II.
OBEDIENCE.
Two things are requisite to make a perfect man, namely Truth and Love; or, what is the same, Faith and Life; or, what is still the same, Acknowledgment and Obedience. The reason why these two are necessary, is, because God Himself is essentially Love and Wisdom, or Goodness and Truth, united: and man was created to be "His image and likeness." Man was formed with two mental receptacles, intended to receive these two Divine principles respectively, as they flow in to the mind from God. These receptacles are the understanding and the will: the understanding, to receive wisdom or truth, and the will, to receive goodness or love. And these two divisions of the mind, although distinct, must yet be in perfect unison, to make a true and complete man. If these two parts of the mind be not in perfect harmony, the mind is so far defective: if they be in complete opposition, the mind is chaotic and ruined,—it is a divided mind, and at war with itself. For instance, suppose the understanding to be well instructed and informed, and thus well stored with truth, and yet the will to be full of evil, instead of goodness, full of hate instead of love, full of selfishness instead of affection,—that mind is in a state of essential distraction and self-conflict. The truth in the understanding continually teaches what is right, but the will loves what is wrong; his understanding points the man to heaven, but his will drags
