^ ^M^MMii^^^ii^^^U^^rt'i^t^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library BX5133 .N55 1872 Fifteen sermons preached before the Unlv 3 1924 029 445 859 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029445859 SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE Cibe ^niber^fte of #]rfortJ* RIVI NGTONS ^CrmBon Waterloo Place ®3tfora High Street fflamfiriltgc _ _,_ Trinity Street FIFTEEN SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE Wljt ^nibersttp oi %forti, BETWEEN A.D. 1826 AND 1843 By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN SOMETIME FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE ^ Mane semina semen iunni^ et vespere ne cesset Tnanus tua. Quia, jiescis, quid ma^ oriaiur, hoc aut illud; et si utrwnq-ue siniul, melius erit" THIRD EDITION RIVINGTONS JLonBon, ®)iforB, anJj Cambridge 1872 TO THE VERY REV. RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH, M.A. dean of st. paul's. My dbae Dean, TTTHEN I lately asked your leave to prefix your name to this Volume of Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, I felt I had to explain to myself and to my readers, why I h&d not ofiered it to you on its first publication, rathoi' than now, when the long delay of nearly thirty years might seem to have destroyed the graciousness of my act. For you were one of those dear friends, resident in Oxford, (some, as Charles Marriott and Charles Cornish, now no more,) who in those trying five years, from 1841 to 1845, in the course of which this Volume was given to the world, did so much to comfort and uphold me by their patient, tender kindness, and their zealous services in iny behalf. I cannot forget, how, in the February of 1841, you sufi'ered me day after day to open to you my anxieties and plans, as events successively ehoited them ; and much less can I lose the memory of your great act of friendship, as well as of justice and courage, in the vi Dedication. February of 1845, your Proctor's year, when you, with another now departed, shielded me from the " civium ardor prava jubentium," by the interposition of a pre- rogative belongidg to your academical position. Much as I felt your generous conduct towards me at the time, those very circumstances which gave occasion to it deprived me then of the power of acknowledging it. That was no season to do what I am doing now, when an association with any work of mine would have been a burden to another, not a service ; nor did I, in the Volumes which I published during those years, think of laying it upon any of my friends, except in the case of one who had had duties with me up at Littlemore, and overcame me by his loyal and urgent sympathy. Accept then, my dear Church, though it be late, this expression of my gratitude, now that the lapse of years, the judgment passed on me by (what may be called) posterity, and the dignity of your present position, encourage me to think that, in thus gratifying myself, I am not inconsidei'ate towards you. I am, my dear Dean, Your very affectionate friend, JOHN H. NEWMAN. Advent, 1871. AD VER TISEMENT. AF the following Sermons, the First, Third, and Sixth were preached by the Author in Vice-Chancellor's Preaching Turns ; the Second in his own ; the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth in his turns as Select Preacher. The Six since 1832, which close the series, were preached in private College turns, which were made available to him, as being either at his own disposal or at that of his personal friends. Though he has employed himself for the most part in discussing portions of one and the same subject, yet he need scarcely say, that his Volume has not the method, completeness, or scientific exactness in the use of language, which are necessary for a formal Treatise upon viii Advertisement. it ; nor, indeed, was such an undertaking com- patible witli the nature and circumstances of the composition. Tlie above is the Advertisement prefixed to the Original Edition, dated February 4, J843, except that, an additional Sermon being added to the present Edition — viz.. No. 3 — alterations in its wording were unavoidable. The Oratory, December, 1871. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. rriHESE Discourses were originally published, except as regards some verbal correctionSj just as they were preached. The author would gladly at that time have made considerable alterations in them, both in the way of addition and of omission ; but, professing, as they did, to be "preached before the University," he did not feel himself at liberty to do so. Much less does he alter them now ; all that he has thought it right to do has been, by notes in brackets at the foot of the page, to draw attention to certain faults which are to be found in them, either of thought or of language, and, as far as possible, to set these right. Such faults were only to be expected in discussions of so difficult a character as some of them pursue, written at intervals, and on accidental, not to say sudden opportunities, and with no aid from Anglican, and no X Preface to knowledge of Catholic theologians. He is only sui-- prised himself^ thatj under such circumstances, the errors are not of a more serious charactar. This remark especially appKes to the Discourses upon the relation of Faith to Reason, which are of the nature of an exploring expedition into an all but unknown country, and do not even venture on a definition of either Faith or Reason on starting. As they proceed, however, they become more precise, as well as more accurate, in their doctrine, which shall here be stated in a categorical form, and, as far as possible, in the words used in the course of them. 1. Before setting down a definition of Faith and of Reason, it will be right to consider what is the popular notion of Faith and Reason, in contrast with each other. " I have not yet said what Reason really is, or what is its relation to Paith, but have merely contrasted the two together, taking Reason in the sense popularly ascribed to the word," x. 46. Vide also xii. 7, 11, 36 ; xiii. 1, 4 ; xiv. 32. 2. According to this popular sense. Faith is the judging on weak grounds in religious matters, and Reason on strong grounds. Faith involves easiness, and Reason slowness in accepting the claims of Religion ; by Faith is meant a feeUng or sentiment, by Reason an exercise of common sense; Faith is conversant the Third Edition. xi with conjectures or presumptions^ Eeason with proofs. "Whatever be the real distinction and relation between Faith and Eeason, the contrast which would he made between them on a popular view, is this, — that Eeason requires strong evidence before it assents, and Paith is content with weaker evidence," x. 17. " Faith and Eeason are popularly contrasted with each other ; Faith consisting of certain exercises of Eeason which proceed mainly on presumption, and Eeason of certain exercises which proceed mainly upon proof," xii. 3. Vide also 2, 7, 10, 36 ; and v. 19 ; x. 26, 32 ; xi. 17. 3. But nowj to speak more definitely, what ought we to understand by the faculty of Reason largely under- stood ? " By Eeason is properly understood any process or act of the mind, by which, from knowing one thing, it advances on to know another," xii. 2. Vide also xi. 6, 7 ; xiii. 7, 9 ; xiv. 28. 4. The process of the Reasoning Faculty is either explicit or implicit : that is, either with- or without a direct recognition, on the part of the mind, of the starting-point and path of thought from and through which it comes to its conclusion. " All men have a reason, but not all men can give a reason. We may denote these two exercises of mind as reasoning and arguing," xiii. 9. Vide the whole of the discourse. 5. The process of reasoning, whether implicit or explicit, is the act of one and the same faculty, to xii Preface to which also belongs the power of aualyzing that process^ and of thereby passing from implicit to explicit. Reason- ing, thus retrospectively employed in analyzing itself, results in a specific science or art, called logic, which is a sort of rhetoric, bringing out to advantage the implicit acts on which it has proceeded. " Clearness in argument is not indispensable to reasoning well. The process of reasoning is complete in itself, and independent ; the analysis is but an account of it," xiii. 10 ; vide 8. " The warfare between Error and Truth is necessarily advan- tageous to the former, as being conducted by set speech or treatise ; and this, not only from . . . the deficiency of truth in the power of eloquence, and even of words, but moreover, from the very neatness and definiteness of method, required in a written or spoken argu- ment. Truth is vast and far stretching, viewed as a system . . . hence it can hardly be exhibited in a given number of sentences. . . Its advocate, unable to exhibit more than a fragment of the whole, must round off its rugged extremities, etc. . . . This, indeed, is the very art of composition," &c., v. 21. " They who wish to shorten the dispute, look out for some strong and manifest argument, which may be stated tersely, handled conveniently, and urged rhetorically," &c., xiii. 36. Vide xiv. 30. 6. Again : there are two methods of reasoning — a ^non, and a posteriori ; from antecedent probabilities or verisimilitudes, and from evidence, of which the method of verisimilitude more naturally belongs to implicit reasoning, and the method of evidence to ' explicit. " Proofs may be strong or slight, not in themselves, but according the Third Edition. xiii to the circumstances under which the doctrine professes to come to us, which they are brought to prove ; and they will have a great or small effect upon our minds, according as we admit those circum- stances or not. Now, the admission of those circumstances involves a variety of antecedent views, presumptions, implications, associa- tions, and the like, many of which it is very diiBcult to detect and analyze," &c., xiii. 33. Vide also 9, and xii. 36. 7. Again : — though the Eeasoning Faculty is in its nature one and the same in all minds, it varies, without limitj in point of strength, as existing in the concrete, that is, in individuals, and that, according to the sub- ject-matter to which it is applied. Thus, a man may reason well on matters of trade, taken as his subject, but be simply unable to bring out into shape his reasoning upon them, or to write a book about them, because he has not the talent of analyzing — that is, of reasoning upon his own reasonings, or finding his own middle terms. "How a man reasons is as much a mystery as how he remembers. He remembers better and worse on difierent subject-matters, and he reasons better and worse. The gift or talent may be distinct, but the process of reasoning is the same," xiii. 10. Vide also xi. 6. 8. This inequality of the faculty in one and the same individual, with respect to different subject-matters, arises from two causes : — from want of experience and familiarity in the details of a given subject-matter ; and xiv Preface to from ignorance of the principles or axioms, often re- condite, whicli belong to it. " The man who neglected experiments, and trusted to his vigour of talent, would be called a theorist; and the blind man who seriously professed to lecture on light and colours could scarcely hope to gain an audience. . . He might discourse with ease and fluency, till we almost forgot his lamentable deprivation ; at length on a sudden, he would lose himself in some inexpressibly great mistake," iv. 8. " However full and however precise our producible grounds may be, however systematic our method, however clear and tangible our evidence, yet, when our argument is traced down to its simple elements, there must ever be something which is incapable of proof," xi. 18. 9. Hence there are three senses of the word " Reason," over and above the large and true sense. Since what is not brought out into view cannot be acknowledged as existing, it comes to pass that exer- cises of reasoning not explicit are commonly ignored. Hence by Reason, relatively to Religion, is meant, first, expertness in logical argument. " Eeason has a power of analysis and criticism in all opinions and conduct, and nothing is true or right but what may be justified, and in a certain sense, proved by it ; and unless the doctrines received by Faith are approvable by Eeason, they have no claim to be regarded as true," x. 13. Vide also 14, 16. 10. And again, since Evidences are more easily the Third Edition. xv analyzed than verisimilitudes, hence reasonings, that is, investigations, on the subject of Eeligion, are com- monly considered to be nothing but a 'posteriori jargu- ments; and Reason relatively to Eeligion becomes a faculty of framing Evidences. This, again, is a popular sense of the word, as applied to the subject of Religion, and a second sense in which I have used it. "Eeasou is influenced by direct and definite proof: the mind is supposed to reason severely, when it rejects antecedent proof of a fact, rejects every thing hut the actual evidence producible in its favour," X. 26. " Eeason, as the word is commonly used, rests on the evidence,'' X. 32. 11. The word " Reason" is still more often used in these Discourses in a third sense, viz., for a certain popular abuse of the faculty ; viz., when it occupies itself upon Religion, without a due familiar acquaint- ance with its subject-matter, or without a use of the first principles proper to it. This so-called Reason is in Scripture designated "the wisdom of the world j" that is, the reasoning of secular minds about Religion, or reasonings about Religion based upon secular maxims, which are intrinsically foreign to it; parallel to the abuse of Reason in other subject-matters, as when chemical truths are made the axioms and starting- points in medical science, or the doctrine of final causes xvi Preface to is introduced into astronomical or geological in- quiries. Hence one of these Discourses is entitled " The Usurpations of Reason ;" and in the course of it mention is made of " captious Reason," " forward Reason," &c. Vide note on iv. 9. 12. Faitli is properly an assent, and an assent without doubt, or a certitude. " Faith is an acceptance of things as real," xi. 9. " Faith simply accepts testimony," x. 8. " Faith is not identical with its grounds and its object," xiii. 4. " Faith starts with probabilities, yet it ends in peremptory state- ments ; it believes an informant amid doubt, yet accepts his infor- mation without doubt," xiv. 34. Vide also 39 ; x. 34 ; xi. 1 ; xv. 3. 13. Since, in accepting a conclusion, there is a virtual recognition of its premisses, an act of Faith may be said (improperly) to include in it the reasoning process which is its antecedent, and to be in a certain aspect an exercise of Reason ; and thus is co-ordinate, ; . and in contrast, with the three (improper) senses of the word "Reason'^ above enumerated, viz., explicit, evidential, and secular Reason. " n Reason is the faculty of gaining knowledge upon grounds given, an act or process of Faith is an exercise of Reason, as being ; an instrument of indirect knowledge concerning things external to us," xi. 8, 9. 14. Faith, viewed in contrast with Reason in these the Third Edition. xvii three senses, is implicit in its acts, adopts the method of verisimilitude, and starts from religious first prin- ciples. Vide iv. 6 ; x. 27, 44 ; xi. 1, 25 ; xii. 3, 27, 37. 15. Faith is kept from abuse, e.g. from falling into superstition, by a right moral state of mind, or such dispositions and tempers as religiousness, love of hoU- ness and truth, &c. This is the subject of the twelfth discom-se ; in which, however, stress ought to have been also laid upon the availableness, against such an abuse of Faith, of Reason, in the first and second (improper) senses of the word. The Author has lately pursued this whole subject at considerable length in his " Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent." CONTENTS. SERMON I. THE PHILOSOPHICAI. TEMPEB, MEST ENJOINED BY THE GOSPEL. (Preached on Act Sunday afternoon, July 2, 1826, By appomtraent of the Vice-ChanceUor.) So^n itxii. 12. PAGE " Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the Light of the world " . . . , 1 SERMON 11. THE INPLTTElfCE OP NATTJEAL AND BETEAIED EELISIOlf BE- SPECTIVELY. (Preached on Easter Tuesday morning, April 13, 1830, In the Anthor's own Preaching turn.) 13ij?)n t. 1-3. " T/iat which was from the ieginning, which we have heard, which we have seen iclth our eyes, which we have loolced upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; {For the Life was manifested, and we have seen It, and hear witness, and show unto you that eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us ;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us" ........ 16 a 2 XX Contents. SERMON III. ETAIfaELICAI SAIfCTITT THE PEBFECTIOIT OP NATITBAI VIBT0E. (Preached on Sunday afternoon, March 6, 1831, By appointment of the Vice-Chancellor.) ®^. 6. 8, 9. CAGE " r« were sometime darkness, hut now are ye light in the Lord ; walk as children of light : For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth " . . . .37 SERMON IV. THE USUEPATIONS OF BEASOIT. (Preached on Sunday afternoon, Decemhor 11, 1831, In the Author's turn as Select Preacher.) ittatt. li. 19. " Wisdom is justified of her children " . ... 54 SERMON V. PEESONAl INPLTTENOB, THE MEAUS OP PHOPAGAinfG THE TETJTH. (Preached on Sunday afternoon, January 22, 1832 In his turn as Select Preacher.) 11t6. xi. 34. Out of weakness were made strong "...., 75 Contents. xxi SEEMON VI. ON JUSTICE, AS A PBINOIPLE OP DIVINE GOTBENANCE. (Preached on Sunday afternoon, April 8, 1832, By appointment of the Vice-Chaucellor.) Set. 6Kt. 11. PAGE ' They have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people alightly, saying, Feaee, peace, when there is no peace " ... 99 SERMON VII. CONTEST BETWEEN PAITH AND SIGHT. (Preached on Sunday afternoon. May 27, 1832, In the Author's turn as Select Preacher.) 1 3)o|)n S. 4. ■' This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" . 120 SERMON VIII. HUMAN BESPONSIBILIIT, AS INDEPENDENT OB CIECUMSTANCES. ( Preached on Sunday afternoon, November 4, 1832, In his turn as Select Preacher.) ffitn. Hi. 13. ' The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat "..... 136 SERMON IX. WILPULNEBS, THE SIN OP SAUL. (Preached on Sunday morning, December 2, 1832, In his turn as Select Preacher.) 1 Sam. xb. 11, ' It repenteth Me that I have set tip Saul to he king ; for he is turned back from following Me, and hath not performed My eommandments" ......... 156 xxii Contents. SERMON X. PAITH AlTD EEASON, CONTEASTED AS HABITS OP MIND. (Preached on Sunday morning, the Epiphany, 1839, By appointment of Mr. Smith, Fellow of Trinity.) ISrt. xi. 1. PAGE " Ji'bw Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen " 176 SEEMON XI. THE NATTTEE OP PAITH IN EELATION TO SEASON. (Preached on Sunday morning, January 13, 1839, By the Author's own appointment.) 1 eCnt. i. 27. ' God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of tlie world to confound the things which are mighty " . . . . . 202 SERMON XII. tOTB THE SAPEGtJAED OP PAITH AGAINST BTIPEESTITION. (Preached on Whit-Tuesday morning. May 21, 1839, By appointment of Mr. Audland, Fellow of Queen's.) Mo^n X. 4, 5. " The sheep folloto Sim, for they know Mis voice. And a stranger will they not follow, hut will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers ",..... ... 222 Contents. xxiii SERMON XIII. IMPLICIT AND EXPIIOIT EEASON. (Preached on Monday morning, St. Peter's Day, 1840, By appointment of Mr. Church, Fellow of Oriel.) 1 ^«t. Ul. 15. PA&E ' Sanctify the Lord God in your hea/rts ; and he ready always to give an answer to every man that asheth you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear " ... 251 SERMON XIV. WISDOM, AS CONTBASTBD WITH PAITH AND WITH BiaOTEY. (Preached on Whit-Tuesday Morning, June 1, 1841, By appointment of Mr. Pritchard, Fellow of Oriel.) 1 ffior. «. 15. ' Me that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man " 2V8 SERMON XV. ^ THE THEOBT OB DEVELOPMBltTS IN EEII&IOTTS DOOTBINE. (Preached on Thursday morning, the Purification, 1843, By appointment of Mr; Christie, Fellow of Oriel.) 3Euilt a. 19. ' But Mary kept all these things, andpondered them in her heart." 312 SBEMON I. THE PHILOSOPHICAL TEMPER, PIEST ENJOINED BY THE GOSPEL. (Preached July 2, 1826, Act Sunday.) John viii. 12. " Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the Light of the wm-ld." TJIBW cliarges have been more frequently urged by -*- unbelievers against Eevealed Religion^ than that it is hostile to the advance of philosophy and science. That it has discouraged the cultivation of literature can never with any plausibility be maintained, since it is evident that the studies connected with the history and iuterpretation of the Scriptures have, more than any others, led to inquiries into the languages, writings, and events of ancient times. Christianity has always 'been a learned religion ; it came into the world as the offspring of an elder system, to which it was indebted for much which it contained, and which its professors were obliged continually to consult. The Pagan philosopher, on enrolling himself a mem- ber of the Christian Church, was invited, nay, re- quired, to betake himself to a line of study almost unknown to the schools of Greece. The Jewish [UNIV. S.] B 2 The Philosophical Temper, books were even written in a language whicli lie did not understand^ and opened to his view an account of manners and customs very different from those with which he was familiar. The writings of the ancients were to be coUectedj and their opinions examined; and thus those studies which are peculiarly called learned would form the principal employment of one who wished to be the champion of the Christian faith. The philosopher might speculate, but the theologian must submit to learn. 2. It cannotj then, be maintained that Christianity has proved unfavourable to literary pursuits ; yet, from the very encouragement it gives to these, an opposite objection has been drawn, as if on that very account it impeded the advancement of philosophical and scientific knowledge. It has been urged, with considerable plausibility, that the attachment to the writings of the ancients which it has produced has been prejudicial to the discovery of new truths, by creating a jealousy and dislike of whatever was con- trary to received opinions. And thus Christianity has been represented as a system which stands in the way of improvement, whether in politics, edu- cation, or science J as if it were adapted to the state of knowledge, and conducive to the happiness, of the age in which it was introduced, but a positive evil in more enlightened times; because, from its claim to infallibility, it cannot itself change, and therefore must ever be endeavouring to bend opinion to its own antiquated views. Not to mention the multitude of half-educated men who are avowedly hostile to Re- First Enjoined by the Gospel. 3 vealed Religioiij and who watch every new discovery or theory in science, in hope that something to its, dis- advantage may hence be derived, it is to be lamented that many even of the present respectable advocates of improvements in the condition of society, and patrons of general knowledge, seem to consider the interests of the human race quite irreconcilable with those of the Christian Church ; and though they think it indecorous or unfeeling to attack Religion openly, yefc appear confidently to expect that the progress of discovery and the general cultivation of the human mind must terminate in the fall of Christianity. 3. It must be confessed that the conduct of Chris- tians has sometimes given countenance to these, erro- neous views respecting the nature and tendency of Revealed Religion. Too much deference has been paid to ancient literature. Admiration of the genius displayed in its writings, an imagination excited by the consideration of its very antiquity, not un- frequently the .pride of knowledge and a desire of appearing to be possessed of a treasure which the many do not enjoy, have led men to exalt the sen- timents of former ages to the disparagement of modern ideas. With a view, moreover, to increase (as they have supposed) the value and dignity of the sacred volume, others have been induced to set it forth as a depository of all truth, philosophical as well as religious ; although St. Paul seems to limit its utility to profitableness for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Others, again, have been too diligent and too hasty in answering every frivolous b2 4 The Philosophical Temper, and isolated objection to the words of Scripture, which has been urged, — ^nay, which they fancied might pos- sibly be urged, — from successive discoveries in science ; too diligent, because their minute sobcitude has occa- sioned them to lose sight of the Christian Evidence as a whole, and to magnify the objection, as if (though it were unanswerable) it could really weigh against the mass of argument producible on the other side; and too hasty because, had they been patient, succeeding discoveries would perhaps of themselves have solved for them the objection, without the interference of a controversialist. The 01 consequences of such a pro- cedure are obvious : the objection has been recognized as important, while the solution offered has too often been inadequate or unsound. To feel jealous and ap- pear timid, on witnessing the enlargement of scientific knowledge, is almost to acknowledge that there may be some contrariety between it and Revelation. 4. Our Saviour, in the text, calls Himself the Light of the world; as David had already said, in words which especially belong to this place ' and this day ^, " The Lord is my Light ;" and though He so speaks 1 [The motto of the University is " Dominus illnminatio mea."] 2 [Act Sunday. " The candidate," says Huber on the English Universi- ties, " emancipated from his teacher, makes himself known to the other teachers by taking part in the disputations in the schools. These ser- vices afterwards become formal public acts, dispufationes, responsiones, lecturcB cursoricB. A more especially solemn Act formed the actual close of the whole course of study. The licence was then conferred on him by the Chancellor. A custom arose that all the final and solemn exercises should fall in the second term of the year (hence called the Act Term), and be closed on the last Saturday in term by a solemn general Act, the Vesverice, by keeping which the candidates of all degrees in their diffe- First Enjoined by the Gospel. 5 of Himself as bringing religious knowledge to an ignorant and apostate, racOj yet we have no reason to suppose that He forbids lawful knowledge of any kind, and we cannot imagine that He would promulgate^ by His inspired servants, doctrines which contradict previous truths which He has written on the face of nature. 5. The objection to Christianity, to which the fore- going remarks relate, may be variously answered. First, by referring to the fact that the greatest Phi- losophers of modern times — the founders of the new school of discovery, and those who have most extended the boundaries of our knowledge — have been forced to submit their reason to the Gospel ; a circumstance which, independent of the argument for the strength of the Christian Evidence which the conviction of such men affords, at least shows that Eevealed Eeligion cannot be very unfavourable to scientific inquiries, when those who sincerely acknowledge the former still dis- tinguish themselves above others in the latter. 6. Again, much might be said on the coincidence which exists between the general principles which the evidence for Eevelation presupposes, and those on which inquiries into nature proceed. Science and rent Faculties were considered qualified and entitled to begin the exercises connected with their new degree upon the following Monday. This fresh beginning {inee'ptio) took place with the greatest solemnity, and formed the point of richest brilliancy in the scholastic year. In Oxford it was called emphatically ' the Act/ in Cambridge ' the Commencement.' " (Abridged from F. W. Newman's translation.) The Act Sunday is or was the Sunday next before the kct, which falls in the first week of July.] 6 The Philosophical Temper, Revelation agree in supposing tliat nature is goyemed by uniform and settled laws. Scripture, properly un- derstood, is decisive in removing all those irregular agents whicli are supposed to iuterruptj at their own pleasure, the order of nature. Almost every religion but that of the Bible and those derived from it, has supposed the existence of an indefinite number of beings, to a certain extent independent of each other, able to iuterfere iu the affairs of life, and whose inter- ference (supposing it to exist) being reducible to no law, took away all hope of obtaroing any real infor- mation concerning the actual system of the universe. On the other hand, the inspired writers are express in tracing all miraculous occurrences to the direct inter- position, or at least the permission of the Deity j and since they also imply that miracles are displayed, not at random, .but with a purpose, their declarations in this respect entirely agree with the deductions which scientific observation has made concerning the general operation of estabhshed laws, and the absence of any arbitrary interference with them on the part of beings exterior to the present course of things. The sup- position, then, of a system of established laws, on which all philosophical investigation is conducted, is also the very foundation on which the evidence for Revealed Religion rests. It is the more necessary to insist upon this, because some writers have wished to confuse the Jewish and Christian faiths with those other rehgions and those popular superstitions which are framed on no principle, and supported by no pretence of reasonincr. First Enjoined by the Gospel. 7 7. Without enlarging^ however, on arguments of this nature, it is proposed now to direct attention to the moral charaeter which both the Jewish and Christian Eeligions hold up as the excellence and perfection of human nature; for we shall find that some of those habits of mind which are throughout the Bible repre- sented as alone pleasing in the sight of God, are the very habits which are necessary for success in scien- tific investigation, and without which it is quite im- possible to extend the sphere of our knowledge. If this be so, then the fact is accounted for without difficulty, why the most profound philosophers have acknowledged the claims of Christianity upon them. And further, considering that the character, which Scripture draws of the virtuous man, is as a whole (what may be called) an original character, — only the scattered traces, of it being found in authors unac- quainted with the Bible, — an argument will almost be established in favour of Christianity, as havsbS^ con- ferred an intellectual as well as a spiritual beiiefi,t , op the world. 8. For instance, it is obvious that to be in earnest ■ in seeking the truth is an indispensable requisite for finding it. Indeed, it would not be necessary to notice so evident a proposition, had it not been for the strangg conduct of the ancient philosophers in their theories concerning nature and man. It seems as though only one or two of them were serious and sincere in their inquiries and teaching. Most of them considered speculations on philosophical subjects rather in the light of an amusement than of a grave employment, — 8 The Philosophical Temper, as au exercise for ingenuity^ or an indulgence of fancy, — to display their powers, to collect followers, or for the sake of gain. Indeed, it seems incredible that any men, who were really in earnest in their search after truth, should have begun with theorizing, or have ima- gined that a system which they were conscious they had invented almost without data, should happen, when applied to the actual state of things, to harmonize with the numberless and diversified phenomena of the world. Yet, though it seems to be so obvious a position when stated, that in forming any serious theory concerning nature, we must begin with investigation, to the ex- clusion of fanciful speculation or deference to human authority, it was not generally recognized or received as such, till a Christian philosopher forced it upon the attention of the world. And surely he was supported by the uniform language of the whole Bible, which tells us that truth is too sacred and religious a thing to be sacrificed to the mere gratification of the fancy, or amusement of the mind, or party spirit, or the prejudices of education, or attachment (however amiable) to the opinions of human teachers, or any of those other feelings which the ancient philosophers suffered to influence them in their professedly grave and serious discussions. 9. Again : modesty, patience, and caution, are dispo- sitions of mind quite as requisite in philosophical inquiries as seriousness and earnestness, though not so obviously requisite. Rashness of assertion, hastiness in drawing conclusions, unhesitating reliance on our own acuteness and powers of reasoning, are inconsistent with the First Enjoined by the Gospel. 9 homage which nature exacts of those who would know her hidden wonders. She refuses to reveal her myste- ries to those who come otherwise than in the humble and reverential spirit of learners and disciples. So, again, that love of paradox which would impose upon her a language different from that which she really speaks, is as unphilosophical as it is unchristian. Again, in- dulgence of the imagination, though a more specious fault, is equally hostile to the spirit of true philosophy, and has misled the noblest among the ancient theorists, who seemed to think they could not go wrong while following the natural impulses and suggestions of their own minds, and were conscious to themselves of no low and unworthy motive influencing them in their specula- tions. 10. Here, too, maybe mentioned the harm which has been done to the iuterests of science by excessive at- tachment to system. The love of order and regularity, and that perception of beauty which is most keen in highly-gifted minds, has too often led men astray in their scientific researches. From seeing but detached parts of the system of nature, they have been carried on, without data, to arrange, supply, and complete. They have been impatient of knowing but in part, and of waiting for future discoveries ; they have inferred much from slender premisses, and conjectured when they could not prove. It is by a tedious discipline that the mind is taught to overcome those baser principles which im- pede it in philosophical investigation, and to moderate those nobler faculties and feelings which are prejudicial when in excess. To be dispassionate and cautious, to lo The Philosophical Temper, be fair in discussion, to give to eacli phenomenon whicli nature successively presents its due weigM, candidly to admit tliose whicli militate against our own theoryj to te wilUng to be ignorant for a time, to submit to diffi- culties, and patiently and meekly proceed, waiting for further light, is a temper (whether difficult or not at this day) little known to the heathen world; yet it is the only temper ia which we can hope to become inter- preters of nature, and it is the very temper which Christianity sets forth as the perfection of our moral character. 11. Still further, we hear much said in praise of the union of scientific men, of that spirit of brotherhood which should join together natives of different coun- tries as labourers ia a common cause. But were the philosophers of ancient times influenced by this spirit ? In vain shall we look among them for the absence of rivalry; and much less can we hope to find that generosity of mind, which in its desire of promoting the cause of science, considers it a slight thing to be deprived of the credit of a discovery which is really its due. They were notoriously jealous of each other, and anxious for their personal conse- quence, and treasured up their supposed discoveries with miserable precaution, allowicig none but a chosen few to be partakers of their knowledge. On the con- trary, it was Christianity which first brought into play on the field of the world the principles of charity, gene- rosity, disregard of self and country, in the prospect of the universal good ; and which suggested the idea of a far-spreading combination, peaceful yet secure. First Enjoined by the Gospel. 1 1 12. It cannot be deniedj however^ that the true philo- sopLical spirit did not begin to prevail till many ages after the preaching of Christianity, nay, till times com- paratively of recent date ; and it has, in consequence, been maintained that our own superiority over the ancients in general knowledge, is not owing to the presence of the Christian Eeligion among us, but to the natural course of improvement in the world. And doubtless it may be true, that though a divine philo- sophy had never been given us from above, we might still have had a considerable advantage over the ancients in the method and extent of our scientific acquirements. Stni, admitting this, it is also true that Scripture was, ' in matter of fact, the first to describe and inculcate that single-minded, modest, cautious, and generous spirit, .which was, after a long time, found so necessary for success in the prosecution of philosophical researches. And though the interval between the propagation of Christianity and the rise of modern science is certainly very long, yet it niay be fairly maintained that the philo- sophy of the Gospel had no opportunity to extend itself in the proviuce of matter till modern times. It is not surprising if the primitive Christians, amid their difiiculties and persecutions, and being for the most part private persons in the less educated ranks of life, should have given birth to no new school for investigating nature ; and the learned men who from time to time joined them were naturally scholars in the defective philosophies of Greece, and followed their masters ia their physical speculations ; and having more important matters in hand, took for granted what they had no [2 The Philosophical Temper, neans of ascertaining. Nor is it wonderful, considering low various is< tlie subject-matter, and how multiform lave been the developments of Christianity at successive 3ras, that the true principles of scientific research were lot elicited iu the long subsequent period. Perhaps the ;rials and errors through which the Church has passed n the times which have preceded us, are to be its ex- Derience in ages to come. 13. It may be asked how it comes to pass, if a true Dhilosophical temper is so allied to that which the Scriptures inculcate as the temper of a Christian, that my men should be found distinguished for discoveries in science, who yet are ill disposed towards those doc- trines which Revelation enjoins upon our belief. The reason may be this : the humility and teachableness which the Scripture precepts inculcate are connected with principles more solemn and doctrines more awflil than those which are necessary for the temper of mind La which scientific investigation must be conducted ; and though the Christian spirit is admirably fitted to pro- duce the tone of thought and inquiry which leads to the discovery of truth, yet a slighter and less profound humility will do the same. The philosopher has only to confess that he is liable to be deceived by false ap- pearances and reasonings, to be biassed by prejudice, and led astray by a warm fancy ; he is humble because sensible he is ignorant, cautious because he knows him- self to be fallible, docile because he really desires to learn. But Christianity, in addition to this confession requires him to acknowledge himself to be a rebel in First Enjoined by the Gospel. 13 the sight of God, and a breaker of that fair and goodly order of things which the Creator once esta- blished. The philosopher confesses himself to be im- perfect; the Christian feels himself to be sinful and corrupt. The infirmity of which the philosopher must be conscious is but a relative infirmity — imperfection as opposed to perfectiouj of which there are infinite degrees. Thus he believes himself placed in a certain point of the scale of beings, and that there are beings nearer to perfection than he is, others farther removed from it. But the Christian acknowledges that he has fallen away from that rank in creation which he originally held ; that he has passed a line, and is in consequence not merely imperfect, but weighed down with positive, actual evil. Now there is little to lower a man in his own opinion, in his believing that he holds a certain definite station in an immense series of creatures, and is in consequence removed, by many steps, from perfec- tion; but there is much very revolting to the minds of many, much that is contrary to their ideas of harmony and order, and the completeness of the system of nature, and much at variance with those feelings of esteem with which they are desirous of regarding themselves, in the doctrine that man is disgraced and degraded from his natural and original rank; that he has, by sinning, introduced a blemish into the work of God ; that he is guilty in the court of heaven, and is continually doing things odious in the sight of the Divine holiness. And as the whole system of the Christian faith depends upon this doctrine, since it was to redeem man from deserved punishment that Christ suffered on the cross, and in 14 The Philosophical Temper, order to strengthen him in his endeavours to cleanse himself from sin, and prepare for heaven, that the Holy Spirit has come to rule the Church, it is not wonderftj ' that men are found, admirable for their philosophical \ temper and their success in investigating nature, and yet unworthy disciples in the school of the Gospel. 