Polynesian., 1861-12-21
Ghe polpnesian.
From the Westminster Reviewl
Christian Creeds and their Defenders.


quality of being all addicted to persecution Their
believers will not believe this; but, what amounts
to the same thing, they found faithful in the
practice. The philosophy of creed persecution it
is not our purpose now to inquire into; it is Just
possible that 1t resolves itself into compound of
faith and selfish dogmatism. But what is notewor-
thy here is, that all creeds fraternize in the indu-
gence of the spirit they only differ as to the forms
of its development. One will burn, another will
only fetter, third will vtuperatiOn, fourth
is satisfied with false accusation. Defenders of
the faith as such, all bear about them the leprosy
of intolerance. Let man once esteem himself as
ordained to do Heavens behests and he is already
| IN germ spiritual tyrant, be he called by the
name of Calvin or Alva, he he an Evangelical or a
Laudian Churchmun, a voluntary Nonconformist
or man off, Church and State" Sect alters not
the domineerng instinct any more than it alters
the colour of the skin. Nature is impartial, and
the creed spirit is impartial. Between Rome and
Geneva, and between Geneva and Nonconform-
lst College, there many steps, but the steps
never devlate far from the line of infallibility,
which, visible or concealed, is stretched through
out the whole distance. In point of noise and tu-
multi in the pursuit of heresy, the "Eyangecals,'
Church and Dissenting, carry off the prize. Rome
does her work with dignity-with every mark of
drill and command but platitudinarianiSm is de-
monstratiye and bowling, and at times, frantic in
the extreme: Still, it has the power to do mis-
OHiSl-lb LllC SudiL do HCIi dS Luc
thunder it sacrifices regulations; it blasts friend
ships 1t nurtures suspicion and bitterness, and
alienates by disgust the hearts of the gentle and
the young from the folds of piety and religion.
| To learning it affords encouragement; to men
of taste and requirement 1t proves positive nus-
ance. The present age savours not racks and fag-
gots, and the friends of intolerance are not worthy
of thanks if they now descend to the less imposing
but equally effective methods of official murder and
elimination
Who can define the relation between creeds and
morals? OF course, creeds are moral creeds
can be; but the tactics of their defence, what of
these? Never had casuist harder task than to
show the relation of congruity between the faith
and the means adopted to conserve it. Spartan
| thevishness was accountable, Mussulman and Pa
trlarchal polygamy was venia, but what is to be
said for the crimes against natural and moral law
pcrpetrated in the defence OF Christian creeds
The earth has groaDed under the desolatons spread
over it for the good of the Church, raplne, foul
! proligacy and murder have fourished under the
livery of the faith. Men whose natural conscience
| would have led them to do Justice and love mercy
have been converted into brutes nd monsters when
commissioned to do battle for the &C Truth"
| Whether it is that good thing, when perverted,
| becomes worse in proportion to its native excel
ence-as divines say that angels alone could lapse
| into devs-we know not; but certain 1t Is that
nothing chroncled in history has caused such pain
ful revusions to the moral sense the atrocities
and Obliquties of conservatOrs of various forms OF
Christian creeds. Is lying beautiful in the sight
of some men because it plans stratagems for the
service of truth? Can the hand Of murder be
grasped with affection because it offers Its sword
| to protect Justice? Can love receive accession
of glory from association with hate and cruelty :
| Chateaubriand is known to have passed, in his
| "Genie du Christianisme," about the finest eulogy
on Christianity written, and still to have hated
| his fellow-men with cordiality seldom equailed.
| Now it is n curious phenomenon IN cOnneXlon with
| modern defenders of the faith that the highest
pitch of religious ervor and enthusiasm is associ-
| ated with an excess of unchartableness which Is
quite bewildering. Love to God and hate to man
| are here co-existent. An instance of how a man
who has long been esteemed a brother" may at
once lose CASTE and have his name cast out as evil
for one act of theological liberality, has recently
| occurred in the case of NJ. Pressense. That gen.
tleman had been long the subject of eulogy on
Bible Society platfoSms for pety and zeal IN Bible
distribution, and various Christian labor in France;
| he had only in an evil hour" of Christian love
and Cathollcity to give an admiring account OF
Baron Bunsen's happy and hopeful departure, to
forfeit the confidence of the Evangelicas, and call
out their loudest condemnation. They saw the
plague-spot on his forehead, and every Stunned
| him as death itself.
| To "speak wickedly for God - is pitch of zeal
which mas not, so lar as we KNOW, UeeH III the
! list of works of supererogation; but to common
apprehension it would now appear to belong to
that category. Job did not approve of it: his age
and religion were simple. From the time of Orgen,
at least it has been in vogue in the Church, and is
still in daily requisiton. 1t quite oppressive to
witness the headlong charges, the INSCRIPTIONS
Misrepresentation, which disfigure the pages of
theological polemics. And still We must guard
| against running to the conclusion that mendacity,
employed in the interests of creed, proves, ipsO
facfo that creed to be false it only suggests. the
thought, either that the creed cannot be defended
| by honorable weapons, or that its abettors know
not how to use them. IL is not without reason,
however, that readers Of /" Evangelical " litera-
ture are warned to be on their guard for, as Cce
70 said of the suspicious story of Attius Navius d.
viding the milestone with razor, " Sed quo isto
intelIecta sunt, philosophis debis dscere prGser
tim isti plurimis de rebus diUinis n1entiantur
But have not men right to challenge and Judge
the opinions of others Doubtless, unless it can
be shown that truth and error one, and that it
pertains not to man to teach and correct his less
| informed fellow man. But still it is not lawful to
connect blame with opinion, allow passion to re-
sent or power to invade it, and tsimply because
it is not amenabIe at our bar. We should trench
on the limits of our brothers. faith with the diff
dence of those who are conscious of their own la
bility TO error; and when most certainly persuaded
of his departure from truth, with the charity which
gives credit for sincerity, e1e with pity more than
hatred for his alterations. The thiRgs in which
men agree are greater and better than those in
which they differ. Let them, then, stand peacea-
bly, on the broader ground. If my neighbor is in
error on points which seem to me to endanger his
salvation is not that reason for my sorrow and
commission? and do sorrow and compassion mani
fest themselves by hatred and denunciati)n? fl
am desirous of promoting my truth. and leading
that man to embrace it, shall l best succeed by
love and fair-dealng, or by hostility and rcproach?
But who gave me liberty to think as do. Has
not the same Being given my neghbor liberty also
to think as he does? Whence, then, the right of