CIVIL ESTABLISHMENTS

OF

RELIGION

IMPEACH THE

INTRINSIC POWER OF THE GOSPEL.

BY THE REV. JOHN HOWARD HINTON, M.A.

LONDON:

SOCIETY FOR THE LIBERATION OF RELIGION FROM STATE PATRONAGE AND CONTROL, 2, SERJEANTS' INN, FLEET STREET,

AND

ARTHUR MIALL, 10, BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THIS Publication is a reprint of a Lecture delivered at Liverpool and at Manchester in the year 1841, before the Voluntary Church Associations of those towns. It is issued

in its present form with the Author's permission.

CIVIL ESTABLISHMENTS OF RELIGION IMPEACH THE INTRINSIC POWER OF THE GOSPEL.

AMONG the objections we entertain to Civil Establishments of Religion, one of neither indefinite character nor inconsiderable weight is, that they impeach the intrinsic power of the Gospel. They call in question its vital energy. The representation they give of it is, that it has not power to stand alone, or of itself to win its anticipated triumphs: it is weak, and therefore they come to its aid. In this spirit a celebrated northern divine represents them as

66

an institute,

of which he honestly believes that its overthrow were tantamount to the surrender, in its great bulk and body, of the Christianity of our nation."* They are, indeed, according to some persons, the only security that religion shall not be driven in dishonour out of the world.

We cannot acquiesce in such a representation. On the contrary, we believe that the Gospel has an intrinsic power, and that it is fully competent to attain its own destiny. So strong is our conviction of this as a truth, and so high is our appreciation of it as a matter of necessity and excellency, that we raise an argument against the Civil Establishments of Religion on this ground. It is undoubtedly true, and it has been often said with great force, that such Establishments bring into operation influences altogether incompetent to the diffusion of anything which can deserve to be called religion,

Dr. Chalmers's Leetures on National Churches, p. 180.

and utterly hostile to the spirit and precepts of Christianity. The power of the Gospel is both impaired and superseded by them; and, using a corrupt instrumentality, the fruits which they produce may be classed under the three termsspiritual pride, formality, and hypocrisy. With all this we fully sympathize; but we do not need it. We can set it all aside, and yet raise, as we think, a valid objection against Religious Establishments. Without saying that they are mischievous to Christianity, it is enough to affirm that they are extraneous to it. Without saying that they impair the power of the Gospel, it is enough to show that they impeach it. Every system that calls in question the intrinsic power of the Gospel must be unsound; and unsound, therefore, is the system of upholding religion by secular Establishments.

I. To make our ground good in this matter, it will be necessary, in the first place, to explain what we mean when we say that the Gospel has an intrinsic power. It will not be required of us, on the present occasion, to use the term Gospel in a restricted and technical sense. We claim rather to employ it with considerable, though not inappropriate or indefinite latitude. We intend by the Gospel, as understood in this discussion, first, a system of truth addressed to mankind; secondly, an apparatus of means adapted to bring the truth into bearing; and, thirdly, a method of divine administration intended to secure its effect.

1. First, we consider the Gospel as a system of truth addressed to mankind. In this aspect of it we say it has an intrinsic power.

It has so inasmuch as it is truth, and on the general ground that all truth has an intrinsic power. There is a relation absolute and universal between truth and the human mind. So far as its capacity extends—of course a necessary limitation-the mind of man is so adapted to the discovery and appreciation of truth in the widest sense, that whatever is true in any department of human knowledge is sure of progressive and ultimate prevalence. Truth has a rightful dominion over the mind of man; and, however long

neglected or obstinately opposed, is sure in the end to win it. In this respect truth stands broadly distinguished from falsehood and error of every shade. These, however favoured by pre-occupancy or by patronage, or of whatever ancient date or wide diffusion, are but of temporary and evanescent influence; truth, in a surer, although perhaps slower, progress, dislodges them step by step, until she takes possession of the whole arena of human knowledge. The familiar adage, magna est veritas et prevalebit, has long ago embodied the sentiment I am expressing, as the dictate of the early no less than the later wisdom of the world; and I suppose there can scarcely be found a person to question its correctness. By whom, or in what department of knowledge, is it doubted ? In natural philosophy? No. In economical science? No. In political ethics? No. Every man is convinced that the secret of success is to be in the right, and that, with truth for his weapon, the world of mind may be subdued. Is the sentiment, then, which is unquestioned everywhere else, to be doubted only in religion? Is it in this field alone that truth shall be assumed to find no soil for the reception of appropriate seed, and no fertility to reward its cultivation? What is there that should make religious truth stand out from all other truth, to every particle of which it is close akin, so signally dishonoured? It is impossible! Were the Gospel false, it might be expected to fail of commanding the reception of mankind, or, with the systems of Paganism, to perish from the earth: but, if it be true, it is fitted to advance, like and with all other truth, through whatever obstructions, and after whatever delays, to universal dominion.

We may regard the topic now before us, however, a little more closely. The Gospel may be viewed, not merely as a portion of the entire body of truth, but as a portion of truth having a particular character. Unquestionably it has a character of great peculiarity. It comes into collision much more directly than truths of any other class with the cherished affections and prevailing pursuits of mankind; it challenges