■ ■ ■ ■ ■ M • * ■ ■ ■ \ v -o ^ ^<- lV %0 X ^ <£ ktf ** V ^ - \ ?% *■• %..^ ?««V rO -o ■>* ^%. \f ,.^ S A ' % ^ £«v % %.<$ ''■ ,\^' % * 4 %. "% *%!.$ \> <\ ^0* £ Ho^ • ^ .V" # *j <5r V«fe LECTURE IV. 29 LECTURE IV. ON THE NATURE OF MAN AS A COMPOUND BEING, So then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. — Rom. vii., 25. So far, my dear young friends, we have been engaged in follow- ing out that portion of our inquiry which is essential in justifying the ways of God to man, by the exhibition of that moral standard, which he has established from the beginning. We have now to inquire why, if man has always had this standard, it has been de- serted by him 1 Heretofore we have confined our attention to the revelation of himself, which God has made to the reasoning soul of man, through his visible creation, to prove that this revelation leaves man "with- out excuse" since, as says St. Paul, " Knowing God, he worship- ped him not as God." To ascertain why he has not continued to obey the divine law, and conform to the divine standard, our attention is next to be di- rected to the examination of that most wonderful of creatures, man himself — a compound being, related by spiritual intelligence to Deity, and allied by material nature to the worm of the dust : by the spirit, capable of immortality ; by the flesh, the heir of a life so brief, that its transient period is to be compared to every thing that is most fleeting and perishable in nature : a vapor floating in the summer's sky ; a little flower, blooming in the morning, and in the evening withered and faded away ; a dew-drop sparkling on a trembling leaf; or, " as the snow falls in the river — a moment white, then gone for ever." Such are the apparently incongruous, but certainly not incompatible elements of man's compound being — not incompatible, because they do exist in most perfect union. As a preparation for a close investigation of his nature and powers, we will consult two sources, not huge volumes of scholastic meta- physics, which " lead to bewilder and dazzle to blind," but nature, with divine revelation as our interpreter, shall be our text book. We have already said that man was made in the image of God. God never having revealed any thing of himself but his attri- butes, and the finite, material form of man being altogether un- suitable for an infinite spirit, we must believe that the sense, in which we are said to have been created in his image, related solely to the resemblance between our moral qualities and his divine at- tributes ; which resemblance is manifest to reason, and asserted by revelation. Had man been a spirit, possessing no other nature but that moral nature which is derived from God, it is evident that he must have been perfectly spiritual in his will, and, consequently, by 3* SO POPULAR LECTURES. a necessity of his nature, must have been always governed by a •Conformity to the will of God. But the creature man was to be freed from this necessary conformity, therefore did his Creator cast a veil of flesh over the spirit, that it might see through a glass, darkly ; that it might exercise faith as the evidence of things not seen, hope as the foretaste of rewards promised to obedience ; and that it might learn, from experience of its own compound nature, this, the greatest of all truths : that since God is perfect in the at- tributes of spirit, wisdow, power and goodness, any possible de- parture from his will must of necessity be evil ; consequently, that freedom in the creature {if exercised) must be evil, except as it produces a willing submission to the government of God. But we must now endeavor to analyze more closely, and more philo- sophically, this subject. Man, then, as a compound being, is com- posed of two distinct principles, perceptible by comparison with other creatures, and with God himself. He stands, by his natural physical perfections, at the head of the scale of animated creatures ; by his moral nature he is separated from them. These two prin- ciples (one of which is a gift, not a creation,) are so distinct, that the first can exist and subsist without the last. The first which comes into operation, and which we propose first to examine, is the physical. By this, he is an animal com- posed of certain imperfect and corruptible elements, which tend na- turally to dissolution; but these have certain organic principles, and also certain principles derived from the senses established among them, which operate for the preservation of their con- nexion. The principles of his animal nature are the same found in other animals, and are intended for his temporal preservation and welfare. They may be classed as appetites, or physical propensi- ties, and passions ; or relative conditions of the animal nature, pro- duced by indulgence in the appetites. The appetites are two, ap- petite for food, and appetite for society. Appetite for food is the first of these organic principles. This principle is not alone good, it is absolutely necessary, and its operation commences before any other principle can be exercised. For, at the instant when, in the sacred impulse of a mother's love, she clasps her helpless infant to her bosom, warm as maternal love gushes forth the sustenance prepared by its qualities to excite the appetite of this helpless and dependent creature. This appetite for food, growing with his growth, is afterwards to stimulate him to fulfil that law of his being, in conformity with which God is said to have created Adam, '■'•because there was not a man to till the earthy And this beauti- ful adaptation of his nature to his position in creation would have continued to produce nothing but good, had not sin converted his Eden into a ivilderness, his appetites into passions, his love for God into fear, and palsied both his animal and moral energies. It is by the abuse of a good and essential principle of his nature, that LECTURE IV. 31 man converts the appetite for food, into the vices of gluttony and Epicurean sensuality. " When the child, whom scaring sounds molest, Clings close and closer to its mother's breast," There arises a delightful association in his feelings, between the presence of individuals of his own species, and personal safety ; and the agreeable association is the stimulant of a principle, which may be justly termed the social appetite, and which