INTUITION PRIOR TO REASONING.

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Lavater. Intuition is the greatest, simplest, most inexhaustible gift a mortal can receive from heaven.

Pope. And reason raise o'er instinct as you can,
In this 't is God directs, in that, 't is man.

Em. We know intuitively, that the objects around us are realities, and not mere phantoms and appearances. This perception of reality, in distinction from fiction, is derived from a distinct power or faculty of the human mind. It is a capacity of having an intuitive view of truth, without a train of reasoning or reflection. If we were not endued with this sense of truth, no arguments could convince us of the real existence of external objects. This is a proper check to the power of imagination, without which it would run wild, and involve us in error, delusion, and misery.

Ib. Our idea of cause and effect is as clear and distinct as our idea of heat and cold, and is as truly correspondent to an original impression.

Ib. We intuitively know that there is no virtue or moral excellence in selfishness, which is the root and source of all natural and moral evil. And we as intuitively know, that there is no virtue or moral excellence in happiness, which is common to all irrational, as well as rational creatures.

Paul. These having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts.

Bowen. The moral law in the breast of man, is merely a revelation of the character of the Creator. It images to us the perfections of him from whom we received it. We thus obtain the idea of God's nature. [See 137.]

491. INTUITION, PRIOR TO REASONING.

Woods. The moral evidence of the being of God is very simple and direct, and the belief arising from it generally precedes any particular effort of the intellect to frame a speculative argument. "It is an established fact," says Knapp, “that all who believe in the Divine existence, are convinced of it

280

INTUITION IN EARLY INFANCY.

before they come to the knowledge of any theoretic argument by which it might be proved." (1, p. 204.)

Ib. Instruction on intellectual subjects does not originate the first intellectual acts, but presupposes them, refers to them, and makes use of them. The same is true of moral instruction. It does not originate the first moral emotions, nor communicate the first moral perceptions; but evidently proceeds on the supposition, that they have already begun to exist. We cannot prove that a little child has no moral emotions, because he is incapable of receiving instruction from human teachers. He has not yet learned the meaning of words and other signs, which must be used by teachers as the means of giving instruction. But his mind may be capable of perceptions and moral emotions; and as these perceptions are the incipient elements of knowledge, the moral emotions attending them are the incipient elements of moral character. (2, p. 308.)

492. INTUITION IN EARLY INFANCY.

Ed. We may justly conclude that intuitive knowledge commences at birth. We can conceive no other knowledge so suited to the infant state. As soon as "there is a spirit in man, the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding,” to the intent he pleases. He can write the intuitive knowledge of himself and his law upon the heart of a new-born infant, without subjecting the feeble intellect to any special or improbable effort. And if God does give new-born infants an intuitive view or impression of any truths, objects, or beings, we may justly conclude that he gives them a view of his own existence and perfections, as the basis of their original accountableness. If there is an obvious first truth, it is and must be the fact that God is- that there is a glorious First Cause of all things, possessing all conceivable perfections and prerogatives. An infant can discover this fact by intuition, at least as early as he can know his own existence by his senses. The first juvenile inquiries usually respect cause and effect, which indicates a very early view or impression of the First Cause of all things. Our original intuitive knowledge and impressions may be lost sight of,

JEALOUSY, JEWS, JOKING, JOY.

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like other species of knowledge, by reason of subsequent moral depravity. But this is no evidence that intuition is not connected with the origin of our ideas, and is not the earliest basis of accountableness. [See 465.]

Sh.

493. JEALOUSY.
Trifles, light as air,

Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.

Ed. The jealousy of King Saul toward David made several individuals and families wretched, and cost the nation of Israel much expense, and some blood. Over fourscore sacred persons perished under its rage, which continued till the death of the miserable and disobedient first king of the Hebrews. There is, perhaps, not a more striking or hateful example of ungodly jealousy on record.

