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of faitbv regulate his faith by it , and consequently believe aright , without much regarding what other men either will do , or have done f It is true , indeed , there is a necessity , that if God will have his word believed , he by his Providence must take order , that
either by succession of men ^ or by some other means , natural or supernatural , it be preserved and delivered , and sufficiently notified
to be his word ; but that this should be done by a succession of men that hold no error against it , certainly there is no more necessity , than that it should be done by a succession of men that
commit no sin against it . For if men may preserve the records of a law , and yet transgress it , cer , tainly they may also preserve directions for their faitb , and yet not follow them . I doubt not but
lawyers at the bar'do find by frequent experience , that many men preserve and produce evidences , which being examined , oft-times make against themselves . This they do ignorantly , it being in
their power to suppress , or perhaps to alter them . And why then should any man conceive it strange , that am erroneous and corrupted church should preserve and deliver the scriptures
uncornipted , when indeed , for many reasons which 1 have formerly alleged , it was impossible for them to corrupt them ? Seeing therefore this is all the necessity that ls pretended of a perpetual succession of men orthodox in all
points , certainly there is no necessity at all of any such , neither ^ n the want of it prove any man or church heretical .
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Chillingworth . 749
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No . XXXIV , Analogy between Justice and Charity . Now , besides moral prudence * nay , before the moralist can make any use thereof , or exerci ^ it in the work of any virtue , there is required another grneial virtue , which t&e philosopher calls universal justice , which is nothing else but a sobriety and temper in the affections , whereby they are subdued and captived unto
wellinformed reason : so that what , soever it commands to be done , there is no rebellion ^ no unwillingness in the passions , but they proceed readily to execution , though it be never so distasteful to sense . Now , how well does
this express the nature of charity ? For , what else is love , but a sweet breathing of the Holy Spirit upon our passions , whereby the Holy Ghost does , as it did in the beginning of Genesis , incubare aquis ,
move by a cherishing , quieting virtue , upon the sea of our passions ? Did not the same spirit come to Elijah in a soft whisper ? He walks not , in turbine ^ in a strong wind , to raise a tempest in our affections . Now . when
we have received this ipsissimam Dei particularity ( as Plato said of the soul ) this shred or portion of the Holy Spirit , which is charity , how evenly and temperately do we behave ourselves to God , and all the world besides ? How
willingly and obediently do we submit ourselves to the performance of whatsoever faith , out of God ' s word , doth injoin us ? But yet the analogy and proportion be ~ tween these two is more evident and observable : That universal justice is no particular singular
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1814, page 749, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2447/page/21/
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