by its own innate virtue, or by the efficacy of the object?1 These things are knotty, and too intricate to do any good; they may amuse us, but never instruct us; and they have already made men careless and confident, disputative and troublesome, proud and uncharitable, but neither wiser nor better. Let us, therefore, leave these weak ways of troubling ourselves or others, and directly look to the theology of it, the direct duty, the end of faith, and the work of faith, the conditions and the instrument of our salvation, the just foundations of our hopes, how our faith can destroy our sin, and how it can unite us unto God: how by it we can be made partakers of Christ's death, and imitators of his life. For since it is evident, by the premises, that this article is not to be determined or relied upon by arguing from words of many significations, we must walk by a clearer light, by such plain sayings and dogmatical propositions of Scripture which evidently teach us our duty, and place our hopes upon that which cannot deceive us, that is, which require obedience, which call upon us to glorify God, and to do good to men, and to keep all God's commandments with diligence and sincerity." Faith is an entire dependence upon the truth, the power, the justice, and the mercy of God; which dependence will certainly incline us to obey him in all things. Therefore, let no man think Jer. Taylor, vi. 271. 2 Jer. Taylor, vi. 271. that he can lead as good a moral life without faith as with it; because he, who hath no faith, cannot, by the strength of his own reason or endeavours, so easily resist temptations as the other who depends upon God's assistance in the overcoming his frailties, and is sure to be rewarded for ever in Heaven for his victory over them.' It is an old and true distinction, that things may be above our reason, without being contrary to it.2 If an ignorant person were told that a loadstone would draw iron at a distance, he might say it was a thing contrary to his reason, and could not believe, before he saw it with his own eyes.2 It would be well if people would not lay so much weight on their own reason in matters of religion, as to think every thing impossible and absurd which they cannot conceive.3 "In well-doing commit yourselves to God as a faithful Creator." There is no committing ourselves to God without well-doing: so that if faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion, and not faith. God gave us none such, Christ purchased none such for us; search the Bible over, and you shall find none such.4 The Bishop of Norwich especially directed his animadversions against that class of the clergy who "lay claim to irresistible influxes of divine grace, oppressed with melancholy, or intoxicated with vanity: such persons mistake the wild conceits of a 1 Swift, Serm. on the Trinity, vii. 432. (W. Scott's ed.) 2 Ibid. 433. 3 Ibid. 435. 4 Jer. Taylor, vi. 279. disordered fancy for the real influence of that spirit which cometh down from the Father of lights, and the genuine source of which is, in all cases, best known by its fruits." As to political sermons, Burke beautifully says', -No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character, to assume what does not belong to them, are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the character they assume. Surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind. The principal advantage of wisdom is its acquainting us with the nature and reason of true religion, ....; the mistake of which causeth so many mischiefs and inconveniences in the world, and exposes so good a name to so much reproach. It consists not in a nice orthodoxy, but in a sincere love of truth; in a hearty approbation of, and compliance with, the doctrines fundamentally good; not in vain flourishes of outward performance, but in an inward good complexion of mind; not in a furious zeal for or against trivial circumstances, but in a conscionable practising the substantial parts of religion.2 ' Reflections, v. 42. (8vo ed. 1803.) 2 Barrow's Sermons. Washington, in his farewell address to the people of the United States, says, that of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it be simply asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in the courts of justice? Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. Machiavel attributes all the Roman greatness to the care Numa took in seasoning the minds of that warlike people with the notions of religion. He adds that one of the first causes of the city's felicity was religion; since it produced good laws, good fortune, and a good conclusion to whatever they undertook; that princes and commonwealths who would keep their governments entire and uncorrupt are, above all things, to preserve religion in veneration, for that, in the whole world, there is not a greater sign of imminent ruin than when God and his worship are despised.' Pietate ac religione, atque hâc unâ sapientiâ, quod deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus, omnes gentes nationesque superavimus.2 1 See D'Avenant's Works, iv. 395. Cicero. Truth is still too often disgraced by dictatorial petulance, and Christianity prejudiced in the minds of many by that overbearing pride, which, of late years, has appeared in too many of its professors; in the effusion of disgusting vanity, and in the assumption of that imperious authority by which the individual, considering himself, as it were, the chief pillar of literature or religion, dealeth out his peremptory decrees with a contemptuous disregard of others, which no distinction of talent can excuse, no pre-eminence of learning justify.' Curious questions may puzzle every man, but they profit no man: avoid them, therefore; for not these, but things practical, are the hinges of immortality." That religion is best which is incorporated with the actions and common traverses of our life.3 Eternal mercy take my trembling soul!4 What better can we do than prostrate fall Father of light and life! thou Good Supreme! 1 See Sermons preached at the Bampton Lectures by Mr. Grey, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester. 2 Jer. Taylor, xii. 187. 4 Tancred and Sigismunda. 3 Ibid. 189. Par. Lost, X. 1086. |