Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/220

Rh men branded as Heathens and Atheists. Let us know what we are about.

It was said above, there are, practically, four sources of knowledge—direct and indirect, primary and secondary,—namely, Perception for sensible things; Intuition for spiritual things; Reflection for logical things; and Testimony for historical things. If the doctrines of Christianity are eternal truths, they are not sensible things, not historical things, and of course do not depend on sensual perception, nor historical testimony, but can be presented directly to the consciousness of men at one age as well as another, and thus if they are matters of reflection, may be made plain to all who have the reflective faculty and will use it; if they are matters of intuition, to all who have the intuitive faculty, and will let it act. Now the duty we owe to Man, that of loving him as ourselves; the duty we owe to God, that of loving him above all, is a matter of intuition; it proceeds from the very nature of Man, and is inseparable from that nature; we recognize the truth of the precept as soon as it is stated, and see the truth of it as soon as the unprejudiced mind looks that way. It is no less a matter of reflection likewise. He that reflects on the Idea of God as given by intuition, on his own nature as he learns it from his mental operations, sees that this twofold duty flows logically from these premises. The truth of these doctrines, then, may be known by both intuition and reflection. He that teaches a doctrine eternally true, does not set forth a private and peculiar thing resting on private authority and historical evidence, but an everlasting reality, which rests on the ground of all truth, the public and eternal authority of unchanging God. A false doctrine is not of God. It has no background of Godhead. It rests on the authority of Simon Peter or Simon Magus; of him that sets it forth. It is his private, personal property. When the Devil speaks a lie, he speaketh of his own; but when a Son of God speaks the truth, he speaks not his own word but the Father's. Must a man indorse God's word to make it current?

Again, if the truth of any doctrines rest on the personal authority of Jesus, it was not a duty to observe them before he spoke; for he, being the cause, or indispensable