moral obligation to do their duty; then the commands of God bind bad men as well as good. Our obligation to obey God does not arise from our disposition or inclination to obey him, but from our capacity to obey him. If a man hates God, this does not destroy his obligation to love him. If a man loves sin, this does not destroy his obligation to hate it. If a man hates holiness, this does not destroy his obligation to love it. If a man is inclined to lie, this does not destroy his obligation to speak the truth. If a man has no heart to get wisdom, this does not destroy his obligation to improve the price in his hand to get it. If a man has no heart to pray, this does not destroy his obligation to pray. Christ spake a parable to this end that men ought to pray and not to faint. Let men's character be what it may, they ought always to pray. They cannot be released from this obligation. As they are capable of seeing their own wants, of feeling their own dependence, and of knowing God's all-sufficiency, they are under indispensable, moral obligation to pray for every temporal and spiritual blessing which they need. It is true, they cannot be bound to pray wickedly, which is an abomination to God. Every one must know and acknowledge what David did. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Every one knows that the want of sincerity is no excuse for hypocrisy. The vilest wretch on earth knows that his vileness does not destroy his moral obligation to. be truly virtuous and pious. The divine commands bind all men, whether righteous or wicked, to pay universal obedience to the known will of God. To tell sinners, then, that their prayers and all their conduct are an abomina tion to the Lord, does not imply that they ought not to pray, or do any other duty. It does not imply that their moral obligation to obey one of the divine commands is abated, or destroyed. Let their character and dispositions be ever so corrupt, they are still bound by divine authority to cease to do evil and learn to do well. And this turning from sin to holiness is their first duty, which they are under moral obligation to perform before they perform it; so that they have no right to say, as they often do, that those who forbid them to pray sinfully, forbid them to pray at all. For they are capable of turning from sin immediately, and their ability to turn from it, lays them under moral obligation to turn and pray immediately with holy love and submission to God. 4. Since all men are possessed of rational powers and faculties, they are all under moral obligation to believe the existence and perfections of the only living and true God. He has given them the capacity of discerning cause and effect, and of course of reasoning from cause to effect. When they look around upon the world, and the multitude of the visible objects contained in it, they are capable of seeing that they must all be the effects of some wise, powerful, and benevolent cause, who brought them out of nothing into existence. The world bears plain and incontestible evidences of the being and perfections of its Creator, which all men are capable of seeing and believing. All men in all parts of the world are capable of tracing effects to their causes, and by this mode of reasoning, of demonstrating the existence of their Maker. So the apostle expressly asserts: “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they (the heathen) are without excuse," who deny his existence. The world bears so many marks and signatures of infinite power, wisdom, and good ness, that men who possess the powers of reasoning and tracing effects to their causes, are utterly inexcusable, if they do not see and believe that it owes its existence to a wise, powerful, benevolent Cause. Voltaire and the other atheistical French philosophers were extremely criminal in denying the existence of the Creator and overnor of the world; and so are all the atheists at this day. All men in all other cases reason from effects to their causes. Who can examine any piece of machinery, without discovering the hand and the ingenuity of the artificer? But there is unspeakably more power, more wisdom, and more goodness displayed in the works of creation, than ever have been or can be displayed in the works of art. And we have higher evidence of the existence and perfections of God, than of any other existence, but our own. 5. Since men are endowed with rational powers, it is absurd for any to deny the truth and divinity of the Bible. It bears the image and superscription of the Deity. Its precepts and prohibitions, its promises and threatenings, and the wise and gracious scheme of redemption which it unfolds, all unitedly carry conviction to every man's reason and conscience, that it is the word of God and not the word of men.It must have come from God, or from false or wicked impostors.But could such men write such a book as the Bible? Or if they could, would they have written such a book? It is just such a book as mankind need, and just such a book as they might have reasonably expected God would have given them, if he had been pleased to reveal his mind and will to them. And it comes with just such credentials as are best adapted to gain belief. If men would examine this sacred volume rationally and impartially, must they not discover plain and incontestible marks of its divine original? But on the other hand, what marks can they discover of its coming from false and wicked impostors? What motives could they have in writing a book, which represents God as the greatest and best of beings, which represents good men as the excellent of the earth, and which represents bad men in the most odious colours? It becomes Deists to show themselves men, and exercise their noble rational powers in examining the authenticity and inspiration of the holy scriptures.They have no more right to disbelieve, without reason, than others have to believe, without reason.They have no right to despise and reject the Bible without reading it through, as Thomas Paine said he did, and as many other novices in infidelity probably do. The Bible claims to come from God, and men are under moral obligation to examine its claim rationally and impartially; and if they do this, we are not concerned about the consequence. 