Christ came to put an end to hereditary faith, to make each man's belief original and independent with himself, directly drawn from the only source of Christian doctrine and practice. Nothing is more certain than that religion is a subject upon which all persons are under obligations the most solemn to deliberate, choose, and act for themselves. Freedom of inquiry is a high privilege, as safe for the masses as for individuals; and this boon Christ procured for all our race. He never designed that a few should lead, and that the multitude should be compelled to follow in their steps. But what are the spirit and language of many professed teachers of Christianity ? "Out of my creed there is no orthodoxy: out of my church there is no salvation." But, fortunately, the days of such priestly arrogance are numbered. ...... It is the divine prerogative of truth to restore the original sovereignty of the best powers, and the symmetrical development of all. In this matter, there is no question of more or less; freedom exists, or it does not; and it is obvious that the liberty of a rational being consists precisely in the free use of the faculties inherent in his nature, and of all his faculties or powers, without exception or extravagance. . . . Mental freedom is the only true freedom, the foundation of all other liberty, without which an immortal creature is a degraded slave, and not the less a vassal because his chains may chance to be made of gold. "For what is freedom but the unfettered use Of all the powers which God for use hath given?' The intellectual power of man proves that there must be an object suitable for its exercise, and demanding its study. This object is truth, the knowledge of something real, and consists in the exact understanding of the highest realities that exist. This is the grand boon proffered to us here and in a more exalted life. —E. L. MAGOON: Republican Christianity, pp. 244, 355–6. In this and the other sections of the present chapter, we should have been glad to make a few extracts from "Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions, and on the Pursuit of Truth, by SAMUEL BAILEY;" but, uncertain as to the theological standing of the author, we can only recommend to the attentive perusal of the reader the most beautiful and interesting productions that have perhaps ever been written on these subjects. They are discussed from a philosophical point of view; but the sentiments maintained seem to harmonize with the most enlarged views of the gospel, and are admirably calculated to produce feelings of amity between all the professing disciples of Jesus Christ. SECT. III. DISPOSITIONS AND MEANS REQUISITE IN THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. Imagination's airy wing repress; Lock up thy senses; let no passion stir; EDWARD YOUNG. Diligence and care in obtaining the best guides and the most convenient assistances, prayer, and modesty of spirit, simplicity of purposes and intentions, humility and aptness to learn, and a peaceable disposition, are necessary to finding out truths, because they are parts of good life, without which our truths will do us little advantage, and our errors have no excuse. But with these dispositions, as he is sure to find out all that is necessary, so what truth he inculpably misses of he is sure is therefore not necessary, because he could not find it when he did his best and his most innocent endeavors. JEREMY TAYLOR: Liberty of Prophesying, sect. xii. 6; in Works, vol. vii. p. 116. 1. [In prosecuting your inquiries] Begin at the greatest, most evident, certain and necessary truths, and so proceed orderly to the knowledge of the less by the help of these. If you begin at those truths which spring out of greater common truths, and know not the premises while you plead for the conclusion, you abuse your reason, and lose the truth and your labor both. 2. The two first things which you are to learn are what man is and what God is.—3. Having soundly understood the principles of religion, try all the subsequent truths thereby, and receive nothing as truth that is certainly inconsistent with any of these principles. 4. Believe nothing which certainly contradicteth the end of all religion. If it be a natural or necessary tendency to ungodliness, against the love of God, or against a holy and heavenly mind and conversation, it cannot be truth, whatever it pretend.5. Be sure to distinguish well betwixt revealed and unrevealed things. — 6. Be a careful and accurate, though not a vain, distinguisher ; and suffer not ambiguity and confusion to deceive you. It is not only in many words, but in one word or syllable, that so much ambiguity and confusion may be contained as may make a long dispute to be but a vain and ridiculous wrangling. -- 7. Therefore be specially suspicious of metaphors, as being all but ambiguities till an explication hath fixed or determined the sense. 13. Plead not uncertainties against certainties, but make certain points the measure to try the uncertain by. 14. Plead not the darker texts of Scripture against those that are more plain and clear, nor a few texts against many that are as plain; for that which is interpreted against the most plain and frequent expressions of the same Scripture is certainly misinterpreted. 21. In controversies which depend most upon skill in the languages, philosophy, or other parts of common learning, prefer the judgment of a few that are the most learned in those matters, before the judgment of the most ancient, or the most godly, or of the greatest numbers, even whole churches, that are unlearned. Every man is most to be regarded in the matters which he is best acquainted with. — 22. In controversies of great difficulty where divines themselves are disagreed, and a clear and piercing wit is necessary, regard more the judgment of a few acute, judicious, well-studied divines that are well versed in those controversies, than of a multitude of dull and common wits that think to carry it by the reputation of their number.-23. In all contentions, hold close to that which all sides are agreed on. 24. Take nothing as necessary to salvation in point of faith, which the universal church in every age since Christ did not receive. 25. Be not borne down by the censoriousness of any to overrun your own understanding and the truth, and to comply with them in their errors and extremes. 