The works of William E. Channing, D.D

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THE

WORKS

WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D. D.

SIXTH COMPLETE EDITION,

AN INTRODUCTION.

VOL. III.

BOSTON:
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.

1846.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by

George G. Channing,

in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

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CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

FAOB

PREACHING CHRIST: DISCOURSE AT THE ORDINATION OF THE

REV. JOHN EMERY ABBOT 7

WAR: DISCOURSE BEFORE THE CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS

OF MASSACHUSETTS 29

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY: DISCOURSE AT THE ORDINATION

OF THE REV. JARED SPARKS. ... ... 59

THE EVIDENCES OF REVEALED RELIGION : DISCOURSE BEFORE

THE UNIVERSITY IN CAMBRIDGE 105

THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE ON THE MINISTRY: DISCOURSE

AT THE ORDINATION OF THE REV. E. S. GANNETT. . . 137

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY : DIS-
COURSE AT THE DEDICATION OF THE SECOND CONGREGA-
TIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH IN NEW YORK 163

THE GREAT PURPOSE OF CHRISTIANITY: DISCOURSE AT THE

INSTALLATION OF THE REV. M. I. MOTTE i07

LIKENESS TO GOD: DISCOURSE AT THE ORDINATION OF THE

REV. F. A. FARLEY 227

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: DISCOURSE AT THE DEDICATION

OF DIV1N1TV HALL, CAMBRIDGE. 257

THE DUKES OF CHILDREN 287

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN 299

THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY : Part 1 315

Part n 357

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DISCOURSES.

M

PREACHING CHRIST.

DISCOURSE

ORDINATION OF THE REV. JOHN EMERY ABBOT.
Salem, 1815.

Colossians i. 28 : " Whom we preach, warning every man, and
teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus."

In the verses immediately preceding the text, we find
the Apostle enlarging with his usual zeal and earnest-
ness on a subject peculiarly dear to him ; on the glo-
rious mystery of God, or in other words, on the great
purpose of God, which had been kept secret from ages,
to make the Gentile world partakers, through faith, of
the blessings of the long-promised Messiah. " Christ,
the hope of glory to the Gentiles," was the theme on
which Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, delighted to
expatiate. Having spoken of Jesus in this character,
he immediately adds, "Whom we preach, warning
every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that
we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus."

On the present occasion, which invites us to con-
sider the design and duties of the Christian ministry,

8 PREACHING CHRIST.

I have thought that these words would guide us to many
appropriate and useful reflections. They teach us what
the Apostle preached; "We preach Christ." They
teach us the end or object for which he thus preached ;
" That we may present every man perfect in Christ
Jesus." Following this natural order, I shall first con-
sider what is intended by "preaching Christ." I shall
then endeavour to illustrate and recommend the end or
object for which Christ is to be preached ; and I shall
conclude with some remarks on the methods by which
this end is to be accomplished. In discussing these
topics, on which a variety of sentiment is known to ex-
ist, I shall necessarily dissent from some of the views
which are cherished by particular classes of Christians.
But the frank expression of opinion ought not to be
construed into any want of affection or esteem for those
from whom I differ.

I. What are we to understand by "preaching Christ"?
This subject is the more interesting and important, be-
cause, I fear, it has often been misunderstood. Many
persons imagine, that Christ is never preached, unless
his name is continually repeated and his character con-
tinually kept in view. This is an error, and should be
exposed. Preaching Christ, then, does not consist in
making Christ perpetually the subject of discourse, but
in inculcating, on his authority, the religion which he
taught. Jesus came to be the light and teacher of the
world ; and in this sublime and benevolent character he
unfolded many truths relating to the Universal Father,
to his own character, to the condition, duties, and pros-
pects of mankind, to the perfection and true happiness
of the human soul, to a future state of retribution, to

PREACHING CHRIST. 9

the terms of forgiveness, to the means of virtue, and
of everlasting life. Now whenever we teach, on the
authority of Jesus, any doctrine or precept included in
this extensive system, we " preach Christ." When,
for instance, we inculcate on his authority the duties of
forgiving enemies, of denying ourselves, of hungering
after righteousness, we "preach Christ" as truly as
when we describe his passion on the cross, or the pur-
pose and the importance of his sufferings.

By the word " Christ " in the text and in many other
places, we are to understand his religion rather than his
person. Among the Jews nothing was more common
than to give the name of a religious teacher to the sys-
tem of truth which he taught. We see this continually
exemplified in the New Testament. Thus, it is said
of the Jews, " They have Moses and the prophets."
What is meant by this ? that they had Moses residing
in person among them ? Certainly not ; but that they
had his law, his religion. Jesus says, " I came not to
destroy the prophets." What did he mean ? that he
had not come to slay or destroy the prophets who had
died ages before his birth ? Certainly not ; he only in-
tended that his doctrines were suited to confirm, not to
invalidate, the writings of these holy men. According
to the same form of speech, Stephen was accused of
blasphemy against Moses, because some of his remarks
were construed into a reproach on the law of Moses.
These passages are sufficient to show us, that a religion
was often called by the name of its teacher ; and con-
formably to this usage, when Paul says, "We preach
Christ," we ought to understand him as affirming, that
he preached the whole system of doctrines and duties
which Christ taught, whether they related to Jesus him-
self, or to any other subject.

10 PREACHING CHRIST.

But there is one passage more decisive on this point
than any which I have adduced. In the Acts of the
Apostles,* James says, "Moses of old time hath in
every city them that preach him, being read in the syn-
agogue every Sabbath-day." Here we find the Apos-
tle declaring, that in every city there were men who
preached Moses; and we are told in what this preach-
ing consisted ; " Moses is read in the synagogue every
Sabbath-day." No one, acquainted with the ancient
services of the synagogue, can suppose, for a moment,
that the character and offices of Moses were the themes
of the Jewish teachers every Sabbath, and that they
preached nothing else. It was their custom to read the
books of the law in course, and to offer comments upon
obscure or important passages. In many parts of these
books the name of Moses is not mentioned. We have
whole chapters about the tabernacle, and about the rites
of cleansing from the leprosy. But, according to James,
when these portions were read and explained, Moses
was preached ; not because his character was the sub-
ject, but because the instructions contained in these
chapters were a part of the religion which he was ap-
pointed to communicate to the children of Israel. The
name of the teacher was given to his doctrine. This
form of speech was not peculiar to the Jews ; all nations
have probably adopted it. At the present day, nothing
is more common than to hear, that Locke, or Newton,
or some other distinguished philosopher, is published,
or taught ; not that his personal character and history are
made public, but his system of doctrines. In the same
way, Christ is preached, published, proclaimed when his
instructions are delivered, although these instructions

* Acts xv. 21.

PREACHING CHRIST. 1 1

may relate to other topics beside his own offices and
character.

I hope I shall not be misunderstood in the remarks
which I have now made. Do not imagine, that I would
exclude from the pulpit, discourses on the excellence of
Jesus Christ. The truths which relate to Jesus him-
self, are among the most important which the Gospel
reveals. The relations which Jesus Christ sustains to
the world, are so important and so tender ; the concern
which he has expressed in human salvation, so strong
and disinterested ; the blessings of pardon and immortal
life which he brings, so undeserved and unbounded ; his
character is such a union of moral beauty and grandeur ;
his example is at once so pure and so persuasive ; the
events of his life, his miracles, his sufferings, his resur-
rection and ascension, and his offices of intercessor and
judge, are so strengthening to faith, hope, and charity,
that his ministers should dwell on his name with affec-
tionate veneration, and should delight to exhibit him to
the gratitude, love, imitation, and confidence of man-
kind.

But, whilst the Christian minister is often to insist
on the life, the character, the offices, and the benefits of
Jesus Christ, let him not imagine that he is preaching
Christ only when these are his themes. If he confine
himself to these, he will not in the full sense of the
word preach Christ ; for this is to preach the whole
religion of Jesus, and this religion is of vast extent.
It regards man in his diversified and ever-multiplying
relations to his Creator and to his fellow-creatures, to
the present state and to all future ages. Its aim is, to
instruct and quicken us to cultivate an enlarged virtue ;
to cultivate our whole intellectual and moral nature.

12 PREACHING CHRIST.

It collects and offers motives to piety from the past and
from the future, from heaven and hell, from nature and
experience, from human example, and from the imitable
excellences of God, from the world without and the
world within us. The Gospel of Christ is indeed an
inexhaustible treasury of moral and religious truth.
Jesus, the first and best of evangelical teachers, did not
confine himself to a few topics, but manifested himself
to be the wisdom of God by the richness and variety
of his instructions. To preach Christ is to unfold, as
far as our feeble and narrow powers permit, all the doc-
trines, duties, and motives, which are recorded in the
Gospels and in the writings of his inspired Apostles.

It is not intended by these remarks, that all the
instructions of Christ are of equal importance, and
that all are to be urged with equal frequency and zeal.
Some undoubtedly are of greater moment and of more
universal application than others. But a minister of a
sound and candid mind, will be very cautious lest he as-
sign so high a rank to a few doctrines, that the rest will
sink into comparative insignificance, and almost fade
from the minds of his hearers. He will labor to give
enlarged and harmonious views of all the principles of
Christianity, recollecting that each receives support from
the rest, and that no doctrine or precept will exert its
proper influence, if swelled into disrjroportioned impor-
tance, or detached from the truths which ought to mod-
ify and restrain it.

It has been the object of these remarks, to show,
that preaching Christ does not imply that the offices
and character of .Christ are to be made perpetually the
subjects of discourse. Where this idea prevails, it too
often happens that the religion of Jesus is very partial-

PREACHING CHRIST. 13

\y preached. A few topics are repeated without end.
Many delightful and ennobling views of Christianity are
seldom or never exhibited. The duties of the Gospel
receive but a cursory attention. Religion is thought to
consist in a fervid state of mind, produced by the con-
stant contemplation of a few affecting ideas ; whilst the
only acceptable religion, which consists in living " so-
berly, righteously, and godly in the world," seems to
be undervalued as quite an inferior attainment. Where
this mistake prevails, we too often discover a censorious
spirit among hearers, who pronounce with confidence
on this and another minister, that they do not preach
Christ, because their discourses do not turn on a few
topics in relation to the Saviour, which are thought to
contain the whole of Christianity. Very often the la-
bors of a pious and upright minister are defeated by this
prejudice ; nor must he wonder, if he find himself de-
cried, as an enemy to the faith, by those whose want
of education or capacity confines them to the narrowest
views of the Christian system. — May I be permitted,
with deference and respect, to beseech Christian min-
isters not to encourage by example this spirit of censure
among private Christians. There is no lesson which we
can teach our hearers more easily, than to think con-
temptuously and to speak bitterly of other classes of
Christians, and especially of their teachers. Let us
never forget, that we none of us preach Christ in the
full import of that phrase. None of us can hope that
we give a complete representation of the religion of our
Master ; that we exhibit every doctrine without defect
or without excess, in its due proportions, and in its just
connexions. We of necessity communicate a portion
of our own weakness and darkness to the religion which

VOL. III. 2

14 PREACHIJMG CHRIST.

we dispense. The degree of imperfection indeed dif-
fers in different teachers ; but none are free from the
universal frailty, and none are authorized to take the
seat of judgment, and, on the ground of imagined errors,
to deny to others, whose lives are as spotless as their
own, a conscientious purpose to learn and to teach the
whole counsel of God.

II. Having thus considered what is intended by
preaching Christ, I proceed to consider, secondly, for
what end Christ is to be preached. We preach Christ,
says the Apostle, " warning every man, and teaching
every man, that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus ;" that is, perfect in the religion of Christ,
or a perfect Christian. From the passage we derive a
most important sentiment, confirmed by the whole New
Testament, that the great design of all the doctrines
and precepts of the Gospel, is to exalt the character,
to promote eminent purity of heart and life, to make
men perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect. For
what end then is Christianity to be preached ? The
answer is plain. We must preach, not to make fiery
partisans, and to swell the number of a sect ; not to
overwhelm the mind with fear, or to heat it with fever-
ish rapture ; not to form men to the decencies of life,
to a superficial goodness, which will secure the admira-
tion of mankind. All these effects fall infinitely short
of the great end of the Christian ministry. We should
preach, that we may make men perfect Christians ;
perfect, not according to the standard of the world,
but according to the law of Christ ; perfect in heart
and in life, in solitude and in society, in the great and
in the common concerns of life. Here is the purpose

PREACHING CHRIST. 15

of Christian preaching. In this, as in a common cen-
tre, all the truths of the Gospel meet ; to this they all
conspire ; and no doctrine has an influence on salvation,
any farther than it is an aid and excitement to the per-
fecting of our nature.

The Christian minister needs often to be reminded
of this great end of his office, the perfection of the
human character. He is too apt to rest in low attain-
ments himself, and to be satisfied with low attainments
in others. He ought never to forget the great distinc-
tion and glory of the Gospel, — that it is designed to
perfect human nature. All the precepts of this divine
system are marked by a sublime character. It demands
that our piety be fervent, our benevolence unbounded,
and our thirst for righteousness strong and insatiable.
It enjoins a virtue which does not stop at what is posi-
tively prescribed, but which is prodigal of service to
God and to mankind. The Gospel enjoins inflexible
integrity, fearless sincerity, fortitude which despises pain
and tramples pleasure under foot in the pursuit of duty,
and an independence of spirit which no scorn can deter
and no example seduce from asserting truth and adher-
ing to the cause which conscience approves. With this
spirit of martyrs, this hardness and intrepidity of sold-
iers of the cross, the Gospel calls us to unite the mild-
est and meekest virtues ; a sympathy which melts over
others' woes ; a disinterestedness which finds pleasure
in toils, and labors for others' good ; a humility which
loves to bless unseen, and forgets itself in the perform-
ance of the noblest deeds. To this perfection of
social duty, the Gospel commands us to join a piety
which refers every event to the providence of God, and
every action to his will ; a love which counts no service

16 PREACHING CHRIST.

hard, and a penitence which esteems no judgment se-
vere ; a gratitude which offers praise even in adversity ;
a holy trust unbroken by protracted suffering, and a hope
triumphant over death. In one word, it enjoins, that,
loving and confiding in Jesus Christ, we make his spot-
less character, his heavenly fife, the model of our own.
Such is the sublimity of character which the Gospel
demands, and such the end to which our preaching
should ever be directed.

I have dwelt on this end of preaching, because it is
too often forgotten, and because a stronger conviction
of it will give new force and elevation to our instruc-
tions. We need to feel more deeply, that we are in-
trusted with a religion which is designed to ennoble
human nature ; which recognises in man the capacities
of all that is good, great, and excellent ; and which
offers every encouragement and aid to the pursuit of
perfection. The Christian minister should often recol-
lect, that man, though propense to evil, has yet powers
and faculties which may be exalted and refined to an-
gelic glory ; that he is called by the Gospel to prepare
for the community of angels ; that he is formed for
unlimited progress in intellectual and moral excellence
and felicity. He should often recollect, that in Jesus
Christ our nature has been intimately united with the
divine, and that in Jesus it is already enthroned in heav-
en. Familiarized to these generous conceptions, the
Christian preacher, whilst he faithfully unfolds to men
their guilt and danger, should also unfold their capaci-
ties of greatness ; should reveal the splendor of that
destiny to which they are called by Christ; should
labor to awaken within them aspirations after a nobler
character and a higher existence, and to inflame them

PREACHING CHRIST. 17

with the love of all the graces and virtues with which
Jesus came to enrich and adorn the human soul. In
this way he will prove that he understands the true
and great design of the Gospel and the ministry, which
is nothing less than the perfection of the human char-
acter.

May I be permitted to say, that perhaps one of the
greatest defects in our preaching, is, that it is not suf-
ficiently directed to ennoble and elevate the minds of
men. It does not breathe a sufficiently generous spirit.
It appeals too constantly to the lowest principle of hu-
man nature ; I mean the principle of fear, which under
judicious excitement is indeed of great and undoubted
use, but which, as every parent knows, when habitually
awakened, is always found to debase the mind, to break
the spirit, to give tameness to the character, and to
chill the best affections. Perhaps one cause of the
limited influence of Christianity, is, that, as it is too
often exhibited, it seems adapted to form an abject, ser-
vile character, rather than to raise its disciples to true
greatness and dignity. Perhaps, were Christianity more
habitually regarded as a system, whose great design it is
to infuse honorable sentiments, magnanimity, energy, an
ingenuous love of God, a superiority to the senses, a
spirit of self-sacrifice, a virtue akin to that of heaven,
its reception would be more cordial, and its influence
more extensive, more happy, more accordant with its
great end, the perfection of human nature.

III. Having thus considered the end of Christian
preaching, I now come to offer, in the third place, a
few remarks on the best method of accomplishing it ;
and here I find myself obliged to omit a great variety

2*

18 PEEACHING CHRIST.

of topics, and can only offer one or two of principal
importance. That the Gospel may attain its end, may
exert the most powerful and ennobling influence on the
human character, it must be addressed at once to the
understanding and to the heart. It must be so preached
as to be firmly believed and deeply felt. — To secure
to Christianity this firm belief, I have only time to ob-
serve, that it should be preached in a rational manner.
By this I mean, that a Christian minister should beware
of offering interpretations of Scripture, which are re-
pugnant to any clear discoveries of reason or dictates
of conscience. This admonition is founded upon the
very obvious principle, that a revelation from God must
be adapted to the rational and moral nature which he
has conferred on man ; that God can never contradict
in his Word what he has himself written on the human
heart, or teaches in his works and providence. Every
man who reads the Bible knows, that, like other books,
it has many passages which admit a variety of interpre-
tations. Human language does not admit entire pre-
cision. It has often been observed by philosophers,
that the most familiar sentences owe their perspicuity,
not so much to the definiteness of the language, as to
an almost incredible activity of the mind, which selects
from a variety of meanings that which each word de-
mands, and assigns such limits to every phrase as the
intention of the speaker, his character and situation,
require. In addition to this source of obscurity, to
which all writings are exposed, we must remember that
the Scriptures were written in a distant age, in a foreign
language, by men who were unaccustomed to the sys-
tematic arrangements of modern times, and who, al-
though inspired, were left to communicate their thoughts

PREACHING CHRIST. 19

in the style most natural or habitual. Can we wonder,
then, that they admit a variety of interpretations ? Now,
we owe it to a book, which records, as we believe,
revelations from Heaven, and which is plainly designed
for the moral improvement of the race, to favor those
explications of obscure passages, which are seen to har-
monize with the moral attributes of God, and with the
acknowledged teachings of nature and conscience. All
those interpretations of the Gospel, which strike the
mind at once as inconsistent with a righteous government
of the universe, which require of man what is dispro-
portioned to his nature, or which shock any clear con-
viction which our experience has furnished, cannot be
viewed with too jealous an eye by him, who, revering
Christianity, desires to secure to it an intelligent belief.

It is in vain to say, that the first and most obvious
meaning of Scripture is always to be followed, no matter
where it leads. I answer, that the first and most obvi-
ous meaning of a passage, written in a foreign language,
and in remote antiquity, is very often false, and such as
farther inquiry compels us to abandon. I answer, too,
that all sects of Christians agree, and are forced to
agree, in frequently forsaking the literal sense, on ac-
count of its incongruity with acknowledged truth. There
is, in fact, no book in the world, which requires us more
frequently to restrain unlimited expressions, to qualify
the letter by the spirit, and to seek the meaning in the
state and customs of the writer and of his age, than the
New Testament. No book is written in a more popular,
figurative, and animated style, the very style which re-
quires the most constant exercise of judgment in the
reader. The Scriptures are not a frigid digest of Chris-
tianity, as if this religion were a mere code of civil laws.

20 PREACHING CHRIST.

They give us the Gospel warm from the hearts of its
preachers. The language is not that of logicians, not
the language of retired and inanimate speculation, but
of affection, of zeal, of men who burned to convey
deep and vivid impressions of the truth. In under-
standing such writers, moral feeling is often a better
guide than a servile adherence to the literal and most
obvious meaning of every word and phrase. It may be
said of the New as well as the Old Testament, that
sometimes the letter killeth whilst the spirit giveth life.
Almost any system may be built on the New Testament
by a commentator, who, forgetting the general scope of
Christianity and the lessons of nature and experience,
shall impose on every passage the literal signification
which is first offered to the mind. The Christian minis-
ter should avail himself, in his exposition of the Divine
Word, of the aids of learning and criticism, and also of
the aids of reason and conscience. Those interpreta-
tions of difficult passages, which approve themselves to
his clear and established conceptions of rectitude, and
to his devout and benevolent affections, he should regard
with a favorable eye ; whilst those of an opposite char-
acter should be regarded with great distrust.

I have said, that this rational method of preaching
Christianity is important, if we would secure a firm be-
lief to Christianity. Some men may indeed be recon-
ciled to an unreasonable religion ; and terror, that pas-
sion which more than any other unsettles the intellect,
may silence every objection to the most contradictory
and degrading principles. But in general the understand-
ing and conscience cannot be entirely subdued. They
resist the violence which is done them. A lurking in-
credulity mingles with the attempt to believe what con-

PREACHING CHRIST. 21

tradicts the highest principles of our nature. Particu-
larly the most intelligent part of the community, who
will ultimately govern public sentiment, will doubt and
disbelieve the unreasonable system, which, perhaps, they
find it prudent to acknowledge ; and will either convert
it into an instrument of policy, or seize a favorable mo-
ment for casting off its restraints and levelling its institu-
tions with the dust. Thus important is it that Chris
tianity should be recommended to the understandings
of men.

But this is not enough. It is also most important
that the Gospel should be recommended to the heart.
Christianity should be so preached, as to interest the
affections, to awaken contrition and fear, veneration and
love, gratitude and hope. Some preachers, from ob-
serving the pernicious effects of violent and exclusive
appeals to the passions, have fallen into an opposite
error, which has rendered the labors of their lives al-
most wholly unfruitful. They have addressed men as
mere creatures of intellect ; they have forgotten, that
affection is as essential to our nature as thought, that
action requires motive, that the union of reason and
sensibility is the health of the soul, and that without
moral feeling there can be no strength of moral purpose.
They have preached ingeniously, and the hearer has pro-
nounced the teaching true. But the truth, coldly im-
parted, and coldly received, has been forgotten as fast as
heard ; no energy of will has been awakened ; no resist-
ance to habit and passion been called forth ; perhaps not
a momentary purpose of self-improvement has glanced
through the mind. Preaching, to be effectual, must be
as various as our nature. The sun warms, at the same
moment that it enlightens ; and, unless religious truth be

22 PREACHING CHRIST.

addressed at once to the reason and the affections, unless
it kindles whilst it guides, it is a useless splendor ; it
leaves the heart barren ; it produces no fruits of godli-
ness. Let the Christian minister, then, preach the Gos-
pel with earnestness, with affection, with a heart warmed
by his subject, not thinking of himself, not seeking
applause, but solicitous for the happiness of mankind,
tenderly concerned for his people, awake to the solem-
nities of eternity, and deeply impressed with the worth
of the human soul, with the glory and happiness to
which it may be exalted, and with the misery and ruin
into which it will be plunged by irreligion and vice.
Let him preach, not to amuse, but to convince and
awaken ; not to excite a momentary interest, but a deep
and lasting seriousness ; not to make his hearers think of
the preacher, but of themselves, of their own characters
and future condition. Let him labor, by delineating
with unaffected ardor the happiness of virtue, by setting
forth religion in its most attractive forms, by displaying
the paternal character of God, and the love of Christ
which was stronger than death, by unfolding the purity
and blessedness of the heavenly world, by revealing to
the soul its own greatness, and by persuasion, by en-
treaty, by appeals to the best sentiments of human nature,
by speaking from a heart convinced of immortality ; let
him labor, by these methods, to touch and to soften his
hearers, to draw them to God and duty, to awaken grati-
tude and love, a sublime hope and a. generous desire of
exalted goodness. And let him also labor, by solemn
warning, by teaching men their responsibility, by setting
before sinners the aggravations of their guilt, by showing
them the ruin and immediate wretchedness wrought by
moral evil in the soul, and by pointing them to approach-

PREACHING CHRIST. 23

ing death, and the retributions of the future world ; let
him labor, by these means, to reach the consciences of
those whom higher motives will not quicken, to break
the slumbers of the worldly, to cut off every false hope,
and to persuade the sinner, by a salutary terror, to return
to God, and to seek, with a new earnestness, virtue,
glory, and eternal life.

24 PREACHING CHRIST.

NOTE

ON THE FIRST HEAD OF THE PRECEDING DISCOURSE.

The error which I have opposed on the subject of
' preaching Christ, may be traced in a great measure to
what appears to me a wrong interpretation of the two first
chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. In these
chapters, Paul says, that he " determined to know noth-
ing among the Corinthians, save Jesus Christ and him
crucified," and speaks once and again of "preaching
Christ crucified," &c. It has been supposed, that the
Apostle here intended to select the particular point on
which preaching should chiefly turn, and that we have
his authority for censuring a discourse which does not re-
late immediately to the character of Christ, and especially
to his sufferings on the cross. But I think that a little
attention to the circumstances of the Apostle and of the
Corinthians will show us, that Paul referred to the reli-
gion of Jesus generally, as the subject of his preaching,
and not to a very limited part of it.

Corinth, being the most commercial city of Greece,
was inhabited by Jews as well as Greeks. These Jews,
as Paul tells us, " wanted a sign," just as the Pharisees
in the time of Christ demanded " a sign from heaven."
That is, they wanted a Messiah who should be marked
out to them by a visible descent from heaven, or by some
glorious appearance from heaven, or by some outward
majesty which should be a pledge of his breaking the
Roman yoke, and raising Judea to the empire of the

PREACHIXG CHRIST. 25

world. They wanted a splendid and temporal Messiah.
The Greeks, on the other hand, who were a speculative
people, wanted wisdom, or a system of philosophy, and
could hear nothing patiently but the subtile disputations
and studied harangues with which they were amused by
those who pretended to wisdom. Such was the state of
Corinth, when Paul entered it. Had he brought with
him an account of a triumphant Messiah, or an acute
philosopher, he would have been received with eagerness.
But none were desirous to hear the simple religion of
Jesus of Nazareth, who proved his mission, not by subtil-
ties of eloquence, but by miracles evincing the power of
God, and who died at last on the ignominious cross.
Paul, however, in opposition to Jew and Greek, deter-
mined to know nothing of a worldly Messiah, nothing of
any old or new scheme of philosophy ; but to know and
to preach Jesus Christ, and to exhibit him in a light which
Judaism and philosophy would alike abhor, as crucified
for the recovery of men from error, sin, and condemna-
tion. In other words, he resolved to preach the religion
of Jesus, in its greatest simplicity, without softening its
most offensive feature, the cross of its author, or without
borrowing any thing from Moses or from any Gentile
philosopher, to give currency to his doctrines. This is
the amount of what Paul teaches in these chapters.

We must not imagine, when we read these chapters,
that Corinth was a city of professing Christians ; that
among these Christians a difference of opinion had arisen
as to the proper subjects of Christian preaching, and that
Paul intended to specify the topic on which ministers
should chiefly or exclusively insist. This, I fear, is the
common impression under which this portion of Scripture
is read ; but this is altogether erroneous. No contro-
versy of this kind existed ; and Paul, in these chapters,
had not the most distant idea of recommending one part

VOL. III. 3

26 PREACHING CHRIST.

of the Gospel in preference to others, but intended to
recommend the whole Gospel, the whole religion of Jesus
Christ, in distinction from Judaism and Gentile philoso-
phy. The dangers of the Corinthian Christians required
that he should employ every effort to secure their fidelity
to the simple Gospel of Jesus. Having been educated in
the Jewish or Heathen religions ; living in the midst of
Jews and Heathens ; hearing perpetually, from one
class, that the Messiah was to be a triumphant prince,
and that without submission to the law of Moses, no one
could partake his blessings ; and hearing, from the other,
perpetual praises of this and another philosopher, and
perpetual derision of the Gospel, because in its doctrines
and style it bore no resemblance to the refinements and
rhetoric of their most celebrated sages ; the Corinthian
Christians, in these trying circumstances, were strongly
tempted to assimilate the Gospel to the prevalent religions,
to blend with it foreign doctrines, to keep the humiliation
of its author out of sight, and to teach it as a system of
philosophy resting on subtile reasoning rather than on
miracles and the authority of God. To save them from
this danger, a danger which at present we can hardly es-
timate, the Apostle reminded them, that when he came to
them he came not with " excellency of speech and with
enticing words of man's wisdom," but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of miraculous powers ; that he did not
comply with the demands of Greek or Jew ; that he
preached a crucified Messiah, and no other teacher or
deliverer ; and that he always insisted, that the religion
of Jesus, unaided by Judaism or philosophy, was able to
make men wise to salvation. He also reminded them,
that this preaching, however branded as foolishness, had
proved divinely powerful, and had saved them from that
ignorance of God, from which human wisdom had been
unable to deliver them. These remarks, I hope, will as-

PREACHING CHRIST. 27

sist common readers in understanding the chapters under
consideration.

We are too apt, in reading the New Testament, and
particularly the Epistles, to forget, that the Gospel was a
new religion, and that the Apostles were called to preach
Jesus to those, who, perhaps, had never before heard his
name, and whose prejudices and passions prepared them
to contemn and reject his claims. In these circumstances,
they had to begin at the very foundation, to prove to the
unbelieving world that Jesus was the Messiah, or sent
from God to instruct and save mankind. This is often
called "preaching Christ," especially in the Acts. —
When converts were made, the work of the Apostles was
not ended. These converts wished to bring with them a
part of their old religion into the church ; and some of
the Jews even insisted that obedience to Moses was essen-
tial to salvation. These errors the Apostles resolutely
opposed, and, having previously established the Messiah-
ship of Jesus, they next proceeded to establish the suffi-
ciency and perfection of his religion, to show that faith in
him, or reception of his Gospel, was all that was required
to salvation. This is sometimes called " preaching
Christ." — These difficulties, which called the Apostles
to so much anxiety and toil, are now in a great measure
removed. Christian ministers, at the present day, are not
often called to preach Christ in opposition to the infidel,
and never in opposition to the weak convert who would
incorporate Judaism or Gentile philosophy with Christi-
anity. The great foundation, on which the Apostles spent
so much strength, is now firmly laid. Our hearers gen-
erally acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, sent by God
to be the light of the world, and "able to save to the
uttermost all who come to God by him." We are there-
fore seldom called to preach Christ in the senses which
have just been considered, and our preaching must of

28 PREACHING CHRIST.

course differ in a measure from that of the Apostles.
But there is another sense of preaching Christ, involved
in both the preceding, in which our work precisely ac-
cords with theirs. Like them, we are to unfold to those
who acknowledge Jesus as their Lord, all the truths, mo-
tives, and precepts, which he has left to guide and quicken
men to excellence, and to prepare them for a happy im-
mortality.

WAR.

DISCOURSE

BEFORE THE

CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Boston, 1816.

Isaiah ii. 4: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more."

I have chosen a subject, which may seem at first view
not altogether appropriate to the present occasion, the
subject of war. It may be thought, that an address to
an assembly composed chiefly of the ministers of religion,
should be confined to the duties, dangers, encourage-
ments of the sacred office. But I have been induced to
select this topic, because, after the slumber of ages,
Christians seem to be awakening to a sense of the pacific
character of their religion, and because I understood,
that this Convention were at this anniversary to consider
the interesting question, whether no method could be
devised for enlightening the public mind on the nature
and guilt of war. I was unwilling that this subject
should be approached and dismissed as an ordinary
affair. I feared, that, in the pressure of business, we
3*

30 WAR.

might be satisfied with the expression of customary dis-
approbation; and that, having in this way relieved our
consciences, we should relapse into our former indiffer-
ence, and continue to hear the howlings of this dread-
ful storm of human passions with as much unconcern
as before. I resolved to urge on you the duty, and I
hoped to excite in you the purpose, of making some
new and persevering efforts for the abolition of this worst
vestige of barbarism, this grossest outrage on the prin-
ciples of Christianity. The day I trust is coming, when
Christians will look back with gratitude and affection
on those men, who, in ages of conflict and bloodshed,
cherished generous hopes of human improvement, with-
stood the violence of corrupt opinion, held forth, amidst
the general darkness, the pure and mild light of Chris-
tianity, and thus ushered in a new and peaceful era in
the history of mankind. May you, my brethren, be
included in the grateful recollection of that day.

The miseries and crimes of war, its sources, its reme-
dies, will be the subjects of our present attention.

In detailing its miseries and crimes, there is no temp-
tation to recur to unreal or exaggerated horrors. No
depth of coloring can approach reality. It is lament-
able, that we need a delineation of the calamities of
war, to rouse us to exertion. The mere idea of human
beings employing every power and faculty in the work of
mutual destruction, ought to send a shuddering through
the frame. But on this subject, our sensibilities are
dreadfully sluggish and dead. Our ordinary sympathies
seem to forsake us, when war is named. The suffer-
ings and death of a single fellow-being often excite a
tender and active compassion ; but we hear without
emotion of thousands enduring every variety of woe in

WAR. 31

war. A single murder in peace thrills through our
frames. The countless murders of war are heard as
an amusing tale. The execution of a criminal depress-
es the mind, and philanthropy is laboring to substitute
milder punishments for death. But benevolence has
hardly made an effort to snatch from sudden and un-
timely death, the innumerable victims immolated on the
altar of war. This insensibility demands that the miser-
ies and crimes of war should be placed before us with
minuteness, with energy, with strong and indignant feel-
ing.

The miseries of war may be easily conceived from
its very nature. By war, we understand the resort of
nations to force, violence, and the most dreaded meth-
ods of destruction and devastation. In war, the strength,
skill, courage, energy, and resources of a whole people
are concentrated for the infliction of pain and death.
The bowels of the earth are explored, the most active
elements combined, the resources of art and nature ex-
hausted, to increase the power of man in destroying his
fellow-creatures.

Would you learn what destruction man, when thus
aided, can spread around him ? Look, then, at that
extensive region, desolate and overspread with ruins ;
its forests rent, as if blasted by lightning ; its villages
prostrated, as by an earthquake ; its fields barren, as
if swept by storms. Not long ago, the sun shone on
no happier spot. But ravaging armies prowled over it ;
war frowned on it ; and its fruitfulness and happiness
are fled. Here thousands and ten thousands were gath-
ered from distant provinces, not to embrace as breth-
ren, but to renounce the tie of brotherhood ; and thou-
sands, in the vigor of life, when least prepared for

32 WAR.

death, were hewn down and scattered like chaff before
the whirlwind.

Repair, my friends, in thought, to a field of recent
battle. Here, are heaps of slain, weltering in their
own blood, their bodies mangled, their limbs shattered,
and almost every vestige of the human form and coun-
tenance destroyed. Here, are multitudes trodden under
foot, and the war-horse has left the trace of his hoof
in many a crushed and mutilated frame. Here, are
severer sufferers ; they live, but live without hope or
consolation. Justice despatches the criminal with a sin-
gle stroke ; but the victims of war, falling by casual,
undirected blows, often expire in lingering agony, their
deep groans moving no compassion, their limbs writh-
ing on the earth with pain, their lips parched with a
burning thirst, their wounds open to the chilling air,
the memory of home rushing on their minds, but not
a voice of friendship or comfort reaching their ears.
Amidst this scene of horrors, you see the bird and
beast of prey gorging themselves with the dead or dy-
ing, and human plunderers rifling the warm and almost
palpitating remains of the slain. If you extend your
eye beyond the immediate field of battle, and follow
the track of the victorious and pursuing army, you
see the roads strewed with the dead ; you see scattered
flocks, and harvests trampled under foot, the smoking
ruins of cottages, and the miserable inhabitants flying
in want and despair ; and even yet, the horrors of a
single battle are not exhausted. Some of the deepest
pangs which it inflicts, are silent, retired, enduring, to
be read in the widow's countenance, in the unprotected
orphan, in the aged parent, in affection cherishing the
memory of the slain, and weeping that it could not min-
ister to their last pangs.

WAR. 33

I have asked you to traverse, in thought, a field of
battle. There is another scene often presented in war,
perhaps more terrible. I refer to a besieged city. The
most horrible pages in histroy are those which record
the reduction of strongly fortified places. In a besieged
city, are collected all descriptions and ages of mankind,
women, children, the old, the infirm. Day and night,
the weapons of death and conflagration fly around them
They see the approaches of the foe, the trembling bul-
wark, and the fainting strength of their defenders. They
are worn with famine, and on famine presses pesti-
lence. At length the assault is made, every barrier
is broken down, and a lawless soldiery, exasperated by
resistance, and burning with lust and cruelty, are scat-
tered through the streets. The domestic retreat is vio-
lated ; and even the house of God is no longer a sanc-
tuary. Venerable age is no protection, female purity
no defence. Is woman spared amidst the slaughter
of father, brother, husband, and son ? She is spared
for a fate, which makes death in comparison a merciful
doom. With such heart-rending scenes history abounds ;
and what better fruits can you expect from war ?

These views are the most obvious and striking which
war presents. There are more secret influences, ap-
pealing less powerfully to the senses and imagination,
but deeply affecting to a reflecting and benevolent mind.
— Consider, first, the condition of those who are imme-
diately engaged in war ? The sufferings of soldiers
from battle we have seen ; but their sufferings are not
limited to the period of conflict. The whole of war is
a succession of exposures too severe for human nature.
Death employs other weapons than the sword. It is
computed, that in ordinary wars, greater numbers per

34 WAR.

ish by sickness than in battle. Exhausted by long and
rapid marches, by unwholesome food, by exposure to
storms, by excessive labor under a burning sky through
the day, and by interrupted and restless sleep on the
damp ground and in the chilling atmosphere of night,
thousands after thousands of the young pine away and
die. They anticipated that they should fall, if to fall
should be their lot, in what they called the field of hon-
or ; but they perish in the inglorious and crowded hos-
pital, surrounded with sights and sounds of woe, far
from home and every friend, and denied those tender
offices which sickness and expiring nature require.

Consider next the influence of war on the character
of those who make it their trade. They let themselves
for slaughter, place themselves servile instruments, pas-
sive machines, in the hands of rulers, to execute the
bloodiest mandates, without a thought on the justice of
the cause in which they are engaged. What a school
is this for the human character ! From men trained in
battle to ferocity, accustomed to the perpetration of
cruel deeds, accustomed to take human life without sor-
row or remorse, habituated to esteem an unthinking
courage a substitute for every virtue, encouraged by
plunder of prodigality, taught improvidence by perpetu-
al hazard and exposure, restrained only by an iron dis-
cipline which is withdrawn in peace, and unfitted by
the restless and irregular career of war for the calm and
uniform pursuits of ordinary life ; from such men, what
ought to be expected but contempt of human rights and
of the laws of God ? From the nature of his calling, the
soldier is almost driven to sport with the thought of
death, to defy and deride it, and, of course, to banish
the thought of that retribution to which it leads ; and,

war. 35

though of all men the most exposed to sudden death,
he is too often of all men most unprepared to appear
before his Judge.

The influence of war on the community at large, on
its prosperity, its morals, and its political institutions,
though less striking than on the soldiery, is yet baleful.
How often is a community impoverished to sustain a
war in which it has no interest ? Public burdens are
aggravated, whilst the means of sustaining them are re-
duced. Internal improvements are neglected. The
revenue of the state is exhausted in military establish-
ments, or flows through secret channels into the coffers
of corrupt men, whom war exalts to power and office.
The regular employments of peace are disturbed. In-
dustry in many of its branches is suspended. The
laborer, ground with want, and driven to despair by the
clamor of his suffering family, becomes a soldier in
a cause which he condemns, and thus the country is
drained of its most effective population. The people
are stripped and reduced, whilst the authors of war
retrench not a comfort, and often fatten on the spoils
and woes of their country.

The influence of war on the morals of society is also
to be deprecated. The suspension of industry multi-
plies want ; and criminal modes of subsistence are the
resource of the suffering. Commerce, shackled and
endangered, loses its upright and honorable character,
and becomes a system of stratagem and collusion. In
war, the moral sentiments of a community are perverted
by the admiration of military exploits. The milder
virtues of Christianity are eclipsed by the baleful lustre
thrown round a ferocious courage. The disinterested,
the benignant, the merciful, the forgiving, those whom

36 WAR.

Jesus has pronounced blessed and honorable, must give
place to the hero, whose character is stained not only
with blood, but sometimes with the foulest vices, but
all whose stains are washed away by victory. War
especially injures the moral feelings of a people, by
making human nature cheap in their estimation, and hu-
man life of as little worth as that of an insect or a brute.

War diffuses through a community unfriendly and
malignant passions. Nations, exasperated by mutual
injuries, burn for each others' humiliation and ruin.
They delight to hear that famine, pestilence, want, de-
feat, and the most dreadful scourges which Providence
sends on a guilty world, are desolating a hostile com-
munity. The slaughter of thousands of fellow-beings,
instead of awakening pity, flushes them with delirious
joy, illuminates the city, and dissolves the whole country
in revelry and riot. Thus the heart of man is hard-
ened. His worst passions are nourished. He renoun-
ces the bonds and sympathies of humanity. Were the
prayers, or rather the curses of warring nations preva-
lent in heaven, the whole earth would long since have
become a desert. The human race, with all their la-
bors and improvements, would have perished under the
sentence of universal extermination.

But war not only assails the prosperity and morals
of a community ; its influence on the political condition
is threatening. It arms government with a dangerous
patronage, multiplies dependents and instruments of op-
pression, and generates a power, which, in the hands
of the energetic and aspiring, endangers a free consti-
tution. War organizes a body of men, who lose the
feelings of the citizen in the soldier ; whose habits de-
tach them from the community ; whose ruling passion

war. 37

is devotion to a chief; who are inured in the camp to
despotic sway ; who are accustomed to accomplish their
ends by force, and to sport with the rights and hap-
piness of their fellow-beings ; who delight in tumult,
adventure, and peril ; and turn with disgust and scorn
from the quiet labors of peace. Is it wonderful, that
such protectors of a state should look with contempt on
the weakness of the protected, and should lend them-
selves base instruments to the subversion of that freedom
which they do not themselves enjoy ? In a community,
in which precedence is given to the military profession,
freedom cannot long endure. The encroachments of
power at home are expiated by foreign triumphs. The
essential interests and rights of the state are sacrificed
to a false and fatal glory. Its intelligence and vigor,
instead of presenting a bulwark to domestic usurpation,
are expended in military achievements. Its most active
and aspiring citizens rush to the army, and become sub-
servient to the power which dispenses honor. The
nation is victorious, but the recompense of its toils is
a yoke as galling as that which it imposes on other
communities.

Thus, war is to be ranked among the most dreadful
calamities which fall on a guilty world ; and, what de-
serves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate
itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood
which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs,
gain strength and fury from indulgence. The success-
ful nation, flushed by victory, pants for new laurels ;
whilst the humbled nation,. irritated by defeat, is impa-
tient to redeem its honor and repair its losses. Peace
becomes a truce, a feverish repose, a respite to sharpen
anew the sword, and to prepare for future struggles.

VOL. III. 4

38 WAR.

Under professions of friendship, lurk hatred and dis-
trust ; and a spark suffices to renew the mighty con-
flagration. When from these causes, large military es-
tablishments are formed, and a military spirit kindled,
war becomes a necessary part of policy. A foreign field
must be found for the energies and passions of a martial
people. To disband a numerous and veteran soldiery,
would be to let loose a dangerous horde on society.
The blood-hounds must be sent forth on other commu-
nities, lest they rend the bosom of their own country.
Thus war extends and multiplies itself. No sooner is
one storm scattered, than the sky is darkened with the
gathering horrors of another. Accordingly, war has
been the mournful legacy of every generation to that
which succeeds it. Every age has had its conflicts.
Every country has in turn been the seat of devastation
and slaughter. The dearest interest and rights of every
nation have been again and again committed to the haz-
ards of a game, of all others the most uncertain, and in
which, from its very nature, success too often attends on
the fiercest courage and the basest fraud.

Such, my friends, is an unexaggerated, and, I will
add, a faint delineation of the miseries of war ; and to
all these miseries and crimes the human race have been
continually exposed, for no worthier cause, than to en-
large an empire already tottering under its unwieldy
weight, to extend an iron despotism, to support some
idle pretension, to repel some unreal or exaggerated
injury. For no worthier cause, human blood has been
poured out as water, and millions of rational and im-
mortal beings have been driven like sheep to the field
of slaughter.

WAR. 39

Having considered the crimes and miseries of war,
[ proceed, as I proposed, to inquire into its sources ;
an important branch of our subject, for it is only by a
knowledge of the sources, that we can be guided to the
remedies of war. And here, I doubt not, many will
imagine that the first place ought to be given to malig-
nity and hatred. But justice to human nature requires,
that we ascribe to national animosities a more limited
operation than is usually assigned to them, in the pro-
duction of this calamity. It is indeed true, that am-
bitious men, who have an interest in war, too often
accomplish their views by appealing to the malignant
feelings of a community, by exaggerating its wrongs,
ridiculing its forbearance, and reviving ancient jealous-
ies and resentments. But it is believed, that, were not
malignity and revenge aided by the concurrence of high-
er principles, the false splendor of this barbarous cus-
tom might easily be obscured, and its ravages stayed.

One of the great springs of war may be found in a
very strong and general propensity of human nature, in
the love of excitement, of emotion, of strong interest ;
a propensity which gives a charm to those bold and
hazardous enterprises which call forth all the energies
of our nature. No state of mind, not even positive
suffering, is more painful than the want of interesting
objects. The vacant soul preys on itself, and often
rushes with impatience from the security which demands
no effort, to the brink of peril. This part of human
nature is seen in the kind of pleasures which have
always been preferred. Why has the first rank among
sports been given to the chase ? Because its difficul-
ties, hardships, hazards, tumults, awaken the mind, and
give to it a new consciousness of existence, and a deep

40 WAR.

feeling of its powers. What is the charm which at-
taches the statesman to an office which almost weighs
him down with labor and an appalling responsibility ?
He finds much of his compensation in the powerful emo-
tion and interest, awakened by the very hardships of his
lot, by conflict with vigorous minds, by the opposition
of rivals, and by the alternations of success and defeat.
What hurries to the gaming table the man of prosper-
ous fortune and ample resource ? The dread of apathy,
the love of strong feeling and of mental agitation. A
deeper interest is felt in hazarding, than in securing
wealth, and the temptation is irresistible. One more
example of this propensity may be seen in the attach-
ment of pirates and highwaymen to their dreadful em-
ployment. Its excess of peril has given it a terrible
interest ; and to a man who has long conversed with
its dangers, the ordinary pursuits of life are vapid, taste-
less, and disgusting. We have here one spring of war.
War is of all games the deepest, awakening most pow-
erfully the soul, and, of course, presenting powerful at-
traction to those restless and adventurous minds, which
pant for scenes of greater experiment and exposure than
peace affords. The savage, finding in his uncultivated
modes of life few objects of interest, few sources of
emotion, burns for war as a field for his restless energy.
Civilized men, too, find a pleasure in war, as an excite-
ment of the mind. They follow, with an eager con-
cern, the movements of armies, and wait the issue of
battles with a deep suspense, an alternation of hope and
fear, inconceivably more interesting than the unvaried
uniformity of peaceful pursuits.

Another powerful principle of our nature, which is
the spring of war, is the passion for superiority, for

WAR. 41

triumph, for power. The human mind is aspiring, im-
patient of inferiority, and eager for preeminence and
control. I need not enlarge on the predominance of
this passion in rulers, whose love of power is influenred
by the possession, and who are ever restless to extend
their sway. It is more important to observe, that, were
this desire restrained to the breasts of rulers, war would
move with a sluggish pace. But the passion for power
and superiority is universal ; and as every individual,
from his intimate union with the community, is accus-
tomed to appropriate its triumphs to himself, there is
a general promptness to engage in any contest, by
which the community may obtain an ascendency over
other nations. The desire, that our country should
surpass all others, would not be criminal, did we un-
derstand in what respects it is most honorable for a
nation to excel ; did we feel, that the glory of a state
consists in intellectual and moral superiority, in pre-
eminence of knowledge, freedom, and purity. But to
the mass of a people, this form of preeminence is too
refined and unsubstantial. There is another kind of
triumph, which they better understand, the triumph of
physical power, triumph in battle, triumph, not over
the minds, but the territory of another state. Here is
a palpable, visible superiority ; and for this, a people
are willing to submit to severe privations. A victory
blots out the memory of their sufferings, and in boast-
ing of their extended power, they find a compensation
for many woes.

I now proceed to another powerful spring of war ;
and it is the admiration of the brilliant qualities dis-
played in war. These qualities, more than all things,
have prevented an impression of the crimes and miseries
4*

42 WAR.

of this savage custom. Many delight in war, not for
its carnage and woes, but for its valor and apparent
magnanimity, for the self-command of the hero, the
fortitude which despises suffering, the resolution which
courts danger, the superiority of the mind to the body,
to sensation, to fear. Let us be just to human nature
even in its errors and excesses. Men seldom delight in
war, considered merely as a source of misery. When
they hear of battles, the picture which rises to their
view is not what it should be, a picture of extreme
wretchedness, of the wounded, the mangled, the slain.
These horrors are hidden under the splendor of those
mighty energies, which break forth amidst the perils of
conflict, and which human nature contemplates with an
intense and heart-thrilling delight. Attention hurries
from the heaps of the slaughtered to the victorious
chief, whose single mind pervades and animates a host,
and directs with stern composure the storm of battle ;
and the ruin which he spreads is forgotten in admiration
of his power. This admiration has, in all ages, been
expressed by the most unequivocal signs. Why that
garland woven ? that arch erected ? that festive board
spread ? These are tributes to the warrior. Whilst
the peaceful sovereign, who scatters blessings with the
silence and constancy of Providence, is received with
a faint applause, men assemble in crowds to hail the
conqueror, perhaps a monster in human form, whose
private life is blackened with lust and crime, and whose
greatness is built on perfidy and usurpation. Thus, war
is the surest and speediest road to renown ; and war will
never cease, while the field of battle is the field of
glory, and the most luxuriant laurels grow from a root
nourished with blood.

WAR. 43

Another cause of war is a false patriotism. It is a
natural and generous impulse of nature to love the coun-
try which gave us birth, by whose institutions we have
been moulded, by whose laws defended, and with whose
soil and scenery innumerable associations of early years,
of domestic affection, and of friendship, have been
formed. But this sentiment often degenerates into a
narrow, partial, exclusive attachment, alienating us from
other branches of the human family, and instigating to
aggression on other states. In ancient times, this prin-
ciple was developed with wonderful energy, and some-
times absorbed every other sentiment. To the Roman,
Rome was the universe. Other nations were of no
value but to grace her triumphs, and illustrate her
power ; and he, who in private life would have disdained
injustice and oppression, exulted in the successful vio-
lence by which other nations were bound to the chariot-
wheels of this mistress of the world. This spirit still
exists. The tie of country is thought to absolve men
from the obligations of universal justice and humanity.
Statesmen and rulers are expected to build up their own
country at the expense of others ; and, in the false
patriotism of the citizen, they have a security for any
outrages, which are sanctioned by success.

Let me mention one other spring of war. I mean
the impressions we receive in early life. In our early
years, we know war only as it offers itself to us at a re-
view ; not arrayed in terror, not stalking over fields of
the slain, and desolated regions, its eye flashing with
fury, and its sword reeking with blood. War, as we
first see it, is decked with gay and splendid trappings,
and wears a countenance of joy. It moves With a meas-
ured and graceful step to the sound of the heart-stirring

44 WAR.

fife and drum. Its instruments of death wound only the
air. Such is war ; the youthful eye is dazzled with its
ornaments ; the youthful heart dances to its animated
sounds. It seems a pastime full of spirit and activity,
the very sport in which youth delights. These false
views of war are confirmed hy our earliest reading. We
are intoxicated with the exploits of the conqueror, as
recorded in real history or in glowing fiction. We fol-
low, with a sympathetic ardor, his rapid and triumphant
career in battle, and, unused as we are to suffering and
death, forget the fallen and miserable who are crushed
under his victorious car. Particularly by the study of
the ancient poets and historians, the sentiments of early
and barbarous ages on the subject of war are kept alive
in the mind. The trumpet, which roused the fury of
Achilles and of the hordes of Greece, still resounds in
our ears ; and, though Christians by profession, some
of our earliest and deepest impressions are received in
the school of uncivilized antiquity. Even where these
impressions in favor of war are not received in youth,
we yet learn from our early familiarity with it, to con-
sider it as a necessary evil, an essential part of our con-
dition. We become reconciled to it as to a fixed law
of our nature ; and consider the thought of its abolition
as extravagant as an attempt to chain the winds or arrest
the lightning.

I have thus attempted to unfold the principal causes
of war. They are, you perceive, of a moral nature.
They may be resolved into wrong views of human
glory, and into excesses of passions and desires, which,
by right direction, would promote the best interests of
humanity. From these causes we learn, that this savage

WAR. 45

custom is to be repressed by moral means, by salutary
influences on the sentiments and principles of mankind.
And thus we are led to our last topic, the remedies of
war. In introducing the observations which I have to
offer on this branch of the subject, I feel myself bound
to suggest an important caution. Let not the cause of
peace be injured by the assertion of extreme and inde-
fensible principles. I particularly refer to the principle,
that war is absolutely, and in all possible cases, unlawful,
and prohibited by Christianity. This doctrine is consid-
ered, by a great majority of the judicious and enlight-
ened, as endangering the best interests of society ; and
it ought not therefore to be connected with our efforts
for the diffusion of peace, unless it appear to us a clear
and indubitable truth. War, as it is commonly waged,
is indeed a tremendous evil ; but national subjugation is
a greater evil than a war of defence ; and a community
seems to me to possess an indisputable right to resort to
such a war, when all other means have failed for the
security of its existence or freedom. It is universally
admitted, that a community may employ force to repress
the rapacity and violence of its own citizens, to disarm
and restrain its internal foes ; and on what ground can we
deny to it the right of repelling the inroads and aggres-
sions of a foreign power ? If a government may not
lawfully resist a foreign army, invading its territory to
desolate and subdue, on what principles can we justify a
resistance of a combination of its own citizens for the
same injurious purpose ? Government is instituted for
the very purpose of protecting the community from all
violence, no matter by what hands it may be offered ;
and rulers would be unfaithful to their trust, were they
to abandon the rights, interests, and improvements of

46 VVAR.

society to unprincipled rapacity, whether of domestic or
foreign foes.

We are indeed told, that the language of Scripture is,
" resist not evil." But the Scriptures are given to us
as reasonable beings. We must remember, that, to the
renunciation of reason in the interpretation of Scripture,
we owe those absurdities, which have sunk Christianity
almost to the level of Heathenism. If the precept to
" resist not evil," admit no exception, then civil govern-
ment is prostrated ; then the magistrate must, in no case,
resist the injurious ; then the subject must, in no case,
employ the aid of the laws to enforce his rights. The
very end and office of government is, to resist evil men.
For this, the civil magistrate bears the sword ; and he
should beware of interpretations of the Scriptures which
would lead him to bear it in vain. The doctrine of the
absolute unlawfulness of war, is thought by its advocates
to be necessary to a successful opposition to this bar-
barous custom. But, were we employed to restore
peace to a contentious neighbourhood, we should not
consider ourselves as obliged to teach, that self-defence
is in every possible case a crime ; and equally useless is
this principle, in our labors for the pacification of the
world. Without taking this uncertain and dangerous
ground, we may, and ought to assail war, by assailing
the principles and passions which gave it birth, and
by improving and exalting the moral sentiments of man-
kind.

For example ; important service may be rendered to
the cause of peace, by communicating and enforcing just
and elevated sentiments in relation to the true honor of
rulers. Let us teach, that the prosperity, and not the
extent of a state, is the measure of a ruler's glory ; that

WAR. 47

the brute force and crooked policy which annex a con-
quest, are infinitely inferior to the wisdom, justice, and
beneficence, which make a country happy ; and that the
earth holds not a more abandoned monster, than the
sovereign, who, intrusted with the dearest interests of a
people, commits them to the dreadful hazards of war,
that he may extend his prostituted power, and fill the
earth with his worthless name. Let us exhibit to the
honor and veneration of mankind the character of the
Christian ruler, who, disdaining the cheap and vulgar
honor of a conqueror, aspires to a new and more en-
during glory ; who, casting away the long-tried weapons
of intrigue and violence, adheres with a holy and un-
shaken confidence to justice and philanthropy, as a na-
tion's best defence ; and who considers himself as
exalted by God, only that he may shed down blessings,
and be as a beneficent deity to the world.

To these instructions in relation to the true glory of
rulers, should be added, just sentiments as to the glory
of nations. Let us teach, that the honor of a nation
consists, not in the forced and reluctant submission of
other states, but in equal laws and free institutions, in
cultivated fields and prosperous cities ; in the develope-
ment of intellectual and moral power, in the diffusion
of knowledge, in magnanimity and justice, in the vir-
tues and blessings of peace. Let us never be weary
in reprobating that infernal spirit of conquest, by which
a nation becomes the terror and abhorrence of the
world, and inevitably prepares a tomb, at best a splendid
tomb, for its own liberties and prosperity. Nothing has
been more common, than for nations to imagine them-
selves great and glorious on the ground of foreign con-
quest, when at home they have been loaded with chains.

48 WAE.

Cannot these gross and monstrous delusions be scat-
tered ? Can nothing be done to persuade Christian
nations to engage in a new and untried race of glory, in
generous competitions, in a noble contest for superiority
in wise legislation and internal improvements, in the
spirit of liberty and humanity ?

Another most important method of promoting the
cause of peace is, to turn men's admiration from military
courage to qualities of real nobleness and dignity. It is
time that the childish admiration of courage should give
place to more manly sentiments ; and, in proportion as
we effect this change, we shall shake the main pillar of
war, we shall rob military life of its chief attraction.
Courage is a very doubtful quality, springing from very
different sources, and possessing a corresponding variety
of character. Courage sometimes results from mental
weakness. Peril is confronted, because the mind wants
comprehension to discern its extent. This is often the
courage of youth, the courage of unreflecting ignorance,
— a contempt of peril because peril is but dimly seen.
Courage still more frequently springs from physical tern
perament, from a rigid fibre and iron nerves, and de-
serves as little praise as the proportion of the form 01
the beauty of the countenance. Again, every passion,
which is strong enough to overcome the passion of fear,
and to exclude by its vehemence the idea of danger,
communicates at least a temporary courage. Thus re-
venge, when it burns with great fury, gives a terrible
energy to the mind, and has sometimes impelled men to
meet certain death, that they might inflict the same fate
on an enemy. You see the doubtful nature of courage.
It is often associated with the worst vices. The most
wonderful examples of it may be found in the history of

WAR. 49

pirates and robbers, whose fearlessness is generally pro-
portioned to the insensibility of their consciences, and
to the enormity of their crimes. Courage is also ex-
hibited with astonishing power in barbarous countries,
where the child is trained to despise the hardships and
pains to which he is exposed by his condition ; where
the absence of civil laws obliges every man to be his
own defender ; and where, from the imperfection of
moral sentiment, corporeal strength and ferocious courage
are counted the noblest qualities of human nature. The
common courage of armies is equally worthless with that
of the pirate and the savage. A considerable part of
almost every army, so far from deriving their resolution
from love of country and a sense of justice, can hardly
be said to have a country, and have been driven into the
ranks by necessities, which were generated by vice.
These are the brave soldiers, whose praises we hear ;
brave from the absence of all reflection ; prodigal of
life, because their vices have robbed life of its blessings ;
brave from sympathy ; brave from the thirst of plunder ;
and especially brave, because the sword of martial law is
hanging over their heads. Accordingly, military cour-
age is easily attained by the most debased and unprinci-
pled men. The common drunkard of the streets, who
is enlisted in a fit of intoxication, when thrown into the
ranks among the unthinking and profane, subjected to the
rigor of martial discipline, familiarized by exposure to
the idea of danger, and menaced with death if he be-
tray a symptom of fear, becomes as brave as his officer,
whose courage may often be traced to the same dread
of punishment, and to fear of severer infamy than at-
tends on the cowardice of the common soldier. Let
the tribute of honor be freely and liberally given to the
vol. in. 5

50 WAR.

soldier of principle, who exposes his life for a cause
which his conscience approves, and who mingles clem-
ency and mercy with the joy of triumph. But as for
the multitudes of military men, who regard war as a
trade by which to thrive, who hire themselves to fight
and slay in any cause, and who destroy their fellow-
beings with as little concern, as the husbandman does the
vermin that infest his fields, I know no class of men on
whom admiration can more unjustly and more injuriously
be bestowed. Let us labor, my brethren, to direct the
admiration and love of mankind to another and infinitely
higher kind of greatness, to that true magnanimity, which
is prodigal of ease and life in the service of God and
mankind, and which proves its courage by unshaken ad-
herence, amidst scorn and danger, to truth and virtue.
Let the records of past ages be explored, to rescue from
oblivion, not the wasteful conqueror, whose path was as
the whirlwind, but the benefactors of the human race,
martyrs to the interests of freedom and religion, men
who have broken the chain of the slave, who have trav-
ersed the earth to shed consolation into the cell of the
prisoner, or whose sublime faculties have explored and
revealed useful and ennobling truths. Can nothing be
clone to hasten the time, when to such men eloquence
and poetry shall offer their glowing homage, — when for
these the statue and monument shall be erected, the
canvass be animated, and the laurel entwined, — and
when to these the admiration of the young shall be
directed, as their guides and forerunners to glory and
immortality ?

I proceed to another method of promoting the cause
of peace. Let Christian ministers exhibit with greater
clearness and distinctness, than ever they have done,

WAR. 51

the pacific and benevolent spirit of Christianity. My
brethren, this spirit ought to hold the same place in our
preaching, which it holds in the Gospel of our Lord.
Instead of being crowded and lost among other subjects,
it should stand in the front of Christian graces ; it should
be inculcated as the life and essence of our religion. We
should teach men, that charity is greater than faith and
hope ; that God is love or benevolence ; and that love
is the brightest communication of divinity to the human
soul. We should exhibit Jesus in all the amiableness
of his character, now shedding tears over Jerusalem,
and now, his blood on Calvary, and in his last hours
recommending his own sublime love as the badge and
distinction of his followers. We should teach men, that
it is the property of the benevolence of Christianity, to
diffuse itself like the light and rain of heaven, to dis-
dain the limits of rivers, mountains, or oceans, by
which nations are divided, and to embrace every human
being as a brother. Let us never forget, that our
preaching is evangelical, just in proportion as it incul-
cates and awakens this disinterested and unbounded
charity ; and that our hearers are Christians, just as
far and no farther than they delight in peace and benefi-
cence.

It is a painful truth, which ought not to be suppressed,
that the pacific influence of the Gospel has been greatly
obstructed by the disposition, which has prevailed in all
ages, and especially among Christian ministers, to give
importance to the peculiarities of sects, and to rear walls
of partition between different denominations. Shame
ought to cover the face of the believer, when he remem-
bers, that under no religion have intolerance and perse-
cution raged more fiercely than under the Gospel of the

52 WAR.

meek and forbearing Saviour. Christians have made the
earth to reek with blood and to resound with denuncia-
tion. Can we wonder, that, while the spirit of war has
been cherished in the very bosom of the church, it has
continued to ravage among the nations ? Were the true
spirit of Christianity to be inculcated with but half the
zeal, which has been wasted on doubtful and disputed,
doctrines, a sympathy, a cooperation might in a very
short time be produced among Christians of every na-
tion, most propitious to the pacification of the world.
In consequence of the progress of knowledge and the
extension of commerce, Christians of both hemispheres
are at this moment brought nearer to one another, than
at any former period ; and an intercourse, founded on
religious sympathies, is gradually connecting the most
distant regions. What a powerful weapon is furnished
by this new bond of union to the ministers and friends
of peace ! Should not the auspicious moment be seized
to inculcate on all Christians, in all regions, that they
owe their first allegiance to their common Lord in heav-
en, whose first, and last, and great command is, love ?
Should they not be taught to look with a shuddering ab-
horrence on war, which continually summons to the field
of battle, under opposing standards, the followers of the
same Saviour, and commands them to imbrue their
hands in each others' blood ? Once let Christians of
every nation be brought to espouse the cause of peace
with one heart and one voice, and their labor will not be
in vain in the Lord. Human affairs will rapidly assume
a new and milder aspect. The predicted ages of peace
will dawn on the world.. Public opinion will be purified.
The false lustre of the hero will grow dim. A nobler
order of character will be admired and diffused. The

WAR. 53

kingdoms of the world will gradually become the king-
doms of God and of his Christ.

My friends, I did intend, but I have not time, to no-
tice the arguments which are urged in support of war.
Let me only say, that the common argument, that war
is necessary to awaken the boldness, energy, and no-
blest qualities of human nature, will, I hope, receive a
practical refutation in the friends of philanthropy and
peace. Let it appear in your lives, that you need not
this spark from hell to kindle a heroic resolution in
your breasts. Let it appear, that a pacific spirit has
no affinity with a tame and feeble character. Let us
prove, that courage, the virtue which has been thought
to flourish most in the rough field of war, may be reared
to a more generous height, and to a firmer texture, in
the bosom of peace. Let it be seen, that it is not fear,
but principle, which has made us the enemies of war.
In every enterprise of philanthropy which demands dar-
ing, and sacrifice, and exposure to hardship and toil,
let us embark with serenity and joy. Be it our part, to
exhibit an undaunted, unshaken, unwearied resolution,
not in spreading ruin, but in serving God and mankind,
in alleviating human misery, in diffusing truth and vir-
tue, and especially in opposing war. The doctrines
of Christianity have had many martyrs. Let us be
willing, if God shall require it, to be martyrs to its
spirit, the neglected, insulted spirit of peace and love.
In a better service we cannot live ; in a nobler cause
we cannot die. It is the cause of Jesus Christ, sup-
ported by Almighty Goodness, and appointed to triumph
over the passions and delusions of men, the customs of
ages, and the fallen monuments of the forgotten con-
queror.

54 WAR.

NOTE.

I have deferred to this place a few remarks on the ar-
guments which are usually adduced in support of war.

War, it is said, kindles patriotism ; by fighting for our
country, we learn to love it. But the patriotism which is
cherished by war, is ordinarily false and spurious, a vice
and not a virtue, a scourge to the world, a narrow, un-
iust passion, which aims to exalt a particular state on the
humiliation and destruction of other nations. A genuine,
enlightened patriot discerns, that the welfare of his own
country is involved in the general progress of society ;
and, in the character of a patriot, as well as of a Chris-
tian, he rejoices in the liberty and prosperity of other
communities, and is anxious to maintain with them the
relations of peace and amity.

It is said, that a military spirit is the defence of a
country. But it more frequently endangers the vital in-
terests of a nation, by embroiling it with other states.
This spirit, like every other passion, is impatient for
gratification, and often precipitates a country into un-
necessary war. A people have no need of a military
spirit. Let them be attached to their government and
institutions by habit, by early associations, and especially
by experimental conviction of their excellence, and they
will never want means or spirit to defend them.

War is recommended as a method of redressing na-
tional grievances. But unhappily, the weapons of war,
from their very nature, are often wielded most success-
fully by the unprincipled. Justice and force have little

WAR. 55

congeniality. Should not Christians everywhere strive
to promote the reference of national as well as of individ-
ual disputes to an impartial umpire ? Is a project of
this nature more extravagant than the idea of reducing
savage hordes to a state of regular society ? The last
has been accomplished. Is the first to be abandoned
in despair ?

