Page images
PDF
EPUB

at the bidding of the State, wearing a particular kind of vestment, bowing towards the east, and kneeling at the Eucharist,-can we fail to be struck at the increased solemnity with which that same eternal law of conscience, which bound them in adamantine folds, applies to us, whose differences from the established faith are not in mere matters of outward form and discipline, but wrought into the very texture of our spiritual nature? The national belief, as far as it is expressed in forms and articles, is exactly now what it was then; whereas the grounds on which our ancestors gave up their all to be free from it, are multiplied and magnified to their descendants, to an extent almost incalculable. The English Unitarian then, of the present day, is bound by reasons of only too great cogency to that line of conduct in religious profession which compels him to add one element more to the Sectarianism of his country.

"But in that Sectarianism when divested of the narrow spirit that so often accompanies it, he sees no real evil. He sees in it only a beneficial and an imperative exercise of the law of conscience. He has, however, to ask himself, as by the answer hangs another important duty, what is it that gives him this happy and devout conviction? what is it which makes him feel so differently from other people in these varieties of opinion? what is it that enables him to live in peace and charity with all mankind, as far as their religious professions are concerned? what is it that enables him to embrace, with undisguised goodwill, all mankind, (whatever be the sentiments they profess,) Catholics, Protestants, Dissenters, Church-of-England-men, as brethren ? It is the creed he holds, it is the opinions that he maintains, it is his truth which makes him free. By infusing those sentiments, then, he will infuse that charity into the breasts of his fellow-men: he will not only preserve his own conscience inviolate, and spread what he believes to be a diviner truth, but he will take the only steps that can be taken with success, for plucking out its sting from our Sectarianism. For while other men, he must confess, have hearts as warm and kind in all other matters as himself, why is it that they cannot, on this one topic of religion, feel as kindly and charitably, and with as meek religious trust, that all things work together for good, as he? While other men he sees are as virtuous, as good, as humble, perhaps more so, than himself, why is it that they become all at once so full of denunciation and so dictatorial on topics so solemn and so serious as these? What stands between them, and a tolerant, Christian, trusting spirit of charity, that hopeth all things, and thinketh no evil? It is their creed, their opinions-their opinions which teach them that there is but one way to salvation, and that is their own, that those who differ from them will be damned, and those who lead others to do so are guilty of a hateful moral enormity.

"The professors of the orthodox system of religion never can generally obtain, whatever by a lax tenure of their own principles they may individually, they never can generally obtain a hearty basis for charity, except by ridding themselves of those opinions which shut up their charity. If the duty of the Unitarian to his conscience is clear, then his duty to his fellow-men is clear also; and should he still be slower than might be

wished to vindicate his faith to the world at large, he at least owes an open and consistent profession of it to those who hold it with him.

[ocr errors]

The struggle for religious liberty in this country is not yet completed. The Unitarian has not yet an unmolested and unmulcted liberty from his fellow-citizens to worship God according to his conscience; and though we may appear to be adding to the amount of Sectarianism, by heartily joining in the advocacy of the principles of a particular sect, we are in fact only contending, on special grounds, for that universal liberty of conscience, which can only be achieved by the resolute adherence of individuals to what their own conscience dictates."-pp. 30-33.

THE

CHRISTIAN TEACHER.

ART. I.-ON INSPIRATION AND MIRACLES.*

HAVING read with great interest the Articles in defence of your views respecting miraculous evidence, which appeared in two of your Periodicals, I feel a great desire of addressing you upon that subject. That I should thus look out across the Atlantic for a theological correspondent, to whom I have not the honour of a previous introduction, is the first thing that I have to explain. My reason for this intrusion is simply, that I have found in the above-mentioned papers the very principles which have enabled me to settle, to my entire satisfaction, that most important question of miraculous inspiration and miracles, -two things, which, philosophically examined, constitute but one point of inquiry. But though the true principles of the question are there, I must take the liberty to observe, that I have also discovered the identical feelings and early implanted habits of mind, which, for a long time, kept me from the full and free application of those principles. Aware therefore of the evils which daily and hourly arise in the religious world from the superstitious fear with which the subject before us is generally approached, and unwilling to bring it before the public until I shall have discussed it in private with a person, neither so prejudiced as to be incapable of doing justice to my views, nor already so inclined to them as to be likely to adopt them without a proper opposition, I could not but rejoice when your Review and Letter convinced me that, provided you

