ancient idolater, who saw the object of his worship despised, would feel the insult as personal; but the mere act of neglecting his favourite altar for another, would not give him the slightest offence. He believed that certain practices and oblations were preferable to others in regard to his individual happiness, just as in Roman Catholic countries, different persons choose the patronage of different saints, without a shadow of uneasiness arising from the various views and tastes of the devotees. But the orthodox, of whatever denomination or creed he may be, cannot endure varieties of creed: and, indeed, it is not in the nature of things that he should. Every man's salvation, according to his view of the subject, depends upon unhesitating assent to certain propositions, of such a very abstract nature, so inconsistent with the most certain principles of the human understanding, that even when they have been most assiduously forced upon the infant mind, they very frequently drop off, in spite of the most sincere efforts of the same mind in its maturity. Fear and sympathy are generally the guardians to whom the orthodox creed is entrusted. Its preservation depends, therefore, much more upon external impressions than upon conviction. Now, a man who should believe that his salvation was connected with his assent to a series of geometrical theorems which he had once demonstrated, would not be irritated by the disbelief of his neighbours. But the disbelief of others has an irresistible effect on the mind, when the intellect is uneasy. The WILL, in the cases to which I allude, is invariably found to have encroached on the province of the UNDERSTANDING, and forced it to be silent. This powerful faculty, however, has submitted reluctantly; and will struggle for mastery at the approach of another intellect which enjoys its freedom, or, at least, does not drag chains so oppressive and galling. But since, according to the orthodox, every doubt thus raised by sympathy, endangers his own salvation, how can his fears allow him to be tolerant? How shall he be able to endure the presence of the tempter? He must regard him with feelings similar to those which a direct emissary of Satan would raise.

I must, however, hasten to conclude this letter, leaving you to enlarge and unfold the hints already given, as well as those with which I shall close it.

You have only to cast a wide and comprehensive glance over the New Testament, to be convinced that the spiritual (i. e. mental) stamp of the gospel is LIBERTY. Christ is not only a SAVIOUR from SIN, but from SUPERSTITION—a word that properly embraces all religions which make ceremonies and a priesthood essential to spiritual safety. I do not exclude the Jewish religion; though I fully exempt it from blame. It was, indeed, established and sanctioned by God, for a people who, for the "hardness of their heart" required a moral system of education, strongly mixed with the very faults to which they were nationally inclined—a most delicate process for the final attainment of good, which man has not knowledge enough to conduct, and which the infinite wisdom of God alone can conduct without the danger of fortifying and increasing the evil, which, by a partial and temporary sanction, is to be finally extirpated. Christ came to deliver the world from that evil; "to deliver us from the yoke of the law," and from every yoke of a similar nature. But observe the earliest attempt to corrupt, and, indeed, according to St. Paul, to nullify the gospel*. Hear the voice of the first inventors of DAMNATORY ORTHODOXYT. "And certain men

*“Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." Gal. v, 2.-The Gospel, the glad tidings of deliverance, would, of course, be contradicted by the resumption of ceremonies as necessary to salvation.

+ The declaration in Mark xvi, 16 (if the passage from v. 9 to the end be genuine, which there is good reason to doubt) has been supposed to contain the principle of damnatory Orthodoxy; but, certainly, without foundation. The safety or salvation which the Gospel promises is, as I have shewn before, attached to REPENTANCE (expressed by baptism or immersion, which signifies a moral death to past sinful courses, and a resurrection, or new life, to virtue) and the acceptance of Christ as our moral guide. Condemnation, i. e. CENSURE (with the extent of its effects I am not, at present, concerned) is declared to be incurred by those who, having had a sufficient attestation of the truth of the Gospel, nevertheless reject it, and remain unrepentant. This is very different from the metaphysical Orthodoxy which dooms to eternal punishment such as will maintain their mental liberty against it. Matt. x, 14, 15, condemns the bigoted and disingenuous spirit which refuses so much as to entertain, to give a hearing to persons who by fair and reasonable means wish to subjects differing from our own. the intolerant Jewish Orthodoxy.

call our attention to views of religious It is, in fact, a pointed declaration against Let it be observed, besides, that the

who came down from Judea, taught the brethren (and said) Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, YE CANNOT BE SAVED*." These men understood the method of keeping up the religious dependence of the laity on the priesthood. FEAR is the very essence of superstitiont, and superstition the chain by which the priest secures the people to himself. Hence, in all ages, the constant re-echoing of the words, ye cannot be saved: except ye be under the Pope, ye cannot be saved: except ye believe the Athanasian creed, ye cannot be saved: except ye believe that the first sin of the first man utterly corrupted human nature, ye cannot be saved: except ye believe in predestination and imputed righteousness, ye cannot be saved.

