Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

gion, bringing light to those who sit in darkness, and directing their wandering steps into the paths of everlasting peace.

As most sincere and cordial adherents to the Church of England, we should be delighted to see her constitution, liturgy, and communion, extending themselves over the whole world. We not only think the constitution of our church to be most agreeable to the model of primitive times, but we see a uniform simplicity, sobriety, and wisdom, mingling with the fervour of her devotions. We would therefore earnestly exhort her members to take the lead in the conversion of the heathen. But if her influence is not to extend universally-and we cannot expect that it should under the actual circumstances of the world-we shall hail with unfeigned pleasure the successful cooperation of other denominations

of Christians in the work of Missions. He must have a dull head, or a cold heart, who, when he casts an eye over the boundless desert of human ignorance, vice, and misery, can withhold his Christian sympathy and good wishes from any class of labourers who are honestly attempting to reclaim the soil, even though he may not think that they proceed according to the wisest plans, or follow the very best models. The glory of Christianity is its future prospects. But were its influence confined only to the present life, we should still hardly envy the man who remained indifferent to its propagation, or who did not consider the possession of it, even under its most disadvantageous forms, as a desirable substitute for the ignorance,brutishness, ferocity, filth, and wretchedDess, of Bushmen and Corannas,

There remains one subject to which we have already adverted, but on which we are desirous of adding a few words; we mean, the subject of Slavery and the Slave Trade. Habpily for the Matchappees and Alarootzees, the inroads

of the Christian Missionary among them has preceded those of the Negro merchant. But we cannot deny that the presence of the former will form but a very inadequate protection from the cupidity of the latter, if Slavery shall be permitted to establish itself in the newly lo cated lands of the colony of the Cape. Removed as these lands are to a great distance from official control, what shall hinder their occupiers, if slavery is there recog nized as a legal institution, from making draughts of labourers for their cultivation, from the popula tion of Lattakoo, Mashow, and Kurreechane? The Government, we are told, mean to make it a special condition of future grants, that the lands shall not be tilled by Slaves. But this provision comes too late. The plague is already begun. With dismay we read the following passages. "At 4 p. m. we crossed the limits," the northern limits," of the colony," which are only 230 miles south of Lattakoo, "and at five arrived at Pinnar's Place, where there is a substantiat farm-house with barns, slave houses, and a good garden. The family were from home: only a few slaves were left to guard the place."— After travelling about 70 miles farther south, " we met," says Mr. Campbell," several persons in the evening returning from the sale of a neighbouring farmer's effects, who reported that eight slaves had been sold for 16,000 rix-dollars, about 1600. sterling. A woman, with her sucking child, was sold for 5000 rix-dollars, the prospect of her having more children increasing her value. A female sucking child fetched 1300 rix-dollars, and a boy sold for 3000." Vol. II. p. 325.

Already, therefore, in lands locăted by the BritishGovernment, since the Abolition of the Slave Trade, has Slavery, from some unaccountable oversight, been permitted to root itself; and a new mart to be thus opened for Slaves. In the

very region which has been select- thus suffered to extend itself, the cost of this manumission ought to be defrayed, partly at least, at the public expense, in all cases where the colonist can shew that he has come into possession of the Slaves fairly, and without any violation of the Abolition Law. Justice and good faith would seem imperatively to prescribe this course, even if the sacrifice were much larger than it will probably be found to be. The number of Slaves is as yet small, perhaps not more than a thousand; but if it were much larger, we do not see that Government would thereby be exempted from the necessity of entirely undoing the evil which they might so easily have prevented, and which they are bound forthwith to repair. We would strongly urge the immediate consideration of this momentous subject on the friends of the African race in Parliament.

ed for colonizing the distressed population of the United Kingdom, has this demoralizing institution already been recognized and established; and men, and women, and sucking children, are already counted among the farmer's effects, and sold by auction in common with his oxen and pigs and poultry. We trust that an early call will be made in Parliament for information on this point, in order to ascertain by whose counsel, or by whose want of counsel, while we are parading our humanity in every court of Europe, and undertaking a sort of crusade against the Slave Trade of other nations, we have thus permitted what is, in fact, a new Slave Colony to be growing up within our own dominions, and in the immediate vicinity of almost the only portion of Africa which has hitherto escaped the pestilential breath of the slave-trader. We dread the influence of such a colony. The men, and women, and sucking children of the Maichappee and Marootzee nation, it will probably be discovered, may be procured at a less costly rate than those of the bankrupt farmer of Sneuwberg. A little fraud and a little force, employed in getting possession of them, will be an expedient for thriving in the world better suited to many of the needy and lawless adventurers who are likely to visit this region, than either paying from 2000 to 3000 rix-dollars a-head for labourers, or toiling with their own hands for a subsistence. At least, then, let the actual extent of the evil be forthwith ascertained with accuracy, and its growth be pre-ed on the declaration of our Lord, vented, so far as the vigilance of the Government can prevent it. But the only effectual remedy will be, without farther delay, absolutely to interdict Slavery itself beyond the limits of the ancient colony, and at once to manumit all Slaves found there. But since it has been through the supineness of the Government that slavery has been

The Essay on "the Influence of Moral Life on our Judgment in Matters of Faith," to which the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and Church Union in the Diocese of St. David's adjudged its Premium for 1821. By the Rev. SAMUEL CHARLES WILKS, A. M. Author of Christian Essays, Signs of Conversion and Unconversion in Ministers, Claims and Duties of the Church, &c. Dedicated, by permission, to the Lord Bishop of Durham. London. 1822. 2s. 6d.

