Volume 7. Number 9. April 5, 1830, pp. 637-646.

• Essays on Man in His Primitive State, and under the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensations.--No. XIII.: Jewish Age.--No. V. by Alexander Campbell, pp. 637-639.
• Sermons to Young Preachers.--No. IV. by Alexander Campbell, pp. 639-640.
• The Bible.--No. IV. by Philalethes, pp. 640-641.
• [Introductory Note to "The Instructions of Paternus to his Son"] by Alexander Campbell, p. 642.
• The Instructions of Paternus to his Son by [Alexander Campbell], pp. 642-644.
• Sermons to Young Preachers.--No. V. by Alexander Campbell, p. 644.
  • Conclusion of an Address from Ecclesiastes by Ecclesiastes, pp. 644-646.
• Bible Society, p. 646.

      AFTER the Jewish religion was introduced and established by Moses, there were no persons set apart to teach it or to preach it. Its genius being adapted to one nation only, and for temporary and national purposes, it looked not for proselytes beyond the commonwealth of Israel: hence it had no preachers, no proclaimers whose business it was to make proselytes. Congregations were not to assemble to hear discourses, nor was there a single missionary to go out of the precincts of the land of promise to make converts to the institutes of Moses. This is a fact of much importance, and ought to be well understood by the judaizers of this age, who are now making proselytes from among christian disciples to the law of Moses as a rule of life. No person was enjoined to take any steps to extend that religion beyond the children of the flesh of Abraham. Such as wished to become citizens of the commonwealth, and wished to be incorporated with the congregation, might, on their own application and request, be circumcised and added to the nation as proselytes. But no proselyting institution was set up by the author of that economy, nor was such a spirit cherished among the people. The priests were to officiate at the altar, to read the law, and to take care of the sacred edifice and of the autograph of the law and the constitution; so that if any difficulty should arise among the people, they were to go to the priest for the original and to seek the law at his mouth. How, then, was this religion to be perpetuated? [637] By the instrumentality of parental authority and instruction. Fathers and mothers were to teach the religion to their children. This was the statute of Moses, (Deut. iv. 9.) "Teach them your sons, and your sons' sons," chap. vi. 6. "And these words which I command you this day, shall be in your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up; and you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the posts of your house and on your gates." In this way was the religion of Moses to be perpetuated and inculcated.

      David, in the 78th Psalm, gives us the whole law concerning the Jews' religion. "Attend, my people, to my law; incline your ear to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with parables, I will utter dark sayings of old;--such as we have heard and known, which our fathers have related to us. They were not hid from their children; one generation told another the praises of the Lord, his acts of power, and the wonders which he has done. Thus he raised up a testimony in Jacob, and established a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children: that the succeeding generation, the children to be born, might know it and rise and tell the same to their children: that they might put their trust in God, and not forget the works of God, but seek diligently his commandments, that they might not be like their fathers, a perverse and rebellious generation, a generation which set not their hearts aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God."

      Parents were divinely instituted teachers of the Jews' religion. To their instrumentality was referred the continuance and the influence of this institution. The confidence in God of children was made dependent exclusively upon parental authority. No sermons nor sermonizers were known in the world for more than four thousand years of its history. The religion which God gave the Jews was written in a book. That book was copied, and read, committed to memory, and taught by all the people. It was supposed sufficiently plain and intelligible to all the people; and as the religion was designed for one nation only, it was not their duty to promulgate it abroad.

      I have been censured for teaching that the promises of this religion looked to the present life and not beyond it: for saying that its motives of obedience were drawn from temporal objects. But as I have Moses with me here, I care not for such objections. I will ask them who complain to respond to Moses, and not to me. Moses exhorts to obedience in the following strains. (Deut. vi. 3.) "Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that you may increase mightily, as the Lord God of your fathers promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey." (vi. 12) "If you keep these statutes, the Lord your God will keep his covenant with you, and the mercy which he promised your fathers." What is the covenant, and the mercy? It is this;--"He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you: he will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land; your corn, and your wine, and your oil, the increase of your kine, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which he sware to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all people; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt upon you, but will inflict them upon all who hate you." This is the whole tenor of the covenant and the mercy promised the Jews in that institution. The threats and penalties were the reverse of these blessings. Now, why is it, let me ask, that this religion, that this institution, is confounded with christianity? Why is it that it is made a rule of life, a model for christian imitation? Does not christianity propose more sublime objects of holy enterprize? Does it not furnish stronger motives, better arguments for obedience and a rule of life of higher and purer morality?

      But my present business is with the means of its propagation and the nature of the institution as contradistinguished from the Reign of Heaven. The prophets of after times, besides their exhortations to compliance with the statutes and judgments from Horeb, gave various new revelations concerning the destinies, the future destinies of Israel and the Gentiles. They added nothing to the institution, gave no, new laws, offered no comments, and made no amendments to the institution. They remonstrated against apostacy, preached reformation, and intimated judgments and calamities upon the disobedient and rebellious.

      There is a distinction of much importance to understanding aright both Testaments, which we wish here to suggest. The prophets under an economy, and the prophets of an economy are quite different characters as respects their mission and their duties. Moses was the only prophet of the economy; Isaiah, Daniel, and others prophesied under that economy, or while it was yet standing. The prophets under that economy interfered not with any item of the institution--they added nothing--they took away nothing--they warned the people of Israel of the calamities which would come upon them if they reformed not. They showed Israel their transgressions and sins against their own law, but were neither commentators nor interpreters of either the constitution or laws of Israel. They also spoke the fates and destinies of other nations, and foretold the fortunes of the Jews and Gentiles to the latest times. But as well might one call Agabus a prophet, of the New Testament, because he prophesied under this new economy, as call Daniel, Ezekiel, or Malachi prophets of the Jewish economy, because they were Jews, and lived while that economy was yet standing. The Scribes or Doctors of the Law among the Jews were first employed to write off copies of the law; from this they were called scribes. Some of them, from repeated writings of the law, became more skilful in it than others, and in process of time began to add their notes, glosses, and interpretations, and were looked up to as Doctors of the Law. These Doctors soon obtained credit with the people, and their opinions and interpretations were venerated; so that as the Doctors increased, the people became more ignorant, and the traditions of the Senior Doctors became of tantamount and ultimately of paramount authority and veneration to the text itself. But as interpreters and expounders of the law, they had no more divine authority than Adam Clarke or Thomas Scott had to undertake their ponderous and voluminous commentaries.

      They were no part of the means appointed by Moses for the perpetuation of the knowledge and meaning of the law. They were an excrescence upon his institution. It only required to be read, and parents were as competent to be [638] instructors of their offspring in the whole institution of Moses, as the most learned and skilful scribe in the family of Levi or commonwealth of Israel. Copies only were wanting, and scribes were as necessary then as printers now. But whenever the scribes became "Doctors of the Law," the people became ignorant of the laws: and so it has come to pass in every country that, in proportion as the teachers of religion have been multiplied, in the same proportion has ignorance of the sacred writings abounded. It is with learning as with wealth. A few cannot be immensely wealthy, but the many must be poor. One palace, and a thousand cabins--a few "nobles," and a "numerous rabble," constitute those societies where there are patented and privileged classes. So it is in learning sacred and common. A few trained and privileged teachers of religion have always produced an ignorant "laity." Nothing can prevent this but the illumination of the public mind upon one point--the plainness and intelligibility of the New Institution--and that men of common education, by strict attention, may be able to understand the christian facts, and teach their meaning to their own households as usefully as any one of the privileged classes.

      I have much to say upon this subject which I have not yet said; but for the present, these remarks, suggested by examining the method of perpetuating the Jews' religion, must suffice. We have seen that no order of teachers, nor expositors, sermonizers, textuaries, commentators, nor public instructors, other than readers of the law, and parents were ordained by divine authority in the former institutions, whether Jewish or Patriarchal. To conclude. The Messiah said all this in one sentence:--"The law and the prophets," (the writings of Moses and the writings of the prophets, all inspired,) "were your instructers till John the Immerser" began to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and to introduce a new economy, called emphatically the Reign of Heaven.

      The priesthood was the symbolic gospel, or the gospel under a veil in the Jewish institution. This part of the institution Paul does ample justice to in his letter to the Hebrews. They, their service, and the house in which they officiated, were the patterns of things in the heavens; but never intended to be the patterns or models of christian teachers, congregations, and meeting houses, as some have foolishly supposed.

EDITOR.      

      IT is owing to want of observation and reflection, that many grow up to manhood without any fixed principles, without any certain knowledge of men or things. We are obliged from the law of our creation at first to take every thing upon trust. This is the fate of childhood, and some never rise above it.

      The world, many think, is too old, and men have reflected so deeply on all subjects that there is nothing to be originated, and little advance to be made in any department of thought. This is a great mistake. The last four hundred years have done more, by new discoveries and inventions, to improve human circumstances, than the twelve hundred years before. There is scarcely any thing of which it can be said, This is altogether new. New combinations, and new associations of ideas, and new discoveries, are, however, incessantly obtruding themselves upon the world. Ten years now almost count a hundred in improvement, and the seventy or eighty years of man's life teem with as many new and unexpected events, as we have reason to think distinguished the seven and eight hundred years of the antediluvians.

      But in religion the most important of all objects of thought, there is nothing new, or at least there are no new discoveries to be made. All that we can discover is, how far men have corrupted Christianity; and to me the greatest wonder is, that a book so small, so simple, so perspicuous, so plain, as the New Testament, on which so many ship loads of books have been written, could have been so little understood, even by those who teach it for a lifetime.

      The first thing which a young preacher ought to consider in respect of any particular congregation which he is about to address, and, indeed, old preachers had better also attend to it, is, to ascertain the stature of the mind, or the amount of information which his audience may be supposed to possess. What foundation he has to build upon, is the first question as respects the audience, which a prudent speaker proposes to himself. And here it may be noted, and it is at all times worthy of note, how much is taken for granted by almost every preacher. It is almost universally taken for granted that the audience believe that there is a God, a Saviour, a judgment, a heaven, a hell. I do not recollect that I have heard any preacher address any congregation, who did not presume thus much upon the previous instruction of his congregation. There is more in this than I am able to unfold in half a dozen of essays of the dimensions of this paper. A few remarks I am, however, constrained to make upon this presumption.

      How, let me first ask, how is it that all preachers presume this much? The principal answer, if not the only one which can be given, is this--That in the early education of all persons born in a Christian land, these fundamental truths are planted in the minds of all. All some way know, all have some perception of those first and most fundamental truths. Hence it was that I once asserted that I did not know that the ten thousand preachers in these United States had, in ten years, converted any one individual, out and out, as some would express it. The ground was fallowed, was ploughed once before their share ever touched it. Mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, or some other benevolent being, nurse, guardian, schoolmaster, or other, had planted these seeds before the preacher ever addressed them from his sacred tub. He only harrowed the ground which they had fallowed. If he convicted his audience of guilt, it was because he had revived their early convictions: and their incongruous actions, their departure from their own concessions, and their suppressing the light which they had, were the arguments which he found available to convict them.

      'Tis because missionaries to pagan lands have not the ground thus fallowed for them, that so poor a harvest rewards their toils. I might ask some curious questions here were it in my way; such as, Why could not those who broke up the soil, who fallowed the field, have harrowed it? Or why could not those who first planted these fundamental truths in the infant mind, have also planted all the other truths of the gospel, had they been as well instructed in them, themselves? Why, in one word, could they who instructed the infants in the knowledge of those first truths, have made them equally well acquainted with all the gospel facts? Nay, let me go a little farther and ask, What in reason, in scripture, or in experience, hinders, or could hinder them being Christians themselves, to finish the converting of [639] their children, as well as the preachers. They do much the greater part who forward the work thus far. Has the Lord promised to honor the preacher more than the parent? The time will come, nor far distant is the day, when it will be acknowledged that the most puissant converting army that ever entered the field, is that composed of fathers, mothers, nurses, and schoolmasters. Whenever this secret is fully developed, then will there be a mighty breaking in upon the ranks of the adversary.

