effective introductions

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them from the love
of God; true Jews and true Christians worship a Messiah who makes them love
God.

610. To show that the true Jews and the true Christians have but the same
religion.--The religion of the Jews seemed to consist essentially in the
fatherhood of Abraham, in circumcision, in sacrifices, in ceremonies, in the
Ark, in the temple, in Jerusalem, and, finally, in the law, and in the
covenant with Moses.

I say that it consisted in none of those things, but only in the love of
God, and that God disregarded all the other things.

That God did not accept the posterity of Abraham.

That the Jews were to be punished like strangers, if they transgressed.
Deut. 8:19: "If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other
gods, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish, as the
nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face."

That strangers, if they loved God, were to be received by Him as the Jews.
Isaiah 56:3: "Let not the stranger say, 'The Lord will not receive me.' The
strangers who join themselves unto the Lord to serve Him and love Him, will
I bring unto my holy mountain, and accept therein sacrifices, for mine house
is a house of prayer."

That the true Jews considered their merit to be from God only, and not from
Abraham. Isaiah 63:16: "Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be
ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou art our Father and our
Redeemer."

Moses himself told them that God would not accept persons. Deut. 10:17:
"God," said he, "regardeth neither persons nor sacrifices."

The Sabbath was only a sign, Exod. 31:13; and in memory of the escape from
Egypt, Deut. 5:19. Therefore it is no longer necessary, since Egypt must be
forgotten.

Circumcision was only a sign, Gen. 17:11. And thence it came to pass that,
being i

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on
ordinary organs will not produce barmonies on these. We must know where are.

112. Inconstancy.--Things have different qualities, and the soul different
inclinations; for nothing is simple which is presented to the soul, and the
soul never presents itself simply to any object. Hence it comes that we weep
and laugh at the same thing.

113. Inconstancy and oddity.--To live only by work, and to rule over the
most powerful State in the world, are very opposite things. They are united
in the person of the great Sultan of the Turks.

114. Variety is as abundant as all tones of the voice, all ways of walking,
coughing, blowing the nose, sneezing. We distinguish vines by their fruit,
and call them the Condrien, the Desargues, and such and such a stock. Is
this all? Has a vine ever produced two bunches exactly the same, and has a
bunch two grapes alike, etc.?

I can never judge of the same thing exactly in the same way. I cannot judge
of my work, while doing it. I must do as the artists, stand at a distance,
but not too far. How far, then? Guess.

115. Variety.--Theology is a science, but at the same time how many
sciences? A man is a whole; but if we dissect him, will he be the head, the
hea

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forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next
preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their
foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things,
relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked
Israelites were exposed. That they were always exposed to destruction;
as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to
fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon
them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed,
Psalm 72:18. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou
castedst them down into destruction."

It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected
destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable
to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the
next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is
also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. "Surely thou didst set them in
slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they
brought into desolation as in a moment!"

Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves,
without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or
walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him
down.

That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is
only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when
that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then
they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight.
God will not hold them up in these slippery

Guest · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:10 am Post subject: Re: Shelf Clips

sabbath, but that which precedes it, as part of the holy
time], and after our public lecture, to be especially the times of their
mirth, and company-keeping. But a sermon was now preached on the sabbath
before the lecture, to show the evil tendency of the practice, and to
persuade them to reform it; and it was urged on heads of families that
it should be a thing agreed upon among them, to govern their families,
and keep their children at home, at these times. It was also more
privately moved, that they should meet together the next day, in their
several neighborhoods, to know each other's minds; which was accordingly
done, and the notion complied with throughout the town. But parents
found little or no occasion for the exercise of government in the case.
The young people declared themselves convinced by what they had heard
from the pulpit, and were willing of themselves to comply with the
counsel that had been given: and it was immediately, and, I suppose,
almost universally, complied with; and there was a thorough reformation
of these disorders thenceforward, which has continued ever since.

Presently after this, there began to

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such, so that nothing is more
ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects!

But what is this thought? How foolish it is!

366. The mind of this sovereign judge of the world is not so independent
that it is not liable to be disturbed by the first din about it. The noise
of a cannon is not necessary to hinder its thoughts; it needs only the
creaking of a weathercock or pulley. Do not wonder if at present it does not
reason well; a fly is buzzing in its ears; that is enough to render it
incapable of good judgement. If you wish it to be able to reach the truth,
chase away that animal which holds its reason in check and disturbs that
powerful intellect which rules towns and kingdoms. Here is a comical god! O
ridicolosissimo eroe!

367. The power of flies; they win battles, hinder our soul from acting, eat
our body.

368. When it is said that heat is only the motions of certain molecules, and
light the conatus recedendi which we feel, it astonishes us. What! Is
pleasure only the ballet of our spirits? We have conceived so different an
idea of it! And these sensations seem so re

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that relate to heart
religion, and Christian experience, and their great regards thereto.

