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of Nazareth is the true Messiah, and the Son of God ;"that he died for our offences, and was raised again for our justification ;"-that there is a future state of rewards and punishments;-that there will be a resurrection from the dead;-that it is our duty to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves;-that the Divine law is obligatory on the consciences of all men ;-that virtue and piety will be rewarded, and vice and immorality punished, in the world to come.

Yet, though agreeing in these important articles of the Christian system, how many boisterous and malignant disputes have taken place between Calvinists and Arminians, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and Methodists, respecting the speculative points in which they disagree! While controversies among philosophers have frequently been conducted with a certain degree of candour and politeness, the temper with which religious disputants have encountered the opinions of each other, has generally been opposed to the spirit of Christian love, to the meekness and gentleness of Christ, and even to common civility and decorum. The haughty and magisterial tone which theological controversialists frequently assume, the indignant sneers, the bitter sarcasms, the malignant insinuations, the personal reproaches, they throw out against their opponents, the harsh and unfair conclusions they charge upon them, the general asperity of their language, and the bold and unhallowed spirit with which they apply the denunciations of Scripture to those whom they consider as erroneous, are not only inconsistent with every thing that is amiable and Christian, but tend to rivet more powerfully in the minds of their opponents, those very opinions which it was their object. to subvert. To gain a victory over his adversary, to hold up his sentiments to ridicule, to wound his feelings, and to bespatter the religious body with which he is connected, is more frequently the object of the disputant, than the promotion of truth, and the manifestation of that "charity which is the bond of perfection." And what are some of the important doctrines which frequently rouse such furious zeal? Perhaps nothing more than a metaphysical dogma respecting the sonship of Christ, absolute or conditional election, the mode of baptism, the manner of sit

ting at a communion-table, an unmeaning ceremony, or a circumstantial punctilio in relation to the government of the church! While the peculiar notions of each party, on such topics, are supported with all the fierceness of unhallowed zeal, the grand moral objects which Christianity was intended to accomplish are overlooked, and the law of meekness, humility, and love, is trampled under foot.* The following are some of the ideas entertained respecting the rights of religious disputants, as assumed by the disputants themselves :-"The Controversialist," says Mr. Vaughan, in his "Defence of Calvinism," "is a wrestler; and is at full liberty to do all he can, in the fair and honest exercise of his art, to supplant his antagonist.

* That discussions on religious subjects are conducted with more earnestness than those on Philosophy need not appear strange. Men are apt to be more deeply interested in whatever is intimately connected with their present happiness and their future welfare, than in any other topics. A laudable interest for national prosperity often degenerates into hostility towards those who are equally solicitous to promote this desirable object, but whose views either of the means or of the individuals best qualified to effect it, are different from our own. And hence whenever a project for the security of rights, or the attainment of valuable acquisitions, is about to be put into execution, it often calls forth from those, who do not see its utility, the bitterest calumny.

And as a higher degree of interest is felt in regard to the principles and the progress of Christianity, than in political affairs-And as the former are subjects of immensely greater importance, than any human institution, it cannot be deemed strange, that religious discussions have been conducted with warmth. But it is a fact deeply to be deplored, that those, who are called to contend earnestly for the faith, suffer their zeal to degenerate into bitterness and to go forth in calumny. It cannot, however, be admitted, that all who have felt it their duty to defend their views of Christianity, are chargeable with this fault. It is well known, that there have been able and earnest discussions of the Christian doctrines in which no word of bitterness or satire, or calumny was uttered. And it is worthy of notice, that where there is the fear of God and the single desire to promote the knowledge of the truths of Revelation, bitterness and railings are rarely found. But where the proper object of discussion is overlooked, and the truths of revelation are called in to give influence or political importance to any sect, there we may expect to find unfairness and calumniation. Of this sort are many of the controversies, which were carried on in Europe between Catholics and Protestants-and especially between the Established Church and the Dissenters of Great Britain. And it ought not to be forgotten, that in these controversies laymen have frequently taken the lead.

AM. EDITOR.

He must not only be dexterous to put in his blow forcibly; but must have a readiness to menace with scorn, and to tease with derision, if haply he may, by these means, unnerve or unman his competitor. I know not that he is under any obligation to withhold a particle of his skill and strength, whether offensive or defensive, in this truly Spartan conflict." In perfect accordance with these maxims, he thus addresses his adversary: "Why, Sir, I will fight you upon this theme, as the Greeks did for the recovery of their dead Patroclus; as Michael the archangel, when, contending with the Devil, he disputed about the body of Moses; as the famed Athenian, who grasped his ship with his teeth, when he had no longer a hand to hold it by. It shall be with a loss not less than life, that I resign this splendid attestation (Rom. viii. 28-30.) to the triumphal origin, procession, and coronation, of grace in the redeemed."

