,..--^'. c; f A ^^ f/ 7 J lA ? PEINCETON, N. J. 3^, Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. BV 130 .C7 1853 Cox, Robert, 1810-1872. Sabbath laws and sabbath duties jvumoer IL SABBATH LAWS AND SABBATH DUTIES. SABBATH LAWS AND SABBATH DUTIES CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THEIR NATURAL AND SCRIPTURAL GROUNDS, AND TO THE PRINCIPLES OE RELieiOUS LIBERTY. / By ROBERT COX. " I speak as to wise men : iu(l^:o ve niiat I say." — i-^t Pvid to the Corintlikftifi. EDINBURGH : MACLACHLAN AND STEWART ; AND SIMPIvIN, MARSIIAriL, AND CO., LONDOiS'. MDCCCLIII. NEILL AND CO., PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. PREFACE. The circumstances which have led to the publica- tion of this volume, will appear from the " Plea for Sunday Trains" which holds in it the most conspi- cuous place, but which serves chiefly to introduce a series of dissertations upon subjects of far wider and more permanent interest than its own. The leading topic here discussed is the Sabbath question ; but around it, and for its elucidation, many kindred themes of much interest and importance have gathered. What I have aimed at producing, is a treatise in which the lights of modern science and modern biblical learning should be brought to bear upon the matters in dispute. If by means of those lights it is possible to expose and counteract the un- obtrusive errors of some, the disingenuous misrepre- sentations of others, and the well-meaning sophistr}^, ignorance, and presumption of a third class of zealous Sabbatarians, the cause of truth may be a gainer by the discussion. I have endeavoured, moreover, to recal the atten- tion of divines and serious laymen to the much ne- glected but increasingly fruitful field of Natural Reli- gion. From its diligent culture there is reason to hope for a rich harvest of good to mankind. In particular, we may learn in it more and more how to spend bene- ficially the leisure of the Sabbath. Lastly, — and above all, — I have embraced so fit an opportunity to enforce those lauded, but imperfectly VI practised principles of religious liberty, which are in- volved in this and several other cpiestions of the day. In executing this part of the design, I have laid largely under contribution the writings of those great men by whom, in former times, the foundations of our freedom were consolidated ; and it is hoped that the sound sense, noble sentiments, and vigorous diction, which the selected passages display, will tend to foster the reviving interest in so solid and admirable a depart- ment of English literature. In the Plea for Sunday Trains, I have forborne, as carefully as when it was originally spoken, to intro- duce any inquiry into the theological basis of the Sab- bath. The sole ground on which m}^ stand continues to be taken there, is the civil right of the public to the use of the Railway on Sunday — a ground thought sufficient, independently of theological questions, to support firmly the conclusion that is built upon it. In the subsequent portions of the volume, however, the Sabbatarians are encountered on their chosen field of Scripture ; and I humbly suggest that should the agitation be resumed in the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Compan}", it ma}^ conduce alike to the ad- vancement of religious truth, and to the saving of much valuable time to men of business, if the theolo- gical part of the controversy be henceforth conducted exclusively through the medium of the pulpit, the platform, and, best of all, the press. For what good purpose can be served b}' reiterating, to intelligent men, assertions and arguments which to many of them are superfluous, and to others are merel}^ what they have long since considered and rejected ? Of the few theological discussions which occur in Note C, some may at first sight appear to be altoge- ther out of place in a treatise on the Sabbath. But if Vll a cliiei" purpose oi' our weekly holiday be the refresh- ment and enjoyment of man — as that of the Jewish Sabbath assuredly was — it cannot be impertinent to inquire into the tendency of any doctrine that is fre- ([uently delivered from our pulpits, to promote or to hinder so important an end. And this I with the less hesitation maintain, because we are constantly told by teachers of the views criticised, that it is a Chris- tian duty to attend regularly the churches where they are the instructors, instead of following our own judgment (if at variance with theirs) as to the most beneficial way of spending the day of rest. Nay, the present clerical crusade against the opening of the Crystal Palace on Sunday, and the sailing of a steamboat on the Clyde for the recreation of citizens of Glasgow upon that their only da}^ of leisure, is an in- vitation to every man capable of thinking, to discuss, in coimection with what is more strictly " the Sabbath question," the quality of the spiritual food administered by the agitators. The opinion is now^ rapidly spread- ing amongst us, that nuich of what is delivered as religious truth in Calvinistic churches not only has no title to the character it assumes, but counteracts the beneficial influence of the Sabbath ; and holding that opinion myself, I cannot but consider it a duty to op- pose (as I have done witli the help of theologians whose talents, erudition, and piety, well entitle them to be heard) certain views of the character and government of the Deity, which, if at variance, as I believe them to be, with natural religion and the doctrine of Jesus, ought to be freel}' and openly examined. Another ob- ject which has occasionally been in view, is to lead some to consider whether it is worth while to occupy so nuich time, and to excite so much bitter feeling, as we do, in discussing abfe;truse points of scholastic divinity Vlll about which the best and wisest men have come, and apparently will always come, to discordant conclusions. Surely it is high time that Christians should cease to torment themselves with the notion that a right deci- sion upon such questions is of vital importance to their welfare ; and that the clergy, instead of wasting their strength in fruitless logomachy, should labour more exclusively and earnestly in that department of duty which Bishop Butler lays out for them in a sermon elsewhere quoted: " Our province," says he, "is virtue and religion, life and manners ; the science of improv- ing the temper, and making the heart better. This is the field assigned us to cultivate ; how much it has lain neglected is indeed astonishing." Edinburgh, llth September 1853. PRIITCSTOIT " "^,7N. CONTENTS. A Plea for Sunday Trains on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, . . . Page 1 Civil right of the public to the use of the Sunday trains, 2 Protestant principles applicable to the case, . . 3 Exceptional Sunday labour, including that of railway- travelling, ...... 4-6 Grrounds of the public right to Sunday trains, . . 7 Utility of those trains, . . . . .10 Suppose that Jews had the management of the railway, and were to stop the trains on Saturday, . . .10 What reply could you make to their reasons (which would be your own), but an assertion of the principles now prac- tically repudiated ? . . . . .13 Let us do as we would be done to, ... 15 The Sabbath not endangered by Sunday trains, . . 16 APPENDIX. Note A. — The Victories of the Sabbatarians, 17 Agitation in the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company for the re-establishment of passenger-carriages iu the Sunday trains, . . . . .17 How the Board managed to give the Sabbatarians a victory at the Meeting iu August 1849, . . .19 Protest of certain Shareholders against the manceuvre, . 20 Comments of the Press, &c., .... 21-25 Proceedings at the Meetings in March and August 1850, 25 How the Directors may easily ascertain the opinion of their constituents, ..... 26 Note B. — The Right to Act according to one's Religious Belief, . . . .26 Reply to a charge of the Rev. Dr Lorimer, . . 26 The charge retorted upon him and his friends, . . 27 •^ The principles of religious liberty long since shewn to give no such sanction as is alleged to vices and atrocities, Page 28 Locke's exposition of the sphere of the Magistrate's authority, 29 Application of the principle to the question in hand, , 30 Note C— Gtod's Truth and Man's Truth, . 31 Two meanings of " Truth " distinguished and illustrated, 31 The private judgment of every man is his standard of re- ligious truth, . . . . . .32 The " religious truth " of individuals often undergoes change, 34 Cases of Baxter, 34, 49 ; Milton, 36 ; Whitby, 37 ; Chillingworth, 39, 50 ; Clarke, 42 ; Sir Isaac Newton, 43 ; Lardner, Belsham, &c., 47 ; Usher, 48 ; Hales, 48 ; and a scholar mentioned by Dr Owen, . . . . . .50 Reflections on such cases, ..... 51-53 Doctrine of original sin and the corruption of human nature, ...... 39-42 Influence of extension of one's religious studies, . . 50-53 Contrasts between the " relio-ious truth " of diflfcrent na- tions ; as England and Scotland, Scotland and Germany, 53-54 The Sabbath in Germany and Holland, . . .55 Sabbatarian practice of ignoring certain passages in St Paul, 56-61 The " truths " of one generation frequently become errors in the next, ...... 56 Romanism long the " religious truth " of all Western Europe, . . . . .58 The motion of the Sun round the Earth, once an in- dubitable " religious truth," . . .60 The existence of witchcraft, formerly a " religious truth " in Britain, . . . .64 The creation of the universe in six days, a " religious truth " down to the present time, . . 72 The Hebrew cosmogony now discovered to be at variance Avith established facts of science, 74 Efiect of this discovery on the interpretation of the narrative of the creation in Genesis, 89-93 The copy of the Fourth Commandment in Exod, XX. 8-11 must be abandoned, and that in Deut. v. 12-15 preferred, . 95 Both copies cannot be genuine, . . 97 Extravagant assertions of sundry evangelical Avriters as to the Hebrew cosmogony, &c., 99 The argument that Geology is an immature science considered, . . . 106 Difficulty of ascertaining God's truth, . . . 106 Consequent natural tendency of mankind to repose on some fancied infallible authority, .... 107 Roman Catholic notion of the Infallibility of the Pope, . 107 Protestants not exempt from the error of implicit reliance on human authority, . . . . .108 XI Aljject deference formerly paid to the autliority of Aristotle and Hippocrates in Philosophy and Medicine, . Page 109 Men of Science now liberated from such hondage, . 110-111 In Theology, emancipation is still to come, . . .112 Alleged tests of truth, ..... 113 Test of " general consent," .... 113 Its uselessness, . . . . .113 Employment of this test by a Sabbatarian writer, . .114 Reply to his argument, .... 115-116 The rights of laymen asserted, . . . .117 Doctrine of the Church of England and the Reformers con- cerning the Sabbath, . . . . .118 Doctrine of John Knox, ..... 123 Difficulty of knowing Avhich is " the true Church," . . 125 Divine right claimed alike by Episcopacy and Presbytery, . 126 Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? . . . 128 Practical lesson from the diversity of religious opinions, . 128 Locke on the duty of unprejudiced investigation, . . 130 In Scotland, the Westminster Confession virtually the stand- ard of religious truth, . . . . 132 History of the Westminster Assembly, . • . 133 No such authority claimed by it as that with which it has been invested, ...... 138 Completion of its Confession and Catechism, . . 139 Circumstances tending to bias the assembled Divines in their interpretation of Scripture, .... 141 The distracted character of the times, . .141 Reaction against the Prelatic government of oppressors, 141 Reaction against their aggressive Arininianism, . 142 Reaction against the Anti-Sabbatarianism of the au- thors and abettors of the Book of Sports, 142-154 History of the Book of Sports, and exposure of Sab- batarian misrepresentations concerning it, 142-149 The old Puritans ignorant of the principles of religious li- berty, ....... 150 Two different systems of " religious truth" endowed by the State in England and Scotland, . . . 151 Demand by members of the dominant sect in Scotland, that the public funds shall be applied to the exclusive support of the tenets of that sect, as " Clod's truth," . . 153 The infallibility thus virtually claimed is nevertheless dis- avowed in the abstract, .... 154 Noble protest of Milton against the authority of Ecclesiastical Councils, ...... 155 Superiority of modern helps to the interpretation of Scrip- ture over those enjoyed by the Westminster Divines, . 155 The true principles of interpretation unknown to the Pu- ritans at the time of the Assembly, . . . 158 Their introduction by Owen and Locke, . . . 158 Folly of setting up the Westminster Confession as a standard of truth, ...... 160 b 2 XII Effects of the erroueous iiiodo of exegesis of tlie old theolo- gians, ...... Page 162 Their mistaken notion that the Jewish law is in some degree binding on the Gentiles, . . . .164 Whether now binding even on the Jews, . . . 166 Special proof that the Fourth Commandment was an exclu- sively Jewish law, • . . . . 167 Revival of Judaism in the Christian Church about the be- ginning of the 16th century, .... 173 - This corruption transmitted through the Puritans to ourselves, ..... 174 Belief of Knox and others that idolaters ought to be extirpated, ..... 176 Notion that the Fourth Commandment is of universal and perpetual obligation, . . . 180 Notion that the capital punishment of murder is pre- scribed to us by the Bible, . . .189 Notion that marriage with a deceased wife's sister is sinful, ..... 190 Old notion that the Divine right of kings is counte- nanced by the Mosaic law, . . . 195 In what respects the Mosaic Law is of value to the Glentiles, ..... 196 The Decalogue represented by the Sabbath Alliance as the only stable foundation of morality, . . . 196 Tliis notion controverted, ..... 197 The law of nature and the law of Christ are the true foun- dations of duty to Christians, .... 197 The law of nature the perpetual and universal law, . 198 Its obligation acknowledged by the Sabbatarians when they find it expedient to do so, . . . • 200 Resemblance of their conduct to that of the Jesuits, . . 210 The proposition controverted, that, if you slight the Sabbath, you slight religion, and strike at the roots of morality, . 212 Bad effect of setting up factitious sins, . . . 213 Prevalence of religious insincerity, or cant, . . 214 Alleged favourable influence of Sabbath-observance on so- briety, ...... 215 Alleged moral character of the Sabbath law, . . 217 Natural laws embodied in the Jewish code, bind us only by their own independent authority, . . . 222 Stated seasons of repose from labour, the spirit of the Jewish Sabbath, 225 Ambiguity of the word " moral," . . . 227 The opening of the Crystal Palace on Sundays, improperly affirmed to be " immoral," .... 228 The reverse is the fact, . . . . > 229 Recreations on the Sabbath were not forbidden to the Jews, 229 Church-attendance versus Visits to the Crystal Palace, . 229 Reform needed in public worship, and in the doctrines preached by the clergy, . . . . • . 230 XIU Not the FoiiT'tli Coinmautlment but the law of nature enjoins public worship, . . . . Page 234 The law of nature prescribes also rural recreation on Sundays to the inhabitants of towns, .... 235 Health conducive to happiness and virtue, . . 237 The province of the clergy declared by Bishop Butler to be virtue and religion, life and manners, . . 239 Means of attaining success therein, . . . 240 A Layman's observations on the Crystal Palace, . 240 Uniformity of religious opinion impossible, . . 242 Consequent unreasonableness of persecution, . . 243 Natural diversity of minds, .... 244 Beneficial effects of variety of opinion, . . 251-3 Disingenuous subscription of Articles of Faith, . . 252 Protestant intolerance, ..... 254 Knox's Confession abandoned by the Scottish Puritans 200 years ago : May not, and ought not, we to abandon theirs ? 256 Protestantism a protest against the principle of autKority in religion, ...... 256 Its character is movement, .... 256 Confessions and Articles have signally failed to produce uni- formity of faith, ..... 259 No opinions can much longer survive, unless capable of stand- ing the test of reason and morality, . * . 260 New Reformation of Religion now in progress, . . 261 Encouragement to proceed boldly in the work, . . 263 Probability that among the notions about to be generally abandoned, is belief in the obligation of the Fourth Commandment upon Gentile Christians, Note B. — The Duty of Peesekvin& Health, . 267 Man's need of rest from labour, .... 268 Evidence of Dr Farre on this subject, . . . 268 The clergy, railway-servants, and others who work on Sunday, should rest on another day, .... 2"^ Admirable provision made for the health of the work-people of Price's Patent Candle Company, London, . . 270 Repose needed by mental as well as bodily labourers, . 272 Importance of physiology as a branch of general education, . 273 Bad effects of keeping people (especially children) within doors on Sundays, . . . . ^ \ 275 Sunday's leisure needed for intellectual cultivation, . . 277 And for the enlivenment of the social and religious affections, 278 Natural grounds of public worship, . . . 278 Active recreation needful, as well as rest, . . . 279 Note F. — History of Modeun Sabbataeianism, 279 The Mosaic Sabbath long continued to be observed by Hebrew Christians, . . . . . ,279 But the general opinion in the early Church was, that all the Mosaic ordinances were abolislied, . . . 280 XIV The Lord's Day not then identified with the Sabbath, Page 281 Afterwards it was figuratively so called, . . . 281 Origin of observance of the Lord's Day, and ancient mode of keeping it, ..... . 282 Doctrine of the Church of England respecting it, . 282,291 How the Fourth Commandment attained its prominent posi- tion in modern times, .... 283, 288 Views of St Augustine and the Schoolmen about the Sab- bath, . . . . . . . 284-5 Views of Continental Reformers, .... 285-7 Views of English Reformers, .... 287-9 Effect of placing the Fourth Commandment in the English Liturgy, A. D. 1552, ..... 289 The first Confession of the Church of Scotland free from Sab- batarianism, ...... 292 Till the close of the 16th century, Sabbatarian practice excep- tional in England, ..... 292 Plays and bear-baitings there on Sundays, . . . 293 Other recreations, ...... 294 Progress of their decline, ..... 295 Seventh-day Sabbatarians in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., . . . . . .297 Sunday recreations in Scotland during the latter half of the 16th century, ...... 298 ly Rise of the Puritan Sabbath, .... 301 Progress of Sabbatarianism in England, . . . 304 Opposition to it there, ..... 305 Its origin and progress in Scotland, . . . 306 Punishment of Sabbath-breaking by the Kirk-sessions, . 307 Prohibition of walking and other modes of recreation on the Lord's Day, . . . . . .311 Salmon-fishing on Sunday at Aberdeen, . . .313 Earthquake thought to be a judgment for this, . . 313 Grreat and sudden calamities viewed by the ignorant as pun- ishments for sin, ..... 313 Tyranny of the Kirk-sessions in Scotland, . . . 314 Presbyterian intolerance in the 17th century, . . 315 Civil and ecclesiastical regulations for Sabbath-observance in divers parts of Scotland, . . . 317-18 Dr Cook's uncandid observations on the Book of Sports, . 218 Southey's accurate representation of the case, . . 321 Controversies excited by the republication of the Book of Sports in the reign of Charles I., . . 321 Leading varieties of opinion then maintained about the Sab- bath, ........ 322 Opinion preferred by the Westminster Assembly, and handed down as " Grod's truth" to us, .... 325 Folly and arrogance of imposing it as such upon those who re- gard it as error, ..... 326 Baxter's treatise on the Lord's Day, . . . 327 How far do apostolic precepts and practice bind us ? . 328 Tyrannical legislation of the Puritans for Sabbath-observance, 331 L^ XV Their ordinance in 1647 for the aholitiou of Church-festivals, Page 332 English Acts of Parliament for the observance of Sunday, . 333-4 Sabbath-observance after the Restoration, . . . 334 In the eif^hteenth century, ..... 335 Influence of the Freuch Revolution in reviving Puritanism in Britain, ....... 335 EiForts of the Church of Scotland since 1794 for the promo- tion of Sabbath-observance, . . . 338-41 Old Scottish Acts of Parliament and of Assembly, . . 339 Hell-fire threatened by the Assembly in 1834 for walking in the fields and taking recreation on Sundays, . . 341 Sir Andrew Aguew's agitation for the better observance of the Sabbath, . . . . . .342 Report of his Committee of the House of Commons in 1832, . 342 Duty of the Tjegislature in regard to the Sabbath, . . 343 Sabbath-breaking said to be the first step to crime, . . 345 Opinions of the Bishop of London and Sir R. Peel on Sabbath legislation, ...... 347 Sir Andrew Agnew's Bill, ..... 348 Its preamble discussed, ..... 348 Alleged necessity of " protection" to traders and servants, . 349 " AVeak brethren" have duties as well as rights, . . 351 Popular objection that Sir Andrew proposed to interfere with the enjoyments of only the poor, . . . 352 Cases of a barber's apprentice and a Sunday steamboat at Dundee, ...... 353 Discussion on Sir Andrew's Bill at his moving its second read- ing, ....... 354 His policy of reiteration, ..... 355 Debates on the Bill in 1837, when its second reading was for the first time carried, .... 357 Elation of the Sabbatarians at so large a measure of success, 357 Sudden and " inscrutable" termination of Sir Andrew's career as a legislator, ...... 358 His subsequent ubiquitous activity out of Parliament, . 358 Agitation under his auspices against Sunday trains, . 360 How success was suddenly achieved in the case of the Edin- burgh and Grlasgow Railway, .... 361 " The eyes of all Grod-fearing people" turned thereupon to " the Avonder-working hand of the Almighty," . . 362 Dr Arnold's opposition to " all Grod-feariug people," . 363 How do the Sabbatarians know upon what special occasions miracles are wrought for them ? ... 364 Baxter's rebuke of the modern Pharisees, . . . 365 Selden, Bishop Newton, Dr Chalmers, and Samuel Butlei", quoted to the like effect, ... . 365-6 Agitation against Sunday-labour in the Post-office, . 366 Foundation of the Sabbath Alliance in 1847, . . 367 Diversity of opinion in the Evangelical Alliance about the grounds of the Sabbath, .... 367 Sabbath-desecration in France and Glcrmany, . 368-370 Death and character of Sir Andrew Agnew, . . 370 XVI Agitation about the opening of the Crystal Palace onSunday, Page 371 Resolutions of meetings of working-men in London, . 371 Chimerical fears for the safety of the Lord's Day, 372 Note Q-. — Cleeical Dogmatism and Lat Servility, 373 Natural grounds of authority and obedience, . . 373 The love of power too weak in some, and too strong in others, 373 Utility of that affection, and of the passions in general, . 374 Consequences of excessive love of power, epecially in the ig- norant, ...... 375 The clerical station conducive to growth of self-complacency and love of power, ..... 376 Arrogance of the Romish priesthood, . . . 376 Liability of Protestants to belie their principles by a tacit as- sumption of infallibility, .... 376 Treatment of Jews, Dissenters, Roman Catholics, Deists, and Atheists in Protestant Communities, . . . 376-7 Popish spirit of the Reformers, .... 378 " Authority in matters of faith" claimed by the Church of England, ..... 379-81 Authority of the Church of Scotland, . . . 379 Baxter's recommendation of humility to the clergy, . 381-2 Ridiculous figure made by them when they carry pulpit-airs of superiority into secular life, .... 382 Advice given them by Sharon Turner and Bishop Watson, . 383 Servility to the clergy a prevalent vice among laymen, . 383 Dr Chalmers' rebuke of this and other Popish vices, to his congregation in Grlasgow, . . . . 383-5 Servile deference to human systems of theology, . . 385 The proper influence of the clergy lessened by their own slavery to Articles and Confessions of Faith, . . . 386 Other bad effects of subscription of Articles, . . 387 Coi'porate and party ties impair the influence of clerical teach- ing and advocacy, ..... 388 It is diminished also by their exposure to " pressure from with- out," applied by weak and ignorant devotees, . . 389 Urgent solicitation of the clergy by the Sabbath Alliance, . 389 Disingenuous timidity of learned theologians, . . 391 Necessity of candour in the present age of free inquiry, . 391 Source of clerical antagonism to secular instruction, . 391 Short-sighted impolicy of this opposition, . . . 392 Lnprovement of the American clergy consequent on the edu- cation of the people, ..... 393 They still, however, suppress known truth in deference to the prejudices of the ignorant, .... 394 Imperfection of religious liberty in the United States, . 394 National education the remedy, .... 395 Necessity of unfettering the clergy in Great Britain, in order to make them cordial friends of popular education, . 396 Their character must deteriorate, unless the present tests be relaxed, ...... 396 XVll Demoraliziug tendency of disingenuous subscription of Articles of Faith, ..... Page 397 Other evils from the practice of subscription, . . 397 Creeds and Confessions fathered by Baxter on the devil, . 398 Note H. — What are " tue Feelings and Opinions OF the Scottish People" in Regakd to Sun- day Trains ? . . . . . 400 Professed inducement of the Directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway to their Sabbatarian proceedings, . 400 Instructive discussion at a meeting of the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee Railway Company, in March 1853, . 400 Indications of public opinion through the press, Town Coun- cils, and Mr Blackadder's canvass for a civic honour in Edinburgh, ...... 403 Appeal to the Directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail- way Company ...... 404 Note I. — The Gtrounds of Legislation for Sun- day Trains, ..... 404 Mr Joseph Locke's Bill in 1849, to secure to the public on Sundays a limited and reasonable use of railways, . 404 Speeches of Mr Labouchere, . . 404, 405, 409 Speeches of Sir G. Grey, and Messrs Wortley, EUice, and Aglionby, ...... 405 Speeches of Sir F. Buxton and Mr H. Drummond, . . 406 The principles of the question discussed, . . . 406 Vote-manufacture carried on by the Sabbatarians in Railway Companies, ...... 408 Second reading of Mr Locke's Bill, .... 408 Speeches of Mr Hume and Lord Advocate Rutherfurd, . 409 Ground of Mr Labouchere's hostile vote : That the measure was offensive to the feelings of a large body of the Scot- tish people, ...... 409 The Sabbatarians much more noisy than powerful in Scotland, 409-10 Legislation now proved to be imperatively necessary, . 410 Selden on the pious shift of escaping from contracts by the aid of Scripture, . . . . . .411 Note J. — Proposed Standing Committee for the Licence of Sunday Travellers, . . 411 The proposal publicly and seriously made, that a Committee of Saints should be established for this purpose, . .411 Scotland has need of a Burns, . . . .411 Note K. — The Causes and Cure of Drunkenness, 411 First cause — morbid propensity for intoxicating liquor, . 411 Second cause — defective nutrition, accompanied by hard labour, 412 Third cause — a flow of exuberant spirits in want of an outlet, 413 XVlll Remedies proposed, .... Page 412-15 Need of increased attention to sanitary improvement in Great Britain, ...... 414 And of a diminution of hard work, Avith an increase of the means of recreation, . . , • . 415 Knowledge of human nature needs to be diffused, . .415 Causes of the comparative sobriety of the French, . • 415 Importance of recreation as a means of diminishing intem- perance, . . . .fl . . 417 Gloomy religious views foster this vice, . . . 417 Religious insanity, ...... 418 Drunkenness can be cured only in accordance with the maxim, Suhlatd causd, toUitur efectus, . . . .418 Note L. — Recreation a Sabbath-Duty, . . 420 To the refreshment of rej^ose (which was the only thing ex- pressly provided to the Jews by the Fourth Command- ment), that of active recreation should be added, . 420 What is meant by recreation, .... 420 Its necessity to those who labour, .... 421 Religion not hostile to amusement, .... 423 The natural desire of excitement and enjoyment should be reasonably gratified, ..... 424 The most agreeable kinds of recreation are the most attain- able and improving, ..... 424 Study of Natural History and Philosophy, . . . 424 Reading, ....... 425 Eloquence and the drama, ..... 427 Society and conversation, ..... 428 Music, ....... 429 Natural scenery and sounds, .... 430-2 Gardens, ....... 432-3 Doctrine of the Westminster Catechism that recreations are forbidden in the Fourth Commandment, . . 433 On the contrary, it virtually enjoins them, . . . 433 Generous feeding, a sufficiency of sleep, and the i-efreshment of bathing, are also virtually enjoined, . . 433 Joyous character of Mosaic festivals, including the Sabbath, 433-6 Misinterpretation of Isaiah Iviii. 13, 14, by the Puritans, . 437 Michaelis on the necessity of festivals to mankind, . . 437 His defence of amusements on Sunday, . . . 438 What kinds of work were forbidden in the Fourth Command- ment ? ....... 439 Were meHi«nabour, and ^^/i^?H(7, prohibited ? . . 439 Visiting and feasting said by a Puritan writer to be *' awful violations" of the Sabbath ; if so, Jesus himself set an example of its profanation, .... 439 Cooking unlawful on the Sabbath among the Jews, . . 440 Principal Lee's denial of the gloomy character of the Puritan Sabbath in the 17 th century, .... 440 His assertion that " the time of the Covenanters was a period XIX of great religious light, and of great strictness and purity of morals," ..... Page 440 Its inaccuracy shewn from the evidence of the Gleneral As- sembly, Oliver Cromwell, Nicoll's Diary, the parochial registers, Hugh Binning, Principal Baillie, and several Acts of Parliament, ..... 441-6 Attempts of the two Drs M'Crie to lessen the weight of por- tions of this testimony, ..... 444-5 The Sabbatarianism of the Puritans condemned by its fruits, 446 Happiness conducive to virtue, and misery to vice, . . 448 Benefits derivable from Sunday trains, . . . 449 Evidence of the Rev. John Grriffith on their behalf, . 449 His appeal to the Clergy, ..... 450 Note M. — God's Vejtgeance against Sabbath- breakees, ..... 450 Pernicious errors promulgated by Sabbatarians about Sabbath- observance as the passport to worldly prosperity, . 450 The true sources of prosperity quoted from Solomon, . 451 Dr Bruce's notion of the method of Clod's government, ' . 452 The Puritan Sabbath acknowledged by Wilberforce to be a heavy day, even to Avell-disposed people, . . 452 Dr Lorimer's theory of the downfall of the Stewarts, . 453 Arrogance and ignorance of pretenders to knowledge of the secret counsels of the Almighty, . . . 453-6 Note N. — The Scottish Memorials against Sunday Trains, .... 457 These memorials signed chiefly by the ignorant, . . 457 Many of the signatures forged, .... 458 Exposure made at meeting of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail- way Company in 1842, ..... 459 Further exposures, ...... 460 Unseemly assertion of the present Dr M'Crie about the fabri- cated memorials, ..... 461 His reference to 213 memorials from "public bodies," . 461 Le Clerc's satirical advice to ecclesiastical historians, . 461 Note 0. — Protestant Principle and Protes- tant Practice, .... 462 The Rev. Sydney Smith on modern forms of intolerance, . 462 Grounds of Protestant ill-will to the Roman Catholics, . 463 Protestants vied with Papists in the work of persecution, . 464 Both parties ought now to forget and forgive, . . 466 The Protestants less excusable than the Papists, . . 467 Most of the Reformers advocated freedom only for themselves, 467 Zuinglius and Dudith rare instances of men who undei'stood and practised the principles of religious liberty in the 16th century, . . . . • . . 468 XX Discussions in England, excited by persecution of the Non- conformists, ..... Page 469 The Brownists not the first who entertained correct views of religious liberty, ..... 469 Mr Bancroft's claim for Roger Williams equally untenable, 469 The Independents, &c., ..... 469-70 Writings of Locke and his followers on toleration, . 470-1 Religious liberty in the United States, . . . 471 in Scotland, .... 472 Hopes for the future, ..... 473 Note P, — The Duty of acting accokding to one's Religious Belief, .... 473 Even mistaken people ought to act according to their judgment, 473 What if they should judge it right to injure others ? . 474 Duty of disseminating opinions, .... 474 Proper mode of doing so, . . . . . 475 The right of proselytising belongs to all sects alike, . . 475-6 Beneficial effects of free discussion, .... 476 Laws against the publication of blasphemous works, . 477 The maxim that " Christianity is part and parcel of the Law of England," . . . . . .477 Its origin and practical working, .... 477-8 The Law of Scotland more rational, . . . 478 Lord Jeffrey's decision of a lawsuit about a legacy for the pro- motion of Unitarian principles, . . . 479 Expediency of allowing equal rights to advocates of all phases of religion, ...... 480 Note Q. — Curiosities of the Sabbath Alliance, 481 The Alliance founded on the Fourth Commandment, as a " clear and unquestionable" basis, . . . 481 This the ground most generally rejected by theologians, . 482 Financial hopes and realities of the Alliance, . . 482 Its narrative of the Grlasgow struggle for Sunday trains, . 483 Its charge of dishonesty, ignorance, or stupidity, against the rejecters of its principles, .... 484 Its gigantic misrepresentation as to " the common consent of the Christian world" to a Sabbatarian doctrine, . 485 Its desire for controversy has been gratified, . . 485 Note R. — The Scriptural grounds of the Sabbath, 485 Sabbath-doctrine of the Shorter Catechism of the Church of Scotland, and Scriptural Proofs adduced, . . 486 Commentary thereon, ..... 489 The statement acceded to, that the rule at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law, . . . 489 Opposite doctrine of the Sabbath Alliance, . . . 489 Are the Ten Commandments a complete and mere summary of the moral law ? ..... 489 XXI Preface to the Ten Commandments, . . Pago 491 Fourth Commandment, ..... 492 The copy of that precept in Exodus preferred to the other copy by the framers of the Catechism, . . . 492 The reasons annexed to both copies, said by a Presbyterian Reviewer to have been written by Grod on the tables of stone, ....... 492 Tlie probable inducement to place the Exodus copy rather than the other in the Catechism, is now extinguished, . 493 Declaration of Jesus that his Father had worked continually, 493 Answer in the Catechism to the question, " What is required in the Fourth Commandment ? " . . . 493 Implied but unwarranted assumption that the Commandment was imposed upon all men, .... 494 Doctrine of the Churches of Eugland and Scotland, and the Sabbath Alliance, that the Decalogue is still in force, and the only part of the Jewish law Avhich is so, . . 494 Incousistency of the Alliance on this point, . . . 495 Some theologians contend for the continued obligation of the whole Mosaic law upon the Jews, . . . 495 Views of Hengstenberg as to the extent of its obligation on the Grentile Christians, . . . . , 496 Fallacy pervading his argument, .... 498 Arbitrariness of the practice of making a distinction between the Decalogue and the rest of the Mosaic law, . . 500 Confusion from oversight of the difference of position of the Jewish and Grentile Christians, . . . 501 The Decalogue and the Law of Nature, . . . 501 Luther's denial of our subjection to the Mosaic law, . . 502 His opinion of the Sabbath, .... 503 Did Jesus adopt the Sabbath into the new Dispensation ? . 504 He addressed the Jews only, and confirmed (to them alone) their whole law equally with the Decalogue, . . 504 His injunction, " Pray that your flight may not be on the Sabbath-day," proves nothing for Sabbatarianism, . 505 The passage in Heb. iv. 9, 10, equally unserviceable, . 506 Arguments of Sabbatarians from prophecy, . . 507-8 Declaration of Jesus, that " The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," . . ; . 508 Alleged saci-edness of the seventh day of the week among the early Grentiles, . . . . .511 The division of time into weeks no proof of a primeval Sab- bath, ....... 512 Probable oi'igin of weeks, ..... 513 Doctrine of the Apostles to the Gentiles about the Sabbath, 514 Decision of the dispute between the Jewish and Grentile con- verts at Antioch, ..... 514 Passages in the Epistles of Paul to the Romans, Colossians, and Cialatians, . . . . . .516 Rare attempts of Sabbatarians to explain them away, . 517 Alleged transference of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, ..... 518 xxu I Universal admission that no enactment of the transference is on record, ..... Page 519 Circumstantial evidence appealed to by the Sabbatarians, . 519 The Six Texts in the New Testament : — (1.) John XX. 19 : Christ's appearance at a meeting of the disciples in the evening after his resurrection, 519 (2.) John XX. 26 : Another appearance of Christ after eight days, . . . . .519 (3.) Acts ii. 1 : Meeting of the disciples on the day of Pentecost, ..... 521 (4.) Acts XX. 6, 7 : Incidents during Paul's visit to Troas, . . . . .521 (5.) 1 Cor- xvi. 1, 2 : His injunction to the Corin- thians to lay by alms on Sunday for the poor saints at Jerusalem, .... 522 (6.) Rev. i. 10 : "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day," . . . . . .524 Inconclusiveness of these Texts, .... 526 Counter-indications in the Christian Scriptures, . . 527 In the Acts of the Apostles the seventh day is always called " the Sabbath," a phrase implying that no other Sabbath was known, ...... 527 Denial by Sabbatarians that Christians in the Apostolic age observed the Mosaic Sabbath, .... 528 The fact that they did so, established by the history and writ- ings of St Paul, • • . . .529 In the controversies between the Jewish and Grentile Chris- tians about the Sabbath, no reference was ever made to its transference to the first day, as must have been the case had any such transference been known, . . 530 Tho history of the Acts of the Apostles, comprising 32 years, nowhere mentions, or alludes to, a custom of meeting on the first day of the week, or records any instance of a meeting for religious purposes on that day, . . 530 Such is the " Apostolic example" so confidently appealed to by the Sabbatarians !..... 531 Neither in the Epistles nor in the Apocalypse is Sabbath- observance even once enjoined, or neglect of it reproved, 531 Nor does Paul enforce his injunction to the Corinthians (as he naturally would have done if the Sabbatarian doctrine were true), by any reference to the sufferings and resur- rection of Christ, ..... 531 Reflections on the baselessness of the Sabbatarian system, 532 Revelations in Scripture said by the Sabbatarians to be some- times not express but by implication, . . 533 This principle, however, is no less available to their opponents than to themselves, ..... 533 And their charge of dishonesty, ignorance, or stupidity, can be retorted with aggravation, .... 534 Their averment, that no more tiiau the existing evidence of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first is needed, or to be reasonably expected, . . 534 XXIll Claim for the Puritans exclusively, of the " imniortal honour" of reviving the true Christian Sabbath, . . Page 535 Rebuke by Mr Groclfrey Higgins, of the dogmatism of the Sab- batarians, ...... 536 Origin of the religious observance of Sunday, . . 536 What did the Fourth Commandment require of the Israelites ? 540 Reference in it to a previous injunction to them to observe the Sabbath, ...... 540 Occasion on which that injunction was given, . . 540 Was the Sabbath made known for the first time in the wil- derness? ...... 541 Resting from work, the sole prescribed way of Iceeping holy the Sabbath, ...... 542 Public worship no part of the Sabbath-duty of the Israelites, 543 Synagogues of comparatively late origin, . . . 543 Grounds upon which recreations are said by the Catechism to be forbidden in the Fourth Commandment, . . 543 Meaning of " keep holy," " hallow," and " sanctify," . 544 To keep holy the Sabbath means simply to abstain from work, 546-550 Doctrine of the Sabbath Alliance and others, as to its sanctifi- cation, ...... 547 Notion of some, that the Fourth Commandment enjoins labour on six days, as well as rest on the seventh, . . 548 A recent attempt to I'ecoucile (renesis with Astronomy and Greology, ...... 548 The Sabbath a joyful festival among the Jews, . . 550 Misleading changes of the signification of words, . . 550 Old meanings of " solemn " and " solemnity," . . 551 Locke on the proper business of commentators, and the misin- terpretation of Scripture, .... 552 Purposes of the Jewish Sabbath : — (1.) Rest and refreshment toman and beast; (2.) Commemoration of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage ; (3.) To be a political badge and reminder, and a test of allegiance, . . . 553 Only the first of these purposes can be applicable to Gentiles, 554 Mental as well as bodily means of refreshment might be in view when the Fourth Commandment was given, . . 554 Various uses of the leisure of the Sabbath, . . . 554 Sabbath recreations advocated by the Rev. Mr Holden, . 554 Meaning of " doing thine own ways," and " finding thine own pleasui'e," in Isaiah Iviii. 13, .... 555 Gloomy observance of the Sabbath opposed, . . 556 Dr King's sound observation, that when pure enjoyments are denied, impure are resorted to in their stead, . . 557 He objects, nevertheless, to Sunday trains, , . . 557 Ptemarks on his reasons for doing so, ... 558 Mr ^lacfarlan's admission that " whatever is necessary to the recovery or preservation of health, or even to our comfort, is lawful on the Sabbath-day," . . . 558 Stability of our weekly holiday, .... 558 Bishop Horsley's interpretation of the statement that " God blessed the seventh day," .... 559 XXIV Meaning of the phrase, " Sabbath of the Lord thy Grod," Page 559 Consideration of the remaining evidence adduced in the Cate- chism, for the duty of abstaining from recreations on Sun- day, and spending it wholly in religious exercises, . 559 Mr Macaulay's character of the Puritans, . • . 562 Conclusion, ...... 563 Ikbex of Texts relating to the Sabbath, . . 564 Index of Names and Subjects, .... 566 CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA. Page 3, at the bottom, delete f Note C, and for Note D read Note C. 29, line 3, insert a comma after Protestants 49, line l,for have seen read shall see 50, line 6 from bottom, for Sidney read Sydney 60, line 6, delete Jewish 61, line 3, after in delete 1 62, line 7 from bottom, after divines insert See infra, p. 503, note. 73, line 8, after uneasiness insert and its opposite 91, line 6 from bottom, /or 13 read 3 96, line 21 from bottom, /or Genesius read Gesenius 119, line 17 from bottom, add and vol. xii., p. 412 136, last line, for lb. read Lightfoot, vol. xiii. 145, line 15, after wonder insert at being further told by Fuller 166, line 34, after Sermons insert vol. iii., p. 359, and 173, line 8, before Christian insert modern 219, line 9, after sign insert and a memorial 233, line 27, for that solemn read a solemn 258, last line, after notes insert also Priestley's Theological Repository, vol. ii., p. 195. 283, line 26, for the read divers ; for the comma after assumptions sub- stitute and ; and for and read with 287, line 6 from bottom, after 276 insert See infra, p. 515, note*. 328, line 4 from bottom, for precepts read precept 337, line 5, for Taylor read Tayler 358, line 6, after Railway insert bill 365, line 1 , after bondage insert ? 429, line 21, for Polities read Politics 437, line 19 from bottom, for simply read only 456, line 7 from bottom, for Science and Scripture read Religion and Science 492, line 19, after copy insert of the Decalogue 492, line 20, for these read the others 514, lines 23 and 35, for Sommerville read Somerville 546, line 9 from bottom, after feel insert a semicolon instead of the period 547, line 16, /or ace read are 553, line 17 from bottom, after bondage insert — an end for which, in its own nature, it was highly suitable ; and delete these words at the top of next page. 554, line 30, /or properties read proprieties 559, line 28, after interpretation insert of ,REC. NOV 1880 ^>. A PLEA FOR SUNDAY TRAINS. TO THE PROPRIETORS OF THE EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW RAILWAY. Gentlemen, — -At our half-yearly meetings held on 12th March and 27th August 1850, I moved, " That a morning and evening train be run on Sundays from each terminus of this railway to the various stations along the line, for the accom- modation of such portion of the community as may find it necessary to use these trains ; and that the accommodation be effected by attaching first, second, and third class passenger carriages to the Sunday trains now employed in the carriage of letters, parcels, and newspapers for the Post-office ; or that it may be otherwise effected, as the directors may deem ex- pedient." That this motion should be rejected on both occa- sions was a matter of course ; for, while not a single proxy was issued by the party with which I acted, expensive and suc- cessful efforts to collect proxies were made by our opponents.* But in spite of defeat, I am more and more convinced that the motion had reason and justice on its side, and that by reiter- ating, in the language of reason, appeals to your " discretion and common sense," the re-establishment of carriages for pas- sengers on Sundays will at length be effected. In this belief, I again respectfully urge upon your notice the arguments which some of you have already listened to with more or less atten- tion, in circumstances not very favourable to deliberate and candid judgment. Another inducement to address you in this more suitable form through the press is, that I shall have an * See Appendix, note A, opportunity of making such additions, and appending such illustrations of the subject and its collateral bearings, as it may seem desirable to introduce. In the following pages I shall of course speak merely as the expounder of my indi- vidual opinions, and not as the representative of any party, though I am aware there are many who fully concur with me. The argument which I employed on the occasions referred to was, that the public are entitled to demand and receive from us the amount of accommodation which the motion specified ; and I confined myself to this point exclusively, because, if the argument can be successfully maintained (as I think it can), all further discussion of the question upon other grounds is plainly unnecessary. On the present occasion I do not mean to depart from my former course. The question as to Sunday trains has usually been argued, at our meetings, as if it might or ought to be decided on theo- logical grounds. Clergymen and laymen have alike exerted themselves to shew what is the will of God in regard to these trains, and, having concluded to their own satisfaction that the systematic running of them is at variance with the divine will, have maintained that therefore the demands of other people who have come to a difierent conclusion should not be complied with. Now it is quite true that, as individual men, each of us is called upon and entitled to decide, for the regula- tion of his own conduct, what is the will of God in this as in other religious matters, and, having done so, to act in accord- ance with his notions of duty. But it is equally true that this liberty of action is restricted by the paramount obligation, which all lie under, to respect the rights, both natural and express, of every other man. Whether, in the circumstances of the case, the public has a natural right to the use of Sunday trains on our line, it is unnecessary here to inquire ; seeing that, as I shall endeavour to shew, there is an express agree- ment binding us to give the accommodation demanded — which agreement, every just man will admit, must overrule any no- tions of religious duty which we may happen to entertain. What I beg you to consider at present is a civil right, and nothing but a civil right — a right which stands on precisely the same foundation, whether the truth lie in one man's religious views or in another's. All men have equally free access with our- selves to the sources of knowledge of the divine will ; and it is not only the right but a recognised duty of every intelligent human being, to avail himself of those means of religious knowledge which are common to all, and to draw his own con- clusions from what he discovers. And not only so ; but, when he has drawn his conclusions, he is as clearly and undeniably entitled as we are to shape his practice in conformity with them — under this sole restriction always, that he shall abstain from violating by his conduct the rights of his fellow-men.* In a Protestant country like this, it may seem unnecessary to utter a single word in defence of the right of private judg- ment in religious matters ; but I must be allowed to say, that so long as this grand right, though freely acknowledged in words, shall continue to be so generally denied as it is, in practice, to all who differ in opinion from ourselves,! it will be the duty of the friends of liberty to demand on every fit occasion a real and practical recognition of the principle, that for our religious opinions and practice, while they violate no man's rights, we are responsible to God alone. It is the palpable and highest interest of every human being to gain correct knowledge of religious truth ; and when a man has done his best to acquire such knowledge, the opinions he adopts are the truth to him, and must, nay, ought to be the guiding principles of his conduct. To whatever extent this truth of his may chance to coincide with that absolute and eternal truth which can be authoritatively pronounced to be such by one Supreme Tribunal alone — a species of truth which men have ever been prone to confound with the opinions apprehended by them to coincide with it — I say, however much or little of absolute truth may be in a man's religious views, the sincere holder of them is entitled to reduce them to practice whenever and wherever he pleases ; nor, so long as the rights of society are uninvaded, has any one a right to say to him, " What doest thou V'X But let us see what kind of practical recognition this right of private judgment obtains from the party who object to the running of the Sunday trains. " This Company," say they, " is bound by a Divine Commandment delivered to the Jews at Mount Sinai, to abstain from carrying passengers systemati- * Note B. t Note C, % Note D. cally on Sundays ; therefore it would be sinful to re-establish the trains which in more sinful times used to carry them ; and therefore we will not re-establish those trains." This, I think, is the substance of all the arguments employed on that side of the question. But what say the opposite party to this 1 They tell us that, without in the least calling in question the right of those who hold this opinion to believe as they do, and to act in their own private affairs according to their belief, they, on their side, after carefully studying the Fourth Commandment and the other patent sources of knowledge of the divine will, are convinced that the running of the proposed trains on Sunday, for the conveyance of all who judge that they have good reason to travel, is not at variance with the law of God. We all agree that although the Fourth Commandment ex- pressly forbids those who are bound by it, to do any work whatsoever on the Sabbath-day, a strict and literal interpreta- tion of it would be unreasonable, inasmuch as total abstinence from labour is not only inexpedient but beyond our power. We all perform, or countenance others in performing, many kinds of labour on every Sunday in the year. It is rare to meet with any one who objects to the doing of certain kinds of work on Sunday by sailors, ferrymen, physicians, surgeons, domestic servants, coachmen, ostlers, dairymaids, scavengers, policemen, lamplighters, and persons in attendance at gas works, chemi- cal works, smelting furnaces, and I might add malting houses, were it not that the large and respectable sect of " total abstainers" see no need for making malt either on Sunday or Saturday. In short, it is admitted that works of necessity and mercy may and ought to be performed on Sunday ; and it may safely be affirmed farther, that a hearty desire is pre- valent among all parties that labour of this kind should be restricted within the narrowest limits that circumstances will allow, and that, by suitable arrangements (like those formerly adopted upon our railway when the passenger trains were run, and still, I believe, in use with respect to the trains which carry the Sunday mails), it should be made to fall as lightly and as seldom as possible upon individuals. But here we reach the critical point where disagreement begins ; — we come to the question. What is the meaning of that well-worn phrase, " works of necessity and mercy ?" What works or classes of works does it include and sanction ? Who is to determine whether a certain act, which somebody in certain circum- stances proposes to do, hut which another man tells him he ought not to do, does or does not in reality fall within the limits of these privileged classes of works 1 — As the discussion proceeds, it soon appears that there are hundreds of acts con- cerning which extremely diflferent opinions are entertained by different people in regard to their necessary or beneficial character. In the case under consideration, one party affirms that neither the systematic running of Sunday trains, nor the using of them when they ply, is a work of necessity or mercy ; while another proclaims its belief that precisely the reverse of this is the truth. Who, then, is to sit in judgment ] For my part, I know not any authority on earth that can be compe- tently appealed to ; and if none there be, the only practicable solution of the difficulty is to allow each party to decide for itself — to recognise the principle that neither has the shadow of a right to interfere with the decision of the other, or with the conduct regulated by that decision. I assert the right of every man to determine freely for himself what (within the limits already pointed out) he may do upon Sunday, con- sistently with his religious duty : if he err in his decision, he is responsible to God alone.* Now, it is perfectly well known that numerous cases occur in which people judge it right and proper to travel on Sunday. No statistics are necessary to prove that ; for when our Sunday passenger-trains were run, they were actually used to a moderate extent by the public, and at this day the public avail themselves, to a similar extent, * The only approach, that I can think of, to a correct definition of " works of necessity and mercy" is — works whose performance is calculated to save the com- munity from greater evils than those attending a moderate and exceptional amount of labour on Sundays ; in otlier words, works which the exigencies of human nature and human society demand the performance of. Most people agree that such works are not only lawful, but positively incumbent, on Sundays ; hut when they come to apply the definition to individual cases, the greatest possible disagreement is found to exist. The evils which A thinks greater than those of a particular kind of Sunday work, B thinks no evils at all, but evident ad- vantages ; while what seem disadvantages to B, are looked upon as advantages by A. Such differences of opinion will exist as long as men differ in tlie extent of their knowledge of human nature, and in their ability to see beyond the obvious and immediate effects of a principle or custom, to the more remote and indirect consequences which flow from it. of the Sunday trains on every Scotch railway which affords the accommodation. In a populous district like ours there cannot fail to occur, so frequently that non-occurrence is the exception and not the rule, cases where travelling is required for the performance of the duties of benevolence, relationship, and friendship, the duty of preserving health and strength of body and mind,* nay, even the duty of attending the ordinances of divine worship — for the last of these was the motive which induced many persons resident near the railway, and who either were not within reach of a church, or had not one of their own denomination in their district, to travel regularly to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Falkirk, and other places, in the Sunday trains formerly run upon our line. And who will deny that every one of these individuals was entitled to decide for him- self whether it was consistent with his duty so to travel ■? Just consider for a moment the endlessness of the controversies as to the extent to which the Fourth Commandment delivered to the Jews is binding on Christians, — how such controversies have abounded from the days of the Apostles down to our own times, and have elicited the expression of ths most diverse opinions from men all excellently qualified by learning, ability, and integrity, to judge in the matter. t In the face of such facts as these, is it not astonishing that in this so-called en- lightened age and Protestant country, any party of reli- gionists should assume the position of infallible interpreters of the divine law, whose dicta must regulate not merely their own conduct (as it ought to do), but also the conduct of their fellow-mortals who cannot see with their eyes, or discover the right of any man among them to sit in Moses' seat 1 1 Con- trast the effects of our present railway-arrangements with the working of those which existed under the former regime. Then, every man was free to follow the dictates of his own conscience : if he thought he had a good reason for travelling on Sunday, he travelled ; if not, he staid at home. But in these later times no such even-handed justice is dealt out to the community ; for although he who objects to Sunday travel- ling is still as completely at liberty as ever to remain at home, he who wishes to travel must hire a special conveyance at an expense which it is ten to one he cannot afford, or stay at home *Note E. t Note F. J Note G. against his will. It is in the hope of persuading you to aban- don this partial dealing, so discreditable to the Company and injurious to the public, that I now once more take the liberty of addressing you. My proposition is, that the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail- way Company lies under a civil obligation to the public (and, of course, to every individual member of the public) to afford them accommodation for travelling on Sundays, to the extent proposed by the motion which has been rejected. The ques- tion, Does such an obligation exist ? is, I submit, the one which ought all along to have stood foremost in our deliberations about Sunday trains, instead of being, as has somehow hap- pened, almost entirely lost sight of and forgotten. If it ought to be decided in the affirmative, there is plainly no means, short of re-establishing the Sunday trains, of escaping from the reproach of injustice and tyrannical abuse of power ; and even if it could be fairly decided in the negative, which I hope to shew it cannot be, we should still have to consider whether it would not be right, and reasonable, and expedient, to bestow freely what the public could not demand as their due. I admit that if we were an ordinary carrying company like the proprietors of stage-coaches, no man would be entitled to demand that we should establish conveyances on Sunday for his accommodation. But a little consideration will shew that our Company stands in a very different position from such in- dividuals and associations as these. It has been incorporated by an Act of Parliament for the express purpose, among others, of giving the public " additional means of communica- tion between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and adjacent places." These are the very words of our Act of Incorporation ; and it was in consideration of our engaging to fulfil this and other purposes that we were invested with extensive powers and pri- vileges, which we have abundantly exercised in compelling individuals to sell us their property, in destroying their pleasure-grounds, and in many other ways which it is needless to specify here. On six days of the week we have all along satisfactorily and creditably fulfilled our engagement to Par- liament and the public ; and — to the honour of the original Board of Directors be it said — for several years our pledge 8 was redeemed upon the seventh day also, in a manner which there is every reason to believe was satisfactory to those members of the public who had occasion and were inclined to avail themselves of their right to use the trains. But ulti- mately, by means of a certain remarkable coalition of parties, a decree was issued that the conveyance of passengers, even by the Sunday trains which were still to carry the mails, and which to this day have continued to carry them, should forth- with and imperatively cease.* In this proceeding the right of the public seems to have been altogether forgotten ; for among those by whose aid the decree was issued, were gentle- men of known honour and respectability, who cannot be sup- posed capable of wittingly and wilfully committing a breach of faith, or lending their sanction to a seen act of injustice. Surely it will not be argued, that because the " means of com- munication" which we afford during six days of the week, are in the aggregate greater than those which, before the railway was opened, the public enjoyed during the whole seven days, therefore our engagement to give " additional means of com- munication" has been fairly and adequately fulfilled. To such an argument as this there would be the obvious and conclusive reply, that we are no more entitled to make an exception of Sunday than to suspend the running of trains on Monday or Tuesday likewise, on the plea that the aggregate accommoda- tion given to the public during the remaining five days is greater than it used to be on the neighbouring roads during the entire week. I beg you to consider what sort of reception Parliament would have given to our bill if its preamble had set forth, not simply, as it did, that we were to furnish " addi- tional means of communication," but that we were to give additional means of communication upon six days of the week, while on Sundays it would be our religious duty to withhold even such limited means of communication as the public were at that time actually enjoying in the form of two mail-coaches, which the opening of the railway would of course entirely put a stop to. Will any man of business deliberately assert, in his character of a man of business, that the Legislature would ever have sanctioned such a proposal as that ? And if not, how can we escape the conclusion, that for several years we * Note H. 9 have been abusing our powers by doing what the Legislature never intended or expected us to do — what the promoters of the bill never contemplated we should do — what a large body of the public would have successfully opposed our being em- powered to do — and what we have therefore just as little legal right as we have reason and justice to support us in doing l* The plain truth is, that we are breaking faith in a manner which I for one, as a shareholder and a Scotchman, am ashamed of, and of which, as a member of the public, I shall not cease to complain ; and the sooner we wipe away this reproach, by re- storing to the community the use of those Sunday trains which we have so long persisted in " sending empty away," the better for our character in the eyes of every intelligent admirer of fair and honest dealing. Nor will our reputation for consist- ency at all suffer on the occasion ; for it is not without cause that a sneer usually accompanies the question, whether our desecration of the Sabbath would be materially greater if our engines drew four or five carriages after them, instead of the solitary one which from week to week they actually draw. I repeat that, to all appearance, the public were satisfied with the amount of Sunday accommodation which they for- merly received from us. It is likely that they will be equally content if the same amount be restored to them, and that such opportunities as we may again give them of travelling on Sundays will not in future, any more than formerly, be abused. There is no rashness in saying, that any man who should travel by the trains on Sunday, while believing that he sinned in doing so, would in all probability be at least as sinfully occupied at home if compelled to remain there. But, sinning or not sinning, he alone is accountable for his con- duct ; and neither we nor our directors, nor any tyrannical " standing committee for Scotland,''! have the smallest right to prevent him from acting as he does, however much we may be entitled to express our disapprobation of his behaviour, and to endeavour by reasoning and expostulation to lead him into a better path. Great exaggeration has been indulged in as to the misconduct of persons travelling by Sunday trains. If some few cases have occurred of individuals who * Note I. t Note J. 10 were found drinking to excess after such travelling, surely it does not follow that the Sunday trains were the cause of the drunkenness ! Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, is the lamest of all arguments. What reason is there to think that the drunkards would have led a sober life if cooped up in Glasgow or Edinburgh — nay, that they would not rather have been still more drunken, for want of the amusement of travelling, and by means of that additional quantity of spirits which the saving of the railway fares would have enabled them to purchase ■?* The truth, I fear, is, that if the means of healthful and in- nocent recreation be withheld from the people, they will ever be prone to betake themselves to vicious indulgences — to practices which do not the less exist because they are less within the observation of the virtuous portion of the commu- nity than Sunday travelling. And it is a question which might be advantageously discussed, how much of the drunken- ness and profligacy which notoriously prevail to so lamentable an extent in Glasgow and Edinburgh on Sundays, is in truth the effect of that peculiar tendency which the people of Scot- land have to surround their religious observances with re- pulsive gloom, instead of performing them in that cheerful and thankful spirit which, in other parts of Christendom, is thought to be more accordant with the precepts and example of our Lord. Perhaps a few prize-essays on this neglected branch of the subject of Sabbath-observance might supply us with useful information and valuable materials of thought. t Let me here put a case, which may serve to illustrate the principles above maintained, and perhaps be more effectual than any extent of mere argument in giving them weight with some who are disposed to reject them. It is prover- bially the best way of obtaining a clear view of the rights of our neighbours, to imagine an exchange of places with them, and to ask ourselves with what degree of satisfaction we should then accept from them the treatment they are receiving from us. This, I say, is the best way of bringing ourselves to the practising (in addition to the preaching) of the commandment, that we should do to others as we would that they should do to us. Suppose, then, that the stock of this Company has been purchased to such an extent by Jewish capitalists, that * Note K. t Note L. N 11 they have been able to establish a Jewish majority of directors at the Board ; which majority, we shall suppose, are not less sincerely attached to their religion, and not less zealous for the honour and glory of God, than the Board to whose hands the reins of power are at present confided. And, to complete the picture, let these Jewish directors be farther supposed to entertain a confident belief that they possess so certain a know- ledge of God's will, that other men's opinions concerning it must of necessity be erroneous if different from their own. This, to be sure, is a supposition not very complimentary to the Jews ; but, as it is a mere assumption for the sake of ar- gument, I hope that if there be any of the Hebrew faith among the readers of these pages, they will be good enough to pardon the liberty that is taken. Well, then, what do our Jewish directors proceed to do ? Why, the very day of their instalment in office, they issue a peremptory order that no trains shall be run upon the seventh day of the week — this being, as they announce, the day appointed by the divine law to be kept holy by resting from every kind of labour. The new regula- tion, of course, excites a universal outcry among the Christian members of the community ; they are up in arms against so flagrant a violation of their rights ; and, at the next meeting of the shareholders, one of them moves that the Saturday trains be resumed, in order that the inhabitants of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the intermediate districts, and her Majesty's subjects in general, who are all alike interested in the matter, may go about their lawful business as usual. But the con- scientious directors are inexorable : they have the efficient support of a large muster of Hebrew shareholders and proxies ; and the scruples of every waverer among them are dis- pelled by the presence of sundry eminent rabbins, who have bought shares of the Company"'s stock with the declared and sole intention of promoting the honour and glory of God. This compact phalanx is numerically irresistible ; but argu- ment, as well as the strength of numbers, is relied on for victory. A learned rabbin proceeds to expound to the meet- ing what they ought to believe. " Here," says he, " I hold in my hand a copy of the Fourth Commandment, which you yourselves acknowledge to be divine. What are the words of this Commandment ? ' The seventh day is the Sabbath of the 12 Lord tliy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work.' Now, what can be plainer than this — ' The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God' ? And is not Saturday the seventh day 1 and are we not, therefore, bound by the Com- mandment to rest from all labour on Saturday ? No doubt, you tell us that the original Sabbath-day has been abolished, and a new one put in its place. But, really, you must pardon us for adhering to our own deliberate and confident belief, that not one tittle of the Mosaic law has been repealed or modified ; and we must plainly tell you, moreover, that even supposing the books of the New Testament to be an authentic history of alterations of the Mosaic law, we cannot see how this admission would at all strengthen your case. For we have been told by many among yourselves, and have read in the writings of some of your most learned men, that the Christian Scriptures contain no record whatever of the ap- pointment, express or implied, of a new Sabbath-day ; — and upon looking closely into the matter for our own satisfaction, we have found, with surprise, that such is actually the case. Now, if you really do admit the Fourth Commandment to be divine and of universal application, and if you cannot shew that it has been altered by the supreme authority which en- acted it, you are clearly bound to observe it to the letter ; the reason annexed to the Commandment obliges you, equally with us, to keep the seventh and not the first day of the week holy ; and any Sabbath, except the one observed on the seventh day, must have quite another foundation than the Fourth Com- mandment. Your demand is most unreasonable, that we should substitute a festival of human appointment for one which is confessedly divine. It is the Sabbath which we observe, and not the new Sabbath observed by you, that is spoken of by our inspired prophets where they threaten its profaners with the divine wrath ; and as good citizens, desirous to avert that wrath from the British people, we esteem it our duty to prevent the desecration of the true Sabbath by our countrymen."* Such, we may fairly suppose, would be the reasoning of a Jew, hold- ing principles similar to those of the late Sir Andrew Agnew. Of the soundness or unsoundness of such reasoning, it is unne- cessary to speak — that is a point with which we have here * Kote M. 13 nothing to do : I am willing to assume either that the Jews, or the followers of Sir Andrew Agnew, or the advocates of Sunday trains, have the good fortune to hold opinions that coincide with absolute and eternal truth ; and I am equally willing to assume that any or all of them are so unfortunate as to mistake error for truth. Granting that Sir Andrew Agnew was the favoured possessor of sound theological views, and that everybody who rejects his doctrine is in error, — still I ask, What effective answer could any disciple of his make to the supposed Jewish argument ? — w^hat effective answer can be made to it by any man who repudiates the principle that all are entitled to judge for themselves what day is the Sabbath, and what they may without impiety do upon tha day 1 Not a shred of argument could such a man employ with the slightest prospect of success. He has thrown away the only weapon with which it was possible to assail the enemy and if he has any regard for consistency his plain and only course is quietly to retire from the field. But unless I widely mistake the character of certain of my opponents, no in- truding thought about consistency would for a moment im- pede the outpouring of their indignation. Even if there were a synagogue in every parish, and if every synagogue (at the urgent instigation of its rabbin — himself still more urgently roused by a circular from the head-quarters of the Jewish Sab- bath Alliance), had sent up a memorial exhorting the Direc- tors, with ready-made eloquence, to be firm in obeying God rather than man — if the strongest expressions of " grief and in- dignation" had come from the synagogues of Stornoway, and Knock, and Lochcarron, and Oban, and Trumisgarry, and scores or hundreds of other enlightened places* — would our clerical copartners have looked upon these respectable documents as of the slightest avail in settling the controversy ? It is pleasant to imagine the scornful glance which they would throw upon the ponderous pile of proofs of public opinion be- fore them, and the eagerness with which they would turn their backs upon their former selves, and resort to those very weapons which heretofore they had treated with disdain ! Most refresh- ing would it be to witness the energy with which they would inculcate upon their Jewish adversaries, that it is the privilege * Note N. 14 of every man to decide for himself whether or not the Fourth"" Commandment ought to be observed on Saturday — that although the trains should be run on that day, no Jew would be compelled to travel by them, or to assist in working them — that the Company had asked and received its powers from Parliament on the express condition that certain services, in- cluding the conveyance of passengers on Saturdays, should be performed to the public — that the Directors had therefore no right to close the railway on Saturdays — that to refuse ful- filment of a bargain on the ground of religious duty would be preposterous in almost any circumstances, and was supremely so where the pious individuals had deliberately become mem- bers of a company by whose previous engagements they knew they would be bound, but whose stock they had nevertheless bought for the express purpose of stopping the performance of those engagements — that if any Jewish shareholder could not conscientiously sanction, or refrain from actively opposing, the traffic on the seventh day, it was the easiest thing in the world for him, by selling his stock, to rid himself of all re- sponsibility and self-reproach for the acts which might be done by the Company in the honest fulfilment of its obligation — and that, in like manner, if any Jewish guard or engine-driver should think it unlawful to perform the work which his em- ployers desired to be done, he might leave freely the service which he had freely entered, and undertake some other em- ployment in which no Saturday labour would be included. These appeals would be found unanswerable even by the most ingenious adherer to the Mosaic law. But if the speaker proceeded to urge upon the Directors, as a reason why the Saturday trains should be restored, that a great majority of the people of this country desire them, and believe them to be lawful, he would at once quit his vantage ground, and be met with the argumentum ad hoTninem, — That error, even if held by ninety-nine of every hundred persons, is still error notwith- standing— that truth is truth, although but one man in a million should embrace it — and that it was the clear duty of the Board to obey to the utmost what they knew to be a di- vine commandment. And it would add but little to the satis- faction of the rebellious shareholder with such reasons as these, that they were very much of a piece with the reasoning 15 which he and his friends had for a series of years pertina- ciously employed against the Sunday trains. Gentlemen — We read that when the prophet Nathan deliver- ed a certain instructive parable to King David, the anger of that impulsive monarch was kindled against the op- pressor, and that when the emphatic announcement was made to him, " Thou art the man !" he acknowledged the justice of the charge, and fasted, and repented of his sin. Is it too much to hope, that the parable which has now in all humility been propounded to the opponents of Sunday trains, may be in some small measure successful in producing a similar effect ? — and that the proof of repentance may speedily appear among them, in the shape of a real and practical ac- knowledgment of the rights of their fellow-men, — the right of those to travel on Sunday whose conscience allows them to travel, and the right of those to stay at home whose con- science forbids them to travel.* Every one of us, I presume, has taken the trouble to consider for himself, with greater calmness and deliberation than it is easy to enjoy in an excited meeting of partisans, whether the running of Sunday trains, and the using of them when they actually ply, be consistent with the duty of a Christian, as discoverable from the Bible. We all, it is likely, think ourselves entitled and able to judge of this for ourselves. Each of us believes that, amidst the conflict- ing diversities of opinion, his own views are the truth. We all conform, or at least acknowledge that we ought to con- form, our individual practice to our individual religious con- victions ; and we are all alike disposed to resist the pretensions of our neighbour, if he tell us that we ought to act according to his belief of religious duty, and not in pursuance of our own.t In all this we but reduce to practice the fundamental and admitted principles of Protestantism ; and what I re- commend is simply this — that each of us should allow his neighbours to practise according to these invaluable princi- ples as freely as he does himself. In the noble and pregnant words of Locke — " Absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty, is the thing we stand in need of ;"J and it is only by establishing and respecting this * Note 0. t Note P. | Letter concerning Toleration, preface. 16 genuine liberty, instead of that spurious one-sided liberty which is so frequently put in its place, that justice can be done to all, or that men of opposite religious opinions will ever be brought to regard each other with that charity which is the chief of Christian virtues. The question, let me say once more, is not, " Shall the Sabbath be observed in Scotland ?" I know of no man who desires the abolition of the weekly day of rest — an institution so plainly adapted to the bodily, in- tellectual, and emotional wants of human nature, that any attempt to abolish it among us would be a ridiculous failure, even if aided by that round sum of £10,000 which our Sab- bath Alliance expected to drain from the people, but which so strangely refused to flow into its treasury.* What I oppose is not the observance of the Sabbath, but that kind of ob- servance of it which some call its " better" observance, and others its " bitter," and puritanical, and unchristian ob- servance— a mode of observance which, in the opinion of many earnest friends of religion, is much less calculated to promote respect for so admirable an institution, than to ex- cite a general distaste at religion itself, and to drive multi- tudes into the unmistakeahle Sabbath-desecration of vicious indulgence. t I cordially respect the zeal and sincerity of every one who demonstrates his sincerity by the accordance of his practice and professions. I admit to the fullest extent the right of all who differ from the advocates of Sunday trains to argue and expostulate with them from the pulpit, the platform, and the press. But no amount of respect for zeal and sincerity can blind me to the fact that you are trampling on their rights, and that the friends of rational liberty ought to exert themselves on every fit occasion for the recovery of what they have been unjustly deprived of, and for their own and their children's security from still more intolerable en- croachments. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient servant, ROBERT COX. * Note Q. t Note R. APPENDIX. Note A, page 1. The Victories of the Sahhatanuns. Wlieu, iu couformity with the regulations of the Edinburgh and Cllasgow Railway Company, I gave previous notice that the motion for Sunday trains would be submitted to the meetings referred to in the text, I had good reason to believe that arrangements would he made by certain influential Shareholders who approved of it, for procuring an adequate supply of proxies iu its favour ; but on both occasions the intention of those gentlemen to do so was accidentally frustrated. Had the case been otherwise, the motion would probably have been carried ; and there is little room for doubt that were it again brought forward with such a backing of proxies as, it is be- lieved, could easily be mustered if the necessary funds and a little personal trouble were applied to this object, the result of the division would be decidedly in its favour. At the conclusion of the meeting in August 1850, having no positive assurance of this needful support, and finding that such of my friends among the Shareholders as there was an opportunity of consulting at the time agreed with me in thinking that, in the circumstances, it was expedient to comply with a suggestion thrown out by the Directors in their Report, " That whatever should be the result of this meeting, no motion should be made, or notice given, on the question of Sunday trains, at least for a year," I forbore to renew the notice on that occasion, in the hope that ere long the Directors would, of their own accord, adopt the only eifectual means of putting an end to an agitation as troublesome to the Shareholders at large, as it is uncongenial with the tastes and habits of the writer of these pages. This hope, however, seems doomed to disappoint- ment ; for as yet there is no perceptible symptom of a coming change of policy at the Board. That the motion would probably be carried if the wishes of the whole body of Shareholders were fairly collected and given effect to, will appear pretty evident from a retrospect of what took place when something like a fair opportunity (for a perfectly fair one it cannot be held to have been) was last afforded them of expressing their in- clinations in the matter. The circumstances were briefly these : — On 31st July 1849, the following requisition, signed by 426 Share- holders, was presented to the Chairman and Directors of the Com- pany :— " Ctentlemex, — Since the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was closed, in November 1846, to the Public on Sundays, three leading Lines, all connected with and running into it, have been opened for -r B 18 Public Traffic, viz, — the Edinburgh and Northern, the Caledonian, and the Scottish Central. On these Lines (as well as on the North British, previously opened) it has been resolved, by large and re- peated majorities, to carry Passengers on Sunday. The subject has thus acquired a new aspect. On this ground, as well as for other important reasons to be hereafter stated, we are of opinion that the question of affording to the Public the means of communication on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Line, upon that day, should again be brought under the consideration of the Proprietors. " We, the undersigned Shareholders, therefore hereby request you to convene, on an early day, a Special General Meeting of the Com- pany, to reconsider the question of running Sunday Trains ; and that, prior to such Meeting, for the purpose of ascertaining and giving effect to the sentiments of the Proprietary on the subject, you issue a blank Proxy to every Shareholder, coupled with distinct instructions for filling up the same. " To prevent misapprehension, we may take this opportunity to state that it is not our wish that Trains should run to the same ex- tent on Sundays as on other days of the week, but simply that a Morning and Evening Train should run as formerly — Avhich practi- cally Avould be merely attaching a few Carriages to the present Mail Train." On 2d August there appeared in the newspapers an advertisement by the Directors, calling a special general meeting of the Proprietors, " to reconsider the question of running Sunday Trains, and to come to such resolution thereon as the Meeting may determine. Blank Proxies," it was added, " will be forwarded to all the Proprietors who are registered in the Books of the Company on the 10th instant, and, in order to be available, they must be filled up and returned to the Secretary, at least two days previous to the day of the Meeting." On 3d August, I, as honorary Secretary of certain Scotch and English Shareholders who had formed themselves into a Committee for the purpose of trying to get the Sunday trains re-established, and by whom the requisition had been prepared and circulated, wrote to Mr Latham, the Secretary of the Company, expressing the Committee's thanks to the Directors for the prompt manner in which the requisi- tion had been complied with, and for the resolution to issue a blank proxy to each Proprietor, so that the general wish might be fairly and satisfactorily made known. I farther said : — " The Committee infer that the Directors will not use their influence on either side with the Proprietors ; so that, whatever the result of the meeting may be, there may be no doubt in any quarter that the opinions of all have been freely and independently expressed." It was of course expected that the option of voting for either of two motions only, — for or against the trains, — would be given, this being the only way of ascertaining unequivocally the opinions of the Shareholders. On 10th August, however, the Directors, to the surprise of the Com- mittee, forwarded to each Proprietor, along with the advertisement calling the meeting, a blank proxy which might be filled up in favour of any one of three votes, viz. : — 1, for the trains ; 2, against the trains ; and, 3, " for leaving this matter in the hands of the Directors." Con- trary also to the expectation of the Committee, the Directors issued 19 with the proxies the fullowing circular, in which, instead of leaving, as they ought to have done, the proprietors to form an unbiassed judgment as to what was right and expedient, they employed their influence to procure votes against the trains. " Company's Offices, Queen Street, Glasgow, 10th August 1849. " In forwarding the proxy for the Special Meeting of the 21st inst., the Directors beg to explain that they have called it in compliance with a requisi- tion to reconsider the question of running Sunday trains. " They regret the agitation of this topic, their opinion as a Board remaining unchanged ; and they have not found that any practical inconvenience has arisen during the period for vehich the traffic has been discontinued. With this expression of their feelings, they now leave the matter in the hands of the Shareholders. " By Order of the Board, (Signed) " Petee Blackburn, Chairman." The statement here made, that the Directors " had not found that any practical inconvenience had arisen during the period for which the traffic had been discontinued," was calculated (I will not say intended) to make the distant Shareholders suppose that the " practical inconvenience" which the Directors had failed to find, had been found by nobody else — a supposition greatly at variance with the fact. The issuing of this circular by the Directors will appear the more uncalled for, when it is remembered that the reasons for and against Sunday trains had previously been laid before the Proprietors at ample length, in a circular by the Committee who prepared the requisition, and two Answers to it by certain Shareholders in Edinburgh and Glasgow — to which Answers a Reply was afterwards issued by the Committee. At the meeting on 21st August, I proposed the motion quoted in the foregoing Plea ; and Colonel Dundas thereupon proposed as an amendment — not " that no passenger-trains be ruu on Sundays," nor, " that this matter be left in the hands of the Directors" (to either of which motions singly, as well as to mine, the proxies were applicable) — but an amendment of the following composite character : — " That this meeting refuse the motion ; and, having entire confidence in the present Board of Management, resolve to leave this matter in the hands of the Directors'" ! The meeting was attended by Peter Blackburn, Esq., as proxy for certain persons "for running passengei"-trains upon Sundays;" Peter Blackburn, Esq., as proxy for others " against running passenger-trains upon Sundays ;" and Peter Blackburn, Esq., as proxy for a third class of persons " for leaving the running of passenger-trains upon Sundays, in the hands of the Directors." At the close of the meeting, the Chairman announced the state of the vote to be — " For the motion, . . 7678 " For the amendment, . 7919 " Majority of votes, . . 241 " On the motion of Mr M'Clelland, it Avas agreed to appoint Scru- b2 20 tineers, when Mr A. Patou and I were nominated on behalf of those in favour of Sunday trains, and Messrs W. Kidston juuior and Charles Cunningham on the part of those against the trains. At an adjourned meeting on 28th August, the Scrutineers handed in and the Chairman read the following Report: — " Result of Votes at Special General Meeting, held at Glasgow, 21st August 1849, on the Sunday trains question : — Against Sunday Trains. stock. "Proxies, £392,958 " Left in hands of Directors, . . 147,226 " Parties present, .... 20,461 Votes 5836 1839 244 £560,645 Foe Sunday Trains. "Proxies, £614,257 " Parties present, .... 9,262 7919 7565 113 £623,519 7678 " Majority of Votes against Trains 241 " Majority of Stock for Trains £62,874 " We tlie undersigned, having been appointed by the meeting scrutineers to ascertain the state of the votes and proxies, find tlie same to be as above. " Chas. Cunnin«ham. " Andrew Paton. " William Kidston. " Glasgow, August 21, 1849. " Kobt. Cox." The following letter was then read : — " Edinburgh, 27th August 1849. " J. Latham, Esq., " Secretary of the Edinburgh " and Glasgow Railway. " Dear Sir, — In writing you to-day with the note to be added to the scru- tineers' report, I omitted to say that the words ' majority against trains, 241' require to be altered to ' majority 241,' or 'majority for the amendment, 241.' The latter is the form 1 prefer, and I do not see that any of the scrutineers can have any objection to either. "Another alteration which it is desirable to make, and which I hope all the scrutineers will approve of, is the substitution for ' Proxies left in the hands of the Directors' of ' Proxies for leaving the matter in the hands of the Directors.' This is the accurate description of these pi'oxies, and as such it ought to be adopted ; but as my view of the matter appears from the note, 1 do not insist on this alteration if the other scrutineers object. " I regret giving you this further trouble j and am, dear Sir, yours truly, RoBT. Cox. " 1 coincide in the above. Andrew Paton." The note referred to in this letter was then read to the meeting ; hut being to the same effect with the following protest, which was immediately afterwards laid on the table with legal formality, it need not be inserted here. " We, the undersigned pro2:)rietors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company, hereby, for ourselves and on behalf of those who may adhere to us. 21 protest that the application by the Chairman to the support of the amendment moved by Colonel Dundas at the special general meeting of the proprietors, held on 21st August 1849, of two sets of proxies, one authorising the liolders ' to vote against running passenger-trains upon Sundays,' and the other autho- rising the holders ' to vote for leaving this matter in the bands of the direc- tors,' was incompetent, irregular, and illegal ; and that the motion for running passenger trains upon Sundays was carried by a great majority of the votes legally and competently given ; because the amendment being ' That this meet- ing rel'use the motion, and, having entire confidence in the present board of management, resolves to leave this matter in the hands of the directors,' no proxy which did not authorise a vote for both clauses thereof could be compe- tently used in its support ; and the effect of otherwise using the proxies has been that while, on the one hand, the proxies to vote for leaving the matter in the hands of tlie directors have been employed against a sjiecific motion to which they did not apply, on the other hand the proxies to vote against run- ning the trains have been employed in favour of an amendment which, so far from proliibitiug passenger trains upon Sundays, actually empowers the di- rectors to run such trains at their pleasure ; and because proxies to vote against running the trains could be competently used only in support of a specific motion that the trains should not run, whereas no such motion was submitted to the meeting. "J. G. Craig. " RoBT. Cox. "J.T.Gibson-Craig. "John Paxton. " Hew Crichton. " Hew H. Crichton. " John Hume. " Thomas Edington. " James M'Clelland.* " August 27, 1849." I was not present at this meeting, but, according to the report of it in the newspapers, " the Chairman said he did not like the intro- duction of legal gentlemen at the Company's meetings ; that the papers presented would be duly recorded in the Company's minutes ; but that he thought the view he had taken at the meeting last week as to the application of the proxies was the common-sense one." The manner in which this business was conducted by the Board called forth many severe comments from the newspaper press, few if any of whose conductors, except those of the reputed organs of ecclesiastical or Sabbatarian parties, found it possible to utter a word in defence of such proceedings. In the Scotsman of 29th August, the subject is thus clearly and conclusively handled by a Shareholder re- sident in Fife : — " 25th August 1849. "^SiR, — Permit me, through the medium of your paper, to express my disapprobation of the conduct of the Directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway at the late meeting regarding Sunday trains. In common with other Shareholders, I received a proxy, which I filled up and returned. I did so in the faith, that if there were a majority * The first of these signatures is the honoured name of Sir James Gibson- Craig, who, in spite of old age and infirm health, felt the same lively interest in this matter which he had ever disjilayed in the cause of freedom, and above all when any public right was defeated by mean and juggling manoeuvi-es. I am proud to have co-operated with this veteran and well-tried champion of liberty on one of the last occasions — if not the very last — on which he took an active part in any public affair. 22 of votes /or the trains, it would be decided accordingly ; if a majority against, the trains would not run ; and if there were a majority for leaving the matter in the hands of the Directors, they would have the sole power of running them or not as they thought proper. I will venture to affirm that not one of those Shareholders who returned a proxy had a different opinion, unless the Directors had made up their scheme beforehand, and made it known to their friends. But it seems I have been deceived, and like all those who returned as I did for, have been tricked out of my vote by a most indefensible course of pro- cedure on the part of the Directors. I would ask any man of com- mon sense, if those who filled up ' leaving to the Directors'' were against the trains running, why they did not say ' against?'' The answer is obvious, that they were either undecided, or they thought it better to leave it to the Directors than to tic up their hands either for or against. It will not do to maintain that because the Directors are at present against the trains running, ' against ' and ' having ' were the same. They were substantially different, and the Shareholders no doubt understood the difference. The Directors, like every other elected body, are subject to changes, and so it is to be hoped are their judgments. No one can say that the Board Avill be of precisely the same opinions to-morrow that they are to-day, or next year as they are this year. Hence Shareholders might very properly conceive that the better way was to leave this question to the Board, that they might be guided by after circumstances rather than be compelled to run or not to run Sunday trains, independent of all circumstances. " I do not wish to use too strong language, but I conceive I am quite justified in saying that we, the 'fors,^ have been tricked out of our votes by most unworthy means on the part of our Directors. I wonder the meeting did not as one man repel their conduct, and the Shareholders would do well to give the most unequivocal expression of their sentiments as to the want of straightforwardness in this in- stance on the part of those whom they had chosen to manage their affairs. Why, by such a procedure the Directors were sure of having everything their own way, unless by an absolute majority against them. If they had changed their minds previously to the meeting, they might with as much propriety have put the first and last votes together, and have turned out the ' againsts, ' even though these should have been of greater number than either of the two others. Something like those who when tossing up say, ' Heads I win, tails you lose,' they made themselves nearly as sure of gaining. Or like the white man who, when dividing the result of his day's fishing with the poor Indian, said, ' I take the shoulders and you take the tail, or you take the tail and I take the shoulders, any you like.' The ' fors' are in a situation akin to the simple Indian, who replied, ' What you say seems fair enough ; I don't know how it is, but you always get the shoulders and I always get the tail.' — I am, &c." The following extract from the Dailt/ News affords a specimen of the general tone of the press on the occasion. After commenting with due severity on the case of a railway porter, who had recently been fined at Bath for drawing a truck, laden with passengers' lug- gage, from the luggage to the passenger station of the Great Western Railway, the writer proceeds: — " Frivolous and contemptible as the proceedings of Captain Gris- 23 borne and Mr Walters must appear to every rational being, they look venial when compared with the tricks in which their allied opponents of Sunday travelling by railway in the north indulge. The public are aware that the Edinburgh and Grlasgow Railway Company have had a Board of Sabbatarian Directors inflicted upon them, in conse- quence of an equivocal coalition to which some English Shareholders, of whom better things might have been expected, were parties. In- timation having been given of a motion for the resumption of Sunday trains at the last statutory meeting of this Company, the Directors took the precaution of issuing blank proxies with three alternative votes. They gave the absent Shareholders the option of voting for the motion, or against it, or for leaving the matter in the hands of the Directors. As the day of meeting approached, it was ascei'taiued that the proxies would stand thus : for opening the line on Sundays, 7565 ; against opening it, 5836 ; for leaving the matter in the hands of the Directors, 1729. Accordingly the party of the Directors shaped their amendment thus — ' That the meeting refuse the motion; and having entire confidence in the present Board of Management, leave this matter entirely in the hands of the Directors.' The pious Chairman declared — ex cathedra — that all proxies against the motion and all proxies for leaving the matter in the hands of the Directors were to count in support of this amendment, and thus the proposi- tion in favour of which there was a clear majority was held to be negatived. " Really, the interests of true religion imperatively demand that all who are sincerely impressed with profound and earnest religious convictions should lose no time in openly withdrawing themselves from the associated formalists who are bringing the very name of religion into discredit. " We feel as strongly as any one can the importance of securing for every son of toil one day of repose and relaxation in seven. We can respect those earnest and elevated natures who sanctify this day for themselves by devoting it principally (we defy any mere human being to devote it exclusively) to religious contemplation and exercises. But we hold with Luther, that this mode of hallowing the seventh day, to be either meritorious or beneficial, must be spontaneous, the result of conviction and feeling, not a mere outward formal obedience to precepts enforced by penalties. We hold, further, that an exact literal compliance with the injunction to hallow the Sabbath-day by abstinence from industrial pursuits is impossible ; that a part of that day must always be employed by some part of the community in the discharge of menial and other services. And we hold that the Sabbath rest of fewer people is encroached upon, and to a less extent, even in the case of parties actively employed on Sundays by railway travelling, than by the cooking of dinners, making of beds, and driving of carriages for the busy-bodies who, by such immoral trickery and subterfuges as we have detailed, seek by direct or indirect means to put a stop to Sunday railway traius. " The most inveterate precisians will not deny that there are cases in which Sunday travelling is allowable. If one of them, for example, when summoned to attend the death-bed of a parent, a spouse, or a child, were to wait till the Sunday were over, his own sect would impute it to lack of natural aftcction, not to any higher motive. Now along 24 all the great lines of railway travelling by any other means has be- come impossible. There are but few who can afford the expense of a special train. The railways are morally bound to run Sunday trains, so that all who may be suddenly summoned to undertake necessary journeys on a moment's warning, may be freed from the embarrass- ments that would otherwise ensue from the banishment of post-chaises and horses from our roads. " The meddling impertinence of the opponents of Sunday travelling by railway has reached its climax, and can no longer be disregarded. By their employment of spies, and their tampering with votes, they have set at defiance every precept of honour and morality, and even of common decency. By gravely proposing that a railway porter should be put in the stocks for discharging his duty to his employers in the performance of services warranted by an act of Parliament, they have shewn their readiness to coerce consciences by penalties, and to have recourse to the provisions of old and forgotten statutes to this end. They are seeking to impose the yoke of a mere formal and ceremonial religion upon the people, and they shrink from no device, however mean or oppressive, that can promote their purposes." An article in a similar strain appeared in the Examiner. It con- cludes as follows : — " To understand the baseness of the trick, observe that all those who sent their proxies against Sunday trains are made to vote for leaving the matter in the hands of the Directors. What would these worthies say should the Directors think fit to open the line on Sunday, on the plea that they have a vote recorded committing the matter to their hands ? If they should do so, we cannot say that it would be very inconsistent with their past morality. " It may be a nice question with those who are curious in the analysis of moral obliquity, Avhether the incident we have just related, or that by which the same object was accomplished in the Scottish Central Company, be the more admirable in its cunning unscrupu- lousncss. Our readers may probably remember the circumstance to which we allude. A vast preponderance of proxies were in favour of opening the line, but the person who was to move the amendment on that side happening to leave the room for a few minutes, the counter-motion was put in his absence ; and as no one had presence of mind enough to represent him, it was declared unanimously car- ried ! " Dr Candlish lately described the operations of the Sabbath Alliance as ' long-headed,' an expression generally synonymous with cunning. That individual objects may be accomplished through such qualities, we do not doubt ; but it involves too much of the art of the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness in reality, to be the means of permanently influencing great questions in which truth, religion, ancl honesty are concerned. It will do no harm to the cause of tole- ration in Scotland to be beaten with such weapons. We only hope that no temporary irritation may tempt its advocates to have recourse to others like them. Let them never doubt that they will ultimately triumph." It is worthy of remark, that even after all possible advantage had been gained by the partisanship and devices of the Directors, there was still left a considerable and increasing majority in favour of the trains. 25 Since 1847, when the question had been last divided on, tlie votes given absolutely for trains had increased from 6751 to 7565 ; while the votes against trains had ftillen from 6820 to 5836. The editor of the Scotsman, by Avhom this circumstance was pointed out at the time, and to whose acuteness, energy, consistency, and courage, the cause of religious liberty is deeply indebted, remarked also that, "in 1847, there was a preponderance of the stock voted on of £30,300 in favour of opening ; in 1849, there is a preponderance (even reckoning accord- ing to Mr Blackl)urn's unparalleled plan) of £62,874. We court attention to the fact that, nevertheless, the majority which was 152 in 1847, is 241 now, shewing that the Pharisees maintain the little ground they really possess only by splitting and vote-manufacturing. It is important also to note the fact that one-half of the capital of the company (excluding loans) has not voted at all. All that half may he considered favourable to opening — the Pharisees, who are tho- roughly organised, knowing all their men, and looking sharply after them, while the other side, with little or no organisation, only grope in the dark. We have thus the amendment carried by less than one- fourth of the capital, at least a half of that fourth voting against their own avowed opinions, in order to please a presumptuous and clamorous clique, and the half of the remaining eighth composed of parties scattered over the whole country, who have bought one or two votes apiece for the sole purpose of making the company a field for agitating theological questions. If the bona fide Shareholders choose to tolerate such a state of matters, they should know that the bona fide Scotch public will not, but will continue perseveringly to resent and assail the insulting tyranny." * On the two subsequent occasions when my motion was brought forward, the results were these :— At the meeting on 32th March 1850, " a show of hands was taken, when 16 were held up for the motion, while the numbers against it Avere so numerous that they were not counted." The proxies stood as follows : — stock. Votes. " Against Sunday trains, £427,218 6094 " For Sunday trains, 4,575 74 " Majority against Sunday trains, £422,643 6020 " At the meeting on 27th August 1850, " it was agreed to come to a vote by a show of hands ; when there appeared 40 for the amend- ment of Mr Macfie, and 18 for the motion of Mr Cox. The amend- ment was therefore declared to be carried. The proxies sent in to the Directors were stated to shew the following results : — stock. Votes. " Against Sunday trains, £309,376 4481 " For Sunday trains, 30,237 233 " Majority against Sunday trains, £279,139 4248 " The comparatively small attendance, on these two occasions, of * Scotsman, 22d August 1849. 26 Shareholders favourable to the motion, was the natural effect of a well-founclecl belief that no actual trial of strength would take place ; seeing that, as usual, the Sabbatarian leaders would secure an effi- cient muster of their friends (who mostly reside in Glasgow and its neighbourhood), and would, moreover, by a liberal expenditure of money, add no small strength of proxies to that of voters present. If, happily, the Directors shall reach the conviction that they are not entitled to withhold from the public the use of the Sunday Trains, they need not be deterred from doing justice by any compact with those Sabbatarians who, several years ago, helped them into power ; for, in the eye alike of morality and the law, every agreement to do what is unjust and illegal is, ah initio, null and void. Nor need they pay much regard to the resolutions of the meetings above referred to — carried as those resolutions were by a small but active section of the shareholders. The majority has a preferable claim to their re- spect ; and if, in spite of the facts above adduced, it appear to them doubtful what the wish of the majority is, a cheap and easy mode of ascertaining the truth is at hand : let them send to each share- holder a circular inclosing a simple and unamhiguotis declaration, to be signed and returned by such as are hostile to the proposal embodied in my motion ; and let them, in doing so, refrain from directly or indirectly employing their influence as a Board to bias any of the shareholders. Nobody who regarded the running of the Sunday Trains as a breach of religious duty would fail to sign and return the declaration forth- with ; and all others would, by omitting to do so, tacitly intimate their consent that passengers as well as letters and parcels should again be carried. If the preponderance were thus clearly ascertained to be in favour of the measure, the Board would be not only justified, but bound by a due respect for their constituents, to carry it into effect without delay. But I repeat, that if the public right asserted in the foregoing pages exist (and till the Plea be refuted I cannot but regard it as conclusive), no such appeal to the shareholders is in the slightest degree necessary ; since it is the duty of the Directors to fulfil every obligation of the Company to the public, whether nine- tenths or only a tenth or a twentieth of their constituents be adverse to their doing so. And with respect to the Sabbatarian section of the community at large, it is plain that although it were as pre- ponderant, either in number or in the qualities which give weight to men's opinions and advice, as I believe it to be the reverse, its remonstrances in such a case as this are still less entitled to regard. Any complaints from that quarter against the Board for honestly performing a bargain, could bring discredit only upon those who made them. Note B, page 3. The Right to act according to one's Religious Belief. At the meeting to which the contents of this page were originally addressed, I was accused by the Rev. Dr Lorimer of Cilasgow, of maintaining "a monstrous doctrine, which would cover and protect the greatest vices and atrocities that had been committed on the face 27 of the earth. Would not," he asked, "the Thugs in the Bast Indies say with perfect sincerity that they hekl it as a religious duty to murder their fellow-men ? Theirs was not a religion — he would call it a superstition ; but on the principle advocated by the gentle- man who first spoke, those persons were honest, and equally entitled to hold their opinions with any others."* This accusation was founded on a speech in which the very words printed in the text were used : — namely, that every man is entitled " to shape his practice in conformity with his own conclusions as to the divine will ; under this sole restriction always, that ha shall abstain from violating by his conduct the rights of his fellow-men ;'''' — " that for our religious opinions and practice, while they violate no man's rights, we are responsible to Clod alone ;" and that, " so long as the rights of society are uninvaded, no one has a right to say to us, ' What doest thou ?' " The qualification was deliberately thus reiterated, in order to prevent, if possible, misconception on the part even of the dullest hearer ; and, with the same object, the first of the three clauses here printed in italics was uttered with as marked an emphasis as a pretty strong voice was capable of giving it.f If, as is probable and may here be assumed, the reverend gentle- man was not guilty of intentional misrepresentation, it must be con- cluded, either that, in his opinion, the murders committed by the Thugs do not " violate the rights of their fellow-men ;" or that, in believing me to be the apologist of every crime committed from reli- gious motives, he fell into a misapprehension not less " monstrous" than the doctrine which he fancied he had heard. If the former alter- native be the true one, he is beyond the reach of argument ; if the latter, he has furnished a proof that to be a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and a doctor of divinity, is not necessarily to be so well imbued with the spirit of religious freedom, as to be incapable of ridiculously misunderstanding a plain statement of its tritest and most elementary principles. So absurdly complete, indeed, was the mistake of the reverend gentleman, that, instead of having proclaimed the " monstrous doc- trine" ascribed to me, / had, on the contrary, been loudly complaining of him and his friends for acting in a manner which, as far as principle is concerned, thoroughly assimilates tiiex to those very Thugs ivhom I am represented as virtually taking under my patronage /;j; The fact is, that, in accusing me, he unwittingly pronounced his own condemnation ; for, * Report of Dr Lorimer's speech, in the North British Mail of 13th March 1850, p. 1, col. 5. t That the words ahove quoted are exactly those which were spoken, I am able to certify with confidence ; for, knowing well the necessity of extreme jirecision and clearness of language in such discussions, and having neither talent nor practice as a public speaker, I had taken the precaution to commit the argument to pajjer, and, as all who were present might see, made faithful use of the manuscript while speaking. J "Many and many a time," says Richard Baxter, "my own and others' sermons have been censured, and openly defamed, for that which never was in them, upon the ignorance or heedlessness of a censorious hearer ; tjea, for that which they dircurtlij sjwke against ,• because they were not understood. Especially he that hath a close style, free from tautology, where every word must be marked by him that will not misunderstand, shall frequently be misreported." — Baxter's Works, by Orme, vol. ii., p. 561. 28 just as the Thugs, on their side, regard it as a meritorious act of reli- gion to murder and rob travellers, so do the reverend doctor and his Sabbatarian friends, on their side, think it a religious duty to roh the public of the means of travelling on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway on Sundays — to which means of travelling the persons robbed have as perfect a right as the victims of the Thugs have to their lives and property ! That Dr Lorimer, not less than the Thugs — or than Samuel when he hewed Agag in pieces before the Loi'd in Gilgal — or the followers of Joshua when they slaughtered the Canaauites — or Calvin when he burned Servetus in Gleneva for heresy — or the excellent Judge Hale when he condemned old women to death for witchcraft — is " honest and equally entitled to hold his opinions with any other," I do not for a moment call in question. But when from o^iinion he proceeds to action — when, instead of merely expostulating with those whom he regards as sinners, he becomes a railway-shareholder and joins a band of robbers under the idea that it is his religious duty to do that which is as truly a violation of my rights as the taking of my purse would be — I am just as little inclined to tolerate his re- ligious doings as I should be to submit with meekness to the predatory religious rites of the Thugs, or to wink at any of the other " vices and atrocities" which my doctrine is said to "cover and protect."* Dr Lorimer appears to have studied to little purpose, if at all, the literature of religious liberty, else he v/ould have been more deeply impressed with the fact, that during the long and earnest contro- versy by which the right of private judgment in religious matters was at length established on an immovable basis, the accusation which he so solemnly brings against me was completely met by the champions of freedom in the 17th century ; and that any revival of it now is looked upon with surprise and contempt by well-informed and thinking men. Its revival, in fact, has of late been so seldom ven- tured upon, that it would be difficult to point out among Protestant writers during the hundred and fifty years which have followed the * " On no occasion," says that very able and consistent champion of religious liberty, Bishop Watson, " ought we to act in ojiposition to our conscience, but it does not follow that in obeying the dictates of conscience we always act rightly ; for there is such a thing as an erroneous conscience, and we may not be able to detect the error. I knew a gentleman who had been brought up at Eton and at Cambridge, who from being a Protestant became a Roman Oatholic. This gentleman examined the foundation of both religions, and finally settled on that of the Church of Home. He acted projierly in following the impulse of his judgment. I think he formed an erroneous judgment, but that is only my oj)inion, in ojjposition to his opinion ; and even admitting my opinion to be right, it would be uncharitable in me to condemn him ; for God only knows whether, with his talents and constitutional turn of mind, he could have escaped the error into which he had fallen. With a similar degree of moderation, therefore, I think of the different sects of Christians. Every sect believes itself to be right; but it does not become any of them to say, ' I am more righteous than my neighbour,' or to think that the gates of Heaven are shut against all others." — Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, written by Himself, vol. ii., p. 230. Lond. 1818. The same truly Christian spirit pervades the whole of that instructive work ; see particularly vol. i., pp. 107, 118, and vol. ii., pp. 16, 17, 56, 227, 287 ; also his Miscellaneous Tracts on Religious, Political, and Agricultural Stihjects, Jjond. 1815 ; and pp. 39 and 47 of the Catalogue of Books in Divinity appended to vol. vi.of his Colleclioi} of lliaological Tracts, 2d ed., Tjond. 1791. 29 death of Locke, a single instance of so rash an enterprise, besides that of Dr Loriuier himself. While religious liberty was still a question even among Protestants no argument was more frequently employed by the advocates of des- potism than this very one, — That the right of private judgment would, if conceded to all, sanction every species of crime, sedition, and immorality, which knaves or enthusiasts might pretend or imagine to fall within the sphere of their religious duties. How strenuously and effectively the inference was repudiated, may be learned from the controversies of the day;* and in particular from the following passage in Locke's conclusive Letter concerning Toleration, a work in which the whole subject of men's religious rights is handled with con- summate ability. " As the magistrate," says he, " has no power to impose by his laws, the use of any rites and ceremonies in any church, so neither has he any power to forbid the use of such rites and ceremonies as are already received, approved, and practised by any church : because if he did so, he would destroy the church itself; the end of whose institution is only to worship God with freedom, after its own manner. " You will say, by this rule, if some congregations should have a mind to sacrifice infants, or, as the primitive Christians were falsely accused, lustfully pollute themselves in promiscuous uncleanness, or practice any other such heinous enormities, is the magistrate obliged to tolerate them, because they are committed in a religious assembly ? I answer. No. These things are not lawful in tlie ordinary course of life, nor in any private house ; and therefore neither are they so in the worship of Grod, or in any religious meeting. But indeed if any people congregated upon account of religion, should be desirous to sacri- fice a calf, I deny that that ought to be prohibited by a law. Melibceus, whose calf it is, may lawfully kill his calf at home, and burn any part of it that he thinks fit. For no injury is thereby done to any one, no prejudice to another man's goods. And for the same reason he may kill his calf also in a religious meeting. Whether the doing so be well-pleasing to God or no, it is their part to consider that do it. The * See, for instance, Apollonii Jus Majestatis circa Sacra, torn, i., pp. 26, 56, 58, quoted in Dr M'Crie's Sliscellaneous Writings, p. 478 ; Letter from Faustus Socinus to Martinus Yadovitz, 14tli June 1598, in Toulmin's Memoirs of So- cinus, pp. 103, 105, 111 ; Dr John Owen's Works, xv., 7-4, 201, 239, 241, 242; Taylor's Liberty of Propliesying, Epistle Dedicatory, and Sect, xiii., § 2; Sect, xvi., § 3 ; Sect, xix., j^assim (Heber's edition of his Works, vii., 403, 411 ; viii. 118, 142, 212) ; Bishop Barlow's Case of a Toleration in Matters of Religion, pp. 21, 31 ; Barclay's Apology for the Quakers, Prop. 14 ; and Locke's Letter con- cerning Toleration, ed. 1765, p. 51. Among later writers, see Dr Benjamin Ib- bot's Sermons on the Right and Duty of Private Judgment, in the Boyle Lectures, ii., 806 ; Dr Balguy's Third Charge (on Religious Liberty) delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Winchester, in his Nine Discourses, &c., p. 208, 2d edit., 1817 ; Dr Furncaux's Letters to Blackstone concerning his Exposition of the Act of Toleration, &c., pp. 158, 160 (London, 1770); Dr Parr's Works, vol. iii., pp. 710, 715; Bishop Heber's Life of Taylor, pp. 216, 217, 318; Sis- mondi's Review of the Progress of Religious Opinions during the Nineteenth Century, p. 32 (Lond, 1826) ; Samuel Bailey's Essay on th'j Formation and Publication of Opinions, 2d ed., p. 316 (Lond. 1826) ; and an admirable article on the Right of Privat j Judgment in the Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixxvi., p. 412. The last is from the pen of Mv Henry Rogers, and is reprinted among his Essays selected from that periodical, vol. ii., p. 1. 30 part of the magistrate is only to take care that the commonwealth receive no prejudice, and that there be no injury done to any man, either in life or estate. And thus what may be spent on a feast, may be spent on a sacrifice. But if peradventure such were the state of things, that the interest of the commonwealth required all slaughter of beasts should be forborne for some while, in order to the encreasing of the stock of cattle, that had been destroyed by some extraordinary murrain ; who sees not that the magistrate, in such a case, may for- bid all his subjects to kill any calfs for any use Avhatsoever ? Only it is to be observed, that in this case the law is not made about a religious, but a political matter : nor is the sacrifice, but the slaughter of calves, thereby prohibited. " By this we see what difference there is between the church and the commonwealth. "Whatsoever is lawful in the commonwealth, cannot be prohibited by the magistrate in the church. Whatsoever is permitted unto any of his subjects for their ordinary use, neither can nor ought to be forbidden by him to any sect of people for their religious uses. If any man may lawfully take bread or wine, either sitting or kneeling in his own house, the law ought not to abridge him of the same liberty in his religious worship ; though in the church the use of bread and wine be very different, and be there applied to the mysteries of faith, and rites of divine worship. But those things that are prejudicial to the common weal of a people in their ordinary use, and are therefore forbidden by laws, those things ought not to be permitted to churches in their sacred rites. Only the magistrate ought always to be very careful that he do not misuse his authority, to the oppression of any church, under pretence of public good." The magistrate, then, ignoring men's motives altogether, attends merely to their actions. When these infringe the rights of any whom he is bound to protect, he steps in and punishes the aggressor ; and when the injurious act happens to be part of a religious ceremony, the punishment is for the civil injury or crime, and not for the theological error. Of this he has no right to take the slightest cognizance ; it is entirely beyond his jurisdiction. Now, what is true in such cases of the magistrate as the represen- tative of the community, is true of the individual members of the community ; and what is true of sacred rites in churches, is true of sacred duties in railway meetings. As the Sabbatarians may, without hindrance from any human law, kill, by way of sacrifice, any calf be- longing not to " Melibceus" but to themselves, so may they lawfully (whether wisely or unwisely is not here the question) put a stop to the running of all coaches, cabs, and other vehicles, belonging to themselves, and all raihoay trains under their control [whether plying on Sunday or Saturday), by which other men have kg right to be carried. In the foregoing Plea, it has been shewn that the public are entitled to be carried on the Edinburgh and Grlasgow Railway on Sundays ; and what I affirm is, that neither the magistrate, nor Dr Lorimer and his associates, nor the Directoi's, are at liberty to deprive us of the enjoyment of that right, on the ground that they are doing what is {i. e. what they think) acceptable to Clod. If the reverend gentle- man deny the right, let him demonstrate the inconclusiveness of the grounds on which it is maintained. 31 Note C, page 3. God's Truth and Man^s Truth. " Logical truth," says Dr Campbell, " consisteth in the conformity of our conceptions to their archetypes in the nature of things."* This is absolute truth, or God's truth ; and its expression in words is verbal truth: " Those propositions," says Wollaston, " are true, which express things as they are : or, truth is the conformity of those words or signs by which things are expressed, to the things themselves."f The other kind of truth, which in the text is distinguished from absolute and eternal truth, and to which the appellation of man's truth may be fitly applied, is that described by Dr Beattie where he says — " I account that to be truth which the constitution of our na- ture determines us to believe, and that to \i% falsehood which the consti- tution of our nature determines us to disbelieve. . . . Wq often believe what we afterwards find to be false : but while belief continues, we think it true : when we discover its falsity, we believe it no longer. , . . Truths are of different kinds ; some are certain, others only probable ; and we ought not to call that act of the mind which attends the per- ception of certainty, and that which attends the perception of proba- bility by one and the same name. Some have called the former conviction, and the latter assent. All convictions are equally strong ; but assent admits of innumerable degrees, from moral certainty, which is the highest degree, downward, through the several stages of opinion, to that suspense of judgment which is called douU."'\, "Of the eternal relations and fitnesses of things," says the same writer, " we know nothing ; all that we know of truth and falsehood is, that our constitution determines us in some cases to believe, in others to disbelieve ; and that to us is truth which we feel that we must believe ; and that to us is falsehood which we feel that we must disbelievo."§ " We are here," says he, " treating of the nature and immutability of truth, as perceived by human faculties. Whatever intuitive proposition, man, by the law of his nature, must believe as certain, or as probable, is, in regard to him, certain or pro- bable truth ; and must constitute a part of human knowledge, and remain unalterably the same, as long as the human constitution re- mains unaltered." jl " While man continues in his present state, our own intellectual feelings are, and must be, the standard of truth to us. All evidence productive of belief, is resolvable into the evidence of consciousness ; and comes at last to this point, — I believe because I believe, or because the law of my nature determines me to believe. This belief may be called implicit ; but it is the only rational belief of which we are capable : and to say that our minds ought not to * Philos. of Rhetoric, B. I., ch. 5, at the beginning, t The Religion of Nature Delineated, Sect. I., par. 4. J Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, Part I., ch. 1, pp. 18, 19. Lond. 1810. § lb., Part II., ch. 1, § 2, p. 134. II lb., Part II., ch. 1, § 3, p. 148. 32 submit to it, is as absurd as to say that our bodies ought not to be nourished with food. Revelation itself must be attended with evi- dence to satisfy consciousness, or common sense ; otherwise it can never be rationally believed. By the evidence of the gospel, the rational Christian is persuaded that it comes from Grod. He acquiesces in it as truth, not because it is recommended by others, but because it satis- iies his own understanding."* It thus appears that a doctrine which, when uttered by me, is " monstrous" and dangerous, has for three quarters of a century stood harmless and admired in the pi'incipal work written in opposition to the sceptical philosophy of Hume ! " Our own intellectual feelings," says Dr Beattie, " are, and must be, the standard of truth to us." " The opinions a man adopts," say I, " are the truth to him." These two propositions are identical ; and if it be true that mine asserts (as Dr Lorimer says it does) that " there is no such thing as a standard of truth," then is Dr Beattie's chargeable with the same enormity. But every discriminating reader will see that both Dr Beattie and I assert merely the fundamental doctrine of Protestantism, that each man's own judgment is to himself, though to nobody else, the standard of truth. Whoever denies this, and affirms that there is another stand- ard, is bound to tell what the true standard is, and to prove that it really possesses the character which is claimed for it. Many will say that the revealed declarations of Grod are the stand- ard of religious truth. Admitting this to be the fact, a standard must still be found to determine, Is^, where the revealed declarations of Clod are to be found ; and, 2dly, what is the true meaning of the records containing them. Now, it is only by the exercise of the intellectual faculties in the act of private judgment that these ques- tions can be answered ; so that private judgment is in fact the su- * Essay on the Mature and Immutability of Trutli, Part III., ch. 1, p. 264. In the following lines of Butler, the word truth is used in the sense of man's truth ; in other words, belief, persuasion, or opinion : — " Th' Egyptians worshipp'd dogs, and for Their faith made internecine war ; Others ador'd a rat, and some For that church suifer'd martyrdom ; The Indians fought for the truth Of th' elephant and monkey's tooth : And many, to defend that faith, Fought it out mordicus to death." Hudihras, Part I., Canto I., v. 773-780. " Our opinions," says Dr Ibbot, " do not alter the nature of things, and make them true or false as we believe or disbelieve them. Things are true or false in themselves antecedently to, and exclusively of, our opinions about tliem. So that though every man's religion be true to himself, yet it does not therefore follow that it is true in itself because he believes it to be so. He may have made a wrong choice, and embraced his religion before he had duly weighed the proofs of it." — Boijle Lectures, ii., 818 ; Sermon entitled, " The Objections against Private Judgment answered." Besides " God's truth" and " man's truth," above explained, there is " moral truth," which is the verbal expression of the latter, and is defined by Locke to be " speaking of things according to the persuasion of our own minds, though the proposition we speak agree not to the reality of things." — Essay, B. IV., ch. v., § 11. 33 preme arbiter here as in every thing else.* In regard to the question, What are the revealed declarations of God ? there is a pretty general * " For what," says the most eminent of Scottish theologians, " is every man's immediate standard of ortliodoxy but his own oi)inions ? . . . Should ye object, that the standard is not any thing so fleeting as opinion ; it is the word of God, and right reason : this, if ye attend to it, will bring you back to the very same point whicli ye seek to avoid. The dictates both of scripture and of reason, we see but too plainly, are differently interpreted by different persons, of whose sincerity we have no ground to doubt. Now to every individual, tliat only, amongst all the varieties of sentiments, can be his rule, which to the best of his judgment, that is, in his opinion, is the import of either. Nor is there a pos- sibility of avoiding this recurrence at last. But . . . such is the presump- tion of vain man (of which bad quality the weakest judgments have commonly the greatest sliare), that it is with dilficulty any one person can be brought to think that any other person has, or can have, as strong conviction of a different set of opinions as he has of his." — {Dr CainphelVs Lectures onEccl. Hist., Lect. 25.) This subject is excellently illustrated by Mr Blanco White, in his Observa- tions on lleresy and Orthodoxy. " What," says he, " do divines understand by Christian truth ? The answer at first appears obvious. 'Christian truth (it will be said) is what Christ and his apostles knew and taught concerning sal- vation under the Gospel.' Thus far we find no difficulty : but (let me ask again) where does this exist as an object external to our minds ? The answer appears no less obvious than the former : ' In the Bible.' — Still I must ask, Is the MATERIAL Bible the Christian truth about which Christians dispute ? ' No (it will be readily said) : not the M.ITERIAL Bible, but the sense of the Bible.' — Now (I beg to know) is the sense of the Bible an object external to our minds ? Does any sense of the Bible, accessible to man, exist anywhere but in the mind of each man who receives it from the words he reads ? The Divine Mind certainly knows in what sense those words were used ; but as we cannot compare our mental impressions with that model and original of all truth, it is clear that by the sense of the Bible we must mean our own sense of its meaning. When, therefore, any man declares his intention to defend Christian truth, he only expresses his determination to defend his own notions, as produced by the words of the Bible. No other Christian truth exists for us in our present state. " I feel confident that what I have now stated is a fart, vvliich every reflect- ing person may ascertain beyond doubt, by looking into his own mind : yet I know that few will attempt the mental examination necessary for the acknow- ledgment of this fact. A storm of feeling will rise at the view of the preced- ing argument ; and impassioned questions, whether Christianity is a dream — whether Christ could leave us in sucli a state of uncertainty — whether there is no difference between truth and error, witli many others more directly pointed at myself, will bring the inquiry to the end of all theological questions — abuse, hatred, and (were it not for the protection, alas ! of the great and jpowerful multitude who, ' caring not for these things,' take, nevertheless, more interest in the public peace than Gallio) severe bodily suffering, and perhaps death. " The mental /rtc{ which I have stated is, nevertheless, as unchangeable as the intellectual laws to which God has subjected mankind ; as fixed as the means employed by God himself to address his revelation to us. The Christian truth, which man can make an object of defence, is an impression which exists in his own mind : it is his own Christian truth which he wilfully identifies with the Christian truth which is known to the Divine Mind. That each individual is bound to hold that Christian truth which he conscientiously believes to have found ; tliat it is the great moral duty of every man to prepare himself con- scientiously for the undisturbed reception of the impression vmich he is to re- vere and to follow as Christian truth, I cannot doubt at all. I acknowledge, also, the duty of every man to assist others (without intrusion), as much as it may be in liis power, in receiving a mental impression similar to that which he venerates as Christian trutli. But it is at this point that a fierce contest arises ; and the reason is this : certain men wish to force all others to reverence (at least externally), not the mental impression, the sense, which each receives from the Bible — not the conviction at which each has arrived — but the im- C 34 agreement among Protestants, that the collection of ancient hooks forming the Bihle, is the only authentic recoixl of Grod's supernatural revelations to man ; hut when the true meaniiu/ of it comes under con- sideration, men's private standards of truth, when fi'eely applied, are found hy experience to furnish, in many cases, the most opposite in- dications. One man's judgment decides that the doctrines of Calvin are revealed in the Bihle ; another, those of the Pope ; a third, those of Arminius ; a fourth, those of Socinus ; a fifth, those of George Fox ; and a sixth, those of Swedenhorg. In regard to the scriptural doctrine of the Sahhath, one man agrees with Sir Andrew Agnew, another with Archhishop Whately. And each unavoidahly regards his own opinions as the truth, and those of the other investigators, so far as ditferent from his own, as error. In like manner, the " reli- gious truth" of savages is very different from that of civilized men, and the "truth" of a '' consecrated cohhler" from that of an ahle and accomplished scholar. So also, the " religious truth" of thought- ful inquirers is usually diiferent, in many respects, at the age of sixty, from wliat it was at twenty. Baxter, a man who, during a long and active life, hoth thought and puhlished with more rapidity and earnestness than any other theolo- gian of his own or perhaps any age, makes repeated mention of his experience in regard to alterations of his views. " If," says he, "you must never change your first opinions or apprehensions, how will you grow in understanding ? Will you he no wiser at age than you were at childhood ? . . . Our first unripe apprehensions of- things will certainly he greatly changed, if we are studious, and of improved un- derstandings. . . . For my own part, my judgment is altered from many of my youthful, confident apprehensions : and where it holdeth the same conclusion, it rejecteth ahuudauce of the arguments, as vain, which once it rested in. And where I keep to the same conclusions and arguments, my apprehension of them is not the same, hut I see more satisfying light in many things Avhich I took hut upon trust before."