glory of God, who has made them! How many are there among us who do not rightly understand this! When I hear the outbursts of enthusiasm at the beauty of Nature, it pains me deeply that nothing is spoken of but the honour of the creature, and that the spirit never ascends from this to Him who has created it. I could sometimes go to the enthusiastic admirer and « Alas! my say: fellow-mortal, you do not properly understand the true import of this song of praise! It celebrates the honour of God, who has made all his works so beautiful!" "Fair lily! which in gorgeous robe Upon the mead I see, Thou art a pattern for my life- O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." (Ps. xcv. 6.) 4. Everything in the firmament of heaven does indeed declare the glory of God, and everything impresses us with the idea that "every thing is old, and everything is new in that everlasting kingdom;" but especially do we receive this impression from the sun, when each morning it again arises to its circuit in the sky, with perfect freshness, as though it had just been bathing. To beings like us, it appears as though it had been gathering fresh strength, as we, children of men, renew our strength during the quiet night; yet its setting here is only its rising in another hemisphere. How, with its shining, does it extinguish everything else that would shine alongside of it, and thus ascends the sky entirely alone! How does it, without respect of persons, like a monarch send its beams over mountain and valley, over the lowly, and over the lofty! It is not so very astonishing that men who had not the second, to explain the first testament of God, namely, the book of Nature, should have fallen down before the sun and worshipped it as a god. And yet it is only the servant of Him who can call it my sun. It is written: "Who maketh his sun to rise upon the evil and upon the good." And yet it is only the servant of his servants, for it is itself in turn but the servant of other suns, which all at last revolve around Him who is called "the Father of lights." (James i. 17.) Truly the blessed apostle is right, when he says that God in the creation of the world hath declared his invisible nature, his eternal power and Godhead-"so that they are without excuse." (Rom. i. 20.) But this is first properly recognised to be so by us, in whose hearts the precious word of God, the Bible, has enkindled a light that also makes Nature clear. When it is said that the three revelations of God, in Nature, in the Old Testa ment, and in the New, is a book of three parts, yet is it a book that we must begin to read at the back in order properly to understand it. But when one once rightly understands those two parts, and then again opens the first, what sermons of which he never before thought resound upon him! The disciple of Christ first rightly knows what he says, when, enthroned amid the glory of Nature he exclaims to him, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground!", Yea, the Christian first rightly knows why he calls the earth holy ground-whereon the Holy One of God walked with pure feet-whereon a Son of God poured forth his holy blood in sacrifice-whereon, when consecrated anew, "the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" for ever and ever. (Rev. xxi. 3.) That is looking into the heart of God's grace, and after we have once looked into this, we see the world filled with miracles of grace. O! with what new! eyes is the book of Nature then read! We can everywhere read of God who so loved the world that he did not spare even his only begotten. Son, but tore him as a leaf out of his own heart, and offered him up for the world! Heavenly Father! I know and have experienced it, that everything in thy heavenly kingdom can become a preacher unto us, and that it is altogether the fault of our dull ear that. Nature, both in her glory and in her terrors. preaches so little unto us. A declaration of thy glory pervades all creation, day unto day de clares, night unto night records it. O grant me, gracious, heavenly Father, a truly childlike heart, that I may understand this preaching Grant me a collected mind, that in the voice' of every creature I may perceive the voice o my uncreated God, my Father, and my Lord I will exercise my mind upon the holy word o thy revelation, that I may thus become mor fully aware of that which thou sayest unto me in the book of Nature; and from every beauty of Nature as it now lies before me, let me derive an anticipation, a blessed anticipation of wha it will be when the earth, this cradle of falle humanity, shall, together with its Lord, be ele vated to that un-decaying glory to which tho hast destined it! * While we do not think it advisable to suppress the con cluding sentence, we are, of course, not to be understood a committing our periodical to the doctrine at which it points -ED. THE CHARACTER OF INFIDELITY. THE CHARACTER OF INFIDELITY. BY THE REV. JOHN G. LORIMER, GLASGOW, DAVID HUME. 339 Before proceeding to our more immediate object we may be permitted to say, that we are not conscious of any prejudice against Hume; our feelings are much more akin to those of compassion than of anger. We deeply regret to see a man of most acute and powerful understanding, rich and varied acquirements, fine taste, cheerful manners, not only an enemy of revelation himself, but the subtle, laborious, and successful subverter of the faith and hope of others. We believe him to have been deeply criminal in this. Such is the testimony of the Word of God-there is guilt and just condemnation in unbelief for one's self, and in being the overthrower of the faith of our fellow-men. But we have no desire to detract from the character of Hume-to withhold from him the praise which is due, much less to blacken or misrepresent him. We cheerfully acknowledge his high, almost unrivalled powers as a writer-his eminent services in the cause of political economy, and the general improvement of the literary taste and style of his country. We acknowledge his moral propriety and correctness of deportment; his contentment, frugality, and order; his pleasing social qualities; his cheerfulness and pleasantry, which drew a warm band of friends around him, and made him a favourite in the domestic circle among ladies and children. Comparing him with Infidels and men of literature, both in Britain and on the Continent-comparing him with such a man as Voltaire, all must at once yield him the palm; nay, it is to be feared that not a few, bearing the Christian name, could not, in point of correctness, and kindness, and desire to be agreeable and instruct, stand a comparison with the Infidel. His was not the life of a gay, frivolous, perhaps profligate man of the world. It was the life of a studious philosopher, whose happiness lay among his books, who was unstained with vice, and who came forth from his retreat from time to time, to spend a pleasant hour in the circle of lite WE have lately been reading, and with no small interest, "The Life and Correspondence of David Hume, by John Hill Burton, Esq., Advocate," a recent and able publication in two volumes, and it has occurred to us, that, without any detailed account of the subject of the memoir, and without any formal review of the book, it would be possible to give such a view of Hume's character, chiefly disclosed in an incidental form in its pages, as would prove a warning to all, and especially the young, against the tempta tions of Infidelity. The reader, then, will see what we contemplate-not an abridged life of Hume, there would be little interest in this, as the incidents are not many or striking-not an account of his philosophy, which would scarcely be suitable even though it could be made intelligible to the readers of a popular religious periodical. Our aim is practical. We wish to turn the facts of Hume's character and history against his Infidelity, and that as a warning to others against its wiles. In short, we wish to survey "The Life and Correspondence of Hume" in a Christian light; to judge of the man by Christian standards, and to do the whole for Christian ends. In attempting to realize our idea, we take the accuracy and impartiality of the biographer for granted. We presume that he gives a fair account of his hero. We do not rely entirely upon his information, and we are not without our suspicions that on some occasions he has given a more favourable view of Hume than truth warranted; but it is not necessary to our object to make Humerary friends or of youth, for the most part carefully out to be worse than the facts detailed and his own correspondence represent. He may have been less estimable-considerably worse than his biographer describes. There is on several occasions a loose way of speaking, on the part of the biographer, on sacred subjects, which does not inspire strong confidence; was where he speaks of Infidels as being objects of pity, not of blame-softens away the danger of Hume's Essay on Miracles, as if the principle on which it proceeds were not fatal to revelation, and speaks with sarcasm of some ministers and Church courts of the time presuming to call public attention to Hume's scepticism, and to condemn it. We have reason to suspect, too, that the correspondence of Hume with the Moderate ministers, who were embraced in his friendship, was not so harmless and creditable to them, nor the death-scene of the Infidel philosopher so tran-priety, that it constitutes itself a protection against quil as his biographer represents. But, as we have already said, we do not quarrel with Mr. Burton. From the fulness and the candour with which he states much that was far from honourable to the subject of his book, we have little doubt that his main object was to make an interesting work, by relating circumstances and events as he believed them to have taken place. avoiding whatever he knew would offend. We have And this leads us to remark, that as we have no desire to depreciate the character, so we have no wish to disparage the influence of Hume. Beyond all question he is the most able, unoffending, and dangerous of Infidels. The character of many of the same school so strongly outrages all moral pro their wiles; their coarseness, bitterness, and malevolence, are conspicuous. It is not so with Hume. He seems an amiable man, whom one may trust without hazard. He offends no one; outwardly he appears as good, as unexceptionable, as a great mass of the friends of revelation-superior to many; and then his Infidelity is not confined to one department, fitted only to one class of minds, and these the lowest. It does not show itself, for instance, in sarcastic attacks on detached passages of Old Testament Scripture, aiming, like Paine, at an impression among the vulgar. Hume disdains so low and unworthy a course; his scepticism is all-comprehensive and universal. It not only subverts revelation, it saps the principles of morals, and the proofs of providence, and the evidence of the very being of a God. And all the while there is little to alarm. Instead of courting the vulgar, he rather despises them, writing for the cultivated and the thoughtful; and yet, from his simplicity and clearness, intelligible to multitudes of all classes, and becoming more and more intelligible with every enlargement of the means of popular education. From the circumstances adverted to, one would expect the influence of Hume's writings on the side of Infidelity to be great; and the expectation is