UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY
William Ellery Channing
Delivered at the Ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks
in The First Independent Church of Baltimore on May 5, 1819.
1 Thess. 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 endeavor 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 connections 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
connections, 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 connections.
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 connection 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 Savior 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 connection,
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
defense 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 center 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 center 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 fullness. 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 Savior, 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 offense 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 offenses 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 connection between Christ's death and human forgiveness, a connection 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 Savior; 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 Savior, 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 center, 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 neighbor;
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 connection 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 pretense 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 neighbors. 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 neighbors.
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 practiced
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 offense, 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 skillful 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 connection 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."