But we have already said (446), that Ignorance and Errour with regard to Moral Principles are not acknowledged, either by Moralists, or by men in general, to be invincible, and therefore excusable. We have stated that there is a Duty of thinking rationally; and that a man is not excusable who denies the Duties of Kindness, Justice, and Truth. We further remarked (445), that if such Errour were not an offense, it would be a calamity which must produce the same effect as an offense, upon man's destination. It must exclude him from that consummation of a good man's life, whatever it be, to which a continual moral progress leads; and to miss which is unhappiness.

719. What was thus said of Moral Errour, must be said also of Religious Unbelief. A man is not excusable who disbelieves the Existence of God, for this is to disbelieve the identity of Virtue with happiness (565), and consequently the reality of Morality. A man is not excusable who disbelieves the Providential Government of the world; for we cannot believe God's Government to be a Moral Government, and yet to have no influence on the course of the world which he has created.

720. And the same must be extended to Disbelief in Revealed Religion. For the Christian Religion is the necessary completion of Natural Religion. The History of Christ and of Christianity is the Fact, by which alone the Idea of the Providential Government of the world is realized (581). Christian Morality is the necessary confirmation and purification of the Morality of Reason. And the Christian view of God's Provisions, for the salvation of men's souls, is necessary to give effect to men's Repentance, and to their efforts at Continual Moral Progress. A person, therefore, to whom the Truths brought to light by the Christian Revelation have been fully presented, and who disbelieves them, is as blameable, or as unhappy, as a man would be, who should

deny the Government of Providence, the reality of Morality, the necessity of Repentance in Transgressors, and of moral Progress in all men.

721. It may be objected to this, that a large portion of the human race lived before the coming of Christ on earth; and a large portion of those who have lived since that event, have not had Christian Doctrine presented to them; that for the former, there was no Christian Revelation to believe; and for the latter, no means of coming to the belief of it that belief in the Christian Religion could not be necessary for the moral progress and final happiness of those portions of mankind; and therefore, cannot be generally necessary for the moral progress and final happiness of man; that therefore, Belief in Christian Doctrine cannot be a Duty, nor Unbelief culpable.

To this we reply, that those who have not had Christian Truths presented to them, are not blameable for their ignorance of them. Christianity is a Fact: the coming of Christ on earth is a Fact; and the Disclosures made by him and his Disciples, concerning God's dealings with men, are Facts, which men could not know by the aid of Reason alone. Involuntary Ignorance of Facts is not culpable, as we have already said (439). But this does not excuse those to whom these Facts have been presented with adequate evidence. Such persons fall under the blame which lies upon all persons who neglect or reject the evidence of Facts, which are of the highest importance in the right conduct of their lives.

722. When it is said, that because the belief in Christian Religion was not necessary for the moral progress and final happiness of the ancients, or the heathen, who never heard of Christ, therefore it cannot be necessary for us; we reply, that our moral progress is checked and destroyed, if we willingly stop, when we might go further; and if we do not use means of advance which are presented to us.

Christianity affords to us means of moral progress, which the ancients and the heathen had not. If we refuse these, we are not in the condition in which they were, who never had them offered. If we reject the opportunity of becoming, in the especial Christian sense, the sons of God, we are in a very different condition from the pious heathen, who did all that their light enabled them to do, in order to approach to God. And this may be said, without our knowing, what perhaps the Christian revelation does not very distinctly teach; the nature of the advantage, in the condition of final happiness to which man's moral and religious progress leads, which the man, who has lived in Christian light, has, over the devout heathen who lived in unavoidable darkness.

723. In stating that men are blameable in disbelieving truths, after they have been promulgated, though they are ignorant without blame, before the promulgation; we follow the judgment of mankind, as formed in other similar cases. We attribute to a man an intellectual fault, we despise him as ignorant and confused in his thoughts, who thinks the earth to be flat, now, that it has so long been ascertained to be globular. We regard him as blind and foolish, if now he is not satisfied that the earth moves round the sun; though for so many centuries, the wisest and most clearsighted of men never doubted that the earth was at rest. When such truths are once indisputably established as facts, we cannot help condemning those who reject the evidence of them. They violate the Duty of rational thought, of which we have spoken (446). And this is still more the case, in regard to moral truths. We excuse those who in early and rude stages of society practise or praise plunder of strangers, slavery, polygamy, concubinage; but when the progress of the Standard of Morality (461) has shown that such things are immoral; if any one among us defends such practices, we no longer think him free from blame. We are indignant at

the low morality of his doctrines; or at least we lament his moral blindness as his calamity. And in like manner with regard to Religion, although we do not blame, for their religious ignorance, the ancients, who could not know the Revelation of Christ; and the heathen, to whom it has not been preached; we do not excuse the moderns, who, now that there has taken place this great Revelation, elevating the moral views and spiritual hopes of men, refuse to believe the Truths thus established. They who do this, reject a light which has come into the world; and the blindness in which they remain is not only their misfortune, but their fault.

724. This view of the Duty of accepting Christian Truth; namely, that the Duty is incumbent upon men according to the opportunities which belong to their condition; agrees with the lessons of the Christian teachers. The duty of Believing in Christ, of accepting Religious Truth in general, is strongly urged by Christ and his Apostles. Yet this is not urged without regard to difference of opportunities. Christ taught (Luke xii. 48), Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. When St. Paul preached to the Athenians, after describing their past idolatry, he added (Acts xvii. 30), And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent. To the same effect, he preached at Lystra (xiv. 15), The living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: in time past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways: nevertheless he left not himself without witness. This was joined with an exhortation to turn, now at length, to the living God. The whole scheme of the Christian Religion represented the Jewish Dispensation as an inferior and preparatory condition; in which men did not see the meaning and tendency of the commands which they obeyed, and were

to be judged according to the imperfect light which they thus possessed. The Epistle to the Hebrews states this. (Heb. i. 1), God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son; and then goes on to explain the superiority of Christ, in nature and office, to the ministers of the Old Testament. Again, St. Paul says (Rom. ii. 12), As many as have sinned without law (the law of Moses), shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. So in St. John (xv. 22), Christ says, If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin, but now have they no excuse (pópaow) for their sin.

725. When the Truth of the Gospel is presented to men, those who do not accept it are charged with blindness and hardness of heart. Thus (Mark vi. 52), They considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. And when the Disciples referred his warnings to earthly matters, Christ said (Mark viii. 17), Perceive ye not, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? So (Mark iii. 5). And (John xii. 40), the expressions of Isaiah are applied to the Jews who had seen the miracles of Christ, and did not believe: He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart: that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted. So Acts xix. 9, Divers were hardened, and believed not. And Christ (Mark xvi. 14) appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief, and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus he said (Luke xxiv. 25), O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!