An introduction to Christianity: designed to preserve young people from irreligion and vice

Introduction

TO

(ssaiaii^ajmasm

DESIGNED TO PRESERVE

YOUNG PEOPLE

FROM

IRUELIGION ifpfD VICE.

BY JOSEPH SUTCLIFFE,

1 write unto thee, mosfeyexcellent Theophilus, that thou rnightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed : which things the angels desire to look into.

Second American, from the second [improved) English edition.

WEtV-YORK:

PUBLISHED BT J. SOULE AND T. MASON, FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

J. C. Totten, printer. 1317.

la Ebtoaauge Drew Tiiootoq. s«m. 22 Jel90T to

TO

OF

RA1THBY HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE, ■ A Pattern of Genuine Christianity from his early life,)

THE FOLLOWING SHEETS

ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, AS A

TOKEN OF the sincere love and esteem

OF HIS OBLIGED

AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE J1UTHOE,

Howden, July 13, 1801.

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS-

In the following sheets, the author is aware that he treads a beaten and an ancient path. And he is conscious of being much more solicitious to avoid error, and to enrich the mind with solid instruction, than to indulge in novelty of thought. His sole wish is, to meet the peculiar exigencies of the age, and to contribute his mite with the multitude, to the public store of sacred knowledge.

He has read, at least, one hundred and fifty volumes expressly written upon this subject, besides occasionally consulting a great number of other works ; it being requisite that nothing of importance should be omitted in a treatise of this nature. Some of the above works have been written by philosophers and divines who were never exceeded in genius and literature. Persons acquainted with these writings can expect nothing new with regard to the original evidences of Christianity. They stand exposed like a fabric on a rock, which cannot be shaken by the caprice of future times. However, as we approach nearer to the glory of the latter day, something new, perhaps, may be expected with regard to the unaccomplished prophecies which respect that happy age.

A %

The author has remarked with extreme concern, that among the many dignified preachers, who have distinguished themselves at our established lectures for the defence of Christianity, few indeed have treated of the new birth, and of the operations of the Holy Spirit. They have displayed their learning in dull and sober argumentation, but have neglected to warm and interest the heart. This is the real cause why their volumes have produced so little effect, and why they have remained in fair bindings for a hundred years. What can be more insipid than a mere system of religious notions, cold and unapplied ? If it be really true, in order to avoid enthusiasm, that the understanding alone is to be exercised in religious concerns, how is the depraved heart to be reformed, and man restored to the jmage of God?

The peculiar bias of this age towards infidelity, renders it necessary for the Christian world to be acquainted at large with the foundation of their faith, and to secure their consecrated offspring against the prevailing corruption. Deism, Socinianism, Materialism, and innumerable casts of skepticism, have gained the ascendancy in our literary productions. Were the contagion confined to novels and plays, complaint would scarcely be made ; but it contaminates our Encyclopaedias, Reviews, Travels and Sermons. Hence, our suboription libraries, so well calculated to diffuse knowledge and improve the mind, are likely to become institutions of ruin to the enlightened part of the nation. It is deeply to be regretted, that the gentry and tradesmen who pay an exterior reverence to Christianity, should be so incautious or lukewarm as to crowd their libraries with books of this description. Secure and unalarmed for themselves, they treasure up with perfect indifference, a source of immoral doctrines for their children and the rising age.

From books, and characters of this description, Christian parents, so circumstanced, cannot wholly secure their children. They abound in all the public intercourse of society, and frequently find their way into the retreats of private life. Every one should therefore be armed at an early period against those licentious principles, which at once would supersede the laws of morality, and rob him of his immortal hope in Jesus Christ.

