NUMBER XLII. ON CHRISTIAN CHARITY. If I am right, Thy grace impart, THOUGH we may be assiduous in endeavouring to defend the doctrines of the Church in all their native purity, still should charity, soft emblem of Christianity, influence our conduct, and teach us to lose sight of all animosities. We ought not to condemn too severely, though we may disapprove. The soundest critic, and the most virtuous partisan, should treat with lenity the frailty of mistaken principles. Erroneous opinions may proceed from the age or country in which we happen to be born; they may be palliated by circumstance, but cannot be justified by imitation. Superstitious prejudices, imbibed as duties, should call forth our compassion, rather than our ire; for they overpower the most exalted mind, absorb the senses, and seem to paralyse the reason. Let us then censure with mildness, and forbear to imitate ceremonies, and adopt opinions, that are neither sanctioned by Scripture nor instituted by Divine authority.. Primitive Christians mutually advised and assisted each other for the maintenance of the great precepts of the Gospel, however they might differ in trivial matters or ceremonies of no importance. "Let us follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify one another," saith St. Paul. Alas! what little attention was paid to this friendly exhortation of the Apostle's. The meekness, love, and charity which he so strongly recommends, was soon turned into pride, rancour, and contention. Instead of walking up to the same altar hand in hand, many, through a mistaken zeal, though branches of the same vine, cut themselves off from the main body, and were deservedly censured, as violators of the Church's concord, contrary to that love and charity for which the primitive Christians were so eminently distinguished; so much so, indeed, that the heathens, we are informed, observed it with astonishment, and cried out with admiration, "Behold how they love one another!" In charity, we are required to bear with each other's infirmities; though, in duty, we are bound to take as much pains to spread the truths of the gospel, to maintain the purity of the Apostolic Church, and to repel unscriptural tenets, as others do to pervert the great principles of Christianity, and to sow the seeds of discord among their brethren, to the utter disgrace of religion. "There are many unruly and vain talkers," saith St. Paul, "and deceivers, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him? But foolish and unlearned questions" saith this Apostle to Timothy, "avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes." “Continue, then, in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall keep to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth" nel post med How quickly, after the conclusion of the Apos It should be recollected that Timothy was instructed from his infancy in all the truths of the Gospel, by his Grandmother, a very pious woman, who had made the SCRIPTURES her study. tolic age, was this prophecy verified. Mistaken zeal engendered disputes, divisions, and jarrings, that disgraced religion. Instead of that love and unanimity, which at first characterized the Christian community; animosities arose, hatred ensued, and persecution followed. Innumerable innovations succeeded, through the pride and intemperance of the Bishops of Rome; which ill accorded with the meek and lowly spirit of Christianity, evinced by the first propagators of the Gospel. Opposition was the result. But by their tyranny and overbearing conduct they sometimes brought Kings, Emperors, and other Bishops under subjection. And the doctrines of that turbulent Prelate Hilderbrand, or Pope Gregory VII. afterwards obtained a footing in, the Church, although he was condemned by a council as "A man most wicked, preaching sacrilege and burning; maintaining perjury and murders; calling in question the Catholic faith of the body and blood of our Lord; a follower of divination and dreams; a necromancer, and infected with a pythonical spirit; and therefore departed from the true faith." In short, his pride and turbulence rose to such an unbounded pitch, that his election to the Papal chair was made null and void, and he was at last obliged to fly from Rome, though, unfortunately for succeeding generations, not till he had introduced many abuses into the Church, which habit and superstition afterwards tolerated, notwith standing they were sealed with the blood of many martyrs. By such overbearing spirits the discipline of the Romish Church became, in many respects, not only unauthorized by any precept of our Saviour or his Apostles, but altogether unscriptural in some essential points. And the Laity not being guided by the Scriptures, naturally fell into errors that were sanctioned by their Clergy. How contrary was this to the precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles, as well as to the mild disposition displayed in the conduct of his predecessors. Gregory the First, for instance, so far from imposing upon others disputable points, he even opposed the persecutions that were exercised against the Jews. "It is by gentle means, kindness and instruction," said he, " that these infidels must be overcome, and brought to embrace the Christian religion, and not by threats and violence." In fine, it was deemed unreasonable and tyrannical, by ancient Bishops, to impose particular observances on particular Churches. Every one was left to follow its own usages in unimportant matters, so as they did not persuade others, or violate the faith drawn from the Apostle's doctrines. "Which faith," says Ireneus, Bishop of Lyons, A.D. 184, should be diligently observed, as though she inhabited but one soul. For, though there are many churches, there is but one faith." And there were but two principal causes allowed to justify parishioners for deserting |