On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
publfc confession , confirmed cither by subscription or a solemn oath , became in most of the Protestant churches an indispensable condition of qualifying their pastors for the ministry ; and , in some , of admitting lay-tnembers to church communion .
But this expedient , intended to prevent division in particular societies , unhappily proved the means of embroiling different churches with one another to a very unedifying extent . The compilers of some of these confessions , in their zeal to stigmatize the heresies of the most obnoxious
sectaries , had made use of terms which reprobated the doctrines of some of their orthodox brethren ; the immediate consequence of which was , that several controversies which had arisen
among the respective leaders of the Reformation at the beginning , and had been partly composed and partly suspended , in regard to their common interest , were now revived with much
heat and bitterness . This led the Catholics to change their method of attack : and they readily took occasion not only to insult the Reformed for their want of unity , but to turn many doctrines to their own account , which particular men had advanced in conformity with their own confessions .
" To swear to the words of no master , " is the translation of a Roman sentiment , which every man of independence of feeling must acknowledge to be congenial to his own mind ; and which has , accordingly , in innumerable instances , been cited in reference
to the various subjects of human thought and action . But there is one topic , above all others , that of Religion , to which this sentiment will apply in its full force ; to which it is of the highest importance' that it should be
applied , from the application of which the highest benefits may be reasonably expected to result , and which can be shewn , by the most conclusive evidence , to be a bounden and indispensable
duty . Our Saviour has expressed precisely the sentiment which , as indicative of liberal and manly feeling on general subjects of literature and human conduct , has ever excited the admiration of the cultivated and
independent mind : 4 * Call no man father upon earth . " ( Matt , xxiii . i > . ) The connexion , it b obvious , limits this command to the
Untitled Article
serious topics of religion ; and we find upon an examination of the passage , as illustrated by Jewish history , that our Saviour ' s words had reference to an existing controversy of that day . It appears to have been neaTly coeval
with our Lord ' s public preaching , * that a schism occurred among the learned men of that nation , and that both parties , actuated by the principle of emulation , were disposed to raise the dignity and elevate the reputation
of their respective adherents . Professing to be expounders of the written law , from which all their instructions ultimately derived their authority , yet such was the superstitious reverence with which these teachers were
regarded , that in many respects their dicta were considered to be of equal , if not of superior , authority to the Sacred Volume itself . They had , we know , a number of traditional maxims , to which they attached the same importance as to the Divine commands , and
which were often allowed to usurp the place of God ' s law , and to prevent its operation upon men ' s minds . The command of Christ , then , is most authoritative . The explanation must be sought for in the circumstances now alluded to , and the spirit of the
prohibition may be thus expressed : Do not you , my disciples , although you may assume the office of teachers of religion , ever suffer yourselves , from vanity and the love of distinction , to receive that reverence for your opinions and instructions which belongs
only to the great Head of the Church ; or , taking the words to apply to Christians in general , as indeed a part of the sentence ( Matt , xxiii . 10 ) clearly does ; Surrender not to any man that right of private judgment to which you have an indisputable claim ; be
not swayed by the opinion or doctrine of the most distinguished earthly instructor , but recollect from whom you have all received the rudiments of religion , and who is appointed by the common Father as the Instructor , the Reformer , and the Saviour of mankind—And it would have been well if
the temperate , sagacious and authoritative suggestions of the Lord Jesus , had received their due measure of attention . For is it possible that , if this * See Sfchleusner ' a Lex , in N . T . on tfae word * P <*/ 3 # .
Untitled Article
130 The Nonconformist . No . XXIX .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1826, page 130, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2546/page/2/
-