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1 Thes. v. 21: "Prove all things; hold fast
that which is good."
The peculiar circumstances of this
occasion not only justify, but seem to demand a departure from the
course generally followed by preachers at the introduction of a
brother into the sacred office. It is usual to speak of the nature,
design, duties, and advantages of the Christian ministry; and on these
topics I should now be happy to insist, did I not remember that a
minister is to be given this day to a religious society, whose
peculiarities of opinion have drawn upon them much remark, and may I
not add, much reproach. Many good minds, many sincere Christians, I am
aware, are apprehensive that the solemnities of this day are to give a
degree of influence to principles which they deem false and injurious.
The fears and anxieties of such men I respect; and, believing that
they are grounded in part on mistake, I have thought it my duty to lay
before you, as clearly as I can, some of the distinguishing opinions
of that class of Christians in our country, who are known to
sympathize with this religious society. I must ask your patience, for
such a subject is not to be despatched in a narrow compass. I must
also ask you to remember, that it is impossible to exhibit, in a
single discourse, our views of every doctrine of Revelation, much less
the differences of opinion which are known to subsist among ourselves.
I shall confine myself to topics, on which our sentiments have been
misrepresented, or which distinguish us most widely from others. May I
not hope to be heard with candor? God deliver us all from prejudice
and unkindness, and fill us with the love of truth and virtue.
There are two natural divisions under
which my thoughts will be arranged. I shall endeavour to unfold, 1st,
The principles which we adopt in interpreting the Scriptures. And
2dly, Some of the doctrines, which the Scriptures, so interpreted,
seem to us clearly to express.
I. We regard the Scriptures as the
records of God's successive revelations to mankind, and particularly
of the last and most perfect revelation of his will by Jesus Christ.
Whatever doctrines seem to us to be clearly taught in the Scriptures;
we receive without reserve or exception. We do not, however, attach
equal importance to all the books in this collection. Our religion, we
believe, lies chiefly in the New Testament. The dispensation of Moses,
compared with that of Jesus, we consider as adapted to the childhood
of the human race, a preparation for a nobler system, and chiefly
useful now as serving to confirm and illustrate the Christian
Scriptures. Jesus Christ is the only master of Christians, and
whatever he taught, either during his personal ministry, or by his
inspired Apostles, we regard as of divine authority, and profess to
make the rule of our lives. This authority, which we give to the
Scriptures, is a reason, we conceive, for studying them with peculiar
care, and for inquiring anxiously into the principles of
interpretation, by which their true meaning may be ascertained. The
principles adopted by the class of Christians in whose name I speak,
need to be explained, because they are often misunderstood. We are
particularly accused of making an unwarrantable use of reason in the
interpretation of Scripture. We are said to exalt reason above
revelation, to prefer our own wisdom to God's. Loose and undefined
charges of this kind are circulated so freely, that we think it due to
ourselves, and to the cause of truth, to express our views with some
particularity. Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is
this, that the Bible is a book written for men, in the language of
men, and that its meaning is to be sought in the same manner as that
of other books. We believe that God, when he speaks to the human race,
conforms, if we may so say, to the established rules of speaking and
writing. How else would the Scriptures avail us more, than if
communicated in an unknown tongue? Now all books, and all
conversation, require in the reader or hearer the constant exercise of
reason; or their true import is only to be obtained by continual
comparison and inference. Human language, you well know, admits
various interpretations; and every word and every sentence must be
modified and explained according to the subject which is discussed,
according to the purposes, feelings, circumstances, and principles of
the writer, and according to the genius and idioms of the language
which he uses. These are acknowledged principles in the interpretation
of human writings; and a man, whose words we should explain without
reference to these principles, would reproach us justly with a
criminal want of candor, and an intention of obscuring or distorting
his meaning.
Were the Bible written in a language
and style of its own, did it consist of words, which admit but a
single sense, and of sentences wholly detached from each other, there
would be no place for the principles now laid down. We could not
reason about it, as about other writings. But such a book would be of
little worth; and perhaps, of all books, the Scriptures correspond
least to this description. The Word of God hears the stamp of the same
hand, which we see in his works. It has infinite connexions and
dependences. Every proposition is linked with others, and is to be
compared with others; that its full and precise import may he
understood. Nothing stands alone. The New Testament is built on the
Old. The Christian dispensation is a continuation of the Jewish, the
completion of a vast scheme of providence, requiring great extent of
view in the reader. Still more, the Bible treats of subjects on which
we receive ideas from other sources besides itself; such subjects as
the nature, passions, relations, and duties of man; and it expects us
to restrain and modify its language by the known truths, which
observation and experience furnish on these topics.
We profess not to know a book, which
demands a more frequent exercise of reason than the Bible. In addition
to the remarks now made on its infinite connexions, we may observe,
that its style nowhere affects the precision of science, or the
accuracy of definition. Its language is singularly glowing, bold, and
figurative, demanding more frequent departures from the literal sense,
than that of our own age and country, and consequently demanding more
continual exercise of judgment. -- We find, too, that the different
portions of this book, instead of being confined to general truths,
refer perpetually to the times when they were written, to states of
society, to modes of thinking, to controversies in the church, to
feelings and usages which have passed away, and without the knowledge
of which we are constantly in danger of extending to all times, and
places, what was of temporary and local application. -- We find, too,
that some of these books are strongly marked by the genius and
character of their respective writers, that the Holy Spirit did not so
guide the Apostles as to suspend the peculiarities of their minds, and
that a knowledge of their feelings, and of the influences under which
they were placed, is one of the preparations for understanding their
writings. With these views of the Bible, we feel it our bounden duty
to exercise our reason upon it perpetually, to compare, to infer, to
look beyond the letter to the spirit, to seek in the nature of the
subject, and the aim of the writer, his true meaning; and, in general,
to make use of what is known, for explaining what is difficult, and
for discovering new truths.
Need I descend to particulars, to prove
that the Scriptures demand the exercise of reason? Take, for example,
the style in which they generally speak of God, and observe how
habitually they apply to him human passions and organs. Recollect the
declarations of Christ, that he came not to send peace, but a sword;
that unless we eat his flesh, and drink his blood, we have no life in
us; that we must hate father and mother, and pluck out the right eye;
and a vast number of passages equally bold and unlimited. Recollect
the unqualified manner in which it is said of Christians, that they
possess all things, know all things, and can do all things. Recollect
the verbal contradiction between Paul and James, and the apparent
clashing of some parts of Paul's writings with the general doctrines
and end of Christianity. I might extend the enumeration indefinitely;
and who does not see, that we must limit all these passages by the
known attributes of God, of Jesus Christ, and of human nature, and by
the circumstances under which they were written, so as to give the
language a quite different import from what it would require, had it
been applied to different beings, or used in different connexions.
Enough has been said to show, in what
sense we make use of reason in interpreting Scripture. From a variety
of possible interpretations, we select that which accords with the
nature of the subject and the state of the writer, with the connexion
of the passage, with the general strain of Scripture, with the known
character and will of God, and with the obvious and acknowledged laws
of nature. In other words, we believe that God never contradicts, in
one part of scripture, what he teaches in another; and never
contradicts, in revelation, what he teaches in his works and
providence. And we therefore distrust every interpretation, which,
after deliberate attention, seems repugnant to any established truth.
We reason about the Bible precisely as civilians do about the
constitution under which we live; who, you know, are accustomed to
limit one provision of that venerable instrument by others, and to fix
the precise import of its parts, by inquiring into its general spirit,
into the intentions of its authors, and into the prevalent feelings,
impressions, and circumstances of the time when it was framed. Without
these principles of interpretation, we frankly acknowledge, that we
cannot defend the divine authority of the Scriptures. Deny us this
latitude, and we must abandon this book to its enemies.