verified by fact. The reference which we find to Hume in all the leading writings published subsequent to his day, bearing on metaphysics, morals, religion-not to speak of those written for the express purpose of counteracting his false principles-is a plain proof of their felt importance. He continues to be thus quoted still. Then it is well known that his writings exerted a great influence on the leading writers of the French Infidel school, and doubtless, hastened on the dread catastrophe to which they conducted. Much of the Infidelity of this country in the last and the present century, especially in the higher ranks and cultivated classes, is directly traceable to Hume. There is reason to fear that, after a partial obscuration, his Infidelity is recovering in our day. It is not improbable that the "Life and Correspondence" which have been published, though not intended, may, by calling public attention to his writings, have the same effect. Hence the propriety of guarding all, and particularly those most likely to be affected, against the influence of this celebrated sceptic. We know not how this can be better done, than by showing the defects and vices of his character, and so his unfitness to be the guide of others on moral and religious subjects. If it can be shown that the most able and attractive of Infidelsthe man most unexceptionable in life, and, if we are to believe the testimony of friends, most contented and happy in death- -was yet, in point of character, grievously disqualified for the office which he assumed, and unworthy of the confidence which multitudes repose in him; if it can be shown, moreover, that his Infidelity sadly injured his character, superior as that character was to what the ordinary race of Infidels can pretend to, surely it may be expected, that while Hume is weakened for moral mischief, others will be altogether incapacitated-that Infidelity in general will be exposed, and the cause of revelation in the same degree indirectly protected and confirmed. Providence seems to have allowed Infidelity to appear in all forms, associated with various descriptions of character and condition, the attractive as well as repulsive, that there might be the better trial of the faith of the Church, and that his truth, subjected to every conceivable ordeal, might in the end come out the more conspicuously victorious. Hume, so to speak, had no temptations to Infidelity. He was not a poor neglected misanthrope-without education-without friends-suffering from bodily pain, or constitutional depression, and so tempted to quarrel at once with the providence and revelation of God. He was a man of old family-received an excellent education—| was quite a scholar-was ere long possessed of independent means-was always surrounded by attached friends-was blessed with fine health and the finest flow of animal spirits; and, in short, was an entire stranger to many of the temptations to unbelief to which others are exposed. He was a bachelor, with an income of £1,000 a-year, living in literary ease and retirement in Edinburgh, when he was correcting and maturing those works which shake the foun-! dations of natural and revealed religion. Do his, outward circumstances not aggravate the guilt and ingratitude of his own Infidelity, and of his labours to make others Infidels? Do they not at the same time show the strength and perfection of Hume's Infidelity? His was not an Infidelity of accident or temptation. It was a deliberate, a chosen, a cherished Infidelity. It is the more important to neutralize its influence. by showing how little it did for him-how poor, defective, and even vicious, was the character which Infidelity created, or at least, in which Infidelity continued to inhere, without conferring any favourable change. What, then, are some of the leading characteristics of Hume, apparent from a Life and Correspondence published by an admirer? While Christians are humbled over the memory and the consciousness of their own defects, such a contemplation is fitted to enhance Christianity in their esteem, revealing, as it does, a character so incomparably superior, both in its Founder and in multitudes of its disciples, to all the attainments of the most boasted specimen of Infidelity arrayed in the dress of Reason and Philosophy. 1st, It appears that Hume was a STRANGER TO THE HIGHER IMPULSES OF GENEROSITY. We have remarked that he was kindly and agreeable-loved in society. and liked by the young; but his amiability does not seem to have extended very far-to nothing that im plied a real sacrifice of self. He seems to have been insensible to patriotism, which is a high and generous feeling. He did, indeed, discover a generous desire to patronize young Scottish authors; but this appears to have sprung rather from hatred to England, where his own claims as an author had been long overlooked, than from any real love to country. His biographer remarks, that there is no trace of attachment to homescenes and localities in his writings scarcely any allusion to them, even in circumstances where, by foreign contrasts, they seemed to be forced upon the remembrance of the heart. He was extremely anxious, in point of style and sentiment, to be com pletely expurgated of everything Scottish. Indeed about nothing does he seem to have been more anxious; the greatest favour was to correct a Scotticism in his language. He appears to have regarded what' was Scotch as provincial and vulgar. Though he lived through the rebellion of 1745, and was surrounded by parties deeply interested, he discovers as little interest in it as if it had been a rebellion in the heart of Africa. Of his Essay "On the Protestant Succession," he says himself in a private letter: "I THE CHARACTER