AND PRESERVING THE PURITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

MY DEAR BROTHER, I feel extremely sorry on your account, and, as in duty bound, pity your situation, in not being able to come forth out of that Egypt in which so many Idols and so much monstrous Idolatry are daily presented to your eyes. While pious ears shudder at the very mention of these things, how much more grievously must they offend the eye whose perceptions are at once more vivid and more keen? You are forced, as you mention, to behold foul forms of impiety in monks and priestlings, a thousand kinds of superstition in the common people, numerous mockeries of True Religion.

In all quarters around you these teem and resound. As I count those happy who can spare their eyes such spectacles, so your condition, as you describe it, I regard as truly miserable.

First of all,THE MASS, that head of all abominations, forces itself upon your view, and takes the lead among all those species of iniquity. In it every imaginable kind of gross profanity is perpetrated. Were such spectacles exhibited in derision, you might perhaps be able to laugh at them; but now, when they are performed in earnest, with the greatest contumely to God, I doubt not, from your well-known piety, that, instead of exciting mirth, they arouse your indignation, or rather call forth your tears.

You ask me to advise you by what means you may be able, while compelled by the times and the circumstances of your situation, to live amidst this horrible sacrilege and Babylonish pollution, to maintain your fidelity to the Lord pure and unpolluted? This advice I very willingly give, and will now proceed to open my mind to you on the whole subject. This I am the more induced to do from perceiving that, while many in the present day, who seem to have received some serious impressions, are far from acting up to what they profess, almost all, in this matter especially, are seen to deviate from the right path. Nor is it very difficult to give the proper advice, if you will give yourself wholly up to the discipline of the Lord, and allow all your feelings to be brought into subjection to his word.

But it happens, I know not how, that great numbers among us, with wicked presumption, rebel against his commands, and, despising them or neglecting them, (a thing equivalent to contempt,) arrogate to ourselves, whenever it suits us, license to do things which they most strictly forbid.

This is particularly the case in regard to the present matter.

When those who live in the difficult position which you now occupy perceive that they can neither maintain their tranquillity, nor live on harmonious terms with their neighbors, unless they make a pretense of indulging in Idolatry — amid the difficulties which thus beset and perplex them, they attend more to what may be expedient for themselves than pleasing to God — more to what may gain human favor than secure Divine approbation. Meanwhile they devise a defense by which they may keep their consciences at ease in the view of the Divine tribunal, pretending that they are far from giving an internal heartfelt assent to any kind of impiety, but only have recourse to a little harmless pretense as a necessary concession to the ignorant, and also as the most promising means of gaining over persons whom it were foolish to irritate by a course, which could not lead to any beneficial result, and would be attended with the greatest danger.

By such beginnings they commence their own ruin! How often, within our own memory, have persons, by thus veering round, been driven back and wrecked on the very rocks from which they had made their escape? At first, when the danger of making a candid profession of their real sentiments was fully in their view, they thought it was but a small matter to do a little folly for the gratification of the people, and at the same time escape from giving grievous offense. They accordingly took part promiscuously with others in the performance of Impious Ceremonies.

Finding that even this failed to secure them against suspicion, they advanced another step, holding it sufficient if good men were made acquainted with their faith, and alleging that the erroneous opinion which others might entertain of them did no harm. Hence, when the enemies of Christ talked babblingly against sound doctrine, they expressed assent by look and nod and gesture, and at length by voice also. Perceiving that even this device had not the success which they anticipated, they began to be contented with a secret conviction, which they imparted to no man, studiously guarding against doing anything which might give the slightest indication of Christian feeling. In this way, after deviating from the straight line of duty gradually, and, as they thought, in the exercise of a moderate caution, they have at last become so blind and forgetful of themselves, as to plunge headlong into destruction. A manifest proof, undoubtedly, of the righteous judgment of God! Justly have they been given up to the vanity of their own mind, while, by a preposterous prudence, they imagined that they were deceiving God and man. For the last act in the part they thus played, was not only not to allow any eye or ear to be witness of their real conviction, as they had formerly allowed, but to do all that in them lay to make all men witnesses of things in their conduct from which every Christian man should most anxiously abstain, and publicly display a dislike and abhorrence of that which they secretly approved. The result ought to warn us how necessary it is to lay aside our own schemes, and walk carefully as in the sight of the Lord, as the Prophet expresses it,, ( Micah 6:8,) lest by giving way to presumptuous feelings we shake ourselves free from those laws under which he has laid us, and loose that which he binds. Those thus wise in their own conceit ought to have been afraid to think how “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and overturneth the counsels of the prudent.” ( Job 5:12; 1 Corinthians 3:19.)

To this it is owing that, at the outset, I lamented, on better grounds than I could wish, that herein a great part of mankind see nothing clearly, judge nothing rightly, resolve, nothing soundly, but, seeing the dangers which threaten a pure and thorough observance of the Divine law, look round in fear and perplexity to devise some means by which, without incurring the displeasure of God, they may be able to retain the favor of men. In this devising they consult only their own anxiety and blind perturbation, and in consequence act at once perversely and absurdly: for that which the voice of God has once sanctioned and decreed cannot, without impiety, be made a subject of doubtful discussion; and no good result can reasonably be expected by him who makes timidity and pusillanimity his counselors — counselors justly regarded as the base parents of base children. The decision is such as might be anticipated. Turning their eyes aside from the Word of God, they exact nothing more of themselves than can be performed without endangering either their safety or their circumstances.

Everything attended with peril or serious difficulty they easily allow themselves to set aside; meanwhile turning a deaf ear to the fearful threatenings denounced against those who contemn the protection offered by God, and seek to better their condition by abandoning their post. When the Jews, distrusting the present aid in which they had been ordered to confide, had recourse to the forbidden aid of Egypt, the Lord, by his Prophet, thus upbraided them, “Woe, abandoned children, that take counsel, but not of me; that weave a web, but not by my Spirit; that begirt yourselves to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my lips, hoping for assistance in the might of Pharaoh, and putting confidence in the shadow of Egypt: The might of Pharaoh will be your confusion, and confidence in the shadow of Egypt your disgrace.” ( Isaiah 30:1-3.)

Seeing he inveighs so bitterly against them, can anything milder or more indulgent be expected by those who, displeased and indignant that Providence has exposed them to hatred and all kinds of danger, endeavor to shake themselves free of them, by having recourse to new and unlawful precautions of their own devising? I am not unaware that the subterfuges which seem to remove danger are much more agreeable to our effeminate carnal nature than simple obedience to the word of God, when beset with dangers. But there is no difficulty too great to be surmounted by him who strengthens himself with the consideration that, though all men should threaten, their menaces cannot outweigh those which the Lord denounces against the deserters of his camp in the prophecy which I have quoted. No small assistance should be given to us by the example of Cyprian, of whom Augustine, in a certain passage, relates as follows: — After he was condemned, his life was offered him on condition that he would, in word merely, abjure the religion which was his only crime; and not only so, but when he was actually at the place of execution, the governor of the province distinctly called upon him to deliberate whether he would not rather save his life (for so the Emperor’s clemency allowed him to do) than sacrifice it as the penalty of a foolish obstinacy. His brief answer was, that in so sacred a matter there was no room for deliberation.

If any one wonders that the holy man, when all the apparatus of torture was in his view — the executioner with his grim, cruel features, the sword hanging over his neck, the taunts and imprecations of a furious bloodthirsty populace sounding in his ears — was not dismayed at all these terrors, but cheerfully gave himself up to death like a victim devoted to the altar, he does well to wonder; but let him at the same time consider, that what sustained his magnanimity unimpaired to the last, was the thought deeply fixed in his mind, that God had called him to such a confession of his piety. This thought made him proof against all the terrors which otherwise might have made him waver. Hence he uttered a sentiment which ought to make his name immortal, and pursued a course deserving not more of praise than of imitation.

Thus indeed it is. Whenever any semblance of good or convenience would withdraw us one hair’s-breadth from obedience to our heavenly Father, the first thought which ought to present itself for our consideration is, that everything, be it what it may, which has once obtained the sanction of a Divine command, thereby becomes so sacred as not only to be beyond dispute, but also beyond deliberation. Merely by allowing ourselves to deliberate in such circumstances, we overstep our proper limits; and this being done, we are on a downward path which quickly leads us farther astray.

This much, by way of obviating our common timidity, I thought it necessary to premise before proceeding to give you a direct answer, because I see that here our minds are much more impeded by the dimness of vision which this timidity produces, than by any kind of ignorance.

Perhaps I have dwelt on it at greater length than the circumstances required, but certainly not at greater length than the practices of the present times demand. Numerous are the persons in the present day who, if not urged on to suffer even unto blood by stern rebuke, turn a deaf ear to every mode of teaching.

The vice of our age, and indeed the common vice of all ages, is yielding to the allurements of the flesh, which are so enticing and crafty, and clothe their delusions with such specious names, that the first step of true wisdom is to discard and banish them altogether from our counsels. I am not so diffident of your own disposition as to have used such a lengthened preamble had I been speaking to yourself alone. Having experienced your calm and meek docility on many different occasions, I would have deemed it amply sufficient to make a simple reference to such topics; but while I purpose to satisfy your own particular request, as the subject is of general interest, and many are perilously in error in regard to it, I thought it would not be in vain, nor without some fruit, were I at the same time to adapt myself to the circumstances of the many who labor under the same mistake, so that all into whose hands this letter may fall, (and I not only permit, but earnestly desire that it may be communicated to as many as possible,) they may consider it as written to them also. Thus, if they will listen, they will be admonished of the path to which duty points; and if they will not listen, they shall at least receive a testimony convicting them of having knowingly and even wittingly rushed on their own destruction!

First of all, it behooves us to have our eyes intently fixed on that which Christ holds forth to all his disciples when he first initiates them into the discipline of His school. For when he taught them to begin with denying themselves and taking up his cross, he at the same time added, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and his Father’s, and that of the holy angels.” ( Luke 9:26.)

Let us remember then, that this is the edict which our Savior issues when we are first enrolled in his family, and that the perpetual edict promulgated for life to those who would belong to his kingdom is, that if they have embraced his doctrine with true heartfelt piety, they must manifest this piety by outward profession. And, indeed, how dishonest were it to be unwilling to make a confession before men of him by whom they wish themselves to be acknowledged before angels? and how would they have the truth of God to remain effectual to them in heaven after they have denied it upon earth?

There is no room, therefore, for any one to indulge in crafty dissimulation, or to flatter himself with a false idea of piety, pretending that he cherishes it in his heart, though he completely overturns it by his outward behavior.

Genuine piety begets genuine confession. Nor should the words of Paul be deemed vain: “As with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, so with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” ( Romans 10:10.)

In short, the Lord calls his followers to confession, and those who decline it must seek another master, since he cannot tolerate dissimulation.

Here some one may ask, Must a few believers, living scattered among an impious and superstitious multitude, in order duly to testify their faith, continue in season and out of season, in public and in private, vociferating against the impiety of their countrymen? Must they go out into the streets to preach the truth of God? Must they mount pulpits and call meetings?

Not at all. Nay rather, seeing the Lord calls to the ministry of his word Apostles or Prophets, or messengers, or whatever other name he chooses to give to those whose voices he is pleased to employ in public, it is not necessary that all men should everywhere attempt to do the same; it is not expedient, nay, it were even unbecoming. Therefore, the thing required rather is, that each consider for himself what befits his own vocation and order. Thereafter, by pursuing a correspondent conduct, each will best discharge his duty. On those whom the Lord destines for the ministry of his word he bestows a kind of public character, that their voice may be heard in the light, and rise trumpet-tongued above the house tops! Others abstaining from the public office of Apostles must prove themselves Christians by performing the duties of private life.

