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PENN'S SANDY FOUNDATION

cause they find it set down in a book; that we, on the other hand, the supporters of implicit faith, the alleged enemies of all reason, have maintained in the person of one of our most illustrious bishops-and do maintain, by our forms at least that the Bible, being the exposition of the mind of Him who is perfect reason, will not contain anything contrary to the real principles of human thought. And I should then ask him to look at the history of metaphysics, from Locke downwards, and observe that this great teacher, who was supposed to have entirely confounded our bishop and our church, has now actually not one genuine follower left, except among the English dissenters; for all others, have either followed his principles to their legitimate consequences, as they are developed by Condillac and Dr. Cabanis ; or else have acknowledged that there is one faculty in men for judging of things within the realms of sense and experience, and another for judging of things beyond them.

But, writing to you, I will take another course, and suggest to you a comparison between the remarks of Stillingfleet on Locke, and those that William Penn published, not many years before, in his "Sandy Foundation Shaken." You will then be able to perceive, in reference to this third great idea of Christianity, how the doctrines of your early Friends bear upon those of the English dissenters, and of the church respectively. Penn's work would probably be given up, by

NOT WHOLLY UNTRUE.

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most of your modern Friends, as at least a rash and dangerous publication. But I am not disposed to believe that he did harm to the church, or to the world, by the very wild language which he used on this subject. He did, indeed, in a most furious and reckless manner, make war upon that belief of the distinct personality of the Father, Son, and Spirit, without which the doctrine becomes, I conceive, mere mist and vapour; but he did, at the same time, so shake the notion of a Trinity, grounded upon the mere words of Scripture, and not possessing a reality for the life and heart of man, that I almost dare to claim him as a supporter of the truth which he seemed inclined to assail. I believe there were sandy foundations to shake; and that, whether Penn succeeded in shaking them or no, they were destined to a tremendous shaking afterwards. Look at Geneva, according to some, the source of all spiritual illumination; look at the reformed bodies on the Continent; look at Moses Stuart and the American sects; look at the English dissenters; and say whether there were not and are not some very sandy foundations. Among the last the doctrine tarries, I know:-they will tell you that it must be believed, however seemingly contradictory to reason; that we know little about grasses and strata of earth, and consequently are likely to know still less about heavenly things. -It is not impossible; and we want it, in order to make good some other important doctrines;

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A SANDY FOUNDATION.

therefore we cannot abandon it.' I do not say that this last feeling is a wrong one; I do not say, that if a humble man feels that he needs a Father, a Redeemer, a Sanctifier, he may not on that ground cleave mightily to this truth; and say, that he will not give it up for all the arguments and reasonings in the world. But I do say, that when men, while resting on this ground, are taught to regard every thing else which they cannot understand, as unworthy of their belief, they run a very great risk of losing this confidence ;-run a very great risk of confounding the operations of their minds, with the persons to whom they attribute those operations ;-run a very great and tremenduous risk of looking upon the Father, Son, and Spirit, not as objects of devout adoration, but merely as persons performing certain offices for their welfare. Let the records of recent ecclesiastical history, especially in England, say whether these fears are unreasonable; let them say, whether men, who have begun to look upon the mystery of God, and the Father, and Christ, merely as the mystery of their election, and redemption, and sanctification, have not sunk into a frame of mind, from which all distinctions, all unity, have been banished;—have not tried to invent some notion of the Trinity, which would do as well for their personal life, and be more agreeable to their understandings;- have not tossed about from Sabellianism to Arianism, and from Arianism back to Sabellianism, and at last

A SOUND FOUNDATION.

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ended with discovering that they had no ground for the soles of their feet to rest upon,- -no sun in the heavens for their eyes to gaze upon. But, if that be true which I have said on the last head, all the personal feelings and faith of man are unsafe, unless they rest upon the ground of an universal atonement. Unless each man feels himself to be a member of a body, reconciled and united to God in Christ, he has no clear and definite indications of his own relation to Christ: his mind will be continually fluctuating and disturbed. On the other hand, unless this belief of an atonement rests upon the faith of a Trinity, it is unmeaning and baseless. The union of the whole body to the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit, are the very terms of the constitution. Unless there be an Absolute Being, the ground of all being,-unless there be one in whom that Being beholds the church, and in whom it beholds Him,-unless there be a Spirit, uniting together all the members to each other, and to their Head, the source of their faith, the inspirer of their worship, the originator of all their acts, the ruler of all their powers,—the idea of a church has no consistency, the idea of an atonement no possibility. Thus are we driven to this principle, as the ground of our society,-the only bond of our fellowship, the only foundation for universal communion, the only source of life, and distinctness to each person in it. And yet this, which is the first ground of all faith, is also the termination

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of all.

THE TRINITY A PRIMARY TRUTH.

This mystery of a Father dwelling with the Son in one Spirit, is the grand resting-place and repose of the reason, the feelings, and all the faculties of man ;- -that for which they are ever in search, and can have no peaceable home or resting-place until they find it. This is that blessed and perfect unity, for which the announcement,"Hear, oh Israel! the Lord thy God is one Lord," is only the preparation;-that consummate unity of God, which is the real ground of all unity between men, the real ground of all unity in our own hearts, transcending all things, yet sustaining all things, the perfect love, the ineffable glory in which the saints delight, and yet which compasses the cradle of every baptized child.

I have thus arrived at the point to which all my observations have been tending,-to the connection, I mean, between the constitution and order of a church, the principles of Christianity, and the personal life of each man. I have written to you the more cheerfully on these points, because I perceive in your Society a sense of the difference between a sect and a church, and a groping after the idea of a church not based upon human caprice, which I do not find among other dissenters. I need not tell you, that there are many among them whom I esteem and love, and that I believe there are principles and truths in their minds, which will never be satisfied till their sectarianism disappears. But I find that