494. JEWS.

J. Wolff. The total population of the Jews throughout the world, I believe to be about ten millions.

Ed. There are yet marvellous things to be effected by this remarkable people. God has not kept them a separate people so long, for nothing. The prophesies of their return to Palestine are numerous and remarkably explicit, and the event seems to be hastening to its accomplishment. Their predicted conversion to the Gospel of Christ, will be like life from the dead to Zion. The scenes predicted in Ezekiel and other prophets, subsequent to their return, will shake the earth to its centre. This dispersed and down-trodden people will soon become a conspicuous nation, whose influence will be great again upon earth.

495. JOKING.

Joking often loses a friend, but never gains an enemy.

Ed. Joke-crackers are commonly among the rattle-brained wits. Ib. Joking and jesting are prejudicial to morals and manners. They devour that seriousness which is so friendly to virtue and usefulness.

496. JOY, JOYS, JOLLITY.

There is no forbidden joy without alloy.

Ed. Jollity is a miserable species of joyfulness.

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JUDGES, JUDGMENT, JUDGMENT DAY.

Ed. The "joy of the Lord" is the believer's strength, and will soon annihilate all other joys.

Ib. The ungodly have merriment only — believers have joys. 497. JUDGES.

Ed. When public judges are fools, the heavens are incensed against the land.

Ib. The office of judge is of Divine appointment, but judges are too often self-appointed.

Ib. All judges are fools, who do not habitually fear the final Judge and judgment.

498. JUDGMENT, PENETRATION.

Judgment is the child of close observation.

Good rules cannot supply the place of good judgment. Ed. Nor good axioms and maxims, the place of common sense. Knowledge is the treasure, judgment the treasurer of a wise man. In active life, penetration and judgment are more valuable than large erudition.

Hunter. Wit is brushwood; judgment is timber. The first
makes the brightest flame, the other the most lasting heat.
Ed. United, they both heat and illumine to admiration.
Pope. 'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, but each believes his own.

Sh. O Judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

A man's judgment of others, affords him a good index of their judgment of him. [See 836.]

499. JUDGMENTS.

Cowper. When God is forgotten, his judgments are his remembrancers.

Ed. Divine judgments are phantoms in popular faith, but serious things in human experience, and infinitely more terrible still in Divine threats and predictions yet undeveloped.

500. JUDGMENT DAY.

Ed. During time, God has allowed mankind to plead their own cause, and make their own representations. The day of judgment will be his time to be heard. Preparatory to this trial, all associations among creatures will be broken up. A

new area, without the present obstructions to sight and sound, will be prepared to receive the congregated universe. Nobility, rank, caste, station, and all the favoritisms of wealth and power, will perish with the earth. Antiquity will no longer diminish, forgetfulness no longer cover faults and crimes. Every false standard will perish in the final conflagration, and the standard of eternal truth be set up as the test of moral character. All truth, all facts, will then be disclosed, that the final decisions and sentences may be made in that equity that can never be questioned. All the circumstances of the general judgment are designed to make indelible impressions. The suddenness with which it is to burst upon an unbelieving and mirthful world—the conflagration of the present material universe the appearance of the Son of God, with his angels, in the clouds of heaven - the congregation of all rational creatures, and separation of the righteous and wicked-the complete revelations of truth and facts that will ensue - the overwhelming convictions that will be fastened upon every guilty conscience -and, at last, the final decision and sentence of heaven, that will fix the eternal state of the just and unjust, all unite to make this period of the general judgment a season of the deepest interest and greatest solemnity conceivable. But what are our present feeble conceptions of it, when compared with the scene itself!

501. JUDGMENT DAY, WHY APPOINTED. Em. The great day is called "the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” The design of it is to display the rectitude of God's conduct toward both the happy and the miserable, or to make it appear to every individual person, that he has not only treated him right, but that he has treated every other rational creature in the universe right. It is only on this account, that we can see the necessity, or even propriety of a general judgment. God can make every person see and feel that he has treated him right, before the day of judgment; but he cannot make every person know and see, that he has treated all other creatures right, without calling them all together, and fully opening his conduct toward them, and their conduct toward