It is said, that war sweeps off' the idle, dissolute, and
vicious members of the community. Monstrous argu-
ment ! If a government may for this end plunge a na-
tion into war, it may with equal justice consign to the
executioner any number of its subjects, whom it may
deem a burden on the state. The fact is, that war com-
monly generates as many profligates as it destroys. A
disbanded army fills the community with at least as many
abandoned members as at first it absorbed. There is
another method, not quite so summary as war, of ridding
a country of unprofitable and injurious citizens, but vast-
ly more effectual ; and a method, which will be applied
with spirit and success, just in proportion as war shall
yield to the light and spirit of Christianity. I refer to
the exertions, which Christians have commenced, for the
reformation and improvement of the ignorant and poor,
and especially for the instruction and moral culture of
indigent children. Christians are entreated to persevere
and abound in these godlike efforts. By diffusing moral
and religious principles and sober and industrious habits
through the laboring classes of society, they will dry up
one important source of war. They will destroy in a
considerable degree the materials of armies. In propor-
tion as these classes become well principled and industri-
ous, poverty will disappear, the population of a country
will be more and more proportioned to its resources, and of
course the number will be diminished of those, who have
no alternative but beggarv or a camp. The moral care,

56 WAR.

which is at the present day extended to the poor, is one
of the most honorable features of our age. Christians !
remember that your proper warfare is with ignorance and
vice, and exhibit here the same unwearied and inventive
energy, which has marked the warriors of the world.

It is sometimes said, that a military spirit favors liber-
ty. But how is it, that nations, after fighting for ages,
are so generally enslaved ? The truth is, that liberty
has no foundation but in private and public virtue ; and
virtue, as we have seen, is not the common growth of
war.

But the great argument remains to be discussed. It is
said, that, without war to excite and invigorate the human
mind, some of its noblest energies will slumber, and its
highest qualities, courage, magnanimity, fortitude, will
perish. To this I answer, that if war is to be encouraged
among nations, because it nourishes energy and heroism,
on the same principle war in our families, and war be-
tween neighbourhoods, villages, and cities ought to be
encouraged ; for such contests would equally tend to
promote heroic daring and contempt of death. Why
shall not different provinces of the same empire annually
meet with the weapons of death, to keep alive their cour-
age ? We shrink at this suggestion with horror ; but
why shall contests of nations, rather than of provinces or
families, find shelter under this barbarous argument ?

I observe again ; if war be a blessing, because it
awakens energy and courage, then the savage state is
peculiarly privileged ; for every savage is a soldier and
his whole modes of life tend to form him to invincible
resolution. On the same principle, those early periods
of society were happy, when men were called to contend,
not only with one another but with beasts of prey ; for to
these excitements we owe the heroism of Hercules and
Theseus. On the same principle, the feudal ages were

WAR. 57

more favored than the present ; for then every baron
was a military chief, every castle frowned defiance, and
every vassal was trained to arms. And do we really wish,
that the earth should again be overrun with monsters, or
abandoned to savage or feudal violence, in order that he-
roes may be multiplied ? If not, let us cease to vindicate
war as affording excitement to energy and courage.

I repeat, what I have observed in the preceding dis-
course, we need not war to awaken human energy.
There is at least equal scope for courage and magna-
nimity in blessing, as in destroying mankind. The con-
dition of the human race offers inexhaustible objects for
enterprise, and fortitude, and magnanimity. In relieving
the countless wants and sorrows of the world, in explor-
ing unknown regions, in carrying the arts and virtues of
civilization to unimproved communities, in extending the
bounds of knowledge, in diffusing the spirit of freedom,
and especially in spreading the light and influence of
Christianity, how much may be dared, how much en-
dured ! Philanthropy invites us to services, which de-
mand the most intense, and elevated, and resolute, and
adventurous activity. Let it not be imagined, that, were
nations imbued with the spirit of Christianity, they would
slumber in ignoble ease; that, instead of the high-minded
murderers, who are formed on the present system of war,
we should have effeminate and timid slaves. Christian
benevolence is as active as it is forbearing. Let it once
form the character of a people, and it will attach them to
every important interest of society. It will call forth
sympathy in behalf of the suffering in every region un-
der heaven. It will give a new extension to the heart,
open a wider sphere to enterprise, inspire a courage of
exhaustless resource, and prompt to every sacrifice and
exposure for the improvement and happiness of the hu-
man race. The energy of this principle has been tried

58 WAR.

and displayed in the fortitude of the martyr, and in the
patient labors of those who have carried the Gospel into
the dreary abodes of idolatry. Away then with the ar-
gument, that war is needed as a nursery of heroism. The
school of the peaceful Redeemer is infinitely more adapt-
ed to teach the nobler, as well as the milder virtues,
which adorn humanity.

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

DISCOURSE

ORDINATION OF THE REV. JARED SPARKS.
Baltimore, 1819.

1 Thes. v. 21 : "Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good."

The peculiar circumstances of this occasion not only
justify, but seem to demand a departure from the course
generally followed by preachers at the introduction of
a brother into the sacred office. It is usual to speak
of the nature, design, duties, and advantages of the
Christian ministry ; and on these topics I should now
be happy to insist, did I not remember that a minister
is to be given this day to a religious society, whose
peculiarities of opinion have drawn upon them much
remark, and may I not add, much reproach. Many
good minds, many sincere Christians, I am aware, are
apprehensive that the solemnities of this day are to give
a degree of influence to principles which they deem
false and injurious. The fears and anxieties of such
men I respect ; and, believing that they are grounded
in part on mistake, I have thought it my duty to lay

60 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

before you, as clearly as I can, some of the distinguish-
ing opinions of that class of Christians in our country,
who are known to sympathize with this religious society.
I must ask your patience, for such a subject is not to
be despatched in a narrow compass. I must also ask
you to remember, that it is impossible to exhibit, in a
single discourse, our views of every doctrine of Reve-
lation, much less the differences of opinion which are
known to subsist among ourselves. I shall confine my-
self to topics, on which our sentiments have been mis-
represented, or which distinguish us most widely from
others. May I not hope to be heard with candor ?
God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and
fill us with the love of truth and virtue.

There are two natural divisions under which my
thoughts will be arranged. I shall endeavour to unfold,
1st, The principles which we adopt in interpreting the
Scriptures. And 2dly, Some of the doctrines, which
the Scriptures, so interpreted, seem to us clearly to
express.

I. We regard the Scriptures as the records of God's
successive revelations to mankind, and particularly of
the last and most perfect revelation of his will by Jesus
Christ. Whatever doctrines seem to us to be clearly
taught in the Scriptures, we receive without reserve
or exception. We do not, however, attach equal im-
portance to all the books in this collection. Our re-
ligion, we believe, lies chiefly in the New Testament.
The dispensation of Moses, compared with that of Je-
sus, we consider as adapted to the childhood of the hu-
man race, a preparation for a nobler system, and chiefly
useful now as serving to confirm and illustrate the

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 61

Christian Scriptures. Jesus Christ is the only master
of Christians, and whatever he taught, either during
his personal ministry, or by his inspired Apostles, we
regard as of divine authority, and profess to make the
rule of our lives.

This authority, which we give to the Scriptures, is
a reason, we conceive, for studying them with peculiar
care, and for inquiring anxiously into the principles of
interpretation, by which their true meaning may be
ascertained. The principles adopted by the class of
Christians in whose name I speak, need to be explained,
because they are often misunderstood. We are partic-
ularly accused of making an unwarrantable use of reason
in the interpretation of Scripture. We are said to
exalt reason above revelation, to prefer our own wisdom
to God's. Loose and undefined charges of this kind
are circulated so freely, that we think it due to our-
selves, and to the cause of truth, to express our views
with some particularity.

Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is
this, that the Bible is a book written for men, in the
language of men, and that its meaning is to be sought
in the same manner as that of other books. We be-
lieve that God, when he speaks to the human race,
conforms, if we may so say, to the established rules of
speaking and writing. How else would the Scriptures
avail us more, than if communicated in an unknown
tongue ?

Now all books, and all conversation, require in the
reader or hearer the constant exercise of reason ; or
their true import is only to be obtained by continual
comparison and inference. Human language, you well
know, admits various interpretations ; and every word

vol. in. 6

62 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

and every sentence must be modified and explained ac-
cording to the subject which is discussed, according to
the purposes, feelings, circumstances, and principles of
the writer, and according to the genius and idioms of
the language which he uses. These are acknowledged
principles in the interpretation of human writings ; and
a man, whose words we should explain without refer-
ence to these principles, would reproach us justly with
a criminal want of candor, and an intention of obscur-
ing or distorting his meaning.

Were the Bible written in a language and style of its
own, did it consist of words, which admit but a single
sense, and of sentences wholly detached from each
other, there would be no place for the principles now
laid down. We could not reason about it, as about
other writings. But such a book would be of little
wrorth ; and perhaps, of all books, the Scriptures cor-
respond least to this description. The Word of God
bears the stamp of the same hand, which we see in his
works. It has infinite connexions and dependences.
Every proposition is linked with others, and is to be
compared with others ; that its full and precise import
may be understood. Nothing stands alone. The New
Testament is built on the Old. The Christian dis-
pensation is a continuation of the Jewish, the comple-
tion of a vast scheme of providence, requiring great
extent of view in the reader. Still more, the Bible
treats of subjects on which we receive ideas from other
sources besides itself; such subjects as the nature, pas-
sions, relations, and duties of man ; and it expects us
to restrain and modify its language by the known truths,
which observation and experience furnish on these topics.

We profess not to know a book, which demands a

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 63

more frequent exercise of reason than the Bible. In
addition to the remarks now made on its infinite con-
nexions, we may observe, that its style nowhere affects
the precision of science, or the accuracy of definition.
Its language is singularly glowing, bold, and figurative,
demanding more frequent departures from the literal
sense, than that of our own age and country, and con-
sequently demanding more continual exercise of judg-
ment. — We find, too, that the different portions of this
book, instead of being confined to general truths, refer
perpetually to the times when they were written, to
states of society, to modes of thinking, to controversies
in the church, to feelings and usages which have passed
away, and without the knowledge of which we are con-
stantly in danger of extending to all times, and places,
what was of temporary and local application. — We find,
too, that some of these books are strongly marked by
the genius and character of their respective writers,
that the Holy Spirit did not so guide the Apostles as
to suspend the peculiarities of their minds, and that a
knowledge of their feelings, and of the influences under
which they were placed, is one of the preparations for
understanding their writings. With these views of the
Bible, we feel it our bounden duty to exercise our rea-
son upon it perpetually, to compare, to infer, to look
beyond the letter to the spirit, to seek in the nature of
the subject, and the aim of the writer, his true mean-
ing ; and, in general, to make use of what is known,
for explaining what is difficult, and for discovering new
truths.

Need I descend to particulars, to prove that the
Scriptures demand the exercise of reason ? Take, for
example, the style in which they generally speak of

64 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

God, and observe how habitually they apply to him
human passions and organs. Recollect the declarations
of Christ, that he came not to send peace, but a sword ;
that unless we eat his flesh, and drink his blood, we
have no life in us ; that we must hate father and moth-
er, and pluck out the right eye ; and a vast number of
passages equally bold and unlimited. Recollect the
unqualified manner in which it is said of Christians, that
they possess all things, know all things, and can do all
things. Recollect the verbal contradiction between Paul
and James, and the apparent clashing of some parts of
Paul's writings with the general doctrines and end of
Christianity. I might extend the enumeration indefi-
nitely ; and who does not see, that we must limit all
these passages by the known attributes of God, of
Jesus Christ, and of human nature, and by the circum-
stances under which they were written, so as to give
the language a quite different import from what it would
require, had it been applied to different beings, or used
in different connexions.

Enough has been said to show, in what sense we
make use of reason in interpreting Scripture. From
a variety of possible interpretations, we select that which
accords with the nature of the subject and the state of
the writer, with the connexion of the passage, with the
general strain of Scripture, with the known character
and will of God, and with the obvious and acknowl-
edged laws of nature. In other words, we believe that
God never contradicts, in one part of Scripture, what
he teaches in another ; and never contradicts, in revela-
tion, what he teaches in his works and providence.
And we therefore distrust every interpretation, which,
after deliberate attention, seems repugnant to any estab-

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 65

lished truth. We reason about the Bible precisely as
civilians do about the constitution under which we live ;
who, you know, are accustomed to limit one provision
of that venerable instrument by others, and to fix the
precise import of its parts, by inquiring into its general
spirit, into the intentions of its authors, and into the
prevalent feelings, impressions, and circumstances of
the time when it was framed. Without these principles
of interpretation, we frankly acknowledge, that we can-
not defend the divine authority of the Scriptures. Deny
us this latitude, and we must abandon this book to its
enemies.

We do not announce these principles as original, or
peculiar to ourselves. All Christians occasionally adopt
them, not excepting those who most vehemently decry
them, when they happen to menace some favorite arti-
cle of their creed. All Christians are compelled to
use them in their controversies with infidels. All sects
employ them in their warfare with one another. All
willingly avail themselves of reason, when it can be
pressed into the service of their own party, and only
complain of it, when its weapons wound themselves.
None reason more frequently than those from whom we
differ. It is astonishing what a fabric they rear from
a few slight hints about the fall of our first parents ; and
how ingeniously they extract, from detached passages,
mysterious doctrines about the divine nature. We do
not blame them for reasoning so abundantly, but for
violating the fundamental rules of reasoning, for sacri-
ficing the plain to the obscure, and the general strain of
Scripture to a scanty number of insulated texts.

We object strongly to the contemptuous manner in
which human reason is often spoken of by our adver-
6*

66 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

saries, because it leads, we believe, to universal skep-
ticism. If reason be so dreadfully darkened by the
fall, that its most decisive judgments on religion are
unworthy of trust, then Christianity, and even natural
theology, must be abandoned ; for the existence and
veracity of God, and the divine original of Christianity,
are conclusions of reason, and must stand or fall with
it. If revelation be at war with this faculty, it subverts
itself, for the great question of its truth is left by God
to be decided at the bar of reason. It is worthy of re-
mark, how nearly the bigot and the skeptic approach.
Both would annihilate our confidence in our faculties,
and both throw doubt and confusion over every truth.
We honor revelation too highly to make it the antago-
nist of reason, or to believe that it calls us to renounce
our highest powers.

We indeed grant, that the use of reason in religion
is accompanied with danger. But we ask any honest
man to look back on the history of the church, and say,
whether the renunciation of it be not still more dan-
gerous. Besides, it is a plain fact, that men reason as
erroneously on all subjects, as on religion. Who does
not know the wild and groundless theories, which have
been framed in physical and political science ? But
who ever supposed, that we must cease to exercise rea-
son on nature and society, because men have erred for
ages in explaining them ? We grant, that the passions
continually, and sometimes fatally, disturb the rational
faculty in its inquiries into revelation. The ambitious
contrive to find doctrines in the Bible, which favor their
love of dominion. The timid and dejected discover
there a gloomy system, and the mystical and fanatical, a
visionary theology. The vicious can find examples or

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 67

assertions on which to build the hope of a late repen-
tance, or of acceptance on easy terms. The falsely
refined contrive to light on doctrines which have not
been soiled by vulgar handling. But the passions do
not distract the reason in religious, any more than in
other inquiries, which excite strong and general inter-
est ; and this faculty, of consequence, is not to be re-
nounced in religion, unless we are prepared to discard
it universally. The true inference from the almost end-
less errors, which have darkened theology, is, not that
we are to neglect and disparage our powers, but to exert
them more patiently, circumspectly, uprightly. The
worst errors, after all, having sprung up in that church,
which proscribes reason, and demands from its members
implicit faith. The most pernicious doctrines have been
the growth of the darkest times, when the general cre-
dulity encouraged bad men and enthusiasts to broach
their dreams and inventions, and to stifle the faint re-
monstrances of reason, by the menaces of everlasting
perdition. Say what we may, God has given us a ra-
tional nature, and will call us to account for it. We
may let it sleep, but we do so at our peril. Revelation
is addressed to us as rational beings. We may wish, in
our sloth, that God had given us a system, demanding
no labor of comparing, limiting, and inferring. But
such a system would be at variance with the whole char-
acter of our present existence ; and it is the part of
wisdom to take revelation as it is given to us, and to in-
terpret it by the help of the faculties, which it every-
where supposes, and on which it is founded.

To the views now given, an objection is commonly
urged from the character of God. We are told, that
God being infinitely wiser than men, his discoveries

68 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

will surpass human reason. In a revelation from such
a teacher, we ought to expect propositions, which we
cannot reconcile with one another, and which may seem
to contradict established truths ; and it becomes us not
to question or explain them away, but to believe, and
adore, and to submit our weak and carnal reason to
the Divine Word. To this objection, we have two short
answers. We say, first, that it is impossible that a
teacher of infinite wisdom should expose those, whom
he would teach, to infinite error. But if once we admit,
that propositions, which in their literal sense appear
plainly repugnant to one another, or to any known
truth, are still to be literally understood and received,
what possible limit can we set to the belief of contra-
dictions ? What shelter have we from the wildest fanati-
cism, which can always quote passages, that, in their
literal and obvious sense, give support to its extrava-
gances ? How can the Protestant escape from tran-
substantiation, a doctrine most clearly taught us, if the
submission of reason, now contended for, be a duty ?
How can we even hold fast the truth of revelation,
for if one apparent contradiction may be true, so may
another, and the proposition, that Christianity is false,
though involving inconsistency, may still be a verity ?

We answer again, that, if God be infinitely wise, he
cannot sport with the understandings of his creatures.
A wise teacher discovers his wisdom in adapting himself
to the capacities of his pupils, not in perplexing them
with what is unintelligible, not in distressing them with
apparent contradictions, not in filling them with a skep-
tical distrust of their own powers. An infinitely wise
teacher, who knows the precise extent of our minds,
and the best method of enlightening them, will surpass

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 69

all other instructors in bringing down truth to our ap-
prehension, and in showing its loveliness and harmony.
We ought, indeed, to expect occasional obscurity in
such a book as the Bible, which was written for past
and future ages, as well as for the present. But God's
wisdom is a pledge, that whatever is necessary for ws,
and necessary for salvation, is revealed too plainly to
be mistaken, and too consistently to be questioned, by
a sound and upright mind. It is not the mark of wis-
dom, to use an unintelligible phraseology, to communi-
cate what is above our capacities, to confuse and unset-
tle the intellect by appearances of contradiction. We
honor our Heavenly Teacher too much to ascribe to
him such a revelation. A revelation is a gift of light.
It cannot thicken our darkness, and multiply our per-
plexities.

II. Having thus stated the principles according to
which we interpret Scripture, I now proceed to the
second great head of this discourse, which is, to state
some of the views which we derive from that sacred
book, particularly those which distinguish us from other
Christians.

1. In the first place, we believe in the doctrine of
God's unity, or that there is one God, and one only.
To this truth we give infinite importance, and we feel
ourselves bound to take heed, lest any man spoil us of
it by vain philosophy. The proposition, that there is
one God, seems to us exceedingly plain. We under-
stand by it, that there is one being, one mind, one per-
son, one intelligent agent, and one only, to whom un-
derived and infinite perfection and dominion belong.
We conceive, that these words could have conveyed no

70 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

other meaning to the simple and uncultivated people,
who were set apart to be the depositaries of this great
truth, and who were utterly incapable of understanding
those hair-breadth distinctions, between being and per-
son, which the sagacity of later ages has discovered.
We find no intimation, that this language was to be
taken in an unusual sense, or that God's unity was a
quite different thing from the oneness of other intelli-
gent beings.

We object to the doctrine of the Trinity, that, whilst
acknowledging in words, it subverts in effect, the unity
of God. According to this doctrine, there are three
infinite and equal persons, possessing supreme divinity,
called the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Each of
these persons, as described by theologians, has his own
particular consciousness, will, and perceptions. They
love each other, converse with each other, and delight
in each other's society. They perform different parts
in man's redemption, each having his appropriate office,
and neither doing the work of the other. The Son is
mediator and not the Father. The Father sends the
Son, and is not himself sent ; nor is he conscious, like
the Son, of taking flesh. Here, then, we have three in-
telligent agents, possessed of different consciousnesses,
different wills, and different perceptions, performing dif-
ferent acts, and sustaining different relations ; and if
these things do not imply and constitute three minds
or beings, we are utterly at a loss to know how three
minds or beings are to be formed. It is difference of
properties, and acts, and consciousness, which leads
us to the belief of different intelligent beings, and, if
this mark fails us, our whole knowledge falls ; we have
no proof, that all the agents and persons in the universe

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 71

are not one and the same mind. When we attempt to
conceive of three Gods, we can do nothing more than
represent to ourselves three agents, distinguished from
each other by similar marks and peculiarities to those
which separate the persons of the Trinity ; and when
common Christians hear these persons spoken of as
conversing with each other, loving each other, and per-
forming different acts, how can they help regarding them
as different beings, different minds ?

We do, then, with all earnestness, though without
reproaching our brethren, protest against the irrational
and unscriptural doctrine of the Trinity. "To us," as
to the Apostle and the primitive Christians, "there is
one God, even the Father." With Jesus, v/e worship
the Father, as the only living and true God. We are
astonished, that any man can read the New Testament,
and avoid the conviction, that the Father alone is God.
We hear our Saviour continually appropriating this
character to the Father. We find the Father continu-
ally distinguished from Jesus by this title. " God sent
his Son." " God anointed Jesus." Now, how singu-
lar and inexplicable is this phraseology, which fills the
New Testament, if this title belong equally to Jesus,
and if a principal object of this book is to reveal him
as God, as partaking equally with the Father in supreme
divinity ! We challenge our opponents to adduce one
passage in the New Testament, where the word God
means three persons, where it is not limited to one per-
son, and where, unless turned from its usual sense by
the connexion, it does not mean the Father. Can
stronger proof be given, that the doctrine of three per-
sons in the Godhead is not a fundamental doctrine of
Christianity ?

72 UNITARIAN* CHRISTIANITY.

This doctrine, were it true, must, from its difficulty,
singularity, and importance, have been laid down with
great clearness, guarded with great care, and stated with
all possible precision. But where does this statement
appear ? From the many passages which treat of God,
we ask for one, one only, in which we are told, that he
is a threefold being, or that he is three persons, or that
he is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. On the contrary,
in the New Testament, where, at least, we might ex-
pect many express assertions of this nature, God is
declared to be one, without the least attempt to prevent
the acceptation of the words in their common sense ;
and he is always spoken of and addressed in the singular
number, that is, in language which was universally un-
derstood to intend a single person, and to which no
other idea could have been attached, without an express
admonition. So entirely do the Scriptures abstain from
stating the Trinity, that when our opponents would in-
sert it into their creeds and doxologies, they are com-
pelled to leave the Bible, and to invent forms of words
altogether unsanctioned by Scriptural phraseology. That
a doctrine so strange, so liable to misapprehension, so
fundamental as this is said to be, and requiring such
careful exposition, should be left so undefined and un-
protected, to be made out by inference, and to be hunted
through distant and detached parts of Scripture, this is
a difficulty, which, we think, no ingenuity can explain.

We have another difficulty. Christianity, it must be
remembered, was planted and grew up amidst sharp-
sighted enemies, who overlooked no objectionable part
of the system, and who must have fastened with great
earnestness on a doctrine involving such apparent con-
tradictions as the Trinitv. We cannot conceive an

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 73

opinion, against which the Jews, who prided themselves
on an adherence to God's unity, would have raised an
equal clamor. Now, how happens it, that in the
apostolic writings, which relate so much to objections
against Christianity, and to the controversies which
grew out of this religion, not one word is said, implying
that objections were brought against the Gospel from
the doctrine of the Trinity, not one word is uttered in
its defence and explanation, not a word to rescue it from
reproach and mistake ? This argument has almost the
force of demonstration. We are persuaded, that had
three divine persons been announced by the first preach-
ers of Christianity, all equal, and all infinite, one of
whom was the very Jesus who had lately died on a
cross, this peculiarity of Christianity would have almost
absorbed every other, and the great labor of the Apos-
tles would have been to repel the continual assaults,
which it would have awakened. But the fact is, that
not a whisper of objection to Christianity, on that ac-
count, reaches our ears from the apostolic age. In the
Epistles we see not a trace of controversy called forth
by the Trinity.

We have further objections to this doctrine, drawn
from its practical influence. We regard it as unfavor-
able to devotion, by dividing and distracting the mind
in its communion with God. It is a great excellence
of the doctrine of God's unity, that it offers to us one
object of supreme homage, adoration, and love, One
Infinite Father, one Being of beings, one original and
fountain, to whom we may refer all good, in whom all
our powers and affections may be concentrated, and
whose lovely and venerable nature may pervade all our
thoughts. True piety, when directed to an undivided

VOL. III. 7

74 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

Deity, has a chasteness, a singleness, most favorable
to religious awe and love. Now, the Trinity sets be-
fore ns three distinct objects of supreme adoration ;
three infinite persons, having equal claims on our hearts ;
three divine agents, performing different offices, and to
be acknowledged and worshipped in different relations.
And is it possible, we ask, that the weak and limited
mind of man can attach itself to these with the same
power and joy, as to One Infinite Father, the only First
Cause, in whom all the blessings of nature and redemp-
tion meet as their centre and source ? Must not de-
votion be distracted by tbe equal and rival claims of
three equal persons, and must not the worship of tbe
conscientious, consistent Christian, be disturbed by an
apprehension, lest he withhold from one or another of
these, his due proportion of homage ?

We also think, that the doctrine of the Trinity in-
jures devotion, not only by joining to the Father other
objects of worship, but by taking from the Father the
supreme affection, which is his due, and transferring
it to the Son. This is a most important view. That
Jesus Christ, if exalted into the infinite Divinity, should
be more interesting than the Father, is precisely what
might be expected from history, and from the principles
of human nature. Men want an object of worship like
themselves, and the great secret of idolatry lies in this
propensity. A God, clothed in our form, and feeling
our wants and sorrows, speaks to our weak nature more
strongly, than a Father in heaven, a pure spirit, invisi-
ble and unapproachable, save by the reflecting and
purified mind. — We think, too, that the peculiar offices
ascribed to Jesus by the popular theology, make him
the most attractive Derson in the Godhead. The Fa-

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY" 75

ther is the depositary of the justice, the vindicator of the
rights, the avenger of the laws of the Divinity. On the
other hand, the Son, the brightness of the divine mercy,
stands between the incensed Deity and guilty humanity,
exposes his meek head to the storms, and his compas-
sionate breast to the sword of the divine justice, bears
our whole load of punishment, and purchases with his
blood every blessing which descends from heaven. Need
we state the effect of these representations, especially
on common minds, for whom Christianity was chiefly
designed, and whom it seeks to bring to the Father as
the loveliest being ? We do believe, that the worship
of a bleeding, suffering God, tends strongly to absorb
the mind, and to draw it from other objects, just as the
human tenderness of the Virgin Mary has given her so
conspicuous a place in the devotions of the Church of
Rome. We believe, too, that this worship, though at-
tractive, is not most fitted to spiritualize the mind, that
it awakens human transport, rather than that deep ven-
eration of the moral perfections of God, which is the
essence of piety.

2. Having thus given our views of the unity of God,
I proceed in the second place to observe, that we be-
lieve in the unity of Jesus Christ. We believe that
Jesus is one mind, one soul, one being, as truly one as
we are, and equally distinct from the one God. We
complain of the doctrine of the Trinity, that, not satis-
fied with making God three beings, it makes Jesus Christ
two beings, and thus introduces infinite confusion into
our conceptions of his character. This corruption of
Christianity, alike repugnant to common sense and to the
general strain of Scripture, is a remarkable proof of the
power of a false philosophy in disfiguring the simple
truth of Jesus.

76 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

.According to this doctrine, Jesus Christ, instead of
being one mind, one conscious intelligent principle,
whom we can understand, consists of two souls, two
minds ; the one divine, the other human ; the one weak,
the other almighty ; the one ignorant, the other omnis-
cient. Now we maintain, that this is to make Christ
two beings. To denominate him one person, one being,
and yet to suppose him made up of two minds, infinitely
different from each other, is to abuse and confound
language, and to throw darkness over all our conceptions
of intelligent natures. According to the common doc-
trine, each of these two minds in Christ has its own con-
sciousness, its own will, its own perceptions. They
have, in fact, no common properties. The divine mind
feels none of the wants and sorrows of the human, and
the human is infinitely removed from the perfection and
happiness of the divine. Can you conceive of two
beings in the universe more distinct ? We have always
thought that one person was constituted and distinguished
by one consciousness. The doctrine, that one and the
same person should have two consciousnesses, two wills,
two souls, infinitely different from each other, this we
think an enormous tax on human credulity.

We say, that if a doctrine, so strange, so difficult, so
remote from all the previous conceptions of men. be
indeed a part and an essential part of revelation, it must
be taught with great distinctness, and we ask our breth-
ren to point to some plain, direct passage, where Christ
is said to be composed of two minds infinitely different,
yet constituting one person. We find none. Other
Christians, indeed, tell us, that this doctrine is necessary
to the harmony of the Scriptures, that some texts as-
cribe to Jesus Christ human, and others divine propel-

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 77

ties, and that to reconcile these, we must suppose two
minds, to which these properties may be referred. In
other words, for the purpose of reconciling certain diffi-
cult passages, which a just criticism can in a great
degree, if not wholly, explain, we must invent an hy-
pothesis vastly more difficult, and involving gross ab-
surdity. We are to find our way out of a labyrinth, by
a clue which conducts us into mazes infinitely more in-
extricable.

Surely, if Jesus Christ felt that he consisted of two
minds, and that this was a leading feature of his religion,
his phraseology respecting himself would have been col-
ored by this peculiarity. The universal language of
men is framed upon the idea, that one person is one per-
son, is one mind, and one soul ; and when the multitude
heard this language from the lips of Jesus, they must
have taken it in its usual sense, and must have referred
to a single soul all which he spoke, unless expressly in-
structed to interpret it differently- But where do we
find this instruction ? Where do you meet, in the New
Testament, the phraseology which abounds in Trinita-
rian books, and which necessarily grows from the doc-
trine of two natures in Jesus ? Where does this divine
teacher say, "This I speak as God, and this as man;
this is true only of my human mind, this only of my
divine " ? Where do we find in the Epistles a trace
of this strange phraseology ? Nowhere. It was not
needed in that day. It was demanded by the errors of
a later age.

We believe, then, that Christ is one mind, one being,
and, I add, a being distinct from the one God. That
Christ is not the one God, not the same being with the
Father, is a necessary inference from our former head,

78 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

in which we saw that the doctrine of three persons in
God is a fiction. But on so important a subject, I
would add a few remarks. We wish, that those from
whom we differ, would weigh one striking fact. Jesus,
in his preaching, continually spoke of God. The word
was always in his mouth. We ask, does he, by this
word, ever mean himself ? We say, never. On the
contrary, he most plainly distinguishes between God and
himself, and so do his disciples. How this is to be
reconciled with the idea, that the manifestation of Christ,
as God, was a primary object of Christianity, our ad-
versaries must determine.

If we examine the passages in which Jesus is distin-
guished from God, we shall see, that they not only speak
of him as another being, but seem to labor to express
his inferiority. He is continually spoken of as the Son
of God, sent of God, receiving all his powers from God,
working miracles because God was with him, judging
justly because God taught him, having claims on our be-
lief, because he was anointed and sealed by God, and as
able of himself to do nothing. The New Testament is
filled with this language. Now we ask, what impression
this language was fitted and intended to make ? Could
any, who heard it, have imagined that Jesus was the
very God to whom he was so industriously declared to
be inferior ; the very Being by whom he was sent, and
from whom he professed to have received his message
and power ? Let it here be remembered, that the hu-
man birth, and bodily form, and humble circumstances,
and mortal sufferings of Jesus, must all have prepared
men to interpret, in the most unqualified manner, the
language in which his inferiority to God was declared.
Why, then, was this language used so continually, and

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 79

without limitation, if Jesus were the Supreme Deity,
and if this truth were an essential part of his religion ?
I repeat it, the human condition and sufferings of Christ
tended strongly to exclude from men's minds the idea of
his proper Godhead ; and, of course, we should expect
to find in the New Testament perpetual care and effort
to counteract this tendency, to hold him forth as the
same being with his Father, if this doctrine were, as is
pretended, the soul and centre of his religion. We
should expect to find the phraseology of Scripture cast
into the mould of this doctrine, to hear familiarly of God
the Son, of our Lord God Jesus, and to be told, that
to us there is one God, even Jesus. But, instead of
this, the inferiority of Christ pervades the New Testa-
ment. It is not only implied in the general phraseology,
but repeatedly and decidedly expressed, and unaccom-
panied with any admonition to prevent its application
to his whole nature. Could it, then, have been the
great design of the sacred writers to exhibit Jesus as
the Supreme God ?

I am aware that these remarks will be met by two or
three texts, in which Christ is called God, and by a
class of passages, not very numerous, in which divine
properties are said to be ascribed to him. To these
we offer one plain answer. We say, that it is one of
the most established and obvious principles of criticism,
that language is to be explained according to the known
properties of the subject to which it is applied. Every
man knows, that the same words convey very different
ideas, when used in relation to different beings. Thus,
Solomon built the temple in a different manner from the
architect whom he employed ; and God repents differ-
ently from man. Now we maintain, that the known

80 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

properties and circumstances of Christ, his birth, suffer-
ings, and death, his constant habit of speaking of God
as a distinct being from himself, his praying to God, his
ascribing to God all his power and offices, these ac-
knowledged properties of Christ, we say, oblige us to in-
terpret the comparatively few passages which are thought
to make him the Supreme God, in a manner consistent
with his distinct and inferior nature. It is our duty to
explain such texts by the rule which we apply to other
text?, in which human beings are called gods, and are
said to be partakers of the divine nature, to know and
possess all things, and to be filled with all God's fulness.
These latter passages we do not hesitate to modify, and
restrain, and turn from the most obvious sense, because
this sense is opposed to the known properties of the
beings to whom they relate ; and we maintain, that we
adhere to the same principle, and use no greater latitude,
in explaining, as we do, the passages which are thought
to support the Godhead of Christ.

Trinitarians profess to derive some important advan-
tages from their mode of viewing Christ. It furnishes
them, they tell us, with an infinite atonement, for it
shows them an infinite being suffering for their sins.
The confidence with which this fallacy is repeated as-
tonishes us. When pressed with the question, whether
they really believe, that the infinite and unchangeable
God suffered and died on the cross, they acknowledge
that this is not true, but that Christ's human mind alone
sustained the pains of death. How have we, then, an
infinite sufferer ? This language seems to us an imposi-
tion on common minds, and very derogatory to God's
justice, as if this attribute could be satisfied by a sophism
and a fiction.

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY1. 81

We are also told, that Christ is a more interesting
object, that his love and mercy are more felt, when he
is viewed as the Supreme God, who left his glory to
take humanity and to sutler for men. That Trinitarians
are strongly moved by this representation, we do not
mean to deny ; but we think their emotions altogether
founded on a misapprehension of their own doctrines.
They talk of the second person of the Trinity's leaving
his glory and his Father's bosom, to visit and save the
world. But this second person, being the unchangeable
and infinite God, was evidently incapable of parting
with the least degree of his perfection and felicity. At
the moment of his taking flesh, he was as intimately
present with his Father as before, and equally with his
Father filled heaven, and earth, and immensity. This
Trinitarians acknowledge ; and still they profess to be
touched and overwhelmed by the amazing humiliation
of this immutable being ! But not only does their doc-
trine, when fully explained, reduce Christ's humiliation
to a fiction, it almost wholly destroys the impressions
with which his cross ought to be viewed. According
to their doctrine, Christ was comparatively no sufferer
at all. It is true, his human mind suffered ; but this,
they tell us, was an infinitely small part of Jesus, bear-
ing no more proportion to his whole nature, than a
single hair of our heads to the whole body, or than a
drop to the ocean. The divine mind of Christ, that
which was most properly himself, was infinitely happy,
at the very moment of the suffering of his humanity.
Whilst hanging on the cross, he was the happiest being
in the universe, as happy as the infinite Father ; so that
hi? pains, compared with his felicity, were nothing.
This Trinitarians do, and must, acknowledge. It fol-

82 UNITARIAN CHRISTrANITY.

lows necessarily from the immutableness of the divine
nature, which they ascribe to Christ ; so that their sys-
tem, justly viewed, robs his death of interest, weakens
our sympathy with his sufferings, and is, of all others,
most unfavorable to a love of Christ, founded on a
sense of his sacrifices for mankind. We esteem our
own views to be vastly more affecting. It is our belief,
that Christ's humiliation was real and entire, that the
whole Saviour, and not a part of him, suffered, that
his crucifixion was a scene of deep and unmixed agony.
As we stand round his cross, our minds are not dis-
tracted, nor our sensibility weakened, by contemplating
him as composed of incongruous and infinitely differing
minds, and as having a balance of infinite felicity. We
recognise in the dying Jesus but one mind. This, we
think, renders his sufferings, and his patience and love
in bearing them, incomparably more impressive and af-
fecting than the system we oppose.

3. Having thus given our belief on two great points,
namely, that there is one God, and that Jesus Christ
is a being distinct from, and inferior to, God, I now
proceed to another point, on which we lay still greater
stress. We believe in the moral perfection of God
We consider no part of theology so important as that
which treats of God's moral character ; and we value
our views of Christianity chiefly as they assert his ami-
able and venerable attributes.

It may be said, that, in regard to this subject, all
Christians agree, that all ascribe to the Supreme Being
infinite justice, goodness, and holiness. We reply, that
it is very possible to speak of God magnificently, and
to think of him meanly ; to apply to his person high-
sounding epithets, and to his government, principles

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 83

which make him odious. The Heathens called Jupiter
the greatest and the best ; but his history was black
with cruelty and hist. We cannot judge of men's real
ideas of God by their general language, for in all ages
they have hoped to soothe the Deity by adulation. We
must inquire into their particular views of his purposes,
of the principles of his administration, and of his dis-
position towards his creatures.

We conceive that Christians have generally leaned
towards a very injurious view of the Supreme Being.
They have too often felt, as if he were raised, by his
greatness and sovereignty, above the principles of mo-
rality, above those eternal laws of equity and rectitude,
to which all other beings are subjected. We believe,
that in no being is the sense of right so strong, so
omnipotent, as in God. We believe that his almighty
power is entirely submitted to his perceptions of rec-
titude ; and this is the ground of our piety. It is not
because he is our Creator merely, but because he cre-
ated us for good and holy purposes ; it is not because
his will is irresistible, but because his will is the per-
fection of virtue, that we pay him allegiance. We can-
not bow before a being, however great and powerful,
who governs tyrannically. We respect nothing but ex-
cellence, whether on earth or in heaven. We venerate
not the loftiness of God's throne, but the equity and
goodness in which it is established.

We believe that God is infinitely good, kind, benevo-
lent, in the proper sense of these words ; good in dis-
position, as well as in act ; good, not to a few, but to
all ; good to every individual, as well as to the general
system.

We believe, too, that God is just ; but we nevei

84 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

forget, that his justice is the justice of a good being,
dwelling in the same mind, and acting in harmony,
with perfect benevolence. By this attribute, we un-
derstand God's infinite regard to virtue or moral worth,
expressed in a moral government ; that is, in giving
excellent and equitable laws, and in conferring such re-
wards, and inflicting such punishments, as are best fitted
to secure their observance. God's justice has for its
end the highest virtue of the creation, and it punishes
for this end alone, and thus it coincides with benevo-
lence ; for virtue and happiness, though not the same,
are inseparably conjoined.

God's justice thus viewed, appears to us to be in per-
fect harmony with his mercy. According to the preva-
lent systems of theology, these attributes are so discord-
ant and jarring, that to reconcile them is the hardest
task, and the most wonderful achievement, of infinite
wisdom. To us they seem to be intimate friends, al-
ways at peace, breathing the same spirit, and seeking
the same end. By God's mercy, we understand not a
blind instinctive compassion, which forgives without re-
flection, and without regard to the interests of virtue.
This, we acknowledge, would be incompatible with jus-
tice, and also with enlightened benevolence. God's
mercy, as we understand it, desires strongly the happi-
ness of the guilty, but only through their penitence. It
has a regard to character as truly as his justice. It
defers punishment, and suffers long, that the sinner may
return to his duty, but leaves the impenitent and un-
yielding, to the fearful retribution threatened in God's
Word.

To give our views of God in one word, we believe
in his Parental character. We ascribe to him, not only

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 85

the name, but the dispositions and principles of a fa-
ther. We believe that he has a father's concern for
his creatures, a father's desire for their improvement,
a father's equity in proportioning his commands to their
powers, a father's joy in their progress, a father's readi-
ness to receive the penitent, and a father's justice for
the incorrigible. We look upon this world as a place
of education, in which he is training men by prosperity
and adversity, by aids and obstructions, by conflicts of
reason and passion, by motives to duty and temptations
to sin, by a various discipline suited to free and moral
beings, for union with himself, and for a sublime and
ever-growing virtue in heaven.

Now, we object to the systems of religion, which
prevail among us, that they are adverse, in a greater
or less degree, to these purifying, comforting, and hon-
orable views of God ; that they take from us our Fa-
ther in heaven, and substitute for him a being, whom
we cannot love if we would, and whom we ought not to
love if we could. We object, particularly on this ground,
to that system, which arrogates to itself the name of
Orthodoxy, and which is now industriously propagated
through our country. This system indeed takes various
shapes, but in all it casts dishonor on the Creator.
According to its old and genuine form, it teaches, that
God brings us into life wholly depraved, so that under
the innocent features of our childhood is hidden a na-
ture averse to all good and propense to all evil, a nature
which exposes us to God's displeasure and wrath, even
before we have acquired power to understand our du-
ties, or to reflect upon our actions. According to a
more modern exposition, it teaches, that we came from
the hands of our Maker with such a constitution, and are

vol. in. 8

86 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

placed under such influences and circumstances, as to
render certain and infallible the total depravity of every
human being, from the first moment of his moral agency;
and it also teaches, that the offence of the child, who
brings into life this ceaseless tendency to unmingled
crime, exposes him to the sentence of everlasting dam-
nation. Now, according to the plainest principles of
morality, we maintain, that a natural constitution of the
mind, unfailingly disposing it to evil and to evil alone,
would absolve it from guilt ; that to give existence under
this condition would argue unspeakable cruelty; and
that to punish the sin of this unhappily constituted child
with endless ruin, would be a wrong unparalleled by the
most merciless despotism.

This system also teaches, that God selects from this
corrupt mass a number to be saved, and plucks them,
by a special influence, from the common ruin ; that the
rest of mankind, though left without that special grace
which their conversion requires, are commanded to re-
pent, under penalty of aggravated woe ; and that for-
giveness is promised them, on terms which their very
constitution infallibly disposes them to reject, and in
rejecting which they awfully enhance the punishments
of hell. These proffers of forgiveness and exhortations
of amendment, to beings born under a blighting curse,
fill our minds with a horror which we want words to
express.

That this religious system does not produce all the
effects on character, which might be anticipated, we
most joyfully admit. It is often, very often, counter-
acted by nature, conscience, common sense, by the
general strain of Scripture, by the mild example and
precepts of Christ, and by the many positive declara-

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 87

tions of God's universal kindness and perfect equity.
But still we think that we see its unhappy influence.
It tends to discourage the timid, to give excuses to the
bad, to feed the vanity of the fanatical, and to offer
shelter to the bad feelings of the malignant. By shock-
ing, as it does, the fundamental principles of morality,
and by exhibiting a severe and partial Deity, it tends
strongly to pervert the moral faculty, to form a gloomy,
forbidding, and servile religion, and to lead men to sub-
stitute censoriousness, bitterness, and persecution, for a
tender and impartial charity. We think, too, that this
system, which begins with degrading human nature, may
by expected to end in pride ; for pride grows out of a
consciousness of high distinctions, however obtained,
and no distinction is so great as that which is made be-
tween the elected and abandoned of God.

The false and dishonorable views of God, which
have now been stated", we feel ourselves bound to resist
unceasingly. Other errors we can pass over with com-
parative indifference. But we ask our opponents to
leave to us a God, worthy of our love and trust, in
whom our moral sentiments may delight, in whom our
weaknesses and sorrows may find refuge. We cling to
the Divine perfections. We meet them everywhere in
creation, we read them in the Scriptures, we see a
lovely image of them in Jesus Christ ; and gratitude,
love, and veneration call on us to assert them. Re-
proached, as we often are, by men, it is our consolation
and happiness, that one of our chief offences is the zeal
with which we vindicate the dishonored goodness and
rectitude of God.

4. Having thus spoken of the unity of God ; of the
unity of Jesus, and his inferiority to God ; and of the

88 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

perfections of the Divine character ; I now proceed to
give our views of the mediation of Christ, and of the
purposes of his mission. With regard to the great ob-
ject which Jesus came to accomplish, there seems to be
no possibility of mistake. We believe, that he was sent
by the Father to effect a moral, or spiritual deliverance
of mankind ; that is, to rescue men from sin and its
consequences, and to bring them to a state of everlast-
ing purity and happiness. We believe, too, that he ac-
complishes this sublime purpose by a variety of meth-
ods; by his instructions respecting God's unity, parental
character, and moral government, which are admirably
fitted to reclaim the world from idolatry and impiety,
to the knowledge, love, and obedience of the Creator ;
by his promises of pardon to the penitent, and of divine
assistance to those who labor for progress in moral ex-
cellence : by the light which he has thrown on the path
of duty ; by his own spotless example, in which the
loveliness and sublimity of virtue shine forth to warm
and quicken, as well as guide us to perfection ; by his
threatenings against incorrigible guilt ; by his glorious dis-
coveries of immortality ; by his sufferings and death ;
by that signal event, the resurrection, which powerfully
bore witness to his divine mission, and brought down to
men's senses a future life ; by his continual intercession,
which obtains for us spiritual aid and blessings ; and by
the power with which he is invested of raising the dead,
judging the world, and conferring the everlasting rewards,
promised to the faithful.

We have no desire to conceal the fact, that a dif-
ference of opinion exists among us, in regard to an in-
teresting part of Christ's mediation ; I mean, in regard
to the precise influence of his death on our forgiveness.

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 89

Many suppose, that this event contributes to our par-
don, as it was a principal means of confirming his re-
ligion; and of giving it a power over the mind ; in other
words, that it procures forgiveness by leading to that
repentance and virtue, which is the great and only con-
dition on which forgiveness is bestowed. Many of us
are dissatisfied with this explanation, and think that the
Scriptures ascribe the remission of sins to Christ's death,
with an emphasis so peculiar, that we ought to consider
this event as having a special influence in removing
punishment, though the Scriptures may not reveal the
way in which it contributes to this end.

Whilst, however, we differ in explaining the con-
nexion between Christ's death and human forgiveness,
a connexion which we all gratefully acknowledge, we
agree in rejecting many sentiments which prevail in
regard to his mediation. The idea, which is conveyed
to common minds by the popular system, that Christ's
death has an influence in making God placable, or mer-
ciful, in awakening his kindness towards men, we reject
with strong disapprobation. We are happy to find,
that this very dishonorable notion is disowned by in-
telligent Christians of that class from which we differ.
We recollect, however, that, not long ago, it was com-
mon to hear of Christ, as having died to appease God's
wrath, and to pay the debt of sinners to his inflexible
justice ; and we have a strong persuasion, that the lan-
guage of popular religious books, and the common mode
of stating the doctrine of Christ's mediation, still com-
municate very degrading views of God's character.
They give to multitudes the impression, that the death
of Jesus produces a change in the mind of God to-
wards man, and that in this its efficacy chiefly consists.
8*

90 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

No error seems to us more pernicious. We can endure
no shade over the pure goodness of God. We earn-
estly maintain, that Jesus, instead of calling forth, in
any way or degree, the mercy of the Father, was sent
by that mercy, to be our Saviour; that he is nothing
to the human race, but what he is by God's appoint-
ment ; that he communicates nothing but what God em-
powers him to bestow ; that our Father in heaven is
originally, essentially, and eternally placable, and dis-
posed to forgive ; and thai his unborrowed, underived,
and unchangeable love is the only fountain of what
flows to us through his Son. We conceive, that Jesus
is dishonored, not glorified, by ascribing to him an in-
fluence, which clouds the splendor of Divine benevo-
lence.

We farther agree in rejecting, as unscriptural and
absurd, the explanation given by the popular system,
of the manner in which Christ's death procures for-
giveness for men. This system used to teach as its
fundamental principle, that man, having sinned against
an infinite Being, has contracted infinite guilt, and is
consequently exposed to an infinite penalty. We believe,
however, that this reasoning, if reasoning it may be
called, which overlooks the obvious maxim, that the
guilt of a being must be proportioned to his nature and
powers, has fallen into disuse. Still the system teach-
es, that sin, of whatever degree, exposes to endless
punishment, and that the whole human race, being in-
fallibly involved by their nature in sin, owe this awful
penalty to the justice of their Creator. It teaches, that
this penalty cannot be remitted, in consistency with the
honor of the divine law, unless a substitute be found
to endure it or to suffer an equivalent. It also teaches.

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 91

that, from the nature of the case, no substitute is ade-
quate to this work, save the infinite God himself; and
accordingly, God, in his second person, took on him
human nature, that he might pay to his own justice the
debt of punishment incurred by men, and might thus
reconcile forgiveness with the claims and threatenings
of his law. Such is the prevalent system. Now, to
us, this doctrine seems to carry on its front strong
marks of absurdity ; and we maintain that Christianity
ought not to be encumbered with it, unless it be laid
down in the New Testament fully and expressly. We
ask our adversaries, then, to point to some plain passages
where it is taught. We ask for one text, in which we
are told, that God took human nature that he might
make an infinite satisfaction to his own justice ; for one
text, which tells us, that human guilt requires an infinite
substitute ; that Christ's sufferings owe their efficacy
to their being borne by an infinite being ; or that his
divine nature gives infinite value to the sufferings of the
human. Not one word of this description can we find
in the Scriptures ; not a text, which even hints at these
strange doctrines. They are altogether, we believe,
the fictions of theologians. Christianity is in no degree
responsible for them. We are astonished at their prev-
alence. What can be plainer, than that God cannot,
in any sense, be a sufferer, or bear a penalty in the
room of his creatures ? How dishonorable to him is
the supposition, that his justice is now so severe, as to
exact infinite punishment for the sins of frail and feeble
men, and now so easy and yielding, as to accept the
limited pains of Christ's human soul, as a full equiva-
lent for the endless woes due from the world ? How
plain is it also, according to this doctrine, that God,

92 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

instead of being plenteous in forgiveness, never for-
gives ; for it seems absurd to speak of men as forgiven,
when their whole punishment, or an equivalent to it, is
borne by a substitute ? A scheme more fitted to ob-
scure the brightness of Christianity and the mercy of
God, or less suited to give comfort to a guilty and
troubled mind, could not, we think, be easily framed.

We believe, too, that this system is unfavorable to
the character. It naturally leads men to think, that
Christ came to change God's mind rather than their
own ; that the highest object of his mission was to
avert punishment, rather than to communicate holiness ;
and that a large part of religion consists in disparaging
good works and human virtue, for the purpose of mag-
nifying the value of Christ's vicarious sufferings. In
this way, a sense of the infinite importance and indis-
pensable necessity of personal improvement is weak-
ened, and high-sounding praises of Christ's cross seem
often to be substituted for obedience to his precepts.
For ourselves, we have not so learned Jesus. Whilst
we gratefully acknowledge, that he came to rescue us
from punishment, we believe, that he was sent on a still
nobler errand, namely, to deliver us from sin itself, and
to form us to a sublime and heavenly virtue. We re-
gard him as a Saviour, chiefly as he is the light, phy-
sician, and guide of the dark, diseased, and wander-
ing mind. No influence in the universe seems to us so
glorious, as that over the character ; and no redemption
so worthy of thankfulness, as the restoration of the
soul to purity. Without this, pardon, were it possible,
would be of little value. Why pluck the sinner from
hell, if a hell be left to burn in his own breast ? Why
raise him to heaven, if he remain a stranger to its sane-

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 93

tity and love ? With these impressions, we are ac-
customed to value the Gospel chiefly as it abounds in
effectual aids, motives, excitements to a generous and
divine virtue. In this virtue, as in a common centre,
we see all its doctrines, precepts, promises meet ; and
we believe, that faith in this religion is of no worth,
and contributes nothing to salvation, any farther than as
it uses these doctrines, precepts, promises, and the whole
life, character, sufferings, and triumphs of Jesus, as the
means of purifying the mind, of changing it into the
likeness of his celestial excellence.

5. Having thus stated our views of the highest ob-
ject of Christ's mission, that it is the recovery of men
to virtue, or holiness, I shall now, in the last place,
give our views of the nature of Christian virtue, or
true holiness. We believe that all virtue has its foun-
dation in the moral nature of man, that is, in conscience,
or his sense of duty, and in the power of forming his
temper and life according to conscience. We believe
that these moral faculties are the grounds of respon-
sibility, and the highest distinctions of human nature.
and that no act is praiseworthy, any farther than it
springs from their exertion. We believe, that no dis-
positions infused into us without our own moral activity,
are of the nature of virtue, and therefore, we reject the
doctrine of irresistible divine influence on the human
mind, moulding it into goodness, as marble is hewn
into a statue. Such goodness, if this word may be
used, would not be the object of moral approbation,
any more than the instinctive affections of inferior ani-
mals, or the constitutional amiableness of human beings.

By these remarks, we do not mean to deny the im-
portance of God's aid or Spirit ; but by his Spirit, we

94 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

mean a moral, illuminating, and persuasive influence,
not physical, not compulsory, not involving a necessity
of virtue. We object, strongly, to the idea of many
Christians respecting man's impotence and God's irre-
sistible agency on the heart, believing that they subvert
our responsibility and the laws of our moral nature, that
they make men machines, that they cast on God the
blame of all evil deeds, that they discourage good minds,
and inflate the fanatical with wild conceits of immediate
and sensible inspiration.

Among the virtues, we give the first place to the love
of God. We believe, that this principle is the true end
and happiness of our being, that we were made for
union with our Creator, that his infinite perfection is
the only sufficient object and true resting-place for the
insatiable desires and unlimited capacities of the human
mind, and that, without him, our noblest sentiments, ad-
miration, veneration, hope, and love, would wither and
decay. We believe, too, that the love of God is not
only essential to happiness, but to the strength and per-
fection of all the virtues ; that conscience, without the
sanction of God's authority and retributive justice, would
be a weak director ; that benevolence, unless nourished
by communion with his goodness, and encouraged by
his smile, could not thrive amidst the selfishness and
thanklessness of the world ; and that self-government,
without a sense of the divine inspection, would hardly
extend beyond an outward and partial purity. God,
as he is essentially goodness, holiness, justice, and vir-
tue, so he is the life, motive, and sustainer of virtue in
the human soul.

But, whilst we earnestly inculcate the love of God,
we believe that great care is necessary to distinguish it

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 95

from counterfeits. We think that much which is called
piety is worthless. Many have fallen into the error,
that there can be no excess in feelings which have God
for their object ; and, distrusting as coldness that self-
possession, without which virtue and devotion lose all
their dignity, they have abandoned themselves to extrav-
agances, which have brought contempt on piety. Most
certainly, if the love of God be that which often bears
its name, the less we have of it the better. If religion
be the shipwreck of understanding, we cannot keep too
far from it. On this subject, we always speak plainly.
We cannot sacrifice our reason to the reputation of
zeal. We owe it to truth and religion to maintain,
that fanaticism, partial insanity, sudden impressions,
and ungovernable transports, are any thing rather than
piety.

We conceive, that the true love of God is a moral
sentiment, founded on a clear perception, and consisting
in a high esteem and veneration, of his moral perfec-
tions. Thus, it perfectly coincides, and is in fact the
same thing, with the love of virtue, rectitude, and good-
ness. You will easily judge, then, what we esteem the
surest and only decisive signs of piety. We lay no
stress on strong excitements. We esteem him, and him
only a pious man, who practically conforms to God's
moral perfections and government ; who shows his de-
light in God's benevolence, by loving and serving his
neighbour ; his delight in God's justice, by being reso-
lutely upright ; his sense of God's purity, by regulating
his thoughts, imagination, and desires ; and whose con-
versation, business, and domestic life are swayed by a
regard to God's presence and authority. In all things
else men may deceive themselves. Disordered nerves

96 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

may give them strange sights, and sounds, and impres-
sions. Texts of Scripture may come to them as from
Heaven. Their whole souls may be moved, and their
confidence in God's favor be undoubting. But in all
this there is no religion. The question is, Do they love
God's commands, in which his character is fully ex-
pressed, and give up to these their habits and passions ?
Without this, ecstasy is a mockery. One surrender
of desire to God's will, is worth a thousand transports.
We do not judge of the bent of men's minds by their
raptures, any more than we judge of the natural direc-
tion of a tree during a storm. We rather suspect loud
profession, for we have observed, that deep feeling is
generally noiseless, and least seeks display.

We would not, by these remarks, be understood as
wishing to exclude from religion warmth, and even
transport. We honor, and highly value, true religious
sensibility. We believe, that Christianity is intended
to act powerfully on our whole nature, on the heart as
well as the understanding and the conscience. We
conceive of heaven as a state where the love of God
will be exalted into an unbounded fervor and joy ; and
we desire, in our pilgrimage here, to drink into the
spirit of that better world. But we think, that religious
warmth is only to be valued, when it springs naturally
from an improved character, when it comes unforced,
when it is the recompense of obedience, when it is the
warmth of a mind which understands God by being like
him, and when, instead of disordering, it exalts the
understanding, invigorates conscience, gives a pleasure
to common duties, and is seen to exist in connexion
with cheerfulness, judiciousness, and a reasonable frame
of mind. When we observe a fervor, called religious,

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 97

in men whose general character expresses little refine-
ment and elevation, and whose piety seems at war with
reason, we pay it little respect. We honor religion
too much to give its sacred name to a feverish, forced,
fluctuating zeal, which has little power over the life.

Another important branch of virtue, we believe to be
love to Christ. The greatness of the work of Jesus,
the spirit with which he executed it, and the sufferings
which he bore for our salvation, we feel to be strong
claims on our gratitude and veneration. We see in na-
ture no beauty to be compared with the loveliness of his
character, nor do we find on earth a benefactor to whom
we owe an equal debt. We read his history with de-
light, and learn from it the perfection of our nature.
We are particularly touched by his death, which was
endured for our redemption, and by that strength of
charity which triumphed over his pains. His resurrec-
tion is the foundation of our hope of immortality. His
intercession gives us boldness to draw nigh to the throne
of grace, and we look up to heaven with new desire,
when we think, that, if we follow him here, we shall
there see his benignant countenance, and enjoy his
friendship for ever.

I need not express to you our views on the subject
of the benevolent virtues. We attach such importance
to these, that we are sometimes reproached with exalt-
ing them above piety. We regard the spirit of love,
charity, meekness, forgiveness, liberality, and benefi-
cence, as the badge and distinction of Christians, as the
brightest image we can bear of God, as the best proof
of piety. On this subject, I need not, and cannot en-
large ; but there is one branch of benevolence which I
ought not to pass over in silence, because we think that

VOL. III. 9

98 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

we conceive of it more highly and justly than many of
our brethren. I refer to the duty of candor, charitable
judgment, especially towards those who differ in religious
opinion. We think, that in nothing have Christians so
widely departed from their religion, as in this particular.
We read with astonishment and horror, the history of
the church ; and sometimes when we look back on the
fires of persecution, and on the zeal of Christians, in
building up walls of separation, and in giving up one
another to perdition, we feel as if we were reading the
records of an infernal, rather than a heavenly kingdom.
An enemy to every religion, if asked to describe a
Christian, would, with some show of reason, depict him
as an idolater of his own distinguishing opinions, covered
with badges of party, shutting his eyes on the virtues,
and his ears on the arguments, of his opponents, arrogat-
ing all excellence to his own sect and all saving power
to his own creed, sheltering under the name of pious
zeal the love of domination, the conceit of infallibility,
and the spirit of intolerance, and trampling on men's
rights under the pretence of saving their souls.

We can hardly conceive of a plainer obligation on
beings of our frail and fallible nature, who are instructed
in the duty of candid judgment, than to abstain from
condemning men of apparent conscientiousness and sin-
cerity, who are chargeable with no crime but that of
differing from us in the interpretation of the Scriptures,
and differing, too, on topics of great and acknowledged
obscurity. We are astonished at the hardihood of those,
who, with Christ's warnings sounding in their ears, take
on them the responsibility of making creeds for his
church, and cast out professors of virtuous lives for im-
agined errors, for the guilt of thinking for themselves.

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 99

We know that zeal for truth is the cover for this usur-
pation of Christ's prerogative ; but we think that zeal
for truth, as it is called, is very suspicious, except in
men, whose capacities and advantages, whose patient
deliberation, and whose improvements in humility, mild-
ness, and candor, give them a right to hope that their
views are more just than those of their neighbours.
Much of what passes for a zeal for truth, we look upon
with little respect, for it often appears to thrive most
luxuriantly where other virtues shoot up thinly and
feebly ; and we have no gratitude for those reformers,
who would force upon us a doctrine which has not
sweetened their own tempers, or made them better men
than their neighbours.

"We are accustomed to think much of the difficul-
ties attending religious inquiries ; difficulties springing
from the slow developement of our minds, from the
power of early impressions, from the state of society,
from human authority, from the general neglect of the
reasoning powers, from the want of just principles of
criticism and of important helps in interpreting Scrip-
ture, and from various other causes. We find, that on
no subject have men, and even good men, ingrafted so
many strange conceits, wild theories, and fictions of fan-
cy, as on religion ; and remembering, as we do, that
we ourselves are sharers of the common frailty, we dare
not assume infallibility in the treatment of our fellow-
Christians, or encourage in common Christians, who
have little time for investigation, the habit of denoun-
cing and contemning other denominations, perhaps more
enlightened and virtuous than their own. Charity, for-
bearance, a delight in the virtues of different sects, a
backwardness to censure and condemn, these are vir-

100 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

lues, which, however poorly practised by us, we admire
and recommend ; and we would rather join ourselves to
the church in which they abound, than to any other
communion, however elated with the belief of its own
orthodoxy, however strict in guarding its creed, however
burning with zeal against imagined error.

I have thus given the distinguishing views of those
Christians in whose names I have spoken. We have
embraced this system, not hastily or lightly, but after
much deliberation ; and we hold it fast, not merely be-
cause we believe it to be true, but because we regard it
as purifying truth, as a doctrine according to godliness, as
able to " work mightily " and to " bring forth fruit" in
them who believe. That we wish to spread it, we have
no desire to conceal ; but we think, that we wish its
diffusion, because we regard it as more friendly to prac-
tical piety and pure morals than the opposite doctrines,
because it gives clearer and nobler views of duty, and
stronger motives to its performance, because it recom-
mends religion at once to the understanding and the
heart, because it asserts the lovely and venerable attri-
butes of God, because it tends to restore die benevolent
spirit of Jesus to his divided and afflicted church, and
because it cuts off every hope of God's favor, except
that which springs from practical conformity to the life
and precepts of Christ. We see nothing in our views
to give offence, save their purity, and it is their purity,
which makes us seek and hope their extension through
the world.

My friend and brother ; — You are this day to take
upon you important duties ; to be clothed with an office,
which the Son of God did not disdain ; to devote your-

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY 101

self to that religion, which the most hallowed lips have
preached, and the most precious blood sealed. We
trust that you will bring to this work a willing mind, a
firm purpose, a martyr's spirit, a readiness to toil and
suffer for the truth, a devotion of your best powers to
the interests of piety and virtue. I have spoken of the
doctrines which you will probably preach ; but I do not
mean, that you are to give yourself to controversy.
You will remember, that good practice is the end of
preaching, and will labor to make your people holy liv-
ers, rather than skilful disputants. Be careful, lest the
desire of defending what you deem truth, and of repel-
ling reproach and misrepresentation, turn you aside from
your great business, which is to fix in men's minds a
living conviction of the obligation, sublimity, and happi-
ness of Christian virtue. The best way to vindicate
your sentiments, is to show, in your preaching and life,
their intimate connexion with Christian morals, with a
high and delicate sense of duty, with candor towards
your opposers, with inflexible integrity, and with an ha-
bitual reverence for God. If any light can pierce and
scatter the clouds of prejudice, it is that of a pure ex-
ample. My brother, may your life preach more loudly
than your lips. Be to this people a pattern of all good
works, and may your instructions derive authority from
a well-grounded belief in your hearers, that you speak
from the heart, that you preach from experience, that
the truth which you dispense has wrought powerfully in
your own heart, that God, and Jesus, and heaven, are
not merely words on your lips, but most affecting reali-
ties to your mind, and springs of hope and consolation,
and strength, in all your trials. Thus laboring, may
you reap abundantly, and have a testimony of your faith-

102 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY.

fulness, not only in your own conscience, but in the
esteem, love, virtues, and improvements of your people.
To all who hear me, I would say, with the Apostle,
Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Do not,
brethren, shrink from the duty of searching God's Word
for yourselves, through fear of human censure and de-
nunciation. Do not think, that you may innocently fol-
low the opinions which prevail around you, without in-
vestigation, on the ground, that Christianity is now so
purified from errors, as to need no laborious research.
There is much reason to believe, that Christianity is at
this moment dishonored by gross and cherished corrup-
tions. If you remember the darkness which hung over
the Gospel for ages ; if you consider the impure union,
which still subsists in almost every Christian country,
between the church and state, and which enlists men's
selfishness and ambition on the side of established
error ; if you recollect in what degree the spirit of in-
tolerance has checked free inquiry, not only before, but
since the Reformation ; you will see that Christianity
cannot have freed itself from all the human inventions,
which disfigured it under the Papal tyranny. No. Much
stubble is yet to be burned ; much rubbish to be re-
moved ; many gaudy decorations, which a false taste has
hung around Christianity, must be swept away ; and the
earth-born fogs, which have long shrouded it, must be
scattered, before this divine fabric will rise before us in
its native and awful majesty, in its harmonious propor-
tions, in its mild and celestial splendors. This glorious
reformation in the church, we hope, under God's bless-
ing, from the progress of the human intellect, from the
moral progress of society, from the consequent decline
of prejudice and bigotry, and, though last not least, from

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 103

the subversion of human authority in matters of religion,
from the fall of those hierarchies, and other human insti-
tutions, by which the minds of individuals are oppressed
under the weight of numbers, and a Papal dominion is
perpetuated in the Protestant church. Our earnest
prayer to God is, that he will overturn, and overturn,
and overturn the strong-holds of spiritual usurpation, until
he shall come, whose right it is to rule the minds of
men ; that the conspiracy of ages against the liberty of
Christians may be brought to an end ; that the servile
assent, so long yielded to human creeds, may give place
to honest and devout inquiry into the Scriptures ; and
that Christianity, thus purified from error, may put forth
its almighty energy, and prove itself, by its ennobling in-
fluence on the mind, to be indeed " the power of God
unto salvation."

THE

EVIDENCES OF REVEALED RELIGION.

DISCOURSE

BEFOBE THE

UNIVERSITY IN CAMBRIDGE, AT THE DUDLEIAN LECTURE,
14th March, 1821.

John Hi. 2: "The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto
him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God;
for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God
be with him."

