sect.

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to control the will of the congregation, involves, as it seems to me, a violation of the essential principle of the order, as it certainly does of the principle of Christian liberty. The principle of Episcopacy is the power or rule of Bishops; of Presbyterianism, the power or rule of the Presbytery. So the principle of Congregationalism is the power or rule of the Congregation, the people united for Christian worship. Doctrines, if I may be allowed the remark, are out of the question. The original Congregationalists never pretended that doctrines constituted the distinguishing mark of their They asserted the contrary over and over again. The distinguishing character of the sect is polity, not doctrines. Those who contend that doctrines constitute its essential principle, betray either woful ignorance, or strange effrontery. It is difficult to believe them serious. There are Calvinistic and Arminian Episcopalians, and Calvinistic and Free-will Baptists. Shall the Calvinist turn to his Arminian, or his Free-will brother, and say, You are no Churchman, or no Baptist; you are gone out from us, and are not of us ? A Congregationalist may be a Calvinist or an Arminian, a Trinitarian or a Unitarian. If a Calvinist, he may be of the old or the new school, but still a Congregationalist. The doctrines of the original Congregationalists are not now holden by any one class of their descendants in New England. If doctrines are the test, all have gone astray.

I am aware that the views I have advocated are regarded by a large portion of the religious community with a strong feeling of disapprobation, or even abhorrence. It is still

contended, I know, that the church, regarded as a distinct and independent body, and embracing only communicants, exists by divine right, and possesses power derived immediately from Christ. This with many is a favorite doctrine, and one to which they attach peculiar importance. But I am constrained to say, that its truth, as it seems to me, is assumed without a shadow of proof. It is a doctrine, against which I see many formidable objections. It is at war with the great principle of Christian liberty, and amounts, as I view it, to a sort of Protestant Popery. No matter where the indelible character or power, supposed to be immediately communicated from heaven, resides, whether in Bishops, or in the brethren; it is equally dangerous in the one case, as

in the other, and just as likely to be turned into an instrument of oppression. Such an instrument it became in the hands of our New-England fathers, and may become such in the hands of their descendants.*

Let it not be said, that the principles I have defended, degrade the ministerial office. I contend for a ministry of usefulness, an earnest, enlightened, and effective ministry, a ministry of benevolence, and one which shall meet the intellectual and moral wants of the age. Such a ministry, I believe, must wield other instruments than those of superstition and terror. To secure a wholesome and enduring influence, and one which is every way desirable, it must not appeal chiefly to the coarser passions of human nature. Such appeals may produce a temporary effect, but an effect which is to be deprecated, as tending to injure the cause of true piety, and destroy or greatly impair the permanent usefulness of the ministry. The times demand something better. He who would now discharge faithfully his trust, as a minister of Christ, must not think to treat men as mere "children of a larger growth." He must show a respect for their understandings. He must not rely on the sanctity of his office, or on a principle of blind faith in his hearers. He must, under God, confide chiefly in the stirring power of Truth; confide in the weapons which she puts into his hands. From her armoury he must fill his quiver, and go forth in her strength. By truth, heavenly truth, truth

* If we look at the systematic operations by which, within a few years, the attempt has been made, and is still made, to crush the advocates of liberal sentiments, and chain down the human mind to the miserable and cheerless dogmas of the dark ages, we shall find that the power of the churches is the element chiefly relied on. Extraordinary efforts are made to swell the number of communicants by means of feverish excitements produced by the revival and other machinery. These constitute so many trained bands, which are taught to move forward in an unbroken mass, and through which the influence of an artful, exclusive, and sectarian clergy is brought to bear on society with a tremendous force. This influence is not the less because the power claimed in virtue of divine right is supposed to reside in the communicants generally, in the brethren, and not in the clergy; for the latter, without giving occasion for the jealousy and odium which naturally attend a privileged order, are able effectually to appeal to the principle of superstition and fear, the tendency of which is to break down the courage, to overawe and enslave.

VOL. XVII.

N. S. VOL. XII. NO. II.

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enlightening the understanding, quickening the conscience; truth, warning, urging, entreating, the Christian affections are excited and nourished, and the soul is raised to a divine life. Truth is its element; by that it is invigorated, and in it lives. By truth temptation is resisted, and the world overcome. By it religion triumphs, triumphs by her revelations of imperishable truth, and shall triumph. Empires fade and vanish, but the sceptre departs not from her hands; she sits, and shall sit, enthroned in the human spirit, that living temple, which she fills with her glory.

[For the Christian Examiner.]

ART. V. Remarks on Mystery.

