INTRODUCTION.
James Dodson
ABOUT five years have now elapsed since the Christian public was presented with “A Plea for Sacramental Communion on Catholic Principles,” by the Rev. Dr. Mason, of the city of New-York. Since the period of its publication, although it furnished matter for considerable speculation, and was extensively read, no attempt has been made to examine, in public, and at any length, its characteristic principles and effects. A partial notice of it, indeed, has been taken by the Rev. Mr. Black, of Pittsburgh, in a sermon on the “Communion of “the Saints,” a publication marked with good sense, piety, and “sound speech, that “cannot be condemned.” The silence which, with this exception, has prevailed, is the more remarkable, because the subject is of unquestionable importance, and merits the liveliest interest of the friends of Zion—and no one can doubt the influence of the
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work in question, and that the principles it contains constitute (in whatever various forms they may be expressed) the secret springs of the liberal sacramental communion which has for some time prevailed among Christian denominations. As the field is thus open, and almost wholly unoccupied—as it greatly invites examination—it is hoped that the following attempt will not be deemed either intrusive or unreasonable, however humble its character.
The writer of these pages is very sensible that the subject itself, and all the circumstances with which it is connected, conspire to make the present a difficult and forbidding undertaking. There is nothing to be gained on the score of popularity; yet he hopes, in the hearts of those who fear God, for whose sake alone this work is undertaken, he will not be disowned. He is conscious that neither eloquence, learning, nor influence in the church, can be pleaded, to adorn and recommend the following pages. Yet a conviction of the obligation imposed on all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered “to the saints,” to “go forth without the
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“camp, bearing his reproach,” united with a dependence on him whose strength is made perfect in weakness, impel him to proceed and meet that cross to which the cause of truth and his own inadequacy may probably expose him.
But in addition to these, there are other considerations, of a personal nature, which may not be uninteresting to the reader, or irrelevant to the subject, though the writer be a stranger to the most of those who may honour these pages with a perusal. It happened that he resided many years where he had an opportunity of observing the progress of the principles which have been since developed in the “Plea.” He was then much taken with the appearance of Christian love and universal kindness which this system breathed; and having, at a subsequent period, read the work under consideration, was fortified in these views, and hailed them as the dawnings of a new and brighter day in the Christian church. He felt happy to find himself freed from the restraints of uncharitable adherence to opinions which forbade his intercourse in the ordinances of the Lord with all such as were deemed to hold the “common salvation,”
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and having been ordained a minister of Jesus Christ, and “a steward of the mysteries “of God,” would have considered himself as acting in a manner unutterably dishonourable to his Master, and injurious to his Master’s people, to have withheld the sacramental bread and wine from any who only appeared on the Saviour’s side, though they furnished no satisfactory evidence of an intelligent attachment to his truth and laws. Yet, does he remember, that this strong tide of feeling was disturbed by convictions that ran counter to it, and by the coldness with which some of its features were regarded by Christians of different denominations, respectable for their piety, sound in the faith, and unblemished in their lives. The confusion produced in his own mind by the union, on one occasion, of Calvinists and avowed Arminians at the table of the Lord, under the influence of a disposition to esteem their differences of no importance, is not yet forgotten—nor the fact, that in all the reflections this new system and state of things produced, he never imagined that any exception was to be made to such an extension, but only considered how such apparent contradiction was
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capable of being reconciled with sincerity, truth and order. Among a variety of circumstances which had, successively, an influence in correcting his views,—such as the evident relinquishment of truth in the Christian profession, the introduction of disorder into the house of God, the obvious and necessary desertion of ecclesiastical standards with which this system was attended, demonstrated both by principles and facts,—the following incident finally determined his mind. Reading one evening the Institutes of Calvin, and particularly the chapter on the calling of the Elect,* an indistinct conception crossed his mind respecting the remarkable difference between the impression made by the sentiments of the illustrious Reformer, and that produced by the last paragraph of the “Plea for Communion on Catholic Principles.” He immediately compared the passage referred to in the Plea with the one he was then reading in the Institutes—and a new train of reflections was instantaneously awakened. The total dissimilarity of views and feelings excited by
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* B. III. Ch. xxiv., the title of which is “Election confirmed by the divine call. The destined destruction of the Reprobate procured by themselves.”
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the principles of the Plea—and those excited by the contemplation of an elected, called and holy church, utterly and eternally distinct from the world, was too evident and sensible to be then unnoticed or soon forgotten. Here began a revolution in his sentiments, which has ever since been gaining strength. He was convinced that in the Plea, the distinction between that church and the world, as it exists in the purpose of God, in the faith which she embraces, and her future and eternal destiny, is wholly overlooked, and that the important and truly discriminating features of Christian character are in reality untouched. This occurrence will, doubtless, appear to some too small to have deserved such notice—to others it will appear in a different point of view. The writer himself cannot but feel a gratification in considering the connexion of his new and present views with the doctrine of God’s eternal and unchangeable purpose of love to his church—and with a statement and vindication of that doctrine which it is believed will survive the ruins of every opposition.
The Author of the following pages is far from entertaining a wish to witness the
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continuance or increase of disunion among those who fear God in truth. Whoever shall honour them with a perusal, will see that their principal object is to guard the truth of God’s word from being surrendered, and the discipline of God’s house from being laid aside, for the sake of promoting the shadow of a union among professing Christians—a union which consists in being merely assembled in the same ordinances, without any hearty agreement in the truth, or any subjection to Christ, or any view to the promotion of real piety, individual or social. To promote such a union he apprehends to be the effects of the Plea. The Author of that work the writer of these pages has a variety of reasons to regard with affection, esteem and respect, to the influence of which he trusts he is not insensible. Whatever the heat of controversy, and of zeal to promote the cause of God, may produce in frail and erring mortals, he is conscious that for the sincerity of his wishes for the happiness of the Author of the Plea, the throne of grace will witness—and also that no motives of personal hostility have either given rise to this work, or have been knowingly indulged
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in its progress. The heart is indeed deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; yet, after the closest examination of his own, he is conscious that from this undertaking he would have been excused. During its progress it was frequently suspended—and even now he would freely commit what he has compiled to the flames, were he not persuaded that he owes this undertaking to the truth of God—to a church dearly bought—to the Lord Jesus Christ—and to his own vows to “shun all “detestable neutrality in the cause of God, “as he would desire to give in his account “with joy at the great day of the Redeemer’s appearance.”
To the merciful regard of that Redeemer he commits himself and this labour for his name.
“Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?
“Arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore
“hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our af-
“fliction and oppression? For our soul is
“bowed down to the dust; our belly clea-
“veth to the earth. Arise for our help, and
“redeem us, for thy mercies’ sake.”*
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* Psalm xliv. 23—26.