PREFACE.

"WHEN Philosophy saw the Muses standing by Boethius in his affliction, she spoke in terms of some surprise and indignation.* In our time this indignation would have been retorted by the sisters of the song. Philosophy has appeared, not to console, but to deject. When I have read and thought deeply on the accumulated horrors, and all the gradations of wickedness and misery, through which the modern systematic philosophy of Europe has conducted her illuminated votaries, to the confines of political death and mental darkness, my mind for a space feels a convulsion, and suffers the nature of an insurrection. I look around me. I look to human actions, and to human principles. I consider again and again what is the nature and effect of learning and instruction: what is the doctrine of evidence, and the foundation

of truth. I ask myself, are all these changed? Have the moral and natural laws of God to his creatures another basis? Has the lapse of fifty years made an alteration in HIM who is declared to be THE SAME to-day, yesterday, and for ever? Can the violence, the presumption, the audacity, the arrogance, the tyranny of man, drunk with self-idolatry and temporary success, change the nature and essence of God and of his works, by calling good evil, and evil good? I am told, that human reason is nearly advanced to full perfection; I am assured that she is arrived at the haven where she would be. I again look around me. I ask, where is that haven? where is that steady gale which has conducted her? I listen, but it is to the tempest: I cast my view abroad, but the ocean is every where perturbed. I pause again. Perhaps it is the wind and storm fulfilling HIS word!'

"I resume the reflections of suffering humanity amid the wreck of intellect. This was not the ancient character of philosophy. The lovers of wisdom, in the best ages of Athens and of Rome, always discoursed with reverence and submission to the Author and Governor of the world. They considered of whom they spoke. If they turned to the origin of evil, or to any dark and unfathomable question, they

first called upon man to consider the limits of his understanding. They warned him, with most peculiar emphasis, to beware of those αλυτοι απορίαι, those difficulties of hard solution, which are but increased by defences or arguments ill constructed. They implored him affectionately to avoid all that tends to overthrow, to trouble, or disturb those principles which conduct to peace and to right action. Their advice was to strengthen the intellect, and to compose the passions, not by braving and insulting the all-powerful, all-wise, and all-merciful Creator, but by an humble, patient inquiry into his works, and by submission to his dispensations. They seemed to be well aware that, to him who understood all the bearings and relations of the word, resignation to the will of God was the whole of piety."*-Pursuits of Literature, Introd. p. xiv. See also p. 373.

66

Every man who makes use of his reason, may easily apprehend, that the general truths† of religion are the most important; that they are those of which one ought chiefly to be persuaded; and that without these general truths, the particular ones would be useless, nay, would not be so much as truths.

*See Micah vi. 8.

+"Those upon which the whole of religion is founded."

"To inquire whether there be any sacraments, or how a man can be justified, one must believe, first, that there is a God and a religion: for if I am not convinced of the existence of God, and of the truth of religion, it would signify little to me whether or not there were any sacraments; and all the time I should employ in the prosecution of this inquiry, would be lost.

"A great many Christians want instruction concerning the principles and foundations of Christianity; they do not sufficiently consider the certainty and importance of it. Their knowledge of religion does seldom go further than the particular truths of it, and does not reach the general. This is so common a fault, that it may be observed even in those whose profession it is to study religion, and teach it to others.* Some have spent the best part of their

* "A perfect divine ought not only to understand the text of the Old and New Testament so exactly as to have a clear notion of every book in general, and of the grammatical meaning of every text in particular, that so he may be able to reconcile all difficulties, and answer all objections that may arise: as also the state of the Church, as to its doctrine and discipline, in its several ages; but he ought to be thoroughly versed in all the general notions of Ethics, taken in their utmost extent, to enable him to resolve such cases of conscience as may occur with judgment and satisfaction: he ought to be master of all the topics of persuasion which can ever lie in his way, that so his exhortations may please and convince those whom he designs to persuade at the same time. Least of all, he ought to be able to answer all the objections which may be, or have been, raised against the

lives in the study of divinity, or in expounding the Scripture, who never seriously examined the arguments for the truth of Christianity, or the divinity of the Scripture. Some are masters of the principal controversies which divide Christians, who would stand mute if they were called back to the first elements of religion, and if they were to maintain against an infidel, that there is a religion, or that the christian religion is true. The people enter yet less than the divines into the examination of the general truths; and there are very few who either attend to them, or indeed believe them as they ought.

"And yet the whole of religion depends upon a firm persuasion concerning the principles of faith ; it is that which renders the particular truths effectual to salvation, and which begets piety and the love of virtue. When a man is persuaded that religion proposes nothing but what is certain, he immediately receives with reverence whatsoever it teaches; he feels an inclination in himself to observe its precepts, and he believes a judgment and another life, as if he saw them before his eyes. Such is the efficacy of a true faith, and of a steady persuasion about fundamental truths. But without this persuasion it is

doctrine and discipline of the Church, by its open or secret enemies."Wotton on Learning, pp. 364, 365.