Then as to just and equitable: It is according to these that we do not too rigorously punish errors, mischances, and evils done to us; that we remember better the good than the ill received; and that we endure injuries patiently. Love to God is necessarily reflected in love to man; and it is obvious, that Christian charity leads the mind with great power to these, and other practices of justice and fairness.

Love to God must also be honourable, if the virtues are so intrinsically; and if the causes of things honourable are also honourable. For it would be easy to show, that this love is the queen of all the virtues, and that nothing has been a more fruitful cause of honourable transactions.

If we come to comparatives, and say, "That is greater which causes the greater good, or proceeds from a greater good;" and add, "Greater is that which is chosen for itself, than that which is chosen for somewhat else; and the end is greater than that which is not the end;" the application of these opinions to this love will be obvious at once.

Let this love, indeed, be viewed in every imaginable shape and aspect, and though it is manifestly distinct from any thing discernible in the moral system of nature, yet it furnishes, as hinted above, a most desirable addition to it; exactly answers its demands, corrects and exalts it; and harmonizes both with its immediate and ultimate intentions, in a manner which demonstrates at once the contrivance and beneficence of the Infinite Author of the universal system.

A second observation greatly heightens this evidence. Why, -as Mr. Joyce has fully noticed in his beautiful work on love to God,-why was not this matchless principle promulged by the Heathen philosophers? Were they not men of admirable acuteness and research? the light and glory of the most polished and cultivated nations of antiquity? the sources and repositories of science and of learning? Was it possible,— supposing it had been within the reach of human strength,that they should fail to elicit a discovery so important, and so long the prime object of their ardent inquiry? The few glimmering speculations, we may observe by the way, which they have left us on the subject, only argue, that, at least, it is rationally conceivable, is necessary to human perfection, and is, therefore, quite consonant to our moral constitution.

Now, let us cast our eye on the eastern boundary of the

Mediterranean. Here we behold a country not much larger than the county of York, inhabited by a people insulated from the rest of the world, entirely different from every other nation, in laws, religion, customs, and manners; uninstructed by learning, and particularly unadorned by artificial civilization; despised and contemned as a clan of ignorant barbarians. Yet this people are in possession of the very doctrine which all the philosophers had sedulously sought in vain, and which is destined to give perfection to the character of man. How is this?

Must we believe that they enjoyed it as the natural fruit of their own unparalleled investigation? The solution is most evident, as the above-named excellent author clearly shows. It came from heaven, from that God of whom alone so admirable a gift is infinitely worthy.

Nor must the wickedness of the Jewish nation be brought against this doctrine, as an argument to prove its inefficiency, and that, therefore, it could not come from God. For, in the first place, though we must allow it was not generally submitted to by the Jews in their practice, yet this cannot possibly affect the inference of its supernatural derivation, which is supposed, as above, by the intrinsic and indisputable superiority of this love, in connexion with the fact, that the doctrine concerning it is only to be found in the Sacred Writings of that people. And, secondly, the command to "love God with all the heart," like any other excellent law, Divine or human, may be resisted by the will of man, without any impeachment of its excellence; for the precepts of religion were never intended, nor in the nature of things could they be fitted, to force the reason of free agents, as attraction causes motion, and as instinct irresistibly determines the character of animals.

Observe, as a third evidence on this subject of love, that the Scriptures alone give a rational and satisfactory account of our loss of this great principle. That men, instead of loving God, are at enmity against him, is most evident. Where, indeed, is the class of deists who love, and praise, and serve God, agreeably to the suggestions of their own reason,—to the admitted principles of their own system? I say nothing of positive infractions of morality. The negative part of their character is sufficient to condemn them, in common with the rest of mankind. But we cannot suppose that this enmity was any part or principle of the first man, when he proceeded from

the hands of his immaculate Creator: "The same fountain cannot send forth both sweet waters and bitter."

What feasible account, then, can be given of the annihilation of this love, this essence of true piety, and of the general diffusion of this rooted and horrid opposition to infinite excellence? I speak not of the Divine reasons for suffering its existence, but simply of the mode and circumstances of its first rise and establishment in the human mind. The former of these two subjects lies secret in the bosom of God; nor do practical purposes require him to reveal it. The latter is of great importance to be clearly understood by all who are interested in the process of redemption. But what absurd and conflicting theories have been offered to explain this mystery!

The true account is that of hereditary depravation, God having to a great degree justly abandoned human nature to the consequences of its own wild and uncorrected course. Nor is this unjust or improbable. We are not surprised that the infant family of an attainted nobleman are ruined by his crimes, or that disease, and poverty, and ignominy are inherited by multitudes, from their libertine progenitors; yet the sufferance of the fall, as here explained, is not one whit more unrighteous, as an arrangement of Providence; especially when we take into view the provision of the Gospel, by which it is secured, that no one shall die the second death for the personal sin of Adam,—that a gracious possibility exists of cutting off the eternal penalty of sin. We therefore conclude, that the Scripture narrative of our original loss of love to God, (a narrative which is not found in any other ancient writing,) proves itself to be derived from the proper sources,-uncorrupted tradition and Divine revelation.

Had the manner in which evil was at first introduced been determinable by the wit of man, it might have been expected, that some of the giant minds of antiquity would have enlightened the world by some metaphysical demonstration, on so great and interesting a subject. But as it is abundantly accounted for by matter-of-fact, and this, too, of such a nature as could not have been conveyed to us, except by supernatural means; it seems fair to conclude, that the Book which contains this account is a revelation sent from God. To invent a story like this for purposes of falsehood or amusement,-a tale consisting

of incidents so sparingly put forth, so singular in themselves, so artlessly yet so harmoniously consorted, and answering so exactly to the wisdom, and justice, and goodness of God, and to the nature and circumstances of mankind,-would have been, indeed, a most extraordinary coincidence.

man.

In the fourth place, it is by the Bible, and by this alone, that we are fully instructed how to recover this lost "pearl" of love to God. And here again we perceive the most scrupulous regard to the actual state of man. He is considered as depraved beyond the reach of common remedies. No metaphysical and intricate scheme of moral culture is enjoined, for the purpose of rekindling this extinguished flame of love. It is now quenched, and is neither active nor latent in the nature of No finite agency can strike it again into existence. Like the holy fire of the first temple, it must be received from heaven. As, when the vital spark has fled from the body, cold, and quickly dissolving, no new motions impressed upon it, no attempts to re-animate its confused materials, or to urge afresh its sleeping fluids, can at all succeed in calling back the principle of life; so, love to God, which is the essence of his living image in the soul, can never be restored by any process merely human. The whole history of governments, of civil cultivation, and of philosophic morals, proves the truth of this position.

The Scriptures, therefore, point us to a very different class of measures,-measures which, when rightly adopted, justify the sublime declaration, that the Gospel, which unfolds them, is" the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." This is rational; it exhibits a proportion between means and their purposes; it brings us back to Omnipotence, that we may undergo a "new creation ;" and this by a method singularly just and merciful, a method which includes a vast variety of subordinate means and motives, admirably fitted to accomplish their professed design. The whole scheme, to say the least, so far as reason can decipher it, is consistent with itself; a circumstance which we should not expect to find in any fiction of an extraordinary breadth and variety.

And where we cannot comprehend the subject, satisfactory reasons can be given why we are not informed, suggested solely by the nature and circumstances of the scheme. Deism can give no good reasons why we should be so ignorant on thousands of subjects, evidently of high importance to be known by man,

at some period of his being; and for the knowledge of which he ardently pants, not from idle curiosity, but from a natural thirst after truth.

This scheme, indeed, would not have been adverted to by philosophers, it implies so much of supernatural interference with the nature of man, of which they are always uncommonly jealous. Good men would not have attempted to effect even the greatest human happiness by means of so prodigious a series of falsehoods as the doctrines of infidelity charge upon the Scriptures. And who will say, that men of extreme superstition-a quality which, even in its lower degrees, narrows the intellect, and blights the finest feelings of the heart-could furnish out a plan, including in its boundless range so much of practical wisdom, of sublime invention, and of simple, yet majestic, composition; a plan so deeply interwoven with the principles of human nature, and so precisely fitted, if rightly received, to advance, at least, the highest temporal interests of the world? Here superstition is supposed to do what the greatest and the best of men are presumed, from their honesty and reason, to be incapable of doing. We need not teach the reader to mark this absurdity.

The conclusion is evident, that a remedy so varied, so widely removed from the natural thinkings of mankind, and withal so perfectly adapted to achieve its own avowed intentions, must have been derived from Him who is the "only wise God," and to whom "are known all his works from the beginning."

VI. HARMONY OF THE SUBJECTS.

THIS conclusion is still farther confirmed by the whole of these remarks, examined in their mutual connexion.

This leads us to touch on the harmony of the system, which seems, indeed, to be essential to the perfect excellence of the parts. The alleged falsehood of the Scriptures, if truly charged, must be capital, affecting the whole strain of the Book, and the great majority of its facts. Still, indeed, certain portions of its moral might be accurately devised, as drawn from the obvious nature and condition of man. But how all beyond this should exhibit, on the score of fiction, a system so peculiar, and so well jointed in its parts; how the forgers of the Book should first invent the character of a God, drawn out to such a length, and clothed with so much grandeur; should then require their dupes to love him with their loftiest affection, with such a kind of love