Nahum i. 7; Zech. ix. 17; Matt. v. 45; xix. 17. "Sovereignty.-Dan. ii. 20-23; iv. 35; Luke x. 21; Rom. ix. 14-27; Eph. i. 4-6; Rev. iv. 11, "Spirituality.-Ps. cxxxix. 7; John iv. 24; Acts xvii. 24, 25; 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18; 1 Tim. vi. 16; Heb. xii. 9. "Holiness.-1 Sam. ii. 2; Ps. xxii. 3; Isa. vi. 3; lvii. 15; 1 Pet. i. 15, 16; Rev. iv. 8. "Justice.-Gen. xviii. 25; Deut. xxxii. 4; Ps. lxxxix. 14; Ezek. xviii.; Rom. ii. 5-12; Rev. xv. 3. "Patience. Deut. viii. 2, 5; Neh. ix. 16-31; Eccl. viii. 11; Luke xiii. 8, 9; Acts xvii. 30; Rom, ii. 4. "Mercy.-Isa, i. 18; Mic. vii, 18-20; Jer. xxxi. 20; John_iii, 16—18; 1 Tim. i. 16, 17; Eph. ii, 4—7. "Faithfulness.—1 Kings viii. 23, 24; Ps. lxxxix. 34, 35; Jer. xxxiii. 20—26; 2 Tim. ii. 19; Heb. vi. 18; Rev. iii. 14. "Incomprehensibility.-Job. xi. 7-9; xxvi. 14; xxxvii. 23; Ps. cxlv. 3; Rom. xi. 33; Eph, iii. 18, and mercy, let us recall to mind that most gracious declaration that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.' But can it be true that this glorious Being will condescend to notice and regard us? Will God in very deed dwell with men upon the earth? Yes, For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit.' He is the Lord God, merciful and gracious; in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. Come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Then shall we contemplate with inexpressible delight all the glorious perfections of the Supreme, as being exercised for our happiness, according to the stipulations of the everlasting covenant which is ordered in all things and sure; and be "Such are the perfections ascribed to God enabled to exclaim with the Psalmist, 'This in his own most holy word, with a few of the God is our God for ever and ever; he will passages in which they are mentioned. In be our guide even unto death.' 'Thou shalt him they all reside in an infinite degree, and guide me by thy counsel, and afterward therefore I have placed the attribute of in- receive me to glory; whom have I in heaven comprehensibility at the end of the list, in but thee? and there is none upon the earth order to remind us that after all our inquiries that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my into the nature and character of Jehovah, we heart shall fail; but God is the strength of must ever come infinitely short of the reality. my heart, and my portion for ever.' Then Lord, we are blind, we mortals blind, being admitted through the mercy of God We can't behold thy bright abode; into the realms of blessedness above, we Oh! 'tis beyond a creature-mind shall behold the glory of God in the face To glance a thought half way to God. of Jesus Christ; we shall contemplate the beauties of that Redeemer who is the image With deep humility, therefore, should we of the invisible God; the brightness of his ever contemplate so much of the character glory, and the express image of his person; of this Divine Being as he has seen fit to we shall be like him, for we shall see him as reveal to us; not with a spirit of proud phi- he is; the Lamb in the midst of the throne losophical speculation, but with a practical shall feed us, and lead us to the living founapplication of all we learn to our own condi- tains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tion. When we read the truths of the in- tears from our eyes. And transported with spired volume proclaiming the omnipotence glowing gratitude and love, we shall mingle of the Lord, let us think of the relation in with the glorious company who stand before which he stands to us, and how much our the throne of God and before the Lamb, happiness depends on having him for our clothed with white robes and with palms in friend. When his omniscience is declared, their hands; and sing with them the healet us learn to avoid sinning against him, venly anthem; Salvation to our God which even in our thoughts, for he it is who search- sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, eth the heart. When we read of his justice, Unto him that loved us, and washed us from let us remember that we must every one of our sins in his own blood, and hath made us us give an account of himself to God, who kings and priests unto God and his Father, to will render to every man according to his him be glory and dominion for ever, Amen," works. When the subject embraces his love-P. H. I. London: R. Needham, Printer, 1, Belle-Sauvage-Yard, Ludgate-Hill. THE YOUNG MEN'S MAGAZINE. No. 8.] AUGUST, 1837. CONVERSATION II.: THE USE OF REA SON IN RELIGION. Minister. REPEAT, if you can, my concluding remark in our last conversation. Young