The National Register.
London, England, 1816-06-09 00:00:00

Iqot Ai,

No. 455.—V0i.. IN.

,t.tinbap ?iniussenicnrJ.

ON* CHRISTLIN LIBERALITY.

Ma. EDITOR,—AS I observe that it has become a
leading feature of your NATIONAL ItEcitsmt to avoid
the least offence to any Christian sect whatsoever, on ac-
count of its religious establishment, I design to avail my-
self of this mark of your impartiality, in order to draw
your attention, and that of some at least of your numerous
Ite.aders, to what I deem a vital principle of Christianity ;
without which, whatsoever may be our sanctity of life
and manners, or the extent of our ahns, we must expect
to be counted dead bane our Divine Master and I:iv/-
giver. I mean that liberal charity to all our fellow-
christians, to whatever sect or persuasion they may be-
long, which thinkcth no evil, and vatinteth nut itself.
(1 Cur. xiii.)
The frailty of human judgment, and the imperfection
of human morals, will always furnish sufficient warnings
to any considerate mind how little any of us can assmne
to ourselves a claim of condemning those who differ from
us in our opinions of Divine truths ; and it should be
remembered, that truth remains intrinsically the same,
notwithstanding the many steps we take to discover it,
or the more numerous channels of interpretation by which
we are all inclined to take possession of it, and to in-
fist on that possession as exclusively our own ! I will
*appose, for a moment, that none of us, in any age or
country, ever took any religious dogma for granted, but
well examined it before we adopted it as part of our
('reed ; and that every one deemed it his best in-
terest and duty to use this previous examination,
because his eternal felicity depended upon it ; and
I will not dare suggest that any part of our Christian

to suppose that they could be satisfied to be called Chris-
tians without it. Then they will find how far their con-
viction differs from that of others, equally well disposed
as themselves, equally inclined to promote their prospe-
rity, and equally to be relied upon for virtue, veracity,
and a conscientlaus discharge of every moral obligation.
If, as soon as they discover any difference in opinion on
ocicred subjects, that should be ground of strife and envy,
tlle result marl be the entire ruin of that peace by which
suciety, civil and religious, is held and compacted toge-
ther : for, as members of the same union, one member
cannot say to the other, " I have no need of thee." The
'.ame unjust condemnation which is exerci►ed by the one,
is the fair right of the other ; and as it is impossible in
the commonest affairs of life that almost any two should
think exactly alike on the same plan or measure, or see
the same prospect in directly the same point of view : so
in the cause of religion the shades and ramifications of
each man's interpretation of the same truth attlisrd no
cause fir censure ; but, on the contrary, they rather tend
to elicit improvement, and to ratify the leading princi-
ides of our Divine Religion.
It is one of the maniti•stations of the goodness of God,
that, in the essentials of religion, all are agreed by one
impression,—the God and father of all is adored by all
nations, from the palace and the university, to the cottage
and the shed.. Life is received as his gift, and death is
the common lot : the modes of adoration and worship, and
the study of the revealed word, have affisrded to many
the blessings of this confirmation, which are nut yet ex-
tended to every part of this sublunary sphere :—but many
that are yet ignorant of the truths of the Gospel, are, by
stature, prepared for its instruction in the light of eternal
life ; they have, as the ancients had before them, a sha-
dow of good things to come, which the Gospel brought to
light, and secured. The present diflitsion of the Scrip-
tures through every nation of the globe will have the ef-
fect of civilising the savage, and enlightening the igno-
rant ; and the basis on which those Scriptures are written,
is the general love of one another, by which all men may
know that we are the disciples of the same divine master ;
and although it will necessarily be that there be some of
Cephas, and some of Paul, yet, if every one is well per-
:wattled in his own mind of the truth which he has cut-
braced, it is clear that this very truth will lead hint to
embrace all as brethren of the great household of fitith,
and to cherish the obligations, by which he will become
instrumental in the bringing on of everlasting righteous-
ness. If dilli!rent bodies of Christians were to indulge a
contention against each other, and persecution was to