We do not announce these principles as
original, or peculiar to ourselves. All Christians occasionally adopt
them, not excepting those who most vehemently decry them, when they
happen to menace some favorite article of their creed. All Christians
are compelled to use them in their controversies with infidels. All
sects employ them in their warfare with one another. All willingly
avail themselves of reason, when it can be pressed into the service of
their own party, and only complain of it, when its weapons wound
themselves. None reason more frequently than those from whom we
differ. It is astonishing what a fabric they rear from a few slight
hints about the fall of our first parents; and how ingeniously they
extract, from detached passages, mysterious doctrines about the divine
nature. We do not blame them for reasoning so abundantly, but for
violating the fundamental rules of reasoning, for sacrificing the
plain to the obscure, and the general strain of Scripture to a scanty
number of insulated texts.
We object strongly to the contemptuous
manner in which human reason is often spoken of by our adversaries,
because it leads, we believe, to universal skepticism. If reason be so
dreadfully darkened by the fall, that its most decisive judgments on
religion are unworthy of trust, then Christianity, and even natural
theology, must be abandoned; for the existence and veracity of God,
and the divine original of Christianity, are conclusions of reason,
and must stand or fall with it. If revelation be at war with this
faculty, it subverts itself, for the great question of its truth is
left by God to be decided at the bar of reason. It is worthy of
remark, how nearly the bigot and the skeptic approach. Both would
annihilate our confidence in our faculties, and both throw doubt and
confusion over every truth. We honor revelation too highly to make it
the antagonist of reason, or to believe that it calls us to renounce
our highest powers.
We indeed grant, that the use of reason
in religion is accompanied with danger. But we ask any honest man to
look back on the history of the church, and say, whether the
renunciation of it be not still more dangerous. Besides, it is a plain
fact, that men reason as erroneously on all subjects, as on religion.
Who does not know the wild and groundless theories, which have been
framed in physical and political science? But who ever supposed, that
we must cease to exercise reason on nature and society, because men
have erred for ages in explaining them? We grant, that the passions
continually, and sometimes fatally, disturb the rational faculty in
its inquiries into revelation. The ambitious contrive to find
doctrines in the Bible, which favor their love of dominion. The timid
and dejected discover there a gloomy system, and the mystical and
fanatical, a visionary theology. The vicious can find examples or
assertions on which to build the hope of a late repentance, or of
acceptance on easy terms. The falsely refined contrive to light on
doctrines which have not been soiled by vulgar handling. But the
passions do not distract the reason in religious, any more than in
other inquiries, which excite strong and general interest; and this
faculty, of consequence, is not to be renounced in religion, unless we
are prepared to discard it universally. The true inference from the
almost endless errors, which have darkened theology, is, not that we
are to neglect and disparage our powers, but to exert them more
patiently, circumspectly, uprightly. The worst errors, after all,
having sprung up in that church, which proscribes reason, and demands
from its members implicit faith. The most pernicious doctrines have
been the growth of the darkest times, when the general credulity
encouraged bad men and enthusiasts to broach their dreams and
inventions, and to stifle the faint remonstrances of reasons, by the
menaces of everlasting perdition. Say what we may, God has given us a
rational nature, and will call us to account for it. We may let it
sleep, but we do so at our peril. Revelation is addressed to us as
rational beings. We may wish, in our to sloth, that God had given us a
system, demand of comparing, limiting, and inferring. But such a
system would be at variance with the whole character of our present
existence; and it is the part of wisdom to take revelation as it is
given to us, and to interpret it by the help of the faculties, which
it everywhere supposes, and on which founded.
To the views now given, an objection is
commonly urged from the character of God. We are told, that God being
infinitely wiser than men, his discoveries will surpass human reason.
In a revelation from such a teacher, we ought to expect propositions,
which we cannot reconcile with one another, and which may seem to
contradict established truths ; and it becomes us not to question or
explain them away, but to believe, and adore, and to submit our weak
and carnal reason to the Divine Word. To this objection, we have two
short answers. We say, first, that it is impossible that a teacher of
infinite wisdom should expose those, whom he would teach, to infinite
error. But if once we admit, that propositions, which in their literal
sense appear plainly repugnant to one another, or to any known truth,
are still to be literally understood and received, what possible limit
can we set to the belief of contradictions? What shelter have we from
the wildest fanaticism, which can always quote passages, that, in
their literal and obvious sense, give support to its extravagances?
How can the Protestant escape from transubstantiation, a doctrine most
clearly taught us, if the submission of reason, now contended for, be
a duty? How can we even hold fast the truth of revelation, for if one
apparent contradiction may be true, so may another, and the
proposition, that Christianity is false, though involving
inconsistency, may still be a verity?
We answer again, that, if God be
infinitely wise, he cannot sport with the understandings of his
creatures. A wise teacher discovers his wisdom in adapting himself to
the capacities of his pupils, not in perplexing them with what is
unintelligible, not in distressing them with apparent contradictions,
not in filling them with a skeptical distrust of their own powers. An
infinitely wise teacher, who knows the precise extent of our minds,
and the best method of enlightening them, will surpass all other
instructors in bringing down truth to our apprehension, and in showing
its loveliness and harmony. We ought, indeed, to expect occasional
obscurity in such a book as the Bible, which was written for past and
future ages, as well as for the present. But God's wisdom is a pledge,
that whatever is necessary for US, and necessary for salvation, is
revealed too plainly to be mistaken, and too consistently to be
questioned, by a sound and upright mind. It is not the mark of wisdom,
to use an unintelligible phraseology, to communicate what is above our
capacities, to confuse and unsettle the intellect by appearances of
contradiction. We honor our Heavenly Teacher too much to ascribe to
him such a revelation. A revelation is a gift of light. It cannot
thicken our darkness, and multiply our perplexities.
II. Having thus stated the principles
according to which we interpret Scripture, I now proceed to the second
great head of this discourse, which is, to state some of the views
which we derive from that sacred book, particularly those which
distinguish us from other Christians.
1. In the first place, we believe in
the doctrine of God's UNITY, or that there is one God, and one only.
To this truth we give infinite importance, and we feel ourselves bound
to take heed, lest any man spoil us of it by vain philosophy. The
proposition, that there is one God, seems to us exceedingly plain. We
understand by it, that there is one being, one mind, one person, one
intelligent agent, and one only, to whom underived and infinite
perfection and dominion belong. We conceive, that these words could
have conveyed no other meaning to the simple and uncultivated people
who were set apart to be the depositaries of this great truth, and who
were utterly incapable of understanding those hair- breadth
distinctions between being and person, which the sagacity of later
ages has discovered. We find no intimation, that this language was to
be taken in an unusual sense, or that God's unity was a quite
different thing from the oneness of other intelligent beings.
We object to the doctrine of the
Trinity, that, whilst acknowledging in words, it subverts in effect,
the unity of God. According to this doctrine, there are three infinite
and equal persons, possessing supreme divinity, called the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost. Each of these persons, as described by
theologians, has his own particular consciousness, will, and
perceptions. They love each other, converse with each other, and
delight in each other's society. They perform different parts in man's
redemption, each having his appropriate office, and neither doing the
work of the other. The Son is mediator and not the Father. The Father
sends the Son, and is not himself sent; nor is he conscious, like the
Son, of taking flesh. Here, then, we have three intelligent agents,
possessed of different consciousness, different wills, and different
perceptions, performing different acts, and sustaining different
relations; and if these things do not imply and constitute three minds
or beings, we are utterly at a loss to know how three minds or beings
are to be formed. It is difference of properties, and acts, and
consciousness, which leads us to the belief of different intelligent
beings, and, if this mark fails us, our whole knowledge fall; we have
no proof, that all the agents and persons in the universe are not one
and the same mind. When we attempt to conceive of three Gods, we can
do nothing more than represent to ourselves three agents,
distinguished from each other by similar marks and peculiarities to
those which separate the persons of the Trinity; and when common
Christians hear these persons spoken of as conversing with each other,
loving each other, and performing different acts, how can they help
regarding them as different beings, different minds?