Man. It was to the effect that there are many subjects revealed to us by God to which a right reason gives its subsequent testimony, although it could not have discovered them. Minister. You are to recollect, then, that the rational evidence of a truth which we attain after that truth has been revealed, is not to be concluded within the limits of man's rational powers, independent of a revelation from God. Young Man. I thank you for this distinction; the disregard of which, I now see, may be the source of great error: for no doubt many of our boasted and boastful deists have flattered themselves into the belief that they had discovered certain truths by ratiocination, when, having derived them from the Bible, they merely discovered their argeement with rea son. Minister. Such appears to have been the fact. But have you considered the true use of reason in matters of religion? [VOL. I. tures are addressed to us as rational beings, yet as rational beings both needing instruction, and, owing to a perverted will, indisposed to receive conviction. Young Man. Hence the apparent difficulty of the subject; in appealing to an impaired reason, as if it were unimpaired. Minister. And yet the difficulty is only apparent. For reason is quite competent to the task which properly belongs to it: the danger and difficulty do not begin till it proceeds from that task to others for which sin has disqualified it. There is, first, an intellectual use of our reason, in reference to what purports to be a revelation from God. This consists in examining its evidences, in order to ascertain whether the proof of its divine authority be credible and adequate; and then, this being admitted, in fairly and honestly interpreting its meaning, without forcing a sense upon any part of it in compliance with our own preconceived opinions or prejudices. But there is, secondly, a moral use of reason on the subject of revelation, the obligation of which too many are apt to forget. This consists in using it humbly, under a sense of the weakness and imperfections of our own powers; with docility, as being willing to receive truth at all hazards and sacrifices; and also devotionally, that, accompanying our Young Man. You name the very topic on which I was about to request your remarks. Minister. The subject is impor-investigations with prayer to the tant; since the whole of the Scrip- Father of lights, we may be preserved VOL. I. H from error, and be led into all truth. consciences, to absurdities, which, exIn harmony with these remarks, let cept on religious subjects, no man me request you to read the paragraph would or could espouse. Wherever which I have here marked in "Pas- there is pride, levity, or worldliness, cal's Thoughts." errors in religion will follow, and that in proportion to the circumstances of temptation under which those who indulge them are placed. Young Man. "The highest attainment of reason is to know that there is an infinity of knowledge beyond its limits. It must be sadly weak if it Young Man. This will probably has not discovered this. We ought account for much of the mystery to know where we should doubt, which some persons pretend to see in where we should be confident, and some of the plainest religious truths. where we should submit. He who Minister. That there are mysteries knows not this, does not comprehend in religion-profound, unfathomable, the true power of reasoning. There mysteries-is not only true, but ineare men who fail severally on each vitable. Unless the Infinite could beof these points. Some, from igno-come finite, or the finite Infinite, it rance of what is demonstration, as-must be so. But then, as Butler resume every thing to be demonstrable; marks, "the mystery is as great in others, not knowing where it becomes nature as in Christianity; them to submit silently, doubt of every thing; and others again, unconscious of the right field for the exercise of judgment, submit blindly to all." Minister. This, you will allow, is truly excellent. Let me request you to remark especially what is said on the subject of demonstration; and ever remember that the evidence of the truth of Scripture is so given that it shall not in all cases necessitate conviction, like a mathematical demonstration. It is addressed to the humble, the teachable, and serious; but if men follow error, they will be sure to overtake it; and if they love vice, their judgments will always be perverted by it. Young Man. The Jews appear to me to furnish an awful illustration of the power of vice to blind and pervert the reason: "they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil: and