An accurate observer will often discover how erroneously the zeal of individuals operates: he will see around him numbers always ready to counsel and advise their neighbours; to detect their errors and reprove their aberrations: but how few among us scan with equal severity their own; and this, because there is something gratifying in the superiority which attaches to the counsellor and censor of others, but always troublesome, and often painful, to sit in judgment on ourselves. So when the preacher is followed and applauded, it often begets a restless spirit: silent worship no longer affords him satisfaction, and he seldom permits it to others, when he is present. Few men have such fertility of imagination as to be able to vary such frequent discourses; he is often at a loss for a subject, and seizes with avidity every new idea, regardless of its correctness, if it possesses the charm of novelty.
The author of an essay on practical piety[[85]] makes some reflections on the situation of ministers of the gospel, which ought to be attentively considered by them. "There are perils on the right hand and on the left. It is not among the least, that though a pious clergyman may, at first, have tasted with trembling caution of the delicious cup of applause, he may gradually grow, as thirst is increased by indulgence, to drink too deeply of the enchanted chalice. The dangers arising from any thing that is good, are formidable because unsuspected. And such are the perils of popularity, that we will venture to say that the victorious general, who has conquered a kingdom, or the sagacious statesman who has preserved it, is almost in less danger of being spoiled than the popular preacher; because their danger is likely to happen but once, his is perpetual: theirs is only on a day of triumph, his day of triumph occurs every week; we mean, the admiration he excites. Every fresh success ought to be a fresh motive to humiliation: he who feels his danger will vigilantly guard against swallowing too greedily, the indiscriminate and often undistinguishing plaudits, which his doctrines, or his manner, his talents or his voice, may equally procure for him. If he be not prudent as well as pious, he may be brought to humour his audience, and his audience to flatter him with a dangerous emulation, till they will scarcely endure truth itself, from any other lips. The spirit of excessive fondness generates a spirit of controversy. Some of the followers will rather improve in casuistry than in christianity. They will be more busied in opposing Paul to Apollos, than in looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, than in bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. Religious gossip may assume the place of religion itself. A party spirit is thus generated, and christianity may begin to be considered as a thing to be discussed and disputed, to be heard and talked about, rather than as the productive principle of virtuous conduct."
That this spirit exists in a considerable degree among a portion of the Society of Friends, I think cannot be doubted; and it would indeed be wise in each individual, seriously to scrutinize his own conduct, and consider whether he has been instrumental in generating or propagating it.
CONCLUSION.
When I first undertook to review some of the prominent features in the sermons alluded to, I did expect to confine my remarks within a narrow compass; but the topics which the author discusses are so various and the applications so numerous, that it unavoidably led to their extension, and I have at last left many untouched which are entitled to very serious consideration.
I know there are some very serious and pious men who lament that these sermons were published; but I am not of their opinion; for although they may, in one point of view, be prejudicial, an accurate knowledge of the whole scheme, must I think convince every thinking mind, that it is not only inconsistent with the christian religion, but that its parts are so discordant, and its doctrines so darkly mysterious, as to elude the comprehension of man; and that the author, so far from elucidating that religion by his boasted reliance on the human understanding, has been led by that modicum of it possessed by himself, into many notions totally irreconcileable to right reason.
In one respect they may be injurious; not by making converts to the system, but by impairing the belief of individuals in the truths recorded in Scripture, and thus paving the way to complete infidelity; for there are few minds so stolid as really to have faith in a religion, founded on a book, which they believe to be itself a fiction.
It would perhaps be advisable for every member of the Society, after perusing these sermons, to read the life and writings of John Woolman. Contrast often serves to elucidate the truth, and the dissimilitude is so great, that they will have little difficulty in discovering which has been actuated by that humble, peaceable, and gentle spirit, recommended by the example and precepts of the Founder of our religion. They were probably equally deficient in human learning; but while the one, confident in his own abilities, is continually involving himself in contradictions by allusions to subjects which he does not understand; the other, favoured with what learning can never supply, a large fund of good sense, pursues the even tenor of his way without entanglement or inconsistency: the one, labouring to clothe his arguments in the brilliant language of the orator, leaves them involved in inextricable confusion; the other, explains his ideas with a precision and clearness, which if they do not convince cannot be misunderstood.
Indeed there is such a sober seriousness and mildness of spirit which breathes through all the writings of John Woolman; such unbounded charity for others, and such severity in the examination of himself; such persuasive earnestness in his exhortations, and such a perfect conformity between all his principles and practices, that however men may differ respecting some of his doctrines and opinions, all must acknowledge that he possessed a mind imbued with a truly christian spirit, and regard his tone and manner of writing as a model which ought to be imitated by all christian professors.
The doctrine of divine inspiration was the belief of every christian church in its primitive simplicity, and is yet the doctrine of almost all of them, under different names and modifications; and if the belief in it is impaired, I fear it must, in a great degree, be attributed to some of those who profess to be under the guidance of it. Not content with the measure of light which it affords, and which is sufficient for the great purpose of enabling him "to work out his own salvation," man, in the pride of his heart, is prone to get from under that humble state, in which alone its manifestations are rightly impressed on the mind; to believe it is given as a substitute for, and not in aid of, our reason; and mistaking his own visionary fancies for revelations, actually persuades himself that he also is invested with the attribute of omniscience. The inconsistencies in which minds thus sublimated are always involved, are stumbling blocks to many, who are from thence led to consider all as an illusive or hypocritical pretension.