Nathan Perkins

“ High, exalted and reverential thoughts of the Majesty of heaven and Earth, the great object of adoration and religious praise, are to be entertained. Before him angels bow. The homage of the heavenly world is paid with all lowliness and reverence. The blessed inhabitants, thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, all stand before the throne, and in all the ardour, purity and sublimity of heavenly worship, cry holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Who should not fear thee, O Lord, for thou only art holy is the language of celestial adoration. ”

“ The divine glory and the cause of the Gospel are to be supreme with us, higher than any temporal emolument. We must say, as David did, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth: if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. The interest of Christ’s kingdom and the honour of God are to be preferred above our chief joy. Our own pride, our own feelings, our own ease, honour, and wealth are never to be consulted at the expense of truth and duty, or the honour of Religion. ”

“ Even, in the countries blessed with the Gospel, what delusion, what Error, what superstition!—Without a divine Revelation all is darkness, in a moral view:—all is helpless and hopeless:—there is no pardon:—there is no salvation. Reason could never show one sin forgiven or lead a step beyond the grave—or have any idea of the resurrection of the body.
All mankind are, therefore, in themselves, without hope and without God in the world. Under all the pressures of adversity, or dismal pains and calamities of life, separate from revealed Religion, there is no relief for them. ”

“ We only know him, in a saving manner, when we know him, as glorious in holiness, wonderful in works, and fearful in praises:—as the greatest, the wisest and best of all beings;—as a sin-hating, and, at the same time, sin-pardoning God;—as infinitely gracious and merciful. We must see him as infinitely excellent and transcendantly glorious, as infinitely amiable and worthy of all possible praise and adoration. He is goodness and benevolence itself. He is possessed of all natural and moral perfections.—And, Jesus said, why callest thou me good? there is none good, but one that is God. ”

“ So far from having attained perfection, those who have the most grace and the deepest experience of religion, have innumerable sins daily to confess, many failings and deficiencies of duty, cold and dead frames, and much remaining corruption over which to mourn, and of which to repent. And the more holy any are, the more humble will they be, the more sensible of their sins, of their hypocrisy, their want of faith, of love, of hope, and of every grace; and of course the more ready will they be to cry out as St. Paul did, O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death! ”

“ To ask for his restraining power to preserve us from vice and temptation, and at the same time, to indulge ourselves in sin, and go in the way of temptations is hypocrisy. To implore the gracious aids of the holy Ghost to purify our souls, to enlighten our understandings—to subdue our stubborn wills—to enable us to cultivate the benevolence, meekness, and humility—the peaceableness, forgiving, condescending temper of Christianity, and not, at the same time, endeavour to act up to those glorious principles, is to show that we are but feigned petitioners for the blessings we devoutly crave. ”

“ Here sin stains our best duties. Imperfections cleave to all our warmest devotions. Clouds of error obstruct the clear and full view of truth. We know but in part, we prophesy but in part. Our harps are hung on the willows. A dead languor rests on all our religious performances. But in heaven there will be no cold hearts—no dissenting voices.—Perfect love will animate all the worshippers in the realms of eternal day. They are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. ”

“ Religion sheds indeed a most benign influence on society. Civil government and true liberty receive support and authority from it. It enforces all good laws by the powerful ties of conscience. It breaths forth ardent prayers to almighty God for the tranquillity of the public—for the divine smiles to rest on rulers and ruled—and on all the various orders of the community—that vice and all land-defiling sins may be suppressed—and that the righteousness which exalteth a nation may flourish. Besides one essential part of Religion is morality. There can be no true Religion without morality. ”

“ Though no pure Church is to be seen on earth, and the idea of it, be a vain and delusive one, yet all the real friends of the Gospel ought to strive to have the greatest purity in doctrines—in worship—in discipline, in ordinances, and conduct. That Church is the purest, which is the most scriptural in its doctrines, ordinances and worship, discipline, and manners. Churches should take the greatest care to be built upon the only foundation, the order and faith of the Gospel, rejecting all human inventions and traditions, having the word of God for their only rule of faith and practice. ”

“ Had we no divine revelation, or suppose God never gave one to man, at all, but had left him to the mere light of his own mind to find out the paths of duty and of felicity, we should be indispensably obliged to pay honor and homage to the ruler of the world. If we can prove that he made us, and is the Creator of all things, we can, also, prove that we ought to fear, reverence and worship him. That the Maker of the world, the Father of our spirits and former of our bodies, deserves our grateful acknowledgements and devout adorations, is one of the most obvious dictates of reason. ”

“ Providence has seen fit to strow the path of life with painful sorrows, that we may not be too fond of a dying world, or its dying comforts; or seek for a rest here. Every thing sublunary is continually shifting, and, like the moon, never keeps the same face long. Time like fire is wasting, consuming and changing every thing upon which it preys: and like fire too, when it has no more fuel to feed it, it will itself be extinguished,—and be no more. ”

“ Where shall the vile monster, the impious wretch be found who will rise up and impeach the holiness, wisdom and benevolence of God, because he is a sovereign?—Let such if any there be come forward and make good their charge, for their controversy is with the Almighty. By him we are told that we are vile, guilty, perishing, and ill-deserving sinners, that there is no principle in us, while unrenewed, that is sufficient, duly cultivated, to our salvation. Such as affirm that there is, must dispute it out, with him whose is the Universe, whose is the power and glory. ”

“ An invisible God—an incensed Judge is an alarming thought. The anxious enquiry is wherewith shall we come before him—and bow ourselves before a holy and pure God? Mere reason cannot satisfy the enquiry. It knows not how we may come before him, or with what sacrifices he will be pleased. Being truly humbled and deeply grieved for our offences seems the most natural way of hoping for pardon and acceptance. But, whether a holy and righteous sovereign, on our repentance, can forgive us consistently with his glories, or the safety of his Universe, reason cannot inform us. ”

