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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Christian Sects in the Nineteenth Century, by
+Caroline Frances Cornwallis
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Christian Sects in the Nineteenth Century
+
+
+Author: Caroline Frances Cornwallis
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 15, 2011  [eBook #36113]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN SECTS IN THE NINETEENTH
+CENTURY***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1846 William Pickering edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+
+
+
+
+                          CHRISTIAN SECTS IN THE
+                            NINETEENTH CENTURY
+                          IN A SERIES OF LETTERS
+                                TO A LADY
+
+
+                      [Picture: Decorative graphic]
+
+    “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye
+    have love one to another.”—JOHN xiii. 35.
+
+                      [Picture: Decorative graphic]
+
+                                  LONDON
+                            WILLIAM PICKERING
+                                   1846
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+    “Heaven and Hell are not more distant, than the benevolent spirit of
+    the Gospel, and the malignant spirit of party.  The most impious wars
+    ever made were called—‘Holy Wars.’”
+
+                                                                LYTTLETON.
+
+    “Let those ill-invented terms whereby we have been distinguished from
+    each other be swallowed up in that name which will lead us hand in
+    hand to heaven—the name of CHRISTIAN.”
+
+                                                             BISHOP RYDER.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+The following letters grew out of a conversation between one of the
+editors of the “Small Books,” and a lady of his acquaintance; and as
+there are probably many who have felt the want of the information they
+contain, it has been thought that by publishing them in a collected form
+they may be useful.  The views of the writer are sufficiently explained
+in the letters themselves.  All lament the small sum of Christian charity
+to be found among religionists in general, but few when they begin to
+write have kept clear of a severity of comment which but prolongs
+differences.  The writer, himself a member of the Church of England, is
+anxious to show that it is possible to be attached to one persuasion
+without imputing either folly or ill intention to others; and it is with
+a view of promoting the loving fellowship of all whom God disdains not to
+create and support, that this slight sketch is given to the world.
+
+                      [Picture: Decorative graphic]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.
+
+
+You some time ago requested me to give you the result of my inquiries
+into the tenets of the different religious sects which I had been
+acquainted with; and respecting which we had at different times
+conversed.  In the time which has since elapsed I have been endeavouring,
+both to ascertain them more completely, and to compare them with what I
+conceive to be the true spirit of Christianity; but the subject has so
+grown as I proceeded, that even now I can only give you a very short, and
+I fear, in some cases, an imperfect notion of them.  Yet the subject is
+one of deep interest; and as I feel convinced that if we looked a little
+closer into the differences between the established church and those who
+separate from it, both parties would find them smaller and less important
+than they imagine, and that Christian charity would be increased by the
+examination, I do not shrink from the task however inadequately I may
+execute it.
+
+I propose therefore to show you by extracts from the works of the
+principal writers among the different religious sects, how they all agree
+in most of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity; at the same time
+that I point out the evil consequences which I conceive would ensue were
+some of their tenets _fully carried out_ into practice: and also to state
+wherein their peculiar opinions appear to me to be opposed to “the truth
+as it is in Christ Jesus,” so far as to prevent me from adopting them;
+though I can fully believe that those who hold these opinions in the
+abstract, may, notwithstanding, be excellent practical Christians.
+
+Firmly attached as I am to the Church of England, whose form of worship
+(allowing for the imperfections which naturally cling to all human
+institutions), I consider preferable to any other; I can still see much
+to admire in other persuasions and other ceremonies, mixed up, though it
+be, with some imperfections and error; and my love to the established
+church does not blind me to some matters which might be better otherwise,
+and which I shall point out as I proceed.
+
+“Of all the Christian graces,” says a quaint writer, “zeal is the most
+apt to turn sour;” and the observation is no less true than it is sad,
+for men too seldom remember that they must add to their faith knowledge,
+and that both are of no avail without the crowning gift of charity, {3}
+or in other words, brotherly love for all mankind.  The real Christian,
+it seems to me, should imitate the liberality of St. Paul, who, after
+having been bred up in the habits of the “strictest sect” of the Jews,
+scrupled not to quit all his former prejudices, in order to preach Christ
+to the Gentiles, without disgusting them by ceremonies which were no
+fundamental part of the religion he taught, and was content to become “as
+a Jew, that he might gain the Jews, and to them that were without law, to
+become as without law (being not without law to God), that he might by
+all means save some.” {4}
+
+We are too apt to hold each other accountable for all the consequences
+which can be logically deduced from an opinion, however extreme they may
+be: and then having persuaded ourselves that those abstract tenets which,
+by straining them to an extreme point, _may_ have an evil effect, _must_
+have an evil effect on all who profess them,—we avoid those who differ
+from us on religious subjects, because we have assumed that they are
+actually immoral by virtue of their opinions; and thus we miss the
+opportunity of convincing ourselves of our mistake by a more intimate
+knowledge of their lives.  “By their fruits ye shall know them,” says our
+Lord; but we seldom approach them closely enough to see the fruits.
+
+If we would be content to sink minor differences, and be satisfied that
+“in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is
+accepted with him,” we should soon meet on better terms; for we do not
+hold at a distance from those on earth whom we expect to meet in heaven;
+and thanks be to God, there is no religious persuasion that cannot boast
+of many such as Cornelius.
+
+St. Paul recommends to the churches that they be “kindly affectioned one
+towards another, in honour preferring one another:” {5a} “by this shall
+men know that ye are my disciples,” says our Great Exemplar, “if ye have
+love one to another;” but alas! if we contemplate what is called the
+Christian world, where shall we find Christ’s _true_ disciples?  Grievous
+indeed it is, as has been well observed, that that religion, which
+“should most correct and sweeten men’s spirits, sours and sharpens them
+the most.”  But surely “_we_ have not so learned Christ.”  Let us for a
+moment contemplate His conduct towards those who differed from him in
+religious opinions; his compassion towards them; his meek reproofs not
+only to the Sadducees and the Samaritans, but even to the more hardened;
+{5b} and then let us turn to our own hearts and confess with shame that
+we have fallen miserably short of that charity without which “whosoever
+liveth is counted dead before God.”
+
+So clear is the command to exercise universal benevolence, that whatever
+obscurity there may be in other parts of Scripture, however men, even
+wise ones, may differ as to the real signification of certain passages in
+the Bible, _here_ at least there can be no cavilling.  It is intelligible
+to the most ignorant as well as the most learned, so that “the wayfaring
+man, though a fool, shall not err therein.”
+
+Archbishop Tillotson relates of Mr. Gouge, an eminent nonconformist, that
+he allowed men to differ from him in opinions that were “_very dear_ to
+him;” and provided men did but “fear God and work righteousness,” he
+loved them heartily, how distant soever from him in judgment about things
+less necessary: “in all which,” observes the Archbishop, “he is very
+worthy to be a pattern to men of all persuasions.”  “I abhor two
+principles in religion,” says William Penn in a letter to the same
+archbishop, “and pity them that own them.  The first is obedience upon
+authority without conviction; and the other, destroying them that differ
+from me for God’s sake: such a religion is without judgment, though not
+without truth.  Union is best, if right; if not, charity.”
+
+I have given the opinion of these two eminent men of different
+persuasions, partly to show that the evil I complain of is one of long
+standing; partly to justify my own opinion as to the remedy; namely, the
+paying _more_ attention to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity;
+_less_, to those minor differences which, from the very obscurity of the
+texts on which they are founded, come more frequently under discussion,
+and thus, from a mental operation somewhat analogous to that of the laws
+of perspective, seem large and important because they are close under our
+eyes, though they are in fact minute in comparison with those which we
+have not been examining so closely.  Thus men inadvertently reverse the
+order of things, and zeal for the maintenance of peculiar tenets too
+often supersedes the far more important virtue of Christian benevolence,
+to the scandal of all good Christians and the mockery of unbelievers.
+
+The Quakers, in their address to James II. on his accession, told him
+that they understood he was no more of the established religion than
+themselves.  “We therefore hope,” said they, “that thou wilt allow us
+that liberty which thou takest thyself:” and it would be well if we took
+a hint from this, and reflected that we differ as much from other sects
+as they do from us, {8} and that the greatest heresy is, as a Christian
+Father declared it to be long ago—“a wicked life.”
+
+It is, however, needful to distinguish between the Christian spirit of
+forbearance towards those who differ from us in religious opinions, which
+Christ and his apostles so strongly inculcate, and the indolent
+latitudinarianism which induces many to declare that “a man cannot help
+his belief,” that “sincerity is everything,” that “all religious sects
+are alike,” &c.: positions which, as you well observed on one occasion,
+ought rather to be reversed; for when men are _not_ sincere, all sects
+certainly _are_ alike: for then it is but a lip service which will never
+influence the life, and it matters not what opinion is professed; it will
+be equally powerless.
+
+Sincere belief must be the consequence of proof, without which we cannot
+believe truly; with it, we must.  If then we content ourselves with the
+mere _ipse dixit_ of others without seeking proof, our belief is the
+result of indolence, and for that indolence we shall be accountable when
+we are called on to give an account of the talent committed to our
+charge, if error has been consequent upon it.  He, on the contrary, whose
+education or whose means have not put proof within his reach, although he
+may wish earnestly for it, _may_ be wrong in understanding, but he will
+never be wrong in heart: his tenets may be wrong, but his life will be
+right.  It behoves us therefore to be cautious how we pass sentence on
+one another in religious matters, since, as has been well observed, we
+are ourselves amenable to a tribunal where uncharitable conduct towards
+others, will bring down a just and heavy sentence on ourselves.  We are
+not to erect ourselves into judges of other men’s consciences, {10} but
+leave them to the judgment and disposal of ONE who alone can see into the
+heart of men, and alone can ascertain the real nature and ultimate
+consequence of all questions which admit of “doubtful disputation.”
+
+There will be some danger of losing our way among the almost numberless
+divisions and subdivisions of sects, which present themselves as soon as
+we begin to consider the subject at all narrowly.  I therefore propose to
+simplify my task, and make our course a little plainer, by adopting the
+two great divisions into which the reformed churches may have been said
+to have arranged themselves at the era of the Reformation, as a
+foundation for the classification of Christian sects at present.  Calvin
+and Melancthon may be considered as the prototypes and heads of these two
+divisions, which however they may sometimes vary and sometimes
+intermingle, are continually reproduced, because they are grounded upon
+two great natural divisions of human kind, the stern and the gentle.  My
+own leaning is to the latter, because it appears to me most in accordance
+with the spirit of that gospel whose great Promulgator made universal
+benevolence the test of his disciples; but at the same time I must
+acknowledge, and shall indeed prove before I have done, that the sterner
+theoretical view may coexist in the mind with a large share of true
+Christian charity and benevolence.  Be the abstract belief of the
+Christian what it may, if he be really at heart a disciple, the example
+of his mild Master will always influence his life and feelings, and he
+will tread in the steps of his Lord, even if his judgment should
+sometimes have mistaken the true meaning of some of his words.
+
+These two views of the Divine dispensations towards man were first
+arrayed in actual hostility at the Synod of Dort in 1618, where the
+doctrines of James Arminius, professor of divinity in the University of
+Leyden, who had followed the opinions of Luther and Melancthon, were
+condemned, and those of the Calvinistic church of Geneva affirmed.  From
+that time the various sects of the reformed church have generally been
+known as Arminian or Calvinistic, according as they embraced the peculiar
+tenets of either party on the subject of man’s salvation: I shall
+therefore thus distinguish the two classes into which I propose to
+arrange them, though they may not follow out either in the whole of their
+opinions.
+
+                              I.  ARMINIAN.
+
+1.  Quakers.
+
+2.  Socinians and Unitarians.
+
+3.  Wesleyan Methodists.
+
+4.  General Baptists, Moravians, Swedenborgians, Plymouth Brethren.
+
+                            II.  CALVINISTIC.
+
+1.  Presbyterians, Independents.
+
+2.  Particular Baptists, Sub and Supralapsarians, Sandemanians.
+
+3.  Calvinistic Methodists.  Evangelical or Low Church.
+
+                      [Picture: Decorative graphic]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.
+QUAKERS.
+
+
+The sect which I have placed first upon my list, arose about the middle
+of the seventeenth century, when a number of individuals withdrew from
+the communion of every _visible_ church “to seek,” {14} as they expressed
+it, “the Lord, in retirement:” and George Fox, their leader, or as they
+termed him, their “honourable elder,” went about preaching their opinions
+in fairs and markets, in courts of justice, and steeple houses, i.e.
+churches.  He denounced the state worship as “superstitious,” and warned
+all to obey the Holy Spirit, speaking by him.  He was in consequence
+brought before two justices of the peace in Derbyshire in 1650, one of
+whom, Mr. Bennet, called Fox, and his hearers “Quakers,” in derision of
+their frequent admonitions to “_tremble_ at the Word of God;” and this
+appellation soon became general, though they themselves took then, and
+still preserve, the title of “the Society of Friends.”
+
+The rigid peculiarities of phrase, &c. which Fox added to his religious
+sentiments; the regular discipline which he enforced; and the zeal with
+which he maintained and propagated his tenets gave consistency to this
+sect, although he was not, as has been supposed, the originator of their
+doctrines.  He conceived himself forbidden by divine command to pull off
+his hat to any one, or to address any one excepting in the singular
+number, or to “call any man master;” and for these peculiarities as well
+as for the refusal to give or accept titles of honour, or to take an
+oath, the “Friends” suffered the most cruel persecutions; for we are told
+that “they tortured with cruel whippings the bodies of both men and women
+of good estate and reputation;” {15a} and were further punished by
+impounding of their horses; by distress of goods; by fines,
+imprisonments, whipping, and setting in the stocks: {15b} yet,
+notwithstanding these severities, the sect increased and spread far and
+wide, and great numbers of people were drawn together, many out of
+animosity, to hear them.
+
+The Declaration of Indulgence in 1663 stopped for a short time the
+persecution of the Quakers, but by the Conventicle Act of 1664, numbers
+of them were condemned to transportation: in 1666, however, their
+condition improved, when the celebrated William Penn, the son of Admiral
+Penn, joined them.
+
+The discipline of this society is kept up by monthly meetings, composed
+of an aggregate of several particular congregations, whose business it is
+to provide for the maintenance of their poor, and the education of their
+children; also to judge of the sincerity and fitness of persons desirous
+of being admitted as members; to direct proper attention to religion and
+moral duty; and to deal with disorderly members.  At each monthly meeting
+persons are appointed to see that the rules of their discipline are put
+in practice.  It is usual when any member has misconducted himself, to
+appoint a small committee to visit the offender, to endeavour to convince
+him of his error and induce him to forsake it.  If they succeed, he is
+declared to have “made satisfaction for his offence,” otherwise he is
+dismissed from the society.  In disputes between individuals, it is
+enjoined that the members of this sect should not sue each other at law,
+but settle their differences by the rules of the society.
+
+Marriage is regarded by the Quakers as a religious, not a mere civil
+compact.  Those who wish to enter into that state appear together, and
+state their intentions at one of the monthly meetings, and if not
+attended by parents or guardians must produce their consent in writing
+duly witnessed; and if no objections are raised at a subsequent meeting,
+they are allowed to solemnize their marriage, which is done at a public
+meeting for worship; towards the close of which the parties stand up and
+solemnly take each other for man and wife.  A certificate of the
+proceedings is then read publicly and signed by the parties, and
+afterwards by the relations as witnesses.  The monthly meeting keeps a
+register of the marriages as well as of the births and burials of the
+society.
+
+Children are named without any attending ceremony; neither is it held
+_needful_ that there should be any at burial, though the body followed by
+the relatives and friends is sometimes carried into a meeting house, and
+at the grave a pause is generally made to allow of a discourse from any
+friend attending if he be so inclined.
+
+The women have monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings of their own sex,
+but without the power of making rules.  “As we believe,” they say, “that
+women may be rightly called to the work of the ministry, we also think
+that to them belongs a share in the support of Christian discipline; and
+that some parts of it wherein their own sex is concerned devolve on them
+with peculiar propriety.”
+
+But what, you will ask, are the religious tenets of this sect?  The
+question will perhaps best be answered by an extract from their “Rules of
+Discipline,” a work published under the sanction of the society.  “The
+original and immediate ground of the religious fellowship of the early
+Friends,” says the writer of this manual, “was _union of sentiment in
+regard to Christ’s inward teaching_.”  They were firm believers in all
+that is revealed in Holy Scripture respecting our Lord and Saviour Jesus
+Christ; nor would they have allowed that any one held the truth who
+denied his coming in the flesh, or the benefit to fallen man by his
+propitiatory sacrifice.  “We believe that, in order to enable mankind to
+put in practice the precepts of the gospel, every man coming into the
+world is endued with a measure of the light, grace, or good Spirit of
+Christ, by which, as it is alluded to, he is enabled to distinguish good
+from evil, and to correct the disorderly passions and corrupt
+propensities of his fallen nature, which _mere reason_ is altogether
+insufficient to overcome.  For all that belongs to man is fallible, and
+within the reach of temptation: but the divine grace, which comes by Him,
+i.e. Christ, who hath overcome the world, is, to those who humbly and
+sincerely seek it, an all-sufficient and present help in time of need . . .
+whereby the soul is translated out of the kingdom of darkness, and from
+under the power of Satan into the marvellous light and kingdom of the Son
+of God.  Now as we thus believe that the grace of God, which comes by
+Jesus Christ, is alone sufficient for salvation, we can neither admit
+that it is conferred upon a few only, while others are left without it;
+nor thus asserting its universality, can we limit its operation to a
+partial cleansing of the soul from sin even in this life.”
+
+Baptism and the Lord’s supper are regarded by this sect as mere types or
+shadows, representing in a figurative manner certain great particulars of
+Christian Truths, but not intended to be of permanent obligation.  They
+consider the former to have been superseded by the baptism of the Spirit:
+of the latter they say, “the emblem may be either used or disused as
+Christians may consider most conducive to the real advantage of the
+church: the only _needful_ supper of the Lord is altogether of a
+spiritual nature.”  They conceive that a reliance on the eucharist as a
+‘viaticum or saving ordinance,’ is a dangerous tenet, as well as the
+connecting the rite of baptism with regeneration.  They think that
+“ordinances so liable to abuse, and the cause of so many divisions and
+persecutions, cannot truly appertain to the law of God.”
+
+Quakers consider all holidays as “shadows” which ceased with the shadowy
+dispensations of the law, and that neither the first day of the week, nor
+any other, possesses any superior sanctity; {20} but as a society they
+have never objected to “a day of rest,” for the purpose of religious
+improvement.  They consider the Christian Dispensation to have superseded
+the use of oaths, and contend that our Lord’s precepts {21}extend even to
+the swearing of witnesses in courts of law.  War they hold to be
+altogether inconsistent with the spirit and precepts of the gospel, and
+urge that the primitive Christians during two centuries maintained its
+unlawfulness.  They object on the same principle to capital punishments,
+and the slave trade.
