EXPANSION OF INTELLECTUAL VIEWS. 



145 



naJ taken the gauge of infinite perfection ; and 

 he frets at the divine dispensations when they 

 do not exactly quadrate with his own humours 

 and selfish views. 



With regard to the operations of the Most 

 High, he also forms the most foolish, and vague, 

 and contradictory conceptions. Tell him of the 

 vast dimensions of the planetary system, of the 

 men and animals that live on the opposite side 

 of the globe, of the annual and diurnal motion 

 f the earth that this world and its inhabitants 

 are moving through the regions of space many 

 thousands of miles every hour that one of the 

 planets is so large that it would contain 1400 

 worlds as spacious as ours that another is fly 

 ing through the tracts of immensity, at the rate 

 of a hundred thousand miles in an hour and 

 that light is darted from the sun with a velocity 

 of 195,000 miles in a moment of time he will 

 stare at you with astonishment at such extrava 

 gant assertions, and will sooner believe the sto 

 ries of giants 100 feet high, and of fairies that 

 can enter in crowds through the key-hole of his 

 door. Instead of frankly acknowledging that 

 &quot; He is ignorant of such subjects, and of the . 

 grounds of such conclusions, that those who 

 have studied them with intelligence are best ca 

 pable of judging, that, if true, they must fill 

 us with admiration of the glory of God, but 

 that, as he has hitherto had no opportunity of 

 examining such matters, he must suspend his 

 assent till he inquire into the reasons which can 

 be given for such amazing deductions ;&quot; instead 

 of such concessions, which are the dictates of 

 modesty and of common sense he will tell you 

 at once, without hesitation, and without a blush 

 at his presumptuous decisions, that &quot; it is all 

 extravagance, and folly, and idle romance, con 

 trary to Scripture, and reason, and common 

 sense ;&quot; and will not hesitate to brand you as a 

 aeretic, for endeavouring to break loose his in 

 tellectual trammels ! thus tacitly declaring, that 

 he is far better qualified to pronounce a decision 

 on such topics, than all the philosophers and 

 divines, and all the brightest geniuses who have 

 appeared in the world for ages past ; though he 

 will at the same time admit, that he never gave 

 himself the trouble to examine into such mat 

 ters. 



His views of the providential dispensations of 

 God arc equally partial and distorted. If dis 

 ease, or poverty, or misfortune, happen to his 

 neighbour, especially if he had withdrawn from 

 the religious party to which he belongs, it is con 

 sidered as a penal judgment for his error and 

 ipostacy. If prosperous circumstances attend 

 iis family or his religious party, it is viewed 

 as a sign of divine approbation. He seldom 

 views the hand of God, except in uncommon oc 

 currences ; and then, he imagines that a miracle 

 is performed, and that the wheels of nature are 

 (Stopped in order to accomplish the event. He 



seldom looks beyond the precincts of his own 

 church or nation, to observe the movements of 

 the divine footsteps towards other tribes of his 

 fallen race. He overlooks the traces of divine 

 operation which are every moment to be scon 

 above and around him and yet, in the midst 

 of all such partial and contracted views, he will 

 sometimes decide on the wisdom and rectitude 

 of the ways of God, with as much confidence, as 

 if he had entered into the secret counsels of the 

 Eternal, and surveyed the whole plan of his 

 procedure. 



Such are a few prominent outlines of the cha 

 racter of thousands whose names are enrolled as 

 members of the visible church whose illiberal- 

 ity and self-conceit are owing to the contracted 

 notions they have formed of God and of religion. 

 And, surely, it must appear desirable to ever) 

 enlightened Christian, that all proper mean? 

 should be used to prevent rational immortal be 

 ings from remaining enchained in such mental 

 thraldom. 



On the other hand, the man who takes an en 

 lightened view of all the works and dispensations 

 of God, and of all the circumstances and rela 

 tions of subordinate beings, necessarily acquires 

 a nobleness and liberality of mind, and an accu 

 racy in judging of things human and divine, 

 which no other person can possess. He does 

 not hastily take up an evil report against his 

 neighbour ; for he considers how unfounded such 

 reports often are, and how much they are owin^ to 

 the insinuations of envy or of malice. And when 

 he can no longer doubt of an evil action being 

 substantiated against any one, he does not tri 

 umph over him in the language of execration ; 

 for he considers all the circumstances, relations, 

 feelings, and temptations with which he may 

 have been surrounded ; he considers, that he 

 himself is a frail sinful creature, and might pos 

 sibly have fallen in a similar way, had he been 

 placed in the same situation. He does not 

 trumpet forth the praises of a man who has per 

 formed one brilliant benevolent deed, as if he 

 were a character to be admired and eulogized 

 while the general course of his Hfe is marked 

 with vice, and an utter forgetfulness of God and 

 religion ; nor does he fix a stigma of immorality 

 upon the person who may have acted foolishly or 

 sinfully, in one or two instances, while the gene 

 ral tenor of his conduct has been marked by 

 purity and rectitude : for, in both cases, he con 

 siders, that it is not uninsulated action, but gene 

 ral habits, which determine the character of any 

 individual. He esteems the wise and the good, 

 and holds friendly intercourse with them, to 

 whatever political or religious party they belong. 

 He can bear, with affability and candour, to have 

 his opinions contradicted, and can differ from 

 his neighbour in many disputed points, while, at 

 the same time, he values and esteems him. He 

 will not brand a man as a heretic or a Deis*, 