      It is always expensive keeping up a regular army, and not the best policy in times of peace. It is better to arm all the young men in the country. 'Tis better to have 600,000 militia well armed, than to have some ten or twenty thousand "regulars"--under pay too!

      I know from a little experience, and from some observation, as well as from what the Acts of the Apostles teach, that the most efficient system, ever yet adopted, was that of the founder of the christian institution of making every man and woman in the ranks a preacher in the ancient import of that term. Every church on his plan, was a theological school--every christian a missionary; and every day's behavior, a sermon, either in word or deed.

      But I am setting a bad example to young preachers. I am straying from my text. We must have preachers to introduce a better order of things. Preachers have become as necessary as prophets were in the worst times of the Jewish history. In prosperous times they needed no prophets. Had not Baal had them in hundreds, there would have been no need for Elijah, and Obadiah, and other kindred spirits. How shall we preach profitably to them unless we first form a correct view of the actual improvement, or of the real condition of our congregation?

      To begin to prove the being and perfections of God to a people who confess, acknowledge, and believe that he exists; and that his excellencies are perfect and unsearchable, appears very inconsiderate. To begin to proclaim that all men will die, and to prove it by argument, would not be more unnecessary and superfluous, than to proclaim that there will be a judgment--that there is a Saviour, and a future state of bliss and woe, to them who doubt not any of these fundamentals. It is necessary to proclaim reformation to such a people who, with all these acknowledgments, are serving diverse lusts and passions, living in malice and envy, hated and hating one another. Indeed, the more I think upon this subject, the more similarity I discover between the circumstances of the people now, as respects Christianity, and the circumstances of those as respects Judaism, in the time of John the harbinger, whom he addressed. I, therefore, think, that there is more propriety in imitating John, than at first view appears. He addressed a people acknowledging all the cardinal truths of Judaism, and we address a people acknowledging all the great cardinal facts and truths of Christianity. He proclaimed reformation; so ought we.

      Were Paul on earth now, he would proclaim reformation. He would from the acknowledgments, and from the behavior of our cotemporaries, denounce the judgments of God upon them if they reformed not. He would show them that sects, opinions, speculations, and doctrines, were not the religion of Jesus Christ, and if they reformed not, into the kingdom of glory they could not enter.

      He would also denounce the unrighteous works of Christians--their envy--their pride, and covetousness. He would find occasion to take the advice he gave to Timothy, to reprove and rebuke with all authority. He would show us that the denunciations of Jesus, in some of the seven letters to the Asiatic churches, were applicable to us. That the candlestick had actually been removed, and that darkness, gross darkness covers the minds of almost all the people. Like Greece and Rome in their glory, we have our enlightened legislators; but yet, in the affairs of the kingdom of heaven, it is dark as night, in many, in most portions of the self-ycleped reformed churches of this age.

      I hesitate not to say, that there is an alarming ignorance of the scripture, even amongst the most enlightened teachers of christianity so called. I seldom read a passage in a newspaper, in which I do not see two perversions for one right application of the scriptures. It is an awful time of darkness among the popular teachers of religion. I know what invidiousness there is in this assertion; I know how many tongues and pens it will move against me; but I cannot, I dare not conceal this conviction. I can take the most celebrated periodicals of the day, and bring proof upon proof, and adduce argument after argument to establish this assertion.

      But to you, young preachers, I would say, you must, if you would be useful, take John for a model--you must proclaim reformation--you must take the acknowledgments and practices of your congregations, as topics from which to urge reformation. You must endeavor to introduce that state of things which will make every man and woman in the christian ranks a preacher in word and deed. This is a prominent part of the reformation now needed; and it will be then, and not till then, when all the citizens of the kingdom of Heaven are citizen soldiers, that the armies of the aliens can be completely routed.

      But to give you a specimen of such addresses as those which in our time would be in accordance with the genius of John's preaching, and in reference to the public assemblies of this our age, and country, would be a desideratum to me: but such I find difficult to do on paper and in the compass of a few pages. However, something of this sort will be attempted in my next sermon to you.

      In the meantime recollect that every thing depends upon your accurate knowledge of the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and upon your forming just conceptions of the human mind, and the prejudices and prepossessions of your cotemporaries. You must know yourselves, your bibles, and the prejudices of your auditors, if you would be a successful champion in the ranks of the faithful, in the armies of the living God.

EDITOR.      

      DEAR SIR--It is very possible that there have been in use among the people called Christians, for upwards of seventeen centuries, two instruments of religious instruction, very different in their origin, character, tendency, and effects. Of these one has been devised, digested, fitted for its purpose, and transmitted to his perishing creature man, by an unerring and compassionate God. In this divine instrument there is no mistake, no misconception, no misrepresentation, no inconsistency, nothing false, nothing fictitious. In it truth, and nothing but truth, is to be found. While engaged in searching its divine contents, the honest inquirer is in no danger of imbibing error, or of swallowing falsehood. Here no poison is mixed with his spiritual food, nothing which can conduct [640] his soul to hell, while sincerely seeking here his way to heaven. And this incomparable instrument of religious instruction is no other than revelation, just as it has been arranged and worded by its unerring author, the Holy Spirit, untouched, unaltered, unmixed, uncorrupted by any debasing intermixture of human conjectures, fictions, and conceits.

