CRUELTY AND FOLLY OF PERSECUTION. 



13? 



nefit they otherwise might from the preaching of 

 the Gospel ; and &quot; when for the time they ought 

 to be teachers of others, they have still need that 

 one teach them again, which be the first princi 

 ples of the oracles of God.&quot; &quot; Hence it is,&quot; says 

 a celebrated preacher, &quot; that the greatest part of 

 our sermons produce so little fruit, because ser 

 mons are, at least they ought to be, connected 

 discourses, in which the principle founds the con 

 sequence, ana the consequence follows the princi 

 ple : all which supposes in the hearers a habit of 

 medilaUon and attention. For the same reason, 

 we are apt to be offended when any body attempts 

 to draw us out of the sphere of our prejudices, 

 and are not. only ignorant, but ignorant from gra 

 vity, and derive, I know not what glory from our 

 own stupidity. Hence it is, that a preacher is 

 seldom or never allowed to sour in his sermons, 

 to rise into the contemplation of some lofty and 

 rapturous objects, but must always descend to the 

 first principles of religion, as if he preached for 

 the first time, or as if his auditors for the first 

 time heard. Hence our preachers seem to lead 

 us into obscure paths, and to lose us in abstract 

 speculations, when they treat of some of the at 

 tributes of God, such as his faithfulness, his love 

 of order, his regard for his intelligent creatures. 

 It. is owing to this that we are, in some sense, 

 well acquainted with some truths of religion, 

 while we remain entirely ignorant of others. 

 Hence also it is, that some doctrines which are 

 true in themselves, demonstrated in our Scrip 

 tures, and essential to religion, become errors, 

 yea sources of many errors in our mouths, be 

 cause we consider them only in themselves, and 

 not in connexion with other doctrines, or in the 

 proper places to which they belong in the system 

 of religion.&quot; 



Were we then, without delay, to set on foot 

 plans of universal instruction, on a rational prin 

 ciple were the young generation to be univer 

 sally trained up in rational exercises and habits 

 of reflection, first at Infant Schools, and after 

 wards at seminaries of a higher order, conducted 

 on the same intellectual principle, and this sys 

 tem of tuition continued to the age of manhood, 

 we should, ere long, behold a wonderful change 

 in the state of society, in the intelligence of the 

 Christian people, and in the illustrations of re 

 ligion which would be introduced into the pulpit. 

 We should behold thousands of intelligent wor 

 shippers crowding our religion assemblies, 

 with minds prepared .jr receiving instruction, 

 and eagerly listening to arguments and illustra 

 tions in reference to the most sublime and im 

 portant subjects. We should behold our preach 

 ers explaining the first principles of religion with 

 such clearness and energy, that they should sel 

 dom need to recur o the subject, &quot; soaring in 

 their sermons,&quot; rising into &quot; the contempla 

 tion of some lofty and rapturous objects&quot; 



displaying the majesty and supremacy of God in 



18 



the operation of his moral government among 

 the nations, descanting on his glorious ait-ibme*, 

 exhibiting his wisdom in the arrangements of na 

 ture and the movements of his providence, illus 

 trating his omnipotence and grandeur from the 

 glories of the firmament, and the magnitude of 

 the universe directing their hearers to the con 

 templation of the works of his hand as illustra 

 tions of the declarations of his word demon 

 strating the truth of revelation from its powerful 

 and beneficient effects enforcing theholytem 

 pers and the duties which religion requires from 

 every rational and scriptural motive illustrating 

 the effects of moral evil from the history of na 

 tions and the miseries in which it has involved 

 individuals and societies expatiating on schemes 

 of philanthropy for the improvement of mankind, 

 and the conversion of the heathen, and dis 

 playing the love and mercy of God towards our 

 race, and the connexions and bearings of the 

 work of redemption, in its relation to the angelic 

 tribes and other beings, and in its glorious and 

 happy consequences on unnumbered multitudes 

 of mankind, throughout the ages of eternity. 

 In such a state of Christian society we should 

 have no dull monotonous preachers, skimming 

 over the surface of an abstract subject, in a 

 twenty minutes sermon, and leaving their hear 

 ers as dull, and lifeless, and uninformed as they 

 found them ; but all our public services would be 

 conducted with life, and energy, and pathos, 

 and by men of sanctified dispositions and en 

 lightened understandings, &quot;not given to&quot; idle 

 ness and &quot; filthy lucre,&quot; but having their whole 

 faculties absorbed in the study of the word, the 

 ways, and the works of God. And, in order to 

 expand the minds of the Christian people, and 

 to prepare them for listening with intelligence to 

 such instructions, we should have Courses of 

 Lectures on Natural History, Philosophy, As 

 tronomy, and General History, attended by thou 

 sands of anxious inquirers, instead of the tens 

 which can now be induced to attend on such 

 means of instruction. For knowledge, when it 

 is clearly exhibited, and where a previous desire 

 has been excited for its acquisition, is a source 

 of enjoyment to the human mind in every stage 

 of its progress, from the years of infancy to the 

 latest period of mortal existence. 



Hf. Such a diffusion of knowledge as that tc 

 which we have now adverted, would introduce a 

 spirit of tolerance and moderation, and prevent 

 the recurrence of those persecutions for conscience* 

 sake, which have so much disgraced the world. 



It is a striking and most melancholy fact in 

 the history of man, that the most dreadful suffer 

 ings and tortures ever felt by human beings, have 

 been inflicted on account of differences of opin 

 ion respecting the dogmas and the ceremonies 

 of religion. Men have been suffered to remain 



