When we consider the ingenuity of the mind of man, in drawing inferences
from propositions to suit his present passions and prejudices, and how
often they are perverted to the most injurious purposes, every person of
reflection must admit that it is of the most serious importance that the
ministers of religion should be extremely guarded in the terms they use,
and not suffer a sentence to escape from their lips without a careful
examination of its bearing and tendency. Nor is it any justification of
such persons, although they may with truth assert that the pernicious
deductions drawn from their declarations were not intended by them, if
such deductions can fairly be made.
These reflections were impressed upon my mind in reading your sermons,
in which are to be found many assertions which appear to me to have a
very injurious tendency; and with whatever views they were uttered, (for
I inquire not into your motives,) seem to strike at the very foundation
of revealed religion.
In your vain attempts to describe the nature of the Almighty, we should
be induced to believe, from some of your expressions, that you had
adopted the opinion of some sects of unbelieving philosophers, that God
is not the governor, but the soul of the universe; not a Being, but a
principle or element, which, although it acts efficaciously, implies the
absence of all personal agency. For you say, "Every child of God _has
the full and complete nature, spirit, and, may I not say, the divinity
of God Almighty_; because there is nothing but divinity in God, and
therefore, if they are partakers of his divine nature,[51] so far they
are partakers of his divinity, according to the portion which he is
pleased to dispense: and he _must_ dispense that portion which will make
them like himself. _For his children are as much like their Almighty
Father, as the children of men are like their fathers._"[52]
Footnote 51:
This is not the doctrine or belief of the Society. They believe in a
divine principle of light and life, wherewith Christ hath enlightened
every man that cometh into the world; but _by this they understand,
not the proper essence and nature of God precisely taken, who is not
divisible into parts and measures, but is a pure and simple being,
void of all composition and division_. See BARCLAY.
Footnote 52:
New York Sermons, page 130.
In speaking of the operation of the great first Cause, you compare it to
the sun: "What, (you say,) would become of us, were it not for the
enlivening beams of the sun? Although it emits so much, yet it never
lessens.[53] Our immortal spirits receive all their light from that
celestial and invisible Sun which is the Creator of all things. _He
emits of his excellency to us, yet he does not lessen, but remains
eternally the same, for all that comes from him will return to
him._"[54]
Footnote 53:
Philadelphia Sermons, page 187.
Footnote 54:
Philadelphia Sermons, page 188.
Consistent with this idea, you totally reject the Scripture declarations
respecting heaven and the kingdom of God, and consider them only as a
condition of the mind, and that we can enjoy them in this state of
being.
In alluding to the account of the apostle's being taken up into the
third heaven, you say, "What is this third heaven but a three-fold
manifestation of the divine presence;"[55] and you ask, "Is heaven of so
little value to us that we put it off till the day of our death?"[56]
"We are led to believe that there is an opportunity to lay up treasure
in heaven; that is, to be in possession of heavenly treasure; or, _to
use a more proper expression, to be in possession of heaven_; because
heaven is a state; it is every where where God is;"[57] "God comes alike
into the hearts of all the children of men, as much in the fornicator,
the thief, and the liar, as in me. But there it is dead, because the
creature is in opposition to God."[58] "Now this leading by the spirit
of God is the same as the kingdom of God, and being subject to the
leaven. They are still one and the same thing; they are not two things;
and as we yield to the leaven it leavens us, and brings us into the
divine nature, so that _we come to partake of the nature of God_."[59]
Footnote 55:
Sermons, page 17.
Footnote 56:
Sermons, page 76.
Footnote 57:
Sermons, page 275-6.--In one of his sermons, (page 292,) the preacher
declares that God never set Jesus Christ above us, "_because if he did
he would be partial_." In this, he sets himself above Christ by
undertaking to correct his erroneous notion of heaven. Christ, in his
Sermon on the Mount, says, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."
This _humble teacher_ says the proper expression would be "to be in
possession of heaven, because heaven is _a state_, and every where,
where God is."
Footnote 58:
Sermons, page 292.
Footnote 59:
Sermons, page 295.
It is an observation of Doctor Paley, that contrivance is a proof of the
personality of the Deity; and we have been accustomed to contemplate
with admiration and awe the stupendous works of creation as emanating
from his wisdom and will. But you, in strict accordance with the notion
to which I have alluded, seem not to admit the argument, or the fact on
which it is founded; for, in speaking of the earth's revolving in its
orbit, you say, "So it has been through all ages past, and so it will
continue through the _eternal_ ages to come."[60] "As the moon receives
all its light from the sun, for itself in the first place, so by that
means it is enabled to emit a part of the power received to the next
orb; and here the heavenly order is kept up--so it has been through all
the previous _eternal ages_, and so it will continue to all future
ages."[61]
Footnote 60:
Sermons, page 188.
Footnote 61:
Sermons, page 193.
Is this Christianity, or is it not a renewal of the old doctrines of
Pagan philosophy? They held that matter is eternal, although they did
not think with you that our system had existed through all eternity.
Plato believed the world to be the work of God out of existing matter;
but it was the general belief of the learned at a period preceding the
coming of Jesus Christ, (as it appears to be your's,) that the soul of
man is an emission of the divine nature, and that all are partakers of
it--and from hence they drew the natural, and indeed unavoidable
inference, that as God is immortal and the soul of man a part of him, it
must necessarily have existed from all eternity.
This idea, so incompatible with God's moral government, completely
excludes the doctrine of rewards and punishments; for if "all that comes
from him must return to him, and is part of his nature," how can the
soul, when absorbed in the divine essence, be rewarded for its virtues
or punished for its vices practised on earth?
So far from being alarmed at this conclusion, you appear to have adopted
both the idea and the inference; for you say, "to be in the image of God
we must partake of his own nature, and have a portion of his own blessed
spirit _to animate the soul and make it immortal, as God is
immortal_."[62]
Footnote 62:
Sermons, page 66.
Hence it must follow, that if the only immortal part in man is the
portion of the blessed Spirit of which he is the partaker, and that this
is a part of the nature of God, it must be bestowed equally on the good
and the wicked, or that no part of the latter can be immortal; and this
extraordinary consequence must result, that _worship in spirit_ is not
the homage of man to his Creator, but the Divinity adoring himself.[63]
Footnote 63:
As much you pull Religion's altars down,
By owning all things God, as owning none;
For should all beings be alike divine,
Of worship, if an object you assign,
God to himself must veneration show,
Must be the object and the votary too;
And their assertions are alike absurd,
Who own no God, or none to be adored.