+
+The members of the society are bound by their principles to abstain
+entirely “from profane and extravagant entertainments,” from excess in
+eating and drinking; from public diversions; from the reading of useless,
+frivolous, and pernicious books; from gaming of every description; and
+from vain and injurious sports (such as hunting or shooting for
+diversion); from unnecessary display in funerals, furniture, and style of
+living: from unprofitable, seductive, and dangerous amusements, among
+which are ranked dancing and music; and generally from all “such
+occupations of time and mind as plainly tend to levity, vanity, and
+forgetfulness of our God and Saviour,” and they object to all
+complimentary intercourse.
+
+In the sketch I have now given of the tenets of this sect, you cannot
+have failed to observe how closely their notions with regard to the
+fundamental doctrines of Christianity tally with those of the great body
+of the church; the differences being all on points of minor import, if we
+except the ceremonies of baptism and the Lord’s supper; which, being the
+appointment of Christ himself, we are not at liberty to reject.  And yet,
+be it observed, the Quaker does not presumptuously reject them, but
+merely acts upon, as we suppose, an erroneous view of their nature.
+
+On points of minor difference it may be observed, that He who was the
+PRINCE OF PEACE, and came to establish it, never specifically forbad war,
+(for there may be cases where it is merely self defence,) but left it to
+the spirit of the gospel to remove the _causes_ of war. {22}  We all know
+the appellation bestowed on the Centurion, Cornelius: and when soldiers
+came to John the Baptist saying, “What shall we do?” he merely sought to
+retrench the disorders and injustice which those who follow the
+profession of arms might be tempted to commit; but did not condemn their
+necessary employments.  We may therefore fairly conclude that the
+sweeping condemnation of _all_ war by the Quakers, is not warranted by
+Scripture, although it is in many and indeed most instances, entered upon
+far too carelessly.
+
+One of the main distinctions of the Quakers is the rejection of certain
+amusements and pursuits, which others on the contrary consider as
+innocent, believing that the religion of Christ rather encourages than
+forbids a cheerful spirit, and allows by the example of the Saviour, a
+participation in social pleasures: and that “an upright, religious man,
+by partaking in such pleasures, may be the means of restraining others
+within due bounds, and by his very presence may prevent their
+degenerating into extravagance, profligacy, and sin;” {24a} and such do
+not feel in their hearts that _these_ {24b} are the “pomps and vanities
+of the world,” which by their baptismal vow they renounce.  But surely it
+is possible that different persons may regard the same pursuits and
+amusements in a very different light, and yet both may be conscientious
+in their views, and both, whether in abstaining or enjoying, be equally
+doing that which is lawful and right in the sight of God.  That very
+amusement or pursuit which is a snare to one, and therefore to be avoided
+by him, may be a source of innocent, and perhaps profitable recreation to
+another.  It is the intention, the _animus_ with which an act is done,
+and not the act itself which constitutes the sin.  “Let not him that
+eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge
+him that eateth: to his own master he standeth or falleth.”
+
+“Christianity,” says an excellent prelate of our church, “forbids no
+necessary occupation, no reasonable indulgences, no innocent relaxation.
+It allows us to ‘use’ the world, provided we do not ‘abuse’ it.  It does
+not spread before us a delicious banquet, and then come with a ‘Touch
+not, taste not, handle not:’ all it requires is that our liberty
+degenerate not into licentiousness; our amusements into dissipation; our
+industry into incessant toil; our carefulness into extreme anxiety and
+endless solicitude.  When it requires us to be ‘temperate in all things,’
+it plainly tells us that we _may_ use all things temperately. {26}  When
+it directs us to ‘make our moderation known unto all men,’ this evidently
+implies that within the bounds of moderation we may enjoy all the
+reasonable conveniences and comforts of this present life.”
+
+I have noticed this, in my opinion, erroneous practice of the Quakers at
+the more length, because it is not confined to them.  Asceticism, of
+which this is one branch, has been the bane of the church and of
+Christianity generally; and few sects are entirely free from the notion
+that holiness requires a withdrawal from amusements, and a certain degree
+of seclusion from the world.  Yet, if the world is to be improved, the
+leaven must be placed _in_ it; and a good man probably never does his
+Father’s work more effectually than when he spreads the sanctifying
+influence of his example through all the relations of life; showing that
+there is no position in society where Christianity does not add a grace
+and a relish unknown without it: spreading refinement of manners and
+delicacy of thought, and insensibly rendering social intercourse more
+polished, and more delightful, by banishing from it all that can offend.
+
+The Quakers adduce Matt. v. 33–37, James v. 12, &c. in support of their
+objection to all oaths, even judicial ones, and consider that the
+Christian dispensation abrogated their use.  But in answer to this we may
+observe that even the Almighty is represented as confirming his promises
+by a solemn oath.  “Because,” says the apostle, “He could swear by no
+higher, He sware by Himself;” and St. Paul on particular occasions
+expresses himself thus, “As God is true:” “Before God I lie not:” “God is
+my record,” &c. all which expressions undoubtedly contain the essence and
+formality of an oath; and the Apostle upon some occasions mentions this
+solemn swearing with approbation, “an oath for confirmation is the end of
+all strife:” the swearing, therefore, which our Saviour absolutely
+forbids, is common or unnecessary swearing, and we are recommended to
+affirm or deny in common conversation without imprecations.  “Let your
+conversation be yea, yea,—nay, nay.”
+
+The repugnance entertained by the Quakers against paying tithes appears
+to me to arise from an error in their mode of viewing the question.  The
+assertion made by them “that all the provision made for ministers of the
+gospel in the first ages was made by the love of their flocks,” is true,
+though that love very soon produced endowments, even before Christianity
+was established as the law of the empire.  But allowing this, it does not
+follow, as they go on to assert, that “since we are under the same
+dispensation of love as the Apostles were, the principles which governed
+the church then are to govern it now.”  Tithes were originally given to
+the church as a corporation, by the owners of the soil; and since that
+time estates have been transferred from hand to hand subject to that
+charge, till no man has any plea for refusing it.  The question is not
+one of religion but of property.  If my estate devolve to me chargeable
+with an annuity payable either to a corporation or an individual, I have
+no right to set up his religious opinions in bar of his claim: for I have
+paid less for the purchase in consequence of the existence of that claim,
+which in common honesty therefore I am bound to satisfy, be the annuitant
+who he may. {29}
+
+Having now noticed the points wherein I consider the peculiar tenets of
+the Quakers to be erroneous, I shall conclude with the more agreeable
+part of my task, and prove by extracts from one of their writers how much
+of true Christian feeling exists among them.  The following is from a
+little book given me by a Quaker, from the pen of J. Gurney, entitled “An
+Essay on Love to God.”
+
+“Still more completely than the provisions of nature fall in with our
+bodily state, and supply our temporal wants; still more properly than the
+air agrees with the functions of the lungs, and the light with those of
+the eye, does the gospel of our Redeemer suit the spiritual condition of
+man.  We are a fallen race, alienated from God by our sins, justly liable
+to his wrath: in the gospel we have pardon, peace and restoration.
+‘Christ made all things new,’ says Grotius, ‘and the latter creation is
+_more divine_ than the former.’  If then the first creation of mankind
+and all the bounties of nature are the result of Love, that attribute is
+far more gloriously displayed in the scheme of redemption and in the
+works of grace.—The love of God the Father is ever represented in
+Scripture as the origin of all our hopes,—as the eternal, unfathomable
+spring of the waters of life and salvation, and this love is plainly
+described as extending to the whole world.  ‘God so loved the world, &c.
+{30a}  God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ {30b}—‘God
+would have all men to be saved, &c.’ {30c}  Do we ask for an overwhelming
+evidence of the love of God?  Let the Apostle satisfy our inquiry.  ‘In
+this was manifested the love of God towards us, because God sent his only
+begotten Son into the world that we might live by him.  Herein is love;
+not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
+propitiation for our sins.’ {31a}  Do we ask whether God thus loved the
+whole or only a part of the world?—Let the same Apostle answer: ‘He
+tasted death for _every man_—He gave himself a ransom for _all_, &c.’
+Even the Gentiles, who were without the benefit of an outward revelation,
+were by no means destitute of an inward knowledge of the law of God, and
+some of them showed ‘the work of the law written on their hearts, their
+consciences also bearing witness.’ {31b}  ‘Christ is the true light which
+lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ {31c}  Hence we may
+reasonably infer that as God appointed the death of Christ to be a
+sacrifice for the sins of the _whole_ world, so _all_ men receive through
+Christ a measure of moral and spiritual light, and all have their day of
+gracious visitation.  If the light in numberless instances be extremely
+faint, if the darkness fail to comprehend it, we may rest in the
+conviction that God is not only just but equitable, and that those ‘who
+know not their Master’s will and do it not shall be beaten with few
+stripes.’ {32}  The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is revealed in
+the Holy Scriptures, is intended for the benefit of the whole world: it
+is adapted to men of every condition, clime, and character: all are
+invited to avail themselves of its benefits: all who _will_ come _may_
+come, and ‘take the water of life freely.’”
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.
+SOCINIANS AND UNITARIANS.
+
+
+When the first great movement which led to the Reform of a large part of
+the Christian Churches in Europe, awakened men’s minds from the lethargy
+in which they had slept whilst learning was confined to the cloister, the
+questions with regard to the nature of the Deity which had distracted the
+early church began again to be mooted; and as early as the year 1524,
+“the divinity of Christ was openly denied by Lewis Hetyer, one of the
+wandering and fanatical Anabaptists, who was put to death at Constance.”
+{33a}  He was succeeded by Michael Servede or Servetus, a Spanish
+physician; who, for his wild notions on the same subject, was apprehended
+on his road through Switzerland at the instigation of Calvin, accused of
+blasphemy, and condemned to the flames. {33b}  But doctrines were never
+yet crushed by persecution, unless indeed it were so wholesale as to
+exterminate all who held them; and though these opinions were thus fatal
+to their professors, the main points were reproduced by others; and
+finally assumed form as a sect, under the titles above named.  The term
+Socinian was taken from two of its most distinguished promoters, Lælius
+and Faustus Sozinus, or Socinus.  They were of an illustrious family at
+Siena in Tuscany, and Lælius, the uncle of Faustus, having taken a
+disgust to popery, travelled into France, England, &c. to examine into
+their religious creed, in order, if possible, to come at the truth.  He
+was a man distinguished for his genius and learning, no less than for his
+virtuous life; he settled at last at Zurich, embraced the Helvetic
+confession of faith, and died at Zurich in 1562, before he had reached
+his fortieth year.  His sentiments, or rather doubts as to certain
+points, were embodied, and more openly propagated by his nephew Faustus;
+who, as is supposed, drew up from his papers the religious system
+afterwards known under the name of Socinianism.  There is however a
+considerable degree of obscurity hanging over the rise of this sect, and
+no one has given a satisfactory history of it.
+
+The first appearance of Unitarians, as a distinct congregation, was in
+Poland, where they obtained a settlement in the city of Cracow in the
+year 1569; and in 1575 they published at Cracow the “Catechism or
+Confession of the Unitarians;” {35a} but Faustus Socinus having settled
+among them in the year 1579, soon obtained so much influence as finally
+to remodel the whole religious system of the sect, and a new form drawn
+up by Socinus himself, was substituted for the old Catechism.
+
+The following is an abstract of the doctrines taught in this Catechism.
+After affirming that the Christian religion is “a road for arriving at
+eternal life, divinely made known,” the pupil is told that the will of
+God on points essential to salvation was revealed by Jesus Christ.  The
+Catechism then goes on to affirm the entire unity of the Deity; since if
+he is one essence, then must he also be individually one, {35b} and
+therefore Christ cannot he truly said to be a _separate_ person or
+individual, partaking of the _essentia_ of the Deity, since that
+_essentia_ is necessarily one.  That the Spirit of God, being an
+essential part of the Deity, cannot be a separate individual (for in this
+sense the Catechism interprets the word _persona_ {36}), any more than
+his wisdom or his goodness is a separate individual, and that therefore
+the manifestations of the Spirit of God are manifestations of the Deity
+himself.
+
+“Christ,” says the Catechism, “is a man, according to Rom. v. 15,
+conceived by a virgin, through the power of the Divine Spirit, without
+the intervention of man in the ordinary course of generation.  He was
+first subject to suffering and death—afterwards impassible and immortal,
+Rom. vi. 9.  It is in the sense of his existence derived immediately from
+God, that he, though man, is called the Son of God—as Adam is so termed
+from the same cause.  Jesus Christ was the immediate instrument of God’s
+communications to man; and being, whilst on earth, the voice of God, he
+is now the anointed King, or Christ, over the people of God.”
+
+The passages where he is said to have existed from the beginning: to have
+created all things, &c. are laboriously explained away, as referring to
+the regeneration, or new state of things introduced by Christ’s mission
+on earth: and in this part there is much forced interpretation.  I shall
+annex some of the passages in the language of the original, {37} as a
+proof that I have given a fair account of the real Socinian doctrine,
+which is very little understood at present.  Writers from whom we might
+expect greater accuracy, have very generally confounded Socinians and
+Arians, although Faustus Socinus was at the pains to write a laboured
+refutation of the Arian doctrine, and although a reference to the
+doctrines of the two sects would show that they are the antipodes of each
+other.  Arius taught that Christ was not of _the same_ nature
+(ὁμοούσιος), with the Father, but of _a like_ nature (ὁμοιούσιος) and
+therefore individually separate—separate in will, and capable of
+differing.  This is a direct assertion of two Gods.  Socinus on the
+contrary strenuously asserts the unity of the Deity to the extent of
+denying the pre-existence of Christ: which Arius though acknowledging
+that there was a time when he began to exist, nevertheless refers to a
+period remote beyond human calculation.  Thus upon their characteristic
+doctrines, the two sects are diametrically opposed to each other.
+
+Having now given you the real opinions of Socinus, from his own works,
+for the book is lying beside me as I write, I shall pursue my plan of
+examining how far they accord with what was taught by those who certainly
+ought to be best informed on the subject, namely, Christ himself, his
+Apostles, and their immediate successors; as well as with the deductions
+of reason.  The unity of the Deity is so frequently and so decidedly
+asserted in Scripture, that it is impossible to consider any man as
+unorthodox who professes to make this the groundwork of his belief—so far
+therefore the Socinian is in accordance both with Scripture and the
+general voice of the Christian church, for the early Apologists for
+Christianity, who had to address polytheists, are full of declarations
+that they worship One only Deity, who by various manifestations has made
+himself, at different times, known to mankind. {39a}  There is not a
+writer of the first and second centuries who does not anxiously assert
+the one-ness of the God whom the Christians worship: but then they as
+anxiously assert the identity of their Teacher and Lord with that God.
+From Christ himself, who says, “Before Abraham was, I am;” {39b} “I and
+the Father are one;” {39c} “He who hath seen me hath seen the Father;”
+“the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works;” {39d} to St. Paul,
+who tells us that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,”
+{39e} down to the fathers of the early church, to whom I may refer
+_passim_ for the same doctrine; all have distinctly asserted that the
+message of peace to man was delivered by God himself, making use of a
+human form as the mode of communication with his creatures, and dwelling
+in “the man Christ Jesus,” {39f} as in a temple built up for his especial
+use; the human nature, to use the expression of the church, “having been
+taken into God,” not the Godhead circumscribed in man.  I will not swell
+the length of my letter with quotations from the fathers which may be
+found elsewhere; I think the texts I have quoted with many more of the
+same purport, which you will readily call to mind, suffice to prove that
+when Socinus asserted the Christ to be _merely_ a man, he erred; for
+though Jesus “the Carpenter’s son,” as his contemporaries called him, was
+to all intents and purposes a man “of a reasonable soul and human flesh
+subsisting;” {40} and though this may be proved from numberless passages
+in the Scripture, where the man Jesus speaks of his inferiority to the
+Father and bestower of his human frame and spirit,—yet if we do not
+entirely distort the meaning of words, _that man_ at times uttered
+declarations of divine power which could only have proceeded from the
+indwelling Deity, otherwise they must have been the assertions of
+imposture, which Socinus by no means teaches to have been the case.  I
+know not, therefore, how the believer in the Gospel can avoid
+acknowledging that Christ was a compound being:—perfectly a man, and
+speaking as such on some occasions; but, at the same time, the temple of
+the Ever-living God, whose words flowed from his lips like the answer
+from the Mercy seat: “Heaven and the heaven of heavens” no doubt “cannot
+contain” the Infinite; and no true believer will assert that God can be
+circumscribed in a human body—but, if so mean a comparison may be
+permitted—as the crater of the volcano is but the mouthpiece of the
+mighty agents operating within for the fashioning of the earth,—so the
+manifestation of the Deity in the form, and from the lips of a man, is
+but that spot of the material creation where the ever blessed Divinity
+allows himself, as it were, a vent; and gives forth a visible and
+tangible sign of his existence.
+
+“He that has seen me has seen the Father,” says _the Christ_.  “I can of
+my own self do nothing” {41} says _the man_: and this distinction which
+the Christ who necessarily knew something of the composition of his own
+nature so frequently asserts, has probably been the groundwork of the
+mistaken views of this class of Christians, and we may well look with
+charitable indulgence on the errors of men, who dreading lest they should
+incur the penalty of giving the incommunicable glory of the Mighty God to
+another, have not allowed their due weight to the passages, which assert
+that Mighty God to have undertaken the task of bringing his creature man
+back to Himself.
+
+Having thus given you a fair account of the creed of Socinus, I must next
+notice the modern Unitarians, who on some points differ from him.  Where
+there is no acknowledged creed or catechism, {42} which may be quoted as
+authority, it is difficult to give the doctrines of a sect with any
+precision; but as far as it is possible to judge from the writings most
+in repute among the Unitarians, they disclaim the notion of the
+miraculous conception, and believe Christ to have been to all intents and
+purposes _a mere man_.  At the same time they allow him to have been so
+inspired and guided by God, that it is difficult to see where they draw
+the line between their own creed and that of the church, which allows the
+perfect humanity of Jesus, but asserts that “God and man make one
+Christ,” namely, that the message of peace was that of God speaking by
+human lips, and that the Anointed prophet who declared it, was, when so
+anointed, the temple and place of manifestation of the living God.  They
+disclaim the doctrine of atonement, and believe that the mission of
+Christ had for its object the reform of the world, and the restoration of
+man to a sense of his true relation towards God, and even here Scripture
+and the early church speak a language which differs not very greatly from
+theirs.  For the language in which our redemption is spoken of, is that
+of a master purchasing a slave, as will be seen on a reference to Rom.
+vi. in the original.  The ransom by which man was purchased to be the
+servant of holiness instead of that of sin, was paid to his former
+master, sin; by the purchaser; and the purchaser is God.  “I speak after
+the manner of men,” says St. Paul, “because of the infirmity of your
+flesh.” i.e. I adopt the phraseology of a common transaction because your
+minds are not sufficiently accustomed to the contemplation of higher
+things to understand them without a metaphor; but the Unitarian forgets,
+when asserting that the ransom was not paid _to_ God, that it was paid
+_by_ God: and that man, the slave, was bought from sin, the master, at no
+less a price than the condescension of the Deity himself to the infirmity
+of our flesh, by making himself visibly and tangibly known to his
+creatures, through the medium of a human form.
+
+I have now endeavoured to give a dispassionate view of the doctrines of
+these sects, hitherto so much misunderstood, and having marked the points
+wherein they appear to me to recede from Christian truth, I have the
+pleasanter task before me, of showing by extracts from their writings,
+how large a portion of the religion which we all profess, they still
+retain, and I may say from experience, on most occasions conscientiously
+act upon.
+
+“If with the Apostle we glory in the cross of Christ, or in that religion
+which could not have been confirmed without his death, let us not only be
+careful to govern our lives by the precepts of it in general, but more
+particularly be prepared to suffer what the strictest profession of it
+may call us to.  Let us remember that our Saviour hath said, if any man
+will be his disciple he must “take up his cross, and follow him.”  That
+is, he must be ready to do it rather than abandon the profession of the
+Gospel, or whatever the strictest purity of it may require.  A true
+Christian is no more _of this world_ than his Lord and Master was of it.
+With him every thing here below is but of secondary consideration,
+&c.—but this we must remember for our consolation, that if, in time of
+persecution “He that keepeth his life shall lose it,” “He that loseth his
+life” for the profession of the Gospel “shall keep it to life eternal.”
+“If we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him and be glorified
+together.” {47}
+
+“The truths which relate to Jesus himself are among the _most important_
+which the Gospel reveals.  ‘We preach Christ,’ says the Apostle, ‘warning
+every man and teaching every man, that we may present every man perfect
+in Christ Jesus.’  From this passage we derive a most important
+sentiment, confirmed by the whole New Testament—that the great design of
+all the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, is, to exalt the
+character,—to promote eminent purity of heart and life, to make men
+‘perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect.’  We must preach not to
+make fiery partizans, and to swell the number of a sect; not to overwhelm
+the mind with fear, or to heat it with feverish rapture; not to form men
+to the decencies of life, to a superficial goodness, which will secure
+the admiration of mankind.  All these effects fall infinitely short of
+the great end of the Christian ministry.  We should preach that we may
+make men perfect Christians: perfect, not according to the standard of
+the world, but according to the law of Christ; perfect in heart and in
+life, in solitude and in society, in the great and in the common concerns
+of life.  Here is the purpose of Christian preaching.  In this, as in a
+common centre, all the truths of the Gospel meet; to this they all
+conspire; and no doctrine has an influence on salvation, any farther than
+it is an aid to the perfecting of our nature.” {48}
+
+“Christ is a great Saviour, as he redeems or sets free the mind,
+cleansing it from evil, breathing into it the love of virtue, calling
+forth its noblest faculties and affections, enduing it with moral power,
+restoring it to order, health and liberty.” * * * * “Christ has revealed
+to us God as the Father, and as a Father in the noblest sense of that
+word.  He hath revealed Him as the author and lover of all souls,
+desiring to redeem all from sin, and to impress his likeness more and
+more resplendently on all; as proffering to all that best gift in the
+universe, his ‘holy Spirit;’ as having sent his beloved Son to train us
+up and to introduce us to an ‘inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and
+unfading in the heavens.’” {49}
+
+“I confess when I can escape the deadening power of habit, and can
+receive the full import of such passages as the following, ‘Come unto me,
+all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’  ‘I am
+come to seek and to save that which was lost.’  ‘He that confesseth me
+before men, him will I confess before my Father in heaven.’  ‘Whosoever
+shall be ashamed of me before men, of him shall the Son of Man be
+ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.’
+‘In my Father’s house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for
+you;’ I say, when I can succeed in realizing the import of such passages,
+I feel myself listening to a being, such as never before and never since
+spoke in human language.  I am awed by the consciousness of greatness
+which these simple words express; and when I connect this greatness with
+the proofs of Christ’s miracles which I gave you in a former discourse, I
+am compelled to speak with the Centurion, ‘Truly this was the Son of
+God.’ {50a}
+
+“In reading the Gospels I feel myself in the presence of one who speaks
+as man never spake; whose voice is not of the earth; who speaks with a
+tone of reality and authority altogether his own; who speaks of God, as
+conscious of his immediate presence, as enjoying with him the intimacy of
+an only Son; and who speaks of heaven, as most familiar with the higher
+states of being.” {50b}
+
+“Go to Jesus Christ for guidance, inspiration, and strength in your
+office.” * * * “The privilege of communing with such a spirit is so
+great, and the duty of going from man to Christ is so solemn, that you
+must spare no effort to place yourself nearer and nearer to the Divine
+Master.”  “My brother, go forth to your labours with the spirit and power
+of Him who first preached the Gospel to the poor.” {50c}
+
+“To Jesus the conqueror of death we owe the sure hope of immortality.” *
+* *  “Is that teacher to be scorned, who in the language of conscious
+greatness says to us, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’?” {51a}
+
+“What are we to understand by the Divinity of Christ?  In the sense in
+which many Christians, and perhaps a majority interpret it, we do not
+deny it, but believe it as firmly as themselves.  We believe firmly in
+the Divinity of Christ’s mission and office, that he spoke with Divine
+authority, and was a bright image of the Divine perfections.  We believe
+that God dwelt in him, manifested himself through him, taught men by him,
+and communicated to him his spirit without measure.  We believe that
+Jesus Christ was the most glorious display, expression, and
+representative of God to mankind, so that in seeing and knowing him, we
+see and know the invisible Father; so that when Christ came, God visited
+the world and dwelt with men more conspicuously than at any former
+period.  In Christ’s words, we hear God speaking; in his miracles, we
+behold God acting; in his character and life, we see an unsullied image
+of God’s purity and love.” {51b}
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.
+WESLEYAN METHODISTS.
+
+
+Towards the beginning of the last century, two young men at Oxford, the
+one a fellow of Lincoln College, struck by the thoughtlessness or
+lukewarmness of those about them, resolved to devote themselves to closer
+and more profitable study.  They were brothers, by name John and Charles
+Wesley; and two other students joined them in their evening readings of
+the New Testament in the Greek: the elder of the brothers was at this
+time about twenty-six. {52}  After a year of this kind of life, they
+admitted two or three of the pupils of the elder brother, and one of
+those of the younger, to their meetings; and the following year, being
+joined by yet more of the students, the regularity of their lives
+obtained for them the title of _Methodists_ from those who were not
+inclined to follow their example.
+
+In 1735 another name was added to their number, which has also become
+celebrated: this was George Whitfield of Pembroke College, then in his
+eighteenth year; but of him I shall have occasion to speak by and by.  I
+shall therefore confine myself to the Wesleys.  A difference of opinion
+on the subjects of Freewill and Predestination separated them from their
+younger coadjutor in 1741, and their respective friends, adopting
+strongly the distinctive opinions of the two, the grand division of the
+sect, which sprung up from their preaching, into Wesleyan or Arminian,
+and Whitfieldian or Calvinistic Methodists, ensued.  All three received
+holy orders according to the ceremonial of the Church of England, and
+Wesley never ceased to hold his spiritual mother in high estimation.
+“The Church of England,” he says in one place, “is the purest in
+Christendom.”  But the singularity of their proceedings raised suspicion,
+and though both brothers continued to profess the fullest assent to the
+articles and liturgy of the established church, yet their manner of
+preaching and form of worship had something in it which led the bishops
+and clergy in general to consider them as verging on Sectarianism.  In
+many places they were refused the use of the pulpit; and then, in the
+perhaps enthusiastic belief that they were the appointed instruments of
+rekindling religion in hearts where it had been dead hitherto, they began
+a system of field preaching.
+
+There were at that time large districts slumbering in utter darkness and
+ignorance of the saving truths of the Gospel: and it was to these that
+the Wesleys especially directed their attention, with a success
+proportioned to their zeal; and had the then heads of the church availed
+themselves of the assistance of these earnest men in the way they might
+have done, by sanctioning their missionary labours among the poor and the
+uninstructed, the benefit would have been incalculable.  But the harsh
+treatment {54} they met with, drove John Wesley at last into complete
+schism: and then the ambition, which had perhaps animated his first
+exertions almost unknown to himself, assumed a bolder flight, and he
+aspired to the distinction of being the head and leader of a sect which
+grew so rapidly, that at the time of his death in 1791, “the number of
+members in connexion with him in Europe, America, and the West Indian
+Islands, was 80,000.  And at the last conference in 1831 the numbers
+returned were, in Great Britain, 249,119; in Ireland, 22,470; in the
+Foreign Missions, 42,743.  Total 314,332.  Exclusive of more than half a
+million of persons in the Societies in the States of America.” {55}
+
+You are probably aware that, besides the public preaching, Wesley
+instituted among his people several kinds of private meetings.  To the
+public prayer meetings, which were generally held in private houses,
+persons not of this sect were often invited, and on these occasions a
+hymn was first sung, then they all knelt, and the first who felt “moved”
+made an extempore prayer: when he had finished, another commenced, and so
+on for about two hours.  These prayer meetings were held in such high
+esteem among the Methodists, that they asserted more were “born again”
+and “made free,” as they termed it, “from all the remains of sin” than at
+any other meetings, public preachings, &c.
+
+There was much in this kind of meeting which was likely to lead to
+enthusiasm, which is universally found to be most easily awakened where
+numbers are congregated; and according to an author formerly of their
+persuasion, {56} the consequence was such as might have been expected.
+“It is impossible,” says he, “to form any just idea of those assemblies
+except you had been present at them.  One coaxes the Divine Being,
+another is amorous, and a third will tell the Deity, ‘He must be a liar
+if he does not grant all they ask.’  They thus go on working up each
+other’s imagination until they become as it were spiritually intoxicated,
+and while in this state they sometimes recollect a text or two of
+Scripture, such as ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’—‘Go and sin no more’—‘Go
+in peace,’ &c. and then declare themselves to be ‘born again’ or
+‘sanctified.’”
+
+The love feast is also a private meeting of as many members of the
+community as choose to attend; and they generally assemble from all parts
+within several miles of the place where the feast is held.  They then
+alternately sing and pray, and some among them, who think that their
+experience, as they term it, is remarkable, stand up, and narrate all the
+transactions which they say have taken place between God, the devil, and
+their souls.
+
+There is a curious propensity to egotism in human nature which frequently
+shews itself in religious matters.  Men love to talk of themselves: and
+the Romanist finds pleasure in the power of pouring forth all his
+feelings and thoughts to his father confessor, whenever he is strongly
+excited by passion: of this I have become aware from personal knowledge.
+Other enthusiasts enjoy no less satisfaction in talking of the interior
+conflicts they have sustained; for all ungoverned feeling loves to vent
+itself in speech, and the lover who talks of his mistress, or the
+penitent who talks of his sins, is for the time being in the same state
+of restless excitement.  _Governed_ feeling, on the contrary, as far as
+my experience goes, is silent.
+
+In these Love Feasts those present have buns to eat, which are mutually
+broken between each “Brother and Sister,” and water to drink, which they
+hand from one to another.  These meetings commence about seven o’clock,
+and last till nine or ten.
+
+Each society is divided into smaller companies called “classes” according
+to their respective places of abode.  There are about twelve persons in
+every class, one of whom is styled “the Leader,” whose business it is to
+see each person in his class, at least once a week, to advise, comfort,
+or exhort, as occasion may require, and to receive what each is willing
+to give towards the support of the Gospel.
+
+It is expected that every member should continue to evince his desire of
+salvation by abstaining from “the taking of the name of the Lord in
+vain”; “the profaning of the Lord’s day, either by ordinary work thereon,
+or by buying and selling”; “drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous
+liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity;
+fighting, quarreling, brawling; going to law with a brother; returning
+evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or
+selling. {59a}  The buying or selling uncustomed goods; the giving or
+taking things on usury, i.e. unlawful interest; the putting on of gold or
+costly apparel; the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name
+of the Lord Jesus Christ; the singing those songs or reading those books,
+that do not tend to the knowledge or love of God;—softness and needless
+self-indulgence, &c. {59b}
+
+Among the duties expected and required of the members are all kinds of
+beneficence, diligence, frugality, {59c} self-denial, and attendance on
+all the ordinances of God, among which is specifically mentioned fasting.
+If any member habitually break any of these rules he is admonished; and
+if he do not then repent, expulsion follows.  “Marrying with
+unbelievers,” and bankruptcy, if the party has not kept fair accounts,
+are also followed by expulsion.
+
+No one I think can doubt that much good was effected by the first
+preaching of Wesley and his disciples, for at that time our church was in
+a lethargic state, and the lower orders shamefully neglected in spiritual
+matters in many parts of England.  Yet there are some things which excite
+one’s regret in their practices, and of these none displeases me more
+than the familiar use of Scripture language, which when properly and
+judiciously applied is striking and solemn; but to hear every notion of
+enthusiastic ignorance, every rise and fall of the animal spirits,
+expressed in the language of the Apostles and Evangelists, and even of
+our Lord himself; to witness their familiarity with the Almighty, their
+full trust and confidence in the reality of small miracles wrought at
+their request;—must always be painful to a soberly religious mind.  In a
+book entitled “The Bank of Faith,” the author asserts, that a dog brought
+him mutton to eat, that fish died at night in a pond on purpose to be
+eaten by him in the morning, and that money, clothes, &c. in short every
+thing he could desire he attained by prayer. {61}
+
+An old woman of Wesley’s society, named Mary Hubbard, would often wash
+her linen, hang it out to dry, and go away to work in the fields or to
+Taunton Market four miles from her house, and when blamed for thus
+leaving her linen unprotected, she would reply that “the Lord watched
+over her and all that she had, and that he would prevent any person from
+stealing her two old smocks, or if He permitted them to be stolen, He
+would send her two new ones in their stead.”  I seriously assure you,
+says the author who relates this tale, and who at one time went even
+greater lengths {62} than this old woman, “that there are many thousand
+Mary Hubbards among the Methodists.”
+
+It may be added, that their strict abstinence from the common amusements
+of the world, even where innocent in themselves, has its evils, as I have
+already noticed when speaking of the Quakers; for the mind cannot always
+be kept in a state of tension, and if we refuse ourselves recreation
+altogether, there is danger that we shall find the yoke of Christ a
+wearisome instead of an easy one, and cast it off in disgust; nay, I am
+afraid that if we were to inquire closely, we should find instances
+enough of this result to demonstrate, what indeed wants but little proof,
+i.e. that God knows better than we do “whereof we are made,” and that it
+is not wisdom to bind a heavy burthen on our shoulders when Christ
+himself has declared that his is light.  Still, though tinged with a
+degree of enthusiasm which we may regret, the doctrine of the Wesleyan
+Methodists retains the fundamental parts of Christianity, and after
+reading the following extracts from Wesley’s Sermons, I think you will
+hardly forbear asking, Why is this a separate sect?
+
+“Justifying Faith implies not only a Divine ελεγχος, evidence or
+conviction, that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,’
+but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for _my_ sins, that he
+loved _me_, and gave himself for me; and the moment a penitent sinner
+believes this, God pardons and absolves him.” {64a}  “Christian
+perfection does not imply, as some men seem to have imagined, an
+exemption either from ignorance, or mistake, or infirmities, or
+temptations; indeed it is only another term for holiness: thus every one
+that is holy, is in the Scripture sense ‘perfect.’  We may yet observe
+that neither in this respect is there absolute perfection on earth.”
+{64b}  “If the Scriptures are true, those who are holy or religious in
+the judgment of God himself, those who are endued with the faith that
+purifies the heart, that produces a good conscience; those who live by
+faith in the Son of God; those who are sanctified by the blood of the
+Covenant may nevertheless so fall from God as to perish everlastingly,
+therefore let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”  “In
+strictness neither our faith nor our works justify us, i.e. _deserve_ the
+remission of our sins, but God himself justifies us of his own mercy
+through the merits of his Son only.” {65}
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.
+GENERAL BAPTISTS, MORAVIANS, SWEDENBORGIANS, PLYMOUTH BRETHREN.
+
+
+Among the sects which arose about the period of the Reformation of the
+church in the sixteenth century, we find the Anabaptists {66} playing
+rather a conspicuous part, by exciting political tumults in Saxony and
+the adjacent countries.  For this, Munzer, their leader, after the defeat
+of his forces, was put to death, and the sect generally was proscribed,
+and the profession of its doctrines punished capitally.  What those
+doctrines were is not easy, nor is it essential now, to state, since the
+modern sect, which we now term Baptists, retain only so much of them as
+relates to baptism by immersion, and of adults only, and the rejection of
+episcopal church government.
+
+The more modern sect is subdivided into General and Particular Baptists.
+The General or Arminian Baptists admit “much latitude in their system of
+religious doctrine, which consists in such general principles, that their
+communion is accessible to Christians of almost all denominations, and
+accordingly they tolerate in fact, and receive among them persons of
+every sect, who profess themselves Christians, and receive the Holy
+Scriptures as the source of truth, and the rule of faith.” {67}  They
+agree with the PARTICULAR BAPTISTS in this, that they admit to baptism
+adults only, and administer that sacrament either by dipping or total
+immersion; but they differ from them in another respect, for they repeat
+the administration of baptism to those who had received it, either in a
+state of infancy, or by aspersion instead of dipping: for if the common
+accounts may be believed, the Particular Baptists do not carry matters so
+far.
+
+The General Baptists consider their sect as the only true church; in
+baptism they dip only once and not three times as was the practice in the
+primitive church: and they consider it a matter of indifference whether
+that sacrament be administered in the name of Father, Son, and Holy
+Ghost, or in that of Christ alone: {68a} they adopt the doctrine of Menno
+with regard to the Millennium; many of them also embrace his particular
+opinion concerning the origin of Christ’s body. {68b}  They look upon the
+precept of the Apostles prohibiting the use of blood and of things
+strangled, as a law that was designed to be in force in all ages and
+periods of the church: they believe that the soul, from the moment that
+the body dies until its resurrection at the last day, remains in a state
+of perfect insensibility: they use the ceremony of extreme unction, and
+finally, to omit matters of a more trifling nature, several of them
+observe the Jewish as well as the Christian Sabbath. {68c}  In some of
+their churches they have three distinct orders separately ordained, i.e.
+messengers, elders, and deacons; and their general assembly (where a
+minister preaches, and the churches are taken into consideration), is
+held annually in London on the Tuesday in Whitsun week, and they
+afterwards dine together.  They have met thus for upwards of a century.
+
+The propriety of the exclusive application of the term “Baptists” to
+those who baptize adults by immersion, has been questioned; and for this
+reason they are by many styled Antipædobaptists, {69} namely, opposers of
+infant baptism; but the term Anabaptist should not be applied to them, it
+being a term of reproach.
+
+The old General Baptists have been on the decline for many years; their
+churches are principally in Kent and Sussex.  The English and most
+foreign Baptists consider a personal profession of faith, and immersion
+in water, essential to baptism: this profession is generally made before
+the church at a church meeting.  Some have a creed, and expect the
+candidate for baptism to assent to it, and give a circumstantial account
+of his conversion: others only require him to profess himself a
+Christian.  The former generally consider baptism as an ordinance which
+initiates persons into a particular church, and they say, that without
+breach of Christian liberty, they have a right to expect an agreement in
+articles of faith in their own societies.  The latter think that baptism
+initiates into the Christian religion generally, and therefore think that
+they have no right to require an assent to their creed from such as do
+not join their churches.  They quote the baptism of the Eunuch in Acts
+viii. in proof.
+
+The first mention of the Baptists in English History is as the subject of
+persecution in the reign of Henry VIII.  During that of Edward VI. a
+commission was issued to bishops and other persons “to try all
+Anabaptists, heretics, and despisers of the common prayer,” and they were
+empowered, in the event of their contumacy, to commit them to the flames.
+The same inhuman policy was persisted in under Elizabeth.  The last
+Baptist martyr burned in England was Edward Wightman; he was condemned by
+the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, {70a} and burned at Lichfield April
+11, 1612. {70b}
+
+The celebrated Whiston became a Baptist towards the close of his life,
+retaining nevertheless his Arian belief.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The MORAVIANS are supposed to have derived their origin from Nicholas
+Lewis, Count Zinzendorf, a German nobleman, who died in 1760.  The
+society however assert that they are descended from the old Moravian and
+Bohemian Brethren, who existed as a distinct sect sixty years prior to
+the Reformation.  No sooner had these Moravian Brethren heard of Luther’s
+bold testimony to the truth, and of the success which attended his
+labours, than they sent in the year 1522 two deputies to assure him of
+“the deep interest which they took in his work;” giving him, at the same
+time, an account of their own doctrine and constitution.  They were most
+kindly received; and both Luther, and his colleague Bucer, recognised the
+Moravians as holding the same faith; and bore honourable testimony to the
+purity of their doctrine, and the excellence of their discipline.  The
+chief doctrine of the Moravian society is, that “by the sacrifice for sin
+made by Jesus Christ, and by that alone, grace and deliverance from sin
+are to be obtained for all mankind:” and they stedfastly maintain the
+following points:
+
+1.  The divinity of Christ.
+
+2.  The atonement and satisfaction made for us by Jesus Christ; and that
+by his merits alone we receive freely the forgiveness of sin, and
+sanctification in soul and body.
+
+3.  The doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the operations of his grace.
+That it is he who worketh in us conviction of sin, faith in Christ, and
+pureness of heart.
+
+4.  That faith must evidence itself by willing obedience to the
+commandments of God from love and gratitude.
+
+The internal constitution of the ancient church of the Moravians, which
+is still substantially adhered to, was originally adopted in 1457, and
+more definitely settled in 1616 by the Synod of Zerawitz.  Its principal
+peculiarities are,
+
+1.  Every church is divided into three classes, i.e. 1. _Beginners_ or
+_Catechumens_.  2.  _The more advanced_ or _communicants_, who are
+considered as members of the church.  3. _The perfect_, consisting of
+such as have persevered for some time in a course of true piety.  From
+this last class are chosen in every church _the Elders_, from three to
+eight in number.
+
+2.  Every congregation is directed by a board of elders, whose province
+it is to have a watchful eye over its members with respect to the
+doctrine and deportment.  Once in three months these elders are bound to
+visit the houses of the brethren, in order to observe their conduct, and
+to ascertain whether every one is labouring diligently in his calling,
+&c. of which they make a report to the pastor.  They also are required to
+visit the sick, and assist the poorer brethren with money, contributed by
+the members of the church, and deposited in an alms box.
+
+3.  The ministration of the Word and Sacrament is performed either by
+members who have received ordination from the bishops of the church of
+the brethren, or by those who have received that of the Calvinist or
+Lutheran church.  The deacons, according to the ancient constitution of
+the church, are the chief assistants of the pastors, and are considered
+as candidates for the ministry.  The bishops, who are nominated by the
+ministers, appoint the pastors to their stations, and have the power of
+removing them when they think fit, and of ordaining the deacons as well
+as the ministers.  Every bishop is appointed to superintend a certain
+number of churches, and has two or three co-bishops, who, if necessary,
+supply their place.  The ancient church appointed some of its members to
+the business of watching over the civil affairs of the congregation,
+under the name of _Seniores Civiles_, who were ordained with imposition
+of hands.  This office is still continued.  The synods, which are held
+every three or four years, are composed of the bishops and their
+co-bishops the Seniores Civiles, and of “such servants of the church and
+of the congregation as are called to the synod by the former elders’
+conference, appointed by the previous synod, or commissioned to attend it
+as deputies from particular congregations.”  Several female elders also
+are usually present at the synods, but they have no vote.  All the
+transactions of the synod are committed to writing, and communicated to
+the several congregations.
+
+A liturgy, peculiar to the Brethren, is regularly used as a part of the
+morning service on the Sabbath; on other occasions the minister offers
+extempore prayer.  The singing of hymns is considered as an essential
+part of worship, and many of their services consist entirely of singing.
+At the baptism of children, both the witnesses and the minister bless the
+infant, with laying on of hands immediately after the rite.  The Lord’s
+Supper is celebrated every month: love feasts are frequently held, i.e.
+the members eat and drink together in fellowship: cakes and tea are
+distributed during the singing of some verses by the congregation.  The
+washing of feet is practised at present only at certain seasons by the
+whole congregation, and on some other occasions in the choirs.  Dying
+persons are blessed for their departure by the elders, during prayer and
+singing a verse with imposition of hands.  At funerals, the pastor
+accompanies the corpse to the burial place with the singing of hymns; and
+an address is delivered at the grave.  Marriages are, by general
+agreement, never contracted without the advice and concurrence of the
+elders. {75a}  The casting of lots is used among them to know, as they
+express it, “The will of the Lord.” {75b}
+
+With regard to discipline, “the Church of the Brethren have agreed upon
+certain rules and orders.  These are laid before every one, that desires
+to become a member of the church, for his consideration.  Whoever after
+having voluntarily agreed to them, does not act conformably, falls under
+congregation discipline.”  This has various degrees, and consists in
+admonitions, warnings, and reproofs, continued until genuine repentance
+and a real conversion become evident in the offender, when he is
+readmitted to the holy communion, or reconciled to the congregation,
+after a deprecatory letter has been read, expressing the offender’s
+sorrow for his transgression, and asking forgiveness.  The Brethren
+assert that the church government in the established Protestant churches
+“does not apply to the congregations of the Brethren, because they never
+were intended to form a national establishment: for their design is no
+other than to be a true and living congregation of Jesus Christ, and to
+build up each other as a spiritual house of God, to the end that the
+kingdom of Jesus Christ may be furthered by them.”  Hence the doctrine of
+Jesus and his Apostles, and the order and practice of the Apostolic
+churches, are the models by which they wish to be formed.  It may be
+added, that they are generally the most successful Missionaries, and that
+their society seems the most nearly to realize the practice of the early
+Christians, of any sect now remaining.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The SWEDENBORGIANS take their name from Emmanuel Swedenborg, who was born
+at Stockholm in 1683.  His father was Jasper Swedberg, bishop of West
+Gothland.  He received his education chiefly in the University of Upsala;
+and in 1716 was appointed by Charles XII. Assessor of the Royal College
+of Sciences; he was ennobled by Queen Ulrica Eleonora, and received the
+name of Swedenborg.  He published scientific works on various subjects,
+but in 1747 he resigned his office, in order, as he himself states, that
+he might be more at liberty to attend to that new function which he
+considered himself called to, and the rest of his life was spent in
+composing and publishing the voluminous works which contain his peculiar
+doctrines.  He died in 1772.  He was a man of blameless life and amiable
+deportment, and was distinguished for his attainments in mathematics and
+mechanics.
+
+His writings are so very obscure, that it is difficult to state what are
+the opinions contained in them; he taught, however, that by the New
+Jerusalem which came down from heaven, was intended a new church as to
+doctrine, and that he was the person to whom this doctrine was revealed,
+and who was appointed to make it known to the world.  Swedenborg made no
+attempt to found a sect; but after his death, his followers, in 1788,
+formed themselves into a society under the denomination of “The New
+Jerusalem Church.”  They have several places of meeting, both in London
+and Manchester, and send delegates to a “General Conference,” under whose
+direction a liturgy has been prepared, from which I shall make a few
+extracts to shew the peculiar doctrines of this sect.
+
+The following are some of the questions asked of the candidate for
+ordination, which is performed by imposition of hands, of course of a
+minister of their own communion.
+
+“_Min._  Dost thou believe that Jehovah God is One both in Essence and in
+Person; in whom, nevertheless, is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and
+Holy Spirit; and that these are, his Essential Divinity, his Divine
+Humanity, and his Divine Proceeding, which are the three Essentials of
+One God, answering to the soul, the body, and the operative energy, in
+man, and that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that God?
+
+Dost thou believe that by his temptations, the last of which was the
+passion of the cross, the Lord united, in his Humanity, Divine Truth to
+Divine Good, or Divine Wisdom to Divine Love, and so returned into his
+Divinity in which he was from eternity, together with, and in, his
+Glorified Humanity?
+
+Dost thou believe that the sacred Scripture, or Word of God, is Divine
+Truth itself, and that it contains a spiritual and celestial sense,
+heretofore unknown, whence it is divinely inspired and holy in every
+syllable; as well as a literal sense, which is the basis and support of
+its spiritual and celestial sense?
+
+Dost thou believe that the books which have the internal sense and are
+truly the Word of God are,—the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, the
+two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, the Psalms of David, the
+prophets, including the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the four Gospels, and
+the Revelation?” {79}
+
+It is further stated in their eleventh article of faith, “That
+immediately after death, which is only a putting off of the material
+body, never to be resumed, man rises again in a spiritual or substantial
+body, in which he continues to live to eternity.”
+
+On these doctrines it may be observed that the forms of worship founded
+on them are not such as Christ and his apostles ordered.  The doxology
+is, “To Jesus Christ be glory and dominion for ever and ever;” the
+blessing, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”  The
+prayers are addressed to the “blessed Lord Jesus.”  Whereas Christ, when
+he gave us a form of prayer, bade us address “our Father in heaven;” and
+bade us ask of the Father in his name; and the form of the apostolic
+doxology is, “To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever”;
+{80a} and the blessing, “Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father,
+and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” {80b}  As at this time Christ had
+ascended from the earth, had the human nature been entirely merged in the
+Divine, as this sect asserts, Paul the Apostle would not have made this
+distinction, which implies that the Lord Jesus still existed somewhere in
+his human form as the everlasting visible temple of the Invisible father
+of all things, for “no man hath seen God at any time,” says the beloved
+Apostle, {81a} and this is confirmed by Christ himself. {81b}  If the man
+then be lost in the Deity, it follows that the Lord Jesus exists no more
+for us.  I am aware that this consequence is denied by the sect, but it
+is a self evident proposition: for their creed runs thus, “I believe in
+one God in whom is a Divine Trinity, &c., and that this God is the Lord
+and Saviour Jesus Christ who is Jehovah in a glorified human form.”  Now
+a human form must have some properties of matter; it must be visible, and
+circumscribed, or it is not form; and what is circumscribed and visible
+cannot be God, who, of necessity, is uncircumscribed, and therefore
+invisible.  The infinite Eternal Omnipotent Deity _must_ be where that
+glorified body is not; therefore, the Great Father of all things must
+always be the object of worship, through Jesus Christ, who is the
+_visible_ image of his glory.  The _form_ of baptism is retained by this
+sect, though they assert that the rite was “constantly administered by
+the Apostles in the name of Christ alone”; an assertion contradicted by
+the whole testimony of antiquity from the earliest times; adding,
+“nevertheless it is well to use the express words of the Lord, when it is
+known and acknowledged in the church that the Father and the Son and the
+Holy Spirit are not three separate persons but three Divine Essentials,
+constituting the single Divine Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.” {82}
+With regard to the “internal sense” of Scripture it is sufficient to
+observe that if “every syllable” were to be considered as inspired and
+holy, the long list of various readings would grievously shake our faith,
+though these are quite immaterial as to the general meaning.
+
+There are serious objections to the distinctive tenets of this sect, yet,
+in justice to them, it must be allowed that the unguarded language of
+some preachers does so split up the Deity into separate individuals as to
+make the doctrine so taught a complete tritheism, and that a serious mind
+returning to the express declaration of the Scripture, that God is One,
+may be so far shocked by such unmeasured expressions, as to run into the
+extreme which I have condemned.  Unitarianism on the one hand, and the
+doctrine of Swedenborg on the other, have equally sprung from a want of
+proper caution when speaking of the different manifestations of the
+Deity, and an unmeasured itch for the definition of things too far beyond
+the reach of our finite faculties to admit of any precision of terms.
+_Words_ were formed for the things pertaining to earth; how then can they
+ever exactly express the nature of the Deity?
+
+Notwithstanding the faith professed by this sect, their teaching,
+nevertheless, returns to the doctrine of the Gospel.  In a tract “on the
+true meaning of the intercession of Jesus Christ,” published at
+Manchester by their own religious tract society, we have the following
+passage: “The Humanity named Jesus is the medium whereby man may come to
+God, because the Father, _heretofore invisible_, is manifested and made
+_visible_ and _approachable_ in him.  This is meant by _our coming unto
+God by him_;” and elsewhere, as we cannot obtain this “light of life”
+without following the Lord, and doing his will, as he did the will of the
+Father, agreeably to his own saying, “If ye keep my commandments, even as
+I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love;” so neither
+can we obtain that divine food by which our spiritual life is to be
+sustained, unless we labour for it, as the Lord himself instructed us
+when he said “Labour for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life”;
+and is it not of the greatest importance clearly to understand what this
+labour implies?  Let the reader be assured that he must labour in that
+spiritual vineyard which the Lord desires to plant in his soul, in order
+that it may bear abundant fruits of righteousness to the glory of his
+heavenly father.” {84}  Thus we see again that the fundamental doctrines
+of Christianity _will_ find their way, however men may speculatively
+disclaim them.  Why then do we differ outwardly, when at heart we agree?
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The PLYMOUTH BRETHREN, so called probably from the place where this
+society first arose, do not allow themselves to be a sect, though in
+their practices they differ considerably from those of the Established
+Church.  They meet together on the morning of the first day of the week
+to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, when any “Brother” is at liberty to speak
+for mutual edification.  In the afternoon and evening, when they have
+preachers, the services are similar to those in the Congregational
+Churches (Independents): the desk, however, for they condemn pulpits, is
+not occupied by one man, but used as a convenient place for speaking,
+being alternately occupied by the “Brother,” who reads the hymn, the one
+who prays, and the one who teaches or preaches the Word.  There are also
+“Meetings for Prayer,” and what are technically called “reading
+meetings;” when a chapter is read, and those “Brethren” who have made it
+matter of reflection, speak upon it clause by clause for their mutual
+instruction.
+
+Before a person is acknowledged a “Brother,” his name is announced at one
+of the times of “meeting together to break bread,” as it is termed, and
+if nothing occurs in the interval, he takes his seat with them the next
+Sunday.{85}  Any one is admitted to their communion whom they believe to
+be “a child of God;” but they do not receive or acknowledge him as a
+brother, “while in actual connection with any of the various forms of
+worldliness,” i.e. the other churches of Christ.  Their preachers move
+about from place to place, forming different congregations, which they
+again leave for other places where their services are required.  None of
+their ministers receive any _stipulated_ charity.  The “Brethren”
+disapprove of any association of Christians for any purpose whatever,
+whether civil or religious, and therefore discountenance all Sunday
+School, Bible, Missionary, or even purely Benevolent, Societies.  They do
+not disapprove of sending either Bibles or Missionaries to the heathen;
+but they say that if they go at all, “God and not the church must send
+them.”  They do not think that the Gospel is to convert the world, but
+that it is to be “preached as a witness to” or rather against “all
+nations.”  The world, they say, “is reserved for judgment, and therefore
+it is wholly contrary to the character of a Christian to have any thing
+to do with it or its government.”  When a child of God is born again, “he
+lays,” say they, “all his worldly relations down at the feet of Christ,
+and he is at liberty to take up none but those which he can take up in
+the Lord.”  They neither pray for pardon of sin, nor for the presence and
+influence of the Spirit, and carefully exclude such petitions from their
+hymns.  Many of them think it inconsistent with the Christian character
+to amass wealth, or to possess furniture or clothing more than is
+_necessary_ for health and cleanliness; and very great sacrifices have
+been made by the more wealthy of them.
+
+These are most of them unimportant peculiarities; but the great feature
+of this sect, for so notwithstanding their protest, I must call these
+“Brethren,” is a degree of self approbation and uncharity for others,
+which, to say the least, is not what Christ taught.  “No sect,” says
+Rust, {87a} “is more Sectarian, and none more separate from Christians of
+all denominations than “The Plymouth Brethren.”  The Church of Rome they
+consider “bad.”  The Church of England “bad.”  “A popish priest and a
+parish priest, both bad;” “but infinitely worse,” says one of the
+Brethren (a Captain Hall), “is a people’s preacher.”  They occasionally
+indulge in what they term “biting jests and sarcastic raillery,” of the
+ministers of our church, and of those who differ from them, which evince
+but little of the meek and peaceable spirit of the Gospel; {87b} for, as
+Lord Bacon has well observed, “to intermix Scripture with scurrility in
+one sentence;—the majesty of religion and the contempt and deformity of
+things ridiculous,—is a thing far from the reverence of a devout
+Christian, and hardly becoming the honest regard of a sober man.”  If I
+have appeared to speak harshly of this sect, it is because they seem to
+me to have abandoned so much of the spirit of the Gospel.  “If the tenets
+of the Plymouth Brethren be consistent with themselves,” observes Mr.
+Rust, “they necessarily withdraw them from all society, and every
+existing form of Christianity, shutting them out from all co-operation
+with the holy and benevolent, for the relief and blessing of their poor
+or sinful fellow creatures, making it sinful to fulfil the duties of a
+subject, a citizen, &c.”  But I hope and believe that these tenets must
+be and are counteracted by the instinctive love of our kind, which for
+the benefit of the world God has implanted in man.  The human race is so
+essentially social that they who endeavour to dissociate mankind, stand
+in much the same situation as he would do who should hope to dam up the
+ocean.  It is in fact to these silent tendencies of human nature, whose
+force we never know till we attempt to check them, that we owe much of
+the innocuousness of false or overstrained opinions: the reason is
+deluded, but the feelings which the Creator has made a part of our very
+being, generally correct the false argument; and the man, if not
+previously corrupted by vice, acts right though he argues wrong.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.
+CALVINISM.
+
+
+I have already noticed that the sects into which the reformed churches
+are split, may be classified generally under two great divisions, the one
+adopting mainly the milder views of Melancthon, whose advice was much
+used in the reform of the Anglican church; the other following those of
+Calvin, which were chiefly carried out, at Geneva, the birthplace of that
+reformer, and among the Huguenots of France.  It may be well, therefore,
+before we proceed to notice the particular sects which profess to combine
+in a greater or less degree the doctrines usually termed Calvinistic, to
+examine what the opinions are which pass under that name. {90}
+
+It was at the Synod of Dort, which was assembled in the year 1618, that
+these opinions received a decided form; for James Arminius, professor of
+divinity in the University of Leyden, having rejected some part of the
+Genevan doctrine respecting predestination and grace, this synod was
+called in order to settle the disputed points.  After much debate the
+opinions of Arminius were condemned, and the doctrine of Calvin was
+summed up in five points, which gave name to what has been called the
+Quinqueticular controversy between the Calvinistic and Anti-calvinistic
+divines of Holland.  They related to,
+
+1.  Predestination or Election.
+
+2.  The extent of redemption.
+
+3.  Moral depravity and impotency. {91}
+
+4.  Effectual calling.
+
+5.  Final perseverance of the sanctified.
+
+Calvinists are understood to maintain that predestination is absolute;
+redemption limited; moral impotency total; grace inevitable; and the
+salvation of the believer, certain.  But among Calvinistic as among
+Arminian divines, there are many shades of difference indicated by the
+terms _high_ Calvinist, and _moderate_ Calvinist, _sub_ lapsarian and
+_supra_ lapsarian, _scholastic_ Calvinism and _popular_ Calvinism; which
+latter has been described as “the Augustinian theology strained off from
+its mathematics.”  These all differ so materially that Bishop Horsley
+found it necessary to admonish his clergy “to beware how they aimed their
+shaft at Calvinism before they knew what it is, and what it is not;” a
+great part of what ignorantly goes under that name, being “closely
+interwoven with the very rudiments of Christianity.”  I believe, however,
+that though differences may subsist among Calvinists themselves, as to
+the explication of their doctrines, they generally allow,
+
+1.  That God has chosen a certain number in Christ, to everlasting glory
+before the foundation of the world, according to his immutable purpose,
+and of his free grace and love; without the least foresight of faith,
+good works, or any conditions performed by the creature; and that the
+rest of mankind he was pleased to pass by, and ordain them to dishonour
+and wrath for their sins to the praise of his vindictive justice.
+
+2.  That Christ by his death and sufferings made an atonement only for
+the sins of the elect. {93a}
+
+3.  That mankind are _totally_ depraved in consequence of the fall.
+
+4.  That all whom God has predestined to life, he is pleased in his
+appointed time effectually to call by his Word and Spirit out of that
+state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and
+salvation by Jesus Christ.
+
+5.  That those whom God has effectually called and sanctified by his
+Spirit, shall never finally fall from a state of grace.
+
+The prominent feature then, of the Calvinistic system, {93b} is the
+election of some, and reprobation of others from all eternity; but to
+this we may answer, that if all mankind are really appointed to sin and
+punishment, holiness and salvation irrespectively to any act of their
+own, then they will be judged in exact opposition to our Saviour’s
+declaration, that he will reward every man _according to his works_:
+{95a} and again, that it is “not the will of ‘our’ Father which is in
+heaven that one of those little ones,” i.e. children, “should perish.”
+{95b}  These declarations would, I think, sufficiently prove that St.
+Paul’s expressions on the subject relate to national, and not individual
+election, even had the Apostle himself left his meaning unexplained: for
+the servant is not greater than his master, and it is not possible that
+an inspired Apostle should preach a doctrine different from that of Him
+who commissioned him; but if I mistake not, he has himself taken especial
+care that his meaning on this important subject should _not_ be
+misunderstood.  For first, it is a notorious fact, though often
+overlooked in argument, that the very passage, “I will have mercy on whom
+I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
+compassion,” which is the main support claimed for the doctrine of
+absolute decrees, is quoted from Exodus, and forms the assurance given by
+God himself to Moses, that He had separated _the Hebrew nation_ from all
+the people on the face of the earth. {96a}  Again St. Paul has asserted
+that God will render to _every_ man _according to his deeds_, for there
+is _no respect of persons_ with God. {96b}  God will have _all men_ to be
+saved, &c. &c.
+
+God forbid that we should consider that a man may not be a sincere
+Christian, who believes himself irrevocably called, “elect,” and
+inevitably secure of his salvation; or declare that a strict Calvinist
+cannot be attached to our church: but St. Paul teaches that “Christ died
+for all;” that grace instead of being irresistible may be received in
+vain; that those who have been once justified instead of being _sure_ of
+“final perseverance” and salvation, _may_ “sin wilfully after they have
+received the knowledge of the truth,” and “draw back to perdition,” so
+that it behoves every one “who thinketh he standeth to take heed lest he
+fall.” {96c}
+
+In regard to “irresistible” (special) “grace,” Scripture assures us that
+grace sufficient for salvation is denied to none; for St. Paul in every
+passage of the Epistles, which relates to grace, declares that the Spirit
+works in the souls of _all_, enabling them, if they do not obstinately
+resist it, “to work out their salvation.”  The following passage is taken
+from the work of a teacher of the doctrine of Special Grace.  “The reign
+of sin consists not in the multitude, greatness or prevalency of sins,
+for all these are consistent with a state of grace, and may be in a child
+of God, in whom sin doth not and cannot reign; but in the in-being of sin
+without grace, whether it act more or less violently, yea, whether it
+acts at all or no: yet if the habit of sin possess the soul without any
+principle of grace implanted, which is contrary to it, that man may be
+said to be still under the dominion of sin.  This mortification then of
+sin, as to its reigning power, is completed in the first act of
+conversion and regeneration.” {98a}  But this language is by no means
+that of St. Paul: for the writer makes grace the test of holiness;
+whereas the apostle, following therein the doctrine of his master,—“by
+their fruits ye shall know them,”—makes holiness the test of grace.
+Indeed the obscurity and perplexing nature of the doctrine above quoted,
+stands in no favourable contrast with the simple and clear declaration of
+the Saviour, that we “do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of
+thistles,”—and that therefore the heart must be known by the words and
+actions: and the no less decided and simple exposition of the doctrine of
+Christ, by the beloved disciple, “Little children, let no man deceive
+you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous . . . he that committeth
+sin is of the devil.  Whosoever is born of God _doth not commit sin_ . . .
+whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” {98b}
+
+The doctrine of the _total_ depravity of human nature, it appears to me,
+cannot be proved from Scripture any more than the two former.  St. John,
+whilst asserting that no man is wholly without sin, exhorts to efforts,
+and supposes a possible state of Christian perfection in his converts,
+wholly incompatible with a state of entire corruption: and St. Paul,
+though he clearly states that sin has brought all men under condemnation,
+and that the unspirituality of the flesh can only be successfully opposed
+by the influence of the Holy Spirit, does not declare the consequences of
+the Fall in terms such as we find in the Calvinistic writers—as “Man,
+instead of the image of God, was now become the image of the Devil;
+instead of the citizen of heaven, he was become the bond-slave of hell,
+having in himself no one part of his former purity, but being altogether
+spotted and defiled—now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin.”
+And again: “Man is of his own nature fleshly and corrupt, &c. without any
+spark of goodness in him; only given to evil thoughts and evil deeds.”
+Even human nature, if closely examined, does not bear testimony to this
+as truth: for either the grace of God is accorded in such large measure
+to man from his birth, that none can be considered as wholly bad; or the
+utter corruption preached by Calvin does not exist.  All experience may
+be appealed to on this point, even that of the persons who use the above
+language; for if they search their own hearts in sincerity, they will
+become conscious of amiable affections, and admiration of what is good
+and right: neither, probably, are they guilty of any such gross and
+habitual sins, as must mark a nature so wholly depraved.  The Calvinist
+therefore can only use these strong phrases with certain grains of
+allowance: and he would be wiser if he were to avoid offending his—if he
+prefer so to call him—weaker brother, by technical terms which he himself
+cannot use in their _full force_ before the Searcher of hearts.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.
+PRESBYTERIANS.  INDEPENDENTS.
+
+
+When the preaching of Luther and his coadjutors had effectually called
+men’s attention to the affairs of the church, it was natural that
+questions with regard to its government no less than its doctrine, should
+be freely mooted.  The usurpations of Rome had a tendency to disgust the
+Reformers with episcopal government, and accordingly we find both Calvin
+and Luther establishing a more republican form; and instead of giving the
+ecclesiastical power into the hands of one man, they judged it proper to
+delegate it to the elders (presbyters) of each church respectively;
+subject only to the control of the majority of a general synod.  Such was
+the origin of what we now term Presbyterians as a sect: for in _England_
+more moderate councils, and the circumstance that the reformed tenets
+were embraced by many of the bishops, led to retaining the Episcopal form
+of church government.  In _Scotland_, after a struggle, the Presbyterian
+form was finally established, and the church or kirk of that part of
+Great Britain is regulated upon that system.  A secession has lately
+taken place on the question of the right of presentation to livings, but
+the _doctrine_ taught in both is nearly similar, i.e. that of the
+Calvinistic churches.
+
+The General Synod of Ulster (originally a branch of the established kirk
+of Scotland), is the principal body of Presbyterians considered as
+dissenters from the establishment: and there also, there is a
+Presbyterian Synod, or Church of “the Apostolic Seceders,” formed by
+seceders from the General Synod, which is thoroughly Calvinistic, and
+which maintains the same discipline that is usually observed among the
+seceding “Scottish Presbyterians.”  In the reign of Geo. I. Arianism
+{102} was openly embraced by some of the more speculative of the
+Presbyterian ministers in Ireland, and in consequence, a theological
+controversy was carried on for twenty years (from 1705 to 1725), which
+ended in the secession of eight Arian ministers, and the formation of the
+Presbytery of Antrim.  Some who were secretly inclined to Arianism had
+not the courage to follow the example of the eight seceders, and the
+leaven continued to spread among the general body during the latter part
+of the eighteenth century, till at length inquiries were instituted in
+the Synod, which led to a fresh separation.  Seventeen at length seceded
+out of thirty-seven ministers, holding Arian or Socinian tenets in the
+year 1830, and they subsequently formed themselves into a distinct Synod,
+under the name of “the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster,” and the Presbytery
+of Antrim has now become incorporated with this Synod.  These Arian
+congregations are chiefly situated in the counties of Antrim and Down, in
+the north and eastern part of the province.  There are ten or twelve
+congregations in the south of Ireland forming the Synod of Munster, which
+were also, till within a few years, Arian or Socinian.  The total number
+of Remonstrant and Socinian congregations is between thirty and forty.
+_All_ the Presbyterian bodies,—Orthodox and Arian, share in the
+Government grants known under the name of “Regium Donum.”  This royal
+bounty was originally dispensed among the Presbyterian clergy of Ulster
+in lieu of the tithes which were taken from them at the Restoration, and
+bestowed upon the Episcopal conformists.  It was withdrawn towards the
+close of the reign of Charles II.; but at the Revolution, letters patent
+passed the great seal of Ireland, granting £1200 per annum to seven
+Presbyterian ministers, during pleasure, for the use of the ministers of
+the north of Ireland, to be paid quarterly out of any of the revenues of
+the kingdom.  This grant was renewed, under certain limitations, in the
+reign of Queen Anne: and in the reign of Geo. I. £800 per annum was
+divided in equal shares between the ministers of the Ulster Synod and
+those of the Southern Association.  In 1784 an additional grant was made
+to the Ulster Synod of £1000 per annum.  In 1792 the grant was augmented
+to £5000 to be divided among the ministers of the Synod,—the Presbytery
+of Antrim,—the Seceders,—the Southern Association,—and the ministers of
+the French church, Dublin.  In 1803 some fresh regulations were made, by
+which the distribution of the bounty was taken immediately into the hands
+of Government, and the Presbyterian clergy were thus rendered more
+ostensibly what they had previously been only in effect, i.e.,
+stipendiaries of the state.  The congregations under the care of the
+several Synods and Presbyteries are now arranged in three classes
+according to the number of families and the stipend of each minister; and
+the allowance to the ministers of the three classes was fixed at £50,
+£75, and £100 per annum.  The members of the congregation feel under no
+obligation to contribute much, if anything, to their pastor’s support,
+who is therefore often compelled to have recourse to farming, grazing, or
+some other secular employment, for the support of his family.
+
+“In 1834 the ascendant party in the Synod succeeded in carrying a
+resolution enforcing unqualified subscription to the “Confession of
+Faith,” which had not previously been enforced.  The ostensible motive
+for this is a desire to bring about a closer union with the Established
+Church of Scotland.  The Irish Synod being now so far connected with the
+state as to form a species of ecclesiastical establishment, a feeling has
+been generated in favour of the established church of both countries: a
+strong protest, however has been made against the decision, but without
+avail.” {106}
+
+The increase of the Presbyterians in Ireland from whatever cause has
+borne no due proportion to that of the general population.
+
+“Presbyterianism received as a scheme of policy, though admirably adapted
+to the exigencies of the times in which it originated, partakes of the
+essential defectiveness of the incipient reformation of the sixteenth
+century, embodying these erroneous principles which were adopted by the
+founders of most of the Protestant churches, and which soon proved not
+less fatal to the cause of scriptural truth than to the internal peace of
+the Christian communities.”
+
+The first Presbyterian church was founded in Geneva by John Calvin, about
+A.D. 1541, and the system afterwards introduced into Scotland, with
+modifications by John Knox, about the year 1560, but not _legally_
+established there till 1592.  It has never flourished greatly in England,
+and the Unitarian doctrine has now been almost universally received among
+the quondam Presbyterian congregations.
+
+The _theory_ of discipline in the SCOTTISH CHURCH does not differ very
+widely from that of the English episcopacy, but the _practice_ of the two
+churches, as modified by the habits of the two nations, is totally
+different.  In order to reconcile the Anglican and Scottish confessions
+of faith, it would be requisite that the Church of England should consent
+to suppress Articles III. VII. XXXV. and XXXVI. also that part of Art.
+VI. which sanctions the public reading of the Apocrypha, and the first
+clause of Art.  XX, attributing to the church a power to decree rites and
+ceremonies, as well as authority in controversies of faith.  Agreeing, as
+the English and Scottish Churches do _substantially_ in the doctrines of
+the Protestant faith, they nevertheless differ widely,
+
+1.  As to the nature of holy orders and the power of ordination.
+
+2.  As to the hierarchical constitution of the Anglican Church.
+
+3.  As to matters of ritual, especially the use of liturgies which the
+Church of Scotland rejects.
+
+4.  As to the doctrines of sacramental grace and sacerdotal absolution,
+implied in the offices of the Anglican Church.
+
+5.  As to the whole system of discipline, Ecclesiastical Courts, &c.
+
+6.  As to certain points of Calvinistic theology.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The INDEPENDENTS differ from the Presbyterians chiefly in three points,
+namely:
+
+1.  As to ordination, and the liberty of preaching.
+
+2.  As to the political form and constitution of church government, and
+the conditions of church communion.
+
+3.  As to the grounds and limits of religious liberty.
+
+“Ordination alone,” say the Independents, “without the precedent consent
+of the Church by those who formerly have been advanced by virtue of that
+power they have received by their ordination, doth not constitute any
+person a church officer, or communicate office power unto him.”  The
+Presbyterians on the other hand deny that the mere invitation and choice
+of the people could confer the pastoral office, or that it was even a
+pre-requisite.  The Independents seem to have identified the ministerial
+function with the pastoral office; and argued that it was absurd to
+ordain an officer without a province to exercise the office in.  Their
+opponents viewed the Christian ministry more as an order invested with
+certain inherent powers; a faculty or profession endowed with peculiar
+privileges, the admission into which required to be jealously guarded;
+and this power and authority they conceive could be transmitted by those
+of the order.  All approved candidates for the ministerial office among
+the Presbyterians, are ordained without reference to any local change;
+among the Independents no probationer is ordained till he has been
+appointed to the pastoral office.  The first Independent or
+Congregational Church in England was established by a Mr. Jacob, A.D.
+1616, though it is asserted that a Mr. Robinson was the founder of this
+sect, of which Dr. John Owen, Dr. Isaac Watts, Dr. Doddridge, and Job
+Orton were members.
+
+The following extracts are from the discourses of Robert Hall, who,
+though a Baptist, dissented from most of his brethren on the subject of
+strict communion.  He was a preacher both of Baptist and Independent
+congregations, but he did not hesitate to avow that “he had more
+fellowship of feeling for an Independent or a Presbyterian than for a
+close communion Baptist.”  His system of theological tenets was on the
+model of what has come to be denominated “Moderate Calvinism.”  With
+regard to the distinctive Calvinistic doctrine of Predestination, “I
+cannot,” says his biographer, “answer for the precise terms in which he
+would have stated it, but I presume he would have accepted those employed
+by the Church of England.  In preaching he very rarely made any express
+reference to that doctrine.”
+
+“Jesus Christ did not come, let it be remembered, to establish a mere
+external morality, that his followers might be screened from human laws
+and human justice, for human laws will take care of this.  The holy
+institution of Christianity has a nobler object, that of purifying our
+hearts and regulating our behaviour by the love of God.  In the most
+practical accounts of the proceedings of the last day given in the
+Scriptures, the excellency which is represented as being a criterion and
+distinguishing feature of the disciple of Christ, and which He will
+acknowledge, is: Christian benevolence—love to man manifested in the
+relief of the poor.  The Apostle St. John has given us a most sublime
+description of the love of God, when he says, ‘God is love;’ love is not
+so much an attribute of His nature as His _very essence_; the spirit of
+Himself.  Christian benevolence is not only the ‘image of God,’ but is
+peculiarly an imitation of Christ.”  “I do not ask, my brethren, what
+particular virtue you have, but _how much are you under the influence of
+Him_? for just so much virtue we have, as we have of His spirit and
+character.”  “Our Saviour places the acceptance of men, not upon their
+dispositions, but upon their actions; upon what _they have done_, not
+upon what they have _merely believed_ or _felt_, or in any undefined
+state of mind.”—“I am persuaded that the cause of the ruin of professing
+Christians does not arise so much from a mistake of the doctrines of
+Christianity as from a low idea of Christian morals; in abstaining from
+certain crimes and disorders through fear of the loss of character and of
+punishment, without reflecting on the spirit of that holy religion which
+we profess.”—“Christ went about doing good, not as an _occasional_
+exercise, but as his _employment_; it was the one thing which he did.
