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Mapa, plataa, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratioa. Those too large to be entirely included in one expoaure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames aa required. The following diagrama illuatrata the method: Las cartes, planches, tsbleaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmte A dee taux de rMuction diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est filmi ik partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche i droite. et de haut en baa, en prenant le nombre d'imagea nteassaire. Les diagrammes suivants il!uatrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 IB>3S HUMAN REASON AND ■^ % I I THE PERFECT MORAUTY. I 1 '\ LIBT^aRV i^ MM20 190 A DISCOURSE^ BY i jAIvlES WATSON, A . M! HUNTINGDON, Quebec, Canada. I i n. BENTLEY & CO., Book & Job Printers, MONTREAL. 188S. |l*»\^ ^S^^»5^<^^S^S^^:^J^^!^^^^x«S^^S^:S^..^W< M IP -i ii r X^^ r 'i HUMAN REASON AND '.f THE PERFECT MORALITY. A DISCOURSH BY J A ]V[ K S \V A T S O N , A . M HUNTINGDON, Quebec, Canada. --^^^■^^-^ D. BENTLEY & CO., Book .'t Jon Printrrs, MONTREAL. c: tc a C£ hi IS ta ti re ti b; ir t\ L e: C( cl ai n & b ir S( PREFACE. The following discourse was delivered to the Presbyterian Synod of Montreal and Ottawa, at ('ornwall, Ontario, on the twelfth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five. Venturing to think that it sets forth the most important truth in a form adapted to the present time, the author has caused a few hundred copies to be printed, partly for his own use, and partly for public sale. Modern education being in a high degree natural- istic, persons of literary, scientific and philosophic taste, are often inclined, with a curious mixture of timidity and arrogance, to shrink from the christian religion as if it did not belong to humanity. An atten- tive perusal of the following hints may, with the blessing of God, excite some doubters to more serious inquiry ; restrain the hastiness of the proud ; confirm the faith and strengthen the heart of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ ; in fine, it may help to deepen and extend the persuasion that no human culture can be complete without the all-important element of vital Christianity. No man ought in the name of reason and liberty to dispute the authority of perfect truth, or refuse the benefit of its saving virtue. An honest and good heart, readily attracted by the beauty and awed by the majesty of "the truth as it is in Jesus," will ingenuously discern all the manifold signs of his pre- sence and supremacy. I 1 LUKE XII, 57. "Yea, and why even of yourselves do ye not judge what is right." A hypocritical people pretended that they desired more evidence to remove their unbelief, but our Lord told them that there was evidence enough before them, if only they were disposed to discern it. " And he said also to the people, when ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, there cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, there will be heat ; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth, but how is it that ye do not discern this time ? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right ? " The right was set before them, and they had some ability to discern it, but they lacked the desire. So is it with unbelievers still, who often pique themselves on the superior activity and penetration of their understandings, yet continue in doubt of the truth and obligation of the christian religion. " Among the subjects now being discussed," say they, " with a keenness and searching rigour unknown in former times, are questions so fundamental as the existence and personality of God, and the existence and im- mortality of the human soul. Reason is doing its work thoroughly, it is digging down to the very 6 foundations of religion, wi^.h the full and passionate determination that the faith of the future, he it neo- christianity or any other, shall be founded on a rock not on a quicksand. The Reformation of the nine- teenth century is an infinitely more portentous phenomenon than its forerunner of the sixteenth It is no mere reform. The question now is, whether chnstianity shall continue to exist, even with such radical changes as will make it virtually a new thing • or whetlK^r it shall be replaced by an altogether new' edifice, built upon a scientific foundation of positive verifiable truth." Such talk is common and very cheap : and too many are puffed up by it, so that this synodal discourse may be neither out of time nor out of place if it discuss the claims of reason and right,-of human reason and perfect morality. Human Reason. ^ ■ I. It exists. Of himself man can judge. Hence It is clear as conciousness that we arc endowed by naturewith a faculty of reason, thought, knowledge. There is evidence of this which