Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

adieu to principle, religious and moral; for the giving up what is true or right, out of deference to accidental merits, is a dereliction of both; neither can it be a very correct mind, which, out of respect for the liberality of the man, favours the error, or gives up the sacred obligations to truth and rectitude on such motives.

The observation of the Honourable Author upon the present state of the Church of England most certainly calls for the serious attention of all to whom it applies. He observes, (and, I own, that, as to the lower classes, I fear it is in many instances but too true,) that the Church of England loses ground, and that the number of Dissenters are increasing. But I am very far from assenting to the cause assigned as the real one, viz. "That the doctrines of the Church of England are not so powerfully impressive, even in more favourable circumstances, as some persons are inclined to think." As to the doctrines themselves, it is impossible not to feel astonishment at the imputation to them of not being impressive. Is it to be supposed, that the Honourable Author is ignorant that the doctrines of the Church of England are held as the doctrines of the Scriptures, including whatever is directly expressed in them, or may be deduced from them by sound reason, and just inference? consequently the whole moral law of Scripture, with its awful sanctions; the belief in the creation of the world, the fall, the redemption in Christ, and a future judgment. What doctrines can be impressive, if these are not so; that is, as far as regards the doctrines themselves? But it is undeniable, that their influence

:

upon those to whom they are preached, or addressed, will depend in a great measure on the abilities, the zeal, and the rhetorical powers of the preacher; and that zeal, with a moderate degree of knowledge, will do much more than extensive knowledge with little zeal. The conduct of the understanding may be regulated by reason; it may be informed and convinced by it; but the energy of its action will ever depend upon the imagination. It is true, that if the judgment be not rightly informed, the imagination does but increase the evil; but the imagination is not therefore to be neglected; and that, which is addressed so as to convince the judgment by accurate reasoning, ought to be enforced by exciting the imagination to give it effect; and this will then be done without danger, for, as the Author truly says, "Doctrines not enforced by pathos, energy, and the aid of imagery," (if by the word " imagery" be understood the imagery of diction,) "take but a slender hold of the mind." As to any other imagery, it is one of those things as to which the impressions of the nursery cling to the man. Images were the feeble effort of the infancy of the human understanding, to affect the savage with a belief of the supposed presence of the Deity. It was a means worthy of such a state, and such only. Feeble indeed must that mind be, whose contemplations of the great Creator of heaven and earth can be aided by such means; means worse than degrading, since they are wholly and absolutely forbidden by Scripture,

The question of granting political power to those of the Roman Catholic persuasion involves little dif

ficulty in itself, further than as it is a most disagreeable necessity to state that difficulty. It is, however, admitted, that salus populi suprema lex; and where it is apprehended that this safety may be endangered, however disagreeable the duty be to point it out, it is still a duty; and it is a question that is already limited in its extent by what has already been granted. One circumstance, in what has been already granted, ought, therefore, surely to have considerable weight as to that which is not so. If, before the elective franchise was conceded to the Roman Catholics, it appeared that there was a necessity for withholding legislative situations from them, the concession of the franchise has, by throwing a greater power into their hands of determining elections, increased that necessity proportionally.

When it is stated, that unpleasant consequences have arisen from the legal restrictions on the Roman Catholics, the truth is certainly stated; and they are very much to be lamented. But when it is stated, that nothing, but the total abolition of these restrictions can satisfy the Roman Catholics, it is not so easy to concur with them, that the state, and the constitution, will not be endangered. It is not sufficient to represent, that under a wise and good King, and that by wise Ministers, not bigotted to the Roman Catholic religion, the state would be safe; it is more necessary to consider what might be the case under a weak King, and Ministers bigotted to that religion; since neither the history of any country, nor the variations of human nature, will justify the omission of such a case as impossible in the highest

situation; and it is not likely that men of that religion, who were intended for eminent situations in the state, would be much neglected as to the impressions of a religious kind.

The foundation of all the restrictions has certainly been laid, and with great justice, in the principles and conduct of the Romish church. If the complaint is made, that the Protestants do not give all the confidence that is looked for, with how much more reason may the whole Protestant world complain, that the disastrous and dreadful tenets of the Romishi church, as to its power of absolution, excommunication, and Papal supremacy, which have so often been applied to the annihilation of every tie held sacred among men, have not been so modified by that church itself, as to admit of real confidence.

Since, therefore, so much depends upon the doctrine of absolution, it will not be amiss to examine the principle of these tenets with attention suitable to their importance.

The doctrine of absolution, which has given rise to so many abuses, by the inconsiderate and intemperate application of it, is, in itself, and in its proper use, both well founded and beneficial. Whether the mind be hardened by familiarity with vice, or alive to the most delicate sense of religious duty; in those awful moments, when it is unnerved by disease, or harassed by pain, it may be little able to act, or judge truly for itself,

"How stands the great account 'twixt it and heaven !" How to regulate the despondings of an humble mind, the presumption of the confident, or the

terrors of the guilty. Neither is it the general lot to know how far a just hope of the divine favour may be entertained; what may be considered as sincere and well-grounded in repentance, or effectual in faith. It is too true, that the physician of the soul, like the physician of the body, is too seldom called in till his appearance is felt as the forerunner of the knell, and with as little comfort to himself as such a case can promise. Where, however, it is done when it ought, and as it ought, it is one of the most important offices of life.

It is with respect to the divine, as it is with respect to human laws; the judge, to whom a decision upon human actions is given or delegated, is bound by the terms of his commission from the lawgiver or Sovereign; and the decision of that judge is no further valid, than as it is according to the law and the terms of such commission. For no lawgiver can rationally be supposed to grant a power, which supersedes his own authority, or which is not liable to his own ultimate cognizance, and (if not according to his intent, and that of his law) to a reversal, whether it exceed, or fall short of it.

If then, for the argument's sake, it were admitted, that the power of absolution were properly a judicial one, still the reservation of the judgment for the ratification, or reversal, by the Sovereign, would necessarily so remain, as that it could not be absolute and complete in its consequences, till the ratification by the Sovereign should make it so. For though a Sovereign may give what are usually denominated full powers, the condition, though it may not, because of

[ocr errors]
« ForrigeFortsæt »