ADVERTISEMENT.

SOME of the Lectures in this volume were written, and first delivered in Dedham, Mass., while I was pastor of the first Congregational church in that place. Others were prepared in Middlebury, Vt., during the period of my connection with Middlebury College, and addressed to the students of that Institution. Others still, were written in the city of Washington, D. C., and delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives, while I was acting as chaplain of the TwentySixth Congress of the United States, in the winter of 1839 and 1840.

They are now, in connection with two or three discourses, more recently prepared, committed to the press, by the request of particular friends, and with the hope, that they will be acceptable and useful to all who read them.

DUDLEY, MARCH 20, 1846.

JOSHUA BATES.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

MAN IMMORTAL AND ACCOUNTABLE; a doctrine of Natural Religion, confirmed by Revelation; opening a source of consolation for the afflicted, prompting to holy action, and taking away, from the practical believer, the fear of death,

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LECTURE II.
IN TWO PARTS.

THE SCRIPTURES THE ONLY SUre Guide of LIFE; with remarks on the manner of using them, so as to secure this guidance; or the insufficiency of Instinct and Conscience and Reason, without the aid of Revelation, to bring men to the knowledge of religious truth and the practice of virtue, and thus to lead them to happiness and heaven,

LECTURE III.

29

CHRISTIAN FAITH THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER; a faith implying confidence in the testimony of God concerning his Son, involving a concurrence of the will and affections with the conviction of the understanding, furnishing a principle of holy obedience to divine authority, and laying the only sure foundation for Christian character,

LECTURE IV.

53

CHRISTIAN COURAGE; or courage united with fortitude, under the influence of Christian principle, necessary to exalted Christian character; and when thus united and directed productive of the highest happiness and the most extended usefulness,

LECTURE V.

68

CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; as distinguished from Christian faith and human learning; growing out of Christian experience and holy action; enlarging the capacity for enjoyment and increasing the power of doing good; and furnishing the only security against Bigotry and Fanaticism,

LECTURE VI.

80

TEMPERANCE OR SELF-GOVERNMENT; under the influence of Christian principle, restraining passion, guiding appetite and regulating all the affections of the soul,

. 94

LECTURE VII.

CHRISTIAN PATIENCE; as opposed to a peevish, restless, insubmissive spirit; as distinguished from Stoical insensibility; and as comprehending all that is implied in the terms contentment, meekness, and submission to the will of God,

LECTURE VIII.

111

CHRISTIAN PIETY, OR GODLINESS; implying the reverential fear of God, connected with supreme love to him, as it exists in a heart renewed by divine grace; together with appropriate, verbal expressions of these high and holy sentiments; and a correspondent course of conduct, in all the relations and duties of life,

124

LECTURE IX.

BROTHERLY KINDNESS OR BROTHERLY LOVE; a holy affinity, or that modification of Christian charity, which embraces, with peculiar tenderness of affection, those who bear the image of Christ; and regards them not only with good-will, but with complacency, as members of the "household of faith," 138

LECTURE X.

CHRISTIAN CHARITY OR BENEVOLENCE; a universal principle of goodwill; embracing all mankind; wishing well to all, friends and foes, countrymen and foreigners, Jews and Gentiles; and doing good to all as far as its power extends, and as often as opportunity for action is presented, 150

LECTURE XI.

SYMMETRY OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER; the union of all the Christian graces and virtues in a consistent, finished Christian character; with an attempt to furnish a discriminating view of those traits, which are necessary to constitute such a character; distinguished from those, which are occasionally developed and called into exercise, and which, when thus developed and exercised, are always subservient to the completeness and elevation of character and happiness, 167

LECTURE XII.

CHRISTIAN DILIGENCE; or the agency and activity of man in forming a Christian character, and in securing salvation; in connection with dependence on divine mercy and grace,

LECTURE XIII.

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CHRISTIAN DEVOTION OR SPIRITUAL WORSHIP; an answer to the inquiry, what constitutes acceptable worship, under the Christian dispensation; with incidental remarks on Forms of worship and Ecclesiastical organizations,'

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