26. Doubt not of well-proved truths, for every difficulty that appeareth against them. RICHARD BAXTER: Christian Directory; in Practical Works, vol. v. pp. 139–50. These directions from BAXTER have been epitomized; and others, less appropriate, entirely omitted. But it would scarcely be doing justice to the piety of this great man to withhold an excellent passage which occurs in vol. viii. pp. 29, 30: "Come to the word [the Scripture] in meekness and humility, with a teachable frame of spirit, and a willingness to know the truth, and a resolution to stand to it, and yield to what shall be revealed to you; and beg of God to show you his will, and lead you into the truth; and you will find that he will be found of them that ask him." He that will advance any thing in the finding out of truth must bring to it that traveller's indifference which the heathen so long since recommended to the world. He must not desire it should lie on the one side rather than the other, lest his desire that it should, prompt him, without just reason, to believe that it does. And so in religion too: he that will make a right judgment, what to believe or what to practise, must first throw off all prejudice in favor of his own opinion, or against any others; and resolve never to be so tied up to any point or party as not to be at all times ready impartially to examine whatsoever can reasonably be objected against either. - ARCHBISHOP WAKE: Sermons and Discourses, pp. 17, 18. Whatever warmth or heat any may show, it will still remain an eternal truth, that a calm temper of mind, and a meek and charitable disposition of soul, are qualifications absolutely necessary either to discover truth ourselves, or to judge right of the sentiments and opinions of others. That blind and furious transport of mind which we commonly term zeal is of no manner of use, either for the one or the other of these purposes, but, on the contrary, very prejudicial in all serious inquiries, especially those of religious controversies. - Abridged from LE CLERC: Abstract of Dr. Clarke's Polemical Writings, p. 113; Lond. 1713. Let us divest ourselves of a party spirit. Let us never determine an opinion by its agreement or disagreement with what our masters, our parents, or our teachers have inculcated, but by its conformity or contrariety to the doctrine of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Let us never receive or reject a maxim because it favors or opposes our passions, but as it agrees with or opposes the laws of that tribunal, the bases of which are justice and truth. Let us be fully convinced that our chief study should be to know what God determines, and to make his commands the only rules of our knowledge and practice. . . . . Truth requires that we should sacrifice precipitancy of judgment. Few people are capable of this sacrifice: indeed, there are but few who do not consider suspension of judgment as a weakness, although it is one of the noblest efforts of genius and capacity. In regard to religion, people usually make a scruple of conscience of suspending their judgments; yet, in our opinion, a Christian is so much the more obliged to do this, by how much more the truths of the gospel surpass in sublimity and importance all the objects of human science. I forgive this folly in a man educated in superstition, who is threatened with eternal damnation, if he reverence certain doctrines, which not only he has not examined, but which he is forbidden to examine under the same penalty. But that men of learning and piety should imagine they have obtained a signal victory over infidelity, and have accredited religion, when, by the help of some terrific declamations, they have extorted a catechumen's consent, this is what we could have scarcely believed, had we not seen numberless examples of it. A truth received without proof is, in regard to us, a kind of falsehood. Yea, a truth received without evidence is a never-failing source of many errors, because a truth received without evidence is founded, in regard to us, only on false principles. We must, then, suspend our judgments, whatever inclination we may naturally have to determine at once, in order to save the attention and labor which a more ample discussion of truth would require. — Abridged from JAMES SAURIN: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 44–5, 136. The Scriptures direct us to inquire into the foundation of the doctrines proposed to our acceptance; and indeed, without the exercise of our reason, I know not how we could understand or adopt the plainest doctrines of Christianity. But it is of much importance to have right dispositions of mind at the time of our inquiry. Such are humility, modesty, docility, and a sincere desire to improve. VICESIMUS KNOX: Sermons; in Works, vol. vi. p. 120. We ought to have an honest desire after light; and, if we have the desire, it will not remain unproductive. . . . We ought to have a habit of prayer conjoined with a habit of inquiry; and to this more will be given.... It is through the avenues of a desirous heart and of an exercised understanding, and of sustained attention, and of faculties in quest of truth, and laboring after the possession of it, that God sends into the mind his promised manifestations. . . . He who without prayer looks confidently forward to success as the fruit of his own investigations is not walking humbly with God. — DR. THOMAS CHALMERS : Sermons on the Depravity of Human Nature; in Select Works, vol. iv. pp. 27–8. The Scriptures themselves will serve to explain their own meaning in the most essential points, if studied, under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit, with an humble, patient, diligent, and candid mind. And such a mind, even without extensive learning or great ability, will be more enlightened by them than the most learned or the most ingenious, if led away by conceited and presumptuous fancies, and given up to indolent prejudice, or blinded by spiritual pride, or the spirit of party. ARCHBISHOP WHATELY: Sermons on Various Subjects, pp. 50-1. Inquiry in theology, as in every thing else, to be fruitful and instructive, must be undogmatic, — must strive, apart from hypothesis and all later superpositions, to ascend to the truth, as it appears in its original sources, or in its successive forms throughout the history of the church. To have recourse either to the Bible itself, or the writings of the Fathers, in a different spirit, and to seek in them, not |