6. Since men possess rationa! and moral powers, it is absurd and criminal for any to deny the distinction between virtue and vice. This distinction is founded in the nature of things, and every man has a conscience or moral faculty, by which he is capable of seeing the distinction between right and wrong, selfishness and benevolence, virtue and vice. But this distinction has often been denied by those who discard divine Revelation. They have justified the grossest vices and immoralities, and condemned humility and other Christian graces and moral virtues, as human weaknesses. They say that what is called virtue by one nation is called vice by another, from which they pretend to conclude, that there is no essential distinction between them; but this is very superficial reasoning, because it is well known that every nation calls some things right and some things wrong, some things good and some things evil, and some things virtuous and some things vicious; which proves that all nations do in fact see and acknowledge the distinction between virtue and vice. Though they differ in respect to some particular things, yet that difference may be accounted for, by tradition, or education, or moral blindness. Some in the prophet's day were involved in such moral ignorance, that they called good evil and evil good, put darkness for light and light for darkness, and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. And this is the case in every nation at the present day.-tremely dangerous and criminal, to But yet they admire and applaud justice, honesty, and liberality; and condemn lying, stealing, murder, and other crimes and vices. To deny the distinction between virtue and vice is contrary to reason, conscience, and the common sense of all mankind, and must be owing to moral ignorance and the criminal blindness of the heart. body. But as men, they have no ground for this opinion. Their noble, moral, intellectual powers, which constitute them moral agents and accountable beings, afford them a strong presumption, that they shall continue to exist after death, and be rewarded, or punished for their deeds done in the body. It is true, indeed, this evidence of the immortality of their souls does not amount to strict demonstration, but it does amount to the highest probability, and lays them under obligation to believe their accountability and future existence, and to prepare for it. It is absurd and criminal for men to say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die and cease to exist." Reason and conscience give all men a presentiment that they shall exist in a happy or miserable state after death. It becomes them as men, who possess noble intellectual powers and faculties, to show themselves men, and duly prepare for all that awaits them in every future stage of their existence. And it must be ex 7. Since men possess rational and moral powers of mind, they have no right to disbelieve the immortality of the soul. This some of the wisest pagan philosophers denied. Even Cicero expressed his doubts whether the soul would exist after death. Most of the Deists in Europe, if not in America, are what are called mortal Deists, and maintain that the soul dies with the employ all their abilities to convince themselves and others, that they may safely live and die, like the brutes that perish. Hence, 8. This subject teaches the vast importance of self-knowledge. A pagan could say, the precept "Know thyself, came from heaven." The apostle puts the solemn question to Christians, "Know ye not your ownselves?" All men are capable of knowing their own themselves, and it must be folly and absurdity in the extreme for any men, and especially for Christians, and even for heathens to be ignorant of themselves. But no knowledge has been so much neglected, by the learned and unlearned, the wise and unwise, the great, the rich, and the prosperous, as self-knowledge. Men have been inquisitive in all ages, and spent much time, and thought, and expense, to acquire a large stock of every species of knowledge, respecting the improvements which mankind have made in arts, sciences, and literature. But while they have gained the knowledge of these things, they have been grossly ignorant of themselves.Every man carries a little world within himself, by knowing which he might know all the rest of mankind, and form a just estimate of the whole world and of all who live in it. For as in water face answereth to face, so does the heart of man to man. By knowing his own intellectual powers, a man may know the intellectual powers of all men. They all have the same mental powers, though not in the same vigour and activity. They all have the same native corruption of heart, which leads them to forget and forsake God, to pursue lying vanities, and to neglect their own eternal good and the eternal good of others. When any man becomes acquainted with his own