As this cannot be conveniently explained with so much brevity, let us proceed to explain its nature at greater length. That part, however, which we have specially confined to a particular class of individuals, I mean the function of public profession, we shall omit for the present. Perhaps we shall have a better opportunity of speaking of it elsewhere. We shall only inquire concerning that which pertains alike to every individual among the people, and consider, first , What kind of confession the Lord requires of his followers who live few and scattered among the wicked, in a place from which the discipline of true Religion has been exiled? and, secondly , What are the marks in the outward conduct of life by which he would have them to differ from the crowd of idolaters with whom they are intermingled?

But it is not my intention precisely to determine when, with whom, in what place, and to what extent a Christian man is to give visible evidence of his faith, or to point out the limits — how far he ought to proceed, or when he may be able to halt without offense, whenever an occasion of advancing the glory of God, or a hope of doing good in any way is presented. A discussion of this nature would be almost endless, and is besides somewhat at variance with the present mode of discussion, which cannot be shut up and confined within fixed rules. It is not easy to prescribe limits either to that ready mind which Peter requires of us, when he wishes us to “be ready to give an answer to every one who asketh us to speak of the hope which is in us,” ( 1 Peter 3:15,) or to that ardent zeal of celebrating the glory of God and the splendor of his kingdom, in which the Prophets introduce the people of God as exulting, when they put such language as the following into their mouths: “Come let us go up into the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.” ( Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2.)

By these words it is obvious that a clamant exhortation is given us to desire the knowledge of God. Then, who sees not the wide extent of Paul’s injunction, to “follow the things which make for edification?” ( Romans 14:19.)

Those, therefore, who are imbued with true piety towards God, ought not to wait for any more certain law than that of displaying his holy Majesty, to which it behooves them to be wholly consecrated and devoted by every convenient and lawful means in their power; nor to set any other end or limit to this display than that of embracing all conjunctures, and so to speak, continually laying hold of every moment, so long as they are confident that anything can be accomplished. One, indeed, may be able to act more excellently, more bravely, more perseveringly than another; but all, individually, must contend according to the grace given unto them. But, as we have said, this is not the place for expatiating on so wide a subject.

Our intention is not to take up the general question — How far does duty bind you to seek the glory of God and the edification of mankind? but only to show, in general, the precautions which you are to employ while living among the ungodly, and which you cannot omit without defiling yourself with their profanity and sacrilege.

Since everything which the Scriptures contain on this subject appears to have been specially delivered for the sake of those who were living among nations ignorant of God; and it is commonly thought that there is a wide difference between the idolatry of such nations and the superstition of those with whom we have now to do, (the latter using the name of God and Christ as a kind of cloak, while the former, from a grosser ignorance, openly despised the worship of a Supreme Being,) we will, first , bring forward the Precepts contained in the Scriptures; and, secondly , view them with reference to our own times, endeavoring to ascertain how far from similarity of circumstances they are applicable to us. I see not, indeed, why we should confine the eternal commands of God to any particular age, but we adopt this arrangement as a concession to the unskillful, that no kind of scruple may preoccupy their minds.

When the Lord, by his Law, forbade Idols to be reverenced or worshipped, he, under that head, comprehended the whole of the external worship which the ungodly are wont to bestow upon their Idols. ( Exodus 20:4-6.) Such is the natural force of the terms which he employed — the one, meaning to bow down; the other, to bestow honor: and it is evident that the species of adoration struck at, is that by which Images of wood or stone are worshipped by bodily gestures. The Lord, therefore, by his interdict, does not simply prohibit his people from standing in stupid amazement like the Gentiles before wood or stone, but forbids any imitation of their profane stolidity in any form, by prostrating themselves before Images for the purpose of paying honor to them, or giving any other indication of religious reverence, such as we are accustomed to give by uncovering the head or bending the knee. Accordingly, when he describes his pure worshippers, the mark by which he distinguishes them is this — “I have preserved to myself seven thousand men.” ( 1 Kings 19:18.)

What! is it those whose hearts are not infatuated by the vanity and lies of Baal? Not only so, but those also “whose knees have never been bent to Baal, and whose lips have never kissed his hand.” In another place he employs the same symbol, when declaring that his majesty must be acknowledged by “all things in heaven and on earth, and under the earth.”

He thus describes the mode of acknowledgment: “Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall swear by my name.” ( Isaiah 45:23.)

Here it is obviously implied, that an Image receives the worship due to God when reverence for it is expressed by any bodily gesture.

To establish the guilt of those who express such reverence, it is of no consequence under what pretence, or with what sincerity they do it.

Whoever bestows any kind of veneration on an Idol, be the persuasion of his own mind what it may, acknowledges it to be God, and he who gives the name of divinity to an Idol withholds it from God. Accordingly, the three companions of Daniel have taught us what estimate to form of this dissimulation. ( Daniel 3.) To them it seemed easier to allow their bodies to be cruelly consumed by the flames of a fiery furnace than to please the king’s eye, by bending their thighs for a little before his statue!

Let us either deride their infatuation in inflaming the anger of a mighty king against them, to the danger of their lives, and for a thing of no moment, or let us learn by their example, that to perform any act of idolatry, in order to gain the favor of man, is more to be shunned than death in its most fearful form. Wherefore, when they had only two alternatives between which to choose — either to shake off the fear of God and obey an impious edict, or to despise men when brought into competition with God, they wished it to be notified to the king that they would not worship his gods nor bow down to the statue which he had set up. The equal constancy of Daniel, in a very similar case, is mentioned by the writer, whoever he was, who added the appendix to his prophecy. He says that Daniel chose rather to be torn to pieces by the claws of lions, than bend the knee in worship of the dragon which others worshipped as God. But as this history is not received by all, I refrain from quoting it as an authority.

