When we consider the ingenuity of the mind of man, in drawing inferences from propositions to suit his present passions and prejudices, and how often they are perverted to the most injurious purposes, every person of reflection must admit that it is of the most serious importance that the ministers of religion should be extremely guarded in the terms they use, and not suffer a sentence to escape from their lips without a careful examination of its bearing and tendency. Nor is it any justification of such persons, although they may with truth assert that the pernicious deductions drawn from their declarations were not intended by them, if such deductions can fairly be made.

These reflections were impressed upon my mind in reading your sermons, in which are to be found many assertions which appear to me to have a very injurious tendency; and with whatever views they were uttered, (for I inquire not into your motives,) seem to strike at the very foundation of revealed religion.

In your vain attempts to describe the nature of the Almighty, we should be induced to believe, from some of your expressions, that you had adopted the opinion of some sects of unbelieving philosophers, that God is not the governor, but the soul of the universe; not a Being, but a principle or element, which, although it acts efficaciously, implies the absence of all personal agency. For you say, "Every child of God has the full and complete nature, spirit, and, may I not say, the divinity of God Almighty; because there is nothing but divinity in God, and therefore, if they are partakers of his divine nature,^[51] so far they are partakers of his divinity, according to the portion which he is pleased to dispense: and he must dispense that portion which will make them like himself. For his children are as much like their Almighty Father, as the children of men are like their fathers."^[52]

In speaking of the operation of the great first Cause, you compare it to the sun: "What, (you say,) would become of us, were it not for the enlivening beams of the sun? Although it emits so much, yet it never lessens.^[53] Our immortal spirits receive all their light from that celestial and invisible Sun which is the Creator of all things. He emits of his excellency to us, yet he does not lessen, but remains eternally the same, for all that comes from him will return to him."^[54]

Consistent with this idea, you totally reject the Scripture declarations respecting heaven and the kingdom of God, and consider them only as a condition of the mind, and that we can enjoy them in this state of being.

In alluding to the account of the apostle's being taken up into the third heaven, you say, "What is this third heaven but a three-fold manifestation of the divine presence;"^[55] and you ask, "Is heaven of so little value to us that we put it off till the day of our death?"^[56] "We are led to believe that there is an opportunity to lay up treasure in heaven; that is, to be in possession of heavenly treasure; or, to use a more proper expression, to be in possession of heaven; because heaven is a state; it is every where where God is;"^[57] "God comes alike into the hearts of all the children of men, as much in the fornicator, the thief, and the liar, as in me. But there it is dead, because the creature is in opposition to God."^[58] "Now this leading by the spirit of God is the same as the kingdom of God, and being subject to the leaven. They are still one and the same thing; they are not two things; and as we yield to the leaven it leavens us, and brings us into the divine nature, so that we come to partake of the nature of God."^[59]

It is an observation of Doctor Paley, that contrivance is a proof of the personality of the Deity; and we have been accustomed to contemplate with admiration and awe the stupendous works of creation as emanating from his wisdom and will. But you, in strict accordance with the notion to which I have alluded, seem not to admit the argument, or the fact on which it is founded; for, in speaking of the earth's revolving in its orbit, you say, "So it has been through all ages past, and so it will continue through the eternal ages to come."^[60] "As the moon receives all its light from the sun, for itself in the first place, so by that means it is enabled to emit a part of the power received to the next orb; and here the heavenly order is kept up—so it has been through all the previous eternal ages, and so it will continue to all future ages."^[61]

Is this Christianity, or is it not a renewal of the old doctrines of Pagan philosophy? They held that matter is eternal, although they did not think with you that our system had existed through all eternity. Plato believed the world to be the work of God out of existing matter; but it was the general belief of the learned at a period preceding the coming of Jesus Christ, (as it appears to be your's,) that the soul of man is an emission of the divine nature, and that all are partakers of it—and from hence they drew the natural, and indeed unavoidable inference, that as God is immortal and the soul of man a part of him, it must necessarily have existed from all eternity.

This idea, so incompatible with God's moral government, completely excludes the doctrine of rewards and punishments; for if "all that comes from him must return to him, and is part of his nature," how can the soul, when absorbed in the divine essence, be rewarded for its virtues or punished for its vices practised on earth?

