THE
ERRORS OP ULTRAM,

IN

MORALS AND RELIGION,

A SERMON
PREACHED BEFORE THE COXTESTIOM OF
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
IN THE DIOCESE OF RHODE ISLAND.
In Grace .Church, Providence, Jane 10, 1851.
AND IN
TRINITY CHURCH, NEWPORT, R. I.,
ON SUNDAY, JULY 20, 1951s
BY THE
REV. DARIUS RICHMOND BREWER;
RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEWPORT.

NEWPORT:
MASON & PRATT, 123 THAMES STREET,
' 1851.

Rev. and Dear Sir :
Having heard with pleasure your sermon of Sunday morning
last, and believing that its publication will be beneficial, v. e there
fore respectfully request of you the manuscript, and shall be greatly
obliged by your compliance with our wishes.
Newport, July 22d, 1351. Truly your's,
Henry Paul Beck, of Philadelphia. Wm. ChanninS Gibbs, of Newport.
Samuel Powel, " " J. H. Gilliat, " "
Wm. S. Wetmore, " New York. Benja min Finoh, " "
Andrew Ritchie, " Boston. John Sterne, " "
Gentlemen :
I am happy to learn that the discourse, of which you ask a copy,
was heard with satisfaction by yourselves and others. Hoping that
its publication may serve the cause of truth and righteousness, t
comply with your request.
Messrs. Beck, Powel, & Others. With sincere regard,
Newport, August 1st. D. R. Brewer,

SERMON.
— ^-?.^.».  , —
II. TIMOTHY, i., 7.
A SOUND MIND.
Evert part of man's nature became subject to evil, when he fell
into sin. Upon his body came disease and death. Into his heart
entered unholy desires and inordinate affections. And his mind,
losing its first strength and sobriety, was weakened and disordered.
His understanding was darkened. Error was now often mistaken
for truth. Falsehoods were believed as facts. The wildest absur
dities were reverenced as divine doctrines. The devices of the
father of lies were worshipped, as gods. A sound mind could not
have received, as holy truths, the fables and impieties of heathen
ism. Though the fountain of these pollutions was a corrupt heart,
yet the head must have been disordered, to regard them as com
mandments of God. The effects of sin are felt throughout the
whole man. " From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there
is no soundness in it.''
One mark of a sound mind is the ability to hold a truth within
its just bounds; to observe its relation to other truths; to possess
it, rather than be possessed by it. The mind of God comprehends
all truth. It looks upon each single part as it is connected- with the
whole. And man, who was made in God's likeness, could doubtless
once do the same thing, in his own sphere, and so far as his knowl
edge extended. He could have a clear view of all the truth within
his field of vision. He did not in his perception of one object, lose
si rrht of every other. His mind did not change the truth of God
into a lie, by exaggeration and uitraism.

4
But now, since sin entered into the world, how often is this, error
pommitted. Truths are separated from each other, and magnified .
by fanaticism into such enormous and distorted forms, that they
become falsehoods. Divine doctrines are in this way turned into
heresies. The Holy Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, and
able to make us wise unto salvation, are through this abuse of them,
wrested to our destruction. Virtues are thus transformed into
vices. Indeed, it might be said that almost all the errors and sins
of men are of this kind ; that they are things true and innocent,
changed by excess into things false and forbidden. " Be not right
eous over much," said the wise man. We can not become too
righteous; in respect ttf the whole of our character and life ; but we
can be too devbted to a few doctrines and duties, so as to overlook
the rest. We can be righteous Overmuch in our faith, so as to deny
the claims of right reason, and fall into credulity and superstttaori' ;''
in our charity, so as to forget justice and honesty ; in-our zeal, so
as to think we are doing God service, \vhen committing acts or in
dulging the disposition of hatred and persecution. Ultraism can
thus make almost any virtue a sin.
The monomartia of which we speak, seems to rage widely and
fiercely in our own times. Ultraism, of all sorts1; was never so ultra.
Extreme opinions were never pushed to so extreme a length. Fa
naticism never blazed higher or hotter. It is exhibited in morals
and in religion; in the speeches of politicians, and the sermons of
preachers ; in tendencies to " sedition, privy conspiracy, and re
bellion ;'' and in tendencies to silpSfstition, idolatry, and Roman
ism. There are men in our day whose minds are so devoted tb the
subject of slavery, that they Have become exceedingly unsoUttd*, if
we may riot rather- say insane, concerning it. They have looked so
long, and so intently upon the institution of slavery, that their eyes
can now see nothing else. They " remember those' who are in
biinds," and they remember scarcely- ajny other precept of the New
Testament. They WfestOw alj their affection on tho, W servants/'

