"Very far gone," is _quam longissime_ in the Latin of the ninth article,--
as far gone as possible, that is, as was possible for _man_ to go; as far
as was compatible with his having any redeemable qualities left in him. To
talk of man's being _utterly_ lost to good, is absurd; for then he would be
a devil at once.
* * * * *
One mistake perpetually made by one of our unhappy parties in religion,--
and with a pernicious tendency to Antinomianism,--is to confound _sin_ with
_sins_. To tell a modest girl, the watchful nurse of an aged parent, that
she is full of _sins_ against God, is monstrous, and as shocking to reason
as it is unwarrantable by Scripture. But to tell her that she, and all men
and women, are of a sinful nature, and that, without Christ's redeeming
love and God's grace, she cannot be emancipated from its dominion, is true
and proper.[1]
[Footnote 1:
In a marginal scrap Mr. C. wrote:--"What are the essential doctrines of our
religion, if not sin and original sin, as the necessitating occasion, and
the redemption of sinners by the Incarnate Word as the substance of the
Christian dispensation? And can these be intelligently believed without
knowledge and steadfast meditation. By the unlearned, they may be worthily
received, but not by the unthinking and self-ignorant, Christian."--ED.]
* * * * *
No article of faith can be truly and duly preached without necessarily and
simultaneously infusing a deep sense of the indispensableness of a holy
life.
* * * * *
How pregnant with instruction, and with knowledge of all sorts, are the
sermons of our old divines! in this respect, as in so many others, how
different from the major part of modern discourses!
* * * * *
Every attempt, in a sermon, to cause emotion, except as the consequence of
an impression made on the reason, or the understanding, or the will, I hold
to be fanatical and sectarian.
* * * * *
No doubt preaching, in the proper sense of the word, is more effective than
reading; and, therefore, I would not prohibit it, but leave a liberty to
the clergyman who feels himself able to accomplish it. But, as things now
are, I am quite sure I prefer going to church to a pastor who reads his
discourse: for I never yet heard more than one preacher without book, who
did not forget his argument in three minutes' time; and fall into vague and
unprofitable declamation, and, generally, very coarse declamation too.
These preachers never progress; they eddy round and round. Sterility of
mind follows their ministry.
_January_ 20. 1833.