Moreover, lest any one might suppose that he had done all that was required of him by merely withholding his head or his knee from the worship of Idols, the Lord has added numerous precepts concerning the holy keeping of his ceremonies, and utterly shunning the ways of the Gentiles. In the Prophet, ( Isaiah 52:11,) he by a single expression declared how completely clear he would have his people to be from all communion with impiety, when he prohibited the Jews who had been transported to Babylon from even touching what was unclean. This clause, as Paul interprets summarily, implies that they were not to pollute themselves by any observance or ceremony unbecoming the sanctity of their religion. For, giving injunctions to the Church of Corinth on that subject, he was contented to borrow a summary of his whole sentiments on the subject from this one passage. ( 2 Corinthians 6:17.)

It is a fact, believe me, not to be idly or giddily overlooked, that those only duly preserve the holy Religion of God who profane it by no defilements of unhallowed superstitions, and that those violate, pollute, and lacerate it, who mix it up with impure and impious rites. Believers who duly meditate on this consideration, will carefully give heed not to involve themselves in such sacrilege. In this way, Abraham, Isaac, and the other Patriarchs, though they sojourned in countries which teemed with the abominations of Idols — although they mourned over the infatuations of their hosts, which as they could not cure, they bore with, took anxious care, however, to keep themselves within the pure and untainted worship of God. And though they did not publicly proclaim their dissent from the superstitions practiced around them, they gave no indication of a pretended compliance.

Of this simplicity a distinguished specimen appears in Daniel. ( Daniel 6:10.) Although he was living in Babylon amid the pollutions of Idolatry, yet being as far from holding communion with it as if he had been placed at an immense distance away from it, he contracted no stain. Seeing, however, that there would be no place for true piety in presence of the people, he withdrew from their sight, and shutting the doors of his chamber, worshipped his God apart with becoming purity.

Thus, notwithstanding the public error of the city and nation, he deviated not from the right faith. To the same effect is the injunction laid upon the Jews in the law, that they should not covet gold or silver from the graven Images of the nations and bring it into their houses, but should regard it as an impure unclean thing which was an abomination in the sight of the Lord. He taught them to detest and abominate everything which had once borne the name of Idol, that thus they might the more zealously shun the impure superstitions of the Gentiles.

But if it was the will of God, that under the Old Testament his Religion, though still obscure and only shadowed forth by figures, should be observed with so much external purity of profession, how much more necessary must this be in the Christian Church to which he himself, by the appearance of his only begotten Son, has unlocked the mysteries of his wisdom, as it were completely encircling it with the light of His Truth?

This may be easily confirmed by the doctrine of the Apostles. The argument which Paul uses against fornication, holding equally true with regard to this matter, may without absurdity be accommodated to it. “Know ye not,” he says, ( 1 Corinthians 6,) “that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? Far from it!” In the same way, may we too argue; seeing our members are the members of Christ, shall we defile them by the worship of Idols, or by impure Superstitions? What were this but either to subject the glory of Christ to ignominy, or dissever our body from the body of Christ to commit fornication with Idols? The precept with which he concludes has a general application to all kinds of modification: “Let us remember that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; that we are not our own, but have been bought with a great price, and ought therefore to bear and glorify God in our body.” Will the glory of God be displayed in our body after it has been rolled in the mire of Sacrilege? Will the sacred sanctity of the temple of God be preserved if it be polluted by alien and profane rites?

If on any subject Paul is an urgent exhorter to duty, his urgency is more particularly displayed when he admonishes Christians not to exhibit anything unworthy of their profession before the eyes of men by using vicious ceremonies. Referring to two great evils, the dishonor of God and the offense of men, the natural consequence of all simulate compliance with Idolatry, or of other imitations of it on whatever ground undertaken, he at great length warns us against committing either. In regard to the profanation of the Divine Name and honor, his words are, “Dearly beloved, flee the worship of Idols.” (That under the term worship he comprehended all external rites which are used by the ungodly, is manifest from the subsequent context,) “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ?

And the bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the body of Christ? Therefore we many are one bread, and one body; for we all partake of one bread.” ( 1 Corinthians 10:14-17.) “You see Israel according to the flesh. Are not those who eat the Sacrifices partakers of the altar? What then? Do I say that what is sacrificed to idols is any thing? or that an idol is any thing? But that which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God. Now I would not have you to be partakers of demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons: you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” ( 1 Corinthians 10:18-21.)

At first he calls to their remembrance how intimate their fellowship is with the Lord Jesus Christ, in being made partakers of his body and blood, that the more closely they are united to him, the more they should withdraw from all participation with Idols. Outward Sacraments are a kind of bonds by which they are united to the Lord, and hence also the converse holds true, viz., that those who mix themselves up with impure ceremonies, thereby ingraft and entwine themselves in fellowship with Idols. Next, he deprives them of all handle for quibbling when he anticipates the objection which they might take — that an Idol is nothing, and therefore the flesh offered to Idols differs in no respect from common flesh. This he concedes in so far as the mere substance of the flesh is concerned; but he rejoins, that men are of a different opinion, and that in our acts which are submitted to their inspection, their judgment must be regarded. He adds, that those who eat flesh offered to Idols give support to the error of the weak, leading them to infer that in that way men offer Sacrifice to Idols; and thus in the sight of men God is dishonored. He afterwards gives utterance to a still stronger expression, viz., that there is such a contrariety between the table of Christ and the table of demons, that to taste of the one implies a renunciation of the other.

Ultimately he concludes his exhortation thus — “Do we challenge God? Are we stronger than he?” ( 1 Corinthians 10:22.)

Such is the force of this appeal, that he could not have more bitterly (I had almost said tragically) assailed any criminal act than he has assailed that fictitious Superstition, which many in our days regard as the most trivial of faults. In another passage, ( 2 Corinthians 6:14-16,) he says, “Be unwilling to be yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with iniquity? or what part hath a believer with an unbeliever? or what fellowship hath light with darkness? what concord hath Christ with Belial? what agreement hath the temple of God with Idols? For you are the temple of God, as he says, ( Leviticus 26:12,) I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people.” He does not wish Christians to be so averse to all connection with unbelievers as to have no civil contracts nor dealings; in short, no intercourse with them. Were it so, he says, it would be necessary to quit the world altogether, ( 1 Corinthians 5:10;) but he does not permit them to form any alliance which may ensnare believers into an imitation of their Superstitions. He afterwards subjoins the testimony of Isaiah. ( Isaiah 52:11.) “Therefore come out from among them, and be ye separated, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.” Thus he enjoins us not to keep at a remote distance from unbelievers in respect of space, but to stand far aloof from their polluted rites.

