little authority in its sanc- 
 tions to be regarded as forming the sole obligation 
 to virtue. To suppose that man is accountable to no 
 other tribunal than his own feelings of approbation or 
 the reverse, is, indeed, to adapt the rule of morality 
 to the varying views and susceptibilities of mankind, 
 according to the endless diversity of circumstances 
 under which they may be placed. When the author 
 of the Theory supposes himself pressed with this 
 difficulty, he is in fact forced to have recourse to the 
 very system of utility, which he had combated with 
 so much eloquence, as that which alone could save 
 him from the unavoidable difficulties of his own. 
 Wlien he feels himself called upon to account for the 
 fact, that a Hindoo will destroy his OAvn parent or child 
 with an emotion of most entire self-approveableness, 
 and with an undoubting persuasion that he has per- 
 formed a meritorious act, an act, therefore, Avhich upon 
 the author's hypothesis, he was under an obligation to 
 perform as much as any other duty could be binding 
 upon him; in order to relieve this deluded individual 
 from a charge of demerit, he is obliged to represent 
 this act, as generally considered by the members of 
 
202 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 that community^ to be calculated to promote the 
 advantage of the Avhole ; and what is this but to shift 
 the obligation of virtue from self-approveableness, 
 and to fix it upon utility* ? 
 
 It is with great reluctance and unfeigned regret 
 that we have offered these remarks upon what we 
 regard as the most essential and defective parts of 
 unquestionably one of the ablest and most compre- 
 hensive systems of mental philosophy in any lan- 
 guage. The views of the author appear completely 
 wrong on the important questions of volition and 
 moral obligation; and hence, his scheme is lament- 
 ably defective with respect to the great foundations 
 of human responsibility. He seems to have no notion 
 of obligation as any thing external, to which the voice 
 within the breast is only required to respond; as any 
 thing imposed by a sovereign power, with which the 
 subject is bound to comply, so far as it is known 
 independently of any prior notions that may have 
 been formed in his own mindf . And hence, he never 
 once, so far as we can recollect, makes any direct 
 and impressive reference to a future state of punish- 
 ment, by which the violation of this rule of right will 
 be awfully resented, but uniformly speaks of death as 
 a mere transition into a scene of the most glorious 
 and transcendent felicity. He seems to take it quite 
 for granted, as altogether a matter of course, that 
 man, as soon as he has closed the present introduc- 
 
 * Lect, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, &c. (vol. iv.) See also note in a 
 former jiart of this volume. 
 
 f Vide Rev. Rokekt Hall's Sermon on Lifiddlty, pp. 21, 22, 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 203 
 
 tory period of his existence, will, without the least 
 doubt or hesitation, and without any specific refer- 
 ence to his past conduct, the delinquencies of which 
 seem to have been abundantly punished in the accom- 
 panying' feeling of '^•disapprobation," enter upon an 
 interminable career of blessedness, resulting from 
 moral and intellectual excellence. This is certainly 
 a flattering view of human destiny, doubtless far 
 more delightfid and animating, than the dark gulf 
 into which a cold and heartless infidelity plunges 
 the human soul. But is this precisely the vicAv, is 
 this promiscuous and unquestioning felicity, as the 
 universal lot of mankind, exactly the notion sugges- 
 ted by the Christian Eevelation? A transition from 
 the eloquent pages of this author to the no less 
 eloquent, but more sober pages of St. Paul, will fear- 
 fully prove the contrary. On the pages of the latter, 
 indeed, we meet with sublime announcements of 
 ^- glory, honour, and immortality;" but then this 
 lofty destiny is confined to those, who seek it by 
 faith, and love, and obedience to the will of God; to 
 those, who by patient continuance in well-doing, 
 labour to attain it. But to those, who obey not the 
 truth, but obey unrighteousness, are denounced, with 
 equal explicitness of language, " tribulation and an- 
 guish, indignation and wrath." It is, indeed, quite 
 a natural result, that when the responsibility of man 
 has been virtually, though we are persuaded uninten- 
 tionally destroyed and annihilated by a theory, which 
 resolves all mental exercises into a process of sug- 
 gestion, over which the faculty of AYill has no influ- 
 ence or control, the sin of man, if he is capable of 
 
204 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 sinning, should not be regarded as that heinous thing, 
 which demands any punishment beyond the transient 
 rebuke of a disapproving conscience. However short 
 of this extremity the professed views of persons be- 
 longing to that school of philosophy, which we are 
 now considering, may be, it is the inevitable conse- 
 quence of dethroning the Will from that dominion, 
 which, in subordination to enlightened Keason, it was 
 designed to exercise over the thoughts, affections, 
 and actions of every accountable being. 
 
 It is indeed a notion, independently of the theory 
 of suggestion just noticed, which has lately begun to 
 prevail in certain classes of men in this country, to 
 a most alarming, and I am persuaded, if allowed to 
 run into its natural consequences, most injurious 
 extent, — that man is in no degree accountable for 
 his opinions, and that they are the result of evidence, 
 which he can only honestly weigh, but in no respect 
 control or resist in its influence. This, like most other 
 extensive and mischievous errors, is engrafted upon 
 a great and unquestionable truth. It is, doubtless, 
 a truth founded in the very constitution of the human 
 mind, that when it is in a sound and healthy state, 
 evidence of a certain kind should command its assent, 
 and irresistibly stamp conviction upon it. It is also 
 a truth equally certain, and necessarily resulting 
 from the very same principles, that it cannot yield 
 its assent where it does not perceive an adequate 
 jrround of belief, arising either from the essential 
 nature of things, or from credible testimony and 
 authenticated tradition. In the theory of human 
 belief, therefore, we may consider these two points 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 205 
 
 as fundamental axioms — positively, that assent must 
 invariably follow proofs, wliicli appear undeniable, 
 and, negatively, that belief is impossible, where 
 suitable evidence is either altogether wanting, or 
 seems to preponderate on the opposite side of the 
 proposition offered to the judgment and understanding. 
 We may, therefore, safely grant, that rational belief 
 must always be in proportion to the apparent ground 
 of assent, and, consequently, that intellectual faith 
 or disbelief, viewed simply as an isolated act of the 
 mind, is entirely independent of any immediate 
 process of volition, and as such, destitute of all moral 
 character which can be considered as involving merit 
 or demerit. In the investigation of the media of 
 proof, the mind is unquestionably free, and nothing 
 can be, and in the economy of divine Eevelation 
 nothing is, attempted to be forced upon its reception 
 upon evidence, Avhich it is not allowed humbly and 
 modestly to discuss. And as it can admit nothing 
 without a proper reason, a reason of authority, de- 
 monstration, experiment, deduction, or of the various 
 degrees of probability and analogy, so it cannot do 
 otherwise than admit that, of which the evidence is 
 resistless and commanding, and of which the truth at 
 once flashes involuntary conviction upon the judgment. 
 This view of the case cannot be questioned with- 
 out denying the competency of the human mind to 
 conduct a process of argumentation, and to appre- 
 ciate the force of evidence altogether: for, unless 
 there be certain points necessary to its fidl satis- 
 faction, and, unless, moreover, there be some fixed 
 criteria which may be considered as the terminating 
 
206 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 limits of doubt and hesitation, to what purpose can it 
 be to prosecute the inquiry at all? But while we 
 freely concede this inseparable connexion between 
 evidence and assent in the system of human be- 
 lief, as a simple and general fact, as a pheno- 
 menon of our intellectual nature, which, like many 
 others, must be considered as a j^art of its origi- 
 nal character, do we therefore mean to admit the wide 
 and unlimited, and we do not hesitate to say, the 
 monstrous principle, that man is not in any degree 
 accountable for his opinions, and that, morally, it is 
 a matter of indiflPerence what he believes, and Avhat 
 he rejects, whether he acknowledges a divine Being, 
 or is besotted enough to deny his existence ? It is 
 indeed, astonishing, that any persons of sober under- 
 standing, persons who profess to have any regard for 
 morality and religion, should be so far blinded by the 
 blaze of a narrow and superficial philosophy, as to 
 allow themselves to propagate a notion, which, in its 
 direct and legitimate consequences, is so evidently 
 subversive of both. It is wonderful, as well as melan- 
 choly to hear, as the Avriter of this disquisition has 
 heard, an individual, eminently distinguished by his 
 learning and talents, avow in the presence of one of 
 the most respectable assemblies in the world, that he 
 considered it to be the fault of no man, though he 
 might deem it to be his misfortune, to be an Atheist*. 
 
 * The germ of this mischievous and antichristian speculation 
 
 is unquestionably to be found in the infidel philosophy. " The civil 
 
 wars which arose some few years ago in Morocco, betwixt the blacks 
 
 and ivkites, merely on account of their complexion, are founded on 
 
 very pleasant difterence. We laugh at them; but I believe, 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 207 
 
 Under a pretence of proving this futile as well as 
 most injurious notion, its advocates have frequent 
 recourse to the analogy of the senses, and to the 
 process of conviction, which results from mathe- 
 matical demonstration. But before these processes 
 and analogies can be of any value, and be ap- 
 plied with any legitimacy and propriety to questions 
 in whicli moral evidence is concerned, it is necessary, 
 that, in investigations of the latter kind, different 
 persons should believe and disbelieve, should re- 
 cognise and reject evidence with the same precise 
 uniformity as they would agree respecting the colours 
 of a landscape, or the relations of a triangle and 
 parallelogram. Upon matters of mere sensitive per- 
 ception or bare intellectual apprehension, where the 
 passions or the animal propensities can have no pos- 
 sible interest, and where, therefore, no danger exists, 
 that any extraneous disturbance should be given to 
 
 were things rightly examined, we afford much more occasion of 
 ridicule to the Moors. For, what are all the wars of religion which 
 have prevailed in this polite and knowing part of the world 1 They 
 are certainly more absurd than the Moorish civil wars. The 
 difference of complexion is a sensible and real difference; but the 
 difference about an article of faith, which is utterly absurd and 
 unintelligible, is not a difference of sentiments, but only a difference 
 of a few phrases and expressions which one party accepts of, with- 
 out understanding them ; and the other refuses in the same manner. 
 Besides, I do not find that the whites in Morocco ever imposed on 
 the blacks any necessity of altering their complexion, or threatened 
 them with inquisitions and penal laws in case of obstinacy ; nor 
 have the blacks been more unreasonable in this particular. But is 
 a man's opinion, where he is able to form a real opinion, more at 
 his disposal than his complexion? And can one be induced by 
 force or fear to do more than paint and disguise in the one case, as 
 well as in the other?" — Hume's Essays, Ess. 7, vol. i. 
 
203 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 the judgments and decisions of the mind, men in 
 general believe and disbelieve alike, and they cannot 
 often act otherwise without attempting to belie their 
 own convictions, and without appearing unto them- 
 selves to be guilty of absurdity; and as in these 
 cases there is little or no discretionary power to be 
 exercised in assenting or dissenting, and no direct 
 practical question of moral conduct involved, there is, 
 so far, no responsibility attached to the opinion, Avhether 
 negative or positive, whether true or false. But in 
 questions of a moral and practical nature, questions 
 which, in their various bearings, touch the conduct at 
 every point, and are liable to encounter the collision 
 of passions and interests, at every step, in the whole 
 range of their discussion, and of which the evidence, 
 moreover, is of necessity of that kind which is called 
 probable, the case is very different. That a sun 
 shines in the firmament of heaven, every person who 
 possesses the faculty of vision readily grants, for, 
 independently of the force of evidence Avhich he feels 
 that without absurdity he cannot possilsly resist, the 
 fact is such as cannot in any considerable degree 
 interfere with the dictates of pride, or the propen- 
 sities of passion. It is also freely conceded by most 
 of those who can appreciate the process of demon- 
 stration and the mode of proof, that the angles at 
 the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to each 
 other; but, as has been truly remarked, if the 
 admission of the principles and truths of mathe- 
 matical science interfered so materially with the 
 gratifications of human passion as those of religion 
 are found to do, it may be seriously doubted whether 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 209 
 
 persons might not take upon them to dispute some 
 of the clearest conclusions of that most conclusive 
 of all sciences. It is not at all improbable that 
 individuals might be found who would undertake to 
 show that what had been usually considered as 
 unquestionable axioms, and what had been generally 
 deemed as legitimate inferences deduced from those 
 axioms, were nothing more than popular prejudices, 
 which the philosopher was bound to reject, in order 
 to make way for principles of more established truth. 
 In fact, the science of quantity itself, with all its 
 precision, has not been without its controversies, as 
 is evident, to instance in no other, from some parts 
 of the protracted discussion carried on between the 
 celebrated Leibnitz and the learned Dr. Clarke as 
 the advocate of the philosophy of [N'ewton*. AMien 
 prejudice, passion, and the love of fame have obtained 
 
 * The difficulty attendant upon those mathematical demonstra- 
 tions, which involve the method of infinite series, is very plausibly 
 stated in the following passage by Hume. " The chief objection 
 against all abstract reasonings is derived from the ideas of space 
 and time; ideas which, in common life, and to a careless view, 
 are very clear and intelligible, but when they pass through the 
 scrutiny of the profound sciences (and they are the chief objects of 
 these sciences), afford principles which seem full of absurdity and 
 contradiction. No priestly dogmas, invented on purpose to tame 
 and subdue the rebellious reason of mankind, ever shocked common 
 sense more than the doctrine of the infinite divisibility of extension, 
 with its consequences; as they are pompously displayed by all 
 geometricians and metaphysicians, with a kind of triumph and 
 exultation. A real quantity, infinitely less than any finite quan- 
 tity, containing quantities infinitely less than itself, and so on, in 
 infinitum ; this is an edifice so bold and prodigious, that it is too 
 weighty for any pretended demonstration to support, because it 
 shocks the clearest and mo5t natural principles of human reason." 
 
 P 
 
 .. or -THE ^ 
 
210 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 complete possession of the mind, they haA^e been 
 found sometimes so to pervert the judgment, and 
 to blind the intellect, as to destroy the capacity 
 of distinguishing between the plainest truth and the 
 most palpable error; and if, in matters of science 
 and speculative knowledge, men are thus liable, under 
 the influence of various habits and predilections, to 
 run into the grossest absurdities and inconsistencies, 
 how much more likely are they to have their senti- 
 ments and opinions warped and diverted from the 
 point of rectitude and truth, upon questions which 
 enter with the keenest scrutiny into the whole 
 scheme of their conduct, and bear with an awful 
 weight of responsibility upon the whole estimate of 
 their character. It is not more clear, or more cer- 
 tain, as a matter of fact, that a sun exists in the 
 firmament, and is suspended in the ethereal expanse, 
 than it is that there must have existed a Being 
 of transcendent powder and wisdom, who originally 
 created that glorious luminary, and fixed it in its 
 appropriate sphere. But it is not so difficult, and 
 requires by no means so high an order of moral 
 feeling to acknowledge the former of these facts 
 as the latter, because the one stands completely 
 removed from all connexion with the conduct and 
 with the general course of the habits and affections ; 
 while the other, by the intimate relation which it 
 sustains to human destiny, arrays against itself a host 
 of evil passions and prejudices, which are eager to 
 banish it from the field of contemplation, and to 
 dislodge it from its hold upon the intellect, the 
 heart, and the conscience. While, therefore, the 
 
WITH LIBERTY ^^D NECESSITY. 211 
 
 denial of the existence of the magnificent orb of 
 day might only be regarded as an aberration of 
 judgment, as foolish, preposterous, and absurd, the 
 denial of the existence of Him who is the Sun of 
 the universe which he has made, would be justly 
 esteemed in a mind capable of estimating appro- 
 priate and adequate evidence, criminal and morally 
 depraved. 
 
 We are at issue with those who maintain the 
 strange and untenable notion, that man is not 
 accountable for his opinions upon questions of 
 theology and religion, not from any wish to cramp 
 the freedom, and to confine the legitimate range of 
 the human mind, not from any narrowness of idea 
 resembling that which brought the illustrious phi- 
 losopher of Florence upon his knees, before the 
 tribunal of the inquisition, because he had been 
 guilty of the heinous crime of discovering facts in 
 natural science, which seemed to oppose the creed of 
 the Catholic Church, as supported by the authority 
 of Aristotle, but, because we are persuaded that 
 the principle, as propagated by modern theorists, 
 is far too extensive and unqualified to admit of its 
 being received without absurdity as well as danger. 
 The notion that man may embrace any principle, 
 or reject all principles of religion, however essential 
 and fundamental, without any derogation to his cha- 
 racter or diminution of his virtue, must surely be 
 seen by all refiecting minds, to strike at the very 
 root of the obligations of religion. The source of 
 the error appears to be this. It generally com- 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 mences with the assumption of this axiom of moral 
 truth, that the mind cannot resist evidence, which 
 appears convincing, and that it is bound to yield its 
 assent only to such evidence; and much flimsy 
 declamation is employed to prove and illustrate a 
 fact, which no person of reflection can for a moment 
 deny. But by a process of dexterous sophistry, it 
 is immediately subjoined, that belief being thus an 
 involuntary act, whatever direction it may take, 
 w^hatever truths it may sacrifice, and whatever 
 heresy it may adopt and cherish, is altogether free 
 from any possible imputation of blame, so that, in 
 fact, every principle of faith or disbelief is perfectly 
 innocent to him, to whom it merely appears to be 
 true, or the reverse. But surely such persons ought 
 to consider, that it is the state of the mind, the pre- 
 vious habit and condition of the intellectual and 
 moral faculties, which gives this appearance of truth 
 or falsehood to the proposition rejected or believed. 
 Let it be granted that man is not accountable for 
 the simple act of the understanding in receiving or 
 rejecting a principle proposed, does it follow that 
 he is not accountable for that corrupt and depraved 
 state of heart, from which alone such a conclusion 
 as he has drawn in reference to that principle could 
 have been derived? Are they such superficial in- 
 vestigators of the human mind as to require to 
 be reminded that man believeth and disbelieveth in 
 moral questions still more with the heart than with 
 the understanding, and that there are many fun- 
 damental principles of religion Avliich no man can 
 
WITH LIBEKTY AM) NECESSFFY. 213 
 
 reject without betraying the grossest obliquity of feel- 
 ing, and, consequently, without incurring an awful 
 measure of guilt and criminality ? 
 
 If, indeed, the principles of religion found the 
 mind in a state as free and unbiassed by previous 
 tendencies and susceptibilities — as prepared to give 
 them a candid and impartial examination, and, if 
 they make good their claim to the satisfaction of 
 an unprejudiced understanding, to welcome them 
 into the cordial embrace of the affections, as it 
 generally is for the investigation and admission of 
 the truths of physical or abstract science, then it 
 might be granted that opinions upon this most im- 
 portant and influential of all questions, would be 
 less under the control of the Will, and, consequently, 
 would involve a less measure of moral account- 
 ability. But nothing short of an absolute and uni- 
 versal exemption from everything that is unfavour- 
 able to the reception of truth, can be of the least 
 avail towards cutting off that department of the 
 intellectual nature from a liability to the contraction 
 of guilt. It is necessar}', not only that there be a 
 present love of truth, in general, but it is also 
 necessary that there should be no indisposition, 
 resulting from former habits of feeling and conduct, 
 voluntarily indulged, for the due influence of the 
 peculiar kind of evidence, by which that truth comes 
 authenticated — habits which, in their aggregate effect, 
 may be considered as having formed the character 
 and limited the capabilities of the mind. It is neces- 
 sary that no proud and overweening conceit of a 
 superficial and arrogant philosophy should have been 
 
214 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 harboured in the judgment, and rolled as a sweet 
 morsel upon the tongue, until it has utterly disquali- 
 fied the understanding for an equitable estimate of 
 the claims of Avhat must be regarded as humiliating 
 to the dignity of man, and derogatory to the para- 
 mount authority of reason — that no corrupt passion 
 shoukl have been wilfully indulged, or the desire of 
 indulging it been cherished, until its own base humour 
 has become, as it were, the medium of refraction and 
 transmission to every object and scene of contempla- 
 tion, which offers itself to the eye of the intellect, 
 and consequently incapacitated that eye for the per- 
 ception of what is pure and refined — that no notions 
 of latitudinarian indifference, fostered by a desire of 
 being freed from all shackles of religion, and being 
 allowed to pursue, without disquietude or remorse, 
 the line of conduct which interest or ambition may 
 dictate, should have so numbed the moral sensibili- 
 ties and paralyzed the faculty of serious reflection, 
 as to produce a total apathy to what is awakening, 
 and an equal intolerance of what is binding — and 
 finally, that no course of reading should have been 
 pursued, of an inevitable tendency to darken and 
 bewilder the mind and to produce an inaptitude for 
 the fair and legitimate investigation of the proofs of 
 a divine communication having been made to man, 
 and that no association with minds of an ascendant 
 influence and sceptical turn of thought should have 
 been cultivated, until the Avhole mass of the intellec- 
 tual character has now been cast into such a mould, 
 and formed into such a firm and settled order of 
 belief, or disbelief, upon the points proposed for 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 215 
 
 inquiry, as to render it almost entirely imimpressible 
 by any arguments that can be advanced in behalf of 
 an opposite and less compromising system of princi- 
 ples. Let this sublime phenomenon of unprejudiced 
 and unbiassed reason be produced — this abstraction 
 of pure intellect among the men of liberal and free 
 inquiry, as they would characterize themselves, and 
 we will readily grant, that such a mind, though it 
 errs, will err without blame. Over the conclusions 
 of such an inquirer we will allow that the AYill may 
 have no immediate control. But until such an indi- 
 vidual be found, and we are not very sanguine in the 
 hope of such a discovery in the present state of 
 human nature, it is the merest sophistry to lay hold 
 of a generality, — such as that assent must invariably 
 be proportioned to the force of evidence, and upon 
 this vague ground to introduce the monstrous anomaly 
 into the system of the divine government of man, 
 that opinions, however, rash and extravagant — how- 
 ever directly they may strike at the very existence 
 and authority of a supreme Being, pro^dded only 
 they assume the appearance of truth, are completely 
 out of the range of moral responsibility. This is 
 just as if it was maintained, that because man is not 
 accountable for what he does, while he is destitute of 
 the power of rational self-control, which is unques- 
 tionably true as a general principle, he is, therefore, 
 not responsible for the acts, which he commits in a 
 state of intoxication. It is true, that the action 
 simply considered as performed by one, who had no 
 direct consciousness of what he was doing, may not 
 involve moral turpitude, but then it derives, in a 
 
216 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 manner, a twofold measure of turpitude from the 
 circumstance of his having vokmtarily reduced him- 
 self to a condition, which thus deprived him of the 
 dignity of a moral being. In the same manner, 
 although it be granted, that false opinions, upon the 
 fundamental points of religion, may not have any 
 guilt attached unto them simply as notions adopted 
 upon what assumes the appearance of adequate proof, 
 or upon the want of a perception of the proofs, which 
 would lead to different conclusions, yet the grand 
 verities of Christianity are so clear, so important, so 
 paramount in their evidence and authority, that no 
 man can reject them without having fallen into a 
 state of moral intoxication, arising from some of the 
 causes alread}^ mentioned. The operation of these 
 or similar causes, therefore, may always be taken for 
 granted, when opinions are formed subversive of the 
 whole system of religion, as the instrument of God's 
 moral government. And consequently, however 
 blameless and irresponsible they are in themselves 
 as exemplifications of a general principle, they involve 
 in their grounds and sources the most awful measure 
 of guilt and moral pravity. It is in vain, therefore, 
 to attempt to hide the deformity of those notions 
 under the shelter of a loose generality, because, in 
 this instance, the very condition is wanting, upon 
 which alone it can be legitimately applied*. 
 
 * " Perhaps the most absurd and injurious adage that has ever 
 gained currency among mankind is, that it is no difference what a 
 man believes, if he only bo sincere; now the truth is, that the more 
 sincerely a man believes a falsehood, the more destructive it is to 
 all his interests for time and for eternity." — Philosophy of the Flan 
 of Salvation, (p. 107.) 
 
WITH LIBERTY A>'D NECESSITY. 217 
 
 'KoY arc the consequences necessarily resulting 
 from this theory of opinions less forcibly demonstra- 
 tive of its futility and danger than the process by 
 which opinions upon questions of theology and 
 religion are formed. Let it be considered for a 
 moment, what must be the natural result of ad- 
 mitting that the opinions or judgments of the mind 
 do not fall under the cognizance of a moral law, and 
 bear no relation of responsibility to that law. The 
 natural order, in which the elements of the human 
 character combine and form themselves into some- 
 Avhat of a pal]3able and consolidated shape, is some- 
 thing like the following. Images of external objects, 
 which Locke calls ideas of sensation, are received 
 into the mind. These by various processes of combi- 
 nation, arrangement, and comparison, which the same 
 illustrious author denominates ideas of reflection, give 
 rise to sentiments and opinions. These views of the 
 mind again, if they relate to objects which concern 
 the feelings and conduct, pass into principles and 
 established maxims, embodying the most powerful 
 affections of the soul as their strength and support. 
 And when the sentiments and affections, Avhen the 
 views of the intellect, and the feelings of the heart 
 have been thus engaged and made to concentrate in 
 one point, or to direct their energies in one line of 
 operation, congenial actions are the necessary result. 
 We do not assert, indeed, that speculative opinions 
 are invariably attended v>ith these practical effects. 
 Li many instances they grievously fail, where it were 
 in the highest degree desirable that they should be 
 accompanied with such an influence. But the con- 
 
218 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 elusions of his deliberate judgment are assuredly the 
 most legitimate guide, which man may be expected 
 to follow in the regulation of his general conduct. 
 Upon points vrhich are necessarily interwoven with 
 the whole course of his actions, it can hardly be other- 
 wise than that the opinions, negative or positive, 
 which he has embraced, should operate, at least, in 
 some degree, in giving its direction to the general 
 stream of the practical conduct. 'No man can be 
 justly blamed for acting according to what he con- 
 scientiously believes to be right. The opposite con- 
 duct, that which is at variance with established views 
 of doctrine and duty, must be considered rather as an 
 infringement upon the general and natural economy 
 of the character ; and therefore failures and devia- 
 tions of this kind are not to be brought forward as 
 proofs of the innocence of any injurious notion, but, 
 at the best, can only be regarded as some slight 
 mitigations of its malignity. In estimating an opi- 
 nion, the proper method is, doubtless, to view it as 
 designed to be reduced to practice, where it can be 
 legitimately made to bear upon the practice. 
 
 Let us suppose, then, an individual to have come 
 to the conclusion, after a laborious and unbiassed 
 consideration of the subject in his own mind, that 
 there is no God — for this is the very case, which we 
 have heard one of the most distinguished cham- 
 jiions of the notion here combatted, asserting that he 
 deemed the misfortune rather than the fault of any 
 man. Let this be the firm conviction of his judg- 
 ment, after weighing the evidence on either side of 
 the (|uestion, with all the impartiality of which he 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 219 
 
 is master. Wc arc not allowing in point of fact, 
 that such a process of reasoning resulting in the 
 negative, can take place in any instance, but we 
 are merely arguing upon the principle of those 
 whom we oppose. It surely must be acknow- 
 ledged to follow, that such a person cannot be fairly 
 expected to feel and act, as those who believe that 
 such a Being, possessed of the glorious attributes of 
 power and wisdom, of justice and goodness, does 
 exist. Can he be justly required to love or to fear, 
 to reverence or to obey a Being, whose very exist- 
 ence he deliberately, and as he supposes upon 
 adequate evidence, disbelieves? The demand is 
 preposterous and absurd. It is obvious, that if he 
 would be consistent with himself, he must feel as he 
 thinks, and act as he feels, that is, he must live as 
 without God in the world, Avithout any other obliga- 
 tions to act, or to restrain himself from acting, than 
 those which the arbitrary laws of man may impose, 
 and which he may, therefore, deem rather a merit to 
 infringe, whenever his own pleasure or interest may 
 dictate it, and the infringement can be effectually 
 concealed. Such, Ave are persuaded, are the legiti- 
 mate, the unavoidable consequences in numberless 
 other instances that might be mentioned of the modern 
 philosophic theory, that man is not responsible for 
 his opinions. The sentiments of the mind, secretly, 
 and often imperceptibly, slide into principles and 
 affections of the heart; and by another transition, 
 equally natural and easy, these feelings of the heart 
 pass over into actions of the conduct : so that if 
 man is to be considered as accountable for the last. 
 
220 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 it follows that he is still more emphatically account- 
 able for the views and emotions from Avhich they 
 directly proceed. 
 
 It appears, then, that the Prerogative of Eeason, 
 as directing and controlling the exercises of the 
 AVill, extends indirectly, but Avith a powerful and 
 effectual influence, to the very opinions of the mind, 
 when those opinions are such as are founded upon 
 probable and moral evidence, and relate to matters 
 immediately connected with the character and con- 
 duct. Through the neglect of a due exercise of the 
 superintending power of Eeason and sound judg- 
 ment, guided by the light of revealed truth, notions 
 may be embraced, involving the highest degree of 
 guilt and criminality; and principles may be rejected, 
 which are indispensably necessary to the formation of 
 a devout and virtuous character. ]^s^or can this be 
 surprising, when it is borne in mind, that the faculty 
 of volition, guided by reason, can produce a con- 
 siderable eft'ect upon the very senses themselves, 
 which are supposed to be completely independent, in 
 their operations, of almost every species of voluntary 
 action. It is, however, an unquestionable fact, that 
 the most comprehensive and important of all the sen- 
 sitive organs is indebted, for all its useful and availing 
 exercises, to the discipline it receives from the com- 
 bined faculties of reason and volition. The most 
 superficial acquaintance with the science of optics is 
 sufficient to convince any one that the eye is merely 
 a material organ, which, in order to answer its end, 
 must be adapted in a variety of ways by the energy 
 of the will, directed by the experience of the judg- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 221 
 
 ment. Under this superintending influence, it readily 
 assumes the position, and performs the peculiar func- 
 tion which is necessary to the particular kind of 
 vision and perception, which the mind desires to 
 exercise. It is habit, guided by voluntary experience, 
 which enables the eye to adapt its focus to objects 
 comparatively near or remote — to determine the 
 form of objects as plane, concave, or convex — as lon- 
 gitudinal, circular, or angular, and numberless other 
 points, without which the mere capability of trans- 
 mitting the celestial fluid, if a fluid there really exists, 
 to the branch of nerves constituting the retina, 
 would be comparatively useless and unimportant. In 
 the case of the sense of Taste, the same remark is 
 applicable to a very considerable extent. At the 
 first view, there is nothing which Avould seem more 
 arbitrary, and more perfectly uncontrollable by any 
 dictate of Eeason, or any tendency and desire of 
 Will. In the literal as Avell as metaphorical sense of 
 the expression, taste is one of those susceptibilities 
 of human nature, of the direction and peculiar bias 
 of which it seems to be generally acknowledged that 
 no account can be given. It seems to vindicate, in 
 its preferences and dislikes, a stern independence, not 
 only of the wishes, the counsels, and suggestions of 
 others, but at first, even of the sober and deliberate 
 judgment, and of the eager anxious desires and voli- 
 tions of the individual himself. But yet, who is not 
 aware that, by steady perseverance, by a firm and 
 enlightened exercise of the commanding faculties 
 of Reason and Will, predilections the most powerful, 
 and antipathies the most decided, will learn to give 
 
222 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 way; that the most insipid viand, or even the most 
 nauseous drug, will, by this long course of habit, be- 
 come palatable, and the most uninteresting plainness 
 of feature assume the character of comparative beauty 
 and attractiveness? The reason why the various 
 emotions of taste, in the most comprehensive accepta- 
 tion of the term, are in general considered so capri- 
 cious and invincible, and in many cases so ludicrous 
 and eccentric, is, that few persons have the wisdom 
 to repress their irregular tendencies in their incipient 
 stages, or the resolution to maintain the contest of 
 sound judgment against them, until a complete victory 
 has been obtained. It is always in the power of the 
 Will, if it steadily exerts its authority, to reduce 
 every modification of taste so far under its dominion, 
 as to secure its accordance with the principles and 
 decisions of Eeason. 
 
 Section XII. 
 The Influence of Reason as it relates to the Affections. 
 
 The Prerogative of Reason also, as the guide and 
 controller of the Will, extends in a great measure 
 over the affections of the heart. If the opinions of 
 the mind are subject to such a law of necessity as 
 exempts them from all responsibility, it is remark- 
 able that the same privilege, if privilege it can 
 be deemed, has not been extended unto the affec- 
 tions also. In many speculative systems, indeed, 
 and in some of the ordinary forms of human speech, 
 this is necessarily implied. 'V\\o affections, assu- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 223 
 
 redly, yield themselves as readily to the impres- 
 sions and influences of what is attractive, as the 
 judgment to the evidence of what is convincing. 
 There are in human nature susceptibilities of feel- 
 ing, as well as susceptibilities of conviction; why, 
 then, are not the former as unaccountable and as 
 improper subjects of moral responsibility in all their 
 diversities of operation as the latter ? How are we 
 justified in making a distinction, where nature has 
 made none ? The necessity of something like con- 
 sistency in a theory, has di'iven some to the virtual 
 acknowledgment that man acts, or rather is acted 
 upon as irresistibly in his affections, as in his spe- 
 culative opinions. If this, however, be granted, to 
 what purpose is the commandment, " Thou shalt not 
 covet?" It is unquestionable that, in the very con- 
 stitution of human nature, there is a very strong 
 predilection for certain objects, and that in these 
 objects there are qualities, which are specifically 
 intended to caU that attachment into exercise. The 
 attraction is thus powerfid and immediate. But 
 does this really exempt the affections from respon- 
 sibility — from aU possibility of guilt or blame ? 
 Wliatever theoretical opinions men may form ugon 
 the question, and wiiatever their systems may force 
 them to grant, in their actual estimate of human 
 character, they maintain, as firmly as others, that 
 the feelings of the heart, where they can be clearly 
 ascertained, are not free from the obligations of 
 law, that they enter even into the very essence of 
 the punishableness of an action resulting from their 
 impulse. And experience proves the perfect equity 
 
224 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 of tlii.s view ; for however contrary to the reason 
 and will of an individual, whose mind is in an un- 
 disciplined and ill-governed state, the aftections 
 may sometimes run, yet it is certain that, in their 
 general direction, and well-regulated exercises, they 
 are subject to the entire control of those faculties. 
 Few of the affections are generally supposed to be 
 less swayed by the authority of the mere Will of 
 the individual, as guided by his judgment, than 
 that of the passion of love; and yet it is obvious, 
 that in the great majority of instances, this affection 
 acts in entire accordance with the decisions of 
 reason. If it were not that intellect and volition, 
 unitedly exerted, could 'control and regulate the 
 affections, so as to prevent them from being fixed 
 upon objects, the enjoyment of which could not be 
 lawfully attained, and to direct them to those which 
 were legitimately within the sphere of their pursuit, 
 there would be no criminality attached to passions 
 the most inordinate, and to emotions indulged in 
 direct opposition to every principle of right, and pro- 
 priety, and law ; and thus the pure and wholesome 
 streams of morality would be vitiated and poisoned 
 in^heir very fountains. 
 
 Section XIII. 
 
 The Actions op the Life subject to the contuol or Reason. 
 
 And if the affections, which constitute the moving 
 springs of human character, are thus under the 
 control of the rational faculty, in every well regu- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 225 
 
 lated mind, it follows, as a matter of com'se, that 
 the same power, as the guardian and director of 
 human liberty, should exercise a governing super- 
 intendence over the actions of the life. It is to out- 
 ward actions more palpably and obviously indeed 
 that freedom relates. If, however, the interior 
 operations of the mind are subject to such a neces- 
 sity as would virtually exclude all rational volition, 
 it is impossible that any real liberty should belong 
 to the acts of the conduct, for what are these acts 
 but the affections embodied, the opinions carried 
 into their practical consequences ? If at any point 
 of the series liberty fails and constraint is applied, 
 the morality of everything that is immediately con- 
 nected with that point is utterly destroyed. If the 
 freedom of that, in which human freedom essentially 
 consists, the unconstrained exercise of Eeason in 
 directing the Will to the choice of the greater good, 
 is neutralized, the responsibility of man, as the 
 subject of moral government, is at once annulled. 
 K the mind is not free to think, to desire, and to 
 love, it is impossible that the practical manifesta- 
 tions of these sentiments and emotions should 
 possess that character. The moment the actions 
 cease to be under the legitimate authority of the 
 understanding and judgment, they cease to be pro- 
 perly accountable and moral ; and the difference be- 
 tween the acts of a man, under the influence of 
 passion, and of one in a state of insanity, is, that the 
 former possessed the power of regulating his conduct 
 by Eeason, whereas in the latter that power was 
 extinct. 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 It is, therefore, a fundamental and most injurious 
 error in the several systems of necessity, whether 
 philosophical, or what may be termed theological, 
 to maintain that the mind operates under the im- 
 pulse of an influence, arising either from within or 
 without, which it can neither resist nor control, and 
 yet that the actions immediately flowing from that 
 mode of operation, are accountable and punishable. 
 It is a very inadequate explanation of the case, that 
 the actions thus punished, are performed with the 
 choice and consent of the Will, if that Will itself is 
 necessitated by inherent character, or by surrounding 
 circumstances, to choose and prefer as it does. It 
 is a very frequent and favourite method with those 
 who are called J^ecessitarians, to assert that their 
 system gives to man all the liberty which he is 
 capable of enjoying, inasmuch as it allows him, in 
 all cases, to act precisely as he pleases; but then 
 if, as they maintain, he is under an absolute neces- 
 sity of being thus pleased, it is only removing his 
 disability to act as a free agent a little further out 
 of sight. It is only hiding his manacles under a 
 specious garb of liberty, while, to all moral purposes, 
 he is still in chains. He must think and feel freely 
 in order to act freely. It is not contended that man 
 must be capable of choosing against his own choice, 
 for this were an absurdity; but it is indispensably 
 necessary to the freedom and accountableness of his 
 actions, that they should be the result of a prefer- 
 ence, to which his rational and intelligent nature, if 
 duly exercised, had the power of giving the negative. 
 If T^ecessitarians mean no more than that the Will 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 227 
 
 of man cannot determine itself to prefer in oppo- 
 sition to that, which it is ah-eady assumed that it 
 does prefer, they surely hold no more than every 
 reasonable man will readily grant. But their system 
 appears to involve much more. They seem to main- 
 tain that the volitions of man succeed each other in 
 the way of cause and effect, with the same absolute 
 uniformity as a process of chemical analysis is carried 
 on through the medium of a decomposing agent; so 
 that man, in fact, instead of a responsible moral 
 being, becomes a mere agent of this description, 
 whose business and influence reach no further than 
 merely to evolve those successions of thought and 
 feeling, in the regulation and direction of which he 
 has no discretionary power whatever. The circum- 
 stance that these ideas and emotions assume the 
 character of volitions, and appear pleasing and pre- 
 ferable unto him, is a mere illusion, giving him a 
 notion of liberty, which, in reality, he does not 
 possess. Unless man is capable of exercising a valid 
 and effectual control over his own voluntary decisions 
 and actions, he is all his life labouring under a 
 delusion, with reference to one of the strongest and 
 most unhesitating convictions of his own mind. ^N'ot 
 all the piety and acuteness of the excellent Jonathan 
 Edwards could disengage his system from this fatal 
 defect, that it draws out the sin of man through a 
 series of causes and effects, to the operation of which 
 he cannot choose to give a negative, and then 
 attempts to fix its evil and enormity in its own na- 
 ture; whereas it is obvious, as we have already 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 remarked, that in estimating sin with respect to its 
 moral turpitude, it is always assumed, that it is the 
 effect of wilful indulgence, which the individual 
 possessed an adequate power to restrain, if he had 
 thought proper to exercise it. "Without such a power, 
 indeed, sin might have been odious and disgusting, 
 as Avormwood is bitter, a wound is painful, and 
 disease, in general, is loathsome, but no idea of 
 moral pravity, or accountability, could be attached 
 to it. 
 
 Section XIY. 
 
 Philosophical Necessity. 
 
 The theory of Philosophical ]N'ecessity as stated 
 by Hobbes, as modified by the amiable Hartley, 
 and as boldly exhibited in all its nakedness by 
 Priestley, absolutely, and with a few slight eva- 
 sions, avowedly confounds virtue and vice, sin and 
 holiness as developed in the character of man. 
 The last of these authors does not hesitate to afhrm, 
 that God as the framer of the constitution of nature, 
 and of the mental system of man, is the direct author 
 of all actions good and evil, which are regulated by 
 the same law of necessity without any distinction 
 whatever, ISTay, he asserts Avitli all the assurance so 
 truly characteristic of himself, that the unhesitating 
 admission of this doctrine is, that which must always 
 distinguish the real philosopher from the dabbler in 
 moral and metaphysical science, and that it is only 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 229 
 
 for want of a little strength of mind, that there is 
 any difficulty in receiving it as an unquestionable 
 axiom of truth, that God is to be considered as the 
 proper cause of all things good and evil, natural and 
 moral. He acknowledges with much candour, indeed, 
 that this momentous doctrine is not to be found in 
 the ^ew Testament. Hq allows, that the Apostles 
 were not necessitarians, and that in all probability, 
 if the question of philosophical necessity had been 
 proposed to them, they would have answered in the 
 negative. But what then? The Apostles were not 
 philosophers. To a person of his courage and 
 strength of mind, what is the opposition of inspired 
 men and Apostles ? One of these persons, indeed, 
 and the most highly educated among them, Avould 
 in all probability have had the presumption to pro- 
 nounce this "a philosophy falsely so called." But 
 amidst so much ignorance and debility of mind, what 
 authority could attach to his assertion ? It is much 
 safer to bow to the decisions and to do homage to 
 the loftier intellects of the illuminati of later ages, 
 especially when it is acknowledged, that that very 
 sound and unexceptionable Christian philosopher, the 
 author of Leviathan, is the grand patriarch of the 
 community, the privileged individual, who had the 
 merit first to place the system upon its proper footing, 
 and to fix it upon an immoveable basis. 
 
 It will be freely allowed, indeed, to this intrepid 
 writer, that it does require very considerable strength 
 of mind to credit all that he asserts, to sustain 
 the shock which the feelings can hardly fail to 
 
230 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 receive from a statement so bold and startling, as 
 that Jehovah himself, the God whose eyes are pm-er 
 than to behold iniquity, is " the proper cause of all 
 the good and evil, physical and moral," that are 
 done in the whole universe. It certainly does demand 
 no ordinary energy of controversial and polemical 
 genius, no common hardihood in bearing the onset of 
 an array of formidable consequences, to maintain the 
 position that man is subject to one identical law of 
 necessity in all his actions, and, whether he does good 
 or evil, is impelled by the same insuperable and 
 uncontrollable influence, and thus by binding " nature 
 fast in fate," without leaving " free the human will," 
 to annihilate all the grounds, upon which any real 
 distinction can be established, between right and 
 wrong; to break down the barriers which divine 
 Kevelation had raised, and the wisdom of ages had 
 marked with the impress of its approbation, for the 
 purpose of guarding the territories of virtue against 
 the encroachments of immorality and vice; to destroy 
 all that can really render man an accountable being, 
 by reducing the whole play of his faculties, the whole 
 range of his voluntary exercises and activities to a 
 mere system of mechanism; in short, to strike at 
 the first principles of the divine government in its 
 treatment of responsible agents, and to undermine 
 the very pillars of the moral world. To produce all 
 these disastrous effects, or to adopt a theory, the 
 inevitable tendency of which is to produce them, 
 must be granted, to call for a measure of intellectual 
 vigour, which does not often fall to the lot of man. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 231 
 
 To digest all — I Avill not say the crudities^ but the 
 heterogeneous elements, the injurious and umvhole- 
 some ingredients, which this theory of philosophical 
 necessity involves, unquestionably, and we will add 
 liappily, requires a strength of organs which not 
 many are found to possess. To be serious; we do 
 not mean to charge upon the advocates of this hypo- 
 thesis any intention to deprive man of one of the 
 noblest of his privileges, that of a rational and self- 
 controlling liberty, and thus by neutralizing his 
 accountableness to throw^ the whole weight of his 
 guilt, whatever may be the extent and enormity of 
 his dehnquencies, back upon God himself. We are 
 persuaded, however, that the theory of philosophical 
 necessity, as developed by these persons, is bound to 
 recognise — and, indeed, with a very slight variation of 
 terms it does recognise — these consequences as its 
 legitimate and direct offspring. 
 
 To proceed no further with this branch of the 
 discussion, let it be laid down as an established point, 
 that the voluntary actions of man, in order to be 
 accountable and moral, must be subject to the avail- 
 ing control of his Reason. It appears, then, that the 
 authority of this commanding power extends, in a 
 degree more or less perfect and complete, to the 
 opinions of the mind, the affections of the heart, and 
 the actions of the life. And on these grounds we 
 conclude, in addition to those which have been already 
 stated, that it is in this prerogative of the Eational 
 Facidty, that the liberty of man essentially consists. 
 In this sense, therefore, as possessing a power of 
 
232 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 regulating his own views, and feelings, and conduct, 
 in the exercise of his Understanding and Will, man 
 is unquestionably free. Liberty is a principle of his 
 nature, which is no less attested by the whole eco- 
 nomy of the divine government towards him, than by 
 the conscious dictates of his own bosom. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 233 
 
 PART II. 
 
 GROUNDLESS AND ERRONEOUS NOTIONS OF 
 HUMAN LIBERTY. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The Subject of Inquiry stated. 
 
 We have now endeavoured to show in what sense man 
 is a free and accountable agent. We have found that 
 hberty — a discretionary power of acting or not acting 
 in any proposed manner in the exercise of voluntary 
 choice, of giving the negative or affirmative of his 
 mental preference to any measure relating to his 
 conduct, is an essential and fundamental part of his 
 nature, as a rational and intelligent being. We have 
 pointed out the radical defects, the injurious tendency 
 of some theories of necessity, as involving the utter 
 destruction of his moral responsibility, and as calcu- 
 lated, by losing sight of the essential distinction of 
 mind, reason, and intellect, as the peculiar attributes 
 of his nature, to reduce all the exercises of his will to 
 a mere system of mechanism. But, although some, 
 both philosophers and divines, belonging, indeed, 
 generally to very different schools, have grievously 
 erred on this side of the question, by confounding 
 the laws of matter and mind, and by requiring in the 
 operations of both the same relation of cause and 
 
234 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 effect, without allowing unto the latter any advantage 
 in the origination of the grounds of motion and 
 action; yet the error relating to the abstruse and 
 difficult points of moral agency, and the freedom of 
 the human will, has been by no means confined to 
 those, who have inclined to the various shades and 
 modifications of necessitarianism. There is, indeed, 
 little danger that the doctrines of fatalism, and abso- 
 lute mechanical necessity, should ever be very widely 
 diffused, and very generally adopted. There is some- 
 thing in these theories, when carried to their utmost 
 length, so much at variance with the first principles 
 of the human mind, so much opposed to the conscious 
 dictates of Eeason and Intellect, so directly contrary 
 to all that is known and felt, and so completely the 
 reverse of what is actually experienced in the very 
 process of volition itself, that a reflecting man can 
 hardly admit them, without at the same time belying 
 his own convictions ; that we might almost say, he is 
 under a necessity of disbelieving and rejecting them. 
 •Like the sceptical philosophy, they suit only the 
 retirement of the chamber, Avhere their advocates 
 may dispute or dogmatize, speculate or refine, doubt 
 or affirm, entangle themselves with the subtilties of 
 argument or range through the lighter mazes of 
 fancy, as may suit their present mood or habitual 
 temperament ; but in the real business of life, and in 
 the sober estimate of character, they are forced to 
 lay them aside, or to act in direct contradiction to 
 themselves. 
 
 But although the errors of necessitarianism, espe- 
 cially that which terms itself philosophical, are more 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 235 
 
 directly opposed to the dictates of Reason and divine 
 Eevelation, and appear more deeply injurious if car- 
 ried to their legitimate consequences, yet those of 
 Free A\^ill, in the technical and theological sense of 
 the expression, are far more extensive in their preva- 
 lence, and, in their ranker and more extravagant 
 forms, little less injurious to the interests of true and 
 vital religion. To the consideration of these, as 
 involved in unphilosophical and unscriptural notions 
 of human liberty, we must now therefore proceed. 
 And having already attempted to demonstrate that 
 man is rationally and substantially free, we shall now 
 endeavour to show, in accordance with the general 
 plan of these disquisitions, in icliat sense and to what 
 extent man is not free. It will be seen, in the pro- 
 gress of these remarks, under what limitations man 
 may be said to be a necessary agent, without in any 
 degree interfering with his responsibility as a rational 
 being, and a subject of moral government. For that 
 there are certain bounds and fundamental principles 
 by which man is regulated in the exercise of the 
 faculty of volition, as well as every other, must be 
 obvious to every person of reflection. There have 
 been those, who, in their extravagant fondness for 
 Free Will, and the proud independence which it was 
 supposed to bestow upon man, have endued him with 
 a power, in the capricious and contingent exercise 
 of which he escapes from the direct sovereignty of 
 Jehovah, and in virtue of which he can conceal the 
 whole range of his future actions from the pene- 
 trating ken of Omniscience. And if the former 
 theories give man too little to capacitate him for 
 
236 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 being subject to the penal sanctions of a moral 
 government, this latter scheme, originating in the 
 vanity and obstinacy of fallen nature, gives him too 
 much to allow the Author of his being, and the Euler 
 of the universe, wisely and steadily to administer that 
 government. It is not a rash and inconsiderate 
 assertion of the liberty of the human Will — it is not 
 a light and confident denunciation of the folly and 
 ignorance of the Socinianism or Calvinism of those, 
 who find it necessary to lay doA^Ti some principles as 
 limiting the exercises of volition, that will settle this 
 profound question, or dispose of the real difficulties 
 with which it is on every hand embarrassed. Persons 
 who allow themselves to run on in this strain, and 
 suppose that they have determined the point by a 
 few superficial and unquestioned truisms, and that 
 they have succeeded in cutting this gordian knot by 
 directing a few violent and intemperate strokes of 
 their controversial weapon at the network, with which 
 their adversaries may have covered it over, have in 
 fact never looked into it beyond the bare exterior, 
 nor traced it through its manifold involutions. 
 
 In what remains of this discussion, we shall en- 
 deavour to keep as closely as possible to the real 
 phenomena, and thus mark out as correctly as is 
 compatible with our present views and capacities, the 
 limitations within which man must be considered, 
 without the slightest infringement upon his moral 
 liberty, as capable of exercising the faculty of will. 
 In this investigation, we must of course leave many 
 points, ultimately connected with the question of 
 human liberty, and forming as it were its ground- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 237 
 
 Avork, in tliat mystery and obscurity, where, in com- 
 mon Avitli the final and fundamental principles of 
 every subject of inquiry, they must be allowed, at 
 least for the present, to lie inscrutably concealed from 
 the eye of man. It is enough for us if we can trace 
 the subject so far as our own estimate of duty, and 
 a correct view of our ability and inclination to act up 
 to that estimate, absolutely require. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Max xot Free in such a sense as to render any of his 
 actions uncertain, 
 
 1. We remark, then, in the first place, that man is 
 not free in such a sense as that any of his actions 
 should be doubtful, uncertain, or contingent. It is 
 altogether a mistake to imagine that it is an essen- 
 tial part of human liberty, that the line of conduct 
 to be pursued in any conjuncture of circumstances 
 should be absolutely indeterminable until it has 
 already taken place. Some, in order not to infringe, 
 as they suppose, upon the absolute freedom of 
 the Will, but to leave it in a state of unfettered 
 sovereignty over its own determinations, have 
 thought it necessary to deny to the Supreme Being 
 himself, any positive foreknowledge of the volun- 
 tary actions of man. But, surely, this is very 
 needlessly to encroach upon the prerogative of the 
 Holy One of Israel. It is the effect of confounding, 
 in a very strange and unaccountable manner, the 
 mere fact of the certainty of event, with the neces- 
 
238 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 sity of causation or compulsion. It was well re- 
 marked by the celebrated bishop of Hippo, in illus- 
 tration of this point, that the mere foreknowledge 
 of the future conduct of free agents, however abso- 
 lute and certain in itself, does no more to necessitate 
 that conduct, and no more interferes with the mode 
 in which the mind determines upon the performance 
 of such an order of actions, than the knowledge of 
 what is past can have exerted any causative in- 
 fluence in the production of such effects as are thus 
 known to have taken place. There is nothing in 
 the idea of liberty inconsistent with the supposition 
 that the future actions of him who enjoys this pri- 
 vilege, should be subject to the view of one, who 
 is sufficiently acquainted with the nature and 
 susceptibilites of the free mind, and with the in- 
 fluence which external circumstances are capable of 
 imparting, for the purpose of determining the 
 inclinations of that mind. It is vain to say that 
 absolute prescience involves absolute certainty, and 
 that absolute certainty destroys the very condition 
 upon which will can freely exercise its volitions, 
 and direct its preferences; that of a real and dis- 
 cretionary power to choose either of two alternatives 
 in a question of conduct. The real state of the case 
 is this. In every instance in which the will of man, 
 or of any voluntary agent, is to be exerted, there is 
 a necessity in the nature of things, which it were 
 absurd to deny, that he should choose on either 
 side, that however completely free he may feel him- 
 self to be in tlie course of deliberation, he should 
 determine on the negative or attirmativo. There 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 239 
 
 must also be a reason, either internal or external, 
 a reason, arising either from the influence of circum- 
 stances, or from the state of the mind itself, as 
 originally constituted, and as modified by prior 
 views, habits, and aff'ections, why he should prefer 
 that which ultimately commands his choice. How- 
 ever exalted may be our notions of moral liberty, 
 it is impossible, that we should conceive an intelli- 
 gent being to choose or to act without some adequate 
 ground for such a determination of will. To deny 
 this would be to unhinge the w^hole system of the 
 human mind, and, in reality, to neutralize the 
 validity, or even to annihilate the very existence of 
 the faculty of volition itself, for it destroys the ful- 
 crum upon which this mighty engine rests, an 
 apparent and availing reason of preference. Let this 
 be removed, and the faculty of Will seems no longer 
 capable of being exercised. All that is necessary to 
 foreknowledge, therefore, is merely to be able to 
 know and to appreciate this ground of preference, 
 whether wholly inherent in the mind, or partially 
 supplied by circumstances. And it is assuredly cast- 
 ing a very serious reflection upon the knowledge 
 and wisdom of Jehovah, to suppose him incapable 
 of estimating the capabilities, and of weighing the 
 tendencies and inclinations of the soul, which him- 
 self hath made. The very nature of Will supposes 
 an alternative — an indispensable necessity of choos- 
 ing either of two things or modes presented to its 
 notice. It must, without any encroachment upon 
 liberty, determine upon the choice of one or other 
 of these objects, otherwise it ceases to be a Will, 
 
240 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 and volition is altogether excluded. All that pre- 
 science requires, therefore, in order to make it, 
 and the circumstances or actions, upon which its 
 eye is fixed, as certain as actual existence can 
 make them, is simply that it be seen beforehand 
 to what side of the alternative the mind will really 
 and definitively turn. And in this mere knowledge 
 there is surely nothing, which can interfere with the 
 freedom of the agent. It is a mere contemplative 
 survey of what he is actually doing, or is already 
 supposed to have done, and has no more to do with 
 the mode, in which the act is called into existence, 
 than if no such eye was directed towards it. It is 
 a distinct, isolated, and immanent perception of 
 what is effected by an agent, with the operations of 
 which it has no connexion whatever, and to whose 
 causative energy it does not radiate a single portion 
 of co-operative or directive influence. It, in fact, 
 h;y^othetically views, as already existing, the ob- 
 jects and agencies upon which it is founded. This 
 is the order of foreknowledge with reference to the 
 futurities, which it surveys. Like the axiomatic 
 truths of the science of mathematics, they are 
 assumed to have existed, or to be about to have 
 existed, in the very act of their being known ; and 
 to a mind adequately acquainted with the principles 
 of the mental constitution of man, the views of the 
 past, the present, and the future, exhibit themselves 
 with equal clearness and certainty. There is nothing, 
 therefore, in the mere fiict of the foreknowledge of 
 actions, Avhich can interfere with the freedom of those 
 actions. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 241 
 
 Tliis^ however, is unquestionable, that certainty 
 of knowledge, whether it relates to the past or the 
 future, implies the absolute certainty of the facts 
 or events, which are known. If, therefore, all the 
 actions of man are really foreknown, nothing can be 
 more obvious than that no such contingency can 
 belong to them as can make it in any degree doubt- 
 ful or uncertain whether they shall indeed take place. 
 The whole certainty of foreknowledge, and of the 
 facts which are thus foreknown, arises, not from any 
 antecedent compulsive necessity that man should 
 act in any prescribed manner, but from the infallible 
 hypothetical assumption that he will thus choose. 
 ]N"either man, nor any other being, can be supposed 
 to possess such liberty as that he should be capable 
 at once of acting in two ways contradictory to each 
 other. He must choose one of these ways. Let 
 that way be known, and a ground of prescience is 
 established as firm and immoveable as the most 
 indissoluble chain of necessity, in the successive 
 operations of his mind, could possibly form. It is, 
 therefore, a superficial style of speaking to repre- 
 sent the actions of intelligent and free beings as 
 contingent — as so regulated by accidental circum- 
 stances, as that it cannot beforehand be determined 
 what course they will take. 
 
 A moment's consideration will be sufficient to 
 convince us, not only of the possibility of such a 
 prescient view of human conduct, Avithout infringing 
 upon liberty, but of its absolute necessity to the 
 moral government of the world. In the physical 
 system of the universe, it is allowed on all hands 
 
 R 
 
242 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 that God hath established general laws, the opera- 
 tions and effects of which, throughout all the changes 
 and evolutions of time, he saw with most minute 
 and unerring accuracy at the first moment of the 
 creation. It was this clear foresight into the future 
 results of the tendencies and energies, Avhich he 
 originally impressed upon matter, that has secured 
 the harmony of nature, without the necessity of con- 
 tinual interference with the first principles of its 
 constitution. AYlien we consider the astonishing 
 forces belonging to parts of matter in a certain 
 order of combination, and especially as attached to 
 those huge masses of being, which roll through the 
 immensity of space; when we think of the stu- 
 pendous rapidity of their movements, and of the 
 dreadful consequences that would inevitably follow 
 upon any unexpected failure, or disproportion of 
 strength, or any deviation from the ordinary sphere 
 or relative velocity, against which no provision had 
 been made, it must be obvious that nothing short of 
 a perfect survey of all the capabilities, and of the 
 actual working of the vast mechanism of the world, 
 could have erected a frame-work so firm, so perma- 
 nent, so subservient in its mutual relations and cor- 
 respondencies to the stability and security of the 
 whole. If, as one of the most delightful of bards 
 has said, the poet must have 
 
 an eye to catcli the distant goal 
 
 Ere yet the wheels of verse begin to roll ; 
 
 it surely must be no less necessary that the great 
 Framer of the universe should liave embraced, within 
 the range of his compreliensive survey, the develop- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 243 
 
 ment of every i)riiiciple, and the actuating energy 
 of every cause in the vast scheme, which He was 
 forming. Even if the physical world, as has by 
 some philosophers been supposed, was like a huge 
 machine, which, after a certain period of time, would 
 lose its original force of action, and Avould require, as 
 it were, to be wound up afresh ; at least, such a decay 
 of energy, and such a necessity of renovating inter- 
 position, must have been apparent unto Him who 
 ^•knoAveth the end from the beginning." Without 
 consigning the Deity to that torpor and inactivity — 
 to that lassitude and sublime indifference to the 
 concerns of the material universe, which Epicurus 
 thought necessary to the happiness of his indolent 
 divinities, it would certainly be derogatory to the 
 wisdom and power of Jehovah, to suppose him to 
 be under a continual obligation to meet exigencies 
 and events occurring in the successive evolutions of 
 his own creation, upon which he had not originally 
 calculated. 
 
 And if in the course of the natural world, and in 
 the government of its various elements, such a want 
 of foresight would be inconsistent with the regularity 
 and harmony of the system, and with our ordinary 
 views of the character of Jehovah, can we for a 
 moment imagine, that the most important and in- 
 teresting part of the general scheme, that, for which 
 the other was formed and instituted, should be out of 
 the range of his universal knowledge, and hid in any 
 of its minutest springs, from the penetration of his 
 prescient glance ? The moral world, the world of 
 rational and intelligent agents, hath its laws, its 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 capabilities, its grounds and principles of action, as 
 well as the physical; and although voluntary and 
 accountable beings have belonging to them a most 
 important peculiarity, inasmuch as they are allowed 
 to regulate their own actions in virtue of the faculties 
 of Understanding and Will, with which they are en- 
 dowed; yet, if the eye of omniscience be allowed to 
 be capable of perceiving the present operations of 
 mind, there does not seem to be any thing to prevent 
 it from equally penetrating into the future. It is 
 said of Jehovah, that He " inhabiteth eternity," in- 
 timating, that His being and attributes extend alike 
 over the whole range of duration, and that the several 
 divisions of time are perceived by Him only in their 
 relation to created existences. And as there does 
 not seem to be any difficulty in the supposition of 
 the certain prescience of the future volitions and 
 actions of free and intelligent beings, such a know- 
 ledge must, upon the slightest reflection, be seen 
 to be absolutely necessary to their proper govern- 
 ment, and to the arrangement of the whole plan of 
 their destiny. This will appear, if we consider the 
 immense power which man is allowed to exert, not 
 only in the formation of his own character, and in 
 promoting his own happiness or misery, but likewise 
 very frequently in the determination of the circum- 
 stances, the habits, and the general condition of 
 others. Instrumentally and subordinately, man, in 
 the exercise of his voluntary faculties and energies, 
 does almost everything, which relates to his own 
 character and prospects, and in this sense it may be 
 truly said, that ''man is the maker of innnortal fates." 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 245 
 
 It is true, indeed, that the Will of man cannot have 
 much influence over the general system of the 
 natural world. Although the philosophical axiom is 
 unquestionably true, within proper limitations, that 
 knowledge is power, yet* these two attributes in man 
 are by no means equal in their degree, and co-ordi- 
 date in their range. He knows something of the 
 general laws, and of the more jjalpable phenomena of 
 a small portion, at least, of the vast worlds, which 
 traverse the immensity in Avhich they are lost. But 
 his power is confined to the production of small, and 
 comparatively insignificant changes, in the separate 
 portions of that which he inhabits. He knows, or 
 at least he supposes, upon very strong grounds, that 
 he knows the grand principles of the motions and 
 arrangements of the solar system. But he cannot 
 produce the least physical effect beyond a distance, 
 which is much less than the millionth part of the 
 interval which separates him from the centre of that 
 system . He could neither stop a planet in its course, 
 or cause it to deviate one point from its track ; he 
 could neither increase nor moderate the warmth of 
 the sun, nor quench one ray of its light, though all 
 the energies of the species were concentrated in an 
 individual. With all his ingenious contrivances, and 
 his success in applying the powers already inherent 
 in nature, he must still want the fulcrum, the point 
 from which to bring his engines to bear, before he 
 can attempt to alter the locality of the great masses 
 of being, into which matter has been cast and 
 moulded; and the proud and extravagant assertion, 
 5o9 irov arco kuc jt]v Ktvrjao), will always be perfectly 
 
246 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 secure against any chance of being practically de- 
 monstrated to be false. 
 
 In what relates to virtue and vice, happiness 
 and misery, however, man certainly does possess 
 very extensive power, and in fact, the moral govern- 
 ment of God is in a very great degree conducted 
 through the instrumentality of the free and volun- 
 tary agency of man. To suppose, therefore, that 
 so great and important a part of the system should 
 be unknown and absolutely incapable of being 
 known unto God, until it developed itself into 
 actual existence and operation, or to suppose any 
 degree of uncertainty as to the events of it, would 
 surely be creating a blank on the page of his 
 omniscience, and a doubt and hesitation into the 
 course of his administration utterly unworthy of all 
 our notions of his character and attributes. It 
 would be depriving Him of that advantage in the 
 conduct of his universal government, the possession 
 of which in a lower degree, is that Avhich alone 
 qualifies human rulers for the important and diffi- 
 cult functions which devolve upon them. Without 
 a tolerable general knowledge of the manner in 
 which men will choose to act, a knowledge acquired 
 from an insight into their character, derived from 
 long observation and experience, the statesman 
 would be utterly unfit to make laws ; for those laws, 
 it is obvious, are entirely dependent for their ob- 
 servance upon the determinations of the collective 
 Will. It is vain to say, under the idea of doing 
 away with the necessity of a perfect foreknowledge 
 and an absolute certainty of the voluntary acts of 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 247 
 
 men^ that their volitions, in general, are of no im- 
 portance, in their relation to the established course 
 of the divine government. Although it may he 
 true, in the great majority of instances, that an 
 individual act of volition is of no particular con- 
 sequence, so far as Ave are capable of tracing its 
 results in its connexion with the progress of the 
 divine administration of the moral world, yet it is 
 unquestionable, that everything that is great and 
 important in human affairs originates in some act 
 of this description, giving rise and direction to 
 other innumerable subsequent acts of a similar kind, 
 apparently as trivial and insignificant in them- 
 selves as the first. And if the divine Being is sup- 
 posed to be ignorant of the first in the series, or if 
 any uncertainty rested upon that particular deter- 
 mination of the mind, if it was a contingency in 
 such a sense, as to leave it at all doubtful as a 
 matter of fact, whether the first will, which was to 
 operate as a prime conductor with reference to 
 those which were to foUoAv, would move in the 
 peculiar direction, which it happened, perhaps, un- 
 expectedly to take, then, who must not at once 
 perceive, that the grand evolution which was so 
 materially to affect the destinies of generations yet 
 unborn, and the management of the varied influences 
 of which formed so prominent a part of the divine 
 government, must have partaken of the same con- 
 tingency and uncertainty? To say that, although 
 the individual, in whose volition this important 
 series of events originated, had chosen otherwise, 
 yet God could have accomplished the same general 
 
248 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 order of events, througli the instrumentality of other 
 persons, can answer no puqDose. For, upon the sup- 
 position which we are combating, these persons 
 also, for anything that could have been known to 
 the contrar}^, might choose to act otherwise, so that 
 without either a supernatural influence upon men's 
 wills, that would utterly destroy their moral agency, 
 or a certain and absolute fore-knowledge of the 
 manner in which they w^ould exercise the faculties of 
 volition and action, it w^ould be impossible for any 
 scheme of importance to be planned as a part of the 
 divine government, and to be carried into effect 
 through the instrumentality of human power. It 
 must be that God should have an infallible prescience 
 of the results of the Avill of man, and, therefore, that 
 those results should be certain, or that man should 
 have properly no AVill at all. Unless Ave dethrone 
 Jehovah altogether from the sovereignty of the 
 world, it is inconceivable that those striking epochs, 
 whether prosperous or adverse, Avhich prominently 
 stand forth in the various periods of its history as 
 giving their character and colouring to the ages and 
 generations Avhich succeed, should not have been 
 taken into his calculation and not have formed a part 
 of his plan. Let the conquests of Alexander or of 
 Cyrus, let the establishment and overthrow of the 
 four grand empires, and the various consequences 
 resulting from those events be traced to their origin; 
 let those mighty revolutions, which at different periods 
 of the Avorld have convulsed the frame of society and 
 have given a ncAv aspect, favourable or the reverse, to 
 the moral scenery of half the globe, be followed up to 
 
OF / 
 
 WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 249 
 
 their first moving spring; let those tides of desolation 
 and blood, which have so often in their primary effects 
 overwhelmed comitries and nations in destruction, but 
 have subsequently been the immediate or indirect 
 occasion of their regeneration to liberty and light, be 
 accompanied with a retrograde movement, while they 
 gradually lessen in energy and in variety of elements, 
 and combinations, as the approximation is made 
 towards their starting points, and they will invariably 
 be found to commence in the quiet and retired voli- 
 tions of some commanding individual, whose acts of 
 Will were as spontaneous and undiscoverable by any 
 eye but that of Omniscience, as those of the feeblest 
 and obscurest of mankind. It is true that in the 
 primary view of his character, as a rational and moral 
 being, such an individual might have chosen to will 
 and to act otherwise, but in the formation of the plan 
 of providence, and in the arrangement of the whole 
 scheme of human destinies, it was assumed as a thing 
 well known, that he, and all his associates and fol- 
 lowers, icould prefer thus to exercise their volitions, 
 and to direct their energies. But to imagine that 
 there was any real uncertainty of the fact, whether 
 they would thus choose, and to maintain that things 
 might possibly, and not improbably, be otherwise, 
 after it had already been known that they would thus 
 occur, is to destroy everything like unity of purpose, 
 comprehensiveness of design, and consistency of ope- 
 ration, from the whole conduct of providence, and 
 the whole government of the world. One of the most 
 important and decisive proofs of the perfect com- 
 
250 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 patibleness of the entire freedom of man, even in his 
 worst deeds, and of the alxsolute certainty and fore- 
 knowledge of the results of his volition, is, doubtless, 
 the great fact of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. As an event, no one who professes to give 
 the least credit to the scheme of divine revelation, 
 can have any doubt whether it must have taken 
 place; for, independently of its lying at the foun- 
 dation of the whole system of human salvation, it is 
 expressly stated to have been done in fulfilment of 
 the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, 
 and yet was accomplished by " wicked hands ;" the 
 wickedness of those hands doubtless resulting from 
 the wickedness of the wills, by which they were 
 actuated and directed. There is no circumstance in 
 sacred or profane history, which must have been more 
 completely left to the arbitrary choice of those, by 
 whom the dreadful catastrophe was brought to pass — 
 the black tragedy was acted. To suppose any com- 
 pulsive interference with their spontaneous volitions, 
 in this instance, would involve the most awful 
 blasphemy. And, su])posing any such uncertainty, 
 as is here combated, with respect to the results of the 
 human Will, no event could have been more com- 
 pletely contingent, no circumstance more doubtful, 
 inasmuch as no affair of importance appeared to pre- 
 sent a greater collision of the inherent principles and 
 passions of human nature. The real state of the 
 case, however, is, that nothing was ever more certain, 
 and nothing more entirely dependent upon the free 
 and capricious volitions of man. Wq conclude, there- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 251 
 
 fore, that there is no actual inconsistency between 
 these two great facts in the government of God, and 
 in the character and conduct of man. 
 
 How far this and other similar events may have 
 been the objects of a positive decree, we forbear to 
 inquire ; indeed, the term decree, and, consequently, 
 the peculiar shade of meaning attached to it, appear 
 to me altogether technical, and as having, properly, 
 no place in the mind of Jehovah. A decree is an 
 instrument of human authority, obliging to the per- 
 formance of certain prescribed acts, and making that 
 a duty, which otherwise might not have been known 
 to be such. It is, therefore, generally considered as 
 involving some causal and necessitating influence. 
 The divine decrees, even by the most positive advo- 
 cates of the doctrine, are universally allowed to be 
 secret and unknown to man, and, therefore, with 
 reference to his character, they mean nothing more 
 than a determination to act in a certain manner to- 
 wards him; and the whole controversy turns, not upon 
 the certainty or uncertainty,, not upon what has impro- 
 perly been called the contingency of his actions, but 
 upon the consideration whether that determination is 
 founded upon a previous view of human conduct, 9,3 
 regulated by unconstrained volition, or upon a sove- 
 reign and unaccountable will of the Deity, asserting 
 the awful prerogative of doing what seemeth good in 
 his sight. So far as the decree leaves the will of 
 man uncontrolled by any such influence as would 
 seem to destroy its nature, it resolves itself into the 
 two elements of foreknowledge, and a determination 
 to act upon the ground of that foreknowledge. In 
 
252 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 this view of the term decree, a view, however, which 
 we readily acknowledge to come short of its ordinary 
 conventional import, it implies nothing more than a 
 purpose of the divine mind to pursue such a line of 
 administration towards man. And if the term fore- 
 knowledge, as expressive of that purpose, is preferable, 
 it is not because the latter leaves any looseness and 
 uncertainty about the results of human volition, but 
 because it involves no necessitating interference with 
 the operations of that volition, and keeps more per- 
 fectly clear of the technical formalities of earthly 
 governments and authorities — formalities which can 
 hardly fail to lead into error, when applied as mea- 
 surements and adequate analogies to the plans and 
 proceedings of the Eternal. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 TuE Liberty op Man not exclusive of the influenxe 
 OF Motives. 
 
 2. We proceed to remark, in the second place, that 
 man is not free in such a sense as that the deter- 
 minations of his Will should be independent of i\\Q; 
 influence of Motives. It is the circumstance of the 
 alleged invariable connexion of the exercises of voli- 
 tion with motives as their commanding and regulat- 
 ing forces, which Necessitarians, especially those of 
 the philosopliical school, have brought forward with 
 the greatest confidence as corroborative of their sys- 
 tem. They have assumed it as a demonstrable ftict, 
 or rather as an axiom, which needs no demonstration. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 253 
 
 that there is the same inseparable relation between 
 motives and volitions, as there is between cause and 
 effect, between any former state of matter and that 
 to which it immediately gives rise. And as motives 
 are suggested very frequently by external circum- 
 stances, or spring from something over which the in- 
 dividual has no immediate and absolute control, it is 
 concluded that the will of man is so completely under 
 the power of these motives, as to have no other 
 liberty than to yield in all its operations to their re- 
 sistless energy. Others, apprehending that, if there 
 be such an order of authority and subordination as 
 this between motives and the Will, freedom is de- 
 stroyed, and necessity — the most absolute and unqua- 
 lified necessity, is inevitable, have run into the 
 opposite and absurd extreme of maintaining that the 
 Will is not subject to the determination and control 
 of Motives, and is capable of exercising a power con- 
 trary to them and above them. They think that 
 motives have nothing more to do with the Will than 
 to hold out inducements, to endeavour as it were to 
 incline its preferences to one side of a question ; but 
 that it is altogether at its own discretion whether it 
 complies with their solicitations, and that it is in this 
 power of resistance its liberty essentially consists. 
 
 We cannot help thinking there must be some 
 mistake, some mutual misunderstanding in the mode 
 of stating their opinions between these persons, in 
 a case where the phenomena are so palpable and 
 obvious, and, if the process be clearly analyzed, so 
 distinct as to render it hardly possible that any mis- 
 apprehension or difference of opinion should take 
 
254 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 place. The extraordinary contrariety of sentiment 
 upon this point between these persons, appears 
 in a great measure to spring from this source; 
 that the term Motives, as relating to the human 
 mind, is used in two senses, very different from 
 each other, but, taken in their respective significa- 
 tions, truly applied in both the theories just men- 
 tioned. Motives may be either external or internal. 
 They may either be circumstances from without, 
 motives ab extra, having simply a general, and per- 
 haps feeble, tendency to move and excite the will ; 
 or they may be feelings of the mind inciting to 
 action, and in a manner constituting themselves pre- 
 vailing acts of Will. In the former sense, as mere 
 circumstances that have some tendency, and are in a 
 certain degree calculated to call forth and to direct 
 the exercises of the Will, there is certainly no 
 necessary connexion whatever between them and 
 the final decisions and preferences of that Will. 
 If motives in this respect Avere resistless and un- 
 controllable, man would be continually exposed to 
 the action of diff'erent and even contradictory kinds 
 of necessity, inasmuch as a thousand impulsive 
 strokes of this nature fall upon him from different, 
 and often diametrically opposite quarters, every 
 day of his life. A great part of liberty, doubt- 
 less, consists in conscious and actual discretionary 
 power, to decide amidst this violent collision of 
 jarring motives. There may be many motives, in 
 other terms many circumstances, to induce an in- 
 dividual to pursue one line of conduct, to enter 
 upon one order of pursuits, but there may be 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 255 
 
 more numerous or stronger motives to incline and 
 to determine him to the contrary. He may see 
 many reasons, which woukl powerfully urge him to 
 the adoption of such a measure, if they were left 
 to their own free and undisturbed operations; but 
 there are counteracting circumstances, which more 
 than balance their Weight. It is not true, there- 
 fore, universally and without limitation, that ex- 
 ternal motives, that objects and events from with- 
 out invariably control the preferences of the human 
 will. They may be neutralized in their effects by 
 other motives of the same kind, but of an opposite 
 tendency, or there may be a sufficient energy of 
 resistance in the mind itself, in its established prin- 
 ciples and habits, to annul and to frustrate that 
 measure of influence, which they are able to exert. 
 And this is the only sense in which it seems to be 
 possible that man should will and act independently 
 of motives, and in a manner contrary to their sug- 
 gestions. In any other view, to choose to act against 
 motives is as impossible and absurd as to choose 
 against choice, and to prefer a particular action in 
 opposition to that preference itself. 
 
 Motives, therefore, in the second signification 
 here allotted to them as emotions of the mind, are 
 undoubtedly the guides, and even the materials of 
 its volitions as mental states. In a process of 
 volition, the prevailing motive, the feeling which 
 is predominant over aU others, from whatever source 
 it may rise, is so clearly interwoven with the exer- 
 cise of will, that it seems to form the very ele- 
 ment of willing itself. To be the subject of a 
 
256 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 motive, which is felt to rise superior to all others, to 
 experience a decided preference, and to exert an 
 act of Avill, are so closely connected Avith each 
 other, are so nearly identical sensations, that there 
 appears to be no ground, upon which they can be 
 separated, no method of analysis by which they 
 can properly be resolved into simpler and more 
 distinct elements. It may be said, therefore, that 
 the prevailing motive, as a mental feeling, is not 
 merely connected in immutable necessity with voli- 
 tion, but constitutes the very act of the elective 
 preference itself, and as such, may be considered as 
 throwing the preponderating weight into the scale, 
 which before may have been equally balanced. 
 It must be borne in mind, hoAvever, that motives, 
 as internal sensations, are generally founded upon 
 the view of some external circumstance of direct 
 and positive good, or of negative advantage in the 
 alleviation of evil, which is considered of sufficient 
 weight and importance to operate with a prevailing 
 influence upon the faculty of volition. It is implied 
 in the very nature of exercising a preference, that 
 there be some ground for it. And if the sensation 
 excited by any order of facts or any particular 
 object was of the same relative strength, and was 
 attended with the same commanding power over 
 other sentiments and emotions in every instance, 
 there is no doubt that such circumstances would 
 act with a perfect and complete uniformity of effect 
 upon every mind. It is, however, continually seen 
 in the course of human life, and in the development 
 of the principles of character, that this is by no 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 257 
 
 means tlie case. AVliat operates as a prevailino- 
 motive, and outweighs with a paramount and unri- 
 valled superiority of influence, in one instance, in 
 another is found utterly powerless and ineffective, 
 just as different physical constitutions and halnts 
 of body, superinduced by different modes of living, 
 require a different kind of treatment, and the appli- 
 cation of a different combination of medical ingre- 
 dients, in order to experience a remedial effect. 
 In the case of one person, for example, any object 
 which promises the immediate gratification of a 
 strong sensual appetite, acts with a decided predo- 
 minance over every other consideration which can 
 be presented to him, and thus forms the outward 
 ground of the internal prevailing motive, and con- 
 sequently his volition becomes embodied in that 
 motive, so as in reality to form one feeling or state 
 of mind. Let the same object offer ii»elf to the 
 view of another, and instead of yielding himself at 
 once with a passive succumbency to its force, he 
 pauses, directs towards it the eye of calm, unim- 
 passioned reason, views it in its present meanness 
 and fugitiveness of enjoyment and in its future 
 consequences, and connects it with the law, by 
 which it is perhaps prohibited, and with the misery, 
 which it wall in all probability entail. Having 
 exercised these reflections upon it, he finds it loses 
 all its motive energy, becomes stripped of all its 
 attractiveness, and sinks into powerlessness and 
 insipidity. And his Will, consequently, refuses to 
 comply with its suggestions or fix its preference 
 upon it. In this instance, the material of the out- 
 
258 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 ward motive, or of the ground of the mental 
 feeling, was precisely the same. But in its actual 
 bearing and influence upon the mind in these re- 
 spective cases, it has proved very different. In 
 one, it operated as a prevailing motive, and en- 
 listed the Will in its favour ; in the other, it only 
 made an impotent attempt, and was repelled from 
 its encroachment upon the character, through the 
 exercise of that prerogative of the intellectual and 
 reasoning Faculty, in which we have represented the 
 principle of liberty to rest as a part of the mental 
 constitution of man. And it is in this view of the 
 matter only, that the Will can be said not to be 
 invariably influenced by motives. It must be re- 
 collected, however, that considering motive simply 
 as an afl'ection of mind, both these persons willed 
 in strict accordance with its dictates. The differ- 
 ence was^his, that the sensual man wilfully ne- 
 glected to exercise his reason and understanding 
 in such a manner, as would have effectually coun- 
 teracted the influence of the first motive, by bring- 
 ing other more cogent motives into operation; 
 whereas the thoughtful and considerate man, by 
 availing himself of this principle of his nature, was 
 enabled to call into existence a motive, or com- 
 bination of motives, derived from other views and 
 sources, which more than neutralized the force of 
 that whicli first appealed to the Will. The man of 
 serious and reflecting mind can thus bring all the 
 interests of eternity to act as a restraining or sti- 
 mulating force, in giving a salutary direction to liis 
 volitions. But it is impossible, in tlic nature of 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 259 
 
 thing's, that he should be possessed of any such 
 liberty, as that he can choose and determine the 
 operations of his Will in direct opposition to those 
 vie^YS and feelings which actually exist as prevail- 
 ing motives in his own mind. To suppose him pos- 
 sessed of any such power, is, in reality, to suppose 
 him capable of preferring and rejecting the same 
 thing at one instant of time. 
 
 In the very essence and idea of a prevailing mo- 
 tive, it is implied that the AYill has already deter- 
 mined fi'eely in its favour. The conclusion, there- 
 fore, is, that no order of external circumstances to 
 which the name of motives may be loosely and im- 
 properly given, can act with a compulsive or necessi- 
 tating influence upon the will of man. But when 
 he has already allowed them to become embodied 
 in the predominating emotions of his own heart, 
 and has given them the decided preference, it is an 
 absurdity, a contradiction in terms, to suppose that 
 he can choose to direct his volitions in a contrary 
 order. Man, indeed, is free in the most perfect, 
 or at least in the only availing and valuable sense 
 of the expression, but his very freedom essentially 
 consists in preferring and acting in undisturbed 
 accordance with the most powerful inclinations of 
 his own mind; and if these inclinations fall in any 
 measure under the vassalage and captivity of the 
 passions and the sensitive part of his nature, it is 
 only because he has neglected, and continues to 
 neglect, to assert that prerogative, which inalienably 
 belongs to him as an accountable being, to control 
 his ai^petites and more grovelling volitions in the 
 
 S 2 
 
260 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 commanding exercise of his judgment, and with the 
 aid of the more comprehensive views of his under- 
 standing. 
 
 Section IY. 
 
 Moral Liberty not requirixg Indifference -with respect 
 TO THE objects op Choice. 
 
 3. It may be observed once more, that man is 
 not possessed of such a kind of free will as that all 
 things should be Indifferent to him. The notion 
 which some persons entertain of moral liberty, is, 
 that external circumstances are altogether a matter 
 of indifference, as they relate to the susceptibilities 
 of the human mind, and that the choice of one 
 thing rather than another, is a mere arbitrary act 
 of the will, which out of various objects, whose 
 claims appear precisely equal, or at least, whose 
 power of making an impression in their favour is 
 equal, selects one out of the number for no other 
 reason, than that it chooses so to do. All candidates 
 for preference are considered as occuping two oppo- 
 site scales, balanced with the most perfect nicety, 
 and the business of the Will is represented to be, to 
 throw its determining energy into one side, so as to 
 cause it to preponderate, M-ithout any other ground 
 for so doing, than simply because it prefers thus to 
 act. This notion appears to me utterly groundless 
 and absurd. Indifference, indeed, as applied to the 
 faculty of volition, is a most incongruous term. For, 
 with whatever arbitrariness, capriciousncss, or inde- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 261 
 
 pendencc, this faculty may appear sometimes to 
 operate, it is contrary to its very nature, that it 
 should operate at all without some principle or reason 
 of preference to guide it in its elective jDrocesses. 
 We do not, indeed, wish to establish such a connec- 
 tion between the acts of the Will, and the grounds of 
 those acts, as that the former should be considered 
 as resulting from the latter in the way of n^ssary 
 consequences and effects, without the possibility of 
 any interference or control being exercised by the 
 intellectual and reasoning Faculty. But, although it 
 is in the power and at the discretion of an enlightened 
 judgment to exercise its magic influence in bringing 
 such views of things into mental existence, in ex- 
 hibiting them in such lights, and in arranging them 
 in such an order of accurate form and proportional 
 magnitude and importance, as would secure the Will 
 from being enslaved and over-borne by any law of 
 blind necessity, to which it is forced to bow as im- 
 plicitly as the limb of a pair of scales sinks when its 
 equipoise has been destroyed by an additional quan- 
 tity of weight; yet as Will is not a power of the 
 human mind, which can act independently of the 
 other faculties, but a mere mode of thinking and feel- 
 ing, the quality or distinguishing character of which, 
 is preference founded upon some idea or combination 
 of ideas present to the judgment at the same instant, 
 in which the emotion is experienced, it is contrary to 
 the very definition of the operation, that it should 
 take place, while the objects to which it is directed, 
 and from which it chooses, appear indifferent. Voli- 
 tion is a phenomenon of the human mind, requiring 
 
262 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 an apparent preferableness or eligibility in its objects 
 as suggested by reason, or coloured by imagination, 
 nd, perhaps, additionally urged upon the choice by 
 affection, in order to be called into actual being, as 
 much as motion in a body previously in a state of 
 quietude, and prevented by the same weight of inertia 
 operati^ equally on all its parts from the slightest 
 efforts towards changing its relative position, requires 
 some force or impulse from without to excite its 
 capability of impression, and to urge it in the peculiar 
 direction which it is found to take. 
 
 If we undertake to analyze any particular act of 
 volition, we shall invariably find, that so far as its 
 object is a matter of deliberation at all, it invariably 
 involves as its groundwork, an order of positive and 
 negative considerations, circumstances which have | a 
 tendency to incline to either side of the general 
 question at issue. If these circumstances, as weighed 
 by the judgment, appear so equally balanced as to 
 render it almost impossible to determine on which 
 side the advantage lies, the mind is thrown into that 
 state of indecision, which for the time completely 
 neutralizes the Will, and in which the reasoning or 
 inventive faculty is busily and often painfully at 
 work, to find out some new fact or some aspect of the 
 case not yet duly surveyed, which may relieve it from 
 this powcrlessness of elective agency, and afford a 
 foundation of energetic choice upon one side of the 
 question. Pursuing our analysis still further, we find 
 that, in order properly to excite a volition, it is not 
 merely necessary that there should be a question 
 proposed, presenting a ])ositivc and negative to the 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 263 
 
 choice, but that when the ground of a preference is 
 sufficiently obvious and decided, there should be a 
 feeling of the mind giving its clear and unhesitating 
 acquiescence in the propriety and expediency of that, 
 which is believed to be in itself preferable. With 
 whatever carelessness and precipitancy the voli- 
 tions of manldnd in general, and of some persons 
 more particularly, are formed, they Avill always be 
 found to be the consequence of some idea sug- 
 gested to the mind, or some impression made upon 
 the outward senses. An act of Will, therefore, 
 however thoughtless, if we may be allowed the 
 paradox, is never without some mental exercise, 
 without some train of ideas passing through the 
 mind, which may be properly called thought. It is 
 not a mere feeling, it is not a mere emotion of 
 strong desire or preference, for which the mind can 
 give no such account as appears at the moment 
 satisfactory to itself; but it is a feeling — an emotion 
 founded upon and accompanied wdtli the conviction, 
 illusive, perhaps, indeed, because Eeason does not 
 properly exert its discerning and controlling power, 
 that "this is good for me." It is, therefore, a 
 phenomenon of the mind, it is a modification of 
 mental exercise, which, while the external or relative 
 circumstances, to which it has reference, continue to 
 appear absolutely indifferent, cannot possibly exist. 
 
 And as it is philosoiihically impossible that any 
 volition should take place, while outward objects, 
 or those circumstances, with which the Will is more 
 immediately concerned, continue to appear indiffer- 
 ent, and without presenting any special ground of 
 
204 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 preference ; so it militates against the clearest repre- 
 sentations of scripture, and against one of the leading 
 and fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith to 
 suppose, that all the scenes of the moral world, that 
 all those modes of action, which constitute virtue 
 and vice, holiness and sin, hold forth an aspect of equal 
 attractiveness, or are viewed with equal antipathy, 
 as estimated Ly the mind of man. It assuredly is not 
 the fact, as universal observation shows and expe- 
 rience testifies, that all things, which present their 
 claims and urge their eager appeals to the favourable 
 notice of man, are possessed of the same power to 
 engage his attention, and to incline, although not 
 absolutely to command, his choice. One of the worst 
 heresies, which ever sprung up in the church, was that 
 which ascribed an inordinate power to the Will of 
 man, unaided by divine influence, in resisting the fas- 
 cinations of evil, and in fixing the regards of the mind 
 upon what is holy and pure and good. In order to 
 afford anything like consistency to that mischievous 
 scheme of doctrine, which was set up by Pelagius, and 
 has prevailed, in its main principles, in its spirit and 
 essence, in a degree more or less in every age of the 
 church, it was found necessary, in order to support 
 the extravagant notions which it entertains of the 
 freedom of the human AYill, that the great fact of 
 the awful and deplorable degradation from moral 
 purity and rectitude, which has evidently 1)efallen our 
 nature, should be virtually denied. If moral good 
 and evil, obliquity and uprightness, purity and turpi- 
 tude were precisely upon the same footing with respect 
 to any inherent power of producing an impression 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 265 
 
 upon the Will of man, it mnst follow, that every 
 single act of preference, Avhether directed to what is 
 excellent or what is base, must take place without any 
 perceptible ground in the object of choice, and, there- 
 fore, that the Will is not only free to choose both 
 what appears desirable to the unreflecting feelings, 
 and what Eeason sanctions as such, but that it is even 
 free to prefer without any imaginable ground, without 
 anything in the objects themselves, on account of 
 which it fixes itself upon them. Such capriciousness 
 of liberty is more preposterous and unmeaning, if 
 possible, than necessity itself. It is an utter mistake 
 to imagine that an indifference in the objects, to 
 which it is directed, is essential to the moral 
 freedom of the human Will, and that such an equi- 
 poise belonging to their capabilities of impression is 
 necessary to his responsibility as an accountable 
 agent. It is true, indeed, that since the fall, man has 
 lost, to an awful and deplorable degree, his inherent 
 love of moral excellency, and that his susceptibility of 
 evil impressions is become far more sensitive and 
 acute ; but then he has not lost his love of the greater 
 apparent good, nor altogether, if he properly employs 
 his faculties, his original power of discerning it. Al- 
 though good and evil, therefore, morally considered, 
 are far, very far from being equally indifferent to him, 
 the absolute fact being that the latter is more attrac- 
 tive to him than the former, yet as no compulsion is 
 applied to the Will, as it requires only calm reflection 
 to perceive that the choice and pursuit of vice are 
 absolutely inconsistent with peace and safety, secu- 
 rity and blessedness, there is quite enough in this 
 
266 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 consideration connected with man's unalterable love 
 of the greater good, to preserve him from that sla- 
 very, from that utter destruction of his character as a 
 moral agent, which his innate love of sin and hatred 
 of holiness would seem at first sight to threaten him. 
 There is nothing more necessary to the constitution 
 of his moral freedom, than that, by a due exercise of 
 his reflecting faculties, he may have it in his power 
 to summon into view such scenes of future and eternal 
 destiny as may more than balance the evil tendency, 
 which is now, unquestionably, a part of his nature. 
 Since the melancholy catastro^^he which has univer- 
 sally befallen our species, the exercise of the Prero- 
 gative of Eeason, as the fundamental principle of 
 human freedom, has become, indeed, much more diffi- 
 cult than otherw ise it would have been, just as we find 
 it to be with the man w^ho has become besotted with 
 sin and vice. A measure of slavery of Will is, in 
 such a case, a penal judgment, because the individual 
 has absolutely sinned away his freedom and the com- 
 mand exercised by his intelligence. And it is only 
 in the sense of a strong tendency to evil, super- 
 induced by the fall, that the expression, which we 
 often hear, is true, that man, since that fatal period, 
 is " only free to sin." In any other application to the 
 will of man, it is erroneous and unmeaning. AVliile 
 man continues in a state of probation, he can never 
 wholly lose the required prerogative of his Reason. 
 Althougli the oljjects of the Will are not and cannot 
 be indifferent, yet there is no such irresistible ten- 
 dency to any object, as that a clear view of tlie 
 greater good may not and ought not to overcome it. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 267 
 
 It is in a state of future recompense only, that the 
 love of evil in the condemned, and that of good in 
 the blessed, will constitute a species of moral, though 
 not a physical and absolute necessity, binding them 
 severally to the states to which they are respectively 
 consigned. 
 
 Section Y. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 These appear to me to be the chief limitations, under 
 which it is indispensably necessary that we should 
 estimate the character of man as a free and respon- 
 sible agent. It is as essential to a correct scriptural 
 and philosophical view of the subject, that these 
 boundaries and qualifying considerations be marked 
 out, as it is that the great fact of liberty, as the 
 groundAYork and foundation of the whole scheme of 
 responsibility and moral agency, should be distinctly 
 asserted and firmly maintained. It is equally possible 
 to err on both sides of the question ; and Ave are per- 
 suaded that warm and violent partisans have most 
 grievously erred, one class in representing the faculty 
 of volition as sunk into such a state of bondas^e and 
 impotence of elective agency, or as bound in its 
 operations to such a series of mechanical and conca- 
 tenated influences, as to have the inevitable effect 
 of encroaching upon real, practical, and equitable 
 accountability of character ; and another, in ascribing 
 unto the AVill of man such a preposterous and inor- 
 dinate power of self-determination, as is inconsistent 
 
268 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 with the sovereignty of God's purposes, with the uni- 
 versality of his knowledge, and the established order 
 of his government, and utterly at variance with the 
 very nature of the process of volition, and with the 
 actual condition of the species, as demonstrated by 
 the most unquestionable experience. In the pre- 
 ceding discussion it has been our object to hold a 
 middle course betvveen these opposite extremes, and, 
 by observing the oscillations of error, to fix the index 
 of its tendencies, as nearly as our present faculties 
 and means of knowledge appear to admit, upon the 
 unvarying point of truth. It may be that, in this 
 difficult and abstruse problem of moral investigation, 
 like some of those questions of mathematical inquiry, 
 of which the exact and definite limits cannot be 
 distinctly fixed, and the method of infinite approxi- 
 mation is consequently substituted in their stead, we 
 must be content with an approach to truth. In 
 the principles, Avhich have been here laid down and 
 attempted to be illustrated, we have endeavoured 
 to keep the eye upon the actual phenomena of the 
 mental constitution, as they develop themselves in 
 the operations of the Will, without deviating from 
 those vicAvs of conscious belief in reference to this 
 point, which form a part of our ver^' nature, and 
 without encroaching upon those representations of 
 Scripture, which can never be at variance Avith the 
 clear and fundamental dictates of that nature. And 
 in bringing this discussion to a close, it may be 
 useful, in order to a clear view of the general train 
 of argumentation which has been pursued in it, to 
 exhibit a brief summary of the principal vicA^s, yyhidi 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 2G9 
 
 have been advanced, and of tlie order in which the 
 reasoning has been arranged. By means of tliis 
 analytic process, the connexion of the whole will be 
 more easily perceived, and Jiie force and validity of 
 the several component parts will be more accurately 
 ascertained. 
 
 As the first and most remote analogy to the 
 operations of Will, Ave noticed the continual motion, 
 the ceaseless action and reaction, which prevail 
 throughout the system of nature. We proceeded to 
 remark that some of these phenomena are evidently 
 the effects of voluntary choice, others the results 
 of mechanical and inherent forces and suscepti- 
 bilities, but involving no exercise of perception, 
 thought, or feeling; and that this difference in the 
 mode of producing motion, and of performing ac- 
 tions, lies at the foundation of the whole question 
 of liberty. In further illustration of the general 
 process of elective agency, as displayed in the 
 various departments of the physical, animal, and 
 intellectual and moral world, it was observed that 
 the first and lowest modification of preference dis- 
 played in nature, is that of Sinq^Je Tendency to one 
 kind of action, and to one direction of motion rather 
 than another, as exhibited in the several phenomena 
 of magnetism, crystallization, and chemical aftinity, 
 and in those mechanical forces which the Creator 
 originally impressed upon matter, or willed to be 
 a part of its very being, and Avhich are found to 
 pervade the whole economy of IsTature. It was, 
 therefore, stated to be a groundless and inade- 
 quate view^ of matter, as a substance created by 
 
270 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 the Divine being and endued with certain qualities, 
 requiring only certain collocations and arrangements 
 to be called into operation, to represent it as totally 
 inert and destitute of al^aower of action and reaction. 
 The next stage in the gradations of the elective 
 process was shown to be that of Sensitive preference, 
 in the exercise of which all living and Sentient 
 beings feel inclined to some actions and objects, 
 rather than others. The third and last in the scale, 
 of which we have any knowledge, is that of Rational 
 choice, upon the ground of motives suggested by 
 the understanding, and rendered availing through 
 the native and inherent susceptibility of the being, 
 who thus prefers. This was seen to be the peculiar 
 kind of liberty belonging to man, the mode of 
 exerting his volitions suitable to a being placed in 
 accountable circumstances, and a subject of moral 
 agency. Assuming this to be the distinctive cir- 
 cumstance, characteristic of the mode in which man 
 exerts or is capable of exerting his preferences and 
 voluntary determinations, we proposed it as a first 
 object of inquiry, upon what ground and to what 
 extent man is to be considered as free; in other 
 words, what is essential to the Liberty of moral 
 agency. AVith a view of ascertaining and illustra- 
 ing this important point, we proceeded to lay do^vn 
 certam indispensable requisites and first principles 
 of moral liberty as founded upon the exercises 
 of volition. The first of these is Life, accompanied 
 with sensation and intellect, in opposition to the 
 condition of inanimate beings, which are obviously 
 not qualified for moral agency. The second is a sus- 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 271 
 
 ceptibility of enjoyment and suffering, as otherwise 
 there wouUl be no adequate ground of preference, 
 and the operation of rewards and punishments, as 
 the instrument of moral government, could have 
 no place. To this circumstance the origin of evil 
 was traced, inasmuch as a Possibility of offending 
 and suffering is an absolute and necessary part of 
 every form of government. Evil, as the only alter- 
 native of a wrong choice, of an improper exercise 
 of discretionary power, was shown to be of the very 
 essence of responsible agency, and therefore, the 
 capacity and possibility of suffering extend to the 
 highest angel in heaven as well as to man upon 
 earth. To this was added, as a third principle, an 
 invariable Desire of the Greater Good, when properly 
 presented to the view and duly appreciated by the 
 underst9.nding. These three properties, or endow- 
 ments, every moral and responsible agent — every 
 being that is accountable for the exercise of his 
 volitions, must possess as the very first rudiments of 
 his character. In the application of these principles 
 to the determination of the extent of human liberty, 
 and the illustration of the method of human volition, 
 it was shown that in man there is a paramount and 
 commanding faculty of Reason, the business of which 
 is not to urge him to prefer and to act in opposi- 
 tion to the original elements and tendencies of his 
 nature, but to direct his Will to the choice of such 
 things as will prove permanently conducive to his 
 highest good, — to arbitrate between the different 
 kinds and degrees of good,- and to engage him in 
 the pursuit of that, which is, on the whole, best 
 
272 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 adapted to his character, and best calculated to 
 satisfy his desires. 
 
 It is this Prerogative of Eeason, therefore, on 
 which the liberty of man, as a responsible moral 
 agent, may be considered as depending. This was 
 shown to be the case, in the iirst place, because 
 those persons are never viewed as proper subjects of 
 punishment, in whom Eeason is not in a state to 
 exercise this dominant influence and salutary con- 
 trol, as is evident from the estimate formed of the 
 actions of infants, and of persons labouring under 
 mental aberration. It was next stated, that the 
 rational or intellectual Faculty has the power, as 
 demonstrated by daily experience, to excite new 
 volitions, by exhibiting actions in their real cha- 
 racter, and by following them to their eventual con- 
 sequences — volitions quite diiferent from those which 
 would have arisen in the mind, if the same faculty 
 had been listless and indifferent. It was, thirdly, 
 maintained, that, in the economy of the human con- 
 stitution, this Prerogative of Eeason, when duly 
 and vigorously exerted, extends over the whole 
 range of the character ; over the views of the mind, 
 so as effectually to prevent the adoption of such 
 profane and impious notions as are at variance 
 equally with the evidence of intuitive belief and 
 demonstrative science, with the law of Nature and 
 the principles of Eevelation ; over the affections of 
 the heart, so as to direct them in their exercises 
 and attachments, and to allow them permanently to 
 rest upon those objects only, upon Avhich they may 
 be legitimately and suitably placed ; and, finally. 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 273 
 
 over tlie actions of the conduct, so that tlicy are to 
 be morally estimated, to be considered as proper 
 objects of reward or punishment, just in proportion 
 to the degree in which Reason exerted, or was 
 capable of exerting', its authority in their regulation. 
 In the investigation of this last head of argument, 
 several theories and hypotheses fell under our con- 
 sideration, especially that of Suggestion, as totall^^ 
 neutralizing the influence, and even annihilating 
 virtually the very being of any voluntary power 
 over the series of thoughts and feelings, which suc- 
 cessively and spontaneously rise in the mind — that 
 of the unaccountableness of speculative opinions — 
 that of the evil of sin as consisting simply in its 
 own nature, without any reference to the manner 
 in which it is produced — and, finally, that of phi- 
 losophical Necessity, which utterly confounds good 
 and evil actions, binds them together, and attaches 
 them to the human character with the same chain of 
 destiny, and makes God the author of both alike. 
 
 AYhile, however, we considered the Prerogative of 
 Eeason above the subordinate faculties of the human 
 mind, as that which forms the main hinge, upon 
 which his Liberty and his capacity of moral agency 
 turn, we by no means wished to give the idea of such 
 extravagant and inordinate power and efficiency as 
 belonging to this faculty, as is inconsistent with the 
 real economy of the mental constitution, and would 
 seem to supersede the absolute and indispensable 
 necessity of divine grace, in order effectually to 
 subdue the pen^ersities of the Will, to purify the 
 affections, and to mould the character. AVe pro- 
 
 T 
 
274 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION AS CONNECTED 
 
 ceeded, therefore, to the Second branch of the general 
 question, and endeavoured to point out in what sense 
 man is not free, and to what extent he may be consi- 
 dered a Necessary agent, without in the slightest 
 degree interfering with his accountability as a Moral 
 agent. And in the prosecution of this investigation, 
 we found that man is not free in such a sense, as that 
 any of his actions should be doubtful, ^uncertain, or 
 Contingent, inasmuch as this would be utterly incon- 
 sistent with the comprehensive and harmonious plan 
 of the divine government; neither, secondly, is he free 
 in such a sense as to be exempt from the command- 
 ing influence of Motives, considered as emotions 
 of the mind, and not mere external circum- 
 stances, to which that designation is frequently 
 applied. Volitions are so uniformly connected with 
 prevailing motives, as to become in a manner iden- 
 tified, and to form one elective state of mind. And, 
 finally, it was shown that it does not form a part of 
 human liberty, that man is not in such a sense free, 
 as that all actions, good and evil, virtuous and 
 vicious, holy and profane, should, as Pelagians, and 
 other heretics have maintained, be Indifferent to 
 him. So far is this from being the case, that a 
 preponderance of spontaneous attachment to Evil 
 was the inevitable consequence of the lamentable 
 degradation which he has experienced, and becomes 
 strengthened in the way of penal judgment by every 
 instance of wilful additional indulgence in sin, thus 
 opening a way for the operations of a divine influence 
 graciously vouchsafed to his aid, without, in reality, 
 destroying the leading feature of his character as a 
 
WITH LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 275 
 
 moral, accountable being. Under these limitations, 
 therefore, man is Free. Such, so far as Ave can trace 
 it, appears to be the order of the mysterious opera- 
 tions of the voluntary principle in man — such the 
 sublime economy, which the infinite Creator hath 
 been pleased to establish as best calculated for the 
 purposes of a moral government. We have forborne 
 from entering at length into the opinions of heathen 
 philosophers and the Fathers of the Christian church, 
 upon this great question, because their sentiments in 
 both instances, for the most part, were exceedingly 
 vague and indeterminate, and often inconsistent Avith 
 themselves. The sect of the Stoics, it is well known, 
 held the doctrine of a fixed fate, though it is, at the 
 same time, by no means easy to ascertain the precise 
 meaning which, in general, they attached to this 
 term. Others of the ancient philosophers held that 
 the intellectual and moral constitution of man is a 
 species of syncrasis, a mixture of liberty and necessity. 
 In the treatises of St. Bernard, St. Augustine, and 
 others of the early fathers, there is but little of Avhat 
 is satisfactory upon this inquiry. Their discussions 
 are loose and rambling in the extreme. Many valu- 
 able and solid observations are, however, scattered 
 over their pages, and the general di'ift of their reason- 
 ings and illustrations seems to be, to i)rove the free- 
 dom of the human Will on the one hand, and the 
 necessity of the aid of divine Grace on the other, 
 thus laudably endeavouring to enforce the obligations 
 of piety and virtue, and, at the same time, to demon- 
 strate the absolute gratuitousness of all the blessings 
 of salvation. Overlooking, however, the opinions 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE FACULTY OF VOLITION, 
 
 and hypotheses, .vhich have prevailed at different 
 periods of the history of the chureh and of the .oM 
 upon this point, we have endeavoured to state the 
 truth as it unfolds itself in the invariahle phenomena 
 of the mind itself, and to mark out the leading prn.- 
 ciples of that wise and beneficent moral economy, ot 
 which the existence of Evil appears to he an insepar- 
 able appendage, but a vast preponderance of good 
 cannot fail to be the ultimate issue. 
 
BOOK III. 
 
 THE CONSCIENCE VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH THE 
 
 SENSE OF DUTY AND THE OBLIGATIONS OF 
 
 THE MOKAL LAW. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The Origin of the Notion of Duty as centering in tub 
 Conscience. 
 
 Independently of any design or effort of my own, I 
 find myself surrounded by an order of circumstances, 
 in Avhich certain habits of mind and conduct are in- 
 dispensably necessary to my happiness. I am placed 
 in the midst of a system of physical and moral in- 
 fluences which, like so many radiations of light and 
 heat either emanating directly from their source, or 
 reflected from other objects, incessantly act with 
 more or less force upon the views of my understand- 
 ing, and the feelings of my heart. To date the com- 
 mencement, and to trace the respective and minute 
 effects of this combination of elements, as they pro- 
 gressively develop themselves in the character, were 
 indeed as much beyond the range of possibility as to 
 apply a similar method of analysis to the precise 
 mode and extent, in which food and atmospheric in- 
 fluence act upon the animal principle in the j^rocess 
 of organic formation. It is perfectly apparent that, 
 for the evolution of the exquisite machinery of the 
 
278 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 bodily frame^ both of tbese materials are necessary, 
 but by what means they are limited and controlled 
 in their tendencies — by what order of correlative 
 operation they are aggregated into the coarser 
 masses, or elaborated into the more delicate instru- 
 ments of the system, entirely escapes our observa- 
 tion. Thus, in our intellectual and moral nature, we 
 can easily discover the aids and influences, by which 
 our mental principles are modified and evolved in 
 their aggregate effects ; but to mark out the exact 
 point at which the progress originated, and to recog- 
 nise distinctly every successive step, by which the 
 inherent susceptibility was unfolded, until it has 
 assumed the form of an established maxim of the 
 understanding, is a task, for which our present facul- 
 ties are by no means competent. The grand ten- 
 dency, however — the obvious bearing and design of 
 circumstantial influences, as they relate to the 
 human mind and character, may be as clearly ascer- 
 tained by observation and experience as the assimi- 
 lating properties of matter in its effects upon the 
 animal frame. In estimating any principle or pro- 
 pensity of our nature, therefore, it is unquestionably 
 right to take all these considerations into the 
 account, without for a moment losing sight of the 
 fact, that there must have been an original capability 
 of impression and expansion, otherwise no principle 
 could have been evolved — no maxim consolidated. 
 It seems that, in the investigation of the moral, as 
 well as the intellectual elements of the nature oi' 
 man, as they are cxhil)ited in the comparative ma- 
 turity of social life, philosophers have too mucli 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 270 
 
 overlooked the correlative bearing which exists be- 
 tween him and the system, in the midst of which he 
 is placed. Hence, some have viewed the great 
 axioms of the understanding, and the fundamental 
 principles of the conduct as naturally engraven upon 
 his mind, and as there standing out in legible promi- 
 nence independently of all instruction or experience. 
 They represent them as so many members of an in- 
 tellectual organization either immediately created by 
 the hand of Deity, or put forth by the mind itself 
 in the exercise of its own independent energy. 
 Others have run into the opposite and more danger^ 
 ous extreme of making man altogether the creature 
 of circumstances and external influences. 
 
 In opposition to these theories it must be main- 
 tained that man combines in his character as much 
 as is correct in both, but derives all the habits of his 
 intellectual and moral being in the mode assumed by 
 neither. He is unquestionably possessed of an indi- 
 viduality of personal existence — of responsibility — of 
 thought and of feeling — of a susceptibility of happi- 
 ness and of misery ; and therefore it is necessary that 
 he should be possessed of a power of combination and 
 reflection perfectly distinct from the mere result of 
 sensitive influx. The design of this power is, how- 
 ever, not to evolve principles of thought or action by 
 any isolated exercises of its OAvn, but to work out 
 the various materials, with which it is supplied, by its 
 constant and never-ceasing correspondence with the 
 things which are without, into the boundless forms 
 of truth and moral excellence. 
 
 In endeavouring to discover the first germ, and to 
 
280 THE COXSCIEXCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 mark the incipient development of the notion of 
 duty in the human mind, it is important to observe, 
 that man was not only made for society, and there- 
 fore was endowed Avith capabilities of thought and 
 feeling adapted to that condition, but that also since 
 the first creation of the species, he has been inva- 
 riably trained up amidst some of the habits and asso- 
 ciations Avhich that state of being implies and abso- 
 lutely requires. It is indeed as impossible as it would 
 be useless to exhibit a view of the naked powers and 
 susceptibilities of his mind apart from the education 
 which they have received amidst that unceasing play 
 of influences and occasions Avhich have been radiating 
 and operating upon him throughout the AA'hole period 
 of his existence. These circumstances were, in fact, 
 as necessary to call forth the intellectual and moral 
 principles of his nature, as colours and sounds, and 
 tactual impressions were to awaken the external 
 senses into conscious and efficient operation, ^o 
 one, perhaps, except the Epicurean Atheists of old, 
 has doubted that the eye was made for seeing, and 
 was framed in accordance with the established laws 
 of the physical world, with a peculiar aptitude for that 
 function*. The same remark is equally applicable to 
 the car in relation to the sensitive act of hearing, and 
 to all the other perceptive inlets of the human frame. 
 But however curious and exquisite may be the work- 
 manship displayed in these organs — however clear 
 and unquestionable may be the impress of specific 
 
 Liimina nc facias oculoruiii clara crcata 
 Pio,si)iccro lit poy.-^imuy. — LucuET. lib. 4, v. 824. 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 281 
 
 design and consummate Avisdom^ Avhicli they bear, it 
 is oljvious that without a correlative order of external 
 objects and events, and even without considerable 
 exercise and reflective experience, they Avould Ijc 
 utterly useless and unavailing. Upon the sentient 
 organs, indeed, material impressions are productive 
 of an effect similar to that of the beams of the morn- 
 ing sun upon the harp of Memnon, or of the breeze 
 which sweeps its chords upon the melody of the JEo- 
 lian lyre. Touched by appropriate influence, the 
 string that was before silent, at once awakens into 
 sound, and is found to ^'discourse most eloquent 
 music." Strictly analogous to these effects, appears 
 to be the mode in which the various faculties of man, 
 whether they be sensitive, intellectual, or moral, are 
 called into action by the numerous train of suitable 
 circumstances with which they are surrounded. jN^or 
 does this view of the subject lead to the slightest 
 encroachment upon the spirituality and integrity of 
 the mental principle — upon the responsibility of man, 
 and the certainty of moral distinctions. It only 
 exhibits our nature as placed in the midst of a vast 
 range of influences which afford the best possible 
 opportunity for the development of its powers — the 
 excitation of its susceptibilities, and the salutary 
 direction of its moral energies. 
 
 To analyze an aggregation of emotions and ideas, 
 which have already been consolidated by slow and 
 imperceptible accumulation into the texture of first 
 principles, especially when the elements are so subtile 
 and evanescent, and so recondite in their mode of 
 combination, is obviously a task of extreme difficulty. 
 
2S2 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 Like the strata of massive rocks in the arrangements 
 of geological formation, which were deposited from a 
 liquid, the great facts of mind which present them- 
 selves to the superficial observer as the original and 
 unmodified constituents of its very being, as it came 
 forth from the Creator's hand, will be found on closer 
 inspection to have assumed their existing form in 
 obedience to the progressive operation of laws of 
 mutual influence and association as invariable as 
 those of crystallization or cohesion. In the case of 
 the moral phenomena the difficulty is much increased 
 by that principle of derangement, which we know 
 from infallible authority, has gained entrance into 
 the system, and has disturbed that beautiful harmony 
 of mental operations, which originally distinguished 
 the great masterpiece of creative wisdom. Like one 
 of those maladies which run in a hereditary line 
 through a succession of families, and which have a 
 continual tendency to impair and undermine the 
 salutary economy of the physical constitution, this 
 insidious evil has mingled itself with every element 
 of our being, and prevents that free and well-pro- 
 portioned evolution of mental capacities and endow- 
 ments, by which our character was designed to act in 
 unison with the whole system of the universe. The 
 great laws of moral government, however, as origi- 
 nally established by supreme wisdom and goodness, 
 still remain unaltered, and as administered by their 
 divine Author in the several departments of provi- 
 dence and grace, have a continual tendency, like a 
 species of niiiiis vahira^, to correct the aberrations 
 of passion and sensitive function, and to restore that 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 283 
 
 delightful equilibrium of the desires, ^vhich consti- 
 tutes the glory and happiness of every rational and 
 responsi1)le being. The law of nature as imposed 
 upon the first founders of our race, and as consti- 
 tuting the great bond of the rectitude and well-being 
 of the intellectual universe, was not abrogated or in 
 any degree weakened by its original violation. It 
 was, indeed, in order to vindicate and maintain it in 
 all its integrity that the restorative system was insti- 
 tuted; and that plan may be considered as a branch 
 of the great scheme of government, by which Jehovah 
 binds together the whole community of his intelligent 
 creatures in an identity of interest and of happiness 
 as arising from obedience to himself. If such, then, 
 be the design of the beneficent Author of our being 
 in all his dispensations towards us, to raise us in 
 thought, feeling, and conduct to that standard of 
 excellency, which had its original in his own nature 
 and which he has prominently embodied in all the 
 works of his hands, it is obvious that we must regard 
 the several departments of his government as so 
 many successive steps, by which, in accordance with 
 the exercise of our native powers, Ave may attain to 
 this object. Hence we find that the means, which 
 he has appointed to bear upon our character, are 
 strictly adapted to our nature and beautifully har- 
 monize with the development of our faculties. But 
 amidst all the variety of these means they uniformly 
 tend to the same object. In subserviency to this 
 purpose we find man in the very first stage of his 
 existence possessed of a capacity of physical enjoy- 
 ment and suffering — of pleasure and pain. This is 
 
284 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 the foundation of his moral education; and it is in 
 obedience to the natural impulse, T^^hich craves for 
 gratification and shrinks from the opposite emotion 
 that his notions of conduct are first formed. AYho 
 has ever witnessed a child in the first stage of infancy 
 abstaining from any object of delight within his 
 reach, or willingly submitting to any process of pain 
 and self-denial under an idea of the rectitude and 
 propriety of such an act, or from any instinctive 
 propensity amounting to what has been called a 
 moral sense? It is obvious that at such a period 
 the child thinks only of what is agreeable and grati- 
 fying to itself. As, however, its powers of observa- 
 tion and experience begin to expand, and the results 
 of the exercises of benevolence and self-denial, 
 which within certain limits are essential to any 
 measure of happiness and security in a social state, 
 are instilled into its mind, it learns to think it right 
 to extend its views somewhat beyond its own present 
 physical enjoyment, for otherwise happiness could 
 not upon any scale exist. From the delight which it 
 derives from pleasure of every kind, it by degrees 
 comes to regard happiness or enjoyment as a positive 
 good, and therefore as inherently desirable. Hence 
 every mode of conduct, which experience has shown 
 to be, on the whole, calculated to promote happiness, 
 is viewed in the same light. When the idea of rec- 
 titude or justice has been once gained as a relation 
 inse])arably connected with a benevolent constitution 
 of nature, that of duty necessarily springs out of it. 
 In whatever manner it is supposed to be riglit tliat I 
 should act towards an indi\idual, it is at once ]ier- 
 
TIIK SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 285 
 
 cei\-ed and felt that it is my duty thus to act towards 
 him. 
 
 It is not to be supposed from the preceding view, 
 that in forming the notion of Duty, every individual 
 enters into an arithmetical calculation of the good 
 which will result to himself or others from any parti- 
 cular line of conduct any more than in learning to 
 see he mathematically estimates the angle under 
 which an object presents itself to his view. In both 
 processes there is a gradual and therefore unobserved 
 approximation towards the judgment which is formed, 
 and a concurrence of a great variety of associate 
 means and influences tending to the same point. In 
 a state of society there are maxims of Duty and 
 rectitude afloat, which have justly assumed the cha- 
 racter of moral axioms, and which under certain 
 modifications are inculcated upon every new actor 
 upon the stage of existence, and which his owui 
 observation, as well as every higher light which he 
 may enjoy, combines in convincing him to be as 
 lasting as the frame of nature, or rather as immut- 
 able as the Author of nature Himself. These 
 maxims, like the h}^3othetical truths of geometry, or 
 the rules of grammatical construction, did not how- 
 ever exist in the mind in the form of specific and 
 isolated facts previously to all experience and inves- 
 tigation into the nature of things. They are rather 
 the great generalizations, which had indeed their 
 germs in the inherent susceptibilities of the mind, 
 that Avere unfolded into conscious and recognized 
 existence like the statue out of the block of marble, 
 by the exercise of reason and observation upon the 
 
286 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 condition of external things. In this view they may 
 with the most perfect propriety be considered as in- 
 nate, inasmuch as they require only the circumstances 
 of social life conjoined with observation and reflec- 
 tion to be elicited into necessary existence. The 
 great evangelical maxim, for example, that we should 
 do unto others as we would have them do unto us, 
 which constitutes the sublimest and most compre- 
 hensive formula of social obligation ever exhibited, 
 although it had not been embodied in lucid expres- 
 sion, until it was enounced by the Saviour of the 
 world, yet was inscribed with equal certainty upon 
 the very altar-piece of nature ; and after the light of 
 heaven had thus beamed upon the obscurity of its 
 characters, it is seen to be the governing principle of 
 the whole social compact. 
 
 In the formation of a scheme, nothing is more 
 decisive of the wisdom and skill of its author than 
 the maintenance of a universal subservience and co- 
 operation among all its constituent parts. In the 
 composition of an epic poem, which is considered one 
 of the greatest eff'orts of the human mind, it has been 
 remarked that such should be the relative symmetry 
 and dependency of its materials, as that not a single 
 adventure or episode could be added or withdrawn 
 without deranging the machinery or deforming the 
 superlative beauty of the whole. In the vast system 
 of the natural world, so far as it has been brought 
 under human observation, it is Avell known with what 
 consummate accuracy this principle has been acted 
 npon — with what amazing precision every mechanical 
 force and every chemical combination has been bal- 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 287 
 
 anced and adjusted, with a view to tlie permanency 
 and security of the universal frame. And although 
 our Imowledge of intellectual and moral operations 
 be of necessity somewhat more indefinite and ob- 
 scure, yet there can be no doubt that there is 
 the same unity of design — the same relation of 
 co-operative influence maintained throughout the 
 whole range of the divine government. In this 
 view of the question before us, it appears to me 
 that our notion of Duty arises not from any single 
 and specific source internal or external, but is the 
 combined result of a variety of relative influences. 
 We have in our o^vn nature an implanted desire as 
 well as a capacity of happiness. The first exercise 
 of this instinct necessarily tends towards ourselves, 
 and centres in our own enjoyment — operating in a 
 manner analogous to the principle of attraction in the 
 system of material nature. This, however, if left to 
 its own uncontrolled energy, would be inevitably 
 destructive to the whole, and hence another force has 
 been introduced in the scheme of physics denomi- 
 nated repulsion — in that of morals it may be called 
 an expansion of benevolent impulse continually urging 
 the exercise of a due regard to the happiness of 
 others. The line of motion traced in obedience to 
 these twofold influences is justice or rectitude — that 
 function of our moral nature, which consists in giving 
 every one his due, forming as it were the equitable 
 arbiter between individual and social interests — the 
 guardian of personal and relative rights and the 
 balance of the rational universe. It is from this 
 combined influence of internal instinct and external 
 
288 THE CONSCIE^•CE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 relation that the notion of Duty primarily rises in 
 the mind. It is not an axiom of moral quantity 
 legibly inscribed upon the tables of the heart prior to, 
 and independent of, all observation and reflection; 
 for in its very nature it involves a considerable and 
 comprehensive estimate of relations. It does not 
 arise from the mere contemplation of the injunctions 
 of resistless power; for although the menaces of 
 power may enforce obedience, they can never, in 
 accordance Avith the genuine principles of our nature, 
 create a sense of obligation. It is not the result, in 
 its elemental state, of the disclosures of a divine 
 revelation, for it is obvious from the pages of Aris- 
 totle and Cicero, that a notion of Duty as clearly, 
 though not so accurately and comprehensiveh^, existed 
 in the view of the heathen as in the more enlightened 
 estimate of the Christian. AYe must trace this im- 
 portant idea, therefore, to a prior date, although it 
 was never adequately sanctioned nor recognized in 
 its full extent, until the light of celestial truth dis- 
 closed its more remote relations. In its more simple 
 and primary form it is a corollary, Avhich necessarily 
 arises from that moral demonstration, Avhich the 
 Avhole face of nature and of society exhibits to the 
 eye of reason. And it is a very remarkable proof of 
 the Avisdom and beneficence of the Author of our 
 being, that we are so constituted as that what the 
 understanding pronounces to be right, the heart can- 
 not fail to recognize as agreeable to its most native 
 instincts. In the economy of nature indeed, it is 
 seldom that what is necessary to our well-being, is 
 not gratifying to our unsophisticated feelings and 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE ]\I0IIAL LAW. 289 
 
 propensities. Thus it is that our duty and our happi- 
 ness have been inseparably connected — producing by 
 their correlative action that beautiful equipoise of 
 character, to Avhich in the present state indeed, Ave 
 can only approximate. But when the disturbing ele- 
 ments, which have gained an entrance into our nature, 
 shall have ceased to operate, then the union will be 
 perfect and complete. Then every principle will act 
 in harmony with all the duties and relations of our 
 existence, and what our judgment will pronounce to 
 be right, the heart will have already felt to be 
 delightful. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 On the Standard of Duty as the authoritative guide of 
 Conscience. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to trace our notion of Duty 
 to its source, and exhibited it as the result of the 
 instinctive susceptibilities of our own nature, directed 
 and controlled by the established order of social life, 
 as well as by the light of divine revelation subse- 
 quently vouchsafed, we proceed next to inquire more 
 distinctly what constitutes the authoritative and ulti- 
 mate standard of Duty. Although a general idea of 
 obligation as binding to certain habits of feeling and 
 conduct has always prevailed in the world, it is well 
 known that the views of mankind upon the subject 
 of Dut}", have in different ages and communities 
 considerably varied from each other. Some have 
 gone to the length of denying the certainty of moral 
 distinctions altogether, and maintained that the 
 
 u 
 
290 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 standard of Duty is nothing else than a capricious 
 imposition founded upon no fixed and permanent 
 basis^ and liable to be changed and modified by every 
 peculiarity of mind, and by every order of circum- 
 stances. Others have placed the tribunal of Eight 
 in the mind itself, which, as they maintain, invariably 
 declares its decisions in the dictates of conscience — 
 in the perceptions of the moral sense — in the homage 
 of congenial Emotions as sympathizing with other 
 minds — or in the feelings of self-approbation as 
 universally accompanying what is honourable, and 
 just, and good, and in the compunctions of remorse 
 as inevitably associated with the reverse. A third 
 class has connected the claims of Duty with the 
 mere calculations of Utility — limiting their views of 
 what is essentially right by their estimate of what is 
 personally advantageous. Others, including Hobbes 
 and his followers, make the institutions of society — 
 the laws of the civil magistrate the alone standard of 
 Duty; and according to this theory, the ordinances 
 of the state not only define the limits of social obli- 
 gation, but constitute the very groundwork of the 
 whole scheme of morality and virtue. Lastly, it has 
 been held by others that the rectitude of actions is 
 entirely founded upon Avhat has been called the arbi- 
 trary Will of the Supreme Being, and that the know- 
 ledge of that Will is to be exclusively found in the 
 written Law, which therefore, independently of all 
 prior or collateral considerations, is to be regarded 
 as the sole standard of Duty. 
 
 These constitute the leading features of the i)rin- 
 cipal theories, which have been advanced both in 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 291 
 
 ancient and modern times in illustration of the 
 grounds and obligations of Duty. As an appendage 
 of some of these hypotheses, it has been frequently 
 investigated and discussed whether virtue be in itself 
 immutable and eternal, a relation absolutely inde- 
 structible and inseparable from the nature of things, 
 or whether it be a positive and discretionary appoint- 
 ment resulting from the mere Will of the Author of 
 nature, and capable of being reversed and modified 
 by his injunctions*. In these inquiries it does not 
 appear to be sufficiently kept in view that Duty or 
 Yirtue is in itself no positive, absolute being, but a 
 mere quality or relation belonging to a state of 
 things actually existing. It supposes, therefore, in 
 its very idea some being, in whom it may be consi- 
 dered as inhering, and a certain order of circum- 
 stances, before it can be called forth into practical 
 exhibition. Like mathematical and other axioms 
 it can be considered as eternal only on supposi- 
 tion of the conditions which it necessarily implies. 
 Assuming these conditions, and extending our views 
 to possible as well as actual existences, its nature and 
 obligations are doubtless eternally and unalterably 
 
 * According to Warburton, whose views would in some measure 
 seem to unite the various theories of his predecessors, morality is 
 founded on three combined principles : the onoral sense, the nahiral 
 fitness of things, and the Will of God. Of these it is the last only 
 which can constitute moral obligation, but [it is limited in its power 
 to bind to obedience by the nature of the command and the mutual 
 relations and circumstances of the parties concerned. " It is not 
 simply Will, but Will so and so circumstanced,'''' and though, ac- 
 cording to his notion, Will could bind, though all consideration of 
 consequence were discarded, yet he acknowledges that '•' Will could 
 not bind to unhappiness." — Divine Leg., book i. sect. 4. 
 
 U 2 
 
292 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 fixed. That benevolence, for example, is in itself 
 amiable, and entitled to gratitude and affection, 
 wherever there are beings capable of exercising it 
 towards appropriate objects — that malevolence, on 
 the contrary, is odious and detestable — that a bene- 
 ficent Creator has a just claim upon the homage and 
 obedience of his dependent creatures, wherever these 
 relations may exist — these are moral axioms or ele- 
 ments of virtue as absolute and unchangeable in 
 themselves, antecedently to all positive injunction, as 
 any of the surest dictates of reason, or of the first 
 principles of geometrical science. The former class 
 of truths commend themselves as strongly and irre- 
 sistibly to our moral susceptibilities, as the latter to 
 our rational convictions. And they may be consi- 
 dered as constituting the first germ or nucleus of 
 that aggregation of natural dictates and positive 
 injunctions, which in their collective character form 
 the materials of the Moral Law — that Law, which, so 
 far as it is knoAvn, is the last authoritative standard 
 of Duty to every rational and accountable being. 
 Li this connection 1 do not consider the Moral Law 
 simply as the Law of N'ature, nor exclusively as an 
 epitome of the preceptive disclosures of divine reve- 
 lation, but as the great standard of virtue and excel- 
 lence, so far as it can be appreciated by our fiiculties 
 throughout the whole universe. This standard does 
 not vary with the changing conditions of any parti- 
 cular department of the divine government, with the 
 oscillations of the manners of society, and the fluc- 
 tuations of human character. Li its fundamental 
 principle it remains imnuitably the same amidst all 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 293 
 
 the changes and evohitions which may take place 
 among those wlio may come within the range of its 
 requirements — amidst all the new forms of intellec- 
 tual being, which in the progress of time the creative 
 will of Deity may call forth into existence, and place 
 beneath its sway. The history of the universe, from 
 the birth of created nature until now, has been a 
 history of changes and vicissitudes. Analogy would 
 suggest that the dominions of Jehovah have still 
 been extending their range — that worlds have risen 
 upon worlds, and that the boundless amplitude of 
 space has been continually replenishing with new 
 abodes of happiness — with fresh subjects of moral 
 government as the most effectual means of renewing 
 and perpetuating that happiness. All the discoveries 
 of science — all the brief intimations of divine reve- 
 lation interpreted by the spontaneous and concurrent 
 dictates of our own minds seem to argue a vast scale 
 of rational and intelligent beings deriving life and 
 happiness from the same great source — moving at 
 various distances around the same centre, and there- 
 fore of necessity required to obey the same unvary- 
 ing rule of subordination and dependence. This law 
 of subjection, of purity, and of happiness, is the 
 great bond of harmony throughout the universe. In 
 its nature and authority it is as extensive as creation, 
 and as lasting as eternity. In its essential charac- 
 teristics as an expression of aU that is holy, wise, 
 and good; of aU that is just, virtuous, and benefi- 
 cent ; it is as unchangeable as the Being from whom 
 it flowed. 
 
294 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 And as the Moral Law constituting the ultimate 
 and authoritative standard of Duij, is immutable in 
 its principle, it follows that it is universal in its 
 bearing and application. It embraces within its com- 
 prehensive range the universality of those beings, 
 whatever may be the diversity of their capacity and 
 condition, which are capable of virtue and happiness. 
 It ascends the whole climax — rising to the loftiest 
 point, and descending to the lowest grade of account- 
 able agency. It is of equal force in each of what Ave 
 have been accustomed to consider as the three great 
 departments of the creation, — in the world of holi- 
 ness and happiness above — in the world of discipline 
 and probation in which we have been destined to 
 spend this introductory period of our existence, and 
 in the world of penal retribution below. The diflfer- 
 ence is solely in the result and application of its pro- 
 visions, as modified by the character of the beings, 
 upon whom its sanctions are brought to bear. The 
 principle and spirit of its enactments are the same. 
 It is the law of angels, vastly superior to all that we 
 can noAv conceive as their circumstances and endow- 
 ments may be, and little as we know of the graduated 
 economies, under Avhich their respective orders may 
 live, inasmuch as it holds out to them a standard of 
 duty blazing in legible characters over the throne of 
 their Sovereign, upon the observance of Avhich their 
 happiness as much depends as that of the loAvest 
 inhabitant of earth. It has been the law of human 
 nature, amidst all the changes of its character and 
 condition, throughout every period in the history of 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 295 
 
 the world, and amidst every successive dispensation 
 under which its moral government has been admi- 
 nistered, and it will form the last rule of judgment, 
 by which our destiny throughout eternity will be 
 determined. It was imposed upon us at the very 
 dawn of our existence. It has been inviolably bind- 
 ing upon obedienc.e amidst all the subsequent revo- 
 lutions, which have befallen us, and the benevolent 
 interpositions made in our behalf. All the misery 
 which has been entailed upon us, or is incurred by 
 our ov^ii misconduct, is the aggregate result of its 
 infractions. It is the law exhibited in awful execu- 
 tion among the inmates of the world of penal woe, 
 inasmuch as the wretchedness which they are doomed 
 to endure, is the ratification of its inviolable sanc- 
 tions. These views of the Moral Law as the Standard 
 of Duty seem necessarily to flow from the very nature 
 and character of its Author. A^Tien we speak of the 
 Moral law as having God for its Author, we employ 
 the term as an abstract expression of that aggregate 
 of principles, which forms, as it were, the established 
 constitution of that universe of which He is the 
 Sovereign. In the original institution of such an 
 order of government, we may legitimately assume 
 that He was influenced by the best reasons. The 
 whole system was based upon benevolence the most 
 enlightened, disinterested, and expansive. In order 
 that this principle might be developed, however, upon 
 the largest possible scale in the diffusion of happiness 
 in its purest and most exalted forms, it was obviously 
 necessary that various other principles should be asso- 
 ciated and combined. It is the result of this blended 
 
29 G THE COXSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 exercise of infinite power and wisdom and benevo- 
 lence, embodied into the Will of the supreme 
 Governor, which constitutes the Moral Law. Its 
 permanency and immutability are secured in the very 
 attributes, which were employed in its formation. 
 By the universality of his knowledge, Jehovah was 
 free from all possible mistake in fixing the first great 
 principles of his government. His eye penetrated 
 not only all that was actual, but all that was possible 
 in the nature of things. It perceived every minute 
 as well as every magnificent evolution, which the 
 stupendous forces impressed upon the machinery of 
 matter were about to produce. It anticipated the 
 still darker and more intricate workings of the 
 rational Avill. It outstripped the career of time, 
 spread its survey over the widest expanse of space, 
 and brought the remotest outlines of creation within 
 the range of its concentrated glance. The benignity 
 of his character afforded an equal security for every- 
 thing that was excellent and most conducive to the 
 happiness of his creatures in the first conception of 
 his great rules of procedure toAvards them, while his 
 power keeping pace with every other attribute of his 
 nature rendered certain the accomplishment of every 
 wise and beneficent design. It was impossible, 
 therefore, that any new and unexpected event in 
 any department of the universe should surprise him 
 into a necessity of changing the first principles of his 
 administration. There is this great difference to be 
 considered between the Moral Law as the standard of 
 universal Duty, and the positive enactments of man 
 — that the former preceded the state of things, which 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MOKAL LAW. 297 
 
 it was intended to regulate, just as the principles 
 ■which are to govern a system of machinery are 
 clearly perceived and appreciated by the inventor, 
 before that system is actually constructed. The en- 
 gine is therefore adapted to pre-existing forms and 
 laws of mechanical action, and not the reverse ; 
 whereas the latter, — the injunctions of human ap- 
 pointment, are these contrivances adjusted to a con- 
 dition of things actually existing, and consequently 
 liable to all the changes, which the variations and 
 the imperfect knowledge of that condition may 
 require. They are but local applications intended to 
 repress the outbreakings of a disorder, the seat of 
 which is beyond their cognizance and control. They 
 are comparatively but shifts of a political empiric, 
 who is liable to be baffled in every attempt to attain 
 the great object of legislation, and is therefore 
 obliged to vary his measures at every new turn of 
 events. At the best his efforts are but experiments, 
 which are correct only in proportion to his knowledge 
 of a state of things previously existing, and suc- 
 cessful only as far as they accord with the conserva- 
 tive and divinely established principles of social 
 happiness. The case of the Moral Law, in its various 
 modes of application, is totally the reverse. Here 
 the principle is perfect, and therefore immutable. 
 The whole frame of the material and intellectual 
 universe was constituted in accordance with its cha- 
 racter, and in subordination to its dictates. It is 
 therefore immutable, universal, and eternal. 
 
 Such is the Law, Avhich we conceive to be the last 
 authoritative standard of Human Duty. Everything 
 
298 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 short of this, as the ultimate ground of moral obli- 
 gation, is baseless, fluctuating, and uncertain. This 
 is the voice of the Eternal issued forth at the first 
 dawn of the creation — a voice whose accents were 
 blended with the melody of the morning stars, and 
 touched a chord of responsive and undying harmony 
 throughout every region of the intellectual universe. 
 Of this primary annunciation of the Sovereign Will 
 there is left a record on every page of nature, — a 
 memorial upon every pillar of creation — an echo in 
 every rational ear, and an inscription upon the tables 
 of every sentient heart. They are these fainter ves- 
 tiges, — they are these remembered tones of celestial 
 music still floating through the turbid atmosphere of 
 this lower world, which so many have mistaken for the 
 original, authoritative, and direct communications of 
 Jehovah's will, and consequently, instead of being 
 regarded as accordant intimations, they have been 
 erected into the sole standards of duty. It has been 
 forgotten that such monitions, however valuable, 
 Avhen explained and illustrated by a principle of 
 higher and more lucid interpretation, are in them- 
 selves utterly insufficient. The intimations of nature 
 and providence may be neglected or misunderstood ; 
 the sympathies of the heart may be perverted and 
 be turned aside from their natural channel: the 
 standard of Utility may be lowered doAvn to the level 
 of a grovelling and selfish calculation — the voice of 
 conscience may be drowned amidst the storms of un- 
 govcrncd passion ; and the laws of the civil magis- 
 trate may be the enactments of impiety, venality, 
 and oppression, and thus the spirit, which is provided 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 299 
 
 with no other resource, may, like the Dove sent out 
 of the Ark, he found to wander amidst the tem- 
 pestuous elements of an overwhelming deluge, with- 
 out heing able to discover any firm footing, upon 
 which its sense of duty may venture with confidence 
 to repose. The history of the world, so far as it has 
 been destitute of the light of divine revelation, is to a 
 great extent a melancholy record of theoretic errors, 
 or of practical deviations from the rule of universal 
 right. But wherever this rule has been fully and 
 distinctly made known, it must, undoubtedly, be 
 regarded as that, which is to define and limit our 
 ideas of moral excellence — as the grand directory of 
 conduct — as • the last authoritative criterion of all 
 that is pure and just and good. This it is, therefore, 
 which at once directs us in the way of our duty, and 
 binds us by the most imperative obligations to its 
 performance. We shall now, therefore, proceed more 
 distinctly to inquire into the source, in which the 
 Moral Law may be considered as having originated. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 The Nature and Origin of the Moral Law as binding 
 UPON THE Conscience. 
 
 The moral law, or, as it has been frequently termed, 
 the law^ of nature, so far as it relates to the conduct 
 of rational beings, may be considered in its primary 
 application as the law of motives. In contradistinc- 
 tion to those rules of action which control the opera- 
 tions of physical substances, it has immediately to do 
 
300 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 only with that choice, purpose, or design of the mind, 
 which Aristotle has properly denominated Trpoatpecns*. 
 In its legitimate acceptation as a standard of duty, 
 and as inyolying considerations of merit and demerit, 
 it applies solely to the yiews and intentions of the 
 rational understanding and Avill, as lying at the foun- 
 dation of all the decisions of the conscience. The 
 whole of the material uniyerse is subject to laws or 
 established modes of action adapted to the pecidiar 
 nature, character, and design of its seyeral depart- 
 ments. ISTor does it appear that there has been a 
 single deyiation from these habits originally impres- 
 sed upon its yarious elements, except when they haye 
 been intentionally suspended and oyerruled by a 
 higher power, from the creation until the present 
 moment. The laws of chemistry and mechanics — 
 the phenomena of heat, electricity and magnetism, 
 so far as they haye been accurately inyestigated and 
 ascertained by adequate induction, haye been found 
 to be inyariably uniform. Thus nature in all her 
 material modifications, when questioned in reference 
 to the same powers and elements, has uniyersally 
 returned the same replies. 
 
 Analogy would haye led us to expect that the 
 same uniformity should preyail in the higher and 
 more important department of the works of tlie Cre- 
 ator ; in other words, that the Moral Law should be as 
 fixed and inyariable in its bearing towards its proper 
 subjects as that Avhich regulates the machinery and 
 controls the combinations and reactions of that mass 
 
 * Ufwaipeais oiKdoraTov fiuai 8ok(i ttj aptTTj^ kgi futXXov ra rjdr) KpivdV 
 T(x>v Trpu^ewv. — Aristot. E(/t. lib. ", c. 11. 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 301 
 
 of corpuscular substances Avhicli forms tlic material 
 world. In the method of government hy means of 
 these laws, however, the analogy entirely ceases. 
 The physical and inanimate system is a mere series 
 of motions — a change of position, resulting from 
 innate forces among the constituent atoms of a mass. 
 The moral regimen, on the contrary, is conducted 
 upon totally other principles. In this the motions of 
 the body, the actions and effects resulting from those 
 motions are taken into the account and brought under 
 cognizance only as they are supposed to spring from 
 sentiments and emotions of a voluntary and design- 
 ing mind. And they are estimated with a reference 
 more or less obvious and direct to the evil or the 
 good, which they are calculated to produce among an 
 order of beings susceptible of the most intense sensa- 
 tions of suffering or enjoyment. This circumstance 
 alone places the operations of the human will as sub- 
 ject to the restrictions of the moral law upon a foot- 
 ing utterly dissimilar from the mechanical processes 
 of causation prevailing in the material system ; and 
 therefore the attempt to explain the former by ana- 
 logies derived from the latter beyond that of mere 
 metaphorical illustration, is AvhoUy devoid of force. 
 The law which we are now investigating, exclusively 
 applies to rational and intellectual beings, and the 
 science, which undertakes to analyze its first prin- 
 ciples may be suitably denominated the Doctrine of 
 Motives. In its corollaries and practical results, 
 however, it embraces the whole range of the character 
 and conduct of rational existences of every rank and 
 order throughout the universe. Wliatever has a 
 
302 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 designed relation to the happiness or suffering of 
 beings capable of those emotions — whatever in 
 thought, feeling, or conduct, is susceptible of ad- 
 measurement by the established rule of duty, must 
 be considered as falling under the cognizance of that 
 great standard of obligation, of which we are now 
 endeavouring to trace the nature and origin. Uni- 
 versal and immutable, how^ever, as is the principle, in 
 which it is founded, in the details and peculiarities of 
 its requirements, it varies according to the character 
 and circumstances of the beings to whom it applies. 
 
 Its nature we cannot, perhaps, more briefly and 
 accurately define than by representing it as that which 
 binds every being endued with the powers of thought 
 and reflection, hi suhordination to the glory of the 
 Supreme Ruler of the universe, to design the wel- 
 fare, happiness, and secnritij of all other heings in 
 anywise connected with him hy the equitable dis- 
 charge of all his relative obligations towards them. 
 It is obvious, indeed, that, while the principle of the 
 Moral Law is universally the same as tending to the 
 safety and well-being of those, who are capable of 
 enjoyment, and to the infliction of condign suffering 
 upon those who have violated its just obligations, it 
 assumes a diversity of aspects corresponding to the 
 character and relations of those whose conduct is to 
 be governed by its dictates. This is essential to its 
 propriety and efficiency as the rule of adjudication 
 among the several ranks and orders of being — as the 
 criterion of moral worth throughout the whole extent 
 of the vast scale of intellectual nature. An instru- 
 ment thus universal in its design and application 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 303 
 
 must of necessity have taken its rise in a mind 
 capable of comprehending all the endless multiplicity 
 of interests on which it was to bear, and in one 
 simple sentiment, which contained, as it were, in 
 embryo, the whole of that boundless range of rami- 
 fication and expansion, of which it has proved sus- 
 ceptible. By this we are led to trace the origin of 
 the Moral Law to the essential nature and charac- 
 ter of tlie great First Cause of all things. This 
 sublime standard of virtue and excellence had existed, 
 as a habit of being, though not in the specific form 
 of a law, in the mind of Deity, from eternity. It 
 had dwelt in the breast of Jehovah, presenting, as in 
 a mirror, the reflected light and beauty of his own 
 spotless excellency, and exhibiting to his intro- 
 specting eye a model of every imaginable perfection, 
 while yet in the absence of every other object of 
 contemplation, and in the solitude of his own blissful 
 existence. He filled that indefinable orb of duration 
 and space, which preceded the birth of creation. 
 
 In the language of Solomon, applied to the per- 
 sonification of infinite wisdom, " The Lord possessed 
 it in the beginning of his ways, before his works of 
 old. It was set up from everlasting, from the begin- 
 ning, or ever the earth was. When there were no 
 depths it was brought forth, when there were no 
 fountains abounding with water. Then it was by 
 Him as one brought up with Him, and it was daily 
 his delight, rejoicing always before Him." 
 
 When we employ such language in illustration of 
 the Moral Law as it originally existed in the charac- 
 ter of the Deity, we mean no abst}-act code of pre- 
 
304 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 scribed regulations, to wlycli Jehovali was bound by 
 external obligation to conform liis conduct. The 
 term Law, as applied to Him, is nothing more than 
 an expression of the essential and unalterable prin- 
 ciples and habits of his being. He was subject to no 
 outward authority, to which He was bound in duty 
 or interest to yield the homage of submission, and to 
 pay the tribute of obedience. There was no higher 
 tribunal, to which He could regard himself as ame- 
 nable. There was nothing out of the range of his 
 own nature, which He could recognize as a directing 
 or controlling power in the original exercises of his 
 will, and in the progressive fulfilment of his pur- 
 poses. He stood pre-eminent and supreme in 
 the discharge of every creative and legislative func- 
 tion. Everything in the natural and moral world, 
 according to the original constitution of things, was 
 evolved as a direct emanation out of the sovereign 
 exercise of his own essential attributes. Thus He 
 was a Law unto himself — responsible only to the 
 judgment, which He passed upon his own conduct. 
 But in the formation of all his plans and in the exe- 
 cution of all his purposes, though He was free by his 
 inviolable prerogative as the first and greatest of 
 beings from all authoritative obligation or controlling 
 influence, yet there was in Him an original quality of 
 nature and character as fixed and invariable as his 
 very existence, which afforded a security that He 
 should design or accomplish nothing but what was 
 pure and just and good. That law, therefore, which 
 had virtually and essentially existed in his own 
 nature from all eleruitv, lie made the IJule of his 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 305 
 
 conduct in tlie creation and his instrument of 
 government in the subsequent administration of the 
 world; and they are only modified applications of this 
 sublime emanation of everlasting wisdom and good- 
 ness — of justice, and power, and love, which pervade 
 the whole mass, and bind together in relative depen- 
 dency and obligation the whole frame of society. 
 
 It is this which secures the uniformity and benig- 
 nity of the supreme rules of government as adminis- 
 tered by the universal Sovereign. It is this which 
 unites the Creator in love and rectitude to his 
 creatures, and reunites the creatures in duty and 
 obedience to the Creator. This is the federative 
 bond of the universe, binding together and securing 
 by the strict execution of its provisions in one great 
 interest of glory and happiness, God, angels, and 
 men. It is the rule of judgment in the Supreme 
 Court above, dispensing his due awards unto every 
 one upon principles of justice combined wath love. 
 It is that which gives all their force and validity to 
 the decisions and enactments of the subordinate and 
 representative courts here below. It is that which 
 obliges man, first in homage and service to his God, 
 and then in duty and benevolence to his fellow, thus 
 forming at once the foundation of true religion, and 
 the authoritative rule, the connecting link of all the 
 relative rights, offices, and interests of social life. 
 
 Such we conceive to be, in brief, the nature and 
 origin of the Moral Law, that which is at once the 
 authoritative standard of duty, and will be the rule 
 of final adjudication and retribution to every account- 
 able agent. It is primarily the Law of Motives as 
 
 X 
 
306 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 adapted to beings possessed of powers of reflection 
 and voluntary action, and as taking cognizance 
 through the exercise of conscience, of the prevailing 
 principles and affections of the mind, and by a 
 necessary extension of its jurisdiction it is, second- 
 arily, the law of practical conduct as suggested, 
 regulated, and controlled by those internal impulses. 
 In endeavouring to discover its origin we can only 
 trace it to the essential nature of Him, who is the 
 fountain of all existence. In his character it dwelt 
 from aU eternity as a sanctuary consecrated by its 
 presence and irradiated by its effulgent beams. By 
 his will and authority it was embodied into a reflect- 
 ing mirror of his excellency, and placed aloft upon 
 the highest pinnacle of the universe, displaying 
 before the countless myriads of its intelligent occu- 
 pants, the standard of their Duty — the contrasted 
 guilt and enormity of disobedience, and a model of 
 sinless perfection. 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 The Means by wnicii the Moral Law, or the Law op 
 Conscience, has been made known unto Max. 
 
 If that order of principles then, which we denominate 
 the Moral Law, be such in their origin, obligation, 
 and extent: if in their collective character they 
 constitute the instrument by which Jehovah governs 
 the world, and with an undoviating reference to 
 whicli, lie disi)enses ha])piness and misery to beings, 
 who fall under their legitimate control, it is not less 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE IMORAT. LAW. 307 
 
 important than it is interesting- to ascertain by what 
 means of commmiication such a rule of judgment 
 has been made known unto man. It is indispensable 
 to the equitable administration of a law that the 
 knowledge of it, so far as it is intended to be en- 
 forced, should be brought Avithin the reach of its 
 subjects. However correct it may be in its princi- 
 ples — how^ever necessary in its enactments — however 
 right and unimpeachable in its sanctions, no one can 
 justly become entitled to its rewards, or exposed to 
 its penal visitations, who was unavoidably debarred 
 the opportunity of making himself acquainted with 
 its provisions and demands. Xeglect and voluntary 
 ignorance, or an inaptitude to appreciate its requi- 
 sitions, superinduced by a wilful violation of duty, 
 can indeed plead no exemption from the penalty due 
 to transgression ; for in such a case guilt would 
 always find a secure refuge in the darkness, to which 
 it had chosen to retire. It would only be necessary 
 resolutely to close the eyes against the light, and to 
 turn a deaf ear to tlie calls of truth and duty, to 
 rush into crime with impunity, and to divest sin of all 
 its enormity. All that is requisite to give force to a 
 law and to justify the execution of its retributive 
 sanctions, is that the means of ascertaining its real 
 character and bearings should be strictly propor- 
 tioned to the measure, in wdiicli it is intended to be 
 carried into effect. As, therefore, the Moral Law 
 was obviously designed by its wise and beneficent 
 Author to regulate the present conduct, and to 
 determine the future destiny of his rational creatures, 
 it v.ould be utterly at variance with all our notions 
 
 X 2 
 
308 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 of his character to suppose that he should at any 
 time have left them in total ignorance of it. The 
 modes, indeed, may have been various — the degrees 
 of clearness and accuracy may have been different. 
 These are points, which Infinite Wisdom was best 
 qualified to determine, and the estimate of unerring 
 justice will not fail to take into the final account. 
 But that moral agents of every order are supplied 
 with means and facilities of discovering the law of 
 their duty, proportioned to the extent of their 
 responsibility and to the magnitude of the interests 
 involved, enters into our notion of the first principles 
 of all equitable government: and hence we may 
 freely assume that, in reference to his demands upon 
 the service and obedience of his creatures, Jehovah 
 has not left himself without a witness to bear testi- 
 mony to the nature and justness of his claims. 
 
 In our investigation of the origin of the Moral 
 Law, Ave traced it to the very essence of the character 
 of Jehovah as a just and beneficent and holy Being. 
 On the creation of the material and intellectual uni- 
 verse, these attributes of his nature Avere embodied 
 into a specific and authoritative expression of his 
 Will. Hence that which before existed as an essen- 
 tial quality of character, now began to be recognized 
 as a law — adapted to the government of beings en- 
 dued with appropriate faculties and susceptibilities of 
 impression— in other words, with the attribute of 
 conscience. As the floral Law thus virtually pre- 
 existed in the character of the great first cause; it 
 was to be expected that he should impart something 
 of that impression to all the effects, which issued 
 
 J 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 309 
 
 from lii.s creative energy. In accordance with this 
 view of things, the first intimation of Jehovah's will 
 — the first draught as it were of the Moral Law, is to 
 be found in the very constitution and frame of I^ature 
 as originally established by his power and wisdom, 
 and as subsequently preserved and regulated by his 
 over-ruling Providence. To those, who have duly con- 
 sidered the subject, it Avill appear sufficiently evident, 
 that the whole system of ^N^ature bears a Moral aspect. 
 It was the absurd notion of some of the ancient sects 
 of philosoph}^, that matter has in itself an inherent 
 malignity, and that the world, which is composed of 
 it, owes its existence to the power of evil. The 
 fact is, on the contrary, that the whole system of the 
 universe is pervaded by what we may call a principle 
 of Morality analogous to that of electricity, heat, 
 or attraction, in the natural world. Throughout its 
 whole extent it seems to be instinct with this spirit of 
 life, and purity, and love. While w^e contemplate 
 the stupendous fabric of the material universe, it is 
 impossible not to perceive that its Design was con- 
 ceived in perfect accordance with the law of eternal 
 rectitude and benevolence. To adopt the language 
 of scenic representation, whatever may be the obscu- 
 rity and apparent incongruity of some of its subordi- 
 nate departments, the general effect, w^liich the view 
 of it is calculated to produce upon the mind, is that of 
 a deep impression of its moral character and tendency. 
 To the eye of enlightened reason it presents the 
 appearance of a vast temple of virtue based upon the 
 everlasting pillars of justice, and bearing inscribed 
 
310 THE COXSCIEXCE IN CONXECTION WITH 
 
 upon every portal appropriate maxims of duty mito 
 all, who are introduced within its precincts. 
 
 The means by Avhich the Will of God, as ex- 
 pressed in the ]\Ioral Law, is made known in the sys- 
 tem of nature, is in the first place the striking- 
 exhibition which it affords of his moral perfections. 
 It is true indeed that they are the natural attributes 
 of Jehovah, so denominated, in contradistinction to 
 the former — his moral perfections, which stand forth 
 with most immediate and observable prominence 
 upon the surface of the material universe, and even 
 these, when surveyed in their just bearing, and in 
 their due relation to the class, which has been usually 
 designated as moral, will be found strongly confirma- 
 tory of the same general impression. The most 
 remarkable characteristic of the Author of nature, 
 perhaps, with which the mind is struck, while it con- 
 templates the frame of the universe, is the vast 
 power which it displays. With this is immediately 
 associated the sublime and boundless skill with which 
 this stupendous machinery is regulated. These attri- 
 butes in themselves involve no moral excellency. 
 They might have been exerted in the creation and 
 government of a system, which would be productive 
 of nothing but misery and wretchedness. Power 
 might have been employed only to tyrannize and 
 oppress, and skill to devise the means of suffering and 
 torture. AVe know of no necessity except the inhe- 
 rent and essential tendency of his own gracious 
 nature, whicli could prevent a Being possessed of 
 these awful ([ualities to the extent, to which it is 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 311 
 
 obvious that he does possess them, from putting them 
 forth in the incessant multiplication of creatures 
 endued ^vith the most exquisite sensibilities, in order 
 to delight Himself Avith the sight of their agonies, 
 and to listen to the music of their cries. AYe know no 
 reason in the absence of other attributes, why the uni- 
 verse should not be at once turned into an aceldama, 
 and the fair volume of creation should not be wrapped 
 up into one dark scroll, inscribed with mourning, 
 lamentation, and woe. But when, instead of these 
 direful h}'pothetical possibilities, we find that the 
 poAver and wisdom of Deity have been exerted in the 
 production of a scheme of things, which bears the 
 most obvious impress of the benignity of his charac- 
 ter, and appears to have been called into existence 
 for the express purpose of communicating the largest 
 amount of happiness compatible with moral govern- 
 ment unto beings, whom He has endued with a 
 capacity of enjoying it; when Ave perceive hoAv 
 admirably the AA'hole system of the universe is balanced 
 and adjusted — hoAv its contending forces are found 
 to harmonize in the Avelfare and security of man — 
 hoAv nicely the Avhole of the mighty apparatus of 
 heaven and earth is adapted to his condition, and 
 made to contribute to the good of him, and, as the 
 A'oice of reason and analogy unequivocally pronounces, 
 of other orders of sentient beings : amid such vicAA's 
 of things it is impossible not to recognize in the very 
 machinery of nature a principle of moral action as 
 positive, as absolute, and as uniform in its tendencies, 
 hoAvever occasionally counteracted by human de- 
 pravity and Aveakness, as the most palpable and 
 
312 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 invariable law of matter. Thus regarded, the Sun 
 becomes a bright revelation of its Maker's will and 
 character; and every star, which bestuds the firma- 
 ment, becomes a torch to light us into a knowledge of 
 our duty. It is to these resplendent manifestations 
 of Jehovah's attributes as the measures of man's 
 obligations that the apostle triumphantly appeals, as 
 rendering impiety and disobedience inexcusable. The 
 more, therefore, we know of the laws of nature, the 
 more shall we discover of the will of God, and of our 
 own corresponding duty, and hence the declaration 
 of Newton will be realized — that as the boundaries of 
 natural philosophy are extended, the limits of moral 
 philosophy will experience a proportionate enlarge- 
 ment. But the spirit of the Moral Law appears to be 
 still more distinctly embodied in the system of nature, 
 in that, according to the present constitution and 
 course of things happiness is invariably found in a 
 degree more or less to attend on one line of conduct, 
 and misery in some form or other on the reverse. 
 The grand characteristic of a moral government is 
 here distinctly exhibited. The voice of nature clearly 
 distinguishes between right and Avrong, and proclaims 
 in audible language the difference which will be 
 finally made between them. It is true indeed that the 
 present system of nature, as it is administered towards 
 the various orders of human character, does not afford 
 a full and accurate development of the principles of 
 the divine government. It doubtless presents much 
 of obscurity and intricacy to the eye, which has not 
 been illumined l)y a brighter manifestation. The 
 dispensations of the Supreme Ruler in the present 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE 3I0HAL LAW. 313 
 
 slate are for the most part general and indiscriminate. 
 There is enough in the constitution of nature how- 
 ever, to s'ive a decisive indication of the Will of its 
 Author as it relates to the leading features of human 
 conduct. There is enough to show the tendency of 
 the system as expressive of his appointment and 
 design. There is enough in the opposite effects, 
 which in the existing order of things virtue and vice 
 are respectively calcidated, and seldom fail to pro- 
 duce, to stamp the former as his delight, and the 
 latter as his abhorrence. The great principles of in- 
 dividual security and social happiness are interwoven 
 with the w^hole tissue of providential and physical 
 arrangements. There is a meaning in the silent 
 countenance of nature, which tells the most ignorant 
 and unreflecting that He who made it is One who 
 loves purity and benevolence, rectitude and truth, 
 and marks with his unequivocal displeasure cruelty 
 and oppression, intemperance, malignity and fraud. 
 Amidst all the irregularity and confusion, which the 
 great original catastrophe, that befel our species, has 
 introduced into the world, there is still discoverable 
 a moral basis, which nothing can utterly destroy — 
 resting beneath the superincumbent layers of human 
 passions and opinions, like the primitive granite, over 
 which the secondary formation may have been de- 
 posited, or the basaltic torrent may have rushed. 
 
 Thus it is that in the original constitution of the 
 frame of nature, and in the general course of provi- 
 dential government, there is a strildng view afforded 
 of the essential character of Jehovah as the origin 
 and archetype of the ^Moral Law. The more deeply 
 
314 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION ^VITI[ 
 
 Ave are enabled to penetrate into the arcana of nature 
 — the more accurately and comprehensively we survey 
 its relative bearings and dependencies, by so much 
 the more clearly and unequivocally shall we find it to 
 be stamped with the impress of its Maker's attributes. 
 It was not without reason, therefore, that Xewton 
 remarked, as above noticed, that as the bounds of 
 natural science were extended, the range of Moral 
 Philosophy Avould be proportionably expanded and 
 enlarged. As the veil is gradually removed — as the 
 curtains are drawn aside by the hand of successful 
 investigation, and open a wider scene of contempla- 
 tion to the eye of the reflecting observer, he will 
 doubtless tind greater reason to admire, not only the 
 wisdom and power displayed to his view in every 
 variety of minute and splendid illustration, but also 
 the same great rule of right — the same principle of 
 sublime and superlative excellence pervading the 
 whole economy of the universe : and the law of duty 
 Avill thus be found as invariable in its obligation — as 
 deeply laid in its foundation, and as broad and diffu- 
 sive in its relation to its proper subjects as the 
 simplest and most comprehensive form of material 
 and physical action. This, therefore, may be regarded 
 as the first, though not the clearest method, in Avhich 
 the Moral Law has been evolved, inasmuch as its 
 leading principles were embodied in the original for- 
 mation of the system of the universe, and are con- 
 spicuously held forth to the view in the arrangements 
 of an all-regulating and all-sustaining providence. 
 
 In order, however, that this physical and i)r()vi- 
 dential revelation of the JJivine AVill might be oi" 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LA^Y. 315 
 
 any avail in aiding- man to attain unto a knowledg-e 
 and sense of his duty, it ^vas necessary that his own 
 mind should be endued with a siisceptihility of accor- 
 dant impression, appropriately denominated con- 
 science. And this is the next means by which avc 
 may consider the Moral Law as made known unto 
 man. Between the soul of man and the external 
 universe there is obviously a striking relation. There 
 is a remarkable mutual adaptation between the parts 
 of the one, and the faculties of the other. To some, 
 indeed, the connexion has appeared so close that the 
 external world of matter and motion was deemed to 
 have no existence, except as it was identified with 
 the various notions and impressions of the internal 
 world of thought and affection. By Leibnitz the 
 analogy was deemed so remarkable, as to induce him 
 to have recourse to the notion of a pre-established 
 Harmony between the two great departments of 
 nature — implying that, without any real communica- 
 tion with each other, they are respectively so consti- 
 tuted as that the state of external things should be 
 at all times exactly such as the mind represents 
 them, although its ideas are developed entirely from 
 its own nature. 
 
 Without, however, adopting either of these hypo- 
 theses, it is abundantly evident that the powers of 
 intellect, and the organs of perception, as well as the 
 capabilities of moral impression in man are wonder- 
 fully and designedly adapted to a condition of things, 
 which affords occasion for their exercise. There is 
 doubtless as great a suitableness in the capabilities 
 of the mind to receive the moral intimations intended 
 
31 G THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WVm 
 
 to be conveyed in the system of nature, as there is 
 in the organ of vision to be impressed by the undu- 
 lations of the kiminiferous ether. 
 
 "Without attempting to revive the theory of innate 
 practical principles, which Locke was at so much 
 pains to explode, we must still maintain that the 
 native character of the human mind, as it relates to 
 moral instincts, is very inadequately and inaccurately 
 represented by the analogy of the rasa tabula — an 
 utter blank as to any original impressions. It is 
 readily conceded indeed that the mind of man is not 
 a species of register, the leaves of which are inscribed 
 as with the pen of inspiration, and bear on record the 
 edicts of the Eternal, previously to, and independently 
 of, the numberless train of educational influences, to 
 which in every condition of society it must be subject. 
 At such a period it is obvious that it is destitute of 
 all the materials which enter into the constitution of 
 every definite idea of moral right and legal obliga- 
 tion. Where there is no notion of those relations 
 and connections, which Duty universally involves, it 
 is evident that there can be no conception, much less 
 a deep-felt impression of what is just and right. 
 The only sense therefore, in which, consistently with 
 reason and experience, moral principles or a recogni- 
 tion of the universal Law of Conduct can be said to 
 be instinctive and innate, is that there is in the very 
 constitution of our intellectual and moral nature an 
 aptitude — a tendency — a pre-disposition for the 
 development of those judgments under the influences 
 of the peculiar circumstances, in which we have been 
 placed. The mind, according to this view of it, may 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 317 
 
 l)e regarded as a sheet of paper — not indeed indif- 
 ferent to any characters that may be drawn upon it, 
 and equally calculated for the reception of what is 
 true or false, right or wrong, but bearing in indelible 
 inscription the Law of Duty, invisible, hoAvever, to 
 the perceptive faculty until it be drawn forth into 
 palpable exhibition by the application of appropriate 
 influence. As the element of heat, by its eifect upon 
 the chemical fluid, in which the characters had been 
 traced, brings out into distinct and legible forms 
 what before had lain concealed on the colourless 
 uniformity of a blank, so the commingling glow of 
 expanding faculties, actuated and controlled by social 
 and circumstantial influences, calls out and gradually 
 embodies into unavoidable recognition those moral 
 intimations and impressions, which, however they 
 may be occasionally perverted and misconstrued, are 
 felt to be as true as nature itself, and as firm as the 
 foundations of the tmiverse. They may be distorted 
 indeed from their original bearing — they may be 
 corroded by an ungenial atmosphere — they may be 
 overwhelmed beneath the thick layers of surrounding 
 depravity and corruption — they may be deluged by 
 the overflowing tide of headlong and ungovernable 
 passions; but amidst all this disorder of functions 
 and dislocations of parts, their elements will be found, 
 if we may so speak, among the lower strata of the 
 mental system, like a monumental pillar buried, in 
 some destructive convulsion of nature, beneath a 
 mass of earth and rubbish, and requiring only to be 
 cleared and raised to light in order to exhibit the 
 same unalterable inscription. 
 
318 THE CONSCIEXCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 It is this ready perception and irresistible convic- 
 tion of what is really and essentially right^ ^yhich in 
 holy writ is described as "the Law -wi'itten on the 
 heart/' — a law, which is said by the Apostle to accuse 
 or excuse, in reference to the more general and 
 important part of their character, those who are des- 
 titute of any other rule of conduct. It is regarded 
 by some as specifically the Light, which light eth every 
 one, which cometh into the world, inasmuch as it 
 exhibits the great broad lines of duty with sufficient 
 clearness for general practical purposes unto every 
 man who is willing to be guided by its beams. It is 
 an internal capability of moral perception, indepen- 
 dently of all supernatural communication, which, on 
 account of its analogy to the external inlets of ideas 
 may be justly called a moral sense. It is that, which, 
 in the absence of all direct and positive instruction, 
 enables us to discriminate the eternal and unalterable 
 ditference between riglit and wrong, and pronounces 
 its verdict upon any alleged act of conduct with a 
 rapidity which outstrips the application of any posi- 
 tive standard of duty; and will be found wrong in its 
 decisions only where it has been inadequately deve- 
 loped or perverted by custom or evil passion. This 
 is the voice from within, which responds to the many 
 voices from without, forming by their combined and 
 mingled melody the moral Harmony of t\\(i universe. 
 
 In bestowing on man such a constitution of 
 nature — in so iVaming and balancing his suscep- 
 til)ilities as to secure their attestation to the great 
 fundamental principles of nu)ral government, tlie 
 Autlior of bis l)eiiig may un(iues;tionn1)ly be con- 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MOKAL LA^Y. 319 
 
 siderecl as virtually conveyino," to him a knowledge of 
 his LaAv. AYithout this capability of appreciating- 
 the purity and justice of that Law, all other means 
 of attaining unto a knowledge of it, or of enforcing 
 the practical observance of it, would have been 
 utterly useless and unavailing. It is this which 
 renders man a fit subject of moral discipline, for that 
 system can take salutary effect only in proportion to 
 the fulness and spontaneity of that homage, which 
 the heart yields at every step to its requisitions. 
 So far, therefore, as man is a moral being, a being 
 endowed with the faculty of conscience, he embodies 
 in his own character a living representation of that 
 Law, wliich has its origin in the eternal Mind. 
 
 But although the Moral Law be embodied, as has 
 been already shoAvn, in the whole system of nature, 
 and is exemplified before the eyes of the intelligent 
 universe in the constant administration of the divine 
 government, and although, as has been further 
 stated, its leading characteristics and requirements 
 are interwoven with the first principles of the human 
 constitution, yet the peculiar circumstances of our 
 natur^ rendered a more direct and authoritative 
 communication essential to a complete and adequate 
 knowledge of its demands. There is enough, indeed, 
 in the phenomena of the Creation as they unfold 
 themselves to the view under the control of a super- 
 intending Providence, combined with the unequivocal 
 intimations of his own conscience to inform the 
 judgment of man in the great outlines of practical 
 duty. There is a sufficient measure of light elicited 
 from the mutual action of his own faculties and the 
 
320 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 magnificent scenery of the world around him, to 
 render him inexcusable in the violation of the first 
 principles of moral obligation. But for all the inter- 
 esting and important details of his more specific 
 relations towards the author of his being and the 
 duties Avhich those relations involve — for a definite 
 view of the high sanctions with which the requisitions 
 of the Law are enforced — for a knowledge of the 
 peculiar stipulations and provisions which the great 
 ruler of the universe hath made for his preservation 
 and direction — for these several purposes the book 
 of nature is far too general and comprehensive, too 
 enigmatical and obscure. And upon these points, 
 which are so closely connected with his destiny, the 
 exercises of his OAvn reason directed by the instinctive 
 susceptibilities of his character are incapable of 
 throwing any further light. Upon numberless ques- 
 tions, which bear with the most commanding influ- 
 ence upon the moral regimen of his nature, the 
 great volume of the universe, so far as it can be 
 comprehended by his unaided poAvers, is a sealed 
 book — the page of his own reason is a blank. Wliile 
 he is confined to the exclusive information co*|vcyed 
 by these instruments of knowledge, lie is in the 
 condition of -one, who is a stranger in a country 
 governed by peculiar statutory enactments, super- 
 induced upon the fundamental laws of human conduct 
 as the necessary result of the character and circum- 
 stances of its inhabitants. Such an one might not 
 be likely to err upon the fe^v great points, which are 
 considered as constituting the laAv of nations. He 
 might be fully aware of the general duty of sub- 
 
 I 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 321 
 
 jection, which he owed to the governing powers. He 
 mio^ht be in no dano^er of mistakins; the rules of 
 justice and benevolence as binding upon every human 
 being. But of the specific arrangements, which were 
 then obligatory as having arisen from the prevailing 
 habits and exigencies of the community, he might 
 labour under utter ignorance, while these arrange- 
 ments were in reahty but modifications and results 
 of the eternal law of duty ^mtten on his oa\ti heart. 
 
 It was to supply this great deficiency of the book 
 of nature and of the table of conscience — it was to 
 explain what was symbolical and obscure — to confirm 
 what was doubtful and uncertain, and to correct what 
 Avas erroneously conceived in both, that the Plan of 
 a direct revelation was adopted. It was not to 
 contradict and set at nought the intimations of both, 
 or to supersede the use of either as the means, 
 within due limitations, of discovering the rule of 
 duty, but to afford a more copious and accurate 
 detail of information upon points of the highest 
 moment than they were able to impart. This, there- 
 fore, is the next — the most ample and satisfactory 
 means, by which the INIoral Law, in the general and 
 extensive sense of the expression, has been made 
 known unto man. And although the testimony of 
 this last witness be incomparably more definite and 
 express than that of either of the former, yet it will 
 be found in no degree at variance with their genuine 
 information, wherever it has been correctly appre- 
 ciated and understood. 
 
 The method of communicating and receiving 
 knowledge by Eevelation is twofold. It is either by 
 
 y 
 
immediate personal inspiration or by tradition, or in 
 other words, by a written record of what was revealed 
 unto him, by whom it was thus embodied. The 
 knowledge Avhich is imparted unto us in the Scrip- 
 tures, is evidently conveyed by the latter method. 
 It was originally received by the former. The evi- 
 dence of its truth, if duly authenticated, is equally 
 decisive in both cases. The mode, in which super- 
 natural kno^vledge has been delivered, has likewise 
 greatly differed in different instances. In many 
 cases mentioned in the Old Testament, and probably 
 in that of our first parents in the time of innocence, 
 Jehovah was pleased to impart the intended know- 
 ledge by vocal communication in outward audible 
 language. During the continuance of the para- 
 disiacal and patriarchal dispensations, Jehovah was 
 pleased to hold intercourse with his servants as a 
 man would speak unto his friend. He made known 
 unto them his will in accents, which fell upon their 
 organs of sensitive perception. The more frequent 
 method at subsequent times, however, appears to 
 have l)een that of a strong impression made upon 
 the mind by the resistless influence of the divine 
 Spirit — carrying direct conviction to the under- 
 standing, overpowering the imagination with a 
 burden of sublime or moral imagery, and tracing 
 upon the tables of the memory the records of infal- 
 lible truth. In one memorable instance, indeed, 
 God was pleased to inscribe as with his own hand, 
 a brief summary of his Avill, to be preserved as a 
 permanent document, wliich might be known and 
 read of all men. 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAV,'. 323 
 
 The most succinct, explicit, and comprehensive 
 digest of the Moral Law, ilkmiined and interpreted 
 by the subsequent discoveries of the Gospel, ever 
 communicated from Heaven to Earth, is doubtless 
 that, Avhich was delivered unto Moses upon Mount 
 Sinai, arranged under ten specific injunctions, and 
 written upon two tables of stone. Previously to this 
 important era there had been no positive and pal- 
 pable record bearing the immediate stamp and autho- 
 rity of the Lawgiver Himself to instruct men in the 
 knovdedge of their duty. They had been hitherto 
 left to those imperfect notions, which they were able 
 to deriye from the sources already mentioned, aided, 
 indeed, by the floating remains of traditionary reve- 
 lation, and by the occasional irradiations, which were 
 darted down from on high to illumine the spirits of 
 the faithfid, but vrithout any authentic expression of 
 moral obligation embodied into the form of a fixed 
 standard — an appeal to Avhich would rectify misap- 
 prehension, and set conjecture at rest. This was the 
 first wTitten proclamation of the great Sovereign of 
 the Uniyerse, calling his subjects to their allegiance, 
 and directing them in the path of their duty. This 
 brief instrument contains, under ten distinct heads, 
 all the fundamental principles of the divine govern- 
 ment. This may be regarded as a series of postu- 
 lates, by a due regard to which the various problems 
 and corollaries of Moral Science may be solved. In 
 this the great practical truths, which lay scattered 
 over the face of nature, or buried in the unexplored 
 depths of the human mind beneath a confused and 
 overwhelming mass of carnal prejudices and passions, 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 were brought out into clear and prominent exhibi- 
 tion, and concentrated into a few intense points of 
 express and authoritative requisition. Although 
 these points assume a positive, and in some respects 
 an arbitrary aspect, yet on a closer surv^ey of them 
 in relation to the real condition of humanity, they 
 will all be found based upon a moral reason of 
 the most important and influential character. They 
 are, in fact, nothing else than the theory of that con- 
 stitution, which Jehovah hath established, reduced 
 under a few pregnant, practical principles. As farther 
 generalized and simplified by our blessed Saviour, 
 they may be comprehended under the significant 
 axiom, that it is the duty of man supremely to love 
 the Lord his God and his neighbour as himself. . This 
 extensive formula may be regarded as virtually con- 
 taining within itself all the demands of the Moral 
 Law, just as D'Alembert remarked, that the whole 
 mass of mathematical science is nothing more than 
 modifications and results of the simple equation 
 a=h. 
 
 The book of inspiration, as conveying the know- 
 ledge of the Moral Law, indeed, we consider as 
 an explicit and authoritative declaration of duties, 
 which were enjoined in the hoolc of Nature, but in 
 language too enigmatical and indefinite to admit of 
 their being clearly comprehended. It is, within cer- 
 tain limits, like a luminous treatise on natural phi- 
 losophy, Avhich does not invent or call into existence 
 the fiicts, which it records and illustrates, but only 
 exhibits in a small compass the result of a long and 
 intricate investigation, and thus brings to the dis- 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 325 
 
 tinct view of the mind what otherwise must have 
 escaped its observation, or surpassed its conception. 
 It is from the book of Revektion, therefore, and 
 from that alone, that a complete and adequate know- 
 ledge of the Moral Law, in the present state of our 
 nature, is to be obtained. That volume, indeed, Avill 
 be found infinitely to surpass, in fulness of informa- 
 tion and accuracy of detail, any other source of 
 knowledge, to which we can have recourse, but it 
 conveys nothing, which is really at variance with 
 what had before been revealed upon the magnificent 
 page of nature, and inscribed upon the deep tablet 
 of our o^vn heart. 
 
 Such appear to be the means, by which the Moral 
 Law as the rule of divine government, and as the 
 universal and unchangeable standard of duty, is made 
 known unto man. Dwelling in the mind of Jehovah 
 as its original and native home, it directed the whole 
 process of creation. It stamped with its own image 
 the whole face of nature; and hence it is promi- 
 nently exhibited to the view of the discerning ob- 
 server in the constitution and general administration 
 of the universe. It is there exemplified upon a scale 
 of magnitude and extent, which claims the notice 
 and admiration of the highest created intelligences. 
 It is displayed in a manner more or less clear and 
 distinct in the rule of Providence here below. Thus 
 Jehovah has not left himself without witness even in 
 the works of nature, and in the course of providence. 
 But besides this species of physical revelation of the 
 will of God, there is in man's own heart, before it 
 has been perverted by evil habits, and incrusted with 
 
32G THE co^■scIE^'CE in conxection with 
 
 every prejudice and vile affection, a voice Avliich 
 responds to the loudest call of duty from without. 
 This may be regarded as another powerful means of 
 bringing man to the knowledge and cordial recog- 
 nition of the Moral Law. It is the voice of con- 
 science. Both of these sources of information have 
 been shown by experience to be of themselves 
 utterly inadequate, in the present fallen condition of 
 our nature, to make man fully acquainted with his 
 obligations. And hence a Revelation has been given, 
 by which every doubt has been solved, and every 
 error rectified. In this mirror of truth and holiness, 
 therefore, we may behold a delightful and accurate 
 reflection of that Law, which emanated from the 
 eternal Kinc;. 
 
 Section V. 
 
 The Moral Law considered in its Relation to the 
 Christian System. 
 
 If such, then, be the origin, the extent and the vast 
 bearings of the Moral LaAv : if it took its rise in the 
 eternal and immutable nature and essence of Jeho- 
 vah as a just and beneficent Being, and spreads over 
 the whole surface of Creation, wherever there are 
 subjects, to whom its provisions and requisitions can 
 apply: if it be interwoven with the first principles of 
 our own mind and engraven for our guidance in more 
 luminous and uneciuivocal characters upon the pages 
 of divine Revelation, it is an inquiry not less inte- 
 resting than important, how it stands related to that 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 327 
 
 sublime and peculiar system of divine government, 
 under Avhicli we are now placed. The Christian dis- 
 pensation in its various principles and doctrines, 
 privileges and duties, is a moral regimen, which has 
 sprung from a particular state and relation of things. 
 But if we take an enlarged and accurate survey of 
 its nature and design, it will be found to be the 
 natural residt on the part of God of that Laic, 
 which we have already stated to be the Eule of uni- 
 versal government as the offspring of the eternal 
 Mind. This is a vieAv of Christianity, which appears 
 to have been, to a great extent, overlooked, and 
 hence that gracious provision for the evils attendant 
 on the existing condition of our nature has been fre- 
 quently represented as something which rises infi- 
 nitely above and stands but remotely connected with 
 that rule of administration, which was in force before 
 its manifestation. The Law and Gospel have thus 
 been injuriously contrasted with each other. The 
 former has been regarded as a mere expression of 
 dry and unbending justice, and everything gracious 
 and beneficent in the dealings of Jehovah referred 
 to the tenderness and compassion of the latter ; and 
 thus, instead of a system of uniform and progressive 
 development the government of the universe is made 
 to be shifted from its original footing, and to be con- 
 ducted upon an essentially different principle of admi- 
 nistration. AYe consider the Moral Law, on the con- 
 trary, as the great, immutable rule of proceeding 
 towards rational and accountable beings throughout 
 every period in the history of creation, and the Gospel 
 itself but a modified application of that Rule to meet 
 
328 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 the exigencies resulting from the disaster which "befel 
 our species. We regard it as a contrivance springing 
 out of the original spirit and tendency of the Law 
 adopted with a view to obviate an existing evil, rather 
 than a scheme designed to supersede the genuine 
 requisitions of that Law. We view Christianity, in 
 fact, not as an arbitrary nor merely a sovereign insti- 
 tution, totally distinct from every principle, which 
 had been hitherto recognized in the government of 
 God, but rather as one important branch of the 
 scheme, which had already been universally estab- 
 lished — as a corollary naturally inferred from the glo- 
 rious theorem of the divine perfections. It is an 
 economy founded upon the same basis as the w^hole 
 constitution of I^ature. If, therefore, we could con- 
 ceive a mind capable of appreciating the Avhole theory 
 of administration, which had been originally insti- 
 tuted, and the principles of character, in which its 
 various facts took their rise, it would perceive that 
 the method of deliverance through Christ was an 
 evolution of results, w^iose germ had before dwelt in 
 all the fulness and richness of its capabilities in the 
 bosom of the great Lawgiver. 
 
 In order more fully to unfold and illustrate this 
 view of the question it is to be remarked that Bene- 
 volence, combined with and regulated by Justice and 
 Holiness, forms the very essence of the Moral cha- 
 racter of Clod, and these qualities form the basis and 
 distinguishing features of that law, which he had pre- 
 scribed to Himself as the Ruler of the world. The 
 great princii)]e, therefore, upon which the moral 
 system was founded, appears to have been that Hap- 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 329 
 
 pincss should be communicated and Misery prevented 
 in the greatest degree compatible with the demands 
 of Truth and Justice. The diligent and faithful per- 
 formance of duty was inseparably connected with 
 secure and exalted enjoyment. The violation of its 
 obligations with equal certainty and necessity called 
 for punishment. This would seem to be the only 
 method by which a moral government could be con- 
 ducted. It is that alone, which is adapted to the 
 nature of intelligent beings endued with a faculty of 
 free and unconstrained volition and capable of exer- 
 cising a discretionary control over the exercise of 
 their own powers. It does not appear that there can 
 in the nature of things be any other means of govern- 
 ing rational creatures in consistency wdth the essen- 
 tial principles of their being than that of connecting 
 in a manner more or less direct the penalty of suffer- 
 ing A\ith voluntary delinquencies and the fruition of 
 happiness with the maintenance of purity, sanctity, 
 and obedience. It would unquestionably be the dic- 
 tate of benevolence, so far as was not utterly incom- 
 patible with this fundamental principle of a moral 
 system, to adopt every means, which wisdom could 
 suggest and power could carry into effect, to obviate 
 incidental evil. Such gracious interposition Avould 
 evidently come within the range of an administration 
 conducted upon the principles of a Law, which is 
 founded in the most expansive benevolence. 
 
 It was under the sway of such an economy that 
 man was originally placed. He was endued with all 
 the faculties and susceptibilities, which qualified him 
 to be a subject of moral government, and therefore 
 
830 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 .subordinatelj a guardian of Ins own happiness. The 
 Law, to which he was amenable, was calculated in 
 the highest degree to promote his welfare and secu- 
 rity. This Avas the object, vrhich it kept most promi- 
 nently in view, as connected with his Maker's glory. 
 It could not, however, without utterly destroying its 
 own character and annihilating the relation in which 
 he stood to the Supreme Ruler, secure his welfare or 
 avert the evils, to which he might expose himself, 
 without an unqualified recognition of the great prin- 
 ciple of retributive justice. When man had incurred 
 tlie penalty which the Law, as applied to his charac- 
 ter and condition, had denounced against disobedi- 
 ence, he stood in the peculiar and difficult predica- 
 ment of one apparently doomed to inevitable misery 
 by the very constitution, which had been established 
 with a special and pre-eminent regard to his happi- 
 ness. The spirit and design of the Law as a tran- 
 script of the beneficent character of Jehovah were 
 favourable to his deliverance, but the fact of his 
 being condemned by that specific enunciation of it, 
 which had been delivered for his guidance and con- 
 trol, appeared to present an insuperable l)arrier to his 
 escape. In this awful and perplexing conjuncture it 
 was perceived by infinite Wisdom that the End of the 
 Law might still be secured in affording man an oj)- 
 portunity of regaining his forfeited happiness, Avhile 
 its penal denunciations should at the same time be 
 carried into ade(]uate aud satisl^ictory eifect. The 
 means by Avhich this glorious o])jecf was to be realized, 
 Avas the ajjpointment of a Mediator, avIio graciously 
 undertook to bear tlie penalty of i\\c broken Law, in 
 
THE SEXSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAl^ LAW. 331 
 
 order that its threatened victim might go free. Into 
 the peculiar suitableness and propriety — or rather 
 into the ultimate grounds and reasons of this bene- 
 volent arrangement we are scarcely competent to 
 enter. We can perceive Avith sufRcient clearness its 
 admirable adaptation to answer the ends of govern- 
 ment — as combining the promotion of happiness with 
 the unbending enforcement of the sanctions of the 
 Law. We can see how remarkably it blends and 
 harmonizes the benign and exalted spirit of the law 
 with the rigid execution of its letter. We see in it 
 an irrefragable proof that the government of Jehovah 
 is essentially a government of benevolence as well as 
 of justice, and that if righteousness be the founda- 
 tion of his throne, compassion is also the girdle of 
 his loins. 
 
 We consider, indeed, that benevolence or a desire 
 to promote the happiness of his creatures is so essen- 
 tial an attribute in the character of God, and forms 
 so decided and prominent a feature in the great law 
 of the universe that it would have been impossible for 
 Him Avithout denying his own nature not to have 
 recourse to any justifiable and salutary means of 
 obviating the direful consequences, which threatened 
 to result from sin. A remedial plan, therefore, al- 
 though man had no claim of justice for such an insti- 
 tution, was the natural and congenial effect of the 
 conjoint operation of the everlasting attributes of 
 Jehovah. It was a measure springing from the same 
 generous and beneficent impulse, as led to the crea- 
 tion of the Avorld, and to the appointment of a moral 
 system. 
 
832 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION ^VITH 
 
 The Christian covenant therefore — the loveliest 
 manifestation of divine goodness and grace — was not 
 something, Avhich stood isolated and distinct from 
 every former exercise or display of the Moral attri- 
 butes of God. It Avas not a system of government 
 founded upon some grand transcendental perfections 
 of the Deity, which was at once to obliterate and 
 abolish every record of former regulations, but it was 
 rather the development of a germ, which the law of 
 nature virtually contained within itself, and to the 
 practical evolution of which the exigencies of fallen 
 man afforded the direct occasion. It was an effusion 
 of loving-kindness, which had lain concealed in the 
 unknown depth of that benevolence, with the streams 
 of which the whole universe is cheered and refreshed. 
 This view of Christianity, instead of derogating from 
 its dignity and importance, in reality enhances its 
 value, and more firmly establishes its truth, inasmuch 
 as it shows that glorious scheme to be interwoven 
 with the essential perfections of Deity, and to be 
 virtually embodied in the original scheme of his 
 moral government. It stands forth to our view 
 therefore, and urges its claims upon our acceptance 
 in all the accredited majesty of an offspring of the 
 Eternal Mind. 
 
 It must be obvious that in this view of the jVIoral 
 Law as the basis of the Christian system and indeed 
 throughout the preceding discussion, we consider it 
 not merely as a positive constitution for the govern- 
 ment of this lower world, but as an expression upon 
 the most extended scale, of those principles of equity 
 (lud (/ooditess which collectively form the invariable 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 333 
 
 Collide of Jehovah's conduct in all his dealings with 
 his creatures. This universal rule of action is simple 
 and uniform in its bearing, although it is infinitely 
 Aaried in its application as circumstances and rela- 
 tions may differ. As the self-originating directory 
 of the great Sovereign of heaven and earthy its main 
 import appears to be that He should promote the 
 happiness of his creatures in every way not utterly 
 inconsistent wdth the inviolable demands of his Holi- 
 ness and Truth. This always has been, and always 
 must be the spirit of every economy which claims 
 Jehovah as its author, and every intei'position for the 
 deliverance or remedy of his creatures, is but an 
 additional evolution of this beneficent principle. 
 Therefore it is, that we regard the great remedial 
 system, which w as graciously superinduced upon the 
 defection and fall of man, not as the manifestation 
 of a quality, which had been hitherto, as it were, an 
 alien to the government of God, but as a modifica- 
 tion, involving indeed the exercise of the most stu- 
 pendous wisdom and love, of that benign principle 
 which pervaded every department of the universe 
 for the purpose of meeting a case of overAvhelming 
 disaster. It must always be borne in mind that the 
 Love, which the covenant of redemption so strikingly 
 and gloriously displays, existed in all the tenderness 
 and intensity of its glow, before that beneficent plan 
 was brought to bear upon the character and destiny 
 of man. Christianity thus view^ed ceases to be a 
 species of gracious encroachment upon the great 
 principles of the divine government, but it becomes 
 closely and intimately identified with the character of 
 
334 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION V/ITH 
 
 the Deity, and a component part of the eternal Law 
 of the universe as administered by His wisdom and 
 love. The immutability of Jehovah's purposes is 
 vindicated, and Jesus Christ, as the great agent in 
 the work of our redemption, is emphatically seen to 
 be the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 
 
 Section VI. 
 
 The AuTnoniTY of the Moral Laav, 
 
 It has already been laid down that the ]\Ioral Law is 
 the proper and ultimate standard of Human Duty, 
 and that its requisitions are the only decisive mea- 
 sure by which the rectitude of actions is to be tried. 
 Other standards may be erroneous, and are at best 
 defective. Human institutions are but conventional 
 arrangements established for the welfare and secu- 
 rity of society, and draAv all their power of binding 
 either directly from the sword, or by derivation 
 from a higher source. The susceptibilities of our 
 own minds may be perverted by local prejudices and 
 innate passions. Conscience itself may be blinded 
 by ignorance, or warped by temptation. Amidst tlie 
 uncertainty and weakness therefore which attach to 
 every other rule of duty, it is important and deliglit- 
 ful to reflect that there is a Law, to which we can 
 with confidence look for direction — a Law which can 
 neither err through mistake, nor fail through feeble- 
 ness. It becomes, therefore, an interesting subject 
 of in(iuiry — what really constitutes the authority, 
 the obliuatior.s of this Law, as imposed by the Su- 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 335 
 
 prcme Ruler of the universe, in the exercise of liis 
 sovereign Will, upon his rational and accountable 
 creatures. 
 
 In proposing- such a question, it becomes us to 
 reflect v>'ith the profoundest reverence, and the deepest 
 self-abasement, upon the Majesty and Sovereignty of 
 the Being into Avhose prerogative in the establish- 
 ment of the economical arrangement, under which 
 we are placed, we venture to inquire. It is not from 
 any presumptuous notion that we have a right to sit 
 in judgment upon the plan of the Eternal, that this 
 process of investigation is instituted. The constitu- 
 tion of the universe, in many of its primary reasons 
 and remote relations, is utterly beyond our knowledge 
 and comprehension. For the removal of many of 
 its difficulties — for the elucidation of many of its 
 obscurities — we must wait for the revelations of a 
 brighter economy. In this introductory season of 
 our being, however, it is delightful to be enabled to 
 fix the eye upon some broad principles, in which the 
 attributes of Deity appear to harmonize with what 
 we instinctively conceive to be just and right, and 
 upon which the mind may therefore repose in full 
 and unhesitating acquiescence. In proportion, in- 
 deed, as we apprehend more clearly, and appreciate 
 more distinctly, the great fundamental maxims of 
 the Divine government, this satisfaction becomes 
 more perfect and complete. Every deeper and wider 
 survey which we take of the vast system in which our 
 lot is assigned, conveys a stronger impression of the 
 stability of the fabric, and of the correctness of the 
 principles upon which it is erected: every ray which 
 
33G THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 plays around its pillars, is found to exhibit in a more 
 engaging; light the beauty and loveliness of its pro- 
 portions. 
 
 The moral authority of a law, or the ground upon 
 which it is entitled to observance, whatever may be 
 the mode of its promulgation and enforcement, must 
 be determined by a combined consideration of the 
 competency of the Legislator, and of the design and 
 tendency of the enactment. The last of these cir- 
 cumstances, indeed, cannot in all cases enter into 
 the estimate of individual obligation; for the subject 
 in many instances is utterly incapable of forming a 
 just judgment of the bearing of the Law he is 
 required to obey, on the comprehensive scale on 
 which it is designed to operate; and the end of 
 legislation would be entirely frustrated, if every 
 person was to withhold his homage until he had 
 been able to ascertain the benevolent origin and 
 the salutary effect of the civil institutions under 
 which he lives. It is not less true, however, that 
 the consideration of its tendency, as it relates to 
 the welfare of those whom it is designed to govern, 
 lies at the foundation of every law and constitution, 
 which prefer a genuine claim upon their regard. 
 The Sovereign, who is possessed of adequate power, 
 may issue and enforce edicts which are capricious, 
 arbitrary, and malevolent in their principle, and 
 pernicious in their practical results. As part of a 
 general system, whose total overthrow might be 
 more injurious than its occasional despotism was 
 oppressive, it might be the duty of a subject to 
 submit to such regulations. But a laAv bearing this 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MOllAL LAW. 337 
 
 character, and a government conducted upon sucli 
 a principle, would in tlicir real and essential nature 
 be destitute of all pretension to just authority, and 
 could be enforced only by the addition of tyranny 
 to malignity. The mightiest monarch upon earth 
 never had nor could have the least moral right, 
 upon any ground of honour or expediency, to intro- 
 duce a single enactment which was at variance with 
 the real interests of his subjects. The whole force 
 of Law under every form of administration will be 
 found ultimately to rest entirely and exclusively 
 upon the effects which it is calculated to produce 
 upon the happiness of those who are under its sway. 
 This tendency is not to be estimated by any confined, 
 partial, and inequitable regard to individual interests, 
 but by a broad, benevolent, and expansive survey 
 of all the relations which it involves. As, however, 
 this comprehensive investigation would for the most 
 part be impracticable, and in its application to the 
 Divine Law, with our present measure of knowledge 
 and information, absolutely impossible, the rule of 
 duty is to recognize the obligation, which compe- 
 tent authority has declared to be binding, and tran- 
 scendent rectitude and goodness have asserted to be 
 benevolent and just. Eor all the ordinary purposes 
 of government, it is quite sufficient to say that it is 
 the Will of God that such conduct should be pur- 
 sued. But if we carry the matter deeper, and 
 inquire why we are bound to regard the laws of God, 
 the ultimate reason will doubtless be found in the 
 inherent excellency of those laws, and in their direct 
 tendency to promote our own happiness as well as 
 
 z 
 
338 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 the glory of their Divine Author. The happiness of 
 the creature, as inseparably connected with the glory 
 of the Creator, is, in fact, the great end of all the 
 physical and moral an-angements of the universe, 
 and the glory of God consists not in the abstract 
 possession of any particular order of perfections, but 
 in exercising these attributes in the communication 
 of the means of enjoyment upon the largest possible 
 scale consistent with the rule of eternal justice, and 
 the unalterable principles of his own being. It is 
 thus that the honour of God becomes essentially 
 linked with the welfare of man. The latter is a 
 mirror, from which the former is most conspicuously 
 reflected, and the Moral Law is the medium, through 
 which the rays are made to converge upon their 
 object. "We may conceive it possible, indeed, that 
 the Divine Being, in the exercise of his uncon- 
 trollable power, should have appointed a law, which 
 would only be productive of misery to his creatures, 
 and He might enforce the observance of this law by 
 penalties, which it would be additional misery to 
 incur; but it is evident that obedience to such a 
 regulation would be the result of necessity rather 
 than obligation — of prudence rather than of duty. 
 It is contrary to the first principles of our intel- 
 lectual and physical constitution, that any living and 
 sentient being should be morally obliged to do that, 
 Avhich is absolutely prejudicial to his happiness 
 throughout the whole range of his existence. On 
 the supposition of any other rule of government 
 than that which is on the whole conducive to hap- 
 piness, indeed, the motive to virtue and the means 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 339 
 
 of enforcing it would be altogether destroyed, as tlie 
 observance or the neglect of it would lead alike to 
 suffering, and the whole course of administration in 
 ^luch a case would be only one series of coercive mea- 
 sures and penal inflictions 
 
 The proper and ultimate authority of the Moral 
 Law, therefore, unquestionably lies in the benevo- 
 lence of its principle, and in the inherent excellency 
 of its requirements as calculated to promote our 
 highest good. It is on this ground, in the primary 
 reason of the duty, that the child is bound to obey 
 liis parent, and as no being can be morally obliged 
 to act in a manner that would be finally destructive 
 to his own welfare, that duty at once ceases, when 
 the injunction is seen to involve such a sacrifice. 
 Thus, in our relation to the gracious Author of our 
 nature, we are required to obey Him — not merely 
 because He gave us our being — not only on account 
 of His infinite power to punish us, but because, in 
 the infinite wisdom and benevolence of his character. 
 He has made it our happiness to obey Him — ^because 
 He has given us a law, which unites and identifies 
 our own welfare ^vith the manifestation of his tran- 
 scendent perfections. This is the benign principle, 
 which runs throughout the whole range of his moral 
 government, and, like a child who is confident of his 
 father's concern for his happiness, we have only to 
 learn His Will, in order to ascertain, with an accuracy 
 far surpassing any result of our own abstract inves- 
 tigations, what is really conducive to our good. 
 Hence the incalculable value and importance of a 
 written law; not that, abstractedly considered, it 
 
 z 2 
 
340 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 forms the ground of our duty, without any reference 
 to its effects upon our final and eventual destiny, but 
 that it affords a clear and unequivocal disclosure of 
 the mode of conduct, by which it is the will of our 
 Heavenly Father that Ave should be raised to happi- 
 ness and glory. The law, therefore, is paramount 
 and universal in its obligations, but it is such, as it 
 involves ihe previous fact, that its recognition is the 
 constituted means of our own welfare and security. 
 It is not for us, under these circumstances, to form a 
 graduated estimate of what we may conceive to be 
 our duty, according to what may appear to us to be 
 our interest, but to receive the intimations of our 
 Heavenly Father's will, being that in which both 
 combine, as cemented l)y everlasting love. 
 
 This appears to be the genuine ground, upon 
 v/liich the authority of the Moral Law, as binding 
 upon rational Ijeings, rests. It is that, which at once 
 satisfies our own views of relative obligation between 
 the Creator and the creature, and accords Avith the 
 disclosures of revelation, as well as the universal 
 testimony of experience in its bearing upon the fact 
 assumed. They Avho resolve the law into a mere 
 expression of sovereign Avill, apart from any reference 
 U) its influential tendency and design as it regards 
 the happiness of its subjects, and maintain the moral 
 right of Jehovah, in virtue of his absolute supremacy 
 to govern them upon such a principle, seem altoge- 
 ther to forget that the exercise of that right, liow- 
 ever uncontrollable, becomes materially modified 
 when its objects are beings endued with a capacity 
 ol' suiferiug and enjoyment. However complete may 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTi' AXD THE MORAL LAW. 341 
 
 be the dependence of such an order of beings upon the 
 Power Avhich gave them birth, for the original posses- 
 sion, as well as the continuance of all the faculties of 
 their nature, equity appears to demand that no rule 
 of government should be applied to them, which is 
 not calculated upon the whole to promote their good. 
 In the administration of Him, whose character is a 
 combination of all that is superlatively excellent 
 and benign, happiness must invariably be the end : 
 misery in every modification or extent must be the 
 incidental effect resulting from the maintenance of a 
 system, which, upon the vast scale on which it has 
 been instituted, is doubtless the most favourable 
 that infinite wisdom could have devised for securing 
 the welfare of the Universe. This is, in fact, the 
 very ground upon Avhich the Law is enforced. We 
 are commanded to observe it, because our happiness 
 is bound up in its requisitions, and the voice of uni- 
 versal nature is but an echo of the same truth. 
 
 Section YII. 
 
 The Sanctions of the Moral Law as harmoxizixq with 
 THE VOICE OP Conscience. 
 
 If a Law has been thus established upon just and 
 equitable grounds of authority, and if it was intended 
 to be adopted as the great Eule of administration in 
 the government of rational creatures, it is clear that 
 there must be some adequate means, by which its 
 provisions may be enforced, and its design carried 
 
342 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 into effect. As we have already stated that the 
 authoritative ground of such a law was morally de- 
 fined by its tendency to promote the happiness of 
 those to whom it was intended to be applied, so it is 
 abundantly evident that, such being its character, it 
 should be ratified with adequate sanctions. A lavr 
 would be of no avail as a mere expression of power- 
 less and inefficient will. To be entitled to such a 
 designation, it must not only point out what is just 
 and right, but its injunctions, whether affirmative or 
 prohibitory, must be seconded by such considerations 
 as appeal at once to the most powerful and com- 
 manding principles of our nature. These circum- 
 stances, indeed, must not be of such direct and 
 resistless force as would destroy the freedom of 
 human agency, and annihilate the ground of moral 
 responsibility, but they must be of such weight in 
 the estimation of every man who duly reflects upon 
 the consequences of his conduct, as to make him 
 clearly to perceive, that obedience is security and 
 happiness, and the reverse a pledge of all that is 
 miserable and disastrous. It is, moreover, to be 
 observed that, in order to render a law productive of 
 its just and proper effects in, the governance of a 
 rational and accountable being, there must be an 
 inherent and spontaneous response in his own bosom 
 to its requirements. This is that Law of Conscience 
 — that monitor within the breast, whose voice as 
 originally attuned by consummate wisdom and love, 
 sounds in unison with that law of positive and 
 authoritative injunctions, which controls and directs 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 343 
 
 the moral relations of the universe. In the demands 
 and directions of the latter, the former is naturally 
 formed and constituted to acquiesce. 
 
 The first rudiments of those a^vful sanctions, by 
 ^yhich the Law of the universe is enforced, are found 
 in the constitution of nature, as it bears upon the 
 happiness and misery of mankind. The result of those 
 habits of conduct, which fall under the cognizance of 
 the Law, is a voice which tells in accents loud and 
 clear, and seems to embody the spirit of the maxim, 
 that \dce is its own punishment, and virtue its own 
 reward. The whole history of the world may be 
 regarded as a record of impressive and practical 
 declarations, that there is a ^od who judgeth the 
 earth, and that sooner would the universe sink back 
 into nonentity, than that disobedience should cease 
 to be pernicious. Jn addition, however, to this phy- 
 sical and providential sanction, which the Law daily 
 receives, there is in our own breast a witness, who 
 a-^vfidly confirms every sentence, which hath been 
 passed against disobedience and transgression. In a 
 court of judgment, whose functions are visible to no 
 eye and audible to no ear, there is a sanction given 
 to the awards of justice, which the criminal can 
 neither gainsay nor despise. 
 
 Besides, however, these universal monitors, which 
 are somewhat less palpable and express in their 
 announcements, the Moral Law hath been repeatedly 
 sanctioned by the most solemn and unequivocal an- 
 nunciations of its Divine Author and Founder. In 
 its character as a direct communication from above 
 — as part of the great scheme of revelation, it has 
 
344 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 been authenticated by every circumstance Avliich was 
 necessary to give it credibility and weight, by the 
 suspension of the Laws of nature, and by the most 
 sublime and overwhelming manifestations of the pre- 
 sent God, But it has not only been thus evinced to 
 be of Divine origin and appointment; but by the 
 very same agency it has been clothed with an autho- 
 rity, which renders its requisitions paramount to 
 every other demand. In accordance with its charac- 
 ter and in fulfilment of its design as a rule of govern- 
 ment, its sanctions may be considered as twofold — 
 penal and remuneratory. When the first principle of 
 the Moral Law was imparted unto man from the 
 mouth of Deity, it was embodied in one simple in- 
 junction, but this expression of Divine will was en- 
 forced with the most alarming and peremptory 
 announcement — " In the day that thou eatest thereof 
 thou shalt surely die." This was the first statement in 
 which the Moral Law was directly and authoritatively 
 made known unto man : but in this brief formula the 
 spirit of that constitution is displayed as it will con- 
 tinue to be executed throughout eternity. This 
 coercive intimation of sovereign will indeed, as it was 
 made the test of human character and the arbiter of 
 human destiny, was the germ of all that has subse- 
 quently been unfolded and more fully revealed 
 respecting the inviolable authority of God and the 
 relative subordination of man. -This was in fact 
 altogether the point at issue. The particular fact 
 in reference to which it was to be exemplified and 
 determined, was in itself perfectly immaterial. It 
 was selected by sovereign wisdom as best adapted to 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AXD THE MORAL LAW. 345 
 
 embody the first draught of the great rule of govern- 
 ment, and to exhibit the implicitness and universality 
 of that obedience which on pain of his displeasure 
 and of all the consequences it involves. He required 
 at the hand of his creatures. Taking this therefore 
 as expressive of the spirit of the Divine Law, and of 
 the sanctions by which it is enforced, it is clearly seen 
 to be not less pure and holy in its nature, and bene- 
 ficent in its genuine tendency and design, than it is 
 absolute in its requirements and awful in its penal 
 ratifications. In the declaration attached to the first 
 command, there is every thing expressed Avhich can be 
 conceived as dreadful in the catalogue of human suf- 
 ferings — everything which the wrath of Deity as 
 wielding the arm of omnipotence could deem it ne- 
 cessary to inflict. 
 
 The Law was imposed upon our first parents in 
 the form of a covenant, the tenor of which was, that 
 in case of a violation of its express stipulation, death 
 would be the inevitable consequence. Every subse- 
 quent edition of the same great rule of action in its 
 more explicit and enlarged forms is enforced by 
 similar penalties. Personal guilt and demerit of the 
 deepest and most aggravated kind — the loss of the 
 Divine favour — the forfeiture of the Divine pro- 
 tection — the condemnation of the soul at the great 
 tribunal of the Judge of quick and dead — everlast- 
 ing misery beyond the grave — these are the com- 
 bination of just and overwhelming penalties, which 
 constitute the sanctions of the law of human conduct. 
 These are the bright flaming swords which turn every 
 way around this sacred path of duty, in order to 
 
346 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 guard it against every encroachment. These are the 
 ministers of indignation which are ready to seize and 
 crush into irretrievable destruction every rebel against 
 the throne and sceptre of the Most High. These 
 sanctions, be it observed, under the modifications 
 superinduced by the new and better covenant of hu- 
 man redemption, will uniformly take effect in every 
 individual instance. The constitution of the moral 
 world is not less uniform and unvarying in its opera- 
 tions and results than is that of the natural world. 
 The law of action in both cases is perfect and defini- 
 tively settled, and if the phenomena should not 
 always be the same, it must be the consequence of 
 some disturbance or interposition having the effect of 
 preventing the evolution of their genuine and spon- 
 taneous functions. This was the method, by which 
 the penalty of everlasting misery was graciously 
 averted from being the necessary doom of man, and 
 its equivalent inflicted upon his Substitute. By this 
 compassionate contrivance of Divine wisdom and 
 love, the penal sanctions of the Law were maintained 
 in all their integrity and force; and in the sufferings 
 of the Redeemer is seen more conspicuously and im- 
 pressively than in the commingled flame of a thousand 
 worlds, that " death is the wages of sin." That 
 important event, therefore, instead of enfeebling the 
 sanctions of the law, has infinitely strengthened 
 them. Instead of shattering the pillars of the moral 
 universe, and reducing the system into a chaos, it has 
 established them upon a still firmer foundation, and 
 cemented them into closer union. It has provided 
 for the removal of the guilt of sin, while sin is at the 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 347 
 
 same time most unequivocally condemned. It has 
 averted the infliction of the penalty of sin from the 
 person of the offender without the slightest palliation 
 of its enormity, or the reversal of its threatened doom. 
 But the Moral Law is sanctioned as the Rule of 
 Divine government, not merely by the most dreadful 
 and alarming penalties, but also by the most glorious 
 and blissful rewards. In the business of legislation 
 it is the welfare of the community, which is most dis- 
 tinctly and prominently kept in view ; but in order 
 to attain this object, it is necessary that obedience 
 should be cherished and protected, as well as that 
 transgression should be punished and avenged. Un- 
 der any other system of adminstration innocence 
 would be left without encouragement, and \drtue 
 without its reward. And hence it is the very end of 
 all government to provide by all just and practicable 
 means for tbe security and happiness of its faithful 
 and loyal subjects. This principle is recognized to 
 the full extent in the moral constitution of the uni- 
 verse. The character of the Divine law indeed, as 
 an expression of the mind of its beneficent author, 
 renders it necessary in the nature of things that He 
 should be pleased with the diligent observance of it, 
 and consequently that all the blessings involved in 
 his favour and love should be immediately connected 
 with the cordial and practical recognition of it. So 
 far as it is embodied in the system of nature, or de- 
 velopes itself in the indispensable institutions of 
 human society, it carries with it a remuneration as 
 well as a penal sanction throughout the whole range 
 of its operations. They who live in strict accordance 
 
348 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 Avitli the established order of nature, and in cheerful 
 subjection to the injunctions of the civil magistrate, 
 so far as they are in unison with the will of God, 
 assuredly pursue the method which is best calculated 
 to secure the largest measure of enjoyment. And if 
 this object is but imperfectly and inadequately 
 gained in this world, it is doubtless on account of the 
 state of disorder and confusion into which this de- 
 partment of Jehovah's dominions has for a while 
 been reduced by sin. The sublime theory of moral 
 administration as conceived in the Eternal Mind, is 
 doubtless that suffering should be invariably con- 
 nected with sin, and happiness with piety and virtue. 
 We behold this equitable rule of government suffi- 
 ciently exemplified indeed in the present disordered 
 and incoherent condition of our world to give us an 
 insight into the general principle, and to impress our 
 minds with the conviction that at some future period 
 in the history of our being, we should find all that is 
 apparently out of moral proportion rectified, and all 
 that is discordant harmonized. But it is only by the 
 light of revelation that all the mysteries of this per- 
 plexing subject are unfolded, and all its difficulties 
 are removed. In that we at once behold the favour of 
 God shining with benign lustre upon the observance 
 of his holy law. We see the angels of glory who 
 kept their first estate by obeying this great law of 
 their being, basking in the glowing warmth, and 
 glistening with the resplendent brightness of their 
 Heavenly Father's love; and man, during his time of 
 innocence, walking in close and exalted fellowship 
 with his God. We find the protection and care of 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 349 
 
 God in this world, <and the everlasting enjoyment of 
 the presence of God in the world to come promised — 
 not indeed as the reward of our own imperfect obe- 
 dience, but as the recompence of grace awarded unto 
 us for the merits of Him, who by his righteousness 
 magnified the law, and made it honourable in our 
 behalf. 
 
 These are the impressive Sanctions, by which the 
 Moral Law is enforced. It proclaims in a voice of 
 thunder and shows forth as in the lightning's flash 
 the utter condemnation of all sin and disobedience; 
 while, at the same time, it declares in accents of 
 tenderness, and records in characters of love, the 
 glory and honour and immortality, which are in re- 
 serve for the faithful and just. The Moral Law as 
 surveyed in the light in which we have viewed it, is 
 not an arbitrary institution designed only to serve a 
 local and temporary purpose in the government of 
 this transitory world. But it is the great law of rec- 
 titude — the immutable standard of duty throughout 
 every region of the intellectual and rational creation 
 — as wide as the universe and as lasting as eternity. 
 It is the inviolable bond of union, the badge of 
 social and federative alliance between the remotest 
 provinces of Jehovah's dominions. It was right, 
 therefore — it was necessary that its sanctions should 
 be of the strongest and most engaging character — 
 that they should be secure and unalterable in their 
 nature, and proportioned to its magnitude and extent. 
 It was not enough that there should be an accordant 
 voice of approbation, or the rev^rse, answering within 
 the breast to the requisitions of the Divine Law — 
 
350 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 confirming- its demands and justifying its prohibitions, 
 to which some have so strangely and unaccountably 
 confined its sanctions : it was not sufiicient that its 
 transcendent beauty and loveliness should be per- 
 ceived and appreciated by the understanding, and 
 that the conduct which it prescribed should be recog- 
 nized by the conscience as alone worthy of a rational 
 being : it would have availed nothing that it should 
 be traced upon the page of the creation, and that it 
 should have been inscribed in beams of light upon 
 the tablet of Divine Eevelation as an accurate ex- 
 pression of Jehovah's Will. To give it any real 
 force — to invest it with adequate authority as the 
 instrument of supreme government, it was necessary 
 that these powerless intimations should be ratified 
 and consolidated as rules of universal obligation — 
 that the terrors of hell should give an awful emphasis 
 to all which they denounce, and that the promises of 
 heaven should gild them with their radiant lustre. 
 
 Section VIII. 
 
 The real nature of Evil as prouicited by the 
 Moral Law, 
 
 The notion of a Law as an authoritative Eule of 
 action immediately leads the mind to the considera- 
 tion of a certain order of habits and pursuits, in which 
 beings endowed with powers of Keason and Volition 
 are forbidden to indulge. Such an institution, what- 
 ever may be the manner in which it is enforced, is 
 designed to operate a^ a check upon the exercise of 
 those propensities, from the uncontrolled operation of 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 351 
 
 which it is alleged that evil would result. But what 
 is the true character — what is the essential nature of 
 that evil, against which in its various modifications, 
 the Law is intended to be a preservative ? Evil has 
 been usually divided into two kinds — physical and 
 moral, and these have been regarded not merely as 
 distinct in their immediate forms, but as totally dif- 
 ferent in their very being. Although, however, they 
 may exist in some circumstances apart from each 
 other, and may be considered in general as affections 
 of different departments of our nature, yet there does 
 not appear to be any solid ground for the absolute 
 and universal disjunction of these habits from all 
 necessary and direct connection with each other*. 
 Evil may be defined to be universally either imme- 
 diate suffering itself, or what has the unavoidable 
 tendency to produce suffering. I know of nothing 
 else, which antecedently to all the views and associa- 
 tions springing from the present condition of human 
 existence could have properly been called Evil. 
 Everything, which throughout the whole range of its 
 operations and effects is calculated to promote pure 
 and unmingled happiness, is unquestionably entitled 
 to be regarded as good. It is equally certain that 
 whatever is painful in itself, or directly tends in any 
 order of circumstances to occasion pain, cannot be 
 viewed otherwise than as evil, although the ulterior 
 advantages arising out of it may in some instances 
 transform it into comparative good. Misery in itself, 
 
 *" Natural and moral evil are closely connected together iu their 
 consequences as well as in their origin." — Sumner, Records of the 
 Creation, vol. i. p. 245, 
 
352 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 from whatever cause it may arise, is an evil; and it 
 is only under a system of government, in which it 
 may be subservient to a higher order of enjoyment, 
 that it can be contemplated in any other light. In 
 any other condition of things it may be safely averred 
 that suffering is evil, and the fruition of happiness is 
 good. 
 
 If this view of the subject be correct, it seems to 
 aiford us a criterion by Avhich we may determine the 
 relative character of physical and moral evil. The 
 former of these is a mere sensation, marked by varied 
 degrees of intensity, and endlessly diversified in the 
 peculiar modification of feeling, but universally pain- 
 ful and distressing. The latter, in its immediate 
 influence, is not necessarily accompanied with emo- 
 tions of suffering, but is a voluntary deviation in the 
 exercise of the thoughts and affections, and in the 
 regulation of the outward conduct, from those exalted 
 relations of duty and subordination which the Author 
 of Nature has instituted. This abandonment of the 
 prescribed lines of required agency is evil, although 
 it may not be instantaneously productive of a sensa- 
 tion of suffering, because it has an inevitable ten- 
 dency to occasion such a feeling, and inasmuch as it 
 is an encroachment upon the established order of 
 things as adapted to universal good. It has already 
 been stated, in the course of these discussions, that 
 the present frame of nature is so constituted by its 
 Divine Author, as virtually to embody in its own 
 tendencies and relations the i)rinciples of moral obli- 
 gation. The c()nse(|uence of tliis close connection 
 is, that when the latter are violated, the former are 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 353 
 
 found to rise into sympathetic action, as if to resent 
 and avenge the wrong. No sooner had man become 
 the subject of moral evil, by the wilful dereliction of 
 his duty, and by acting in opposition to the declared 
 will of the Author of his being, than the whole sys- 
 tem of ]N"ature rose in hostility against him. An 
 innumerable train of physical evils, to which he had 
 been hitherto a stranger, became at once inseparably 
 attached to his destiny. His body became the seat 
 of complicated diseases and infirmities, from which it 
 had hitherto been perfectly exempt. His mind, which 
 had hitherto been the hallowed shrine of pure and 
 sublime affections, was at once thrown open to the 
 incursions of every corrupt, malignant, and degrad- 
 ing passion, and from being the sanctuary of holiness, 
 peace, and love, was transformed into an abode of 
 impiu-ity, depravity, and discord. The very elements 
 of the material system — ^the influences of the heavens 
 and the phenomena of earth assumed an altered 
 aspect towards him, and, instead of being the minis- 
 ters of his good, became, in many instances, the 
 instruments of penal indignation towards him, in the 
 infliction of suffering, pain, and death. Independ- 
 ently of the retributions of a future state, therefore, 
 it is abundantly e\ddent that even in the present 
 world the admission of moral evil stands closely and 
 inseparably connected -with suffering or physical 
 evil. 
 
 And from this representation we may be naturally 
 led to inquire whether evil of every kind may be 
 ultimately resolved into suff'ering as that which con- 
 stitutes its real essence. We are accustomed, and 
 
 2 A 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
354 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 when the subject is properly understood, are justly 
 accustomed, to regard moral delinquency as in itself 
 eternally and unalterably base. But it is obvious 
 that Moral Evil is such in relation to a system 
 of things already existing, without which it could 
 not have a being except in vague and abstract hypo- 
 thesis, and with the harmonious operations of which 
 it is utterly, and must of necessity be eternally 
 incompatible. Its malignity bears a strict proportion 
 to the injurious eflPects that would result from it, if it 
 became universally prevalent. Its odiousness springs 
 from the destructive influence which it would exert 
 in proportion to its energy and extent. This view 
 of the question is strongly confirmed by the fact that 
 the physical act of the most atrocious crime has 
 nothing in itself, which involves guilt and Moral 
 delinquency. The material form, if we may so speak, 
 in other words the mere act, as an exertion of phy- 
 sical powers, of murder, of theft, or of adultery has 
 nothing in it which is vile or base. The process of 
 taking away the life of a man under certain circum- 
 stances — the supply of the individual's wants — the 
 union of the sexes have in themselves no necessary 
 depravity or turpitude. The evil, which belongs to 
 them in certain cases, arises wholly from the evil 
 passions in which they originate, and their tendency 
 under those circumstances to produce results so fatal 
 to the security and happiness of mankind. It may, 
 therefore, be fairly assumed that their real evil con- 
 sists in the malignant effects with which the/ are 
 attended, or the pure and benign affections which 
 they outrage, and in the suffering which they conse- 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 355 
 
 quently inflict, rather than in any abstract qualities 
 belonging to themselves considered apart from all 
 their tendencies. 
 
 It must ever be borne in mind, however, that 
 moral distinctions — as expressive of wtue and vice, 
 wherever an opportunity is afforded of calling them 
 forth into actual being, are absolute, unchangeable, 
 and eternal, so that it is impossible in the nature of 
 things to render the one laudable, or the other cri- 
 minal or odious. This view, therefore, does not in 
 any degree alle^date the enormity of sin, nor palliate 
 the guilt of transgression ; it only fixes the evil in 
 the right place. From all that we know or can con- 
 ceive — impiety — injustice — ingratitude — cruelty, 
 must have an unalterable tendency to produce unhap- 
 piness, and therefore are evil ; and the business of 
 the Law, to which conscience unequivocally responds, 
 is to prohibit Moral Evil, which alone falls under its 
 cognizance, and to enforce its injunctions by making 
 physical evil or suffering the result of disobedience. 
 
 Immediately connected with this part of our sub- 
 ject, is the consideration of Moral and Positive Laws 
 as contrasted with each other. The distinction which 
 has been generally made between these two depart- 
 ments of legislation, indeed, is far greater than 
 appears to be warranted by their real difference. 
 In their authority as expressions of the WiU of the 
 Supreme Governor, they carry with them precisely 
 the same obligation. As they are both founded 
 upon the universal duty of a creature to obey the 
 commands of a ^vise and beneficent Creator, they 
 stand upon the same footing, and embody the same 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 great moral principle. The difference is in the mode 
 in which the Sovereign Will has been made known, 
 and in the extent to which its preceptive intimations 
 are intended to bear upon hmnan character and con- 
 duct. The Moral Law, in the usual acceptation of 
 the term, in its great fundamental requisitions, is 
 interwoven with the whole frame of I^ature, and is 
 inscribed in imperishable characters upon the vast 
 roll of Creation. It is co-extensive in its authority 
 and direction with the existence of those relations 
 which subsist between God and man. As a transcript 
 of the Divine mind, it is indeed not less the Law of 
 angels, than it is the local directory of men in this 
 remote district of Jehovah's dominions. It is as 
 much the code of Eternity, as it is the statute-book 
 of time. A positive Law, on the other hand, though 
 it be doubtless founded upon an adequate reason in 
 the established constitution of things, does not ap- 
 pear to hold the same universal connection with the 
 order of nature. So far as we are able to trace its 
 bearings, it is only a temporary enactment made 
 known by express revelation, arising from some 
 peculiarity of character or condition, and binding- 
 only so far as is definitively specified in the commu- 
 nication or institution, in which it is embodied as a 
 Law. Independently of such an appointment, there 
 was nothing in the previous arrangement of things, 
 which could have led the mind to form any idea of a 
 design on the part of the Supreme Legislator to 
 impose such an injunction. There might have been 
 nothing, whicli the eye of man could discern, to 
 mark out its peculiar excellency, as compared with 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 357 
 
 many other observances which might have been 
 enjoined. There was nothing, perhaps, by which it 
 appeared to be linked in harmony and congruity 
 with some other institution that went before or fol- 
 lowed after. There might, in fact, be no reason 
 beyond the sovereign will of the great Arbiter of 
 the Universe, why this was selected, out of many 
 other measures that might have been equally appro- 
 priate, to be a rule of conduct to his creatures. 
 
 Of these observations, the appointment of the 
 tree of knowledge of good and evil to be a test of 
 obedience — the institution of the Sabbath — the rite 
 of Circumcision under the old dispensation, and of 
 Baptism under the new, and a very considerable 
 number of the ceremonial ordinances of the JcAvish 
 economy, may be considered as affording evident 
 examples. These, and other similar enactments were 
 positive, inasmuch as they were established by direct 
 authority, and did not appear to maintain any neces- 
 sary connection with those great principles of duty, 
 which were embodied in the general scheme of Divine 
 government. But they were Moral precepts, in that 
 they conveyed an unequivocal intimation of the Will 
 of that Being, whom it is man's first duty to obey. 
 Nor is this obligation in the slightest degree less 
 than if they were enforced by ten thousand reasons, 
 and the voice of universal nature proclaimed their 
 paramount necessity. The mere act of Jehovah 
 indeed, in establishing a rule of duty, makes that to 
 be virtue which previously might have been a matter 
 of indifference, and possessed no moral character, 
 and that vice, on the other hand, which, antecedently 
 
358 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 to such appointment, involved no moral turpitude. 
 He lias as just and unquestionable a right to esta- 
 blish laws of this nature as he had to frame a system, 
 and to govern it by those rules of rectitude and jus- 
 tice, which are incorporated into its whole substance. 
 Every deviation, therefore, from the appointed order 
 of the universe — whether it be expressed in moral or 
 positive injunctions — every violation of the acknow- 
 ledged rules of duty — every encroachment upon those 
 relations of subordination and dependence, in which 
 man stands towards his Maker, the Law prohibits as 
 evil. 
 
 Section IX. 
 
 The Consummation of Happiness an infallible result of 
 
 THE PERFECT OBSERVANCE OF THE MoRAL LaW, AS AN 
 EXPRESSION OF THE DiVINE WiLL, AND AS BINDING ON 
 
 THE Human Conscience. 
 
 The End of the Moral Law, wherever its provisions 
 are fully carried into effect, must be accordant with 
 its origin, and its results congenial with its design. 
 Taking its rise in the infinite benevolence of Jehovah, 
 directed in all its bearings and requisitions by His 
 wisdom, and sustained in all the plenitude of its 
 authority by His power, this bright Offspring of 
 Eternal Love, has been sent forth to traverse the 
 length and breadth of the created universe, as at 
 once a faithful monitor against evil, and a benign 
 Minister of Good. These are the traits, which, so 
 far as oui- clouded vision is capable of recognizing 
 them, invariably mark its character. This is the first 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 359 
 
 great principle of the Divine Law — this is the master- 
 spring in all its complicated movements — to forbid 
 nothing, but what has an inevitable tendency in its 
 more proximate or remote effects to produce suffering, 
 and to command nothing, but what is equally calcu- 
 lated to promote the happiness, security, and well- 
 being of those, who have been placed under its 
 control. This is the foundation upon which the 
 sublime and beneficent Theory of the Moral universe 
 is built, and with a reference to which all its parts 
 and proportions arc adjusted*. There is the same 
 never-failing tendency in the Moral Law, to preserve 
 the happiness of the rational and intellectual creation 
 unimpaired, that there is in the great law of physics, 
 in its various combinations of force to maintain the 
 harmony and equipoise of the vast system of material 
 nature. On the supposition of beings possessed of 
 rational and voluntary powers, it is obvious that there 
 may be a partial and temporary interference with the 
 operations of both. Man may within certain limits 
 divert the elements from their spontaneous course of 
 action, and employ them for good or evil according 
 to his own inclination. He may upon a diminutive 
 
 * It is remarkable that Bistop Butler, notwithstanding that he 
 makes the Conscience, as an original faculty of the human .mind, to 
 be the great arbiter of moral distinctions, nevertheless regards the 
 creation and government of the whole universe as based in bene- 
 volence or a disposition to promote the happiness of the creature. 
 This is the principle uniformly maintained in these pages. "Perfect 
 Goodness in the Deity is the principle from whence the universe was 
 brought into being, and by which it is preserved; and general 
 Benevolence is the Great Law of the whole Moral Creation." — 
 Butler's Sermons, serm. 8, pt. 1st. 
 
360 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 scale set them in hostile array against each other, 
 and make the principle or force, which was designed 
 for unmixed good, an occasion of overwhelming evil. 
 In the same manner he may pervert and contravene 
 the Moral Law in its numberless ramifications and 
 demands, so as to render that, which was intended to 
 be the bond of happiness, an occasion of misery and 
 woe. 
 
 When the constitution of the Universe was first 
 established, it was placed upon a footing and subjected 
 to a law, which could not fail to secure the blessed- 
 ness of those, who were willing to enter into its 
 spirit, and cheerfully to submit to its authority. All 
 the evil, which has been known — all the sufiering, 
 which has been experienced throughout the whole 
 range of the universe, has resulted from disobedience 
 to the Law, and from rebellion against the sovereign. 
 As long as the apostate angels kept their first estate 
 — as long as their sublime endowments were employed 
 in their Maker's service, and the march of their 
 glowing energies moved in harmony with His acknow- 
 ledged Will — all was peace, tranquillity, and safety, 
 and their felicity knew no change, except as it might 
 occasionally rise to the more fervid raptures of exalted 
 and impassioned joy. With man the case was 
 analogous. While he retained the purity and integ- 
 rity of his nature — while he continued to walk in the 
 serene light of the Divine commandments — Avhile he 
 afforded a practical compliance with the expression of 
 his Maker's Will — the end of the law, as designed for 
 the promotion of universal good, Avas perfectly realized 
 ill his happiness. He occupied liis place and fulfilled 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 361 
 
 his duties in the vast scheme of creation, in a manner 
 entirely accordant with the relations in which he 
 stood, and the functions he was appointed to 
 discharge; and thus the harmony of the Moral system 
 was maintained, while its ultimate object was at the 
 same time most effectually secured. 
 
 'No sooner, however, had man, in the exercise of 
 the voluntary powers, with which he was invested, 
 ventured to deviate from that path of rectitude, 
 which the law had marked out for his course, than a 
 change of condition was experienced by him. The 
 system was at once disorganized. Everything began 
 to be out of joint. The prime mover in the curious 
 machinery of his nature was no longer able to 
 control the subordinate springs and movements, 
 upon whose regularity and precision the harmony 
 of the whole was dependent. Like a planet driven 
 out of its appropriate orbit, he became at once the 
 sport of contending and conflicting influences, while 
 every thing, which was most lovely and delightful in 
 the constitution of his nature, was placed in the most 
 imminent danger of utter and irremediable destruc- 
 tion. In other words, no sooner had man trans- 
 gressed the appointed and authoritative law of his 
 nature, than man began to suffer. If sin had never 
 gained an entrance into the world, we are abun- 
 dantly authorized by reason and revelation to assert 
 that penal suffering would have been likewise un- 
 known, and that sorrow and pain would have been 
 eternally excluded from the universe. The system 
 of created nature as an evolution, in its original 
 state, of the principle of the moral law, is doubt- 
 
362 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 less calculated for the production of perfect and 
 unmingled happiness; but it formed an essential 
 condition of that system, that those who occupied 
 its rational departments should possess the discre- 
 tionary power of transgressing, and of thus per- 
 versely marring their own blessedness. Moral 
 government requires such a condition as its very 
 basis, and its advantages can no otherAvise be secured 
 than at the risk or by the trial which it universally 
 involves. And when perfect obedience is the result 
 of this process of probation, happiness is secure and 
 complete. Into whatever department of intellectual 
 being — into whatever rank of rational existences sin 
 or the transgression of the Law has not gained an 
 entrance, there it may confidently be affirmed, that 
 the stream of enjoyment has flowed pure and unper- 
 turbed. There conscious guilt has never awakened 
 a chilling apprehension, there inordinate desire, 
 ungoverned passion, pride, envy, malice and revenge 
 have never excited the fever of disquietude, and the 
 fang of remorse has never lodged its venom in the 
 heart. All, on the contrary, is there benignity, 
 peace, and joy: and not only does an absolute free- 
 dom from sin secure an absolute exemption from 
 suffering, but the relative, the graduated absence 
 of the former will bear a strict proportion and ana- 
 logy to that of the latter. The misery of any order 
 of rational beings, must in every case, both in its 
 nature and extent, be the result of their sins, and 
 to adopt the language of the Apostle, where sin 
 aboundeth, suffering, unless obviated by forgiving 
 and sanctifying grace, will much more abound. 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 363 
 
 And if this be the real condition of things, if 
 the transgression of the Law be the true cause of all 
 suffering, it must be obvious, that under an economy, 
 from which sin is altogether banished, happiness 
 must be pure and unalloyed. A capability of suffer- 
 ing, indeed, I consider as an indispensable attendant 
 on moral government. It is that which most power- 
 fully binds the subject to obedience, and gives the 
 laAv all its effective authority. But the fact of suffer- 
 ing, at least in its penal character, was doubtless 
 unknown until the commission of sin gave occasion 
 to its development. This may in some degree 
 account for the temerity with which our first parents 
 allowed themselves to violate the Divine law, and to 
 expose themselves to the dreadful penalty which had 
 been denounced. Hitherto they had been strangers 
 to any experimental sense of the poignancy of bodily 
 pain and the bitterness of an accusing conscience. 
 And although this in no degree justified their con- 
 duct or extenuated their guilt, amidst the numerous 
 and engaging motives to fidelity and obedience, 
 which the goodness of their Sovereign and the 
 blessedness of their own condition might suggest to 
 them, yet it may in some measure tend to explain 
 what has always appeared to me one of the most 
 mysterious moral phenomena in the whole history 
 of our nature — how a being perfectly pure and 
 immaculate in his affections, and with every feeling 
 so strongly inclined to what was good, should so 
 readily swerve from his duty. It may be that the 
 experience of suffering, or the perception of its effects 
 in beings of the same nature, as the just consequence 
 
364 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 of transgression is essential to the stability of moral 
 government, and that the apostate angels were al- 
 lowed to lapse, in order more deeply to impress upon 
 every rank of intellectual existence, the duty and 
 blessedness of obedience. It may be impossible in 
 the nature of things, that the great ultimate end of 
 Moral Government, should be attained through any 
 other medium, than that of a system of discipline, in 
 which the abuse of voluntary powers and rebellion 
 against lawful authority, were visited with condign 
 punishment. The present condition of our nature is 
 evidently an introductory dispensation. It affords an 
 example of government, in which the grand principles 
 of justice and rectitude are indeed distinctly recog- 
 nized and displayed, but affording at the same time 
 the most unquestionable symptoms of a deranged and 
 imperfect economy. The rule of administration is 
 obviously equitable and right, but the subjects to 
 whom it is aj)plied evince a continual disposition to 
 resist its authority, and to frustrate its provisions. 
 Hence the whole scene presents the appearance of a 
 struggle between contending principles, and as the 
 moral scheme is thus imperfectly developed, the 
 result in the condition of those who are governed, is 
 equally mixed and indecisive. The present state is 
 neither that of perfect purity and justice, nor of entire 
 and unminglcd depravity; and in the same manner it 
 is neither a condition of consummate blessedness nor 
 of utter wretchedness. It is a combination of both, 
 or rather it is a constant effort towards the complete 
 realization of eitlicr. It is a contest of opposing 
 elements, an oscillation between conflicting powers. 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 365 
 
 But when the design of the system has been attained 
 — when the object of this preparatory discipline has 
 been realized, the respective elements, which had 
 been in conflict, will be entirely and finally separated 
 from each other. A new order of moral government 
 will commence. Sin and misery will be bound toge- 
 ther in indissoluble union, and the community to 
 which they belong will be removed from all fellowship 
 with the rest. The principles of equity, purity, and 
 justice, on the other hand, will be dra^vn forth from 
 beneath the mere cloud by which they had been par- 
 tially covered and overwhelmed, in all their glory and 
 excellency. The struggle will then be over. Every- 
 thing will have found its place, and have fully worked 
 its effect. Then God will be known not merely in 
 His will, but in the actual accomplishment of His 
 purpose. His law will be seen, not only in its ten- 
 dency and general requisitions, but in all the perfec- 
 tion and sublimity of its nature, and in all the fulness 
 r f its eflPects. The period of trial and temptation^ 
 of partial obedience and imperfect happiness — ^will 
 then have passed away, and the reign of absolute 
 purity, conjoined with the most consummate felicity, 
 will eternally prevail and flourish. Under that bright 
 and blissful economy, the provisions of the Christian 
 covenant, as the noblest and most beneficent evolu- 
 tion of the first principle of the Moral Law, will be 
 carried into full effect. It will be seen to afi'ord a 
 most glorious illustration of the accordant attributes 
 of Deity — to harmonize the claims of conflicting 
 principles — to blend the interests of heaven and 
 earth in a manner which will command the pro- 
 
366 THE CONSCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 foundest adoration of every intelligent nature 
 throughout the Universe of the blest. Then the 
 veil, which once rested over the plans and dispensa- 
 tions of Jehovah will have been rent asunder, and 
 the sunshine of perfect love will spread like a robe 
 of light over the scene : the sanctuary of his secret 
 purposes will be thrown open, and all that ignorance 
 or partial knowledge might have deemed as arbitrary, 
 will be recognized as wise and good. Duty will be 
 perceived in its reasons — labour be appreciated in its 
 fruits — and suffering be estimated by its results. 
 And thus taught by experience, or instructed by 
 methods of illumination adapted to the faculties of 
 their nature to recognize the goodness of their sove- 
 reign, and the benevolent equity of his law, the 
 various orders of being will enter upon a career of 
 purity, and glory, and blessedness, to which time can 
 mark no bounds, and space assign no limits. In 
 their ascending progress along the scale of beatific 
 existence, the Law of holiness will still be their 
 companion and guide, and as their character is gra- 
 dually moulded into a more perfect conformity to its 
 dictates as a transcript of the Eternal Mind, they 
 will realize such scenes of glory and felicity as Avill 
 transcend all that they had previously conceived in 
 the brightest visions of their faith, and the most 
 glowing raptures of their love. 
 
 It is thus in close and invariable connection with 
 the Moral Law as its great and ultimate Rule of 
 judgment, that the functions of the Conscience as an 
 important faculty of the human mind are to be in- 
 vestigated and ascertained. Conscience is a susccp- 
 
THE SENSE OF DUTY AND THE MORAL LAW. 
 
 tibility of impression — an organ of moral feel 
 guided by the Understanding, gradually adapte 
 its office by the various influences with which i 
 surrounded, and entirely subject, for the correct 
 of its decisions, to the paramount Hule and authi 
 of the Divine Law. It is not, therefore, to 
 regarded as an infallible instinct planted in 
 mind, forming itself the final standard of right 
 wrong, but rather as a moral instrument natui 
 fitted by its divine Creator to act as a just censo 
 conduct, but ever requiring the light of correct 
 formation to direct it, and tlie sanction of a hi: 
 authority to give efficiency to its announcemt 
 and to invest it with a power of absolute and 
 versal obligation. 
 
BOOK IV. 
 
 THE LEGITIMATE USE OF THE IMAGINATION AS SUBSERVIENT 
 TO THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE PROPER USE OF IMAGINATION. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The different Degrees in which Imagination is found in 
 different individuals. 
 
 Every man who reflects, must be conscious of a 
 Power, which presents to the view of his mind in- 
 numerable forms of things without the immediate 
 intervention of the Senses. In different indivi- 
 duals indeed, this remarkable faculty is found 
 greatly to vary, as well in the clearness of its 
 representations, as in the energy and rapidity of 
 its movements. In some it is found capable only 
 of exhibiting in slow succession to the eye of the 
 understanding, and often with much obscurity of 
 conception, the ideas, which have been derived 
 from objects the most prominent and familiar. 
 Its operations are attended with no fervour of 
 emotion, kindle no glow, and awaken no sentiment 
 bearing the remotest alliance to that excitation of 
 the mental affections usually termed rapture. All, 
 
 2 B 
 
370 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 on the contrary, is calm and unruffled — a flow of 
 conceptions characterized by uniformity of feeling, 
 and diversified only by the various aspects of the 
 tracts of thought through which it passes. The 
 man who is distinguished for this torpor and inert- 
 ness of the imaginative Faculty, may indeed be 
 subject to strong and impetuous passions, which 
 are properties rather of the animal than the intel- 
 lectual nature, and resemble rather the murky 
 glare of a volcanic eruption, than the glowing 
 radiance of the sun; but to the nobler and finer 
 frenzies 'of the mind — to those beams of light and 
 heat which illumine and warm the soul, without 
 devastating all with which they come in contact, 
 he must always continue a stranger. He may, 
 if ignorant and uneducated, be possessed of his 
 full share of that kind of sense, which is more im- 
 mediately connected with the affairs of common 
 life, and which, in ordinary circumstances, is, after 
 all, as Burke well remarked, the best sense. But, 
 to a very refined order of affections, or even to 
 very enlightened views of religion, and an exalted 
 pitch of devotional feeling, there is no great like- 
 lihood that he will attain ; for either of these 
 attainments requires a sensibility of heart and an 
 abstraction of mind, attended with a power of 
 combination, of which he is capable but in a very 
 slight degree. But if trained up in the institutes 
 of science, and habituated to the severe exercise of 
 intellect, he may possess himself of an enlarged 
 and varied store of ideas, and arrange them Avitli 
 consummate skill, for the purposes of reasoning 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 371 
 
 and investigation. Like him who penetrates the 
 bosom of the earth, and labours through its dark 
 recesses in quest of precious ore, he may explore 
 with success those departments of philosophical 
 or even theological inquiry, where bare knowledge 
 is the object of pursuit. In his progress, tardy 
 and wearisome as it may appear, yet if steady and 
 uniform, he may fall upon many a gem, and dis- 
 cover many a vein of rich and invaluable truth. 
 He may be an Edwards in logical acumen ; a 
 Locke in metaphysical sagacity ; an Euclid or an 
 Archimedes in Geometry, or a ITewton in the various 
 departments of mathematical and physical investiga- 
 tion. But the creative energy of the poet, or the 
 glow of the impassioned orator, are endowments, 
 which obviously form no part of his character. It is 
 said of Malebranche, with aU his metaphysical acute- 
 ness, that he had such an utter distaste, and even 
 dislike for the pursuits of Imagination, as to be 
 unable to read the noblest and sublimest poetry 
 without a feeling of deep disgust. 
 
 In such persons the Imagination, though it can- 
 not be said to be whoUy absent or extinct, where 
 clear ideas of outward objects are formed, inde- 
 pendently of the present operation of the senses, 
 holds in the scale of mental powers a most subor- 
 dinate, and, comparatively speaking, insignificant 
 rank. It is not only kept in entire subserviency to 
 the faculty of Reason, as it unquestionably ought 
 to be, but it seems destitute of all native vigour, 
 hardly exhibiting any signs of life, nor venturing 
 to assert its congenial liberty of action. And so 
 
 2 B 2 
 
372 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 far as the faculty may be supposed to exist in its 
 genuine cliaracter, we can only compare it to an 
 eagle pinioned to the ground, and scarce capable of 
 ruffling its plumage. 
 
 In others this faculty appears to greater ad- 
 vantage, and assumes a much livelier character; 
 exerts a wider influence, and rises to more daring 
 heights. In such cases it is found, if not to predo- 
 minate in the soul, and to control the operation of 
 all the other powers, at least to mingle, in some 
 measure, with every process of thinking and feeling, 
 — to infuse life into every idea, and to give its own 
 peculiar tincture to all the activities of the mind. 
 The man of warm and and vigorous imagination 
 differs as widely, and may be as easily distinguished 
 from him in whom its range is confined, and its move- 
 ments languid, as a tree clothed in all the verdure 
 of spring's luxuriant foliage, from that which stands 
 in naked desolation, having been stripped of its leafy 
 honours by the violence of the autumnal blast ; or as 
 youth in all the beauty of its form, all the symmetry 
 of its features, and all the agility of its motions, 
 from the coarse and athletic vigour of manhood, or 
 the shrunk and withered aspect of decrepitude and 
 old age. But even in persons who are endowed with 
 this faculty in a high degree of energy and cultiva- 
 tion, it is by no means uniform in its operations. 
 In some it assumes more of the light and playful 
 character, and in this modification of its nature it is 
 generally denominated Fancy. And though Fancy 
 and Imagination, with respect to their etymological 
 origin, spring from sources very closely allied, and 
 
U?ON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 373 
 
 are often promiscuously employed, yet, in strict pre- 
 cision of language, they may be clearly distin- 
 guished from each other. Both, indeed, constitute 
 but one faculty or power of the mind; but they 
 respectively express, when placed in contrast to 
 each other, different exercises of that power. Fancy 
 is marked by delicacy of perception, by quickness and 
 facility of combination, by the volubility of her turns, 
 and her versatile aptitude to almost every variety of 
 application. Imagination delights in forms of gran- 
 deur, in scenes of magnificence, and in energy of 
 action. Fancy is charmed with the soft and the 
 beautiful both of nature and of art. Imagination 
 exults in the sublime and the daring. The one de- 
 lights in sprightliness and vivacity of spirit, the other 
 prides in majesty and strength. Fancy resembles 
 the rapid, though not impetuous current, whose sur- 
 face reflects the splendour of the sunbeams, as it 
 purls along its pebbled channel, or is curled by the 
 western breeze ; while imagination bears a stronger 
 likeness to the mountain torrent, which rushes down- 
 ward, impatient of control, and seems to direct its 
 o^\Ti course. Or, to institute another comparison, 
 the operations of fancy are pictured in the wanton 
 play of light and shade, exhibited on a spot partly 
 illumined by the penetrating rays of the sun, and 
 partly darkened by the superincumbent foliage of a 
 tree, as the wind rustles among its branches ; while 
 those of imagination may be more aptly represented 
 by the vivid coruscations of lightning. 
 
 In illustration of these remarks we may observe, 
 that among that class of modern authors, whose 
 
374 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 productions are characterized by a rich exuberance 
 of fancy, we should rank Cowper as the most dis- 
 tinguished of the poets, and Addison as holding the 
 same station among the prose writers. Neither of 
 these, indeed, nor many others, who might be 
 deservedly associated with them, were utter strangers 
 to the higher efforts of imagination, but the regions 
 of fancy were the scenes most congenial to the cha- 
 racter of their minds, and formed the peculiar pro- 
 vince of their genius. Of those who have been most 
 distinguished for vigour and sublimity of Imagina- 
 tion, and have soared aloft — 
 
 Extra flammantia mcenia mundi, 
 
 Milton and Young stand foremost, perhaps, of any 
 writers, which ancient or modern times have pro- 
 duced. 
 
 But, though fancy and imagination are clearly 
 susceptible of this distinction, a distinction which 
 it were easy to illustrate at greater length : in theo- 
 logical discussion they are generally used as nearly, 
 if not altogether, synonymous. The following in- 
 quiry is designed to embrace the provinces of both ; 
 and for the sake of simplicity we shall consider the 
 imagination as combining all the powers, modifica- 
 tions, and exercises of that rich and comprehensive 
 mental endowment, which properly constitutes genius. 
 For, although the metaphysician, the critic, and the 
 mathematician, may each of them be said to have a 
 genius for his own department of science — importing 
 nothing more than that he has a peculiar aptitude of 
 mind for that particular branch of knowledge, yet 
 genius, as the endowment of the poet or the orator, is 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 375 
 
 generally considered as a species of inspiration, and 
 consists of a faculty of rapid combination and inven- 
 tion, which in reality are nothing else than varied exer- 
 cises of Fancy and Imagination. In the present dis- 
 cussion, therefore, we shall include, under the general 
 idea of imagination, all those modifications of intel- 
 lect and feeling, which fancy and genius are sepa- 
 rately or unitedly designed to express. 
 
 It has often been a matter of doubt how far this 
 vigorous and active Faculty of the human mind 
 should be allowed to be exercised, and may be 
 made advantageously to bear upon matters of reli- 
 gion, and points of revealed truth. Some, in whose 
 mental constitution it does not appear to form a very 
 powerful ingredient, would have it banished altoge- 
 ther from within the precincts of the sanctuary, as 
 the race of poets was to be excluded from the com- 
 monwealth of Plato. They would dissociate Ima- 
 gination from all concern or connexion with the grave 
 questions relating to eternal things. They condemn 
 her character as light; they dislike her language as 
 affected; they disapprove of her attire as meretri- 
 cious. Others there are, naturally of a different 
 temperament, and habituated to a different mode of 
 thinking and feeling, who carry their notions to an 
 opposite extreme. They wiU give a favourable 
 reception to nothing, whatever may be its acknow- 
 ledged importance, unless it comes recommended by 
 the clear stamp and signature of Imagination. Truth, 
 in the sober garb of reason, and enlivened by 
 chaste and pure feeling, they are disposed to 
 reject as uninteresting common-place. They are 
 
376 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 apt to overlook the plain, in order to gaze at the 
 beautiful, and to forget the generally useful, in their 
 admiration of the merely splendid. The doctrines of 
 religion, in order to meet their taste, and to engage 
 their affections, must be decorated with the flowers 
 of fancy, and illustrated by all that is new and 
 striking in ideal combination. To them the canopy 
 of heaven itself has nothing attractive or worthy of 
 attention, except when it is arched with the rainbow's 
 resplendent semicircle, or arrayed in the rich drapery 
 of clouds tinged with sunbeams. Unhappily for 
 them, or perhaps fortunately for their real advantage, 
 the sources are but few, from which they can derive 
 the gratification which exactly suits their peculiar 
 modification of taste. 
 
 To arbitrate between these two parties, or rather 
 to define the legitimate use of the Imagination, as 
 it may be applied to the important subject of Keli- 
 gion, is, assuredly, a very difficult matter. To those 
 in whom the faculty of Imagination is in no danger 
 of exercising a predominant and injurious influence 
 over their other powers, this question indeed can be 
 of no great interest ; and its determination is chiefly 
 important, as it may teach those who are possessed 
 of that endowment in a somewhat more than ordi- 
 nary proportion, how far they may advantageously 
 employ it, and to what dangers and abuses it is liable, 
 as it refers to the most weighty of all human con- 
 cernments. 
 
 Having, therefore, in a former part of this Inquiry 
 endeavoured to mark out the boundaries, which 
 should limit the operations of Reason in the invcs- 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF EELIGION. 377 
 
 ligation of divine truth, we shall now proceed to 
 institute a somewhat similar investigation with re- 
 spect to the faculty of Imagination. In pursuance 
 of this plan, we shall first state some of the Uses to 
 which Imagination may be legitimately applied in 
 the treatment of divine truth, and then point out 
 some of the Evils and Excesses, into which it is 
 in danger of running, if immoderately indulged, and 
 allowed to break loose from the restraints of reason 
 and sound judgment. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 The advantage op Imagination for purposes op 
 Illustration. 
 
 One of the first and most important Uses, to which 
 Imagination can be applied in the elucidation or 
 enforcement of religious truth, is that of Iwely and 
 appropriate Illustration. To remove all doubt and 
 hesitation that may be felt respecting the lawfulness 
 or expediency of this method, we shall only refer to 
 the sacred writings themselves, which abound with 
 every variety of figurative representation and illus- 
 trative allusion. The Bible is, indeed, a book pre- 
 eminently distinguished by this, as well as many 
 other peculiar characteristics, that, while it is marked 
 throughout by a unity of principle, and consistency of 
 facts, yet this principle is developed and these facts 
 are arranged with every possible diversity of manner. 
 While the system of doctrine, which it unfolds, is 
 every where essentially the same, it can never be 
 
378 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 charged with a heavy and uninteresting uniformity of 
 aspect. It is, on the contrary, exliibited in manifold 
 positions, presented in the most engaging lights, and 
 furnished with a multiplicity of appendages, which may 
 allure the eye, fix the attention, and impress the heart. 
 To borrow the language of architecture, while the 
 effect is designed to be unique, the style is occasion- 
 ally varied, with a just adaptation to circumstances, 
 from the plainest, soberest simplicity, to the highest 
 degree of rich and splendid decoration. The scrip- 
 ture, indeed, stands at the widest possible distance 
 from the narrow and technical in sentiment or diction. 
 And without adopting the theory of Hutchinson, that 
 the Bible is a pandect of philosophy as well as of 
 divine knowledge, involving in mysterious symbols 
 the whole of natural, no less than theological science, 
 it may safely be affirmed, that its language is often 
 exceedingly intellectual and elevated. There is no 
 species of composition, and scarce a figure of speech, 
 the object of which is to inform, to move, or delight 
 the human mind, but is found there employed. The 
 rhythm of verse, the harmony of prose, the allegory, 
 the parable, the apostrophe, the metaphor, and the 
 antithesis, in short, the whole ordonnance of figura- 
 tive combinations is there brought into service; and 
 we might almost venture to assert, that, amidst the 
 extensive and diversified range of matter and of man- 
 ner presented in the volume of inspiration, each one 
 of the nine Muses (if such an allusion be pardoned) 
 might fix upon a portion as constituting her peculiar 
 department. The reason is obvious ; the Bible takes 
 man as it finds him, and as he is in himself, possessed 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 379 
 
 of various faculties, each of them affording an inlet 
 through which knowledge may be instilled into his 
 understanding, or feeling be communicated unto his 
 heart. Hence it demonstrates to his Keason; it 
 paints to his Fancy; it threatens, persuades, and 
 entreats, in order to give the needful impulse to the 
 AYill — the Conscience — and Affections. The voice of 
 truth, precisely suited to the character of man, is dis- 
 tinguished by different notes and gradations. Break- 
 ing the monotony of one unvarying style of address, 
 it is sometimes found to utter forth, as in peals of 
 thunder, the sounds of denunciation and alarm ; some- 
 times to speak in the calmer dialect of argument and 
 earnest expostulation; sometimes to attune itself to 
 such accents of soft and evangelical sweetness, as may 
 charm the ear of the soul with the melody of harmo- 
 nious numbers. While it is impossible for us to per- 
 ceive the exact line of demarcation, and to determine 
 how far the different penmen of scripture were under 
 the influence of inspiration with respect to the phrase- 
 ology, which they employed to convey their ideas, 
 whether the guidance of the divine Spirit proceeded 
 farther than infallibly to secure the truth and accuracy 
 of the sentiments to be expressed, or extended to the 
 suggestion of every form of speech which they used, it 
 is certain that a difference of character is obvious in 
 their writings. [N'or is this diversity of style confined 
 to the Old and JS^ew Testaments, as contradistin- 
 guished the one from the other. This perhaps might 
 have been expected from the dissimilarity of the dis- 
 pensations, under which they were respectively com- 
 posed ; but it is also equally observable in the writers 
 
380 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 of either portion of the sacred volume viewed by them- 
 selves. AVliat, for example, can be more strongly 
 contrasted in the method of composition, and in the 
 faculties more immediately addressed, than the Apo- 
 calyi)se of St. John, compared with the Epistles of 
 St. Paul, or the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles? 
 
 It is upon these general principles of scriptural 
 authority, and of human character, that we main- 
 tain the legitimacy and utility of employing the 
 Imagination as an instrument for illustrating the 
 various branches of divine truth. It is the lot of 
 man in the present state of existence, that he is 
 forced to contemplate all objects, however abstract 
 in their character, however remote from gross matter 
 in all the properties of their nature, however pure, 
 spiritual, and ethereal in their essence, through the 
 medium of image» derived from things sensible and 
 corporeal. In a future world he will doubtless be en- 
 dued with other inlets of perception, and be possessed 
 of faculties, which will enable him to hold communi- 
 cation with the bright essences around him, without 
 the intervention of those channels of intercourse 
 which are so useful to him here below, but whose 
 operations are at the same time so imperfect and 
 confined. During his pilgrimage upon earth, though 
 he is conscious of the workings, the hopes, and aspira- 
 tions of an immortal principle, he is wrapped within 
 a garb of mortality, through the narrow rents of which 
 he receives all the forms and ideas of things, which 
 he is privileged to treasure up in his memory, or to 
 liarbour within liis breast. 
 
 Hence arises the importance of the talent of 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 381 
 
 suitable illustration, and of exhibiting under proper 
 analogies, the principles which it is designed to un- 
 fold. Who has not felt the need of this method; 
 who has not felt refreshed and relieved by its judi- 
 cious adoption, while listening to descriptions, or 
 perusing treatises on the abstruse points of theology 
 and metaphysics ? While the question was stated in 
 the language of abstract truth, with whatever logical 
 accuracy it might be propounded, the ideas presented 
 themselves to the mind as in a mist; they appeared 
 before it, borne as in vehicles of air, too light, too 
 subtil, too attenuated to afford it the opportunity of 
 a firm and vigorous grasp. Like the incorporeal 
 forms which ranged through the fields of Elysium, 
 they yielded to the touch, and vanished from the 
 hold, before they could be seized. The whole region 
 of thought seemed to be a land of shadows, where 
 there were many floating notions, but no clear and 
 definite conceptions. The mind, therefore, felt un- 
 easy, until it could embody these evasive phantasms, 
 which seemed to mock it like visions of the night, 
 in some shape of palpable and coherent representa- 
 tion, that would enable it to survey them at its leisure, 
 and examine them in all their bearings. 
 
 It is, doubtless, owing to the difficulty of forming 
 clear and distinct views without those helps of illus- 
 tration, which serve as a species of material organ 
 for communicating intellectual and spiritual ideas 
 into the mind, that discourses of abstract reasonings, 
 however skilfully arranged, and however conclusive in 
 argument, leave the generality of hearers without 
 impression. The matter of the discussion may be 
 
382 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 good and important ; the metliod of handling it may 
 be logically just and sound. Each successive state- 
 ment may confirm and establish the jDreceding, as 
 every additional stone in a compact and well-founded 
 edifice serves to consolidate the lower parts of the 
 structure, and locks them together into a firmer 
 coherency; but they comprehend not the main 
 design and therefore they cannot appreciate the 
 symmetry and beauty of its respective compart- 
 ments, nor receive from it that deep and salu- 
 tary effect, which, if presented under livelier and 
 more familiar images, it could not have failed to 
 convey. Or, to change the figure, they have not a 
 clue to conduct them through what, to them, has all 
 the appearance of a labyrinth. They allow them- 
 selves to be led through its windings, and a bright 
 idea may sometimes glance upon their minds, but as 
 it is not one of a series, which gradually unfolds itself 
 to the view, they suffer it to drop, and as they feel no 
 interest, they treasure up no sentiment. 
 
 To obviate this inconvenience, to assist the rea- 
 soning Faculty in this impotency of her attempts, 
 arising from the inaptitude or the incapacity of her 
 subjects. Imagination supplies a most valuable ex- 
 pedient. Nothing can more decisively show the 
 necessity of this aid in the majority of cases, than 
 the frequency with which the Saviour of the world 
 himself, — He who "spake as never man spake," 
 was pleased to have recourse to it. Indeed, with 
 the exception of some sententious maxims occa- 
 sionally delivered to his disciples, and of brief re- 
 marks thrown out in the course of ordinary con- 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 383 
 
 versation, the whole mass of his instructions con- 
 sisted of allegories, similitudes, and metaphorical 
 illustrations, addressed to the Imagination of his 
 hearers. His discourses, indeed, were not distin- 
 guished by flights of artificial eloquence, and eff'orts 
 of rhetorical display. His whole style bore a most 
 evident impression of the exquisite tenderness of his 
 heart, the placid tenor of his life, and the transcen- 
 dent dignity of his character. His preaching was the 
 most remarkable example that the world has ever 
 witnessed, of simplicity without meanness, of pathos 
 without effeminacy, of sublimity without hyperbolical 
 excess. 
 
 Taking the example of the Redeemer as his rule 
 and his authority, but obviously regarding those 
 differences and modifications, which the character of 
 the age or nation may render expedient, the teacher 
 of divine truth, whether through the medium of the 
 press, or of the public duties of the ministry, will be 
 anxious to seize upon the understanding and the 
 heart through the powerful instrumentality of the 
 Imagination. While, indeed, he will be desirous of 
 communicating the knowledge of " heavenly things," 
 he will not disdain to make use of " earthly things," 
 as the channels of conveyance. To assist him in 
 this undertaking, and to enable him to accomplish it 
 to any purpose in the present enlightened state of 
 the community, it will be necessary that his mind 
 should be stored with a plentiful supply of rich and 
 varied knowledge. It was remarked of the excellent 
 Dr. Watts, by Dr. Johnson, a biographer that will 
 not be charged with partiality, that in his hands 
 
384 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 everything was converted into theology; and Bacon 
 had long before charged Plato with having spoiled his 
 philosophy, by intermixing with it the principles of 
 his religion, as Aristotle ruined Jiis, by tincturing it 
 throughout with the subtilties of the science of dia- 
 lectics. But, however philosophy may be corrupted 
 by being amalgamated with the elements of a false 
 and fantastic theology, there can be no doubt, — for 
 it is the testimony of the truly enlightened of all 
 ages, — that the true philosophy can be rendered 
 eminently serviceable in the illustration of the true 
 religion. It is the man of Imagination alone, how- 
 ever, who knows how it may most advantageously 
 be turned to this account; for it is he alone, who, 
 by an intuitive glance, perceives the resemblances 
 of things, traces their analogies, combines them into 
 such forms of splendour, and unites them together 
 by such ties of friendly affinity, as that they may 
 mutually illuminate and sustain each other. An in- 
 dividual thus endowed, provided his mind be cast in 
 the mould of the Gospel, and his whole character be 
 impregnated with the principles of piety, stands on an 
 eminence, which commands a prospect of almost the 
 whole sphere of the intellectual world ; and every 
 discovery of science, as weU as every phenomenon of 
 nature, offers itself to his service. N^or is there a 
 single province within its vast extent, from which he 
 cannot draw something that may throw liglit upon 
 subjects of revealed truth. He can accompany the 
 astronomer throughout the whole progress of his 
 wonderful study, pursue the brilliant track of his 
 discoveries, attend him in his demonstrations, and 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 385 
 
 launch forth into the interminable ocean of his pro- 
 bable and plausible conjectures. He can attach him- 
 self to the philosopher of nature, and watch his 
 movements, while he penetrates into the recesses, 
 and dives into the secrets of the material world; 
 while he propounds the laws and classifications of the 
 mineral and botanical kingdoms; while he experi- 
 ments on the powers and effects of chemical com- 
 bination; while he decomposes the drop of water, 
 separates the constituents of air, and analyses the 
 ray of light. He may share in the studies of the 
 anatomist, notice the astonishing skill displayed in 
 the construction of the animal system, the mutual 
 dependency of its parts, and the mysterious pro- 
 cess of its organization. He may turn inward upon 
 himself the piercing eye of the metaphysician, ex- 
 plore the provinces of thought, distinguish the 
 powers of the mind, and investigate the origin, the 
 formation, and the association of ideas. He may 
 direct his attention to the institution of that federal 
 economy, by which the individuals and respective 
 orders constituting a social community, are harmo- 
 niously blended together. He may glance upon the 
 interior springs of government, estimate the prin- 
 ciples of legislation, and scan the policy of states. 
 He may visit the painter's or the statuary's scene 
 of labour, whose matcliless workmanship in the one 
 case teaches the pale canvass to glow, — in the other 
 the marble rock to breathe. He may inquire into 
 the laws to which music owes her power to charm ; 
 he may observe or experience the effects produced 
 by the modulations of sound, attune his ear to an 
 
 2 C 
 
386 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 exquisite discernment of the vibrations of a concord, 
 and feel the full force of the sympathy which they 
 awaken in the human spirit. He may descend from 
 the heights of science, and abandon the walks of 
 art, and barely contemplate the face of nature, and 
 the aspect of human life, as daily presented to his 
 view. He may look up and behold the sun in his 
 native lustre, the moon in her reflected light, and 
 the clouds now thickening into a gloomy squadron, 
 and now pendent in silvery fleeces on the bosom of 
 the expanse. He may look around him and watch 
 the progress of vegetation as modified by the vicis- 
 situdes of the seasons, the verdure of spring, the 
 plentiful maturity of summer, the decay of autumn, 
 and the naked desolation of winter. He may cast 
 the eye of observation over the scene of human life 
 as diversified by age, sex, or pursuits, by the shades 
 of character, and the gradations of society. He may 
 survey the influence of opinions, the development 
 of principles, the working of passions, as called into 
 action by the regular course of events, or by a com- 
 bination of unforeseen occurrences. 
 
 It requires only an Imagination trained in the 
 discipline of piety, and ever alive to its impressions, 
 to render all these accomplishments, whether literary 
 or philosophical, whether they be the fruit of deep 
 and patient investigation, or the result of a cursory 
 tour through the world of science, aided by a habit 
 of accurate observation, eminently subservient to the 
 illustration of divine truth. Quintilian takes much 
 pains to show that the Orator, in order to be duly 
 qualified for his office, ouffht to be acouainted in n 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 387 
 
 degree more or less, with every art and science. 
 Geometry, music, and other departments of human 
 knowledge, which a superficial observer would deem 
 wholly unconnected with his province, the critic pro- 
 nounces eminently useful, and, under many circum- 
 stances, absolutely necessary to him. A similar 
 remark the philosopher in Rasselas has applied to a 
 poet, and Bishop Home to a divine ; and, doubtless, 
 in each case, under certain limitations, with perfect 
 truth. Very extensive literature and profound 
 scientific attainment, under the ordinary circum- 
 stances, and with the present capacity of man, may 
 be desirable, rather than possible to the active 
 Christian instructor. But a store of general know- 
 ledge, an acquaintance with the outlines of the most 
 distinguished philosophical inquiries, and, above all, 
 a thorough insight into the human character in all 
 its varieties, and as it is unfolded amidst all the 
 changes and evolutions of earthly destiny, it is in 
 the highest degree expedient that he should possess. 
 These constitute the materials of the ^^ mental maga- 
 zine," which Imagination arranges and " speech bur- 
 nishes" for use. And though Holy Scripture itself 
 be, and always ought to be, his chief armoury, yet, 
 that he may dexterously and efficiently use the 
 weapons there supplied, he must be trained in the 
 discipline of other studies. To borrow the illus- 
 tration of an eminent female writer *, he must imitate 
 the example of the Israelites of old, who did not 
 
 * Hannah More. 
 
 2 C 2 
 
388 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 disdain to sharpen their weapons at the forges of the 
 Philistines. 
 
 To exemplify at length the remarks wliich we 
 have here made on the use of Imagination, as an 
 instrmnent of theological illustration, derived from 
 the principles of literary, philosophical, or practical 
 science, would lead us beyond the limits prescribed 
 to this Inquiry. It may be sufficient to refer to 
 those Avho have been most eminently endoAved with 
 that faculty, and by general acknowledgment have 
 most successfully applied it to the purpose here 
 mentioned; to Barrow and Taylor, and Hervey and 
 Heber, with many others of living celebrity, whom it 
 would be invidious to mention — men who differ, 
 indeed, in the shades of their theological sentiments, 
 and in the extent of their respective attainments, 
 but all distinguished for the brilliancy of their 
 thoughts, the splendour of their style, and the vigour 
 of their imagination; or, in some cases, perhaps, 
 more correctly characterized by the devout liveliness 
 of their fancy; — luminaries of different magnitudes, 
 and moving in different spheres, but each radiant 
 with light, and drawing the eyes of admiring mul- 
 titudes, by the force of their attractive influence. 
 These are the men, who, in their respective ages, 
 redeem the character of religion, extend her empire 
 over the unreclaimed provinces of human thought 
 and human feeling, snatch the magic wand of Fancy, 
 and wrest the powerful sceptre of Imagination from 
 those, who would employ them for the base purposes 
 of decoying the unwary, throwing the illusive colour- 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 389 
 
 ing of virtue over the blackest character of vice, and 
 of enslaving their unhappy victims to the tyranny 
 of lust and passion. They who are conversant with 
 their writings can alone appreciate the felicity with 
 which they have applied the phenomena of nature, 
 the institutes of society, and many of the principles 
 and discoveries of science, to the elucidation of the 
 various parts of the Christian system. They have 
 availed themselves of all these methods to carry con- 
 \dction to the judgment, delight to the imagination, 
 and impression to the heart. The regularity, the 
 harmony, the magnificence, which characterize the 
 starry firmament, have been devoutly considered, in 
 imitation of the inspired Psalmist, as afi'ording a 
 marvellous display of the power and wisdom of the 
 Creator, and as exhibiting in the most amazing light 
 the magnitude of his condescension, in noticing, with 
 such intensity of regard as is involved in the eco- 
 nomy of redemption, a creature so insignificant as 
 man*. The laws of civil polity, and the whole 
 process of human judicature, have been convincingly 
 brought forward, in illustration of the mediatorial 
 scheme, both with respect to its necessity and perfect 
 equity. The operations of natural causes, once 
 involved in obscurity, but since brought to light by 
 the sagacity of genius, and the experiments of philo- 
 sophy, and a variety of elemental affinities and com- 
 binations still utterly unaccountable, have been made 
 
 * It is quite needless to refer, in illustration of this statement, 
 to the splendid "Discourses on the Christian Revelation, as con- 
 nected with the Modern Astronomy ;" a work which, on its first 
 appearance, ran with such electtic rapidity throughout the land. 
 
390 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 powerfully instrumental in reconciling the mind to 
 the more abstruse and mysterious, though at the 
 same time vital and essential, parts of Christian 
 theology. And we have continual proofs before our 
 eyes, with what deep and salutary effect the affairs 
 of common life, the more obvious and famihar 
 aspects of nature, and more especially the social, the 
 relative, and the domestic affections, in all their 
 modes of operation and endearment, are made use 
 of, to convey unto the mind the lessons of piety and 
 truth. 
 
 In the discharge of the ordinary duties of the 
 Christian ministry, the imagination should doubt- 
 less, for the most part, confine itself to these latter 
 sources of illustration ; and the wdse and judicious 
 labourer in the vineyard of Christ, whatever may be 
 its difficulty, and whatever may be the sacrifice and 
 self-denial which it requires, will feel it a duty to 
 impose upon himself this restraint. The higher 
 efforts of this noble faculty, its more excursive 
 ranges into the regions of the natural and intel- 
 lectual world, provided its pinions be of sufficient 
 strength to bear him in such flights, he must reserve 
 for more suitable occasions; otherwise he will but 
 embarrass with illustrations too complicated to be 
 understood, with allusions too far-fetched to have 
 their force perceived ; — and thus, what was designed 
 to enlighten his hearers Avill only confound them; 
 what was intended to explain the truth, and to 
 better-informed and more cultivated intellects would 
 have explained it, to them will only involve it in all 
 the obscurity of an enigma. 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 391 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Imagination serviceable in the Formation of a lively 
 
 AND impressive StYLE. 
 
 Another use to which Imagmation may be advan- 
 tageously converted in the treatment of divine truth, 
 is, that it is calculated to afford great aid in the 
 formation of a lively, forcible, and efficient Style. 
 Some there are, indeed, who reject all refinement 
 and energy of language, and every species of deco- 
 ration, arising from a skilful and well-arranged 
 combination of words, as utterly unsuitable to the 
 simple and unaffected majesty of Truth. To confirm 
 their opinion upon this question, they refer with 
 much confidence to one or tw^o imperfectly under- 
 stood and ill-applied passages of St. Paul, who 
 declares to the polished and dissolute Corinthians, 
 that he came not to them in excellency of speech 
 or of man's wisdom, — a phraseology importing no 
 more than that the apostle did not calculate upon 
 their conversion through the mere force of rhetoric, 
 nor attempt to captivate their understanding by 
 strains of secular eloquence. But, that the prevail- 
 ing style of St. Paul, viewed independently of that 
 inspiration, under the influence of which it was 
 formed, rose much above •mediocrity, and frequently 
 partook of the imaginative, is evident from the 
 whole tenor of his epistles. It was, doubtless, no 
 mean exhibition of oratorical talent, that could have 
 led his hearers to take the apostle for the divinity, 
 whose special office it was to preside over literature 
 
392 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 and eloquence. We fully agree with Chrysostom, 
 in his Treatise concerning the priesthood, that in a 
 Christian minister* the polished smoothness of Iso- 
 crates, the swelling vehemence of Demosthenes, the 
 majesty of Thucydides, and the suhhmity of Plato, 
 may be easily dispensed with. But a style of address 
 far removed from poverty and meanness, from all 
 that is meagre, grovelling, and insipid ; and though 
 sometimes "familiar," yet never "vulgar," — a style 
 tliat will not degrade the lofty themes which he 
 undertakes to discuss, it is in a high degree expe- 
 dient that he should possess. In confirmation of 
 this remark, we may refer to the authority of the 
 royal preacher, who declares respecting himself, that 
 he sought to find out acceptable words, and these 
 words of the wise he affirms to be as goads, and as 
 nails fastened by masters of assembliesf . 
 
 But here let us be rightly understood. Against 
 that plain, earnest, and unvarnished style of pulpit 
 instruction, which has been so successfully adopted 
 by many of our most estimable divines, both living 
 and departed— a style which may be truly said to 
 have simplicity for its character, usefulness for its 
 end, and the testimony of every enlightened con- 
 
 * Eyo) be ei fiev ttjv Xeiorrjra IcroKparovs anrjTovv, Kat ATjuoadfPovs 
 oyKov, Kai TrjV ©ov/cuStSou at (ivorrfTa, k(u to Ii\aTa>vos v^os, eSei (peptiv 
 eis p,e(TOV ravrqv tov YlavKov rrjv naprvpiav. Nvv Se Travra (Keiva acpirjpi. — 
 Chrys. Ilepi lepos. lib. iv. 
 
 t JIIDDJ^ ^"iPi^^ a plinise very variously rendered : literally 
 " Masters of Collections." It is generally considered as intended to 
 express the office of the ministers of the Church, those whose busi- 
 ness it is to preside over the assemblies of the saints, and to curry 
 home the truth unto their hearts and consciences. 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 393 
 
 science as the stamp of its approval, we have 
 nothing to object. AYe have often witnessed with 
 delight the flow of that clear current of sound 
 speech, which, running on a level with the ordinary 
 capacity, appeared most admirably calculated to 
 diffuse the verdure of Christian graces and the fer- 
 tility of Christian virtues over the surrounding 
 regions. ^N^ot to appreciate that method of hand- 
 ling divine truth, which experience has proved to 
 be in general the most effective, — a method regu- 
 lated by the discipline of a sound judgment on the 
 one hand, and enlivened by the fervour of unaffected 
 feeling on the other, w^ould assuredly betray the 
 most inconsiderate levity. We do not hesitate to 
 avow, that, admitting of such exceptions and quali- 
 cations as may arise from peculiarity of character or 
 circumstances, this is the just, the legitimate, the 
 scriptural method of discharging the duties of the 
 ministerial ofiice ; and happy, supremely happy, must 
 be deemed the individual, who has attained to this 
 wise medium. 
 
 But ha^dng thus explained ourselves upon a 
 point, where misconstruction w ould have been most 
 fatal, we proceed to remark, that there is a style 
 of speaking and writing on sacred subjects, which, 
 possessing nothing of the simple but its home- 
 liness, nor of the judicious except its tameness, 
 is calculated neither to interest the intelligent, 
 nor to enlighten the ignorant mind, neither to 
 rouse the lethargy of the languid, nor to keep 
 pace with the energy of the impassioned. While 
 it forms the vehicle of unpremeditated thought, the 
 
394 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 difficulty of expression superinduced upon that of 
 invention, and the uncouthness generally charac- 
 terizing all raw produce, may offer some excuse 
 for the tardiness of its movements, and serve as 
 some palliation for its delinquency. But when it 
 presumes to appear in print, whether it creeps with 
 monosyllabic steps, or drags along through words 
 and periods of ill-arranged proportion, the mind 
 becomes inevitably torpid, while engaged in watch- 
 ing its progress. There are no brisk sallies of the 
 intellect grasping at those collateral ideas, which 
 throw a momentary light upon that more imme- 
 diately before the mind. Like a ship fraught with 
 the produce of Indian climes, there may be many 
 precious and valuable truths deposited in this dull 
 and unwieldly structure, but there is no tide of 
 feeling, there is no breath of imagination to urge 
 forward its floating weight, and consequently all is 
 sluggish, inanimate, and unimpressive. There may 
 be all the dryness of logic, but little or none of its 
 conclusiveness. 
 
 To obviate this evil, and to infuse vigour and 
 spirit into the character of style, is a legitimate 
 use of Imagination. This active power, when 
 sanctified by divine grace, becomes an effective 
 auxiliary to the understanding, hi collecting the 
 materials of a suitable medium for the communi- 
 cation of its ideas, and to the heart, for the ex- 
 pression of its feelings. Like the fabled messenger 
 of the gods, she is ever ready to be on the wing. 
 With prompt celerity she darts upward to heaven, 
 and with the same speed descends to earth loaded 
 
UrON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 395 
 
 with fresh intelligence, and enriched with the fruit 
 of her observations. She ranges over all the 
 diversified scenes, the beautiful, the magnificent, 
 and the picturesque of nature ; she bends her ear 
 to the melody of every pure and holy sound ; she 
 directs her eye to every spectacle of the fair and 
 lovely in creation. On the productions of devout 
 genius she gazes with raptured admiration : and 
 exquisitely alive to all the felicities of thought and 
 combination, to all the graces of language, to every 
 nice touch of modest and ingenuous art, she be- 
 comes gradually imbued with the spirit of the 
 objects of her contemplation, and imparts some- 
 thing of their form and colouring to the fruits of 
 her OA\ii conceptions. By means of such a process 
 carried on through the agency of the Imagination, 
 style is formed, and purified, and elevated. The first 
 attempts at composition, in cases where that faculty 
 bears a powerful sway, will, indeed, generally be 
 distinguished by more than an adequate measure 
 of ornament. The tissue of thought will be marked 
 by much superfluous embroidery. But even this, 
 in the opinion of the celebrated Eoman critic, is 
 preferable to the opposite defect. Luxuriance may 
 be repressed, the exuberant efflorescence of spring 
 may be pruned away, but barrenness cannot be 
 supplied. The evil in the former case seldom 
 fails to be corrected by years. As the judgment 
 ripens, as the ardour of invention is tempered by 
 the coolness of habitual reflection, as the eagerness 
 of unfledged eff'orts at soaring is succeeded by a 
 power of regular and uninterrupted flight, fantastic 
 
396 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 decoration will give way to real beauty and solid 
 excellence : — 
 
 Nature now 
 
 To the experienced eye a modest grace 
 Presents, where ornament the second place 
 Holds, to intrinsic worth and just design 
 Subservient still. 
 
 Style modelled on these principles, animated by 
 these energies, and chastened by these correctives, 
 will suit itself to every subject within the whole 
 province of theology. It will describe with fidelity 
 and exactness; it will explain with clearness and 
 order ; it will exhort with fervour and earnestness ; 
 it will illustrate with beauty and success ; it will 
 reason with force and vehemence, and conclusive- 
 ness ; it will advance in the calm and steady atti- 
 tude of the plain and simple ; it Avill rise to the rapid 
 and sublime; it will burst forth into the eloquent 
 and impassioned, as the nature of the subject may 
 require ; and it will carry light and conviction into 
 every bosom as it proceeds. 
 
 When we attribute this importance to style, an 
 aifair which many persons consider as utterly un- 
 worthy of their regard, it will not be supposed 
 that we view it in a state of separation from the 
 thoughts, of which it is designed to be the vehicle. 
 A choice selection of words, appropriate phraseo- 
 logy, a skilful collocation of terms and arrange- 
 ment of sentences, the disposition of every com- 
 ponent part of the structure, in the most advan- 
 tageous manner for light and beauty and strength, 
 is indeed important, and will be despised by none 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 397 
 
 but those who are ignorant of its influence in the 
 recommendation of the matter. But isolated from 
 this matter, it would be perfectly worthless. The 
 hue of health on the cheek, and the brilliancy of 
 the eye, are both objects pleasant to behold; but 
 the one is derived from the silent stream which 
 flows beneath, and the other is kindled by the 
 buoyant principle of vitality which resides within. 
 Style and sentiment, indeed, we are inclined to 
 think, are much more intimately connected wdth 
 each other than is generally supposed. It is not 
 unusual to hear it remarked of a literary or theo- 
 logical treatise, that the style is admirable, but 
 the thoughts are mean and ordinary: and the 
 reverse of the observation is perhaps equally fre- 
 quent. It may readily be granted, indeed, that a 
 profusion of brilliant words may be amassed toge- 
 ther, where there is so little vigour of conception, 
 and such a vacuity of sober and just thought, as 
 to leave the whole composition almost without a 
 meaning. But, as verbal phraseology constitutes 
 the only medium through which ideas can be con- 
 veyed, it is impossible that the character of the one 
 should not be greatly modified by the other; and 
 it would seem, that a tide of noble and majestic 
 thoughts can no more flow through the channel of a 
 creeping, grovelling, and inanimate style, than the 
 waters of the Ganges could roll within the banks of 
 a rivulet. 
 
 We have dwelt longer than we should otherwise 
 have done upon this question of style, because, in 
 theology, it seems to be more generally disregarded 
 
898 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 and undervalued than in any other branch of litera- 
 ture. Some feeling, as they justly ought, the su- 
 preme importance of the matter of their exhortations 
 or discussions, have been honestly, we had almost 
 said devoutly, betrayed into the mistake that lan- 
 guage was an affair of so very subordinate import- 
 ance, as scarcely to deserve a moment's attention ; 
 and we have many valuable pieces of argumentative 
 and practical divinity bearing evident marks of this 
 error. Others there are guilty of the same fault 
 through an original deficiency of the faculties most 
 essential to the formation of style, and that defi- 
 ficiency in no degree supplied by discipline and men- 
 tal cultivation. Both these classes should remember, 
 however, that while Christianity, in all its parts, is 
 possessed of a native sublimity and dignity and 
 beauty, which no adventitious majesty or decoration 
 of language can further exalt or embellish, it may be 
 very easily degraded and impeded in its effects by 
 the opposite of these characteristics in style. It is 
 obviously expedient, therefore, that every faculty of 
 the mind, in all the variety of their operations, 
 should be made conducive, by mutual combination 
 and connexion, to the improvement and perfection of 
 an instrument, which is capable of exercising so 
 powerful an influence upon the advancement and 
 interests of divine truth. 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 399 
 
 Section IY. 
 
 Imagination useful as the Means of realizing and 
 embodying invisible scenes. 
 
 A THIRD use, for which Imagination may be em- 
 ployed with much advantage and effect in the treat- 
 ment of divine truth, is, to give a realizing view of 
 invisible scenes, hy exhibiting them under striking 
 and important emblems, and by emhodying abstract 
 principles informs of paJpable and vivid represen- 
 tation. Closely allied to this process of Imagina- 
 tion, is that species of lively realization, which the 
 celebrated author of the Treatise on the Sublime, 
 has denominated Phantasies; and his follower, 
 Quintilian, by a literal translation, has expressed by 
 the term Visions; and both have given suitable 
 illustrations of it from the several writers of anti- 
 quity. It is that wonderful operation, by which 
 remote objects and distant events, whether real or 
 fictitious, are brought before the mind with such 
 clearness and force as if they were sensibly pre- 
 sent. To produce this species of illusion is the 
 peculiar business of Imagination : and so unlimited 
 is its poAver in this respect, where it is possessed 
 in a high degree of vigour, that it can lead the 
 mind at pleasure through every variety of place and 
 scene. It can raise out of non-existence a host of 
 personages suited to its purposes, and clothe them 
 with the attributes of real and active beings. It 
 
 can give to airy nothing 
 
 A local habitation and a name. 
 
400 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 It can endue with the principle and the functions of 
 vitality the inanimate parts of material nature : it 
 can, on the other hand, give a body to the opera- 
 tions of mind; it can present the beings of the 
 spiritual world in the attire and costume of the 
 natural ; it can bring together persons and things 
 most widely separated from each other; it can por- 
 tray actions and proceedings in the most affecting 
 forms of reality, whether recorded of the past, or 
 predicted of the future. 
 
 Of such a powerful engine of impression, it was 
 impossible that religion should not have attempted 
 to avail herself. Hence, we find that works of 
 fiction, imbodying the most vital and important 
 truths of Christianity, abound among us. These, 
 indeed, are executed with various judgment, and 
 display much inequality of talent; some exhibiting 
 a masculine vigour of understanding, a thorough 
 acquaintance with the world, and a profound know- 
 ledge of the human heart ; others, characterized by 
 puerility of thought, narrowness of view, and most 
 lamentable deficiency of taste. In some of these 
 pieces, such as the Dialogues of Hervey, and the 
 Coelebs of Mrs. More, imaginary characters are intro- 
 duced in order to discuss the several questions of 
 moral and religious truth. Instead of formal disqui- 
 sition, and a regular explication of these topics from 
 the pen of the author, he is supposed merely to lay 
 the scene in which the creatures of his fancy are to 
 perform their respective parts, and to end the debate 
 by bringing it to the conclusion which he deems most 
 just and satisfactory. In other works of this descrip- 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 401 
 
 tion, partaking more of the character of the allegory, 
 inanimate objects are endued with life ; the faculties 
 of the mind, the affections of the heart, the appetites 
 and passions, the graces, the virtues, the vices, and 
 all the distinguishing constituents of human nature, 
 are considered as possessed of separate and independ- 
 ent existence, and are represented as discharging their 
 several functions in accomplishing the main design. 
 The advantages of this species of personification, 
 while its dangers must be acknowledged to be great 
 if carried to an undue extent, are manifold and 
 striking. The human mind is naturally fond of 
 action; it delights in the exercise of the senses. 
 ^N'ovelty and beauty of sight, liveliness, and harmony 
 of sound, rapidity of motion, the operations of intel- 
 lect, and the working of passions as exhibited in out- 
 ward form and feature, excite in it stronger emotions 
 than could be awakened by the mere abstract con- 
 templation of these objects. To this is owing the 
 superior pleasure which the admirer of the drama 
 derives from the actual performances of the theatre, 
 compared with that which he is capable of enjoying in 
 the retired perusal of the piece. And the same cir- 
 cumstance accounts for the deeper impression pro- 
 duced by a discourse from the pulpit, delivered with 
 every advantage of voice and manner, than would 
 attend the reading of the same composition in the 
 stillness and quietness of the closet, — a difference of 
 effect, which occasioned Queen Anne's grievous dis- 
 appointment (if we remember right) on perusing a 
 sermon of Bishop Burnet, which she had ordered him 
 to print. We may explain, upon the same principle, 
 
 2 D 
 
402 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 the intensity of interest with which every devout 
 reader, and some more distinguished for splendid 
 talent than deep devotion, including Johnson and 
 Swift, and others of the same school, accompanied 
 Bunyan's Pilgrim in his progress, notwithstanding 
 the numerous faults with which that singular and, on 
 the whole, excellent production abounds ; while Dod- 
 dridge's admirable treatise, the Eise and Progress of 
 Religion in the Soul, conducted in the calmer and 
 more simple method of statement, exhortation, and 
 appeal, requires a mind disciplined to a much severer 
 order of taste and feeling before it can rivet the 
 attention with any thing of a similar force. 
 
 Such is the constitution of the mind of man, or 
 rather, such is the predominance which the powers 
 of Sense exercise over those of bare Intellect. On 
 this principle it is found, that, in proportion as a 
 representation of facts approaches to what is osten- 
 sible and familiar in life and nature, as abstract 
 truth is clothed in the language of imagery, and 
 brought as it were in contact A\ith the sensitive 
 organs, the deeper impression it produces, and the 
 livelier interest it awakens. It is, doubtless, in con- 
 descension to this infirmity, that the Supreme Being 
 was pleased, in ancient times, so frequently to exhibit 
 himself in visible emblem; and throughout almost 
 the whole of Revelation to represent Himself as pos- 
 sessed of the form and constituent members, as well 
 as many of the faculties and affections of human 
 nature. In those descriptions of his character and 
 attributes, indeed, which are designed to inform tlie 
 understanding, He is clearly asserted to be a Being 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 403 
 
 of infinity, without passions, and without parts. But 
 Avith respect to his conduct as more immediately 
 connected with mankind, He is described as endued 
 with the organs, as actuated by the feelings, and as 
 performing the functions peculiar to a human being. 
 He is said to have eyes to see, ears to hear, feet 
 to walk, hands to grasp, anger to resent, and love 
 to cherish ; though we must be perfectly aware that 
 these operations as performed by Him must be 
 accomplished in some very different way from what 
 is known to men. In the same manner all that has 
 been revealed, and all that we know of angels and 
 spirits in all their gradations of dignity and excel- 
 lence, is no more than has been communicated through 
 the medium of sensible images. 'No book has been 
 written apparently under a more vivid recollection, 
 that man is dependent for his leading ideas upon the 
 exercise of his senses, than the Bible. Spiritual in 
 its disclosures and in its purposes beyond any other 
 volume upon earth, it notwithstanding speaks the 
 language, and employs the figures and illustrations 
 suitable to beings immersed in matter. It embodies 
 the thoughts of heaven in the words and phraseology 
 of earth. 
 
 The Imagination, being the faculty most con- 
 cerned in the exercise of taste, may be considered as 
 an interlocutor betwee^n Sense and Reason, between 
 matter and spirit; and as all feelings and impressions 
 are dependent upon the powers of sense, he who can ' 
 most skilfully employ the Imagination in adapting 
 and communicating the views of the intellectual and 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 spiritual world to these powers, will be most successful 
 in awakening deep and powerful emotions. 
 
 With a view of exemplifying these remarks, let 
 us consider the effect of Imagination as it may be 
 employed in carrying home to the mind and con- 
 science some of the leading doctrines and facts of 
 the Christian religion. Let the state of man by 
 nature, as he stands related to the demands and 
 obligations of the divine law, be the topic of dis- 
 cussion. While the question of his guilt and con- 
 demnation before God is calmly and deliberately 
 argued; while it is proved by Scripture, and further 
 corroborated by the actual evidence of experience; 
 while this strain of dispassionate argumentation is 
 maintained, the understanding indeed* is enlightened, 
 and may be convinced, and thus an important point 
 is gained towards producing the desired impression. 
 But when this has been accomplished, let the scene 
 be enlivened by the introduction of the Law as a 
 distinct, independent, and animated being. Let her 
 be brought forward as the offspring of the Eternal, 
 bearing, in the essence of her character, the awful 
 majesty of his holiness, and the inflexible sternness 
 of his justice, clothed with authority, and claiming, 
 as her subjects, every order of rational and intelli- 
 gent beings, within the limits of the universe. Let 
 her be heard proposing the original compact in 
 Eden, pronouncing her threatened award on its 
 'violation, and repeating her denunciations in the 
 lightning and thunder of Sinai, testifying her indig- 
 nation by such scenes of terrific grandeur, as made 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 405 
 
 every living thing to flee in consternation from her 
 presence. Let her be exhibited as girt with a two- 
 edged sword, and pursuing every human soul in its 
 natural condition, as the manslayer was pursued by 
 the avenger of blood, in order to vindicate the 
 honour of Jehovah, by inflicting the full measure of 
 his wrath. Let this process be strikingly and vividly 
 presented to the mind, and there will not only be a 
 conviction of the understanding, but it is scarcely 
 possible there should not be also excited strong 
 emotions of heart. Every sense will be interested, 
 aroused, and terrified, and thus become auxiliary to 
 the accomplishment of the desired object. The 
 voice of the Law will be heard to condemn ; her arm 
 will be seen as raised to strike. 
 
 Let us again contemplate the use of Imagination 
 as it may be exercised in the representation of the 
 wonderful method of salvation through Christ. The 
 grandeur and the simplicity united in this plan, the 
 greatness of its design, the beauty and coherency of 
 its parts, and the clearness with which the whole of 
 it is displayed on the page of Holy Scripture, render 
 it a subject eminently suitable for the employment 
 of that sublime faculty. The consummation of the 
 scheme of human redemption, efi'ected in the death 
 of Christ, is a theme on which Young, and Barrow, 
 and Maclaurin, and others of illustrious name, have 
 lavished all the splendour of their comprehensive and 
 exalted genius. The man of serious and devout 
 judgment, unaccompanied with the lively powers of 
 fancy and imagination, may, indeed, unfold the prin- 
 ciples of the covenant of redemption ; he may define 
 
406 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 its conditions, and urge the acceptance of its bless- 
 ings, but this he will do in a dry and didactic man- 
 ner, — a manner calculated neither to engage the 
 attention, nor influence the affections: whereas the 
 man of imagination wdll place the whole in a light, 
 clear, interesting, and impressive. He will seize 
 upon the most striking analogies of nature, and, 
 combining them with those schemes, proceedings, 
 and operations, which are observable in the wide 
 aspect of human society, he will exhibit the whole 
 in one scene of lucid representation, on one spot of 
 distinct and definite contemplation, which will give 
 prominence to every point, freshness to every colour- 
 ing, and precision to every line of demarcation. He 
 will show the necessity of this plan on general and 
 public grounds, on the principles of universal govern- 
 ment, the sanctions of law, and the immutability of 
 justice. He will point out the evils which would 
 seem inevitably to result from the pardon of sin 
 without the intervention of a mediator, ihe influence 
 Avhich such an example would probably exert upon 
 the higher orders of intelligence, and the effect 
 which it might have in disorganizing the whole 
 system of the universe. He will represent the utter 
 discordancy with all the rules of supremacy, of allow- 
 ing offence to pass without adequate punishment, 
 and the absolute necessity, in order to secure the 
 subordination of the subject, to carry into unmiti- 
 gated execution the stipulations of an established 
 compact. Having brought in the whole human race 
 guilty, and apparently condemned to suffering by 
 the announcement of an irreversible decree ; havinc^ 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 407 
 
 shut up the whole mass and every individual of the 
 species within the enclosures of this prison of despair, 
 while every attribute of Jehovah, except his Mercy, 
 conspires to bar the doors against their egress, he at 
 once changes the scene: he pours a flood of light 
 upon this habitation of darkness and woe ; he directs 
 the eye to an object, the very sight of which is 
 health to the sick, hope to the forlorn, liberty to the 
 captive, and salvation to the lost. The eternal Son 
 of God he exhibits as descending in the chariot of 
 his love; as surrounded by a retinue of attendant 
 spirits, who rejoice to celebrate his triumphs, with 
 the key of man's deliverance suspended from his 
 girdle; as at his birth commencing the evolution of 
 that purpose of grace, which from eternity had been 
 folded up in the bosom of deity; as carrying it on 
 in every successive act of his life, and as trium- 
 phantly consummating it in his death. He will 
 present to the mind every lovely feature in the 
 character of the Redeemer, the unexampled kind- 
 ness and condescension which engaged him, though 
 rich, for the sake of man, to become poor; the meek- 
 ness, the gentleness, and the benevolence of his life, 
 and every affecting circumstance of his death; his 
 entire suitableness as an example, and his all-suffi- 
 ciency as an atonement. 
 
 He will then set forth the henefits of this plan, 
 and its admirable adaptation to the accomplish- 
 ment of its proposed end. He will show its effects 
 as they respect both God and man, how they unite 
 as it were the interests both of heaven and earth, 
 crossing the immeasurable interval, which sepa- 
 
408 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 rates the throne of God from the humble abode 
 of man, expanding into immensity, and stretching 
 forward into eternity ; promoting the glory of God, 
 and simultaneously advancing the highest happi- 
 ness of man. He will describe this method, not 
 only as an effectual remedial system for all the 
 evils and disorders which have befallen the human 
 race, but also as affording a most illustrious dis- 
 play of all the divine perfections ; as forming the 
 bright centre to which all the rays of the divine 
 majesty converge, and from which they are again 
 reflected in resplendent lustre upon the intelligent 
 universe ; as constituting a mirror in which the 
 character of Jehovah appears endowed with every 
 element, and clothed with every attribute, that can 
 render it great, and lovely, and venerable. The 
 several qualities inherent in the divine mind, he 
 will represent as here combined together, in such 
 well-balanced proportions, as to form one perfect 
 model of unrivalled beauty and excellency, all 
 harmoniously united, and each lending its aid and 
 co-operation in exalting the transcendent glory of 
 the other ; wisdom dignified by power, and power 
 regulated by wisdom; mercy sustained and invi- 
 gorated by justice, and justice tempered and mel- 
 lowed by softening infusions of mercy; justice 
 erecting her pillars upon the imperishable basis of 
 Jehovah's truth, and the warm light of mercy's 
 beams moving around with delightful and radiant 
 play, without melting them down into a mass of 
 disorder and confusion. Thus, in the salvation 
 of man, accomplished through the mediation of 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 409 
 
 Christ, every attribute of the divine character has 
 its demands satisfied, its claims vindicated, and its 
 essential dignity unfolded, displayed, and exalted. 
 The Gospel, therefore, is a scheme of grace, in 
 ■which the glory of God, and the happiness of man, 
 are found inseparably connected. xVnd it is the 
 business of Imagination to exhibit this connexion 
 through the medium of every process and analogy 
 that is tangible, realizing, and striking. 
 
 We might extend this remark to almost every 
 principle and every truth of the Christian religion. 
 However abstract in their nature, however subtle 
 and abstruse in conception, and however partially 
 revealed. Imagination will give them body and 
 substance, and make them pass in visible repre- 
 sentation before the mind. It is Imagination which 
 portrays the king of terrors in all that is dismal 
 and appalling in his pale and gloomy visage, in aU 
 that is awful and melancholy in his appendages 
 and attendant circumstances ; that groups together 
 the unequivocal symptoms of approaching dissolu- 
 tion — the ceasing pulse, the swimming eye, the qui- 
 vering lip, the last struggle of nature, the groans 
 of the expiring, the frame now cold, motionless, 
 and extended; the shroud, the coffin, the funeral 
 paU, the darkness, and the silence of the tomb ; 
 the lamentations of the surviving, the tears of for- 
 lorn widowhood, the cries of bereaved orphanage, 
 the anguish of broken-hearted friendship ; all that 
 is awful and distressing in the discharge of Death's 
 commission, into one spectacle of pain, and fear, 
 and woe, which it is impossible the most thought- 
 
410 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 less should contemplate without emotions of serious- 
 ness and dread. It is the Imagination which wafts 
 the mind beyond the gulf of death, and con- 
 ducts it to the scene of Judgment; a scene, the 
 most awfully important, the most dreadfully magni- 
 ficent, that will stand on record in the annals of 
 God's creation. To call it the assizes of the uni- 
 verse would degrade the subject, and yet we are 
 forced to contemplate it under something of this 
 aspect, because we have no higher and more suit- 
 able image, in which to embody our conceptions. 
 The trial is about to commence. It is ushered in 
 with a shout, which startles the ear of nature, and 
 breaks the slumbers of death: the Judge appears, 
 with angels for his retinue, clouds for his robes, 
 and heaven's ethereal concave for his canopy, and 
 bearing the scales of eternal justice as his rule of 
 adjudication. The sun is quenched in his light; 
 the moon retires from his splendour ; the stars, like 
 so many sickly tapers, are extinguished by his 
 breath ; the earth trembles at his voice, forgets the 
 laws of her constitution, and unable to control the 
 elements of destruction nurtured in her own bosom, 
 again sinks into a chaos. He utters his mandate ; 
 the dead obey his call; and, swift as winged 
 spirits, they rise with frames renewed and trans- 
 figured, cross the intervening regions of air, and 
 stand marshalled in countless hosts before his 
 dread tribunal. After a process of investigation, 
 which Imagination may dimly conceive, but does 
 not attempt minutely to describe, the irreversible 
 sentence is pronounced. The brief announcement 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 411 
 
 of that sentence involves an emphasis of meaning, 
 which eternity will be too short to mifold. 
 
 And will this soaring faculty venture further into 
 the scenes of the invisible world? Tes! provided 
 with the chart of Revelation, and with her eye steadily 
 fixed upon the pole-star of truth, she wiU leave the 
 shores of time, and launch forth with confidence on 
 the ocean of boundless and unknown duration. From 
 the throne of Judgment, she will accompany either 
 host into the regions of their respective destination : 
 she will descend into the place of torment, and learn 
 to shudder, while she contemplates every form of 
 anguish there exhibited. All that is dreadful in 
 sensitive suffering, produced by the most intolerable of 
 all elements ; all that is wretched in the extremity of 
 mental agony and conscious guilt ; all that is terrific 
 in the wild affray of passions uncontrolled, exaspe- 
 rated and infuriated into the highest pitch of malig- 
 nant energy ; all that is dreary and appalling in the 
 view of a community of beings prisoned in everlast- 
 ing darkness, and doomed to never-ending woe, and 
 among Avhom, the only shadowy semblance of enjoy- 
 ment which prevails, is that which is derived from 
 mutual oppression, tyranny, and torture : all these 
 forms of indescribable endurance and dismay. Imagi- 
 nation beholds and realizes in vivid perception ; and 
 indulged with a commission, which was denied the 
 unhappy Dives, she warns thoughtless mortals, in 
 terms of solemn expostulation, lest they should be 
 consigned to that place of torment. 
 
 But, from that scene of guilt and Avoe, Imagina- 
 tion hastens to escape; it is only necessity, awful 
 
412 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 necessity, that ever obliges her to visit that gloomy 
 abode, and, as it were, to soil her wing with its 
 smoke. When that needful task is accomplished, 
 she prepares for a more pleasing excursion, and 
 essays a nobler flight. She softens and arranges her 
 plumage, and her wings become as those of a dove, 
 " that is covered with silver wings, and her feathers 
 like gold." She soars upward, and takes her place 
 among tliat innumerable multitude, which are trium- 
 phantly retiring from the tribunal, at which, through 
 the efficacy of the blood of the Lamb, they have 
 been acquitted and pronounced blessed. She beholds 
 the emblems of peace, and happiness, and glory, with 
 which they appear, with emotions of exquisite delight ; 
 their robes of white, their garlands of victory, their 
 crowns of honour, their harps of gold. She becomes 
 absolutely enraptured and overwhelmed with the 
 contemplation of their enjoyment ; its scene a para- 
 dise, supplying appropriate objects for every consti- 
 tutional inlet of fruition — ^beauty to the eye, melody 
 to the ear, all that is sweet and pleasant to the taste : 
 its character, transcending indeed all that Imagina- 
 tion can conceive ; but known to include all that is 
 great and noble and exalting, all that is agreeable in 
 the exercise of every mental faculty, all that is ten- 
 der and refined in aff'ection, all that is sublime and 
 elevated in intellectual gratification, all that is trans- 
 forming and assimilating in the immediate vision of 
 the supreme and uncreated Good: its society, bright 
 and pure essences, ascending by a scale of gradation 
 from the order of human spirits,- which, perhaps, con- 
 stitute the lowest in power, in intelligence and love, 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 413 
 
 to the loftiest cherub or ser.aph, whose faculties ex- 
 pand most widely, and whose affections glow most 
 intensely in that sphere of being, which approaches 
 nearest to the throne of God: the highest without 
 pride ; the meanest Avithout envy, differing in their 
 respective quantities of joy, but each filled to the 
 utmost limits of his capacity ; all combining together 
 into one glorious fraternity, cemented by the strongest 
 ties of benevolence and good-will, and infinitely aug- 
 menting the general sum of fruition, by mutual 
 union, participation, and reflection. Heaven, in short, 
 as it appears to the eye of Imagination, may be aptly 
 described in the language of one most eminently 
 endowed with that faculty, as a place " where eter- 
 nity is the measure, felicity is the state, angels are 
 the companions, the Lamb is the light, and God is 
 the portion and inheritance*." 
 
 If such be the power of Imagination, in embody- 
 ing what is subtle and abstract, and realizing what is 
 distant and unseen, we cannot be surprised at the 
 striking effects which the vigorous use of it, espe- 
 cially in public addresses, and sometimes in a mea- 
 sure bordering upon extravagance, has in all ages 
 produced. Imagination is, in fact, the instrument of 
 power, by which the orator has always electrified and 
 enchanted, alarmed and soothed, has fixed and led 
 captive, at his pleasure, the audience which was 
 hanging on his lips. It was Imagination that thun- 
 dered with resistless energy in the illustrious de- 
 claimers of Greece and Eome ; in many of the cele- 
 
 * Jeremy Taylor. 
 
414 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 brated Fathers of the Christian Church ; in the 
 reno^vned preachers of France ; and in the departed 
 senators, advocates, and pulpit-orators, that vindicate 
 the genius and character of the British name. And 
 it is sanctified Imagination Avhich still rouses the 
 lethargic powers of our population to domestic acti- 
 vity and missionary enterprise, through the various 
 divisions of the empire. 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 415 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE EVILS OF AN ILL-REGULATED USE OF 
 IMAGINATION. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 Extravagant Ideas of Individtjal Destiny. 
 
 But powerful as this engine is in the accomplishment 
 of good, when skilfully and legitimately employed, it 
 is capable, like all other instruments of a similar 
 nature, of being converted to a bad use, and of 
 working much evil. It is now time, therefore, that 
 we institute a brief inquiry into the Dangers and 
 Abuses, with which the exercises of imagination 
 are liable to be attended. Only we would here just 
 remark, that the possibility of perverting a faculty 
 or acquirement to a mischievous purpose, neither 
 derogates from its value, nor impedes its just use. 
 
 We may say of the Imagination, that, as con- 
 nected with the various departments of divine truth, 
 it may be made subservient to the noblest purposes, 
 or be productive of the most lamentable conse- 
 quences, as it is duly directed and regulated, or left 
 to range abroad lawless and uncontrolled. The 
 richest soil, if left uncultivated and neglected, will 
 produce the most luxuriant crop of weeds ; the most 
 generous spirits, if unacquainted Avith wholesome 
 discipline, are in danger of running into the greatest 
 
416 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 excesses. But, let the one experience the timely 
 and judicious care of the husbandman, and the other 
 be trained up in the habits of morality and religion, 
 and they will both be the most excellent of their 
 kind. Thus Imagination, abandoned to itself, will 
 inevitably lead to error, superstition, and weakness : 
 but guided by judgment, and controlled by discretion, 
 it will afford most essential aid in the illustration and 
 enforcement of divine truth. Imagination, com- 
 bined with the reasoning poAver, is valuable and 
 important; but without that accompaniment, isolated 
 from that guardian faculty, will unquestionably do 
 much more harm than good. 
 
 In illustration of these remarks we may observe, 
 that, under the unrestrained influence of imagination 
 operating upon a mind ill trained, or peculiarly con- 
 stituted, and taking advantage of an extraordinary 
 conjuncture of circumstances, persons have been 
 frequently led to entertain extravagant notions of 
 their oicn individual destiny. We are inclined to 
 think that many of the most absurd impostures, and 
 some of the wildest excesses of fanaticism, ^v^th 
 which the Christian world has been deluded or deso- 
 lated, may be originally traced to this source. The 
 known and acknowledged fact, that in the order of 
 divine government individuals have been specially 
 delegated of heaven, and employed in the accom- 
 plishment of extraordinary changes and revolutions 
 in the religious and political world, renders it a 
 possible, and perhaps not improbable case, that per- 
 sons similarly endowed, and furnished with super- 
 natural means for the achicA ement of some great 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 417 
 
 and beneficent designs, will be raised up to the latest 
 period in the history of the world. Considerations 
 of this kind coming in contact with the elements of 
 ambition in a mind natm*ally inclined to the romantic, 
 have, doubtless, frequently laid there a deposit of 
 combustible materials, which required only a concur- 
 rence of circumstances to burst forth in an eruptive 
 explosion of heresy and fanaticism. Deeds of heroic 
 enterprise never act so strongly as when they are 
 contemplated as embodied in the character of an 
 individual renowned in the annals of historical record. 
 IsTever does an imaginative mind rise and expand 
 with such heat of intellectual fermentation, as when 
 its attention is riveted and absorbed by some colossal 
 figure of venerable antiquity, swelling before it into 
 dimensions more than human. When such a view 
 of greatness or goodness is associated with charac- 
 ters and transactions recorded in the sacred page, it 
 becomes invested with congenial sanctity, and there 
 is a conscious satisfaction felt, in the faintest analogy 
 discoverable, or in the remotest approximation sup- 
 posed to be made, while such examples and events 
 are under survey. Where there is a sufficient ballast 
 of sound principle to prevent these floating ideas 
 from completely destroying the stability and equi- 
 poise of the mind, and where they are properly 
 directed and controlled by the unerring helm of 
 Reason, these active and elevating contemplations 
 are eminently calculated to produce greatness, and 
 force, and energy of character. Heroes in war, 
 patriots in politics, and apostles and saints in reli- 
 
 2 E 
 
418 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 gion, owe a great part of their excellency and pre- 
 eminency to such exercises. 
 
 But where this antagonist and overruling influ- 
 ence is wanting ; where Imagination greatly prepon- 
 derates over the more sober and deliberating faculty 
 of the soul, the review and intense admiration of 
 such instances of rare qualification and destiny, may 
 give occasion to notions and ideas in the highest 
 degree chimerical, dangerous, and absurd. Imagi- 
 nation is naturally inventive, and proverbially fond 
 of analogy and combination. The man, therefore, 
 in whose views and feelings it is allowed to pre- 
 dominate, is exceedingly liable to be imposed upon 
 by its plausible and delusive representations. Such 
 is his susceptibility of impression, and such is the 
 assimilating energy of the plastic power by which he 
 is swayed, that he soon discovers in himself an almost 
 perfect reflection of the character whom he admires. 
 In the world of science this extravagance of con- 
 ception has produced a succession of speculations 
 and theorizing philosophists. In the department of 
 common life it has given rise to wild and romantic 
 sentimentalists. In affairs of state, it has drawn 
 forth, in difierent ages and countries of the world, a 
 host of political empirics, of reformers and innovators 
 upon a large scale, professing to be restorers and 
 conservators of the public welfare; but, if successful 
 in their attempts, proving for the most part traitors 
 to their country, disturbers of its tranquillity, and 
 destroyers of a large portion of that happiness and 
 prosperity which it previously enjoyed. In the still 
 
 I 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 419 
 
 more fertile field of theology and religion, it has 
 sown the seed and cherished the growth of a plentiful 
 crop of visionaries, false prophets, and heresiarchs. 
 Let it not be supposed from these remarks, that we 
 wish to condemn every thing that is novel, grand, 
 and strikingly original in character; every thing that 
 is magnificent in design, vivid in anticipation, and 
 energetic in action in any one of the departments, 
 to which reference has been just made. In early 
 youth, when the mind is at its highest point of effer- 
 vescence, — at that period of life when early genius 
 is just moulting its feathers, and preparing to soar 
 upward, a measure of this species of enthusiasm is 
 not unnatural, is generally, indeed, considered a 
 happy indication, and, if checked with reasonable 
 and proper correctives, seldom proves injurious in the 
 result. We are, moreover, persuaded, that some of 
 the most extravagant schemers and projectors in the 
 economy of state, of the most eccentric in life, and 
 of the most heretical and absurd among the pro- 
 fessed reformers and innovators in religion, have 
 been persons of integrity and benevolence ; and that 
 their errors, however mischievous in their effects, 
 originated less in obliquity of heart, than in confused 
 impressions of the Imagination. Many individuals 
 there have been providentially raised, in whom some- 
 thing like a prophetic anticipation of their own fated 
 appointment for the performance of great things, and 
 the introduction of great changes, has been abun- 
 dantly justified and verified by the result. Thus 
 Bacon rose in the sphere of intellect, and in him it 
 can hardly be regarded as extravagance, when, under 
 
 2 E 2 
 
420 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 the influence of a conscious feeling, that he was to 
 fix a new era in the history of science and philo- 
 sophy, he exclaimed, "Viam aut inveniam aut 
 faciam;" and when apparently actuated by the same 
 emotion, he closed a part of his works with the 
 significant enunciation, "Sic cogitavit Franciscus 
 Baconus!" 
 
 The same remark may be applied to Milton, 
 when, in a juvenile copy of verses addressed to his 
 father, he gave utterance to the oracular intimation, 
 that he would one day produce a work which 
 would throw lustre over his age and country. In 
 the sacred history we find a multitude of instances 
 in which individuals had intimations from heaven, 
 that they were immediately destined to fill peculiar 
 stations fand offices, or to accomplish extraordinary 
 ends. Thus, Moses was designed to be the instru- 
 ment of deliverance to the Israelites out of the 
 captivity of Egypt. Thus, David was called to the 
 sovereignty of the same people. Thus, Jeremiah 
 was set apart to the prophetic office at one of the 
 most critical and calamitous periods in the history 
 of the Jewish nation. And thus, in a special 
 manner, was Paul chosen, and supernaturally 
 fitted to proclaim the tidings of the Gospel sal- 
 vation throughout the whole extent of the Eoman 
 world. And who can doubt that Luther had 
 the persuasion strongly impressed upon his mind, 
 that he was distinctly marked out in the councils 
 of heaven, and sent into the world for the express 
 purpose of unfolding the mystery of that iniquity, 
 which had throAvn a covering of darkness over the 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 421 
 
 whole region of truth, and held abject and enthralled 
 the powers of the human spirit in the chains of a 
 portentous superstition ? 
 
 But for a few individuals appearing, sometimes 
 after a succession of ages and centuries, peculiarly 
 destined and transcendently endowed, thousands 
 have been led to fancy themselves such. In the 
 majority of instances, indeed, the workings of this 
 fantastic notion have been confined to the indi- 
 vidual's own breast; kept in, like fixed air, within 
 an inclosure, which they had not force to break 
 through: or, if the effervescence, which they 
 created, found a vent, their elements soon eva- 
 porated, and their ebullitions sunk dovm into the 
 stillness of a quiet stagnation. But, where cir- 
 cumstances have been peculiarly favourable to the 
 formation, indulgence, and subsequent operations 
 of such an illusion ; where all around was involved 
 in comparative ignorance, and tottering with imbe- 
 cility ; and where there was a well-grounded con- 
 fidence of superior knowledge and energy ; it has 
 been productive of great, and sometimes disastrous 
 effects, and risen to its highest pitch of phrenzy. 
 In such cases, it has been found exceedingly diffi- 
 cult to form a fair and discriminating estimate of 
 character, to sift the heterogeneous mass, and to 
 analyze the different elements of which it was 
 composed. In this department of the interpreta- 
 tion of nature, we can but very partially apply the 
 principles of the experimental philosophy, inas- 
 much as our materials are too subtile and recondite 
 to bear the process of a palpable observation. 
 
422 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 We are, therefore, obliged to have recourse to the 
 general views of analogy and reflection. "VVlien 
 persons are under the influence of a strong im- 
 pression,^ that they have been delegated of Heaven 
 to rectify crying abuses in the church or state, or 
 to communicate truths which have been hitherto 
 unknown in the world, or merely to effect, by 
 immediate assistance from above, what no one 
 else is capable of doing, or has been appointed to 
 accomplish; when, to other eyes, the object, if 
 laudable, appears to be pursued by ^vrong means, 
 or perhaps is altogether futile, or sometimes even 
 dangerous and mischievous in the extreme; it 
 is by no means easy, at all times, to determine 
 what part of the illusion is to be ascribed to aber- 
 ration of intellect, what to sincerity and piety of 
 purpose, and what to absolute knavery and ambi- 
 tion. There can be no doubt, however, that the 
 whole frequently originates in the unlimited and 
 uncontrolled indulgence of the reveries of Ima- 
 gination. 
 
 The direction, which the current of enthusiastic 
 feeling takes, will generally be regulated by the 
 character and condition of the individual, and, 
 more than all, by the circumstances of the times. 
 The ecclesiastic, especially if the church be in an 
 unsettled state, or sunk into torpid indifference, 
 torn with factions, or overrun with error, will most 
 probably lay claim to inspiration, or, at least, to 
 such aids and illuminations from Heaven as are 
 equivalent to it. He will assume the self-consti- 
 tuted character of a prophet; and sometimes, by 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 423 
 
 a dexterous conformity with popular habits and 
 prejudices, but more frequently by extraordinary 
 austerities, sometimes by the glowing representa- 
 tions of his captivating eloquence, and sometimes 
 by the mysterious terror of his oracular denun- 
 ciations, will attach a multitude to his standard. 
 Brooding for a while, perhaps, over the defects and 
 corruptions of the church, which unhappily, in all 
 ages, have too much abounded, and perceiving 
 that the state of things called for a zealous re- 
 former, or, at least, afforded a fair opportunity for 
 a bold and adventurous pretender to put in his 
 claims, he begins with caution and dubious hesi- 
 tancy, like a wary assailant approaching an enemy's 
 camp under the covert of the night; until, grow- 
 ing confident by success, he lifts up the banner 
 of his profession, and announces that there is 
 a prophet in Israel. In the first centuries of the 
 Christian era, characters of this description, greatly 
 varying from each other indeed, were not un- 
 common. The most noted, perhaps, was Montanus, 
 with his female associates, by whose plausible pre- 
 tensions and rigorous ascetic principles, the virtuous 
 and eloquent, but sour and stern-minded Tertullian 
 was for a while held in thrall. One of the most 
 remarkable and highly endowed in modern times, 
 perhaps, was the renowned Baron Swedenborg, who, 
 by a new and cabalistic method of scriptural in- 
 terpretation, has established a system of theolo- 
 gical mysticism and delusion as unfounded and 
 chimerical, in many respects, as the Pythagorean 
 metempsychosis, or the dreams of fabulous romance 
 
424 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 recorded in the Shasters of Indostan ; and yet 
 it can hardly be doubted, that this singular and 
 benevolent man was, on the whole, actuated by 
 sincere motives, and that he really believed him- 
 self, in his moments of most rapturous eleva- 
 tion, to be the subject of visions and revelations 
 from Heaven, which he was bound to communicate 
 for the benefit and instruction of mankind. How 
 great and lamentable, therefore, must have been 
 the aberration and illusion of that mind, which had 
 once proved itself so capable of penetrating into 
 the secrets of nature, and of investigating the laws 
 of the sublimest of human sciences. When we 
 contemplate a character of this order, we fancy our- 
 selves transported into the vicinity of the pole; a 
 region of mind, completely deserted by the steady 
 light of the luminary of Reason, and only blazing at 
 intervals with the flashes and fantastic coruscations 
 of the Aurora Borealis ; and we regard him with no 
 less pity and compassion than the philosopher in 
 Easselas, who had seriously persuaded himself that 
 the regulation of the celestial bodies had been 
 confided to his care. 
 
 We know not whether we should rank in the same 
 class the fifth monarchy-men in Cromwell's time ; for 
 these, however deluded and extravagant in their 
 notions, seem in general rather to have expected a 
 new order of things by the immediate interposition 
 and appearance of Christ, than that they themselves 
 were to be individually the authors of that change. 
 Among those who laboured under this illusion of the 
 imagination, at this factious and turbulent period, no 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 425 
 
 one indeed seems to have been more confident of a 
 commission from Heaven, and to have carried its 
 supposed duties and privileges to a greater extent, 
 than the Protector himself. Invested with the unli- 
 mited powers of a plenipotentiary from the court of 
 Heaven, he thought himself justified to depose, to 
 subvert, and to exterminate whatever stood in the 
 way of what, at least during the earlier period of his 
 insurrectionary career, he appears to have sincerely 
 considered a pious and praiseworthy w^ork. That this 
 remarkable individual was an instrument in the hands 
 of God, for the performance of some good, and, in 
 conjunction with his rebellious associates, was suff'ered 
 to run into some of the most odious and guilty 
 excesses of public crime, including in the black cata- 
 logue of his offences, sacrilege, regicide, and usurpa- 
 tion, is unquestionable. But when the exemplary 
 character maintained by him in private life is recol- 
 lected ; when the moral and religious discipline so 
 rigidly enforced upon, and so generally observed by 
 his army, even amidst the most frantic ebullitions of 
 republican zeal, are taken into consideration ; a can- 
 did estimate of his conduct would lead us, perhaps, 
 rather to regard him as a victim of fanaticism and 
 exasperated enthusiasm, than the cold, deliberate, 
 and murderous insurgent; — as the dupe of his own 
 inflamed imagination, than the proud and ambitious 
 perpetrator of deeds of violence and blood. Yery 
 different in many points, but still as symbolizing in 
 many leading features of character and pursuit with 
 the Head of the Protectorate, and his famed compa- 
 triots, we may rank the first promoter and many 
 
426 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 subsequent leaders of the Crusades. Grievances 
 there were to be redressed; evils there were, which 
 required correction, undoubtedly, in both cases ; but 
 evidently, in the former, of a much lighter order, and 
 admitting of a much easier remedy: but the means 
 adopted in both, being of a similar nature, were 
 unjustifiable, and ended in scenes of inexpressible 
 cruelty and disaster. The age, in which the wars of 
 the Cross were first preached and undertaken, was 
 proverbially an age of chivalry, and sentiment, and 
 imagination. Eeason was trammelled by the mecha- 
 nism of subtle dialecticians ; philosophy was debased 
 into the noisy logomachy of the schools, and cor- 
 rupted by the sophistry of cloistered monks; and 
 sound piety was buried under an enormous mass 
 of ignorance and superstition. Thus the great con- 
 trolling and regulating faculty of the human mind 
 lay dormant. Fancy and feeling were left unguarded, 
 and the population of Europe formed a mass of com- 
 bustible elements, which required only the applica- 
 tion of the kindling material, and the collision of 
 congenial principles, to blaze forth with the porten- 
 tous glare of the torch of holy war. And there is 
 little doubt that the leader of the motley multitude, 
 which met on the plains of Clermont, exclaiming with 
 ecstatic rapture, " The cause of God ! " regarded 
 himself with as much confident sincerity delegated 
 to lead the armies of the Lord of Hosts, as the pro- 
 phet of Mecca, with blasphemous imposture, pro- 
 claimed himself commander of the faithful. 
 
