The Corner-stone

[The publisher has thought it not improper to prefix to this edition of the CornerStone, the following Introduction, by Dr. John Pye Smith, President of Homerton College, England, as it contains a very lucid exposition of the nature and design of the work, and a testimony in which much confidence will be placed, to the substantial correctness of the views it presents. A few passages relating personally to the author are omitted.]

'THOU knowest not the works of God, who maketh all.' They have a completeness which is absolute and their own. Man adds nothing of real existence to them. He can but observe, separate, and combine. The noblest discoveries in science are the bringing to light of facts which before existed man makes not truth. Even inventions the most astonishing, and which have changed or will change the face of society, are only new and more happy applications of powers in the constitution of creation, already in being, and which, in many cases, have been secretly operating from the beginning of time. Man creates nothing, nor needs he; it is sufficient for him to bring to light what had lain in darkness, and to rejoice in that which God hath made.

And such are the riches of revelation. Flowing from the fountain of Divine Infinity, they are unchangeable, and yet always new. Particular truths, and all the classes of truths, like the love of their blessed Revealer, possess a breadth and length, a depth and height, which passeth knowledge: yet, they are pervaded by an entire consistency. the mode of deducing those truths from the oracles of God. in the form of their presentation, in their comparison and combination, in showing their harmonizing principle, and in the illustration and application of these eternal realities, there is room for endless diversity. The Author of all knowledge natural and spiritual, the True Light which enlighteneth every man,' has shown his manifold wisdom in giving to his

servants the various ability, by which the truth which is after godliness' should be unfolded to the ages and generations of the world. The susceptibility of heavenly instruction, the immediate proofs of its necessity, the feeling which in a sense springs forward to meet it, and the circumstances which form a channel for its most advantageous communication, have varied in every period of history, and in every nation of men and we are called to adore the wisdom and goodness of God, which have qualified human instruments to meet every change of demand which the eventful history of human nature is continually producing. How different from each other, in mind and talent, and in the character of instruction, were Ignatius and Augustine, Kempis and Calvin, Luther and Fenelon, Latimer and Leighton, Usher and Edwards! Yet each served the cause of truth and piety, the happiness of man and the honor of God, in ways admirably adapted to the culture, the taste, and the wants of their several ages; no one of them could have replaced another; and yet the one immortal element in the writings of each, has rendered them of imperishable value to all following times.

These reflections have arisen from the benefit and pleasure which, in a very unexpected manner, have been brought to me by the reading of the volume to which I am now presuming to prefix a recommendation. I scarcely knew of its existence, when a request, indicating deep anxiety, was made for an opinion on its merits or demerits Not a page had I read of any other production of the author, so that I had no sufficient ground for a conjecture drawn by analogy. No course was left but to promise to read this volume with careful attention. Thankful am I for the occurrence which led me to do so; nor less for an equally unsought for train of things, which brought to me some information concerning the history and character of the author.

Under these circumstances, I thought it a manifest, duty to comply with the desire of the British publisher, by venturing to give a statement of my convictions with regard to the value and utility of this work. It seemed not an unreasonable wish, that such a service should be rendered by some one a little practiced in theological reading; as Mr. Abbott has so much of originality in his manner of thinking, and of unguarded simplicity in his style of expression, as seem to render useful, though certainly not necessary, a friendly vestibule to his edifice. There might be peril that, without such a precaution, some readers would take a premature alarm, when they found some essential doctrines of Christianity conveyed in terms of simplicity and elucidated by very familiar analogies, which appear considerably removed from our accredited phraseology. Indeed I am no advocate for an abrogating of the old

and ordinary language of divinity. So far as it is just and in harmony with the Scriptures, I earnestly contend for its retention. Great advantages accrue from having terms appropriated, so far as good usage will warrant, to the expression of sacred truths. They serve, as terms of

art do in human sciences, to assist recollection and to abbreviate language; and they have a solemnity and tenderness of association which aids religious feeling. But the most serious mischiefs will ensue, if we carry this practice so far as to establish a technical phraseology of religion, and seek to maintan its rigid observance. A facility is thus afforded to ignorance, arrogance, and hypocrisy. Persons acquire volubility in dealing out words, while they have a miserable poverty of ideas; they fancy themselves able divines, because they have learned a few systematic vocables; they cover error, often of the most noxious kind, with the assumed guise of truth; they nurse spiritual pride in themselves and their imitators; and they repulse, perhaps finally and fatally, men of sense who are unhappily prejudiced against evangelical religion. Whatever use we make of the language of the theological schools, we should never go beyond our ability to translate it into the plain speech of common life, If a learner of geometry cannot demonstrate with transposed letters, or without any letters at all, he will never become a mathematician. A person may have expertly learned the Greek nomenclature of Linneus; but if, when turned without his books into the woods and hedges, he is ignorant and helpless, he is no botanist.

It is, therefore, I conceive, a great duty, from the pulpit, from the press, and in ordinary intercourse, to express the truths of our divine philosophy'in terms occasionally varied, adopted from the ordinary life of men, and selected with care to avoid both affectation and vulgarism. The understanding of all classes may thus be consulted, and the most probable means secured, under the blessing of heavenly grace, for winning a way to the heart.

This is what Mr. Abbott has done, in the plan and the execution of the following work. Its design is to show that the edifice of salvation must rest upon CHRIST as its CORNER-STONE;' and, with that view, the order of proceeding is to bring forward the leading principles of religious truth, as they are naturally connected with the various points of the history of Jesus Christ.' The chief of those principles may, as it appears to me, be enumerated thus: the spirituality of God, and his consequent universality of relation to space and time ;- the perfections of the Divine nature, both the natural and the moral ;—the government and legislation of God;-the proper Deity of the Savior nd of the Holy Spirit :- the impropriety of attempting to subject the

way

doctrine of the Trinity to human ideas or forms of human description: - the proper humanity of Jesus, his perfect holiness, his admirable conduct on all occasions, his teachings, his example, and the original and unrivaled manner in which he pursued and accomplished the purposes of his mission in our nature; the atonement for sin, and reconciliation of sinners, effected by his sufferings and death;- the value and efficacy of his obedience as an active righteousness, for the complete acceptance of all who are united to him, before the tribunal of divine justice; -the in which our guilty race has treated the offers of grace and mercy in Christ;-the inexcusable and dreadful consequences of sin :—the nature, the subtile forms, the guilt, and the awful punishment of unbelief: the diffusion of redemption through the world; the character of true Christians, and the modes of influence in which that character should be directed for the universal benefit of mankind; the causes of dangerous error in religion, both primary and subsidiary; -the means of obviating those causes; - the usual fruitlessness of speculative and verbal controversy;· -the moral power of simple truth; - —the influence of the Holy Spirit; - the harmony of that influence, with the intellectual and voluntary faculties of the human mind; - its admirable diversity of operation on the various temperaments, ages, and circumstances of persons;—in parental discipline, schools and colleges, the public ministry; — the happiness, the peculiar temptations, and the duties of genuine converts;

the dread

ful condition of those who become only half Christians, or who altogether reject religion.

The unfolding of these divine truths is effected in a natural and easy order, acquiring new light in the steps of progress, but very different from the dry method of scholastic systems. Yet this is not a religious story-book; a sort of writings of which we have, I fear, too many. The anecdotal illustrations are numerous, but they are all narratives of real facts: except that in one or two, the personality is ideal, but the action is not; and the distinction is scrupulously intimated. Notwithstanding this attractive clothing, the honor of Christian DOCTRINES is not infringed; their just conception, their accurate delineation, their mutual connection; in short, each element of theological propriety is kept in view.

However, I can easily conceive, I am even compelled to anticipate, that objections and even censures may arise in the minds of some excellent persons. But I cannot apprehend this consequence, except when the volume has been too hastily and inattentively read, or where the mind is preoccupied with the trammels of human artificial systems. This is a subject of serious importance. It becomes me, therefore, to be specific.

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The Corner-stone: Or, A Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian ...