“Government in masters, as well as in fathers, is an appointment of God,
though differing in circumstances; and it is therefore to be honoured.
‘Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own masters
worthy of all honour;’ a direction which enjoins both respectful
thoughts and humility and propriety of external demeanour towards them.
_Obedience_ to their commands in all things lawful is next enforced;
which obedience is to be grounded on principle, on ‘singleness of heart
as unto Christ;’ thus serving a master with the same sincerity, the same
desire to do the appointed work well, as is required of us by Christ.
This service is also to be _cheerful_, and not wrung out merely by a
sense of duty; ‘not with eye-service as men-pleasers;’ not having
respect simply to the approbation of the master, but ‘as the servant of
Christ,’ making profession of his religion, ‘doing the will of God,’ in
this branch of duty, ‘from the heart,’ with alacrity and good feeling.
The duties of servants, stated in these brief precepts, might easily be
shown to comprehend every particular which can be justly required of
persons in this station; and the whole is enforced by a sanction which
could have no place but in a revelation from God,—‘Knowing that
whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the
Lord, whether he be bond or free.’ _Eph._ vi. 5. In other words, even
the common duties of servants, when faithfully, cheerfully, and piously
performed, are by Christianity made rewardable actions: ‘Of the Lord ye
shall receive a reward.’
“The duties of servants and masters are, however, strictly reciprocal.
Hence, the apostle continues his injunctions as to the right discharge
of these relations, by saying, immediately after he had prescribed the
conduct of servants, ‘And ye masters, do the _same things_ unto them;’
that is, act towards them upon the same equitable, conscientious, and
benevolent principles as you exact from them. He then grounds his rules,
as to masters, upon the great and influential principle, ‘knowing that
your Master is in heaven;’ that you are under authority, and are
accountable to him for your conduct to your servants. Thus masters are
put under the eye of God, who not only maintains their authority, when
properly exercised, by making their servants accountable for any
contempt of it, and for every other failure of duty, but holds the
master also himself responsible for its just and mild exercise. A solemn
and religious aspect is thus at once given to a relation which by many
is considered as one merely of interest.”
“All the distinctions of good and evil refer to some principle above
ourselves; for, were there no Supreme Governor and Judge to reward and
punish, the very notions of good and evil would vanish away.” _Ellis on
Divine Things._
The qualities good and evil can only exist in the mind as they are
measured by a supreme law. “If we deny the existence of a Divine law
obligatory on men, we must deny that the world is under Divine
government, for a government without rule or law is a solecism.”
_Watson’s Theo. Inst._ vol. i. p. 8.
Divine laws must be the subject of revelation. The law of a visible
power cannot be known without some indications, much less the will of an
invisible power, and that, too, of an order of existence so far above
our own that even its mode is beyond our comprehension. Very true, the
providence of God towards any particular course of conduct may be taken
as the revelation of his will thus far, but, by no means, preclude the
necessity of a more direct revelation, until man shall be able to boast
that he comprehends the entire works of Jehovah.
The difference between the Christian and the mere theist is, while the
latter admits that a revelation of the will of God is or has been made
by significant actions, he contends _that_ is a _sufficient revelation_
of the laws of God for the guidance of man. “They who never heard of any
external revelation, yet if they knew from the nature of things what is
fit for them to do, they know all that God can or will require of them.”
_Christianity as Old as Creation_, p. 233.
“By employing our reason to collect the will of God from the fund of our
nature, physical and moral, we may acquire not only a particular
knowledge of those laws, which are deducible from them, but a general
knowledge of the manner in which God is pleased to exercise his supreme
powers in this system.” _Bolingbroke’s Works_, vol. v. p. 100.
“But they who believe the holy Scriptures contain a revelation of God’s
will, do not deny that indications of his will have been made by
_actions_; but they contend that they are in themselves imperfect and
insufficient, and that they were not designed to supersede a direct
revelation. They also hold, that a direct communication of the Divine
will was made to the progenitors of the human race, which received
additions at subsequent periods, and that the whole was at length
embraced in the book called, by way of eminence, the Bible.” _Watson’s
Theo. Inst._ vol. i. p. 10.
Faith “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.” _Heb._ xi. 1.
As an instance of revelation, we present _Lev._ xxv. 1, and 44, 45, 46.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying: Both thy bondmen
and bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are
round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.”
“Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you,
of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which
they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.”
“And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you,
to inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bondmen for ever;
but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule over
one another with rigour.”
Here is direct revelation, and faith gives us evidence of the truth of
its being of Divine origin.