 We cannot help adding to these examples of a 
 perverted and deluded imagination, the celebrated 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 427 
 
 Maid of Orleans ; and a late sibyl of our own coun- 
 try, who, not possessed of a genius for war, like the 
 former, assumed to herself the character of the des- 
 tined mother of Him, who is Prince of Peace. If 
 this female impostor had not succeeded in palming 
 her impious pretensions upon a large number of indi- 
 viduals, some of them of high respectability and 
 attainments, and if she had not appeared to be really 
 a subject of delusion herself, we should have thought 
 her utterly unworthy of regard, and of a place in this 
 enumeration of instances. But as all phenomena, 
 those even of a more insignificant order, deserve the 
 attention of him who would illustrate principles, and 
 trace effects to their causes, the profane ravings of 
 Johanna Southcote are unquestionably entitled to 
 attention. In the recollection of his earlier history — 
 his devoted labours, and his noble bearing, it is 
 melancholy to be obliged to rank the late Edward 
 Irving, in his later years, among the most infatuated 
 of the victims of a heated and ill-regulated Imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 But not only impostors, false prophets, and rank 
 enthusiasts, whether ecclesiastical or military, have 
 been led astray by the meteoric illusions of an ill- 
 governed and inflated Imagination; but even some 
 of those, whose sentiments and views of doctrine 
 may generally be regarded as scriptural and ortho- 
 dox, have occasionally indulged notions, and em- 
 ployed expressions, which, at the least, if personally 
 applied, and literally understood, would render them 
 too obnoxious to the charge. That the two renowned 
 founders of modern methodism, properly so called. 
 
428 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 greatly as they differed in many not unimportant ques- 
 tions of faith, in the earlier stages of their progress 
 carried their ideas of personal destiny and authority, 
 and spiritual illumination and assistance, to an unwar- 
 rantable and extravagant height, is acknowledged by 
 themselves in their maturer days, and after the effer- 
 vescence of juvenile zeal and glowing anticipation 
 had somewhat subsided, and allowed them time and 
 opportunity for more deliberate reflection. That these 
 two remarkable and highly endowed individuals, toge- 
 ther with some of their more eminent associates, 
 were employed of Heaven for the accomplishment 
 of a great, important, and very necessary work, at 
 that particular period ; in rousing the dormant ener- 
 gies of the Christian world ; in stirring up to whole- 
 some fermentation those waters of the sanctuary, 
 which had now sunk into so general a stagnation, and 
 gathered so gross a sediment ; and in brushing away, 
 though with rough and careless hands, those ashes, 
 which, as a deep stratum, were now so mdely depo- 
 sited over the once pure and glowing altar of the 
 church, no man of piety and candour, we conceive, 
 will, for a moment, be disposed to deny. In this 
 view of the matter we cannot but consider that the 
 Church of England, notwithstanding the effective 
 warfare which they carried on against some of her 
 principles, as an ecclesiastical constitution, as infi- 
 nitely indebted to their labours. Still professing to 
 be her friends, and to act in a manner which might 
 be construed into hostility only from necessity, they 
 did homage to her essential excellency, to the purity 
 of her doctrinal articles, and to the veneration due to 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 429 
 
 her apostolic character. But while all this is to be 
 freely acknowledged in their behalf, it must, at the 
 same time, be maintained, that, in their public ad- 
 dresses, and in their private memorials, they allowed 
 themselves the use of expressions which involved 
 assumptions, and indicated an estimate of character, 
 far from consistent with that humility, that modera- 
 tion, that sobriety, w^hich are necessary, not only to 
 preserve the equipoise of the mind of the ordinary 
 Christian, but also to repress the extravagances of 
 iipostoHcal and high-sounding pretension. 
 
 But, this disposition to indulge ideas of some- 
 thing peculiar and divinely authoritative, connected 
 with their own destination, has been by no means 
 confined to those few characters, who have become 
 notorious in the history of the religious or political 
 world ; but it has manifested itself with more or less 
 prominency in most of those, who, by some remark- 
 able conjecture of circumstances, united with superior 
 energy of talent, or, even by means of very mode- 
 rate abilities, raised beyond their level by a tempo- 
 rary and factitious interest, have suddenly emerged 
 from obscurity, and gained a position, which gave 
 them a considerable command over the public mind. 
 Some few, indeed, having, by patience and laborious 
 perseverance and transcendent merit acquired this 
 ascendency, have nobly and unfeignedly taken ad- 
 vantage of it to advance the cause of piety and 
 truth: but, generally, the pinnacle of eminence in 
 the temple of religion has proved dangerous. The 
 Imagination, looking downward from its lofty height, 
 has become vertiginous; and when the mind has been 
 
430 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 thoroughly saturated with the atmosphere of that 
 elevated region, it is not long before the mouth 
 begins to thunder out in peals of indignant rebuke 
 against the men of this generation ; and the indivi- 
 dual, if truly worthy and excellent, under the influ- 
 ence of a feeling of self-confident sincerity, believes 
 that he has been specially deputed of heaven to cor- 
 rect the errors, and to remodel the principles of his 
 age, with nearly as much certainty as he credits the 
 most fundamental truths of the Gospel, which, 
 perhaps, he may be commissioned to preach. Let it 
 not be supposed that we are reflecting upon the 
 boldness and fidelity of the Christian ambassador. 
 In so doing, we should be condemning the very qua- 
 lity which, at the least, is as commendable as any 
 other in his character, and which the circumstances 
 of human nature in general render the most essential 
 and important of all others. An occasional and well- 
 timed severity of reproof, an unqualified enunciation 
 of truth, even in its most awful and alarming charac- 
 ter, is not only authorized, but imperatively demanded 
 of him who bears the credentials of the skies, and has 
 to conduct, as it were, a solemn negociation between 
 heaven and earth, on questions which involve the 
 fate of eternity. Our remarks are intended only to 
 cany reprehension unto those, who, intoxicated with 
 inflated notions of their own imagined destiny, pour 
 out the redundancy of their swollen conceptions 
 sometimes in the anathemas of universal condemna- 
 tion, and sometimes in the rhapsody of presumptuous 
 conceit. To give an individual instance, with a full 
 and cordial recognition of all that was really excellent 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF UELIGION. 431 
 
 and praiseworthy in his character, and without pre- 
 suming to decide on his state before God, and his 
 everlasting doom, such, in our estimation, was Hun- 
 tington, or, as he was accustomed, with a mixture of 
 pride and affected humility, to denominate himself, 
 from his former occupation, the coal-heaver, who de- 
 clared and ordered it to be inscribed upon his tomb, 
 that, in due time, the inhabitants of England should 
 know that there had been " a prophet" among them. 
 On this part of the subject we have only to sub- 
 join the cautionary remark, that all are not to be 
 regarded as running into the excesses here repro- 
 bated, or as guilty of the offence here condemned, 
 whom the world frequently charges with such 
 fanaticism. It is impossible not to be aware, and 
 not deeply to lament, that an indiscriminate alle- 
 gation of this nature is not unusually preferred 
 against men at once enlightened in their views, 
 calm and deliberate in judgment, and uniformly 
 regidar throughout the whole sphere of their prac- 
 tice, and remarkable only for their zealous, active, 
 and unremitting efforts, in the best and most 
 arduous of causes. Enthusiasm of feeling, con- 
 trolled and directed by profoundness of intellect, by 
 simplicity and sincerity, by prudence and discretion 
 of mind, and steadily flowing forth through the 
 channels of piety and obedience, we consider as the 
 perfection of the Christian character. Every thing 
 which designedly and uniformly falls short of this 
 point, or runs extravagantly beyond it, is either 
 stagnant and putrescent, or turbulently pernicious 
 and unwholesome. 
 
432 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 Section II. 
 
 An extravagant Estimate of Means as related to the 
 PROPOSED End. 
 
 Another evil, which has sometimes resulted from 
 a preponderance and unlimited indulgence of Imagi- 
 nation in matters of religion, is an extravagant 
 Estimate of Means, as directed to the accomplish- 
 ment of a proposed end. When a man of warm 
 temperament, and active, energetic, and projecting 
 mind, has fixed his attention upon an object of 
 transcendent magnitude and importance, he is apt to 
 forget all that is difficult and arduous in the prosecu- 
 tion of it : fancy throws her illusive colouring over 
 the whole scene; and, by a species of optical de- 
 ception, reduces mountains into mole-hills, and con- 
 tracts a space of almost immeasurable longitude into 
 a point of approximation bordering upon contact. 
 To the man of imagination difficulties are seldom 
 visible, and facilities are rarely wanting. He can 
 annihilate and create at pleasure. The regular de- 
 velopment of causes and effects is a process too slow 
 and too tedious to keep pace with the rapid evolu- 
 tions of his mind. With strides of imperceptible 
 rapidity he crosses the intervening distance, and 
 grasps his object before he has yet fairly arranged 
 the method of pursuing it. All resisting media 
 are decomposed and melted away by the electric 
 influence of the magic power by which he is swayed; 
 and all surrounding elements become tributary to the 
 grand result upon Avhich he calculates. The process 
 
UNIVERSITY I 
 
 UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 433 
 
 of successful enterprise vvitli him is "veni, vidi, vici." 
 In his cooler and more deliberate moments, and 
 when the record of experience unveils its annals to 
 his view, he may, indeed, be sensible of the inade- 
 quacy of the means, if left to their own unaided 
 operation; but then he is confident that a divine 
 power will accompany them and render them effectual. 
 With inimitable tact and skill he will seize every 
 fact, and every promise contained in the volume of 
 inspiration, and without inquiring very accurately 
 into his ground and warrant of present application, 
 without very carefully examining into the analogy, or 
 the conditions and relative bearings of the promises, 
 he considers them all as subsidiary to his views, and 
 as positive pledges of the success of his schemes. 
 
 To produce the full and genuine effect of religion 
 upon the human character, either among those to 
 whom its theory is already known, and by whom 
 its forms are already observed, or by disseminating 
 its truths among those who have been hitherto unac- 
 quainted with its principles, is evidently a task which 
 surpasses the power of all subordinate agency. But 
 it is equally certain that Jehovah has frequently 
 exerted his omnipotent energy in the accomplishment 
 of this end, through the instrumentality of such an 
 agency, on a scale of immense magnitude and im- 
 portance. It is also true that he has made a variety 
 of promises, by which, under definite circumstances, 
 and limited by specified requirements, he is pledged 
 to bless the well-directed labours of his servants, and 
 to co-operate with their endeavours. But all his en- 
 gagements and designs form a part of a stupendous 
 
 2 F 
 
484 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 and regularly organized plan of government and 
 proceeding, — a plan, Avhich we can but very partially 
 appreciate, and can never wholly comprehend. 
 We are, therefore, in great danger of thwarting or 
 outrunning the purposes which gradually and in- 
 fallibly unfold themselves in the progressive opera- 
 tions of this infinite scheme, when we venture to 
 predict, or too confidently to anticipate, what will 
 be its course, and to assign some determinate pro- 
 portion of its power to the accomplishment of a 
 particular object. Not that we are to sit listless 
 and quiescent, and let the divine purposes in their 
 own way, and in their appointed time, work their 
 own effect. This is as much beneath our duty, as 
 the former conduct is unwarrantable and supernu- 
 merary to our duty. Our obligations to labour and 
 activity are clearly defined: — Whether we shall exert 
 ourselves or not in the cause of religion and truth 
 lias not been left to our discretion. But, what pre- 
 cise measure of success may attend our efforts, and 
 in what instances Ave are authorized with confidence 
 to expect the accompanying energies of divine grace, 
 has been by no means decided, but has been left to 
 be determined by principles of expediency, as per- 
 ceived and established by the infinite wisdom of 
 Heaven. Though the effective influences of the 
 Ploly Spirit appear to us frequently arbitrary, and 
 can be regulated by no settled laAvs of human calcu- 
 lation, yet, in their communication, there is undoubt- 
 edly a general correspondency observed between the 
 aptitude of the means, and the end proposed to be 
 attained; and the anticipations of success ought, for 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 435 
 
 the most, to be limited by this circmnstance. In 
 some extraordinary cases, indeed, this rule would 
 seem to have been completely reversed, and phe- 
 nomena have often presented themselves in the moral 
 and spiritual world, which appeared explicable upon 
 no other principle, and accountable from no other 
 cause, than the assumption of a more marked exer- 
 tion and co-operation of Jehovah's power than is 
 observable in the ordinary range of his proceedings. 
 Forgetting the general method of His administra- 
 tion, and taking their standard of judgment from 
 His special and occasional interpositions, men have 
 frequently allowed themselves to form the most 
 chimerical and unfounded expectations, and, upon 
 the failure of their projects, like the companions of 
 Kaleigh in his expedition to the land of gold, have 
 sunk into the apathy of disappointment, or risen to 
 the mutiny of discontent. These sanguine calcu- 
 lators are all energy and alacrity, while their vision 
 is bodied forth in its full proportions, and glows with 
 the rainbow tints of fancy and hope; but when it has 
 melted into thin air, and vanished at the criterion 
 touch of time and experience, they are like the 
 traveller, whose steps for a while were guided, and 
 whose path was illuminated by the light of a false fire, 
 but on the extinction of its illusive glare, he finds 
 himself benighted, bewildered, and lost. The sanguine 
 author, the sanguine preacher, the sanguine employer 
 of his own or of others' labours, are all so many 
 examples of the deceptive and pernicious influence 
 which a warm and undisciplined Imagination is 
 capable of exerting upon minds not duly upon their 
 
 2 F 2 
 
436 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 guard against its vagaries. These remarks are not 
 intended to check that sprightly vigour of faculty, 
 that generous ardour of zeal, that noble enthusiasm 
 of activity, which characterizes the youthful aspirant 
 after usefulness on a great and extensive scale. We 
 know of no lovelier sight, of no finer specimen of 
 the combination of the power of grace with that of 
 nature, than is exhibited in that concentration of 
 the faculties and uniform direction of the physical 
 energies in the prosecution of a great, sacred, and 
 glorious object, which we have sometimes an oppor- 
 tunity of witnessing. Silent be the tongue, para- 
 lyzed be the hand, that would stagger the resolutions, 
 chill the heaven-born aspirations, and impede the 
 beneficent career of the evangelical or Christian 
 hero. We would only have him contract his sphere 
 of vision, that he may sec more clearly, and trace 
 more steadily the path which is set before him. We 
 would only trim, and in due measure supply the 
 lamp, which we have no wish to extinguish. AVe 
 would only have all legitimate means employed for 
 the advancement of religion and truth, but with a 
 sense of their own inadequacy, with expectations 
 chastised and regulated by a proper regard to that 
 measure of success, which the ordinary supplies of 
 divine aid are calculated to aff*ord, so as to avoid the 
 sting of disappointment, and the shame of extra- 
 vagant calculations. 
 
 In illustration of this part of our subject little 
 more need be said. Observation and experience 
 must have supplied sufficient opportunities for the 
 development and contenii)lation of an evil, of which 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 437 
 
 every individual must, perhaps, be conscious of 
 having, in a degree, more or less, afforded an ex- 
 ample. To estimate means, intellectual and spiritual, 
 somcAvhat above their real importance, in the earlier 
 stages of character, is an error hardly separable from 
 the nature of man. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Injurious Irregularities and Alternations op Feeling 
 arising from an ill-governed imagination. 
 
 We proceed to observe, as another evil frequently 
 associated with a preponderance and unlimited 
 indulgence of Imagination in matters of religion, 
 that it is in danger of producing or of fostering 
 feelings of morbid melanclioly, gloomy apprehen- 
 sion, and dark despair, on the one hand; or of 
 levity, eccentricity, and of fantastic and ill-judged 
 humour, on the other. It may appear strange, that 
 Ave specify, as liable to spring from the same general 
 cause, qualities so different, and apparently so op- 
 posed to each other. But, on further consideration, 
 Ave are persuaded that the very same faculty, in its 
 multiform exercises and operations, according to the 
 circumstantial and incidental influence to Avhich it is 
 subject, and the order of mental and physical quali- 
 ties Avith Avhich it is combined, is abundantly capable 
 of producing all these A'arieties and modifications of 
 effect. The religious principle, above all others, 
 perhaps, requires a due equipoise of the mind, and 
 
438 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 to be diffused, in suitable proportions, over the whole 
 substratum of the character, in order that it may 
 develope itself in those forms of moral symmetry 
 and beauty, which are equally remote from what is 
 frigid, tame, and insipid, and from what is wild, 
 irregular, and excessive. This inevitably results 
 from the nature of the thing. Such is the tran- 
 scendent importance of religion, that it is sufficient 
 to turn the balance to a dangerous excess, whenever 
 it is disproportionately collocated and injudiciously 
 arranged in the extensive receptacle of the human 
 mind. Such is the vast momentum which it com- 
 mands, that if, through some unhappy influence or 
 defect, it takes a wrong direction, it is capable of car- 
 rying the faculty, in which it has exorbitantly lodged, 
 like a planet thrown out of the range of its attrac- 
 tion, into the most perilous excursions and aberra- 
 tions. If this faculty be that of Reason, religion, in 
 that case, will be cold, and stiff, and stagnant ; full 
 of nice distinctions, and abounding, perhaps, \nth 
 noisy logomachies and contentions; but without 
 warmth, without vigour, without zeal. If it be that 
 of Feeling, the consequence will be a religion of 
 strong and indefinite emotions, of heat without light, 
 of sensations without principles, of desires, and hopes, 
 and fears; of which the owner is neither able nor 
 disposed, and is, perhaps, surprised to find that any 
 one should expect of him, with meekness to give a 
 reason. If it be that of the Imagination, the result 
 will be a fluctuating instability of character; tlic tones 
 of tlie mind, like notes of irregular music, now rising 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 439 
 
 too high, and now sinking as much too k)w ; now 
 
 pouring- forth in strains of deep and plaintive melody, 
 
 and now 
 
 Light turns of music, broken and uneven, 
 Carry tlie soul upon a jig to heaven. 
 
 On the stage of a mind thus constituted and thus 
 influenced, the scenes will be continually shifting. 
 One while the dark and sombre view of things will 
 present itself; but soon, unless prevented by phy- 
 sical or other causes, the more bright and brilliant 
 will succeed. The unresting activity, the elastic 
 vigour, the mercurial versatility of the predomi- 
 nantly imaginative mind, can seldom long endure 
 a stationary position, and a uniformity of moral 
 colouring. To answer the exorbitant demands, to 
 meet the craving exigencies of such a mind, there 
 must be a continual range of speculation, an endless 
 diversity of scenery. And, spurred on by its own 
 inherent impetuosity in quest of novelties, it will 
 sometimes plunge into darkest caverns, and involve 
 itself in lurid gloom. After struggling for a while 
 with forms of horror and despair of its own creation, 
 it will escape and rise into empyrean light, and exult 
 in its recovered joy, and peace, and freedom, with 
 undue and unbecoming sportiveness. Imagination, 
 by the peculiar property which it possesses of realiz- 
 ing, combining, embodying, and of tinging with a 
 stronger hue — a hue of darker shade, or of more 
 brilliant colouring — every scene which it contem- 
 plates, changes fear into consternation, and despond- 
 ency into black despair; or transforms composure 
 into levity, and cheerfulness into unseemly gaiety and 
 
440 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 mirth ; and the mind finds itself, almost incessantly, 
 cither overwhelmed with the ideas of the a^ful and 
 terrific ; or amused and titillated with tm*ns of the 
 humorous, and combinations of the ludicrous. Hence 
 it is, that persons of this character and habit fre- 
 quently exhibit great changes of feeling and conduct, 
 from ap2)arently very trifling causes. Occurrences of 
 the most immaterial importance occasion perturba- 
 tions and transitions in their mind, too rapid and 
 instantaneous for others to perceive, except in their 
 fanciful or objectionable effects. They will some- 
 times seize upon a point of doctrine, true in itself, 
 which they either imperfectly understand, or are 
 obstinately determined to contemplate under a false 
 and distorted aspect ; and, without any conceivable 
 ground or reason, will apply it to themselves in such 
 a manner as can only have the effect of plunging 
 them into inexpressible agony and dismay. The 
 uncertainty and obscurity which hang around all 
 moral speculations and prospective views, when not 
 illuminated by the clear beams of faith in a divine 
 revelation, throw a sublime and awful horror over 
 the sphere of their contemplations. They become 
 dizzy in looking down upon a gulf, the depths of 
 which they cannot fathom. At other times, the 
 case will be, in almost every respect, the reverse. 
 Imagination, like the illustrious Bard of Paradise, 
 ascending from the dismal darkness of the nether 
 world, where she had for a while been sojourning, 
 will regain the regions of light, and wanton in the 
 cheering warmth of tlie bright sun of divine reve- 
 lation, unfolding her glossy pinions to the splcn- 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 441 
 
 dour of its cfFulgent beams. This is the season of 
 an opposite danger — that of a levity, and a species of 
 jesting bordering upon profaneness, in the treatment 
 of sacred truth, whether in ordinary converse, in epis- 
 tolary communication, or in the public discussions 
 of the sanctuary. Here Imagination, abandoning 
 her former and generally more congenial character of 
 lone and pensive melancholy, assumes the form and 
 attitude of fancy, proverbially light in her air, and 
 frequently grotesque in her motions. That play of 
 intellect, that rapid and intermingling flow of ideas, 
 associated by relations of various kinds, usually and 
 specifically denominated Fancy, is, for the most part, 
 attended with the external manifestation of the qua- 
 lity of wit : and though we would not have wit alto- 
 gether banished from the province of religion, yet she 
 is assuredly never -to be admitted into that hallowed 
 region, but in her more sober livery, in her native 
 simplicity, and employing a dialect suitably regu- 
 lated and chastised. She must remember that she 
 treads on holy ground. Guided by wisdom and 
 discretion, she may indeed throw "a sprightly 
 beam" over the face of truth, and exhibit its beauty 
 in a lovelier and more engaging form; but her merry 
 turns, and her tricks of buff'oonery, are to be checked 
 and totally excluded ; and (to use the language of 
 one of the purest and brightest of her sons) would 
 be as unbecoming amidst the solemnities of the sanc- 
 tuary, as if Harlequin should intrude into the gloomy 
 chamber, where a corpse was lying in state. 
 
 The main end of preaching — that end to which all 
 other means are to be regarded as subsidiary and 
 
442 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 subservient^ is, we apprehend, to produce a habit 
 of deep and serious reflection. This appears in- 
 dispensably necessary to prepare the mind for those 
 influences and impressions, which it is the design 
 of religion to impart, and which, in a great measure, 
 constitute its ultimate effect. AYhatever, therefore, 
 is inconsistent, or militates with this object; what- 
 ever has a tendency to dissipate the thoughts, to 
 abstract the ideas and feelings from their firm and 
 vigorous concentration, in attending to the "one 
 thing needful;" whatever is calculated to divest 
 the realities of an eternal world of their solemnity 
 and transcendent importance, by associating them 
 with ideas of levity or contempt, must obviously 
 be incompatible with the legitimate purposes of 
 Christian instruction, and, therefore, cannot be other- 
 wise regarded than as an outrage upon the sacred- 
 ness of its character. The most grievous offenders 
 in this department, among writers of respectability 
 and eminence, are perhaps Swift and South; the for- 
 mer, more particularly, in a work professedly on 
 religion, of which a pious and learned divine of our 
 church, the late celebrated William Jones, truly 
 asserted, that no man can read it without being the 
 worse for it; and the latter, almost throughout his 
 numerous and occasionally striking sermons. The 
 Dean of St. Patrick appears to have been a most 
 remarkable instance of that sour disdain, that moody 
 melancholy, and that riotous and overbearing wit, whicli 
 frequently form the ill-sorted and ill-regulated com- 
 pound of the character of i)ersons under the influence 
 of an imagination inadequately controlled by religious 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 443 
 
 principle. Wit^ and irony, and sarcasm, arc weapons 
 whicli, even in the hands of the most judicious and 
 candid, can seldom be brought to bear with suitable 
 effect upon the subject of religion ; but when wielded 
 by one, who knoAvs not hoAv to restrain his spirit, and 
 repress the sportive volatility of his fancy, they can- 
 not fail deeply to wound the cause, which he under- 
 takes to defend. 
 
 The case of the amiable and excellent Co^vper 
 must always possess a melancholy interest to those, 
 who-'would trace the effects of Imagination as con- 
 nected Avith religious principle. The character of 
 this extraordinary man, as it was affected by his 
 peculiar views of divine truth, has been variously 
 represented ; but its pre-eminent worth, both intel- 
 lectual and moral, all have concurred to acknow- 
 ledge. Some are in the habit of regarding the 
 melancholy aberrations, which clouded with such deep 
 shades of misery the latter years of his life, as alto- 
 gether owing to his religion; and conclude, without 
 further examination, that the principles, which could 
 produce such effects, must be unquestionably wrong, 
 and in the highest degree odious and detestable. 
 Others qualify this opinion, by allowing that the 
 elements of darkness and despair were naturally 
 inherent in the mind of Cowper ; but that a system 
 of religion, which required and encouraged excitation 
 and high-wrought feeling, having been superinduced 
 upon that previous tendency, and attached itself to a 
 restless vigour of Imagination, called forth the seeds 
 of mental malady, and was the instrumental cause of 
 most of the wretchedness which he endured. Others 
 
444 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 again, including most of Cowper's friends, and of 
 those who embraced the same principles in the main, 
 which he had adopted, thought that his overwhelm- 
 ing depression arose entirely from his physical or 
 mental constitution; from the original organization 
 of his intellectual system; and that his sentiments of 
 religion, so far from aggravating it, were the best, 
 and, apparently, under some circumstances, the only 
 means of alleviating it. With respect to the first of 
 these opinions, it hardly deserves serious notice, be- 
 cause it evidently proceeds upon false principles, and 
 evinces a total ignorance, or a most inconsi^rate 
 disregard of known facts. Of the last, we shall only 
 say, that independently of the tendency of that 
 scheme of religion which Cowper is known to have 
 embraced, to produce peace and tranquillity, and 
 sometimes the more elevated feeling of joy in the 
 mind, as ascertained by almost universal experience, 
 it derives great weight and probability from the cir- 
 cumstance, that his first attack, which rendered it 
 necessary that he should be placed under the care of 
 Dr. Cotton, was finally surmounted by a cheering 
 view of divine truth; and that, for a succeeding 
 series of years, he enjoyed a measure of happiness 
 and delightful satisfaction, to which he had before 
 been a perfect stranger. 
 
 As to the intermediate view of the character of 
 this great and good man here mentioned, and the 
 infiuence which his faith and devotional habits are 
 supposed to have had in occasioning his subsequent 
 depression, we conceive that the assumption may 
 have some truth. But let so much be conceded. 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 445 
 
 Docs it follow that the conclusion usually drawn from 
 this assumption is fairly dcducible from the i^remiscs? 
 Let it be even granted that Cowper's views of reli- 
 gion were the instrumental cause of calling forth the 
 malady from which he suffered so intensely during 
 the latter period of his life : is it to be thereby 
 inferred that these views were wrong ? Does it in 
 the slightest degree affect their previous character ? 
 Surely nothing can be more preposterous and absurd. 
 Nothing can be a greater outrage upon every prin- 
 ciple of reason, and every rule of conduct, than that 
 a system of opinions should be deemed universally 
 false and prejudicial, because the previous tendencies 
 and dispositions of an individual may have rendered 
 him unapt for the reception of its genuine influence, 
 and because, in consequence of that circumstance, it 
 may produce a temporary effect exceedingly painful 
 and melancholy. A general truth, it is obvious, must 
 stand totally independent of the peculiarities of an 
 isolated subject. Were not this the case, what Avould 
 become of the science of medicine — indeed, of almost 
 the whole theory of humar. knowledge and practice ? 
 In the instance of Cowper himself, it may, with quite 
 as much propriety, be maintained that the profession 
 of the law, and the necessity of discharging official 
 duties, are unsuitable to the human character, and 
 have a necessary tendency to produce aberration of 
 mind, as the profession of religion, and the conscien- 
 tious discharge of its duties; for it is well known 
 that his first attack of overwhelming and alarming 
 depression w^as occasioned by the terror of appearing 
 before the House of Lords, for the performance of a 
 
446 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 simple duty in the capacity of clerk, while yet a 
 student in the Temple. To conclude against law 
 and its associated duties from this circumstance would 
 be hazarded by few. We affirm it to be equally so- 
 phistical and illogical to conclude universally against 
 the religion of Cowper, and the duties which legiti- 
 mately result from it, even supposing it to have been 
 the instrumental cause of the a^vful calamity under 
 which he so long laboured. The fact is, his mind 
 was so tender, and so delicately poised, and his Ima- 
 gination was so morbidly active, so irritably alive, 
 that anything was sufficient to destroy its balance, 
 which would come upon it with an overpowering 
 effect. That religion, ^Yith its awful weight of ever- 
 lasting interests, should have been attended with a 
 temporary effect of this nature, we consider neither 
 wonderful, nor at all derogatory; and we think that 
 his friends have shown an unnecessary and undue 
 degree of sensitiveness, in endeavouring to abstract 
 his view of divine truth from all connexion with his 
 malady, and to resolve it altogether into physical 
 causes. We do not conceive that those peculiarities 
 of the Gospel, which he adopted, would lose a single 
 grain of their credibility, force, and importance, if it 
 were proved that they were the sole cause, of which 
 his diseased Imagination availed itself to plunge him 
 into that state of wretchedness, from which, in this 
 world, he never wholly emerged. His case shows, 
 indeed, the necessity of extreme caution, and of the 
 exercise of much sound wisdom and discretion, in 
 conveying the truths of religion to minds of a deli- 
 cate temperament, and in directing the subsequent 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 447 
 
 sta<2:cs of the character. Where there is a strono- 
 tendency to nervous irritability, where the mind is 
 so constituted as to be actuated by a species of elec- 
 tive attraction towards forms of terror and ideas of 
 pensive melancholy bodied forth by the Imagination, 
 as was the case with the sublime and devout Pascal, 
 it is unquestionably the part of prudence to avoid all 
 occasions of undue excitement, and to cultivate those 
 gentle feelings, those serene and unruffled graces of 
 the Spirit, which are best calculated to preserve the 
 balance of the mental faculties, and to advance the 
 soul in holiness. We are acquainted with an instance 
 of a person very early in life possessed of some of 
 the features of character just specified, who, in con- 
 sequence of having been once so transported by his 
 feelings, , while engaged in prayer, as to have his 
 whole mind almost entirely unhinged for the time, 
 for a considerable period subsequent to that circum- 
 stance could never kneel down without the most 
 painful and distressing apprehension of the recur- 
 rence of the same overwhelming emotions. Cases of 
 this nature, however, form no argument whatever 
 against an order of principles, which stand upon 
 their own independent evidence, and are enforced 
 by their inherent and immutable obligations. Wlien- 
 ever they may be attended with an effect so calami- 
 tous and deeply melancholy, as some affirm to have 
 been the fact in the interesting and illustrious bard 
 of Olney, we are to ascribe it to an intellectual 
 organization, which spurned their control, and ren- 
 dered it morally impossible that they should exert 
 their legitimate influence. For such mournful aber- 
 
448 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 rations Imagination, and not Eeligion, is fairly and 
 properly amenable. 
 
 After all that has been said and conceded respect- 
 ing Cowper, however, and in the full view of the 
 indescribable sufferings which he underwent, we are 
 far from considering his adoption of the peculiar 
 creed, which he had embraced and maintained through 
 life, an unhappy circumstance. Let it be supposed 
 that he should have recovered from his first stroke of 
 mental malady, independently of all views of religion, 
 and returned to a coterie of gay literary associates, 
 with whom he had hitherto lived, and from whose 
 follies and fashionable vices there is no reason to 
 suppose that he either had been, or would be, com- 
 pletely free ; is there any person, who has the slight- 
 est impression of the value of the human soul, and 
 of the eternal obligations of religion; is there any 
 such person, we would ask, who would now regret, 
 that, at the expense of any measure of temporary 
 suffering, he should have been rescued from his 
 imminent danger; that he should, by that means, 
 have been the instrument of such extensive benefit 
 to mankind ; and, so far as human judgment can 
 go, that he should now have reached the secure 
 possession of everlasting glory ? Did the devout 
 and amiable sufferer himself regret it the moment 
 he was emancipated from that tabernacle of clay, 
 which for so many years had been his dungeon? 
 Oh ! with Avhat transport did his pure and sul)lime 
 spirit, now freed and unmanacled, emerge from tlie 
 darkness and gloom of despair, in which he had 
 been so long enveloped and enchained, and soar 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 449 
 
 upward witli waving pinions into regions of eternal 
 day! How little account does he now set upon 
 that brief night of woe, in which it had been his 
 lot to mourn and weep ! The very recollection of 
 it, except so far as it may be the means of 
 heightening his joys and kindling his gratitude, is 
 lost amid the enraptured felicities of heaven, and the 
 entrancing visions of the Almighty. 
 
 Section IV. 
 Fanciful and forced Interpretations op Scripture. 
 
 In illustration of the dangerous use to which Ima- 
 gination is liable to be perverted, as connected 
 with the great and comprehensive subject of reli- 
 gion, we must not omit noticing as a great and 
 palpable evil into which it is apt to lead, that it is 
 frequently guilty of making a fanciful and forced 
 application of Scripture ; of turning figurative lan- 
 guage into literal, and the reverse ; and discover- 
 ing resemblances and coincidences which were never 
 intended to be established or expressed. This is 
 a danger of no common magnitude, inasmuch as 
 it has a direct tendency to neutralize the strongest 
 evidences of its truth, supplied in the inherent 
 beauty and consistency of divine revelation; to 
 subvert all rules of sober and legitimate interpre- 
 tation ; and to render the whole scheme of Chris- 
 tianity contemptible in the eyes of men of rational 
 and investigating minds. The Bible, indeed, con- 
 tains much of what is peculiar, mysterious, and 
 
 2 G 
 
450 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 divinely sublime. There is a correspondence be- 
 tween its respective parts, especially its two 
 grand divisions of Old and New Testament, of 
 a very intimate and distinguishing nature. There 
 is, unquestionably, a general, and, in many points, 
 very striking analogy between the system of doc- 
 trines which it proposes, the principles of admi- 
 nistration which it develops, and the more re- 
 markable phenomena of the natural world, and 
 the ordinary course of Providence, as unfolded in 
 the records of history, and presented to our daily 
 observation. There can be no doubt, that divine 
 truth is frequently conveyed in the volume of 
 inspiration under the form of allegory; and that 
 practical doctrines, of the most weighty importance, 
 are often exhibited under the transparent imagery 
 of poetical diction ; that many circumstances and 
 events there recorded, have a twofold reference, 
 answering the primary purpose of sustaining the 
 present interest of religion in the world, and serv- 
 ing the ultimate end of reflecting anticipatory light 
 upon the transactions of future times. In this 
 mixed character of the records and communications 
 of Scripture, in this union of immediate application 
 and of secondary and ultimate reference, which 
 distinguishes many of its parts, there is a striking- 
 display of the infinite wisdom of God, and a re- 
 markable adaptation to the varied situations and 
 faculties of man. Here a variety of ends is served 
 by simplicity of means. From this circumstance, 
 important indeed, if correctly appreciated and duly 
 estimated, many have taken occasion to run into 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 451 
 
 extravagances of interpretation and allusion, not 
 only at variance vnth. all the recognized principles 
 of philology and criticism, but in some cases even 
 in direct violation of those of piety and sound wis- 
 dom. 'With, the telescopic eye of their fancy, they 
 have discovered luminaries of truth scattered over 
 the firmament of revelation, which the eye of Faith, 
 guided and regulated by Reason, never could have 
 perceived. They have found out laws of harmony 
 and mutual dependency subsisting between the 
 various doctrines and dispensations of religion, 
 infinitely more intimate and sublimely refined than 
 those striking and palpable relations, which it 
 were blindness not to observe, and impiety not 
 to acknowledge. But, unhappily, their spheres of 
 doctrinal symmetry and correspondence, like the 
 whirlpools of the French philosopher, and "the 
 cycles and epicyles, orb in orb," of the Ptolemaic 
 system, will seldom bear the test of sober and 
 enlightened investigation. 
 
 Upon this illusive principle of analogy and adap- 
 tation, is founded the whole scheme of mystical 
 interpretation, which, in some form or other, has 
 prevailed in every age of the Christian church. 
 From this, carried to its utmost length, and allowed 
 an unlimited range, sprung the monstrous chimeras 
 of dogmatical impiety and absurdity, which harassed 
 and desolated the church during the three first 
 centuries of the evangelical era; the numberless 
 sects and modifications of heresy which are partly 
 described and confuted by Irenaeus, the Pleroma of 
 ^ons, and the numerical principles of the Yalenti- 
 
 2 G 2 
 
452 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 nians, and other equally revolting and visionary 
 branches of gnostic theology. Most of these pro- 
 fessed to derive their leading opinions from Scrip- 
 ture, refined into a sublime and attenuated essence, 
 after its contents had been made to pass through the 
 alembic of their heated fancies. Some of the 
 founders and propagators of these heresies, arrayed 
 the offspring of their imagination in colours of the 
 most glowing eloquence, and by that means, suc- 
 ceeded in giving a plausibility to their notions, and 
 an apparent consistency with the principles of revela- 
 tion, which, otherwise, they could never have attained. 
 But a wresting of Scripture, to the destruction of all 
 sound views and sentiments of doctrine, was by no 
 means confined to arch-heretics and notorious cor- 
 rupters of the divine word. A disposition to mysti- 
 cize upon what is plain and simple and practical, if 
 taken in its literal and obvious acceptation, but con- 
 taining wonderful sublimities and abstractions, when 
 divested of its allegorical veil, has vitiated some of 
 the finest productions of venerable piety. In these 
 persons, it was, doubtless, an error of judgment, 
 generated, in a great measure, by habits of mo- 
 nastic seclusion, in which the imagination and the 
 heart, mutually combining together, to the almost 
 entire exclusion of solid reason, spun out those 
 theories of explication, of which we have often to 
 admire the piety and ingenuity; but at the same 
 time we have to lament the irrelevant and unautho- 
 rized application of the various declarations of Scriji- 
 ture. In the sermons and homilies of the renowned 
 Abbot of Clermont, for example, it is impossible for 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 453 
 
 a candid and serious mind not to perceive and respect 
 the vein of devotion which pervades them; but it is 
 equally impossible not to observe, with pain, how 
 frequently his fancy, immersed in the humid vapours 
 of superstition, contrives to abandon the literal sense 
 of a passage, and to extract from it a meaning which 
 the inspired writer does not appear to have had in the 
 remotest contemplation. A specimen of this method 
 of interpretation is seen in his second sermon, " De 
 adventu Domini," in which the language of Isaiah's 
 prediction, addressed to Ahaz when he had been 
 commanded to ask a sign — a language which Jews 
 and Christians have found it so difficult consistently 
 to explain — is thus applied. Justly taking it for 
 granted that the prophecy refers to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the promised Messiah, he institutes a com- 
 parison between Him and the first Adam, who chose 
 the evil rather than the good. The expressions of 
 butter and honey, as constituting the food of the infant, 
 whom the Virgin should bring forth, oblige him to 
 have recourse to the parable of the lost sheep, which 
 he considers as emblematical of human nature. As 
 the milk of a sheep produces two substances, butter 
 and cheese, the former rich and moist, the latter dry 
 and hard, it was to be characteristic of the Messiah, 
 that he should take to himself only the butter, the 
 goodness and excellency of human nature in its 
 original purity; while he would altogether leave and 
 avoid the evil principles of that nature represented 
 by the other product of the milk. In order to 
 account for the other term, honey, he considers the 
 Messiah as represented by a bee feeding among 
 
454 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 lilies. In this character, he describes him as origi- 
 nally dwelling in the flower-bearing country of angels. 
 From thence He flew into Nazareth ; but contrary to 
 the practice of bees in general, he came to us without 
 a sting, without the rigour and severity of judgment, 
 and bearing only honey, the sweetness of grace and 
 mercy. He came without the sting of malice and 
 revenge, which Avas now become inherent in our 
 nature, and united unto himself only the kindness 
 and gentleness of love. Similar expositions and 
 applications abound throughout his writings. The 
 same remark may be made, with some qualification, 
 perhaps, in reference to the eloquent and devout 
 Augustine, especially in his commentary upon the 
 " Mystical Psalms." His " Enarrations" upon these 
 sublime compositions, are often beautifully and 
 devoutly elevated. The mind delights to follow him 
 through those scenes of Elysian joy, and peace, and 
 love, which he unfolds to the view. But the plan of 
 invariably applying the Psalms to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and to the immediate and designed illustra- 
 tion of the blessings and privileges of the Gospel, 
 involves him in difficulties, which require the con- 
 tinual aid of fancy to discern points of analogy and 
 adaptation, Avhere, otherwise, they are utterly undis- 
 coverable. The most distant resemblance, the re- 
 motest possibility of an intended allusion, is to him 
 equivalent to perfect similitude, and amounts almost 
 to identity. His mode of allegorizing the history of 
 Paradise and the fall, in Avhich, among other strange 
 things, he represents the four rivers of Eden as in- 
 tended to symbolize the four cardinal virtues, is a 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 455 
 
 singular instance of this plan of interpretation. But 
 the most remarkable and ingenious fancy-piece in the 
 whole of his writings, perhaps, is the numerical calcu- 
 lation appended to the last Psalm, by which he 
 endeavours to account for the number of these 
 divine songs being confined to one hundred and fifty. 
 From this quantity, by various and intricate processes 
 of multiplication, he infers the agreement of the two 
 Testaments and several other points, which appear to 
 him highly important. 
 
 In this scheme of scriptural application, the elo- 
 quent Bishop of Hippo has been followed at various 
 distances by many subsequent theologians, some of 
 them of great and illustrious name. Among these 
 the learned Horsley, and the amiable and elegant 
 Home, must unquestionably be regarded as having 
 carried the principle of mystic interpretation to an 
 undue length. Under the cover of the names of 
 these distinguished prelates, many have since come 
 forward, who, to use the words of the former of these 
 writers in the commencement of one of his sermons, 
 we " know not by what alchemy" have extracted an 
 essence of signification from the songs of the sweet 
 Psalmist of Israel, which it can only excite feelings of 
 astonishment that any one can seriously propose as 
 legitimate interpretations of Scripture. According 
 to these notions the songs of Zion chanted to the 
 notes of David's lyre, and mingling with the swelling 
 tide of the choral symphonies, which ascended from 
 the temple at Jerusalem, are seldom allowed to have 
 any primary meaning, and to have only an occasional 
 and general reference, as they unquestionably have. 
 
456 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 to the person and offices of the Messiah and the 
 various blessings of his kingdom. But they were 
 designed ahnost entirely and exclusively to illustrate 
 and even graphically to describe the scenes which 
 were to be developed under the evangelical dispensa- 
 tion. The region of prophecy partly illuminated with 
 beacons, by which faith might steer its course through 
 a dark and tempestuous current of time, and the 
 divine word might receive its confirmation after the 
 accomplishment of the predicted events, but still 
 covered over with much obscurity to prevent the un- 
 warrantable intrusions and the rash pervagations of 
 bold presumption, has been always a department of 
 revealed knowledge peculiarly attractive to the 
 minds, and not unfrequently fatal to . the safety of 
 imaginative adventurers. The Jews, to whom the 
 prophecies were more immediately addressed, have 
 almost universally misapprehended their nature, and 
 by a process of literal and carnal application, to the 
 exclusion of all spiritual import, scornfully rejected, 
 and continue to reject, the Messiah, who was to be 
 the end of the law, and to whom all the prophets 
 gave witness. Thus the literal interpretation of what 
 was obviously intended figuratively and emblematically 
 to represent spiritual blessings of a most exalted 
 order, was the stumbling block upon which the ancient 
 Jews fell : and we fear that a similar misapplication, 
 in reference to a different economy — the economy of 
 millennial glory, has led astray from the path of 
 soberness and truth, in scriptural exposition, many of 
 those who arc most anxious and practically zealous in 
 the conversion and restoration of the same interestiuii" 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 457 
 
 people. WTiat portion may be true of the theories, 
 which, under various modifications, have been carried 
 down from the very first ages of Christianity, and 
 illustrated among the moderns, principally by Mede 
 and others, respecting the second advent of Christ, 
 and the grand line of operations, by which his king- 
 dom shall be universally established upon earth; 
 whether He will, indeed, personally appear and con- 
 duct His restored people in one glorious host into 
 Palestine, and there reign over them with unprece- 
 dented pomp and triumph, as many suppose, or whe- 
 ther under the gorgeous veil of prophetic imagery is 
 conveyed nothing more than a magnificent display of 
 divine power, in establishing the kingdom of grace 
 upon earth, which seems to be the more general opi- 
 nion, we cannot positively determine. AYe would, 
 therefore, by no means condemn the speculative 
 lucubrations of ingenious and learned men upon these 
 interesting topics, if stated with something of that 
 modesty and diffidence, with which Newton proposed 
 his conjectures. "We condemn only the dogmatism 
 of a heated imagination, in laying down schemes, 
 which, on account of the obscurity and inadequacy 
 of the premises, must, at the very best, be in many 
 of their details utterly uncertain, and when at- 
 tempted to be fully developed, are found to involve 
 difficulties and contradictions which must be regarded 
 as principles of evident self-destruction. Amidst 
 these rich and flowery regions of inspiration. Fancy, 
 under the guidance of Reason, may be allowed to 
 range and speculate, but not to pronounce and legis- 
 late, until the unquestionable light of facts has dissi- 
 
458 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 pated their remaining obscurities. In the mean 
 time they have enough of what is palpable and dis- 
 tinct to embody the visions of faith, to animate the 
 expectations of hope, to kindle the flame of love, and 
 to rouse to higher energy the efforts of practical zeal. 
 There can be no doubt that days of unrivalled glory 
 are before us, that the cycle of ages is rapidly run- 
 ning its round, and that the revolutions of time will 
 soon introduce the period, which will establish a new 
 era of light, and righteousness, and peace. 
 
 Until this bright epoch in the history of our fallen 
 world shall commence, however, let us adhere to the 
 plain and simple, and practical exposition of the word 
 of truth, and guard against being imposed upon by 
 the illusive halo, which our OAvn imagination may have 
 thrown around its scenes. 
 
 In the aj)plication of the parables of our Lord, 
 and in estimating the various typical characters, 
 and the emblematic objects and events mentioned 
 in Scripture, we likewise often perceive a play of 
 fancy, which greatly desecrates the subject, and 
 has a strong tendency to detract from its inherent 
 solemnity. With persons of this disposition nothing 
 is to be taken in its natural sense, and to be confined 
 to its primary intention. They must refine and 
 subtilize upon every thing, until sometimes they 
 have banished all rational meaning, in order to 
 produce the quintessence of their lofty and arbi- 
 trary speculation. For every utensil in the ex- 
 tensive and complicated establishment of Solomon's 
 temple, they have an exact correspondent spiritual 
 import. Every laudable feature in the character, 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 459 
 
 and every important event in the life of the Jewish 
 patriarchs, prophets, and Idngs, are in some way or 
 other designed to adumbrate the person or offices of 
 the promised Messiah. And instead of considering 
 the parables as consisting partly of fiction, serving 
 the sole purpose of a substratum of the mould, and 
 partly of certain superficial conformations, by which 
 the correct image of truth might be represented, 
 they regard them as the models of recondite prin- 
 ciples, even to the minutest specialities and details. 
 Thus the parable, instead of answering the original 
 and subordinate end of illustrating truth, becomes 
 itself the gauge and measure of truth. In the case 
 of a miracle, again, it is not enough that our Lord 
 should have afforded a general confirmation of his 
 Messiahship, and performed an act of beneficence, 
 which evidently surpassed the unaided resources 
 of nature, but there must be a meaning attached 
 to it of a more sublimated order. The twelve 
 baskets of fragments, for example, which remained 
 after the five thousand had been fed, are to be 
 viewed as representative of so many blessings and 
 priAileges of the Gospel : six of which, a preacher 
 having once explained to his hearers in the morn- 
 ing, gravely told them, that in the evening he 
 would entertain them with the remaining six. And 
 I have a perfect personal recollection of being 
 once present, when a man of apparent sincerity 
 and zealous piety, and possessed of no mean cele- 
 brity in his o\\Ti connection, expounded the twelve 
 manner of fruit produced by the tree, which grew 
 by the river of the waters of hfe, throughout upon 
 
460 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 this principle. An occasional accommodation of 
 some of the peculiarities of Scripture, even where 
 there was no original connection or reference for 
 the illustration of principles or duties, specifically 
 announced and enforced in other places, may, in- 
 deed, within due limitations be allowable. Such 
 a practice seems not destitute of authority, from 
 the example of our Saviour himself, and his 
 Apostles. But to establish a principle, and to sus- 
 pend the whole weight of a doctrine upon so un- 
 certain and precarious a basis, — to contend that 
 the whole machinery of the fact, or the emblematic 
 circumstance, like the wheels in Ezekiel's vision, 
 was fabricated for the purpose of embodying the 
 spirit of abstruse and remote meaning, with which 
 it is supposed to be animated, while there does 
 not appear to be any adequate ground for such 
 a supposition, — such a method of interpretation is 
 replete with danger, and seems to come little 
 short of the impiety of adding unto Scripture, and 
 reflecting upon the wisdom of its author. While 
 it is lamentably true that there are many, who, 
 through blindness and carnal prejudice, cannot dis- 
 cern the things of the spirit, when they are openly 
 and palpably presented to their view, upon the 
 surface of clear and express declarations, there 
 unhappily are others endued with such extraordi- 
 nary powers of perception, with such a species of 
 second sight, as to enable them to discover the 
 presence of a. spirit, where in reality, or, at least, 
 according to the concurrent judgment of those whose 
 faculties of vision have generally been considered as 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELTGION. 461 
 
 most accurate and discriminative, a spirit does not 
 exist. 
 
 But not merely in the application of Scripture, 
 especially its prophetical parts, its parables, and 
 symbolical representations, has the faculty of Ima- 
 gination been allowed an undue license, and taken 
 too much upon her, but also in explaining the 
 phenomena of nature, and the course of providence, 
 she has been guilty of the same indiscretion, in 
 pointing out coincidences and analogies which are 
 supposed to bear a designed and corroborative 
 relation to the doctrines and mysteries of faith. 
 \Ye mean not to censure a perpetual and devout 
 regard to the great Author and Governor of the 
 world, throughout the whole range of that magni- 
 ficent display of power, wisdom, and love, which 
 his works universally present, nor to exclude him 
 from a controlling share in the minutest specialities 
 of daily and hourly occurrence. Far be it from us 
 to give any countenance to that shallow and spu- 
 rious philosophy on the one hand, or that unre- 
 flecting levity on the other, which can lose sight 
 for one moment of a supreme primary cause, and 
 a continual superintending Providence. To have 
 the clearest perceptions of a deity originally con- 
 stituting, and subsequently propelling, regulating, 
 and guiding the complicated wheels of nature, so 
 as to secure that strength and beauty, and har- 
 mony, which characterize the stupendous machi- 
 nery of the universe, we consider to be the part, not 
 so much of imagination, as of sound and enlightened 
 reason. But when Kepler, in his " Mysterium Cos- 
 
462 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 mographicum/' expresses his delight in the contem- 
 plation of the firmament of the fixed stars, the sun, 
 and the immense interval which separates them, and 
 declares, that he considers them as symbolical of 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, he evidently gives the 
 rein to his Fancy, and, by removing that important 
 truth from the basis of its proper evidence, and 
 connecting it with a vague and visionary specu- 
 lation, for which there does not appear to be any 
 foundation in nature, can hardly fail to prejudice 
 its character, and lessen its probability, in minds 
 of more calm and sober investigation. [N^othing is 
 more injurious to a principle liable in any degree 
 to be controverted, than to shift it from its own 
 ground, and to render it most remotely dependent 
 for its certainty, upon fanciful and factitious repre- 
 sentations. A devout, but at the same time weak 
 and unguarded man, is exceedingly apt to err 
 again in his observations upon providence, and to 
 suffer the suggestions of his imagination to pre- 
 ponderate over the dictates of his judgment. He 
 will so connect the occurrences of the world around 
 him with the declarations of Scripture, as to regard, 
 as signs of the times, and as involving the most 
 peculiar significancy, things Avliich are perfectly 
 explicable upon the ordinary principles of nature. 
 He wiU associate together, by ties of arbitrary and 
 incoherent relation, circumstances and events, which, 
 in reality, stand perfectly distinct from each other ; 
 in consequence of which, the whole of his character 
 is shaded over with a tinge of superstition, and his 
 religion, in a great measure, degenerates into weak- 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 4G3 
 
 ness. Hence the dreams of astrological delusion, 
 the ominous dread or the exhilarating prospect 
 arising from the various aspects and conjunctions 
 of the planetary bodies, and the numberless pre- 
 sages, inauspicious or felicitous, attached to inci- 
 dents and appearances, from which no operative in- 
 fluence upon the events apprehended or desired, can 
 rationally be supposed to emanate ; and we may add, 
 the manifold forms of imposture, which craft and 
 bigotry have in different ages contrived to palm 
 upon devout credulity. Imagination constitutes the 
 spell by which the mind of the devotee has been 
 kept in thrall, and the wand of Antichrist has pro- 
 duced its miraculous effect*. 
 
 * Of the process of a fanciful extraction of a spiritual meaning, 
 and of a scriptural truth, from a congeries of fabulous absurdity, a 
 remarkable example was afforded in the case of Mr. Struchtmeyer, 
 a late professor of eloquence and languages in the University of 
 Hardenwyk, in Guelderland, 1757. " In a work which bears the 
 title of the Symbolical Hercules, the learned and wrongheaded 
 author maintains, (as he had also done in a preceding work, entitled 
 An Explication of the Pagan Theology,) that all the doctrines of 
 Christianity were emblematically represented in the heathen mytho- 
 logy; and not only so, but that the inventors of that theology knew 
 that the Son of God was to descend upon earth; believed in Christ, 
 as the only fountain of salvation ; were persuaded of his future 
 incarnation, death, and resurrection; and had acquired all this 
 knowledge and faith by the perusal of a Bible much older than 
 either Moses or Abraham. The Pagan doctors, thus instructed in 
 the mysteries of Christianity, taught these truths under the veil of 
 emblems, types, and figures. Jupiter represented the true God; 
 Juno, who was obstinate and ungovernable, was the emblem of the 
 ancient Israel; and chaste Diana was a type of the Christian church. 
 Hercules was the figure or forerunner of Christ; Amphytrion was 
 Joseph ; the two serpents, that Hercules killed in his cradle, were 
 the Pharisees and Sadducees. 
 
 "Such are the principal lines of Mr. Struchtmeyer's system, 
 
464 THE USE OF IMAGINATION' AS EMPLOYED 
 
 Section Y. 
 
 The injurious Effect of undisciplined Imagination upon 
 Style. 
 
 The last evil whicli we shall notice, as liable to 
 result from allowing the imagination to exert a pre- 
 dominant influence upon the mind, is that which is 
 connected with style. We mentioned it as one of 
 the advantages and beneficial uses attending the due 
 and well-regulated exercise of this noble faculty, 
 that it is of great service in the suitable elevation 
 and embellishment of style, in raising it above all 
 that is low in idea, and mean and grovelling in lan- 
 guage. Highly important as this effect is, considered 
 as resulting from a taste refined and sublimated by a 
 well-trained imagination, the danger of running into 
 the extreme of bombast, of indulging in the fantastic 
 puerility of conceit, and of marching in the formal 
 pace of monotonous and frigid declamation, is pro- 
 portionably great: To form a theological style full 
 and majestic, and yet not turgid; animated and yet 
 chaste; rich, and yet simple; rapid, and yet clear; 
 metaphorical, and yet plain; vigorous, and yet calm; 
 and imaginative, but yet rationally sound and well 
 compacted in its structure, is, indeed, one of the 
 most difficult objects which a speaker or writer has to 
 attain; and of the numberless books in our language, 
 very few can be safely adopted as models. We have. 
 
 which shows the sad havoc that a warm imagination, undirected by 
 a just and solid judgment, makes in religion." — Dr. Maclaine's 
 Note to MosheirrCs Eccles. IlisL, vol. i,, p. 336. 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 465 
 
 it is true, many valual)le writers, who are pre-emi- 
 nently distinguished for peculiar and characteristic 
 excellencies, and have advanced, in their congenial 
 and chosen department, to a point of consummate 
 perfection. In one we have the vigour of reason 
 clothed in the language of a close and argumenta- 
 tive logic; in another, we have the sublime concep- 
 tions of a towering imagination unfolded in the 
 loftiest strains of poetry; in a third, we have all 
 the simplicity and ardour of the most zealous piety, 
 expressed, with as little variation as possible, in the 
 peculiar dialect of Scripture, like water drawn out of 
 a pure and unadulterated fountain to irrigate a 
 garden of flowers, to fertilize a spot, to refresh a 
 paradise, in which the plants of righteousness are 
 intended to vegetate. There can be no doubt that 
 each of these modifications, which the vehicle of 
 thought, in difi'erent individuals, has been found to 
 assume, has its beauty and advantage. But, as 
 Cicero looked in vain for an orator, that would per- 
 fectly correspond with that conception of faultless 
 and unrivalled excellence, which he had formed in 
 his own mind, so in the discussion and enforcement 
 of theological questions, it is rarely we discover any- 
 thing like an approach to that order of superior 
 excellence, w^hich the happy combination of all these 
 qualities of profundity, subUmity, and sacred beauty 
 and elegance, w^ould form. Without any disparage- 
 ment to the illustrious authors of the last and pre- 
 ceding centuries, not forgetting the nervous elo- 
 quence of Hooker, the liveliness of Hall, the splendid 
 and profuse imagery of Taylor, the majestic simplicity 
 
 2 H 
 
466 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 of Leighton, and the philosophic depth and clearness 
 of Butler, and fully sensible of the immense advan- 
 tage which their successors have derived from their 
 labours, we are disposed to think that there are 
 writers of the present age, in general more free 
 from characteristic defects, and uniting, perhaps, a 
 greater variety of valuable ingredients in the struc- 
 ture of their composition, * than most of their pre- 
 decessors. Those who are accustomed to despise 
 every thing that is modern, and estimate books, to 
 adopt the keen sarcasm of the Sabine bard, according 
 to their years, will be apt to demur to this view of 
 Christian authorship; but we have learnt to abandon 
 a prejudice generally found to arise, if accurately 
 investigated, from a feeling of human nature, which 
 is too reluctant to recognize the claims of contempo- 
 rary merit. 
 
 While, however, we may congratulate ourselves 
 upon that general purity, manliness, and force, to 
 which the style of theology, both from the pulpit 
 and the press, has been carried in our own days, 
 we have still to lament many prevailing errors and 
 deficiencies. But, difficult as we find it, both 
 from observation and humiliating experience, to 
 arrive at such a conformation of language in the 
 habitual delivery of sentiment, as would evince 
 a duly proportioned exercise of all the faculties of 
 the mind, it is easy to discover the evil which is 
 liable to result from the predominant sway and 
 exclusive indulgence of that, whose operations we 
 arc no^v discussing. The most eminent writer, in 
 vhom this defect is plainly discernible, and with 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 467 
 
 whose valuable works it seems essentially interwoven, 
 is, doubtless, Jeremy Taylor. In the multifarious 
 productions of this devout and extraordinary pre- 
 late, there is so much grandeur of thought, so much 
 sincerity of purpose, and occasionally so much 
 transcendent beauty of expression, such richness 
 of allusion, such felicity of illustration, and such 
 unaffected pathos, that it is an exercise of self-denial, 
 a sacrifice at the shrine of truth and usefulness, to 
 make any reflection upon the embroidery and super- 
 fluous ornament, in which his thoughts are too gene- 
 rally arrayed. For this defect, indeed, he has his 
 apology in the unformed taste of the age in which he 
 lived, and in the powerful and peculiar construction of 
 his own mind; but it is unquestionable that, owing to 
 these circumstances, some of the sentiments dearest 
 to his heart completely fail of their effect. In his 
 discourses he appears embellished with such a pro- 
 fusion of rich and various garniture, fetched from 
 every region of truth and science, from the field of 
 classical and heathen literature and the mountain 
 haunts of the Muses, no less than the hill of Zion, 
 and the flowery vales of divine Eevelation, that, on a 
 superficial view, we should be led to question, whether 
 we had before us a minister of the Christian sanc- 
 tuary, or a high priest of a Grecian temple oflfering 
 incense to the divinity of poetry and learning. The 
 figure must not be strained, but in the writings, 
 especially in the sermons of this pious prelate, there 
 is certainly a very undue infusion of fanciful combi- 
 nation and profane literature. And in some in- 
 stances may be applied to him, Avith little qualification, 
 
 2 H 2 
 
468 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 what Dr. Johnson has said of Akenside's Pleasures 
 of Imagination: "The reader wanders through the 
 gay diffusion, sometimes amazed, and sometimes de- 
 lighted, but after many turnings in the flowery 
 labyrinth, comes out as he went in. He remarked 
 little, and laid hold on nothing." We have often 
 found, with pain and regret, that Avhile perusing some 
 of the most solemn and affecting of his pieces, some 
 heathen illustration or allusion was introduced, which, 
 by associating with the leading idea a train of extra- 
 neous, and, perhaps, frivolous sentiments, destroyed, or 
 greatly enfeebled the salutary impression of the whole. 
 The same observations are applicable, in a less 
 degree, to the elegant and eminently pious Hervey. 
 In the style which characterizes the estimable writ- 
 ings of this amiable and good man. Imagination, it 
 must be allowed,' is rather unduly predominant. But 
 this was the path which he chose, and in which he 
 abundantly succeeded. His talent in this depart- 
 ment, and the manner in which he exerted it, were 
 peculiarly his own. Others less richly endowed, or 
 less regulated and controlled by an exquisite refine- 
 ment of taste, by attempting to walk in his steps, 
 have grievously failed*. It is a trite and ordinary 
 remark, that the corruption of the best thing is the 
 worst. This is true in nothing more than the imagi- 
 native style of writing and speaking upon sacred sub- 
 jects. Wliile a suitable infusion of the powerful 
 ingredient of imagination gives a vividness, a warmth, 
 
 * It is a curious circumstance, recorded by the late learned Dr. 
 Parr concernino: himself, that, in early life, he formed his style upon 
 the model of that of Hervey. 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 4G9 
 
 and an enkindling glow to a composition; in order to 
 produce its due effect, it must be sustained and invi- 
 gorated by other qualities. Standing prominent and 
 alone, it will either rave into extravagance, amuse 
 itself with turns and quibbles, or languish into sickli- 
 ness and imbecility. A man under the uncontrolled 
 influence of this morbid faculty, and stunning the 
 ear with one continued peal of high-sounding meta- 
 phors, puts us in mind of the profane Grecian, who 
 endeavoured to imitate thunder and lightning, by 
 driving his chariot over a bridge of brass, and hurling 
 firebrands around him as he passed. There might be 
 the sound of the one, and the momentary flash of the 
 other, but unattended with the electric energy with 
 which the mighty artillery of nature is propelled. 
 The tone of declamation falls powerless on the 
 ear, and the gleam of artificial figures, like the 
 light of midnight tapers, is cold and cheerless to 
 the eye: — 
 
 " The clear harangue, and cold as it is clear, 
 Falls soporific on the listless ear." 
 
 Discourses of this nature are sometimes found to be 
 so fertile in a gay and perishing efflorescence, but at 
 the same time so barren of the substantial fruit of 
 reason and sound sense ; so rich in fragrant decora- 
 tions culled from the tasty parterres of fancy, that 
 we are reminded of the banquet of perfumes which 
 Philip ordered to be elegantly set out in the corner 
 of the room for the entertainment of a son of iEscu- 
 lapius, who laid claim to the character of divinity, 
 and who was therefore justly regarded, by the mo- 
 narch of Macedon, as above the condition of huma- 
 
470 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 nity requiring material food. Thus, in addresses 
 from the pulpit, and in essays and dissertations from 
 the press, we have sometimes to lament the absence 
 of all that is digestible and nutritive ; and, instead 
 of the pure waters of the sanctuary immediately con- 
 veyed to our lips from the reservoir of eternal truth, 
 are treated only with nicely prepared potions, to 
 which the flowers of imagination have yielded their 
 aromatic essence. 
 
 From what has been stated in the prosecution of this 
 inquiry, it appears that imagination, as it is properly 
 cultivated, regulated, and controlled, or as it is al- 
 lowed to range without limit, to float on the ocean of 
 speculation without the ballast of sound principle, 
 and to plunge into the dark recesses of the invisible 
 world without the safety-lamp of enlightened and 
 well-guarded reason, is capable of being directed to 
 the noblest uses, and of serving the most exalted 
 ends, or of being perverted to the most dangerous 
 and pernicious purposes. Unrestrained by sound 
 wisdom, it has a direct tendency to generate the 
 phantoms of delusion, to urge the career of extra- 
 vagance, to extinguish the beams of spiritual conso- 
 lation, and to enfeeble the energy of truth. An 
 instrument thus mighty in operation, forming an 
 element of character inherent in all men, though 
 unequally manifesting its presence in difl'erent indivi- 
 duals, like the physical principle of fire existing in 
 all material bodies, though latent in some, and more 
 promptly active in others, according to their peculiar 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 471 
 
 organizations and radiating powers, it is of the 
 higliest importance to be able to turn to the best 
 possible account. Upon the free use and judicious 
 management of this powerful faculty, it depends, 
 whether a minister of the sanctuary, adequately en- 
 dowed and duly qualified in other respects, shall be 
 a cold, languid, uninteresting, and drily logical expo- 
 sitor of divine truth: or a wild, enthusiastic innovator, 
 confounding speculations with principles, flights of 
 fancy with the sublimities of devotion, and flimsy 
 combinations of rhetorical figures with strength and 
 beauty of composition, on the one hand; or whe- 
 ther, on the other, he shall be an engaging, convinc- 
 ing, and efiicient labourer, communicating to im- 
 mortal souls the doctrines, and inculcating the 
 precepts of the everlasting Gospel. Upon this it 
 depends whether or not he will appear in the 
 firmament of the church, in the full-orbed light, and 
 glowing with the benignant warmth of the sincere 
 and unaff'ected Christian preacher; whether he will 
 be a burning and a shining light, a star held forth in 
 the hand of the Son of Man, to convey the beams of 
 celestial truth into the golden candlestick of his 
 church. Upon this it depends, in connexion with 
 the influences of the Holy Spirit, which are generally 
 imparted in proportion to the inherent suitableness 
 and efficiency of the instrumental and subordinate 
 agency, and Avithout which, all other means are but 
 like rams' horns directed against the walls of Jericho, 
 whether he will illustrate, with felicity and success, 
 what is abstractedly obscure and indistinct; whether 
 he will enliven, by interesting remark, the otherwise 
 
472 THE USE OF IMAGINATION AS EMPLOYED 
 
 tedious details of knowledge and duty; whether he 
 Avill infuse life into his exhortations, energy into his 
 appeals, force into his expostulations, and tender 
 affection into his topics of consolation and encourage- 
 ment; whether, in short, he will conduct the work of 
 the ministry, with the co-operating aid of di\'ine 
 grace, in the manner most consistent with his high 
 obligations, most satisfactory to his own conscience, 
 most edifying to his hearers, most conducive to the 
 salvation of souls, and, what is more than all, to the 
 advancement of the glory of God. 
 
 But not only to the minister of truth is it a mat- 
 ter of high consideration and importance to cherish 
 the enlivening and invigorating efforts of Imagina- 
 tion, while her tendency to aberration and excess 
 must be rigidly disciplined and restrained, but it also 
 deeply concerns the growth, and spirituality, and use- 
 fulness of the private Christian, and the welfare of 
 the universal church. Because this active power has 
 been greatly abused and perverted, in common, in- 
 deed, with every other principle of our nature, some 
 would have it altogether extinguished, or, at least, 
 banished from religion, as it has long been from phy- 
 sical science, into the more congenial regions of 
 poetry and romance. But surely this is losing sight 
 of the purposes for which our faculties were given 
 us. They were bestowed upon us, to be economized 
 and regulated; not to be cramped, extirpated, and 
 destroyed. Our mental principles, like the mechani- 
 cal powers of nature, are all capable of a salutary 
 direction, and may be usefully employed in the ser- 
 vice of the great Autlior of our being ; and the hitter 
 
UPON SUBJECTS OF RELIGION. 473 
 
 are altogether as liable to perversion as the former. 
 To exhibit the legitimate use, and to teach the 
 appropriate application, and, at the same time, to 
 guard with the utmost care against the abuses and 
 inordinate excesses of these principles, is the object 
 of the present investigation, and we venture to hope 
 that those, who will candidly and attentively peruse 
 the preceding remarks, will find some useful direc- 
 tions for this purpose. Let those, therefore, in whom 
 Imagination is more torpid and inert, call it forth 
 into exercise, and stir up the gift that is within them, 
 as one of the noblest endo^vments of their nature. 
 But let those, in whose intellectual system it assumes 
 a more active and mercurial form, be equally solici- 
 tous to repress its extravagances and to ward off its 
 illusions. Under the firm restraint of reason, and 
 guided by an enlightened judgment. Imagination 
 may be suffered to range with advantage over the 
 extensive provinces of truth. She may cull w^hatever 
 is elegant in form, and exquisite in taste ; and, soar- 
 ing upward on the wings of faith, she may ascend to 
 regions of uncreated hght, and delight herself with 
 the visions of Eternity. 
 
BOOK V. 
 
 AN INQUIRY INTO THE LEGITIMATE USE OF THE AFFECTIONS 
 
 IN CONNECTION WITH THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION 
 
 UPON THE CHARACTER. 
 
 Are Passions, then, the pagans of the soul ? 
 
 Reason alone baptized — alone ordained 
 
 To touch things sacred ? — O for warmer still ! — Young. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE JUST USE OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 Section I. 
 The Subject op Inquiry stated. 
 
 To the most superficial inquirer into the nature and 
 endowments of man, as a moral and accountable 
 being, it must be obvious, that those feelings or sen- 
 sitive affections, which accompany various operations 
 of his mind, constitute a very important part of his 
 character*. The mind, however diversified its aspects, 
 however multiplied its modes of evincing its proper- 
 ties and of exerting its energies, is one indivisible 
 substance; and however necessary it be to analyze 
 what may be considered as its component parts, and 
 to arrange them into systematic order, for the pur- 
 
 * The celebrated Gregory Nyssen mentions it of some, that 
 they consiilered the heart as the leading part of human nature — 
 01 (V KapSia TO ^ye^^.ovlKov eivai rtdevrai. — De Offic. Hom. cap. 12. 
 
476 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 pose of a more clear and distinct apprehension of its 
 general nature, it cannot, we presume, have been 
 supposed, that the mind is really formed of so many 
 separate and independent principles, which may be 
 totally disjoined from each other, and perform their 
 respective functions in that isolated capacity. The 
 principle of mind appears, in some measure, to re- 
 semble that of physical vitality. As animal life dif- 
 fuses itself throughout the whole bodily system, and 
 notwithstanding its own individuality, becomes the 
 means of a great variety of sensations, according to 
 the quality of the organs which receive the immediate 
 impressions, so the mental principle, without violating 
 the essential unity of its character, assumes a multi- 
 plicity of forms, according to the nature of the objects 
 upon which it operates; sometimes employing itself 
 in a process of abstract reasoning, sometimes passing- 
 its moral verdict in the exercise of the Conscience, 
 sometimes ranging in imaginative excursions, and 
 sometimes glowing with intense emotion in the exer- 
 cise of the several feelings and affections ; sometimes 
 balancing opinions and probabilities in the judgment, 
 sometimes recognizing the traces of past and almost 
 vanished impressions in the memory, and sometimes 
 acting in the prompt and unconstrained energies of 
 the Will. But, amidst all this variety of modifica- 
 tions, who is not aware, that it is one and the same 
 mind which reasons, and imagines and feels ; Avhich 
 judges, recollects and wills, corresponding, in many 
 respects, to the Platonic idea of a universal soul of 
 the world so exquisitely described in these lines of 
 Pope : — 
 
THE AFFFXTIONS IN RELIGION. 477 
 
 " That, cliangcd through all, and yet in all the same, 
 Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame ; 
 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ; 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 
 
 Or, if we may venture to borrow an illustration from 
 a more sacred source, we would say, in the language 
 of St. Paul, " There are diversities of operation, but 
 the same spirit.'' 
 
 We deem it of importance, that the absolute 
 unity and individuality of the human spirit should be 
 thus clearly laid doAvn, for there is some danger lest 
 the view of its " disjecta membra," as arranged by 
 the anatomical hand of the metaphysician, should 
 give rise to the idea, that it is compounded of so 
 many elements linked together in order to form a 
 whole; like the four distinct principles, which the 
 Epicurean atheist thought quite sufficient to make a 
 soul. Three of these the ingenious poetical ex- 
 pounder of that scheme affirms to be strictly material. 
 Of the fourth, which is the main ingredient in think- 
 ing, he is forced to confess his ignorance: — 
 
 " Quarta quoque his igitur queedam natura necesse est 
 Attribuatur ; ea est omnino nominis expers." 
 
 LucRET., lib. iii. 
 
 With the heathen believers in the immortality of the 
 human soul, or rather with those among them who 
 ventured to indulge the transporting hope that it 
 might be immortal, its absolute simplicity, its sup- 
 posed indivisibility, and, consequently, its freedom 
 from all liability to corruption and decay, formed 
 one of the strongest arguments; and however de- 
 
478 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 fective might be their reasoning, through the want 
 of the light of Revelation, — for it is evident that it 
 did not prove conclusive and satisfactory to their own 
 minds, — there can be no doubt that the fact, which 
 constituted the basis of that reasoning, was founded 
 in truth. 
 
 In order to acquire as accurate a knowledge of 
 the soul, however, as is compatible with our present 
 state, it is convenient to view it as possessed of 
 various distinct faculties; but care must be taken 
 that, in this analysis of the parts, we do not lose 
 sight of the unity of the principle. To obtain a 
 correct view of the structure of the human body, it 
 is not enough to take a superficial survey of its 
 exterior; it is not enough to observe it generally 
 as a whole: but its constituent members must be 
 separated from each other; its interior must be 
 examined; the several muscles and ligaments of 
 every limb must be minutely inspected ; every organ 
 must be noticed apart, its connection and relation 
 to other organs investigated, and its various uses 
 discovered. But after this process of dissection, it 
 is necessary to contemplate the whole frame in its 
 united and related capacity, The analogy which 
 thus subsists between mind and body, and is per- 
 fectly legitimate to a certain extent, has, we think, 
 been carried much too far in some metaphysical 
 systems. The phraseology of the operating theatre 
 and the laboratory has been so lil)erally employed 
 in the examination of the powers of the mind, as if 
 the intellectual principle A\as a system of material 
 organization to be separated, or of chemical ele- 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 479 
 
 ments to be decomposed. But in this curious, and, 
 within due limits, useful and necessary analysis, it 
 appears rather remarkable that so little attention 
 has been paid to the faculty of feeling or affection*. 
 These surely constitute as essential, and important 
 a part of the human mind as those of Reason, Ima- 
 gination, Memory, and Judgment. To overlook 
 these in a system of intellectual and mental philo- 
 sophy, in a professed survey of the world of the 
 human soul, seems to be as great a defect as if a 
 treatise on anatomy confined its researches to the 
 description of the head, the brain, and the ex- 
 tremities of the system, while it left the heart, — the 
 central and most influential part of the whole, as 
 connected with the health and activity of the body, — 
 altogether untouched. Such a performance might 
 exhibit a very accurate detail of the matter, the 
 form, the linear divisions, and cellular vessels of the 
 brain, and subjoin a phrenological disquisition upon 
 every external protuberance of the cranium. It 
 might present a very distinct outline of the general 
 system, and show the mutual dependencies subsisting 
 between various parts of the frame ; but who would 
 deem it a complete manual of the science, if it left 
 wholly untouched, or but transiently noticed, the 
 important anatomy of the heart? We maintain, 
 
 * In Dr. Brown's splendid and comprehensive work, this depart- 
 ment of the Mind is more fully investigated than in most preceding 
 treatises of Metaphysics. He has viewed the human mind under 
 its two distinguishing characteristics, as presenting intellectual 
 states and emotions, in accordance with the following statement of 
 Cicero : " Est enim animus in partes distributus duas, quarum 
 altera rationis est particeps j altera expers." — Quces. Fuse, lib. iii. 
 
480 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 that sensitive Affections, as distinct from Reason and 
 Imagination, Will and Conscience, constitute as 
 essential and natural a part of the philosophy of 
 mind, as the systole and diastole of the heart, and 
 tlie circulation of the blood, fall within the sphere of 
 anatomical science. 
 
 One of the reasons, probably, why this circum- 
 stance has been so little regarded, and why the 
 heart has been so greatly neglected by those who 
 have been engaged in analyzing the powers of the 
 mind, is, that the sensitive affections are generally 
 considered as more closely connected with the body, 
 and as forming a subordinate part of human nature, 
 and, therefore, as hardly entitled to the dignity of 
 mental principles. That the feelings of the heart 
 are very closely associated with the state of the 
 body; that there is a powerful reciprocal influence 
 carried on between them; that they respectively 
 reflect much of their character upon each other, 
 cannot be denied. But of the sublimest and most 
 refined operations of the understanding, it may be 
 unquestionably affirmed, that they are greatly de- 
 pendent upon the system of the material organi- 
 zation, with which they are more immediately con- 
 versant. We are not aware that, in the present 
 state of man, he can form a single idea, or exert one 
 faculty, without the instrumental aid of the corporeal 
 apparatus, which has been provided for him. And, 
 doubtless, much of the energy of mind, much of the 
 striking disparity observable in different individuals, 
 results from the varied degrees of activity and suit- 
 ableness as belonging to tliese physical engines. It 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 481 
 
 is readily granted, however, that sensitive affection 
 belongs to a lower order of mental operations, that 
 it is often most active in those persons who are least 
 refined in understanding, and that it is more liable to 
 be abused and perverted, than those exercises of pure 
 intellect, which stand at a wider distance from the 
 line of practical conduct. 
 
 But surely Feeling, as an exercise of the heart, 
 cannot be considered less a mental operation, than 
 the various acts of external perception, the use of 
 the five senses; the nature of the ideas commu- 
 nicated by which has employed the elaborate 
 investigation of one of the most distinguished 
 inquirers into the principles of the human mind. 
 Dr. Reid, doubtless, conceived himself to be ranging 
 Avithin the legitimate province of mind, when he 
 prosecuted with so much ardour the discussion of 
 the doctrine of ideas, as connected with common 
 sense. That he most grossly mistook the meaning 
 of the term idea, as used by Locke, and has been 
 followed by most of his disciples in the mistake, we 
 have always been inclined to think. That the pro- 
 found author of the Essay of Human Understanding 
 never intended to attribute a real and independent 
 existence to ideas, but that he merely considered 
 them as modes or instruments of thinking, must be 
 obvious to any one, who will read him with candour 
 and discernment. What perverse use infidels may 
 have made of his notions, and what extravagant 
 theories they have built upon them, is quite another 
 question, and ought to be met upon its own ground. 
 But it is impossible not to feel the injustice which 
 
 2 I 
 
482 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 has been done to that great philosopher, in ascribing 
 an absurd meaning to his words, which he obviously 
 never designed to attach to them^'. 
 
 Every perception and affection belonging to a 
 human being, whether seated in the head or the 
 heart, are properly acts of the mind. The chief 
 difference is, that the latter is attended with a 
 livelier and more tumultuous emotion, either of 
 pain or pleasure, of joy or sorrow. It is what 
 Hume would have called an impression in opposi- 
 tion to the more calm and abstract operations of 
 the intellect, which he termed ideas. We would 
 have it distinctly understood, that by affections, as 
 about to be employed in this Inquiry, we mean not 
 that varied emotion, which arises from the actual 
 and immediate exercise of the outward senses, such 
 as accompanies the use of the power of vision, or 
 the touch. But we mean those feelings of the mind 
 which are excited by views of the understanding or 
 representations of the imagination, — such as love to 
 an object, which is conceived to be beautiful and 
 attractive ; or the fear of a danger, which is known, 
 from unimpeachable testimony, to be dreadful and 
 imminent. The English language does not supply a 
 
 * The author has since read with great delight the masterly 
 vindication of Locke, against the mistakes and pretended confuta- 
 tions of Dr. Reid and his followers by Dr, Brown. It is perfectly 
 astonishing, as that eloquent writer truly remarks, that the northern 
 philosopher, in addition to his real merits, which were great, should 
 so long have had the imaginary merit allowed him, of having made 
 a discovery in the science of mind, which, to use the strong language 
 of another distinguished countryman of Dr. Reid, — the Rev. Edward 
 Irving, originated in a '' great blunder." 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 483 
 
 term wliicli precisely answers to this idea ; for sen- 
 sation and affection are too vague and indistinct to 
 express it, the former generally applied to an im- 
 pression produced by the immediate operation of the 
 bodily organs, and the latter in its more usual 
 acceptation designative of the simple emotion of 
 love. The Germans use the term aesthetics, though 
 not generally applied by them to religious emotions 
 or perceptions, to convey an idea of those feelings of 
 the soul, which form, as it were, the connecting link 
 between body and mind. 
 