and all their hatred on the "masters." They forget that e.en if'
slaveholding be always, and in all persons, a sin, (a statement whicli
cannot be proved from Holy Scripture,)* yet sinners should bo
treated with compassion, and are not usually converted by angry
denunciation. " The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness
of God."
The philanthropy of these men grows into a bitter misanthro
py. Their intense regard for humanity makes them inhuman. —
The law which they find in their conscience impels them to
break the law of God, by exciting sedition and rebellion, resistance
of magistrates, the violation of covenants and oaths. They are be
trayed by the ruling passion of their souls, into the adoption of
opinions which overturn all government, and reduce every organ
ized sosiety to anarchy. For if it be true that a citizen may disobey-
any statute that seems to him uncalled for, or unjust, then every
law of the land, and every compact, constitution, and institution
may be treated with contempt, by all who shall choose to consider
them contradictory to a " higher law." I? you claim the right to
judge by your private conscience, the decisions of courts and the enj
actments of legislatures, to reverse and disregard them if they do
not meet your approbation, you must allow the same right to all
other men. You must deny that any law is binding upon any per
son who desires to break it. As your conscience forbids your
obedience to the constitution and laws, in the matter of slavery, so
your neighbor's conscience may be scrupulous about paying taxes,
or protecting property by any kind of force, or employing jailors
and executioners. If the fanatical philanthropist can appeal to a

* They who maintain, that slavery is in all cases a crime, to be at once repented
of and abolished, cannot fairly and honestly call themselves believers of the Bible,
as a revelation from God. To say nothing of its recognition in the law given by-
Moses, even in the the Ten Comtnaudments, how can the precepts and the conduct
of the Apostles, with reference to slavery, be reconciled with the theory that it is
in itself and in every instance a sin ? Why did they not go about preaching " inv
mediate emancipation," instead of the relative duties of masters and servants?
Aud how, on this theory, can the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon, be received as
a portion of that Scripture which js " given by inspiration of. God''? It is not
Mriuiire that the most notorious and most zealous nbulitionists have become infidels*
TIk- Bible Maud* as much in (heir \\:\y n> the Coii^liUtliou of the Unilcd Slates

6
higher law, revealed to and interpreted by himself, so can the house*
breaker, the highwayman, and the pirate. Some of the disciples of
Fourier teach the doctrine that all private property is robbery. Who
can prove that this is not their conscientious belief? And if it is,
why should they riot break all the laws which secure to individuals
the possession of property 1 And thus in the end it comes to this,
that we must trust our homes and friends and lives to the consci
entious convictions and interior illuminations of all sorts and con
ditions of men ! To such absurdities are even some great minds
driven, by confining their attention to a single subject, and by car
rying out their opinions to the utmost length. It is fortunate for
the community that these wild theories are not often put in prac
tice, and that an unsound mind is not always joined with a wicked
heart. Another instance of ultraism is presented by some of the reformers
ef our age, in their writings and speeches upon war. No one will
deny that ths religion of Christ was designed and fitted to produce
"peace on earth ;" peace in each sinner's soul, and peace between
men and nations ; that if all the precepts of the Gospel should be
obeyed by all men, there would be no more contentions and fight
ings. For there would be no more causes of contention ; no covet-
ousness, ambition, pride, revenge, and hatred ; no fraud, injustice,
and dishonesty. If all men would always do to others as they would
that others should do to them, there could never be a necessity for
resorting to force, offensive or defensive. If all would do right, of
•ourse all would get their right, without armies and battles ; and we
may add, without governments, magistrates, courts of justice, and
prisons ; without any visible guards and protectors of life and prop
erty. But does it follow from this truth, that, as the world now is, the
use of force is in all cases a sin ? That no kind nor measure of
suffering will justify resistance ? That no attack, of any enemy, may
he repelled? That our country, our homes, our dearest friends-,
roust be abandoned to violence, and rapine,, and murder,,, if they

"cannot be saved but by the sword ?.
Those who reason in this way, carry their lore of peace to »ucli
an extreme, that they must stifle the love of kindred and country ;
become partakers in other men's guilt by neglecting to prevent it ;
and entirely root out of their nature an instinct that was planted
in it by their Maker. They fasten their minds so closely and ex
clusively on the evils of war, that they cease to perceive that there
may be evils greater than war. The duty of forgiving injuries
and loving enemies, is magnified into monstrous and unscriptural
proportions. By making no exception to the sinfulness of war, they
come into a direct conflict with Revelation, like the ultraists upon
slavery. They accuse the Almighty God of wicked deeds ; for He
expressly commanded His covenant people to engage in War, as a
means of inflicting His righteous judgment upon idolatrous nations.
Some of the advocates of temperance, in these latter days, have
become infected with the same kind of fanaticism. They have not
remembered that it is possible to pledge one's self to a total abstin
ence from intoxicating drinks, and at the same time indulge to ex
cess other appetites and passions, of the flesh and of the mind ; that
though temperance is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, it is not
entire sanctification ; that while the Word of God declares that no
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven, it does not teach that
the virtue of temperance alone will save a man's soul.
The errors resulting from exaggeration and extravagance, in
matters of faith and doctrine, have been many and lamentable.
Christian truths have been changed by continual enlargement, into
dogmas that contradict both reason and Revelation. Most of the
corruptions of doctrine which were introduced into the Church in
the course of the first fifteen hundred years, are found, when care
fully examined, to have grown up in this way. They were human
developments of divine truths. They were structures of wood, hay,
and stubble, upon a foundation of gold and silver and precious stones.
They were at first good seed, sown by the Lord from heaven ; but
by forced cultivation, and under the hot-house of human zeal, they

8
grew into these barren, these poisonous plants.
The divine origin, and perpetual duration, and proper authority of
the Church of Christ, which are attributed to the Church by Christ
Himself, were developed by degrees into the doctrine that the Church
is incorruptible and infallible ; a doctrine which cannot be recon
ciled with Scripture, nor with the history of the Church.
The apostolic office of the Bishop of Rome, the same in kind
with the office of other Christian Bishops, grew by constant addition
and favoring circumstances, into the name and power of universal
Bishop and head of the Church on earth.
The reverent remembrance of departed saints, and of the holj
angels, and of the mother of our Lord, was increased to such an
extent that it became invocation and idolatrous worship.
The doctrine of the Apostles concerning the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, that the bread which we break is the communion of
the body of Christ ; and the cup which we bless, the communion of
the blood of Christ; this was developed into the belief that the
bread and wine are transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ,
and cease to be bread and wine. That which in the primitive age
was regarded as a holy mystery, spiritual and heavenly in its nature,
was in the end gazed on with wonder, as a tremendous miracle,.
wrought by the hands of the priest.
The doctrine concerning the dead — the doctrine so repeatedly
taught in the Bible, that there is to be a general resurrection and
judgment; that the "perfect consummation and bliss" of the right
eous and the complete punishment of the wicked, are not received
until " that day ;" when their bodies will be raised up, to share with
their spirits the bliss or the pain ; that, consequently, the state be
tween death and the resurrection is, and may properly be called an
intermediate state ; this was exaggerated, and by exaggeration per
verted and corrupted into the Roman doctrine of purgatory ; which
is, that with few exceptions the holy departed, the dead " who die
in the Lord," are not " blessed " in any measure, but are tormented
in fire.

Such were some of the errors in doctrine caused by ultraism or
development, before the Reformation ; errors which demanded and
made necessary the Reformation.
The same cause has produced errors of an opposite extreme within
the last three centuries. There have been, and there are now, ultra
Protestants ; men whose theories and tendencies verge towards infi -
delity, and a contempt for all authority but that of the individual
reason, or conscience. The right of private judgment, (a right
which no living man can avoid exercising,) has been supposed by
some to mean a right to any interpretation of Holy Scripture, that
may, suit the fancy, though it be contrary to the belief of all Chris
tendom for eighteen hundred years; and more than this, to exalt
one's own judgment above the judgment of God Himself, as declared
in His Word, whenever the two happen to differ.
The Scriptural doctrine of Justification by faith has been often
held and contended for in a most unscriptural way ; carried to an
absurd extreme ; separated from the doctrine of sanctification, and
the "necessity of good works, and the obligation and benefit of the
Sacraments ; spoken of and preached about, to the exclusion of all
other truths. Even the great mind of Luther became so obscured
by ultraism, upon this subject, that he denounced the Epistle of St.
James as " an epistle of straw," because it seemed, to him, to dis
agree with the doctrine of justification by faith. There have been
sects who maintained that the moral law has been abolished by the
Gospel, so that Christians are not bound to keep the commandments ;
and one preacher contended that good works are positive hindran
ces to salvation. It has been remarked that some Protestants are
so fearful of claiming any personal righteousness, that they make a
merit of not having any.
In their desire to avoid Romish errors concerning the visible in
stitutions of religion; the Church, the Ministry, and the Sacraments,
some have gone so far as to forsake the primitive, Apostolic order ;
to reject ordinances which, however they may have been abused and
corrupted by man, were appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ,

