MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS. EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER ON UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION, BY ROBERT ROBINSON. MAKE AKE religion what you will; let it be speculation, let it be practice; make it faith, make it fancy; let it be reason, let it be passion; let it be what you will, Uniformity in it is not to be expected. Philosophy is a stranger to it, and christianity disowns it. A philosopher holds that the system of the Universe is perfect; that the duty and glory of man is to follow, not force, nature; that moral philosophy is nothing but a harmony of the world of spirit with the world of matter; that all the fine descriptions of virtue are nothing but essays on this conformity; thus he proves that moral evil is the production of natural evil, moral good the production of natural good. A philosopher would say to a legislator, as the poet to a man of taste, To build, to plant, whatever you intend, Give a philosopher a farm, and injoin him to cultivate it like a philosopher, he will study the soil, the situation, the seasons, and so on, and having comprehended what his farm is capable of, he will improve it accordingly. In the same manner he directs his garden, and every plant in it, never expecting to gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. What would he,yea, what would the unphilosophized farmers say of an act for the uniformity of husbandry? An act of Uniformity, say the honest rustics, what's that? What's that! Why, you must grow nothing but wheat. How! say they, some of our lands are too light, they will produce none; we can grow rye there indeed; we have some even not worth ploughing for rye; however, they will serve for a sheep walk, or at worst for a rabbit-warren, Thus Nature teaches men to reason, and thus they reason right. Go a step farther. Make this philosopher a tutor, and commit to his tuition a company of youths; he will no more think of uniforming these young gentlemen, than of teaching his horse to fly, or his parrot to swim. Their geniuses differ, says he, and I must diversify their educations; Nature has formed this for elocution, and that for action. And should the blind fondness of parents complain, his answer is ready, What was 1, that I could withstand God? In short, place such a man in what disinterested sphere you will, and his principles guide his practiceexcept indeed he should be chosen to represent a county; then probably, not having the fear of philosophy before his eyes, he might vote for an Act of Uniformity. A law that requires uniformity, either requires men to be of the same sentiments, or to practise the same ceremonies. Now if it should appear that the first is impossible, the last will fall of itself. For then the question will be, Ought two men who confessedly differ in sentiment, to profess that they agree? Ought an honest man to be one thing, and appear another? Heaven forbid that any should maintain so dangerous a thesis! You are a man of extensive knowledge, you know the ancient and modern creeds; you remember that Harry the eighth enjoined all preachers to instruct the people to believe the whole Bible, the three creeds, the Apostle's, Nicene, and Athanasian, and to interpret all things according to them." You know that in Edward the sixth's reign, TWO AND FORTY ARTICLES, drawn up by Cranmer and Ridley, were thought necessary to be published, for the avoiding diversity of opinions, and establishing consent touching true religion. In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, you know, ELEVEN articles were set out by order of both Archbishops, Metropolitans, and the rest of the Bishops, for the unity of Doctrine to be taught and holden of all Parsons, Vicars and Curates; as well in testification of their common consent in the said doctrine, to the stopping of the mouths of them that go about to slander the ministers of the church for diversity of judgment,' &c. Two years after, all the former were reviewed, and the whole bible, the three creeds, the two and forty articles, and the eleven articles, were collected into one aggregate sum, and made THIRTY-NINE. Subscription to these has been essential ever since, which subscription is an argument (as his Majesty's declaration says) that all clergymen agree in the true, usual, literal meaning of the said articles. Whatever be the true meaning of these articles, it is not only certain that Clergymen explain, and consequently believe, them in different and even contrary senses; but it is also credible that no thirty-nine articles can be invented by the wit of man, which thirty-nine men can exactly agree in. It is not obstinacy, it is necessity. Suppose the thirty-nine articles to contain a given number of ideas, and for argument's sake, suppose that number to be fifty. Suppose the capacities of men to differ, as they undoubtedly do, and one man's intelligence to be able to comprehend fifty, a second's five hundred, and a third's but five and twenty. The first may subscribe these fifty points of doctrine, but who can confine the genius of the second? Or who can expand the capacity of the last? In minds capable of different operations, no number of points of doctrine can possibly be fixed on as a standard for all, for fix on what number soever you will, there will always be too many for the capacities of some, and for others too few. If this be the case who can establish an uniformity of sentiment? What earthly power can say, 'We will not endure any varying or departing in the least degree?" After all, what is uniformity good for? Is it essential to salva-tion? Is it essential to real piety in this life? Does it make a subject more loyal to his prince? A husband more faithful, or a parent more tender? Can't a man be honest and just in his dealings without knowing any thing about St. Athanasius? Nay, has not this act produced more sophistry and cruelty than any other act of parliament, from the reformation to this day? Not secular but spiritual severity, not the sophistry of the bar but the sophistry of the church. Did the great Supreme govern his empire by an act of uniformity, men might be damned for believing too little, seraphs degraded for believing too much. The creed of the inhabitants of Saturn might be established, and theirs that dwelt in the Moon only tolerated. In such a case, what a fine field of controversial glory would open to the divines of these two provinces of the kingdom, on the Origin of Evil? Almighty Father, can a blind belief please thee? Can thy creatures believe what they cannot perceive the evidence of? Can all understand the evidence of the same number of truths? Formed with different organs, educated in different prejudices, dost thou require the same services? Art thou indeed the hard master who reapest where thou hast not sowed? Far from all thy subjects be such a thought! Conclude then, worthy Sir, that if God be a rock and his work perfect, if variety be the characteristic of all his works, an attempt to establish uniformity is reversing and destroying all the creator's glory. To attempt an uniformity of colour, sound, taste, smell, would be a fine undertaking; but what, pray, will you call an attempt to establish an uniformity of thought? ANTINOMIANISM :-FROM THE LIFE OF THOMAS SCOTT. THERE was a weekly lecture at the Lock chapel. on the Wednesday evening, which the evening preacher and I were to take alternately. All circumstances considered, I did not expect much usefulness from this service. I therefore intreated the acting governors to allow me, in addition to it, to preach a lecture on the Friday evenings; the service to be altogether my own. This, after some hesitation, was conceded The congre gation, which might be expected to attend, I was aware, was decidedly Calvinistic: but I was fully determined to bring forward at this lecture (which indeed I had desired almost exclusively for that purpose,) every thing, in the most particular manner, relative to the Christian temper and conduct. With this view I formed, as I foolishly thought, a very sagacious plan. I gave notice that I would lecture, in an expository manner, on the Epistle to the Ephesians, in order. At first I was very well attended, my congregation generally consisting of more than three hundred persons. This continued while I was going through the more doctrinal part of the Epistle; though I applied the doctrine very plainly to practical purposes, and often intimated my hope, that I should be favored with equal attention, when I came to speak more particularly on Christian tempers and the relative duties. But the Lord took the wise in his own craftiness. When I arrived at the latter part of the fourth chapter, the alarm was spread, though I stamped every exhortation strongly with an evangelical seal. But at length, when I preached from the fifth chapter, on the words, See that ye walk circumspectly, &c., the charge was every where circulated, that I had changed my principles, and was become an Arminian: and, at once, I irrecoverably lost much above half my audience.—— The Sunday morning congregation also greatly decreased: dissatisfaction was manifested in the looks and language of all the acting governors, even such as had been most friendly and I seemed to have no alternative, but that of either receding voluntarily from my situation, or being disgracefully dismissed. I had, however, no place to which to retire: every door seemed to be shut against me. On this emergency, amidst very many interruptions, and under inexpressible discouragement. I wrote in the course of a week, and preached on the Sunday morning following, (November 26, 1786,) my sermon on Election and Final Perseverance. By the next week it was printed and ready for sale and a thousand copies were sold in about three davs. A second edition was print d: but the public were saturated, and few copies were disposed of. While I was preparing this sermon, I dined with rather a large party, many of the company governors of the Lock, and zealous, in their way, for Calvinism. In the evening, it was proposed, according to custom, to discuss some religious subject: and, being really desirous of information, I proposed a question concerning the precise boundaries between Calvinism and Arminianism, respecting which so much prejudice against my ministry had been excited. But in conference they added nothing unto me: and, two dissenters excepted, no one offered any thing sufficient to shew that he understood the subject. So that, when I concluded with my own remarks, it was allowed that I was more decidedly Calvinistic than the rest of the company!This was suited in one way to gratify me but it was still more calculated to convince me, that I was placed in a most unpromising situation. I well remember, (says Dr. Scott's son and biographer,) the utter astonishment which my father expressed on returning from the party here alluded to. He had not conceived it possible, that men, known in the religious world, could have allowed themselves boldly to take a side, and to talk loudly in favour of a system, of which they scarcely knew the outlines, and the grounds of which they were not able to explain, still less to defend.—It is much to be hoped, that so instructive a record, as we are now considering, will not have been written in vain. That some, at least, will allow themselves to be put on their guard against being scared by the terror of a mere name; and will be induced, after the honorable example of the Bereans, to 'search the scriptures,' concerning what they hear, and to ask, not by what distinctive appellation it may be described, but whether it is according to the oracles of God' or not. It is to be hoped, also, that some persons, immersed, perhaps, in secular business, from Monday morning till Saturday night, may be induced to doubt whether they are quite so well qualified to decide upon difficult theological questions, as they may have taken it for granted that they were. I fear it is but too obvious, with respect to many of the numbers who were irrecoverably' driven from the Lock, when my father proceeded to unfold and apply the parts of St. Paul's writings which treat of Christian tempers and relative duties,' that their real objection was not to Arminianism, (of which they very probably scarcely knew the meaning,) but to half, or more than half, the word of God. They had been accustomed to overlook it themselves, and could not bear to have it pressed upon their notice by another. New Series-vol. IV. 37 |