So far from being alarmed at this conclusion, you appear to have adopted both the idea and the inference; for you say, "to be in the image of God we must partake of his own nature, and have a portion of his own blessed spirit to animate the soul and make it immortal, as God is immortal."^[62]

Hence it must follow, that if the only immortal part in man is the portion of the blessed Spirit of which he is the partaker, and that this is a part of the nature of God, it must be bestowed equally on the good and the wicked, or that no part of the latter can be immortal; and this extraordinary consequence must result, that worship in spirit is not the homage of man to his Creator, but the Divinity adoring himself.^[63]

Socrates alone, of all the ancient philosophers, had adopted the belief of a future state of rewards and punishments; and the reason why he arrived at this truth, affords an instructive lesson to the metaphysical preachers of the present day—he confined himself to the study of morality. "What, (says an eminent writer,) could be the cause of his belief, but this restraint, of which his belief was the natural consequence? For, having confined himself to morals, he had nothing to mislead him; whereas, the rest of the philosophers, applying themselves with a kind of fanaticism to physics and metaphysics, had drawn a number of absurd but subtile conclusions, which directly opposed the consequences of those moral arguments."^[64]

And the great Newton, in reference to this subject, finishes his principles of natural philosophy with these reflections:—"This most elegant frame of things could not have arisen, unless by the contrivance and direction of a wise and powerful being: and if the fixed stars are the centres of systems, these systems must be similar; and all these, constructed according to the same plan, are subject to the government of one Being. All these he governs, not as the soul of the world, but as the Lord of all; and therefore, on account of his government, he is called the Lord God; for God is a relative term, and refers to subjects. Deity is God's government, not of his own body, as those think who consider him as the soul of the world, but of his servants. The supreme God is a Being, eternal, infinite, and absolutely perfect. But a being, however perfect, without government is not God; for we say my God, your God, the God of Israel. We cannot say my Eternal, my Infinite. We may have some notions, indeed, of his attributes, but can have none of his nature. With respect to bodies, we see only shapes and colour, hear only sounds, touch only surfaces. These are attributes of bodies, but of their essence we know nothing. As a blind man can form no notion of colours, we can form none of the manner in which God perceives, and understands, and influences every thing.

"Therefore, we know God only by his attributes. What are these? The wise and excellent contrivance, structure, and final aim of all things. In these his perfections we admire him, and we wonder. In his direction or government, we venerate and worship him—we worship him as his servants; for God without dominion, without providence, and final aims, is Fate—not the object either of reverence, of hope, of love, or of fear."

You may say that you never intended to inculcate such doctrines as I have alluded to, and you can produce various instances in which you have described the Almighty as the supreme governor of the universe; and if these facts are a justification of the course you have pursued, you may continue your career completely sheltered from censure or reproach; for I cannot observe a single novelty in your opinions, or deviation from the established doctrines of the Christian church, which have not been contradicted by yourself.

But such an excuse cannot be availing; you declare that you dare not speak at random, otherwise you would show that you departed from God's illuminating spirit; and although those who have had an opportunity to read and compare your different sermons, can contemplate that solemn declaration with no other than feelings of astonishment and regret at the strange delusion, with others it may have a different effect. You are a travelling preacher, scattering one doctrine here, and another there; and interlarding your discourses with bold assertions, which are remembered, when the prolix and visionary distinctions by which you attempt to qualify them are forgotten.

I remember hearing an individual who had attended at a meeting in the vicinity of Philadelphia, at which you preached, when asked what was the subject of your discourse, reply, that you preached very comfortable doctrine for some of the company, for you had assured them there was no devil. I am not so uncharitable as to believe that you are intentionally instrumental in removing the salutary restraints upon the vices of man; and yet I am surprised that you do not perceive the inevitable and pernicious consequences of such declarations; and that, if you do not believe in the authority of the Scriptures yourself, you do not avoid assertions which, while they can have no tendency to strengthen and encourage the pious mind, must necessarily diminish those feelings of future responsibility which, awful as they are, unhappily are not sufficient to restrain the wickedness of man.^[65]

Many to whom you preach are illiterate, and without capacity to investigate your doctrines and their tendency. They have been accustomed to listen to the simple truths of our religion, enforced in language which they can understand; and they often found in their attendance at places of worship, consolation, instruction, and encouragement. They have been taught to believe in the revelations unfolded in the sacred volume, and to look forward with the cheering hope, of a Mediator and Redeemer, "who ever liveth to make intercession for them."^[66]

These are the lessons of practical piety, which bring the mind into a situation to worship acceptably, and under the influence of which, men but little instructed in human learning, are often enabled to counsel the wise of this world in the things that lead to their peace.

But if these things are all to be changed: if in place of this simple, practical religion, our places of worship are to be converted into theatres for metaphysical disquisitions, and the discussion of questions more curious than useful; and we are to be instructed in the unprofitable controversies which have so long perplexed and disturbed the christian world: if faith is no longer a christian principle, and the revelations of the scriptures rejected when not to be arrived at by the analogy of reason, then indeed must the Quaker ministry be constituted anew, and even your own labours cease. The old and unchanged servants can take no part or portion in the new order of things; and it cannot be expected that the disciples of the new school will take for a master to lead them to the truth by analogous reasoning, one, who has yet to be taught what reason really is.