386 



CHRISTIANITY. 



*i**i- that he ha* all to learn. He takri hit lron ai experi- 

 '? er.cc offers it to him, and yield* a passive obedience tu the 

 '""' authority of thii great chool-mtstcr. It i* in hit oh- 

 (tinate adherence to the truth which hi* master hai given 

 him, that the hardihood of the philosophical character 

 begin* to appear. We tee him announce, with entire 

 confidence, both the fact and it* legitimate consequences, 

 ce him not deterred by the imgularity of his con- 

 in*, and quite unmindful of that host of antipathies 

 which the reigning ta*tc and philosophy of the time* 

 muttered up to oppose him. We see him resisting the 

 influence of every authority, but the authority of expe- 

 rience. We see that the beauty of the old system had 

 DO power to charm him from that process of investiga- 

 tion by which he destroyed it. We see him sitting upon 

 it* merit* with the teverity of a judge, unmoved by all 

 tho*e grace* of simplicity and magnificence, which the 

 sublime genius of it* inventor had thrown around it. 



161. We look upon these two constituents of the phi- 

 losophical temper, a* forming the best preparation for 

 finally terminating in the decided Christian. In appre- 

 tiating the pretensions of Christianity, there is a call both 

 upon the humility and the hardihood of every enquirer; 

 the humility which feel* its own ignorance, and submits 

 without reserve to whatever comes before it in the shape 

 of authentic and well-established evidence ; and the har- 

 dihood, which sacrifices every taste and every prejudice 

 at the shrine of conviction, which defies the scorn of a 

 pretended philosophy, which is not ashamed of a pro- 

 fession that some conceive to be degraded by the ho- 

 mage of the superstitious vulgar, which can bring down 

 its mind to the homeliness of the gospel, and renounce 

 without a sigh all that is elegant, and splendid, and fasci- 

 nating in the speculations or moralists. In attending to 

 the complexion of the Christian argument, we are widely 

 mistaken, if it is not precisely that kind of argument, 

 which will be most readily admitted by those whose 

 mind* have been trained to the soundest habits of philoso- 

 phical investigation ; and if that spirit of cautious and 

 sober- miu JeJ enquiry to which modern science stands 

 indebted for all her triumphs, is not the very identical 

 pirit which leads us to " cast down all our lofty imagi- 

 nations, and to bring every thought into the captivity 

 of the obedience of Christ." 



165. On entering into any department of enquiry, the 

 best preparation is that docility of mind which is found- 

 ed on a sense of our total ignorance of the subject ; and 

 nothing ii looked upon as more unphilosophical than 

 the temerity of that a priori spirit, which disposes many 

 to presume before they investigate. But if we admit the 

 total ignorance of man antecedent to observation, even 

 in those sciences where the objects of enquiry arc the 

 nearest and the most familiar, we will be more ready to 

 admit hit total ignorance of those subjects which are more 

 remote and more inaccessible. If caution and modesty 

 be esteemed so philosophical, even when employed in 

 that little field of investigation which comes within the 

 range of our tenses ; why should they not be esteemed 

 philosophical when employed on a subject so vast, so 

 awful, to remote from direct and personal observation, 

 a* the government of God ? There can be nothing so 

 completely above us, and beyond us, as the plans of the 

 Infinite Mn.'l, which extend to all time, and embrace all 

 worlds. There is DO subject to which the cautious and 

 humble spirit of Lord Bacon's philosophy is more ap- 

 plicable ; nor can we conceive a more glaring rebellion 

 against the authority of hi* maxim*, than for the beings 

 of a day to sit in judgment upon the Eternal, and apply 

 their paltry experience to the counsel* of his high and 



unfathomable wisdom. \Vi- Jo not speak of it as impi 

 ous ; we (peak of it as unphilosophical. We are not 

 bringing the decree* of the orthodox to bear against it ; " "~V 

 we are bringing the principles of our modern and en- 

 lightened schools. We arc applying the very same prin- 

 ciple* to a system of theism, that we would do to a 

 system of geology. Both may regale the fancy with the 

 grandeur of their contemplations ; both may receive 

 embellishment from the genius and imagination of their 

 inventors ; both may carry us along with the powers of 

 a captivating eloquence. But all this is not enough to 

 satisfy the severe and scrupulous spirit of the modern 

 philosophy. Give us facts. Give us appearances. Show 

 us how, from the experience of a life or a century, you 

 can draw a legitimate conclusion so boundless in its ex- 

 tent, and by which you propose to fix down both the 

 processes of a remote antiquity, and the endless pro- 

 gressions either of nature or of providence in future 

 ages. Are there any historical documents? Any memo- 

 rials of the experience of past times ? On a question of 

 such magnitude we would esteem the recorded observa- 

 tions of some remote ages to be peculiarly valuable, and 

 worth all the ingenuity and eloquence, which a philoso- 

 pher could bestow on the limited experience of one or 

 two generation*. A process of geology may take mil- 

 lions of years before it reaches its accomplishment. It is 

 impossible, that we can collect the law or the character of 

 this process from the experience of a single century, 

 which does not furnish us one single step in this vast and 

 immeasurable progression. We look as far as we can 

 into a distant antiquity, and take hold with avidity of 

 any authentic document, by which we can ascertain a 

 single fact to guide and to enlighten us in this interest- 

 ing speculation. The same caution is necessary in the 

 subject before us. The administration of the Supreme 

 Being is coeval with the first purposes of his uncreated 

 mind, and it points to eternity. The life of man is but 

 a point in that progress, to which we see no end, and can 

 assign no beginning. We are not able to collect the law 

 or the character of this administration from an experience 

 so momentary. We therefore cast an eye on the history 

 of past times. We examine every document which comes 

 before us. We compare all the moral phenomena, which 

 can be collected from the narrative of antiquity. We 

 seize with avidity every record of the manilestation of 

 Providence, every fact which can enlighten the ways of 

 God to man ; and we would esteem it a deviation from 

 the right spirit and temper of philosophical investigation, 

 were we to suffer the crude or fanciful speculations of 

 our own limited experience to take a precedency over 

 the authentic information of history. 



166. But this is not all. Our experience is not only 

 limited in point of time; it is also limited in point of 

 extent. To assign the character of the divine admini- 

 stration from the little that offers itself to the notice of our 

 own personal experience, would be far more absurd than 

 to infer the history and character of the kingdom from 

 the history and character of our own families. Vain is 

 the attempt to convey in language what the most power- 

 ful imagination sinks under ; how small the globe, and 

 all which it inherits, is in the immensity of creation ! 

 How humble a corner in the immeasurable fields of na- 

 ture and of providence ! If the whole visible creation 

 were to be swept away, we think of the dark and aw- 

 ful solitude which it would leave behind it in the un- 

 peopled regions of space. But to a mind that could 

 take in the whole, and throw a wide survey over the in- 

 numerable worlds which roll beyond the ken of the hu- 

 man eye, there would be no blank, and the universe of 



