TEMPER DISPLAYED BY CONTROVERSIALISTS. 



175 



30.) lo the triumphal origin, procession, and co 

 ronation, of grace in the redeemed.&quot; 



Wo to religion, when it meets with such 

 boisterous &quot; wrestlers !&quot; Its true glory will be 

 obscured, its beauty defaced, its interests betray 

 ed, and its benevolent spirit smothered, amidst 

 the 4moke and dust raised by the onsets of such 

 angry combatants. Do such controversialists 

 really imagine, that &quot; the wrath of man worketh 

 the righteousness of God ?&quot; or, that ihe religion 

 of Heaven stands in need of such warlike arts, 

 and unhallowed passions, for its vindication and 

 defence? If it did, it would be a religion un 

 worthy of our reception and support. What a 

 contrast to the mild and gentle spirit of Christi 

 anity, to behold one zealot dipping his pen in 

 wormwood and gall, when he sits down to defend 

 the Religion of Love! and another, standing up 

 in a Synod or Assembly, with eyes sparkling 

 with indignation, a mouth foaming with rage, 

 and a torrent of anathemas and abusive epithets 

 bursting from his lips, against the supposed abet 

 tors of an erroneous opinion! while at the same 

 time, they imagine that they are fired with holy 

 zea! for the honour of the Lord God of Sabaoth. 

 Such disputants seem not to he aware, that they 

 are grossly misrepresenting the genius of the 

 Christian system, and bidding defiance to its 

 most distinguishing principles and laws. There 

 are heresies in conduct, as well as heresies in 

 doctrine; and of all heresies, the former are the 

 most pestilential and pernicious. And why do not 

 Controversialists and Religious Societies mani 

 fest as much zeal against heresies in temper and 

 morality, which are nursed among the members 

 of every church, as they do against heresies in 

 theology ? If these heresies were more particu 

 larly investigated and subverted, and a greater 

 atitude allowed for the exercise of private judg 

 ment, the church of Christ would present a very 

 different moral aspect from what she has hitherto 

 done. 



Again, there is nothing which so strikingly 

 marks the character of the Christian world in 

 general, as the %vant of candour, the spirit of 

 jealousy, and the evil surmisings which the dif 

 ferent denominations of religionists manifest to 

 wards each other. There is a prevailing dispo 

 sition in one religious party to speak evil of 

 another ; and it appears, in many instances, to 

 atfiird a high degree of satisfaction, when one 

 party can lay hold of the inadvertencies of an 

 other denomination, or even of the imprudence 

 of a single individual, in order to asperse the cha 

 racter of the whole body, and to hold it up to 

 general derision and contempt. Episcopalians 

 look down with feelings of scorn and contempt on 

 Methodists and Dissenters ; Independents sneer 

 at Methodists, and Methodists at Independents ; 

 Presbyterians are disposed to revile Independ 

 ents, as self-conceited, sanctimonious pretenders, 

 and Independents, to treat with unbecoming 



levity, and even with ridicule, the opinions and 

 practices of Presbyterians ; while the different 

 classes of Baptists, distinguishable only by the 

 slightest shades of opinion, stand aloof from each 

 other, in a warlike attitude, and refuse to join 

 with cordiality in the ordinances of Divine wor 

 ship. I have seldom been in company with in 

 dividuals of any particular party, in which I have 

 not found, when allusions were made to another 

 denomination, innuendoes thrown out to their 

 prejudice ; and that the detail of any error or im 

 perfection which attached to them, was generally 

 relished, and even received with a high degree 

 of satisfaction. Hence it happens, that the rulea 

 of comm &amp;gt;n civility are every day violated by the 

 different sectaries. If a person belonging to a 

 particular denomination be accidently introduced 

 into a company composed of persons belonging 

 to another religious party, he is frequently treat 

 ed with reserve, and with a spirit ofjealousy and 

 suspicion, even although he may be viewed, on 

 the whole, as a Christian at bottom. I have 

 known individuals of respectable character and 

 attainments, who, from conscientious motives, 

 had forsaken the denomination to which they 

 formerly belonged, have, merely on this account, 

 been treated with scorn and neglect, been banish 

 ed from the intimacies of social and friendly in 

 tercourse, and been regarded nearly in the same 

 light as a Turk or an infidel ; and that, too, by 

 men who pretended to liberality, and to literary 

 accomplishments. 



There is certainly neither heresy nor ortho 

 doxy inherent in stone or lime, in a church-pew, 

 or a pulpit cushion : yet one denomination will 

 rudely refuse to another, the liberty of preach 

 ing in their place of worship, when it can con 

 veniently be spared, although nothing but the 

 fundamental doctrines acknowledged by both are 

 intended to be proclaimed ; just as if the walls, 

 the pews, and the pulpit of a church, would re 

 ceive a stain of pollution from the presence ol 

 another sectary. Even in those cases where the 

 common interests of Christianity are to be sup 

 ported, as in vindicating the cause of Mission- 

 ary, and other Philanthropic institutions, if the 

 preacher belongs to a dissenting body, he is shu 1 . 

 out from the spacious churches of the Establish 

 ment, where he might address a numerous au 

 dience, and obtain a large collection ; and is 

 obliged to confine his exertions within the nar 

 row walls of any public hall, or meeting-house, 

 that he can procure. We account it r.o more 

 than a piece of common civility, to accommodate 

 a neighbour with a htfk a parlour, or even a din 

 ing-room, for the enSRinment of his friends at a 

 wedding or a funeral; but such is the little progress 

 that professed Christians have made in the exer 

 cise of a noble and generous liberality, that, when 

 we ask the use of a church, or meeting-house, only 

 for a couple of hours, we are spurned away with 

 rudeness and indignation. The Christian world 