Mr. Barnes proposes, by human reason, without the aid of revelation and
faith, to determine what is the will of God on the subject of slavery;
and it suggests the inquiry, How extensive must be the intellectual
power of him who can reason with God? “For he is not a man, as I am,
that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment;
neither is any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us
both.” _Job_ ix. 32, 33.
We frankly acknowledge, that, in the investigation of this subject, we
shall consider the Divine authority of those writings, which are
received by Christians as a revelation of infallible truth, as so
established; and, with all simplicity of mind, examine their contents,
and collect from them the information they profess to contain, and
concerning which information it had become necessary that the world
should be experimentally instructed.
But the passage quoted from Mr. Barnes gives us a stronger suspicion of
his want of orthodoxy and Christian principle from its connection with
what he says, page 310:
“If the religion of Christ allows such a license” (to hold slaves) “from
such precepts as these, the New Testament would be the greatest curse
ever inflicted on our race.”
The fact is, little can be known of God or his law except by faith and
revelation. Beings whose mental powers are not infinite can never arrive
at a knowledge of all things, nor can we know any thing fully, only in
proportion as we comprehend the laws influencing it. In conformity to
the present limited state of our knowledge, we can only say, that we
arrive at some little, by three distinct means: the senses open the door
to a superficial perception of things; the mental powers to their
further examination; while faith gives us a view of the superintending
control of One Almighty God.
In the proportion our senses are defective, our mental powers deficient,
and our faith inactive or awry,—our knowledge will be scanty. The result
of all knowledge is the perception of truth. Under the head of the
mental powers, philosophers tell us our knowledge is acquired by three
methods: intuition, demonstration, and analogy. By intuition they mean
when the mind perceives a _certainty_ in a proposition where the
relation is obvious, as it is obvious that the whole is greater than a
part; and such propositions they call axioms.
When the relation of things is not thus obvious, that is, when the
proposition involves the _determination_ of the relation between two or
more things whose relations are not intuitively perceived, the mind may
sometimes come to a certainty, concerning the relation, by the
interposition of a chain of axioms; that is, of propositions where the
relations are intuitively perceived. This is called demonstration.
In all such cases, the mind would perceive the relation, and come to a
certainty intuitively, if adequately cultivated and enlarged; or, in
other words, all propositions that now, to us, require demonstration,
would, to such a cultivation, become mere axioms: consequently, now,
where one man sees a mere axiom, another requires demonstration.
But the great mass of our ideas are too imperfect or too complicated to
admit of intuitive conclusions; consequently, as to them, we can never
arrive at demonstration. Here we substitute facts; and reason, that, as
heretofore one certain fact has accompanied another certain fact, so it
will be hereafter. This is what the philosophers call analogy. Analogy
is thus founded on experience, and is, therefore, far less perfect than
intuition or demonstration. That gravitation will always continue is
analogical; we do not know it intuitively; nor can we demonstrate it.
Analogical propositions are, therefore, to us mere probabilities.
But our knowledge has cognizance of ideas only. These ideas we
substitute for the things they represent, in which there is a liability
to err. Thus a compound idea is an assemblage of the properties of a
thing, and may be incomplete and inadequate; wholly different from any
quality in the thing itself. What is our idea of spirit, colour, joy?
Yet we may conceive an intelligence so extended as to admit that even
analogical problems should become intuitive: with God every thing is
intuitively known. But even intuitive propositions sometimes reach
beyond our comprehension. Example—a line of infinite length can have no
end: therefore, the half of an infinite line would be a line also of
infinite length. But all lines of infinite length are of equal length;
therefore, the half of an infinite line is equal to the whole. Such
fallacies prove that human reason is quite limited and liable to err:
and hence the importance of faith in God, in the steadfastness of his
laws, and the certainty of their operations. “And Jesus answering said
unto them, have faith in God.” _Mark_ xi. 22. “And when they were come,
and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had
done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the
Gentiles.” _Acts_ xiv. 27. “So, then, faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God.” _Romans_ x. 17. That is, by revelation.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.” _Heb._ xi. 1. “But without faith it is impossible to please
God; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is
the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” _Heb._ xi. 6. “Even so
faith, if it hath not works, is dead.” _James_ ii. 17. “And he said, I
will hide my face from them, I will see what their end _shall be_; for
they _are_ a very froward generation, children in whom there is no
faith.” _Deut._ xxxii. 20. To which add _Romans_ xii. 3.
These passages seem to imply an unchangeable reliance on faith and
revelation for all knowledge of God, his laws, and our peace hereafter;
and we do feel the most heartfelt regret to see those who claim to be
religious teachers, laying the foundation for the most gross infidelity.
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