* Again : " The gieat mutahility of our apprehensions doth pression and conviction of some theological sect or church. The Christian truth of some privileged leaders (it is contended by every churcli respectively) should be recognised as Christian truth by all the world : in more accurate, be- cause more scientific language, Christian parties, of the most ditferent characters, have for eighteen centuries agreed only in this — that the subjective Christian truth of certain men should, by compulsion, be made the objective Christian truth to all the world : i. e. that the seiise wliich the Scriptures did at some time or other convey, or still convey, to such and such men, should be acknowledged as identical with that sense which was in the mind of the writers of the Bible ; the true sense which is known to the Divine Mind. '' Opposition to these various standards of Christian truth, with those who resjjectively adopt them, is Heresy."'— Pp. 5-7. See also p. 58 of the same work ; J. Martineau's " Rationale of Religious En- quiry ; or the Question stated of Reason, the Bible, and the Church,"" Lecture iv., p. 56 of the 3d Edition ; Archbishop Whately"s " Essays on Some of the Dangers to Christian Faith, which may arise from the Teaeliing or the Conduct of its Professors," 2d Edition, pp. 184, 250 ; the Rev. Baden Powells " Tradi- tion Unveiled : or, an Exposition of the Pretensions and Tendency- of Authori- tative Teaching in the Church," p. 76 ; the Quarterly Review, vol. xiv., p. 238 ; and Selden's Table Talk, article on " Declaring the Will of God," in his Works, vol. iii., Part ii., p. 2060. The passage in Selden will be quoted afterwards. * Christian Ethics, Part I., ch. ii. ; Works, vol. ii.. p. 129. 35 shew that they are not many things [in theology, Arc] that we are cer- tain of. Do we not feel in onrselves how new thoughts and new reasons are ready to breed new conjectures in us, and that looketh doubtful to us, upon further thoughts, of which long before we had no doubt ? Besides the multitudes that change their very religion, every studious person so oft changeth his conceptions, as may testify the shallowness of our minds."* In his autobiography, published in the Reliquice Baxteriana', he has recorded, in simple and beautiful terms, his last thoughts on this subject. The passage has often been reprinted, and is characterised by an Edinburgh Reviewer as " the most impressive record in our own language, if not in any tongue, of the gradual ripen- ing of a powerful mind under the culture of incessant study, wide experience, and anxious self-observation ."| Coleridge, also, pro- nounces this autobiography of Baxter to be " an inestimable book. "J If there be one point in theology which, more than any other, is in this country thought by most people to be clearly revealed in the Bible, it is the doctrine of the Trinity. Many are unable to conceive it possible, that an intelligent and candid reader of the Scriptures should fail to discover it plainly taught there ; and some are even ignorant of the existence, in past or present times, of Christians who deny that it is to be found in the New Testament.§ Yet there have been scholars, — and these not a few, — who, although brought up in the belief of this doctrine, and sometimes biassed by weighty induce- ments to give its evidence the most favourable consideration, have been led, after mature study of the Bible and those branches of learn- * Of Falsely-Pretended Knowledge, Part I., ch. xvi. ; Works, vol. xv., p. 130. t Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixx., p. 218. See HcUquiw Baxteriance, Part I., pp. 124-135, Lond. 1696. The passages referred to are given by Air Orme in his Life of Baxter, pp. 775-785 ; and by Dr Wordsworth, in his Ecclesiastical Biography, vol. v., p. 559. Some extracts may be seen in Chambers's Cyclo- paedia of English liiterature, vol. i., pp. 454-7. See also Dr Samuel Johnson's observations on this subject in the Kambler, 'So. 196. Swift, in his Thoughts on Various Subjects, exclaims : " If a man would regis- ter all his opinions upon love, politics, religion, learning, &c., beginning from his youth, and so go on to old age, what a bundle of inconsistencies and con- tradictions would appear at last!" And Niebuhr, writing to a friend in 1814, observes : " It is not the Pope, but the imposition of a creed, which the true lover of freedom fears ; for no one individual can undertake to hold the same creed unchanged throughout his life, and no two can believe exactly alike, unless they choke themselves with words." — {Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr, vol. i., p. 414. London, 1852.) X Coleridge's Table Talk, vol. i., p. 83. " Baxter,'' says Doddridge in one of his letters, " is my particular favourite; and it is impossible to tell you how much 1 am charmed with the devotion, good sense, and pathos, which are every- where to be found in that writer. I cannot, indeed, forbear looking upon him as one of the greatest orators that our nation ever produced, both with regard to copiousness, acuteness, and energy ; and if he has described the temper of his own heart, he appears to have been so far superior to the generality of those whom we must charitably hope to be good men, that one would imagine God raised him up to disgrace and condemn his brethren, by shewing what a Chris- tian is ; and how few in the world deserve the character !" — {Correspondence and Diary of Philip Doddridge, D.D.. vol. i., p. 460. London, 1829.) § On an occasion of the delivery, in a church in Edinburgh, of a sermon in proof of the Trinitv, a young lady of my acquaintance, of such education as was usual in her rank, and who is now the wife of a Scottish clergyman, expressed her surprise that so much pains should be taken to convince people of what everybody believed already I 36 ing which elucidate its meaning, to renounce as human error what they had long cherished and venerated as the truth of Grod. It will surprise some readers to 1)6 told that Milton was one of these ; hut there is irrefragable proof of the fact. That this great man originally helieved in the Trinity, appears from an invocation near the end of his treatise Of Reformation in England, published in 1641.* But when his posthumous and latest work, " A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone,^' was, in the pre- sent generation, discovei'ed and published, it became apparent that he had adopted, in his riper age, the opinion that the Father alone is the supreme and eternal God. | His doctrine in chapter v., is thus epitomized by Sumner : — " It is there asserted, that the Son existed in the beginning, and was the first of the whole creation ; by whose delegated power all things were made in heaven and earth ; be- gotten, not by natural necessity, but by the decree of the Father, within the limits of time ; endued with the divine nature and sub- stance, but distinct from and inferior to the Father ; one with the Father in love and unanimity of will, and receiving everything, in his filial as well as in his mediatorial character, from the Father's gift. This summary," continues Mr Sumner, " will be sufficient to shew that the opinions of Milton were in reality nearly Arian, ascrib- ing to the Son as high a share of divinity as was compatible with the denial of his self-existence and eternal generation, but not admitting his co-equality and co-essentiality with the Father." — (P. xxxiv.) But " with respect to the cardinal doctrine of the atonement, the opinions of Milton are expressed throughout in the strongest and most unquali- fied manner" in its favour. — (P. xxxvi.) He teaches also the doctrine of original sin (p. 262) ; but in some other particulars differs from those deemed orthodox in Scotland — as where he lays it down that " in death, the whole man (consisting of body, spirit, and soul), and each component part, sufl:ers privation of life" (p. 280) ; that " there is consequently no recompense of good or bad after death, previous to the day of judgment" (p. 293) ; that Christ died, not for the elect only, but " for all mankind" (p. 323, et seq.) ; and that the Mosaic law, particularly the article re- lating to the Sabbath, neither is, nor ever was, binding upon the Gen- tiles (pp. 228, 600.) In his prefatory remarks to the chapter " Of the Son of God," he asserts the right of private judgment with a charac- teristic dignity, and cogency of reason, which no true Protestant can resist. " If indeed," says he, " I were a member of the Church of Rome, which requires implicit obedience to its creed, on all points of faith, I should have acquiesced from education or habit in its simple decree and authority, even though it denies that the doctrine of the * Prose Works, vol. ii. p. 417 ; Mr J. A. St John's edition, in Bohn's Standard Library. The passage is as follows : — " Thou, therefore, that sittest in light and glory unapproachable, Parent of angels and men ! next, thee I implore, omnipotent King, Redeemer of that lost remnant whose nature thou didst as- sume, ineffable and everlasting Love ! and thou, the third subsistence of divine infinitude, illumining Spirit, thejoy andsolace of created things! one Tripersonal Godhead ! look upon this thy poor and almost spent and expiring Church," &c. See additional evidence of Milton's early Trinitarianism in Mr Charles R. Sum- ner's preface to his translation of the Treatise on Christian Doctrine, p. xxxiv. Lond., 1825. t Book I., chapters v. and vi., " Of the Son of God," and " Of the Holy Spirit." 37 Trinity, as now received, is capable of being proved from any passage « of Scripture. But since I enrol myself among the number of those who acknowledge the Avord of Grod alone as the rule of faith, and freely advance what appears to me much more clearly deduciblo from the Holy Scriptures than the commonly received opinion, I see no reason why any one who belongs to the same Protestant or Reformed Church, and professes to acknowledge the same rule of ftiith as my- self, should take offence at my freedom, particularly as I impose my authority on no one, but mei'ely propose what I think more worthy of belief than the creed in general acceptation. I only intreat that my readers will ponder and examine my statements, in a spirit which desires to discover nothing but the truth, and with a mind free from prejudice. For without intending to oppose the authority of Scrip- ture, which I consider inviolably sacrecl, 1 only take upon myself to refute human interpretations as often as the occasion requires, con- formably to my right, or rather to my duty, as a man. If indeed those with whom I have to contend were able to produce direct attestation from heaven, to the truth of the doctrine which they espouse, it would be nothing less than impiety to venture to raise, I do not say a clamour, but so much as a murmur against it. But inasmuch as they can lay claim to nothing more than human powers, assisted by that spiritual illumination which is common to all, it is not unreasonable that they should, on their part, allow tlie privileges of diligent research and free discussion to another inquirer, who is seeking truth through the same means, and in the same way as themselves, and whose desire of bene- fiting mankind is equal to their own."* Let us take another noted instance of the same kind. Dr Daniel Whitby, whose piety and learning Bishop Watson vouches for as " above all question,"! tells, in the preface to his Paraphrase and Com- mentary on the New Testament, that he found so many things said by Le Clerc, in his Animadversions on Hammond, in favour of the Arians, that he proti'acted the publication of his work till he had pre- pared an antidote for them. But, instead of an antidote, he found that which convinced himself that Arianism has a preponderating weight of Scriptural authority ; and in his Last Thoughts, which were pub- lished by his express order after his death, this theologian, who had intended to refute the Arians, is, at the close of his studies undertaken for that purpose, found writing in the following terms : — " This doctrine, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are of one and the same individual and numerical essence, seems to burlesque the Holy Scripttires, or give them an uncouth and absurd sense, from the beginning of the Gospel to the end of the Epistles.^^ And he candidly acknowledges in his preface, that " when he wrote his Commentaries he went on too hastily in the common beaten road of other reputed orthodox divines ; conceiving, first, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in one com- plex notion, were one and the same God, by virtue of the same indi- vidual essence communicated from the Father — ivhich confused notion he is now fidly convinced to be a thing impossible, and full of gross ab- surdities." * Pp. 80, 81. The same just sentiments are expressed in his treatise Of True Keligion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, &c. ; Prose Works, vol. ii., p. 510. t Catalogue of Books in Divinity, p. 7, appended to vol. vi, of Bishop Watson's , Collection of Theological Tracts. 38 This same Dr Whitby, in the preface to a Discourse concerning Election and Reprobation, &:c., whicli he published in 1710, mentions that he was brought up a Calvinist, and that what first moved him to examine into the truth of the Calvinistie divinity was the imputa- tion of Adam's sin to all his posterity, and the strange consequences of it. He adds, that he examined the writings of antiquity, and finished a treatise on Original Sin in Latin, which had been composed about twenty years, but which he had not thought it advisable to lay before the world. This anti-Calvinistic treatise, however, was pub- lished in the following year; and he has prefixed to it the declaration, for the sincerity of which he takes the Deity himself to witness, that in pub- lishing it he was actuated by " pure zeal for Grod, and love of truth."* * Tractatus de Imputatione Divina Peccati Adami Posteris ejus Universis in Reatum. Auctore Dan. Whitby, S.T.P. Ecclesiaj Sarisburiensis Praecentore. Londini, 1711. — The following words of Sfc Augustine appear as a motto on the title-page : " Non quisquam de vitiis naturalibus, sed de voluntariis, poenas luit.-' — Aur/ust. de Civ. Dei, 1. 12, c. 2. The doctrine of original sin and the corruption of human nature has been rejected by many other divines of the Church of England, and also by not a few pious laymen, such as Locke (Reasonableness of ChriHianity, at the begin- ning), and i3r John Gregory (Comparative Vieiv of the State and Facidties of Man with tlnse of the Animal World, Sect. I.) ; and by the whole body of the Unitarians, for whose opinions the works of Priestley, Lindsey, and Channing, may be referred to. Those who wish to see the doctrine of human corruption discussed with good sense, and knowledge of both Scrijjture and mankind, may get satisfaction in the perusal of Dr Jortin's Dissertation on the Duty of Judg- ing Candidly and Favourably of Others and of Human Nature ; being the third of his Six Dissertations upon Different Subjects, published in 1755. Taking for his motto the words of St Paul, " Charity thinketh no evil" (1 Cor. xiii. 5), he observes that " many who had no good will to revealed religion have taken a perverse delight in blackening human nature, and many weak and ignorant Christians have done and daily do the same thing ; and thus with different views these sworn enemies have joined together and assisted each other in abusing and slandering mankind'' (p. 129). The express purpose for which he sets about disproving the Calvinistie dogma in question, is to defend Chris- tianity against an objection stated by Bayle in the following passage : — " The laws of Christian charity,'' says that celebrated writer, " which require us rather to give a favourable turn to the actions of our neighbour than an unfavourable one, are quite contrary to reason. " For it is as certain as anything can be, that man is infinitely more prone to evil than to good, and that there are infinitely more bad than good actions done in the world. "It is therefore beyond degree more probable that an action is bad than that it is good, and that the secret motives which produce it are corrupted than that they are honest. " According then to the dictates of reason, if we know that a man hath done an action, and are ignorant of his motive and intent, we should judge it to be far more probable that he acts from bad than from good causes. "And yet the laws of charity require, that uidess we have a very probable evidence of the wickedness of an action, we should rather conclude it to be good than bad. " Thus charity directs us to do just the contrary to the dictates of reason: and indeed this is not the only sacrifice which religion requires us to make of our reason." See his Lettres Grit., xii. p. 248 ; in which, says Jortin, he thus "endeavours to prove, that none can receive the Christian religion, unless he will think and act contrary to reason; that is, in other words, unless he be fool or mad." If the premises assumed by Bayle — which we must allow are identical with an opinion generally taught in Scotland as " God's truth," — are a correct re- 39 That the celebrated. Chilling-worth, who flourished a little earlier thau Milton, also held Arian opinions, appears plainly from a letter presentation of the nature of man, then must the conclusion which he so logi- cally deduces from it be accepted as true, and the duty of Christian charity must be regarded as one which no reasonable man can ever practise. Otliers, with equally good logic, have maintained, that since the Scripture teaches that all men, and even the best of them, are thoroughly corrupt, holi- ness and good works cannot be so very necessary as they are said to be, — and that, in fact, the practice of them is absolutely im])ossible. That the Scriptures, however, give no such account of human nature, is thought by others to be easily discoverable by any judicious student of them, whose object is to find the truth, and not merely to furnish himself with the means of upholding a theological system, which his credit or interest impels him to defend. For if, say they, what is poetically stated in verse 3d of the 14th Psalm is to be as strictly understood as if it were asserted in a dry scholastic treatise, it will follow " that there is not one good man upon earth, that all men are perverted, that they are all become abominable by their sins, and that there is not one single per- son that is just, or that fears God. But this consequence," they add, "raises horror; it is contrary to truth and experience, and to what the Scripture de- clares in a thousand places, where it speaks of good men, and distinguishes them from the wicked. Nay, this consequence may be destroyed from what we read in that very Psalm, which mentions the just who are protected by God, and the wicked who persecute them. This complaint of David must therefore be understood with some restrictions." — (Ostervald's Treatise concerning the Causes of the prcfcnt Corruption of Christians, Part i. Cause iv., " The abuse of Holy Scripture;'' in liishop Watson's Coll. of Thcol. Tracts, vol. vi., p. 168.) Locke expresses the opinion that " if by death, threatened to Adam, were meant the corrujjtion of human nature in his posterity, it is strange that the New Testament should not anj'where take notice of it, and tell us that corruption seized on all because of Adam's transgression, as well as it tells us so of death. But, as I remember, every one's sin is charged upon himself only." — (The Rea- sonableness of Christiauitii, as delivered in the Scriptures, 4th paragraph.) And Gilbert Wakefield roundly affirms, that " that doctrine of the depravation of the human heart, in consequence of the fall, is most unscripjtural and erroneous, dis- honourable to God, and an encouragement to sinners ; as Dr Taylor, in his work on Original Sin, has demonstrated by evidence as clear and cogent as can be offered to tlie human mind.' — [Metiioirs of Gilbert IVakejield, vol. i., p. 419.) There is an admirable delineation of human nature as it really is, in the Ser- mons of Dr Alexander Gerard, who in the middle of last century filled the chair of Divinity in King's College, Aberdeen, and, with his friends Reid, Gregory, Beattie, and Campbell (who evidently concurred with him in rejecting the Cal- vinistic dogma), at that time threw so much lustre on the nortliern university. See his 9th, 10th, and 11th Sermons, on "The diversity of men's natural tempers," " The necessity of governing the natural temper,'' and "The manner of govern- ing the natural temper," vol. i., p. 211, et scq. (Lond. 1780.) Dr Gerard's analysis of the human dispositions comes very near that which Dr Gall has more recently deduced from the physiology of the brain, and which, for the last twenty-five years, has been an object of suspicion and dislike to the Scottish clergy. — (Sur les Fonctions du Ccrveau, et sur Celles de Chacune de ses Parties, Par F. J. Gall. Paris, 1825.) AVhether any philosophy of human nature, which teaches its utter vileness, is countenanced b} the general tenor of Scripture, let the following ex- tracts testify : — " Every tree," says Jesus, " is known by its own fruit ; for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble-bush gather they grapes. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good ; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil ; for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh" — (Luke vi. 44, 45). In Matthew's Gospel, he counsels his followers thus : — " Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." And again, " I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance"— (Matt. v. 16; ix. 13). Of Nathanael he said: — " Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile''- — (John i. 47). Explain- 40 of liis to a friend, ia the Life prefixed to his Works. (Tenth edition, 1742, p. 34.) He there maintains that the most eminent Christian ing the parable of the sower, he uses the follofl'ing words : — " But that on the good ground are they which, in an honest and good heart, having lieard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience" — (Luke viii. 15). And in tlie parable of the lost sheep — " I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety -and-nine just per- sons, which need no repentance" — (Luke xv. 7). Of Zacharias and his wife Eli- zabeth, we are told, that " They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless" — (Luke 1. 6). And the Apostle says — " Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" — (2 Tim. ii. 22). And again — " Unto the pure all things are pure" — (Titus i. 1 5). In the Book of Proverbs there are end- less contrasts between the wicked and the righteous. Thus — "The wicked flee when no man pursueth ; but the righteous are bold as a lion" — (xxviii. 1). " When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice ; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn" — (xxix. 2). And the Psalmist says — " For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous ; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield" — (v. 12). " Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just" — (vii. 9). " With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful ; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward." — (xviii. 25, 26.) Finally, " Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright ; for the end of that man is peace" — (xxxvii. 37). See also Psalms i. 1, 2; xv. ; xxxii. 11; xxxiii. 1; xxxvii. 16, 17; xcvii. 10 — 12; cxii.; cxxviii. The foregoing texts relate to the dis2)ositions or emotional faculties of man, and appear to recognise clearly the existence of moral sentiments in a sound natural condition. If farther proof be wanting, I think it will be found in the following remarkable words, which almost seem to be prophetically directed against the modern Calvinists : " He that justifieth the wicked, and he that CONDEMNETH THE JUST, even they both are ahomination to the Lord.'' (Prov. xvii. 15.) With respect to the intellect of man, any one may see that it is ap- pealed to throughout the Bible as capable of judging correctly of evidence set before it. St Paul, for example, desires us to " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. v. 21) ; and in the words of my motto he says — " I speak as to wise men ; judge ye what I say" (1 Cor. x. 15). For an ample defence of the natural soundness of human reason, see Dr Ibbot's Sermon, in the Boyle Lectures, vol. ii., p. 855, entitled — " That the Scriptures do suppose, encourage, and enjoin, the use of our reason in matters of religion ;" and two other Sermons, by the same writer, pp. 840, 850, entitled — " Objec- tions out of Scripture against Free-thinking answered." For a vigorous asser- tion of the existence of inborn, incorruptible integrity, unswayed by motives of self-interest, in many human beings, see Life of Niebuhr, vol. i., p. 316. Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Keid, Kames, Stewart, Brown, IMackintosh, and most other modern writers on Moral Philosophy teach the same opinion. Those who have recourse to tlie doctrine of the degeneracy of the human un- derstanding, and to the incessant wiles of the devil, in order to explain the prevalence of religious error in the world, constantly set out by assuming their own opinions to be true, their own intellectual vision to have escaped the ge- neral corruption, and their minds, by dint of some peculiar spiritual ai-mour, to be proof against the diabolic wiles to which the great majority of mankind fall victims. Dr Ibbot pithily asks — " If reason was originally in itself, or is, in its present state of degeneracy and corruption, an incompetent judge in reli- gious matters, how can I depend upon that reasoning which I use to prove this ? My reason may betray its weakness and deceive me even here; and the argu- ments which, I think, I urge with so much weight, may be inconclusive, and have nothing in them." — (P. 850). Archbishop AVhately, also, in treating of the dangers arising from injudicious preaching, observes, that although " each part of our nature should be duly controlled, and kept within its own proper province, and the whole 'brought into subjection to Christ,' and dedicated to Him ;" yet, " there is no real Christian humility, though there be debasement. 41 writers of anti(iuity taught the inferiority of the Son to the Father ; and sums up in the following terms : — "In a word, whosoever shall in renouncing the exercise of human reason, to follow the dictates of human feeling. The Apostle's precept is, ' In malice be ye children, but in under- standing be ye men.'" He goes on to remark, that those declaimers against the pride of human reason, who, tliemselves possessing cultivated intellectual powers, are understood not to be disparaging an advantage of which they are destitute, "never do, in fact, divest themselves of any human advantages they may chance to possess. Whatever learning or argumentative powers any of them possess (and some of them do possess much), I have always found them ready to put forth, in any controversy they may be engaged in, without shewing much tenderness for an opponent who may be less gifted. It is only when learning and argument make against them, that they declaim against the pride of intel- lect ; and deprecate an appeal to reason when its decision is unfavourable. So that the sacrifice which they appear to make, is one which in reality they do not make, but only require (when it suits their purpose) from others." — (Essays on some of the TJangers to Christian Faith, Ac., 2d ed., p. 60.) In reference to Christian humility, the same acute prelate observes that " men should be warned not to suppose that virtue to consist in a mere general confes- sion of the weakness and sinfulness of human nature, or (which comes to the same) such a sinfulness in themselves — or, if you will, such an utter corruption and total depravity in their own nature, as they believe to be common to every descendant of Adam, including the most eminent apostles, and other saints." — {Ft)., p. 39.) And he copies this striking passage from Archbishop Sumner's Apostolic Preaching, p. 136 : " It is sometimes considered as a proof of the ad- vantage to be obtained from the habit which I am here presuming to discour- age, that such preaching generally proves attractive to the lower classes. This, however, may be accounted for, without furnishing any justification of the practice. For, first, the lower classes, unless they are truly religious, usually are gross sinners, and, therefore, are neither surprised nor shocked at being supposed so themselves, and at the same time feel a sort of pleasure which need not be encouraged, when they hear their superiors brought down to the same level ; and, secondly, it seems to furnish them with a sort of excuse for their sins, to find that they are so universal, and so much to be expected of human nature. The considerate minister will not court such dangerous applause : there is no edification communicated by exciting feelings of disgust on one side, and of malignant exultation on the other." There is excellent sense in these remarks ; but if Dr Sumner had said that the lower classes are frequently (instead of '' usually"') gross sinners, his statement would probably have been more accurate than it is. I refer, of course, to the class of artisans and labourers ; for the lowest class of all is composed chiefly of persons who, through vice or imbecility, have sunk into the profoundest depths of social and moral degradation. Archdeacon Daubeny, in his Book of the Church, acknowledges the diffi- culty of reconciling the differences of opinion wliicli prevail on the subject of religion, with " that uniform consistency which is one of the most striking chai-acteristics of truth," as well as " with the benevolent design which the Deity must have had in view in revealing that truth to the woi-ld." He finds, however, a solution in the following considerations: '' But when we take a view of man in his present state of degeneracy, as a being perverse in will, and corrupt in understanding, we cease to be surprised at an efi"ect necessarily re- sulting from that variety of causes, to which the opinions and practices of men are at different times to be traced up. Pride, self-opinion, interest, and j)as- sion, are the most prevailing principles of the human mind. A singleness of heart, accompanied with an uncorrupt love of truth for the truth's sake, is a pei-- fection to be coveted rather than to be looked for, from that general derangement of the human faculties which was brought about by the fall. When the same subject, therefore, is viewed through those different mediums which correspond with the different characters and dispositions of the parties concerned, it is not to be expected that an uniform conclusion should be drawn from it." — (Guide to the Church. By the Kev. Charles Daubeny, late Archdeacon of Sarum. 3d 42 freely and impartially consider of this thing, and how on the other side the ancient Fathers' weapons against the Arians are in a man- ner only places of Scripture (and those now for the most part discarded as impertinent and unconcluding), and how in the argximent drawn from the authority of the ancient Fathers, they are almost always defendants, and scarce ever opponents, he shall not choose but confess, or at least be very inclinable to believe, that the doctrine of Arius is either a truth, or at least no damnable heresy." In the year 1712, Dr Samuel Clarke, one of the profoundest think- ers and most amiable men that ever graced the Church of Eng- land, published a work called " The Scripture Doctrine of the Tri- nity," the fruit of deep study of the Scriptures and other Christian literature of the primitive times. In spite of the warnings of his friends, and even, it is said, of a message from some of the Ministers of Queen Anne, dissuading him from publishing a work likely to create angry contention, when free opinions of any kind were scarcely tolerated, he boldly ventured to controvert the popular belief in the eternal existence and underived divinity of Christ. " But let every man of sense," says his friend and biographer Bishop Hoadly, " be judge with how much wisdom, and in how Chris- tian a method, he proceeded to form his own sentiments upon so im- portant a point. He knew, and all men agreed, that it was a matter of mere revelation. He did not, therefore, retire into his closet, and set himself to invent and forge a plausible hypothesis which might sit easily upon his own mind. He had not recourse to abstract and me- taphysical reasonings, to cover or patronise any system he might have edit., p. 329. London, 1830.) This, I think, is one of the most edifying spe- cimens of theological reasoning that could be found. Let us see what it amounts to. 1. The Deity, we are told, must have intended, for the benevo- lent pur^jose of human salvation, to reveal religious truth to the degenerate world. 2. Uniform consistency is a striking characteristic of truth. 3. But those religious doctrines which different men regard as truth, are so palpably and extensively deficient in uniformity, that error is in fact infinitely more pre- valent than truth. 4. There is in the world no love of truth for truth's sake (and here the Archdeacon must be presumed to draw the picture from his own consciousness); whence it happens that men are apt to wander into the mazes of error, although he (we are to understand) has so well avoided the general misfortune, as to know with certainty that those who do not hold, like him, the tenets of the Church of England, have missed the benevolently-revealed truth. But the most striking idea embodied in the passage is, that while, on the one hand, the fall is considered to have occasioned the revelation of saving truth by the benevolent Deity to the world, this very fall is, on the other hand, the cause why that saving truth is so seldom recognised : — -which is equivalent to the assertion that God has failed to accomplish the end he had in view ! It cannot be sinful to harbour doubt of a doctrine which logically conducts to such a conclusion ; and those who do so may take courage from the reflec- tion, that however much it may, in the abstract, be professed with the lips, and inculcated in books and from the pulpit, it is daily repudiated in p7-actic« by clergy and laity alike, in funeral sermons, obituary notices, certificates of cha- racter, dedications, and epitaphs, — in the talk of the market-place and the draw- ing-room,— and in testimonies to human virtue, given on oatli by witnesses in our courts of law. Men marry, and take partners in trade, without seeming to be- lieve that they are linking themselves to such loathsome creatures as John Calvin has delineated ; and even orthodox parents have been known to pro- claim the unparalleled excellencies of their children, and to resent as an aftront the sj-iecinl imputation of iniquity to themselves. 43 embraced before. But, as a Christian, he hiid open the New Testa- ment before him. He searched out every text in which mention was made of the three persons, or of any one of them. He accurately ex- amined the meaning of the words used about every one of them ; and by the best rules of grammar and critique, and by his skill in lan- guage, he endeavoured to fix plainly what was declared about eveiy person, and what was not. And what he thought he had discovered to be the truth, he published, under the title of ' The Scripture Doc- trine of the Trinity.' " I am far from taking upon me to determine, in so difficult a ques- tion, between him and those who made replies to him. The debate soon grew very warm ; and in a little time seemed to rest principally upon him and one particular adversary, very skilful in the manage- ment of a debate, and very learned and well versed in the writings of the ancient Jb^athers. The controversy has been long before the world ; and all who can read what has been alleged on both sides, ought to judge for themselves. But this, I hope, I may be allowed to say, that every Christian divine and layman ought to pay his thanks to Dr Clarke, for the method into which he brought this dispute ; and for that collection of texts in the New Testament, by which at last it must be decided, on which side soever the truth be supposed to lie. And let me add this one word more, that since men of such thought and such learning have shewn the world, in their own example, how widely the most honest inquirers after truth may dift'er upon such subjects, this, methinks, should a little abate our mutual censures, and a little take off' from our positiveness about the necessity of explaining, in this or that one deierminate sense, the an- cient passages relating to points of so sublime a nature. . . . " One matter of fact I will add, that from the time of his publish- ing this book to the day of his death, he found no reason, as far as he was able to judge, to alter the notions which he had there pro- fessed concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Cihost, towards any of those schemes which seemed to him to derogate from the honour of the Father on tlie one side, or from that of the Son and Spirit on the other. This I thought proper just to mention, as what all his friends know to be the truth. And, indeed, nothing to the contrary can be alleged, without contradicting many express sentences scattered through all his works which have followed, or will follow, the fore- mentioned treatise, evidently setting forth or implying the same doc- trine. . . . " In the cause of Christianity he laboured as sincerely as in natural religion and morality ; and, with the same clearness and strength, produced and illustrated all the evidences peculiar to it : not indeed considering it, as it has been taught in the schools or discourses of modern ages ; but as it lies in the New Testament itself."* One of Clarke's particular friends was Sir Isaac Newton, of whom * Life prefixed to Clarke's Sermons. See also Whiston's Historical Me- moirs of the Life of Dr Clarke, where the annoyance to which he was sub- jected, and his conduct (not altogether defensible) under its influence, are more explicitly recorded than in Hoadly's sketch. That Hoadly himself, by '• Christianity as it lies in the New Testament," meant essentially the same sort of " primitive Christianity "' that his friend believed in, is tolerably plain from the passages above quoted, but is put be- 44 also there is good reason to believe that, on the same point of doctrine, he abandoned the orthodox faith. A zealous Unitarian gentleman, Mr Hopton Ilaynes, who served many years as Assay-master of the Mint under the illustrious philosopher, and was on intimate terms with him, told the Rev. Richard Baron, a dissenting minister, " that Sir Isaac Newton did not believe our Lord's pre-oxistence, being a Socinian, as we call it, in that article ; and that Sir Isaac lamented Dr Clarke's embracing Arianism, which opinion, he feared, had been, and still would be, if maintained by learned men, a great obstruction to the progress of Christianity."* This is confirmed by a passage in Whiston, who was intimate with both Newton and Clarke, and held also Unitarian opinions ; where he conjectures what might be the discouragements to their " making public attempts for the restora- tion of primitive Christianity. "f Moreover, it is not likely that, for any other cause than the holding of Unitarian opinions, Sir Isaac would have written his " Historical Account of Two Notable Cor- ruptions of Scripture," an imperfect and erroneous edition of which was published in 1754, but which Bishop Horsley inserted entire in the fifth volume of Newton's Works, published in 1785. For, besides that the texts there proved to have been interpolated are among the strongest supports of the doctrine of the Trinity ; near the beginning of the treatise there is an expression which has drawn from Horsley the remark, that " the insinuation contained in it, that the Trinity is not to be derived from the words prescribed for the baptismal form, is very extraordinary to come from a writer M'ho was no Socinian." It would ]ia,ve l)een extraordinary, had the concluding bold assertion been as true as it is contrary to all the evidence. The passages in question are, 1 John v. 7, " For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy C-rhost; and these three are one ;" — and 1 Tim. iii. 16, " Great is the mystery of godliness ; God manifest in the flesh :" in which latter case the alteration of a very short Greek word into another closely resem- bling it, has brought this to be tlie meaning of a passage which, in the text I'eceived by " all the churches for the first four or five hundred yond question by the terms in which he has ridiculed the persecutors of Emlyn and Whiston (and, incidentally, the Trinitarian ojjinions of those persecutors), in his Dedication to Pope Clement XL See Iloadly's Works, vol. i., p. 537. Theophilus Lindsey, who, in his Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship, p. 396, treats of the opinions of Bishop Iloadly, adduces in proof of that prelate's llnitarianisni, " his fine devotional comiiositions, pub- lished at the end of his Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. For in these," says Lindsey, " we find no intimation, in the most remote degree, that Jesus Christ was to be invoked in prayer; nor example of any divine worship addressed to him, but to the Father only. Now if the Bishop had believed Christ to have been an object of worship to Chris- tians, it is hardly to be supposed that in set forms of prayer, drawn up with great care and deliberation, he should have taken no notice of him in that cha- racter; especially if it be considered which way the popular fashionable doctrine leaned, and the prejudices of many against him on other accounts." &c. &c. As to the persecutions of Emlyn and Whiston, see pp. 325-334 of the same work by Lindsey, and Whiston's Memoirs of Himself. * Sequel to Ijindsey's Apology on Resigning the Vicarage of Catterick, p. 285 ; quoted in Toulmin's Memoirs of Socinus, p. 283. t Whiston's Historical Memoirs of the Life of Dr Clarke, p. 15 ; see also pp. 13 and 17. Dr Cook, in his General and Historical View of Christianity, vol. i., p. 415, speaks loosely of Newton's " paitiiility to Arianism.'' 45 years, and the authors of all the ancient versions, Jerome as well as tlie rest," means " Grreat is the mystery of godliness, which was mani- fested in the flesh."* Both passages have been keenly defended by biblical critics ; but all profound scholars, Trinitarians included, now agree that, in regard to the former at least, if not also the latter, the conclusions of Sir Isaac Newton are indisputable. f In these circum- stances, can any creditable reason be given for still allowing the passage in 1 John v. 7 to mislead the ignorant, by standing in the authorised version of the Bible as a portion of Divine revelation ? In the words of Newton himself, which every candid Protestant will echo, — " Whilst we exclaim against the pious frauds of the Roman Church, and make it a part of our religion to detect and renounce all things of that kind, we must acknowledge it a greater crime in us to favour such practices than in the Papists we so much blame on that account ; for they act according to their religion, but we contrary to ours."+ He mentions, to the credit of " the more learned and quicksighted men, as Luther, Erasmus, Bullinger, Glrotius, and some others," that they "would not dissemble their knowledge;" but adds Avith truth, that " yet the generality are fond of the place for its making against heresy." He defends the Arians from the ridiculous charge of having erased the words in question from the Epistle of John (p. 22). In another place he thus expresses himself : " If it be said that we are not to determine what is Scripture and what not, by our private judg- ments, I confess it, in places not controverted ; but in disputable places I love to take up with what I can best understand. It is the temper of the hot and superstitious part of mankind, in mattei'S of religion, ever to be fond of mysteries, and for that reason, to like best what they understand least" (p. 56). And his treatise concludes in the fol- lowing words, which are worthy of so great a man : " You see what freedom I have used in this discourse, and I hope you will interpret * Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions, &c., p. 58 of the separate edition, published at London in 1841. t The passage in 1 John is abandoned as spurious by Michaelis (Introd. to the New Testament, translated by Bishop Marsh, 2d ed., vol. iv., p. 412) ; Dr Adam Clarke (View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, vol. i., p. 71); and Porson, Marsh, and Griesbach, who is the highest authority of all (See Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica, articles Griesbach, Marsh, Porson, Travis, &c.). More- over, we learn from Whiston's Memoirs of the Life of Dr Samuel Clarke, p. 100, that both he and Clarke, as well as the celebrated scholar Dr Bentley, and even the great champion of the Trinity, Dr Waterland, were satisfied of the spuriousness of the text in question. " Nor,'' says Whiston, " does the Doctor (Waterland) I think ever quote that text as genuine in any of his writings; which in so zealous and warm a Trinitarian deserves to be taken great notice of, as a singular instance of honesty and impartiality." — Nevertheless, in 1821, the then Bishop of St David's was bold enough to publish a " Vindication of 1 John v. 7," which elicited a severe reply in the Quarterly Review, vol. xxvi., p. 324. " The Bishop, then," says the critic, "on his own avowal, has been able to dismiss every doubt respecting the genuineness of a verse which is found only in a single Greek manuscript, and that of recent date; which is not quoted by a single Greek father, nor, in express terms, by any Latin father before the sixth century; which is wanting in the more ancient manuscripts of the Vulgate, and, even in those in which it is found, appears in such a variety of shapes as clearly to shew that those transcribers who thought proper to insert the verse had no certain reading before them. We have the most sincere respect for the Bishop of St David's, but we cannot peruse the declaration without astonishment." — (P. 339.) J Historical Account, &c., p. 2. 46 it candidly. For if the aucient churches, in debating and deciding the greatest mysteries of religion, knew nothing of these two texts, I un- derstand not why we should be so fond of them now the debates are over. And whilst it is the character of an honest man to be pleased, and of a man of interest to be troubled, at the detection of frauds, and of both to run most into those passions when the detection is made plainest, I hope this letter will, to one of your integrity, prove so much the more acceptable, as it makes a further discovery than you have hitherto met witli in commentators." It is by no means wonderful that Sir Isaac refrained from publish- ing explicitly his Unitarian opinions ; for, says Whiston (whose state- ment is conlirmed by the recent discoveries of Newton's biographers), " he was of the most fearful, cautious, and suspicious temper that I ever knew" {Whistoii''s Memoirs of his own Life, p. 294) ; and his ex- treme dislike of controversy has always been notorious. But how very necessary it was for all to be circumspect, may be seen from the Act 8th & 9th Will. III., c. 32, " for the more effectual suppressing of Blasphemy and Profaneness ;" in which it is enacted " That if any per- son having been educated in, or at any time having made profession of, the Christian religion within this realm, shall, by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, deny any one of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be God, or shall assert or maintain that there are more Gods than one, or shall deny the Christian religion to be true, or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of divine autho- rity, and shall ... be thereof lawfully convicted by the oath of two or more credible witnesses ; such person for the first offence shall be adjudged incapable and disabled in law, to have and enjoy any office or employment ecclesiastical, civil, or military;" for the second offence, shall be disabled to sue, or hold the office of guardian or executor, and be incapable of any legacy, &c., or to bear civil or military office or ecclesiastical benefice, " and shall also suffer imprison- ment for the space of three years, without bail or mainprize, from the time of such conviction."* Is not this a beautiful specimen of the laws of a Protestant country? And could we have blamed Newton for his reserve if he had lived in the present day, when, if there be not less of the spirit of per- secution, there is happily less power to gratify it than there was in the reign of Queen Anne. For " mark the injustice constantly per- petrated by those who have the public feeling on their side ! They make the honest expression of opinion penal, and then condemn men for disingenuousness. They invite to free discussion, but determine beforehand that only one conclusion can be sound and moral ; where they should encounter principles, they impute motives. They fill the arena of public debate with every instrument of torture and annoy- ance for the , feeling heart, the sensitive imagination, and the scru- pulous intellect, — and then are angry that men do not rush headlong into the martyrdom that has been prepared for them."f * The Long Parliament had previously (in 1648), by the influence of the Pres- byterians, passed a similar act, with the higher penalty of death. It is quoted by Theophilus Liudsey, in his Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship, p. 304, where both of these statutes are commented on. t A Reti'ospect of the Religious Life of England : or, the Church, Puritanism, and Free Inquiry. By John James Tayler, B.A. London, 1845, p. 425. This is an impartial work, by the study of which no intelligent and candid 47 , Whlston used to urge Dr Clarke to act sincerely, openly, and boldly, in the declaration of his true opinions ; but "his general answer was by this question, ' "Who are those that act better than I do ?' Very few of which," says Whiston, " I could ever name to him, though I did not think that a sufficient excnsc."— (Memoirs of Clarke, p. 64). Clarke, however, might have quoted the words of Solomon in palliation of his conduct : " A fool uttereth all his mind ; but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards" (Prov. };xix. 11). And even those of Paul might have been adduced for the same purpose : '• I have fed you with milk, and not with meat ; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able" (1 Cor. iii. 2). And again : " Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. v. 14). The learned Dr Lardner, whose defence of the Credibility of the Gospel History is universally known, became a believer in the simple humanity of Christ ; and towards the close of life the opinions of Dr Isaac Watts also appear to have become completely Unitarian.* The Rev. Kobert Robinson, likewise, who in 1776 published a Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, which gained him much ap- plause, became, after he had studied Mr Lindsey's Examination of it, a convert to the opinion he had opposed. f And Belsham relates of himself, that in January 1779, being at that time the orthodox mi- nister of a congregation in the country, he was taken by a friend to attend the evening service in Mr Lindsey's chapel in Essex Street, London. " The subject of the discourse," says he, " was a good con- science ; and the seriousness and gravity Avith which it was treated confirmed him in the opinion, which he had already formed from the perusal of some of Dr Priestley's writings, that it wa,^ possible for a Socinian to be a good man. At the same time he felt a very sincere concern that persons so highly repectable as Mr Lindsey and Dr Priestley should entertain opinions so grossly erroneous as he then conceived, and so disparaging to the doctrines of the Ciospel. This he ignorantly imputed to the little attention which they paid to the sub- ject of theology. Little did he then suspect that further and more diligent and impartial inquiry would induce him to embrace a system ' from which his mind at that time shrunk with horror. And had it been foretold to him that in the course of years, and the revolution of events, he should himself become the disciple, the friend, the successor, and the biographer of the person who was then speaking ; that it should fall to his lot from that very pulpit to pronounce, before a crowded as- sembly of weeping mourners, the funeral oration of Theophilus Lind- sey, he would have regarded it as an event almost without the wide circle of possibilities, and as incredible as the incidents of an Arabian tale."+ reader can fail to have his mind delivered from much of any petty sectarian feeling which education may have imparted to it. * See Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 2d ed., p. 162. t Ibid., ch. vii. i Ibid., p. 107. In an age when Unitarians abounded among the English clergy, Theophilus Lindsey was one of tlie few who sacrificed worldly interest to the approval of a tender conscience. Another was Gilbert Wakefield, whose Memoirs are highly instructive on this subject ; as are also Whiston 's Memoirs of himself and of Dr Samuel Clarke, Disney's Life of Dr .Tohn .Tebb 48 Another illustrious instance of change of opinion is that of the pro- foundly learned Archbishop Usher. In early life he was a rigid Cal- vinist, but in his later years " did declare his utter dislike of the doctrine of absolute reprobation, and held the universality of Christ's death, and that not only in respect of sufficiency, but also in regard of efficacy, so that all men were thereby salvable ; and the reason why all were not thereby saved was because they did not accept of the salvation offered ; and the grace of conversion was not irresistible, but men might, and often did, reject the same : and in these points he did not approve of the doctrine of Geneva, but was wholly of Bishop Overall's opinions."* The famous John Hales of Eton, one of the most learned and most estimable men of his time, was likewise originally a Calvinist, and took his opinions with him to the Synod of Dort, which he was com- missioned by the English ambassador at the Hague to attend. But it has been left on record by his intimate friend Mr Farindon, that "at the Avell pressing 3 St John 16, by Episcopius, ' there I bid John Calvin good night,' as he has often told me."t The Synod, however, of Cambridge, and Field's Life of Dr Parr. Belsham mentions the Rev. Wil- liam Robertson, an Irish clergyman, who, having adopted Unitarian opinions, follovired the same honourable course : when he waited on his patron Dr Robinson, then bishop of Ferns, and who subsequently became archbishop of Armagh, he was told, " You are a madman ; you do not know the world" (p. 123.) Dr Richard Price, in a letter to Lindsey in reference to the opinion that Christ is almost equal to supreme God, says, " It is a sentiment at ivhich I shud- der, and which probably no Arian now holds." — {Belsham, op. cit., p. 155,) Compare with this the ojjinion of Dr Owen, that the Unitarians are men who, "through the incurable blindness of their minds, fall into error of judgment, and misinterpretation of the word" ( WorJc-''^ <>/ ''*^ seventeenth century, uublished by a fifth Glasgow minister, Dr Jolin Eadie. There is, of course, an article on the Sabbath; and that article contains a classified list of references to ScrijJture texts beai'ing upon the subject. But, according to custom, the passage in Rom. xiv. is not referred to, either there or in any other part of the article ; nor is mention made of certain other texts, which will be noticed below. This omission, in a formal 58 conduct and opinions, are exposing themselves to the sneers and wonder of their successors. The time is not vei-y distant when Romanism over- array of references, of the most important text of all, is quite indefensible ; even though the writer has provided himself with a reply to the charge of j^ositive misrepresentation, by introducing his list as one containing references only to texts which " are among the leading authorities of the Bible respecting the Sab- bath and its j^roper observance." There is a line in Young's Night Thoughts, which says — " Truth never was indebted to a lie ;" and I cannot help thinking that the striking disingenuousness of this special pleading is not a whit better calculated than " a lie"' to serve her cause.