hence the fearful success with which they resisted the clearest evidence. Minister. They stand as the monitory type of all unbelievers to the end of time, who run for shelter from the convictions of their minds and yet who turns away from nature on that account? "The prerogative of God," says Bacon, " comprehends the whole man; wherefore, as we are to obey his law, though we find a reluctation in our will, so we are to believe his word, though we find a reluctation in our reason for if we believe only that which is agreeable unto our reason, we give assent to the matter, not to the Author; which is no more than we do towards a suspected and discredited witness." Young Man. Piety, however, seems to have the power of making many things agreeable to reason which did not once appear to be so. Minister. That is only in harmony with the declaration of Christ, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrines;" and according to the ancient aphorism, "Believe, that you may understand." Moral truths are understood, partly, by sympathy; piety, therefore, assists the reason by bringing sympathy to its aid. Besides which, the promise to the sincere enquirer is, the meek will he guide in judgment." 26 lovely children bounded joyous around him. Smiles played upon the features of the father, as he watched the merry antics of his little ones; and "Out of that land went forth Asshur and his heart was uplifted to heaven in builded Nineveh," &c.-Gen. x. 11.* UNDER the branches of a spreading vine, in the plains of Shinar, Philoth of Asshur reclined, sheltered from the heat of the noon-tide sun. His flocks were grazing nigh at hand, and his It is needful, in explanation of this story and the one intended to succeed it, to state to the reader what are the author's views of this early portion of Scripture history. The popular idea of all the human race being present at Babel has not in general been entertained by the learned, whether historians or commentators. Shuckford, seeing perhaps that such an assumption involved difficulties of no ordinary nature, places Ararat in China, where he supposes Noah founded the first empire, whence, in the journeying of people from the east they came to Shinar. There is no necessity however for such a startling position, as in the time of the general migration, according to the allotment of Noah, which is conceived to be a distinct era from the dispersion, the best way for the tribes who had to occupy Africa, and south-western Asia, to pass from Ararat in Armenia, would be southward among the hills, till they came nearly due east of Shinar. Sharpe, in his dissertation on the early history of Egypt, (Lond. 1836,) starts the idea that the Shemetic tribes only, were engaged in the building of Babel. But this seems contrary to the inference we should naturally draw both from sacred and profane history. The Shemites had, as a body, received the blessing of God, and we can scarce suppose them to be the originators of the first apostacy. Again, Nimrod or Nebrod, the rebel, their leader, was a Cuthite, and the whole train of Ethaic traditions would lead us to the conviction that the dispersed tribes were the Cuthites and their associates. The erudite author of "Nimrod," whose volumes of passages from history and fable display perhaps more ingenuity and research than any other work in the English language, supposes the refugium at Babel to have been established by the Cuthites and their associates, as a step to universal monarchy; and to have been besieged for 10 years by the other tribes, which he takes to have been the origin of the war of Illion, the decennial war between the gods and the Titans, and numerous praise of the Lord supreme. "Oh thou," he exclaimed, "who thyself art joy and love ineffable, how all things around me demonstrate thy being and thy goodness. If I look up to heaven, Thou art there. Thy other traditions found among the mythi of all nations. This is however making the Scripture representation of that event so exceedingly figurative as to be little better than Mythic; for there, though an allusion seems made to an attempt at universal monarchy, in a resistance to some previously given order for migration, yet the confounding of their purposes is spoken of as by a miraculous intervention of Almighty power. On the whole, the author of these stories inclines to the opinion of the learned Bryant, as most analogous with the general tenor of Scripture. He considers that the land of Shinar, and all the country round about, which afterwards gained the name of Assyria, belonged by allotment in the general division of the earth, to the