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or if they worship with the mind, instead of him, make an imaginary deity the object of their adoration. "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." As his nature is real, not ideal, and spiritual, not material, a contemplation of him by the intellect, according to his real and spiritual nature, is indispensable in order to a true adoration of him. A homage, in any other view, is not a homage of him, but of a different and imaginary entity. Such worshippers "worship they know not what.”

It is the great object of his administration, accordingly, to bring men to the acknowledgment and homage of him as he is. "Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God, must believe that HE IS, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." He must, therefore, be believed to be what he is. If he is not, he is not the real object of faith, nor the being whom the believer approaches. "And this is life eternal, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” In harmony with this, it is everywhere exhibited as the characteristic of his children, that they know, fear, love, trust, and serve HIM; and as the character, on the other hand, of those who are not his children, that they do not know him; that when they know him intellectually, they do not glorify him as God, but become vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart is darkened; that they change his glory who is uncorruptible, into an image made like to corruptible man, and his truth into a lie, by the fabrication of a theology like Prof. Park's, suited to the instincts and tastes of their unsanctified hearts; and, accordingly, "worship the creature more than the creator who is blessed for ever." And it is announced as one of the great results that is to be secured by the dispensation he is now exercising over men, that they are to be made to know that he is Jehovah; that whether saved or lost they are to be brought to a full conviction of the truth in respect to his being, perfections, rights, and government; to see the reality of all their errors, and the folly and unrighteousness of all their sins, and feel that he is justifiable in all the representations he has made of himself, in his demands, and in the measures by which he enforces them.

In accordance with this, those exhibitions which he has

made of himself that are the clearest and fullest, and those delineations in his word of his attributes, manifestations of the principles of his government, and expressions of his will, that are the most simple, direct, and absolute, have the greatest power over the heart, and are the principal instruments of impressing it, restraining it from sin, exciting it to obedience, and advancing it in sanctification. He approaches us most directly and immediately in his requirements, his prohibitions, his promises, his invitations, and his threatenings ; they are a more powerful means than any other of awakening the conscience and moving the affections; and they are expressed with the greatest simplicity, precision, and strength. There is not a single metaphor or comparison in the ten commandments; and pronounced by the voice of the Almighty, they probably made a profounder impression on the Israelites who heard them, than any other utterance that ever fell on humanears. There is probably no other part of the Old Testament of equal length that is presented in such simplicity of thought, such pointedness and precision of expression, and such sharpness and strength of delineation, as the blessings and curses addressed to that people by Moses, at the close of his ministry, Deut. xxviii.; and they probably touched them with a sense of the great realities of God's sway over them and their relations to him, and raised them to a solemnity, awe, faith, love, submission, and devotedness, that were never awakened by any other message spoken by human lips. Those passages of the Old Testament, descriptive of God, that are usually regarded as the most sublime, and strike the heart with the greatest force, are marked by similar directness of thought and simplicity, and force of expression. What other delineation of his moral dispositions and the character of his government surpasses, in these relations, that which he proclaimed to Moses, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation!" What other portraiture of the person and reign of the Messiah equals at once in simplicity and grandeur that which is drawn by Isaiah,

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"For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace; of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever!" What other exemplification of his omnipotence surpasses that given by Moses in adaptation to touch the heart and inspire it with a sense of his immeasurable power and greatness-" And God said let there be light; and there was light!" or that of the psalmist, "He spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast!" That which is sublime in God's acts and purposes strikes the heart with an energy as much greater proportionally than that which is sublime in nature, as he is greater than his works. Yet what transcends in that relation the announcement by Christ-" The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation!" There are no tropes, there are no fancies, there is no poetry in this. That is the character also of the prayer which the Saviour required his disciples immediately to address to the Father, and make the vehicle of their homage and supplication, and designed, therefore, for the heart as well as the intellect. There is no poetry, there is no imagination, there is no obscurity in it. Every subject it mentions is treated as a reality; God, his attributes, his revelation of himself, his rights, his kingdom, his will, his providence, man's dependence, obligations, guilt, and need of forgiveness, and God's power and readiness to bestow, through eternal ages, the blessings that are necessary for his salvation. What a confutation of Professor Park's doctrine, that the theology of fact and truth-God, contemplated as he is in his nature and government, is not suited to the filial heart, and cannot excite it to holy affection; but that it is a factitious. distorted, and false theology that fills that office.

It is in these aspects of fact and truth, accordingly, that God and his government are contemplated by his children in their faith, reverence, love, and obedience; and it is the

realities of his being, his will, and his government, as he has revealed them in his word, and manifests them in his providence, that are the instruments through which they are impressed and excited to their holy affections. Their sanctification takes place exclusively through the truth. False views have no share in that work. It is in the consideration and realization of God as he is, his perfections, his rights, his will, Christ's mediatorship, his sacrifice, the conditions of pardon through his death, the influences of the Spirit, and their relationship and responsibility to God, that they feel their convictions of sin, and need of a gracious forgiveness; that they repent; that they fear, adore, and love; that they accept Christ as their Saviour, rest on him for redemption, and rejoice in the expectation of his kingdom. Let the inquiry be made of the whole body of the pious, if such is not the fact, and they will respond in the affirmative, with an assurance and energy proportional to their intelligence, the largeness of their experience, and the purity and strength of their religious affections. The sanctification of believers, consequently, usually corresponds to their familiarity with the great truths God has revealed in his word, and the simplicity, accuracy, and largeness of their views of them. And, finally, as a last corroboration of this, their ministry is usually blest in the highest measure, as the means of converting and sanctifying men, who present the great truths of God's word in the greatest clearness, accuracy, and fulness. Let the appeal be made to the whole body of evangelical ministers, to the most intelligent of the church, and to the history of past ages, and the response will unanimously confirm this statement. Seasons of awakening are always seasons of peculiar thoughtfulness of the truth, and generally periods when the great facts and doctrines of the gospel are taught with unusual clearness, pointedness, and demonstration; and those facts and doctrines are the considerations which the Spirit of God employs to awaken and convince men, and lead them to repentance, faith, and love, the renunciation of the world, and the dedication of themselves to God. The intrusion of a false teacher among a people in a deep religious excitement, and presentation to them of a fanciful and false gospel, so far from being favorable to their just impression, or harmless, would be

regarded by the most intelligent and experienced as of the utmost danger to both awakened and unawakened hearers. There is not an evangelical minister in the country, we will venture to say, of tolerable sense and practical knowledge, who would not, at such a period, regard with extreme alarm the address to his congregation of a discourse teaching the doctrine Professor Park advances, that the theology of the intellect, the truth which God has revealed, is not suited to move the hearts of his children, and cannot be the means of a true conviction of sin, penitence, faith, love, or joy; but, that in order to them the instincts and sensibilities must devise a new and antagonistic theology in harmony with themselves. We put it to the enlightened and wise; to those who have the deepest knowledge of the heart, and the largest acquaintance with the influences of the Spirit, and the consequences that usually follow false teachings at such crises, whether such a discourse would not prove, according to all that can be deemed most sure, mischievous and fatal, just in proportion as it met with credence; whether a doctrine can be conceived, no matter what it is,-universalism, infidelity, atheism itself, more utterly subversive of the realizations and affections that are the essential elements in the processes of conviction, conversion, and sanctification.

Such are the proofs of the error of his doctrine, that the truth expressed with directness, simplicity, and logical precision, is not suited to touch the heart, and excite it to holy affections. Let not the reader, however, content himself with this brief exemplification of its contradictoriness to the Scriptures, and the observation and consciousness of men generally. Let him test it also by his own experience and knowledge of others, and compare it for himself with the word of God. Let him reflect whether the seasons of his strongest emotion, his heartiest penitence, his deepest humble ness and self-renunciation, his most earnest desires for sanctification, his fullest faith, his warmest love, and his loftiest hopes, are not the seasons when he has the clearest, the best defined, and the most comprehensive views of God, as he is exhibited in the plain delineations of the Scriptures, of Christ and his redemptive work, and of the great truths and doctrines of his word; and whether the strength of his

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