William Allen

“ If we find in the Bible any plain, intelligible teaching of God, will it do to set up our reason against the teaching of Him, who is infinite reason and infinite wisdom?
If any truth is plain in the Bible, is it not that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in human flesh or in fashion as a man by his sufferings on the cross made atonement for the sins of the world? ”

“ And what reason can be assigned why all the planets and all the stars should not be inhabited by rational beings? Who can fix the limits to God's creation? As light flies 192,000 miles every second, who can say, that the light from the most distant star has yet reached the earth since the star was created? With what reverence and awe, with what love and trust and spirit of obedience should Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, be regarded? ”

“ Sonnet 29. As Christians we are under inexpressible obligations to God for his book of revealed truth, proved to be divine by the voice of prophecy, by the wonders of miracles, by the sublimity of its doctrines, and by the approval of conscience. Every man, who can read, is bound to examine this book for himself; for otherwise his faith will rest on a human not a divine teacher.—According to Mr. Chillingworth, what God requires of us is "to believe the Scripture to be God's word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to it." ”

“ There is one God, eternal, infinite, all-wise, perfect in goodness, the creator of the universe. Hence all the gods and idols of the heathen are vanity and a lie.—"There is one God the Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." ”

“ The catholic may use the term mystery as a cover for absurdity and contempt of reason, or in support of a contradiction, and as an excuse for idolatry; but surely God's Bible contains nothing but truth, and that revealed in a manner adapted to the human [80] understanding. But what says archbishop Fenelon in defending transubstantiation or the imagined change of the bread in the sacrament into the body of Christ? He says of the doctrine—"in believing its mysteries one immolates his ideas [or sacrifices his common sense] out of respect to eternal truth." ”

“ When we exercise faith in God's testimony,—when we exercise belief in his word,—when we receive the very truth, which he presents to our understanding or reason and brings to our knowledge,—do we not know it? ”

“ What God reveals must be revealed to our belief, to our reason. Although we pretend not to comprehend perfectly the attributes and ways of the infinite God; yet what he has disclosed we may know; and we may know the meaning of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of faith and unbelief, of reason and contradiction or absurdity. It cannot then be a right inference—if the author had such a meaning—that any doctrine concerning the nature of God may be true, although not conceivable, because God is infinite. ”

“ That Christ had two spirits is the teaching of human theory but not of divine scripture.
Every man is conscious, that he is one,—one existence, one intelligent being, one human being, or an intellect or mind now dwelling in a human body; and he acknowledges every other man to be a similar being. He also regards every angel, that comes to his knowledge by revelation, as one being. God, the Creator of the universe, we view necessarily as one being. ”

“ He died of apoplexy July 18, 1374, aged 74.—Milton's memorable words in relation to books ought never to be forgotten:—"Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life."—But the book of books is God's Book, which infinitely transcends all others in value, except as they borrow truth from its pages, for it [69] reveals to man his pathway to a blessed immortality. ”

“ The doctrine of the New England Synod at Boston in 1680 was the same: "The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father." If many of our American theologians at the present day reject the doctrine of the derivation of the Son from God, they are not responsible to the Synod's Confession or Creed, but certainly they are to holy Scripture and to Reason. ”

“ As derived from God, why might not the Son be as much superior to the highest angel, as man is superior in knowledge and powers to the beetle under our foot? Why could he not derive from God and exercise under God the powers of creation? ”

“ So throughout his epistle God and Jesus Christ are most plainly distinct beings. He says, that Christ condescended to come in fashion "as a man," on which account God highly exalted him: here are two beings: and Christ will be extolled at last to "the glory of God the Father."—He "worshipped God in the spirit and rejoiced in Christ Jesus."—Here are again two beings. Near the close of the epistle he says—"my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." How strange to Paul must have been the doctrine, that Christ was one of several beings making up one God? ”

“ Mid storms, that well the boldest may affright,
When clouds with lightnings arm'd obscure the sun.
Our cares are vain; the good is never won;
Sweet joys are fleeting as the meteor's light;
Unfix'd as shadows are our hopes most bright;
And toil of years is toil but just begun.
Backward from long ascent we turn the eye,
If haply the review may cheer the heart:
The graves of those we love heave through the way.
Forward we gaze: thick mists obstruct the sky,
But precipice is near, from which we start;
Yet naught remains but down to slide and die!
[15]
12. ”

“ I think it thus most clearly and amply established in scripture, that the Lamb of God came down to the earth from the presence of God and laying aside his high dignity dwelt in a human body, as a man dwells in a body, and died in agony on the cross. There may be various high inquiries, which may here spring up. But surely no theory can be true, which contradicts and overthrows the divine teaching. ”

“ Sonnet 26. In the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, the Thirteen United States said unanimously—"We hold these truths to be self-evident:—that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
In his last will Washington ordered the emancipation of his slaves; so also did John Randolph. Patrick Henry declared, that the principle of slavery is "as repugnant to humanity, as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destructive to liberty." ”

“ God himself is perfect reason, pure intellect, infinite understanding. To him the universe is all light. But our reason is restricted: man may grow in knowledge forever; yet he never will know an absurdity or contradiction to be true. To us one great source of truth is God's testimony or revelation. Faith is the belief of God's testimony. As to the word mystery, the common meaning of it in scripture, is not something unintelligible, but a doctrine, once hidden or secret, which is now revealed and intelligible. Thus in teaching the resurrection Paul says, "Behold, I shew you a mystery ”

“ Therefore one plain meaning of the holy spirit is a miraculous and wonderful power, communicated by God from heaven to Jesus Christ when he appeared on the earth in the form of a man, designating him to be the promised Messiah. ”

“ Come, share our bliss unmeasurably great!"—
Not one is toss'd by tempest, all at rest;—
Not one is conscience-smitten of the throng;—
Not one a suff'rer, all I see are blest;—
All know God's truth, all lift th' eternal song.—
Thus hearing calls from ev'ry heav'nly voice—
These scenes in vision—Dying I rejoice!
[58]
98. NIAGARA FALLS. (notes)
Great are the works of God, which meet our sight. ”

“ It is clear beyond a question, that there cannot be two contradictory truths; for truth is one; it is but an expression of the reality of things. But some metaphysicians have lent their aid to the catholic theologians by asserting that, there are contradictory truths in philosophy; but the instances adduced are all fallacious, as Achilles walking 20 times as fast as the turtle, but never able to overtake him.
A lately deceased philosopher of Scotland, Sir W. Hamilton, seems to concur in the catholic notion of the contradiction of faith and reason. ”

“ God's scheme of mercy towards sinful man is accomplished by the wide-spread power and triumphs of Truth. But what are the Truths, that bear intimately on human welfare? Surely it is not a matter of indifference what is received for truth; men are not safe, because they think they are so. ”

“ The importance of the doctrine concerning the spirit or the holy spirit in the gospel scheme, importing God's holy influence on the soul, is evident by the injunction of Christ as to baptism in the faith of it: "teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, &c." ”

“ Warring just where apostles fought of yore.
'Twas Charity, which o'er two oceans bore
Thee and thy fellows from this land of light
To seek God's ancient mount in error's night
And Zion's long-lost glory to restore.
Thy warfare is to last while thou hast breath;
Sure is the vict'ry which to Christ is given;
Earth shall yet bear the sun-light stamp of heaven.
And when at last thine eye shall close in death,
Thy life, we know, through Christ's atoning blood,
Shall be where God outbeams light's endless flood.
59. HAPPY OLD AGE. (notes) ”

“ Sonnet 23. The Christian theologian has this ground of controversy, that the Bible is a revelation from God, which book therefore contains no error, but is filled with eternal, infallible truth. No contradiction in doctrine can possibly exist in holy scripture; and nothing can reconcile the reason, bestowed upon us, with [72] what is absurd or impossible. If controversialists may gather some expressions, which seem to conflict with each other, some patience and diligence of inquiry may be requisite in order to bring them into harmony ”

“ The primitive meaning of the word Spirit is air or breath. Some of its meanings in scripture are wind; the living soul in man and animals; the mind, or man's intelligent part and also its various faculties and powers; an intelligent spirit, simple, superior to man's, not allied to matter; it is applied to angels good and evil; and also to God, as we read, "God is a spirit." It means also the divine power, given to Christ, by which he wrought miracles and fulfilled God's purposes on the earth, as Matt. ”

“ If beyond a doubt the sun, the moon, the stars, and the comets are inhabited by intelligent beings; yet of what rank and in what condition we know nothing. But as we are taught, that there is a world of "fire," prepared "for the devil and his angels," it may be that comets are the destined abodes of the wicked and lost.
Sonnet 73. It is a false and pernicious charity, of which some men boast, that for no crime would they touch the life of man. But God is smiting every day the life of guilty man by a thousand diseases ”

“ For instance, two of our theologians have taught a contradictory doctrine, drawn as they thought from scripture, as follows; Jonathan Edwards maintained, that sin was "not the fruit of any positive agency or influence of the Most High;"—"it would be a reproach and blasphemy to suppose God to be the author of sin" in the sense of the agent, actor, or doer of a wicked thing. But Dr. Emmons maintained, that God "produced all the free, voluntary, moral exercises" of man; that God "creates evil when and where the good of the universe requires;" ”

“ For otherwise we must accept for the teachings of the holy word the faith of some one of the authors of a hundred different creeds; and we may perchance have for our great teacher and master some bewildered lunatic, or some hungry impostor, or some proud and boastful promoter of the purposes of the father of lies. ”

“ Thus throughout the whole scripture the unity of God is asserted or implied. The name of God occurs 500 or 600 times in [91] the Bible. "God is one;" one conscious, intelligent being and voluntary agent. No man in the exercise of his reason has any doubts as to his own oneness, or as to the oneness of any brother man or of any angel, of whom he may think or speak. If I am conscious, that I am a single intellectual being, and necessarily regard every other man as such ”

“ Origen, who wrote in Greek, in the third century, and understood the language better than any modern critic, says, that John's assertion is that, "the logos, or word, was a god," using the word god in its inferior, well-known sense, as is proved by his omission of the article. If he had inserted the article, he would have said, that "the logos was the God, the supreme God, Jehovah." The plain teaching is, there is one God. ”

“ The author may here be allowed to say, that in his judgment in the whole compass of English poetry there are no sonnets equal to a few of Milton's, numbered 8, 9, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22 and 23. If any one would know, whether Milton's meditations brought out sentiments worthy of utterance, and whether he knew how to utter them with the melody of rhyme and at the same time with the unshackled freedom and energy of blank verse, I leave with him for his refreshment the following lines from his sonnet on his own Blindness:—
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" ”

“ Perhaps it might be also said, that in addition to sensibility and impassioned expression there should be chosen, for the highest poetry, subjects of moral dignity and religious interest, having a close bearing on human welfare not only for a moment but for perpetuity. ”