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[For the Christian Index.]
r J. L. R.S REPLY TO J. E. I).
“ License they euan. when they cry Liberty—Milton.
Having just returned home, I find that J. E. D. has:
honored me and my little hook, with some additional
strictures. 1 am riot aware that he has changed his!
posififKi, or'brought any new arguments to its support,
uiucss it be the substitution of.* 1 undoubted evidence!
of persona! piety” —as the condition of baptism, and l
subsequent admission to ciAapch fellowship, in placf of;
“ a single, profession of faith in Christ.” To reply toj
this writer, would be merely to repeat myse|f, since he
lias only •reoccupied the position from vhie’h fie was!
driven in my last. This position is marjSfestty income
jmtible with our distinct denominational existence, as!
Baptists. He is unwilling to abandon it: but his de-1
fence only betrays his weakness. He threw around
him ffie entrenchments of a Cerro Goirdo; but the;
simple scriptural truth has routed him “ horse, foot and |
dragoons.”
It will be remembered by our readers, that the ob
jection urged against the position taken in “ The
Kingdom of Christ,” embraced two distinct points:
it was new and it was unscriptural. It was, therefore,
incumbent on me to show that it was neither. I have
proved that it accords with the established usage of the
denomination. Yet J. E. 1). now asks “ What has
this to do with the question ?” He planted his battery
against me, and played it off with great spirit; but
since I have captured it, and turned the guns against
iiis own hosts, he cries out in despair, “What has this
to do, &c. ?”
1 am willing, however, to waive all incidental mat
ters and come to the ‘main point. But here it is ne
cessary to expose a fallacy which pervades the entire
substance of this writer’s strictures. He assumes that!
a concise exhibition of doctrine supersedes the scrip-1
lures as a rule of faith and practice, and leaves us no
alternative but a choice between the dictates of unin
spired men, and the directions of the Holy Spirit.
But when it is remembered that this concise exhibition
grows out of the Scriptures, and is based upon them,
the fallacy is obvious. When the Reformers asserted
the sufficiency of the Scriptures, as a rule of faith and,
practice, they did not design to contrast them with
creeds and confessions, but with the traditions of an
apostate church. The bible (they affirmed) is suffi
cient; contains every thing necessary to salvation,
and needs not the help of human traditions. They
drew their confessions of faith from the bible, and
published them to the world, as embodying their views
of scriptural truth, without suspecting, for a moment,j
that by such a step, they renounced the cardinal princi
ple of the Reformation, the sufficiency of the Scrip
tures. It is thus with all Protestants, except the small
heretical parties mentioned in my last. Among the
articles embraced in this very obnoxious “exhibition,”
is found “ the divine inspiration of the Old and New
Testament, as the complete and infallible rule of faith
anJ practice.” The Scriptures are complete because
they contain the whole truth ; they are infallible, be
cause they contain nothing but the truth. From them,
and from them alone, without the aid of human tradi
tion, a church is to derive its faith and its practice.
The church may give publicity to its views, either
orally or by a written document. In neither case,
does*it entrench upon the sufficiency of the Scriptures.
The theory of J. E. D. under the pretext of exalting
the Scriptures, really degrades them, making them ut
terly useless. Admitting their sufficiency, he withholds
Tli E TRUTH IN ‘LOVE.
PENEIELI), GriE, % ml
’from a church the right to use them. Taking his con
cessions and his reservations tog Alter, the duty oi a
Ichurch is as anomalous as it is mpracticable. It is
j bound to maintain sound doctriru , but it is precluded
from r I gjafl i what jg somtd doc tine. It is bound to
- exclude heresy,” but dareSrßfrlAc a “concise exhi
bition at the door of the churi.fc’Sia term of member
ship, so as to exclude all until they can sensibly cun
form.” “ There is a vast differ rice” between these
things. If he will point out. this vast difference. and
j tell us how we can exclude heresy excluding
;:he heretic, or keep heresy out of church otherwise
dhnn by preventing its coming in at the door, his re
futation for acuteness will pass into a proverb.
The theory, which is here cornoated, is pregnant
with consequences which it is impossible to contem
! plate without the most serious apprehensions. It. re
cognizes an “undoubted evidence’of personal piety”
which excludes a belief of the doctrines of Christiani
ty. To what extent these doctrines may lie rejected,
or how many of them are essential so the evidence de
manded, we are not informed. Believing them all
/it— a church cannot profess them without believing
them,) we assume a most tearful responsibility, when
we attempt to determine for guilty man, what portion
of tfiem he may reject and yet gjye undoubted evi
dence of piety. ‘■ It would he an Unwarrantable as
sumption to suppose that while the Scriptures are suf
ficiently explicit tv. ill respect to the ordinances, they
are mysterious and inexplicable to the enquirer with|
respect to doctrines, and therefore while we demand
an implicit submission to the former, tolerate or sanc
tio'u a partial rejection of the latter. The bible is aj
sufficie.nt'rule oi’ faith and practice. It is the solemn!
efuty of tfie church to preserve it entire, and sustain its
supreme authority ; neither adding to it, nor taking
from it f honoring it in all its requisitions, and enjoin
ing the same duty upon others. If church proves
! recreant to this high and solemn. jlv hu- will assume
it ? No other authority on earth is empowered by the
Head of the Church to protect its interests. Thel
church is the appointed guardian of its own purity.;
To throw open her doors to such as deny, or “cannot;
conform to,” (for the distinction which is made by this
writer is too trivial to be noticed,) doctrines, which she
holds as taught and sanctioned by the Holy Ghost, is
jto trample upon her divine constitution, renounce her
chartered rights, violate her sacred responsibility, and
surrender the ark of God to his enemies. If these
doctrines are not sanctioned by the Scriptures, letl
them he forever expunged from her acknowledged
creed ; -if they are, let her maintain them, “ though the
heavens fall,” or blush to own herself “ the pillar and
ground of the truth.”
The doctrines of the word of God furnish, by means
of the reception with which they meet in different in
dividuals, the surest test of human character. Eman
ating from an infinitely Holy Being, who claims the
prerogatives of a sovereign in his vast empire, and ad
dressed to his rebellious subjects, burdened with the
just recompense of their crimes, they make a tender ofl
pardon and reconciliation, upon such terms as, if ac
cepted, sinks the rebel into the depths of humiliation!
land shame. It is this that excites such hostility toj
them in the carnal heart. Many who applaud the lof
ty morality of the gospel, and admire its expressive
symbols turn away with disgust and enmity at the an
nouncement of its distinguishing doctrines. To he as
! clay in the hand of the potter, and receive salvation as
the unpurchased and unmerited gii{ of divine grace, is
the last and most difficult step intlje descent of human
j pride when it casts away forever, jjts robe of self-right
;eousness. Hence it is the uniformity of faith, rather
than of practice, which has constituted the type of
isimilarity, and the bond of union, among those who
have been taught by the spirit of God. In regard to
forms and ceremonies, good men may differ ; hut the
doctrines of grace, when properly apprehended, have
always evoked an answering echo in the universal
consciousness of the “ body of Christ.”
To exalt the ordinances of the gospel above its doc
trines is to mistake the shadow for the substance. It
is these latter which impart life and meaning to the
former. They are “ the living spirits in the wheels”
which by their abiding presence, make them the teach
ers of sublime truth. Apart from the doctrines to
which they stand related, the ordinances of the gospel
sink to the level of a carnal washing and a common
meal. Associated with them, they give utterance to
iNF/W SERIESOL. XV .-NO. 36.
an eloquence more powerful than was ever embodied
in human language.
The connexion of sound doctrine with the birth of
piety is not more apparent than its connexion with its
subsequent growth. Mere pious fervor is apt to de
generate into enthusiasm and fanaticism. The doc
trines of the gospel furnish a necessary and a salutary
check, enlightens the understanding, and thus direct
the movements of the heart. Crude and unindoctrin
ated religious feeling will either run riot in enthusiasm,
or relapse into infidelity. The mystic and the skeptic
occupy opposite extremes, between which vital ortho
doxy stands in secure and healthful stability.
To require us to show, in the New Testament, the
ipsissima verba, the identical expressions which con
stitute a “concise exhibition of Christian doctrine,” is
sucli egregious trifling as scarcely to merit notice. If
it were given us in the New Testament, the necessity
for framing it would not exist. But it lias not seemed
best to the Holy Ghost to teach us the doctrines of the
gospel in this concise and systematic form. They are
to he learned only by comparing scripture with scrip
ture. Even the narrative of the Saviour’s life is giv
en in detached portions by four different writers.—
Some important principles of religious practice, uni
versally acknowledged by us, are derived, not from
any express injunction, but from the general scope of
the scriptures and the genius of Christianity. Such,
for instance, are family worship and close communion.
I lay down my pen to attend a protracted meeting,
a field of labor more congenial to my feelings, hut not
more important to the interests of truth, and must
therefore leave .1. E. D. to his self-imposed silence. —
j When he bre; ks it, to “weep over the desolations of
Zion,” in consequence of the maintenance of sound
doctrine, I promise to furnish him with extracts from
the Campbellite and Unitarian hooks in my possession,
which will form a jeremiad, lugubrious enough to satis
fy his highest aspirations, or to appease the shades of
an Anus, k JSocinUS or and lYiestfy, J. L. it.
<
THE DOWNWARD COURSE OP SIN.
1. Men enter and initiate themselves in vicious practices
by smaller sins. Heinous sins are too alarming for the con
science of a young sinner; and therefore he only ventures
upon such as are smaller, at first. Every particular kind
of vice creeps in, in this gradual manner.
2. Having once begun in the way of sin, he ventures upon
something greater and more, daring. His courage grows with
j his experience. Now, sins of a deeper die do not look so
frightful as before. Custom makes every thing familiar.—
No person who once breaks over the limits of a clear con
science knows where he shall stop.
3. Open sins soon throw a man into the hands of ungodly
companions. Open sins determine his character, and give
him a place with the ungodly. He shuns the society of
[good men, because their presence is a restraint, and their ex
ample a reproof to him. There are none with whom he can
.associate hut the ungodly.
4. In the next stage, the sinner begins to feel the force of
habit and inveterate custom; he becomes rooted and settled in
an evil way. Those who have been long habituated to any
sin, how hopeless is their reform ! One single act of sin
seems nothing; but one after another imperceptibly strength
en the disposition, and enslaves the unhappy criminal beyond
the hope of recovery.
5. The next step in a sinner’s course is to lose the. sense
of shame, and sin boldly and openly. So long as shame re
mains, it is a great drawback. But it is an evidence of an
i uncommon height of impiety when natural shame is gone.
| 6. Another stage in the sinner’s progress is to harden him
self so far as to sin without remorse of conscience. The fre
quent repetition of sin stupifies the conscience. They, us
it were, weary it out, and drive it to despair. It ceases all
its reproofs, and, like a frequently discouraged friend, suf
fers the infatuated sinner to take his course. And hence,
7. Hardened sinners often come to boast and glory ‘u their
wickedness. It is something to bo beyond shame; but it is
still more to glory in wickedness, and esteem it honorable.
Glorious ambition indeed!
8. Not content with being wicked themselves, they vse all
their arts and influence to make others wicked also. They
are zealous in sinning, and industrious in the promotion of
the infernal cause. They extinguish the fear of God in
others, and laugh down their own conscientious scruples.—
And now,
! 9. To close the scene, those who have thus far hardened
themselves, are given up of Cod to judicial blindness of mind
j and hardness of heart. They arc marked out as vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction. This is the consequence of their
obstinacy. They are devoted to the judgment they deserve.
Reader ? view it with terror. — Dr. Witherspoon.