How different was the language of the apostle Paul! How perfectly independent of such conditions was the salvation which he preached as "glad tidings." "Stand fast... in the LIBERTY wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage‡." To demand either ceremonies, with the Jews; or mortifications, with the Ascetics; or belief in metaphysical theories, with the Theosophists (three classes of men who "came in privily to spy out the christians' liberty," and to induce them to add to the gospel the views of their respective parties); to make salvation depend on any thing external or internal, except that faith, that trust in the truths announced and sanctioned by Christ, which shews itself in holiness of life, was, in Paul's eyes, to destroy the Gospel. Even the apostle James, who, though enlightened by the same spirit as Paul, could not entirely divest himself of the peculiar tendencies of his individual character, which bore the stamp of Judaism much more than that of the great apostle of the Gentiles, even James was full of the leading notion that Christianity is "the law of liberty." But let us hear Paul again. "Where the

apostles had no complicated metaphysical creed to propose.

Their message

was, "The kingdom of heaven," i. e. the moral reign of God, through the Messiah, " is at hand."

* Acts xv.

+ Azoidamovía; or, as literally as it can be rendered, fear of the invisible

powers.

Gal. v, 1.

|| Gal. ii, 4, compared with Coloss. ii.

§ See Coloss. ii.

spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty*. Orthodoxy has so blinded Christians, that many, I fear, will be ready to consider the application of this passage as a mere accommodation of the word liberty, to my subject. I have, indeed, frequently remarked how seldom divines dwell upon this part of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians; how constantly they pass over that most significant sentence-"Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; NOT OF THE LETTER, BUT OF THE SPIRIT; FOR THE LETTER KILLETH, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVETH LIFE." But is it not clear that, according to Paul, the New Testament or covenant, through Christ, has no LETTER? That it does not consist in words to be explained, in order to reach some abstruse sense as the substance of that covenant? The VAIL which remained "untaken away" in the reading of the Old Testament "by the Jews," the "vail which is done away in Christ," the "vail" of the "letter that killeth," the cloud of wORDS which was afterwards made indispensable for salvation, remains, alas! upon the hearts of most Christians to this hour. It is, I am convinced, this verbal faith, this letter that killeth," which ruins Christianity amongst us; which inspires most denominations of Christians with aversion, suspicion, and jealousy towards those who do not receive the letter of their creeds and articles; which makes the attempt to spread the gospel among the heathens an object of mockery in the eyes of unbelievers, who cannot but ridicule the idea of preaching abroad what is yet unsettled at home. Would heaven that Christians had their own "vail" of orthodox words, that letter which killeth by spreading and supporting unbelief, taken away from their minds; that limiting Orthodoxy to the acceptance of Christ as the SPIRIT ("the Lord is that Spirit" says St. Paul) i. e. the meaning, the end of all revelation, would not allow a new letter, consisting of abstract doctrines, to involve their * 2d Cor. iii, 17.

66

+ That πνευμα, in opposition to ygapua, can mean spirit only in the sense which contrasts with letter, seems too clear to require proof. Yet, if I am not much mistaken, ʊua is, by some, understood in this passage, in a mystical sense, as if conveying the notion that Christ is the spirit, the internal power which animates, strengthens, and enlightens the true believers; a sense, in my opinion, totally inconsistent with the con

minds in a vail" which obstructs the view of the Gospel, even more than the old letter, which kept the Jews in bondage. Happy indeed would it be for the best interests of mankind, if all who glory in the name of Christians would turn away from the clouds of words that divide them into hostile parties; making the holy Jesus, the Son of God, their point of union, and giving the right hand of fellowship to every one who, by obedience to the will of God, as we know it through our Lord and Master, shews that he loves him in sincerity. Then would the church of Christ be UNIVERSAL indeed: then would the spirit of the Lord be truly among us, and with it would appear spiritual LIBERTY attended by peace and charity: then might we hope to gain over many of those who, shocked by our present wranglings, turn away from the Saviour, whom we misrepresent as the founder of an unintelligible religion.

I

I conclude with an observation upon which, ever since it occurred to me, my mind has dwelt with unabated interest. wish you to observe the connexion of the notions SPIRIT and LIBERTY which appears in many parts of the New Testament, and especially in the passage on which I have made these remarks. But most particularly do I wish to draw your attention to that sentence (to me the most sublime that ever was expressed in human language) which our Saviour addressed to the Samaritan woman. When that right-minded, though frail creature, shewed her eager desire for religious instruction, especially on the long-pending controversy between her own nation and the Jews, what was Christ's answer to her? Does he describe any new modification of the usual systems of religion? Does he speak of a new priesthood, of a new doctrine, of a new sacrifice ?-Far from it. "The hour cometh (he says text. According to Paul, in this place, Christ is the end To Teλos, the final object of "that which is abolished," namely, the letter of the law consequently he is the thing meant, the spirit of that letter. Upon this is grounded Paul's assertion, that whoever should turn towards Christ, i. e. the spirit or meaning of the letter of the Mosaic law, would have the "vail" which blinded the Jews taken away from his mind. Wherever that meaning, that spirit of the Lord, that true knowledge of the end of revelation, which centres in the person of Christ, prevails, taking possession of the heart and mind, there is liberty.