      The other instrument is a human contrivance, most likely first devised and introduced among Christians by the heathen orators and Jewish priests, who at a very early period embraced the religion of Christ and corrupted it. It consists generally of some portion, more or less, of revealed truth, mixed up in a huge mass of human fables, conjectures, opinions, and fancies. In this horrid jumble of divine and human conceptions, the discordant elements are blended together in almost every possible proportion. Nor are its external forms less various than the proportions of its ingredients; sometimes it assumes the form and title of sermons, speeches, discourses, orations, arguments, lectures, commentaries, expositions, paraphrases, economies, catechisms, creeds, confessions, and whole bodies of new-fangled divinity, &c. Sometimes it appears in the shape of a pamphlet, or tract of scarcely ten pages, and anon in a folio of a thousand, and in every intermediate magnitude. But, perhaps, the most astonishing fact in its astonishing history, is, that it should, however little impregnated with divine truth, or however much crammed with human falsehood, nonsense and reverie, be termed by its inventors and patrons, God's Word, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and be almost universally preferred to that Word and Gospel, by a deluded, credulous, and unthinking multitude, who greedily devour the pernicious fiction, and defend it with all the fury of an excited bigot.

      After this general view of the nature, origin, tendency, and effects of these two instruments of religious instruction, we proceed to inquire more particularly whether that provided and sent us by God, and just as he has sent it, or that fabricated by men, and made up of the materials just mentioned, be best entitled to our confidence and employment.

      First, then, God's instrument of instruction is the only one that can be relied on as perfectly fit for its purpose. In it we are sure that there is no deficiency to be found. Its order, its connexion, its diction, its quantity, its perspicuity, are all the work of an unerring God, and therefore must be the fittest for its intended purpose possible. Its declarations are all true, whether yet accomplished or unaccomplished. Its declarations are clear, just, and beneficent. Its motives are the most interesting and powerful that the boundless wisdom of a God could make them. Its counsels, admonitions, reproofs, and threatenings, are full of wisdom, utility, and kindness--and its examples and histories are peculiarly impressive and instructive. In short, like its divine Author, it is in all respects perfect, and therefore no change can possibly be made on it without destroying, in proportion to the magnitude of that change, its fitness to accomplish its most benevolent and important purpose, to enlighten the mind, regenerate the heart, and rectify the external conduct of mankind.

      2. God's instrument of instruction is alone safe. When we resort to any human composition, written or spoken, for religious information, we are in constant and imminent danger of imbibing more or less of that soul-destroying error from which no human production is exempt. But when we consult God's word, we are absolutely certain that we can meet with nothing dangerous there--nothing to mislead or deceive us--nothing untrue--no insidious mixture of truth and falsehood--nothing pregnant with evil tendency--no mortal poison blended with our spiritual food.

      3. God's instrument of instruction is alone authorized. For the employment of any other we have neither precedent nor command within the Book of God. During the patriarchal ages we hear of no uninspired teachers, nor means of religious instruction, but the inspired declaration of an unerring and omniscient God. During the Mosaic institution, before its gross corruption after the Captivity, God employed none but his own inspired teachers, nor means of religious information but his own inspired word. The prophets who addressed the people in the name of Jehovah, delivered his messages in the very words in which they were communicated to them by the Inspiring Spirit: and the Priests and Levites, who were constituted the national instructors, in conformity to God's express command, (see Deut. xxxi. 11, 28.) read for their instruction the written law in the hearing of all Israel. Josiah pursues the same prescribed mode of instruction, 2 Kings xxiii. 3. and Ezra follows in his steps, Nehem. viii. 3, 8. translating the original Hebrew, which few of his hearers understood, into Chaldee, which from their long residence at Babylon, had become in a manner their vernacular tongue; and we find the same mode of instruction still in use among the Jews, and among christians even in the time of Christ and his Apostles, (Acts xv. 21. xiii. 15. Eph. 3. 4. Col. iv. 16. Thess. v. 27. Rev. i. 3.) although after the Captivity, uninspired men had arrogated to themselves the honor, functions, and authority of God's inspired instructors, and employed their own crude, pernicious and unauthorized institutions and notions for the edification of the people, a fatal innovation to the Jewish nation. For their uninspired teachers, presuming to comment on, and explain the passages of scripture that related to the Messiah's person, character, and kingdom, mistook their meaning, deceived and misled the ignorant multitude, and by inducing them to form false notions of his character and office, led them to reject him when he appeared among them, (from this awful fact, let commentators, expositors, explainers--in short, intermeddlers with God's word, of every name, receive warning, and learn modesty and wisdom.) Nor under his new institution did God intrust the religious instruction of his perishing creatures to any but men rendered infallible by the gifts of his spirit, till he had caused an inspired system of religious information to be committed to writing, and so rendered permanent, uniform, and transmissible to all parts of the world and to all generations of men: a device by which, as we shall soon see, the continuance of immediately inspired instructors became unnecessary. As, then, we have no precedent to authorize us to employ any other instrument of religious instruction than that which God has himself directly furnished us; so we have no command. He whom God commissions to teach, speaks or relates God's own words, not man's--John iii. 34. and men are every where commanded to read, meditate, and search the scriptures, hear what the Spirit says to them, and earnestly desire the unadulterated milk of God's word; but no where, to the best of my knowledge, are they commanded to listen to the speeches or read the writings of uninspired mortals, in order to gain religious knowledge. This seems to be [641] entirely a human invention, and a most dangerous one.

      4. God's instrument secures to inspired instruction both perpetuity and uniformity. By this glorious contrivance the instruction offered to God's ignorant creatures is, in respect of certainty and substance, the same in all places, and at all times. To past generations it has spoken the same inspired language and presented the same inspired ideas which it addresses and exhibits to the present race, and to future generations it will present no variation. Like its unchangeable author, it is the same to-day, yesterday, and forever. Here the never changing nature of God shines forth in all its unclouded majesty. How unlike that discordant and ever changing instrument of religious instruction invented by men.

