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* j < # llence and use , when consecrated to the service of religion , and empl oyed ia the courts of the living God . When the dories of the great Jehovah are our theme , his mercies our song , when sublime subjects of praise are accompanied with exand the leasures of
pressive harmony , p devotion heightened hy the charms of singing we experience the most pure , rational and exquisite delight . Under this image , the Scriptures convey to us some obscure representation of the exercises and enjoyments of the heavenly world . 4 I heard
the voice of a great multitude , as the voice of many waters , and the voice of mighty thunderings , saying . Hallelujah , for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth . They sang the song of Moses , the servant of God , and the song of the Lamb , saying , Great and marvellous are thy works , Lord God Almighty , just and true aye thy ways , 0 king of Saints !'
" But that divine song may correspond with its importantohject , it requires tohe well regulated and improved . It should adopt a style of music chaste and pure ^ suited to holy places , and to sacred subjects . Care should be taken , that it he executed in a becoming manner ; lest discord and dissonance be substituted for the charms of melody and harmony , and this mode of
worship , instead of elevating our devotions to divine and delightful sensations , should awaken our regret , aud excite uneasiness and disgust . " Pp . 173—177 . A very just distinction is made in S . xi . on " Forgiveness , " between punishment and revenge :
" When therefore we are required not to avenge ourselves , we are by no means restrained from necessary punishment , nor from a proper regard to our own security . But the precept of the text universally prohibits revenge ; and it may be of importance to observe the distinction between punishment and revenge . They both require that the offender should suffer for his
crimes ; but they proceed from different princi ples , and have respect to different * nds . Punishment ori ginates from a benevolent temper , and its tendency is to promote the public happiness . Revenge considers not the amendment of the oftender , the good of society , or the prelation of future evil . Its object is to toake the person unhappy , because he has nded . Revenge has a retrospective view , ptmishment looks forward . The former is actuated with a sense of past evil , the latter luns atapproachirig good . " Pp . 183 , 184 ;
The enlightened Christian teacher ap pears in the remarks on the meanin e ° f « Faith ,-inS . xiiL p . " P ^ fnary meaning of the word *™ , and that , to which its other senses til !****** * * » belief , or an assent of « mmd to the truth of « omcthin tf pro .
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posed , v It supposes a comparison of two or more ideas , and a judgment of the rnind concerning" them . It is ,, therefore , improperly applied to a simple apprehension . And though , in common language , we are said to believe in a particular person or thing " , this is only a fig-urative way of speaking-, and affects not the definition we have g-iven . All that it imports , is , that
we assent to some proposition relating- to that person or thing-. So when we are said to believe in God , the meaning" is , we believe that God exists , that he is possessed of infinite perfection , and the like 5 otherwise , such language would be unintelligible . From this definition of Faith arises the obvious inference , that no man can be said to believe that which he does
not understand . For if Faith be the judgment of the mind upon the comparison of two ideas , it follows , that where we have 210 ideas to compare , there can be no belief . Were a man , for example , to utter words m an unknown language , and enjoin us to credit his assertions , the thing would beimpossible . Unable to comprehend his
meaning- , we should be equally unable to determine concerning- its truth . We might , from various causes , conclude Him to be a man of veracity , and confide in his probity and worthy and in this sense , inig * ht be said to believe in him 3 but we could have no belief in those propositions which we were unable to understand .
" But are we not actually persuaded of the truth of many thing's , which we do not clearly comprehend ; as , the gravitation of matter , the attraction of the loadstone , the vegetation of plants ? I answer , that this is by no means the case 5 and that belief , without a comparison of ideas , is a contradiction in terms . For what is it that we
believe concerning these phenomena of nature ? It is the plain fact , that matter does gravitate , that the loadstone attracts , or that plants vegetate ; things which we comprehend , being- obvious to sense and experience . But as we know not the manner in which these operations are
conducted , so we pretend not to any belief concerning it . —I have introduced these remarks with a view to expose the error of those zealots , who demand our assent to doctrines , which they , far from being" able to explain , acknowledge to he incomprehensible , or , in other words , incapable of being believed . " Pp . 195—197 .
What mind does not assent , what heart does not respond , to the follow ^ - ing argument for a future life , from the mutability of tlie present , S . i The shortness and uncertainty of the present world indicate a future and a happier state of existence . The chang-es and disappointments which we now experience , direct our hopes and desires to a better
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jReview . - ~ Harrisoris Sermons on , Important Subjects . 169
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 169, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/41/
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