+Though possessed of infinite power, he never employed it in resenting or
+retaliating an injury.  He was pre-eminently devout.  His was an active
+life; it was not the life of a solitary monk.  That devotion which
+terminates in itself is a luxury which sometimes perverts the principles
+of benevolence to a pernicious purpose.  Let us rather recede from being
+called Christians than forget the great symbol of our profession, love to
+one another.”
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.
+PARTICULAR BAPTISTS, SUB AND SUPRALAPSARIANS, SANDEMANIANS.
+
+
+Having now given some account of the principal Calvinistic sects, I shall
+conclude by mentioning a few of those less numerous societies, which,
+whilst agreeing in the peculiar doctrines of Calvin, differ upon other
+points.  THE PARTICULAR BAPTISTS, agreeing with the General Baptists on
+most other practices and doctrines, differ from them on this.  The
+separation took place in the year 1616, when a controversy on the subject
+of infant baptism having arisen among the Baptists, one portion calling
+itself the “Independent Congregation” seceded, embraced the Calvinistic
+doctrine, and became the first Particular Baptists: others, who were in
+general attached to the opinions of Calvin, concerning the decrees of God
+and Divine Grace, were not entirely agreed concerning the manner of
+explaining the doctrine of the Divine decrees.  The greater part believed
+that God only _permitted_ the first man to fall into transgression,
+without particularly predetermining his fall: these were termed
+SUBLAPSARIANS.  But others again maintained that “God in order to
+exercise and display his justice and his free mercy, had decreed from all
+eternity the transgression of Adam, and so ordered the course of events,
+that our first parents could not possibly avoid their fall.  These were
+termed SUPRALAPSARIANS.
+
+There is a modern sect that originated in Scotland about 1728, termed
+Glassites, from its founder Mr. John Glass, who was expelled by the Synod
+from the Church of Scotland, for maintaining that “the kingdom of Christ
+was not of this world.”  His adherents then formed themselves into
+churches, conformable in their institution and discipline to what they
+apprehended to be the plan of the first churches recorded in the New
+Testament.  Soon after the year 1755, Mr. John Sandeman (an elder in one
+of these congregations in Scotland) attempted to prove that “Faith is
+neither more nor less than a simple assent to the Divine testimony,
+concerning Jesus Christ delivered for the offences of men and raised
+again for their justification, as recorded in the New Testament.”  He
+also mentioned that the word _Faith_ or _Belief_, is constantly used by
+the Apostles to signify what is denoted by it in common conversation,
+i.e. a persuasion of the truth of any proposition, and that there is no
+difference between believing any common testimony, and believing the
+apostolic testimony, except that which results from the testimony itself,
+and the Divine authority on which it rests.  This led to controversy
+among the Calvinists and Sandemanians, concerning the nature of
+justifying faith; and the latter formed themselves into a separate sect.
+They administer the sacrament of the Lord’s supper weekly, and hold “love
+feasts,” of which every member is not only allowed but required to
+partake, and which consists of their dining together at each other’s
+houses, in the interval between the morning and afternoon service.  They
+interpret literally the precept respecting the “kiss of charity,” which
+they use on the admission of a new member, as well as on other occasions,
+when they deem it necessary or proper: they make a weekly collection
+before the sacrament of the Lord’s supper; use mutual exhortation;
+abstain from blood and things strangled; wash each other’s feet; hold
+that every one is to consider all that he possesses to be liable to the
+calls of the poor and the church, and that it is unlawful to “lay up
+treasure upon earth,” by setting them apart for any future use.  They
+allow of public and private diversions, so far as they are not connected
+with circumstances really sinful; but apprehending a lot to be sacred,
+they disapprove of lotteries, playing at cards, dice, &c.  They maintain
+the necessity of a plurality of elders, pastors, or bishops in each
+church, and the necessity of the presence of two elders in every act of
+discipline, and at the administration of the Lord’s supper.  Second
+marriages disqualify for the office of elder.  The elders are ordained by
+prayer and fasting, imposition of hands, and giving the “right hand of
+fellowship.”  In their discipline they are strict and severe, and in
+every transaction esteem unanimity to be absolutely necessary.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.
+CALVINISTIC METHODISTS.  EVANGELICAL OR SERIOUS CHRISTIANS.
+
+
+I noticed the name of George Whitfield when speaking of Wesley and his
+followers, for during a time they acted in unison; Whitfield, however,
+soon embraced the Calvinistic tenets, and then the friends separated with
+much of unkindly feeling.  Wesley held the doctrines of Calvin in
+abhorrence, as altogether unchristian and unfounded in Scripture.  “I
+defy you to say so hard a thing of the Devil,” said he with
+characteristic earnestness, when speaking of the notion that God could
+arbitrarily create any for eternal reprobation.  This separation between
+the leaders soon extended to their congregations, and from that time
+Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists became distinct sects, differing,
+however, but little on any other point, excepting in the greater tendency
+to enthusiasm among the followers of Whitfield.
+
+“Wesley and Whitfield,” says Mr. Sidney in his life of Rowland Hill,
+“were men of widely different characters, both in respect to their
+natural dispositions as well as the discipline of their minds; and
+painful frailties were visible in the midst of their true greatness.  An
+ambitious love of power was evidently the besetting weakness of John
+Wesley; aspiration to the _honours_ when he had no prospect of the
+_suffering_ of martyrdom, was that of Whitfield.”  In his letters to
+Rowland Hill, it is evident how he courted and enjoyed persecution; and
+whenever “_the fire_ (to use his own expression) was kindled in the
+country;” he was not satisfied unless “honoured” by being scorched a
+little in its flame.  This was a wrong spirit, and did injury to his own
+mind, and to his followers, by encouraging a morose and morbid carriage
+towards the world, giving needless offence, and provoking animosity in
+those who might have been attracted and endeared to truth by the lovely
+graces of pure Christianity.”
+
+At the time when he, and his early friends the Wesleys began their
+ministry, the piety of all classes was at a very low ebb.  The
+earnestness of these men gave a new impulse to religious feeling, and
+after a time a considerable number of other episcopally ordained
+ministers of the church, together with a portion of the laity, became
+influenced by the same sentiments.  Without seceding, they formed a party
+in the church, leaning to Calvinism to the extent they thought justified
+by the XXXIX Articles; and this party soon became designated by several
+distinguishing terms.  They called themselves _Evangelical_ first,
+afterwards when that became a cant term of misapplied reproach, they took
+the title of _Serious_ Christians, and by others were called _Low
+Church_, and _Methodistical_.  Besides distinguishing themselves by an
+especial name, they avoided public amusements, used a peculiar
+phraseology, and seemed to delight in wearing their religion externally
+in the sight of all men, thinking perhaps to reform the thoughtless by
+the example of their greater strictness.  But herein, in my opinion, they
+made a net for their own feet, for that very aspiration after greater
+exaltation which is implanted in us as a spur to strive after glory and
+immortality, is soon by mismanagement perverted into a love of earthly
+distinction.  Hence comes ambition; but the ambition for worldly honours
+has in it this alleviation, that the man who toils after a title or a
+fortune, knows that he is, after all, seeking but a mean object; and if
+ever his mind is awakened at all to a sense of the world to come, the
+soul springs back to its true ambition, and launches into the career
+natural to it: but the man who seeks to be distinguished among his
+brethren for superior holiness, and wears it externally, that it may be
+seen and honoured by men, blinds his better nature, and fetters it to
+earth by chains forged in heaven; he sees not that he is ambitious; he is
+not aware that while seeking, as he imagines, to honour God in his life,
+he is enjoying at his heart’s core the respectful homage of men; and
+whilst attending to his outward deportment, and making a display even of
+his humility, he too frequently leaves the inner heart unchastened.  Our
+Saviour knew the frailties of man, and his injunction that our religion
+should chiefly be manifested by our benevolent feelings towards our
+fellow creatures, while the communing with God should be carried on in
+silence and secrecy, is the only safe guide in these matters.
+
+I have no doubt that there are many of the Low Church party, whose
+conscientiousness sets at defiance the dangers of the system they have
+adopted: indeed my own private friendships warrant me in saying so: but
+it is not well to lead others into dangerous paths where our own skill
+indeed may enable us to walk safely, but where the hindmost, whom we are
+not leading by the hand, are in continual hazard of deviating from the
+true course; and therefore whilst honouring individual virtues, I
+continue to consider the whole system erroneous: one whose tendency is to
+create spiritual pride, and lower the standard of Christian benevolence
+by restricting to a party that fellowship which should be universal.  It
+does but substitute the excitement of the crowded church where a popular
+preacher charms with all the graces of rhetoric, of the committee room,
+of the speakers at Exeter Hall, for the ball room and the theatre; with
+this difference, that in the first case the instinct which makes the mind
+seek this excitement, is overlooked; the man believes himself performing
+a meritorious action, and looks with some contempt on his weaker
+brethren, who cannot exist without worldly amusements; on the other he
+knows what he is about, and if he be well-intentioned, guards against
+excess.  It would be wiser therefore to acknowledge the instinct; not bad
+in itself, for God implanted it, and if it be denied a due indulgence,
+the mind sinks into hopeless imbecility; and not to blame those who seek
+other, but innocent means of gratifying it. {122a}
+
+The extracts that I am about to give, from the writings of two men of
+note, in that party, distinguished also for their genuine Christian
+feeling, will show that they saw the dangers I have pointed out, and were
+anxious to guard against them.  The following extracts are given in Mr.
+Sidney’s “Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill.” {122b}
+
+“I hate dry doctrinal preaching, without warm, affectionate, and
+experimental applications.  Oh! ’tis most pleasant to love one another
+with pure hearts fervently.  Love is of God, for ‘God is love.’  The
+summit of our happiness must be the perfection of our holiness.  By this
+blessed grace we have the brightest evidence that we are ‘born of God.’
+If we allow that little shades of difference may exist, we ought to ‘love
+as brethren,’ and where Christian candour and love are found to reign,
+the odious sin of schism, according to its general interpretation, cannot
+exist.”  “It is no sign that we value the blessings of God, if we can
+part with them” (i.e. dear friends) “without regret.  That mind is badly
+framed that prefers stoical indifference to Christian sensibility, and
+though the pain is abundantly more acute where those finer feelings of
+the mind are found to exist; yet who deserves the name of a human being
+who is without them?”  “While a soul within our reach is ignorant of a
+Saviour, we must endeavour to win it to Christ.  How weary I am of a
+great deal of what is called the ‘_religious world_!’  High and Low
+Church Sectarianism seems to be the order of the day; we are much more
+busy in contending for _parties_ than for _principles_.  These evils are
+evidences of a lack of genuine Christianity.  Oh! when shall that happy
+day dawn upon us, when real Christians and Christian ministers of all
+denominations shall come nearer to each other.”
+
+The next extracts shall be from the writings of one who was scarcely
+appreciated by the world in general, but of whose excellencies I was
+enabled to judge, during my residence at Cambridge; Mr. Simeon.
+
+“Religion appears in its true colours when it regulates our conduct in
+social life; your religion must be seen, not in the church, or in the
+closet only, but in the shop, the family, the field: it must mortify
+pride and every other evil passion, and must bring faith into exercise.
+Try yourselves by this standard: see what you are as husbands or wives,
+parents or children, masters or servants.” {124}
+
+“The self-righteous, self-applauding moralist can spy out the failings
+and infirmities of those who profess a stricter system of religion; but
+let me ask such an one, ‘Are there not in thee, even in thee, sins
+against the Lord thy God?’  Verily if thou wouldst consult thy own
+conscience, thou wouldst see little reason, and feel little inclination
+too, to cast stones at others.  Professors of religion also are but too
+guilty of this same fault, being filled with an overweening conceit of
+their own excellencies, and a contemptuous disregard of their less
+spiritual neighbours.  But I would ask the professed follower of Christ,
+Are there not sins with thee too as well as with the pharisaic formalist?
+Are there not great and crying evils in the religious world, which prove
+a stumbling block to those around them?  Are there not often found among
+professors of religion the same covetous desires, the same fraudulent
+practices, the same deviations from truth and honour, as are found in
+persons who make no profession?  Are there not many whose tempers are so
+unsubdued, that they make their whole families a scene of contention and
+misery?  Yes!  Though the accusations which are brought against the whole
+body of religious people as ‘hypocrites,’ are a gross calumny, there is
+but too much ground for them in the conduct of many.”  “Nothing is more
+common, and nothing more delusive than a noisy, talkative religion.  True
+religion is a humble, silent, retired thing; not affecting public notice,
+but rather wishing to approve itself to God.  It is not in _saying_
+‘Lord, Lord!’ but in _doing_ the will of our heavenly Father, that we
+shall find acceptance at the last day.  Happy would it be if many who
+place all their religion in running about and hearing sermons, and
+talking of the qualifications of ministers, would attend to this hint,
+and endeavour to acquire more of that wisdom which evinces its Divine
+origin by the excellence of its fruits.” {126}
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.
+ON ROMANISM AND CEREMONIAL RELIGION.
+
+
+I promised that as the completion of my task, I would notice those
+differences which have occurred in the bosom of the church itself, even
+though they can scarcely be called _sects_; I therefore propose to
+conclude my correspondence with a short survey of the above-named, which
+I think should rather be viewed as the working out of great principles,
+than as parties distinguished by particular creeds or opinions on
+abstract subjects.  I may run counter to some prejudices, perhaps, in so
+doing; but the truth is well worth running a tilt for:—you may sit by as
+umpire, and decide when I have done, whether I have carried my spear in a
+knightly fashion.
+
+Though I shall not think it necessary, like Racine’s advocate in Les
+Plaideurs, to go back to the Assyrians and the Babylonians to illustrate
+my proposition, yet I must begin from a very distant period, in order to
+make my views thoroughly comprehensible.  I must therefore beg you to
+notice that the tendency of man’s mind always is, and always has been,
+towards the visible and the tangible.  The pure abstraction of a
+Governing Will without any perceptible presence, has in it something too
+remote from the common habits, powers, and feelings of human nature, ever
+to be thoroughly embraced by the heart of man; and we find that the Deity
+has always condescended so far to the weakness of his creatures, as to
+give the imagination some resting place.  Thus the patriarch had his
+altar of sacrifice, where the fire from heaven marked the present
+Deity—and the Israelite had first the pillar of the cloud, and then the
+tabernacle, where the mysterious Shechinah dwelt over the mercy seat.
+Yet even this indistinct representation of an embodied Deity, did not
+satisfy the people: they required a _form_, tangible, visible, and Aaron
+yielded to the wish; because he thought it a prudent and allowable
+compliance with the weakness of human nature.  He was wrong, and was
+punished for it; and this transaction we shall find the type and
+foreshadowing of every thing that has since happened in the world with
+regard to religion.  The Almighty gives man just enough to rest his
+thoughts upon: it is the fire on the altar, the cloud, the temple, and
+last of all _the man_, in whom our devotion may find also an object of
+affection: but he requires that we shall not go beyond this.  We must not
+return to earth, and make for ourselves a worship less spiritual than he
+has instituted; on the contrary, he requires us to pierce through the
+veil as we advance in knowledge, and discern the spiritual through the
+visible.  Hence the perpetual denunciations of the prophets against the
+Jews for their adherence to forms, which latterly they did adhere to,
+instead of giving attention to the purification of their hearts.
+
+Among all but the Israelites, the progress of the tangible was much more
+rapid: idolatry, with all its gross rites, had established itself among
+_the people_, at any rate, in Egypt, at a very early period; and spread
+from that old and luxurious empire, through the more simple states which
+sprang up around and from it.  The Exodus was a warning from on high,
+that there was a Being, unseen and intangible, whose fiat governed all
+things: and this lesson was not wholly without fruit: yet still the human
+race reverted to the objects of the senses, till, in God’s good time, he
+sent his Son: presented a tangible form on which the mind could
+dwell—then removed it from the earth, and said, “You may now think on
+this, and give your imagination a resting place: this form you shall see
+again; but in mean time you must purify your hearts from earthly desires:
+that form will only greet your eyes when you have cast off the burthen of
+the flesh, and have entered upon a spiritual existence.”  The first
+Christians remembered and loved the man; his precepts, his example, his
+smallest words or actions were recurred to with the fondness of personal
+friendship; and this carried Christianity through the first two
+centuries; but then this remembrance began to have a character of
+abstraction, and again the human heart called for tangibility.  Then
+came, step by step, gorgeous ceremonies, pictures, representations of the
+personal presence and sufferings of the Saviour.  The very requirements
+of those who quitted the splendid and sensual rites of heathenism for the
+faith of Christ, led the Christian doctors to endeavour to replace the
+festival of the idol by something analogous in the Christian church: and
+thus without well knowing what they were tending to, the heads of the
+church yielded one point of spiritualism after another; sought to
+captivate and awe the people by impressive ceremonies; and finished by
+the sin of Aaron: they set up the image and said, “These be thy Gods, O
+Israel! that brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” {131a}  For be it
+observed here, that Aaron set up this image merely as a tangible
+representation of the true Deity; _a help to the devotion of the people_,
+who could not worship without seeing something.
+
+This then is Romanism; it is not transubstantiation, nor the mediation of
+the Virgin and the Saints, {131b} nor the infallibility of popes and
+councils; these are natural consequences indeed, but the distinctive
+character of the Romish church is _tangibility_.  “There is the actual
+flesh,” it says, “there is the representation of the actual human
+presence of saints and martyrs; there is the actual man enthroned, who
+represents the power of God:” but it might have fifty other ways of
+satisfying this restless craving of the human mind, and it would be
+equally pernicious in any of these forms.  Man’s great struggle has
+always been between the animal and the spiritual nature, and when
+religion goes one step farther towards tangibility than the Deity himself
+has allowed, the animal nature gains strength; and vice and
+licentiousness follow as naturally, among the mass of the people, as rain
+follows the cloud.
+
+Observe, I do not here deny that many may profess a religion of sense,
+and remain spiritually-minded themselves: Heathenism had its Socrates,
+its Xenocrates, &c.—Romanism has its Pascal, its Fenelon, and a train of
+other great names: but look at the _people_ during that period, and the
+account will be very different.  When an ignorant man imagines that he
+can remove the Divine anger by a sacrifice or a penance, he avoids the
+trouble of curbing his passions, and compounds, as he thinks, for
+indulgence of the one, by the performance of the other; but when he is
+told that purity of life and thought is the only road to Divine favour,
+if he sins, he sins at least with some feelings of compunction, some
+dread that he may not have it in his power to remove the stain he is
+incurring.  The preaching of Wesley reformed multitudes, all enthusiastic
+as it was; but it would be difficult to find a parallel in the annals of
+Romanism.  As great a movement of the public mind was made by the
+preaching of Peter the Hermit; but how different was the object and the
+result!  The personal pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, as a mode of
+wiping out sin, was undertaken by thousands, who perished miserably, or,
+if they lived, came back not better men than they went: under a system of
+less tangibility, and a preaching as effective, they might have staid in
+their homes, and glorified God by a life such as Christ came to teach and
+to exemplify.
+
+It is so much easier to make a pilgrimage, or endure a long fast, than to
+subdue and tame the animal nature till it becomes obedient to the
+rational will, and seconds instead of resisting its wishes, that it is
+not surprising that in all ages a religion of outward observance should
+be more popular than one of inward purification.  Those even which set
+off with the highest pretensions in this way have degenerated, and the
+outward and visible form is too often substituted for the inward and
+spiritual grace, which it was intended to _represent_ not to _supersede_.
+That religion therefore has the best chance of influencing the soul,
+which, as far as is possible, renounces outward demonstrations which
+human indolence is so glad to rely on, and preaches boldly and
+effectually the uselessness of ceremonies, farther than as they tend to
+preserve the remembrance of HIM who came to call the world back to
+HIMSELF, to trample on the sensual and the animal, and to raise man to
+his pristine, or rather, to what is to be his future state.  A public
+acknowledgment of Christ as our Master and Lord, and a compliance with
+his own few and simple ordinances; are all that Christian duty requires,
+and nearly as much as Christian prudence will permit.  The rest is a
+matter of worldly expediency, and should be so regarded.
+
+No doubt rests on my own mind—I leave others to think as they may—that
+Episcopacy was the established form of the Church as soon as the
+Christian communities began to assume enough of regularity to admit of
+any settled order; and I think it a wise form.  As far as any institution
+can, it secures unity and decency in the church: and as far as any
+institution can, that was not positively established by Christ himself,
+it possesses, in my mind, the sanction of antiquity.  It gives the
+concentration of purpose and regularity of effort which is bestowed by
+the discipline of an army; for as in an army a detachment acts upon the
+same system of tactics, and obeys officers constituted by the same
+authority, and thus assists the efforts of the main body, and falls into
+rank with it when they meet; so the church, under such a form, may send
+detachments to the ends of the earth, who may meet after long years, as
+brothers of the same communion, and find that though the individuals have
+passed away, others have stepped into their place in the ranks, and are
+teaching what their predecessors taught.  The benefit of church
+discipline, therefore, in my mind is great; but I do not suppose that
+salvation depends on it, because God has repeatedly declared that Christ
+died _for all_, {135a} and that he is not willing that any should perish;
+{135b} consequently he can hardly have made our eternal state dependent
+on what no man can accomplish for himself.  A person may not have it in
+his power to receive baptism from an ordained priest, but he may live as
+Christ taught; or, having never heard of Christ even, he may, like the
+gentiles, win glory and immortality, {135c} if, having not the law, he be
+a law unto himself.  I would not receive Christ’s ordinances from the
+hands of any but an ordained priest, myself, because if a doubt exist in
+my mind, I sin in doing the doubtful thing; but herein I speak only for
+myself; let every man do as he is “persuaded in his mind” {136} in
+matters of secondary import, as all ceremonial matters must be.
+
+You will now be prepared for my opinion with regard to the late movement
+made in the church by the Anglo-Catholics, as they term themselves;
+Puseyites, or Newmanites, as they have been termed by others.  They have
+been thought to have introduced innovations—they have not:—there is not
+one of the ceremonies or practices which they have recommended, which was
+not very early practised in the church; but it was from the undue
+importance attached to these ceremonies, which came to be regarded with
+reverence from having been instituted by apostles and martyrs, that the
+after growth of Roman superstition sprang up so rankly.  I believe the
+first promoters of this movement were as remote from actual Romanism as I
+am, when they first began it; but when once reason is submitted to any
+human dictum, in matters of religion, there is no resting place till we
+arrive at the “infallible” guide which the Romish church claims to be.
+There alone can the soul which will not think for itself, find a ready
+and confident director.  Accordingly, we find that some of those very men
+who but a few years back exposed the errors of Romanism, have now yielded
+themselves blindfold to the guidance of that very church, which, as long
+as they allowed themselves to reason, they acknowledged to have departed
+from the truth.  Yet it is perhaps fortunate for the people generally,
+that this declension of its pastors has been as rapid and complete as it
+has been:—they were going back towards the sin of Aaron—they were
+insisting on ceremonies as necessary to salvation, thus rendering
+religion gross and tangible, and the people thus taught would soon have
+forgotten what those ceremonies were intended to represent, and have
+depended for salvation on what could not avail them in the hour of need:
+for the repetition of prayer is not necessarily praying, nor is the
+reception of the eucharist necessarily sanctification, though these may
+be the outward and visible signs of the inward and spiritual grace which
+is working in the heart.  Once teach a man that _any_ ceremony is
+_requisite_ to salvation, and he will soon go a step further by himself,
+and think the outward ceremony sufficient without the inward grace.  This
+indeed is but a necessary corollary; for if the ceremony be requisite to
+salvation, then the inward grace working purity of life, avails not
+without the ceremony; and thus purity of life is no longer a substantive
+virtue; it cannot stand alone; and the prop which it requires being so
+very strong, why should not the prop itself be all in all?  This will be
+the course of ratiocination in the mind of the mass of mankind, whether
+avowed or not; and however the promoters of a ceremonial religion may
+shrink from such a consequence, it is so certain, as all experience
+shows, that they might as well throw a man who cannot swim into the
+water, and recommend him not to drown, as give a half instructed man a
+ceremony, which he is told is requisite to salvation, and expect that he
+will not cling to that, as the more convenient and least difficult
+observance; and whilst perfect in complying with every ordinance of the
+church, forget that he has overlooked the weightier matters of the
+law—judgment, justice, and mercy.
+
+This may sound harsh, but it is true; and I appeal to the calm judgment
+even of the excellent Dr. Pusey himself, who has so unintentionally drawn
+many into a course from which, haply, he would now gladly draw them back,
+whether it be not so?  His learning will show him how, through all ages,
+the spiritualism taught from heaven, has been counteracted by the visible
+and the tangible contrived by man; and in the step from the patriarchal
+religion, to the idolatry of Greece and Rome; from Christianity as
+preached by Christ and his Apostles, to the gross superstitions of the
+twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, he may see a type of what
+would be the consequence of again enforcing a ceremonial religion.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative header]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+The following are extracts from the “Christianæ Religionis Institutio,”
+of Faustus Socinus:
+
+_Q_.  Quid igitur de Dei natura, sive essentia, nosse omnino nos debere
+statuis?
+
+_R_.  Hæc duo in summa.  Quod sit et quod unus tantum sit.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_Q_.  Verum quid quæso saltem de Spiritu Sancto nunc mihi dicis de quo
+isti similiter affirmant eum esse divinam personam, nempe tertiam, et
+unum atque eundem numero Deum cum Patre et Filio?
+
+_R_.  Nempe illum non esse personam aliquam a Deo cujus est spiritus,
+distinctam, sed tantum modo (ut nomen ipsum _Spiritus_, quod flatum et
+afflationem, ut sic loquar, significat, docere potest) ipsius Dei vim et
+efficaciam quandam, id est eam, quæ secum sanctitatem aliquam afferat.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_Q_.  Quid censes de Christi natura sive essentia nobis cognitii esse
+necessarium?
+
+_R_.  Id, ut antea dixi, sine cujus cognitione voluntas Dei erga nos per
+ipsum Christum patefacta, a nobis vel sciri, vel servari nequeat.
+
+_Q_.  Quid igitur ex iis quæ ad Christi naturam sive essentiam pertinent,
+ejusmodi esse censes?
+
+_R_.  Vix quidquam.  Nam quædam, quæ ad ipsius Christi personam alioqui
+pertinent, et nobis omnino ob prædictam causam cognita esse debent, non
+naturalia illi sunt, sed a Deo postmodum ipsi data et concessa, et sic ad
+Dei voluntatem sunt referenda, et quidem ad primam quam fecimus ejus
+partem, id est ad Dei operationes.
+
+_Q_.  Quæ nam sunt ista?
+
+_R_.  Divinum imperium quod in nos habet.  Rom. xiv. 9.; et suprema illa
+majestas.  Ephes. i. 20, &c.; qua quidquid usquam est, aut excogitari
+potest, præter unam tantum ipsius Dei majestatem longe excellit.  1 Cor.
+xv. 27.  Phil. ii. 8, 9.  Heb. ii. 9.  Hæc enim Christo haud naturalia
+esse, sed a Deo Patre illi data fuisse, ipsumque ea per et propter mortem
+atque obedientiam et resurrectionem suam adeptum esse, apertissime
+scriptura testatur.
+
+_Q_.  Cur vero hæc de Christo cognoscere omnino debemus?
+
+_R_.  Quia, ut Christum divino cultu officiamus vult Deus.  Joh. v. 25.
+Psal. xlv. 12.  Heb. i. 6.  Philip. ii. 10.; ejus generis, inquam, cultu
+cujus is est, quem ipsi Deo exhibere debemus.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_Q_.  Quid de ipsa tamen Christi essentia seu natura statuis?
+
+_R_.  De Christi essentia ita statuo, illum esse hominem.  Rom. v. 15.;
+in virginis utero, et sic sine viri ope, divini spiritus vi conceptum ac
+formatum.  Matt. i. 20. 23.  Luc. i. 35.; indeque genitum, primum quidem
+patibilem ac mortalem. 2 Cor. xiii. 4.; donec, scilicet munus sibi a Deo
+demandatum hie in terris obivit; deinde vero postquam in cœlum ascendit,
+impatibilem et immortalem factum.  Rom. vi. 9.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_Q_.  Quid enim primum sibi vult, quod innuis hoc quod Christus Dei
+filius sit proprius et unigenitus non omnino ad ejus naturam pertinere?
+
+_R._  Divina ista Christi filiatio, eatenus tantum ad ejus naturam aliquo
+modo referri potest, quatenus id respicit quod Christus divini Spiritus
+vi sine viri ope in virginis utero conceptus et formatus fuit.  Nam
+hujusce rei causa eum Dei filium vocatum ire, ipsius Dei Angelus ipsimet
+virgini, ex qua natus est, prædixit.  Luc. i. 35; et quidem consequenter
+Dei filium proprium et unigenitum, cum nemo alius hac ratione, et ab ipso
+primo ortu Dei films unquam extiterit.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_R_.  Quod attinet ad primum testimonium quod habetur (i.e. of
+præexistence) Joh. i. 3.  Dictio universalis _omnia_ non prorsus
+universaliter accipienda est, sed ad subjectam materiam restringenda, ut
+scilicet ea tantum omnia complectatur, quæ ad Evangelium pertinent.
+
+_Q_.  Sed quid dices, quod in loco isto apud Johannem additur; sine
+verbo, id est Deo filio, nihil esse factum?
+
+_R_.  Immo cum certum esse videatur, mox sequentia verba _quod factum
+est_ (quidquid nonnulli contra sentiant) cum additione ista conjungenda
+esse: dicendum potius videtur, voluisse Evangelistam cum ista addidit
+indicare se de quibusdam nunquam antea et nova ac mirabili ratione factis
+loqui.  Nam ad docendum simpliciter se loqui de iis quæ sunt facta nec
+semper fuerunt, satis habebat illa verba addere, _et sine ipso factum est
+nihil_.  Itaque mysterio non videtur carere, quod præterea addit _quod
+factum est_; subaudi novum et mirabile, ad mundi ipsius statum pertinens,
+&c. &c.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+Jam dictum est (est de pœnis persolvendis primum agamus) pœnam quam
+uniusquisque nostrum propter delicta sua pendere tenebatur, mortem
+æternam esse.  Hanc profecto Christus non subiit; et si cam subiisset,
+universi salutis nostræ et liberationis a peccatorum pœna spes, et ratio
+funditus eversa fuisset.  Immo si jam Christus non resurrexisset, vana,
+ut inquit Paulus.  1 Cor. xv. 14, 17.; esset Evangelii prædicatio, et nos
+adhuc essemus in peccatis nostris.  Et tamen, si idcirco nos servasset
+Christus, quod pœnas nostris peccatis debitas ipse sustinuisset, et nobis
+ejus rei fides quoad ejus fieri poterat facienda fuisset; eum nunquam
+resurgere, sed in morte perpetuo manere oportuisset: Op. Vol. p. 197,
+fol. Edit.
+
+Ac dicitis, ut conjeci potest, animadvertendum esse, aliam in ipsa
+essentia divina personam patris esse, aliam personam filii: et Patri
+potuisse a Filio satisfieri seu ut satisfierat, vim suppeditari: nec
+tamen aliquid quod satisfactioni per solutionem facienda adversetur,
+committi.  Sed dicite obsecro, nonne ipsius filii personæ non minus quam
+patris satisfaciendum fuisse affirmatis.  Si filius patri satisfacit, hoc
+est, quod illi debetur solvit: quis ipsi filio, quod ipsi debetur, dabit?
+Respondebitis, ut arbitror, si patri satisfactum fuit, filio quoque
+satisfactum esse; cum eadem sit utriusque voluntas . . . Quomodo patri a
+filio quidquam ullo parto solvi potuisset si quod unius aut est, aut fit,
+alterius reipsa esse necesse foret? . . . At vero quis deinde ambigere
+queat filium patri nihil dare posse: cum quidquid filius habet patris
+revera sit, et ipse Christus disertè dixerit, Joh. xvii. 10, omnia quæ
+sua erant patris esse?  Annon ex ipsa disciplina vestra, hoc est Dei
+essentiam non distinguere, sed partiri: si præter personarum
+proprietates, aliquid unam personam habere velitis quod alia non habeat.
+Filii autem personam proprietates suas patris personæ pro peccatorum
+nostrorum satisfactione solvisse, cui unquam in mentem venire poteret?
+Ib. p. 202.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                  FINIS.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                      CHARLES WHITTINGHAM, CHISWICK.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes.
+
+
+{3}  αγαπη which is the word generally translated _charity_ in the New
+Testament means _affectionate regard_.  The distinction between charity
+and almsgiving is well laid down by St. Clement of Alexandria.
+“Charity,” says he, “leads to the sharing our good things with others;
+but this is not in itself charity, but only our outward sign of that
+feeling.”
+
+{4}  See 1 Cor. ix. 19, 20.
+
+{5a}  Rom. xii. 10.
+
+{5b}  “No national prejudices, no religious differences could hinder our
+Saviour from doing good.  We should consider that men’s understandings
+naturally are not all of the same size and capacity, and that this
+difference is greatly increased by different education, different
+employments, different company, and the like.  No man is infallible.  We
+are liable to errors perhaps as much as others.  The very best men may
+sometimes differ in opinion, as St. Paul ‘withstood St. Peter to the
+face;’ and if there was such a difference between two of the chiefest of
+the Apostles, well may there be between inferior mortals.  About modes of
+faith there will always be dispute and difference; but in acts of mercy
+and kindness all mankind may and should agree.”—_Newton_.
+
+{8}  “In fact, all the religious persecutions in the world, all the
+penalties and inflictions upon those who differ from ourselves, however
+conscientiously, take their rise from an imperfect and erroneous notion
+of what really constitutes the glory of God, and the manner in which we
+best can assist its display and extension.  The angels at the birth of
+Christ sang that the glory of God was in unison with ‘Peace on earth, and
+good will towards men.’—‘No!’ said the Schoolman, ‘the glory of God
+consists in thinking of the Deity as we think.’—‘No!’ said the
+Inquisitor, ‘the glory of God consists in worshiping as we
+prescribe.’—‘No!’ said the Covenanters, ‘the glory of God consists in
+exterminating those whom we call his enemies.’  Mistaken men! who _thus_
+propose to honour the God and Father of the universe, the merciful God,
+and the gracious Father of all his rational creatures!  Instead of
+perusing with delight and conviction the plain declaration contained in
+our Sacred records, too many Christians have in almost every age passed
+over the characteristics of kind design throughout nature: they have
+mistaken or forgotten the clear delineations of Divine Mercy and Goodness
+in the Book of Grace, and have had recourse to the narrowed circle of
+their own prejudices.”—_Maltby’s Sermons_.
+
+{10}  It would be well if Rom. xiv. were more attentively studied and
+more universally practised among Christians.
+
+{14}  They have in consequence been sometimes called “Seekers.”
+
+{15a}  Gough’s History of the Quakers.  Vol. i. p. 139.
+
+{15b}  Probably their resolute refusal to pay tithes and other dues
+brought on them some of these punishments.
+
+{20}  “Keep the Sabbath holy,” says Luther, “for its use both to body and
+soul; but if any where the day is made holy for the mere day’s sake; if
+any where any one sets up its observance upon a _Jewish_ foundation, then
+I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on it,
+to do any thing that shall remove this encroachment on the Christian
+spirit and liberty.”  This is language which may be easily misunderstood
+and perverted from Luther’s meaning; but it was uttered by him from a
+jealousy of Sabbatical superstition.
+
+{21}  Matt. v.
+
+{22}  “There is an unreasonable, uncharitable, and superstitious notion
+that a soldier, so far as his profession is concerned, is ‘of the world;’
+and that a man who dies in the field of battle is _necessarily_ less
+prepared for his change than one who dies in his bed.  These feelings,
+which have sadly tended to degrade and impoverish the mind of modern
+Europe . . . to make armies what they are told they _must_ be; and
+therefore to make them dangerous by depriving them of any high
+restraining principles, have been greatly encouraged by the tone which
+religious men of our day have adopted from the Quakers.”  _Maurice’s
+Kingdom of Christ_.
+
+{24a}  Moral education, in spite of all the labours of direct
+instruction, is really acquired in hours of recreation.  Sports and
+amusements are, and must be the means by which the mind is insensibly
+trained: ‘Men are but children of a larger growth;’ they will have their
+pleasures; and unless care be taken, the sermon of the church or chapel
+will be neutralized by the association of the tavern and the raceground.
+There must be safety valves for the mind, i.e. there must be means for
+its pleasurable, profitable, and healthful exertion; those means it is in
+our power to render safe and innocent; in too many instances they have
+been rendered dangerous and guilty.”  _Dr. Taylor_.
+
+{24b}  Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be
+received with thanksgiving. (1 Tim. iv. 4.)  Extend this maxim, apply it
+to the several means of enjoyment, either supposed or real, that the
+world presents to us.  Those pleasures from which we cannot unreservedly
+arise, and thank our Maker; those pursuits which mar our devotions, and
+render us unwilling or afraid to come before Him, cannot be innocent.  It
+would be no easy matter to lay down, as applicable to all, a rule as to
+how far conformity with the world is admissible, and where the Christian
+must stop: for as the habits and tempers and propensities of men differ,
+so also do their temptations and their danger.  Thus through the rule by
+which one would stand securely, another would as certainly fall.
+_Lectures on the Church Catechism_.
+
+{26}  See 1 Tim. iv. 4.