The subsequent context, in which Paul, borrowing either the words of the Prophet or using his own, declares that “the Lord will thereupon receive us, and become a Father to us, and acknowledge us as his sons and daughters,” ( 2 Corinthians 6:18,) ought to make a deep impression upon us, as suggesting that if, in contradiction to the precept, we do not utterly abstain from the handling of things unclean, we deserve to be cast off and repudiated by him. In many passages, particularly in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he treats at length of offense to our neighbor. What he says is to the following effect: — “In regard to the meats which are sacrificed to Idols, we know that an idol is nothing, and that there is no God but one: for although many, whether in heaven or on earth, are called gods, to us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him: but there is not knowledge in all.” ( 1 Corinthians 8:4-6.)

Here, by anticipation, he takes up the objection of those who quibblingly pretend innocence of conscience, and, driving them from their subterfuges, recalls them to the view which men take of their conduct; reminding them that, by making men the witnesses of their conduct, they invite them, by their example, to do the same things; and they do them, not because they understand them to be lawful, but because they see an authority in the individual whom they imitate, though he is acting not only with a doubtful, but; with an opposing conscience.

And see how completely he cuts off all handles for tergiversation by the following rejoinder: — The sitting down at the sacred Feasts of Idols had some semblance and form of Idolatry. Nevertheless, some believers sat down under the pretext that they were eating the pure and holy creatures of God, which creatures, though they had been consecrated to Idols a thousand times, could not be contaminated by such sacrilegious consecration, since an Idol is nothing but a vain figment of the unlearned!

The Apostle, to refute the futile pretext, sharply rebukes them for that crafty prudence which, disregarding and neglecting brethren, makes them wise only to themselves. “Knowledge,” he says, “puffeth up, but charity edifieth. If any one think he knoweth something, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” ( 1 Corinthians 8:2,3.)

He admits that an image is indeed nothing, but he rejoins that the worship of Images is something, and into the practice of it the idle were led by their authority. He says, “There is not knowledge in all; for some, with a consciousness of the Idol, eat it as a thing consecrated to Idols, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. When any one sees him who has knowledge sitting at the Idol’s Feast, will not his conscience, seeing he is doubtful, be encouraged to eat? and by your consciousness shall your weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? In this way sinning against the brethren, and wounding their weak consciences, you sin against Christ.” ( 1 Corinthians 8:7-12.)

It is just as if he had said, When you deem all the persuasions of the Gentiles as to their gods to be vain and frivolous fictions, (as they really are,) you are wise only for yourselves: what you openly do, as it may seem to be a participation in the worship of false gods, you do to the peril of many: for the rude and simple who are present at the spectacle, having not yet reached that prudence of yours, which understands that Idols are nothing, on seeing you apparently communicating in their religious rites, what other idea can they form than just that you are worshippers of Idols, and thus be emboldened to commit the sin which their own conscience condemns? Wherefore, I care nothing for that pretended prudence of yours. As it ensnares the brethren, and affords cause for error, so it is unworthy of Christian men. Nay, the impiety which is committed by the wicked in imitating you, seeing it is committed by your fault, must be charged to your account.

Now, then, it is sufficiently clear, that though all Christians are not equally obliged to perform the public office of professing Religion, there is, however, a kind of private confession which all, without exception, are bound to make, though its precise limits cannot possibly be defined. All are not endued with the same grace to make it, and its nature depends a good deal on opportunities which do not occur alike to all. It certainly, however, goes this length — that we are not to say or do anything unworthy of a genuine faith, or inconsistent with the integrity of our Religion. Examples of such confession may be conjectured, partly from the writings of the Apostles and partly from early Christian history, to have been illustriously given in pure primitive and well-managed Churches. For although we read not, that the believers of that age declaimed on their Religion in the streets and public highways, nay, read that they concealed their Christianity from those to whom it would have been perilous to divulge it, we at the same time read that they were most studiously careful not to give any indication adverse to their Religion, or to pretend that they were anything else than Christians.

And indeed, in what light the Lord views those who keep their faith within, devoid of all confession, may be inferred from the terms in which they are described by the Evangelist. ( John 12:42,43.) “Many of the rulers,” he says, “believed on him, but did not confess him because of the Pharisees, lest they should be cast out of the synagogues: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Oh, fatal thirst of praise! If the glory which we expect with God is to be commenced with insult from men, what must become of those who are mere desirous to be approved of men than of God? And if the sentence of the Lord has pronounced that those who would save their life in this world, would lose it for eternity, ( Matthew 10; Luke 9; Jeremiah 14,) how much more strongly does this apply to fame, the loss of which is more easily borne than that of life? Moreover, if he has declared that he wished to be sanctified in those to whom he promises that he will be a Sanctifier, what hope of themselves can those presume to have who set so little value on his sanctification as to refuse to purchase it by some slight diminution of their reputation?

In regard to this confession, so far as it belongs to the present subject, let it be understood as beyond all controversy, having been clearly established by unequivocal passages of Scripture, that this confession is violated and overthrown not only by the abjuration of the lips, but also by all outward semblance of impious Superstitions and every kind of profanation of true Religion. Wherefore it behooves every man who possesses a pure zeal for piety, not only to refrain his tongue from impious words, but keep every part of his body untainted by any sacrilegious rite.

But since very many, as we have above mentioned, while admitting that Christian piety is dissipated and overthrown by any intermixture with Idol abominations, yet think that we are not bound to abstain from the rites of the Papists, (rites indeed sacrilegious and profane, but performed as they say in the name of God, not in that of Idols!) we must here refute this error, and as we promised, show by a comparison of the present times with those in which the passages we have quoted from Scripture were written, that they anathematize Papistical Ceremonies not less than any other kind of Idol abominations. The alleged distinction between them we shall afterwards consider. This only let us now regard as established, that there never was displayed in Gentile Superstitions sacrilege more execrable, more grievously subversive of true piety, or more insulting to it than some of those things that are now everywhere seen within the domain of the Pope. Should the Lord one day enable a complete purification to be made in the Churches, which that priest of delusions has corrupted by his impostures, the only method by which it will be accomplished will be by plucking up by the roots, and as it were by one stroke of the pen erasing everything which has proceeded from his hand! It is indeed true, that some things are of such a nature that you may tolerate them for a time, and even engage in the observance of them without sin. But even here there is need of prudence and great precaution in distinguishing those things which are of this form and stamp, from those which are openly at war with the word of God, and bear the mark of impiety, as it were, vividly impressed on their forehead. The whole of this will be better and more briefly explained by placing it before the eye in the form of examples.

To interdict the Eating of Flesh under the name of Religion, and bind the consciences of believers by such an interdict, was plainly tyrannical, and as the Apostle expresses it, ( 1 Timothy 4:1-30) “devilish.” And seeing the Lord had left it optional to eat flesh daily, or abstain for a lifetime from eating it, nothing forbids you to abstain on particular days.

For why may not that be occasionally lawful which is at all times free?

Thus you may without sin obey an iniquitous command, provided your intention be to make a concession to the ignorance of the weak, and not also to enthral your mind by those fetters of tradition. To prohibit them from Marrying who are not constitutionally permitted to decline marriage, is tyranny of the same description: and you have not the same liberty to submit to it, unless the gift or abstinence have been specially bestowed upon you.

In regard to the Ceremonies practiced by your countrymen, and which have given occasion to the present Letter, the rule which I would propose for your observance, while you continue to live there, is that those of them which are not stamped with impiety you may observe, soberly indeed and sparingly, but when occasion requires freely and without anxiety, so as to make it manifest that you have no Superstition either in observing or refraining from them. Those which bear the smallest impress of sacrilege, you are no more to touch than you would the venom of a serpent; for I have no doubt of being able to prove to you that no serpent’s venom is more pestilential! Under this latter head I include the Worship of Images, the receiving of Extreme Unction, the Purchase of Indulgences, the Sprinkling of Water, over which those impious exorcisms have been chanted; and several other rites in themselves damnable. For what can possibly be alleged in their favor to save them from the condemnation which we thus pronounce upon them?

I am aware that there are certain middle men to whom we seem too harsh, in attacking what they would have to be thought light trifles of no moment! But what do they allege in opposition to our excessive severity; for so they are pleased to call it? Certainly they will not venture to deny that wherever Images are set up in Temples to be worshipped, the great body, or rather the whole multitude, pay them Divine honors; and by so doing break the Second Commandment, which forbids the Worship of Idols. I say not merely the stolid vulgar, but the most wary, and those possessed of the highest endowments of talent, and learning, are caught and entangled in this error. It is to the opinion of those thus entertained that I call your attention, as you remember the Apostle desires us to do. If in order to make them believe that you do not differ from them in Religion, you uncover the head or bend the knee before an Image, what is this but to give a distinct testimony, declaring that you are an idolater? But the pretense is, that you pay honor to the Image in deference to man, while in your heart you confine worship to God only. As if it belonged to you to make yourself a divider of honor between an Image and the living God; or as if you could elude His all-seeing eye, and hide from it a thing which the eyes of all men perceive!

What else can I say in regard to Chrism and Unction? If you maintain that you sin not in receiving it, because to satisfy the unjust desires of men, you merely allow your body to be anointed while your conscience is not at all affected; I, on the contrary, maintain that you sin grievously in holding forth your forehead to get it inscribed with the blasphemy used in their Confirmation, viz., that you are confirmed with the Chrism of Salvation; or stretch forth your hands to have it engraven upon them, as is done in making their priests, that the power of Sacrificing has been conferred upon you: or give all the parts of your body to be besmeared with no less execration in what they call Extreme Unction, telling you that your sins are remitted by oil! This I shall concede to you to be a trivial fault, or no fault at all, if I do not get yourself to confess that it is indecent in the extreme that bodies destined for the incorruption of the kingdom of heaven should thus be defiled by foul blasphemies, to be carried into the presence of the Lord on that day when they shall stand before his Tribunal to receive the immortal crown of glory.

Then, any one who throws his pence into the coffer where Pardons are set out for sale, or purchases anything for himself out of that prolific and abundant treasury of Indulgences and Dispensations, enrolls his name as a sharer in those nefarious traffickings, and declares his consent to them as clearly as if he wore their badge! I cannot admit the excuse which is commonly made, that just as wild beasts are calmed by throwing offal to them, so the rage of Priestlings is to be softened by throwing them a few coins, or occasionally bestowing upon them a large sum of money, seeing that where lucre is in question, they gape over their prey and are more ravenous than a hungry lion; always, like the false prophets and false priests of old, (as the Prophet testifies, Micah 3,) sounding the tocsin of war against every man who will not put something into their mouths! This excuse, I say, I cannot accept. For what do those Bulls, the favor of which you make a pretense of desiring, imply? Do they not with loud voice proclaim that in return for the money you leave, you carry off Indulgences full of anathema, and deserving of the utmost execration? Have not those who understand this, (and everybody understands!) and who see you offer money, (did you not wish to be seen you would not do it!) an abundantly clear testimony that you are desirous to have a share in Indulgences? If you thoroughly examine what is concealed under them, you will nowhere find Christ and his cross more systematically insulted.

And, finally, in regard to that Water, consecrated by devilish Exorcisms, how can those whose forehead it be-sprinkles venture, unless they have nothing more than a forehead, to contend that they may use it with impunity? For what do they mean by such sprinkling? Is it that they are cleaning their face in public with a little drop of filthy water? Do they thus sport wantonly, without cause, in presence of a distinguished assemblage?

It is neither of these, nor anything like them. By that symbol they bear witness to the assembled multitude, that they do not hold the sanctity of Exorcism in contempt. By this, unquestionably, they set their seal to all the blasphemies which are vented by Exorcisms, viz., that a virtue has been infused with the Water which expels demons, cures diseases, drives off ghosts, and dissipates all kinds, of harm. Lest they complain that I misrepresent their acts, and that they have none of the impiety which I impute to them, I appeal to their own consciences, and ask whether, when they submit to such rites, they mean to persuade the people of anything less than that for which I have censured them? The people themselves, whose wishes they desire to satisfy, I now bring in as judges; and there is not one of them who will not declare that this is the idea which they all have. If they say it is unjust to be tried by such a rule, let them bring their charge of harshness against the Apostle, and expostulate with him, not with me.

I see that I shall never have done speaking, nor objectors have done quibbling, unless we agree as to some ascertained matter, in which that which we wish to teach may be seen plainly, and with the utmost evidence. Let us therefore take one example from the Mass; and if everything which the Scriptures deliver on the subject of Idolatry, or which may be said to prove that all those ceremonies which I so strongly maintain that you ought to shun, are not to be used as things indifferent, is not equally applicable to the Mass, I give up the cause! My reason for selecting it from all other abuses is, because the reverence in which it is held is so extreme, that though you might be able to escape animadversion in regard to them, you cannot easily absent yourself from it without bringing many eyes upon you. Hence it is that many persons are to be met with who see the mischief of other observances, and abstain from them, while they admit that, notwithstanding the abominations with which the Mass teems, you meet with very few who venture to absent themselves, whether blinded by terror, they do not see the truth, or err from despondency and lukewarmness, rather than want of discernment.

It is for this reason, I think, that the whole of the present discussion is in a manner comprehended under this one article, so that this hallucination by which men are chiefly dazzled being disposed of, all other articles in which the delusion is not so strong will readily be conceded to me.

All, I mean all persons like yourself, who have learned to hear and obey the word of God, I here, as was premised, undertake to teach along with you. Let us consider, then, for a little, what is implied when, in order not to seem to hold the majesty of the venerable Mass in contempt and derision, you present yourself during its performance, and are seen standing like a worshipper among other worshippers. First of all, though there are none imbued with any tolerable knowledge of God, who do not know what the Mass itself is, yet, that they may thoroughly and honestly hold what they do know, I must put them in remembrance. A great many, I see, err from this, that though at home they have a clear and distinct idea of its nature, yet, when they approach it, they forget how fearful the tragedy is of which they are about to be spectators. But not to be obliged to begin a long and oft repeated discussion, I must refer my readers to my\parINSTITUTES for an exposition of the different kinds of Sacrilege in the Mass. There, I believe, that so far as the brevity of the work would allow, I have explained the whole subject, and also everything which specially relates to the matter now in hand. I only say, that every believer should be aware that the mere name of Sacrifice (as the priests of the Mass understand it) both utterly abolishes the cross of Christ, and overturns his sacred Supper which he consecrated as a memorial of his death. For both, as we know, is the death of Christ utterly despoiled of its glory, unless it is held to be the one only and eternal Sacrifice; and if any other Sacrifice still remains, the Supper of Christ falls at once, and is completely torn up by the roots, its only use being as a token, and as it were a seal of that one oblation. Were these two things, which are so constantly annexed to the Mass, that they cannot possibly be dissevered from it, the only ones by which I endeavored to render all Communion in the Mass detestable to you, what could you do but unite with me in expressing a common detestation? What! are you, to whom it is not lawful to glory in anything but the cross of Christ — when you see conspirators met to extinguish its glory, to cut down and overturn its testimony — are you to league yourself along with them? Did we view the matter with an unjaundiced eye, must we not see that those who take any kind of share in the Mass do nothing else than hold up their hand in approval of such conspiracy?

There is a third point, however, which, the more clearly it is explained, the more seriously it ought to impress pious minds, viz., the abominable Idolatry, when Bread is pretended to assume Divinity, and raised aloft as God, and worshipped by all present! The thing is so atrocious and insulting, that without being seen it can scarcely be believed; but it stands so exposed to the eyes of all, that there is very little need of argument. A little bit of Bread, I say, is displayed, adored, and invoked. In short, it is believed to be God, a thing which even the Gentiles never believed of any of their statues! And let no one here object that it is not the Bread that is adored, but Christ, who becomes substituted for the Bread the moment it has been legitimately consecrated.

Were we to grant that this applies to the Holy Supper of Christ — though there is nothing we are less disposed to grant — yet it has no application to the Mass, any more than to the ancient Supper of the Pontifices , or the banquet of the Salii! If we are agreed, as we certainly ought to be, that the Lord gives His Body, in the mystical Supper, not to be adored, but to be eaten; and that the presence is not natural, which must be confined to a particular spot, but spiritual, which no interval of space, no distance, can impede; or, if you prefer it, that He there exhibits, not the nature of His Body as present and circumscribed, but his efficacy and virtue, not even would this doubt remain as to the Supper itself. But as all do not yet see the thing in this light, lest any one allege that I am taking a doubtful and controverted matter for one certain and confessed, I will not insist upon it.

Let Christ, then, be present in the Supper in a true and natural Body; let him be handled with the hands, crushed with the teeth, swallowed by the gullet, and let him, moreover, place his Divinity there, such as when it dwelt in an ineffable manner in his flesh, how right and lawful is it to adore it? (the absurdity of doing so has been elsewhere fully demonstrated by us;) but though both were granted, what has this to do with the little bit of Bread, apart from Christ’s Supper? For if the Lord gives His Body, under the bread, to be eaten by his faithful followers, while piously cultivating the memory of his death, it does not follow, as a matter of course, that he gives himself to be sacrificed and slain by impure Priestlings, as often as they please, unless we think there is such virtue in their putrid oil, that it gives ability to all whose hands are anointed with it to become formers of Christ’s body; or unless we believe that the will of the Priestling has the weight of a heavenly decree, so that whenever he determines to bring Christ down out of heaven, he makes Him instantly present by his nod; or, unless we imagine a kind of magical power in the words of Christ, which only when articulately muttered unfold their efficacy. By such absurdities they try to persuade us that they bring Christ out of the Bread!

Whatever they stolidly prate with regard to their power and intention of consecrating, let us discard from our view. We know, first , that the promise which they falsely allege is specially appropriated to the Supper; and, secondly , that it was given to the faith of the pious, not to the derision of the ungodly. But if it has no place without the Supper, what place, pray, will it have in the Mass, than which there is nothing more opposed to the Supper? And if it has been held forth to none but the pious, to nourish and confirm the faith of those who believe themselves eternally sanctified by the one oblation, which Christ offered to his Father on the cross, how can it be performed to those who do not understand its nature, and wickedly make it a pretext for mocking his truth? It is plain, therefore, that the god whom the gesticulating Priest keeps exhibiting whenever he turns round his altar, is not brought down from heaven, but is of the kind extracted from a cook-shop!

There cannot now be a doubt that the promise which gives the body of Christ to believers, under the symbol of Bread, no more belongs to them than it does to the lower animals, nor refers to Masses any more than to Bacchanalia or Turkish feasts. What! does the sacred name of Christ seem slightly insulted by those histrionic gesticulations, so utterly indecorous and indecent that sane and sober men should never make them? To mere fools only could such absurdities be tolerable, but that the name of the Lord should be inscribed on them is at once grossly insulting to his sanctity, and to be borne only with the utmost indignation; or, to speak more truly, is not on any account to be borne at all, especially when we see that the direct tendency of the whole is to bury, subvert, and utterly extinguish the divinely instituted Ordinance of the Holy Supper.

Come now and consider with me, in regard to a pretended observance of the Mass, with what kind of conscience you can be present at the performance of its mysteries. Immediately on your entrance, the altar offers itself to your view, differing little from a common table, but proclaiming, by its very name, that it is to be used for sacrificing! This itself assuredly is not free from blasphemy. You see the Priest coming forward, who boasts that, by the anointing of four fingers, he has been appointed mediator between God and man, who, carrying off from the faithful of the Church, and from the Supper itself, that promise in which Christ gives his Body and Blood to his servants, to be eaten under the symbols of Bread and Wine, arrogates it to himself and his fellow slayers, who dishonor his heavenly Supper by giving it the name of Mass, in which it is completely inverted and deformed. The people stand by, persuaded that every one of these things is Divine; you stand among them pretending to be similarly affected. When the impostor has gone up to the altar, he begins the play with acts partly motionary, partly stationary, and with those magical mutterings by which he thinks himself, or, at least, would have others to think — he is to call Christ down from heaven, by which he devotes Him when called down to Sacrifice, and by which he procures the reconciliation of God with the human race, as if he had been substituted in the place of a dead Christ! These acts you see received by the whole multitude, with the same veneration as those above-mentioned; you shape your features to imitate them, when they ought visibly to have expressed the utmost abhorrence!

Will it still be denied to me that he who listens to the Mass with a semblance of Religion, every time these acts are perpetrated, professes before men to be a partner in sacrilege, whatever his mind may inwardly declare to God? At last, behold the Idol (puny, indeed, in bodily appearance, and white in color, but by far the foulest and most pestiferous of all Idols!) lifted up to affect the minds of the beholders with Superstition. While all prostrate themselves in stupid amazement, you, turning toward the Idol with an expression of veneration, prostrate yourself also. What effrontery must ours be, if we deny that any one of the things delivered in Scripture against Idolatry is applicable to the Idolatry here detected and proved! What! is this Idol in any respect different from that which the Second Commandment of the Law forbids us to worship? But if it is not, why should the worship of it be regarded as less a sin than the worship of the Statue at Babylon? And yet the three Israelites, to whom we above referred, shuddered more at the idea of offering such worship than of suffering death in its most excruciating form.

If the Lord declares the impurity of the vulgar superstitions of the Gentiles to be such that they are not to be touched, how can it be lawful to keep rolling about in such a sink of pollution and sacrilege as here manifestly exists? Taking the single expression which gives the essence of all the invectives which the Apostle had uttered against Idolatry — that we could not at once be partakers at the table of Christ and the table of demons — who can deny its applicability to the Mass? Its altar is erected by overthrowing the Table of Christ, and its feast is prepared by plundering, lacerating, defiling the meats prepared for the Table of Christ.

In the Mass Christ is traduced, his death is mocked, an execrable idol is substituted for God — shall we hesitate, then, to call it the table of demons? Or shall we not rather, in order justly to designate its monstrous impiety, try, if possible, to devise some new term still more expressive of detestation? Indeed, I exceedingly wonder how men, not utterly blind, can hesitate for a moment to apply the name “Table of Demons ” to the Mass, seeing they plainly behold in the erection and the arrangement of it the tricks, engines, and troops of devils all combined.

But here new subterfuges are resorted to. For some of those who, when they were involved in the common labyrinth of error, were anointed with the oil of the Papal Priesthood, are still wallowing in the old sty; and though they have been admirably instructed, by the goodness of God in the one eternal Priesthood of Christ, still proceed to sacrifice and ask that they may be permitted to do so with impunity. Truly a shameless request! They are to be allowed to preside at the Mass, though I have long been maintaining on the strongest grounds that Christian men ought not even to be present at it! The quibbles by which they try to get off it may be worth while in passing to hear and refute.

Their language is to this effect: Since neither the sacrilegious idea of Sacrificing Christ, nor the absurd opinion of the change of