The evidences of revealed religion are the subject of
this lecture, a subject of great extent, as well as of
vast importance. In discussing it, an immense variety
of learning has been employed, and all the powers of
the intellect been called forth. History, metaphysics,
ancient learning, criticism, ethical science, and the sci-
ence of human nature, have been summoned to the
controversy, and have brought important contributions
to the Christian cause. To condense into one discourse
what scholars and great men have written on this point,
is impossible, even if it were desirable ; and I have
stated the extent of speculation into which our subject
has led, not because I propose to give an abstract of
others' labors, but because I wish you to understand.

106 THE EVIDENCES OP

that the topic is one not easily despatched, and because
I would invite ycu to follow me in a discussion, which
will require concentrated and continued attention. A
subject more worthy of attention, than the claims of
that religion which was impressed on our childhood,
and which is acknowledged to be the only firm founda-
tion of the hope of immortality, cannot be presented ;
and our minds must want the ordinary seriousness of
human nature, if it cannot arrest us.

That Christianity has been opposed, is a fact, implied
ra the establishment of this lecture. That it has had
adversaries of no mean intellect, you know. I propose
in this discourse to make some remarks on what seems
to me the great objection to Christianity, on the general
principle on which its evidences rest, and on some of
its particular evidences.

The great objection to Christianity, the only one
which has much influence at the present day, meets us
at the very threshold. We cannot, if we would, evade
it, for it is founded on a primary and essential attribute
of this religion. The objection is oftener felt than ex-
pressed, and amounts to this, that miracles are incredi-
ble, and that the supernatural character of an alleged
fact is proof enough of its falsehood. So strong is this
propensity to doubt of departures from the order of
nature, that there are sincere Christians, who incline to
rest their religion wholly on its internal evidence, and
to overlook the outward extraordinary interposition of
God, by which it was at first established. But the
difficulty cannot in this way be evaded ; for Christianity
is not only confirmed by miracles, but is in itself, in its
very essence, a miraculous religion. It is not a system

REVEALED RELIGION. 107

which the human mind might have gathered, in the or-
dinary exercise of its powers, from the ordinary course
of nature. Its doctrines, especially those which relate
to its founder, claim for it the distinction of being a
supernatural provision for the recovery of the human
race. So that the objection which I have stated still
presses upon us, and, if it be well grounded, it is fatal
to Christianity.

It is proper, then, to begin the discussion with inquir-
ing, whence the disposition to discredit miracles springs,
aid how far it is rational. A preliminary remark of
some importance is, that this disposition is not a neces-
sary part or principle of our mental constitution, like
the disposition to trace effects to adequate causes. We
are indeed so framed, as to expect a continuance of
that order of nature which we have uniformly experi-
enced ; but not so framed as to revolt at alleged viola-
tions of that order, and to account them impossible
or absurd. On the contrary, men at large discover a
strong and incurable propensity to believe in miracles.
Almost all histories, until within the two last centuries,
reported seriously supernatural facts. Skepticism as
to miracles is comparatively a new thing, if we except
the Epicurean or Atheistical sect among the ancients ;
and so far from being founded in human nature, it is
resisted by an almost infinite preponderance of belief
0:1 the other side.

Whence, then, has this skepticism sprung ? It may
be explained by two principal causes. 1. It is now an
acknowledged fact, among enlightened men, that in past
times and in our own, a strong disposition has existed
and still exists to admit miracles without examination.
Human credulity is found to have devoured nothing

108 THE EVIDENCES OF

more eagerly than reports of prodigies. Now it is ar-
gued, that we discover here a principle of human nature,
namely, the love of the supernatural and marvellous,
which accounts sufficiently for the belief of miracles,
wherever we find it ; and that it is, consequently, un-
necessary and unphilosophical to seek for other causes,
and especially to admit that most improbable one, the
actual existence of miracles. This sweeping conclu-
sion is a specimen of that rash habit of generalizing,
which rather distinguishes our times, and shows that
philosophical reasoning has made fewer advances than
we are apt to boast. It is true, that there is a principle
of credulity as to prodigies in a considerable part of
society, a disposition to believe without due scrutiny.
But this principle, like every other in our nature, has its
limits ; acts according to fixed laws ; is not omnipotent ;
cannot make the eyes see, and the ears hear, and the
understanding credit delusions, under all imaginable cir-
cumstances ; but requires the concurrence of various
circumstances and of other principles of our nature in
order to its operation. For example, the belief of
spectral appearances has been very common ; but under
what circumstances and in what state of mind has it
occurred ? Do men see ghosts in broad day, and amidst
cheerful society ? Or in solitary places ; in grave-yards ;
in twilights or mists, where outward objects are so un-
defined, as easily to take a form from imagination ; and
in other circumstances favorable to terror, and associated
with the delusion in question ? The principle of cre-
dulity is as regular in its operation, as any other principle
of the mind ; and is so dependent on circumstances and
so restrained and checked by other parts of human na-
ture, that sometimes the most obstinate incredulity is

REVEALED RELIGION. 109

found in that very class of people, whose easy belief on
other occasions moves our contempt. It is well known,
for example, that the efficacy of the vaccine inocula-
tion has been encountered with much more unyielding
skepticism among the vulgar, than among the improved ;
and in general, it may be affirmed, that the credulity
of the ignorant operates under the control of their
strongest passions and impressions, and that no class of
society yield a slower assent to positions, which mani-
festly subvert their old modes of thinking and mo.ct set-
tled prejudices. It is, then, very unphilosophical to as-
sume this principle as an explanation of all miracles
whatever. I grant that the fact, that accounts of super-
natural agency so generally prove false, is a reason for
looking upon them with peculiar distrust. Miracles
ought on this account to be sifted more than common
facts. But if we find, that a belief in a series of super-
natural works, has occurred under circumstances very
different from those under which false prodigies have
been received, under circumstances most unfavorable
to the operation of credulity ; then this belief cannot be
resolved into the common causes, which have blinded
men in regard to supernatural agency. We must look
for other causes, and if none can be found but the
actual existence of the miracles, then true philosophy
binds us to believe them. I close this head with ob-
serving, that the propensity of men to believe in what
is strange and miraculous, though a presumption against
particular miracles, is not a presumption against miracles
universally, but rather the reverse ; for great principles
of human nature have generally a foundation in truth,
and one explanation of this propensity so common to
mankind is obviously this, that in the earlier ages of the

VOL. III. 10

110 THE EVrDENCES OF

human race, miraculous interpositions, suited to man's
infant state, were not uncommon, and, being the most
striking facts of human history, they spread through all
future times a belief and expectation of miracles.

I proceed now to the second cause of the skepticism
in regard to supernatural agency, which has grown up,
especially among the more improved, in later times.
These later times are distinguished, as you well know,
by successful researches into nature ; and the discov-
eries of science have continually added strength to that
great principle, that the phenomena of the universe are
regulated by general and permanent laws, or that the
Author of the universe exerts his power according to an
established order. Nature, the more it is explored, is
found to be uniform. We observe an unbroken succes-
sion of causes and effects. Many phenomena, once de-
nominated irregular, and ascribed to supernatural agency,
are found to be connected with preceding circumstances,
as regularly as the most common events. The comet,
we learn, observes the same attraction as the sun and
planets. When a new phenomenon now occurs, no one
thinks it miraculous, but believes, that, when better un-
derstood, it may be reduced to laws already known, or
is an example of a law not yet investigated.

Now this increasing acquaintance with the uniformity
of nature begets a distrust of alleged violations of it,
and a rational distrust too ; for, while many causes of
mistake in regard to alleged miracles may be assigned,
there is but one adequate cause of real miracles, that is,
the power of God ; and the regularity of nature forms a
strong presumption against the miraculous exertion of
this power, except in extraordinary circumstances, and
for extraordinary purposes, to which the established laws

REVEALED RELIGION. Ill

of the creation are not competent. But the observation
of the uniformity of nature produces, in multitudes, not
merely this rational distrust of alleged violations of it,
but a secret feeling, as if such violations were impos-
sible. That attention to the powers of nature, which is
implied in scientific research, tends to weaken the prac-
tical conviction of a higher power ; and the laws of the
creation, instead of being regarded as the modes of Di-
vine operation, come insensibly to be considered as
fetters on his agency, as too sacred to be suspended
even by their Author. This secret feeling, essentially
atheistical, and at war with all sound philosophy, is the
chief foundation of that skepticism, which prevails in
regard to miraculous agency, and deserves our particular
consideration.

To a man whose belief in God is strong and practical,
a miracle will appear as possible as any other effect, as
the most common event in life ; and the argument against
miracles, drawn from the uniformity of nature, will weigh
with him, only as far as this uniformity is a pledge and
proof of the Creator's disposition to accomplish his pur-
poses by a fixed order or mode of operation. Now it is
freely granted, that the Creator's regard or attachment
to such an order may be inferred from the steadiness
with which he observes it ; and a strong presumption
lies against any violation of it on slight occasions, or for
purposes to which the established laws of nature are ade-
quate. But this is the utmost which the order of nature
authorizes us to infer respecting its Author. It forms
no presumption against miracles universally, in all ima-
ginable cases ; but may even furnish a presumption in
their favor.

We are never to forget, that God's adherence to the

112 THE EVIDENCES OF

order of the universe is not necessary and mechanical,
but intelligent and voluntary. He adheres to it, not for
its own sake, or because it has a sacredness which com-
pels him to respect it, but because it is most suited to
accomplish his purposes. It is a means, and not an
end ; and, like all other means, must give way when
the end can best be promoted without it. It is the mark
of a weak mind, to make an idol of order and method ;
to cling to established forms of business, when they clog
instead of advancing it. If, then, the great purposes of
the universe can best be accomplished by departing from
its established laws, these laws will undoubtedly be sus-
pended ; and, though broken in the letter, they will be
observed in their spirit, for the ends for which they were
first instituted will be advanced by their violation. Now
the question arises, For what purposes were nature and
its order appointed ? and there is no presumption in
saying, that the highest of these is the improvement of
intelligent beings. Mind (by which we mean both moral
and intellectual powers) is God's first end. The great
purpose for which an order of nature is fixed, is plainly
the formation of Mind. In a creation without order,
where events would follow without any regular succes-
sion, it is obvious, that Mind must be kept in perpetual
infancy ; for, in such a universe, there could be no rea-
soning from effects to causes, no induction to establish
general truths, no adaptation of means to ends ; that is,
no science relating to God, or matter, or mind ; no ac-
tion ; no virtue. The great purpose of God, then, I
repeat it, in establishing the order of nature, is to form
and advance the mind ; and if the case should occur, in
which the interests of the mind could best be advanced
by departing from this order, or by miraculous agency,

REVEALED RELIGION. 113

then the great purpose of the creation, the great end of
its laws and regularity, would demand such departure ;
and miracles, instead of warring against, would concur
with nature.

Now, we Christians maintain, that such a case has
existed. We affirm, that, when Jesus Christ came into
the world, nature had failed to communicate instructions
to men, in which, as intelligent beings, they had the
deepest concern, and on which the full developement of
their highest faculties essentially depended ; and we
affirm, that there was no prospect of relief from nature ;
so that an exigence had occurred, in which additional
communications, supernatural lights, might rationally be
expected from the Father of spirits. Let me state two
particulars, out of many, in which men needed intel-
lectual aids not given by nature. I refer to the doctrine
of one God and Father, on which all piety rests ; and
to the doctrine of Immortality, which is the great spring
of virtuous effort. Had I time to enlarge on the history
of that period, I might show you under what heaps of
rubbish and superstition these doctrines were buried.
But I should repeat only what you know familiarly.
The works of ancient genius, which form your studies,
carry on their front the brand of polytheism, and of de-
basing error on subjects of the first and deepest concern.
It is more important to observe, that the very uniformity
of nature had some tendency to obscure the doctrines
which I have named, or at least to impair their practical
power, so that a departure from this uniformity was
needed to fasten them on men's minds.

That a fixed order of nature, though a proof of the
One God to reflecting and enlarged understandings, has
yet a tendency to hide him from men in general, will
10*

114 THE EVIDENCES OF

appear, if we consider, first, that, as the human mind is
constituted, what is regular and of constant occurrence,
excites it feebly ; and benefits flowing to it through
fixed, unchanging laws, seem to come by a kind of ne-
cessity, and are apt to be traced up to natural causes
alone. Accordingly, religious convictions and feelings,
even in the present advanced condition of society, are
excited, not so much by the ordinary course of God's
providence, as by sudden, unexpected events, which
rouse and startle the mind, and speak of a power higher
than nature. — There is another way, in which a fixed
order of nature seems unfavorable to just impressions
respecting its Author. It discovers to us in the Creator,
a regard to general good rather than an affection to indi-
viduals. The laws of nature, operating, as they do,
with an inflexible steadiness, never varying to meet the
cases and wants of individuals, and inflicting much pri-
vate suffering in their stern administration for the general
weal, give the idea of a distant, reserved sovereign, much
more than of a tender parent ; and yet this last view of
God is the only effectual security from superstition and
idolatry. Nature, then, we fear, would not have brought
,:ack the world to its Creator. — And as to the doctrine
of Immortality, the order of the natural world had little
tendency to teach this, at least with clearness and energy.
The natural wrorld contains no provisions or arrange-
ments for reviving the dead. The sun and the rain,
which cover the tomb with verdure, send no vital influ-
ences to the mouldering body. The researches of sci-
ence detect no secret processes for restoring the lost
powers of life. If man is to live again, he is not to live
through any known laws of nature, but by a power higher
than nature ; and how, then, can we be assured of this

REVEALED RELIGION. 115

truth, but by a manifestation of this power, that is, hy
miraculous agency, confirming a future life ?

I have labored in these remarks to show, that the uni-
formity of nature is no presumption against miraculous
agency, when employed in confirmation of such a reli-
gion as Christianity. Nature, on the contrary, furnish-
es a presumption in its favor. Nature clearly shows to
us a power above itself, so that it proves miracles to
be possible. Nature reveals purposes and attributes in
its Author, with which Christianity remarkably agrees.
Nature too has deficiencies, which show that it was not
intended by its Author to- be his whole method of in-
structing mankind ; and in this way it gives great con-
firmation to Christianity, which meets its wants, supplies
its chasms, explains its mysteries, and lightens its heart-
oppressing cares and sorrows.

Before quitting the general consideration of miracles,
I ought to take some notice of Hume's celebrated ar-
gument on this subject ; not that it merits the attention
which it has received, but because it is specious, and
has derived weight from the name of its author. The
argument is briefly this, — " that belief is founded upon
and regulated by experience. Now we often experience
testimony to be false, but never witness a departure from
the order of nature. That men may deceive us when
they testify to miracles, is therefore more accordant with
experience, than that nature should be irregular ; and
hence there is a balance of proof against miracles, a
presumption so strong as to outweigh the strongest testi-
mony." The usual replies to this argument I have not
time to repeat. Dr. Campbell's work, which is acces-
sible to all, will show you that it rests on an equivocal
use of terms, and will furnish you with many fine re-

116 THE EVIDENCES OF

marks on testimony and on the conditions or qualities
which give it validity. I will only add a few remarks
which seem to me worthy of attention.

1. This argument affirms, that the credibility of facts
or statements is to be decided by their accordance with
the established order of nature, and by this standard
only. Now, if nature comprehended all existences and
all powers, this position might be admitted. But if
there is a Being higher than nature, the origin of all its
powers and motions, and whose character falls under
our notice and experience as truly as the creation, then
there is an additional standard to which facts and state-
ments are to be referred ; and works which violate na-
ture's order, will still be credible, if they agree with the
known properties and attributes of its author ; because
for such works we can assign an adequate cause and
sufficient reasons, and these are the qualities and condi-
tions on which credibility depends.

2. This argument of Hume proves too much, and
therefore proves nothing. It proves too much, ; for if I
am to reject the strongest testimony to miracles, because
testimony has often deceived me, whilst nature's order
has never been found to fail, then I ought to reject a
miracle, even if I should see it with my own eyes, and
if all my senses should attest it ; for all my senses have
sometimes given false reports, whilst nature has never
gone astray ; and, therefore, be the circumstances ever
so decisive or inconsistent with deception, still I must
not believe what T see, and hear, and touch, what my
senses, exercised according to the most deliberate judg-
ment, declare to be true. All this the argument re-
quires ; and it proves too much ; for disbelief, in the
case supposed, is out of our power, and is instinctively

REVEALED RELIGION. 117

pronounced absurd ; and what is more, it would subvert
that very order of nature on which the argument rests ;
for this order of nature is learned only by the exercise
of my senses and judgment, and if these fail me, in the
most unexceptionable circumstances, then their testi-
mony to nature is of little worth.

Once more ; this argument is built on an ignorance
of the nature of testimony. Testimony, we are told,
cannot prove a miracle. Now the truth is, that testi-
mony of itself and immediately, proves no facts what-
ever, not even the most common. Testimony can do
nothing more than show us the state of another's mind
in regard to a given fact. It can only show us, that
the testifier has a belief, a conviction, that a certain phe-
nomenon or event has occurred. Here testimony stops ;
and the reality of the event is to be judged altogether
from the nature and degree of this conviction, and from
the circumstances under which it exists. This convic-
tion is an effect, which must have a cause, and needs
to be explained ; and if no cause can be found but the
real occurrence of the event, then this occurrence is
admitted as true. Such is the extent of testimony.
Now a man, who affirms a miraculous phenomenon or
event, may give us just as decisive proofs, by his char-
acter and conduct, of the strength and depth of his con-
viction, as if he were affirming a common occurrence.
Testimony, then, does just as much in the case of mira-
cles, as of common events ; that is, it discloses to us
the conviction of another's mind. Now this conviction
in the case of miracles requires a cause, an explanation,
as much as in every other ; and if the circumstances be
such, that it could not have sprung up and been estab-
lished but by the reality of the alleged miracle, then that

113 THE EVIDENCES OF

great and fundamental principle of human belief, name-
ly, that every effect must have a cause, compels us to
admit the miracle.

It may be observed of Hume and of other philosophi-
cal opposers of our religion, that they are much more
inclined to argue against miracles in general, than against
the particular miracles on which Christianity rests. And
the reason is obvious. Miracles, when considered in a
general, abstract manner, that is, when divested of all
circumstances, and supposed to occur as disconnected
facts, to stand alone in history, to have no explanations
or reasons in preceding events, and no influence on
those which follow, are indeed open to great objection,
as wanton and useless violations of nature's order ; and
it is accordingly against miracles, considered in this
naked, general form, that the arguments of infidelity are
chiefly urged. But it is great disingenuity to class un-
der this head the miracles of Christianity. They are
palpably different. They do not stand alone in history ;
but are most intimately incorporated with it. They
were demanded by the state of the world which pre-
ceded them, and they have left deep traces on all sub-
sequent ages. In fact, the history of the whole civil-
ized world, since their alleged occurrence, has been
swayed and colored by them, and is wholly inexplicable
without them. Now, such miracles are not to be met
and disposed of by general reasonings, which apply only
to insulated, unimportant, uninfluential prodigies.

I have thus considered the objections to miracles in
general ; and I would close this head with observing,
that these objections will lose*their weight, just in pro-
portion as we strengthen our conviction of God's power
over nature and of his parental interest in his creatures.

REVEALED RELIGION. 119

The great repugnance to the belief of miraculous agency
is founded in a lurking atheism, which ascribes suprema-
cy to nature, and which, whilst it professes to believe
in God, questions his tender concern for the improve-
ment of men. To a man, who cherishes a sense of
God, the great difficulty is, not to account for miracles,
but to account for their rare occurrence. One of the
mysteries of the universe is this, that its Author re-
tires so continually behind the veil of his works, that
the great and good Father does not manifest himself
more distinctly to his creatures. There is something
like coldness and repulsiveness in instructing us only
by fixed, inflexible laws of nature. The intercourse of
God with Adam and the patriarchs suits our best con-
ceptions of the relation which he bears to the human
race, and ought not to surprise us more, than the ex-
pression of a human parent's tenderness and concern
towards his offspring.

After the remarks now made to remove the objection
to revelation in general, I proceed to consider the evi-
dences of the Christian religion in particular ; and these
are so numerous, that should I attempt to compress
them into the short space which now remains, I could
give but a syllabus, a dry and uninteresting index. It
will be more useful to state to you, with some distinct-
ness, the general principle into which all Christian
evidences may be resolved, and on which the whole
religion rests, and then to illustrate it in a few striking
particulars.

All the evidences of Christianity may be traced to
this great principle, — that every effect must have an
adequate cause. We claim for our religion a divine

120 THE EVIDENCES OF

original, because no adequate cause for it can be found
in the powers or passions of human nature, or in the
circumstances under which it appeared ; because it can
only be accounted for by the interposition of that Being,
to whom its first preachers universally ascribed it, and
with whose nature it perfectly agrees.

Christianity, by which we mean not merely the doc-
trines of the religion, but every thing relating to it, its
rise, its progress, the character of its author, the con-
duct of its propagators, — Christianity, in this broad
sense, can only be accounted for in two ways. It either
sprung from the principles of human nature, under the
excitements, motives, impulses of the age in which it
was first preached ; or it had its origin in a higher and
supernatural agency. To which of these causes the
religion should be referred, is not a question beyond
our reach ; for being partakers of human nature, and
knowing more of it than of any other part of creation,
we can judge with sufficient accuracy of the operation
of its principles, and of the effects to which they are
competent. It is indeed true, that human powers are
not exactly defined, nor can we state precisely the
bounds beyond which they cannot pass ; but still, the
disproportion between human nature and an effect as-
cribed to it, may be so vast and palpable, as to satisfy
us at once, that the effect is inexplicable by human
power. I know not precisely what advances may be
made by the intellect of an unassisted savage ; but that a
savage in the woods could not compose the "Principia"
of Newton, is about as plain as that he could not cre-
ate the world. I know not the point at which bodily
strength must stop ; but that a man cannot carry Atlas
or Andes on his shoulders, is a safe position. The

REVEALED RELIGIOX. 121

question, therefore, whether the principles of human
nature, under the circumstances in which it was placed
at Christ's birth, will explain his religion, is one to
which we are competent, and is the great question on
which the whole controversy turns.

Now we maintain, that a great variety of facts be-
longing to this religion, — such as the character of its
Founder ; its peculiar principles ; the style and char-
acter of its records ; its progress; the conduct, circum-
stances, and sufferings of its first propagators ; the re-
ception of it from the first on the ground of miraculous
attestations ; the prophecies which it fulfilled and which
it contains ; its influence on society, and other circum-
stances connected with it ; are utterly inexplicable by
human powers and principles, but accord with, and are
fully explained by, the power and perfections of God.

These various particulars I cannot attempt to unfold.
One or two may be illustrated to show you the mode of
applying the principles which I have laid down. I will
take first the character of Jesus Christ. How is this
to be explained by the principles of human nature ? —
We are immediately struck with this peculiarity in the
Author of Christianity, that, whilst all other men are
formed in a measure by the spirit of the age, we can
discover in Jesus no impression of the perfod in which
he lived. We know with considerable accuracy the
state of society, the modes of thinking, the hopes and
expectations of the country in which Jesus was born
and grew up ; and he is as free from them, and as ex-
alted above them, as if he had lived in another world,
or with every sense shut on the objects around him.
His character has in it nothing local or temporary. It
can be explained by nothing around him. His history

vol. in. 1 1

122 THE EVIDENCES OF

shows him to us a solitary being, living for purposes
which none but himself comprehended, and enjoying
not so much as the sympathy of a single mind. His
Apostles, his chosen companions, brought to him the
spirit of the age ; and nothing shows its strength more
strikingly, than the slowness with which it yielded in
these honest men to the instructions of Jesus.

Jesus came to a nation expecting a Messiah ; and he
claimed this character. But instead of conforming to
the opinions which prevailed in regard to the Messiah,
lie resisted them wholly and without reserve. To a
people anticipating a triumphant leader, under whom
vengeance as well as ambition was to be glutted by the
prostration of their oppressors, he came as a spiritual
leader, teaching humility and peace. This undisguised
hostility to the dearest hopes and prejudices of his
nation ; this disdain of the usual compliances, by which
ambition and imposture conciliate adherents ; this de-
liberate exposure of himself to rejection and hatred,
cannot easily be explained by the common principles
of human nature, and excludes the possibility of selfish
aims in the Author of Christianity.

One striking peculiarity in Jesus is the extent, the
vastness, of his views. Whilst all around him looked
for a Messiah to liberate God's ancient people, whilst
to every other Jew, Judea was the exclusive object of
pride and hope, Jesus came, declaring himself to be
the deliverer and light of the world, and in his whole
teaching and life, you see a consciousness, which never
forsakes him, of a relation to the whole human race.
This idea of blessing mankind, of spreading a univer-
sal religion, was the most magnificent which had ever
entered man's mind. All previous religions had been

REVEALED RELIGION. 123

given to particular nations. No conqueror, legislator,
philosopher, in the extravagance of ambition, had ever
dreamed of subjecting all nations to a common faith.

This conception of a universal religion, intended alike
for Jew and Gentile, for all nations and climes, is whol-
ly inexplicable by the circumstances of Jesus. He
was a Jew, and the first and deepest and most constant
impression on a Jew's mind, was that of the superiori-
ty conferred on his people and himself by the national
religion introduced by Moses. The wall between the
Jew and the Gentile seemed to reach to heaven. The
abolition of the peculiarity of Moses, the prostration
of the temple on Mount Zion, the erection of a new
religion, in which all men would meet as brethren, and
which would be the common and equal property of Jew
and Gentile, these were of all ideas the last to spring
up in Judea, the last for enthusiasm or imposture to
originate.

Compare next these views of Christ with his station
m life. He was of humble birth and education, with
nothing in his lot, with no extensive means, no rank, or
wealth, or patronage, to infuse vast thoughts and ex-
travagant plans. The shop of a carpenter, the village
of Nazareth, were not spots for ripening a scheme more
aspiring and extensive than had ever been formed. It
is a principle of human nature, that, except in case
of insanity, some proportion is observed between the
power of an individual, and his plans and hopes. The
purpose, to which Jesus devoted himself, was as ill suited
to his condition as an attempt to change the seasons,
or to make the sun rise in the west. That a young
man, in obscure life, belonging to an oppressed nation,
should seriously think of subverting the time-hallowed

124 THE EVIDENCES OF

and deep-rooted religions of the world, is a strange
fact ; but with this purpose we see the mind of Jesus
thoroughly imbued ; and, sublime as it is, he never
falls below it in his language or conduct, but speaks
and acts with a consciousness of superiority, with a
dignity and authority, becoming this unparalleled des-
tination.

In this connexion, I cannot but add another striking
circumstance in Jesus, and that is, the calm confidence
with which he always looked forward to the accomplish-
ment of his design. He fully knew the strength of the
passions and powers which were arrayed against him,
and was perfectly aware that his life was to be short-
ened by violence ; yet not a word escapes him implying
a doubt of the ultimate triumphs of his religion. One
of the beauties of the Gospels, and one of the proofs
of their genuineness, is found in our Saviour's indirect
and obscure allusions to his approaching sufferings, and
to the glory which was to follow ; allusions showing
us the workings of a mind, thoroughly conscious of
being appointed to accomplish infinite good through
great calamity. This entire and patient relinquishment
of immediate success, this ever present persuasion, that
he was to perish before his religion would advance,
and this calm, unshaken anticipation of distant and un-
bounded triumphs, are remarkable traits, throwing a
tender and solemn grandeur over our Lord, and wholly
inexplicable by human principles, or by the circumstan-
ces in which he was placed.

The views hitherto taken of Christ relate to his
public character and office. If we pass to what may be
called his private character, we shall receive the same
impression of inexplicable excellence. The most strik-

REVEALED RELIGION. 125

ing trait in Jesus was, undoubtedly, benevolence ; and,
although this virtue had existed before, yet it had not
been manifested in the same form and extent. Christ's
benevolence was distinguished first by its expansiveness.
At that age, an unconfined philanthropy, proposing and
toiling to do good without distinction of country or rank,
was unknown. Love to man as man, love comprehend-
ing the hated Samaritan and the despised publican, was
a feature which separated Jesus from the best men of
his nation and of the world. Another characteristic of
the benevolence of Jesus, was its gentleness and ten-
derness, forming a strong contrast with the hardness
and ferocity of the spirit and manners which then pre-
vailed, and with that sternness and inflexibility, which
the purest philosophy of Greece and Rome inculcated
as the perfection of virtue. But its most distinguishing
trait was its superiority to injury. Revenge was one
of the recognised rights of the age in which he lived ;
and though a few sages, who had seen its inconsistency
with man's dignity, had condemned it, yet none had in-
culcated the duty of regarding one's worst enemies with
that kindness which God manifests to sinful men, and
of returning curses with blessings and prayers. This
form of benevolence, the most disinterested and divine
form, was, as you well know, manifested by Jesus Christ
in infinite strength, amidst injuries and indignities which
cannot be surpassed. Now this singular eminence of
goodness, this superiority to the degrading influences
of the ages, under which all other men suffered, needs
to be explained ; and one thing it demonstrates, that
Jesus Christ was not an unprincipled deceiver, exposing
not only his own life but the lives of confiding friends,
in an enterprise next to desperate.
11*

126 THE EVIDENCES OP

I cannot enlarge on other traits of the character of
Christ. I will only observe, that it had one distinction,
which more than any thing, forms a perfect character.
It was made up of contrasts ; in other words, it was a
union of excellences which are not easily reconciled,
which seem at first sight incongruous, but which, when
blended and duly proportioned, constitute moral har-
mony, and attract, with equal power, love and venera-
tion. For example, we discover in Jesus Christ an
unparalleled dignity of character, a consciousness of
greatness, never discovered or approached by any other
individual in history ; and yet this was blended with a
condescension, lowliness, and unostentatious simplicity,
which had never before been thought consistent with
greatness. In like manner, he united an utter supe-
riority to the world, to its pleasures and ordinary' inter-
ests, with suavity of manners and freedom from austerity.
He joined strong feeling and self-possession ; an indig-
nant sensibility to sin, and compassion to the sinner;
an intense devotion to his work, and calmness under
opposition and ill success ; a universal philanthropy, and
a susceptibility of private attachments ; the authority
which became the Saviour of the world, and the ten-
derness and gratitude of a son. Such was the author
of our religion. And is his character to be explained
by imposture or insane enthusiasm ? Does it not bear
the unambiguous marks of a heavenly origin ?

Perhaps it may be said, this character never existed.
Then the invention of it is to be explained, and the
reception which this fiction met with ; and these perhaps
are as difficult of explanation on natural principles, as
its real existence. Christ's history bears all the marks
of reality ; a more frank, simple, unlabored, unosten-

REVEALED RELIGION. 127

tatious narrative was never penned. Besides, his char-
acter, if invented, must have been an invention of sin-
gular difficulty, because no models existed on which to
frame it. He stands alone in the records of time. The
conception of a being, proposing such new and exalted
ends, and governed by higher principles than the pro-
gress of society had developed, implies singular intel-
lectual power. That several individuals should join in
equally vivid conceptions of this character ; and should
not merely describe in general terms the fictitious being
to whom it was attributed, but should introduce him
into real life, should place him in a great variety of
circumstances, in connexion with various ranks of men,
with friends and foes, and should in all preserve his
identity, show the same great and singular mind always
acting in harmony with itself; this is a supposition hard-
ly credible, and, when the circumstances of the writers
of the New Testament are considered, seems to be as
inexplicable on human principles, as what I before sug-
gested, the composition of Newton's " Principia " by a
savage. The character of Christ, though delineated
in an age of great moral darkness, has stood the scru-
tiny of ages ; and, in proportion as men's moral senti-
ments have been refined, its beauty has been more seen
and felt. To suppose it invented, is to suppose that
its authors, outstripping their age, had attained to a
singular delicacy and elevation of moral perception and
feeling. But these attainments are not very recon-
cilable with the character of its authors, supposing it
to be a fiction ; that is, with the character of habitual
liars and impious deceivers.

But we are not only unable to discover powers ade-
quate to this invention. There must have been motives

128 THE EVIDENCES OF

for it ; for men do not make great efforts, without strong
motives ; and, in the whole compass of human incite-
ments, we challenge the infidel to suggest any, which
could have prompted to the work now to be explained.

Once more, it must be recollected, that this invention,
if it were one, was received as real, at a period so near
to the time ascribed to Christ's appearance, that the
means of detecting it were infinite. That men should
send out such a forgery, and that it should prevail and
triumph, are circumstances not easily reconcilable with
the principles of our nature.

The character of Christ, then, was real. Its reality
is the only explanation of the mighty revolution pro-
duced by his religion. And how can you account for
it, but by that cause to which he always referred it, — a
mission from the Father ?

Next to the character of Christ, his religion might
be shown to abound in circumstances which contradict
and repel the idea of a human origin. For example,
its representations of the paternal character of God ; its
inculcation of a universal charity ; the stress which it
lays on inward purity ; its substitution of a spiritual wor-
ship for the forms and ceremonies, which everywhere
had usurped the name and extinguished the life of reli-
gion ; its preference of humility, and of the mild, un-
ostentatious, passive virtues, to the dazzling qualities
which had monopolized men's admiration ; its consistent
and bright discoveries of immortality ; its adaptation
to the wants of man as a sinner ; its adaptation to all
the conditions, capacities, and sufferings of human na-
ture ; its pure, sublime, yet practicable morality ; its
high and generous motives ; and its fitness to form a

REVEALED RELIGION. 129

character, which plainly prepares for a higher life than
the present : these are peculiarities of Christianity,
which will strike us more and more, in proportion as
we understand distinctly the circumstances of the age
and country in which this religion appeared, and for
which no adequate human cause has been or can be
assigned.

Passing over these topics, each of which might be
enlarged into a discourse, I will make but one remark
on this religion, which strikes my own mind very forci-
bly. Since its introduction, human nature has made
great progress, and society experienced great changes ;
and in this advanced condition of the world, Christian-
ity, instead of losing its application and importance,
is found to be more and more congenial and adapted
to man's nature and wants. Men have outgrown the
other institutions of that period when Christianity ap-
peared, its philosophy, its modes of warfare, its policy,
its public and private economy ; but Christianity has
never shrunk as intellect has opened, but has always
kept in advance of men's faculties, and unfolded nobler
views in proportion as they have ascended. The high-
est powers and affections, which our nature has devel-
oped, find more than adequate objects in this religion.
Christianity is indeed peculiarly fitted to the more im-
proved stages of society, to the more delicate sensibili-
ties of refined minds, and especially to that dissatisfac-
tion with the present state, which always grows with the
growth of our moral powers and affections. As men
advance in civilization, they become susceptible of men-
tal sufferings, to which ruder ages are strangers ; and
these Christianity is fitted to assuage. Imagination
and intellect become more restless ; and Christianity

130 THE EVIDENCES OF

brings them tranquillity, by the eternal and magnificent
truths, the solemn and unbounded prospects, which it
unfolds. This fitness of our religion to more advanced
stages of society than that in which it was introduced,
to wants of human nature not then developed, seems
to me very striking. The religion bears the marks of
having come from a being who perfectly understood the
human mind, and had power to provide for its progress.
This feature of Christianity is of the nature of prophe-
cy. It was an anticipation of future and distant ages ;
and, when we consider among whom our religion sprung,
where, but in God, can we find an explanation of this
peculiarity ?

I have now offered a few hints on the character of
Christ, and on the character of his religion ; and, before
quitting these topics, I would observe, that they form
a strong presumption in favor of the miraculous facts
of the Christian history. These miracles were not
wrought by a man, whose character, in other respects,
was ordinary. They were acts of a being, whose mind
was as singular as his works, who spoke and acted with
more than human authority, whose moral qualities and
sublime purposes were in accordance with superhuman
powers. Christ's miracles are in unison with his whole
character, and bear a proportion to it, like that which
we observe in the most harmonious productions of na-
ture ; and in this way they receive from it great con-
firmation. And the same presumption in their favor
arises from his religion. That a religion, carrying in it-
self such marks of divinity, and so inexplicable on human
principles, should receive outward confirmations from
Omnipotence, is not surprising. The extraordinary char-
acter of the religion accords with and seems to de-

REVEALED RELIGION. 131

mand extraordinary interpositions in its behalf. Its
miracles are not solitary, naked, unexplained, discon-
nected events, but are bound up with a system, which
is worthy of God, and impressed with God ; which
occupies a large space, and is operating, with great and
increasing energy, in human affairs.

As yet I have not touched on what seem to many
writers the strongest proofs of Christianity, I mean the
direct evidences of its miracles ; by which we mean the
testimony borne to them, including the character, con-
duct, and condition of the witnesses. These I have
not time to unfold ; nor is this labor needed ; for Pa-
ley's inestimable work, which is one of your classical
books, has stated these proofs with great clearness and
power. I would only observe, that they may all be
resolved into this single principle, namely, that the
Christian miracles were originally believed under such
circumstances, that this belief can only be explained
by their actual occurrence. That Christianity was re-
ceived at first on the ground of miracles, and that its
first preachers and converts proved the depth and
strength of their conviction of these facts, by attesting
them in sufferings and in death, we know from the most
ancient records which relate to this religion, both Chris-
tian and Heathen ; and, in fact, this conviction can
alone explain their adherence to Christianity. Now,
that this conviction could only have sprung from the
reality of the miracles, we infer from the known cir-
cumstances of these witnesses, whose passions, inter-
ests, and strongest prejudices were originally hostile
to the new religion ; whose motives for examining with
care the facts on which it rested, were as urgent and

132 THE EVIDENCES OF

solemn, and whose means and opportunities of ascer-
taining their truth were as ample and unfailing, as can
be conceived to conspire ; so that the supposition of
their falsehood cannot be admitted, without subvert-
ing our trust in human judgment and human testimony
under the most favorable circumstances for discovering
truth ; that is, without introducing universal skepticism.

There is one class of Christian evidences, to which
I have but slightly referred, but which has struck with
peculiar force men of reflecting minds. I refer to the
marks of truth and reality, which are found in the Chris-
tian Records ; to the internal proofs, which the books
of the New Testament carry with them, of having been
written by men who lived in the first age of Christian-
ity, who believed and felt its truth, who bore a part in
the labors and conflicts which attended its establish-
ment, and who wrote from personal knowledge and deep
conviction. A few remarks to illustrate the nature and
power of these internal proofs, which are furnished by
the books of the New Testament, I will now subjoin.

The New Testament consists of histories and epis-
tles. The historical books, namely, the Gospels and
the Acts, are a continued narrative, embracing many
years, and professing to give the history of the rise
and progress of the religion. Now it is worthy of ob-
servation, that these writings completely answer their
end ; that they completely solve the problem, how this
peculiar religion grew up and established itself in the
world ; that they furnish precise and adequate causes
for this stupendous revolution in human affairs. It is
also worthy of remark, that they relate a series of facts,
which are not only connected with one another, but are

REVEALED RELIGION. 133

intimately linked with the long series which has fol-
lowed them, and agree accurately with subsequent his-
tory, so as to account for and sustain it. Now, that a
collection of fictitious narratives, coming from different
hands, comprehending many years, and spreading over
many countries, should not only form a consistent whole,
when taken by themselves ; but should also connect and
interweave themselves with real history so naturally and
intimately, as to furnish no clue for detection, as to ex-
clude the appearance of incongruity and discordance,
and as to give an adequate explanation and the only
explanation of acknowledged events, of the most im-
portant revolution in society ; this is a supposition from
which an intelligent man at once revolts, and which, if
admitted, would shake a principal foundation of history.

I have before spoken of the unity and consistency of
Christ's character as developed in the Gospels, and of
the agreement of the different writers in giving us the
singular features of his mind. Now there are the same
marks of truth running through the whole of these nar-
ratives. For example, the effects produced by Jesus
on the various classes of society ; the different feelings
of admiration, attachment, and envy, which he called
forth ; the various expressions of these feelings ; the
prejudices, mistakes, and gradual illumination of his
disciples ; these are all given to us with such marks of
truth and reality as could not easily be counterfeited.
The whole history is precisely such, as might be ex-
pected from the actual appearance of such a person as
Jesus Christ, in such a state of society as then existed.

The Epistles, if possible, abound in marks of truth
and reality even more than the Gospels. They are

VOL. III. 12

134 THE EVIDENCES OF

imbued thoroughly with the spirit of the first age of
Christianity. They bear ail the marks of having come
from men plunged in the conflicts which the new re-
ligion excited, alive to its interests, identified with its
fortunes. They betray the very state of mind which
must have been generated by the peculiar condition of
the first propagators of the religion. They are letters
written on real business, intended for immediate effects,
designed to meet prejudices and passions, which such
a religion must at first have awakened. They contain
not a trace of the circumstances of a later age, or of
the feelings, impressions, and modes of thinking by
which later times were characterized, and from which
later writers could not easily have escaped. The let-
ters of Paul have a remarkable agreement with his
history. They are precisely such as might be expected
from a man of a vehement mind, who had been brought
up in the schools of Jewish literature, who had been
converted by a sudden, overwhelming miracle, who had
been intrusted with the preaching of the new religion
to the Gentiles, and who was everywhere met by the
prejudices and persecuting spirit of his own nation.
They are full of obscurities growing out of these points
of Paul's history and character, and out of the circum-
stances of the infant church, and which nothing but an
intimate acquaintance with that early period can illus-
trate. This remarkable infusion of the spirit of the
first age into the Christian Records, cannot easily be
explained but by the fact, that they were written in
that age by the real and zealous propagators of Chris-
tianity, and that they are records of real convictions and
of actual events.

REVEALED RELIGION. 135

There is another evidence of Christianity, still more
internal than any on which I have yet dwelt, an evi-
dence to be felt rather than described, but not less real
because founded on feeling. I refer to that conviction
of the divine original of our religion, which springs up
and continually gains strength, in those who apply it ha-
bitually to their tempers and lives, and who imbibe its
spirit and hopes. In such men, there is a consciousness
of the adaptation of Christianity to their noblest facul-
ties ; a consciousness of its exalting and consoling influ-
ences, of its power to confer the true happiness of hu-
man nature, to give that peace which the world cannot
give ; which assures them, that it is not of earthly origin,
but a ray from the Everlasting Light, a stream from the
Fountain of Heavenly Wisdom and Love. This is the
evidence which sustains the faith of thousands, who
never read and cannot understand the learned books of
Christian apologists, who want, perhaps, words to ex-
plain the ground of their belief, but whose faith is of
adamantine firmness, who hold the Gospel with a con-
viction more intimate and unwavering than mere argu-
ment ever produced.

But I must tear myself from a subject, which opens
upon me continually as I proceed. — Imperfect as this
discussion is, the conclusion, I trust, is placed beyond
doubt, that Christianity is true. And, my hearers, if
true, it is the greatest of all truths, deserving and de-
manding our reverent attention and fervent gratitude.
This religion must never be confounded with our com-
mon blessings. It is a revelation of pardon, which, as
sinners, we all need. Still more, it is a revelation of
human immortality ; a doctrine, which, however under-
valued amidst the bright anticipations of inexperienced

136 THE EVIDENCES OF REVEALED RELIGION.

youth, is found to be our strength and consolation, and
the only effectual spring of persevering and victorious
virtue, when the realities of life have scattered our vis-
ionary hopes ; when pain, disappointment, and tempta-
tion press upon us ; when this world's enjoyments are
found unable to quench that deep thirst of happiness
which burns in every breast ; when friends, whom we
love as our own souls, die ; and our own graves open
before us. — To all who hear me, and especially to my
young hearers, I would say, let the truth of this religion
be the strongest conviction of your understandings ; let
its motives and precepts sway with an absolute power
your characters and lives.

THE

DEMANDS OF THE AGE ON THE MINISTRY.

DISCOURSE

AT THE

ORDINATION OF THE REV. E. S. GANNETT.
Boston, 1824.

Matthew x. 16: "Behold I send you forth as sheep in the
midst of wolves : be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless
as doves."

The communication of moral and religious truth is the
most important office committed to men. The Son of
God came into the world, not to legislate for nations,
not to command armies, not to sit on the throne of uni-
versal monarchy ; but to teach religion, to establish
truth and holiness. The highest end of human nature is
duty, virtue, piety, excellence, moral greatness, spiritual
glory ; and he who effectually labors for these, is taking
part with God, in God's noblest work. The Christian
ministry, then, which has for its purpose men's spiritual
improvement and salvation, and which is intrusted for
this end with weapons of heavenly temper and power,
deserves to be ranked amongst God's most beneficent
institutions and men's most honorable labors. The
12*

138 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

occasion requires that this institution should be our prin-
cipal topic.

How happy a change has taken place since the words
of Christ in the text were spoken ! Ministers are no
longer sent forth into the midst of wolves. Through the
labors, sufferings, and triumphs of apostles, martyrs,
and good and great men in successive ages, Christianity
has become the professed and honored religion of the
most civilized nations, and its preachers are exposed to
very different temptations from those of savage perse-
cution. Still our text has an application to the present
time. "We see our Saviour commanding his Apostles,
to regard in their ministry the circumstances of the age
in which they lived. Surrounded with foes, they were
to exercise the wisdom or prudence of which the serpent
was in ancient times the emblem, and to join with it the
innocence and mildness of the dove. And, in like man-
ner, the Christian minister is at all periods to regard
the signs, the distinctive marks and character of the age
to which he belongs, and must accommodate his ministry
to its wants and demands. Accordingly, I propose to
consider some of the leading traits of the present age,
and the influence which they should have on a Christian
teacher.

I. The state of the world, compared with the past,
may be called enlightened, and requires an enlightened
ministry. It hardly seems necessary to prove, that re-
ligion should be dispensed by men who at least keep
pace with the intellect of the age in which they live.
Some passages of Scripture, however, have been wrested
to prove, that an unlearned ministry is that which God
particularly honors. He always chooses, we are told,

ON THE MINISTRY. 139

"the foolish things of the world to confound the wise."
But texts of this description are misunderstood, through
the very ignorance which they are adduced to support.
The wise, who are spoken of contemptuously in the
New Testament, were not really enlightened men, but
pretenders to wisdom, who substituted dreams of imagi-
nation and wild hypotheses for sober inquiry into God's
works, and who knew comparatively nothing of nature
or the human mind. The present age has a quite differ-
ent illumination from that in which ancient philosophy
prided itself. It is marked by great and obvious im-
provements in the methods of reasoning and inquiry, and
by the consequent discovery and diffusion of a great
mass of physical and moral truth, wholly unknown in
the time of Christ. Now we aflirm, that such an age
demands an enlightened ministry. We want teachers,
who will be able to discern and unfold the consistency
of revealed religion with the new lights which are break-
ing in from nature ; and who will be able to draw, from
all men's discoveries in the outward world and in their
own souls, illustrations, analogies, and arguments for
Christianity. We have reason to believe, that God,
the author of nature and revelation, has established a
harmony between them, and that their beams are in-
tended to mingle and shed a joint radiance ; and, con-
sequently, other things being equal, that teacher is best
fitted to dispense Christianity, whose compass of mind
enables him to compare what God is teaching in his
Works and in his Word, and to present the truths of
religion with those modifications and restraints which
other acknowledged truths require. Christianity now
needs dispensers, who will make history, nature, and
the improvements of society, tributary to its elucidation

140 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

and support ; who will show its adaptation to man as an
ever progressive being ; who will be able to meet the
objections to its truth, which will naturally be started in
an active, stirring, inquiring age ; and, though last not
least, who will have enough of mental and moral courage
to detect and renounce the errors in the Church, on
which such objections are generally built. In such an
age, a ministry is wanted, which will furnish discussions
of religious topics, not inferior at least in intelligence to
those which people are accustomed to read and hear on
other subjects. Christianity will suffer, if at a time
when vigor and acuteness of thinking are carried into all
other departments, the pulpit should send forth nothing
but wild declamation, positive assertion, or dull common-
places, with which even childhood is satiated. Religion
must be seen to be the friend and quickener of intellect.
It must be exhibited with clearness of reasoning and
variety of illustration ; nor ought it to be deprived of
the benefits of a pure and felicitous diction and of rich
and glowing imagery, where these gifts fall to the lot of
the teacher. It is not meant that every minister must
be a man of genius ; for genius is one of God's rarest
inspirations ; and of all the breathings of genius, perhaps
the rarest is eloquence. I mean only to say, that the
age demands of those, who devote themselves to the
administration of Christianity, that they should feel them-
selves called upon for the highest cultivation and fullest
developement of the intellectual nature. Instead of
thinking, that the ministry is a refuge for dulness2 and
that whoever can escape from the plough is fit for God's
spiritual husbandry, we ought to feel that no profession
demands more enlarged thinking and more various ac-
quisitions of truth.

ON THE MINISTRY. 141

In proportion as society becomes enlightened, talent
acquires influence. In rude ages bodily strength is the
most honorable distinction, and in subsequent times
military prowess and skill confer mastery and eminence.
But as society advances, mind, thought, becomes the
sovereign of the world ; and accordingly, at the present
moment, profound and glowing thought, though breath-
ing only from the silent page, exerts a kind of omnipo-
tent and omnipresent energy. It crosses oceans and
spreads through nations ; and, at one and the same mo-
ment, the conceptions of a single mind are electrifying
and kindling multitudes, through wider regions than the
Roman eagle overshadowed. This agency of mind on
mind, I repeat it, is the true sovereignty of the world,
and kings and heroes are becoming impotent by the side
of men of deep and fervent thought. In such a state
of things, religion would wage a very unequal war, if
divorced from talent and cultivated intellect, if com-
mitted to weak and untaught minds. God plainly in-
tends, that it should be advanced by human agency ;
and does he not then intend, to summon to its aid the
mightiest and noblest power with which man is gifted ?

Let it not be said, that Christianity has an intrinsic
glory, a native beauty, which no art or talent of man
can heighten ; that Christianity is one and the same,
by whatever lips it is communicated, and that it needs
nothing but the most naked exposition of its truths, to
accomplish its saving purposes. Who does not know,
that all truth takes a hue and form from the soul through
which it passes, that in every mind it is invested with
peculiar associations, and that, consequently, the same
truth is quite a different thing, when exhibited by men
of different habits of thought and feelins: ? Who does

142 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

not know, that the sublimest doctrines lose in some
hands all their grandeur, and the loveliest all their at-
tractiveness ? Who does not know, how much the
diffusion and power of any system, whether physical,
moral, or political, depend on the order according to
which it is arranged, on the broad and consistent views
which are given of it, on the connexions which it is
shown to hold with other truths, on the analogies by
!R"hich it is illustrated, adorned, and enforced, and,
though last not least, on the clearness and energy of
the style in which it is conveyed ? "Nothing is needed
in religion," some say, "but the naked truth." But I
apprehend that there is no such thing as naked truth,
at least as far as moral subjects are concerned. Truth
which relates to God, and duty, and happiness, and a
future state, is always humanized, if I may so use the
word, by passing through a human mind ; and, when
communicated powerfully, it always comes to us in dra-
pery thrown round it by the imagination, reason, and
moral feelings of the teacher. It comes to us warm
and living with the impressions and affections which it
has produced in the soul from which it issues ; and it
ought so to come ; for the highest evidence of moral
truth is found in the moral principles and feelings of
our nature, and therefore it fails of its best support,
unless it is seen to accord with and to act upon these.
The evidence of Christianity, which operates most
universally, is not history nor miracles, but its corre-
spondence to the noblest capacities, deepest wants, and
purest aspirations of our nature, to the cravings of an
immortal spirit ; and when it comes to us from a mind,
in which it has discovered nothing of this adaptation,
and has touched none of these springs, it wants one

ON THE MINISTRY. 143

of its chief signatures of divinity. Christianity is not,
then, to be exhibited nakedly. It owes much of its
power to the mind which communicates it ; and the
greater the enlargement and developement of the mind
of which it has possessed itself, and from which it
flows, the wider and deeper will be its action on other
souls.

It may be said, without censoriousness, that the or-
dinary mode, in which Christianity has been exhibited
in past times, does not suit the illumination of the pres-
ent. That mode has been too narrow, technical, pe-
dantic. Religion has been made a separate business,
and a dull, unsocial, melancholy business, too, instead
of being manifested as a truth which bears on and
touches every thing human, as a universal spirit, which
ought to breathe through and modify all our desires and
pursuits, all our trains of thought and emotion. And
this narrow, forbidden mode of exhibiting Christianity,
is easily explained by its early history. Monks shut up
in cells ; a priesthood cut oft' by celibacy from the
sympathies and most interesting relations of life ; and
universities enslaved to a scholastic logic, and taught to
place wisdom in verbal subtilties and unintelligible de-
finitions ; these took Christianity into their keeping ; and
at their chilling touch, this generous religion, so full of
life and affection, became a dry, frigid, abstract system.
Christianity, as it came from their hands, and has been
transmitted by a majority of Protestant divines, reminds
us of the human form, compressed by swathing-bands,
until every joint is rigid, every movement constrained,
and almost all the beauty and grace of nature obliter-
ated. Instead of regarding it as a heavenly institution,
designed to perfect our whole nature, to offer awakening

144 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

and purifying objects to the intellect, imagination, and
heart, to develope every capacity of devout and social
feeling, to form a rich, various, generous virtue, divines
have cramped and tortured the Gospel into various sys-
tems, composed in the main of theological riddles and
contradictions ; and this religion of love has been made
to inculcate a monkish and dark-visaged piety, very
hostile to the free expansion and full enjoyment of all
our faculties and social affections. Great improvements
indeed in this particular are taking place among Chris-
tians of almost every denomination. Religion has been
brought from the cell of the monk, and the school of
the verbal disputant, into life and society ; and its con-
nexions with all our pursuits and feelings have been
made manifest. Still, Christianity, I apprehend, is not
viewed in sufficiently broad lights to meet the spirit of
an age, which is tracing connexions between all objects
of thought and branches of knowledge, and which can-
not but distrust an alleged revelation, in as far as it is
seen to want harmonies and affinities with other parts
of God's system, and especially with human nature and
human life.

II. The age in which we live demands not only an
enlightened but an earnest ministry, for it is an age of
earnestness and excitement. Men feel and think at
present with more energy than formerly. There is
more of interest and fervor. We learn now from ex-
perience what might have been inferred from the pur-
poses of our Creator, that civilization and refinement
are not, as has been sometimes thought, inconsistent
with sensibility ; that the intellect may grow without
exhanslins: or overshadowing the heart. The human

ON THE MINISTRY. 145

mind was never more in earnest than at the present
moment. The political revolutions, which form such
broad features and distinctions of our age, have sprung
from a new and deep working in the human soul. Men
have caught glimpses, however indistinct, of the worth,
dignity, rights, and great interests of their nature; and
a thirst for untried good, and impatience of long en-
dured wrongs, have broken out wildly, like the fires of
Etna, and shaken and convulsed the earth. It is im-
possible not to discern this increased fervor of mind in
every department of life. A new spirit of improvement
is abroad. The imagination can no longer be confined
to the acquisitions of past ages, but is kindling the pas-
sions by vague but noble ideas of blessings never yet
attained. Multitudes, unwilling to wait the slow pace
of that great innovator, time, are taking the work of
reform into their own hands. Accordingly, the rever-
ence for antiquity and for age-hallowed establishments,
and the passion for change and amelioration, are now
arrayed against each other in open hostility, and all great
questions, affecting human happiness, are debated with
the eagerness of party. The character of the age is
stamped very strongly on its literary productions. Who,
that can compare the present with the past, is not struck
with the bold and earnest spirit of the literature of our
times. It refuses to waste itself on trifles, or to min-
ister to mere gratification. Almost all that is written
has now some bearing on great interests of human na-
ture. Fiction is no longer a mere amusement ; but
transcendent genius, accommodating itself to the char-
acter of the age, has seized upon this province of lit-
erature, and turned fiction from a toy into a mighty
engine, and, under the light tale, is breathing through

VOL. Ill, 13

146 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

the community either its reverence for the old or its
thirst for the new, communicates the spirit and lessons
of history, unfolds the operations of religious and civil
institutions, and defends or assails new theories of edu-
cation or morals by exhibiting them in life and action.
The poetry of the age is equally characteristic. It has
a deeper and more impressive tone than comes to us
from what has been called the Augustan age of English
literature. The regular, elaborate, harmonious strains,
which delighted a former generation, are now accused,
I say not how justly, of playing too much on the sur-
face of nature and of the heart. Men want and de-
mand a more thrilling note, a poetry which pierces be-
neath the exterior of life to the depths of the soul, and
which lays open its mysterious workings, borrowing from
the whole outward creation fresh images and correspon-
dences, with which to illuminate the secrets of the world
within us. So keen is this appetite, that extravagances
of imagination, and gross violations both of taste and
moral sentiment, are forgiven, when conjoined with what
awakens strong emotion ; and unhappily the most stir-
ring is the most popular poetry, even though it issue
from the desolate soul of a misanthrope and a libertine,
and exhale poison and death.

Now, religion ought to be dispensed in accommoda-
tion to this spirit and character of our age. Men desire
excitement, and religion must be communicated in a
more exciting form. It must be seen not only to cor-
respond and to be adapted to the intellect, but to furnish
nutriment and appeals to the highest and profoundest
sentiments of our nature. It must not be exhibited in
the dry, pedantic devisions of a scholastic theology ; nor
must it be set forth and tricked out in the light drapery

ON THE MINISTRY. 147

of an artificial rhetoric, in prettinesses of style, in meas-
ured sentences, with an insipid floridness, and in the
form of elegantly feeble essays. No ; it must come
from the soul in the language of earnest conviction
and strong feeling. Men will not now be trifled with.
They listen impatiently to great subjects treated with
apathy. They want a religion which will take a strong
hold upon them ; and no system, I am sure, can now
maintain its ground, which wants the power of awaken-
ing real and deep interest in the soul. It is objected
to Unitarian Christianity, that it does not possess this
heart-stirring energy ; and if so, it will, and still more,
it ought to fall ; for it does not suit the spirit of our
times, nor the essential and abiding spirit of human na-
ture. Men will prefer even a fanaticism which is in
earnest, to a pretended rationality, which leaves un-
touched all the great springs of the soul, which never
lays a quickening hand on our love and veneration, our
awe and fear, our hope and joy.

It is obvious, I think, that the spirit of the age, which
demands a more exciting administration of Christianity,
begins to be understood and is responded to by preach-
ers. Those of us, whose memory extends back but a
little way, can see a revolution taking place in this coun-
try. " The repose of the pulpit" has been disturbed.
In England, the Established Church gives broad symp-
toms of awaking ; and the slumbering incumbents of a
state religion, either roused by sympathy, or aware of
the necessity of self-defence, are beginning to exhibit
the energy of the freer and more zealous sects around
them.

In such an age, earnestness should characterize the
ministry ; and by this I mean, not a louder voice or a

148 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

more vehement gesture ; I mean no tricks of oratory
but a solemn conviction that religion is a great con-
cern, and a solemn purpose that its claims shall be felt
by others. To suit such an age, a minister must com-
municate religion, not only as a result of reasoning,
but as a matter of experience, with that inexpressible
character of reality, that life and power, which accom-
pany truths drawn from a man's own soul. We ought
to speak of religion as something which we ourselves
know. Its influences, struggles, joys, sorrows, triumphs,
should be delineated from our own history. The life
and sensibility which we would spread, should be strong
in our own breasts. This is the only genuine, unfail-
ing spring of an earnest ministry. Men may work
themselves for a time into a fervor by artificial means ;
but the flame is unsteady, "a crackling of thorns" on
a cold hearth ; and, after all, it is hard for the most
successful art to give, even for a time, that soul-sub-
duing tone to the' voice, that air of native feeling to the
countenance, and that raciness and freshness to the con-
ceptions, which come from an experimental conviction
of religious truth ; and, accordingly, I would suggest,
that the most important part of theological education,
even in this enlightened age, is not the communication
of knowledge, essential as that is, but the conversion
and exaltation of religious knowledge into a living, prac-
tical, and soul-kindling conviction. Much as the age
requires intellectual culture in a minister, it requires
still more, that his acquisitions of truth should be in-
stinct with life and feeling ; that he should deliver his
message, not mechanically and "in the line of his pro-
fession," but with the sincerity and earnestness of a
man bent on great effects ; that he should speak of

OiN THE MINISTRY. 149

God, of Christ, of the dignity and loveliness of Chris-
tian virtue, of heaven and redemption, not as of tra-
ditions and historical records, about which he has only-
read, but as of realities which he understands and feels
in the very depths of his soul.

III. The present is an age of free and earnest inquiry
on the subject of religion, and, consequently, an age in
which the extremes of skepticism and bigotry, and a
multiplicity of sects, and a diversity of interpretations
of the Sacred Volume, must be expected ; and these
circumstances of the times influence and modify the
duties of the ministry. Free inquiry cannot exist with-
out generating a degree of skepticism ; and against this
influence, more disastrous than any error of any sect,
a minister is bound to erect every barrier. The human
mind, by a natural reaction, is undoubtedly tending,
after its long vassalage, to licentious speculation. Men
have begun to send keen, searching glances into old
institutions, whether of religion, literature, or policy ;
and have detected so many abuses, that a suspicion of
what is old has in many cases taken place of the vener-
ation for antiquity. In such an age, Christianity must
be subjected to a rigid scrutiny. Church establishments
and state patronage cannot screen it from investigation ;
and its ministers, far from being called to remove it
from the bar of reason, where God has chosen that it
should appear, are only bound to see that its claims be
fairly and fully made known ; and to this they are sol-
emnly bound ; and, consequently, it is one of their first
duties to search deeply and understand thoroughly the
true foundations and evidences, on which the religion
stands. Now it seems to me, that just in proportion as
13*

150 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

the human mind makes progress, the inward evidences
of Christianity, the marks of divinity which it wears on
its own brow, are becoming more and more important.
I refer to the evidences which are drawn from its ex-
cellence, purity, and happy influences ; from its adap-
tation to the spiritual wants, to the weakness and the
greatness of human nature ; from the original and un-
borrowed character, the greatness of soul, and the
celestial loveliness of its Founder ; from its unbounded
benevolence, corresponding with the spirit of the uni-
verse ; and from its views of God's parental character
and purposes, of human duty and perfection, and of a
future state ; views manifestly tending to the exaltation
and perpetual improvement of our nature, yet wholly
opposed to the character of the age in which they were
unfolded. The historical and miraculous proofs of
Christianity are indeed essential and impregnable ; but,
without superseding these, the inward proofs, of which
I speak, are becoming more and more necessary, and
exert a greater power, in proportion as the moral dis-
cernment and sensibilities of men are strengthened and
enlarged. And, if this be true, then Christianity is en-
dangered, and skepticism fortified, by nothing so much
as by representations of the religion, which sully its na-
tive lustre and darken its inward signatures of a heaven-
ly origin ; and, accordingly, the first and most solemn
duty of its ministers is, to resue it from such perver-
sions ; to see that it be not condemned for doctrines for
which it is in no respect responsible ; and to vindicate
its character as eminently a rational religion, that is, a
religion consistent with itself, with the great principles
of human nature, with God's acknowledged attributes,
and with those indestructible convictions, which spring

ON THE MINISTRY. 151

almost instinctively from our moral constitution, and
which grow stronger and stronger as the human mind
is developed. A professed revelation, carrying con-
tradiction on its front, and wounding those sentiments
of justice and goodness, which are the highest tests of
moral truth, cannot stand ; and those who thus exhibit
Christianity, however pure their aim, are shaking its
foundations more deeply than its open and inveterate
foes.

But free inquiry not only generates occasional skep-
ticism, but much more a diversity of opinion among
the believers of Christianity ; and to this the ministry
must have a special adaptation. In such an age, the
ministry must in a measure be controversial. In par-
ticular, a minister, who after serious investigation at-
taches himself to that class of Christians, to which we
of this religious society are known to belong, cannot
but feel that the painful office of conflict with other
denominations is laid upon him ; for, whilst we deny
the Christian name to none who acknowledge Jesus as
their Saviour and Lord, we do deliberately believe,
that, by many who confess him, his religion is mourn-
fully disfigured. We believe, that piety at present is
robbed in no small degree of its singleness, energy, and
happiness, by the multiplication in the church of objects
of supreme worship ; by the division of the One God
into three persons, who sustain different relations to
mankind ; and, above all, by the dishonorable views
formed of the moral character and administration of the
Deity. Errors relating to God seem to us among the
most pernicious that can grow up among Christians ; for
they darken, and, in the strong language of Scripture,
"turn into blood, " the Sun of the Spiritual Universe.

152 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

Around just views of the Divine character all truths
and all virtues naturally gather ; and although some
minds of native irrepressible vigor may rise to great-
ness, in spite of dishonorable conceptions of God, yet,
as a general rule, human nature cannot spread to its
just and full proportions under their appalling, enslav-
ing, heart-withering control. We discover very plain-
ly, as we think, in the frequent torpor of the conscience
and heart in regard to religious obligation, the melan-
choly influences of that system, so prevalent among us,
which robs our heavenly Father of his parental attri-
butes. Indeed it seems impossible for the conscience,
under such injurious representations of the Divine char-
acter, to discharge intelligently its solemn office of en-
forcing love to God as man's highest duty ; and, ac-
cordingly, when religious excitements take place under
this gloomy system, they bear the marks of a morbid
action, much more than of a healthy, restorative pro-
cess of the moral nature.

These errors a minister of liberal views of Christian-
ity will feel himself bound to withstand. But let me
not be understood, as if I would have the ministry given
chiefly to controversy, and would turn the pulpit into a
battery for the perpetual assault of adverse sects. O,
no. Other strains than those of warfare should pre-
dominate in this sacred place. A minister may be
faithful to truth, without brandishing perpetually the
weapons of controversy. Occasional discussions of dis-
puted doctrines are indeed demanded by the zeal with
which error is maintained. But it becomes the preach-
er to remember, that there is a silent, indirect influence,
more sure and powerful than direct assault on false opin-
ions. The most effectual method of expelling error,

ON THE MINISTRY. 153

is, not to meet it sword in hand, but gradually to instil
great truths, with which it cannot easily coexist, and
by which the mind outgrows it. Men who have been
recovered from false systems, will generally tell you,
that the first step of their deliverance was the admission
of some principle which seemed not to menace their
past opinions, but which prepared the mind for the en-
trance of another and another truth, until they were
brought, almost without suspecting it, to look on almost
every doctrine of religion with other eyes, and in anoth-
er and more generous light. The old superstitions
about ghosts and dreams were not expelled by argu-
ment, for hardly a book was written against them ; but
men gradually outgrew them ; and the spectres, which
had haunted the terror-stricken soul for ages, fled before
an improved philosophy, just as they were supposed to
vanish before the rising sun. And, in the same manner,
the errors which disfigure Christianity, and from which
no creed is free, are to yield to the growth of the hu-
man mind. Instead of spending his strength in tracking
and refuting error, let the minister, who would serve
the cause of truth, labor to gain and diffuse more and
more enlarged and lofty views of our religion, of its
nature, spirit, and end. Let him labor to separate
what is of universal and everlasting application, from
the local and the temporary ; to penetrate beneath the
letter to the spirit ; to detach the primary, essential,
and all-comprehending principles of Christianity from
the incrustations, accidental associations, and subordi-
nate appendages by which they are often obscured ;
and to fix and establish these in men's minds as the
standard by which more partial views are to be tried.
Let him especially set forth the great moral purpose of

154 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

Christianity, always teaching, that Christ came to de-
liver from the power still more than from the punish-
ment of sin ; that his most important operation is with-
in us ; and that the highest end of his mission is, the
erection of God's throne in the soul, the inspiration of
a fervent filial piety, a piety founded in confiding views
of God's parental character, and manifested in a charity
corresponding to God's unbounded and ever-active love.
In addition to these efforts, let him strive to communi-
cate the just principles of interpreting the Scriptures,
that men, reading them more intelligently, may read
them with new interest, and he will have discharged his
chief duty in relation to controversy.

