LECTURES ON POLITICAL ATHEISM AND KINDRED SUBJECTS; TOGETHER WITH SIX LECTURES ON INTEMPERANCE. DEDICATED TO THE WORKING MEN OF THE UNITED STATES. BY LYMAN BEECHER, D. D. BOSTON: JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANY. CLEVELAND, OHIO: JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON. 1852. TE LORARY 4757907 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by LYMAN BEECHER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. BX 7233 853 1852 STEREOTYPED BY HOBART & ROBBINS, NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY, BOSTON. PREFACE. THE Lectures in this volume, dedicated to the working men of our nation, were commenced in Boston, enlarged in Cincinnati, and revised and fitted for the press in Boston, with such additions as harmonize with and consummate their general design. And having done, all things considered, as well as I could, I commend the volume to my countrymen, without apology, or deprecation of criticism, or plea for candor or mercy. Having exercised my own right in thinking and publication, I cheerfully accord to my readers their right of dissent and criticism; only praying that, in the hand of the Spirit, it may answer the purpose intended, of correcting destructive errors, and extending the illumination of truths essential to salvation. It is not the object of these Lectures to exhaust the subjects on which they treat, but rather, with conciseness and perspicuity, so to state and defend their elementary principles, in an epitomized form, that they may be understood, rather than lost in the accumulating perplexities of words. Most sincerely, and with deep interest and many prayers, I have written these Lectures, and now commend them to the providence of God. I have long been urgently requested by many to prepare my works for the press, with a concise history of my life and times. It has been for many years my desire to do this, and for urgent reasons. I am sensible that the fifty years of my active life have been years of unparalleled interest, and of rapid, terrible and glorious results,-the commencement of the punishment of the antichristian powers, with reference to the predicted victories of the church in the evangelization of the world. It was in the view of such predictions and providential indications that I early consecrated my powers and time to Christ, with reference to these opening scenes, relying entirely on his promised care of myself and mine; and though these engagements have been imperfectly fulfilled on my part, his promises to me have been most faithfully performed. As the consequence of these resolutions, I have never laid out far-reaching plans of my own, but awaited and observed the apparent fulfilments of prophecy and the developments of providence. Of course, from the beginning of my public life, the church of God, and my country and the world as given to Christ, have been the field of my observation, interest, motives, prayers, and efforts. It is this early providential chart of my labors that has extended them beyond the common sphere of mere pastoral labor; for speedily I found myself harnessed to the chariot of Christ,-whose wheels of fire have rolled onward, high and dreadful to his foes and glorious to his friends,—giving to every demand, as I was able, its portion in due season. And hence, within the sphere above indicated, all my published and unpublished works and labors are comprehended. In respect to their conception and execution, I may truly say that they are my own; for, though I have not neglected or despised creeds, or the writings of great and good men, I have always commenced my investigations of Christian doctrine, and Christian duties, and Christian experience, with the teachings and implications of the Bible, never expounding it by human creeds, but all creeds and theologians by the Bible, considered as a system of moral government, legal and evangelical, in the hand of a Mediator, administered by his Word and Spirit over a world of rebel, free, and accountable subjects. I am the more desirous of publishing my doctrinal expositions of the Bible, inasmuch as they have generally obviated the more common misapprehensions and misrepresentations which often attend the exposition of the Calvinistic system; and have been, in the hand of the Spirit, the means of whatever success it has pleased God to give to my labors in revivals of religion; and have extensively united the suffrage, I believe, of evan |