      5. It displays the uniformity of the divine conduct towards all God's rational offspring. The great Common Parent has not allowed to one portion of his human family all the certainty of inspired instruction, and the advantages of inspired instructors, and to another all the uncertainty of uninspired harangues, and all the danger which necessarily attends the employment of uninspired teachers. No, he feeds the first rational production of his wisdom, power, and goodness upon earth, with the same inspired intellectual food, which he provides, prepares, and presents to the last men of the race, and to every intermediate member. He commands not his children to sit down at tables so different, and partake of nourishment so very dissimilar as inspired and uninspired instruction is. But with the same inspired knowledge of himself, the only true God, and of Jesus Christ, his glorious commissioner to our guilty and ruined race, he uniformly offers to feed and feast, delight and ravish every member of it. In his instrument of instruction are no different conflicting, confounding, separating, and dividing creeds, confessions, formulas of worship, or terms of communion; no different catechisms, sermons, commentaries, expositions, or blotted bodies of human divinity; no different marks externally imposed on Christ's property, nor different elements required in the constitution of a christian. These motley, incongruous, discordant inventions, are left to decorate and commend the instrument of religious instruction contrived by bungling man.

      6. It qualifies, or rather puts it in the power of the saints to execute the office, and discharge the great and difficult trust devolved on them. Dan. vii. 18, 22. Eph. iv. 12. Tim. ii. 2. From these passages it is manifest that the saints are charged with the work or labor, called the service, and the building up of the body of Christ, language which figuratively denotes the further instruction of converts already made, and the augmentation of their number. Now who are the saints and faithful men, on whom this great, important, and honorable labor is devolved? Are they not the human beings, who, through the operation of the Divine Word and Spirit on their minds, have set themselves apart to the service of their God?--And is not every believer one of this happy and honorable number? Is not every believer equally a member of this blessed society? equally entitled to all its privileges, and equally bound to perform all its duties? Has Christ made odious and offensive distinctions among his friends? Is not each dear and acceptable to him in proportion to the zeal which he manifests in his Master's service? Is Christ's family the theatre of a senseless and unjust favoritism? Has he conferred any privilege, or imposed any duty on one believer, which he has not conferred and imposed on all? (I speak now of ordinary believers, not of inspired or gifted men, whose offices were arranged according to the gifts which they had received, and by which they were immediately and infallibly qualified for the performance of the several extraordinary functions which the prosperity of the christian community in its infant state required.) But if the privileges and duties of all uninspired believers be the same in kind, then it follows as a necessary consequence, that a share proportioned to ability and opportunity of the work called the service, and the edification of the body of Christ, is assigned to every believer, &c. &c.

PHILALETHES.      

      THE following instructions from a father to a son, I committed to memory when a child.--Whether owing to early prejudices, or to more mature reflections I will not say; but I have always thought it, and do still think it, one of the best pieces of the kind I have ever read. Finding it of some use to myself even in riper years, I have, for the salve of others, thought it deserved to be snatched from forgetfulness, and to have a chance of living at least another generation. If it will prove as instructive to youth as I think it did to me, I will require no apology to either parents or children for presenting it in the last volume of this work. Though I was compelled to commit it to memory, as I was many fine pieces of prose and verse, I have found it a pleasing theme of reflection; and, indeed, many pieces which cost me some tears at school, have many a time since furnished me both instruction and joy at the recollection of them. This in prose, and Gray's Elegy in verse, were, I think now, as I thought then, the two best selections out of some hundred which a father, solicitous for my improvement, made a part of my task at school. For in those days it was usual to commit and recite some of the finest pieces of prose and verse as a regular part of education, during the whole course of academic instruction.

ED. C. B.      

      PATERNUS lived about two hundred years ago, he had but one son, whom he educated himself in his own house. As they were sitting together in the garden, when the child was ten years old, Paternus thus spoke to him:

      The little time you have been in the world my child, you have spent wholly with me; and my love and tenderness to you, have made you look upon me as your only friend and benefactor, and the cause of all the comfort and pleasure that you enjoy. Your heart I know would be ready to break with grief if you thought this would be the last day that I should live with you.

      My child, you think yourself very happy because you have hold of my hand; but you are now in the hands and under the tender care of a much greater father and friend than I am, whose love to you far exceeds mine, and from whom you receive such blessings as no mortal can give.

      That God whom you have seen me daily worship; whom I daily call upon to bless both you and me, and all mankind; whose wonderous acts are recorded in those scriptures which you constantly read; that God who created the heavens and the earth; who brought a flood upon the old world; who saved Noah in the ark; who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; whom Job blessed and praised in the greatest afflictions; who delivered the Israelites out of the hands of [642] the Egyptians; who was the protector of righteous Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and holy Daniel; who sent so many prophets into the world; who sent his Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind; this God, who has done all these great things; who has created so many millions of men, who lived and died before you were born, with whom the spirits of good men that are departed this life now live, whom infinite numbers of angels now worship in heaven; this great God, who is the creator of worlds, of angels, and of men, is your loving Father and friend, your good creator and nourisher, from whom, and not from me, you received your being ten years ago, at the time that I planted that little tender elm which you there see.

      I myself am not half the age of this shady oak under which we sit; many of our fathers have sat under its boughs, we have all of us called it ours in our turn, though it stands, and drops its masters as it drops its leaves.

      You see, my son, this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the Sun and Moon, and all the stars appear in their turns. If you were to be carried up to any of these bodies, at this distance from us, you would still discover others as much above you, as the stars that you see here are above the earth: were you to go up or down, east or west, north or south, you would find the same height, without any top, and the same depth, without any bottom. And yet, my child, so great is God, that all these bodies added together, are but as a grain of sand in his sight; and yet you are as much the care of this great God, and Father of all worlds, and all spirits, as if he had no son but you, or as if there were no creature for him to love and protect but you alone. He numbers the hairs of your head, watches over you sleeping and waking, and has preserved you from a thousand dangers, which neither you nor I know any thing of.

      How poor my power is, and how little I am able to do for you, you have often seen. Your late sickness has shown you how little I could do for you in that state; and the frequent pains in your head are plain proofs, that I have no power to remove them. I can bring you food and medicines, but have no power to turn them into your relief and nourishment; it is God alone that can do this for you. Therefore, my child, fear, worship, and love God; your eyes, indeed, cannot yet see him, but every thing you see, are so many marks of his power and presence, and he is nearer to you, than any thing you can perceive. Take him for your Lord, and Father, and Friend; look up to him as the fountain and cause of all the good that you have received, through my hands, and reverence me only as the bearer and messenger of God's good things to you; and he that blessed my father before I was born, will bless you when I am dead.

      Your youth and tender mind are only yet acquainted with my family, and therefore you think there is no happiness out of it. But, my child, you belong to a much greater family than mine; you are a younger member of this Almighty Father of all nations, who has created infinite orders of angels, and numberless generations of men to be fellow-members of one and the same society in Heaven. You do well to reverence and obey my authority, because God has given me power over you, to bring you up in his fear, and to do for you as the Holy Fathers, recorded in scripture, did for their children, who are now in rest and peace with God.

      I shall, in a short time die, and leave you to God, and yourself; and I trust in God that I shall go to his Son Jesus Christ, and live among Patriarchs and Prophets, Saints and Martyrs, where I shall hope for your arrival at the same place.

      Therefore, my child, meditate upon these great things, and your soul will soon grow great and noble, by so meditating upon them. Let your thoughts often leave these gardens, these fields and farms, to contemplate upon God and Heaven, and upon Angels and the spirits of good men living in light and glory.

      As you have been used to look to me in all your doings, and have been afraid to do anything, unless you first knew my will; so let it now be a rule of your life, to look up to God in all your actions, to do every thing in his fear, and to abstain from every thing that is not according to his will. Keep him always in your mind, teach your thoughts to reverence him in every place, for there is no place where he is not.

      God keeps a book of remembrance, wherein all the actions of all men are written: your name is there my child, and when you die, this book will be laid open before men and angels; and accordingly as your actions shall be there found you will either be received to the happiness of these holy men who have died before you, or be turned away amongst wicked spirits, that are never to see God any more. Never forget this book, my son, for it is written, it must be opened, you must see it, and you must be tried by it; strive therefore to fill it with your good deeds, that the hand-writing of God may not appear against you.

      God, my child, is all love, and wisdom, and goodness; and every thing that he has made, and every action that he does, is the effect of them all; therefore you cannot please God, but so far as you strive to walk in love, wisdom and goodness. As all wisdom, love, and goodness, proceed from God; so nothing but love, wisdom, and goodness, lead to God. When you love that which God loves, you act with him, you join yourself to him, and when you love what he dislikes, then you oppose him and separate yourself from him. This is the true and right way; think what God loves, and do you love it with all your heart.

      First of all, my child, worship and adore God with humility; think of him magnificently, speak of him reverently, magnify his providence, adore his power, frequent his service, and pray to him constantly and ardently.

      Next to this, love your neighbor, which is all mankind, with such tenderness and affection as you love yourself. Think how God loves all mankind, how merciful he is to them, how tender he is of them, how carefully he preserves them, and then strive to love the world as God loves it. God would have all men to be happy therefore do you desire, and will the same. All men are great instances of divine love, therefore let all men instance your love.

      But above all, my son, mark this, never do any thing through strife, or envy, or emulation, or vainglory; never do any thing to order to excel other people, but in order to praise God, and because it is his will that you should do every thing in the best manner you can; for if it be once a pleasure to you to excel other people, it will, by degrees, be a pleasure to you not to see other people so good as yourself. Banish, therefore, every thought of self-pride, and self-distinction, and accustom yourself to rejoice in all the excellencies and perfections of your fellow-creatures; and be as glad to see any of their good actions as your own. For as God is as well [643] pleased with their well doings, as with yours; so you ought to desire that every thing that is wise, and holy, and good, may be performed in as high a manner, by other people, as by yourself. Let this, therefore, be your only motive and spur to all good actions, honest industry and business, to do every thing in as perfect a manner as you can, for this only reason, because it is pleasing to God, who desires your perfection, and writes all your actions in a book.

      When I am dead, my son, you will be master of all my estate, which will be a great deal more than the necessities of one family require.--Therefore as you are to be charitable to the souls of men, and to wish them the same happiness with yourself in Heaven; so be charitable to their bodies; endeavor to make them as happy as you can upon earth. As God has created all things for the, common good of all men; so let that part of them, which is fallen to your share, be employed as God would have all to be employed for the common good of all. Do good, my son, first of all to those that most deserve it; but remember to do good to all. The greatest sinners receive daily instances of God's goodness towards them; he nourishes and preserves them, that they may repent and return to him; do you, therefore, imitate God, and think no man too bad to receive your relief and kindness, when you see that he wants it.

      I am teaching you Latin and Greek, that at proper times you may look into the history of past ages, and learn the methods of God's providence over the world. That, reading the writings of the ancient sages, you may see how wisdom and virtue have been the praise of great men of all ages, and fortify your mind by their wise sayings.

      Let truth and plainness, therefore, be the only ornament of your language, and study nothing but how to think of all things, as they deserve, to choose every thing that is best, to live according to reason and order, and to act, in every part of your life, in conformity to the will of God. Study how to fill your heart full of love to God, and love to your neighbor. As true religion teaches us to be governed by right reason; so it loves and requires great plainness and simplicity of life. Therefore avoid all superfluous show of finery and equipage; don't consider what your estate can afford, but what right reason requires. Let your dress be sober, clean, and modest: not to set off the beauty of your person, but to declare the sobriety of your mind, that your outward garment may resemble the inward plainness and simplicity of your heart. For it is highly reasonable, that you should be one man, all of a piece, and appear outwardly such as you are inwardly.

      As to your meat and drink, in them observe the highest rules of Christian temperance and sobriety; consider your body only as the servant of your soul: and only so nourish it, as it may best perform an humble and obedient service to the latter.

      But, my son, observe this as a most principal thing, of which I shall remind you as long as I live with you. Hate and despise all human glory, for it is nothing else but human folly: it is the greatest snare and the greatest betrayer that you can possibly admit into your heart. Love humility in all its instances--practise it in all its parts, for it is the noblest state of the soul of man--it will set your heart and affections right towards God, and fill you with every temper that is tender and affectionate towards him. Let everyday, therefore, be a day of humility--condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow creatures--cover their frailties--love their excellencies--encourage their virtues--relieve their wants--rejoice in their prosperity--compassionate their distress--receive their friendship--overlook their unkindness, and condescend to do the lowest offices to the lowest of mankind. Aspire after nothing but your own improvement and perfection, and have no ambition but to do every thing in so reasonable and religious a manner, that you may be glad that God is everywhere present, and observes all your actions.

      The greatest trial of humility is an humble behavior towards your equals in age, estate, and condition of life. Therefore, be careful of all the motions of your heart towards these people; let all your behavior towards them be governed by unfeigned love. Have no desire to put any of your equals below you, nor any anger at those that would put themselves above you. If they are proud they are ill of a very bad distemper; let them, therefore, have your tender pity, and perhaps your meekness may prove an occasion of their cure. But if your humility should do them no good, it will, however, be the greatest good that you can do to yourself.

      Remember that there is but one man in the world with whom you are to have perpetual contention, and be always striving to excel him, and he is, yourself.

      The time of practising these precepts, my child, will soon be over with you; the world will soon slip through your hands, or rather you will soon slip through it: it seems but the other day since I received these instructions from my dear father, that I am now leaving with you: and the God that gave me ears to hear, and a heart to receive what my father said to me, will, I hope, give you grace to love and follow the same instructions.

      Thus did Paternus educate his son.

      THE following conclusion of an address to a mixed congregation of religious sectaries, may afford you some idea of what was intended in my last by proclaiming reformation to a people, and arguing with them on their own concessions:

      "You acknowledge that God the Almighty, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient, created you, preserves you, and sent his Son to save you; and yet you fear not his omnipotence, regard not his omnipresence, and think to conceal yourselves from his all-seeing eye! He preserves you, and where is your gratitude--where your affection for him? Do you not owe him every thing, and will you not give him even the homage of a grateful heart? And you say he sent his Son to save you, and will you reject the message of his love, and refuse submission to him that died for your sins, and called you to honor and immortality?

      Can you think he created you for no purpose, with no design, and that he feels no interest in you? Why, then, has he built the universe for you? Why does he make his sun to shine upon you, and send you the rain and dew of heaven?

      And what regard to him do you show? How many thoughts do you give him every day--how much of your affection does he share? Has he given you eyes to see every thing but his wonderful displays of himself--ears to hear every thing but his voice--a tongue to speak every thing but his praise--and a heart to feel every thing but his love? Which of your appetites and passions, and evil habits are restrained by the [644] fear of him? What energies of your nature are called forth by your veneration and love for him? With what fear does his frown, his indignation fill you? And with what love and ardent desire do his promises inspire you?

      You acknowledge the Bible to be his oracle to men. How do you regard it? Do you represent it to be obscure, unintelligible, a barren and dead letter? What an insult to its author! what a reproach to his wisdom, goodness, and mercy! Do you read it, do you search for its meaning as for hidden treasure? Are the words and works of men sought after, read, and valued more than the volumes of God's authorship? Will you not be ashamed and afraid to see trim, when you reflect that you have not read, nor studied, nor regarded the message which he sent you; that you honored any, and almost every author more than him; and that while he displayed the greatest regard for you, you showed the least to hint? How can you think of appearing in his presence, having thus insulted his spirit of wisdom and revelation? Surely he has called, and you have refused; he has stretched out his hand, and you would not regard. Will he not laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear comes? How vain and fruitless to implore his mercy then, when you disdain it now; to ask for pardon then, when you refuse it now; to sue for favor then, when you reject it now!

      You have contended for correct opinions and sound doctrines, but what sort of lives are you leading? You have been zealous for what you call the "glory of God," when it was, in fact, and when stripped of its disguise, the glory of your own opinions and forms. What avails your sound opinions, and what your barren and unfruitful lives? Have you considered that you are not your own, but that you are God's property? What revenue of praise does he reap from you, and what good have men received from you? While contending for the opinions of men, do you not feel that there is no life in them; that they are cold and lifeless as moonshine; that they neither warm, nor cheer, nor purify your hearts; that they are but the shadows of truth, and that in feeding upon them, you only feed upon the wind? Have you ever felt the power of the love of God? have you ever breathed in an atmosphere perfumed with the fragrance of his grace, while contending for your speculative abstractions? Does not experience teach you that you seek the living among the dead, when you visit the sepulchres of the sectaries, when you look for salvation in and through their speculations? These opinions for which we now contend, are the ghosts of departed philosophers, who could not find peace in their lifetime, and now cannot rest in their graves.

      Will you not, then, eat the bread of God, and drink the water of life, by coming to Jesus and receiving him as the Son of the living God and the Saviour of then? Has he not taught you that none can reveal the Father but himself; that none can know the Father but he to whom he reveals him? Why then will you not come to him and learn from him, seeing that he has told you that he alone can teach you--that he alone can reveal the Father to you? 'Tis vain for you to go to Moses, to those who preceded him; and it is still more vain for you to go to those who have succeeded the apostles, and who have endeavored to supplant them by new theories, to "know the living God and his son Jesus Christ, which is eternal life," as he has taught you.

      Do you not acknowledge Jesus to be the Great Prophet, the great high Priest, and the Almighty King of his own kingdom? If he be the Great Prophet, why not be taught by him? Moses would have rejoiced to have lived under hint, and yet you would rather be under Moses or Calvin than under this Great Prophet. May he not say, "If I be your Prophet, where is my honor? Do you sit at my feet? Do you hearken to my voice? Do you take your lessons from my instructions? Do you think that I speak less clearly, less intelligibly, less forcibly, less authoritatively, than your compeers?" Yes, were you to be asked these questions, what answers could you give?

