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SECTION LVI.

On the Peace of God, that calm and composed State, which is produced by the Christian Philosophy, and is unknown to the Epicurean, Stoic, and all other Philosophy, ancient and modern.

A GENERAL prospect of human life presents a scene of turbulence, of which the troubled ocean is an emblem. But there is a sweet, a peaceable, a tranquil state of self-possession, whether external circumstances are prosperous or adverse, which constitutes the most solid happiness of which human nature is capable. This enjoyment, arising from moderate desires, a regulated imagination, lively hopes, and full confidence in the Deity, is that chief good, which philosophers have vainly sought in the schools, by the strongest efforts of unassisted reason. What then can point it out, if reason, improved by science to the highest degree, has not been able to find it? The answer is ob. vious. The religion of Jesus Christ offers to its sincere votaries the peace of God, which passeth all understanding;' a kind and degree of happiness, which no language can clearly express; which the understanding cannot adequately conceive, though the heart can feel it, with the most delightful experience.

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"The peace of God," (says the world,) is it?" They know it not. Many have no conception of happiness, independent of external

circumstances; the toys of childhood protracted to age. They do not search for it in themselves, but in the eyes of the world. All their enjoyments must be violent, sensual, or, at least, ostentatious. Admire them, talk of them, flatter them; let the diurnal papers exhibit their names in capitals, and fashion crowd to their door; let their equipages be splendid, and their mansions magnificent, their egress and regress recorded in the daily histories, or they sicken in the midst of health; they pine in the midst of abundance; the rose on their bosoms loses its fragrance; the honey on their palates, its flavour. To be celebrated, even for folly, even for vice, is to them an enviable notoriety; to be unnoticed in public circles, in the midst of every real blessing and solid comfort at home, infuses a bitter into all those sweets, which God in his bounty has lavished.

But the felicity arising from the peace of God is neither the tumultuous ecstacy of the fanatic, nor the noisy merriment of the prodigal. It seek no plaudits, it makes no parade. It blazes not out like the sudden eruptions of a volcano; but burns like the vestal fire, clear and constant, with a warmth that invigorates, without scorching; with a light that illuminates, without dazzling the visual faculty.

Thus desirable, how is the peace of God to be obtained? It is an important question. Let us enter on the research. If we enter on it with dispositions truly humble and sincere, there is little doubt but we shall experience the truth of that comfortable declaration : Ask, and it shall be "given; seek, and ye shall find.'

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What said the wisdom of pagan antiquity, on the means of securing peace or tranquillity? Much that was plausible; little to the purpose.

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It was the advice of an ancient philosopher : Subject yourself to reason, and you shall be reduced to no other subjection." Experience, however, has evinced that human reason, under a variety of circumstances, is too weak and fallible to be depended upon, for the full security of human happiness. What he vainly attributed to reason, may with justice be ascribed to religion. Religion, duly understood, and duly attended to, is capable of giving much of that freedom from passion and perturbation, to which philosophy in vain pretended. Not that I mean to arrogate too much, or claim more than truth and experience will allow, even in favour of religion. While man preserves the nature which God gave him, he must continue subject to the transient impulse of those sensations from external objects which excite passion, and disturb repose.

All I contend for is, that religion, vital religion, the religion of the heart, is the most powerful auxiliary of reason, in waging war with the passions, and promoting that sweet composure which constitutes the peace of God. Reason may point out what is right, but she wants authority in the minds of most men, to enforce obedience to her commands. Here religion steps in with majestic mien, and gives the sanction of a law to the dictates of discretion.

I recommend, therefore, to him who wishes to obtain the peace of God, a diffidence in human reason, however strong by nature, and however improved by study. A confidence in it leads to

that pride which God resisteth. But I mean this diffidence to be chiefly confined to the operations of reason in religious disquisitions. Things above reason are not to be rejected as contrary to reason, but to be received with a reverential awe, and a devout submission of the understanding to the God who gave it.

He, then, who wishes to tranquillize his bosom, must have recourse to more powerful medicines than those of an empirical philosophy. Philosophy has been tried, from the earliest ages to the present hour, with little success. Philosophy is cold and inactive. She may influence and direct the understanding; but she cannot warm the affections with the love of God and virtue. Sentiment is necessary to impel the heart, to guide or regulate even the virtuous passions; and no sentiment is so efficacious for this purpose as the devotional. The word of God,' as the strong language of Scripture expresses it, is quick and powerful, 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.'

From the shallow streams of philosophy we must hasten to the living fountain of the Christian religion. It is the influence of God on the heart of man, the divine operation of the Holy Spirit on the spirit of human creatures, which alone can bestow a permanent tranquillity; that peace of God which passeth all understanding; that peace, which no human eloquence can clearly explain; which no human sagacity can, by its own unassisted efforts, procure; but which the devout heart of the believer feels with joy and gratitude.

This is the polar influence which can alone fix the tremulous needle, and point it directly to Heaven; streaming into the heart of man an emanation of divinity.

Let us then take a view of the fruits of the Spirit, as they are beautifully described by the apostle. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.'-These lovely virtues have a natural tendency to produce equanimity, selfpossession, a serene, placid, delightful frame of mind, such as the sages of old conceived, indeed, but could not either procure or communicate. These make an earth a heaven, and render it evident, beyond a doubt, that the true Christian, after all the boasts of the gay voluptuary, is the real man of pleasure.

The worldly man of pleasure is, indeed, for the most part, a man of pleasure only in name. His pains, upon the whole, greatly outweigh his pleasures; or his insensibility, contracted by excess, leaves him in the midst of all that luxury can spread before him, in a state very remote from the enjoyments of the temperate, humble, and sincere believer.

It would not be right to describe things in a declamatory and rhetorical manner, so as to violate the truth of representation, for the sake of maintaining even the cause of religion. But expe

rience will justify me in asserting, that the numerous tribes in the gay and elevated circles, who pursue happiness in dissipation only, and never think of God, but to swear with levity by his name, exhibit many external signs of singular irritation, and peculiar misery. They appear to have no

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