14. Such men often regard Christianity as a slavish system, which is prejudicial to the freedom of thought, the aspirations of genius, and the speculations of en- terprise; an unnatural system, which sets out with supposing that the human mind is out of order, and consequently bends aU its efforts to overthrow the con- stitution of feeling and belief with which man is bom, and to make him a being for which nature never in- tended him ; and a pernicious system, which unfits men for this life by fixing their thoughts on another, and which, wherever consistently acted upon, infallibly leads (as it often has led) to the encouragement of the monastic spirit, and the extravagances of fanati- cism. 15. Although, then, Christianity seems to have been the first to give to the world the pattern of the true spirit of philosophical investigation, yet, as the principles of science are, in process of time, more fally developed, and become more independent of the religious system, there is much danger lest the philosophical school should be found to separate from the Christian Church, and at length disown the parent to whom it has been so greatly indebted. And this evil has in a measure befallen us ; that it does not increase, we must look to that early rehgious training, to which there can be no doubt all First Enjoined by the Gospel. 15 persons — tliose in the higher as well as in the poorer classes of the community — should be submitted. 16. To conclude. The ignorance of the first preachers of Christianity has been often insisted on^ particularly by the celebrated historian of the Roman Empire, as a presumption or proof of their hostility to all enlightened and liberal philosophy. If, however, as has been here contended, from the precepts they delivered the best canons may be drawn up for scientific investigation, the fact will only tend to prove that t}iey could not, un- assisted, have originated or selected precepts so enlarged and so profound ; and thus will contribute something to the strength of those accumulated probabilities, which on other grounds are so overpowering, that they spoke not of themselves, but as they were moved by the in- spiration of God Himself. SERMON II. THE INFLTTBNCB OP NATURAL AND EEVBALED RELIGION EESPEOTIVELT. (Preached on Easter Tuesday, AprU 13, 1830.) 1 John i. 1—3. " That which was from the heginning, which tee have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life ; (For the Life was manifested, and we have seen It, and hear witness, and show unto you that Vernal Life, which was with the Father, und was manifested unto us ;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us," riIHE main purpose of our Saviour's incarnation, as -*- far as we are permitted to know it, was that of reconciling us to God, and purctasing for us eternal life by His sufferings and death. This pui-pose was accomplished when He said, " It is finished," and gave up the ghost. 2. But on His rising from the dead. He extended to us two additional acts of grace, as preparatory to the future blessing, and of which, as well as of our resur- rection, that miracle itself was made the evidence. " Go ye, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." In this commission to His disciples was intimated, on The Influence, &c. 17 the one hand. His merciful design of "gathering to- gether in one the children of God that were scattered abroad," by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit ; and on the other hand, His intended grant of a system of religious truth, grounded on that mysterious economy of Divine Providence in which His own incarnation occupies the principal place. 3. It is proposed, in the following discourse, to treat of a subject connected with the latter of these two great Christian blessings — viz. to attempt to determine the relation which this revealed system of doctrine and precept bears to that of Natural Eehgion, and to com- pare the two together in point of practical eflScacy. The other and still greater mercies of the Christian Covenant have been mentioned only, lest, in discussing the subject of religious knowledge, any disregard should be implied of those fundamental doctrines of our faith, the Atonement, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. 4. Now, in investigating the connexion between Natural and Revealed Rehgion, it is necessary to ex- plain in what sense religious doctrines of any kind can with propriety be called natural. For from the abuse of the term " Natural Religion," many persons will not allow the use of it at all. 5. When, then, religion of some sort is said to be natural, it is not here meant that any religious system has been actually traced out by unaided Reason. We know of no such system, because we know of no time or country in which human Reason was unaided. [UNIV. S.] C 1 8 The Influence of Natural Scripture informs us that revelations were granted to the first fathers of our race^ concerning the nature of God and man's duty to Him ; and scarcely a people can be named^ among whom there are not traditions, not only of the existence of powers exterior to this visible world, but also of their actual interference with the course of nature, followed up by religious commu- nications to mankind from them. The Creator has never left Himself without such witness as might anti- cipate the conclusions of Eeason, and support a waver- ing conscience and perplexed faith. No people (to speak in general terms) has been denied a revelation from God, though but a portion of the world has enjoyed an authenticated revelation. 6. Admitting this fully, let us speak of ihe fad; of the actual state of religious belief of pious men in the heathen world, as attested by their writings still extant; and let us call this attainable creed Natural Religion. 7. Now, in the first place, it is obvious that Con- science is the essential principle and sanction of Re- ligion in the mind. Conscience implies a relation between the soul and a something exterior, and that, moreover, superior to itself; a relation to an excellence which it does not possess, and to a tribunal over which it has no power. And since the more closely this in- Ward monitor is respected and followed, the clearer, the more exalted, and the more varied its dictates become, and the standard of excellence is ever outstripping, while it guides, our obedience, a moral conviction is thus at length obtained of the unapproachable nature and Revealed Religion Respectively, 19 as well as the supreme authority of Thatj whatever it is, which is the object of the miud's contemplation. Here, then, at once, we have the elements of a religious system; for what is Eeligion but the system of re- lations existing between us and a Supreme Power, claiming our habitual obedience : " the blessed and only Potentate, who only hath immortality, dwelling in Ught unapproachable, whom no man hath seen or can see"? 8. Further, Conscience implies a difference in the nature of actions, the power of acting in this way or that as we please, and an obligation of acting in one particular way in preference to all others ; and since the more our moral nature is improved, the greater in- ward power of improvement it seems to possess, a view is laid open to us both of the capabilities and prospects of man, and the awful importance of that work which the law of his being lays upon him. And thus the presentiment of a future life, and of a judgment to be passed upon present conduct, with rewards and punish- ments annexed, forms an article, more or less distinct, ia the creed of Natural Eeligion. 9. Moreover, since the inward law of Conscience brings with it no proof of its truth, and commands attention to it on its own authority, all obedience to it is of the nature of Faith; and habitual obedience im- plies the direct exercise of a clear and vigorous faith in the truth of its suggestions, triumphing over oppo- sition both from within and without; quieting the murmurs of Reason, perplexed with the disorders of the present scheme of things, and subduing the appe- c 2 20 The Influence of Natural titesj clamorous for good wliich promises an immediate and keen gratification. 10. While Conscience is thus ever the sanction of Natural Religion, it is, when improved, the rule of Morals also. But here is a difference : it is, as such, essentially religious ; but ia Morals it is not neces- sarily a guide, only in proportion as it happens to be refined and strengthened iu individuals. And here is a solution of objections which have been made to the existence of the moral sense, on the ground of the discordancy wliich exists among men as to the ex- cellence or demerit of particular actions. These ob- jections only go to prove the uncertaiu character (if so be) of the iuward law of right and wrong ; but are not, even iu their form, directed agaiust the certainty of that general religious sense, which is implied ia the remorse and vague apprehension of evil which the transgression of Conscience occasions. 11. Still, unformed and incomplete as is this law by nature, it is quite certain that obedience to it is at- tended by a continually growing expertness in the science of Morals. A mind, habitually and honestly conforming itself to its own fnU sense of duty, will at length enjoin or forbid with an authority second only to an inspired oracle. Moreover, in a heathen country, it will be able to discriminate with precision between the right and wrong in traditionary superstitions, and will thus ehcit confirmation of its faith even out of corruptions of the truth. And further, it will of course realize in its degree those peculiar rewards of virtue which appetite cannot comprehend ; and will detect in and Revealed Religion Respectively. 21 tMs world^'s events, which are but perplexities to mere unaided Reason, a general connexion existing between right moral conduct and happiness, in corroboration of those convictions which the experience of its own pri- vate history has created. 12. Such is the large and practical religious creed attainable (as appears from the extant works of heathen writers) by a vigorous mind which rightly works upon itself, under (what may be called) the Dispensation of Paganism. It may be even questioned whether there be any essential character of Scripture doctrine which is without its place in this moral revelation. For here is the belief in a principle exterior to the mind to which it is instinctively drawn, infinitely exalted, perfect, in- comprehensible ; here is the surmise of a judgment to come ; the knowledge of unbounded benevolence, wis- dom, and power, as traced in the visible creation, and of moral laws unlimited in their operation; further, there is even something of hope respecting the avail- ableness of repentance, so far (that is) as suffices for religious support; lastly, there is an insight into the rule of duty, increasing with the earnestness with which obedience to that rule is cultivated. 13. This sketch of the religious knowledge not im- possible to Heathen Philosophy, will be borne out by its writings, yet will be only obtained by a selection of the best portions of them. Hence we derive two con- clusions : that the knowledge was attainable — for what one man may attain is open to another ; on the other hand, that, in general, it was not actually attained — for else there would be no need of so confined a 2 2 The Influence of Natural selection of them. And thus we are carried on to the inquiry already proposed — viz. where it was that Natural Religion failed in practical effect, and how Eevealed Eeligion supplies the deficiency. Out of the many answers which might be given to this question, let us confine ourselves to that which is suggested by the text. 14. Natural Eeligion teaches, it is true, the infinite power and majesty, the wisdom and goodness, the pre- sence, the moral governance, and, in one sense, the unity of the Deity ; but it gives little or no information' respecting what may be called His Personality. It fpl- lows that, though Heathen Philosophy knew so much of the moral system of the world, as to see the duties and prospects of man in the same direction in which Eevelation places them, this knowledge did not pre- clude a beUef in fatalism, which might, of course, consist in unchangeable moral laws, as well as physical. A.nd though Philosophy acknowledged an intelligent, wise, and beneficent Principle of nature, still this too was, in fact, only equivalent to the belief in a per- vading Soul of the Universe, which consulted for its own good, and directed its own movements, by in- stincts similar to those by which the animal world is guided; but which, strictly speaking, was not an object of worship, inasmuch as each intelligent being was, in a certain sense, himself a portion of it. Much less would a conviction of the Infinitude and Eternity of the Divine Nature lead to any just idea of His 1 [This seems to me too strongly said, and inconsistent with what is said infra, vi. 10. Vide Essay on Assent, v. i.] and Revealed Religion Respectively , 23 Personality, since there can be no circumscribing linea- ments nor configuration of the ImmeasurablOj no exter- nal condition or fortune to that Being who is all in all. Lastly, though Conscience seemed to point in a certain direction as a witness for the real moral locality (so to speakj) of the unseen God, yet, as it cannot prove its own authority, it afforded no argument for a Goveruor and Judge, distinct from the moral system itself, to those who disputed its informations. 15. While, then. Natural ReHgion was not without provision for all the deepest and truest rehgious feel- ings, yet presenting no tangible history of the Deity, no points of His personal character " (if we may so speak without irreverence), it wanted that most efficient ^incentive to all action, a starting or rallying point, — r^n object on which the affections could be placed, and the energies concentrated. Common experience in life shows how the most popular and interesting cause languishes, if its head be removed; and how political power is often vested in individuals, merely for the sake of the definiteness of the practical im-' pression which a personal presence produces. How, then, should the beauty of virtue move the heart, while it was an abstraction ? " Forma quidem hones- tatis, si oculis cerneretur, admirabiles amores excitaret sapientise;" but, till "seen and heard and handled," It did but witness against those who disobeyed, while 2 The author was not acquainted, at the time this was written, with Mr, Coleridge's Works, and a remarkable passage in his Biograpbia Literaria, in which several portions of this Sermon are anticipated. It has been pointed out to him since by the kindness of a friend, [Mr. Thomas D. Acland.] — Vide Biogr. Lit. vol. i. p. 199. 24 The Influence of Natitral they acknowledged It; and who, seemingly conscious where their need lay, made every effort to embody It in the attributes of individuality^ embellishing their " Logos," as they called It, with figurative actions, and worshipping It as the personal development of the Infinite Unknown. 16. But, it may be asked, was Heathen Religion of no service here ? It testified, without supplying the need ; — it bore testimony to it, by attempting to attri- bute a personal character and a history to the Divinity ; but it failed, as degrading His invisible majesty by unworthy, multiplied and iuconsistent images, and as shattering the moral scheme of the world into partial and discordant systems, iu which appetite and ex- pedience received the sanction due only to virtue. And thus refined philosophy and rude natural feeling each attempted separately to enforce obedience to a religious rule, and each failed on its own side. The God of philosophy was infinitely great, but an ab- straction; the God of paganism was inteUigible, but degraded by human conceptions. Science and nature could produce no joint-work ; it was left for an ex- press Eevelation to propose the Object in which they should both be reconciled, and to satisfy the desires of both in a real and manifested incarnation of the Deity. 17. When St. Paul came to Athens, and found the altar dedicated to the Unknown God, he professed his purpose of declaring to the Heathen world Him "whom they ignorantly worshipped." He proceeded to condemn their polytheistic and anthropomorphic and Revealed Religion Respectively. 25 errorSj to disengage the notion of a Deity from the base earthly attributes in which Heathen religion had enveloped it^ and to appeal to their own literature in behalf of the true nature of Him in whom " we live, and move, and have our being." But, after thus acknow- ledging the abstract correctness of the philosophical system, as far. as it went, he preaches unto them Jesus and the Resurrection ; that is, he embodies the moral character of the Deity in those historical notices of it which have been made the medium of the Christian manifestation of His attributes. 18. It is hardly necessary to enter into any formal proof that this is one principal object, as of aU reve- lation, so especially of the Christian; viz. to relate some course of action, some conduct, a life (to speak in human terms) of the One Supreme God. Indeed, so evidently is this the case, that one very common, though superficial objection to the Scriptures, is founded on their continually ascribing to Almighty God human passions, words, and actions. The first chapter of the book of Job is one instance which may suggest many more; and those marks of character are especially prominent in Scripture, which imply an extreme opposition to an eternal and fated system, inherent freedom of will, power of change, long-suffer- ing, placability, repentance, delight in the praises and thanksgivings of His creatures, failure of purpose, and the prerogative of dispensing His mercies according to His good pleasure.. Above all, in the New Testament, the Divine character is exhibited to us, not merely as love, or mercy, or holiness (attributes which have a 26 The Influence of Natural vagueness in our conceptions of them from tlieir im- mensity)j but these and others as seen in an act of selj- denial — a mysterious quality when ascribed to Him, who is all things in Himself, but especially calculated (from the mere meaning of the term) to impress upon our minds the personal character of the Object of our worship. " God so loved the world," that He gave wp His only Son : and the Son of God "pleased not Him- self." In His life we are allowed to discern the attri- butes of the Invisible God, draivn out into action in accommodation to our weakness. The passages are too many to quote, in which this object of His incarnation is openly declared. "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." " He that hath seen Him, hath seen the Father." He is a second Creator of the world, I mean, as condescending to repeat (as it were) for our contemplation, in human form, that distinct personal work, which made "the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy." In a word, the impression upon the religious mind thence made is appositely illustrated in the words of the text, " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life; (For the Life was manifested, and we have seen It, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us." 19. No thought is more likely to come across and and Revealed Religion Respectively. 27 haunt the mind, and slacken its efforts under Natural Eeligion, than that after all we may be following a vain shadow, and disquieting ourselves without cause, while we are giving up our hearts to the noblest instincts and aspirations of our nature. The Eoman Stoic, as he committed suicide, complained he had worshipped virtue, and found it but an empty name. It is even now the way of the world to look upon the religious principle as a mere peculiarity of temper, a weakness, or an enthusiasm, or refined feeling (as the case may be), characteristic of a timid and narrow, or of a heated or a highly-gifted mind. Here, then, Eevelation meets us with simple and distinct facts and actions, not with painful inductions from existing phenomena, not with generalized laws or metaphysical conjectures, but with Jesus and the Resurrection ; and " if Christ he not risen" (it confesses plainly), "then is our preaching vaiti, and your faith is also vain." Facts such as this are not simply evidence of the truth of the revelation, but the media of its impressiveness. The Hfe of Christ brings together and concentrates truths concerning the chief good and the laws of our being, which wander idle and forlorn over the surface of the moral world, and often appear to diverge from each other. It collects the scattered rays of light, which, in the first days of creation, were poured over the whole face of nature, into certain intelligible centres, in the firma- ment of the heaven, to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness . Our Saviour has in Scripture all those abstract titles of moral excellence bestowed upon Him which philo- 2 8 The Infitience of Natural sopliers have invented. He is the Word, the Light, the Life, the Truth, Wisdom, the Divine Glory. St. John announces in the text, " The Life was manifested, and we \ave seen It." 20. And hence will follow an important difference in the moral character formed in the Christian school, from that which Natural Religion has a tendency to create. The philosopher aspires towards a divine principle ; the Christian, towards a Divine Agent. Now, dedication of our energies to the service of a person is the occa- sion of the highest and most noble virtues, disinterested attachment, self-devotion, loyalty; habitual humihty, moreover, from the knowledge that there must ever be one that is above us. On the other hand, in whatever degree we approximate towards a mere standard of ex- cellence, we do not really advance towards it, but bring it to. us ; the excellence we venerate becomes part of ourselves — we become a god to ourselves. This was one especial consequence of the pantheistic system of the Stoics, the later Pythagoreans, and other philoso- phers ; in proportion as they drank into the spirit of eternal purity, they became divine in their own estima- tion ; they contrasted themselves with those -who were below them, knowing no being above them by whom they could measure their proficiency. Thus they began by being humble, and, as they advanced, humility and faith wore away from their character. This is strik- ingly illustrated in Aristotle's description of a perfectly virtuous man. An incidental and unstudied greatness of mind is said by him to mark the highest moral excel- lence, and truly; but the genuine nobleness of the and Revealed Religion Respectively. 29 virtuous mind, as shown in a superiority to common temptations, forbearance, generosity, self-respect, calm higt-minded composure, is deformed by an arrogant contempt of otters, a disregard of their feelings, and a harshness and repulsiveness of external manner. That is, the philosopher saw clearly the tendencies of the moral system, the constitution of the human soul, and the ways leading to the perfection of our nature ; but when he attempted to delineate the ultimate complete consistent image of the virtuous man, how could he be expected to do this great thing, who had never seen Angel or Prophet, much less the Son of God manifested in the flesh ? 21. At such pains is Scripture, on the other hand, to repress the proud self-complacency just spoken of, that not only is all moral excellence expressly referred to the Supreme God, but even the principle of good, when implanted and progressively realized in our hearts, is still continually revealed to us as a Person, as if to mark strongly that it is not our own, and must lead us to no preposterous self-adoration. For instance, we read of Christ being formed in us — dwelling in the heart — of the Holy Spirit making us His temple ; particularly remarkable is our Saviour's own promise : " If a man love Me, he will keep My words ; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto Mm, and make our abode with him." 22. It maybe observed, that this method of persona- tion (so to call it) is carried throughout the revealed system. The doctrine of the Personality of the Holy Spirit has just been referred to. Again, the doctrine 30 The Infltience of Natural of original sin is centred in the person of Adam, and in this way is made impressive and intelligible to the mass of mankind. The Evil Principle is revealed to us in the person of its author, Satan. Nay, not only thus, in the case of really existing beings, as the first man and the Evil Spirit, but even when a figure must be used, is the same system continued. The body of faithiul men, or Church, considered as the dweUing-place of the One Holy Spirit, is invested with a meta- phorical personality, and is bound to act as one, in order to those practical ends of influencing and directing human conduct in which the entire system may be considered as originating. And, again, for the same purpose of concentrating the energies of the Christian body, and binding its members into close union, it was found expedient, even in Apos- tolic times, to consign each particular church to the care of one pastor, or bishop, who was thus made a personal type of Christ mystical, the new and spiritual man ; a centre of action and a living witness against aU heretical or disorderly proceedings. 23. Such, then, is the Revealed system compared with the Natural — teaching religious truths historically, not by investigation ; revealing the Divine Nature, not in works, but in action ; not in His moral laws, but in His spoken commands;- training us to be subjects of a kingdom, not citizens of a Stoic republic; and enforcing obedience, not on Reason so much as on Faith. 24. And now that we are in possession of this great gift of God, Natural Religion has a use and impor- and Revealed Religion Respectively. 31 tance whicli it before could hardly possess. For as Revealed Religion enforces doctrine, so Natural Religion recommends it. It is hardly necessary to observe, that the whole revealed scheme rests on nature for the validity of its evidence. The claim of miraculous power or knowledge assumes the existence of a Being capable of exerting it ; and the matter of the Revelation itself is evidenced and interpreted by those awful, far-reaching analogies of mediation and vicarious suffering, which we discern in the visible course of the world. There is, perhaps, no greater satisfaction to the Christian than that which arises from his perceiving that the Revealed system is rooted deep in the natural course of things, of which it is merely the result and completion ; that his Saviour has interpreted for him the faint or broken accents of Nature; and that in them, so interpreted, he has, as if in some old prophecy, at once the evidence and the lasting memorial of the truths of the Gospel. 25. It remains to suggest some of the conclusions which follow from this view, thus taken, of the relation of Revealed to Natural Religion. (1 .) First, much might be said on the evidence thence deducible for the truth of the Christian system. It is one point of evidence that the two systems coincide in declaring the same substantial doctrines : viz., as being two independent witnesses in one and the same question ; an argument contained by implication, though not formally drawn out, in Bishop Butler's Analogy. It is a further point of evidence to find that Scripture com- 32 The Influence of Natural pletes the very deficiency of nature; and, wliile its doctrines of Atonement and Mediation are paralleled by phenomena in the visible course of things, to discern in it one solitary doctriue, which from its nature has no parallel in this world, an Incarnation of the Divine Essence, an intriasic evidence of its truth in the benefit thus conferred on religion. 26. (2.) Next, hght is thus thrown upon the vast practical importance of the doctrines of the Divinity of our Lord, and of the Personality of the Holy Spirit. It is the impiety, indeed, involved iu the denial of these, which is the great guilt of anti-Trinitarians j but, over and above this, such persons go far to destroy the very advantages which the Revealed system possesses over the Natural ; and throw back the science of morals and of human happiness into that state of vagueness and inefficiency from which Christianity has extricated it. On the other hand, we learn besides, the shallowness of the objection to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, grounded on its involving a plurality of Persons in the Godhead ; since, if it be inconceivable, as it surely is, how Personality can in any way be an attribute of the infinite, incommunicable Essence of the Deity, or in what particular sense it is ascribed to Hhn, Unitarians, so called (to be consistent), should find a difficulty in the doctrine of an Unity of Person, as well as of a Trinity ; and, having ceased to be Athanasians, should not stop tUl they become Pantheists. 27. (3.) Further, the same view suggests to us the peculiar perverseness of schism, which tends to undo the very arrangement which our Lord has made, for and Revealed Religion Respectively. 33 arresting the attention of mankindj and leading them to seek their true moral good ; and which (if followed to its legitimate results) would reduce the world to the very state in which it existed in the age of the heathen moralist^ so familiar to us lq this place^ who, in opening his treatise^ bears witness to the importance of a visible Church, by consulting the opinions of mankind as to the means of obtaining happiness ; and not till dis- appointed in sage and statesman, the many and the educated, undertakes himself an examination of man's nature, as if the only remaining means of satisfying the inquiry. 28. (4.) And hence, at the same time, may be learned the real religious position of the heathen, who, we have reason to trust, are not in danger of perishing, except so far as all are in such danger, whether in heathen or ■ Christian countries, who do not follow the secret voice of conscience, leading them on by faith to their true though unseen good. For the prerogative of Christians consists in the possession, not of exclusive knowledge and spiritual aid, but of gifts high and peculiar ; and though the manifestation of the Divine character in the Incarnation is a singular and inestimable benefit, yet its absence is supplied in a degree, not only in the inspired record of Moses, but even, with more or less strength, as the case may be, in those various traditions concerning Divine Providences and Dispensa- tions which are scattered through the heathen mytho- logies. 29. (5.) Further, a comment is hence afforded us on the meaning of a phrase perplexed by controversy — ^that [UNIV. S.] D 34 The Influence of Natural of " preaching Christ." By which is properly meant, not the putting Natural Religion out of sight, nor the separating one doctrine of the Gospel from the rest, as having an exclusive claim to the name of Gospel ; but the displaying all that Nature and Scripture teach concerning Divine Providence (for they teach the same great truths), whether of His majesty, or His love, or His mercy, or His holiness, or His fearful anger, through the medium of the life and death of His Son Jesus Christ. A mere moral strain of teaching duty and enforcing obedience fails in persuading us to practice, not because it appeals to conscience, and commands and threatens (as is sometimes supposed), but because it does not urge and illustrate virtue in the Name and by the example of our blessed Lord. It is not that natural teaching gives merely the Law, and Christian teaching gives the tidings of pardon, and that a command chills or formalizes the mind, and that a free forgiveness con- verts it (for nature speaks of God^s goodness as well as of His severity, and Christ surely of His severity as well as of His goodness); but that in the Christian scheme we find all the Divine Attributes (not mercy only, though mercy pre-eminently) brought out and urged upon us, which were but latent in the visible course of things. 30. (6.) Hence it appears that the Gospels are the great instruments (under God's blessing) of fixing and instructing our minds in a religious course, the Epistles being rather comments on them than in- tended to supersede them, as is sometimes maintained. Surely it argues a temper of mind but partially moulded and Revealed Religion Respectively.. 35 to the worship and love of Ctrist^ to make this dis- tinction between His teaching and that of His Apostles, when the very promised of&ce of the Comforter in His absence was, not to make a new revelation, but ex- pressly "to bring all things to their remembi-ance " which " Be had said to them ;" not to " speak of Him^ self," but "to receive of Christ's, and show it unto them." The Holy Spirit came "to glorify Christ," to , declare openly to all the world that Be had come on earth, suffered, and died, who was also the Creator and Governor of the world, the Saviour, the final Judge of men. It is the Incarnation of the Son of God rather than any doctrine drawn from a partial view of Scrip- ture (however true and momentous it may be) which is the article of a standing or a falling Church. " Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; . . . this is that spirit of anti- Christ ;" for, not to mention other more direct consi- derations, it reverses, as far as in it lies, all that the revealed character of Christ has done for our faith and virtue. And hence the Apostles' speeches in the book of Acts and the primitive Creeds insist almost exclu- sively upon the history, not the doctrines, of Christi- anity ; it being designed that, by means of our Lord's Economy, the great doctrines of theology should be taught, the facts of that Economy giving its peculiarity and force to the Eevelation. 31. May it ever be our aim thus profitably to use that last and complete manifestation of the Divine Attributes and Will contained in the New Testament, D 2 2,6 On Natural and Revealed Religion, &c. setting the pattern of the Son of God ever before us, and studying so to act as if He were sensibly present, by look, voice, and gesture, to approve or blame us in all our private thoughts and all our intercourse with the world ! SERMON III.' EVANGELICAL SANCTITY THE COMPLETION OF NATURAL VIRTUE. (Preached March 6, 1831.) Eph. v. 8, 9. " Yis were sometimes darkness, but now are ye liglii in the Lord : walk as children of light ; for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.'* 1 1 rHILE Cliristianity reveals the pardon of sin and the promise of eternal life through the mediation of Christ, it also professes to point out means for the present improvement of our moral nature itself. This improve- mentj we know, is referred in Scripture to the Holy Spirit, as a first cause ; and, as coming from Him, both the influence itself upon the mind and the moral character formed under that influence are each in turn called " the spirit." Thus, St. Paul speaks of the law of "the spirit of life in Christ Jesus '," and contrasts it with that character and conduct which are sin and death. He speaks too of receiving " the spirit of faith^," or the temper of which faith is the essence ; and ia the 1 [This discourse was omitted ia former editions, as having been written in haste on a sudden summons to preach.] 2 Rom. viii. 2. « 2 Cor. iv. 13. 38 Evangelical Sanctity textj which is found in the Epistle for this Sunday, he refers to the outward manifestation or fruit of the same spirit, " goodness, righteousness, and truth.'^ " Light" is another word, used as in the text — to express the same moral change which the Gospel offers us ; biit this title is proper to our Lord, who is the true Light of men. Christians are said to be " called into His marvellous light," to " walk as children of light," to " abide in the bght," to " put on the armour of light '." Another similar term is newness or renewal of mind. Indeed, it is quite obvious that the phraseology of the New Testament is grounded in such views of the immediate inward benefits to be conferred upon the Church on the coming of Christ. 2. AVhat,then, is meant by this language ? language, which, if great words stand for great ideas, and an Apostle does not aim at eloquent speech rather than at the simple truth, must raise our expectations concern- ing the fulness of the present benefits resulting to us in the present state of things from Christianity. That it is not mere ordinary religious obedience, such as the Holy Spirit may foster among the heathen ; nor, on the other hand, miraculous endowment of which St. Paul speaks, when he prays that " the Father of glory " might give to the Ephesians " the spirit of wisdom and revelation," " enlightened understanding," " knowledge of the riches of the glory of the Saints' inheritance '," this surely is evident without formal proof, and least of all need be insisted on in this place. 3. Nor, again, does the question find its answer in the • 1 Pet. ii. 9. 1 John i. 7; ii. 10. Rom. xiii. 12. » Eph. i. 17, 18. the Completion of Natural Virtue. 39 view of certain men of deeper piety than the mass of mankind, — of those, I mean, who, clearly perceiviag that Christian morality and devotion are something extraordinarily excellent and divine, have sought to embody them in a strict outward separation from the world, a ceremonial worship, severe austerities, and a fixed adjustment of the claims of duty in all the vary- ing minutice of daily conduct; and who, ia consequence, have at length substituted dead forms for the " spirit " which they desired to honour. 4. Nor further may we seek an explanation of the difficulty from such men as consult their feelings and imaginations rather than the sure Word of God, and place that spiritual obedience, which all confess to be the very test of a Christian, in the indulgence of ex- cited afiections, in an impetuous, unrefined zeal, or in the language of an artificial devotion. For this view of spirituality, also, except in the case of minds pecu- liarly constituted, ends in a formal religion. 5. Moreover, the aspect of the Christian world affords us no elucidation of St. Paul's language concerning the great gift of grace. Far from concurring with Scrip- ture and interpreting it for us, doubtless the manners and habits even of the most refined society are rather calculated to prejudice the mind against any high views of religious and moral duty. And this has been the case even from the Apostle's age, as may be inferred from his Epistle to the Corinthians, who could hardly have understood their own titles, as "sanctified in Christ," " called to be saints \" at the time that they 6 1 Cor. i. 2. 40 Evangelical Sanctity have among thenij "debates, envyings, whisperings, swellings, tumults, uncleanness, lasciviousness '," un- repented of. 6. It is indeed by no means clear that Christianity has at any time been of any great spiritual advantage to the world at large. The general temper of mankind, taking man individually, is what it ever was, rest- less and discontented, or sensual, or unbelieving. ■ In barbarous times, indeed, the influence of the Church was successful in effecting far greater social order and external decency of conduct than are known in heathen countries ; and at all times it will abash and check excesses which conscience itself condemns. But it has ever been a restraint on the world rather than a guide to personal virtue and perfection on a large scale ; its fruits are negative. 