Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

God, there can be no wavering, nor even deliberation; the course that alone is proper, the course that alone conduces to the best possible ends, in every possible connexion, and throughout all eternity, that course is alone pursued, and it is pursued exactly when its operation is called for by infinite wisdom. This course is just, at the same time that it is merciful, and merciful because it is perfectly just. It never deviates on account of motives, which we should call compassionate, because if it should

ever deviate in the least, it would cease to be both just and merciful. It never can be swayed by sentiments of anger or revenge, because, as it consults the good of the whole, and the good of each individual, it must terminate in the happiness of all. Let us henceforth have more enlarged and exalted conceptions of that Almighty Being, who is both Wisdom and Love, whose Justice cannot be unmerciful, and whose Mercy cannot be unjust; whose Justice and Mercy are one.

Orthodox Tactics: or a new mode of attack and defence.

The following communications are inserted in the Repository, as illustrative of the true nature of Orthodox Zeal; a zeal which is eager to make an unprovoked attack, under circumstances that render defence impossible, but which refuses to discuss on equal ground doctrines that are delivered ex cathedra as if with all the authority of inspiration.

The occasion which led to these communications was this: -Mr. Adam having proceeded on the river for the benefit of his health, on his arrival at Chandernagore, accepted the kind invitation of the gentleman to whom the letter No. 1 is addresssed, to remain at his house for a few days. As Mr. Cand familyare in the habit of attending Divine service at Chinsurah church in which the Missionaries resident at that settlement regularly officiate, Mr. A. of course proposed to accompany them; not supposing that his mere presence would prove offensive. In this, however, he was mistaken, for the Missiona

ries having become acquainted with his intention seem to have considered his simple attenance as an attack upon the doctrines of orthodoxy, if not upon the orthodox themselves; and accordingly both the morning and the evening preachers not only felt themselves called upon to enter generally into a defence of these doctrines, but even had recourse in their prayers as well as in their discourses to the most unequivocal personal allusions. The extempore Discourse delivered in the morning by Mr. Mundy was chiefly remarkable for a discovery which the preacher communicated to his audience, that the Devil was neither an Arian, an Arminian, nor a Pelagian, but a true orthodox believer; and also for the unsparing use which he made of the thunders of God's wrath against all those who should hold a different creed. Mr. La Croix, the evening preacher, delivered a written Discourse, which, however ultraorthodox may have been some of the doctrines advanced in it,

was at least clear in its arrangement and connected in its parts, and laid claim to the merit of being close and consecutive in its reasoning. While therefore the personal allusions already referred to compelled Mr. A. to adopt some step for the vindication both of his religious sen

timents, he felt no difficulty in determining to whom he should address himself; and accordingly requested Mr. C to forward a copy of No. I. to the Rev. Mr. La Croix who, through the same medium, returned the answer marked No. II.

No. I.-From Mr. Adam to A- C-, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR,

The lateness of our return last night from Chinsurah church and the necessity of my early departure this morning, have prevented me from fulfilling the intention which I intimated to you of addressing Mr. La Croix on the subject of the Sermon which we heard him preach; and I shall therefore feel obliged by your doing it for me.

Express to him, if you please, my sincere thanks for the luminous view which he gave of the doctrines of reputed orthodoxy, and at the same time my strong objections to them as unscriptural and unreasonable.

To endeavour to prove this I would request permission either to occupy his place in the pulpit for one Sunday evening-or that he would publish the Sermon which he preached, and to which in that case I hereby engage to reply through the medium of the press-or that he would meet me either at your house or his own,

No. II.-From Mr. La

MY DEAR SIR,

I duly received your note yesterday evening; but as I was not at home, could not answer it immediately.

I have perused Mr. Adam's letter, wherein he seems to wish me to enter into a controversy with him on the doctrines he has

each in company with a single friend, on Friday next at 10 in the forenoon, when we may leisurely discuss the successive paragraphs of his very able Dis

course.