We do, then, with all earnestness,
though without reproaching our brethren, protest against the
irrational and unscriptural doctrine of the Trinity. "To
us," as to the Apostle and the primitive Christians, "there
is one God, even the Father." With Jesus, we worship the Father,
as the only living and true God. We are astonished, that any man can
read the New Testament, and avoid the conviction, that the Father
alone is God. We hear our Saviour continually appropriating this
character to the Father. We find the Father continually distinguished
from Jesus by this title. "God sent his Son." "God
anointed Jesus." Now, how singular and inexplicable is this
phraseology, which fills the New Testament, if this title belong
equally to Jesus, and if a principal object of this book is to reveal
him as God, as partaking equally with the Father in supreme divinity!
We challenge our opponents to adduce one passage in the New Testament,
where the word God means three persons, where it is not limited to one
person, and where, unless turned from its usual sense by the connexion,
it does not mean the Father. Can stronger proof be given, that the
doctrine of three persons in the Godhead is not a fundamental doctrine
of Christianity?
This doctrine, were it true, must, from
its difficulty, singularity, and importance, have been laid down with
great clearness, guarded with great care, and stated with all possible
precision. But where does this statement appear? From the many
passages which treat of God, we ask for one, one only, in which we are
told, that he is a threefold being, or that he is three persons, or
that he is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. On the contrary, in the New
Testament, where, at least, we might expect many express assertions of
this nature, God is declared to be one, without the least attempt to
prevent the acceptation of the words in their common sense; and he is
always spoken of and addressed in the singular number, that is, in
language which was universally understood to intend a single person,
and to which no other idea could have been attached, without an
express admonition. So entirely do the Scriptures abstain from stating
the Trinity, that when our opponents would insert it into their creeds
and doxologies, they are compelled to leave the Bible, and to invent
forms of words altogether unsanctioned by Scriptural phraseology. That
a doctrine so strange, so liable to misapprehension, so fundamental as
this is said to be, and requiring such careful exposition, should be
left so undefined and unprotected, to be made out by inference, and to
be hunted through distant and detached parts of Scripture, this is a
difficulty, which, we think, no ingenuity can explain.
We have another difficulty.
Christianity, it must be remembered, was planted and grew up amidst
sharp-sighted enemies, who overlooked no objectionable part of the
system, and who must have fastened with great earnestness on a
doctrine involving such apparent contradictions as the Trinity. We
cannot conceive an opinion, against which the Jews, who prided
themselves on an adherence to God's unity, would have raised an equal
clamor. Now, how happens it, that in the apostolic writings, which
relate so much to objections against Christianity, and to the
controversies which grew out of this religion, not one word is said,
implying that objections were brought against the Gospel from the
doctrine of the Trinity, not one word is uttered in its defence and
explanation, not a word to rescue it from reproach and mistake? This
argument has almost the force of demonstration. We are persuaded, that
had three divine persons been announced by the first preachers of
Christianity, all equal, and all infinite, one of whom was the very
Jesus who had lately died on a cross, this peculiarity of Christianity
would have almost absorbed every other, and the great labor of the
Apostles would have been to repel the continual assaults, which it
would have awakened. But the fact is, that not a whisper of objection
to Christianity, on that account, reaches our ears from the apostolic
age. In the Epistles we see not a trace of controversy called forth by
the Trinity.
We have further objections to this
doctrine, drawn from its practical influence. We regard it as
unfavorable to devotion, by dividing and distracting the mind in its
communion with God. It is a great excellence of the doctrine of God's
unity, that it offers to us ONE OBJECT of supreme homage, adoration,
and love, One Infinite Father, one Being of beings, one original and
fountain, to whom we may refer all good, in whom all our powers and
affections may be concentrated, and whose lovely and venerable nature
may pervade all our thoughts. True piety, when directed to an
undivided Deity, has a chasteness, a singleness, most favorable to
religious awe and love. Now, the Trinity sets before us three distinct
objects of supreme adoration; three infinite persons, having equal
claims on our hearts; three divine agents, performing different
offices, and to be acknowledged and worshipped in different relations.
And is it possible, we ask, that the weak and limited mind of man can
attach itself to these with the same power and joy, as to One Infinite
Father, the only First Cause, in whom all the blessings of nature and
redemption meet as their centre and source? Must not devotion be
distracted by the equal and rival claims of three equal persons, and
must not the worship of the conscientious, consistent Christian, be
disturbed by an apprehension, lest he withhold from one or another of
these, his due proportion of homage?
We also think, that the doctrine of the
Trinity injures devotion, not only by joining to the Father other
objects of worship, but by taking from the Father the supreme
affection, which is his due, and transferring it to the Son. This is a
most important view. That Jesus Christ, if exalted into the infinite
Divinity, should be more interesting than the Father, is precisely
what might be expected from history, and from the principles of human
nature. Men want an object of worship like themselves, and the great
secret of idolatry lies in this propensity. A God, clothed in our
form, and feeling our wants and sorrows, speaks to our weak nature
more strongly, than a Father in heaven, a pure spirit, invisible and
unapproachable, save by the reflecting and purified mind. -- We think,
too, that the peculiar offices ascribed to Jesus by the popular
theology, make him the most attractive person in the Godhead. The
Father is the depositary of the justice, the vindicator of the rights,
the avenger of the laws of the Divinity. On the other hand, the Son,
the brightness of the divine mercy, stands between the incensed Deity
and guilty humanity, exposes his meek head to the storms, and his
compassionate breast to the sword of the divine justice, bears our
whole load of punishment, and purchases with his blood every blessing
which descends from heaven. Need we state the effect of these
representations, especially on common minds, for whom Christianity was
chiefly designed, and whom it seeks to bring to the Father as the
loveliest being? We do believe, that the worship of a bleeding,
suffering God, tends strongly to absorb the mind and to draw it from
other objects, just as the human tenderness of the Virgin Mary has
given her so conspicuous a place in the devotions of the Church of
Rome. We believe, too, that this worship, though attractive, is not
most fitted to spiritualize the mind, that it awakens human transport,
rather than that deep veneration of the moral perfections of God,
which is the essence of piety.
2. Having thus given our views of the
unity of God, I proceed in the second place to observe, that we
believe in the unity of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus is one
mind, one soul, one being, as truly one as we are, and equally
distinct from the one God. We complain of the doctrine of the Trinity,
that, not satisfied with making God three beings, it makes; Jesus
Christ two beings, and thus introduces infinite confusion into our
conceptions of his character. This corruption of Christianity, alike
repugnant to common sense and to the general strain of Scripture, is a
remarkable proof of the power of a false philosophy in disfiguring the
simple truth of Jesus.
According to this doctrine, Jesus
Christ, instead of being one mind, one conscious intelligent
principle, whom we can understand, consists of two souls, two minds;
the one divine, the other human; the one weak, the other almighty; the
one ignorant, the other omniscient. Now we maintain, that this is to
make Christ two beings. To denominate him one person, one being, and
yet to suppose him made up of two minds, infinitely different from
each other, is to abuse and confound language, and to throw darkness
over all our conceptions of intelligent natures. According to the
common doctrine, each of these two minds in Christ has its own
consciousness, its own will, its own perceptions. They have, in fact,
no common properties. The divine mind feels none of the wants and
sorrows of the human, and the human is infinitely removed from the
perfection and happiness of the divine. Can you conceive of two beings
in the universe more distinct? We have always thought that one person
was constituted and distinguished by one consciousness. The doctrine,
that one and the same person should have two consciousness, two wills,
two souls, infinitely different from each other, this we think an
enormous tax on human credulity.
We say, that if a doctrine, so strange,
so difficult, so remote from all the previous conceptions of men, be
indeed a part and an essential part of revelation, it must be taught
with great distinctness, and we ask our brethren to point to some
plain, direct passage, where Christ is said to be composed of two
minds infinitely different, yet constituting one person. We find none.
Other Christians, indeed, tell us, that this doctrine is necessary to
the harmony of the Scriptures, that some texts ascribe to Jesus Christ
human, and others divine properties, and that to reconcile these, we
must suppose two minds, to which these properties may be referred. In
other words, for the purpose of reconciling certain difficult
passages, which a just criticism can in a great degree, if not wholly,
explain, we must invent an hypothesis vastly more difficult, and
involving gross absurdity. We are to find our way out of a labyrinth,
by a clue which conducts us into mazes infinitely more inextricable.
Surely, if Jesus Christ felt that he
consisted of two minds, and that this was a leading feature of his
religion, his phraseology respecting himself would have been colored
by this peculiarity. The universal language of men is framed upon the
idea, that one person is one person, is one mind, and one soul; and
when the multitude heard this language from the lips of Jesus, they
must have taken it in its usual sense, and must have referred to a
single soul all which he spoke, unless expressly instructed to
interpret it differently. But where do we find this instruction? Where
do you meet, in the New Testament, the phraseology which abounds in
Trinitarian books, and which necessarily grows from the doctrine of
two natures in Jesus? Where does this divine teacher say, "This I
speak as God, and this as man; this is true only of my human mind,
this only of my divine"? Where do we find in the Epistles a trace
of this strange phraseology? Nowhere. It was not needed in that day.
It was demanded by the errors of a later age.
We believe, then, that Christ is one
mind, one being, and, I add, a being distinct from the one God. That
Christ is not the one God, not the same being with the Father, is a
necessary inference from our former head, in which we saw that the
doctrine of three persons in God is a fiction. But on so important a
subject, I would add a few remarks. We wish, that those from whom we
differ, would weigh one striking fact. Jesus, in his preaching,
continually spoke of God. The word was always in his mouth. We ask,
does he, by this word, ever mean himself? We say, never. On the
contrary, he most plainly distinguishes between God and himself, and
so do his disciples. How this is to be reconciled with the idea, that
the manifestation of Christ, as God, was a primary object of
Christianity, our adversaries must determine.
If we examine the passages in which
Jesus is distinguished from God, we shall see, that they not only
speak of him as another being, but seem to labor to express his
inferiority. He is continually spoken of as the Son of God, sent of
God, receiving all his powers from God, working miracles because God
was with him, judging justly because God taught him, having claims on
our belief, because he was anointed and sealed by God, and as able of
himself to do nothing. The New Testament is filled with this language.
Now we ask, what impression this language was fitted and intended to
make? Could any, who heard it, have imagined that Jesus was the very
God to whom he was so industriously declared to be inferior; the very
Being by whom he was sent, and from whom he professed to have received
his message and power? Let it here be remembered, that the human
birth, and bodily form, and humble circumstances, and mortal
sufferings of Jesus, must all have prepared men to interpret, in the
most unqualified manner, the language in which his inferiority to God
was declared. Why, then, was this language used so continually, and
without limitation, if Jesus were the Supreme Deity, and if this truth
were an essential part of his religion? I repeat it, the human
condition and sufferings of Christ tended strongly to exclude from
men's minds the idea of his proper Godhead; and, of course, we should
expect to find in the New Testament perpetual care and effort to
counteract this tendency, to hold him forth as the same being with his
Father, if this doctrine were, as is pretended, the soul and centre of
his religion. We should expect to find the phraseology of Scripture
cast into the mould of this doctrine, to hear familiarly of God the
Son, of our Lord God Jesus, and to be told, that to us there is one
God, even Jesus. But, instead of this, the inferiority of Christ
pervades the New Testament. It is not only implied in the general
phraseology, but repeatedly and decidedly expressed, and unaccompanied
with any admonition to prevent its application to his whole nature.
Could it, then, have been the great design of the sacred writers to
exhibit Jesus as the Supreme God?
I am aware that these remarks will be
met by two or three texts, in which Christ is called God, and by a
class of passages, not very numerous, in which divine properties are
said to be ascribed to him. To these we offer one plain answer. We
say, that it is one of the most established and obvious principles of
criticism, that language is to be explained according to the known
properties of the subject to which it is applied. Every man knows,
that the same words convey very different ideas, when used in relation
to different beings. Thus, Solomon BUILT the temple in a different
manner from the architect whom he employed; and God REPENTS
differently from man. Now we maintain, that the known properties and
circumstances of Christ, his birth, sufferings, and death, his
constant habit of speaking of God as a distinct being from himself,
his praying to God, his ascribing to God all his power and offices,
these acknowledged properties of Christ, we say, oblige us to
interpret the comparatively few passages which are thought to make him
the Supreme God, in a manner consistent with his distinct and inferior
nature. It is our duty to explain such texts by the rule which we
apply to other texts, in which human beings are called gods, and are
said to be partakers of the divine nature, to know and possess all
things, and to be filled with all God's fulness. These latter passages
we do not hesitate to modify, and restrain, and turn from the most
obvious sense, because this sense is opposed to the known properties
of the beings to whom they relate; and we maintain, that we adhere to
the same principle, and use no greater latitude, in explaining, as we
do, the passages which are thought to support the Godhead of Christ.
Trinitarians profess to derive some
important advantages from their mode of viewing Christ. It furnishes
them,they tell us, with an infinite atonement, for it shows them an
infinite being suffering for their sins. The confidence with which
this fallacy is repeated astonishes us. When pressed with the
question, whether they really believe, that the infinite and
unchangeable God suffered and died on the cross, they acknowledge that
this is not true, but that Christ's human mind alone sustained the
pains of death. How have we, then, an infinite sufferer? This language
seems to us an imposition on common minds, and very derogatory to
God's justice, as if this attribute could be satisfied by a sophism
and a fiction.
We are also told, that Christ is a more
interesting object, that his love and mercy are more felt, when he is
viewed as the Supreme God, who left his glory to take humanity and to
suffer for men. That Trinitarians are strongly moved by this
representation, we do not mean to deny; but we think their emotions
altogether founded on a misapprehension of their own doctrines. They
talk of the second person of the Trinity's leaving his glory and his
Father's bosom, to visit and save the world. But this second person,
being the unchangeable and infinite God, was evidently incapable of
parting with the least degree of his perfection and felicity. At the
moment of his taking flesh, he was as intimately present with his
Father as before, and equally with his Father filled heaven, and
earth, and immensity. This Trinitarians acknowledge; and still they
profess to be touched and overwhelmed by the amazing humiliation of
this immutable being! But not only does their doctrine, when fully
explained, reduce Christ's humiliation to a fiction, it almost wholly
destroys the impressions with which his cross ought to be viewed.