“ We must rest satisfied that God is always guided by infinite wisdom, knowledge, and goodness. It was at his mere sovereign pleasure, whether to vouchsafe a revelation of his will to man, or to leave him to the sole guidance of reason in matters of Religion, and to the fatal effects of his Apostacy. But when he determined upon granting him one, he was bound by his eternal attributes, wisdom, knowledge and goodness to grant one clear, full, and sufficient: to be an infallible guide—to be above all others—and to be always regarded, as the only standard of truth and duty. ”

“ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. To say that we have no sin, is to say that we do not offend in heart or conduct against God or his law; against the Saviour of the world or his Gospel; against our duty to our neighbour or ourselves. To say that we have no sin, is to say that we are entirely free from any remains of corrupt nature, any evil passion or propensity, and totally pure as the angels of God in heaven, according to the measure of our rational powers and faculties.—Now if we say this, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ”

“ I am as much averse to religion as ever: as dishonest and unjust as ever: as ignorant and blind as ever, having no knowledge of one duty, doctrine, ordinance, or virtue of Religion—as profane, as hard-hearted, as unkind, as brutal in my manners and temper as ever, as intemperate and villainous as ever. ”

“ He is the king immortal, eternal, invisible. He dwells in light unapproachable and full of glory. He is the blessed and only Potentate, gracious, merciful, slow unto anger, long-suffering—forgiving iniquity transgression and sin, but will by no [p. 86] means clear the guilty. The heavenly arches resound with his praises. The temple of the universe is filled with his presence. All nature exhibits his glory. ”

“ It is becoming fashionable not only to disesteem, but to speak lightly of the worship of the supreme Being, the fountain of all existence and blessedness. It is to be deeply regretted, that, by many his name is profaned, his sabbaths disregarded, his ordinances neglected, and all worship of him habitually omitted. Nay, it is even with one class of people, whose number is not inconsiderable, growing into a maxim, or kind of aphorism, that all Religion consists in doing right between man and man, in promoting the temporal welfare, the order, and best civil good of society. ”

“ The tongue which speaks evil of Virtue and the pure doctrines of the Gospel, and which advocates the cause of vice, is doing untold mischief to society and the public morals.—Much more extensive is the mischief produced by the pen, which is employed to recommend, to colour over, and spread Vice and error, infidelity and immorality. Happy for society, happy for the world, would it have been if the learned had never devoted genius, science, and talents to the cause of Vice! But error as well as truth, Vice as well as Virtue will have advocates to plead in their defence. ”

“ No one can be accepted of God, or be blessed, who omits duty knowingly and habitually. No one can be miserable who conscientiously attends to the whole of his duty, as revealed to him in the Oracles of truth. Holiness, then, is our highest interest, and the Supreme Good. The way that leadeth to life, is the way of obedience—of self-denial—of faith—of hope—of repentance—of humility—of meekness—of patience—of all moral goodness. ”

“ If any Christians or Ministers of the Gospel in the ordinary ages of Christianity have the extraordinary gifts or miraculous teachings and powers of the holy Ghost, his immediate inspiration, they would be infallible guides in things of religion, both doctrines and worship. They would be so, as much as, and precisely in the same sense as the Apostles. But to admit that all real Christians, or true Gospel-Ministers are infallible guides in the Church, would be to admit a principle dangerous to the very existence of all religion, and which would inevitably overturn the whole Gospel. ”

“ Nay, the power of sympathy—our wish to stand fair in the estimation of each other—the passion of shame—and sense of decency may all, by our being together statedly, in holy time, for the purposes of religious worship, be brought to contribute their proportion to advance the interests of morality, and human happiness. The benevolent lover of God and order—the well-wisher to man’s best and real good—and the peace and happiness of society will stand in a kind of pleasing transport and rapturous gratitude, at the wisdom and goodness of God in appointing public worship. ”

“ One cause no doubt is that false principles are pleasing to depraved nature. But the truth, in things moral and divine, though approved of by natural conscience and reason, is never approved of by the unsanctified heart. To receive the truth in the love of it, is the mark of a gracious state. It is one of the most amiable tempers which man ever exercises.—It is also melancholy to think, that persons who have embraced error, are far more anxious to gain proselytes to their false creed, than to promote peace, charity and holy living. ”

“ Doctor Blair, speaking of the house of mourning, has the following very just thoughts. “Moreover you would there learn,” says he, “the important lesson of suiting your mind, beforehand, to what you had reason to expect from the world; a lesson too seldom studied by mankind, and to the neglect of which, much of their misery, and much of their guilt is to be charged. By turning away their eyes from the dark side of life—by looking at the world only in one light, and that a flattering one—they form their measures on a false plan, and are necessarily deceived and betrayed. ”

“ Men of shining talents, and whose zeal for purity of doctrines and worship is equal to their talents are raised up, in happy succession, to oppose error, and to plead the cause of Zion; who are as polished shafts in the quiver of God; and who are honoured as eminent instruments of promoting the truth.—A few years may produce, in the same place or Country, a melancholy reverse. Truth may be greatly opposed. Errors of a very alarming nature may suddenly arise. Zion may be clothed in sackcloth, and be bathed in tears. Public worship may be deserted. Divine ordinances may be denied or disregarded. ”

“ None in justice can urge that, what is necessary, in the preceptive part of scripture, is beyond their abilities to comprehend, or that it is not reconcilable to reason. To every eye, though weak, the great outlines of duty are visible. Who is, or need be ignorant of what will infallibly ensure his complete and eternal felicity? If suitable pains be taken, and the necessary helps used, who doth not or may not understand the main branches of his duty to God, to the Saviour, to man, and to himself? What is the chief end of man? ”