The direct and pointed language employed both in his Sermon and prayers, especially the latter, renders an apology for my apparent presumption in making these offers unnecessary; and I beg you will assure him that it is not to indulge the angry spirit of controversy, but with an earnest and sincere desire to vindicate the truth as it is in Jesus, that they have been made. From the te

nour of Mr. La Croix's Discourse I feel persuaded that one or other of them will be accepted by him, and that the consequent investigation will on his part be carried on with the manners of a gentleman and the spirit of a Christian. Yours very truly, W. ADAM.

Chandernagore, Monday morn. 6} a. m. Croix to A- C-, Esq.

found proper to reject as unscriptural and unreasonable. I kindly request you to tell him, that I consider such a controversy as perfectly useless in the present circumstances, as the doctrines in question which are (according to my ideas) for every unprejudiced mind set forth

in Scripture in the plainest manner, have already been discussed and demonstrated so fully by men of far greater abilities than my own, that it may, I think, satisfy any one who with an humble spirit is searching after truth.

I consequently feel it not only my inclination, but my duty, to decline positively, once for ever, to agree to any of Mr. Adam's proposals; my time likewise being too precious to me to be employed or rather wasted in disputes of which experience has shown so frequently, that no good fruits have ever proceeded from, neither in Calcutta of late, nor elsewhere.

Believe me, my Dear Sir,
Your's very truly,
A. F. LACROIX.

Chinsurah,
Feb. 24, 1824. S

On this reply, a few remarks will suffice. The first thing worthy of notice is that Mr. La Croix does not attempt to deny "the direct and pointed language employed both in his Sermon and prayers, especially the latter." If such language had not been used, Mr. A. would never have thought of making any of those proposals which, after having provoked them, Mr. La Croix has deemed it proper positively to decline.

He says that the doctrines he preaches "are set forth in Scripture" in a manner sufficiently plain, " for every unprejudiced mind." But this is taking for granted the very questions at issue; for there are some who consider that every page of Scripture contains a refutatiou of these doctrines, and that it is only a mind under the influence of the deepest prejudice that can profess to ground its

belief of them upon the authothority of Revelation.

He considers that the doctrines in question have been "discussed and demonstrated" by men of far greater abilities than himself. Those who admire his modesty cannot applaud his consistency. This might have been a good excuse for leaving these doctrines untouched altogether: it is but a sorry reply to a challenge to which he himself had given occasion.

His time likewise is too precious to be" employed or rather wasted" in such disputes. It is to be hoped, therefore, that should circumstances ever happen a second time to bring a heterodox stranger within the reach of his voice, he will not be required to "waste" his time in listening to doctrines which are confessedly of so little worth.

But "experience" it is said, "has frequently shown that no good fruits have ever proceeded from such discussions." On the contrary, all experience proves that truth is ever a gainer by the candid, temperate, and free investigation of existing popular opinions; and to such an investigation alone Mr. La Croix was invited. It is on this principle that Mr. La Croix acts as a Missionary to the heathen; and it will be found that the errors of idolatry which he opposes, and the corrup. tions of Christianity which he sup. }、ts, will both give way just in poportion as a spirit of liberal ad independent inquiry is excit.

. It is only error and corption that love to stagnate: tr ith and goodness seek to dif fse their blessings all around.

Mr. La Croix seems to have no difficulty in determining who those are that seek truth "with

an humble spirit." For this purpose he does not consider it necessary to inquire into the actual temper of their minds, but only into the result of their investigations. If the conclusions to which they come perfectly accord with his own opinions, then they possess every characteristic of sincere inquirers. But if a man will believe only upon evidence, if he will not receive every pulpit dictum with profound submission, if he venture to offer any objection to the notions of his ghostly friends, then he is in effect told "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us"-us the favourites of Heaven, the chosen of the Lord, the ministers of his word, and the messengers of his grace?

Since the above was written, Mr. A. has heard two other Discourses delivered by the same gentlemen in the same place of worship. The morning preacher was even more outrageously violent than on the former occasion. With an unblushing hardihood in which, it is to be hoped, he will find few admirers and still fewer imitators, he did not hesitate to declare that if Jesus Christ was not God, then the apostle

Paul was a fool, and the Bible a bundle of lies. And yet this is one of the men who are accustomed to accuse Unitarians of being deficientin reverence for the Sacred Scriptures and for Apostolic authority, and of torturing both into a conformity with their creed. Unless Mr. Mundy seek to rival his Holiness at Rome, he I will at least admit that he may be mistaken in his interpretation of the Scriptures; and if it should at last appear that he is mistaken, then how serious the predicament in which he has placed himself, by thus presumptuously pledging his own fallible opinion against the inspiration of Paul and the truth of the Bible.

The evening preacher delivered a very excellent Discourse on the free grace of God; a doctrine which all Unitarians most cordially embrace, but in which Mr. La Croix very inconsistently believes. considering as he does that mankind can be justified from their sins only by the merits of Christ, and that by his sufferings and death the salvation of sinners was purchased, and an equavalent paid to God for receiving them into his favour.

Mr. Pitt's Letter on Superstition: addressed to the People of England. (Printed in the year 1733, in the London Journal.)

GENTLEMEN,

Whoever takes a view of the world will find, that what the greatest part of mankind have agreed to call religion has been only some outward exercises, esteemed sufficient to work a reconciliation with God. It has moved them to build temples, slay victims, offer up sacrifices; to fast and feast; to petition and thank; to laugh and cry;

to sing and sigh by turns: but it has not yet been found sufficient to induce them to break off an amour, to make restitution of illgotten wealth, or to bring the passions and appetites under a reasonable subjection. Differ as much as they may in opinion concerning what they ought to believe, or after what manner they are to serve God, as they

call it, yet they all agree in gratifying their appetites. The same passions reign eternally in all countries and in all ages: Jew and Mahometan, the Christian and the Pagan, the Tartar and the Indian, all kinds of men, who differ in almost every thing else, universally agree with regard to their passions: if there be any difference among them it is this, that the more superstitious they are, always the more vicious; and the more they believe, the less they practise. This is a melancholy consideration to a good mind: it is a most terrible truth; and certainly, above all things, worth our while to inquire into. We will therefore probe the wound and search it to the bottom; we will lay the axe to the root of the tree; and shew you the true reason why men go on in sinning and repenting, repenting and sinning again, through the whole course of their lives: and the reason is, because they have been taught, most wickedly taught, that religion and virtue are two things absolutely distinct; that the deficiency of the one might be supplied by the sufficiency of the other; and that what you want in virtue you must make up in religion. But this religion, so dishonourable to God and so pernicions to men, is worse than atheism, for atheism, though it takes away one great motive to support virtue in distress, yet it furnishes no man with arguments to be vicious; but superstition, or what the world means by religion, is the greatest possible encouragement to vice, by setting up something as religion, which shall atone and commute for the want of virtue. This is establishing iniquity by a law, the bighest

law; by authority, the highest authority; that of God himself. We complain of the vices of the world and of the wickedness of men without searching into the true cause. It is not because they are wicked by nature, for that is both false and impious; but because, to serve the pur. poses of their pretended soulsavers, they have been carefully taught that they are wicked by nature, and cannot help continuing so. It would have been impossible for men to have been both religious and vicious, had religion been made to consist, wherein alone it does consist, and had men been always taught that true religion is the practice of virtue in obedience to the will of God, who presides over all things, and will finally make it every man's happiness to do his duty.

This single opinion in religion, that things are so well made by the Deity that virtue is its own reward, and that happiness will ever arise from acting according to the reason of things; or, that God, ever wise and good, will provide some extraordinary happiness for those who suffer for virtue's sake, is enough to support a man under all difficulties, to keep him steady to his duty, and to enable him to stand as firm as a rock, amidst all the charms of pleasure, profit, and honour. But this religion of reason, which all men are capable of, has been neglected and condemned, and another set up, the natural consequences of which have puzzled men's understandings and debauched their morals more than all the lewd poets and atheistical philosophers that ever infested the world; for, instead of being taught that

« AnteriorContinua »