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Sermons Preached at Brighton - Third Series by Frederick W. Robertson
page 74 of 308 (24%)
law-righteousness: to dread God, not to love and trust Him, was their
conception of religion. And this, indeed, is the _ordinary_ conception
of religion--the ordinary meaning implied to most minds by the word
religion. The word religion means, by derivation, restriction or
obligation--obligation to do, obligation to avoid. And this is the
negative system of the Pharisees--scrupulous avoidance of evil, rather
than positive and free pursuit of excellence. Such a system never
produced anything but barren denial. "_This_ is wrong;" "_that_ is
heresy;" "_that_ is dangerous."

There was another class of men who denied human power of absolution.
They were called Scribes or writers--pedants, men of ponderous
learning and accurate definitions; from being mere transcribers of the
law, they had risen to be its expounders. They could define the exact
number of yards that might be travelled on the Sabbath-day without
infringement of the law; they could decide, according to the most
approved theology, the respective importance of each duty; they would
tell you, authoritatively, which was the _great_ commandment of the
law. The Scribe is a man who turns religion into etiquette: his idea
of God is that of a monarch, transgression against whom is an offence
against statute law, and he the Scribe, is there to explain the
prescribed conditions upon which the offence may be expiated; he has
no idea of admission to the sovereign's presence, except by compliance
with certain formalities which the Scribe is commissioned to declare.

There are therefore Scribes in all ages--Romish Scribes, who
distinguish between venial and mortal sin, and apportion to each its
appointed penance and absolution. There are Protestant Scribes, who
have no idea of God but as an incensed judge, and prescribe certain
methods of appeasing him--a certain price--in consideration of which
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