7. True it is, that in the more advanced periods of society a greater innocence and probity of conduct and courtesy of manners will prevail ; but these, though they have sometimes been accounted illustrations of the pecuhar Christian character, have in fact no necessary connexion with it. For why should they not be re- ferred to that m^ere advancement of civilization and education of the intellect, which is surely competent to produce them? Morals may be cultivated as a science ; it furnishes a subject-matter on which reason may exercise itself to any extent whatever, with httle more than the mere external assistance of conscience and Scripture. And, when drawn out into system, such a moral teaching wiU attract general admiration r 2 Cor. xii. 20, 21. the Completion of Natural Virtti,e. 41 from its beauty and refinement ; and from its evident expediency will be adopted as a directory (so to say) of conduct^ whenever it does not occasion any great inconveniencej or interfere with any strong passion or urgent interest. National love of virtue is no test of a sensitive and well-instructed conscience, — of no- thing beyond intellectual culture. History establishes this : the Roman moralists write as admirably, as if they were moral men. 8. And, if this be the case, as I think it is, do we not compromise the dignity of Christianity by anxiously referring unbelievers to the effects of the Gospel of Jesus in the world at large, as if a sufficient proof of its divine origin, when the same effects to all appear- ance are the result of principles which do not " spring from the grace of Christ and the inspiration of His Spirit" ? For it is not too much to say, that, con- stituted as human nature is, any very wide influence and hearty reception of given principles among men argues in fact their earthly character, — "they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them*.''' The true light of the world ofiendsmore men than it attracts; and its divine origin is shown, not in its marked effects on the mass of mankind, but in its surprising power of elevating the moral character where it is received in spirit and in truth. Its scattered saints, in all ranks of life, speak of it to the thoughtful inquirer : but to the world at large, its remarkable continuance on the earth is its witness, — its pertinacity of existence, confronting, as it has in " 1 John iv. 5. 42 Evajtgelical Sanctity turn, every variety of opinion, and triumpliing over them all. To the multitude it does not manifest itself ' ; — not that it willingly is hid from them, but that the perverse freedom of their will keeps them at a distance from it. 9. Besides, it must not be forgotten, that Christianity professes to prepare us for the next life. It is not hi ng strange then, if principles, which avowedly direct the science of morals to present beneficial results in the community, should show to the greater advaittage in their own selected field of action. Exalted virtue cannot be fully appreciated, nay, is seldom recognized on the public stage of life, because it addresses itself to an unseen tribunal. Its actual manifestations on this con- fused and shifting scene are but partial; just as the most perfect form loses its outline and its proportions, when cast in shadow on some irregular surface. 10. Let it be assumed, then, as not needing proof, that the freedom of thought, enlightened equitableness, and amiablenesSj which are the offspring of civilization, differ far more even than the piety of form or of emotion from the Christian spirit, as being "not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, yea, rather, ' doubtless,' having the nature of sin." 11. How then, after all, must the gift be described, which Christianity professes to bestow ? I proceed, in answer to this question, to consider what is said on the subject by Scripture itself, where alone we ought to look for the answer. Not as if any new light could be s Vide John xiv. 21—23. the Completion of Natti.ral Virt^ie. 43 thrown upon the subject^ or any statements made, whicli have not the assent of sober Christians generally, but in order to illustrate and enforce an all-important truth ; and, while at every season of the year practical views of Christianity are befitting, they are especially suggested and justified by the services of humiliation in which we are at present ' engaged. 12. The difierence, then, between the extraordinary Christian " spirit," and human faith and virtue, viewed apart from Christianity, is simply this : — that, while the two are the same in nature, the former is immea- surably higher than the other, more deeply rooted in the mind it inhabits, more consistent, more vigorous, of more intense purity, of more sovereign authority, with greater promise of victory — the choicest elements of our moral nature being collected, fostered, matured into a determinate character by the gracious influences of the Holy Ghost, differing from the virtue of hea- thens somewhat in the way that the principle of life in a diseased and wasted frame differs from that health, beauty, and strength of body, which is nevertheless subject to disorder and decay. 13. That the spiritual and the virtuous mind are essen- tially the same, is plain from the text as from other Scriptures : " The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." Let us rather confine our attention to the point of difference between them ; viz. that the Christian graces are far superior in rank and dignity to the moral virtues. The following may serve as illustrations of this difference : — ' Lent. 44 Evangelical Sanctity 14. (1 .) Take at once our Lord's words, when, enjoining the duty of love, " If ye love them who love you, what reward have ye ? do not even the publicans the same ?" Or St. Peter's, on the duty of patience ! " What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently ? but if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God ^." 15. This contrast between ordinary and transcendant virtue, the virtues of nature and the virtues of Christianity, may be formally drawn out in various branches of our duty. For instance ; duties are often divided into religious, relative, personal ; the charac- teristic excellence in each of those departments of vir- tue being respectively faith, benevolence and justice, and temperance. Now in Christianity these three are respectively perfected in hope, charity, and self-denial, which are the peculiar fiMiits of the " spirit " as distin- guished from ordinary virtue. This need not be proved in detail ; it is sufficient to refer to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and his first to the Corinthians. These three cardinal graces of the Christian character are en- forced by our Saviour, when He bids us take no thought for the morrow J do as we would be done by; and deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him \ 16. Other virtues admit of a similar growth and con- trast. Christian patience is contrasted with what is ordinary patience in the passage from St. Peter just cited. St. John speaks of the " love of God casting out fear ; " and whatever difficulty may lie in the iuterpretation of these words, they are at least clear in marking the tran- ! Matt. V. 46. 1 Pet. u. 20. 3 Jjatt. vi. 34; vii. 12; x. 38. the Completion of Natural Virtue. 45 scendant quality of the CTiristian grace^ compared with the ordinary virtue^ as seen under former dispensations of religion. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews^ the inspired writer contrasts the elementary objects of faith with those which are the enjoyment of a perfect and true Christian ; the doctrines which spring from the Atonement being the latter^ and the former such as the Being of a Godj His Providencej the Eesurrection and eternal judgment. 17. (2.) In the next place^ we may learn what is the pecuHar gift of the Spirit even without seeking in Scrip- ture for any express contrast between graces and virtues, by considering the Christian moral code as a whole, and the general impression which it would make on minds which had been instructed in nothing beyond the ordinary morality which nature teaches. Such are the following passages — we are bid not to resist evil, but to turn the cheek to the smiter ; to forgive from our hearts our brother, though he sin against us until seventy times seven ; to love and bless our enemies ; to love without dissimulation ; to esteem others better than ourselves ; to bear one another^s burdens ; to condescend to men of low estate; to minister to our brethren the more humbly, the higher our station is ; to be like little children in simplicity and humility. We are to guard against every idle word, and to aim at great plainness of speech ; to make prayer our solace, and hymns and psalms our mirth ; to be careless about the honours and emoluments of the world ; to maintain almost a voluntary poverty (at least so far as re- nouncing all superfluous wealth may be called such) •; 46 Evangelical Sanctity to observe a purity severe as an utter abhorrence of nncleanness can make it to be ; willingly to part with band or eye in the desire to be made like to the pattern of the Son of God ; and to think little of friends or country^ or the prospects of ordinary domestic happi- ness, for the kingdom of heaven's sake ■*. 18. NoWj in enumerating these maxims of Christian morahty, I do not attempt to delineate the character itself, which they are intended to form as their result. Without pretending to interpret rules, which the re- ligious mind understands only in proportion to its progress in sanctification, I may assume, what is enough for the present purpose, that they evidently point out to some very exalted order of moral excel- lence as the characteristic of a genuine Christian. Thus they are adequate to the explanation of the Apostle's strong language about the Spirit of glory and God * as the present gift gained for us by our Saviour's intercession, which in the text is evidently declared to be a moral gift, yet as evidently to be something more than what is meant by ordinary faith and obedience. 19. (3.) And next, let us see what may be gained on the subject by examining the hves of the Apostles, and of their genuine successors. Here their labours and sufferings attract our attention first. Not that pain and privation have any natural connexion with virtue ; but because, when virtue is pre-supposed, these condi- tions exert a powerful influence in developing and ele- ■i Matt. V. 28. 37. 39. 44; vi. 25; xii. 36; xviii. 3. 8. 35; six. 12. 29; XX. 27. Kora. xii. 9. 16. 1 Cor. \-\. 18-20. Gal. vi. 2. James v. 13. « 1 Pet. iv. 14. the Completion of Natural Virtice. 47 vating it. Considering St. Paul's ready and continued sacrifices of himself and all that was his in the cause of the Gospel, could the texture of his religion bear any resemblance to that weak and yielding principle which constitutes the virtue of what we now consider the more conscientious part of mankind? He and his brethren had a calm strength of mind, which marked them outj more than any other temper, to be God's elect who could not be misled, stern weapons of God, purged by affliction and toil to do His work on earth and to persevere to the end. 20. And let us view such men as these, whom we rightly call Saints, in the combination of graces which form their character, and we shall gain a fresh insight into the nature of that sublime morality which the Spirit enforces. St. Paul exhibits the union of zeal and gentleness; St. John, of overflowing love with uncompromising strictness of principle. Firmness and meekness is another combination of virtues, which is exempUfied in Moses, even under the first Covenant, To these we may add such as self-respect and humility, the love and fear of God, and the use of the world without the abuse of it. This necessity of being " sanctified whoUy," in the Apostle's language, is often forgotten. Jt is indeed comparatively easy to profess one side only of moral excellence, as if faith were to be all in all, or zeal, or amiableness ; whereas in truth, reli- gious obedience is a very intricate problem, and the more so the farther we proceed in it. The moral growth within us must be symmetrical, in order to be beautiful or lasting ; hence mature sanctity is seldom 48 Evangelical Sanctity recognized by others^ where it really exists^ never by the world at large. Ordinary spectators carry off one or other impression of a good man, according to the accidental circumstances under which- they see him. Much more are the attributes and manifestations of the Divine Mind beyond our understanding, and, appearing inconsistent, are rightly called mysterious. 21. (4.) A last illustration of the special elevation of Christian holiness is derived from the anxious exhorta- tion made to us in Scripture to be diligent in aiming at it. There is no difficulty in realizing in our own persons the ordinary virtues of society; nay, it is the boast of some ethical systems that they secure virtue, on the admission of a few simple and intelligible prin- ciples, or that they make it depend on the knowledge of certain intellectual truths. This is a shallow philosophy; but Christian perfection is as high as the commands and warnings of Scripture are solemn : " Watch and pray ;" "many are called, few chosen;" "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way ;" " strive to enter in," "many shall seek," only; "a rich man shall hardly enter;" "he that is able to receive it, let him receive it^;" and others of a like character. 22. Such, then, is the presentbenefitwhich Christianity offers us ; not only a renewal of our moral nature after Adam's original likeness, but a blending of all its powers and affections into the one perfect man, "after the mea- sure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Not that heathens are absolutely precluded from this transforma- 5 Matt, vii.; xix.; xxii.j xxvi. Luke xiii. the Completion of Natural Virtue. 49 tion from sin to righteousness ; nor as if we dare limit the actual progress made by individuals among them ; nor, further, as if it were not every one's duty to aim at perfection in all things under any Dispensation ; but neither the question of duty nor that of God's dealiugs with heathen countries has come under consideration here ; but what it is that Christians have pledged to them from above on their regeneration ; what that great gift is of Christ's passion, of which the Apostles speak in language so solemn and so triumphant, as at first sight to raise a difficulty about its meaning. 23. Considering, then, the intense brightness and purity of that holiness to which we are called, and on the other hand our ignorant and sensual condition, as we are really found, our Church teaches us to put away from ourselves the title of "Saint," and to attribute it to such especially as "have laboured and not fainted;"" those who, like the Apostles and primitive martyrs, have fought a good fight, and finished their course, and kept the faith. 24. Nor let it seem to any one, that, by so doing, the timid Christian is debarred of his rights and discouraged; or, on the other hand, that the indolent are counte- nanced in low views of duty by setting before them what they may consider a double standard of virtue. For indolent minds will content themselves with the perfor- mance of a meagre heartless obedience, whether or not a higher excellence is also pi'oposed to them. And as to the sincere but anxious disciple of Christ, let it relieve his despondency to reflect that on him as much ^ Rev. ii. 3. [UNIV. S.] ■E 50 Evangelical Sanctity as on the matured saint, have been bestowed the titles of God's everlasting favour and the privileges of election. God's will and purpose are pledged in his behalf J and the first fruits of grace are vouchsafed to hinij though his character be not yet brought into the abiding image of Christ. While the distance from hiTn cf the prize must excite in him an earnest desire of victory and a fear of failure, there is no impassable barrier between him and it, to lead him to despair of it. An d there is a point in a Christian's progress at which his election may be considered as secured ; whether or not he can assure himself of this, at least there may be times when he will " feel within him the working of the spirit of Christ, mortifying the flesh, and drawing up his mind to high and heavenly things." Thus St. Paul on one occasion says, ''Not as though I had attained;" yet, far from desponding, he adds, ''I press towards the mark for the prize." Again, at the close of his life, he says, ''Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness*." 25. The subject which has come before us naturally leads on to one or two reflections, with which I shall conclude. ' On the one hand, it suggests the question. Are there in this age saints in the world, such as the Apostles were ? And this at least brings us to a practical reflection. For, if there are such any where, they ought to exist in our own Church, or rather, since the Apostles were men of no higher nature than ourselves, if there are not 8 Phil. iii. 12—14. 2 Tim. iy. 8. the Completion of Nattiral Virtue. 5 1 among us such as they -were^ no reason can possibly be given for the deficiency^ but the perverse love of sin in those who are not such. There are Christians who do not enjoy a knowledge of the pure truth j and others, who wander without the pale of the divinely privileged Church of Christ ; but we are enabled justly to glory in our membership with the body which the Apostles founded, and in which the Holy Spirit has especially dwelt ever since, and we are blessed with the full light of Scripture, and possess the most formally correct creed of any of the Churches. Yet, on the other hand, when we look at the actual state of this Christian country, it does not seem as if men were anxiously escaping the woe, which, first pronounced on an apostate Apostle, assuredly hangs over them. They do not appear to recognize any distinction between natural and spiritual excellence; they do not aim at rising above the morality of unregenerate men, which, though commendably in heathen, is not available for Christian salvation. And they are apt to view Christian morality as a mere system, as one of the Evidences for Revealed Religion, and as a mark of their superior knowledge in comparison with Jews and Pagans, far more than as it enjoins on them a certain ethical character, which they are commanded to make their own. 26. When, moreover, to the imperative duty, whichlies upon us, of being true Christians, and to the actual signs of carelessness and unbelief which the Christian world exhibits, we add the extreme difiiculty of turning from sin to obedience, the prospect before us becomes still more threatening. It is difi&cult even to form a E 2 52 Evangelical SaTictity notion of the utter dissimilarity between tlie holiness to wliich we are called and the habits which we still imperceptibly form for ourselves, if we leave the ten- dencies of our nature to take their spontaneous course. What two things are more opposed to each other than a mind revelling ia the keen indulgence of its passions, and the same mind, when oppressed with self-reproach and bodily sufifering, and loathing the sins in which it before exulted ? Tet, great as this contrast is, remorse does not more differ from profligate excess, than both of them differ from a true religious habit of mind. As the pleasure of sinning is contrary to remorse, so remorse is not repentance, and repentance is not refor- mation, and reformation is not habitual virtue, and virtue is not the full gift of the Spirit. How shall we hmit the process of sanctification ? But of these its higher stages deliberate sinners are as ignorant, and as ignorant of their ignorance, as of those ' 'heavenly things," to which our Saviour refers. 27. And lastly, when the shortness of our probation is added to the serious thoughts already dwelt upon, who shall estimate the importance of every day and hour of a Christianas life in its bearing on his eternal destiny ? Not that life is not long enough to ascertain each man's use of his own gifts, — ^rather, our probation could not be materially longer, for our nature is such, that, though life were ten times its present length, yet our eternal prospects would, as it appears, still be decided by our first start on its course. We cannot keep from forming habits of one kind or another, each of our acts influences the restj gives character to the mind, narrows its free- the Completion of Natural Virtue. 53 will in tlie direction of good or evilj till it soon con- verges in all its powers and principles to some fixed point in the unbounded horizon before it. This at least is the general law of our moral nature ; and such fearful expression does it give to every event which befalls us, and to every corresponding action of our will, and especially with such appalling interest does it invest the probation of our early years, that nothing but the knowledge of the Gospel announoements, and above all of the gracious words and deeds of our Eedeemer, is equal to the burden of it. And these are intended to sustain the threatenings of the visible system of things, which would overwhelm us except for the promise, as the hearing of the promise on the other hand might puff us up with an unseeming presumption, had we no ex- perience of the terrors of Natural Religion. 28. The day, we know, will come, when every Christian will be judged, not by what God has done for him, but by what he has done for himself : when, of all the varied blessings of Redemption, in which he was clad here, nothing wiU remain to him, but what he has incorporated in his own moral nature, and made part of himself. And, since we cannot know what measure of holiness will be then accepted in our own case^ it is but left to us to cast ourselves individually on God^s mercy in faith, and to look steadily, yet humbly, at the Atonement for sin which He has appointed ; so that when He comes to judge the world. He may remember us in His king- dom. SERMON IV. THE TJSUEPATIONS OF EEASON'. (Preached December 11, 1831.) Matt. xi. 19. " WUdom is jtistijied of her children." QUCH is our Lord's comment upon the perverse con- ^ duct of His countrymen, who refused to be satisfied either with St. John's reserve or His own condescension. John the Baptist retired from the world, and when men came to seek him, spoke sternly to them. Christ, the greater Prophet, took the more lowly place, and freely mixed with sinners. The course of God's dealings with them was varied to the utmost extent which the essen- tial truth and unchangeahleness of His moral govern- ment permitted ; but ia neither direction of austereness nor of grace did it persuade. Having exposed this re- markable fact in the history of mankind, the Divine Speaker utters the solemn words of the text, the truth which they convey being the refuge of disappointed ' [Wisdom, Keason, in this Discourse, is taken for secular Reason, or the " wisdom of the world," that is. Reason exercising itself on secular principles in the subject-matter of religion and morals, whereas every department of thought has its own principles, homogeneous with itself, and necessary for reasoning justly in it. Vide Preface.] The Usurpations of Reason. 5 5 mercjj as well as a ■warning addressed to all whom they might concern. " Wisdom is justified of her children :" as if He saidj " There is no act on God^s part, no truth of religion^ to which a captious Eeason may not find ' objections ; and in truth the evidence and matter of Eevelation are not addressed to the mere unstable Eeason of man, nor can hope for any certain or ade- quate reception with it. Divine Wisdom speaks, not to the world, but to her own children, or those who have been already under her teaching, and who, knowing her voice, understand her words, and are suitable judges of them. These justify her." 2. In the text, then, a truth is expressed in the form of a proverb, which is implied all through Scripture as a basis on which its doctrine rests — ^viz. that there is no necessary connexion between' the intellectual and moral principles of our nature ^ ; that on religious subjects we may prove any thing or overthrow any thing, and can arrive at truth but accidentally, if we merely investigate by what is commonly called Eeason ', which is in such matters but the instrument at best, in the hands of the legitimate judge, spiritual discernment. When we con- sider how common it is in the world at large to consider the intellect as the characteristic part of our nature, the silence of Scripture in regard to it (not to mention its positive disparagement of it) is very striking. In the 2 [That is, as found in individuals, in the concrete.] 3 [Because we may be reasoning from wrong principles, principles unsuitable to the subject-matter reasoned upon. Thus, the moral sense, or " spiritual discernment " must supply us with the assumptions to be used as premisses in religious inquiry.] 56 TJie Usurpations of Reason. Old Testament scarcely any mention is made of the existence of the Reason as a distinct and chief attribute of mind ; the sacred language affording no definite and proper terms expressive either of the general gifb or of separate faculties in which it exhibits itself. And as to the New Testament^ need we but betake ourselves to the description given us of Him who is the Only -begotten Son and Express Image of God^ to learn how inferior a station in the idea of the perfection of man's nature is held by the mere Reason ? While there is no pro- faneness iu attaching to Christ those moral attributes of goodnesSj truth, and holinesSj which we apply to man, there would be an obvious irreverence in measuring the powers of His mind by any standard of intellectual endowments, the very names of which sound mean and impertiuent when ascribed to Him. St. Luke's decla- ration of His growth " in wisdom and stature," with no other specified advancement, is abundantly illustrated in St. John's Gospel, in which we find the Almighty Teacher rejecting with apparent disdain all intellectual display, and confining Himself to the enunciation of deep truths, intelligible to the children of wisdom, but conveyed in language altogether destitute both of argu- mentative skiU, and what is commonly considered eloquence. 3. To account for this silence of Scripture concerning intellectual excellence, by affirming that the Jews were not distinguished in that respect, is hardly to the point, for surely a lesson is conveyed to us in the very circum- stance of such a people being chosen as the medium of a moral gift. If it be further objected, that to speak The Usurpations of Reason. 5 7 concerning intellectual endowments fell beyond the range of inspiration, wliich was limited by its professed object^ this is no objection, but the very position here maintained. No one can deny to the intellect its own excellence, nor deprive it of its due honours ; the ques- tion is merely this, whether it be not limited in its turn, as regards its range'', so as not without intrusion to exercise itself as an independent authority in the field of morals and religion. 4. Such surely is the case ; and the silence of Scrip- ture concerning intellectual gifts need not further be insisted on, either in relation to the fact itself, or the implication contained in it. Were a being unacquainted with mankind to receive information concerning human nature from the Bible, would he ever conjecture ^ts actual state, as developed in society, in all the various productions and exhibitions of what is called talent ? And, next viewing the world as it is, and the Bible in connexion with it^ what would he see in the actual his- tory of Revelation, but the triumph of the moral powers of man over the intellectual, of holiness over ability, far more than of mind over brute force ? Great as was the power of the lion and the bear, the leopard, and that fourth nameless beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, God had weapons of their own kind to bruise and tame them. The miracles of the Church displayed more physical power than the hosts of Pharaoh and Sennacherib. Power, not mind, was op- ■* [That is, the secular Eeason, or Reason, as informed by a secular spirit, or starting from secular principles, as, for instance, utilitarian, or political, epicurean, or forensic] 58 The Usurpations of Reason. posed to power; yet to the refined Pagan intellect, tlie rivalry of intellect was not granted. The foolish things of the world confounded the wise, far more com- pletely than the weak the mighty. Human philosophy was beaten from its usurped province, but not by any counter-philosophy ; and unlearned Faith, establishing itself by its own inherent strength, ruled the Reason as far as its own interests were concerned ", and from that time has employed it in the Church, &st as a captive, then as a servant ; not as an equal, and in nowise (far from it) as a patron. 5. I propose now to make some remarks upon the place which Eeason holds in relation to Religion, the light in which we should view it, and certain encroach- ments of which it is sometimes guilty ; and I think that, without a distinct definition of the word, which would carry us too far from our subject, I can make it plain what I take it to mean. Sometimes, indeed, it stands for all in which man differs from the brutes, and so in- cludes in its signification the faculty of distinguishing between, right and wrong, and the directing principle in conduct. In this sense I certainly do not here use it, but in that narrower signification, which it usually bears, as representing or synonymous with the intellec- tual powers, and as opposed as such to the moral quahties, and to Faith. 6. This opposition between Faith and Reason takes . 6 [That is, nnleamed Faith was strong enough, in matters relating to its own province, to compel the reasoning faculty, as was jnst, to use as its premisses in that province the truths of Xatural Eeligion.] The Usurpations of Reason. 59 place in two ways, wlien either of tlie two encroaches upon the province of the other °. It would be an absurdity to attempt to find out mathematical truths by the purity and acuteness of the moral sense. It is a form of this mistake which has led men to apply such Scripture communications as are intended for religious purposes to the determination of physical questions. This error is perfectly understood in these days by all thinking men. This was the usurpation of the schools of theology in former ages, to issue their decrees to the subjects of the Senses and the Intellect. No wonder Reason and Faith were at variance. The other cause of disagreement takes place when Reason is the aggressor, and encroaches on the province of Religion, attempting to judge of those truths which are subjected to another part of our nature, the moral sense '. For instance, suppose an acute man, who had never conformed his life to the precepts of Scripture, attempted to decide on the degree and kind of intercourse which a Christian ought to have with the world, or on the measure of guilt involved in the use of light and profane words, or which of the Christian doctrines were generally necessary to salvation, or to judge of the wisdom or use of consecrat- ing places of worship, or to determine what kind and extent of reverence should be paid to the Lord's Day, or what portion of our possessions set apart for religious purposes ; questions these which are addressed to the cultivated moral perception, or, what is sometimes im- ^ [Vide " Discourses on University Education," Nos. ii. and iii., 2nd edition.] r [By " aggressive Reason " is meant the mind reasoning unduly, that is, on assumptions foreign and injurious to religion and morals.] 6o The Usurpations of Reason. properly tennedj "feeling •" — improperly, because feel- ing comes and goes, and, having no root m. our nature, speaks with no divine authority ; but the moral per- ception, though varying in the mass of men, is fixed in each individual, and is an original element within us. Hume, in his Essay on Miracles, has weU propounded a doctrine, which at the same time he misapplies. He speaks of " those dangerous friends or disguised enemies to the Christian Religion, who have undertaken to defend it by the principles of human Reason." " Our most holy Religion," he proceeds, " is founded on i'^aii^., not on Reason." This is said in irony ; but it is true as far as every important question in Revelation is con- cerned, and to forget this is the error which is at present under consideration. 7. That it is a common error is evident from the anxiety generally felt to detach the names of men of ability from the infidel party. Why should we be desirous to disguise the fact, if it be such, that men distinguished, some for depth and originahty of mind, others for acuteness, others for prudence and good sense in practical matters, yet have been indifferent to Revealed Religion, — ^why, unless we have some mis- conceived notion concerning the connexion between the intellect and the moral principle ? Yet, is it not a fact, for the proof or disproof of which we need not go to history or philosophy, when the humblest village may show us that those persons who tarn out badly, as it is called, — who break the laws first of society, then of their country, — are commonly the very men who have received more than the ordinary share of intel- The Ustirpations of Reason. 6 1 lectual gifts ? Without turning aside to explain or account for this, thus much it seems to show us, that the powers of the intellect (in that degree, at least, in which, in matter of fact, they are found amongst us) do not necessarily lead us in the direction of our moral instincts, or confirm them ; but if the agreement between the two be but matter of accident, what testimony do we gain from the mere Reason to the truths of Religion ? 8. Why should we be surprised that one faculty of our compound nature should not be able to do that which is the work of another ? It is as little strange that the mind, which has only exercised itself on matters of literature or science, and never submitted itself to the influence of divine perceptions, should be unequal to the contemplation of a moral revelation, as that it should not perform the office of the senses. There is a strong analogy between the two cases. Our Reason assists the senses in various ways, directing the application of them, and arranging the evidence they supply ; it makes use of the facts subjected to them, and to an unlimited extent deduces conclusions from them, foretells facts which are to be ascertained, and confirms doubtful ones ; but the man who neglected experiments and trusted to his vigour of talent, would be called a theorist ; and the blind man who seriously professed to lecture on light and colours could scarcely hope to gain an audience '. Or suppose his lecture 3 [That is, not only are the principles proper to a given subject-matter necessary for a successful inquiry into that subject-matter, but there must be also a personal familiarity with it. Vide the Preface.] 62 The Usurpations of Reason. proceeded^ what miglit be expected from him ? Starting from the terms of science which would be the founda- tion and materials of his system, instead of apprehended factSj his acuteness and prompt imagination might carry him freely forward into the open field of the science, ho might discourse with ease and fluency, till we almost forgot his lamentable deprivation ; at length on a sudden, he would lose himself iu some inexpressibly great mistake, betrayed in the midst of his career by some treacherous word, which he iucautiously explained too fully or dwelt too much upon ; and we should find that he had been using words without corresponding ideas : — on witnessing his failure, we should view it indulgently, qualifying our criticism by the remark, that the ex- hibition was singularly good for a blind man. 9. Such would be the fate of the officious Reason ', busying itself without warrant in the province of sense. In its due subordinate place there, it acts but as an instrument ; it does but assist and expedite, saving the senses the time and trouble of working. Give a man a hundred eyes and hands for natural science, and you materially loosen his dependence on the ministry of Reason. 10. This illustration, be it observed, is no adequate parallel of the truth which led to it ; for the subject of light and colours is at least within the grasp of scientific definitions, and therefore cognizable by the intellect 9 [And so " captious Reason," supr. 1 ; "mere Reason/' 2; "human Reason," 6; "forward Reason," infr. 12; "usurping Reason," 23; "rebellious Reason," v. 18; "versatile Reason," v. 27, that is, the rea- son of secular minds, venturing upon religious questions.] The Usurpations of Reason. 6 o far better than morals. Yet apply it^ such as it is, to the matter in hand, not, of course, with the extravagant object of denying the use of the. Reason in religious inquiries, but in order to ascertain what is its real place in the conduct of them. And in explanation of it I would make two additional observations : — first, we must put aside the indirect support afforded to Revela- tion by the countenance of the intellectually gifted portion of mankind ; I mean, in the way of influence. Reputation for talent, learning, scientific knowledge, has natural and just claims on our respect, and re- commends a cause to our notice. So does power ; and in this way power, as well as intellectual endowments, is necessary to the maintenance of religion, in order to secure from mankind a hearing for an unpleasant subject; but power, when it has done so much, attempts no more ; or if it does, it loses its position, and is involved in the fallacy of persecution. Here the parallel holds good' — it is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing. 11. But in matter of fact (it will be said) Reason can go farther ; for we can reason about Religion, and we frame its Evidences. Here, then, secondly, I observe, we must deduct from the real use of the Reason in religious inquiries, whatever is the mere setting right of its own mistakes. The blind man who reasoned himself into errors in Optics might possibly reason himself out of them ; yet this would be no proof that extreme acuteness was necessary or useful in the science itself. It was but necessary for a blind man ; that is, supposing he was bent on attempting to do 64 The Usurpations of Reason. what from the first he ought not to have attempted; andj after all, with the imcertainty whether he would gain or lose ia his search after scientific truth by such an attempt. Now, so numerous and so serious have been the errors of theorists on religious subjects (that is, of those who have speculated without caring to act on their sense of right ; or have rested their teaching on mere arguments, instead of aiming at a direct contempla- tion 'of its subject-matter), that the correction of those errors has required the most vigorous and subtle exercise of the Reason, and has almost engrossed its efforts. Unhappily the blind teacher in morals can ensure him- self a blind audience, to whom he may safely address his paradoxes, which are sometimes admitted even by religious men, on the ground of those happy con- jectures which his acute Reason now and then makes, and which they can verify. What an iudescribable con- fusion hence arises between truth and falsehood, in systems, parties and persons ! What a superhuman talent is demanded to unravel the chequered and tangled web ; and what gratitude is due to the gifted individual who by his learning or philosophy in part achieves the task ! yet not gratitude in such a case to the Eeason as a principle of research, which is merely undoing its own mischief, and poorly and tardily re- dressing its intrusion into a province not its own ; but to the maUj the moral being, who has subjected it in his own person to the higher principles of his nature. 12. To take an instance. What an extreme exercise of intellect is shown in the theological teaching of the Church ! Yet how was it necessary ? chiefly, from the The Usurpations of Reason. 65 previous errors of heretical reasonings^ on subjects addressed to the moral perception. For while Faith was engaged in that exact and well-instructed devotion to Christ which no words can suitably describe, the for- ward Eeason stepped in upon the yet unenclosed ground of doctrine^ and attempted to describe there, from its - own resources ', an image of the Invisible. Henceforth the Church was obliged, in self-defence, to employ the gifts of the intellect in the cause of God, to trace out (as near as might be) the faithful shadow of those truths, which unlearned piety admits and acts upon, without the medium of clear intellectual representation. 13. This obviously holds good as regards the Evi- dences ^ also, great part of which are raither answers to objections than direct arguments for Revelation; and even the direct arguments are far more effective in the confutation of captious opponents, than in the conviction of inquirers. Doubtless the degree in which we depend on argument in religious subjects varies with each indi- vidual, "so that no strict line can be drawn : still, let it be inquired whether these Evidences are not rather to be viewed as splendid philosophical investigations than practical arguments ; at best bulwarks intended for 1 [" Canons, founded on physics, were made " by the early heretics, "the basis of disoassions about possibilities and impossibilities in a spiritual substance. A contemporary writer, after saying that they supported their ' God-denying apostasy ' by syllogistic forms of argu- ment, proceeds, ' Abandoning the inspired writings they devote themselves to geometry.' And Epiphanius : ' Aiming to exhibit the divine nature by means of Aristotelic syllogisms and geometrical data they are led on to declare, &c.'" History of Arians, p. 35, Edit. 3.] 