the human mind cannot conscientiously reject. It is certainly true, we know it. Yet the possibility of knowledge is often question- ed. Not that the facts of knowledge are disputed ; but the belief in existence which they imply is challenged. So that we are sometimes told, in the name of modesty to abandon all positive affirmation and meekly confess ourselves hopelessly ignorant. I _^*^*#*VC, It might have been expected that the glare of illuminism would be followed by the night of obscuran- tism. At any rate, we know that David Hume and Immanuel Kant came after Lord Herbert and Matthew rindal. First too much was claimed f jr human reasoii and then too little. Infidels, unwilling to receive the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sought to excuse their unbelief either by alleging the sufficiency of un- aided reason for the guidance of life, or by pretending that the human understanding c . ^d not rightfully assent to any thing as certainly tr. , Some had ventured t(^ think that certainty of knowledge originated in the bodily sen:.es. Others remarked that much more intelligence was given forth by the intellect than came to it from the bodily senses. Most admitted that if we would find the whole human origin of knowledge we must take into account the entire inner sense of consciousness and impute to man a native power of thinking truthfully, prior to trial and experience. According to Leibnitz " Reason pure and bare, distinguished from experience, has only to do with truths independent of the senses," whilst -'Reason consisting in the enchainment of truths naturally attain- ed by the human mind has a right to connect also those which experience furnishes to it, in order to draw mixed conclusions." Truths of reason he represents as of two sorts : first, those called eternc.i truths, which are abso- lutely necessary, so that their opposite implies a contra- diction ; and second, those which may be z^^d. positive because they constitute the laws which God has pleased ■ to give to nature, or depend on them. This, however, was a light tor. clear to agree with the sceptic's love of obscurity. He preferred to urge that human reason is, either altogether illusive, or at best only a law to itself and void of any authority higher than that of rational self-will. Reason is neither illusive nor unwarranted. It carries its vouchers in its very nature, and its dictates cannot be rejected with impunity. Its veracity is abundantly confirmed by experience. Its authority is mherent; and this appears the more evident when we observe its right to command the will. '' God " we confess, "hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined, to good or evil." Being voluntary agents we act freely; not always with deliberation, yet always spontaneously. But we ought also to act rightly. As in mathematics we are bound by the principles of arithmetic and geometry, in logic by the necessary conditions of thought, and m physics by the laws of force, so in morals w'e are bound by the rule of right. This, indeed, does not necessitate obedience, but it is obligatory, so that we cannot transgress it without sin. In fact, its authority over us we spontaneously, and often deliberately, assert; approving ourselves if we obey, condemning ourselves if we disobey. Hence, many acknowledging the authority of practical reason to legislate, have been disposed to regard the will as necessarily just and good. But will and reason do not necessarily agree. They ■if I are often in conflict, and will is always wrong when it is not sustained by right reason. Framing empirical and arbitrary notions of space and duration, and adopting them as necessary condi- tions of thought, many thinkers feign manifold contra- dictions of reason and become so bewildered in their imaginations, that they deem faith in objective truth to be impossible without violating the fundamental laws of human intelligence. But there is no conflict between the genuine dictates of reason and the beUef of evident objective truth. As evidence is the criterion of truth, so it is the light of reason and the ground of certitude. The human understanding indeed is finite and therefore cannot fully comprehend the infinite. This is altogether too high to be perfectly known by us ; yet we know it in part. The range of human reason is very wide, extend- ing as it does, not only lo " things seen and temporal," but to things " unseen and eternal." As perception of the outer world and consciousness of self, awake naturally in the human mind, so does the knowledge of God. This knowledge is not originally the result of abstraction and imagination. It is the spontan- eous outcome of the thinking power within us. We are born to it. Essentially metaphysical and theological our soul of itself asserts instinctively the existence of God. Having a native sense of God and an innate