It is an interesting thought, that, through the influ-
ences now described, a sensible progress is taking place
in men's conceptions of Christianity. It is a plain mat-
ter of fact, that the hard features of that religious sys-
tem, which has been " received by tradition from our
fathers," are greatly softened ; and that a necessity is
felt by those who hold it, of accommodating their rep-
resentations of it more and more to the improved phi-
losophy of the human mind, and to the undeniable prin-
ciples of natural and revealed religion. Unconditional
Election is seldom heard of among us. The Imputa-
tion of Adam's sin to his posterity, is hastening to join
the exploded doctrine of Transubstantiation. The more
revolting representations of man's state by nature, are
judiciously kept out of sight ; and, what is of still great-
er importance, preaching is incomparably more practi-
cal than formerly. And all these changes are owing,
not to theological controversy so much as to the general
progress of the human mind. This progress is espe-
cially discernible in the diminished importance now as-

ON THE MINISTRY. 155

cribed to the outward parts of Christianity. Christians,
having grown up to understand that their religion is a
spirit and not a form, are beginning to feel the puerility
as well as guilt of breaking Christ's followers into fac-
tions, on such questions as these, How much a Bishop
differs from a Presbyter ? and, How great a quantity
of water should be used in baptism ? And, whilst they
desire to ascertain the truth in these particulars, they
look back on the uncharitable heat with which these
and similar topics were once discussed, with something
of the wonder which they feel, on recollecting the vio-
lence of the Papists during the memorable debate,
Whether the Virgin Mary were born with original sin ?
It is a consoling and delightful thought, that God, who
uses Christianity to advance civilization and knowledge,
makes use of this very advancement to bring back Chris-
tianity to a purer state, thus binding together, and car-
rying forward by mutual action, the cause of knowledge
and the cause of religion, and strengthening perpetually
their blended and blessed influences on human nature.

IV. The age is in many respects a corrupt one, and
needs and demands in the ministry a spirit of reform.
The age, I say, is corrupt ; not because I consider it
as falling below the purity of past times, but because
it is obviously and grossly defective, when measured by
the Christian standard, and by the lights and advan-
tages which it enjoys. I know nothing to justify the
cry of modern degeneracy, but rather incline to the be-
lief, that here at least the sense of religion was never
stronger than at present. In comparing different peri
ods as to virtue and piety, regard must be had to differ-
ence of circumstances. It would argue little wisdom

156 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

or candor, to expect the same freedom from luxury ana
dissipation in this opulent and flourishing community,
as marked the first settlement of our country, when the
inhabitants, scarcely sheltered from the elements, and
almost wholly cut off from intercourse with the civil-
ized word, could command little more than the neces-
saries of life ; and yet it is through superficial compari-
sons in such particulars, that the past is often magnified
at the expense of the present. I mean not to strike a
balance between this age and former ones. I look on
this age in the light of Christianity, as a minister ought
to look upon it ; and whilst I see much to cheer and
encourage, I see much to make a good man mourn, and
to stir up Christ's servants to prayer and toil. That
our increased comforts, improved arts, and overflowing
prosperity are often abused to licentiousness ; that Chris-
tianity is with multitudes a mere name and form ; that
a practical atheism, which ascribes to nature and for-
tune the gifts and operations of God, and a practical
infidelity, which lives and cares and provides only for
the present state, abound on every side of us ; that
much which is called morality, springs from a prudent
balancing of the passions, and a discreet regard to
worldly interests ; that there is an insensibility to God,
which, if our own hearts were not infected by it, would
shock and amaze us ; that education, instead of guard-
ing and rearing the moral and religious nature as its su-
preme care, often betrays and sacrifices it to accom-
plishments and acquisitions which relate only to the
present life ; that there is a mournful prevalence of dis-
soluteness among the young, and of intemperance among
the poor ; that the very religion of peace is made a
torch of discord ; and that the fires of uncharitableness

ON THE MINISTRY. 157

and bigotry, fires kindled from hell, often burn on altars
consecrated to the true God; — that such evils exist,
who does not know ? What Christian can look round
him and say, that the state of society corresponds to
what men may and should be, under the light of the
Gospel, and in an age of advanced intelligence ? As
for that man, who, on surveying the world, thinks its
condition almost as healthy as can be desired or hoped ;
who sees but a few superficial blots on the general aspect
of society ; who thinks the ministry established for no
higher end, than to perpetuate the present state of morals
and religion ; whose heart is never burdened and sorrow-
smitten by the fearful doom to which multitudes around
him are thoughtlessly hastening ; — O, let not that man
take on him the care of souls. The physician, who
should enter an hospital to congratulate his dying patients
on their pleasant sensations, and rapid convalescence,
would be as faithful to his trust as the minister who sees
no deep moral maladies around him. No man is fitted
to withstand great evils with energy, unless he be im-
pressed by their greatness. No man is fitted to enter
upon that warfare with moral evil, to which the ministry
is set apart, who is not pained and pierced by its extent
and woes ; who does not burn to witness and advance a
great moral revolution in the world.

Am I told, that "romantic expectations of great
changes in society will do more harm than good ; that
the world will move along in its present course, let the
ministry do what it may : that we must take the present
state as God has made it, and not waste our strength in
useless lamentation for incurable evils." I hold this
language, though it takes the name of philosophy, to be
wholly unwarranted by experience and revelation. If

VOL. III. 14

158 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

there be one striking feature in human nature, it is its
susceptibleness of improvement ; and who is authorized
to say, that the limit of Christian improvement is reach-
ed ? that, whilst science and art, intellect and imagina-
tion, are extending their domains, the conscience and
affections, the moral and religious principles of our na-
ture, are incapable of increased power and elevation ?
Have we not pledges, in man's admiration of disinter-
ested, heroic love ; in his power of conceiving and
thirsting for unattained heights of excellence ; and in the
splendor and sublimity of virtue already manifested in
not a few who " shine as lights " in the darkness of past
ages, that man was created for perpetual moral and re-
ligious progress ? True, the minister should not yield
himself to romantic anticipations ; for disappointment
may deject him. Let him not expect to break in a mo-
ment chains of habit, which years have riveted, or to
bring back to immediate intimacy with God souls which
have wandered long and far from him. This is romance ;
but there is something to be dreaded by the minister
more than this ; I mean, that frigid tameness of mind,
too common in Christian teachers, which confounds the
actual and the possible ; which cannot burst the shackles
of custom ; which never kindles at the thought of great
improvements of human nature ; which is satisfied if re-
ligion receive an outward respect, and never dreams of
enthroning it in men's souls ; which looks on the strong-
holds of sin with despair ; which utters by rote the sol-
emn and magnificent language of the Gospel, without
expecting it to " work mightily " ; which sees in the
ministry a part of the mechanism of society, a useful
guardian of public order, but never suspects the powers
with which it is armed bv Christianity.

ON THE MINISTRY 159

The ministry is indeed armed with great powers for
great effects. The doctrines which Christianity com-
mits to its teachers, are mighty engines. The perfect
character of God ; the tender and solemn attributes,
which belong to him as our Father and Judge ; his pur-
poses of infinite and everlasting mercy towards the hu-
man race ; the character and history of Christ ; his
entire, self-immolating devotion to the cause of man-
kind ; his intimate union with his followers ; his suffer-
ings, and cross, his resurrection, ascension, and inter-
cession ; the promised aids of the Holy Spirit ; the
immortality of man ; the retributions which await the
unrepenting, and the felicities and glories of heaven, — ■
here are truths, able to move the whole soul and to war
victoriously with its host of passions. The teacher, to
whom are committed the infinite realities of the spiritual
world, the sanctions of eternity, " the powers of the life
to come," has instruments to work with, which turn to
feebleness all other means of influence. There is not
heard on earth a voice so powerful, so penetrating, as
that of an enlightened minister, who, under the absorb-
ing influence of these mighty truths, devotes himself a
living sacrifice, a whole burnt-offering, to the cause of
enlightening and saving his fellow-creatures.

No ; there is no romance in a minister's proposing,
and hoping to forward, a great moral revolution on the
earth ; for the religion, which he is appointed to preach,
was intended and is adapted to work deeply and widely,
and to change the face of society. Christianity was not
ushered into the world with such a stupendous prepara-
tion ; it was not foreshown through so many ages by
enraptured prophets ; it was not proclaimed so joyfully
by the songs of angels ; it was not preached by such

160 THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE

holy lips and sealed by such precious blood, to be only
a pageant, a form, a sound, a show. O, no. It has
come from heaven, with heaven's life and power, — come
to "make all things new," to make "the wilderness
glad and the desert blossom as the rose," to break the
stony heart, to set free the guilt-burdened and earth-
bound spirit, and to " present it faultless before God's
glory with exceeding joy." With courage and hope
becoming such a religion, let the minister bring to his
work the concentrated powers of intellect and affection,
and God, in whose cause he labors, will accompany and
crown the labor with an almighty blessing.

My brother, you are now to be set apart to the Chris-
tian ministry. I bid you welcome to its duties, and
implore for you strength to discharge them, a long and
prosperous course, increasing success, and everlasting
rewards. I also welcome you to the connexion which
is this day formed between you and myself. I thank
God for an associate, in whose virtues and endowments
I have the promise of personal comfort and relief, and,
still more, the pledges of usefulness to this people. I
have lived too long, to expect unmingled good in this or
in any relation of life ; nor am I ignorant of the diffi-
culties and trials, which are thought to attend the union
of different minds and different hands in the care of the
same church. God grant us that singleness of purpose,
that sincere concern for the salvation of our hearers,
which will make the success of each the happiness of
both. I know, for I have borne, the anxieties and suf-
ferings which belong to the first years of the Christian
ministry, and I beg you to avail yourself of whatever
aid my experience can give you. But no human aid

ON THE MINISTRY. 1G1

can lift every burden from your mind ; nor would the
truest kindness desire for you exemption from the uni-
versal lot. May the discipline, which awaits you, give
purity and loftiness to your motives ; give energy and
tenderness to your character, and prepare you to minister
to the wants of a tempted and afflicted world, with that
sympathy and wisdom, which fellowship in suffering can
alone bestow. May you grow in grace, and in the spirit
of the ministry, as you grow in years ; and, when the
voice which now speaks to you shall cease to be heard
within these walls, may you, my brother, be left to enjoy
and reward the confidence, to point out the path and the
perils, to fortify the virtues, to animate the piety, to
comfort the sorrows, to save the souls of this much
loved people.

Brethren of this Christian Society ! I rejoice in the
proof, which this day affords, of your desire to secure
the administration of Christ's word and ordinances to
yourselves and your children ; and I congratulate you
on the prospects which it opens before you. The recol-
lections, which rush upon my mind, of your sympathy
and uninterrupted kindness through the vicissitudes of
my health and the frequent suspensions of my labors,
encourage me to anticipate for my young brother that
kindness and candor, on which the happiness of a minis-
ter so much depends. I cannot ask for him sincerer
attachment, than it has been my lot to enjoy. I remem-
ber, however, that the reciprocation of kind feelings is
not the highest end of the ministry ; and, accordingly,
my most earnest desire and prayer to God is, that, with
a new pastor, he may send you new influences of his
spirit, and that, through our joint labors, Christianity,
14*

162 '-THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE ON THE MINISTRY.

being rooted in your understandings and hearts, may
spring up into a rich harvest of universal goodness.
May a more earnest concern for salvation, and a thirst
for more generous improvement, be excited in your
breasts. May a new life breathe through the worship of
this house, and a new love join the hearts of the wor-
shippers. May our ministry produce everlasting fruits ;
and on that great day, which will summon the teacher
and the taught before the judgment-seat of Christ, may
you, my much loved and respected people, be " our
joy and crown " ; and may we, when all hearts shall be
revealed, be seen to have sought your good with un-
feigned and disinterested love !

UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY
MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY.

DISCOURSE

AT THE

DEDICATION OF THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL
UNITARIAN CHURCH.

New York, 1826.

Markxh. 29, 30: "And 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."

We have assembled to dedicate this building to the
worship of the only living and true God, and to the
teaching of the religion of his son, Jesus Christ. By
this act we do not expect to confer on this spot of ground
and these walls any peculiar sanctity or any mysterious
properties. We do not suppose, that, in consequence
of rites now performed, the worship offered here will
be more acceptable than prayer uttered in the closet,
or breathed from the soul in the midst of business ; or
that the instructions delivered from this pulpit will be
more effectual, than if they were uttered in a private
dwelling or the open air. By dedication we understand

164 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

only a solemn expression of the purpose for which this
building is reared, joined with prayer to Him, who
alone can crown our enterprise with success, that our
design may be accepted and fulfilled. For this religious
act, we find indeed no precept in the New Testament,
and on this account some have scrupled as to its pro-
priety. But we are not among those who consider the
written Word as a statute-book, by the letter of which
every step in life must be governed. We believe, on
the other hand, that one of the great excellences of
Christianity is, that it does not deal in minute regula-
tion, but that, having given broad views of duty, and
enjoined a pure and disinterested spirit, it leaves us
to apply these rules and express this spirit according
to the promptings of the divine monitor within us, and
according to the claims and exigencies of the ever vary-
ing conditions in which we are placed. We believe,
too, that revelation is not intended to supersede God's
other modes of instruction ; that it is not intended to
drown, but to make more audible, the voice -of nature.
Now, nature dictates the propriety of such an act as we
are this day assembled to perform. Nature has always
taught men, on the completion of an important struc-
ture, designed for public and lasting good, to solemnize
its first appropriation to the purpose for which it was
reared, by some special service. To us there is a
sacredness in this moral instinct, in this law written on
the heart ; and in listening reverently to God's dictates,
however conveyed, we doubt not that we shall enjoy
his acceptance and blessing.

I have said, we dedicate this building to the teaching
of the Gospel of Christ. But in the present state of
the Christian church, these words are not as definite as

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 165

they one day will be. This Gospel is variously inter-
preted. It is preached in various forms. Christendom
is parcelled out into various sects. When, therefore,
we see a new house of worship reared, the question
immediately arises, To what mode of teaching Chris-
tianity is it to be devoted ? I need not tell you, my
hearers, that this house has been built by that class of
Christians, who are called Unitarians, and that the Gos-
pel will here be taught, as interpreted by that body of
believers. This you all know ; but perhaps all present
have not attached a very precise meaning to the word,
by which our particular views of Christianity are desig-
nated. Unitarianism has been made a term of so much
reproach, and has been uttered in so many tones of
alarm, horror, indignation, and scorn, that to many it
gives only a vague impression of something monstrous,
impious, unutterably perilous. To such, I would say,
that this doctrine, which is considered by some as the
last and most perfect invention of Satan, the consum-
mation of his blasphemies, the most cunning weapon
ever forged in the fires of hell, amounts to this, — That
there is One God, even the Father ; and that Jesus
Christ is not this One God, but his son and messenger,
who derived all his powers and glories from the Univer-
sal Parent, and who came into the world not to claim
supreme homage for himself, but to carry up the soul
to his Father as the Only Divine Person, the Only Ulti-
mate Object of religious worship. To us, this doctrine
seems not to have sprung from hell, but to have de-
scended from the throne of God, and to invite and
attract us thither. To us it seems to come from the
Scriptures, with a voice loud as the sound of many
waters, and as articulate and clear as if Jesus, in a

166 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

bodily form, were pronouncing it distinctly in our ears.
To this doctrine, and to Christianity interpreted in con-
sistency with it, we dedicate this building.

That we desire to propagate this doctrine, we do not
conceal. It is a treasure, which we wish not to confine
to ourselves, which we dare not lock up in our own
breasts. We regard it as given to us for others, as well
as for ourselves. We should rejoice to spread it through
this great city, to carry it into every dwelling, and to
send it far and wide to the remotest settlements of our
country. Am I asked, why we wish this diffusion ?
We dare not say, that we are in.no degree influenced
by sectarian feeling ; for we see it raging around us, and
we should be more than men, were we wholly to escape
an epidemic passion. We do hope, however, that our
main purpose and aim is not sectarian, but to promote
a purer and nobler piety than now prevails. We are
not induced to spread our opinions by the mere convic-
tion that they are true ; for there are many truths, his-
torical, metaphysical, scientific, literary, which we have
no anxiety to propagate. We regard them as the high-
est, most important, most efficient truths, and therefore
demanding a firm testimony, and earnest efforts to make
them known. In thus speaking, we do not mean, that
we regard our peculiar views as essential to salvation.
Far from us be this spirit of exclusion, the very spirit.
of antichrist, the worst of all the delusions of Popery
and of Protestantism. We hold nothing to be essential,
but the simple and supreme dedication of the mind,
heart, and life to God and to his will. This inward
and practical devotedness to the Supreme Being, we are
assured, is attained and accepted under all the forms of
Christianity. We believe, however, that it is favored

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 107

by that truth which we maintain, as by no other system
of faith. We regard Unitarianism as peculiarly the
friend of inward, living, practical religion. For this we
value it. For this we would spread it ; and we desire
none to embrace it, but such as shall seek and derive
from it this celestial influence.

This character and property of Unitarian Christian-
ity, its fitness to promote true, deep, and living piety,
being our chief ground of attachment to it, and our
chief motive for dedicating this house to its inculcation,
I have thought proper to make this the topic of my
present discourse. I do not propose to prove the truth
of Unitarianism by Scriptural authorities, for this argu-
ment would exceed the limits of a sermon, but to show
its superior tendency to form an elevated religious char-
acter. If, however, this position can be sustained, 1
shall have contributed no weak argument in support of
the truth of our views ; for the chief purpose of Chris-
tianity undoubtedly is, to promote piety, to bring us to
God, to fill our souls with that Great Being, to make
us alive to him ; and a religious system can carry no
more authentic mark of a divine original, than its obvi-
ous, direct, and peculiar adaptation to quicken and raise
the mind to its Creator. — In speaking thus of Unitarian
Christianity as promoting piety, I ought to observe, that
I use this word in its proper and highest sense. I mean
not every thing which bears the name of piety, for under
this title superstition, fanaticism, and formality are walk-
ing abroad and claiming respect. I mean not an anxious
frame of mind, not abject and slavish fear, not a dread
of hell, not a repetition of forms, not church-going, not
loud profession, not severe censure of others' irreligion ;
but filial love and reverence towards God, habitual grati-

168 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITV

tude, cheerful trust, ready obedience, and, though last
not least, an imitation of the ever-active and unbounded
benevolence of the Creator.

The object of this discourse requires me to speak
with great freedom of different systems of religion. But
let me not be misunderstood. Let not the uncharitable-
ness, which I condemn, be lightly laid to my charge.
Let it be remembered, that 1 speak only of systems,
not of those who embrace them. In setting forth with
all simplicity what seem to me the good or bad tenden-
cies of doctrines, I have not a thought of giving stand-
ards or measures by which to estimate the virtue or vice
of their professors. Nothing would be more unjust,
than to decide on men's characters from their peculiari-
ties of faith ; and the reason is plain. Such peculiari-
ties are not the only causes which impress and determine
the mind. Our nature is exposed to innumerable other
influences. If indeed a man were to know nothing but
his creed, were to meet with no human beings but those
who adopt it, were to see no example and to hear no
conversation, but such as were formed by it ; if his
creed were to meet him everywhere, and to exclude
every other object of thought ; then his character might
be expected to answer to it with great precision. But
our Creator has not shut us up in so narrow a school.
The mind is exposed to an infinite -variety of influences,
and these are multiplying with the progress of society.
Education, friendship, neighbourhood, public opinion,
the state of society, "the genius of the place" where
we live, books, events, the pleasures and business of life,
the outward creation, our physical temperament, and in-
numerable other causes, are perpetually pouring in upon
the soul thoughts, views, and emotions ; and these influ-

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 169

ences are so complicated, so peculiarly combined in the
case of every individual, and so modified by the original
susceptibilities and constitution of every mind, that on
no subject is there greater uncertainty, than on the
formation of character. To determine the precise op-
eration of a religious opinion amidst this host of influ-
ences, surpasses human power. A great truth may
be completely neutralized by the countless impressions
and excitements, which the mind receives from other
sources ; and so a great error may be disarmed of much
of its power, by the superior energy of other and bet-
ter views, of early habits, and of virtuous examples.
Nothing is more common than to see a doctrine be-
lieved without swaying the will. Its efficacy depends,
not on the assent of the intellect, but on the place which
it occupies in the thoughts, on the distinctness and vivid-
ness with which it is conceived, on its association with
our common ideas, on its frequency of recurrence, and
on its command of the attention, without which it has
no life. Accordingly, pernicious opinions are not sel-
dom held by men of the most illustrious virtue. I mean
not, then, in commending or condemning systems, to
pass sentence on their professors. I know the power
of the mind to select from a multifarious system, for
its habitual use, those features or principles which are
generous, pure, and ennobling, and by these, to sustain
its spiritual life amidst the nominal profession of many
errors. I know that a creed is one thing, as written
in a book, and another, as it exists in the minds of its
advocates. In the book, all the doctrines appear in
equally strong and legible lines. In the mind, many
are faintly traced and seldom recurred to, whilst others
are inscribed as with sunbeams, and are the chosen,

VOL. III. 15

170 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

constant lights of the soul. Hence, in good men of
opposing denominations, a real agreement may subsist
as to their vital principles of faith ; and amidst the
division of tongues, there may be unity of soul, and the
same internal worship of God. By these remarks, I
do not mean that error is not evil, or that it bears no
pernicious fruit. Its tendencies are always bad. But
I mean, that these tendencies exert themselves amidst
so many counteracting influences ; and that injurious
opinions so often lie dead, through the want of mixture
with the common thoughts, through the mind's not
absorbing them, and changing them into its own sub-
stance ; that the highest respect may, and ought to
be cherished for men, in whose creed we find much to
disapprove. In this discourse I shall speak freely, and
some may say severely, of Trinitarianism ; but I love
and honor not a few of its advocates ; and in oppos-
ing what I deem their error, I would on no account
detract from their worth. After these remarks, I hope
that the language of earnest discussion and strong con-
viction will not be construed into the want of that
charity, which I acknowledge as the first grace of our
religion.

I now proceed to illustrate and prove the superiority
of Unitarian Christianity, as a means of promoting a
deep and noble piety.

I. Unitarianism is a system most favorable to piety,
because it presents to the mind One, and only one, In-
finite Person, to whom supreme homage is to be paid.
It does not weaken the energy of religious sentiment
by dividing it among various objects. It collects and
concentrates the soul on One Father of unbounded,
undivided, unrivalled glory. To Him it teaches the

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 171

mind to rise through all beings. Around Him it gathers
all the splendors of the universe. To Him it teaches
us to ascribe whatever good we receive or behold, the
beauty and magnificence of nature, the liberal gifts of
Providence, the capacities of the soul, the bonds of
society, and especially the riches of grace and redemp-
tion, the mission, and powers, and beneficent influences
of Jesus Christ. All happiness it traces up to the
Father, as the sole source ; and the mind, which these
views have penetrated, through this intimate association
of every thing exciting and exalting in the universe with
One Infinite Parent, can and does offer itself up to
him with the intensest and profoundest love, of which
human nature is susceptible. The Trinitarian indeed
professes to believe in one God, and means to hold
fast this t truth. But three persons, having distinctive
qualities and relations, of whom one is sent and another
the sender, one is given and another the giver, of whom
one intercedes and another hears the intercession, of
whom one takes flesh and another never becomes incar-
nate,— three persons, thus discriminated, are as truly
three objects of the mind, as if they were acknowledged
to be separate divinities ; and, from the principles of
our nature, they cannot act on the mind as deeply and
powerfully as one Infinite Person, to whose sole good-
ness all happiness is ascribed. To multiply infinite
objects for the heart, is to distract it. To scatter the
attention among three equal persons, is to impair the
power of each. The more strict and absolute the
unity of God, the more easily and intimately all the
impressions and emotions of piety flow together, and
are condensed into one glowing thought, one thrilling
Jove. No language can express the absorbing energy

172 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

of the thought of one Infinite Father. When vitally
implanted in the soul, it grows and gains strength for
ever. It enriches itself by every new view of God's
word and works ; gathers tribute from all regions and
all ages ; and attracts into itself all the rays of beauty,
glory, and joy, in the material and spiritual creation.

My hearers, as you would feel the full influence of
God upon your souls, guard sacredly, keep unobscured
and unsullied, that fundamental and glorious truth, that
there is One, and only One Almighty Agent in the
universe, one Infinite Father. Let this truth dwell in
me in its uncoirupted simplicity, and I have the spring
and nutriment of an ever-growing piety. I have an
object for my mind towards which all things bear me.
I know whither to go in all trial, whom to bless in all
joy, whom to adcre in all I behold. But let three per-
sons claim from me supreme homage, and claim it on
different grounds, one for sending and another for com-
ing to my relief, and I am divided, distracted, perplexed.
My frail intellect is overborne. Instead of One Father,
on whose arm I can rest, my mind is torn from object
to object, and I tremble, lest among so many claimants
of supreme love, I should withhold from one or another
his due.

II. Unitarianism is the system most favorable to pie-
ty, because it holds forth and preserves inviolate the
spirituality of God. "God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
It is of great importance to the progress and elevation
of the religious principle, that we should refine more
and more our conceptions of God ; that we should sep-
arate from him all material properties, and whatever is
limited or imperfect in our own nature ; that we should

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 173

regard him as a pure intelligence, an unmixed and infinite
Mind. When it pleased God to select the Jewish peo-
ple and place them under miraculous interpositions, one
of the first precepts given them was, that they should
not represent God under any bodily form, any graven
image, or the likeness of any creature. Next came
Christianity, which had this as one of its great objects,
to render religion still more spiritual, by abolishing the
ceremonial and outward worship of former times, and
by discarding those grosser modes of describing God,
through which the ancient prophets had sought to impress
an unrefined people.

Now, Unitarianism concurs with this sublime moral
purpose of God. It asserts his spirituality. It ap-
proaches him under no bodily form, but as a pure spirit,
as the infinite and the universal Mind. On the other
hand, it is the direct influence of Trinitarianism to ma-
terialize men's conceptions of God ; and, in truth, this
system is a relapse into the error of the rudest and earli-
est ages, into the worship of a corporeal God. Its
leading feature is, the doctrine of a God clothed with a
body, and acting and speaking through a material frame,
— cf the Infinite Divinity dying on a cross ; a doctrine,
which in earthliness reminds us of the mythology of the
rudest pagans, and which a pious Jew, in the twilight of
the Mosaic religion, would have shrunk from with horror.
It seems to me no small objection to the Trinity, that it
supposes God to take a body in the later and more im-
proved ages of the world, when it is plain, that such a
manifestation, if needed at all, was peculiarly required
in the infancy of the race. The effect of such a system
in debasing the idea of God, in associating with the
Divinity human passions and infirmities, is too obvious
15*

174 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

to need much elucidation. On the supposition that the
second person of the Trinity became incarnate, God
may be said to be a material being, on the same general
ground, on which this is affirmed of man ; for man is
material only by the union of the mind with the body ;
and the very meaning of incarnation is, that God took a
body, through which he acted and spoke, as the human
soul operates through its corporeal organs. Every bodily
affection may thus be ascribed to God. Accordingly
the Trinitarian, in his most solemn act of adoration, is
heard to pray in these appalling words : " Good Lord,
deliver us ; by the mystery of thy holy incarnation, by
thy holy nativity and circumcision, by thy baptism, fast-
ing, and temptation, by thine agony and bloody sweat,
by thy cross and passion, good Lord, deliver us." Now
I ask you to judge, from the principles of human nature,
whether to worshippers, who adore their God for his
wounds and tears, his agony, and blood, and sweat, the
ideas of corporeal existence and human suffering will
not predominate over the conceptions of a purely spir-
itual essence ; whether the mind, in clinging to the man,
will not lose the God ; whether a surer method for de-
pressing and adulterating the pure thought of the Divinity
could have been devised. That the Trinitarian is un-
conscious of this influence of his faith, I know, nor do
I charge it on him as a crime. Still it exists, and can-
not be too much deplored.

The Roman Catholics, true to human nature and
their creed, have sought, by painting and statuary, to
bring their imagined God before their eyes ; and have
thus obtained almost as vivid impressions of him, as if
they had lived with him on the earth. The Protestant
condemns them for using these similitudes and represen-

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 175

tations in their worship ; but, if a Trinitarian, he does so
to his own condemnation. For if, as he believes, it was
once a duty to bow in adoration before the living body
of his incarnate God, what possible guilt can there be in
worshipping before the pictured or sculptured memorial
of the same being ? Christ's body may as truly be rep-
resented by the artist, as any other human form ; and its
image may be used as effectually and properly, as that
of an ancient sage or hero, to recall him with vividness
to the mind. — Is it said, that God has expressly forbid-
den the use of images in our worship ? But why was
that prohibition laid on the Jews ? For this express
reason, that God had not presented himself to them in
any form, which admitted of representation. Hear the
language of Moses : " Take good heed lest ye make
you a graven image, for ye saw no manner of similitude
on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out
of the midst of the fire."* If, since that period, God
has taken a body, then the reason of the prohibition has
ceased ; and if he took a body, among other purposes,
that he might assist the weakness of the intellect, which
needs a material form, then a statue, which lends so
great an aid to the conception of an absent friend, is not
only justified, but seems to be required.

This materializing and embodying of the Supreme
Being, which is the essence of Trinitarianism, cannot
but be adverse to a growing and exalted piety. Human
and divine properties, being confounded in one being,
lose their distinctness. The splendors of the Godhead
are dimmed. The worshippers of an incarnate Deity,
through the frailty of their nature, are strongly tempted

* Deut. iv. 15, 1G. — The arrangement of the text is a little changed, to
put the reader immediately in possession of the meaning.

176 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

to fasten chiefly on his human attributes ; and their devo-
tion, instead of rising to the Infinite God, and taking the
peculiar character which infinity inspires, becomes rather
a human affection, borrowing much of its fervor from the
ideas of suffering, blood, and death. It is indeed possi-
ble, that this God-man (to use the strange phraseology
of Trinitarians) may excite the mind more easily, than a
purely spiritual divinity ; just as a tragedy, addressed to
the eye and ear, will interest the multitude more than the
contemplation of the most exalted character. But the
emotions, which are the most easily roused, are not the
profoundest or most enduring. This human love, in-
spired by a human God, though at first more fervid,
cannot grow and spread through the soul, like the rever-
ential attachment, which an infinite, spiritual Father
awakens. Refined conceptions of God, though more
slowly attained, have a more quickening and all-pervading
energy, and admit of perpetual accessions of brightness,
life, and strength.

True, we shall be told, that Trinitarianism has con-
verted only one of its three persons into a human Deity,
and that the other two remain purely spiritual beings.
But who does not know, that man will attach himself
most strongly to the God who has become a man ? Is
not this even a duty, if the Divinity has taken a body to
place himself within the reach of human comprehension
and sympathy ? That the Trinitarian's views of the
Divinity will be colored more by his visible, tangible,
corporeal God, than by those persons of the Trinity,
who remain comparatively hidden in their invisible and
spiritual essence, is so accordant with the principles of
our nature, as to need no labored proof.

My friends, hold fast the doctrine of a purely spiritual

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 177

Divinity. It is one of the great supports and instruments
of a vital piety. It brings God near, as no other doc-
trine can. One of the leading purposes of Christianity
is, to give us an ever-growing sense of God's immediate
presence, a consciousness of him in our souls. Now,
just as far as corporeal or limited attributes enter into
our conception of him, we remove him from us. He
becomes an outward, distant being, instead of being
viewed and felt as dwelling in the soul itself. It is an
unspeakable benefit of the doctrine of a purely spiritual
God, that he can be regarded as inhabiting, filling our
spiritual nature ; and, through this union with our minds,
he can and does become the object of an intimacy and
friendship, such as no embodied being can call forth.

III. Unitarianism is the system most favorable to
piety, because it presents a distinct and intelligible object
of worship, a being, whose nature, whilst inexpressibly
sublime, is yet simple and suited to human apprehension.
An infinite Father is the most exalted of all conceptions,
and yet the least perplexing. It involves no incongru-
ous ideas. It is illustrated by analogies from our own
nature. It coincides with that fundamental law of the
intellect, through which we demand a cause proportioned
to effects. It is also as interesting as it is rational ; so
that it is peculiarly congenial with the improved mind.
The sublime simplicity of God, as he is taught in Uni-
tarianism, by relieving the understanding from perplexity,
and by placing him within the reach of thought and af-
fection, gives him peculiar power over the soul. Trini-
tarianism, on the other hand, is a riddle. Men call it a
mystery ; but it is mysterious, not like the great truths
of religion, by its vastness and grandeur, but by the
irreconcilable ideas which it involves. One God, con-

178 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

sisting of three persons or agents, is so strange a being,
so unlike our own minds, and all others with which we
hold intercourse, is so misty, so incongruous, so contra-
dictory, that he cannot be apprehended with that dis-
tinctness and that feeling of reality, which belong to the
opposite system. Such a heterogeneous being, who is
at the same moment one and many ; who includes in his
own nature the relations of Father and Son, or, in other
words, is Father and Son to himself; who, in one of
his persons, is at the same moment the Supreme God
and a mortal man, omniscient and ignorant, almighty and
impotent ; such a being is certainly the most puzzling
and distracting object ever presented to human thought.
Trinitarianism, instead of teaching an intelligible God,
offers to the mind a strange compound of hostile attri-
butes, bearing plain marks of those ages of darkness,
when Christianity shed but a faint ray, and the diseased
fancy teemed with prodigies and unnatural creations. In
contemplating a being, who presents such different and
inconsistent aspects, the mind finds nothing to rest upon ;
and, instead of receiving distinct and harmonious im-
pressions, is disturbed by shifting, unsettled images.
To commune with such a being must be as hard, as to
converse with a man of three different countenances,
speaking with three different tongues. The believer in
this system must forget it, when he prays, or he could
find no repose in devotion. Who can compare it, in
distinctness, reality, and power, with the simple doctiine
of One Infinite Father ?

IV. Unitarianism promotes a fervent and enlightened
piety, by asserting the absolute and unbounded perfec-
tion of God's character. This is the highest service
which can be rendered to mankind. Just and generous

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY 179

conceptions of the Divinity are the soul's true wealth.
To spread these is to contribute more effectually, than
by any other agency, to the progress and happiness of
the intelligent creation. To obscure God's glory is
to do greater wrong, than to blot out the sun. The
character and influence of a religion must answer to
the views which it gives of the Divinity ; and there is
a plain tendency in that system, which manifests the
divine perfections most resplendently, to awaken the
sublimest and most blessed piety.

Now, Trinitarianism has a fatal tendency to degrade
the character of the Supreme Being, though its advo-
cates, I am sure, intend no such wrong. By multiply-
ing divine persons, it takes from each the glory of
independent, all-sufficient, absolute perfection. This
may be shown in various particulars. And in the first
place, the very idea, that three persons in the Divinity
are in any degree important, implies and involves the
imperfection of each ; for it is plain, that if one divine
person possesses all possible power, wisdom, love, and
happiness, nothing will be gained to himself or to the
creation by joining with him two, or two hundred other
persons. To say that he needs others for any purpose
or in any degree, is to strip him of independent and all-
sufficient majesty. If our Father in heaven, the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is not of himself
sufficient to all the wants of his creation ; if, by his
union with other persons, he can accomplish any good
to which he is not of himself equal ; or if he thus ac-
quires a claim to the least degree of trust or hope, to
which he is not of himself entitled by his own indepen-
dent attributes ; then it is plain, he is not a being of
infinite and absolute perfection. Now Trinitarianism

180 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

teaches, that the highest good accrues to the human
race from the existence of three divine persons, sus-
taining different offices and relations to the world ; and
it regards the Unitarian, as subverting the foundation
of human hope, by asserting that the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus is alone and singly God. Thus it
derogates from his infinite glory.

In the next place, Trinitarianism degrades the char-
acter of the Supreme Being, by laying its disciples
under the necessity of making such a distribution of
offices and relations among the three persons, as will
serve to designate and distinguish them ; for in this way
it interferes with the sublime conceptions of One Infi-
nite Person, in whom all glories are concentred. • If we
are required to worship three persons, we must view
them in different lights, or they will be mere repetitions
of each other, mere names and sounds, presenting no
objects, conveying no meaning to the mind. Some
appropriate character, some peculiar acts, feelings, and
relations must be ascribed to each. In other words,
the glory of all must be shorn, that some special dis-
tinguishing lustre may be thrown on each. Accord-
ingly, creation is associated peculiarly with the con-
ception of the Father ; satisfaction for human guilt Avilh
that of the Son ; whilst sanctification, the noblest woik
of all, is given to the Holy Spirit as his more particu-
lar work. By a still more fatal distribution, the work
of justice, the office of vindicating the rights of the
Divinity, falls peculiarly to the Father, whilst the love-
liness of interposing mercy clothes peculiarly the person
of the Son. By this unhappy influence of Trinitarian-
ism, from which common minds at least cannot escape,
the splendors of the Godhead, being scattered among

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 181

three objects, instead of being united in One Infinite
Father, are dimmed ; and he, whose mind is thoroughly
and practically possessed by this system, can hardly
conceive the effulgence of glory in which the One God
offers himself to a pious believer in his strict unity.

But the worst has not been told. I observe, then,
in the third place, that if Three Divine Persons are
believed in, such an administration or government of
the world must be ascribed to them, as will furnish
them with a sphere of operation. No man will admit
three persons into his creed, without finding a use for
them. Now it is an obvious remark, that a system of
the universe, which involves and demands more than
one Infinite Agent, must be wild, extravagant, and un-
worthy the perfect God ; because there is no possible
or conceivable good, to which such an Agent is not
adequate. Accordingly we find Trinitarianism connect-
ing itself with a scheme of administration, exceedingly
derogatory to the Divine character. It teaches, that
the Infinite Father saw fit to put into the hands of our
first parents the character and condition of their whole
progeny ; and that, through one act of disobedience,
the whole race bring with them into being a corrupt
nature, or are born depraved. It teaches, that the
offences of a short life, though begun and spent under
this disastrous influence, merit endless punishment, and
that God's law threatens this infinite penalty ; and that
man is thus burdened with a guilt, which no suffering
of the created universe can expiate, which nothing but
the sufferings of an Infinite Being can purge away.
In this condition of human nature, Trinitarianism finds
a sphere of action for its different persons. I am aware
that some Trinitarians, on hearing this statement of their

VOL. III. 16

182 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

system, may reproach me with ascribing to them the
errors of Calvinism, a system which they abhor as much
as ourselves. But none of the peculiarities of Calvin-
ism enter into this exposition. I have given what I
understand to be the leading features of Trinitarianism
all the world over ; and the benevolent professors of
that faith, who recoil from this statement, must blame
not the preacher, but the creeds and establishments by
which these doctrines are diffused. For ourselves, we
look with horror and grief on the views of God's gov-
ernment, which are naturally and intimately united with
Trinitarianism. They take from us our Father in heav-
en, and substitute a stern and unjust lord. Our filial
love and reverence rise up against them. We say to
the Trinitarian, touch any thing but the perfections of
God. Cast no stain on that spotless purity and love-
liness. We can endure any errors but those, which
subvert or unsettle the conviction of God's paternal
goodness. Urge not upon us a system, which makes
existence a curse, and wraps the universe in gloom.
Leave us the cheerful light, the free and healthful at-
mosphere, of a liberal and rational faith ; the ennobling
and consoling influences of the doctrine, which nature
and revelation in blessed concord teach us, of One
Father of unbounded and inexhaustible love.

V. Unitarianism is peculiarly favorable to piety, be-
cause it accords with nature, with the world around and
the world within us ; and through this accordance it
gives aid to nature, and receives aid from it, in impress-
ing the mind with God. We live in the midst of a
glorious universe, which was meant to be a witnoss and
a preacher of the Divinity ; and a revelation from God
may be expected to be in harmony with this system,

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 183

and to carry on a common ministry with it in lifting the
soul to God. Now, Unitarianism is in accordance with
nature. It teaches One Father, and so does creation,
the more it is explored. Philosophy, in proportion as
it extends its views of the universe, sees in it, more
and more, a sublime and beautiful unity, and multiplies
proofs, that all things have sprung from one intelligence,
one power, one love. The whole outward creation
proclaims to the Unitarian the truth in which he delights.
So does his own soul. But neither nature nor the soul
bears one trace cf Three Divine Persons. Nature is no
Trinitarian. It gives not a hint, not a glimpse of a tri-
personal author. Trinitarianism is a confined system,
shut up in a few texts, a few written lines, where many
of the wisest minds have failed to discover it. It is
not inscribed on the heavens and the earth, not borne
on every wind, not resounding and reechoing through
the universe. The sun and stars say nothing of a God
of three persons. They all speak of the One Father
whom we adore. To our ears, one and the same voice
comes from God's word and works, a full and swelling
strain, growing clearer, louder, more thrilling as we
listen, and with one blessed influence lifting up our souls
to the Almighty Father.

This accordance between nature and revelation in-
creases the power of both over the mind. Concurring
as they do in one impression, they make that impres-
sion deeper. To men of reflection, the conviction of
the reality of religion is exceedingly heightened, by a
perception of harmony in the views of it which they
derive from various sources. Revelation is never re-
ceived with so intimate a persuasion of its truth, as
when it is seen to conspire to the same ends and iui-

184 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

pressions, for which all other things are made. It :s
no small objection to Trinitarianism, that it is an in-
sulated doctrine, that it reveals a God whom we meet
nowhere in the universe. Three Divine Persons, I re-
peat it, are found only in a few texts, and those so dark,
that the gifted minds of Milton, Newton, and Locke,
could not find them there. Nature gives them not a
whisper of evidence. And can they be as real and
powerful to the mind, as that One Father, whom the
general strain and common voice of Scripture, and the
universal voice of nature call us to adore ?

VI. Unitarianism favors piety by opening the mind
to new and ever-enlarging views of God. Teaching, as
it does, the same God with nature, it leads us to seek
him in nature. It does not shut us up in the written
word, precious as that manifestation of the Divinity is.
It considers revelation, not as independent of his other
means of instruction ; not as a separate agent ; but as
a part of the great system of God for enlightening and
elevating the human soul ; as intimately joined with
creation and providence, and intended to concur with
them ; and as given to assist us in reading the volume
of the universe. Thus Unitarianism, where its genuine
influence is experienced, tends to enrich and fertilize
the mind ; opens it to new lights, wherever they spring
up ; and, by combining, makes more efficient, the means
of religious knowledge. Trinitarianism, on the other
hand, is a system which tends to confine the mind ; to
shut it up in what is written ; to diminish its interest
in the universe ; and to disincline it to bright and
enlarged views of God's works. — This effect will be
explained, in the first place, if we consider, that the
peculiarities of Trinitarianism differ so much from the

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 185

teachings of the universe, that he who attaches him-
self to the one, will be in danger of losing his interest
in the other. The ideas of Three Divine Persons, of
God clothing himself in flesh, of the infinite Creator
saving the guilty by transferring their punishment to
an innocent being, these ideas cannot easily be made
to coalesce in the mind with that which nature gives,
of One Almighty Father and Unbounded Spirit, whom
no worlds can contain, and whose vicegerent in the
human breast pronounces it a crime, to lay the penal-
ties of vice on the pure and unoffending.

But Trinitarianism has a still more positive influence
in shutting the mind against improving views from the
universe. It tends to throw gloom over God's works.
Imagining that Christ is to be exalted, by giving him
an exclusive agency in enlightening and recovering man-
kind, it is tempted to disparage other lights and influ-
ences ; and, for the purpose of magnifying his salvation,
it inclines to exaggerate the darkness and desperateness
of man's present condition. The mind thus impressed,
naturally leans to those views of nature and of society,
which will strengthen the ideas of desolation and guilt.
It is tempted to aggravate the miseries of life, and to
see in them only the marks of divine displeasure and
punishing justice ; and overlooks their obvious fitness
and design to awaken our powers, exercise our virtues,
and strengthen our social ties. In like manner, it ex-
aggerates the sins of men, that the need of an Infinite
atonement may be maintained. Some of the most af-
fecting tokens of God's love within and around us are
obscured by this gloomy theology. The glorious fac-
ulties of the soul, its high aspirations, its sensibility to
the great and good in character, its sympathy with dis-
16*

186 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

interested and suffering virtue, its benevolent and reli-
gious instincts, its thirst for a happiness not found on
earth, these are overlooked or thrown into the shade,
that they may not disturb the persuasion of man's nat-
ural corruption. Ingenuity is employed to disparage
what is interesting in the human character. Whilst the
bursts of passion in the newborn child are gravely
urged as indications of a native, rooted corruption ; its
bursts of affection, its sweet smile, its innocent and
irrepressible joy, its loveliness and beauty, are not lis-
tened to, though they plead more eloquently its alliance
with higher natures. The sacred and tender affections
of home ; the unwearied watchings and cheerful sac-
rifices of parents ; the reverential, grateful assiduity of
children, smoothing an aged father's or mother's descent
to the grave ; woman's love, stronger than death ; the
friendship of brothers and sisters ; the anxious affec-
tion, which tends around the bed of sickness ; the sub-
dued voice, which breathes comfort into the mourner's
heart ; all the endearing offices, which shed a serene
light through our dwellings ; these are explained away
by the thorough advocates of this system, so as to in-
clude no real virtue, so as to consist with a natural
aversion to goodness. Even the higher efforts of dis-
interested benevolence, and the most unaffected expres-
sions of piety, if not connected with what is called
" the true faith," are, by the most rigid disciples of the
doctrine which I oppose, resolved into the passion for
distinction, or some other working of " unsanctified na-
ture." Thus, Trinitarianism and its kindred doctrines
have a tendency to veil God's goodness, to sully his
fairest works, to dim the lustre of those innocent and
pure affections, which a divine breath kindles in the

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 187

soul, to blight the beauty and freshness of creation, and
in this way to consume the very nutriment of piety.
We know, and rejoice to know, that in multitudes this
tendency is counteracted by a cheerful temperament, a
benevolent nature, and a strength of gratitude, which
bursts the shackles of a melancholy system. But from
the nature of the doctrine, the tendency exists and is
strong ; and an impartial observer will often discern it
resulting in gloomy, depressing views of life and the
universe.

Trinitarianism, by thus tending to exclude bright
and enlarged views of the creation, seems to me not
only to chill the heart, but to injure the understanding,
as far as moral and religious truth is concerned. It
does not send the mind far and wide for new and ele-
vating objects ; and we have here one explanation of
the barrenness and feebleness, by which theological
writings are so generally marked. It is not wonderful,
that the prevalent theology should want vitality and en-
largement of thought, for it does not accord with the
perfections of God and the spirit of the universe. It
has not its root in eternal truth ; but is a narrow, tech-
nical, artificial system, the fabrication of unrefined ages,
and consequently incapable of being blended with the
new lights which are spreading over the most interest-
ing subjects, and of being incorporated with the results
and anticipations of original and progressive minds. It
stands apart in the mind, instead of seizing upon new
truths, and converting them into its own nutriment.
With few exceptions, the Trinitarian theology of the
present day is greatly deficient in freshness of thought,
and in power to awaken the interest and to meet the
intellectual and spiritual wants of thinking men. I see

188 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

indeed superior minds and great minds among the ad-
herents of the prevalent system ; but they seem to ine
to move in chains, and to fulfil poorly their high func-
tion of adding to the wealth of the human intellect. In
theological discussion, they remind me more of Samson
grinding in the narrow mill of the Philistines, than of
that undaunted champion achieving victories for God's
people, and enlarging the bounds of their inheritance.
Now, a system which has a tendency to confine the
mind, and to impair its sensibility to the manifestations
of God in the universe, is so far unfriendly to piety, to
a bright, joyous, hopeful, evergrowing love of the Cre-
ator. It tends to generate and nourish a religion of a
melancholy tone, such, I apprehend, as now predomi-
nates in the Christian world.

VII. Unitarianism promotes piety, by the high place
which it assigns to piety in the character and work of
Jesus Christ. What is it which the Unitarian regards
as the chief glory of the character of Christ ? I an-
swer, his filial devotion, the entireness with which he
surrendered himself to the will and benevolent purposes
of God. The piety of Jesus, which, on the supposition
of his Supreme Divinity, is a subordinate and incongru-
ous, is, to us, his prominent and crowning, attribute.
We place his " oneness with God," not in an unintelli-
gible unity of essence, but in unity of mind and heart,
in the strength of his love, through which he renounced
every separate interest, and identified himself with his
Father's designs. In other words, filial piety, the con-
secration of his whole being to the benevolent will of
his Father, this is the mild glory in which he always
offers himself to our minds ; and, of consequence, all
our sympathies with him, all our love and veneration

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 189

towards him, are so many forms of delight in a pious
character, and our whole knowledge of him incites us
to a like surrender of our whole nature and existence
to God.

In the next place, Unitarianism teaches, that the
highest work or office of Christ is, to call forth and
strengthen piety in the human breast ; and thus it sets
before us this character as the chief acquisition and end
of our being. To us, the great glory of Christ's mis-
sion consists in the power with which he " reveals the
Father," and establishes the "kingdom or reign of God
within " the soul. By the crown which he wears, we
understand the eminence which he enjoys in the most
beneficent work in the universe, that of bringing back
the lost mind to the knowledge, love, and likeness of its
Creator. With these views of Christ's office, nothing
can seem to us so important as an enlightened and pro-
found piety, and we are quickened to seek it, as the
perfection and happiness to which nature and redemp-
tion jointly summon us.

Now we maintain, that Trinitarianism obscures and
weakens these views of Christ's character and work ;
and this it does, by insisting perpetually on others of
an incongruous, discordant nature. It diminishes the
power of his piety. Making him, as it does, the Su-
preme Being, and placing him as an equal on his Fa-
ther's throne, it turns the mind from him as the meekest
worshipper of God ; throws into the shade, as of very
inferior worth, his self-denying obedience ; and gives
us other grounds for revering him, than his entire hom-
age, his fervent love, his cheerful self-sacrifice to the
Universal Parent. There is a plain incongnity in the
belief of his Supreme Godhead with the ideas of filial

190 UNITARIAN CHR1STIANITV

piety and exemplary devotion. The mind, which has
been taught to regard him as of equal majesty and
authority with the Father, cannot easily feel the power
of his character as the affectionate son, whose meat it
was to do his Father's will. The mind, accustomed to
make him the ultimate object of worship, cannot easily
recognise in him the pattern of that worship, the guide
to the Most High. The characters are incongruous,
and their union perplexing, so that neither exerts its full
energy on the mind.

Trinitarianism also exhibits the work as well as charac-
ter of Christ, in lights less favorable to piety. Tt does
not make the promotion of piety his chief end. It
teaches, that the highest purpose of his mission was
to reconcile God to man, not man to God. It teaches,
that the most formidable obstacle to human happiness
lies in the claims and threatenings of divine justice.
Hence, it leads men to prize Christ more for answering
these claims and averting these threatenings, than for
awakening in the human soul sentiments of love towards
its Father in heaven. Accordingly, multitudes seem
to prize pardon more than piety, and think it a greater
boon to escape, through Christ's sufferings, the fire of
hell, than to receive, through his influence, the spirit
of heaven, the spirit of devotion. Is such a system
propitious to a generous and ever-growing piety ?

If I may be allowed a short digression, I would con-
clude this head with the general observation, that we
deem our views of Jesus Christ more interesting than
those of Trinitarianism. We feel that we should lose
much, by exchanging the distinct character and mild
radiance with which he offers himself to our minds, for
the confused and irreconcilable glories with which that

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 191

system labors to invest him. According to Unitarian-
ism, he is a being who may be understood, for he is
one mind, one conscious nature. According to the op-
posite faith, he is an inconceivable compound of two
most dissimilar minds, joining in one person a finite
and infinite nature, a soul weak and ignorant, and a
soul almighty and omniscient. And is such a being a
proper object for human thought and affection ? — I add,
as another important consideration, that to us Jesus,
instead of being the second of three obscure unintel-
ligible persons, is first and preeminent in the sphere
in which he acts, and is thus the object of a distinct
attachment, which he shares with no equals or rivals.
To us, he is first of the sons of God, the Son by pe-
culiar nearness and likeness to the Father. He is first
of all the ministers of God's mercy and beneficence,
and through him the largest stream of bounty flows to
the creation. He is first in God's favor and love, the
most accepted of worshippers, the most prevalent of
intercessors. In this mighty universe, framed to be a
mirror of its Author, we turn to Jesus as the brightest
image of God, and gratefully yield him a place in our
souls, second only to the Infinite Father, to whom he
himself directs our supreme affection.

VIII. I now proceed to a great topic. Unitarianism
promotes piety, by meeting the wants of man as a sin-
ner. The wants of the sinner may be expressed almost
in one word. He wants assurances of mercy in his
Creator. He wants pledges, that God is Love in its
purest form, that is, that He has a goodness so dis-
interested, free, full, strong, and immutable, that the
ingratitude and disobedience of his creatures cannot
overcome it. This unconquerable love, which in Scrip-

192 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

ture is denominated grace, and which waits not for
merit to call it forth, but flows out to the most guilty,
is the sinner's only hope, and it is fitted to call forth
the most devoted gratitude. Now, this grace or mercy
of God, which seeks the lost, and receives and blesses
the returning child, is proclaimed by that faith which
we advocate, with a clearness and energy, which cannot
be surpassed. Unitarianism will not listen for a mo-
ment to the common errors, by which this bright attri-
bute is obscured. It will not hear of a vindictive wrath
in God, which must be quenched by blood ; or of a jus-
tice, which binds his mercy with an iron chain, until its
demands are satisfied to the full. It will not hear that
God needs any foreign influence to awaken his mercy ;
but teaches, that the yearnings of the tenderest human
parent towards a lost child, are but a faint image of
God's deep and overflowing compassion towards erring
man. This essential and unchangeable propensity of
the Divine Mind to forgiveness, the Unitarian beholds
shining forth through the whole Word of God, and
especially in the mission and revelation of Jesus Christ,
who lived and died to make manifest the inexhaustible
plenitude of divine grace ; and, aided by revelation,
he sees this attribute of God everywhere, both around
him and within him. He sees it in the sun which shines,
and the rain which descends on the evil and unthankful ;
in the peace, which returns to the mind in proportion
to its return to God and duty ; in the sentiment of com
passion, which springs up spontaneously in the human
breast towards the fallen and lost ; and in the moral in-
stinct, which teaches us to cherish this compassion as
a sacred principle, as an emanation of God's infinite
love. In truth, Unitarianism asserts so strongly the

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 193

mercy of God, that the reproach thrown upon it is, that
it takes from the sinner the dread of punishment, — a
reproach wholly without foundation ; for our system
teaches that God's mercy is not an instinctive tender-
ness, which cannot inflict pain ; but an all-wise love,
which desires the true and lasting good of its object,
and consequently desires first for the sinner that restora-
tion to purity, without which, shame, and suffering, and
exile from God and heaven are of necessity and unal-
terably his doom. Thus Unitarianism holds forth God's
grace and forgiving goodness most resplendently ; and,
by this manifestation of him, it tends to awaken a
tender and confiding piety ; an ingenuous love, which
mourns that it has offended ; an ingenuous aversion to
sin, not because sin brings punishment, but because it
separates the mind from this merciful Father.

Now we object to Trinitarianism, that it obscures
the mercy of God. It does so in various ways. We
have already seen, that it gives such views of God's
government, that we can hardly conceive of this attri-
bute as entering into his character. Mercy to the sin-
ner is the principle of love or benevolence in its high-
est form ; and surely this cannot be expected from a
being who brings us into existence burdened with he-
reditary guilt, and who threatens with endless punish-
ment and woe the heirs of so frail and feeble a nature.
With such a Creator, the idea of mercy cannot coa-
lesce ; and I will say more, that, under such a govern-
ment, man would need no mercy ; for he would owe no
allegiance to such a maker, and could not of course
contract the guilt of violating it ; and, without guilt, no
grace or pardon would be wanted. The severity of this
system would place him on the ground of an injured

VOL. III. 17

194 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

being. The wrong would lie on the side of the Cre-
ator.

In the next place, Trinitarianism obscures God's
mercy, by the manner in which it supposes pardon to
be communicated. It teaches, that God remits the pun-
ishment of the offender, in consequence of receiving an
equivalent from an innocent person ; that the sufferings
of the sinner are removed by a full satisfaction made
to divine justice, in the sufferings of a substitute. And
is this "the quality of mercy'1 ? What means forgive-
ness, but the reception of the returning child through
the strength of parental love ? This doctrine invests
the Saviour with a claim of merit, with a right to the
remission of the sins of his followers ; and represents
God's reception of the penitent as a recompense due
to the worth of his Son. And is mercy, which means
free and undeserved love, made more manifest, more
resplendent, by the introduction of merit and right as
the ground of our salvation ? Could a surer expedient
be invented for obscuring its freeness, and for turning
the sinner's gratitude from the sovereign who demands,
to the sufferer who offers, full satisfaction for his guilt ?

I know it is said, that Trinitarianism magnifies God's
mercy, because it teaches, that he himself provided the
substitute for the guilty. But I reply, that the work
here ascribed to mercy is not the most appropriate, nor
most fitted to manifest it and impress it on the heart.
This may be made apparent by familiar illustrations.
Suppose that a creditor, through compassion to certain
debtors, should persuade a benevolent and opulent man
to pay him in their stead. Would not the debtors see
a greater mercy, and feel a weightier obligation, if they
were to receive a free, gratuitous release ? And will

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 195

not their chief gratitude stray beyond the creditor to
the benevolent substitute ? Or, suppose that a parent,
unwilling to inflict a penalty on a disobedient but fee-
ble child, should persuade a stronger child to bear it.
Would not the offender see a more touching mercy in a
free forgiveness, springing immediately from a parent's
heart, than in this circuitous remission ? And will he
not be tempted to turn with his strongest love to the
generous sufferer ? In this process of substitution, of
which Trinitarianism boasts so loudly, the mercy of
God becomes complicated with the rights and merits
of the substitute, and is a more distant cause of our
salvation. These rights and merits are nearer, more
visible, and more than divide the glory with grace and
mercy in our rescue. They turn the mind from Divine
Goodness, as the only spring of its happiness, and only
rock of its hope. Now this is to deprive piety of one
of its chief means of growth and joy. Nothing should
stand between the soul and God's mercy. Nothing
should share with mercy the work of our salvation.
Christ's intercession should ever be regarded as an ap-
plication to love and mercy, not as a demand of justice,
not as a claim of merit. I grieve to say, that Christ,
as now viewed by multitudes, hides the lustre of that
very attribute which it is his great purpose to display.
I fear, that, to many, Jesus wears the glory of a more
winning, tender mercy, than his Father, and that he is
regarded as the sinner's chief resource. Is this the
way to invigorate piety ?

Trinitarians imagine, that there is one view of their
system peculiarly fitted to give peace and hope to the
sinner, and consequently to promote gratitude and love.
It is this. They say, it provides an Infinite substitute

196 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

for the sinner, than which nothing can give greater re-
lief to the burdened conscience. Jesus, being the sec-
ond person of the Trinity, was able to make infinite
satisfaction for sin ; and what, they ask, in Unitarian-
ism, can compare with this ? I have time only for two
brief replies. And first, this doctrine of an Infinite
satisfaction, or, as it is improperly called, of an Infinite
atonement, subverts, instead of building up, hope ; be-
cause it argues infinite severity in the government which
requires it. Did I believe, what Trinitarianism teach-
es, that not the least transgression, not even the first
sin of the dawning mind of the child, could be remitted
without an infinite expiation, I should feel myself liv-
ing under a legislation unspeakably dreadful, under laws
written, like Draco's, in blood ; and, instead of thank-
ing the Sovereign for providing an infinite substitute, I
should shudder at the attributes which render this expe-
dient necessary. It is commonly said, that an infinite
atonement is needed to make due and deep impressions
of the evil of sin. But He who framed all souls, and
gave them their susceptibilities, ought not to be thought
so wanting in goodness and wisdom, as to have con-
stituted a universe, which demands so dreadful and de-
grading a method of enforcing obedience, as the penal
sufferings of a God. This doctrine, of an Infinite sub-
stitute suffering the penalty of sin, to manifest God's
wrath against sin, and thus to support his government,
is, I fear, so familiar to us all, that its severe character
"s overlooked. Let me, then, set it before you, in new
terms, and by a new illustration ; and if, in so doing, I
may wound the feelings of some who hear me, I beg
them to believe, that I do it with pain, and from no
impulse but a desire to serve the cause of truth. —

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 197

Suppose, then, that a teacher should come among you,
and should tell you, that the Creator, in order to par-
don his own children, had erected a gallows in the cen-
tre of the universe, and had publicly executed upon it,
in room of the offenders, an Infinite Being, the partaker
of his own Supreme Divinity ; suppose him to declare,
that this execution was appointed, as a most conspicu-
ous and terrible manifestation of God's justice, and of
the infinite woe denounced by his law ; and suppose
him to add, that all beings in heaven and earth are re-
quired to fix their eyes on this fearful sight, as the most
powerful enforcement of obedience and virtue. Would
you not tell him, that he calumniated his Maker ?
Would you not say to him, that this central gallows
threw gloom over the universe ; that the spirit of a gov-
ernment, whose very acts of pardon were written in
such blood, was terror, not paternal love ; and that the
obedience which needed to be upheld by this horrid
spectacle, was nothing worth ? Would you not say to
him, that even you, in this infancy and imperfection
of your being, were capable of being wrought upon by
nobler motives, and of hating sin through more gener-
ous views ; and that much more the angels, those pure
flames of love, need not the gallows and an executed
God to confirm their loyalty ? You would all so feel,
at such teaching as I have supposed ; and yet how does
this differ from the popular doctrine of atonement ?
According to this doctrine, we have an Infinite Being
sentenced to suffer, as a substitute, the death of the
cross, a punishment more ignominious and agonizing
than the gallows, a punishment reserved for slaves and
the vilest malefactors ; and he suffers this punishment,
that he may show forth the terrors of God's law, and
17*

198 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

strike a dread of sin through the universe. — I am in-
deed aware, that multitudes, who profess this doctrine,
are not accustomed to bring it to their minds distinctly
in this light ; that they do not ordinarily regard the
death of Christ as a criminal execution, as an infinitely
dreadful infliction of justice, as intended to show, that,
without an infinite satisfaction, they must hope nothing
from God. Their minds turn, by a generous instinct,
from these appalling views, to the love, the disinterest-
edness, the moral grandeur and beauty of the sufferer ;
and through such thoughts they make the cross a source
of peace, gratitude, love, and hope ; thus affording a
delightful exemplification of the power of the human
mind, to attach itself to what is good and purifying in
the most irrational system. Not a few may shudder
at the illustration which I have here given ; but in what
respects it is unjust to the popular doctrine of atone-
ment, I cannot discern. I grieve to shock sincere
Christians, of whatever name ; but I grieve more for
the corruption of our common faith, which I have now
felt myself bound to expose.

I have a second objection to this doctrine of Infinite
atonement. When examined minutely, and freed from
ambiguous language, it vanishes into air. It is wholly
delusion. The Trinitarian tells me, that, according
to his system, we have an infinite substitute ; that the
Infinite God was pleased to bear our punishment, and
consequently, that pardon is made sure. But I ask
him, Do I understand you ? Do you mean, that the
Great God, who never changes, whose happiness is the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, that this Eternal
Being really bore the penalty of my sins, really suffered
and died ? Every pious man, when pressed by this

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 199

question, answers, No. What, then, does the doctrine
of Infinite atonement mean ? Why, this ; that God took
into union with himself our nature, that is, a human
body and soul ; and these bore the suffering for our sins ;
and, through his union with these, God may be said to
have borne it himself. Thus, this vaunted system goes
out, — in words. The Infinite victim proves to be frail
man, and God's share in the sacrifice is a mere fiction.
I ask with solemnity, Can this doctrine give one mo-
ment's ease to the conscience of an unbiassed, thinking
man ? Does it not unsettle all hope, by making the
whole religion suspicious and unsure ? I am compelled
to say, that I see in it no impression of majesty, or wis-
dom, or love, nothing worthy of a God ; and when I
compare it with that nobler faith, which directs our eyes
and hearts to God's essential mercy, as our only hope, I
am amazed that any should ascribe to it superior effi-
cacy, as a religion for sinners, as a means of filling the
soul with pious trust and love. I know, indeed, that
some will say, that, in giving up an infinite atonement, I
deprive myself of all hope of divine favor. To such,
I would say, You do wrong to God's mercy. On that
mercy I cast myself without a fear. I indeed desire
Christ to intercede for me. I regard his relation to me
as God's kindest appointment. Through him, "grace
and truth come " to me from Heaven, and I look for-
ward to his friendship, as among the highest blessings
of my whole future being. But I cannot, and dare not
ask him, to offer an infinite satisfaction for my sins ; to
appease the wrath of God ; to reconcile the Universal
Father to his own offspring ; to open to me those arms
of Divine mercy, which have encircled and borne me
from the first moment of my being. The essential and

200 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

unbounded mercy of my Creator, is the foundation of
my hope, and a broader and surer the universe cannot
give me.

IX. I now proceed to the last consideration, which
the limits of this discourse will permit me to urge. It
has been more than once suggested, but deserves to be
distinctly stated. I observe, then, that Unitarianism
promotes piety, because it is a rational religion. By
this, I do not mean that its truths can be fully compre-
hended ; for there is not an object in nature or religion,
which has not innumerable connexions and relations be-
yond our grasp of thought. I mean, that its doctrines
are consistent with one another, and with all established
truth. Unitarianism is in harmony with the great and
clear principles of revelation ; with the laws and powers
of human nature ; with the dictates of the moral sense ;
with the noblest instincts and highest aspirations of the
soul ; and with the lights which the universe throws on
the character of its author. We can hold this doctrine
without self-contradiction, without rebelling against our
rational and moral powers, without putting to silence the
divine monitor in the breast. And this is an unspeaka-
ble benefit ; for a religion thus coincident with reason,
conscience, and our whole spiritual being, has the founda-
tions of universal empire in the breast ; and the heart,
finding no resistance in the intellect, yields itself wholly,
cheerfully, without doubts or misgivings, to the love of
its Creator.

To Trinitarianism we object, what has always been
objected to it, that it contradicts and degrades reason,
and thus exposes the mind to the worst delusions.
Some of its advocates, more courageous than prudent,
have even recommended "the prostration of the under<-

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 201

standing," as preparatory to its reception. Its chief
doctrine is an outrage on our rational nature. Its three
persons who constitute its God, must either be frittered
away into three unmeaning distinctions, into sounds sig-
nifying nothing ; or they are three conscious agents, who
cannot, by any human art or metaphysical device, be
made to coalesce into one being ; who cannot be really
viewed as one mind, having one consciousness and one
will. Now a religious system, the cardinal principle of
which offends the understanding, very naturally conforms
itself throughout to this prominent feature, and becomes
prevalently irrational. He who is compelled to defend
his faith in any particular, by the plea, that human reason
is so depraved through the fall, as to be an inadequate
judge of religion, and that God is honored by our recep-
tion of what shocks the intellect, seems to have no de-
fence left against accumulated absurdities. According
to these principles, the fanatic who exclaimed, " I be-
lieve, because it is impossible," had a fair title to can-
onization. Reason is too godlike a faculty, to be insulted
with impunity. Accordingly, Trinitarianism, as we have
seen, links itself with several degrading errors ; and its
most natural alliance is with Calvinism, that cruel faith,
which, stripping God of mercy and man of power, has
made Christianity an instrument of torture to the timid,
and an object of doubt or scorn to hardier spirits. I
repeat it, a doctrine which violates reason like the Trini-
ty, prepares its advocates, in proportion as it is incorpo-
rated into the mind, for worse and worse delusions. It
breaks down the distinctions and barriers between truth
and falsehood. It creates a diseased taste for prodigies,
fictions, and exaggerations, for startling mysteries, and
wild dreams of enthusiasm. It destroys the relish for

202 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

the simple, chaste, serene beauties of truth. Especially
when the prostration of understanding is taught as an act
of piety, we cannot wonder, that the grossest supersti-
tions should be devoured, and that the credulity of the
multitude should keep pace with the forgeries of im-
posture and fanaticism. The history of the Church is
the best comment on the effects of divorcing reason
from religion ; and if the present age is disburdened of
many of the superstitions under which Christianity and
human nature groaned for ages, it owes its relief in no
small degree to the reinstating of reason in her long-
violated rights.

The injury to religion, from irrational doctrines when
thoroughly believed, is immense. The human soul has
a unity. Its various faculties are adapted to one another.
One life pervades it ; and its beauty, strength, and
growth depend on nothing so much, as on the harmony
and joint action of all its principles. To wound and
degrade it in any of its powers, and especially in the
noble and distinguishing power of reason, is to inflict on
it universal injury. No notion is more false, than that
the heart is to thrive by dwarfing the intellect ; that per-
plexing doctrines are the best food of piety ; that reli-
gion flourishes most luxuriantly in mist and darkness.
Reason was given for God as its great object ; and for
him it should be kept sacred, invigorated, clarified, pro-
tected from human usurpation, and inspired with a meek
self-reverence.

The soul never acts so effectually or joyfully, as when
all its powers and affections conspire ; as when thought
and feeling, reason and sensibility, are called forth to-
gether by one great and kindling object. It will never
devote itself to God with its whole energy, whilst its

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETV. 203

guiding faculty sees in him a being to shock and con-
found it. We want a harmony in our inward nature.
We want a piety, which will join light and fervor, and
on which the intellectual power will look benignantly.
We want religion to be so exhibited, that, in the clearest
moments of the intellect, its signatures of truth will grow
brighter ; that, instead of tottering, it will gather strength
and stability from the progress of the human mind.
These wants we believe to be met by Unitarian Chris-
tianity, and therefore we prize it as the best friend of
piety.

I have thus stated the chief grounds, on which I rest
the claim of Unitarianism to the honor of promoting an
enlightened, profound, and happy piety.

Am I now asked, why we prize our system, and why
we build churches for its inculcation ? If I may be
allowed to express myself in the name of conscientious
Unitarians, who apply their doctrine to their own hearts
and lives, I would reply thus : We prize and would
spread our views, because we believe that they reveal
God to us in greater glory, and bring us nearer to him,
than any other. We are conscious of a deep want,
which the creation cannot supply, the want of a Perfect
Being, on whom the strength of our love may be cen-
tred, and of an Almighty Father, in whom our weak-
nesses, imperfections, and sorrows may find resource ;
and such a Being and Father, Unitarian Christianity sets
before us. For this we prize it above all price. We
can part with every other good. We can endure the
darkening of life's fairest prospects. But this bright,
consoling doctrine of One God, even the Father, is
dearer than life, and we cannot let it go. — Through

204 UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY

this faith, every thing grows brighter to our view. Born
of such a Parent, we esteem our existence an inestima-
ble gift. We meet everywhere our Father, and his
presence is as a sun shining on our path. We see him
in his works, and hear his praise rising from every spot
which we tread. We feel him near in our solitudes, and
sometimes enjoy communion with him more tender than
human friendship. We see him in our duties, and per-
form them more gladly, because they are the best trib-
ute we can offer our Heavenly Benefactor. Even the
consciousness of sin, mournful as it is, does not subvert
our peace ; for, in the mercy of God, as made manifest
in Jesus Christ, we see an inexhaustible fountain of
strength, purity, and pardon, for all who, in filial reli-
ance, seek these heavenly gifts. — Through this faith,
we are conscious of a new benevolence springing up to
our fellow-creatures, purer and more enlarged than natu-
ral affection. Towards all mankind we see a rich and
free love flowing from the common Parent, and, touched
by this love, we are the friends of all. We compas-
sionate the most guilty, and would win them back to
God. — Through this faith, we receive the happiness of
an ever-enlarging hope. There is no good too vast for
us to anticipate for the universe or for ourselves, from
such a Father as we believe in. We hope from him,
what we deem his greatest gift, even the gift of his own
Spirit, and the happiness of advancing for ever in truth
and virtue, in power and love, in union of mind with the
Father and the Son. — We are told, indeed, that our
faith will not prove an anchor in the last hour. But we
have known those, whose departure it has brightened ;
and our experience of its power, in trial and peril, has
proved it to be equal to all the wants of human nature.

MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY. 205

We doubt not, that, to its sincere followers, death will
be a transition to the calm, pure, joyful mansions, pre-
pared by Christ for his disciples. There we expect to
meet that great and good Deliverer. With the eye of
faith, we already see him looking round him with celes-
tial love on all of every name, who have imbibed his
spirit. His spirit ; his loyal and entire devotion to the
will of his Heavenly Father ; his universal, unconquera-
ble benevolence, through which he freely gave from his
pierced side his blood, his life for the salvation of the
world ; this divine love, and not creeds, and names, and
froms, will then be found to attract his supreme regard.
This spirit we trust to see in multitudes of every sect
and name ; and we trust, too, that they, who now re-
proach us, will at that day recognise, in the dreaded
Unitarian, this only badge of Christ, and will bid him
welcome to the joy of cur common Lord. — I have thus
stated the views with which we have reared this build-
ing. We desire to glorify God, to promote a purer,
nobler, happier piety. Even if we err in doctrine, we
think that these motives should shield us from reproach ;
should disarm that intolerance, which would exclude us
from the church on earth, and from our Father's house
in heaven.

We end, as we began, by offering up this building to
the Only Living and True God. We have erected it
amidst our private habitations, as a remembrancer of
our Creator. We have reared it in this busy city, as a
retreat for pious meditation and prayer. We dedicate
it to the King and Father Eternal, the King of kings
and Lord of lords. We dedicate it to his Unity, to
his unrivalled and undivided Majesty. We dedicate it
to the praise of his free, unbought, unmerited grace.

VOL. III. 18

206 UNITARIAN CHRISTANITY MOST FAVORABLE TO PIETY.

We dedicate it to Jesus Christ, to the memory of his
love, to the celebration of his divine virtue, to the
preaching of that truth, which he sealed with blood.
We dedicate it to the Holy Spirit, to the sanctifying
influence of God, to those celestial emanations of light
and strength, which visit and refresh the devout mind.
We dedicate it to prayers and praises, which, we trust,
will be continued and perfected in heaven. We dedi-
cate it to social worship, to Christian intercourse, to the
communion of saints. We dedicate it to the cause of
pure morals, of public order, of temperance, upright-
ness, and general good will. We dedicate it to Chris-
tian admonition, to those warnings, remonstrances, and
earnest and tender persuasions, by which the sinner may
be arrested, and brought back to God. We dedicate it
to Christian consolation, to those truths which assuage
sorrow, animate penitence, and lighten the load of human
anxiety and fear. We dedicate it to the doctrine of
Immortality, to sublime and joyful hopes which reach
beyond the grave. In a word, we dedicate it to the
great work of perfecting the human soul, and fitting it
for nearer approach to its Author. Here may heart
meet heart. Here may man meet God. From this
place may the song of praise, the ascription of gratitude,
the sigh of penitence, the prayer for grace, and the holy
resolve, ascend as fragrant incense to Heaven ; and,
through many generations, may parents bequeath to their
children this house, as a sacred spot, where God had
"lifted upon them his countenance," and given them
pledges of his everlasting love.

GREAT PURPOSE OF CHRISTIANITY.

DISCOURSE

INSTALLATION OF THE REV. M. I. MOTTE.
Boston, 1S23.

2 Timothy i. 7 : " For God hath not given us the spirit of fear ,
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

Why was Christianity given ? Why did Christ seal
it with his blood ? Why is it to be preached ? What
is the great happiness it confers ? What is the chief
blessing for which it is to be prized ? What is its pre-
eminent glory, its first claim on the gratitude of man-
kind ? These are great questions. I wish to answer
them plainly, according to the light and ability which
God has given me. I read the answer to them in the
text. There I learn the great good which God con-
fers through Jesus Christ. "He hath given us, not
the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind." The glory of Christianity is, the pure
and lofty action which it communicates to the human
mind. It does not breathe a timid, abject spirit. If it
did, it would deserve no praise. It gives power, energy,

208 THE GREAT PURPOSE

courage, constancy to the will ; love, disinterestedness,
enlarged affection to the heart ; soundness, clearness,
and vigor to the understanding. It rescues him, who
receives it, from sin, from the sway of the passions ;
gives him the full and free use of his best powers ;
brings out and brightens the divine image in which
he was created ; and, in this way, not only bestows the
promise, but the beginning, of heaven. This is the ex-
cellence of Christianity.

This subject I propose to illustrate. Let me begin
it with one remark, which I would willingly avoid, but
which seems to me to be demanded by the circum-
stances in which I am placed. I beg you to remember,
that in this discourse I speak in my own name, and in
no other. I am not giving you the opinions of any sect
or body of men, but my own. I hold myself alone
responsible for what I utter. Let none listen to me for
the purpose of learning what others think. I indeed be-
long to that class of Christians, who are distinguished
by believing that there is one God, even the Father,
and that Jesus Christ is not this one God, but his de-
pendent and obedient Son. But my accordance with
these is far from being universal, nor have I any de-
sire to extend it. What other men believe, is to me
of little moment. Their arguments I gratefully hear.
Their conclusions I am free to receive or reject. I
have no anxiety to wear the livery of any party. I in-
deed take cheerfully the name of a Unitarian, because
unwearied efforts are used to raise against it a popular
cry ; and I have not so learned Christ, as to shrink
from reproaches cast on what I deem his truth. Were
the name more honored, I should be glad to throw it
off; for I fear the shackles which a party connexion im

OF CHRISTIANITY. 209

poses. I wish to regard myself as belonging, not to a
sect, but to the community of free minds, of lovers of
truth, of followers of Christ, both on earth and in heav-
en. I desire to escape the narrow walls of a particu-
lar church, and to live under the open sky, in the broad
light, looking far and wide, seeing with my own eyes,
hearing with my own ears, and following truth meekly,
but resolutely, however arduous or solitary be the path
in which she leads. I am, then, no organ of a sect,
but speak from myself alone ; and I thank God that I
live at a time, and under circumstances, which make
it my duty to lay open my whole mind with freedom
and simplicity.

I began with asking, What is the main design and
glory of Christianity ? and I repeat the answer, that its
design is to give, not a spirit of fear, but of power, of
love, and of a sound mind. In this its glory chiefly
consists. In other words, the influence, which it is
intended to exert on the human mind, constitutes its
supreme honor and happiness. Christ is a great Sa-
viour, as he redeems or sets free the mind, cleansing
it from evil, breathing into it the love of virtue, calling
forth its noblest faculties and affections, enduing it with
moral power, restoring it to order, health, and liberty.
Such was his great aim. To illustrate these views will
be the object of the present discourse.

In reading the New Testament, I everywhere meet
the end here ascribed to Jesus Christ. He came, as I
am there taught, not to be an outward, but inward de-
liverer ; not to rear an outward throne, but to establish
his kingdom within us. He came, according to the ex-
press language and plain import of the sacred writers,
" to save us from sin," " to bless us by turning us
18*

210 THE GEE AT PURPOSE

from our iniquities," " to redeem us " from corruptions
"handed down by tradition," to form "a glorious and
spotless church " or community, to " create us anew
after the image of God," to make us by his " promises
partakers of a divine nature," and to give us pardon
and heaven by calling us to repentance and a growing
virtue. In reading the New Testament, I everywhere
learn, that Christ lived, taught, died, and rose again,
to exert a purifying and ennobling influence on the
human character ; to make us victorious over sin, over
ourselves, over peril and pain ; to join us to God by
filial love, and, above all, by likeness of nature, by par-
ticipation of his spirit. This is plainly laid down in
the New Testament as the supreme end of Christ.

Let me now ask, Can a nobler end be ascribed to
Jesus ? I affirm, that there is, and can be, no greater
work on earth, than to purify the soul from evil, and
to kindle in it new light, life, energy, and love. I
maintain, that the true measure of the glory of a reli-
gion is to be found in the spirit and power, which it
communicates to its disciples. This is one of the plain
teachings of reason. The chief blessing to an intelli-
gent being, that which makes all other blessings poor,
is the improvement of his own mind. Man is glorious
and happy, not by what he has, but by what he is. He
can receive nothing better or nobler than the unfolding
of his own spiritual nature. The highest existence in
the universe is Mind ; for God is mind ; and the devel-
opement of that principle which assimilates us to God,
must be our supreme good. The omnipotent Creator,
we have reason to think, can bestow nothing greater
than intelligence, love, rectitude, energy of will and of
benevolent action ; for these are the splendors of his

OF CHRISTIANITY. 211

own nature. We adore him for these. In imparting
these, he imparts, as it were, himself. We are too apt
to look abroad for good. But the only true good is
within. In this outward universe, magnificent as it is,
in the bright day and the starry night, in the earth and
the skies, we can discover nothing so vast as thought,
so strong as the unconquerable purpose of duty, so sub-
lime as the spirit of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice.
A rnind which withstands all the powers of the outward
universe, all the pains which fire and sword and storm
can inflict, rather than swerve from uprightness, is no-
bler than the universe. Why will we not learn the
glory of the soul ? We are seeking a foreign good.
But we all possess within us what is of more worth
than the external creation. For this outward system
is the product of Mind. All its harmony, beauty, and
beneficent influences are the fruits and manifestations
of Thought and Love ; and is it not nobler and hap-
pier, to be enriched with these energies, from which
the universe springs, and to which it owes its magnifi-
cence, than to possess the universe itself ? It is not
what we have, but what we are, which constitutes our
glory and felicity. The only true and durable riches
belong to the mind. A soul, narrow and debased, may
extend its possessions to the ends of the earth, but is
poor and wretched still. It is through inward health
that we enjoy all outward things. Philosophers teach
us, that the mind creates the beauty which it admires
in nature ; and we all know, that, when abandoned to
evil passions, it can blot out this beauty, and spread
over the fairest scenes the gloom of a dungeon. We
all know, that by vice it can turn the cup of social hap-
piness into poison, and the most prosperous condition

212 THE GREAT PURPOSE

of life into a curse. From these views we learn, that
the true friend and Saviour, is not he who acts for us
abroad, but who acts within, who sets the soul free,
touches the springs of thought and affection, binds us
to God, and, by assimilating us to the Creator, brings
us into harmony with the creation. Thus the end, which
we have ascribed to Christ, is the most glorious and
beneficent which can be accomplished by any power on
earth or in heaven.

That the highest purpose of Christianity is such as
has now been affirmed, might easily be shown from a
survey of all its doctrines and precepts. It might be
shown, that every office with which Jesus Christ is in-
vested, was intended to give him power over the human
character ; and that his great distinction consists in the
grandeur and beneficence of his influence on the soul.
But a discussion of this extent cannot be comprehended
in a single discourse. Instead of a general survey of
the subject, I shall take one feature of it, a primary and
most important one, and shall attempt to show, that the
great aim of this is to call forth the soul to a higher
life, to a nobler exercise of its power and affections.

This leading feature of Christianity is, the knowledge
which it gives of the character of God. Jesus Christ
came to reveal the Father. In the prophecies con-
cerning him in the Old Testament, no characteristic
is so frequently named, as that he should spread the
knowledge of the true God. Now I ask, What consti-
tutes the importance of such a revelation ? Why has
the Creator sent his Son to make himself known ? I
answer, God is most worthy to be known, because he
is the most quickening, purifying, and ennobling object
for the mind ; and his great purpose in revealing him-

OF CHRISTIANITY. 213

self is, that he may exalt and perfect human nature.
God, as he is manifested by Christ, is another name
for intellectual and moral excellence ; and, in the knowl-
edge of him, our intellectual and moral powers find their
element, nutriment, strength, expansion, and happiness.
To know God is to attain to the sublimest conception
in the universe. To love God, is to bind ourselves to
a being, who is fitted, as no other being is, to penetrate
and move our whole hearts ; in loving whom, we exalt
ourselves; in loving whom, we love the great, the good,
the beautiful, and the infinite ; and under whose influ-
ence, the soul unfolds itself as a perennial plant under
the cherishing sun. This constitutes the chief glory of
religion. It ennobles the soul. In this its unrivalled
dignity and happiness consist.

I fear, that the world at large think religion a very
different thing from what has now been set forth. Too
many think it a depressing, rather than an elevating
service, that it breaks rather than ennobles the spirit,
that it teaches us to cower before an almighty and ir-
resistible being ; and I must confess, that religion, as it
has been generally taught, is any thing but an elevating
principle. It has been used to scare the child, and
appall the adult. Men have been virtually taught to
glorify God by flattery, rather than by becoming ex-
cellent and glorious themselves, and thus doing honor
to their Maker. Our dependence on God has been
so taught, as to extinguish the consciousness of our free
nature and moral power. Religion, in one or another
form, has always been an engine for crushing the hu-
man soul. But such is not the religion of Christ. If
it were, it would deserve no respect. We are not, we
cannot be bound to prostrate ourselves before a deity

214 THE GREAT PURPOSE

who makes us abject and base. That moral principle
within us, which calls us to watch over and to perfect
our own souls, is an inspiration, which no teaching can
supersede or abolish. But I cannot bear, even in way
of argument, to speak of Christianity as giving views
of God depressing and debasing to the human mind.
Christ hath revealed to us God as The Father, and as
a Father in the noblest sense of that word. He hath
revealed him, as the author and lover of all souls, de-
siring to redeem all from sin, and to impress his like-
ness more and more resplendently on all ; as proffering
to all that best gift in the universe, his "holy spirit";
as having sent his beloved Son to train us up, and to
introduce us to an "inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled,
and unfading in the heavens." Such is the God of
Jesus Christ ; a being not to break the spirit, but to
breathe trust, courage, constancy, magnanimity, in a
word, all the sentiments which form an elevated mind.

This sentiment, that the knowledge of God, as given
by Christ, is important and glorious, because quicken-
ing and exalting to the human soul, needs to be taught
plainly and forcibly. The main ground of the obliga-
tion of being religious, I fear, is not understood among
the multitude of Christians. Ask them, why they must
know and worship God ? and I fear, that, were the heart
to speak, the answer would be, Because he can do with
us what he will, and consequently our first concern
is to secure his favor. Religion is a calculation of in-
terest, a means of safety. God is worshipped too often
on the same principle on which flattery and personal
attentions are lavished on human superiors, and the
worshipper cares not how abjectly he bows, if he may
win to his side the power which he cannot resist. I

OF CHRISTIANITY. 215

look with deep sorrow on this common perversion of
the highest principle of the soul. My friends, God is
not to be worshipped, because he has much to give,
for on this principle a despot, who should be munificent
to his slaves, would merit homage. He is not to be
adored for mere power ; for power, when joined with
selfishness and crime, ought to be withstood, and the
greater the might of an evil agent, the holier and the
loftier is the spirit which will not bend to him. True
religion is the worship of a perfect being, who is the
author of perfection to those who adore him. On this
ground, and on no other, religion rests.

Why is it, my hearers, that God has discoverd such
solicitude, if I may use the word, to make himself
known and obtain our worship ? Think you, that he
calls us to adore him from a love of homage or ser-
vice ? Has God man's passion for ruling, man's thirst
for applause, man's desire to have his name shouted
by crowds ? Could the acclamations of the universe,
though concentrated into one burst of praise, give our
Creator a new or brighter consciousness of his own ma-
jesty and goodness ? O ! no. He has manifested him-
self to us, because, in the knowledge and adoration of
his perfections, our own intellectual and moral perfec-
tion is found. What he desires, is, not our subjection,
but our excellence. He has no love of praise. He
calls us as truly to honor goodness in others as in him-
self, and only claims supreme honor, because he tran-
scends all others, and because he communicates to the
mind which receives him, a light, strength, purity, which
no other being can confer. God has no love of empire.
It could give him no pleasure to have his footstool worn
by the knees of infinite hosts. ft is to make us his

216 THE GREAT PURPOSE

children in the highest sense of that word, to make us
more and more the partakers of his own nature, not
to multiply slaves, that he hath sent his Son to make
himself known. God indeed is said to seek his own
glory ; but the glory of a creator must consist in the
glory of his works ; and we may be assured, that he
cannot wish any recognition of himself, but that which
will perfect his noblest, highest work, the immortal
mind.

Do not, my friends, forget the great end for which
Christ enjoins on us the worship of God. It is not,
that we may ingratiate ourselves with an almighty agent,
whose frown is destruction. It is, that we may hold
communion with an intelligence and goodness, infinitely
surpassing our own ; that we may rise above imperfect
and finite natures ; that we may attach ourselves by love
and reverence to the best Being in the universe ; and
that, through veneration and love, we may receive into
our own minds the excellence, disinterestedness, wis-
dom, purity, and power, which we adore. This recep-
tion of the divine attributes, I desire especially to hold
forth, as the most glorious end for which God reveals
himself. To praise him is not enough. That homage,
which has no power to assimilate us to him, is of little
or no worth. The truest admiration is that by which
we receive other minds into our own. True praise is a
sympathy with excellence, gaining strength by utterance.
Such is the praise which God demands. Then only is
the purpose of Christ's revelation of God accomplished,
when, by reception of the doctrine of a Paternal Divin-
ity, we are quickened to " follow him, as dear children,"
and are " filled with his fulness," and become " his tem-
ples," and " dwell in God, and have God dwelling in
ourselves."

OF CHRISTIANITY. 217

1 have endeavoured to show the great purpose of the
Christian doctrine respecting God, or in what its impor-
tance and glory consist. Had I time, I might show,
that every other doctrine of our religion has the same
end I might particularly show how wonderfully fitted
are the character, example, life, death, resurrection, and
all the offices of Christ, to cleanse the mind from moral
evil, to quicken, soften, elevate, and transform it into
the divine image ; and I might show that these are the
influences which true faith derives from him, and through
which he works out our salvation. But I cannot enter
on this fruitful subject. Let me only say, that I see
everywhere in Christianity, this great design of liberat-
ing and raising the human mind, on which I have en-
larged. I see in Christianity nothing narrowing or de-
pressing, nothing of the littleness of the systems which
human fear, and craft, and ambition have engendered.
I meet there no minute legislation, no descending to
precise details, no arbitrary injunctions, no yoke of cer-
emonies, no outward religion. Every thing breathes
freedom, liberality, enlargement. I meet there, not a
formal, rigid creed, binding on the intellect, through all
ages, the mechanical, passive repetition of the same
words, and the same ideas ; but I meet a few grand, all-
comprehending truths, which are given to the soul, to be
developed and applied by itself; given to it, as seed to
the sower, to be cherished and expanded by its own
thought, love, and obedience into more and more glori-
ous fruits of wisdom and virtue. I see it everywhere
inculcating an enlarged spirit of piety and philanthropy,
leaving each of us to manifest this spirit according to the
monitions of his individual conscience. I hear it every-
where calling the soul to freedom and power, by calling

VOL. III. 19

218 THE GREAT PURPOSE

it to guard against the senses, the passions, the appetites;
through which it is chained, enfeebled, destroyed. I see
it everywhere aiming to give the mind power over the
outward world, to make it superior to events, to suffer-
ing, to material nature, to persecution, to death. I see
it everywhere aiming to give the mind power over itself,
to invest it with inward sovereignty, to call forth within
us a mighty energy for our own elevation. I meet in
Christianity only discoveries of a vast, bold, illimitable
character ; fitted and designed to give energy and expan-
sion to the soul. By its doctrine of a Universal Father,
it sweeps away all the barriers of sect, party, rank, and
nation, in which men have labored to shut up their love ;
makes us members of an unbounded family ; and estab-
lishes sympathies between man and the whole intelligent
creation. In the character of Christ, it sets before us
moral perfection, that greatest and most quickening mira-
cle in human history, a purity, which shows no stain or
touch of the earth, an excellence unborrowed, unconfin-
ed, bearing no impress of any age or any nation, the
very image of the Universal Father ; and it encourages
us, by assurances of God's merciful aid, to propose this
enlarged, unsullied virtue, as the model and happiness
of our moral nature. By the cross of Christ, it sets
forth the spirit of self-sacrifice with an energy never
known before, and, in thus crucifying selfishness, frees
the mind from its worst chain. By Christ's resurrection,
it links this short life with eternity, discovers to us in the
fleeting present, the germ of an endless future, reveals
to us the human mind ascending to other worlds, breath-
ing a freer air, forming higher connexions, and summons
us to a force of holy purpose becoming such a destina-
tion. To conclude, Christianity everywhere sets before

OF CHRISTIANITY. 219

us God in the character of infinitely free, rich, boundless
Grace, in a clemency which is "not overcome by evil,
but overcomes evil with good ; " and a more animating
and ennobling truth, who of us can conceive ? I have
hardly glanced at what Christianity contains. But who
does not see that it was sent from Heaven, to call forth
and exalt human nature, and that this is its great glory ?

It has been my object in this discourse to lay open
a great truth, a central, all-comprehending truth of
Christianity. Whoever intelligently and cordially em-
braces it, obtains a standard by which to try all other
doctrines, and to measure the importance of all other
truths. Is it so embraced ? I fear not. I apprehend
that it is dimly discerned by many who acknowledge it,
whilst on many more it has hardly dawned. I see other
views prevailing, and prevailing in a greater or less de-
gree among all bodies of Christians, and they seem to
me among the worst errors of our times. Some of these
I would now briefly notice.

1 . There are those, who, instead of placing the glory
of Christianity in the pure and powerful action which it
gives to the human mind, seem to think, that it is rather
designed to substitute the activity of another for our own.
They imagine the benefit of the religion to be, that it
enlists on our side an almighty being who does every
thing for us. To disparage human agency, seems to
them the essence of piety. They think Christ's glory
to consist, not in quickening free agents to act powerful-
ly on themselves, but in changing them by an irresistible
energy. They place a Christian's happiness, not so
much in powers and affections unfolded in his own breast,
as in a foreign care extended over him, in a foreign wis-
dom which takes the place of his own intelligence. Now,

220 THE GREAT PURPOSE

the great purpose of Christianity is, not to procure or
offer to the mind a friend on whom it may passively
lean, but to make the mind itself wise, strong, and effi-
cient. Tts end is, not that wisdom and strength, as sub-
sisting in another, should do every thing for us, but that
these attributes should grow perpetually in our own souls.
According to Christianity, we are not carried forward as
a weight by a foreign agency ; but God, by means suited
to our moral nature, quickens and strengthens us to walk
ourselves. The great design of Christianity is, to build
up in our own souls a power to withstand, to endure, to
triumph. Inward vigor is its aim. That we should do
most for ourselves and most for others, this is the glory
it confers, and in this its happiness is found.

2. I pass to another illustration of the insensibility of
men to the great doctrine, that the happiness and glory
of Christianity consist in the healthy and lofty frame to
which it raises the, mind. I refer to the propensity of
multitudes to make a wide separation between religion
or Christian virtue, and its rewards. That the chief re-
ward lies in the very spirit of religion, they do not
dream. They think of being Christians for the sake
of something beyond the Christian character, and some-
thing more precious. They think that Christ has a
greater good to give, than a strong and generous love
towards God and mankind ; and would almost turn from
him with scorn, if they thought him only a benefactor
to the mind. It is this low view, which dwarfs the piety
of thousands. Multitudes are serving God for wages
distinct from the service, and hence superstition, slavish-
ness, and formality are substituted for inward energy
and spiritual worship.

3. Men's ignorance of the great truth stated in this

OF CHRISTIANITY. 221

discourse, is seen in the low ideas attached by multi-
tudes to the word, salvation. Ask multitudes, what is
the chief evil from which Christ came to save them,
and they will "tell you, "From hell, from penal fires,
from future punishment." Accordingly, they think that
salvation is something which another may achieve for
them, very much as a neighbour may quench a confla-
gration that menaces their dwellings and lives. That
word, hell, which is used so seldom in the sacred pages,
which, in a faithful translation, would not once occur
in the writings of Paul, and Peter, and John, which
we meet only in four or five discourses of Jesus, and
which all persons, acquainted with Jewish geography,
know to be a metaphor, a figure of speech, and not
a literal expression, this word, by a perverse and ex-
aggerated use, has done unspeakable injury to Chris-
tianity. It has possessed and diseased men's imagina-
tions with outward tortures, shrieks, and flames ; given
them the idea of an outward ruin as what they have
chiefly to dread ; turned their thoughts to Jesus, as an
outward deliverer ; and thus blinded them to his true
glory, which consists in his setting free and exalting
the soul. Men are flying from an outward hell, when
in truth they carry within them the hell which they
should chiefly dread. The salvation which man chiefly
needs, and that which brings with it all other deliver-
ance, is salvation from the evil of his own mind. There
is something far worse than outward punishment. It is
sin ; it is the state of a soul, which has revolted from
God, and cast off its allegiance to conscience and the
divine word ; which renounces its Father, and hardens
itself against Infinite Love ; which, endued with divine
powers, enthralls itself to animal lusts ; wh'ch makes
19*

222 THE GREAT PURPOSE

gain its god ; which has capacities of boundless and
ever-growing love, and shuts itself up in the dungeon
of private interests ; which, gifted with a self-directing
power, consents to be a slave, and is passively formed
by custom, opinion, and changing events ; which, living
under God's eye, dreads man's frown or scorn, and
prefers human praise to its own calm consciousness of
virtue ; which tamely yields to temptation, shrinks with
a coward's baseness from the perils of duty, and sacri-
fices its glory and peace in parting with self-control.
No ruin can be compared to this. This the impenitent
man carries with him beyond the grave, and there meets
its natural issue, and inevitable retribution, in remorse,
self-torture, and woes unknown on earth. This we
cannot too strongly fear. To save, in the highest sense
of that word, is to lift the fallen spirit from this depth,
to heal the diseased mind, to restore it to energy and
freedom of thought, conscience, and love. This was
chiefly the salvation for which Christ shed his blood.
For this the holy spirit is given ; and to this all the
truths of Christianity conspire.

4. Another illustration of the error which I am la-
boring to expose, and which places the glory and im-
portance of Christianity in something besides its quick-
ening influence on the soul, is afforded in the common
apprehensions -formed of heaven, and of the methods
by which it may be obtained. Not a few, I suspect,
conceive of heaven as a foreign good. It is a distant
country, to which we are to be conveyed by an outward
agency. How slowly do men learn, that heaven is the
perfection of the mind, and that Christ gives it now
just as far as he raises the mind to celestial truth and
virtue. It is true, that this word is often used to ex-

OF CHRISTIANITY. 223

press a future felicity ; but the blessedness of the future
world is only a continuance of what is begun here.
There is but one true happiness, that of a mind un-
folding its best powers, and attaching itself to great
objects ; and Christ gives heaven, only in proportion
as he gives this elevation of character. The disinter-
estedness, and moral strength, and filial piety of the
Christian, are not mere means of heaven, but heaven
itself, and heaven now.

The most exalted idea we can form of the future
state is, that it brings and joins us to God. But is not
approach to this great being begun on earth ? Another
delightful view of heaven is, that it unites us with the
good and great of our own race, and even with higher
orders of beings. But this union is one of spirit, not
of mere place ; it is accordance of thought and feeling,
not an outward relation ; and does not this harmony
begin even now ? and is not virtuous friendship on earth
essentially the pleasure which we hope hereafter ? What
place would be drearier than the future mansions of
Christ, to one who should want sympathy with their
inhabitants, who could not understand their language,
who would feel himself a foreigner there, who would
be taught, by the joys which he could not partake, his
own loneliness and desolation ? These views, I know,
are often given with greater or less distinctness ; but
they seem to me not to have brought home to men
the truth, that the fountain of happiness must be in
our own souls. Gross ideas of futurity still prevail. I
should not be surprised if to some among us the chief
idea of heaven were that of a splendor, a radiance,
like that which Christ wore on the Mount of Trans-
figuration. Let us all consider, and it is a great truth,

224 THE GREAT PURPOSE

that heaven has no lustre surpassing that of intellectual
and moral worth ; and that, were the effulgence of the
sun and stars concentrated in the Christian, even this
would be darkness, compared with the pure beamings
of wisdom, love, and power from his mind. Think not,
then, that Christ has come to give heaven as something
distinct from virtue. Heaven is the freed and sancti-
fied mind, enjoying God through accordance with his
attributes, multiplying its bonds and sympathies with
excellent beings, putting forth noble powers, and min-
istering, in union with the enlightened and holy, to the
happiness and virtue of the universe.

My friends, I fear I have been guilty of repetition.
But I feel the greatness of the truth which I deliver,
and I am anxious to make it plain. Men need to be
taught it perpetually. They have always been inclined
to look to Christ for something better, as they have
dreamed, than the elevation of their own souls. The
great purpose of Christianity to unfold and strengthen
and lift up the mind, has been perpetually thrown out
of sight. In truth, this purpose has been more than
overlooked. It has been reversed. The very religion
given to exalt human nature, has been used to make it
abject. The very religion which was given to create a
generous hope, has been made an instrument of servile
and torturing fear. The very religion which came from
God's goodness to enlarge the human soul with a kin-
dred goodness, has been employed to narrow it to a
sect, to rear the Inquisition, and to kindle fires for the
martyr. The very religion given to make the under-
standing and conscience free, has, by a criminal per-
version, served to break them into subjection to priests,
ministers, and human creeds. Ambition and craft have

OF CHRISTIANITY. 225

seized on the solemn doctrines of an omnipotent God
and of future punishment, and turned them into en-
gines against the child, the trembling female, the ig-
norant adult, until the skeptic has been emboldened to
charge on religion the chief miseries and degradation
of human nature. It is from a deep and sorrowful
conviction of the injuries inflicted on Christianity and
on the human soul, by these perversions and errors,
that I have reiterated the great truth of this discourse.
I would rescue our holy faith from this dishonor.
Christianity has no tendency to break the human spirit,
or to make man a slave. It has another aim ; and as
far as it is understood, it puts forth another power.
God sent it from heaven, Christ sealed it with his
blood, that it might give force of thought and purpose
to the human mind, might free it from all fear but the
fear of wrong-doing, might make it free of its fellow-
beings, might break from it every outward and inward
chain.

My hearers, I close with exhorting you to remember
this great purpose of our religion. Receive Chris-
tianity as given to raise you in the scale of spiritual
being. Expect from it no good, any farther than it
gives strength and worth to your characters. Think
not, as some seem to think, that Christ has a higher
gift than purity to bestow, even pardon to the sinner.
He does bring pardon. But once separate the idea of
pardon from purity ; once imagine that forgiveness is
possible to him wiio does not forsake sin ; once make it
an exemption from outward punishment, and not the
admission of the reformed mind to favor and com-
munion with God ; and the doctrine of pardon becomes
your peril, and a system so teaching it, is fraught with

226 THE GREAT PURPOSE

evil. Expect no good from Christ, any farther than
you are exalted by his character and teaching. Expect
nothing from his cross, unless a power comes from it,
strengthening you to "bear his cross," to "drink his
cup," with his own unconquerable love. This is its
highest influence. Look not abroad for the blessings
of Christ. His reign and chief blessings are within
you. The human soul is his kingdom. There he gains
his victories, there rears his temples, there lavishes his
treasures. His noblest monument is a mind redeemed
from iniquity, brought back and devoted to God, form-
ing itself after the perfection of the Saviour, great
through its power to suffer for truth, lovely through its
meek and gentle virtues. No other monument does
Christ desire ; for this will endure and increase in
splendor, when earthly thrones shall have fallen, and
even when the present order of the outward universe
shall have accomplished its work, and shall have passed
away.

LIKENESS TO GOD.

DISCOURSE

ORDINATION OF THE REV. F. A. FARLEY.
Providence, R. I. 1828.

Ephesians v. 1: "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear

children."'

To promote true religion is the purpose of the Chris-
tian ministry. For this it was ordained. On the pres-
ent occasion, therefore, when a new teacher is to be
given to the church, a discourse on the character of
true religion will not be inappropriate. I do not mean,
that I shall attempt, in the limits to which I am now
confined, to set before you all its properties, signs, and
operations ; for in so doing I should burden your mem-
ories with divisions and vague generalities, as unin-
teresting as they would be unprofitable. My purpose
is, to select one view of the subject, which seems to me
of primary dignity and importance ; and I select this,
because it is greatly neglected, and because I attribute
to this neglect much of the inefficacy, and many of the
corruptions, of religion.

228 LIKENESS TO GOD.

The text calls us to follow or imitate God, to seek
accordance with or likeness to him ; and to do this,
not fearfully and faintly, but with the spirit and hope
of beloved children. The doctrine which I propose
to illustrate, is derived immediately from these words,
and is incorporated with the whole New Testament. I
affirm, and would maintain, that true religion consists
in proposing, as our great end, a growing likeness to
the Supreme Being. Its noblest influence consists in
making us more and more partakers of the Divinity.
For this it is to be preached. Religious instruction
should aim chiefly to turn men's aspirations and efforts
to that perfection of the soul, which constitutes it a
bright image of God. Such is the topic now to be
discussed ; and I implore Him, whose glory I seek, to
aid me in unfolding and enforcing it with simplicity and
clearness, with a calm and pure zeal, and with unfeigned
charity.

I begin with observing, what all indeed will under-
stand, that the likeness to God, of which I propose to
speak, belongs to man's higher or spiritual nature. It
has its foundation in the original and essential capaci-
ties of the mind. In proportion as these are unfolded
by right and vigorous exertion, it is extended and
brightened. In proportion as these lie dormant, it is
obscured. In proportion as they are perverted and
overpowered by the appetites and passions, it is blotted
out. In truth, moral evil, if unresisted and habitual,
may so blight and lay waste these capacities, that the
image of God in man may seem to be wholly destroyed.

The importance of this assimilation to our Creator,
is a topic which needs no labored discussion. All men,
of whatever name, or sect, or opinion, will meet me

LIKENESS TO GOD. 229

on this ground. All, I presume, will allow, that no
good in the compass of the universe, or within the gift
of omnipotence, can he compared to a resemblance of
God, or to a participation of his attributes. I fear no
contradiction here. Likeness to God is the supreme
gift. He can communicate nothing so precious, glori-
ous, blessed, as himself. To hold intellectual and moral
affinity with the Supreme Being, to partake his spirit,
to be his children by derivations of kindred excellence,
to bear a growing conformity to the perfection which
we adore, this is a felicity which obscures and annihi-
lates all other good.

It is only in proportion to this likeness, that we can
enjoy either God or the universe. That God can be
known and enjoyed only through sympathy or kindred
attributes, is a doctrine which even Gentile philosophy
discerned. That the pure in heart can alone see and
commune with the pure Divinity, was the sublime in-
struction of ancient sages as well as of inspired proph-
ets. It is indeed the lesson of daily experience. To
understand a great and good being, we must have the
seeds of the same excellence. How quickly, by what
an instinct, do accordant minds recognise one another !
No attraction is so powerful as that which subsists
between the truly wise and good ; whilst the brightest
excellence is lost on those who have nothing congenial
in their own breasts. God becomes a real being to us,
in proportion as his own nature is unfolded within us.
To a man who is growing in the likeness of God, faith
begins even here to change into vision. He carries
within himself a proof of a Deity, which can only be
understood by experience. He more than believes, he
feels the Divine presence ; and gradually rises to an

vol. in. 20

230 LIKENESS TO GOD.

intercourse with his Maker, to which it is not irrever-
ent to apply the name of friendship and intimacy. The
Apostle John intended to express this truth, when he
tells us, that he, in whom a principle of divine charity
or benevolence has become a habit and life, "dwells in
God and God in him."

It is plain, too, that likeness to God is the true and
only preparation for the enjoyment of the universe. In
proportion as we approach and resemble the mind of
God, we are brought into harmony with the creation ;
for, in that proportion, we possess the principles from
which the universe sprung ; we carry within ourselves
the perfections, of which its beauty, magnificence, order,
benevolent adaptations, and boundless purposes, are the
results and manifestations. God unfolds himself in his
works to a kindred mind. It is possible, that the brevity
of these hints may expose to the charge of mysticism,
what seems to me the calmest and clearest truth. I
think, however, that every reflecting man will feel, that
likeness to God must be a principle of sympathy or
accordance with his creation ; for the creation is a birth
and shining forth of the Divine Mind, a work through
which his spirit breathes. In proportion as we receive
this spirit, we possess within ourselves the explanation
of what we see. We discern more and more of God in
every thing, from the frail flower to the everlasting stars.
Even in evil, that dark cloud which hangs over the
creation, we discern rays of light and hope, and grad-
ually come to see, in suffering and temptation, proofs
and instruments of the sublimest purposes of Wisdom
and Love.

I have offered these very imperfect views, that I may
show the great importance of the doctrine which I am

LIKENESS OF GOD. 231

solicitous to enforce. I would teach, that likeness to
God is a good so unutterably surpassing all other good,
that whoever admits it as attainable, must acknowledge
it to be the chief aim of life. I would show, that the
highest and happiest office of religion is, to bring the
mind into growing accordance with God ; and that by
the tendency of religious systems to this end, their
truth and worth are to be chiefly tried.

I am aware that it may be said, that the Scriptures,
in speaking of man as made in the image of God, and
in calling us to imitate him, use bold and figurative
language. It may be said, that there is danger from too
literal an interpretation ; that God is an unapproachable
being ; that I am not warranted in ascribing to man a
like nature to the Divine ; that we and all things illus-
trate the Creator by contrast, not by resemblance ; that
religion manifests itself chiefly in convictions and ac-
knowledgments of utter worthlessness ; and that to talk
of the greatness and divinity of the human soul, is to
inflate that pride through which Satan fell, and through
which man involves himself in that fallen spirit's ruin.

I answer, that, to me, Scripture and reason hold a
different language. In Christianity particularly, I meet
perpetual testimonies to the divinity of human nature.
This whole religion expresses an infinite concern of
God for the human soul, and teaches that he deems no
methods too expensive for its recovery and exaltation.
Christianity, with one voice, calls me to turn my re-
gards and care to the spirit within me, as of more worth
than the whole outward world. It calls us to "be per-
fect as our Father in heaven is perfect;" and every-
where, in the sublimity of its precepts, it implies and

232 LIKENESS OF GOD.

recognises the sublime capacities of the being to whom
they are addressed. It assures us that human virtue
is "in the sight of God of great price," and speaks of
the return of a human being to virtue as an event which
increases the joy of heaven. In the New Testament,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the brightness of his
glory, the express and unsullied image of the Divinity,
is seen mingling with men as a friend and brother,
offering himself as their example, and promising to his
true followers a share in all his splendors and joys.
In the New Testament, God is said to communicate his
own spirit, and all his fulness to the human soul. In
the New Testament man is exhorted to aspire after
"honor, glory, and immortality" ; and Heaven, a word
expressing the nearest approach to God, and a divine
happiness, is everywhere proposed as the end of his
being. In truth, the very essence of Christian faith is,
that we trust in God's mercy, as revealed in Jesus
Christ, for a state of celestial purity, in which we shall
grow for ever in the likeness, and knowledge, and en-
joyment of the Infinite Father. Lofty views of the
nature of man are bound up and interwoven with the
whole Christian system. Say not, that these are at
war with humility ; for who was ever humbler than
Jesus, and yet who ever possessed such a consciousness
of greatness and divinity ? Say not that man's business
is to think of his sin, and not of his dignity ; for great
sin implies a great capacity ; it is the abuse of a noble
nature ; and no man can be deeply and rationally con-
trite, but he who feels, that in wrong-doing he has
resisted a divine voice, and warred against a divine
principle, in his own soul. — I need not, I trust, pursue
the argument from revelation. There is an argument

LIKENESS TO GOD. 233

from nature and reason, which seems to me so convin-
cing, and is at the same time so fitted to explain what I
mean by man's possession of a like nature to God, that
I shall pass at once to its exposition.

That man has a kindred nature with God, and may
bear most important and ennobling relations to him,
seems to me to be established by a striking proof. This
proof you will understand, by considering, for a mo-
ment, how we obtain our ideas of God. Whence come
the conceptions which we include under that august
name ? Whence do we derive our knowledge of the
attributes and perfections which constitute the Supreme
Being ? I answer, we derive them from our own souls.
The divine attributes are first developed in ourselves,
and thence transferred to our Creator. The idea of
God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own
spiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity. In
ourselves are the elements of the Divinity. God, then,
does not sustain a figurative resemblance to man. It is
the resemblance of a parent to a child, the likeness of a
kindred nature.

We call God a Mind. He has revealed himself as a
Spirit. But what do we know of' mind, but through the
unfolding of this principle in our own breasts ? That un-
bounded spiritual energy which we call God, is conceived
by us only through consciousness, through the knowledge
of ourselves. — We ascribe thought or intelligence to
the Deity, as one of his most glorious attributes. And
what means this language ? These terms we have
framed to express operations or faculties of our own
souls. The Infinite Light would be for ever hidden from
us, did not kindred rays dawn and brighten within us.
God is another name for human intelligence raised above
20*

234 LIKENESS TO GOD.

all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible
truth.

The same is true of God's goodness. How do we
understand this, but by the principle of love implanted
in the human breast ? Whence is it, that this divine at-
tribute is so faintly comprehended, but from the feeble
developement of it in the multitude of men ? Who can
understand the strength, purity, fulness, and extent of
divine philanthropy, but he in whom selfishness has been
swallowed up in love ?

The same is true of all the moral perfections of the
Deity. These are comprehended by us, only through
our own moral nature. It is conscience within us,
which, by its approving and condemning voice, inter-
prets to us God's love of virtue and hatred of sin ; and
without conscience, these glorious conceptions would
never have opened on the mind. It is the lawgiver in
our own breasts, which gives us the idea of divine au-
thority, and binds us to obey it. The soul, by its sense
of right, or its perception of moral distinctions, is
clothed with sovereignty over itself, and through this
alone, it understands and recognises the Sovereign of
the Universe. Men, as by a natural inspiration, have
agreed to speak of conscience as the voice of God, as
the Divinity within us. This principle, reverently
obeyed, makes us more and more partakers of the moral
perfection of the Supreme Being, of that very excel-
lence, which constitutes the rightfulness of his sceptre,
and enthrones him over the universe. Without this in-
ward law, we should be as incapable of receiving a law
from Heaven, as the brute. Without this, the thunders
of Sinai might startle the outward ear, but would have
no meaning, no authority to the mind. I have expressed

LIKENESS TO GOD. 235

here a great truth. Nothing teaches so encouragingly
our relation and resemblance to God ; for the glory of
the Supreme Being is eminently moral. We blind our-
selves to his chief splendor, if we think only or mainly
of his power, and overlook those attributes of rectitude
and goodness, to which he subjects his omnipotence,
and which are the foundations and very substance of his
universal and immutable Law. And are these attributes
revealed to us through the principles and convictions of
our own souls ? Do we understand through sympathy
God's perception of the right, the good, the holy, the
just ? Then with what propriety is it said, that in his
own image he made man !

I am aware, that it may be objected to these views,
that we receive our idea of God from the universe,
from his works, and not so exclusively from our own
souls. The universe, I know, is full of God. The
heavens and earth declare his glory. In other words,
the effects and signs of power, wisdom, and goodness,
are apparent through the whole creation. But apparent
to what ? Not to the outward eye ; not to the acutest
organs of sense ; but to a kindred mind, which inter-
prets the universe by itself. It is only through that
energy of thought, by which we adapt various and com-
plicated means to distant ends, and give harmony and a
common bearing to multiplied exertions, that we under-
stand the creative intelligence which has established the
order, dependencies, and harmony of nature. We see
God around us, because he dwells within us. It is by
a kindred wisdom, that we discern his wisdom in his
works. The brute, with an eye as piercing as ours,
looks on the universe ; and the page, which to us is
radiant with characters of greatness and goodness, is to

236 LIKENESS TO GOD.

him a blank. In truth, the beauty and glory of God's
works, are revealed to the mind by a light beaming from
itself. We discern the impress of God's attributes in
the universe, by accordance of nature, and enjoy them
through sympathy. — I hardly need observe, that these
remarks in relation to the universe apply with equal, if
not greater force, to revelation.

I shall now be met by another objection, which to
many may seem strong. It will be said, that these va-
rious attributes of which I have spoken, exist in God in
Infinite Perfection, and that this destroys all affinity be-
tween the human and the Divine mind. To this I have
two replies. In the first place, an attribute, by becom-
ing perfect, does not part with its essence. Love, wis-
dom, power, and purity do not change their nature by
enlargement. If they did, we should lose the Supreme
Being through his very infinity. Our ideas of him would
fade away into mere sounds. For example, if wisdom
in God, because unbounded, have no affinity with that
attribute in man, why apply to him that term ? It must
signify nothing. Let me ask what we mean, when we
say that we discern the marks of intelligence in the uni-
verse ? We mean, that we meet there the proofs of a
mind like our own. We certainly discern proofs of no
other ; so that to deny this doctrine would be to deny
the evidences of a God, and utterly to subvert the foun-
dations of religious belief. What man can examine the
structure of a plant or an animal, and see the adaptation
of its parts to each other and to common ends, and not
feel, that it is the work of an intelligence akin to his own,
and that he traces these marks of design by the same
spiritual energy in which they had their origin ?

But I would offer another answer to this objection,

LIKENESS TO GOD.

that God's infinity places him beyond the resemblance
and approach of man. I affirm, and trust that I do not
speak too strongly, that there are traces of infinity in the
human mind ; and that, in this very respect, it bears a
likeness to God. The very conception of infinity, is
the mark of a nature to which no limit can be prescribed.
This thought, indeed, comes to us, not so much from
abroad, as from our own souls. We ascribe this attri-
bute to God, because we possess capacities and wants,
which only an unbounded being can fill, and because we
are conscious of a tendency in spiritual faculties to un-
limited expansion. We believe in the Divine infinity,
through something congenial with it in our own breasts.
I hope I speak clearly, and if not, I would ask those to
whom I am obscure, to pause before they condemn.
To me it seems, that the soul, in all its higher actions,
in original thought, in the creations of genius, in the
soarings of imagination, in its love of beauty and gran-
deur, in its aspirations after a pure and unknown joy,
and especially in disinterestedness, in the spirit of self-
sacrifice, and in enlightened devotion, has a character of
infinity. There is often a depth in human love, which
may be strictly called unfathomable. There is some-
times a lofty strength in moral principle, which all (he
power of the outward universe cannot overcome. There
seems a might within, which can more than balance all
might without. There is, too, a piety, which swells into
a transport too vast for utterance, and into an immeasura-
ble joy. I am speaking, indeed, of what is uncommon,
but still of realities. We see, however, the tendency
of the soul to the infinite, in more familiar and ordinary
forms. Take, for example, the delight which we find
in the vast scenes of nature, in prospects which spread

238 LIKENESS TO GOD.

around us without limits, in the immensity of the heavens
and the ocean, and especially in the rush and roar of
mighty winds, waves, and torrents, when, amidst our
deep awe, a power within seems to respond to the om-
nipotence around us. The same principle is seen in the
delight ministered to us by works of fiction or of imagin-
ative art, in which our own nature is set before us in
more than human beauty and power. In truth, the soul
is always bursting its limits. It thirsts continually for
wider knowledge. It rushes forward to untried happi-
ness. It has deep wants, which nothing limited can
appease. Its true element and end is an unbounded
good. Thus,- God's infinity has its image in the soul ;
and through the soul, much more than through the uni-
verse, we arrive at this conception of the Deity.

In these remarks I have spoken strongly. But I have
no fear of expressing too strongly the connexion between
the Divine and the human mind. My only fear is, that I
shall dishonor the great subject. The danger to which
we are most exposed, is that of severing the Creator
from his creatures. The propensity of human sover-
eigns to cut off communication between themselves and
their subjects, and to disclaim a common nature with
their inferiors, has led the multitude of men, who think
of God chiefly under the character of a king, to con-
ceive of him as a being who places his glory in multi-
plying distinctions between himself and all other beings.
The truth is, that the union between the Creator and the
creature surpasses all other bonds in strength and intima-
cy. He penetrates all things, and delights to irradiate
all with his glory. Nature, in all its lowest and inani-
mate forms, is pervaded by his power ; and, when
quickened by the mysterious property of life, how won-

LIKENESS TO GOD. 239

derfully does it show forth the perfections of its Author !
How much of God may be seen in the structure of a
single leaf, which, though so frail as to tremble in every
wind, yet holds connexions and living communications
with the earth, the air, the clouds, and the distant sun,
and, through these sympathies with the universe, is it-
self a revelation of an omnipotent mind ! God delights
to diffuse himself everywhere. Through his energy, un-
conscious matter clothes itself with proportions, powers,
and beauties, which reflect his wisdom and love. How
much more must he delight to frame conscious and
happy recipients of his perfections, in whom his wisdom
and love may substantially dwell, with whom he may
form spiritual ties, and to whom he may be an everlast-
ing spring of moral energy and happiness ! How far
the Supreme Being may communicate his attributes to
his intelligent offspring, I stop not to inquire. But that
his almighty goodness will impart to them powers and
glories, of which the material universe is but a faint em-
blem, I cannot doubt. That the soul, if true to itself
and its Maker, will be filled with God, and will manifest
him, more than the sun, I cannot doubt. Who can
doubt it, that believes and understands the doctrine of
human immortality ?

The views which I have given in this discourse, re-
specting man's participation of the Divine nature, seem
to me to receive strong confirmation, from the title or
relation most frequently applied to God in the New
Testament ; and I have reserved this as the last cor-
roboration of this doctrine, because, to my own mind, it
is singularly affecting. In the New Testament God is
made known to us as a Father ; and a brighter feature
of that book cannot be named. Our worship is to be

240 LIKENESS TO GOD.

directed to him as our Father. Our whole religion is to
take its character from this view of the Divinity. In
this he is to rise always to our minds. And what is it
to he a Father ? It is to communicate one's own nature,
to give life to kindred beings : and the highest function
of a Father is to educate the mind of the child, and to
impart to it what is noblest and happiest in his own
mind. God is our Father, not merely because he creat-
ed us, or because he gives us enjoyment ; for he created
the flower and the insect, yet we call him not their
Father. This bond is a spiritual one. This name be-
longs to God, because he frames spirits like himself, and
delights to give them what is most glorious and blessed
in his own nature. Accordingly, Christianity is said,
with special propriety, to reveal God as the Father, be-
cause it reveals him as sending his Son to cleanse the
mind from every stain, and to replenish it for ever with
the spirit and moral attributes of its Author. Separate
from God this idea of his creating and training up beings
after his own likeness, and you rob him of the paternal
character. This relation vanishes, and with it vanishes
the glory of the Gospel, and the dearest hopes of the
human soul.

The greatest use which I would make of the princi-
ples laid down in this discourse, is to derive from them
just and clear views of the nature of religion. What,
then, is religion ? I answer ; it is not the adoration of a
God with whom we have no common properties ; of a
distinct, foreign, separate being ; but of an all-communi-
cating Parent. It recognises and adores God, as a be-
ing whom we know through our own souls, who has
made man in his own image, who is the perfection of our

LIKENESS TO GOD. 241

own spiritual nature, who has sympathies with us as
kindred beings, who is near us, not in place only like
this all-surrounding atmosphere, but by spiritual influence
and love, who looks on us with parental interest, and
whose great design it is to communicate to us for ever,
and in freer and fuller streams, his own power, goodness,
and joy. The conviction of this near and ennobling
relation of God to the soul, and of his great purposes
towards it, belongs to the very essence of true religion ;
and true religion manifests itself chiefly and most con-
spicuously in desires, hopes, and efforts corresponding
to this truth. It desires and seeks supremely the assimi-
lation of the mind to God, or the perpetual unfolding
and enlargement of those powers and virtues by which it
is constituted his glorious image. The mind, in propor-
tion as it is enlightened and penetrated by true religion,
thirsts and labors for a godlike elevation. What else,
indeed, can it seek, if this good be placed within its
reach ? If I am capable of receiving and reflecting the
intellectual and moral glory of my Creator, what else in
comparison shall I desire ? Shall I deem a property in
the outward universe as the highest good, when I may
become partaker of the very mind from which it springs,
of the prompting love, the disposing wisdom, the quick-
ening power, through which its order, beauty, and benefi-
cent influences subsist ? True religion is known by
these high aspirations, hopes, and efforts. And this is
the religion which most truly honors God. To honor
him, is not to tremble before him as an unapproachable
sovereign, not to utter barren praise which leaves us as
t found us. It is to become what we praise. It is
o approach God as an inexhaustible Fountain of light,
power, and purity. It is to feel the quickening and
vol. m. 21

242 LIKENESS TO GOD.

transforming energy of his perfections. It is to thirst
for the growth and invigoration of the divine principle
within us. It is to seek the very spirit of God. It is
to trust in, to bless, to thank him for that rich grace,
mercy, love, which was revealed and proffered by Jesus
Christ, and which proposes as its great end the perfec-
tion of the human soul.

I regard this view of religion as infinitely important.
It does more than all things to make our connexion with
our Creator ennobling and happy ; and, in proportion as
we warit it, there is danger that the thought of God may
itself become the instrument of our degradation. That
religion has been so dispensed as to depress the human
mind, I need not tell you ; and it is a truth which ought
to be known, that the greatness of the Deity, when sep-
arated in our thoughts from his parental character, espe-
cially tends to crush human energy and hope. To a
frail, dependent creature, an omnipotent Creator easily
becomes a terror, and his worship easily degenerates into
servility, flattery, self-contempt, and selfish calculation.
Religion only ennobles us, in as far as it reveals to us
the tender and intimate connexion of God with his
creatures, and teaches us to see in the very greatness
which might give alarm, the source of great and glorious
communications to the human soul. You cannot, my
hearers, think too highly of the majesty of God. But
let not this majesty sever him from you. Remember,
that his greatness is the infinity of attributes which your-
selves possess. Adore his infinite wisdom ; but remem-
ber that this wisdom rejoices to diffuse itself, and let an
exhilarating hope spring up, at the thought of the im-
measurable intelligence which such a Father must com-
municate to his children. In like manner adore his

IJKEKESS TO GOD. 943

power. Let the boundless creation fill you with awe
and admiration of the energy which sustains it. But
remember that God has a nobler work than the outward
creation, even the spirit within yourselves ; and that it
is his purpose to replenish this with his own energy, and
to crown it with growing power and triumphs over -the
material universe. Above all, adore his unutterable
goodness. But remember, that this attribute is particu-
larly proposed to you as your model ; that God calls
you, both by nature and revelation, to a fellowship in his
philanthropy ; that he has placed you in social relations,
lor the very end of rendering you ministers and repre-
sentatives of his benevolence ; that he even summons
you to espouse and to advance the sublimest purpose of
his goodness, the redemption of the human race, by ex-
tending the knowledge and power of Christian truth. It
is through such views, that religion raises up the soul,
and binds man by ennobling bonds to his Maker.

To complete my views of this topic, I beg to add an
important caution. I have said that the great work of
religion is, to conform ourselves to God, or to unfold
the divine likeness within us. Let none infer from this
language, that I place religion in unnatural effort, in
straining after excitements which do not belong to the
present state, or in any thing separate from the clear and
simple duties of life. I exhort you to no extravagance.
I reverence human nature too much to do it violence.
I see too much divinity in its ordinary operations, to
urge on it a forced and vehement virtue. To grow in
the likeness of God, we need not cease to be men.
This likeness does not consist in extraordinary or mirac-
ulous gifts, in supernatural additions to the soul, or in
any thing foreign to our original constitution ; but in our

244 LIKENESS TO GOD.

essential faculties, unfolded by vigorous and conscien-
tious exertion in the ordinary circumstances assigned by
God. To resemble our Creator, we need not fly from
society, and entrance ourselves in lonely contemplation
and prayer. Such processes might give a feverish
strength to one class of emotions, but would result in
disproportion, distortion, and sickliness of mind. Our
proper work is to approach God by the free and natural
unfolding of our highest powers, of understanding, con-
science, love, and the moral will.

Shall I be told that, by such language, I ascribe to
nature the effects which can only be wrought in the soul
by the Holy Spirit ? I anticipate this objection, and
wish to meet it by a simple exposition of my views. I
would on no account disparage the gracious aids and in-
fluences which God imparts to the human soul. The
promise of the Holy Spirit is among the most precious
in the Sacred Volume. Worlds could not tempt me to
part with the doctrine of God's intimate connexion with
the mind, and of his free and full communications to it.
But these views are in no respect at variance with what
I have taught, of the method by which we are to grow
in the likeness of God. Scripture and experience con-
cur in teaching, that, by the Holy Spirit, we are to
understand a divine assistance adapted to our moral free-
dom, and accordant with the fundamental truth, that
virtue is the mind's own work. By the Holy Spirit, I
understand an aid, which must be gained and made
effectual by our own activity ; an aid, which no more
interferes with our faculties, than the assistance which
we receive from our fellow-beings ; an aid, which silent-
ly mingles and conspires with all other helps and means
of goodness ; an aid, by which we unfold our natural

LIKENESS TO GOD. 245

powers in a natural order, and by which we are strength-
ened to understand and apply the resources derived horn
our munificent Creator. This aid we cannot prize too
much, or pray for too earnestly. But wherein, let me
ask, does it war with the doctrine, that God is to be ap-
proached by the exercise and unfolding of our highest
powers and affections, in the ordinary circumstances of
human life ?

I repeat it, to resemble our Maker we need not quar-
rel with our nature or our lot. Our present state, made
up, as it is, of aids and trials, is worthy of God, and
may be used throughout to assimilate us to him. For
example, our domestic ties, the relations of neighbour-
hood and country, the daily interchanges of thoughts
and feelings, the daily occasions of kindness, the daily
claims of want and suffering, these and the other cir-
cumstances of our social state, form the best sphere and
school for that benevolence, which is God's brightest
attribute ; and we should make a sad exchange, by sub-
stituting for these natural aids, any self-invented arti-
ficial means of sanctily. Christianity, our great guide
to God, never leads us away from the path of nature,
and never wars with the unsophisticated dictates of
conscience. We approach our Creator by every right
exertion of the powers he gives us. Whenever we in-
vigorate the understanding by honestly and resolutely
seeking truth, and by withstanding whatever might warp
the judgment ; whenever we invigorate the conscience
by following it in opposition to the passions ; whenever
we receive a blessing gratefully, bear a trial patiently,
or encounter- peril or scorn with moral courage ; when-
ever we perform a disinterested deed ; whenever we lift
up the heart in true adoration to God ; whenever we
21*

246 LIKENESS TO GOD.

war against a habit or desire which is strengthening
itself against our higher principles ; whenever we think,
speak, or act, with moral energy, and resolute devotion
to duty, be the occasion ever so humble, obscure, famil-
iar ; then the divinity is growing within us, and we
are ascending towards our Author. True religion thus
blends itself with common life. We are thus to draw
nigh to God, without forsaking men. We are thus,
without parting with our human nature, to clothe our-
selves with the divine.

My views on the great subject of this discourse have
now been given. I shall close with a brief considera-
tion of a few objections, in the course of which I shall
offer some views of the Christian ministry, which this
occasion and the state of the world, seem to me to de-
mand. — I anticipate from some an objection to this dis-
course, drawn as they will say from experience. I may
be told, that, I have talked of the godlike capacities of
human nature, and have spoken of man as a divinity ;
and where, it will be asked, are the warrants of this
high estimate of our race ? I may be told that I dream,
and that I have peopled the world with the creatures
of my lonely imagination. What ! Is it only in dreams,
that beauty and loveliness have beamed on me from the
human countenance, that I have heard tones of kind-
ness, which have thrilled through my heart, that I have
found sympathy in suffering, and a sacred joy in friend-
ship ? Are all the great and good men of past ages
only dreams ? Are such names as Moses, Socrates,
Paul, Alfred, Milton, only the fictions of my disturbed
slumbers ? Are the great deeds of history, the discov-
eries of philosophy, the creations of genius, only visions ?

LIKENESS TO GOD.

0 ! no. I do not dream when I speak of the divine
capacities of human nature. It is a real page in which

1 read of patriots and martyrs, of Fenelon and Howard,
of Hampden and Washington. And tell me not that
these were prodigies, miracles, immeasurably separated
from their race ; for the very reverence, which has treas-
ured up and hallowed their memories, the very senti-
ments of admiration and love with which their names
are now heard, show that the principles of their great-
ness are diffused through all your breasts. The germs
of sublime virtue are scattered liberally on our earth.
How often have I seen in the obscurity of domestic
life, a strength of love, of endurance, of pious trust, of
virtuous resolution, which in a public sphere would have
attracted public homage. I cannot but pity the man,
who recognises nothing godlike in his own nature. I
see the marks of God in the heavens and the earth,
but how much more in a liberal intellect, in magna-
nimity, in unconquerable rectitude, in a philanthropy
which forgives every wrong, and which never despairs
of the cause of Christ and human virtue. I do and I
must reverence human nature. Neither the sneers of
a worldly skepticism, nor the groans of a gloomy the-
ology, disturb my faith in its godlike powers and ten-
dencies. I know how it is despised, how it has been
oppressed, how civil and religious establishments have
for ages conspired to crush it. I know its history. I
shut my eyes on none of its weaknesses and crimes.
I understand the proofs, by which despotism demon-
strates, that man is a wild beast, in want of a master,
and only safe in chains. But, injured, trampled on, and
scorned as our nature is, I still turn to it with intense
sympathy and strong hope. The signatures of its origin

248 LIKENESS TO GOD.

and its end are impressed too deeply to be ever wholly
effaced. I bless it for its kind affections, for its strong
and tender love. I honor it for its struggles against
oppression, for its growth and progress under the weight
of so many chains and prejudices, for its achievements
in science and art, and still more for its examples of
heroic and saintly virtue. These are marks of a divine
origin and the pledges of a celestial inheritance ; and I
thank God that my own lot is bound up with that of the
human race.

But another objection starts up. It may be said,
"Allow these views to be true ; are they fitted for the
pulpit ? fitted to act on common minds ? They may be
prized by men of cultivated intellect and taste ; but can
the multitude understand them ? Will the multitude
feel them ? On whom has a minister to act ? On men
immersed in business, and buried in the flesh; on men,
whose whole power of thought has been spent on pleas-
ure or gain ; on men chained by habit and wedded to
sin. Sooner may adamant be riven by a child's touch,
than the human heart be pierced by refined and ele-
vated sentiment. Gross instruments will alone act on
gross minds. Men sleep, and nothing but thunder,
nothing but flashes from the everlasting fire of hell,
will thoroughly wake them."

