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    the wisdom of the wise here referred to exists in their own conceit , and their prudence is the prudence of this world . Wrapt in the contemplation of their baseless visions , they have been led astray , while the babes whom they despise , in plucking the flowers of the field , have found among them the pearl of great price . Learning is not wisdom , any more than conviction is truth ; and it matters not to our argument whether those whose perceptions

    are distinct , and whose convictions are clear , are lowly or exalted in outward rank , simple or learned in the lore of this world . They may have wrought out their convictions for themselves ; or they may owe the rectitude of their intellects to wise teaching in the courts of the sanctuary , or in the wide temple of nature . The question is not now how they obtained those convictions of the understanding , but respecting their value as guides in the way of purity and peace .

    From our conceptions of the character and attributes of God , arises our perception of moral obligation : and in proportion to the comprehensiveness and purity of those conceptions will be the accuracy and refinement of the moral sense . Our ideas of moral perfection are primarily formed from observation of the human character , and the abstract notion is then transferred upon the Divine Being . It is the chief privilege of our intellectual powers to enable us perpetually to enlarge and exalt these conceptions , to purify them gradually from the admixture of unworthy associations , and to adorn

    them with new elements of spiritual beauty . The more pure the abstraction of a moral quality , the less unworthy will be its ascription to God . The son of a wise and tender parent will form a truer conception of the Divine Being under the name of a Father , than the child who has been subjected to capricious and unkind treatment : and the ignorant , who look on a judge only as the dispenser of vengeance , will entertain a more unworthy notion of the moral government of God , than the enlightened who regard the laws

    as the safeguard of the general welfare . If benevolence be conceived of , not as capricious fondness , but as a regard to the general good , free from the possibility of error in the choice of means , or of disappointment in the attainmen ! jD £ j £ no \ . no very erroneous notion of Divine Justice can co-exist with so correcia conception . It will then be seen that the office of justice is to reward . virtu ^ imd to punish vice with a view to the happiness of all ; and that benevolence being the sole obligation to justice , whien the purposes

    of benevolence can no longer be served by the infliction of suffering , that infliction becomes unjust . It will be understood that justice and mercy , or that tenderness to offenders which is authorized by benevolence , both arise from benevolence ; for if justice inflict pain without promoting the general good , or if mercy be extended to offenders whose punishment is necessary to the general good , it is clear that benevolence is violated . We speak of the Divine perfections separately , because to our bounded faculties they

    appear in different aspects . ; and hence arise those unworthy fears and presumptuous raptures which are alike injurious to God , and inimical to our own moral advancement . The time will come when we shall no longer thus see in part ; when we shall folly understand how all the moral attributes of God merge iri infinite benevolence , as tjie various hues of the

    rainbow blend into one pure and perfdft ray of light . Since our obligation to allegiance arises from our acknowledgment of God as our Sovereign , since our gratitude istkie to him ad our Benefactor , our submission as our Moral Governor , our obedience as our Father , the more elevated are our conceptions of him under these characters , the more enlightened will be our devotion , and the less unworthy our service . When the time shall arrive that

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    818 Essays on the Art of Thinking :

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 818, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/2/