10
" Man," says Cecil, " is a creature of extremes. The middle
path is generally the wise path ; but there are few wise enough to
find it. Because Papists have made too much of some things, Pro
testants have made too little of thsm. The Papists treat man as all
sense ; and therefore some Protestants would treat him as all spirit.
Because one party has exalted the Virgin Mary to a Divinity, the
other can scarcely think of that ' highly favored among women'
with common respect. The Papist puts the Apocrypha into his
canon, ; tho Protestant will scarcely regard it as an ancient record.
The Popish heresy, human merit in Justification, drove Luther on
the other side into the most unwarrantable and unscriptural state
ments of that doctrine. The Papists consider grace as inseparable
from the participation of the Sacraments; the Protestants too often
lose sight of them as instituted means of conveying grace."
Brethren, it is our privilege to be members of a Church, which,
in her spirit and form, is equally removed from both of these ex
tremes : a Church which is at once Protestant and Episcopal ; re
formed from Romish corruptions, but not deprived of a single ordi
nance of God. The Reformers of the Church of England were men
of wisdom and moderation. They had not " the spirit of fear, but
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." They were no ultra-
ists. They did not undertake to cast out the evil spirit of supersti
tion by calling to their aid the evil spirit of rationalism and self-will.
They did not rush with headlong haste from the belief in traditions
which make the Word of God of none effect, into the contempt or
neglect of institutions that had existed from the Apostle's time ;
from tie usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome, to the suppres
sion of the office of a Bishop ; from seven sacraments, to none at
all ; from the sacrifice of the mass, to a mere memorial ; from pur
gatory, to a denial of the intermediate state, which is virtually a de
nial of the resurrection; from adoration of the saints and angels, to
utter forgetfulness of their existence; from the " unknown tongue,"
and too numerous and burdensome ceremonies of the Roman ritual,
to the destruction of all outward and visible worship, of all signifi-

11
cant rites and beautiful forms, of all joyful festivals and solemn fasts,
even those that commemorate the nativity, the death, and the resur
rection ot tb a Radoemer.
If this i-- tY* pviiti >n of the Church, with respect to the ultraism
of R.oti» i i t'i3 one hand, and the ultraism of some forms of Pro
test-..:1. ; i ?n ths other, let us resist any tendency in ourselves to
wards either of thsse extremes. We should be on our guard lest
an exclusive affection for some one truth, or a strong abhorrence of
some one error, or party spirit and the heat of controversy should
lead us, step by step, into positions that are one-sided, narrow, and
dangerous. We gat into an extreme before we. suspect it. We are
borne along on the cu-rent of some favorite thought, imagining all
the while that we are fixed, and that the rest of the world are mov
ing by us, and becoming ultra. We believe that we are contending
for " the faith once delivered unto the saints," whan all our zeal is
confined to a single article of it : that we are attaching only a due
estimation to a doctriae, or a duty, or an ordinance, when our con
sideration of it is really extravagant and fanatical. Fanaticism is a
disease, of which the victims are seldom conscious. The most in
sane sometimes assert that all other men are mad, and that they
alone have " a sound mind."
Let the same mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. —
He manifested a human as well as a divine perfection. Ha was the
second Adam, having a sinless soul, and a sound mind ; the begin
ning of the new creation. He is the model which we should seek
to copy, in all things. And the more closely we resemble Him, the
more free shall we become from error and delusion, froaa every form
of ultraism. Though some of His enemies said of Him, " He hath
a devil and is mad," it was a slanderous and false accusation. No
man ever possessed so clear and dispassionate an understanding, so
sober and healthy an intellect, as He who " was made flesh and
dwelt among us." There was in Him no morbid affection for one
truth or virtue, involving a forgetfulness of the rest : no tendency
t* fall into one extreme, through a violent effort to escape another.-.-

12
He did not attempt to reform sinners by harsh and extravagant
words ; by speaking the truth not in love ; but in bitterness and
wrath. He did not teach incessantly a single doctrine, nor require
obedience to but. one commandment. He was not, in the sense in
which those names are employed in our day, an " anti-slavery man,"
nor a "peace man," nor a " temperance man" ; no, not even a
"philanthropist"; for He taught that love to God is the first and
great commandment. He passed whole nights in prayer to the
Father. The will of the Father was always His will. " I do al
ways," He said, " those things that please Him."
Yet while He thus made love to God the highest duty and chief
end of religion, He taught and exemplified love to man, as the se
cond of His commandments. His morality was as faultless as His
piety. In all his relations with kindred, and countrymen, with
friends and with enemies, He was always just and merciful. He
was subject unto his parents. He honored and obeyed governors,
and required men to render unto Caesar the things that are Cassar's,
as well as unto God the things that are God's. And though He
wrought a miracle to furnish wine for a wedding feast, and was re
viled by soma with the name of "glutton and wine bibber," yet
was H3 a perfect example of true temperance ; of self-denial, and
the subjection of every desire to the law of God. And though He
was not one of the " ferocious" school of philanthropists, yet He
went about doing good, and gave his life a ransom for the world ;
" greater love hath no man than this."
Nor did He overlook the ceremonial and sacramental part of re
ligion. He was no formalist, yet He used and instituted forms. —
He received the rite of Circumcision. He was presented before
God in the temple. He attended the Feast of the Passover, and of
the Dedication. He received Baptism, from the hands of His fore
runner and inferior : " for thus it becometh us," He said, " to ful
fil all righteousness." He not only revealed divine truth, and
preached the Gospel ; but moreover founded an institution which
He called " My Church," and ordained a ministry, and appointed.

13
two Sacraments. He condemned the Pharisees, not because they
were careful to pay the tithes of mint, anise, and cummin; but
because they omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
mercy, and faith ; " these ought ye to have done, and not to leave
the other undone."
This is the mind that was in Christ Jesus. This is the mind that
should be in us also. That is not " a sound mind" which disre
gards the spiritual, or the moral, or the sacramental element, in
Christianity. It should be our purpose to walk " in all the com
mandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless." The highest
Churckmansldp is that which takes Christ for its pattern and stand
ard; Christ, the corner stone and the Head of the Church. And
no man loves the Church as he ought to' love it, who loves hot Christ
more: " Christ and the Church>:" Christ first, the Church next;
Christ for his own sake, the Church for Christ's sake.
The spirit of ultraism is a subtle spirit. It sometimes transforms
itself into " an angel of light." It lempts a man in whatever direc
tion it finds him most willing to be led. It draws some into super
stition ; others into infidelity : some to surrender their reason and
their Bible to a Church which fears and forbids the free use of either ;
others to exalt their private reason above all authority, of God or of
man; to "despise dominion and speak evil of dignities" : to "sep
arate themselves" from all unions, civil and sacred; to follow amor-
bid or blinded conscience, rather than the unchanging light of
Revealed Religion.
One ultraism always creates and keeps alive another. . Supersti
tion is the mother of infidelity. Infidelity in its ripe age begets su
perstition. The awful atheism into which France plunged, in the
eighteenth century, was the fruit of that corrupt form of religion,
which had claimed the faith of the people for centuries before. And
when Germany, weary of cold and comfortless rationalism, shall be
gin to yearn after the Gospel of Christ, there is reason to fear that
the re-action will carry multitudes back to Home. So are the ini
quities of the fathers visited upon the children, unto the third and

14

fourth generation. For the sake of those who shall come after iss,
as well as for our own good, let us strive, by God's grace, to obtain
and to keep " a sound mind."

O God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful
people, by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit ; grant us by
the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore
to rejoice in his holy comfort ; through the merits of Christ Jesus
our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the
same Spirit, one God, world without end. Ambn.
[The Collect for Whitsunday]

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