WE INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. E are commanded, in one brief sentence of Scripture, to "try all things," and "to hold fast to that which is good;" and experience has shown, upon a very extensive scale, at once the practical difficulty and the importance of reconciling the two precepts. It has been found, that minds habituated to a free range of speculation sometimes acquire a fatal indifferency in religious matters; and are inconstant even to approved objects of belief. They are anxious to hear what can be said on all sides of all subjects, but indifferent about conclusions. Others are anxious for a conclusion, indifferent about its premises clinging too eagerly and blindly to what they imagine to be true, without a sufficiently candid examination of other things, they become incapable of expanded views, and are attached to error more frequently than to truth. In the eastern world, from China to the shores of the Caspian, are to be found nations which have from century to century, with little vacillation, held each to its own particular form of error; while B on the opposite side of the globe, beyond the Atlantic, men hold fast to no forms of doctrine whatever, and may sometimes be seen to exchange, without compunction, a creed nearly apostolic for some extravagant invention of a presumptuous philosophy, because, perhaps, the arguments and the eloquence of the controversial preachers whom they have followed were at length exhausted, or they happened, for some trivial reason, to change their place of worship. Thus, through frequent changing, do many minds become, in process of time, incapable of a really firm faith. No doctrine can be so fully expounded to them, and enforced by such a weight of moral evidence, but that they will soon be ready to ask, Can any one show us a doctrine more probable than this? They are never more highly interested, than when an effort is made to shake the foundations of their belief, and propose to their view opinions new, startling, incongruous. The Church history of Europe furnishes similar instances, though the extreme opinions are not so far apart, to those of Asia and North America. The Romanists have failed to escape from those errors of doctrine to which every church is liable through the corruption of human nature, in consequence of their neglecting the command to try all things, while they professed to hold fast to that which was good; and Protestants have fallen into error, even into fatal heresies, in consequence of their neglecting to hold fast the truth, while they sought to try all things. And even within the Anglican Church are two parties, which charge each other with neglecting the one or the other branch of the twofold apostolic precept. But the difficulty of reconciling a sufficiently impartial exercise of reason, with an entire readiness to adopt as an article of faith whatever appears to be, in fact, declared by the infallible word of God, would be much diminished, if men would remember that every point of doctrine which the mind has once tried, and found to bear the impress of Scriptural truth,* is to be adopted and held fast before it is tried again; that though speculation is not forbidden, it must not be allowed to loosen the hold of truth which the mind has taken, upon a fair examination of testimony. If such a doctrine as that of the future states be first cordially believed in and embraced on the authority of the Scriptures, which expressly declare their existence, and partially reveal their * The writer would not be understood to say, that each mind must rely solely on its own powers; for this, even in temporal matters, would often be a presumptuous and a dangerous course; but that the ultimate reference should be to Scripture only that aid should be sought, from every available quarter, though authority should be appealed to in none, in determining whether Scripture does, or does not, unequivocally lay down the doctrine in question. Many will dissent from this position; but happily those truths respecting a future life, in which Christians are most interested, are laid down in the Bible in general terms, so plainly that he who runs may read and understand; and there is no need to appeal to another authority, if such there be. nature, many speculations on this profoundly interesting topic become not only safe, but serviceable to the cause of truth, which, had they been entered upon before the mind had taken a firm hold of the Gospel, might have tended to keep the truth back. One who from childhood to middle age had been accustomed to travel from country to country, without a permanent home to be the object of hope or regret,— who had been early familiarized to barbarous as well as to more civilized society, would probably become incapable of strong attachment to a particular spot; and if towards the close of his days he settled at all, would be not unlikely to prefer a semi-barbarous people, and a mode of life of which enlightened men cannot approve. But if he had been educated in a home in which he became accustomed to the refined pleasures of civilized life, it is probable that no subsequent wanderings would endanger his well grounded attachment to his native country and his birthplace. It is well that men should be prejudiced, to a certain degree, in favour of these; and should not lightly change their place of abode, and transfer their feelings of patriotism to another country; but it is also well that they should entertain no blind attachment, and there may be circumstances in which a change would be both expedient and truly philosophic. And so it is in religion, with this only difference, affecting the relative duties of holding fast and of trying, that the Creator would have men be all of one religion, though not all of one country. It is well for a man to be attached to the creed of his forefathers, and not desert it merely because the creeds on the face of the earth are many; but well also that he should be open to conviction of error. And the same observation applies to creeds in general; and also to those smaller matters of belief which are contained in the creeds, but are not essential parts of them. These remarks may assist in showing that reason, when employed in the trial of opinions on any matter connected with Revelation, is better employed in illustrating truths previously admitted on that authority, than in recommending or introducing Revelation as of its own authority. We know the Revelation to be true; - this book is not designed for those who would call it in question, and philosophy undertakes a dangerous task, when it voluntarily loosens its hold of that which has been tried and approved to be good, for the purpose of showing some new principle upon which it may be embraced. Men's minds may be unsettled by such endeavours to convince them, and they may be induced either to doubt of the truths revealed, or take up inaccurate notions concerning them, and such as Scripture would never have suggested. Thus does religion suffer from an indiscreet use of philosophy. And if religion does not suffer any detriment, it will be often found that philosophy is brought into disrepute. It is true that there are many and strong analogies be |