Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

from which it is considered as inseparable; whereas, on the present hypothesis, regeneration and faith are supposed to exist in the absence of the cere mony, but to be deprived of their prerogatives. The system of the papist exalts the ritual part of religion to an unwarrantable height, without depreciating the spiritual and internal; the system of my opponent does both.11.

1

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Thus I have endeavoured to examine, with the utmost care and impartiality, whatever our author has advanced, in order to prove the necessary connexion betwixt the two positive ordinances under consideration. My apology for extending the discussion to a length, tedious, it is feared, to the reader, is, that this is the point on which the whole controversy hinges. As far as its real merits are concerned, I might therefore be excused from pursuing the subject farther. If the arguments of Mr. Kinghorn, on this head, are satisfactorily refuted, and the contradictions and absurdities into which he has fallen, laid open to the reader, he is already sufficiently answered. That he has taken different ground from his venerable predecessor, will not be disputed. He has argued from premises, and adopted principles, to which that excellent person made no approach. Mr. Booth, whatever was his success, remained on terra firma : our author has attempted a flight beyond "the diurnal orb," but approaching too near the sun, his pinions are melted, and his fall will be con

}

[ocr errors]

1

spicuous, in exact proportion to the elevation to which he has aspired. He was determined to give the controversy a new and imposing aspect; and, conscious that the practice which he undertook to defend had been hitherto rested on no very distinct basis, he determined to dig deep for a foundation, and in so doing, has disturbed the most received opinions, and endangered the most momentous truths. Were I permitted to prognosticate his fate, I should say that his paradoxical mode of defence, whatever applause it may meet with at present, will, in the end, be of infinite injury to the cause; and his treatise, like the little book in the Apocalypse, be "sweet in the mouth, and bitter in the belly."

But though what has already been advanced, may be considered as comprehending all that is essential in the controversy; as he has thought fit to introduce other topics, the reader is requested to exercise his patience, while we reply to his most important observations on each of these; after which we shall endeavour to shew the futility of the answer he has attempted to the principal arguments adduced in favour of our practice.

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

PART II.

THE COLLATERAL TOPICS INTRODUCED BY MR. KINGHORN

CONSIDERED.

CHAP. IV.

The Charge of dispensing with a Christian Ordinance, considered.

AMONG the various objections to the system we wish to see universally adopted in our churches, there is none more frequently insisted upon than that of its implying a right to dispense with a command of Christ.* Though the treatise on the Terms of Communion contains a clear answer to this accusation, yet, as it is again brought forward by our author, with unabated confidence, a fuller reply may be deemed requisite.

This writer supposes that the expression "dispensing power," so often used in this controversy,

Here the following question deserves our serious regard, first, "Have we any right to dispense with a clear command of Christ ?" -Baptism a Term of Communion, p. 90.

was first suggested by the conduct of Charles the Second, in granting indulgence to the dissenters beyond the allowance of law, a measure which was afterwards adopted, for similar purposes, by James, his successor. It is surprising a person of Mr. Kinghorn's acknowledged learning should fall into such an error; that he should not know that the doctrine of dispensation was familiar to preceding ages, and was the subject of much subtle disquisition, and of many refined distinctions among legal writers. It is impossible but that he must have read, in ecclesiastical history, of the power of dispensation assumed by the pope, which formed a principal branch of the papal revenue, and the exertion of which was regulated by the dictates of the most artful policy. He cannot, surely, have forgotten that the refusal to exercise this prerogative, when it was demanded in order to gratify the capricious passions of Henry the Eighth, was the immediate occasion of the reformation in England.

[ocr errors]

It

The power of dispensation is the power of setting aside the law in a particular instance. may be exerted by the legislature, or by the executive branch of government, under certain regulations, and to a certain extent, previously settled and provided for by the original constitution of the state. As the operation of law is general, and the actions to which it applies are susceptible of endless modifications and varieties, some such

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »