citements of a far higher order, than in those of any other class of Christians, to zeal in missionary labours for the conversion of the world. The time forbids me even to name them; though they furnish the best topick that could be desired, for appeals to reason, to conscience, and to the heart. But, assured as we may be, that we have been justified in the course which we have pursued, in regard to this object, the time, I think, has come, when self justification in the neglect of it, if continued, will be sin. Let us then vindicate ourselves against the reproach, under which we have long laboured, not by words merely, but by deeds. Let the experiment at least be made, whether something better than has yet been done in this work may not be accomplished. I have tasked your patience as far as I dare to task it. I leave the subject with the earnest wish that some, who are better qualified for it than I am, will take it into their protection, and give to it their influence. I am aware that it demands the exercise of the most sober judgment, and of the soundest discretion. Let us all think, and inquire; and bring together all the light that we can obtain to bear upon it; and, let us look up to God, that he may guide us into the way of truth, and strengthen us to be faithful to his will. If the subject shall obtain sufficient attention to secure the action of other minds upon it, and to excite others to recommend and to defend it, I shall not have spoken in vain. Collections. 'In all the animadversions against errours made by the Apostles in the New Testament, no pious person was condemned, no man that did invincibly err; but something that was amiss, in the principle of action, was that which the Apostles did regard. And it is very considerable, that even they of the circumcision, who in so great numbers did heartily believe in Christ, and yet most violently retain circumcision, and without question went to Heaven in great numbers; yet of the number of these very men, they came deeply under censure, when to their errour they added impiety; so long as it stood with charity and without human ends and secular interests, so long it was either innocent or connived at; but when they grew covetous, and for filthy lucre's sake taught the same doctrine which others did in the simplicity of their hearts, then they turned hereticks, then they were termed seducers; and Titus. was commanded to look to them, and to silence them; For there are many that are intractable, and vain babblers, seducers of minds, especially they of the circumcision, who seduce whole houses, teaching things that they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. These indeed were not to be indured, but to be silenced, by the conviction of sound doctrine, and to be rebuked sharply, and avoided. * For heresy is not an errour of the understanding, but an errour of the will. And this is clearly insinuated in Scripture, in the style whereof faith and a good life are made one duty, and vice is called opposite to faith, and heresy opposed to holiness and sanctity. So in St. Paul, For (saith he) the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned; from which charity, and purity, and goodness, and sincerity, because some have wandered, have turned aside unto vain jangling. And immediately after, he reckons the oppositions to faith and sound doctrine, and instances only in vices, that stain the lives of Christians, the unjust, the unclean, the uncharitable, the liar, the perjured person; these are the enemies of the true doctrine. And therefore St. Peter having given in charge, to add to our virtue patience, temperance, charity, and the like, gives this for a reason, for if these things be in you, and abound, ye shall be fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that knowledge and faith is inter præcepta morum, is part of a good life.-Jeremy Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, pp. 31-33. 'A wicked person in his errour becomes heretick, when the good man in the same errour shall have all the rewards of faith. For whatever an ill man believes, if he therefore believes it because it serves his own ends, be his belief true or false, the man hath an heretical mind, for to serve his own ends, his mind is prepared to believe a lie. But a good man that believes what, according to his light, and upon the use of his * 1 Tim. i. 5, moral industry he thinks true, whether he hits upon the right or no, because he hath a mind desirous of truth, and prepared to believe every truth, is therefore acceptable to God, because nothing hindered him from it but what he could not help, his misery and his weakness, which being imperfections merely natural, which God never punishes, he stands fair for a blessing of his morality, which God always accepts.' lb. p. 59. The Fathers. 'There are some that think they can determine all questions in the world by two or three sayings of the Fathers, or by the consent of so many as they will please to call a concurrent testimony; but this consideration will soon be at an end; for if the Fathers, when they are witnesses of tradition, do not always speak truth, as it happened in the case of Papias and his numerous followers for almost three ages together, then is their testimony more improbable when they dispute or write commentaries.' Ib. p. 215. Innocent Errours. 'As for guiding our judgments and the use of our reason in judging for ourselves, all that is to be said is reducible to this one proposition. Since errours are then made sins, when they are contrary to charity, or inconsistent with a good life and the honour of God, that judgment is the truest, or at least that opinion most innocent that 1, best promotes the reputation of God's glory, and 2, is the best instrument of a holy life. For in questions and interpretations of dispute, these two analogies are the best to make propositions, and conjectures, and determinations. Diligence and care in obtaining the best guides, and the most convenient assistance; prayer, and modesty of spirit, simplicity of purposes and intentions, humility and aptness to learn, and a peaceable disposition, are therefore necessary to finding out truths, because they are parts of a good life, without which our truths will do us little advantage, and our errours can have no excuse, but with these dispositions, as he is sure to find out all that is necessary, so what truth he inculpably misses of, he is sure is therefore not necessary, because he could not find it when he did his best and his most innocent endeavours.' Ib. pp. 268, 269. Private Judgment. 'Now the way to our future happiness has been perpetually disputed throughout the world, and must be left at last to the impressions made upon every man's belief and conscience, either by natural or supernatural arguments and means; which impressions men may disguise or dissemble, but no man can resist. For belief is no more in a man's power, than his stature or his feature; and he that tells me I must change my opinion for his, because it is the truer and the better, without other arguments, that have to me the force of conviction, may as well tell me I must change my grey eyes for others like his that are black, because these are lovelier or more in esteem. He that tells me I must inform myself, has reason, if I do it not. But if I endeavour it all that I can, and perhaps more than he ever did, and yet still differ from him; and he that, it may be, is idle, will have me study on and inform myself better, and so to the end of my life; then I easily understand what he means by informing, which is, in short, that I must do it till I am of his opinion. 'If he that, perhaps, pursues his pleasures or interests as much or more than I do, and allows me to have as good sense as he has in all other matters, tells me I should be of his opinion, but that passion or interest blinds me ; unless he can convince me how or where this lies, he is but where he was, only pretends to know me better than I do myself, who cannot imagine why I should not have as much care of my soul as he has of his. ‘A man that tells me my opinions are absurd or ridiculous, impertinent or unreasonable, because they differ from his, seems to intend a quarrel instead of a dispute, and calls me fool or madman with a little more circumstance; though perhaps I pass for one as well in my senses as he, as pertinent in talk, and as prudent in life. Yet these are the common civilities in religious argument of sufficient and conceited men, who talk much of right reason, and mean always their own; and make their private imagination the measures of general truth. But such language determines all between us, and the dispute comes to end in three words at last, which it might as well have ended in at first-That he is in the right, and I am in the wrong.'—Sir W. Temple's Observations on Unit. Prov. 8vo 7th ed. 1705, pp. 191–193. Poetry. HYMN FOR THE OPENING OF AN ORGAN. All Nature's works his praise declare, There is a voice in every star, Sweet musick fills the world abroad To God the tribes of ocean cry, To God the powers that dwell on high, Like them let man the throne surround; While instruments of loftiest sound, Assist his feeble praise. Great God! to thee we consecrate, Our voices and our skill; We bid the pealing organ wait, O, teach its rich and swelling notes, And while the musick round us floats, Let earth born passion die. |