* This Article was, originally, with slight alterations, a Letter from Blanco White to an American Clergyman, whose published views had interested him. He expressed the wish that it should appear in this Periodical. No lover of free inquiry can peruse it without interest and instruction, whatever. relation it may hold to his own sentiments. 2 B

VOL. IV. No. 18.-New Series.

should be willing to assist me, I had found the friendly opponent I wanted to give the last trial to my conclusions. It is not (you may be sure) the love of disputation which induces me to address you. Were it not for my deep interest in the moral progress of mankind, the sufferings which theology has brought upon me, combined with those of old age and habitual ill health, would make me turn away with disgust from every subject of theological controversy. But deeply as I detest the theology of Churches, equally deep and sincere are my love and reverence for the spirit of Christianity which that theology incessantly injures or destroys among those who profess themselves Christians. Against that domestic enemy of Christianity I will therefore exert myself to the last, and expose its treachery, even with my latest breath.

(2.) You observe, with great truth, that "It seems to have been taken for granted, (in England,) that this (i.e. theology) was a sphere of thought on which no new light could fall, which was absolved from the great law of advancement that binds all other human affairs."

This is the natural result of making inspiration the basis of that system of logical deductions called Theology. There is no possibility of avoiding such a result wherever the supposition of a verbal communication from the Deity is consistently taken up as the main, if not exclusive source of knowledge, respecting the Deity himself and man's relation to him. There can be no progress for such a pretended science: the theory, which constitutes its very essence, forbids the idea of advance; the figurative language employed by the profound mind of Bacon in the passage quoted in the same page of your Review, plainly shows, that he was fully convinced of this. He calls "Sacred and inspired theology, the Sabbath and port of men's wanderings and labours." And so it must be to the consistent Divine: free, independent thought must necessarily cease as soon as it reaches, not the port but, the stagnant pool of theology: the man who panted incessantly after truth, must now content himself with a Sabbath-day's journey over the few barren furlongs which have been measured out round the centre of inspiration. No, a knowledge which is supposed to begin by supernatural inspiration cannot increase unless the act of inspiration be repeated.

(3.) What most surprises me upon this point is, that men possessing some philosophical powers of thought, should not have traced the almost universal notion of inspiration, in words, to be recorded in a book, to the desire of certain men, to put a stop for ever to all progress in religion. The notion of such

inspiration does not belong exclusively to Jews or Christians: wherever a priesthood has existed (Greece alone was free from an organized body of priests, and, consequently, had no inspired books), inspired words, recorded in various manners, have been the basis of the hierarchical power. Strange! that heaven should, both in inspiration and miracles, have chosen exactly the methods which were best suited to the design of the interested deceivers of mankind. To this, the usual answer might be applied, that it is not for man to judge the ways of Providence, especially when that Providence acts supernaturally. Fortunately, however, for Truth, that theological evasion may soon be made of no avail, for one and the same stamp of human error is found in all the theories of supernaturalism, all have evidently sprung up from the same ignorance of the laws and basis of certainty in regard to supersensuous truth, an ignorance which is inseparable from the early stages of civilization, and which nothing but the light of mental science can remove. Can we then suppose that God fell into the same mistake at the supposed period of his conversations with privileged individuals for the benefit of all future ages?

(4.) The error of looking for the highest degree of certainty in the external senses is natural to man, both in his individual and his social infancy. I am very glad, that, in connection with this important subject, I have not to contend, in regard to you, with a false and mischievous system, which has its source in that ignorance of man concerning himself, which it is the highest and latest triumph of philosophy to dispel. Let us examine a child or a rustic, and we shall find that their highest notion of certainty depends upon seeing and touching. Here, then, is the true source of the theory of inspiration in every part of the world, and under every circumstance and modification. The theory takes it for granted, that if a certain man or a certain number of men, on a certain day and upon a given spot, should see some object and hear a voice as coming from that object which assures them that either the visible object is God, or that God has personally taken his stand within it, both those favourites of the Deity, and all men whom their testimony may reach, will be in possession of the highest proof of the existence and the will of God. I shall only remind you, by the way, of the established belief among the Jews, of the extreme danger which attended such manifestations, and of the certainty of death to all who, without especial privilege, should happen to fix their eyes upon the vision. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of these secondary indications of priestly fraud, but I wish to confine myself to the primary one, because no ingenuity can

« PreviousContinue »