Robert Waln

“ We need not be told that if all men were under the strict influence of virtue and religion, most of the existing laws would be unnecessary, because they are enacted in consequence of the vices and frailties of man; but that such a state of things will ever exist on earth, in which all regulations and covenants of society may with safety and convenience be abolished, is an idea too extravagant to require refutation. Nor can it be believed that all laws made by the wisdom of man, are foolishness with God, in the sense in which you understand it. ”

“ You say, "Right reason is as much a gift of God, as any gift that we can receive: therefore, nothing but the rational soul is a recipient for divine revelation; and when the light shines upon it and shows any object, reason brings it to the test. If it is kept in right order, and under the regulating influence of the divine law, it brings things to balance, and it is brought to know every thing which may rise up, although at first sight. If it will not accord with right reason, we must cast it off as the work of Antichrist. All that the Almighty requires of us, will always result in reality ”

“ I know there are individuals in every stage of life, who judge of preaching as others do of music, by the concord of sweet sounds; and who are convinced more by the harmony of a well turned sentence, than by the sentiment it is intended to convey; whose religion is founded on sensation rather than reflection, and is an affair of feeling instead of a deliberate sense of duty. ”

“ Our immortal spirits receive all their light from that celestial and invisible Sun which is the Creator of all things. He emits of his excellency to us, yet he does not lessen, but remains eternally the same, for all that comes from him will return to him. ”

“ Here is no proof of your ability to draw conclusions from the analogy of reason, but it is a striking illustration of the wisdom of the counsel, "not to multiply words without knowledge."
A very keen and accurate observer of the foibles and infirmities of man remarks, "it would be well, if people would not lay so much weight on their own reason in matters of religion, as to think every thing impossible and absurd, which they cannot conceive: how often do we contradict the right rules of reason in the whole course of our lives? ”

“ We have heretofore been taught to believe, that the only way in which we can arrive at a knowledge of the truth of any thing by our reason, is by the deductions drawn from the ideas which have been impressed on our minds by the use of our natural faculties; and that revelation is a special communication, in a manner independent of these faculties. But admitting that all the theologians and metaphysicians who have preceded you, have been in error, and that you alone are acquainted with the nature and operation of the faculty of reason, in what does it result? ”

“ For in your letter to Thomas Willis, before alluded to, you declare your belief in the Scripture account of our Saviour's birth from your reliance on tradition, although it is contrary to your judgment. If then that faith which a child admits and believes to be true from a firm reliance on the wisdom and experience of a pious father, is as bad as the faith of devils; how are we to describe the faith of that man who gives to tradition such supreme control, as to make a reliance on it a point of duty, although a belief in it, is contrary to his deliberate judgment. ”

“ I believe with one of the most exemplary ministers that the Society of Friends ever produced, [80] that all true Christians are of the same spirit, though their gifts may be diverse; that sincere, upright hearted people in every society who love God, are accepted of him; and that Christianity is a pure principle in the human mind, which is confined to no forms of religion, nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. ”

“ But although not in membership, I feel a deep interest in the Society of Friends, and while I am without that sectarian spirit, which in the narrow breasts of some individuals, confines all true worship to a particular description of people, (and which I am happy in believing is no part of a quaker's faith;) long observation has convinced me, that there is no society whose principles and discipline are more eminently successful in inculcating the moral doctrines of christianity, and there is none whose religious tenets are more in conformity with my own ideas of true spiritual worship. ”

“ You, however, seem to be in the state of Peter before his vision, who thought it unlawful to eat with the uncircumcised, and knew not, that on the Gentiles also, was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost: and, like James and John, you seem ready to call down the fire of heaven on those who do not receive the gospel according to your own particular ritual, although you must have read the rebuke of their master, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." ”

“ So when the preacher is followed and applauded, it often begets a restless spirit: silent worship no longer affords him satisfaction, and he seldom permits it to others, when he is present. Few men have such fertility of imagination as to be able to vary such frequent discourses; he is often at a loss for a subject, and seizes with avidity every new idea, regardless of its correctness, if it possesses the charm of novelty. ”

