Page images
PDF
EPUB

important acts of faith in Jesus Christ, or in the Holy Spirit, before they are taught to entertain just notions of the Supreme Being, would be equally unreasonable, as for a man to pretend, that it is possible to make a good geometrician of an ignorant peasant, by instructing him to repeat the terms of Euclid's last propositions, without ever bringing him to a true understanding of the first. If, then, the generality of christians are contented with learning merely to repeat our doctrinal terms, we must expect to see them as far from manifesting the virtues of St. Paul, as the superficial peasant from possessing the solidity of Euclid.

CHAP. XII.

OTHER REASONS GIVEN FOR THE LITTLE INFLUENCE, WHICH THE FOREGOING DOCTRINES ARE OBSERVED TO HAVE UPON CHRISTIANS IN GENERAL.

PROFITABLY to teach the doctrines of the Gospel, there are certain rules necessary to be observed; and where these rules are either unknown or neglected, the Gospel becomes of little importance. 1. A true doctrine, in order to have its due effect, must be announced with purity. It should neither be mutilated by hasty contradictions, nor corrupted by vain additions. The prince of error equally serves his own interest, by perplexing the truth, as by spreading a falsehood: and when errors are added to evangelical truths, those truths may be compared to excel, lent medicines unhappily mingled with dangerous poi. sons. Thus, the doctrines of future punishments is not only deprived of its utility, but becomes really pernicious, by the addition of another doctrine, which teaches, that a sum of money left as the price of pray.

er for a departed soul, will effectually soften, and even terminate its pains.

2. A doctrine should not only be delivered in the purest manner, but they who announce it should study to demonstrate its excellency and power, by the whole course of their conduct. Were leprous physicians to cry up a specific against the leprosy, it cannot be imagined, that lepers, in general, would anxiously adopt a remedy, which had been attended with so little effect upon the recommenders of it. We here intimate, not without the utmost regret, that too many of the clergy destroy the effect of their doctrines, by the immorality of their conduct.

3. To give scriptural doctrines their full effect, it is necessary to make them pass from the understanding to the will, or from the judgment to the heart of those, who admit them. It would be in vain to procure for a patient the most efficacious remedy, if, instead of applying it in the method prescribed, he should think it sufficient to touch it with his lips, or should content himself with drawing in the grateful odour exhaling from it. To such a patient, however, the greater part of christians bear a strict resemblance, who speculate upon the Gospel, without ever embracing it with that lively "faith, which worketh by love."

4. It is not sufficient, that these doctrines should be preached in their native purity; but it is equally necessary, that they should be preserved in the same purity by those, who receive them. Our Lord makes this solemn declaration to sinners: "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Yet how is it, that many thousand christians who admit this important truth, remain to the present day in a state of impenitence? It is because they mingle with it the following pernicious error: though I spend the present moment in sin, God will assuredly give me grace to repent in the latter part of my life. Hence that lamentable inattention to the duties of religion which is universal among us at this day.

5. Very frequently the doctrines of the gospel are attended with no considerable effect upon those who admit them, because the salutary operation of these truths is counteracted by the powerful influence of earthly desires indulged in the heart. Thus, in a disordered stomach, the most wholesome food is deprived of its virtue. To remedy this evil, it is necesary to enter upon a regimen too severe to be regarded by an obstinate patient, and upon an absolute necessity of which an inattentive physician will not peremtorily insist.

6. Where doctrines of the most humiliating tendency have not first made a deep impression, there the consolatory doctrines of the Gospel tend only to uphold the sinner in a course of impiety. Those preachers, who favour the false judgment of worldly men, wanting either courage or experience wisely to administer the doctrines of the Gospel, so that they may alarm the impenitent and console the dejected; these preachers, instead of eradicating, do but increase the evil we lament. It cannot, indeed, be denied, that they offer many sacred truths to the world: but, while they do not nicely distinguish, and apply them to the different states of their hearers, as they only draw their bow at a venture, it is no wonder that their arrows so frequently fall beside the mark. These perplexers of truth contribute as little to the conversion of sinners, as a physician would contribute to the recovery of the sick, who, without any prudent selection, compounding together all the drugs of an excellent pharmacopoeia, should indiscriminately offer the same confused recipe to every patient.

7. The doctrines of christianity are frequently delivered as the opinions of men, rather than as the declarations of GOD, founded upon events much better attested than the most certain historical facts: and to this single error the inefficacy of those doctrines may, in a good degree, be imputed. Were reason and consience made to walk in the front of the Gospel, the

want of a Redeemer would be more universally experienced in the world, than it has hitherto been. But while the preachers of that Gospel neglect to assert the depravity of human nature; or while they omit, in confirmation of so melancholy a truth, to make the most solemn appeals to the consciences of men; so long we may expect to see their ill directed labours universaly unsuccessful. Had these teachers in Israel an experimental acquaintance with those truths, upon which they presume openly to descant, their word would spedily be attended with unusual efficacy; their example would give it weight, and, in answer to their fervent prayers, the GoD of all grace would set his seal to the truths of the Gospel.

Whenever the messengers of religious truth shall become remarkable for the purity of their lives, and the fervency of their zeal, their doctrines will soon be attended with sufficient influence in the christian world, to overthrow the objection we have been here considering, and effectually to stop the mouth of every gainsayer.

CHAP. XIII.

THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY HAVE AN OBSCURE SIDE. THE REASONS OF THIS OBSCURITY. THE ERROR OF SOME PHILOSOPHERS IN THIS RESPECT.

"THE Gospel, says J. J. Rousseau, is accompanied with marks of truth, so great, so striking, so perfectly inimitable, that the inventor of it appears abundantly more admirable than its Hero. But, after all, this Gospel is filled with incredible things, with things that are repugnant to reason, and which no sensible man can possibly conceive, or admit. Remove all the diffi

culties, continues the admirers of this philosopher, dissipate all the obscurity with which your doctrines are surrounded, and we will cheerfully embrace the Gospel."

Extraordinary things appear always incredible, in proportion to our ignorance. Thus, an ignorant negro of Guinea would look upon that man as a deceiver, who should assert there are places in the world, where the surface of rivers become so solid, at particular seasons, that without bridge or boat, whole armies may pass them dry-shod. And it is well known that the doctrine of Antipodes gave no less offence to the celebrated geographers of a former age, than is unhappily given to the deistical sages of modern times, by the doctrine of a divine Trinity.

As we become better acquainted with spiritual things, instead of despising the truths of the Gospel as altogether incredible, we shall be truly convinced that J. J. Rousseau passed the same kind of judgment upon the doctrines of christianity, as a savage might be expected to pass upon some late discoveries in natural philosophy. The sciences present a hundred difficulties to the minds of young students. By entering upon an obscure course, they, at length, attain to superior degrees of illumination: but, after all the indefatigable labours of the most learned professor, the highest knowledge he can possibly acquire, will be mingled with darkness and error. If men of wisdom, however, do not look with contempt upon those sciences, which are usually taught among us, because all of them are attended with difficulties, and most of them are too abstruse to permit a thorough investigation; how absurd would it be in us, for these insufficient reasons, to reject that revelation, which may be considered as the science of celestial things.

To despise the doctrines of the Gospel, because they are attended with some degree of obscurity, is to act in as full contrariety to the dictates of philosophy, as those of revelation. No follower of J. J. Rous

« PreviousContinue »