Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

journey continued as it were in different directions, but we may picture them to our imaginations as meeting again in the persons of their posterity, when we read of Paul disputing with the Athenian philosophers, on the hill of Mars. We find, however, the descendant of Moses here teaching the existence of but one God, whilst the representatives of Cecrops boast of thirty thousand! All that I would now say on the subject is this, from such a difference of effects, what would enlightened philosophy dic tate, as to the similarity of the causes which produced them?

MR. BURDON, ON THE OVERBEARING SPIRIT OF PRIESTS.

To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine.

FOR

SIR,

OR all priests who are actuated by a priestly spirit, I have the utmost hatred and contempt, and nine out of ten of them are priests in spirit and in truth, of whatever church they may be, because they are all convinced of their right to dictate to mankind, and to treat them as schoolmasters treat children; but when they have both spiritual and temporal power, they are intolerable, like the ministers of the church of England. Other bodies of men are actuated by the spirit of their order, that is, by an idea of concentrating in themselves a considerable portion of power or knowledge; but as they have none of them so much temporal power as the English clergy, they are more tolerable and less insolent.

It is now high time that the spirit and power of these men should be abated, and your society, Mr. Editor, has the credit of being the first Christian society which has attempted to strike at once at their existence. Others have attempted to diminish their influence, and have in some measure succeeded; for since the reformation they have lost much of their spiritual power, though none of their temporal riches. The time was, when no great family was without a chaplain-a sort of mischievous spy, who made himself useful to one part of the house by watching the conduct of the other, and dictating to the whole under pretence of religion. These vermin are now happily exterminated, or if they anywhere exist, they are quiet convivial animals, who take their dinner and their bottle without troubling themselves any further. Such men are only contemptible, and they escape being hateful by not being mischie

Yous.

The Jesuits were a set of Romish priests, justly hated and dreaded by all ranks of people, though they succeeded in making numerous proselytes; but they carried their spiritual andtemporal power too far, and were finally abolished in different nations, though those nations consisted of devout and zealous Catholics,

A nation of Christians has no need of an army of priests. The Christian religion was intended to abolish the Jewish priesthood, and the whole of the Epistle to the Hebrews was written for no other purpose. A Christian who can read that epistle, and still contend for the necessity of priests to teach what Christ and his apostles have taught already, must be so bigotted and so blinded by prepossession, as to deserve the ap pellation of an unworthy follower of Christ.

Compare the spirit of priests with the spirit of Jesus and his few chosen teachers-nothing can be more opposite: the one is all humility, meekness, self-devotion, disinterestedness, and gen tleness; the other is all pride, arrogance, ostentation, tyranny, and worldly mindedness. In profession they are the children of Christ, in practice they are the children of Satan, for Satan means foe to God and man."-See Parkhurst's Lexicon to the New Testament.

Dryden has well described the state of the world when priests kept all religion to themselves.

In times o'ergrown with rust and ignorance,
A gainful trade the clergy did advance;
When want of learning kept the laymen low
And none but priests were authoriz'd to know;
When what small knowledge was in them did dwell,
And he a God who could but read and spell;
Then mother Church did mightily prevail,
She parcell'd out the Bible by retail;
But still expounded what she sold or gave,
To keep it in her power to damn or save.
Scripture was scarce, and as the market went,
Poor laymen took salvation on content,

As needy men take money, good or bad,

God's word they had not, but the priest's they had.
Yet whate'er false conveyances they made,

The lawyer still was certain to be paid.

In those dark times they learn'd their knack so well
That by long use they grew infallible :

At last a knowing age began t'inquire

If they the book, or that did them inspire?

And making narrower search, they found, too late,

That what they thought the priest's was their estate

Taught by the will, produced the written word,

How long they had been cheated on record.

Then every man who saw the title fair

Claim'd a child's part, and put in for a share,

Consulted liberty, his private good,

And sav'd himself as cheap as e'er he could.--Religio Laici. The object of every trade and profession is to get money, and when they relate only to our temporal concerns, there is no harm init; but when they interfere with our spiritual affairswhen any particular set of men claim a divine commission to meddle with our hopes and fears of eternity, and expect to be

be paid for it-there is a gross inconsistency in thus making a gain of godliness, which must strike every impartial mind, and convince us of the worldly aims of such a fraternity. The primitive Christians had no such interested views, and the Quakers have followed their example-they instruct each other without pay. Allowing for a few conceited singularities, they are the most blameless of all Christian sects; they have shewn us how little necessity there is for priests, and your society has given another glorious example, which I trust will be further extended. I remain, &c. Hartford, near Morpeth, August 11, 1812.

W. BURDON.

THE PRIMITIVE MODE OF PROMULGATING CHRISTIANITY COMPARED WITH MODERN PRACTICE.

8341

To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine.