tendency to recognize Him, human nature contradicts itself if it say, there is no God. The denial of God contravenes the fundamental law and testimony 10 of reason. Men, indeed, show a strong desire to deny Ood, and they act very much as if the thought of their heart were there is no God ; but in this they sin heinously and become self-condemned ; for there is in them a conscience ever ready to rebuke their error and punish their impiety. Pearson on the Creed spoke forcibly when he said, " let Caligula profess himself an atheist, and with that profession hide his head, or run under his bed, when the thunder strikes his ears, and lightening flashes in his eyes ; those terrible works of nature put him in mind of the power, and his own guilt of the justice of God, whom, while in his wilful opinion he weakly denieth, in his involuntary action he strongly asserteth. So that a deity will be granted or extorted, and where it is not acknowledged it will be manifested. Only unhappy is that man who denies him to himself, and proves him to others ; who will not acknowledge his existence, of whose power he cannot be ignorant." Men may imagine a God to themselves as they please. They may conceive of him as a possible or necessary Being without attributes ; they may clothe him with the properties of the finite universe; they may describe him as an absolute idea ever coming and going in their own mind, or in nature • they may speak of him as an endless process of development ; they may look on him as an infinite and eternal energy ; they may picture him as an image reflected in the shifting mirror of their own fancy ; they may suppose him to be the essence and virtue of humanity ; or they may exhibit him as the 1 11 I 3 work of their own hands, " saying to a stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth." But all idols arc an abomination in the sight of the Living God, before whom the human conscience instinctively trembles, as in the presence of its Almighty Creator and Lord. In thinking of God we should attend to the re- lations in which we are connected with him. We are dependent on him for our existence. His will is law to us and we are the subjects of his government. His absolute perfection claims our utmost reverence and love : ungodliness in us is sin of the greatest enormity and deserving the severest condemnation. Without his mercy we should be forever wicked and miserable. Thus related to God, and feeling deeply, as we ought, that, whether we will or not, we have truly to do with him, we shall be convinced that there is awful reality in the existence of the supreme being. Our idea of him, oeing felt to be in its foundation not the pro- duct of our imagination, or the creature of our will, but a natural knowledge derived from God himself, our hearts will own to a sense of his existence, like the intuitive assurance which we have of our own identity and the world's actuality. Living in conscious affinity with him who "teacheth man knowledge,' we shall be quite sure, both that *' he is," and that he is in converse with us. It would be preposterous in us to boast, as some have presumed to do, that we can discern the grandeur of the visible heavens and admire the sublimity of the I 12 moral law, yet affirm that there are no marks'by which we can know the Almighty, " 7 hus saith the LOR D let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches ; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandcth and knoweth me that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judg- ment, and righteousness, in the earth ; for in these things I delight, saith the LORD."— (Jer. ix. 23, 24). Our sinfulness has vastly increased our need of divine help. Perplexed by guilt, enslaved by depravity troubled by the present and afraid of the future we need a great salvation from Him agrins' whom we have smned. That salvation we could not ourselves find out. The law of nature, adapted to man in his original state of innocence and sufficient then for his direction now convicts us of sin and shows that we cannot be' saved from deserved woe, except by a miracle of grace Whether there were such a miracle reserved for us in the mind of God, who could tell ? It was a mystery hid in the counsel of God's will, which he alone could reveal. To say that the Almighty must provide for the wellbeing of his rebellious children, as if he were the slave of a passionate parental fondness, is as bad as to say that he co?dd not exercise mercy in consistency with justice. If we were to receive the needed light we must depend for it upon the authority of divine wisdom. It is false to say that reason and authority are radically opposed to each other. There is authority I 13 I in reason itself; else there would be no nght of private judgment and no obligation to think truthfully. Spur- ious authority reason spurns; true authority reason