Young people, especially, should be apprised of the method which infidels take to destroy the faith. They seldom attack Christianity by argument, because they cannot succeed by their boasted powers of reason. They seldom appeal to historic evidence, for Christianity is already established by facts, and many of those facts have been acknowledged by its enemies. But wit is their favorite fort. By this mere appearance of argument, people of weak and dissipated minds are readily prevailed upon to give up a religion so restrictive of their passions, and which they were never instructed to defend. With him who is properly acquainted with the truth of his religion, the case is otherwise. He appeals to the glory and fulness of the internal evidences of Christianity, as admirably adapted to promote the happiness of society, to afford adequate consolation to sinful men, and to secure the honor of God in our salvation. He takes sanctuary under a cloud of evidence, deduced from the indisputable accomplishment of the scripture prophecies. By these, St. Paul confounded the Jews at Damascus ; by these, Porphiry, in fact, confessed himself vanquished, when he said, that Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks was written after the events had taken place. He retorts the arguments of infidels on their own absurd and contradictory systems. They shrink for want of ground, while he remains unshaken on the rock.

However, it is not argument alone, but holiness, productive of every virtue, which is the ultimate object of religious education. In this view, it is essentially connected with domestic happiness. Parents, most assuredly, would have their children to be possessed of virtue, and especially of filial virtue. But the moral conduct requires the support of moral principles. The wiser heathens discovered, at an early period of society, that virtue could not be supported unless founded on the belief in a God, a providence, and a future state. No man will properly honor his parents, who does not honor and worship his Maker : and no man will be deterred from the commission of secret crimes unless he believe that he cannot escape the judgments of God. Would we, therefore, prevent the embarrassment and ruin, the seduction and suicide, which so fre-

INTRODUCTION. i)

quently attend a life of dissipation and infidelity, we should habituate our children to converse with truth, with providence, and with their own hearts. Religious instruction should constitute an essential branch of education in all our public seminaries. — A tutor is not qualified for his office, unless he teach his pupils to prefer the sacred scriptures to the classics of Greece and Rome ; and those Christian philosophers who have so happily united revelation and literature, to those unprincipled authors who have distinguished themselves in the schools of infidelity.

Children are educated for business, and accomplished for the world, with the utmost attention. — No cost is spared to procure them the best books, and the ablest teachers. But the Christian philosophy, which alone can set them right as creatures with their Creator, and as sinners with their Saviour, is left to be gleaned from detached sermons, and a few family books, which are perhaps ill chosen, seldom read, and never studied. Hence it is, that they never understand the beauty and perfection of the religion they profess. It has never been exhibited to them in such an entire view, as to gain the judgment, and impress the heart ; consequently, they can never embrace it with a enlightened and conscientious regard.

To accomplish these desirable objects, and exhibit the Christian religion in as enlarged a view as corresponds with the brevity of the work, has avowedly been the wish of the author. He has commenced with natural religion, and followed the light of gradual revelation, through the Patriarchal, the Jewish, and Christian dispensations ; because, being immediately connected, they illustrate each other. He has endeavoured to conduct the devout pupil from the outward to the inner courts of the temple ; that having leisurely viewed the several parts, he may be able to contemplate the admirable wisdom of God in the combination of the whole. — This work being designed for schools and families, is divided into sections, and the arguments are numbered in Roman capitals : the connexion being rendered easy by distinctions, and the lessons proportioned to the time and capacity of the reader, the progress is facilitated. But here, as in the acquisition of science, verbal explications should be given of the terms. And by going two or three times over the book, in this way, the pupil will be initiated into the Christian religion, prepared to read the sacred scriptures with pleasure, and to hear sermons with edification.

May the Almighty God give his blessing to these poor labors, and so irradiate the mind of the reader, that he may pay an enlightened homage to his Maker, and repose his soul in the arms of his Redeemer, from a full conviction of the truth and reasonableness of the Christian religion.

INTRODUCTION

TO

CHRISTIANITY

Section I

GENERAL RULES, COMPREHENDING THE DOCTRINES, DUTIES, AND DEFECTS OF NATURAL RELIGION.

RACINE.