I have all along felt that such objections would be
made to the views I have urged. But they do not
move me. I answer, that I think these views singularly
adapted to the pulpit, and I think them full of power.
The objection is that they are refined. But I see God
accomplishing his noblest purposes by what may be
called refined means. All the great agents of nature,
attraction, heat, and the principle of life, are refined,

LIKENESS TO GOD. 249

spiritual, invisible, acting gently, silently, impercepti-
bly ; and yet brute matter feels their power, and is
transformed by them into surpassing beauty. The elec-
tric fluid, unseen, unfelt, and everywhere diffused, is
infinitely more efficient, and ministers to infinitely nobler
productions, than when it breaks forth in thunder. Much
less can I believe, that in the moral world, noise, men-
ace, and violent appeals to gross passions, to fear and
selfishness, are God's chosen means of calling forth
spiritual life, beauty, and greatness. It is seldom that
human nature throws off all susceptibility of grateful
and generous impressions, all sympathy with superior
virtue ; and here are springs and principles to which a
generous teaching, if simple, sincere, and fresh from
the soul, may confidently appeal.

It is said, men cannot understand the views which
seem to me so precious. This objection I am anxious
to repel, for the common intellect has been grievously
kept down and wronged through the belief of its in-
capacity. The pulpit would do more good, were not
the mass of men looked upon and treated as children.
Happily for the race, the time is passing away, in which
intellect was thought the monopoly of a few, and the
majority were given over to hopeless ignorance. Sci-
ence is leaving her solitudes to enlighten the multitude.
How much more may religious teachers take courage
to speak to men on subjects, which are nearer to them
than the properties and laws of matter, I mean their
own souls. The multitude, you say, want capacity to
receive great truths relating to their spiritual nature.
But what, let me ask you, is the Christian religion ?
A spiritual system, intended to turn men's minds upon
themselves, to frame them to watchfulness over thought,

250 LIKENESS TO GOD.

imagination, and passion, to establish them in an inti-
macy with their own souls. What are all the Christian
virtues, which men are exhorted to love and seek ? I
answer, pure and high motions or determinations of the
mind. That refinement of thought, which, I am told,
transcends the common intellect, belongs to the very
essence of Christianity. In confirmation of these views,
the human mind seems to me to be turning itself more
and more inward, and to be growing more alive to its
own worth, and its capacities of progress. The spirit
of education shows this, and so does the spirit of free-
dom. There is a spreading conviction that man was
made for a higher purpose than to be a beast of burden,
or a creature of sense. The divinity is stirring within
the human breast, and demanding a culture and a lib-
erty worthy of the child of God. Let religious teach-
ing correspond to this advancement of the mind. Let
it rise above the technical, obscure, and frigid theology
which has come down to us from times of ignorance,
superstition, and slavery. Let it penetrate the human
soul, and reveal it to itself. No preaching, I believe,
is so intelligible, as that which is true to human nature,
and helps men to read their own spirits.

But the objection which I have stated not only repre-
sents men as incapable of understanding, but still more
of being moved, quickened, sanctified, and saved, by
such views as I have given. If by this objection noth-
ing more is meant, than that these views are not alone
or of themselves sufficient, I shall not dispute it ; for
true and glorious as they are, they do not constitute
the whole truth, and I do not expect great moral effects
from narrow and partial views of our nature. I have
spoken of the godlike capacities of the soul But other

LIKENESS TO GOD. 251

and very different elements enter into the human being.
Man has animal propensities as well as intellectual and
moral powers. He has a body as well as mind. He
has passions to war with reason, and self-love with con-
science. He is a free being, and a tempted being, and
thus constituted he may and does sin, and often sins
grievously. To such a being, religion, or virtue, is a
conflict, requiring great spiritual effort, put forth in ha-
bitual watchfulness and prayer ; and all the motives are
needed, by which1 force and constancy may be commu-
nicated to the will. I exhort not the preacher, to talk
perpetually of man as " made but a little lower than the
angels." I would not narrow him to any class of topics.
Let him adapt himself to our whole and various nature.
Let him summon to his aid all the powers of this world,
and the world to come. Let him bring to bear on the
conscience and the heart, God's milder and more awful
attributes, the promises and threatenings of the divine
word, the lessons of history, the warnings of experience.
Let the wages of sin here and hereafter be taught clear-
ly and earnestly. But amidst the various motives to
spiritual effort, which belong to the minister, none are
more quickening than those drawn from the soul itself,
and from God's desire and purpose to exalt it, by every
aid consistent with its freedom. These views I conceive
are to mix with all others, and without them all other;;
fail to promote a generous virtue. Is it said, that the
minister's proper work is, to preach Christ, and not the
dignity of human nature ? I answer, that Christ's great-
ness is manifested in the greatness of the nature which
he was sent to redeem ; and that his chief glory consists
in this, that he came to restore God's image where it
was obscured or effaced, and to give an everlasting im-

252 LIKENESS TO GOB.

pulse and life to what is divine within us. Is it said,
that the malignity of sin is to be the minister's great
theme ? I answer, that this malignity can only be under-
stood and felt, when sin is viewed as the ruin of God's
noblest work, as darkening a light brighter than the
sun, as carrying discord, bondage, disease, and death
into a mind framed for perpetual progress towards its
Author. Is it said, that terror is the chief instrument
of saving the soul ? I answer, that if by terror, be meant
a rational and moral fear, a conviction and dread of the
unutterable evil incurred by a mind which wrongs, be-
trays, and destroys itself, then I am the last to deny its
importance. But a fear like this, which regards the
debasement of the soul as the greatest of evils, is plainly
founded upon and proportioned to our conceptions of
the greatness of our nature. The more common terror,
excited by vivid images of torture and bodily pain, is
a very questionable means of virtue. When strongly
awakened, it generally injures the character, breaks men
into cowards and slaves, brings the intellect to cringe
before human authority, makes man abject before his
Maker, and, by a natural reaction of the mind, often
terminates in a presumptuous confidence, altogether dis
tinct from virtuous self-respect, and singularly hosti.e
to the unassuming, charitable spirit of Christianity. The
preacher should rather strive to fortify the soul against
physical pains, than to bow it to their mastery, teach-
ing it to dread nothing in comparison with sin, and to
dread sin as the ruin of a noble nature.

Men, I repeat it, are to be quickened and raised by
appeals to their highest principles. Even the convicts
of a prison may be touched by kindness, generosity, and
especially by a tone, look, and address, expressing hope

LIKENESS TO GOD. 253

and respect for their nature. I know, that the doctrine
of ages has been, that terror, restraint, and bondage are
the chief safeguards of human virtue and peace. But
we have begun to learn, that affection, confidence, re-
spect, and freedom are mightier as well as nobler
agents. Men can be wrought upon by generous influ-
ences. I would that this truth were better understood by
religious teachers. From the pulpit, generous influences
too seldom proceed. In the church, men too seldom
hear a voice to quicken and exalt them. Religion,
speaking through her public organs, seems often to forget
her natural tone of elevation. The character of God,
the principles of his government, his relations to the
human family, the purposes for which he brought us into
being, the nature which he has given us, and the condi-
tion in which he has placed us, these and the like topics,
though the sublimest which can enter the mind, are not
unfrequently so set forth as to narrow and degrade the
hearers, disheartening and oppressing with gloom the
timid and sensitive, and infecting coarser minds with the
unhallowed spirit of intolerance, presumption, and exclu-
sive pretension to the favor of God. I know, and re-
rejoice to know, that preaching in its worst forms does
good ; for so bright and piercing is the light of Christi-
anity, that it penetrates in a measure the thickest clouds
in which men contrive to involve it. But that evil mixes
with the good, I also know ; and I should be unfaithful
to my deep convictions, did I not say, that human nature
requires for its elevation, more generous treatment from
the teachers of religion.

I conclude with saying, let the minister cherish a rev-
erence for his own nature. Let him never despise it
even in its most forbidding forms. Let him delight in

vol. in. 22

254 LIKENESS TO GOD.

its beautiful and lofty manifestations. Let him hold fast
as one of the great qualifications for his office, a faith in
the greatness of the human soul, that faith, which looks
beneath the perishing body, beneath the sweat of the
laborer, beneath the rags and ignorance of the poor, be-
neath the vices of the sensual and selfish, and discerns
in the depths of the soul a divine principle, a ray of the
Infinite Light, which may yet break forth and " shine as
the sun " in the kingdom of God. Let him strive to
awaken in men a consciousness of the heavenly treas-
ure within them, a consciousness of possessing what is
of more worth than the outward universe. Let hope
give life to all his labors. Let him speak to men, as to
beings liberally gifted, and made for God. Let him al-
ways look round on a congregation with the encouraging
trust, that he has hearers prepared to respond to the
simple, unaffected utterance of great truths, and to the
noblest workings of his own mind. Let him feel deeply
for those, in whom the divine nature is overwhelmed by
the passions. Let him sympathize tenderly with those,
in whom it begins to struggle, to mourn for sin, to thirst
for a new life. Let him guide and animate to higher
and diviner virtue, those in whom it has gained strength.
Let him strive to infuse courage, enterprise, devout trust,
and an inflexible will, into men's labors for their own
perfection. In one word, let him cherish an unfaltering
and growing faith in God as the Father and quickener
of the human mind, and in Christ as its triumphant and
immortal friend. That by such preaching he is to work
miracles, I do not say. That he will rival in sudden
and outward effects what is wrought by the preachers of
a low and terrifying theology, I do not expect or desire.
That all will be made better, I am far from believing.

LIKENESS TO GOD. 255

His office is, to act on free beings, who, after all, must
determine themselves ; who have power to withstand all
foreign agency ; who are to be saved, not by mere
preaching, but by their own prayers and toil. Still I
believe that such a minister will be a benefactor beyond
all praise to the human soul. I believe, and know, that,
on those who will admit his influence, he will work
deeply, powerfully, gloriously. His function is the sub-
limest under heaven ; and his reward will be, a growing
power of spreading truth, virtue, moral strength, love,
and happiness, without limit and without end.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

DISCOURSE

THE DEDICATION OF DIVINITY HALL,

Cambridge, 1826.

Luke iv. 32 : " His word was with power."

We are assembled to set apart and consecrate this
building to the education of teachers of the Christian
religion. Regarding, as we do, this religion as God's
best gift to mankind, we look on these simple walls,
reared for this holy and benevolent work, with an inter-
est, which more splendid edifices, dedicated to inferior
purposes, would fail to inspire. We thank God for the
zeal which has erected them. We thank him for the
hope, that here will be trained, and hence will go forth,
able ministers of the New Testament. God accept our
offering and fulfd our trust. May he shed on this spot
the copious dew of his grace, and compass it with his
favor as with a shield.

To what end do we devote this building ? How may
this end be accomplished ? These questions will guide
our present reflections.
22*

258 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

To what end is this edifice dedicated ? The answer
to this question may be given in various forms or ex-
panded into various particulars. From this wide range
of topics, I shall select one, which from its comprehen-
siveness and importance, will be acknowledged to de-
serve peculiar attention. I say, then, that this edifice
is dedicated to the training of ministers, whose word,
like their Master's, shall be " with power.'''' Power,
energy, efficiency, that is the endowment to be commu-
nicated most assiduously by a theological institution.
Such is the truth, which I would now develope. My
meaning may easily be explained. By the power, of
which I have spoken, I mean that strong action of the
understanding, conscience, and heart, on moral and reli-
gious truth, through which the preacher is quickened
and qualified to awaken the same strong action in others.
I mean energy of thought and feeling in the minister,
creating for itself an appropriate expression, and propa-
gating itself to the hearer. What this power is all men
understand by experience. All know, how the same
truth differs, when dispensed by different lips ; how doc-
trines, inert and uninteresting as expounded by one
teacher, come fraught with life from another ; arrest
attention, rouse emotion, and give a new spring to the
soul. In declaring this power to be the great object of
a theological institution, I announce no discovery. I
say nothing new. But this truth, like many others, is
too often acknowledged only to be slighted. It needs
to be brought out, to be made prominent, to become
the living, guiding principle of education for the ministry.
Power, then, I repeat it, is the great good to be com-
municated by theological institutions. To impart knowl-
edge is indeed their indispensable duty, but not their

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 259

whole, nor most arduous, nor highest work. Knowledge
is the means, power the end. The former, when accu-
mulated, as it often is, with no strong action of the
intellect, no vividness of conception, no depth of con-
viction, no force of feeling, is of little or no worth to
the preacher. It comes from him as a faint echo, with
nothing of that mysterious energy, which strong convic-
tion throws into style and utterance. His breath, which
should kindle, chills his hearers, and the nobler the truth
with which he is charged, the less he succeeds in carry-
ing it far into men's souls. We want more than knowl-
edge. We want force of thought, feeling, and purpose.
What profits it to arm the pupil with weapons of heaven-
ly temper, unless his hands be nerved to wield them
with vigor and success ? The word of God is indeed
" quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword ; " but when committed to him who has no kin-
dred energy, it does not and cannot penetrate the mind.
Power is the attribute, which crowns all a minister's
accomplishments. It is the centre and grand result, in
which all his studies, meditations, and prayers should
meet, and without which his office becomes a form and
a show. And yet how seldom is it distinctly and ear-
nestly proposed as the chief qualification for the sacred
office ! How seldom do we meet it ! How often does
preaching remind us of a child's arrows shot against a
fortress of adamant. How often does it seem a mock
fight. We do not see the earnestness of real warfare ;
of men bent on the accomplishment of a great good.
We want powerful ministers, not graceful declaimers,
not elegant essayists, but men fitted to act on men, to
make themselves felt in society.

I have said that the communication of power is the

260 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

great end of a theological institution. Let not this
word give alarm. I mean by it, as you must have seen,
a very different power from that which ministers once
possessed, and which some still covet. There have
been times, when the clergy were rivals in dominion
with kings ; when the mitre even towered above the
diadem ; when the priest, shutting God's word on the
people, and converting its threatenings and promises in-
to instruments of usurpation, was able to persuade men,
that the soul's everlasting doom hung on his ministry,
and even succeeded in establishing a sway over fiery and
ferocious spirits, which revolted against all other con-
trol. This power, suited to barbarous times, and, as
some imagine, a salutary element of society in rude,
lawless ages, has been shaken almost everywhere by
the progress of intellect ; and in Protestant countries,
it is openly reprobated and renounced. It is not to
reestablish this, that these walls have been reared. We
trust, that they are to be bulwarks against its encroach-
ments, and that they are to send forth influences more
and more hostile to every form of spiritual usurpation.

Am I told that this kind of power is now so fallen
and so contemned, that to disclaim or to oppose it
seems a waste of words ? I should rejoice to yield my-
self to this belief. But unhappily the same enslaving
and degrading power may grow up under Protestant
as under Catholic institutions. In all ages and all
churches, terror confers a tremendous influence on him
who can spread it ; and, through this instrument, the
Protestant minister, whilst disclaiming Papal preten-
sions, is able, if so minded, to build up a spiritual
despotism. That this means of subjugating the mind
should be too freely used and dreadfully perverted, we

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 261

cannot wonder, when we consider that no talent is re
quired to spread a panic, and that coarse minds and
hard hearts are signally gifted for this work of torture.
The progress of intelligence is undoubtedly narrowing
the power, which the minister gains by excessive ap-
peals to men's fears, but has by no means destroyed it ;
for as yet the intellect, even in Protestant countries,
has exerted itself comparatively little on religion ; and,
ignorance begetting a passive, servile state of mind, the
preacher, if so disposed, finds little difficulty in break-
ing some, if not many, spirits by terror. The effects
of this ill-gotten power are mournful on the teacher
and the taught. The panic-smitten hearer, instructed
that safety is to be found in bowing to an unintelligi-
ble creed, and too agitated for deliberate and vigorous
thought, resigns himself a passive subject to his spiritual
guides, and receives a faith by which he is debased.
Nor does the teacher escape unhurt ; for all usurpation
on men's understandings begets, in him who exercises
it, a dread and resistance of the truth which threatens
its subversion. Hence ministers have so often fallen
behind their age, and been the chief foes of the master
spirits who have improved the world. They have felt
their power totter at the tread of an independent thinker.
By a kind of instinct, they have fought against the light,
before which the shades of superstition were vanishing,
and have received their punishment in the darkness and
degradation of their own minds. To such power as
we have described, we do not dedicate these walls.
We would not train here, if we could, agents of terror,
to shake weak nerves, to disease the imagination, to lay
a spell on men's faculties, to guard a creed by fires
more consuming than those which burned on Sinai

262 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

Believing that this method of dominion is among the
chief obstructions to an enlightened faith, and abhorring
tyranny in the pulpit as truly as on the throne, we would
consecrate this edifice to the subversion, not the partici-
pation, of this unhallowed power.

Is it then asked, what I mean by the power which
this institution should aim to communicate ? I mean
power to act on intelligent and free beings, by means
proportioned to their nature. I mean power to call into
healthy exertion the intellect, conscience, affections, and
moral will of the hearer. I mean force of conception,
and earnestness of style and elocution. I mean, that
truth should be a vital principle in the soul of the
teacher, and should come from him as a reality. I
mean, that his whole moral and intellectual faculties
should be summoned to his work ; that a tone of force
and resolution should pervade his efforts ; that, throwing
his soul into his cause, he should plead it with urgency,
and should concentrate on his hearers all the influences
which consist with their moral freedom.

Every view which we can take of the ministry will
teach us, that nothing less than the whole amount of
power in the individual can satisfy its demands. This
we learn, if we consider, first, the weight and grandeur
of the subjects which the minister is to illustrate and
enforce. He is to speak of God, the King and Father
Eternal, whose praise no tongue of men or angels can
worthily set forth. He is to speak of the soul, that ray
of the Divinity, the partaker of God's own immortality,
to which the outward universe was made to minister,
and which, if true to itself, will one day be clad with
a beauty and grandeur such as nature's loveliest and

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 263

subliraest scenery never wears. He is to speak, not of
this world only, but of invisible and more advanced
states of being ; of a world too spiritual for the fleshly
eye to see, but of which a presage and earnest may be
found in the enlightened and purified mind. He has to
speak of virtue, of human perfection, of the love which
is due to the Universal Father and to fellow-beings, of
the intercourse of the soul with its Creator, and of all
the duties of life as hallowed and elevated by a reference
to God and to the future world. He has to speak of
sin, that essential evil, that only evil, which, by its
unutterable fearfulness, makes all other calamities un-
worthy of the name. He is to treat, not of ordinary
life, nor of the most distinguished agents in ordinary
history, but of God's supernatural interpositions ; of
his most sensible and immediate providence ; of men
inspired and empowered to work the most important
revolutions in society ; and especially of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the theme of prophecy, the revealer
of grace and truth, the Saviour from sin, the conqueror
of death, who hath left us an example of immaculate
virtue, whose love passeth knowledge, and whose his-
tory, combining the strange and touching contrasts of
the cross, the resurrection, and a heavenly throne, sur-
passes all other records in interest and grandeur. He
has to speak, not of transitory concerns but of happiness
aud misery transcending in duration and degree the most
joyful and suffering condition of the present state. He
has to speak of the faintly shadowed, but solemn con-
summation of this world's eventful history ; of the com-
ing of the Son of Man, the resurrection, the judgment,
the retributions of the last day. Here are subjects of
intense interest. They claim and should call forth the

264 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

mind's whole power, and are infinitely wronged when
uttered with cold lips and from an unmoved heart.

If we next consider the effects, which, through these
truths, the minister is to produce, we shall see that his
function demands and should be characterized by power.
The first purpose of a minister's function, which is to
enlighten the understanding on the subject of religion,
is no easy task ; for all religious truth is not obvious,
plain, shining with an irresistible evidence, so that a
glance of thought will give the hearer possession of the
teacher's mind. We sometimes talk, indeed, of the
simplicity of religion, as if it were as easy as a child's
book, as if it might be taught with as little labor as
the alphabet. But all analogy forbids us to believe, that
the sublimest truths can be imparted or gained with
little thought or effort, and the prevalent ignorance
confirms this presumption. Obstacles neither few nor
small to a clear apprehension of religion, are found in
the invisibleness of its objects ; in the disproportion
between the Infinite Creator and the finite mind ; in the
proneness of human beings to judge of superior natures
by their own, and to transfer to the spiritual world the
properties of matter and the affections of sense ; in the
perpetual pressure of outward things upon the atten-
tion ; in the darkness which sin spreads over the intel-
lect ; in the ignorance which yet prevails in regard to
the human mind ; and, though last not least, in the
errors and superstitions which have come down to us
from past ages, and which exert an unsuspected power
on our whole modes of religious thinking. These ob-
stacles are strengthened by the general indisposition to
investigate religion freely and thoroughly. The tone of
authority with which it has been taught, the terror and

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 265

obscure phraseology in which it has been shrouded, and
the unlovely aspect which it has been made to wear,
have concurred to repel from it deliberate and earnest
attention, and to reconcile men to a superficial mode of
thinking which they would scorn on every other subject.
Add to this, that the early inculcation and frequent
repetition of religion, by making it familiar, expose it to
neglect. The result of all these unfavorable influences,
is, that religious truth is more indistinctly apprehended,
is more shadowy and unreal to the multitude, than any
other truth ; and, unhappily, this remark applies with
almost equal truth to all ranks of society and all orders
of intellect. The loose conceptions of Christianity
which prevail among the high as well as the low, do not
deserve the name of knowledge. The loftiest minds
among us seldom put forth their strength on the very
subject, for which intelligence was especially given. A
great revolution is needed here. The human intellect
is to be brought to act on religion with new power. It
ought to prosecute this inquiry with an intenseness, with
which no other subject is investigated. And does it re-
quire no energy in the teacher, to awaken this power
and earnestness of thought in others, to bring religion
before the intellect as its worthiest object, to raise men's
traditional, lifeless, superficial faith into deliberate, pro-
found conviction ?

That the ministry should be characterized by power
and energy, will be made more apparent, if we consider
that it is instituted to quicken, not only the intellect but
the conscience ; to enforce the obligations, as well as il-
lustrate the truth, of religion. It is an important branch
of the minister's duty, to bring home the general prin-
ciples of duty to the individual mind ; to turn it upon

vol. in. 23

266 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

itself; to rouse it to a resolute, impartial survey of its
wnole responsibilities and ill deserts. And is not en-
ergy needed to break through the barriers of pride and
self-love, and to place the individual before a tribunal in
his own breast, as solemn and searching as that which
awaits him at the last day ? It is not indeed so difficult
to rouse, in the timid and susceptible, a morbid suscep-
tibility of conscience, to terrify weak people into the
idea, that they are to answer for sins inherited from the
first fallen pair, and entailed upon them by a stern ne-
cessity. But this feverish action of the conscience is its
weakness, not its strength ; and the teacher who would
rouse the moral sense to discriminating judgment and
healthful feeling, has need of a vastly higher kind of
power than is required to darken and disease it.

Another proof that the ministry should be character-
ized by power, is given to us by the consideration, that
it is intended to act on the affections ; to exhibit re-
ligion in its loveliness and venerableness, as well as in
its truth and obligation ; to concentrate upon it all the
strength of moral feeling. The Christian teacher has
a great work to do in the human heart. His function
has, 'for its highest aim, to call forth towards God the
profoundest awe, attachment, trust, and joy, of which
human nature is capable. Religion demands, that He
who is supreme in the universe, should be supreme in
the human soul. God, to whom belongs the mysterious
and incommunicable attribute of Infinity ; who is the
fulness and source of life and thought, of beauty and
power, of love and happiness ; on whom we depend
more intimately than the stream on the fountain, or the
plant on the earth in which it is rooted, — this Great
Being ought to call forth peculiar emotions, and to move

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 267

and sway the soul, as he pervades creation, with unri-
valled energy. It is his distinction, that he unites in
his nature infinite majesty and infinite benignity, the
most awful with the most endearing attributes, the ten-
derest relations to the individual with the grandeur of
the universal sovereign ; and, through this nature, he is
fitted to act on the mind as no other being can, — to
awaken a love more intense, a veneration more pro-
found, a sensibility of which the soul knows not its ca-
pacity until it is penetrated and touched by God. To
bring the created mind into living union with the Infinite
Mind, so that it shall respond to him through its whole
being, is the noblest function, which this harmonious and
beneficent universe performs. For this, revelation was
given. For this, the ministry was instituted. The
Christian teacher is to make more audible, and to inter-
pret, the voice in which -the beauty and awfulness of na-
ture, the heavens, the earth, fruitful seasons, storms and
thunders, recall men to their Creator. Still more, he is
to turn them to the clearer, milder, more attractive
splendors, in which the Divinity is revealed by Jesus
Christ. His great purpose, I repeat it, is, to give vital-
ity to the thought of God in the human mind ; to make
his presence felt ; to make him a reality, and the most
powerful reality to the soul. And is not this a work re-
quiring energy of thought and utterance ? Is it easy, in
a world of matter and sense, amidst crowds of impres-
sions rushing in from abroad, amidst the constant and
visible agency of second causes, amidst the anxieties,
toils, pleasures, dissipations, and competitions of life, in
the stir and bustle of society, and in an age when luxury
wars with spirituality, and the developement of nature's
resources is turning men's trust from the Creator, — is

268 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

it easy, amidst these gross interests and distracting influ-
ences, to raise men's minds to the invisible Divinity, to
fix impressions of God deeper and more enduring than
those which are received from all other beings, to make
him the supreme object, spring, and motive of the soul ?
We have seen how deep and strong are the affections
which the minister is to awaken towards God. But
strength of religious impression is not his whole work.
From the imperfections of our nature, this very strength
has its dangers. Religion, in becoming fervent, often
becomes morbid. It is the minister's duty to inculcate
a piety characterized by wisdom as much as by warmth ;
to meditate, if I may so speak, between the reason and
the affections, so that, with joint energy and in blessed
harmony, they may rise together and offer up the undi-
vided soul to God. Whoever understands the strength
of emotion in man's nature, and- how hardly the balance
of the soul is preserved, need not be told of the ardu-
ousness of this work. Devout people, through love of
excitement, and through wrong views of the love of
God, are apt to cherish the devotional feelings, at the
expense, if not to the exclusion, of other parts of our
nature. They seem to imagine that piety, like the Upas
tree, makes a desert where it grows ; that the mind, if
not the body, needs a cloister. The natural movements
of the soul are repressed ; the social affections damped ;
the grace, and ornament, and innocent exhilarations of
life frowned upon ; and a gloomy, repulsive religion is
cultivated, which, by way of compensation for its priva-
tions, claims a monopoly of God's favor, abandoning
all to his wrath who will not assume its own sad livery
and echo its own sepulchral tones. Through such ex-
hibitions, religion has lost its honor ; and, though the

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 269

most ennobling of all sentiments, dilating the soul with
vast thoughts and an unbounded hope, .has been thought
to contract and degrade it. The minister is to teach
an earnest but enlightened religion ; a piety, which,
far from wasting or eradicating, will protect, nourish,
freshen the mind's various affections and powers ; which
will add force to reason, as well as ardor to the heart ;
which will at once bind us to God, and cement and
multiply our ties to our families, our country, and man-
kind ; which will heighten the relish of life's pleasures,
whilst it kindles an unquenchable thirst for a purer hap-
piness in the life to come. Religion does not mutilate
our nature. It does not lay waste our human interests
and affections, that it may erect for God a throne amidst
cheerless and solitary ruins, but widens the range of
thought, feeling, and enjoyment. Such is religion ; and
the Christian ministry, having for its end the communi-
cation of this healthful, well-proportioned, and all-com-
prehending piety, demands every energy of thought,
feeling, and utterance, which the individual can bring to
the work.

The time would fail me to speak of the other affec-
tions and sentiments which the ministry is instituted to
excite and cherish, and I hasten to another object of the
Christian teacher, which, to those who know themselves,
will peculiarly illustrate the power which his office de-
mands. It is his duty to rouse men to self-conflict, to
warfare with the evil in their own hearts. This is in
truth the supreme evil. The sorest calamities of life,
sickness, poverty, scorn, dungeons, and death, form a
less amount of desolation and suffering than is included
in that one word, sin, — in revolt from God, in disloyal-
ty to conscience, in the tyranny of the passions, in the
23*

270 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

thraldom of the soul's noblest powers. To redeem men
from sin was Christ's great end. To pierce them with
a new consciousness of sin, so that they shall groan
under it, and strive against it, and through prayer and
watching master it, is an essential part of the minister's
work. Let him not satisfy himself with awakening, by
his eloquence, occasional emotions of gratitude or sym-
pathy. He must rouse the soul to solemn, stern resolve
against its own deep and cherished corruptions, or he
only makes a show of assault, and leaves the foe in-
trenched and unbroken within. We see, then, the ar-
duousness of the minister's work. He is called to war
with the might of the human passions, with the whole
power of moral evil. He is to enlist men, not for a
crusade, nor for extermination of heretics, but to fight
a harder battle within, to expel sin in all its forms, and
especially their besetting sins, from the strongholds of
the heart. I know no task so arduous, none which de-
mands equal power.

I shall take but one more view of the objects for
which the Christian ministry was instituted, and from
which we infer that it should be fraught with energy.
It is the duty of the Christian teacher to call forth in
the soul a conviction of its immortality, a thirst for
a higher existence, and a grandeur and elevation of
sentiment, becoming a being who is to live, enjoy, and
advance for ever. His business is with men, not as
inhabitants of this world, but as related to invisible
beings, and to purer and happier worlds. The minister
should look with reverence on the human soul as having
within itself the germ of heaven. He should recognise,
in the ignorant and unimproved, vast spiritual faculties
given for perpetual enlargement, just as the artist of

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 271

genius sees in the unhewn marble the capacity of being
transformed into a majesty and grace, which will com-
mand the admiration of ages. In correspondence with
these views, let him strive to quicken men to a con-
sciousness of their inward nature and of its affinity with
God, and to raise their steadfast aim and hope to its in-
terminable progress and felicity. Such is his function.
Perhaps I may be told, that men are incapable of ris-
ing, under the best instruction, to this height of thought
and feeling. But let us never despair of our race.
There is, I am sure, in the human soul, a deep con-
sciousness, which responds to him who sincerely, and
with the language of reality, speaks to it of the great
and everlasting purposes for which it was created.
There are sublime instincts in man. There is in hu-
man nature, a want which the world cannot supply ; a
thirst for objects on which to pour forth more fervent
admiration and love, than visible things awaken ; a thirst
for the unseen, the infinite, and the everlasting. Most
of you who hear have probably had moments, when a
new light has seemed to dawn, a new life to stir within
you ; when you have aspired after an unknown good ;
when you have been touched by moral greatness and
disinterested love ; when you have longed to break every
chain of selfishness and sensuality, and enjoy a purer
being. It is on this part of our nature that religion is
founded. To this Christianity is addressed. The pow-
er to speak to this, is the noblest which God has im-
parted to man or angel, and should be coveted above
all things by the Christian teacher.

The need of power in the ministry has been made
apparent, from the greatness of the truths to be dis-
pensed and the effects to be wrought by the Christian

272 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

teacher. The question then comes. How may the stu-
dent of theology be aided in gaining or cherishing this
power ? Under what influences should he he placed ?
What are the springs or foundations of the energy which
he needs ? How may he be quickened and trained to
act most efficiently on the minds of men ? In answer-
ing these questions, we of course determine the charac-
ter which belongs to a theological institution, the spirit
which it should cherish, the discipline, the mode of
teaching, the excitements, which it should employ.
From this wide range, I shall select a few topics which
are recommended at once by their own importance and
by the circumstances in which we are now placed.

1. To train the student to power of thought and ut-
terance, let him be left, and, still more, encouraged, to
free investigation. Without this a theological institu-
tion becomes a prison to the intellect and a nuisance
to the church. The mind grows by free action. Con-
fine it to beaten paths, prescribe to it the results in
which all study must end, and you rob it of elasticity
and life. It will never spread to its full dimensions.
Teach the young man, that the instructions of others
are designed to quicken, not supersede his own activity ;
that he has a divine intellect for which he is to answer
to God, and that to surrender it to another, is to cast
the crown from his head, and to yield up his noblest
birthright. Encourage him, in all great questions, to
hear both sides, and to meet fairly the point of every
hostile argument. Guard him against tampering with
his own mind, against silencing its whispers and objec-
tions, that he may enjoy a favorite opinion undisturbed.
Do not give him the shadow for the substance of free-
dom, by telling him to inquire, but prescribing to him

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 273

the convictions at which he must stop. Better show
him honestly his chains, than mock the slave with the
show of liberty.

I know the objection to this course. Its puts to haz-
ard, we are told, the religious principles of the young.
The objection is not without foundation. The danger
is not unreal. But I know no method of forming a
manly intellect, or a manly character, without danger.
Peril is the element in which power is developed. Re-
move the youth from every hazard, keep him in leading-
strings lest he should stray into forbidden paths, sur-
round him with down lest he should be injured by a fall,
shield him from wind and storms, and you doom him to
perpetual infancy. All liberty is perilous, as the despot
truly affirms ; but who would therefore seek shelter un-
der a despot's throne ? Freedom of will is almost a
tremendous gift ; but still, a free agent, with all his ca-
pacity of crime, is infinitely more interesting and noble
than the most harmonious and beautiful machine. Free-
dom is the nurse of intellectual and moral vigor. Bet-
ter expose the mind to error, than rob it of hardihood
and individuality. Keep not the destined teacher of
mankind from the perilous field, where the battle be-
tween Truth and Falsehood is fought. Let him grapple
with difficulty, sophistry, and error. Truth is a con-
quest, and no man holds her so fast as he who has won
her by conflict.

That cases of infidelity may occur in institutions con-
ducted on free principles, is very possible, though our
own experience gives no ground for fear. But the stu-
dent, who, with all the aids to Christian belief which are
furnished in a theological seminary, still falls a prey to
skepticism, is not the man to be trusted with the cause

274 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

of Christ. He is radically deficient. He wants that
congeniality with spiritual and lofty truths, without which
the evidences of religion work no deep conviction, and
without which the faith that might be instilled by a
slavish institution, would be of little avail. An up-
right mind may indeed be disturbed and shaken for a
time by the arguments of skepticism ; but these will
be ultimately repelled, and, like conquered foes, will
strengthen the principle by which they have been sub-
dued.

Nothing, I am sure, can give power like a free action
of the mind. Accumulate teachers and books, for these
are indispensable. But the best teacher is he who
awakens in his pupils the power of thought, and aids
them to go alone. It is possible to weaken and encum-
ber the mind by too much help. The very splendor
of a teacher's talents may injure the pupil ; and a supe-
rior man, who is more anxious to spread his own creed
and his own praise, than to nourish a strong intellect
in others, will only waste his life in multiplying poor
copies, and in sending forth into the churches tame
mimics of himself.

To free inquiry, then, we dedicate these walls. We
invite into them the ingenuous young man, who prizes
liberty of mind more than aught within the gift of sects
or of the world. Let Heaven's free air circulate, and
Heaven's unobstructed light shine here, and let those
who shall be sent hence, go forth, not to echo with
servility a creed imposed on their weakness, but to
utter, in their own manly tones, what their own free
investigation and deep conviction urge them to preach
as the truth of God.

2. In the second place, to give power to the teacher,

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 275

he should be imbued, by all possible inculcation and
excitement, with a supreme and invincible love of truth.
This is at once the best defence against the perils of
free inquiry, and the inspirer of energy both in thought
and utterance. The first duty of a rational being is to
his own intellect ; for it is through soundness and hon-
esty of intellect that he is to learn all other duties. I
know no virtue more important and appropriate to a
teacher, and especially a religious teacher, than fairness
and rectitude of understanding, than a love of truth
stronger than the love of gain, honor, life ; and yet, so
far from being cherished, this virtue has been warred
against, hunted down, driven to exile, or doomed to the
stake, in almost every Christian country, by ministers,
churches, religious seminaries, or a maddened populace.
In the glorious company of heroes and martyrs, a high
rank belongs to him, who, superior to the frowns or the
sneers, the pity or the wrath, which change of views
would bring upon him, and in opposition to the warp-
ing influences of patronage, of private friendship, or am-
bition, keeps his mind chaste, inviolate, a sacred temple
for truth, ever open to new light from Heaven ; and who,
faithful to his deliberate convictions, speaks simply, and
firmly, what his uncorrupted mind believes. This love
of truth gives power, for it secures a growing knowledge
of truth ; and truth is the mighty weapon by which the
victories of religion are to be wrought out. This en-
dures, whilst error carries with it the seeds of decay.
Truth is an emanation from God, a beam of his wisdom,
and immutable as its source ; and, although its first in-
fluences may seem to be exceeded by those of error, it
grows stronger, and strikes deeper root, amidst the fluc-
tuations and ruins of false opinions. Besides, this loyal-

276 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

ty to truth not only leads to its acquisition, but, still
more, begets a vital acquaintance with it, a peculiar con-
viction, which gives directness, energy, and authority to
teaching. A minister, who has been religiously just to
his own understanding, speaks with a tone of reality, of
calm confidence, of conscious uprightness, which cannot
be caught by the servile repeater of other men's notions,
or by the passionate champion of an unexamined creed.
A look, an accent, a word, from a single-hearted inquirer
after truth, expressing his deliberate convictions, has a
peculiar power in fortifying the convictions of others.
To the love of truth, then, be these walls consecrated,
and here may every influence be combined to build it up
in the youthful heart.

3. To train powerful ministers, let an institution avail
itself of the means of forming a devotional spirit, and
imbuing the knowledge of the student with religious sen-
sibility. Every man knows, that a cultivated mind,
under strong and generous emotion, acquires new com-
mand of its resources, new energy and fulness 'of thought
and expression ; whilst, in individuals of a native vigor
of intellect, feeling almost supplies the place of culture,
inspiring the unlettered teacher with a fervid, resistless
eloquence, which no apparatus of books, teachers, criti-
cism, ancient languages, and general literature can im-
part. This power of sensibility to fertilize and vivify
the intellect is not difficult of explanation. A strong
and pure affection concentrates the attention on its ob-
jects, fastens on them the whole soul, and thus gives
vividness of conception. It associates, intimately, all
the ideas which are congenial with itself, and thus causes
a rush of thought into the mind in moments of excite-
ment. Indeed, a strong emotion seems to stir up the

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 277

soul from its foundations, and to attract to itself, and to
impregnate with its own fire, whatever elements, concep-
tions, illustrations, can be pressed into its own service.
Hence it is, that even ordinary men, strongly moved,
abound in arguments, analogies, and fervent appeals,
which nothing but sensibility could have taught. Every
minister can probably recollect periods, when devotional
feeling has seemed to open a new fountain of thought
in the soul. Religious affection instinctively seeks and
seizes the religious aspect of things. It discerns the
marks of God, and proofs and illustrations of divine
truth, in all nature and providence ; and seems to sur-
round the mind with an atmosphere which spreads its
own warm hues on every object which enters it. This
attraction, or affinity, if I may so say, which an emotion
establishes among the thoughts which accord with itself,
is one of the very important laws of the mind, and is
chiefly manifested in poetry, eloquence, and all the
higher efforts of intellect, by which man sways his fellow-
beings. Religious feeling, then, is indispensable to a
powerful minister. Without it, learning and fancy may
please, but cannot move men profoundly and permanent-
ly. It is this, which not only suggests ideas, but gives
felicity and energy of expression. It prompts " the
words that burn"; those mysterious combinations of
speech, which send the speaker's soul like lightning
through his hearers, which breathe new life into old and
faded truths, and cause an instantaneous gush of thought
and feeling in susceptible minds.

We dedicate this institution, then, to religious feeling.
Here let the heart muse, till the fire burns. Here let
prayer, joined with meditation on nature and Scripture,
and on the fervid writings of devout men, awaken the

vol. in. 24

278 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

whole strength of the affections. But on no point is
caution more needed than on this. Let it never he for-
gotten, that we want genuine feeling ; not its tones,
looks, and gestures, not a forced ardor and factitious
zeal. Woe to that institution, where the young man is
expected to repeat the language of emotion, whether he
feel it or not ; where perpetual pains are taken, to chafe
the mind to a warmth which it cannot sustain. The
affections are delicate and must not be tampered with.
They cannot be compelled. Hardly any thing is more
blighting to genuine sensibility, than to assume its tones
and badge where it does not exist. Exhort the student
to cherish devout feeling, by intercourse with God, and
with those whom God has touched. But exhort him
as strenuously, to abstain from every sign of emotion
which the heart does not prompt. Teach him that
nothing grieves more the Holy Spirit, or sooner closes
the mind against heavenly influences, than insincerity.
Teach him to be simple, ingenuous, true to his own
soul. Better be cold, than affect to feel. In truth,
nothing is so cold as an assumed, noisy enthusiasm. Its
best emblem is the northern blast of winter, which
freezes as it roars. Be this spot sacred to Christian
ingenuousness and sincerity. Let it never be polluted
by pretence, by affected fervor, by cant and theatric
show.

4. Another source of power in the ministry, is Faith ;
by which we mean, not a general belief in the truths
of Christianity, but a confidence in the great results,
which this religion and the ministry are intended to pro-
mote. It has often been observed, that a strong faith
tends to realize its objects ; that all things become pos-
sible to him who thinks them so. Trust and hope breathe

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 279

animation and force. He, who despairs of great effects,
never accomplishes them. All great works have been
the results of a strong confidence, inspiring and sustain-
ing strong exertion. The young man, who cannot con-
ceive of higher effects of the ministry than he now be-
holds, who thinks that Christianity has spent all its
energies in producing the mediocrity of virtue which
characterizes Christendom, and to whom the human soul
seems to have put forth its whole power and to have
reached its full growth in religion, has no call to the min-
istry. Let not such a man put forth his nerveless hands
in defence of the Christian cause. A voice of confi-
dence has been known to rally a retreating army, and to
lead it back to victory ; and this spirit-stirring tone be-
longs to the leaders of the Christian host. The minister,
indeed, ought to see and feel, more painfully than other
men, the extent and power of moral evil in individuals,
in the church, and in the world. Let him weep over
the ravages of sin. But let him feel, too, that the
mightiest power of the universe is on the side of truth
and virtue ; and with sorrow and fear let him join an
unfaltering trust in the cause of human nature. Let him
look on men, as on mysterious beings, endued with a
spiritual life, with a deep central principle of holy and
disinterested love, with an intellectual and moral nature
which was made to be receptive of God. To nourish
this hopeful spirit, this strengthening confidence, it is im-
portant that the minister should understand and feel, that
he is not acting alone in his efforts for religion, but in
union with God and Christ, and good beings on earth
and in heaven. Let him regard the spiritual renovation
of mankind, as God's chief purpose, for which nature
and providence are leagued in holy cooperation. Let

280 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

him feel himself joined in counsel and labor, with that
great body of which Christ is the head, with the noble
brotherhood of apostles and martyrs, of the just made
perfect, and, I will add, of angels ; and, speaking with a
faith becoming this sublime association, he will not speak
in vain. To this faith, to prophetic hope, to a devout
trust in the glorious issues of Christianity, we dedicate
these walls ; and may God here train up teachers, Avor-
thy to mingle and bear a part, with the holy of both
worlds, in the cause of man's redemption.

5. Again, that the ministry may be imbued with new
power, it needs a spirit of enterprise and reform. They
who enter it should feel that it may be improved. We
live in a stirring, advancing age ; and shall not the no-
blest function on earth partake of the general progress ?
Why is the future ministry to be a servile continuation
of the past ? Have all the methods of operating on
human beings been tried and exhausted ? Are there no
unessayed passages to the human heart ? If we live in
a new era, must not religion be exhibited under new as-
pects, or in new relations ? Is not skepticism taking a
new form ? Has not Christianity new foes to contend
with ? And are there no new weapons and modes of
warfare, by which its triumphs are to be insured ? If
human nature is manifesting itself in new lights, and
passing through a new and most interesting stage of its
progress, shall it be described by the commonplaces, and
appealed to exclusively by the motives, which belonged
to earlier periods of society ? May not the mind have
become susceptible of nobler incitements than those
which suited ruder times ? Shall the minister linger be-
hind his age, and be dragged along, as he often has been,
in the last ranks of improvement ? Let those who aro

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 281

to assume the ministry be taught, that they have some-
thing more to do than to handle old topics in old ways,
and to walk in beaten and long-worn paths. Let them
inquire, if new powers and agents may not be brought
to bear on the human character. Is it incredible, that
the progress of intellect and knowledge should develope
new resources for the teacher of religion, as well as for
the statesman, the artist, the philosopher ? Are there
no new combinations and new uses of the elements of
thought, as well as of the elements of nature ? Is it
impossible that in the vast compass of Scripture, of
nature, of Providence, and of the soul, there should be
undisclosed or dimly defined truths, which may give a
new impulse to the human mind ? We dedicate this
place, not only to the continuance, but to the improve-
ment of the ministry ; and let this improvement begin,
at once, in those particulars, where the public, if not the
clergy, feel it to be wanted. Let those, who are to be
educated here, be admonished against the frigid elo-
quence, the school-boy lone, the inanimate diction, too
common in the pulpit, and which would be endured no-
where else. Let them speak in tones of truth and na-
ture, and adopt the style and elocution of men, who
have an urgent work in hand, and who are thirsting for
the regeneration of individuals and society.

6. Another source of power, too obvious to need
elucidation, yet too important to be omitted, is, an inde-
pendent spirit. By which I mean, not an unfeeling
defiance of the opinions and usages of society, but that
moral courage, which, through good report and evil re-
port, reverently hears, and fearlessly obeys, the voice
of conscience and God. He who would instruct men,
must not fear them. He who is to reform society, must
24 *

282 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

not be anxious to keep its level. Dread of opinion
effeminates preaching, and takes from truth its pungency.
The minister so subdued, may flourish his weapons in
the air, to the admiration of spectators, but will never
pierce the conscience. The minister, like the good
knight, should be without fear. Let him cultivate that
boldness of speech, for which Paul prayed. Let him
not flatter great or small. Let him not wrap up reproof
in a decorated verbiage. Let him make no compromise
with evil because followed by a multitude, but, for this
very cause, lift up against it a more earnest voice. Let
him beware of the shackles which society insensibly
fastens on the mind and the tongue. Moral courage is
not the virtue of our times. The love of popularity is
the all-tainting vice of a republic. Besides, the increas-
ing connexion between a minister and the community,
whilst it liberalizes the mind, and counteracts professional
prejudices, has a tendency to enslave him to opinion, to
wear away the energy of virtuous resolution, and to
change him from an intrepid guardian of virtue and foe
of sin, into a merely elegant and amiable companion.
Against this dishonorable cowardice, which smoothes
the thoughts and style of the teacher, until they glide
through the ear and the mind without giving a shock to
the most delicate nerves, let the young man be guarded.
We dedicate this institution to Christian independence.
May it send forth brave spirits to the vindication of truth
and religion.

7. I shall now close, with naming the chief source
of power to the minister ; one, indeed, which has been
in a measure anticipated, and all along implied, but
which ought not to be dismissed without a more dis-
tinct annunciation. I refer to that spirit, or frame, or

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 283

sentiment, in which the love of God, the love of men,
the love of duty, meet as their highest result, and in
which they are perfected and most gloriously displayed ;
I mean the spirit of -self-sacrifice, — the spirit of martyr-
dom This was the perfection of Christ, and it is the
noblest inspiration which his followers derive from him.
Say not that this is a height to which the generality of
ministers must not be expected to rise. This spirit is
of more universal obligation than many imagine. It
enters into all the virtues which deeply interest us. In
truth, there is no thorough virtue without it. Who is
the upright man ? He, who would rather die than de-
fraud. Who the good parent ? He, to whom his chil-
dren are dearer than life. Who the good patriot ? He,
who counts not life dear in his country's cause. Who
the philanthropist ? He, who forgets himself in an
absorbing zeal for the mitigation of human suffering,
for the freedom, virtue, and illumination of men. It is
not Christianity alone which has taught self-sacrifice.
Conscience and the divinity within us, have in all ages
borne testimony to its loveliness and grandeur, and his-
tory borrows from it her chief splendors. But Christ
on his cross has taught it with a perfection unknown
before, and his glory consists in the power with which
he breathes it. Into this spirit, Christ's meanest dis-
ciple is expected to drink. How much more the teach-
ers and guides of his church ! He who is not moved
with this sublime feature of our religion, who cannot rise
above himself, who cannot, by his own consciousness,
comprehend the kindling energy and solemn joy, which
pain or peril in a noble cause has often inspired, — he,
to whom this language is a mystery, wants one great
mark of his vocation to the sacred office. Let him

284 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

enlist under any standard rather than the cross. To
preach with power, a man must feel Christianity to be
worthy of the blood which it. has cost ; and, espousing
it as the chief hope of the human race, must contemn
life's ordinary interests, compared with the glory and
happiness of advancing it. This spirit of self-exposure
and self-surrender, throws into preachers an energy
which no other principle can give. In truth, such power
resides in disinterestedness, that no man can understand
his full capacity of thought and feeling, his strength
to do and suffer, until he gives himself, with a single
heart, to a great and holy cause. New faculties seem
to be created, and more than human might sometimes
imparted, by a pure fervent love. Most of us are
probably strangers to the resources of power in our
own breasts, through the weight and pressure of the
chains of selfishness. We consecrate this institution,
then, to that spirit of martyrdom, of disinterested at-
tachment to the Christian cause, through which it first
triumphed, and for want of which its triumphs are now
slow. In an age of luxury and self-indulgence, we
would devote these walls to the training of warm, manly,
generous spirits. May they never shelter the self-seek-
ing slaves of ease and comfort, pupils of Epicurus rath-
er than of Christ. God send from this place devoted
and efficient friends of Christianity and the human race.
My friends, I have insisted on the need, and illus-
trated the sources, of power in the ministry. To this
end, may the institution, in whose behalf we are now
met together, be steadily and sacredly devoted. I
would say to its guardians and teachers, Let this be
your chief aim. I would say to the students, Keep
this in sight in all your studies. Never forget your

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 285

great vocation ; that you are to prepare yourselves for
a strong, deep, and beneficent agency on the minds of
jour fellow-beings. Everywhere I see a demand for
the power on which I have now insisted. The cry
comes to me from society and from the church. The
condition of society needs a more efficient administra-
tion of Christianity. Great and radical changes are
needed in the community to make it Christian. There
are those indeed, who, mistaking the courtesies and
refinements of civilized life for virtue, see no necessity
of a great revolution in the world. But civilization,
in hiding the grossness, does not break the power of
evil propensities. Let us not deceive ourselves. Mul-
titudes are living with few thoughts of God, and of the
true purpose and glory of their being. Among the
nominal believers in a Deity and in a judgment to come,
sensuality, and ambition, and the love of the world, sit
on their thrones, and laugh to scorn the impotence of
preaching. Christianity has yet a hard war to wage,
and many battles to win ; and it needs intrepid, power-
ful ministers, who will find courage and excitement, not
dismay, in the strength and number of their foes.

Christians, you have seen in this discourse, the pur-
poses and claims of this theological institution. Offer
your fervent prayers for its prosperity. Besiege the
throne of mercy in its behalf. Cherish it as the dear-
est hope of our churches. Enlarge its means of use-
fulness, and let your voice penetrate its walls, calling
aloud and importunately for enlightened and powerful
teachers. Thus joining in effort with the directors and
instructors of this seminary, doubt not that God will
here train up ministers worthy to bear his truth to pres-
ent and future generations. If on the contrary you

286 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

and they slumber, you will have erected these walls,
not to nourish energy, but to be its tomb, not to bear
witness to your zeal, but to be a melancholy monument
of fainting effort and betrayed truth.

But let me not cast a cloud over the prospects of
this day. In hope I began, — with hope I will end.
This institution has noble distinctions, and has afforded
animating pledges. It is eminently a free institution,
an asylum from the spiritual despotism, which, in one
shape or another, overspreads the greatest part of Chris-
tendom. It has already given to the churches a body
of teachers, who, in theological acquisitions and minis-
terial gifts, need not shrink from comparison with their
predecessors or contemporaries. I see in it means and
provisions, nowhere surpassed, for training up enlight-
ened, free, magnanimous, self-sacrificing friends of truth.
In this hope, let us then proceed to the work, which
has brought us together. With trust in God, with love
to mankind, with unaffected attachment to Christian
truth, with earnest wishes for its propagation through all
lands and its transmission to remotest ages, let us now,
with one heart and one voice, dedicate this edifice to
the One living and true God, to Christ and his Church,
to the instruction and regeneration of the human soul.

THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN

DISCOURSE

DELIVERED

TO THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY IN FEDERAL-STREET,

Boston.

Ephesians vi. 1, 2: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord:
for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother, which is
the first commandment with promise."

From these words I propose to point out the duties of
children to their parents. My young friends, let me
ask your serious attention. I wish to explain to you
the honor and obedience which you are required to
render your parents ; and to impress you with the im-
portance, excellence, and happiness of this temper and
conduct.

It will be observed, in the progress of this discourse,
that I have chiefly in view the youngest part of my
hearers ; but I would not on this account be supposed
to intimate, that those who have reached more advanced
periods of life, are exempted from the obligation of
honoring their parents. However old we may be, we
should never forget that tenderness which watched over
our infancy, which listened to our cries before we could

288 THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN.

articulate our wants, and was never weary with minis
tering to our comfort and enjoyments. There is scarce-
ly any thing more interesting than to see the man re-
taining the respect and gratitude which belong to the
child ; than to see persons, who have come forward
into life, remembering with affection the guides and
friends of their youth, and laboring by their kind and
respectful attention to cheer the declining years, and
support the trembling infirmities, of those whose best
days were spent in solicitude and exertion for their hap-
piness and improvement. He who suffers any objects
or pursuits to shut out a parent from his heart, who
becomes so weaned from the breast which nourished
and the arms which cherished him, as coldly to forsake
a parent's dwelling, and neglect a parent's comfort, not
only renounces the dictates of religion and morality,
but deserves to be cast out from society as a stranger
to the common sensibilities of human nature.

In the observations I am now to make, all who have
parents should feel an interest ; for some remarks will
apply to all. But I shall principally confine myself to
those, who are so young as to depend on the care and
to live under the eye of their parents ; who surround a
parent's table, dwell beneath a parent's roof, and hear
continually a parent's voice. To such the text addresses
itself, " Honor and obey your father and mother."

I shall not attempt to explain and enforce what »s
here required of you.

First, you are required to view and treat your parents
with respect. Your tender, inexperienced age requires
that you think of yourselves with humility, and conduct
yourselves with modesty ; that you respect the superior
age and wisdom and improvements of your parents,

THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN. 289

and observe towards them a submissive deportment.
Nothing is more unbecoming in you, nothing will ren-
der you more unpleasant in the eyes of others, than fro-
ward or contemptuous conduct towards your parents.
There are children, and I wish I could say there are
only a few, who speak to their parents with rudeness,
grow sullen at their rebukes, behave in their presence
as if they deserved no attention, hear them speak with-
out noticing them, and rather ridicule than honor them.
There are many children at the present day, who think
more highly of themselves than of their elders ; who
think that their own wishes are first to be gratified ; who
abuse the condescension and kindness of their parents,
and treat them as servants rather than superiors.

Beware, my young friends, lest you grow up with
this assuming and selfish spirit. Regard your parents
as kindly given you by God, to support, direct, and
govern you in your present state of weakness and
inexperience. Express your respect for them in your
manner and conversation. Do not neglect those out-
ward signs of dependence and inferiority which suit
your age. You are young, and you should therefore
take the lowest place, and rather retire than thrust
yourselves forward into notice. You have much to
learn, and you should therefore hear instead of seek-
ing to be heard. You are dependent, and you should
therefore ask instead of demanding what you desire ;
and you should receive every thing from your parents
as a favor, and not as a debt. I do not mean to urge
upon you a slavish fear of your parents. Love them,
and love them ardently ; but mingle a sense of their
superiority with your love. Feel a confidence in their
kindness ; but let not this confidence make you rude

vol. in. 25

290 THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN.

and presumptuous, and lead to indecent familiarity.
Talk to them with openness and freedom ; but never
contradict with violence ; never answer with passion or
contempt.

The Scriptures say, " Cursed be he that setteth light
by his father or his mother." " The eye that mocketh
at his father, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out,
and the young ravens shall eat it." The sacred history
teaches us, that when Solomon, on his throne, saw his
mother approaching him, he rose to meet her, and bowed
himself unto her, and caused a seat to be set for her on
his right hand. Let this wise and great king teach you
to respect your parents.

Secondly, You should be grateful to your parents.
Consider how much you owe them. The time has
been, and it was not a long time past, when you de-
pended wholly on their kindness, when you had no
strength to make a single effort for yourselves, when
you could neither speak, nor walk, and knew not the
use of any of your powers. Had not a parent's arm
supported you, you must have fallen to the earth and
perished. Observe with attention the infants which
you so often see, and consider that a little while ago
you were as feeble as they are ; you were only a burden
and a care, and you had nothing with which you could
repay your parents' affection. But did they forsake
you ? How many sleepless nights have they been dis-
turbed by your cries ! When you were sick, how ten-
derly did they hang over you ! With what pleasure
have they seen you grow up in health to your present
state ! and what do you now possess, which you have
not received from their hands ? God indeed is your
great parent, your best friend, and from him every good

THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN. 291

gift descends ; but God is pleased to bestow every thing
upon you through the kindness of your parents. To
your parents you owe every comfort ; you owe to them
the shelter you enjoy from the rain and cold, the rai-
ment which covers and the food which nourishes you.
While you are seeking amusement, or are employed in
gaining knowledge at school, your parents are toiling
that you may be happy, that your wants be supplied,
that your minds may be improved, that you may grow
up and be useful in the world. And when you consider
how often you have forfeited all this kindness, and yet
how ready they have been to forgive you, and to con-
tinue their favors, ought you not to look upon them
with the tenderest gratitude ? What greater monster
can there be than an unthankful child, whose heart is
never warmed and melted by the daily expressions of
parental solicitude ; who, instead of requiting his best
friend by his affectionate conduct, is sullen and pas-
sionate, and thinks that his parents have done nothing
for him, because they will not do all he desires ? My
young friends, your parents' hearts have ached enough
for you already ; you should strive from this time, by
your expressions of gratitude and love, to requite their
goodness. Do you ask how you may best express these
feelings of respect and gratitude, which have been en-
joined ? In answer, I would observe,

Thirdly, That you must make it your study to obey
your parents, to do what they command, and do it cheer-
fully. Your own hearts will tell you that this is a most
natural and proper expression of honor and love. For
how often do we see children opposing their wills to
the will of their parents ; refusing to comply with abso-
lute commands ; growing more obstinate, the more they

292 THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN.

are required to do what they dislike ; and at last sullenly
and unwillingly obeying, because they can no longer
refuse without exposing themselves to punishment.
Consider, my young friends, that by such conduct you
very much displease God, who has given you parents,
that they may control your passions and train you up
in the way you should go. Consider how much better
they can decide for you, than you can for yourselves.
You know but little of the world in which you live.
You hastily catch at every thing which promises you
pleasure ; and unless the authority of a parent should
restrain you, you would soon rush into ruin, without a
thought or a fear. In pursuing your own inclinations,
your health would be destroyed, your minds would run
waste, you would grow up slothful, selfish, a trouble to
others, and burdensome to yourselves. Submit, then,
cheerfully to your parents. Have you not experienced
their goodness long enough to know that they wish to
make you happy, even when their commands are most
severe ? Prove, then, your sense of their goodness by
doing cheerfully what they require. When they oppose
your wishes, do not think that you have more knowledge
than they. Do not receive their commands with a sour,
angry, sullen look, which says louder than words, that
you obey only because you dare not rebel. If they
deny your requests, do not persist in urging them ; but
consider how many requests they have already granted
you. Consider that you have no claim upon them, and
that it will be base and ungrateful for you, after all
their tenderness, to murmur and complain. Do not
expect that your parents are to give up every thing to
your wishes ; but study to give up every thing to theirs.
Do not wait for them to threaten ; but, when a look tell?

THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN. 293

you what they want, fly to perform it. This is the way
in which you can best reward them for all their pains
and labors. In this way you will make their houses
pleasant and cheerful. But if you are disobedient,
preverse, and stubborn, you will be uneasy yourselves,
and will make all around you unhappy. You will make
home a place of contention, noise, and anger ; and your
best friends will have reason to wish that you had never
been born. A disobedient child almost always grows
up ill-natured and disobliging to all with whom he is
connected. None love him, and he has no heart to
love any but himself. If you would be amiable in your
temper and manner, and desire to be beloved, let me
advise you to begin life with giving up your wills to
your parents.

Fourthly, You must further express your respect,
affection, and gratitude, by doing all in your power to
assist and oblige your parents. Children can very soon
make some return for the kindness they receive. Every
day you can render your parents some little service,
and often save them many cares, and sometimes not a
little expense. There have been children, who in early
life have been great supports to their sick, poor, and
helpless parents. This is the most honorable way in
which you can be employed. You must never think too
highly of yourselves to be unwilling to do any thing for
those who have done so much for you. You should
never let your amusements take such a hold of your
minds, as to make you slothful, backward, and un-
willing, when you are called to serve your parents.
Some children seem to think that they have nothing to
seek but their own pleasure. They will run from every
ta?k which is imposed on them ; and leave their parents
25*

294 THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN.

to want many comforts, rather than expose themselves
to a little trouble. But consider, had they loved you
no better than you loved them, how wretched would
have been your state ! There are some children, who
not only refuse to exert themselves for their parents, but
add very much to their cares, give them unnecessary trou-
ble, and, by carelessness, by wasting, by extravagance,
help to keep them in poverty and toil. Such children,
as they grow up, instead of seeking to provide for them-
selves, generally grow more and more burdensome to
their friends, and lead useless, sluggish, and often prof-
ligate lives. My young friends, you should be ashamed,
after having given your parents so much pain, to mul-
tiply their cares and labors unnecessarily. You should
learn very early, to be active in pleasing them, and
active in doing what you can for yourselves. Do not
waste all your spirit upon play ; but learn to be useful.
Perhaps the time is coming, when your parents will
need as much attention from you as you have received
from them ; and you should endeavour to form such in-
dustrious, obliging habits, that you may render their last
years as happy as they have rendered the first years of
your existence.

Fifthly, You should express your respect for your
parents, and your sense of their kindness and superior
wisdom, by placing unreserved confidence in them.
This is a very important part of your duty. Children
should learn to be honest, sincere, and open-hearted
to their parents. An artful, hypocritical child is one
of the most unpromising characters in the world. You
should have no secrets which you are unwilling to dis-
close to your parents. If you have done wrong, you
should openly confess it, and ask that forgiveness which

THE DUTIES OP CHILDREN. 295

a parent's heart is ready to bestow. If you wish to
undertake any thing, ask their consent. Never begin
any thing in the hope that you can conceal your design.
If you once strive to impose on your parents, you will
be led on, from one step to another, to invent false-
hoods, to practise artifice, till you will become con-
temptible and hateful. You will soon be detected, and
then none will trust you. Sincerity in a child will make
up for many faults. Of children, he is the worst, who
watches the eyes of his parents, pretends to obey as
long as they see him, but as soon as they have turned
away, does what they have forbidden. Whatever else
you do, never deceive. Let your parents always learn
your faults from your own lips ; and be assured they
will never love you the less for your openness and sin-
cerity.

Lastly, You must prove your respect and gratitude
to your parents by attending seriously to their instruc-
tions and admonitions, and by improving the advantages
they afford you for becoming wise, useful, good, and
happy for ever. I hope, my young friends, that you
have parents who take care, not only of your bodies,
but your souls ; who instruct you in your duty, who talk
to you of your God and Saviour, who teach you to pray
and to read the Scriptures, and who strive to give you
such knowledge, and bring you up in such habits, as
will lead you to usefulness on earth, and to happiness
in heaven. If you have not, I can only pity you ; I
have little hope that I can do you good by wliat I have
here said. But if your parents are faithful in instructing
and guiding you, you must prove your gratitude to them
and to God, by listening respectfully and attentively to
what they say ; by shunning the temptations of which

296 THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN.

they warn you, and by walking in the paths they mark
out before you. You must labor to answer their hopes
and wishes, by improving in knowledge ; by being in-
dustrious at school ; by living peaceably with your com-
panions ; by avoiding all profane and wicked language ;
by fleeing bad company ; by treating all persons with
respect ; by being kind and generous and honest, and
by loving and serving your Father in heaven. This is
the happiest and most delightful way of repaying the
kindness of your parents. Let them see you growing
up with amiable tempers and industrious habits ; let
them see you delighting to do good, and fearing to
offend God ; and they will think you have never been
a burden. Their fears and anxieties about you, will
give place to brighter views. They will hope to see
you prosperous, respected, and beloved in the present
world. But if in this they are to be disappointed, if
they are soon to see you stretched on the bed of sick-
ness and death, they will still smile amidst their tears,
and be comforted by the thought that you are the chil-
dren of God, and that you are going to a Father that
loves you better than they. If, on the contrary, you
slight and despise their instructions, and suffer your
youth to run waste, you will do much to embitter their
happiness and shorten their days. Many parents have
gone to the grave broken-hearted by the ingratitude,
perverseness, impiety, and licentiousness of their chil-
dren. My young friends, listen seriously to parental
admonition. Beware, lest you pierce with anguish that
breast on which you have so often leaned. Beware,
lest by early contempt of instruction, you bring your-
selves to shame and misery in this world, and draw on
your heads still heavier ruin in the world beyond the
grave.

THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN. 297

Children, I have now set before you your duties.
Lei me once more beseech you to honor your father
and mother. Ever cling to them with confidence and
love. Be to them an honor, an ornament, a solace,
and a support. Be more than they expect, and if pos-
sible be all that they desire. To you they are now look-
ing with an affection which trembles for your safety.
So live, that their eyes may ever fix on you with beams
of hope and joy. So live, that the recollection of you
may soothe their last hours. May you now walk by
their side in the steps of the holy Saviour, and through
his grace may you meet again in a better and happier
world. Amen.

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN.

1 Peter ii. 17 : " Honor all men."

Among the many and inestimable blessings of Chris-
tianity, I regard, as not the least, the new sentiment
with which it teaches man to look upon his fellow-
beings ; the new interest which it awakens in us to-
wards every thing human ; the new importance which it
gives to the soul ; the new relation which it establishes
between man and man. In this respect, it began a
mighty revolution, which has been silently spreading
itself through society, and which, I believe, is not to
stop, until new ties shall have taken place of those
which have hitherto, in the main, connected the human
race. Christianity has as yet but begun its work of
reformation. Under its influences, a new order of so-
ciety is advancing, surely though slowly ; and this be-
neficent change it is to accomplish in no small measure
by revealing to men their own nature, and teaching
them to "honor all " who partake it.

As yet Christianity has done little, compared with
what it is to do, in establishing the true bond of union
between man and man. The old bonds of society still
continue in a great degree. They are instinct, interest,

300 HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN.

force. The true tie, which is mutual respect, calling
forth mutual, growing, never-failing acts of love, is as
yet little known. A new revelation, if I may so speak,
remains to be made ; or rather, the truths of the old
revelation in regard to the greatness of human nature,
are to be brought out from obscurity and neglect. The
soul is to be regarded with a religious reverence, hither-
to unfelt ; and the solemn claims of every being to
whom this divine principle is imparted, are to be es-
tablished on the ruins of those pernicious principles,
both in church and state, which have so long divided
mankind into the classes of the abject Many and the
self-exalting Few.

There is nothing of which men know so little, as
themselves. They understand incomparably more of
the surrounding creation, of matter, and of its laws,
than of that spiritual principle, to which matter was
made to be the minister, and without which the out-
ward universe would be worthless. Of course, no man
can be wholly a stranger to the soul, for the soul is
himself, and he cannot but be conscious of its most
obvious workings. But it is to most a chaos, a region
shrouded in ever-shifting mists, baffling the eye and
bewildering the imagination. The affinity of the mind
with God, its moral power, the purposes for which its
faculties were bestowed, its connexion with futurity,
and the dependence of its whole happiness on its own
right action and progress, — these truths, though they
might be expected to absorb us, are to most men little
more than sounds, and to none of us those living reali-
ties, which, I trust, they are to become. That convic-
tion, without which we are all poor, of the unlimited
and immortal nature of the soul, remains in a great

HOXOR DUE TO ALL MEN. 301

degree to be developed. Men have as yet no just
respect for themselves, and of consequence no just re-
spect for others. The true bond of society is thus
wanting ; and accordingly there is a great deficiency
of Christian benevolence. There is indeed much in-
stinctive, native benevolence, and this is not to be
despised ; but the benevolence of Jesus Christ, which
consists in a calm purpose to suffer, and, if need be, to
die, for our fellow-creatures, the benevolence of Christ
on the cross, which is the true pattern to the Christian,
this is little known ; and what is the cause ? It is this.
We see nothing in human beings to entitle them to
such sacrifices ; we do not think them worth suffering
for. Why should we be martyrs for beings, who awaken
in us little more of moral interest than the brutes ?

I hold, that nothing is to make man a true lover of
man, but the discovery of something interesting and
great in human nature. We must see and feel, that a
human being is something important and of immeas-
urable importance. We must see and feel the broad
distance between the spiritual life within us, and the
vegetable or animal life which acts around us. I cannot
love the flower, however beautiful, with a disinterested
affection, which will make me sacrifice to it my own
prosperity, louwill in vain exhort me to attach my-
self, with my whole strength of affection, to the inferior
animals, however useful or attractive ; and why not ?
They want the capacity of truth, virtue, and progress.
They want that principle of duty, which alone gives
permanence to a being ; and accordingly they soon lose
their individual nature, and go to mingle with the gen-
eral mass. A human being deserves a different affec-
tion from what we bestow on inferior creatures, for he

vol. m. 26

302 HONOR DUE TO ALL JUEN.

has a rational and moral nature, by which he is to endure
for ever, by which he may achieve an unutterable hap-
piness, or sink into an unutterable woe. He is more
interesting through what is in him, than the earth or
heavens ; and the only way to love him aright, is to
catch some glimpse of this immortal power within him.
Until this is done, all charity is little more than instinct ;
we shall embrace the great interests of human nature
with coldness.

It may be said, that Christianity has done much to
awaken benevolence, and that it has taught men to call
one another brethren. Yes, to call one another so ; but
has it as yet given the true feeling of brotherhood ? We
undoubtedly feel ourselves to be all of one race, and
this is well. We trace ourselves up to one pair, and
feel the same blood flowing in our veins. But do we
understand our spiritual Brotherhood ? Do we feel
ourselves to be derived from one Heavenly Parent, in
whose image we are all made, and whose perfection we
may constantly approach ? Do we feel that there is
one divine life in our own and in all souls ? This seems
to me the only true bond of man to man. Here is a
tie more sacred, more enduring, than all the ties of this
earth. Is it felt, and do we in consequence truly hon-
or one another ?

Sometimes, indeed, we see men giving sincere, pro-
found, and almost unmeasured respect to their fellow-
creatures ; but to whom ? To great men ; to men dis-
tinguished by a broad line from the multitude ; to men
preeminent by genius, force of character, daring effort,
high station, brilliant success. To such, honor is given;
but this is not to "honor all men " ; and the homage
paid to such, is generally unfriendly to that Christian

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN. 303

estimate of human beings for which I am now pleading.
The great are honored at the expense of their race.
They absorb and concentrate the world's admiration,
and their less gifted fellow-beings are thrown by their
brightness into a deeper shade, and passed over with a
colder contempt. Now I have no desire to derogate
from the honor paid to great men, but I say, Let them
not rise by the depression of the multitude. I say, that
great men, justly regarded, exalt our estimate of the
human race, and bind us to the multitude of men more
closely ; and when they are not so regarded, when they
are converted into idols, when they serve to wean our
interest from ordinary men, they corrupt us, they sever
the sacred bond of humanity which should attach us to
all, and our characters become vitiated by our very ad-
miration of greatness. The true view of great men is,
that they are only examples and manifestations of our
common nature, showing what belongs to all souls,
though unfolded as yet only in a few. The light which
shines from them is, after all, but a faint revelation of
the power which is treasured up in every human being.
They are not prodigies, not miracles, but natural de-
velopements of the human soul. They are indeed as
men among children, but the children have a principle
of growth which leads to manhood.

That great men and the multitude of minds are of
one family, is apparent, I think, in the admiration
which the great inspire into the multitude. A sincere,
enlightened admiration always springs from something
congenial in him who feels it with him who inspires it.
He that can understand and delight in greatness, was
created to partake of it ; the germ is in him ; and some-
times this admiration, in what we deem inferior minds,

304 HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN.

discovers a nobler spirit than belongs to the great man
who awakens it ; for sometimes the great man is so
absorbed in his own greatness as to admire no other ;
and I should not hesitate to say, that a common mind,
which is yet capable of a generous admiration, is des-
tined to rise higher than the man of eminent capacities,
vho can enjoy no power or excellence but his own.
fVhen I hear of great men, I wish not to separate them
om their race, but to blend them with it. I esteem
no small benefit of the philosophy of mind, that it
teaches us that the elements of the greatest thoughts
of the man of genius, exist in his humbler brethren,
and that the faculties which the scientific exert in the
profoundest discoveries, are precisely the same with
those which common men employ in the daily labors
of life.

To show the grounds on which the obligation to
honor all men rests, I might take a minute survey of
that human nature which is common to all, and set
forth its claims to reverence. But, leaving this wide
range, I observe that there is one principle of the soul,
which makes all men essentially equal, which places
all on a level as to means of happiness, which may
place in the first rank of human beings those who are
the most depressed in worldly condition, and which
therefore gives the most depressed a title to interest
and respect. I refer to the Sense of Duty, to the
power of discerning and doing right, to the moral and
religious principle, to the inward monitor which speaks
in the name of God, to the capacity of virtue or ex-
cellence. This is the great gift of God. We can con-
ceive no greater. In seraph and archangel, we can

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN. 305

conceive no higher energy than the power of virtue, or
the power of forming themselves after the will and moral
perfections of God. This power breaks down all bar-
riers between the seraph and the lowest human being ;
it makes them brethren. Whoever has derived from
God this perception and capacity of rectitude, has a
bond of union with the spiritual world, stronger than all
the ties of nature. He possesses a principle which, if
he is faithful to it, must carry him forward for ever, and
insures to him the improvement and happiness of the
highest order of beings.

It is this moral power, which makes all men essen-
tially equal, which annihilates all the distinctions of this
world. Through this, the ignorant and the poor may
become the greatest of the race ; for the greatest is he
who is most true to the principle of duty. It is not
improbable, that the noblest human beings are to be
found in the least favored conditions of society, among
those, whose names are never uttered beyond the nar-
row circle in which they toil and suffer, who have but
" two mites " to give away, who have perhaps not even
that, but who " desire to be fed with the crumbs which
fall from the rich man's table ; " for in this class may
be found those, who have withstood the severest tempta-
tion, who have practised the most arduous duties, who
have confided in God under the heaviest trials, who have
been most wronged and have forgiven most ; and these
are the great, the exalted. It matters nothing, what the
particular duties are to which the individual is called, —
how minute or obscure in their outward form. Great-
ness in God's sight lies, not in the extent of the sphere
which is filled, or of the effect which is produced, but
altogether in the power of virtue in the soul, in the en-
26*

306 HONOR UUE TO ALL MEN.

ergy with which God's will is chosen, with which trial is
borne, and goodness loved and pursued.

The sense of duty is the greatest gift of God. The
Idea of Right is the primary and the highest revelation
of God to the human mind, and all outward revelations
are founded on and addressed to it. All mysteries of
science and theology fade away before the grandeur of
the simple perception of duty, which dawns on the mind
of the little child. That perception brings him into the
moral kingdom of God. That lays on him an ever-
lasting bond. He, in whom the conviction of duty is
unfolded, becomes subject from that moment to a law,
which no power in the universe can abrogate. He forms
a new and indissoluble connexion with God, that of an
accountable being. He begins to stand before an inward
tribunal, on the decisions of which his whole happiness
rests ; he hears a voice, which, if faithfully followed,
will guide him to perfection, and in neglecting which he
brings upon himself inevitable misery. We little under-
stand the solemnity of the moral principle in every
human mind. We think not how awful are its functions.
We forget that it is the germ of immortality. Did we
understand it, we should look with a feeling of reverence
on every being to whom it is given.

Having shown in the preceding remarks, that there is
a foundation in the human soul for the honor enjoined in
our text towards all men, I proceed to observe, that, if
we look next into Christianity, we shall find this duty
enforced by new and still more solemn considerations.
This whole religion is a testimony to the worth of man
in the sight of God, to the importance of human nature,
to the infinite purposes for which we were framed. God
is there set forth, as sending to the succour of his human

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN. 307

family, his Beloved Son, the bright image and repre-
sentative of his own perfections ; and sending him, not
simply to roll away a burden of pain and punishment
(for this, however magnified in systems of theology, is
not his highest work), but to create men after that divine
image which he himself bears, to purify the soul from
every stain, to communicate to it new power over evil,
and to open before it Immortality as its aim and destina-
tion, — Immortality, by which we are to understand,
not merely a perpetual, but an ever-improving and celes-
tial being. Such are the views of Christianity. And
these blessings it proffers, not to a few, not to the edu-
cated, not to the eminent, but to all human beings, to
the poorest, and the most fallen ; and we know, that,
through the power of its promises, it has in not a few in-
stances raised the most fallen to true greatness, and given
them in their present virtue and peace, an earnest of the
Heaven which it unfolds. Such is Christianity. Men,
viewed in the light of this religion, are beings cared for
by God, to whom he has given his Son, on whom he
pours forth his Spirit, and whom he has created for the
highest good in the universe, for participation in his own
perfections and happiness. My friends, such is Christi-
anity. Our skepticism as to our own nature cannot
quench the bright light which that religion sheds on the
soul and on the prospects of mankind ; and just as far
as we receive its truth, we shall honor all men.

I know I shall be told that Christianity speaks of man
as a sinner, and thus points him out to abhorrence and
scorn. I know it speaks of human sin, but it does not
speak of this as indissolubly bound up with the soul, as
entering into the essence of human nature, but as a tem-
porary stain, which it calls on us to wash away. Its

308 HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN.

greatest doctrine is, that the most lost are recoverable,
that the most fallen may rise, and that there is no height
of purity, power, felicity in the universe, to which the
guiltiest mind may not, through penitence, attain. Chris-
tianity indeed gives us a deeper, keener feeling of the
guilt of mankind, than any other religion. By the reve-
lation of perfection in the character of Jesus Christ, it
shows us how imperfect even the best men are. But
it reveals perfection in Jesus, not for our discourage-
ment, but as our model, reveals it only that we may
thirst for and approach it. From Jesus I learn what
man is to become, that is, if true to this new light ; and
true he may be.

Christianity, I have said, shows man as a sinner, but
I nowhere meet in it those dark views of our race
which would make us shrink from it as from a nest of
venomous reptiles. According to the courteous style
of theology, man has been called half brute and half
devil. But this is a perverse and pernicious exaggera-
tion. The brute, as it is called, that is, animal, appetite
is indeed strong in human beings ; but is there nothing
within us but appetite ? Is there nothing to war with it ?
Does this constitute the essence of the soul ? Is it not
rather an accident, the result of the mind's union with
matter ? Is not its spring in the body, and may it not
be expected to, perish with the body ? In addition to
animal propensities, I see the tendency to criminal ex-
cess in all men's passions. I see not one only, but
many Tempters in every human heart. Nor am I in-
sensible to the fearful power of these enemies to our
virtue. But is there nothing in man but temptation, but
propensity to sin ? Are there no counterworking pow-
ers ? no attractions in virtue ? no tendencies to God ?

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN. 309

no sympathies with sorrow ? no reverence for greatness ?
no moral conflicts? no triumphs of principle? This
very strength of temptation seems to me to be one of
the indications of man's greatness. It shows a beins
framed to make progress through difficulty, suffering,
and conflict ; that is, it shows a being designed for the
highest order of virtues ; for we all feel by an unerring
instinct, that virtue is elevated in proportion to the obsta-
cles which it surmounts, to the power with which it is
chosen and held fast. I see men placed by their Crea-
tor on a field of battle ; but compassed with peril that
they may triumph over it ; and, though often overborne,
still summoned to new efforts, still privileged to approach
the Source of all power, and to seek " grace in time of
need," and still addressed in tones of encouragement by
a celestial Leader, who has himself fought and conquer-
ed, and holds forth to them his own crown of righteous-
ness and victory.

From these brief views of human nature and of
Christianity, you will see the grounds of the solemn ob-
ligation of honoring all men, of attaching infinite impor-
tance to human nature, and of respecting it, even in its
present infant, feeble, tottering state. This sentiment
of honor or respect for human beings, strikes me more
and more as essential to the Christian character. I con-
ceive that a more thorough understanding and a more
faithful culture of this, would do very much to carry for-
ward the church and the world. In truth, I attach to
this sentiment such importance, that I measure by its
progress the progress of society. I judge of public
events very much by their bearing on this. I estimate
political revolutions, chiefly by their tendency to exalt
men's conceptions of their nature, and to inspire thern

310 HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN.

with respect for one another's claims. The present
stupendous movements in Europe naturally suggest, and
almost force upon me, this illustration of the importance
which I have given to the sentiment enjoined in our
text. Allow me to detain you a few moments on this
topic.

What is it, then, I ask, which makes the present
revolutionary movement abroad so interesting ? I an-
swer, that I see in it the principle of respect for human
nature and for the human race, developing itself more
powerfully, and this to me constitutes its chief interest.
I see in it proofs, indications, that the mind is awakening
to a consciousness of what it is, and of what it is made
for. In this movement I see man becoming to himself a
higher object. I see him attaining to the conviction of
the equal and indestructible rights of every human being.
I see the dawning of that great principle, that the indi-
vidual is not made to be the instrument of others, but
to govern himself by an inward law, and to advance
towards his proper perfection ; that he belongs to him-
self and to God, and to no human superior. I know,
indeed, that, in the present state of the world, these con-
ceptions are exceedingly unsettled and obscure ; and in
truth, little effort has "hitherto been made to place them
in a clear light, and to give them a definite and practical
form in men's minds. The multitude know not with
any distinctness what they want. Imagination, un-
schooled by reason and experience, dazzles them with
bright but baseless visions. They are driven onward
with a perilous violence, by a vague consciousness of not
having found their element ; by a vague yet noble faith
in a higher good than they have attained ; by impatience
under restraints, which they feel to be degrading. In

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN. 311

this violence, however, there is nothing strange, nor
ought it to discourage us. It is, I believe, universally
true, that great principles, in their first developement,
manifest themselves irregularly. It is so in religion. In
history we often see religion, especially after long de-
pression, breaking out in vehemence and enthusiasm,
sometimes stirring up bloody conflicts, and through
struggles establishing a calmer empire over society. In
like manner, political history shows us, that men's con-
sciousness of their rights and essential equality has at
first developed itself passionately. Still the conscious-
ness is a noble one, and the presage of a better so-
cial state.

Am I asked, what I hope from the present revolu-
tionary movements in Europe ? I answer, that I hope
a good which includes all others, and which almost hides
all others from my view. I hope the subversion of in-
stitutions, by which the true bond between man and man
has been more or less dissolved, by which the will of
one or a few has broken down the will, the heart, the
conscience of the many ; and I hope that, in the place
of these, are to grow up institutions, which will express,
cherish, and spread far and wide a just respect for hu-
man nature, which will strengthen in men a consciousness
of their powers, duties, and rights, which will train the
individual to moral and religious independence, which
will propose as their end the elevation of all orders of
the community, and which will give full scope to the
best minds in this work of general improvement. I do
not say, that I expect it to be suddenly realized. The
sun, which is to bring on a brighter day, is rising in thick
and threatening clouds. Perhaps the minds of men
were never more unquiet than at the present moment.

312 HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN.

Still I do not despair. That a higher order of ideas or
principles is beginning to be unfolded ; that a wider phi-
lanthropy is beginning to triumph over the distinctions of
ranks and nations ; that a new feeling of what is due to
the ignorant, poor, and depraved, has sprung up ; that
the right of every human being to such an education as
shall call forth his best faculties, and train him more and
more to control himself, is recognised as it never was
before ; and that government is more and more regarded
as intended not to elevate the few, but to guard the rights
of all ; that these great revolutions in principle have
commenced and are spreading, who can deny ? and to
me they are prophetic of an improved condition of hu-
man nature and human affairs. — O, that this meliora-
tion might be accomplished without blood ! As a Chris-
tian, I feel a misgiving, when I rejoice in any good,
however great, for which this fearful price has been paid.
In truth, a good so won is necessarily imperfect and gen-
erally transient. War may subvert a despotism, but
seldom builds up better institutions. Even when joined,
as in our own history, with high principles, it inflames
and leaves behind it passions, which make liberty a fe-
verish conflict of jealous parties, and which expose a
people to the tyranny of faction under the forms of free-
dom. Few things impair men's reverence for human
nature, more than war ; and did I not see other and ho-
lier influences than the sword, working out the regenera-
tion of the race, I should indeed despair.

In this discourse I have spoken of the grounds and
importance of that honor or respect which is due from
us, and enjoined on us, towards all human beings. The
various forms, in which this principle is to be exercised
or manifested, I want time to enlarge on. I would only

HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN. 313

say, " Honor all men." Honor man, from the be-
ginning to the end of his earthly course. Honor the
child. Welcome into being the infant, with a feeling
of its mysterious grandeur, with the feeling, that an
immortal existence has begun, that a spirit has been
kindled which is never to be quenched. Honor the
child. On this principle, all good education rests.
Never shall we learn to train up the child, till we take
it in our arms, as Jesus did, and feel distinctly that
" of such is the kingdom of heaven." In that short
sentence is taught the spirit of the true system of edu-
cation ; and for want of understanding it, little effectual
aid, I fear, is yet given to the heavenly principle in the
infant soul. — Again. Honor the poor. This senti-
ment of respect is essential to improving the connexion
between the more and less prosperous conditions of
society. This alone makes beneficence truly godlike.
Without it, almsgiving degrades the receiver. We
must learn how slight and shadowy are the distinctions
between us and the poor ; and that the last in outward
condition may be first in the best attributes of humanity.
A fraternal union, founded on this deep conviction,
and intended to lift up and strengthen the exposed and
tempted poor, is to do infinitely more for that suffering
class, than all our artificial associations ; and till Chris-
tianity shall have breathed into us this spirit of respect
for our nature, wherever it is found, we shall do them
little good. I conceive, that in the present low state
of Christian virtue, we little apprehend the power which
might be exerted over the fallen and destitute, by a be-
nevolence which should truly, thoroughly recognise in
them the image of God.

Perhaps none of us have yet heard or can compre-

vol. in. 27

314 HONOR DUE TO ALL MEN.

hend the tone of voice, in which a man, thoroughly im-
pressed with this sentiment, would speak to a fellow-
creature. It is a language hardly known on earth ; and
no eloquence, I believe, has achieved such wonders as
it is destined to accomplish. I must stop, though I
have but begun the application of the principle which
I have urged. I will close as I began, with saying,
that the great revelation which man now needs, is a
revelation of man to himself. The faith which is most
wanted, is a faith in what we and our fellow-beings
may become, a faith in the divine germ or principle in
every soul. In regard to most of what are called the
mysteries of religion, we may innocently be ignorant.
But the mystery within ourselves, the mystery of our
spiritual, accountable, immortal nature, it behoves us
to explore. Happy are they who have begun to pene-
trate it, and in whom it has awakened feelings of awe
towards themselves, and of deep interest and honor
towards their fellow-creatures.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

Romans i. 16 : "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ."

PART I.

These words of Paul are worthy of his resolute and
disinterested spirit. In uttering them he was not an
echo of the multitude, a servile repeater of established
doctrines. The vast majority around him were ashamed
of Jesus. The cross was then coupled with infamy.
Christ's name was scorned as a malefactor's, and to
profess his religion was to share his disgrace. Since
that time what striking changes have occurred ! The
cross now hangs as an ornament from the neck of beauty.
It blazes on the flags of navies, and the standards of
armies. Millions bow before it in adoration, as if it were
a shrine of the divinity. Of course, the temptation to
be ashamed of Jesus is very much diminished. Still it
is not wholly removed. Much of the homage now paid
to Christianity is outward, political, worldly, and paid
to its corruptions much more than to its pure and lofty
spirit ; and accordingly its conscientious and intrepid
friends must not think it a strange thing to be encoun-
tered with occasional coldness or reproach. We may

316 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

still be tempted to be ashamed of our religion, by being
thrown among skeptics, who deny and deride it. We
may be tempted to be ashamed of the simple and ra-
tional doctrines of Christ, by being brought into con-
nexion with narrow zealots, who enforce their dark and
perhaps degrading peculiarities as essential to salvation.
We may be tempted to be ashamed of his pure, meek,
and disinterested precepts, by being thrown among the
licentious, self-seeking, and vindictive. Against these
perils we should all go armed. To be loyal to truth
and conscience under such trials, is one of the signal
proofs of virtue. No man deserves the name of Chris-
tian, but he who adheres to his principles amidst the
unbelieving, the intolerant, and the depraved.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." So
said Paul. So would I say. Would to God that I
could catch the spirit as well as the language of the
Apostle, and bear my testimony to Christianity with the
same heroic resolution. Do any ask, why I join in this
attestation to the gospel ? Some of my reasons I pro-
pose now to set before you ; and in doing so, I ask the
privilege of speaking, as the Apostle has done, in the
first person ; of speaking in my own name, and of laying
open my own mind in the most direct language. There
are cases, in which the ends of public discourse may
be best answered by the frank expression of individual
feeling ; and this mode of address, when adopted with
such views, ought not to be set down to the account
of egotism.

I proceed to state the reasons why I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ ; and I begin with one so impor-
tant, that it will occupy the present discourse.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 317

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because
it is true. This is my first reason. The religion is
true, and no consideration but this could induce me to
defend it. I adopt it, not because it is popular, for false
and ruinous systems have enjoyed equal reputation ; nor
because it is thought to uphold the order of society, for
I believe that nothing but truth can be permanently
useful. It is true ; and I say this not lightly, but after
deliberate examination. I am not repeating the accents
of the nursery. I do not affirm the truth of Christian-
ity, because I was so taught before I could inquire, or
because I was brought up in a community pledged to
this belief. It is not unlikely, that my faith and zeal
will be traced by some to these sources ; and believing
such imputations to be groundless, fidelity to the cause
of truth binds me to repel them. The circumstance of
having been born and educated under Christianity, so
far from disposing me to implicit faith, has often been
to me the occasion of serious distrust of our religion.
On observing how common it is for men of all countries
and names, whether Christians, Jews, or Mahometans,
to receive the religion of their fathers, I have again
and again asked myself, whether I too was not a slave,
whether I too was not blindly walking in the path of
tradition, and yielding myself as passively as others to
an hereditary faith. I distrust and fear the power of
numbers and of general opinion over my judgment ;
and few things incite me more to repel a doctrine than
intolerant attempts to force it on my understanding.
Perhaps my Christian education and connexions have
inclined me to skepticism, rather than bowed my mind
to authority.

It may still be said, that the pride and prejudices
27*

318 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

and motives of interest, which belong to my profession
as a Christian minister, throw a suspiciousness over
my reasoning and judgment on the present subject. I
reply, that to myself I seem as free from biases of this
kind, as the most indifferent person. I have no priestly
prepossessions. I know and acknowledge the corrup-
tions and perversions of the ministerial office from the
earliest age of the church. I reprobate the tyranny
which it exercises so often over the human mind. I
recognise no peculiar sanctity in those who sustain it.
I think, then, that I come to the examination of Chris-
tianity with as few blinding partialities as any man. I
indeed claim no exemption from error ; I ask no im-
plicit faith in my conclusions ; I care not how jealously
and thoroughly my arguments are sifted. I only ask,
that I may not be prejudged as a servile or interested
partisan of Christianity. I ask that I may be heard as
a friend of truth, desirous to aid my fellow-creatures in
determining a question of great and universal concern.
I appear as the advocate of Christianity, solely because
it approves itself to my calmest reason as a revelation
from God, and as the purest, brightest light which He
has shed on the human mind. I disclaim all other mo-
tives. No policy, no vassalage to opinion, no dread
of reproach even from the good, no private interest, no
desire to uphold a useful superstition, nothing in short
but a deliberate conviction of the truth of Christianity,
induces me to appear in its ranks. I should be ashamed
of it, did I not believe it true.

In discussing this subject, I shall express my con-
victions strongly ; I shall speak of infidelity as a gross
and perilous error. But in so doing, I beg not to be

EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 319

understood as passing sentence on the character of in-
dividual unbelievers. I shall show that the Christian
religion is true, is from God ; but I do not therefore
conclude, that all who reject it are the enemies of God,
and are to be loaded with reproach. I would uphold
the truth without ministering to uncharitableness. The
criminality, the damnable guilt of unbelief in all imagi-
nable circumstances, is a position which I think un-
tenable ; and persuaded as I am, that it prejudices the
cause of Christianity, by creating an antipathy between
its friends and opposers, which injures both, and drives
the latter into more determined hostility to the truth,
I think it worthy of a brief consideration in this stage
of the discussion.

I lay it down as a principle, that unbelief, considered
in itself, has no moral quality, is neither a virtue nor
a vice, but must receive its character, whether good or
bad, from the dispositions or motives which produce or
pervade it. Mere acts of the understanding are neither
right nor wrong. When I speak of faith as a holy or
virtuous principle, I extend the term beyond its primi-
tive meaning, and include in it not merely the assent
of the intellect, but the disposition or temper by which
this assent is determined, and which it is suited to con-
firm ; and I attach as broad a signification to unbelief,
when I pronounce it a crime. The truth is, that the
human mind, though divided by our philosophy into
many distinct capacities, seldom or never exerts them
separately, but generally blends them in one act. Thus
in forming a judgment, it exerts the will and affections,
or the moral principles of our nature, as really as the
power of thought. Men's passions and interests mix
with, and are expressed in, the decisions of the intel-

320 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

lect. In the Scriptures, which use language freely, and
not with philosophical strictness, faith and unbelief are
mental acts of this complex character, or joint products
of the understanding and heart ; and on this account
alone, they are objects of approbation or reproof. In
these views, I presume, reflecting Christians of every
name agree.

According to these views, opinions cannot be laid
down as unerring and immutable signs of virtue and
vice. The very same opinion may be virtuous in one
man and vicious in another, supposing it, as is very
possible, to have originated in different states of mind.
For example, if through envy and malignity I should
rashly seize on the slightest proofs of guilt in my neigh-
bour, my judgment of his criminality would be morally
wrong. Let another man arrive at the same conclu-
sion, in consequence of impartial inquiry and love of
truth, and his decision would be morally right. Still
more, according to these views, it is possible for the
belief of Christianity to be as criminal as unbelief. Un-
doubtedly the reception of a system, so pure in spirit
and tendency as the gospel, is to be regarded in general
as a favorable sign. But let a man adopt this religion,
because it will serve his interest and popularity ; let
him shut his mind against objections to it, lest they
should shake his faith in a gainful system ; let him
tamper with his intellect, and for base and selfish ends
exhaust its strength in defence of the prevalent faith,
and he is just as criminal in believing, as another would
be in rejecting Christianity under the same bad im-
pulses. Our religion is at this moment adopted, and
passionately defended by vast multitudes, on the ground
of the very same pride, worldliness, love of popularity,

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 321

and blind devotion to hereditary prejudices, which led
the Jews and Heathens to reject it in the primitive age ;
and the faith of the first is as wanting in virtue, as was
the infidelity of the last.

To judge of the character of faith and unbelief, we
must examine the times and the circumstances in which
they exist. At the first preaching of the gospel, to be-
lieve on Christ was a strong proof of an upright mind ;
to enlist among his followers, was to forsake ease, honor,
and wordly success ; to confess him was an act of signal
loyalty to truth, virtue, and God. To believe in Christ
at the present moment has no such significance. To
confess him argues no moral courage. It may even be-
tray a servility and worldliness of mind. These remarks
apply in their spirit to unbelief. At different periods,
and in different conditions of society, unbelief may ex-
press very different states of mind. Before we pro-
nounce it a crime, and doom it to perdition, we ought to
know the circumstances under which it has sprung up,
and to inquire with candor whether they afford no pallia-
tion or defence. When Jesus Christ was on earth,
when his miracles were wrought before men's eyes, when
his voice sounded in their ears, when not a shade of
doubt could be thrown over the reality of his supernatu-
ral works, and not a human corruption had mingled with
his doctrine, there was the strongest presumption against
the uprightness and the love of truth of those who re-
jected him. He knew too the hearts and the lives of
those who surrounded him, and saw distinctly in their
envy, ambition, worldliness, sensuality, the springs of
their unbelief ; and accordingly he pronounced it a
crime. Since that period, what changes have taken
place ! Jesus Christ has left the world. His miracles

322 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

are events of a remote age, and the proofs of them,
though abundant, are to many perfectly unknown ; and,
what is incomparably more important, his religion has
undergone corruption, adulteration, disastrous change,
and its likeness to its Founder is in no small degree ef-
faced. The clear, consistent, quickening truth, which
came from the lips of Jesus, has been exchanged for a
hoarse jargon and vain babblings. The stream, so pure
at the fountain, has been polluted and poisoned through
its whole course. Not only has Christianity been over-
whelmed by absurdities, but by impious doctrines, which
have made the Universal Father, now a weak and vain
despot, to be propitiated by forms and flatteries, and
now an almighty torturer, foreordaining multitudes of his
creatures to guilt, and then glorifying his justice by their
everlasting woe. When I think what Christianity has
become in the hands of politicians and priests, how it
has been shaped into a weapon of power, how it has
crushed the human soul for ages, how it has struck the
intellect with palsy and haunted the imagination with su-
perstitious phantoms, how it has broken whole nations to
the yoke, and frowned on every free thought ; when I
think how, under almost every form of this religion, its
ministers have taken it into their own keeping, have
hewn and compressed it into the shape of rigid creeds,
and have then pursued by menaces of everlasting woe
whoever should question the divinity of these works of
their hands ; when I consider, in a word, how, under
such influences, Christianity has been and still is exhib-
ited, in forms which shock alike the reason, conscience,
and heart, I feel deeply, painfully, what a different sys-
tem it is from that which Jesus taught, and I dare not
apply to unbelief the terms of condemnation which be-
longed to the infidelity of the primitive age.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 323

Perhaps I ought to go further. Perhaps I ought to
say, that to reject Christianity under some of its cor-
ruptions is rather a virtue than a crime. At the present
moment, I would ask, whether it is a vice to doubt the
truth of Christianity, as it is manifested in Spain and
Portugal ? When a patriot in those benighted countries,
who knows Christianity only as a bulwark of despotism,
as a rearer of inquisitions, as a stern jailer immuring
wretched women in the convent, as an executioner
stained and reeking with the blood of the friends of free-
dom ; I say, when the patriot, who sees in our religion
the instrument of these crimes and woes, believes and
affirms that it is not from God, are we authorized to
charge his unbelief on dishonesty and corruption of
mind, and to brand him as a culprit ? May it not be
that the spirit of Christianity in his heart emboldens him
to protest with his lips against what bears the name ?
And if he thus protest, through a deep sympathy with
the oppression and sufferings of his race, is he not near-
er the kingdom of God than the priest and inquisitor
who boastingly and exclusively assume the Christian
name ? Jesus Christ has told us, that " this is the con-
demnation " of the unbelieving, " that they love dark-
ness rather than light ; " and who does not see, that this
ground of condemnation is removed, just in proportion
as the light is quenched, or Christian truth is buried in
darkness and debasing error ?

I know I shall be told that a man in the circumstances
now supposed, would still be culpable for his unbelief,
because the Scriptures are within his reach, and these
are sufficient to guide him to the true doctrines of Christ.
But in the countries of which I have spoken, the Scrip-
tures are not common ; and if they were, I apprehend

324 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

that we should task human strength too severely, in re-
quiring it, under every possible disadvantage, to gain the
truth from this source alone. A man, born and brought
up in the thickest darkness, and amidst the grossest cor-
ruptions of Christianity, accustomed to hear the Scriptures
disparaged, accustomed to connect false ideas with their
principal terms, and wanting our most common helps of
criticism, can hardly be expected to detach from the
mass of error which bears the name of the Gospel, the
simple principles of the primitive faith. Let us not ex-
act too much of our fellow-creatures. In our zeal for
Christianity, let us not forget its spirit of equity and
mercy. — In these remarks I have taken an extreme
case. I have supposed a man subjected to the greatest
disadvantages in regard to the knowledge of Christianity.
But obstacles less serious may exculpate the unbeliever.
In truth, none of us can draw the line which separates
between innocence and guilt in this particular. To
measure the responsibility of a man, who doubts or de-
nies Christianity, we must know the history of his mind,
his capacity of judgment, the early influences and preju-
dices to which he was exposed, the forms under which
the religion and its proofs first fixed his thoughts, and
the opportunities since enjoyed of eradicating errors,
which struck root before the power of trying them was
unfolded. We are not his judges. At another and an
unerring tribunal he must give account.

I cannot, then, join in the common cry against infi-
delity as the sure mark of a corrupt mind. That unbe-
lief often has its origin in evil dispositions, I cannot
doubt. The character of the unbeliever often forces us
to acknowledge, that he rejects Christianity to escape its
rebukes ; that its purity is its chief offence ; that he

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 325

seeks infidelity as a refuge from fear and virtuous re-
straint. But to impute these unholy motives to a man
of pure life, is to judge rashly, and it may be unrigh-
teously. I cannot look upon unbelief as essentially and
unfailingly a crime. But I do look upon it as among
the greatest of calamities. It is the loss of the chief aid
of virtue, of the mightiest power over temptation, of the
most quickening knowledge of God, of the only un-
failing light, of the only sure hope. The unbeliever
would gain unspeakably by parting with every possession
for the truth which he doubts or rejects. And how
shall we win him to the faith ? Not by reproach, by
scorn, by tones of superiority ; but by paying due re-
spect to his understanding, his virtues, and his right of
private judgment ; by setting before him Christianity in
its simple majesty, its reasonableness, and wonderful
adaptation to the wants of our spiritual nature ; by ex-
hibiting its proofs without exaggeration, yet in their full
strength ; and, above all, by showing in our own char-
acters and lives., that there is in Christianity a power to
purify, elevate, and console, which can be found in no
human teaching. These are the true instruments of
conversion. The ignorant and superstitious may indeed
be driven into a religion by menace and reproach. But
the reflecting unbeliever cannot but distrust a cause
which admits such weapons. He must be reasoned
with as a man, an equal, and a brother. Perhaps we
may silence him for a time, by spreading through the
community a fanatical excitement, and a persecuting
hatred of infidelity. But as by such processes Christi
anity would be made to take a more unlovely and irra-
tional form, its secret foes would be multiplied ; its
brightest evidence would be dimmed, its foundation
vol. in. 28

326 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

sapped, its energy impaired ; and whenever the time
should arrive for throwing off the mask (and that lime
would come), we should learn, that in the very ranks of
its nominal disciples, there had been trained a host of
foes, who would burn to prostrate the intolerant faith,
which had so long sealed their lips, and trampled on the
rights and freedom of the human mind.

According to these views, I do not condemn the un-
believer, unless he bear witness against himself by an
immoral and irreligious life. It is not given me to search
his heart. But this power is given to himself, and as a
friend, I call upon him to exert it ; I ask him to look
honestly into his own mind, to question his past life, and
to pronounce impartial sentence on the causes of his un-
belief. Let him ask himself, whether he has inquired
into the principles and proofs of Christianity deliberately
and in the love of truth ; whether the desire to discover
and fulfil his duties to God and his fellow-creatures has
governed his examination ; whether he has surrendered
himself to no passions or pursuits which religion and
conscience rebuke, and which bar the mind and sear the
heart against the truth. If, thus self-questioned, his
heart acquit him, let no man condemn him, and let him
heed no man's condemnation. But if conscience bear
witness against him, he has cause to suspect and dread
his unbelief. He has reason to fear, that it is the fruit
of a depraved mind, and that it will ripen and confirm
the depravity from which it sprung.

I know that there are those, who will construe what
they will call my lenity towards unbelief, into treachery
towards Christianity. There are those who think, that
unless skepticism be ranked among the worst crimes,
and the infidel be marked out for abhorrence and dread,

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 327

the multitude of men will lose their hold on the gospel.
An opinion more discreditable to Christianity cannot
easily be advanced by its friends. It virtually admits,
that the proofs of our religion, unless examined under
the influence of terror, cannot work conviction ; that
the gospel cannot be left, like other subjects, to the
calm and unbiassed judgment of mankind. It discovers
a distrust of Christianity, with which I have no sym-
pathy. And here I would remark, that the wTorst abuses
of our religion have sprung from this cowardly want of
confidence in its power. Its friends have feared, that
it could not stand without a variety of artificial but-
tresses. They have imagined, that men must now be
bribed into faith by annexing to it temporal privileges,
now driven into it by menaces and inquisitions, now
attracted by gorgeous forms, now awed by mysteries
and superstitions ; in a word, that the multitude must
be imposed upon, or the religion will fall. I have no
such distrust of Christianity ; I believe in its invincible
powers. It is founded in our nature. It meets our
deepest wants. Its proofs as well as principles are
adapted to the common understandings of men, and
need not to be aided by appeals to fear or any other
passion, which would discourage inquiry or disturb the
judgment. I fear nothing for Christianity, if left to
speak in its own tones, to approach men with its un-
veiled, benignant countenance. I do fear much from
the weapons of policy and intimidation, which are
framed to uphold the imagined weakness of Christian
truth.

I now come to the great object of this discourse, — ■
an exhibition of the proofs of Christianity ; — and I be

328 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY

gin with a topic which is needed to prepare some, if
not many, to estimate these proofs fairly, and according
to their true weight. I begin with the position, That
there is nothing in the general idea of Revelation at
which Reason ought to take offence, nothing inconsis-
tent with any established truth, or with our best views
of God and Nature. This topic meets a prejudice not
very rare. I repeat it then, Revelation is nothing
incredible, nothing which carries contradiction on its
face, nothing at war with any great principles of reason
or experience. On hearing of God's teaching us by
some other means than the fixed order of nature, we
ought not to be surprised, nor ought the suggestion to
awaken resistance in our minds.

Revelation is not at war with nature. From the
necessity of the case, the earliest instruction must have
come to human beings from this source. If our race had
a beginning (and nothing but the insanity of Atheism
can doubt this), then its first members, created as they
were without human parentage, and having no resource
in the experience of fellow-creatures who had preceded
them, required an immediate teaching from their Crea-
tor ; they would have perished without it. Revelation
was the very commencement of human history, the
foundation of all later knowledge and improvement. It
was an essential part of the course of Providence, and
must not then be regarded as a discord in God's gen-
eral system.

Revelation is not at war with nature. Nature prompts
us to expect it from the relation which God bears to
the human race. The relation of Creator is the most
intimate which can subsist : and it leads us to anticipate
a free and affectionate intercourse with the creature.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 329

That the Universal Father should be bound by a pa-
rental interest to his offspring, that he should watch
over and assist the progress of beings whom he has
enriched with the divine gifts of reason and conscience,
is so natural a doctrine, so accordant with his charac-
ter, that various sects, both philosophical and religious,
both anterior and subsequent to Christianity, have be-
lieved, not only in general revelation, but that God
reveals himself to every human soul. When I think of
the vast capacities of the human mind, of God's near-
ness to it, and unbounded love towards it, I am dis-
posed to wonder, not that revelations have been made,
but that they have not been more variously vouchsafed
to the wants of mankind.

Revelation has a striking agreement with the chief
method which God has instituted for carrying forward
individuals and the race, and is thus in harmony with
his ordinary operations. Whence is it, that we all
acquire our chief knowledge ? Not from the outward
universe ; not from the fixed laws of material nature ;
but from intelligent beings, more advanced than our-
selves. The teachings of the wise and good are our
chief aids. Were our connexion with superior minds
broken off, had we no teacher but nature with its fixed
laws, its unvarying revolutions of night and day and
seasons, we should remain for ever in the ignorance of
childhood. Nature is a volume, which we can read
only by the help of an intelligent interpreter. The
great law under which man is placed, is, that he shall
receive illumination and impulse from beings more im-
proved than himself. Now revelation is only an exten-
sion of this universal method of carrying forward man-
kind. In this case, God takes on himself the office
28*

330 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

to which all rational beings are called. He becomes
an immediate teacher to a few, communicating to them
a higher order of truths than had before been attained,
which they in turn are to teach to their race. Here is
no new power or element introduced into the system,
but simply an enlargement of that agency on which the
progress of man chiefly depends.

Let me next ask you to consider, Why or for what
end God has ordained, as the chief means of human
improvement, the communication of light from superior
to inferior minds ; and if it shall then appear, that reve-
lation is strikingly adapted to promote a similar though
more important end, you will have another mark of
agreement between revelation and his ordinary Provi-
dence. Why is it that God has made men's progress
dependent on instruction from their fellow-beings ? Why
are the more advanced commissioned to teach the less
informed ? A great purpose, I believe the chief pur-
pose, is, to establish interesting relations among men,
to bind them to one another by generous sentiments, to
promote affectionate intercourse, to call forth a purer
love than could spring from a communication of mere
outward gifts. Now it is rational to believe, that the
Creator designs to bind his creatures to Himself as truly
as to one another, and to awaken towards himself even
stronger gratitude, confidence, and love ; for these sen-
timents towards God are more happy and ennobling
than towards any other being ; and it is plain that reve-
lation, or immediate divine teaching, serves as effectual-
ly to establish these ties between God and man, as
human teaching to attach men to one another. We
see, then, in revelation an end corresponding to what
the Supreme Being adopts in his common providence.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 331

That the end here affirmed is worthy of his interposi-
tion, who can doubt ? His benevolence can propose
no higher purpose, than that of raising the minds and
hearts of his creatures to himself. His parental char-
acter is a pledge that he must intend this ineffable hap-
piness for his rational offspring ; and Revelation is suit-
ed to this end, not only by unfolding new doctrines in
relation to God, but by the touching proof which it
carries in itself of the special interest which he takes
in his human family. There is plainly an expression
of deeper concern, a more affectionate character, in this
mode of instruction, than in teaching us by the fixed
order of nature. Revelation is God speaking to us in
our own language, in the accents which human friend-
ship employs. It shows a love, breaking through the
reserve and distance, which we all feel to belong to the
method of teaching us by his works abne. It fastens
our minds on him. We can look on nature, and not
think of the Being whose glory it declares ; but God
is indissolubly connected with, and indeed is a part of,
the idea of revelation. How much nearer does this
direct intercourse bring him to the mass of mankind !
On this account revelation would seem to me important,
were it simply to repeat the teachings of nature. This
reiteration of great truths in a less formal style, in kind-
er, more familiar tones, is peculiarly fitted to awaken
the soul to the presence and benignity of its heavenly
Parent. I see, then, in revelation a purpose corre-
sponding with that for which human teaching was insti-
tuted. Both are designed to bring together the teacher
and the taught in pure affections.

Let me next ask you to consider, what is the kind
of instruction which the higher minds among men are

332 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

chiefly called to impart to the inferior. You will here
see another agreement between revelation and that or-
dinary human teaching, which is the great instrument
of improving the race. What kind of instruction is
it, which parents, which the aged and experienced, are
most anxious to give to the young, and on which the
safety of this class mainly depends ? It is instruction
in relation to the Future, to their adult years, such as
is suited to prepare them fcr the life that is opening
before them. It is God's will, when he gives us birth,
that we should be forewarned of the future stages of
our being, of approaching manhood or womanhood, of
the scenes, duties, labors, through which we are to
pass ; and for this end he connects us with beings, who
have traversed the paths on which we are entering, and
whose duty it is to train us for a more advanced age.
Instruction in regard to Futurity is the great means
of improvement. Now the Christian revelation has for
its aim to teach us on this very subject ; to disclose
the life which is before us, and to fit us for it. A Fu-
ture state is its constant burden. That God should
give us light in regard to that state, if he designs us
for it, is what we should expect from his solicitude to
teach us in regard to what is future in our earthly ex-
istence. Nature thrists for, and analogy almost prom-
ises, some illumination on the subject of human des-
tiny. This topic I shall insist on more largely hereafter.
I wish now simply to show you the agreement of reve-
lation, in this particular, with the ordinary providence
of God.

I proceed to another order of reflections, which to
my own mind is particularly suited to meet the vague
idea, that revelation is at war with nature. To judge

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 333

of nature, we should look at its highest ranks of beings.
We should inquire of the human soul, which we all feel
to be a higher existence than matter. Now I maintain,
that there are in the human soul wants, deep wants,
which are not met by the influences and teachings, which
the ordinary course of things affords. I am aware that
this is a topic to provoke distrust, if not derision, in the
low-minded and sensual ; but I speak what I do know ;
and nothing moves me so little as the scoffs of men who
dispise their own nature. One of the most striking
views of human nature, is the disproportion between
what it conceives and thirsts for, and what it finds or
can secure in the range of the present state. It is prone
to stretch beyond its present bounds. Ideas of excel-
lence and happiness spring up, which it cannot realize
now. It carries within itself a standard, of which it dai-
ly and hourly falls short. This self-contradiction is the
source of many sharp pains. There is, in most men, a
dim consciousness, at least, of being made for some-
thing higher than they have gained, a feeling of internal
discord, a want of some stable good, a disappointment in
merely outward acquisitions ; and in proportion as these
convictions and wants become distinct, they break out in
desires of illumination and aids from God not found in
nature. I am aware, that the wants of which I have
spoken are but faintly developed in the majority of men.
Accustomed to give their thoughts and strength to the
outward world, multitudes do not penetrate and cannot
interpret their own souls. They impute to outward
causes the miseries which spring from an internal foun-
tain. They do not detain, and are scarcely conscious
of the better thoughts and feelings, which sometimes
dart through their minds. Still there are few, who are

334 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY.

not sometimes dissatisfied with themselves, who do not
feel the wrong which they have done to themselves, and
who do not desire a purer and nobler state of mind.
The suddenness, with which the multitude are thrilled
by the voice of fervent eloquence, when it speaks to
them of the spiritual world in tones of reality, shows
the deep wants of human nature even amidst ignorance
and degradation. But all men do not give themselves
wholly to outward things. There are those, and not
a few, who are more true to their nature, and ought
therefore to be regarded as its more faithful representa-
tives ; and in such, the wants, of which I have spoken,
are unfolded with energy. There are those, who feel
painfully the weight of their present imperfection ; who
are fired by rare examples of magnanimity and devotion ;
who desire nothing so intensely as power over tempta-
tion, as elevation above selfish passions, as conformity
of will to the inward law of duty, as the peace of con-
scious rectitude and religious trust ; who would rejoice
to lay down the present life for that spotless, bright,
disinterested virtue, of which they have the type or
germ in their own minds. Such men can find no re-
source but in God, and are prepared to welcome a rev-
elation of his merciful purposes as an unspeakable gift.
I say, then, that the human mind has wants which nature
does not answer. And these are not accidental feel-
ings, unaccountable caprices, but are deep, enduring,
and reproduced in all ages under one or another form.
They breathe through the works of genius ; they burn
in the loftiest souls. Here are principles implanted by
God in the highest order of his creatures on earth, to
which revelation is adapted ; and I say, then, that reve-
lation is any thing but hostility to nature.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. * 335

I will offer but one more view in illustration of this
topic. I ask you to consider, on what Principle of hu-
man nature the Christian revelation is intended to bear
and to exert influence, and then to inquire whether the
peculiar importance of this principle be not a foundation
for peculiar interposition in its behalf. If so, revelation
may be said to be a demand of the human soul, and its
imagined incongruity with nature will disappear. For
what principle or faculty of the mind, then, was Chris-
tianity intended ? It was plainly not given to enrich
the intellect by teaching philosophy, or to perfect the
imagination and taste by furnishing sublime and beauti-
ful models of composition. It was not meant to give
sagacity in public life, or skill and invention in common
affairs. It was undoubtedly designed to develope all
these faculties, but secondarily, and through its influence
on a higher principle. It addresses itself primarily,
and is especially adapted, to the Moral power in man.
It regards and is designed for man as a moral being,
endued with conscience or the principle of duty, who is
capable of that peculiar form of excellence which we
call righteousness or virtue, and exposed to that pecu-
liar evil, guilt. Now the question offers itself, Why
does God employ such extraordinary means for pro-
moting virtue rather than science, for aiding conscience
rather than intellect and our other powers ? Is there a
foundation in the moral principle for peculiar interpo-
sitions in its behalf ? I affirm that there is. I affirm
that a broad distinction exists between our moral nature
and our other capacities. Conscience is the Supreme
power within us. Its essence, its grand characteristic,
is Sovereignty. It speaks with a divine authority. Its
office is to command, to rebuke, to reward ; and happi-

336 ■ EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY.

ness and honor depend on the reverence with which
we listen to it. All our other powers become useless
and worse than useless, unless controlled by the princi-
ple of duty. Virtue is the supreme good, the supreme
beauty, the divinest of God's gifts, the healthy and har-
monious unfolding of the soul, and the germ of immor-
tality. It is worth every sacrifice, and has power to
transmute sacrifices and sufferings into crowns of glory
and rejoicing. Sin, vice, is an evil of its own kind, and
not to be confounded with any other. Who does not
feel at once the broad distinction between misfortune
and crime, between disease of body and turpitude of
soul ? Sin, vice, is war with the highest power in our
own breasts, and in the universe. It makes a being
odious to himself, and arms against him the principle
of rectitude in God and in all pure beings. It poisons
or dries up the fountains of enjoyment, and adds un-
speakable weight to the necessary pains of life. It is
not a foreign evil, but a blight and curse in the very
centre of our being. Its natural associates are fear,
shame, and self-torture ; and, whilst it robs the present
of consolation, it leaves the future without hope. Now
I say, that in this peculiar ruin wrought by moral eviL
and in this peculiar worth of moral goodness, we see
reasons for special interpositions of God in behalf of
virtue, in resistance of sin. It becomes the Infinite
Father to manifest peculiar interest in the moral condi-
tion and wants of his creatures. Their great and con-
tinued corruption is an occasion for peculiar methods
of relief ; and a revelation given to restore them, and
carry them forward to perfection, has an end which jus-
tifies, if it does not demand, this signal expression of
parental love.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 337

The preceding views have been offered, not as suf-
ficient to prove that a revelation has been given, but
for the purpose of removing the vague notion that it
is at war with nature, and of showing its consistency
with the spirit and principles of the divine administra-
tion. I proceed now to consider the direct and positive
proofs of Christianity, beginning with some remarks on
the nature and sufficiency of the evidence on which it
chiefly relies.

Christianity sprung up about eighteen hundred years
ago. Of course its evidences are to be sought in his-
tory. We must go back to the time of its birth, and
understand the condition in which it found the world,
as well as the circumstances of its origin, progress, and
establishment ; and happily, on these points, we have
all the light necessary to a just judgment. We must
not imagine, that a religion, which bears the date of so
distant an age, must therefore be involved in obscurity.
We know enough of the earliest times of Christianity
to place the question of its truth within our reach. The
past may be known as truly as the present ; and I deem
this principle so important in the present discussion
that I ask your attention to it.

The past, I have said, may be known ; nor is this
all ; we derive from it our most important knowledge.
Former times are our chief instructors. Our political,
as well as religious institutions, our laws, customs, modes
of thinking, arts of life, have come down from earlier
ages, and most of them are unintelligible without a light
borrowed from history.

Not only are we able to know the nearest of past
ages, or those which touch on our own times, but those
which are remote. No educated man doubts any more

vol. in. 29

338 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

of the victories of Alexander or Caesar, before Christ,
than of Napoleon's conquests in our own day. So open
is our communication with some ages of antiquity, so
many are the records which they have transmitted, that
we know them even better than nearer times ; and a
religion which grew up eighteen hundred years ago,
may be more intelligible and accompanied with more
decisive proofs of truth or falsehood, than one which is
not separated from us by a fourth part of that duration.
From the nature of things, we may and must know
much of the past ; for the present has grown out of the
past, is its legacy, fruit, representative, and is deeply
impressed with it. Events do not expire at the moment
of their occurrence. Nothing takes place without leav-
ing traces behind it ; and these are in many cases so
distinct and various, as to leave not a doubt of their
cause. We all understand, how, in the material world,
events testify of themselves to future ages. Should we
visit an unknown region, and behold masses of lava
covered with soil of different degrees of thickness, and
surrounding a blackened crater, we should have as firm
a persuasion of the occurrence of remote and succes-
sive volcanic eruptions, as if we had lived through the
ages in which they took place. The chasms of the
earth would report how terribly it had been shaken,
and the awful might of long-extinguished fires would
be written in desolations which ages had failed to ef-
face. Now conquest, and civil and religious revolu-
tions, leave equally their impressions on society, leave
institutions, manners, and a variety of monuments, which
are inexplicable without them, and which, taken togeth-
er, admit, not a doubt of their occurrence. The past
stretches into the future, the present is crowded with it,
and can be interpreted only by the light of history.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 339

But besides these effects and remains of earlier times,
we have other and more distinct memorials of the past,
which, when joined with the former, place it clearly
within our knowledge. I refer to books. A book is
more than a monument of a preceding age. It is a
voice coming to us over the interval of centuries. Lan-
guage, when written, as truly conveys to us another's
mind as when spoken. It is a species of personal in-
tercourse. By it the wise of former times give us their
minds as really, as if by some miracle they were to rise
from the dead and communicate with us by speech.

From these remarks we learn that Christianity is not
placed beyond the reach of our investigations by the
remoteness of its origin ; and they are particularly ap-
plicable to the age in which the gospel was first given
to the world. Our religion did not spring up before
the date of authentic history. Its birth is not hidden
in the obscurity of early and fabulous times. We have
abundant means of access to its earliest stages ; and,
what is very important, the deep and peculiar interest
which Christianity has awakened, has fixed the earnest
attention of the most learned and sagacious men on the
period of its original publication, so that no age of anti-
quity is so thoroughly understood. Christianity sprung
up at a time, when the literature and philosophy of
Greece was spread far and wide, and had given a great
impulse to the human mind ; and when Rome by un-
exampled conquests had become a centre and bond of
union to the civilized world and to many half civilized
regions, and had established a degree of communication
between distant countries before unknown. We are not,
then, left to grope our way by an unsteady light. Our
means of information are various and great. We have

340 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

incontestable facts in relation to the origin of our reli-
gion, from which its truth may be easily deduced. A
few of these facts, which form the first steps of our
reasoning on this subject, I will now lay before you.

1. First, then, we know with certainty the time when
Christianity was founded. As to this fact, there is and
can be no doubt. Heathen and Christian historians
speak on this point with one voice. Christianity was
first preached in the age of Tiberius. Not a trace of
it exists before that period, and afterwards the marks
and proofs of its existence are so obvious and acknowl-
edged as to need no mention. Here is one important
fact placed beyond doubt.

2. In the next place, we know the place where Chris-
tianity sprung up. No one can dispute the country of
its birth. Its Jewish origin is not only testified by all
history, but is stamped on its front and woven into its
frame. The language in which it is conveyed, carries
us at once to Judea. Its name is derived from Jewish
prophecy. None but Jews could have written the New
Testament. So natural, undesigned, and perpetual are
the references and allusions of the writers to the opin-
ions and manners of that people, so accustomed are
they to borrow from the same source the metaphors,
smilitudes, types, by which they illustrate their doc-
trines, that Christianity, as to its outward form, may be
said to be steeped in Judaism. We have, then, anoth-
er established fact. We know where it was born.

3. Again, we know the individual by whom Chris-
tianity was founded. We know its Author, and from
the nature of the case this fact cannot but be known.
The founder of a religion is naturally and necessarily
the object of general inquiry. Wherever the new faith

EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 341

is carried, the first and most eager questions are,
" From whom does it come ? On whose authority does
it rest?" Curiosity is nevermore intense, than in re-
gard to the individual, who claims a divine commission
and sends forth a new religion. He is the last man to
be overlooked or mistaken. In the case of Christianity
especially, its founder may be said to have been forced
on men's notice, for his history forms an essential part
of his religion. Christianity is not an abstract doc-
trine, which keeps its author out of sight. He is its
very soul. It rests on him, and finds its best illus-
tration in his life. These reflections however may be
spared. The simple consideration, that Christianity
must have had an author, and that it has been always
ascribed to Jesus, and to no one else, places the great
fact, which I would establish, beyond doubt.

4. I next observe, that we not only know the founder
of Christianity, but the ministers by whom he published
and spread it through the world. A new religion must
have propagators, first teachers, and with these it must
become intimately associated. A community can no
more be ignorant as to the teachers who converted it
to a new faith, than as to the conqueror who subjected
it to a new government ; and where the art of writing
is known and used for recording events, the latter fact
will not more certainly be transmitted to posterity than
the former. We have the testimony of all ages, that
the men called Apostles were the first propagators of
Christianity, nor have any others been named as sus-
taining this office ; and it is impossible that, on such a
point, such testimony should be false.

5. Again ; we know not only when, and where, and
by whom Christianity was introduced ; — we know, from

29*

342 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY.

a great variety of sources, what in the main this reli-
gion was, as it came from the hands of its founder.
To assure ourselves on this point, we need not recur
to any sacred books. From the age following that of
Christ and the Apostles, down to the present day, we
have a series, and an almost numberless host, of writers
on the subject of Christianity ; and whilst we discover
in them a great diversity of opinions, and opposite in-
terpretations of some of Christ's teachings, yet on the
whole they so far agree in the great facts of his his-
tory, and in certain great principles of his religion, that
we cannot mistake as to the general character of the
system which he taught. There is not a shadow of
reason for the opinion that the original system which
Jesus taught was lost, and a new one substituted and
fastened on the world in his name. The many and
great corruptions of Christianity did not and could not
hide its principal features. The greatest corruptions
took place in the century which followed the death of
the Apostles, when certain wild and visionary sects
endeavoured to establish a union between the new reli-
gion and the false philosophy to which they had been
wedded in their heathen state. You may judge of their
character and claims, when I tell you, that they gen-
erally agreed in believing, that the God who made the
world, and who was worshipped by the Jews, was not
the supreme God, but an inferior and imperfect Deity,
and that matter had existed from eternity, and was
essentially and unchangeably evil. Yet these sects en-
deavoured to sustain themselves on the writings which
the great body of Christians received and honored as
the works of the Apostles ; and, amidst their delusions,
they recognised and taught the miracles of Christ, his

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 343

resurrection, and the most important principles of his
religion ; so that the general nature of Christianity, as
it came from its Founder, may be ascertained beyond
a doubt. Here another great point is fixed.

6. I have now stated to you several particulars re-
lating to Christianity, which admit no doubt ; and these
indisputable facts are of great weight in a discussion of
the Christian evidences. There is one point more, of
importance, which cannot be settled so expeditiously as
these. I hope, however, enough may be said to place
it beyond doubt, without exceeding the limits of a dis-
course ; and I invite to it your serious attention. I say,
then, that we not only know in general what Christi-
anity was at its first promulgation ; but we know pre-
cisely what its first propagators taught, for we have
their writings. We have their religion under their own
hands. We have particularly four narratives of the life,
works, and words of their Master, which put us in pos-
session of his most private as well as public teaching.
It is true, that without those writings we should still
have strong arguments for the truth of Christianity ;
but we should be left in doubt as to some of its impor-
tant principles ; and its internal evidence, which cor-
roborates, and, as some think, exceeds the external,
would be very much impaired. The possession of the
writings of the first propagators of the gospel, must
plainly render us great aid in judging of its claims.
These writings, I say, we have, and this point I would
now establish.

I am aware that the question, to which I now ask
your attention, is generally confined to professed stu-
dents. But it is one on which men of good sense are
competent to judge, and its great importance gives it a
claim to the serious consideration of every Christian.

344 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

The question is, whether the four Gospels are genu-
ine, that is, whether they were written by those to whom
they are ascribed. To answer it, let us consider how
we determine the genuineness of books in general. I
begin with the obvious remark, that to know the author
of a work, it is not necessary that we should be eye-
witnesses of its composition. Perhaps of the number-
less publications of the present day, we have not seen
one growing under the pen of the writer. By far the
greater number come to us across the ocean, and yet
we are as confident in regard to their authors as if we
had actually seen them first committed to paper. The
ascription of a book to an individual, during his life,
by those whe are interested in him, and who have the
best means of knowing the truth, removes all doubts as
to its author. A strong and wide-spread conviction of
this kind must have a cause, and can only be explained
by the actual production of the work by the reputed
writer. It should here be remembered that there is
a strong disposition in men to ascertain the author of
an important and interesting work. We have had a
remarkable illustration of this in our own times. The
author of " Waverley " saw fit to wrap himself for a time
in mystery ; and what was the consequence ? No sub-
ject in politics or science was agitated more generally
than the question to whom the work belonged. It was
not only made a topic in almost every periodical publi-
cation, but one book was expressly written to solve the
problem. The instance, I know, was remarkable; but
this inquisitiveness in regard to books is a principle of
our nature, and is particularly active, when the book in
debate is a work of singular authority.

T have spoken of the confidence which we feel as to

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 345

the authors of books published in our own times. But
our certainty is not confined to these. Every reading
man is as sure that Hume and Robertson wrote the
histories which bear their names, as that Scott has in
our own time sent out the " Life of Bonaparte." Those
eminent men were born more than a hundred years
ago, and they died before the birth of most to whom
I speak. But the communication between their times
and our own is so open and various, that we know their
literary labors as well as those of the present day.
Not a few persons now living have had intercourse
with some of the contemporaries of these historians ;
and through this channel in particular, we of this gen-
eration have the freest access to the preceding, and
know its convictions in regard to the authors of inter-
esting books as fully as if we had lived in it ourselves.
That the next age will have the same communication
with the present as the present has with the past, and
that these convictions of our predecessors will be trans-
mitted by us to our immediate successors, you will
easily comprehend ; and you will thus learn the respect
which is due to the testimony of the third generation
on such a subject.

In what has now been said, we see with what confi-
dence and certainty we determine the authors of writ-
ings published in our own age or in the times nearest
our own. These remarks may be easily applied to
the productions of antiquity. When the question arises,
whether an ancient book was written by the individual
whose name it bears, we must inquire into the opinion
of his contemporaries, or of those who succeeded his
contemporaries so nearly as to have intimate commu-
nication with them. The competency of these to a just

346 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

judgment on the subject, we have seen ; and if they
have transmitted their convictions to us in undisputed
writings, it ought to be decisive. On this testimony,
we ascribe many ancient books to their authors with
the firmest faith ; and, in truth, we receive as genuine
many works of antiquity on far inferior proofs. There
are many books of which no notice can be found for
several ages after the time of their reputed authors.
Still the fact, that, as soon as they are named, they
are ascribed undoubtingly, and by general consent, to
certain authors, is esteemed a sufficient reason for
regarding them as their productions, unless some op-
posite proof can be adduced. This general reception
of a work as having come from a particular writer, is
an effect which requires a cause ; and the most natural
and obvious explanation of his being named, rather than
any other man, is, that he actually composed it.

I now proceed to apply these principles to the four
histories of Christ, commonly called Gospels. The
question is, what testimony respecting their authors
has come down to us from the age of their reputed
authors, or from times so near it and so connected with
it, as to be faithful representatives of its convictions.
By this testimony, as we have seen, the genuineness
of the books must be decided. And I begin with ad-
mitting that no evidence on the subject is to be derived
from contemporary writers. No author, living in the
age of the first propagators of Christianity, has named
the Gospels. The truth is, that no undisputed writ-
ings of their immediate converts have been preserved.
A few tracts, bearing the name of men acquainted
with the Apostles, have indeed come down to us ; but
so much uncertainty hangs over their origin, that I am

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 347

unwilling to ground on them any reasoning. Nor ought
we to wonder that the works of private Christians of the
primitive age are wanting to us ; for that was an age of
persecution, when men were called to die rather than
write for their religion. I suppose too, that during the
times of the Apostles, little importance was attached to
any books but such as were published or authorized by
these eminent men ; and, of course, what was written
by others was little circulated, and soon passed away.

The undisputed writings of the early Christians begin
about seventy years after the times of the Apostles.
At that period there probably remained none of the first
converts or contemporaries of the Apostles. But there
were living not a few, who had been acquainted with the
last survivors of that honored generation. When the
Apostles died, they must have left behind a multitude
who had known them ; and of these not a few must have
continued many years, and must have had intercourse
with the new generation which sprung up after the apos-
tolic age. Now in the times of this generation, the
series of Christian authors begins. Although, then, we
have no productions of the apostolic age to bear witness
to the Gospels, we have writings from the ages which
immediately followed it, and which, from their connex-
ion with it, ought, as we have seen, to be regarded as
most credible witnesses on such a subject. What, then,
do these writings teach ? I answer, Their testimony is
clear and full. We learn from them, not only that the
Gospels existed in those times, but that they were wide-
ly diffused, that they were received as the writings of
the men whose names they bear, and that they were re-
garded with a confidence and veneration yielded to no
other books. They are quoted as books given by their

348 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

revered authors to the Christian community, to be public
and enduring records of the religion ; and they are
spoken of as read in the assemblies which were held for
the inculcation and extension of the faith. I ask you to
weigh this testimony. It comes to us from times con-
nected intimately with the first age. Had the Gospels
been invented and first circulated among the generation
which succeeded the Apostles, could that generation
have received them, as books known and honored before
their time, and as the most authoritative and precious
records transmitted to them from their fathers and pre-
decessors ? The case may seem too plain to require
explanation ; but as many are unaccustomed to inquiries
of this kind, I will offer an example. You well know,
that nearly a century ago a great religious excitement
was spread through this country chiefly by the ministry
of Whitefield. Suppose now that four books were at
this moment to come forth, bearing the names of four of
the most distinguished men of that period, of White-
field, of the venerable Edwards, and of two others inti-
mately associated with them in their religious labors ;
and suppose these books not only to furnish narratives
of what then took place, but to contain principles and
rules urged with all possible earnestness and authority on
the disciples or admirers of these religious leaders. Do
you think it possible that their followers of the present
day, and the public, could be made to believe, that these
books had been published by their pretended authors,
had been given as standards to a religious community,
and had been handed down as venerated books, when
no such works had been heard of before ? This is but a
faint illustration ; for Whitefield and Edwards are names
of little weight or authority, compared with what the
Apostles possessed in the primitive church.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 349

We have, then, strong and sufficient reasons for be-
lieving that the histories called Gospels were received,
in the times of the Apostles, as works of those whose
names they bear ; and were handed down as theirs with
veneration by their contemporaries. Will any say that
all this may be true, but that, during the lives of the
Apostles, books forged in their names may have ob-
tained general currency ? To this extravagant supposi-
tion it would be sufficient to reply, according to my pre-
vious remarks, that the general ascription of a book to
an author during his life, is the ground on which the gen-
uineness of the most unquestioned works depends. But
I would add, that this evidence is singularly conclusive
in the present case. The original propagators of Chris-
tianity, to whom the Gospels were ascribed, were, from
their office, among the public men of their age. They
must have travelled extensively. They must have been
consulted by inhabitants of various countries on the sub-
ject of the new religion. They must have been objects
of deep interest to the first converts. They lived in the
world's eye. Their movements, visits, actions, words,
and writings, must have awakened attention. Books
from their hands must have produced a great sensation.
We cannot conceive a harder task, than to impose writ-
ings, forged in their name, on Christians and Christian
communities, thus intimately connected with them, and
so alive to their efforts for the general cause. The op-
portunities of detecting the falsehood were abundant ;
and to imagine falsehood to prosper under such circum-
stances, argues a strange ignorance of literary history
and of human nature.