SIR,

HAVING in my former essay shewn the primitive mode of promulgating Christianity, and that pulpit preaching and stated ministers are directly opposite to it-that such a practice and such an order of men are not sanctioned by the New Testament-and that even on the ground of utility and expediency the primitive mode was not only preferable, but that modern practice so far from being calculated to accomplish the design of promulgating genuine Christianity, was most eminently calculated to defeat it-a question may naturally arise how then was the knowledge of it to be perpetuated after the death of the apostles? The answer is easy, and the New Testament will sufficiently bear me out; but first it may be necessary to state what Christianity is, lest in the multifarious dogmas, creeds, and articles, which are said to belong to the Christian religion, many might suppose it was a system so complex that none but learned men could be able to understand or explain it and as it might be suspected that I should feel disposed to make it very simple indeed for the purpose of shewing that it needed not an order of learned men purposely set apart to teach it, I will give my own ideas in the words of a man who can have no motive whetever to make it appear more simple than it really is-I will give you the words of a hireling preacher, Mr. Belsham. He says,

"If indeed religion consisted of a series of subtle and abstruse propositions, which none but men of superior understandings and learned education could comprehend, the nature and evidences of which can only be understood by those who devote their whole time to close investigation, unlearned persons, who are almost entirely occupied in secular employments, must be

content to believe and act as their spiritual superiors should direct. But the fact is otherwise. Religion is a plain, simple, intelligible doctrine. It consists in the love of God and our neighbour, and in the practice of virtue founded upon the expectation of a future life. All who are capable of performing the duties, may also understand the obligations of religion, and the Christian doctrine is so clearly revealed in the New Testament, that no HONEST inquirer can greatly mistake." And Dr. Priestley says, in his preface to a sermon, entitled Unitarianism defended, (page 10.) It is in reality nothing else than superstition that has made regular ministers, as they are called, so necessary as they are now become, there being nothing that is done by them that may not be done and with as much effect without them." And the apostle Paul (Cor. xv. 1 to 4) corroborates this testimony of the sim plicity of the Christian religion, by saying, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I reached unto you, which also ye have received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also have received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.'

[ocr errors]

Now then the question is plainly this, how could a knowledge of this very simple religion be perpetuated after the death of the apostles, without the aid of an order of men called preachers?

And here let it be observed, that simple as is the doctrine of a future state, on which all the rest is founded, it could not have been known at first but through men appointed by heaven to declare it in all parts of the world, as Paul justly observes (Rom. x. 14-15)" How then shall they call on him a whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher (proclaimer)? and how shall they preach (or proclaim) except they be sent ?" But the case is widely different in the present day, for even if no other method had been appointed to perpetuate this knowledge, we are in possession of the New Testament, in which Mr. B. says, "The Christian doctrine is so clearly revealed, that no honest enquirer can greatly mistake." All the men in the world can not tell us more of Christianity than is there contained, and if as he says it is so clearly revealed in that book, those at least who are in possession of it have no need of stated teachers. But it may be said, there are thousands who have not that book, or

* See his sermon- preached at Essex Street, and afterwards published, entitled "the Rights of Conscience asserted and defined."--p. 14.

if they had, could not read it; but what has this to do with stated preachers, who preach only to those who profess to believe in Christianity, and are in possession of the Bible. 1f it is an argument for any thing, it is for an order of men called schoolmasters, to teach men to read, and for an uncorrupt translation of the Bible, freed from all its forgeries and interpolations, to be afterwards given to those who have learned to read it.

But so simple is the Christian religion, that I am satisfied it neither needed that men should be able to read, or an order of men to teach it, to make it be understood; and it is this extreme simplicity that fitted it for the instruction and comfort of all men in all circumstances and situations of life, however poor or unlearned they might be. If this be the case, we shall find, by a reference to the New Testament, that the means for perpetuating the knowledge of it among mankind was adapted to that end. It is well known that Christianity was never intended to depend upon writing; for if it had, the first thing necessary for Jesus and his apostles to have commanded, would have been that all men should have been taught to read-a knowledge which lapprehend few possessed in any age before the art of printing was invented; and had the knowledge of Christianity even depended on writing, and preaching had been necessary under those circumstances, it could be no argument for preaching in the present day, when so great a portion of mankind can read, and through the means of printing all the rest might so easily be taught. Let us only suppose that all the 30,000 preachers employed in this kingdom were to set about the task of teaching men to read, and we might be sure in less than two years their services might be altogether dispensed with, as every person might in that time be enabled to read his Bible,

Jesus wrote not any thing of his life or doctrines—he never commanded his disciples to do it for him. The Acts and the letters of the apostles were written without his commands, and were the result of peculiar circumstances they were never intended to perpetuate Christianity. The Evangelists wrote their histories for particular churches, probably without any view to posterity--they only became of consequence to Christianity when it had been corrupted by the intervention of priests, and these records were then referred to as the best remaining source of information, to shew what was approved or disapproved of by the writers; and in these scattered fragments it is that we are enabled to discover what was the primitive doctrines and practices of the first Christians, and for which we cannot be too thankful, as although they do not contain a regular digested system, yet we find sufficient, when selected and 3 F

VOL. 11.

« ZurückWeiter »