Entering now ori the subject, which comprehends our happiness in this and the future world ; which discovers the nature, and fixes the rewards of vice and virtue ; which unfolds the divine economy in the restoration of man to holiness and heaven, it solicits a consideration adequate to its importance, and claims the study of our calmest arid most retired moments.

A survey of the visible heavens, connected with the minuter studies of natural history, always inspires the heart with devotion ; and enraptures the soul with gratitude to the Creator, who is possessed of perfections and happiness far above all that mortals can comprehend. We shall therefore commence by a demonstration of his being and attributes, deduced from his works; and lay down the received doctrines of natural religion, as the basis of the Christian fabric. Here our sole embarrasment is a superabundance of proof; — we are dazzled with lustre, the whole universe being full of the divide glory.

1 . The existence of one supreme and eternal God, may be proved from the unanimous consent of all ages and nations. Though the heathens worshipped innumerable divinities, yet on emergencies, or when surprised by some sudden calamity, they would exclaim, " O the great God ! O the good God !" or, " O the true God !"* Hence it is presumed, considering the diversity of their mythology, that they could not have been so unanimous in these exclamations, had not God impressed a conviction of his being and perfections on every bosom.

2. The spacious firmament of heaven ; the magnitude, splendor, and harmony of its orbs ; the variety, beauty, and uses of plants ; the numerous substances of which the earth is composed ; the mechanism, and forms of animal bodies, are so many striking evidences of th-e existence of the great Creator. Whether we view th£m separately, or harmonized in the glorious universe, they exhibit marks of contrivance and skill, which can never be fathomed. They all tend to some good, and must have proceeded from an overflowing source of wisdom, power, and love.

3. The being and perfections of God are further demonstrated by the preservation of harmony throughout the universe. The revolutions of the planets — the succession of the seasons — the growth of vegetables — the proportion of males and females, are connected with an immensity of minuter movements ; and yet, the whole is conducted without discord, and without defect. How amazingly grand is the idea it presents of the comprehensive wisdom, the never-failing providence, and immutability of God!

* Justin Martyr's Apology.

TO CHRISTIANITY. IS

4. The being and perfections of the Deity are farther proved from the rational powers of the human soul. By history, it can assemble all the preceding ages; and by prophecy, anticipate the future : it can converse with an immensity of objects, and draw conclusions from each; and yet, this amazing soul is no more than a finite being, circumscribed in all its pow T ers. How inconceivably great and wise must he be, who has limited and proportioned the powers of man, and in whose sight all worlds of beings are as nothing !

5. The moral feelings of the human heart produce a world of evidence to the same effect. The remorse which is felt for sin, and especially for secret sin, and the pleasing sensations which attend the practice of virtue, impress a consciousness on the heart, of the existence of an omniscient Judge, who frowns on the wicked, and smiles on the good.

6. The helpless state in w T hich infants are born, and in which quadrupeds produce their young, demonstrates, that the first beasts, as well as the first parents of mankind, were produced in stature sufficient to subsist on vegetables and fruits, and without the warmth and nourishment of milk. This proof of the commencement of our existence, equally proves that there must be a God, or a cause of our existence, who, in our creation, has deviated from the laws of generation.

7. Reason and observation demonstrate, that the earth also was created. Its revolutions are regulated by fixed periods, and no number of periods can be infinite. Nor can it have existed from any very remote period, or the rains and floods, which constantly wash away substances from the mountains, would have levelled them with the vallics. The same may be observed with regard to the tides which warp the marshy grounds ; they must long ago have raised them equal to the highest inundations.

Hence every creature manifests the existence of the great Creator, who has discovered the perfection of wisdom in the formation and harmony of the world, and manifested his goodness to every creature. May we adore his exalted majesty with an enlightened and a humble reverence ! may we praise him with a grateful heart ! and imitate him m all his works of holiness and truth.

II. The doctrine, which ranks, in point of importance, next to the being of God, is, the immortality of the soul. The intimations which the religion of nature affords upon this subject, have been strong enough to satisfy the more wise and virtuous among the heathens ; and it has scarcely ever been doubted by man in a savage state. We shall select the arguments which seem the most conclusive.

