Christian fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Mate selection -- Fiction
Sir John, who had been an attentive listener, but had not yet spoken a
word, now said, smiling, "Mr. Stanley, you steer most happily between
the two extremes. This exclusive cry of grace in one party of
religionists, which drives the opposite side into as unreasonable a
clamor against it, reminds me of the Queen of Louis Quatorze. When the
Jesuits, who were of the court-party, made so violent an outcry against
the Jasenists, for no reason but because they had more piety than
themselves, her majesty was so fearful of being thought to favor the
oppressed side, that in the excess of her party zeal, she vehemently
exclaimed, 'Oh, fie upon grace! fie upon grace!'"
"Party violence," continued Mr. Stanley, "thinks it can never recede far
enough from the side it opposes!"
"But how then," replied Mr. Tyrrel, "is our religion to be known, except
by our making a profession of truths which the irreligious are either
ignorant of, or oppose?"
"There is," rejoined Mr. Stanley, "as I have already observed, a more
infallible criterion. It is best known by the effects it produces on the
heart and on the temper. A religion which consists in opinions only,
will not advance us in our progress to heaven: it is apt to inflate the
mind with the pride of disputation; and victory is so commonly the
object of debate, that eternity slides out of sight. The two cardinal
points of our religion, justification and sanctification, are, if I may
be allowed the term, correlatives; they imply a reciprocal relation, nor
do I call that state Christianity, in which either is separately and
exclusively maintained. The union of these manifests the dominion of
religion in the heart, by increasing its humility, by purifying its
affections, by setting it above the contamination of the maxims and
habits of the world, by detaching it from the vanities of time, and
elevating it to a desire for the riches of eternity."
"All the exhortations to duties," returned Mr. Tyrrel, "with which so
many sermons abound, are only an infringement on the liberty of a
Christian. A true believer knows of no duty but faith, no rule but
love."
"Love is indeed," said Mr. Stanley, "the fountain and principle of all
practical virtue. But love itself requires some regulations to direct
its exertion; some law to guide its motions; some rule to prevent its
aberrations; some guard to hinder that which is vigorous from becoming
eccentric. With such a regulation, such a law, such a guard, the divine
ethics of the gospel have furnished us. The word of God is as much our
rule, as his Spirit is our guide, or his Son our 'way.' This unerring
rule alone secures Christian liberty from disorder, from danger, from
irregularity, from excess. Conformity to the precepts of the Redeemer is
the most infallible proof of having an interest in his death."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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