Wo to Religion, when it meets with such boisterous "wrestlers!" Its true glory will be obscured, its beauty defaced, its interests betrayed, and its benevolent spirit smothered, amidst the smoke and dust raised by the onsets of such angry combatants. Do such controversialists really imagine, that "the wrath of man worketh the righteousness of God?" or, that the Religion of Heaven stands in need of such warlike arts, and unhallowed passions, for its vindication and defence? If it did, it would be a religion unworthy of our reception and support. What a contrast to the mild and gentle spirit of Christianity, to behold one zealot dipping his pen in wormwood and gall, when he sits down to defend the Religion of Love! and another, standing up in a Synod or Assembly, with eyes sparkling with indignation, a mouth foaming with rage, and a torrent of anathemas and abusive epithets bursting from his lips, against the supposed abettors of an erroneous opinion! while at the same time, they imagine that they are fired with holy zeal for the honour of the Lord God of Sabaoth. Such disputants seem not to be aware, that they are grossly misrepresenting the genius of the Christian system, and bidding defiance to its most distinguishing principles and laws.-There are heresies in conduct, as well as heresies in doctrine; and of all heresies, the former

are the most pestilential and pernicious. And why do not Controversialists and Religious Societies manifest as much zeal against heresies in temper and morality, which are nursed among the members of every church, as they do against heresies in theology? If these heresies were more particularly investigated and subverted, and a greater latitude allowed for the exercise of private judgment, the church of Christ would present a very different moral aspect from what she has hitherto done.

Again, there is nothing which so strikingly marks the character of the Christian world in general, as the want of candour, the spirit of jealousy, and the evil surmisings which the different denominations of religionists manifest towards each other. There is a prevailing disposition in one religious party to speak evil of another; and it appears, in many instances, to afford a high degree of satisfaction, when one party can lay hold of the inadvertencies of another denomination, or even of the imprudence of a single individual, in order to asperse the character of the whole body, and to hold it up to general derision and contempt. Episcopalians look down with feelings of scorn and contempt on Methodists and Dissenters; Independents sneer at Methodists, and Methodists at Independents; Presbyterians are disposed to revile Independents, as self-conceited, sanctimonious pretenders, and Independents, to treat with unbecoming levity, and even with ridicule, the opinions and practices of Presbyterians; while the different classes of Baptists, distinguishable only by the slightest shades of opinion, stand aloof from each other, in a warlike attitude, and refuse to join with cordiality in the ordinances of Divine worship. I have seldom been in company with individuals of any particular party, in which I have not found, when allusions were made to another denomination, innuendoes thrown out to their prejudice; and that the detail of any error or imperfection which attached to them, was generally relished, and even received with a high degree of satisfaction. Hence it happens, that the rules of common civility are every day violated by the different sectaries. If a person belonging to a particular denomination be accidentally introduced into a company composed of persons belonging to another religious party, he is frequently treated with reserve, and

with a spirit of jealousy and suspicion, even although he may be viewed, on the whole, as a Christian at bottom. I have known individuals of respectable character and attainments, who, from conscientious motives, had forsaken the denomination to which they formerly belonged, have, merely on this account, been treated with scorn and neglect, been banished from the intimacies of social and friendly intercourse, and been regarded nearly in the same light as a Turk or en infidel; and that, too, by men who pretended to liberality, and to literary accomplishments.

There is certainly neither heresy nor orthodoxy inherent in stone or lime, in a church-pew, or a pulpit-cushion: -yet one denomination willrudely refuse to another, the liberty of preaching in their place of worship, when it can conveniently be spared, although nothing but the fundamental docrines acknowledged by both are intended to be proclaimed; just as if the walls, the pews, and the pulpit of a church, would receive a stain of pollution from the presence of another sectary. Even in those cases where the common interests of Christianity are to be supported, as in vindicating the cause of Missionary, and other Philanthropic institutions,-if the preacher belongs to a dissenting body, he is shut out from the spacious churches of the Establishment, where he might address a numerous audience, and obtain a large collection; and is obliged to confine his exertions within the narrow walls of any public hall, or meeting-house, that he can procure.* We account it no more than a piece of common civility, to accommodate a neighbour with a barn, a parlour, or even a dining-room, for the entertainment of his friends at a wedding or a funeral; but, such is the lit

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* In cases, where there is an agreement in fundamental doctrines and where the object is not to promote any sectarian purpose, but merely to plead the cause of the distressed, and of such as are destitute of the Gospel, there can be no excuse for refusing the use of a house of worship. Of course where there is no such agreement and no other object but that of disseminating principles different from those ordinarily taught in the place, of sowing discord and depriving others of their rights, it is unchristian to desire, and unmanly to ask such a favor. And no one can suspect, that it is persecution, or a want of christian or common courtesy to withhold it.

AM. EDITOR.

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