and admonishing one another. And Heb. iii., 13, Exhort one another daily; (x., 24), Let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works. Thus the Christians were to exhort each other to what was good; to admonish and warn them who were in danger of transgression; and if need were, to rebuke transgressors (1 Tim. v., 20).

732. The notion of Mutual Instruction in Religion so familiarly occurs in the writings of the Apostles, that the metaphor by which it is expressed no longer suggests the figure from which it was originally derived. A Christian's mind is edified, that is, literally, built up, by religious instruction: indeed the term instruction itself has, originally, nearly the same sense. Thus Acts xx., 32, The word of his grace is able to build you up. Col. ii., 7, Walk ye in Christ, rooted and built up in him. And in this sense, the term Edification (oikodoμì) is commonly used; as 1 Cor. xiv., 3, He that prophesieth speaketh to edification.*

733. As a necessary requisite of their common and mutual culture, it is the duty of Christians to preserve, unimpaired and pure, the Truth originally revealed through Christ. (Jude 3), It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. St. Paul says to Timothy (2 Tim. i., 10), Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. It

* In other cases, however, the metaphor is differently applied, when mention is made of building up a Church, as a body of Christians; as Rom. xv., 20; and under this form of expression, the duty is often enjoined; as Eph. iv., 29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying (προς οἰκοδομὴν της Xpsias). So Rom.xiv., 19; xv., 2. 1 Cor. xiv., 5. 1 Thess. v., 11.

is plain that the good thing thus committed to Christian ministers was Christian Truth. So St. Paul again (1 Tim. i., 11 and 18), The glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.... This charge commit I unto thee, son Timothy. And those who deviate from the truth of the Gospel, are spoken of with strong condemnation. Thus (Gal. i., 7), There are some that trouble you, and would prevent the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be accursed: which condemnation he instantly and emphatically repeats (ver 9). St. Peter says (2 Pet. ii., 1), There shall be false teachers among you who shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them. St. John (2 John 10), If there come any man to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not in your house, neither bid him God speed.

Thus, as unbelief and false doctrine are calamities to our own souls, and, in that sense at least, transgressions against ourselves; the promulgation of false doctrine, or of unbelief among others, are evil done to them, and violations of Christian Duty.

734. To this condemnation of religious unbelief and false doctrine, objections are sometimes, urged of the following kind: That thus to declare one selected form of Opinion to be the only form which men can blamelessly entertain, is hurtful to the Progress of Truth; for the Progress of Truth among men requires free Inquiry and Freedom of Opinion that free Inquiry is a Right, and the Love of Truth a Duty; both of which are infringed by proscribing certain condemned Opinions, since these may be the very Opinions to which the Love of Truth and the pursuit of Inquiry lead some men: that our supposition that our Opinions are true, and the contrary ones false, is mere assumption, which may with equal Right be made on the other side:

and that a condemnation of men, founded upon this assumption, is, therefore, unjust and unreasonable.

735. In reply we say, that, in other subjects than Religion, men do not proceed on the supposition that persons holding two opposite Opinions have each an equal Right to assume his Doctrine to be the true one that on the contrary, we go upon the supposition that there is Truth and Falsehood, as well as mere Opinion; and we condemn the man who holds false opinions, when he has had the means of knowing the Truth. If a geographer reasons on the hypothesis that the earth is flat, not round; if a physician gives his direction on the supposition that a wellknown poisonous drug is harmless: we do not say that he is blameless, and has a Right to his Opinion. We think him foolish and irrational; and if his error lead to mischief, we blame him as criminal. In like manner we go, and must go, upon the supposition that, in Morality and Religion, as well as Geography and Physiology, there is a Truth which it is the Duty of every one to hold; or, at least, without which his Progress towards Truth is altogether incomplete. If a man stop short of this point, or turn aside in any other direction, he must be in the wrong. Whether we call him culpable or unhappy, he is at least not moral and religious. And when he attempts to draw other people after him in his error, we cannot abstain from condemning him.

736. The belief in the coincidence of Virtue with Happiness, in the long run, depends upon the belief in God's government of the world; and thus, this belief is the foundation of Morality. Without this belief, the Conceptions of Duty, and of right and wrong, have no reality and no force. When we say that the Love of Truth is a duty, we cannot so un derstand the word Truth, that there shall be no such thing as Duty. If the Love of Truth be a Duty, Truth must include the foundation of the reality of

Duty; which is, as we have said, the belief in God. And so, of the Right of free Inquiry; there cannot be a Right of free Inquiry in such a sense, that Inquiry may lead to the result that nothing is right or wrong. If there be a Right of Inquiry, there must be some real basis of Rights; which, without the belief in God, there cannot be.

737. The general judgment of mankind has given its sanction to these views. As we have already said (405), men do not consider those persons to be blameless who hold immoral Principles: and in like manner, they have always bestowed strong condemnation on those persons who have rejected or opposed that belief in God, which, in common apprehension, as in reality, is the necessary basis of Morality. Atheists have always been odious. The universal voice of human nature has pronounced condemnation on those who say, "There is no God." The Right and the Duty of Inquiry have always been asserted in vain, when Inquiry has led to this result. Men have constantly, and everywhere, felt that the Right and Duty of Inquiry could not be things more certain, than the being of God, who made them able to inquire and to conceive Duty. And the Atheist has been regarded as a man who broke a universal and fundamental tie, by which all mankind are held together; and hence has been looked upon as a common enemy.

738. The mere belief in God, on grounds of Reason, is too vague and incomplete a doctrine to satisfy men. If there be a Creator and Moral Governor of the world, there must be also a Providential Government of the world. The History of Man must bear traces of the Mind of God. The first origin of man on earth, for instance, cannot be an event in the common course of things; and we can easily conceive this origin of man to have been accompanied by something of the nature of a Reve

lation. Men have everywhere felt, thoughtful men still feel, the need of something more than our natural powers afford, to purify and elevate their minds. To carry on the Moral Progress of man, the Ancient World needed to be transformed into the Modern World; but this could not take place by natural means. The Christian sees the only consistent and possible solution of these difficulties, in the Christian Revelation; according to which the coming of Christ upon earth is the Central Point in the Providential History of the world; giving definiteness to the relations of God and man; and supplying the needs of man's spiritual nature. Thus, he sees, in Revealed Religion, the necessary completion of Natural Religion; and is compelled to look upon the infidel, who does not believe in Christ, as believing in God to no purpose. The Christian judges, as we have already said, that such unbelief is either a violation of Duty, or a calamity which produces the same effect upon the person's mind as a transgression of Duty; since, without a belief in Christ, a man cannot have the benefits which Christ's coming brings to believers. And the promulgation of such infidel doctrines, he deems to be a heavy calamity to those who fall under such influence. The tie of a common belief in God is, among Christians, identified with the tie of a common belief in Christ; and hence, he who denies the truth of the Christian Revelation, is necessarily looked upon in nearly the same light as the Atheist.

739. It by no means follows, that we check or limit the Progress of Speculative Truth among men, when we condemn the denial of certain fundamental Principles which are assumed in the very idea of Speculative Truth. Such Principles, are these :that there is a difference of true and false; a distinction of right and wrong; that there is a God who gives reality to that distinction; that there is a duty of unlimited progress towards what is right. These