2 [By the Evidences of Christianity are meant exercises of Eeason in proof of its divinity, explicit and a posteriori. Vide Preface.] [UNIV. S.] ^ 66 The UsiLTpations of Reason. overawing the enemy by tlieir strength and number, rather than for actual use in war. In matter of fact, how many men do we suppose, in a century, out of the whole body of Christians, have been primarily brought to belief, or retained in it, by an intimate and lively perception of the force of what are technically called the Evidences ? And why are there so few ? Be- cause to the mind already familiar with the truths of Natural Eeligion, enough of evidence is at once aflForded by the mere fact of the present existence of Chris- tianity; which, viewed in its connexion with its prin- ciples and upholders and effects % bears on the face of it the signs of a divine ordinance in the very same way in which the visible world attests to us its own divine origin ; — a more accurate investigation, in which supe- rior talents are brought into play, merely bringing to hght an innumerable alternation of arguments, for and against it, which forms indeed an ever-increasing series in its behalf, but still does not get beyond the first sug- gestion of plain sense and religiously-trained reason; and in fact, perhaps, never comes to a determination. Nay, so alert is the instinctive power of an educated conscience, that by some secret faculty, and without any intelligible reasoning process '', it seems to detect moral truth wherever it lies hid, and feels a conviction of its own accuracy which bystanders cannot account for ; and this especially in the case of Revealed Religion, which is one comprehensive moral fact, — according to the say- 3 [That is, viewed in the light of verisimilitudes or " the Notes of the Church."] ' [That is, by an implicit act of reasoning.] The Usiirpations of Reason. 67 ing which is parallel to the textj " I know My sheep^ and am known of Mine "." 14. Prom considerations such as the foregoing, it appears that exercises of Reason are either external, or at least only ministrative, to religious inquiry and know- ledge : accidental to them, not of their essence ; useful in their place, but not necessary. But in order to ob- tain further illustrations, and a view of the importance of the doctrine which I would advocate, let us proceed to apply it to the circumstances of the present times. Here, first, in finding fault vdth the times, it is right to disclaim all intention of complaining of them. To murmur and rail at the state of things under which we find ourselves, and to prefer a former state, is not merely indecorous, it is absolutely unmeaning. We are our- selves necessary parts of the existing system, out of which we have individually grown into being, into our actual position in society. Depending, therefore, on the times as a condition of existence, in wishing for other times we are, in fact, wishing we had never been born. Moreover, it is ungrateful to a state of society, from which we daily enjoy so many benefits, to rail against it. Yet there is nothing unbecoming, unmeaning, or ungrateful in pointing out its faults and wishing them away. 15. In this day, then, we see a very extensive development of an usurpation which has been pre- paring, with more or less of open avowal, for some centuries, — the usurpation of Reason in morals and ' John X. 14. F 2 68 The Usurpations of Reason. religion '. In the first years of its growth it professed to respect the bounds of justice and sobriety : it was little in its own eyes; but getting strength, it was lifted up ; and casting down all that is called Grod, or worshipped, it took its seat in the temple of God, as His representative. Such, at least, is the consummation at which the Oppressor is aiming ; — ^which he will reach, unless He who rids His Church of tyrants in their hour of pride, look down from the pillar of the cloud, and trouble his host. 16. Now, in speaking of an usurpation of the Reason at the present day, stretching over the province of Religion, and in fact over the Christian Church, no ad- mission is made concerning the degree of cultivation which the Reason has at present reached in the territory which it has unjustly entered. A tyrant need not be strong; he keeps his ground by prescription and through fear. It is not the profound thinkers who intrude with their discussions and criticisms within the sacred limits of moral truth. A really philosophical mind, if un- happily it has ruined its own religious perceptions, will be silent ; it will understand that Religion does not lie in its way : it may disbeheve its truths^ it may account belief in them a weakness, or, on the other hand, a happy dream, a delightful error, which it cannot itself enjoy ; — any how, it will not usurp. But men who know but a little, are for that very reason most under the 5 [That isj the usurpation of secular Eeason, or the claim of men of the world to apply their ordinary sentiments and conventional modes of judging to the subject of religion ; parallel to the conduct of the man in the fable, who felt there was " nothing like leather."] The Usurpations of Reason. 69 power of the imagination, which fills up for them at pleasure those departments of knowledge to which they are strangers ; and, as the ignorance of abject minds shrinks from the spectres which it frames there, the ignorance of the self-confident is petulant and pre- suming. 1 7. The usurpations of the Reason may be dated from the Reformation. Then, together with the tyranny, the legitimate authority of the ecclesiastical power was more or less overthrown; and in some places its ultimate basis also, the moral sense. One school of men resisted the Church; another went farther, and rejected the supreme authority of the law of Conscience. Accord- ingly, Revealed Religion was in a great measure stripped of its proof; for the existence of the Church had been its external evidence, and its internal had been supplied by the moral sense. Reason now undertook to repair the demolition it had made, and to render the proof of Christianity independent both of the Church and of the law of nature. Prom that time (if we take a general view of its operations) it has been engaged first in making difficulties by the mouth of unbelievers, and then claiming power in the Church as a reward for having, by the mouth of apologists, partially removed them. 18. The following instances are in point, in citing which let no disrespect be imagined towards such really eminent men as were at various times concerned in them. Wrong reason could not be met, when miracle and inspiration were suspended, except by rightly- directed Reason. 19. (1.) As to the proof of the authority of Scripture. yo The Usurpations of Reason. This had hitherto rested on the testimony borne to it by the existing Church. Reason volunteered proof, not different, however, in kind, but more subtle and com- plicated in its form, — took the evidence of past ages, instead of the present, and committed its keeping (as was necessary) to the ohgarchy of learning : at the same time, it boasted of the service thus rendered to the cause of Revelation, that service reaUy consisting in the ex- ternal homage thus paid to it by learning and talent, not in any great direct practical benefit, where men honestly wish to find and to do God's will, to act for the best, and to prefer what is safe and pious, to what shows weU in argument. 20. (2.) Again, the Evidences themselves have been elaborately expanded; thus satisfying, indeed, the hberal curiosity of the mind, and giving scope for a devotional temper to admire the manifold wisdom of God, but doing comparatively little towards keeping men from infidelity, or turning them to a religious life. The same remark applies to such works on Natural Theology as treat of the marks of design in the crea- tion, which are beautiful and interesting to the behever in a God ; but, when men have not already recognized God's voice within them, ineffective, and this moreover possibly from some unsoundness in the intellectual basis of the argument '' . ' [This remark does not touch the argument from order as seen in the universe. " As a cause implies a will, so does order imply a purpose. Did we see flint celts, in their various receptacles all over Europe, scored always with certain special and characteristic marks, even though those marks had no assignable meaning or final canse whatever, we should take that very repetition, which indeed is the principle of order, to be a The Usurpations of Reason. 71 21. (3.) A still bolder encroachment was contem- plated by the Eeason, when it attempted to deprive the Moral Law of its intrinsic authority, and to rest it upon a theory of present expediency. Thus, it constituted itself the court of ultimate appeal in religious disputes, under pretence of affording a clearer and more scienti- fically-arranged code than is to be collected from the obscure precedents and mutilated enactments of the Conscience. 22. (4.) A further error, connected with the assump- tion just noticed, has been that of making intellectually- gifted men arbiters of religious questions, in the place of the children of wisdom. As far as the argument for Eevelation is concerned, it is only necessary to show that Christianity has had disciples among men of the highest ability ; whereas a solicitude already alluded to has been shown to establish the orthodoxy of some great names in philosophy and science, as if truly it were a great gain to religion, and not to themselves, if they were believers. Much more unworthy has been the practice of boasting of the admissions of infidels con- cerning the beauty or utility of the Christian system, as if it were a great thing for a divine gift to obtain praise for human excellence from proud or immoral men. Far different is the spirit of our own Church, which, re- proof of intelligence. The agency, then, which has kept up and keeps up the general laws of nature, energizing at once in Sirius and on the earth, and on the earth in its primitive period as well as in the nineteenth century, must be Mind, and nothing else ; and Mind at least as wide and as enduring in its living action as the immeasurable ages and spaces of the universe on which that agency has left its traces.'' Essay on Assent, It. i. 4.] 72 TJie Usurpations of Reason. joicingj as she does, to find her children walking in truth, never forgets the dignity and preciousness of the gifts she ofi'ers ; as appears, for instance, in the warnings prefacing the Communion Service, and in the Commination, — above all, in the Athanasian Creed, in which she but follows the example of the early Church, which first withdrew her mysteries from the many, then, when controversy exposed them, guarded them with an anathema, — in each case, lest curious Reason might rashly gaze and perish. 23. (5.) Again, — another dangerous artifice of the usurping Reason has been, the establishment of Societies, in which literature or science has been the essential bond of union, to the exclusion of religious profession. These bodies, many of them founded with no bad intention, have gradually led to an undue exaltation of the Reason, and have formed an unconstitutional power, advising and controlling the legitimate authorities of the soul. In troubled times, such as the present, associations, the most inoffensive in themselves, and the most praise- worthy in their object, hardly escape this blame. Of this nature have been the literary meetings and Societies of the last two centuries, not to mention recently-established bodies of a less innocent character. 24. (6.) And lastly, let it be a question, whether the theories on Government, which exclude Religion from the essential elements of the state, are not also ofi"- shoots of the same usurpation. 25. And now, what remains but to express a con- fidence, which cannot deceive itself, that, whatever be The Usurpations of Reason. 73 tKe destined course of the usurpations of tlie Eeason in the scheme of Divine Providence, its fall must at last come, as that of other proud aspirants before it ? " Fret not thyself," says David, " because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity ; for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb ;" perishing as that high-minded power, which the Prophet speaks of, who sat in the seat of God, as if wiser than Daniel, and acquainted with all secrets, till at length he was oast out from the holy place as profane, in God's good time ". Our plain business, in the meantime, is to ascertain and hold fast our appointed station in the troubled scene, and then to rid ourselves of all dread of the future ; to be careful, while we freely cultivate the Reason in all its noble functions, to keep it in its sub- ordinate ' place in our nature : while we employ it industriously in the service of Eeligion, not to imagine that, in this service, we are doing any great thing, or directly advancing its influence over the heart ; and, while we promote the education of others in all useful knowledge, to beware of admitting any principle of union, or standard of reward, which may practically disparage the supreme authority of Christian fellowship. Our great danger is, lest we should not understand our own principles, and should weakly surrender customs and institutions, which go far to constitute the Church what she is, the pillar and ground of moral truth, — s Ezek. xxviii. 3. 16. ^ [Sutordinate, because the knowledge of God is the highest function of our nature, and, as regards that knowledge. Reason only holds the place of an instrument.] 74 The Ustirpations of Reason. lestj from a wish to make religion acceptable to the world in general, more free from objections than any- moral system can be made, more immediately and visibly beneficial to the temporal interests of the com- munity than God's comprehensive appointments con- descend to be, we betray it to its enemies ; lest we rashly take the Scriptures from the Church's custody, and commit them to the world, that is, to what is called public opinion ; which men boast, indeed, wiU ever be right on the whole, but which, in fact, being the opinion of men who, as a body, have not cultivated the iaternal moral sense, and have externally no immutable rules to bind them, is, in religious questions, only by accident right, or only on very broad questions, and to-morrow wUl betray interests which to-day it affects to uphold. 26. However, what are the essentials of our system, both in doctrine and discipliue ; what we may safely give up, and what we must firmly uphold ; such practical points are to be determined by a more mature wisdom than can be expected in a discussion like the present, or iudeed can be conveyed in any formal treatise. It is a plainer and a sufficiently important object, to con- tribute to the agitatioii of the general subject, and to ask questions which others are to answer. SERMON V. PERSONAL INFLUENCE, THE MEANS OP PEOPAGATING THE TEUTH. (Preached January 22, 1832.) Heb. xi. 34. " Out of wealcness were made strong/' rpHE history of the Old Testament Saints, conveyed in these few words, is paralleled or surpassed in its peculiar character by the lives of those who first pro- claimed the Christian Dispensation. " Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves," was the warning given them of their position in the world, on becoming Evangelists in its behalf. Their miraculous powers gained their cause a hearing, but did not protect them- selves. St. Paul records the fulfilment of our Lord^s prophecy, as it contrasts the Apostles and mankind at large, when he declares, "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it ; being defamed, we entreat; we are made as the filth of the world, and are the oSscouring of all things unto this day \" Nay, these words apply not only to the unbelieving world ; the Apostle had reason to be suspicious of his Christian 1 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13. 76 Personal Infiuence, brethrerij and even to expostulate on that score^ with his own converts, his "beloved sons." He counted it a great gain, such as afterwards might be dwelt upon with satisfaction, that the Galatians did not despise nor reject him on account of the infirmity which was in his flesh; and, in the passage already referred to, he mourns over the fickleness and coldness of the Corin- thians, who thought themselves wise, strong, and honourable, and esteemed the Apostles as fools, weak, and despised. 2. Whence, then, was it, that in spite of all these impediments to their success, still they succeeded ? How did they gaiu that lodgment in the world, which they hold down to this day, enabling them to per- petuate principles distasteful to the majority even of those who profess to receive them ? What is that hidden attribute of the Truth, and how does it act, prevailing, as it does, single-handed, over the many and multiform errors, by which it is simultaneously and incessantly attacked ? 3. Here, of course, we might at once refer its success to the wiU and blessing of Him who revealed it, and who distinctly promised that He would be present with it, and with its preachers, " alway, even unto the end." And, of course, by realizing this in our minds, we leam dependence upon His grace in our own endeavours to recommend the Truth, and encouragement to persevere. But it is also useful to inquire into the human means by which His Providence acts in the world, in order to take a practical view of events as they successively come before us in the course of human affairs, and to under- the Means of Propagating the Truth, jj stand our duty in particulars; and^ with reference to these meanSj it is now proposed to consider the ques- tion. 4. Here, first of all, — It is plain that we cannot rightly ascribe the in- fluence of moral trnth in the world to the gift of miracles, which was entrusted to the persons who . promulgated it in that last and perfect form, in which we have been vouchsafed it; that gift having been withdrawn with the first preaching of it. Nor, again, can it be satisfactorily maintained that the visible Church, which the miracles formed, has taken their place in the course of Divine Providence, as the basis, strictly speaking, on which the Truth rests; though doubtless it is the appointed instrument, in even a fuller sense than the miracles before it, by which that Truth is conveyed to the world : for though it is certain that a community of men, who, as individuals, were but imperfectly virtuous, would, in the course of years, gain the ascendancy over vice and error, however well prepared for the contest, yet no one pretends that the visible Church is thus blessed; the Epistle to the Corinthians sufficiently showing, that, in all ages, true Christians, though contained in it, and forming its life and strength, are scattered and hidden in the multi- tude, and, but partially recognizing each other, have no means of combining and co-operating. On the other hand, if we view the Church simply as a political institution, and refer the triumph of the Truth, which is committed to it, merely to its power thence result- 78 Personal Influence, ing, — therij the question recurs, first, how is it that this mixed and heterogeneous body, called the Church, has, through so many centuries, on the whole, been true to the principles on which it was first established; and then, how, thus preserving its principles, it has, over and above this, gained on its side, in so many countries and times, the countenance and support of the civil authorities. Here, it would be sufficient to consider the three first centuries of its existence, and to inquire by what means, iu spite of its unearthly prin- ciples, it grew and strengthened in the world ; and how, again, corrupt body as it was then as now, stiU it preserved, all the while, with such remarkable fidehty, those same unearthly principles which had been once delivered to it. 5. Others there are who attempt to account for this prevalence of the Truth, in spite of its enemies, by imagining, that, though at first opposed, yet it is, after a time, on mature reflection, accepted by the world in general from a real understanding and conviction of its excellence; that it is in its nature level to the comprehension of men, considered merely as rational beings, without reference to their moral character, whether good or bad; and that, in matter of fact, it is recognized and upheld by the mass of men, taken as individuals, not merely approved by them, taken as a mass, in which some have influence over others, — not merely submitted to with a blind, but true instinct, such as is said to oppress inferior animals in the presence of man, but Hterally advocated from an enlightened capacity for criticizing it; and, in con- the Means of Propagating the Truth. 79 sequence of this notion, some men go so far as to advise that the cause of Truth should be frankly committed to the multitude as the legitimate judges and guardians of it. 6. Somethiug may occur to expose the fallacy of this notion, in the course of the following remarks on what I conceive to be the real method by which the influence of spiritual principles is maintained in this carnal world. But here, it is expedient at once to appeal to Scripture against a theory, which, whether plausible or not, is scarcely Christian. The following texts will suggest a multitude of others, as well as of Scripture representations, hostile to the idea that moral truth is easily or generally discerned. " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ''." " The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness com- prehended it not '." " Whosoever hath, to him shall be given *." " Wisdom is justified by her children "." 7. On the other hand, that its real influence consists directly in some inherent moral power, in virtue in some shape or other, not in any evidence or criterion level to the undisciplined reason of the multitude, high or low, learned or ignorant, is implied iu texts, such as those referred to just now : — " I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves ; he ye, therefore, wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." 8. This being the state of the question, it is proposed to consider, whether the influence of Truth in the world at large does not arise from the personal influence, 2 1 Cor. ii. 14. ^ John i. 5. '' Matt. xiii. 12. ^ Matt. xi. 19. 8o Personal Itijluence, direct and indirect, of those who are commissioned to teach it. 9. In order to explain the sense in which this is asserted, it will be best to begin by tracing the mode in which the moral character of such an organ of the Truth is formed ; and, in a large subject, 1 must beg permission to be somewhat longer (should it be ne- cessary) than the custom of this place allows. 10. We will suppose this Teacher of the Truth so circumstanced as One alone among the sons of Adam has ever been, such a one as has never transgressed his sense of duty, but from his earliest childhood upwards has been only engaged in increasing and perfectiug the light originally given him. In him the knowledge and power of acting rightly have kept pace with the en- largement of his duties, and his inward convictions of Truth with the successive temptations opening upon him from without to wander from it. Other men are surprised and overset by the sudden weight of circum- stances against which they have not provided ; or, losing step, they strain and discompose their faculties ia the effort, even though successful, to recover themselves ; or they attempt to discriminate for themselves between little and great breaches of the law of conscience, and allow themselves in what they consider the former; thus falling down precipices (as I may say) when they meant to descend an easy step, recoverable the next moment. Hence it is that, in a short time, those who started on one line make such different progress, and diverge in so many directions. Their conscience stiU. speaks, but having been trifled with, it does not teU the Means of Propagating the Truth. 8 1 truly ; it equivocates, or is irregular. Whereas in him who is faithful to his own divinely implanted nature, the faint light of Truth dawns continually brighter ; the shadows which at first troubled it, the unreal shapes created by its own twilight-state, vanish ; what was as uncertain as mere feeling, and could not be distin- guished from a fancy except by the commanding urgency of its voice, becomes fixed and definite, and strengthening into principle, it at the same time de- velopes into habit. As fresh and fresh duties arise, or fresh and fresh faculties are brought into action, they are at once absorbed into the existing inward system, and take their appropriate place in it. Doubtless beings, disobedient as most of us, from our youth up, cannot comprehend even the early attainments of one who thus grows in wisdom as truly as he grows in stature ; who has no antagonist principles unsettling each other — no errors to unlearn; though something is suggested to our imagination by that passage in the history of our Blessed Lord, when at twelve years old He went up with His parents to the Temple. And still less able are we to understand the state of such a mind, when it had passed through the temptations peculiar to youth and manhood, and had driven Satan from him in very despair. 11. Concerning the body of opinions formed under these circumstances, — not accidental and superficial, the mere reflection of what goes on in the world, but the natural and almost spontaneous result of the formed and finished character within, — two remarks may be offered. (1.) That every part of what may be called [UNIV. S.] G 82 Personal Influence, this moral creed will be equally true and necessary; and (if, as we may reasonably suppose, the science of morals extends without limit into the details of thought and conduct) numberless particulars, which we are accustomed to account indifferent, may be in fact indifferent in no truer sense, than in physics there is really any such agent as chance ; our ignorance being the sole cause of the seeming variableness on the one hand in the action of nature, on the other in the stan- dard of faith and morals. This is practically important to remember, even while it is granted that no exemplar of holiness has been exhibited to us, at once faultless yet minute ; and again, that in all existing patterns, be- sides actual defects, there are also the idiosyncrasies and varieties of disposition, taste, and talents, nay of bodily organization, to modify the dictates of that inward light which is itself divine and unerring. It is important, I say, as restraining us from judging hastily of opinions and practices of good men into which we ourselves can- not enter ; but which, for what we know, may be as necessary parts of the Truth, though too subtle for our dull perceptions, as those great and distinguishing features of it, which we, in common with the majority of sincere men, admit. And particularly will it pre* serve us from rash censures of the Primitive Church, which, in spite of the corruptions which disfigured it from the first, still in its collective hoKness may be con- sidered to make as near an approach to the pattern of Christ as fallen man ever wUl attain ; being, in fact, a Eevelation in some sort of that Blessed Spirit in a bodily shape, who was promised to us as a second the Means of Propagating the Truth. 83 TeacHer of Truth after Christ's departure^ and became such upon a subject-matter far more diversified than that on which our Lord had revealed Himself before Him. For instance, for what we know, the Episcopal principle, or the practice of Infant Baptism, which is traceable to Apostolic times, though not clearly- proved by the Scripture records^ may be as necessary in the scheme of Christian truth as the doctrines of the Divine Unity, and of man's responsibility, which in the artificial system are naturally placed as the basis of Religion, as being first in order of succession and time. And this, be it observed, will account for the omission in Scripture of express sanctions of these and similar principles and observances ; provided, that is, the object of the Written Word be, not to unfold a system for our intellectual contemplation, but to secure the formation of a certain character. 12. (2.) And in the second place, it is plain, that the gifted individual whom we have imagined, will of all men be least able (as such) to defend his own views, inasmuch as he takes no external survey of himself. Things which are the most familiar to us, and easy in practice, require the most study, and give the most trouble in explaining ; as, for instance, the number, combination, and succession of muscular movements by which we balance ourselves in walking, or utter our separate words ; and this quite independently of the existence or non-existence of language suitable for describuig them. The longer any one has persevered in the practice of virtue, the less likely is he to recollect how he began it ; what were his diflELculties on starting, G 2 84 Persotial Influence, and how surmounted ; by what process one truth led to another ; the less likely to elicit justly the real reasons latent in his mind for particular observances or opinions. He holds the whole assemblage of moral notions almost as so many collateral and self-evident facts. Hence it is that some of the most deeply-exercised and variously gifted Christians, when they proceed to write or speak upon Religion, either fail altogether, or cannot be under- stood except on an attentive study; and after all, perhaps, are illogical and unsystematic, assuming what their readers require proved, and seeming to mistake connexion or antecedence for causation, probability for evidence. And over such as these it is, that the minute intellect of inferior men has its moment of triumph, men who excel iu a mere short-sighted perspicacity; not understanding that, even in the case of intellectual excellence, it is considered the highest of gifts to possess an intuitive knowledge of the beautiful in art, or the effective in action, without reasoning or investi- gating ; that this, in fact, is genius ; and that they who have a corresponding insight into moral truth (as far as they have it) have reached that especial perfection in the spiritual part of their nature, which is so rarely found and so greatly prized among the intellectual endowments of the soul. 13. Nay, may we not further venture to assert, not only that moral Truth will be least skilfully defended by those, as such, who are the genuine depositories of it, but that it cannot be adequately explained and defended in words at all ? Its views and human language are incommensurable. For, after aU, what is language but tJ-te Means of Propagating the Truth. 85 an artificial system adapted for particular purposes, whicli have been determined by our wants ? And here, even at first sight, can we imagine that it has been framed with a view to ideas so refined, so foreign to the whole course of the world, as those which (as Scrip- ture expresses it) " no man can learn,^' but the select remnant who are " redeemed from the earth," and in whose mouth "is found no guile ^"? Nor is it this heavenly language alone which is without its intellectual counterpart. Moral character in itself, whether good or bad, as exhibited in thought and conduct, surely cannot be duly represented in words. We may, indeed, by an effort, reduce it in a certain degree to this arbitrary medium ; but in its combined dimensions it is as impossible to write and read a man (so to express it), as to give literal depth to a painted tablet. 14. With these remarks on the nature of moral Truth, as viewed externally, let us conduct our secluded. Teacher, who is the embodied specimen of it, after his thirty years' preparation for his office, into the noise and tumult of the world ; and in order to set him fairly on the course, let us suppose him recommended by some external gift, whether ordinary or extraordinary, the power of miracles, the countenance of rulers, or a reputation for learning, such as may secure a hearing for him from the multitude of men. This must be supposed, in consequence of the very constita- tion of the present world. Amid its incessant din, nothing will attract attention but what cries aloud and spares not. It is an old proverb, that ' Eev. xiv. 3. 5. 86 Personal Influence, men profess a sincere respect for Virtue^ and then let her starve ; for they have at the bottom of their hearts an evil feeling, in spite of better thoughts, that to be bound to certain laws and principles is a superstition and a slavery, and that freedom consists in the actual exercise of the will in evil as well as in good ; and they witness (what cannot be denied) that a man who throws off the yoke of strict conscientiousness, greatly in- creases his producible talent for the time, and his im- mediate power of attaining his ends. At best they will but admire the religious man, and treat him with deference ; but in his absence they are compelled (as they say) to confess that a being so amiable and gentle is not suited to play his part in the scene of life ; that he is too good for this world ; that he is framed for a more primitive and purer age, and bom out of due time. M.aicapUravre<; vfj,a>v to atreipoKaKov, says the scoffing politician in the History, ov ^rjXovfiev to d(f>pov ; — would not the great majority of men, high and low, thus speak of St. John the Apostle, were he now living ? 15. Therefore, we must invest our Teacher with a certain gift of power, that he may be feared. But even then, how hopeless does this task seem to be at first sight ! how improbable that he should be able to proceed one step farther than his external recommenda- tion carries him forward ! so that it is a marvel how ' the Truth had ever been spread and maintairied among men. For, recoUect, it is not a mere set of opinions that he has to promulgate, which may lodge on the surface of the mind; but he is to be an instrument in the Means of Propagating the TrtUh. 87 changing (as Scripture speaks) tlie heart, and modelling all men after one exemplar ; making them like himself, or rather like One above himself, who is the beginning of a new creation. Having (as has been said) no sufficient eloquence — nay, not language at his com- mand — what instruments can he be said to possess ? Thus he is, from the nature of the case, thrown upon his personal resources, be they greater or less ; for it is plain that he cannot commit his charge to others as his representatives, and be translated (as it were), and circulated through the world, till he has made others like himself. 16. Turn to the history of Truth, and these anticipa- tions are fulfilled. Some hearers of it had their con- science stirred for a while, and many were affected by the- awful simplicity of the Great Teacher; but the proud and sensual were irritated into opposition ; the philosophic considered His doctrines strange and chi- merical ; the multitude followed for a time in senseless wonder, and then suddenly abandoned an apparently falhng cause. For in truth what was the task of an Apostle, but to raise the dead ? and what trifling would it appear, even to the most benevolent and candid men of the world, when such a one persisted to chafe and stimulate the limbs of the inanimate corpse, as if his own life could be communicated to it, and motion would continue one moment after the external effort was with- drawn ; in the. poet's words, Opdcro'S aKOvcTiov avSpd.(TL 6vTQtTK0V(n KOfll^UlV. Truly such a one must expect, at best, to be ac- 88 Personal Influence, counted but a babbler^ or one deranged by his " much learning " — a visionary and an enthusiast, — Kopr a.Trofi.ov(ru>% ^crOa yeypa/iju.ei'os, fit for the •wilderness or the temple; a jest for the Areopagus, and but a gladiatorial show at Bphesus, eTTtdavdno^, an actor in an exhibition which would finish in his own death. 1 7. Yet (blessed be God !) the power of Truth actually did, by some means or other, overcome these vast obstacles to its propagation; and what those means were, we shall best understand by contemplating it, as it now shows itself when estabhshed and generally professed ; an ordinary sanction having taken the place . of miracles, and infidelity being the assailant instead of the assailed party. 18. It will not require many words to make it evident how impetuous and (for the time) how triumphant an attack the rebellious Reason will conduct against the long-estabhshed, over-secure, and but silently- working system of which Truth is the vital prin- ciple. 19. (1.) First, every part of the Truth is novel to its opponent ; and seen detached from the whole, becomes an objection. It is only necessary for Reason ' to ask many questions ; and, while the other party is investi- gating the real answer to each in detail, to claim the victory, which spectators will not be slow to award, 1 [Here, as in the foregoing Discourse, by Reason is meant the reason- ing of secular minds, (1) explicit, (2) a posteriori, and (3) hased on secular assumptions. Vide Preface.] the Means of Propagating the Truth. 89 fancying (as is the manner jQfjnen) that clear and ready- speech is_ jhe test of Truth. And it can choose its questions^ selecting what appears most objectionable in the tenets and practices of the received system ; and it will (in all probability), even unintentionally, fall upon the most difiB.cult parts ; what is on the surface being at once most conspicuous, and also farthest removed from the centre on which it depends. On the other hand, its objections will be complete in themselves from their very minuteness. Thus, for instance, men attack ceremonies and discipline of the Church, appealing to common sense, as they call it; which really means, appealing to some propcjsition which, though true in its own province, is nothing to the purpose in theology ; or appealing to the logical accuracy of the argument, when every thing turns on the real meaning of the terms employed, which can only be understood by the religious mind. 20. (2.) Next, men who investigate in this merely intellectual way, without sufficient basis and guidance in their personal virtue, are bound by no fears or deli- cacy. Not only from dulness, but by preference, they select ground for the contest, which a reverent Faith wishes to keep sacred ; and, while the latter is looking to its stepping, lest it commit sacrilege, they have the un- embarrassed use of their eyes for the combat, and over- come, by skill and agility, one stronger than themselves. 21. (3.) Further, the warfare between Error and Truth is necessarily advantageous to the former, from its very nature, as being conducted by set speech or treatise; and this, not only for a reason already as- go Personal Influence, signed, the deficiency of Truth in the power of eloquence, and even of words, but moreover from the very neatness and definiteness of method required in a written or spoken argument. Truth is vast and far- stretching, viewed as a system; and, viewed in its separate doctrines, it depends on the combination of a number of various, delicate, and scattered evidences; hence it can scarcely be exhibited in a given number of sentences. If this be attempted, its advocate, unable to exhibit more than a fragment of the whole, must round off its rugged extremities, and unite its strag- gling lines, by much the same process by which an historical narrative is converted into a tale. This, indeed, is the very art of composition, which, accord- ingly, is only with extreme trouble preserved clear of exaggeration and artifice ; and who does not see that all this is favourable to the cause of error, — ^to that party which has not faith enough to be patient of doubt, and has just talent enough to consider perspicuity the chief excellence of a writer ? To illustrate this, we may contrast the works of Bishop Butler with those of that popular infidel writer at the end of the last century, who professed to be the harbinger of an " Age of Eeason." 22. (4.) Moreover, this great, though dangerous faculty which evil employs as its instrument in its warfare against the Truth, may simulate all kinds of virtue, and thus become the rival of the true saints of God, whom it is opposing. It may draw fine pictures of virtue, or,i5a;^ out the course of sacred feelings or of heavenly meditations. Nothing is so easy as to be reU- the Means of Propagating the Truth. 9 1 gious on paper ; and tlius tlie arms of Truth are turned^ as far as may be found necessarjj against itself. 