honors. It is reasonable to believe on ±e authority of men ; much more so to believe on the authority of God, who cannot lie. It is our highest duty to hear his word and govern ourselves by the intimations of his will, in whatever way they may be given to us. We should be held guilty of the most wretched ingratitude and impru- dence, if under the pretence of any impossibitity, or improbability, or disagreableness, we refused to believe a supernatural communication bearing the marks of a divine testimony and revealing to us the great salvation. The fact is, that the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is holy, has, in his unspeak- able goodness, condescended to meet the terrible exigency of human reason by the revelation of the ** new covenant in Christ's blood." Christianity is God's way of human salvation. Let aU men use their judgment and make due trial of the glorious Gospel, as they ought, and they will find in the Lord Jesus every thing that they need ; they will find in Him what imperfect and abused reason could never realise,— righteousness, rational perfection, the perfect morality. The Perfect Morality. II. There is nothing better than morality. Only all morality is not equally good. It is reason's duty to choose the perfect; a morality not godless and soulless, not christless, but thoroughly christian. m 14 1. Not godless and soulless. That men averse to God should doubt the existence of immortal souls is not strange. God being Che father of our spirits, we cannot see any ground for their existence if he be left out of account. Nor is it much to be wondered at, if, pretending to be ignorant of God and immortal souls, some men at the same time admit the moral capability of the human lace and advocate moral improvement. They abhor the know- ledge of God and of godlike souls ; yet they themselvec have souls endowed by nature with conscience. Supposing themselves to live in and for this world alone, they still feel a sense of duty prompting them to do things morally good and to refrain from things morally evil; and they anticipate consequences corresponding to their actions as right or wrong^ Very defective however, must that morality be which neglects God, depreciates the human soul and looks not beyond the life of the body in the present world. So loaded With falsehood, injustice and unkindness, so narrow in Its sympathies, and so feeble in its aspirations, it deserves very little respect. Mere positivists, keeping out of view the absolute perfection of God, are apt to maintain that moral law is determined arbitrarily, that there is no steady rule by which moral character can be judged, and that in fact there is no fixed character of morality at all. Resolved to learn only from partial experience the positive iuw prevailing in the universe they doubt if the order of evolution in existence be directed by perfect morality. The moral origin and ^UHJk 16 constitution of the universe are hid from them, and must ever be so till in the supreme law to which the whole creation is subject they recognize the manifest- ation of that sovereign will which is invariably guided by perfect wisdom. We are not competent to appreciate all the legislation of God ; but whether we can discern the propriety and utility of his ordinances, or not, we may rest assured that the Holy One knows his own mind and will do all things according to the rectitude of his eternal nature. 2. JVot Christless. A Jewish Scribe having asked, which is the great commandment in the law, the Lord Jesus answered him: — "The first of all the commandments is. Hear, O Israel ; the Lord our God is one Lord ; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely, this, thou shalt love thy neigh- bour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." Kant, the advocate of the cate- gorical imperative and a loveless morality, said with reference to the two great commandments : "It is only the practical love which is meant in that summary of all laws. In this sense, to love God signifies to do all his commandments gladly ; and to love the neighbour signifies to perform gladly all duties toward him." Comte, who laid so much stress on " a spontaneous sociability of human nature," aflnrmed that " when the morality of an advanced society bids us love our neighbours as ourselves, it embodies, in the best way, \ 16 tlie deepest truth, with only such exaggeration as is required in the formation of a type, which is always fallen short of in practice." These two men, looking at human nature from different points of view, observed a radical evil in its present character, which rendered sincere obedience to the perfect moral law imprac- ticable. Yet they professed to expect that in course of time the human race would become perfectly good without the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. All, indeed, who think that the