394 PERFORMANCE, PERMANENCE, PERMANENT FUNDS. "perfect love that casteth out fear." But if any think they actually" do good and sin not" for days, weeks, and months together, their moral delusion is perfect, instead of their obedience to God. Ed. Theoretical, imaginary perfectionism-the want of common sense and observation; or, as a positive, the froth of human error, weakness, and depravity. [See 846, 862.] 685. PERFORMANCE, ACCOMPLISHMENT. Locke. The chief art, is to attempt but little at a time. The widest excursions of the mind are made by short flights frequently repeated. The most lofty fabrics are formed by the accumulation of simple propositions. Leave nothing unfinished. We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt. Smith, Rev. R. Improve moments. Observe opportunities. Accumulate littles. Thus may we hope to reach in some high degree the great things of knowledge and virtue. The way to accomplish great things, is habitually to be doing something. 686. PERMANENCE. Prefer that glory which endures to all eternity. Ed. Duration-the hope of the righteous and terror of the wicked. Ib. It required a world of changes and revolutions, to prepare saints for one "where change shall be no more." 687. PERMANENT FUNDS FOR WORSHIP. Burke. An insatiable ambition to extend the dominion of its bounty beyond the limits of nature, and perpetuate itself through generations of generations, as the nourisher of mankind. Ed. This "insatiable ambition," as Burke calls it, to get our names down to posterity, in connection with permanent funds to support religion, morals, and education, is a departure from apostolic and primitive Christian example; is subversive of the duty and privilege of future generations; and has been most signally rebuked by Providence, in the gradual perversion of such funds to support "another gospel which is not another," and another literature which is "philosophy, falsely so called." PERSECUTION, PERSEVERANCE, PERSONALITIES. 395 "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;" and those who will not grapple with present evils, but on the contrary, heap up funds to guard against future ones, neither obey God, nor trust his Providence. 688. PERSECUTION. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Howe, Rev. N. The way of this world is, to praise dead saints, and persecute living ones. Thacher. The converted persecutor may expect to be persecuted. The adversary, like trained blood-hounds, will pursue his refugee servants. Ed. Persecution makes martyrs of real saints, and nothingarians of false professors. [See 143, 189, 565.] 689. PERSEVERANCE OF SAINTS. Em. The first exercise of faith renders the salvation of the believer sure, in a certain way; that is, the way of perseverance in holiness. Thacher. To persevere in holiness, is to hate and avoid sin. Hence, the true doctrine of saints' perseverance cannot tend to licentiousness. Ed. Every real saint will infallibly persevere unto eternal life, because God, from eternity, determined that each one should persevere — because he gave all such to his Son, in the covenant of redemption; and keeps each one, by his power through faith, unto salvation. Saints would never persevere unto the end, without a Divine keeper. 690. PERSONALITIES. A proneness to talk of persons, rather than of things, is the mark of a narrow, superficial mind. Ed. To bear personal abuse is the cowardice of the world, the heroism of Christianity. Channing. In general, we do well to let an opponent's motives alone. We are seldom just to them. Our own motives, on such occasions, are often worse than those we assail. Besides, our business is with the arguments, not the character, of an adversary. A speech is not refuted by imputations, true or false, upon the speaker. 396 PERSPICUITY, PHILOSOPHICAL, PHILOSOPHY. 691. PERSPICUITY. Woods. Perspicuity is the most important of all the qualities of style. Ed. The love of universal truth, and practice of modesty, tend to perspicuity. Lying and boasting are apt to be wordy. Ib. If perspicuity requires painstaking in the writer, it saves ten, or perhaps a hundred times more expense and time in paper, printing, and reading what he writes. 692. PHILOSOPHICAL. No two things are alike, or, in all respects, unlike. Litchfield, Deac. 1. An ounce will bend a large beam. If any weight will bend it, an ounce will bend it some. Ed. Philosophy (of the schools) — the art of accounting for phenomena by second causes, without the operations of the first cause. A sophist, wishing to puzzle Thales, the Miletian, — one of the wise men of Greece, proposed to him, in rapid succession, the following difficult questions. The philosopher replied to them all, without the least hesitation, as follows : "What is the oldest of all things?" "God, because he always existed." "What is the most beautiful?" "The world, because it is the work of God." "What is the greatest of all things?" "Space, because it contains all that is created." "What is the quickest of all things?" "Thought, because in a moment it can fly to the end of the universe." Em. The first principle in the Newtonian philosophy is, that no material body has a tendency to move of itself, without an external cause of motion. Remove this principle, and this system falls to the ground. 