      You say he is your High Priest. Have you reposed confidence in his sin-offering? have you fled to him as your intercessor? have you been reconciled to God through him? If not, call him not your High Priest, for he is not. By one offering of himself he has perfected the conscience of all them who obey him. If by him you are not reconciled to God's government, to others he may be a High Priest, but to you he is not. Had you come to him as your High Priest, you would have found peace with God, and you would have rejoiced to him as your shield and hiding place.

      But you say he is the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, and he is your King. Then you obey him; then you must submit to his government. But have you vowed allegiance to him? When and where? when did you make the vow? when did you enlist? when did you say, 'Your God shall be my God, and your people shall be my people?" Tell me when did you make this vow? And tell me, did he receive you into his kingdom? If so, surely you must wear the livery of your master, and bow to the ensign which your King has raised.

      "If I be your King," may he not say, "where is my reverence and where is my fear? Are my commands obeyed--are my instructions regarded? Do you expect me to promote and honor you in my kingdom without any proof of your loyalty? Who has ever done so? Who has rewarded cowards, traitors, and neutrals, except with chastisement? Call me not Lord, Master, nor King, unless you regard and honor me as such?"

      No, my friends, unless you act consistently with your convictions and concessions, better, infinitely better, you had made none. You only treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. You had better remember that the King has declared that he that knew his Master's will, and prepared not himself, shall be beaten with many stripes. And, adds he, "Bring out these mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before my face."

      But you must obey or perish. This is his decree. You say that God is the God of truth; that he cannot lie; that heaven and earth may pass away, but his word can never pass away. Tell me who has proved that God has ever failed to honor his own word? What promise or what threat has he uttered which he has not made good? None, none. Individuals, families, cities, nations, a whole world perished when he threatened it. Remember the fall of Adam, the curse inflicted upon man and upon woman, upon the old world, upon the sons of Ham, upon the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Babylon, Nineveh, Jerusalem--upon the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Medes, the Romans, the Jews upon the antichristian nations of Europe. And he that said, "In the day you eat thereof, dying you shall die;" who said, "Yet one hundred and twenty years, and the whole world shall be drowned," has said, that "he who hears the [645] gospel and disbelieves it--that he who knows not God, and obeys not the gospel, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." Do you believe this, and acknowledge that God cannot lie, and will you promise yourselves impunity in your disobedience!

      And are you not disobedient to the gospel? What, do you ask, "Can a person disobey the gospel?" if the gospel be all promise and no command, then you cannot disobey it. We never talk of obedience, but when there is a command. And certainly nothing can be more unequivocal than that God "commands all men every where to reform;" that the "obedience of faith," and "obeying the gospel" are common expressions in the apostolic writings. Yes, certainly you have read that God commands all men every where to reform; and he that has not obeyed this command, has not obeyed the gospel, and is a rebel.

      It is not the ten commandments, but the new commandment which will condemn you. Yes, this is his commandment, that we should believe on his Son Jesus Christ; and the condemnation now is, that you obey not him whom God commissioned, but "that you love darkness rather than light."

      To command men to reform is a proclamation of mercy--yes, it is the gospel. For who proclaims reformation without forgiveness? It is not God. When he commands reformation, it implies forgiveness--when he says "reform" it is "that your sins may be blotted out"--it is "that times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, may come upon you"--it is "that he may send Jesus a second time to your salvation, to raise you from the dead, and to induct you into eternal life."

      And again, I ask, are you not disobedient to the gospel? Have you reformed? Have you turned to the Lord? And what is the proof of it? Nay, rather, what is the first act thereof? Have you put on Christ? In one sentence, have you been immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Have you, or have you not? If you have not, you have not obeyed the first commandment of the Great King. For that reads, "Reform and be immersed for the remission of your sins."

      Now what is your excuse?--Ignorance you cannot plead, for you have the oracle. Inability you cannot plead, for here is water; pollution can be no excuse, for the clean need no washing. Would you make your sins a reason why you should continue to sin?--your former disobedience a reason why you should always disobey?--your want of disposition a reason for continued indisposition? Would you disobey to-day, because you disobeyed yesterday; and will you promise to be more docile, and more obedient to-morrow, than you are to-day? Will the Lord be more gracious tomorrow, than to-day; and will it be more easy for you to shake off the dominion of sin when it has longer reigned over you, than it is at this instant?

      If you did not say, you believe in the divine mission of Jesus, that he is the Son of God, the Saviour of sinners, I should not thus address you. But this you confess. And this is the very reason why your sin is so grievous. Because you say, "We see, therefore your sin remains."

      Tell me not that you want a better heart, better feelings, and more assurance of God's favor, before you obey. This is all a deception, a delusion. How could a disobedient heart become better by continuing disobedient? How could you expect better feelings while rebelling against Jesus! How can you expect any more assurance of the divine favor, while you trample underfoot the pledges of his love, which he has given. Nothing can cure your heart, nothing can produce better feelings, nothing can increase your assurance of the divine favor, but your obedience. Humble yourselves, and God will exalt you. Take Christ's yoke upon you, and he will give you rest. But if you will not kiss the Lord, if you will not bow to his sceptre, if you will not submit to his guidance; and yet feel happy, and find peace, and have good feelings, and a new heart in so doing; though all men should flatter you, there is one who will tell you that it is all delusion, strong delusion, for you to feel peace of mind, while you refuse to obey the gospel, and to come into the kingdom of Jesus through the washing of regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

ECCLESIASTES.      

      "The American Bible Society now have 16 steam and 12 hand presses at work; and are able to complete 1000 full copies, of the Bible every day. They have about 300,000 Bibles and Testaments now ready for distribution."

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