undoubtedly lays the foundation of domestic and social affections, and sub- sequently of social compacts, and submission to the regulations of society. These are the two appetites, for food and for con- nexion with our own species, and how fully these are partici- pated by other animals, we need not stop to observe. Out of them arises the carnal will, which is a mere moving principle, impelling the appetites to seek their gratification. If you would be strongly impressed with the nature of this principle, which we partake with the brutes, look out at the two great mastiffs, which, stimulated by appetite for food, are tearing each other to pieces for the same savory morsel. These mastiffs have a natural propensity for social intercourse, and are even seen to carry it so far as to exhibit individual attachments, and espouse each other's quarrels ; but the appetites are blind propensities, and that which is stimulated by the exciting cause being present, governs the brute and the brutal man. You all perhaps recollect the story of the lion and the little dog in the Tower. Some one visiting the grand menagerie of the Tower in London, threw a poor little dog into the cage of a fine lion, thinking to see it instantly devoured ; but, on the contrary, the lion caressed the little visiter, and seemed delight- ed with his company. Week after week they lived together in the closest friendship ; the lion never failing to spare his little favorite a portion of his food. Unfortunately, the keeper forgot to feed the lion for several days, and the prisoners were both nearly famished ; when he came, and threw in a piece of meat, the little dog sprang at and began to devour it : the lion, stimulated by hunger, seized and killed him in a moment ; when appearing to be struck with grief and remorse, he laid down, would not permit the dog to be removed, refused to be fed, and actually died of grief: thus prov- ing, in the most striking manner, the force of these two animal principles. The most brutal animals are most governed by the ap- petites for food; the noblest are most operated upon by the appetite for company. The vis inertia, or propensity to continue in our present state, is a strong physical principle of great power, but scarcely to be con- sidered as an animal principle. It belongs to the dust. Like every other principle of creation, it is good ; as a corrective of animal energy, it is good ; as a means of keeping up good habits, it is 32 POPULAR LECTURES. good ; but always evil when in excess. The passions are nothing but excessive impulses of the animal will, varied by the objects which excite them, stimulating us to violence or unlawful excess. Man is recognized by Scripture, as well as by reason, as an animal, and, as such, many terms, expressive of his nature, are applied to him. The carnal man, in which sense St. Paul says, "in me," (that is, in the flesh,) " dwelleth no good thing." The old man with his deeds — the first man — the old Adam — " natural brute beasts," — all which terms allude to the fact that, " that which is spiritual is not first," but "that which is carnal," L e., the principles of the ani- mal nature come first into operation, and it is not through these that God reveals himself to us, but through our moral nature, which he makes in his own image. Having, as the son of Sirach beautifully expresses it, " set his eye upon our hearts, that he might show us the beauty of his works." Carnal nature is not subject to a spiritual law, but only to the rule and government of the ap- petites. This composes the animal man, and it is only a superad- dition of intelligence from God, and a spark of divine wisdom, power and goodness, communicated from the Deity, that gives birth within him to a moral principle, which makes him capable of being a new creature. This superaddition of the spiritual or mo- ral principle, is what we suppose to be meant by the creation of man "in his own image;" and it includes the intellectual part, which receives not its suggestions and impulses from the senses, but merely through them ; and contemplates the visible things of the creation, not with the sense of delight which -they afford the carnal man, but, by its own faculties of reflection and attention, receiving from them impressions of the power, wisdom and goodness of their Creator. If you have now distinct impressions of what is meant by the compound nature of man, you can hardly have failed to perceive that one principle is more noble and elevated than the other ; that one is the source of pure and imperishable pleasures, the other of low and transient gratifications; that one is given for temporal purposes, and must end with them ; that the other prepares us for an imperishable state and celestial society: that "its waj T s are ways of pleasantness, its paths are paths of peace," and its end is an eternity of glory. Therefore, should any conflict arise in you between these two principles, your true interest, and your lasting and perfect happiness, will be best secured by a ready sacrifice of the carnal to the spiritual nature : of the impulses of the senses to the dictates of the understanding. To show you the possibility of so doing, I recommend to your attention the example of the Roman centurion, mentioned in the tenth chapter of the Acts. Think not, however, I mean you to infer that this principle is sufficient for your Christian character. The centurion's cultivation of it made his prayers and alms acceptable to God ; but it was still necessary LECTURE IV. 33 that he should receive that degree of spiritual grace, which is only- given by Jesus Christ ; and, therefore, we are to consider the culti- vation of the moral principle in our nature, by the study of moral philosophy, as but the preparation of the heart, the making ready a good soil, in which the seed of the word may spring up and bring forth its richest and most abundant fruit, when, by the grace of God, it is sown there. Know, then, that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, that when you have used well the original Light, " that light- eth every man which cometh into the world," as St. John affirms, that which is above the powers of your derived moral nature, God has promised to superadd, and will certainly do so for Christ's sake : but that should you despise and neglect the grace originally bestowed, by which you are naturally drawn to the congenial in- fluences of Christianity, even that which you had, "the spirit which perceives the things of the spirit," shall be taken away ; and you shall be reduced to the condition of natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, and must naturally perish in your own corruption. 