An essay on the origin, character, and tendency of creeds and confessions of faith as instruments of ecclesiastical power

Front matter

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AN ESSA^^y t* /f3S

ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND TENDENCY

Preface

A few years since I offered, to students of theology, and to young ministers of the gospel in America, a small volume, entitled — "Remarks on the rise, use, and unlawfulness of creeds and confessions of faith in the Church of God." That volume I have been desired to revise for republication, but have preferred to write the whole argument anew. The quotations and facts, which were then advanced, are generally preserved in the present essay ; but with that exception, this volume, — offered in like manner to students of theology, and to young ministers of the gospel, while it is also extended to the public at large, — is a new work.

Dr. Miller's name, with various quotations from his writings, appear in the following pages. I could not avoid such a reference. He was pleased to enter into the discussion, at the time when I felt myself called upon to express and publish my views, on the general topic which the controversy involves. So far as I know, his " Introductory Lecture" contains as fair and full an exhibition of the argument in favour of creeds, as can well be made out, and offers premises, which, if they be accurate, would irresistibly

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sustain the creed-system. It would be a very difficult thing to assail these premises, in the circumstances under which I write, and not to refer in the most distinct terms to the venerable professor, and his Introductory Lecture, as well as to his " Letter to a gentleman of Baltimore," which he wrote- in reply to my " Remarks, 55 and in which he repeated the argument of the Lecture. This explanation I thought to be necessary, not as an apology for any notice I may take of his writings, but merely for the information of my reader.

If any observations in this essay shall be thought severe, I have to say in their justification, that, while with the system under review I can enter into no compromise, personal invective is very far from my intention. Neither is it my wish to be considered as hostile to any particular sect — much less to the presbyterian churches, with whom all my early associations were formed. This essay is concerned with general principles of policy, which belong to all denominations ; and which no chain of reasonings, however subtle they may be, nor any series of facts, however extended, can possibly warrant. With ministers and Christians of all sects, who love their Master and keep his commandments, I would be ever ready, as " God in his providence ofFereth opportunity, 55 to commune on the broad principles of the gospel ; but for sectarian peculiarities, of any form or size, no one, who rejects the creed-system, can have any respect.

PREFACE.

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Since the " Remarks" were published, events have been every where transpiring, which have abundantly verified their predictions. The whole world is startled by the fearful combination of difficulties that are gathering round our moral associations ; and is astonished, not only at the impotency of political and ecclesiastical chieftains in their attempt to manage and guide the public mind, but at their pertinacity in maintaining old institutions, which, before their own eyes, are crumbling to the dust. Such is the exhibition now presented to every liberally-minded man. And it would seem, like as in former cases, that a terrible infatuation, which sacrifices even the common charities of life, and which recklessly libels motives when it cannot answer arguments, will provoke the Spirit of judgment.

These impressions I cherished when the "Remarks" were published, and they form the reason of the present Essay. My reader will please take this declaration, as an answer to all suspicions of personal invective, and consider himself as called to the review of a subject, which refers for the materials of argument to the circumstances in which it is found. Any severity, which he may be inclined to censure, it will then be seen, could not be avoided, without abandoning the argument, or destroying its force by making it insipid and frigid. Ecclesiastical measures being as they are, and human liberty being so important, it were a heartless task to write without being plain, or

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to criticise without adducing facts. Such severity the Son of God himself employed, while yet his soul was tortured with anguish, and his love bore him to the cross. And if at any time I have declined from the high example, or have said any thing in an improper manner, or with improper feelings, I refuse not to be rebuked. The reader, however, must award to me enough of the spirit of my subject, not to demand a surrender of personal judgment, without personal conviction.

Baltimore, Jan. 7, 1834.

Chapter I

Jl Creed — JL sense in which the term is not used in this Essay.

The subject, which it is the intention of this Essay to develop, is strictly political in its character. It involves the great question of human liberty : — liberty to think, to speak, to write, and to act. Are we free to use the minds which God has given to us ? to utter the thoughts which we may have conceived? to enjoy whatever w r e may possess ? or must we be the servants of " many masters," and yield our rights to the combinations of our fellow-men ?

