My friends, if this be the education which is natural and necessary
from our earthly parents, made in God's image, appointed by God's
eternal laws for each of us, why should it not be the education
which God himself has appointed for mankind? All which is truly
human (not sinful or fallen) is an image and pattern of something
Divine. May not therefore the training which we find, by the very
facts of nature, fit and necessary for our children, be the same as
God's training, by which he fashioneth the hearts of the children of
men? Therefore we can believe the Bible when it tells us that so it
is. That God began the education of man by appearing to him
directly, keeping him, as it were, close to his hand, and teaching
him by direct and open revelation. That as time went on, God left
men more and more to themselves outwardly: but only that he might
raise their minds to higher notions of religion--that he might make
them live by faith, and not merely by sight; and obey him of their
own hearty free will, and not merely from fear or wonder. And
therefore, in these days, when miraculous appearances have, as far
as we know, entirely ceased, yet God is not changed.
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