Let me add, that the motives of the first Christians,
to ascertain distinctly whether writings ascribed to the

vol. in. 30

350 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

Apostles were truly theirs, were the strongest which can
be conceived. I have mentioned, in my previous re-
marks, the solicitude of the world to learn the author of
"Waverley." The motive was mere curiosity ; and yet
to what earnest inquiries were multitudes impelled. The
name of the author was of little or no moment. The
book was the same, its portraits equally vivid, its devel-
opements of the human heart equally true and powerful,
whether the author were known or not. So it is with
most works. Books of science, philosophy, morals,
and polite literature, owe their importance and authori-
ty, not to their writers, but to their contents. Now, the
four Gospels were different in this respect. They were
not the same to the first converts, come from whom they
might. If written by Apostles or by their associates,
they had an authority and sacredness, which could be-
long to them on no other condition. They became
books of laws to the Christian community, became
binding on their consciences and lives. To suppose
such books received blindly and without inquiry, by
great, numbers who had all the means of ascertaining
their true origin, is to suppose the first converts insane
or idiots, a charge which I believe their worst enemies
will not think of urging against them, and which the
vast superiority of their religious and moral system to
all the philosophical systems of the times abundantly
disproves.

I have now finished what is called the historical or
external evidence of the genuineness of the four Gos-
pels ; that is, the evidence drawn from their being re-
ceived and revered as the writings of the Apostles in the
first and succeeding ages of Christianity. But before
leaving this head, I would notice a difficulty which may

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITV. 351

press on some minds. I suppose, that many of you
have heard, that very early, probably about the begin-
ning of the second century, writings were forged in the
name of the Apostles ; and some may ask why the four
Gospels may not belong to this description. The answer
is, that the Gospels, as we have seen, were received and
honored by the great body of Christians, in the first and
succeeding ages of Christianity, as writings of Apostles
or their associates. The forgeries are known to be for-
geries, because they were not so received, because they
were held in no veneration, but were rejected as fictitious
by the Christian community. Here is a broad line of
distinction. It must not surprise us, that in the great
excitement produced by the first publication and tri-
umphs of Christianity, a variety of extravagant notions
should spring up, and that attempts should be made to
blend the new religion with established systems ; and as
the names of the first propagators of the Gospel were
held in peculiar reverence, we cannot wonder that the
leaders of sects should strive to attach an apostolic
sanction to their opinions, by sending abroad partly true
and partly false accounts of the preaching of these emi-
nent men. Whether these writings were sent forth as
compositions of the Apostles, or only as records of
their teaching, made by their hearers, is a question open
to debate ; but as to their origin there can be little
doubt. We can account for their existence, and for the
degree of favor which they obtained. They were gen-
erally written to give authority to the dreams or specula-
tions of some extravagant sects, to which they were
very much confined, and with which most of them
passed away. There is not a shadow of reason for
confounding with these our Gospels, which were spread

352 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

from the beginning through the Christian world, and
were honored and transmitted as the works of the ven-
erated men by whose names they were called.

Having now given the historical argument in favor of
the genuineness of the Gospels, that is, in favor of their
being written by their reputed authors, I now add, that
there are several presumptive and internal proofs of the
same truth, which, taken alone, have great weight, and,
when connected with the preceding, form an amount of
evidence not easily withstood. I have time to glance at
only a few of these.

It is a presumption in favor of the claims of an
author, that the book ascribed to him has never been
assigned to any other individual. Now I am. not aware,
that unbelief has in any age named any individuals, to
whom the Gospels may be traced rather than to those
whose names they bear. We are not called upon to
choose between different writers. In common cases,
this absence of rival claims is considered as decisive in
favor of the reputed author, unless the books themselves
give ground to suspect another hand. Why shall not
this principle be applied to the Gospels as well as to all
other works ?

Another presumption in favor of the belief that these
histories were written by the first propagators of Chris-
tianity, arises from the consideration, that such books
were to be expected from them. It is hardly conceiva-
ble that the Apostles, whose zeal carried abroad their
system through so many nations, and who lived in an
age of reading and writing, should leave their doctrines
to tradition, should neglect the ordinary precaution of
embodying them in the only permanent form, the only
one in which they could be accurately transmitted, and

EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 353

by which all other systems were preserved. It is rea-
sonable to suppose that they wrote what they taught ;
and if so, it is hardly possible that their writings should
De lost. Their accounts must have been received and
treasured up just as we know the Gospels were cher-
ished ; and hence arises a strong presumption in favor
of the genuineness of these books.

Again ; these books carry one strong mark of having
been written in the time of the Apostles. They contain
no trace of later times, nothing to indicate that the
authors belonged to another age. Now to those of
you, who are acquainted with such subjects, it is hardly
necessary to observe, how difficult it is for a writer to
avoid betraying the period in which he lives ; and the
cause is very obvious. Every age has its peculiarities,
has manners, events, feelings, words, phrases of its
own ; and a man brought up among these falls so na-
turally under their influence, and incorporates them so
fully with his own mind, that they break out and mani-
fest themselves, almost necessarily and without his con-
sciousness, in his words and writings. The present
makes an impression incomparably more vivid than the
past, and accordingly traces of the real age of a writer
may almost always be discovered by a critical eye,
however anxious he may be to assume the style and
character of a preceding age. Now the Gospels betray
no marks of the feelings, manners, contentions, events
of a period later than that in which the Apostles lived ;
and when we consider, that, with the exception of Luke's
history, they have all the appearance of having come
from plain men, unused to composition, this argument
applies to them with peculiar force. Under this head,
I might place before you the evidence of the genuine-
30*

354 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

ness of these books derived from the language, dialect,
idiom, in which they are written. You can easily under-
stand, that by these helps the country and age of a
writing may often be traced ; but the argument belongs
to the learned. 'It may however be satisfactory to
know, that the profoundest scholars see in the dialect
and idiom of the Gospels, a precise accordance with
what might be expected of Jews, writing in the age of
the Apostles.

Another internal proof, and one within the reach of
all, may be gathered from the style and character of
the evangelical narratives. They are written with the
simplicity, minuteness, and ease, which are the natural
tones of truth, which belong to writers thoroughly ac-
quainted with their subjects, and writing from reality.
You discover in them nothing of the labor, caution,
and indistinctness, which can scarcely be escaped by
men who are assuming a character not their own, and
aiming to impose on the world. There is a difference
which we have all discerned and felt, though we cannot
describe it, between an honest, simple-hearted witness,
who tells what he has seen or is intimately acquainted
with, and the false witness, who affects an intimate
knowledge of events and individuals, which are in whole
or in part his own fabrication. Truth has a native
frankness, an unaffected freedom, a style and air of its
own, and never were narratives more strongly charac-
terized by these than the Gospels. It is a striking
circumstance in these books, that whilst the life and
character which they portray, are the most extraordi-
nary in history, the style is the most artless. There is
no straining for epithets or for elevation of language to
suit the dignity of the great personage who is the sub-

EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 355

ject. You hear plain men telling you what they know,
of a character which they venerated too much to think
of adorning or extolling. It is also worthy of remark,
that the character of Jesus, though the most peculiar
and exalted in history, though the last to be invented
and the hardest to be sustained, is yet unfolded through
a great variety of details and conditions, with perfect
unity and consistency. The strength of this proof can
only be understood by those who are sufficiently ac-
quainted with literary history, to appreciate the difficulty
of accomplishing a consistent and successful forgery.
Such consistency is, in the present case, an almost in-
fallible test. Suppose four writers, of a later age, to
have leagued together in the scheme of personating the
first propagators of Christianity, and of weaving, in
their name, the histories of their Master's life. Re-
moved as these men would have been from the original,
and having no model or type of his character in the
elevation of their own minds, they must have protrayed
him with an unsteady hand, must have marred their
work with incongruous features, must have brought
down their hero on some occasion to the ordinary views
and feelings of men, and in particular must have been
warped in their selection and representation of incidents
by the private purpose which led them to this singular
cooperation. That four writers, under such circum-
stances, should sustain throughout so peculiar and ele-
vated a character as Jesus, and should harmonize with
each other in the delineation, would be a prodigy which
no genius, however preeminent, could achieve. I say,
then, that the narratives bear strong internal marks of
having been drawn from the living original, by those
who had the best means of knowing his character and
life.

356 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

So various, strong, sufficient are the proofs that the
four Gospels are the works of the first preachers of
Christianity, whose name they bear. I will only add,
that the genuineness of few ancient books is supported
by proofs equally strong. Most of the works, which
have come down to us from antiquity, and which are
ascribed to their reputed writers with undoubting con-
fidence, are so ascribed on evidence inferior to that on
which the claims of the Evangelists rest. On this point
therefore not a doubt should remain.

Here I pause. The proofs of Christianity, which are
involved in or founded on the facts now established,
will be the subjects of future discussion.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 357

PART II.

I have now stated some of the great facts relating
to the origin of Christianity, of which we have clear
and full proof. We know when and where this religion
sprung up. We know its Author, and the men whom
he employed as the first propagators of his doctrine.
We know the great features of the religion as it was
originally taught ; and still more, we have the writings
of its first teachers, by which its precise character is
placed beyond doubt. I now proceed to lay before you
some of the arguments in support of Christianity, which
are involved in or are founded on these facts. I must
confine myself to a few, and will select those to which
some justice may be done in the compass of a dis-
course.

I. I believe Christianity to be true, or to have come
from God, because it seems to me impossible to trace
it to any other origin. It must have had a cause, and
no other adequate cause can be assigned. The incon-
gruity between this religion and all the circumstances
amidst which it grew up, is so remarkable, that we are
compelled to look beyond and above this world for its
explanation. When I go back to the origin of Chris-
tianity, and place myself in the age and country of its
birth, I can find nothing in the opinions of men, or in
the state of society, which can account for its begin-
ning or diffusion. There was no power on earth to

358 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

create or uphold such a system. There was nothing
congenial with it in Judaism, in heathenism, or in the
state of society among the most cultivated communities.
If you study the religions, governments, and philosoph-
ical systems of that age, you will discover in them
not even a leaning towards Christianity. It sprung
up in opposition to all, making no compromise with
human prejudice or passion ; and it sprung up, not
only superior to all, hut possessing at its very beginning
a perfection, which has been the admiration of ages,
and which, instead of being dimmed by time, has come
forth more brightly, in proportion to the progress of
the human mind.

I know, indeed, that, at the origin of our religion,
the old heathen worship had fallen into disrepute among
the enlightened classes through the Roman Empire, and
was gradually losing its hold on the populace. Accord-
ingly some have pretended that Christianity grew from
the ruins of the ancient faith. But this is not true ;
for the decline of the heathen systems was the product
of causes singularly adverse to the origination of such a
system as Christianity. One cause was the monstrous
depravity of the age, which led multitudes to an utter
scorn of religion in all its forms and restraints, and
which prepared others to exchange their old worship
for still grosser and more licentious superstitions, par-
ticularly for the magical arts of Egypt. Surely this
corruption of manners, this wide-wasting moral pesti-
lence, will not be considered by any as a germ of the
Christian religion. Another principal agent in loosen-
ing the foundations of the old systems, was Philosophy,
a noble effort indeed of the human intellect, but one
which did nothing to prepare the way for Christianity.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 359

The most popular systems of philosophy at the birth
of Christianity were the Skeptical and the Epicurean,
the former of which turned religion into a jest, denied
the possibility of arriving at truth, and cast the mind on
an ocean of doubt in regard to every subject of inquiry ;
whilst the latter placed happiness in ease, inculcated a
calm indifference both as to this world and the next,
and would have set down the Christian doctrine of self-
sacrifice, of suffering for truth and duty, as absolute in-
sanity. Now I ask in what single point do these sys-
tems touch Christianity, or what impulse could they
have given to its invention. There was indeed another
philosophical sect of a nobler character ; I mean the
Stoical. This maintained that virtue was the supreme
good, and it certainly nurtured some firm and lofty spir-
its amidst the despotism which then ground all classes
in the dust. But the self-reliance, sternness, apathy,
and pride of the Stoic, his defiance and scorn of man-
kind, his want of sympathy with human suffering, and
his extravagant exaggerations of his own virtue, placed
this sect in singular opposition to Christianity ; so that
our religion might as soon have sprung from Skepticism
and Epicureanism, as from Stoicism. There was anoth-
er system, if it be worthy of the name, which prevailed
in Asia, and was not unknown to the Jews, often called
the Oriental philosophy. But this, though certainly an
improvement on the common heathenism, was visionary
and mystical, and placed happiness in an intuition or
immediate perception of God, which was to be gained
by contemplation and ecstasies, by emaciation of the
body, and desertion of the world. I need not tell you
how infinitely removed was the practical, benevolent
spirit of Christianity, from this spurious sanctity and

360 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

profitless enthusiasm. I repeat it, then, that the various
causes which were silently operating against the estab-
lished heathen systems in the time of Christ, had no
tendency to suggest and spread such a religion as he
brought, but were as truly hostile to it as the worst
forms of heathenism.

We cannot find, then, the origin of Christianity in
the heathen world. Shall we look for it in the Jewish ?
This topic is too familiar to need much exposition.
You know the character, feelings, expectations of the de-
scendants of Abraham at the appearing of Jesus ; and
you need not be told, that a system, more opposed to
the Jewish mind than that which he taught, cannot be
imagined. There was nothing friendly to it in the soil
or climate of Judea. As easily might the luxuriant
trees of our forest spring from the sands of an Arabian
desert. There was never perhaps a national character
so deeply stamped as the Jewish. Ages after ages of
unparalleled suffering have done little to wear away its
indelible features. In the time of Jesus the whole in-
fluence of education and religion was employed to fix it
in every member of the state. In the bosom of this
community, and among its humblest classes, sprung up
Christianity, a religion as unfettered by Jewish prejudi-
ces, as untainted by the earthly, narrow views of the
age, as if it had come from another world. Judaism
was all around it, but did not mar it by one trace, or
sully its brightness by a single breath. Can we find,
then, the cause of Christianity in the Jewish any more
than in the heathen world ?

Christianity, I maintain, was not the growth of any
of the circumstances, principles, or feelings of the age
in which it appeared. In truth, one of the great dis-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 361

tf.nctions of the Gospel is, that it did not grow. The
conception, which filled the mind of Jesus, of a religion
more spiritual, generous, comprehensive, and unworldly
than Judaism, and destined to take its place, was not of
gradual formation. We detect no signs of it, and no
efforts to realize it, before his time ; nor is there an ap-
pearance of its having been gradually matured by Jesus
himself. Christianity was delivered from the first in its
full proportions, in a style of singular freedom and bold-
ness, and without a mark of painful elaboration. This
suddenness with which this religion broke forth, this
maturity of the system at the very moment of its bhth,
this absence of gradual developement, seems to me a
strong mark of its divine original. If Christianity be a
human invention, then I can be pointed to something in
the history of the age which impelled and fitted the mind
of its author to its production ; then I shall be able to
find some germ of it, some approximation to it, in the
state of things amidst which it first appeared. How was
it, that from thick darkness there burst forth at once
meridian light ? Were I told that the sciences of the
civilized world had sprung up to perfection at once,
amidst a barbarous horde, I should pronounce it incredi-
ble. Nor can I easily believe, that Christianity, the re-
ligion of unbounded love, a religion which broke down
the barrier between Jew and Gentile, and the barriers be-
tween nations, which proclaimed one Universal Father,
which abolished forms and substituted the worship of the
soul, which condemned alike the false greatness of the
Roman and the false holiness of the Jew, and which
taught an elevation of virtue, that the growing knowledge
of succeeding ages has made more admirable ; — I say,
I cannot easily believe that such a religion was suddenly,

VOL. III. 3t

362 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

immediately struck out by human ingenuity, among a
people distinguished by bigotry and narrowness of spirit,
by superstitious reliance on outward worship, by hatred
and scorn of other nations, and by the proud, impatient
hope of soon bending all nations to their sway.

Christianity, I repeat it, was not the growth of the
age in which it appeared. It had no sympathy with that
age. It was the echo of no sect or people. It stood
alone at the moment of its birth. It used not a word of
conciliation. It stooped to no error or passion. It had
its own tone, the tone of authority and superiority to the
world. It struck at the root of what was everywhere
called glory, reversed the judgments of all former ages,
passed a condemning sentence on the idols of this
world's admiration, and held forth, as the perfection of
human nature, a spirit of love, so pure and divine, so
free and full, so mild and forgiving, so invincible in forti-
tude yet so tender in its sympathies, that even now few
comprehend it in its extent and elevation. Such a reli-
gion had not its origin in this world.

I have thus sought to unfold one of the evidences of
Christianty. Its incongruity with the age of its birth, its
freedom from earthly mixtures, its original, unborrowed,
solitary greatness, and the suddenness with which it
broke forth amidst the general gloom, these are to me
strong indications of its divine descent. I cannot recon-
cile them with a human origin.

II. Having stated the argument in favor of Christiani-
ty, derived from the impossibility of accounting for it
by the state of the world at the time of its birth, I pro-
ceed, in the second place, to observe, that it cannot be
accounted for by any of the motives which instigate men

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 363

to the fabrication of religions. Its aims and objects are
utterly irreconcilable with imposture. They are pure,
lofty, and worthy of the most illustrious delegate of
heaven. This argument deserves to be unfolded with
some particularity.

Men act from Motives. The inventors of religions
have purposes to answer by them. Some systems have
been framed by legislators to procure reverence to
their laws, to bow the minds of the people to the civil
power ; and some have been forged by priests, to estab-
lish their sway over the multitude, to form themselves
into a dominant caste, and to extort the wealth of the
industrious. Now I affirm, that Christianity cannot
be ascribed to any selfish, ambitious, earthly motive.
It is suited to no private end. Its purpose is generous
and elevated, and thus bears witness to its heavenly
origin.

The great object which has seduced men to pretend
to inspiration, and to spread false religions, has been
Power, in one form or another, sometimes political
power, sometimes spiritual, sometimes both. Is Chris-
tianity to be explained by this selfish aim ? I answer,
No. I affirm that the love of power is the last princi-
ple to be charged on the Founder of our religion.
Christianity is distinguished by nothing more than by its
earnest enforcement of a meek and humble spirit, and
by its uncompromising reprobation of that passion for
dominion, which had in all ages made the many the prey
of the few, and had been worshipped as the attribute
and impulse of the greatest minds. Its tone on this
subject was original, and altogether its own. Jesus felt,
as none had felt before, and as few feel now, the base-
ness of selfish ambition, and the grandeur of that benev-

364 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

olence which waves every mark of superiority, that it
may more effectually bless mankind. He taught this
lesson, not only in the boldest language, but, accom-
modating himself to the emblematical mode of religious
instruction prevalent in the East, he set before his disci-
ples a little child as their pattern, and himself washed
their feet. His whole life was a commentary on his
teaching. Not a trace of the passion for distinction and
sway can be detected in the artless narratives of his
historians. He wore no badge of superiority, exact-
ed no signs of homage, coveted no attentions, resented
no neglect. He discouraged the ruler who prostrated
himself before him with flattering salutations, but re-
ceived with affectionate sensibility the penitent who
bathed his feet with her tears. He lived with his ob-
scure disciples as a friend, and mixed freely with all
ranks of the community. He placed himself in the way
of scorn, and advanced to meet a death, more suited
than any other imaginable event, to entail infamy on his
name. Stronger marks of an infinite superiority to what
the world calls glory, cannot be conceived than we meet
in the history of Jesus.

I have named two kinds of power, Political and
Spiritual, as the ordinary objects of false religions. I
wish to show you more particularly the elevation of
Christianity above these aims. That the Gospel was
not framed from political purposes, is too plain to re-
quire proof ; but its peculiarity in this respect is not
sufficiently considered. In ancient times, religion was
everywhere a national concern. In Judea the union
between religion and government was singularly close ;
and political sovereignty was one of the chief splen-
dors, with which the Jewish imagination had surround-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 365

ed the expected Messiah. That in such an age and
country, a religion should arise, which hardly seems to
know that government exists ; which makes no refer-
ence to it except in a few general inculcations of obedi-
ence to the civil powers ; which says not a word nor
throws out a hint of allying itself with the state ; which
assumes to itself no control of political affairs, and in-
termeddles with no public concerns ; which has no ten-
dency, however indirect, to accumulate power in partic-
ular hands ; which provides no form of national worship
as a substitute for those which it was intended to de-
stroy ; and which treats the distinctions of rank and
office as worthless in comparison with moral influence
and an unostentatious charity ; — that such a religion
should spring up in such a state of the world is a re-
markable fact. We here see a broad line between
Christianity and other systems, and a striking proof of
its originality and elevation. Other systems were framed
for communities ; Christianity approached men as In-
dividuals. It proposed, not the glory of the state, but
the perfection of the individual mind. So far from be-
ing contrived to build up political power, Christianity
tends to reduce and gradually to supplant it, by teaching
men to substitute the sway of truth and love for menace
and force, by spreading through all ranks a feeling of
brotherhood altogether opposed to the spirit of domina-
tion, and by establishing principles which nourish self-
respect in every human being, and teach the obscurest
to look with an undazzled eye on the most powerful of
their race.

Christianity bears no mark of the hands of a poli-
tician. One of its main purposes is to extinguish the
very spirit which the ambitious statesman most anxiously
31 *

366 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

cherishes, and on which he founds his success. It pro-
scribes a narrow patriotism, shows no mercy to the
spirit of conquest, requires its disciples to love other
countries as truly as their own, and enjoins a spirit of
peace and forbearance in language so broad and earnest,
that not a few of its professors consider war in every
shape and under all circumstances as a crime. The
hostility between Christianity and all the political max-
ims of that age, cannot easily be comprehended at the
present day. No doctrines were then so rooted, as,
that conquest was the chief interest of a nation, and
that an exclusive patriotism was the first and noblest
of social virtues. Christianity, in loosening the tie
which bound man to the state, that it might connect
him with his race, opposed itself to what was deemed
the vital principle of national safety and grandeur, and
commenced a political revolution as original and un-
sparing as the religious and moral reform at which it
aimed.

Christianity, then, was not framed for political pur-
poses. But I shall be asked, whether it stands equally
clear of the charge of being intended to accumulate
Spiritual power. Some may ask, whether its founder
was not instigated by the passion for religious domina-
tion, whether he did not aim to subdue men's minds,
to dictate to the faith of the world, to make himself the
leader of a spreading sect, to stamp his name as a pro-
phet on human history, and thus to secure the prostra-
tion of multitudes to his will, more abject and entire
than kings and conquerors can achieve.

To this I might reply by what I have said of the
character of Jesus, and of the spirit of his religion.
It is plain, that the founder of Christianity had a per-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 36?

ception, quite peculiar to himself, of the moral beauty
and greatness of a disinterested, meek, and self-sacri-
ficing spirit, and such a person was not likely to medi-
tate the subjugation of the world to himself. But,
leaving this topic, I observe, that on examining Chris-
tianity we discover none of the features of a religion
framed for spiritual domination. One of the infallible
marks of such a system is, that it makes some terms
with the passions and prejudices of men. It does not,
cannot provoke and ally against itself all the powers,
whether civil or religious, of the world. Christianity
was throughout uncompromising and exasperating, and
threw itself in the way of hatred and scorn. Such a
system was any thing but a scheme for seizing the
spiritual empire of the world.

There is another mark of a religion which springs
from the love of spiritual domination. It infuses a
servile spirit. Its author, desirous to stamp his name
and image on his followers, has an interest in curbing
the free action of their minds, imposes on them arbi-
trary doctrines, fastens on them badges which may
separate them from others, and besets them with rules,
forms, and distinctive observances, which may per-
petually remind them of their relation to their chief.
Now I see nothing in Christianity of this enslaving
legislation. It has but one aim, which is, not to exalt
its teacher, but to improve the disciple ; not to fasten
Christ's name on mankind, but to breathe into them
his spirit of universal love. Christianity is not a re-
ligion of forms. It has but two ceremonies, as simple
as they are expressive ; and these hold so subordinate
a place in the New Testament, that some of the best
Christians question or deny their permanent obligation.

368 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY.

Neither is it a narrow creed, or a mass of doctrines
which find no support in our rational nature. It may-
be summed up in a few great, universal, immutable prin-
ciples, which reason and conscience, as far as they are
unfolded, adopt and rejoice in, as their own everlasting
laws, and which open perpetually enlarging views to
the mind. As far as I am a Christian, I am free. My
religion lays on me not one chain. It does not pre-
scribe a certain range for my mind, beyond which noth-
ing can be learned. It speaks of God as the Universal
Father, and sends me to all his works for instruction.
It does not hem me round with a mechanical ritual,
does not enjoin forms, attitudes, and hours of prayer,
does not descend to details of dress and food, does
not put on me one outward badge. It teaches and
enkindles love to God, but commands no precise ex-
pressions of this sentiment. It prescribes prayer ; but
lays the chief stress on the prayer of the closet, and
treats all worship as worthless but that of the mind and
heart. It teaches us to do good, but leaves us to de-
vise for ourselves the means by which we may best
serve mankind. In a word, the whole religion of Christ
may be summed up in the love of God and of man-
kind, and it leaves the individual to cherish and express
this spirit by the methods most accordant with his own
condition and peculiar mind. Christianity is eminently
the religion of freedom. The views which it gives of
the parental, impartial, universal goodness of God, and
of the equal right of every human being to inquire into
his will, and its inculcations of candor, forbearance,
and mutual respect, contribute alike to freedom of
thought and enlargement of the heart. I repeat it,
Christianity lays on me no chains. It is any thing but
a contrivance for spirtual domination.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 369

I am aware that I shall be told, that Christianity, if
judged by its history, has no claim to the honorable
title of a religion of liberty. I shall be told, that no
system of heathenism ever weighed more oppressively
on men's souls ; that the Christian ministry has trained
tyrants, who have tortured, now the body with material
fire, and now the mind with the dread of fiercer flames,
and who have proscribed and punished free thought and
free speech as the worst of crimes. I have no disposi-
tion to soften the features of priestly oppression ; but
I say, let not Christianity be made to answer for it.
Christianity gives its ministers no such power. They
have usurped it in the face of the sternest prohibitions,
and in opposition to the whole spirit of their Master.
Christianity institutes no priesthood, in the original and
proper sense of that word. It has not the name of
priest among its officers ; nor does it confer a shadow
of priestly power. It invests no class of men with pe-
culiar sanctity, ascribing to their intercessions a special
influence over God, or suspending the salvation of tho
private Christian on ceremonies which they alone can
administer. Jesus indeed appointed twelve of his im-
' mediate disciples to be the great instruments of pro-
pagating his religion ; but nothing can be simpler than
their office. They went forth to make known through
all nations the life, death, resurrection, and teachings
of Jesus Christ ; and this truth they spread freely and
without reserve. They did not give it as a mystery
to a few who were to succeed them in their office, and
according to whose direction it was to be imparted to
others. They communicated it to the whole body of
converts, to be their equal and common property, thus
securing to all the invaluable rights of the mind. It

370 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY

is true, they appointed ministers or teachers in the
various congregations which they formed ; and in that
early age, when the religion was new and unknown, and
when oral teaching was the only mode of communicating
it, there seems to have been no way for its diffusion
but this appointment of the most enlightened disciples
to the work of instruction. But the New Testament
nowhere intimates, that these men were to monopolize
the privilege of studying their religion, or of teaching
it to others. Not a single man can claim under Chris-
tianity the right to interpret it exclusively, or to impose
his interpretation on his brethren. The Christian min-
ister enjoys no nearer access to God, and no promise
of more immediate illumination, than other men. He
is not intrusted with the Christian records more than
they, and by these records it is both their right and duty
to try his instructions. I have here pointed out a noble
peculiarity of Christianity. It is the religion of liberty.
It is in no degree tainted with the passion for spiritual
power. " Call no man master, for ye are all brethren,"
is its free and generous inculcation, and to every form
of freedom it is a friend and defence.

We have seen that Christianity is not to be traced to
the love of power, that master passion in the authors of
false religions. I add, that no other object of a selfish
nature could have led to its invention. The Gospel is
not of this wTorld. At the time of its origin no inge-
nuity could have brought it to bear on any private or
worldly interest. Its spirit is self-denial. Wealth, ease,
and honor, it counts among the chief perils of life, and
it insists on no duty more earnestly than on that of put-
ting them to hazard and casting them from us, if the
cause of truth and humanity so require. And these

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 371

maxims were not mere speculations or rhetorical com-
monplaces in the times of Christ and his Apostles.
The first propagators of Christianity were called upon
to practise what they preached, to forego every interest
on its account. They could not but foreknow, that
a religion so uncompromising and pure would array
against them the world. They did not merely take the
chance of suffering, but were sure that the whole weight
of scorn, pain, and worldly persecution would descend
on their heads. How inexplicable, then, is Christianity
by any selfish object, or any low aim ?

The Gospel has but one object, and that too plain
to be mistaken. In reading the New Testament, we
see the greatest simplicity of aim. There is no lurking
purpose, no by-end, betraying itself through attempts
to disguise it. A perfect singleness of design runs
through the records of the religion, and is no mean
evidence of their truth. This end of Christianity is
the moral perfection of the human soul. It aims and
it tends, in all its doctrines, precepts, and promises, to
rescue men from the power of moral evil ; to unite them
to God by filial love, and to one another in the bonds
of brotherhood ; to inspire them with a philanthropy
as meek and unconquerable as that of Christ ; and to
kindle intense desire, hope, and pursuit of celestial and
immortal virtue.

And now, I ask, what is the plain inference from
these views ? If Christianity can be traced to no self-
ish or worldly motive, if it was framed, not for domin-
ion, not to compass any private purpose, but to raise
men above themselves, and to conform them to God,
can we help pronouncing it worthy of God ? And to
whom but to God can we refer its origin ? Ought we

372 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

not to recognise in the first propagators of such a faith
the holiest of men, the friends of their race, and the
messengers of Heaven ? Christianity, from its very
nature, repels the charge of imposture. It carries in
itself the proof of pure intention. Bad men could not
have conceived it, much less have adopted it as the
great object of their lives. The supposition of selfish
men giving up every private interest to spread a system
which condemned themselves, and which tended only
to purify mankind, is an absurdity as gross as can be
found in the most irrational faith. Christianity, there-
fore, when tried by its Motives, approves itself to be
of God.

III. I now proceed to another and very important
ground of my belief in the divine origin of Christianity.
Its truth was attested by miracles. Its first teachers
proved themselves the ministers of God by supernatural
works. They did what man cannot do, what bore the
impress of a divine power, and what thus sealed the
divinity of their mission. A religion so attested must
be true. This topic is a great one, and I ask your
patient attention to it.

I am aware that a strong prejudice exists in some
minds against the kind of evidence which I have now
adduced. Miracles seem to them to carry a confuta-
tion in themselves. The presumption against them
seems next to infinite. In this respect, the present
times differ from the past. There have been ages,
when men believed any thing and every thing ; and the
more monstrous the story, the more eagerly was it re-
ceived by the credulous multitude. In the progress of
knowledge men have come to see, that most of the prod-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. iJVo

igies and supernatural events in which their forefathers
believed, were fictions of fancy, or fear, or imposture.
The light of knowledge has put to flight the ghosts
and witches which struck terror into earlier times. We
now know, that not a few of the appearances in the
heavens, which appalled nations, and were interpreted
as precursors of divine vengeance, were natural effects.
We have learned, too, that a highly excited imagination
can work some of the cures once ascribed to magic ;
and the lesson taught us by these natural solutions of
apparent miracles, is, that accounts of supernatural
events are to be sifted with great jealousy and received
with peculiar care.

But the result of this new light thrown on nature and
history is, that some are disposed to discredit all mira-
cles indiscriminately. So many having proved ground-
less, a sweeping sentence of condemnation is passed on
all. The human mind, by a natural reaction, has passed
from extreme credulousness, to the excess of increduli-
ty. Some persons are even hardy enough to deride the
very idea of a miracle. They pronounce the order of
nature something fixed and immutable, and all suspen-
sions of it incredible. This prejudice, for such it is,
seems to deserve particular attention ; for, until it is
removed, the evidences of Christian miracles will have
little weight. Let us examine it patiently and impar-
tially.

The skeptic tells me, that the order of nature is
fixed. I ask him, By whom or by what is it fixed ? By
an iron fate ? By an inflexible necessity ? Does not
nature bear the signatures of an intelligent Cause ?
Does not the very idea of its order imply an ordaining
or disposing Mind ? Does not the universe, the more

vol. in. 32

374 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

it is explored, bear increasing testimony to a Being su-
perior to itself ? Then the order of nature is fixed by
a Will which can reverse it. Then a power equal to
miracles exists. Then miracles are not incredible.

It may be replied, that God indeed can work mira-
cles, but that he will not. He will not ? And how
does the skeptic know this ? Has God so told him ?
This language does not become a being of our limited
faculties ; and the presumptuousness which thus makes
laws for the Creator, and restricts his agency to partic-
ular modes, is as little the spirit of true philosophy as
of religion.

The skeptic sees nothing in miracles, but ground
of offence. To me, they seem to involve in their very
nature a truth so great, so vital, that I am not only
reconciled to them, but am disposed to receive joyfully
any sufficient proofs of their having been performed.
To the skeptic, no principle is so important as the uni-
formity of nature, the constancy of its laws. To me,
there is a vastly higher truth, to which miracles bear
witness, and to which I welcome their aid. What I
wish chiefly to know is, that Mind is the supreme power
in the universe ; that matter is its instrument and slave ;
that there is a Will to which nature can offer no ob-
struction ; that God is unshackled by the laws of the
universe, and controls them at his pleasure. This abso-
lute sovereignty of the Divine Mind over the universe,
is the only foundation of hope for the triumph of the
human mind over matter, over physical influences, over
imperfection and death. Now it is plain, that the strong
impressions which we receive through the senses from
the material creation, joined to our experience of its
regularity, and to our instinctive trust in its future uni-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 375

formity, do obscure this supremacy of God, do tempt
us to ascribe a kind of omnipotence to nature's laws,
and to limit our hopes to the good which is promised
by these. There is a strong tendency in men to attach
the idea of necessity to an unchanging regularity of
operation, and to imagine bounds to a being who keeps
one undeviating path, or who repeats himself perpetu-
ally. Hence, I say that I rejoice in miracles. They
show and assert the supremacy of Mind in the universe.
They manifest a spiritual power, which is in no degree
enthralled by the laws of matter. I rejoice in these
witnesses to so great a truth. I rejoice in whatever
proves, that this order of nature, which so often weighs
on me as a chain, and which contains no promise of
my perfection, is not supreme and immutable, and that
the Creator is not restricted to the narrow modes of
operation with which I am most familiar.

Perhaps the form in which the objection to miracles
is most frequently expressed, is the following ; "It is
derogatory," says the skeptic, " to the perfect wisdom
of God, to suppose him to break in upon the order of
his own works. It is only the unskilful artist who is
obliged to thrust his hand into the machine for the
purpose of supplying its defects, and of giving it a new
impulse by an immediate agency." To this objection
I reply, that it proceeds on false ideas of God and of
the creation. God is not an artist, but a Moral Parent
and Governor ; nor is the creation a machine. If it
were, it might be urged with greater speciousness, that
miracles cannot be needed or required. One of the
most striking views of the creation, is the contrast or
opposition of the elements of which it consists. It in-
cludes not only matter but mind, not only lifeless and

376 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

unconscious masses, but rational beings, free agents ;
and these are its noblest parts and ultimate objects.
The material universe was framed not for itself, but for
these. Its order was not appointed for its own sake,
but to instruct and improve a higher rank of beings,
the intelligent offspring of God ; and whenever a de-
parture from this order, that is, whenever miraculous
agency can contribute to the growth and perfection of
his intelligent creatures, it is demanded by his wisdom,
goodness, and all his attributes. If the Supreme Being
proposed only such ends as mechanism can produce,
then he might have framed a machinery so perfect and
sure as to need no suspension of its ordinary move-
ments. But he has an incomparably nobler end. His
great purpose is to educate, to rescue from evil, to
carry forward for ever the free, rational mind or soul ;
and who that understands what a free mind is, and
what a variety of teaching and discipline it requires, will
presume to affirm, that no lights or aids, but such as
come to it through an invariable order of nature, are
necessary to unfold it ?

Much of the difficulty in regard to miracles, as I
apprehend, would be removed, if we were to consider
more particularly, that the chief distinction of intelli-
gent beings is Moral Freedom, the power of deter-
mining themselves to evil as well as good, and con-
sequently the power of involving themselves in great
misery. When God made man, he framed not a ma-
chine, but a free being, who was to rise or fall accord-
ing to his use or abuse of his powers. This capacity,
at once the most glorious and the most fearful which
we can conceive, shows us how the human race may
have come into a condition, to which the illumination

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 377

of nature was inadequate. In truth, the more we con-
sider the freedom of intelligent beings, the more we
shall question the possibility of establishing an unchange-
able order which will meet fully all their wants ; for
such beings, having of necessity a wide range of action,
may bring themselves into a vast variety of conditions,
and of course may come to need a relief not contained
in the resources of nature. The history of the human
race illustrates these truths. At the introduction of
Christianity, the human family were plunged into gross
and debasing error, and the light of nature had not
served for ages to guide them back to truth. Philoso-
phy had done its best, and failed. A new element, a
new power seems to have been wanting to the progress
of the race. That in such an exigence miraculous aid
should be imparted, accords with our best views of
God. I repeat it ; were men mechanical beings, an
undeviating order of nature might meet all their wants.
They are free beings, who bear a moral relation to God,
and as such may need, and are worthy of, a more
various and special care than is extended over the irra-
tional creation.

When I examine nature, I see reasons for believing
that it was not intended by God to be the only method
of instructing and improving mankind. I see reasons,
as I think, why its order or regular course should be
occasionally suspended, and why revelation should be
joined to it in the work of carrying forward the race.
I can offer only a few considerations on this point, but
they seem to me worthy of serious attention. — The first
is, that a fixed, invariable order of nature does not give
us some views of God which are of great interest and
importance, or at least it does not give them with that
32*

378 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

distinctness which we all desire. It reveals him as the
Universal Sovereign who provides for the whole or for
the general weal, but not, with sufficient clearness, as
a tender father, interested in the Individual. I see, in
this fixed order, his care of the race, but not his con-
stant, boundless concern for myself. Nature speaks of
a general Divinity, not of the friend and benefactor of
each living soul. This is a necessary defect attending
an inflexible, unvarying administration by general laws ;
and it seems to require that God, to carry forward the
race, should reveal himself by some other manner than
by general laws. No conviction is more important to
human improvement than that of God's paternal interest
in every human being ; and how can he communicate
this persuasion so effectually, as by suspending nature's
order, to teach, through an inspired messenger, his pa-
ternal love ?

My- second remark is, that, whilst nature teaches many
important lessons, it is not a direct, urgent teacher.
Its truths are not prominent, and consequently men may
neglect it, and place themselves beyond its influence.
For example, nature holds out the doctrine of One
God, but does not compel attention to it. God's name
is not written in the sky in letters of light, which all
nations must read, nor sounded abroad in a voice, deep
and awful as thunders, so that all must hear. Nature
is a gentle, I had almost said, a reserved teacher, de-
manding patient thought in the learner, and may there-
fore be unheeded. Men may easily shut their ears and
harden their hearts against its testimony to God. Ac-
cordingly we learn, that, at Christ's coming, almost all
nations had lost the knowledge of the true glory of the
Creator, and given themselves up to gross superstitions.

EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 379

To such a condition of the world, nature's indirect and
unimposing mode of instruction is not fitted, and thus it
furnishes a reason for a more immediate and impressive
teaching. In such a season of moral darkness, was it not
worthy of God to kindle another and more quickening
beam ? When the long repeated and almost monotonous
language of creation was not heard, was it unworthy of
God to speak with a new and more startling voice ?
What fitter method was there for rousing those whom
nature's quiet regularity could not teach, than to inter-
rupt its usual course ?

I proceed to another reason for expecting revelation
to be added to the light of nature. Nature, I have
said, is not a direct or urgent teacher, and men may
place themselves beyond its voice. I say, thirdly, that
there is one great point, on which we are deeply con-
cerned to know the truth, and which is yet taught so
indistinctly by nature, that men, however disposed to
learn, cannot by that light alone obtain full conviction.
What, let me ask, is the question in which each man
has the deepest interest ? It is this, Are we to live
again ; or is this life all ? Does the principle of thought
perish with the body ; or does it survive ? And if it
survive, where ? how ? in what condition ? under what
law ? There is an inward voice which speaks of judg-
ment to come. Will judgment indeed come ? and if so,
what award may we hope or fear ? The Future state
of man, this is the great question forced on us by our
changing life, and by approaching death. I will not
say, that on this topic nature throws no light. I think
it does ; and this light continually grows brighter to them
whose eyes revelation has couched and made strong
to see. But nature alone does not meet our wants. I

380 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

might prove this by referring you to the ages preced-
ing Christ, when the anxious spirit of man constantly
sought to penetrate the gloom beyond the grave, when
imagination and philosophy alike plunged into the future,
but found no resting-place. But every man must feel,
that, left to nature as his only guide, he must wander in
doubt as to the life to come. Where, but from God
himself, can I learn my destination ? I ask at the
mouth of the tomb for intelligence of the departed, and
the tomb gives me no reply. I examine the various
regions of nature, but I can discover no process for
restoring the mouldering body, and no sign or track of
the spirit's ascent to another sphere. I see the need
of a power above nature to restore or perpetuate life
after death ; and if God intended to give assurance of
this life, I see not how he can do it but by supernatural
teaching, by a miraculous revelation. Miracles are the
appropriate, and would seem to be the only mode of
placing beyond doubt man's future and immortal being ;
and no miracles can be conceived so peculiarly adapted
to this end as the very ones which hold the highest
place in Christianity, — I mean the resurrection of
Lazarus, and, still more, the resurrection of Jesus.
No man will deny, that, of all truths, a future state is
most strengthening to virtue and consoling to humanity.
Is it then unworthy of God to employ miracles for the
awakening or the confirmation of this hope ? May they
not even be expected, if nature, as we have seen, sheds
but a faint light on this most interesting of all verities ?

I add one more consideration in support of the po-
sition, that nature was not intended to be God's only
method of teaching mankind. In surveying the human
mind, we discover a principle which singularly fits it to

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 381

be wrought upon and benefited by miraculous agency,
and which might therefore lead us to expect such in-
terposition. I refer to that principle of our nature, by
which we become in a measure insensible or indiffer-
ent to what is familiar, but are roused to attention and
deep interest by what is singular, strange, supernatural.
This principle of wonder is an important part of our
constitution ; and that God should employ it in the
work of our education, is what reason might anticipate.
I see, then, a foundation for miracles in the human
mind ; and, when I consider that the mind is God's no-
blest work, I ought to look to this as the interpreter
of his designs. We are plainly so constituted, that the
order of nature, the more it is fixed, excites us the less.
Our interest is blunted by its ceaseless uniformity. On
the contrary, departures from this order powerfully stir
the soul, break up its old and slumbering habits of
thought, turn it with a new solicitude to the Almighty
Interposer, and prepare it to receive with awe the com-
munications of his will. Was it unworthy of God, who
gave us this sensibility to the wonderful, to appeal to it
for the recovery of his creatures to himself ?

I here close my remarks on the great objection of
skepticism, that miracles are inconsistent with the divine
perfections ; that the Supreme Being, having established
an order of operation, cannot be expected to depart
from it. To me, such reasoning, if reasoning it may be
called, is of no weight. When I consider God's pa-
ternal and moral relation to mankind, and his interest in
their progress ; when I consider how accordant it is
with his character that he should make himself known
to them by methods most fitted to awaken the mind and
heart to his goodness ; when I consider the need we

382 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

have of illumination in regard to the future life, more dis-
tinct and full than the creation affords ; when I consider
the constitution and condition of man, his free agency,
and the corruption into which he had fallen ; when I
consider how little benefit a being so depraved was like-
ly to derive from an order of nature to which he had
grown familiar, and how plainly the mind is fitted to be
quickened by miraculous interposition ; — I say, when
I take all these things into view, I see, as I think, a
foundation in nature for supernatural light and aid, and I
discern in a miraculous revelation, such as Christianity,
a provision suited at once to the frame and wants of the
human soul, and to the perfections of its Author.

There are other objections to miracles, though less
avowed, than that which I have now considered, yet
perhaps not less influential, and probably operating on
many minds so secretly as to be unperceived. At two
of these I will just glance. Not a few, I am confident,
have doubts of the Christian miracles, because they see
none now. Were their skepticism to clothe itself in lan-
guage, it would say, " Show us miracles, and we will
believe them. We suspect them, because they are
confined to the past." Now this objection is a childish
one. It may be resolved into the principle, that noth-
ing in the past is worthy of belief, which is not repeated
in the present. Admit this, and where will incredulity
stop ? How many forms and institutions of society,
recorded in ancient history, have passed away. Has
history, then, no title to respect ? If indeed the human
race were standing still, if one age were merely a copy
of preceding ones, if each had precisely the same wants,
then the miracles required at one period would be re-
produced in all. But who does not know that there is a

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 383

progress in human affairs ? that formerly mankind were
in a different stage from that through which they are
now passing ? that of course the education of the race
must be varied ? and that miracles, important once, may
be superfluous now ? Shall we bind the Creator to
invariable modes of teaching and training a race whose
capacities and wants are undergoing a perpetual change ?
Because in periods of thick darkness God introduced a
new religion by supernatural works, shall we expect
these works to be repeated, when the darkness is scat-
tered and their end attained ? Who does not see that
miracles, from their very nature, must be rare, occa-
sional, limited ? Would not their power be impaired
by frequency ? and would it not wholly cease, were
they so far multiplied as to seem a part of the order of
nature ?

The objection I am now considering, shows us the
true character of skepticism. Skepticism is essentially
a narrowness of mind, which makes the present moment
the measure of the past and future. It is the creature
of sense. In the midst of a boundless universe, it can
conceive no mode of operation but what falls under
its immediate observation. The visible, the present, is
every thing to the unbeliever. Let him but enlarge his
views ; let him look round on the immensity of the uni-
verse ; let him consider the infinity of resources which
are comprehended in omnipotence ; let him represent to
himself the manifold stages through which the human
race is appointed to pass ; let him remember that the
education of the ever-growing mind must require a
great variety of discipline ; and especially let him admit
the sublime thought, of which the germ is found in
nature, that man was created to be trained for, and to

384 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

ascend to, an incomparably higher order of existence
than the present, — and he will see the childishness of
making his narrow experience the standard of all that
is past and is to come in human history.

It is strange, indeed, that men of science should fall
into this error. The improved science of the present
day teaches them, that this globe of ours, which seems
so unchangeable, is not now what it was a few thousand
years ago. They find proofs by digging into the earth,
that this globe was inhabited before the existence of
the human race, by classes of animals which have per-
ished, and the ocean peopled by races now unknown,
and that the human race are occupying a ruined and
restored world. Men of science should learn to free
themselves from the vulgar narrowness which sees noth-
ing in the past but the present, and should learn the
stupendous and infinite variety of the dispensations of
God.

There is another objection to miracles, and the last
to be now considered, which is drawn from the well-
known fact, that pretended miracles crowd the pages
of ancient history. No falsehoods, we are told, have
been more common than accounts of prodigies, and
therefore the miraculous character of Christianity is a
presumption against its truth. I acknowledge that this
argument has its weight ; and I am ready to say, that,
did I know nothing of Christianity, but that it was a
religion full of miracles ; did I know nothing of its
doctrines, its purpose, its influences, and whole history,
I should suspect it as much as the unbeliever. There
is a strong presumption against miracles, considered
nakedly, or separated from their design and from all
circumstances which explain and support them. There

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 385

is a like presumption against events not miraculous, but
of an extraordinary character. But this is only a rea-
son for severe scrutiny and slow belief, not for resisting
strong and multiplied proofs. I blame no man for doubt-
ing a report of miracles when first brought to his ears.
Thousands of absurd prodigies have been created by
ignorance and fanaticism, and thousands more been
forged by imposture. I invite you, then, to try scru-
pulously the miracles of Christianity ; and, if they bear
the marks of the superstitious legends of false religions,
do not spare them. I only ask for them a fair hearing
and calm investigation.

It is plainly no sufficient argument for rejecting all
miracles, that men have believed in many which are
false. If you go back to the times when miraculous
stories were swallowed most greedily, and read the
books then written on history, geography, and natural
science, you will find all of them crowded with error ;
but do they therefore contain nothing worthy your trust ?
Is there not a vein of truth running through the preva-
lent falsehood ? And cannot a sagacious mind very
often detach the real from the fictitious, explain the ori-
gin of many mistakes, distinguish the judicious and hon-
est from the credulous or interested narrator, and by
a comparison of testimonies detect the latent truth ?
Where will you stop, if you start with believing nothing
on points where former ages have gone astray ? You
must pronounce all religion and all morality to be delu-
sion, for on both topics men have grossly erred. Noth-
ing is more unworthy of a philosopher, than to found a
universal censure on a limited number of unfavorable
facts. This is much like the reasoning of the misan-
thrope, who, because he sees much vice, infers that

vol. in. 33

386 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

there is no virtue, and, because he has sometimes been
deceived, pronounces all men hypocrites.

I maintain that the multiplicity of false miracles, far
from disproving, gives support to those on which Chris-
tianity rests ; for, first, there is generally some founda-
tion for falsehood, especially when it obtains general
belief. The love of truth is an essential principle of
human nature ; men generally embrace error on account
of some precious ingredient of truth mixed with it, and
for the time inseparable from it. The universal belief
of past ages in miraculous interpositions, is to me a
presumption that miracles have entered into human his-
tory. Will the unbeliever say, that it only shows the
insatiable thirst of the human mind for the supernatural ?
I reply, that, in this reasoning, he furnishes a weapon
against himself; for a strong principle in the human
mind, impelling men to seek for and to cling to miracu-
lous agency, affords a presumption that the Author of
our being, by whom this thirst for the supernatural was
given, intended to furnish objects for it, and to assign it
a place in the education of the race.

But I observe, in the next place, and it is an obser-
vation of great importance, that the exploded miracles
of ancient times, if carefully examined, not only furnish
a general presumption in favor of the existence of gen-
uine ones, but yield strong proof of the truth of those
in particular upon which Christianity rests. I say to
the skeptic, You affirm nothing but truth in declaring
history to abound in false miracles ; I agree with you
in exploding by far the greater part of the supernatural
accounts of which ancient religions beast. But how
do we know these to be false ? We do not so judge
without proofs. We discern in them the marks of de-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 387

lusion. Now I ask you to examine these marks, and
then to answer me honestly, whether you find them in
the miracles of Christianity. Is there not a broad line
between Christ's works and those which we both agree
in rejecting ? I maintain that there is, and that nothing
but ignorance can confound the Christian miracles with
the prodigies of heathenism. The contrast between
them is so strong as to forbid us to refer them to a com-
mon origin. The miracles of superstition carry the
brand of falsehood in their own nature, and are dis-
proved by the circumstances under which they were
imposed on the multitude. The objects, for which they
are said to have been wrought, are such as do not re-
quire or justify a divine interposition. Many of them
are absurd, childish, or extravagant, and betray a weak
intellect or diseased imagination. Many can be ex-
plained by natural causes. Many are attested by per-
sons who lived in different countries and ages, and
enjoyed no opportunities of inquiring into their truth.
We can see the origin of many in the self-interest of
those who forged them, and can account for their re-
ception by the condition of the world. In other words,
these spurious miracles were the natural growth of the
ignorance, passions, prejudices, and corruptions of the
times, and tended to confirm them. Now it is not
enough to say, that these various marks of falsehood
cannot be found in the Christian miracles. We find
in them characters directly the reverse. They were
wrought for an end worthy of God ; they were wrought
in an age of improvement ; they are marked by a majes-
ty, beneficence, unostentatious simplicity, and wisdom,
which separate them immeasurably from the dreams of
a disordered fancy or the contrivances of imposture.

388 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

They can be explained by no interests, passions, or prej-
udices of men. They are parts of a religion, which was
singularly at variance with established ideas and expec-
tations, which breathes purity and benevolence, which
transcended the improvements of the age, and which
thus carries with it the presumption of a divine original.
Whence this immense distance between the two classes
of miracles ? Will you trace both to one source, and
that a polluted one ? Will you ascribe to one spirit,
works as different as light and darkness, as earth and
heaven ? I am not, then, shaken in my faith by the false
miracles of other religions. I have no desire to keep
them out of sight ; I summon them as my witnesses.
They show me how naturally imposture and superstition
leave the stamp of themselves on their fictions. They
show how man, when he aspires to counterfeit God's
agency, betrays more signally his impotence and folly.
When I place side by side the mighty works of Jesus
and the prodigies of heathenism, I see that they can no
more be compared with one another, than the machinery
and mock thunders of the theatre can be likened to the
awful and beneficent powers of the universe.

In the preceding remarks on miracles, I have aimed
chiefly to meet those general objections by which many
are prejudiced against supernatural interpositions uni-
versally, and are disinclined to weigh any proof in their
support. Hoping that this weak skepticism has been
shown to want foundation in nature and reason, I pro-
ceed now to state more particularly the principal grounds
on which I believe that the miracles ascribed to Jesus
and the first propagators of Christianity, were actually
wrought in attestation of its truth.

The evidences of facts are of two kinds, presumptive

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 339

and direct, and both meet in support of Christian mira-
cles. First, there are strong presumptions in its favor.
To this class of proofs, belong the views already given
of the accordance of revelation and miracles with the
wants and principles of human nature, with the perfec-
tions of God, with his relations to his human family, and
with his ordinary providence. These I need not repeat.
I will only observe, that a strong presumption in support
of the miracles arises from the importance of the reli-
gion to which they belong. If I were told of supernat-
ural works performed to prove, that three are more than
one, or that human life requires food for its support, I
should know that they were false. The presumption
against them would be invincible. The author of nature
could never supersede its wise and stupendous order to
teach what falls within the knowledge of every child.
Extraordinary interpositions of God suppose that truths
of extraordinary dignity and beneficence are to be im-
parted. Now, in Christianity, I find truths of tran-
scendent importance, which throw into shade all the dis-
coveries of science, and which give a new character,
aim, and interest, to our existence. Here is a fit occa-
sion for supernatural interposition. A presumption ex-
ists in favor of miracles, by which a religion so worthy
of God is sustained.

But a presumption in favor of facts, is not enough.
It indeed adds much force to the direct proofs ; still
these are needed, nor are they wanting to Christianity.
The direct proofs of facts are chiefly of two kinds ;
'hey consist of testimony, oral or written, and of effects,
/races, monuments, which the facts have left behind
them. The Christian miracles are supported by both.
— We have first the most unexceptionable Testimo-

390 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

ny, nothing less than that of contemporaries and eye-
witnesses, of the companions of Jesus and the first
propagators of his religion. We have the testimony of
men who could not have been deceived as to the facts
which they report ; who bore their witness amidst perils
and persecutions ; who bore it on the very spot where
their Master lived and died ; who had nothing to gain,
and every thing to lose, if their testimony were false ;
whose writings breathe the sincerest love of virtue and
of mankind ; and who at last sealed their attestations
with their blood. More unexceptionable witnesses to
facts cannot be produced or conceived.

Do you say, " These witnesses lived ages ago ; could
we hear these accounts from their own lips, we should
be satisfied " ? I answer, You have something better
than their own lips, or than their own word taken alone.
You have, as has been proved, their writings. Per-
haps you hear with some surprise that a book may be
a better witness than its author ; but nothing is more
true, and I will illustrate it by an imaginary case in our
own times.

Suppose, then, that a man claiming to be an eye-
witness should relate to me the events of the three
memorable days of July, in which the last revolution
of France was achieved ; suppose next, that a book,
a history of that revolution, published and received as
true in France, should be sent to me from that country.
Which is the best evidence of the facts ? I say the
last. A single witness may deceive ; but that a writer
should publish in France the history of a revolution,
which never occurred there, or which differed essentially
from the true one, is, in the highest degree, improbable ;
and that such a history should obtain currency, that it

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 391

should not be instantly branded as a lie, is utterly impos-
sible. m A history received by a people as true, not only
gives us the testimony of the writer, but the testimony
of the nation among whom it obtains credit. It is a
concentration of thousands of voices, of many thousand
witnesses. I say, then, that the writings of the first
teachers of Christianity, received as they were by the
multitude of Christians in their own times and in those
which immediately followed, are the testimonies of that
multitude as well as of the writers. Thousands, nearest
to the events, join in bearing testimony to the Christian
miracles.

But there is another class of evidence, sometimes
more powerful than direct witnesses, and this belongs to
Christianity. Facts are often placed beyond doubt by
the effects which they leave behind them. This is the
case with the miracles of Christ. Let me explain this
branch of evidence. I am told, when absent and dis-
tant from your city, that on a certain day, a tide, such as
had never been known, rose in your harbour, overflowed
your wharves, and rushed into your streets ; I doubt the
fact ; but hastening here, I see what were once streets,
strewed with sea-weed, and shells, and the ruins of
houses, and I cease to doubt. A witness may deceive,
but such effects cannot lie. All great events leave
effects, and these speak directly of the cause. "What, I
ask, are the proofs of the American revolution ? Have
we none but written or oral testimony ? Our free con-
stitution, the whole form of our society, the language
and spirit of our laws, all these bear witness to our Eng-
lish origin, and to our successful conflict for indepen-
dence. Now the miracles of Christianity have left
effects, which equally attest their reality, and cannot be

392 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

explained without them. I go back to the age of Jesus
Christ, and I am immediately struck with the com-
mencement and rapid progress of the most remarkable
revolution in the annals of the world. I see a new re-
ligion, of a character altogether its own, which bore no
likeness to any past or existing faith, spreading in a few
years through all civilized nations, and introducing a new
era, a new state of society, a change of the human mind,
which has broadly distinguished all following ages. Here
is a plain fact, which the skeptic will not deny, however
he may explain it. I see this religion issuing from an
obscure, despised, hated people. Its founder had died
on the cross, a mode of punishment as disgraceful as the
pillory or gallows of the present day. Its teachers were
poor men, without rank, office, or education, taken from
the fishing-boat and other occupations which had never
furnished teachers to mankind. I see these men begin-
ning their work on the spot where their Master's blood
had been shed, as of a common malefactor ; and I hear
them summoning first his murderers, and then all nations
and all ranks, the sovereign on the throne, the priest in
the temple, the great and the learned, as well as the poor
and the ignorant, to renounce the faith and the worship
which had been hallowed by the veneration of all ages,
and to take the yoke of their crucified Lord. I see
passion and prejudice, the sword of the magistrate, the
curse of the priest, the scorn of the philosopher, and
the fury of the populace, joined to crush this common
enemy ; and yet, without a human weapon and in oppo-
sition to all human power, I see the humble Apostles of
Jesus winning their way, overpowering prejudice, break-
ing the ranks of their opposers, changing enemies into
friends, breathing into multitudes a calm spirit of mar-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 393

tyrdom, and carrying to the bounds of civilization, and
even into half-civilized regions, a religion which has con-
tributed to advance society more than all other causes
combined. Here is the effect. Here is 9 monument
more durable than pillars or triumphal aiuies. Now I
ask for an explanation of these effects. If Jesus Christ
and his Apostles were indeed sent and empowered by
God, and wrought miracles in attestation of their mis-
sion, then the establishment of Christianity is explained.
Suppose them, on the other hand, to have been insane
enthusiasts, or selfish impostors, left to meet the whole
strength of human opposition, with nothing but their own
power or rather their own weakness, and you have no
cause for the stupendous effect I have described. Such
men could no more have changed the face of the world,
than they could have turned back rivers to their sources,
sunk mountains into valleys, or raised valleys to the
skies. Christianity, then, has not only the evidence of
unexceptionable witnesses, but that of effects ; a proof
which will grow stronger by comparing its progress with
that of other religions, such as Mahometanism, which
sprung from human passions, and were advanced by hu-
man power.

IV. Having given my views on the subject of Chris-
tian miracles, I now pass to the last topic of this dis-
course. Its extent and importance will lead me to en-
large upon it in a subsequent discourse ; but a discussion
of Christian evidences, in which it should find no place,
would be essentially defective. I refer to the proof of
Christianity derived from the Character of its Author.

The character of Jesus was Original. He formed a
new era in the moral history of the human race. His

394 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY.

perfection was not that of his age, nor a copy of the
greatness which had long engrossed the world's admira-
tion. Jesus stood apart from other men. He borrowed
from none and leaned on none. Surrounded by men of
low thoughts, he rose to the conception of a higher form
of human virtue than had yet been realized or imagined,
and deliberately devoted himself to its promotion, as the
supreme object of his life and death. Conscious of be-
ing dedicated to this great work, he spoke with a calm
dignity, an unaffected elevation, which separated him
from a'l other teachers. Unsupported, he never waver-
ed ; sufficient to himself, he refused alliance with wealth
or power. Yet, with all this self-subsistence and uncom-
promising energy, his character was the mildest, the
gentlest, the most attractive, ever manifested among men.
It could not have been a fiction, for who could have
conceived it, or who could have embodied the concep-
tion in such a life as Jesus is said to have led, in actions,
words, manners, so natural and unstudied, so imbued
with reality, so worthy of the Son of God ?

The great distinction of Jesus was a philanthropy
without mixture and without bounds ; a philanthropy,
uniting grandeur and meekness in beautiful proportions ;
a philanthropy, as wise as it was fervent, which compre-
hended the true wants and the true good of man, which
compassionated, indeed, his sufferings from abroad, but
which saw in the soul the deep fountain of his miseries,
and labored, by regenerating this, to bring him to a pure
and enduring happiness. So peculiar, so unparalleled
was the benevolence of Jesus, that it has impressed it-
self on all future times. There went forth a virtue, a
beneficent influence from his character, which operates
even now. Since the death of Christ, a spirit of hu-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 395

manity, unknown before, has silently diffused itself over
a considerable portion of the earth. A new standard
of virtue has gradually possessed itself of the veneration
of men. A new power has been acting on society,
which has done more than all other causes combined, to
disarm the selfish passions, and to bind men strongly to
one another and to God. What a monument have we
here to the virtue of Jesus ! and if Christianity has such
a Founder, it must have come from Heaven.

There are other remarkable proofs of the power and
elevation of the character of Christ. It has touched
and conciliated not a few of the determined adversaries
of his religion. Infidelity, whilst it has laid unsparing
hands on the system, has generally shrunk from offering
violence to its Author. In truth, unbelievers have occa-
sionally borne eloquent testimony to the benignant and
celestial virtues of Jesus ; and I record this with pleas-
ure, not only as honorable to Christianity, but as show-
ing that unbelief does not universally sear the moral
feelings, or breathe hostility to goodness. Nor is this
all. The character of Christ has withstood the most
deadly and irresistible foe of error and unfounded claims,
I mean, Time. It has lost nothing of its elevation by
the improvements of ages. Since he appeared, society
has gone forward, men's views have become enlarged,
and philosophy has risen to conceptions of far purer vir-
tues than were the boast of antiquity. But, however
the human mind may have advanced, it must still look
upward, if it would see and understand Christ. He is
still above it. Nothing purer, nobler, has yet dawned
on human thoughts. Then Christianity is true. The
delineation of Jesus in the Gospels, so warm with life,
and so unrivalled in loveliness and grandeur, required the

396 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

existence of an original. To suppose that this character
was invented by unprincipled men, amidst Jewish and
heathen darkness, and was then imposed as a reality in
the very age of the founder of Christianity, argues an
excess of credulity, and a strange ignorance of the
powers and principles of human nature. The character
of Jesus was real ; and if so, Jesus must have been
what he professed to be, the Son of God and the re-
vealer of his mercy and his will to mankind.

I have now completed what I proposed in this dis-
course. I have laid before you some of the principal
evidences of Christianity. I have aimed to state them
without exaggeration. That an honest mind, which
thoroughly comprehends them, can deny their force,
seems to me hardly possible. Stronger proofs may in-
deed be conceived ; but it is doubtful, whether these
could be given in consistency with our moral nature, and
with the moral government of God. Such a govern-
ment requires, that truth should not be forced on the
mind, but that we should be left to gain it, by an upright
use of our understandings, and by conforming ourselves
to what we have already learned. God might indeed
shed on us an overpowering light, so that it would be
impossible for us to lose our way ; but in so doing, he
would annihilate an important part of our present proba-
tion. It is then no objection to Christianity, that its
evidences are not the very strongest which might be
given, and that they do not extort universal assent. In
this respect, it accords with other great truths. These
are not forced on our belief. Whoever will, may shut
his eyes on their proofs, and array against them objec-
tions. In the measure of evidence with which Christi-

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 397

anity is accompanied, I see a just respect for the free-
dom of the mind, and a wise adaptation to that moral
nature, which it is the great aim of this religion to carry
forward to perfection.

I close as I hegan. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ ; for it is True. It is true ; and its truth is to
break forth more and more gloriously. Of this I have
not a doubt. I know indeed that our religion has been
questioned even by intelligent and good men ; but this
does not shake my faith in its divine original or in its ul-
timate triumphs. Such men have questioned it, because
they have known it chiefly by its corruptions. In pro-
portion as its original simplicity shall be restored, the
doubts of the well-disposed will yield. I have no fears
from infidelity ; especially from that form of it, which
some are at this moment laboring to spread through our
country ; I mean, that insane, desperate unbelief, which
strives to quench the light of nature as well as of revela-
tion, and to leave us, not only without Christ, but with-
out God. This I dread no more than I should fear the
efforts of men to pluck the sun from his sphere, or to
storm the skies with the artillery of the earth. We
were made for religion ; and unless the enemies of our
faith can change our nature, they will leave the founda-
tion of religion unshaken. The human soul was created
to look above material nature. It wants a Deity for its
love and trust, an Immortality for its hope. It wants
consolations not found in philosophy, wants strength in
temptation, sorrow, and death, which human wisdom
cannot minister ; and knowing as I do, that Christianity
meets these deep wants of men, I have no fear or
doubt as to its triumphs. Mer. cannot long live without

vol. in. 34

398 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

religion. In France there is a spreading dissatisfaction
with the skeptical spirit of the past generation. A phi-
losopher in that country would now blush to quote Vol-
taire as an authority in religion. Already Atheism is
dumb where once it seemed to bear sway. The great-
est minds in France are working back their way to the
light of truth. Many of them indeed cannot yet be
called Christians ; but their path, like that of the wise
men of old who came star-guided from the East, is
towards Christ. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ. It has an immortal life, and will gather strength
from the violence of its foes. It is equal to all the wants
of men. The greatest minds have found in it the light
which they most anxiously desired. The most sorrow-
ful and broken spirits have found in it a healing balm for
their woes. It has inspired the sublimest virtues and
the loftiest hopes. For the curruptions of such a reli-
gion I weep, and I should blush to be their advocate ;
but of the Gospel itself, I can never be ashamed.

END OF VOL. III.