How wonderful to a simple, clear, and honest mind must it seem that Mystery could ever have been regarded as one of the characteristics of a revelation, a revelation from God. What a bold paradox lies in the very statement! Besides, how untrue does it appear when we compare the religious man who has received that revelation with the infidel who has rejected it. How much less of mystery has the former to struggle with than the latter. Before the eye of the real Christian constantly the clouds are breaking and the darkness flying. Many an object to others dark has an intense illumination thrown over it by the sunlight of his religious faith. The Atheist,The Atheist, the disbeliever, throws out darkness from his own mind upon what is plain even to the common and negligent understanding. He casts the dark mysteries of a dishonest heart over the fair face of creation and the course of God's providence. For without asserting that it is impossible for skepticism to be honest, we must express our conviction that the heart disbelieves far oftener than the intellect. There the corruption commences, which afterwards spreads through the whole mind.

From what has been said, it will be readily understood that we are opposed to the introduction of mystery into religion, and that we deny of course that the two are united in the Bible. We are so opposed, and we do thus

es

deny. And we express our sentiments on this subject now because we believe that a connexion, of which the Word of God says nothing, has been established between these essentially discordant principles by the doctrines and systems of men. But there is an objection which we may as well meet and dispose of at the threshold of our subject, pecially as its consideration will place more clearly before the mind the particular end we have in view. It may be said we are surrounded by mysteries, and why, it may be asked, as they exist, should we not act with reference to them? They are the mysteries of God's power, - why should they not vitally affect the relation in which we stand to God? There are mysteries in creation and in Providence, why not also in Grace? And why, if God's dealings with our souls are mysterious, are we not concerned in mystery? The existence of mysteries we most fully admit. They exist in whatever we see or feel or hear. If we turn back upon ourselves and question our own souls as to their origin, and, passing our hands over the smooth flesh of our bodies, ask, Whence is this? we shudder at our own existence, and tremble with the most mysterious sensations. There is indeed no lack of mysteries. This broad universe of worlds hung down from the throne above for our admiration, these souls of boundless capacities and boundless conceptions, these "thoughts that wander through eternity," existence in its million forms, with its miseries and joys, its progression and degradation, the whole creation compressing itself into the trembling imagination of a feeble man, all these are in some sense mysteries. And it is the clearest thing in the world that they should be mysteries. For what must be the condition of that mind to which nothing should seem wonderful or strange? Must not all its attributes be infinities? Some things there are, which "the angels desire to look into." And should ignorant man be ashamed to say of many things, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it." So long as our knowledge is finite, so long will there be things that are mysteries to our minds. All beings of limited powers are encompassed with mysteries. Mysteries encompass us and will never cease to encompass us, but it is important to be observed they will be everchanging mysteries. They will rise in orders one upon the other, in endless succession, and suited to the numberless

changing ranks and orders of an intelligent existence. One mystery will vanish and another appear. We shall not be for ever perplexed with the same fixed, unexplained, and unexplainable difficulties. Mysteries will then ever surround us, not to perplex and afflict our spirits, but to excite in us perpetual growth, to enlarge our souls with endless expansion, and enable us to pursue with increasing vigor and delight the course of God's own glory as it spreads through the universe. In this view of the subject, to say that mysteries do exist, and ever will exist, is to say that we have entered upon a progress of knowledge which is never to end, that we have a curiosity the means for whose gratification are exhaustless. But we are chained within no iron wall of mystery, holden in no dark and vile bondage never to be broken. To be sure, it is sometimes said we can never understand the essential nature of any thing. This is no more than saying there will always be something in the objects of our study which we do not understand. But we shall constantly be knowing something about them which we did not know before. This nature of things, of which we are ignorant, is a certain something which we cannot define. It is a convenient phrase to veil our ignorance. So long as we are learning something new, something of which we had no idea before, we cannot without presumption attempt to fix on any precise thing as never to be learned.

But notwithstanding the objection we have stated, and the concession we have made, we still deny the propriety of introducing mystery into religion. The general reason for this is, that religion is a thing to be understood, felt, acted on, a thing which is to effect the same object in all minds, and to exist as the same sentiment in all hearts. Now it is no man's duty to act with reference to a principle of which he has no comprehension, any more than it is the duty of the navigator to shape his course by the guidance of an invisible star. We are to act, not according to some quality in God's nature of which we are ignorant, but according to those requirements of his will of which we are assured.

There is then a propriety in discussing this question,- Is it right that mysteries should be introduced into religion? We wish to treat the subject under several divisions, and to present particular reasonings in respect to them. And in this more particular treatment of the bad effects of mystery in religion, we would employ three courses of remark,