of that
Abel know anything about it. The probabilities lean all the other way.
It is a pity those self-satisfied theorizers have not something else to
do, than to encumber religion and perplex good people by their miserable
speculations.

--There's another book, one thousand two hundred and fifty pages, by a
man that had real talent, and that could preach well when he took in
hand practical subjects, and who had the appearance of a good man, and
nine-tenths of this work of his is mischievous trifling. The clown at a
theatre, the mountebank on the stage, are not so badly employed as
theological triflers, who darken counsel by words without knowledge. It
is not in prayer only, but in preaching and writing, that men should be
in God's fear, and let their words be few.

Mr. Jones preached last night on Christ in you, the hope of glory. I can
understand, 1. How Christ, in the sense of _Christianity_, or the
_doctrine_ of Christ, can be in us. We sometimes hear from people such
expressions as: "He is full of Plato, or full of Seneca, or full of
Shakespeare," when speaking of a man who has got his mind full of the
sentiments of those writers. And I can understand well enough how
Christianity, which brings life and immortality to light, should beget
in men's minds a hope of glory. 2. I can understand how Christ, in the
sense of Christ's _spirit_, _temper_, _disposition_, _mind_, can be in
us. We sometimes say of a person who exhibits much of his father's
disposition, He has got a deal of his father in him. And I can
understand how Christ in us in this sense should be, or should kindle,
the hope of glory. For the mind of Christ is man's fitness for glory.
The mind of Christ, and the life to which it prompts, are the things to
which eternal glory is promised. But I couldn't understand Mr. Jones.
Either he had no ideas on the subject, or he failed to convey them to
me.

--I see no mystery in John's doctrine that God dwells in those in whom
love dwells, for God is love. And I see no mystery in what Peter says
about Christians being partakers of the divine nature; for the Divine
nature is purity, wisdom and love. We share the common human nature and
the common animal nature; that is, we have certain qualities or
properties in common with men generally, and with the inferior orders of
living things. So we share the divine nature, when we have the same
dispositions, affections, qualities as the divine Being. And the
properties of