23. (5.) It must be further observed^ that the exhi- bitions of Reason, being complete in themselves, and having nothing of a personal nature, are capable almost of an omnipresence by an indefinite multiplication and circulation, through the medium of composition : here, even the orator has greatly the advantage over the religious man; words may be heard by thousands at once, — a good deed will be witnessed and estimated at ; most by but a few. 24. (6.) To put an end to these remarks on the advan- tages accruing to Error in its struggle with Truth ; — the exhibitions of the Eeason, beingjn their operation separable from the person furnishing them, possess little \ or no responsibility. To be anonymous is almost their; characteristic, and with it all the evils attendant on the unchecked opportunity for injustice and falsehood. ' 26. Such, then, are the difficulties which beset the propagation of the Truth : its want of instruments, as an assailant of the world^'s opinions; the keenness and vigour of the weapons producible against it, when itself in turn is to be attacked. How, then, after all, has it maintained its ground among men, and subjected to its dominion unwilling minds, some even bound to the ex- ternal profession of obedience, others at least in a sullen neutrality, and the inaction of despair ? 26. I answer, that it has been upheld in the world not as a system, not by. books, noLby-grg-u meut, nor by temporal power, but bj the_j) ersonal influence of such 92 Personal Influence, men as have already been described, wbo are at once the teachers and the patterns of it; and, with some suggestions in behalf of this statement, I shall conclude, 27. (1.) Here, first, is to be taken into account the^ natural beauty and majesty of virtue, which is more or less felt by all but the most abandoned. I do not say virtue in the abstract, — virtue in a book. Men persuade themselves, with little difficulty, to scoff at principles, to ridicule' books, to make sport of the names of good men ; but they cannot bear their presence : it is hoHness embodied in personal form, which they cannot steadily confront and bear down : so that the silent conduct of a conscientious man secures for him from beholders a feeling different in kind from any which is created by the mere versatile and garru- lous Reason. 28. (2.) Next, consider the extreme rarity, in any great perfection and purity, of simple-minded, honest devo- tion to Grod; and another instrument of iafluence is discovered for the cause of Truth. Men naturally prize what is novel and scarce; and, considering the low views of the multitude on points of social and rehgious duty, their ignorance of those precepts of generosity, self- denial, and high-minded patience, which religion en- forces, nay, their scepticism (whether known to them- selves or not) of the existence in the world of severe holiness and truth, no wonder they are amazed when accident gives them a sight of these excellences in another, as though they beheld a miracle ; and they watch it with a mixture of curiosity and awe. 29. (3.) Besides, the conduct of a religious man is quite the Means of Propagating the Truth. 93 above them. They cannot imitate him^ if they try. It may be easy for the educated among them to make speeches, or to write books ; but high moral excellence is the attribute of a school to which they are almost strangers, having scarcely learned, and that painfully, the first elements of the heavenly science. One little deedj done against natural inclination for God's sake, though in itself of a conceding or passive character, to brook an insult, to face a danger, or to resign an ad- vantage, has in it a power outbalancing all the dust and chaff of mere profession; the profession whether of enlightened benevolence and candour, or, on the other hand, of high religious faith and of fervent zeal. 30. (4.) And men feel, moreover, that the object of their contemplation is beyond their reach — not open to the common temptations which influence men, and grounded on a foundation which they cannot explain. And nothing is more effectual, first in irritating, then in humbling the pride of men, than the sight of a superior altogether independent of themselves. 31. (5.) The consistencyofvirtue is another gift, which gradually checks the rudeness of the world, and tames it into obedience to itself. The changes of human affairs, which first excited and interested, at length disgust the mind, which then begins to look out for something on which it can rely, for peace and rest ; and what can then be found, immutable and sure, but God's word and promises, illustrated and conveyed to the inquirer in the person of His faithful servants ? Every day shows us how nauch depends on firmness for ob- 94 Personal Influence, taining influence in practical matters ; and what are all kinds of firmness^ as exhibited in the world^ but like- nesses and offshoots of that true stability of heart which is stayed in the grace and in the contemplation of Almighty God ? 32. (6.) Such especially will be the thoughts of those countless multitudes^ who, iu the course of their trial, are from time to time weighed down by affiction, or distressed by bodily pain. This will be in their case, the strong hour of Truth, which, though unheard and unseen by men as a body, approaches each one of that body in his own turn, though at a different time. Then it is that the powers of the world, its counsels, and its efforts (vigorous as they seemed to be in the race), lose ground, and slow-paced Truth overtakes it ; and thus it comes to pass, that, while viewed in its outward course it seems ever hastening onwards to open infidehty and sin, there are ten thousand secret obstacles, graciously sent from God, cumbering its chariot-wheels, so that they drive heavily, and saving it from utter ruin. 33. Even with these few considerations before us, we shall find it difficult to estimate the moral power which a single individual, trained to practise what he teaches, may acquire in his own circle, in the course of years. While the Scriptures are thrown upon the world, as if the common property of any who choose to appropriate them, he is, in fact, the legitimate interpreter of them, and none other; the Inspired Word being but a dead letter (ordinarily considered), except as transmitted from one mind to another. While he is unknown to the the Means of Propagating the TrzUh. 95 world, yet, within the range of those who see him, he will become the object of feelings different in kind from those which mere intellectual excellence excites. The men commonly held in popular estimation are greatest at a distance; they become small as they are approached; but the attraction, exerted by unconscious holiness, is of an urgent and irresistible nature ; it persuades the weak, the timid, the wavering, and the inquiring; it draws forth the affection and loyalty of all who are in a measure like-minded; and over the thoughtless or perverse multitude it exercises a sovereign compulsory sway, bidding them fear and keep silence, on the ground of its own right divine to rule them, — its hereditary claim on their obedience, though they understand not the principles or counsels of that spirit, which is "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 34. And if such be the personal influence excited , by the Teacher of Truth over the mixed crowd of men whom he encounters, what (think we) will be his power over that select number, just referred to, who have already, in a measure, discipKned their hearts after the law of holiness, and feel themselves, as it were, in- dividually addressed by the invitation of his example ? These are they whom our Lord especially calls His "elect," and came to "gather together in one," for they are worthy. And these, too, are they who are ordained in God's Providence to be the salt of the earth, — to continue, in their turn, the succession of His witnesses, that heirs may never be wanting to the royal line, though death sweeps away each successive 96 Personal Influence, generation of them to their rest and their reward. ThesOj perhaps, by chance fell in with their destined father in the Truth, not at once discerning his real greatness. At first, perhaps, they thought his teaching fanciful, and parts of his conduct extravagant or weak. Tears might pass away before such prejudices were entirely removed from, their minds ; but by degrees they would discern more and more the traces of un- earthly majesty about him ; they would witness, from time to time, his trial under the various events of life, and would still find, whether they looked above or below, that he rose higher, and was based deeper, than they could ascertain by measurement. Then, at length, with astonishment and fear, they would become aware that Christ's presence was before them ; and, in the words of Scripture, would glorify God in His servant ^; and all this while they themselves would be changing into that glorious Image which they gazed upon, and be in training to succeed him in its propagation. 35. Will it be said. This is a fancy, which no experi- ence confirms? First, no irrehgious man can know any thing concerning the hidden saints. Next, no one, religious or not, can detect them without attentive study of them. But, after aU, say they are few, such high Christians ; and what follows ? They are enough to carry on God's noiseless work. The Apostles were such men; others might be named, in their several generations, as successors to their holiness. These communicate their light to a number of lesser lumina- ries, by whom, in its turn, it is distributed through the s Gal. i. 24. the Means of Propagating the TriUh. 97 world; the first sources of illumination being all the while unseen^ even by the majority of sincere Ohris- tianSj — unseen as is that Supreme Author of Light and Truth, from whom all good primarily proceeds. A few highly-endowed men will rescue the world for centuries to come. Before now even one man" has impressed an image on the Church, which, through God^s mercy, shall not be effaced while time lasts. Such men, Kke the Prophet, are placed upon their watch-tower, and light their beacons on the heights. Each receives and transmits the sacred flame, trimming it in rivalry of his predecessor, and fully purposed to send it on as bright as it has reached him ; and thus the self-same fire, once kindled on Moriah, though seeming at intervals to fail, has at length reached us in safety, and will in like manner, as we trust, be carried forward even to the end. 36. To conclude. Such views of the nature and history of Divine Truth are calculated to make us contented and resigned in our generation, whatever be the peculiar character or the power of the errors of our own times. For Christ never will reign visibly upon earth j but in each age, as it comes, we shall read of tumult and heresy, and hear the complaint of good men marvelling at what they conceive to be the especial wickedness of their own times. 37. Moreover, such considerations lead us to be satisfied with the humblest and most obscure lot ; by showing us, not only that we may be the instruments ' Athanasius. [UNIV. S.J H 98 Personal Influence, i^c. of mucli good in it^ but that (strictly speaking) we could scarcely in. any situation be direct iastruments of good to any besides those who personally know us, who ever must form a small circle ; and as to the indirect good we may do in a more exalted station (which is by no means to be lightly esteemed), still we are not absolutely precluded from, it in a lower place in the Church. Nay, it has happened before now, that comparatively retired posts have been filled by those who have exerted the most extensive in- fluences over the destinies of Religion in the times following them; as in the arts and pursuits of this world, the great benefactors of mankind are frequently unknown. 38. Let all those, then, who acknowledge the voice of God speaking within them, and urging them heaven- ward, wait patiently for the End, exercising themselves, and diligently working, with a view to that day when the books shall be opened, and aU the disorder of human affairs reviewed and set right ; when " the last shall be first, and the first last;" when "aU things that offend, and they which do iniquity," shall be gathered out and removed; when "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun," and Faith shall see her God; when " they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars, for ever and ever." SERMON VI. ON JUSTICE, AS A PEINOIPLE OP DIVINE GOVERNANCE. (Preached April 8, 1832.) Jek. viii. 11. " Tkey have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying. Peace, peace, when there is no peace" rriHEEB will ever be persons who take a favourable view of human nature^ as it actually is found in the world, and of the spiritual condition and the pro- spects of mankind. And certainly the face of things is so fair, and contains so much that is interesting and lofty, that the spectator may be pardoned if, on the first sight, he is disposed to believe them to be as cheerful and as happy as they appear, — the evils of life as light and transitory, and its issue as satisfactory. Such easy confidence is natural in youth; nay, it is even commendable at a time of life in which suspicion and incredulity are unbecoming; that is, it would be commendable, did not Scripture acquaint us from the very first (by way of warning, previous to our actual experience) with the deceitfulness of the world's pro- mises and teaching; telling us of the opposition between H 2 loo On ytistice, Sight and Faittj of that strait gate and that narrow way, the thought of which is to calm us in youthj that it may enhven and invigorate us in old age. 2. Tet, on the other hand, it cannot be denied that even the information of Scripture results in a cheerful view of human affairs, and condemns gloom and sad- ness as a sin, as well as a mistake ; and thus, in fact, altogether sanctions the conclusions gathered from the first sight of the course of the world. But here is an instance, such as not unfrequently is found, of an opinion being abstractedly true, and yet the person who holds it wrong in his mode of holding it ; so that while the terms in which he conveys it approach in- definitely near to those in which the true view is con- tained, nevertheless men who maintain the very reverse may be nearer the truth than he is. It often happens that, in pursuing the successive stages of an investi- gation, the mind continually reverses its judgment to and fro, according as the weight of argument passes over and back again from the one alternative of the question to the other ; and in such a case the ultimate utihty of the inquiry does not consist in the conclusion finally adopted, which may be no other than that with which the inquiry was commenced ; but in the position in which we have learned to view it, and the circum- stances with which we have associated it. It is plain, too, that the man who has gone through many of these progressive alternations of opinion, but has for some cause or other stopped short of the true view legiti- mately terminating the inquiry, would be farther from it in the mere enunciation of his sentiments, but in the as a Principle of Divine Governance. loi state of his mind far nearer to it, than he who has not examined the subject at all, and is right by accident. Thus it happens, men are cheerful and secure from ignorance of the evils of life; and they are secure, again, from seeing the remedy of the evils; and, on the other hand, they are desponding from seeing the evils without the remedy : so that we must never say that an individual is right, merely on the ground of his holding an opinion which happens to be true, un- less he holds it in a particular manner ; that is, under those conditions, and with that particular association of thought and feeling, which in fact is the interpre- tation of it. 3. That superficial judgment, which happens to be right without deserving to be so, is condemned in the text. The error of the prophets and priests there spoken of consisted, not in promising a cure for the wounded soul, but in healing the hurt of the daughter of God's people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, before they had ascertained either the evil or the remedy. The Gospel is in its very name a message of peace, but it must never be separated from the bad tidings of our fallen nature, which it reverses ; and he who speaks of the state of the world in a sanguine way, may indeed be an advanced Christian, but he may also be much less even than a proselyte of the gate; and if his security and peace of mind be merely the calm of ignorance, surely the men whom he looks down upon as narrow-minded and superstitious, whose religion consists in fear not in love, shall go into the kingdom of heaven before him. We are reminded of this im- I02 On justice, portant truth by tlie order of our ecclesiastical year. Easter Day, our cMef Festival^ is preceded by the forty days of Lent^ to show us that they, and they only, who sow in tears, shall reap in joy. 4. Remarks such as these are scarcely necessary, as far as we of this place are concerned, who, through God's blessing, are teachers of His truth, and "by reason of use have our senses exercised to discern both good find evil." Yet it is impossible not to observe, and it is useful to bear in mind, that mankind at large is not wiser or better than heretofore ; rather, that it is an especial fault of the present day, to mistake the false security of the man of the world for the composure, cheerfulness, and benevolence of the true Christian; while aU the varying shades of character between these two, though indefinitely more deserving of our respect than the former of them — I mean the super- stitious, the bigot, the intolerant, and the fanatic — are thrust out of the way as inhuman and offensive, merely because their knowledge of themselves is more exact than their apprehension of the Gospel, and their zeal for God's honour more energetic than their love of mankind. 5. This in fact is the fault incident to times of political peace and safety, when the world keeps well together, no motions stirring beneath it to disturb the continuity of its surface, which for the time presents to us a consistent and finished picture. When the laws of a country are upheld and obeyed, and property secure, the world appears to realize that vision of constancy and permanence which it presented to our as a Principle of Divine Governance. 103 youthful imagination. Human nature appears more amiable than it really is, because it is not tried with disappointments; more just^, because it is then its interest to respect the rights of others ; more benevo- lent^ because it can be so without self-denial. The warnings contained in the historical Scriptures^ con- cerning the original baseness and corruption of the heartj are, in the course of time, neglected ; or, rather, these very representations are adduced as a proof how much better the world now is than it was once ; how much more enlightened, refined, intellectual, manly; and this, not without some secret feeling of disrespect towards the writers of the plain facts recorded in the Bible, as if, even were the case so bad as they make it appear, it had been more judicious and humane to have said nothing about it. 6. But, fairly as this superficial view of human nature answers in peaceful times; speciously as it may argue, innocently as it may experimentalize, in the rare and short-lived intervals of a nation's tran- quillity; yet, let persecution or tribulation arise, and forthwith its imbecility is discovered. It is but a theory ; it cannot cope with difficulties ; it imparts no strength or loftiness of mind ; it gains no influence over others. It is at once shattered and crushed in the stem conflict of good and evil; disowned, or rather overlooked, by the combatants on either side, and vanishing, no one knows how or whither. 7. The opinions alluded to in the foregoing remarks, when assuming a definite doctrinal basis, will be found to centre in Socinianism or Theophilanthropism, the I04 On Justice, name varying according as it admits or rejects the authority of Scripture. And the spirit of this system will be found to infect great numbers of men^ who are unconscious of the origin and tendency of their opinions. The essential dogmas of Sociaianism are such as these ; that the rule of Divine government is one of benevolence, and nothing but benevolence ; that evil is but remedial and temporary; that sin is of a venial nature; that repentance is a sufficient atonement for it ; that the moral sense is substantially but an instinct of benevo- lence ; and that doctrinal opinions do not influence our character or prospects, nor deserve our serious attention. On the other hand, sentiments of this character are evidently the animating principle of the false cheerful- ness, and the ill-founded hope, and the bUnd charit- ableness, which I have already assigned to the man of the world. 8. In order to illustrate the untenableness of such pro- positions as have just been adduced, and hence to show, by way of instance, the shallowness and feebleness of the minds which maintain them, their real feebleness in all practical matters, plausibly or loudly as they may speak during the hour of tranquilHty in which they dis- play themselves, it may be useful to make some remarks on what appears to be the real judgment of God upon human sin, as far as it is discernible by the light of nature ; not as if any thing new could be said on the subject, but in order to remind ourselves of truths which are peculiarly important in these times. 9. The consideration most commonly adduced by the as a Principle of Divine Governance. 105 advocates of the absolute, unmixed benevolence of the Divine Government, and of the venial nature of sin ac- cording to the provisions of that Government, is an » ^rion argument, founded on an appeal to a supposed in- ■stiuct of our nature. It has before nowbeen put familiarly thus : — " Is there any man living who would not, if he could, accomplish the final restitution and eternal hap- piness of every individual ? and are we more benevo- lent than 'God ?" Or, again, the same general argument is sometimes stated more cautiously as follows; that " No man can be in a perfectly right state of mind, who, if he consider general happiness at all, is not ready to acknowledge that a good man must regard it as being in its own nature the most desirable of all objects ; and that any habitual disposition clearly discerned to be, in its whole result, at variance with general happi- ness, is unworthy of being cultivated, or fit to be rooted out; that accordingly, we are compelled to attribute God's whole government to benevolence ; that it is as much impossible for us to love and revere a Being, to whom we ascribe a mixed or imperfect benevolence, as to believe the most positive contradictions in terms; that is, as religion consists in love and reverence, it cannot subsist without a belief in benevolence as the sole principle of Divine Government." 10. Now first, it is surely not true that benevolence is the only, or the chief, principle of our moral nature. To say nothing of the notion of duty to an Unseen Governor, implied in the very authoritativeness with which conscience dictates to us (a notion which suggests to the mind that there is, in truth, some object more io6 On justice, " desirable in its own nature " than " the general hap- piness" of mankind — viz. the approbation of our Maker), not to insist on this, it may be confidently asserted, that the instincts of justice and of purity are natural to us in the same sense in which benevolence is natural. If it be natural to pity and wish well to men in general, without reference to their character, or our ■personal knowledge of them, or any other attendant circumstance, it is also natural to feel indignation when vice triumphs, and to be dissatisfied and uneasy tUl the inequality is removed. 11. In order to meet this objection, it is maintained by the writers under consideration, that the good of mankind is the ultimate end, to which even the principle of justice, planted in us, tends ; that the rule of reward and punishment is a chief means of making men happy; and therefore that the feelings of indignation, resent- ment, and the like, must be considered as given us, not for their own sake (granting them given us), bat in- order to ensure the general good of mankind ; in other words, that they are no evidence of the existence of justice as an original and absolute principle of the moral law, but only of that infinite unmiKedbenevolence of God, to which the feelings in question are in our case really subservient. But this is nothing but an assertion, and will not stand examination ; for true as it is, that the instinct of justice, implanted in us, tends to general good, — good on the whole,— it evidently does not tend to universal good, the good of each individual; and nothing short of this can be the scope of absolute and simple benevolence. Our indignation at vice tends to as a Principle of Divine Governance. 107 the actual misery of the vicious (whether they be many or few) — nay^ to their _y?reaZ misery, except indeed there be provisions in the world's system, hitherto concealed, securing the ultimate destruction of vice ; for vihile it remained, it and all connected with it would ever be the natural objects of our abhorrence, and this natural abhorrence evidently interferes with the hypothesis, that universal good is the one end to which the present system of Divine Governance tends. 12. On the other hand, so far from its being ''impos- sible (as the theory under consideration affirms) to love and revere a Being to whom we ascribe a mixed bene- volence," while undoubtedly benevolence excites our love and reverence, so does a perfect justice also ; we are under a natural attraction to admire and adore the great sight, just as we are led on (to compare small things with great) to dwell rapturously upon some exquisite work of man's designing, the beautiful and harmonious result of the highest and most accomplished genius. If we do not habitually thus search out and lovingly hang over the traces of God's justice, which are around us, it is because we are ourselves sinners ; because, having a bad conscience, we have a personal interest in denying them, and a terror in having them forced upon us. In proportion as we grow in habits of obedience, far from our vision of the eternal justice of God vanishing from our minds, and being disowned by our feelings, as if it were but the useful miscon- ception of a less advanced virtue, doubtless it increases, as fear is cast out. The saints in heaven ascribe glory to God, "for true and righteous are His judgments." io8 On Justice, " Great and marvellous are Thy works^ Lord God Almighty ; just and true are Thy ways. Thou King of saints'." If, then, the infinite benevolence of God wins our love, certainly His justice commands it; and were we able, as. the Saints made perfect are able, to combiue the notion of both in their separate perfec- tions, as displayed in the same acts, doubtless our awe and admiration of the glorious vision would be im- measurably increased. 13. Moreover, that justice is a primary notion ia our minds, and does not admit of resolution into other elements, may be argued from its connexion with that general love of order, congruity, and symmetry, to which I have been referring, — ^that very desire of arranging and adjusting, which is made use of for the purpose of denying its elementary nature, and which must, in its essence, be considered, if any thing is considered, an original principle of human nature. 14. Nay, it may be doubted whether the notion of justice be not more essential to the mental constitution of free agents, than benevolence can be. For our very consciousness of being free, and so responsible, includes in it the idea of an unchangeable rule of justice, on which the judgment is hereafter to be conducted; or rather excludes, as far as it goes, the notion of a simply benevolent Governor; a simply benevolent end being relinquished (as we may speak) by the Creator, so soon as He committed the destinies of man to his own hands, and made him a first cause, a principle of origiuation, in the moral world. ' Eev. XV. 3. as a Principle of Divine Governance. 109 15. But even if tlie general happiness of mankind could be assigned in hypothesis, as the one end to which all our moral instincts tended, and though nothing could be adduced in behalf of the intrinsic authority of the notion of justice, it would not be allowable thence to infer the unmixed benevolence of the Divine Mind, seeing we have actual evidences of His justice in the course of the world, such as cannot be explained away by a mere argument from the analogy of our own nature. Should any one attempt here to repeat the process of simplification, and refer in turn Divine Justice, as seen ;n the world, to Divine Benevo- lence, as if reward and punishment were but means to the one end of general good, let such a venturous speculator bethink himself what he is essaying, when he undertakes to simplify such attributes of the Divine Mind, as the course of things happens to manifest to him. Not to insist on the presumption (as I may well call it) of the attempt,- let him ask himself, merely as a philosopher, whether there is no difference between re- ferring phenomena to an hypothetical law or system for convenience sake (as, for instance, he is accustomed to refer the movements of the physical world to gravita- tion), and on the other hand undertaking to assign and fix, as a matter of fact, the real, primary and universal principles which guide the acts of a Mind, unknown and infinite, and that, from a knowledge of merely one or two characteristics of His mode of acting. After all, what is meant by affirming that God has, strictly speaking, any end or design at all in what He does, external to Himself ? We see the world, physical and I lo On yustice, moral, as a fact ; and we see the Attributes of God, as they are called, displayed in it ; but before we attempt to decide whether or not the happiness of His creatures is the solitary all-absorbing end of His government, let us try to determine by the way of Reason what was His particular view in creating us at all. What indeed Revelation has told us, that we are able to speak con- fidently about, and it is our blessedness to be able ; but Revelation does not come into this question. By the use of unaided Reason, we are utterly incapable of conceiving, why a Being supremely blessed in Himself from eternity should ever commence the work of creation; what the design of creation is, as such; whether, if there be any end in it, it is not one different in kind, utterly removed from any which ear hath heard or mind conceived; and whether His creation of man in the first instance, and therefore man^s happiness in- clusively, may not be altogether subservient to further ends in the scope of His purposes. Doubtless it is our wisdom, both as to the world and as to Scripture, to take things as we find them ; not to be wise above what is written, whether in nature or in grace; not to attempt a theory where we must reason without data ; much less, even could we frame one, to mistake it for a fact instead of what it is, an arbitrary arrangement of our knowledge, whatever that may be, and nothing more. 16. Considerations such as these are sufficient for the purpose for which I have employed them ; sufficient to act as a retort, by means of their own weapons, upon as a Principle of Divine Governance. 1 1 1 those who would undermine our faith, little as they may mean to do so, nay, rather who would lead us, not merely to a rejection or perversion of Christianity, but even to a denial of the visible course of things as it actually exists ; that is, to that unreal and unpractical view of human nature which was described in the out- set. And now, before concluding, let us observe what the world teaches us, in matter of fact, concerning the light in which sin is regarded by our great Governor and Judge. 17. Here it is usual to insist on the visible conse- quences of single sins, as furnishing some foreboding of the full and final judgment of God upon all we do ; and the survey of such instances is very striking. A soHtary act of intemperance, sensuality, or anger, (a single rash word, a single dishonest deed, is often the cause of incalculable misery in the sequel to the person who has been betrayed into it. Our fortunes are fre- quently shaped by the thoughtless and seemingly incon- siderable sins of our early life. The quarrel of an hour, the sudden yielding to temptation, will throw a man into a disadvantageous line of life, bring him into trouble, ruin his prospects ; or again, into circumstances unfavourable to his religious interests, which unsettle his mind, and ultimately lead him to abandon his faith. All through life we may suffer the penalty of. past dis- obedience ; disobedience, too, which we now can hardly enter into and realize, which is most foreign to our pre- sent principles and feelings, which we can hardly recog- nize as belonging to us, just as if no identity existed between our present and our former selves. 1 1 2 On yustice, 18. Should it be said that this does not in all or in most cases happen, I answer, that, were there but a few such cases, they would be sufficient to destroy the hypothesis, already remarked upon, of the unmixed benevolence of the Divine Government. For they are in many instances too definite and significant to be explained as remedial measures, or as any thing short of judgments on sin; and in fact, they have been acknowledged as such by the common sense of man- kind in every age ; and on the other hand, it constantly happens that they neither effect, nor evince a tendency towards effecting, the moral benefit of the individuals thus punished. But further, granting that they are but isolated instances of God's judgment concerning the guilt of disobedience ; yet, if we believe that His Providence proceeds on any fi^ed plan, and that all deeds are impartially recompensed according to their nature, it seems to follow, that, since some sins evidently do receive an after punishment, therefore all have the prospect of the like ; and consequently that those who escape here, will suffer hereafter ; that this is the rule, and if there be any additional law counteracting it, this has to be proved. What measure of punishment is reserved for us, we cannot tell; but the actual consequences which we witness of apparently slight offences, make the prospect before us alarming. If any law is traceable in this awful subject, it would appear to be this, that the greater the delay, the greater the punishment, if it comes at length ; as if a suspension of immediate vengeance were an indulgence only to be compensated by an accumulated suffering afterwards. as a Principle of Divine Governance. 113 19. Then, as to the efficacy of repentance, which is so much insisted on, — when repentance is spoken of as being a sufficient substitute in itself, by a self- evident fitness, though not for the consequences of sin in this life, yet at least for the future punishment, let the following remark be considered, which is a solemn one. I ask, does death, which is supposed to terminate the punishment of the penitent, terminate the consequences of his sins upon others ? Are not these consequences continued long after his death, even to the end of time ? Arid do they not thus seem to be a sort of intimation or symbol to survivors, that, in spite of his penitence, God's wrath is hot against him ? A man publishes an irrehgious or immoral book ; afterwards he repents, and dies. What does Reason, arguing from the visible course of things, suggest concerning the efficacy of that repentance ? The sin of the penitent lives ; it continues to disseminate evil ; it corrupts multitudes. They die, many of them, without repenting ; many more receive permanent, though not fatal injury to their souls, from the perusal. Surely no evidence is here, in the course of Divine Government, of the efficacy of repentance. Shall he be now dwelUng in Abraham's bosom, who hears on the other side of the gulf the voices of those who curse his memory as being the victims of his sin ? 20. Against these fearful traces or omens of God's visitation upon sin, we are, of course, at liberty to set all the gracious intimations, given us in nature, of His placability. Certain as it is, that all our efforts and all our regrets are often unable to rid us of the conse- quences of previous disobedience, yet doubtless they [UNIV. s.] I 114 O^ justice, often alleviate thesCj and often remove them. And this goes to show that His Governance is not one of absolute unmixed justice^ which, of course, (were it so) would reduce every one of us to a state of despair. Nothing, however, is told us in nature of the limits of the two rules, of love and of justice, or how they are to be reconciled; nothing to show that the rule of mercy, as acting on moral agents, is more than the supplement, not the substitute of the fundamental law of justice and holiness. Ajid, let it be added, taking us even as we are, much as each of us has to be for- given, yet a religious man would hardly wish the rule of justice obliterated. It is a something which he can depend on and recur to ; it gives a character and a cer- tainty to the course of Divine Governance ; and, tem- pered by the hope of mercy, it suggests animating and consolatory thoughts to him ; so that, far from acquiesc- ing in the theory of God's unmixed benevolence, he will ratherprotestagainst it as the invention of those who, in their eagerness to concihate the enemies of the Truth, care little about distressing and sacrificing its friends. 21. Different, indeed, is his view of God and of man, of the claims of God, of man's resources, of the guilt of disobedience, and of the prospect of forgiveness, from those flimsy self-invented notions, which satisfy the reason of the mere man of letters, or the pro- sperous and self-indulgent philosopher ! It is easy to speak eloquently of the order and beauty of the phy- sical world, of the wise contrivances of visible nature, and of the benevolence of the objects proposed in them ; but none of those topics throw light upon the subject as a Principle of Divine Governance. 115 which it most concerns us to understand, the character of the Moral Governance under which we liye ; yet, is not this the way of the wise in this world, viz. instead of studying that Governance as a primary subject of inquiry, to assume they know it, or to conceive of it after some work of " Natural Theology ''," or, at best, to take their notions of it from what appears on the mere surface of human society ? — as if men did not put on their gayest and most showy apparel when they went abroad ! To see truly the cost and misery of sinning, we must quit the public haunts of business and plea- sure, and be able, like the Angels, to see the tears shed in secret, — to witness the anguish of pride and impa- tience, where there is no sorrow, — the stings of re- morse, where yet there is no repentance, — the wearing, never-ceasing struggle between conscience and sin, — the misery of indecision, — the harassing, haunting fears of death, and a judgment to come, — and the supersti- tions which these engender. Who can name the over- whelming total of the world's guilt and suffering, — suffering crying for vengeance on the authors of it, and guilt foreboding it ! 22. Yet one need not shrink from appealing even to the outward face of the world, as proving to us the extreme awfulness of our condition, as sinners against the law of our being ; for a strange fact it is, that boldly as the world talks of its own greatness and its enjoy- ments, and easily as it deceives the mere theophilan- thropistj yet, when it proceeds to the thought of its 2 [This was an allasion to Paley. Vide " Lectures on University Sab- jects," No. vi., p. 252.] I 2 1 1 6 On jftistice, Makerj it has ever professed a gloomy religion^ in spite of itself. This has been the case in all times and places. Barbarous and civilized nations here agree. The world cannot bear up against the Truth, with all its boastings. It makes an open mock at sin, yet secretly attempts to secure an interest against its possible conseqnences in the world to come. Where has not the custom pre- vailed of propitiating, if possible, the unseen powers of heaven ? — but why, unless man were uhiversally con- scious of his danger, and feared the punishment of sin, while he '''hated to be reformed''? Where have not sacrifices been in use, as means of appeasing the Divine displeasure ? — and men have anxiously sought out what it was they loved best, and would miss most painfully, as if to strip themselves of it might m.ove the com- passion of God. Some have gone so far as to offer their sons and their daughters as a ransom for their own sin, — an abominable crime doubtless, and a sacrifice to devils, yet clearly witnessing man's instinctive judg- ment upon his own guilt, and his foreboding of punish- ment. How much more simple a course had it been, merely to have been sorry for disobedience, and to profess repentance, were it a natural doctrine (as some pretend), that repentance is an atonement for offences committed ! 23. Nor is this all. Not only in their possessions and their offspring, but in their own. persons, have men mortified themselves, with the hope of expiating deeds of evil. Burnt-ofierings, calves of a year old, thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil, their first- born for their transgression, the fruit of their body for as a Principle of Divine Governance. 117 tte sin of their soul, even these are insuflScient to lull the sharp throbbings of a heavy-laden conscience. Thijak of the bodily tortures to which multitudes have gloomily subjected themselveSj and that for years, under almost every religious system, with a view of ridding themselves of their sins, and judge what man conceives of the guilt of disobedience. You will say that such fierceness in self-tormenting is a mental disease, and grows on a man. But this answer, granting there is truth in it, does not account for the reverence in which such persons have usually been held. Have we no instinct of self-preservation ? Would these same per- sons gain the admiration of others, unless their cruelty to their own flesh arose from a religious motive ? Would they not be derided as madmen, unless they sheltered themselves under the sanction of an awful, admitted truth, the corruption and the guilt of human nature ? 24. But it will be said, that Christians, at least, must admit that these frightful exhibitions of self-torture are superstition. Here I may refer to the remarks with which I began. Doubtless these desperate and dark struggles are to be called superstition, when viewed by the side of true religion; and it is easy enough to speak of them as superstition, when we have been informed of the gracious and joyful result in which the scheme of Divine Governance issues. But it is Inan's truest and best religion, hefore the Gospel shines on him. If our race he in a fallen and depraved state, what ought our religion to be but anxiety and remorse, till God comforts us? Surely, to be in gloom, — to view ourselves with horror, — to look about to the right 1 1 8 On Justice, hand and to the left for means of safety,^ — ^to catch at every thing, yet trust in nothing, — to do all we can, and try to do more than all, — and, after all, to wait in miserable suspense, naked and shivering, among the trees of the garden, for the hour of His coming, and meanwhile" to fancy sounds of woe in every wind stirring the leaves about us, — in a word, to be super- stitious, — ^is nature's best offering, her most acceptable service, her most mature and enlarged wisdom, iu the presence of a holy and offended God. They who are not superstitious without the Gospel, will not be re- ligious with it : and I would that even in us, who have the Gospel, there were more of superstition than there is ; for much is it to be feared that our security about ourselves arises from defect in self-knowledge rather than iu fulness of faith, and that we appropriate to our- selves promises which we cannot read. 25. To conclude. Thoughts concerning the Justice of God, such as those which have engaged our attention, though they do not, of course, explain to us the mystery of the great Christian Atonement for sin, show the use of the doctrine to us sinners. Why Christ's death was requisite for our salvation, and how it has obtained it, will ever be a mystery iu this life. But, on the other hand, the contemplation of our guilt is so growing and so overwhelming a misery, as our eyes open on our real state, that some strong act (so to call it) was necessary, on God's part, to counterbalance the tokens of His wrath which are around us, to calm and reassure us, and to be the ground and the medium of our faith. It as a Principle of Divine Governance. 1 1 9 1 seemSj indeed, as if, in a practical point of view, no mere promise was sufficient to undo the impression left on the imagination by the facts of Natural Eeligion ; but in the death of His Son we have His deed — His irreversible deed — making His forgiveness of sin, and His reconciliation with our race, no contingency, but an event of past history. He has vouchsafed to evidence His faithfulness and sincerity towards us (if we may dare so to speak) as we must show om'S towards Him, not in word, but by action ; which becomes therefore the pledge of His mercy, and the plea on which we draw near to His presence ; — or, in the words of Scrip- ture, whereas " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," Christ Jesus is " set forth as a pro- pitiation for the remission of sins that are past," to declare and assure us, that, without departing from the just rule, by which all men must, in the main, be tried, still He will pardon and justify " him that believeth in Jesus." SERMON VII. CONTEST BETWEEN FAITH AND SIGHT. (Preached May 27, 1832.) 1 JoHS V. 4. " 2%« is the vicioiy that overcometh the world, even our faith." rjlHB danger to wliicli Christians are exposed from -*- the influence of the visible course of things, or the world (as it is called in Scripture), is a principal sub- ject of St. John's General Epistle. He seems to speak of the world as some False Prophet, promisiag what it cannot fulfil, and gaining credit by its confident tone. Viewing it as resisting Christianity, he calls it the " spirit of anti-Christ," the parent of a numerous progeny of eyil, false spirits Uke itself, the teachers of all lying doctrines, by which the multitude of men are led captive. The antagonist of this great tempter is the Spirit of Truth, which is " greater than he that is in the world j" its victorious antagonist, because gifted with those piercing eyes of Faith which are able to scan the world's shallowness, and to see through the mists of error into the glorious kingdom of God beyond them. " This is the victory that overcometh the world," says the text, " even our Faith." And if we inquire what Contest between Faith and Sight. 121 are the sights which our faith seeSj the Apostle answers by telling us of " the Spirit that beareth witness^ be- cause the Spirit is Truth." The world witnesses to an untruthj which will one day be exposed; and Christy our Lord and Master, is the " Amen, the faithful and true witness/' who came into the world " by water and blood/'' to " bear witness unto the Truth •" that, as the many voices of error bear down and overpower the inquirer by their tumult and importunity, so, on the other hand. Truth might have its living and visible representative, no longer cast, hke the bread, at ran- dom on the waters, or painfully gained from the schools and traditions of men, but committed to One " come in the flesh," to One who has an earthly name and habitation, who, in one sense, is one of the powers of this world, who has His train and retinue. His court and kingdom. His ministering servants, bound together by the tie of brotherly love among themselves, and of zeal against the Prophets of error. " Who is he that overcomefch the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? " St. John then compares together the force of the world's testimony, and of that which the Gospel provides. " If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater ; for this is the wit- ness of God which He has testified of His Son;" as if " the spirit, the water, and the blood," spoke for God more loudly than the world speaks for the Evil one. In the very opening of the Epistle, he had set before us in another form the same gracious truth, viz., that the Gospel, by affording us, in the Person and history of Christ, a witness of the invisible world, addresses 122 Contest between itself to our senses and imagination, after the very manner in which the false doctrines of the world assail us. " That which was from the beginning, . . which we have looked upon, . . that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you." 2. Now, here we have incidentally suggested to us an important truth, which, obvious as it is, may give rise to some profitable reflections ; viz., that the world overcomes us, not merely by appealing to our reason, or by exciting our passions, but by imposing on our ima- gination. So much do the systems of men swerve from the Truth as set forth in Scripture, that their very presence becomes a standing fact against Scripture, even when our reason condemns them, by their perse- vering assertions, and they gradually overcome those who set out by contradicting them. In all cases, what is often and unhesitatingly asserted, at length finds credit with the mass of mankind ; and so it happens, in this instance, that, admitting as we do from the first, that the world is one of our three chief enemies, maia- taining, rather than merely granting, that the outward face of things speaks a different language from the word of God ; yet, when we come to act in the world, we find this very thing a trial, not merely of our obe- dience, but even of our faith; that is, the mere fact that the world turns out to be what we began by actually confessing concerning it. 3. Let us now direct our attention to this subject, in . order to see what it means, and how it is exemplified in the ordinary course of the world. Faith and Sight. 123 And let us commence with the age when men are first exposed, in any great degree, to the temptation of trusting the world^s assertions — when they enter into life, as it is called. Hitherto they have learned re- vealed truths only as a creed or system ; they are in- structed and acquiesce in the great Christian doctrines; and, having virtuous feelings, and desiring to do their duty, they think themselves really and practically re- ligious. They read in Scripture of " the course of the world," but they have little notion what it really is ; they believe it to be sinful, but how it acts in seducing from the Truth, and making evil seem good, and good evil, is beyond them. Scripture, indeed, says much about the world; but they cannot learn practically what it is from Scripture; for, not to mention other reasons. Scripture being written by inspiration, repre- sents things such as they really are in God's sight, such as they will seem to us in proportion as we learn to judge of them rightly, not as they appear to those " whose senses are " not yet " exercised to discern both good and evil." 4. Under these circumstances, youths are brought to their trial. The simple and comparatively retired life which they have hitherto enjoyed is changed for the varied and attractive scenes of mixed society. Its numberless circles and pursuits open upon them, the diversities and contrarieties of opinion and conduct, and of the subjects on which thought and exertion are expended. This is what is called seeing the world. Here, then, all at once they lose their reckoning, and let slip the lessons which they thought they had so 124 Contest between accurately learned. They are unable to apply in prac- tice what they have received by word of mouth ; and, perplexed at witnessing the multiplicity of characters and fortunes which human nature assumes, and the range and intricacy of the social scheme, they are gradually impressed with the belief that the rehgious system which they have hitherto received is an in- adequate solution of the world's mysteries, and a rule of conduct too simple for its complicated transactions. All men, perhaps, are in their measure subjected to this temptation. Even their ordinary and most inno- cent intercourse with others, their temporal caUings, their allowable recreations, captivate their imagina- tions, and, on entering into this new scene, they look forward with interest towards the future, and form schemes of action, and indulge dreams of happiness, such as this hfe has never fulfilled. Now, is it not plain, that, after thus realizing to themselves the pro- mises of the world, when they look back to the Bible and their former lessons, these will seem not only un- interesting and dull, but a theory too ? — duU, colour- less, indeed, as a sober landscape, after we have been gazing on some bright vision in the clouds — but, withal, unpractical, unnatural, unsuitable to the exi- gencies of life and the constitution of man ? 5. For consider how little is said in Scripture about subjects which necessarily occupy a great part of the attention of aU men, and which, being 'there unnoticed, become thereby the subject-matter of their trial. Their private conduct day by day; their civil, social, and domestic duties; their relation towards those events Faith and Sight. 125 which mark out human Hfe into its periods, and, in the case of most men, are the source of its best pleasures, and the material of its deepest affections, are, as if pur- posely, passed over, that they themselves may complete the picture of true faith and sanctity which Eevelation has begun. 6. And thus (as has already been said) what is pri- marily a trial of our obedience, becomes a trial of our faith also. The Bible seems to contain a world in itself, and not the same world as that which we inhabit ; and those who profess to conform to its rules gain from us respect indeed, and praise, and yet strike us withal in some sort as narrow-minded and fanciful ; tenderly to be treated, indeed, as you would touch cautiously any costly work of art, yet, on the whole, as little adapted to do good service in the world as it is, as a weapon of gold or soft clothing on a field of battle. 7. And much more, of course, does this delusion hang about the mind, and more closely does it wrap it round, if, by yielding to the temptations of the flesh, a man predisposes himself to the influence of it. The pahnary device of Satan is to address himself to the pride of our nature, and, by the promise of independence, to seduce us into sin. Those who have been brought up in ignorance of the polluting fashions of the world, too often feel a rising in their minds against the discipline and constraiut kindly imposed upon them; and, not understanding that their ignorance is their glory, and that they cannot really enjoy both good and evil, they murmur that they are not allowed to essay what they do not wish to practise, or to choose for themselves in 126 Contest between matters where the very knowledge seems to them to give a superiority to the children of corruption. Thus the temptation of becoming as gods works as in the beginning, pride opening a door to lust ; and then, in- toxicated by their experience of evil, they think they possess real wisdom, and take a larger and more impar- tial view of the nature and destinies of man than religion teaches ; and, while the customs of society restrain their avowals within the bounds of propriety, yet in their hearts they learn to beheve that sin is a matter of course, not a serious evil, a failing in which all have share, indulgently to be spoken of, or rather, in the case of each individual, to be taken for granted, and passed over in silence; and believing this, they are not unwilling to discover or to fancy weaknesses in those who have the credit of being superior to the ordinary run of men, to insinuate the possibility of human passions influencing them, this or that of a more refined nature, when the grosser cannot be imputed, and, extenuating at the same time the guilt of the vicious, to reduce in this manner all men pretty much to a level, A more apposite instance of this state of soul cannot be required than is given us in the cele- brated work of an historian of the last century, who, for his great abilities, and, on the other hand, his cold heart, impure mind, and scoffing spirit, may justly be accounted as, in this country at least, one of the masters of a new school of error, which seems not yet to have accomplished its destinies, and is framed more exactly after the received type of the author of evil, than the other chief anti-Christs who have, in these last times, occupied the scene of the world. Faith and Sight. 127 8. The temptation I have been speaking of, of trust- ing the world, because it speaks boldly, and thinking that evil must be acquiesced in, because it exists, will be still stronger and more successful in the case of one who is in any situation of active exertion, and has no very definite principles to secure him in the narrow way. He was taught to believe that there was but one true faith, and, on entering into life, he meets with number- less doctrines among men, each professing to be the true one. He had learned that there was but one Church, and he falls in with countless religious sects, nay, with a prevalent opinion that all these are equally good, and that there is no divinely-appointed Church at all. He has been accustomed to class men into good and bad, but he finds their actual characters no how reducible to system ; good and bad mixed in every variety of proportion, virtues and vices in endless com- binations ; and, what is stranger still, a deficient creed seemingly joined to a virtuous life, and inconsistent conduct disgracing a sound profession. Further still, he finds that men in general will not act on high motives, in spite of all that divines and moralists pro- fess ; and his experience of this urges him, till he be- gins to think it unwise and extravagant to insist upon the mass of mankind doing so, or to preach high morals and high doctrines ; and at length he looks on the re- ligious system of his youth as beautiful indeed in itself, and practical perhaps in private life, and useful for the lower classes, but as utterly unfit for those who Hve in the world; and while unwilling to confess this, lest he should set a bad example, he tacitly concedes it, never 128 Contest between is the cliainpion of his professed principles when assailed, nor acts upon them in an honest way in the affairs of life. 9. Or, should he be led by a speculative turn of mindj or a natural philanthropy, to investigate the nature of man, or exert himself in plans for the amelioration of society, then his opinions become ultimately im- pressed with the character of a more definite unbelief. Sometimes he is conscious to himself that he is op- posing Christianity; not indeed opposing it wan- tonly, but, as he conceives, unavoidably, as finding it in his way. This is a state of mind into which bene- volent men are in danger of falling, in the present age. While they pursue objects tending, as they conceive, towards the good of mankind, it is by degrees forced upon their minds that Revealed Religion thwarts their proceedings, and, averse alike to relinquish their plans, and to offend the feelings of others, they determine on letting matters take their course, and, believing fuUy that Christianity must fall before the increasing illumi- nation of the age, yet they wish to secure it against direct attacks, and to provide that it no otherwise falls than as it unavoidably must, at one time or other ; as every inflexible instrument, and every antiquated institution, crumbles under the hands of the Great Innovator, who creates new influences for new emer- gencies, and recognizes no right divine in a tumultuous and shifting world. 10. Sometimes, on the other hand, because he takes the spirit of the world as his teacher, such a one drifts away unawares from the Truth as it is in Jesus ; and. Faith and Sight. 129 merely from ignorance of Scripture, maintains theories which. Scripture anathematizes. Thus he dreams on for a time, as loth to desert his first faith; then by accident meeting with some of the revealed doctrines which he learned when a child — the Incarnation, or the eternal punishment of the wicked — he stumbles. Then he will attempt to remove these, as if accidentally attached to the Scripture creed, — ^little thiaking that they are its very peculiarities and essentials, nor re- flecting that the very fact of his stumbling at them should be taken as a test that his views coincide but in appearance with the revealed system altogether ; and so he will remain at the door of the Church, witnessing against himself by his liagering there, yet missing the reward bestowed even on the proselyte of the gate in heathen times, in that he might have " known the way of righteousness," yet has " turned from the holy com- mandment delivered unto him." 1 1 . And some there are who, keeping their faith in the main, give up the notion of its importance. Finding that men will not agree together on points of doctrine and discipline, and imagining that union must be ejBFected on any terms, they consent to abandon articles of faith as the basis of Christian fellowship, and try to effect what they call a union of hearts, as a bond of fellowship among those who differ in their notions of the One God, One Lord, One Spirit, One baptism, and One body ; forgetful of the express condemnation pro- nounced by our Saviour upon those who "believe not " the preaching of His servants ' ; and that 1 Mark xvi. 16. [uNIV. S.] K 130 Contest between he who denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father \ 12. And others, not being able to acquiesce in the unimportance of doctrinal truth, yet perplexed at the difl&culties in the course of human affairs, which foUow on the opposite view, accustom themselves g;ratuitously to distinguish between their public and private duties, and to judge of them by separate rules. These are often such as begin by assuming some extravagant or irrelevant test for ascertaining the existence of religious principle in others, and so are led to think it is nowhere to be found, not in the true Church more than in the sects which surround it ; and thus, regarding all men (to speak generally) as equally far from the Truth, and strangers to that divine regeneration which Christ bestows on His elect few, and, on t"be other hand, seeing that men, as cast together in society, must co-operate on some or other priaciples, they drop the strict principles of Scripture in their civil relations, give no preference to those who honour the Church over those who profess opinions disrespectful towards it ; perhaps take up the notion that the State, as such, has nothing to do with the subject of religion; praise and blame according to a different standard from that which Christianity reveals ; and all this while cherish, perhaps, in their secret thoughts a definite creed, rigid in its decisions, stimulating in its influence, in spite of the mildness, and submissiveness, and liberality of senti- ment, which their public mode of speaking and acting seems to evidence. ' 1 John ii. 22. Faith and Sight. 131 13. Nor are even the better sort of men altogether secure from the impression of the world's teaching, which is so influential with the multitude. He truly is a rare and marvellous work of heavenly grace, who when he comes into the din and tumult of the world, can view things just as he calmly contemplated them in the distance, before the time of action came. So many are the secondary reasons which can be assigned for and against every measure and every priaciple, so urgent are the solicitations of interest or passion when the mind is once relaxed or excited, so dijBB.cult then to compare and ascertain the relative importance of con- flicting considerations, that the most sincere and zealous of ordinary Christians will, to their surprise, confess to themselves that they have lost their way in the wilder- ness, which they could accurately measure out before descending into it, and have missed the track which lay likg a clear thread across the hills, when seen in the horizon. And it is from their experience of this their own unskilfulness and weakness, that serious men have been in the practice of making vows concerning pur- poses on which they were fully set, that no sudden gust of passion, or lure of worldly interest, should gain the mastery over a heart which they desire to present without spot or blemish, as a chaste virgin, to Christ. 14. Let the above be taken as a few illustrations out of many, of the influence exerted, and the doctrine enforced, in the school of the world ; that school which we all set out by acknowledging to be at enmity with the school of Christ, but from which we are content to K 2 132 Contest between take our lessons of practical wisdom as life goes on. Such is the triumph of Sight over Faith. The world really brings no new argument to its aid^ — nothing beyond its own assertion. In the very outset Christians allow that its teaching is contrary to Revelation, and not to be taken as authority; nevertheless, afterwards, this mere unargumentative teaching, which, when viewed in theory, formed no objection to the truth of the Inspired Word, yet, when actually heard in the inter- course of life, converts them, more or less, to the service of the " prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobe- dience." It assails their imagination. The world sweeps by in long procession ; — its principalities and powers, its Babel of languages, the astrologers of Chaldsea, the horse and its rider and the chariots of Egypt, Baal and Ashtoreth and their false worship; and those who witness, feel its fascination; they flock after it ; with a strange fancy, they ape its gestures, and dote upon its mummeries ; and then, should they per- chance fall in with the simple solemn services of Christ's Church, and hear her witnesses going the round of Gospel truths as when they left them : " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ;" " Be sober, be vigilant ;" "Strait is the gate, narrow the way;" "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself;" " He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief:" — how utterly unreal do these appear, and the preachers of them, how irrational, how puerile ! — how extravagant in their opinions, how weak in their reasoning ! — and if they profess to pity and Faith and Sight. 133 bear with thein, how nearly does their compassion border on contempt ! 15. The contempt of men ! — why should we be unwilling to endure it ? We are not better than our fathers. In every age it has been the lot of Christians far more highly endowed than we are with the riches of Divine wisdom. It was the lot of Apostles and Pro- phetSj and of the Saviour of mankind Himself. When He was brought before Pilate, the Roman Governor felt the same surprise and disdain at His avowal of His unearthly office, which the world now expresses. " To this end was I born, .... that I should bear witness unto the Truth. Pilate saith, What is Truth ?'■' Again, when Pestus would explain to King Agrippa the cause of the dispute between St. Paul and the Jews, he says, " The accusers .... brought no accusations of such things as I supposed, but certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." 16. Such, however, are the words of men, who, not knowing the strength of Christianity, had not the guilt of deliberate apostasy. But what serious thoughts does it present to the mind, to behold parallels to heathen bhndness and arrogance in a Christian country, where men might know better, if they would inquire ! — and what a warning to us all is the sight of those who, though nominally within the Church, are avowedly indifferent to it ! Por all of us surely are on our trial, and, as we go forth into the world, so we are winnowed, and the chaff gradually separated from the true seed. This is St. John's account of it. " They went out from 134 Contest between VlS, but they were not of us ; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us : but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not of us." And our Lord stands by watch- ing the process, telling us of " the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the earth,'^ exhorting us to " try them which say they are apostles, and are not," and to ''hold fast that which we have, that no man take our crown." 1 7. Meanwhile, it is an encouragement to us to think how much may be done in way of protest and teaching, by the mere example of those who endeavour to serve God faithfully. In this way we may use against the world its own weapons ; and, as its success lies in the mere boldness of assertion with which it maintains that evil is good, so by the counter-assertions of a strict life and a resolute profession of the truth, we may retort upon the imaginations of men, that religious obedience is not impracticable, and that Scripture has its persua- sives. A martyr or a confessor is a fact, and has its witness in itself; and, while it disarranges the theories of human wisdom, it also breaks in upon that security and seclusion into which men of the world would faiu retire from the thought of rehgion. One prophet against four hundred disturbed the serenity of Ahab, King of Israel. When the witnesses in St. John's vision were slain, though they were but two, then " they that dwelt on the earth rejoiced over them, and made merry, and sent gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth." Nay, such confessors have a witness even in Faith and Sight. 135 the breasts of those who oppose them, an instinct originally from God, which may indeed be perverted into a hatred, but scarcely into an utter disregard of the Truth, when exhibited before them. The instance cannot be found in the history of mankind, in which an anti- Christian power could long abstain from perse- cuting. The disdainful Festus at length impatiently interrupted his prisoner's speech ; and in our better re- gulated times, whatever be the scorn or malevolence which is directed against the faithful Christian, these very feelings show that he is reaUy a restraint on vice and unbelief, and a warning and guide to the feeble-minded, and to those who still linger in the world with hearts more religious than their professed opinions ; and thus even literally, as the text expresses it, he overcomes the world, conquering while he suffers, and willingly accepting overbearing usage and insult from others, so that he may in some degree benefit them, though the more abundantly he loves them, the less he be loved. SERMON VIII. HUMAN EESPONSIBILITT, AS INDEPENDENT OF CIRCUMSTANCES. (Preached November 4, 1832.) Gen. iii. 13. " The serpent heguiled me, and I did eat." rpHE original temptation set before our first parents, -^ was that of proving their freedom, hy using it without regard to the wiQ of Him who gave it. The original excuse offered by them after sinning was, that they were not really free, that they had acted under a constraining influence, the subtilty of the tempter. They committed sin that they might be independent of their Maker ; they defended it on the ground that they were dependent upon Him. And this has been the course of lawless pride and lust ever since ; to lead us, first, to exult in our uncontrollable liberty of will and conduct ; then, when we have ruined ourselves, to plead that we are the slaves of necessity. 2. Accordingly, it has been always the office of Eeli- gion to protest against the sophistry of Satan, and to pre- serve the memory of those truths which the unbelieving heart corrupts, both the freedom and the responsibility Htiman Responsibility, &c. 1 3 7 of man ; — the sovereignty of the Creatorj the supremacy of the law of conscience as His representative within us^ and the irrelevancy of external circumstances in the judgment which is ultimately to be made upon our con- duct and character. 3. That we are accountable for what we do and what we are, — that, in, spite of all aids or hindrances from without, each soul is the cause of its own happiness or misery, — is a truth certified to us both by Nature and Revelation. Nature conveys it to us in the feeling of guilt and remorse, which implies seZf-oondemnation. In the Scriptures, on the other hand, it is the great prevailing principle throughout, in every age of the world, and through every Dispensation. The change of times, the varieties of religious knowledge, the gifts of grace, interfere not with the integrity of this mo- mentous truth. Praise to the obedient, punishment on the transgressor, is the revealed rule of Soda's govern- ment from the beginning to the consummation of all things. The fall of Adam did not abolish, nor do the provisions of Gospel-mercy supersede it. 4. At the creation it was declared, " In the day that thou eatest . . . thou shalt surely die." On the calling of the Israelites, the Lord God was proclaimed in sight of their lawgiver as " merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth j keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." And when Moses interceded for the people, with an earnestness which tended to the in- fringement of the Divine Rule, he was reminded that 138 Human Responsibility, lie could not liiniaelf be really responsible for others. " Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him wiU I blot out of My book." The prophetical Dispensation en- forced the same truth still more clearly. "With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure, and with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward." " The soul that sinneth, it shall die ; make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will ye die ? " And after Christ had come, the most explicit of the inspired expounders of the New Covenant is as explicit iu his recognition of the original rule. "Every man shall bear his own burden ... Be not deceived: God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Even in his Epistle to the Romans, where he is directly engaged in declaring another, and at first sight oppo- site doctrine, he finds opportunity for confessing the principle of accountableness. Though exalting the sovereign power and inscrutable purposes of God, and apparently referring man's agency altogether to Him as the vessel of His good pleasure, still he forgets not, in the very opening of his exposition, to declare the real independence and responsibility of the human wiU. " He will render to every man according to his deeds ; . . . tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil . . . but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good ; ... for there is no respect of persons with God /'—declarations, which I wiU not say are utterly irreconcilable in their very structure with (what is called) the Calvinistic creed, but which it is certain would never have been written by an assertor of it in a formal exposition of his views for the benefit of as Independent of Circumstances. 1 39 his fellow-believers. Lastly^ we have the testimony of the book which completes and seals up for ever the divine communications. "My reward is with Me; to give every man according as his work shall be. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life '." 5. Moreover, we have the limits of external aids and hindrances distinctly stated to us, so as to guarantee to us, in spite of existing influences of whatever kind, even of our original corrupt nature, the essential freedom and accountableness of our will. As regards external circumstances : " God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." As regards the corrupt nature in which we are born : " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed; then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin : and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." And as regards divine assistances : " It is impossible for those who were once enlightened .... if they fall away, to renew them again unto repent- ance'." 6. Far be it from any one to rehearse triumphantly, and in the way of controversy, these declarations of our privilege as moral agents; rather, so fearful and burdensome is this almost divine attribute of our 1 Gen. ii. 17. Exod. xxxiv. 7 ; xxxii. 33. Ps. xviii. 26. Ez. xviii. 4. 31. Gal. vi. 5—7. Eom. ii. 6-11. Rev. xxii. 12, 13. 2 1 Cor. X. 13. James i. 13—15. Heb. vi. 4—6. 140 Human Responsibility, nature, that, when we consider it attentively, it re- quires a strong faith in the wisdom and love of our Maker, not to start sinfully from His gift j and at the mere prospect, not the memory of our weakness, to attempt to transfer it from ourselves to the agents, animate and inanimate, by which we are surrounded, and to lose our immortality under the shadows of the visible world. And much more, when the sense of guilt comes upon us, do we feel the temptation of rid- ding ourselves of our conviction of our own responsi- bility ; and, instead of betaking ourselves to Him who can reverse what we cannot disclaim, to shelter our- selves under the original unbelief of our first parents, as if the serpent gave it to us and we did eat. 7. It is my wish now to give some illustrations of the operation of this sophistry ia the affairs of life ; not that it is a subject which admits of novelty iu the discussion, but with the hope of directing attention to a mode of deceiving our consciences, common iu all ages since the original transgression, and not least successful iu our own. 8. To find fault with the circumstances in which we find ourselves, is our ready and familiar excuse when our conduct is arraigned in any particular. Yet even the heathen moralist saw that all those actions are voluntary, in which we ourselves are in any way ulti- mately the principle of action; and that praise and blame are awarded, not according to the mode in which we should have behaved, had circumstances been different, but according as we actually conduct as Independent of Ciraimstances. 141 ourselres, things being as they are. Commenting on goods thrown overboard in a storm, he remarks " that such acts must be considered voluntaryj as being the objects of our choice at the time when they are done, for our conduct is determined according to the emer- gency^/' In truth, nothing is more easy to the imagi- nation than duty in the abstract, that is, duty in name and not in reality. It is when it assumes a definite and actual shape, when it comes upon us under circum- stances (and it is obvious it can come in no other way), then it is 'difficult and troublesome. Circumstances are the very trial of obedience. Yet, plain as this is, it is very common to fancy our particular condition peculiarly hard, and that we should be better and happier men in any other. 9. Thus, for instance, opportunity, which is the means of temptation in the case of various sins, is converted into an excuse for them. Perhaps it is very plain that, except for some unusual combination of circumstances, we could never have been tempted at all; yet, when we fall on such an occasion, we are ready to excuse our weakness, as if our trial were extraordinary. 10. Again, the want of education is an excuse coin- mon with the lower classes for a careless and irreligious life. 11. Again, it is scarcely possible to resist the imagi- nation, that we should have been altogether other men than we are, had we hved in an age of miracles, or in the visible presence of our Ijord ; that is, we cannot 3 Arist. Eth. Nicom. iii. 17. 142 Human Responsibility, persuade ourselves that, whatever be the force of things external to us in modifying our condition, it is we, and not our circumstances, that are, after all, the main causes of what we do and what we are. 12. Or, again, to take a particular instance, which wUl perhaps come home to some who hear me, when a young man is in prospect of ordination, he has a conceit that his mind will be more fully his own, when he is actually engaged in the sacred duties of his new calling, than at present ; -and, in the event he is per- haps amazed and frightened, to find how little influence the change of circumstances has had in sobering and regulating his thoughts, whatever greater decency his outward conduct may exhibit. 13. Further, it is the common excuse of wilful sin- ners, that there are pecuharities in their present en- gagements, connexions, plans, or professions, incom- patible with immediate repentance; according to the memorable words of Felix, " When I have a convenient season, I wiU send for thee." 14. The operation of the same deceit discovers it- self in our mode of judging the conduct of others ; whether, in the boldness with which we blame in them what, under other circumstances, we allow in ourselves ; or, again, in the false charity which we exercise towards them. For instance, the vices of the yoimg are often regarded by beholders with an irrational indulgence, on the ground (as it is said) that youth ever wiU be wanton and impetuous; which is only saying, if put into plain language, that there are temptations which are not intended as trials of our obedience. Or when. as Independent of Circtimstances. 143 as lately, tlie lower orders rise up against the powers that bOj in direct opposition to the word of Scripture, they are excused on the ground of their rulers being bigoted and themselves enlightened; or because they feel themselves capable of exercising more power; or because they have the example of other nations to in- cite them to do so ; or simply (the more common ex- cuse) because they have the means of doing so : as if loyalty could be called a virtue when men cannot be disloyal, or obedience had any praise when it became a constraint. In like manner, there is a false charity, which, on principle, takes the cause of heresy under its protection; and, instead of condemning it, as such, busies itself in fancying the possible circumstances which may, in this or that particular instance, excuse it ; as if outward fortunes could change the nature of truth or of moral excellence, or as if, admitting the existence of unavoidable misbelief to be conceivable, yet it were not the duty of the Christian to take things as they are given us in Scripture, as they are in them- selves, and as they are on the whole, instead of fasten- ing upon exceptions to the rule, or attempting to ascertain that combination and balance of circum- stances, in favour of individuals, which is only known to the Omniscient Judge. 15. The following apology for the early profligacy of the notorious French infidel of the last century is found in even the respectable literature of the pre- sent day, and is an illustration of the kind of fatalism now under consideration. " It is certain," the apologist says, "that a brilliant, highly-gifted, and more than 144 Human Responsibility, commonly vivacious young man^ like Voltaire, who moved in the high tide of Parisian society^ must necessarily be imbued with the levity and laxity that on every side surrounded him, and which has rendered the period in question proverbial for profligacy and debauchery This is not observed in defence of his moral defects, or of any one else, but in answer to those who expect the virtues of a sage from the educa- tion of an Alcibiades. His youthful career seems to have been precisely that of other young men of his age and station, neither better nor worse. It is scarcely necessary to prove the tinge which such a state of society must bestow upon every character, however intellectually gifted, which is formed in the midst of it." No one can say that the doctrine contained in this extract is extravagant, as opinions go, and unfair as a specimen of what is commonly received ia the world, however boldly it is expressed. Tet it wiU be observed, that vice is here pronounced to be the neces- sary effect of a certain state of society, and, as being such, not extenuated merely, as regards the individual (as it may well be), but exculpated ; so that, while the actions resulting from it are allowed to be intrinsically bad, yet the agent himself is acquitted of the responsi- bility of committing them. 16. The sophistry in question sometimes has assumed a bolder form, and has displayed itself in the shape of system. Let us, then, now direct our attention to it in some of those fortified positions, which at various times it has taken up against the plain declarations of Scrip- ture and Conscience. as Independent of Circumstances. 145 17. (1.) Fatalism is tlie refuge of a conscience- stricken mind, maddened at the sight of evils which it has brought upon itself, and cannot remove. To believe and tremble is the most miserable of dooms for an immortal spirit; and bad men, whose reason has been awakened by education, resolved not to be " tor- mented before their time," seek in its intoxication a present oblivion of their woe. It is wretched enough to suffer, but self-reproach is the worm which destroys the inward power of resistance. Submission alone makes pain tolerable in any case ; and they who refuse the Divine yoke are driven to seek a sedative in the notion of an eternal necessity. They deny that they ever could have been other than they are. "What heaven has made me, I must be," is the sentiment which hardens them into hopeless pride and rebelHon. 18. And it must be confessed, so great is the force of passion and of habit, when once allowed to take pos- session of the heart, that these men seem to have in their actual state, nay in their past experience, long before the time of their present obduracy, an infallible witness in behalf of their doctrine. In subduing our evil nature, the first steps alone are in our own power ; a few combats seem to decide the solemn question, to decide whether the sovereignty is with the spirit or the flesh ; nisi pcwet, imperat, is become a proverb. When once the enemy of our souls " comes in like a flood," what hope is there that he ever will be expelled ? And what servitude can be compared to the bondage which follows, when we wish to do right, yet are utterly powerless to do it ? whether we be slaves to some im- [UNIV. S.J t, 146 Human Responsibility, perious passion, hushed indeed in its victim's ordinary mood, and allowing the recurrence of better thoughts and purposes, but rising suddenly and sternly, in his evil hour, to its easy and insulting triumph ; or, on the other hand, to some cold sin which overhangs and deadens the mind, sloth, for instance, or cowardice, bind- ing it down with ten thousand subtle fastenings to the earth, nor suffering it such motion as might suffice it for a renewal of the contest. Such, in its worst forms, is the condition of the obdurate sinner ; who, feeling his weakness, but forgetting that he ever had strength, and the promise of aid from above, at length learns to acquiesce in his misery as if the lot of his nature, and resolves neither to regret nor to hope. Next he amuses his reason with the melancholy employment of reduciag his impressions into system ; and proves, as he thinks, from the confessed influence of external events, and the analogy of the physical world, that aU moral pheno- mena proceed according to a fixed law, and that we are not more to blame when we sin than when we die. 19. (2.) The Calvinistic doctrine, if not the result, is at least the forerunner of a similar neglect of the doc- trine of human responsibility. Whatever be the falla- cies of its argumentative basis, viewed as a character of mind, it miscalculates the power of the affections, as fatalism does that of the passions. Its practical error ' is that of supposing that certain motives and views, presented to the heart and conscience, produce certain effects as their necessary consequence, no room being left for the resistance of the will, or for self-discipHne, as the medium by which faith and holiness are con- as Independent of Circumstances. 147 nected together. It is the opinion of a large class of religious people, that faith being granted, works follow as a matter of course, without our own trouble; and they are confirmed in their opinion by a misconception of our Church's 12th Article, as if to assert that works " spring out necessarily of a true and Uvely faith" could only mean that they follow by a kind of physical law. When this notion is once entertained, it follows that nothing remains to be done but to bring these sovereign principles before the mind, as a medicine which must work a cure, or as sights which suddenly enlighten and win the imagination. To care for little duties, to set men right in the details of life, to instruct and refine their conscience, to tutor them in self-denial, — the Scripture methods of working onwards towards higher knowledge and obedience, — ^become superfluous, nay, despicable, while these master visions are with- held. A system such as this will of course bring with it full evidence of its truth to such debilitated minds as have already so given way to the imagination, that they find themselves unable to resist its impressions as they recur. Nor is there among the theories of the world any more congenial to the sated and remorseful sensualist, who, having lost the command of his will, feels that if he is to be converted, it must be by some sudden and violent excitement. On the other hand, it will always have its advocates among the young and earnest-minded, who, not having that insight into their hearts which experience gives, think that to know is to obey, and that their habitual love of the Truth may be measured by their momentary admiration of it. And L 2 1 48 Human Responsibility, it is welcomed by the indolent, wlio care not for the Scripture warnings of tlie narrowness of the way of UfOj provided they can but assure themselves that it is easy to those who are in it ; and who readily ascribe the fewness of those who find it, not to the difficulty of connecting faith and works, but to a Divine frugahty in the dispensation of the gifts of grace. 20. Such are some of the elements of that state of mind which, when scientifically developed, assumes the shape of Calvinism; the characteristic error, both of the system and of the state of mind, consisting in the assumption that there are thing s extern£tl_to_jhe miad, whether doctrines or influences, such, thatjwhen once presented to it, they suspend its independence and involve certain results, as if by way of physical conse- quence ; whereas, on studying the New Testament, we shall find, that amid aU that is said concerning the inscrutable decrees of God, and His mysterious inter- position in the workings of the human mind, still every where the practical truths with which Revelation started are assumed and recognized ; that we shall be judged by our good or evil doings, and that a principle within us is ultimately the cause of the one and the other. So that it is preposterous in us to attempt to direct our course by the distant landmarks of the Divine counsels, which are but dimly revealed to us, overlooking the clear track close before our eyes provided for our need. This perverse substitution in matters of conduct of a subtle argumentative rule for one that is plain and practical, is set before us, by way of warning, in the parable of the talents. "Lord, I knew Thee that as Independent of Circtimstances. 149 Thou art a hard man . . . and I was afraid^ and went and hid Thy talent in the earth." 21. (3.) Another illustration may be given of the systematic disparagement of human responsibility, and the consequent substitution of outward events for the inward rule of conscience in judging of conduct. The influence of the world, viewed as the enemy of our souls, consists in its hold upon our imagination. It seems to us iucredible that any thing that is said every where and always can be false. And our faith is shown ia preferring the testimony of our hearts and of Scripture to the world's declarations, and our obedience in acting against them. It is the very function of the Christian to be moving against the world, and to be protesting against the majority of voices. And though a doctrine such as this may be perverted into a contempt of authority, a neglect of the Church, and an arrogant reliance on self, yet there is a sense in which it is true, as every part of Scripture teaches. "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil," is its uniform injunction. Tet so irksome is this duty, that it is not wonderful that the wayward mind seeks a release from it ; and, looking off from what is within to what is without, it gradually becomes perplexed and unsettled. And, should it so happen that the face of society assumes a consistent appearance, and urges the claims of the world upon the Conscience as if on the ground of principle and system, then still greater is the difficulty in which it has entangled itself. Then it is that acts which, exhibited in individual instances, would have been con- demned as crimes, acquire a dignity from the number 150 Huvian Responsibility, of the delinquents, or their assumption of authority, and venture to claim our acquiescence as a matter of right. What would be insubordination, or robbery, or murder, when done. by one man, is hallowed by the combination of the great or the many. 22. Thus, for instance, what is more common at the present day than for philosophers to represent society as moving by a certain law through different stages, and its various elements as coming into operation at different periods; and then, not content with stating the fact (which is undeniable), to go on to speak as if what has been, and is, ought to be ; and as if because at certain eras this or that class of society gains the ascendancy, therefore it lawfully gains it ? whereas in truth the usurpation of an invader, and the development (as it is called) of the popular power, are alike facts, and alike sins, in the sight of Him who forbids us to oppose constituted authority. And yet the credulous mind hangs upon the words of the world, and falls a victim to its sophistry ; as if, forsooth, Satan could not work his work upon a law, and oppose God's will upon system. But the Christian, rejecting this pretentious guide of conduct, acts on Faith, and far from being perplexed to find the world consistent in its disobedience, recollects the declarations of Scripture which foretell it. 23. Yet so contrary to common sense is it thus to • assert that our conduct ought to be determined merely by what is done by a mixed multitude, that it was to be expected that the ingenious and eager minds who practically acknowledge the principle, 'should wish to place it on some more argumentative basis. Accord- as Independent of Circumstances. 151 ingljj attempts have been made by foreign writers to show that society moves on a law which is independent of the conduct of its individual members, who cannot materially retard its progress, nor are answerable for it, — a law which in consequence is referable only to the will of the Creator. " Historical causes and their effects being viewed, at one glance, through a long course of years, seem," it has been said, " from their steady pro- - gf ession, to be above any human control ; an impulse is given, which beats down resistance, and sweeps away all means of opposition; century succeeds to century, and the philosopher sees the same influence still potent, ' still undeviating and regular ; to him, considering these ages at once, following with rapid thought the slow pace of time, a century appears to dwindle to a point ; and the individual obstructions and accelerations, which within that period have occurred to impede or advance the march of events, are eliminated and forgotten." 24. This is the theory ; and hence it is argued that it is our wisdom to submit to a power which is greater than ourselves, and which can neither be circumvented nor persuaded ; as if the Christian dare take any guide of conscience except the rule of duty, or might prefer expediency (if it be such) to principle. Nothing, for instance, is more common than to hear men speak the growing intelligence of the present age, and to insist upon the Church's supplying its wants; the pre- vious question being entirely left out of view, whether those wants are healthy and legitimate, or unreasonable, — whether real or imaginary, — whether they ought to be gratified or repressed : and it is urged upon us, that 152 Human Responsibility, unless we take the lead in the advance of mind ourselves, we must be content to faU behind. But, surely our first duty is, not to resolve on satisfying a demand at any price, but to determine whether it be innocent. If so, well ; but if not, let what will happen. Even though the march of society be conducted on a superhuman law, yet, while it moves against Scripture Truth, it is not Grod^s ordinance, — it is but the creature of Satan ; and, though it shiver all earthly obstacles to its progress, the gods of Sepharvaim and Arphad, fall it must, and perish it" must, before the glorious fifth kingdom of the Most High, when He visits the earth, who is called Faithful and True, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and on His head many crowns, who smites the nations with a rod of iron, and treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. My object in the foregoing remarks has been to illustrate, in various ways, the operation of an all-im- portant truth ; that circumstances are but the subject- matter, and not the rule of our conduct, nor m. any true sense the cause of it. Let me conclude with one more exemplification of it, which I address to the junior part of my audience. 25. (4.) In this place, where the stated devotional ser- vices of the Church are required of all of us, it is very common with our younger members to slight them, while they attend on them, on the ground of their being forced upon them. A like excuse is sometimes urged . in behalf of an unworthy participation of the Lord^s Supper, as if that communion could not reasonably be as Independent of Circumstances. 153 considered real, or dangerous to the impenitent, which was performed under constraint*. 26. NoWj let such an apologist be taken on his own ground. Let it be granted to him, for argument's sake, though in no other way, that this general ex- action of religious duties is unwise ; let him be allowed the full force of his objections to a system, which he has not yet experience to understand. Tet do these outward circumstances change the nature of the case in any practical respect, or relieve him of his responsi- bility ? Rather, is it not his plain duty to take things as he finds them, since he has not the power of changing them; and, leaving to his superiors what pertains to them, the task of deciding on the system to be pursued, to inquire how he ought to act under it, and to reflect what his guilt will be in the day of account, if week after week he has come into the presence of God with a deliberate profanation in his right hand, or at least with irreverence of manner, and an idle mind ? 27. And, again, as regards the Holy Commimion, how do the outward circumstances which bring us thither affect the real purpose of God respecting it ? Can we in earthly matters remove what we dislike, by wishing it away ? — and shall we hope, by mere unbelief, to remove the Presence of God from His ordinance ? As well may we think of removing thereby the visible emblems of bread and wine, or of withdrawing ourselves < [Here I ought to remark, that, from the time I became public Tutor, I was always opposed to the compulsory communion of Undergraduates, and testified my opposition to it whenever I had the opportunity.] 154 Human Responsibility, altogether from tlie Omnipresent Eye of God itself. Though Christ is savingly revealed in the Sacrament only to those who receive Him in faith, yet we have the express word of Scripture for saying, that the thoughtless communicant, far from remaining as if he did not receive it, is guilty of the actual Body and Blood of Christ, — guilty of the crime of crucifying Him anew, as not discerning that which Hes hid in the rite. This does not apply, of course, to any one who communicates with a doubt merely about his own state — far from it ! — ^nor to those who resolve heartily, yet in the event fail to perform, as is the case with the young ; nor to those even who may happen to sin both before and after the reception of the Sacrament. Where there is earnestness, there is no condemnation ; but it applies fearfully to such as view the Blessed Ordinance as a thing of course, from a notion that they are passive subjects of a regulation which others enforce; and, perhaps, the number of these is not small. Let such persons seriously consider that, were their argument correct, they need not be considered in a state of trial at all, and might escape the future judgment altogether. They would have only to protest (as we may speak) against their creation, and they would no longer have any duties to bind them. But what says the word of God ? " That which cometh into your mind, shall not be at all, that ye say. We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone." And then follows the threat, addressed to those who rebel : — " As I Hve, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with as Independent of Circumstances. 155 fury poured out, will I rule over you And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant." 28. And these words apply to the whole subject which has engaged us. We may amuse ourselves, for a time, with such excuses for sin as a perverted inge- nuity furnishes ; but there is One who is justified in His sayings, and clear when He judgeth. Our worldly philosophy and our well-devised pleadings will profit nothing at a day when the heaven shall depart as a scroll is rolled together, and all who are not clad lu the wedding-garment of faith and love will be speech- less. Surely it is high time for us to wake out of sleep, to chase from us the shadows of the night, and to realize our individuality, and the coming of our Judge. " The night is far spent, the day is at hand," — " let us be sober, and watch unto prayer." SEEMON IX. WILFULNESS, THE SIN OF SAUL. (Preached December 2, 1832.) 1 Sam. XV. 11. " li repenieth Me that I have set «p Saul to he Tdng ; for he is turned iaclc from following Me, and hath not performed My command- ments." rpHJj three chief religious patterns and divine instru- -*- ments under the first Covenant, have each his complement in the Sacred History, that we may have a warning as well as an instruction. The distinguishing virtue, moral and political, of Abraham, Moses, and David, was their faith j by which I mean an implicit reliance in God's command and promise, and a zeal for His honour ; a surrender and devotion of themselves, and all they had, to Him. At His word they each relinquished the dearest wish of their hearts, Isaac, Canaan, and the Temple; the Temple was not to be built, the land of promise not to be entered, the child of promise not to be retained. All three were tried by the anxieties and discomforts of exile and wander- ing; all three, and especially Moses and David, were very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts. 2. The faith of Abraham is illustrated in the luke- Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. 157 warmness of Lot, who, thougli a true servant of God, and a righteous man, chose for his dwelling-place the fertile country of a guilty people. To Moses, who was faithful 'in all God's house, is confronted the untrue prophet Balaam, who, gifted from the same Divine Master, and abounding in all knowledge and spiritual discernment, mistook words for works, and fell through love of lucre. The noble self-consuming zeal of David, who was at once ruler of the chosen people, and type of the Messiah, is contrasted with a still more conspicuous and hateful specimen of unbehef, as disclosed to us in the history of Saul. To this history it is proposed now to draw your attention, not indeed with the purpose of surveying it as a whole, but with hope of gaining thence some such indirect illustration, in the way of contrast, of the nature of religious Faith, as it is adapted to supply. 3. It cannot be denied that the designs of Provi- dence towards Saul ajid David are, at first sight, of a perplexing nature, as implying distinctions in the moral character of the two men, which their history does not clearly warrant. Accordingly, it is usual, with a view of meeting the difficulty, to treat them as mere instruments in the Divine Governance of the Israelites, and to determine their respective virtues and defects, not by a moral, but by a political standard. For in- stance, the honourable title by which David is distin- guished, as "a man after God's own heart," is inter- preted with reference merely to his activity and success in enforcing the principles of the Mosaic system, no 158 Wilfulness, the Sin of Satd. account being taken of tlie motives whicli influenced him, or of his general character, or of his conduct in other respects. Now, it is by no means intended here to dispute the truth of such representations, or to deny- that the Church, in its pohtical relations, must even treat men with a certain reference to their professions and outward acts, such as it withdraws La its private dealings with them ; yet, to consider the difference between Saul and David to be of a moral nature, is more consistent with tlje practical objects with which we believe Scripture to have been written, and more reverent, moreover, to the memory of one whose lineage the Saviour almost gloried in claiming, and whose de- votional writings have edified the Church even to this day. Let us then drop, for the present, the political view of the history which it is here proposed to consider, and attempt to discover the moral lesson intended to be conveyed to us in the character of Saul, the contrast of the zealous David. 4. The unbelief of Balaam discovers itself in a love of secular distinction, and was attended by self-decep- tion. Saul seems to have had no base ends in view; he was not self-deceived; his temptation and his fall consisted in a certain perverseness of mind, founded on some obscure feelings of self-importance, very com- monly observable in human nature, and sometimes called pride,— a perverseness which shows itself in a reluctance absolutely to relinquish its own independ- ence of action, in cases where dependence is a duty, and which interferes a little, and alters a little, as if with a view of satisfying its own fancied dignity, though it Wilf Illness, the Sin of Saul. 159 is afraid altogether to oppose itself to the voice of God. Should this seenij at first sights to be a trifling fault, it is the more worth while to trace its operation in the history of Saul. If a tree is known by its fruit, it is a great sin. 5. Saul's character is marked by much that is con- sidered to be the highest moral excellence, — generosity, magnanimity, calmness, energy, and decision. He is introduced to us as " a choice young man, and a goodly," and as possessed of a striking personal pre- sence, and as a member of a wealthy and powerful family'. 6. The first announcement of his elevation came upon him suddenly, but apparently without unsetthng him. He kept it secret, leaving it to Samuel, who had made it to him, to publish it. " Saul said unto his uncle. He (that is, Samuel) told us plainly that the asses were found. But of the matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spake, he told him not." Nay, it would even seem as if he were averse to the dignity intended for him ; for when the Divine lot fell upon him, he had hid himself, and was not discovered by the people without Divine assistance. 7. The appointment was at first unpopular. ''The children of Behal said. How shall this man save us?" Here again his high-mindedness is discovered, and his remarkable force and energy of character. He showed no signs of resentment at the insult. " They despised 1 Some sentences which follow have already been inserted in Paro- chial Sermons, Vol. iii. Serm. 3. i6o Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. hinij and brought him no presents. But lie held his peace." Soon the Ammonites invaded the country beyond Jordan^ with the avowed intention of reducing its inhabitants to slavery. They, almost in despair, sent to Saul for relief; and the panic spread in the interior, as well as among those whose country was immediately threatened. The conduct of their new king brings to mind the celebrated Roman story. "Behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said. What aileth the people, that they weep ? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. And the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and his anger was kindled greatly." His order for an immediate gathering throughout Israel was obeyed with the alacrity with which, in times of alarm, tlie many yield themselves up to the wiU of the strong-minded. A decisive victory over the enemy followed. Then the popular cry became, "Who is he that said. Shall Saul reign over us ? Bring the men, that we may put them to death. And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day : for to-day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel." 8. We seem here to find noble traits of character; at the same time it must not be forgotten that some- times such exhibitions are also the concomitants of a certaiu strangeness and eccentricity of mind, which are very perplexing to those who study it, and very unamiable. Reserve, sullenness, headstrong self-con- fidence, pride, caprice, sourness of temper, scorn of others, a scofiing at natural feeling and religious prin- ciple ; all those characters of mind which, though dis- Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. 1 6 1 tinct from mental aberration, are temptations to it, frequently take tlie form, and have in some degree the nature, of magnanimity. It is probable, from the sequel of SauFs history, that the apparent nobleness of his first actions was connected with some such miserable principles and feelings, which then existed only in their seeds, but which afterwards sprang up and ripened to his destruction; and this in conse- quence of that one fatal defect of mind which has been already noticed, as corrupting the integrity of his faith. 9. The world prevailed over the faith of Balaam ; a more subtle, though not a rare temptation, overcame the faith of Saul ; wilfulness, the unaccountable desire of acting short of simple obedience to God^s will, a re- pugnance of unreserved self-surrender and submission to Him. This, it will at once be seen, was one charac- teristic of the Jewish nation ; so that the king was but a type of the people ; nor, indeed, was it likely to be otherwise, born as he was in the original sin of that very perverseness which led them to choose a king, instead of God. It is scarcely necessary to refer to the details of their history for instances of a like wilful- ness, — such as their leaving the manna till the morn- ing, their going out to gather it on the seventh day, Nadab and Abihu's offering strange fire, their obsti- nate transgression of the Second Commandment, their presumptuous determination to fight with the Oanaan- ites, though Moses foretold their defeat, and, when pos- sessed of the promised land, their putting under tribute the idolaters whom they were bid exterminate. The [UNIV. S.J M 1 62 Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. same was tlie sin of Jeroboam, who is almost by title the Apostate ; when God had promised him the king- dom of Israel, he refused to wait God's time, but im- patiently forced a crisis, which ought to have been left to TTiTTi who promised it. 10. On the other hand, Abraham and David, with arms in their hands, waited upon Him for the fulfilment of the temporal promise in His good time. It is on this that the distinction turns, so much insisted on in the Books of Kings, of serving God with a "per- fect," or not with a perfect, heart. " Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pUeser, King of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus ; and Eong Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, . . . and Urijah . . . built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus." Here was a wanton innovation on received usages, which had been appointed by Almighty God. The same evil temper is protested against in Hezekiah's proclamation to the remnant of the IsraeHtes : " Be ye not like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now be ye not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into His sanctuary." It is indirectly condemned, also, in the precept given to the Israelites, before their final deliverance from Pharaoh. When they were on the Red Sea shore, Moses said, "■ Fear ye not, stand stiU, and see the salvation of the Lord .... The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Again, in the Book of Psalms, " Be still, and Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. 163 know that I am God. I will be exalted among tlie heattenj 1 will be exalted in the earth ;" the very trial of the people consisting in their doing nothing out of their place, but implicitly following when the Almighty took the lead. 11. The trial and the sin of the Israelites were con- tinued to the end of their history. They fell from their election on Christ^s coming, ia consequence of this very wilfulness ; refusing to receive the terms of the New Covenant, as they were vouchsafed to them, and at- tempting to iacorporate them into their own ceremonial system. " They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." 12. Such was one distinguishing sin of the Israelites as a nation ; and, as it proved the cause of their rejec- tion, so had it also, ages before, corrupted the faith, and forfeited the privileges, of their first king. The signs of wilfulness run through his history from first to last j but his formal trial took place at two distinct times, and in both cases terminated ia his dehberate fall. Of these, the latter is more directly to our purpose. When sent to inflict a Divine judgment upon the Amalekites, he spared those whom he was bid slay ; their king Agag, the best of the sheep and cattle, and all that was good. We are not concerned with the general state of mind and opinion which led him. to this particular display of wilfulness. Much might be said of that profaneness, which, as in the case of Esau, was a distinguishing trait in his character. Indeed, we might even conjecture M 2 164 Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. that from the first he was an unbeliever in heart ; that is, that he did not recognize the exclusive divinity of the Mosaic theologyj compared with those of the sur- rounding nations, and that he had by this time learned to regard the pomp and splendour of the neighbouring monarchies with an interest which made him ashamed of the seeming iUiberality and the singularity of the institutions of Israel. A perverse will easily collects together a system of notions to justify itself in its obH- quity. The real state of the case was this, that he preferred his own way to that which God had deter- mined. When directed by the Divine Hand towards the mark for which he was chosen, he started aside like a broken bow. He obeyed, but with a reserve, yet distinctly professing to Samuel that he had per- formed the commandment of the Lord, because the sheep and cattle were reserved for a pious purpose, a sacrifice to the Lord. The Prophet, in his reply, explained the real moral character of this limited and discretionary obedience, in words which are a warning to all who are within the hearing of Revealed Reli- gion to the end of time : " Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt ofierings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken, than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniqtiity and idolatry." 13. The moral of Saul's history is forced upon us by the events which followed this deliberate offence. By wilful resistance to God's will, he opened the door to those evil passions which till then, at the utmost, only Wilfulness, the Sin of Said. 165 9erved to make his character unamiable, without stamping it with guilt. The reserve and mysteriousness, whichj when subordinate to such magnanimity as he possessed, were even calculated to increase his influence as a ruler, ended in an overthrow of his mind, when they were allowed full scope by the removal of true religious principle, and the withdrawal of the Spirit of Grod. Derangement was the consequence of disobedi- ence. The wilfulness which first resisted God, next preyed upon himself, as a natural principle of disorder ; his moods and changes, his compunctions and relapses, what were they but the convulsions of the spirit, when the governing power was lost ? At length the proud heart, which thought it much to obey its Maker, was humbled to seek comfort in a witches cavern ; essaying, by means which he had formerly denounced, to obtain advice from that Prophet when dead, whom in his life- time he had dishonoured. 14. In contemplating this miserable termination of a history which promised well in the beginning, it should be observed, how clearly the failure of the divine purpose which takes place in it is attributable to man. Almighty God chose an instrument adapted, as far as external qualifications were concerned, to fulfil His purpose; adapted in all those respects which He reserved in His own hands, when He created a free agent ; in character and gifts, in all respects except in that in which aU men are, on the whole, on a level, — in will. No one could be selected in talents or conduct more suitable for maintaining political power at home than the reserved, mysterious monarch whom God gave to His people; 1 66 Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. none more suitable for striking terror into the sur- rounding nations ttan a commander gifted with his coohiess and promptitude in. action. But he fell from his election, because of unbelief, — because he would take another part, and not the very part which was actually assigned him in the decrees of the Most High. 15. And again, considering his character accordiag to the standard of moral excellence, here also it was one not without great promise. It is from such stern materials that the highest and noblest specimens of our kind are formed. The pUant and amiable by nature, generally speaking, are not the subjects of great pur- poses. They are hardly capable of extraordinary dis- cipline ; they yield or they sink beneath the pressure of those sanctifying processes which do but mature the champions of holy Church. " Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel," is a representation true in its degree ia the case of many, who nevertheless serve God acceptably ia their generation, and whose real place iu the ranks of the unseen world we have no means of ascertaining. But those minds, which naturally most resemble the aboriginal chaos, contain within them the elements of a marvellous creation of light and beauty, if they but open their hearts to the effectual power of the Holy Spirit. Pride and suUenness, obstinacy and impetuosity, then become transformed into the zeal, firmness, and high-mindedness of religious Faith. It depended on Saul himself whether or not he became the rival of that exalted saint, who, being once a fierce avenger of his brethren, at length became " the meekest Wilfidness, the Sin of Saul. 167 of men," yet not losing thereby, but gaining, moral strength, and resoluteness. 16. Or again, a comparison of him in this respect with the Apostle who originally bore his name, is not perhaps so fanciful as it may appear at first sight. St. Paul was distinguished by a furiousness and vindictive- ness equally incongruous as SauFs pride, with the obedience of Faith. In the first persecution against the Christians, he is described by the sacred writer as ravening like a beast of prey. And he was exposed to the temptation of a wilfulness similar to that of Saul — the wilfuhiess of running counter to God's purposes, and interfering in the course of Dispensations which he should have humbly received. He indeed was called miraculously, but scarcely more so than Saul, who, when he least expected it, was called by Samuel, and was, at his express prediction, suddenly filled by the Spirit of God, and made to prophesy. But, while Saul profited not by the privilege thus vouchsafed to himj St. Paul was "not disobedient to the heavenly vision," and matured in his after-life in those exalted qualities of mind which Saul forfeited. Every attentive reader of his Epistles must be struck with the frequency and force of the Apostle's declarations concerning un- reserved submission to the Divine will, or rather of his exulting confidence in it. But the wretched king of Israel, what is his ultimate state, but the most forlorn of which human nature is capable ? " How are the mighty fallen !" was the lament over him of the loyal though injured friend who succeeded to his power. He, who might have been canonized in the catalogue of 1 68 Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. tlie eleventh of Hebrews^ is but the prototype of that vision of obduracy and self-inflicted destitution, which none but unbelieving poets of these latter ages have ever thought worthy of aught but the condemnation and abhorrence of mankind. 1 7. Two questions must be answered before we can apply the lesson of Saul's history to our own circum- stances. It is common to contrast Christianity with Judaism, as if the latter were chiefly a system of positive commands, and the former addressed itself to the Reason and natural Conscience; and accordingly, it will perhaps be questioned whether Christians can be exposed to the temptation of wilfulness, that is, dis- obedience to the external word of God, in any way practically parallel to Saul's trial. And secondly, granting it possible, the warning against Avilfulness, contained in his history and that of his nation, may be met by the objection that the Jews were a peculiarly carnal and gross-minded people, so that nothing can be argued concerning our danger at this day, from their being exposed and yielding to the temptation of per- versity and presumption. 18. (1.) But such an assumption evidences a great want of fairness towards the ancient people of God, in those who make it, and is evidently perilous in pro- portion as it is proved to be unfounded. All men, not the Jews only, have a strange propensity, such as Eve evidenced in the beginning, to do what they are told not to do. It is plainly visible in children, and in the common people ; and in them we are able to judge what Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. 