OF INFIDELITY. treat the subject as coolly and indifferently as I would the dispute between Cæsar and Pompey." The times of Greek and Roman greatness had far greater charms for him than the historical periods, at least the earlier ones, of Britain; so much so, that his biographer regrets that he did not rather illustrate the one than the other. It is plain, we think, that his heart lay far more in France, where he had been caressed and honoured, than in any part of Britain. While this absence of patriotism must have prevented him doing justice as an historian to Britain, and hence, among other reasons, the failure of his "History of England' as a real history of that country, can it be doubted that Infidelity had its influence in making him coldhearted and indifferent to country? Patriotism is a Christian virtue. Paul, and Paul's Master, afforded beautiful illustrations of its power. It was impossible that Hume could do so. It is to be considered, too, that the struggles of the Christian Church are identified in Britain with patriotism. Hence if a man has not religion enough to sympathize with the Church of Christ, he is not in circumstances to feel very | warmly as a patriot. Over the finest passages of his country's history he must be dumb, or look on with ill-suppressed anger. Hume, then, was a stranger to one of the noblest and most generous impulses of the human mind, the patriotic. Whatever might have been the original susceptibilities of his mind, in this direction they were extinguished by his Infidelity. What a contrast to the Scottish Reformer, to whom the Infidel bore so deadly a grudge! how warmly did patriotism beat in his heart! Concerned for the everlasting salvation through Christ of the existing generation of his beloved Scotland, he was scarcely less concerned for the salvation of their posterity; in other words, his patriotism was hallowed to latest ages. Being truly religious, he was necessarily truly patriocic. It is scarcely necessary to notice, that, constituted is Hume was, by his Infidelity, he could not appreciate the patriotism of the Bible; and, in so far, was an incompetent judge of its spirit. We may well ask, Is 't a recommendation of Infidelity, that it is not propitious, that, on the contrary, it is injurious, to patriotism, one of the most generous emotions of the human mind—an emotion leading to deeds which even Heathens can eulogize? 341 unusual at the time. Nine or ten years later, he had taken charge, chiefly for gain, of a half madman, a Marquis of Annandale. For this service, he was to receive £300 a-year. The charge was particularly degrading; only one strongly mercenary in spirit could submit to it. A question arose at the termination of the year, about a sum of £75 which Hume thought him. self entitled to, and for this paltry sum he battled and litigated as for his life. Fourteen years after, we find him still insisting on it, and threatening a law-suit, though apparently baffled after all. What, if possible, adds to the humiliation and selfishness of the exhibition, is the fact that after Hume had met with enough to disgust any man of the smallest sense of honour, on the place being proposed anew, at a reduction of one-half the salary, Hume intimated his willingness to accept the terms. Even his friend Henry Home (Lord Kames), who was noted for his penuriousness, trusted that Hume "would not be so mean-spirited" as to accept of lowered terms. The philosopher, however, in his selfish love of gain, though but a young man of thirty-five, was prepared to submit to the degradation. Let it not be supposed that this was some peculiarly unhappy case. It was a case illustrative of general character. Unwarned by what had taken place, Hume was shortly after employed as Secretary to General St. Clair on a trifling military expedition to the coast of France. Its great charm for him, seems to have been that he could make some money by it. Not satisfied with what he received, he made some claim for half-pay as Judge Advocate on the expedition; the claim was disallowed, but for seventeen years thereafter, we find him urging his suit, and only reluctantly abandoning it. A year or two subsequent to the period referred to, he had collected and saved £1,000. This sum, like a miser's heap, seems to have filled and possessed his soul; so that thirty years thereafter, when writing his autobiography, we find him dwelling upon it with exultation. Is this a very creditable exhibition of character, worthy of a philosopher? What would Hume have thought or said of a Christian, above all, of a Christian minister, acting in this manner? The man who was robbing others of the hope of a future world, took care to afford a good illustration in his own person of tenacity and grasping at the present. Strange as it may seem, 2d, But more than this, Hume appears not only these two are connected. If Infidelity did not origito have been a stranger to the generous, but in a large nate Hume's love of gain, it did nothing to check it, manner to have been ANIMATED BY THE MERCENARY. but the reverse. More than this, a disbeliever in Though, as a philosopher and religious reformer, and futurity, Hume's heaven consisted in a comfortable accustomed, moreover, to denounce the cupidity of the independency upon earth; hence his anxiety about Christian ministry, under the foolishly misapplied a secure competency, and hence the mercenary selname of "Priests," it might have been anticipated fishness which degraded and disgraced him while yet that he would have been a pattern of the disa young man. What a contrast to the spirit of true interested; yet it is a remarkable fact, that in money Christianity! "It is more blessed to give than to rematters he was repeatedly involved in disputes-dis- ceive"-a spirit embodied and exemplified on the cross putes which were conducted with a keenness and of Calvary. No wonder that Hume was an Infidel; perseverance, anything but honourable to the pro- the generosity and self-sacrifice of the Bible could fessed character of the philosopher. When a young find no favour in such eyes as his. Well may we ask, man of twenty-six-not an old man, on whom avarice however, Are the mercenary and the avaricious recommight be supposed to have made some inroad-he en-mendatory of philosophy or scepticism, or anything tered in "a most stringent manner," according to his else? biographer, into pecuniary arrangements with his publishers-arrangements which seem to have been To be continued. LITTLE THINGS. SCORN not the slightest word or deed, A whispered word may touch the heart, No act falls fruitless; none can tell ANON. The Inquisitors could further compel civil governors to extirpate from their territory all who were known as heretics. Witnesses might be compelled to give evidence, under pain of excommunication or the torture; and the former was the award whenever a layman dared to dispute about the faith, whether in public or private. The power of the Office extended also!! to books, not one of which could be published without the Inquisitor's permission; while Torquemada burned six thousand volumes in one fire at Salamanca. To render the Officials sufficiently stringent in the application of their laws, they were, for any instance of leniency, forbidden to enter a church for a period of four years. In examining prisoners, lawyers acted as assessors to the clergy, to help forward their cruelty. They were sworn to secrecy regarding their dia MEMORIALS OF THE INQUISITION. bolical proceedings, as were the other officers NO. II. BY THE REV. W. K. TWEEDIE, EDINBURGH. of the Tribunal; and so strict were the instructions to certain of the functionaries, that, in recording the dealings with the accused, IN adverting to the facts which illustrate the every trivial incident connected with the crispirit of the Inquisition, and along with it the minal required to be noticed. If he changed spirit of Popery, out of which that institution colour, trembled, hesitated or faltered in his arose, it must suffice to exhibit only a specimen. speech, or coughed, or spoke with tremulous We feel as if humanity were revolted, and the tone during the inquest-all must be engrosreligion of the Prince of Peace not merely out-sed, "that by these circumstances the Inquiraged, but utterly extinguished, by such a sys-sitors may know when to put the criminals tem of scientific persecution. But as with the anatomist, in examining the human structure, though much that is painful or offensive may be encountered in our inquiry, it must be endured for the sake of the remedies to which that examination may point, or the warnings which it may supply. So high, then, did the office of Inquisitor rank in the estimation of Rome, that the title of "Most Reverend" was early attached to it, so that to be an Inquisitor was to be equal to a bishop; and so complete was the ascendency of the Holy Office, that the proud kings of Castile, prior to their coronation, bound themselves and all their subjects, by a solemn oath, to obey the Holy Tribunal, to the torture." If any one refused to aid in detecting or apprehending a criminal, he was fined and put to the ban. The bailiffs or Fami liars, who apprehended the accused, were chiefly the nobles of the kingdom, and not one of them dared to claim exemption from the service-nay, that despicable office was coveted as an honour even by them. So expert were these myrmidons of old, that a father, with his sons and daughters, six in all, were on one occasion apprehended in the same house, carried to the Inquisition about the same time, and detained in it for seven years, in perfect ignorance of each other's destiny, till they met when they were brought forth in an Auto-de-fe. Of these Familiars there was one order, instituted by Dominic, who took an oath to defend the Popish faith at the cost of fortune and of life; and one section of the persecutors was called by that saint The Militia of Christ. Strange soldiers these in the service of the Prince of Peace! When any heretic was excommunicated by it, no authority but that of the Pope could absolve him. The Church was no sanctuary against its power, as it was to other offenders. A delinquent could be dragged from the horns of the altar; while the Inquisitors could In accordance with the general spirit of this grant indulgences, partial or plenary, to all system, civil magistrates were in complete subwho died in their service, not one of them-jection to the Inquisition. They swore to selves being exposed to the perils of purgatory. Their indulgence was ex officio plenary -that is, there was no purgatory for them. They could proceed for heresy against bishops, priests, and friars; nay, against cardinals and archbishops as well as laymen. Not even princes and kings were exempted from their power; and Charles V., despot as he was, trembled before the Inquisition; while members of the imperial family, when cited, appeared before it as their menials would have done. exterminate heretics at the bidding of the Inquisitors; and if any lord of a province refused obedience, or, in technical language, declined "to purge his dominions from heretical pravity," his territory was ordered to be seized, after a year of grace; and the person who seized it possessed it thereafter without challenge. Surely Peter Martyr had reason to exclaim: “O, unhappy Spain, mother of so many heroes, how unjustly disgraced by such a horrible scourge!" It may easily be supposed that the prisons of |