Page images
PDF
EPUB

But the powers of this internal perception are not confined to the region of natural science, they accompany the mind in all its religious and moral speculations. They give a degree of stability to human reason which enables it to venture far from the shores of sense into the wide expanse where things are spiritually discerned. It is scarcely too much to suppose that this is the principle which links each created intelligence to the eternal mind— so God-like have been its operations, wherever it has burst the chains of prejudice and emerged from the darkness of sin.

To say nothing of the subordinate truths, which, by its assistance, have been elicited from the arcana of science, it is this which in all ages, has led the mind from nature up to God; and taught it the essential attributes of the Divinity. The confidence which men have reposed in the responses of this oracle within, is the ground of every conviction which belongs to natural region.

Of

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

here? Not of myself;-

-By some great Maker then, In goodness and in power pre-eminent." I need not say how true to nature this description is. There is no man who does not feel the same internal dictate whenever he goes forth among the works of God. We may be assured that we are approved by the consciences of men when we fix the charge of self-violence upon those who impiously ascribe the fair creation to the the efficiency of chance. Human reason has ever been truer to her Maker than the human heart. Yet, dragged reluctantly into the rebellion, she is sometimes bribed and sometimes tortured for decisions, which, at the time, she suffers to falter on her lips, and renounces with the first indulgence of freedom.-Though I am aware that the errors of reason may sometimes be imputed to that frailty of her own which suffers her to be led astray by the pride of originality; yet, in either case, her severest labor seems to be an inward struggle to smother those responses, which

at least, resemble the inspirations tence, to command all the ener

of Omniscience.

If then, this principle of reason be allowed its agency in establishing the truth of natural religion, it must extend its influence beyond these limits. No reason can be assigned why the origin of revelation would not be accessible in the same way as the origin of nature, though the former were unknown. Much less can it be shown, that, after arriving at the knowledge of a sufficient cause, it is either unphilosophical or unsafe to return by the same steps to the discovery of its other characteristic effects. Surely, if the works of material nature retain such an impress of the Divinity as enables us to read in them his agency, and many of his attributes, we may expect to find in a system of truth, adapted to the state of man as an intellectual and moral being, such lineaments of that glorious design, which nature's light shows dwelling in the mind of God, as shall fully entitle it to the honor of being his fairest work, and to the regard, which, by consequence it claims from

man.

From the contemplation of that being, who gave life and motion to the universe, and disposed all its parts with an evident regard to harmony and happiness-a being, possessed of infinite attributes--Benevolence, to guide the dictates of his will--Omniscience, to discover the surest means for its accomplishment-and Omnipo

gies of matter and mind, we return with the certain conviction that there is no effect in the universe proportioned to the efficiency of such a cause, if the system of moral operations revealed in the bible, is not true. The mind is pained at the reflection. It in. stinctively abhors the idea of a being, infinitely intelligent and wise, existing without action, or operating in vain. Again, if we examine the christian religion-the features which it presents of whatever is beautiful in truth, or sublime in virtue, the marks of some design elevated by the majesty of its plans, and hallowed by the purity of its object, the leading influence which it exerts in advancing the moral dignity and happiness of man--these all proclaim that the God of nature only is equal to the effort manifested in the formation and conduct of the glorious scheme.

These two general reflections will be sufficient to satisfy the pi ous mind that the precious gospel is not a cunningly devised fable. For he has not, like other men, to struggle with a heart reluctant to admit the discovery of truth, which wounds his natural pride and inflicts on the self-complacent qui etude of his bosom, the consciousness of guilt. Still a short analysis of the argument upon which such a conviction rests, may enable him to feel more distinctly the extent and firmness of the foundation on which his all relies; and may

serve to kindle his affections into a more steady flame upon the altar of an unshaken trust in God.

The two following inquiries, then, lead to a more particular view of the considerations already suggested.

How may we infer from the character of God that he is the author of christianity?

must of necessity, be made in

in vain.

But while there is something in nature to exercise every power and to meet every innocent desire of man, in this incipient state of his existence, there is nothing imperishable as the mind on which its immortal desires can feed, if the bible is not true. Without the bible, the future world is a desert and eternity a winter to the soul! How, then, can it be

And how may the same thing be inferred from the character of our religion itself? To the former of these it may consistent with the benevolence of be replied

1st. That it is inconsistent with the benevolence of the Deity that he should not design for his creatures the most exalted happiness of which they are capable.