+
+{29}  “A reverend Doctor in Cambridge was troubled at his small living at
+Hoggenton (Oakington) with a peremptory Anabaptist, who plainly told him,
+‘It goes against my conscience to pay you tithes except you can show me a
+place of Scripture whereby they are due unto you.’  The Dr. returned,
+‘Why should it not go as much against my conscience that you should enjoy
+your nine parts for which you can show no place in Scripture?’  To whom
+the other rejoined, ‘But I have for my land deeds and evidences from my
+fathers, who purchased and were peaceably possessed thereof by the laws
+of the land.’  ‘The same is my title,’ said the Doctor, ‘tithes being
+confirmed unto me by many statutes of the land, time out of mind.’”
+_Fuller’s Church History_, _Book II_.
+
+{30a}  John iii. 16.
+
+{30b}  2 Cor. v. 19.
+
+{30c}  1 Tim. ii. 4.
+
+{31a}  1 John iv. 9, 10.
+
+{31b}  Rom. ii. 15.
+
+{31c}  John i. 9.  See also 1 John ii. 1, 2.  2 Heb. ii. 9.
+
+{32}  Luke xii. 48.
+
+{33a}  Mosh. Ecc. Hist. Cent. xvi. Sect. iii.
+
+{33b}  Ib.
+
+{35a}  Some of the passages of this Catechism are quoted by Mosheim,
+which differ very little from the doctrine of the primitive church: all
+that can be noticed is, that they omit a distinct recognition of the
+divinity of Christ.
+
+{35b}  “Fausti Socini Senensis Opera omnia,” vol. i. p. 561.  These works
+form a part of the “Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum qui Unitarii
+appellantur.”  Irenopoli post anno dom. 1656.
+
+{36}  It is remarkable that _persona_ should so often be confounded with
+individual.  _Persona_ in its original sense was the mask of the actor,
+_through which the sound_ came.  The same actor might wear many
+_personæ_.  If Socinus had recollected this, he might have spared himself
+the trouble of controverting a notion never maintained by the orthodox,
+i.e. that the Deity was _individually divided_.
+
+{37}  Vide Appendix.
+
+{39a}  Small Books &c.  No. VII. p. 21, &c.
+
+{39b}  πρἰν Άβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγώ είμι.
+
+{39c}  John. x. 30.
+
+{39d}  John xiv. 9, 10.
+
+{39e}  2 Cor. v. 19.
+
+{39f}  1 Tim. ii. 5.
+
+{40}  Athanasian Creed.
+
+{41}  John v. 30.
+
+{42}  The following are extracts from the “Book of Common Prayer
+reformed,” professing to have been a selection made by “the late Rev.
+Theophilus Lindsey for the use of the congregation in Essex Street”—and
+as a liturgy is generally allowed to be a fair exponent of the doctrines
+of those who use it—perhaps we may assume that the violent and
+reprehensible expressions made use of by some few persons of this
+persuasion, are not such as would be acknowledged by the congregations of
+Unitarians in general.
+
+Form of baptism.  “I baptize thee into (εἰς) the name of the Father and
+of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
+
+“Almighty and ever blessed God, by whose providence the different
+generations of mankind are raised up to know thee and to enjoy thy favour
+for ever; grant that this child now dedicated to thee as the disciple of
+thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, may be endued with heavenly virtues . . .
+and that we may daily proceed in all virtue and goodness of living, till
+we come to that eternal kingdom which thou hast promised by Christ our
+Lord.”
+
+Order for the administration of the Lord’s Supper.  Confession, the same
+as in the liturgy of the English church as far as “we do heartily repent
+and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings, the remembrance of which
+is grievous unto us.  Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most
+merciful Father; forgive us all that is past: and grant that we may ever
+hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life to the honour and
+glory of thy name.”  The absolution is the same with the trifling change
+of _us_ for _you_.  The sentences following are the same till “Hear also
+what St. John saith,” where the text 1 John i. 8, 9, is substituted.
+
+Prayer before the minister receives the communion.  “Almighty God, our
+heavenly Father, by whose gracious assistance and for our benefit, thy
+beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ, was obedient even to the death upon
+the cross; who did institute, and in his holy gospel command us to
+continue, a perpetual memorial of his death until his coming again; hear
+us, we most humbly beseech thee; and grant that we may receive this bread
+and wine in grateful remembrance of his death and sufferings, and of thy
+great mercy to mankind in sending him, thy chosen messenger, to turn us
+from darkness to light, from vice to virtue, from ignorance and error to
+the knowledge of thee, the only true God, whom to know is life
+everlasting.”
+
+Form of administration.  “Take and eat this bread in remembrance of
+Christ”—“Take and drink this wine in remembrance of Christ.”
+
+In the daily service many prayers are omitted, so as to make the service
+much shorter.  The exhortation and confession are the same; for the
+absolution is substituted “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open,
+all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid; purify the thoughts
+of our hearts that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy
+holy name through Christ our Lord.”—It would be useless to multiply
+extracts—enough has been given to show the doctrine of the Unitarian
+congregations who use this liturgy.
+
+{47}  Priestly’s “Discourses on Various Subjects,” p. 419.  See also p.
+14, &c. and Prefatory Discourse, p. 93.
+
+{48}  Channing’s Discourse on preaching Christ.
+
+{49}  Channing’s Works.  On the great purpose of Christianity.
+
+{50a}  Channing’s Character of Christ.
+
+{50b}  Channing’s Sunday School.
+
+{50c}  Channing’s Charge at the Ordination of Rev. R. C. Waterston.
+
+{51a}  Channing On Infidelity.
+
+{51b}  Channing’s System of Exclusion.
+
+{52}  John Wesley was born in 1703.
+
+{54}  “I rode over to a neighbouring town,” says Wesley, “to wait upon a
+justice of peace, a man of candour and understanding; before whom I was
+informed their angry neighbours had carried a whole waggon load of these
+new heretics.”  But when he asked, “what they had done,” there was a deep
+silence, for that was a point their conductor had forgot.  At length one
+said, “Why they pretend to be better than other people, and besides they
+pray from morning till night.”  Mr. S--- asked, “But have they done
+nothing besides?”  “Yes, Sir,” said an old man, “an’t please your worship
+they have _convarted_ my wife; till she went among them she had such a
+tongue, and now she is as quiet as a lamb.”  “Carry them back,” replied
+the justice, “and let them convert all the scolds in the town.”—(Wesley’s
+Journal.)
+
+{55}  Watson’s Life of Wesley, page 484.
+
+{56}  Lackington.
+
+{59a}  “Who does as he would be done by, in buying or selling?
+particularly selling horses?  Write him a knave that does not, and the
+Methodist knave is the worst of all knaves.”—_Wesley’s Large Minutes_, Q.
+13.
+
+{59b}  Snuff-taking and drams are expressly forbidden.
+
+{59c}  In May 1776, an order was made in the House of Lords, “That the
+Commissioners of His Majesty’s Excise do write circular letters to all
+such persons whom they have reason to suspect to have plate, as also to
+those who have not paid regularly the duty on the same.”  In consequence
+of this order the Accountant-general for household plate sent a copy of
+it to John Wesley.  The answer was as follows:
+
+    Sir,
+
+    I have _two_ silver teaspoons in London and two at Bristol: this is
+    all the plate which I have at present, and I shall not buy any more
+    while so many round me want bread.
+
+                                       I am Sir, your most humble servant,
+                                                              JOHN WESLEY.
+
+{61}  “I used my prayers,” says the author of the ‘Bank of Faith,’ “_as
+gunners do swivels_; _turning them every way_ as the cases required.”
+Wesley relates in his Journal that “By prayer he used to cure a violent
+pain in his head,” &c.
+
+{62}  This writer, the celebrated Lackington the bookseller, relates the
+following occurrence soon after he turned Methodist.  “One Sunday morning
+at eight o’clock, my mistress seeing her sons set off, and knowing they
+were gone to a Methodist meeting, determined to prevent me from doing the
+same, by locking the door; on which in a superstitious mood I opened the
+Bible for direction what to do, and the first words I read were these,
+“He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, lest at any time thou
+dash thy foot against a stone.”  This was enough for me, so without a
+moment’s hesitation I ran up two pair of stairs to my own room, and out
+of the window I leapt to the great terror of my poor mistress.  My feet
+and ancles were most intolerably bruised, so that I was obliged to be put
+to bed; and it was more than a month before I recovered the use of my
+limbs.  I was then ignorant enough to think that _the Lord had not used
+me very well_; and I resolved _not to put so much trust in him_ for the
+future.  My rash adventure made a great noise in the town, and was talked
+of many miles round.  Some few admired my prodigious strength of faith;
+but the major part pitied me as a poor ignorant, deluded, and infatuated
+boy.”
+
+{64a}  Wesley’s Works, vol. xii. p. 49.  Some of Wesley’s expressions,
+when confronted with each other, appear incompatible; in such cases the
+main drift of the writer must always be considered; for it is much more
+usual to fail in expressing our meaning than to express contradictory
+opinions: since the latter implies a cerebral defect verging on insanity,
+the former merely results from a faulty style.  Scripture does not any
+where warrant us in saying “_the moment_ a penitent sinner,” &c.; but
+requires from us a proof of this belief by actions conformable to it.
+God has promised us immortality through his Son, only if we not merely
+believe, but “do that which is lawful and right.”
+
+{64b}  Wesley censured some of his preachers for pushing the doctrine of
+perfection too far.
+
+{65}  Wesley’s Works, vol. viii. p. 219. and vol. xi. p. 415.
+
+{66}  So called from their habit of rebaptizing those who entered their
+communion.  They were afterwards called _Antipædobaptists_, from their
+objection to _pædo_ or infant baptism; and finally, the English habit of
+abbreviation of words at all commonly used, contracted the word into
+_Baptist_.
+
+{67}  Mosheim. Ecc. Hist. Cant. XVI. Sect, iii. Part 2.
+
+{68a}  Milton belonged to the class of Anti-Trinitarian General Baptists.
+
+{68b}  That the body of Jesus was not derived from the substance of the
+blessed Virgin, but created in her womb by an omnipotent act of the Holy
+Spirit.
+
+{68c}  V. Mosheim’s Ecc. Hist.
+
+{69}  All who baptize infants may be termed pædo-baptists; the word is
+derived from the Greek πάις a child or infant, and βὰπτω to baptize.
+
+{70a}  Yet the bishop ought to have known that baptism by immersion was
+practised in the church for many centuries, and the rubric of our common
+prayer leaves the option of immersion or aspersion.
+
+{70b}  Condor’s View. p. 380.
+
+{75a}  Marriage is enumerated in one of the Moravian hymns amongst the
+services of danger, for which the United Brethren are “to hold themselves
+prepared.”
+
+    “You as yet single are but little tried,
+    Invited to the supper of the bride,
+    That like the former warrior each may stand
+    Ready for land, sea, marriage, at command.”
+
+{75b}  See Latrobe’s edition of Spangenburgh’s Exposition of Christian
+Doctrine.
+
+{79}  Litany of the New Church.  Office of ordination, p. 151.
+
+{80a}  Rom. xxi. 27.
+
+{80b}  1 Cor. i. 3.
+
+{81a}  John i. 18.
+
+{81b}  John vi. 46.
+
+{82}  Liturgy of the New Church Office of Baptism, p. 58.
+
+{84}  “Jesus the Fountain of Life and Light,” p. 12.
+
+{85}  In some places it is not till the end of a fortnight.
+
+{87a}  Examination of the opinions of the Plymouth Brethren.
+
+{87b}  The following is a sample from one of their published works: “The
+first eclogue of Virgil has always appeared to me to express most
+felicitously the pleasures of a _pastoral_ life as we too frequently see
+it in these days.  With what force the following lines describe the
+grateful feeling of a _young clergyman_, who is recounting the benefits
+conferred on him by his patron:
+
+    O Melibœe, Deus nobis hæc otia fecit.
+    Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus—
+    Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum
+    Ludere, qæe vellem, calamo permisit agresti.
+
+My patron shall always be a divinity to me, for he put me into this life
+of ease when he gave me this _gem_, _the prettiest living in England_.
+He gave me this _easy duty_, so that I can let my flock wander
+wheresoever it may please them, as you see they do; while I myself do
+just what 1 like, and occasionally amuse myself with a _pianoforte_ by
+Stoddart, that cost eighty-five guineas.”
+
+“He (the congregational minister) is now, in his own opinion, the ONE MAN
+of the whole body of believers in all the services of the sanctuary.  He
+utters all their sentiments of faith and doctrine, and offers up all
+their prayers!  How can he justify the position he has assumed as _an
+usurper_? yea as a _grievous wolf_! in that he has swallowed up _all the
+gifts of the Holy Ghost_ in the _voracity of his selfishness_,” &c.  It
+is not thus that the “unity of the church,” which they profess to desire
+is likely to be cemented.
+
+{90}  Bishop Jewel, in his “Defence of his apology for the Church of
+England,” says, that “the term _Calvinist_ was in the first instance
+applied to the Reformers and the English Protestants as a matter of
+reproach by the Church of Rome.”
+
+{91}  Whatever difference may have subsisted between Luther and Calvin on
+the subject of Divine decrees, no language can be stronger than that in
+which Luther insists upon the moral impotence of man’s depraved nature in
+opposition to the Pelagian doctrine of freewill.
+
+{93a}  It is difficult to reconcile this doctrine with 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.
+1 Tim. ii. 6.  2 Pet. iii. 9.  Rom. viii. 32.  1 Tim. iv. 10. &c.
+
+{93b}  The best account of their system is to be found in “The Assembly’s
+Catechism,” which is taught their children.  To this sect belongs more
+particularly the doctrine of _Atonement_, or, “that Christ by his death
+made satisfaction to the Divine justice for the _Elect_; appeasing the
+anger of the Divine Being, and effecting on his part a reconciliation.”
+That thus Christ had, as they term it, “the sin of the Elect laid upon
+him.”  But some of their teachers do not hold this opinion, but consider
+Christ’s death as simply a medium through which God has been pleased to
+exercise mercy towards the penitent.  “The sacrifice of Christ,” says Dr.
+Magee, “was never deemed by any (who did not wish to calumniate the
+doctrine of atonement), to have made God placable: but merely viewed as
+the means appointed by Divine wisdom by which to bestow forgiveness.”  To
+this it may be further added, that the language used throughout the
+Epistles of St. Paul with regard to the redemption of man, is that of the
+then familiar slave market.  Man is “bought with a price” from his former
+master, Sin, for the service of God.  The scholar who will consult Romans
+vi. will see immediately that all the metaphors used are those of
+purchase for military service; “Your members,” says he, ver. 13, “shall
+not be the arms (ὄπλα) of unrighteousness used for the service of sin;
+but the arms (ὄπλα) of righteousness for God.”  And ver 23, τὰ γὰρ ὀψώνια
+τῆς ὰμαρτίας, θάνατος· τὸ δὲ χαρισμα τοῦ θεοῦ, ζωὴ, αἰώνιος ἐν Χριτῷ
+Ιησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἠμῶν. i.e. The rations of sin are death, but the donative
+of God is eternal life, by means of Jesus Christ our Lord.  It is
+impossible to express more clearly that it was not the wrath of God which
+required to be appeased by the great sacrifice—the slave was _bought by
+Him for Himself_—the price was of course paid to another.  Much
+misunderstanding has arisen from the careless interpretation of these and
+the like passages, whose phraseology has become obsolete along with the
+practice of buying and selling slaves, at least in this country.
+
+{95a}  Matt. xvi. 27.
+
+{95b}  Matt. xviii. 14.
+
+{96a}  Vide Exod. xxxiii. 14, et seq.
+
+{96b}  According to the Calvinistic doctrine above stated, character has
+no concern whatever with their call; ergo, if this is right, St. Paul is
+wrong, and mankind _are_ called with respect of persons.
+
+{96c}  “This system (Calvinism) by setting aside the idea of a human
+will, leaves the doctrine of Divine Will barren and unmeaning; the idea
+of a personal ruler disappears, and those most anxious to assert the
+government of the Living God have been the great instruments in
+propagating the notion of an atheistical necessity.”  _Maurice’s Kingdom
+of Christ_.
+
+{98a}  Hopkins on the New Birth.
+
+{98b}  1 John iii. 7–10, see also v. 21 of the same chapter, where our
+confidence towards God is shown to depend on the judgment of our own
+consciousness of wrong or well doing.  The whole chapter is well worth
+the study of every Christian.
+
+{102}  I take this from books, not having personal acquaintance with the
+Presbyterians of Ireland: and such is the confusion generally made by
+authors between Arianism, Socinianism, and Unitarianism, that it is
+difficult to know which is meant.  As a large proportion of the modern
+Presbyterians have embraced Unitarian doctrines, it seems improbable that
+the Irish should have adopted those of Arius, though my author uses the
+term Arian as applied to the doctrine of the seceders.
+
+{106}  See “The Use and Abuse of Creeds and Confession of Faith,” by the
+Rev. Charles James Carlile, Dublin, 1836.  “The Irish Church and
+Ireland,” p. 66–68, and “A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Associate
+Synod in Ireland and Scotland in the affair of the Royal Bounty,” by
+James Bryce.  Belfast, 1816.
+
+{122a}  Although the excellent Bishop Heber’s mind was deeply imbued with
+devotional feelings, he considered a moderate participation in what are
+usually called worldly amusements, to be allowable and blameless.  “He
+thought,” says his biographer, “that the strictness which made no
+distinction between things blameable only in their abuse, and the
+practices which were really immoral, was prejudicial to the interests of
+true religion; and on this point his opinion remained unchanged to the
+last.  His own life indeed was a proof that amusement so participated in,
+may be perfectly harmless, and no way interfere with any religious or
+moral duty.”
+
+{122b}  “Rowland Hill, in his theological opinions, leaned towards
+Calvinism, but what is called Hyper-calvinism, he could not endure.  In a
+system of doctrine he was follower of no man, but drew his sermons fresh
+from a prayerful reading of the Bible.  He was for drawing together all
+the people of God wherever they could meet, and was willing to join in a
+universal communion with Christians of every name.  When, on one
+occasion, he had preached in a chapel, where none but baptized adults
+(i.e. baptized after attaining years of discretion), were admitted to the
+sacrament, he wished to have communicated with them, but was told
+respectfully, ‘You cannot sit down at _our_ table.’  He calmly replied,
+‘I thought it was the Lord’s table.’”  Sidney’s Life of R. Hill, p. 422,
+3rd Edit.
+
+{124}  Simeon’s Works, Vol. III. p. 101, &c.
+
+{126}  Simeon’s Works, Vol. III. p. 333.
+
+{131a}  Exod. xxxii. 4.
+
+{131b}  Vide Colossians ii. 18, 19.
+
+{135a}  2 Cor. v. 15.  1 Tim. ii. 6.
+
+{135b}  2 Pet. iii. 9.
+
+{135c}  Rom. ii. 6–11.
+
+{136}  Rom. xiv. 5.
+
+
+
+
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