 We may advantageously consider the faculties 
 of the human mind as applicable to the various doc- 
 trines and obligations of religion. Eeason, as stand- 
 ing uppermost in the mental scale, is most suitably 
 employed in investigating the general principles, in 
 scanning the evidences, in estimating the import- 
 ance, in removing the difficulties, in harmonizing the 
 apparent discrepancies, and in demonstrating the 
 truth of religion. The Conscience is concerned with 
 moral relations and requirements. The Will may 
 be regarded as more peculiarly connected with the 
 exercise of a cheerful submission to the divine 
 authority, and a free and unrestrained obedience 
 to the divine commands. Imagination being a 
 livelier and more excursive faculty, and less con- 
 trolled by the rigid laws of logical precision and 
 argumentation than the first of these faculties, de- 
 lights in exhibiting the beauty and loveliness of 
 religion ; in presenting her to the vicAv in the most 
 impressive, engaging, and attractive forms; in 
 clotliing her with a lustre reflected from every 
 
 2 I 2 
 
484 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 tiling that is fair and excellent in the whole range 
 of nature — in the whole firmament of knowledge; 
 in recommending her to the understanding and 
 the heart, by all that Eeason can approve, by all 
 that prudence can dictate, by all that fear can 
 apprehend, by all that hope can anticipate, and 
 all that faith can realize and substantiate within 
 the confines of the invisible world, and through- 
 out the evolutions of eternity. But to give eff'ect 
 to the demonstrations of Reason, the decisions 
 of the AYill, the verdict of the Conscience, and the 
 splendid lights of Imagination, deep and fervent 
 Affection of heart must lend her aid. The office of 
 Reason is to strengthen the outworks, and to guard 
 the citadel of truth ; that of Imagination is to adorn 
 and embellish the various passages and entrances 
 Avhich lead to her presence-chamber, the place of her 
 permanent abode. But devout Aff'ection is the inner 
 sanctuary, Avhere she dwells ; the pavilion, in which 
 she delights to repose, and from Avhich she sends 
 forth the energy of her influence throughout every 
 department of her legitimate dominions. Each one 
 of these functions is highly important in itself, and 
 is obviously designed and admirably suited to meet 
 the peculiar character and exigencies of human 
 nature, nor do we wish, in any degree, to elevate the 
 office and importance of one faculty, to the injury 
 and depreciation of another. 
 
 In the former parts of this work we have investi- 
 gated, at some length, the legitimate use of Reason, 
 Will, the Conscience, and the Imagination, in their 
 relation to the subject of religion. It remains, that 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 485 
 
 we should institute a similar investigation into the 
 general warrant — the expediency and legitimate ex- 
 tent of Feeling, as forming an element or component 
 part of the Christian character. On this, as well as 
 on every other question of religion, a great diversity 
 of opinion has prevailed. Some would banish the 
 sensitive aflPections altogether from the territory of 
 truth, as aliens intruding into a domain, which they 
 are not authorized or qualified to enter. They re- 
 gard feeling as a drossy ingredient in the character 
 of religion, as a frothy effervescence, invariably 
 symptomatic of a state of unwholesome fermenta- 
 tion. Others, accustomed to dwell in a warmer lati- 
 tude, regard the researches of reason and the deduc- 
 tions of sound argument, as too cold and cheerless 
 for the interesting realities of religion, and deem the 
 sallies of imagination too light and airy for the gra- 
 vity and simplicity of the Christian faith. They 
 therefore place the sum and substance of religion in 
 the ardour and energy of feeling ; and as the strength 
 and spirit of a liquid are frequently estimated by the 
 vehemence of its tendency to expand and explode, 
 they measure the validity of the religious principle 
 by the internal tumultuation which it creates, and 
 the impetuosity with which it occasionally bursts 
 forth. It is our aim, in these discussions, to hold 
 the balance between extremes of every kind, to give 
 every leading faculty its full play, to give every ele- 
 ment of mind its appropriate range of action, and, 
 by combining their operations in due proportion, to 
 exhibit an order of character, in which no endowment 
 should injuriously preponderate, but that all, mutually 
 
486 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 sustaining and sustained, enlightening and enlight- 
 ened, animating and animated in return, might pre- 
 sent, in delightful hannony and union, the strength 
 and manliness of Reason, the unfettered freedom, 
 but, at the same time, the invariable steadiness and 
 uniformity of the Will, the soundness of a well regu- 
 lated Conscience, the vigour and liveliness of Imagi- 
 nation, and all the fervency and earnestness of the 
 most ardent Affection. This, we are persuaded, is 
 the scriptural x^lan. When the inspired writers set 
 before us the example of a character deserving our 
 imitation, and claiming our regard, they do not hold 
 forth to our view " the fragments of a soul immor- 
 tal," — one energetic quality standing out with an ill- 
 proportioned and almost distressing prominency, 
 appearing to overwhelm and annihilate every other 
 endowment equally necessary in its place. But with 
 them, knowledge and zeal, reason and faith, imagina- 
 tion and aifection, are severally made to fill the out- 
 line, and to complete the harmony of the system. It 
 is only in the narrowness of artificial plans, and of 
 human schemes of religion, that these principles 
 are found to clash with each other. In that Avhich 
 Jehovah has set before us, they have abundant room 
 to expand and unfold themselves, without in the 
 slightest degree interfering with the movements of 
 each other. The very symmetry of the human frame 
 would lead us to the same conclusion. The very 
 balance of the human constitution, in all other re- 
 spects, would teach us the same doctrine. And 
 whenever there is found a great and striking devia- 
 tion from this rule, it is invariably regarded as a 
 monstrous specimen of humanity. 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION 487 
 
 Pursuing the same mode of discussion in general, 
 as Ave have adopted in the former Parts, we shall first 
 endeavour' to show the necessity and importance of 
 the affections, as connected with the subject of reli- 
 gion; and then notice some of the evils and mistakes 
 liable to arise from the excessive indulgence, or from 
 erroneous views of sensitive Emotion, as a constituent 
 of the Christian character. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Sensitive Affection originally intended to be employed 
 
 IN THE service OP RELIGION. 
 
 1. With a vieAv to the elucidation of the first branch 
 of this argument, we may remark, that all the ele- 
 ments of the human character, that all the mental 
 as weU as physical ingredients, which enter into the 
 nature of man, of which sensitive affection forms an 
 important portion, were originally designed to be 
 mainly employed in the service of Jehovah. AVhy, 
 then, is it that many persons so greatly object to the 
 use and necessity of feeling, in the performance of 
 the duties of religion ? It cannot be their mere lia- 
 bility to abuse and perversion; for the very same 
 objection might be urged against the use of Eeason 
 and every other faculty of mind. What power of 
 man, in his present corrupt and degraded state, is not 
 continually abused ? And if we are to withdraw from 
 the service of religion every principle which is capable 
 of perversion, we shall speedily rob her of all her 
 
488 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 subjects, and count them as rebels, unworthy of being 
 admitted into her confidence. Reason often degene- 
 rates into scepticism, Will into caprice, Conscience 
 into passion, and Imagination into extravagance and 
 romance ; and the active energies of man into instru- 
 ments of impiety and profaneness. Upon the plea of 
 abuse, therefore, we have the very same ground for 
 excluding these from the pale of religion ; and the 
 result will be the expulsion of all religion from the 
 world. This, however, we do not conceive to be the 
 real ground of the objection. It appears more 
 natural to suppose that it arises from a distaste, a 
 disinclination, amounting, in some cases, to absolute 
 hatred, directed against religion itself. When an 
 object is contemplated at a distance, as a matter of 
 mere speculation, it is comparatively of little conse- 
 quence whether it be congenial or obnoxious to the 
 mind. If it is only required to believe its existence, 
 and to acknowledge certain general facts relating to 
 its character; if, moreover, it be enjoined to go 
 through a routine of outward performances, in order 
 to avert a train of dangers and evils which it 
 threatens, and to secure an order of advantages 
 which it holds forth, — if this be the whole amount of 
 the connection which it is to have with the character; 
 if it claims no nearer access to the sanctuary of the 
 heart, it is deemed a point of indifference what may 
 be tlie real principles and elements, of which it is 
 composed. Though it were, in its own nature, in the 
 highest degree offensive to the mind, yet, under the 
 influence of the apparent necessity of the case, there 
 would be, for the most part, a readiness to yield this 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 489 
 
 external and distant homage. This would be deemed 
 the wisest and safest measure. Nor would such a 
 superficial recognition require any sacrifice of for- 
 mer feelings and predilections. But if the matter is 
 to be brought into closer contact with the character ; 
 if an entrance is demanded for it into the hidden man 
 of the heart ; if it must mingle Avith the whole stream 
 of the affections, and exert a predominant influence 
 in the regulation and direction of their course, then 
 the case is essentially diff'erent. Then, if the indivi- 
 dual be sensible of a strong indisposition to make 
 such a surrender of his feelings to the object, and yet 
 the necessity of it strongly enforced upon him, it is 
 obvious that his most violent opposition and enmity 
 will be called forth. Such ai)pears to be the state of 
 feeling in a large portion of manldnd towards the 
 important subject of religion. They are, by nature, 
 not only destitute of all inherent propensity towards 
 it; •they are not only without any antecedent predi- 
 lection for its services; but they are actuated by 
 emotions of powerfid and positive hostility against 
 it, whenever it is recommended to their acceptation, 
 and inculcated as a paramount duty upon their con- 
 sciences. Their hearts are pre-engaged by other 
 objects; and, therefore, contract with icy antipathy 
 whenever its claims to their regard are enforced. 
 As they are experimentally acquainted with none of 
 those warm and glowing emotions, of those animat- 
 ing hopes and ardent aspirations, which religion, 
 received into the heart, never fails to awaken, they 
 labour to steel themselves into a comdction, that it 
 is a question which stands wholly isolated from the 
 
490 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 feelings; and that it requires nothing more than an 
 intellectual assent to certain theological tenets, and a 
 decent discharge of the most ostensible and promi- 
 nent duties of life. By this means, they escape the 
 condemnation of their own consciences ; delude them- 
 selves into a lulling security; and, at the same time, 
 are allowed to yield their affections to those objects 
 of frivolity or dissipation, to which they had been 
 hitherto accustomed. This appears to be the main 
 ground of the reluctance with which many persons 
 admit the heart into a participation in the blessings 
 and privileges, the genuine fruits and graces of the 
 Gospel, as flourishing in the soil of a renewed mind 
 — their consciousness of being utterly destitute of 
 these affections and their desire still to retain their 
 present habits and predilections. 
 
 A capacity of feeling, or of being actuated by the 
 several emotions of joy and sorrow, of fear and 
 love, of hatred and delight, constitutes a primary 
 and elementary power in the nature of man. This 
 faculty is the most active and influential of all the 
 principles of his moral being. It is the main source 
 of his happiness and misery. It is the most keenly 
 alive, the most susceptible of impression, in the 
 whole order of his mental capacities. The intellect 
 is often tardy in its movements, dull in its appre- 
 hensions, and languid in its operations. The Ima- 
 gination, the Will, the Memory, and the Judgment, 
 are not unfrequently dormant, and fail to perform 
 with suitable energy their various appropriate func- 
 tions. But feeling, like the phosphoric taper, is 
 ready to kindle at the slightest touch. 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 491 
 
 As the depravity, consequent upon the fall, took 
 its strongest position in the heart, and spread its 
 most destructive ravages, its most disastrous effects, 
 its most ruinous desolation, . through the province of 
 the affections ; as the heart is the central i)oint from 
 which sin's pestilential vapours flow forth in every 
 direction; as it is the fountain of bitterness — the 
 dead sea, from which a thousand streams of corrupt 
 effluvia are constantly rising up and tainting the 
 whole atmosphere of the soul ; as it is the hostile 
 camp, which forms the rendezvous of every rebel 
 passion that lifts its standard of enmity and war 
 against the Majesty of heaven and the legitimate 
 Sovereign of earth, — -we may fairly presume, that in 
 its original state, it constituted the loveliest portion 
 of our nature. It was the bright spot, upon which 
 the eye of Heaven dwelt with most complacency, 
 amidst a scene that was all beauteous and magni- 
 ficent. Ardent love to the beneficent Author of his 
 being was the most brilliant gem in that star of 
 glory, which blazed upon the heart of man. But 
 when that star fell, when the glory departed, and 
 Ichabod became the fit emblem to mark the turn of 
 our destiny, no where did the catastrophe prove more 
 fatal; no where did the ruin appear more complete; 
 no where did the moral darkness which succeeded, 
 assume a form of deeper and more settled gloom 
 than in the heart. The understanding retains some- 
 what of its original brightness. Eeason is not 
 wholly extinct. The intellectual faculties in general, 
 even in their fallen and ruined condition, may be 
 raised by a course of discipline and education to 
 
492 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 a considerable degree of elevation. The mind may 
 be so expanded by reading and reflection as to form 
 theoretic views of divine truth not far from correct. 
 But the heart has received a deeper wound, and 
 labours under a more incurable distemper — a dis- 
 temper, which nothing short of the power of the 
 Omnipotent can effectually remove ; and one of the 
 worst symptoms of which is, that it has become 
 hardened into a stony insensibility to its own dis- 
 eased condition. 
 
 But, because the heart has sunk into this state 
 of moral impotence, wretchedness, and gloom, and 
 become the seat of a carnal mind, which is enmity 
 against God, are we, therefore, to conclude that it 
 was originally created with these qualities belong- 
 ing to it, — that it was designed to be the residence 
 of such inmates as now possess it, and that it is 
 proper it should always continue the abode of 
 degrading passions, instead of the sanctuary of 
 holy love and truth? Such a notion must surely 
 be inconsistent with the original plan, and with 
 the final end of our existence. For what were we 
 made? Why was a heart capable of loving and 
 fearing placed in our bosom? Why was the glow 
 of ardent affection ever kindled in our breast ? 
 Does not the possession of every capacity imply 
 that there is an object, upon which it may be 
 usefully and legitimately exercised, and, in the 
 enjoyment of which, it may receive its appro- 
 priate gratification ? Nature suggests, Scripture de- 
 clares, reason demonstrates, that we were made 
 to serve and enjoy our Creator. Non nohis nati 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 493 
 
 sininis — wc were not born out of tlie womb of 
 nothing for ourselves. We were endowed Avitli the 
 powers of feeling and affection, as well as of under- 
 standing that we possess, for the purpose of exerting 
 and laying them out upon Him, who is their alone 
 adequate and. satisfactory object. jN'or can we easily 
 conceive a more preposterous and absurd idea, than 
 that man should be required to knoAV and recognize 
 his Maker with the powers of his understanding, and 
 practically serve and obey him in the diligent and 
 uniform observance of those laws of conduct, which 
 he has prescribed, while the heart is to stand apart 
 at a cheerless distance from him, never to glow Avith 
 the rapture of his love, nor to expand with swelling 
 emotions of the grandeur and magnificence of his 
 character. Such a separation of light and warmth 
 from each other; such a disruption of the ties by 
 which man is most strongly bound to the Author of 
 his being; such a disorganization of the system, in 
 which the wheels of external conduct are closely 
 connected with, and entirely dependent upon, the 
 spring of motion in the heart; such a confusion of 
 powers thrown out of their mutual relation and sub- 
 serviency to each other, indicates an utter forgetful- 
 ness of that simplicity and harmony, which naturally 
 marked the whole machinery of the human character. 
 Considering our universal dependency upon Jehovah, 
 and the original subordination of all our faculties of 
 mind and body to his glory; regarding him as the 
 centre, to which all our powers should tend, as the 
 ocean, from which the streams of our enjoyments 
 flow, and to which the streams of our gratitude and 
 
494 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 obedience should return^ we see no imaginable reason 
 that can be assigned, why the affections should not 
 be called forth in his service in all their energy and 
 force, — why feeling should be dead unto Him, and 
 to the transcendent concerns, which revelation and 
 religion have unfolded to our view, while it is alive 
 to every meaner object, and ready to burst into a 
 flame under the influence of the most trifling earthly 
 excitement. What a strange and unaccountable 
 economy must that have been, which should have 
 exempted man from the duty of supremely loving 
 and fearing the God by whom he was made ! Under 
 such circumstances, we may conceive his Creator 
 thus to address him : " You are peremptorily required 
 to know me; you are bound to employ your powers 
 of understanding in contemplating my character, in 
 investigating the laws of my creation, and in sur- 
 veying the monuments of my power ; you are impe- 
 ratively enjoined to keep my commandments, to 
 frame the whole system of your conduct with a strict 
 correspondence to my written law; you are to be 
 regular and precise in the observance of the external 
 duties and ceremonies of religion; you are to go 
 through, with mechanical accuracy, the whole range 
 of ritual performances. But, as for the movements 
 of your hearts, as to that busy play of feelings and 
 aff'ections, which takes place within you; as to that 
 powerful impulse of sensitive emotions, by which 
 you are liable to be irresistibly driven onward, these 
 things are to me a matter of indifference. Your 
 hearts may freeze into apathy, or dissolve under the 
 melting influence of worldly objects. Your aficc- 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 495 
 
 tions may be wrapped up in the dormancy of absolute 
 insensibility, or they may unfold at the attraction, 
 and be roused at the call of other applicants. To my 
 service they are aliens, and tend only to create a 
 needless and inconvenient disturbance." 
 
 Such, in the very best view of it, would be a sys- 
 tem of moral government, from which the sensitive 
 affections should be excluded. The disorders which 
 would necessarily ensue under such a government we 
 need not point out. They must be obvious to every 
 considerate mind. 
 
 But not only is man naturally endowed with those 
 susceptibilities of feeling and affection which in a 
 peculiar manner qualify him for a subject of moral 
 government, but there is, moreover, in the character 
 and administration of Jehovah, as exhibited on the 
 page of Scripture, and as developed in the course 
 of his providence, a remarkable suitableness to call 
 forth and engage those powers. It is impossible, 
 indeed, that the heart of man should be properly 
 affected, that internal sensation should duly cor- 
 respond with the state of things, with the views of 
 the understanding, with the dictates of the judgment, 
 with the dangers and obligations of the present time, 
 and with the varied prospects of futurity, without an 
 order of sentiments and emotions being called forth 
 of a most profound and impressive nature. One of 
 the most powerful and active sensations of which 
 the mind of man is capable, is that of Love. And 
 what can be better calculated to awaken this tender 
 and energetic feeling, and to fan it into a flame, to 
 rouse it into the highest degree of concentrated 
 
496 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 force and intensity, than those marvellous manifes- 
 tations of divine goodness which are dis^^lajed in 
 providence and grace? It is the established order 
 of nature, it is an original law in the constitution of 
 the human mind, and continually developed in the 
 exercise of human feelings, that love should create 
 love. This affection is, of all others, the most con- 
 tagious and reciprocal; and where there is no pre- 
 vious antipathy, where there is no diametrical oppo- 
 sition of character, no collision of feeling upon every 
 point of importance, it is impossible that the view 
 of kindness, generosity, and benignity, should not 
 in some measure kindle it in the soul. The reason 
 why mankind in general are not more strongly 
 actuated by this devout affection towards God is, that 
 such antecedent hostility against him is in malignant 
 operation in their souls ; that a root of bitter enmity 
 to his character, his attributes, and the whole order 
 of his government, has sprung up in their hearts, 
 rendering any reciprocation of kindly feeling in such 
 a state of things utterly impossible. But when that 
 deadly plant has been rooted up, Avhen the enmity of 
 the carnal mind has been slain, and a principle of 
 enlightened, lively, and operative faith has been in- 
 troduced into the heart in its stead, then the smile of 
 divine beneficence is attended with its appropriate 
 and congenial effect. With a mind thus purified from 
 the old leaven of malice, with a heart thus regene- 
 rated and transformed*, now rendered susceptible of 
 
 * Totuin ciiiiii Cor in lug quatuor affectionibus est, et dc his 
 accipieuduni puto quod dicitur, ut in toto cordo tuo convortaris ad 
 Dominum. Couvcrtatur Amor tuus, ut nihil omuino diligas nisi 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 497 
 
 the genuine impressions of Jehovali's character, and 
 accessible to those benign influences, against which 
 it was hitherto closed in impenetrable hardness and 
 insensibility, who can look around him and expatiate 
 over the wide field of divine goodness and compas- 
 sion, and not feel the emotions of affectionate admi- 
 ration and glowing gratitude rising up within him ? 
 While he sends his thoughts backward, and endea- 
 vours to penetrate the depth of that eternity, in 
 which the counsels of Jehovah's peace and love 
 towards man are inscrutably and unfathomably con- 
 cealed; while he glances at the incipient develop- 
 ment of these merciful designs, and views the orient 
 beams of creation breaking forth amidst the darkness 
 and vacuity of boundless space, and man selected to 
 be an object of the special regard of his Maker; 
 while he witnesses the dismal catastrophe of the fall, 
 and perceives Jehovah, unsolicited and uncalled, 
 except by the tender accents of his own mercy, 
 stepping forward to obviate its e^dls, and, by an effu- 
 sion of loving-kindness, which will be a theme of joy 
 and adoration throughout eternity, raising the pro- 
 spective condition of man into a nobler elevation, in 
 consequence of the very fall which he had experi- 
 enced; while he travels through the successive stages 
 of time, and notices the gradual evolution of the plan 
 
 Ipsnm aut certe propter psum. Convertatur etiam ad Ipsum Timor 
 tuus, quia perversus est timor oranis, quo metuis aliquid praeter eum 
 aut non propter eum. Sic et Gaudium tuum et Tristitia seque con- 
 vertatur ad ipsum. Quid enim perversum magis quam IjEtari, cum 
 malefeceris, et in rebus pessimis exultare ] — Bernard. Serm. ii. 
 De Conversione. 
 
 2 K 
 
498 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 of redeeming love until it has reached its crisis in 
 the pathetic scene of the incarnation, sufferings, and 
 death of the only begotten Son of God; while, with 
 the eye of faith, he looks forward to the eventful 
 consequences of this amazing transaction, and soars 
 upward to the bright abode of the Eternal, to witness 
 the blissful consummation of the system, of which 
 his wisdom and love laid the foundation; while he 
 allows his thoughts to range over this rich and 
 widely extended scene — a scene, the noblest and 
 most glorious which can engage the admiring con- 
 templation of mortal man, nay, of an immortal spirit, 
 is it possible that, to use the language of the two 
 disciples, his heart should not burn within him? We 
 can have no sympathy with the man; we cannot, 
 upon any principle of Christian consistency, under- 
 stand the mental constitution of him, who, professing 
 to believe all these things, will maintain that religion 
 has not to do, most materially to do, with the affec- 
 tions. What must be the state of that heart, which, 
 under an economy established for the special good of 
 man, can contemplate " love without end, and with- 
 out measure grace," and yet retain the cold-blooded 
 apathy of the most perfect indifference and uncon- 
 cern, while the unnatural and death-like quietude, 
 disguising a real hostility, is at one time called by 
 the name of philosophy, and at another, by that of 
 reason and good sense? If this be philosophy, then 
 must wisdom be excluded from the heart; if this be 
 good sense, then must gratitude cease to feel. Upon 
 this principle every axiom of moral science must be 
 overthrown. The whole order of human motives 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 499 
 
 must be inverted. While the smallest kindness is 
 allowedly entitled to a feeling of kindly regard in 
 return, the greatest can lay claim to none. Grati- 
 tude and love must lessen, in proportion to the mag- 
 nitude of their exciting cause, until, at last, they are 
 absolutely annihilated, and evaporate in airy specu- 
 lation and verbal acknowledgment. 
 
 Fear is another affection naturally implanted in 
 the human breast, and, under due regulation and 
 management, is calculated to exert a powerful and 
 salutary influence in the formation of the Christian 
 character. AVliile the attributes of Deity, and the 
 principles of His government, are such as tend, in 
 the highest degree, to attract the love and gratitude 
 of his innocent and obedient creatures, and while 
 these are the feelings, doubtless, most prevalent and 
 influential among them, yet, to beings situated as we 
 are, a filial and reverential fear is a very useful and 
 necessary appendage. And if the goodness of God 
 is such as must infallibly engage the love of those, 
 whose hearts can duly appreciate it; so his severity, 
 as displayed in his threatenings, as embodied in his 
 law, and as frequently exhibited in the infliction of 
 deserved punishment upon those, who rose in open 
 rebellion against Him, is equally calculated to excite 
 the awe and apprehension of mankind. The terrors 
 of the Lord St. Paul considers a legitimate topic of 
 ministerial expostulation. To wield this powerful 
 weapon with suitable effect, to use it with such well- 
 guarded force as to render it " mighty through God 
 to the pulling down of strong holds," without in- 
 flicting unseemly wounds upon the living stones of 
 
 2 K 2 
 
500 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 the spiritual temple, requires indeed much prudence, 
 experience, and skill; but in a tender, cautious, and, 
 at the same time, energetic hand, it is of the highest 
 utility and importance. 
 
 It is remarked by the profound and admirable 
 Bishop Butler, " that reflections of this kind are not 
 without their terrors to serious persons, the most free 
 from enthusiasm, and of the greatest strength of 
 mind. But it is fit that things be stated and consi- 
 dered as they really are; and there is in the present 
 age a certain fearlessness with regard to what may 
 be hereafter under God's government, which nothing 
 but an absolute demonstration on the side of Atheism 
 can justify, and which makes it quite necessary that 
 men be reminded, and if possible, made to feel that 
 there is no sort of ground for being thus presump- 
 tuous." Wlien, indeed, we consider the present cha- 
 racter and future prospects of man; when Ave bear in 
 mind that he is guilty, polluted, and depraved; that 
 his soul is a wilderness of moral desolation, over 
 which the fire of divine anger would pass with con- 
 suming force, unless it was restrained by the control- 
 ling influence of His grace and love ; when we reflect 
 that he is under the government, and is to receive 
 his destiny at the hand of a God, w^ho is omnipotent 
 in power and inflexible in justice, as well as infinite 
 in compassion and love ; it is, indeed, astonishing 
 that a human being should exist, who shoidd dare to 
 lift up the front of presumption and to wave the ban- 
 ner of rebellion against heaven. It is wonderful, not 
 merely that man should be altogether uninfluenced 
 by this consideration, but that he should ever be 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 501 
 
 exempt from it. Fear assuredly becomes a being, 
 who is guilty, and has no absolute security, except 
 so far as he has ground to believe that he has made 
 a transition to a new and covenanted relation unto 
 God, that he shall be finally acquitted ; who is sur- 
 rounded with dangers, and yet is impotent to avert 
 them : who has an interest at stake, the duration and 
 importance of which the years of eternity will be 
 too short to calculate. TVho can duly reflect upon 
 these things, and not feel that the sensation of fear 
 has been wisely implanted in the breast of man, and 
 that directed to sin and its consequences, as the most 
 dreadful of all evils, and mingled with gratitude and 
 reverential affection, as it regards the great Sove- 
 reign of the Universe, it was designed to be his 
 preservative from danger, the shield of his protec- 
 tion, and the palladium of his safety ? 
 
 As man in his present state is enveloped in doubt 
 and uncertainty; as he can realize but an indistinct 
 vision of his prospects, through the mist of futurity, 
 which overshadows them, Hope acquires a great 
 importance in the history of his character, and is as 
 an angel sent doAvn from heaven to walk by his side, 
 to conduct his steps through the wilderness, and to 
 lift up her exhilarating torch to cheer him amidst the 
 gloom with which he is surrounded. It is with re- 
 luctance, that he ever allows this choice companion 
 to abandon him, and it is not until every calculation 
 has been baffled, every effort failed, and every fair 
 probability of deliverance or success has vanished, 
 that he suffers himself to be precipitated into the 
 dungeon of dark despair. What too frequently in- 
 
502 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 volves him in misery and disappointment, however, 
 is, that instead of cherishing the hope, which came 
 doAvn from heaven, and whose guiding light would 
 have conducted him to heavem, he attaches himself 
 to those illusive images, which, like the luminous 
 exhalations of marsh-ground, can only embarrass him 
 and enveigle his steps. In the character of Jehovah, 
 as formed of every combination of moral excellency, 
 as uniting in itself every thing, which not only can 
 awaken love and excite fear, but also encourage con- 
 fidence, and in the Gospel, as an economy of grace, 
 there is a hope set before him, which can neither 
 deceive nor disappoint him ; which can neither raise 
 his expectations too high, nor will suffer his appre- 
 hensions to sink too low. It is by this means that 
 the balance of the human mind is maintained, that 
 the equipoise of the character is preserved; that 
 while the sea of danger is rough, while the waves of 
 discouragement rise high, there may be a principle 
 within, which, by taking anchorage upon the immo- 
 vable rock of the divine promises, may keep the 
 vessel above water, and secure its stability amidst 
 the storm. The character and prospective circum- 
 stances of man, connected with those aids and sup- 
 ports which are pledged in the promises of God, are 
 so accurately and remarkably proportioned, and so 
 mutually adapted to each other, as to inspire hope, 
 without engendering presumption. The highest in 
 the scale of Christian attainment, can seldom rise 
 higher than the full assurance of hope ; and lie wlio 
 is yet at the foot of the hill is not debarred some of 
 its consolations. Like the early traveller, he is 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 503 
 
 cheered by some golden streaks of the morning sun 
 resting upon the acclivities before him, and these 
 afford him an encouraging presage of the splendour 
 of the noonday light. It is a distinguishing feature 
 of Christian hope, that it continues firm and immo- 
 vable amidst all the changes and perturbations of 
 life. It has a steadiness which resists the impression 
 of every gale; it has a buoyancy which enables it to 
 rise superior to every wave. How great, therefore, 
 must be the dreariness and desolation of that breast, 
 how lonely must be the gloom of that heart, which is 
 a stranger to this hope ! If Alexander, when he had 
 distributed all his possessions, still thought himself 
 rich in the possession of a hope, which was dependent 
 upon the issue of sieges and battles, upon the vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune and aU the contingencies of war, 
 how secure, how affluent may lie regard himself, who 
 has all that is immutable in Jehovah for the founda- 
 tion of his hope, who has all that is comprised in the 
 unsearchable riches of Christ as the inventory of his 
 promised wealth ! 
 
 A modification of feeling closely allied to hope, 
 but more vehement in its operations, and generally 
 directed to objects of speedier gratification, is that 
 of Desire. When this sensation is strong and impe- 
 tuous, it is attended with a degree of uneasiness 
 until its object is attained. The channels, in which 
 the streams of this affection flow, are regulated for 
 the most part by the views entertained of the chief 
 sources of happiness. The worldly man places his 
 delight in those objects, to which his constitutional 
 habits or his circumstances naturally incline him. 
 
504 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 Towards these, therefore, his desires mainly flow. 
 In these he expects satisfaction; nor is the repeated 
 testimony of experience sufficient to remove the illu- 
 sion, to correct the aberration, under which he 
 labours, and to convince him that, in these, satisfac- 
 tion is not to be found. There is in the human soul 
 a capacity of enjoyment, an amplitude of intellectual 
 and moral dimensions, with which no earthly object 
 fully corresponds. Hence there is a continual sense 
 of vacuity experienced in the breast: there is always 
 an indistinct idea, some obscure apprehension of a 
 fulness of happiness, which has never yet been real- 
 ized. With those who have almost every source of 
 worldly gratification at their nod, this perpetual 
 craving after something, of which they can only feel 
 the want, but cannot form a clear conception, 
 assumes the character of more frequent disappoint- 
 ment. In such cases life is little else than a mono- 
 tonous iteration, a never-varying succession of eager 
 desires and peevish dissatisfactions. These, like the 
 alternate movements of light and shade, form the 
 chequer-work of a large portion of human existence. 
 
 But when the eyes of the understanding have 
 been illumined from above, when the immortal [spirit 
 has been taught its own origin and destiny, its 
 predominant inclinations and propensities experience 
 an entire and almost universal change. The subor- 
 dinate and multiform desires, by which it was pro- 
 pelled in an endless variety of directions, are turned 
 like so many minor and diverging streams into one 
 grand channel. The different forces, by which the 
 Will was torn and distracted, arc concentrated into 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 505 
 
 one mighty force and coalesce into one great energy, 
 which carries the soul upward to Jehovah himself as 
 the alone adequate portion. In his character there 
 are resources which are more than commensurate 
 with the utmost demands and exigencies of human 
 nature. It was not without reason, therefore, nor 
 without abundant encouragement, that the Psalmist 
 declared that his desire was toward the Lord his God. 
 When we speak of Jehovah as an object of desire 
 and a portion to his people, we use language familiar 
 to the volume of revelation, and with slight modifi- 
 cation, not infrequently employed by the more intel- 
 lectual and refined among the heathen philosophers. 
 The more enlightened and elevated schools of mo- 
 rality and even of superstition have always regarded 
 Him as the chief good, conscious as they were of the 
 inadequacy of all inferior objects; and many of 
 them, especially the comprehensive and wide-spread 
 system of Brahminical theology, represent mankind 
 as rising by successive gradations of spiritualization 
 and abstraction until they are ultimately absorbed in 
 Him — until, like refluent rays, they are completely 
 swallowed up in the sun, from which they first ema- 
 nated. These erroneous but sublime conceptions are 
 doubtless to be regarded as faint reflections of that 
 glorious fact developed and illustrated in Scripture, 
 that the human soul is a stranger upon earth, meets 
 here no objects fully equal to its capacities, and, 
 where it has been rencAved and sanctified by grace, 
 has a strong and continual tendency to rise to a 
 loftier scene, to breathe a purer atmosphere, and to 
 regain its native seat, and to find a completeness, a 
 
606 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 permanence of bliss in the bosom of its Father and 
 its God. The devout Psahnist of Israel had so deep 
 an impression of this truth, he had so exalted an idea 
 of the unfathomable depth, of the boundless magni- 
 tude of the happiness resulting from the fruition of 
 God, that he does not hesitate to avow Him to be 
 the whole of his hope and the whole of his desire. 
 And the Apostle of the Gentiles appears to have 
 been actuated by the very same idea, when he uttered 
 the fervent and affectionate prayer, that his Christian 
 brethren, to whom he Avas writing, might be filled 
 with all the fulness of God. In Jehovah, therefore, 
 the desires of his faithful servants meet as in their 
 centre, terminate as in their end, and rest as having 
 attained the utmost felicity which a human being is 
 capable of enjoying. 
 
 We shall mention but one more species of sensi- 
 tive feeling as a constituent of the nature of man, 
 and required to enter as an ingredient into the 
 formation of the Christian character. When we 
 speak of Hatred as an element in that character, it 
 will not be supposed that' we mean to represent 
 this affection as essential under all circumstances 
 to the service of God, or as in any way exercised 
 towards Jehovah himself. As we regard a capabi- 
 lity of hatred, in its various forms and modifications, 
 as a principle divinely implanted in the human 
 mind, and as susceptible of a very salutary opera- 
 tion under a system of moral government, into 
 which sin has gained an entrance, we do not con- 
 sider by any means that it should be altogether 
 extinguished. The Bible abounds with attributions 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 507 
 
 of this quality to the Deity himself; not, indeed, 
 that we are to suppose Jehovah as actually subject 
 to the influence of this or any other affection, as they 
 are properties of the human character ; but it must 
 be observed at the same time, that no property can 
 be justly ascribed unto Him in the way of conde- 
 scending adaptation to our infirmity, which would 
 convey ideas derogatory to his character. No act 
 can emanate from Him, which, by the remotest 
 analogy, can be traced to a principle or affection, 
 which would be unworthy of his nature, and inconsis- 
 tent with his supreme excellencies. And as such 
 analogies and relations frequently do subsist between 
 his conduct towards his sinful creatures, and those 
 actions which proceed from hatred or anger in man, 
 we consequently find Him described in Scrii^ture as 
 actuated by emotions of the deepest abhorrence 
 against sin, and of the most vehement indignation 
 against impenitent sinners. The perfection of his 
 nature, indeed, excludes the passion of hatred or any 
 of its co-ordinate modifications of feeling; but the 
 very circumstance of its being attributed unto Him, 
 is a sufficient proof that it is not universally to be 
 renounced and annihilated in the soul of man. 
 
 It is the perversion of hatred, it is the malignant 
 effect produced by it when directed towards persons 
 instead of things, it is the horrors and miseries which 
 it leads in its train, when allowed to degenerate into 
 malice and resentment, which has rendered it so 
 justly odious to mankind, and caused it to be so 
 generally branded with reprobation in the pages of 
 holy Scripture. That this powerful principle may 
 
508 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 answer its end in the government of God, and in 
 the regulation of human conduct, it is necessary that 
 it be directed simply and entirely towards sin as a 
 violation of the divine law, as the act of a responsible 
 and voluntary agent, and as involving those who in- 
 dulge in it in guilt and inevitable misery. In this 
 point of view, and strictly regulated by these consi- 
 derations, it is hardly possible that the princii)le of 
 hatred should be carried too far, or should operate 
 with undue energy. Under these limitations it 
 should move in a line parallel with the love of holi- 
 ness, and it may exist in its mightiest and most 
 influential vigour in the benevolent bosom of an 
 angel. 
 
 We have found, therefore, that the faculties of 
 man, including all the original elements of his con- 
 stitution, were designed and adapted to be called 
 forth in the various departments of the service of his 
 Creator. On this ground it is impossible, consis- 
 tently, to reject or exclude the affections comprising 
 all those modifications of feeling, which flow forth 
 in the several channels of sensitive emotion. The 
 capacity of being actuated by these emotions, was a 
 primary part of our being — a first rudiment of our 
 nature, and by no means a quality superinduced by 
 the fall. It must, therefore, have been inwrought 
 into our composition by the all-wise Creator, for 
 some great and important end, and this end could 
 be no other than that it might be exercised upon 
 Himself, and in subordinate reference to his law, his 
 Avorship, and his service. Hence it was strikingly 
 observed by some one, that if he could make a being 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 509 
 
 such as man ; if lie could endue him with animal 
 life, with physical powers, and intellectual and ra- 
 tional faculties, the first thing he should expect of 
 him Avould be, that he should fall down and adore 
 him ; that he should prostrate himself before him in 
 devout acknowledgment of his obligation and depen- 
 dence upon him for every endoAvment which he pos- 
 sessed. And this consideration applies, perhaps, to 
 the sensitive part of human nature above every other, 
 because it forms the chief, or at least the proximate 
 agency, by which the whole machinery of the out- 
 ward conduct is regulated. The assertion, therefore, 
 under due limitation, is unquestionably true, that it 
 is of more importance that the heart should be 
 brought to a wholesome and salutary state of feeling, 
 than even that the views of the understanding should 
 be rectified ; for persons much more frequently act 
 under the influence of the passions and affections, 
 than under the direction of intellect and reason. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 The Use of the Affections always recognized and 
 enforced in scripture. 
 
 But, in illustration of the legitimacy and import- 
 ance of the Aff'ections as entering into the services of 
 religion, and as a component part of the Christian 
 character, we would further remark, that, in their 
 various modifications, they are recognized, and pro- 
 minently displayed in every page of Scripture, and 
 under every dispensation of truth. How any man 
 
510 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 with the Bible in his hand, and with a professed 
 belief in its statements, and deference to its au- 
 thority, can proscribe feeling in its strongest, if not 
 wild and extravagant, manifestations from the pro- 
 vince of religion; and much more how he can allow 
 himself to treat it with ridicule and unthinking con- 
 tempt, while it is confined within decent and appro- 
 priate bounds; how he can expose his ignorance and 
 destitution of it in expressions of scorn or disgust, 
 directed to those by whom it is realized or inculcated 
 in its genuine and legitimate exercise, we are, in- 
 deed, utterly at a loss to understand. It is justly 
 remarked by the late eminent and candid Dr. Paley, 
 that, in religion, the weakest and most puerile super- 
 stition is beyond all comparison more reasonable and 
 manly and wise, than utter indifference to all reli- 
 gion, and that the latter feature of character is the 
 most degrading and contemptible that can well enter 
 into the constitution of a human creature. And we 
 do not hesitate to assert, in the spirit of the opinion 
 thus expressed by that great man, that the wildest 
 effervescence, the most fantastic and ill-regulated 
 excesses of feeling, if united with real piety, are infi- 
 nitely more worthy, not merely of our pardon, but 
 even of our regard, than the impious unconcern, the 
 dead apathy, which betrays a total estrangedness to all 
 feeling, except perhaps that of prejudice and party- 
 spirit, respecting the most awful and stupendous of 
 all questions. It requires no ordinary measure of 
 patience and forbearance to witness, without emotion, 
 the ridicule and scorn thrown upon the purest and 
 most influential vitalities of religion under the name of 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 511 
 
 entliusiam, or as embodied by the detractor in some 
 more pungent and appropriate epithet. It would be 
 amusing, if it did not involve painful and melancholy 
 considerations, to observe the self-complacency and 
 pride with which the inflated philosopher descends 
 from the hill of science to express his disgust ; the 
 political haranguer turns round upon the arena of 
 contention to utter his vapid jest ; the gay sensualist 
 rises from the festive board to pronounce his autho- 
 ritative verdict; and even the illiterate scorner starts 
 forth in order to fling the common-place sneer, when 
 the question of Christian experience, comprising the 
 various ardent and interesting emotions in which it 
 mainly consists, happens to come under their notice. 
 It is striking to see what a legitimate object of sport, 
 if not of more malignant treatment, the merest half- 
 thinker, the most perfect driveller upon every great 
 and important question, deems himself justified in 
 regarding the man, who maintains the necessity, and 
 professes himself not altogether ignorant of the fact 
 of a sublime communion with the Father of his spirit, 
 through the medium of a well-directed exercise of 
 the most powerful and energetic principles of his 
 nature. It is also a remarkable circumstance, how 
 much more disposed mankind in general — we mean 
 the mass of a professedly Christian community — are 
 to live at peace with, and even to give the homage 
 of their respect to men, who manifest a total desti- 
 tution of all sense of religion' apart from ordinary 
 and very imperfect morality, than wdth those who 
 indicate the slightest weakness or extravagance in 
 the external displays of the religious feelings within 
 
512 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 them; how much more venial a fault it is usually 
 regarded to be righteous in too small a measure, in 
 the spiritual sense of the expression, than to be 
 righteous overmuch. The entire absence of all affec- 
 tion upon a matter of all others most calculated, it 
 might have been supposed, to awaken it into its 
 intensest exercise, and to rouse it into the most over- 
 powering force, is easily tolerated, and deemed no 
 derogation from the dignity and respectability of 
 character. But if the stream rise at all above its 
 banks; if it ascend in any degree above its due level; 
 if the outbursts of emotion should occasionally over- 
 step the limits of the coldest and most calculating- 
 prudence; if its manifestations should sometimes 
 appear rather eccentric to those who contemplate 
 them with the coldness of indifference; as the cele- 
 brated critic of antiquity speaks of the impassioned 
 orator, that he appears to rave and to be little short 
 of mad, when he does not carry along with him the 
 sympathies of his hearers; in such a case the world 
 is in arms. Such indulgence of the sensitive feelings 
 is intolerable. It is a delinquency dignum cane et 
 angue. 
 
 Let me not be misunderstood; I am not the ad- 
 vocate of extravagance. I would not be an apologist 
 for the violation of the laws of reason and sound 
 sense in their application to the duties and services 
 of religion, as I trust it will sufficiently appear before 
 this inquiry is brought to a close. I am merely sta- 
 ting a fact, which, 1 fear, too clearly indicates that 
 the prevailing antipathy to the admission of a due 
 admixture of sensitive affection into relisrion lies 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 613 
 
 deeper than the head, and is seated in the workings 
 of a strong counter-feeling, which has predominant 
 possession of the heart. The drapery which the reli- 
 gious affections wear is often fantastic. Some of the 
 minor habits of conduct, in which they outwardly 
 exhibit themselves, are frequently, in a high degree, 
 objectionable, and sometimes, through ignorance and 
 weakness, mischievous and absurd. There are hu- 
 morists in religion, as well as every other department 
 of human character; men who are rather singular 
 than properly original; men who find it easier to pass 
 into the antipodes of ordinary conduct, than rise to 
 the loftier elevations of excellence in the prescriptive 
 range of the community to which they belong. There, 
 doubtless, are cases, in which the cloak of hypocrisy 
 is assumed for the unsullied robe of Christian sin- 
 cerity. But it is carrying the outrage rather too far 
 upon the fair domain of charity to assume the exist- 
 ence of hypocrisy as the cause, wherever any indi- 
 cations of devout feeling present themselves, just as 
 a quick pulse and a hectic flush upon the countenance 
 are considered as the diagnostics of fever or con- 
 sumption. It is not for any modes and formalities 
 of religious feehng that I am contending, much less 
 for those singularities displayed in the habits of some 
 classes of professed Christians, the only probable 
 effect of which is to excite the prejudices of those 
 who are, perhaps, incapable of estimating the pure 
 and fervent emotions, of which these external signs 
 are but the inadequate, and sometimes grotesque 
 representatives. But it is for the reality and neces- 
 sity of deep and genuine exercises of the heart as 
 
 2 L 
 
514 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 constituent elements of vital religion, as founded in the 
 nature of man considered in his relation towards his 
 Creator, and as authorized in the clearest declarations 
 of Scripture, that we are now arguing. It is the 
 impiety and uncharitableness of those who are total 
 strangers to the fear and love of God as feelings of the 
 heart, and would banish every thing that is spiritual 
 in religion out of the range of human character, and 
 would thus produce a darkness, a chillness, a deso- 
 lation of soul, similar to that which would result from 
 the expulsion of the sun out of the system; it is the 
 ignorance and inconsistency of these men, that we 
 are now exposing. It is a lamentable fact that 
 persons abound in the world, who allow themselves to 
 use the language of mockery and contempt in refer- 
 ence to the deep spiritualities of religion, of whom it 
 might too truly be said that they know neither what 
 they say nor whereof they affirm. And, conse- 
 quently, they would abstract the half, and in many 
 respects the most important half of humanity, from 
 all connection with the service of the Deity*. 
 
 But if these persons cannot perceive the duty 
 and expediency of Feeling in religion from a view of 
 human nature in its original state ; if they have not 
 sufficient compass of mind ; if they cannot generalize 
 
 * The object and design of feeling in religion are stated in the 
 following passage by the Rev. Robert Hall, with his nsual accuracy 
 and beauty : " The religious affections and sentiments are, in fact, 
 and were intended to be the ]->ro])er antagonist of sensuality — the 
 great deliverer from the thraldom of the appetites, by opening a 
 spiritual world, and inspiring hopes and fears, and consolations, and 
 joys, iwhich bear no relation to the material and sensible universe." 
 — Serm. on Infid., p. 54. 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION- 515 
 
 their conceptions of duty so as to take into the 
 account all the principles of their constitution as it 
 came forth from their Maker's hand, then let them 
 look into the pages of that book, the authority of 
 which they recognize ; and mil they not, in almost 
 every line, discover either a direct injunction or a 
 plain implication of devout Affection as a component 
 part of religion amidst every variety of circumstances 
 and dispensations ? 
 
 "View, for a moment, the state of our first parents 
 under the paradisaical dispensation. From the very 
 brief intimations which we have respecting their 
 character and employments during that period of 
 their being, we can be at no loss in determining 
 what must have been the prevailing habit of their 
 minds. It was the opinion of Bacon that their work 
 in the garden of Eden, during the short continuance 
 of their innocence, was mainly the work of holy 
 contemplation ; for that the earth, prior to the curse, 
 required, comparatively, no cultivation; the groAvth 
 of every wholesome and nutritious plant being spon- 
 taneous and abundant. Although this sentiment 
 may not be literally correct and strictly accordant 
 with the scriptural statement of the occupation as- 
 signed to Adam upon his creation, to di*ess and to 
 keep the garden in which he was placed, yet there 
 can be no doubt that their happiness chiefly con- 
 sisted in elevated fellowship \^dth G-od, in a conge- 
 niality of spirit, in a pure and sublime communion of 
 soul with Him, whom they knew, as it were, by 
 intuition, and loved as by instinct. Their intellect, 
 
 2 L 2 
 
616 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 indeed, we have reason to suppose, was but very im- 
 perfectly developed. Wliatever knowledge they pos- 
 sessed, must have been almost exclusively the result 
 of original implantation, the immediate gift of the 
 Author of their nature, and, in all probability, ex- 
 tended not much beyond the exigencies of their 
 present condition. In what related to the attributes 
 of purity, and holiness, and love in their Creator, and 
 to their own obligations and duties towards Him, 
 their understanding was a lamp of pure and resplen- 
 dent light; but it was neither expanded by long- 
 experience, nor filled with the multiplied details of 
 history and science, as the fruit of extensive investi- 
 gations into the laws and relations of the universe. 
 And, as the mind was thus free from a variety of 
 complicated ideas, the effect of which is invariably to 
 distract, and frequently to debase, the affections had 
 an opportunity of unfolding themselves with intenser 
 and more direct energy towards their object, and 
 flowed forth in admiration, gratitude, and love, with 
 rapturous and unimpeded force. The atmosphere of 
 Paradise was doubtless the atmosphere of holy and 
 ardent love. There the heart breathed its aspira- 
 tions in accents of the purest and most hallowed 
 affection, and the knee bent in adoration, as the 
 homage of a grateful mind. The air was fragrant 
 with divine love ; and every gale wafted upward on 
 its wing the melody of thanksgiving and praise. 
 
 Thus the Affections of the heart entered as com- 
 ponent parts into religion, and indeed, as we may 
 fairly assume from the scriptural representation, con- 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 517 
 
 stituted the principal ingredients in the character of 
 man, under the original economy of his nature, while 
 yet in a state of innocence. 
 
 But let us pass on to the varied forms of that 
 grand Dispensation, which was divinely established 
 for him, as a fallen and corrupt being, and which was 
 gradually developed in an order of distinct succes- 
 sion, until it was completed and consummated in the 
 introduction of Christianity into the world. Let us 
 cross the dark gulf of the fall, and suiTcy the cha- 
 racter of religion, as exhibited in the incipient light, 
 in the primary evolution of the covenant of grace, 
 under the form of the patriarchal dispensation. 
 During this early period, that portion of divine truth, 
 which had survived the ruins of the fall, was kept 
 alive by tradition, to which the remarkable longevity 
 of the first inhabitants of the world very materially 
 contributed. It was, however, but a glimmering and 
 straggling light. It shone but very partially and 
 imperfectly, like that which issues through the inter- 
 stices of a lantern in a dark night. The mind of 
 man, in his fallen state, is an earthen vessel, in which 
 the treasure of heavenly truth can be but very imper- 
 fectly preserv^ed. Moreover, the knowledge of God, 
 and of the great method of restoration to his favour, 
 was yet vouchsafed but in a very smaU measure to 
 the world. But even amidst all these disadvantages, 
 even in this da^vn of divine knowledge and truth, 
 we find instances of such affectionate zeal, of such 
 warmth of devotion, of such energy of piety, as de- 
 monstrate with sufficient clearness, that religion was 
 not an alien from the heart ; that it was not a cold 
 
518 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 lunar reflection; but a beam of light and heat pro- 
 ceeding immediately from Him, who is the central 
 Sun of the universe. Of Enoch it is said, that he 
 walked with God, an expression, which, if applied in 
 its genuine import to the character — indeed, if em- 
 ployed as descriptive of the general habits and 
 conduct of an individual under the resplendent light 
 of even the Christian Dispensation, would by many 
 be regarded as involving the quintessence of enthu- 
 siasm, if not of absurdity and folly. To walk with 
 God, as the phrase was designative of the character 
 of that holy patriarch, implies not merely the 
 obedience of the outward conduct, not merely the 
 practical observance of the law; but also the inti- 
 macy of holy friendship, the communion of the soul 
 with a God, who graciously condescends to hold 
 intercourse with it ; the interchange of the tenderest 
 affections, the maintenance of a fellowship with 
 Heaven, to which the world is a stranger, and com- 
 pared to which its pleasures are but empty grati- 
 fications. And if the expression was inadequate, 
 the result proves the amount of its meaning; for 
 when Enoch had thus walked with God, we are told 
 that he was not, for God took him. Thus Jehovah 
 testifies his regard for such extraordinary devotion, 
 and set the seal of his authority, even at that early 
 period, upon the obligation and importance of a 
 cordial surrender of the Affections unto Him, and of 
 a life distinguished by close converse with Him. 
 
 The same truth is illustrated, with more or less 
 clearness, in the characters of I^oah, of Abraham, 
 of Lot, and of the patriarchs in general. To the 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 619 
 
 second of these eminent saints, Jehovah Iiimself 
 immediately addresses a language similar to that 
 which had been used in reference to Enoch, " Walk 
 thou before the Lord." He is also called the "Friend 
 of God." In the brief accounts which we have of 
 these persons, indeed, the more ordinary phraseology 
 employed as expressive of the various acts of their 
 conduct, is, that they did as the Lord commanded 
 them. But even these statements do most empha- 
 tically prove the existence of devout Feelings in 
 their hearts. When it is asserted by the Apostle, 
 that to love God is to keep His commandments, he 
 does not mean completely to resolve the former part 
 of the proposition in the latter ; he does not intend 
 to affirm that the love of God is absolutely and iden- 
 tically the keeping of His commandments, so that 
 the Feeling is absolutely annihilated, and no where 
 exists but as it is embodied in the act. Such a 
 notion is calculated to convey, and, we fear, fre- 
 quently has conveyed, a most erroneous impression ; 
 so that a decent observance of some of the most 
 palpable injunctions of the moral law is taken by 
 many persons to include all that is necessarily re- 
 quired in loving God. Whereas, the statement of 
 the Apostle, properly understood, really implies the 
 greater strength and intensity of this affection as a 
 Feeling of the heart. His design is to establish an 
 inseparable connection between the affection and the 
 action, between the heart and the life. His meaning 
 is, that wherever the love of God is really possessed, 
 and exerts a predominant influence in the mind, it 
 is impossible it should not manifest itself in keeping 
 
520 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 God's commandments. The consequence of this 
 train of argument is, that to profess to love God, 
 without a corresponding regard to his law, is hypo- 
 crisy ; and to make a show of keeping His command- 
 ments, Avhere His love is not really shed abroad in 
 the heart, and acts not as the moving spring of the 
 conduct, is Pharisaism. 
 
 The introduction of the Mosaic or Levitical system 
 of religious worship was an important step in advance 
 towards the full development of the covenant of 
 redemption. At the establishment of this dispensa- 
 tion, a most important portion of divine truth was 
 embodied in written records. The knowledge, which 
 was lost at the fall, or was obscured in its transition 
 through the corrupt channels of human tradition, 
 was, in a great measure, restored through the 
 medium of infallible inspiration. The veil, which 
 time had thrown over the cosmogony of the present 
 system of things, and the history of its earliest state, 
 was removed. The mournful fact, which brought sin 
 and its attendant woe into the world, Avas clearly 
 announced. The effects of the fall were stated, and 
 the gracious method by which the most dreadful of 
 those effects was capable of being averted, was hinted 
 with a clearness, and symbolized with a distinctness 
 of representation, which were sufficient to form the 
 basis of a saving faith. The character of God was 
 unfolded in the precepts of that moral law, which 
 was the measure of his will, as it regarded mankind, 
 and the very image and transcript of his nature. 
 
 With this increase of light, and with these supe- 
 rior advantages, it might have been expected that 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 521 
 
 the leading features of that religion, Avhich Jehovah 
 designed for man as the medium of acceptably 
 serving and enjoying himself, would be more clearly 
 displayed. We consequently witness an evident 
 advance of character in the general aspect of pious 
 Feeling. Religion is more fully appreciated as a 
 matter of the heart, and as a service offered unto 
 Him, who regards not so much the views and spe- 
 culations of the understanding, as the attitude of 
 the spirit and affections, indispensably required to 
 evince itself, indeed, in the uniform obedience of 
 the life. How frequently do we find a due and ap- 
 propriate exercise of the Feelings inculcated in the 
 writings of Moses. And though the dispensation, 
 which he was appointed to establish, was in a great 
 measure a dispensation of types and external em- 
 blems, yet how obviously does it appear that, without 
 a congenial habit of Affection in the inner man of 
 the heart, no observances however precise, no rites 
 of service however duly performed, no piacular 
 sacrifices however costly, could be of any avail in 
 the propitiation of the divine favour. JSTor is it 
 merely the necessity of sincerity, of a state of mind 
 accordant with the ostensible acts of the conduct, 
 that stands forth with prominence in the pages of 
 the Old Testament. But we find there a current of 
 devout feelings, and occasional ebullitions of holy 
 affection, which not only demonstrate the point which 
 Ave are now discussing, as related to that economy, 
 but stamp a character of the most exalted spirituality 
 upon the individuals in whom they were displayed. 
 Let any man peruse the Psalms of David, the mystic 
 
522 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 odes of Solomon, and the animated effusions of the 
 prophets, in each of which the very soul of feeling- 
 seems to breathe, and let him doubt whether the 
 Aflfections even in their most energetic vigour, were 
 excluded from the dispensation, to which these 
 eminent and highly favoured persons belonged. 
 The first of these compositions have always been 
 regarded by the Christian Church as the most suitable 
 channels through which the heart of devotion, whether 
 distressed by guilt, overwhelmed by calamity, dis- 
 mayed by fear, glowing with love, cheered by hope, 
 or exulting in the triumphs of faith, could discharge 
 the plenitude of its high-wrought and overburdened 
 emotions. By a prescient adaptation they appear to 
 have been in a manner designed for the expression 
 of feelings which would be called forth under a fu- 
 ture economy. They seem, in some instances, to 
 be more suited to the raptures of heaven, and more 
 proper to be chanted by the lips of a seraph, or to 
 be set to the harp of an archangel, than to embody 
 the thoughts and affections of a mortal sojourning 
 upon earth. 
 
 [N'eed w^e pass on to the Christian Dispensation 
 to evince the same fact? In this, as the consum- 
 mation to which all previous systems of rehgious 
 worship were designed to be preparatory; as the 
 fruit, of which those that preceded it were but the 
 germinating principle in its various stages of deve- 
 lopment, — it might have been expected that the 
 operations of divine truth, as it relates to the cha- 
 racter of man, would be more fully disclosed. The 
 scaiiolding, which surrounded the Temple during the 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 523 
 
 gradual process of its erection, was now to be taken 
 clown, and the interior of the structure to be thrown 
 open in all its beauty and utility. The Gospel is 
 eminently a dispensation of the Spirit. The vast 
 and diversified apparatus, which was brought into 
 action in the performance of the services of the law, 
 was now removed as a useless and cumbersome 
 appendage. It now became more distinctly recog- 
 nized that religion is not a mere affair of the under- 
 standing and of outward action, but that its principles 
 have their chief seat in the heart, and must be 
 intimately interwoven with all the chords of Feeling. 
 There is not a single affection; there is not one 
 inmate of the human breast, being a genuine element 
 of the original nature of man, which is not repre- 
 sented in the New Testament as entering, in some 
 form or other, into the constitution of the Christian 
 character. Those, which are base and evil, the whole 
 order of sinful and malignant passions, the code of 
 Christ requires to be totally renounced and eradicated. 
 Those, which are of an opposite description, which 
 are elevating in their nature and sanctifying in their 
 influence, it demands as a sacrifice to be offered up 
 on the altar of Jehovah. Warm and impassioned 
 feeling was no less a prominent feature exemplified 
 in the character of St. Paul himself, than it forms a 
 main and principal point in that discipline of the 
 heart, which his Epistles so admirably delineate. 
 Holy sentiments and affections he places among the 
 fruits of the Spirit; and so far from allowing the 
 heart to sink into torpor and insensibility, he takes 
 every opportunity to arouse it into liveliest energy 
 
624 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 and to kindle it into an intenser flame. The whole 
 import of the book of inspiration, indeed, as it res- 
 pects the heart, may be embodied in these brief but 
 emphatic exhortations of this eminent Apostle — ^'Not 
 slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the 
 Lord." " Set your Affections on things above, and 
 not on things upon the earth." 
 
 Thus we have the exercise of the Affections 
 clearly recognized, exemplified, and, in many in- 
 stances, forcibly inculcated throughout the whole 
 compass of Revelation, and under every economy of 
 religion which God hath vouchsafed unto man. 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 Sensitive Affection necessary, in order that Religion may 
 
 PRODUCE its proper EfPECT UPON THE CHARACTER, 
 
 The next observation relative to the warrant and 
 expediency of sensitive Affection in religion, Avhich 
 we propose to make, is, that such Emotions of heart 
 are indispensahly necessary to give divine truth its 
 legitimate influence avid effect upon the character. 
 It is one of the first principles of our nature, a prin- 
 ciple continually verified by experience, and abun- 
 dantly recognized in Scripture, that the habits of the 
 conduct should take their colour and prevailing cast 
 from the predominant affections of the heart. It is 
 an injunction of one of the wisest of men and the 
 most illustrious of monarchs, of one whose compre- 
 hensive and sagacious mind had compassed the 
 whole circle and penetrated the profoundest depths 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 525 
 
 of human knowledge, and who, in all his investiga- 
 tions, carried with him the lamp of divine illumina- 
 tion, " Keep thy Heart with all diligence, for out of 
 it are the issues of life." It is asserted by the same 
 inspired writer, that whatever "a man thinketh in 
 his Heart, so is he." It is possible indeed, that a 
 train of actions may be entered upon in the life, 
 bearing the appearance of an immediate and direct 
 derivation from the genuine source of the heart ; 
 there may be excitements from without sufficient, 
 to produce an occasional and temporary effect, 
 while the spring of permanent motion lies wholly 
 dormant and inactive — as an external impulse given 
 to the pendulum of a clock, which had stood still, 
 will put it for a while in motion, and urge forward 
 the minute hand, even though the requisite weights 
 should have fallen down, or the machinery have been 
 out of order. Or as Yirgil describes the contest of 
 the galleys — the Trojan regatta, when a powerful 
 stroke had been given, such was the accelerating 
 force thus imparted, that, for a time, any further 
 effort was needless, "Fert impetus ipse." It is 
 possible, also, that such mounds may be raised by 
 pride or self-interest as that the streams of conduct 
 should be diverted from their genuine tendency, 
 and be forced into channels the very opposite of 
 those, to which they originally were propelled. But 
 such causes are unnatural, artificial, and transitory in 
 their operation. When they cease to operate, the 
 effects disappear, and a reaction foUows, which throws 
 the character backward into a state of more hopeless 
 Supineness and inactivity, or carries it into more 
 
526 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 dangerous and ruinous extremities in a line of con- 
 trary direction. The hue of florid bloom which is not 
 the result of the healthful and spontaneous operations 
 of unforced nature, which does not arise from the 
 crimson tide issuing forth from its salient point in the 
 heart, will soon give place to an aspect of sickly 
 paleness and withering decay. Or, if we may be 
 allowed the illustration, by providing a moral appa- 
 ratus of pistons and valves, and other requisite 
 articles, you may pump some portion of muddy water 
 out of the system of the worldly and unrenewed heart, 
 but a wholesome and never-failing supply can be 
 yielded only from the fountain of that heart, which 
 is become a well of salvation, a spring of living water. 
 It is only from this exhaustless source that the 
 issues of the divine life can flow forth to feed the 
 plants of righteousness — the evergreens in the garden 
 of the Lord. 
 
 That the Heart and Affections shoidd be engaged 
 and powerfully interested on the side of truth, in 
 order that religion may produce its due effect upon 
 the character, is equally necessary for the prevention 
 of evil, and the production of active, positive good. 
 What is the design of Christianity as it regards the 
 present conduct of man? Was it not intended to 
 actuate and control his whole character — to arouse 
 his energies into a vigorous and salutary operation 
 — to restrain every irregular impulse, and to check 
 the overflowings of iniquity? Was it not intended 
 to infuse a renovating and transforming influence 
 into the whole system, to worh, as it were, the whole 
 machinery of the outer and inner man; to bend the 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 527 
 
 stubborn power of the Will; to rectify the perverse 
 obliquities of the judgment; and to bring down every 
 high and lofty thing, every ambitious and aspiring 
 aim of an unhallowed imagination into captivity to 
 the obedience of Christ ? 
 
 We will assume then that Christianity was de- 
 signed by its divine Author to exercise this subor- 
 dinating control over the faculties of the human 
 mind, and the habits of human conduct. But how 
 is this dominant authority to be acquired, and this 
 universality of influence to be exerted ? If the re- 
 medial principles of the Grospel are to meet the 
 human character at every point, to spread by a kind 
 of superposition over the whole extent of its moral 
 being, so far as to produce an assimilating effect upon 
 every part, how can this object be accomplished 
 otherwise than by the application of an adequate 
 and appropriate influence to every element, of which 
 it is composed? The blindness of the understanding 
 is to be removed by the introduction of the light of 
 heaven into the mind through the renovated organs of 
 the Reason. The errors of the judgment and the 
 conscience must be rectified by a clear and con- 
 vincing development of the truth. But the Heart 
 is an organ of a difl'erent construction, and its dis- 
 orders must be obviated by a remedy congenial to its 
 own nature. The heart is the centre of the affections, 
 and the affections are the animating and all-pervading 
 principles of the conduct. To meet the irregularities 
 and excesses of the latter, they must be encountered 
 in the former. Here demonstration is not sufiicient, 
 for reasoning addresses itself to another department 
 
528 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 of human nature, and however necessary as a ground- 
 work, however useful as an auxiliary, yet as the 
 instrument of sanctification and conversion it is of 
 itself wholly inadequate. Thousands in the face of 
 the most imminent peril, and in spite of the 
 most powerful array of argument, have rushed head- 
 long into sin and destruction with this confession 
 ready to break forth from their lips — 
 
 video meliora proboque, 
 
 Deteriora sequor. 
 
 The strong man armed is too closely harricadoed 
 to be expelled by the weapons of dry logic. The 
 Leviathan of human corruption will not retire at the 
 shaking of such powerless spears. His scales are 
 impenetrable to such puny armour, and he laughs 
 to scorn the attempt by such means, unaccompanied 
 by a mightier and more direct assault, to dislodge 
 him from his position. When the heart is encased 
 in spiritual insensibility; when daring impiety and 
 reckless passion burn within, and send forth a poi- 
 sonous exhalation of irreligion and vice, — to oppose 
 the deductions of reason, and the speculations of 
 airy imagination to such a malignant and over- 
 whelming force of evil, would be just as efficacious 
 as a sprinkling of water from a fire-engine to ex- 
 tinguish the flames of Etna, or the erection of a 
 mound of glass-work to stop the torrent of Vesuvius. 
 So impotent is Reason, whatever may be its necessity, 
 its energy, and its efficiency, in convincing the un- 
 derstanding, when required to control the actions of 
 a man, whose heart is a volcano, where the discordant 
 elements of passion work in continual tumult, and 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 529 
 
 the mouth of whose conduct is a crater discharging 
 an everhxsting supply of every thing that is noxious 
 and destructive. 
 
 But it does not require such extreme and incor- 
 rigible wickedness as these expressions and illus- 
 trations will appear to many to imply, to render the 
 co-operation of the strongest Feelings of the heart 
 indispensably necessary to give religion its due 
 effect upon the character. The late Mr, Fox, it 
 will be allowed by all, without any reference to his 
 political opinions or moral character, was a pro- 
 found observer of human nature. He was naturally 
 a man of philosophic mind, and had witnessed the 
 development of general principles, as they affected 
 the conduct of mankind, with an accuracy which, in 
 matters of practical and intellectual investigation, 
 must attach considerable weight to his sentiments. 
 When there was a motion before parliament, the 
 object of which was to remove the disabilities of a 
 certain class of professed Christians, whose prin- 
 ciples were of a rather obnoxious character, this 
 eminent statesman remarked, in the course of his 
 speech, and argued at some length, that men's 
 speculative opinions, whatever they may be, are of 
 very little consequence, for it is an obvious and 
 w^ell-known fact that they seldom affect the conduct 
 in a very great degree. Whether, therefore, the 
 theoretical notions of these persons were right or 
 wrong, it did not appear to him that they would 
 be either better or worse members of the commu- 
 nity. 
 
 Although we are ready to acquiesce in the cor- 
 
 2 M 
 
530 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 rectness of these observations, as far as tliey tend 
 to show the inadequacy of speculative notions to 
 exert any powerful influence upon the conduct, 
 while they continue to float as abstract theories or 
 visionary x^hantoms in the head, and do not become 
 incorporated into any feeling of the heart; yet it 
 by no means follows, and we desire most distinctly 
 to disavow the mischievous and absurd idea, that 
 men are in no respect accountable for their opinio . 
 This subject we have already discussed at some 
 length in a former part of this work; but such do 
 we deem to be the importance belonging to it in 
 the present state of public opinion, that we cannot 
 help subjoining the following observations in addi- 
 tion to what has been already stated. It is at this 
 moment a current maxim in certain circles of lite- 
 rature and politics, that, in the formation of his 
 opinions, man is perfectly passive — that, in the 
 views which he adopts, even upon the most impor- 
 tant points of the most important of all questions, 
 he is a necessary agent, and that he is no more 
 responsible for his belief or disbelief of religious 
 truth, than he is for the colour of his skin or the 
 form of his visual organs. According to this theory 
 of opinions, the most confirmed atheist, provided 
 he does not violate the laws of the State in the 
 promulgation of his sentiments, is as innocent a 
 man as the devoutest and most practical believer in 
 the doctrines of the New Testament ; and whatever 
 may be wrong in his creed, or rather his no-creed, 
 it is, forsooth, his misfortune and not his fault. 
 The only feeling, therefore, witli which liis charac- 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 531 
 
 ter is to be regarded, is that of pity and not con- 
 demnation. We are ready to acknowledge, indeed, 
 tliat we are bound to pity the worst of criminals, — • 
 that we have no right to triumph in malignant 
 disdain or hate over the most abandoned of the 
 species. The salutary memento, "who made thee 
 to differ," ought always to repress every such ten- 
 dency. That infidelity and profaneness, confined 
 within the limits of decency, ought to be visited by 
 penal laws, and considered amenable at the bar of 
 human judicature, we do not affirm. The expe- 
 diency of legal prosecution, on the ground of infidel 
 opinions, except in cases of peculiar aggravation, 
 may be fairly questioned. But it by no means 
 follows that the maintenance of such sentiments 
 involves no moral guilt, and is regarded with no 
 abhorrence by Him, whose very being, so clearly 
 imaged forth in the mirror of nature, and whose 
 character and attributes, so distinctly portrayed 
 and so strikingly demonstrated upon the page of 
 revelation, are thus outraged. Before Jehovah can 
 witness such intellectual conduct with complacence. 
 He must be considered as willing to deny Himself, 
 and to expose Himself to the reflection, that in the 
 two volumes of nature and revelation, where He 
 intended that his creatures should read his exist- 
 ence and purposes. He has supplied them with 
 proofs, which are inadequate to convince an honest 
 and sincere inquirer. It is the merest sophistry to 
 affirm, in reference to this subject, that a man can- 
 not command his convictions — that he must beheve 
 or disbelieve, according to the evidence which the 
 
 2 M 2 
 
532 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 subject appears to him inherently to possess. In 
 mathematical science, indeed, and in the immediate 
 exercise of the senses, assent is compulsory. To 
 dispute the fact demonstrated or perceived would 
 be irrational. In matters of complicated investiga- 
 tion, where the proofs are insufficient, and where 
 the passions and interests of the inquirer are in 
 nowise concerned, he may innocently err in esti- 
 mating what may appear to him the preponderating 
 side of the question. But in an affair which is 
 partly moral and partly intellectual, and the deci- 
 sion of Avliich rests as much with the heart as with 
 the understanding, it is obvious that the case is 
 widely different. Supposing that there is a strong 
 previous bias to one side of the question — that a 
 powerful array of passions consolidated into stand- 
 ing habits is ranged on the negative ; supposing 
 that the individual, in consequence of former actions 
 or present tendencies and predilections, deems him- 
 self deeply concerned to prove the reverse of the 
 proposed system, and that his hopes and fears, 
 while he continues what he is, are leagued in con- 
 federacy against its reception, will any one main- 
 tain that, under these circumstances, he is an 
 impartial and competent judge of the question, and 
 that, with perfect innocence, he can pronounce 
 against evidence, however strong, and thus under- 
 mine the very basis of a scheme of conduct, however 
 imperatively enjoined by One, who had a right to 
 command it? Will it be maintained that moral 
 proof will be allowed its real weight by one, whose 
 perceptions are subject to these deteriorating and 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 533 
 
 perverting influences, and that the inclination of" a 
 judgment thus soaked in passion and saturated with 
 prejudice is totally free from moral turpitude? 
 The measure of guilt involved in such a determina- 
 tion of the mind will bear a strict proportion to the 
 magnitude of the consequences liable to result from 
 it, and to the complexional shade, which it must 
 necessarily give to the whole of the future conduct. 
 
 ^ow we affirm that this is precisely the state of 
 the case, when a man of vicious habits, or bloated 
 with vanity and conceit, undertakes, perhaps with 
 very scanty qualifications of intellect, as w^ell as 
 utter inaptitude of heart, to examine the evidences 
 of revealed religion. A¥ith him the question is 
 already prejudged in the court of highest influence, 
 in the areopagus of the affections. It is his interest, 
 according to his perverted view of it, that the 
 whole of that glorious and transcendent system 
 should be fabulous, and that he should walk abroad 
 in all the unaccountableness of licentious freedom, 
 or intellectual pride. It was remarked by the late 
 Dr. Beattie, and we think in perfect accordance 
 with the most philosophical views of human nature, 
 as related to the point we are now discussing, that 
 no good man ever undertook to examine the Chris- 
 tian religion, but he found the religion to be true, 
 and its evidences satisfactory. But where the quali- 
 ties of the moral being are defective, or wholly 
 wanting, which are necessary to conduct the in- 
 quiry with success, wdiere the very organs of percep- 
 tion, if we may so speak, are wholly vitiated and 
 disordered, it is no wonder, with whatever clearness 
 
534 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 and transparency the light may shine, that such 
 
 darkness should comprehend it not. Then is realized 
 
 the truth of the distich — 
 
 Faults in tbe life breed errors in the brain, 
 And these reciprocally those again. 
 
 The guilt of infidelity, as a system of dishelief, lies 
 not in the opinions which it entertains, abstractedly 
 considered, for the intellect, as an operative faculty, 
 is as incapable of guilt as the common organs of 
 sense; but in the state of the heart and affections, 
 which, by their reaction, impose such a mass of 
 impiety and absurdity upon an understanding too 
 grovelling or perverse to resist its force. 
 
 We have thought it necessary to guard thus 
 strongly against the conclusion liable to be de- 
 duced from the comparative dormancy of specula- 
 tive opinions, as it respects an efficient influence 
 upon the conduct; as if it was, therefore, a matter 
 of utter indifference, and involving no moral prin- 
 ciple, no question of innocence or guilt, what opi- 
 nions were held or rejected. Although the purest 
 sentiments, and an assent to the most scriptural 
 tenets, while they continue to float in all the vague- 
 ness of intellectual notions, are wholly useless and 
 unavailing in the regulation of the character; yet 
 so much the more powerful and spontaneous is the 
 tendency of human nature to evil than to that which 
 is good, that there is a much closer connection 
 between profane speculations in the understanding, 
 and impious habits in the life, than there is be- 
 tween the purest notional principles, and the cor- 
 responding practical results. in the former case, 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 5'35 
 
 the passage from the understanding to the heart, 
 and from the heart to the life, is short and easy ; 
 while, in the latter, it is formed of the steepest 
 acclivities, and is divided bj immeasm-able inter- 
 vals*. The match requires only to be applied to 
 some chymical compositions, to kindle into a flame ; 
 but tinder, in order to produce the same effect, 
 must be set on fire by sparks actually struck out of 
 the flint. 
 
 It is this strong disinclination of the human 
 mind to the practice of Christian duty, that renders 
 it indispensably necessary that all the feelings of 
 the heart should be powerfully engaged on the side 
 of truth. In all other pursuits of importance, in- 
 deed, they are the Affections in their diversified 
 and endless modifications, which prove the grand 
 stimulants to action. Without the aid of these 
 vigorous incentives, the weightiest undertakings of 
 mankind would fall into a state of torpor and in- 
 activity. The machine of state would be unable 
 to move amidst the cumbersome appendages with 
 which it is clogged, and the wheels of business, in 
 its most enteqDrising departments, would stand 
 still. What would be the effect in the political 
 and commercial world, if the sensitive part of 
 human nature w^as to be paralyzed, and the busy 
 stir of the passions was to sink into motionless 
 quiescence? What would become of the energetic 
 
 * Chez la plupart des Chretiens il y a bien loin de la profession 
 a la croyance, de la croyance a la conviction, et de la conviction a 
 la pratic^ue. — Montesquieu. 
 
536 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 measures of the statesman, the generous enthu- 
 siasm of the patriot, and of the sleepless activity 
 of the various orders of mercantile projectors, if 
 every thing within those comprehensive depart- 
 ments of human labour, was to be reduced into the 
 axioms of political economy, and the dry rules of 
 trade? What would become of the resistless im- 
 petus, which urges forward the hero in the prose- 
 cution of his martial achievements, and in the 
 legitimate career of victory, if every thing that is 
 exciting and spirit-stirring in his character, was to 
 be sobered down to the tameness and inertness of 
 the disciplinary tactics of war? What is it that 
 awakens the energy and kindles the ardent devo- 
 tion of tliese several performers upon the theatre of 
 human action, but their love of fame, their love of 
 glory, their love of their country, or, if we may be 
 allowed to translate the lan^ua^e of declamation 
 into that of simple fact, in many cases, their love of 
 themselves, and the fear of the opposite to what 
 they desire? Let these respective characters, who 
 may be considered as the representatives of all that 
 is most active and influential among mankind be 
 divested of those passions and affections which are 
 as it were the elements of motivity in their nature ; 
 let them go forth clad in the dull armoury of the 
 mechanical regulations and principles of their pro- 
 fessions; and what will they be but so many sha- 
 dows of existence, so many forms of humanity, in 
 which the spark of vitality was extinct? 
 