“ Indeed after all this boast of regulating the conduct by those facts and circumstances only which we understand, every observer must perceive, that under the practical exercise of this principle, even the common affairs of life would stand still; that we all act on the moral certainty of the existence and operation of things, the cause or production of which is beyond our comprehension; and that it is from the evidence of their actual existence, and not the discovery of the means of it, that our belief in them is established. ”

“ Here, then, is no balance; virtue is generally rewarded in this life; and, if the Christian is to look for redemption, is it not "by standing fast and holding to the traditions which we have been taught," by which we shall know that as all have sinned and fallen short, so we can only be justified by grace "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." ”

“ These questions must present themselves to every mind when examining your opinions; for, when stripped of all glosses, and exhibited in their genuine colours, they mean that all written rules of order and discipline are restraints upon the liberty of the saints: that no rules should be established by men, for that every man has the rule written in his own heart, and that there alone he is accountable. ”

“ The christian religion is of so much importance, and has so long engaged the attention of men; it has occasioned so much research and so many controversies; so many sermons have been preached, and so many books written, upon every part of it, that nothing new can be said upon the subject: yet such is the nature of man, that he is always requiring some novelty to rouse his attention and amuse his mind. ”

“ That no man can tell how far his own opinions are influenced by tradition and education is unquestionable, and it ought to render us cautious in censuring those of others; and if it is indeed true, that each requires a law peculiar to himself, and that the law in another man's mind is no law to us, it must follow that we can form no idea of another's duty, and that to attempt to censure or direct his conduct, is as unwise as it is presumptuous. ”

“ You commence your sermon by stating your apprehensions that there are individuals who are not sufficiently impressed with the necessity of order and discipline in society, and seem to consider it your duty to convince them of its importance. To a plain understanding this does not appear difficult, for the arguments in favour of it are so palpable, that a very few minutes indeed, would be sufficient to any one not in the habit of multiplying words, to establish it beyond all controversy. ”

“ All amplification is frivolous and vain; all addition to that which is already sufficient for the purposes of religion, seems not only useless, but is in some degree profane. Such events as were produced by the visible interposition of divine power, are above the power of human genius to dignify. ”

“ If he be not prudent as well as pious, he may be brought to humour his audience, and his audience to flatter him with a dangerous emulation, till they will scarcely endure truth itself, from any other lips. The spirit of excessive fondness generates a spirit of controversy. Some of the followers will rather improve in casuistry than in christianity. They will be more busied in opposing Paul to Apollos, than in looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, than in bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. Religious gossip may assume the place of religion itself. ”

“ And this is no infringement of the liberty of conscience; for any man who dissents from their doctrines may separate himself from them; he may unite himself with any other sect; or if, in his career, his spiritual knowledge has set him above all ordinances, he may erect his own standard, and, unrestrained by forms and unfettered by creeds, he may give the utmost strain to his imagination, and perhaps become himself the head of a sect. ”

“ Let me rejoice in the light which thou hast imparted, let me serve thee with active zeal and humble confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest, shall be satisfied with knowledge. ”

“ It is not difficult to conceive, that a man whose mind is convinced by internal evidence of the truth of the christian religion, and who, under an awful impression of its incalculable importance, opens the sacred volume, finds more instruction and comfort in it, than he who only reads it as history, or from an indistinct sense of duty ”

“ That no man is accountable to another for his religious belief, and that every man has a right to worship in the way which he may believe most acceptable to his Creator, are undeniable truths; but as the different Christian sects have congregated on account of a unity in their religious tenets, and assemble together for the purpose of uniting in divine worship, they have a right, and, (if they are firm in their belief,) it is their duty, to establish such rules and regulations as will best preserve their religion in, what they believe to be, its greatest purity ”

“ And indeed no man of observation can cast his eyes round him, and contemplate the various illusions into which the human mind is seduced on religious subjects, without perceiving the absolute necessity of a standard or rule by which its wanderings may be checked and its aberrations corrected, and we find Locke concurring with Barclay, in stating the scripture revelations and right reason, as the true standards by which our faith is to be tried. ”

