e composition of
man; that in this our noblest employment it condemns as worse than
useless, all the most active and operative principles of our nature. One
cannot but suppose that like the organs of the body, so the elementary
qualities and original passions of the mind were all given us for
valuable purposes by our all-wise Creator. It is indeed one of the sad
evidences of our fallen condition, that they are now perpetually
tumultuating and rebelling against the powers of reason and conscience,
to which they should be subject. But even if Revelation had been silent,
natural reason might have in some degree presumed, that it would be the
effect of a Religion which should come from God, completely to repair
the consequences of our superinduced depravity. The schemes of mere
human wisdom had indeed tacitly confessed, that this was a task beyond
their strength. Of the two most celebrated systems of philosophy, the
one expressly confirmed the usurpation of the passions, while the other,
despairing of being able to regulate, saw nothing left but to extinguish
them. The former acted like a weak government, which gives independence
to a rebellious province, which it cannot reduce. The latter formed its
boasted scheme merely upon the plan of that barbarous policy, which
composes the troubles of a turbulent land by the extermination of its
inhabitants. This is the calm, not of order, but of inaction; it is not
tranquillity, but the stillness of death;

Trucidare falso nomine imperium, & ubi solitudinem faciunt,
pacem appellant--

Christianity, we might hope, would not be driven to any such wretched
expedients; nor in fact does she condescend to them. They only thus
undervalue her strength, who mistake her character, and are ignorant of
her powers. It is her peculiar glory, and her main office, to bring all
the faculties of our nature into their just subordination and
dependence; that so the whole man, complete in all his functions, may be
restored to the true ends of his being, and be devoted, entire and
harmonious, to the service and glory of God. "My son, give me thine
_heart_"--"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy _heart_:"--Such
are the direct and comprehensive claims which are made on us in the holy
Scriptures. We can scarcely indeed look into any part of the sacred
volume without meeting abundant proofs, that it is the religion of the
Affections which God particularly requires. Love, Zeal, Gratitude, Jo