 It is true that, in all these cases, principles and 
 axioms are necessary, — that they are a ,s///e qua nan 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 537 
 
 ill every individual instance. It is true that there 
 is a system of rules connected with every branch 
 of activity, which must be understood and adopted ; 
 it is true that, without their adoption as a basis, 
 it is impossible to advance a single step with secu- 
 rity and success — that they are the very rudder 
 which keeps the vessel in its due course, or the 
 very ballast by which its equipoise is preserved. 
 But, in addition to this, there is wanted an actuating 
 power, without which principles of belief, however 
 correct, are but combinations of language or meta- 
 physical abstractions, vague, visionary, and unsub- 
 stantial. Axioms of truth, however firm and valid, 
 are but a fulcrum, resting upon which, the agency 
 of the affections may be called into exercise. They 
 are (to change the figure) but the veins and arte- 
 ries of a system, through which it is the function of 
 the heart to propel and circulate the current which 
 gives life and energy to the w^hole frame. And if, 
 to all other pursuits and undertakings of importance, 
 it would be fatal to extinguish that powerful flame 
 which, on necessary occasions, sets the whole world 
 of the human soul on fire; if love, and hope, and 
 fear, in their most intense exercise, are necessary 
 to give effect to every plan that is to be carried on 
 upon a great scale and amidst many difficulties; 
 if it would be a mutilation of the human character 
 to cut these off* from their appropriate share of 
 influence in every other department; with what 
 imaginable propriety can they be excluded from the 
 arduous and all-important business of religion ? 
 Will a set of cold and speculative dogmas, like so 
 
538 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 many wedges mechanically lodged in the grooves 
 of the understanding, send forth a life-giving and 
 transforming influence throughout the whole cha- 
 racter? Will an order of opinions, which claim no 
 sympathy with the heart, with which no chord of feel- 
 ing sounds in unison, be effectual in securing that 
 universality of obedience, that devoted self-denial, 
 that complete self-surrender to the will of God, that 
 active and uniform resistance to the power of evil, 
 that total and unreserved renunciation of every 
 sinful habit, however inveterate it may have grown, 
 and however interwoven with the very stamina of 
 the mental constitution, that prompt and steady 
 abandonment of every pursuit which is inconsis- 
 tent with the obligations of religion, however 
 sanctioned by custom and authority, and however 
 conducive to immediate gratification or interest, 
 that alacrity of purpose, that energy of zeal, that 
 assiduity of diligence in the service of God, that 
 living sacrifice in short of the whole man, that 
 entire dedication of every corporeal and mental 
 endowment — of every physical power and of every 
 intellectual faculty unto His cause and the promo- 
 tion of His glory, which Christianity so evidently 
 demands? To remove or to invalidate the use and 
 importance of sensitive affection in the formation 
 or development of the Christian character, is a 
 sophistry in moral science. It is like removing the 
 middle term in a syllogistic process: it is to snap 
 asunder the connecting link between premise and 
 conclusion in the practical logic of religion. For 
 the affections are the middle term between the 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 539 
 
 understanding and the outward conduct, without 
 which either limb of the syllogism would be desti- 
 tute of all validity and force. Let the heart sink 
 into apathy, and the strings of feeling cease to 
 vibrate, and feebleness and inefficacy will instantly 
 characterize the operations of the intellect, however 
 luminous its views and however firm its grasp, with 
 respect to that influence which it is required to 
 exert upon the life. The conduct can no more 
 exhibit the regular evolution of the Christian graces 
 and virtues, than a wheel can turn around its axis 
 and produce the distant and complicated results in 
 which it was designed to be the most eflPective agent, 
 when the motive power has been withdrawn. 
 
 The records of history invariably speak the same 
 language, and conspire in confirming and illustrat- 
 ing the same important truth. They tend univer- 
 sally to demonstrate that, although, unaccompanied 
 by clear and sound and manly views of divine truth 
 strong feelings must of necessity run into fanaticism 
 and superstition ; yet without these feelings in their 
 due and w^ell-regulated operation, zealous and ener- 
 getic piety cannot exist, either isolated in the 
 character of individuals or embodied in the habits 
 of a people. AVTienever the faith and hope sug- 
 gested by the Gospel have ceased to be living 
 principles of the heart, and have floated upward 
 into the head, like deteriorated air ascending to- 
 wards the uj)per galleries of a crowded room in 
 consequence of having been deprived of its vital 
 and respirable qualities, it has been found that the 
 laws of genuine Christianity have ceased to bear 
 
540 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 swaj, that zeal for its propagation has vanished, 
 that indiflPerence respecting its grand essentials as 
 a redeeming and saving scheme has prevailed, and 
 a system of baseless morality, if not of gross licen- 
 tiousness, at best a species of refined heathenism, 
 has been substituted in its stead. Wlienever, on the 
 contrary, the great truths of Christianity have been 
 appreciated as facts, and felt as realities, the effect 
 has been manifest in the character and conduct of 
 those who professed it. Of this we cannot have 
 a more striking proof than that which is supplied 
 by the celebrated historian of the Decline and Fall 
 of the Roman Empire, a witness Avho will not be 
 suspected of attributing too much to the power of 
 faith. In his account of the early progress of 
 Christianity, and in his list of causes which, ac- 
 cording to his view, sufficiently explain the unri- 
 valled rapidity of growth which distinguished that 
 oppressed and persecuted religion, he brings it for- 
 ward as a very prominent and influential circum- 
 stance, that the Faith of the believers at that time 
 appears to have been formed of much stronger 
 materials than that of professors of later ages; 
 that those primitive Christians felt the full force of 
 all that they believed, and that consequently the 
 principles of the Gospel had their full effect upon 
 their conduct; that the realizing impressions wliicli 
 they had of the affairs of another world were so 
 powerfully influential upon their character, that they 
 counted no sacrifice too great to make, no efforts 
 too laborious to exert, no sufferings too dreadful to 
 encounter, if. thereby they could in any measure 
 
THE AFFECTIONS TN RELTCION. 541 
 
 advance the interest of the truth which they had so 
 deeply at heart. 
 
 Such is the substance of the argument advanced 
 by this eminent but sceptical historian, while he is 
 endeavouring to form an array of causes for the 
 amazing and almost instantaneous spread of Chris- 
 tianity throughout the Eoman empire, sufficiently 
 strong to keep at a distance the main power, or 
 even any auxiliary force, which was supplied from 
 another Avorld. The fact which he asserts, of the 
 mighty energy of feeling with which the speculative 
 truths of the Gospel were at that time accompanied, 
 is unquestionable; but the inference which he de- 
 duces from this, in connection with other causes, to 
 the exclusion of a miraculous power going forth 
 with the first promulgation of the Gospel, is futile 
 and unsatisfactory. 
 
 We may go on to assert that the decay of this 
 deep and affectionate earnestness has always been 
 attended with a correspondent decay in the prin- 
 ciples and practice of religion. When the heart 
 ceased to beat, a torpid quiescence began to spread 
 through the frame, and a hue of death to mark the 
 whole system, and unless the organ of vital circu- 
 lation had again been roused into action by a super- 
 human power, the speedy result would have been 
 mortification and utter dissolution. Eevivals in re- 
 ligion, therefore, have always been attended with 
 the prevalence of deep and impassioned feelings, 
 sometimes, through the agency of the evil one tak- 
 ing advantage of human weakness and ignorance, 
 running into much extravagance and folly. But still 
 
542 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 it is an unquestionable fact that no great revivals, 
 no important reformations of great and inveterate 
 abuses ever have taken place Avithout the operation 
 of strong and high-wrought feehng. While the 
 heart is unconcerned, no one thinks it worth while 
 to disturb his own peace, and, perhaps, to endan- 
 ger his own life by agitating the stagnant pool, 
 where so many pestilential ingredients lie depo- 
 sited. The passions may sometimes, indeed, be 
 unduly fermented, and gain vent by improper out- 
 lets, but this is only the effervescence of a principle, 
 which, in its permanent results, is productive of 
 salubrity and strength. 
 
 For an illustration of these remarks, look to the 
 reformation in Grermany. Contrast the characters 
 of Luther and Erasmus, as leading agents in the 
 effectuation or retardation of that great event. In 
 their doctrinal views, except in a few important 
 points indeed, they do not appear so very widely 
 to have differed. In the acknowledgment of the 
 necessity of an ecclesiastical reformation they en- 
 tirely agreed. Erasmus saw this as clearly as 
 Luther. But the difference was this — they felt not 
 alike. Luther had such a deep and ever present 
 impression of the importance of this measure, and 
 of the revival of the pure doctrines of Scripture to 
 the salvation of immortal souls, that he counted 
 nothing dear unto him, by the sacrifice of which he 
 might attain his object. He was anxious to heave 
 from its very foundation that enormous mass of 
 tyranny and superstition, under which the human 
 mind, like the fabled giant under ^Etna, had groaned 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 543 
 
 and struggled for so many ages. A^Hiereas Eras- 
 mus, possessed of the richest stores of erudition, 
 and for a long period commanding a wider influ- 
 ence, dared not manfully to put forth his arm. His 
 heart was not in the matter. It weighed not upon 
 his mind with a sense of overwhelming importance, 
 and therefore the whole of his conduct, in reference 
 to that salutary convulsion of the seat of the papal 
 beast, is one scene of temporizing policy and 
 shuffling hesitation. He Avas afraid, on the one hand, 
 to avow and patronize with openness what his 
 understanding obliged him, in the main, to approve; 
 and afraid on the other to offend the power, upon 
 whose good pleasure his honour and elevation 
 seemed to depend. His intellect, however brilliant, 
 failed to communicate an adequate measure of 
 moral energy and impetus to arouse the fatal indif- 
 ference to the interests of pure religion, which 
 rested like a sheet of lead upon his heart. 
 
 The consequence was, that while Luther, urged 
 forward by the noble and devout enthusiasm of his 
 feelings, and accompanied by a band of congenial 
 associates, among whom the illustrious Melancthon 
 stood foremost, marched on in the career of victory 
 over the powers of spiritual darkness, Erasmus fol- 
 lowed, like a timid and discontented warrior behind 
 his car. While the profound and elegant scholar 
 of Rotterdam loitered between the hostile camps of 
 Popery and Protestantism, admired for his learning 
 and knowledge by all, but respected for his con- 
 sistency by none, a memorable instance of the ina- 
 dequacy of what, on the whole, may be considered 
 
544 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 as speculative orthodoxy, to give effect to the prin- 
 ciples of religion, the Saxon Reformer, with talents 
 less cultivated, but Avith his heart and affections 
 more deeply engaged in the work, was made instru- 
 mental in the hand of Grod in establishing an era in 
 the history of the human mind, compared w^ith 
 which the philosophical revolutions effected by 
 Bacon and Newton and Locke, were insignificant 
 events. The petty disturbances occasioned by his 
 slight indiscretions, and some undue outburstings 
 of feeling, of which he was guilty, have passed away 
 and are forgotten, like the surf in a rough sea thrown 
 up by the keel of a vessel gallantly riding into 
 harbour, while the benefits of his inestimable labours 
 are felt to the extremities of the globe, and are pro- 
 minently embodied in the habits and religious insti- 
 tutions of almost every country in Europe. 
 
 The same observations might be made relative to 
 those revivals of religion, which at different periods 
 have taken place in Great Britain and America; but 
 to no epoch in the history of the Church, perhaps, 
 with more propriety, than to that noble and well 
 regulated enthusiasm, by which the nations of the 
 world, and our own country in particular, seem to 
 have been lately roused to disseminate the know- 
 ledge, and to impart the saving efficacy of the 
 Gospel, throughout every region of the globe. This 
 is no unholy crusade, which clothes itself in steel, 
 breathes out slaughter and revenge, and calls forth 
 one set of angry passions into murderous array 
 against another, but it is one simultaneous movement 
 of the army of the Prince of Peace, distinguished, 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 545 
 
 indeed, into different battalions, and clad in different 
 uniforms, but yet united together in bonds of 
 brotherly love ; bearing no weapons but the panoply 
 of heavenly truth, and the sword of the eternal 
 Spirit; carrying on no war but that of kindness and 
 affectionate persuasion against ignorance, and super- 
 stition, and misery; and exhibiting in its triumphant 
 progress no scenes of carnage and of blood, but the 
 affecting emblems of the broken body and of the 
 shed blood of that Lamb of God, which was slain for 
 the sins of the world. 
 
 We can trace tliis mighty stir in the camp of 
 Israel in all its wide-spread departments, ramifica- 
 tions, and divisions, only to a cause, which had for 
 a long time lain quiescent, — a deep-felt conviction of 
 the importance of religion in general, and of its ne- 
 cessity to every individual of mankind in particular. 
 l!^othing short of this, no clear perceptions of the 
 mind, no demonstrations adduced unto and recog- 
 nised by the intellect could have given such a 
 powerful impulse to the community, and clothed the 
 Gospel with such energy with respect to its influence 
 upon individual character, and upon the state of the 
 world at large. It foUows that sensitive Feeling in 
 religion is not only legitimate, but indispensably 
 necessary, inasmuch as it is the parent of zeal, and 
 the fertile source of every thing that is great and 
 heroic in the annals of Christian achievement. 
 
 2 N 
 
546 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 Section V. 
 
 The Exercise op the Affections — a chief constituent op 
 
 THE happiness OP HeAVEN. 
 
 In illustration of the legitimacy and importance 
 of devout Feeling as an element of the Christian 
 character, we would finally remark, that from all 
 the intimations of Scripture, and from all that 
 reason and the consideration of the nature and 
 character of man can suggest, we have grounds to 
 believe that the exercise of holy Affection will 
 constitute a very principal ingredient, if not the 
 main substance of the hiessedness of heaven. It 
 is generally admitted that the present world was 
 designed to be a probationary scene, a school of 
 intellectual and mental discipline, to prepare the 
 soul for the enjoyments and occupations of her 
 future destiny. Religion is the instrument, the 
 grand agent, by which this work is to be carried 
 on, and the whole process realized. So far, there- 
 fore, as we can ascertain from our varied sources 
 of information the nature of those sublime employ- 
 ments, and of those transcendent felicities, which 
 are reserved for the righteous hereafter, in the same 
 proportion can we form accurate ideas of the 
 distinguishing features of true religion as it stands 
 connected with the character here below. It may 
 be assumed as an unquestionable point, as the 
 groundwork of all our views upon this subject, that 
 whatever original capacities belong to the human 
 mind will not oe extinguished or annihilated in 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 547 
 
 heaven, but rectified from every obliquity, purified 
 from every stain, and gradually developed to an order 
 of still higher maturity and perfection. If this world 
 is a nursery, in the distant soil of which the tender 
 plants of human nature are to be reared up for a 
 while, until they are removed to a warmer clime and 
 a richer paradise, it may be necessary to prune them 
 of their superfluous branches, and to separate from 
 them the fungous excrescences, which the unhealthy 
 atmosphere around them, or the disorder which has 
 crept into them may occasion, but the very elements 
 of their being, the organizing principles of their life 
 and growth are still to remain, and only to be 
 strengthened and directed in order to be meet for 
 the situation, which they are hereafter intended to 
 occupy. And as we have shown that sensitive 
 Affection is an original and essential part of the 
 mental constitution of man, it would be against every 
 analogy of nature — to say nothing of the declarations 
 of Scripture — to imagine that it will not expand into 
 more vigorous energies amidst the transporting 
 scenes of futurity. 
 
 Heaven is universally represented in Scripture 
 as a place, not so much of intense and laborious 
 thinking, as of sublime and rapturous feeling. And 
 nothing appears to us more strongly to prove, more 
 fully to demonstrate the futility and unscriptural 
 character of that religion, which is confined to the 
 cold speculations of intellect, or the formalities of a 
 professed creed and a bodily service than this, its 
 utter want of all congeniality with the functions, to 
 which it ought to be the preparative. Unless, there- 
 
 2 N 2 
 
548 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 fore, we transform the heaven of the Scriptures into 
 the Elysium of heathenism, and with Yirgil admit the 
 warrior, the equestrian, and the huntsman, to follow 
 in it the diversions and occupations in which they 
 took their chief delight upon earth, it is impossible 
 that they should have any meetness for its pure 
 pleasures, and its exalted society, who are total 
 strangers to all those ardent affections, to all those 
 spiritualities of feeling, which are implied in the 
 expressive, but to them mystic and unintelligible 
 phraseology of fellowship and communion with God. 
 We mean not to say that in heaven the understand- 
 ing will be unemployed, and that there will be no 
 active duties. Such a notion would hardly suit that 
 more perfect economy to which we are taught to 
 look forward, — an economy under which all the 
 powers of man will have scope for their full and 
 unrestrained development. But we maintain, that 
 a feeling of exquisite delight will accompany every 
 act; that all the faculties of the understanding, all 
 the affections of the heart, all the activities of the 
 conduct, whatever may be their spiritual direction, 
 will, in a manner, be absorbed in love. Every lesser 
 light, every subordinate movement, will be lost in 
 the splendour, and yield to the predominating in- 
 fluence of that central sun in the firmament of the 
 glorified character. 
 
 The happiness of the servants of God in a future 
 world has been represented by St. Paul, as resulting 
 from a perpetual enjoyment of his exalted presence 
 and society. "And they shall be ever with the 
 Lord." With a view of illustrating- the blessedness 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 549 
 
 of the saints, and of showing the important share 
 which the affections will have in the fruition of that 
 blessedness, we shall consider the privilege of being 
 ever with the Lord as embracing various particulars. 
 So highly did the apostle estimate this privilege, that 
 he regarded it as the crown and perfection of happi- 
 ness, as the sum total of human good, as rising to a 
 height and extending to an amplitude of enjoyment, 
 beyond which desire cannot soar, and the faculties 
 cannot expand. 
 
 1. The saints, therefore, after the consummation 
 of the present order of things, shall be with God, 
 first, in the participation of his glory. In various 
 points of view they may be said to have been with 
 him during their probationary state of being. In 
 respect of the ubiquity of his essence, of the univer- 
 sality of his presence, they could not at any time be 
 otherwise than with him. Even during their state of 
 estrangement and pilgrimage upon earth, they were 
 with him, still resting under the shadow of his pro- 
 tection. They were with him in the experience of 
 his fatherly care and guidance, in the frequent reali- 
 zation of the tokens of his favour and love, in the 
 observance of his law, in the duties of his service, in 
 the ordinances of his sanctuary. They were with him 
 in the devout study of his character, in the contem- 
 plation of his attributes, in the reverential adoration 
 of his perfections, in the glow of ardent gratitude, in 
 the warmth of holy love, in the visions of faith, in 
 the anticipations of hope, and in the longing desire 
 of an entire conformity to his image, and of an 
 immediate admission into his presence. Thus far 
 
550 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 the servants of God were with him during the 
 introductory period of their being. They enjoyed 
 somewhat of the glories and felicities of heaven ; 
 they caught some bright reflections of its light and 
 splendour as exhibited in occasional glimpses of its 
 everlasting hills, as they pursued their weary pilgrim- 
 age through the wilderness of this lower world. 
 
 But after the conclusion of the appointed period 
 of this world's duration, when the solemnities of the 
 last day are now past, and the faithful followers of 
 Christ gathered from all ages, and countries, and 
 languages, have been honourably acquitted at his 
 tribunal, and allowed to enter with reanimated bodies 
 into his kingdom, they will henceforward be with him 
 in the full and unreserved participation of the glory 
 vhich he had prepared for them. It was the glorifi- 
 cation of his people, as combined with the manifes- 
 tation of the various attributes of Deity, which the 
 Saviour had most prominently in view during the 
 whole process of his mediatorial work. This im- 
 portant end he distinctly incorporated into that 
 sublime and affectionate prayer, which he offered up 
 unto his Father in behalf of the whole community of 
 his people, just before he left the world. And when, 
 after the completion of the arduous work of human 
 redemption, and the arrangement of the various con- 
 cerns and interests of his church upon earth, he made 
 his triumphant entrance into the temple not made 
 with hands — even heaven itself, the scene of his 
 glorious residence, he took up his abode in that 
 bright and holy place, not so much in his private 
 and individual capacity, as in the public and relative 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 551 
 
 character of the Head and Representative of his 
 people. He went as their precursor to prepare a 
 place for them, to provide for their accommodation, 
 to plead their cause, to assert their covenanted rights 
 as pledged in his mediation, and as redeemed by his 
 death, and thus to secure for them those gifts of 
 grace, those crowns of glory, which he Avould now be 
 commissioned to bestow upon them. And wearing 
 those crowns, enjoying the blessed fruits of those 
 graces, they will spend their eternity with him. 
 United unto him as his members, they will partake 
 by a mysterious and exquisite sympathy in all his 
 relative and communicable perfections. They wiU 
 shine forth amidst the unclouded blaze of that 
 glory, which beams around his head, and they will 
 be continually sublimating into higher degrees of 
 purity, and be transformed into "the same image 
 from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord." 
 
 His communicative glory will exalt and adorn 
 every part of their nature. The higher powers of 
 the understanding wiU, doubtless, bear a fuU share 
 in the elevation to which they will be raised. The 
 capacities of glorified spirits privileged to live in 
 perpetual converse with ffim, who is the fountain of 
 all knowledge, will be expanded and enlarged in 
 proportion to the advantages of the exalted society 
 which they shall enjoy. The intellectual endowments 
 of the humblest and meanest, if we may use such an 
 expression, among the inhabitants of heaven, of those 
 who may be regarded as stars of smallest magnitude 
 in the firmament of glory, wiU transcend beyond 
 comparison those of the brightest luminary upon 
 
552 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 earth. The mental faculties of the very babes in the 
 kingdom of heaven, will, probably, surpass those of 
 Milton and of ^N'ewton in their most advanced state 
 of sublimity and expansion upon earth. Their powers 
 will be invigorated so as to conceive with promptitude 
 and ease the great ideas, which the various objects 
 around them will suggest, and comprehend with clear- 
 ness and precision the mysterious and complicated 
 truths, which before it had baffled their utmost en- 
 deavours to understand; so as to penetrate the 
 depths of nature, and discover, at every step, the 
 wisdom and power of its great Author — so as to 
 unravel the intricacies of Providence, and, however 
 involved the labyrinth, to discover goodness and 
 faithfulness marked upon every turn, and love in- 
 scribed upon every portal; and above all, so as to 
 form somewhat juster, though still inadequate, notions 
 of that wonderful combination of the various attri- 
 butes of Deity, which was displayed in the formation 
 and accomplishment of the plan of human redemption. 
 The sphere of information will be continually and 
 endlessly widening, and the soul will be incessantly 
 rising to new heights and sublimities of knowledge, 
 without danger of exhausting its powers, and without 
 the possibility of terminating its inquiries ; for in- 
 finity will be its range, and eternity the period of its 
 investigations. 
 
 The Affections also, the operations of which we 
 are now more immediately concerned to discuss, will 
 partake, in a corresponding measure, of the same 
 glorifying process. The presence and society of 
 Jehovah will elevate, transform, and harmonize them 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 553 
 
 in the most delightful and astonishing manner. The 
 melody of his voice will sweetly attune them to his 
 love. They will be raised in all their attachments 
 and propensities to a congeniality with the scenes 
 with which they are now conversant, to a height of 
 purity and glory co-ordinate with the present order 
 of existence. They will have laid aside every thing 
 that was base, and earthly, and sensual. They will 
 no longer be alloyed by an admixture of degrading 
 passions, nor deteriorated by coming in contact with 
 the debasing elements of pride and malice, and envy ; 
 but they will all concentrate and coalesce in the one 
 predominating affection of love, and that love vnM be 
 pure, generous, and expansive ; exalted in its object, 
 spiritual in its exercises, and intense in its energies ; 
 glorious, elevated, and divine, in all its tendencies 
 and operations. 
 
 The bodies of believers, when fully admitted into 
 the presence of the Lord, will also largely participate 
 in the glory which He has prepared for them. On 
 the morning of the general resurrection, those frail 
 and perishable tabernacles, which for ages had moul- 
 dered into dust, shall be rebuilt in a style of sur- 
 passing splendour, and be transformed into edifices 
 pure as the light of heaven, and permanent as the 
 duration of eternity. That which had been sown in 
 corruption shall be raised in incorruption. That 
 which had been sown a natural body, shall be raised 
 a spiritual body. The materialism of the bodily 
 frame shall experience a mysterious change, by 
 which it will lose its debasing qualities, and be 
 raised to a congeniality of essence with the pure 
 
554 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 properties of spirit. Thus the whole man will be 
 glorified. Every constituent of nature being propor- 
 tionably elevated and adorned, there will be no more 
 conflict between the judgment and the affections, 
 between the understanding and the heart. There 
 will be no reluctance in the one to second the desires 
 of the other ; but all, within and without, will be 
 harmony, peace, and delightful co-operation. 
 
 2. We remark further, that the saints hereafter 
 will be ever with the Lord in the realizing view and 
 contemplation of his perfections. In their former 
 state they could at best only see Him as through a 
 glass darkly. To see the glory of the Lord, to have 
 a distinct perceptioLii — a palpable manifestation of his 
 resplendent attributes, was a desire very naturally 
 expressed by Moses. And it has been anxiously 
 desired by the faithful servants of God in every age 
 of the world. But even that eminent and highly- 
 favoured saint was but very faintly and partially 
 indulged in his wish during his continuance in his 
 earthly tabernacle. He was allowed to see but the 
 skirts of those robes of glory, with which the character 
 of Jehovah is invested and adorned ; but even this 
 transient and imperfect view was, doubtless, attended 
 with emotions of exquisite delight, with sensations of 
 the purest and most exalted satisfaction. And it 
 always has been one of the most constant employ- 
 ments, as well as the purest pleasures of the servants 
 of God upon earth, to contemplate those dim shadows 
 of his perfections, those faint representations of his 
 glorious attributes, which are reflected from the 
 mirror of his word, and portrayed on the lace of his 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 555 
 
 creation. They have delighted to trace his wisdom 
 in the minute, and to admire Him in the magnificent 
 of nature. They have scanned His steps in the 
 movements of the material universe, and in the even 
 tenor of His providence. They have sought Him in 
 his temple, where He has engaged to meet them, and 
 to reveal himself unto them. And their souls have 
 been filled with rapture, and they have seemed to be 
 transported above earth, when they have been enabled 
 to catch but a transient glimpse of his reconciled 
 countenance. They have withdrawn to the solitude 
 of their retired meditations ; they have gone forth in 
 the public ordinances of his worship, and have united 
 themselves to the company of his people with the 
 view of beholding Him, whom their soul loveth. But 
 often they were utterly disappointed. The clouds of 
 corruption either hid Him altogether from their view, 
 or His visits were like those of a wayfaring man, that 
 turneth in to tarry for a night. There was much 
 of darkness in their clearest perceptions ; there was 
 much of what was grovelling in their sublimest con- 
 templations. 
 
 But when they shall awake ; when they shall be 
 aroused from the sleep of death, and wing their up- 
 ward flight and take their station at the throne of 
 the Lamb, they shall behold his face in righteousness 
 and be satisfied with his likeness. They shall be like 
 Him, for they shall see Him as He is. In their risen 
 body and in their glorified flesh they shall behold 
 Him. They shall see Him, not through the faint 
 and imperfect medium of faith, but they shall con- 
 template with the faculty of distinct and immediate 
 
556 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 vision the bright countenance of Deity. They shall 
 see the majesty of his power, the rectitude of his 
 justice, the infinity of his wisdom, the immutability 
 of his truth, the tenderness of his love, the beauty of 
 his holiness, and the loveliness of his mercy, all con- 
 spicuously displayed and mutually reflected in the 
 whole plan of his government, in the whole course 
 of his administration, in the whole compass of his 
 creation ; in the past transactions of the earth ; in 
 the present felicities of heaven ; in the brief retro- 
 spect of time ; in the boundless prospect of eternity. 
 Their vision will be clear without a cloud or inter- 
 vening mist, constant without intervals of conceal- 
 ment or interruption, and permanent without the 
 remotest possibility of its ever being lost in night. 
 And, finally, it will be cheerful and complacent ; no 
 frown of displeasure shall ever contract his brow, no 
 gloom of dissatisfaction shall ever darken the bright 
 serenity of his countenance. 
 
 3. We believe again that the faithful shall here- 
 after be with God in the maintenance of a sublime 
 communion, an intimate fellowship with Him, It 
 was their privilege upon earth to enjoy, in a subor- 
 dinate measure, the communion of the Holy Ghost, 
 to have their fellowship with the Father and with his 
 Son Jesus Christ. But it was an intercourse con- 
 ducted upon comparatively distant terms. It was 
 converse held with One, who hid his face behind a 
 veil, it was friendship maintained with One who dwelt 
 in a far country. It was society carried on between 
 parties, who hardly understood each other, and Avhich 
 there was much of unfaithfulness and inaptitude on 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 557 
 
 their part to interrupt and embarrass. Conscious 
 guilt frequently abashed them in the presence of 
 that pure and holy Being, into whose partial fellow- 
 ship they were admitted, and made them desirous of 
 hiding themselves from his view. They were yet but 
 inadequately trained and disciplined for holding inti- 
 mate communication with a Being so glorious and 
 exalted. There was a want of perfect congeniality of 
 disposition, and a necessity of continual distraction 
 on account of the cares and anxieties of life. But in 
 heaven, the scene of their final joys and triumphs, all 
 these disabilities will have been removed ; all these 
 barriers of guilt and remaining depravity will have 
 been thrown down and consumed in the world's last 
 conflagration. All these impediments to the spon- 
 taneous flow of social aff'ection, to the free and 
 unrestrained exercise of friendly intercourse will 
 have ceased. The scenes of Eden will be renewed 
 under circumstances of greater glory and serenity. 
 The voice of the Lord God walking through the 
 heavenly paradise will be heard and hailed with 
 delight ; nor will there be a disposition in any of 
 the inhabitants to hide themselves from his presence. 
 There will be no prohibitory injunction as a test 
 of obedience, because obedience shall have been 
 confirmed and perfected in a preceding state of 
 probation. There no malicious and enticing spirit 
 will be found, because the tempter and the accuser of 
 the brethren, with the whole band of his rebellious 
 associates, will have been cast out, without the possi- 
 bility of regaining an entrance, to create a mutiny 
 among the angels, or to try the fidelity of the saints. 
 
558 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 The redeemed shall then enjoy advantages of 
 communion with God infinitely superior to those 
 which were or could have been enjoyed in the 
 earthly paradise. They shall see God, not merely 
 in his works or in some striking display of his 
 glory, but they will behold God incarnate, the 
 essence of the Deity mysteriously and incompre- 
 hensibly, but at the same time manifestly and glo- 
 riously imbodied in their own nature. They will 
 see his goodness not only stamped in visible im- 
 press upon the wonderful page of his creation, but 
 also warmly glowing forth in the benignity of human 
 features. They will hear his voice, not in the 
 distant accents of a sound proceeding from afar, 
 but audibly uttered with the organs of human 
 speech. They wiU have to thank Him with warmer 
 affection than the mere obligations of creation and 
 providence could have kindled. They will have to 
 adore Him in higher strains, and acknowledge Him 
 with more ardent gratitude than could have been 
 awakened by blessings inferior to those of redeem- 
 ing love. They will adore Him in language taught 
 by his own Spirit, and celebrate Him in songs of 
 everlasting praise. 
 
 And, finally, they wiU be with Him in the full 
 and unbounded fruition of his love. It is this cir- 
 cumstance that will constitute the perfection of tJieir 
 happiness, that will form the absolute consumma- 
 tion of their bliss. They were the objects of Jeho- 
 vah's love, indeed, in their low estate, as they 
 lay helpless and unpitied amidst the overwlielming 
 ruins of the fall. He loved them while they were 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 559 
 
 yet sinners, and made provision, by a sacrifice the 
 dearest which heaven could have afforded, for their 
 full and unqualified restoration. He loved thcni 
 with a more direct and active exercise of his re- 
 gards, while, now reconciled unto Him by the death 
 of his Son, and renewed and sanctified by his 
 Spirit, they sojourned in the world, and lived as 
 strangers and pilgrims upon earth. But the bond 
 of union between Him and their souls was yet 
 incomplete. His love was yet but partially shed 
 abroad in their hearts. They had but a slight fore- 
 taste, a scanty prelibation of that rich banquet, 
 which they were afterwards destined to enjoy. The 
 rays descended into their hearts from a distance, 
 and were cooled in their progress by many inter- 
 vening clouds. They were dissipated by worldly 
 care, and almost neutralized in their effects by the 
 inherent damp of corruption. But now, when they 
 shall have escaped the cold atmosphere of this lower 
 world; when they shall have been lifted up and 
 drawn to the immediate vicinity of their centre of 
 light and heat, the beams of divine love will glow 
 upon them and within them with unabated strength 
 and intensity. Jehovah will then pour upon them 
 the full tide of his affections; while they, surren- 
 dering themselves to the impulse of that tide, will 
 be carried forward in endless progress of increasing 
 and accumulating bliss. God himself, in all the 
 exhaustless resources of his infinite perfections, is 
 become their portion. And, replenished with his 
 fulness, they are blessed in the fruition of his love, 
 and receive from Him such fresh supplies of happi- 
 
560 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 ness as are adequate to the utmost measure of their 
 still expanding capacities. 
 
 Such, in its general features, so far as we are 
 able to gather from the indistinct intimations of 
 Scripture, will be the consummated felicity of glori- 
 fied spirits hereafter. And as the exercise of the 
 Affections will constitute a large portion of that 
 bliss, it may be fairly assumed, independently of 
 all other considerations, that an essential part of 
 true religion here is the due use and discipline of 
 those Affections. 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 561 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE EVILS LIABLE TO RESULT FROM A MISTAKEN 
 
 AND ILL-GOVERNED EXERCISE OP THE 
 
 AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The Error of making Religion almost entirely to consist 
 
 OP INTERNAL FeELINGS. 
 
 But legitimate and highly important as is a suitable 
 and well-regulated exercise of the Affections in the 
 formation and progressive advancement of the Chris- 
 tian character, it is unquestionable that, like all other 
 constituent faculties of the mind, they are liable to 
 perversion and abuse. It will now be our business, 
 therefore, in accordance with the method of inves- 
 tigation proposed at the commencement of this 
 Inquiry, to state some of the evils and mistakes, 
 which not unfrequently arise from erroneous views, 
 or the excessive indulgence of this essential prin- 
 ciple of human nature, as connected with the subject 
 of religion. Many of these misapplications and ob- 
 liquities, indeed, have a very strict analogy, and bear 
 a very close affinity to those, which have been already 
 remarked as noxious excrescences, occasionally at- 
 taching themselves to the luxuriant and overgrown 
 ramifications of the imaginative faculty. When, 
 however, such erroneous views and distorted repre- 
 sentations of divine truth are confined to the lighter 
 
 2 o 
 
562 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 and more speculative province of the mind, they are 
 comparatively harmless and ineffective in their ope- 
 ration. But when they descend into the heart, and 
 blend themselves with all that is interesting and 
 commanding in the Affections, their poisonous influ- 
 ence becomes infinitely more active and virulent. 
 According to their several degrees of perversity and 
 force they disorganize the character; they destroy 
 the nice and well-adjusted balance of the intellectual 
 faculties ; they invert the order of that regular and 
 harmonious movement, which should distinguish a 
 well-constituted economy of mind in the exercise of 
 all its powers. They introduce wildness and extra- 
 vagance, where the soberness of truth should prevail. 
 According to their peculiar quality and tendency 
 they rise into the fantastic heights of inordinate 
 confidence and presumption; they degenerate into 
 offensive and unmeaning singularities of conduct and 
 a narrow censoriousness of disposition, or they sink 
 into despondency, and sometimes plunge the soul 
 into the gloomiest depths of despair. These several 
 forms of evil are freely acknowledged occasionally, 
 though but rarely, to spring fi-om an ill-regulated 
 exercise of the Affections ; not for the unscriptural 
 and unphilosophical purpose of proscribing them 
 altogether from the service of religion — for on this 
 plea what faculty of the mind would not fall under a 
 similar sentence of condemnation ? — but with a view 
 of supplying a corrective, by pointing out symptoms 
 of the disease. 
 
 It is, in the first place, an obvious and decisive 
 evidence of a false and fanatical theory of religion. 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 503 
 
 and of an ill-balanced arrangement of the mental 
 system, when Christianity is made solely or mainly 
 to consist of internal Sensations and Emotions, 
 The unquestionable fact, that there may be much of 
 speculative knowledge, and of the exterior decency 
 of morality, unaccompanied with a vital and influen- 
 tial principle of religion in the heart, has led some 
 persons to contract their views of divine truth, to 
 narrow its legitimate range of dominion over the 
 human character, to detach it from its natural con- 
 nection with every province of the mind and conduct, 
 and to concentrate the whole of its essence in the 
 fervency and energy of inward feeling. In the 
 estimate of character, such persons seldom look with 
 the requisite share of attention to the state of the 
 higher faculties of the mind and the prevailing habits 
 of the life, provided, indeed, it be free from gross 
 overt acts of sin ; for we know of no sect of decent 
 and rational religionists, with whom a uniform and 
 unrestrained course of practical profligacy would not 
 be regarded as a virtual renunciation of all preten- 
 sion to piety. But the persons, of whom we are now 
 speaking, though they do not profess to abolish 
 the necessity, or, within due limits, to undervalue 
 the importance of knowledge and morality, yet 
 clearly make vehement and impassioned, and in 
 some instances perverted feeling, to the almost 
 entire exclusion of every other criterion, the great 
 standard of the religious character. Aware that the 
 intellect may be stored with the varied treasures of 
 theological science, and notionally enlightened with 
 the brightest illuminations of truth, and that the 
 
 202 
 
564 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 conduct in its relative and social bearing may be 
 adorned with many of the graces and embellishments 
 of a specious and imposing virtue, or distinguished 
 by many of the simple and unobtrusive excellencies, 
 the amiability, the integrity, the inoffensiveness of 
 humble and retired life, while, at the same time, to 
 use the expressive phraseology of the Apostle, " the 
 carnal mind is enmity against God," they too hastily 
 admit the unqualified persuasion, that religion is not 
 merely something deeper and more vital — something 
 which opens a more direct communication Avith 
 heaven than these meagre endowments, but, that it 
 is something which is specifically distinct from all 
 essential connection with these departments of the 
 character, with which they are found associated. 
 Feeling with them, in the character of a Christian, 
 occupies the same place in the scale of importance, 
 as Demosthenes made action to sustain in that of 
 an orator. It is the first, the second, and the third 
 qualification, and so paramount is the importance 
 attached to it, that every other requisite, though 
 assumed and faintly acknowledged, appears, in the 
 general estimate, to sink into comparative insignifi- 
 cance. If an individual has passed through a course 
 of strong, and often turbid and indistinct sensations 
 — if he has been the subject of a painful process of 
 mental exercise, usually denominated experience, 
 the order and technical arrangement of wliich are 
 frequently determined and distinctly specified, — and 
 we are far from denying that divine truth in its ap- 
 plication to the heart and conscience, is generally 
 marked by the same line of operation, — it is concluded 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 665 
 
 without a due inquiry into the clearness of his views, 
 the extent of his scriptural information, and the 
 practical purity of his conduct, that he is in possession 
 of all that is valuable and distinguishingly peculiar in 
 religion. It would be as unjust as it would be in- 
 vidious to charge any particular community as uni- 
 versally fallen into this state of aberration from 
 sound and enlightened principles; but individuals, 
 labouring in a degree more or less under this de- 
 lusion, may doubtless be found among all classes of 
 professors, with whom religion is an affair of the 
 heart. And hence arises the expediency that Chris- 
 tian ministers should labour as much as possible, 
 and as much as is fairly consistent with circumstances, 
 to address the feelings of their hearers, through the 
 medium of their understandings, — ^that the foun- 
 dation of a solid and well-balanced piety should be 
 laid in an intelligent acquaintance with the truth in 
 all its bearings upon the character — that the light 
 of Knowledge and the warmth of Affection, ema- 
 nating from their instructions^ may fall with a blended 
 and mutually subservient effect — that, losing none 
 of their fervour and zeal, and diluting none of their 
 powerful and frequent appeals to the heart, they 
 should direct their efforts with equal energy to the 
 illumination of the mind, and the conviction of the 
 judgment, in order to secure the concurrence and 
 authority of these commanding faculties in their 
 assault upon the fortress of the Affections. Then 
 might ihej hope with the divine blessing that the 
 man of God enlightened by the beams of truth, and 
 warmed by the simultaneous influence of renewing: 
 
666 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 and sanctifying grace, carrying on its operations 
 upon the heart, would become perfect, thoroughly 
 furnished unto every good work. 
 
 Without such an attention to the cultivation of 
 the intellectual part of the general system of the 
 mind, there is a danger that religion should lose its 
 hold of that great and distinguishing power, which 
 the Author of nature designed to be the guide and 
 director of all the rest, and by a remoter conse- 
 quence, that it should be detached from its indis- 
 pensable connection with, and influence upon, the 
 conduct. We sometimes hear, indeed, among those 
 who cannot be suspected of having experienced any 
 very overwhelming sense of the importance of reli- 
 gion, that such and such persons have good hearts — 
 hearts, it may be presumed, full of the purest feelings 
 and the devoutest dispositions, while the whole course 
 of their conduct gives pretty clear indications that 
 it is only a goodness of the heart. And we are 
 sometimes disposed to ask, why this mass of good- 
 ness allows itself so tamely to be pent up within 
 such a narrow enclosure, and never attempts to 
 burst forth through any of the numberless channels 
 of practical piety and zeal. We are apt to wonder, 
 seeing the heart is so well replenished with every 
 thing that is good and estimable in feeling, why it 
 is that the light is so completely and effectually 
 prevented from shining before men — why it is that 
 the ostensible character presents so much of the 
 appearance of a dark lantern — why the practice 
 proves so dense and unfit a medium for the trans- 
 mission of those rays of religious Affection which 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 567 
 
 are supposed to glow so intensely, and to shine so 
 resplendently within. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Inward Impressions liable to supersede Practical Evidence 
 
 IN THE estimate OF THE INDIVIDUAL'S OWN CHARACTER. 
 
 We may notice, as another evil of enormous magni- 
 tude, which has sometimes arisen from a false and 
 distorted view of the office of the Aflfections, as con- 
 nected with the principles of religion, that upon the 
 mere strength of internal impressions persons have 
 been led confidently to assert that they enjoyed the 
 peculiar and distinguishing favour of God ; while in 
 the mean time their character was palpably defective 
 in those practical evidences, without which, under 
 ordinary circumstances, no other criterion, however 
 plausible, can, upon scriptural grounds, be decisive. 
 Experience shows that the Feelings, while they 
 operate with force and vigour, have an amazing 
 influence upon the views of the understanding, and 
 the convictions of the judgment. It does not always 
 require the aid of absolute and conscious hypocrisy 
 to induce a man to maintain a proposition, or to 
 assert a fact, for which he can adduce no other proof 
 than the confident but often groundless persuasion 
 of his ow^n mind. How frequently do Ave witness a 
 specimen of the fides carbonaria — the circular pro- 
 cess of reasoning, while persons of this description 
 attempt to account for the unhesitating assurance 
 which they possess, that they are special favourites 
 
568 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 of Heaven, and infallible heirs of glory. They be- 
 lieve this momentous truth, a truth so cheering to 
 those who have arrived at it by the legitimate 
 method of a calm and sober investigation, and by 
 a deduction of solid and scriptural arguments applied 
 to the mind and character; but they believe it for 
 no other reason than because their own strong and 
 uncontrollable sensations have wrought in them a 
 belief of it. Where Feeling vastly predominates in 
 the character, whatever form it may assume, and 
 through whatever channels its operations may flow, it 
 soon establishes a most complete despotism in the soul, 
 it brings every other power into thrall; and the nice 
 distinctions, the subtle argumentations of the Eeason 
 and the Understanding are as impotent to resist its 
 force, as shreds of flax to repel the flame of a fiery 
 furnace. 
 
 Religious professors of this high temperature 
 disdain to descend to the cool atmosphere of a 
 deliberate and dispassionate inquiry into the real 
 state of their character; they seem to be perfect 
 strangers to the apostolical precept, to be ready to 
 give every man a reason of the hope that is in them 
 with meekness and fear. It is enough for them that 
 they have the witness within themselves, not the 
 accountable and intelligible testimony of the divine 
 Spirit imparted through the medium of those graces 
 and affections, which He implants in the soul, and 
 powerfully confirmed by those practical eff'ects — by 
 that unvarying train of devout and virtuous habits — 
 by that expansive charity — by that unbending in- 
 tegrity — by that purity of manners, and that sanctity 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 5G9 
 
 of deportment, which manifest themselves in the 
 outward conduct ; — not the seal of substantial piety 
 and holiness impressed upon the character, the super- 
 scription of which may be known and read of all 
 men, but something in the form of a direct commu- 
 nication from heaven, involving an esoteric signi- 
 fication, which is to be understood only by him, to 
 w^hom it is revealed; which is too unshackled and 
 independent in its mode of operation to be reduced 
 to any principles of rational and scriptural investi- 
 gation; w^hich is too subtle and attenuated to be 
 embodied in action, and to become palpable in its 
 efiects to the faculties of external perception, and 
 too delicate to transpire in any other way than 
 through the bold and confident assertions of him, 
 to whom it has been vouchsafed. To direct the 
 mind of such an one to those evidences of his justi- 
 fication and adoption, and other associated privileges 
 of the new covenant, which the Apostles have so fully 
 detailed, and upon the possession of which they insist 
 with so much earnestness, would be, in his case, like 
 holding a candle to the sun. Convinced, or at least 
 professing to be convinced himself, that he is in the 
 full enjoyment of the favour of God, and inalienably 
 entitled to the future inheritance of glory, he expects 
 that others should give implicit credence to his de- 
 clarations ; that, instead of following the apostolic 
 precept of trying the spirits, whether they be of God, 
 they should at once acknowledge the safety of his 
 condition, and that by an intuitive glance into the 
 interior machinery of his character they should dis- 
 cover the purity of his principles, and the sincerity 
 
570 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 of his professions, while every thing that is ostensible 
 to the eje gives but too much reason to apprehend 
 the reverse. 
 
 How these strong persuasions of individual and 
 personal safety are produced in the mind, by what 
 train of concurrent influences they are formed and 
 consolidated, until they arrive at the pitch of bold 
 and daring assumption, it would in many instances 
 be difficult to determine. That, in some cases, they 
 are partly attributable to the agency of another 
 spirit, than the Spirit of light and holiness, there 
 is hardly room to doubt. Pretensions of this nature 
 unaccompanied with those practical vouchers, that 
 alone can render them tolerable to a Christian mind, 
 present a specimen of disgracing and outraging the 
 Gospel, with the adoption of some of the leading and 
 most vital doctrines of which they are very generally 
 associated, which, we may presume, cannot fail to be 
 highly pleasing to the malignant disposition of him, 
 who knows, in order to obtain his pur]^)oses, how to 
 assume the guise of an angel of light. That a mode 
 of instruction, which almost entirely confines itself to 
 a development of the privileges of the Christian, 
 which deals in exaggerated representations of the 
 liberty and security of the believer, Avhile his duties 
 and moral obligations are kept out of sight, or briefly 
 hinted, has a powerful tendency to cherish the same 
 proud and delusive habit of mind and feeling, is 
 unquestionable. l!^otliing can be a more effectual 
 preservative against it, than a close and undeviating 
 adherence to that wise and judicious combination 
 of privilege and duty, of which the writings of the 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 571 
 
 apostles afford us so many admirable specimens. It 
 is thus that the balance of the Christian character 
 is maintained — that the consciousness of freedom 
 from condemnation is prevented from rising into 
 pride, and a sense of infirmity and imperfection in 
 meeting the demands of moral obligation is preserved 
 from sinking into despondency. 
 
 We trust it is needless to say that the preceding 
 remarks are not intended, in the slightest degree, to 
 disparage the important doctrine of a divine influence 
 upon the heart, as indispensably necessary to accom- 
 pany the truth of Scripture, in order that it may 
 produce its appropriate effect upon the soul. And 
 far be it from us to limit the Holy One of Israel, 
 with respect to the mode of communicating that 
 influence. There doubtless are diversities of opera- 
 tion, and it is not for us to say that the Holy Spirit 
 may not convey an immediate impression of peace 
 and safety to the mind, where the character and 
 conduct, estimated by the rule of a written revelation, 
 do not manifestly contravene such a supposition. 
 That a good and holy man may not be favoured with 
 a direct assurance of his having attained to a state of 
 peace with God, through the medium of the appro- 
 priated blessings and privileges of the Gospel — such 
 an assurance as excludes all doubt and disquietude of 
 spirit, and enables him to rejoice in the prospect of 
 approaching blessedness, is what cannot, upon any 
 ground of Scripture, and without the most unbecom- 
 ing presumption, by any one be asserted. 
 
572 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Strong Feelings, unaccompanied with sound Judgment, in 
 
 DANGER of COMPLETELY UNHINGING THE MiND, 
 
 As another ill effect, liable to arise from an intense 
 exercise and an unrestrained indulgence of the sensi- 
 tive affections in religion, I observe, that without the 
 counterpoise of a strong and well-regulated judgment, 
 they are in danger of completely overpowering and 
 unhinging the mind, and of producing an unnatural 
 and grotesque effect upon the body. It was doubt- 
 less never the design of religion to introduce a species 
 of anarchy and confusion into the harmonious and 
 well-constituted economy of the human faculties ; to 
 snatch away the rudder from the hand of Keason, to 
 whose care the vessel of the character has been 
 mainly intrusted, and to unfurl the sails of the Affec- 
 tions, in order to be swelled by every gale, and to be 
 driven without any specific direction at the caprice of 
 every blast. It was never the object of this placid 
 and celestial principle to raise a storm of conflicting 
 emotions in the breast, amidst the tumultuous din 
 and collision of which the voice of the understanding 
 would be drowned, and the mild accents of wisdom 
 would be lost ; to interfere Avith the legitimate func- 
 tions of the intellectual faculty, and thus to derange 
 those gradations and mutual subserviences, which 
 should invariably distinguish the operations of the 
 mental powers ; in short, to produce any effect, 
 either upon the mind or body, which can exliibit 
 religion in any other form or under any other aspect 
 than that of a reasonable service — we mean, not the 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 673 
 
 cold and lifeless mechanism of external formalities, 
 but a system of conduct, controlled and regulated by 
 wisdom, and accordant with the dictates of sobriety 
 and truth ; but, at the same time, animated with 
 the glow of aifection, and inpregnated with the 
 energy of zeal. 
 
 But there are circumstances, under which this 
 salutary balance of the faculties is liable to be com- 
 pletely lost. When, for example, in the incipient 
 stages of the religious life, the transcendent import- 
 ance of eternal things presents itself to the view — 
 when, perhaps, from a life of utter worldliness or of 
 thoughtless and degrading sensuality, an individual 
 is at once awakened to a sense of his danger, and 
 the awful realities of a world to come first fasten 
 themselves with a penetrating effect upon his atten- 
 tion; when a sound, as that of the last trumpet, 
 seems to alarm him out of the slumbers of spiritual 
 death ; when a voice of thunder, louder than that of 
 Sinai, seems to announce his guilt and condemnation: 
 when these considerations of imminent peril and of 
 personal delinquency come upon him, as is sometimes 
 the case, with the suddenness of terror and surprise, 
 it is no wonder that his sensations should be in a 
 high degree powerful and overwhelming. And in- 
 stances have occurred, in which they have for a while 
 had the effect of throwing the whole intellectual 
 system out of joint. This, however, is for the most 
 part OAving to some previous bias — to some radical 
 defect in the constitution of the mind — or some pre- 
 dominating habits, which bore sway in the character. 
 N^or is it merely by the more awful and terrific 
 
674 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 views of religious truth — of the realities of eternity, 
 and of the powers of the world to come, that the 
 mind is thus liable to be unsettled and overborne ; 
 but the brighter revelations of life and immortality, 
 the more delightful and animating scenes of the 
 celestial paradise, the visions of glory bursting with 
 unusual radiance upon the eye of the mind, have 
 sometimes been attended with an ecstasy of pleasure, 
 and have thrown the soul into a delirium of joy, 
 which was more than the infirmity of nature could 
 bear. The contemplation of divine love, as mani- 
 fested in the work of redemption, being an exercise 
 of beneficent kindness indeed, the dimensions of 
 which surpass the grasp of all created capacity, has 
 sometimes produced an effect upon tender spirits, 
 which materially interfered with the calm and deli- 
 berate functions of the understanding. It so com- 
 pletely absorbed, for the time, all other views and 
 feelings and interests, as to occasion a degree of 
 impatience of every other mental exercise or prac- 
 tical occupation, to relax the firmness of cool and 
 solid principle, to unnerve the vigour of manly senti- 
 ment, to concentrate the whole duty of a Christian 
 into the solitude and retirement of meditative affec- 
 tion, and thus obviously to unfit him for those 
 conflicts with evil, and those active and energetic 
 endeavours for the advancement of spiritual and 
 moral good ; in short, for strenuously co-operating 
 with God in the promotion of his great designs, and 
 efficiently discharging the obligations of the present 
 mixed state of existence. This was the leading error 
 of the Mystics. 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 575 
 
 But it is not only upon the economy of the mind, 
 that occasional bursts or the habitual exercise of 
 ill-regulated and over-wrought feeling is apt to pro- 
 duce a disorganizing effect; but internal impressions 
 of this nature sometimes display themselves most 
 objectionably in the influence, which they are found 
 to exert upon the bodily system. Vehement excla- 
 mations unseasonably uttered, and without any very 
 appropriate meaning; fantastic movements and atti- 
 tudes, and sometimes swoons and hysterical distor- 
 tions of the frame, are among those forms of evil 
 and unbecoming excess, in which the intensity of ill- 
 governed religious feeling occasionally manifests itself. 
 There are some sects of professors which have derived 
 their names, either voluntarily assumed, or jestingly 
 and profanely imposed, from these uncouth and occa- 
 sionally ludicrous appendages to what is devoutly 
 sincere and morally estimable in their general cha- 
 racter. For it would be in the highest degree 
 uncandid and unjust — it w^ould be in direct oppo- 
 sition to the known and acknowledged testimony of 
 fact to charge the communities, which are particularly 
 distinguished by these habits, as being universally 
 fools and hypocrites, if not disguised profligates, as 
 their still more contemptible deriders have been 
 always disposed to do. Many of these grotesque 
 and incongruous effects are doubtless attributable to 
 imperfect knowledge, to mistaken interpretations of 
 Scripture, to conventional habits, to the contagious 
 influence of example, and to the want of imposing a 
 discreet and salutary restraint upon the emotions of 
 the heart, — circumstances deepty lamentable in 
 
576 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 themselves indeed, and greatly injurious in their 
 consequences, but by no means incompatible in or- 
 dinary cases with purity of principle, spirituality of 
 affection, and uniform consistency of conduct. Every 
 thing, which can even incidentally expose religion to 
 contempt, is to be deplored. Such manifestations of 
 its influence as have the necessary effect of exciting 
 the prejudice and disgust of enlightened and culti- 
 vated minds, and affording a subject of mockery 
 and needless ridicule to the profane, must be strongly 
 and unhesitatingly censured. This sublime principle 
 should maintain such dignity of character, such 
 sobriety of deportment, such a power of self-control, 
 not shrinking, however, from a vigorous, energetic, 
 and animated display of its genuine and impressive 
 tendencies, as that impiety may be constrained to 
 respect it, and feel its own comparative meanness 
 and worthlessness before it. Although, therefore, 
 it is not required of the earnest and devout religionist 
 so to suppress and neutralize his feelings as that the 
 heart, which has been softened into a proper suscep- 
 tibility to the influence of heavenly things, should 
 again be petrified into a heart of stone; although a 
 penetrating and commanding sense of the transcen- 
 dent importance of eternal realities may transfuse 
 itself, with a salutary effect, throughout all the 
 powers of the mind; — this indeed is no more than 
 is necessary to re-establish that equilibrium of the 
 spirit with respect to the claims of futurity, wliich 
 was so completely destroyed by the great apostasy 
 of our nature; although in the case of the private 
 Christian, or the public teacher, " the soul of fire" 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 577 
 
 cannot, and need not, be expected to smother its 
 blazing energies, with ahnost literal truth, witliin the 
 stiff and jointless inclosures of a frame of "adamant;" 
 although religion never appears to greater advan- 
 tage, nor commands a more suitable and beneficent 
 impression than when it glows with living lustre in 
 the radiance of an animated countenance, and ap- 
 pears to swell and electrify every nerve with its OAvn 
 overpowering inspirations; yet assuredly all forced 
 and extravagant gesticulations, all " bodily exercise," 
 which is calculated to give rise to light and ludicrous 
 associations, as well as all such partial representations 
 of divine truth as are likely to produce a disorga- 
 nizing effect upon the well-adjusted operations of the 
 mental system, are to be deprecated as inexpedient, 
 and to be condemned as a violation of that precept, 
 which commands all things to be done decently, and 
 in order — as an infraction of that principle, which 
 enjoins rightly to divide the word of truth. 
 
 Section IY. 
 
 The Distress occasioned by an attempt to fix the time op 
 
 CONVERSION BY A REGARD TO EXPERIMENTAL FeELING. 
 
 Another injurious effect, which is sometimes found 
 to arise from an ill-judged and undue regard to 
 feeling, as connected with the principles of religion, 
 is, that persons allow themselves to sink into des- 
 pondency or despair, because they cannot, by a 
 reference to their internal emotions, mark out to 
 their own satisfaction the precise point of time at 
 
 2 P 
 
578 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 wliicli their conversion took place. Notliing can be 
 more groundless, more destitute of all scriptural 
 warrant, than the supposed or alleged necessity of 
 thus fixing the exact chronological epoch in the his- 
 tory of the character, at which divine truth began to 
 exercise a saving influence upon the soul. In most 
 cases, indeed, this important period was too strongly 
 marked by a change of views and habits to leave 
 the process very doubtful or remotely uncertain with 
 respect to time where the fact has really taken place. 
 In the idea of what is sometimes called an instan- 
 taneous conversion, by which it may be presumed, 
 nothing more is meant than a powerful and effectual 
 impression produced upon the mind, usually through 
 the medium of a particular agency, and giving rise 
 to an immediate change of principles and conduct, 
 we see nothing which can fairly be regarded as un- 
 scriptural, unphilosophical, or enthusiastic. If it be 
 admitted that an influence is communicated at all 
 from heaven, either mediately or otherwise, the 
 object of which is to eflfect a salutary revolution, or 
 to carry on a process of moral renovation in the 
 character, it must be obvious that it hegius to be 
 imparted at some period or other; and if that period 
 should be the mature season of life, and very possibly 
 in the midst of a career of immorality and irreligion, 
 where is the enthusiasm of supposing that the first 
 coruscations of that celestial illumination, which is 
 gradually to unfold upon the soul, should not be 
 altogether imperceptible; that the incipient fermen- 
 tations of that principle, which is to germinate, to 
 spring up, and to fructify under the invigorating 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 579 
 
 warmth of Iieaven, until it has been transplanted 
 into the Paradise above, should not be wholly unfelt? 
 Where is the superstition of attaching the com- 
 mencement of such a work of transformation to a 
 specified point of time, of dating the operation of a 
 cause from the period, at which all the intimations of 
 thought and feeling, demonstrably confirmed by the 
 appropriate phenomena of conduct, began to evince 
 its existence? We might rather ask, under the pe- 
 culiar circumstances, which have now been stated, 
 how great is the absurdity of maintaining, or even 
 of supposing the reverse? The whole current of 
 scriptural analogy and example is assuredly in favour 
 of conversion frequently taking place at a specific 
 time and through a known instrumentality. And 
 with respect to the apparent incredibility of the in- 
 stantaneousness of this great change, nobody has 
 ever had the folly and effrontery of maintaining that 
 the renovation was at once perfect and complete; 
 but all that can be rationally affirmed is, that it was 
 instantaneous in its beginning; and in many cases, 
 sufficiently perceptible to the individual for all the 
 purposes of consolation and encouragement. 
 
 Allowing this to be the case, however — not deny- 
 ing that the great work of spiritual regeneration or 
 conversion is often effected by means and accom- 
 panied by circumstances, of which it is scarcely 
 possible that the individual should be utterly un- 
 conscious, as the testimony of Scripture, illustrated 
 by fact and experience, abundantly demonstrates, 
 we can by no means grant that it is indispensably 
 necessary that the time and instrument of it be, in 
 
 2 P 2 
 
580 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 every case, distinctly visible to the eye of the mind, 
 or be capable of being confidently pointed out. 
 Much misery and delusion have arisen from requiring 
 in this case, a test of genuineness — a criterion of 
 real Christianity, which the Bible no where demands, 
 and which the circumstantial condition of many 
 persons renders utterly incapable of application. This 
 principle is obviously inadmissible with reference to 
 those, who like Jeremiah, are mysteriously and pro- 
 gressively, though, in the earlier stages of character, 
 imperceptibly sanctified from the womb; those, in 
 whose hearts the germ of grace may have been im- 
 planted at the initiatory rite of baptism. In such 
 persons the birth from heaven — the birth from above, 
 is almost simultaneous with their natural birth, and 
 co-ordinate in time with the birth of water as its 
 emblem. It is also rarely that it can be applied, 
 with any degree of certainty, to those who have from 
 their childhood enjoyed the advantage of a religious 
 and virtuous education ; those, who have imbibed 
 correct theoretic views of divine truth, with the first 
 development of their intellectual faculties; Avho, from 
 the first dawn of infancy and opening manhood, have 
 invariably been subject to the salutary and directing 
 control of parental authority and example ; who have 
 thus been gradually trained to an inward respect and 
 veneration for the truth, and a uniform compliance 
 with its ceremonial ordinances and practical requi- 
 sitions, and whom nature has probably endowed with 
 her most estimable qualities, and adorned with the 
 loveliest graces. In these characters it is natural 
 to expect that the process of regeneration, at what- 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 581 
 
 ever period of life it is carried into effect, should be 
 attended with far less of deep and penetrating 
 emotion, and of striking and ostensible phenomena 
 than in persons of an opposite description. The 
 conversion of Paul of Tarsus, for example, might far 
 more easily be determined as to its chronology and 
 circumstances, than that of the prophet already 
 mentioned. And in modern times, that of Watts 
 or Doddridge was far less distinguishable as to its 
 precise period and agency than that of the revered 
 John Newton, or of Count Struense — the former 
 once an abandoned profligate, the latter a sceptical 
 philosopher and politician, as well as a vicious and 
 unprincipled debauchee. 
 
 It frequently happens, how^ever, that this allow- 
 able and unimportant difference of circumstances 
 of times and seasons is completely overlooked. 
 Persons of weak and tender consciences, sensitively 
 alive to every point most remotely connected with 
 their spiritual condition, are not satisfied to judge 
 of their state by the substantial evidence, w^hich the 
 conduct of their lives, and the habitual frame of 
 their spirits, supply; but aware of the indispens- 
 able necessity of a great and universal change, as, 
 independently of other considerations, the very 
 analogy of the term, by which it is expressed, evi- 
 dently imports, before they can be qualified to enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven; injudiciously and 
 ignorantly applying a few occasional instances re- 
 corded in Scripture, in which the attendants of the 
 regenerating and converting energy of grace were 
 palpable and striking, as specimens and rules of 
 
582 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 invariable procedure ; learning, moreover, from 
 verbal or written representation the process of deep 
 mental exercise, the alternations of fear and hope 
 preceding the firm establishment of an assured 
 confidence of acceptance, which others, diff'erently 
 constituted, and deemed by Infinite Wisdom proper 
 subjects of a diflferent economy, have experienced, 
 they are apprehensive that, as they have never 
 undergone such an oppressive and overwhelming 
 order of operations, they have "no part nor lot in 
 the matter." They forget, that where the disease 
 of the moral nature has not been confirmed by a 
 long course of vicious indulgence, or utter irreligion, 
 so as to become, if we may so speak, a chronic dis- 
 order, nor aggravated by a wilful neglect and abuse 
 of the proffered means of restoration, the divine 
 Physician employs a milder method than He deems 
 it necessary to use in cases of more inveterate and 
 protracted malady. The disease is indeed radical 
 and universal in the present fallen and degraded 
 character of man; and the remedial agency must 
 be substantially the same in every case. But 
 where the disorder has been prevented from run- 
 ning into the excess of impiety and moral turpi- 
 tude, by the application of such palliatives, as early 
 care, educational principles, and native dispositions 
 of a more amiable and generous order could supply, 
 the restorative process may well be imagined to be 
 commenced and carried on with equal effect by 
 such gentle alteratives, as are scarcely perceptible 
 in their operations. 
 
 The safest principle, by which man can judge of 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 583 
 
 bis condition is to bring it at once to tbc test of 
 Scripture. There be bas an infalliljle standard, 
 whicb being designed for universality of appKca- 
 tion, cannot in its judicious and enligbtened use, 
 possibly deceive or mislead bim. Tbis ultimate 
 and decisive criterion does not indeed exclude or 
 dispense Avitb a suitable order of affections as an 
 essential element of tbat character, wbicb it pro- 
 nounces safe and boly. But tlie main stress of its 
 requirements it doubtless places upon tbose moral 
 and practical graces — tbose zealous and active per- 
 formances of tbe revealed will of God, ^ybicb are tbe 
 invariable, tbe necessary fruits of a grateful affec- 
 tion; Avbicb are tbe pure streams spontaneously and 
 insensibly emanating from tbe divine love opened in 
 tbe beart. Tbe Feelings, as a test of character, are 
 employed in Scripture, as thus being less liable to 
 perversion and delusion, rather with a reference to 
 their effects than in their own immediate operation. 
 AVbere tbe genuine fruits of the Spirit manifest 
 themselves in the life and conduct, it may there be 
 safely assumed that the heart and affections have 
 been deeply impregnated with the influences of the 
 Spirit ; that a principle of vitality has been implanted, 
 and a celestial energy imparted, wbicb have quick- 
 ened and pervaded, however gently, and perhaps 
 imperceptibly, the whole moral system. But he, who 
 will altogether withdraw bis attention from these 
 tangible and convincing phenomena, and will seek 
 the evidences of his condition in emotions of the 
 beart, wbicb, however necessary and important, are, 
 to a considerable degree, mysterious and undefiu- 
 
584 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 able ; he who Avill sound the depth, gauge the dimen- 
 sions, and investigate the qualities of other persons' 
 feelings, between whose case and his own there may 
 be little or no analogy, and apply them as a rule 
 of admeasurement to his own character, for any 
 other purpose than that of stirring up his zeal, and 
 enkindling the fervour of his spirit by the glow of 
 their congenial warmth, adopts' a wrong and illusive 
 method for determining the genuineness of his reli- 
 gion. " To the law and the testimony" is the last 
 and most satisfactory resort, in this as well as every 
 other estimate of principle, doctrine and duty. If 
 the habitual character speaks the plain and practical 
 language, which they require and enforce, it may, 
 without danger or hesitation, be concluded that the 
 root of the matter is there. 
 
 ^N'or is it merely with respect to the primary work 
 of converting grace that an injudicious regard to 
 sensitive Affection is in danger of embarrassing and 
 distressing the mind. There are many who suffer 
 their views of their state before God, and their esti- 
 mate of their Christian attainments, continually to 
 fluctuate with the varying tide — with the incessant 
 ebbs and flows of their feelings. Without ardour 
 of affection, we have abundantly shown that there 
 can be no real Christianity, much less a high order 
 of advancement in the religious character. But it is 
 perfectly needless and unjust to suffer every occa- 
 sional instance of coldness and depression, which a 
 thousand unavoidable circumstances may concur in 
 producing, to throw the mind into a state of spiri- 
 tual doubt and despondency. Surely a Christian 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 585 
 
 has a firmer basis upon which to erect his hopes, 
 than that he should be unsettled by every blast 
 ■which may convey a chilling influence to his heart. 
 He has sounder principles, by which to regulate his 
 anticipations of the future, than that he should be 
 plunged into a state of despondency, or raised into 
 excessive elevation with every alteration of the 
 mental thermometer. Bodily infirmity, a deranged 
 state of the nervous or biliary system, and outward 
 affliction, or an overwhelming mass of necessary 
 business and secular occupation, may severally, 
 during their continuance, be attended Avith a dead- 
 ening influence upon the AflTections; while the cha- 
 racter, the moment it has disengaged itself from 
 these oppressive embarrassments, proves that it 
 has sustained no material decay by kindling into 
 reanimated warmth and proceeding with undimi- 
 nished vigour along the path of activity and obe- 
 dience. In illustration of the progressive influence 
 of the religious principle, as well as of every other 
 leading attribute of character, Bishop Butler, with 
 his usual profundity of remark, observes, that the 
 general efl'ect of continued habit is to w^eaken/ee?- 
 ing, and to confirm and strengthen a course of 
 2jractical duty. This circumstance sufficiently ac- 
 counts for those apprehensions of spiritual declen- 
 sion which frequently distress Christians of a 
 zealous and self-observant spirit, because their affec- 
 tions may not be quite so warm and susceptible as 
 they have once known them ; while, however, in all 
 the substantial endowments of the renewed character, 
 they appear to be steadily on the advance. 
 
586 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 It is dangerous, however, to carry this principle 
 too far, and to allow it too great a latitude of appli- 
 cation. A real deterioration of character generally 
 commences in the Affections, — in the decay of their 
 vital and animating warmth, — in their diversion 
 from their appropriate objects, and in their im- 
 moderate and ill-directed indulgence upon things of 
 a fugitive and transitory nature. It is possible that 
 the Christian's first love should reprehensibly and 
 lamentably wax cold, and that he may have good 
 reason to bewail that it is not with him as it was in 
 months that are past, — that the springs of his con- 
 solation are dried up, and that all refreshing com- 
 munication between heaven and his soul has been 
 cut off. The genuine and proper order of the Chris- 
 tian Character, as the estimable author of the " His- 
 tory of the Church of Christ" has well remarked 
 is, that the warmth and energy of the devout affec- 
 tions should grow in proportion to the increasing 
 light and knowledge of the understanding. And 
 where the reverse of this is strongly manifested, a 
 most dangerous relapse, if not total apostasy, may 
 be justly apprehended. 
 
 From the habit of contemplating the character? 
 and estimating it favourably or otherwise, with a 
 primary and almost exclusive reference to the Feel- 
 ings, individuals, and sometimes whole communities 
 have been led to take their rule of duty, and their 
 motives of conduct, from the same source. This 
 most injurious and mischievous error appears to 
 have formed a very prominent part in the system 
 of the Mystics. The same mistake, perhaps under 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 587 
 
 a no less dangerous and objectionable form, has 
 been adopted by those who, professing, and we 
 doubt not unfeignedlj feeling, the deepest reverence 
 for the sacred Scriptures, suifer their conduct to be 
 mainly regulated by what they conceive to be the 
 light and motions of the Holy Spirit stirring within 
 them, and arousing them to appropriate action. To 
 such persons a written revelation would seem to be 
 in a great measure useless, and to be almost en- 
 tirely superseded by that commanding and oracular 
 director, which, like the attendant spirit of Socrates? 
 has taken up his abode in their own breasts, and is 
 at all times ready to point out the path in which 
 they are to advance, and to check their progress 
 whenever they are in danger of making a wrong 
 and unauthorized movement. Under the influence 
 of these impulses, persons have frequently been 
 urged into measures, which, apart from the autho- 
 rity of these mandates, they would have unhesi- 
 tatingly censured and condemned. In the absence 
 of these supposed celestial intimations, they will 
 venture upon scarcely any undertaking of import- 
 ance; but when they begin sensibly to feel the 
 inspirations with which they are become fraught, 
 they are conscious of increasing uneasiness until 
 they have given vent to what they are prompted to 
 utter, or have engaged in the enterprise, on which 
 they are so powerfully urged to embark. To the 
 voice of this internal monitor, they deem themselves 
 bound to yield the most implicit obedience, and on 
 all questions of importance they appear literally to 
 regard it as the voice of God within them. That 
 
588 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 the divine Spirit can immediately produce such im- 
 pressions upon the heart, and sensibly affect with 
 such inclinations to speech or action, as leave no 
 doubt of their origin, and that he does, on some 
 occasions, thus actuate the minds of those, who 
 sincerely look for his guidance in modern times, as 
 unquestionably was the case in earlier periods of 
 the Church, is more than we can venture to deny; 
 and it is an important mixed inquiry of metaphysical 
 and theological science how we are fairly to account 
 for those emotions, by which men, of whose sin- 
 cerity we have no reason to doubt, and of whose 
 sound, and, in many cases, very superior intellec- 
 tual endowments we are certain, and whose personal 
 character, moreover, it is impossible to regard other- 
 wise than with feelings of veneration and respect, 
 believe themselves to be divinely excited and im- 
 pelled to the performance of duties which, inde- 
 pendently of such suggestions, they would not 
 venture to undertake. Where these secret monitors 
 obviously tend to good, and are in entire accordance 
 with the precepts and declarations of the written 
 record, it would be unphilosophical and unjust to 
 trace them to any principle of evil; and yet the 
 whole tenor of revelation, the whole analogy of 
 religion, as a system conducted by mediate agency 
 and operation, forbid us to recognize in them that 
 direct emanation from heaven, which the language 
 of those who profess to be guided by them would 
 sometimes seem to imply. The most natural and 
 correct interpretation of them, generally considered, 
 appears to be that they spring from the exercise of 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 589 
 
 conscience, partially enlightened by Scripture, and 
 voluntarily set at work, combined with those peculiar 
 associations, sometimes salutary and sometimes im- 
 posing and deceptive, Avliich are connected with a 
 specific mode of intercourse and intellectual disci- 
 pline, and the established habits of a community. 
 
 Section Y. 
 
 The State op the Affections in the immediate prospect 
 OP Death no sure Test of Spiritual Character and 
 Condition. 
 
 The last error, which we shall notice as not unfre- 
 quently connected Avith the exercise of sensitive 
 Affection in religion, is when frames and feelings, 
 as they have been often technically called, are made 
 a test of character and a criterion of safety, either 
 by the individual himself, or by those with whom he 
 is surrounded, in the immediate prospect of death. 
 It may, doubtless, be laid doMn as a general prin- 
 ciple, that they who have really been invested with 
 the privileges, and endued with the graces of the 
 Christian religion, die peacefully, and sometimes 
 triumphantly; while those of an opposite character, 
 for the most part, leave the world, either in a state 
 of stupified insensibility and unconcern, or under 
 the overwhelming pressure of just apprehension and 
 alarm. The closing period of human existence is 
 also, unquestionably, a season in many respects 
 highly favourable to the discovery of real character. 
 Then the mask of hypocrisy, if ever it has been 
 
590 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 worn, as incapable of answering any further pur- 
 pose, seems of its own accord to drop. The illu- 
 sions of life vanish, the phantoms of vain hope dis- 
 appear, and scenes of awful and eternal reality 
 begin to rush upon the view. Then, also, the false 
 props, which have hitherto sustained the mind, are 
 apt to give way, — the foundation of sand to yield, 
 and nothing but a well-grounded confidence in the 
 Eedeemer's merits, associated with the recollection 
 of a life, sincerely, though imperfectly devoted to 
 his service, can suggest a feeling of conscious, 
 security; and when, with a hope full of immortality, 
 with a faith, whose bright and realizing perceptions 
 are ready to be lost in actual beatific vision, the 
 soul is enabled cheerfully to resign itself into the 
 hands of its Saviour, no rational doubt can remain 
 that such a spirit had been renewed after the image 
 of Him who created it, and that now, after the ter- 
 mination of its earthly career, it will be safely re- 
 ceived into glory. 
 
 Hence has arisen a strong inclination in many 
 persons to regulate their views of their own future 
 condition at the evident approach of death, or of that 
 of their expiring friends and relatives, less by a deli- 
 berate and enlightened contemplation of their past 
 course, including the whole assemblage of their 
 Christian graces and endowments, as practically 
 evinced in their conduct — their faith, and hope, and 
 love, as manifested in their zealous and uniform 
 obedience, than by a consideration of the sensible 
 joy and consolation, which they experience in their 
 last conflict. It is delightful, indeed — it is, doubt- 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 591 
 
 less, one of the noblest and sublimest scenes upon 
 earth — it is a sight worthy the admiration of angels, 
 to witness the triumphant exit of the faithful servant 
 of Christ. It is worth livins; a life of sufferin"; and 
 self-denial, as it has been significantly remarked, if 
 it was to sen^e no other purpose, and to have no 
 other reference, than to secure a happy death. It 
 is a privilege of no ordinary magnitude to have the 
 light of heaven resplendently beaming upon the 
 soul, while it is now preparing to enter upon that 
 dark sojourn, which must be trodden, before it can 
 reach the confines of the heavenly inheritance. If 
 the glimmering visions of philosophy excited such 
 an enthusiasm of delight in its votaries, as to make 
 them sometimes wish to die in order to realize what 
 their imaginations had dubiously and, in many re- 
 spects, erroneously conceived, it is no wonder, that 
 the Christian should be sometimes transported with 
 emotions of the most rapturous elevation, when, at 
 the close of his arduous career, and in full assurance 
 of the divine favour, he is enabled, with the great 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, to claim the imperishable 
 crown, already as his 0T^^l, and to grasp the pahn of 
 victory with that hand, which had hitherto wielded 
 the sword of the Spirit. 
 
 The feelings of a dying hour, whether peaceful 
 and triumphant, or the reverse, are, however, to be 
 no further regarded than as they stand associated 
 with more substantial and decisive principles of 
 character. There doubtless may be the rapture of 
 delusion, or the confidence of pharisaical self-com- 
 placence, which it would be, in the highest degree. 
 
592 THE LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF 
 
 unscriptural and unsafe to admit as a convincing 
 proof of saving conversion. And there may, on the 
 other hand, be the depression of doubt and misgiving 
 apprehension, occasioned by the peculiar tendency 
 and overwhehning effect of bodily malady, or ap- 
 pointed by the infinite wisdom of heaven to check 
 the presumption of too aspiring spirits, observing the 
 descent of those burning and shining lights, which 
 had run a course so bright and radiant through the 
 firmament of the Christian church, and whose parting 
 beams were expected to tinge the horizon with more 
 than ordinary lustre. It may be, that they were 
 destined to set under a cloud in order to teach those, 
 who w^ere left behind, the necessity of securing unto 
 themselves a firmer basis for their hopes than the 
 joys and triumphs of a death-bed — a foundation, the 
 stability of which can neither be increased nor dimi- 
 nished by the emotions of expiring nature. These 
 feelings, therefore, at that solemn hour are utterly 
 out of place, as the test of the condition and final 
 destiny of an individual. 
 
 We now bring this extended Inquiry to a close, 
 and we trust that the preceding remarks exhibit a 
 faithful and scriptural view of that important and es- 
 sential element in the nature of man, which has been 
 under discussion, as it is legitimately and necessarily 
 connected with the Christian character, in reference 
 both to the obligations of time, and the felicities 
 of eternity. AVe have presented the positive and in- 
 dispensable uses, and the possible misapplications and 
 perversions of it, in such a consecutive and combined 
 order, as appeared calculated to secure that calm 
 
THE AFFECTIONS IN RELIGION. 593 
 
 and sober, but at the same time lively and energetic 
 exercise of the mental faculties, under the well 
 balanced influence of which, accompanied with the 
 divine blessing, a moral and religious character may 
 be gradually formed, which will be " not slothful in 
 business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" — 
 "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good 
 work." 
 
 2 Q 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Supernatural Influence necessary to render the Truths 
 
 OP Christianity efficacious upon the Human Mind 
 
 AND Character. 
 
 Hitherto we have been engaged in the consideration 
 of the just application and the well directed energy 
 of the faculties of the human mind, vicAved, as thrown 
 in some measure upon their own resources, and as 
 exerting their own native capabilities. We have con- 
 templated man in some of the most interesting 
 aspects and relations, under which his character can 
 be surveyed. AYe commenced our Estimate with a 
 view of the influence, which the bare exercise of his 
 intellectual powers upon subjects of literature and 
 philosophy is calculated to exert upon his character. 
 This influence we found to be in a high degree con- 
 ducive to the amelioration of the moral habits, and 
 the elevation of the mind and conduct above the 
 grosser debasements of vice, and, if duly regulated, 
 eminently favourable to the interests of genuine 
 religion. And having thus endeavoured to show that 
 the faculties of the mind, as applied to general sub- 
 jects of knowledge and investigation, are accompanied 
 in their progressive inquiries with salutary and be- 
 neficial effects upon the character, we proceeded to 
 examine the proper use of those faculties as con- 
 nected with the most important of all concerns, as 
 directed to that great and comprehensive order of 
 principles and facts, in reference to which alone tliey 
 
 2 Q 2 
 
596 CONCLUSION. 
 
 are capable of reaching their higliest state of sublimity 
 and maturity, and upon the brighter discoveries of 
 which they are destined to be employed throughout 
 eternity. And adapting our survey to those pheno- 
 mena of mind, which most prominently presented 
 themselves to our notice, we first considered man in 
 his most distinguishing characteristic as a Rational 
 being. In this department of our inquir}^, certain 
 principles of judgment were laid down, by a due 
 observance of which, Reason, so far from being 
 an antagonist to faith and revelation, as has some- 
 times been supposed to be the case, may become a 
 powerful auxiliary to both, receiving and consequently 
 authenticating with the stamp of its cordial accept- 
 ance, the declarations of the latter, after an enlight- 
 ened investigation of their character, and confirming 
 the belief of the former by an accurate examination 
 of its grounds. 
 
 We next considered man as a Voluntary being — 
 using the term voluntary in this instance in a general 
 sense as expressive of the possession of a faculty of 
 volition, or a capability of choosing and preferring. 
 To solve all the difiiculties — to unravel all the in- 
 tracacies — to carry our investigation into the very 
 first and last grounds of this most profound and 
 perplexing question, as it relates to the responsibility 
 and moral agency of man, we scarcely ventured to 
 attempt. To such a problem we can at best only 
 appl}^ the method of approximation. By a simple 
 and unbiassed consideration of the facts of the case, 
 as they evolve themselves in the process of actual 
 observation and experience, we trust that, in the 
 
CONCLUSION. 597 
 
 preceding discussion, the question has at least been 
 placed upon its right footing. It Avas made to appear 
 with sufficient evidence, that man, in the exercise of 
 volition, is bound by no such necessity, philosophical 
 or moral, as would virtually destroy his liberty as an 
 accountable being, while at the same time it was shown 
 that neither is he possessed of any such freedom as 
 exempts him from the influence of motives, or endues 
 him with any imaginary power of self-determination, 
 except in accordance with those views of present 
 good, whether true or false, which exhibit themselves 
 to his mind. Hence his responsibility appears to re- 
 solve itself into his capability, as a rational and 
 intelligent being, of discovering, by the aid of those 
 means which he possesses, what constitutes his chief 
 good; for his duty runs parallel, and is identified 
 in all its ramifications v>-ith the availing pursuit of 
 that good. Such is the foundation of that view of 
 limnan agency which was developed in the former 
 pages. 
 
 In the third place, we were led to survey human 
 nature in its relation to the divine Law as an expres- 
 sion of Duty and moral obligation. That Law we 
 found to be based upon a comprehensive and bene- 
 volent regard to the well-being of man, and thus 
 viewed it is seen to meet with a ready response from 
 the Conscience, as that moral sense or instinct which 
 forms an essential and most important part of the 
 nature of man, as a rational and accountable being. 
 
 In the fourth place, we viewed man as an Ima- 
 ginative being. In this department of our inquiry, 
 it was shown that the lively faculty under consider- 
 
598 CONCLUSION. 
 
 atioii, however liable to extravagance and abuse, 
 is capable, under proper guidance and due control, 
 of being directed to the noblest and most important 
 purposes. As an original element of our intellec- 
 tual nature, it cannot be supposed that it Avas in- 
 tended to lie dormant, or to be utterly extinguished 
 in reference to the most lofty and stupendous of all 
 the subjects to which it can be applied. We there- 
 foi;e endeavoured to point out the various ends to 
 which it may be rendered subservient, in the illus- 
 tration and enforcement of divine truth, and entered 
 at considerable length into an exposure of the evils 
 calculated to result from its exorbitant or ill-regulated 
 indulgence. By thus calling its energies into action, 
 and guarding against its undue preponderance by 
 providing seasonable checks in the well-balanced 
 operation of other co-ordinate faculties, it may, 
 doubtless, be made a powerful and salutary organ 
 in augmenting the force, and in accelerating the 
 movements of the machinery of the christian cha- 
 racter. 
 
 We finally undertook to estimate the character 
 of man in reference to the great business of reli- 
 gion as a Sensitive being — as a being endued with 
 an original susceptibility of strong and varied feel- 
 ings. Man, being so much a creature of emotion, 
 and not only happy or miserable, but also virtuous 
 or vicious, moral or depraved, spiritual or carnal, 
 according to the prevailing tenor of his feelings; 
 it is not for a moment to be imagined that so in- 
 fluential a part of his nature was designed to be cut 
 off from all connection Avith a (jucstion, which involves 
 
CONCLUSION. 599 
 
 his most important relations and liis liighcst des- 
 tinies. The only consideration deserving of serious 
 inquiry and attention is, how this powerful and all- 
 pervading ingredient in the mental constitution may 
 be most wisely and usefully called into operation. 
 In the preceding investigation, certain principles 
 were laid down, and attempted to be developed, by a 
 due regard to which the inestimable advantages of 
 Feeling, in the formation of the religious character, 
 may be secured, and its dangers effectually avoided. 
 The object of these correlative illustrations was to 
 mark out the path of piety and safety, along which 
 the enlightened Christian might advance to his 
 destined goal, maintaining an equal distance from 
 the polar chillness of lifeless formality, and the tro- 
 pical heat of a lawless enthusiasm. 
 
 Thus we have contemplated man in the relation, 
 which the chief constituents of his intellectual and 
 moral nature bear to the most important of all 
 questions. Our object has not been so much to 
 analyze the faculties, or to investigate the physi- 
 ology of his mind, as. to seize upon those powers, 
 which he is universally allowed to possess, and to 
 view them in their legitimate exercise and appli- 
 cation, as connected with that sublime order of 
 objects and pursuits, upon which they are destined, 
 if in the present state they are brought under due 
 influence and control, to be employed in elevating 
 and expanding progress throughout eternity. In 
 the course of these inquiries, we have found, that 
 in religion, considered with respect to its various 
 doctrines, and principles, "and prospects, there is 
 
600 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ample room for the exercise of every faculty of 
 mind, and of every order of talent; that within its 
 comprehensive range there is enough to employ 
 the Eeason of the inquisitive and acute, the Imagi- 
 nation of the fanciful and sublime, and the Feelings 
 of the lively and impassioned. I^or can we con- 
 ceive an instance of more daring rebellion against 
 the high purposes of Heaven, and of more utter and 
 complete frustration of the great end of man's in- 
 tellectual existence, than the wilful and systematic 
 diversion of these powers from the service of piety 
 and truth; and when we witness this grievous 
 desecration of lofty faculties, we are compelled to 
 utter our indignant sorrow with the poet, and to 
 exclaim, 
 
 " When I behold a genius bright and base, 
 Of towering talents and terrestrial aims, 
 Methinks I see, as thrown from her high sphere. 
 The glorious fragments of a soul immortal, 
 With rubbish mixt and glittering in the dust." 
 
 But in an Estimate of the human faculties it is 
 important to bear in mind, as we are drawing our 
 inquiries to a conclusion, what is the utmost extent 
 of their capabilities. After they have been directed, 
 in their highest state of cultivation and improvement 
 — in the most vigorous and concentrated energy of 
 operation, and under the most enlightened and 
 judicious guidance, to the great business of religion, 
 there is still a work to be effected — a change to be 
 produced in the human soul, to which, of themselves, 
 they are utterly inadequate. To render the Gospel 
 efficacious — to enable C'liristianity to exert its gen- 
 
CONCLUSION. 601 
 
 nine and availing influence upon the character, there 
 must descend a power from on high. As a necessary 
 appendage, therefore, to an Estimate of the inherent 
 Powers of the human mind, we shall subjoin a brief 
 inquiry into the nature and necessity of those In- 
 fluences of the Divine Spirit, without which all other 
 efforts to promote personal or general religion w ill 
 prove utterly unavailing. 
 
 It is an obvious and unquestionable fact, upon 
 whatever principle it be accounted for, that there is 
 a striking difference in the character of individuals 
 subject to the same external influences, and under 
 circumstances equally favourable to the operations 
 of vital religion. Casting an eye abroad over the 
 wide surface of professed Christianity, or even con- 
 fining our view to any smaU section of this extensive 
 territory, we shall be at no loss to discover the 
 immense disparity which prevails. Some we find 
 living in the habitual neglect of the plainest moral 
 obligations, ^^olating the most express injunctions 
 of the divine law, without remorse, and appearing 
 to bear the Christian name for no other purpose 
 than to dishonour it. Others there are, who, exempt 
 indeed from the ordinary allegations of palpable 
 immorality, yet are altogether as destitute of the 
 sentiments, the affections, and the graces of genuine 
 piety, as those just specified. Under these two 
 general modifications of character, varying from 
 each other by every possible intermediate shade, 
 may be comprehended the whole mass of the un- 
 ])elieving world. But however greatly they may 
 difl'cr as to the degree of practical depravity at 
 
602 CONCLUSION. 
 
 which they have arrived, they all agree in these 
 essential features of impiety in every form — a de- 
 cided, though perhaps, in some instances, unconscious 
 hostility to their Maker, an ungrateful rejection of 
 the Redeemer, and a fatal disregard of their eternal 
 interest. These habits, in many cases, they indulge 
 in the midst of every thing that might be deemed 
 best calculated to produce a reverse of conduct: 
 surrounded with the light of Eevelation — warned 
 by the voice of a faithful Ministry — oft admonished 
 in the impressive language of providential dispensa- 
 tions, and with the unavoidable conviction on their 
 minds, that they are travelling with an uninterrupted 
 pace towards a world where their destiny will admit 
 of no change. 
 
 Another order of human beings there is, not 
 excluding a very considerable variety among its con- 
 stituent members, yet universally standing in entire 
 opposition to these, which is distinguished no less by 
 a strict regularity, propriety, and general consistency 
 of outward deportment, than by a spirit of unaffected 
 piety, pervading and universally influencing the feel- 
 ings and dispositions of the heart. This latter class 
 of men is separated from the rest of the species by a 
 broad and visible line of distinction. The indivi- 
 duals, of which it is composed, form a peculiar and 
 highly-favoured people : — enjoying the same external 
 advantages — exposed to the same secular evils — hav- 
 ing to contend with the same forms of temptation 
 with the world at large, they bear a character pre- 
 eminently their own. The principles by which they 
 arc governed — the motives by which they are actu- 
 
CONCLUSION. 603 
 
 ated— the great end at which they aim — the varied 
 exercises of fear — of hope, and of desire, which alter- 
 nately agitate and tranquillize their breasts, belong 
 exclusively to themselves. AYhile the generality of 
 mankind, amidst all the diversity of their pursuits, 
 have the whole of their attention directed to the 
 objects of time, and scarce extend one serious 
 thought, or a single joyous anticipation beyond the 
 confines of the present world, theij afford clear and 
 satisfactory evidence, that the concerns of the tran- 
 sitory life, that now is, are a matter of very minor 
 and secondary importance ; and that with them the 
 care of the immortal and imperishable spirit, as it is 
 indeed beyond all comparison the most momentous, 
 claims the chief regard. Wliile the one exhibit a 
 fatal indifference to all the interests of futurity — an 
 indifference, spiritually considered, analogous to an 
 utter destitution of life, and sensible perception in 
 material beings ; the other evince, upon every sub- 
 ject connected with the service of God, and their 
 prospects beyond the grave, the liveliest and most 
 earnest concern : they respectively walk in a different 
 path, and breathe in a different element. The fact 
 of such a difference existing is unquestionable ; but 
 for the solution of the difficulty, which it involves, 
 we must look to a divine source of information. The 
 dissimilarity in question, as we are plainly taught in 
 the volume of inspiration, arises from the stubborn 
 resistance which is given, in the one case, to the 
 gracious suggestions of the divine Spirit, and the 
 cheerful compliance, Avhich is afforded in the other. 
 The external means, in both instances, are the same : 
 
604 CONCLUSION. 
 
 but these means are utterly neutralized in their 
 effects, where the agency of the Holy Spirit is with- 
 held, or if prevented by the perverseness of a de- 
 praved Will from exerting its proper influence. It is 
 to the want or the obstinate refusal of this powerful 
 aid we are to attribute all the inefficiency of the 
 divine Word itself, and of the human ministrations of 
 that word — all the deadness and lifeless insensibility 
 to the concerns of an eternal world, which so lament- 
 ably prevails among mankind. And it is to the 
 gracious communication of the same mighty agency, 
 that we are to ascribe the whole success of every 
 species of outward instrumentalit}^ ; as Avell in the 
 case of individuals, as in that of the Christian com- 
 munity at large. 
 
 If any are quickened from the death of sin, from 
 a state of moral darkness and inactivity in which no 
 spiritual perception, thought, or affection is exercised ; 
 if any are roused to a deep sense of their want and 
 danger, of the evil of sin, and of their need of holi- 
 ness ; if they have their understandings illumined by 
 the bright beams of truth, their hearts animated by 
 the sublime and elevating principles of the Gospel, 
 and their aff'ections powerfully attracted to the things 
 which are above ; if any are enabled to separate 
 themselves from a world that lieth in wickedness, 
 to renounce its corrupt maxims, and to relinquish 
 its vain pursuits, and to enter with a real earnestness 
 of heart upon the way that leadeth unto life ; it is 
 not that they had any previous tendency towards the 
 truths that they have eml)raccd, and to the course 
 they have adopted, more than the rest of mankind. 
 
CONCLUSION. 605 
 
 It is not that the mere means of their conversion, 
 simply and independently considered, carried with 
 them an irresistible force of conviction, and a weight 
 of subordinating infiiience, which it was impossible 
 not to feel, or to feel and at the same time with- 
 stand. These they probably had resisted for a long 
 period of time ; the effect is, therefore, to be pri- 
 marily attributed to another cause. It was produced 
 by the Holy Spirit working with and through the 
 means. The faithful exhibition of the threatenings 
 of the law, and of the proffered blessings and privi- 
 leges of the Gospel, may have been employed, in- 
 deed, as an instrument, but it was the Spirit who 
 infused the vivifying principle. . The sword of the 
 divine word may have been used, but it w^as the hand 
 of the Spirit alone, which could effectually have 
 wielded it. The dispensations of Providence, and 
 the external ordinances of grace, may have co- 
 operated in preparing the mind for the reception 
 of the truth, and in moulding the character into 
 a form suitable to its subsequent operation, but it 
 was the Spirit alone, who gave and could have 
 given life. 
 
 With a view of exhibiting the nature and neces- 
 sity of the grace of the Holy Spirit, we shall briefly 
 survey its operations under two leading aspects ; — 
 first, in the primary communication of a Divine life 
 into the soul ; and secondly, in the subsequent 
 effects produced by his influence upon the general 
 character. But before we enter upon the subject, 
 there are two questions which it appears necessary 
 previously to settle, the distinct and personal exist- 
 
606 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ence of the Holy Ghost, and the reality of his 
 agency. 
 
 With respect to the first of these questions, there 
 are persons not a few — persons not deficient in an 
 acquaintance with the literal statements of Divine 
 revelation, and, if mental attainment, critical skill, 
 and intellectual acumen alone were adequate to the 
 task, fully competent to judge of its meaning, who 
 go to a much greater length than honestly to ex- 
 press their ignorance "whether there be any Holy 
 Ghost." Theirs is not a hesitating assent, or a 
 wavering and unsettled persuasion, arising from an 
 obscurity of conception, occasioned by partial and 
 indistinct intimations ; they, on the contrary, boldly 
 and unequivocally deny the existence of that sacred 
 and glorious Person, whose work we are now to 
 discuss. It would be a mere afi'ectation of candour 
 to admit — it would exceed the just limits of the 
 most expansive charity to allow, that they have 
 been led to this view by a sim^Ae and unbiassed 
 study of the Scriptures, the only safe and legiti- 
 mate source of information respecting the Being of 
 Jehovah, his attributes, and his mode of subsistence. 
 There we find the real and distinct existence of the 
 Divine Spirit so clearly exhibited, so plainly implied 
 in the ascription to him of offices, in declarations, 
 in addresses and appeals, which can, with any con- 
 sistency of language, refer only to a real and distinct 
 agent, that it is difficult to suppose any man of 
 unprejudiced mind could rise from the perusal of 
 these records, and persuade himself that the active 
 power, to which in an individual and independent 
 
CONCLUSION. - 607 
 
 character so much had been attributed, was nothing 
 but a quality or an attribute, which it was deemed 
 convenient to personify, in order to convey a livelier 
 idea of its operations. Without, therefore, referring 
 to particular passages, which would be endless, and 
 for those, who are acquainted with their Bibles, un- 
 necessary, we may consider this question sufficiently 
 determined. 
 
 But the other point, which was mentioned, that 
 of the reality of the Spirit's influence upon the 
 human soul, has been a subject still more exten- 
 sively controverted. By some this has been wholly 
 discarded and denied, by others it has been ex- 
 plained and modified into a perfect neutrality. The 
 principal objection to the truth of a supernatural 
 influence, operating upon the mind of man, seems 
 to be that such an influence, if exerted, destroys 
 the freedom of human agency — the single circum- 
 stance which renders man a proper subject of moral 
 discipline, and invests him with the dignified but 
 awful character of a responsible and accountable 
 being. To this it is added, that the notion of a 
 sacred energy, such as is generally maintained, dif- 
 fused through the soul, and regulating its various 
 powers, is a thing in itself scarcely to be understood 
 o^- conceived. 
 
 To us every thing is apt to appear strange and 
 incredible, if not utterly impossible, which does not 
 fall under the immediate cognizance of our senses. 
 What is matter of daily and hourly experience, in- 
 deed, we never think of denying ; but if we take the 
 trouble to reflect, we shall find that the things are 
 
G08 CONCLUSION. 
 
 exceedingly few, if there be any, which we may be 
 said fully to comprehend. Where is the man who 
 can undertake to give a satisfactory explanation of 
 the mutual operation — the reciprocal influences of 
 the human body and spirit upon each other; for 
 few will think that the difficulty vrill be lessened by 
 maintaining that all is body, in the usual gross 
 sense of the expression, and that there is no spirit 
 at all ? Who has ever been found to understand 
 the secret mechanism, by Avhich mind acts upon 
 matter, and accurately to describe the method by 
 which a never-ceasing interchange of affection is 
 carried on between the corporeal and intellectual 
 systems ? Who has ever had the sagacity to dis- 
 cover how the mere utterance of an articulate sound 
 by one man should raise in the mind of another a 
 train of images precisely similar to those which 
 were present to his own, and by that means fill his 
 soul with the most delightful or the most melan- 
 choly, — the most sublime or the most degrading 
 sensations. Upon these and a variety of other 
 topics of the most ordinary occurrence, a child 
 might start a thousand difliculties, which it would 
 baffle the skill of the profoundest philosopher to 
 solve. The fact is, that while our knowledge of 
 these matters, if duly cultivated and improved, is 
 sufficient for the general purposes of life and con- 
 duct, we have a perfect understanding of scarcely 
 any of them. How then are we to proceed ? Are 
 we to believe nothing because we are unable to 
 comprehend every thing ? Are we to reject the 
 clearest testimony of experience because it does 
 
CONCLUSION. 609 
 
 not, at the same time, supply us with a complete 
 solution of every problem ? Are we to renounce 
 the character of percipient and reasonable beings, 
 because we are not omniscient ? Shall we deny 
 that our souls have a real influence upon our bodies 
 because we cannot exactly perceive how that influ- 
 ence is exerted ? The part of wisdom is obviously 
 to adapt our views to that state in which we find 
 ourselves placed; to regulate our assent by that 
 measure of evidence, and by that degree of light 
 and capacity which God has been pleased to afford 
 us, to steer a course equally remote from the cre- 
 dulity which believes every thing, and the scepticism, 
 which believes or affects to believe nothing. 
 
 We have been led to these remarks by the 
 known and avowed objection of many persons to 
 the doctrine of a spiritual and divine agency in 
 the renovation of the human heart, arising from 
 the mysterious, and, as they maintain, unintelligible 
 nature of this agency. From persons so generally 
 devoted to scientific pursuits, and who cannot be 
 unacquainted with the principles of analogical rea- 
 soning, this objection appears to me not a little 
 surprising. If it be a sufficient ground for reject- 
 ing a point of doctrine, that it is involved in some 
 degree of obscurity, that we cannot distinctly trace 
 it in all its connections, and in all its bearings, then 
 we affirm, that there is sufficient ground for rejecting 
 almost every principle of natural philosophy. Wliat 
 would become of the scheme of the modern astro- 
 nomy, if the theory of attraction were discarded, 
 because we could give no clear account of it ? 
 
 2 R 
 
610 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Who could scientifically navigate the ocean, if the 
 operation of the magnet Avas discredited, because 
 it is not known how it acts? If, indeed, disbelief 
 is invariably to accompany every instance of diffi- 
 culty of comprehension, we shall have scarcely a 
 single speculative tenet, to which we can give our 
 assent. According to this the infidel is justified 
 in rejecting a written Revelation; nay, the atheist 
 can hardly be condemned for denying a governing 
 Providence, and the very existence of a Supreme 
 Disposer. 
 
 If these observations be just, it is quite clear 
 that all objections against the personality and 
 agency of the Holy Spirit, arising from the circum- 
 stance of these points being surrounded with a veil 
 of partial mystery, when brought under the con- 
 templation of our confined powers, are null, void, 
 and irrelevant. These, therefore, like every other 
 point, which does not acknowledge the uncontrolled 
 power of Reason, must evidently be determined by 
 the simple voice of Scripture; and it may, without 
 hesitation, be affirmed, that upon few points does 
 this final arbiter of all human disputations pro- 
 nounce with greater clearness and decision, than 
 upon that, which we are now considering. In the 
 sacred volume, the Holy Spirit is repeatedly spoken 
 of as a distinct Agent. He is promised as a sanc- 
 tifier — a comforter — a guide — as the giver of life, 
 and the author of holiness ; and if these offices do 
 not involve a reality of distinct existence as well as 
 a reality of operation, words must surely l)e desti- 
 tute of meaning. 
 
CONCLUSION. 611 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to dispose of the ob- 
 jections, which appeared to stand in front of the 
 subject, we shall now proceed to consider the work 
 of the Spirit in the two points of view which were 
 proposed. The errors and false notions, Avhich have 
 been so thickly grafted upon this most important 
 doctrine, will be detected in the endeavour to give 
 an account of its genuine character. If it can be 
 shown what it really is, there will be no difficulty in 
 discovering what it is not. 
 
 In the first place, then, we are to consider the 
 influences of the Holy Spirit in the primary com- 
 munication of a divine life into the soul. The in- 
 sufficiency of ordinary means, unaccompanied by a 
 divine power to jiifect that mighty change in the 
 soul of man, which is expressed by the figure of a 
 resurrectic-. f^om the dead, has been evinced by 
 experience, as well as affirmed in Scripture. It is 
 hfi-dly possible to look into the state of religion in 
 Christian countries, Christian congregations, and 
 Christian families, without being convinced of this 
 fact. It is a very natural error into which young 
 converts are apt to fall, and into which some emi- 
 nent ministers, before the commencement of their 
 labours, have fallen, that it requires only a clear, 
 aff'ectionate, and forcible statement of truth, to pro- 
 duce deep and lasting conviction in the minds of all 
 jwho hear it. Having themselves experienced the 
 efficacious power of grace communicated through 
 the medium of outward ordinances — aware, at the 
 same time, that they were as blind, as inconsiderate, 
 as destitute of any tendency of affection towards 
 
 2 R 2 
 
612 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Grod as any can he, and that, as subjects, they had 
 not the slightest advantage over those around them, 
 they find it difficult to conceive that the sentiments 
 which are so fresh and lively in their own minds, 
 and carry with them such a force of self-evident 
 demonstration, Avherever they are duly appreciated, 
 should not meet with a ready reception in the 
 breasts of others. Under the influence of a some- 
 what similar illusion, it is possible that, in these 
 times of benevolence and pious zeal, the expecta- 
 tions of Christian philanthropists have somewhat 
 outstripped those probabilities of success attendant 
 upon the means of grace, to which experience would 
 have justified them to look forward. It may have 
 been deemed, upon a disproportionate and too ardent 
 calculation, that it was only necessary to supply 
 every house with the invaluable treasure of a Bible 
 — that it needed only to raise the standard of the 
 Cross in the midst of the wilderness of heathenism, 
 and to sound the glad tidings of salvation through 
 a Redeemer in the ears of Jewish unbelief, in 
 order to accomplish a general reformation of cha- 
 racter; and that by a sort of omnipotence neces- 
 sarily accompanying these means, the desired 
 change could not fail of being effected. Fact, how- 
 ever, has proved what a due consideration of Je- 
 hovah's conduct in the ordinary administrations of 
 his grace could not but have suggested. Plans of 
 benevolence, on the most extensive scale, and con- 
 ducted upon the soundest principles, are in continual 
 operation; streams of knowledge fresh from the 
 fountain of inspiration are diff'using themselves 
 
CONCLUSION. 613 
 
 over every corner of the globe ; the Gospel of Christ 
 is, from sabbath to sabbath, proclaimed by thou- 
 sands of faithful messengers ; all that is powerful 
 in human talent, all that is simple, ardent, and de- 
 voted in Christian zeal, is daily called into exer- 
 cise ; but the actual success attendant on these 
 efforts, while it is abundantly sufficient to incite to 
 still greater activity, yet must be acknowledged to 
 be far from correspondent with the magnitude of 
 the exertions already put forth. Millions read the 
 w^ord of God with a professed belief of its contents, 
 without receiving the slightest salutary influence 
 from its lessons; a number, perhaps, equal, or still 
 greater, hear the word preached, without seeming 
 to think it at all necessary that they should be doers 
 of the Avord as well as hearers. 
 
 The reason of this is doubtless that these per- 
 sons have no life in them. They want a principle, 
 which no agency less than a divine is capable of 
 bestowing upon them. If the instrumentality of the 
 written word, and of human teaching alone, was 
 sufficient, they would long since have been made 
 alive unto righteousness. Before they can rise 
 into life, a quickening power must descend upon 
 them from above. To understand the full force of 
 this assertion, it must be recollected that the natural 
 state of man is that of death in trespasses and 
 sins without holiness, without grace, without the 
 least spiritual feeling. At the fall he received a 
 shock which paralysed and numbed every limb — 
 every nerve of the internal man, and left him a 
 blasted, withered form of humanity, without so much 
 
614 CONCLUSION. 
 
 as a power to feel his misery. While he remains 
 in this condition, the simple application of external 
 means is incapable of imparting the least degree 
 of salutary influence. The feelings of his nature 
 may, indeed, in some measure, be wrought upon, 
 as the fibres of once animated but now lifeless 
 matter may be put in motion by the operations of 
 galvanism, but a sensation truly vital and spiritual 
 it cannot awaken. He must be spiritually revived 
 before he can spiritually feel: he must be endued 
 with a celestial principle which will act as a soul 
 within a soul, before he can experience the emotions 
 and perform the functions of a living being. And 
 as the total failure of the outward machinery of 
 religion, while unaccompanied by a quickening 
 energy, proves the indispensable necessity of a 
 divine power to render it eff'ectual in any case, so 
 those particular instances in which it is found suc- 
 cessful, are equally illustrative of the same truth. 
 It is the primary basis of all reasoning and philo- 
 sophy that similar causes produce similar eftects; 
 or, to exhibit the same idea in a modified and some- 
 what expanded form, that a similar agency, ope- 
 rating upon similar subjects, will result in the dis- 
 play of the same general phenomena. In the 
 application of this principle to the point under con- 
 sideration, without intending to carry the analogy 
 to such an extent as would, in the slightest degree, 
 infringe upon the accountablencss of man as a 
 rational being, we remark that the agency generally 
 employed consists of the various modes of instruc- 
 tion, by providential occurrences, by written re- 
 
CONCLUSION. 615 
 
 cords, and more esi)eciallj bj ministerial labours. 
 The subjects to which this agency is directed, are 
 human beings, all by nature corrupt, degraded, and 
 totally destitute of spiritual life and feeling. But 
 what is the effect ? On a supposition of the iden- 
 tity or perfect similarity of the influence exerted, 
 we might have naturally expected a uniformity of 
 result, either invariably successful, or invariably 
 abortive. But the fact is totally otherwise. While 
 the great majority of mankind remains untouched, 
 unaffected, unrenewed, some discover no uncertain 
 or equivocal symptoms of an almost entire transfor- 
 mation of character having been wrought in them. 
 Assuming it as an allowed and established point, 
 that all the individuals of the human species are, 
 by nature, tainted wdth a similar stain of pollution, 
 and present similar impediments to the renovating 
 operations of divine grace, the circumstance of some 
 being awakened from their fatal slumbers, and of 
 the rest continuing to sleep in perilous indifference 
 upon the brink of everlasting ruin, seems capable 
 of no other mode of explanation, than the suppo- 
 sition of an influence being made to operate upon 
 the one class, which does not effectually reach 
 the other. If the rams' horns, employed by divine 
 appointment in the demolition of the walls of Jericho, 
 had been blown around any other town, or succes- 
 sion of towns, similarly fortified, without producing 
 the same effect, it would doubtless have been con- 
 cluded, that the difference Avas to be referred to 
 another power than was inherent in these feeble 
 instruments. If, while Ezekiel was pronouncing 
 
616 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the heaven-directed call over the dry bones of the 
 valley, some few had started into life, while the 
 rest remained in the same state of inanimate qui- 
 escence, the disparity of effect would assuredly, and 
 most justly, have been traced to a higher source 
 than was to be found in the Prophet's voice, or 
 in the materials to which he was commanded to 
 address himself; it would have been deemed an 
 abundant proof of a divine attendant power, that 
 any should be quickened and fashioned into a 
 human form. We intend not, in these illustra- 
 tions, to neutralize the essential difference between 
 physical and moral subjects, as susceptible of the 
 operations of an external agency. The distinction 
 is, doubtless, great and important. But it is 
 assuredly no less true of the latter, than it is of 
 the former, that when an effect has been produced 
 upon them for which there was no adequate in- 
 herent cause, it must be resolved into an influence 
 from without, and the efficiency of that influence 
 must be estimated, whatever peculiarities of mental 
 constitution may have interfered with its opera- 
 tions, according to its actual results. Where a 
 saving change has been produced, it must be 
 ascribed unto a divine energy, accompanying the 
 means of grace. Wliere no such change has taken 
 place, it is a clear proof that either the same energy 
 has not been imparted in the same degree, or that 
 a larger proportion of it was necessary, not to 
 render the individual inexcusable, for enough may 
 have been communicated for this aAA^ul purpose, 
 but in order to be really and practically availing 
 
CONCLUSION. 617 
 
 to his conversion. To delineate the exact manner 
 in which the Holy Spirit operates upon the mind 
 in the primary communication of life unto the soul, 
 is impossible. The vivifying process we can Lut 
 very indistinctly conceive. Of the man quickened 
 by his influences, we can say little more than that, 
 whereas he was blind, he now seeth — whereas he 
 was dead, he is now alive. The means, in con- 
 junction with which the Spirit's influences generally 
 descend, and without the use of which we are 
 never warranted to expect his aid, are, for the most 
 part, the study of the divine word, and the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel. His oflice, at this period, in 
 the progress of the character, appears to be chiefly 
 to prepare the mind, and to render the heart sus- 
 ceptible of the impressions of revealed truth, as it 
 is the action of fire only which renders the Avax 
 a fit recipient of the impress of the seal. As a 
 sufficient guard against the enthusiastic abuse of 
 the doctrine of a divine influence, it must ever be 
 maintained, that the Spirit reveals no new truths, 
 makes no fresh communications from heaven, but 
 merely so disposes and affects the various faculties 
 of the soul, as that they may be able to perceive 
 with clearness, and to feel with force, the truths 
 already made known. To see the objects around 
 us in the light of the meridian sun, it is only neces- 
 sary that the eyes be opened; to feel the warmth 
 of the same glorious luminary, it is only necessary 
 that the sensitive powers be awake and lively. 
 This preparation of the mind for the admission of 
 divine truth is expressed by terms correspondent 
 
618 CONCLUSION. 
 
 with those faculties of the soul with which it is 
 more immediately concerned. As applied to the 
 understanding, it is called illumination — "Having 
 the eyes of your understanding enlightened;" as 
 it regards the heart and affections, it is denomi- 
 nated sanctification ; as it is the incipient germ of 
 a thorough renovation of the whole character, it 
 is expressed by the comprehensive term of regene- 
 ration. 
 
 J^atural life, as well as spiritual, separately and 
 simply considered, we should find it extremely dif- 
 ficult to define. We discover either principle only 
 by the capacities with which it is attended, and by 
 the functions which it performs. The moment that 
 the soul becomes endued with divine life, it is capable 
 of views and feelings, to which it was before an utter 
 stranger. Eoused, as out of an inert and uncon- 
 scious lethargy, it instantly begins to exercise its 
 faculties in a manner wholly new and peculiar, and 
 is subject to a train of warm and lively impressions 
 from objects, which previously did not, in the least, 
 or but very vaguely and incoherently, affect it. 
 
 Of the effects of this powerful agency, upon the 
 mind and character, our notice must be very limited 
 and partial. The mention of life, as communicated 
 to a being that was destitute of it, instantly leads 
 the mind to the contemplation of a very material 
 and important change in the essential character of 
 that being. Wliatever he may have been before, it 
 is obvious that he must now be possessed of very 
 different and very superior properties. The nature 
 of the qualities, whicli have been thus superinduced 
 
CONCLUSION. G19 
 
 upon him, will correspond with the nature of the vital 
 principle that has been imparted to him. The life 
 under our present consideration has been justly 
 entitled " the life of God in the soul of man," and 
 must, therefore, have a direct tendency in all its 
 operations, to form the character into a similitude 
 of Him, Avho is the author and bestower of it. The 
 Spirit who quickens is a Holy Spirit, and, in the 
 communication of life, acts in his own genuine 
 character. Hence, the influence which he imparts is 
 calculated to create the soul anew after the divine 
 image, in the same way as it is the nature of fire to 
 convert every element with which it comes in contact, 
 and upon which it acts, into a congeniality with itself. 
 Let us then attempt to trace this assimilating process 
 through a few steps of its progressive advancement : — 
 First, see the individual under review, lying dead 
 in the insensibility of sin, and surrounded with the 
 corruptions of nature, without one ray of light — 
 without one spark of holiness ; the victim of delusion, 
 the slave of passion, and the dupe of the great 
 adversary of man. But now the hour has arrived, 
 when, as one important event in the evolution of the 
 eternal purposes of Jehovah, he is to experience a 
 resurrection unto life — the hour in which there is to 
 descend upon him from on high a power, capable of 
 rousing him out of the sleep of death. Opening the 
 eyes of his understanding, he beholds in a clear and 
 most deeply interesting point of view, a variety of 
 objects, which before he did not even dimly descry. 
 His facidty of vision is, indeed, at fii'st, far from 
 perfect ; but he sees with distinctness enough to feel 
 
620 CONCLUSION. 
 
 assured, that the objects of his contemplation are 
 realities, and not the shadowy scenes of a dreaming 
 fancy. Things of which he had hitherto only heard 
 the name, and the sound of which had passed through 
 his ears like the gale which blew over his head, with- 
 out leaving the least impression, now assume, in the 
 eye of his sober estimation, a character of the most 
 awful importance. The glories of heaven — the mise- 
 ries of hell — the evil of sin — the beauty of holiness 
 — the love of Christ, and the various blessings of the 
 new covenant, he no longer regards as phantoms 
 of weak and speculations of visionary minds, but he 
 considers them as matters of the most momentous 
 practical interest. The false notions which he had 
 imbibed respecting his own character — the just 
 demands of the divine law, and the means of resto- 
 ration unto favour and peace, he has cordially re- 
 nounced, under a full conviction of their incorrect- 
 ness and absurdity. And as objects appear to in- 
 crease in magnitude, and are perceived with greater 
 precision in proportion as they are approached, so 
 his views upon the several subjects that have been 
 mentioned, are found to grow still more bright and 
 vivid as he is advancing towards the horizon of time, 
 and comes into closer contact with the realities of 
 eternity. 
 
 But it is in the alFections of the heart, and in the 
 conduct of the life, that the effects of the Spirit's 
 influences display themselves in the loveliest forms, 
 and in their highest glory. Antecedently to the 
 operations of that mighty Agent upon the soul, the 
 breast was the seat of carnal, depraved, and malig- 
 
CONCLUSION. 621 
 
 nant passions, which, at the slightest dc2,Teo of irri- 
 tation, were ever ready to burst into a flame. The 
 first-fruit of the Spirit is love — love towards God. 
 Like a mass of ice, melting before the w^arm beams 
 of the sun, the heart, which in a state of nature is 
 frozen into enmity against God, touched by the 
 softening influence of the Spirit, dissolves into pure 
 and genuine affection; the carnal mind, laying aside 
 its hatred and dislike of his character, and its de- 
 termined stubbornness of opposition to his law, is 
 converted into a spiritual mind, which delights in 
 the contemplation of his perfections, glows with 
 gratitude for his kindness, and enters with alacrity 
 into the whole plan of his government — a mind 
 which derives the chief source of its enjoyment 
 from the experience of his favouring presence, and 
 draws the motives of its obedience from the fountain 
 of redeeming love. It is also love to man. The 
 same subordinating power which slew the enmity 
 against God, and kindled in its stead the flame of 
 ardent affection towards him, has also expanded, 
 into a free exercise of every benevolent and disin- 
 terested emotion, the heart which under every blast 
 of unkindness was ready to be contracted into self- 
 ishness, or hardened into insensibility. The mind 
 that was ever prone, to regard rather with feelings 
 of jealousy than with sincere delight the happiness 
 and the superior advantages of others, that deemed 
 every instance of ill-treatment a justifiable ground 
 of hatred and ill-treatment in return, and every 
 instance of ingratitude a sufficient reason for with- 
 holding kindness, has now become generous in its 
 
622 CONCLUSION. 
 
 principles, tender and amiable in its sympathies, 
 and patient of injuries and persecutions. Not 
 unconcerned for the temporal welfare of mankind, 
 and not backward to contribute to the utmost ex- 
 tent of the possessed means toward the promo- 
 tion of their present happiness — its chief anxiety it 
 will consider as justly due to their eternal interests. 
 Viewing them as creatures made for immortality, 
 its most earnest and persevering efforts will be de- 
 voted to the still more important purposes of securing 
 (so far as its endeavours may succeed) their well- 
 being in a world to come. Necessarily associated 
 with this exercise of universal love will be the other 
 virtues, graces, and endowments, of the Christian 
 character — all blending into a soft and harmonious 
 combination, and all flowing forth as so many 
 streams from that fountain of living waters, which the 
 Divine Spirit has opened in the heart. There Joy 
 mingled with gratitude, and elevated by Hope, 
 arising in part from the consideration of miseries 
 escaped, and in part from the anticipation of feli- 
 cities to be enjoyed — from a sense of the privileges 
 now possessed, and of the blessedness still in reserve, 
 triumphs as in its natural element. There Peace, 
 meek, gentle, and serene, resulting from the subjuga- 
 tion of the appetites and passions — from the banish- 
 ment of vain and irregular desires — from a soothing 
 persuasion of being in a state of reconciliation with 
 God, through the death and righteousness of his 
 Son, diffuses a calm and delightful composure 
 through all the powers of the soul. There forbear- 
 ance, under every species of ])rovocation, resignation 
 
CONCLUSION. 623 
 
 to the divine will, under the most trying dispensa- 
 tions of providence, and amidst the most afflictive 
 scenes of human life, will check the first risings of 
 anger, and silence the voice of complaint. There 
 faith i^ all the variety of its operations will act with 
 energy and vigour, reposing an unhesitating trust in 
 all the declarations of Jehovah — confiding with un- 
 shaken reliance in the meritorious life and atoning 
 death of the Redeemer, as the sole and all-sufficient 
 ground of its hope of salvation, looking forward with 
 a realizing eye to the glories of a future world, 
 amid the clouds and darkness of present sufferings, 
 and directing, as a primary power, the whole move- 
 ments of the conduct. There the flame of Devotion 
 burns; Prayer delights to make kno^vn its request; 
 Praise to off'er up its incense of thanksgiving; holy 
 Contemplation to unfold its opinions, and to soar 
 amidst scenes yet remote. There, also, the duties 
 of temperance and self-denial ; the rigid restraint, 
 within their due and appropriate bounds, of the 
 several faculties and affections of the soul, will meet 
 with the requisite share of attention. There, in 
 short. Goodness, in all its constituent principles ; 
 whether it regards God or man; whether it relates 
 to the understanding, the heart, or the life — to the 
 habits of the mind, or the regulation of the conduct, 
 proves its existence, vindicates its character, and 
 evinces its celestial origin. 
 
 These are the general and leading effects of the 
 influences of the Holy Spirit in the formation of the 
 Christian character. It is hardly necessary to say, 
 that these eff'ects do not at first, nor indeed at 
 
624 CONCLUSION. 
 
 any period durii^^ the present existence, exhibit 
 themselves in a state of perfection. At first, the 
 principle of life is simply imparted. This principle, 
 is, indeed, perfect in its kind, and imperishable in 
 its natm-e; but tnat it may be unfolded in all its 
 capabilities, that it may be fully developed in all its 
 tendencies, that it may diffuse itself through the 
 whole system, it will require much time, much care, 
 much prayer, and much diligent exertion. In its 
 progress, a progress, notwithstanding, steady and 
 uniformly advancing, it will have to encounter much 
 opposition, and to contend with many a bitter adver- 
 sary. Like a spark of fire, occasionally smothered 
 by the base materials with which it is surrounded, it 
 may sometimes appear almost utterly extinguished; 
 but, as it is a spark from heaven, it defies all the 
 powers of earth and hell altogether to extinguish it. 
 Gradually it will work its way through the mass of 
 corruption which overlays it, and spread itself through 
 the whole character, consuming what is incorrigible 
 alloy, and purifying what is capable of such a process. 
 And as the influences of the Holy Spirit affect 
 the character of individuals, such, doubtless, must 
 be their effect upon nations and communities; and 
 it is in no small degree gratifying to reflect, that 
 the period is approaching, and is probably not very 
 distant, when the Spirit shall be poured upon all 
 flesh, — when, like a shower of reviving and fertiliz- 
 ing rain. He will descend upon the wide field of the 
 world, and invest it as with a robe of mantling 
 dew, quickening every plant, and refreshing every 
 blossom. At present the field of human existence 
 
CONCLUSION. 626 
 
 exhibits an aspect at once exhilarating and melan- 
 choly — exhilarating when we contemplate the stir 
 and activity of the many diligent and faithful 
 labourers that are scattered over its surface; — 
 when we witness the mighty preparations that are 
 going forward in it ; — when we obseiTe the rare 
 combination of intellect, feeling, and practical effort 
 which is brought to bear on its improvement ; when 
 we notice the noble machinery which wisdom and 
 love have erected and put in vigorous operation 
 over its several parts, and when we consider all 
 this in connection with the infallible assurance which 
 we have, that ultimately the means will be crowned 
 with the most complete success — with that promise 
 of Jehovah, which affirms that the time ivill come 
 when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the 
 whole face of the earth, when the spirit shall be 
 poured in plentiful effusion from on high, and, as 
 the result of his renovating influence, the wilder- 
 ness shall become a fruitful field. But it presents, 
 on the other hand, an aspect in no small degree 
 melancholy, when it is considered how very scanty 
 has been the produce hitherto reaped from the 
 diversified labours that have been expended, how 
 very disproportionate, upon the ordinary principles 
 of calculation, has been the amount of the fruit 
 actually gathered in, to the amount of the seed 
 which has been disseminated ; how small a portion 
 of the habitable globe has yet been gained over 
 from the usurped dominions of the prince of dark- 
 ness, to 3deld to the peaceful, privileged government 
 of the Son of Grod, and how far is that intimation 
 
 2 S 
 
626 CONCLUSION. 
 
 from being yet realized, by which we are taught to 
 anticipate the time when the kingdoms of the earth 
 shall become the Lord's and his Christ's. 
 
 I do not bring forward these latter remarks, in 
 order to throw a character of abortiveness and in- 
 utility over the efforts of Christian zeal. No, let it 
 ever be recollected, that to be favoured with any 
 real success, though it should be confined to the 
 conversion and final salvation of one soul, w^ould 
 be more than an adequate compensation for the 
 united, the continued exertions of the whole Chris- 
 tian world. In the progress of eternity it will 
 be seen that the destiny of one immortal being 
 involves a greater amount of happiness or misery 
 than had ever been experienced through all the 
 revolutions of time in the countless variety of its 
 separate interests; nay, if the labours of Christian 
 benevolence were attended with no ostensible suc- 
 cess whatever, still if the command to labour be 
 express and peremptory, the duty would be clear 
 and imperative, and we should be no more justified 
 in neglecting it than Ezekiel w^ould have been in 
 foregoing the work of prophecy, because the ani- 
 mating principle did not descend at the first annun- 
 ciation of his message. His business was to pro- 
 phesy; it was God's to endue with life. At the 
 present time Ave see a general commotion, excited 
 by the voice of Christian instruction, over that deep 
 and extensive valley, in which a vast proportion of 
 the human species lies scattered and dead. We 
 behold the new and unexampled impression con- 
 ducted as by electric agency from one corner of 
 
CONCLUSION. C27 
 
 the earth to another. We witness the dispersed 
 particles, the dissevered limbs, which may hereafter 
 form component parts of the body of Christ, which 
 is his church, seeming to have a disposition to unite 
 and assume somewhat of a consolidated shape. But 
 one thing is still wanting, and it is that, without 
 which all efforts, however persevering and well- 
 directed, will fail of their end, the most encouraging 
 appearances, the most animating prospects, and the 
 most sanguine anticipations result in utter disap- 
 pointment. This is that quickening spirit, that 
 breath of the Almighty, which gives the Gospel 
 all its efficacy, truth all its force, and duty all its 
 vitality. 
 
 The outward temple is erecting by the labour of 
 a thousand busy hands, a Divine blessing evidently 
 attends upon its progress, and contributes to its 
 glorious completion by resources and facilities, on 
 which there was no ground to , calculate. What 
 remains — ^what is essential to its full perfection, 
 and what, therefore, it becomes us devoutly to im- 
 plore is, that the sacred presence — the Shekina of 
 the Divine glory, and the medium of Divine com- 
 munications — should descend into it and consecrate 
 it to Jehovah's honour. To drop the language of 
 metaphor, what we want is, that G-od's Holy Spirit 
 who, alone, as we have abundantly shown, is the 
 giver of grace and life, should come down and pour 
 the abundance of his influence upon us, as indivi- 
 duals occupying various stations and offices, and as 
 social bodies constituting different orders in the 
 civil or religious world, — upon our rulers, and those 
 
 2 S 2 
 
628 CONCLUSION. 
 
 in authority over us, that they may be willing to aid, 
 by their countenance and influence, the extension of 
 the Eedeemer's kingdom, not from mere motives of 
 policy and conciliation, but from an unfeigned desire 
 of promoting the interests of piety and truth — upon 
 the bishops of our church, and our ecclesiastical 
 governors in general, that they may be taught to 
 exercise the high powers with which they are in- 
 vested with zeal and integrity, and with a sincere 
 aim at the glory of God, as involved in the faithful 
 discharge of the important functions of their office 
 — upon all our subordinate labourers in the vine- 
 yard of Christ, that by their fidelity, their diligence, 
 and their devotedness of heart to the great work 
 in which they are engaged, by the soundness of 
 their doctrine, and the purity of their lives, they 
 may be the honoured instruments of bringing many 
 souls into a knowledge of the Saviour, of awakening 
 the heedless, of instructing the ignorant, and of 
 consoling the afflicted — upon our congregations, 
 that by the warmth of their aff'ections, by the cor- 
 rectness of their principles, and by the consistency 
 of their lives, they may adorn the Gospel of 
 Christ, and make it evident, that the labours of 
 their ministers have not been spent in vain upon 
 them — upon our families, that they may be families 
 calUng upon the name of the Lord in sincerity and 
 truth — upon every member of the community, that, 
 according to his means and capabilities, he may 
 make it his endeavour to fulfil the great end of his 
 being, by rendering himself Avholly subservient to 
 the purposes of grace, and to the advancement 
 
CONCLUSION. 629 
 
 of the divine glory, and with special emphasis we 
 would add — upon those noble Institutions, which, of 
 late, have sprung up in our land, having for their 
 sole, their exalted, their disinterested object, the 
 promotion of the honour of God, as combined with 
 the present and future happiness of man; that they 
 may be abundantly blessed in their labours of love ; 
 that the streams of living waters, which are continu- 
 ally emanating from their magnificent resources, 
 and which have now diffused themselves over almost 
 every portion of the globe, may prove, indeed, 
 streams of salvation to many a dreary region ; that 
 the divine Word, which they have so widely dis- 
 seminated, may be a word of power unto many 
 souls ; and that the devoted agents, whom they send 
 forth, may, indeed, be the bearers of glad tidings of 
 salvation to many glad and mlling hearers. 
 
 For the success of these Institutions, so far as 
 patronage, wealth, and talent, are concerned, we have 
 ground to indulge a grateful confidence. They are, 
 indeed, countenanced by the highest authorities, both 
 ecclesiastical and civil; their treasuries are sup- 
 plied by the munificence of the most opulent, and 
 their interests are supported and maintained by the 
 ablest and most endowed in the various depart- 
 ments of genius and knowledge. While, therefore, 
 we should not fail to be duly thankful for the general 
 disposition to spread abroad the knowledge of a 
 Saviour, which now prevails — a disposition, doubt- 
 less, to be finally traced to a divine agency, we 
 must ever recollect, that it is not by might nor by 
 power, but by the Spirit of the Most High, that 
 
630 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the spiritual temple must be erected. Without his 
 gracious influence, all those channels of blessing, 
 which Christian benevolence has formed, will do no 
 more towards conveying the real benefits of the 
 Gospel, than the aqueducts, which interspersed the 
 land of Egypt, could contribute towards fertilizing 
 the soil without the necessary inundations of the 
 Nile. 
 
 I know not whether it be necessary, as we draw 
 these observations to a close, to subjoin one further 
 cautionary, or rather explanatory, remark. It is 
 this — that the consideration of the utter inefficacy of 
 human efforts, unaccompanied by a divme power, 
 as here stated, in no degree destroys the responsi- 
 bility or neutralizes the obligations of man as an 
 accountable and immortal being. His duty as a 
 moral agent is a question wholly independent of 
 that which we have now been discussing; and, in- 
 deed, there is guilt involved in the very circum- 
 stance, that by nature the state of his mind is 
 such as to render the influence that we have been 
 considering, indispensable to the renovation of his 
 character. Let no one imagine, therefore, that he 
 is to remain ' heedless and unconcerned, until some 
 resistless impulse has roused him out of his le- 
 thargy — that labour and exertion on his part are 
 premature and nugatory, until a resuscitating in- 
 fluence descends upon him from above. It is the 
 Holy Spirit, alone, indeed, that can infuse a vivi- 
 fying principle into the human soul, and inspire it 
 with tlie requisite energy for motion and action, as 
 it is the wind of licavcn only which can effectually 
 
CONCLUSION. 631 
 
 waft a vessel over the ocean; but prcimratory 
 measures and subsequent co-operation in the due 
 application and use of these measures are equally 
 necessary in both cases, and in neither is there 
 reason to calculate upon success, where these are 
 not judiciously and efficiently applied. 
 
 Such is the view, which a calm and unprejudiced 
 survey of the Faculties of man in connection with 
 the discoveries of Eevelation and the phenomena of 
 the Moral Universe appears to suggest. Such are 
 the uses, to which it appears to have been designed 
 by their gracious and beneficent Author, that they 
 should be applied in connection with the final and 
 paramount End of human existence. To the realiza- 
 tion of this result — the manifestation of the glory of 
 God as inseparably connected with the welfare of His 
 creatures, they are, in all their varied exercises to be 
 uniformly subservient, and as directed to this object, 
 they are doubtless destined to rise to higher degrees 
 of power and perfection throughout the progress of 
 Eternity. 
 
 THE END 
 
 VRRISON AND CO., PRINTERS, 45, ST. MABT1> 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Handmaid; or, The Pursuits of Literature and 
 
 Philosophy considered as subservient to the Interests of Morality 
 and Religion. One vol. duodecimo, 45., in cloth. 
 
 " A beautiful example of what maybe done to render the mental activity of 
 the present times conducive to an unequivocal recognition of the authority of 
 that religion of which the volume of eternal truth is the text-book. On these 
 important subjects Mr. D. has written with a comprehensiveness, a clearness, 
 and a classical elegance of diction, which could be commanded only by a mind of 
 very high order." — Evangelical Magazine. 
 
 London : John W. Parker, West Strand. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Ordinances of Religion practically Illustrated 
 
 and Applied. One vol. octavo, 7^. Qd. 
 
 Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly. 
 
 III. 
 
 First Impressions ; a Series of Letters from France, 
 
 Switzerland and Savoy. One vol. crown octavo, 85., in cloth. 
 Seeley and Burnside, Fleet Street. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Christian Worship: its Object and Essential Requi- 
 sites. A Discourse preached before the University of Cambridge, 
 in June, 1844. Is, 6c?. 
 
 Seeley and Burnside, Fleet Street. 
 
London, West Strand, Jaimaiy, 1847- 
 
 Books printed for Joliii W. Parker 
 
 A Yiiidication of Protestant Principles. 
 Bj Pliileleutherus Anglicauus. 
 
 In the Press. 
 
 TAvjsclen on Schism ; 
 Edited for tlie Syndics of tlie Cambridge University Press. 
 
 An Historical Vindication of the Church of England in Point of 
 
 Schism, as it stands separated from the Roman, and ivas 
 
 reformed 1° Elizabeth. 
 
 By Sir Roger Twysden, Bart. 
 
 A New Edition, containing much important additional matter left in IMS. by the 
 Author, and never before printed. 
 
 Octavo. 7^. Qd' bound in cloth. Noio ready. 
 
 The Mother Tonnjue. 
 
 0^ Methodical Instruction in the Mother Tongue in Schools and 
 
 Families. 
 
 Translated and adapted from the French of Le PERE GIRARD. 
 
 Edited by Viscount Ebrington, M.P. 
 In the Press. 
 
 Shades of the Dead, and other Essays and Tales, 
 by the late John Sterling, 
 
 Collected and Edited ; -with a Memoii'. 
 In the Press, 
 
New Books and New Editions, 
 
 The Victory of Faitli, by Arclideacon Hare. 
 
 A New Editiox, with the NOTES. 
 In the Press. 
 
 Tlie Notes will be published separately 
 
 to complete the First Edition. 
 
 Hare's Charges 
 
 Delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconnj of Lewes, 
 
 Octavo. In the Press. 
 
 Hare's Mission of the Comforter, 
 
 and other Sermons, ivith Notes. 
 Two Volumes. Octavo. 255. 
 
 Hare's Parish Sermons. 
 
 Octavo. 125. 
 
 Notes on the Parables. 
 
 Bj Richard Chenevix Trench, M.A. 
 
 Professor of Divinity in King's College, London, and Examining Chaplain to the 
 
 Lord Bishoji of Oxford. 
 
 Third Edition. Revised. In the Press. 
 
 Trench on the Miracles. 
 
 Second Edition. In the Press. 
 
 Trench's Hulsean Lectures. 
 
 Christ the Desire of all Nations; or, The unconscious Prophecies of 
 Heathendom. The Hulsean Lectures for 184G. 
 Octavo. 55. Now ready. 
 
 ^i'renc-Ii'.s Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, 
 J)rawn from the Writimjs of Si. Aii(jnstine^ with Observations. 
 
 05. Oil. 
 
published by John W. Parker. c 
 
 ^P Caul's Warburtoiiian Lectures. 
 
 Lectures on the Prophecies, proving the Divine Origin of Christianity. 
 Bj Alexander M'Caiil, D.D., T.C.D, 
 
 Professor of Divinity in lying's College, London, and Prebendary of St. Paul's. 
 Octavo. 75. 
 
 Maurice's Boyle Lectures. 
 
 On the Different Religious Systems of the World, and their Relation to 
 Christianity. The Boyle Lectures for 1846. 
 
 By the Rev. F. D. Maurice, M. A. 
 
 Professor of Divinity in ling's College, London, and Chaplain of Lincoln's hm. 
 Octavo. A^oio reach. 
 
 ]\Iaurice's Christmas Day, and otlier Sermons. 
 
 Octavo. 105. %d. 
 
 Maurice's Warburtonian Lectures. 
 
 Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebreivs; with a Preface, containing a 
 
 Revieio of Mr, Newman's Theory of Development. 
 
 Octavo. 75. 6(7. 
 
 The Literature of the Church of England, 
 
 Exhibited in Specimens of the Writings of Eminent Divines, ivith 
 
 Memoirs of their Lives, and Historical Sketches of tlie Times 
 
 in which they lived. 
 
 By the Rev. Richard Cattermole, B.D. 
 Two Volumes, Octavo. 255. 
 
 Or do Sseclorum. 
 
 A Treatise on the Chronology of the Holy Scriptures, and the Lidica- 
 tions therein contained of a Divine Plan of Times and Seasons. 
 
 By Henry Browne, M.A. 
 
 Canon of Chichester, and Chaplam to the Lord Bishop. 
 
 Octavo, 205. 
 
New Books and New Editi 
 
 ions, 
 
 A History of the Inductive Sciences. 
 By William Wliewell, D.D., F.R.S. 
 
 Master of Trinity College, and Professor of Moral Pliilosopliy, in 
 tlie University of Cambridge. 
 
 New Edition, Revised and Continued. Tliree Volumes. £2 2s. Now ready. 
 
 In a special knowledge of the leading brandies [of the Inducti^'e Sciences] and in a general acquaintance 
 with the rest, he is not surpassed by any living author ; and his forcible and perspicuous style is peculiarly 
 fitted for this species of liistorical composition. As the production, therefore, of a mind so richly 
 endowed, the volumes which we are about to analyze cannot fail to possess higli merits, and must form 
 a valuable addition to our scientific WiiiTxiw^Q.—FA'aiburgU Review. 
 
 "Whewell's Elements of Morality, including Polity. 
 
 Two Volumes, Octavo. 245. 
 
 Wc have read the work through with growing gratitude to the Author for the distinctness of hia 
 definitions, for tlie transparency of his statements, for his accuracy in the use of terms, and for the 
 minuteness and thoroughness of his analysis of moral ideas and conceptions.— A'o;-<7i American Review. 
 
 Wliewell's Lectures on Systematic ^lorality 
 
 Octavo. 7s. Gc7. 
 
 Wliewell on English University Education. 
 
 Second Edition. 5s. 
 
 Whewell's Architectural Notes on German Cliurches; 
 
 Third Edition, with Additions. 12*. 
 
 Graduati Cantabrigienses : 
 
 Sive Catahyus exJtibens Nomina eorum quos ah Anno Academko 
 
 Admissionuni MDCCLX usque ad dechnum diem Octobrls 
 
 MDCCCXLVI yradn quocunqne ornavit Academia 
 
 Cantabri(jiensis, c Libris Subscnptionum desumptus, 
 
 Ciira Joseph! Romilly, A.M. 
 
 Coll. SS. Trin. Socii utcjuc Acadeniiii; Reyistrarii. 
 Octavo. 1(V. NuwrwaJt/. 
 
published hy Jolin W. Parker. 5 
 
 A System of Logic, 
 
 Eaiiociiiative and Inductive; being a Connected View of the Principles 
 of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific TnvesU(jation. 
 
 By Joliii Stuart Mill. 
 
 Second Euitiox. Two Volumes, Octavo. 30^'. 
 
 In a special chapter, newly added to the work, he has made an attempt to set in a clearer light the 
 mutual reUitions of Chemistry and Pliysics to Physiology and Pathology ; and here he cannot refrain 
 from acknowledging how great have been his obligations, in reference to this object, to tlie study of 
 Mr. ^Mill's St/stcm of Logic. Indeed, he feels that he can claim no otiier merit than tliat of having 
 applied to some special cases, and carried out further than have been previously done those principles of 
 research in natural science which have been laid down by that distinguished philosopher.— Likbio. 
 Pr^ace to Animal Cltemistrt/. 
 
 Mill's Essays on Political Economy. 
 
 Octavo. Gs. Gd. 
 
 BranJe's Manual of Chemistry. 
 
 A Manual of Chemistry, in ivhich the Principal Facts of the Science 
 
 are Discussed and Illustrated. 
 
 By William Thomas Brande, F.R.S. 
 
 Of Her Majesty's Mint ; Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution. 
 
 Sixth Edition, Re-written and Embracing all New Facts, up to the present time. 
 
 Three Volumes, with a Copious Index. Nearly Beady. 
 
 Bi'ande's Dictionary of the Materia Medica 
 and Pharmacy. 
 
 One closely printed Volume, Octavo. 155. 
 
 Elements of Meteorology; 
 By the late John Frederick Daniell, F.R.S. 
 
 With Coloured Charts of the Hemispheres. Two Volumes, Octavo. 325. 
 
 Daniell's Introduction to Chemical Philosophy. 
 
 Second Edition, much enlarged, Octavo, with many "Wood Cuts, 2ls. 
 
New AYorks and New Editions, 
 
 A Lexicon of tlie Hebrew Language; 
 
 In Two Parts. 
 
 Part I. A Hebrew and English Lexicon, arranged according to the permanent 
 
 Letters in each AVord. 
 
 Part II. An Enghsh and Hebrew Lexicon. 
 
 With an Introduction, containing a Hebrew Grammar, a separate Vocabulary 
 
 for each Chapter, and a Grammatical Analysis of every Word in the 
 
 Book of Genesis. And an Appendix containing a Chaldee 
 
 Grammar, a Lexicon of the Chaldee Words in the 
 
 Old Testament, and a Grammatical Analysis 
 
 of all the forms that occur. 
 
 Bj tlie Rev. Thomas Jarrett, M.A., 
 
 Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge. 
 Octavo. In tJie Press. 
 
 The Psalms, in Hebrew; 
 
 With a Critical, Exegetical, and Philological Commentary, 
 By George PhiUips, B.D. 
 
 Fellow and Tutor of Queens' College, Cambridge ; and Rector of Sandon, Essex. 
 Two Volumes. Demy Octavo. 32*. 
 
 A Manual of Cliristian Antiquities ; 
 
 An Account of the Constitution, Ministers, Worship, Discipline, and 
 
 Customs of the Early Church: with a complete Analysis 
 
 of the Works of the Antenicene Fathers. 
 
 By the Rev. J. E. Riddle, M.A. 
 
 Second Edition, Octavo. I85. 
 
 College Lectures on Christian Antiquities, and 
 
 the Ritual of the English Church ; 
 
 II. 
 
 College Lectures on Ecclesiastical History ; 
 
 Each witli comjilete Sets of Cambridge, Dublin, and Durham Examination Paper,«<. 
 
 Bj the Rev. AV^ Bates, M.A., 
 
 Ecllow, Lecturer, and Hebrew Lecturer of Christ's College, Cambridge. 
 I'ost Octavo. \)s. each. 
 
published by John AV. Parker. 7 
 
 Ecclesiastical Law. 
 
 llic statutes rdatimj to the Ecclesiasticul and Eleemosynary Inslitu- 
 
 iions of England, Ireland, India, and the Colonies; ivilh 
 
 the Decisions thereon. 
 
 By Archibald J. Stephens, M.A., F.R.S., 
 
 Barrister at Law. 
 Two VolumeSj Royal Octavo. 8?. 3s. boards, or ol. 13.9. GJ. in law calf. 
 
 Extensive in design, lucid in arrangement, and elaborate in execution, wo have rarely consulted 
 a field of information so wide, with such little expense of time and patience. — Times, 
 
 Ecclesiastical Architecture. 
 
 Specimens of Ecclesiastical Architecture in Great Britain, illustrated 
 
 by Views, Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details. 
 
 Edited by Henry Bowman, Architect. 
 
 Royal Quarto, 21. 5s. ; or, in Twelve Parts, at 85. Gd. each. 
 
 Rituale Aiiglo-Catliolicinn ; 
 
 Or, The Testimony of the Catholick Church to the Book of Common 
 
 Prayer, as exhibited in Quotations from Ancient Fathers, 
 
 Councils, Liturgies, and Rituals. 
 
 By the Rev. Henry Bailey, M.A., 
 
 Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 Octavo. Li the Press. 
 
 Bishop Mant's New AYorks on the Church. 
 
 I. 
 Rehgio Quotidiana: 
 
 Daily Prayer the Law of God's Church, and heretofore the Practice 
 
 of Churchmen. 
 
 Cloth, gilt edges. 4.?. Qd. 
 
 II. 
 
 Hor£e Ecclesiastics; ; 
 
 The Position of the Church with regard to Romish Error. 
 
 HI. 
 
 Hora) Liturgica? ; 
 
 I. Liturgical Discrepancy. II. Liturgical Harmony. 
 3s. 6d. each. 
 
New Works and New Editious, 
 
 Practical Sermons 
 
 By Diynitarii's and other Clergymen of the United Church of 
 
 England and Ireland. 
 
 Upwards of One Hundred Original Discourses, printed verbatim from the 
 
 Authors' MSS. ; and with tlie Names of the Contributors. 
 
 Edited by J. C. Crostliwaite, M.A., 
 
 Rector of St. Mary-at-Hill, and St. Andrew Hubbard, London. 
 Three Volumes, Octavo, 75. each, or Eighteen Parts, at I5. 
 
 Tlie Gospel-Narrative. 
 
 According to the Authorized Text, without Hepetition or Omission. 
 With an Exposition, Marginal Proofs, and Notes. 
 
 By the Rev. John Forster, M.A., 
 
 Her Majesty's Chaplain of the Savoy. 
 
 Dedicated, by Special Permission, to Her Majesty the Queen. 
 
 A New and Cheaper Edition. Ncarh rcmli/. 
 
 Forster's Theological Index. 
 
 The Churchman's Guide; a Copious Index of Sermons and other 
 
 Works, by Eminent Church of England Divines ; arranged 
 
 according to their subjects. 
 
 Octavo. 75. 
 
 The Cliurchman's Theological Dictionary. 
 
 The design of which is to give plain and simple cxpl.inatiims of the Theological and Ecclesiastical 
 terms which arc used in describing and discussing religious Ordinances, Doctrines, and Institutious, 
 without entering into the controversies \\hich have arisen respecting their object and import. 
 
 By the Rev. Robert Eden, M.A. F.S.A.; 
 
 Late Fell. Corpus Christi Coll., Oxford. 
 Second Edition. ^)S. 
 
 On Pubhc Reading; 
 
 with Garrick's Instructions for Beading the Liturgy, and Notes thereon. 
 By Ricliard Cull, Tutor in Elocution. 
 
 Octavo. 6s. Gd. 
 
published by Jobn W. Parker. 
 
 The History of England in Church and State, 
 
 From the Conquest to the Accession of the House of Plantofjenet, 
 
 commonhj called the Saxon Line restored. 
 
 Book I. Policy and Ethics of Western Clivistendom. Book II. Normandy 
 
 and England, from Rollo to Hardacanute. Book III. The Confessor 
 
 and the Conqueror. Book IV. The Sons of the Conq^ueror. 
 
 Book V. Blois and Plantagenet. 
 
 By Sir Francis Palgrave, K.II. 
 
 Two Volumes, Octavo. Preparing for the Press. 
 
 Bishop Terrot's Discourses. 
 
 Two Series of Discourses, I. On Christian Humiliation. II. On the 
 City of God. 
 
 By tlie Riglit Rev. 0. H. Terrot, D.D., 
 
 Bishop of Edinburgh j late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 Octavo. 75. Qd. 
 
 Sermons preached at Jerusalem, 
 By George Williams, M.A., 
 
 Fellow of King's College, Cambridge ; sometime Chaplain to the late 
 Bishop Alexander. 
 
 Octavo. 105. Qd. 
 
 The Holy City; 
 
 Historical and Topographical Notices of Jerusalem ; 
 By the Rev. George Williams, M.A. 
 
 Fellow of King's College, Cambridge ; and sometime Chaplain to thg 
 late Bishop Alexander, at Jerusalem. 
 
 With numerous Illustrations. New Edition. In the Press, 
 
 The Holy Land; 
 
 Travels in Palestine from Dan to Beersheba ; ivith an especial view 
 
 to the Elucidation of its Ancient Geographij. 
 
 By the Rev. George AVilliams, M.A. 
 
 Author of The Holy City. 
 With numerous Illustrations. Preparing for the Press, 
 
10 New Works aud New EditionSj 
 
 Armidines Cami. 
 
 Arundines Cami, sive Musarum Cantabrif/iensium Lasiis Canori, collegit 
 
 atque eclidit 
 
 Henricus Drurj, M.A. 
 
 The Third Edition, tliorouglily Revised, and Enlai-ged. 125. Now ready. 
 
 BABPIOT MT&IAMBOI. 
 
 The Fables of Bahrms,from the netvly-discovered Manuscr}j)t ; together 
 ivith the Fragments of the lost Fables. Edited, ivith Notes, 
 
 By George Cornewall Lewis, Esq., M.A. 
 
 Late Student of Christ Church. 
 Post Octavo, 5s. Gd. 
 
 Boeckli's Athens. 
 
 The Public Economy of Athens, from the German of Professor Boeckh. 
 By George Cornewall Lewis, Esq., A.M. 
 
 The Second Edition, revised. Octavo, 185. 
 
 The Speeches of Demosthenes 
 
 against Aphobus and Onetor, Translated, ivith Notes explanatory 
 of the Athenian Laws and Institutions, 
 By Charles Rami Kennedy, M.A., 
 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Post Octavo. 95. 
 
 Pindar's Epinician Odes, 
 
 And the Fragments of his Lost Compositions, revised and explained; 
 
 with Copious Notes and Lidices, 
 
 By Jolm William Donaldson, B.D., 
 
 Head Master of the Bury School. In a large Volume, Octavo. 185. 
 
 Donaklson's New Cratylus ; 
 
 Contribations towards a more Accurate Knowledge of the Greek 
 Language. 
 < >ctavo. 175. 
 
published by John "W. Parker. 11 
 
 Julian the Apostate 
 
 And his Generation; an Historical Picture, by Neander, of Berlin, 
 Translated by George Vincent Cox, ;M.A. 
 
 Esquire Bedell in the University of Oxford. 
 Small Octavo. In the Press. 
 
 Dalilmanu's Herodotus. 
 
 The Life of Herodotus, drawn out from his Book. 
 From the German of DAHLMANN, 
 
 bj the Translator of the above "Work. 
 
 Post Octavo. 5s. 
 
 Life and Manners of the Greeks. 
 
 CHARTCLES; or, IHnstrafions of the Private Life of the Ancient 
 
 Greeks; ivith Notes and Excursus. 
 
 Translated from the German of PROFESSOR BECKER. 
 
 Bj the Rer. Frederick Metcalfe, M.A., 
 
 Fellow of Lincoln CoUege, Oxford. 
 Uniformly with BECKER'S GALLUS. Post Octavo. 125. 
 
 Life and Manners of the Romans. 
 
 GALLUS; or, Roman Scenes of the Time of Augustus ; ivith Notes 
 
 and Excursus. 
 
 By the Author and Translator of Charides. 
 
 Post Octavo. 125. 
 
 Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand ; 
 
 Being a Geographical and Descriptive Account of the Regions 
 
 traversed by Cyrus and the Greeks. 
 
 By William Francis Ainsworth, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., 
 
 Surgeon to the late Euphrates Expedition. 
 Post Octavo, with Map. Ts. Ct7. 
 
12 New Works and New Editions, 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon Clmrcli ; 
 
 Us History, Revenues^ and General Character. 
 By Heniy Soames, M.A., 
 
 Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. 
 The TiiiDD Edition, -n-ith Additions and Corrections. Octavo. 10s. Gd. 
 
 Elizabetlian Ileligious History. 
 By Henry Soames, M.A., 
 
 Octavo. 16*. 
 
 A History of the English Reformat ion. 
 By F. C. Massingberd, M.A., 
 
 Rector of South Ormsby. 
 A New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. In tho Press. 
 
 Bishop Short's History of the Church of England ; 
 
 Embracing Copious Histories of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Transla- 
 tion of the Bible, and the Book of Common Prayer. 
 Third Edition. 16s. 
 
 Bishop Mant's Histor}^ of the Church of Ireland, 
 
 From the Reformation to the Union of the Churches of England and 
 
 Ireland; ivith a Preliminary Survey from the Papal Usui'pa- 
 
 tion in the Tivelfth Century to its Legal Abolition. 
 
 Two larffe Volumes. Octavo. 345. 
 
 The Church of Saint Patrick ; 
 
 An Historical Inquiry into the Independence of the Ancient Church 
 
 of Ireland. 
 
 By the Rev. AViUiani Go wan Todd, Trin Coll., Dub. 
 
 Small Octavo. 4*. 
 
publislied by John W. Parker. 13 
 
 BiograplilcX Britannica Litcraria, 
 
 A Literary History of the United Kingdom. 
 Vol. I. Anglo-Saxon I'eriod. Vol. II, Anglo-Norman Period. 
 
 By Thomas "Wright, M.A. 
 
 Published under the Superintendence of the Royal Society of Literature. 
 Octavo. V2s, each Volume. To be continued. 
 
 Bisliop Jeremy Taylor ; 
 
 His Predecessors, Contemporaries, and Successors. 
 
 A Biography. 
 
 By the Rev. Robert Aris ■\Villmott, M.A. 
 
 Incumbent of St- Catherine's, Bear Wood. 
 Foolscap Octavo, bs. Novo ready. 
 
 Wilmott's Lives of Englisli Sacred Poets, 
 
 From Chaucer to Heher. 
 
 Two Volumes, 45. 6(?. each. 
 
 Bishop Heber and His Works ; 
 
 With some Account of Christian Missions in India. 
 By the Rev. James Chambers, M.A. 
 
 Foolscap Octavo. 25. Qd. 
 
 Life of Arclibisliop Sancroft, 
 
 To lohich are added, Three Sermons, and the Tract on Modern Policj' 
 By the late Dr. D'Oyly, F.R.S. 
 
 Kev? Edition, revised. 95. 
 
 Life and Services of General Lord Harris. 
 By the Right Hon. S. R. Lushington, 
 
 Late Governor of Madras. 
 Second Edition, Revised. Small Octavo. 65. 6J. 
 
14 New Books and New Editions, 
 
 Practical Geodesy; 
 
 Indudmy Naval, MiRta7"y, Railway, Parish, and Estate Surveijing, 
 
 By Butler Williams, C.E., F.G.S. 
 Octavo. Second Edition, enlarged, with numerous Illustrations. 12^. Qd, 
 
 Model Drawing from Solid Forms. 
 
 A Manual for the Use of Teachers in Classes and Families. 
 With numerous and elaborate Illustrations. 
 
 By Butler Williams, C.E., F.G.S. 
 
 Publislied under the Sanction of the Committee of Council on Education. 
 Octavo. 15,?. 
 
 Principles of Mechanism, 
 By R. Willis, M.A., F.R.S., 
 
 Jachsonian Professor of Natural Philosophy, Cambridge. 
 With 250 Wood Cuts. Octavo. 15s. 
 
 Practical Geology and Mineralogy and tlie 
 
 Chemistry of Metals. 
 
 By Josliua Trimmer, F.G.S. 
 
 Octavo, with Two Hundred Illustrations. 12^. 
 
 Newton's Principia. Book I. Sections I. 11. IIL 
 
 In the Original Latin; with Explanatory Notes and References. 
 Edited by Wm. Whewell, D.D. 
 
 Octavo. 25. Gel 
 
 The Elements of Euclid; 
 
 M^'ith Notes and Geometrical Exercises. 
 By R. Potts, M.A., Trin. Coll. Camb. 
 
 College Edition, Octavo, IO5. School Edition, Demy 12mo., 4^. 0(^, 
 
piiblislied by John W. Parker. 15 
 
 On tlie Nature of Tlumderstorms, 
 
 And on the Means of Protecting Churches and other BiiUdincjs, and 
 
 Shipping, against the Destructive Effects of Lightning. 
 
 By W. Snow Harris, F.R.S. 
 
 Octavo. ^Os.Qd. 
 
 A Cycle of Celestial Objects, 
 
 For the use of Naval, Military, and Private Astronomers. 
 Observed, reduced, and discussed. 
 By Captain W. H. Smyth, R.N., F.R.S., 
 
 President of the Astronomical Society. ' 
 Two Volumes, Octavo, with numerous Illustrations. 21. 2s. 
 
 In the CycU of Celestial Objects, by Captain Smyth, the reader will find all the great truths of astronomy, 
 embracing the most recent discoveries, clearly and accurately described, and requiring little or no ma- 
 thematical knowledge for their comprehension. In the first volume, bearing the forbidding title of 
 Prolerjomena, he gives us in three chapters an ' ' introductory sketch of the progi-ess of astronomy," ' ' a 
 glimpse of the solar sj-stem," and " a glance at the sidereal heavens," and concludes it with a chapter 
 " on the details of the Observatory," and a fifth, entitled, " Xotanda on the Bedford Catalogue." * * * 
 This Catalogue contains a description of eight hundred and ffty celestial objects, including double and 
 multiple stars. * * * These various objects are described with such minuteness, that they maj' bo 
 readily found in the heavens, and the observations upon them by different astronomers, both ancient 
 and modem, domestic and foreign, have been collected with singular care, while the account of Captain 
 Smyth's own observations and researches relative to many of the objects of the Cycle, gives a character 
 of originality to his descriptions. The fourth chapter of his first volume, entitled, "Details of the 
 Observatory, " and containing an account of his own observatory at Bedford, and of the instruments witli 
 which it is furnished, cannot fail to be useful to young astronomers, and instructive to all. 
 
 Throughout the whole of his work. Captain Smyth displays a thorough knowledge of his subject, and 
 never omits to associate with the grand phenomena of the heavens, that Great Being whose Iiandiwork 
 they show forth, and wliose glory they declare.— iVorift British Review, XI. 
 
 Indications of tlie Creator. 
 
 Theological Extracts from the History and the Philosophy of the 
 Inductive Sciences. 
 
 By the Rev. Dr. Whewell. 
 
 Second Edition, with additional Preface, os. Gd. 
 
 Creation by tlie Agency of God ; 
 
 Bei7ig a Refutation of the Work entitled Vestiges of the Natural 
 
 History of Creation. 
 
 By Thomas Monck Mason, B.A. 
 
 Post Octavo. 5s. 
 
16 Ne^y Works and New Editions. 
 
 Part Singing in Classes and Families, 
 
 Vocal Scores, Sacred and Secular, in Four or more Parts. 
 Edited hy John Ilullali, 
 
 Professor of Vocal Music in King's College, London. 
 
 This collection of pieces, complete in a Vocal form, and printed in the proper clefs for scoi'e-reading, 
 promises to combine the agreeable and the useful in a manner seldom realized by jiublications afTecting 
 a permanent and classical character. "We can safely recommend the whole as a stock of good music, 
 either for families, vocal societies, or the students of scores, who may here find ample material for 
 
 peimal.—Siieclaior. 
 
 One Volume, SACRED, containing fifty-four pieces, price 135. 6d. half-bound. 
 One Volume, SECULAR, containing sixty-five pieces, price 135. 6d. half-bound. 
 
 The Student's Mannal of Ancient History ; 
 
 Containing the Political History, Geographical Position, and Social 
 
 State of the Principal Nations of Antiquity. 
 
 By AV. 0. Tajdor, LL.D. 
 
 The Fourth Edition. 105. Qd. 
 
 The Student's Manual of Modern History ; 
 The Rise and Progress of the Principal Eiiropean Nations, their Poli- 
 tical History, and the Changes in their Social Condition; imth 
 a History of the Colonies founded by Europeans. 
 
 By W. 0. Taylor, LL.D. 
 
 The FouKTH Edition. IO5. Qd. 
 
 The Elements of Aloebra. 
 
 o 
 
 By Professor Hall, of King's College, London. 
 
 Second Edition, Revised and Corrected. Qs. Gd. 
 
 Historical Centuries. 
 
 From the Christian Era to the present Time; shoioing at one View the- 
 
 Rise, Progress, and Decline of the various States. 
 
 By E. IL Keating. 
 
 In Folio. Price Gs. Gd, half-bound. With the Tables coloured, 135. Gd. 
 
 A very admirable and useful compilation. — Times. 
 
 London : John i^iJPjS^:^S|J.\ibli!ilicr, AVest Strand. 
 
# 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 EDUCATION-PSYCV^OLOGY 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed boolcs are subject to immediate recalL 
 
 
 niiRlNG 
 
 7 DAY USE 
 
 <;F';S!0t3S 
 
 3 U ivl Ml^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7o^.Sr.i!ie" vJ^S^tSR^. 
 
ir nrPKriFY i innARiF' 
 
 CDET3213m