1. Matter, however modified, can neither reason, perceive, nor will : hence, that being in man which is endowed with these powers, must be distinct from the body, it can have no principles which tend to corruption.

2. The powers of reason, perception, and volition, being independent of sensation, as appears from the phenomenon of dreaming, prove in the opinion of many, that the soul may exercise all • hcsc powers when the senses are dissolved ; and consequently, that it is capable of an immortal exotcnce.

3. The love of immortality, which all men feel, especially good men, attaches a strong probability ro the doctrine of a future state : God having formed the eye for vision, gratifies it with a world of sublime and beautiful objects ; and having formed this love of immortality the strongest of our propensities, we have the just est ground of confidence that he will also gratify it. If otherwise, this propensity was given us in vain ; because it is distinct from the principle of self-preservation.

4. The inexhaustible resources of knowledge and happiness which God hath provided for our enjoyment, and the continual progress which the soul is capable of making in virtue, strongly indicate the reality of a future state, and the immortality of the soul ; because in this short life we die before wc have more than glanced on the works of creation ; and those providences which so immediately conconcern us, we leave involved in clouds of darkness, which the wisest mortals are unable to penetrate.

5. The immortality of the soul is also inferred from the moral government of God. In this world, the virtuous often suffer from a complication of evils, while the wicked arc indulged in affluence and repose. Little children suffer also both pain and death; and it seems highly improbable, that the God of infinite felicity should have created these amiable beings for the sole purpose of suffering exquisite misery. That he should have made a difference in the distribution of temporal and intellectual endowments, is agreeable to reason ; but, that he should really afflict the innocent, and prosper the guilty, seems, in a moral view, to require a future state of rewards and punishments, in which he will clear up the obscurity of providence, and discover the equity of his ways.

If this life, therefore, be a probation for that which is to come, tf every action be connected with everlasting happiness or misery, how careful should we be to abstain from evil, how vigilant to do good, and how emulous to prepare the soul for the ex&ked happiness of a future world! — O immortal God. hast thou tenanted these perishing habitations with a being of such dignity and worth i Let us never degrade it by ignoble and sensual pursuits. Deign of thy great goodness to guide our steps to thee ? the author and end of our existence; that seeking our happiness^ not in the transient enjoyments of this life, but in loving thee, the source of everlasting happiness and model of all perfection, we may find the consolations of pure religion, the vast rewards of immortality and eternal joy.

IIL Having considered the being of God, and the immortality of the soul, as the basis and permanent obligation of piety, we shall proceed to consider man as an inhabitant of the natural, the moral, and the social world. This shall be done with a viewto make some further traces concerning the doctrines, duties and defects of natural religion.

1. In the natural world, were the happiness of man unconnected with real misery, we should regard it as very exalted. The sun diffuses his genial beams over him by day, and the moon and stars illuminate the night. Summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, succeed one another without interruption. The earth supplies him with food, and rewards his toil with a liberal increase. His eyes have an ample range through the universe, and, with the rapidity of his thoughts, compensate for the confined situation of his body. His wants are all supplied by moderate labor, his pains and sorrows are alleviated by innumerable indulgences, and all his powers are gratified by the contemplation of nature's inexhaustible sources of beauty and delight. What has he then to do but to gladden his toil with hymns of praise to his Maker, and to kindle his soul with the flame of philosophical devotion ? — But oh ! as the skipping lamb is seized by the prowling wolf, so death, inexorable death, rudely breaks in upon all his comforts, and blasts his hopes by a single stroke !

