A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.Wilberforce, William
Religion
A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.
Wilberforce, William
Christianity; Christianity -- Great Britain
composes the troubles of a turbulent land by the extermination of its
inhabitants. This is the calm, not of order, but of inaction; it is not
tranquillity, but the stillness of death;
Trucidare falso nomine imperium, & ubi solitudinem faciunt,
pacem appellant--
Christianity, we might hope, would not be driven to any such wretched
expedients; nor in fact does she condescend to them. They only thus
undervalue her strength, who mistake her character, and are ignorant of
her powers. It is her peculiar glory, and her main office, to bring all
the faculties of our nature into their just subordination and
dependence; that so the whole man, complete in all his functions, may be
restored to the true ends of his being, and be devoted, entire and
harmonious, to the service and glory of God. "My son, give me thine
_heart_"--"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy _heart_:"--Such
are the direct and comprehensive claims which are made on us in the holy
Scriptures. We can scarcely indeed look into any part of the sacred
volume without meeting abundant proofs, that it is the religion of the
Affections which God particularly requires. Love, Zeal, Gratitude, Joy,
Hope, Trust, are each of them specified; and are not allowed to us as
weaknesses, but enjoined on us as our bounden duty, and commended to us
as our acceptable worship. Where passages are so numerous, there would
be no end of particular citations. Let it be sufficient therefore, to
refer the reader to the word of God. There let him observe too, that as
the lively exercise of the passions towards their legitimate object, is
always spoken of with praise, so a cold, hard, unfeeling heart is
represented as highly criminal. Lukewarmness is stated to be the object
of God's disgust and aversion; zeal and love, of his favour and delight;
and the taking away of the heart of stone and the implanting of a warmer
and more tender nature in its stead, is specifically promised as the
effect of his returning favour, and the work of his renewing grace. It
is the prayer of an inspired teacher, in behalf of those for whom he was
most interested, "that their love" (already acknowledged to be great)
"might abound yet more and more:" Those modes of worship are set forth
and prescribed, which are best calculated to excite the dormant
affections, and to maintain them in lively exercise; and the aids of
music and singing are expressly superadded to increase their effect. If
we look to the most eminent of the Scripture Characters, we shall find
them warm, zealous, and affectionate. When engaged in their favourite
work of celebrating the goodness of their Supreme Benefactor, their
souls appear to burn within them, their hearts kindle into rapture; the
powers of language are inadequate to the expression of their transports;
and they call on all nature to swell the chorus, and to unite with them
in hallelujahs of gratitude, and joy, and praise. The man after God's
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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