I am the third minister who has been settled in the town. The Rev. Mr.
Eleazer Mather, who was the first, was ordained in July, 1669. He was
one whose heart was much in his work, and abundant in labors for the
good of precious souls. He had the high esteem and great love for his
people, and was blessed with no small success. The Rev. Mr. Stoddard who
succeeded him, came first to the town the November after his death; but
was not ordained till September 11, 1672, and died February 11, 1728-9.
So that he continued in the work of the ministry here, from his first
coming to town, near 60 years. And as he was eminent and renowned for
his gifts and grace; so he was blessed, from the beginning, with
extraordinary success in his ministry, in the conversion of many souls.
He had five harvests, as he called them. The first was about 57 years
ago; the second about 53; the third about 40; the fourth about 24; the
fifth and last about 18 years ago. Some of these times were much more
rema

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He is the body of which we
are members. All is one, one is in the other, like the Three Persons.

484. Two laws suffice to rule the whole Christian Republic better than all
the laws of statecraft.

485. The true and only virtue, then, is to hate self (for we are hateful on
account of lust) and to seek a truly lovable being to love. But as we cannot
love what is outside ourselves, we must love a being who is in us and is not
ourselves; and that is true of each and all men. Now, only the Universal
Being is such. The kingdom of God is within us; the universal good is within
us, is ourselves--and not ourselves.

486. The dignity of man in his innocence consisted in using and having
dominion over the creatures, but now in separating himself from them and
subjecting himself to them.

487. Every religion is false which, as to its faith, does not worship one
God as the origin of everything and which, as to its morality, does not love
one only God as the object of everything.

488.... But it is impossible that God should ever be the end, if He is not
the beginning. We lift our eyes on high, but lean upon the sand; and the
earth will dissolve, and we shall fall whilst looking at the heavens.

489. If there is one sole source of everything, there is one sole end of
everything; everything through Him, everything for Him. The true religion,
then, must teach us to worship Him only, and to love Him only. But as we
find ourselves unable to worship what we know not, and to love any other
object but ourselves, the religion which instructs us in these duties must
instruct us also of this inability, and teach us also the remedies for it.
It teaches us that by o

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of difficulty, any
more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree,
or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men
one moment. -- The truth of this observation may appear by the following
considerations. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into
hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The
strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his
hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can
most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal
of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself,
and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is
not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power
of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies
combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They
are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large
quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to
tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is
easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by:
thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to
hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose
rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?

They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands
in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any
moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an
infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that
brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, w

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find it, knowing how much his
knowledge is obscured by the passions. I would, indeed, that he should hate
in himself the lust which determined his will by itself so that it may not
blind him in making his choice, and may not hinder him when he has chosen.

424. All these contradictions, which seem most to keep me from the knowledge
of religion, have led me most quickly to the true one.

SECTION VII: MORALITY AND DOCTRINE

425. Second part.--That man without faith cannot know the true good, nor
justice.

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means
they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and
of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different
views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the
motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

And yet, after such a great number of years, no one without faith has
reached the point to which all continually look. All complain, princes and
subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak, learned
and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and
all conditions.

A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainly convince us
of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts. But example teaches
us little. No resemblance is ever so perfect that there is

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determines that point in the art
of painting. But who shall determine it in truth and morality?

382. When all is equally agitated, nothing appears to be agitated, as in a
ship. When all tend to debauchery, none appears to do so. He who stops draws
attention to the excess of others, like a fixed point.

383. The licentious tell men of orderly lives that they stray from nature's
path, while they themselves follow it; as people in a ship think those move
who are on the shore. On all sides the language is similar. We must have a
fixed point in order to judge. The harbour decides for those who are in a
ship; but where shall we find a harbour in morality?

384. Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which are certain
are contradicted; several things which are false pass without contradiction.
Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign
of truth.

385. Scepticism.--Each thing here is partly true and partly false. Essential
truth is not so; it is altogether pure and altogether true. This mixture
dishonours

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463. Philosophers.--They believe that God alone is worthy to be loved and
admired; and they have desired to be loved and admired of men and do not
know their own corruption. If they feel full of feelings of love and
admiration and find therein their chief delight, very well, let them think
themselves good. But if they find themselves averse to Him, if they have no
inclination but the desire to establish themselves in the esteem of men, and
if their whole perfection consists only in making men--but without
constraint--find their happiness in loving them, I declare that this
perfection is horrible. What! they have known God and have not desired
solely that men should love Him, but that men should stop short at them!
They have wanted to be the object of the voluntary delight of men.

