obtained, are sufficient, like a few lights upon a dark and dangerous coast, to conduct him from the storms of the open sea of divine wrath into the haven of peace and security. Nor is it necessary that his conceptions of these should be so distinct, as to enable him to convey them to others in appropriate language. There are millions that are unable to define a single quality of food, or assign a reason why it should be necessary to their subsistence, who are equally supported by it, with those who have gone deepest into the philosophy of the subject. And it is the same God who operates in providence that operates in grace. Acute, extended, and accurate views are no more necessary to enjoy the blessings of the one than the other of these departments.

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A feeling of want, a perception of the sources from which a supply may be obtained, and a willingness to put forth the efforts necessary to obtain, are all that we need to ensure success in either case. excite this feeling, therefore, to hold up in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ the only source of its gratification, and to arouse men to the efforts which must be put forth to obtain, was all that the apostles attempted. We see in them none of that accuracy of statement, precision of order and arrangement, or lucid definition, that might have been expected, if the salvation of their hearers had depended upon the exactitude of their religious notions. They have no where spoken as if the saving influence was confined to a definite train of conceptions concerning the attributes of God, the plan of his government, the purposes which He conceived from everlasting concerning the events of this world or the final des tination of its swarming myriads of intelligences, nor as if any single or any series of abstractions were the necessary conductors of that influence to the human mind. No; they had broader and more impregnable positions behind which to entrench them

selves, in their assaults upon the strong holds of sin and death.

The story of the visit of God's Son to our world, of his sufferings, death, resurrection, and all the surprising events that filled up the picture, they deemed a more powerful means of assailing the understanding, conscience, and passions of human nature, than all the abstractions of which it is possible to conceive, stated with all the clearness of which the mathematics would admit. And the event proved that they judged correctly. For thousands felt the saving influence whose minds must have been in great darkness concerning the theory of religion. All they

knew was confined to the facts which the apostles proclaimed in their ears. Jesus and him crucified was the sum of their faith.

If God had intended that every erroneous view of the matter recorded at the dictation of his Spirit, should be treated with rigor, he would have chosen some means of communicating it, that would have precluded the possibility of misapprehension. He would perhaps have made a revelation of it directly to every human mind, would have repeated it in every age and language of the earth, or, by supernatural interposition, would have endued the mind with the power of intuitive certainty in all matters of religious

concernment.

The conclusion, therefore, to which we are conducted, is that the uniformity at which the gospel aims is not one of original character, nor of opinion and judgment,nor even of impression concerning every nice point revealed; but it is a uniformity of moral effect. It aims at turning all men from sin to holiness, from hatred to love, from the service of the devil to the service of God, from a life of wickedness to one of obedience and truth. It comes to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may re

ceive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ. Among those, therefore, upon whom the gospel has produced this identity of moral effect, there should be a harmony of feeling and purpose. It is utterly preposterous that they should stop to contend about differences of opinion, peculiarities of genius and constitutional character or the different modes of operating to which they give rise, or any thing else which does not amount to a denial of the authenticity of the Scriptures,their explicit statements, or their perfection as a system of faith and duty.

The cursory view which we have taken of this subject, will enable us to perceive that mistaken notions concerning the degree of uniformity which the gospel is adapted to produce, and upon which it requires us to insist, do much to excite and perpetuate those dissensions among true christians, which, for so many ages, have done discredit to the holy name by which they are called.

CHAPTER II.

Religious Philosophizing.

We are aware that our subject is conducting us through a field of discussion that may seem tedious and uninteresting. But it is only by descending to the latent causes of the present divided state of the religious world and spreading them before the view of those whose business it is to make it otherwise, that the way can be opened to a better state of things. As the same soil gives support to poisonous and nutritive plants, so religious systems and measures as different from each other as can well be conceived, will be found to derive their existence and nourishment from the same general principle. When that principle, therefore, is annihilated its dependences may be expected to disappear. And it is our own opinion (and we trust we also have the spirit of Jesus Christ,) that no permanent and healthful adjustment of our differences can take place, till we submit to the labor of examining minutely and dispassionately into the principles from which they take their rise. In this way we shall probably find means of obviating those, (and they are the most of them) which are in themselves reprehensible.

The practice of philosophizing upon religion, to the consideration of which we now come, may require a more elaborate attention than either the ability of the writer or the inclination of the reader will admit. Being, however, in our view the pregnant source of most of the evils of our present religious

condition, we see not how we can do justice to our subject in passing it over. And though the historical details, and the allusions to men and systems, which seem wholly unavoidable in doing any thing like justice to our subject, may do much to give variety and interest to a discussion naturally dry and difficult, yet, we fear they may do still more to disgust those readers with whose views or prejudices they may interfere. We must, therefore, entreat this class to hear us with patience, to judge with candor, and to remember that nothing of this kind is said which was not deemed indispensable in making the principles of our work clear, appropriate to the state of the world, and available to purposes of utility.

Our remarks upon the practice of philosophizing upon religion will be chiefly confined to the following topics-attempts to reconcile the facts of the Bible among themselves—to modify them by the other materials of our knowledge-to ascertain their import by appealing to abstract philosophy or connecting them with the metaphysics—or resting our understanding of them, not so much upon philological investigations, as upon our sense of what would be adapted to subserve the best results.