169 we all arej before education and habit lay restraints upon us. Need we even do more tban appeal to the events of the past yearj to the conduct of the lower classes when under that fearful visitation, from which we are noWj as we trust, recovering, in order to detect the workings of that innate spirit of scepticism and obduracy which was the enemy of Jewish faith ? Of course, all places did not afford the same evidence of it ; but on the whole there was enough for my present allusion to it. A suspicion of the most benevolent exertions in their favour, a jealousy of the interference of those who knew more than themselves, a perverse rejection of their services, and a counteraction of their plans and advice, an unthankful credulity in receiving all the idle tales told in disparagement of their know- ledge and prudence ; these were admonitions before our eyes, not to trust those specious theories which are built on the supposition, that the actual condition of the human mind is better now than it was among the Jews. This is not said without regard to the difference of guilt in disobeying a Divine and a human com- mand; nor, again, in complaint of the poorer classes, of whom we are especially bound to be tender, and who are not the worse merely because they are less disguised in the expression of their feelings ; but as pointing out for our own instruction the present existence of a _ perversity in our common nature, like that which appears in the history of Israel. Nor, perhaps, can any one doubt, who examines himself, that he has within him an unaccountable and in- stinctive feeling to resist authority afi such, which 170 Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. conscience or the sense of interest is alone able to overcome. 19. Or^ again, to take the case of young persons who have not yet taken their place in the serious business of life; consider the false shame they feel at being supposed to be obedient to God or man; their en- deavours to be more irreligious than they really caaj. be; their affected indifference to domestic feeHngSj and the sanctity and the authority of relationship \ their adoption of ridicule as an instrument of retaha- tion on the constraints of duty or necessity. What does all this show us, but that our nature likes its own way, not as thinking it better or safer, but simply because it is its own ? In other words^ that the prin- ciple of Faith is resisted, not only by our attachment to objects of sense and sight, but by an innate rebel- lious principle, which disobeys as if for the sake of disobedience. 20. (2.) Now if wilfulness be a characteristic of human nature, it is idle to make any such distinction of Dispensations, as will deprive us of the profitable- ness of the history of Saul; which was the other question just now raised concerning it. Under any circumstances it must be a duty to subdue that which is in itself vicious ; and it is no excuse for wilfulness to say that we are not under a positive system of commands, such as the Mosaic, and that there is no room for the sin in Christianity. Rather, it will be our duty to regard ourselves in all our existing religious relations, and not merely according to some abstract views of the Gospel Covenant, and to apply the prin- Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. 171 ciples of right and wrongj exemplified in the Jewish history-j to our changed circumstances on the whole. 21. But, to speak plainly, it may be doubted whether there be any such great difference between the Jewish system and our own, in respect of positive institutions and commandments. Revealed Religion, as such, is -of the nature of a positive rule, implying, as it does, an addition, greater or less, to the religion of nature, and the disclosure of facts, which are thus disclosed, because otherwise not discoverable. Accordingly, the difference between the state of Jews and Christians is one simply of degree. We have to practise submission as they had, and we can run counter to the will of God in the very same way as they did, and under the same temptations which overcame them. For instance, the reception of the Catholic faith is a submission to a positive command, as really as was that of the Israel- ites to the Second Commandment. And the belief in the necessity of such reception, in order to salvation, is an additional instance of submission. Adherence to the Canon of Scripture is a further instance of this obedience of Faith ; and St. John marks it as such in the words with which the Canon itself closes, which contain an anathema parallel to that which we use in the Creed, Moreover, the duty of Ecclesiastical Unity is clearly one of positive institution; it is a sort of ceremonial observance, and as such, is the tenure on which the evangelical privileges are chartered to us. The Sacraments, too, are of the same positive cha- racter. 22. If these remarks be well founded, it is plain that 172 Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. instead of our being very differently situated from the Jews, all persons who are subjects of Revealed Eeli- gion, coincide in differing from aU who are left under the Dispensation of Nature. Eevelation puts us on a trial which exists but obscurely in Natural Religion ; the trial of obeying for obedience-sake, or on Faith. Deference to the law of Conscience, indeed, is of the nature of Faith ; but it is easily perverted into a kind of self-confidence, namely, a deference to our own judgment. Here, then. Revelation provides us with an important instrument for chastening and moulding our moral character, over and above the matter of its disclosures. Christians as well as Jews must submit as little children. This being considered, how strange are the notions of the present day concerning the liberty and irresponsibility of the Christian ! K the Gospel be a message, as it is, it ever must be more or less what the multitude of self- wise reasoners declare it shall not be, — a law ; it must be of the nature of what they call a form, and a bondage; it must, in its degree, bring darkness, instead of flattering them with the promise of immediate illumination ; and must enlighten them only in proportion as they first submit to be darkened. This, then, if they knew their meaning, is the wish of the so-called philosophical Christians, and men of no party, of the present day ; namely, that they should be rid altogether of the shackles of a Revelation : and to this assuredly their efforts are tending and wfil tend, — to identify the Christian doctrine with their own individual convictions, to sink its supernatural character, and to constitute themselves the prophets. Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. 173 not the recipients, of Divine Truth; creeds and dis- cipline being already in their minds severed from its substance, and being gradually shaken oflF by them in factj as the circumstances of the times will allow. 23. Let uSj then, reflect that, whatever be the trial of those who have not a Revelation, the trial of those who have is one of Faith in opposition to self-will. Those very self-appointed ordinances which are praiseworthy in a heathen, and the appropriate evidence of his earnestness and piety, are inexcusable in those to whom God has spoken. Things indifferent become sins when they are forbidden, and duties when commanded. The emblems of the Deity might be invented by Egyptian faith, but were adopted by Jewish unbelief. The trial of Abraham, when called on to kill his son, as of Saul when bid slay the Amalekites, was the duty of quitting the ordinary rules which He prescribes to our obedience, upon a positive commandment distinctly conveyed to them by revelation. 24. And so strong is this tendency of Revealed Religion to erect positive institutions and laws, that it absorbs into its province even those temporal ordinances which are, strictly speaking, exterior to it. It gives to the laws of man the nature of a divine authority, and where they exist makes obedience to them a duty. This is evident in the case of civil government, the forms and officers of which, when once established, are to be received for conscience-sake by those who find them- selves under them. The same principle is applied in a more remarkable manner to sanction customs originally indifferent, in the case of the Rechabites ; who were 1 74 Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. rewarded with a promise of contumance as a family^ on the ground of their observance of certain discomforts and austerities, imposed on them by the simple authority of an ancestor. 25. With these principles fresh in the memory, a number of reflections crowd upon the mind in sur- veying the face of society, as at present constituted. The present open resistance to constituted power, and (what is more to the purpose) the indulgent toleration of it, the irreverence towards Antiquity, the unscru- pulous and wanton violation of the commands and usages of our forefathers, the undoing of their bene- factions, the profanation of the Church, the bold trans- gression of the duty of Ecclesiastical Unity, the avowed disdain of what is called party religion (though Christ undeniably made a party the vehicle of His doctrine, and did not cast it at random on the world, as men would now have it), the growing indifference to the Catholic Creed, the sceptical objections to portions of its doctrine, the arguings and discussings and compar- ings and correctings and rejectings, and all the train of presumptuous exercises, to which its sacred articles are subjected, the numberless discordant criticisms on the Liturgy, which have shot up on aU. sides of us ; the gene- ral irritable state of mind, which is every where to be witnessed, and craving for change in all things ; what do all these symptoms show, but that the spirit of Saul still lives ? — ^that wilfiilness, which is the antagonist principle to the zeal of David,^the principle of cleaving and breaking down all divine ordinances, instead of Wilfulness, the Sin of Saul. 175 building up. And with Saul's sin^ Saul's portion awaits his followers^ — distraction, aberration ; the hiding of God's countenance ; imbecility^ rashness, and change- ableness in their counsels ; judicial blindness ; fear of the multitude ; ahenation from good men and faithful friends ; subserviency to their worst foes, the kings of Amalek and the wizards of Endor. So was it with the Jews, who rejected their Messiah only to follow impostors; so is it with infidels, who become the slaves of superstition ; and such is ever the righteous doom of those who trust their own wills more than God's word, in one way or other to be led even- tually into a servile submission to usurped authority. As the Apostle says of the Roman Christians, they were but slaves of sin, whUe they were emancipated from righteousness. " What fruit," he asks, " had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed V 26. These remarks may at first sight seem irrelevant in the case of those who, like ourselves, are bound by affection and express promises to the cause of Christ's Church ; yet it should be recollected that very rarely have its members escaped the infection of the age in which they lived : and there certainly is tiie danger of our considering ourselves safe, merely because we do not go the lengths of others, and protest against the extreme principles or measures to which they are committed. SERMON X. FAITH AXD TiEASON, CONTRASTED AS HABITS OF MIND. (Preached on the Epiphany, 1839.) Heb. xi. 1. " Now Faith is the auhsiance of things hoped for, the evidence of thingt not seen." rFHE subject of Faith is one especially suggested to -*- our minds by the event which we this day com- memorate, and the great act of grace of which it was the first-fruits. It was as on this day that the wise men of the East were allowed to approach and adore the infant Saviour^ in anticipation of those Gentile multi- tudes who, when the kingdom of God was preached, were to take possession of it as if by violence, and to extend it to the ends of the earth. To them Christ was manifested as He is to us, and in the same way ; not to the eyes of the flesh, but to the illnmiaated mind, to their Faith. As the manifestation of God accorded to the Jews was circumscribed, and addressed to their senses, so that which is vouchsafed to Christians is universal and spiritual. Whereas the gifts of the Gospel are invisible. Faith is their proper recipient; and whereas its Church is Cathohc, Faith is its bond of intercommunion ; things external, local, and sensible Faith and Reason, &c. 177 being no longer objects to dwell upon on their own account, but merely means of conveying onwards the divine gifts from the Giver to their proper home, the heart itself. 2. As, then. Catholicity is the note, so an inward manifestation is the privilege, and Faith the duty, of the Christian Church ; or, in the words of the Apostle, " the Gentiles " receive " the promise of the Spirit through Faith." 3. I shall not, then be stepping beyond the range of subjects to which this great Festival draws our attention, if I enter upon some inquiries into the nature of that special Gospel grace, by which Jews and Gentiles apprehend and enjoy the blessings which Christ has purchased for them, and which accordingly is spoken of in the Collect in the service, as the peculiarity of our condition in this life, as Sight will be in the world to come. And in so doing, I shall be pursuing a subject, which is hkely to be of main importance in the contro- versies which lie before us at this day, and upon which I am not speaking now for the first time from this place ' . 4. It is scarcely necessary to prove from Scripture, the especial dignity and influence of Faith, under the Gospel Dispensation, as regards both our spiritual and moral condition. Whatever be the particular faculty or frame of mind denoted by the word, certainly Faith is regarded in Scripture as the chosen instrument con- necting heaven and earth, as a novel principle of action most powerful in the influence which it exerts both on ' Vide Sermon IV. [rifiv. S.J N 1 7 8 Faith and Reason, the teart and on the Divine view of us^ and yet in itself of a nature to excite the contempt or ridicule of the world. These characteristics, its apparent weaknesSj its novelty, its special adoption, and its efficacy, are noted in such passages as the following : — " Have faith in God ; for verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain. Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, beheve that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." And again : " K thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that beheveth." Again : " The preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. Where is the wise ? where is the scribe ? where is the disputer of this world ? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that beheve." Again : " The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach. . . . Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." And again : " Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry ; now the just shall live by faith." . . . And then, soon after, the words of the text : " Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen'." 5. Such is the great weapon which Christianity em- 2 Mark xi. 22—24; ix. 23. 1 Cor. i. 18-21. Rom. x. 8, Vj. Heb. i. 37, 38. contrasted as Habits of Mind. 1 79 ploys, whether viewed as a religious scheme^ as a social system, or as a moral rule ; and what it is described as being in the foregoing texts, it is also said to be expressly or by implication in other passages too numerous to cite. And I suppose that it will not be denied, that the first impression made upon the reader from aU these is, that in the minds of the sacred writers, Faith is an instru- ment of knowledge and action, unknown to the world before, a priaciple sui generis, distinct from those which nature supplies, and in particular (which is the point into which I mean to inquire) independent of what is commonly understood by Eeason^ Certainly if, after all that is said about Faith in the New Testament, as if it were what may be called a discovery of the Gospel, and a special divine method of salvation ; if, after aU, it turns out merely to be a believing upon evidence, or a sort of conclusion upon a process' of reasoning, a resolve formed upon a calculation, the inspired text is not level to the understanding, or adapted to the instruction, of the unlearned reader. If Faith be such a principle, how is it novel and strange ? 6. Other considerations may be urged in support of the same view of the case. For instance : Faith is spoken of as having its life in a certain moral temper *, 3 [" What is commonly understood by Keason," or " common sense," as that word is often used, is the hahit of deciding about rehgious questions with the off-hand random judgments which are suggested by secular principles; vide supra. Discourse iv. At best, by Reason is usually meant, the faculty of Keason exercising itself explicitly by a 'posteriori or evidential methods.] ■* [That is, the intellectual principles on which the conclusions are drawn, to which Faith assents, are the consequents of a certain ethical temper, as their sine qua non condition.] N 2 1 80 Faith and Reason, but argumentative exercises are not moral ; Faith, then, is not the same method of proof as Reason. 7. Again : Faith is said to be one of the supernatural gifts imparted in the Gospel. " By grace have ye been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God •" but investigation and proof belong to man as man, prior to the Gospel : therefore Faith is something higher than Reason. 8. Again : — That Faith is independent of processes of Reason, seems plain from their respective subject-matters. " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." It simply accepts testimony. As then testi- mony is distinct from experience, so is Faith from Reason. 9. And again : — When the Apostles disparage " the wisdom of this world," " disputings," " excellency of speech," and the like, they seem to mean very much what would now be called trains of argument, discussion, investigation, — that is, exercises of Reason. 10. Once more: — ^Various instances are given us in Scripture of persons making an acknowledgment of Christ and His Apostles upon Faith, which would not be considered by the world as a rational conviction upon evidence. For instance : The lame man who sat at the Beautiful gate was healed on his faith, after St. Peter had but said, "Look on us." And that other lame man at Lystra saw no miracle done by St. Paul, but only heard him preach, when the Apostle, " steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice. Stand upright on thy feet." Again, St. Paul at Athens did no miracle, but contrasted as Habits of Mind. 1 8 1 preachedj and yet "certain men clave unto him and believed." To the same purpose are our Lord's words, when St. John Baptist sent to Him to ask if He were the Christ. He wrought miracles, indeed, to re-assure him, but added, "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me." And when St. Thomas doubted of His resurrection. He gave him the sensible proof which he asked, but He added, " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." On another occasion He said, " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not beHeVe '." 11. On the other hand, however, it maybe urged, that it is plainly impossible that Faith should be inde- pendent of Reason, and a new mode of arriving at truth ; that the Gospel does not alter the constitution of our nature, and does but elevate it and add to it; that Sight is our initial, and Reason is our ultimate infor- mant concerning all knowledge. We are conscious that we see; we have an instinctive reliance on our Reason : how can the claims of a professed Revelation be brought home to us as Divine, except through these ? Faith, then, must necessarily be resolvable at last into Sight and Reason; unless, indeed, we agree with enthusiasts in thinking that faculties altogether new are implanted in our minds, and that perceptibly, by the grace of the Gospel ; faculties whtch, of course, are known to those who have them without proof; and, to those who have them not, cannot be made known by any. Scripture confirms this representation, as often = Acts iii. 4; xiv. 9, 10; xvii. 34. Matt. xi. 6. John xx. 29; iv. 48. 1 82 Faith and Reason, as the Apostles appeal to their miracles^ or to the Old Testament. This is an appeal to Reason; and what is recorded, ia some instances> was probably or certainly (as it is presumed from the necessity of the case) made in the rest, even when not recorded. 12. Such is the question which presents itself to readers of Scripturej as to the relation of Faith to Eeason : and it is usual at this day to settle it in dis- paragement of Paithj — ^to say that Faith is but a moral quality, dependent upon Reason, — that Reason judges both of the evidence on which Scripture is to be re- ceived, and of the meaning of Scripture; and then Faith follows or not, according to the state of the heart ; that we make up our minds by Reason without Faith, and then we proceed to adore and to obey by Faith apart from Reason ; that, though Faith rests on testimony, not on reasonings, yet that testimony, in its turn, depends on Reason for the proof of its preten- sions, so that Reason is an indispensable preliminary. 13. Now, in attempting to investigate what are the distinct offices of Faith and Reason in rehgious matters, and the relation of the one to the other, I observe, first, that undeniable though it be, that Reason has a pQwer of analysis and criticism in all opinion and conduct, and that nothing is true or right but what may be justified, and, in a certain sense, proved by it, and undeniable, in consequence, that, unless the doctrines received by Faith are approvable by Reason, they have no claim to be regarded as true. contrasted as Habits of Mind. 183 it does not therefore follow that Faith is actually grounded on Reason in the believing mind itself; un- less, indeed, to take a parallel case, a judge can be called the origin, as well as the justifier, of the inno- cence or truth of those who are brought before him. A judge does not make men honest, but acquits and vindicates them : in like manner. Reason need not be the origin of Faith, as Faith exists in the very persons believing, though it does test and verify it. This, then, is one confusion, which must be cleared up in the question, — the assumption that Reason must be the in- ward principle of action in religious inquiries or con- duct in the case of this or that individual, because, like a spectator, it acknowledges and concurs in what goes on J — the mistake of a critical for a creative power. 14. This distinction we cannot fail to recognize as true in itself, and applicable to the matter in hand. It is what we all admit at once as regards the principle of Conscience. No one will say that Conscience is against Reason, or that its dictates cannot be thrown into an argumentative form ; yet who will, therefore, maintain that it is not an original principle, but must depend, before it acts, upon some previous processes of Reason? Reason analyzes the grounds and motives of action : a reason is an analysis, but is not the motive itself. As, then. Conscience is a simple element in our nature, yet its operations admit of being surveyed and scrutinized by Reason; so may Faith be cognizable, and its acts be justified, by Reason, without therefore being, in matter of fact, dependent upon it ; and as we reprobate. 1 84 Faith and Reason, under the name of Utilitarianism^ the substitution of Reason for Conscience, so perchance it is a parallel error to teach that a process of Reason is the sine qud non for true religious Faith. When the Gospel is said to require a rational Faith, this need not mean more than that Faith is accordant to right Reason in the abstract, not that it results from it in the particular case. 15. A parallel and familiar instance is presented by the generally-acknowledged contrast between poetical or' similar powers, and the art of criticism. That art is the sovereign awarder of praise and blame, and con- stitutes a court of appeal in matters of taste; as then the critic ascertains what he cannot himself create, so Reason may put its sanction upon the acts of Faith, without in consequence being the source from which Faith springs. 16. On the other hand. Faith certainly does seem, in matter of fact, to exist and operate quite independently of Reason. Will any one say that a child or uneducated person may not savingly act on Faith, without being able to produce reasons why he so acts ? What suffi- cient view has he of the Evidences of Christianity? What logical proof of its divinity ? If he has none, Faith, viewed as an internal habit or act, does not depend upon inquiry and examination, but has its own special basis, whatever that is, as truly as Conscience has. We see, then, that Reason may be the judge, without being the origin, of Faith; and that Faith may be justified by Reason, without making use of it. This is what it occurs to mention at first sight. contrasted as Habits of Mind. 185 17. Nextj I observe, that, whatever be the real dis- tinction and relation existing between Faith and Eeason, which it is not to our purpose at once to determinej the contrast that would be made between them, on a popular view, is this, — that Eeason requires strong evidence before it assents, and Faith is content with weaker evidence. 18. For instance : when a well-known infidel of the last century argues, that the divinity of Christianity is founded on the testimony of the Apostles, in oppo- sition to the experience of nature, and that the laws of nature are uniform, those of testimony variable, and scoffingly adds that Christianity is founded on Faith, not on Eeason, what is this but saying that Eeason is severer in its demands of evidence than Faith ? 19. Again, the founder of the recent Utilitarian School insists, that aU evidence for miracles, before it can be received, should be brought into a court of law, and subjected to its searching forms : — this too is to imply that Eeason demands exact proofs, but that Faith accepts inaccurate ones. 20. The same thing is implied in the notion which men- of the world entertain, that Faith is but cre- dulity, superstition, or fanaticism; these principles being notoriously such as are contented with insuffi- cient evidence concerning their objects. On the other hand, scepticism, which shows itself in a dissatisfaction with evidence of whatever kind, is often called by the name of Eeason. What Faith, then, and Eeason are, when compared together, may be determined from 1 86 Faith and Reason, their cotinterfeitSj — from the mutual relation of credulity and scepticism, wHch no one can doubt about. 21. In like manner, when mathematics are said to incline the mind towards doubt and latitudinarianism, this arises, according to the statement of one' who felt this influence of the study, from its indisposing us for arguments drawn from mere probabihties. . 22. Or, to take particular instances : — Wten the proof of Infant Baptism is rested by its defenders on such texts as, " Suffer little children to come unto Me'," a man of a reasoning turn will object to such an argument as not sufficient to prove the point in hand. He will say that it does not follow that infants ought to be baptized, because they ought to be brought and dedicated to Christ ; and that he waits for more decisive evidence. 23. Again, when the religious observance of a Christian Sabbath is defended from the Apostles' observance of it, it may be captiously argued that, considering St. Paul's express declaration, that the Sabbath, as such, is abolished, a mere practice, which happens to be recorded in the Acts, and which, for what we know, was temporary and accidental, cannot restore what was once done away, and introduce a Jewish rite into the Gospel. Eeligious persons, who cannot answer this objection, are often tempted to impute it to "man's wisdom," "the logic of the schools," " the pride of reason," and the like, and to insist on the necessity of the teachable study of Scrip- s Bishop Watson. 7 Matt. xix. 14. contrasted as Habits of Mind. 1 8 7 ture as the means of overcoming it. We are not con- cerned to defend tlie language they use ; but it is plain that they corroborate what has been laid down^ as implying that Reason requires more evidence for conviction than Faith. 24. Wheuj then, Eeason and Faith are contrasted together, Faith means easiness, Reason, difSculty of conviction. Reason is called either strong sense or scepticism, according to the bias of the speaker ; and Faith, either teachableness or credulity. 25. The next question, beyond which I shall not proceed to-day, is this : — If this be so, how is it con- formable to Reason to accept evidence less than Eeason requires? If Faith be what has been described, it opposes itself to Reason, as being satisfied with the less where Reason demands the more. If, then. Reason be the healthy action of the mind, then Faith must be its weakness. The answer to this question win advance us one step farther in our investigation into the relation existing between Faith and Reason. 26. Faith, then, as I have said, does not demand evidence so strong as is necessary for what is commonly considered a rational conviction, or belief on the ground of Eeason ; and why ? For this reason, because it is mainly swayed by antecedent considerations. In this way it is, that the two principles are opposed to one another : Faith is influenced by previous notices, prepos- sessions, and (in a good sense of the word) prejudices; but Reason, by direct and definite proof. The mind that, believes is acted upon by its own hopes, fears, and 1 88 Faith and Reason, existing opinions; whereas it is supposed to reason severely, when it rejects antecedent proof of a fact; — rejects every thing but the actual evidence producible in its favour. This will appear from a very few words. 27. Faith is a principle of action, and action does not allow time for minute and finished investigations. We may (if we will) think that such investigations are of high value ; though, in truth, they have a tendency to blunt the practical energy of the mind, while they improve its scientific exactness ; but, whatever be their character and consequences, they do not answer the needs of daily life. Diligent collection of evidence, sifting of arguments, and balancing of rival testimonies, may be suited to persons who have leisure and oppor- tunity to act when and how they will; they are not suited to the multitude. Faith, then, as being a principle for the multitude and for conduct, is influenced more by what (in language familiar to us of this place) are called elKora than by irrjfjieia, — less by evidence, more by previously-entertained principles, views, and wishes. 28. This is the case with all Faith, and not merely religious. We hear a report in the streets, or read it in the public journals. We know nothing of the evidence ; we do not know the witnesses, or any thing about them : yet sometimes we believe implicitly, ■ sometimes not ; sometimes we believe without asking for evidence, sometimes we disbelieve till we receive it. Did a rumour circulate of a destructive earthquake in Syria or the south of Europe, we should readily credit it ; both because it might easily be true, and because it contrasted as Habits of Mind. 189 was nothing to us though it were. Did the report relate to countries nearer home^ we should try to trace and authenticate it. We do not call for evidence till antecedent probabiliiass j'ail.. 29. Again^ it is scarcely necessary to point out how much our inclinations have to do with our belief. It isj almost a proverb, that persons believe what they wish to be true. They will with difficulty admit the failure of any cherished project, or hsten to a messenger of ill tidings. It may be objected, indeed, that great desire of an object sometimes makes us incredulous that we have attained it. Certainly ; but this is only when we consider its attainment improbable, as well as desirable. Thus St. Thomas doubted of the Eesurrection ; and thus Jacob, especially as having already been deceived by his children, believed not the news of Joseph's being governor of Egypt. "Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not . . . but when he saw the waggons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived." 30. The case is the same as regards preconceived opinions. Men readily believe reports unfavourable to persons they dislike, or confirmations of theories of their own. " Trifles light as air •" are all that the predisposed mind requires for belief and action. 31. Such are the inducements to belief which prevail with aU of us, by a law of our nature, and whether they are in the particular case reasonable or not. When the probabihties we assume do not really exist, or our wishes are inordinate, or our opinions are wrong, our Faith degenerates into weakness, extravagance, super- 1 90 Faith and Reason, stition, enthusiasm, bigotry, prejudice, as tlie case may be ; but when our prepossessions are unexception- able, then we are right in believing or not believing, not indeed without, but upon slender evidence. 32. Whereas Eeason then (as the word is commonly used) rests on the evidence. Faith is influenced by presumptions ; and hence, while Eeason requires rigid proofs. Faith is satisfied with vague or defective ones. 33. It will serve to bring out this doctriae into a more tangible form, to set down some inferences and reflections to which it leads, themselves not unimpor- tant. 34. (1.) First, then, I would draw attention to the coincidence, for such it would seem to be, of what has been said, with St. Paul's definition of Faith in the text. He might have defined it " reliance on the word of another," or "acceptance of a divine message," or " submission of the intellect to mysteries," or in other ways equally true and more theological ; but instead of such accounts of it, he adopts a definition bearing upon its nature, and singularly justifying the view which has been here taken of it. " Faith," he says, " is the sub- stance " or realizing " of things hoped for." It is the reckoning that to be, which it hopes or wishes to be ; not " the realizing of things proved by evidence." Its desire is its main evidence ; or, as the Apostle expressly goes on to say, it makes its own evidence, " being the evidence of things not seen." And this is the cause, as is natural, why Faith seems to the world so irrational. contrasted as Habits of Mind. 1 9 r as St. Paul says in otter Epistles. Not tliat it has no grounds in Reason^ tliat is, in evidence ; but because it is satisfied with, so much less than would be necessary, were it not for the bias of the mind, that to the world its evidence seems like nothiag. 35. (2.) Next it is plain in what sense Faith is a moral principle. It is created in^^gjmind, not.so much_ by facts, as bjjrobabilities.; and since probabilities have no definite ascertained value, and are reducible to no scientific standard, what are such to each individual, depends on his moral temperament. A good and a bad man will think very different things probable. In the judgment of a rightly disposed mind, objects are desir- able and attainable which irreKgious men will consider to be but fancies. Such a correct moral judgment and view of things is the very medium in which the argu- ment for Christianity has its constraining influence ; a faint proof under circumstances being more availing than a strong one, apart from those circumstances. 36. This holds good as regards the matter as well as the evidence of the Gospel. It is diflBcult to say where the evidence, whether for Scripture or the Creed, would be found, if it were deprived of those adven- titious illustrations which it extracts and absorbs from the mind of the inquirer, and which a merciful Provi- dence places there for that very purpose. Texts have their illuminating power, from the atmosphere of habit, opinion, usage, tradition, through which we see them. On the other hand, irrteligious men are adequate judges of the value of mere evidence, when the decision turns upon it ; for evidence is addressed to the Reason, com- 192 Faith and Reason, pels the Reason to assent so far as it is strong, and allows the Eeason to doubt or disbelieve so far as it is weak. The blood on Joseph's coat of many colours was as perceptible to enemy as to friend; miracles appeal to the senses of all men, good and bad ; and, while their supernatural character is learned from that experience of nature which is common to the just and to the unjust, the fact of their occurrence depends on considerations about testimony, enthusiasm, imposture, and the like, in which there is nothing inward, nothing personal. It is a sort of proof which a man does not make for himself, but which is made for him. It exists independently of him, and is apprehended from its own clear and objective character. It is its very boast that it does but require a candid hearing ; nay, it especially addresses itself to the unbeliever, and engages to con- vert him as if against his will. There is no room for choice; there is no merit, no praise or blame, in be- lieving or disbelieving ; no test of character in the one or the other. But a man is responsible for his faith, because he is responsible for his Kkings and dishkings, his hopes and his opinions, on aU of which his faith depends. And whereas unbelievers do not see this distinction, they persist in saying that a man is as little responsible for his faith as for his bodily functions ; that both are from nature ; that the will cannot make a weak proof a strong one; that if a person thinks a certain reason goes only a certain way, he is dishonest in attempting to make it go farther; that if he is after aU wrong in his judgment, it is only his misfortune, not his fault ; that he is acted on by certain principles contrasted as Habits of Mind. 1 9 3 from without, and must obey tlie laws of evidence, which are necessary and constant. But in truth, though a given evidence does not vary in force, the antecedent probability attending it does vary without limit, accord- ing to the temper of the mind surveying it. 37. (3.) Again : it is plain from what has been said, why our great divines. Bull and Taylor, not to mention others, have maintained that justifying faith is fidi,es formata charij^ate, or in St. Paul's words, 7rw7Tts St' ayaTrir; ivepyov/iivT]. For as that faith, which is not moral, but depends upon evidence, is fides formata ratione, — dead faith, whioh an infidel may have ; so that which justifies or is acceptable in God's sight, lives in, apd from, a desire after those things which it accepts and confesses. \ 38. (4.) And here, again, we see what is meant by say- ing that Faith is a supernatural principle. The laws of evidence are the same in regard to the Gospel as to | profane matters. If they were the sole arbiters of Faith, of course Faith could have nothing supernatural in it. But love of the great Object of Faith, watch- ful attention to Him, readiness to believe Him near, easiness to believe Him interposing in human affairs, fear of the risk of slighting or missing what may really come from Him ; these are feehngs not natural to fallen man, and they come only of supernatural grace ; and these are the feelings which make us think evidence sufficient, which falls short of a proof in itself. The natural man has no heart for the promises of the Gospel, and dissects its evidence without reverence, without hope, without suspense, without misgivings; [uNrv. s.j 1 94 Faith and Reason, and, while he analyzes that evidenpe perhaps more philosophically than another, and treats it more lumi- nously, and sums up its result with the precision and propriety of a legal tribunal, he rests in it as an end, and neither attains the farther truths at which it points, nor inhales the spirit which it breathes. 39. (5.) And this remark bears upon a fact which has sometimes perplexed Christians, — that those philoso- phers', ancient and m.odern, who have been eminent in physical science, have not unfrequently shown a tendency to infidelity. The system of physical causes is so much more tangible and satisfying than that of final, that unless there be a pre-existent and inde- pendent interest in the inquirer's mind, leading him to dwell on the phenomena which betoken an Intelli- gent Creator, he will certainly follow out those which terminate in the hypothesis of a settled order of nature and self- sustained laws. It is indeed a great question whether Atheism is not as philosophically consistent with the phenomena of the physical world, taken by themselves °, as the doctrine of a creative and governing Power. But, however this be, the practical safeguard against Atheism in the case of scientific inquirers is the inward need and desire, the inward 8 Vide Bacon, de Angm. Scient. § 5. [9 "iJAysicoZ phenomena, taken hy