heart, and is brought out of darkness into marvellous light, he knows more about God, about himself, about his fellowmen, about the world in which they live, the objects which they pursue, and the effects and consequences of their living here and hereafter, than he could learn by merely searching the history of the whole world. If men would only seek after self-knowledge, which is so easy to attain, it would fill their hearts with gratitude to God for making them wiser than the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven, and giving them such a noble, rational, and immortal existence; for sending his Son to save them from their guilty and lost condition; for doing them so much good, while they are evil, and abusing his fa vours; for preparing them to know, love, serve, and enjoy him forever. And at the same time, it would fill them with humiliation and selfabasement for all the injuries they have done to God, to Christ, to the holy Spirit, to saints, to sinners, and to themselves. Since you are men, why will you not seek to know and show yourselves men! 9. Since all men have rational powers and faculties, it is easy for God to give sinners a true knowledge of themselves, and humble them in the dust for living and acting as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding. It is only for God to open the eyes of their mind and turn their attention to their own powers and faculties, and their abuse of them, and it will make them appear more vile than the brutes that perish. Such a view of themselves has led many to wish that God had not made them men. And it would be infinitely better for sinners, if they were not men, if they continue to neglect to act as men, and employ all their rational powers in contending with their Maker and opposing his interests and their own forever. Be entreated then to awake from your stupidity and show yourselves men. But if you despise this admonition, God has told you, that you alone must bear the tremendous consequences. Whether sinners will hear, or forbear to hear, the text we are to remember is addressed to saints, and forbids them to be as the horse and mule, which have no understanding. If you will awake out of stupidity, God promises to guide you by his eye, and lead you to employ all your powers and faculties, gifts and graces, in promoting his glory, the good of your fellowcreatures, and your own future and eternal felicity. PHILANTHROPOS. REVIEW. ARTICLE III. A Sermon on the Doctrine of the Trinity. By E. Cornelius, pastor of the Tabernacle Church, Salem. 8vo. pp. 43. Andover, Flagg & Gould, 1826. The doctrine of the Trinity lies at the foundation of the Christian system. If this doctrine be set aside, the Covenant of Redemption, the Atonement of Christ, and the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, are excluded. The doctrine of the Trinity is very practical, as well as mysterious and sublime. It is intimately connected with our feelings and affections towards God, and with every act of our devotion and worship. A doctrine of such importance, ought to be frequently illustrated and proved, especially at this day, when so many, spoiled, as we apprehend, through philosophy and vain deceit,' discard it, and thus extinguish the glory of the gospel, and deprive the Christian of his hope for eternity. A discourse on this subject can seldom be unseasonable. But, as the subject is deep, it ought to be treated with a skilful hand, lest counsel be darkened by words without knowledge. The text, selected by Mr. C. is EPHESIANS II. 18. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. After a very suitable introduction, stating the vastness of the subject, and urging the duty of giving implicit credence to the testimony of scripture; the following natural plan of discourse, is proposed, in simple and perspicuous language: "I. What the doctrine of the Trinity is. it." After observing, under the first head, that the doctrine of the Trinity "is not that there are three supreme, independent Gods," nor that God "merely acts in three es sentially different ways, or in three prominent and peculiar relations," the former implying more, and the latter less, than is comprised in the true doctrine; Mr. C. thus states his view of the doctrine: "The doctrine teaches the FACT, That the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are the one, only living, and true God; and that there is, in the Divine Nature, or Godhead, a foundation for such a distinction, as authorizes the separate application of the personal pronouns, I, thou, and he, to each of these names; and requires Divine attributes and honours to be distinctly ascribed to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as well as to the Father." This statement of the doctrine is clear and full, and, as we think, scriptural and correct. The observations, which follow this statement, are so good a specimen of Mr. C's style, and, at the same time, so just and weighty; that we cannot forbear to quote them :"This the doctrine teaches simply as a fact; to be received, or rejected, according to the nature and degree of the evidence which is brought in support of it. The reality of such a distinction in the Godhead, is, however, as indepenbe given of it, as the reality of dent of any explanation, which may God's existence is independent of any explanation, how he exists.The credibility of a fact does not necessarily depend upon the possibility of explaining it in a satisfactory manner, but on evidence. What philosopher of modern times II. The proof of it. the properties which are called mag |