heart. There must be an honest submission of the whole man to the will of God, as holy; otherwise there will be a perpetual tendency to make the agreeable the criterion of the true, and thus to mutilate the Scriptures by forcing their meaning, or by arbitrary selection and rejection. : Besides this humble and obedient disposition is, in regard to many subjects, the indispensable introduction to that state of the inward life, which is the necessary element of spiritual apprehension. And where this is wanting, the true use of the speculative intellect will be perverted-the supernatural will be taken for the irrational-the incomprehensible will be taken as contradictory— that which was never designed to fall under the apprehension of the merely earthly understanding or of the speculative intellect, will be rejected, or arbitrarily reduced within their forms and measures-and, thus evacuated of all distinctive spiritual import, will be explained away, as metaphors, into mere moral notions. Exposed to these dangers, we find in the practical directions of the Gospel the best safeguard, and the surest grounds of successful inquiry. There is a profound and Christian wisdom in the great meditative poet of the age, directing us "To seek Those helps, for his occasions ever near, Vigils of contemplation, praise, and prayer, To him, who, SEEKING FAITH BY VIRTUE, STRIVES OF CONSCIENCE; conscience reverenced and obeyed, Such a disposition and such moral habits, free the mind from many unfriendly influences and causes of error. The causes which more than any thing else obstruct the pursuit of truth, are moral causes. The unfriendly influences which clog the free action of the mental powers, and disturb their impartial and successful direction, lie chiefly in the moral disposition and habits. This is true in every field of inquiry. "The cause of difficulty," said one of the acutest thinkers among the wise men of antiquity, when speaking of philosophical subjects, "the cause of difficulty lies not in the things, but in ourselves. For as the eyes * WORDSWORTH, Excursion. of the bat are to daylight, so is the human mind often to objects, which in their own nature are the clearest of all." The ancient philosophers were wont to require a preparatory discipline of fasting and silence, in such as desired to enter their schools, and ascend to the heights of their mysteries. While men's souls were sunken in the grossness of sensuality, or agitated by the tumults of passion, they were held entirely unfit for the contemplations of philosophy. Who can question the profound wisdom of their practical requirements? How much more, then, must we regard sensuality, passion, or any sinful habit of the soul, as unfriendly to successful inquiry into the sources of celestial truth? The awakening words of Christ can never be too often, or too solemnly, recalled to mind: "This is the condemnation, that although light hath come into the world, men have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil; for every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved; but he that doeth according to the truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." In this impressive passage may we not find the chief reason and solution of the greatest portion of the in fidelity, the skepticism, and the fatal errors, that have prevailed in Christendom? It is indeed entirely natural, that a disinclination to walk in the straight and narrow way of self-denial and holiness pointed out in the sacred word, should blind the mind to the conviction that it is the only way leading unto life, and foster a delusive confidence in a broader and more indulgent way. Where the practical requirements of religion are disliked-where its uncompromising claims upon the inward spirit and will, as well as upon the outward doings, excite repugnance-it is scarcely possible but that a powerful influence should operate to bias the mind in religious inquiries. The strong influence of the heart and the life upon the judgment and faith is seen every day, and almost every one knows it is vain to expect, that the man who is under the dominion of any vice, will be as open to arguments against it, as one who is free from the vice; he will not weigh them as fairly-he will not feel their force as strongly. "It would have been a hard task," says a recent writer, "to have persuaded a practised slave-trader [a half century ago] that his lucrative employment was detestable villany. As difficult, at least, must it be to open a way for the doctrine whose very genius is holiness, through the dark and cold mists of moral prejudice, and the love and retention of sin. An evil heart of unbelief denies free access to the light of the truth which is according to godliness, refuses a fair and honest consideration of its evidences, and treats it as a foe whose first approaches must be resisted, from a presentiment that, once admitted, it will grant no quarter to the corruptions of the spirit, any more than to those of the flesh, and will unsparingly cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God."* This principle concerning the influence of the character upon the judgment in the pursuit of truth, applies with equal and even greater strength to mental vices, such as pride, vanity, contempt for those who differ from us, and overweening confidence in ourselves. These habits of the heart may exert a more pernicious influence in blinding and misleading the mind, than grosser vices; because they are more latent, and the subject of them is less likely to have the voice of conscience loudly against him. It is easy, indeed, to determine the cast of opinions a bad man is most inclined to adopt; and easy also to decide John Pye Smith. |