honey and the honey-comb. Moreover, by them is thy servant taught, and in keeping of them there is great reward” (Ib. xix. 10, 11). And what the word does rightly and effectually, it also does smartly and expeditiously, according to the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. "For the word of God is quick and powerful (says he) and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. iv. 12): by which it may be seen what THE WORD is.

By dint, therefore, of great obligation to the life, the truth, and the quickness of God's Word, we are able to perceive not only the essential properties of intellect, as continuance in latency, or latency in continuance; but also the two general characteristics, good and evil, which have been traced hitherto, still proceeding together for the present through this, as through the two forementioned classes of constituents; also how they are commonly acknowledged, if little understood, in the world by such epithets as wisdom and truth on the one hand, and folly and falsehood on the other; and also, how custom has adopted particular characteristics for some of the intellectual constituents before mentioned, as well as the aforesaid general characteristics for all. It were to be wished that custom had been more precise in the use of the terms it has adopted; but we must take things as we find them, and build as we can on old foundations, carrying up one side of the edifice at a time, and the front or fairest side first, being wisdom and truth.

The high principle of truth or free thinking is here subjoined to the higher principle of wisdom or right thinking; in the same manner as wisdom or right thinking was before subjoined to righteousness or right doing: and when these are compared, not only wisdom and righteousness will appear to be one, but wisdom, righteousness, and truth. For we are not here to understand by truth merely

its verbal type, its utterance or expression; which, according to the proverb, is not always requisite nor convenient; not this assumed shape, nor any other accident of the property is here spoken of, but the property itself—the high property or principle of truth; which goes through heaven and earth, proceeding from the intellectual sphere; and is not found to differ substantially from righteousness, any more than it differs from wisdom, or wisdom from righteousness. For what is truth in any operation or production, but righteousness or right wiseness in that respect? And what can wisdom or wiseness effect beyond truth, righteousness, or itself? Wisdom, righteousness, and truth, if not made the same, were, however, made for each other: which shows the propriety of equalizing these terms and considering them reciprocally; wisdom and truth as particular casts of righteousness, and righteousness as the truest wisdom. This is an union something like that which our heavenly Teacher requires, when he says, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves;" no easy part for his followers! and also like the affinity generally observed in their respective subjects or the depositaries of these inestimable gifts; as the wise of head will not disdain the conversation of the pure in heart; nor the pure in heart the precepts of the wise. The clashing and disdaining part indeed will lie between the subjects of wider distinctions; and not between subjects of which, as of wisdom, righteousness, and truth, the distinctions are scarcely perceptible. It is between the opposite subjects or depositaries of good and evil intellect, or of truth and falsehood, and of wisdom and folly, that the opposition lies, as Solomon justly observes, “An unjust man is an abomination to the just, and he that is upright in the way, abomination to the wicked" (Prov. xxix. 27).

And though wicked persons are so far from the substance of wisdom, righteousness and truth, being made up themselves of clean contrary materials; yet they will dispute the title to these excellent properties, or to one of

them at least, not perceiving their identity-they will dispute the title to things that they hate particularly-hate above all things with their actual worshippers, with those who love, cherish, and enjoy them. Thus the fool will have his folly to be wisdom, his falsehood to be truth, and his captivity to be freedom. But as Moses told his foolish emulators, "To-morrow the Lord will show who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him” (Num. xvi. 5), so does he now continually: if there be any room for doubt the morrow shall decide. It is God's word, the word of the master, as before observed, that must indicate his work, showing what he owns by the riches of his grace, and by other unequivocal marks of his approbation; as David says, "O come hither and hearken, all ye that fear God; and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul" (Ps. lxvi. 14). "The Lord ordereth a good man's going, and maketh his way acceptable to himself” (Ib. xxxvii. 23). “He giveth wisdom to the wise" (Dan. ii. 21). "The works of his hands are verity and judgment: all his commandments are true” (Ps. cxi. 7); and his service, or obedience to the same commandments, is perfect freedom.

