Why are not ecclesiastical bodies as rigid and severe against heresies of practice as they are against heresies of speculation? Certainly there are heresies in morality as well as in theology. Councils and synods reduce the doctrines of faith to certain propositional points, and thunder anathemas against all who refuse to subscribe them. They say, "Cursed be he who doth not believe the Divinity of Christ; cursed be he who doth not believe the hypostatical union, and the mystery of the cross; cursed be he who denies the inward operations of grace, and the irresistible efficacy of the Spirit." I wish they would make a few canons against moral heresies. How many are there of this kind among our people! - SAURIN; apud Evans's Sketch, p. 419.

Who authorised either you, or the pseudo-Athanasius, to interpret catholic faith by belief, arising out of the apparent predominance of the grounds for, over those against, the truth of the positions asserted; much more, by belief as a mere passive acquiescence of the understanding? Were all damned who died during the period when totus fere mundus factus est Arianus, as one of the Fathers admits? Alas! alas! how long will it be ere Christians take the plain middle road between intolerance and indifference, by adopting the literal sense and Scriptural import of heresy, that is, wilful error, or belief originating in some perversion of the will; and of heretics (for such there are, nay, even orthodox heretics), that is, men wilfully unconscious of their own wilfulness, in their limpet-like adhesion to a favourite tenet?—S. T. COLERIDGE: Lit. Remains, vol. iv. P. 193.

[Such sentiments are honourable alike to the heads and the hearts of those who penned them. They are the deductions of sound reason, and the outbursts of virtuous indignation, against the dicta of a presumptuous and an impions Infallibility, which decides, by feeling, and prejudice, and passion, what are truth and error, saving faith and damnable opinion. They are indirect testimonies to the value of Christian Unitarianism; for, attached as the witnesses were to Trinitarian doctrines, they clung still more devotedly to the principles of Christian charity; — principles which are surely better promoted by a belief in the doctrine of One Universal Father, who "is Love," than by that of a Trinity of persons in the Godhead, with its accompanying tenets; though, happily for Christendom, the wisdom and goodness which are the legitimate fruits of gospel simplicity have a more powerful influence on the hearts and conduct of many of the professors of reputed orthodoxy, than the barren crudities, the metaphysical absurdities, and infallible dogmas of creeds.]

D

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIANITY SIMPLE, AND EASILY UNDERSTOOD.

SECT. I.-THE TEACHINGS OF THE SAVIOUR DISTINGUISHED FOR THEIR SIMPLICITY, AND DEVOID OF MYSTERY.

He delighted not to discourse of sublime mysteries (although his deep wisdom comprehended them all), nor of subtle speculations and intricate questions, such as might amuse and perplex rather than instruct and profit his auditors, but usually did feed his auditors with the most common and useful truths, and that in the most familiar and intelligible language. DR. BARROW: Works, vol. iii. p. 36.

Of the divine Founder of our religion, it is impossible to peruse the evangelical histories, without observing how little he favoured the vanity of inquisitiveness; how much more rarely he condescended to satisfy curiosity, than to relieve distress; and how much he desired, that his followers should rather excel in goodness than in knowledge. DR. S. JOHNSON: Rambler, No. 81; Works, vol. iii.

Christianity is a religion intended for general use: it appeals to the common feelings of our nature, and never clashes with the unbiassed dictates of our reason. We may therefore rank it among the beneficial tendencies, as well as the peculiar evidences, of such a religion, that the Author of it abstained from all abstruse speculations, &c. DR. PARR: Works, vol. v. p. 507.

There is something most highly interesting and instructive in the manner in which the Saviour adapted his communications to the occasions on which they were to be made, and to the purposes which he endeavoured to effect by them. A modern preacher would have carried the metaphysics of theology all over the villages of Galilee, and would have puzzled the woman of Samaria, or the inquiring ruler, with questions about the nature of the Godhead, or the distinction between inoral and natural inability. But Jesus Christ pressed simple duty. The two great elementary principles of religion are these, the duty of strong benevolent interest in every fellow-being, and of submission and gratitude towards the Supreme. Jesus Christ has said, that these constitute the foundation on which all revealed religion rests.JACOB ABBOTT: The Corner-stone, pp. 164, 305-6.

SECT. II. THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCTRINES CLEARLY REVEALED IN SCRIPTURE, AND ADMITTED BY ALL CHRISTIANS.

The Christian religion is, as GREGORY NAZIANZEN says, simplex et nuda, nisi prave in artem difficillimam converteretur: it is a plain, an easy, a perspicuous truth. DONNE'S Sermons, Serm. vii. p. 71, c; apud Coleridge's Literary Remains, vol. iii. p. 20.

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.-WESTMINSTER DIVINES: Confession of Faith, chap. i. 7.

I know not whence it comes to pass, that men love to make plain things obscure, and like nothing in religion but riddles and mysteries. God, indeed, was pleased to institute a great many ceremonies (and many of them of very obscure signification) in the Jewish worship, to awe their childish minds into a greater veneration for his divine majesty. But, in these last days, God hath sent his own Son into the world to make a plain and easy and perfect revelation of his will, to publish such a religion as may approve itself to our reason, and captivate our affections by its natural charms and beauties. And there cannot be a greater injury to the Christian religion, than to render it obscure and unintelligible; and yet too many there are who despise every thing which they understand, and think nothing a sufficient trial of their faith, but what contradicts the sense and reason of mankind. — DR. WILLIAM SHERLOCK: Discourse concerning the Knowledge of Christ, chap. iv. sect. 2.

The Christian religion, according to my mind, is a very simple thing, intelligible to the meanest capacity, and what, if we are at pains to join practice to knowledge, we may make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with, without turning over many books. It is the distinguishing excellence of this religion, that it is entirely popular, and fitted, both in its doctrines and in its evidences, to all conditions and capacities of reasonable creatures a character which does not belong to any other religious or philosophical system that ever appeared in the world. I wonder to see so many men, eminent both for their piety and for their capacity, labouring to make a mystery of this divine institution. If God vouchsafes to reveal himself to mankind,

can we suppose that he chooses to do so in such a manner as that none but the learned and contemplative can understand him? The generality of mankind can never, in any possible circumstances, have leisure or capacity for learning, or profound contemplation. If, therefore, we make Christianity a mystery, we exclude the greater part of mankind from the knowledge of it; which is directly contrary to the intention of its Author, as is plain from his explicit and reiterated declarations. In a word, I am perfectly convinced, that an intimate acquaintance with the Scripture, particularly the Gospels, is all that is necessary to our accomplishment in true Christian knowledge. DR. BEATTIE: Letters, pp. 67-8.

tance.

Every truth contained in divine revelation, or deducible from it, is not conveyed with equal perspicuity, nor is in itself of equal imporThere are some things so often and so clearly laid down in Scripture, that hardly any who profess the belief of revealed religion pretend to question them. About these there is no controversy in the church. Such are the doctrines of the unity, the spirituality, the natural and moral attributes of God; the creation, preservation, and government of the world by him; the principal events in the life of Jesus Christ, as well as his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; the doctrine of a future judgment, heaven and hell; together with all those moral truths which exhibit the great outlines of our duty to God, our neighbour, and ourselves. In general, it will be found, that what is of most importance to us to be acquainted with and believed, is oftenest and most clearly inculcated; and that, as we find there are degrees in belief as well as in evidence, it is a very natural and just conclusion, that our belief in those points is most rigorously required which are notified to us in Scripture with the clearest evidence. Is... the doctrine of revelation abstruse and metaphysical, and therefore not to be apprehended by any who have not been accustomed to the most profound and abstract researches? By no means. The character which Holy Writ gives of its own doctrine is the very reverse of this. It is pure and plain, such as "enlighteneth the eyes, and maketh wise the simple.". The most essential truths are ever the most perspicuous.- DR. CAMPBELL: Lectures on Syst. Theology and Pulpit Eloquence, pp. 16, 17; 137, 139.

......

Of what is essential to salvation, it is not difficult to judge. The quiet of the conscience requires, that the information on this subject should be clear and precise: whatever is beyond is involved in comparative obscurity, and subject to doubtful disputation. HALL: Terms of Communion; Works, vol. ii. p. 114.

ROBERT

It has been an opinion invariably received in all Protestant countries, that whatever is necessary to be believed is intelligible to all persons who read the Scriptures with no other view than to investigate and embrace the truth. It would be easy to produce a cloud of authorities to this purpose. DR. SYMONDS: Expediency of Revising the Present English Version of the Epistles, &c. p. xv.

It has been repeatedly and most justly noticed, both as matter of admiration and of gratitude, as at once among the strongest evidences and the most valuable characteristics of our Christian faith, that, under the covenant and dispensation of grace, the things most essentially necessary to man's salvation are revealed in the plainest and most unequivocal terms, are made (wheresoever the perversity of the human will does not oppose itself to the teaching of the Spirit of God) clear and intelligible to all men.-J. J. CONYBEARE: Bampton Lect. p. 1.

No one acquainted with Scripture will hesitate to pronounce, that the belief required in the records of our religion is the belief that "Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world"-"the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world."-"That they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," is pronounced to be "eternal life," even in that solemn and affecting address which our Redeemer poured forth to the Father, just before the commencement of his sufferings. Whatsoever controversy may have been stirred about the meaning of these passages, it will, I apprehend, be an extremely difficult task ... to prove, that the fault lies in the ambiguity of the records themselves. BISHOP MALTBY: Illustrations of the Truth of the Christian Religion, pp. 268–9.

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[If, as admitted in this chapter, our Lord was the authoritative Teacher of his own religion, if he avoided all metaphysical speculations on the essence of the Deity, and his instructions were of so simple a nature as to be easily comprehended by the honest and inquiring, whether illiterate or learned, if the essential truths of revelation are so clearly impressed on the pages of the Bible as to be recognised by every Christian church, and if, as we shall find by the acknowledgments in other chapters, the doctrine of the Trinity is totally incomprehensible, and is not expressly declared in Scripture, - then will it follow, that Christianity is not Trinitarianism, and that the mysterious dogmas of so-called orthodoxy, even though they could be elaborately inferred from a combination of passages drawn out of their connection, are not of that importance which they are represented to be in the common formularies of faith.]