The controvertist, afraid of the popularity to which such a view is entitled, or of the all-absorbing interest which human beings might take in such a discussion, may probably be startled at the position I take. In his judgment the whole subject is far more sacred. It is not political, he will say, but, occupying higher and holier relations, it is, he will complacently tell us, ecclesiastical. And pray what is ecclesiastical ? Is the human mind to be put off with a high-sounding technical term? If the church, as 2

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such, be a divine institution, is not civil government established by a divine ordinance ? Have not the Apostles exhorted us to "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free?" Have they not bidden us to be on our guard, lest we should be "again entangled with the yoke of bondage?" and warned us against the lordship which ambitious ecclesiastics would aspire to exercise ?

With such scriptural precedents before us, and particularly when they are sustained by the whole history of the Jewish commonwealth, we may safely, and without rebuke, use the strongest terms, and appropriate the most vivid ideas, belonging to political science. And assuredly the criticism, which I have supposed to be made, will come with an ill grace from those, who ought best to know, how often and how long, and under what desolating circumstances, church and state have been united ; who ought to be fully aware how very sensitive the public mind in this country is, in relation to that matter; and who ought to be apprised of the fearful prognostics which are now foreboding the most serious ecclesiastical troubles in the old world. Mankind, at this present hour, are deeply agitated on this subject ; and that because circumstances are forcing them to discuss the great question of liberty.

It is said that Napoleon, who has been so celebrated for intellectual power and magnificent project, and who lost all in the mighty and bloody game he played, because he descended to imitate the dynasties he had sought to crush, regretted very much that he

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could not unite the temporal and spiritual power in his own person. "It is only in Christianity he remarked, " that the pontificate is thus separated from the civil government. In the Roman republic the senators were the interpreters of the will of Heaven ; and this power gave stability to the government. In Turkey, and in all the east, the koran is both civil law, and religious law." It is moreover said, that he u would have established a new order of jesuits. He would have had a body of unmarried men, devoted to his will, in order to direct, through them, the reli. gious, moral, and political opinions of youth." There is not then so great a dissimilarity in these matters, that an identity of principle should be disowned, and all analogy discarded. Ecclesiastical men, it would seem, when on the side or under the control of the political chieftain, are his best and surest guides to despotism ; and when opposed to his plans, or the advocates of human liberty, even a Napoleon would be foiled and defeated.

Why should the creed system not be viewed in its political bearings? or as a political matter?* The church is a community, and the nation is a community. The civil officer is a ruler in a community, and the spiritual officer is a ruler in a community. And if the church be constituted by an election on the part of Jehovah, and if the election be an official matter, as I take it to be,f then the church and the nation are coextensive. Of course, though we must

* I use the term political in a general sense-

f See my lectures on the first three chapters of Genesis.

consider them to be altogether distinct, and the civil and ecclesiastical officer to be, each in his own place, accountable to the great governor of the world, yet the social attributes of the two are alike, and the term political, in its general acceptation, is correctly used in the present discussion.

The reason why I use the term, and so strenuously defend its use, is simply this: — It is desirable that the precise import of the technical words, creed — confession of faith, and the exact place which the ecclesiastical instruments, so denominated, occupy, should be distinctly ascertained. When we condemn these documents, and the use that is made of them, their advocates promptly and pertinaciously enough reply — cc You have a creed yourselves, and thus are inconsistently holding fast to the very thing you professedly reject. Thereby you show that it is utterly impossible to get along without creeds ; of which your own experiment affords ample proof." I wish therefore to have it understood, that the argument here pursued is not in collision with the nature of Christianity, and the philosophy of the human mind : and that the thing condemned is a creed as an instrument of ecclesiastical rule, or as a political expedient by which ecclesiastics obtain a dominion over the human mind. Those who are engaged in the present controversy, and who have been so severely censured on account of the official obliquities imputed to them, are offended by, and cannot be reconciled with, the policy of ecclesiastics ; but protest against councils and decrees as the reformers did, and view the systems of doctrine and govern-

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ment imposed on human consciences, as oppressive and as unwarranted as any papal measures which roused Luther and his compeers. The reader is now apprised of the nature of the following discussion, and consequently prepared for the details I am about to give.

To proceed then. The term creed signifies belief. Confession signifies an acknowledgment or avowal of some particular thing — as an opinion or a doctrine. In this simple view of the term every man must have a creed, who has any desire to know the truth, or who has made truth the subject of his study. His creed is made up of what he believes — his confession includes whatever he has avowed as his belief.