* The course of Bishop Horsley is equally significant : he grapples with, and explains in his own way, a passage in the Epistle to the Colossians, which has been supposed, he says, " to jirove that the observation of a Sabbath in the Christian Church is no point of duty, but a matter of mere compliance with an ancient custom. In the second chapter of that Epistle, St Paul, speaking of the handwriting of ordinances which is blotted out, having been nailed to the Redeemer's cross, adds, in the 16th verse, ' Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holiday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.' From this text," says the Bishop, " no less a man than the venerable Calvin drew the conclusion, in which he has been rashly followed by other considerable men, that the sanctification of the seventh day is no indis- pensable duty in the Christian Church, — that it is one of those carnal ordi- nances of the Jewish religion which our Lord hath blotted out. The truth however is, that . . . the Sabbath-days of which St Paul in this passage sjieaks, were not the Sundays of the Christians, but the Saturdays and the other Sabbaths of the Jewish calendar." (Sermon XXIII.) I am constrained to observe, however, that the venerable Calvin is here most unfairly dealt with ; for he expressly says that his opinion is founded, not merely on the text commented on by Bishop Horsley, but also on certain other texts, which the Bishop suppresses altogether, for no other apparent reason than that if he had candidly quoted them, they would have damaged his case so completely as to render it self-refuting and ridiculous. By turning to Book II., ch. viii., § 33, of Calvin's Institutes, it will be seen that, after stating, as his reason for adopt- ing the observance of the Christian Sabbath or Lord's Day, that it is " a neces- sary remedy for preserving order in the Church," he proceeds as follows : — " Paul informs us that Christians are not to be judged in respect of its observ- ance, because it is a shadow of something to come (Col. ii. 16) ; and accord- ingly, he expresses a fear lest his labour among the Galatians should prove in vain, because they still observed days (Ual. iv, 10, 11). And he tells the Romans that it is superstitious to make one day differ from ano- ther (Rom. xiv. 5)." (Vol. i., p. 464, Beveridge's transl. Edin., 1845). We shall have occasion to say more about Calvin's opinions in a subsequent page. In the sermon above quoted. Bishop Horsley gives a brief, just, and forcible description of the spirit of Christianity ; which, says he, " is rational, manly, and ingenuous ; in all cases delighting in the substantial works of JAidgment, justice, and mercy, more than in any external forms." Christianity, then, condemns those who violate compacts about Sundaj^-trains, and descend to jug- gling tricks in the management of the business of railway meetings, or to the forgery of hundreds of signatures to memorials and petitions in favour of Sabbatarian measures (See Notes A. and N. in this Appendix), for the purpose * In a book published about thirty-five years ago, entitled " A Treatise on the Patri- archal, Je^^ish, and Christian Sahbath, with a view to enforce, from Scripture authority, a more cnveful observance of the Lord's D.ay, by Thomas Wemyss," there is a table of re- ferences to all the passages of Scripture in whicli the word " Sabbath" occurs. This has the look of a key to all the texts bearing on the subject ; but as the word " Sabbath" happens not to be used in Rom. xiv., that most important passage is very conveniently left out of view, as it is likewise in all other parts of the work ! Why did not the author furnish a complete list of the pertinent texts ? Because, like the most of his orthodox brethren, he was afraid of letting the vvoi'ds of St Paul be seen. At least tliis is the only reason that I can think of; but if anybody can suggest a better, I shall be truly glad to hear it. 59 spread the whole of western Europe, and when to call its truth in ques- tion was a far more flagrant sin than even the strictest adherence to it of glorifying God by a scrupulous regard to external forms. But I have quoted this passage chiefly for the purpose of remarking, that if Bishop Horsley's treatment of Calvin be not " manly and ingenuous,'" the calling him " venerable" is an " external form" which fails to bring his own conduct into harmony with the spirit of Christianity. To the Rev. Dr Andrew Thomson, a minister of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, is due the credit of displaying greater courage than either Bishop Horsley or the five Glasgow ministers : he does not shrink from quoting the passages in the two Epistles, and putting forth a reply to the argument which has been founded on them. " As for the two passages from the apostolic Epistles (Rom. xiv. 5; Col. ii. 16, 17), which have been paraded with so much confidence, it is quite evident," says he, " that they refer to the attempt of Judaisers to make the observance of the seventh day, as well as of the first, binding upon the Christian ('hurches. The Apostle interferes to protect their Christian liberty. They might observe the seventh day if they chose, but no man was to compel them to do so, or to condemn them if they did not. To sup- pose that these verses were intended by the Apostle to declare that all days un- der the Christian dispensation were alike, is to suppose him to write one thing and to practise another."' — (The Christian Sabbath, considered in its Va7-ioiis Aspects. By ilinisters of different Denominations. P. 85. Edin. 1850). With great deference I submit, that, in using the plain words " every day," the Apostle doubtless meant what he said; that he spoke of the seven dayf9 of the week, and not of six of them only. Besides, even sujjposing that he himself " practised" according to the Sabbatarian notion of his duty in regard to the observance of days (a point on which the scanty evidence we have in the New Testament is hostile to the assumption of Dr Thomson that he kept the first day holy), still his words to the Romans, if they have any meaning whatever, assuredly mean this — that all who thought it right to practise ditferentlj" from him in that respect, were as fully entitled to act on their own opinion that " every day" was " alike," as he was to act on the opposite principle that " one day" is to be " esteemed above another." Dr Thomson's way of hand- ling the question, and the conclusion which he draws, that " the apostles, by their example, sanctioned the change of the day, and the permanence of the institute"' (p. 84), remind me forcibly of a piece of advice given by Bentham in his Rationale of Evidence. " In the minds of some men," he observes, " (not to say the bulk of men), if you set about proving the truth of a proposi- tion, you rather weaken than strengthen their persuasion of it. Assume the truth of it, and build upon it as if indisputable, you do more towards riveting them to it than you could do by direct assertion, supported by any the clearest and the strongest proofs. By assuming it as true, you hold up to their eyes the view of that universal assent, or assent equivalent to universal (dissenters being left out of the account), which, from your assumption, they take for granted has been given to it : You represent all men, or (what comes to the same thing) all men whose opinions are worth i^egarding, as joining in the opinion ; and by this means, besides the argument you present to the intellectual part of their frame, you present to its neighbour the volitional part another sort of argu- ment, constituted by the fear of incurring the indignation or contempt of all reasonable men, by presuming to disbelieve or doubt what all such reasonable men are assured of." — (Bentham s Works, vol. vii., p. 451.) The only glimpse we have of Paul's practice in regard to the sanctification of the first day of the week is obtained in Acts, xx. 7-11. " And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul jireached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until mid- night." Now, as the Jews reckoned their day from sunset to sunset, and were accustomed to " break bread" in the evening, it seems that Paul, after sunset on what ive should call Saturday evening, attended the meeting of disciples, preached until midnight, restored Eutychus to life, supped, continued his preaching, and " when he had talked a long while, even till break of day, departed."' That is to say, as I interpret the passage (for we can hardly sujj- 60 is now I'egai'ded among Protestants. Another noted instance relates to the motion of the eartli upon its axis — to teacli which was, three pose that he began this long preaching before sunset), he restimed his travels on Sunday morning. But whether he did or not, we have no proof that he thought it an act of pi'ofanity to do so; and nothing can be plainer than the admission, in his Epistle to the Jewish converts at Konie, of their liberty to keep days holy or not, according to their own views of the Divine law in regard to that practice. The late Dr liichard Winter Hamilton of Leeds, in a rhapsody which he pub- lished in 1848 under the title of Horoe et Vindicice Sabbaticce, also takes notice, at p. 90, of the passage about which we are speaking. " We are aware," says he, " that Scripture has been quoted to render the questio.i of its (the Sabbath's) observance indifferent ; to expose it rather in the light of a burden than of a blessing. It would be strange, could this be established. Laxitj^ is abhorrent to the spirit of Revelation. The statement, upon which this doctrine of indiffer- ence is founded, proceeds from Paul (Rom. xiv. 5) : ' One man esieemeth one day above another : another esteenieth every day.' Our translators have added, ' alike,' which has no pretext of place in the original Greek. This must refer to the Jewish feasts. He who had been educated ben.^ath their associations would feel much scrupulousness in renouncing them. If he ' regarded it unto the Lord,' he was not to be 'judged' by them who regarded it not unto the Lord." Dr Hamilton should have added the more pertinent declaration, that " he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it ;" for which reason* /le is not to be "judged" by those who do regard it to the Lord. But moreover, the reader will observe here the same begging of the question — the same unwarrantable assumption that " every day" means every day hut Stm- day. Several other points deserve to be noticed : 1. The question in con- nection with this passage is not as to the duty of resting on the Lord's Day, bat whether the day is holy, and thus susceptible of "profanation?" 2. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever inferred from the words of St Paul, that rest on the Lord's Day is a burden rather than a blessing. 3. Laxity with respect to things not enjoined by Revelation or natural religion cannot be abhor- rent to the spirit of Revelation ; and if (as many think) the esteeming of one day above another is neither a natural nor arevealed duty of Christians, then laxity in venerating the first day of the week cannot be worse than the prevailing and re- putable laxity in esteeming the second or the seventh above the others. Lastly, although it is quite true that the word " alike," added by our translatoi's, has no counterpart in the original Greek, Dr Hamilton has not said, because he dared not say, that its insertion was not indisjiensable to give the true sense of the passage. He tries to destroy the force of the Apostle's words hy insinuating a mls'^ranslation, where, had he been conscious that one existed, he would not have failed to assert the fact in the broadest terms. This device is only a de- gree less discreditable than that by which he elsewhere tries to weaken tiie force of Paley's caurfiVZ chapter on the Sabbath. " It was," says he, with an air of virtuous sorrow — " It was in melancholy consistency, that heivho loosened the foundations and princii>les of all morality should thus assail the authority of the Sabbath" ! — (P. 13.) If Dr Hamilton had been conscious of his ability to meet Pa- ley's argument by argument, would he have descended to so undignified a course as this ? And if the charge thus brought against that eminent advocate of the Divine origin of Christianity be true, with what degree of satisfaction can his '' Evidences" be henceforth studied, or placed by parents in the hands of their children ? To me it appears that any disposition to lax morality in Paley was more likely to manifest itself in stretching the Sabbatarian texts beyond their legitimate meaning — this course having the tendency, which its opposite had not, to facilitate his wished-fur advancement in the Church. That he has stretched them but a little in the popular direction, while so many of his fellow- divines, especially among the dissenters, have stretched them to an extravagant length, is, everything considered, a good deal to the Archdeacon's credit. Lastly, it is worthy of remark, that Mr Alexander Oliver, in his recentlj'- published Defence of the Universality and Perjietuity of the Sabbath, contents liimself with a mere general allusion to the passage in Romnus xiv., without either quoting it or mentioning its place in Scripture. After arguing that the 61 centuries ago, equivalent to denial not merely of Divine revelation, but of the eviflence of our very senses. For what could be more evi- words in 1 Col. ii. 16, refer to the Jewish Sabbath only (which may or may not be the case), he thus proceeds (p. 45) : — "The same observations apj)ly to the other texts which have been adduced by opponents ; the idea, therefore, cannot be enter- tained for a moment, that the Apostle intended ' to declare that all days under the Christian dispensation were alike ;' for this would be to ' suppose him to write one thing and to practise another.' {Tlie S<.ihbath. By Kev. Andrew Thomson, D.D.)"" Here Mr Oliver is evidently glad to devolve upon the broad shoulders of Dr Thomson the burden of proving that " every day'" is not " every day," and to escape as nimbly as possible to a more tractable subject. It is not without reason that I am disposed to attribute the abandonment of " the old Presbyterian Sabbath of Holland," to enlarged knowledge of Scrip- ture among the Dutch ; for both my own experience and what L liave observed in the case of some other serious inquirers after religious truth, have convinced me that such an event may naturally ensue from a diligent study of the Bible. I was bred a strict Sabbatarian in principle and practice ; but at an early age began, after the example of the Bereans, and in obedience to advice fre- quently heard from the j)ulpit, to " search the Scri2>tures," with the view of seeing " whether those things were so." At the same time, thinking it the part of a rational inquirer to look into more than one side of every question that deserved to be seriously considered, I acted accordingly, notwithstand- ing the bad odour in which such a course is usually held by those who fancy they are the warmest friends of religious truth. Though full of j)rejudice in favour of my hereditary notions, I soon attained the conviction, which has become stronger and stronger the more I have since pursued my studies, that the Sabbatarian doctrines which I liad imbibed in the nursery were far from having that sufficient warrant in Scripture which they had been represented to possess. The effect of this discovery was most useful : If my spiritual guides could err in what seemed so plain a matter, might they not have misled me in othei-s as important, and perhaps of greater difficulty ? Tlie reply was obvious ; and thence- forward I endeavoured to play the only part which a Protestant can consistently perform — that of an independent thinker, glad to receive light from any avail- able souixe, but ever striving to " prove all things" as well as he is able, in the hope of " holding fast" only " that which is good." This course I have found to be as satisfactory in its results as it is sound in principle ; and if in some particulars I have arrived at different conclusions from those generally believed in Scotland to be correct, the love of singularity has certainly had no share in producing this result, nor have I ever been disposed to obtrude my opinions upon others, unless on some such compulsion as is supplied in the present instance by the aggressive conduct of the Sabbatarians, and the unjust demand of the " orthodox" clergy and their adherents, that the theological doc- trines on which the stamp of " God's truth''' is set by them, shall be taught in national schools at the expense of those who repudiate portions thereof as per- nicious human error. On those points where I have the happiness to agree with the generality of my countrymen, I of course enjoy the advantage of being more able to render to myself " a reason for the hope that is in me," than would otherwise have been jjossible ; and am thus in some measure safe from being " carried about with every wind of doctrine." AVhoever will follow such a course as is here described, will soon find reason to concur with Pascal in the opinion, that " many things which are true have been contradicted, while many which are false pass without contradiction ;" and that '' to be contradicted is no more a mark of falsehood, than not to be contradicted is a mark of truth." — {Thoughts on Religion, ch. 31.) Bishop Watson at the conclusion of his Apology for Christianity, tells Gibbon, — " We are far from wishing you to trust to the word of the clergy for the truth of your religion ; we beg of you to examine it to the bottom ; to try it, to prove it, and not to hold it fast unless you find it good." And he elsewhere says, — " I have no regard for latitudinarian prin- ciples, nor for any principles but the principles of truth, and truth every man must endeavour to investigate for himself; and, ordinarily speaking, he will 62 dent to human sight than the diurnal motion of the heavenly bodies i and what could be clearer than these words of Scripture — " He hath established the earth upon its foundations : it shall not be moved, for ever and ever. — For upon the seas he hath founded it, and upon the streams he hath fixed it. — 0, give thanks unto Him — who hath spread out the earth upon the waters ! — The mount Zion" [and therefore, they inferred, the whole earth, of which any hill or moun- tain is only a part]—" shall not be moved, for ever and ever. — Clene- ration goeth, and generation cometh ; but the earth for ever standeth. The sun rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. From the end of the heavens is his going forth, and his circuit to their utter- most parts. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Who stretcheth out the heaveus as a cur- tain, who layeth rafters in the waters, his upper chambers." * " Upon the interpretation which men of the highest ability attached to these declarations of Scripture," says Dr John Pye Smith (who might have quoted also the first chapter of Genesis, and the tenth of Joshua, to the same ett'ect), " they rested the most positive confidence that the sun flies rouml the earth every twenty-four hours, and that the earth rests immovably in the centre of the universe. ' This,' said one of the most eminent men of the Reformed Church, ' we affirm, with all divines, natural philosophers and astronomers, Jews and Mo- hammedans, Greeks and Latins ; excepting one or two of the ancients, and the modern followers of Copernicus.'f It is in no small degree be most successful in his endeavours, who examines with candour and care what can be urged on each side of a greatly controverted question." — (Miscell. Tracts, vol. i., p. 323.) In accordance with these sentiments, I say with honest Matthew Green — " Thus in opinions I commence Freeholder in the proper sense. And neither suit nor service do. Nor homage to pretenders show, Who boast themselves by spurious roll Lords of the manor of the soul ; Preferring sense, from chin that's bare, To nonsense thron'd in whisker'd hair." The Spleen ; Aikin's Select Brit. Poets, iv., 330. To me, therefore, who know so well these incidents of my own mental his- tory, and have observed the like jDhenomena in others, nothing can seem more probable than that, as soon as the attention of intelligent Dutchmen was closely directed by clerical discussion to the bearings of Scripture on the Sabbath question, the controversy should be " at once the signal and the instrument of spreading relaxed views." But, that what Dr Lorimer calls " the old Pres- byterian Sabbath of Holland" was ever as strictly and ultrajudaically ob- served, as the Sabbath introduced in England by the Puritans about the end of the sixteenth century, and which the following generation of Puritans em- balmed in the Westminster Confession, is a notion not to be received upon his sole authority, and which is hardly consistent with the fact mentioned by Dr Owen, that the phrase " figmentutn Anglicanum" was applied to the Puritanic doctrine by Dutch divines. For proof of the " ultrajudaicaV character here ascribed to the orthodox Scot- tish mode of Sabbath-observance, see an inquiry into its Scriptural grounds, in a subsequent part of this work, Note K. * Psalm civ. 5 ; xxiv. 2 ; cxxxvi. 6. Eccles. i. 4. Psalm xix. G ; cxlviii. 4 ; civ. 3. « t Gisb. Voetii Disput. Theol. vol. i., p. 637. Utrecht, 1648." G3 curious, but it conveys also a serious lesson to us, to observe what was a very great stretch of candour and charity, one hundred and fifty years ago. ' That the sun moves and that the earth is at rest,' wrote another of that class of learned men, ' is testified in Scripture : — that the earth also cannot be moved, being as it were founded and fixed upon bases, pedestals, and pillars. Some philosophers, indeed, both ancient and modern, and Copernicus, the most distinguished among them, have maintained the contrary, Gremma Frisius has taken pains to explain this opinion of Copernicus in the most favourable manner that he could ; and some celebrated philosophers have en- deavoured to reconcile it to the Bible, by considerations drawn from the ambiguity and various use of language. Others have recourse to the condesceusion of the style of Scripture, which, upon matters that do not afteet faith and religion, is wont to lisp and prattle ((ru/i-4/sXX/^s/i/,) like a father with his babes. But our pious reverence for the Scrip- ture, the word of truth, will not allow us to depart from the strict pro- priety of the words ; as, by so doing, we should be setting to infidels an example of wresting the Scriptures ; unless we were convinced by sure and irrefragable arguments, as perhaps there may be a few so convinced,^but they are ambitious persons, though professing them- selves to be devoted to sacred studies.' "* The concluding unfair insinuation by this rough-named Protestant divine, of the predominance of unworthy motives in those who had adopted the Copernican system, is precisely in the spirit which, in our own day, frequently characterises the language employed by men " de- voted to sacred studies," against those who, as geologists and physi- ologists, are guilty of reading the Book of Nature with more search- ing eyes than theirs, and who thus devolve upon them the unwelcome task of remodelling such parts of their venerated systems as are dis- covered to be " man's truth" alone, instead of being that " Divine truth" which they have been pompously asserted to be. For, as a writer in The Independent Whig has observed, " with the bigot, every truth that exposes his devout dreams is blasphemy;" to illustrate which, he tells of a Scotch Presbyter whom he had very lately heard of, " who found a multitude of texts against the astronomical system, and told his hearers a world of angry things which C+od Almighty said against it : He asserted that the earth stood still, and the sun travelled round it, ' in spite of all the mathematical demonstrations that could come from hell ;' and, with a ' Thus saith the Lord,' added terrible threatenings against the philosophers and freethinkers of the "* Job. Henr. Heideggeri Medulla Theol. Christ, p. 136; Zurich, 1696." The Relation between the Holy Scrijjtures and some parts of Geological Science. By John Pye Smith, D.D. 4th ed., p. 186. Lond. 18-18.— In Luther's Colloquia, Mensalia, or Table-Talk, ch. Ixx., the following passage occurs : — " I am now advertised (said Luther) that a new astronomer is risen, who pre- sumeth to prove that the earth movetli and goeth about — not the firmament, the sun, moon, nor the stars ; like as when one sitteth in a coach or in a ship, and is moved, thinketh he sitteth still and resteth, but the earth and the trees go, run, and move themselves. Tlierefore, thus it goeth, when we wean our- selves to owr oii/n/ooZis/i/ajict«s and conceits. This fool ivill turn the whole art of astronomy upside down ; BUT THE SCRIPTURE SHEWETH AND TEACHETH HIM ANOTHER LESSON, where Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth."— (P. 503 of Ca.pt. Henry Bell's Translation. London, 1652.) 64 age, whom he christened blasphemers, and doomed to Divine wrath, without any hesitation.'"* The truth of this report might reasonably be doubted if we did not remember that, so recently as 1722, an old woman was burnt in Scotland for witchcraft ; and that, two years after the publication of the volume just quoted, the repeal of the statutes against witches was formally bewailed by the Associate Presbytery of the Seceders, who, in their annual confession of national sins, printed at Edinburgh in 1743, enumerated this measure as a grievous transgression, "contrary TO THE EXPRESS LAWS OF aoD/'f In the history of witchcraft, in- deed, beyond perhaps that of any other religious error, we may find a solemn warning against the danger of mistaking " man's truth" for God's. In the end of the sixteenth century, it was a flagrant proof of " heresy" and " infidelity" to deny that witches existed'; and the few who doubted were glad to hold their peace. " The fearful abound- ing at this time in this country," Avrites King James VI. in 1597, " of these detestable slaves of the devil, the witches or enchanters, hath moved me (beloved reader) to despatch in post this following treatise of mine, not in any Avise (as I protest) to serve for a show of my learning and ingine, but only, moved of conscience, to press thereby, so far as I can, to resolve the doubting hearts of many, both that such assaults of Sathan are most certainly practised, and that the instruments thereof merits most severely to be punished : against the damnable opinions of two principally in our age, whereof the one called Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in public print to deny that there can be such a thing as witchcraft, and so maintains the old error of the Sadducees in denying of spirits. The other, called Wicrus, a Gferman physician, sets out a public apology for all these crafts-folks, whereby, procuring for their impunity, he plainly bewrays himself to have been one of that profession.";!; In reference to this famous production, the late Mr D'Israeli, in his Inquiry into the Literary and Political Character of King James I., writes as follows :• — " Not long before James composed his treatise on ' Da3monologie,' the learned Wierus had published an elaborate work on the subject. ' De pra'stigiis Dcvmonum et incantationibus et veneficiis,'' recation, the appearance of an army to many near Montgomery, and abundance more.) ; yet were falsehoods thrust in through their heady temeritv and credulity, whereby it came to pass, that these wonders were so far from E 2 68 possessions. When the arguments press equally on both sides in matters that are indiftorent to us, the safest method is to give up our- selves to neither. " It is with this temper of mind that I consider the subject of witchcraft. Yv^lieu I hoar the relations that are ma