DEAR SIR, 253 LETTER XX. 1824. BEFORE I proceed to show the nature of a religious life, I must ask your attention to an effect of that philosophy, which I have opposed in a former letter, as it isolates religion, and cuts her off from the business and realities of life. A brief attention to the nature and power of religion, will convince you, that the same subtile influence which alike affects the motive and aim of our intentions, will direct and characterise our actions. Religion, when living at the heart, will become the secret principle of all the movements of life, the cause of their operations, and the object of their accomplishment. But how many respectable, well-meaning, and well-educated people, look upon a profession of religion as irrational and enthusiastic; and believe it only to be attained by the sacrifice of all the pleasure and happiness of life. In considering this objection, it is necessary to determine what constitutes pleasure and happiness. I. What is pleasure? No two people give the same answer. Nor does the same person, at different periods of life, derive pleasure from the same gratification. Youth has its peculiar excitements, manhood changes the pursuit, and age seeks for a still higher fruition. Pleasure, therefore, is not absolute, but dependent upon some certain capacity of enjoyment. Whence that action may be said to yield pleasure, which gratifies some feeling, or sense, or passion, and pleasure itself is in the gratification. Would religion destroy that pleasure? The question is best answered by asking another. Is it obtained by irreligious means? If it be, religion both would, and ought to destroy it. We are then asked, if an all-wise Creator would have given us desires for pleasure, organs for producing it, and feelings to enjoy it, if the gratification were criminal? But the question is too lax to admit of an unqualified answer. Without entering into a metaphysical argument, I may reply generally, that pleasure is not sin. Our feelings, our passions, our senses, are not in themselves vicious; but, like the instinct of inferior animals, are given to urge us to our fit and natural purposes in life; and certain pleasurable sensations are attendant upon their action, to incite us to their accomplishment. But here the parallel ends. The instinct of the brute is complete. Man is governed by reason. The ox will eat only a necessary quantity of food, and then lie down to ruminate; nor will he * return to his pasture, before he is again moved by the cravings of hunger. And this action and re-action almost appears to be mechanical. But men are freed from instinctive restraints, and suggestions, to be subject to conditional laws, promulged by God himself. And the personal application of those laws, is one object for the exercise of the mind. Thus, to indulge in excess of food is sinful. The inferior animal is instinctively guarded against such excess; but, from the constitutional differences of men, religion alone can decide the relation of that sin. Could reason point out the degree of excess, which may be indulged with safety, she would be able to draw one of the nicest distinctions between good and evil, which the wisest of mankind have sought in vain. Thus, the pleasures of the table tempt us to gratify, rather than to satisfy our appetites; when the only question seems to be between our present enjoyment, and future health; between a present and certain pleasure, and a future and uncertain pain. And how is reason to decide the chance and value of this contingent, whose price is the denial, or the indulgence, of an apparently innocent gratification? Would not reason alone exclaim," Let us eat and drink to-day, for tomorrow we die ?" Man is thus unable to mark the nice terminations which bound the relations of good and evil. But where the wisdom of man is dark and erring, the wisdom of God is as light as the effulgence of His own glory. By referring every action, both of mind and body, to the secret motive which determines its choice, the wisdom of our Creator has provided a test which immediately decides whether we are acting from selfish motives, or upon the eternal principle of the law of God. The test is in the pages of the "everlasting Gospel," a summary of which, in the comprehensive words of the Apostle, will be found to bear with peculiar force upon our present subject- "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." It follows, therefore, that the innocence or guilt of our pleasures is determined by the motive or "heart" * from which they are sought, and the design and feeling with which they are indulged. Such an argument, it is said, would overturn the whole frame of society. So long as the love of the world is enmity to God †, it would be a benefit to mankind to throw down their false security, and expose the fallaciousness of their hopes. We have the authority of St. Paul to show that we do not run this notion of sin into the extreme. "Whatsoever," he says, * 1 John iii. 20, 21. + Rom. viii. 7. "is not of faith is sin.” * A doctrine which St. James also inculcates, when he teaches that he who offends in one point is guilty of the whole law. But the former Apostle shows the true foundation of all reasoning on this subject. "Unto the pure," he says, "all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled." ‡ And this doctrine was derived from the public teaching of Christ. "Ye cannot," He says, "serve God and Mammon." Whence St. Paul writes, "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are ye to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness ?" The sum, therefore, of the argument is this: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." If, therefore, you be not living in faith, or, in other words, if faith and grace do not so dwell and rule in your heart, that every thought, and word, and action, be not designed to please God, they are sin. You will, probably, think this argument ist pushed to an extreme. I can only answer that it is scriptural, and, if examined without prejudice, will appear reasonable. You are either in a state of salvation, or you are not. If you be, then your heart is sanctified, and its * Rom. xiv. 23. + James ii. 10. § Rom. vi. 16. S |