we shall find full employment: and by
attending to these moral precepts, rather than to those high mysterious
doctrines which you are pressing on us, we shall best prepare to appear
before God on that tremendous day, when 'He shall judge every man
according to his WORKS.'"

"Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy!"

It will at once destroy this flimsy web, to reply in the words of our
blessed Saviour, and of his beloved Disciple--"This is the _work_ of
God, that ye _believe_ in him whom he hath sent[61]." "This is his
_commandment_, that we should _believe_ on the name of his Son Jesus
Christ[62]." In truth, if we consider but for a moment the opinions
(they scarcely deserve the name of system) of men who argue thus, we
must be conscious of their absurdity. This may be not inconsistently the
language of the modern Unitarian; but surely it is in the highest degree
unreasonable to admit into our scheme all the grand peculiarities of
Christianity, and having admitted, to neglect and think no more of them!
"Wherefore" (might the Socinian say) "Wherefore all this costly and
complicated machinery? It is like the Tychonic astronomy, encumbered and
self-convicted by its own complicated relations and useless
perplexities. It is so little like the simplicity of nature, it is so
unworthy of the divine hand, that it even offends against those rules of
propriety which we require to be observed in the imperfect compositions
of the human intellect[63]."

Well may the Socinian assume this lofty tone, with those whom we are now
addressing. If these be indeed the doctrines of Revelation, common sense
suggests to us that from their nature and their magnitude, they deserve
our most serious regard. It is the very theology of Epicurus to allow
the existence of these "heavenly things," but to deny their connection
with human concerns, and their influence on human actions. Besides the
unreasonableness of this conduct, we might strongly urge also in this
connection the prophaneness of thus treating as matters of subordinate
consideration those parts of the system of Christianity, which are so
strongly impressed on our reverence by the dignity of the person to whom
they relate. This very argument is indeed repeatedly and pointedly
pressed by the sacred writers[64].

Nor is the prophane irreverence of this conduct more striking than its
ingratitude. When from reading that our Saviour was "the brightness of
his Father's glory, and the expr