2. In the social world, if a man have the happiness to descend from virtuous parents, and to form virtuous connexions, his comforts are of a very endearing nature ; though not without such a mixture of evils as forbids immoderate sorrow for the loss of friends and children. He is caressed in the bosom of his family with the fondest affection, and surrounded with the endearing relatives of father — mother — brother — sister — tutor and friend. His happiness is made the growing object of his parents' hope. Surely then he ought to obey their wise and just commands, and to reverence and cherish their hoary age. In the world at large, he sees some providing food, and others raiment, for the public : he sees others traversing the seas, and by the imports and exports of useful and luxurious comforts, connecting the whole world as one great empire. — In private life, his repose and property are protected by equitable laws, and those laws enforced by a gradation of magistracy from the prince to the people. This view of society should instruct him to regard every man as a brother, friend, or patriot. It should dispose him to conform to the laws ; obey the magistrates ; and honor his sovereign, as the most sacred person, in whose happiness is involved the happiness of all his subjects.

3- From this flattering sketch of social life, we proceed to the moral world, in which the sad reverse of things is generally presented to our view. Those virtues which should be the brightest ornaments of human nature, are so contaminated with selfishness, and the prevalence of deceit or open fraud, that the dearest friends and relatives are afraid to trust one another. The strong propensities of mankind to intemperance and sensual indulgence ; their fondness of the resorts of vanity, and, we may frequent ly add the haunts of infamy, are productive of fatal consequonees to personal and domestic happiness. Oaths and honor are violated, and characters indelibly stained m the seduction of unprotected innol> 2 lb INTRODUCTION

cence ; nor can it be said, that a ruined woman has any adequate means of redress. Among the great nations in which the glory of empire is a prevailing principle, trivial infringements of treaties, or violations of the laws of commerce, are embraced with avidity to occasion destructive wars. Peaceable provinces are half depopulated and ruined : and seldom does the contest cease till the flower of their youth is cut off, and till their resources are exhausted. O what pride, rage, and revenge, is in the heart of man ! O what carnage, what devastation, and what impurities, have ensued on the taking of great cities ! Such are the dispositions of bad men, when, for the moment, their lawless passions are without a rein.

Great God ! are these indeed thy creatures ? Hast thou formed them with hearts like these 1 Have they learned of thee, whose tender mercies are over all thy works, to destroy one another ? Couldst thou, who hast blessed all thy creatures, teach them to blaspheme? O no! these evils have befallen them since their creation. They have shaken off the restraints of thy law, set thy judgments at defiance, and perverted liberty to their own destruction.

IV. Hence it follows-, that there is a distinguished difference between good and evil, right and wrong, vice and virtue. God having made man to live, it must be wrong to kill him, especially while young, when he may have the greatest domestic or national services to achieve. But the crime is not merely an injury to an individual and to society, it is an invasion of the Creator's right to dispose of his creature. This principle strongly applies to belligerent nations : for the causes of war bear no proportion to the consequences. And if the features of good and evil be so conspicuous in the great actions of society, they may be traced with equal precision in all the economy of private life : in honesty and fraud ; in kindness and injury ; in truth and falsehood ; in blessing and cursing. Nature, which is kind and indulgent to all, admonishes us to imitate her example ; and if it be virtuous to imitate the divine benificence, and to conform the heart to his will, it must be vicious to deviate from the model of perfect goodness.

V. We may further remark, that vice is generally attended with some degree of appropriate punishment. Whenever we sin against God, against our neighbor, or against ourselves, we must on the slightest reflection, be covered with shame, and stung with remorse. By wicked and ungenerous actions, we forfeit our moral character, and lose the esteem of good men. Profligacy is productive of wretchedness ; and intemperance will superinduce disease. The laws of nature are replete with rectitude and truth ; but we hate the light, being full of meanness and misery. Hence, when bad men Lave proceeded so far in a course of impiety, as to pervert all their powers, and fill up the measure of their iniquity, it becomes requisite for the righteous God to cut them off, and hide them in the shades of death.

It is granted, that wicked men often live to a great age, and retain their vices to the last ; consequently, that the chastisements of providence are very mysterious : yet we can frequently discover a striking correspondence between the sins and punishments of some men in this life. And though these punishments, at most, are but partial, yet we may fairly presume from the equity of God, that they will be completed in the future state. If the soul were wicked when embodied, it is wicked when disembodied. Length of time does not diminish the magnitude of an offence, and duration of punishment does not moralize the hearts of the impenitent. The aged, on a review of their early vices, which have not been followed by the proper fruits of repentance, find the same sensations as they found when those sins were first committed. Hence, if a man's conscience make him unhappy on his downy pillow, and in his own neighborhood, it will make him unhappy wh«n he removes to another country ; yea, when he makes his exit to another world. Local changes can neither conceal him from his Maker, nor obliterate the recollection of his crimes. Consequently, how we may now be saved from sin, and ensure a blissful immortality, are our grand and indispensible enquiries. The common affairs of life are merely trifles when compared with these important duties.

VI. The doctrines of expiation, and virtue, have been largely discussed by pagan and skeptical writers, through a long succession of ages, and always in a way confused and undefined. With regard to expiation, some have enjoined penance, ablution, and liberality to the poor. But how can the washing or mortifying the flesh take away sins which defile the mind? How can liberality to the poor atone for crimes committed against our Maker ? or, if it could, what is the bulk of mankind to do, who have nothing to give ? Some, convinced of the inefficacy of these means, have extolled the divine clemency, and assured us, that he will forgive the frailties of his offending creatures, if we ask him with sincere repentance. This is indeed a consoling doctrine, and we should cheerfully embrace it, did it not leave the divine govepnment insecure, by allowing the creatures to offend with impunity. God will never exercise his mercy but in harmony with his justice ; nor dare we presume upon a system of unqualified mercy, because it is contrary to providence, which reveals the awful judgments of God, and punishes mankind with death.

TO CHRISTIANITY. c 2{

In addition to this system of pure mercy, a system of morality, approaching as near to perfection as possible, is also recommended. We are promised happiness, provided we moderate our desires according to our enjoyments, and our expenses according to our income, exercising benevolence towards our fellow creatures. But in what book is this perfect standard of morals laid down ? The master and the servant, the economist and the prodigal, the prince and the people, biased by situation, must ever produce systems discordant and incomplete. The Socinian, finding his favourite fort of pure mercy untenable, at length takes refuge in the scheme of philosophical necessity ; which is much the same as the pagan doctrine of fate. Yes, after some hesitation, he swallows the opiate, " Whatever is, is right." Happy way of solving difficulties, and exonerating his conscience, by charging all his crimes upon his Maker ! ! !

VII. On all the preceding subjects, it must be confessed, that the religion of nature is extremely defective. It demonstrates the existence of sin, and the certainty of its punishment, but affords no positive assurance of pardon. It affords every presumptive proof of a future state, but does not say what that state shall be. It demonstrates the being and perfections of God, and our obligations to worship him, but does not say whether he will receive the worship of sinful men. It prescribes a system of pure morality, to which the human heart is unable to conform. It requires perfect love, and perfect obedience to God : and to presume that he will accept of imperfect services, is comparing the Deity to a tradesman, who asks one price for his goods, and takes another. Here human moralists have all lost their way ; for they still consider man as in his state of original excellence, and they are unable to account fcr his present meanness and mis* ery. They are all dissatisfied with their own conclusions. They change opinions on the accession of every lucid thought ; and follow it with their eyes as a meteor, till it leads them to the same uncertainty. Things which are impenetrable, they account absurd ; or, by rash endeavours to explain them, they embrace absurdities which render them ridiculous in the estimation of common men. Here indeed we want the pitying aid of revelation ; for uncertainty on subjects so important, is painful as death to a considerate mind.

Yet we have no cause for apprehension. Despondency would be a crime. From a general view of the goodness of God in caring for the body, we may be fully assured, he has not neglected the soul. He supplies our temporal wants with a munificence worthy of himself; and he cannot have neglected the more important and everlasting interests of the immortal spirit.