BOOK III. REFLECTIONS UPON THE INSTINCTIVE MOVING PRINCIPLES OF MAN, AS CONNECTED WITH OUR SUBJECT. N CHAPTER I. THE CONCLUSIONS HERETOFORE OBTAINED NOT TO BE SHAKEN BY THE POWER OF THE INSTINCTIVE MOVING PRINCIPLES. THE HIGHER PARTS OF OUR NATURE DESIGNED TO GOVERN THE LOWER. THUS far our inquirer has been mainly occupied in considering what may be termed the higher part of man's nature; and has arrived at conclusions from which we trust he will not be shaken. He has likewise admitted what we may call instinctive moving principles, love and hope, recognised in Scripture, and naturally holding a place in the human heart. He has allowed too, that if for no other reason than to assist man's weakness, particular maxims ought to be treasured up in his mind; and approving and loving such maxims, he will again be moved as it were instinctively to action. It would not indeed be difficult to imagine a being of strong and resolute mind, who might, at all times and under all circumstances, clearly perceive what was true and right, and at once act comformably. This however does not seem suitable to our ideas of a created and dependent, much less a fallen being. It is certainly not the state of man. It is possible too to conceive a creature, of whom what has been prominently exhibited in our former books might be the characteristic features, and nothing more. Such however is not our condition. Our inquirer then having not yet taken a sufficient survey of his position, it will behove him still more accurately to look around. At the commencement of his investigation, he had smarted from pain and betaken himself to abstract meditation. Hence he had been well-nigh disposed, if possible, wholly to eject the moving principles from which, not having duly regu-. lated them, he had suffered. But the remedy would have been stronger than the disease needed. Men do not altogether quench fire because houses and even towns have sometimes been burnt: water is useful, though floods have desolated whole districts. Moreover even Scripture has shewn that love and hope must be admitted. Hunger and thirst at least we cannot expel; which are recognised too in Scripture, as well as the other appetite common to man and the brutes. But the Apostle also tells us to " rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep."* At the tomb of Lazarus "Jesus wept."+ St. Paul writes, "Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death." On one occasion Jesus looked round about upon the by-standers "with anger, being grieved for the heardness of their hearts."|| So “Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath."§ Though we are told that "perfect love casteth out fear," still our Saviour bids us "fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell."** Again, if we are to propose to ourselves good objects, and pray for their accomplishment, how can we but desire them? Desire indeed is included in our notions of love and hope. We have likewise continual warnings against pride, hatred, envy, revenge. Scripture too being addressed to men, and claiming authority to exercise power in their hearts, and a part of the evidence which supports it being its suitableness to the nature of men, it would indeed be strange if it did not take account of these emotions; which, as our * Rom. xii. 15. Mark. iii. 5. **Luke xii. 9. † John xi. 35. § Eph. iv. 26. 2 Cor. vi. 10. ¶ 1 John iv. 18. |