race of Asshur. But, that the sons of Cuth and other Hamonian tribes, whose proper destination was Ethiopia, (called in Scripture the land of Cush,) and other parts of Africa, discontented with a partition in which Asia was nearly all given to the sons of Shem, when "journeying from the east, they came to the plain of Shinar, resolved to possess themselves of it in defiance of patriarchal authority, and be scattered abroad no longer. Thence went forth Asshur," &c.; driven out by the usurpers of his patrimony, and taking refuge on the borders of his brother Arphaxad, built other cities in selfdefence, which afterwards became the chief cities of the Assyrian empire. And there "Nimrod began to be a mighty one in the earth," assuming to himself, though for a little season, the tyrannis, or Kingship of the world, in opposition to the patriarchates of the heads of the various tribes. Once for all be it remembered, these things are not asserted as articles of faith; they are stories, founded on opinions gathered from a long and arduous study of ancient history, both sacred and profane, intended to illustrate, though sometimes only by refraction, incidents briefly related in Scripture, and the manners and customs of the ancient world. sun issues forth in the morning from stars; let the stars re-echo the glad his eastern bed of gold, reanimating notes, and earth join her feeble voice all things as he flings from his forehead in the hymn of rapture! Praise the the dews of night, and lifts his yellow Lord!" In the evening too, orb on high. The hymn of Philoth was interThy power is manifested there. rupted by the approach of Almodan, When the bright eye of day is closed who brought with him tidings of disupon us, then the stars come forth in tress. their beauty to wander over the walks on high. Countless multitude of shining ones! they are like the rays of mercy which beam forth from Thy bright throne,-innumerous, unsearchable, unknown! "The Cuthites," said he, "who arrived here some days since in Shinar, have given orders to Asshur to depart. The Patriarch not knowing whether to pay obedience to the commands of the freebooters, or keep "Who can declare Thy goodness? possession of the land allotted to him Man, whose foundation is in the dust, before the death of Noah, summons can only lisp thy praise. And, alas! the elders of his tribe to council. his heart is too often perverted from Come thou to his tent, O Philoth, thee. The lessons of thy judgments and pour thy words of wisdom into on the old world, are forgotten in the the ear of our doubting father." The mysteries and dark "What! exclaimed Philoth, incantations of the Cainites and Ne-"would they resist the ordinances philim are revived by the race of of God?" Ammon. The worship of God is for- "What marvel," returned Almogotten; and Azur, the sun, and the spirits of their fathers, become the objects of their chief adoration. new one. dan, "that they resist the ordinances of one whose being they deny? Hast thou not heard of the apostacy of "Who shall declare Thy goodness? Ham, who conceiving that the deluge We behold it upon earth in the bliss was a judgment only on the errors of that invigorates all creatures. The the Sethites, revived the Magian susmall birds tune their mellow notes perstition of Cain, in all its force? The to sing Thy glory! The lambs and doctrines of Naamah and Azur pass young goatlings, unable to contain current among them; and Nebrod their emotions, skip about in the wild the usurper has refined upon their plenitude of the joy Thou inspirest! dreams. Taking advantage of the The gambols of the children speak the mystery which hangs over his birth,* strength of their feeling! they know he gives himself out to be begotten of not what to do to give expression to God, and assuming to himself the their innate delight. These are influ- prerogatives of Him that is to come, ences of thy love, Oh Lord most high! he is evidently attempting to establish "Who shall declare Thy goodness? a Theocratic Tyrannis and rule over Speak it, hierarchies of heaven! a prostrate world." Sound it in an equal strain. Angels, and cherubim, and seraphim, who dwell around His throne, strike ye your harps of gold!-those harps which responded to the hymn of creation when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Sound ye His praises to the "The Lord confound his machina * That mystery which is often mentioned by the Ethnic writers as one of incest or supernatural generation, seems to be alluded declaration, after to (Gen. x. 8) by the special and emphatic an enumeration of the other sons of Cush, "and Cush begat Nimrod." |