693. PHILOSOPHY, MORAL AND MENTAL. Edwards. We never could have had any notion what understanding, or volition, love or hatred, are, either in created spirits or in God, if we had never experienced them in our own minds. PHILOSOPHY, PICTURES. 397 Beecher. God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam, or a balloon without gas. Philosophy triumphs over past and future evils; present evils triumph over philosophy. Em. As the eye, by which we discover external objects, seldom discovers itself, so the soul by which we discover other things, seldom turns its attention inward, to survey its own powers and faculties. This is the reason why we find it more difficult to distinguish and describe the properties of the soul, than those of the body. We know, however, that the soul has neither length, nor breadth, nor figure, nor visibility, nor any other property of matter. As the soul is all spirit, so it is all activity. Separate activity from the soul, and its existence is no longer conceivable. But, though the soul is all spirit and activity, we are conscious of having perception, reason, conscience, memory, and volition. These are the essential properties of the soul; and in these properties the essence of the soul consists. We can form no conception of the soul, as distinct from these properties, or as the foundation of them. The essential properties of the soul constitute its essence, as really as the essential properties of matter constitute the essence of matter. This is true, and acknowledged to be true, by a late celebrated author. Ed. The philosophy of mind essentially differs from the philosophy of mud; but many muddy writers mix and confound the mental with the material. [See 313, 490, 632.] 694. PHILOSOPHY, FALSELY SO CALLED. Paul. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Ed. The chief source of false and infidel philosophy, is the denial or concealment of the existence and operations of the First Cause, in accounting for physical, mental, and moral phenomena, and vainly attempting to account for them through secondary causes alone. 695. PICTURES. Thacher. Pictures, designed to represent spiritual and in 398 PILGRIMS OF NEW ENGLAND. visible objects, have done immense mischief. Modern illuminated Bibles are tending to both Popery and licentiousness. Ancient pagans represented their Venus and Cupid in a state of nudity; and modern Christians have followed their example, by portraying Biblical characters in the same style. 696. PILGRIMS OF NEW ENGLAND. Webster, Hon. D. The morning that beamed on the first night of their repose, saw the pilgrims established in their country. There were political institutions, and civil liberty, and religious worship. Poetry has fancied nothing in the wandering of heroes, so distinct and characteristic. Here was man, unprotected indeed, and unprovided for, on the shore of a rude and fearful wilderness; but it was politic, intelligent, and educated man. Everything was civilized but the physical world. Institutions, containing in substance all that ages had done for human government, were established in a forest. Cultivated mind was to act on uncultivated nature; and, more than all, a government, and a country, were to commence, with the first foundations laid under the Divine light of the Christian religion. Happy auspices of a happy futurity! Who would wish that his country's existence had otherwise begun? Who would desire the power of going back to the ages of fable? Who would wish for other emblazoning of his country's heraldry, or other ornaments of her genealogy, than to be able to say, that her first existence was with intelligence; her first breath, the inspirations of liberty; her first principle, the truth of Divine religion? (Plym. Dis. 1820.) Copp, J. A. We cannot restrain our indignation towards the government of Great Britain, under which the Puritans were not suffered one loud breathing of religious freedom; but just such an administration of intolerance was needed, to drive over to this country the choice spirits of British piety and wisdom. We wanted tried men, of stern principles, and decided virtue. It was her moral gold we wanted, and she heated the furnace and gave it to us. England expelled the Puritans, because they were too democratic for the State, and too non-conforming for the Church. These were the elements which were |