The same submission to the divine will that constitutes freedom in one department will constitute the same in another; and as the subjection of the will to God's makes righteousness, so that of the understanding will make wisdom: one, a free-will; the other, a free understanding. "And I will walk at liberty (says the Psalmist) for I seek thy commandments" (Ps. cxix. 45). This godly inclination is a sure sign of the Spirit of God, or of his spiritual presence: "and where the Spirit of the Lord is, (says St. Paul,) there is liberty " (Cor. II. iii. 17). This spiritual enjoyment of the Lord should be carefully distinguished from his empty profession; which is often found to be either an engine of tyranny, or a pretext for sedition. It has been said, and truly, that Christianity and slavery could never exist together: but it cannot be said, that the empty pro

fession of its divine truths may not exist with slavery, nor that it may not be promoted thereby. TRUE FREEDOM IS TO SERVE GOD FREELY, AND NOT TO USE OUR FREEDOM AS A CLOAK OF MALICIOUSNESS (Pet. I. ii. 16).

But the fool will have it, that his mode is freethinking; when he hates its very foundation, the word of God aforesaid; and will never look into it, without knowing why; except that he hates it. Of course he considers, that taking God's word cannot be thinking for himself as not being that to which he is addicted: but taking the way of the world is; taking the word of its infernal tyrant and his own must be, because to them he is addicted. It were well, if a fool could know something, that he might know whose word he takes before God's; it were well, if a fool could consider, that he might consider whose property he becomes by undoing, before his undoer shall put in a claim for the rubbish that may not be disputed. For, as Moses said of those before mentioned, "To-morrow the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy;" so may it be said of a foolish self-named freethinker, "To-morrow the devil will shew who are his, and who not holy."

The term Freethinking has been usually confined to the subject of religion: but there seems no reason, why it should not be applied likewise to any subject to which Wisdom can be applied, as it means no less. For Free thinking does not mean a boundless apprehension, nor an infallible memory, not an inevitable judgment, nor a spontaneous will, nor ceaseless imagination; but a wise apprehension, a wise memory, a wise judgment, a wise will, a wise imagination; an apprehension of the truth, a remembrance of the truth, a conviction of the truth, an enjoyment of the truth, an imagination of the truth; which however God reveals: it means in short A SUBJECTION OF THE INTELLECTUAL DEPARTMENT TO ITS RIGHTFUL SoVEREIGN, THE FOUNTAIN OF WISDOM AND TRUTH.

It would not be an unprofitable task, to trace the ves

tiges of wisdom or freethinking through every quarter of the intellectual departments minutely at present, if the present undertaking admitted of such a task; but as it is, the most that can be reasonably attempted is a very slight survey of the characteristic in either of the five principal divisions above mentioned as they follow successively, beginning with the first and fundamental particular: that is

d. Wisdom, or Truth of apprehension: a property in which may be found great room for miscarriage as well as improvement, and consequently for the use of precaution and diligence in respect of both. Its essential kinds were described as two under that head; external and internal: both of which are highly important in themselves, in the divine allotment on which they depend, in the effect of every individual life in which they are combined; and in the measure of retribution according to each respectively from the Almighty Creator, by Whom they are variously apportioned.

For in the particular quality of a man's external apprehension only, is often laid the foundation of his fortune here and his happiness hereafter; this being, as it were, the beginning of intellect. And the improvement of this beginning, as far as the subject is improveable, seems to be a duty that every man owes to his Maker as well as to himself and others; that his light may shine to the glory of God and the good of society as well as to his own honour and comfort. In this imperfect state of the human understanding, a selection and apprehension of objects convenient for the exercise and development of its interior properties, is as liable to be interrupted by mists and illusions, as the vision or any other sense by which objects are supplied to the outward apprehension, and even more than these. Therefore, to rectify the beginning of intelligence is a very material point; and no less is it to attend likewise soberly and anxiously to the inward process by which what were first only outward objects, and