464. Philosophers.--We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.

Our instinct makes us feel that we must seek our happiness outside
ourselves. Our passions impel us outside, even when no objects present
themselves to excite them. External objects tempt us of themselves, and call
to us, even when we are not thinking of them. And thus philosophers have
said in vain: "Retire within yourselves, you will find your good there." We
do not believe them, and those who believe them are the most empty and the
most foolish.

465. The Stoics say, "Retire within yourselves; it is there you will find
your rest."

And that is not true.

Others say, "Go out of yourselves; seek happiness in amusement." And this is
not true. Illness comes.

Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us
and within us.

466. Had Epictetus seen the way perfectly, he would have said to men, "You
follow a wrong road"; he shows that there is another, but he does not lead
to it. It is the way of willing what God wills. Jesus Christ alone leads to
it: Via, veritas.75 The vices of Zeno himself.

467. The reason of effects.--Epictetus. Those who say, "You have a
headache"; this is not the

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mirth and
jollity, which they called frolics; and they would often spend the
greater part of the night in them, without regard to any order in the
families they belonged to: and indeed family government did too much
fail in the town. It was become very customary with many of our young
people to be indecent in their carriage at meeting, which doubtless
would not have prevailed in such a degree, had it not been that my
grandfather, through his great age (though he retained his powers
surprisingly to the last), was not so able to observe them. There had
also long prevailed in the town a spirit of contention between two
parties, into which they had for many years been divided; by which they
maintained a jealousy one of the other, and were prepared to oppose one
another in all public affairs.

But in two or three years after Mr. Stoddard's death, there began to be
a sensible amendment to these evils. The young people showed more of a
disposition to hearken to counsel, and by degrees left off their
frolics; they grew observably more decent in their attendance on the
public worship, and there were more who manifested a religious concern
than there used to be.

At the latter end of the year 1733, there appeared a very unusual
flexibleness, and yielding to advice, in our young people

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completes our incapability of knowing things is the fact that they
are simple and that we are composed of two opposite natures, different in
kind, soul and body. For it is impossible that our rational part should be
other than spiritual; and if any one maintain that we are simply corporeal,
this would far more exclude us from the knowledge of things, there being
nothing so inconceivable as to say that matter knows itself. It is
impossible to imagine how it should know itself.

So, if we are simply material, we can know nothing at all; and if we are
composed of mind and matter, we cannot know perfectly things which are
simple, whether spiritual or corporeal. Hence it comes that almost all
philosophers have confused ideas of things, and speak of material things in
spiritual terms, and of spiritual things in material terms. For they say
boldly that bodies have a tendency to fall, that they seek after their
centre, that they fly from destruction, that they fear the void, that they
have inclinations, sympathies, antipathies, all of which attributes pertain
only to mind. And in speaking of minds, they consider them as in a place,
and attribute to them movement from one place to another; and these are
qualities which belong only to bo

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them, while we speak of them with all
assurance. We assume that all conceive of them in the same way; but we
assume it quite gratuitously, for we have no proof of it. I see, in truth,
that the same words are applied on the same occasions, and that every time
two men see a body change its place, they both express their view of this
same fact by the same word, both saying that it has moved; and from this
conformity of application we derive a strong conviction of a conformity of
ideas. But this is not absolutely or finally convincing though there is
enough to support a bet on the affirmative, since we know that we often draw
the same conclusions from different premises.

This is enough, at least, to obscure the matter; not that it completely
extinguishes the natural light which assures us of these things. The
academicians would have won. But this dulls it and troubles the dogmatists
to the glory of the sceptical crowd, which consists in this doubtful
ambiguity and in a certain doubtful dimness from which our doubts cannot
take away all the clearness, nor our own natural lights chase away all the
darkness.

393. It is a singular thing to consider that there are people in the world
who, having renounced all the laws of God and nature, have made laws for
themselves which they strictly obey, as, for instance, the soldiers of
Mahomet, robbers, heretics, etc. It is the same with logicians. It seems
that their license must be without any limits or barriers, since they have
broken through so many that are so just and sacred.

394. All

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Pilate, or any of the Jews.

If this moderation of the writers of the Gospels had been assumed, as well
as many other traits of so beautiful a character, and they had only assumed
it to attract notice, even if they had not dared to draw attention to it
themselves, they would not have failed to secure friends who would have made
such remarks to their advantage. But as they acted thus without pretence and
from wholly disinterested motives, they did not point it out to any one; and
I believe that many such facts have not been noticed till now, which is
evidence of the natural disinterestedness with which the thing has been
done.

799. An artisan who speaks of wealth, a lawyer who speaks of war, of
royalty, etc.; but the rich man rightly speaks of wealth, a king speaks
indifferently of a great gift he has just made, and God rightly speaks of
God.

800. Who has taught the evangelists the qualities of a perfectly heroic
soul, that they paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why do they make Him
weak in His agony? Do they not know how to paint a resolute death? Yes, for
the same Saint Luke pai