The latter term was applied to the ecclesiastical symbols under review after the reformation. The reformers were accused of holding doctrines repugnant to the peace and well being of society, for which they were arraigned at the bar of civil courts, as well as that of public opinion. Certain things imputed to them they disclaimed, and certain other things they confessed. The doctrines which they avowed, or the instruments of writing in w r hich those doctrines were stated and avowed, were called their confessions : — the confessions of their faith, or of what they believed. They intended thereby to show that they were not traitors to the commonwealth under which they lived, and that they held no doctrines which were inimical to the well-being of society. These instruments have been perverted by their followers, and have been employed, like the early creeds, against which the reformers themselves protested, as tests of 2*

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orthodoxy. In view of all such documents, of whose unscriptural character and immoral tendency those celebrated men seem to have been fully apprised, they proclaimed the great protestant maxim — the bible

IS THE ONLY RULE OF FAITH AND PRACTICE. The

different sects have professedly held fast to the maxim ; but having found, as they suppose, that the church cannot live without another rule, they have stated the bible to be the only infallible rule, and then have brought in others, which, though admitted to be fallible, they are pleased to denominate standards. I shall then view these technical terms — creed and confession of faith as synonymous : — in general, for the sake of its brevity, employing the first, but taking either as may be most convenient.

A creed, using the term in its literal sense, every man must have. It may be longer or shorter, broader or narrower, according to the number or the nature of the things he may believe, or according to the apprehension he may have of those things. Both reason and the scriptures require that he should have such a creed, and make confession of it too. Faith is the distinguishing attribute of mankind, in their present lapsed state. They cannot see God and live. Vision has been lost, and faith is the natural substitute* " Without faith it is impossible to please God." It is " the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." But then every believer should be careful that his faith, or his creed, should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the

* See my lectures on the first three chapters of Genesis.

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power of God. He must have a — " Thus saith the Lord," or in modern phrase, " the testimony of God," speaking in his word or his works, whereon to rely.

To explain. Jehovah has revealed certain truths in the bible, which he calls upon men to believe, and which they are explicitly required personally to examine and apprehend, to the whole extent of their "several ability," in order that they may believe them. Every man who has obeyed the divine commandment, and who has received the things revealed as true, has formed a creed — in other words, he believes what the Holy Spirit has revealed. Without this he cannot be a christian; but plunges, as an obstinate rebel, into everlasting perdition. The sentence of the great Prince of life, in such a case, is — "He that believeth not shall be damned." — "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him." To save men from an issue so awful, and to bring home to their hearts the truths, which, in the scriptures, are addressed with so much plainness and point to the human mind, the Comforter is sent. " He shall reprove the world of sin," said the great prophet, " because they believe not in me." Most indubitably, then, every Christian has a creed, or he confesses certain things which he has learned and believes.

In making the above declaration have I conceded the point in controversy ? Has one single assertion been made, which is, in any form, or to any extent, inconsistent with individual liberty ? or which encroaches, in the least degree, upon the personal responsibili-

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ties of a human being ? or which admits, in any way, that there is another lord of conscience besides Jehovah himself? The advocates of the ecclesiastical documents which this argument condemns charge upon it this inconsistency. This charge is heard every where in conversation, and has been most positively averred, and pertinaciously urged by Dr. Miller, under w T hose professional notice my " remarks" have fallen. Let the reader judge for himself.

Again. As the word of God is intended for the human family, and as they may all have the Holy Spirit for their common teacher, there will be found much coincidence of sentiment among them. The first principles of Christianity will be readily perceived, and promptly admitted by all, as first principles are generally received in other departments of life. The secondary agencies which society itself affords, the institutions which the Lord of society has seen proper to establish, — parental example and tuition, ministerial instructions, the interchange of sentiment, and the ever varying circumstances which belong to living intercourse, — these and such like things, which are independent of human statuteSj and whose influence is never greater nor more salutary than when human legislators let them alone, necessarily produce a similarity of views and habits. Society has such an inherent power to regulate itself. The spirit of the community, so to speak, moulds all the members of that community into a common likeness. Enlightened public opinion, if such phraseology should be more agreeable, will eventually conform every thing to it-

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self ; will overturn whatever opposes it, and will establish its own liberal and enlarged principles.

