that not only in the heat of controversy, but in the privacy of cool and silent reflection. Nor is it more injurious to the serenity and purity of the soul, to have our passions heated in the public polemics of religion, than it is to study divine things privately under an unfavourable state of the moral feelings, from any cause whatever. If, in human science, the mere exercise of the intellectual faculties may enable a man to escape mistake and discover truth; the same means will not insure a similar issue in the investigations of religion. Here we have to contend, not only against the ordinary prejudices of education, custom, authority, interest, and connections; but against a more potent and often less suspected cause of erroneous conclusions, a deepseated aversion from the very design of real Christianity, a secret dislike of those spiritual, sublime, and holy realities which are the seminal principles of true piety. It would have been a hard task to persuade a practised slave-trader, that his lucrative employment was detestable villainy. As difficult, at least, must it be to open a way for the doctrine whose very genius is holiness, through the mists of moral prejudice, the love and retention of sin.* An "evil heart

* Ουκ ἐν τοῖς πράγμασιν, ἀλλ' ἐν ἡμῖν, τὸ ἄιτιον αυτῆς [τῆς χαλεπότητος]. Ὥσπερ γὰρ καὶ τὰ τῶν νυκτερίδων ὄμματα πρὸς τὸ φέγγος ἔχει τὸ μεθ ̓ ἡμέραν, ὅντω καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας ψυχῆς ὁ νοῦς πρὸς τὰ τῇ φύσει φανερώτατα πάντων. "The cause of the difficulty lies not in the things, but in ourselves. For as the eyes of bats to day-light, so is the human mind to objects which in their own nature are the clearest of all." Aristot. Metaph, lib. ii. cap. i.

of unbelief" denies free entrance to the light of "the truth which is according to godliness;" refuses a fair and honest consideration to its evidences; and treats it as a foe whose first approaches must be resisted, from the presentiment that, once admitted, it will grant no quarter to the corruptions of the spirit, any more than to those of the flesh, and will unsparingly "cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God."

Those who are superior to gross vices may be lying in the rivetted fetters of mental sin. Ingenious persons, addicted to reading and inquiry, but little attentive to the moral state of their affections, are in no small danger of conceiving promptly but rashly, and concluding boldly but very erroneously, on religious subjects. They are unwilling to concede that the doctrines of the gospel require, for their discovery and their reception, any thing more than speculative research. With respect even to intellectual exercises, a readiness to believe ourselves in possession of all the information requisite as data, and a confident fearlessness in regard to the conclusions which we draw, perhaps without much labour or patience, mark that pride of intellect which is often the parent of error, but is never a cordial friend to truth. If we take up our sentiments without humility, and maintain them without seriousness, they will bring us little good if even they be true; but the greater probability is that they will be

erroneous.

I would submit the question to all persons who have formed habits of self-reflection; what is the class of religious doctrines into which they are most ready to slide, when levity, selfconfidence, the opinion of superior talent, or unholy feelings of any kind, have the predominance; and what those are, on the other hand, which experience proves to be most congenial with all that is lowly, reverential, pure, and affectionate, in the spirit and practice of religion.

Upon these principles it is not difficult to account for a fact which has appeared a paradox to some, and has been a cause of stumbling to not a few. This is, that so many eminent persons in science and literature have either openly espoused the Unitarian system, or have been evidently inclined to it. Let not the serious, but inexperienced inquirer permit his judgment to be biassed, or his feelings to be dazzled, by this circumstance. Genius, high talent, and extraordinary attainment, are benefits of the same class with rank, riches, and power: each of them is a favour from Heaven, involving a greater responsibility, and capable of being applied to noble uses; but history and experience shew that each of these blessings is, in the majority of cases, perverted, so far as the moral and religious character of the possessor is concerned. The motives, which most generally are the remote causes, from which the exertions arise which earn worldly celebrity, are curiosity, the love of gra

tifying a favourite passion, a jealous sensibility to human opinion, the thirst for applause, self-confidence, and very frequently a great degree of known and cherished pride: while it is in only a few instances, compared with the general course, that those feelings are corrected and outweighed by humility and piety. Such motives and principles are not barely unsuited, not simply unfavourable, but they are positively and strongly inimical, to the acquisition of divine knowledge.* The temper of mind which it requires in its votaries, is the absolute reverse of them all; a temper of which the reverential fear of God, an implicit subjection to his authority, lowliness of spirit, and self-renunciation, are essential constituents. The reason of the case plainly shews that thus it must be; for the knowledge which

* "As spiritual pride is the worst sort of pride, so this is the worst degree of spiritual pride, when men do not acknowledge God in these things as they ought, but lean to their own understandings. To suppose that persons under the predominancy of pride, self-conceit, and self-confidence, can understand in a due manner "the mind of God," is to renounce the scripture, or innumerable positive testimonies given in them to the contrary. Principally are they exposed hereunto who, either really or in their own apprehensions, are exalted above others in secular learning, and in natural and acquired abilities. For such men are apt to think that they must needs know the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the scriptures better than others; or at least, that they can do so, if they will but set themselves about it. But that which principally hinders them from so doing, is their conceit that they so do: they mistake that for divine knowledge which is in them the great obstruction to it." Owen on Sp. Underst. chap. v.

has God and spiritual things for its immediate object, and which is God's especial and transcendent gift, can never be received aright but in the spirit of dependence and humility, the spirit which comports with the relations of creature and Creator, subject and Sovereign, offender and Judge, "less than nothing" and Boundless Supreme. The testimony of God in his word is unequivocal. In such terms as the following has he declared the eternal and unalterable law of his moral kingdom :-"Wicked men will not understand judgment; but they that seek the Lord will understand all. The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear him, and his covenant to make them know it. The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. To this man will I look, the poor and the contrite in spirit, and who trembleth at my word. I praise thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and intelligent (OUVETOV), and hast revealed them to babes! For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the intelligent I will bring to nothing. Where is the man of wisdom? Where is the man of letters? Where is the inquisitive disputant of this world? Hath not God regarded as folly the wisdom of this world? The world by wisdom knew not God."*

* Prov. xxviii. 5. Ps. xxv. 9, 14. Is. lxvi. 2. Matt. xi. 25. 1 Cor. i. 19-21. Σvšnτnrès, acutus et subtilis disputator,homo instructus subtilitate sapientiæ humanæ. Schleusner.

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