Pagans this was so marred by the imperfect characters ascribed to the Gods, and the dishonourable fables told concerning them, that the philosophers who undertook to prune religion too generally cut away the root, by alleging[6] that God was mere Intellect and wholly destitute of Affections.  But happily among the Hebrews the purity of God’s character was vindicated; and with the growth of conscience in the highest minds of the nation the ideal image of God shone brighter and brighter.  The doctrine of his Sympathy was never lost, and from the Jews it passed into the Christian church.  This doctrine, applied to that part of man which is divine, is the wellspring of Repentance and Humility, of Thankfulness, Love, and Joy.  It reproves and it comforts; it stimulates and animates.  This it is which led the Psalmist to cry, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.”  This has satisfied prophets, apostles, and martyrs with God as their Portion.  This has been passed from heart to heart for full three thousand years, and has produced bands of countless saints.  Let us not cut off our sympathies from those, who have learnt to sympathize with God; nor be blind to that spiritual good which they have; even if it be, more or less sensibly, tinged with intellectual error.  In fact, none but God knows, how many Christian hearts are really pure from bigotry.  I cannot refuse to add my testimony, such as it is, to the effect, that the majority is always truehearted.  As one tyrant, with a small band of unscrupulous tools, manages to use the energies of a whole nation of kind and well-meaning people for cruel purposes, so the bigoted few, who work out an evil theory with consistency, often succeed in using the masses of simpleminded Christians as their tools for oppression.  Let us not think more harshly than is necessary of the anathematizing churches.  Those who curse us with their lips, often love us in their hearts.  A very deep fountain of tenderness can mingle with their bigotry itself:  and with tens of thousands, the evil belief is a dead form, the spiritual love is a living reality.  Whether Christians like it or not, we must needs look to Historians, to Linguists, to Physiologists, to Philosophers, and generally, to men of cultivated understanding, to gain help in all those subjects which are preposterously called Theology:  but for devotional aids, for pious meditations, for inspiring hymns, for purifying and glowing thoughts, we have still to wait upon that succession of kindling souls, among whom may be named with special honour David and Isaiah, Jesus and Paul, Augustine, A Kempis, Fenelon, Leighton, Baxter, Doddridge, Watts, the two Wesleys, and Channing.

Religion was created by the inward instincts of the soul:  it had afterwards to be pruned and chastened by the sceptical understanding.  For its perfection, the co-operation of these two parts of man is essential.  While religious persons dread critical and searching thought, and critics despise instinctive religion, each side remains imperfect and curtailed.