1. What is man ? 2. What is he compared to ? 3. Why, if the elements of man's nature are incongruous, are they not incompatible ? 4. What is the sol? resemblance between man and God ? 5. Had man been a spirit what would have resulted? 6. Why had he an animal nature? 7. If God is perfect in wisdom and goodness, what must departure from his will be ? 8. How then can it produce good ? 9. How do we discover the compound nature of man ? 10. What does the animal nature make him ? 11. Are these two principles distinct? 12. To what does animal nature tend? 13. Are its principles dif- ferent from those of other animals ? 14. What are the first of them ? 15. What the first of the appetites ? 16. Was this at first good ? 17. How came it evil? 18. How is the social appetite developed? 19. What is the carnal will? 20. Where do we find its character illustrated ? 21. What o-overns the brute, and the brutal man ? 22. What is the story of the lion and little dog and what its moral ? 23. Which appetite governs the most brutal animals ? 24. Which does the' social appetite operate most upon ? 25. What is the vis inertia ? 26. Js it an animal principle ? 27. What is it good for ? 28. What are the passions ? 29. What do the Scriptures say of the animal nature ? 30. What do we understand by the creation of man in God's image ? 31. Does it include the intellectual part ? 32. What is the difference between them ? 33, Why is one of these principles so much more noble than the other ? 34. How' -hen is our happiness best secured ? 35. Who is a fine example to prove this ? 36. What are we taught by this example ? 37. If we cultivate our moral nature Wbti blessing may we be sure of? 38. If we despise and neglect it? 34 POPULAR LECTURES. LECTURE V. HUMAN NATURE CARNAL, PHYSICAL OR ANIMAL NATURE. The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of Got3, neither indeed can be. — Romans, viii., 7. Having ventured upon a view which simplifies all the phenomena of our physical impulses, or animal mind, so far as to class them under the two heads of " appetites" and " passions," we must exa- mine the carnal nature a little more particularly, before we ad- vance farther. By appetites, then, we mean blind animal instincts, and we have asserted these to be two — appetite for food, and appetite for society. The first will be readily admitted, and the last requires but to be examined, to be also acceded to. Ask an experienced nurse, and she will tell you, that in a few days after the birth of an evinces a preference for the nurse's lap, and, if indulged, ases to be laid even to sleep in its cradle. It becomes levoted to the nurse by preference ; and, from childhood to ?, it is observed how little the attachments of the human pear to be controlled by merit in the object, or by the re- mote interest of the subject. The mother often loves her weakliest, her least interesting child, most ; because the instinctive impulses of maternal love have been most exercised towards her most de- pendent offspring ; and all our appetites grow with exercise. It is said that seeing and fondling her infant are essential to the highest degree of this feeling, which, although the sacred source of the finest sentiments of the human soul, is originally but one modifi- cation of the social appetite, of which the white bear has, perhaps, given as strong and affecting an exhibition, as has ever been made by a human being. A missionary, says a traveller in China, told me that he found the prejudices of early education so strong, that he cculd not convince his converts that they were bound to abandon the horrid custom of exposing their infants, which in China is thought to be a duty, whenever a man has more than he can well provide for. " I went one day," said he, " to see a convert just as an infant was born. When the father was informed of the fact, he deliberately ordered that it should be exposed. In vain I reasoned, preached and en- treated ; he maintained it to be his duty ; he had ten children, and could provide for no more. Finding him immovable, I said: 1 Then / have a duty to perform too. The poor little creature must be brought here that I may baptize it.' The child was brought, and I directed the father to hold it in his arms, while I performed the ceremony. I soon saw that holding his infant, and LECTURE V. 35 looking in its face, produced a relaxation of his feelings ; and, to give natural affection time to operate, I prolonged the service as much as possible. When it was over, he said, 'Take the child to its mother ; I must do the best I can for it.' " This was a triumph of the principle of natural affection, awakened by its exercise. Those with whom we came most constantly and closely into contact in childhood, are those to whom we are most attached. The nurse and the mother, the brother and sister, have the deepest hold on our hearts ; and, in after life, if we recognize a new modifi- cation of natural affection, which we justly dignify with the name of sentiment, it is because reason and judgment approve and con- firm the kindly impulses of social feeling, while they chasten and correct their tendency to excess. The natural man then is governed, in the first instance, by two appetites: the first for nourishment, the second for social inter- course. By thejirst, life is preserved; and it is a principle which can be modified only by degrees. Without undue stimulation, it is but a lawful and useful inclination to supply the wants of exhaust- ed nature ; but, if too much pampered, it becomes the source of fatal diseases of body and mind. The social principle is even still more dangerous. In the commencement, it also is perfectly good ; but, if induged to excess, it causes great and terrible mischiefs. In this form it is called a passion. Belonging to it are all the con- comitants of love of dress, riches, desire for power, esteem, &c. These things all being, originally, only valuable as they are useful, or as tending to make us more interesting in the eyes of our fellow- creatures, if they