he feet of Jesus, or
frequent the apostolic college! If Dissenters have renounced the
infallibility of the Pope, have they not bowed their necks to a yoke
almost as heavy and galling? If they have given up the Thirty-nine
Articles, have they on that account conceded to each other the right of
judging all things for themselves? If the Trentine pandects are not
retained as the law of their religious faith and life, are they not bound
by the Institutes of Calvin, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the
Assembly's Catechism, the Minutes of Conference, and the Sermons of
Wesley--the creeds of chapel trust-deeds, the Congregational Union
Confession of Faith, or by the writings of Howe, Watts, Doddridge, Gill,
Fuller, Hall, Priestly, Watson, Channing, and of other great men, who
ought to be dear to their hearts, but not lords of their faith? Are we
not all of us more or less guilty of this servility? Have we not yet to
learn that there is no _via media_--no middle way between Reason and
Rome? There is, unhappily, floating over us an invisible and unexpressed
opinion, to which all, in the main, must agree. It hovers over the
pulpit and the pew; over the church and congregation; over the
professor's chair and the students' form; over the family and the school;
over the Bible and the Commentary. All thought, all sentiment, all
investigation, all conclusions, all teachings, are controlled by it. It
is this which checks free inquiry; shuts the mouths of those who have
convictions which fit not the Procrustes' bed, according to which all
opinions are to be shortened or stretched; makes hypocrites of those who
cannot afford to keep a conscience, or have not courage to brave the
consequences of honesty; turns the pulpit too often into the chair of
restraint, concealment, or compromise. Wherever this tyranny is obeyed,
there cannot be much depth of conviction, vitality of sentiment, growth
of knowledge, and improvement of religious life. If this principle were
applied to science, it would paralyse all the energies of investigation,
and make the wheels of progress stand still. If churches will not
respect individual liberty--will not let their ministers and members
investigate the Scriptures, and theology, the fruit of other men's
examination of the Scriptures, as fearlessly, impartially, and rigidly as
men inquire into Nature and the human results of searching into
Nature--such as astronomy, chemistry, and any other branch o