Page images
PDF
EPUB

best gift to man, and the man that despises it, despises everything he has got to make him a man, or to distinguish him above the beasts that perish.

Trinitarians speak much about what they are pleased to call "weak reason," and "proud reason," &c. Now, as to the weakness of reason, they might tell us also about weak sight. We all know, that, with the best eyes, and the best use of them, we are liable to mistake our way when we come upon strange ground, or fall into darkness or mist. But is this a reason why we should always distrust the use of our own eyes, and never use them but through certain men's spectacles, or with certain men leading us? Every faculty we have is equally the gift of God; and we have no ground to distrust the use of any of his gifts more than another. Whatever faculties our Maker has given us, we have a right to use freely; and better reason to trust to the use of them, than to the gratuitous assumptions of any man, or set of men, that are bold enough to disparage our Maker's bounty. We never can be wrong in using freely what He has given us, if we only use it honestly, in moderation, and in humble dependence upon His divine blessing; and this, of course, is always to be understood, as without this, it were not use, but abuse. To suppose that He has given us any faculty, calculated to deceive us, however honestly and conscientiously we may use it, were an infamous libel upon Almighty goodness. Besides, how are we to "search the Scriptures," and "prove all things," as the Scripture requires us, if we have not reason or judgment capable of such a task; or if our reason be naturally so weak and worthless, that we dare not trust its decisions, however well we may strive to use it, with the help of God, in searching and proving?

which they

But still more; even this very distrusting of reason, would advise, supposes an act of the mind, which can never take place without the use of reason, so miserably weak and absurd is the common Trinitarian, Papistical, and Puseyite clamour against reason, and about distrusting the use of our reasoning powers in matters of religion,-a thing which can never be done, without a certain use of, and trusting to, the very thing we are required to distrust. No man can either give or refuse his assent to any proposition, without some motive or use of his reason, right or wrong, in doing so. What are all Trinitarian writings intended for ;-what are all the Oxford Tracts put forth for, but to influence the minds of men, and induce them to use their reasoning powers, in inquiring into, and deciding upon, the matters contained in those writings and Tracts; or, in other words, to persuade men to a belief of the doctrines contained in them, by a process of reasoning, upon which every reader is expected, in the first place, to exercise bis judgment, and determine for

himself? Does the Puseyite Tractarian, then, not reason and appeal, like other men, to private judgment, to decide upon the truth of what he alleges? Or does he expect me at once to give up my present views, and fall in with his own, without any thought, or exercise at all of my reason, to judge of what he says? Most assuredly he expects me to use my reason, to judge and decide with himself. There can be no doubt of this, whatever he may pretend to. "I believe in the priests and Mother Church," is a prime article in his creed; in believing which himself, and in trying to make others believe, along with him, he depends as much upon private judgment, as I do, in believing any article in my creed. Where, then, does he stand, with his continual hollow growl against reason and private judgment-the very thing he is constantly appealing to the use of-and cannot proceed a hair-breadth without its decision, more than I?

But the fact is, when they speak about the weakness of reason, they do not mean their own reason, but the reason only of those that differ from them. The notion of a Trinity is as pure a deduction and result of a certain use of the reasoning faculty, as any that could be named,‚—a deduction that never could have been arrived at, nor ever so much as seriously thought of, without a peculiar use of the reasoning faculty of every one that has come to be of such way of thinking and believing. And as long as one uses his reasoning powers to support that doctrine, there is no word of the weakness of his reason. But let one of a different mind employ his reason to oppose the doctrine, and then it is, and then only, that we hear of the weakness of reason, and of his being one that trusts in his own understanding,-in arguments drawn from "weak carnal reason," and so forth,-a plain proof that, by weakness of reason, they never mean their own reason, but the reason only of those that differ from them. Now, as to whether their reason or ours be the strongest, we will not stand to dispute with them, but leave our arguments to speak for themselves.

In like manner, when they talk about the pride of reason, it is not that they mean any pride in themselves, but only in those that differ from them; and in this way they show their humility. But as to Protestant Trinitarians bandying such a charge, we fling back their charge of pride of reason, and remind them, that Trinity and Transubstantiation are both of the same origin, and depend upon the same authority; and it is precisely the same pride of reason in them to reject the latter, that it is in us to reject the former. Luther, Calvin, and Knox-their own acknowledged leaders-were all guilty of the same pride of reason, when they each set up his own private judgment in opposition to the combined authority of the whole Romish hierarchy. Did they work any miracles? or had they any heavenly commission

