Manchurian Books

Each sect prefers some
portion of Christian doctrine to the whole, and urges its favourite
tenet to an undue extreme. Unskilful interpreters separate texts from
their contexts, or they found doctrines on obscure passages, explaining
away those plain ones by which the more difficult should be expounded,
and overlooking those cautions by which the Holy Spirit guards against
exaggeration. By such men a rhetorical illustration, a poetical figure,
a local or temporary instruction, are made to form points of faith or
positive rules of practice. It is evident many, even of the moral
precepts, given by our Saviour, cannot be literally obeyed[7]; and were
intended rather to cultivate a general feeling, than to be referred to
as a precise injunction; and if we allow for the strong imagery of
eastern idiom on these occasions, let us do the same for those texts
from whence arose the unhappy disputes among Protestants, on what are
called the Five Points; which gave great occasion to Popery to exult in
the disorder produced by our separation from her.


Pages:
387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411