The coincidence of views and feelings, which has just been stated, may be admitted to exhibit something like a social creed. Or — the bible being a plain book — there are certain elemental truths, which men will embrace in common, from the very nature of the case. These are truths which no test of orthodoxy can make more plain ; which may be brought into dispute by the manner in which those tests may express them ; and which the different sects may embrace, notwithstanding their tests may be exceedingly varied. Such a social creed was found in the primitive churchy when, as Irenaeus reports, Christians throughout the world believed the cardinal points of evangelic doctrine, as though they inhabited a single house ; when, as Dupin says, — u It was not necessary to assemble councils in order to own the truth and condemn error;" and when, as we shall hereafter see, there were no ecclesiastical creeds.

In this living intercourse of society, to which reference has been made, each man, under some form, — nay under a variety of forms, — confesses what he believes. He does this when he speaks, when, as a minister, he preaches, or when he appears as an author. "I believed," said the psalmist, "therefore have I spoken." Paul adopts the same rule, and describes the minister of Christ as uniformly acting upr on it — u We also believe, and therefore speak." No honest man ever acted in any other way. In like manner any one, who feels himself called upon so to do,

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and who can gain public attention and confidence, may appeal to his fellow-men through the press. Provided he publishes that, which, after careful examination, he believes to be true, no one can deny his right to proclaim his creed from the rising to the setting sun. " As good almost kill a man," said'Milton, " as kill a good book. Who kills a man, kills a reasonable creature, God's image ; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth ; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit; embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." Many such theological and literary efforts are made now-a-days. The manner in which such efforts are made, and the matter which is thus presented to the human mind, are things to be settled between the author and the public, or between both and Jehovah, to whom they are all accountable. The abstract right involved in this intellectual intercourse no one will question. The freedom of the press no one will undertake to curtail ; and its licentiousness must be controlled and repressed by enlightened public opinion.

There is no doubt a most potent influence exerted by the agencies which have been enumerated. The spirit of the community is felt, acknowledged, and obeyed by al!. In the broken fragments of society, or in the political and ecclesiastical parties which divide and distract the public mind, each one recognizes what is called the esprit du corps of his sect. Every denomination seems to have its own vocabulary, its own

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ceremonies, its own officers, and its own interests. The ministry of reconciliation, as such, have done more for the world than any other class of men, and have exerted a more extensive and efficient control. The press has been the agent of revolution in both church and state, and is even now teeming with the complaints which mankind are uttering against ecclesiastical and political oppression. That a mighty influence is thus gone abroad, pervading and controlling every thing, is not to be denied. And under it all, every man should remember his personal responsibility, take heed to himself that he be not deceived, and exert his utmost ability to know the truth. " I gave my heart," said Solomon, "to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven : THIS SORE TRAVAIL HATH GoD GIVEN TO THE SONS OF MEN TO BE EXERCISED THEREWITH." No

unanimous consent of the fathers, no plea of pontifical infallibility, no benevolent and vicarious efforts of official men in making systems, or framing creeds, or writing learned commentaries, can save mankind from this intellectual toil. Nay, even here, where every thing should be sincere and true, because every thing is sacred and momentous, akl are required to be cautious — "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God ; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 55 They must not be blindly led by " the spirit of the world, 55 by the press, by politicians, or by the clergy; but take good heed to themselves, that they cherish a good conscience, and be prepared to answer at the judgment seat.

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In conceding these things, I may again be charged with reasoning inconsistently. For now we have, not only a creed, but a man, and an official man too, proceeding to his place and duties in society, with his creed to direct him. The case, as stated, is, that every honest man, after having carefully inquired what is truth, and satisfied his own conscience on this question, goes forth to meet all the calls of his social position, and to fulfil his duties, according to his own convictions. And verily, if the advocates of creeds and confessions of faith, as ecclesiastical documents, can identify this case with their own, it is all folly to object to their doctrine. But no one, acquainted with the general subject, would have suspected them of so much puerility ,if they had not inferred from the argumenthere delineated, that none should, agreeably to its principle, have any right to preach, and that a commentary or paraphrase is thereby altogether prohibited. What is there belonging to the ministerial office, or to a professed explanation of the scriptural text carried through the press, which is inimical to human liberty ? These things may be, and doubtless have been, so abused. The master himself endeavored to protect his people from that very abuse, when he said — "Be not ye called rabbi ; for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth : for one is your Father which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters : for one is your master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you, shall be your servant." Notwithstanding these solemn charges, he yet commissioned his disciples to