God is the former of our bodies and the father of our spirits. The springs of our being are in him, and each susceptibility of our nature is the gift of his creating hand. In some of these endowments lie the fairest proofs of the divine goodness which have sustained the speculations of natural religion. In what an endless variety of beauty has the Creator wrapped the external world for no other perceptible purpose than to delight the corporeal senses of man! What a variety of social relations has he devised to excite the sensibilities and gratify the affections of the human breast! None of the noble passions that dilate the heart of patriotism or philanthropy are left to languish for want of an object. No human capacity must necessarily run to waste, no wish

God, conspicuous in the blessings of our present state, that he should be so indifferent to the immortal interests of the soul, as to give us no more knowledge of future retributions than the light of nature suggests; and absolutely more discernible by unassisted reason respecting the principles by which he will be guided in dispensing them. Will infinite goodness descend to secure the minutest happiness of man, and yet leave him a defenceless prey to the malignant arts of Satan? Can that be a hand of kindness, which carefully sustains our bark along the trembling stream of time that it may be wrecked upon the billows of eternity? If not, then the Creator has left no means untried, which infinite love could devise to save the souls of men.

2d. Our knowledge of God enables us to conclude that the means he employs to effect the spiritual welfare of his creatures are such as tend to assimilate them to his own moral likeness.

The blessed God knows that he is the happiest of all beings. He perceives, too, that his happiness flows from the perfections of his moral nature. It consists in the complacency which he feels in his own purity, integrity and benevolent affections. It cannot be, therefore, that the ultimate happiness, which he designs for man, is very different in kind from this. The creature who bears the natural image of his Maker, must be wretched in a spiritual existence without similar dispositions of soul. Endowed, as man is, with the perception and internal approbation of moral excellence, he cannot be made more miserable than by being brought unsanctified into eternity, whose light shall disclose to bim his soul's irreparable void. Man, then must resemble his Maker before his natural capacity for bliss can be supplied. Therefore we may certainly conclude that the designs of infinite benevolence embrace the best possible means for effecting such a renovation of the human character as will bring it to a near conformity with God. We are led by the light of reason to expect some interposition of the Deity to accomplish this purpose of his heartsome plan of salvation, not less conspicuous than the gospel of Christ.

by the truths of rational religion, naturally anticipates the discovery of some system of divine operation tending to the moral improvement of man. Let us then examine the christian religion, with the aid of such a criteria as are furnished to our minds, by our independent knowledge of God and his designs.

1st. The system of doctrines and duties contained in the bible bears evident marks of a divine original.

This remark applies to every truth and precept of the sacred volume. No portion of God's word shrinks from the ordeal challenged by such a claim. Even those doctrines which harmonize so far with the dictates of human wisdom, as not to be distinguished by a superficial view from the discoveries of reason, are found upon nearer inspection to leave their parallels infinitely behind, and to sustain relations manifestly divine.

But the God of the bible is a character in all points beyond the power of human invention to form. Men, so far from anticipating the peculiar features of the divine character have been slow to discern the master strokes by which it is delineated in revelation.-There is a tendency in the mind to give to its conceptions the shape of the ideas with which it is already familiar. Imagination itself cannot stretch its wild and wandering wing beyond the boundaries of human knowledge. Its most

II. How may it be inferred from the character of christianity itself that God is its author. It was just remarked that the mind, in some measure enlightened excentric flight is still among real

existences; and its most anoma- impossible for the Jews to per

lous creations are only the ideas of the mind modified or combined anew. A glance at the theism of the Ancients, among whom genius has reared its proudest monuments compels us to make no exception to this principle in favor of religion. Amidst all their researches in science and refinements in the oretical virtue, they never departed from the analogy of nature in their notions of a supreme being. The perfections of Pater Omnipotens did not differ in kind from human perfections. They were invested with human forms and impelled by human passions.— Their power was as much obedient to the laws of nature, and as much limited to the instrumentality of means as that of men. The wicked under the light of revelation are charged with the folly of estimating the perfections of God by the same rule in the language of the Psalmist, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself."

But the imbecility of human reason is not the only thing which has limited its discoveries. A depraved heart has always encumbered its march. It has disordered or blinded its perceptions of evidence and often wholly diverted it from the pursuit of truth. The preposterous reasoning of unenlightened men, if there were no other account of the matter, might be all ascribed to the natural prejudices of the mind. The Savior intimates, John v. 44. that it was

ceive the evidence of his Messiahship, while they retained their carnal affections. Thus we see that the inadequacy of our finite apprehensions and the impulses of base desires unite to exclude from the mind of man a just knowledge of the true God. The description therefore of the being and attributes of the Deity, contained in the bible, is not a mere human production. The pencil which drew that matchless portrait was guided by the hand of the Eternal. The same, if necessary might be said of all the peculiar doctrines of revelation.

No less conspicuous is the divine origin of the morality taught in the bible. In comparing the works of pagan moralists with the scriptures, the christian, almost involuntarily, exclaims with the poet

"Great God, when once compared

with thine,

How mean their writings look!”

Place the ethics of Socrates and Seneca beside the sacred volume! The lore which shone on the moral midnight of paganism becomes rayless in the noonlight of christianity. Virtue was with them, as with us, a name for the highest moral excellence; yet scarcely two things in the universe are to be found, so wide of each other as the virtue of heathen philosophy and that of the bible. One is that union of qualities which forms the character of the proud heroan union of valour, courage, bravery, force and fortitude, the oth

« PreviousContinue »