According to their doctrine, Christ was comparatively no sufferer at
all. It is true, his human mind suffered; but this, they tell us, was
an infinitely small part of Jesus, bearing no more proportion to his
whole nature, than a single hair of our heads to the whole body, or
than a drop to the ocean. The divine mind of Christ, that which was
most properly himself, was infinitely happy, at the very moment of the
suffering of his humanity. Whilst hanging on the cross, he was the
happiest being in the universe, as happy as the infinite Father; so
that his pains, compared with his felicity, were nothing. This
Trinitarians do, and must, acknowledge. It follows necessarily from
the immutableness of the divine nature, which they ascribe to Christ;
so that their system, justly viewed, robs his death of interest,
weakens our sympathy with his sufferings, and is, of all others, most
unfavorable to a love of Christ, founded on a sense of his sacrifices
for mankind. We esteem our own views to be vastly more affecting. It
is our belief, that Christ's humiliation was real and entire, that the
whole Saviour, and not a part of him, suffered, that his crucifixion
was a scene of deep and unmixed agony. As we stand round his cross,
our minds are not distracted, nor our sensibility weakened, by
contemplating him as composed of incongruous and infinitely differing
minds, and as having a balance of infinite felicity. We recognize in
the dying Jesus but one mind. This, we think, renders his sufferings,
and his patience and love in bearing them, incomparably more
impressive and affecting than the system we oppose.
3. Having thus given our belief on two
great points, namely, that there is one God, and that Jesus Christ is
a being distinct from, and inferior to, God, I now proceed to another
point, on which we lay still greater stress. We believe in the MORAL
PERFECTION OF GOD. We consider no part of theology so important as
that which treats of God's moral character; and we value our views of
Christianity chiefly as they assert his amiable and venerable
attributes.
It may be said, that, in regard to this
subject, all Christians agree, that all ascribe to the Supreme Being
infinite justice, goodness, and holiness. We reply, that it is very
possible to speak of God magnificently, and to think of him meanly; to
apply to his person high-sounding epithets, and to his government,
principles which make him odious. The Heathens called Jupiter the
greatest and the best; but his history was black with cruelty and
lust. We cannot judge of men's real ideas of God by their general
language, for in all ages they have hoped to soothe the Deity by
adulation. We must inquire into their particular views of his
purposes, of the principles of his administration, and of his
disposition towards his creatures.
We conceive that Christians have
generally leaned towards a very injurious view of the Supreme Being.
They have too often felt, as if he were raised, by his greatness and
sovereignty, above the principles of morality, above those eternal
laws of equity and rectitude, to which all other beings are subjected.
We believe, that in no being is the sense of right so strong, so
omnipotent, as in God. We believe that his almighty power is entirely
submitted to his perceptions of rectitude; and this is the ground of
our piety. It is not because he is our Creator merely, but because he
created us for good and holy purposes; it is not because his will is
irresistible, but because his will is the perfection of virtue, that
we pay him allegiance. We cannot bow before a being, however great and
powerful, who governs tyrannically. We respect nothing but excellence,
whether on earth or in heaven. We venerate not the loftiness of God's
throne, but the equity and goodness in which it is established.
We believe that God is infinitely good,
kind, benevolent, in the proper sense of these words; good in
disposition, as well as in act; good, not to a few, but to all; good
to every individual, as well as to the general system.
We believe, too, that God is just; but
we never forget, that his justice is the justice of a good being,
dwelling in the same mind, and acting in harmony, with perfect
benevolence. By this attribute, we understand God's infinite regard to
virtue or moral worth, expressed in a moral government; that is, in
giving excellent and equitable laws, and in conferring such rewards,
and inflicting such punishments, as are best fitted to secure their
observance. God's justice has for its end the highest virtue of the
creation, and it punishes for this end alone, and thus it coincides
with benevolence; for virtue and happiness, though not the same, are
inseparably conjoined.
God's justice thus viewed, appears to
us to be in perfect harmony with his mercy. According to the prevalent
systems of theology, these attributes are so discordant and jarring,
that to reconcile them is the hardest task, and the most wonderful
achievement, of infinite wisdom. To us they seem to be intimate
friends, always at peace, breathing the same spirit, and seeking the
same end. By God's mercy, we understand not a blind instinctive
compassion, which forgives without reflection, and without regard to
the interests of virtue. This, we acknowledge, would be incompatible
with justice, and also with enlightened benevolence. God's mercy, as
we understand it, desires strongly the happiness of the guilty, but
only through their penitence. It has a regard to character as truly as
his justice. It defers punishment, and suffers long, that the sinner
may return to his duty, but leaves the impenitent and unyielding, to
the fearful retribution threatened in God's Word.
To give our views of God in one word,
we believe in his Parental character. We ascribe to him, not only the
name, but the dispositions and principles of a father. We believe that
he has a father's concern for his creatures, a father's desire for
their improvement, a father's equity in proportioning his commands to
their powers, a father's joy in their progress, a father's readiness
to receive the penitent, and a father's justice for the incorrigible.
We look upon this world as a place of education, in which he is
training men by prosperity and adversity, by aids and obstructions, by
conflicts of reason and passion, by motives to duty and temptations to
sin, by a various discipline suited to free and moral beings, for
union with himself, and for a sublime and ever-growing virtue in
heaven.
Now, we object to the systems of
religion, which prevail among us, that they are adverse, in a greater
or less degree, to these purifying, comforting, and honorable views of
God; that they take from us our Father in heaven, and substitute for
him a being, whom we cannot love if we would, and whom we ought not to
love if we could. We object, particularly on this ground, to that
system, which arrogates to itself the name of Orthodoxy, and which is
now industriously propagated through our country. This system indeed
takes various shapes, but in all it casts dishonor on the Creator.
According to its old and genuine form, it teaches, that God brings us
into life wholly depraved, so that under the innocent features of our
childhood is hidden a nature averse to all good and propense to all
evil, a nature which exposes us to God's displeasure and wrath, even
before we have acquired power to understand our duties, or to reflect
upon our actions. According to a more modern exposition, it teaches,
that we came from the hands of our Maker with such a constitution, and
are placed under such influences and circumstances, as to render
certain and infallible the total depravity of every human being, from
the first moment of his moral agency; and it also teaches, that the
offence of the child, who brings into life this ceaseless tendency to
unmingled crime, exposes him to the sentence of everlasting damnation.
Now, according to the plainest principles of morality, we maintain,
that a natural constitution of the mind, unfailingly disposing it to
evil and to evil alone, would absolve it from guilt; that to give
existence under this condition would argue unspeakable cruelty; and
that to punish the sin of this unhappily constituted child with
endless ruin, would be a wrong unparalleled by the most merciless
despotism.
This system also teaches, that God
selects from this corrupt mass a number to be saved, and plucks them,
by a special influence, from the common ruin; that the rest of
mankind, though left without that special grace which their conversion
requires, are commanded to repent, under penalty of aggravated woe;
and that forgiveness is promised them, on terms which their very
constitution infallibly disposes them to reject, and in rejecting
which they awfully enhance the punishments of hell. These proffers of
forgiveness and exhortations of amendment, to beings born under a
blighting curse, fill our minds with a horror which we want words to
express.
That this religious system does not
produce all the effects on character, which might be anticipated, we
most joyfully admit. It is often, very often, counteracted by nature,
conscience, common sense, by the general strain of Scripture, by the
mild example and precepts of Christ, and by the many positive
declarations of God's universal kindness and perfect equity. But still
we think that we see its unhappy influence. It tends to discourage the
timid, to give excuses to the bad, to feed the vanity of the
fanatical, and to offer shelter to the bad feelings of the malignant.
By shocking, as it does, the fundamental principles of morality, and
by exhibiting a severe and partial Deity, it tends strongly to pervert
the moral faculty, to form a gloomy, forbidding, and servile religion,
and to lead men to substitute censoriousness, bitterness, and
persecution, for a tender and impartial charity. We think, too, that
this system, which begins with degrading human nature, may be expected
to end in pride; for pride grows out of a consciousness of high
distinctions, however obtained, and no distinction is so great as that
which is made between the elected and abandoned of God.