to use their own private judgment more than we? If not, pray upon what authority are we arraigned, and denied the free, unfettered use of our private judgment more than they? Protestant sects, splitting hairs, and everlastingly dividing from one and another, and from the whole world, have little cause to talk about pride of reason—and verily, it ill becomes them. Let them at once throw up their own private reason, with all their little intestine disputes, and cordially join hands with their Puseyite brethren, in humbly going back to the Church of Rome, and the implicit faith of their forefathers; and then they may, with some show of decency, complain of the pride of reason of those that differ from them, or who will not, like them, in profession at least, altogether discard their own weak reason in matters of religion, and implicitly give in to the infallible reason of Mother Church. In this way, and this alone, they must act, before they can expect us to pay any regard to their complaints about pride of reason, save only to expose to the world their true character, of hollow sophistry, of bigotted arrogance, and unblushing hypocrisy.

I appealed before to the case of little children, so much commended by Jesus, as a type of the character of his true disciples; and here I will speak of them again. Those of whom Jesus says, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven;" these, I say, cannot be charged with pride of reason. It is for the very absence of this that Jesus so speaks of them, and commends them as an example for others to imitate. Now, after knowing their earthly father, when these little ones first hear of "one God and Father" in heaven, what is their simple unbiassed belief concerning him, and what does it continue to be, when left to themselves, without the sophistication of any party? Is it Trinitarian or Unitarian? Most assuredly it is Unitarian, as I know it to be from my own certain experience. When these simple unsophisticated ones both hear and read "that there is but one God and Father of all," when they are allowed to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear his simple, but sublime words, teaching them to pray, saying, "Our Father, which art in heaven," &c.-and when they hear himself praying, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine be done," and again when they hear him praying to his Father for his disciples, saying, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God," and saying again to his disciples, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God," -what else, I say, could they learn from all this, but what they do learn, simple Unitarianism? Supposing it possible for their young minds to imagine such a thing as the Trinity, what could they learn of it from such language, or what other notion could they learn from Jesus of the

unity of his and their heavenly Father, than what they have already of the unity of their earthly father? Certainly none whatever. Now, whether Jesus himself, or the greatest Trinitarian, ancient or modern, be the truest and best teacher, is a question simple enough for the humblest reason to answer.

The Bereans of old were commended as "more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether things were so," (Acts xvii. 11); that is, they are divinely commended as noble for using their own private judgment, to search the Scriptures and decide upon the doctrine of inspired Apostles, whether they could find it agreeable to Scripture, or not. But the moment we venture to use our private judgment, in searching the Scriptures whether the modern self-styled orthodox things are so, and if we cannot find them exactly so, that moment, so far from being commended by them as noble, we are fiercely assailed and branded by them as impious heretics, setting up our proud rebellious reason against the truth. However strongly we may profess our faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, however highly we may venerate his sacred character, and however cordially and sincerely we may own and honour him as our Lord and Master, and honestly strive to follow his bright example, his heavenly teaching, according to the light which God has given us, in daily seeking and relying upon his divine aid,-if we do not at the same time unreservedly surrender our own judgment to certain fellowmen, confessedly as fallible as ourselves, and implicitly give in to their metaphysical, and mysterious, incomprehensible notions concerning Jesus-notions which seem to us, so far as we can conceive of them, to be at war alike with reason, and with the first truth of religion-the unity of God-in short, if we cannot do violence to our own conscience, screw down our reason to their reason, and implicitly believe as they believe, it is all for nothing, and worse than nothing; we are at once denied the name of Christian-we are persecuted and branded as "God-dishonouring, pestilent heretics," "infidels and Socinians," &c. Are not these the very epithets they delight in constantly heaping upon us? And is it wonderful that instead of being convinced by such mockery of argument, we are utterly disgusted and scandalised at it, as the very scum of bigotry-the nauseous missiles of the arch-enemy of truth? We should think ourselves unworthy the name of men, were we ever to give in to, or acknowledge the righteousness of such a mode of warfare.

T. G.

SELECTED POETRY.

SONNETS.

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

I.

IN due observance of an ancient rite,
The rude Biscayans, when their children lie
Dead in the sinless time of infancy,

Attire the peaceful corse in vestments white;
And in like sign of cloudless triumph bright,
They bind the unoffending creature's brows
With happy garlands of the pure white rose ;
This done, a festal company unite

In choral song; and while the uplifted cross
Of Jesus goes before, the child is borne
Uncovered to his grave. Her piteous loss
The lonesome mother cannot choose but mourne;
Yet soon by Christian faith, is grief subdued,
And joy attends upon her fortitude.

II.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;

We've given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bears her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we're out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,

And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

« PreviousContinue »