capacity' and that, in spite of the assertions of Rome and of Oxford to
the contrary, the apostolic injunction to every Christian to be ready
to render a reason 'for the hope that is in him,'--somewhat better than
that no reason of the Hindoo or the Hottentot, that he believes what he
is told, without any reason except that he is told it,--is an injunction
possible to obey.
____

As He 'who spake as never man spake' is pleased often to illustrate
the conduct of the Father of Spirits to his intelligent offspring by
a reference to the conduct which flows from the relations of the
human parent to his children, so the present subject admits of similar
illustration. What God does with us in that process of moral education
to which we have just adverted, is exactly what every wise parent
endeavours to do with his children,--though by methods, as we may
well judge, proportionably less perfect. Man too instinctively, or by
reflection, adapts himself to the nature of his children; and seeing
that only so far as it is justly trained can they be happy, makes the
harmonious and concurrent development of their reason and their faith
his object; he too endeavours to teach them that without which they
cannot be happy,--obedience, but a reasonable obedience He gives them,
in his general procedure and conduct, sufficient proof of his superior
knowledge, superior wisdom, and unchanging love; and secure in the
general effect of this, he leaves them to receive by faith many things
which he cannot explain to them if he would, till they get older; many
things which he can only partially explain; and others which he might
more perfectly explain, but will not, partly as a test of their docility
and partly to invite and necessitate the healthy and energetic exercise
of their reason in finding out the explanation for themselves. Confiding
in the same general effect of his procedure and conduct, he does not