The false and dishonorable views of
God, which have now been stated, we feel ourselves bound to resist
unceasingly. Other errors we can pass over with comparative
indifference. But we ask our opponents to leave to us a GOD, worthy of
our love and trust, in whom our moral sentiments may delight, in whom
our weaknesses and sorrows may find refuge. We cling to the Divine
perfections. We meet them everywhere in creation, we read them in the
Scriptures, we see a lovely image of them in Jesus Christ; and
gratitude, love, and veneration call on us to assert them. Reproached,
as we often are, by men, it is our consolation and happiness, that one
of our chief offences is the zeal with which we vindicate the
dishonored goodness and rectitude of God.
4. Having thus spoken of the unity of
God; of the unity of Jesus, and his inferiority to God; and of the
perfections of the Divine character; I now proceed to give our views
of the mediation of Christ, and of the purposes of his mission. With
regard to the great object which Jesus came to accomplish, there seems
to be no possibility of mistake. We believe, that he was sent by the
Father to effect a moral, or spiritual deliverance of mankind; that
is, to rescue men from sin and its consequences, and to bring them to
a state of everlasting purity and happiness. We believe, too, that he
accomplishes this sublime purpose by a variety of methods; by his
instructions respecting God's unity, parental character, and moral
government, which are admirably fitted to reclaim the world from
idolatry and impiety, to the knowledge, love, and obedience of the
Creator; by his promises of pardon to the penitent, and of divine
assistance to those who labor for progress in moral excellence; by the
light which he has thrown on the path of duty; by his own spotless
example, in which the loveliness and sublimity of virtue shine forth
to warm and quicken, as well as guide us to perfection; by his
threatenings against incorrigible guilt; by his glorious discoveries
of immortality; by his sufferings and death; by that signal event, the
resurrection, which powerfully bore witness to his divine mission, and
brought down to men's senses a future life; by his continual
intercession, which obtains for us spiritual aid and blessings; and by
the power with which he is invested of raising the dead, judging the
world, and conferring the everlasting rewards promised to the
faithful.
We have no desire to conceal the fact,
that a difference of opinion exists among us, in regard to an
interesting part of Christ's mediation; I mean, in regard to the
precise influence of his death on our forgiveness. Many suppose, that
this event contributes to our pardon, as it was a principal means of
confirming his religion, and of giving it a power over the mind; in
other words, that it procures forgiveness by leading to that
repentance and virtue, which is the great and only condition on which
forgiveness is bestowed. Many of us are dissatisfied with this
explanation, and think that the Scriptures ascribe the remission of
sins to Christ's death, with an emphasis so peculiar, that we ought to
consider this event as having a special influence in removing
punishment, though the Scriptures may not reveal the way in which it
contributes to this end.
Whilst, however, we differ in
explaining the connexion between Christ's death and human forgiveness,
a connexion which we all gratefully acknowledge, we agree in rejecting
many sentiments which prevail in regard to his mediation. The idea,
which is conveyed to common minds by the popular system, that Christ's
death has an influence in making God placable, or merciful, in
awakening his kindness towards men, we reject with strong
disapprobation. We are happy to find, that this very dishonorable
notion is disowned by intelligent Christians of that class from which
we differ. We recollect, however, that, not long ago, it was common to
hear of Christ, as having died to appease God's wrath, and to pay the
debt of sinners to his inflexible justice; and we have a strong
persuasion, that the language of popular religious books, and the
common mode of stating the doctrine of Christ's mediation, still
communicate very degrading views of God's character. They give to
multitudes the impression, that the death of Jesus produces a change
in the mind of God towards man, and that in this its efficacy chiefly
consists. No error seems to us more pernicious. We can endure no shade
over the pure goodness of God. We earnestly maintain, that Jesus,
instead of calling forth, in any way or degree, the mercy of the
Father, was sent by that mercy, to be our Saviour; that he is nothing
to the human race, but what he is by God's appointment; that he
communicates nothing but what God empowers him to bestow; that our
Father in heaven is originally, essentially, and eternally placable,
and disposed to forgive; and that his unborrowed, underived, and
unchangeable love is the only fountain of what flows to us through his
Son. We conceive, that Jesus is dishonored, not glorified, by
ascribing to him an influence, which clouds the splendor of Divine
benevolence.
We farther agree in rejecting, as
unscriptural and absurd, the explanation given by the popular system,
of the manner in which Christ's death procures forgiveness for men.
This system used to teach as its fundamental principle, that man,
having sinned against an infinite Being, has contracted infinite
guilt, and is consequently exposed to an infinite penalty. We believe,
however, that this reasoning, if reasoning it may be called, which
overlooks the obvious maxim, that the guilt of a being must be
proportioned to his nature and powers, has fallen into disuse. Still
the system teaches, that sin, of whatever degree, exposes to endless
punishment, and that the whole human race, being infallibly involved
by their nature in sin, owe this awful penalty to the justice of their
Creator. It teaches, that this penalty cannot be remitted, in
consistency with the honor of the divine law, unless a substitute be
found to endure it or to suffer an equivalent. It also teaches, that,
from the nature of the case, no substitute is adequate to this work,
save the infinite God himself; and accordingly, God, in his second
person, took on him human nature, that he might pay to his own justice
the debt of punishment incurred by men, and might thus reconcile
forgiveness with the claims and threatenings of his law. Such is the
prevalent system. Now, to us, this doctrine seems to carry on its
front strong marks of absurdity; and we maintain that Christianity
ought not to be encumbered with it, unless it be laid down in the New
Testament fully and expressly. We ask our adversaries, then, to point
to some plain passages where it is taught. We ask for one text, in
which we are told, that God took human nature that he might make an
infinite satisfaction to his own justice; for one text, which tells
us, that human guilt requires an infinite substitute; that Christ's
sufferings owe their efficacy to their being borne by an infinite
being; or that his divine nature gives infinite value to the
sufferings of the human. Not ONE WORD of this description can we find
in the Scriptures; not a text, which even hints at these strange
doctrines. They are altogether, we believe, the fictions of
theologians. Christianity is in no degree responsible for them. We are
astonished at their prevalence. What can be plainer, than that God
cannot, in any sense, be a sufferer, or bear a penalty in the room of
his creatures? How dishonorable to him is the supposition, that his
justice is now so severe, as to exact infinite punishment for the sins
of frail and feeble men, and now so easy and yielding, as to accept
the limited pains of Christ's human soul, as a full equivalent for the
endless woes due from the world? How plain is it also, according to
this doctrine, that God, instead of being plenteous in forgiveness,
never forgives; for it seems absurd to speak of men as forgiven, when
their whole punishment, or an equivalent to it, is borne by a
substitute? A scheme more fitted to obscure the brightness of
Christianity and the mercy of God, or less suited to give comfort to a
guilty and troubled mind, could not, we think, be easily framed.
We believe, too, that this system is
unfavorable to the character. It naturally leads men to think, that
Christ came to change God's mind rather than their own; that the
highest object of his mission was to avert punishment, rather than to
communicate holiness; and that a large part of religion consists in
disparaging good works and human virtue, for the purpose of magnifying
the value of Christ's vicarious sufferings. In this way, a sense of
the infinite importance and indispensable necessity of personal
improvement is weakened, and high-sounding praises of Christ's cross
seem often to be substituted for obedience to his precepts. For
ourselves, we have not so learned Jesus. Whilst we gratefully
acknowledge, that he came to rescue us from punishment, we believe,
that he was sent on a still nobler errand, namely, to deliver us from
sin itself, and to form us to a sublime and heavenly virtue. We regard
him as a Saviour, chiefly as he is the light, physician, and guide of
the dark, diseased, and wandering mind. No influence in the universe
seems to us so glorious, as that over the character; and no redemption
so worthy of thankfulness, as the restoration of the soul to purity.
Without this, pardon, were it possible, would be of little value. Why
pluck the sinner from hell, if a hell be left to burn in his own
breast? Why raise him to heaven, if he remain a stranger to its
sanctity and love? With these impressions, we are accustomed to value
the Gospel chiefly as it abounds in effectual aids, motives,
excitements to a generous and divine virtue. In this virtue, as in a
common centre, we see all its doctrines, precepts, promises meet; and
we believe, that faith in this religion is of no worth, and
contributes nothing to salvation, any farther than as it uses these
doctrines, precepts, promises, and the whole life, character,
sufferings, and triumphs of Jesus, as the means of purifying the mind,
of changing it into the likeness of his celestial excellence.
5. Having thus stated our views of the
highest object of Christ's mission, that it is the recovery of men to
virtue, or holiness, I shall now, in the last place, give our views of
the nature of Christian virtue, or true holiness. We believe that all
virtue has its foundation in the moral nature of man, that is, in
conscience, or his sense of duty, and in the power of forming his
temper and life according to conscience. We believe that these moral
faculties are the grounds of responsibility, and the highest
distinctions of human nature, and that no act is praiseworthy, any
farther than it springs from their exertion. We believe, that no
dispositions infused into us without our own moral activity, are of
the nature of virtue, and therefore, we reject the doctrine of
irresistible divine influence on the human mind, moulding it into
goodness, as marble is hewn into a statue. Such goodness, if this word
may be used, would not be the object of moral approbation, any more
than the instinctive affections of inferior animals, or the
constitutional amiableness of human beings.
By these remarks, we do not mean to
deny the importance of God's aid or Spirit; but by his Spirit, we mean
a moral, illuminating, and persuasive influence, not physical, not
compulsory, not involving a necessity of virtue. We object, strongly,
to the idea of many Christians respecting man's impotence and God's
irresistible agency on the heart, believing that they subvert our
responsibility and the laws of our moral nature, that they make men
machines, that they cast on God the blame of all evil deeds, that they
discourage good minds, and inflate the fanatical with wild conceits of
immediate and sensible inspiration.
Among the virtues, we give the first
place to the love of God. We believe, that this principle is the true
end and happiness of our being, that we were made for union with our
Creator, that his infinite perfection is the only sufficient object
and true resting-place for the insatiable desires and unlimited
capacities of the human mind, and that, without him, our noblest
sentiments, admiration, veneration, hope, and love, would wither and
decay. We believe, too, that the love of God is not only essential to
happiness, but to the strength and perfection of all the virtues; that
conscience, without the sanction of God's authority and retributive
justice, would be a weak director; that benevolence, unless nourished
by communion with his goodness, and encouraged by his smile, could not
thrive amidst the selfishness and thanklessness of the world; and that
self-government, without a sense of the divine inspection, would
hardly extend beyond an outward and partial purity. God, as he is
essentially goodness, holiness, justice, and virtue, so he is the
life, motive, and sustainer of virtue in the human soul.
But, whilst we earnestly inculcate the
love of God, we believe that great care is necessary to distinguish it
from counterfeits. We think that much which is called piety is
worthless. Many have fallen into the error, that there can be no
excess in feelings which have God for their object; and, distrusting
as coldness that self-possession, without which virtue and devotion
lose all their dignity, they have abandoned themselves to
extravagances, which have brought contempt on piety. Most certainly,
if the love of God be that which often bears its name, the less we
have of it the better. If religion be the shipwreck of understanding,
we cannot keep too far from it. On this subject, we always speak
plainly. We cannot sacrifice our reason to the reputation of zeal. We
owe it to truth and religion to maintain, that fanaticism, partial
insanity, sudden impressions, and ungovernable transports, are
anything rather than piety.
We conceive, that the true love of God
is a moral sentiment, founded on a clear perception, and consisting in
a high esteem and veneration, of his moral perfections. Thus, it
perfectly coincides, and is in fact the same thing, with the love of
virtue, rectitude, and goodness. You will easily judge, then, what we
esteem the surest and only decisive signs of piety. We lay no stress
on strong excitements. We esteem him, and him only a pious man, who
practically conforms to God's moral perfections and government; who
shows his delight in God's benevolence, by loving and serving his
neighbour; his delight in God's justice, by being resolutely upright;
his sense of God's purity, by regulating his thoughts, imagination,
and desires; and whose conversation, business, and domestic life are
swayed by a regard to God's presence and authority. In all things else
men may deceive themselves. Disordered nerves may give them strange
sights, and sounds, and impressions. Texts of Scripture may come to
them as from Heaven. Their whole souls may be moved, and their
confidence in God's favor be undoubting. But in all this there is no
religion. The question is, Do they love God's commands, in which his
character is fully expressed, and give up to these their habits and
passions? Without this, ecstasy is a mockery. One surrender of desire
to God's will, is worth a thousand transports. We do not judge of the
bent of men's minds by their raptures, any more than we judge of the
natural direction of a tree during a storm. We rather suspect loud
profession, for we have observed, that deep feeling is generally
noiseless, and least seeks display.
We would not, by these remarks, be
understood as wishing to exclude from religion warmth, and even
transport. We honor, and highly value, true religious sensibility. We
believe, that Christianity is intended to act powerfully on our whole
nature, on the heart as well as the understanding and the conscience.
We conceive of heaven as a state where the love of God will be exalted
into an unbounded fervor and joy; and we desire, in our pilgrimage
here, to drink into the spirit of that better world. But we think,
that religious warmth is only to be valued, when it springs naturally
from an improved character, when it comes unforced, when it is the
recompense of obedience, when it is the warmth of a mind which
understands God by being like him, and when, instead of disordering,
it exalts the understanding, invigorates conscience, gives a pleasure
to common duties, and is seen to exist in connexion with cheerfulness,
judiciousness, and a reasonable frame of mind. When we observe a
fervor, called religious, in men whose general character expresses
little refinement and elevation, and whose piety seems at war with
reason, we pay it little respect. We honor religion too much to give
its sacred name to a feverish, forced, fluctuating zeal, which has
little power over the life.
Another important branch of virtue, we
believe to be love to Christ. The greatness of the work of Jesus, the
spirit with which he executed it, and the sufferings which he bore for
our salvation, we feel to be strong claims on our gratitude and
veneration. We see in nature no beauty to be compared with the
loveliness of his character, nor do we find on earth a benefactor to
whom we owe an equal debt. We read his history with delight, and learn
from it the perfection of our nature. We are particularly touched by
his death, which was endured for our redemption, and by that strength
of charity which triumphed over his pains. His resurrection is the
foundation of our hope of immortality. His intercession gives us
boldness to draw nigh to the throne of grace, and we look up to heaven
with new desire, when we think, that, if we follow him here, we shall
there see his benignant countenance, and enjoy his friendship for
ever.
I need not express to you our views on
the subject of the benevolent virtues. We attach such importance to
these that we are sometimes reproached with exalting them above piety.
We regard the spirit of love, charity, meekness, forgiveness,
liberality, and beneficence, as the badge and distinction of
Christians, as the brightest image we can bear of God, as the best
proof of piety. On this subject, I need not, and cannot enlarge; but
there is one branch of benevolence which I ought not to pass over in
silence, because we think that we conceive of it more highly and
justly than many of our brethren. I refer to the duty of candor,
charitable judgment, especially towards those who differ in religious
opinion. We think, that in nothing have Christians so widely departed
from their religion, as in this particular. We read with astonishment
and horror, the history of the church; and sometimes when we look back
on the fires of persecution, and on the zeal of Christians, in
building up walls of separation, and in giving up one another to
perdition, we feel as if we were reading the records of an infernal,
rather than a heavenly kingdom. An enemy to every religion, if asked
to describe a Christian, would, with some show of reason, depict him
as an idolater of his own distinguishing opinions, covered with badges
of party, shutting his eyes on the virtues, and his ears on the
arguments, of his opponents, arrogating all excellence to his own sect
and all saving power to his own creed, sheltering under the name of
pious zeal the love of domination, the conceit of infallibility, and
the spirit of intolerance, and trampling on men's rights under the
pretence of saving their souls.
We can hardly conceive of a plainer
obligation on beings of our frail and fallible nature, who are
instructed in the duty of candid judgment, than to abstain from
condemning men of apparent conscientiousness and sincerity, who are
chargeable with no crime but that of differing from us in the
interpretation of the Scriptures, and differing, too, on topics of
great and acknowledged obscurity. We are astonished at the hardihood
of those, who, with Christ's warnings sounding in their ears, take on
them the responsibility of making creeds for his church, and cast out
professors of virtuous lives for imagined errors, for the guilt of
thinking for themselves. We know that zeal for truth is the cover for
this usurpation of Christ's prerogative; but we think that zeal for
truth, as it is called, is very suspicious, except in men, whose
capacities and advantages, whose patient deliberation, and whose
improvements in humility, mildness, and candor, give them a right to
hope that their views are more just than those of their neighbours.
Much of what passes for a zeal for truth, we look upon with little
respect, for it often appears to thrive most luxuriantly where other
virtues shoot up thinly and feebly; and we have no gratitude for those
reformers, who would force upon us a doctrine which has not sweetened
their own tempers, or made them better men than their neighbours.
We are accustomed to think much of the
difficulties attending religious inquiries; difficulties springing
from the slow development of our minds, from the power of early
impressions, from the state of society, from human authority, from the
general neglect of the reasoning powers, from the want of just
principles of criticism and of important helps in interpreting
Scripture, and from various other causes. We find, that on no subject
have men, and even good men, ingrafted so many strange conceits, wild
theories, and fictions of fancy, as on religion ; and remembering, as
we do, that we ourselves are sharers of the common frailty, we dare
not assume infallibility in the treatment of our fellow-Christians, or
encourage in common Christians, who have little time for
investigation, the habit of denouncing and condemning other
denominations, perhaps more enlightened and virtuous than their own.
Charity, forbearance, a delight in the virtues of different sects, a
backwardness to censure and condemn, these are virtues, which, however
poorly practised by us, we admire and recommend; and we would rather
join ourselves to the church in which they abound, than to any other
communion, however elated with the belief of its own orthodoxy,
however strict in guarding its creed, however burning with zeal
against imagined error.
I have thus given the distinguishing
views of those Christians in whose names I have spoken. We have
embraced this system, not hastily or lightly, but after much
deliberation; and we hold it fast, not merely because we believe it to
be true, but because we regard it as purifying truth, as a doctrine
according to godliness, as able to "work mightily" and to
"bring forth fruit" in them who believe. That we wish to
spread it, we have no desire to conceal; but we think, that we wish
its diffusion, because we regard it as more friendly to practical
piety and pure morals than the opposite doctrines, because it gives
clearer and nobler views of duty, and stronger motives to its
performance, because it recommends religion at once to the
understanding and the heart, because it asserts the lovely and
venerable attributes of God, because it tends to restore the
benevolent spirit of Jesus to his divided and afflicted church, and
because it cuts off every hope of God's favor, except that which
springs from practical conformity to the life and precepts of Christ.
We see nothing in our views to give offence, save their purity, and it
is their purity, which makes us seek and hope their extension through
the world.
My friend and brother; -- You are this
day to take upon you important duties; to be clothed with an office,
which the Son of God did not disdain; to devote yourself to that
religion, which the most hallowed lips have preached, and the most
precious blood sealed. We trust that you will bring to this work a
willing mind, a firm purpose, a martyr's spirit, a readiness to toil
and suffer for the truth, a devotion of your best powers to the
interests of piety and virtue. I have spoken of the doctrines which
you will probably preach; but I do not mean, that you are to give
yourself to controversy. You will remember, that good practice is the
end of preaching, and will labor to make your people holy livers,
rather than skilful disputants. Be careful, lest the desire of
defending what you deem truth, and of repelling reproach and
misrepresentation, turn you aside from your great business, which is
to fix in men's minds a living conviction of the obligation,
sublimity, and happiness of Christian virtue. The best way to
vindicate your sentiments, is to show, in your preaching and life,
their intimate connexion with Christian morals, with a high and
delicate sense of duty, with candor towards your opposers, with
inflexible integrity, and with an habitual reverence for God. If any
light can pierce and scatter the clouds of prejudice, it is that of a
pure example. My brother, may your life preach more loudly than your
lips. Be to this people a pattern of all good works, and may your
instructions derive authority from a well-grounded belief in your
hearers, that you speak from the heart, that you preach from
experience, that the truth which you dispense has wrought powerfully
in your own heart, that God, and Jesus, and heaven, are not merely
words on your lips, but most affecting realities to your mind, and
springs of hope and consolation, and strength, in all your trials.
Thus laboring, may you reap abundantly, and have a testimony of your
faithfulness, not only in your own conscience, but in the esteem,
love, virtues, and improvements of your people.
To all who hear me, I would say, with
the Apostle, Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Do not,
brethren, shrink from the duty of searching God's Word for yourselves,
through fear of human censure and denunciation. Do not think, that you
may innocently follow the opinions which prevail around you, without
investigation, on the ground, that Christianity is now so purified
from errors, as to need no laborious research. There is much reason to
believe, that Christianity is at this moment dishonored by gross and
cherished corruptions. If you remember the darkness which hung over
the Gospel for ages; if you consider the impure union, which still
subsists in almost every Christian country, between the church and
state, and which enlists men's selfishness and ambition on the side of
established error; if you recollect in what degree the spirit of
intolerance has checked free inquiry, not only before, but since the
Reformation; you will see that Christianity cannot have freed itself
from all the human inventions, which disfigured it under the Papal
tyranny. No. Much stubble is yet to be burned; much rubbish to be
removed; many gaudy decorations, which a false taste has hung around
Christianity, must be swept away; and the earth-born fogs, which have
long shrouded it, must be scattered, before this divine fabric will
rise before us in its native and awful majesty, in its harmonious
proportions, in its mild and celestial splendors This glorious
reformation in the church, we hope, under God's blessing, from the
progress of the human intellect, from the moral progress of society,
from the consequent decline of prejudice and bigotry, and, though last
not least, from the subversion of human authority in matters of
religion, from the fall of those hierarchies, and other human
institutions, by which the minds of individuals are oppressed under
the weight of numbers, and a Papal dominion is perpetuated in the
Protestant church. Our earnest prayer to God is, that he will
overturn, and overturn, and overturn the strong-holds of spiritual
usurpation, until HE shall come, whose right it is to rule the minds
of men; that the conspiracy of ages against the liberty of Christians
may be brought to an end; that the servile assent, so long yielded to
human creeds, may give place to honest and devout inquiry into the
Scriptures; and that Christianity, thus purified from error, may put
forth its almighty energy, and prove itself, by its ennobling
influence on the mind, to be indeed "the power of God unto
salvation."
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