We need not be told that if all men were under the strict influence of virtue and religion, most of the existing laws would be unnecessary, because they are enacted in consequence of the vices and frailties of man; but that such a state of things will ever exist on earth, in which all regulations and covenants of society may with safety and convenience be abolished, is an idea too extravagant to require refutation. Nor can it be believed that all laws made by the wisdom of man, are foolishness with God, in the sense in which you understand it. The Creator in his wisdom seems to have ordained that the improvement of man in this state of being should be progressive. The first step is associating in societies, and they necessarily require rules for their government; and as they multiply, new circumstances are continually arising, which require additional regulations. And herein that reason with which man alone, of all created beings, has been favoured, is properly applied: for this it was given to him, and its application to the purposes for which it was originally intended, can never be foolishness in the sight of the Almighty. The scriptures indeed tell us that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; but it is used in reference to our religious duties; to teach us the vanity of building up systems for ourselves, and pretending to explain the hidden things of Omnipotence; and to warn us that "as it is the gospel that has brought life and immortality to light," so "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."[[50]]
LETTER VIII.
When we consider the ingenuity of the mind of man, in drawing inferences from propositions to suit his present passions and prejudices, and how often they are perverted to the most injurious purposes, every person of reflection must admit that it is of the most serious importance that the ministers of religion should be extremely guarded in the terms they use, and not suffer a sentence to escape from their lips without a careful examination of its bearing and tendency. Nor is it any justification of such persons, although they may with truth assert that the pernicious deductions drawn from their declarations were not intended by them, if such deductions can fairly be made.
These reflections were impressed upon my mind in reading your sermons, in which are to be found many assertions which appear to me to have a very injurious tendency; and with whatever views they were uttered, (for I inquire not into your motives,) seem to strike at the very foundation of revealed religion.
In your vain attempts to describe the nature of the Almighty, we should be induced to believe, from some of your expressions, that you had adopted the opinion of some sects of unbelieving philosophers, that God is not the governor, but the soul of the universe; not a Being, but a principle or element, which, although it acts efficaciously, implies the absence of all personal agency. For you say, "Every child of God has the full and complete nature, spirit, and, may I not say, the divinity of God Almighty; because there is nothing but divinity in God, and therefore, if they are partakers of his divine nature,[[51]] so far they are partakers of his divinity, according to the portion which he is pleased to dispense: and he must dispense that portion which will make them like himself. For his children are as much like their Almighty Father, as the children of men are like their fathers."[[52]]
In speaking of the operation of the great first Cause, you compare it to the sun: "What, (you say,) would become of us, were it not for the enlivening beams of the sun? Although it emits so much, yet it never lessens.[[53]] Our immortal spirits receive all their light from that celestial and invisible Sun which is the Creator of all things. He emits of his excellency to us, yet he does not lessen, but remains eternally the same, for all that comes from him will return to him."[[54]]
Consistent with this idea, you totally reject the Scripture declarations respecting heaven and the kingdom of God, and consider them only as a condition of the mind, and that we can enjoy them in this state of being.
In alluding to the account of the apostle's being taken up into the third heaven, you say, "What is this third heaven but a three-fold manifestation of the divine presence;"[[55]] and you ask, "Is heaven of so little value to us that we put it off till the day of our death?"[[56]] "We are led to believe that there is an opportunity to lay up treasure in heaven; that is, to be in possession of heavenly treasure; or, to use a more proper expression, to be in possession of heaven; because heaven is a state; it is every where where God is;"[[57]] "God comes alike into the hearts of all the children of men, as much in the fornicator, the thief, and the liar, as in me. But there it is dead, because the creature is in opposition to God."[[58]] "Now this leading by the spirit of God is the same as the kingdom of God, and being subject to the leaven. They are still one and the same thing; they are not two things; and as we yield to the leaven it leavens us, and brings us into the divine nature, so that we come to partake of the nature of God."[[59]]
It is an observation of Doctor Paley, that contrivance is a proof of the personality of the Deity; and we have been accustomed to contemplate with admiration and awe the stupendous works of creation as emanating from his wisdom and will. But you, in strict accordance with the notion to which I have alluded, seem not to admit the argument, or the fact on which it is founded; for, in speaking of the earth's revolving in its orbit, you say, "So it has been through all ages past, and so it will continue through the eternal ages to come."[[60]] "As the moon receives all its light from the sun, for itself in the first place, so by that means it is enabled to emit a part of the power received to the next orb; and here the heavenly order is kept up—so it has been through all the previous eternal ages, and so it will continue to all future ages."[[61]]
Is this Christianity, or is it not a renewal of the old doctrines of Pagan philosophy? They held that matter is eternal, although they did not think with you that our system had existed through all eternity. Plato believed the world to be the work of God out of existing matter; but it was the general belief of the learned at a period preceding the coming of Jesus Christ, (as it appears to be your's,) that the soul of man is an emission of the divine nature, and that all are partakers of it—and from hence they drew the natural, and indeed unavoidable inference, that as God is immortal and the soul of man a part of him, it must necessarily have existed from all eternity.