A CALM INQUIRER, &c.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

1. It is, undoubtedly, a matter of great importance to meditate on words, whether we look to Science or to Religion. There are those significant words in Holy Writ which may be regarded as concentrating in them the great matters of Revelation; so that if they be understood, Revelation must be understood. Such words are Law, Gospel, Redemption, Justification, Sanctification, Flesh, Spirit, Death, Life, &c.-But this I pass over.

2. What a word is Existence! Various things, which I may enumerate, and then classify as I choose, have a being. I may speak of things material and spiritual, visible and invisible, tangible and intangible, organic, and inorganic living and dead. I may contemplate the little and the immense, the simple and the compound. I may look to what is near and to what is remote; and, lost in the multitude of my thoughts, I exclaim, How varied and boundless is the field of Existence !

B

3. I can shut out the world; turn inward, and meditate on another world, that microcosm Myself. I am a consciously existing being; composed of Body and Soul; of the dust of the earth, and of a divine breath. What mysteries of existence do I find in myself!

4. I have two worlds to contemplate; the objective and the subjective; the external and the internal; the Not-me and the Me. The generations of men may be viewed as a chain of living beings; in which each generation is a link, connected with the past and with the future. In this link each indvidual has a place. But the whole link, the whole generation, will soon vanish, to be followed by a successor as vanishing as itself.

5. What am I? What ought I to be? Where and what shall I be, when I leave this sublunary state? What is my condition and what is my duty here? What is the evil which I am to avoid, and what is the good which I am to seek? What is Wisdom, and what is Folly? What will be my circumstances in the unfathomable eternity that lies before me? What answer can I give to such questions?

6. I may easily bewilder myself in the mazes of speculation: but surely it is wise and prudent to seek plain and solid instruction. Shall I lean to my own understanding, and form a chart and a compass for myself, and mistake the meteor of fancy for the pole-star of the sky? Shall I listen to my

self-taught fellow-men? I feel no satisfaction here. Will God, my Maker, deign to be my Teacher? Then all my perplexity is removed, and I rejoice in the true light.

7. I possess a Book which professes to be given by divine Inspiration. I examine Evidence: I find that the claim of the book to a divine origin is firm and solid: it only remains, therefore, that I thankfully receive it, and carefully follow its instructions.

8. I may be inert; refuse to think; and allow my days to pass away; occupied only with the cares and vanities of this transient scene. Or I may rove abroad on my own wings, in the most lawless and fantastic manner. Or I may listen to human teachers, and treat as infallible oracles the sentiments of men who are as fallible as myself. Or I may attend to that book which addresses me with "Thus saith the Lord."

9. Shall I be sluggish and thoughtless in spiritual matters. This is directly opposed to common sense. Not to think and not to inquire about such things, is to sink as much as possible into a mere animal.

10. Shall I try to soar on my own wings and shape my own course? My wings, like those of Icarus, will soon be found to be feeble and unsafe, and I shall perish in some gulf or other.

11. Shall I listen to men? I will not refuse to hear the wisdom either of past ages, or of the present day but men are not infallible: I must not

surrender myself to them. Truth is the firm rock, but human opinions may be little more than sand.

12. I will assume that God has given to man a special Revelation; and then I unhesitatingly conclude, that the Truth is to be found there. As a rational or intelligent creature, I may and must use my reason. As a social creature, linked with my fellows, I may and must hear the voices of men But I must go further; I must turn to the word of God, to the true light; and there I rest.

13. I avow myself a disciple of Revelation: and then perhaps I shall hear much in some quarters about mystery, impossibility, unreasonableness, and other things, with the purpose of unsettling my faith. But, on calm reflection, I cannot think that he possesses much vigour of mind who is affected by such cavils. By what logic can it be shown, that what is mysterious is not to be believed?

14. In the natural world all is mysterious. He who does not see this to be a fact, only shows that he is a stranger to close thought. But But yet all things are here sufficiently plain for the purposes of our temporal existence. The laws of nature, as we call them, are the appointments of the Creator: we can use them: we can tell how they act, or what their effects are: but who can tell what Gravity is, or on what it depends? Still my persuasion of gravity remains firm.

15. Natural Religion is full of mystery. We may consider the perfections of God, His moral government, or the moral phenomena of the world,