acquire a fictitious value, it is from habit and custom, and not from any natural propensity for them. Thus, my dear children, if I am correct in my observations, and the principles I have laid down, I think you must perceive that it would be most shameful, should the gross and sensual part of your being, which is operated upon solely by appetites, govern the noble and elevated part, which is the temple that God delights to dwell in. Besides, God has said, " If any man defile the temple of God, Cwhich temple ye are,) him shall God destroy;" and it is certainly defiling your minds to give them up to the power of any sensual propensity, when God intended them to be governed by himself, through the spirit derived from him. I have now one more argument upon these general principles. We have seen that God has given us a spiritual nature, to which he has revealed himself, and that he has created in us an animal nature, to which he is not, and cannot be made known ; conse- quently, that we cannot serve him, except with the spirit ; and that necessarily, if we would please him, we must obey the spirit. But I beseech you now to meditate. Strip the appetites of all their paraphernalia, their crowns and sceptres, their wreaths and robes, which must all perish with them, and tell me in what do they end ? Is it not in the dust 1 36 POPULAR LECTURES. In vain do poets throw the prismatic halo of genius and fancy around the fate of those who sacrifice existence at the shrine of love or ambition. These principles, though they should have been refined, in the crucible of mind, from their grossest sensuality, and thus have deservedly acquired the rank of sentiments, could never deserve to be exalted to the government of our being. I would have you reflect what would be the effect upon the world, if every human being in existence would simultaneously adopt the princi- ple proposed by our philosophy, and bring the natural man wholly under the control of the spiritual man, delighting to use the senses in studying the works of God, and in imitating his divine attri- butes, by care and labor using the natural man with his animal powers, as a fine machine, for the welfare and felicity of his fellow beings. Do you not perceive how much human nature would be elevated by this destination; and how much human happiness would be increased by such a revolution in moral government ! Do you not see that earth would be heaven, and men, angels ? And is not this, I beseech you, sufficient evidence to your minds, that these are the principles which you were created to acknow- ledge, and to be governed by ! And that this is the reason why your Savior says, " Yea, why, even of yourselves, judge ye not what is right V While God commands, "Be ye holy, for I am holy:' Cultivate then, I beseech you, this glorious privilege of your being, by means of your senses ; study God in all his works, and early form the habit of associating him in all your thoughts. When the glorious sun breaks through the scattering shades of night, rousing the feathered choir to their matin song ; when the early dew of the morning hangs, like diamonds, on the opening flowers, and your awakening senses drink in deep delight, then let the thought, my Father created all these objects of delight, and placed me in this paradise of pleasure, giving me senses u to each fine impulse feelingly alive," bind closer every chord that unites you to your God. And when " still evening comes, and in her sober livery are all things clad;" when "glows the fermament with living sapphires, and Hesperus, that leads the starry host, rides brightest ; what time the moon rising in clouded majesty (apparent queen,) unveils her peerless light, and o'er the dark her silver mantle throws," then "let expressive silence muse his praise:" or when the voice of nature hushed, "the pomp of groves, and garniture of fields" gone by ; when howling blasts hurl the dead leaves in cir- cling eddies through the frosty air;" when piercing cold has driven you in closer circles round the blazing hearth, and. cheered by the glowing embers and the ruddy flame, a sympathetic smile brightens on every cheek, then, weaving your varied garlands perennial flowers, culled by the muses from fields of science, forget not, oh! forget not whose Providence has circled your lives with such an endless and intricately woven chain of ever- varying bless- LECTURE V. 37 ings! Who provided the all-pervading principle which warms your trembling limbs, and lights the hours of darkness, and bids the lamp of study glow, and cheers your social fireside ? Who shut up, unseen, unfelt, the latent heat in cold combustibles, and taught mankind to bring it forth, and guide and govern it for his own purposes, binding its terrific force with iron power, and bend- ing it to work his sovereign will 1 Who formed those noble hearts, those elevated geniuses, those penetrating intellects, those splendid imaginations, among which your youthful minds are daily feasting, as the bee amidst the flowers! Who planted the social prin- ciple which has brought you from distant regions to live in sweet communion here? Who kindles the love for knowledge, by which the brighter and brighter day of his own infinite effulgence pours in upon our raptured souls, melting them down by the warmth of his own love, and setting the indelible impress of his image upon them ? 'Tis he who says, " My child, give me thy heart," 'Tis he who says, " Wilt thou not henceforth say, 'My Father, thou art the guide of my youth.' " 1. What is meant by appetites? 2. How do we ascertain that there is a social appetite ? 3. Why does a mother love often her most uninteresting child most? 4. What is said of an infant's preferences? 5. What animal has given the strongest evidences of maternal feeling ? 6, What is the story of a missionary? 7. What does it prove? 8. To whom are we most attached in life ? 9. If this is animal feeling, what is sentiment? 10. What is the use of the appetites ? 11. When do they become mischievous? 12. What is love of dress, riches, power, esteem ? 13. What makes them valuable ? 14. Whence then their fictitious value ? 15. Should the animal nature ever govern the moral ? 16. Why is it threatened with death to defile the mind with sensual pleasures? 17. Is God revealed to the carnal nature? 18. In what do the gratifications of the appetites end ? 19. Are those to be admired who sacrifice existence to love or ambition ? 20. How should we use the animal nature ? 21. What would be the effect of our doing so? 22. Of what is this sufficient evidence ? 23. What effect should all our pleasures have ? 24. What should we never forget ? 25. Who is it says, " My child, give me thy heart ?" 26. What should we say in return ? OO POPULAR LECTURES. LECTURE VI. ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL IN THE FREE AGENCY OF MAN. His hand hath formed the crooked serpent. — Job, xxvl., 13. Oat of" the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, murders, &c. — Matthew, xv., 19. My dear young friends : You are now, I hope, prepared to see and feel the necessity for studying the Divine Being and your own nature, that you may be certain your moral standard is such as will make you pleasing in the sight of God ; since it is he alone who has the power to make you happy or miserable through time and eternity. There are two points in your duty to him, which demand to be closely studied, that they may be suitably performed ; these are— honoring and obeying him. How can you honor him, if you have false and un- worthy view r s of him 1 How can you obey him, if you do not know his will, and how can you know his will, if you have false views of his character 1 It is therefore but a just and prudent cau- tion which I would give you, never to believe any thing of God that would be contrary to the principles of moral truth and inte- grity which he has implanted in the mind of man. Understand me well, I do not mean any tiring that is mysterious, from being above the capacity of the finite creature, as of the union of body and mind, which is certainly true, and yet entirely beyond our compre- hension : but I mean any thing which involves a moral contradic- tion; for two propositions which involve a contradiction cannot both be true. It cannot be that God is perfectly good, and yet that he wills that which the imperfect goodness of human nature revolts at — that which in a man would be viewed with detestation by his fellow creatures. Could a man intentionally contrive and effect a plan for making another wicked and miserable, and leave him no escape, we should view him with inexpressible horror. God, then, since he is perfectly good, cannot have designed that any of his creatures should be wicked and miserable. If it would be detestable in man, as a sovereign, to amputate the limbs of his subjects, and then condemn them to perish for not arising and performing active duties, which in the caprice of his despotism he had assigned them, so would it be in God, to inflict upon us, even here, the torments of accusing conscience, unless we were endowed with capacity to do our duty. We cannot be guilty, unless we are free. Since, then, God has created us so that we cannot avoid believing and feeling that we are guilty, and suffering remorse for our bad actions, we dare not doubt that we are indeed free, especially as, in the Scriptures, he declares that his ways are equal to us, and our ways are unequal ; and that he would " rather LECTURE VI. 39 that the wicked should turn from his wickedness, and live." But we have sufficient evidences in the appointments of Providence, and the declarations of revelation, to satisfy us that God is good, and man, as a work of God, should also be good. How then came evil into existence? Is there any cause independent of God to which it may be attributed ? Certainly not ; such a supposition is absurd, and profane. Evil is not a principle of creation, nor any quality of created things, but a relative condition of things, arising out of the free agency of man. God created a chain of animated beings, from the doubtful toophites (which have never yet been de- termined by naturalists to belong to animal existences) up to Deity itself. Next below angelic intelligences, but destined finally to sur- pass them, is man. He obtains this pre-eminence by the knowledge of good and evil ; which is, in fact, nothing more nor less than a knowledge from experience of the essential difference between God and his creatures ; between spirit and flesh ; between moral and animal nature. "And God said, Behold, man is become as one of us, to know good from evil." A moral sentiment should unite the creature to his Creator ; which sentiment should combine reve- rence for his great power, gratitude for his great goodness, and obedience, from a rational perception of the superior knowledge which the Creator must possess, and of his disinterested desire to promote the true happiness of his creatures. God created man subject to all the laws of animal nature, and thus formed a good creation, the most perfect of animals. In this he created no evil Afterwards he communicated to him a higher and spiritual mind : here again was no created evil ; but these two were opposite, the one to the other, and then originated the evil Not that either was positively evil ; but that choosing the lower, when informed of the higher good, he was conscious of sinning against himself; and when by doing so he disobeyed the command of his Maker, he was made conscious of having sinned against him also. St. Augustine very justly observes, " Every creature of God is good, but when good things reverse their order and place, evil enters." Evil, then, is not a positive thing ; it is but a relative or privative principle. As darkness is the privative, or taking away, of light, cold the privative of heat, death the privative of life, so is evil the privative of good ; and as such it is merely permitted as a necessary constituent of a system of free agency. To understand this, we must admit that good is that principle of order and ar- rangement in the constitution of all things, by which all their parts hold their respective places, and perform their legitimate offices. The goodness of a watch is that principle of order and arrange- ment, by which all the wheels, chains and springs work together, so perfectly as to tell, without deviation, the time ; but if a spring relaxes, or a wheel starts from its place, the condition of the watch is evil, and the evil extends to all who depend upon its just per- formance of the office assigned it. The difference between moral 40 POPULAR LECTURES. and physical evil is, that one is intended to be the corrective