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go and preach the gospel lo every creature. Was he inconsistent? Did it follow that the ministerial office was worth nothing ; and that its exercise must be entirely prohibited, unless its incumbents for the timebeing shall be permitted to prescribe rules of faith and practice? and human beings shall be despoiled of their individual liberty ? Or may not these servants write an epistle, or a book, because their Master solemnly charged them not to aspire after a lordship over his people ? What did they actually do ? They both preached and wrote. They spoke the thing which they believed, nor would they undertake to address the community on any other principle. And yet they themselves imitated their master, in exhorting the community to succumb to no lordship, by whatever plea it might be sustained, or whoever might pretend to it, which interfered with their allegiance to Jesus Christ as Head over all things.

It is curious to observe, how easily a slight acquaintance with the annals of controversy enables one to turn the tables in an argument like the present. Dr. Miller, for example, is exceedingly positive, in his letters on the claims of episcopacy, in asserting that the bible alone is sufficient for all ecclesiastical purposes. At one time he observed — "I shall not now stay to ascertain what degree of respect is due to the writings of the fathers in general. It is my duty, however, to state, that we do not refer to them, in any wise, as a rule either of faith or practice. We acknowledge the scriptures alone to be such a rule. By this rule the fathers themselves are to be tried; and 3 of course they cannot be considered as the Christian's authority for any thing. It is agreed, on all hands, that they are not infallible guides : and it is perfectly well known to all who are acquainted with their writings, that many of them are inconsistent, both with themselves and with one another. We protest, therefore, utterly against any appeal to them on this subject. Though they, or an angel from heaven, should bring us any doctrine, as essential to the order and well-being of the church, which is not to be found in the word of God, we are bound by the command of our Master to reject them.' 5 * And again : " As the Christian ministry is an office deriving its existence and its authority solely from Jesus Christ, the king and head of his church, it is obvious that his word is the only rule by which any claims to this office can properly be tried ; and the duties and powers of those who bear it, ascertained. "f With all this I cordially agree. But Dr. Miller was not writing on the authority of creeds when he penned these sentences ; nor did he ever suspect that they would one day be quoted on that subject. Afterwards, when called to sustain the creed system, and in his letter to " a gentleman of Baltimore," he says — "I say, how is she (the church) to ascertain that this is the character of her candidates for the holy ministry , when, according to the brother whom I am constrained to oppose, she is forbidden to employ any other test than that which the most corrupt and unqualified will bear, (the bible) just as well as the most excellent ; and which is, of

* Vol. 1, page 124-5 j Vol. 1, page 25.

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course, in reference to the point to be decided, no test at all." When opposing episcopalians, the bible is every thing; when arguing with an opponent of ecclesiastical creeds, the bible is nothing. In the one case claims may be tried by the word of God as the only rule, and in the other it is no test at all. — So much for consistency. More hereafter.

Chapter II

Creed — The sense in which the term is used in this Essay.

Having given the above explanations, I may now proceed to inquire after the ecclesiastical sense in which the term creed is used? It is in this connexion, that the objections, which are offered to the consideration of the reader, arise. Dr. Miller answers the inquiry, — what is a creed ? in the following manner. — " By a creed, or confession or faith, I mean an exhibition, in human language, of those great doctrines which are believed by the framers of it to be taught in the holy scriptures ; and w T hich are drawn out in regular order, for the purpose of ascertaining, how far those who wish to unite in church fellowship are really agreed in the fundamental principles of Christianity." Let us take this definition as it is ; for the professor is intentionally precise, and would be offended if its order should be disturbed. I remark, in relation to it,

1. That by its own terms, a creed is not a scriptural document. Certain individuals, styled a the fram*

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ers of it," have drawn it up for a particular purpose. They wish to " unite in church fellowship," and having drawn out their instrument of communion, they make that instrument the rule of their fellowship in the ordinances which Jehovah has established. Have they any right to do so ? Who gave them such a right ? Has not the Lord Jesus given a rule of " church fellowship ?" If he has not, by what authority do these framers of a creed undertake to enact one ? If he has, by what authority do they frame another ? Has a servant of the Son of God, who came to proclaim the only gospel by which sinners can be saved, no reason to demand an answer? And if these framers of an uninspired rule of " church fellowship," who have narrowed the sphere of that fellowship, cannot show their warrant, will they persist in their perverseness ? or expect that the Master's providence will sanction such proceedings ?