“ Revelation is natural reason, enlarged by a new set of discoveries, communicated by God immediately, which reason vouches the truth of, by the testimony and proof it gives that they come from God." And he rebukes the presumption of those who reduce the measure of their belief to the narrow limits of their own understanding, and declares "it is an over-valuing of ourselves, to reduce all to the narrow measure of our capacities; and to conclude all things impossible to be done, whose manner of doing exceeds our comprehension. ”

“ Now although I agree with you, that the inspirations of man in our day, are to be examined by the rule of right reason, I fear we shall not concur in our manner of conducting the enquiry. We have no extraordinary signs accompanying them, and we all know, how easy it is to mistake the suggestions of the imagination for the operations of the spirit of truth on the mind ”

“ Hence it must follow, that if the only immortal part in man is the portion of the blessed Spirit of which he is the partaker, and that this is a part of the nature of God, it must be bestowed equally on the good and the wicked, or that no part of the latter can be immortal; and this extraordinary consequence must result, that worship in spirit is not the homage of man to his Creator, but the Divinity adoring himself. ”

“ That they will not succeed, I am fully persuaded; because I think it must be evident to every unclouded mind, that without such salutary interference as they often find it necessary to exercise, all order and propriety would be banished from the society.
Cunning is not more inconsistent with fanaticism, than it is with lunacy; for however perverted the mind may be in relation to particular subjects, we often see individuals in both situations, adopting the most plausible means for the accomplishment of the most irrational objects. ”

“ You possess some of the qualities essential to the orator; you are voluble of speech and impressive in your delivery, and you have that confidence in the powers of your own mind, which secures you from hesitation and embarrassment: but you are deficient in others, without which all is unavailing; your perception is obscure, and your ratiocination singularly defective; and you are peculiarly unfortunate in the belief that you excel in that faculty in which you are most deficient. ”

“ Hence the Scriptures became as one of the sibylline books of Paganism, to be opened by the priests alone, for they only could explain the oracles of God; and they acted with more consistency than you have done, by endeavouring to conceal them from the view of the laity; for if they are indeed such as you have described, and they have strove to make them, they ought not only to be concealed from the view of young beginners in religion, but prohibited to all but the initiated. ”

“ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace, of them that make peace."
An accurate observer will often discover how erroneously the zeal of individuals operates: he will see around him numbers always ready to counsel and advise their neighbours; to detect their errors and reprove their aberrations: but how few among us scan with equal severity their own ”

“ Again you say, "as reason is a dormant principle without revelation, so when God is pleased to reveal things unto the immortal souls of the children of men, they are then seen rationally: and then reason has an opportunity to exercise its balancing and comparing principle in man, and therefore there is a two-fold revelation to man." ”

“ Why, when the Almighty reveals any thing to our souls, He, by another revelation, enables us to examine and discover whether the first revelation is right; but you have not told us, by which we are to be governed, if they differ. ”

“ You surely cannot intend to persuade us, that reason has always been dormant without revelation, or you must yourself be ignorant, or believe that we are ignorant, of the writings handed down to us, and which sufficiently attest the powers of the human mind, even when unilluminated by the revelations of the Gospel, and in the darkest ages of Paganism. ”

“ On the contrary, he believed with the Apostle Paul "that these things were written for our learning," that "the holy scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus," and that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work." ”

“ The situation of a christian teacher is of awful responsibility, and in the Society of Friends peculiarly beset with dangers, not only because of the high claim on which their ministry is founded, and which seems to require a degree of unremitting watchfulness with which it is difficult for man to comply; but also, because it requires a constant attention to keeping the mind in that state of lowliness and humility, which can alone preserve them from mistaking the wanderings of the imagination for a call of duty ”

“ Where the truth embraced is consonant to the revelation in the written word of God, or the action conformable to the dictates of right reason, or Holy Writ, we may be assured that we run no risk in entertaining it as such; because, though it be not an immediate revelation from God, extraordinarily operating on our minds, yet we are sure it is warranted by that revelation which he has given us of truth. But it is not the strength of our private persuasion within ourselves, that can warrant it to be a light or motion from Heaven ”