of the other. It is by being subject to a derangement of the natural or- der of physical things, that we are made most sensible of the great wisdom and goodness displayed in the laws of physical nature. A man uses his eyes for years, and hardly ever thinks of the won- derful contrivance of vision ; but let a blow in his eye throw the parts of it into a state of derangement, and soon the anguish he suffers forces him to reflection on the wonderfully constructed in- strument of sight ; and the still more astonishing preservation of its delicate mechanism during a life of dangers. Health is the state of order in which the organized body is created to exist. When this is disturbed, or disarranged by interruption in any of the or- ganic functions, when digestion is arrested, or perspiration check- ed, or the arrangement of parts destroyed by fracture of a bone or laceration of flesh, then the condition of the body is evil ; and the evil extends by the relations of society to others. The mother is out of health, and cannot take due care of her children, and they suffer in body and mind. The father is disabled, and his family are reduced to want, &c. Love, harmony, mutual appliances and assistances are essential to the good of human society. If any of these principles of order and combination cease to operate, the condition of society, by the obstruction of good, becomes evil. In the same way are all physi- cal and all external evils to be explained, by the permission of evil, not by its decree : as the wheel starts from its place and produces disorder in the watch, although it was no part of the design of the artist that it should do so. Let us now consider, that if the attri- butes of God — wisdom, power and goodness — be perfect, then any possible deviation or departure from the will of God must be evil ; because it is a privative of the good government of God, who knows what is best for his own creatures. Freedom, then, in the creature, being the power to act contrary to the law of God, must, in its exercise, be evil ; because it must introduce disorder into the good government of the Deity. If a free agent, then, means a creature who can act in opposition to the will of the Creator, it is no derogation from the power of the Creator to say, that he could not create a free agent without the power to do evil A free agent, however, who, from experience and reflection, is brought to per- ceive the divine perfections, and voluntarily to conform his nature and conduct to them, is evidently a much more glorious creation than could have originated in any system of necessity. Omnipo- tence itself could not possibly create, by a sudden act of arbitrary power, a free agent who should, from the period of his creation, be a perfect creature. Free agency consists in a knowledge of good and evil, and a full and free choice between them. We cannot com- prehend that any abstract instruction, as to some supposable state which does not exist, could possibly inform the mind of the nature and effects of sin : they must be seen and perceived to be known LECTURE VI. 41 or chosen ; and it is the province of the moral nature to see and perceive them. It is the moral nature which, in its struggles to bring the physical nature into reasonable subjection, becomes con- vinced that God has not given it any inherent power to do so ; but that, to maintain his own sovereignty, he has promised to grant us the power " when we ask it," by bestowing his Spirit in such mea- sure as will enable us to be victorious in every conflict. He has placed so many checks and correctives around the agent, that he is enabled just to see enough to strengthen the suggestions of the moral nature and the revelations of God ; and thus to curb the im- pulses of his animal nature; but still, so few, that he has need to make a voluntary exertion of his natural powers, and call up his past experience to aid in resisting present temptations, and finally to throw himself behind the shield of faith for safety. From the existence and beautiful balance of moral and physical nature he is free ; but the Spirit of God continually suggests to him, that he should follow the moral or god-like nature, and be governed by the spiritual will. The creation of a perfection, arising out of a perfect knowledge of good and evil, must be a gradual creation. It re- quires ages of accumulated knowledge to enlighten ages of fiery probation, to purify one who is to be taught by the exercise of this double nature to discriminate and choose perfection. Personal fa- miliarity with evil renders the conscience callous ; therefore, the experience of others is the most efficient means of producing a good effect from the knowledge of good and evil, but the expe- rience of others affords no trial of virtue : — ' "He who has never known misfortune, has never known Himself, or his own weakness." It is therefore of a happy mixture of probationary trials, with knowledge derived from the experience of mankind, that the sys- tem of free agency is composed. Permit me to offer you a simple illustration of the divine government of the free agent. A cer- tain nobleman had two sons at one birth. In this he rejoiced ex- ceedingly, as he had no other children. He said, " I will bring up these my sons in all the wisdom of the law and the prophets ; I will walk before them in all righteousness as an example ; and when I am old they will return me honor and praise from men, and God will bless me with a sight of their prosperity." His sons loved the company of their good father, walked in his precepts, honored his wisdom, obeyed his commands, and were the delight of all who beheld them. Then the king heard of their virtuous education, and wrote to their father privately, " I have heard of thee and thy sons by all men's report, that there are no youths like unto thy sons ; and now, behold, I have no son, but one daughter, fair, obe- dient, and dearly beloved ; and I would have thee instruct thy sons in all things which belong to the dignitv of a prince ; and when 4* 42 POPULAR LECTURES. they are of age, thou shalt send me the most worthy, and I will give him my daughter, and exalt him to be my heir. Thou shalt not reveal to them all that I have in store for my elect son, lest thou tempt them to heartless, external conformity, which is hypo- crisy ; but thou shalt prove their spirit and truth." Then the good father sent his sons to the royal college, but told them not all the king's will concerning them. At first he heard a good report of them both ; but by-and-by the one was drawn away by the plea- sures of the wicked, and forsook his father's counsels, while the other kept his father's precepts more and more diligently, considered the folly and ingratitude of sin, and daily increased in wisdom more and more. Then the father foreknew, that he would be the king's heir; and the election being left with him, he also did predes- tinate him for the same, and continued to prepare him for that honor. Had the father possessed perfect foreknowledge, he would from the beginning have also predestinated and prepared the same son ; but perfect foreknowledge is the attribute of none but Deity. That Omnipotence could not make a free agent good or happy, without his free consent and agreement, is a proposition contained in the term free agent. Both the existence and government of a free agent require the permission of evil, and this permission is so perfectly justified, by its producing a degree of virtue which could not exist without it, that the only question left is, how is it possible for the creature to be made capable of any thing contrary to the will of its Creator ? This is only to question the power of God. The conscience he has given us testifies that he has made us so. Moral principle urges that he ought to have done so. Revelation speaks throughout, from Adam to Judas, as if it were so. Christ weeps and laments that they would not permit him to save them ; and yet you hear men say, it cannot be so — how can it be so ? I know not hovj it can be so ; neither do I know how the mustard seed grows to be a great tree, overshadowing the earth. I know not even hoio I now guide my fingers according to the dictation of my mind. To admit, then, that man is free to do goGd or evil, is to submit to the dictates of conscience, common sense, and revela- tion : to deny that he can be so, is to limit the power of God, which it little becomes our ignorance to do. Reason, conscience, and revelation, all go to prove that man is « without excuse," because he has abused his freedom ; using, in spite of prohibitions and penalties, the permission of God to do evil, rather than obeying, under the sanctions and promises of the Deity, the high and holy privilege to do good. It becomes now our object to see how this view of divine go- vernment may be made to bear upon our moral philosophy. Shall we do evil that good may come of it ! Certainly not For God forbids evil ; and, when he allows his creatures liberty to do it, he himself overrules its effects for good ; but herein we are to imitate LECTURE VI. 43 him in never exercising any government over our fellow creatures so despotically as to interfere with their free exercise of conscience ; nor should we keep any intelligent creature in such a state of igno- rance as to prevent the full growth of his moral nature ; since God himself has permitted his creatures to sin against him, and limited the exercise of his authority to making their sins subservient to his benevolent purposes for their own ultimate good and his glory. Judas was permitted to betray his Master, and Pilate to give him up to be crucified, and the Jews to crucify him, and out of their united crimes God produced the most majestic display of the triumph of his own immutable attributes. By giving up his Son into the hands of wicked men to be destroyed, he has saved a ruined world, and established an everlasting dominion of righteousness ; and, even better, he has given to every creature new means of detecting the sinful principle in his own heart, and made a way by which he may regain the purity of his moral nature, opening a living Fountain of holiness, from which every creature that lives may come and drink, and be holy as he is holy. Let us learn from this to watch continually; and, instead of being overcome of evil, let us not doubt that God, if we ask his aid, will enable us also to overcome evil by good. 1. What is the object in studying God, and ourselves ? 2. What two points are most important? 3. What should we never believe of God? 4. Are not many things of him incomprehensible, and why ? 5. What then is it we are not to believe ? 6. What should we view with horror in man ? 7. Can we believe that God would torment us with conscience, unless we were free, and possessed the power to do our duty ? 8. Do the Scriptures sustain this ? 9. If God is good, and man a creature of God, how caine evil into existence ? 10. What is evil ? 11. What is the difference between man and all other creatures ? 12. What is the natural tie between God and man ? 13. When man's animal nature was created, was it evil ? 14. When his spiritual nature was superadded was there evil in it? 15. Whence, then, the evil ? 16. What does St. Augustine say ? 17. To what, then, may evil be compared ? 18. What is good ? 19. What is'the goodness of a watch? 20. When is the condition of the watch evil ? 21. How are we made most sensible of the wisdom and goodness of the creation ? 22. Wnat is health ? 23. Is not a wound, or the breaking of a bone, positive evil ? 24. What are the moral principles of good in society ? 25. Why is departure from the will of God necessarily evil? 26. Why may we say Omnipotence could not create a free agent without the power to do evil ? 27. What is the most glorious of cre- ations"? 28. Why could not a free agent be always perfect? 29. What effect is produced by the struggles of the moral nature to govern the physical? 30. To what does this lead naturally ? 31. What continually aids the moral nature? 32. Why does it require ages to produce a perfect free agent ? 33. Of what is the system of free agency composed? 34. What is the illustration of the no- bleman and his two sons ? 35. What is a proposition contained in the term free agent? 36. What do the existence and government of a free agent require? 37. How is it justified? 38. What is then the sole question? 39. What is this to question ? 40. In spite of what proofs do men deny free agency? 41. What do they ask ? 42. Can we answer this inquiry ? 43. Why is man with- out excuse ? 44. Why then may we not do evil that good may come of it? 45. How then shall we imitate the Deity in permitting evil ? 46. What were the effects of God's permitting Judas and Pilate and the Jews to put our Sa- vior to death ? 47. What are we to learn from this? 44 POPULAR LECTURES. A TABLE EXHIBITING THE ORIGIN OP THE PASSIONS. [Referred to in Lecture VII.] #$>&$#<$# ( NATURAL MAN, } ****** Q Hearing. <#> \ <§> Seeing. <#> < or <£> Smelling.* / Animal Man. } ***£< f ^Tastin? £ XFeelins / ****;* * Appetite # for Food. ■ Habits arising from the Appetites. >******#>* Love of Riches. <* Lying. Stealing, &c. <$ * Social * Appetite. <#>Teraperance<#> * Gluttony <$> Aiu eating and* * and <£> # drinking. * * Drunkenness. * Natural Affection, * Pride, Vanir^. * Benevolence. per-<$ *ty, unlawful* <$> formance of all so-<£> love. unlaw-<#> <8>cial duties. * *ful friends'p.<#> 4>The fair and<$> #noble proge-<8> <#>ny of tempe-* France are — * *Health, * ^Strength, <8> *Comfortof * * body. * 2,Usefulness, sores of <$ ^> appetite. $> ■g>Respect of <#> men. * ^Virtues. <#> <$>Long life. Their off-< <#>spriug are a<#> Who shall number the ex-<#> *mingled * *quisite and varied pleasures-?? ■Strain of <& <$>which spring from the rich <#> *nameless & * ^fountain of social life, when * *shameful * <8>flo\vin^ only in the proper <& Prices, and * ^channels. ' * *their works,* <£> Domestic love with all its* ,0, works of f°l- <#> Ambition, * *Love of re-<#> *verenee 5 of^> *esteem, of<8> ^admiration, * Aof authority.* ^>of, & which^ charity to the poor, ^philanthropy, promoting peace j? ^and good-will among states & * ^individuals. Founding roads, * Xcanals, hospitals, agricultural ^ 4>Love of * * Dress, * * Furniture,* Equipages* HousesT * * Dancing. * Music, It "? all other $f *pleasures of^ ♦ *sense. *Companv : *Talkine,' * Flattery, ^societies. Giving to every liv- * Aing creature the means of en-* Xjoyment which God has in-* ^tended for them. These plea-* Tsures tend to everlasting life. * *Scandal, £ >«********! t Fs £ii£T | Sovy, * .g>Self-conceit. — Unlawful love. For this see tragedies, histories, romances," poetry,* *moral writers. — Unlawful friendship produces treason against state, sacrifice of integrity <£> *in promoting the interests of individuals. And all tend to the ruin of man. * **#*»********»***********»*^***************^ LECTURE VII. 45 LECTURE VIL ON THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE ANIMAL NATURE IS TO BE EXERCISED. I know, and am persuaded, that there is nothing unclean of itself. — Romans, xiv., 14. My dear children: We have stated that evil is a privative of good. Our conscious- ness of evil is the sense of some principle being absent, which is essential to our happiness or good. It is evident that this condition does not preclude the presence of some degree of good ; as we say we are cold, when there is certainly warmth in our bodies ; but so much heat has been abstracted from us as leaves us with less than our bodies require to make them comfortable. So our being hav- ing a higher and a lower nature, the moral and physical, may have all the wants of the lower or physical nature satisfied, and yet the moral nature left so deprived of its proper good, as to make our compound being miserable, from the cravings of its desires for a higher enjoyment. The senses are merely the nerves of certain organs, which serve as the medium through which we become acquainted with the existence and qualities of external things. They are doubtless intended primarily to add stimuli to the appe- tites ; and since, by the provision of Providence, the food of an infant is placed immediately within its reach, and the instinct of the mother leads her to gratify its wants, the senses, which in its helpless state might, if strong, be troublesome and injurious, are very feeble. That this is wisely directed, I would illustrate by a case which I have known, of an infant born with a disease of the nervous sys- tem. In a few days after its birth, it was observed to Taint when- ever the scent of a certain ointment was placed near it. The fact was perceived by accident, and was repeatedly proved by an en- lightened physician, who, at first, rejected the idea as contrary to nature. The senses are intended equally to subserve the purposes of the animal and moral nature. The sole difference is, that the animal man revels in the pleasures they afford, and to which they stimulate him, and satisfies himself to go no farther, until he loses his sensibility from satiety ; while the moral man enjoys the tem- perate use of the same blessings, and keeps alive his enjoyment by his temperance; making, at the same time, his animal enjoyments serve to add more zest to the better pleasures of his higher nature. The moral nature takes delight in all the gratifications of the ani- mal nature, so long as they are enjoyed in perfect subordination to its own higher pleasures. The moral nature reposes at night, with the animal nature, its exhausted faculties, and, rising refreshed, 46 POPULAR LECTURES. blesses the all-wise Creator who grants a season of repose at re- gular intervals, to body and spirit. The moral nature contemplates, as God himself does, the grateful restorations which his benevo- lence spreads upon the domestic board from day to day, and re- turns its thanks to the Giver of all good, for daily bread, both of body and spirit. The moral nature makes an acceptable offering to God, of the exquisite sense which delights in the harmonious arrangements of melodious sounds, and the fine organs which pro- duce them. The moral nature disdains not to use the mimic ails of poetry and painting to sustain the majesty of its own dominion, by their splendid and affecting exhibitions of the tremendous mis- chiefs which attend uncontrolled indulgence of the passions. The moral nature concurs in the desire for the love, esteem and respect of our fellow creatures, so long as this principle is kept in subjec- tion, and amounts only to a modest pleasure in meeting the appro- bation of the wise and virtuous, and the sympathy of the amiable. It is when the appetites pass the bounds of utility that they become vicious ; when they transcend the limits prescribed by the moral na- ture, and subvert the balance of the faculties, forcing some into excessive action, and suppressing the just action of others. That you may contemplate ambition as the first in our list of the passions, which arises out of the appetite for connexion with our <