THE motto of this Essay is found

John vii. 17: “If any man will do his will (the will of God), he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." We had occasion in our volume for 1810 (p. 221), to review a very valuable sermon entitled, "Obedience the Path to religious Knowledge," preached before the Universit of Oxford, by the Rev.

Daniel Wilson, from this text; a passage which, though it seems to relate more directly to the acknowledgment of our Lord's character and mission, may, without impropriety, be viewed in the larger acceptation given to it by Mr. Wilson, as including generally a disposition of ingenuous obedience to the Divine commands. In this view also the proposers of the St. David's Premium seem to construe it; though they have somewhat narrowed their ground, and abridged the evangelical import of the passage, by the wording of their thesis. The expression, "a moral life," is by no means tantamount, in the ordinary signification of the term, to "doing the will of God," which includes, among other things, the exercise of those regenerate and holy dispositions implanted in the soul by the Holy Spirit, from which alone true morality, that is Christian morality, can proceed.

In the Essay before us, the author, though taking his thesis as he found it, has, in the course of his argument, almost necessarily been led to enlarge its more obvious signification. His Essay might be entitled, "The influence of an ingenuous desire to know and perform the will of God, and of those devout habits which accompany such a desire, upon the judgment in matters of faith." We shall cite a few passages illustrative of the manner in which he has endeavoured to prove his position; referring our readers to our review of Mr. Wilson's discourse, already mentioned, for our own opinions on the general subject, which it will not be necessary to repeat on the present occasion,

The Essay is introduced by the following preparatory remarks.

"In tracing the origin and progress of religion in the human soul, it is impossible to reduce it to a series of precise and invariable operations, and to allot to each of our faculties and powers its definite share in the general process. it seems indeed to be the ordinary

course of the Holy Spirit, in his agency on the heart and mind of man, first to illuminate and convince-then to convert then to sanctify;-or, in other of their natural condition, and of the words, first to lead men to a perception character of the Gospel; to teach them their sinfulness and spiritual inability; and to pour into their hearts the grace of contrition and penitence; then to guide them as conscious transgressors to the Great Sacrifice of Calvary, to repose by faith in the death and merits of the Saviour alone for pardon and acceptance with God; and then to bestow panies a true and lively faith-to sanc upon them that peace which accomtify them by his gracious influencesand to render them fruitful in every good word and work, as becometh those who being bought with a price are not their own, but are bound in point of duty, and are also anxions in conformity with their renewed nature, to live no longer unto themselves, but unto Him who loved them, and gave Himself for

them. But the successive stages of this spiritual process do not always follow each other in the strict order assigned to them by artificial systems of theology: sometimes the understanding, sometimes the will, sometimes the affections, seem to take the lead. The graces of love, joy, faith, zeal, humility, vigilance, knowledge, though co-existing in the heart of every true Christian, do not always unite in equal proportions, fined intervals. They mutually act and or follow each other at accurately dere-act, augmenting each other by their reciprocal influence; so that what was originally an effect, becomes 'iu its turn a cause, and gives birth to new causes and effects in perpetual succession.

"These remarks apply in an especial manner to the three Christian graces of Knowledge, Faith, and Obedience. Strictly speaking, there must be some be faith: he that cometh to God must degree of knowledge before there can first know that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.' There must also be faith before there can be genuine obedience; for faith is the only true source of Christian virtue. Yet, on the other hand, our Lord teaches us, that if any mau will do the will of God,'-that is, will commence a course of humble and ingenuous obedience, he shall know of the doctrine: his practical attention to duty shall prove the harbinger of new

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

religion; and

"Secondly, That a humble and conscientions endeavour to do the will of God,' is eminently conducive to the progress both of faith and spiritual understanding." pp. 1-4.

The writer begins with the grosser instances of moral turpitude, as connected with infidel principles. But these are not the only sources of infidelity; for as there are vices of less revolting aspect than treason and assassination, so there are various approaches towards a rejection of the Gospel, of a more specious character than the open blasphemies of a profligate Atheism.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"There is not an anti-christian or an unchristian principle, which may not lead to a corresponding anti-christian or unchristian creed. The more malignant passions will have this effect; as we find from Acts xiii. where we are informed (ver. 48), that the Gentiles were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord, and believed;' but the Jews (ver. 15), being filled with envy, spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.'-The selfish passions also may produce the same effect. Thus the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things, and derided him.' (Luke xvi. 14.) The proud and vain and ambitious passions also may have the same effect. They did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.'' How can ye believe that have honour one of another?-Thus enmity, covetousness,

vain-glory, to which various other evil principles might be added, are proved by scriptural testimony to be capable of subverting faith, and even of conducting men to the awful extremes of contradiction, derision, and blasphemy." pp. 7, 8.