precept of the moral ^.aw is the only thing very valuable in Christianity slight Christ, and imagine that, without Him there is virtue enough m humanity to raise mankind to perfection. The obstacle presented by guilt and depravity, they suppose, would gradually disappear as men advanced in self- culture. Rather than despair of a good issue to human ffort, unbelievers, who discredit miracles wrought by God, prefer to trust in the idea of an omnipotence in the human will. But what in the natural course of things, can we reasonably expect from the development of humanity under the dominion of sin ? Natural causes operating according to natural laws, the sinful heart will become .riore sinful. " When we we.e in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, did work in' our members to bring forth fruit unto death." There is no good ground for hope that men left to themselves would ever work out their own re- demption and rise to a life of true holiness. Thanks be to God, our Saviour, the greatest benefit Christ has conferred on us is, not the republication of the moral 4 I *1* 17 law of nature, but the revelation of the divine philan- thropy. " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 3. Thoroughly Christian. The end to be reached being set before us in the two great commandments, the question is, how can such perfection be attained ? It is easy to say, be ye perfect, respect and develop in yourselves the charactv ■ of humanity, respect and realize the order concei/eu by human reason, make yourselves worthy of eternal happiness ; you ought and therefore you can. Such maxims require moral virtue ; they do not impart it. We are not warranted to argue, men ought and there- fore they will. Duty and choice no not necessarily agree. Men pursue their course of life freely, doing good or evil as ihey pleased. Alas : they have abused their natural liberty, incurred condemnation, and alien- ated their heart from righteousness. Their own con- science convicts them of sin. Instead of being disposed to yield a willing obedience to the moral law, they are of themselves ready to dread, hate, and break it. Their circumstances have become unfavourable and the lawlessness within renders sincere obedience impracticable. The fault of this lies, not in the original constitution of human nature, but in the wilful corrup- tion of human character. The great question, then, which moralists should solve is, how can human will be rectified ? Too often they shirk that question, or gire it 18 w an evasive answer, even when Christianity is at hand to instruct them. P'V Christianity we mean that which is revealed '•) the everlasting (losj.el ; not any of the counterfeits ancient or modern, which are offered as substitutes for It. Incarnation of divinity without a divine person redemption without a ransom, justification without a perfect righteousness, a covenant of peace without a proper atoning sacrifice, a good conscience without an adequate vmdication of moral law, a pure heart without faith in divine love, and such like incoherent fancies may suit those who resolve their belief into a feeling devoid of thought ; but a sound understanding, discern- ing that truth is not self-contradictorv, can^ no more hnd rest m meaningless mysticism, or in vague idealism than in the romantic theory of the soul's salvation by the physical power of Sacraments. The Christianity by which men are made holy is found in the genuine Gospel Of Jesus Christ. "Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy yi^ord is truth." The fundamental privilege of justification by means of faith in the substitutionary work of the Son of God sets a man right in his relation to God and brings him under the internal direction of a holy prin- ciple of hfe which effectually inclines him to every duty Moral dependence on God is thus established, and the believer endowed outwardly and inwardly with every thing requisite for spiritual progress, perseveres till he arrive at perfection. Deriving his virtue from the Lord 19 in whom he is justified, he grows in spiritual strength and beaut) and usefulness, so that God is glorified in him. " Do we then make void the law through faith ? God forbid : yea, we establish the law." Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ establishes the whole moral law, and consequently must be itself most highly moral in obligation as in efficacy. It may be called positive as instituted by the sovereign will of God ; it is moral, however, as founded on the eternal holiness of his character. The obligation to believe in Jesus Christ is laid u[)on us by the revelation which God has given of his Son. As rational creatures we ought to believe what God tells us. As sinful creatures we ought to repent and believe the Gospel. This, in the circum- stances in which we are placed is the fundamental part of moral duty, without which we can neither worship God nor do good to men, as we ought. The aversion of the careless, the proud and the despondent to faith in Christ accounts for their unbelief, but does not alter their duty. The obligation to believe depends not on the character and will of man, but upon the authority of God. In mercy as well as ii. equity, he hac commanded us to believe in his Son ; and if we refuse the moral law will condemn us as guilty of the greaiest sin* The order cf christian duties and virtues should be carefully observed. Flattering themselves that they are not altogether wicked, unbelievers are ready to presume on the merit of their endeavours and expect 20 to be rewarded for it at last. Destroy their pride of wortlnness and they fall into despair. It is no so with «en,„ne believers in Christ^ Conscious of the despera e Wickedness discovered in their hearts they at the same -rae trust .n the perfect Saviour fo. pardon pur y and peace. The love of Christ rules in thei heZ and they henceforth live, not to themselves, btoC who d,ea for them and rose again. Laith unf ig ed ■n them, works by love out of a pure hear. Ind a |ood conscience. ** The degree of holiness attainable in this world is vanous. Much is left ,o depend on our own dihgne A free obedience being sot,ght, ample room is gi e„ for dehberatton and choice. TempLions come from society, from Satan, from the inferior p.inciples o ouT H. L , ; ™ "'^ ''"""'"' of indwelling sin them to perfection at once; but he wills that they fight their way to it with his help. " \Valk in th„ « • ! and ye shall not fuim the V ol the fl^'T reirrpored'th^^'h'""^'' '''''' -^-^t,ar well disposed though imperfect, we obtain the pardon and _lwhic.,w.cni.ti„u.ly need till wrr: christ;:rmXt;r;:rTh'"^'^°™"^^'^ it frnm «. 1 . "^y"^^^it. They cannot educe It !rom natura princ bles Th«„ Pixucipies. ihey cannot create it 31 Hut they are capable of it and they may acquire it by fellowship with Jesus Christ. Why then do they not all possess it, as they ought ? Because they do not all desire it. Men are prone to love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. The only effectual remedy for this i'-, regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God : in whom we must principally trust for the moral transformation of mankind. "Ye must be born again." Conclusion. Some in this advanced age of the world would have us to think that the reformation of the nineteenth century is a change from Evangelical Christiauit; to unbelief and they kncv not what ; just as many im- agined that the flood of infidelity which came to a head in ihe eighteenth century and broke on the be- ginning of the present must have at last drowned out the life of the Church of Christ. In reality the refor- mation of the nineteenth century is a change from infidelity to faith ; and this not merely the faith of modern romanticism and idealism, but the faith of common sense, and what is bes' of all, the faith of the Gospel. The progress of evangelical religion in this century, at home and abroad, has been very great, and it is sure to continue till the whole world be turned to the Lord. The vitality of the christian religion can be verified experimentally by every one who chooses to comply with the gracious invitation of the Saviour : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon 22 you and learn of „,e ; for I am meek and lowly in ■eart: and ye shall find rest to your souls. For n " yoke IS easy and my burden is liglu." Divinely humane m Its nature and cosmopolitan in its tendency h gemus of Christianity seems to be represented m h Book of Revelation, as an angel which the Apostle Jo n saw "fly in the midst of heaven, having the ev asnng Gospel to preach un,o them ^'.at dwd, on the e.rth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people, saymg wi.h a loud voice, fear God f nd g.ve glory to him ; for the hour of h,s judgment irconL and worship Him that n.ade heaven and ea h aTd the sea, and .he fountains of waters." Ti,e ndse and display of infidelity fill many with a dread "rconse quences, wh.ch restrains them from openly denTin. the Gospe ; but their faith in Chris, is hypocrit caf They would fam be a. once infidels and christians They would be glad to enjoy the benefits of th Re! deemers re.gn, rf only he would not claim their hearts But he reformation which our Lord conducts be ng spiritual, reason itself demands that we honour^ Mneerely. Love to the Son of God is, indeed t le sum and test of perfect morality. "When llrst the Ehoill,,i,',, mmm .irl „r.,>..l "h";ti; II x'-s,"';::,"""'"'- ' •'"' "'""■• »"""■- ■■ I-ovc on the , cte .nn' ','T°"''' ?'"" "'"I'Ne.l : Her .nl„,u„^ .^SMSL'lL^aSe'iffi;'.. 22 In these last times and as christians we can do much better than that. Look unto Jesus, the image of the invisible God. " He is thy Lord ; and worship thou him."— Amex. 1^