ARTICLE II.
REMARKS UPON THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION.
We have waited with some little impatience for some time past, to see an article upon the philosophy of regeneration, based upon views in harmony with Scripture and the phrenological philosophy of the human mind. The third article in the first number of this Journal is very correct, as far as it goes, but cannot be considered as taking up the subject at the foundation. The truth is, the subject is one belonging to the clerical profession, and to some able divine who is heartily convinced of the truth of phrenology. To do justice to the subject, in all its length and breadth, its height and its depth, will require the hand of a master: and however well the work should be accomplished, it would be certain to meet with opposition from the ignorance, prejudice, and bigotry of some. This has doubtless been foreseen by those best qualified to enter upon the task, and the public mind has been left in the dark; and those who would seize a true mental philosophy as a pearl of great price, have been frightened from going out after it, because there was a “lion in their way.” But the subject cannot long remain in this state; things are coming to a crisis; the public will embrace phrenology, and trust to their own sagacity and comprehension to reconcile it with religious truth. If phrenologists and divines neglect to settle where the boundary lines are in the disputed territory, infidel trespassers will commit depredations. It is with a view to call attention to the subject rather than with any expectation of doing it justice, that we have resolved to prepare the present article.
That our readers may be emboldened to approach the subject, we beg of them to bear in mind that all truth, whether religious or scientific, historical or prophetical—whether rational or miraculous—when fully and rightly known and comprehended, must, from the nature of things, and the character of the Great Author of all truth, be consistent with itself.
Whenever, therefore, we see apparent inconsistency, we may rest assured we do not fully understand the whole truth; and that the reason is to be found either in our own ignorance, prejudice, or incapacity. There are indeed many truths wholly beyond human comprehension; and a miracle is nothing but a manifestation of power by the Almighty upon principles perfectly consistent with all his laws, but of which man, from his limited capacity, is unable to see the consistency.
We would never stifle enquiry short of the utmost limit of human capacity to pursue it; believing that when short and partial views of truth give wrong impressions, it is better to enlarge and perfect the view, so far as we are enabled to do, than to attempt to withdraw the mind, and suppress enquiry. This we think is especially correct in relation to all those truths which are so important to us, as are those which explain our character, condition, and future destiny.
Man is the only being on the face of the earth capable of being religious; or, in other words, he is the only being endowed with faculties whose functions are in relation to religious truths and to objects of religious worship. He is the only being whose faculties enable him to conceive of and worship the Author of his own existence. What a glorious distinction! and how little do most people seem to realise it! And on this glorious truth what additional light has been thrown by the discovery and analysis of the mental organs—by the demonstration that man possesses organs more numerous and of more exalted functions than belong to any other portion of his animal creation!
The faculties thus peculiar to man, and more especially connected with the religious character of man, are not, however, exclusively so. They have another range of functional relation and action. These two ranges of functional relation we will denominate, for the sake of perspicuity, the one religious and the other secular. By way of indulging in range of expression, and using language acceptable to several classes of Christians, we may occasionally speak of the one as sanctified or evangelical, and the other worldly or temporal. The faculties which come under this class, are those termed by phrenologists the higher sentiments. They are more particularly those denominated Reverence, Hope, Marvellousness, Ideality, Benevolence, and Conscientiousness. Some of these are more particularly connected with the religious character than others. This is the case with the three first named. They seem to be the earliest, deepest, and most abundant fountains of religious feeling. The others fall into a course of religious manifestation, and give consistency of life and practical goodness to what would otherwise end in mere worship, faith, and expectation. When the character is thoroughly and consistently religious—when religious principle has become, like a piece of leaven, operative until it has leavened the whole—then, indeed, all the faculties may be said in some sort to manifest a religious function. It is then that the propensities act in subordination to, and in harmony with, the higher sentiments while those sentiments take a religious direction. The higher sentiments may predominate over the propensities in the ordinary life and conversation of the merely moral man. Such a man may be honest, benevolent, respectable, and upright, and have his propensities in subjection. He may not only be punctual in attendance on divine worship, and unite in the services with some degree of attention and feeling, but he may even erect the domestic altar, and worship morning and evening, (because all this may be true with an individual without a just charge of hypocrisy,) and yet the individual may have no prevailing, predominating, or supreme love to God. This is the case with many persons who have been blessed with favourable organisations and education combined. But this is not that kind of control of the higher sentiments which characterises the converted and thoroughly religious man. A thoroughly religious man does all things as in the presence of God, and in obedience to his will; his thoughts are habitually upon divine things. We do not say of such an individual, that he has any more or other faculties than the irreligious and profane individual. Were it so, a religious man would be either something more than a man, or the irreligious would be something less. No, blessed be God, the vilest wretch that lives has all the primitive faculties necessary to enable him to feel and appreciate religious truth. We shall show by and by that what is called the new principle, which takes place, and which guides and animates the will of the religious man, is not a new faculty.
We have now, as we trust, explained satisfactorily, according to the phrenological philosophy of the mind, what the state of the religious and the moral or irreligious is. The difference between them is now very apparent. It is easily seen that this difference is very great. It is not a difference of being, or existence, or entity. It is not the difference between one that is active and one that is inactive. They are both progressive; they both use the same faculties. They are both travellers to eternity; but they go different roads. They follow the direction of different leaders; they think and talk of different subjects. They have different anticipations: one looks to a guide, and moves forward in the broad effulgent light of divine truth; the other endeavours to find his own way in the dark, and relies upon his own unaided sagacity. One looks forward to the end of the journey of life as the point whence open to his boundless view the glories of another and brighter world; the other feels himself at best but obliged to make a leap in the dark.
So recent is the science of phrenology, and so few are the religious minds who have thoroughly examined it in all its bearings, and more especially its religious bearings, that we feel constrained to detain our readers to explain some few of the laws which govern the functional activity of the faculties in general, and also to describe the functions of several of the faculties of the religious sentiments.
1. It is a law of the manifestation of the faculties in general, that the larger the organ the greater is its tendency to vigorous action under excitement, and the greater its tendency to spontaneity.