The next stage of the argument applies to those less obvious approaches to infidelity which sometimes display themselves in Antinomianism, Socinianism, and kindred heresies; and to those more decorous sins-sins of the heart, or sins of the intellect—which may greatly impede the spiritual perceptions, and vitiate the spiritual taste, even where there is no temptation to palliate the grosser enormities of a profligate life. Stubborn pertinacity, presumption, levity, self-confidence, and a proud dictatorial and dogmatical spirit, are all hostile, both to a reverential submission to scriptural authority and to the formation of just conclusions from scriptural premises. Pride, in particular, is specified as having ever been at war with a devout admission of the peculiar doctrines, and a practical obedience to the precepts of the Gospel.

"How often do we find, even in the case of persons who are not vicious in their lives, nay, who perhaps preserve a respectable decorum of couduct,— that the heart is prejudiced against a practical admission of Divine Truth, at least of its more peculiar and mysterious doctrines, on account of the Scriptures not making their appeal to mankind in such a manner as to gratify the pride of the intellect! They find themselves required to believe promptly and implicitly upon the strength of a Divine declaration; they are enjoined to admit, without hesitation or scruple, many things that they cannot fully understand; and they are invited, yea, commanded, on pain of eternal condemnation, to embrace exactly the same faith which has been professed by thousands of the most illiterate of mankind;-in common, it is true, with men of the highest order of thought, and the most extensive range of literature; but still a faith which owns no submission to human intellect, and refuses to bow its

of mind), he will not submit to the doctrines of the Cross of Christ, or adore that mystery of godliness' which is involved in every part of the disclo sures of Revelation." pp. 13, 14.

lofty claims before the tribunal of any created mind, however wide its grasp or exalted its powers. A mind vain of its intellectual superiority, and unsub. dned by the grace of God, will not easily be persuaded to submit to this; it will recoil from such an unreserved self-dedication; it will demand something more conciliating to the pride of the human heart; and will venture peremptorily to set down as false, what ever cannot be inferred by the deductions of uninspired reason, or, at least, which, when revealed, cannot be fathomed and fortified by human phi losophy." pp. 11–13. This position is thus illustrated: mankind pass their lives, without

[ocr errors]

"To what but to this cause, com. bining indeed with some other subordis nate oues, must we attribute the vehement opposition which has always been carried on against that fundamental article of the Christian system, and of our Protestant Church-the doctrine of justification solely by faith? The Lumble practical Christian, whether poor or rich, illiterate or learned, discovers no moral danger attending this doctrine: so far from it, he feels it to be in his own case, and observes it to be in the case of others, not only very full of comfort,' but a powerful motive to love, to gratitude, and to good works; and he is perfectly convinced, that if any persons would so far abuse it as to say, Let us sin that grace may abound,' they understand not its real nature — much less are they among those who have a scriptural right to take to themselves the blessings which it exhibits. But the mere intellectual reasoner, experiencing nothing of the practical effects of the Gospel in his own soul, affectedly recoils at such a doctrine. It is not enough to prove that it is revealed in the sacred scriptures; it must also comport with his long-cherished prejudices and prepos. sessions, or, as he considers them, his reasonable deductions: he must see that the doctrine has some other basis to rest upon than mere authority, even though that authority be the authority of God himself; for till he can fully demonstrate the propriety of this Di vine arrangement, and solve every difficulty which a presumptuous intellect may consider as flowing from it (which he is least of all likely to do while he remaius in his present attitude

The author next proceeds to shew that gross vices, on the one hand, and mental sins, on the other, (to which two classes of impediments the preceding remarks chiefly apply,) are not the only forms of moral evil which may faith; for that even the ordinary cloud the judgment in matters of habits in which the great body of

any suspicion of their evil tendency, may powerfully exert the same influence; nay, that the sincere Christian himself may often discover, within his own bosom, strong proofs of the effect of unholiness of heart or conduct, in obscuring his spiritual understanding and weakening his faith.

"No sooner does he relax in his Christian vigilance, no sooner does he become secularized in his temper,— no sooner does he grieve the Holy Spirit by pride, or lukewarmness, or the neglect of prayer, or inattention to known sin,--than he finds that he canany known duty, or indulgence in any not realize, as at more devout moments, the sentiments which become his holy profession; he perhaps feels inclined to harbour a secret wish that he may have too strictly construed the selfdenying character of the Gospel; his mind begins at times to waver respecting some of its essential truths; and while thus under the influence of temptation, he may even venture for a moment to question its Divine authority." pp. 15, 16.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »