L T B T^ A. II Y OF THE Theological Seminary PRINCETON, N. J. A Case ^ " BR 45 .B35 1872 Bampton lectures A DONATION Kecciucd ■M/: The Permanence of Christianity His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono. RIVINGTONS JLonUoit Waterloo Place ®)cforn High Street CatniriDge Trinity Street The Permanence of Christianity CONSIDERED IN EIGHT LECTURES PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN THE YEAR MDCCCLXXII ^n tlje jfounDatioti of tlje late Eeb. Jotjn Bampton, ^.Si. JOHN RICHARD TURNER EATON, M.A. LATE FELLOW AND TUTOR OF MERTON COLLEGE ; RECTOR OF LAPWORTH, WARWICKSHIRE ; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER CATHEDRAL. RIVINGTONS Lantian : (J^^forti : Cambrttige MDCCCLXXIII " Eliam quae pro Religione dicimus, cum grandi metu et disciplina diceie debcinus." — ////. de 7) in, ccvii. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND HENRY LORD BISHOP OF WORCESTER THESE LECTURES ARE DenicatcD WITH SINCERE RESPECT. EXTRACT FEOM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, CANON OF SALISBURY. " I give and bequeath my Lands aud Estates to tlie " Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of " Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and singular the " said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the intents and " purposes hereinafter mentioned ; that is to say, I will and " appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of " Oxford for the time being shall take and receive all the " rents, issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, repa- " rations, and necessary deductions made) that he pay all the " remainder to the endowment of eight Divmity Lecture " Sermons, to be established for ever in the said University, " and to be performed in the manner following : " I direct and appoint, that, upon the First Tuesday in "Easter Term, a Lecturer may be yearly chosen by the "Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room " adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours of " ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach " eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at " St. Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement of the " last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third week " in Act Term. EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTONS WILL. " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture " Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following sub- "jects — to confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to " confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the divine " authority of the holy Scriptures — upon the authority of " the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and " practice of the primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our " Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the " Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as " comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creed. " Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity " Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within two months " after they are preached ; and one coj)y shall be given to the " Chancellor of the University, and one copy to the Head of " every College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city of " Oxford, and one copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ; " and the expense of printing them shall be paid out of the " revenue of the Land or Estates given for estabhshing the " Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be " paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are printed. " Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be quali- " fied to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath " taken the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two " Universities of Oxford or Cambridge ; and that the same " person shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons " twice." PREFACE T AM aware that all advocacy of Revealed Truth, which does not proceed from the pen of a lay- man, will in some quarters, at least, be held to be but prejudiced and valueless. I have accordingly made greater use throughout this work of the state- ments and testimony of adversaries than of friends to the cause of Christianity. To these I have en- deavoured to do justice, " setting down nought in malice ; " but rather striving to make my own the honest professions of an honoured name in our Church ; whose words, and not my own, I desire may linger in the mind of the reader of these pages. " No man may justly blame me for honour- " ing my spiritual mother, the Church of Eng- " land, in whose womb I was conceived, at whose *' breasts I was nourished, and in whose bosom I " hope to die. Bees, by the instinct of nature, do " love their hives, and birds their nests. But, " God is my witness, that according to my utter- PREFACE. " most talent and poor understanding, I have en- " deavoured to set down the naked Truth impar- " tially, without either favour or prejudice, the " two capital enemies of right judgment. The one " of which, like a false mirrour, doth represent " things fairer and straighter than they are ; the " other, like the tongue infected with choler, makes " the sweetest meats to taste bitter. My desire " hath been to have Truth for my chiefest friend, "and no enemy but error." — Bramhall (Works, 11. 21). I should be ungrateful, were I not here to ac- knowledge my obligations to the assistance and sympathy of many old and valued friends, more especially to the Rev. William Ince, Sub-Rector and Tutor of Exeter College, Oxford ; and to Dr. George Rolleston, Fellow of Merton College, and Linacre Professor of Physiology in the University of Oxford. J CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION xi LECTURE I. PERMANENCE A TEST OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS LECTURE n. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CON- SIDERED LECTURE in. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CON- SIDERED LECTURE IV. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CON- SIDERED IS9 LECTURE V. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CON- SIDERED 20S LECTURE VL THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM THE CHARACTER OF ITS INFLUENCE 251 CONTENTS. LECTURE VII. TAGE THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM THE CHARACTER OF ITS INFLUENCE 29s LECTURE VIIL THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM ITS MISSIONARY CHARACTER AND PRESENT STANDING. . . 337 INTRODUCTION T N the interval between the delivery of these -'- Lectures and their publication a volume has ap- peared from the pen of the veteran, D. F. Strauss, which has already run through four editions.^ No work could better illustrate the double line of attack to which Christian belief is at this time exposed. Commencing with the inquiry, — ^" Are we still Christians ? " and taking the Apostles' Creed as his standard of orthodoxy,^ the writer seeks to show in detail not only the unreality of a belief in the Holy Spirit; not only the unhis- torical character of all that is Divine in the Person and Life of Jesus Christ ; but further, the need- lessness and logical imperfection of the very idea of a Creator of the Universe.^ That Universe, he holds, is itself both the term of human inquiry and the basis of all reality. In it aad in its manifold developments must be sought the ground of all ^ Der alte und der neue Glauhe. Vierte Auflage. Bonn, 1873. "■ See §§ 5-13. "^ See more particularly §§ 5, 36, 38. It was a saying of Kant, " Give me Matter ; and I will show you how a world might from it arise." INTRODUCTION. existence,^ the secret of life, the measure of eter- nity and of infinity, the limitations of immortality. Duty is resolved into resignation to the invariable Laws of Nature, and into the submission of indi- vidual desires to the general good of the race or species.^ Religion, if indeed it can be said to exist, is explained to be a sentiment of awe and admiration at the grandeur of that Universe,^ of which the par- ticular soul, if that can be called soul, which is so entirely one with the body, forms a minute fraction. Such are the results of a criticism of forty years, hitherto supposed to be directed to the examina- tion of the historical documents relating to the Life of Christ. It has closed in landing the critic not in the position of the Unitarian ; who denies, indeed, the cardinal doctrine of our Lord's Divinity, ^ " Im Laufe unsrer weiteren Betrachtiing bestimmte sicli uns das- selbe njiher dahin, dass es in's Unendliche bcwegter Stoff sei, der dnrch Scheiduug und Mischuug sich zii immer hohern FoiTQcn und Functionen steigcrt, wiihrend er durch Ausbildung, lliickbildung, und Neubildung einen ewigen Kreis besclircibt." — Strauss, p. 22G. See also 228. 2 " Alles sittliche Handehi des Menschen, mochte ich sagen, ist ein Sichbestimmen des Einzelnen uach der Idee der Gattung."— /Z>., pp. 241 and 243. Strauss of course denies free-will, p. 252. ^ See p. 244, " Das religiose Gebiet in der menschlichen Seelo gleicht dem Gebiete der Rothhaute in Amerika, das, man mag es beklagen oder misbilligen so viel man will, von deren weissbiiutigen Nacbbarn von Jabr zu Jahr, mchr eingeengt wird;" p. 141. See also 145, 147. Similarly M. Littr6 on tlie side of Positivism defines Reli- gion, " La definition de la religion c'est Tensemble des dogmes et d'in- stitutions qui conforment k la conception du Monde I'cducation et la morale." — Paroles de la I'hilosophie I'osUive, p. 62. As regards the old theological dogmas he declares himself superior to conviction. Jb., pp. 50, 51. INTRODUCTION. yet acknowledges '' the form," and even, it may be said, " the power of godliness : " but in that of a Pantheistic Materialist,^ indifferent alike to the existence of Grod, or of the soul.^ Professing to write in the interests of a powerful and intellectual minority, Herr Strauss declares his readiness to await the extinction of the popular religion, the doctrines of which, meanwhile, he hardly thinks it necessary to assail.^ Now, if such be, indeed, a fair representation of the issues of an union of Biblical Criticism with Natural Philosophy ; it will appear that hencefor- ward there may be expected a new line of attack upon Revealed Truth, the result of a junction of the forces which have hitherto been ranged on ^ " Wenn man hierin den klaren crassen Material ismus aiisgesprochen findet, so will ich zunachst gar niclits dagegen sagen," p. 212. Strauss, however, thinks the differences between the Materialist and Idealist of little account. He prefers a system of Monism. This again is the view of the Positivist School. See Littr^, Principes, pp. 38, 39. Strictly speaking, however, Pantheism supposes a God immanent in things ; while Positivism sees only Laws. * " Karl Vogt (er ist sonst nicht mein Mann, aber in diesem Felde stimme ich ihm durchaus bei) hat den Schluss gezogen, dass die Annahme einer besoudern Seelensubstanz eine reine Hypothese ist : dass keine einzige Thatsache fiir die Existenz einer solcher Substanz spricht." — Ih., p. 210. Vogt, it is well known, after Cabanis, makes Thought a secretion of the brain. See his Bilder aus dem Tliierleben. ^ " Fiir uns selbst indessen begehren wir von diesen Bewcgungen vorerst mehr nicht als Diogenes von dem grossen Alexander. Niimlich nur so viel dass uns der Kirchenschatten fortan nicht mehr im Wege sei." — 11., p. 296. See also pp. 7, 8, 15, 75. In his Nachwort als Vorwort, Strauss quotes a very true observation of Dahlmann : " Wie man eine Kirche auf bios Christlicher Moral Itauen kijnno, das sehe ich vor der Hand nicht ein : " p. 41. INTRODUCTION. different sides against the cause of Christianity. While, on the one hand, criticism is being directed, legitimately and not unfairly, upon the original documents of our Faith, the trust-deeds of the Gospel ; on the other, arguments are advanced, presumably the products of scientific research ; which are fatal to the Christian scheme, it is true, but also to the very existence of Religion gene- rally. Hence the twofold character of the line of proof pursued in these Lectures, involving con- siderations which may be said to lie at the roots of all faith in God and Eternal Life, as well as an examination of facts which concern the history and prospects of Christianity. Both, indeed, are connected by the reflection that the Religion of Christ, if it is to be a permanent gift to mankind, must first be found superior to all objections raised by the free-thinking efforts of the age. It must show itself as ready to assimilate with scientific culture as with the barbarism of ruder times. The position of the foregoing school of thought, as regards the main tenets of Positivism, is not far to seek. Both equally exclude the Supernatural from History and from tlie Universe.^ Both alike ' " Du moment qu'on ue laisse ancune place aux volont^s suniatu- relles, ni dans le monde inorganique ni dans le monde organique, ni parmi les phenom^nes cosmiqucs ni parmi ceux de I'histoire, on est n6cessairement des notres." — Littro, Paroles de la Phil. Positive, p. 58. Comp. Strauss, p. 181. INTRODUCTION. find in the Universe only Matter and Force/ neg- lecting the idea of Form.^ Both hold that to seek the reason of things in the thought of God is to seek it in a region which is hoth practically and mentally inaccessible. Thus it is this attempt which has constituted the whole history of Meta- physic and Religion ; a history of failure. Both agree in banishing free agency from human life and conduct.^ Both in the study of things omit the study of man ; forgetting the difficulty, if not impossibility, of establishing on material grounds alone the ideas of God, of immortality, of our own individual personality.* Both alike confound the ^ " All del^ de ces deux termes, Matiere et Force, la science positive ne connait rien." — Littr^, Principes, p, xi. "La force," says M. Janet (ie Mater ialisme Contemporain, p. 20), " selon Moleschott n'est pas un Dieu donnant I'impulsion a la matiere ; line force qui plane an dessus de la matiere est une idee absurde." Moleschott 's ground-principle is, " No force without matter ; no matter without force ; " = Allgewalt des Stoffenwechseh. 2 " Cette idee de I'espece qui serait inherente au germe c'est uu principe qui depasse toutes les donnees du Materialisme." — Janet, p. 115. ' Thus the old antithesis between Predestination and Free-will is now represented by Naturalism and Religion, Laws of Nature and Human Liberty. We may be content to rest in Dr. Mozley's con- clusion (Azigustinian Doctrine of Predestination, I. 29), " While suffi- ciently clear for all purposes of practical religion (for we cannot doubt that they are truths so far as and in that mode in which we apprehend them), these are truths upon which we cannot raise definite and abso- lute systems. All we build upon either must partake of the imperfect nature of the premiss which supports it, and be held under a reserve of consistency with a counter conclusion from the opposite truth." — See also IV., 326. * M. Janet well observes : " Le Positivisme c'est le revanche de I'em- pirisme contre la phre'nesie de la speculation rationnelle a priori." INTRODUCTION, indestructibility of Matter and the Conservation of Force with its eternity.' Both equally ignore the real difficulty of Naturalism; which is to recon- cile the consciousness of personal identity with the ceaseless permutations of a material world. How can we prove, or even conceive, a community of consciousness between two particles of matter?^ In our own country a school of thought is arising, perhaps more logical and certainly more reverent than that of pure Materialism, which re- cognizes in the Unknowable the ultimate limit of Science, but also the proper object of Eeligion. Such a view, amid the turmoil of discussion, is the rather welcome to the Christian believer ; as he is himself ready to see and admit Religion to be the Revelation of the Unknowable or Unknown. It has, however, its dangers and its doubts; as to which it is well for the younger student of our time to be on his guard. A system, in which the ' " Jadis la raison humaine le voyant sujet au cliangement, alia chercher I'eternel, I'immuaLle par dclk I'horizon et dans les archetypes. Maintenant reternel, rimmuable, devcnant notion positive, nous apparait sous la forme dcs lois iramanentes qui gouvernont, tout." — Ijittre, Frin- cipes, p. 57. ^ " He, this person, or self, must either be a substance, or the pro- perty of some substance. If he, if person, be a substance, then con- sciousness that he is the same person is consciousness that he is the same substance. If the person, or he, be the property of a substance, still consciousness that he is the same property is as certain a proof that his substance remains the same, as consciousness that lie remains the same substance would be: since the same property cannot he trans- ferred from one substance to another. "—Bp. Butler, Dissert. I. 07i Per- sonal Identity. INTROD UCTION. Unknowable, as such, is made the essential object- matter of Faith, excludes the possibility of the Unknowable becoming known and determined, whether mediately through Eevelation, or ulti- mately in the history of things. In such a view a confusion seems for ever imminent between the physical Unknown in the realm of Nature, and the mentally Unknowable which constitutes the prac- tical principle of Religion. Still more difficult is it to reconcile this doctrine of a Naturalistic Ne- science with the aspect under which it is very frequently presented, as " the Power manifested in the Universe." The argument pursued in Lecture II. (as bind- ing in the sphere of physical philosophy ^), so far forth as it presumes Motion, as well as Form, to necessitate a First Cause, will be found in Aris- totle's Physics, Lib. VIII. It must, as it seems to me, hold good till it can be shown that Motion is an original, primary quality of Matter, and so immanent in it. But, as far as appears. Inertia is as much a quality of Matter as Motion, and a body at rest must be acted on exter- nally to be set in movement. The Wolfian sup- position of a tendency to motion (in nisu) was demonstrated by Euler to be both unphilosophical * On the necessity or at least desirability of admitting a 2^hysicat element into Philosophy, comp. Janet, La Crise Pliilosophique, p. 106, of whose able train of reasoning I have gladly availed myself in the following remarks. — See Le Mater iaUsme Contemporain , c. iv. b INTRODUCTION. and contrary to experience. In point of fact, all movement is now regarded and computed as a re- sultant ; and whereas the rate of velocity might at first sight appear to be in the body, it is fonnd in effect to be otherwise. Attraction and Inertia are ecpially facts ; but if the former be considered to be a relative property of two atoms of matter, which singly are indifferent to rest or motion, this is a jDroperty which has still to be accounted for. Nor can a universe, however immense,^ have pro- perties other than those of its integrant parts. One fact, as it seems to me, must ever remain a stumbling-block in the path of infidel speculation. It is the existence, history, and standing of the Cliurch of Christ.^ Active, influential, progres- sive ; nurse of the brightest minds that shine in the galaxy of human story, of an Origen, an Au- gustine, a Dante, a Pascal, a Leibnitz, a Milton, a Newton ; handmaid to the spirit of man in his moments of loftiest devotion ; mother of modern art; queen of the realm of benevolence and huma- nity ; her doctrines can never be held akin to ' On the acknowledged immensity of the Universe, M. Littre finely observes : " C'est im ocean qui vient battre notre rive ; et pour lequel nous n'avons ni barque ni voile ; mais dont la claire vision est aussi salutairc que formidable." — A. Comte et la Phil. I'os., p. 529. ' Thus it is admitted by Strauss (Nuchwort, pp. 37, 38), " dass die von Jesus ausgegangene religiose Bewogung noch miichtig in unsre Zeit hereinwirke, wird Niemand liiugnen Christenthum mag iu der Menschheit gewirkt haben was es will, uud fortwirken wird es iu jedem Fall : &c." INTR on UCTION. Pagan or Oriental superstitions, or be deemed un- worthy of modern intelligence : neither can they be explained away, as the unripe fruit of human evolution, or as the outcome of times of unreason- ing ignorance. If only we apply to Christianity, as a phenomenon of man's history in the world, the same standard of estimation which we use in other things, aiid judge of its future by the past, there is small reason either to fear as to its per- petuity, or to predict its fall. LECTURE I. PERMANENCE A TEST OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 'Aflipai 8' eTTtAoiTTOt lxdpTVp€ 111 '^^^ objcc- Protestantism may be and has been turned with tion dravyu equal force from the disagreements of opposed ations of sects and rival Churches upon the claims of Chris- tianity at large.^ The conclusion drawn, it is true, is no more valid in the one case than in the other, and for the same reasons. Indeed, to a fair mind it would rather furnish a presumption against the truth of Christianity, if it did not or had not in its progress exhibited that amount of variation which is alone compatible with the course of human reason on all subjects of thought. The pathology of a religious system assumes the reality of a true core of belief. The existence of controversy is to a certain extent a test of the power and vitality of Christianity. " If any country," says Bacon,^ " decline into Atheism, then controversies wax daint}^ ; because men do think religion scarce worth the falling out." The co-existence and com- petition of sects has therefore not unreasonably * Dean Hook, Live?, of Archhisliops, in his Introduction to the New Series, remarks on " the tendency of the Keformation to individualize Christianity." 2 " Si I'argument de M. de Meaux vaut quelque chose contre la Re- formation, il a la meme force contre le Christianisme." — Beausobre, Hist, de Manichee, 1. 526, and see Mr. Buckle's remarks, //. C. E., II. 283. The objection raised disappears when the nature of the subject-matter of Revelation, with its difficulties of application and interpretation, is considered. Compare Hallam, Literature of Europe, III. 208. '^ Bacon's Works (ed. Speddiug), VIII. 165. 12 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. been held to be the system most in conformity with the nature of society, and most favourable to the solidity and general efliciency of religion.^ Some, however, may be inclined to attribute to the objection, suggested by the argument of Bossuet, an importance disproportioned to its worth. It certainly entails on the Christian advocate the task of showing that the disagreement among Christians has not been vital, nor its degree such as to neutralize the common effect due to the religion of Christ as a whole. In accom- plishing the work whereunto it is sent, the robe of Christ is still " without seam, woven from the top throughout." Moreover, whatever have been its fortunes, its projDer tendencies remain ; and these undoubtedly act to " draw men together in spite of their worst differences, proving it to be quite as abhorrent of divisions in itself as Nature ever A warn- was of a vacuum." ^ Still, if union is strength, ing, how- , ^ o 7 ever, to persistcut differences mean permanent weakness. study the I. , . ^ increase of It IS then surcly time for the great sections of the Christian world ^ to study unity and not division ; ^ See Guizot's Meditations, Pt. II., pp. 5, 165 (E. T.) ; Paley, Evid., II. c. vii. ; and compare Ffoulkes' Divisions of Christendom, p. 246. " There is even consolation," &c. It is true, however, as Dr. Westcott has re- marked, after Comte, that the tendencies of Protestantism go to obscure the conception of continuity in human progress, reposing too much on logical deduction. " To erect any one age (whether primitive or me- di£eval)into an idol is to deny implicitly that the Gospel is life." — Con- temp. Review, VI. 420. See also Dorner, Hist. Frotestant Theology, Vol. I., p. xviii., E. T. ^ Ffoulkes, u. s., p. vi. and p. 252. ^ Compare Guizot, Meditations, Pt. I., Prcf., pp. ix.-xvii, " Jc dis rnia- Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 13 alliance and not mutual elimination ; to give up claims to a several infallibility ; to join at least for the defence of the faith " once delivered to the saints " ; to exhibit the bases of a common belief ; to cherish more strongly than hitherto their under- lying points of agreement ; to drop dissensions, and go forth to conquer. s^ 4. But it may be asked at the outset — is Per- Pen nence an manence of itself a test of truth ? ^ Is that which actual test . of truth. is true always enduring and error never so? Have not unreal systems held sway and made progress in the history of mankind ? Is there no such thing as a prescription of ignorance ? ^ Is retrogression a thing impossible, and is there no historical proof of it? Are periods of ^^ denuda- I'Eglise Chretienne : c'est toute r]ilglise Chretienne en eftet, et non pas telle ou telle des eglises chretiennes qui est maintenant et radicalement attaquee." ^ It will perhaps be said that truth is strictly an attribute oi proposi- tions only ; and in this sense no one will deny that what is true is true for always, though it may not at all times be recognized. But the term seems not improperly used of whatever answers to the definition of a thing. In the case of institutions, some come up to the idea or notion commonly held of their nature and function ; some fall short of it. Christianity is sometimes regarded as a set of dogmas or propositions (such as have been termed fundamentals), of which truth is imme- diately predicable. Sometimes it is identified with the Church, which is the witness and keeper of these truths. In this capacity, as liable to the admixture of error, it may be compared with rival religious systems, and may vary at different periods relatively to itself. Perma- nence in the form oi persistence in cwisciousness seems to lie at the basis of all reality. See Mr. Herbert Spencei-, First Frinciples, p. 226. * " Consuetude sine veritate vetustas erroris est." — Cyprian, Ep. 74. 0pp., p. 282. 14 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. lion'' unknown in the intellectual eras of our race ? Does truth always emerge from behind the mists of falsehood and make daylight in the world ? Perhaps not ; and yet the answer to such doubts may be in no wise doubtful. The day is really past, notwithstanding some pretentious objections, for questioning the tendencies of God's moral i,iai)ieto government. Exceptions, which constitute only excepUons. the disordcr of Nature, yield no argument against its general laws. " God," says Bishop Butler, " makes use of a variety of means, what wo often think tedious ones, in the natural course of Providence for the accomplishment of all His ends." ^ The analogy of reason as against force, which has been employed by the same author to illustrate the tendency of right to prevail in the economy of the world, affords a similar explanation of the victories of error over truth in the working of religious systems. Yirtute semper pra3valet sapientia. The lesson gained from a criticism of the past is this ; that while it is consistent with an overruling Providence to allow the existence of falsehood, ex- travagance, self-delusion in almost every form, yet there is, on the whole, a constant steady advance towards convictions which are finally recognized ' Analorpj, rt. II. c. iv. Comp. Eiirip. Orestes, 420 : M«AXft TO Q(7op- earl toiovtov cfjvo-fi. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 15 as immutably true. And this progress of truth is not dependent on bHnd tendencies, but on an intellectual activity which, gradually disposing of error, transforms opinion into knowledge. This which is evident in the experience of the physical sciences holds good equally for the more complex subjects of theology and morals. But the results must naturally be sought not among the least but among the most civilized portions of mankind. Length of time together with reasonable oppor- tunity may be requisite for the extinction of error. Duration and stress of persecution, stamping out conscientious belief, may, in some instances, ac- count for the depression of truth. To some extent they explain and help on its progress.^ Degrada- tion, partial or temporary, seems to be an historical condition of the general advance of civilization.^ • "Le besoin perfectionne 1' instrument," was a maxim of Turgot. " In times of peace," says Archbishop Leighton, " the Church may dilate more and build as it were into breadth, but in times of trouble it arises more in height. It is then built upwards, as in cities where men are straitened, they build usually higher than in the country." — Op. Coleridge, Aids to B., p. 73. '^ " Ages of laborious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid downfall, and the several climates of the globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes and diminish our apprehensions."— Gibbon, Vol. IV. 409 (ed. Milman). " Humanity accomplishes its necessary destiny but (being comjoosed of free persons) with an element of liberty ; so that error and crime find their place in its course, and we behold centuries which do not advance, but even recede, days of illness, and years of wandering. . . . But mankind never entirely or irremediably errs. The light burns somewhere which is to go to the front of the straying gene- ration and brhig it along in its wake. When the Gospel failed in the 1 6 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. {^rounded on a rea- sonable conviction. But an inversion of the order of the universe, as well as of our inbred convictions, of our experi- ence of things as well as of our inner consciousness, must take place before we can admit indifference or malice, a willingness to deceive or a capacity of deception in the Author and Administrator of the world. And yet this is implied in the assumption that the human race in its most distinguished representatives and on the subjects of the highest moment lies still in darkness.^ " God owes it to mankind not to lead them into error," is the bold language of Pascal.^ " Truth," says Milton, " is strong next to the Almighty." As it is ludicrous East it dawned on the races of the North." — Ozanam, Civilis. Chret., I. pp. 18-20, E. T. Mr. Tylor, Hist. Prim. Cult., I. 421, speaking of natural religion, remarks that " the history of religion displays but too plainly the proneness of mankind to relapse, in spite of reformation, into the lower and darker condition of the past." * There is a tendency in the Positiviat system to assume not only that in the constitution of things error is employed as a means to truth, but that this theorem covers the whole of religious belief. Thus theology, which in this system of thought is imaginary, is allowed to have been an important stage in the advance of the human race, yet only as a sort of " pis-aller." See Comte, Phil. Pos., IV. C93. The language of the Apostle in Acts xvii. 30 {tovs ntv ovv p^pciroi;? Trjs dyvoias vnepidcov 6 Ofos) may in the English version be liable to be mistaken. But his argument on this deeply momentous subject, " the fulness of times," as expanded in Eora. c. i., ii., and Gal. iii., iv., can hardly be misappre- hended. See Bimsen, Ood in History, Vol. I. 215, E. T. ■'' " Dieu doit aux hommes de ne pas les induire en erreur." — Pensees. " The established order of things in which we find ourselves, if it has a Creator, must surely speak of His will in its broad outlines and main issues." — Newman, Orammar of Assent, p. 391. Comp. Farrar's Wit- ness of History to Christ, p. 92. See Sir W. Hamilton (Jteid, 743, 745). Mr. Mill's criticism {Exam., p. 136) is invalid so long as there are truths of consciousness leading up to the recognition of God. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 17 to go about to prove the reality of those percep- tions which alone exist to us as the means of discovering' facts ; so were it futile to suspect the ultimate triumph of truth over falsehood, or to question the tendency of things in the long run to exhibit its jorogress. The improvement of mankind in successive ages is indisputable, and improvement involves at least approximation to truth. Whatever be the obstacles to their power of self-assertion, the Grrand Justiciary of reason and of fact is Time/ S 5. What, however, is meant by Time in these Time in , , , , what sense considerations, and how much may justly be attri- an agency, buted to it ? In what respects is it an element of progress in the history of knowledge ? It is no mere abstraction or Idol of the Tribe. It is a real condition of all human operation, speculative or practical. Its function may be compared to an analytic yet constructive process ; which dividing and disengaging elements before believed to be inseparable, renders re-arrangement and recon- struction possible and simple.^ Such is the work ^ " Le temps, le grand Justicier du passe." — Montaigne. Cicero (^Nat. D., II. ii. 5), speaking of the existence of God, says : " Quod nisi cognitum comprehensumque animis haberemus, non tarn stabilis opinio permaneret, nee confirmaretur diuturnitate temporis nee una cum s,x- culis ajtatibusque hominum inveterari potuisset. Et enini videmus caiteras opiniones fictas atque vanas diuturnitate extabuisse. . . . Opi- nionum cnim commenta delet dies, natural judicia confirmat." ^ M. Littre {A. Comte et la Fhil. Pos., p. 45) well observes : " Le temps, faisant I'office des forts grossissements, montre disjoint ce (pii apparait etroitemcnt conjoint dans I'esprit d'un merae pcnscur." C 1 8 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. of continuous generations toiling unconsciously as one man in the quest of Truth, but with this advantage, that they are uninterrupted by indi- vidual mortality.^ Some thinkers use Time too readily and profusely^ as an agent, whether in physical changes, or in the advance of opinion and the overthrow of superstitions by a sort of natural and spontaneous growth of the human mind — a gradual evolution of conviction, the spirit and tendency of the age, the fruit of time and succes- sion. It should be clearly understood that all such results are, in fact, the work of individual effort, admitting of distinct explanation. The tendencies of an age are the unperceived con- sequences of foregone argument. They are "changes wrought not hy Time, but in Time." In the work of religious " truth," it has been finely said,^ "Time means the blood of many martyrs, the toil of many brains, slow steps made good through infinite research." In this manner ' " De sorte que toute la suite des hommes, pendant le cours de tant de sifecles, doit etre consid^re'e comma un meme hommc qui subsiste toujours et qui apprend continuellement." — Pascal (Fensees, I. p. 98). ^ Thus " the prehistoric archajologist," says Mr. Tylor, Btst. Prim. Cult., I. p. 50, "shows even too much disposition to revel in calculations of thousands of years, as a financier does in reckonings of thousands of pounds in a liberal and maybe somewhat reckless way." See, however, Lange, Gesch. d. Materialismus, p. 342. In the School of Positive Science, " c'est le temps qui est ici le grand createur," says M. Janet. — Le Materialisme Contemporain, p. 24. ' Greg's Literary and Social Judgments, p. 478. Compare Professor Goldwin Smith, Study of History, p. 34. Human progress " is a pro- gress of effort, not a necessary development," &c. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 19 it comes about that no great verity once dis- covered is ever afterwards lost to mankind/ but is taken up and carried along by the stream of human effort. In the words of the poet they are Truths that wake To perish never. § 6. The objections which lie against all posi-Thepre- ... . , sent argu- tive attempts to criticise the plan of a Divine ment.a Revelation, do not apply to an inquiry which is relative to a matter of fact. The present argu- ment does not run up into questionable final causes, or depend for its acceptance on dubious interpretations of remote prophecies. It forms no Not de- anticipations of the thoughts of Heaven. ButfinaS^"°" rather it humbly seeks to track upwards through '^^"^^^" 1 " No great truth which has once been found has ever afterwards been lost." — Buckle, Hist. Civ., I. 215. " What has once become the common property of humanity, i. e. any visible presentation of a principle that has come to be universally recognized and universally operative, cannot perish, but has life in itself. . . . Such ideas form the pathway of God in history — the light of Heaven amid the darkness of the earth." — Bunsen, Qod in Hist., I. p. 36, 53. Compare Aristotle, Metaph., xi. 7 : Tavras ras 86^as fKeiva>v, olov \ei\JAaua TrepiaecraxTdai f^^XP'' '''"^ '''^''• Bacon's self-contradiction that " Time seemeth to be of the nature of a river or stream which carrieth down to us that which is light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth that which is weighty and solid," has been very properly exposed by Mr. Mill, Logic, II. 428. ^ Positive, because, though we may see that many parts of Chris- tianity are worthy of God, we are not hastily to conclude that where we do not see this such parts do not come from Him. See Eogers, Essays, II. 379. " It is no just consequence that reason is no judge of what is offered to us as being of divine revelation. For this would be to infer that we are unable to judge of anything because we are unable to judge of all things." — Butler, Analogy, Pt. II. c. iii. c 2 20 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. the past the course of " natural revelation," apply- ing to ascertained matters of fact the lamp of inlierited experience. So By the light His words disclose, Watch Time's full river as it flows : Scanning His gracious Providence, Where not too deep for mortal sense. All the irregularity of human affairs arises from our not being able to see the whole at once. But the further we advance along the world's history and in general knowledge, the more we approach an estimate of the reasons of things and of the current of affairs/ It is not then the existence of final causes in the formation and working of the world which needs be held unsatisfactory by the ^ " The moral system of the imiverse," says a powerful but uncertain writer, "is like a document written in alternate ciphers, which change from line to line. We read a sentence, but at the next the key fails us. We see that there is something written there, but if we guess at it we are guessing in the dark." Yet the same author is not long in supply- ing an antidote to any scepticism which may lurk in such reflections. " If we believe," he adds, " at all that the world is governed by a con- scious and intelligent Being, we must believe also, however Ave can reconcile it with our own ideas, that these anomalies have not arisen by accident, but have been ordered of purpose and design." — Fronde on Calvinism, p. 5. This, Butler points out, is the necessary result of the government of God considered as a scheme in x>rogress, and therefore imperfectly comprehended. See also Shaftesbury, Characteristics, II. 363, and the fine passage in Plato, Legq., X. 903. Augustine compares the order of the universe to a tessellated floor, of which Ave hold the part. "At enim," he adds, " hoc ipsum est plenius qua3stionum, quod membra pulicis disposita mire atque distincta sunt, cum intcrea hu- mana vita innumerabilium perturbationum inconstantia versetur et fluctuet." — I)c Online, c. i. " La seule question," says M. Pienan, Etudes, p. 404, "interessante pour le philosopho est de savoir de quel cote va le monde." Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 21 physical or positive philosophy of our time. Teleology, as such, is not destroyed but rather confirmed by any theory of evolution. For such evolution must either be accidental, a purely fortuitous result, which is hardly credible, and certainly will not satisfy science ; or it bears testimony to design; the process, which appa- rently involves waste, proving ultimately economi- cal/ The procedure indicated may be gradual and to appearance precarious, but the result shows an adaptation of means to ends which is all that Paley and other adherents of Natural Theology have maintained. It is the previous assumption of a given design as the basis of argument, to which exception may fairly be taken. The co- incidence of facts with the theory of a Divine Though coincident purpose rests, in the main, on a matter of observa- with them, tion, analogous to the homologies of Natural Science_, and open to common apprehension.^ We 1 The argument of La Place from chances is well known. Thus, e. g. " two properties necessary to the stability of the planetary system are — (1), that the orbital motions must be all in the same direction ; (2), that the inclinations of the planes of these orbits must not be considerable. Taking the theory of mere chance, it is 2047 to 1 against the first ; 10,000,000 to 1 against the second ; more than 20,000,000,000 against the two together," &c. This argument has been much strengthened by more newly discovered planets. The objection sometimes raised to the teleological argument that the Author of Nature, being above Nature, is incapable of analogies drawn from the finite creature, becomes absorbed in a much larger question — the possibility and conditions of a philo- sophy of the Absolute. ^ " It has been objected that the doctrine of Final Causes supposes us to be acquainted with the intentions of the Creator, which, it is in- 22 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. cannot but see, if we take room enough for observation, which way things have tended in the world. And certainly such a result, gathered from the point of view of comparative liistory, extending over large areas of countries and times, is of the highest moment to a philosophic survey of affairs. " For what," it has been justly asked, "does it avail to praise and draw forth to view the magnificence and wisdom of creation in the irra- tional kingdom of nature, if that part in the great stage of the Supreme Wisdom which contains the object of all this mighty display (I mean the history of the human species), is to remain an eternal objection to it, the bare sight of which obliges us to turn away our eyes in displeasure, and, from the despair which it raises of ever dis- covering in it a perfect and rational purpose, leads sinuated, is a most presumptuous and irrational basis for our reasonings. But there can be nothing presumptuous or irrational in reasoning on that basis, which, if we reject, we cannot reason at all." — Whewell, l7i- dications, p. 93. The sense of order perceptible in the inorganic world of matter is not identical with design, though it may lead up to it. The present relation of physical science to the question of design seems to stand thus : its results point undoubtedly to design, but to design im- perfectly comprehended by our natural faculties. The resource hes in Eevelation ; but it does not follow that Revelation must speak on these points to man. Comp. Lange, Geschichte v. Muterialismus, pp. 402-404. M. riourens has well observed : " II faut aller non jias des causes finales aux faits, mais des faits aux causes finales." It may be doubted whether the human reason can ever truly separate the notions of cause and effect, antecedent and consequent, end and means: all these suggest, and indeed necessitate, a presiding original thought. Whether such thought be regarded as immanent in the universe, or as external to it, must be determined by other considerations. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 23 us finally to look for such only in another world." ^ Hence the perennial faith through successive generations in a God revealed in history, in a Divine government of the world, in human pro- gress based on a moral order accomplishing an Eternal Idea, in a nature not composed of isolated episodes,^ in an " increasing purpose " running through the ages of the past. Its evidence lies written in the annals of our race, even through periods of stagnancy and devastation, and in no part of it more markedly than in the religious crises of nations. § 7. A question may be raised as to the relative objection character of our ideas of duration and permanence, relative^ Christianity is an institution which we believe to of'the'^ ^^ be, as to its future, coeval with the world itself. dura°tk»n. In this way our conception of its continuance is indefinitely extended, and this extension reacts upon its past history. Though its first ages may be bounded by the fact of its historical origin, its '^ last times " are beyond our grasp, and so, too, all ^ Kant, Idea of a Universal History on a Cosmo]joUtical Plan, trans- lated by De Quincey. Works, Vol. XIV. 151, ^ OxjK foiKi S' Tj (f)v(ns €7rei(7oSia)Sr;y ovaa eK twv (})aivoiJifV(ou, coa-irep fjLox6r]pa Tpayahia. — Aristotle, Metaph., XIII. c. iii., ix., x. Compare Buusen, Ood in History, Vol. I. pp. 6, 13, 20, E. T. : " No one looking back over the past can fail to detect a general advance of humanity, as a whole, in certain definite directions corresponding to what we observe in tlie fuller development of the man. The progress on a large scale exhibits the harmonious elevation of our whole complex being, even though periods of devastation and fiery trial are needed for the prepara- tion of the fuller growth."— Dr. Westcott, Contemp. Eev., Vol. VIII. 380. 24 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. concejotion of its relative duration. Though already long-lived to all appearance, it may yet not have passed its youth ; and the span of its coming years may still far exceed those that are past.^ " Cen- turies on centuries," it has been well said, " may be required to discipline fully the human faculties that are to grow into the faith which has been prepared for them."^ But the standard of dura- its answer, bility whicli wc are now applying is external to Christianity itself. We compare it as a mundane institution with all things else that are mundane. In these we find but one and the same law. They tend to decay and subversion. Sic omnia fatis In pejus mere ac retro sublapsa referri. ^ Comp. De Maistre, CEnvres, p. 262, ed. Migne : " On parle beaucoup des premiers siecles du Christiauisme ; en verite, je ne voudrais pas assurer qu'ils sent passes. Dans un sens I'Eglise n'a point d'age. . . . EUe se relfeve avec I'liomme, raccompagne, et le perfectionne dans toutes les situations ; differente en cela ct d'une manidre frappante de toutes les institutions et de tous les empires liumains qui ont une enfance, une virilite, une vieillesse et une fin." ^ Hutton's Essays, Vol. I. 122 : "It is clear that the Divine govern- ment of the Jewish race was meant to bring out and did bring out more distinctly the personality of God, v^^hile the history of other races brings out more clearly the Divine capacities of man. Hence the co-operation of different nations was requisite for the efficiency of the revelation. Centuries were required for the complete evolution even of that special Jewish history that was selected to testify to the righteous will and defined spiritual character of the Creator. Centuries on centuries will be required to discipline fully the human faculties that are to grow into the faith thus prepared for them." So also M. Guizot : " Civilization is as yet very young : the world has as yet by no means measuved the whole of its career; Human thought is at this time very far from being all that it is capable of becoming : we are very far from comprehending the whole future of humanity." — Civil, in Euroj^c, p. 18, Ed. Cohn. Lect. L] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 25 It has not been so, however, with the religion of Christ. Its strength is not as its clay. Its days are old, if we judge them by man's standard of duration ; yet its j)owers are unenfeebled. Its youth is renewed as the eagle's, and its years do not fail. The revolutions of the heavenly bodies point to an almost infinite succession of ages, through which they have held on their way. Yet science sketches out the trajectory which is followed by our planetary system.^ So the world may have a long future still before it ; and yet it is permitted us to determine the path of Chris- tianity. The progress indicated, whether in nature or in revelation, is not indefinite, but tends to a limit. But if this observation be deemed pre- sumptuous with the long track behind us of geologic time and prehistoric evolution, it is at least not more so than to proclaim the finality of a positive stage of thought, as the " be all and end all " of man's estate. Christianity, while pro- claiming the ultimate dissolution of things at the last day, leaves its approach indefinite, though its ^ " Le cycle du dessin de la Nature semble exiger pour se clore un si long temps que la petite portion que I'humanite en a deja parcourue no pemiet pas d'en determiner la forme et de conclure la relation des parties au tout, avec plus de surete que toutes les observations celestes faites jusqu'a, present ne permetteut d'assigner la trajectoire que suit dans le ciel etoile notre soleil avec toute I'armee de ses satellites. Et cependant remarquons qu'avec le princijie general de la constitution syst^matique de I'univers et avec le jicu qu'on a observe, on est autorise' a conclure qu'il existe en cffet une telle trajectoire." — Kant, u. s. ap. Littre, A. Crnite et la Fhil. Pos., p. 63. 26 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. arrival be certain.^ Already it is possible to apply Tests of some tests of its persistent vitality. For in what durability • r r v • applicable do tlio Organic lorces oi any religion consist, or at gions. the least exhibit themselves ? Surely in their hold iijDon the consciences, lives, and actions of men ; in their tendency to extend themselves by conversion of unbelief; and in their power of assimilating healthfully the altered conditions of advancing civilization. This power, if shown to arise from principles contained in the doctrines of the Gospel, furnishes an argument in favour of the truth of Christianity which has the force of prophecy, for they are long prior to the discovery of the general laws of human progress. But the most ancient as well as the most widely-spread religions of- the earth, Brahmanism, Buddhism, the faiths of Con- fucius, Zoroaster, if not also of Mahomet,^ show no tendency to propagate themselves. The duty of conversion is no longer felt ; its possibility no longer dreamed. Not so with the Churches of the Christian faith, which acknowledge to the full the obligation of missionary labour, whatever be the measure of success attending their fulfilment of it. Objection § 8. It is uot, of coursc, denied that ancient from the ^ Sec the Bishop of Carhsle's lecture on tlie Gradual Development of Bevelation, p. 30. 2 M. Littrd has justly remarked that the immobility of a religious belief is a proof of a want of genuine belief in its doctrines ; citing India and China as proofs to this fact. — Faroles de la Fhil. Pos., p. 35. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 27 religions, false and pernicious, have flourished eno*'"^ous tlirous'h immense periods. This has heen due to of Eastern "^ ^ ^ ^ religions. the elements of truth ^ which they contained, ' ' a soul of goodness in things evil ;" and still more to its adaptation to the order of the development of belief in the history of primitive culture. Quantum sumus, scimus. " Men must think," it has been tersely said, ' ' in such terms of thought as they possess." ^ It is a fact admitting of proof whether Not valid Christianity includes elements answering to truths chHstian- ity, which but dimly shadowed forth in heathen systems ; is compre- in the Triads or Trinities, for example, roughly touched by Brahmanism or Buddhism ; or in the Monotheism of the creed of Mahomet. It has been fairly said, " Whatever has been found necessary in the course of 6000 years' experience, we have a right to ask of that which offers itself as the one faith for mankind." ^ The question, then, is not one of simple length of date, any more than of the numbers who accept or profess a religion, as if truth were settled by majorities.* The test of any * " The spiritual self-respect of individuals, the reconcilement of the conscience by means of atonement, the hopes connected witli the unseen world, had all once been provided by Paganism : as they must be by every religion which has had a real historical existence." — Mackay, Rise and Progress of Christianity. A remark true, but only partially so : for had Paganism actually fulfilled this work, it had never passed away. ^ Herbert Spencer, First Principles, p. 116. ' Maurice's Kingdoms of the World, p. 162. A profound view of the religious history of mankind will regard these religions rather as testi- monies than as rivals to the truth of Christianity. * "Slanep iv Tois xnporoviaii. — Lucian, Eermotimus,c. xvi. Compare 28 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. bive progres- systeiii Will lie in the character of its doctrines, combined with its permanence as exhibited in their progressive capacity. If Christianity be an imperfect theory of our relations to God and the universe, it must needs prove transitory. Mere antiquity in a fixed locality decides little ; though even in this aspect it must be remembered that the faith of Christ must be measured by the age of Judaism.^ But where still extant, these world-old theologies lack the criteria of permanence. The wild erratic doctrines of Oriental rehffions have 'iD^ Max Miiller, Cld])s, I. p. 215. On this point the Eeformers ^ro^es^ec? at Spires in 1529. " The number of persons holding an idea is no warrant for its objective character, else the many never could be wrong ; for uni- formity of education, or the sympathy kindled by enthusiasm, may carry many minds into one state in which belief in certain ideas and the mis- take of formulae or usages for external truths will be natural or neces- sary." — Newman, Es&mj on Development, p. 31. ^ " Que Ton cousiddre la perp^tuit^ de la religion Chre'tienne, qui a toujours subsiste dcpuis le commencement du monde, soit dans les saints de I'ancien Testament," &c. — Pascal, Pensees, II. p. 367. This is flip- pantly stated by Salvador (Paris, Pome et Jerusalem, I. 243) : "Avance, dit-on au Juif, et declare-nous quel est ton nom .... ton S,ge. Mon age ? Deux mille ans de plus que Jesus-Christ." " If it be said " (writes Dr. Newman, Oramm. of Assent) " the Oriental religions are older than Christianity by some centuries, it must be recollected that Christianity is only the continuation and conclusion of what professes to be an earlier revelation, which may be traced back into prehistoric times." "Die Geschichte dieses alten Volkes (Israel) ist im Grunde die Geschichtc der durch alle Stufenbis zur VoUendung sich ausbildenden wahren Religion, welche auf diesem engen Volksgebiete durch alle Kiimpfe hindurch sich bis zum hbchsten Siege erhebt und endlich in allcr Herrlichkeit und Macht sich offenbart ; um daun von da aus durch ihre eigene Kraft sich unwiderstehlich verbreitend nie wicder verloren zu gehen, sondern ewiger Besitz und Segen aller Vblkcr zu werden." — Ewald, Oesch. d. V. Israel, I. 9, whose testimony to the eternity of Christianity I could not willingly omit. Lect. L] of religious SYSTEMS. , 29 produced neither in respect of moral or spiritual truth results suitable to the facts of human nature, its dignity and its capacities. They have wandered into Polytheism. " Insufficient for time, and re- jecting eternity, their utmost triumph is to live with- out fear and to die without hope." ^ Their power has steadily declined ; and, however Buddhism may with truth boast of its ancient missionary zeal,^ they have lonff since ceased to extend the area of their and has ° survived beliefs. They have never yet borne the brunt of the ad- . , . . vance of advancmg civilization. These are the questions know- ledtie. of fact with Christianity. The religion of Europe has passed through storms of barbarism, persecu- tion, and doubt ; while over Asia has brooded an immemorial calm, broken only by tides of military conquest.^ Nor is it any way surprising that the ' Sir J. E, Tennant, Christianity in Geylm, p. 227. On this subject see Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, II. 69 ; Tylor On Primi- tive Culture, II. 89, 96 ; B. St. Hilaire, Le Bouddha. " Unques- tionably," writes Mr. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ, p. 145, " (Confucianism and Buddhism are in their social influence gigantic failures ; and in these cases M. Eenan says, ' Success is a decisive crite- rion.'" Mr. Picton, New Theories and Old Faith, answering a remark of Mr. Armstrong that "the cohesion and endurance of Buddhism mocks and shames Christianity with her many convulsions and her reiterated revolutions," ably replies, " that one might as well say that the cohesion and endurance of China mocks and shames Europe with its convulsions and its reiterated revolutions. The higher the life the more violent often are the crises of growth, and certainly the more exti-cme is the differentiation of parts." 2 Max Miiller, Chips, I. 269. 3 "The popular religions of antiquity answered only for a certain stage of culture. When the nations in the course of their progress had passed beyond this, the necessary consequence was a dissevci'ing of the East 30 . PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. faiths of Brahma or of Buddha should linger iu the world. " The extinction of a religion," it has been said with truth, " is not the abrupt move- ment of a day ; it is a secular progress of many well-marked stages." * The success of Buddhism rested on the assertion of the dogma of the absolute equality of all men ; and this in a country which Symptoms for agos had been oppressed with caste.^ But its in the continuancc, as well as that of Brahmanism, philo- of the sophically considered, is involved in its representa- tion of an inherent polar opposition to the theology of Christian belief. The doctrine of a transmigra- tion of souls, of a simple " continuance-theory " as to a future state, confronts the teaching of the independent existence of a personal spirit, of a permanent " retribution-theory " of after-being. Materialism, as opposed to Theism, must ever pre- sent two alternatives ; a doctrine of absorption, ultimately equivalent to Pantheism ; or of extinc- spirit from the religious traditions. In the case of the more quiet and equable development of the Oriental mind — so tenacious of the old — the opposition between the mythic religion of the people and the secret theosophic doctrines of a priestly caste, who gave direction to the popular conscience, might exist for centuries without change. But among the more excitable nations of the West, intellectual culture, as soon as it attained to a certain degree of independence, must necessarily fall into collision with the mythic religion handed down from the infancy of the people." — Neander, Church Hist., I. 6, E. T. " Le repos est le supplice de rEurop(5en, et ce caractere contraste merveilleusement avcc I'immo- bilite Orientale." — De Maistre, CEuvres, p. 494. " Better," says Tenny- son, " fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." * Draper, Hist, of Intellectual Development in Europe, I. 37. =* Ih., I. 62. Max Miiller, Chips, I. 220, 246. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 31 tion, practically undistinguishable from a declared Atheism.^ § 9. In commencing the argument of these Lee- a practi- tures (which, it will be remembered, is the proof of aid of ... . . . belief the truth of Christianity arising from its past con- assumed tinuity and tenacity, and from its indications of argument. ultimate permanence), I assume the existence, from the earliest days of the Church, of a nucleus of belief sufficient to produce practical effects. On the other hand, no consensus or standing uniformity of doc- trinal opinion is demanded, such as would be in small accordance with the laws of mental progress in other subjects under the varying stages of early and advanced civilization, and national differences of climate and race. While the original of Christianity can only be accepted as divine, it is no part of Christian philosophy to except the historical development of the faith from such move- ments of the human mind as are natural to its exercise on any subject-matter whatsoever. Be- How far . . . . guaranteed lievers in the truths of the Christian religion have in the ex- , istence of sometimes been described in terms of disparage- the Hoiy Scriptures, ^ See Tylor, Prim. Culture, II. 69, and compare Dr. Mozley, Bampton Led., pp. 187, 368 : " The Brahman doctrine of the final state professes some difference from the Buddhist ; but both schools maintain in common the characteristic of impersonality as attaching to the final state." See also Fairbairn on Belief in Immortality, p^j. 50, 51, 53. Sir H. Maine, Ancient Laiv, p. 17, observes that " the physical confor- mation of Asiatic countries had the effect of making individual commu- nities larger and more numerous than in the West ; and it is a known social law that the larger the space over which a particular set of institu- tions is diffused, the greater is its tenacity and vitality." 32 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. ment as Bibliolaters/ the worshippers of a book and of a stereotyped revelation. It is not necessary to consider to what portions of the Church, or to what theory of Christian belief this criticism is most applicable. But it is by no means true that tlie religion of Christ is contained in the New Testament, onlj- in the same manner as the Mosaic system depended on the Pentateuch, or as Mahom- medanism is found in the Koran, or the faith of Yishnu or Buddha in the Yedas or the Sutras. The very power of Christianity lies in this : that preaching the purest morality under the highest sanctions, with the force of a Divine Exemplar, and on the foundation of historic facts, it never sacrifices it to ceremonialism, and is thus superior to the decline of positive forms.^ In written codes 1 " Biblioktry has been, and is long likely to be, the bane of Pro- testant Christianity." — Hutton, Essays, I. 142. As with all exaggera- tions, this contains an element of truth. That " the Bible only is the religion of Protestants," was the dictum of Chillingworth. — (C. iv.) "Protestantism," writes Dr. Dorner (//tsf. Prot. Theol., I. 2), "seeks, indeed, its ultimate foundation in the nature of Christianity, as it is handed down to us in a documentary form in the Holy Scriptures." See some good remarks on this subject in Rogers' Essarjs, II. 33i, and Dean Merivale's Lectures on Conversion of the Emjnre, -pix 140, 141, Chris- tians are known to Mahometans as " the people of the Book." But the vivid language of Napoleon at St. Helena {BertrancCs Memoirs ap. Luthardt Apol, p. 355, E. T.) is here applicable, "The Gospel is no mere book, but a living creature with an agency ; a power that conquers all that opposes it." ^ This is the real answer to objections such as those of Mr. Buckle, Hist. Civil, II. 51 : " Tlio actions of men are governed not by dogmas, and text-books, and rubrics, but by the opinions and habits of their contemporaries, by the general spirit of their age, and by the character of those classes who are in the ascendant. This seems to be the origin Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 33 of ceremonial worship and practice, it is difficult to distinguish between principles and details, so overlaid is the spirit by the letter of the particular ordinance. There is a constant tendency to crystallize into formalism. In these it is almost impossible to see how tradition could long supply the place of an authorized formula. But the faith of Jesus Christ makes, as it requires, no such claim. "The Gospel," it has been truly said,^ "is not a "^ system of theology, nor a syntagma of theoretical propositions and conclusions for the enlargement of speculative knowledge, ethical or metaphysical, but it is a history, a series of facts or events related or announced. These do indeed involve, or rather they at the same time are, most important doctrinal truths, but still facts and declarations of facts." of that difference between religious theory and religious practice of which theologians greatly complain as a stumbling-block and an evil." — See Tylor, Hist. Prim. Cult., II. 337. Mr. Mackay, Progress of Intellect, I. 17, remarks : " Forms (i. e. creeds and ceremonies) are in their nature transitory ; for, being destitute of flexibility and power of self- accommodation to altered circumstances, they become in time uncon- formable to realities, and stand only as idle landmarks of the past, or like deserted channels requiring to be filled up." On the growth of sacerdotalism in the Vedic religion and in Buddhism, see Mr. Fairbairn's able and learned essay, Cont. Rev., XX. pp. 36-55. ^ S. T. Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, p. 153. " Religions," says Prof. Max MuUer, " have sometimes been divided into national or traditional, as distinguished from individucd or statutable religions. The former are like languages, home-grown, autochthonic, without an historical begin- ning, generally without any recognized founder, or even an authorized code : the latter have been founded by historical persons, generally in antagonism to traditional systems, and they always rest on the authority of a written code." This division Professor Miiller with justice thinks too sharply drawn.— C. R., XIX. 102. 34 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. and in TliG New Testament (if with one exception) may special bc regarded as a compilation of strictly historical cliaracter- , i i i i • i istics. documents, connected together by what might, at first sight, seem a wholly fortuitous conjunction. Not so, however. The narrative and historical mould in which the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles are cast, can only be regarded as a providential feature,^ differencing at once the authoritative instruments of the religion of Christ from those of all other systems. Whatever theory of biblical inspiration be adoj^ted, mechanical or dynamical, it will hardly be maintained that the writings of the New Testament proceeded like the syllables of Mahomet from the pen of an archangel.^ It may be held, for example, without irreverence, that the letters of St. Paul would have been worth much less to us if they had not been called forth by the particular occasions which are evident in each. In them we ^ " Let us look to the great characteristic of our holy faith ; that unlike all other assumed religions it is not a collection of mystic writings presenting to the view of man the scenes and the events of the invisible world in minute description, such as admits no test from experience and the course of the world ; but consists in those very events which it narrates, and out of which it is evolved, and may be tracked continuously through more than three thousand years in the successive periods of its delivery to mankind ; thus occupying a large field in the history of God's providence ; and that we have just the same ground for believing its truth as we have for believing any other matter of history equally authenticated by events." — IJj). Hampden, Memorials, p. 221. ^ M^ ovv says Africanus finely (ap. Eouth, Rell. Sacr., II. 229) Kariafifv (Is Tocravrrjv Qeocrt^das (TfiiKpoXoyiav, Iva rrj ivoKKayr] rav ovofxnrcav tt^v Xpi(TTov Bao-iXei'aj/ Koi Up(0(Tvvi)v crvvLarafifv. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 35 see the man himself dealing with men whom we can see likewise. It is the difference between a portrait that we recognize and a face which we have never seen, or, as a map of places familiar to us by the side of a chart of countries yet unknown. Such is our gain in holding in our hands the letters of the living man, and not cold abstract articles of reli- gious profession. And if this be so with the J^-^ture of E]3istles, how much more with the life of Him, °'^^H° '^V ••• ' ' ample of " Who spake as never man spake ;" in whose acts *^hi"'st . . . . ^""^^ ^'^ and words is centred still the faith of Christendom.^ Apostles. Those words, " the primal, indefeasible truths of Christianity," we have the promise, " shall never pass away." In the imitation of His life^ and spirit lie perennial springs of endless improvement and advance. " All true moral jDrogress/' it has been wellsaid,^ "is made through admiration, and it is characteristic of our religion that it makes a greater use of example than any other system." " It cannot be too steadily borne in memory," says ^ It is strange that M. Comte, constantly ignoring Jcsns Christ, recognizes Paul as the meeting-point of Jew, Greek, and Eoman. See Tdl. Pos., III. 409. For some good remarks on the office of the Bible in prolonging the solidarity of the life of Christ, see Mr. Picton, iVcit; Theories, dc,, pp. 161-5. ^ See Milman, Latin Christianity, VI. 447. Hence perliaps (with all its shortcomings) the boundless popularity and influence of tho ' Imitatio Christi.' No bpok has been so olten rejirinted, so often translated, or into so many languages. — ]b., VI. 303. It is a remarkable fact that this volume was a favourite one with A. Comte towards the close of his life. — Littre, p. 586. * By Professor Seeley, Lectures and Essays, p. 262. See also Huttun's Essays, I. 140. D 2 36 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. another living writer/ "that Christianity is Christ. So He taught ; so His disciples after Him ; not a law, not a theory, not a code of morals, not a system of casuistry, not even an elaborate theology. But they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ," " Jesus," writes Dr. Newman,^ " through His preachers imprinted the image or idea of Himself in the minds of His subjects ; it became a principle of association and their moral life. It was the instrument of their conversion." Thus (to quote yet one other author) " the Platonist exhorted men to imitate Grod ; the Stoic to follow reason. It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character which, through all the changes of eighteen centuries, has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love, has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, tempera- ments and conditions, which has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest in- centive to its practice, and has exercised so deep an ^ The Bishop of Ely, Lect. on Chrisfs Influence on History, p. 17. So also Canon Liddon {Bami^on Led., p. 308). " Christianity, as a creed and as a life, depends absolutely upon the personal character of its founder." Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, p. 288, writes : " In the strictest sense of essential, this alone is the essential in Christianity, that the same spirit should be growing in us, which was in the fulness of all perfection in Christ Jesus." See also an eloquent passage in Farrar's Witness of History to Christ, p. 79. 2 Qrammar of Assent, p. 460. An illustration of this sentiment may be found in the early use of the word KvptaKo? ; c. g. KvpiaKov BfiTrvov, KvpiaKT] ay'ia rjfxepa, KvpiaKoi ypaom the -,.. . ,p theory of to it, except the identity 01 the religion itself were doctrinal develop- mendum fuisset ex Paulo, videbantur sibi prorsus in alium mundum translati ;" and Eobert Stephens {af. Oieseler, V. 57, E. T.) wrote in his own defence, "Ante paucos annos qnidam ex Sorbona sic loquebatur: miror quid isti juvenes nobis semper allegent novum testamentum. Per Deum ego plus habebam quam quinquaginta annos quod nesciebam, quod esset novum testamentum." The doctrine of a " depositum fidei " is not necessarily opposed to all attempts to seek out the truth. This, no doubt, may become incrusted, and need to be reburnished. 42 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. compromised ; and this would be contended for but by few. In the case supposed it would not be one Grospel, but many, which has been preached throughout the world. The introduction of par- ticular doctrines unknown to the first ages of the Church has certainly exercised an important practical influence on the history of Christianity. But if it should appear that the simplicity of the faith has outlived these and similar importations, and through its native purity still works its own work upon mankind, then the line of proof survives, and an additional evidence is secured for its inherent sanctity, its Divine origin, and its insuffi- imperishable permanence. It would, no doubt, be tiTistheoiy. possible to maintain upon a theory of doctrinal evolution the progressive unity of Christian truth, together with the continuity of its ideas, and so to lay claim to the effects of the system as flowing from a single source. The difficulty lies in re- conciling the theory with the facts. The coldness with which it has been received in the house of its friends throws a just suspicion upon its demands.^ A system of development, however, necessarily ^ " Eome founds herself upon tlio idea that to her by tradition and exchisive pi-ivilege was communicated once for all the whole truth from the beginning. Mr. Newman lays his corner-stone in the very opposite idea of a gradual development given to Christianity by the motion of time, by experience, by expanding occasions, and by the progress of civilization." — De Quincey, £ssa?/ on Protestantism. On this subject see Dr. Mill's Five Serrnons, Serm. I., and for the view of the Eastern Church, compare Dean Stanley, pp. 42, 173. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 43 renounces the appeal to antiquity or uniform tradition. This is replaced by a different principle, viz. of authority. It assumes the variation of doctrine for which it would account. It renounces, therefore (a fact of especial importance in the present argument) that element of permanence which, we contend, is a marked characteristic of Christianity. It cannot then lay any claim on behalf of the religion of Christ to effects as the results of its character and doctrines. In other words, the sort of permanence which it affects is fictitious and of an arbitrary kind. But there is ^^^\".^o™- . patibility further as little limit in this view of the subject ^ith fixed- " ness of as respects steadfastness of doctrine on the side of doctrine. the future as in the past. The Christianity of the future might require another name. Nor can the ultimate aspect or effects of our religion be pre- dicted with any attempt at precision under such a system. § 12. But it may be said, while rejecting the theory of development as an adequate explanation of facts, it must still be admitted that the facts re- main ; and it is these which may be held to break off the continuity, as they undoubtedly do, the " sim- plicity of the faith which is in Christ Jesus." In this Y *^°f', • i 'J louncls his- matter a distinction has been introduced between 'o''cai cor- ruptions identity of principle and identity of doctrine} "i* au- '' ^ ^ '' thoritative beliefs, ' Newman, Essaij on Development, I. iii. § 4, j). 70: " Principlos are abstract and general, doctrines relate to lacttj; ductrines devolope, and 44 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. AVith this, indeed, we are not now concerned, the former being sufficient for our purpose. But the historical development of Christianity is one thing, its doctrinal unity another. This develop- ment may be presumed to be subordinate to a system of law and general evolution, similar to the j^rogress of all philosophical thought. It is the idea of such a development as this, subject, indeed, to a secondary process of degradation, due to the mingled presence of lower and higher ele- ments in man's nature, of corruption and perfecti- bility, which, as has been truly said,^ " gives a continuity to any distinct account of the progress of Christendom, a life to any intelligent analysis principles do not ; doctrines grow, and are enlarged, principles are illus- trated ; doctrines are intellectual, and principles are more immediately ethical and practical. Systems live in principles and represent doctrines." See some excellent remarks on this subject in Canon Robertson's Hist, of Chr. Ch., I. pp. 82, 91. Dcillinger, First Age of the Church, T. 228-233, leans too far to the side of development, confounding an original tradition of doctrine (which seems necessary and reasonable) with a continuous one, which it was the object of Creeds and of the Canon of Scripture to obviate. Thus Augustine's rule is a positive one : " Ncc ego Nica;nura nee tu debes Ariminense tanquam pra^judicaturus proferre concilium : nee ego hujus auctoritate, nee tu illius detineris : Scripturarum anctorita- tihus, non quorumque propriis, sed utriusque communibus tcstibus, res cum re, causa cum causa, ratio cum ratione concertet." — c. Maximin. Ar., II. xiv. 3. ^ Dean Stanley, Essays, pp. 465, 470. So Ozanam, Civilis. Chret., I. 22, E. T. : " Every great era of history takes its departure from ruin and ends in a conquest," On the fact that alpea-is aipeatv (fivrevei, " post- humi hajresium filii," see Bacon, Works, ed. Spedding, VIII. 83. De Quincey, Ess. on Protest., admits three kinds of development in doc- trine— (1), philological; (2), philosophical, from advance in knowledge; (3), moral and historical ; Christianity awaking new powers in man, and being itself modified by times and climes. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 45 of Creeds and articles. In this manner the theo- logy, like the architecture of each age, has always built itself upon the ruins of its predecessors." It is like a tree drawing its growth from its own dead leaves. It is this, in fact, which constitutes the solidarity of human history, and of the laws which compose it, which enables it to be treated philosophically, if not scientifically. It has plainly been the will of Grod that in the examination and handling of Divine truth the human element should not remain free from controversial doubt and absolute error. The hand of God is manifest here, as in other examples of His superintending providence. It has been finely said, " He never yet sent a gift into the world, which man did not deteriorate in the using." ^ Whatever be the immunity extent of His promise to His Church at large, as nowhere regards indemnity from error ; whether this apply to the to all degrees of it, both in principle and practice ; yet for each individual Church no such immunity can be pleaded, any more than from corruptions in manner of living.^ But unless it can be shown that, of the larger and dominant divisions of the Christian Church any have cut themselves oif from the essentials of primitive teaching, from all that is vital to the unity of the faith ; the ^ Archer Biitler, Lectures on Romanism, p. 61. See also pp. 288-9, 316-18. » See Field, Of the Church, Book IV. c. v. 46 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. L active power of Christ's religion may, thoiigli various, be still regarded as uniform in its opera- tion, and definite in its effects. A ration- § i ^, But there is another side to a theory of veiopment development which demands consideration. It is likewise i i t i • r\^ ' • • ^ i fatal to the that which, looKing at Christianity on the whole nence of as merely a stage of progress in the human mind, belief. ' and regarding all religious truth as necessarily progressive,^ because man's powers are so, while accounting for its rise, prognosticates its fall. This system of thought strikes, indeed, at the very root of any defence of our holy religion which rests upon the permanent character of its teaching. An eclectic Christianity, making up a cento of doctrines and precepts, would undertake to dis- tinguish between the permanent and the tempo- rary, the universal and the partial elements of the teaching of Christ. Thus particular doctrines are rejected as forming no part of the Christian con- sciousness, and are yielded, as a sacrifice, to the speculative difficulties of the tirae.^ We cannot, however, accept, we can only repudiate and challenge all asserted improvements whether by substitution or omission, in the suhject-matter of ^ Mr. Buckle, //. Civ., 11. 21, fathers tliis view on Cliarron. It was carried on by Hume in his Natural History of Ildiyion, but has reached its climax in the system of M. Comte. * See Dean Mansel's JJujnpton Led., pp. 250, 258; Palmer On the Ductrincof Devdopment, pp. 91-100; Dewaron G'erTO((u Pyo^ts/, p. 1L»G ; Blanco White, Life, ill. 77. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 47 Christianity itself, effected by alleged advances in knowledge and civilization. The progress of science, so far as it extends to religion, touches it on its natural or moral side : not as it is a revelation of spiritual truths. These, simple in their character, are also final, and admit of no rationalizing process of accommodation to a fancied advance in knowledge. Obviously, there can be no progress of this character in regard of truths which human reason is incapable of discovering for itself. In this respect the religion of Christ is really stationary. Civilization and knowledge may be regarded as witnesses to the permanent character of Christian truth, which absorbs, appro- priates, and assimilates them without detriment to its own announcements. In a certain sense they form part of that natural revelation of Himself and His dealings with mankind which is a necessary consequence of a Divine government of the world, and which supplements His more special manifes- This win tations. Those improvements, however, in the treated. condition and destinies of man which are due to the particular operation of Christianity, form part of the proper subject-matter of these Lectures, and will be adverted to in the course of them. § 14. It may perhaps be thought that as he who ^^""^,^1^^^.. excuses himself and his own cause, in effect i"s on the ' _ present becomes the accuser ; so there is a certain want argument. of confidence in the credentials of Christianity, of Chris- tianity. 48 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. when it is consented to weigh the probabilities of its duration. It is enough to reply that the form assumed, and the direction taken by the contro- versies of an age depend, doubtless, upon laws of thought beyond our volition or control. The course of Christian defence must ever follow that of attack ; and arguments which in one age are satisfactory enough, in another fall pointless and beside the mark. There is, then, a duty which belongs to the Church of God in every age and to Duty of i^jg « watchmen " in every generation, which may be described as the discerning of the signs of the times. Much of the influence, much of the use- fulness of individual ministers of religion, will always depend on their appreciation of the needs and tendencies of the day.^ Much of the narrow- ness of thought and want of practical knowledge which has been falsely, because extravagantly, attributed to the clerical mind, has been due to this; — an absence of clear-sightedness in appre- hending the intellectual posture of the age, its information and particular bent of thought. " Watchman, what of the night ? Watchman, what of the night ? " must still be our question, when the clouds of doubt are hanging low, and the darkness of unbelief seems settling on the horizon of faith. It is not always sunshine in the courts of the Lord's house at Jerusalem. Rather * Sec some interesting remarks of Mr. Lecky, Hid. Hut., I. 123. Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 49 the answer is re-echoed from the towers of observa- tion and the ramparts of defence. " The morning Cometh, but also the night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye ; return, come." ^ It cannot be the part of Christian wisdom to refuse the labour of accommodating its teaching to the requirements of existing knowledge, and of anticipating, so far as it may, the difiliculties of present thinkers. It JjJcTof'ti^e needs but little insight into the course of specula- p'j^j.^j"^ tion at this time to estimate the direction of the conflict which must henceforward be considered inevitable, between Science and Faith. The op- position and repugnancy which in former days were more speculative than practical, now show themselves immediate and direct, and are j^ushed into minute details. The question is fast becom- ing one of mutual compatibility. But there is comfort in the manliness with which the chal- lenge has been accepted on the side of Christian Grounds of belief. Unworthy suspicions of the candour ofness. opponents, unwarrantable confusion of intellectual with moral error ; illogical estimates of the con- sequences of unsound opinions,^ are fast being laid aside. The supreme obligation due to truth is everywhere acknowledged. It is seen that the 1 Isaiah xxi. 11, 12. ^ In the treatment of Holy Scripture (it has been well observed), " there is an abatement of that most wild and pernicious line of defence which may be called the 'all-or-nothing principle': because it j^fi'ses the vast and glorious edifice of Eevealed truth upon the point of a single 50 PERMANENCE A TEST [Lect. I. cause at stake is the cause of all, and not of a class ; and tliose who make or rather find the difficulties which threaten to divorce Faith froni Science, are now credited with a willingness to join in the work of subduing them. On the other hand, there is in many respects a kindlier feeling stirring in the antagonists of dogmatic belief towards their opponents. The services and bene- fits of Christian teaching in the history of mankind are more largely understood. It is acknowledged that there is something, at least, to be said for the claims of Christianity ; nor are its professors merely the ready instruments of credulity and imposture. There is comfort, too, when con- fronted by an intellectual revolution in the scien- tific temper of the age, in the retrospect of past dangers and past escapes. " The centre of gravity of religious questions," it has been eloquently said from this place, " may have become altogether shifted and displaced. Anchors are lifting every- where, and men committing themselves to what they may meet with on the sea. But Christians have had bad days before." ^ " Passi graviora " may then w^ell be for the time to come the watch- word of the Church of Christ. We are not enter- incidental statement of some fact eitlier of history or science, and then declares, with an audacity which makes one shudder, that if that single statement can be disproved, the whole structure must fall to the ground." — Christian Rememhrancer, Vol. LIV. p. 132. ' Dean Church, Univ. Sermons, 8crm. lY. of perma- nence in- herent in Lect. I.] OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 51 ing for the first time on the encounter with Materialism or with secular modes of thought. At present, certainly, the tone and feeling of society is not anti-Christian : it only needs to be reassured. We are not entering on a conflict unexpected, unforeseen. He who came "not to send peace upon the earth but a sword," has with that sword, " even the Word of God," armed His warriors for the fight of Christian truth with human imperfection.^ We are contending for a Elements faith which from the first has been the religion of progress:^ whose cardinal doctrine is the love the of our kind, the source of all just and enduring 0^°^ liberty :^ wliich has been ever the enemy of social injustice : which in nowise denies the unity of the human race and is confined to no one clime, to no one tribal division of mankind, Aryan or Semitic, to no one form of political constitu- tion :* and which in its deep sense of human ^ See M, Guizot, Meditations, Vol. I. p. xx. 2 This is admitted by M. Comte, Phil. Pos., IV. 231, and comp. Dean Mcrivale, Lect. on Conversion of the Empire, p. 210; also Gnizot, Civ. in Europe, I. 94, ed. Bohn ; Ozanam, Civil, in Fifth Cent., I. 4, E. T. ; Lecky, Hist. Rat., II, 234-5. ^ Professor Goldwiii Smith, Study of History, Pref. * Thus Cardinal Wiseman, Lect. on Science and Religion ; Ffoiilkes, Hiv. Christendom, p. 247. " Christianity alone has a definite message addressed to all mankind. The character of the teaching of Mahomet is too exact a reflection of the race, time, place, and climate in which it arose to admit of its being imiversal. The same objection ap]ilies to the religions of the far East," &c. — Dr. Newman, Oram, of Assent, p. 425. " Christianity is a living truth which never can grow oiil," &c. — lb., p. 480. E 2 52 PERMANENCE A TEST. [Lect. I. responsibility has been the handmaid of man's j^erfectibility, leading him up to " the fulness of the stature of Christ." We are contending for a faith which claims to be coeval with the powers, the wants, the destinies of human nature : which alone is potent in virtue of Christ's Mediation to heal the wounds of conscience and dry the tears of sin : which has extended our very conceptions of purity and holiness, as possible to man : and which alone satisfies the boundless yearnings of his spirit by filling it with the promise of the likeness of its God. Why should we not assert for such a religion as this, the living germs of permanence and truth, a vitality surviving modifi- cation, a vigour which can never decay, a life immortal as the soul for which it lives and works ? ^ Meyas Iv ravrr) ©eds, ovSc yrjpao-Ket. ^ " Nemo dubitat eum qui veram religionem reqnirit, ant jam credere immortalem esse animam, cui prosit ilia religio, aut eliam id ipsum in eadem religione veils invenire. Animas igitur causa omnis religio. . . . AnimfB causa vel solius vel maximd vera, si qua est religio, con- otituta est." — Augustin. de Utilit. Cred., c. vii. LECTURE II. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED. C'est un vieux batiment : si on y touche, il croulera. " Je suis done tres-dispose h. croire que cliez des homines que ceux qui m'eutendent I'instinct secret devinera juste assez souveut meme dans les sciences naturelles. Mais je suis porte' a le croire a peu pres infaillible lorsqu'il s'agit de philosophie rationnelle, de morale, de metaphysique et de th^ologie naturelle." De Maistke, Soirees, V" Entret. LECTURE II. " If thou say est, Behold we knew it not : doth not He that pon- der eth the heart, consider it f and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it ? and shall not He render to every man according to his worksP — ProtJ. pptb. 12. §■ WE have been lutlierto occupied with the The past . -, , . P« . history of coiisicleratioii or permanence as a crite- chi-isti- rion of trutjj, and the conditions of its appHcabihty ground for to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christianity, we con- in /tTp"?- tend, is the only religion which has stood its ground, '^^'^"^'^'^^• which has taken part in the general advance of modern civilization as represented by the nations of Europe, the foremost portion of mankind. There is, then, good reason to believe that it must be true, and will prove to be an accompaniment of human progress to the end. The argument thus afforded to its claims to reception is laid on grounds which are common to any religious system. It does not, then, rest principally, or in the first instance, on the contents of the religion as revealed. These, however cogent to the mind of the believer, can have no binding force in relation to an ob- jector. To all who accept the faith of Clirist it This argu- must be plain enough, that our holy religion can dependent be no passing phase of thouglit or sentiment in the ticukV'''' 56 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. contents of history of tliG hiimaii race, to be succeeded by gion,^' otliers equally ejDliemeral. If true, it is true for eternity. It has closed the roll and completed the career of the religions of mankind.^ Christ, if He be Christ, is "with His Chui-ch always, even unto " the end of tlie world." ^ Incarnation, Redemption, Regeneration, Sanctification, are no catchwords of sect or school. They connote facts touching the destinies of the whole race of man. Nor can Christianity be regarded only as a revela- tion of doctrine.^ It is far more a Divine work of restoration : in this lies its proper characteristic. " There is one Mediator " (and but one) " between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus."'' "This faith was once " (and once for all) " delivered to the Saints."^ "No man may deliver his brother, nor make agreement unto God for him. For it ' " Le Christianisme a ferm^ la carriere des religions .... parce qu'elle est la seule paffaitemeut digne de rhomme, d'oii il suit par une conse- quence necessaire qu'elle est la plus parfaite et la derniere des religions." — Saisset, Essais, p. 300. '^ Matt, xxviii. 20. ^ See some excellent remarks in Dorner, Hist. Prot. Thtol., 1. 19, E. T. : " To tliis intellectual tendency towards objective truth, and the delusion it nourished concerning the magical power of pure doctrine as a means i'or the protection and blessing of the whole man, there was united a moral security and religious torpidity which were maintained by the kindred delusion that the knowledge of the truth — even its mere recep- tion as a matter of memory — brings with it the Christian salvation — that sin is essentially only a want of knowledge, or error. Christ is thus reduced to a mere revealer of the true doctrine concerning Ood and con- cerni)H/ the jjast and future."" * 1 Tim. ii. 5. * Jude 3 : 'Vr] I'nra^ napaboOiiaj} rois ayiots niarei. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 57 cost more to redeem their souls : so that he must let that alone for ever." ^ As we have seen, there can be no improvements upon the subject-matter of Christianity, no additions to it, no derogations from it. Christianity, whether true or false, speaks for itself: it lays its own claim to be received as the final announcement on the part of Grod to His calculated to satisfy creatures. But in regard to those '^ who are with- objectors, out," we may still seek to jjrove that the elements in which the vital forces of all religions consist, are to be found unimpaired and vigorous in the constitution of the faith of Christ. § 2. For in some quarters undoubtedly an im- ^ p'"*^^^- pression prevails, or at the least is very indus- sumption triously circulated, that Christianity has been tried failure and has failed. We live in times when all insti- tianity. tutions, political, social, religious^ the cherished heritage of many generations, are seen to be on their trial. Nor is the religion of Christ, the sacred deposit of the whole history of the Church, in its turn exempt. Sometimes its failure is spoken of as evident in practice, sometimes on speculative grounds. The world, it is hinted, sits loose to faith in Christianity, and is beginning to disregard ^ Ps. xlix. 7, 8, with the comment of Delitzsch, On the perpetuity of the Church, as a doctrinal tenet, see Field, Of the Church, J. c. x.. Palmer, Treatise on the Church of Christ, I. i. § 2. It was received alike by the Romish and Protestant divines, and is maintained equally by the Confession of Augsburg, the Helvetic Confession, and the Insti- tutes of Calvin. 58 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. 1 1. it. " Only a fourth part of mankind," it is said, with whatever truth, "are born Christians. The remainder never hear the name of Christ except as a reproach . . . These are facts which no casuistry can explain away."^ Again, " Christianity, accord- ing- to a well-known saying, has been tried and failed. The religion of Christ remains to be tried . . . To- day that failure is too patent."^ Proudhon hardily proclaimed that Christianity w^ill certainly die out in about three hundred years.^ M. Comte, it is well known, argues speculatively that all Theology, as well as Metaphysic, is unreal; for they deal with the origin and the end of things ; and of Of its tern- these, he thinks, we can know nothing. They character, scrvc, iudccd, a preparatory function in affording a temporary stimulus, an artificial basis to in- tellectual effort. But it is only by laying them aside, and ignoring them, that knowledge has made real progress. Thus Catholicism, i. e. Chris- tianity, the highest, yet the last type of Mono- ^ Froude on Calvinism, p. 4. lie adds, " The Chinese aud Japanese, we may almost say every weaker race with whom we have come in contact, connect it only with the forced intrusion of strangers whose behaviour among them has served ill to recommend their creed." Again, Short Studies, Scr. II. p. 98, "We wonder at the failure of Christianity ; at the small progress which it has made in comparison with the brilliancy of its rise," &c. This part of the subject will be considered in Lecture VIII. On the numerical division of the human race according to religions, see Prof. Max Miiller, Chijts, I. 216. Chris- tianity should probably rank highest in the scale. '■^ Morlcy's Critical Miscdlanies, pp. 190, 191. => See Kogers' Essuy>^, II. 342. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 59 theism, has now done its work. It has prepared the way for Positivism, that is, for the belief in Laws ; and soon the present stage of mental and moral anarchy must draw to a close.^ It cannot, This view I fear, be denied that there are many solvents circum- of customary belief at work among us. The ad- the age, vance through improved means of locomotion and mechanical appliances of our knowledge of man- kind, of nature, and the earth which we inhabit ; the tendencies of physical inventions, of political and social concentration, of scientific discovery, and of philosoj^hical criticism, are all acting in one direction. They will strip off, no doubt, the un- essential garb of Christianity. It remains to be seen whether its inward frame can be shaken. I make no excuse for putting the matter thus bluntly before you. It is well even for the youngest of my hearers, who are, thank God, least, if at all, familiar with the philosophy of unbelief, to know something of its language and mode of assault. Let them not be startled. When has the religion 1 See Pliil. Pos., III. 418, V. 299. He holds I'^tat theologique to be I'e'tat fictif. The Church is with Comte a speculative corporate body, destined to give way when the interests of speculation and practice are combined in the advance of knowledge. " La theologie et la physique sont profondement incompatibles." — Lee. I. No doubt, it is the function of Keligion and of Philosophy to oifer a general theory of the universe. This theory is slowly verified or imjDroved on by the progress of knowledge contained in particular sciences. In this manner religion is always on its trial ; bat it has not failed yet, nor is there any reason to believe it will. For an eloquent description of the joint aims of Philosophy and Religion, see Saisset, Essais, pp. xxxiv.-vii. 6o OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. but must of Jesus Clirist not been upon its trial ; or wlien delay en- lias it sliFuuk back froiu the test ? But the charge countered. ,.,,., , , . m i oi lailure whether meant as a gibe, or as a serious objection, as a ready weapon of attack, or as an honest stumbhng-block, cannot be overlooked ; it must not be postponed. To ignore a doubt, is not only open to the imputation of cowardice : it is unwise. For it cannot but operate to the j^rejudice of the truth : and when at last it comes up, as come it will, for answer, the fault bears its own punishment. Nature of ^ -> Jt caunot iiidccd be denied that the im- the current , attacks on putatious to which I havc alluded, are current the success '■ of Chris- in the literature of the day. "The popular re- ligion," it is said, " has entered on its last phase ; "^ " Christianity has dwindled down to a drivelling, feeble, desultory thing." " It is now obvious that the theology of former ages cannot be maintained. ... A change in religious thought has gradually forced its way through the cultivated classes of the community. The educated man no longer believes what the Evangelist believed and affirmed." ^ " The ' Bishop Fraser is reported to have said : " It is a commou gibe tliat Christianity is losing power; and to a certain extent, I think, we cannot deny that the gibe is true and deserved." — Ouardian, August 16, 1871. ^ No new view. See ap. H. J. Rose, Protestantism in Oermany, p. 103, 2nd cd. Schmidt and other Rationalists held that Christianity is a mere temporary dispensation, and that the world should return to Natural Religion. ^ Christian Theoloijy and Modern Scepticism, by the Duke of Somerset, ^)«ssm. Fabri (Bri(fe gegoi 3Ia(criulisini(s) complains that Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 6i theological spirit is too much decayed and too far neutralized to be any longer really formidable in any part of Western Europe." ^ Such are some of the statements not unfrequently made. It is of moment, therefore, to estimate the grounds on which they rest, and the amount of truth they may contain. Nothing is easier than to repeat a charge when once it is made. Repeated, it soon begins to be Reasons of believed, and held more largely on a tacit j^rinciple portancc, of authority ; and then a fresh start is made from the assertion as if it were a fact both proved and acknowledged.^ On what grounds, then, we ask, is the career of Christianity believed to have closed ? Is there any present pressing proof of it ? Is it truer now than at any former time ? Is it plainer now the majority of Christians now-a-days are pagans as to head ; though accepting the faith with their hearts, ^ " L'esprit theologique est trop dechu ou trop neutralise pour etre encore vraiment dangereux dans aucune partie de notre Occident Euro- l^een. Cost partout l'esprit metaphysique qui constitue desormais le seul antagoniste que le Positivisme doive avoir serieusemeiit en vuo : lui seul prolonge desormais rinfluence; impuissante j^our rien fonder, mais trop efEcace jx)ur entraver du genie religieux qui s'eteindrait spontanement sans un tel remaniement." Comte to J. S. Mill, ap. Littr6, A. Comte et le Posit., p. 448, written 1843. See also Paroles de Phil. Pos., p. 24. ^ " Ideas obtain authority and dominion, not altogether from their intrinsic truth, but rather from their constant asseveration, especially when they fall in with the common hops and fears, the wants and necessities, of human nature. Tlie mass of mankind have neither leisure nor ability to examine them : they fatigue, and so compel the Avorld into acceptance." — Milman, Latin Christianity, III. 437. " Les fousses opinions rcssemblcnt a la fausse monnaie, qui est frappee d'aliord ]iar de grands coupables et d^pensee ensuite par d'honnetes gens qui per- p^tuent le crime sans savoir ce qu'ils font." — De Maistre, Soire'^s, p. 26, 62 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. than it has ever been before ? Are there no special reasons to indicate that the wish may be father to the thought ? Is Christianity less an object of dislike and suspicion than it has ever been with some prevalent systems of philosophy ? Is it less and of of an obstacle to their reception ? Is tlieve any their being • i i i • i r» i * at present less impaticucc HI the heart and mind of man than forward, of old to anticipate the designs of Providence or to foredate the beginning of the end ? Something may not unreasonably be attributed to the expecta- tion on the part of its detractors that Christianity may be killed or scotched by a policy of indiffer- ence. To pass it by as already foredoomed, to deal with it as a thing of the past, much may perhaps be looked for from this course of treatment. Dogmas ere now have perished of pretermission, if not of controversy, have given way to a modi- fication of opinion, if not to argument, have yielded to insensible decay. Such has been the fate of many an extinct superstition. This in the eyes of some critics is " the great turning-jDoint in the history of civilized nations."^ Why, then, should it be otherwise with the time-worn, cum- ' " When in the progress of society its theological element begins to decay, the ardour with Avhich religious disputes were once conducted becomes sensibly weakened. The most advanced intellects are the first to feel the growing indifference, and therefore they are also the first to scrutinize real events with that inquisitive eye which their prede- cessors had reserved for religious speculations. This is a great turning- fioint in the history of every civilized nation." — Buckle, Hist. Civil., II. 20.3. Compare Mr. Lccky, Hid. Hat., I. lOi. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 63 brous fabric of Christian tradition ? The increas- ing secularization of politics, tbe loss of temporal influence by the Church/ mark, it is urged, the decline of dogmatic theology as a practical power. Moreover, something of a just retribution dinars Grounds '-'for prepos- about such a change of fortune, which must render sessions on it not wholly displeasing to the taste of the physical Natural philosopher. In past days Theology began by phers. monopolizing science, metaphysic, even history itself. In the hands of the Fathers of the Church she early invaded the realm of Natural know- ledge,^ quickly subordinating it to Revelation, and thereby rendering its progress impossible. In this manner Lactantius denied the sphericity of the earth, and Augustine antipodes. " From the fifth to the twelfth centuries," writes Guizot, " it is Theology that possessed and directed the human spirit. All opinions are impressed by Theology : philosophical, political, and historical questions are all considered under a theological point of view. So all-powerful is the Church in the intellectual Former re- '■ ^ lations of order that even the mathematical and physical Theology sciences are held in submission to its doctrines, science. The theological spirit is in a manner the blood which ran in the veins of the European world ^ This view, of course, loses sight of the possibility that such a sever- ance may even advance the ultimate influence of religion. Otherwise Dissent must equally decline with Established religions. ^ Compare Bacon, Nov. Org., Aph. Ixxxix. 64 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. Hameau. (lowii to Bacon and Descartes." ^ Everywhere and on all subjects the maxim was in force, ' Philosophia ancillans theologiae.' Few cared to perceive that the true sphere of science lies altogether outside of theological study. The Christian is but implicitly and in a secondary degree called on to inquire into \\\Q nature and constitution of things and of Grod. On this side the true defence of his system of belief is to isolate its claims, repelling attack and implied or asserted contradictions.^ History is the proper mode of exhibiting the general character of the faith of Christ, as it is of orthodoxy in detail ; showing the particular dogma to be either a just or false outcome of Scriptural Revelation. Now, however, the tables are turned : and the human intellect, " waxing," it is .'-aid, " in strength, learns to rely upon its own resources, and to throw oft' incumbrances by which the freedom of its move- ments has been long impaired."^ So also the * Civilization in Europe, E. Tr., I. 114, cd. Bohn. See also Comte, Phil. Pos., V. 478. Kepler's bold and plain words (Introd. ad Stoll. Martis) are well known. " In Theology we balance authorities, in Philosophy we weigh reasons. A holy man was Lactantius, who denied that the earth was round : a holy man was Augustine who granting the rotundity, denied the antipodes: a holy thing to me is the Inquisition, which allows the smallness of the earth, but denies its motion. But more holy to me is Truth," &c. See ap. Wliewell, Jndi- cnt ions of the Creator, p. 143, and at length, Hist. Indtid. Sc.,lY . i. 6, 7. ^ " Tout ce qui nous reste done apres avoir ajoute foi aux mystdres sur les preuvcs de la verite de la religion (qu'on appcUe motifs de credi- bilite) c'ost de les pouvoir soutenir contre les objections," &c. — Leibnitz, I'heodicei', § 5. " Buckle, Hist. Civ., II. 2G3. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 65 founder of Positivism looks forward to a Church, CathoHc, but not Christian, which shall preside over the regeneration of society, and " the irresis- tible emancipation of human reason." ^ § 4. Certainly, we have no right to complain inversion that false assumptions should have borne their lation. natural fruit and have yielded to fair attack. " Men," wrote Jeremy Taylor,^ " will call all opinions by the name of religion, and superstruc- tures by the name of fundamental articles, and fancies by the glorious appellative of faith." Those, then, who made Theology the essence of the faith, and next installed her in the throne of all knowledge, divine and human, natural and super- natural, poising on some solitary statement as to a fact of history or science the whole truth of Holy Scripture itself: such men wer-e perforce sowing to the wind, and were the unwitting pioneers of a whole revolution of belief. " Science," wrote De Maistre^ (and his sentiment is far from exploded), * Phil. Pos., Y. 490. It is a melancholy satire on the tendencies of Comtism that, forsaking the Materialism which is its proper base, its author should have returned, as M. Littre reluctantly admits,^to a Theology, a Fetichism {sic), a worship of Humanity, " le Grand Etre." Prof. Huxley's strictures on this subject are as just as they are able. « Works, V. 348, ed. Eden. ^ See Examcn de Bacon, vol. ii. 46 ; Soirees de Sain t-Petershourg, V. Entret. Works, I. 198. See, however, also, p. 172, where the me- taphor is borrowed. Leibnitz, Theodicee, § 17, speaks of those who held as to philosophy, " qu'elle devoit etre traitee en servante et non pas en maltresse par rapport k la Theologie. Enfin que c'etoit une Hagar aupres de Sara, qu'il falloit chasser de la maison avec son Ismael, quand elle faisoit la mutine." It must not be forgotten that Metaphysic, under F 66 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. Science now tends to the adoption " must be kept in its place ; for it resembles fire whicli, when confined in the grates prepared for it, is the most useful and powerful of men's servants ; scattered about anyhow, it is the most terrible ot scourges." For this reason he argues that physi- cal science was not given to men until Christianity was dominant in the earth. What wonder if we now hear the opinion loudly proclaimed that physical knowledge is the proper supplement to theological conceptions ; that " the gradual destruc- tion of the old theology is everywhere preceded by the growth and diffusion of physical truths." ^ § 5. The reverse excess is now more to le feared. The spirit of the age proves, indeed, that of a sen- jxiankind is still governed by its prejudices rather suous phi- c3 .; I J losophy. than by reason. As the medieval temper was theologically led to an excessive credulity, so the sceptical tendency of the present day leads men to limit their vision to objects of sense. Now it is asserted that there is no knowledge but of things visible : no truth which is not real: no philosophy which is not " positive." ^ Wf liavc but I'aitli : we cannot know; For kmnvlcihji' is of Ihi/n/s vr nee; sings the greatest of our metaphysical poets, con- the name of QeoXnyiKr), had of old assumed the liighest rank in the scale of sciences. See Arist., Mefaj/h., P>k. Y. ' Buckle, m^t. Civ., III. 478. ^ Positivi.sm, by Comte identified with Natural Philosophy in its largest .sense including Social Physics, through a huge fundamental assumption, has come to be ^mrcly negative. '.i"he term " positive" was by the grammarians opposed to " natural,'' and hence transferred to the Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 67 descending to the language of his time.^ Thus the most popular Pi-ofessor of the day asserts, " there is but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it. . . . What is the history of every ^J^^'j^^'"s science but the history of the elimination of the ^'^ the •^ ^ Unseen. notion of creative or other interferences ? . . . Harmonious order governing eternally continuous progress, the web and woof of Matter and Force interweaving by slow degrees, without a broken thread, that veil which lies between us and the Infinite, tliat universe which alone ice Tcnow or can kuoiv." ^ Here is something very different fr(^m distinction between legal and moral obligations. " In laws," saj s Hooker, " that which is natural biudeth universally ; that which is positive not so." — E. P., I. x. 7. Tims also Bishoj^ Butler contrasts moral and positive duties. Analogy, Pt. II. c. i. Its present use seems derived from its logical sense, denoting " rem quasi prtesentem." The intermediate notion, however, by which laws of nature are regarded as positive, is thus stated by Leibnitz : — " II y en a d'autres verites qu'ou pent appeler positives, parce qu'elles sont les lois qu'il a plu a Dieu de donner a la Nature, ou parce qu'elles en dependent." ' And truly enough : only it must not be forgotten that faith is to man the very " evidence of things not seen," the fundamental condition of all true human knowledge, intellectual or moral. We may justly ask whether the materialism of the day, resting on physical philosophy, lias any neiu proof or necessity to offer, not open to earlier speculation. 2 Huxley, Lay Sermons, p. 310. " Notre ame," says Pascal, " est jetee dans le corps oh elle trouve nombre, temps, dimension. EUe raisonne la-dessus et appelle ccla Nature, necessite, et ne j^^id croire autre chose.'" Yet he acknowledges fully the modest limits of human apprehension. " Les sciences ont deux extremites qui se touchent: la premidre est la pure ignorance naturelle ou se trouvent tons les hommes en naissant : I'autre extremite est celle ou arrivent les grandes ames, qui ayant parcouru tout ce que les hommes peuvent savoir, trouvent qu'ils ne savent rien, et se rencontrent en cette meme ignorance d'ou ils etaient partis. Mais c'est une ignorance savante qui se connait." {Ftmets, II. 163; T. 180.) F 2 68 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. the doctrine of the relativity of human know- ledge. No alternative is presented between mate- rialism^ and sheer ignorance; either alike incom- petent to satisfy the demand of man's intelligence or spirit. So extremes meet. The ultimate analysis of science, the rudimentary ignorance of barbarism, have kissed each other. Both refuse to travel beyond the avouchments of the senses. Mr. Bailey, long a resident among the Yeddahs of Ceylon, says : — " They have no knowledge of a Supreme Being. 'Is He on a rock — on a white ant-hill — on a tree ? I never saic a God,' was the only reply I received to repeated questions."^ ' How dangerously near such teaching approaches to materialism may be seen from the language of Feuerbach. " Personality, individuality, consciousness, without Nature is nothing ; or, which is the same thing, an empty, unsubstantial abstraction. But Nature is nothing without corporeality. . . . Real sensational existence is that which is not dependent on my own mental spontaneity or activity, but by which I am involun- tarily affected : which is when I cannot, do not think of it or feel it. The existence of God must therefore be in space : in general a quali- tative, sensational existence. But God is not seen, not heard, not per-, ceived by the senses. He does not exist for me, if I do not exist for Him." — Essence of Christianity, E. T., pp. 90, 199. Augustine thus characterizes the Positivism of his day : — " Sed res est longd remota a vanorum hominum mentibus qui nimis in base corporalia progressi atque lapsi nihil aliud putant esse quam quod istis quinque notissimis nuntiis corporis sentiunt : et quas ab his plagas atque imagines acceperunt eas secum volvunt etiam cum conantur recedere a sensibus et ex earum mortifcra et fallacissima regula ineffabilia penetralia veritatis rcctissimd se metiri putant." — Util. Cred., c. i. ' Quoted by Mr. Farrar on the Universality of a Belief in Ood. (^Anthropological Beview, August, 1864.) As to the Veddahs, however, see Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 45 ; and on the whole question of savage races being destitute of the elements of religion, id. I. c. xi., pp. 377-83. Also Luthardt, Apolog., E. T., p. 42. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 69 Thus religion, the science of spiritual things, whose subject-matter, passing the spliere of experi- ence, is the soul and spirit of man, and his relations to the Maker of the universe, " dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto ; Whom no man hath seen, nor can see,"^ is in this school of thought dethroned, discrowned, nay, thrust out for final extinction : her occupation gone, the reason of her being disallowed.^ § 6. The inquiry remains, Why must we believe Assump- that Christianity has failed ? If the charge be necessaiy true, it must be capable of proof, either from the in the exhibition of a fixed tendency to decline — the re- ciiris^ ° ligion of Christ must be shown to have already '^"^^' passed its meridian, and to have yielded only dis- appointing results — or from a present feebleness and prostration, so utter and unquestionable, so chronic and inherent, as to defy dispute ; or, lastly, from the discovery that the tenets of Christianity ^ 1 Tim. vi. 16. Comp. TertuUian, Apdl., c. xviii. Iiivisibilis est etsi videatur : incomprehensibilis, etsi per gratiam repraisentetur ; inajsti- mabilis, etsi humanis sensibus a^stimetur. It is in this sense that Augustine writes : " Sammus ille Deus qui scitur melius ncscicndo." De Ord., II. xvi. ^ Lange, Oeschichte des Materialismus, p. 60, has some good re- marks on the insensible stages by which the physical philosophy of the day passes into dogmatism. " Unsere Materialisteu vergessen nur zu haufig, dass sie ganz einerlei, ob sie von Beruf etwa Professoren der Physiologic sind oder nicht, — sich alsbald auf dem Boden der Philo- sophie und nicht der Natur Wissenschaft befinden, wenn sie sich zu twiner Gesammtanschauung des Weltganzen zu erheben versuchen, und dass sie dogmatische Philosophen sind, wenn sie die Resultate ilircr Anschauungen kategorisch als Thatsachen vortragen." ^o OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. const tilting with ad \anci are incompatible with truths now very generally acknowledged, and with that marked progress in intellectual effort which is a main ingredient in the present condition of affairs. It is with the last of these alternatives that we shall first, and for some time, be occupied ; for the particular ob- ieniai of jectious whicli it covers are fatal not only to the its power , c ^\^ • • ' -i toco-exist continuance oi Christianity, but to all systems of religion acknowledging or implying Theism.^ These, then, require to be met before entering on the direct historical proofs which guarantee the prospects of our common fiiith. With one of these, indeed, the refutation of such objections is imme- diately connected, and practically identical. For the powder, v^hich they impugn, of assimilating healthfully the varying conditions, the attendant conceptions of progressive civilization, must ever be a most important ingredient in a religion des- tined for permanence. It is this element whicli is mainly neutralized or denied in the observations which will now be considered. § 7. The difficulties still urged against the re- Particular objections ' It is evident that, though a man may be a Theist and not a Christian, a lact which has recently been somewhat ostentatiously pro- claimed {^Christianity and Modern Scej^ticism, sub fin.), it is impossible lor him to be a Christian and not a Theist. Thus, Shaftesbury, WarJcit, II. 209, writes : " Averse as I am to the cause of Theism, or name of Deist, when taken in a sense exclusive of Eevelation, I consider still that in strictness the root of all is Theism ; and that to be a settled Christian, it is necessary to be first of all a good Theist." Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 71 ception of Christianity are partly very ancient, on which tboiiffh now advanced upon new grounds : some sumption -1, n .,. , , , is founded, are essentially modern m their character and bear- ings, and, as such, are at present most frequently encomitered. Thongli general in their scope, they are brought to bear particularly on the dominant, that is, upon the Christian faith. All progress, it is asserted, in human affairs, of whatever kind, is intellectual. Moral subjects form no exception.' The progress of Nature is towards intellectual, not moral development. Moral dogmas, if they advance at all, which is very questionable, advance only through intellectual processes. The same is true no less of theological and religious beliefs, which owe their virtue to their moral element. Religion has never been a true source of culture, which is really derived from knowledge and not from belief.^ ^ Pascal long ago noted the source of this confusion. " Les inventions des hommes vont en avanfant de siecle en si^cle. La bonte et la malice du monde en general en est de meme." — Pensees, I. 205. The notions of Mr. Buckle and kindred thinkers on these subjects are trace- able to Condorcct and Turgot. " Progress," says Mr. Morley, Crit. Misc., p. 91, " in Condorcet's mind is exclusively produced by improve- ment in intelligence. It is the necessary result of man's activity in the face of that disproportion ever existing between what he knows and what he desires and feels the necessity to know. Hence the most fatal errors of his sketch. He measures only the contributions made by nations and eras to what we know ; leaving out of sight their failures and suc- cesses in the elevation of moral standards and ideals, and in the purifi- cation of the passions." ^ See Buckle, Hist. Civ., I. 254. " When religious opinions are deeply rooted, they do, no doubt, influence the conduct of men ; but before they can be deeply rooted, some intellectual change must first have taken place," &c. literal lire of the day. 72 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. Civilization explains religion, and not religion civi- lization. " The history of the civilization of the earth," it has been quaintly said, " is the history of the civilization of Olympus also." ^ Thus Chris- tianity has been no cause of civilization, but its effect. The consequences very commonly attri- buted to Christianity in the history of mankind are really due to an advance in civilization. The Church of Christ may seem to have done some good in things where her interest did not happen to clash with the interests of Europe, as in helping to abolish slavery ; but, after all, circumstances and manners would have produced the result ne- cessarily and of themselves.^ The essence of all religions is in a moral code, and this is found to ' be nearly everywhere identical. So in the moral part of Christianity there is nothing new. All providential interposition, speculatively or histori- cally considered, is inadmissible, and therefore, also, every religion resting upon such interpo- sition. Such notions belong altogether to the ' Morley, Cvit. Misc., i\ 153. ^ See Condorcet ap. Morley, Crit. Misc., p. 94, and M, Comte, Phil. Pos., V. 397. The case is temperately and honestly stated by Guizot, Civ. in E., I. 110, ed. Bolm. " It has often been repeated that the abolition of slavery among modern people is due entirely to Christians. That, I think, is saying too much : slavery existed for a long period in the heart of Christian society, without its being particularly astonished or ia'itated. A multitude of causes and a great development in other ideas and principles of civilization were necessary for the abolition of this iniquity of all iniquities. It cannot be doubted, however, that the Church exerted its influence to restrain it." Lect. II.] FRO GUESS OF CHRISTIANITY. y^ infancy of knowledge ; its progress is marked by their decay and extinction. Since the discovery of the great laws and agencies of Nature all miraculous tales have been given np. Every advance of science is an extension of the idea of Law, and that into regions of thought and phenomena hitherto held exempt.^ But the theory of universal invariable law is abhorrent from Christian doctrine, and, indeed, from all systems which are not of a pantheistic character, or, at least, go beyond pure theism. Eeligion itself, and so-called revelation, are parts of the order of Nature, and may be explained out of phenomena which leave no room for supernatural considera- tions. Religion is a natural infirmity of the fftai to ... . the perma- human mind in its immature stas:es, just as there nence and . power of are specific disorders in childhood incident to the christian- ity and human body. Thus Christianity is a partial and of aii evanescent form of anthropomorphism, necessary rehgion. perhaps to a transitional mode of thought. It is the tendency of knowledge, and so of civilization, to extinguish religion. Advancing culture removes the feelings, or more strictly the occasions of the feel- ings, which are the elements of religious sentiment. By eliminating fear and wonder from the mind, in its gradually increased acquaintance with the ^ Sucli as the special Providence of God, the foundatiou of all reli- gion : the freedom and personality of man : with its consequences on social law and morality. Sec some good remarks in Christian Ilcmem- brancer, No. CXXXI., p. 240, 74 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. facts of the external world, tlie ingredients of veneration are dissolved, and religion itself dis- appears in tlie analysis. And, lastly, the sense of free agency is more than suspected to be only a trick of consciousness, a product of organic evo- lution, and to be incompatible alike with just theories of a natural causation, and with statistical results. But if moral responsibility be removed, most, it must be admitted, of the groundwork of religious truth, under whatever system, will fall away with it. Prayer, for example, can no longer be regarded as " man's rational prerogative," but rather as " a transient bewilderment of the social instinct," the " misajDplication of a social habit," or "the delusive self-confidence of human feehng."^ They are J procccd to cutcr morc or less fully on the reason tooics indicated. All are more or less directly answered ■"■ in detail, conncctcd witli the permanence of the faith of Christ. The world at large is always ready to mistake difficulties which really underlie all human thought for difficulties in the way of Christian * See Coleridge's remarks on this subject in Aids to Reflection, p. 55, and on the other side Comte, Fhil. Pos., IV. pp. 671-3. I cannot refrain from quoting a noble passage from Mr, Hutton, Essays, I. 3G8 : — " Prayer is and can only be possible on the assumption that it is a real influence with God : that, whether granted or denied, it is efBcient as an expression of our spiritual want and resolution : that the breath o( l^ower which answers it is a living response, aiad like all living responses the free utterance of the moment, not the pre-ordained consequent waiting for a pre-ordained antecedent: that there is a sphere beyond all necessary law, in which both the Divine and human life are not con- strained by immutable arrangements, but free." Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 75 belief. So far forth, however, as they affect the permcuience of Christianity, being themselves in- volved in the current philosophy of the age, and representing the spirit of its thought, they will be properly considered here. For certainly of most of them it may be said that, if these views must be accepted, the days of the reception of tlie faith of Christ by mankind, or at least by its most civilized portion, are undoubtedly num- bered, and perhaps quickly told. Whatever may have been the benefits it has conferred upon past generations, whatever its connections with fore- gone civilization, its part, if these things be so, has been indeed played out, its work is done, its glory departed, and " the ark of our God is taken." S 8. The limits assi2:ned me in these Lectures ciassifica- . . , . tion of will be best observed by groujDing the objections ?u^h ob- specified under three general heads. They will be found to involve the relations either (I.), of causa- tion to free agency; or (II.), of universal law to providential agency ; or (III.), of intellectual to moral and religious action. " Every rehgion," says a distinguished living philosopher,^ " may be de- fined as an a priori theory of the universe." " Every perfect religion," w^'ites another careful and precise thinker,^ " must give account of three • Mr. Herbert Spencer, First Principles, p. 43. * Dr. Westcott, Comte on Christianity, Cant. Itcv. VIII. 373, ^6 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. elements — the individual, the world, and God." Those Our immediate task is to examine whether the relating . . , , . i • x to the principles on these subjects, necessary to the exist- ence of Christianity, are irreconcilable with the existence of free m man conclusions of cxisting science/ No fact is more first con- sidered. suggestive of the intellectual temper of our time than the manner in which the question of man's liberty of action is now discussed, and the grounds on which it is not uncommonly set aside. Eele- gated on its metaphysical side^ to the limbo of un- fruitful disputations, it is approached and decided by physical considerations, as a material rather than a mental fact, or as a mental fact capable The pre- ^f material explanation. Minds occupied only or sent aspect ^ . , . of science mainly with physical inquiries readily apply the istic, notion of material causation, the iiexus between antecedent and consequent, with which they are familiar, to the phenomena of thought a,nd action.^ Uniformity of result, statistically obtained, is taken to prove identity of origin ; and moral operations ^ " The questions which belong to natural theology are in substance the same from age to age; but they change their aspect with every advance or supposed advance in the inductive sciences." — Whewell, Jndic. of the Creator, p. ix. ^ Sir H. Maine, Ancient Law, p. 354, has jwinted out that the problem of free-will arises when we contemplate a metaphysical con- ception under a legal aspect. Dean Merivale has traced the theological history of tlie controversy to the expressions of Roman law. ^ Compare Augustine, Ver. Relig., c. xxxvi. " Quoniam opera magis Artificem atque ipsam artem dilexerunt hoc errore puniuntur ut in oiieribus artificem artemque conquirant : et cum invenire nequiverint (Deus enim non corporalibus sensibus subjacet sed ipsi menti super- eminet) ipsa opera existiment esse et artem ct artificem." Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY, 77 are confounded with material processes.^ Thus it is asked, as an inquiry decisive of the matter in hand, whether the actions of men, and therefore of societies, are not governed by fixed laws ; or whether they are to he regarded as the result of chance or of supernatural interference.^ For on this issue depends the desideratum of the Positive School, the possibility of an exact science of man and history. Now chance, it may at once be ad- mitted, is but another name for ignorance of causa- tion.^ We know nothing in Nature, or, if it may be so said, out of Nature, which is not under tlie * This is, no doubt, the first effect of the enthusiasm and instinct of symmetry wliich are the just results of tlie surprising triumphs of pliy- sical discovery, Mr. LeclvV well remarks, Hist. Rat., I. 322, " In the present day, when the study of the laws of matter has assumed an extraordinary development, and when the relations between mind and body are chiefly investigated with a primary view to the functions of the latter, it is neither surprising nor alarming that a strong movement towards materialism should be the consequence." Leibnitz finely ob- serves : " II paroit d'abord que tout ce que nous faisons n'est qu'impul- sion d'autrui : et que tout ce que nous concevons vient de dehors par les sens, et se trace dans le vuide de notre esprit, tanquam in tahulCi rasa. Mais une meditation plus profonde nous apprend que tout (meme les perceptions et les passions) nous vient de notre propre fonds avec une pleine six)ntaneite."— TAeW., Pt. III. § 296. * See Buckle, Hist Civil., I. p. 8 ff. ^ " Ne parlons plus de hasard ni de fortune, ou parlons-en seulement comme d'un nom dont nous couvrons notre ignorance." — Bossuet, Disc, sur I'Hist. Univ., III. viii. "Tons les sages," says Leibnitz, "con- viennent que le hasard n'est qu'une chose apparente: c'est Tignorance des causes qui le fait." AoKel fiiv alria t) tvxtj, aSrjXos Se avB^yunrivrj 8iavoia. — Arist., Phys., II. iv. Mr. Tylor, Hist. Prim. Cult., I. 17, furnishes an admirable illustration. " The Great Spirit," say the Sioux Indians, " made all things except the wild rice ; but the wild rice came by chance." Here the ambiguity is apparent, which opposes chance not to causation, but to design. 78 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. and tend- direction of fixed principles and ascertainable ele- ing to ^ . . bring mentarv causes.^ But when, this correction made, man's • • 1 1 • 1 liberty the qiicstiOD IS again stated, does it present a real under the dilemma? The will of man, it may be reasonably of laws of contended, is itself a cause, subject to conditioned action,^ governed therefore by fixed laws of choice as well as of subsequent operation, yet in its nature motive, and analogous, so far considered, to any simple elementary force or form of force in physics. There is no greater antecedent difficulty in con- ceiving the agency of the one than of the other.-' But then the action of man's will, it may be said, is in this view hypothetically different from that of all natural forces. For while the cause of motion to things external to itself, its own movements are ^ "The nature of a thing is tlie answer both of the ignorant and of the philosopher. Search for laws." — Faraday, Life, II. 86. Law may be said to be the first announcement of Holy Scripture ; when God spake, " Let there be light ; " and there was light. ^ Kom. viii, 20. " For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." ^ The embarrassments attending the notion of Force as ?i property of Matter are now understood. 'J'lius the terms energy, hehaviour, and the like have been transferred by modern phj'-sicists from moral pheno- mena as the best exponents of natural force. See Prof. Tyndall, Fragments of Science, p. 22. WhewcU's Indications of the Creator, p. 00. Lange, Geschichte des Materinlismus, pp. 376-7, has some good remarks on the bearing of this fact upon a doctrine of materialism. While recog- nizing to the full the charm of style and language possessed by a Tyndall and a Huxley, I cannot forbear to point out the responsibility attaching to their vast powers in this respect. This has been ably touched by a writer in the ' Quarterly Review,' No. CCXX. p. 370. Leibnitz has well said, "Souvent les expressions outrees et pour ainsi dire poiitiques, ont plus de force pour toucher et pour persuader que ce qui se dit avec regularite." Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 79 assumed to be ultimately free, that is, uncaused, however biassed by the conditions and circum- stances of acting. Now, the bowl will roll indeed according to its bias, but it must first find else- where an origin of movement. This supposition, then, it is urged, is inconsistent with the whole analogy of Nature, and is unsupported by the evi- dence of facts. § 9. The question thus stated will be perceived The t'^eo- to have no immediate connection with the theolo- tenet of free-will 2;ical tenet of free-will.^ By this is properly to be dis- 1 • p , -n 1 tinguished covered the relation of man s will to supernatural from the or Divine interference, the measure, so to speak, of or meta- its subservience, the will being assumed, as to itself, SJuestion. to be an instance of causation in Nature. At pre- sent we are concerned only with the scientific fact of the existence of will in man, as being a funda- mental condition of the permanence of our religion. To the mode of its operation the old physical axiom may with reason be aj^plied— " Corpora non agunt nisi soluta." For it needs hardly to remark that to speak of free-will is no better than a tautology, not to rank it among the " question-beggiug appella- tives " of Bentham, a will not free being a con- tradiction in terms, a conception which excludes itself.^ There is, indeed, an aspect in which the 1 Mr. Buckle, Hist. Civ., I. pp. 9, 20, has indeed exhibited lliis sub- ject very differently ; yet, as it seems to me, with some confusion. ^ This, it is found, was the view of Spinoza (Ed. Auerbach). Colo- ridge justly remarks:— "A will, the state of which does in no sense 8o OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. theological dogma is not unconcerned with the Thetheo- scientific question. Thus, if the assumption of logical , , , , dogma universal law as a principle of science, or of na- not neces- i i • i i i i • saiiiyin- tural selcction and gradual evolution as applica- compatible . _ . . . -y n ^ • ^ with the tions 01 it, require m regard ol human action the natural reccptioii of a system of fatalism, whether pure or modified, it would not he difficult, by means of a doctrine of predestination, determinism, or even of eternal reprobation, to institute an apparent alli- ance between some aspects of Christianity and science.^ This subject it is not witliin our limits to pursue further, though it has been stirred by some leading writers of the time.^ I would remark only that among defensive arguments such reasoning is at least not inadmissible. The argu- ^ ^ q. Arc, thcu, thc grouuds on which the human meiit from •' -' ? o originate in its own act, is an absolute contradiction. It might be an instinct, an impulse, a plastic power, and if accompanied with conscious- ness, a desire ; but a will it could not be." — A. R., p. 104. Scientific and theological detenninism may thus practically coincide. A will, which is absorbed in the conditions of its operation, is no will ; and if the actions of men "arc merely the product of a collision between internal and external phenomena," res[)onsibility of conduct is evaded. " Voluntas," said even Luther, " qiiaj potest cogi et cogitur, non est voluntas sed noluntas." ^ Thus the Leibnitian doctrine of Monads and a rre-established Har- mony, when assailed as involving Fatalism, was defended by its author as not incompatible with the Christian doctrine of Grace. 2 It is suggested by Mr. Buckle in his higlily interesting comparison of Calvinism with Arminianism, //. Civ., II. 342 ; and by Mr. Froude in his most eloquent, though somewhat vague, lecture on Calvinism. See also Mr. J. S. Mill, Exam, of Sir W. JIumilton, p. 492. Sir William {Appendix to Reid, p. 977) is careful to i:oint out that the Calvinist theologian holds to the liberty of man by the side of a doc- trine of predestination and foreknowledge of God. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 8i race lias ever attributed to itself the possession of "J^^^'^jJ^ will, of an independent power of acting, and an i". favour ultimate freedom of choice, are these indeed real, wm. or to be accounted imaginary ? Is there anything in the present state of our knowledge which renders such a belief incredible through a diverse, yet adequate, explanation of admitted facts ? Are the sentiments and volitions whicli have hitherto been presumed to be the properties of our personal activity, to be henceforward referred to general laws ? Do our " thoughts, wills, and actions accord with laws as definite as those which govern the motion of waves, the combination of acids and bases, and the growth of plants and animals ?"^ The observation of religious instincts, of ideals unrealized. That type of perfect in his mind In Nature can he nowhere find ; of moral intuitions and indestructible beliefs, the very capacity of self-reproach, " the implicit creed of the guilty ;" these facts in our mental constitu- tion have ever been held to presume the existence of will in man as a precedent condition of their reality.^ Nor is the existence of such instinctive Testimony of positive thinkers * Tylor, Eist. Prim. Cult., I. p. 2. to their ^ It has indeed been urged (chiefiy by writers of the school of Kant), validity, that " presentiments cannot be regarded as proofs of external exist- ence." Compare Mr. Hutton, Essays, I. 2G. But such an objection is in truth suicidal, striking at the roots of all knowledge. Spinoza said the stone, if it could think, would account its gravitation a voluntary 82 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. beliefs, sliowing an uniform but independent genesis in different places and times, altogetber denied in tbe scbool of thought which I have now in view. Mr. Mill, indeed, says with some causticity, " The universal voice of mankind, so often appealed to, is universal only in its dis- cordance."^ Yet M. Comte recognizes "essential inclinations of the intellect," ^' primordial tenden- cies," an " inherent need of ideality," and the like. " The universality of religious ideas," writes^ Mr. Herbert Spencer, "their independent evolution among different primitive races, and their great vitality, unite in showing that their source must be movement ; and Leibnitz (probably with the dictum of Thalcs (Arist. de Anim., I. 2) in his mind) made the same remark of the magnet. But Hegel replies that with thought would come the perception of an infinite variety of motion, which, if limited, would be felt as compulsion. See Woisse, Vorlesimgen, p. 126. 1 Dissert, II. 498. See Comte, Phil. Pos., VI. 642, &c. 2 First Principles, pp. 10, 14. And again (p. 4), " Admitting, as we must, that life is impossible unless through a certain agreement between internal convictions and external circumstances ; admitting, therefore, that the probabilities are always in favour of the truth, or at least the partial truth of a conviction ; we must admit that the convic- tions entertained by many minds in common are the most likely to have some foundation." Cicero, Nat. D., I. xvii., says indeed the same thing, De quo omnium natura conscntit, id verum esse neccsse est. "No prc-assurance common to a whole species does in any instance prove delusive. All other prophecies of nature have their exact fulfil- ment in every other ingrafted word of promise. Nature is found true to her word ; and is it in her noblest creature that she tells her first lie ? " —Coleridge, A. P., p. 277. Mr. Mill, Logic, II. 466, sees a fallacy of reasoning in a circle in this assertion of natural or instinctive sentiments among mankind. But he has no right to demand these generalizations, any more than others in nature, to be unexcc[)tionable and not ap- proximate. Lect. IL] progress OF CHRISTIANITY. 83 deep-seated instead of superficial." " A postulate which is not consciously asserted, but unconsciously involved, and which is unconsciously involved not by one man or body of men, but by numerous bodies of men, who diverge in countless ways and degrees in the rest of their beliefs, has a warrant far" transcending any that can be usually shown." " That religious instincts," says Mr. Lecky, " are as truly a part of our nature as are our appetites and our nerves, is a fact which all history establishes, and which forms one of the strongest proofs of the reality of that unseen world to which the soul of man continually tends." ^ Is their testimony, then, negatived or overthrown, is the light that is in them darkened by our increasing acquaintance with the regularity of events in nature, with the evolu- tion of animal life, or with the automatic develop- ment of faculties ? Of this class of notions, it may They are rv» 11 . r, . . , Tj ,- not incon- suffice to remark that even 11 mstmcts be, as Mr. sistent Darwin believes, " inherited habits," this does not theory of evolution, ^ nist. European Morals, I. 340. Mr. Mill, Examination, p. 503, ff., contends that we are not conscious of free-will, but of responsibility implying free-will. We are, he admits, conscious of a ftcling that we might have chosen differently had we preferred to do so. By respon- sibility is meant not the fact of future punishment, but the sense that it is right we should be punished. This, argues Mr. Mill, is a natural deterrent, and it enables a man to help acting as he does. If so, it renders him justly liable to punishment. I cannot see how it docs on the theory of Necessity, which admits, as Mr. Mill (p. 511) half seems to perceive, no such saving clause. It is of course always open to analyze Conscience into association ; viz. a gi-adually formed conviction that as we are accountable to man, so we are to the Deity. But such an explanation really decides nothing. a 2 84 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. 1 1, necessarily mar their cogency or plausibility of ^ ' Reason is often pressed, But honest Instinct comes a volunteer.^ The standard of nature is the perfect and, therefore, the mature instance.^ The highest stage of civiliza- tion is, in the truest sense, a state of nature ; nor are instincts confined or necessarily correspondent to the primeval beliefs of savages. There may be a rudimentary belief, natural and instinctive to human tribes, which, at any given stage, may not have yet emerged into a condition which can be pronounced as definitely apprehended.^ It must be remembered that results obtained through evolu- tion, being strictly natural, may, in themselves, be regarded as instinctive. And, certainly, the belief in spiritual beings, the conviction of the existence of an all-seeing Deity, controlling the course of ^ "Les principes se sen tent : Ics propositions so conclucnt." — Pascal, Pensees, II. 108. Instinct, says De Maistre, is like an Asymptote to Reason, ever approaching but never invading its domain, ^ " Num dubitas quin siiecimen natune capi debeat ex optima quaquo natura ? " — Cic, Tzisc. Disp., I. xiv. AeZ a-Kondv iv toIs Kara cjivaiv exovai /laXXoi/ to (f)iiaei koL firj iv rols 8i€(j)6apiJ.€vois. — Arist., Pol., I. V. 5, and N. Eth., IX. ix. 8. That which is the consummation in order of time or development is the original or end respectively in the order of Nature. ^ Mr. Herbert Spencer indeed holds that " fundamental moral intui- tions have been and still are developing in our race." The abortion of this truth is to hold with Feuerbach that the Deity Himself is a creation of the human conscience ; that man has made God in the likeness of man. Any way these intuitions must be regarded as facts ; and, being parts of an organization, imply design. They are the "practical proofs" of Bishop Butler. On the whole question, see Comte, Phil. Pos., IV. 624. Waitz, Anthrop., I. .322 ; Tylor, 77. Pr. Crdt., I. 384. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 85 events, of a possible commimion with Him as the aim and end of being, of a sense of duty and responsibility, of the existence, present and future, of the soul, and other similarly connected funda- mental tiTiths, are some of these. Even if origi- fi"f ^'fj^.*^ nally traceable to social tendencies and social ^'J2'j[y"^ symjDathies, or, which we cannot admit, to inherited ^^'^^^• experiences of utility,^ accumulated and transmitted, and thus not innate but acquired, they are not for that reason less natural. Such instincts may be termed derivative;^ but they still speak with tlie ^f^^^!,"];. voice of Nature and of Nature's God, and their testimony. utterance is this. They prove that community of feeling and nature with the Divine which is denied or ignored in the philosophy of Nescience, but is of the essence of the faith of Christ {jov yap /cat yevos io-fxev). For Christianity, it must ever be re- membered, is no mere Monotheism f it is rather, as ■^ Mr. Spencer says, "Moral intuitions are tlie results of accumulated experiences of utility. Gradually organized and inherited, they have come to be quite independent of conscious experience." See Bain, Mental and M. S., p. 722. ^ See Darwin, Descant, II. 395, and J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism, p. 45. Exam, of Sir W. Hamilton, p. 167. The question whether we have, given in consciousness, an immediate intuition of God, is not essential ; we are at least conscious of truths which render the existence of God matter of inference. ^ As a form of Monotheism, Christianity might be nothing more than the outcome of the development of our race. Thus Mr. Tylor, Hist. Pr. C, II. 302, regards the religion of savages as a polytheism which culminates in the worship of one God. Humboldt in a fine passage shows that Monotheism alone is consistent with a view of the unities of Nature, of the order of the universe. " Es ist ein charakterischcs Kennzeichen der Naturpoesio der Hebriier, dass als Keflex dcs Monothe- 86 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. it has been called, Tlieanthropism, the taking of the manhood into God. Objection & II. It is a ditEcultj more apparent than real, raised by . , . . r Ml the Evolu- that a being apprehensive and recipient oi will answered, should, if indeed it be so, be descended from pro- genitors without it. It is evident wben we take into account the expansive force of mind and the vast differences which sever civilized from barba- rous tribes, that, whatever his origin, man's capacity for improvement, or, as we should prefer to term it, renovation, is practically infinite. Nor is it easy to say where a difference of degree in respect of faculties may merge into one of kind. An iilus- tration of this truth may be found in the long- dekiyed maturity of the more complex and highly endowed embryos, which yet recall, in various stages of growth and infancy, the rudimentary phases of specific evolution. If the sense of per- sonality, of responsibility and moral consciousness be our guarantee of the soul's realit}^, it may afford some clue to the point of transition from animal to human existence in the higher and truer sense. Doubtless " there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual." Howbeit " that w^as not first which is ismus, sie stcts das Gauze des Weltalls in seiner Einlieit umfasst sowolil das Evdenlebcn, als die leuchtcnden Himmelsiiiume. Sie weilt scltener bei dem Einzelnen der Erscheinung, sondem erfrcut sich der Ansclianung cirrisscr Massen. Man moclite sagen, dass in dem einzigen 104. Psalm das Bild des ganzen Kosmos dargelegt ist," &c. On Chris- tianity as wholly depending on the doctrine of the Incarnation, see Dorner, Boot, of Ferson of Christ, 1. 2, sub init., and Dr. Westcott in his able critique of Comte on Christianity, Cant. Bev., VI. 418. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. ^,7 spiritual." We may have "borne the image of the heavenly." It is probably through the Relation ,. „ . , -. ,. . . , of man medium 01 sensation that we learn to distinguish to the , . . . , , , animal our separate personality. 1 et it is a knowledge world, too wonderful and excellent for the mere brute : he cannot attain to it. The moral qualities which he displays ^ are probably derived from his inter- course with man, and admit of very limited culture. So with the sense of immortality, of freedom, and responsible activity. Part of the native generic consciousness of our race, this may yet be de- veloped slowly, partially, precariously.^ Still the fact of such development remains with its atten- dant consequences ; for which the same evidence exists as determines the reality of all our know- ledge. § 12. The old familiar generalization that there Admitted i>i, . -, 111 f uniformity is no effect without a cause has been so far ex- of the course of ^ "Take au example of a dog, aud mark what a generosity and cou- •'^^'^^'^^• rage he will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God or melior natura ; which courage is manifestly such as that creature without that confidence of a better nature than his own, could never attain." — Bacon, Easay on Atheism. Augustine, Civ. Dei, XI. xxvii., remarks, " Verumtamen inest sensibus irrationaliura animan- tium etsi scieutia nuUo modo, at certe quasdam sciential similitudo." ^ See Mr. Picton's able speculations in New Theories and Old Faith, Lect. II., &c. The "survival of the fittest," in spite of Mr. Spencer's answer to Mr. Martincau {Cont. liev., XX. 147), implies to my mind pre-arrangement and a directive Will. The benevolence of the origina- ting Mind requires a distinct proof. ^ Of this Leibnitz, Theod., I. § 44, remarks : " Sans ce grand principe nous ne pourrions jamais prouver I'existence de Dieu." An illustration of his method will be found in his Con/essio Naturce contra Atheistas ( Works, pp. 45, 46, cd. Erdmann), and Theodicee, I. § 7. Dieu est la premiere raison des choses, &c. 88 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. tended in ex^^erience as to receive the addition, and one which is itself uniform. Thus if Physical Science should ever ultimately resolve the bulk of natural facts into forces, compounds into sub- stances, organic structures into inorganic, or inorganic into organic, vital into material, or material into vital ; these forces, we may presume, will be found to be qualijied ; for else they would be incapable of differentiation. Or if ultimately resoluble into a single force, this must, so far as we can conceive, be itself qualijied, to be what it is.^ Eternal form must still divide The eternal soul from all beside. Leads But as that which is itself the origin of move- acknow- uicnt to all othcr things, must be either self-caused, that is, can in no manner be itself an effect ; ^ or must be in its operation eternal a parte ante ; it is necessary to determine the alternative. It is not enough to say with one of its most distinguished teachers ^ that " the positive philosopliy does not busy itself with the beginnings of the universe, it the universe had a beginning." Or, again, with ^ " Cette idee dc I'espece qui serait inhereute au germe, c'est un i^rin- cipe qui dcpassc toutes les doun&s du materialisrac." — Janet, Le Mat. Conteviporuin, p. 115. 2 Comp. Arist., Metajjh., XI. vi. vii. ; P%s., VIII.; Vlato, riicedrua p. 245. Compare Sir W. Hamilton's argument, Led. I. 60, to show that philosophy, as the knowledge of effects in their causes, tends not to a plurality of ultimate causes, but towards one. Comtc views the resolu- tion of laws or forces into unity as chimerical, ^ Littre, Paroles de Phil. Pos., p. 53. ledgnient of a First Cause. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 89 one of its most distinguished critics/ that " the positive mode of thought is not necessarily a denial of the supernatural, since it merely throws back the question to the origin of all things. If the universe had a beginning, its beginning by the very conditions of the case was supernatural ; the laws of Nature cannot account for their own origin." This, we reply, is to renounce a legiti- mate function of man's intelligence,^ the " obstinate questionings of sense and outward things " ; and to quench within him an ever-rising instinct of inquiry into the origin of the world of nature. His understanding and reason, no less than his moral faculties, direct him to its solution. Of the ' J. S. Mill, A. Comte and Positivism, p". 15. ^ Teiitat enim dubiam mentem rationis egestas, EcquEBuam fuerit mundi genitalis origo. — Lucret., v. 1210. See De Maistre, Soirees, V™® Entret. " II ne depend nuUement de nous de n'y pas regarder. II est la devant nous," &c. M. Conitc, Phil. Pos., IV. G69, calls it " an infantine curiosity which pretends to know the origin and end of all things." Not so Leibnitz. " Rien ne marque mieux I'imperfection d'une philosophic que la necessite ou le philosophe se trouve d'avouer qu'il se passe quehjne chose suivant son systeme dont il n'y a aucune raison." — Theod., II. § 340. "Moi, je crois qu'il y faut reconnoitre des marques de la force de I'esprit humain qui le faitpenetrcr dans I'interieur des choses. Ce sont des ouvertures nouvellcs ct pour ainsi dire des rayons de I'aube du jour qui nous promet une lumiere plus grande." — lb., Disc, § 81. Kant, though holding that no theo- logical beliefs can be based on cosmological notions, Prolegg. § 44, yet finds a firm foundation in the ideas which are the offspring of Reason, such as the soul, the world, and God. Whewell, Bridgewater Tr., p. 159, ed. Bohn, observes that " the same reasoning iaculty which seeks for the origin of the present state of things, and is caj able of assenting to, or dissenting from, the hypothesis propounded, is necessarily led to seek in the same manner for the origin of any previous state of things," &c. See also Indications of the Creator, p. 153. 90 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. The alter- alternatives before liim, the eternity of matter is native of _ _ ^ " ^ an eternity liable lo Hianv objections,^ one only of which needs of matter . . . here to be noticed. AVhile science nowhere con- tradicts the fact of a beginning, its absence is inconsistent and in the judgment of the highest authorities in physical philosophy incompatible with the state of our knowledge of Nature rejected ( Wevdeii) as a continuous effect, and of natural by natural ^ . piiiio- agents and their mode of operation as causes. Thus astronomy, in the opinion of Professor Huxley ^ " leads us to contemplate phenomena, the very nature of which demonstrates that they must have had a beginning, and that they must have an end." "The principle of the dissijDation of energy," according to another distinguished pro- fessor,^ " as it alone is able to lead us by sure steps ^ As, for example, tliat it really explains nothing : a3ternitas qnippe nuUius rei causa intelligi potest, ^ Lay Sermons, p. 17, probably referring to the fact of tbe earth's retardation in a resisting medium. Comp. Whewell, Bridg. Tr., Bk. II. c. viii. Sir John Herschel, Disc. Nat. Phil., § 28, says : " If we mis- take not, then, the discoveries alluded to effectually destroy the idea'of an eternal, self-existent matter, by giving to each of its atoms the essen- tial characters at once of a manufactured article and a subordinate agent." ^ Professor Tait, Iteport of British Assoc, 1871. He adds, " Sir William Thomson's splendid suggestion of Vortex Atoms implies the absolute necessity of an intervention of creative power to form or to destroy one atom even of dead matter." Dr. Whewell, Indications, pp. 14, 17, 115, remarks, "A perpetual motion is impossible in chemistry as it is in mechanics; and a theory of constant change continued throughout infinite time is untenable when asserted upon chemical no less than upon mechanical principles." Liebig, 23 Bri(f ap. Lange, Gesch. des Mat., p. 342, considers the same to be proved by physiology. Die exaktc Naturforschung hat bewiesen, dass das orgauische Leben auf Erden einen Anfang hatte. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 91 of deductive reasoning to the necessary future ot the universe (necessary, that is, if physical h\ws for ever remain unchanged) ; so it enables us to say that the present order of things has not been evolved through infinite past time by the agency of laws now at work ; but must have had a dis- tinctive beginning, a state beyond which we are totally unable to penetrate ; a state, in fact, which must have been produced by other than the now acting causes." We may dismiss, then, the theory of the eternity of matter, and with it some ancient fancies which, while admitting a creation, supposed it to be coeval with the Creator as being of His essence/ But if self-caused or altogether motive The First and yet material, the ultimate force in natural creatfve phenomena turns out to be wholly and inherently different from the effects for which it is required to account. It is contrary to all experience, and all our knowledge of matter, such as it is, is gained from experience.^ Its raison d'etre, therefore, dis- ^ See Milman, Lat. Christ., VI. 279. "Nature and Time were created together," is the truer thought of Scotus Erigena (ap. Guizot Civil, en France, Lee. 28). See, however, Mihiian {lb., III. 244), after Haureau. Saisset indeed (Essais), while quoting Augustine and Leib- nitz as inclining to the opinion of the eternity and infinity of the universe, remarks, " Dicu a toujours ete avant les creatures sans jamais exister sans elles ; parce qu'il ne les precMe point par un intervallc de temps, mais par une eternite fixe." ^ " Laws' of Matter " imply a distinction between matter and form and by consequence an original conception of matter which is meta- physical rather than physical, and involves a whole theory. With the admission that we know nothing of physical causes materialism pro- perly disappears. and im- material, 92 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IL appears. It is opposed to that great generaliza- tion of modern science, known as the conservation of energy or persistence of force. " A creation of power," says Faraday,^ " is like no other force in nature. ... In no case, not even in those of the gymnotus or torpedo^ is there a pure creation or a 23roduction of power without a corresjitonding exhaustion of something to supply it." It must tlien, this ultimate force or centre, or more strictly this origin of force, be other than material in character and essence. No theory of tension or pressure, or of their co-existence, is adequate to the case supposed. All motion with which we are acquainted has its commencement in some pre- existing source of power. If physical, it is itself an effect. For all experience and observation, not to rest upon principles of reason, lead us to con- clude that there is no phenomenon in nature wljich is uncaused. But if itself a cause and immaterial, a new mode of agency is introduced into the universe. True ; and it is this consideration which answers the objection that if there can be some- thing uncaused, there is no reason to assume a cause for anything. It is one, moreover, the mode of whose operation must always remain inacces- ' Life, II. p. 103. " Perpetual motion is deemed impossible, because it demands the creation of force, whereas the principle of conservation is no creation but infinite conversion." — Prof. 1'yndall, Frayments, p. 35. Sir Isaac Newton in his Letters to Bentley leaves it to his readers to determine whether the agent wliich produces gravitation is material or immaterial. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 93 sible to our present living powers, one which may be fitly termed super-essential. It answers, there- answering fore, the criterion laid down by modern thinkers, notions of •^ . . spiritual of "an omnipresence of something which passes action, comprehension." ^ The action of mind or spirit upon matter (whether properly to be considered supernatural or not) seems incapable of determina- tion, if for no other reason, that it cannot even by reflection see itself.^ This cannot therefore Come Into the eye and prospect of the soul. One thing only can we infer respecting it in the case of the Primal Mind or Eternal Spirit. This piio"" to ■"- law and cannot be subject to laws in the same sense as the f'ee in operation. phenomena of Nature. It must be, as the type of pure action, free in operation; and, if not in- different but capable of motive (for motives are not necessarily '^ symptoms of weakness "), it must be self-determined, "a law unto itself." It seems, then, impossible to assert that there can be ^ Herbert Spencer, Fir&t Princ, p. 45. ^ "Modus quo corporibus adhasret spiritus comprehendi ab homi- nibus non potest : et hoc tamen homo est." — Aiigustin. de Spir. et Anim. " Ubi igitur aut quails est ista mens ? Ubi tua aut quails ? Potesno dlcere? . . . Non valet tantum animus ut sese ipse videat. At, ut oculus, sic animus, se non videns, alia cernit." — Cic, Tusc. Disp., 1. xxvii. " En un mot," says Leibnitz, " que I'ame change la quantity de la force, et qu'elle change la ligne de la direction, ce sont deux choses ^galement inexplicables." Hence his supposition of a paral- lelismus inter corpus et animam, and the several theories of a physical influx, of a Divine assistance, of occasional causes, due respectively to Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, and Malebranche. 94 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. Analogy notliiiig liomologoiis or at the least analogous to human such a Hiode of agencj^ in the case of human voli- tion and moral causation. Why should it be thought a thing incredible that man should exist fin the image and likeness of God, who made hira?^ This line ^ yx. Iu this ari^umcnt it has been sufficient to of proof, .... being from vicw the Divinc Being as only a logical postulate pheno- . ./ox mena, in tlic scale of causation. I have done so, not, of to the course willingly, (for who, after all, can love or of Posi- reverence ?^ p^ohahle or even a demonstrated God ?) tivism. ^ " Sicut ab exemijlari, uon secundum ajqualitatem " — Thorn, Aq., Sum., I. i., p. 93, Art. I., and see Origen, c. Gels., YI. Ixiii. " II est vrai que Dieu est le seul dont Taction est pure et sans melange de ce qu'on appelle putir: mais cela n'empSche pas que la cre'aturc n'ait part aux actions aussi, puisque Taction de la creature est une modifi- cation de la substance qui en coule naturellement, et qui renfermc une variation non-seulement dans les perfections que Dieu a com- muniquees a la cre'ature, mais encore dans les limitations qu'elle y apporte d'elle-meme pour etrc ce qu'elle est." — Leibnitz, Tlieod., Pt. I., § 32. " Causa itaque rerum qufe facit nee fit, Deus est. Aliaj vero causaj et faciunt et fiunt ; sicut sunt omnes creati spiritus et maxime rationales. Corporales autem causaj, qu£B magis fiunt quam faciunt, non sunt inter causas efficientes annumerandjB : quoniam hoc possunt qued ex ipsis faciunt spirituum voluntates." — August., Civ. D., V. ix. ^ Thus is it literally true, iibi spiritus Domini, ihi lihertas (to voepov Kol avTf^ova-iov). Cf. Delitzsch, Biblical Psych., j"). 84, E. T. " Man in perfection of nature being made according to the likeness of his Maker, resemblcth Him also in the manner of His working : so that whatsoever we work as men, the same we do wittingly work and freely : neither are we according to the manner of natural agents so tied, but that it is in our power to leave the things we do undone," — Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. vii, 2. " God created man in His own image: to be the image of His own eternity created He man ! Of eternity and self-existence what other likeness is jiossible, but immortality and moral self-determination?" — Coleridge, Friend, I, 146, See the whole passage, Comp. Hazard on Tlie Will, Pt. I. " Well said Saint Chrys- nstoni with his lips of gold, ' The true Shekinah is man.' " — Carlyle, ,S'. R., p, 44. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 95 but because of some prevailing modes of thought which should, where possible, be encountered on common ground.^ The original sin of Positivism is the refusal to acknowledge the idea of a true efficient cause (also a final one) to the universe, which thus emerges from nothing, and ends in nothing.^ Though philosophy properly denies to the human mind the knowledge of an efficient or physical cause to phenomena, it cannot, as it seems to me, ignore the necessity of a First Cause ; or, as a fact in nature, of the common sense of a Divine original. A double error is committed. Engrossed with the material world, the subjective portion of the universe, with its necessities and claims, is ^ See Janet's remarks, La CHse Philosojihique, p. 106. " No gene- ralisation," it has been truly said, " of the phenomena of space, of time, of matter, or of force, can become a religious conception," — H. Spencer, First Princ, p. 23. Thus Pascal argued that from number we know there is an Infinite, but not its nature — only it must be different from any aggi'egation of number. But while admitting with Dean Mansel, Aids to Faith, p. 25, that " mind and not matter is the truer image of God," following Kant, Kritik, Werke, II. 478-81, I cannot but think Sir W. Hamilton goes too far in his assertion that " the phe- nomena of matter, taken by themselves, do not warrant any inference to the existence of a God." — Lect. on Metaph., I. p. 26. See some good remarks of Mr. Mill, Exam., p. 491, on the danger of sacrificing suc- cessively one kind of evidence to another. 2 See Comte, Phil. Pos., IV. 388. I have already remarked (p. 65) on the inconsistency of Comtism, in that, forsaking its fundamental Materialism, it reverts to a tvorship of humanity, "le Grand £trc." Comte's own words were in a manner prophetic. Speaking of those who give up Positivism after holding it, and that they pass tem- porarily into Pantheism, " I'esprit," he says, " retombe involontairc- ment dans la theologie ordinaire, la seule solide et consequente, parce qu'elle a etc construite par des esprits d'unc toute autre trempe." — Littrc, p. 174, 96 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. neglected; while further in the analysis of the ohject itself one antecedent in causation is omitted. The connection of such a frame of thought with Pantheism is a very close one. For the essence of The doc- Pantheism lies in insisting on a necessary coalition a creation of the Infinite with the finite.^ Its precursor is the remedy ^ ,.,.. ^ . ^ to Pan- the absorption of the individual m the general, of the personal in nature. Its antidote is the dogma of a creation, not, indeed, from eternity, but in time ; for eternity is no attribute of the finite. In this sense only is it true to say with Carlyle, (though the expression is not altogether free from objection), that " Nature, which is the time-vesture of Grod, and reveals Him to the wise, hides Hiiia from the foolish." ^ Nor can the view be ad- mitted which is held by some leading physicists of our time, who, while rejecting materialism from their creed,^ look upon matter (after Groethe) as ^ Hence the theories of an " Anima Mundi " — as thongh the world could be considered as an animal or a siihstance. See Leibnitz, WorTis, p. 564, ed. Erdmann. " Personality," says Feuerbach with truth, " is the antidote to Pantheism." — Ess. of Christianity, p. 220. ^ Sartor Besartus, p. 183, What Bossuet said of Polytheism, is true of Pantheism, " Tout est Dieu : excepte Dieu meme." 8 Thus Prof. Huxley (on Yeast, Cont. Rev., XIX. 36) states that " one great object of ' Protoplasm ' is to show that what is called ' mate- rialism' has no sound philosophical basis." Lange (Gesch. dcs Mate- rialismus, p. 238) most truly remarks, " Dies ist in der That die Stel- lung unserer meisten hcutigcn ' Materialisten.' Sie sind wcsentlich Skeptiker : sie glauben nicht mchr dass die Materie, wie sie imseren Sinnen erscheint, die letzte Lbsung aller Piithsel der Natur enthalte : allein sie verfahren grundsatzlich als ob es so sei, und warten, bis ihnen aus den positiven Wissenschafton selbst cine Kothigung zu anderen Annahmen entgegentritt." Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 97 an omnipresent form in wliich the unknown cause is manifested to us. Tliey seem to regard it as Faulty -,,... identifica- noble only because, after all, it is mcomprenen- tion of sible ; and are at least as ready to formulate all with the phenomena even of life, mind, and society, in mind by terms of matter, motion, and force, as in any other Ihfnkeis. terms/ A latent assumption here lurks under a professed nescience. S 14. It is not enouQ^h to urf>;e that Positivism Defects of ^ . . . , ^ ^ . Positivism does not in its principles negate Deity or render as an ex- /-. 1 • -1 1 T T • -r-r- . planation (jrod impossible, it seeks not to require Him. As of phe- , ..,,,. nomena, a system it leaves no mysteries ; it resolves all into laws of physical agents ; it has no Heaven ; ^ it professedly renounces all concern with what happens to living things after their death; or, as it is said, " at the consummation of the ages, if the ages have a consummation." It makes the attempt to divide the area of knowledge^ into Sciences ' See Prof. Huxley, Lay S., Lecture on Descartes. Tyndall, Fragm. of TJiought, p. 87. H. Spencer, Princ. of Psych., I, § 63, 272. First Princ, pp. 222, 280, 502. It would seem evident that if the notion of an intelligent First Cause is in abeyance, all progress and morality become at most facts, and are no longer laws of the universe. ^ Mr. Morley, Crit. Misc., p. 257, speaks of Goethe as the poet of that "new faith which is as yet without any universally recognized label ; but whose Heaven is an ever closer harmony between the con- sciousness of man and all the natural forces of the universe, whose liturgy is culture, and whose Deity is a certain high composure of the human heart." The tendency of Positivism in declining to investigate causes, is to omit the notion of cause altogether. This reduces all forms of existence to modifications of a substance, i. e. to Spinozism. 3 Phil Pos., Leyon 11. and V., pp. 13, 14. G. H. Lewes, Comte's Phil, of Sciences, -p. Al. Littre, Paroles, p. 33. " La philosophic Positive nc nie rien, n'affirme rien : car nier ou affirmcr ce serait declarer que Ton a H 98 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. 1 1. Concrete, those relative to beings or objects, and Sciences Abstract, those relative to events ; that is, to the general laws and possibilities of operation. But this encyclopaedic purview of the realm of knowledge will be found defective. A fact in and in its nature, the elementary atom of a positive system, definition . . i • n i i • c- of causa- IS not Simply explamed by an enumeration ot physical agents working uniformly or under fixed laws. The collocation or co-presence of those agents is a necessary condition of the result, and should form part of the definition of causation. But of this co-existence and combination of pheno- mena, or of the part-causes of phenomena, of the organism with its environment, no scientific account can be rendered. It is a fact unique, sui generis, yet undoubtedly a fact; and it is incumbent on a positive philosophy to estimate and include it. Neither atomic particles nor elemental forces can be " the joint artists of their own combinations." une connaissance quelcouque de I'origine des etres et de leur fin." " An dela de ces deux termes, Matike et Force, la Science Positive ne connait rien." — Principes, Pref., II. ^ This is recognized by Mr. Mill, io(/ic, I. 417, 549, II. 44. "The ele- ment which is not a law of causation but a collocation of causes, cannot itself be reduced to any law The utmost disorder is apparent in the combination of the causes, which is consistent with the most perfect order in their effects. For when each agent caiTies on its own operations according to an uniform law, even the most capricious combination of agencies will generate a regularity of some sort, as we see in the kaleido- scope, where any casual airangement of coloured bits of glass produces, by the laws of reflection, a beautiful regularity in the ejGfect." This remark, it will be observed, assumes the uniformity of the operation of the agencies in accounting for the order resulting in their effects. Lect. II.] FJ^OGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 99 In any co-arrangement the principle or operating ^^i^'c^ cause of the combination must be taken into include an account account.^ The unity evident in the universe of the collocation cannot be explained out of its mere component of phe- ~ . ^ nomena. parts, bo, m the sequence 01 events, a commence- ment must be sought exterior to the phenomena themselves, sufficient to account, not only for their origination, but for their order of existence. Of such a kind is our notion of Divine agency deter- mining in whatever manner, mediately or imme- 1*^ relation ^ . . to Divine diately, the arrangement of physical events. But in and human agency. the infinite play of consequences dependent on the variation of antecedents in time or space and admitting of endless modification, the consent of the human will may find a place.^ Homogeneous in its ultimate independence with the operation of Divine purpose, it is yet essentially distinct in being conditioned in its exercise, subordinate, ' Coleridge, A. R., pp. 44, 31-3. ^ " Conceive," says M. Guizot, Civ. in Europe, 1. 197, ed, Bohn, " a great machine of which the idea resides in a single mind, and of which the different pieces are confided to different workmen who are scattered and are strangers to one another ; none of them knowing the work as a whole, or the definitive and general result to which it concurs, yet each executing with intelligence and liberty by rational and voluntary acts, that of which he has the charge. So is the plan of Providence upon the world executed by the hand of mankind," &c. " Dieu fait present h I'homme d'une image de la Divinite en lui donnant I'intelligence. II le laisse faire en quelque fafon dans son petit departement ; c'est \k ou le franc arbitre joue son jeu ; I'homme y est comme un petit Dieu dans son propre monde." — Leibnitz, Works, p. 548. Hence the scholastic distinc- tions of the antecedent and consequent Will of God, of Secondary Councils, and of the First and Second Law Eternal. See Hnokor, Eccl. Pol., T. iii. H 2 lOO OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. permissive.^ For, under whatever theory of the freedom of the will, the original grant of such freedom must be assumed in the same manner as the primary underived properties of matter.^ The action § 1 5. But if such be the testimony of reason to will con- the existence of will in man, what is the stumbling- block on the side of experience to its reception ? Not the assumption that its choice is unconditioned, for no such assumption is made. The will may act under fixed laws of choice, or, as it has been happily expressed, " by confluence with the laws of nature " determining in ordinary cases an uniform result, and yet may be free to choose.^ The part ultimately adopted in action, without being an instance of causeless or indifferent spontaneity, may be contrary to all expectation, and yet there may have been ground for expectation. The possession * " Ncc tamen ita liberum arbitrium animas datum est, ut qiiodlibet eo moliens, uUam partem Divini ordinis legisque perturbet." — Augustine, De Quant. Anim., c. xxxvi. 2 " L'ame a en elle le principe de toutes scs actions et mfime de toutea ses passions: le meme est vrai dans toutes les substances simples repandues par toute la nature." — Leibnitz, Works, p. 526. ^ This is the erreur-mere of the paradox of Hobbes, that deliberation does not exclude necessity, for the choice itself is a necessary one. " A finite will constitutes a true beginning ; but with regard to the series of motives and changes by which the free act is manifested and made effectual, the finite will gives a beginning only by coincidence with that absolute will which is at the same time Infinite Power." — Coleridge, J. R., p. 204. See also Dean Manscl, Aids to Faith, pp. 19, 20. Sir W. Hamilton writes, •' A motiveless volition is only casualism ; and- the free acts of an indifferent are morally and rationally as worthless as the pre-ordcrcd passions of a determined will." Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. loi of will does not necessitate irregularity of conduct, even if considered absolutely free. A die often comes up several times running, though this does not leave the chances of the next throw other than even. Still less, if it be considered to any extent yet ex- ^ hibiting an limited by laws. Yet, in most men, we find ultimate . •^ _ ^ indepen- " occasional revolutionary moments," "a turn ofdence. the tide in mind and character," a power of break- ing loose from the continuity of habit, which in theology has received the name of an Effectual Call.^ The profligate man {kKoiv aiKovri ye 0vix(o) may, all at once, cast his slough of immorality ; the irresolute renounce his hesitancy, the virtuous all his old propriety of choice. Such conduct, and it is by no means unfrequent, may admit, when examined, of a so-called natural explanation. Men are always guided, it is said, by the strongest motive. Well, but what is strength when we apply Our igno- , , 1 1 - r 1 ranee of the laws, or even the analogies, oi matter to that the nature ,.■,... .. i.^9T 1 1 °f motives. which IS, m its nature, spiritual ? it may be thus ^ Coleridge, u. s., p. 40. It cannot be denied that we have the power of contributing indirectly at least to frame our will at any future time. " On se pent chercher de nouvelles raisons et se donner avec le temps de nouvelles dispositions ; et par ce moyen on se pent encore procurer une volonte qu'on n'avoit pas, et qu'on ne pouvoit pas se donner sur-lc- champ." — Leibnitz, p. 631. This fact is also relied on by Kant in his Metaphysics of Ethics. ^ What right have we to presume that motives act on the mind, as bodies upon bodies ? " Every system," says Mr. Hutton, Essays, I. 87, " but distorts and caricatures the moral nature of man which takes the analogies of material science into the region of the spiritual life." See the whole question as discussed by Dean Mansel, Prolegg., p. 302 ; and Mr. Mill, Exam., p. 518, who explains it as the motive strongest in opposite to con- sciousness. 1 02 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IL liable to explanation, or it may not. If it be, it will be found to involve the same assumption of moral consciousness which, whether original or derived, the resultof organism, inheritance, custom, or association, makes part of the furniture of our being. Nor is it possible to believe the whole human race to be, and to have always been, in error upon such a matter. Our senses, it is true, some- times deceive us,^ and there may be such a thing as colour-blindness in moral perceptions. Yet we Fatalism habitually follow their impressions. Fatalism, the antithesis of voluntariness, has ever been the off- spring of dogma, whether in philosophy or religion. It is the resort of dialectical difficulties, not of hearty natural suggestion. It has never yet proved itself the outcome of unmixed human consciousness. Objection ^ 16. There is, however, undoubtedly, a grow- to man's '' , . . , freedom ing tcndcucy to confound law with causation ; and, of action i • i i by consequence, physical laws with moral causation. A law, considered as an agent, is " like an idol, kw^of' nothing in the world."^ Yet, while admitted to be Nature. relation to pain or pleasure. But, though these be, as Locke calls them, " the hinges on which our actions turn," we know nothing as to their acting directly on the will. ^ A topic which has accordingly formed the constant stock-in-trade of scepticism. Cf. Montaigne, Essais, II. c. xii. ; Pascal, Pensees, II. 47. But in the end it is sufficiently apparent that we have ourselves to blame, having through haste and inconsideration misread the testimony of the senses. Compare Bacon, Works, III. 388, cd. Spedding. * See some good remarks on this subject by Dr. Eigg in his Lecture on Pantheism, pp. 14, 31 ; and by the Duke of Argyll, Reign of Law, drawn from the univer- sality of Lect. IL] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 103 only a mental creation, a metaphysical entity abhorred of Positivism, a generalization of relations among phenomena, it is too often made into a theory to explain their mode of existence. An argument is raised from the universality of laws of causation in Nature to the case of human action. But the in what respects major premiss rests upon a simple enumeration, defective. which is incomplete till the will of man can be shown to be reducible to the general formula. Again, the generality of laws, it is acknowledged, does not imply their necessity. But the fact of such generality existing is held to be enough.^ Hence, if statistics prove the uniformity of human action, the question of a will in man is thought practically to be given up. But the law here stands not only for what is ; it becomes a syiionyme for what must be. It is no longer a mode only of expressing facts ; it assumes a necessity of operation. p. 230. " Ainsi," writes De Maistre with much passion and fire, " nous laisserons dire les sophistes avec leurs Lois eternelles et immuahles qui n'existent que dans leur imagination et qui ne tendent k rien moins qu'a I'extinction de toute moralite et k I'abrutissement absohi de I'esp^ce humain." — Soirees, p. 175. Leibnitz {Works, pp. 542, 614, &c.) con- stantly distinguishes between what follows naturally and what follows necessarily. Present physicists profess themselves satisfied with the former, and thus do away with the office of metaphysics. It may some day appear as unreasonable to deny human liberty on physical grounds, as it would now seem to found, like Epicurus, man's freedom in acting on the original declination of atoms. Cf. Lucret., II. 251. ^ See Mill, Examination, p. 150. " A volition is a moral eftt-ct which follows the corresponding moral causes as certainly and invariably as physical effects follow their physical causes. Whether it must do so, I acknowledge myself to be entirely ignorant ; ... all I know is that it always does.^^ 104 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. Man becomes lost in the race ; the individual in the species.^ Tlio' tlion wert scattered to the wind, Yet is there plenty of the kind. Thus, Law is made a Juggernaut riding forth and demanding victims on his way. But it may- be said, — Does it not always find them f Granted : I mean the uniformity of the facts which it regu- Confusion latcs. But is it thus explained why this one or of uni- . ^ ^ , "^ formity that sliould bc the victims ? This depends, it is with ne- . . . . „ cessityof replied, on special laws as distinct from general, operation. , , , . , • i o With which we are not at present acquainted. But why, we answer, should necessity of action ^ Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph., c. i., notices this view as current in the philosophy of the time, aWa Koi rjfias firixfipovcri ireldeiv ws tov fxiv a-ifiTravTOS koX avrav to)v yeva>v koL fl8(ov eVifieXetrat Qeos, tixov 8e Koi (TOV ovK en Koi tov kuB' eKaara. So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life. Feuerhach, Essence of Christianity, p. 150, E. T,, catches this vital difference in Christian teaching. " Christianity cared nothing for the species, and had only the individual in its eye and mind." Compare Prof. Huxley, Lay Sermons, p. 158. Epicurus himself struggled hard against the doctrine of a physical necessity. Cf. ap. Diog. Laert. x. 133, 134, eVel Kpf'iTTOv rjv t<5 Trepi QeSiV fxv6(a KaTaKoKovdelp rj rfj Ta>u (f)V(Ti.Kav elfiapfievjj 8ov\fV(iu 6 fxtu yap eXnida napaiTrjcrecos iTToypci(f)ei QeS)v 8ia Tip.rjs, rj 8e dnapaiTrjTOP f)(ei rrjv dvdyKrjv. ^ " In a given state of society, a certain number of persons must put an end to their own life. This is the general law; and the special tjuestion as to who shall commit the crime depends of course upon sjx'cial laws : which, however, in their total action, must obey the large social law to which they are all subordinate." — Buckle, //. C, I. 28. Mansel well points out that the uniformity represented by statistical averages is one which is observed in masses only, and not in individuals ; and hence the law, if law it be, indicated is one which offers no bar to the existence of individual freedom exercised, Uke all human power, within limits. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 105 (and a latent necessity is certainly assumed) be any more admissible in respect of special than of general laws ? No man when he has apprehended the conditions of his being thinks of contravening them. He feels that laws, as Butler long ago pointed out, imply penalties appointed by the Author of Nature for the well-beino; of mankind. Apparent design of He turns them, then, to His own purposes through natural f> 1 • r» 1 • 1 uniformity. the very circumstance of their fixedness without, however, losing the conviction that he is himself responsible for what he does. But responsibility is incompatible with constraint. The facts, then, seem to be these. A large proportion of mankind, submitted to certain tests, will act in a given way and in the same way. But all do not.^ And, what is more, in acting they are conscious that they might, and in particular cases ought, to act differently. This consciousness is itself a fact as patent as the uniformities of statistical averages, and points to something further, i. e. to freedom in acting. These, as facts, must first be admitted on positive grounds and then be scientifically ex- ^ 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus ; Anotlier thing to fall. — Measure for Measure, act ii. sc. 1. Inclination, that is, is not constraint : it rather implies freedom. See Harless, System of Christian Ethics, pp. 20, 85, E. T. ; Delitzsch, Bib. Psych., p. 194. "Man," said Luther (Comm. on Gal.), "is not two beings opposed to each other, but is like the dawn of the morning, which is neither night nor day." This is the answer to the dilemma, that motives must either determine a man to act, or influence him to determine himself to act. See Hamilton's Beid, p. 608. I06 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. plained.^ If subordinated to physical laws and method, they are not thereby rendered inconsistent Objection with cvcry form of Christian theology.^ But it is thrnatoe HO such explanation to reply that consciousness is sciousness. HO faculty, ouly a state or condition of mind, liable to occasional error f occasional, indeed, for if it be held a permanent delusion, the whole human race must needs have lain in darkness until now. Yet why, it has been justly asked,* are we now to un- clothe our minds of that large outfit of existing thoughts, desires, hopes, and fears, which make us (and have made us) what we are ? Neither, again, can we admit the fact of this inward testi- mony of a soul, naturally Christian, without ac- knowledging further its cogency and truth. It Conscious- would be as easy else to disT3rove on the same ness ana- ■^ ^ logons to frrounds the existence of an external world, of the percep- ^ lion. whole fabric of Nature, and of those very laws the extent of which is the real and sole object of con- tention. Even if an act of consciousness involve an operation of inference, it is one of the same ^ There are some good remarks on Buckle's interpretation (I. 38) of the views of Kant upon Free Will, in Lange, Qtsch. des Materkdismus, pp. 478-81. ^ Compare Huxley in his essay on Descartes, Lay S., pp. 374, 375. ^ Buckle (m. s., I. 15), who is really following the guidance of Bayle in his strictures on the Cartesian doctrine. Leibnitz, though unwilling to rest man's independence on a sentiment, justly claims it as the result of a minute investigation of the elements of consciousness. Non enim et sentire intelligcre est, et intelligere sentire est ? asks Tertullian (^Anim., c. xviii.). * J. H. Newman, Grararaar of Assent, p. 419. Lect. II.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 107 kind with perception, and no further hable than it to disproof or mistrust. § 17. Nor, lastly, is this view of free agency, 4 condi- that in the practical exercise of it we are always no barren proposi- guided by motives, consciously or unconsciously, tion. which yet do not necessitate conduct, "a barren proposition," incapable of translation into action.^ To regulate the conditions of society in the most favourable manner ; to teach that the individual is no mere slave of circumstances ; that the knowledge of the risks of temptation entails the duty of keep- ing clear of unwholesome tendencies to action and of bearine: ourselves firmly and manfully when ^^^ resuit- ^ 1/ ^ j]-,g respon- submitted to them, thus " redeeming the time be- sibiuties. cause the days are evil," this is a task worthy alike of the statesman and the philanthropist, and is the proper duty of the clergyman, the tutor, and the schoolmaster. A barren proposition ! Then let Moral re- ^ ^ , suits of the Religion indeed cease her office and the faith of Materiai- Clnnst its professions. What need of exhortation Positivist where there is no choice ? ^ Or of atonement where there can be no sin ? Or of promises which have ^ " If any one says that we have this power of acting without motives, but that in the practical exercise of the power we are always guided by motives, either conscious or unconscious — if any one says this, he asserts a barren proposition." — Buckle, I. 18, n. Holy Scripture, while it nowhere speaks of man as free, says everywhere that he can choose (Cf. Is. vii. 15) ; thus making self-determination the property of human nature. See Delitzsch, Bihl. Psych., p. 192, ^ It may, perhaps, be contended that in practice the morality of necessity does not enfeeble the claims of duty, because the Predestinarian schools have always been rigorists. This may be explained to some view. lo8 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. II. no real hold in the heart or soul of man ? What need to discuss the permanence of a belief which can be the fruit but of hypocrisy or ignorance? But what, on the other hand, is to be thought of a philosophy, the boasted result of science, which, extinguishing motive,^ abolishes the reasons of action, and filches together with these the very savour of human existence ; which annihilates duty, makes benevolence impossible, the enthusiasm of humanity absurd; which degrades the immortal spirit, the "blessed part" of man, to the level of Protean matter and the dominion of brute forces ;^ extent by prudential considerations; but hardly by any logical con- nection. This is discussed in Mcrivale's Conv. of N. Nations, pp. 167- 171. ^ The philosophical error of Positivism is to ignore the free play of individual action as beneficial to human progress. Hence, perhaps, Comte's well-known aversion to Protestantism. This is, indeed, but one form of his disinclination to recognize Causation as open to the reach of man's faculties. The result is undoubtedly to measure all knowledge by the Laws of Phenomena. On this subject the reader is referred to Mill's Logic, Book III., v. § 9, and on the materialistic ten- dencies of Positivism to Mr. Lecky, Hist. Rationalism, II. p. 408, together with Mill, A. Comte and Positiv., p. 15, &c. It is, indeed, denied by M. Littre, Frincipes, pp. 38, 39. * " Positivism, ahowing spirit no place in its system, denies im- mortality to man, but confers it on humanity." — Mr. A. Fairbairn on Belief in Immortality (Cont. Rev., XX. 28). Compare Mill, Comte ayid Pas., pp. 135, 152. Prof. Huxley, Lay S., p. 191, quotes a beautiful but melancholy passage from M. Comte, attesting the unsatisfactory results of so baseless a fabric of belief as that of Positivism. " La philosophic est une tentative inccssante de I'esprit humain pour arriver au repos. Mais clle se trouve inccssammcnt aussi derangee i)ar les progr^s continus de la science. De la vicnt pour le philosophe I'obligation de refaire chaque soir la synthase de ses conceptions; et un jour viendra ou I'homme raisonnable ne fera plus d' autre pribre du soir." Lect. IL] progress OF CHRISTIANITY. 109 which consecrates selfishness by enthroning it in the struggle for existence above wisdom and virtue ; and which views, alike unmoved and powerless of consolation, the agonies of remorse, the isolation of bereavement, and the yearnings of the saint after communion with Divine holiness ? Only if free to F/eedom •^ 01 choice choose, is man capable of duty in any sense of the necessary word which is not simply nominal but worth practical religion. retaining. But, if capable of duty, he is capable of religion. He is still, though conscious of sin, nobler than the tame creatures of a dull uniformity, the ready vassals of a law they can never break. In those unreasoning creatures, devoid of abstrac- tion, idealization, reflection, yet from which it is now the fashion to derive all the properties of man, the will is absorbed in the law.^ " The law is their nature." In the original purity of a rational being, the uncorrupted will is one with the law of his nature. And so it will be hereafter. Mind and soul according well, Shall make one music as before, But vaster. If man, it has been finely said, " be no higher in \l^'^^^^,^^ his destinies than the beast or the blade of e^rass, it fnimais in ^ ' his capa- miffht be better to be a beast or a blade of ffrass biiity and O CJ rnncnmiQ- conscious- ness of sin. ' See Coleridge, A. R., p. 233. The fine lines of Juvenal will be readily remembered : — Principio indulsit communis Conditor illis Tantum animas, nobis animum quoque, &c. I lo OBJECTIONS, 6-r. [Lect. II. than a man."^ But it is not so, brethren. The stork in the heavens may know her appointed times ; the turtle, the crane, and the swallow may observe the time of their coming ; and when they wing their flight may leave without remorse their unfledged young to die.^ They run their allotted course. But man, even though he perish, though sin becomes the law of his nature, and evil clings about him like a robe, is great in the ruin of his fall. He knows why he perishes,^ and worships, in the bitterness of his soul, the purity, the nobleness, the love which he has forfeited for himself for ever. 1 Prof. Goldwin Smith, Lectures on the Study of History, p. 12. * See Mr. Darwin, Descent of Man. ^ " Quando autem melior homo et pccoribus prjeponendiis ? Quando novit quod facit." — August, de Ord., II. xix. ; and again, Civ. D., xxii. : " Sicut ca3citas oculi vitium est, et idem ipsum indicat ad lumen videndum oculum esse creatum, ac per hoc etiam ipso vitio suo excellentius ostendit ut cfeteris membris membrum capax luminis (nou enim alia causa esset vitium ejus carere lumine) : ita natura qua3 fruebatur Deo, optimam se institutam docet etiam ipso vitio, quo ideo misera est, quia nou fruitur Deo." Compare Chateaubriand, Genie du Christ., I. 208. " Pourquoi lo bceuf ne fait-il pas," &c. Strauss, Lehcn Je.su, II. 697, admits that while animals are but races, men have the knowledge that they are a race. Hence arises the possibility of history with all its consequences. Cf. Dorner, Hist. Frot. Tli., II. 370. LECTURE III. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED. Ka^dXov, CO? 4'^f'-h ^^o irdcTrjs yeveaecos alrias e)(ov(rr]S, ol fiev (r(f)68pa TToKaiol deoKoyoi nai noirjrai rfi Kpeirrovi povrj tov vovv irpoa-exeii' etXowo, TOVTO 8rj TO KOLvov evK^deyyofievoi Traai Trpdypaai. Zevs dpxrj, Zeus pecrcra, Aios S' 6K iravra TreXovrai. Tais 8' dvayKaiais Ka\ (fiva-iKois ovk en irpoa-rjeaav alriais. 01 8e vearepoi tovtcov Koi (pvaiKol irpoa-ayopevopevot Tovvavriov (Kfivois r^y KaXrjs Koi dfias dTroTrXavrjdevres dpxrjs, iv (TapaaL Koi TvdOfCTL (T(opdra>v, TrXjj-yaTs re Koi peTa^okais koi Kpdaeai Tidevrai to avpirav. — Plutarch, Defect. Orac., c. xlviii. LECTURE III. "■Wherefore should they say among the people, — Where is their God?" — 3IocIii. 17. § I. T T would be but futile to build any nr2:u- The truth ^1 J & of a Divine ^ ment upon the past or the future of the riovi- deuce es- Faith of Christ, were the fundamental truth denied sentiai to of the controlling Providence of Grod. As religion and per-" itself is a thing not worth contending for, when religion. free-will in man is given up, so Christianity, devoid of a special and personal relation to the Almighty in His work of grace (which may be said to be in respect of all Pagan religions its cardinal and characteristic doctrine), is a shadow without sub- stance/ It becomes, then, of the first importance to inquire on what grounds tlie belief in a special Providence is held to be in course of being sur- ^ " Si Dei Providentia non prajsidet rebus hiimanis, nihil est de reli- gionc satageudum." — August., Vtil. Gred., cxvi. " Deum nisi ct esse et huHianis mentibus opitulari credimus, nee qua^rcre quidem ipsam veram religionem debenuis." — Ih., c. xiii. Comp. Lactant., Instit. Diu., VIJ. c. vi. See Waterland, Discourse of Fundamentals ( Worls, \. 80). " The theory of Providence," writes Mr. Hutton, Essays, I. 88, " is one which, imless harmonized with general moral and physical laws, can assuredly stand no longer; and yet it is one which has exerted so pro- found an influence over every Christian mind from the earliest Christian ages to our own, that to part with it would be to give up the very life of religion." " * Point de religion sans priere' a dit ce meme Voltaire. Eien de plus evident; et par une consequence necessaire, point de priere, point de religion." — De Maistre, Soirees, p. 158. I 114 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. rendered ; how this incredulity has arisen, whether it is a necessary consequence of the existing state of knowledge, a permanent menace to the progress Present q{ ChHst's rcliffiou. That rude assaults are beins^ assaults on ^ " ^ '=' this belief, made on this cardinal tenet of the faith can no longer be doubted. M. Comte ^ treats the doctrine of even a general Providence as an antique destiny under a new dress, as a metaphysical artifice, a provisional conception, a concession or compromise made to the theological spirit. "The future of the world," writes a living Positivist,^ " will justify the faith that man can be a providence to himself in a more practical and beneficial sense than any of the various providences he created in his earlier existence." "Science," says another, " is the true providence of man. We lay no faith on a personal God, we use our own faculties." Such dicta^ at least, suffice to mark the present stand-point of opinion and feeling in certain quarters in regard to this fundamental postulate of all practical religion. ' " La Providence des Monothdistes n'est reellement autre chose que le destin des Polytheistes." — I'hil. Pos., V. 280. Elsewhere he argues that were the conceptions of theology true, prayer would be the proper means of human progress. Jb., IV. 695, 700. On the views of the so-called " Secularists," cf. Dr. Farrar, Bamp. Led., p. 441, ^ Dr. Congreve, Prop, of New Religion, ad fin. "Quisquis sibi Deus " is a maxim in the philosophy of Stirner. " Du moment qu'on ne laisse aucune place aux volontes surnaturelles, ni dans le monde inorganique, ni dans le monde organique, ni parmi les phe'nomenes cosmiques, ni parmi ceux de I'histoire, on est necessaircment des notres." — Littre, Paroles de Philosophie Positive, p. 58. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 115 § 2. The Epicureanism of the age, not specula- Rise of tive, not anticipatory, but positive and evidential, opinions 1 1 111 n 1 in the con- IS the product, doubtless, 01 a vast and rapid viction of advance in physical knowledge, which, commenc- ability and iiig witli the sixteenth century, has culminated insaiityof our own.^ It has, in a manner, carried all before natme. it. It has reacted on the older metaphysical modes of thought. It has produced a twofold effect. First, the conviction of the invariability of laws of nature has been indefinitely strengthened by each freshly-observed uniformity, and explana- tion of related phenomena. Next, the suspicion of the universality of the reign of law is heightened by each new discovery in distinct departments of science, and a method of Comparative Physics, now first rendered possible, is continually furthering this impression. It is thus deemed the central element of intellectual progress. The relation of laws of nature to general laws soon comes into question.^ Now, though law can never be justly held, in any true sense, a medium between God and His works, yet it may, and constantly does, arrest the attention of the creature. This stopping Joined ^ " Jadis la raison humaine le voyant siijet au changcment alia clier- imperfect cher I'eternel, Timmuable par dela riiorizon et dans les archetypes, explana- Maintenant retcruel, rimmuable devenant notion positive, nous ap- ^i^^g^i. parait sous la forme des lois immanentes qui gouverneut tout." — Littre, Principes de Fhil. Pos., p. 57. ^ See Mozley, Bamp. Led., p. If 6 : " The only intelligible meaning which we can assign to general laws is, that they are the laws of nature, with the addition of a particular theory of the Divine mode of conduct- ing them ; the theory, viz. of secondary causes." I 2 Ii6 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. short in the process of analyzing nature may eventuate in different directions, in Naturalism, in Materialism, in Pantheism, in virtual Atheism.^ For, if the present control of Divine agency be disallowed, what remains but a practical negation of behef, or total incredulity ? Physical ^2. It is not, of coursc, intended to imply that studies not •' "^^ _ ^ ' ••; '' ^ irreligious, physical studics are in themselves atheistic or irreligious. The reverse would be nearer the truth. Religio ascensio mentis in Deum per scalas creatarum rerum should still be the proud motto of Natural Science.^ There is no proper reason why supernaturalism should not do full justice to nature ; none why nature should not do justice to supernaturalism.^ Too much, indeed, of what has ^ On the history of the term Naturalism, and its relation to a system of Eationalism, see H. J. Rose, on State of Protestantism in German^/, pp. 19-23. Wegscheider (Inst. TheoL, p. 32) holds it to consist in de- riving all effects in nature from a necessity, as it were, of nature alone without regard to Divine Providence, rejecting, therefore, all efficacy of God in imparting religious knowledge to men, together with Revelation of all kinds. Dr. Farrar, in his truly learned lectures oii the Critical Hist. 0/ Free Thought, pp. 478, 587, notices the twofold employment of the term, and remarks that Positivism only differs from Naturalism in expressing a particular theory concerning the limits and method of science, as well as a disbelief in the supernatural. ^ Compare Bacon, Worlcs, III. 357, ed. Spedding. The dangers of exclusive physical study are pointed out by Sir W. Hamilton in his Lectures, I. p. 35 ff. ^ Nature, the world of phenomena, being itself a totality of effects, can determine nothing as to ulterior causes. Yet, as Mr. Hutton has finely observed, "Men are haunted with the phantom of a power they dare not challenge, which is rumoured to have superseded and exposed natural theology, and to be gradually withdrawing every fold of mystery from the universe without disclosing any trace of God.^'—^ Essays, I. 45. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 117 been termed Agnosticism or Nescience, and by its detractors Anti theism, has been developed among leading physicists of the day.^ A know-nothiDg system of philosophy is cheap ware, and easily offered for acceptance. It can hardly, however, ^^J^gPt^^'g^ be held to amount to a denial of preternatural system of ■^ nescience. facts, and by inference of truths of Revelation. The sphere of our belief may well be more ex- tensive than the sphere of our knowledge. An honest effort is, doubtless, being made by many minds to couple with the operation of general laws a religious sense of the . Divine agency. Passages in older and unsuspected writers are eagerly seized which seem to reconcile remote causation with the Being and Providence of God.^ This is not, of course, the whole, or strictly the real question. Doubtless there is nothing essentially contradictory or mutually exclusive in the notions of Natural law and Divine superintendence. So Spinoza ^'■°^'- ^ ■•■ ^ dence not arp^ued that Providence is best elicited, from the i'^com- ^ ' patible ^ Compare Mr. Hutton, u. s., p. 27; and Prof. Tyudall, ^rciffments f^^r^^^^^^ of Tlwught, pp. 93, 105, 442 ; Huxley, L. S., p. 20 : " If the religion of the present differs from that of the past, it is because the theology of the present has become more scientific than that of the past, because it has renounced idols of wood and idols of stone ; but begins to see the neces- sity of breaking in pieces the idols built up of books and traditions and fine-spun ecclesiastical cobwebs, and of cherishing the noblest and most human of man's emotions by worship, 'for the most part of the siJent sort,' at the altar of the Unknown and Unknowable." ^ See Mr. Lecky's remarks, //. Bat., I. 195, on the advancing rap- prochement between writers of the evidential school and the supporters of the inviolability of natural laws. Compare Whewell, B. Tr., p. 312, &c. Ii8 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. fact of an eternal and changeless order of Nature.^ So, if the ideas of individual freedom of action in man, or of casual irregularity in physical events, be gradually thrust out from the cycle of tenable theorems and accepted beliefs, the result, however much to be regretted, might not be inconsistent with the truth of a Divine Creator, and, in a modi- fied sense, of a Divine Providence.^ It might, indeed, seem strange that the world should turn out to be a puppet-show, devoid of real life or originality. But it will be answered that we are concerned only to ascertain the truth of things, and not with the issues involved in them. We are recalled, then, to the prior question, whether it be a fact that the realm of Law is co-extensive, as far as appears, with the universe of matter and of mind. A prior jg Law a neccssitv, or, at least, an invariable accom- question _ . . arises as to panimeiit of the Divine agency, so far as it is nature of knowu to US ? Is it, indeed, a constant course of pliysical laws, procedure, a necessary stage in an unknown order ori'ubiec- ' Prteterea coeli rationes ordine ccrto live only. T^t varia annorum cernebant tcmpura vorti : Noc jioterant quibus id fieret cognoscore causis. Ergo perfugium sibi habebant, omnia Divis 'J'radei'e ct illoriim nutu facerc omnia flecti. Lucret, V. 1182. ^ " The natural generation and process of all things receiveth order of proceeding from the settled stability of Divine understanding. This ni>pointeth unto them their kinds of working; the disposition, whereof in tlie [mrity of God's own knowledge and will, is riglitly termed by the name of Providence. The same being referred unto the things them- selves here disposed by it, was wont by the ancient to be called natural destiny." — Hooker, E. P., I. iii. 4, Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 119 of the universe ? Or is it, on the other hand, anything more than a mode of hinnan thought,^ (for this also has been held respecting it), analo- gous to Time and Space, conditions regulative of all perception of phenomena, yet in a manner un- essential, relative, not absolute, the elimination of which is not beyond conception? Is law more than an act of the mind,^ a description of its state of expectation in respect of any event? Is it capable of manifestation to aught but the spirit and intelligence of man ? Can the order of the material universe be shown to be other than the comple- ment of the human understanding ? Does not the ^ " Long, indeed, will man strive to satisfy the inward querist with the phrase, Laws of Nature. But tliough the individual may rest con- tent with the seemly metaphor, the race cannot." — Coleridge, Friend, III. 199. " Thought, involving simi:)ly the establishment of relations, may be readily conceived to go on, while yet these relations have not been organized into the abstracts we call Space and Time ; and so there is a conceivable kind of consciousness which does not contain the truths commonly called a priori, involved in the organization of these forms of relations." — H. Spencer, First Pr., p. 258. ^ The forms in nature which we denominate laws, how do they become ideas in the mind ? Only it would seem by a faculty of generali- zation due to the higher Reason. See Arist., Anal. Post., II. xiv. Q'he facts are objective : " Toute realite," says Leibnitz, " doit etre fondee dans quelque chose d'existant ; " but it is the mind which invests them with generality. "What we call a general law is, in truth, a form of expression including a number of facts of like kind. The facts are separate ; the unity of view by which we associate them, the character of generality and of law, resides in those relations which are the object of the intellect."— Whewell, B. T., \\ 259. See Sir AV. Hamilton, Led., III. 78, and Ueberweg's Logic, §§ 38-44, who, however, does not escape from the circle of employing mathematical, i. e. objective, con- ceptions, which are themselves only guaranteed by our ini^er expe- 120 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. course of the revelation of law to the mind of man follow the very law or constitution of his mind ? Again, the impossibility of all creation might Le In what sense is oruivine"^ argued from the eternity of God, if this attribute t)peration. were indeed other than the negation of the condi- tions of Time in the case of an Infinite Being/ Is the case different in respect of Law as a mode of Divine operation ? When it gives rise to similar perplexities, is it to be held incompatible with the notion of Providential action ? The uni- ^ 4. Neither can it be assumed, unless rhetori- veisahty •' . „ ^ . . , of law not cally,^ that at present the reign of Law is as wide biished, as the world in which we live. Many an ample demesne of thought and feeling, of social action, nay, of physical processes, is as yet but partially explored, and remains debateable land. M. Comte, in fact, holds that many phenomena will never be brought within the range of definite laws, because each science, as it increases in complexity, admits also of greater variations.^ This is, in effect, to repeat the axiom of Bacon, that " the subtilty of ^ ravra 8e izavra [xepr] xP^^°^i ''^'' '''^ ''"' W '''^ '"' fVrat, XP^'^'^^ yeyovoTa e'lbr], a 8f) cjitpovrfs \av6avofiev eirl ttjv didcov ovaiav ovk opdas. — riato, Timceits, 37, E. Cf. August., Serm. ad Caiech., c. viii. : " Natus est ante omnia tempera; natus ante omnia sajcula. Natus ante ; ante quid, uLi non est ante?" &c. There was an old view (Id., Civ. D., XI. iv.) that the world was eternal not in time, but in resi)cet of its creation. This savoured too much of a saving clause. '^ " Nothing is that errs from law." — Tennyson. See on this subject the Duke of Argyll, lleign of Law, p. 53, and Mozley, B. L., p. 325, and some fine remarks of Dr. Chalmers, Works, VII. 204. ^ See also Littre, Paroles de la Phil. Pas., p. 17. Lect. Ill] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. I2i nature fixr surpasses the subtilty of the mind of man." Let it, however, be conceded that there is good prospect of their yielding sooner or later to the advance of scientific uniformity. Certainly many effects in nature which have seemed irregu- lar, precarious, lawless, have bowed to the force of inductive analysis and suggestive analogies, until generalization has prevailed in these also, and they have taken their place beside the earlier triumphs of scientific inference. Thus has arisen yet is very 111"! •• (* ^ ' fT generally that habitual recognition of the notion of Law assumed, which, as has been truly said, is a distinguishing characteristic of modern from ancient thought.^ It may also be conceded that the Divine Mind, if conceived as projecting its fiat upon natural agents in the form of universal laws, must likewise be apprehended as adequate to sustain them through any limits of time and space. The hand which has so moulded can, and, indeed, must equally uphold them, and enforce their operation.^ Let us, then, strive to estimate the result of the ' Herbert Spencer, First Principles, p. 142. Yet an apprehension of laws of nature is undoubtedly very ancient— lying at the founda- tions of Greek philosophy and poetry. Comp. Soph., Qj^d. T., 8G5. ' Antig., 455. It had also sunk deep into the Hebrew mind and heart. Gf. Ps. 148, 6. Jer. v. 22; xiii. 23. Eccles. i. 4-7. ^ " La conservation de Dieu consiste dans cette influence immediate, pcrpetuelle, que la dependance dcs creatures demande. Cette depen- dance a lieu a I'egard non-seulement de la substance, mais encore de Taction ; et on ne sauroit peut-etre I'expliquer micux qu'en disant avec le commun des theologicns et des pbilosophes, que c'est une creation continu^e." — Leibnitz, Works, \\ 512. 122 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. state of things supposed. When the physical antecedents of all events shall have been assigned, the tendencies of human nature mapped out and ascertained, will the sum of man's knowledge have been reached, and with it the limits of his belief? Shall we then " know even as we are known " ? and ^ 5. The attainment of a clear conception of law viewed as , ... the term is by somc ^ regarded as the highest pomt attani- ledge. able by the human understanding. " The sum of all education," says Professor Huxley,^ " is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of nature." I do not stay to remark upon the narrowness of such a view of human nature, when we take into account its moral and spiritual capacities ; nor again, on its logical insufficiency without some postulate as to the origin and nature of things. But does it correspond, so far as it reaches, with the teaching conveyed by the facts of the external world ? Is there no region suggested to us in experience above the level of material causes ? Facts, — no law higher than the subsidiary laws which however, _ _ ^ "^ suggest a bind -particular forces ? Is there no element, no further ■*■ ' analysis. ' Buckle, llhi. Civ., II. 343. " La mcthode objective ou experience ne parvicnt qu't\ dcs lois, c'cst son supreme effet, rcndant de plus en plus imi)ersoiinellc I'idee de Providence il va se pcrdre d'une faron plus ou moius confuse dans riinnianencc des lois qui regissent los clioscs." — Littre, Paroles, p. 18. ^ Lay Sermons, p. 36. See also the magnificent passage commencing, " That man, I think, has had a liberal education," &c. It altogether omits any spiritual element in man. Comjiare Dr. AVestcolt's remarks in Cmt. Review, VIII. 378. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 123 " law within the law," required to account for the co-adjustment of phenomena ? It is such an ele- ment, if any, which, satisfying this unknown yet necessary coefficient, answers to the notion of Providence, to the movement of a Supreme Free Agent,^ of One who is not content to reign and not to o:overn. The distinction very commonly a distinc- ^ . tion made made between a general and a special Providence between may prove m some respects misleadmg. If general and special without being special, it is to the individual soul dence. no Providence at all. While from a scientific point of view,^ the intercalation of an adjustment of relations between agent and effect, is as neces- sary for each single event as for any general law of uniform results arising out of the repetition of ^ " Is tliere above the level of material causes a region of Providence ? If there is, Nature there is moved by the Supreme Free Agent, and of such a realm a miracle is the natural production." — Mozley, Bamp. Led., p. 164. Compare also Prof. Goldwin Smith {Led., II. 47): " This God, Who is to reign over His own world on condition that He does not govern it, what is He — the Supreme Law of Nature ? " &c. In his Address at Liverpool, p. 22, Mr. Gladstone writes: "On the sJ. ground of what is termed evolution, God is relieved of the labour of ^ creation ; in the name of unchangeable laws, He is discharged from governing the world." ^ Leibnitz very justly warns thaf'il faut consid^rer aussi que Taction de Dieu conservant doit avoir du rapport a ce qui est conserve, tel qu'il est, et selon I'etat on il est : ainsi elle ne sauroit etre generale ou inde- terminee. Ces gen^-alites sont dcs abstractions qui ne se trouvent point dans la verite des choscs singulieres." — Works, p. 511. " The Laws of Nature are the laws which the Divine Being in His wisdom prescribes to His own acts. His imiversal presence is the necessary condition of any course of events ^ His universal agency the only origin of any efficient force." — Whewell, B. T., p. 311. " Je ne demaude ni les a'ieules, ni les trisaieules du phenomene ; je me coutente de sa mere."— De Maistre, Soirees, p. 190. 124 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. insuf- individual instances. That is to say, tlie notion of general laws does not supersede a particular Pro- vidence, Ridicule lias, indeed, been sometimes east upon what has been contemptuously called " a carpenter theory " of creation, upon the notion of " a clock-making divinity," who is always inter- fering to carry out the j)laus of his own adminis- tration. Why, it is said, should not all this have been provided for by a single original act through the medium of general laws ? Perhaps this may. Mislead- after all, have been so. But who shall apply absolutely to the Infinite Mind^ (when we know so little of our own), notions drawn solely from human experience, and limited by human imper- inappii- fection ; or distinguish in such a case to little our notions purpose betweon an eternal ordinance and the Divine individual application of it? To Him there can be no measure of time,^ but as an eternal present ; (which, to speak exactly, forms no part of time) ; incompatible alike with human modes of thought or with secular succession.^ ^ See Comte, Vldl. Pos., IV. 664, with the quotation from Pere Male- braiiche. ^ " M. Bayle salt fort bien que I'entendement Divin n'a point besoin de temps, pour voir la liaison des choses. Tous les raisonnements sont emincmment en Dieu, ct ils gardent un ordre entre eux dans son cnteudement aussi bien que dans le notre; mais chez Lui ce n'est qu'un ordre et une priori te de nature, au lieu que chez nous il y a une priorite de temps." — Leibnitz, Theod., p. 563. ^ " Mentis quippe aspcctu omnem mutabilitatcm ab ajtcrnitate sejungo et in ipsa asternitate nulla spatia temporis corno. Quia spatia temporis prajteritis et i'uturis rcrum motibus constant. Kihil autem praiterit in ajterno et nihil i'uturum est, quia et quod praiterit esse desiuit, et quod Iking. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 125 § 6. The presence in time and place of surround- The aiea T • 1 • T 1 ofprovi- mg phenomena, their relations accordingly to dentiai . , . r» 1 • T • operation. man s action as objects 01 desire, or as conditions in whatever manner of his conduct, and of the consequences of his conduct ; these constitute the field of Providential operation,^ and lie beyond the compass of any known Law. This is the work in time of the Eternal Spirit. " I have seen," writes the Preacher, " the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time : also He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." ^ What is temptation but the presence or possibility under given circum- stances of a presumed object of desire ? The desire is uniform, the opportunity of its operation contin- gent and variable. What, again, is the lesson of futurum est nondum esse coepit ; reternitas autem tantummodo est, ncc fuit quasi jam non sit, nee erit quasi adhuc non sit. Quare sola ipsa verissime dicere potuit liumanaj menti — Ego sum qui sum — et de ill3, verissime dici potuit — Misit me, qui est." — Augustin. de Ver. Bel., c. xlix. 6 xpovos oi) boKel (rvyKeladai €K rav vvv. — Arist., Phys., IV. x. TO be vvv ecTTi (Tvvexeia xpovov. — c. xiv. See Leibnitz, Works, p. 615. Compare Dr. Mozley, B. L., p. 157. ^ " Conditrix ac moderatrix temporum Diviua Providentia." — Au- gustin. " Aiusi le tout revient souvent aux civconstances, qui font une partie de I'eucliainement des choscs." — Leibnitz, Theod., p. 530. Kaipos TzavTav yviifxas 'laxei- — Soph., Philoct., 837. There is a singular pas- sage in Legge's Confucius (§ 100) to the same effect : " How docs Heaven speak.? The four seasons have their course. The hundred things, what speaks He ? No ; Heaven speaks not : by the course of events He makes Himself understood ; no more." 2 Eccles. iii. 10, 11. 126 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. human affairs if not the need of energy, genius, Observ- originaHtj, of thought, of moral force ; in one word, able in the f> *". i . . t , -, course of ot individual character; m necessary correspon- dence, however, with the surrounding circumstances, in order to secure large and lasting consequences?^ Such souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age. Dull sullen prisoners in the Lody's cage. For, however superior their powers, they must confessedly he in harmony and relation with their times.^ Their very greatness, some would hold, comes of their temperament, and that temperament is the result of many antecedents. Mental as well as physical attributes may be transmissible by inheritance ; ^ and a " creational law " may be imagined to explain their commencement.'' Some ^ " The laws," says Bp. Butler, " by which persons born into the world at such a time and place are of such capacities, geniuses, tempers .... are so wholly unknown to us, that we call the events which come to pass by them accidental ; though all reasonable men know certainly that there cannot in reality be any such thing as chance." — Anal., II. c. iv. Comp. Augustin., Civ. D., IV. xxxiii. : " Neque hoc teraere ; . . scd pro rerum ordine ac temjiorum oCculto nobis, notissimo sibi ; cui tamen ordini temporum non subditus servit, sed enm Ipse tanquam dominus regit moderatorque disiwnit." ^opa yap tIs iariv iv Tols yevfaiv dj^Spoii', (utrTrep eV to7s koto, ras x<^pcis yiyvofievois. — Arist., Met, II. XV. ; and iW., V. xii. 8. 2 Guizot has some just remarks on this subject. Civ. en Fravce, Lcc. XX. : " The activity of a great man is of two kinds. First, he under- stands better than others the wants of his time ; its real, present exigencies," &c. 3 See Comte, Phil. Pos., IV. 373, 397. * Comp. Dr. Mozley, B. L., p. 319. Mr. Herbert Spencer, First Pr., p. 123. " These superior i»wcrs of reason or I'ancy," says Gibbon, c. xxxviii., " are rare and spontaneous productions." " Est casus aliquis," says Bacon, " non minus in cogitationibus humanis quani in opcribus et factis." — N. 0., Aph. cxxii. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 127 would persuade us to believe that with all their capacities, and aspirations, and beliefs, they are still no accident indeed, yet a product of their time. But what shall account for the harmony of in the correspon- the given antecedents ; for their comcidence and dence of 1111-1 1 occasion correspondence; lor the melody winch pervades and ante- their combination ; for the co-proportions and correlations, for the co-existence and co-ordination of these births of Time ? Non ha3C sine uumine Divum Eveniimt. Do they not of themselves call for the notion of Divine superintendence and of absolute appoint- ment, even if the expression of interposition be objected to? The method of Nature, even in physical matters, is nowhere the predominance of any single principle, but the joint-presence and self-correcting union of several.^ We ask not for a world governed by isolated acts of special inter- vention, of perpetual and arbitrary interference, ^ " Dieu est tout ordre : il garde toujours la justice des proportions : il fait rharmonie uuiverselle." — Leibnitz, Theod. In Ver. Bel., c. xxii., Augustine works out at length the metaphor of a harmony or strain perva4ing the administration of the world. Cf. Prom. V., 556, ovTrore TCLv Aios apixoviav dvarSiv irape^laai, ^ovkai. When these prodigies Do so conjoirdly meet, let not men say ' These are their reasons, they are natural.' Julius Ccesar. This argument is carried out by means of an example very ably in Dialogues on Divine Providence, p. 111. ^ " Is not the universe pervaded by an omnipresent antagonism, a fundamental conjunction of contraries, everywhere opposite, nowhere independent?" — Whewell, Nov, Org. Benov., p. 270. and com- bination of agencies. An 128 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. irreconcilable with general laws, and turning his- tory, as has been aptly said, into an almanac. We acknowledge the results of that power of abstrac- tion in the mind of man, which, growing with education, terminates in. annihilating all personifi- cation of phenomena, and closes what has been called " the mythical period of history." ^ But, on the other side, this view of life and being, which sees in all things the present controlling hand of God, cannot be charged with being incapable of proof. It rests upon and is an illustration of the tificaiiy Method of Eesidues, so well known in the Logic of e. jjj(jy(3^jQj-^^2 -p^^j. -^ represents an element of causa- tion, a surplus of unassigned effect, which survives all analysis or explanation of natural events. But if the element thus indicated enters as a necessary antecedent into a scientific account of things, being one which, though not itself otherwise determin- able, is an uniform condition of phenomena ; who shall set limits to its operation, or regard any the smallest event as beyond the providential arrange- Thebor- mcnt of tlic Almio^htv ? True, the natural here derliiieof i tbc natu- mcrgcs in the supernatural ; a special providence, it has been rightly said, is an invisible miracle ; it is of the same order as the miracle of creation.^ ^ See Mr. Lecky, Hist. Eur. Mor., I, 375. ^ See Mill's Logic, III. viii. 5 ; Herschel's Discourse, § 158 ; and Mr. Fowler's singularly clear treatise on Inductive Logic, p. 163. ^ The very preservation of the universe being a continued creation. See Leibnitz, Wo^Lcs, pp. 152, 1 5. " Dieu n'agit que par des lois generales. Je raccorde; mais Ji mon avis cola no siiflitpas pour lever Ics miracles: super- natural Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 129 But it is not the less real for being miraculous ; nor the less miraculous because through simple repetition we cease to see it to be so. " Circum- stances," it has been profoundly said/ "traced back to their first origins, may be the outcome of strictly miraculous intervention. But the miracu- lous intervention addresses us at this day in the guise of those circumstances. There is no law of their coincidence, though coincidences rise out of a combination of general laws. They have a cha- racter of their own, and seem left by Providence in His own hands, as the channel by which, inscrutable to us, He may make known to us His will." Nor Appiica- must it be forgotten that we are dealing not only general with general laws which may be considered as un- dividuais. varying in their operation, but with their appli- cation to particular circumstances. These may be so arranged as to effect of themselves the greatest amount of good in each individual case. But among these we are entitled to include the de- cisions of the human will which may or may not co-operate with the arrangements of Eternal Wisdom. In this manner it is true that " all si Dieu en faisoit continuellement, ils ne laisseroient pas d'etre des miracles, en pvenant ce mot non ])as populairement pour une chose rare et merveilleuse, mais philosophiquement pour ce qui passe les forces des creatures." ^ J. H. Newman, Gramm. of Assent, pp. 422, 424. Comp. Eiu'lp. Hec, 1. 958 : cfivpovai S' avra 6fo\ iriiKiv re Kcii Trpdcrw, rapay/xov fVTi6fVTfS, w? ciyvMcrla i only of sible to reconciJe the apparent fortuity oi human " nffairs ^ with their admitted regularity, and \Ait]i the observed imiformity of Nature. It is the ^, boasted test of Science to be predictive;^ to fore- tell consequences with unerring exactness. Yet, of what is it really predictive ? Of tendencies ; not of positive results, nor of particular events ; but rather that these will take place under given circumstances, i. e. under identical circumstances. Experience, that is, custom, leads us to expect a repetition of the circumstances. Yet, the variety of Variety Nature is as wonderful as is her uniformity : and andirregu- . , ..,.,,, larity ob- it is a well-knowii principle m physics that no two Nature, individual products agree exactly in all resi)ects. No compound of this cavtlily ball Is like another all in all. Now, this evident irregularity in the case of * As to the bearings of a doctrine of Providence upon the iiractice of prayer Leibnitz shrewdly observes, "Dans le foud, les hommes se con- tenteront d'etre exauces, sans se niettre en peine si le cours de la Nature est change en leur faveur ou noii. Et s'ils sont aides par le secours des bons Angcs, il n'y aura point de changement dans I'ordre general des choses." — Remarques sur le livre de M. King {Wm-hs, p. 651). ^ See Isaac Taylor on Enthusiasm, p. 129 : " But there is a higher government of men," &c. He is needlessly criticised by Mr. Greg, Creed of Christendom. See also Mr. Hntton, Ussai/s, I. 42 : " And this instinctive conviction," &c. 3 Com)). Whewell, P;«7. Ind. Sc., I. xxxix., Nov. Org. Ben., II. v. 10; Comte, Phil Pos., I. 02; II. 28, 401, 420; III. 10, 804, 407-13; and Mr. Fowler's remarks, Ind. Logic, p. 112. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 131 human affairs/ is attributed (not indeed very con- sistently) by thinkers of the Positive school, to special but undiscovered laws, or to the acknow- ledged intricacy of the antecedents masking the essential relations of the phenomena, to the plu- rality and composition of causes, to the intermixture of effects, and the like ; which is, in fact, no ex- planation at all. Yet there is surely point in import- ■^ ./ X ance of the sarcasm of Pascal," that had the nose of Cleo- personal character. patra been shorter, the whole face likewise of the world's history might have been changed. Or, again, that a grain of gravel in the person of a Cromwell^ sufficed to give peace to a Continent, restoration to a dynasty, and tranquillity to the alarms of Rome. "Accidentsof personal character," writes Hallam,^ " have more to do with the revo- lutions of nations than either philosophical histo- rians or democratic politicians like to admit." No cycle, indeed, in human affairs,* no theory of " social ^ Mr. Buckle, Hist. Civ., III. 479, observes with some asperity, '* Science has not yet explained the phenomena of history. Conse- quently the theological spirit lays hold of tliem, and presses them into her own service." 2 Pensees, xix. 7 : " Le nez de Cl^opatre, s'il eut ete plus court, toute la face de la terre aurait change." xx. 8 : *' Cromwell allait ravager toute la Chretiente," &c. ^ Middle Ages, I. 132: "It is almost appalling," remarks Dean Church (^Univ. Serm.)," to watch how some vast change in human affairs has hung upon the apparent accident of a stronger or weaker character." * ^lagnus ab intcgro sajclorum nascitur ordo. ^aa\ kvkXov elvai ra avdp6)Tnpa Trpay/xara. — Arist., Phya., IV. xiv. See Mill's Logic, I. 420 (1st ed.). The theory of Vico is well known. Compare Augiistin., Civ. D., XII. xi. xiii., and Origen, c. Cels., IV. Ixvii. K 2 132 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. Error of assump- tion as to the course of Provi- dence. rhythm," " equiHbration," or "recurring oscillation" will solve this mighty mystery; though history, like a circulating decimal of many figures, " should periodically repeat itself," and things revolve in an eternal round. The problem is one into which too many factors enter.^ There is, indeed, an error which has too often brought contempt on the ac- knowledgment of a special Providence ; which lies in the monopolizing and appropriation of it.^ In this way Men may construe things after their fashion Q,\g2l\\ from the purpose of the things themselves. To leave, however, the existence of a controlling Providence an open question subverts the conditions necessary to constitute a religion. But, if the entrance of a supernatural element into the course of human affairs be, indeed, requisite for any really philosophical explanation of them, the incompati- bility of general Laws with the wants of the reli- gious sentiment can no longer be urged. The ^ " History," it has been cleverly said, " like the dial of a clock, presents results, but conceals the machinery producing them." * " Historia Nemeseos sanfe in calamos noimuUorum piorum virorura incidit : sed non sine partium studio.''' — Bacon, Augm. Sc , II. xi. " To him," says Montaigne, A'ss., I. xxv., " who feels the hailstones patter about his ears, the whole hemisphere appears to be in a storm." There is a French saying, " La providence des chats n'est pas la meme avec la providence des souris." On this subject Mr. Buckle, Hist. Civ., III. 195, has some caustic remarks. Elsewhere (I. 19, n.) he gratuitously confounds the doctrine of Providential interference with that of Pre- destination. See some just reflections of Mr. Lecky, IJist. E. M., I. 381, and some noble thoughts of Prof. Goldwin Smith {Study of Flist., Lect. I. 31). Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 133 "kingdoms of the world " may still "become tlie kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ " ; and this in virtue of an operation determined by no such laws of time as to compel the inference that it was not so fixed from eternity, or is not so arranged at any given moment by an immediate and ever-present disposition.^ § 8. One of the acutest thinkers of our time, This con- who has passed away not many months since, justly drawn lamented, has contended for the special interposi- perience. tion of Grod by the side of general Laws, on the ground that both are alike conditions of human thought, seeing that we cannot think the general without the special.^ At present I would dwell rather on the objective side of experience. The importance of distinguisliing between the causes and the occasions of events has often been observed.^ 1 " Le present," finely remarks Leibnitz (Works, p. 608), " est gros cle I'avenir;" or as Schiller puts it, " Im Heute wandelt schon das Morgen." It is an error, however, to assume the determining causes of events to be necessary in any case where a counter result is con- ceivable. The will of God is not incompatible either with contingency in things or liberty in the creature. The main argument of this work, however, does not proceed on any forced or fanciful application of special acts of Providence. Christianity is the concurrent result of pre- /' ceding events and precedent conditions. As such it is a fact in man's historj^ which goes for much, and implies further consequences in the undoubted pre-arrangement of God. - Dean Mansel, Bamj)ton Led., p. 193. ^ Polyb., III. vi. 6, apx'7 ti Bia(j)epfi kuI iv6d 00 Jaws not I n- 2:ion itself falls within a natural order, and may to compatible o ^ . . '^^''t^' 'he a certain extent be treated as a positive phenome- historical ^ sequence non, determined by the mental faculties and the ofreii- . . gions. history of their development, any real stumbling- block to the acceptance of the Christian faith. The criticism of some modern schools of thought,^ * " It is an error to suppose Mysticism as the perpetual antagonist of Scholasticism ; the Mystics were often severe logicians : the Scholastics had all the passions of Mystics." — Milman, Lat. Christ., VI. 263. See Gieseler, III. 292, and IV, 188, E. T., ed. Clark. Lacordaire speaks of "la certitude mystique et translumineuse." In all Mysticism we must distinguish between an intellectual and an ethical tendency. Comp. Domer, Hist. Prot. Th., I. 52. There is a tendency in Mysticism towards what has been termed Monopsychism, the belief in the mere existence of a single soul. Such a view is the correlative of pure Materialism. ^ See Mr. FaiTar, Witness^ of History to Christ, p. 61, and Dr. Farrar, Critical Hist, of Free Thought, pp. 122, 392. Comp. Hegel, Phil. d. 144 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. commencing with Lessing and culminating in Baiir, grows out of this truth pursued into excess. On the Positivist theory Christianity is the necessary result of previous antecedents. It could not but have arisen out of the contact of Jewish Monotheism and Greek speculation and Roman Empire.^ This When the explanation (even if true of a system of dogmas) allowed docs uot, as wc havc already seen, account for an historic Gospel, that is, for the series of facts on which Christian dogmas depend. But the still larger fact that the announcement of the religion of Christ was in accordance with the spirit and impor- antecedents of its time, the culmination of an tiirdoc- Evangelical Preparation;^ and further, that in its trine of an Ivangeii^'^ history it has followed the course of laws unrc- cal pre- paration. cai pre- servedly accepted in other departments of know- ledge and action, this result should be a confirma- tion, not an arraignment, of its truth. It is no tenet of the Christian faith to deny that we are the " heirs of all the ages," or, in the expressive words of Comte, that " we who live are ruled l)y the dead." The continuity and solidarity of human Oesch. 3. Theil, III. ii. Mr. Buckle, llht. Civ., II. 21, attributes the first notion of a theory of religious development to the French writer, Charron. * See Comte, P/nZ. Pos., V. 349, and Prof. Westcott's just remarks {Comte on Christianity), Cont. Bev., YI. 404. Dr. Dorner, Hist. Prot. Th., II. 291, traces this view to Eberhard in his Geist des Ur-Chris- tenthums, published in 1807. ^ On this grand theory of Christian develojiment, the contribution of the School of Alexandria to a histoiy ol doctrine, see Ncander, (7;. Hist., II. 275, E. T., ed. Clark. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 145 history are ideas wliicli lie at the root of the doctrines of Christ. Time has been when, throiigli an unconscious lack of faith in the ordinary pro- vidence of God, the progress of Christianity has been too largely assigned to miraculous and super- natural causes.' It was narrowed accordingly to false or unimportant issues. The humbler, if safer, Thissom^- road of regular and ordinary causation was deemed sight of. unmeet for it. The presence of the Divine message and its efficacy were hailed more readily in the rending earthquake and the great strong wind, and in the devouring fire, than in the still small voice of moral conviction and spiritual transformation, borne slowly down the stream of time.^ But now I'leseut tendency men think and see differently, and looking back of the age. we seem to catch the breath of a Divine mystery, mingling ever silently with tlie voices and tones of men, and tempering with a heavenly calm tlie fevered spirit of the age.'' It is not now argued that the rise and progress of Christianity are inexplicable : but rather that its results prove ' See some good remarks of Dean Merivale, Conversion of Em-pire, p. 20. " The human mind continued to work by its old accustomed metliods; but those methods of thought were themselves of God's original appointment. The Holy Spirit had brooded over their creation, and guided them gently to the end which to Him was present from the beginning." Also Northern Nations, pp. x. 103 ; and Dorner's remarks on Lessing, Hist. Prot. Tlu, II. 303. 2 See Mr. Lccky, Hist. Eur. 31., I. 412. ^ " Perhaps," says Laud, Co?if. p. xxiii., " there may be in voce hominum tuba Dei — in the still voice of men the loud trumpet of God which .sounds many ways, sometimes to the ears and sometimes to the hearts of men, and by means which they think not of." L [46 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. Relation of intel its permanent and catholic character ; that it is a reh'gion to take part and co-exist with advancing civilization. § 1 2. Thus, in an estimate of the value of Chris- lectuai tianity as a permanent element in human progress, progress to ,. . ... civiiiza- some prelimmary inquiry into the relation of in- tellectual conditions towards advance in morals and religion must come in. So long as it is maintained that all advance is really intellectual,^ and that knowledge and civilization tend rather to the extinction than to the promotion of religious senti- ment, the situation of Christianity, equally indeed with all creeds, becomes precarious and doubtful. tlncTt^o^'^' ^^^^j then, is meant in such discussions by civiliza- the^CT*^-^'^ tion ? Not, surely, one thing, but many ; not a S-^chHs*^ simple, but a highly complex fact. It is, I appre- tianity. hcud, tlic position or degree of education of the human race at any given period, in respect not of Definition knowledge only, but of social and political condi- of civiiiza- . tion, dependent on circumstances 01 race, climate, and other special antecedents ; further, also, in respect of moral and religious beliefs, acting con- jointly with art and sesthetical development.^ All ' See Mr. Buckle, llht. Civ., I. c. iv. (more especially p. 182). His.argu- ment is that civilization is indeed the product of moral and intellectual agencies ; but that as morality is really stationary and without advance, the intellect is the prime mover and is permanent in its results. In II. 89, he seems after Descartes to ground religion itself on an idea of the intellect. Sec, on the other hand, Mr. Lecky, Rist. Eur. M., I. 105, 15G, &c. 2 See Mill's Logic, Bk. VI.,'x. 2. " What is called a state of society is tion Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 14/ these elements may be present in a varying relation and in different proportions of force. All may together be acting feebly ; some vigorously, some a complex scarcely. Industrial and intellectual culture by no many fac- means advances uniformly in all its branches. It may, as in Ancient Gi-reece, be far ahead of other elements of true culture, and be before its time.^ Knowledge may be at a low ebb in a community where religious convictions have a strong hold upon the hearts and affections of a people. Morality inciuaing may be weakest in respect of the conduct of the masses, while knowledge flourishes, and a spirit of inquiry is widely diffused. Such a result tends directly against true culture. The conditions of intellectual are not generally favourable to moral growth.^ Meanwhile, tlie political circumstances may be auspicious or unfavourable, while the social condition of a nation will exhibit the complex result the simultaneous state of all the greater social facts or phenomena . . . the common beliefs entertained on all the subjects most important to mankind, and the degree of assurance with which those beliefs are held," &c. So also Guizot {Civil, en France, Lee. i., p. 273), "It is not these two principles of themselves, which constitute civilization : to bring it to perfection, their intimate and rapid union, simultaneousness, and reciprocal action are absolutely necessary." See the whole of the passage. Comp. also Grant's Bamp. Led., p. 308. Mr. Tylor (Hisf. Prim. Cult., I. p. 1) thus defines : " Culture or civilization taken in its wide ethnographic sense is that complex whole which includes know- ledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." 1 See Mr. Tylor, u. s., I. 24. Comp. Comte, Fhil. Fos., V. 252, 257. ^ See Guizot, Civ. en France, I. 348 : " When the social relations have been described, are the facts whose aggregate constitutes the life of an epoch exhausted ? Certainly not ; there remains to be studied the L 2 148 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. of the other elements of its civilization. Hence the differences of ancient and modern culture. They are not only distinct stages of a common progress or development, to which man's nature Ancient poiuts and tends.^ They have proceeded from guishcd different principles. Ancient civilization started molor, n. s., I. 25. sentiment. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 149 and even intellectually, the individual man without necessarily varying his external condition. But this change did not come at once ; and under the later Empire the world retrograded in its intellectual stage while in possession of Christian ideas. For " advanced ideas," it has been truly said/ " when once established, act upon society and aid its further advance. Yet the establishment of such ideas depends on the previous fitness of society for re- ceiving them." There must be a thorough corre- spondence of external and internal relations. The Civiiiza- . . ...... *'^^ must relio'ion of our present so-called civilization, if it be be as wide ... . . ^s the only or mainly an evolution of intellect, ignoring whole the claims of conscience, can but exhibit a one-sided, man. imperfect progress f it does not fulfil the idea, and must fail, as it has failed of old. Such, however, is not the character of the religion of Christ, which is, therefore, " established on better promises " of permanence and progress. But on what grounds Religion a Dnrt CciusG is it asserted that all human advance is intellectual, of pro- • • 1 1 • 1 r^^ • • • gi"*^ss. thus necessitating the conclusion that Christianity is itself an efiect and not a caufce of progress? Because,^ it is answered, without external inter- ference people will never discover their existing ^ Mr. Herbert Spencer, Classification of Sciences, p. 37. ^ See Dr. J. H. Newman, Oramm. of Assent, p. 391; also Essay on Devel, I. § 3 ; and particularly Dean Church, Uiiiv. Sermons on the relation of Christianity to civilization. "It con-ects the naiTowing of man's horizon ; which civilization cannot do, perhaps fosters." " Chris- tianity affords the onlj' means of cherishiu;^ purity," &c. ^ Buckle, Hist. Civ., I. 254. ISO OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. religion to be a bad one ; and this implies some previous improvement in reason and knowledge. But has religion, it may fairly be replied, only an Reason of intellectual side ? Is it not so, as Pascal has said,^ that " the heart also has its reasons, which reason cannot apprehend " ? " It is necessary to imbue our faith with feeling, otherwise it will be for ever vacillating." Has the work of conversion been always among races so far advanced in knowledge and mental resources as to be adequate critics, from the intellectual stand-point, of the merits of a new faith ? It is conceivable that the belief of bar- barous times or tribes may be in some respects simpler and truer ^ than that of periods of culture, just as the moral qualities of savage races some- times suffer at the first impact of civilization. Change of Ae-aiu, is it, as a matter of fact,^ by intellectual religion . . . . . not due to convictions chiefly or solely that religions have lectuai made their way in different regions of the world ? conviction , ^ . ^ solely or Pei'haps the Simplest mode has been the acceptance of the faith of the conquering race by the subject peoples. Between different forms of polytheism such an interchange could not have been difficult.* " Civilization," it has been aptly said, " is a plant much oftener propagated than developed."^ This ^ Fensees, II. 176, I. 155, ed. Faiigerc. ^ See Newman, Orarnm. of Assent, p. 391. ^ See au cxam])le in Mr. Tylor, Hist. Prim. Cult., I. 27. * See Conite, Fhil. Pos., V. 180. Hume, Nut. U. of Eel iy ion, § 9. » Tylor, Hist. Pr. C, 1. 18. chieliy. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY, 151 has resulted either from direct compulsion, as by the scimitar of Islamism, or from an instinct of inferiority naturally, and not without reason,^ accompanying defeat. Where a new language can be imposed, no doubt through "the spiritual rela- tionship " of races, religion may pass also. Yet this is not always so ; as, for instance, in the Mahometan and British subjugations of Hindostan. Nor is it so generally, where a strong sacerdotal caste exists among the conquered race.^ But neither, if it were, could it be traced to any law of rational superiority alone in the religion of the conqueror. For then the progress of religious truth, it is to be supposed, would have been simple and continuous ; a result which is not borne out by the history of mankind. Other circumstances. Historical 11' rm proof of therefore, must be taken into account. i he this fact, guidance, or at any rate the sequence, of events introduces particular religions into the world and into distinct localities. Once received, from what- ever causes, they flourish and endure according to the amount of truth which they contain, combined with the fitness of their doctrines for the. special circumstances of region and race, including, it is true, as one condition, a certain stage of intellectual ^ Cotnp. Arist., Pol., I. vi. : rpoTvov riva aperr] rvyxavova-a )(opT]yias jSidfecr^at bvparai fMoXiaTa, Koi eariv del to Kparovv iv virepoxfi dyadov Tivos & T • nence and necessitate or foreshadow the collapse of religious advance belief? Are we indeed entered upon an era oftianity. scientific attainments in which theological faith, turcvo already in some quarters subordinated to meta- physical abstractions, is to be trodden under foot by a positive philosophy, that is, by a belief in concrete laws ? Is there to be an endless war between our intellectual faculties and our religious obligations ? Are we entitled to predict the de- cline and extinction of all theologies, as a gradual but inevitable conse(|uence of tlie course of human 154 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. Religion affairs ? Must we look forward to a time wlien the attacked as . i i i i (- ^^ ^^ • unservice- inutility and helplessness oi all religious sentiment inefficient, to advauce the well-being of mankind will be uni- versally admitted ? And here it may be at once allowed that the sphere of Religion, whatever be its true work and office in respect of the positive benefits which it confers upon mankind, lies wholly outside Science. It was not sent to redress evils which it is the province of knowledge to remove. But is it always kept in mind, when Christianity is thus assailed on the score of inefficiency, how small a part of those ills which " flesh is heir to," Science Criticism itself has hitherto availed to abolish ? While con- of the ser- vices ren- ferrins: on mankind laro'e benefits and ffrand op- positive portunities, can it be said of this new divinity that knowledge , . ., . . . , ,^, to man- it aloue brings no evils m its tram ? The mecha- nical skill which stimulates as it facilitates produc- tion, the mighty powers of locomotion by which the fabrics of commerce are made to traverse the furthest regions of the earth, the progress which is making in the labours of the factory and of the mill — have they hitherto increased the sum of liappiness and individual comfort for those vast human masses, the slaves of the mine and of the loom, which have, as it were, leaped into being at the call of science ? When I walk through our vast ' Mr. Lccky, Hist. Eur. Mor., I. 132, has sorae just and profound reflections on the tendency of industrial progress to sacrifice moral dignity and elevation of character, and on its relation to a utilitarian standard in morals. Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 155 manufacturing capitals, and gaze on the squalid tenements, the swarming alleys, the sordid, care- worn faces which meet the view, I cannot but ask myself if this is indeed the end of all their Leing — whether the increase of wealth, of population and production, if these be its conditions, can be worth its own accomplishment ; whether the struggle for existence does not outweigh the blessing, or rather the very reasons of life.^ Is the elevation of the many a true consequence of the increase of wealth ? Is it not as in the days of old ? " When ffoods ^% increase •^ *-' of produc- increase they are increased that eat them." ^ " It tion or •^ _ _ _ material is a sore travail wdiich God has given to the sons progress of men to exercise them." "All things are full of mount to labour; that wdiich is crooked cannot be madevation? straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." Surely these words of the Preacher express a profound disappointment at the little effect of wisdom and s]villed knowledge on man's physical and moral condition ? Are they inappli- J^^^5°"f cable now ? Much, at any rate, remains to be done for these toiling millions which as yet has not been done. Brought into the world to eke out, it would seem, the purposes of labour, they live, they work, they die, uncheered by the lamp of knowledge, which assigns their daily task. What has Political Economy, Ethology, or Social Science^ ^ " Et propter vitam vivendi perdore causas." — Juv. 2 Eccles. V. 11 ; i. 13, 15. ^ Compare Dr. Mozley's just remarks, Bamp. Led., p. 192, 156 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. III. as yet done to mend their lot or gild their prospect, timid the gigantic risks and ever-enlarging perils among which they earn their bread ? Then in the moment of writhing pain and impending dissolu- tion, the resnlt of unprevented accident, or in the long hours of wasting, incurable sickness, the effect of some noxious employment, to what shall they turn their dying eyes for consolation, for support ? The need Will the loug vista of coming generations born like them to suffer, to struggle, and to die, yet making up the sum of that Humanity,^ that " unity lives and consola- tions of evident, of our racc," that " course of evolution," that " sub- -^ jective immortality" which to some among us seems the very God of all their worship — will the con- sciousness of an unknown, unknowable reality underlying the world of matter or of mind — will the "infinite nature of duty" — will these close their eyes in peace ? or will they not rather, feeling themselves but denizens of a world that passes, yet heirs of an immortal, immaterial spirit, turn with all their hearts towards a Faith which alone ex- plains the present and guarantees the future ; which alone lends strength now and gives assur- ance and peace for ever ; which teaches, that ^ Sec Strauss, Ber Alte und der Ntue Gluuhc, p. 372 ff. ; and Mr. Wiuwood Ileade, Martyrdom of Man, pp. 535-7. I quote but one passage : " We teach that the soul is immortal ; we teach that there is a future life ; we teach that there is a heaven in the ages far away ; hut not for us single corpuscles, and for us dots of animated jelly; but for the One of whom wc are the elements, and who, though we perish, never dies." Lect. III.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 157 though the dust returns to the eartli as it was, yet there is hope in man's latter end ? For the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it, yea, and Who hath redeemed it from sin unto Himself. For "if in this life only we have hope, what advantageth it ?" Let ns eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. " But now is Christ risen from the dead, and He is liecome the first-fruits of them that sleep." LECTURE IV. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED. " C'est mal raisonner centre la religion de rassembler dans un grand ouvrage une longue enumeration des maux qu'elle a prodiiits, si Ton ne fait de merae cello des biens qu'elle a faits." — Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, xxiv., ii. LECTURE IV. " Not after the law of a carnal commandment^ but after the power of an endless life.'''' — Jl5cl). Ijtt. i6. § I. ^ I ^HE many forms of Religion wliicli have Religion I 111- 1 c ^ viewed as -^ played their part on the stage oi tlie a mode of world's history, have sometimes been held to be ing mora- but different modes of proclaiming the same moral ^ ^' truths.^ It is these which are regarded as the true salt of society, the ever-resumed heritage of the whole human race. " All religions," said Diderot, " are but the sects of the one Religion of Nature." I do not now stay to inquire what such a religion is ; whether altogether reasoned out, or itself the gift of a primary revelation : whether it exists; whether it corresponds to the actual beliefs of the lower races ; whether it could Relation ofChris- ever become adequate to the moral wants of man- tianity to a kind ; whether it be not Christian morality with of Nature, the omission of all that is Christian, with its proofs » See Comte, PUl. Pos., IV. 77. The teaching of the School of Kant regards ecclesiastical beliefs as the vehicle for conveying truths of pure, *. e. natural, religion. See Mr. Lecky's remarks. Hist. Rat., I. 329. Compare H. J. Eose, Hist. Prot. in Oermcmy, p. 143. Its effect, as Dr. Farrar, B. L., p. 323, has tersely remarked, is " to destroy Revelation by leaving nothing to be revealed." The Gospel thus only makes legible the eternal Law of Nature written in the heart. 31 1 62 OBJECTIONS TQ THE [Lect. IV. drawn from reason, and not from Revelation. What hinders, however, that such a religion, acknowledging, as it needs must, from the side of experience a sense of sin, even points to a remedy which is found only in the revelation of a Mediator?^ Such a fact, then, and the system of which it is a part, does not supersede or contra- supple- diet the instincts of Natural Religion. It rather contra-' complctcs and supplements them, and shows the 'c ory. Qjij-igtian faith to be itself in a manner natural. The objection, however, implied is really this : that Christianity, while no doubt " as old as the Implied Creation," is unfortunately also no newer. It is objection ,,. . >i-r»T- i» against the no morc than a re-publication oi the Religion oi originality ^ . . ■■ f. t •. • and useful- Nature. I' or the principles oi morality, it is religion, implied, are in effect few and simple, incapable of enlargement or multiplication. Obscured they may have been from time to time in the progress of ages and by the circumstances of mankind. But positive religions, while they have done much to impede the recognition of these principles, have ^ " The matter of Revelation is not a mere collection of truths, not a philosophical view, not a religious sentiment or spirit, not a special morality poured out upon mankind as a stream might pour itself into the sea, mixing with the world's thought, modifying, purifying, invi- gorating it; but an authoritative teaching, . . a religion in addition to the religion of nature, not superseding or contradicting it." — I. H. New- man, Oramm. of Assent, pp. 382, 479. See Dr. Mozley in Cont. Rev., VII. On the relation of Christianity to natural religion, see Chal- mers, Brid(j. Tr., sub tincm. He concludes : " Natural theology has been called the basis of Christianity : it were better called the basis of Christianization." Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 163 succeeded but poorly in exliibitiug tlieir truth, or in facilitating their reception. § 2. The error in these assumptions seems to Enor in lie in the supposition that all the particulars of assump- moral truth have been from the first well known and understood : or that they are in their own nature incapable of further development. Some who have justly seen that morality has really been progressive, have preferred to attribute the result to improved knowledge rather than to the influence of relio-ious ideas. Can it, however, be Morality , . really pro- seriously maintained, with any show of reason, gressive. that the whole aspect of moral truths in the history of our race has been stationary ? that there is really nothing to be found in the world which has undergone so little change as those great dogmas of which moral systems are com- posed;^ or again, to use the words of a powerful though hasty objector, tliat " to assert that Chris- tianity communicated to man moral truths pre- viously unknown, argues, on the part of the as- sertor, either gross ignorance or else wilful fraud." " All the great moral systems," he adds,^ " which have exercised much influence have been fundamen- tally the same : all the great intellectual systems have been fundamentally different." So, then^ all ^ Buckle, Hist. Civ., I. 180, who adduces Kant's Jiuthority to the same effect. See, however, Lange's counter-criticism, (ksch. des Mate- rial ismiis, pp. 511, 512. ^ 13uckle, u. K., p. 181. M 2 l64 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. moral systems are substantially the same : ^ and thus far all religions embodying and enshrining a system of morals. Such would, no doubt, be the case, if Religion contained nothing beyond morality; or if the number of primary moral truths can be shown to be extremely small, and their applica- tion in the form of duties simple and obvious. Andsys- But, as a matter of fact, is no difference dis- tems of re- -i i • i t i c> t • ligion vary ccrnible m the moral value oi separate rehgions, as to their _ _^- . . . n • i -r» • r» moral 01 Christianity as compared with raganism, or oi Oriental systems as compared with one another? Are we, then, still to be told that the morals of all nations have been the same, if not as a matter of practice, and in the diffusion of effects, yet in principle and substance; that no improvements have been made in morality for at least three thousand years; and that it admits of no dis- coveries?^ Twofold § 3. Such objections, containing an implicit the pa"" of criticism of Revelation, allow, so far as we are revektToli. conccmed with them, of a double answer. One, that Religion, recognizing and addressing the spiritual part of man, influences and enlarges thereby his stock of moral truth, supplying new motives of action on the utilitarian side, new ^ Mr. Lccky, Bist. Eur. Mor., I. 103-114, has ably shown that the unity of morals in different ages is a unity not of standard, but of tendency. In the same work (I. 150, 165) he argues directly against Mr. Buckle's theory on this subject. ^ See Sir James Mackintosh ap. Buckle, I. 181. The title of his work is, ' A Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy.' Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 165 sanctions and grounds of duty in each fresh revela- Fi«"^ '^s ^ _ _ '^ contents as tion of our relations with God and man.^ A test imiuenc- is thus sujDpHed which distinguislies the higlier advancing from the lower religions of the earth, and still leaves the Faith of Christ the foremost in the history of civilization. Religion further sys- tematizes moral truths already recognized by concentrating them into one focus of new unsus- pected light. Can the doctrine of the brotherhood of mankind, for example, be considered to stand on the same footing now as before the revelation of Jesus Christ ? Does the duty of love to God remain the same? True religion, says Pascal, must have for a credential the obligation of loving God. Yet what religion except our own has included this among its ordinances?^ Another answer (on which I shall not dwell at length) is that in the application of the rules of known ethical systems there is an indefinite field of extension, one strictly analogous to the growth of knowledge in other subjects. In this direction the history and character of Christian teaching, and from not to speak of its positive institutions, has had toricai pro- a marked and lasting influence. It is unnecessary dmingAe Christian ^ Compare Biitlcr's Analogy, Pt. II. c. i., where he argues for the era. importance of Christianity as a distinct publication of natural morality, containing relations which produce new obligations not dependent on the method of revelation. ^ " La vraie religion doit avoir pour marque d'obliger ji aimer son Dieu. Cela est bien juste : et cependant aucune autre que la nCtre ne I'a ordonne. La notrc I'a fait." — I'cnsecs, Art. III. advance. 1 66 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. to insist on the importance of casuistry as a department of moral science, or on the contribu- tions which have been furnished to it by Christian theologians/ Still wider is the field thus opened when it is considered that the analysis of the circumstances of acts leads up to a revision and re-arrangement of already-known principles of duty. Man's moral and spiritual experience en- larges with his history. New grounds of practice are brought to light, as the action is referred to different reasons of rightness or wrongness. In Mode of this manner new moral conceptions, new theories of conduct, fresli central principles of action, new standards of merit, and of the relative value of particular virtues, even new faculties,^ are so far from being impossible of discovery, that they both in fact exist, and are continually recognized in the growth of culture, illustrating the whole 1 On this subject see De Quincey, Worhs, Vol. XIV. pp. 22, 24, 69 ; also some careful and just remarks by Mr. Morley, Crit. Misc., pp. 351, 364. Sir H. Maine, Ancietit Latv, c. ix., too readily condemns casuistry as a species of moral theology, having its origin in the distinction of mortal and venial sins. If, indeed, we adopt his view, that moral philosophy is but a compound of law and metaphysic, we might fairly doubt of the progressive capacities of ethical science. ^ Thus Mr. Herbert Spencer holds that moral intuitions are the results of accumulated experiences of utility. See Bain, Mental and Mar. 8c., p. 722. " Character," says Prof. Goldvvin Smith, " does not remain the same : the character of the man is continually advancing through life; and in like manner the character of the race advances through history." — Study of Hist., p. 37. Mr. Mill, Comte and Pos., p. 112, looks on Protestantism as specially inculcating a distinct moral principle, involving the duty of culture ; viz. direct individual responsi- bility to God. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 167 region of duty. The subject of morals as a practical system reacts upon its own scientific base; and the analysis of complex effects and of compound agents observable in other branches of knowledge, advances here also, and with the same results. § 4. But, it may be said, the very progress in- objection, dicated is an intellectual one, and owes nothing to progress is . . r intellec- the influences of Religion. It may be explained tuai, and by an invariable law of progress observable in religion, human affairs. Science depends on improved methods of research, on their application to in- stances, on the development of the principles thus suggested. Soalso with moral truth. Ripened by the circumstances of the time, including new modes and lines of thinking due to physical and intellectual causes, it bears unaccustomed fruits. Miraturque novas frondcs et non sua poma. The general sentiment of an age, it is said,' is really determined by the intellectual activity, and indirectly by the positive institutions which be^ long to it ; and moral dogmas,^ as well as the ^ See Mr. Morley's observations on tlie development of morals, u. s. 2 Mr. Wallace {Malay. Arcliip., sub fin.) holds that " while civilized commnnities have progressed vastly beyond the savage state in intel- lectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in morals ... It is not too much to say that the mass of onr populations have not at all advanced beyond the savage code of morals, and have in many cases sunk below it." Sir John Lubbock's researches lead him to the exact reverse of this opinion. The savage, he holds, is destitute of moral feeling, c. g. of remorse. — Orig. Civ., p. 265. but to a revival of 1 68 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. immediate sense of obligation, advance along with it. Where intellect stagnates, morality is low. In the unreasoning savage it may be altogether lacking. To reinstate or create the reign of duty, there must take place a revival or awakening of knowledge. The result is seen in new applica- know- tions, and a simpler interpretation of moral prin- ciples hitherto acknowledged. Thus, the sense of duty, generically the same in different ages, varies in amount, and modifies almost in quantity, the shades of conduct over which it is diffused. Reply. The answer to this view lies in a matter of fact. The intei- Amoiig the circumstauces of an age, determining condition the general sentiment of the time, can the power period af- and authority of the prevailing Faith count for fcctcd bv the pre- nothing? If the opinions of a given period are fdih"^ dependent on its intellectual condition, has this also been altogether unaffected by Eeligion ? Though intellect and knowledge have their share The sa- in determining the applications of a sense of duty, credness of p i i i • • duty due to the sacvedness oi that sense and the sanctions it ^ ''"' ' imposes are due altogether to Religion, and will vary with its purity and power. It has become fashionable to regard great eras in the history of our belief, the Reformation or the commencement of Christianity itself, as simple moral protests TheRefor- agaiiist the corruption of the times. Such a view a moral misundcrs-tands the character of the phenomena it ^""^'^^ ■ seeks to explain. The Reformation began, indeed, can the origin Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 169 with a moral movement/ exhibited in a mystic pietism opposed in its own nature to doctrinal limitations. Its subsequent phases are well known ; and the difference in the prevailing moral sentiment, before and after this vast doctrinal revolution, is too marked to be ignored or attributed to any but its true causes. How completely varied were the Nor moral forces introduced by the doctrines of Chris- orchns" tianity is evident from the difficulty and slowness thus' Jx-'^ with which its standard of duty asserted itself, ^ ^'"^ ' failing in many parts of the world to become fairly established, even when the recognition of some of its abstract dogmas gave a show of j)ower and pre- dominance to its position.^ It is thus no valid though '■ ^ _ dependent objection to urge against the truth or importance i» its pro- . . gress on of Christianity that in its operation it has been ethical iT'11 1-1 T • 01 conditions. constantly limited by ethical conditions. So was it in the East with the false, subtle, contentious natures of the Greek and Asiatic.^ Eeligion in ^ For the moral effects of the doctrinal principles of the Eeformation, see UUmann (Vol. I. p. 10, E. T.), Marteusen, Clmstian Dogmatics^ p. 26, E. T., and on the transition from the moral to the doctrinal movement, Gieseler, V. 216, E. T. On the relation of the Mystics to the Reformation compare Milman, Latin Christianity, VI. 379, and particularly Dorner, Person of Christ, Div. II., Vol. I. p. 377, and Vol. II. sub init., and Uist. Frot. Th., Vol. I. p. 51, E. T. ^ So M. Comte views the Byzantine Church as an example of the impotence of dogma, as such, to rule mankind. It lent itself, he thinks, too much to the side of reason. Dorner, Hist. Prot. Th., I. 18, has some excellent remarks on the purely intellectual character of the Christianity of the Oriental Church. ^ Cicero's verdict is well known (Z>e Orat., I. xi.), " verbi enim contro- versia jam din torquet Gra^culos homines contentionis cupidiores quam I/O OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. Illustra- tion from Eastern Chris- tianity, Oriental Christianity was represented mainly by theology and the theological spirit ; it formed no alliance with true morality, and the morals of the time were utterly debased. It was then shown that a compound made up of asceticism and mys- ticism may produce a faith unaccompanied and untempered by any infusion of really Christian morality. Insufficient, singly, to counterbalance the want of civilization, or to transmute all con- temporary error, had Christianity succeeded in taking full possession of the world with the ele- ments which then constituted it, it would but, to veritatis." Hooker, E. P., V. iii. 3, holds the chiefest cause of the chronic state of schism in the Eastern Church " to have lien in the rest- less wits of the Grecians, evermure proud of their own curious and subtile inventions : which, when at any time they had contrived, the great facility of their language served them readily to make all things fair and plausible to men's understanding." Hence, Boileau's caustic comment on the "Martyres d'une diphthongue." "Greek Christianity was insatiably inquisitive, speculative ; confident in the inexhaustible copiousness and fine precision of its language, it endured no limitation to its curious investigations." — Mil man, Lat. Christ., I. 2. Bacon (on the controversies of the Church) remarks on the heretics who moved curious questions and made strange anatomies of the natures and person of Christ. " lUis temporibus ingeniosa res fuit esse Christianum." Mr. Finlay {Byz. E., p. 2G2) attributes these controversies to the Greek language rather than to the Hellenic temper. " They had their origin in the more profound religious ideas of the Oriental nations, Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, Persians." Mr. Froude (Short Stud., p. 98) remarks, " We wonder at the failure of Christianity, at the small pro- gress which it has made in comparison with the brilliancy of its rise. But if men had shown as much fanaticism in carrying into practice the Sermon on the Mount as in disputing the least of the thousand dogmatic definitions which have superseded the Gospel, we should not now be lamenting with Father Newman that 'God's control over the world is so indirect and His action so obscure.' " Sec Mr. Buckle, IJist. Civ., 11. 303. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 171 use the words of Montalembert, have reproduced a kind of Christian China.^ So was it in the West from the • c Tt • corrup- when, after centuries of power, Paganism was tionsofthe found to have corrupted its teacher with the church. taint of an inbred superstition. The fact was no new one ; it had been already observed and com- mented on in the da^^s of Augustine.^ " It was in vain that Christianity had taught a simple doctrine and enjoined a simple worship. The minds of men were too backward for so great a step, and required more complicated forms and a more com- plicated belief." ^ This has been remarked, I am aware, to the disparagement of the efficacy of the faith of Christ. It proves, at least, that Chris- The pro- 1 • . 11 gress of tianity was not dependent on the existing standard chris- of morals for its advance. How, in such case, to the were the changes, effected plainly through itsnaturrof means in the absence of knowledge and culture, to lionJ,^*^ ^ be accounted for ? Further, its morality however estimated, was its own, and its type of character 1 Monies of the West, I. 275, Eng. Tr. ^ August, c. Faustum, XX. c. iv. " Sacrificia eorum vertistis in agapes : idola in Martyres, quos votis similibus colitis : defunctoruiu umbras vino placatis et dapibus: solemnes Gentium dies cum ijjsi celebratis, ut Kalendas et solstitia, de vita certe mutastis nihil." On the reaction of Paganism on Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries, see Beugnot, Histoire de la destruction du Faganisme, II. 92, and Merivale, N. Nations, pp. 57-74. 3 Buckle, Eist. Civ., I. 259. Prof. Tyndall writes (Cont. Rev., XX. 766), "Christianity varies with the nature upon which it falls. The faith that simply adds to the folly and ferocity of one, is turned to enduring sweetness, holiness, abounding charity, and self-sacrifice by another." 1/2 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. was an advance upon the highest level of heathenism. It presents a difference not of de- whichwere p-rec merely, hut of kind.^ But Religion, if as- in advance ° -^ ' , . of the ex- sumed to he the product of Revelation, may very civiifza- well be, and, in fact, must be, in advance of existing civilization. It was so when the Hebrews accepted monotheism, whether this be or be not a Semitic tenet. It was so when the Jews rejected the teaching of the Gospel. It has been so in the and of development of Gentile Christianity. But the practice, f^ct of the distancc between its ideal and the actual, between its code of action and existing practice, between Christianity in the abstract and as displayed in history, "that rich treasury of man's dishonour ; " between the lives of men and the spirit of the Gospel;^ this difference must surely be allowed for under any system. It is the consciousness of this anomaly in the in- * " Nothing," says Mr. Lecky, " can, as I conceive, be more erroneous or superficial than the reasonings of those who maintain that the moral element of Christianity has in it nothing distinctive or peculiar." — Hist. Hat., I. 338. See this subject continued in II. 110. ^ " Quid si tale quiddam est vera religio ? Quid si multitude imperi- torum frequentat ecclesias, sed nullum ai-gumentum est ideo neminem illis mysteriis factum esse perfectum?" — August, de TJtil. Cred., c. vii. M. Guizot, while depicting the moral aspect of the Middle Ages, remarks finally: "A certain moral idea hovers over this rude, tem- pestuous society, and attracts the regard, obtains the respect of men whose life scarcely ever reflects its image. Christianity must doubtless be ranked among the number of the principal causes of this fact. Its precise characteristic is to inspire men with a great moral ambition, to hold constantly before their eyes a type infinitely superior to human reality and to excite them to reproduce it." — Civ. en France, III. 115, ed. Bohn. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 173 dividual wliicli forms the stimulus of all earnest souls. "As a matter of fact, Christianity has probably done more to quicken the affections of mankind, to promote pity, to create a pure and merciful ideal than any other influence that has ever acted on the world." ^ And yet the Inquisi- Hence . . apparent tion named itself with the name of Christ. Prin- historical contradic- ciples must ever be of more general account than tions actions. The first value of the Christian, as of any, religion is in the loftiness and purity of its standard ; its secondary worth is in the degree in which this operates.^ Hence, the fallacy of an appeal to periods when the apparent zeal in the diffusion of religion is greater and the moral re- and dis- sults less,^ as proof of its general inadequacy to reactions. impart moral truth in any effective degree. If the religion itself be corrupted, its results, in point of moral effect, must needs suffer in proportion, and this in amount corresponding to the power which it wields. Thus, if the Middle Ages be state of cited as an instance of the smallness of moral IlSer^ results obtained with a large and prevailing pro- ZliS^ fession of religion,* it may be replied, without '^'^'"' 1 Lecky, Eist. Rat., I. 358. 2 Condorcet, CEuvrts, VI. 234, quoted by Mr. Morley, remarks that the religion of books and that of the people may so differ that the effects absolutely cease to answer to the public and recognized causes. This is not allowing enough for an average practical influence, which may be compared to the tenor of administration in politics. 3 Buckle, Eist. Civ., I. 191. * See Dr. Mozlcy's remarks, Bamp. Lect., p. 115. Mr. Lecky, Eist. Bat., II. 32, does justice to the services of Medieval Catholicism. lu 174 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. admitting the fact supposed, that it is, on the other hand, the glory of Protestantism to have effected so large an improvement and so marked an impulse with straitened means and slender resources. For it has certainly reacted on the moral code and average practice of the rival creed. Thus, the tacit moral force of Religion, even in sceptical periods, may be unexpectedly Corrup- larffe.^ Reli2:ion, and this is specially true of the tions in re- ^. . „* . r J ligion cor- Christian religion, ever answers to a personal want respondent ...^, -_ , ,, , to moral ill tlic individual man. its neglect and degrada- sions. tion have accordingly constantly accompanied the want of culture in the general development of the age. Positivist § 5. It has, indeed, been argued^ that History does objection , . , , . . that mo- not pi'ovc that society owes its moral condition to improved, its religion. If, indeed, but only if, religion were Christia- the siuglc moral restraint on a community, would dec^iined. the morals of an age, it is insisted, be according to its prevalence higher or lower. But the tbeological principle, urges the Positivist, has since the Middle Ages been on the decline. It has succumbed to the this view he follows Comte {FUl. Pos., V. 233), Mill, Littre, and other leading thinkers. Gibbon (VII. GO, ed. Milman) enlarges on the moral l)rogress effected by Protestantism. ^ Thus Dean Stanley, Essays, p. 4G5, remarks that " the religious spirit of the time has deeply penetrated those who doubt, misbelieve, and disbelieve. The change is so great that looking at realities, and not at names, we might call the present posture of philosophers, of Jews, of sceptics towards Christianity almost a conversion." '^ See M. Littre {Aug. Comte, ]). 217). Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 175 opposition of science, to the strength of industrial development, and to the secularization of govern- ments, substituting a different principle to the ex- clusion of religious interests. Yet morality has improved. There is more humanity in war, more religious toleration ; torture has been abolished, social burdens equalized, poverty relieved and ameliorated. But the facts may be admitted Proceeds ^ ^ on a false without the inference. Religion now is better inference. understood as to its true work and ofiSce. Sur- rendering ill-advised claims, its real influence is strengthened and deepened. And can it be said The power 1 ' c T 1 1 • 1 °^ Chris- that any point ol morality now reached m theory tianity has or practice is counter to the teachings 01 the come Grospel? That our own is an age of faith or of Us^effects scepticism, of operative or inoperative belief, may opimon!*^ be matter of opinion ; ^ that its moral qualities are independent of its faith, and public opinion of reli- gious belief, would be certainly difScult of proof. § 6. The attempt often made from the days of objection Origen^ to Tindal and Bolingbroke to prove that tianity'"^" Christianity, containing no new moral truth, can new niorai truth. * It has been said to be "destitute of faith, but terrified at scepticism." See Mr, Mill, Liberty, c. ii. 2 c. Celsum, I. iv., VII. xxviii., Iviii., Ixi, Compare Mackay, JRtse and Progress of Christianity, pp. 21, 22, and Bel. Bevel., II. 376-7. M. Renan, £tudes, p. 188. Mr. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ, pp. 135, 137, has touched this subject with his usual spirit and ability. Saisset, Essais, details as strictly Christian conceptions the universality of the love of God and universal fraternity. These ideas, though latent in human nature, are evoked bv Christian civilization. 176 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. exercise no distinct moral effect, is now again re- vived. And doubtless if the whole moral furniture of our being is contained in a few short precepts, '' to do good to others, to sacrifice for their benefit your own wishes, to love your neighbour as your- self, to forgive your enemies, to restrain your pas- sions, to honour your parents, to respect those m'Iio are set over you ; " if this be all (as Mr. Buckle alleges),^ there might not remain much to be said Untrue, as to the Originality of Christian morals. Though some even of these duties, it must be allowed, were but imperfectly known and badly understood before the preaching of the Gospel. Christianity, it might be shown, has added largely to the very vocabulary Instances of morals. Its notion of holiness, not to speak of of the fact. . , t i repentance, is a new and previously unrealized con- ception, the illimitable character of which gua- rantees its permanence. It may not be difficult^ to cull from individual moralists of Grreece and Rome, or of East and West, fragments of Christian ^ Hist. Civ., I. 180. Paley, on the other hand, after asserting that " moraUty, neither in the Gospel nor any other book, can be a subject of discovery, properly so called," proceeds to show how far the morality of the Gospel is above that of its age and antecedents, and not to be accounted for apart from the pretensions of the religion. — Evid., IT. ii. ^ See M. Denis, Ilistoire des Theories et Idees morales dans Vanti- quite, I. 104 ; Wollaston's laborious Bdigion of Nature, &c. Mr. Lecky, //. E. M., I. 161, complains of the appropriation of heathen ideas by Christian moralists, Augustine, Doct. Christ., II. xl.-xlii., gracefully acknowledges the debt, and fancifully compares it to spoiling the Egyptians. " Nonne adspicimus, quanto auro et argento et veste suffarcinatus exicrit de ./Egypto Cypriaiuis doctor suavissimus, quanto Lactantius," &c. Comp. Lactant., Div. Insf., Vil. vii. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 177 duties — to find in Plato the reco2^nition of repent- Eclectic ^ , ^ . , attempt to ance and devotion towards God, forgiveness of in- compose . . the mo- juries, or the portraiture ot a celestial love ; m laiity of ' • 1 • p • 11-1 the Gospel. Cheero the teaching 01 universal charity, benevo- lence, and brotherhood. It may even be easy to exhibit under the garl) of moral realizations the saving truths of faith ; to see in the salvation offered by Jesus the aTrorivate friendship. Yet Christ Himself wept over His country. Cf. also Rom. ix. 3, 4. Mr. Lecky, 11. Rat., II. 113 (see also //. E. M., II. 149), observes, " that Christianity triumphed only by transforming itself under the influence of the spirit of sect." This means that it transferred men's allegiance from their country to the Church. I do not think this is properly chargeable on the principles of the religion. Yet, if true, it would only be substituting a much larger area of patriotism, and one which coincides with a large advance in civilization. The practice of the early Church (" Nee ulla res aliena magis quam jniblica," 'J'ert. ApoJ. c. xxxviii., and see Origeu, c. Cds., VIII. ii.), in this matter furnishes no proper estimate of the intentions of the religion. 1 82 . OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect, IV. Unpiacti- improvement on tlie morality of the Gospel in living for otliers without the limitation of loving onr neiglibour only as ourselves, it seems not unreasonable to require that this level should first be reached.^ Total annihilation of self, at best an impracticable dream, was far from the thought of Him who " knew what is in man." But Chris- tianity has been charged with other more practical Further fjiilurcs. Indiftcreut and injurious to secular pro- objections 1 • 1 '11 1 from the grcss, to material welfare and nidustrial develop Chris- ment (" infructuosi in negotiis dicimur"), it has ''^"' ^' been taxed with the custom of religious wars, of persecution for opinion, with the institution of torture, with doctrines pernicious to sound morals, sucli as absolution, indulgences, the placing cere- monial observance before natural duty, the repro- bation of good actions wrought without the pale of the Church, and a benevolence, however well- meaning, yet economically mistaken. It has been blamed for errors in practice fraught with social misery and mischief, yet consequent on Scriptural, or at the least ecclesiastical, doctrine.^ So also for shortcomings in the enforcement of moral ' There are, indeed, some good remarks on this point in Comto, Tliil. Pos., IV. 553, V. 434. Compare Prof. Goldwin Smith, Stitdi/ of Hist., p. 3, and ]Mr. Herhert Spencer, Stndij of Sociuluqy, Cont. liev., XXI. 318-321. ^ Compare Condorcet, as quoted by Comte, Fhil. Pos., V. 423. Such are the medieval view of the sinfulness of usury, the treatment of witchcraft, the wager of battle, the institution of Monasticism, &c. See Mr. Fairar's remarks (Witjiess of IJist. to Christ), Lecture V. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 183 laws, with an inability, for example, to suppress warfare, to prevent or redress social injustice and economic errors. The importance of sucli charges Their im- ,. 1 . , . . . •■ , . portance. lies not only m their imputation on the moral esti- mate of Christianity, but still more on its value as an instrument in civilization, and as consequently a permanent agent in human progress. Nor can it be denied that the evils in question are in some Such re- sort the results of the teaching of Christian ideas, notcharge- Unless, however, it can be shown that they are principles the logical consequents of such ideas, their natural religion. fruit and reasonable issue, so that each can be referred to the doctrine on which it rests, forming- part of the actual message of Christianity, no vital blow has so far been struck on the armour of Case of religious Christian defence. Eeligious wars were certainly wars. not unknown to other times and other systems. All may, perhaps, be more correctly attributed to a political or defensive origin,^ or to a survival of Paganism, wherein " the kingdom of Heaven suffered violence," and "the violent took it by force." The political effect of a common faith is to react hostilely upon foreign creeds. Persecu- I'ersecu- tion for belief, whatever immediate motive is belief, assigned to it, was practised by Pagan rulers in * The wars of Charlemagne may be cited in this respect : the Crusades were actually defensive. See Comte, Phil. Pos., V. 404. Compare Paley's remarks on some supposed effects of Christianity (EviJ., 11. vii.). The religions of Greece and of Kome, so far forth as State institutions, involved penal consequences and even death. See Doiiinger, Gentile and Jew, I. 243-5. 1 84 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. pre-Christian times. Yet it may be admitted that botli tlie evils complained of, the custom of war- fare on the score of religion, and of persecution for erroneous belief, flow to some extent from the nature of the case, and are due to the action of historical Christianity/ Partly, indeed, they were based on a false analogy of Christian duty with the Levitical code. But there is probably a necessary tendency in all dogmatic teaching to condemn error in opinion as a duty, and that too more strongly than immorality itself. Toleration even now is not uncommonly held to involve or imply scepticism. Prior to experience, it is expected that compulsion can procure uniformity f' and the golden rule is forgotten, *' Religionis non est religionem cogere." The outward confession of faith is not readily distinguished from a saving implicit belief; and in the confusion compulsion is enlisted on the side of a mistaken humanity, whether for the victim or the survivor;^ but, ' The judicial murder of Priscillian dates a.d. 3PG.' It was con- demned by Ambrose and Martin of Tours, though not by Leo. The early Cliristian apologists naturally t'Xi)rcss themselves on the side of toleration. Lactantius, but fifty years before the death of Priseillian, and himself a resident at Treves, thus writes : " Keligio cogi non potest ; verbis potius quam verberibus res agenda est ut sit voluntas. Nihil est tarn voluntarium quam religio.'" — T)iv. Inst., V. xx. "^ And so indeed, in fact, it has succeeded in doing : but only after the manner of those who, in the words of Tacitus, " solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." » See Mr. Lecky's remarks, Tlist. Haf., IT. 11, Hist. Enr.Mor., T. 420, on the inevitable tendency, if not the moral compulsion, to prosclytism which underlies an assumed possession of truth. See Dean Hook, Lives of Archb.,^. S.,I. 7-9. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 185 however present to tlie eye of the Founder of J'y^Ji^Jj'g'J our reb'gion as a result of the leaven wherewith He leavened the Church and the world, can this fact be properly urged against His teaching as a fixult or a crinie ? Eather it is the consequence of its historical development, of the tardy course of human affairs,' and, philosophically considered, of the imperfection and limitation of the creature. By the union and identification of the Chin'ch and Course of ■^ _ _ ^ events. Empire, orthodoxy became an Imperial interest, and persecution for opinion was rendered not only possible, but politically incumbent. It is not, then, the w^ords of Christ," which are answerable for the teaching of a duty of persecution. God foihid. But nither the supremacy, in the State, of the Church. Heresy and schism, as ecclesiastical offences, were put on the same footing with rebellion as a civil § 9. But, it may still be said, these evils are The iiis- , -i -I ri^ • ' • 1 • toiical le- cnargeable on Christianity as a system, as an Ins- suits of torical fact ; they have followed in its train. And, tianity, no no doubt, it is not intended to clear the Religion of mixed ° ' character. ^ " For fifteen hundred j^ears after tlio establishment of the Christian religion it was intellectually and morally impossible that any religion that was not material and superstitious could have reigned over Europe." — Lecky, n. R., 11. 227. ^ "Compel them to come in." See Bayle's famous treatise (Co?;i!yoi//s- les cVentrer), and Ffoulkes' Div. Christ., pp. 91-2, ' There is a remarkable defence in Dr. Draper's Hist, of the Intdhc' tnal Devd. in Europe (I. 134) of the medieval policy of repression, grounded on a supposed foresight of the fearful consequences of the intellect of a people outgrowing their religious formula'. i86 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. Clirist of all its attendant effects, as tlioiigli the brightest light never cast a shadow. The innocent blood shed by the Churches of East and West is the pi'ice paid for tlie enforcement of dogmas otherwise fraught with good. It is enough to weigh in the balance the acknowledged services of Christianity 'iiu- evils against its confessed ills ; and more especially to not in- • 1 1 1-1 1-1 herent in cxamine whcthcr such evils are properly inherent lesys cm, .^^ .^^ framc.^ If not, they need not, it is clear, over- cloud its future. As a matter of fact we have already outlived them. The opinions to which they are due, are now admitted to be elements an,i foreign to the nature of our Religion, antagonistic transient. .. , ,,. ,. . -i- to its inner liie and spirit, and inconsistent with its central ideas." Thus a real distinction has always Due to to be drawn between faulty inferences or erroneous Scriptural , . . ,. ^ . •, ■. , , . misinter- ap})lications ot bcriptural language to the subjects of morals, policy, and science, and the actual and eternal teaching of the Bible. The very tendency manifest in the general history of nations to em- ploy religion, outside of its central scheme, as a political engine in matters of social law and civil government, has led to this result. Of this cha- instanccs. ractcr^ are the notions of usury being immoral, of ' " Lc Christianismc a dtc iiitoleiunt: niais I'intolcrancu uV-Ht j)as im fait essenticlkiucnt clireticn." — IJenaii, Vie, dc Jesus- Christ, p. 412. ^ See some good remarks on this subject in tlie Christian Remem- brancer, No. CXXXI., p. 232. ^ Fur the political economy of Christianity, as not being incompatible \\ itli historical progress, see Goldwin Smith {Led., p, 39). Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 187 the production of wealth being condemned, of a community of goods, of one absohite, universal form of political government, of the unlawfulness of military defence. Political and economic errors have on these subjects sln'elded theniselves with the authority of Inspiration, and, by rendering scien- tific progress impossible, have risked the perma- nence of Christianity itself. But with the advance of knowledge and free inquiry this confusion has been long on the wane. Salmasius,^ for example, wi'ote successfully to correct the medieval idea that the Bible condemns usury, and Protestantism found no difficulty in receiving the correction. The true embarrassment lay in the claims of Roman Catholic tradition. Some errors mic;lit more properly be -^"'^ ^*> . ... preniatur regarded as anticipations of truth. Thus primitive movc- Cliristianity found in a transient communism^ a natural expression of new-born love and zeal. It never sought to erect a doctrine, inimical to all eco- ^ See Mr, Leek}', //. Rut., II. 290, who lias pursued the whole inquiry with his usual vigour and in a fair s[)irit. Mr. Buckle (I. 283) on the contrary declaims, with heat, against " the ignorant interference of Christian rulers," forgetting that other religions have at least made the same mistakes. Thus the Mahometan law prohibits interest alto- gether, with the natural result. See Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. c. ix. ^ Resting mainly on Luke xii. 33. The rhetorical statement of Tertullian is well known (ApoL, xxxix.) : " Omnia indiscreta sunt apud nos jjrajter iixorcs." Clement of Alexandria, in his treatise Quis dives salvctur, rejects the notion of communism. See also Strom., III. 4-19, and Augustine, Hcer., c. xl. In Enarr. in Ps. 124, § 2, he rebukes the opinion that " non debuit Dens facere pauperes : sed soli divitcs esse debuerunt." On the view of Ambrose as to the right of property in land (de Off. Minist., I. xxviii., and SertiL. 8 in Vs. 118, § 22), see Schmidt, Essai, p. 259 ; also Champagny, Charitt Chrctienne. ments. 1 88 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. Domical progress into a normal condition of society. " Whenever a great religious movement," it has hecn truly said, " has taken place in history, the spirit of humanity has beaten in this way against its earthly bars, and struggled to realize at once that which cannot be realized within any calculable time, if it is destined ever to be realized here."^ char^^esof \ iQ, Tlio chari^fC of fceblcness and inutility is, feebleness •' ° _ _ . and inu- indeed, of a wholly different kind; and will be variously estimated by different persons according to the measure of their previous expectation of the working of Christianity. But it must be borne Too ill mind that we are no judges of its iiossible general. . . . , . or of its proper oj^eration ; ^ of the relations or course of affairs which make up the government of the world. Nor can Christianity be fairly accused of failure in these respects, unless indeed Should he the result has not answered to its own predictions. tested by ... , its own But this it is not attempted to show. Thus the predictions 1 • 1 i 1 of itself, contniuance ot wars among manknid has been deemed in some quarters a strong objection to ' Prof. Goldwin Smith, \i. s., p. 41. ^ For Bishop Btitler's canon is no loss true than stcni : " Objections arainst Ciiristianity, as distinguished from objections against its evidence, are frivolous." — Anal., II. iii. For if the natural and moral government of God be a scheme but imperfectly comprehensible, how- much more so is the course of revealed religion. " When we argue," says Palcy, " concerning Christianity, that it must necessarily be true because it is beneficial, we go, perhaps, too far on one side ; and we certainly go too far on the other when we conclude that it must be false because it is not so eflicacious as we could liave supposed." — Evid., II. vi. « Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. li the usefulness and credit of Christianity.^ But such ohjectors fail to perceive that the continued existence of warfare is a result of man's moral nature remaining unchanged, and this perhaps by an express provision of nature, wars being a main element in the course of rudimentary civilization at the least. No doubt, it is the work of the Religion These are of Christ to bring about this change. It does so of luini- by substituting larger and unselfish sympathies ; by reducing the theory of w\ar to a defensive in- stead of an offensive basis.^ But His kingdom upon the earth in the hearts and spirits of men, though universal, was to be created slowly by suasion, not by miracle.^ There is no engagement on its part to abolish selfishness, passion, sin, speedily or throughout. By slow advances in individual sancti- fication a higher level was to be reached of moral type, of peacefulness and love. The present com- increased parative rarity or war m respect oi lormer ages is wars. admitted. Little by little, it may be hoped, this scourge is retreating before the march of civili- zation. Trade, law, diplomacy, literature, political 1 See Mr. Buckle, Hist. Civ., 1. 191. Mr. Lccky, Hist. Bat., II. 384, arguing from a general immemorial union between the sacerdotal and the military spirit, infers that no theological agencies are pacific. This is hardly convincing. See also //. E. M., II. 269. ^ See Comte, Phil. Pos., V. 82. Mr. Freeman (Norman Cong., I. 33) observes, " the evangelical precepts of peace and love did not put an end to war ; they did not put an end to aggressive conquests, but tliey distinctly humanized the way in which Avar was carried on." ^ Compare Dr. Mozley, Bamp. Led., p. 17 : " We can, indeed, iu imagination conceive," &c. 190 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. Christian inrtuence. science, even the inv^ention of fire-arms and im- proved means of locomotion, have been assigned a share in this momentous change/ But has the religious sentiment been altogether without part in it ; and among other elements is no effect to be attributed to the spread of a purer Christianity ? An under-current of humiliation mixes now with the Te Deums of victory ; and ministers of mercy claim their place in the ranks of contending armies. A growing sense of the folly of war may be due to advancing culture ; a conviction of its wickedness can only spring from a Religion whose mission upon earth is " peace, good will toward men." Relations §11. Wc liavc bccu led morc than once in our preceding remarks to the confines of a subject which, in our review of objections to the progress and permanence of Christianity, is the last await- ing examination; I mean, the relations between Science and Religion ; their distinctive position and respective consummation. Is this peace or war ? to the per- Is a iiiodus vwciidi practicable between them ? manence r^ -, ^ m -, -^^ n-fi* of our Or do they necessarily and eternally connict ? As darkness flees at the approach of dawn, must one pale before the other's rising beams; and is this the fate reserved for the time-honoured claims ^ See Buckle, u. s., I. 203, 224. Christian efforts in this direction, put forth in the darkest and most violent ages, even where unsuc- cessful, should not be disparaged. Such were the " Peace of God," the " Truce of God " (the former having the wider scope), and tlie like. See Gieseler, II. 447. Kobortsou, Church Hint., II. 504-5 ; also Lecky, Hid. Bat., II. 115. between science and Chris- tianity. Whether formidable manence of our religion, Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 191 of Eoligion, as hitherto understood ; and in e.>pc- cial for the faith of Jesus Christ, under the full light and fierce heat of a noontide civilization ? Some, it is true, still hold that a real conflict in the view of some, between Science and Religion is in the nature of no real things unlikely or impossible. " Not only are the ijctween two heterogeneous ; ^ but the results of Science, whether physical or human, are part of the data which it is the function of Religion to co-ordinate." " The time is approaching," says a careful and impartial writer,^ "when it will be generally perceived that, so far from Science being opposed to Religion, true Religion without Science is im- possible. And if we consider the various aspects of Christianity as understood by different nations, we can hardly fail to perceive that the dignity, and therefore the truth, of their religious beliefs is in direct relation to the knowledge of Science and of the great physical laws by wdiich our universe is governed." " The natural works of God," wrote Faraday,^ "can never by any possi- bility come in contradiction with the higher things which belong to our future existence ... I do not think it at all necessary to tie the study of the Natural Sciences and Religion together." On the other hand, a multitude of reasons have Opposite been adduced to weaken this position. " Of all anta- » Prof. Westcott, Cord. Bev., YIII. 377. 2 Siv J. Lubbock, Orig. Civ., \\ 25fi. ' Life, II. 196. 192 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. gonisms of belief," says Mr. Herbert Spencer/ "tbe oldest, the widest, the most profound, and the most important, is that between Religion and Science. It commenced when the recognition of the simplest uniformities in surrounding things set a limit to the previously universal fetishism. It shows itself everywhere throughout the domain of human know- ledge, affecting man's interpretations alike of the simplest mechanical accidents and of the most com- plicated events in the histories of nations. It has its roots deep down in the diverse habits of thought Appeals to of different orders of minds." ^ Then the tests of experi- . . . , , ence. history and experience, it is said, prove the uniform undeviating growth of knowledge, and a corre- sponding decline in the power and spread of Re- ligion. This, indeed, is a matter of fact, and, as such, admits a direct reply. But next, it is added, there are circumstances to explain this alleged re- dounds suit. All advance is intellectual ; RehVion is of its of this . . ^ . opinion, own iiaturc stationary, conservative, reactionary. This is the very moral of the history of Persecution 1 First Principles, p. 12. ^ Prof. Huxloy takes up different ground : " The present antagonism between theology and science does not arise from any assumption by the men of science that all theology must necessarily be excluded from science ; but simply because they are unable to allow that reason and morality have two weights and two measures ; and that the belief in a proposition because authority tells you it is true, or because you wish to believe it, which is a high crime and misdemeanor when the subject-matter of reason is of one kind, becomes, under the alias of * faith,' the greatest of all virtues when the subject-matter of reason is of another \s.\m\r—Cont. Rev., XVIIT. 457. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 193 for belief. Again, Revelation is incompatible not only with the claims of Reason, but with the results of Science. The advance of knowledge undermines the bases of religious beliefs by impairing the states of mind on which they repose, and the needs for which they exist. By explaining phenomena, by reducing them to universal invariable expressions, by substituting continued for free agency, most existing religions, all in fact but a religion of Nature, if such really exists, are merged in the scale of superstitions unworthy of scientific accept- ance. For the sphere of Knowledge is held to be positive ; the real is bounded by the realm of sen- sation ; all beyond is chimerical, is vain. Wonder recedes as the antecedents of all phenomena become known ; and with wonder fear, and with fear rever- ence, and with reverence adoration, and with ado- ration the caput mortuum of religious belief § 1 2. Not to admit a fact is, of course, to disallow The truth the reasons by which it is sought to be explained, view" If Religion (I speak more particularly of the Faith ' '^""^' ' of Jesus Christ) exhibits no decline, it may be held unnecessary to dispute the alleged conditions of such a catastrophe. It may be well, notwithstand- ing, to encounter the particular objections against the prospects of Christianity which have been here Reasons brought within view. They affect its past as well ingitln as its future, explaining its successes by other than spiritual antecedents, and denying it a career in the 194 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. ultimate advunce of mankind. Let us inquire, then, in the first place, whether it be true tliat in Religion we find the sole branch of human activity wliich is of a stationary character, ever looking backward, never forward ; bound by the laws of its being to a rigid immobility. What is the conception of its nature which necessitates such infei'ences respect- ing it ? Concep- All Religion, I apprehend, in this view of it, being nature of based ou a fundamental Revelation, is assumed to JTrmcfpiL announce truths of a final and unique character, this^view Capable of extension by nothing unless a further revealment, conveyed through a special illumina- tion. But such a mode of information is not onh^ beyond and beside, it is in opposition to, the ordi- nary means and ways of knowledge. For these are tentative and curious of inquiry ; so that the position of knowledge in respect of an existing standard of belief or duty can never be guaranteed, neither can it even temporarily acquiesce in any foregone con- clusion. It is in this way, then, that while Religion is stationary. Science and Thought inherently pro- How far gress. In reply it may be admitted that a truth of ' Revelation is not homogeneous with the conclusions of research, experiment, or reason.^ It is accepted Distinct on other and particular grounds ; accordingly its religious sphere of relation is special also. Its kingdom is not of this world. It deals not with that which - Compare Dr. J. H. Newman, Essay on Deve?., c. iii. § 5. truth Lect. IV.l PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 195 constitutes the real limit of positive knowledge, the present physical condition of the universe ; it carries us on to that region of the unseen or super- natural^ upon which Nature everywhere horders and rests. The phenomena which it explains point to a future stage of being, with which alone it is properly occupied. Its home is in the spirit of man, his conscience, the higher reason and will. " The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of Grod, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- cerned.'"^ The beliefs which these inspire are no affirmations of the intellect only — no products of the logical faculty. Its dry light has here no place or room. They address themselves to the spirit in why man, and by a livmg act of that spirit they are spiritual. apprehended and appropriated. Psychologically they are instances of that indefinite consciousness which, as has been well said, "cannot be formu- lated." They are thoughts Vv^hich, " though im- Their psy- M T 1 1 1 • 1 chological possible to complete, are real, being normal affec- character tions of the mind.""^ Nor is there anything on this side of man's nature which is truly reactionary in its relation to mundane knowledge. Industrial development, for example, has been held to be ^ " In our definitions," says Emerson, " we grope after the spiritual by describing it as invisible. The true meaning of spiritual is real : that law which executes itself, which works without means, and which cannot be conceived as not existing." 2 1 Cor. ii. 14. ^ Herbert Spencer, First Priiic, p. 88. o 2 196 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. inconsistent with theological beliefs from being in its nature secular, and depending on the fixity of not truly natural laws. But is the earth, we may ask, to be reaction- n 'n i • • i • i • i ary less well tilled, its riches straitened, its secrets less amply communicated, because Revelation unfolds the home beyond, where the " wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest " ? Surely, as a matter of experience, it is true that " man doth not live by bread alone." The true strength of Religion, then, lies in its allowing all other in- tellectual activity to be progressive and indefinite ; oraggres- a vcry "infinite of thous-ht." For itself it claims only a just acquiescence m human testimony lor its evidence, and the confluence of the higher instincts with its revelations. It " speaks not in words which man's wisdom teachetb, but which the Holy Grhost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." " Thus may we know the things which At what are freely given to us of Grod." No antagonism, tagonistic then, with the tendencies or results of Science is to or natural be feared, but such as renders the existence of a ledge. spiritual element in man unlikely or impossible.^ Around this central fact the battle must be waged of atheism with faith in God, of secularism with theology, of materialism with Christianity. For the rest the discoveries of Science constitute no standing menace to the teachings of Revelation : * Compare Prof. Goldwin Smith's noble reflections, Lect. on Study of Hist., p. 46. "Let true science make what discoveries it will, for ex- ample, as to the origin of life," &c. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 197 nor needs Religion perish because Knowledge strides onward. They occupy, in fact, distinct spheres, moving in different planes ; nor do they touch each other vitally in one point of their cir- cumference. No doubt, this has not been always, if it be now, understood. There have been eras in Foregone human progress when the claims of Theology have been alike extravagant and fatal. There have been martyrs consequently in science no less than for religious belief^ Rested upon false and foreign pretentions the very truth of Christianity as a whole has been put on its trial, and has been staked upon impossible or insignificant issues. Eppur si rnuove is the answer to all such disputations. But 'fhese ai- 1 1 T 1 • 1 ready on have not these already, at least m large measure, the de- passed away ? The strange passion for balancing the whole structure of Christian truth on isolated and subsidiary questions has well-nigh burnt itself out ; while those which still remain are yielding to the gentler touch of reason and of time.^ In thus Past speaking, I do not say that it is not good in these lattin- days to re-read, in some of its portions, the ^ Though, according to Cyirian, "esse martyr non jwtest qui iu Ecclesia non est." — De Unit. Eccl. Augustine remarked more justly, " Martyrem non facit poena sed causa." ^ Xpovos fvytapr^s Geos. — Soph. It is the more to be regretted that here and there some ill-timed paaan of victory on the side of science seeks to fan the decaying embers of theological jealousies. Thus it is ])roclaimed that " the gradual destruction of the old theology is every- where preceded by the growth and diffusion of physical truths." — Buckle, III. 478. "Extinguished theologians," cries another, "lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snake beside that of 198 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. history of the Church : and by its tempered hght, chequered with the fortunes of the past, re-adjust the relations of doctrine to the demands of Science and the warnings of experience. Much in days gone by has been assailed, which now we should be careful to accept. Much has been maintained which now we do not care to defend. Nou tali auxilio, iiou defeiosoribus istis Tempus eget. The letter of inspiration, the questionable text, the unwarranted reading or rendering, the long-drawn dubious inference, the uncertain voice of tradition, the arrogant ill-founded assumption of the supre- macy of authority over reason, of dogma over con- science, the little-heeded intruded fallacy, at best the poor fabric of human ingenuity imported into a heaven-sent mystery (for Scriptura non fallit, si se homo non fallat) ;^ all these must pass away, and with them the heats and bickerings, the jealousies Spirit of and variance of bygone controversies. For never message, will tlic work of Christ take root, or the message of His salvation go forward among men, till it is known and felt that "that message is peace, and its effect quietness and assurance for ever." Yet it must be admitted that throughout the past history Hercules." — Huxley, Lay B., p. 305. As a matter of fact what essential portions can be named of Christian orthodoxy which have been surrendered or destroyed ? Some fancied outwork perchance, some moss- grown battlement: but what vital doctrine of the faith or saving truth ? ^ Augustiu. de Urbis Emcidio, c. ii. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY, 199 of the Christian Church, in proportion to the intri- cacy, doubtfulness, and transcendental character of the dogma involved, the passions of men have risen highest, their feelings have been the most deeply stirred,^ till error has been magnified into guilt, and difficulty of conviction into reprobation. In The per- f 1 r 1 T-i • 1 1 • 1 • manence view 01 the permanence or the raith which we m-ofchris- herit, it is important to remember that, while in no a religion wise committed to the errors of the past, Chris- it^paSt ex^ tianity has before it all the promise of the future, p^"^"'^^- A sense of the reality of Christian truth as a spiritual religion, based not so much on logical convictions as on a personal relation of the believer to the " Grod of the spirits of all flesh," " Who hath spoken unto us by his Son," this it is which is essential to the progress of Christianity among mankind. Hence our safeguard against surrender- vital doc- ing the vital elements of an objective faith in mis- been as- taken consideration for the doubts and difficulties and tested. of a half belief. " He that is not with us, is against us ; and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth ^ " Divisions in matter of religion," says Hooker, " are hotlier prose- cuted and pursued than other strifes, forasmuch as coldness, which in other contentions may be thought to proceed from moderation, is not in these so favourably construed." — Vol. II., p. 4, ed. Keble- Johnson attributed it to personal uneasiness when our confidence in an opinion which we value is diminished. But Coleridge, with more penetration, has observed that deep feeling has a tendency to combine with obscure ideas ; a fact not confined to professed theologians, but exhibited by whole nations. — Friend, 1. 138. Merivale, Conversion of North. Nations, pp. 42, 43, has well shown that " Arianism was but a slightly disguised I'aganism : and so no question of a letter," &c. 200 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. abroad," speaks surely an eternal warning. The victories of Christianity have ever^^where been the triumphs of a definite faith. It has ever given forth to the world no uncertain sound in its con- flicts with Rationalism or with the passions and licence of mankind. The residuum of a religion from which there has been carefully filtered off all special truths and objects of belief, retaining only some few moral generalities, can but issue in some- thing very dissimilar to a living historic Chris- tianity. To the last, it is true, some differences as to the larger and more intractable problems of man's nature in relation to God and the external world may be expected to remain among Christians Prospects tlicmselves. There can, however, be no question of Chris- _ ' \ ^ tianityin gg to tlic disinteG^ratins: effects of time and advanc- favour of . ing knowledge on the peculiar prepossessions of in- dividual schools of thought and belief. There is a tendency arising from the historical antecedents of Protestantism to undervalue that catholicity of belief which must undoubtedly be held to be the normal and ultimate condition of Christianity, answering to those larger speculations on the con- tinuity and totality of human history which Science now opens oui to view. The corrective to this tendency lies in a truer appreciation of the essential Value of spirit of Protestantism.^ Appealing to reason, cipirof ' without renouncing an authoritative standard, and Protestan- tism. 1 i<(^.e Mr. Floulkfs' rcmai'ks, Dluisions of Chridciulvm, p. l'J5. ultimate unity. Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 20 1 to private judgment fortified by the verdict of historical inquiry, its standing-point fits it expressly for the work of reconcilement between a tradi- tional faith and the rationalizing forces of progress. The anarchy of criticism whicli marks the process its adapta- n T -11 -11 tion to the 01 severance and reunion has been mistaken by wants of Comte ^ and others for the ultimate issue of centuries of unreasoning credulity. Protestantism, it is as- serted with much injustice, has made no converts, and nowhere enlarges the area of its conquests.^ Since the treaty of Westphalia, it is said, no new territory has been added to its sway. But its work J^« tme •^ ^ ^ ^ function. lies deeper, and must be traced in a re-animation of the spiritual vigour of Christianity, in a general rehabilitation of its beliefs, and in re-arming it to meet the developments of increased knowledge and ^ See Phil. Pos., V, 354. "L'esprit d' inconsequence," &c. V. 299, 327. He is so prejudiced as to see no difference l)et-\veen Primitive Luthcranism and pure Deism. ^ Macaulay's remarks are well known. Essays, pp. 352, 536 : " During these two hundi-ed and fifty years Protestantism has made no conquests worth speaking of. Nay, we believe that, as far as there has been a change, that change has, on the whole, been in favour of the Church of Kome." So also Mr. Lecky, Hist. Bat., I. 187, who adds, " Whatever is lost by Catholicism is gained by Rationalism." The same writer, how- ever, in another passage makes this important admission, " Protestantism as a dogmatic system makes no converts, but it has shown itself capable of blending with and consecrating the prevaiUug Rationalism." — 76., II. 93. Prof. Wcstcott very justly observes, " However imposing the apparent unity of the religious life of the middle ages may be, it cannot be ques- tioned that socially and individually the principles of Christianity are more powerful now than then. We lose the sense of their general action in the variety of forms through which they work." — Cont. Bev., VI. 416. 202 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. IV. advancing civilization. It, at least, has no Syllabus to retract, no Decrees to disannul. Liable, indeed, to an excess of critical bias, its true mean lies in a spirit which, ever ready to give an answer of its faith, still tempers faith with charity, and enlarges to the iitmost the bounds of agreement in behef ; " made all things to all men," if by any means some may be saved ; seeing it is " the same Spirit of God which worketh all in all." Doubtless there must arise out of the limitation of human nature itself an ultimate boundary even to Christian charity. It seems a duty to "mete the bounds of hate^ and love ;" and yet As far as may be to carve out Free space for every human doubt That the v?hole mind may orb about. Practical It sccms practically impossible to grasp truth, toTeVation the trutli of sacrcd things, firmly and yet not of opinion. j(3^jQ^^g|y . ^q |jq ^g eamcst in the propagation of right belief without asserting its confession to be individually necessary to salvation as with such a creed; to hold fast the convictions of personal assurance, and yet to recognize that to all it is not given " to arrive at the knowledge of the truth." ' Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22 : " Do not I (should I not) hate them, Lord, that hate Thee ? . . . I hate them with perfect hatred." Dr. Kay in his note on this passage cites Archbishop Trench, "Hatred of evil, purely as evil, is eminently a Christian grace," and Dean Stanley {Led. on J. Ch., p. 253), " The duty of keeping alive in the human heart the sense of burning indignation against moral evil, against selfishness, against injustice, against untruth, in ourselves as well as in others, — that is as much a part of the Christian as of the Jewish disjicnsation." Lect. IV.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 203 Yet tliis weakness sprino-s really from a want of faith. P/'"cipie •'■"-''' or genuine Toleration, if it is not to be indifference, must be toleration, grounded on the perception of counter-views as necessarily complementary and tending to establish the ultimate mean of truth. Thus, He who came among men to found "the everlasting Gospel," may be trusted to work with it to its more perfect reception, according to the light and knowledge of the time. Only, let not " the wrath of man " think "to work out the righteousness of Grod." f J^^J^'Jf °f Christianity has survived revolutions of opinion, "^^^• which, beforehand, might not unjustly have been deemed fatal to it. " It is I : be not afraid," is the lesson eternally stamped on the changes through which it has passed, and which now, if ever, is applicable in an age saturated with the idea of continuous and universal development, " stirring all science to its very depth, and revolu- tionizing all historical literature." ^ Such a pro- spect, in earlier times, may be thought to have offered the only plausible defence of persecution of unbelief. But if so, it is valid no longer. It has Chris- pleased God, by the teachings of experience, to power. " increase our faith." We have learned to believe in the Religion of Jesus Christ, not as an abstract creed, vulnerable in every article ; not as " the law of a carnal commandment," which " decayeth and ' Lecky, Hist. Bat., I. 283. "Filiation and development," says M. Littre, Lcs Burlaris, p. 139, " constitute the essence of history." 204 OBJECTIONS, &^c. [Lect. IV. waxeth old ; " but as a power/ regenerative of onr race, subtle and continuous as the agencies of nature, " the power of an endless life." Faith is reassured; we are no longer "ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; " for it is " the power of Grod unto salvation to every one that belie veth." * Compare the opening reflections of Neander, Ch. Hist., I. p. 2. C. Schwarz, Oesch. der neuesten Theologie, p. 43, criticises unduly this view of Neander, who, he says, has given accordingly a history of piety, not of the Church. LECTURE V. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED. " Naturam hominis banc Deus esse voluit, ut duarum rerum cupidus et appetens esset, religionis ct sapientia3. Sed homines ideo falluntur, quod aut religionem suscipiunt, omissa sapientia; aut sapientiffi soli student, omissa religione ; cum alterum sine altero esse non possit verum." — Lactantius. " Meantime it seemed as if mankind in Europe, and especially in England and France, had now for the first time opened its eyes to Nature and to its strict conformity with law : and they who yielded themselves unreservedly to this tendency more and more lost sight of the independence and existence of spirit." — Dornee, Ei&t. Prot. Theol., II. 258. LECTURE V. " There is a spirit in man : and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." — 3!oI) nin> 8. § I. T T is urged by some who look on Christianity objections -*- as a bygone or a transient creed, that not method of only are the results of scientific inquiry formidable as bein| to the reception of orthodoxy in detail ; its method tive. also is aggressive, incompatible with the stand- point of theological beliefs. Inductive science rests essentially on the basis of individual and specific experience, on methodized observation. Its reason- ing is that of common sense and common life. It appeals only to matters of fact. It is, therefore, from first to last,^ from principle to conclusion, from the first individual instance examined to the latest universal law registered for future inquiry, within reach, so to speak ; patent to sense, and ropuiar . . demand liable to verification. " The man of science," says for verifi- Professor Huxley,^ " has learned to believe in justification, not by faith but by verification." Such a method has in it nothing transcendental, nothing superstitious, nothing supernatural. More- over, it has on its side, it is said, the results of 1 Compare Comte, FUl. Fos., IV. 697-9. ^ Lay Sermons, p. 22. Mr. Matthew Arnold remarks, that " the licence of affirmation about God and His proceedings in which the reli- gious world indulge, is more and more met by the demand for verifica- tion." — S. Paul and ProteatanUsm. cation. 208 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V- Reasons time and experience. Former ages have gone bein^very wrong in proportion as they have abandoned or commonly ^^.j^^ ^^ rccognize the truth of the inductive tamed, spirit. It is now on all hands welcomed ; and the era of its triumphs has begun. But Theology, it is urged, alone refuses to be brought within its sway. Its information flows from another source. " In Theology,^ certain principles are taken for granted ; and, it being deemed impious to question them, all that remains is, to reason from them downward." ^ The general truths whicli bind up and enwrap its conclusions, are the gift of anterior Revelation. They cannot be substantiated by facts, and are accepted with an unreasoning assent. For Ee- ligion, " taking its ground on the first conclusions obtained in the process of human reflection, thence- forth obstinately defends what it holds to be Divine andTheo- rcvclations. But the supposed revelations inevi- sden^ce tably comc into collision with new ideas and toTfdia- experiences to which Science alone can afford to ^ppoie? give a hearing." " Thus, while Science is the result of inquiry. Theology is bred of faith ; its theory precedes experience and controls it. In ' M. Guizot, Civil, en France, II. 385, points out how early this conflict arose between the scientific spirit and theological deduction, ■when remarking on the Neo-Platonism of Alexandria, and the kindred views in medieval times of Scotus Erigena. Mr. Mackay, Rise and Progress of Christianity, p. 288, prefers to deduce the existing dualism of Theology and Science from the Nominalism of Occam. 2 Sec Mr. Buckle at length, Hist. Civ., III. 282-3, 4G4. ^ See Mr. Mackay, n. s., pp. 270-1. Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 209 the one, doubt, scepticism, originality, aptness to discover, are virtues and the higliest of duties. In the other, originality is the parent of heresy, and therefore a crime. Thus in Christianity it is an accepted principle that "there can be no con- cerning truth which is not ancient ; and whatso- ever is truly new, is certainly false." ^ Or, as it has been said, " That is true which is first, that is false which is after." Faith becomes tlius an in- dispensable duty, and credulity an lionour. " It is impossible to establish the old theological premisses by a chain of inductive reasoning." ^ § 2. I have quoted objections which show pretty Scepticism clearly the current of thoue-ht which is at present "n^^ier- , *^ . , ^ •- . stood) not setting in on the relations of Theology to Science, incom- In replying to them, I shall not now stay to prove with a 1 n ' r' • • c • • / religious that a nttnig measure 01 scientinc scepticism (a phiio- , . ... sophy. term, however, covering very opposite meanings), is by no means out of place in the elements of a religious philosophy. It was a theologian^ to * Bp. Pearson, Expos, of Creed, dedication. This corrcKpcnds to the maxim of Vinccntius Lirin., " Dum novo dicitur, non dicantur nova." 2 Mr. Buckle, III. 283. ^ Archbishop Leighton, thus declaring himself a Cartesian. The noble maxims, " Intellcctum valde ama"; "Fides quterens intel- lectum," are worthy of the brightest age of culture. For the meanings and history of Scepticism, see Dr. Farrar, Bampt. L., 592-3. " The best Christian in the world," said Shaftesbury, Works, III. 72, " who, being destitute of the means of certainty, depends only on history and tradition for his belief, is at best but a sceptic-Christian." " Scep- ticism," writes Bishop Harvey Goodwin, "implies only that a man is determined to look into matters for himself; not to trust every assertion, not to repeat a parrot-creed." Leibnitz's golden rule must be r OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. whom we owe the remark, "that men that know nothing in sciences have no doubts." That during certain periods in the history of the Church belief was held meritorious in proportion to the doubt- fuhiess of tlie subject, is perhaps true ;^ but it was Distinc- not SO froui the beginning. It will, however, tweenpri- probablj bc admitted that truths of Religion are hlfJne^d' of two kinds, primary or inferred, principles or religion, couclusions. The latter have certainly been ob- tained by reasoning, and reasoning not neces- sarily of one kind. The theology of the Reformers, The latter for example, showed that careful inductive exami- frequently ■*■ obtained nation iuto the sources and history of doctrines, the tion. facts of our religion, and the contents of the Bible, is in no wise alien to the spirit of the Christian faith.^ The same spirit has survived and domi- nated later controversies, and is at this very hour invading the precincts of Catholicism. But not only so. The records of our faith, their genuine- borne in mind : " II faiit prendre garde de ne jam.iis abandonner les verites necessaires et eternelles pour soutenir les mystere? ; de peur que les ennemis de la religion ne prennent droit la-dessus de decrier et la religion et les mysteres." " Eeligious disbelief and philosophical scep- ticism are not merely not the same, but have no natural connection." — Sir W. Hamilton, led., I. 394. ^ Compare Milman, Lat. Christ., I. 439. 2 Hence the historical labours of the Magdeburg Centuriators, and Selden's famous saying, that " the text ' Search the Scriptures ' had set the world in uproar." It would be interesting to inquire how far the impulse was thus given to inductive tendencies which culminated in the Baconian method. On the rule and practice of an " Inductive Exposition," Isaac Taylor, Hist. Enthmiasm, p. 314, grounds his expectation of the reunion of all Protestant bodies. Lect. v.] PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 2ii ness, authenticity, and even inspiration, the value of the manuscripts on which they rest, and of the testimonies by which they are supported, all such points lie open to inductive instruments of inquiry ; and these are being more and more largely em- ployed by the ablest theologians of the day. And if this be true in the case of the Sacred Volume, which in whatever measure conveys the Word of God, it is still more true in respect of doctrines ^ dependent for their authority on the practice and common tradition of the Church. Here at least the conclusions at issue, affecting the hereditary standing of opinions and usages, are within the range of historical inquiry ; that is, of a science of observation, and are of a tentative character. In its inferential portion, then. Theology nowhere Theology .a science refuses to accept the ascending road of a patient of histori- , . , ^ . , cal criti- and rigorous induction. It stands on the same loot cism, with other branches of historical criticism. And to turn to the principles (for Christian dogmas have been properly termed the principles of Theo- logical Science on which, as upon axioms, the cardinal truths of our Religion must finally turn), are these fairly described as the products of un- reasoning acceptance, even if they have some reaching analoffv^ with the maxims or conventional ultimata primary ^•^ truths. ^ See Mr. Ffoulkes' remarks, Divisions of Chrisiendorn,, p. 196. ^ This is the view of Bacon, Atrgm. Sc, IX. i. " In rebus naturalibus ipsa principia examini subjiciuntur aliter fit in religione ; ubi et prima3 propositiones authypostatae sunt atque per se subsistentes ; p 2 natural analogy 212 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. of legal and political science ? As dependent on facts received upon testimony and observation, they stand on historical evidence open to inductive inquiry. Christianity indeed, as an historic religion, has in this respect specific claims upon a Positive school of thought.^ Miraculous and portentous events, it has never been denied, must be subjected to tliis test, and stand or fall by its verdict, so that the latest assaults upon these have been directed to the end of discrediting any amount of testimony which may be brought on their behalf. The tendencies of human nature, it is held, in a credulous age are more than sufficient to accoimt for the result.^ Nor when the facts of the Scrip- tural narrative have been adequately attested, are its doctrines altogether exempt from the processes Employ- of a positivc method. The analogy of Nature may be employed in attacking or in defending them. This line of argument may be applied within some extent even to those conceptions of the Divine et riirsus non regimtur ab ilia rationc qua} propositioncs consequentes deducit. Ncqiic tamcn hoc fit in religioue soiS,, sed etiam in aliis scientiis, tarn gravioribus quam Icvioribus : ubi scilicet propositioncs primaria? placita sunt, non posita; siquidem ct in illis rationis usus absolutus esse non potest." ^ Compare Prof. Wcstcott's remarks in Cont. liev., VIII. 373. He infers that there is no fundamental antagonism between the Positive method and Christianity ; and that the former is no lasting religious power, but a transitional preparation for a fuller faith. ^ Bishop P)utler's warning is here of importance: — "The credulity of mankind is acknowledged : and the suspicions of mankind ought to be acknowledged too; and their backwardness even to believe, and greater still to practise what makes against their interest." Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 213 Nature on wliicli the Christian system rests. It is sufficient to overthrow the objection, otherwise a plausible one, that in accepting a scheme of Revelation, we are but hallowing the creations of the human intellect — notions which, being limited, cannot but be inadequate and mislead- ing ; thus, as it were, " sacrificing to our net, and burnino- incense to our drao;." Ag-ain the facts in ,^1^^! ^f ° , historical regard of human nature and of human history evidence. which the system of Christianity assumes, and to which it addresses itself, are capable of inde- pendent proof or disproof; and this of an experi- mental kind. For the field of experience is not confined to material nature.^ The existence and validity of conscience, the facts of its testimony to spiritual truth, the existence and nature of the spiritual element in man, its inherent instincts, its unconscious but indubitable witness to the need Of o^-^er- vation * See Dr. Mozley's powerful remarks in Gont. Rev., VII. 484. I cannot refrain fi'om quoting the following fine application of this mode of reasoning : — " When, in reviewing the history of the past, you find certain ideas arising in the first known period of the life of humanity and co-existent with it : undergoing transformation from epoch to epoch : but remaining always and everywhere essentially the same, and inseparable from human society, gathering renewed strength from every social upheaval destructive of the temporary ideas of a single people, or a single epoch : when on interrogating your own conscience in supreme moments of deep affection, sacred sorrow, or devotion to duty, you find within your hearts an echo answering to the ideas transmitted by the ages ; those ideas are true, are innate in humanity, and are destined to accompany its onward progress. . . . God, immortality, duty, the moral law sole sovereign . . . are ideas of this order." — Mazzini in Cont. Rev., XX. 161. 214 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. of Eevelation, and to the subject-matter of its announcements; these cannot he characterized as deductions from any a 'priori system, but rather as matters of fact, and not of probability, of im- mediate experience less remote, indeed, than the and ex- proofs of external phenomena.^ Crucial instances periment. •*■ _ ■'■ and a doctrine of averages are not excluded from the treatment of them. Theology refuses certainly with scientific sternness to admit " that Eeligion '^ is to each individual according to the inward light wherewith he is endowed," or that " it consists essentially in an adaptation to the characters, ideas, and institutions of those who profess it." Such an assumption would be as fatal to its own validity as the admission of a sophistical psychology has ofex- shown itself in the history of philosophy. It planation • r n and verifi- coufesscs, liowcver, the constraint of adequate and properly unexceptionable generalizations^ both as regards individual experiences and general results. Thus it yields an experimental explanation of some 1 So J. P. Eichter observes, Sdina {Works, XXXIII. 223), that the soul or mind is more evident and certain to me than my body : for only by it can I know and feel the body. A similar idea occurs in Augustin. d. Oenesi ad litt., V. xvi., " God is nearer, more related to us, and therefore more easily known to us, than sensible, corporeal things." 2 Buckle, Hist. Civ., III. 477. ^ In inductive logic every exception should admit of separate ex- planation, and so " prove the rule." But " the natural-history-sciences," remarks Dr. Eolleston, " do not usually admit of the strictness which says that an exception, so far from proving a rule, proves it to be a bad one." — Address before the British Assoc., 1870, p. 14. The same limit may accordingly be allowed as to generalizations of moral and spiritual facts. cation. Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 215 ultimate questions to which Metaphysic from its speculative character furnishes no abiding solution. §3. Theology, as we have seen, has been at-J'^^.^e- tacked, and its progressive capacities disparaged, method on the score of its being essentially deductive.^ Such a criticism is, however, conceived in a narrow spirit. So far as it is true, it proves nothing against the general credibility of its doctrines, for it would not be contended that there is anything in the nature of demonstration, as such, vicious or erro- neous. Deduction, as a mode of proof, where its premisses are not hastily or arbitrarily assumed, presents a scientific method more perfect, because ^^t'["Jf ,^3 more truly natural than any other. "In itself ^!^^ i"'^^'^- more perfect," says Hume, " it suits less the imper- fection of human nature, and is hence a common source of illusion and mistake."^ Accordingly, it is very generally admitted that the progress of Natural Science trends in this direction.^ But 1 Thus even Whewell, Brulgew. Tr., III. v. vi., and Indie, of a Creator, p. 45, considers it a matter of fact that inductive philosophers have readily recognized an intelligent Author of Nature, where deductive reasoners have failed' to do so. Mr. Lecky, H. E. M., II. 205, holds that " the growth of an inductive and scientific spirit is invariably hostile to theological interests." He afterwards apparently limits this to Catholicism, 2 Essays, IV. i. Liebig, in his criticism of Bacon, remarks : " In der Naturwissenschaft ist alle Forschung deduktiv oder apriorisch: das Experiment ist nur Hulfsmittel fiir den Denkprocess." — ap. Lange, Gesch. des Mater ialismus, p. 349. 3 " A revolution," writes Mr. J. S. Mill, " is peaceably and pro- gressively effecting itself in philosophy, the reverse of that to which Bacon has attached his name. . . . Deduction is the great scientific work of the present and of future ages." — Logic, I. 579-80. 2i6 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. however this be, in deduction we recognize an in- strument of science, an ideal type of knowledge, of at least co-ordinate authority, sanctioned alike with its rival method by the constitution of the human and more mind; a type antecedent perhaps in nature and the uiti" validity, and certainly more suited to the final rela- ditioVof " tions of Knowledge and Being. Now, the suhject- science. j-^-^^^-^^jj. ^f Revclation cannot but be final in its cha- racter, incapable of subsequent variation or revision. The gift of the " Father of lights," it " knows no Theology variableness, neither shadow of turning." No suc- necessarily f i £• i final in its cccding announccments can irom the nature or tlie case contradict the principles which it proclaims or implies. Nor can the ultimate posture of tilings fail to be in agreement with what has been thus previously declared of- the Divine administration. The employment, therefore, of deduction in Reli- gion, as a specific department of knowledge^ is not properly liable to exception, even were this, which it is not, a solitary example of its application. Now, the test of the deductive stage of a science (and perhaps of all Science in the .strict usage of the term) is the capacity of inferring from primary and fundamental conceptions a mediate system of Revelation truths. Spacc and Numerical magnitude are at analogous •*• , .7 to the gift once recognized as ideas of this fruitful character.^ of primary ^ intuitions 1 g^p ^Q)Xi\G very able remarks on this subject in the Christian lic- memhrancer, No. CXXXI., p. 230 ; and compare Trof. Wostcott, Co7it. Rev., VIIT. "78, on the narrowness of the purely scientific view, isolalius and excluding Iteligion. Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 217 Such, also, are our notions of God and the human Soul, when the^ further conception is added of an accessory revelation. For it needed something more than the mere action of man's mind to " hriug life and immortality to light." But the Christian ideas of the character and work of the Divine Beins: as the Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of mankind, once given, (even as the chief links in the colliga- tion of scientific notions have ever flashed into the ^"^^ ?«'- ligation of minds of discoverers by a power confessedly beyond i<^ieas. the teaching of method, 'a vision and a faculty divine'),^ the legitimate inferences are the property of logical reflection, and can be tested by applica- tion to the facts of man's nature and circumstances, as the veriflcations of Natural Laws already sur- mised are obtained from the inspection of instances.^ This constitutes the appropriate evidence of truths received at the first " neither of man, nor after man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." § 4. But Religion, it is said, impedes knowledge objection to the tiutli 1 c m ^ V of theology ' So ieunyson speaks of — as being The fair new forms stationary That float about the threshold of an age, ^"^.4 ^^' . ° ' actionaiy. Like truths of science waiting to be caught. ^ Hence Mr. Fairbairn remarks, Immortality of the Soul, Cont, Jicv., XX. 29, that " Religion, or rather its philosophic theology, may now- become a science as purely inductive as any of the physical sciences. The now possible analysis of the faiths of the world, if accompanied by a searching analysis of the faculties of the mind, will hand over to thought our primary and necessary religious ideas, which, as ultimate religious truths, constitute in their synthesis the foundation of the universal and ideal Religion of man." 2i8 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. by leading men to be satisfied with an easy belief, and by making inquiry a crime. All progress is in this manner barred, and there arises a marked and singular exception to the aggressive spirit of all other brandies of knowledge. An essential in- compatibility emerges between a stntionary faith and a progressive philosophy. No doubt, we reply, it is beyond human power to add to the subject-matter of Revelation, though clearer light may, in the course of ages, be thrown upon its Reveia- - obscurcr rcgious. It may, in this view, be com- what sense pared to all great and organic truths, making up the stock of true human knowledge, and consti- tuting a deposit of belief handed on to succeeding generations. Once discovered, these are not again lost in the history of culture, but become the ina- lienable heritage of the race in its progress to fuller but admit- knowledQ-c.^ But the application of Revealed Truth ting of .^ .^ / . . iiKkfniite to the Circumstances of human history, its practical api^lica- .,.. I ,',., tion developments in living actual results, its inherent and unsuspected activity, its conformity with un- known powers, and, it may be, principles of human nature ; these and other considerations supply a field for the enlargement of our acquaintance with the meaning and jootential character of Christianity ^ Macaulay, indeed, Ksaays, pp. 53G, 537, argues at length that we have no security for the future against the prevalence of any theological error that has ever prevailed in time past. Such a view deprives Religion of all benefit from contemporary light in other subjects of thought, which, if only free access he allowed, cannot fail to aifect existing religious opinion. Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 219 as a scheme of Revelation, which admits of endless advance and indefinite augmentation. " It is not at all incredible," writes Bishop Butler,^ speaking of the Holy Scriptures, " that a book which has been so long in the possession of mankind should contain many truths as yet undiscerned. For all the same phenomena and tli^ same faculties of investigation from which such great discoveries in natural knowledge have been made in the present and last age, were equally in the possession of mankind several thousand years before." So too, the ulti- ^"'? ^e"^- «^ ' cation, mate verification, and even, perhaps, enlargement ''^'^'J^^° of this scheme by the facts of Science (which also of know- . ... ledge. has its revelations for mankind,) is a continually growing addition to the bulk of human knowledge. In this view Christianity must not be denied the place even of a progressive science.^ The laws of ^ Analogy, IT. c. iii. " It is true, indeed," writes Mr. Eogers, Essays, II. 335, " that theology cannot be said to admit of unlimited progress in the same sense as chemistry, which may, for aught we know, treble or quadruple its present accumulations, vast as they are, both in bulk and importance. But even in theology, as deduced from the Scripture, minute fragments of new truth or more exact adjustments of old truth maybe perpetually expected." Dean Stanley, Serm. en the Bible,-p. 112, writes, "Never before our own age has there been so keen, so dis- criminating a percei)tion of the peculiarities (if I mny so speak), the essential, innermost, distinguishing marks of the imajiproached and unapproachable Character described to us in the Four Gospels. We have not arrived at the end of it. Far from it. In the ver}^ fact of the large traits of His life and character which still remain unexplored, lies a boundless hope for the future." ^ Compare Butler, Anal., II. iii. "As it is owned the whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood ; so if it ever comes to be understood, • . . it must be in the same way that natural knowledge is come at by the continuance m\A progress of learning and of liberty," &c. See some remarks by Dorner, Hist. Prot. Th., II. 4. 220 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. Chris- lianily, in what bcnsc a progres- sive science. and a theory of develop- ment ad- missible. natural development apply to its enouncements equally with those of other departments of truth. The realization of " things not seen as yet ;" ulterior applications of acknowledged principles and promises ; the laying aside inhei-ited preposses- sions antagonistic to the genius of our Religiou, and from which the truth alone, when more and more reflected on and assimilated, can set man's spirit free ;^ these are lands in the realm of Christian thought perhaps yet unexplored, and, certainly, not yet taken into possession. The gradual evolution of fundamental ideas, the discovery of new rela- tions involved in them^ and new sj^heres in which they are valid ; these are elements of progress in- herent and permanent. Such an advance in no way, indeed, impairs the final character of Christian truth as Eevealed.^ And yet in this manner, side ^ Oil admissible developments of doctrine in Christianity, see Archer Butler (Letters, pp. 55-8). Dr. Newman's well-known " Theory " is an attempted solution of an admitted fact. See also De Quiucey's Essay on Frotestuntism, at length. 2 In quitting this part of the subject I am anxious once more to insist on the necessity of a fixed and primitive standard of doctrine. It is one thing to hold with Bp. Law {Theory of Religion, p. 145) that " though the whole scheme of our redemption was completely delivered, and all its essential parts recorded during the extraordinary assistance and insi)ection of the Holy Ghost, and in some respects the primitive Chris- tians seem to have the advantage of others ; .... yet it by no means follows that the true genius, import, and extent of this revelation must be as well understood by the generality of them as it could be by any that came after them." It is another to proclaim with Channing (Letter on Creeds) that " the wisest theologians are children who have caught but faint glimpses of the religion ; who have taken but their first lessons and whose business it is to ' grow in the knowledge of Jesus Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 221 by side with physical studies and j)^iilosophical deductions, Cliristian Science may still climb the starry heights of Thought and Being, and draw ever nearer the eternal springs of Intuitive Truth. ^ S. When the wondrous fertility of the present rracticai .,. -i ' n .,., alarms era m discovery and information, ph3^sical and from the , . . , , \ . -, collision of historical, is taken into account, undoubtedly a natural certain alarm lays hold of the religious mind, \v'ith\evf-^ lest the advance of positive Knowledge, and our familiarity with the facts of Nature, should leave no room for the fears and hopes of a world unseen. The very difficulties for which Religion undertakes to account may, it seems, ai'ter all, disappear. Explanations of Laws of Nature may take the place of yearnings of heart and soul after the Ineffable and the Divine. Dim, ambiguous issues may be discounted for present certainty and immediate enjoyment. May it not be wiser to enjoy the pleasures of sense for a. season ? Fatalism may be found to extinguish the terrors of wounded con- sciences ; and the utterances of Inspiration may be analyzed into vulgar errors and unmeaning super- Christ.' Need I say how hostile to this growth is & fixed creed, beyond which we must never wander ? &c." It needs hardly to be pointed out that the theory (of Hegel, Baur, &c.) which regards Christianity itself as a development in the history of Universal Religion, a phase in the evolu- tion of the Universal Geist, and capable accordingly of a specific perfec- tibility, is wholly beside our present point of view. So M. Comte looks on the present form of Christianity as the last and highest type of Monotlieism, including within itself the characteristic elements uf all the preparatory developments, and due to them. 222 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. and of ma- stitioiis. And certaiiilj, if it can be shown that in opinions, the imiverse of things all is material/ and bound by Laws of Matter ; that Life itself is but a trick of force ; that the realm of the Invisible, of Him " Who dwelleth in the light to which no man can approach, Whom no man hath seen, neither can see," is baseless, fictitious, inappreciable ; who shall fathom the sadness which should brood over heart and spirit,^ or fill the aching void which nothing can make good ? To leave this mortal scene, to shift this mortal coil, to "go we know not whither," 'Jo lie in cold obstruction and to lot ; Their effect upon a belief in immor- tality. this has assuredly been through all ages the ruling dread, the master-doubt which haunts the mind of man.^ What, then, if the sum of all our knowing be to find that he, also, is but the creature of a day, a modification of undying matter, an emanation, the sport of generative forces, a passing type, a sin- ' Materialism really inverts the true order of existence. Compare Plato, Lege]., X. 888, 889. " II parait bien," says Leibnitz of Spinoza, "que I'ame ne lui etoit qu'une modification passagere : ct lorsqu'il fait semblant de la faire durable et mcme perpetuelle, 11 y substitue I'idee du corps, qui est une simple notion et non jias une chose reelle et actuelle." — Theodkee, p. 12, a most pregnant passage. ^ " Pretcndent-ils nous avoir bien rcjouis dc nous dire qu'ils tiennent que notre anie n'est qu'un peu de vent et de fumee, et encore de nous le dire d'un ton de voix fier et content ? Est-ce done une chose a dire gaiement ? Et u'est-ce pas une chose k dire, au contraire, tristement comme la chose du monde la plus triste?" — Pascal, Ptns., Art. I. * It was this which led Epicurus to say that " if fear of the Gods and fear of death were not, we might well do without Physics:" and compare the effect of the preaching of Paulinus on the Northumbrians in Bedo, Lect. v.] FROGIIESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 223 gular variety, linked in the evolution of eternal Nature, or " throned in the arms of an Almighty Necessity " ? ' One fact, or set of facts, as yet repels this monster generalization, which would otherwise reduce all specific sciences to an absolute uniformity, and confound them in one undistin- guishable identity. One Science holds bravely on through these surgings of opinion, and the buffets 'This doc- of an absolute criticism: the science of God and •^i-'^^^'^ ^^'^'^ religion, the Soul, existences essentially different from all material forms, and bound each to other by rela- tions which give to Religion a meaning and a name.^ Man, it has been finely said, " is alone in nature, a world within a world;" (and yet he is not alone, for his Father is with him ;) " he alone of H. E., II. xiii. Hence the profound melancholy of classic Paganism on this topic. Soles occidere et redire possunt. Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux Nox est perpetua una dormienda.— Catullus. Damna tamen celeres reparant ca^lestia lunre. Nos ubi decidimus Quo patei" ^neas, quo dives TuUus et Ancus, Pulvis et umbra sumus. — Horace. Such thoughts are but echoes of the old plaint, "One generation passeth away and another generation cometh : but the earth abideth for ever." — Eccles. i. 4. " Unde enim metuunt mori et malunt in ilia aarumna vivere quam eam morte finire nisi quia satis apparet quam natura refugiat non esse?" — August., Civ. D., XI. xxvii. It may be hereafter found to be true that a spiritual substance, by virtue of its essential constitution, is immortal ; but at present our knowledge of the fact must be inferential. See Mill, Examination, p. 211. ^ " lieliget ergo nos religio uni Omnipotenti Deo." — August., Ver, Bel., c. Iv. sub finem. " Si enim divina aut a Deo data est anima, sine dubio datorem suum novit." — Tert., Test. Anim., ii. 224 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. all the creatures communes with a Being out of Nature; and he divides himself from all other physical life by prophesying, in the face of univer- sal visible decay, his own immortality." ^ The spirit of man, then, protests that it, too, is a fact, a and satis- distiuct cousciousuess ; it lives, and, living, exists fied by tlie „ , . r^ i • i • i Christian for that ctemity oi which it alone is cognisant. svstcni • ■ " But, if the spiritual element in man be admitted, it is, at least, not unreasonable that there should exist a Revelation as the supply to its inevitable questionings. , Even on a theory of Evolution, Christianity would have most claims to be heard.^ For it satisfies to the full the native testimony of the soul of man, rising, as it were, by a law of con- tinuity from animalism to rationality, from the rule of the senses to speculative intelligence, and from self-seeking passion to self-sacrificing love. The only § 6, Tlius a truc vital antagonism between vital an- •' _ _ , ° tagonism Religion and Science, fatal to the permanence and between religion progrcss of the former, alone emerges where, and and science . . SO long as, the latter recognizing only the validity ^ Mozley, Bam^it. L., p. 89. " Immortality is not a doctrine of the schools, but a faith of humanity ; not based on the metaphysic or proved by the logic of a given system ; but the utterance of an instinct common to the race which has made itself heard wherever man has advanced from a religion of nature to a religion of faith. And there is no article of belief he so reluctantly surrenders even to the demands of system." — Fairbairn on Belief in Ivimortality. This proposition is sustained by the learned author through a large and careful induction of the most ancient religions of the earth. 2 " Aux yeux de I'histoirc," says a Positivist writer, " il n'y a point de fausse religion : il n'y a que des religions incomjjlbtes, qui chemineut dans les temps et se perfcctiounent." — Liltre, I'aroles, p. 19. Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 225 oi phenomena, excludes from these all operation of man's spiritual part. In strictness, Science must be held to comprehend the connection of all truths relative to the exist- certain from the laws and constitution of the ence of a human mind. If, however, it is assumed that in principle Nature ^ nothing exists but what is given in experi- ence, represented in the forms of time and space and force, under the relation of cause and effect ; then, indeed, a principle which originates its own acts, which prophesies its own responsibility, and which explains, out of its own instinctive habit, its existence and destiny, its relations to God and to the universe in which it finds itself, can only be something beside and beyond Nature, even while related to it. It must, then, stand or ftill at the caprice of Nature's worshippers.^ But, happily (apart from any verbal controversy), the existence ^ Compare Coleridge, A. B., pp. 48, 190. " The ways and pro- ceedings of God with spirits are not included in Nature, that is, in the laws of heaven and earth." — Bacon, Confession of Faith ( Works, VII. 221). In the magnificent passage in Pi-ofessor Huxley's Lay Sermons (p. 37), beginning, " That man, I think, has had a liberal education," &c., there is a total omission of any spiritual element in man capable of culture or expansion. On the importance of the spiri- tual element in philosophy at the present time, see Janet, La Crise Philosophique, p. 7. ^ Leibnitz tells a story of a learned chemist, who "avoit fait una priere, qui pensa lui faire des aifaires. Elle commen9oit : sancta mater Natura, aeterne rerum ordo. Et elle aboutissoit k dire que cette Nature lui devoit pardonner ses d^fauts, puisqu'elle en ^toit cause elle-merae." — Theod., p. 605. He seems to have been of the same mind with Lear : Thou, Nature, art my Goddess : to thy law My services are bound. Q 226 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. of siicli a principle in man is capable, as with other psycliological facts,^ of experimental and scientific This capa- proof. It is not simply that, as has been said, if bleof ^ . . . . . scientific all argument is against it, all belief is for it. The grounds of that belief are patent. It is based, not alone on the precarious testimony of individual consciousness, but on a comparison of such con- sciousness, under many aspects ; on a wide gene- ralization of varying ages and countries, and a collection, practically unlimited, of particular instances. The notion of spiritual action is admitted by Mr. Darwin to be instinctive in man. from testi- " Xhc conccption of the human soul," writes the mony an- ^ _ ... cient and historiau of Primitive Culture,^ " is, as to its most essential nature, continuous from the philosophy of the savage thinker to that of the modern professor of theology. Its definition has remained from the first that of an animating, separable, surviving entity, the vehicle of individual personal exist- ' The fallacy met with in the writings of Mr. Buckle, as well as of the more purely Positivist school, is to assume that psychology is a branch of metaphysic ; that metaphysio does not study phenomena ; and that its object-matter is the individual mind. The impossibility is evident of accounting for the ideas of God and of man's personality on purely materialistic principles. On the Positivist notions of the soul, comp. Janet, La Crise Phil., p. 115. 2 Tylor, I. 453. " The minimum definition of religion is the belief in spiritual beings."— I. 383. In the shadow, pulse, heart, breath, he finds in the rudest tribes a generally appreliendcd representation or suggestion of the soul. On the mythology of the Soul (a distinct line of proof), see Max Miiller on the Philosophy of Mythology (Cont. Pev., XIX. 108). On the Hebrew and Indo-Germanic appella- tions of man and spirit, compare Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, pp. 82, 143, E. T. modern, Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 227 ence." The highest efforts of heathen philosophy in East and West cuhninated in a recognition of its authority and power, its sole or corporate immortality.^ Moreover, the reality of the personal ^"j^^J^^^tJon affections in man, which are the PTOundwork of°f)^"™^'^ ' o nature, most of his acts, and of all which constitutes his true nobility, has never been denied. Yet, under a pure Naturalism, excluding all recognition of a spiritual life, whatever may be demonstrated as to their origin, these must appear both meaningless and void. Their earnestness and simple trust, their rich store of high and unselfish feeling, become fantastic and absurd.^ The same, also, is ^ It has been maintained, I am aware, that a belief in God is com- patible with an ignorance of the soul's immortality ; and that this was the state of heathen opinion at the time of the coming of Christ (see Dean Merivale, Lectt., p. 24. At p. 54 he writes, " Belief in a future state is the touchstone of all spiritual conceptions of human nature.") I do not think this has yet been proved. Plutarch's treatise, Non posse suave v. sec. Epic, should be consulted on the differences of opi- nion among the Stoics. See Dollinger, Oentile and Jew, I. 353. It is quite possible, however, for ingenious disputants in all ages to argue against the instincts of common sense. Cicero (Tusc. Disp., I. xvi., xviii., xxxi.) writes : " Sed ut Deos esse natura opinamur, qualesque sint, ratione cognoscimus : sic permaiiere animos arbitramur consensu nationum omnium ; qua in sede maneant, qualesque sint ratione dis- cendum est." Herodotus (II. 123) makes it an Egyptian discovery : elsewhere he admits it to have been a Teutonic conception (IV. 94). It is no objection that this conviction is a gradual one (see Fairbairn, u. s. C. R., XX. 374, ff.), any more than that the belief in a God has found recusants. See Harless, Christian Ethics, p. 42, E. T. ^ This line of argument against all systems tending to Atheism is indicated by Shaftesbury in his Enquiry concerning Virtue {Woi-ks, II. 69). The same topic is powerfully handled by Mr. Hutton, Essays, I. 19. " A fully realized Atheism will undermine the worth of per- sonal human afl'ections ; not merely indirectly by losing sight of immor- Q 2 Its results. 228 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. true of tlie religious sentiment in man, of which, it cannot be doubted, his nature is capable when developed by culture and improvement. Thus from in- rcligious biograplij, exhibitiug in various ages of analysis. Christianity and at different eras of civilization the same characteristic features and common results, pointing accordingly to a common origin, furnishes an argument of a strictly inductive kind for the determination of a spiritual element in human nature correspondent to influences of the Divine SjDirit. Hence that communion of man with his Maker, " the Father of Spirits," whereof he alone is capable, an excellency whereby he is distin- guished from the beasts that perish,^ and is crowned with glory and worship. Ideo vencrabile soli Sortiti ingenium divinonim que capaces. From that fountain flow his highest and purest inspirations ; but no less those contradictions and warrings of counter-impulses, the travail and the toil of yearning souls, conscious of Heaven, yet tality, but still more by cutting off the chief spring of their spiritual life. If that fine wide-spreading network, hidden from all human eyes, the winding crossing blending diverging threads of human affection, which hold together human society, be indeed conceived as issuing every- where out of everlasting niglit; as spun, snapped asunder, and again repaired by the mere automatic operation of Nature's unconscious and impersonal energy; the jiersonal affections lose quite the richest and most permanent of the conscious influences at least, which minister to their life and growth." ^ Compare Lactant. (Z)tv. Inst., III. x.). Thus man, created in the likeness of God, must be essentially a spirit (Jolm iv. 24). Gregory Lect. v.] FROGJ^ESS of CHRISTIANITY. 229 borne down to earth, unresting/ unsatisfied while still the slaves of sense. But with the reality ofitsconnec- tion with the spiritual principle in man is inseparably con- the exist- nected the presence of a will which, by its acts, in man, announces its own personality and individual being. As it is impossible to sever in conception the notions of spirit and will, so practically it is by the character of the will developed in act that the spirit itself is differentiated. Thus is it that we know " what manner of spirit we are of." It is for this reason probably that in Holy Scripture^ the term itself, as a power or property seated in the human soul, never stands singly, but is always specified. It is the " spirit of meekness," the "spirit of knowledge," the " spirit of fear," the " spirit of love," and the like. The recognition of this prin- ciple from first to last, in the Old as in the New Testament, gives unity and consistency to Revela- of Nyssa (ap. Delitzscli, p. 197) makes use of the image of a j^iece of glass, which, although in very diminished proportion, reflects the entire form of the sun, to represent how out of the limited nature of man's spirit shine forth the copies of the inexpressible attributes of the Godhead. Thus Goethe : War' nicht das Auge sonnenhaft Wie konnten wir das Licht erblicken ? Lebt' nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft Wie konnte uns das Gottlicbes entzlicken? See Sir W. Hamilton, Disc, p. 19. ^ " Quia fecisti nos ad Te, Domine, inquietum est cor nostrum, donee requiescat in Te." — August., Cotif., sub init. ''' This remark is made by Coleridge, A. B., p. 42. Compare the teaching of the Homily for Whitsunday, Pt. I., sub fin. 230 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. tion.^ The proof, then, of our spiritual nature, together with the admission of this element in man, may be regarded as the one thing vital to all nnd reia- spiritual religion. It alone suffices to account for perma- the existonce, the office, and the success of Chris- ChriJ-" tianity. On its reality as a principle, and on the tianity, unquestionable character of its testimony rest the bases of our religion, as an enduring and undying- faith. Yet now we are called on to believe that it is the function of Knowledge (which is, however, the true image^ and mirror of Being) to extinguish the notion of such a spiritual principle in man, and to abolish all faith in the reality and power of its utterances. This, it seems, is to be the latest work of positive Science, its closing service to mankind, the crowning effort of the progress and culture of natural studies. Science ^ 7, But it is Said that in the advance of asserted to ■' be destiuc- knowledge we are fast losing the elementary prin- reiigion ciplcs, both of diviue worship and of religious belief. In surprise, if not in fear, according to the old observation of Aristotle^ (or, more strictly, of 1 " I stand before myself as before a riddle : wliose key is not tu be found in the human self-consciousness, but is given to it by God in the word of revelation." — Harless, Christian Ethics, p. 50. 2 " Scientia essentitc imago." — Bacon, N. 0., Aph. cxx. ' Aia yap to davfidCdv ol uvOpairoi Kai vvv /cat to ivpSiTov rjp^avTo (jiiXoaocfyelv' . . . 6 S' aTropcov Kai 6avp.d^fPositiv. ism. opinion ; want of practical acquaintance with the needs of man's soul and with its boundless capaci- ties of emotion and idealization ; the impossibility of building faith upon a speculative foundation ; It had, doubtless, its darker side, over which he casts a veil, in its pederasty, tendency to suicide, &c. Comp. Dollinger, G. a. Jew, I. 357, and for its later development, IF. 124-7. " Never," he admits, " was there a system of morality which found so many and such striking echoes in Christianity as does that of Epictetus." ^ Compare Dean Merivale, Lectt., p. 119 ; and Pressense, P. II. torn. ii. p. 60. Eclecticism in morals is represented by Plutarch. 238 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. Their failure. Unfair attacks on the spiritual doctrines of Chris- tianity. defect of imagination and constructive power to frame any acceptable scheme of worship ; these and other hindrances have continually foiled philo- sophers when charged with the task of putting together a new coherent and purely rational re- ligion.^ The prospect thus opened should not be disregarded by those thinkers who, while profess- ing themselves favourable to Christianity as a type of religion, as a moral ideal, or even as an abstract rule of faith ; nevertheless, in handling it, leave no standing-ground between the admission of critical canons fatal to all genuine belief, or a return to medieval dogmatism. It is thus held not unfair to attack Christianity at large, or some particular article which the Church has mvx voce declared to be a Christian doctrine, by arguments which, if valid, are valid against all teaching of Revealed Truth. Some postulates there must be in all systems of religious belief, as the basis of any argument in support of the faith declared. " Let him," it has been said, not unreasonably, " who is too high-minded to beg his ground, and will take it by a strong hand ; let him fight it out with the Atheist or the Manichean, but not stoop ^ See Saisset, Essais, pp. 24, 25, and some good remarks by the author of Ecce Homo, p. 99 : " If philosophy undertakes to solve the same problem, what is its method ? By what means does it hope to awaken good impulses in hearts that were before enslaved to bad ones? .... The truth is that philosophy has no instruments that it can use for this purpose." Schleierniacher also (Christlichcr Glauhe) insists ou this same fact. Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 239 to pick up their arrows, and then run away to dis- charge them at Christianity or the Church." ^ § 9. An age of admitted scepticism has not, as Scepticism 1 • 1 P • 1 f 1 1 °'" ^ spirit yet, proved itselr either latal or, perhaps, even of inquiry dangerous to the trutii of Christianity. By Gribbon midabie to it was thought to have been really favourable to ^^ '^'°"' the progress of religion, that is, of the Christian religion. It is the modern fashion to predict that it will be its bane. But it may be held for certain, looking to past experience, that a sceptical spirit must sooner or later give way to a state of things in which the yearning after religious belief will vastly predominate. For scepticism, though just " within just limits, being the natural resort of the intellect when overweighted by authority, and by no means, therefore, a necessary alien from the liousehold of faith ; yet represents, at most, but being the negation of implicit belief or of credulity ; and is, therefore, in itself, no more than a definite stage, a passing phase in the process of intellectual 1 Coleridge, A. B., p. 221. ^ Thus scepticism, considered as a means of arriving at truth, may be coeval with belief itself. For " les conditions de la civilisation," says M. Eenan, " sont comme celles d'un i^robleme a donuees limitees." " Had religion," he justly adds, " been a simple superstition, like astro- logy, science would long since have swept it away." — Questions Con- temporaines. On the limits of scepticism Leibnitz observes, " 11 ne faut point doufer pour douter ; 11 faut que les doutes nous servent de planche pour parvenir a la verite. II ne faut point qu'on puisse re- procher aux vrais philosophes ce qite le fameux Casaubon repondit a ceux qui lui montrerent la Salle de la Sorbonne, et lui dirent qu'on y avoit dispute durant quelques siecles; 'Qu'y a-t-on conclu'? leur dit-il." 240 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. growth.' True scepticism is often made to do service for positive unbelief, and more especially and pre- of tlicological postulates. But this is to con- found cause with effect, a logical aspect of Thought in general with its application to the results of a particular inquiry. If, however, scepticism can issue only in chronic incredulity, the prospect, blank indeed for Religion, whose very soul is faith, might prove equally so for all cer- Negation taiutv whatsocvcr. There is a faith which pre- of belief "^ _ ^ ^ entails the ccdcs and lics at the root of all scientific proof. eclipse of ^ ^ _ all know- There is a faith which belongs equally to its most cherished triumphs. "We call its discoveries sublime ; but the sublimity belongs not to that which they reveal, but to that which they sug- gest." "" And thus the mind of man, the consum- mate outcome of a practically infinite evolution, would, if deprived of faith, be reduced to the con- dition of an organ destitute of all objective en- vironment or appropriate function. Such a theory of things is simply inconceivable and disastrous. Perilous times may come, as ere now they have ^ " Thoiigh there are many who describe our own time as an un- 'believing time, it is by no means sure that posterity will accept the verdict. No doubt it is a sceptical and critical age, but then scep- ticism and criticism are the very conditions for the attainment of reasonable belief," — Tylor, Hist. Prim. C, I. 253. 2 Prof, Goldwin Smith, Lectt., p. 48. He adds : " and that which they suggest is that through this material glory and beauty, of which we see a little and imagine more, there speaks to us a Being Whose nature is akin to ours, and Who has made our hearts capable of such converse." Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 241 cast a cold shade upon the enthusiasm of reb'gion and the fortunes of mankind. We may " fear as we enter into the cloud," and " the love of many may wax cold." But dark, indeed, must be the prospect which shuts out altogether and always from the soul of man its faith in Grod, in the reality of its own instincts, in its personal immor- tality. Such a view of human life and of the universe is mournful, from its very hopelessness, beyond recall, beyond redress.^ But sometimes it shows darkest the nearest before dawn ; and there is good cause to ask whether it be not so now.^ § 10. For Religion in some shape is a neces- Forecast sity, not a weakness, of the heart. Philosophically reconcLiia- viewed, it supplies in Revelation a remedy for that revelation confession of Nescience which constitutes the sum science. of Natural Religion. In the highest stage of * This lias been thus exquisitely expressed : — Mourn not for them that mourn For sin's keen arrow with its rankling smart. God's hand will bind again what He hath torn. He heals the broken heart. But weep for him whose eye Sees in the midnight skies a starry dome Thick sown with worlds that whirl and hurry by, Yet give the heart no home : Who marks through earth and space A strange dumb pageant pass before a vacant shrine, And feels within his inmost soul a place Unfilled by the Divine. D. Greenwell, Carmina Crucis. ^ Compare Luther, Ausleg. der Genesis, c. xliv. 17 (ap. Bunsen, Ood in Hist, III. 240); and Ozanam (Civilis., I. 31), who says rheto- rically, " Providcucc loves such surprises." R 242 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. civilization the purest form must ultimately prevail. Such we hold, and even by opponents has been admitted, to be the faith of Jesus Christ.^ It is not here contended that the influences of civiliza- tion and of Christianity are, in fact, identical. Each may owe much to the other : and both something to the mutual alliance of their individual force. It may be that each moves in a distinct sphere, with separate action, and to appearance separate interests. But if it be urged that in the admitted advance of human affairs intellectual enlightenment is the cause, Protestantism or any other form of ^nc'^of Christian truth but an effect ; it is enough to Si^tv ^^P^J' ^^"^ ^^^ ^^' ^®^^* ^^^®y co-exist ; the religion of Christ in its purest form is the religion of civi- lization. Nor, in saying this, do we undervalue the benefits of Knowledge and Science as true ^ " Le monde sera ^ternellement religieux ; et le Christianisme dans tin sens large est le dernier mot de la religion." — Eenan, u. s. " Deism," he adds, " cannot be the final term of religion ; for it is not truly a religion at all : it is a scientific conclusion." The following sentences, written nearly half a century since, are now doubly interesting: — "We confess, the present aspect of spiritual Europe might fill a melancholic observer with doubt and foreboding. It is mournful to see so many minds, noble, tender, and high-aspiring, deserted of that religious light which once guided all such : standing sorrowful on the scene of past convulsions and controversies, as on a scene blackened and burnt up with fire : mourning in the darkness because there is desolation, and no home for the soul ; or, what is worse, pitching tents among the ashes, and kindling weak, earthly lamps, which we are to take for stars. This darkness is hut transitory ohscuratiwi : these ashes are the soil of future herbage and richer harvests. Religion, Poetry is not dead; it will never die. Its dwelling and birth-place is in the soul of man, and it is eternal as the being of man." — Carlyle, Miscell., I. 72. tianity with ad- vancing civiliza- Lect. v.] FJIOGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 243 elements of progress; or seek to stem and turn aside the tide of advancing culture. It is folly even to wish to reverse a movement in human affairs which is definite and uniform in operation. It is a question of fact whether Christianity has not or is not moved along with it, mingling with its advance, and assimilating its effects. " It is the peculiarity of the religion of the Bible," it has been well said, " that whatever be the aspect of the past, and of the present ; in spite of all glories of what we look back to, and all discouragements in what we see now, it ever claims the future for its own." ^ S II. It is the truer, as it is the heartier, faith Meeting- ■^ ^ _ _ points of to hold that, in the 2:olden ai2:e which Science now knowledge ' ^ ° andreli- ranks as to come, and not as gone, Knowledge and gion. Eeligion must ultimately coalesce and coincide. The one is the science of the visible ; the other of that which, though invisible, is no less real, no less truly a phase of Truth and Being. But if both are founded in the reality of things, there must be between them a fundamental harmony. For " it is incredible that there should be two orders of truth in absolute and everlasting opposition."^ The ^ Dean Church, Univ. Serm., p. 72. " The tendency," says Sii" H. Maine, " to look not to the past, but to the future, for types of perfection was brought into the world by Christianity." — Ancient Lcm, p. 74. " Hopefulness has ever been a note of the Church of Christ. It has been often mistrusted and misapprehended." — Merivale, Northern Nations, p. 116. ^ Herbert Sjicncer, First Princ, p. 21. R 2 244 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. world began, we are now told, with Nature-wor- ship ; can we on a theory of evolution believe that at its close it will have developed no higher form ? The dangers at present besetting Christianity are twofold. There is an ideal spiritualism abroad devoid of an objective basis. Where current, it brings Religion into contempt. There is also a secularistic Materialism, co-ordinate with a worship of Nature. Jamjam efficaci dat mamis Scientia3. Unreal Extremes thus meet. We have not now the cult results of science, of Ccrcs or Diouysus ; but under other names the forces of Heat, Light, and Fecundity have taken their place and rank. But all such ultimate, as- sumed entities are to be deprecated, even if them- selves forms of one Universal Force. They are questionable, unscientific resting-places in the ana- lysis of truth, which must, to be complete, lead on to the source and origin of Force. There is surely a far higher boon in store to be conferred by the increasing light of Knowledge, when it shall be poured not solely on the simpler problems of the physical world, but upon the mysteries of the two voices in man, the microcosm of the universe, those jarring elements of Duty and Passion, of the Ultimate animal and the spiritual, of Nature and Grace. relations r>i t-ti of know- Originally created to be a part oi the undivided wilt system of Nature, working in automatic harmony with the constitution of the world around him ; Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 245 in the exercise of a will independent of Divine Wisdom and of the laws it had imposed, Man fell from his high estate. Only by the reconciliation of his will with perfect reason, by the recognition of foregone perversity, by the confession of the justice and the mercy of his God, and by the sub- mission of mind and spirit to the higher law of Morality and Religion ; by these only, as subjective 23ersonal conditions of his Redemption, may he hope once more, in " the times of restitution of all things," to find himself in accord with a purified Nature, fulfilling the law of his being, the com- mandment of his God, and made " partaker of the Divine Nature." So far, if it be no further, may the Tendency plummet of finite Thought, led by the indications ledge to of Revelation, sound the depths of the nature and moral evil, existence of evil in the world. Potentially real,^ a secondary development of things, its very being and action may be but temporary and relative, ^ Cf. Orig. c. Cels., VI. Iv. Thus August., Civ. D., XI. 9. Mali nulla natura est; sed amissio boni mali nomen accepit; following the more ancient opinion, to kukov to dwdfiei. dya66p. Arist., Metaph. N. iv. ovK eoTi TO KaKov TTapd to. Trpdyfj-aTa. Comp. Plato, Thecet. 176, A. So also Basil (^Hexam. Horn., ii.). Leibnitz, Theod., p. 550. " Quant a la cause du mal il est vrai que le diable est I'auteur du peche ; mais I'origine du peche vient de plus loin, la source est dans I'imperfection originale des creatures," &c. His own explanation of this is well known. " Dieu a permis le mal, parce qu'il est euveloppe' dans le meilleur plan qui se trouve dans la region des possibles." — lb., p. 601. " II se peut que tons les maux ne soient aussi qu'un presque neant en com- paraison des biens qui sont dans I'univers." — p. 509. Bishop Butler (following August., Conf., II. v.), " There is nothing in the human mind contradictory, as the logicians speak, to virtue." — Anal., I. iii. " There is no such thing as love of injustice, oppression, treachery, ingratitude,' 246 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. conditioned by a finite state of existence and know- ledge, admitting of ultimate explanation. That which is individual is in its own nature imperfect : and imperfection is a transient form of evil. But the will of man is confessedly individual, personal. !h?c"o-'' '-^^^^ inherent conflict of self-interest with the of rdMon commou good cau only be overcome by the con- viction that it is through conformity to the uni- versal law, as the expression of the wisdom of the Creator, to the whole constitution of things, that the perfection of the individual is reached.^ This, if any, must be the lesson of ultimate civilization, Coincident and it is a lesson in the accomplishment of which work of the Faith of Christ may be expected to take a large tion. share. " Christianity," it has been well said,^ " has been revealed as a social and as a personal power in the richest variety of circumstances. It remains for us to harmonize the idea of society and self as they are seen to be harmonized in the teaching of the Apostles. In this lies the highest problem of philosophy and the most worthy aim of life. ' The prize is noble,' as Plato said of the corresponding problem in his age, ' and the hope is great.' " In this &c. — Serm., I. Mr. Mackay (Progress of Intellect, I. 482) has touched this subject with much profundity and learning. Physical evil must of course be distinguished from the moral and metaphysical notions. It may prove to be a necessary tendency of general laws, and to redound in many ways to the formation of moral excellencies. ' Compare Mr. Mill, Exam., p. 510, who quotes an observation of M. R^ville respecting human freedom. "La liberty complete, reelle, de riiomme est la perfection humaine, le but a atteindre." 2 Trof. Westcott, Cont. Bev., VI. 417. Lect. v.] progress of CHRISTIANITY. 247 law and scale of progress, that wliicb we call evil must itself have been foreseen, and in a manner fore- ordained and provided for, by the act of Eternal Wisdom. One day " the depth of the riches of that wisdom and knowledge," (now " past finding out,") will be revealed, its ways disclosed ; and the sufferings of " a bondage of corruption" ^ will show all unworthy to be compared with the glory that shall dawn upon the world become the king- dom of the Lord and of His Christ. § 12. " The Master of all who have knowlede-e." ' .^^^^"'^^ •> o insepara- Such is the title claimed by Dante for Aristotle, the We fiom Prince of ancient thought. Shall it not hereafter be given to One greater than Aristotle, who shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this gene- ration and condemn them, as many as have divorced Science from Faith. For in that day secular philo- sophy, however glorious, will be transmuted into divine. The very course of the integration of Tendency 1 x^ 1 1 1 Till of human human Knowledge may be expected to lead to the knowledge towards perfection. ^ " L'imperfection qui accompagne la solution du corps pourroit donner lieu au sentiment d'une perfection plus grande, qui etoit suspendue ou arretde par la continuity qu'on fait cesser ; et a cet egard le corps seroit comme une prison." — Leibnitz, Worhs, p. 603. 2 " II Maestro di color chi sanno." " La plus forte tete de toute Tantiquite, le grand Aristote," says M. Comte {Phil. Pos., IV. 38), perhaps from an iinconscious predilection ; for it was very anciently remarked that Plato referred all to Mind, Aristotle to Law. The medieval reputation of Aristotle, whom the Schoolmen placed almost on a level with the Fathers, was according to Mr. Lecky (Hist. Pat., I. 417), due to the early heretics. See Dean Milman, Lat. Christ., YI. 267. 248 OBJECTIONS TO THE [Lect. V. reception of one common, universal Religion, when the relations of Matter to a central Force shall be understood. The latest generalization of the in- ductive reason will be comprehended, as alone it can be comprehended, through the intuition of Him (for " we shall see Him as He is "), Who is the Author and Cause of all things, " Who is Alpha and Omega," " the Beginning and the End," the "First and the Last." In that day " whether there be knowledge, it will vanish away," because " we know but in part." What is there in the loftiest human speculation which should exempt it from the Inherent fate of all finite things? "Positive knowledge* positive does not and never can fill the whole region of ledge. possible thought. At the utmost reach of discovery there arises and must ever arise the question — what lies beyond ? Science is a gradually in- creasing sphere, and every addition to its surface does but bring it into wider contact with surround- ing ignorance. But if knowledge cannot mono- polize consciousness ; ^ if it must always continue ^ Mr. Herbert Spencer, Fir&t Principles, pp, 16, 17. The same thouf^ht that the material world cannot of itself contain a revelation of the Divine, the finite of the Infinite, occurs in Tennyson — Forerun thy peers, thy time : and let Thy feet millenniums hence be set In midst of knowledge dreamed not yet. Thou hast not gained a real height ; Nor art thou nearer to the light, Because the scale is infinite. ^ " II n'y a que Dieu qui voie, comment ccs deux temaes moi et Texistence sont li^s, c'est-a-dire, pourquoi j'existe." — Leibnitz, iVo?<- veaux Essais, IV, vii 7 Lect. V.l PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 249 possible for the mind to dwell upon that which transcends knowledge, then there can never cease to he a place for that which is of the nature of Religion." For what region can be found in all the realms of Science, which is not relative only to our present living powers and to the world we now inhabit? What necessity^ can be claimed for the Laws of MIT nature de- Laws of Nature, as they are known to us, still less void of the for the several facts which represent and engender necessity. them, which can resist the sentence of mutability so legibly written upon them ? Knowledge then, as alone we now possess it, is of time, not of eternity ; it is marred by the imbecillities of man's understanding. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." But " when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." ^ See Sir AV. Hamilton, Appendix to Reid, p. 971, who quotes Spinoza {de Intell. Emend., § 108) ; " ideae qiias claras et distinctas fonnamus ita ex sol§, necessitate nostra} naturje sequi videntur, ut absolute a sola nostra potentia pendere videantur : confusje autem contra." Chalmers's noble argument for the doctrine of immortality from man's capacities for knowledge is well known. " But for the truth of immortality man would be an anomaly in nature .... The whole labour of this mortal life would not suffice for traversing, in full extent, any one of the sciences. And yet there may lie undeveloped in his bosom a taste and talent for them all, none of which he can even singly overtake. For each science, though definite in its commence- ment, has its outgoings in the Infinite and the Eternal." — Bridg. Treatise, Ft. I. sub fin. LECTURE VI. THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM THE CHARACTER OF ITS INFLUENCE. "Ne qiiisquam nos aliena tantum redarguisse, non autem nostra asseruisse reprehenderet ; id agit pars altera operis hujus." — Augtjstink, Retract., II. " Imperium facile liis artibus retinctur, quibus initio partum est." — Sallust, Bell. Catil., II. iv. LECTURE VI. " IV/w t's he that overcotneth the world, but he that believeth that yesiis is the Son of God? " — i l[c%\\ b. 5. § I. ^ I ^HE direct or positive proof originally pro- fjj^?^^^'^ -■- posed to be offered in these Lectures in qu'T- respect of the permanence of the Christian Religion led first to the inquiry, what are the vital forces of any Religion ; and next, in what degree are these exhibited in the past history and present condition of Christianity ? These forces, common to all systems ^/^^^^["'■^^^ of Religion, may be compared with the powers of g'ons nutrition, reproduction, and growth in organic bodies. Such are the hold exercised by the theory of belief upon the spirit and conscience of its pro- fessors ; the tendency of the system to extend itself by conversion ; and, thirdly, the power of assimi- lating healthfully the varying conditions of progres- sive civilization. With the last of these lines of proof we have been indirectly occupied throughout the four preceding Lectures. For the objections which ^iSy have been considered to the progress of Christianity ^°"^j have been such as belong to the highest stages of culture and scientific research as yet reached by the most civilized portion of mankind. Lastly, since J^J'^aigu- every form of Religion asserts for itself an absolute "^^"* ^^^ 254 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. the per- possessioii of Divine Truth, its announcements are manence •"■ of Chris- to 1)6 Considered final, or, at least, as preparative ^ to tianity from the OHC Complete scheme. A concluding argument will of its doc- hence arise in favour of the truth of Christianity from the universality of its tenets and their adapta- tion to the history and circumstances of mankind, warranting in this manner its assumption of doctrinal finality. If its morality is sound and universal ; its type of character perfect and com- plete^ not partial, national, local, or generic,^ but correspondent to the unity of our race ; if its reve- lations, replacing earlier creeds and inheriting all they held of truth, reach on to the horizon of humanity, and assure for ever the destinies of man, we need not greatly fear for the future of a Reli- gion which can only be coeval with our race. Present We uow procccd to examine, in the first place, the iII?o\he character and extent of the influence exercised by extent of Christianity at various periods on the consciences the in- r. . . , fluence of 01 itS COUVertS. Canity as § ^- ^^ has bccu askcd by a leading thinker of at different ' Such as tlie Mosaic system ; which cannot therefore be properly periods. attacked, as it lias been by Kant and others (see Udigion innerhalh, Sec, Werke, VI. 301, ed. Hai-tenstcin), as not Divine, because it did not ])reach immortality. Warburton's proposition on this subject is well known. ^ " The ceremonial law was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship, equally adapted to all climates, as well as to every condition of mankind." — Gibbon, c. xv. Compare Palmer {Treatise on the Church, I. vii.) on the catholicity of Christianity. " The New Testament," says Prof. Seeley, Lect. and Essays, p. 276, " is the text-book of uni- versal or natural morality." On the objection that if Christianity be in harmony witli human nature, it may be viewed as a human in- vention, see Mcrivalc, Conv. of N. Nations, p. 3. Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 255 our time/ " what are the conditions necessary to constitute a religion ?" " There must," he replies, " be a creed, or conviction, claiming authority over the whole of human life ; a belief or set of beliefs Prelimi- nary ex- deliberately adopted respecting human destiny and amination duty, to which the believer inwardly acknowledges dements that all his actions ought to be subordinate. More- to the suc- over, there must be a sentiment connected with religious this creed, or capable of being evoked by it, sufli- ^^^ ^''^' ciently powerful to give it, in fact, the authority over human conduct to which it lays claim in theory." In other words, the success of a religion may be held to result from the relation of its doctrines to the organ of belief in man, from the convictions which it furnishes to the faculty of Faith. For Faith, the outcome of our spiritual nature in its apprehension of Grod, is the vital spark of all Reli- gion. If Faith be on the wane, there is a canker at ■i'^^- the re- ^ ^ , , lationofits the root of the creed. The external organization, doctrines 1 . . 1 1 T • to the the ecclesiastical arrangements, may look vigorous principle , -■ -r .... , of faith. enough, but the end draws on. In criticising, then, the claims of a religion to acceptance from the side of experience, i. e. from its past success and present ^ Mr. J. S. Mill, A. Comte and Positivism, p. 133. He adds : " It is a great advantage, though not absolutely indispensable, that this senti- ment should crystallize, as it were, round a positive object — if possible, a really existing one — though in all the more important cases only ideally present. Such an object Theism and Christianity offer to tlie believer." Mr. Lecky, E. R., I. 389, speaking of the first ages of Christianity, remarks that " it was then strictly a religion ; that is to say, it consisted of modes of emotion, and not of intellectual proposi- tions." 256 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. condition, and in inferring from these grounds its ulterior prospects, regard must be had to the work which lies before it, to the end which it proposes to itself for accomplishment. Now, all positive Eeligions^ lay claim to some measure of Divine All reii- Revclation ; i. e. to communications from God to gions properly man bcvond the ordinary modes of information vehicles of ... revelation and knowledge. These it is its province to propa- nature, gate amougst mankind. Any religion, then, which should altogether divest itself of mysteries, the meeting-points between Nature and that which transcends it ; satisfied with the simple proclamation of moral truths, however refined, or with a re- publication of the so-called Religion of Nature, which is, in fact, the apotheosis of moral abstrac- tions ; thus carrying no further message to the spirit and higher reason of man ; any such religion may on ^ It Las been said very truly that so-called Natural Religion exists only in books. Religions which have vital force and influence are positive religions ; that is, they make for themselves a Church, and rites, and dogmas. These dogmas are the solutions of the great problems which have ever disquieted the mind of man — the origin of the world, the origin of evil, its expiation, the future of our race. Quid sumus et quidnam victuri gignimur. Mr. Lecky, //. Rat., I. 182, points out that " Protestant Rationalism regards Christianity as designed to preside over the moral development of mankind In its eyes the moral element of Christianity is as the sun in heaven, and dogmatic systems are as the clouds that intercept and temper the exceeding brightness of its ray." In p. 335, he seems himself to incUne to the view that dogmatic systems are a provisional arrangement for semi-barbarous periods, though he admits that Chris- tianity is the solitary instance " of a religion not naturally weakened by civilization." Pietism in the hands of Spener, Francke, &c., as also the Remonstrants, early endeavoured to sejjarate religious morals fi'om dogma. The movement has terminated in Strauss. Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 257 these very accounts be suspected. It falls short of the due operation of Religion in itself; which, as a function of human nature, has its own appropriate work by the realization of which it must stand or fall. That work,^ though the contrary is not unfre- are not quently asserted, is not identical with the inculcation with the of morality, however high, however pure. The oTino-^ '°" Science of Ethics falls legitimately within the ken '^^''^' of human knowledge, capable of improvement and advance. But when it has led man to the threshold of Religion, a sphere is discovered to him from which he has not borrowed morality.'^ Thus the doctrines of a religious system, wdiile properly in accord with morality, transcend by their nature the limits of its teaching.^ Morality is present in them, even if as ^ The most elementary forms of religion seem to aftord little trace of ethics. Compare Mr. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 386. lu Confucianism, on the other hand, ethics overpower and extinguish the religious ele- ment. See DoUiuger, Gentile and Jew, I. 56-8 ; Legge, II. 130, 319. " To give oneself earnestly to the duties due to men, and while respect- ing spiritual beings to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom," was the maxim and practice of its founder. It is not strange to find, from Mr. Cooper {Pioneer of Commerce), that his temples at the present day are deserted. Lange, Gesch. dts Materiulismus, p. 537, says, " Die Religionen haben urspriinglich gar nicht einmal den Zwcck der Sittlich- keit zu dienen." See Buckle, Hist. Civ , II. 303. " The Churcli," writes Dean Hook, " was not incorporated to inculcate a code of morals. The inculcation of morality is an incident of Christianity, and not of its essence." — Lives of Archhishojs, N. S., I. 3. 2 Compare Guizot, Civ. in K, I. 87, ed. Bohn. Paley's Evid., Pt. II. c. ii., on the morality of the Gospel. Christianity, strictly speaking, is no new code of morals, but an appeal to the higliest moral experience. ^ " There is a fine line," writes Coleridge, " which, like stripes of light in light, distinguishes, not divides, the summit of religious Morality from spiritual Religion." — A. 7?., p. 81. S 258 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. Relation of a vital, yet as a rudimentary element. This fact a system of is evident on a comparison of barbarous \\\\\\ civilized races.^ To condemn a creed on moral grounds is not, therefore, properly conclusive, thoug'h it is, no doubt, the case that in proportion to its trutli it will encourage a purer and more elevated morality,^ which varies in most men in proportion to their practical belief in God and His Proper promiscs. Its real test on the experimental side test ofthe ^. _ . , . ^ successor lies in the accomplishment of its true specific end, a religion i i • And this would seem to be so to educate, to mould and inform the spirit of man, as to restore it to its divine image, and prepare it for a future con- tinuous existence.^ This work involves, indeed, moral issues. The correlations and interaction be- tween the life that now is and its after-stage very soon become mutually interpenetrated. The spirit, as part at least of the principle of personality in man, is inseparable from those acts or decisions of the will which determine its character, and as includes Revclation instructs us, its ultimate destiny. Reli- moral in- ^ ' _ ^ ' " . . fluence, gion then, which occupies itself with the spiritual secondary i Com])are Mr. Tyler, Trim. C, II. 326. 2 Hence the fine lines of Persiiis : Composi turn jus fasquc animo sanctosque recessiis Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto ; Hajc cede ut admoveam templis et farre litabo. ' Mr. Lecky well observes, H. E. M., I. 363-4, " Reverence and humi- lity, a constant sense of the true majesty of God, and of the weakness and sinfulness of man, and a perpetual reference to another world, were the essential characteristics of Christianity, the source of all its power, the basis of its distinctive type." element Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY, 259 element in man, cannot be divorced from the morality which it must t(jacli or tolerate/ Its con- verts will act upon the principles of their belief, which supply them with a new series of motives, and these will accordingly become evident in the conduct and disposition of the believer. In this ^ nimai ^ ^ test thus manner a moral test may be applied of the character applicable and efficacy of the Revelation, for it may fail on either side. On the one hand, it may be found to put " bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ;" it may put "darkness for light, and light for darkness;"^ that is, its tenets, as in the case of many heathen idolatries, may corrupt the moral sense ; its positive enactments or j^romises may confound the natural law of right. On the other hand, its power of moral suasion, though wholesomely directed, may be feeble and inoperative. Its voice may utter no * Mr, Buckle, I. 425 (after Hallam) traces the scientific separation of theology from morals to Bishop Cumberland. Mr. Pattison (^Ess. and Rev., p. 256) remarks very truly that those ages in which morality (done has been most spoken of have ever been those in which it has been least practised. ^Isaiah v. 20. Thus Bishop Butler, J.?za?., II. c.iii. : "Though objections against the evidence of Christianity are most seriously to be considered, yet objections against Christianity itself are in a great measure frivolous ; almost all objections against it, excepting those which are alleged against the particular proofs of its coming from God. I express myself with caution, lest I should be mistaken to vilify reason; whicli is, indeed, the only faculty we have wherewith to judge concerning anything, even Revelation itself: or be misunderstood to assert that a supposed revelation cannot be proved false from internal characters. For it may contain clear immoralities or contradictions ; and either of these would prove it false. Nor will I take upon me to affirm, that nothing else can pt>s- sibly render any supposed revelation incredible." And again : " It is the province of reason to judge of the morality of the Scripture," &c. s 2 26o THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. uncertain sound, but yet it may fail to nerve man- ofaprac- Ywi^ for the battle with evil. The standard, then, tical na- ture, of the truth, and hence of the permanence of a reli- gious system, apart from its particular evidences, will appear first and properly in the character of the hold gained by it on the spirit and conscience of those who profess it ; then, by consequence, but in a secondary degree, in its general moral effects as exhibited in practice. If without marked effect, or if immoral in tendency, a presumption arises against its truth, stronger or weaker in the former case in proportion to the length of date and nature of the circumstances attending its operation. Suc- cess upon certain occasions affords, it is true, but slender guarantee for truth, for the result may be differently explained. But when itself the issue of unfavourable conjunctures and .contrary to ordinary expectation, or when steadily continuous, however slow the process,^ it raises in the mind an almost instinctive conviction of its providential cliaracter and ultimate triumph. Different § 3- Very different reasons, as might be expected, as^toth^e have been assigned to the rise and first successes of sucSsf of Christianity, according to the varying temperament Chris- tianity. 1 " The Christian body," says Dr. Mozley (i/. L., p. 140), " is enlarged by growth and stationariness combined : eacli successive age con- tributing its quota, and the acqtiisition, once made, remaining And the same principle of growth can at last convert the world : how- ever slow the process, the result will come, if Christianity always keeps the ground it gets: for that which always gains and never loses must ultimately win the whole." Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 261 of particular thinkers. It has been regarded by some in the light of a moral protest against gene- ral and overwhelming corruption. By others it is viewed as a stage in the history of superstitions, a phase and a necessary phase of mental enthusiasm. By others it is admitted to have embodied a large moral advance. By some, again, its rapid pro- gress is explained through the advantage of an unrivalled organization. But those who attribute its success to its moral excellences, neglect to take into account its qualities as a religion. They ignore Neglect its . . ' qualities as the fact that it is to these, and not to any mere a religion, ethical superiority, that its real advance is due. But, if it be regarded as but one among the many superstitions which had preceded it in East and West, the fact of its success, and still more of its continuance, remains yet to be explained. To the liberal zeal of Christianity, freed from the fetters of the Mosaic Law, Gribbon assigns much of the success view of -r» 1 ' • • '1 Gibbon of its preaching.^ But other superstitions, m the times of the Empire, were equally yielding, equally ^ DtcUne and Fall, c. xv. : " Under these circumstances Christianity offered itself to the world, armed with the strength of the Mosaic Law, and delivered from the weight of its fetters," &c. If, indeed, the remarks of this great historian be understood of a comparison between the genius of the Christian religion and the chass-interests of previous systems as well as of the existing state of Roman society, they might well be received as a fair tribute to the intrinsic superiority of Chris- tianity. M. Littre {Etudes sur les Barbares et le Moyen-Age, p. 2) has some true and fine remarks on the sterility of the results arrived at by Gibbon, who in recounting the Fall of the Emi>ire, takes no heed of the regeneration of the world by Christianity. quati 262 THE PERMANENCE [Lfxt. VI. pliant in receiving proselytes, without Leing equally rewarded. And the intolerance of the simple-minded followers of Jesus for all other forms of belief; their impolitic vehemence against innnoral institutions ; their somewhat narrow im- patience of current philosophical systems ; their jealous secrecy as regards the mysteries of the faith, while little in accord with the liberality to inade- wliich sucli great results have been attributed, are known to have proved stumbling-blocks to a gene- lal reception of the new Religion, It does not seem to have occurred to this writer that the secret of the success of Christianity may well have lain in the harmony of its doctrines with the re- ligious needs of the time, the deliverance wdiich it held forth from impending ruin at the end of the world, by many deemed so near ; ^ the inward calm and satisfoction which it wrought on the minds of its converts ; the stores of spiritual strength which it instilled under circumstances of much worldly depression. These were its legitimate in- struments of triumph." Tlie miracles which it claimed, whatever part they may liave had in the ^ This subject, it is well known, is especially brought forward by Gibbon, ?«. s. But he treats it in the light of a vulgar superstition, which must have been at least as dangerous through the discovery of its iallacious expectation, as powerful iu the cogency of the alarm which it created. ^ " No other religion over combined so many forms of attraction as Cliri.stianity, both from its intrinsic excellence, and from its, manifest adaptation to tlic special wants of the time." — J.ecky, //. E. M., I. 419. True causes of its triumph Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 263 persuasion of unbelievers, were shared by it with rival faiths. Its virtues, like its doctrines, were certainly its own. The pen of our great historian, tliough dipped in gall, does not disallow the moral reformation introduced by Christianity, enforcing, Testified as it did, repentance for sin and blamelessness of moral re- formation life/ " He that nameth the name of Christ, let effected. him depart from iniquity," was long the rule and mark of Christian converts. Nor was this a result of which the causes remain unexplained. They are patient in the character of the Religion preached, as w^ell as in the circumstances of the a2:e which received it. The doctrines of Christ- character '-' ... of Its doc- ianity contained within them the core of man's tnnes. moral regeneration, a supply to his spiritual desti- tution, motives to repentance laid in the atoning work of God for man ; motives to new action, founded evermore on promises of Divine grace.^ Hence the peculiar characteristics of Christian virtue, issuing in a new moral type built upon the ^ For testimouies to an admitted moral superiority on the part of the first Christians, compare Pliny, F.fp., X. 97 ; Galen (ap. Gieseler, I. 126, ed. Clark) ; Justin M., A'pol., II. i. xii. ; Pavfen., c. xxxv. ; Athenag., Leg., c. ii. xi. ; Ep. ad Diogn., c. v. vi, ; TertulL, Afol., c. 45; Origan, c. ttZs., III. 30; VII. 48, 49; I. 67: rh '6voy.a roi 'irjaov . . . ffinoiel davfxaaiav riva TrpaoTTjTa, koI KaracrToXijv tov fjdovs, Kai (}ii\avdp(07riav, koX xP^<^'''0Tr]Ta, Koi r]p,ep6Tr]Ta iv toIs fifj 8ia to. ^looTiKa, rj Tivas ;(p€ias dvdpconiKas iiroKpivafievois, iiKXa irapa Se^a- p.€VOLS yvr]cri(os tov Trepi Qeov Koi Xpiarov Koi Trjs iaonivqs Kpiaews Xpyoi/. ^ " The force which Christianity has applied to the world, and by which it has produced that change in the world which it has, is, in a word, the doctrine of grace." — Mozlcy, B. L., p. 180. 264 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. model of a crucified Saviour ; the humbleness ; the self-sacrifice ; the forgiving spirit ; the obligation of remembering the poor ; the enforced chastity of a redeemed body become the temple of the Spirit of God ; the faith in a life to come, showing itself patient of tortures and of death. § 4. The wider yet far more searching analysis/ instituted since Gibbon wrote, of the causes which Analysis prepared tlie Greek and Roman civilizations for of the state ^ • r>i • r^^ ' • ' ofciviiiza- the infiltration of Christianity, lias seen m the tion at this . . i . i 1 1 -i •^ t n ^ period. ucw sjDirit which stolc upou tlic pliilosopiiy 01 the age, in its broader and more eclectic character under the cosmopolitan system of the Empire, in its introspective and subjective tone, a temper of thought not ill-suited to the announcement of Christian morality.^ But the increasing corrup- its corrup- tion of tlic outcr world, against wdiich Stoicism tion, and . , . • i • i i 1 need of re- spent its strength m vam, despite the wholesome storation . fi-ii' ii •• mnuences oi daily duties and domestic intercourse, called for more drastic and intrinsic remedies. The need of a religion which might reconcile and ^ See Mr. Lecky's powerful, and in many respects adequate, inquiry into the moral causes which preceded the rise of Christianity in the Eoman Empire. — //. E. M., I. c. iii. Compare also Dean Merivale {IIis.t. of the Empire, VI. 356 ff.); and especially Neauder's (I. 6-117) masterly review of the religious state of the world at the coming of Christ ; together with DoUinger, Gentile and Jew, I. 347, 370 ; II. 284-9. '^ See Prof. Lightfoot's learned disquisition on the relations of Stoicism to Christianity (St, Paul and Seneca), in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians. He shows that Stoicism itself was indebted to Oriental sources, and probably to Christian teaching. Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 265 in practice absorb the highest truths of conflicting philosophical systems was more and more felt. Its sanctions secured to the soul of man what centuries of argument and discussion had failed to effect. No closer relation than tliis needs to be sought between Pagan morality and Christian influence. The fixed idea of the religion of the time was that ^s to ^religious of a national Providence, addressed on the part ofiJ^-^s. man by ceremonial observances.^ The disintegra- tion of social superstitions was due to their own inability to meet the wants of the period and the tendencies of the age.^ Credulity gave way before a real and growing anxiety to learn and know the truth — truth which would set men free from many a cruel and degrading practice. The same pro- The dr- . 1 . , , . , , . ^ - cumstances vidential arrangement which, having nrst created favourable the Macedonian Empire and ordained the Roman troduction Conquest, had prepared, against the promulgation uanity,'^' of Christianity, a language common alike to East and West,^ had reserved for it an era markedly ^ It culminated in the Deification of Emperors, For an example of the declining condition of the old state-religion, see Tac, Ann., III. 58. ^ Thus Chrysostom writes {d. Babyla, 0pp., II, 540) : vtv ovbevos ivo-^-qOila-a Tvore r^s 'EXAr/j/tKJ/s 8ei(Ti8aifiovias fj TrXdvr] dtji" (avTTJs ((TJieadr], kol nepl favTi]v buTTfdf, Kaddnep tmv aafidrmv ra Tr]KT)86i/t Trapadoaevra p-aKpa, kol firjdevos avrd jiXdnTOVTOs avTo^ara (f)6eipeTai KOI 8i.aXv6fVTa Kara p.iKpov d(j}avi^fTai. See ap. Gieseler, I. 321, Com- pare Plutarch (d. Superstit., c. xxxiii,). It was remarked that there were no martyrs for heathen doctrines. " Quis eorum," says August., in Psalm. 141, § 20, " comprehensus est in sacrificio, cum his legibus ista prohiberentur, et non negavit?" " Paganism," writes Dean Meri- vale, " had no tap-root of moral renovation," ' " GrcECa leguntur in omnibus fere gentibus," says Cicero, ^^ro Archiu, tive tenets. 266 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. favourable for the introduction of the new doc- trines, combining, as they did, a basis of historical facts '^ with an appeal to personal religious con- sciousness. '' No other religion," it has been truly observed, " had ever united so many distinct ele- ments of power and attraction ; so much ethical reality with a profound sympathy in human trials ; but an- so mucli fccling with so much truth." ^ This, swering to , . . . its distinc- liowevcr, must not lead us to lorget that it is in the distinctive tenets of Christianity that we must look for the true causes of this very combination : in the spiritual convictions which it aroused and satisfied ; in the religious emotions which it con- trolled ; in the promises which it alone fulfilled,^ c. X. Plutarch considered it tlie mission of Alexander, Tr]v 'EXXciSa a-ndpcu. Compare Neander, I. 67, and some remarks by Mr. J. S. Mill (Positivism, p. 24). See also Droysen {Gesch. des Ihllcnismus). It must not be forgotten that the tendencies of an age are only the conse- quences of its historical circumstances. ^ " Up to this time there had never existed among mankind any historical truth on which a religious faith could be based ; nor yet any philosophic faith founded on a personal religious consciousness residing within man's own bi'east, and finding its credentials and interpretation there. ' What is truth?' asks Pilate. 'What can this barbarian teach ns ? ' exclaims the Athenian." — Bunsen, Ood in Hist., 111. pp. G6, 67, E. T. My line of thought in this Lecture leads me to contrast the permanent change of moral teaching, which accomi)anied Christianity, with the world as it found it. This was, however, fundamentally due to the miraculous element which was inherent in its enouucements. This course of reflection is most ably worked out by Dr. Mozley {Bamf. Led., p. 170 ff.). " Lecky, H. E. M., I. 412-414. ^ If Christianity had been only or principally an intellectual move- ment coiisequent on previous phases of thought, it would not have commenced with the jwor. Compare Neander, I. 9. Dean Milman, Latin Christ., I. 451, lias some good remarks on the strangeness and originality of the fundamental Christian ideas to the Komau world, and the consequent difficulty of their reception. Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 267 In these and not in its moral worth, however highly estimated, lay the talisman of its triumph. The doctrine of salvation by belief, "which, then, for the first time, flashed "upon the world," gave the real death-blow to philosophical scepticism.^ It was the new-born consciousness of sin, which, instances. awakening remorse, lit up the sense of responsi- bility and turned it inward on the soul, that invested human life with a solemnity and import never before felt ; which opened,^ as they had never before been stirred, the lips of prayer. Pliny had deemed it but a pollution to the Infinite Spirit of Grod to concern Himself with the petty affairs of men.^ It was the Christian's lorivilege of suffering for and with a suffering Eedeemer* (thus ^ " Apnd Ciceronem et Platonem aliosque cjusmodi scriptores multa sunt acute dicta et leniter calentia ; sed in iis omnibus non invenio, Venite ad Me." — Augustin., in Matt. xi. 28. See Cortf., VII. ix. 13. Carlyle remarks : " The old world knew nothing of conversion. Instead of an Ecce Homo, they had only some Choice of Hercules. It was a new attained progress in t]:ie moral development of man ; hereby has the Highest come home to the bosoms of the most limited." — S. R., J). 136. For individual examples of the manner in which Christianity wrought upon educated minds, see Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph.), Augustine (Con/.), Synesius, and the Eecogn. Clement., I. sub init. ^ See M. Denis, Idets Morales, II, 234, and Dollinger, Gentile and Jew, II. 75-7. A true Eoman prayer may be found in Cato, Be Rust., 0.41. ^ Hist. Nat., II. iv., YII. i. : " Irridendum vero, agcre curam rerum humanarum illud, quidquid est summum. Anne tarn tristi atque multiplici ministcrio non pollui credamus dubitemusve ? " Comp. Cic, Nat. I)., II. ii. ; Invent., I. xxix. ; and Seneca, Epp., 41, 95, He thinks Providence sometimes cares for men. * Compare Clem. Rom., ad Cor. I. xlix., and Ep. ad Diogn., c. x. Prof. Lightfoot (zt. s., p. 32G) well observes : " The moral teaching and example of our L()rd will ever have the highest value in their own pro- vince ; but the core of the Gosi>cl does not lie here. Its distinctive 268 2 HE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. Tliis influence wholly a spiritual no mere ascetic truth that pain is good, and no evil); the requital of love for love, of sympathy for man in return for the sympathy of Grod ; ^ which transmuted the dross of universal luxury into the fine gold of the noblest self-sacrifice and heroic self-control. And thus, lastly, it was fjxr more the hope of eternal life than the fear of ever- lasting torment,'^ which, to the Christian convert, dignified earthly sorrows and levelled worldly enjoyments. § 5. Thus the spiritual character of the hold exercised by primitive Christianity on the lives and consciences of its converts must be considered a fact beyond dispute. It is attested both by the character is that in revealing a Person it reveals also a principle of life — ■ the union with God in Christ, apprehended by faith in the present, and assured to us hereafter by the Resurrection. This Stoicism could not give, and therefore its dogmas and precepts were barren." ^ " The great principle of vicarious suffering, which forms the centre of Christianity, spreads itself through the subordinate parts of the system, and is the pervading if not the invariable law of Christian beneficence." — I. Taylor, Nat. Hist, of Enthus., p. 162. " The pre- cepts and examples of the Gosi:)el struck a chord of pathos which the noblest philosophies of antiquity had never reached. For the first time the aureole of sanctity encircled the brow of sorrow, and invested it with a mysterious charm." — Lecky, Eist. Bat., II. 266. ^ In this matter M. Comte takes a truer view than Gibbon or Mr. Lecky. — See Phil. Pos., V.422. Christianity, he thinks, preserved to itself the advantage of leaving the nature of future pains and rewards open. — See also IV. 190. On the influence of immortality as a Christian motive, compare Lucian, Mort. Peregrin., § 13. On the current views of immortality, see DoUinger, Gentile and Jew, II. 143-6. M. Rio remarks that the earliest delineations of Christian art represent ideas of joy and felicity. Conceptions of Hell and Purgatory come much later, and from heathen sources. There were Roman philosophers who erected to their friends tombs dedicated " Somno teternali." — Orelli, I. j). 262. Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 269 voice of Christian Apologists, by the unwilling witness of adversaries/ and still more convincingly by institutions and social and moral changes which remain as monuments of the influence of nascent Christianity. Testimonies to the active moral force but ex- . . . . . Inl'iting of the new Religion abound, indeed, in the earlier moral Fathers.^ Virtues, hitherto little, if at all, recog- nized, now made rudimentary graces ; passive endurance ; forgiveness of injuries ; resignation under calamity, not as a necessity,^ but as a duty of the human spirit ; humility and meekness ; benevolent unselfish effort replacing a narrow instances. Egoism ;* fortitude under jDain and death for the cause of belief; a sense of sin, not as an outward offence, but as an inward stain ; a strengthened ^ As Epictetus, M. Aurelins, Julian. Cf. Lucian, d. Mort. Pereg., XIII. ^ E.g. Justin M., Apol., I. xiv. xxv. ; 11. xii. Dial. c. Tr., 110, 119, 131. Tertullian, A2)ol., xxxix. Minuc. F., c, ix. Lactant., n. Inst, III. 26 ; Y, 18. Origen, c. Cels., I. 67. See the temperato statements of Gieseler, I. 298, and Robertson, C. H., I. 274. Compare some vivid remarks of Mr. Allies, Fm'mation of Christianity, pp. 2G9, 270 : " The Christian faith had laid its hand on the individual man," &c. * In striking contrast, therefore, to the Mahometan virtue of sub- mission, perhaps implied in the name " Islam." In Phil. Pos., IV. 190, Comte coldly analyzes this quality, which he thinks only compatible with the acceptance of laws of Nature : " Quant a la resignation reii- gieuse et surtout Chretieune elle n'est, a vrai dire, malgre tant d'empha- tiques eloges qu'une prudente temporisation qui fait supporter les malheurs presents en vue d'une ineffable felicite ulterieurc." 4 « Fecerunt itaque civitates duas amores duo, terreuam scilicet amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei, coelestem vero amor Dei usque ad con- temptum sui." — August., Civ. D,, XXIV. xxviii. " Le principe qui dominait I'antiquite etait Tegoisme du plus fort, tantot celui de I'l^tat, tantot celui de I'individu. La personnalite de I'liomme, sa liberie, ses droits naturels, etaient meconnus." — Schmidt, Essai, p. 116. 270 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. conviction of tlie freedom and spirituality of the human will ; conversion from habits of vice, sudden, yet lasting ; the consolations of faith and prayer as the outpouring of the soul to its Re- deemer ; tlie renovation of domestic virtues and ^proprieties, impaired by the vices of Roman society and the evil effects of slavery ; the duty of alms- giving and active charity ;^ the recognition of the rights of conscience and of religious freedom ; the severance of spiritual from political obligation ; a higher estimate of the value of human life ; the sense of a real brotherhood among mankind, in- volving religious equality with slaves;^ a moral ideal suited to high and low ; the replacement of hereditary priesthoods by common religious func- tions ; an operative faith in the reality of another world ; these and other kindred ideas, pregnant with fruitful effects, bore witness to the power and originality of the Faith of Christ in regenerating the heart of man, when first it broke, like the light of morning, on the world,'* as upon men awakened * "Ad banc isartcm (sc beneficcntia^) pliilosopborum nulla iirajcepta sunt."— Lactaut., I). Inst., VI. x. ^ Comp. Arclidcacon Lee's Ler.it. on Ecdes. Hist., pp. 24-29 ; and on tbe operation of tbe Cbristian doctrines, Mcrivale, Lectt. pp. 155, 156. On tlie general services of Christianity at this epoch, Ozanam, Civilis., I. c. i. ^ &>(TiTfp oi TOP vTTVov d7ro(TeixoTpo(j)e'ta, poa-oKopeui, ^evaves, and ^evoSoxela. The Baa-iXeias was a hospital for lejiers. Tlie charitable offices of the Parabolani, Fossani, or Komarai (" ultimum illud et maximum pietatis officium peregrinorum et pauperum sepulturn," Lactant., VI. xii.), should be added. On the non-existence of hospitals and infirmaries in Pagan times, see Schmidt, u. s., p. 75. * Comp. Eobertson, C. //., II. 229. Gregory Naz. and Chrysostom insist largely on the duty ; but the first instances are long before : c, g. Hermes, Prefect of Rome under Trajan, freed 1250 ; Chromatins under Diocletian, 1400, &c. Under this head fall all measures for the im- provement of serfs by Gregory the Great, the laws of Constantine and Justinian, &c. Comp. Guizot, Civ. en Fr., II. 125, III. 137, ed. Bolm. Milman, Lat. Chr., I. 338, 365. Lecky, H. Rat., II. 256-258. The Romans often exposed and put to death sick slaves. — Suet., Chmd., C. XXV. ° Even with the Jews, marriage was only a pohtical institution. Contrast with this the touching treatise of TertulL, ad Uxor., II. ix., (fee. Compare Milman, Lat. Chr., I. 344. ® The first mention of Christian primary schools occurs in the fourth century in Chrysostom and Basil. Sec in Guizot, u. s., I. 351 ; II. 100. There is a treatise by M. Lalanne on the Influence des Feres de VEglise sur Veducation puhliqiie. 272 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. its fuller triumphs, the records of a world-wide humanity, new in motive and spirit as obligatory on the followers of Him Who died for all men. Difficulty Yet it is far more in its action upon individuals, of follow- . . ^ 1 .1 ing it into where History leaves no trace ; m calm and silent private and per- influences shed upon personal character, as genera- sonal life. . „ . ■■ ^ ^ . , . tion alter generation has worked its work and passed ; in the purity of domestic life, in souls attuned to the practice of human charities, to the privilege of suffering, to a departure full of im- mortality ; that the real work of Christianity as compared with other religions must be sought and found/ Biography, more than History, is its true record. Never before was the reflection of a Divine Image mirrored so clearly in the human soul or in the practice of mankind. The summits of Christian heroism in martyr, saint, and con- fessor, flrst touched with the tints of Heaven, were ^ See some good remarks in Robertson, C. Tlist., I. 363 ; and Lecky, II. E. M., II. 156: — "Christianity has suflered peculiarly from this cause. The spheres in which its sujeriority over other religions is most incontestable, are precisely those which history is least capable of realizing." " The record of the spiritual Church," says, Isaac Taylor, Enthiis., p. 191, " is 'on high,' not in the tomes that make our libraries jiroud." " The influence of religion," writes Paley, Ev., II, c. vii., " must be perceived, if perceived at all, in the silent course of private domestic life . . . The kingdom of heaven is within us. That which is the substance of the religion ; its hopes and consolations ; its inter- mixture with the thoughts by day and by night ; the devotion of the heart; the control of appetite; the steady direction of the will to the commands of God, is necessarily invisible. Yet upon these depend the virtue and the happiness of millions." Christianity, as a system of human restoration, works from the individual to the general. See a fine passage in Mihnan, Lett. Chr., I. 24. Lect. VL] of CHRISTIANITY. 273 the first to shine out in the full radiance of" moral splendour. But the warm rays were not long in winning their way to valley and to plain, shedding abroad their gifts of fruitfulness and life. § 6. Thus the hold of primitive Christianity on Superi- the minds and consciences of men was Loth of the force of the strongest and of the highest kind. For it sufficed demSft in to effect, through much individual suffering and chriJ."^'^ sacrifice, a moral revolution in the world ; and ^'^"'^^" completely changed, by moral force alone, the exist- ing religions. And it must be observed that the changes effected, fraught indeed with very impor- tant moral results, were brought about by strictly spiritual convictions. These are to be assigned as tlie true causes of the movement. Here lies the real point at issue with much of the critical philo- sophy of our time.^ It is evidently possible, in reviewing the career of Christianity, to scan it from more than one point of view, provided only that these be not mutually inconsistent. Charges of failure are necessarily incompatible with admis- sions of success. But the allowed successes may be variously explained. The benefits effected for The ser- mankind by the Religion of Jesus Christ can hardly chrL-'' now, as facts, be disputed, though they have some- sometimes times been forgotten by too hasty objectors. Atu?pos1^'° ^ Neander (I. 3) remarks : " Because Christianity enters readil}' into '^^^ "^^ '' all that is human, striving to assimilate it to its own nature, and to in- terpenetrate it with its own power, it appears on a superficial view as if it were itself only a product resulting from the combination of the dif- ferent spiritual elements it had drawn together." T 274 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. present it is more common to attribnte them to the influence of consummate positive institutions ; or at least to the operation of natural causes in such a manner as to eviscerate all native force and vigour in the supernatural elements of Chris- tianity. Neither the founder of Positivism/ nor his most discerning followers, have denied the signal services of Christ's Religion to mankind. They contend, however, that this has been the result of the circumstances of the times, due really to the necessary evolution of ideas in intellectual and This view social advancc. It is important, therefore, to unfounded. . remark how closely the effects of our Religion may be traced to the doctrines of its creed. No philo- sophical improvements, no uprooting of effete institutions,^ no craving after moral reforms, no ^ Comte remarks, Fliil. I'os., V. 328, that Catholicism (with him the embodiment of Cliristianity) has never been fairly criticised, having con- stantly been the subject either of unlimited panegyric or boundless de- traction. He admits the earliest ideal of the Christian Church (V. 229), viz. as an universal spiritual power independent of the temporal, to be the greatest triumph humanity has yet achieved. He regards Catholicism as having done its projier work from the fifth totlie thirteenth centuries, placing the acme from the middle of the eleventh to the close of the thirteenth. Of this he writes (V. 326) : " Le systeme catholique du moyen-^ge forme le chef-d'oeuvre politique de la sagesse humaine." But everywhere he denies (e.g. V. 418, 419) that the moral excellence of Christianity is due to its doctrines, but only to its social constitution, M. Guizot (I. 85) more truly observes that it is " by moral life, by in- ternal movement as well as by order and discipline, that institutions take possession of society. The Church mooted all the great questions which interebt man : busying itself with the problems of his nature and the chances of his destiny. Hence its great influence on modern civilization." 2 Thus M. Littre {Burhures, p. 231), " Le Christianisme naquit de Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 275 agitation for political changes, no mere variation of social conditions, nor all these combined, are sufficient to account for the conversion to the Faith of the Nazarene of the Roman world. The cha- racter and history of that change are, if dimly, adequately known and understood. A set of facts its true and historical circumstances, making up the life, '^°'^' and death, and thoughts of a Galilean peasant, won the ear first of peasants like himself, of women and of slaves ;^ by-and-b}^ of the men of thought and action ; and afterwards of nations and govern- ments. It was found little by little to contain the elements of an universal religion, and to proclaim a Revelation congenial to the wants of mankind at large. In it the ends of the earth met. The leaven of an Oriental mode of faith wrought for the first time in harmony with the genius of the Aryan peoples. But its advance was through personal ^*^ °^^^' influences, from heart to heart still more than from personal, then pub- mind to mind. Had Christianity been only or^i^, principally an intellectual movement, consequent I'union du Mcnotlieisme hebreu avec la philosophie grecque." In pp. 65, 68, he draws out admirably the cessation of Polytheism through the " malaise religieux " of the time. Christianity, he adds, supervened, and became for the many what philosophy had been for the few, a religion essentially moral (?) and open to all ; &c. Compare Mr. Lecky, //. E. M., I. 356, " Combining the Stoical doctrine of universal brotherhood, the Greek predilection for the amiable qualities, and the Egyptian spirit of reverence and religious awe, Christianity acquired from the first an intensity and universality of influence which none of the i)hilosophies it had superseded had approached." This species of Eclecticism assumes everything and proves nothing. ^ See Origen, c. Cds., I. xxvii., III. ix. Iv, T 2 276 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. on previous phases of speculation, it could not have commenced with the unlettered and poor. The mine of sympathy, which it opened, with all the deepest wants of man's spiritual nature, never afterward failed in its yield. In the hearts of the multitude it proved a source of moral regeneration. When placed in the crucible of philosophical criti- cism, it transmuted all baser elements of human Thought, and survived the test. The thinkers of Alexandria, Athens, and Rome, gradually allied themselves with its teaching. When subjected to the rough handling of Barbarian hordes, it still called for couquercd. The example of a Divine Life, the fice^^^ sacrifice of a Divine Atonement*, meeting the two fundamental conceptions of all Religion, ancient as well as modern, the need of Sanctification and of Justification, wrought uniformly and universally. It appealed to latent instincts of spiritual belief^ Sinful indulgence had, indeed, to be cast aside. Sacrifices, meet to purge the conscience, were de- manded of habits, prepossessions, of the ordinary weaknesses and average endurance of mankind. Women faced the pang of separation more cruel than death, the ruin of their homes, the terrors of martyrdom. Men counted the cost of social degra- 1 Mr. Lecky, Hist. Rat., I. 389, observes : " Of all systems the world has ever seen, the philosophies of Ancient Greece and Eome appealed most strongly to the sense of virtue : and Christianity to the sense of sin. The ideal of the first was the majesty of self-relying humanity : the ideal of the other was the absorption of the manhood into God." Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 277 dation and loss, and set it down for gain. From what motive then, ethical or physical ? No doubt from a sense of duty ; but of what duty ? The instinctive call to love Him, Who " had first loved them," and to imitate His p-oodness.^ A new con- based on . . ^ ^ the imita- ception of the gift of life, of the value of man's tion of soul, of its responsibilities, of its capacities, of its dangers, and its hopes, was opened out before them in the Incarnation and Intercession of the Son of God, in the abiding presence of His Spirit among men. Who would not now strive after the Eternal, the Divine? § 7. The hour came when Christianity, no longer Estabiish- an oppressed or tolerated faith, was seated on the chris- tlirone of the Ceesars.^ Under Constantine it passed from being a set of beliefs into an institution ; from a religion into a church, with revenues, organiza- tion, an independent machinery of its own. As a moral or spiritual influence only, Christianity, it may well be, could not have survived the conflict with barbarism. The doctrines believed are indeed the true core of a religion ; yet there may be times ' Compare Neauder (^Memorials of Christian Life, pp. 56, 57, ed. Bohn). Thus Ep. ad Diogn., C. x. ttw? ayairricreis tov ovtcos Trpoayanr}- cravTo. ae ; dyaTrrjaas Se, nifj.r]Tr]s ea-rj avrov ttjs xP^^^'f'orrjTos. - Christianity was first tolerated by Gallienus, a.d. 261. (Euseb., VII. xiii.) Under Constantine Paganism became the tolerated, Chris- tianity the favoured religion. (Gieseler, I. 30-i.) The word " Paganism " first occurs in a law of Valentinian, a.d. 368. Theodosius suppressed Paganism (a.d. 381), which now wrote its apologies by the pen of Libauius. Lastly, the schools of heathen philosophy were closed at Athens by Justinian. See, however, Gieseler, I. 323. 278 THE PERMANEISrCE [Lect. VI. when it is the organism which preserves the vitahty. Its effects. How did the Church of Christ Lear this test ? Can we read in its after-fortunes tlie same traces of a Divine origin and of a Divine Presence ? When we look on the marred visage of a divided and dis- membered empire ; on the warriugs of contending sects ; on the victories of a rival yet apostate faith ; on the social miseries and general immorality of the times, amid which " the old order changing " slowly passed away ; can we still see in the Religion of Christ the hold upon the hearts and consciences of men, the moral life and inward working, which are Why the seal of its heavenly mission ? ^ Why, it has been Chris- . 1 1 T 1 r\^ ' • ' ' tianity did somctimcs askcd, did not Christianity, at a time not save . i < i i the empire, when its powcr secmed at the greatest and as yet unimpaired, save the Empire ? ^ For our unworthi- ness, answered Salvian f from its own overweight ^ For the opposite view, see Zeller, Antiquite et Moyen-Aye, p. 205. 2 Compare Montalembert, Monks of the Wrst, I. 256, E. T. Guziot, Civ. en Fr., Lcc. ii™*^, points out that Christian society is only deve- loped after the invasion of the barbarians, and belongs to modern history. M. Littre gives a different reply ; viz. that Christianity was at first a spiritual, and not yet a temporal power. Mr. Lecky, B. E, M., II. 151, finds an explanation in the fatal indifference of Christians to " the throes of their expiring country." He quotes the striking words of Chateaubriand : " Orose et Augustin etoient plus occupfe du schisme de Pelage que de la desolation de I'Afrique et des Gaules." This view certainly attributes much to the power of Christianity. ^ See T)e Qubern. Dei, III. i. ix. ; IV. v. vii. Taking the Gospel ])recepts he draws a sad but overstrained jiicture of Christian d(!clension, adding : " Quid enini dignius aut quid justius ? Non audivimus, non audimur : non respeximus, non respicimur." Csesarius Arelat. takes the same view in his Homilies. From these rhetorical accounts we may still infer the general corruption of the times, and perceive how fatally, Lect. VL] of CHRISTIANITY. 2yc) of sins, answered Augustine and Orosius. There was reason in botli replies. No doubt, the flame of Christian enthusiasm both rose and fell ; it had its seasons of declension and revival. But the Empire itself was the beginning of the end of Roman civilization, which was properly founded on the virtues of the Republic. It was impotent of per- manent revivification. Under Theodosius, Justi- nian, and even Heraclius, it showed an appearance of concentration and force which had no true basis of reality. It offered no new conditions of social and political development ; no enduring institutions of liberty or usefulness. The Municipal system, wiiat it with its rules of freedom ; the Imperial ideas of majesty, order, and subordination, were, indeed, legacies to an after-time. But it was the Church of Christ which entered on and took up the inheri- tance. Meanwhile the leaven of Christian doctrines was working after its proper kind. From the in- dividual outwards to the race, through single personal influences, the restoration of human nature was progressing. Following, we may well believe, a Divine guidance as the enforcement of a Diviue both in morals and in other respects, Paganism had reacted on Chris- tianity. Compare Schmidt, Essdi, III. c. vi. The conditions of its well- beiug thus vitiated, it was only by the infusion of a healthier stock in tiic rude virtues of the 'J'eutonic tribes that it was enabled to put out its native force. It is interesting to observe that Africa, destined to lose for so long the light of Christianity, is described by Salvian as the foulest of all thePiomati provinces (VII., xiii.-xv.). I*s vices, he says, had bred a second nature in its inhabitants. 28o THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. and why it Law, und as a moral power among men, it made to survived. itself a spiritual, not a temporal, kingdom, and thus survived tlie collision of the Empire with Barharism. Thougli powerless to avert the shock, it had in a It became manner prepared for its arrival. In the free insti- the nucleus ^ of social tutions of the Church, hased on the spiritual liberty regenera- tion; of man, there existed a nucleus of social regenera- tion, destined to work out, on favourable soil, a new civilization,^ Its Councils and Synods, provincial, national, and general, offered a standing example of free assemblies, so congenial to the Teutonic temper. Its election of Bishops and clergy,^ as later of Abbots and Popes, recognized, at first substan- tially, the claims of merit. Indeed, the Church has always recruited herself from all ranks, and thus avoided the stagnation incident to hereditary castes.^ of new Coming forward as a source of new ideas, Chris- tianity had, at the outset, no fear of progress, intellect, or Science. It re-invigorated Art by endowing it with new motives ;* it encouraged in- dustry ; it worked with the influences which were ^ See Guizot, Civ. en Fr., I. 339, E. T. Writers on this period of history will perhaps always remain divided as to the proportion of effect due to Roman civilization, to German independence, and to Christian influence. The fact of the latter agency is all that is here maintained. 2 Guizot, u. s., I. 331. Gieseler, I. 418. The Bishop was chosen (TTiaKOTrcov crvvoba ■^r)<^^ KKrjpiKuv, ahfjaft Xaap. The jjerson elected by the clergy was accepted by the people crying out "A^ios, bene meritus ; or dvd^ios. — See Bingham, IV. ii. 4, 5, and XVII. v. 3, with tlie authorities. 2 Guizot, Civ. en Eur., I. 93. ' * Comp. Ozanam, Civil. Chretienne au V™e Sieclc, I. c. i. See also M. Littre, Les Barhares et le Moyen-Age. Introduction, Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 281 changing slavery into serfdom, and serfdom into free tenures ; and welcomed, in the new races which overran the Empire, the virtues of a rude but un- corrupted Barbarism.^ Thus it furnished its con- "ol^e^^- querors with the elements requisite to their social ^j^g^[°^ °^ development. In the collapse of the Empire, Marians. Christianity was left single-handed to contend with the intrusion of new forces, and to undertake the work of reconstruction. On through the Middle Ages (properly so called) intervening between the decay of ancient civilization and the revival of a new and modern culture under the influences of classical philosophy and literature, Christianity, as an intellectual as well as a moral power, wrought alone.^ The progress made in ph3^sical discoveries ; Vast con- . , . . . sequences in art, however rudimentary, culminating, notwith- due to . , Christian standing, in the sublimest ideals ; m language and influence mental discussion ; ^ was the fruit of Christian influ- times. ^ Compare Salvian, u. s., IV. xiii., VII. vi. "Inter pudicos barbaros impudici sumus : plus adhuc dico ; offenduntur barbari ipsi impurita- tibus nostris." He excepts among Christians ft'om his rebuke the religiosi. 2 " All the civil elements of modern society were either in decay or infancy. The Church alone was at the same time young and constituted : it alone had acquired a definite form, and preserved all the vigour of early age : it alone possessed at once movement and order, energy, and regularity ; that is to say, the two great means of influence." — Guizot, Civ. en Eur., I. 85. Christianity, it must be remembered, preceded the political re-organization consequent on the fall of the Empire, and may therefore be regarded as the more powerful and necessary element. ^ See M. Guizot's most interesting comparison of the civil and the Christian literature in the fourth and fifth centuries. Civ. en Fr., Vol. I. Leo. IV. " Intellectual development," he most truly observes, " tlie labour of mind to obtain truth, will stop unless jjlaced in the train and 282 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VL ence on the rough material of the Barbaric stock. In this period were sown the germs of all future social advance. The ubiquity and variety of Christian influence in the period we are rapidly reviewing, from the fifth to the fourteenth centuries, are every- where apparent. It will be sufficient (and in this Lecture only in part practicable) to mark some Method of instauccs of it ; to briefly assign to other sources of the present . i • i • i i f t-i inquiry, mflucnce their due share m the work of European civilization ; and lastly, to notice some results and circumstances which have been alleged to malce against Christianity as a successful operative ele- ment at this period in the advance of mankind. Efforts of ^8. "Never," says M. Guizot, "has any other tianity society made such efforts to influence the surround- from the . i i i i • t i fifth to the mg world, and to stamp tliereon its own likeness tury. as were made by the Christian Church between the fifth and tenth centuries." ' It was not, lie it re- bcneath the shield of some one of the actual, immediate, powerful in- terests of humanity. . . . The Christian religion furnished them with the means : by uniting with it philosophy and literature escaped the ruin which menaced them." Thus the spiritual vigour of Christianity worked by means of education, and enlisted in its cause the highest minds of the time. ' M. Sismondi, Hist. d. Franc, II. 50 : " Lors de retablissement du Cliristianisme la religion avait essentiuUement consists dans I'enseigne- ment moral : elle avait excerce les cocurs ct ies anies par la recherche de cc qui ctait vraiment beau, vraiment honuete. An cinquienie siocle on Tavait surtout attachee a Torthodoxie, au scptieinc on I'avait rcduite a la bienfaisance en vers les couvents." This summary does not allow sufficiently for the missionary labours of this period. " The triumph," says Dean Mcrivale, " of the Church over her Northern conquerors was the greatest, I suppose, of all her triumphs, the issue least to be ex- Ijccted beforehand, most to be admired in the retrospect, of any." Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 283 membered, till after the invasion of tlie Barbarians that a career was opened to the Church of influ- encing civil society. All institutions hitherto had been laid in Paganism. The government and administration represented only the Imperial system. Slowly, as the Empire fell back in every direction on Eome and Constantinople, these gave way. The mass of the provincial population its new entered the Christian society. New interests and influence, new influence opened before the Bishops and clergy.^ Literature, education, the exercise of the learned professions, fell into Christian hands. As a moral instrument to govern the lives of men, endowed with an organization fitted by its fixedness yet pliancy for wide-reaching and varied applica- tion, Christianity at the period of the invasion of the Barbarians stood forth in all its power, ready for the work which lay before it. By a natural transition the Bishops resident in the cities and centres of population, the last protectors of all that remained of Roman society and Roman civilization, political and social. became the counsellors of the invading leaders ; the equals of counts and nobles ; enjoining humanity towards the vanquished, acting as mediators in ^ The clergy were taken chiefly from the subjugated people who thus acquired a powerful influence over their conquerors. See Canon Robert- son (C*. H., I. 555). They became the " dcfensores civitatis," or standing advocates of the rights of the provincials. On the eflfect of the system of Christianity within the Empire on the Germans, see Merivale {Lectt., p. 102) : " Rome abandoned by her Caisars and her legions was left to the counsel and protection of her Bishop and his priest," &c. 284 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. the reconstruction of social relations between two hostile races, and holding out the model of Imperial legislation/ Their position soon ensured territorial influence^ and hierarchical organization ; a valuable means of permanence in an age when moral con- sideration only or religious reverence might have l^roved short-lived. From this era, the era of Gregory the Great, may be dated the final Chris- tianization of Euro23e in its full possession of society Its part in and of the human mind. The religion and laws legislation. ■\^ • of all nations are more or less closely connected : and the Barbaric Codes were framed for the most part after their settlement within the Empire and their submission to Christian teaching. The rise, then, of the Church of Christ on the ruins of the Imperial system ; its assimilation of the new con- ditions under which it was placed ; formiug a bond of union among the scattered fragments of the Empire ;^ the facility with which it applied itself to the social regeneration of the time, constitute a palmary example of the power and character of its influence, of its capacity for permanence and ^ See Piobertson, «, s., and INIilman's description of the position of bishops and clergy, Lat. Chr., I 361. " Thus the clergy stood between the two liostile races in the new constitution of society — the reconcilers, the pacifiers, the harmouizers of the hostile elements," &c. ^ Not indeed to the secular clergy at large. ^ Dean Milman, Lat. Chr., Yl. 207, makes some just observations on the importance in respect of holding together the great commonwealth of European nations against a Mahommedan confederacy of an ubiquitous clergy, speaking a common language, of all countries, under one head, law, discipline, &c. Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 285 advance. It is true that in secular matters, such as its tem- (X . f, T-». -, . , . I-,. poral sub- the confirmation of Bishops in their temporanties, ordination, (sometimes even in their election), the Church was subordinated to the royal mandates. But on the side of dogmatic and spiritual authority she re- mained free, supreme : and thus established herself in the most fertile and perennial source of influence, but spiri- . . tual liberty. How large a contrast to the decline of ecclesiastical importance in the Eastern Empire! There from Contrast in the despotic authority of the Emperors ;^ their tra- between ditional policy of reducing the Bishops to depend- and Latin ence ; their custom of interference not only with tianity. the government and administration, but even with the creeds of the Church by decrees and edicts of doctrine ; and also from the fact of the laity taking part in matters of theology, and converting them into instruments of policy ; the relations of the ecclesiastical to the civil power were impaired : the influence of the clergy in spiritual affairs dimi- nished ; and the authority of the Christian doctrine, both among the Barbarian immigrants and within the bosom of the Empire, was vitally affected. Its consequences were witnessed alike in the sub- ^ See Milman, L. Chr., I. 331. " Theodosius and Gratian define or ratify tlie definition of doctrines, declare and condemn heretics. Jus- tinian is a kind of Caliph of Christianity," &c. Comp. Gieseler, I. 341, 421 ; II. 59, 119, § 116. The words of Constantino (ap. Euseb., Vit. Const., IV. sxiv.) are well known. See Robertson, C. IL, I. 296, 298 ; III. 137. The Emperor Manuel took part, as an author, in theological controversy. Hence Iconoclasm, which was the Reformation of tlie Eastern Church, was abortive. 286 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. servience of Bishops and clergy, during the rival struggles of Constantinople and Alexandria, and in the Iconoclastic controversies, as also in the fanaticism of the monks of the East, alternately encouraged or compelled by court influence. Spiritual ^ g^ Thcrc is gTOUud, then, for asserting the the reii- prescncc during these centuries of high spiritual moral cor- idcas, notwithstanding the corruption and degene- racy of the times : and that the influence of these ideas produced effects which, with whatever ad- mixture, are characteristic of tlie Eeligion of Jesus Christ. One by one the Barbarian Tribes, as they mingled with the Greek or Latin populations of the Empire, were silently subdued.^ Later, indeed, in the case of the Franks, the compulsion of stern and even sanguinary legislation was brought to bear (partly for political objects) in aid of con- version.^ Heathenism, it might thus be said, ^ Allusion is here made more particularly to the Moeso-Goths, or, as known later, Ostro and Visigoths, within the Empire ; not to the Qothi minores, as they were called, won over to the faith by Ulphilas, " que les Grecs appelbrent le Moise de son temps." Ozanam, Etudes, II. 22. " No record whatever," says Milman, " not even a legend, remains of the manner in which the two great branches of the Gothic race, the Visigoths in France, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the Suevians in Spain, the Gepidse, the Vandals, the mingled hosts which formed the army of Odoacer, the first king of Italy, and at length the fierce Lom- barcls, were converted to Christianity." — Lut. Chr., I. 255. Niebuhr remarks that the proportion of Christians among the Goths was much greater than among the populations they invaded. Vortrdge, III. 316. See Piobertson, G. IT., I. 489. From Sozomen, //. E., II. vi., it would appear that Christianity was first spread by Koman captives in the wars of the third century. * " Germany," says M. Littre, with some scorn, " disputed its con- Lect. VL] of CHRISTIANITY. 287 waned before it, as Christianitv in its turn within Examples of involun- tlie realm of Islamism. But the parallel suggested tary con- version. would be found inexact. For the Faith of Christ, though beaten down, survived in many quarters even under the scourge of Mahommedanism ;^ while Paganism in the far North of Europe altogether, however slowly, disappeared. From first to last in the work of the conversion of Europe it is plain to see that it was an infelt sense of the truth and of the blessings of Christ's Eeligion, which captivated and retained the homage of the Barbarian tribes : the combination of its deeper mysteries with the purity of its moral code. The Barbarians were Tme in- open to the influence neither of art nor of know- of chris- ledge. There remained only the logic of the heart. ^^"' ^ Here the satisfaction offered by the Faith of Christ to the fears and hopes of our nature with its yearning after the Unseen and Divine ; here too the intrinsic and exquisite goodness of its teaching, wrought in the case of the German race on congenial soil.^ Apart version for four centuries, and then yielded to the sword of Charle- magne." — Les Barlares, p. 18. Mr. Freeman, Norman Conquest, I. 29, points out that in England Christianity made its way without violence and coercion. He quotes Bede, E. H., i. 25. ^ As, e. (/., in Armenia. In Persia, Magism, which had resisted the a])peal of Christianity, yielded to the scimitar of Mahomot. ^ Compare Tacitus {Oerm., c. ix.). " Cfeterum non cohibere parieti- bus Deos, neque in ullam humani oris spcciem adsimilare ex magnitu- dine ccelestium arbitrantur : Deorumque uominibus appellant secretum illud quod sola reverentia vident." It has been remarked by Grimm (Z). M., pp. 9-11) that certain religious forms and words are common to all the races of Teutonic descent. See Milman, I, 242. Similarly the readiness of the language to frame words for the new doctrinal ideas of 288 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. from any legendary pretensions to miraculous power, adapted to they Were its permanent credentials to reception. the charac- . . ter of the Amid tlic tumult and suffering of an asre of violence, barbaric . „,,.,. tribes. the ^\Qij of the Christian believer was the more conspicuous, and took, it may well be, a more vehement and impassioned character " It was the time," it has been finely said,^ " for great Chris- tian virtues as well as for more profound Christian consolations: virtues in some points strikingly congenial to barbaric minds, as giving a sublime patience and serenity in suffering, a calm con- tempt of death. The Pagan admired the martyr whom in wantonness he slew, when that martyr showed true Christian tranquilhty in his agony. There was no danger which the better Bishops and clergy would not encounter for their flocks. They would venture to confront unarmed the fierce warrior. All the treasures of the unplundered Churches were willingly surrendered for the Christianity points in the same direction. This topic is ixirsiied by the same author (VI. 347). The same remark had been previously made by Gucricke {Kirchevgesch., sub init.). On the whok subject, see Guizot, Civ. en Fr., Lee. VII. Ozanam, Etudes Germaniques, I. c. iii. Krafft, Anfdnge der ChristUchen Kirche hei den Oermanischen Volkern, and Merivale, Lectt., pp. 88, 130. He remarks on the connection between the Teutonic mythology and the teachings of Christianity, for which it formed a preparation, ' Milman, Latin Christianity, I. 250. " Le Christianisme fut anime d'un ardent proselytisme. Le proselytisme triompha : les barbarcs furent vaincus et pris: s'ils avaient ete inconvertibles, nul ne saurait dire ce qui serait advenu desdestinees de I'Occident." — Littre, «. s. In a single generation from their conversion the Normans became remarkable for their devotion. See Hallam, M. A., I. 135. Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 289 redemption of captives. Even the austerities prac- tised by some of the clergy, and by those who had commenced the monastic life, would arrest the attention, and enthral the admiration of Barbarians, to whom self-command, endurance, strength of will, would appear kindred and noble qualities." Nor must the fact of an elaborate ritual,^ con- Symbon- sidered as a means of impressing by symbolic ter ofi'ie'^ forms, or words, the deep-seated truths of the chm-ch. '^ Christian Faith on an unlettered people, be omitted from a review of the spiritual influences exercised at this period by Christianity. If not religion in the highest sense, such modes of representation were the preparation for it. § 10. The privilege of asylum or sanctuary, Example claimed by the Christian Church in the Middle tian in-^ Ages, and recognized accordingly in most Barbaric the priv!^ Codes, though familiar in the history of Greece,^ sancuLy. '• ^ "Christianity offered itself, and was accepted by the German tribes as a law and as a discipline, as an ineffable, incomprehensible mystery Ritual observance is a taming, humiliating process : it is sub- mission to law : it is the acknowledgment of spiritual inferiority : it implies self-subjection, self-conquest, self-sacrifice. It is not religion in its highest sense, but it is the preparation for it." Ritter (Christliclic. Philos., I. 40), ap. Milman, I. 376. Dorner (nist. Protest. Th., I. 17) makes the same remark as to canonical law. An all-embracing spiritual kingdom was thus opposed to physical force and warlike ambition. ^ C. F. Hermann (Or. Antiq., II. p. 44) remarks that this privilege belonged mainly to the oldest Temples ; and hence infers that it was a relic of the restraint imposed by religion in the earliest and most savage periods. Similarly the Hebrew Cities of Refuge are connected with the primeval practices of " blood-money," and a " revenger of blootl." 290 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. was confined by Roman legislation to the protec- tion of slaves.^ It may be cited and selected as an example of the intrinsic influence asserted by Christianity over the most savage of its converts. While it appealed to the innate reverence^ for holy places congenial to the Teutonic mind, it exercised a restraint on the most violent and fatal passions, based on a strictly spiritual principle. No crime, it taught, is so heavy that it may not be pardoned by the individual man out of the love and fear of Not at fust Qod and in imitation of His mercy .^ Nor at first abused. ^ ^ was it abused, when sufficiently controlled by the higher law of the community. It was in the same manner that the Papacy itself,* despite the vices, 1 See Gains, i. 53. Digest, 48, Tit. 19, s, 28, § 7. Gibbon (c. xx.) speaks roughly of " the ancient privilege of sanctuary as transferred to the Christian Temples." But the laws of Charlemagne, as also of the Anglo-Saxons, required the Church to surrender persons convicted of capital crimes. Cf. Robertson (C. //., II. 228). "^ " How must this right," says liallam, " have enhanced the venera- tion for religious institutions ! How gladly must the victims of in- ternal warfare have turned their eyes from the baronial castle, the dread and scourge of the neighbourhood, to those venerable walls, within which not even the clamour of arms could be heard to disturb the chant of holy men and the sacred service of the altar ! The pro- tection of the sanctuary was never withheld." — Middle A(jes, III. 302. 12th edit. ^ Being thus reminded that All the souls that were, were forfeit once, And He that might the 'vantage best have took Found out the remedy. * " No accessory or fortuitous aids could have raised the Papacy to its commanding height, had it not possessed more sublime and more lawful claims to the reverence of mankind. It was still an assertion of eternal principles of justice, righteousness, and humanity. However it might trample on all justice, sacrifice righteousness to its own Lect. VL] of CHRISTIANITY. 291 ambition, and 2:reed of those who sat in St. Peter's Analogy '^ ^ of appeals seat, fulfilled, out of the very arroo^ance of its pre- to the . . . . ^ ^ CL papacy. tensions, a function of undoubted spiritual benefit in those rude and turbulent ages. It was a tribu- nal of appeal for the helpless, a refuge from over- whelming tyranny, as the impersonation of the power of the Grospel, before which the crowned monarch and the lawless baron trembled and gave way.^ "Speaking God's testimonies even before kings it was not ashamed." And the same reflec- tion is sue-Q'ested when there is taken into account Of the , . . . system of the vast system of spiritual authority exercised peniten- , . r. p . 11. tials, ex- m the practice 01 confession, absolution, excommu- communi- nication, and interdict, in the recognition of the duty of penance,^ in the existence and usage of Peni- tentials as a part of Christian law. However rude, humiliating, harsh the discipline enjoined, however tending to corrupt itself through pecuniary substi- interests, plunge Europe in desolating wars, perpetuate strife in states, set sons in arms against their fathers, fathers against sons : it was still proclaiming a higher ultimate end. It was something that there was a tribunal of appeal, before which the lawless aristocracy trembled. There was a perpetual provocation, as it were, to the Gospel," &c. — Milman, L. Clir., III. 441. ^ " The medieval popes almost always belonged to a far higher grade of civilization than their opponents. Whatever may have been their faults, they represented the cause of moral restraint, of intelligence, and of humanity, in an age of physical force, ignorance, and barbarity." — Lecky, //. Rat., II. 155. Christianity, it must be remembered, must be judged by the evils it has prevented as well as by its positive benefits. 2 On the change from public to private confession and penance, with its consequences, see Gieselcr, II. pp. 68-70, and p. 318. In the Western Church this important difference was introduced by Leo the Great. Compare Hooker, E. P., VI. iv. u 2 292 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI. tution ; it yot exhibited the power and quality of a Religion which would not be defied or evaded, to restrain, out of no worldly considerations, the licen- tiousness, inhumanity, and lawlessness of men. What no human law could effect, it secured by spiritual constraint and the " terrors of the Lord.'* ^erds«i Though unsafely lodged in the hands of a fallible iS'cncr^ priesthood, in a low condition of culture, and des- tined later to corruption from their corporate and individual covetousness, it still performed its part; rescuing society from moral anarchy, and bringing home to the ignorant and wanton the direct admi- nistration of God. Where conscience, as a re- straint, would have been powerless, its authority in Sin of ' ^^^ person of the priest was obeyed. The particu- tempoiai Jar iuflucuces of medieval Christianity hitherto and spiri- tual power adduced are instances of its general tendency to detach the spiritual from the temporal power, one of its greatest benefits to mankind ; and to operate within the just limits of Religion, the hopes and fears of a future life. In this manner the authority of conscience, freedom of thought, individual inde- pendence and accountability, were preserved in ways unsuspected, it is true, by the champions themselves of ecclesiastical privileges.^ Thus the * " Lcs societes," yays M. Littrc very profoundly, " nc sent pas commc un indiviclu qui en line exti<5initd pent sc dire, que faire? et qui dirigc des efforts deteraiines vers un but deterniiu6 ; inais elles ont des impul- sions et des instincts produits par les forces iutrinsOques qu'elles se scntent." Lect. VI.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 293 Inquisition itself, amid all its iniquities, by holding observable the civil power to be incapable of pronouncing on out medie- religious belief, actually became the advocate ofucism. toleration. The imjDortance of this element in medieval Catholicism has been honourably ad- mitted by some who in other respects are no partial judges of the working of Christian institutions.' I shall cite (though not in the present Lecture) but two other examples of the true character and in- tensity of the influence of Christianity during this stage of European progress, which will conclude this portion of our subject. Thus far we have Actual seen the services, the triumphs, the potency of our of cinis- holy Religion in establishing itself upon the ruins tiiTrecou- of Paganism, in laying the foundations of our of society. modern civilization. We have seen also that it was destined in the wisdom of an overruling Pro- vidence to survive persecution from without, inter- nal heresy and division, the revivals of heathenism, and the flood of barbaric invasion. But not only did it survive : it proved itself indispensable to the advance of mankind, socially, politically, intellec- tually. Under its shadow learning revived ; sen- ^o reason timent softened and became refined ; the arts [jjcuhlg its expanded, knowledge and thought progressed.^ J"'^'^'^^'' become » M. Comtc and Mr. J. S. Mill, both indeed after M. Guizot, who has <=^'^"^'^^^- ii-refragably established this fact. Sec Phil. Fos., V. 229 ; Mill's Dis- sert., II. 243. ^ " But still, it will Ix'. asked, would not all this result of Christianity Jiave bccu just the same without the peculiar doctrines ? " — Mozlcy, 294 THE PERMANENCE, ^^c. [Lect.. VI. The question then remains, is there reason to hold its quality to be changed — has it lost its virtue ? Have its principles proved hollow and unsound ? Has it wrought its work, has it impressed its in- fluence through a falsehood ? Such as we have seen it to be, it overcame the world in its fairest and most highly civilized regions. And none but this, we know and are assured, " is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." B, L., p. 190 ; wlio replies that besides the matter-of-fact coincidence between the results and the doctrine, there is the conviction of the agents to the same effect. Would a moral Deism have produced the same consequences ? Would Christianity deprived of its revealed ideas exhibit the same fruits ? LECTURE VIE THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM THE CHARACTER OF ITS INFLUENCE. " If we are to calculate the probable extension or extinction of Christiau opinions, we must consult the evidence of facts on a lai'ge scale; and especially must observe what manifestations of intrinsic power they have given on certain peculiar and critical occasions. This is tlie only course that can be deemed satisfactory, or that is conformed to the pro- cedures of modern science." — I. Taylok, Nat. Hist, of Enthus., p. 2G4. I LECTURE VII. " Ve are the salt of the earthP — C|9att. b. 13. T may seeDi at first sie-ht unjust to cite^onasti- ^ o J cism, how Monasticism as a specific testimony to ^ testi- '- ^ ^ ^ mony to the power and character of Christian doctrine, the iniiu- . . , . . sncc of when its prevalence among earher religions, as chris- that of Buddha, is taken into account/ No doubt, sacrifices have been made by other faiths to the principle of Asceticism. All such would by some thinkers be equally and unhesitatingly condemned. ^ Thus M. Littre observes : " Le Christianismo, quelques temi^^ra- ments qu'on y ait apportes, est line religion essentiellement ascetiquc : ot commc I'ascetique Biiddhisme il avait enfante le monachisme." — ies Barhares, p. 115. Some have traced the origin of Christian Mona- chism to the Palestinian Essenes, represented at Alexandria by the Therapeutaj; some, on the other hand, to a doctrine of the Neo- Platonists. — Comp. Gieseler, II. i. ; Neander, I. 84 ; DoUinger, Ocntile and Jeiv, IL 311-316. Philo (de Vit. ContempL, § 3) recognized the tendency as one common to human nature under certain conditions. TToWaxov y.iv ovv ttjs olKovjxevr]! tovto to yevos. "ESet yap ayadov TeXfiov ixeTaa-xelv fat ttjv 'EXXdSa Kal rrjv ^dp^apov. This iirinciple, however, to jj-ovov ehai Trpos Qeou, is a different one from the philosophic ascetic spirit which was early remarked in the fii-st Christians, as a reaction on the immorality of the times. Similarly the doctrine of a higher perfection, which arose out of the asceticism of the monastic life, has no necessary connection with its first principles. Comp. De Wette, Gesch. d. Ghristl. SUtenlehre, I. 340. Chrysostom (a. 02)piujn. Vit. Mon., c. iii., ap. Robertson, C. IL, I. 332) well says, " All men ought to rise to the same height ; and that which ruins the whole world is that we imagine a greater strictness to be necessary for the monk alone ; but that others may lead careless lives." 298 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. Others might be inchned to place them on an equal footing. But, on the other hand, it is not unimpor- tant that the Religion of Christ should not in its past history be without a test of spiritual convic- tion and personal sacrifice which belongs to other faiths. And certainly when the genius of Western Analogy Mouasticism is contrasted with that of Oriental of Bud- dhism. Monachism ; and this again with the futile itera- tions, external rites, and debasing humiliations of the followers of Gotdma,^ the faith of Christian EurojDe will not be found to suffer by the compa- rison. The great work of Monasticism has doubt- morai'^^^^ Icss becu to exhibit a high, if one-sided. Christian defects, ideal, superior to surrounding secular influences, and surpassing the conception of mere moral or political institutions. I cannot see with some that the pre- sence of such an ideal tends to reduce the average standard of religious duty. M. Renan ^ has not denied to it a savour of originality, the present loss of which to the human mind he views with a cer- * Compare Mr. Hardy's Eastern Monachism, and for the Buddhist monasteries of Thibet at the present time, Mr. Cooi^cr's Pioneer of Commerce. " Undoubtedly," says Dr. Mozley (5. L., p. 187), " the doctrines of false religions have extracted remarkable action out of human nature ; especially the doctrines of Oriental religions ; e. . . . . neration. reverting to the nrst principles of its constitution proves the same thing.^ Tliere was the true salt within : and it had not lost its savour. The spirit of self-sacrifice was working still : and on the inten- sity of that spirit, it has been truly said, " depends the moral elevation of an age, and upon its course the religious future of the world." The faith which forged this instrument to its use, was no baseless dreain : it struck deep into the roots of human nature, and drew upon its most heroic qualities.^ Its its spiri- ■*• ^ ^ ^ ^ tual enthu- best enthusiasm became its minister : it wrought siasm. its appointed work till " the history of self-sacrifice has become the history of the action of Christianity upon the world." ^ The lofty and unworldly con- ceptions, born of the faith of Jesus Christ, gave it its type and beauty ; and so called it into being. To their influence from first to last, while pure and uncorrupt, it has borne its witness of truth. 1 Comp. Eobertson, C. H., II. 698. See Eauke, Poises, II. i. 3. 2 " The Middle Ages," says Mental ember t, " were the heroic age of Christianity." Cump, Lecky, //. Bat., II. 2G7. ^ Lecky, m. s., p. 405. Milman, I, 234, thus sums up the lienefits secured by Western Monasticism : " It compensated for its usurpation of the dignity of a higher and hoher Christianity, by becoming the guardian of what was valuable, the books and arts of the old world ; the missionary of what was holy and Christian in the new civilization ; the chief maintainer, if not the restorer, of agriculture in Italy ; the culti- vator of the forests and morasses of the North ; the apostle of the heathens which dwelt beyond the pale of the Roman empire." Sec also Hallam, M. A., III. 301. estimates of thei results, 304 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. The §2. In a review, however rapid, of the spirit and efficacy of medieval Christianity, some estimate of the Crusades can hardly be omitted. They have been said to "have revealed Europe as Christian,"^ and form, indeed, the turning-point of its history from Different the eleventh to the thirteenth century. Their good of their and ill, their motive and character, have been variously estimated, and will always be diversely apprehended. Unjust, chimerical, unwise ; lavish of blood and treasure, beggaring families and nations : squandering the lives of a Barbarossa and a Saint Louis ; the causes and pretexts of misery, immo- rality, and tyranny at home, of increased ecclesias- tical domination in Pope and clergy ; ^ yet no less the source of subsequent heresy and revolution : they have been held up to condemnation as the type-instance of the fatality attaching to religious wars. Yet it is probably a truer view which re- gards them as a defensive and not an aggressive struggle ; ^ as entered upon to raise a bulwark against Mahommedanism in Palestine rather than 1 See Guizot, I. 149. ^ "The Cruaades had made the Pope not mei-ely the s]iiritual but in some sort the military suzerain of Europe." — Milmau, III. 439. On the miseries and ill -effects attaching to the Crusades, comp. Ilallam, M. A., I. 36, III. 307. ^ See a good summary in Canon Iiohertson's (Jh. Hid., II. 044, G'lS, and compare Gibbon, c. Ixi. ,0n the defensive character of the Crusades, comp. De Maistre (^Du Pape, Liv. IV., CEuvres, p. 450). Gibbon, indeed, (c. Iviii.) observes, somewhat narrowly, that " Palestine could add nothing to the strength or safety of the Latins." IMilman comments fairly that the whole question of i\\G justice of the Crusades turns on tliis point (VII. 185, ed. Smith), mate services Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 305 in Spain. If fraught with temporary evils, they uit yet abounded in ultimate benefits ; knitting the rendered nations of Europe in one common sentiment, in one Emop? ° common interest : and that by a holy bond draw- ing each knight and baron from 2:)etty personal strifes to strike for a hallowed cause : educating tliem in the spirit of chivalry and generous compe- tition with the stranger races of East and West,^ and borrowing from these their different civiliza- tion ; navigation and commerce were improved : the wealth of the trading classes increased : the number of fiefs lessened, and the anarchy of the times thus reduced. Many of these results, it is Many of , . , , , . . , , tliL'se in- true, may be judged to be incidental to the course ddentai. of affairs ; and this, it may be said, cannot be con- sidered to belong to the framework of the Christian system. They show, however, the manner in which under the Providence of Grod the operation of ^^™'^^' '''" J- example of Christianity blended with the career of civilization t|ie opera- tion of and improvement, till it becomes difficult to assio-n christian ■^ ^ , ^ ^ ^ influence to either its relative degree of importance. Had on the course of Christian zeal in the person of a Bernard never civiiiza- kindled the spirit of the Crusades ; while it is pos- sible that Christian Europe might have succumbed in detail to the attacks of Islam, it is certain that the progress of material improvement must have been indefinitely delayed. But, whatever estimate ' See Giiizot, I. 154. Gibbon thinks the advantage wholly on the side of the West. See Mr. Lecky's remarks, U. E. M., II. 26(5, 267. X 306 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. be taken of their political or social results, there can ho but one view of the religious import of the In them- Cnigadcs.^ Thcv staucl forth, the proud answer of selves a re- ^ ' ^ maikabie Christendom to the challenfre thrown down by the witness to . . the power creed of Mahomet. If its votaries were ready- of religious ^ ^ "^ influence, minded to seek death on the battle-field in witness of their faith, so too did the followers of Christ. They wended even gladly on a pilgrimage of mar- tyrdom ; and gave joyfully their lives, as they sup- posed, in the cause of their dear and outraged Lord. counter- ']^qi indeed, as the Moslem, to behold the face of vailing ' ' Mahome- Allali throuffh the blood of the infidel : but to win tan lanati- '-' c'sm, back from pollution the honoured shrine of Beth- lehem and the ever-hallowed Mount of Calvary.^ ^ Speaking of the English Crusaders, Matthew of Paris says, " Tndig- nuni qnippe judicabant animarum suarum salutem omittere et obse- quium crelestis Regis clientelaj regis alicujus terreni postponere." — Hist. Maj., p. 671, quoted by Mr. Buclde, //. Civ., 11. 6, who adds that the first tax ever imposed in England on personal projjerty was in 1166, for the Crusade. 2 To ohase these Pagans in those holy fields Over whose acres walked those Blessed Feet, Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed For our advantage on the bitter Cross. Gibbon's well-known criticism that " the God of the Christians is not a local Deity, and that the recovery of Bethlem or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will not atone for the violation of the moral precepts of the Gospel," will be seen to be beside the mark of the present argnment, which turns not on the justice or propriety of religious wars, but on their mode of exhibiting the spiritual character of an age and the power of religion as a practical motive. " The Crusades," Dean Milman admits, " are monuments of human folly ; but to which of the more regular wars of civilized Europe, waged for personal ambition or national jealousy, will our calmer reason ap]X'al as monuments either of human justice or human wisdom? " Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 307 It has been hinted that these were, after all, the suj^erstitious efforts of a dreaming age, inspired by an unreasoning enthusiasm ; which is past never to return, and indicates accordingly the decline of the spirit of religion. " The Crusader's sword," it is said,^ " has long been shattered ; his achievements idolized by the j)oet and the novelist. Liberty, and not theology, is the enthusiasm of the nineteenth century." Yet the same writer has elsewhere ^"4 ^'^^ ' . . . hibitinj^ frankly admitted,^ that " while ignorance and error the fund of Christian have, no doubt, often directed the heroic spirit into enthu- T 1 1 1 • 1 • siasm, wrong channels, and have sometimes even made it a cause of great evil to mankind; yet the power of Christianity to evoke and sustain the highest, tlie most enlarged conceptions, can cease only with the annihilation of the moral nature of mankind." We may be pardoned, then, if we connect these triumphs of the strength of our holy Religion in less enligh- tened ages, not merely with man's moral capacities, but with his spiritual insight : if we see in them not only a possible but an actual union of the heroic with the religious virtues, of the patriot with according the saint,^ after the apprehension of those far-off know- times ; if we read in them an evidence of a Faith tL^tlme. ^ See Lecky, IUs,t. of Eationalhm, II. 244, 2 11., p. 405. ^ " In the Middle Ages the saintly type being the standard of iJerfcc- tion, the heroic type was almost entirely unappreciated. The nearest approach to it was exhibited by the Crusader, whose valour was never- theless all subordinated to superstition, and whose whole career was ol" the nature of a penance." — Lecky, //. B., II. 222. X 2 308 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. ever progressive, working after the measure of the knowledge of the age, even according to the pro- mise of its Founder " overcoming the world ;" now " suhduing kingdoms ;" now " quenching the vio- lence of fire;" now " waxing valiant in fight;" " turning to flight tlie armies of the aliens ;" yet always and in all things more than conqueror " through Him that loved us." Want of § 3. Much evil, it must be admitted, has been done to the cause of Christian Truth by indis- criminate laudation ; ^ or, at least, througli an nation as to the separate m the'con- over-estimate of its effects, by way of answer to of molfem ccnsurcs equally exaggerated. There are some Europe. ^j_^^ havo sceu in Christianity the sole and sufficient agent in the work of civilization, dis- joining it, like a fragmentary episode,^ from the ordinary influences at work upon the face of society. We have seen cause, with stricter and more profound thinkers, to take a different course. Christianity has been, no doubt, a leading and a distinct element in modern civilization; but it has^ ' See some good remarks on this point in Comte, Phil. Pos., V. 328. ^ 0\)K €0iK€ 8' fj (pva-LS eVeicroSicoST^y oSaa, warrep ^.ox^drjph rpayadia. — Arist., Metaph., XIII. iii. ^ " C'est Ik le beau role de la communaute cliretienne sur la terra : elle est comme un ferment de I'humanite, destine a lui communiquer le principe fecond et indestructible d'une vie nouvellesans toucher violem- ment aux institutions etablies. Ardents i^our la conversion des indi- vidus, les Apotres attendaicnt sans impatience le rcnouvcUenient des formes sociales. lis I'abandonnaicnt a Taction du temps et a la puissance irresistible de I'Esprit de Jesus-Christ. Toutefois s'ils ont respecte les lois existantes, ils ont indique en meme temps les principes destines a les modifier en les conformant a la nature du Royaume de Dieu." — Schmidt, Ef^sai, p. 175. Lect. VI I. ] OF CHRISTIANITY. 309 worked in conjunction with other forces. And it is difficult accordingly, in some cases, to award duly the proportions of the resultant effect. We have already seen that Roman civilization left its legacy of complex influences in its Municipal system and Imperial traditions. We have seen likewise that in the physical and psychical elements of the Barbarian stock, in their inherited associations and ideas, fresh jDrincipIes of recon- struction were added to modern society. As what por- _ . . tion due to Christianity modified the manners and tempera- the action / . . ^ ofChris- ment 01 the Teutonic race, so was there, m some tianity. respects, an inverse action on the form and direc- tion of Christianity itself. No competent thinker will either deny the importance of Feudalism as an element in the general progress of these ages, or seek to attiibute its consequences to the teaching or influence of Christianity.^ It coincided, how-i'^reia- . t'ons to ever, with the spirit of the new Religion in raising Feudai- the moral tone of society. Feudalism was itself the mingled outcome of German loyalty and Grerman independence. The progress^ of society from villages and manorial residences to towns ^ Mr. Freeman, Norman Conquest, I. 97, distinguishes between the elements of Feudalism and a Feudal system. In the former, the Church could have no share, however readilj'^ she co-operated in de- veloping the latter. Thus, a vast number of the ancient Charters are in favour of the Church. ^ " We must distinguish," says Hallam, ill. A., I. p. 3')!, N. xviii., " the corporate towns or communities from the other class called bur- gages, hourgtoisies. The Chatelains encouraged the growth of villages around tlioir castles, from whom they often derived assistance in war, &c." In a former passnge, he attributes more to the action of Chris- 310 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIL operation. and trading boroughs was due, not to any eccle- siastical arrangement of parishes, hut to tlie operation of feudal tenures. They were, in fact, the molecules of Feudalism. Yet the operation and distribution of religious influence was pro- bably rendered more favourable by this condition Its joint of things. So the extinction of serfdom, though zealously assisted by Christianity, and not un- frequently assigned to its authority, was mainly,^ perhaps, due to secondary causes originating in the state of aftairs just named. The altered position of woman in modern society,^ though, tiallitJ^ "The subjection of a heathen tribe is tolahy different from that of a Christian province. With the Church came cluirches, and for churches there must be towns, and for towns a magistracy, and for magistracy law." — J6., I. p. 121. See Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, III. iii., on the rise and progress of cities and towns. 1 See Hallam, M. A., I. 197-202. In 1167, Alexander III. declared all Christians exempt from slavery. See Voltaire, Essuis, tom. ii. c. 83. '^ Thus, Guizot, Civ. en E., I. 71 : " Was it not within the bosom of the feudal family that the importance of women developed itself?" and especially the picture drawn by him of the wife as Chiitelaine, Civ. en Fr., III. 91. " This elevated and almost sovereign position, in the very bosom of domestic lile, often gave to the women of the feudal period a dignity, a courage, virtues, a distinction, which they have displayed nowhere else, and has, doubtless, powerfully contributed to their moral development and tlie general im])rovement of their condition." Too much import- ance has, no doubt, been assigned to the consideration in which women were held by the German tribes (Tacitus, Gei m., xviii. xix.). Mr. Lecky, however, in his elaborate Essay, has pointed out some ingredients in this subject due to the action of Christianity, as the tendency of the religion to the milder virtues, the feminine ideal of the Virgin, the Christian laws of chastity, the part played by I'eminine inartyrs, &c. See also Dean Merivale, North. Nations, Lect. viii. Had Asceticism been a strictly Christian virtue, it must have been reckoned as tending to debase the position of women (//. E. M., II. 336, 389; //. Hat., I, 235). Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 311 to some extent, due to the preceding efforts and to the co-operation of Christianity, as well as to doctrines immediately connected with its system, has been, with reason, traced to circumstances ai-ising simply out of Feudalism. Chivalry itself, ^^Hf^^ which also has been claimed for a Christian insti- chivalry, tution,^ niay, with better right, be called the daughter of the feudal system. The estimate of its influence in elevating and refining the tone of modern society can hardly be over-charged. Yet the joint efforts of Christianity to lend it all the strength of a hallowing faith, cemented by religious ceremonies and fostered by religious promises, are too well known to need description or comment. Thus, then, in all these cases it is not contended that Eeligion has been the only influence at work in eliciting our modern civiliza- tion ; but rather that it has exercised a continuous and independent function. Even its crowning ^ As by Sismoudi, Ilht. d. Fr., IV. 201 : "At an epoch when reli- gious zeal became reanimated, when valour still seemed the most worthy of all offeriugs that men could i^resent to the Deity, it is not surprising that they should have invented a military ordination, and that chivalry should have appeared a second priesthood, destined in a more active manner to the Divine service." Guizot, however, finds chivalry to be " the spontaneous consequence of Germanic manners and feudal rela- tions ; " and that " religion and imagination, the Church and poetry, took possession of chivalry, making it a powerful means of attaining the ends which they pursued, of fulfilling the moral needs which it was their mission to satisfy." See at length Civ. en Fr., III. LC9. vi. ; and Hallam, M. A., III. 395, 396, who traces it to the age of Charlemagne. See the sketch of the relation of chivahy to the Church in Eoberlson (C. H., II. 507). 312 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. benefit of distinguishing between the spiritual and the temporal power is in a measure due to other aiidtothe and secular causes. For while recos^nized funda- Teutonic <=' character, mentally by the Religion of Clirist, and enforced in its organization, it was no less congenial to that spirit of personal and individual liberty introduced in the Teutonic nature into modern society.^ The believer was not absorbed in the Deity whom he worshi2:)ped or in the Church of which he was a member, nor was the individual man sacrificed, as in the Republics of old, to the citizen. Conup- § A The incontestable fact that the course of tions of ... medieval Christianity has been affected in all its institutions Chris- tianity and many of its doctrines by the infirmities of human nature and tlie historical circumstances of its advance,^ has led to unfavourable but ground- ' See M. Griizot's excellent summary, Civ. en Fr., torn. i. Lee. vii. sub fin. : " The spirit of legality came to us from the Roman world. 'Jo Christianity we owe the spirit of morality, the sentiment and empire of rule, of a moral law, of the mutual duties of men. The Germans con- ferred upon us the spirit of liberty as we conceive it in the present day, &c." Liberty of thought, indeed, he elsewhere (Lef. xxx.) attributes justly to Grcco-Koman civilization. This was received neither fiom Christianity nor from Germany, but is an idea which is essentially the daughter of antiquity. See Mr. Lecky's remarks, //. E. il/., IL l'J7, on the relation of feudal organizations to the Church. Dean Mcrivale, Northern Nations, p. 127, holds that " patriotism was a Pagan virtue, but loyalty is a Christian grace." " To his own Lord the Christian must ytand or fall. And as patriotism was the classical, so was loyalty the feudal principle." 2 Compare the testimony of Jerome ( Vit. Malch., sub init.). " Scribcre disposui ab adventu Salvatoris usque ad nostram a^tatem, quo modo et per quos Christ i Kcclesia nata sit; etadulta,persecutionibus creverit et martyriis coronata sit; et postquam ad Christianos principes venerit potenlia quideui et divitiis inajor, scd virtutibus minor facta sit." Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 3 1 3 less criticisms of its authority and value. I have already alluded to causes which, in the Eastern Church, debased the genius of Christianity, cor- rupted its practice, and arrested its progress. It is plain that as the Religion enlarged its boundaries and established its predominance, its moral effects would decline, for various reasons. There may inevitaiiie well be a tendency, under a rigid dogmatic system, for morals to assume the form of positive com- mands, and thus to lose their spiritual savour. To speak, however, of no other cause of declension, the inducements of temporal advancement were now on the side of conversion instead of being ae-ainst it. The establishment of a State Chris- fro'iiUs *-" _ _ ^ ^ political tianity led indirectly to the repetition of General position. Councils, as a ready instrument ; these to the inevitable enforcement of often transcendental doe^mas; these, by a reaction, to political dis- ^I'f^si't fcJ ' •> J '1 ■vvith evils, putes and to theological intrigue and persecu- tion. Orthodoxy now brought its own reward ; and sanguinary contests for pre-eminence usurped that rivalry of love, which had once been the honourable badge of the earliest believers in Christ. " The very scenes," we are told, " of the Saviour's mercies ran with blood shed in His name by His ferocious self-called disciples." ^ The growing necessity of conforming a new faith to the apprehensions and habits of barbarous races ' Milmaii, Lat. Chr., I. 213. 314 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VI I. led of itself, in many wavs, to a direct variation of its standard, Loth as to morals and religious yet neces- belief.^ Tliis, liowevor, it must Le remembered is sary to its ,. . . . i i • persis- no evidence ot intrinsic or permanent declension. tency and ^-11 i i i i i progress It has bccn truly observed that " the very onences signalized are a token of progress, since it is the strongest proof of the firm hold of a party, whether religious or political, upon the public miud, when it may offend with impunity against its own primary principles. That which at one time is a sign of incurable weakness or approaching dissolution, at another seems but the excess of healthful energy and the evidence of unbroken vigour." ^ It was not, then, to be expected but that in the West also Christianity should exhibit transitions often foreign to the spirit of its teach- ing. Amidst the barbarian elements among which it had to work, Christianity itself began to bar- in a bar- barize. As the price of its influence on an age barous age . . . , . ^ •^ • -\ and nation, dark and superstitious, its doctrines were exhibited in a debased, ambiguous form, productive of last- ing consequences on the purity of the faith. As the cost of its power over a warlike aristocracy, and of its establishment by the side of feudal Its mill- institutions, the higher clergy are seen assuming tarycha- J & &J & racter. 1 g^.g 13^,^^ Milmari's remark, Lat. Chr., I. 443 : " 'I'he liistorian who should presume to cunilcmn this universal popular religion as a vast plan of fraud, or the philosoplier who should venture to disdain it as a fabric of folly, would be equally unjust, blind to its real uses, assuredly ignorant of its importance and its significauce in the history of man," 2 See llobertson, C. II., I. 143. Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 315 tlie character and pursuits of barons and tlie employments of a warlike profession.^ The growing strength of the Mahometan invasion gave rise to wars which, having the defence of religion for their aim, threw a decent cloak over the martial tendencies of Bishops and Abbots, and gave to the Christianity of the age a military and violent aspect. The Crusades, which had proved so serviceable an instrument for extending eccle- siastical and Papal influence, were not readily allowed to cease. They were continued with Religious •^ wars, greater success and more barbarity, in the form of religious wars against heretical and unortho- dox sectaries. Nor were these contests confined solely to the aim, however unjustifiable, of esta- blishing uniformity of belief by force of arms. The claims and encroachments of the Papal and sacer- dotal systems upon the temporal power of the European monarchies involved grievous and con- tinual conflicts. The questions of Investiture and of the particular relations of the Papacy to the personal rights of sovereigns were urged with varying fortunes, but undiminished persistency, until the close of the thirteenth century. Then Decline of 11- • 1 f • • 11 • • ^'^e Papal came the ebb m the tide 01 spiritual domination, power from close • Comp. Gieseler, II. 374, td. Clark; Halkuu, M. A., c. II. Pt. ii. of thir- Tbey were used by the German sovereigns as a balance of power against teenth tbe nobles, tbus receiving whole counties as fiefs, but with the obliga- century, tious of feudal tenure, e.'f of belief and practice; of the substitution of man Innesr for God ; of the Church for the Gospel ; of sacer- dotalism for the moral sense, as the last religious appeal ; of salvation by positive ordinances and ritual observances, rather than by personal holiness and implicit belief of a Faith fast losing its hold on the morality and true dealing of the time.^ All this it proved. But it proved equally the inherent vigour of a Religion which, thus in the course of ^ This is the view of M. Comtc ; developed at length iu Phil. Pos., Vol. V. ^ Compare Dean Milman's sketch, Lat. Chr., VI. 379, 380, of the virtual teaching of the German Mystics, the "Reformers before the Reformation." Y 322 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. This a really ages, could purify itself like running water, from the errors and defilements of the past : that it is no system which must lean always on ignorance, despotism, or craft.^ The great hope for Chris- s°m^tom tianity, the standing witness of its perpetuity and truth, must lie always in this possibility of reconstruction, this return upon itself; in this ten- dency and capacity of expelling all foreign and unhealthy matters, not of kin with the true ele- ments of the Faith of Jesus Christ. But the Refor- mation, impartially examined, proves likewise that the history of the Western Church prepared for itself the test which was then applied, and which it has successfully survived. However dormant, there lay within its doctrines and institutions that out of the appeal to reason and to the relierious conscience nature and ^ ^ ^ ^ history of which, in fact, produced those effects. In the the reli- , ' ^ gion. Monasteries, Schools, and Universities,^ themselves the creations and nurselings of the Faith of Christ, arose slowly, yet surely, that spirit of inquiry ; that love of reality and truth ; that consciousness of spiritual wrong, and of a higher law than the con- straint of existing practice ; which, slowly ripening, ^ Comp. Isaac Taylor {Ili&t. of Enthus., p. 267). ^ Sec Guizot, Civ. en F?-., Leg. v., vi. Dean Milman (Lat. Chr., V. 485-8) shows the relations of the Monasteries to the Universities. Mr. Lccky (II. E. M.) remarks too naiTowly that "it was not till the education of Europe passed from the Monasteries to the Universities, not till Maliommedan science and classical free-thought and industrial independence broke the sceptre of tlie CJliurch, that tlie intellectual revival of Europe begins." It is im- portant that this crisis arose Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 323 contained the pledge of future amendment and of continuous progress. From knowledge alone, however improved and matured, the Reformation could never have taken its rise.^ But when once spiritual conviction and enthusiasm were enlisted on the side of reflection and inquiry, the result could be no longer doubtful or precarious. § 7. It is ever the misfortune of human effort, shortcom- 1 -. , , . . , . . ings of the whether m politics or religion, that the movements Reforma- it originates must needs reflect the passions, weak- nesses, and shortcomings of their authors and their times. The good which a generous enthusiasm pro- mises to itself, is never altogether realized. The evils expected or exaggerated by unfavourable critics remain at least in part to mar the benefits which, on the whole, ensue. I am not concerned to strike a balance between the estimates of those who see in the theological results of the Reformation nothing but good or unmixed evil. It is time that the violent Different estimates and unintelligent antagonism between Catholicism of its true 1 -r» • 1 f» 1 T 1 character. and Protestantism, unworthy of the enlightenment of our times, and arising simply from traditional ^ See Gieseler's excellent remarks, V. 202, ed. Clark. This is a trtier view than, with Mr. Lecky (77. Eat., I. 28-i) to refer the causes of the Eeformation to an increased acquaintance with Latin classics and Greek philosophy. Dr. UUmann well observes {Befvrmers hefore the Reforma- tion, II. 3, ed. Clark), " On only one side did philosophy contribute to the revival of Christian piety and knowledge. We allude to Platonism, which, being naturally akin to the Gospel, now entered into league with the new and living theology, and rose with fresh vigour against the Aristotelianism of the Schoolmen." Luther and Melancthon were however, on opposite sides in this matter ; at least after 1529. Y 2 324 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. causes, should give way before a calmer, a more discerning, a more compreliensive analysis. I desire only to insist on facts now generally ad- mitted by impartial investigators. The services of Medieval Catholicism should, as we have seen, he no longer ignored. Neither mnst its corruptions be denied.^ The state of the Church of Christ in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was such as to demand renovation both in its theory and in its Undoubt- practice. Let us think only of its immorality, its evitabie as simouy, its supcrstitions. We have already seen refo™/'^^ that the evils which then afflicted Religion were in many ways the historical consequences of the cir- cumstances under which Christianity had taken possession of the world ; the treasure of a Divine Faith poured into earthen vessels. These evils had grown with the growth of the Church : in some doctrinal accretions they touched its vitality nearly; yet without being inherent in the essential prin- ciples of the teachings of Christ. Tlieir removal or amendment could be effected only by practical reforms of a nature to eradicate the immorality of the times, more especially in the case of the clergy, but only But tlicsc rcforms depended ultimately for their possible , . . , ■ , • , 1 • p f^-K through a authoritativc reception on a reconstitution oi Chris- purgation of doc- ' Comp. Bollinger, The Churchand Churches, Introd. ; cindLectt. on trine. Be-imioyi of the Churches. The necessity of the Reformation is sufficiently shown by. the impotence of the General Coimcils of the fifteenth cen- tury to abolish abuses. The episcopal system was wholly subject to I'apal domination; a fact which told unhappily on the course of the subsequent movements. lence a truly Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 325 tian doctrine. Had the Reformation been only a moral advance ;^ an improvement of life and man- ners ; as some have preierred to regard it, and as at its outset it undoubtedly seemed to its precursors ; practical changes would have sufficed. It was, however, not so ; the causes of the movement lay deeper ; the spiritual element of disturbance was of more account than the moral ; and in this fact and in its gradual superiority over all opposition lies the guarantee of continuous religious regeneration, and so of the permanence itself of Christiauity. Had the results of the Reformation been solely of a ii^ moral character, the ultimate interests of the Reli- spiritual gion of Christ might indeed liave been imperilled. "^°^^'"'^" ' The chief cause of the existing corruption lay in the distortion of doctrine through human additions and human institutions. "Where, then, stood the remedy, and what led to its adoption ? It consisted in a re-examination of the Religion itself; of the traditional develoi^ments and actually existing system by the moral and by the spiritual sense of the age. If it survived the test, it was once more testing the persis- ^ The moral movement which preceded the actual outburst of the the'^prin- Reformation (which may be considered to have formally commenced ciples of with the Papal Bull, Exsurge Domine (June 15, 1520), rejecting Chris- Luther's propositions and excommunicating him ;) can hardly be dis- "-'^""y' tinguished tVom the religious revival which accompanied it. This exhibited itself in simple apostolical preaching; in fraternities for the encouragement of piety and good works, for the circulation of the {Scriptures, and the like, Hagenbach ( Vorlesungen, I. 18) points out the importance of assigning an historical commencement to theHeforma- tion. This he identifies with Luther's Thesis at Wittenberg (1517). cism. 326 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. replaced in its native purity and dignity, as the fulfilment and crown of the aspirations of the soul of man. Such, accordingly, was the character of the witness rendered by this, the most imjDortant religious crisis in modern history, to the per- Spirituai petuity of tlic Christian Faith. The Christianity of declension i • • i i • i • 1 / r of Cathoii- Catholicism had m tJie mam become, (not of course to all, or indeed to the liighest natures,) an objec- tive law, an external ordinance, a compendium of statutes,^ as well in spiritual beliefs as on its moral side. Good and wdiolesome influences w^ere still abiding in it, but trammelled and overlaid by secular corruptions. There was needed, then, a re- sumption of its first claims on man's intelligence and spiritual apprehension. The Keligion must be seen again to be what it really is : not a set of /or- muloe for action or belief;^ not a visible Theocracy implicated and involved in political embarrassments by an assumption of temporal powder ; but rather a personal instinct of love and gratitude,^ based, indeed, on eternal facts of human interest ; the out- ^ Comp. UUmann, u. s., II. 617 ; or, as M. Comte has happily ex- pressed it, " too much of an institution, too little of a spirit." It encouraged learning, but sacerdotally ; industry, but through guilds ; chivalry, through military onlcrs, &c. ^ " Protestantism, as compared with the other two great Church par- ties of Christendom, rests content neither with a mere intellectual appropriation of Christianity, whether in a speculative form or in a recoUectivc form that faces a traditional doctrine ; nor with a mere subjection of the will to a dogmatic or even practical Church law." — Dorner, Hist, of FroL Th., I. 5, ed, Clark. ' See Ullmann, Reformers, II. 618. Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 327 come of a living faith, acting powerfully to regene- rate and sanctify man's heart, transforming, as a new Divine element of life, the character of indi- viduals and nations. No doul)t, this true Christian Real im- .. . c -If 11 11 •• V^^'^'^ of the sjDU'it manifests itself as a moral law and doctrine 111 Rcforma- agreement with its nature. But its appeal is to a higher consciousness, both as to Reconciliation with God and Sanctification, than belongs to the perform- ance of moral duties ; and rests more truly on an assurance of facts which are bound up with the mysteries of the Faith. Such was the real import of a struggle which had been maturing through many generations. Its obscured incidents have often been treated as thoufrh they to"<^a-i ^ y character were the simple effects of circumstance. In this view , Gospel light first streamer! from Boleyn's eyes. Men fought, as it appeared, for a mere dogma •} and one, too, on which the more moderate thinkers on either side were practically agreed. But the true issues of the conflict lay deep in the constitu- ^ Luther's language as to Justification by Faith is well known. It is the " articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesia3. De hoc articulo cedere, aut aliquid contra ilium largiri nemo piorum potest, etiamsi coehnn et terra et omnia corriiant. Nam in hoc articulo sita sunt omnia, quaj contra diabolum et muudum universum in tota vita nostra testamur et agimus." See Art. &malc. 305, and Form. Concordice, 683. Yet no attempt at a definition of this article of faith had descended from the Fathers. Melancthon, Bucer, and others, moderated the expressions of Luther. The Tridentine Fathers considered that all Luther's errors were based on his view of Justification.— Sarpi, Hist., IL p. 178. Sec Bp. Browne on the XXXIX. Articles, p. 285. On the first rcceitiim of the doctrine by the Catholics of Italy, see IJankc, Popes, II. i. 1. most in- tractable 328 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIL tion of human nature, and involved the destinies of Christianity itself. A fresh recognition of the work of Christ for man, obscured as to its spiritual efficacy by a blank ceremonial belief, was neces- sary to secure the renewing of a right relation andnar- between Himself and His Church, "the blessed company of all faithful souls." A type of such a doctrinal recognition was sought and found in Justification by Faith only ;^ and belief in it was strengthened, if not suggested, by an examination Practical oF tlic witucss of Holy Writ. Its application in practice involved differences, not indeed in them- selves insnrmountable ; yet which have hitherto proved fruitful of dissension and schism. Such are a denial of sacerdotal mediation ; a low estimate of ecclesiastical authority ; a widely varying inter- pretation of the Sacraments of the Grospel ; a wlioHy altered relation to the historical Church of Christen- dom. To these must be added, as fresh sources of embarrassment, the admixture of secular interests ; together with imperfections of knowledge and cliaracter on the part of the leading Reformers.'^ ' More jiruperly, Fides sola juatificat; scd fides non est solitaria; i.e. in the words of Augustine (J)e Fid. ti 0/j., c. xiv.), "scquuntur opera bona justificatum : non praicedunt justificandum," 2 " Luther," says Chillingworth {lid. Prot., VI, 73), " was a man of a vehement spirit, and very often what lie took in hand he did not do it, but overdo.it. He that will justify all his speeches, especially such as he wrote in heat of opposition, I believe will have work enough." See Sir W. Hamilton's strictures (Discussions, 491-506). " If there have been any wilful and gross errors, not so much in opinion as in fact (sacrilege too often pretending to reform superstition), that is the crime of the Reformers, not of the Reformation ; and they are long Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 329 S 8. The Reformation, then, can only be con- This ana- ^ ... lysis evi- siclered a fresh conception of tlie faith and doctrine dent from r ^ r^^ ' • ^• c '^'^ course of the Gospel, a regeneration of the Christian lite of tiie .. if>--iiPii' ^1 movement. and spirit ; the irmt, indeed, 01 the history 01 the Church, with its attendant corruptions of letter and spirit, practice and doctrine, yet in effect a return to the primary teaching of Christianity. It contained, accordingly, distinct elements wrought out by different agencies, by the men of thought and the men of purpose. Tlie first furnished, out of an advance in Scriptural knowledge^ due in part to the revival of classical learning, those first principles of doctrine which were the grounds of action to the practical reformers of existing abuses. On these last attention has often nearly wholly, but not unnaturallv, turned. As the '^'^e p'"^c- tical aspect prime agents, the martyrs and confessors of the of the Re- -*■ " formation since gone to God to answer it ; to Wliom I leave them." — Laud, the most Conftr., xxiv. 5. In the words of Leibnitz, " Ce sont les defauts des studied, hommes, et non pas ccux des dognies." The fanaticism of the Anabap- tists belongs, as Dorner has shown, not to the principles of the Reforma- tion carried to excess, but rather to the social and rehgious maladies of the pre-Reformation period. See some good remarks of Hallam, Lit. of E., I. 371, on the passions which were instrumental in the Reformation, and Dean Hook, Lives, New Ser., I. 20. ^ Such, e.g., was Nicolaus Lyranus, a Franciscan monk, wlio as early as 1330 completed his PostiUcf perpetuoi. It was of this exposition it was said : — Si Lyra non lyrasset Lutherus non saltasset. Sec Mosheim, 11. 644. On the Biblical factor in the Reformation, noticeable as early as the Waldcnses, and traceable through Wycliffo (1380) and the various vernacular translations of the Bible in the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries, see Dorner, u. s., I. 63, 441. Lastly, the labours of Reuchlin, Erasmus, &c., must be taken into account. 330 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. movement, they have enlisted sympathy and won admiration. Douhtless at such crises decision and self-sacrifice are of more apparent value than the results of slow and just reflection. Yet, on looking back, it is now sufficiently clear that the doctrines for which men died, the contributions of patient thought and learning,^ form the abiding results of this great epoch in religion, and were the true Its tnie preparation for it. If, then, this view be correct, import- f> 1 T-> (• • 1 anceasa the Very csscncc of the Reformation lay, not m belief. aiiy practical correction of abuses, nor in a moral advance, but in its theology and belief. It has been called the reaction of Christianity, as a teach- ing of the Gospel,^ against Christianity, as a de- claration of Divine Law. It was, indeed, a free doctrine of grace and faith, of love and spirit, leading to the fulfilment of legal and moral rigli- teousness, as a prompting of the heart restored to fresh union with the God of its salvation, and conscious of its own restoration;^ ideas once ^ Such were the labours of the Reformers before the Eeformation, Johann von Goch, Johann Wessel, who held explicitly. the doctrine of justifying faith, Gerhard Groot, Jacob von Jiiterbock, &c. Of Wessel Luther said : " If I had read Wessel first, mine adversaries might have imagined that Luther had taken everything from Wessel." — Wcrhc, ed. Walch, xiv. 220. He also claimed kindred with the efforts of the earlier Mystics, Tauler, Eckhart, and the Friends of God. ^ It was a saying of Luther's, that " the law and the Gospel are as far apart from one another as heaven and earth." ^ Luther thus distinguishes between _^cZf'S,_^c?«c/a,andcerpovyievos. Under Catholicism the personal j'earning after salva- tion and closer communion with God, had too often to fiud refuge in conventual retirement. We have already noticed the intrinsic selfish- ness which lay at the root of this system. "^ " In our own times there is a constant disposition to consider the liberty of the Reformation as an abstract form ; to fancy that any imaginable substance may be put into it ; and hence to conceive Protestantism as implying a principle of progi-ess absolutely unrestricted, and it matters not whether bej^ond the pale of Christianity, or even in direct opposi- tion to it. No such tenet has any foundation upon the idea of liberty as conceived by the Iteformers and their psrcdccessors." — Ullmanu, Reformers, I. xviii. 332 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. of nega- tion. that is already laid, the testimony of the Gospel, and the rule of strictly primitive tradition. ^ The Re- ^ 9. It is further evident that the Reformation, fomiatiou . presents rifrhtly cousidered, presents no interruption of the no break , „, ^. in the con- continuity of humau affairs,^ no foundmg over Chris- again of the Church of Christ. In its truest and a system, best development there was no breaking witli the past. It called for no belief that the Church had been at any time wholly forsaken by the Spirit of her Lord, or disinherited of His promises. It never renounced the historical basis of Christianity. No phase It was uo mcrc phase of negation or of destruction, but rather a reconstruction ; a transition apparently spontaneous from beliefs, themselves transitional and relative to new modes of religious thought and belief, limited by the canons of Apostolic teaching. The very idea of a Re-formation implies a return to a standard or point of outset already known and fixed.^ It is a spiritual re-edification ; and, as such, a recall to primitive Christianity, to the words and examples of Christ. For Chris- ^ Comp. the concluding declaration of the Confession of Augsburg ; " Tantum ca recitata sunt qua3 videbantur necessario dicenda esse, ut intelligi possit in doctrina ac cserenioniis, apud nos nihil esse receptuni contra Scripturani aut Ecclesiani Catholicam." — Syllog. Con/., pp. 158, 232. 2 " Protestantism in all its movements and antitheses preserved the steadiness or continuity of a historical and growing formation." — Dorner, Hist. Prot. Th., I. 9, and the excellent remarks in p. 50. "The Reformation would lose its historical basis and connection, if, in order to furnish a triumphant justification of it, we were to see nothing but darkness before it." ^ Gal. i. 7, 8, 9. For tiiere cannot bc^ two Gospels. Lect. VIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 333 tianity itself was at the beginning a purely spiritual ^o im- religion, a strong invincible conviction of renewed reaction. individual fellowship with a merciful God and Father, effected by the Incarnation and Sacrifice of His Son. It was no less as the offspring and pro- duct of this conviction in the believer ; or, in other words, of this living faith, a life of love and spon- taneous morality/ Its body is, indeed, the Church animated ever by the vital presence of Christ and of His Spirit, yet liable to admixture and deteriora- tion, subject to the conditions of earthly things, the results of time and succession, of political issues, and historical development. The balance of com- The tme , . , f, (.^ . balance of piementary doctrines may, m the course 01 anairs, doctrine become overthrown, without, however, those doc- trines being severally contradicted or lost; such, for example, as the parallelism of a dogma of Justification with that of Sanctification ; of Christ's Atonement with the need of personal holiness ; of subjective faith with objective righteousness ; of grace with works ; of positive commands with moral obligations ; of external symbolism with a living consciousness of its significance; of ecclesiastical constitution with spiritual worship. This balance its contH- the Reformation sought to restore. It has left the future some truths clearly defined as its contribution to chris- future ages of the Church, more especially man's ^^^^ ^' need of individual regeneration ; that this cannot ' Compare UUmann, Iteformcrs, I. p. 4. 334 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII. be wrought out by natural means alone ; that by a Divine Revelation, and in a Divine relation with the creature of an abiding and universal character, man's salvation is secured. " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon Thee." § lo. Thus, if Christianity be indeed the "salt of the earth," ^ it must needs be purgative, and is ever tending to throw off the accumulations of worldly impurity; an impurity which reaches to the lowering of heavenly doctrines, as well as to the marring of their realization in practice. The \\.% protest- Christian idea, the imitation of Christ, made pos- ment. siblc by the Incarnation of the Word, will always, in a manner, protest against the defects inherent and immanent in its manifestation in the world.^ At varying epochs this antagonism could not but show itself forth. The conflicts to which all human progress seems liable, its corruptions, its hindrances, must needs attend equally the action of Christianity upon mankind. Yet " a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." And this self- 1 " It was necessary that the Gospel, which had once ah'cady proved the preserving salt for the world, where putrefaction had begun, should again penetrate in its original purity, power, and leavening influence, into the hearts and lives of the people." — Dorner, I. 40. 2 " The Protestants did not get that name by protesting against the Church of Rome, but by protesting (and that when nothing else would serve) against her errors and superstitions." — Laud, Gonf. with F., xxi. 3: viz. at Speier, April 10, 1529; where it had been decreed by the Papal party, " contra novatores, ut omnia in integrum resti- tuantur." Lect. VII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 335 quickening, self-renewing process will not be wanting even to the end, while there remains among men the opposition between truth and error, between holiness and sin, between the king- dom of God and the kingdoms of the world. LECTURE VIII. THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM ITS MISSIONARY CHARACTER AND PRESENT STANDING. " Ex quo intelligimus Ecclesiam usque ad finem niundi concuti quidem persecutionibus, sed nequaquam posse subvert! : tentari, non suj^^erari. p]t hoc fiet, quia Dominus Deus Omnipotens, sive Dominus Deus ejus, id est, Ecclesia?, se facturum esse poUicitus est : Cujus promissio lex naturas est." — Hieron., Comment in Amos, sub fin. " Is it possible to expect a further and more perfect manifestation of Religion, as we may expect a further and more perfect manifestation of Art, or Science, or Philosophy ? No. Never, either in our days or in the remotest future, can any religious progress hope to rival the gigantic step which humanity made through the revolution effected by Christ." — Stkauss, Life of Christ, Vol. II. p. 49, 3rd ed. LECTURE VIII. '■' Lo ! I am with you alway ; even unto the end of the worlds — £?9dtt. n'^iii. 20. § I. ^T^HERE is a growing tendency to i"egard Jndency^ ^ the results of the Eeformation in two ^iews of the Refor- very opposite aspects. It has been assailed as the mation on ^ ^ ^ ^ _ the present commencement of an era of unbelief, of unsettle- estimate of the Chris- ment of all authoritative teaching; as the cause of tjan re- all subsequent fluctuations of opinion on religious subjects.^ Its historical course has been held up as a warning ; as exhibiting the Nemesis of a revolt from traditional doctrine. Strange to say, the Romanist and the disciple of Comte, though from very opposite suggestions, are of one opinion as to the demerits of Protestantism. While the former eyes it with sternness, or, at best, with compassion, as the outcome of human waywardness and re- bellion ; the latter regards it only with philoso- phical contempt.^ To him it is an interruption, a view of ^ Gibbon (VII. 61) struck the first cliord of this ill-omened pre- tivists diction. " The friends of Christianity are alarmed at the boundless impulse of inquiry and scepticism ;" &c. He here aj^pears in the un- wonted garb of "the candid friend" of the Eeligion of Christ. "Le Protestantisme le grand reveil chretien," says M. Eenan more truly. ^ Comte notes as marks of the religious disorganization of the age, the resistance of Catholicism to intellectual emancipation, and the secu- larization of the ruling classes. These are the results of Protestantism, i. e. of the right of private judgment, which leads inevitably to Demo- cracy in Church and State, to a negative philosophy, attacking first 2 2 340 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. of the Rational- istic School. stumbling-block, a logical inconsequence, an issue of mental anarchy, a period of transition^ of con- fusion, of necessary evil, fraught with social and political disturbance. i\s the introduction to after- changes; the pioneer of Positivism ; a main agency in dissolving the older military and hierarchical organizations ; the accompaniment of an era of free, metaphysical discussion ; it might, one would have thought, have been entitled to passing re- spect. This is not, it seems, to be accorded. But there is also another view of this great historical movement, one which has affected so largely and so permanently the condition and fortunes of Europe ; which is now becoming popular. The Reformation is looked on as the companion, and as itself the result, if not the precursor, of a spirit religious truth, while all other becomes a lesser and included result. He divides Protestantism into a. Lutheranism, which is really an attack on Catholic discipline, the dogmatic differences being slight : h. Cal- vinism, an assault on Catholic organization or hierarchy, of the most powerful kind : c. Socinianism, a dogmatic revolution of the deepest character, being a protest in favour of Monotheism. See Fliil. Pos., V. G80, ff. In V. 353 he speaks of " I'esprit d'inconsequence qui carac- terise le Proteslautisme," and mourns the intellectual fluctuation, the malady of the age, which has flowed from it. He thinks the recogni- tion of the solidarity of man and the continuity of human life have been lost in the anarchy which has been the work of Protestantism. This era of revolution, of dispersive analysis, began, indeed, from the fourteenth century, continuing to the present time, when it is about to close irrevocably. Fhil. Fos., V. 233, 346 ; Pol. Pos., III. 417, 500. See also Littrd, A. Comte, p. 223 ; and Paroles, p. GO. Dorner, Eist. Prat. Th., I. 272, points out that the Peformatiou principle, which has been so often termed disorganizing, and has even been confounded with the spirit of revolution, gave effect, with a power previously unknown, to the divine rifjJd of civil authority. otes- tantism. Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 341 of Rationalism ; ^ an inevitable consequence, in- deed, and one not, therefore, to be condemned; part of the natural progress of human effort, and of the growth of the human mind. This pro- gression, evident in all other departments of social activity, in industrial and secular advance, in national morality, in philosophy and speculation, could not fail to make itself felt in the region of theological opinion. This estimate of Protestant- its esti- • 1 1 "^^^c of ism will be found (however it may be connected r with it,) not to be identical with that of Positivism ; which regards it either as a pure negation, or as a confused form of theological belief. I have already given reasons for believing that Religion, as to its own evolution, is not dej)endcnt on moral progress, and is only indirectly affected by intellectual culture. It remains only to dis- How it 1 ^ c^ r^^ • • • c 1 affects the engage the future of Christianity from the conse- future of quences to which it must be liable ; if it is to be tianity. regarded, (together, indeed, with all religions,) as a thing of the past ; a lingering survival of an anterior stage of thought or civilization ; or again, as a mere vehicle, though of an exalted and highly commendable kind, for passing on to future gene- rations the gift of an improved morality.^ ' See Mr. Lecky, //. Rat., I. 181, 288. Rationalism, he thinks, is the totality of the influences of civilization. Continental Protestantism has continually developed towards it. ^ In this, according to Eationalistic theologians, consists the per- fectibility of the Religion of Christ ; viz. in expanding the doctrines of Christianity into those eternal truths of reason, which constitute the 342 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. Theory of ^ 2. The former view regarding the prospects of the Christian Church and more immediately of Protestantism, being that of the Positivist school, forms part of an elaborate but highly artificial criticism of life and history ; which must, if at all, be accepted as a whole. It must defend itself along its whole line ; if it is to be taken as a true explanation of the world and of the times in whether which wc Hve. At present we are concerned no to facts, further than to inquire whether it offers the only le2:itimate account of the course of human affairs in respect of Keligion, and whether its view is sufficiently confirmed by present facts and actual probabilities. No doubt, as has been already said, the Reformation presents no interruption of the continuity of Histor}^^ It was itself the slow universal possession of the race. There is something ominous in Mr. Lecky's language when he says : " Loyalty, patriotism, and attach- ment to a cosmopolitan cause, are three forms of moral enthusiasm respectively appropriate to three successive stages of mental progress : and they have, I think, a certain analogy to idolatrous ■worship. Church feeling, and moral culture, which are the central ideas of three stages of religious history." — //. E. M., I. 142. ^ " The error of Positivism," writes Dr. Westcott, "is in limiting Christianity to the view of Catholicism. Christianity is supremely fitted to mould for itself the organism which is best suited to meet the intellectual, or social, or moral wants of the age. It is manifold in embodiment, though one in essence. It is not a principle of order, but a spirit of life. It is limited not by laws of logical construction, but by laws of free growth. It survives the decay of one organization, to animate another." — Co7d. Hcv., VI. 415. " II est incontestable en effet d'apres I'onsemble de notre passe intcllectuel pendant les trois deruiers siecles, sans avoir besoin de remonter plus haut, que la continuity et la fccondite sont les symptomes les moins equivoques de toutes les con- cci)tions vraiment scicntifiques." — Comtc, rhil. Pos., IV. 2G9. We claim these also fur Christianity. Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 343 result of time and previous changes. Similarly Results of also it has in turn initiated changes which are still mation going on, and are still the subjects of discussion progi"ss. and dispute. The real point is the nature of these changes and of their consequences. The Christian world, it is not denied, is endlessly divided, and shows as yet few signs of ultimate reunion. Is this, then, to be held the beginning of the end ? Does it mark a decline in the power and spirit of Division Religion ? — in its hold upon the life and mind and whether a conscience of its professors? — in its capacity of of decline. assimilating surrounding conditions of culture and of converting unbelief ? I cannot see that it does. I see in these facts rather the evidence of the working of a leaven ; which, if it ceased to ferment, might be justly suspected of inefiScacy and decay. This leaven (if we have learned any lesson from the past history of Christianity, it is this ;) works variously in accordance with the circumstances of the time under review. In Protestantism it has Historical been conditioned by the advance of opinion ment of through intellectual discussion and physical dis-tantism. coveries ; by military history ; by social and poli- tical vicissitudes tending to a multiplicity rather than to unity of form.^ It has been crushed under ' " However imposing," remarks Prof. Westcott, " the apparent unity of the religious life of the Middle Ages may be, it cannot be questioned that socially and individually the principles of Christianity are more powerful now than then. We lose the sense of their general action in the variety of forms through which they work." — Comtc on Chris- tianity, Coiit. Btv., VI. 410. dormancy or reac S44 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. the burden of successive revolutions. It has been made the pretext for administrative changes, and thus compKcated with political interests; at one time for resisting democratic tendencies ; at another as the enemy of all political absolutism,^ It has alternately been held to be the friend or foe of freedom of thought ; the ally or enemy of philoso- phical opinion ; as fearing or welcoming the vast and ever-progressing influences of industrial Periods of development. But through all it has worked on ; and worked after its own kind. There have indeed been times when, exhausted by its struggles for existence and for toleration, its spiritual powers lay dormant, and might seem well-nigh extinct,^ During long periods the secularism of court intrigues, the heats of metaphysical controversies, the atheistic intolerance of the French Revolution,^ appeared to have expelled all interest in the ^ See Lecky, Ilht. Rat., 11. 182-186. The internecine struggles of Catholicism and the Reformed Faith in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, may justly be claimed as testimonies to the power of the Religion which was held to be at stake. — Cf. Corner, II. 3. ^ Mr. Herbert Spencer, First Princ, p. 331, well observes that " Religion, beside its occasioual revivals of smaller magnitude, has its long periods of exaltation and depression ; generations of belief and self- sacrifice following generations of indifference and laxity When from corruptions accumulated around them, national creeds have fallen into general discredit, ending in indifferentism or positive denial; there has always by-and-by arisen a re-assertion of them, if not the same in form, still the same in essence." See Dorner's remarks on the permanence of the Christian Faith through all assaults of philosophical Deism in England, France, and Germany.— ///s<. Frot. Th., I. 207 ; II. 45, 392. '-^ See Buckle, II. Civ., II. 254. He admits that its leaders com- mitted what he thinks was an involuntary error: "In attacking the Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 345 message and prospects of Christianity. Yet the instincts of Rehgion (and, we may fairly add, the virtue of its specific doctrines,) prevailed. Successive revivals of the missionary spirit super- followed bv rcvi- vened on eras of religious indifference ; and the vais. truth of Christian teaching has heen both vigorously defended and confirmed by actual results. § 3. The question of the direction and degree in New eie- . . . , , ments of which the prospects of Christianity have been progress (.c. 1 1 • T • • 1 -r» f> • introduced anected by its history since the Keiormation may by the Re- be narrowed to the inquiry as to what fresh elements have been introduced into the circum- stances attending its progress and with what results. These may be briefly summarized as the principle, or rather the fact, of the Renaissance in sentiment, philosophy, and art ; of Positivism in material knowledge; the substitution of inquiry for traditional authority; the doctrines of religious liberty and toleration, including the freedom of the press and the disappearance of religious dis- abilities;^ the gradual divorce of religion from politics, with its eflects upon the alliance of Churches and States. What is the tendency of These stiii in move- clcrgy, they lost their respect for religion. In their determination to '""^^ ' weaken ecclesiastical power, they attempted to undermine the founda- tions of Christianity." Isaac Taylor, HUt. Enthus., p. 269, has some fine and just remarks on the triumph of the Christian Religion at this period. ' It will be understood that these are, as Gibbon remarks, the con- sequences, not the design, of the Reformation. 346 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. these changes in opinion and practice, changes which are still ripening into action on every side through the length and breadth of Europe? If there be contained within them nothing really and essentially unfavourable to the growth and well-being of Christianity, there is no ground on this account at least to augur the decline of the ad^versrto f^^^'gio^^* ^^5 indeed, they tend in harmony with ^y?- its doctrines towards the spread of a simpler and tiamty. ... . more tolerant Christianity, there is rather reason to infer a larger and lasting measure of success for its tenets. It becomes necessary, then, to enter, although but briefly, on some consideration of their several characters and operation. The cias- § 4. By somc the Reformation has been altogether humaneie- traccd to the importation of the classical or purely modern liumau element into Western Europe,^ which was tion"^ the result in the first instance of the impact of Mahommedanism upon Christianity, and of the fall of Constantinople. Philosophy and taste were revo- lutionized by contact with the independence of 1 Sec Ilankc, Hist, of Popes, I. ii. § 3, and Gicselcr, Vol. V., § 154, who assigns to this element its due share of result. Herder almost couples Ulric v. Hutten with Luther in the work of Keformation. See Ilallam, Lit. E., I. 290-7. At first the progress of literature seemed checked : and Erasmus writes (1528), " Ubicunque regnat Lutheranis- mus, ibi literarum est interitus." At an earlier stage he had made similar complaints of the Catholic party. " Ha^resis est polite loqui : hcTresis Gra^ce scire." Sec Sir W. Hamilton, Disc, p. 209. Socinianism may be rightly regarded as the issue of the Reformation in Italy, where philosophic and a3sthetic culture gained the ascendency over the ethical and religious elements. Sec Dorner, Hist. Prot. Th., II. 427. Lect. VI II.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 347 ancient modes of thought and feeling : and quickly sought new outlets of expression. Hence the in- fluence of the so-called Humanists on the direction and character of the Reformation, the success of which was in many minds identified with the pro- gress of classical literature. The proof of so wide an assertion must certainly remain doubtful. For our present purpose the admission is sufficient that the presence of " the new learning " was a fact con- temporaneous with the tendencies towards a refor- mation in reli2:ion. The relations of an increased '^cognized o and em- acquaintance with the original tongues to the doctri- Ployed t>y nal interpretation of the Scriptures are immediately fomieis apparent ; and their value was accordingly sub- stantially acknowledged by some of the leading Reformers : ^ to whom, both in Germany and Eng- land, the improvement, and in some cases the foun- dation, of public schools is due. The wider influence of classical models in framing new standards of literary, philosophical, and moral conceptions, in not -.. . ,, . . dangerous loosening the shackles 01 traditional dogmatism, m to Chris- transiormmg religious sentiments by the mstru- dencies, mentality of art, may be differently estimated, but ^ In 1525 Lntber addressed a Treatise to tlie Councillors of every town in Germany, " that tliey ought to institute and maintain Chris- tian schools," i. e. national schools. Melancthon and Camerarius laboiu-ed at the establishment of classical schools, Lycea, and Gymnasia. Melancthon himself kept for many years a scJioIa x>rivata. See Dorncr, //. Prot. Til., I. 261-270. Hallam, Lit. of E., 1. 330. For England, comp. Seebohm's Oxford Reformers, sc. Colet, Linacre, More, &c. Sec further Whewcll, Ind. Phil, Bk. XII., ix. 348 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. repre- senting an aspect of truth, necessary to their comple- tion. will hardly be denied. It would, however, be but a narrow view which regards the tendencies of Classicism as essentially irreligious or un-Christian.^ Rather may we see in this period of European civilization the introduction to a permanent syn- thesis of two differing sides of human nature and human history : of the natural with the spiritual : of reason with religion : of an sesthetical appre- hension of the Beautiful with the higher aspira- tions of Christian devotion : a synthesis ever in process of com23letion yet unfulfilled. Christianity which in its origin had successfully contended with heathen Philosophy and Art in their decline, was inevitably destined, at some future stage of human culture, to encounter the elements of Truth which they enshrined, to adopt them into its own theory of reality, and mould them after its own ^ A recent historian (Lecky, II. 322) has endeavoured to trace the in- fluences of Rationalism upon Art, " a chief organ of religious sentiments ;" and shows how in tlie course of secularization the ideal of piety was ex- changed for that of beauty ; more especially in Painting and Architecture, following the intellectual condition of the times. lb., 1. 263-286. There can be no question as to the immediate and, in some respects, lasting effect of the introduction of classic models, and of the sense of freedom gained at the era of the Eeformation. Nothing, however, is proved by it as to .the declension of Christian hifluencc. In Architecture, the Gothic style, a conception which, if any, is the creation of the Church of Christ, is once more in the ascendant : and there are indications of a similar tendency in the Poetry of the time. Of Painting I need hardly speak. Schlegel remarks that, of the sister arts. Painting is the most truly spiritual, and, together with Music, has in modern Christendom been most employed to exhibit or suggest the mysteries of Divine Love. Sculpture, and to some extent Architecture, as its attendant, occupied with the development of organic form, attained even in heathen times their richest cultivation. Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 349 thought. The result thus far would not appear to have been either the decline or degradation of Religion ; much less the contradiction or empover- ishment of tenets essential to the sum of Christian Faith ; but rather the introduction of a broader yet deeper religious type in the adaptation of Revealed Truth to the abstract conceptions of the mind. No doubt the tendency of a classical revival in Science Apparent and in Art has been, in the first instance, towards an from the separate cultivation of distinct principles ofseilfiment Truth and Beauty. Hence the apparent and tem- porary divorce of Religion from Science; and during the last century, and partly in our own, from Art itself. The medieval intellect may be said to have been entirely and extravagantly reli- gious ; just as in Greece and Rome it showed itself exclusively human.^ It still remains to develope a type of thought and conception which shall har- monize, after the fundamental idea of the Religion of Christ, the Human and Divine. There is, then, tempo- little to suggest that the separation of Art and Phi- losophy from Christian influence is other than transient and contingent : or to show that Classi- cism and the entrance of a so-called Rationalistic ^ " In the East intellect is entirely religious ; in Greek society it is exclusively human ; in the modern world the religious spirit is niixed up with everything, but excludes nothing. Modern intellect has at once the stamp of humanity and of divinity. Human sentiments and interests occupy an important place in our literature; and yet the religious character of man, that portion of his existence which links him to another world, appears in every step." — Guizot, Civ. en Europe, Loc. VI'"*- 350 THE PERMANENCE [Lfxt. VIII. Position of the Positive Sciences. Their abeyance in medie- val times. element have exercised any morbific effect upon the powers of Revealed Religion. § 5. The relations to Christianity of an increased knowledge of the material world, and, as its result, of a Positive system of philosophy, have already been considered in various aspects. The notion that the world through the possession of the Posi- tive Sciences has, since the older classical and medieval periods, entered on a new phase of know- ledge and reflection, is plainly not without founda- tion. If we compare the present condition of the Natural Sciences with times in which Mathematics together with the rudiments of Astronomy, Mecha- nics, and Medicine constituted their whole domain '} when Physics, Biology, and Comparative Physio- logy existed only in outline ; and Chemistry and Geology were wholly unknown; the difference is large indeed. Yet this was all that antiquity could bequeath to after-ages ; and all that the industry and penetration of the Arabians, having culled from their intercourse with the Greek Empire, brought into the common stock of knowledge. ^ "La mathematique et I'astronomie, seul domaine que I'antiqnite possedat dans la positivite (la physique et la biologie n'^taient qu'^- bauch^es, et la chimie n'existait pas)," &c. — Littr^, Etudes sur les Barhares, p. xvii. Humboldt pronounces the Arabians the true founders of the Physical Sciences, according to the modern acceptation of them. They added to the old Greek conceptions the use of Experiment and Computation. See Lange, Gcsch.des MateriuUsmus, p. 83. Comte considers Physics to have commenced with Galileo's discoveries on the fall of heavy bodies : and that Geometry almost begins with Descartes ; that of tlio ancients having been of a special and limited character. Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 351 There was an absence, whatever may be said of the inductive processes indicated by Plato or by Aris- totle, not only of real information, but also of the method to seek it and to use it when found. ^ Is it, then, to be supposed that with these changes the limits or direction of even abstract speculation could have remained modelled only on ancient practice ? It is further true that, through the sup- Their re- pression by medieval Catholicism of the critical unfavour- spirit, the antagonism between the defenders of Refigbn, Revealed and the investigators of Natural Truth, more apparent than real, was largely increased. Nor at first was this doctrine of authority much impaired by the interposition of Protestantism. The Reformation, it has been well said by Hallam.^f,"''^''^^ ' .,' J the Kefor- "was but a change of masters," and those gi'eat JJJJ'j^°"t men, who had been really, though unconsciously, ^^^"i- contending for a perpetual freedom of belief, were the first to coerce speculation, and to inhibit differ- ences of opinion in matters of faith. But it is for- gotten by the leaders of the school of thought, which would substitute positive knowledge for theological beliefs, that the general emancipation of thought effected by the Reformation was posterior ^ See at length Whewell, Hist, of Induct. Sc, Bk. IV. Religion, or rather Theology, being in the Middle Ages the only outlet for human effort and human interests, may seem to have suffered from the very introduction of other fields of inquiry. ^ Literature of Europe, 1. 370. Lecky, Hist. Bat., I. 404, pursues this topic with some vehemence. 352 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. to the religious revolution and dependent upon it.' Religion also during the same period with Science had entered upon a new phase or stand-point of opinion-, of which, however, the Reformation was the true cause and spring. Science and Religion may be long in working out upon a common footing the rrotes- details of their respective systems. But it can he tantism / i i i n i i friendly to no real argument (althougii repeatedly urged by inquiry. ^ Comte) against the truth of a Protestant Chris- tianity, that it has revolted from the domination of an unreasoning Catholicism : however imposing in speculation, or even in its historical results, may be the idea of unity. Rational- ^5^ jf it wcrc truc, as has been alleged, that ism not the ^ _ _ ^ ' , . . true con- Rationalism is the legitimate result of Scepticism sequence , . , . of toiera- and Toleratiou in religious belief -^ it might next be opinion. ^ Guizot, Giv. en E., Le9. xii™", points out that " while the civil and religious societies have undergone the same vicissitudes and been subject to the same revolutions, resulting in the overthrow of absolute ix)wer, the religious society has always been foremost in this career." So, in pronouncing on the English Eevolution of 1688, Hallam observes that it " is justly entitled to honour as the era of religious, in a far greater degree than of civil, liberty : the , privilege of conscience having had no earlier Magna Charta, and Petition of Right, whereto they could appeal against encroachment." — Const. Hist., II. 324. So also Mr. Buckle, lUst. Civ.,\\. 138, sees "in the Refonnation of the sixteenth century the seeds of those great political revolutions which, in the seventeenth century broke out in nearly every part of Europe." ^ Mr. Lecky, Hist. Rat., I. 400, 406, regards Rationalism as the issue of the Reformation ; and Toleration as the result and measure of Rationalism in Protestant countries. He nowhere, indeed, in his work, defines Rationalism ; but in more than one passage sufficiently describes his notion of it. It is a disbelief in authority (I. 90), a demand for evidence. "The essence of the rationalistic sjnrit is to interpret the Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 353 asked whether Scepticism may not be considered to have been the natural result of the Reformation and of the changes which were then inaugurated. And there are writers of a free and philosophic spirit who seem to see nothing mediate between Roman Catholicism and what they denominate Rationalism. But while admitting that toleration of opinion is the legitimate consequence of private involved judgment, and that the principle of private judg- principle ment was the privilege asserted for human thought °udgmTnt. in the act of the Reformation ; it still remains to be shown that private judgment itself is identical with Rationalism in anything like the current accepta- tion of the term, or in a sense to be held perilous Real sense to the claims of Revelation. Faith, it needs hardly aiisnf. '°"' be repeated, is, on the one hand, no unreasoning acceptance of truths, however sacred. Nor again is the admission of Authority in matters of Religion articles of special creeds by the principles of universal religion, by the wants, the aspirations and the moral sentiments which seem inherent in human nature. It leads men, in other words, to judge what is tme and what is good, not by the teachings of tradition, but by the light of reason and of conscience." Adopting Dr. Farrar's learned and careful history of the term, " Rationalism is properly opposed to Super- naturalism, having Reason, and not Eevelation, for its formal principle ; and stands for a purely philosophical view of religious truth." — Bamp- ton Lectt., pp. 589-592. It is hence of importance to insist that the right use of reason does not tend to diminish faith in the supernatural ; nor was there any such tendency inherent in the principles of the Eeformation ; which gave the occasion only and imposed the duty of free inquiry. Hegelianism (Panlogism, as it has been termed) is the acme of Eationalism, which supersedes or constitutes reality. " AUes, was wirklich ist, ist verniinftig." 2 A 354 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. within limits other than a reasonable principle/ The English Divines, to go no further than our own country, who have fought the battle of reli- gious toleration,^ were neither Sceptics nor, as the word is generally understood. Rationalists. In the Church of Rome Scepticism has indeed at all times shown a direct and dangerous opposition towards Perilous Christianity itself:^ because the very truth of position of ^ ^ ^ "^ ^ .... Roman Christianity is there staked upon the positive insti- cism. tutions of the Church ; and now, as it would appear, upon the infallibility of its visible head. But it has not been so within the domain of Protestantism ; in England, America, or even in Germany. Here Protestantism, as admitting toleration of religious ojDinion, shows itself the hope of Christian doctrine, Aid afford- and the ground of its ultimate permanence. " There edbythe . ^ . ,, , ■•■ principle is uo sucli tiling," it lias been truly enough said, of Frotes- i i • i • • j? -r. I-* tantism. " as a thcological antiseptic. But Protestantism, by blending with and consecrating the prevailing Rationalistic spirit,* affords a standing remedy for traditional and authoritative corruptions of belief. ' See this argued by Hooker, E, P., V. viii., who does not exclude " invincible arguments found out by the light of reason." ^ Hales, Cliillingworth, Jeremy Taylor : not to speak among laymen of Milton and Locke. ''' Thus, very early in the age of the Eeformation, the attempt was made by the Italian Humanists to unite the extremes of sceptical unbelief and passive obedience to the authority of the Church. See Dorner, Hist. Prot. TJi., Vol. 11. ; Lecky, //. R., I. 406, and Mr. Buckle's remarks on the causes of the French Revolution, II. 249. *■ Mr. Lecky, Hist. Eat., II. 92, justly observes, " When a countiy, which is nominally Roman Catholic, is very tolerant, it may be inferred, with almost absolute certainty, that the social and intellectual influence Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY, 355 § 7. Love of truth may be pronounced to Love of have been the rudimentary virtue of Eeformed rmUmen- Christianity. This virtue, in the intensity of *''^ '"■'^'• its spiritual conviction, lay at the root of the movement; and is still the proper attribute of Protestantism as a system. It is true that fana- ticism may sometimes have done it injustice in this respect ; and, through intolerance in theory and practice,^ have raised the doubt as to its pre- ference of an authorized creed to the results of genuine inquiry. Yet it has rarely, if ever, subor- dinated moral distinctions to positive expediency ; the means to the end ; or sanctioned pious frauds.^ In its love of truth it has ever sympathized with obscured the instincts of physical discovery, and the employ- dice, ment of a scientific method.^ The marked diffusion of the Church is comparatively small. But England and America con- clusively prove that a nation may he very tolerant, and at the same time profoundly Protestant. ... It is this fact which is the most pro- pitious omen of the future of Protestantism." ' Hallam's verdict {Const. Eist., I. 94) is, " the difference as to tolerance in religion between Catholics and Protestants was only in degree, and in degree there was much less difference than we are apt to believe;" and see Mr. Lecky's severe strictures, H. Eat., II. 54-61, and Buckle, II. 51. Yet Hallam (?(. s., p. 119) seems to admit that the principle of toleration was early and persistently avowed by Protestants. Certainly, it must be allowed to have lain as a germ in the system, however late in^ bearing fruit, both in our own and other countries. The principles of Eomanism are unfortunately committed to persecution. ■•^ On the degree to which the medieval interj^wlations and forgeries had " blotted out the very sense and love of truth from the minds of men," see Mr. Lecky's just remarks, //. Eat., I. 434-G ; H. E. M., II. 225. ^ In England, we may fairly instance Bacon, Boyle, and Newton. Among the founders of the Royal Society were Wilkins, Spratt, Glanvil, and other Churchmen. 2 A 2 356 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. of a truthful spirit, which has been the characteristic of the era of Protestantism, has been variously ascribed to the revival of ancient independent systems of philosophy, to the influence of modern secular thinkers, and to the general results of Physical advancing civilization.^ It may with equal reason, iiidebtel? and with perhaps more probability, be attributed tantism^^" to the rcactiou of religious inquiry upon philoso- phical speculation and active life. But in either case its possession by a religious system, as part of its inherent and fundamental princij^les, is both an element of real progress, and a guarantee of per- manence to the Faith which it upholds. hbe'rf°im- § ^' '^^^ doctHne of religious liberty, although mediately \\^ ^^^ j^ot immediately bear fruit, is in principle involved - ' i i in the Re- fairly and incontestably due to the Eeformation ; formation, / ^ '' which did not, however, take its rise in any notions of political freedom.^ Experience shows, it is true, that, under all systems, persecution for opinion is dear to human nature. But it has never been proved to be a consequence of Christian doctrine. Until the establishment of the Church under Con- stantino, the testimony of the Fathers is wholly in favour of toleration of belief. It is in practice though not that the difficulties emere^e of working out the at once ° ° secured. 1 Lecky, //. 7?., I. 440 ; B. E. M., I. 143. '^ " Political liberty," says Hallam, Lit. K, I. 352, " in the sense wc use the word, cannot be reckoned the aim of those who introduced the Eeformation." See also the section (II. 33) on the Political Philosophy of the sixteenth century. Compare Mr. Mill on Liberty, Introd. Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 357 application of the principle of freedom without dis- turbance, yet without injustice. The removal of religious disabilities, and the relations of theolo- gical beliefs to political government, have, since the Reformation, become of necessity the questions of the age ; and once more, after an interval of temporary cessation, loom large on the horizon of public opinion in Europe. But their solution no Practical longer involves the rise or fall of Christianity, its stni ex- success or decline. The usefulness of Establish- p*^"^"^^^ ' ments^ and of National Churches in preserving a just liberty of belief against sectarian or unsec- tarian tyranny ; as also in combating so formidable an ojDponent as " the close phalanx of Rome ;"^ may be too readily forgotten. On the other hand, but no - . , „ , . . . longer there is good reason to augur, irom the intrin si- dangerous cally spiritual character of our Religion, that it istence of would, under the most voluntary system, be found tiam'ty, the most readily to flourish.^ But in any case the true interests of Christianity are independent of 1 On this side may be claimed so liberal a thinker as Shaftesbury, who quotes Harrington to the effect that " it is necessary people should have a public leading in religion." " Why," he adds, " should there not be public walks, as well as private gardens ? " — Characteristics, I. 17. 2 " It is still very doubtful whether the close phalanx of Rome can be opposed, in ages of strong religious zeal, by anything except established or at least confederate Churches." — Haliam, Hist. Lit., I 372. ^ See Sir G. C. Lewis's observations {Essay on Authority, p. 301) : Mr. Buckle {Hist. Civ., II. 53) considers that "a religion, not protected by the Government, usually displays greater energy and greater vitality than one which is so protected." He further gives a rationale of the fact. 358 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. the secularization of politics. They are bound up nor to its with the maintenance of the Scriptures, its sole terests.' authoritativc records, and with the earliest prin- ciples of their interpretation, historically ascer- tained ; and these, it must be admitted, are on the side of religious equality, and a reasonable employ- Question ment of private judgment.^ It may, however, be of religious tit i t f» • i • p establish- remarked, that a beliei m the progressive power oi the Religion, and of its capacity and value in civilization, seems a necessary part of a theory of religious establishments; for, as representing a system of abstract truth only, few would care greatly to support them.^ Were the Faith of Jesus Christ confined in its teaching to any one form of political government, absolute or popular ; this might, in some quarters, and with some show of fairness, be deemed an evidence of its transient and ^ On the equality and diversity of particular Churches, it may be remarked that the Primitive Liturgies and even Creeds bear evidence of the independence of their several forms, while united by a community of doctrine ; see Bingham, E. A., Bk. II. c. vi. Some good remarks on the relation of private judgment to a common standard of authority existing in the Church will be found in Bp. Browne, Expos, of Arts, \). 480 ; in Gladstone, Church and State, c. v. ; and Palmer, Treatise ail the Church, II. vi. '■^ The grave question as to the duty of the State to propagate tnith is, at the present time, practically superseded by a belief that it is not for the interest of the truth to seek the assistance of the State. With- out taking up the high ground of Mr. Gladstone (Church and State, c. iii. viii.), it is enough to observe that even Macaulay (Essays, p. 487) would maintain the duty of religious instruction on the part of the Government as a secondary obligation from its utility as a moral in- strument. If, then, its value as a spiritual agency be taken into account, the obligation is surely enhanced ; as well as the danger of making no provision against false outlets for the enthusiasm un- doubtedly natural to mankind. Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 359 limited character. Such, however, we know frora its own doctrines, as well as from the course of" its history, not to be the case. Born under the grow- Relations of Chiis- ing absolutism of the first years of the Roman tianity as T-1' i/-^i 11 ^ ' ' ' ^ ^ • ^ system Empire, the Church, though instnictively leaning of religion to the rights of possession, as the best practical proof of its negation of all claims to temporal power ;^ favoured political progress and liberty. True it is, that the original freedom of its prin- ciples has, in the course of human affairs, been limited and arrested by the force of circumstances, and the errors of individual leaders. It has accord- ingly been reproached with its tendencies to Theo- cracy ; with the alliances it has contracted with despotism ; and with the slavishness of its passive obedience.^ Yet no doctrine of Divine Right can be proved in reality to encumber its system ; and ^ Mr. Buckle treats the distinction of de facto and da jii,rc with much contempt ; and as a quibble invented to save the pockets of the clergy, or to cover Jesuitry. Hist. Civ., I. 413. While acknowledging to the full the high qualities of the Non-jurors, I still regard this view as a narrow one. "^ Shaftesbury denounced Christianity as incompatible with freedom ; and even Mr. Buckle seems to agree in the opinion that, " by being a good Churchixian, a person may become a bad citizen." No doitbt, medieval Catholicism has neutralized its earlier services of distinguish- ing spiritual from temporal aitthority by its later attempts to subordi- nate the latter to the former. Montesquieu, E. L., XXIV. iii. v., con- siders the genius of Christianity best suited to a constitutional form of Government; while Mahometanism is the religion of despotism ; and that Catholicism has an affinity for monarchy, but Protestantism for a republic. Guizot, however, admits that, historically, the Church has always i)rcsented herself as the interpreter and defender of theocracy or despotism, under a religious or civil form. The origin of this fact be 36o THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. the highest supporters of the Papal power have at times maintained even ultra- democratic opinions. itsinde- Democracy, indeed, in the opinion of many the pendence. „ . . i ultimate form of existmg governments ; the neces- sary result, it is maintained, of the conclusions of political economy, of the increase of capital, of the Supposed expansion of knowledge,^ and of industrial move- wards de- ments ; is in some respects the truest aspect of the mocracy, g^-^.-^ ^£ Christianity as the last and highest expres- sion of the Christian ideal of the brotherhood of mankind.^ " Unam omnium rempublicam agnos- cimus mundum," cries Tertullian in his defence of Christianity ; " Omnium Christianorum respublica est," is the echo of Augustine.^ In this freedom, or, it may be, indifference, of the political stand- traces to the natural conflict between religious restraint and human liberty. — Civ. en E., Le?. vi™®. " Le Christianisme," says De Maistre, (Euvres, p. 121, " est monarcbique ; comme tout le monde le sait." — Sec Du Fape, I. 249. ^ " The state of knowledge," says Bacon, "is ever a Democratie ; and that prevaileth which is most agreeable to the senses and conceits of people."— TForA-s, III. 227. 2 Lecky, H. Rat., II. 248. Comp. Schmidt, Essai, Bk. 11. c. ii. Dean Milman, Hist. Lat. Chr., VI. 210, has eloquently pointed out the liberal elements in medieval Catholicism, their effects on social rank and in proclaiming the equality of mankind. See also Guizot's remarks, Civ. en E., Lej. v™*^, on the amount of individual freedom which modified the spiritual tyranny of the pretensions of the Church. 2 TertulL, ApoL, c. xxxviii, ; Augustine, Be Oj). Motiach, c. xv., xxxiii. The indifference of Cliristians to iwlitical affairs, not unnatural under the circumstances of the time and at the rise of the new Eeligion, was at first thought a consequence of their doctrines. It was held "doctrinam Christi adversam esse reipublica;." — August., ^j). cxxxviii., ad Marcdl. Mr. Lecky, H. Bat., II. 108, regards all patriotism as a pagan, and not a Christian, virtue. Even if this view were correct, it would but show the suitableness of the religion to co-operate in the Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 361 point, may certainly be discerned no unfavourable augury of the probable operation of Christianity amid future revolutions of public opinion in succeed- ing ages. Strengthened from within by its own Secuiar- . T ization not native resources 01 influence, it may be expected to fatal or un- become gradually independent of all such means of influence as governments are undoubtedly capable of exercising upon religious belief,^ whether bene- ficially or not. § 9. An argument not infrequently urged for the probable decline of Christianity remains to be con- sidered. The principle of private judgment, it is said, Objection in matters of religion, which is more and more assert- principle ^ _ of private ing itself in reason and in fact as the law of Chris- judgment tian communities, penetrating even the armour of Roman unity, is a principle of dissidence and divi- sion, making blunt the true instrument for the con- version of the world, — Christian love and oneness of belief. How, it is objected, is mankind to be ^'^ theo- brought over to the Faith of Christ, when the prin- and in fact . , incompa- ciple of religious disagreement is both sanctioned tibie with and maintained ? ^ Who shall judge whether this success. disagreement does not extend to matters essential to largest speculations as to the ultimate federation of mankind. Comte admits that the rise of industrial Republics in the Middle Ages is a proof that Christianity is not incompatible with this form of government. — run. Fos., V. 458. ^ See on this subject Sir G. C. Lewis, Influence of Authority, p. 291, and Mr. Lecky, Hist. Rat., II. 2-4. ^ Comp. Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs, I. iv. " Le plus grand obstacle ii nos succes religieux dans I'lnde, o'est la difference dcs opinions qui divisent nos missiunuaircs ; " &c. 362 - THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. personal salvation ? ^ And, at any rate, if tbe missionary efforts of the Clin roll, while still united, failed to procure the full conversion of tlie heathen to the knowledge of the truth, what better pro- spect can attend the labours of isolated bodies ? If it is impossible to secure unity within the Church ; what are the chances of succeeding with those " that are without ; " of winning to the One Fold A power the sliecp that are scattered abroad ? It has been of conver- sion an ad- already admitted that, m the tendency oi any mitted test . -y • ^p ^ • v of the vi- religious system to extend itseli by conversion oi any Re- Unbelief, may be found one of the most real tests ij,ion, ^^ .^^ permanence, power, and, ultimately, of its notques- truth.^ No objcctor can deny to certain periods of to Chris- i\^Q history of Christianity the presence of this tianity in -^ i • i its earUer tcst. Thosc pcriods havc already, m tlie course of stages. these Lectures, come fully under review. We are now led to form, though very briefly, an estimate of the present condition and ultimate prospects of our Religion in respect of its missionary efforts. Thisprin- ^ iq. But, first, it must iiot be forgotten, as ciple and *' , . ,. duty in- bearing upon this portion oi our subject, tliat tlie the system missioiiary spirit of Christianity, as comiDared with of Chris- tianity. * This objection, it is clear, may be carried too far. All errors, even in matters of faith, cannot be considered dc fide and heretical. IJomaii Catholic divines admit that there may be true Churches without the entire profession of the truth ; nor is uctual unity in all matters of faith a real note of the Church of Christ. See Palmer, Treatise, ]. v. § 4. These considerations must largely modify any definition of " Funda- mentals." ^ Sec Grant, Barnplon Ltct., vi., sub init. Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 363 other faiths, was marked in its very origin^ by the example and action of its Founder. He came, as He expressly records, '•''to seek and to save that whicli was lost." One of the grandest miracles of this Religion and of its most important announce- ments, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, had direct reference to the work of Evangelization.^ In some respects this eagerness to make proselytes might be considered as tradi- tional with the Jews, and was so remarked by heathen writers before the spread of Christianity.^ In some respects, also, it has been shared by other How far . shared by Eastern religions, by the faiths of Buddha* and Buddhism, Mahomet. With the worshippers of Islam, how- ^"^^ the ■■• '• ^ ' Mahome- ever, the instrument and end of conversion was tan faith. conquest ; not the moral or spiritual elevation of the believer. They massacred ; they did not con- vert.^ It has, indeed, been asserted that even in the ^ On the real and disinterested character of the first missionary labours of the Christians, see Origen, c. Geh., III. is., VIII. lii. ; and on the necessary connection between such efforts and a belief in doctrine, comp. Dr. Mozley, B. L., pp. 182-5. " Zeal in missionaiy enterimse is essentially the child of faith," &c. We may set proselytism to the account of Christianity as against persecution. " Le zdle qui convertit et qui fonde est aussi le zele qui poursuit et qui detruit." — Littre, Les Barhares, p. 150. See Guizot, Meditations, II. 143. 2 Comp. Luke xxiv. 47-49. ^ Comp. Neander, I. 90-93, ed. Clark : D(511inger, Gentile and Jew, II. 181. * See Max Miiller, Chips, I. 257, 293. ^ " Concerning the means of procuring unity, we may not take up the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword or like unto it ; that is, to propagate religion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to force con- sciences." — Bacon, Essays, Works, VI. 383. It is too true that the 364 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. present day Mahommedanism still makes its con- verts:^ a result, however, obtained by secondary agencies, such as the institution of domestic slavery, rather than by any combined or genuine effort to Original eularo'c the area of its beliefs. But with tlie Faith with the Christian of Jcsus Chnst couvcrsiou of unbelief has been from the first an intrinsic and palpable duty. *'Go ye and teach all nations (jLta^r^revo-are) ; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Grhost," was the commission of His Apostles. " Out of all nations and kindreds and tongues and peoples " was His Church to be built up ; and " unto them that dwell in all the earth " was " the everlasting Gospel " to be preached.^ Nor has there ever been any long space in the history and per- of the Churcli, especially when freed from domestic sistently . , carried strugglcs, during which this work has not been carried on by at least some branch of the Christian Communion. No age has been altogether without some fruit of its labours. At the present hour it is being vigorously and honourably maintained : and an important testimony is thus rendered to the life and activity of our Religion, and to the prospects of its extension and permanence. A few proofs in policy of Ferdinand and Isabella to Jew and Moor was a copy of tliis example. — Milman, IKst. of Jews, III. xxvi. ; Gieseler, III. v. § 6. ^ See W. G. Palgrave, Essays on Eastern Questions, ]). 124 ; also DoUinger, Lectures on Reunion of Churches. The Church Missionary Society's Report for 1872 says, " In some parts of India Mohamme- danism is extremely strong, if not increasing ; . . . among the African tribes it continues its onward movement." 2 Matt, xxviii. 19 ; Rev. xiv. 0. Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 365 connection with this part of our subject are all that can be given here. $ II. At the time of the Reformation the ffeo- sketch of , , , . . missionary graphical limits of the Faith of Christ were for the efforts since the most part identical with those of Europe. Poland Reforma- and Lapland had at length received the Gospel;^ and although Constantinople had admitted within its walls its Turkish conquerors, its Christian popu- lation still retained one-half of the churches to their use with liberty of worship.^ In Asia missionaries had touched China : and Nestorianism had made advances in Central Tartary. But other worlds now opened before the march of Christianity ; and as if to meet the fresh demand, the nations of the Evils of the con- West rose to a new energy, and became endued with quest of ^ . T Q T • America, greater intensity 01 enterprise and purpose.^ it is true that in America and Western Africa the s]3read of the Gospel was at first utterly thwarted by the avarice and ferocity of the Spaniards and Portuguese. What else could be looked for from men who had mercilessly expelled from the soil of Spain the Jew and the Moor, with the option of ^ Begun in the middle and close of the fourteenth century, but it was long before idolatry was extinguished. — Gieseler, C. B., IV. 259 ; Guericke, Kirchengesch., IT. 321 ; Maclear, Eist. of Missions in Middle Ages. 2 Gibbon, VIII. 180, ed. Smith. 3 Comp. Grant, B. L., p. 281. Dr. Dorner, Hist. Prot. Hi., II. 447, remarks generally : " The intensive and extensive processes alternate with each other in the Church's history. The latter, though naturally arising from the former, brings the Church into a defiling contact with the world, from which it can only be delivered by a fresh concentration and a recurrence to the purifying and intensive process. Nevertheless, the work of Christianity upon the human race is progressive." suits, 366 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. conversion or exile.^ In vain the Dominicans with righteous rigour refused absohition to the inhuman torturers of the native Indians.^ In vain the devoted and venerable, if mistaken, Las Casas lived and died among the heathen of Mexico and Cuba, of the No one can desire to palliate these enormities any- trade, more than the miseries of the Slave Trade, that long and grievous stain on the fair scutcheon of modern Christianity. Yet it must be remembered that then, no less than in our own day, the social element, first Social brought into contact with savage and aboriginal these re- populations, is that which is, for the most part, least under the control of religious and spiritual ideas. The missionary succeeds the settler, the slaver, and the gold seeker. The reproach cast by Lord Bacon on his contemporaries in the days of Elizabeth would hold good even now. " Surely the merchants themselves shall rise in judgment against the princes and nobles of Europe. For they have made a great path in the seas unto the ends of the world ; and set forth ships and forces of Spanish, English, and Dutch, enough to make China trem- ble ; and all this for pearl, or stone, or spices ; but for the pearl of the kingdom of Heaven, or the stones of the heavenly Hierusalem, or the spices of the Spouse's Garden, not a mast hath been set up." ^ ^ See the remarkable discussion given in PrescoLt ( Ferdinand, III. 430) between Scpulveda and Las Casas. " The Spaniard," says the indignant historian, " first persecuted the Jews, and then quoted thcra as an autho- rity for persecuting all other infidels." See also Helps, Las Castis, c. xi. 2 Gieselcr.V. 1304. rrcscott,2t.s.,IlI.428. Uc\[^s, Life 0/ Las C'asas,cAx. 3 Bacon, iro/A-.s, VII. 19, ed. Spcdding. Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 367 § 12. And yet when we compare the three Progress liundred years which have elapsed since the era of large and the Eeformation with the fifteen centuries which had preceded, can we say that Httle has heen done or is doing to fulfil the great Christian duty of propagating the Faith ? Little, perhajos, to satisfy the eager expectation which calculates (perchance too fondly) ^ on the universal spread of the kingdom of Christ, ere that kingdom be accomplished ; ever crying, " How long, Lord ? " " Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ? " Little, it may be, to answer the cavils at the as- sumed failure and unreason of all missionary efforts which proceed from some objectors to Revelation and from half-hearted friends.^ Of the labours of Eftbrts of tlie Church of Rome during this period in the field Church. ' of missions, I would speak with all respect.^ That Church, which sent forth a Xavier ; which fostered the devotion and noble self-sacrifice of the Jesuit Fathers ; which (with whatever errors of concep- tion and execution) has planted missions through ^ See Archdeacon Grant's observations, B. L., p. 301. See also some good remarks in Isaac Taylor (^Hist. of E7ithi(s.,-p. 183), on the probable evils which would accompany a speedy conversion of mankind. 2 Paley, in his Evidences (Works, V. 239), remarks with truth that the slow progress and ill-success of modern efforts only magnify the miracle of the first conversion of the Eoman world to Christianity. ^ The Ccmgregatio de fide Cath. propaganda was " erected " by the Bull of Gregory XV. in 1622. The "Seminarium" dates from 1627. As to the Missions here touched on, Charlevoix's Histories for Japan and Paraguay are well known ; H. Coleridge's Life of Xavier may also be consulted ; and for a general account of Catholic Missions, Wittmanu, Allgemeiyie GescJiichte der Katliolisclicn Missionen, Vol. III. The most recent account of the Mission in China will be found in Cooper's Pioneer of Commerce. 368 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. the length and breadth of America, from Paraguay to the snows of Canada ; no less than in the far East, in India, Tonkin, China, and Japan, and on the coasts of Western Africa ; and still maintains with unabated vigour in much of these regions, as well as in the English colonies, its centres of opera- tion ; is no sluggard in this work. Xavier alone, Xavier. in his hcroic faith and zeal, his quenchless love of souls, his entire spirit of self-sacrifice, his earnest piety, and careful wisdom, offers, it has been well said, " all that we can desire, all that we can conceive in the character of a Christian preacher sent forth among the heathen to teach repentance toward God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." ^ Why should it be held that the light of such an example is perished from the earth, never to re-illume the horizon of Christian enterprise? His ex- Surely it cannot any longer be urged with truth capable of agaiust Protcstautism that in its hands Christianity reproduc- ■, , . . i • i i tion. has lost its expansive power : that neither the spirit of wisdom nor of self-sacrifice animates its efforts for the conversion of the heathen.^ Loiig, it is true, this note of an Apostolic Church was wanting while a reformed faith was struggling for existence or reviving its shattered energies.^ No 1 Grant, B. L., p. 145. 2 See in Grant, «. s., p. 183. Thus De Maistre, Du Pape, III. c. i. ; IV. V. He adds, bitterly : "Les ^gliscs sont steriles, et ricn n'ost iihis juste; ellcs ont rejete I'l^poux." ' "The constructive intelligence of the seventeenth century possessed itself of the materials accumulated during the Reformation era, to Lect. VIII ] OF CHRISTIANITY. 369 doubt, the outbreak of the Eeformation " isolated of tiae Reformed the English Church as well as kindred continental chmches. bodies from the vast system with which they had been bound up." ^ They were thrown suddenly on their owm resources. But little by little, with the return of strength and the opportunity of reflection, the sense of this duty re-awaked among the Pro- testant Churches. Denmark established the first mission in Hindostan,^ and also in Greenland. Germany. Holland laboured earnestly in Java, Amboyna, Formosa. Germany, in the missions of the United Brethren, showed an unrivalled pattern of wisdom and self-devotion over an area extending from South Africa to Labrador. I will not now seek to recount the efforts made through the Missionary Societies of our own country to wipe away thej^]^J"s- reproach of past indifference in this the prime of Christian works of mercy. But I would ask you to compare the present state of British India with its aspect a century ago ; to look abroad on the work which has been done during the same period in America, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa, fashion them into means of offence and defence. . . Within the citadel a vigorous spiritual life, which gave evidence of its existence chiefly in sacred song and music, was not lacking. But the notion of winning the world to the Gospel, and of the moral expansion of the Protestant prin- ciple according to its different aspects, had almost disappeared." — • Dorner, H. Prot. Th., II. 99. ' Grant, B. L., p. 185. Guericke, Kirchcngesch., III. 374. 2 Having later among its missionaries (from 1751-1798) that truly- excellent man, Christian F. Schwarz. A general history of Protestant Missions was first brought out by AViggers, Hamburg, 1856, in 2 vols, 2 B 370 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. and to say wli ether we can see in it only the expiring embers of a faith all but extinct, in- capable of further effort or enthusiasm. Do we not rather mark in it the signs under God's blessing of a revival, pure, and fresh, and heartfelt, of a primitive zeal such as has ever stamped the leading Present eras of Christian advance ? Though much, very aspect of . Til the work, mucli remains to be done to consolidate the empire of Christ even in the regions where His name is named, there is still ground in past and present effort for the highest expectations of success. Is it not so that in these latter days the truest seal of missionary devotion has not been withheld in the constancy of an entire Church, as also of individual Christians ? Witness the blood-staiiied cliffs of • Madagascar! Witness the island of the South Pacific, which so lately saw our English Bishop Patteson close with a martyr's death the life of an Apostle ! Happier in this his meed than Xavier himself. " If," said that faithful servant of Christ, " I should happen to die by the hands of the heathen, who knows but all of them might receive the faith ? For it is most certain that, since tlie primitive times of the Church, the seed of the Gospel has made a larger increase in the fields of Paganism by the blood of martyrs than by the sweat of missionaries." ^ Surely Mission work will be found the true Crusade of the nineteenth cen- ^ Sec Dry den's Life, p. 174, ap. Grant, p. 179. Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 371 tury. It is not for nought that Christianity, once Favom-- the civilizer and creator of modern Europe, now juncture of puts forth its plastic power to re-mould the stances. religions of the world, and summon to one common shrine the aboriginal races of the earth. It is true that many such tribes, the sad survivors of the infancy of our race,^ have perished as by an unseen law, and are perishing at the first touch of civilization. The Church of Christ but plants itself on their forgotten graves. Yet, if indeed we believe in civilization as the vocation of man- kind, and in nations as specifically gifted for this work, how vast is the future now open to Chris- tian enterprise ! For the soul and source of all real civilization we hold to be Religion.^ Colonization and conquest, intercourse and trade, are its pioneers, and to each of the dominant sections of the Christian world may perhaps, in the Divine councils, be reserved a separate portion of this common work. Each of the three Families of P'o^^at)ie field open to each of the lead- ' " Quant aux races sauvagcs, ccs tristes survivants d'un monde en ing divi- enfance, i qui Ton ne pent souhaiter qu'une douce mort, il y a presquc sionsoftlie derision i leur appliquer nos formulaires dogmatiques, fruit d'une S 1^!''^'^ 'reflexion de vingt siecles." — Kenan, Questions Contempwaines, p. 361. I have to some extent followed the far-reaching speculations of the same able mind in estimating the future spread of Christianity. Mean- while philosophy, it must not be forgotten, has done nothing in this work. " Condorcet," writes De Maistre, " nous a promis que les philo- sophes se chargeraient incessammeut de la civilisation et du bonbcur des nations barbares. Nous atteudrous qu'ils veuillent bien com- mencer." — (Euvres, p, 130. 2 See Luthardt's remarks, ApoJorj., E. T., ed. Clark, p. 199. 2 B 2 372 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. Christianity/ the Latin or Celtic, the Teutonic, the Greco-Slave, (for in accepting this new element the Greek Church also has found its Eenaissance ;) has at least a probable appointed area of labour. Russia may yet subdue the realms of Buddhism and of Confucianism. For Latin Catholicism may remain the Turkish and Persian Orient. The Moslems of the East, it is true, fix their gaze on Constantinople as the centre of their hopes,^ looking to a restoration of the Caliphate, and with it of their former glory. But surely they lean on a broken reed. For Teutonic Christianity and our own English-speaking race ^ lies in store the vast appanage of Hindostan, the continents of Australia and North America, and, as it would seem, of Central and Southern Africa, ^ •' Throughout the world, wherever the Teutonic is the groundwork of the language, the Reformation either is or, as in Southern Germany, has been dominant: wherever Latin, Latin Christianity has retained its ascendancy." — Milman, L. Chr., I. 8. " Protestantism," says Mr. Froude, Short Studies, p. 131, " is Teutonic ; Catholicism Latin and Celtic." As to the Greek Church, comp. Dean Stanley, Lect. on Eastern Ck, p. ix. pp. 345, 492, and Neale's Holy Eastern Church, I. 14, 15. ' See Grant, B. L., p. 285. W. G. Palgrave's Essays, p. 131. ' " The spread of the English stock, and language, and literature, over the North American continent, has afforded a distinct and very^ significant indication of the power of Christianity to retain its hold of the human mind, and of its aptness to run hand in hand with civilization, even when unaided by those secular succours to which its enemies in malice, and some of its friends in over-caution, are prone to attribute too much importance." — L Taylor, Enthus., p. 271. In the East, the opening of Japan, the adoption, as it is stated, of English as the State language, and the large dimensions of Chinese Coolie migration to America, Australia, and India, tend in the same direc- tion. Lect. VIII.] of CHRISTIANITY, 373 " even all tlie isles of the heathen." As the final ^^°o"^ ^^"^ progress. term of human religions, susceptible of a pro- gressive application,^ the Avatar of Christianity- has still before it a future, which in vastness may overshadow the history of the past.^ § 13. Let us not, then, the creatures of a day, Conciu- whose term of earthly life but spans the commence- ment of an immortal existence, deem that progress slow, that career uncertain. For what shall be No true TIP '^ ml IT 1 Standard our standard 01 measurement? " ihe blindness of of the rate the greatest men, of the highest races, of wideofcims-^* continents" will not shake our faith, that the"^'^'^' Divine purpose revealed in the scheme of our holy Religion shall surely come to pass. There are not wanting indications that, " both in the case of men and of nations, the longest training and the dreariest periods of abeyance of spiritual life are often preparations for its fullest growth." ^ Eras of ' Comp. Milman, u. s., p. 9 ; VI. 447. ^ Want of space forbids me to dwell on the symptoms, now happily universal, of the intensive progress of Christianity in our own and other countries. These to some extent compete and interfere with missionary labour. Such are the vast efforts made in England during the last half century, not only by the Established Church, but also by Nonconformist bodies, to overtake, as to spiritual provision, the large and steady increase of population, a task the more difficult from foregone neglect ; the build- ing and renovation of churches and chapels ; the erection and main- tenance of schools, in which the clergy are admitted to have taken so great a share ; the growing interest in matters of doctrine and prac- tice often involving much personal sacrifice ; not to speak of individual acts of Christian religiousness, the growth of charity answering to the increase of national wealth. In proportion as many of these tasks are remitted to the superintendence of the State, the extensive action of the Church may be expected to fill a larger field. ^ Hutton, Essays, p. 122. 374 THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VII I. Retrogres- apparent retroi^ression may be designed to act but sion subsi- ^^ "; if«i I'li i diary to as goads to disciplme the laith which liopes and works unshaken to the end. And certainly the new consciousness now dawning on mankind of spaces of duration, hitherto beyond conception, yet now falUng into their rank and place in the scheme of evolution of human existence, may teach us to be wary of hastily determining the future of Chris- tianity and of our race by any previous limits of anticipation. It has probably been one cause of the slowness of the spread of the Gospel, now, happily, very generally felt, where over-hasty mis- Piogress sionary efforts have ne2:lected all consideration of in know- '' f. T 1 -11 ledge will prcvious stagcs of development, intellectual and facilitate ^ . im ^ • ^ missionary moral ; and have introduced races hardiy reclaimed from savagery to theological controversies, or the acceptance of religious practices, which represent the thought of centuries. But the issue of the work of Evangelization can never be doubtful, so long as we reflect upon the characteristics of the truths which Christianity reveals to mankind, and Argument their positiou in the history of our race. In this respect we may, without undue assumption, appeal to the internal evidence of truth furnished by the character of its doctrines ; their universality,^ their ' " There is nothing which to any reflecting mind is more signal a proof of the Bible being really the guiding book of the world's history than its anticipations, predictions, insight into the wants of men far beyond the age in which it was written. That modern element which we find in it — so like our own times, so unlike the ancient framework of its natural form— that Gentile, European turn of thought, so progress and ulti- mate per manence of Chris- tianity, Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 375 adaptation to the nature which it is their aim to regenerate ; their very presumption of finality in the promises which they hold out to assure the spirit of man. Other rehgions have been local, from the . cosmopoli- temporary, limited, fitted for definite stages oftancharac- • 1 • I'll! . ter of its culture, partial m their hold upon particular doctrines, truths, in accord with the spiritual standing, so to speak, only of the peoj^le or race. They have accord- ingly developed tribes and nations to a fixed line and point of j^rogress, and then their course seems stayed.^ They have no further message to the soul of man ; no onward mission to evoke his Divine capacities, or renew his fallen nature. But which find ^, . . . , , . . , . , their fulfil- Christianity has not only, in its history, shown ment in the Qcve- itself adequate to all the circumstances of its de- lopment of the human unlike the Asiatic language and scenery wliicLi was its cradle — the race, enforcement of principles and duties which for years and centuries lay almost unperceived, because hardly ever understood in its sacred pages; but which now we see to be in accordance with the utmost requirements of philosophy and civilization ; those principles of tole- ration, chivalry, discrimination, proportion, which even now are not appreciated as they ought to be, and which only can be realized in ages yet to come ; these are the unmistakeable predictions of the prophetic spirit of the Bible, the pledges of its inexhaustible re- sources." — Stanley, Sermons on the Bible, p. 80. I shall readily be excused for quoting this fine passage at length. ^ " History shows in many ways that Mahometanism has its root only in the past. There is no growth in the faith ; no power of adapting itself to the new ages. Mahomet as he was rules Maho- metans as they are. His word was petrified and crystallized in Mecca, and can assimilate no new truth. But the history of the Christian Church is a history of constant growth in spite of sacer- dotal resistance ; and I believe that the upward course of tliat growth has ever been the communion with a living Christ." — Hutton, Essays, 1. 277. 17^ THE PERMANENCE [Lect. VIII. Its tenets responsive to the highest convic- tions of civiliza- tion, of Moral Science, velopment; its definite announcements permit a judgment on its genius and character as a Eeligion framed for permanence and finality.^ If true, it proclaims a scheme for the redemption and im- provement of mankind, which is unique, complete, and incapable of repetition. Its overtures to the individual soul, limited to no race, or caste, or class, or set of faculties, extend from its entrance into life to the hour of departure ; are adapted to its real wants and failings ;^ and provide for that immortality which strikes an answering chord in the heart of every man. Its type of moral per- fection, correspondent to the actual phenomena of human nature, is laid in the union of opposed yet not discordant virtues, of impulsive affections and controlled passions, of self-sacrifice identical with the truest self-love, and terminating in the restora- tion of real self-respect. " He who saves his life ' Compare H. J. Rose, Frot. in Germany, pp. 191, 192. ^ On these topics see Miller's Bumpton Lect. on the Adaptation of Holy Scripture to the real state of Human Nature; more particularly Lectures iv. and vii. " There never was any religion as that of Christ ; so congenial to our highest instincts; so persuasive, so ennobling, so universally accej^table to rich and poor; so worthy of the intellect, so consistent and uncompromising in its rules for advancing moral excel- lence. Men could not, would not turn from it if it was properly brought home to them ; if it was not tendered to them with some admixture of earth about it, exciting their suspicious and robbing it of its heavenly fragrance." — Ffoulkes, Div. of Christendom, p. xiv. " Many, I think, are agreed, that after all the most striking evidence for the Divine origin of our faith lies in the patent fact of its existence ; of its growth and diffusion ; its proved superiority to all other forms of spiritual thought; its i)roved adaptation to all the spiritual wants of man." — Merivale, Lcdt., p. 6; and Nvrthcrn Nations, p. 28. Lect. VIII.] OF CHRISTIANITY. 377 shall lose it : but whosoever shall lose his hfe for Jesus' sake and the Gospel, the same shall save it."^ The term of man's moral progression is by its means indefinitely extended, and rises into a and to the new and nobler sphere than that of ordinary ethics, needs of It alone assuages the sorrows of existence, (from nature as which ere now philosophy has taken refuge in developed. suicide),^ hallows and explains the mystery of suffering, and takes away the sting of dissolution. Its revelations, while confessedly beyond intellec- tual comprehension, are guaranteed by their corre- spondence with the spiritual intuitions of our race ; being acknowledged alike by the richest culture and by the lowest barbarism. Man's wants and weaknesses, his hopes and desires, his powers and aspirations, his personal and social capabilities, are together forestalled. Thus the doctrines of Chris- tianity, uniting the human and Divine, make the only adequate provision for the claims of the human spirit in its sense of sinfulness and need of reconciliation, in its year nine; after Divine com- Scriptural T '' <-> provision for the ^ Mark viii. 35. Christianity is plainly in accord with that higher spiritual^ aspect of Utilitarian Morality which teaches that a man is bound to live nmnkind in harmony with the order of the universe, and contribute his part to the common good. Again, each soul of man is " one for whom Christ died" (Rom. xiv. 15). " Magnum opus Dei es, Homo," says Ambrose, Bcrm. X. in Ps. 118, § 11. 2 See Archer Butler, Lect. on Ancient Phil., I. 443, 459 ; (it was prac- tised by Zeno and Cleanthes, the Stoics ;) and Mr. Lecky, //. E. M., II. 46, for the history of Christian influence on this point. Buckle, Jlist. Civ., I. 26, remarks on the fruitlessness of legislation to stay this evil. 378 THE PERMANENCE [I^ct. VIII. munion.^ For, by the gift of the Holy Grhost, assured through ordained means of reception, man's spirit is associated with his Maker and Redeemer, and life in time with life in eternity. Thus the Ideal merges in the Actual, the Visible in a per- tlic Unsecn, and Earth in Heaven. Raised above an system. atmosphere of chill Materialism, the Christian walks and lives in a world where things are no longer what they seem ; but glow with a new light, and are suffused with a deeper significance. Largior hie campos sether et lumine vestit Purpureo : solemque suum, sua sidera nomnt. A door is opened in Heaven ; and he hears the Voice which saith, " Come up hither." No real § 1 3* And it is of this Religion that we are the p'ower bidden to believe, that it is fraught with the fate of kncroT°" bygone superstitions, stricken with palsy, hasten- the Gos- .^^ ^^ decay. Although day by day it gives evi- dence of the living fruits of faith, and zeal, and charity, of a benevolence well-nigh boundless, of a sympathy universal as our race.^ Surely the love wliich has done so much for man, is no unreal ^ " The Gospel, as mere historical truth, would he something ]iast and dead, like a mere doctrinal system of eternal truths, without life and reference to the living person. It is the nature of the Gospel that it is truly known and apprehended only when the historical Christ is at the same time embraced as the present, as well as the eternally abiding, and therefore also future Christ ; as still livingly active to-day, and pointing forward into the depths of an eternity whose vital energies repose in Him."— Dorner, Bid. Prot. Th., I. 232. ^ See Mr. Lecky's eloquent testimony. Hist. Hat., I. 201, 205 ; and compare Langc, Cksch. dcs Mater ialismus, p. 556. Lect. VIIL] of CHRISTIANITY. 379 sentiment ; it has its root in the truth of things ; The . ^c ' tlhurch of it is an effluence from Him, Who Hnnselr is Christ, revealed as Love, in the person of Jesus Christ, the the fact express Image of Divine Hohness, the Channel of miseof Divine Grace, the Author and Example of all true dwelling self-sacrifice. " They who would deprive mankind nJccssaiiiy of Him, would tear out the corner-stone of the noblest edifice of humanity."^ But this they can never do. And in the darkest hour of human degradation and depression, the word of promise standeth sure, having this seal : " It is I, be not afraid : " " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." ^ Amen. ^ Luthardt, Ajoohg., p. 297: "As little as mankind will ever be without religion, so little will they ever be without Christ — an his- torical, not a mythical Christ — an individual, not a mere symbol. Chi-ist remains to us, as the highest we know and are capable of imagining within the sphere of religion — as He without whose presence. in the mind perfect piety is Impossible." — Strauss, Soliloquies, (57 (quoted by Dean Stanley, Sermons, p. 111). See Mr. Hutton, Essays, I. 278. 2 Matt. xiv. 27, xxviii. 20. So Luther had good reason to liken the Church of Christ to the amaranth, which neither withers nor decays. " Sprinkled," he said, " with water, it becomes fresh and green once more, as if raised and wakened from the dead. Even so is the Church by God raised and wakened as out of the grave. For though tem- poral empires, principalities, and kingdoms have their changings — and, like flowers, soon fall and fade away — this Kingdom, so deeply rooted, by no power can be destroyed or wasted, but remains eternally." — ; TuUe-Talh, 172, ed. Bohn. "Wherefore, being Christ doth promise His Presence unto the Church even unto the end of the world ; He doth thereby assure us of the existence of the Church until that time, of which His Presence is the cause." — Pearson, on the Creed, Art. ix. INDEX Administration, Divine, harmony of, 127. Admiration has a personal basis, 232. Altruism not incompatible with Christianity, 82, 377. Anabaptists, their fanaticism not due to the principles of the Ke- formation, 329, Analogy of Nature, a theological ground of argument, 212. Antiquity no actual test of truth, 28. Arabians, their services to physical science, 350. Aristotle, his medieval reputation, 247. Art, its early relation to Christi- anity, 280; its present position, 348. Asceticism not essential to the theo- logical spirit, 299. Asylum, privilege of, 289. Augsburg, Confession of, its con- cluding declaration, 332. Augustine, S., his view of miracles as evidential, 139. B. Bacon, Lord, on religious contro- versy, 11; his view of missions, 356. Barbarians readily admitted by the Church, 281 ; mode of conversion, 286 ; its true causes, 288. Barbaric Codes, show the influence of Christianity, 284. Becket habitually performed harvest work, 300. Belief, Christian, standard of, in Scripture and Creeds, 31. Biography, Religious, importance of, 228. Bishops, popular election of, 280 ; by royal mandate, 285 ; their beneficial influence, 283, 288. Bossuet, his argument against Pro- testantism lies equally against Christianity, 11. Brahmanism, stationary, 26, 27, 29 ; its doctrine of Absorption, 30. Buckle, Henry T.,his obhgations to Condorcet, 71; his views on civi- lization, 146 ; on theology, 208 ; confounds asceticism with self- restraint, 299. Buddhism, 26, 27 ; once a mis- sionary religion, 29, 363; extin- guished caste, 30; favours Mon- asticism, 297, 298. Butler, Archer, on doctrinal develop- ment, 45. Butler, Bishop, 14, 20, 188, 212, 219. Calvin, his doctrine of personal assurance, 331. Casuistry, its moral value, 166. Catholicism, Medieval, its declen- sion, 326. Causes distinguished from occasions of events, 134. Chance equivalent to ignorance of design, 77. 382 INDEX. Chivalry, its relation to Medieval Christianity, 311 ; its origin, ih. Christ, Jesus, perennial influence of His example, 35, 334. Christianity, most vigorous in the most civilized regions, 3 ; a factor in civilization; 8, 152, 308; a fact of long standing, 9 ; its dura- bility ascertainable, 23; its anti- quity, 28; an historical and docu- mentary religion, 34, 64, 212; tiie religion of progress, 51, 220 ; its })erpetuity a dt)ctrinal tenet, 52, 56, 57, 264, 379 ; its assumed failure, 58 ; as being a phase of religion, 60; not a necessary result only of antecedents, 144, 180 ; its progress, hov? far super- natural, 145^ 265; natural, 162; limited, 169, 171 ; in advance of, yet co-existent with, civilization, 172, 242 ; importance of its ideal standard, 173 ; did not originate ill a moral protest, 169; not eclectic, 177 ; is not a nevi^ code of morals, 257 ; has not declined in moral effect, 175 ; its part in ad- vancing morals, 170, 176 ; its slow progress not due to feeble- ness, 188, 373 ; has survived changes of opinion, 203 ; theories of its origin, 261, 275 ; true causes of its success, 262, 266, 268, 273; its moral power, 269, 272, 276; its services wrongly attributed to positive institutions, 274 ; founded on a sense of sin, 276 ; its early influence on litera- ture, 281 ; intellectual services in Middle Ages, 193; its politi- cal affinities, 359 ; whether demo- cratic, 360; internal evidence of its permanence, 375, 376; its benevolence, 378. Christians, moral excellence of the first, 263. Church, The, temporal supremacy of, 185. Circumstances, their coincidence ad- mits of no law, 129. Civilization, multiform, not a mere intellectual advance, 146, 147 ; answers to the whole nature of man, 149 ; difference of Ancient and Modern, 148. Classicism, its efiects on Christianity, 346, 348. Communism, early view of, in the Church, 187. Confucius, his view of Providence, 125 ; of religion, 178, 257. Consciousness, testimony of, analo- gous to perception, 106. Constantine established Christianity, 277 ; its consequences, 278. Controversy a sign of religious acti- vity, 11. Conversion, power of, an element in religious vitality, 26, 253, 362 ; essential to Christianity, 363. Creeds, how connected with Scrip- ture, 37, 38; independent form of, 358. Cromwell, Oliver, cause of his death, 131. Crusades, The, criticisms of, 304 ; really defensive, ih. ; their services to civilization, 305 ; their spiritual import, 306 ; exhibit the heroic type of Christianity, 307 ; later Crusades, 315. Cycles, theory of, in history, 131. D. Deduction, its character as an in- strument of proof, 215, 216. Design, Argument from, not identical wUh order, 22. Development, Theory of, its influ- ence on the perpetuity of Christian doctrine, 42 ; dubiously admitted, ih. ; rests on authority, 43 ; really an historical process, 44 ; Rational- istic theory of, 46. Discovery in Natural Science a species of Revelation, 217. Distance of time necessary to clear judgment, 9. Dominicans, their humane efforts, 366. Durability, test of, in religions, 26. Duration a relative idea, 23. INDEX. 383 Eastern Church, its failings, 170 ; its subordination to the Greek Emperors, 285 ; its Monachism, 298 ; its future, 372. Effectual Call, sense of, in theology, 101. Epicureanism, modern, traceable in the view of Laws of Nature, 115. Erasmus, his complaints, 346. Error, slow extension of, 15. Establishments, Church, usefulness of, 357, 358. Evangelical Preparation, truth and importance of, 144. Evil, existence of, exj^lained by- partial knowledge, 20 ; nature of moral and physical, 245 ; mode of its extinction, 246. F. Faith the basis of all scientific acquirement, 240. Fatalism contradicted by conscious- ness, 102. Feudalism, its relation to Medieval Christianity, 309 ; its origin, 310. Final Causes, fallacy of assuming, 19, 21. Free Will, in what respects a theo- logical tenet, 79 ; compatible with physical uniformity, 80. French Kevolution, its intolerance, 344. Froude, J. A., his view of Calvinism, 80 ; of General Laws, 136. General Laws, personification of, by recent writers, 136 Gibbon, his view of the success of Christianity, 261; inadequate, 262. Gladiatorial shows, extinguished by Christianity, 271. Greek nature controversial, 169. Gregory the Great, synchronizes with the final Chri.stianization of Europe, 284 ; his view of Purga- tory, 319. H. Hegelianism, its essence, 353. History sometimes confounded with biographj^, 135. Hos]>itals, a Christian institution, 271. Humanists at the Reformation, 347 ; their servility, 354. I. Ideas gain credence from repetition, 61. Induction not excluded by theo- logy, 208 ; unknown to antiquity, 351. Infanticide, a Pagan custom, 271. Inquisition, The, how a means to toleration of opinion, 139. Instincts, existence and testimony of, 82, 85 ; imply design, 84. Investiture, Right of, 315. J. Justification by Faith only, Lu- ther's view of, 327 ; its relation to the Reformation, 328. K Kant, on design in Nature, 23. Kepler, his view of planetary spirits, 136. Knowledge being positive, finite in character, 249. L. Las Casas, his devoted life, 366. Laws of Nature, wrongly identified with a theory of Existence, 103 ; meaning of General Laws, 115 ; views as to their nature, 118 ; not yet proved to be universal, 120 ; by some held to be the term of knowledge, 122. Leibnitz, his theory of Parallelism, 93. Love to God, an essentially Christian precept, 165. 384 INDEX. Luther, his rehemence, 328 ; efforts for education, 347 ; view of the pennanence of Christianity, 379. Lyranus ISMcolaus, his rostilloe per- jietuce, 329. M. Mahometanism, 26, 27 ; its present progress, 363, 372, 375. Man, how sujierior to the animals, 109. Manscl, Dean, his view of Divine interposition, 133. Marathon, religious importance of this victory, 135. Marriage, Christian view of, 271. ^lartyrs in Science as in Religion, 197. Materialism, its connection with Positivism, 68 ; incompatible with ignorance of physical causes, 91 ; its gloomy character, 222 ; its present as I ect, 244. Matter, not eternal, 90 ; warrants in- ference of the existence of God, 95. Medieval Christianity, its corrup- tions, 313, 355 ; inevitable, 314 ; its military character, 315 ; cor- ruptions of doctrine, 317 ; false supports, 320 ; extravagance, 349 ; suppression of criticism, 351 ; its liberality, 360. Melancthon, 323, 327, 347. Method of Eesidues applicable to History, 128. Middle Ages, their religious charac- ter, 173. Miracles, classification of, 138. Missions, whether incompatible with Private Judgment, 361 ; prospects of, 362, 370 ; earlj- recognition of, 363 ; continuous, 364 ; their pro- gress since the llelbrmation, 365, 366, 368. Mona^ticism, Christian, its origin, 297 ; a remedy to excessive indus- trialism, 299 ; involved labour, 300; merits of, 301 ; its defects, 302 ; self-regenerative iwuer, 303. Monotheism, its relation to Christi- anity, 85. Morality truly progressive, 163, 164 ; advanced by Christianity, 165 ; Christian morality the corollary of its doctrines, 178; distinguished from Religion, 258. Mysteries, essential to Religion as re- vealed, 141 ; economy of Christi- anity in respect of, 141. Mysticism, the correlative of Ration- alism, 142 ; its relation to Mate- rialism, 142. N. Natural Science, its prepossessions as to Theology, 63 ; these histori- cally justified, 66 ; present Mate- rialistic tendencies of, 67, 76 ; easily passes into dogmatism, 69. Nature, uniformity of, tends to a First Cause, 88 ; exhibits also variety and irregularity, 130. Neo-Platonism, its failure, 237. Nescience, Philosophy of, often tends, though not necessarily, to Mate- rialism, 97, 117. Newton, Sir Isaac, on the Nature of God, 137. Nnmbers no test of truth in Reli- gion, 27. 0. Obigen, his view of planetary spirits, 136. Orphanages, when first founded, 271. P. Paganism, inefficient as a religion, 27 ; its reaction upon Christianity, 171. Pantheism, essence of, 96 ; its anti- dote, ib. Papacy, spiritual function of, as a tribunal of appeal, 291; decline of, 316 ; its moral dignity, 316. Pascal, his view of Prophecy, 139. Patriotism recognized by Jesus Christ, 81 ; a Christian virtue, 360. Patteson, Bishop, his death, 370. Penitentials, their influence as part I of Christian Law, 291. j Permanence, a test of reality, 13. INDEX. 385 Perpetuity, a test of religious truth, G. Persecution tor belief, its origin, 184, 356. Physical Studies not irreligious where not exclusive, 116 ; ancient cultivation of, 350; indebted to Protestantism, 350. Platonism, its share in the Reforma- tion, 323. Pliny, his view of Prayer, 267. Positive, history of the term, 67. Positivism assumes all religious be- lief to be imaginary, 16 ; a belief in Laws, 59 ; negative in its ten- dencies, 66 ; defective as an ex- planation of phenomena, 97 ; its relation to Free -Will, 108; its failure as a religion, 237 ; its his- torical criticism of Christianity, 320 ; confounds Christianity with Catholicism, 342 ; its view of the Eeformation, 340. Prayer, its relation to human re- sponsibility, 74. Prescription, limits of argument from, 2. Priscillian, his execution, 184. Progress not limited to advance in knowledge, 168 ; standard of, 373. Property Tax, when first imposed in England, 306. Proi)hecy, historical character of, as evidence, 139 ; fulfilled in the progress of Christianity, 140. Protestant, origin of name, 334. Protestantism, its defect, 200 ; its true function, 200 ; asserted to have made no converts, 201 ; its duty of toleration, 202; a gua- rantee of permanence, 354. Providence, theory of, essential to Christianity, 113; general and special, 123 ; sphere of, 125 ; mis- interpretations of, 132. R. Rationalism views Religion as a phase of morality, 256 ; this error examined, 257 ; not a consequence of the Reformation, 352 ; detiucd, 353. Reformation restored the individual influence of Christianity, 11 ; and of the Bible, 41 ; not a mere moral protest, 168,326, 327 ; its theology inductive, 210; in itself a test of the truth of Christianity, 321 ; spontaneous, 322 ; not a result of improved knowledge, 323 ; its defects, 323 ; its practical changes rested on renewed doctrines, 324 ; date of its commencement, 325 ; not indefinite, 331; or negative, 332 ; restored the balance of doc- trines, 333 ; its permanent effects, 334 ; how a protest, 334 ; Roman and Positivist views of, 340 ; Ra- tionalistic view of, 341 ; still in progress, 343; introduced new elements of progress, 345. Reformed Churches, their missionary efforts, 309 ; and prospects, 372. Religion, an element in civilization, 149; its changes not due to in- tellectual progress, 150; its true finiction, 156 ; not a mode of pro- claiming morality, 101 ; influences the advance of morals, 108 ; its tacit force, 174; deals with spi- ritual truth, 195 ; not reaction- ary as to secular knowledge, 190 ; how related to Natural Science, 225 ; independent of advances in knowledge, 230 ; the Science of the Soul, 223; a necessity of human nature, 241 ; its vital forces, 253 ; necessary elements, 255 ; a vehicle of Revelation, 256 ; assumes Mysteries, 250 ; test of its success, 258 ; how far a moral one, 259 ; its periodicity of re- vival, 344 ; foremost in political reforms, 352. Religion of Nature, its ambiguities, 161. Religions perishable, 2 ; historical sequence of, 144. Religious Disabilities, removal of, 357. Religious Wars, true character of, 183. Revelation, how far a natural pro- cess, 47. 386 INDEX. Ritual, its influence in conversion, 289. Eoman Empire, its condition at the coming of Christ, 264 ; why not saved by Christianity, 278 ; effect of its extinction on Christianity, 283. Homan Catholicism, its present danger, 202, 354 ; its missionary zoal, 3(37 ; and prospects, 372. Royal Society founded partly by Churchmen, 355. S. Saints, Intercession of, general in Middle Ages, 319. Salmasius, his defence of usury, 187. Salvian, his estimate of Christian declension, 279. Sanctuary, Right of, its spiritual character, 290. Scepticism admissible as to religious evidence, 209 ; not formidable to Religion, 239 ; whether a re- • suit of the Reformation, 353 ; its ]ieri! to the Church of Rome, 354. Scholasticism, its effects, 301. Schools, how far due to Christianity, 271 ; and to the Reformation, 347. Science, how far predictive, 130 ; in what respects ineffectual to human happiness, 154 ; theories as to its relations to Rehgion, 191, 192; their assumed incompatibility, 193; their meeting-points, 243. Scripture, its authorify, 38; its power of prolonging personal influence, 39; this an element in the per- jietuity of the religion, 40; erro- neous interpretations of, 18G ; its relation to the Reformation, 41, 329. Secularization not necessarily un- favourable to Christianity, 357, 3f;o. Sensation, fallacies of, 102. Serfdom, how far extinguished by (Jhristianity, 310. Slavery, emancipation of, by Ciiris- tianity, 72, 271. Soul, proof of its existence induc- tive, 226 ; its immortality, whe- ther recognized at the coming of Christ, 227. Spinoza, his view of Providence, 117. Spirit, denial of its existence sub- versive of all Religion, 225. State, The, duty of, in propagating truth, 358. Statistics, defective as a means of showing the operation of the Will, 103, 104. Stoicism, its incapacity as a system of religion, 237 ; its sources, 264. Suicide advocated by heathen philo- sophy, 377; its true remedy in Christianity, ih. T. Temporal Power clearly distin- guished in medieval Christianity, 292. Teutonic character, 309, 312 ; Chris- tianity, 372. 'J'heism, its relation to Christianity, 70. Theology a science of historical criti- cism, 211 ; its method how far deductive, 215, 216; whether stationary, 218 ; or progressive, 219 ; rashly assumed to be op- l)osed to induction and verifica- tion, 207 ; and to science, 208 ; includes both primary and in- fen-ed truths, 210 ; commence- ment of, as a science, 318. Time, a test of trutli, 17 ; in what sense an agent, 18- Toleration, its fundamental prin- ciple, 203 ; neglected by the Re- formers, 351, 355 ; not a cause of Rationalism, 352, 354 ; advocated by the Fathers before Constan- tine, 356. Tradition, Christian primitive, its relation to Scripture, 38. Truce of God distinguished from " Peace of God," 190. Truth progresses slowly but inevi- tably, 9 ; how far an attribute of institutions, 13. INDEX. 3^7 U. Ulphilas, the missionary of the Goths, 286. Unity, present need of, 12 ; tlic ulti- mate prosjtcct of Christianity, 200. V. Veddahs destitute of a belief in God, 68. Verification admissible in religious experience, 214, 219. W. War, increasing rarity of, due in part to Christianity, 190. Wealth, increase of, no guarantee for real advance, 155. Will of man essentially motive, 78 ; homogeneous with the Divine, 99 ; conditioned in action, 100 ; spiri- tual character of, 229. Women, position ot, in medieval so- ciety, 310; how far elevated by Christianity, 310, Wonder, how an element in Religion, 321. X. Xaviek, his character and death, 368, 370. LONDON : rntNTED BV WILLIAM CIOWKS AND S0N8, STAMlOItP STKKF.T AM) (.IIAUING CltOSS. A SELECTION FROM THE BOOKS PUBLISHED DURING 1S69, 1870, AND 1S71, BY Messrs. RIVINGTON, HIGH STREET, OXFORD; TRINITY STREET, CAMBRIDGE: WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON. A SHADO^SV OP DANTE. his World, and his Pilgrimage. Illustrations. Crown 8vo. lo.r. Being an Essay towards Studying Himself, By Maria Francesca Rossetti. With (id. " The ^Shadow of Da7ite' is a well-con- ceiiied and inviting volume, designed to re- commend the ' Divina Commedia' to English readers, and to facilitate the study and com- prehension of its contents." — Athen^um. " And it is in itself a true work of art, a whole finely conceived, and carried out with sustained power, — one of those reproductions and adumbrations of great works, in which mere servile copying disappears, and which are only possible to a mind which, however inferior to its original, is yet of the same order and temperament, with an -unusual faculty for taking the itnpressions of that original atid rejlectijig them undimfncd. It is much to say of a volume like this. But it is not too much to say, when, after goifig throttgh it, me consider the thorough knowledge of the sid'jcct shown in it, the patient skill with which the intricate and puzzling arrange- 7nents of the poem, full of what we call the conceits and puzzles of the contetnporary philosophy, are unravelled and made ititel- ligible ; the discrimination attd high principle with 'which so ardent a lover of the great poet blames his excesses; the high a7id noble Christiaji faith which responds to his ; and, lastly, the gift of eloquent speech, keen, rich, condensed, expressive, -which seems to have passed into the writer from the loz'ing study of the greatest master in his oum tongue of all the inimitable harmonies of language — the tenderest, the deepest, the most a^uful." — Guardian. " The work introduces us not vicrcly to the author's life and the political and ecclesiastical conju7u:tures under which he lived, but to the outlines of the Catholicised systems of ethics, astronomy, and geography ivhich he inter- preted in classifying his spirits and assigning them their dwellitigs ; as also to the drift of his leading allegories; and finally, to the general conduct of his poern — which is amply illustrated by citatio)is from the most literal verse tratislations. We find the volume firtiished with useful diagrajns of the Dafit- esgue universe, of Hell, Purgatory, and the ' Rose of the Blessed,' and adorned with a beautiful group of the likenesses of the poet, and with symbolic figures {pti the binding) in which the taste and executiori of Mr. D. G. Rossetti will be recognised. The exposition appears to -us remarkably well arranged and digested; the ajcthor's appreciation of Dante's religious sentiments and opinions is peculiarly hearty, and her style refreshi}igly independent and origitial." — Pall Mall Gazette. " It bears traces throughout of having been due to a patietit, loving and appreciative study of the great poet, as he is exhibited, not merely in the ' Di^iina Commedia, ' but iti his other writings. The res7ilt has been a book which is not only delightful iri itself to read, but is admirably adapted as an encouragerne/tt to those stude7its who wish to obtain a prelir/ti- nary sjirvey of tlie larid before they atternpt to follow Da7ite throjigh his lo7tg and arduo7is pilgri7>iage. Of all poets Da7ite stands 7/iost in need cf S7ich assistance as this book offers y — S.\TURDAY Review. ittcBjsrjs. y^itiington'^ fublicatbnjs A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL NARRATIVE. By the Rev. Isaac Williams, B.D., formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. A New and uniform Edition. In Eight vols. Crown 8vo. 5^. each. THOUGHTS ON THE STUDY OF THE HOL V GOSPELS. Characteristic Differences in the Four Gospels. Our Lord's Manifestations of Himself The Rule of Scriptural Interpretation furnished by our Lord. Analogies of the Gospel. Mention of Angels in the Gospels. Placesof our Lord's Abode and Ministry. Our Lord's Mode of Dealing with His Apostles. Conclusion. A HARMONY OF THE FOUR EVANGELISTS. Our Lord's Nativity. Our Lord's Ministry — Second Year. Our Lord's Ministry — Third Year. The Holy Week. Our Lord's Passion. Our Lord's Resurrection. OUR LORD'S NATIVITY. The Birth at Bethlehem. The Baptism in Jordan. The First Passover. OUR LORD'S MINISTRY. SECOND YEAR. The Second Passover. Christ with the Twelve. The Twelve sent forth. " There is not a better companion to be found for the season than the beautiful ' De- votional Commentary on the Gospel Narra- tive,' by the Rev. Isaac Williams *} rich jniiie for devotional and t/ieological study."— Gv AUD\hti. " So infinite are the depths and so inmnner- able the beauties of Scripture, atid more par- ticularly of the Gospels, that there is some difficulty in describing the tnanifold excellences ofWilliains' exquisite Conimetitary. Deriv- ing its profound appreciation of Scripture from the writings of the early Fathers, it is only what every student knows must be true to say that it extracts a whole wealth of meaning from each sentence, each apparently faint allusion, ecuh word in the text." — Chukch Review. "Stands absolutely alone in our English literature; there is, we should say, >to chaitce of its being superseded by any better book of its kind ; and its merits are of the very highest order."— hiTRKARY Chukch man. " // would be difficult to select a more use- ful present, at a small cost, than this series would be to a young mafi on his first entering into Holy Orders, and tnany, no doubt, will avail tliimselves of the refiublication of these useful volumes for this ptirpose. There is an abundance of sermon 7naterial to be drawn from any one of them."r~CHUHCH Times. OUR LORD'S MINISTRY. THIRD YEAR. Teaching in Galilee. Teacliing at Jerusalem. Last Journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. THE HOL Y WEEK. The Approach to Jerusalem. The Teaching in the Temple. The Discourse on the Mount of Olives. The Last Supper. OUR LORD'S PASSION. The Hour of Darkness. Tiie Agony. The Apprehension. The Condemnation. The Day of Sorrows. The Hall of Judgment. The Crucifixion. The Sepulture. OUR LORD'S RESURRECTION. The Day of Days. The Grave Visited. Clu-ist Appearing. The Going to Emmaus, The Forty Days. The Apostles Assembled. The Lake in Galilee. The Mountain in Galilee. The Return from Galilee. " This is, in the truest sense of the 7uord, a ' Devotio7ial Commentary ' on the Gospel nar- rati7'e, opening out everywhere, as it does, the spiritual beaitties and blessedness of t lie Divine V!essa!>e ; but it is something more than this, it meets difficulties almost by anticipation, and throws the light of learning over some of the very darkest passages in the New Testa- ment."- Rock. " The author has skilfully comt-ared and blended the narratives of the different Gospels, so as to give a synoptical view of the history ; and though the commeittary is called ' devo- tional,' it is scholarly and suggestive in other respects. The size of the work, extending, as it does, over eight vohimes, tnay deter pur- chasers and readers ; but each volume is com- plete in itself, and we recommend students to taste a sample of the author's quality. Some things they may question ; but the volumes are really a helpful and zialuable addition to our stores."— Frkkmak. " The high and solemn verities of the Saviour's sufferings and death are treated with great re^ierence and ability. T/ie thorough devoutness which pen'ades the book commends it to our heart. There is jnuch to instruct and help the believer in the Chris- tian life, no matter to what section of tlu Church he may belong." — Watchman. McsBVB, P^iDingtott's f ublkatioitjs THE STAR OP CHILDHOOD. A First Book of Prayers and Instruction for Children. Compiled by a Priest. Edited by the Rev. T. T. Carter, M.A., Rector of Clewer, Berks. With Six Illustrations, reduced from Engravings by Fra Angelico. Royal i6mo. 2s. bd. "AlltheIftstrt4ctions, allo/the Hymns, and jnost of tiie Prayers here are excellent. And ■rnken ive use tlie cautionary expression ' most of ihe,'' &^c., 7ve do not mean to imply that all the prayers are not excellent in themselves, hut only to express a doubt whetlier in some cases they may not be a little too elaborate for children. Of course it by tio means follows that -when yon jise a book you are to use equally every portion of it: what does not suit one jnay suit a score of others, and this book is clearly compiled ofi the comprehensivs princi/de. But to give a veracious verdict on the book it is needful to mention this. We need hardly say that it is well worth buying, and of a very high order of merit." — Litekaky Church- " Messrs. Rivington have sent us a manual of prayers for children, called ' The Star of Childhood; edited by tlie Rev. T. T. Carter, a very full collection, including instruction as well as devotion, and a judicious selection of hymns." — Church Review. " The Rev. T. T. Carter, of Clewer, has put forth a much needed and excellent book of devotions for little children, called ' The Star of Childhood.' IVe think it fair to tell our readers, tliat in it they will find that for children ivho have lost a near relative a short commemorative prayer is provided ; but we most earnestly hope that even by thoseivho are not willing to accept this usage, the book will not be rejected, Jor it is a most valuable one." — Monthly Packet. " One amongst the books before us deserves especial notice, entitled ' Tlie Star of Child- hood.' and edited by the Rev. T. T. Carter: it is eminently adapted for a Neiv )'ear's Gift. It is a manual of prayer for children, with hymns, litatiies, and i?istructions. Sotne of the hymns are illustrative of our Lords life ; and to these are added reduced copies from en- gravings of Fra Angelica" — Penny Post. "Supposing a child to be capable of using a devotional manual, the book before us is, in its general structure, as good an attempt to meet the ivani as could have been put forth. In the first place it succeeds, where so many like efforts fail, in the matter of simplicity. I'he language is quite vjithin the compass o/ a young child; that is to say, it is such as a young child can be made to understand ; for we do not suppose that the book is intended to be put directly into his hands, but through the hands of an instructor." — Church Bells. " To the sajne hand which gave us the ' Treasury of Devotion ' we are indebted for this beautijul little manual for children. Be- ginning with prayers suited to the comprehen- sion of the youngest, it contains devotions, litanies, hymns, and instructions, carefully proportioned to the gradually increasing pow- ers of a child's mind Jrom the earliest years, until confirviation. This little book cannot fail to influence Jor good the impressible hearts of children, and we hope that ere long it will be in the hands of all those who are blessed with C atholic-minded parents. It is beautifully got up, and is rendered more attractive by the capital engravings of Fra Angelico s pictures of scenes of our Lord' s childhood. God-parents could scarcely find a more appropriate gift for their God-chihiren than this, or one that is more likely to lead them to a knowledge oj the truth." — Church Union Gazette. " ' The Star of Childhood' is a first book of Prayers and instruction for children, com- piled by a Priest, and edited by the Rev. T. T. Carter, rector of Clewer. It is a very care- ful compilation, and the name of its editor is a warrant for its devotional tone." — Guar- dian. '''A handsoMiely got -up and attractive volume, with several good illustrations from Fra Angelico' s most famous paintings." — Union Review. BY THE SAME COMPILER AND EDITOR. THE TREASURY OP DEVOTION : A Manual of Prayers for Gene- ral and Daily Use. Fourth Edition. Imperial 32mo, 2s. 6d. ; limp cloth, 2s. Bound with the Book of Common Prayer, y. 6d. THE WAY OP LIPE : A Book of Prayers and Instruction for the Young (at School). Imperial 32mo, is. 6d. THE GUIDE TO HEAVEN : A Book of Prayers for every Want. For the Working Classes. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, is. 6d. ; limp cloth, is. THE PATH OP HOLINESS: A First Book of Prayers, with the Service of the Holy Communion, for the Young. With Illustrations. Crown i6mo, i.f. 6d. ; limp cloth, is. ^^Hcssrs. yiioiugtou'j? J3itblmttionj5 THE LIFE OF JUSTIFICATION. A Series of Lectures delivered in Substance at All Saints', iMargaret Street, in Lent, 1870. By the Rev. George Body, B.A., Rector of Kirkby Misperton. Second Edition. Crown 8 YD. 4?. 6d. " On the -whole we have rarely met luith a vtore clear, intelligible and persuasive state- ment of the truth as regards the important topics on -which the volume treats. Sermon II. in particular, ivill strike every one by its eloquence a7id beauty , but ive scarcely like to specify it, lest in praising it ive should seem to tii.yctragf the other portions 0/ this admirable lit:le -.iuirh." t'iiri;cH Times. " //;<■ A'cT'. Ceinge Body, -who has acquired a considerable reputation as a preacher of the mission type, gives to the general public the series of lectures Ofi ' The Life of Justification,' -which he delivered at All-Saints, Margaret Street, in Lent 1870. These discot/rses show that their author's position is due to something more and higher than 7nere fluency , gesticula- tion, and flexibility of voice. He appears as having drunk deeply at the fountaifi of St. Augustine, and as imderstanding hoiv to translate the burning -words of that mighty genius into the current language of to-day ." — Union Review. " That Mr. Body has made his mark as a j>reacher ez>erybody that kno7us anything about the -work of the Church of England is fully a-ware; but iti$ Jiot everybody-who k7iows ho7v or ivhythisis thecase. T he volutne before us-wili. however, sufficiently account for it to those -luho hitherto have failed to understand the pmver -which he has unquestiotiably exercised 07'er such large 7iumbers of people. There is real poiuer in these sermons :^ower, real po%uer, atid plenty of it. . . . There is such a 7noral veraciousness about hitn, such a pro- found and over-jnasteritig belief that Christ has proved a bona-fide cure for utiholiness, and such an intetisity of eagerness to lead others to seek and profit by that means of attaining the true sanctity which alone can enter Heaven — that we wonder not at the crowds which hang upon his preachitig, nor at the success of his fervid appeals to the hu7nan C07iscience. If a7iy 07ie doubts our verdict, let hi7n bjty this volu77ie. No one will regret its perusal." — Literary Churchman. SELF-RENUNCIATION. From the French. With Introduction by the Rev. T. T. Carter, M.A., Rector of Clewer. Crown 8vo. 6s. "It is excessively difficult to review or criticise, z« detail, a book of this ki/id, a7id yet its abou7idi7ig 7nerits, its practicabiess, its searchi7tg good sense a7id thorough7iess , and its freque7it beauty, too, 7nake 7ts wish to do S077iethi7ig more tha7i an7wu7ice its publicatio7i. . . . . The style is e77iinently clear, f7-ee fro77i redundance a7id prolixity." — Literary Churchman. " Few save Religious and those brought i7ito im7/!ediate contact with the77i are, zw all probability, acquai7ited with the Fre7tch treatise ofGicillore, a portio7i of which is 7iow, for the first time %ve believe, done i?ito English. .... Hence the suitableness of such a book as this for those who, i7i the 7/iidst of their fa7nilies, are e7ideavouri7Lg to advance z« tlie spiritual life. H^aidreds of devout souls livi7ig in the world have bee7i e7tcouraged a7td helped by such books as Dr. Neale's ' Ser7>i07is preached z« a Religious House.' For such the presetit work ivill be fou/td appropriate, while for Religious the77iselves it will be i7ivaluable." — Church Times. "v4 77wst successful atte77tpt to adapt the higher lessons of what is called the religiojis life to the daily a7id ordinary Christian course, a7id its lessons are full of 7iervous power." — Church Review. ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM'S LITURGY. Translated by H. C. Romanoff, Author of " Sketches of the Rites and Customs of the Greco- Russian Church," &c. With Illustrations. Square crown 8vo. 4?. bd. " The clever author of Sketches of the Rites a7id Custo7/is of the Greco-Russia7i Church ' has give7i us a very i7iteresting descriptiot! of the various cere77to7ties C07i7iected with ' The Divi7ie Liturgy of St. yoh7i Chrysosto7/i.' It is rather an expla7tatio7i tha7i a translatio7i of the Liturgy, a7id 77iay be profitably studied in co7i7iectio7i with Dr. Neale's -work 071 the L iturgies of the East. The ilhistratiotis afford co7tsiderable help in U7iderstandi7ig the text, a/id the style is so attractive that it will wi7i tna/ty readers who might shri7ikfr 0771 afoT^/ial liturgical treatise."— Church Times. "■ M. Roma7ioff gives a tra7islatio7i of the Lititrgy of Chrysosto7n, with expla7iatory re- 7narks derived chiefly frotn Russian tnanuals, JOHN WESLEY'S PLACE IN CHURCH HISTORY, deter- mined with the aid of Facts and Documents unknown to, or unnoticed by, his Biographers. By R. Denny Urlin, M.R.I. A., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law, etc. With a New and Authentic Portrait. Small 8vo. 55. 6d. i7i the book 7ww before 7is. It is %vritte7i for the general reader, a7id does 7iot profess to give all the words of t lie office, nor does it describe the rite with that 7ninute7iess which wojild 7iiake the book 07ie of refere7ice for liturgical stude7its. But these characteristics 7nake the book 77iore i7it cresting to a wider circle of readers; a7id in these days of easy trai'dling, whe7i so large a 7iui/iber of E7iglish7iieii are 7tot C07itent with the old-fashio7ied traditional visit to Switzerlatid or the Rhitie, but prefer visiti7tg 7nore dista7it la/ids, there 77iust be an i7icreasing nu77iber of travellers to whoin this book would be a very useful guide." — Athen- aeum. MzsBXB. |S.ibington'5 Jpubltratiottis BIBLE READINGS FOR FAMILY PRAYER. By the Rev. W. H. Ridley. M.A., Rector of Hambleden. Crown Svo. Old Testament — Genesis and Exodus. 2s. New Testament, j ^[- ^^^^'f, ^"^^ ^t. John 2.. ' ( St. Matthew and St. Mark. 2s. The Four Gospels, in one volume. 3J". 6t/. HOUSEHOLD THEOLOGY : A Handbook of Religious Information respecting the Holy Bible, the Prayer Book, the Church, the Ministry, Divine Worship, the Creeds, &c., &c. By John Henry Blunt, M.A. New Edition. Small Svo. ^s. 6d. SERMONS FOR CHILDREN ; being Thirty-three short Readings, ad- dressed to the Children of S. Margaret's Home, East Grinstead. By the Rev. J. M. Neale, D.D., late Warden of Sackville College. Second Edition. Small Svo. 3J-. 6c/. A MANUAL OF CONFIRMATION, Comprising— i. A General Account of the Ordinance. 2. The Baptismal Vow, and the English Order of Confirmation, with Short Notes, Critical and Devotional. 3. Meditations and Prayers on Passages of Holy Scripture, in connexion with the Ordinance. With a Pastoral Letter instructing Catechumens how to prepare themselves for their first Communion. By Edward Meyrick Goulburn, D.D. Dean of Norwich. Ninth Edition. Small Svo. is. 6(/. THE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND : its History, Principles, and Results, a.d. 1514-1547. By John Henry Blunt, M.A., Vicar of Kennington, Oxford. Second Edition. Svo. i6i-. " T/ie reader will gladly acknoiuledge the lid those viezus a7id principles are not forced impartiality of treatjneni and liberality of jipon the facts, but are educed from them as tone which are conspicuous in every page. It their necessary results. The true account, in- is distinctly a learned book. The author is deed, of his book is, that it is a sketch of the ?-eigK not a second-hand retailer of facts ; he is a of Henry VIII. in its theological changes, painstaking, conscientious student, who de- which proves in detail the Church view of rizies his knowledge from original sozirces. those changes. And if that view is the true IVc have said that he does not command a view, how can a true history do otlierwise 9 brilliant style; but he is by 710 meatis a dull The merit of a history is, that it allows facts writer — on the contrary, he is always read- to evolve views, and does not pervert or con- able, sometimes very interesting, and sho2us ceal facts z« order to force upon them precon- considerable skill in tliegroupi?ig and arrange- ceived views of its own. Atid when 7ue clui- ment of his facts." — Times. racterize Mr. Blunt's voluine as stating tlie " Mr. Blunt gives 7(s, in this volume, an Church's case througliout, we conceive it to be instabnent history of the Reforjitation, in the an ample justification to say that if he is to just proportions of a history, and written relate the facts fairly he could not do otlier- carefully from contemporary documents and wise; that he fairly alleges the fads, and the evidence . . . with scholarly knowledge , with facts prove his case. We hold the book, then, an independent judgment, atid with careful to be a solid and valuable addition to our support given to each statement by quotation Church history, just because it does in tlie of evidence. And Mr. Blunt has given greater main establish the Church case, and bring it effect to his 7iarrative by a skilful divisio7i and ably a7id clearly before the public, up07i una>i- groupi7ig of his subjects. Uridoubtedly, he severable evide7tce, ii7ipartially arid o/t the writes upon very definite views and principles, whole correctly stated." — Guardian. PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS. By John Henry Newman, B.D., formerly Vicar of St. .Mary's, Oxford. Edited by the Rev. W. J. COPELAND, Rector of Farnham, Essex. From the Text of the last Editions published by Messrs. Rivington. In 8 vols. Crown Svo. $s. each. Sold separately. LETTERS FROM ROME ON THE COUNCIL. r,y Quirinus. KepriiUeJ from the " Allgemeine Zeitung." Authorised Translation. Crown 8vO. I2S. " Their calm criticism of the proceedings of the Council, their dignified remonstrance against the proceedings of the Roman Curia, and their outspoken fears as to t/ie results •which ivill folloiu upon the proclamation of the dogma of Infallibility, must have done much to strengthen atid consolidate the Op- position as it IS calleif) in the Council. . . . A word as to the .translation. It reads like an English work — the similarity between this and ''Janus' will suggest itself ai once." — Athen/eum. " It IS not muck more than a twelvemonth since we noticed at some length the English translation of the remarkable work of ' Jan^is ' on the Pope and the Council, which has since passed rapidly through three editions, and has commanded hardly less atteyition in this country thatt in Germany. ' fanus' closed •with a sorroxvful prediction that, whatever else might be said of the Vatican Synod, it would have tio claim to be considered a free assembly, and the volume 7iaiu before us ts one long illustratioti from begin- 7iing to end of the justice of that anticipation. Tlie two books, though evidently emanating from dfferent authorship, have 7iiuch in common. Both, as we are assured, are 'ex- clusively the work of Catholics ; ' both repre- sent the same school of religious thought ; both give eiiidence of deep learning, though there is of course more scope for its direct applica- tion in the earlier volume ; both are written •with consummate ability and U7imistakcahle earnestness, and in a clear and lucid style ; and both, we may add, are admirably trans- lated, riie English reader, if he had not referred to tlw title page, might easily suppose that the Letters were from the pen of a countryman of his o-i 500 pages of small type, containing without doubt the very greatest number of vocables we have seen in Review. "A laborious and painstaking work, and will be found of very great service as a book of reference."— Chvrch Time.s. "Air. Shipley deserves the cordial thanks of Churchmen for his laborious work. The book is admirably arranged, the double columns and the use of special type for the headines of the several paragrap/is, not only making it a handsome piece of typographical work, but rendering it thoroui^hly clear for reference. It is a Dictionary which laity and clergy alike ought to possess, and we trust it will have, as it deserves, a remunerative sale." — Church- man's Shilling Magazine. NOTITIA EUCHARISTICA. A Commentary, Explanatory, Doctrinal, and Historical, on the Order of the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion, according to the U.se of the Church of England. By W. E. ScUDAMORE, M.A., Rector of Ditchingham, and formerly Eellow of .S. John's College, Cambridge. 8vo. 28^. MtZBXS, Jlibiitgtott's JPublixnticriTs A KEY TO THE KNOWLEDGE OP CHURCH HISTORY (Modern). Edited by the Rev. John Henry Blunt, M.A. Forming a New Volume of "Keys to Christian Knowledge." Small Svo. 2s. bJ. A KEY TO CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE FOUNDED ON THE CHURCH CATECHISM. By the Rev. John Henry Blunt, M.A. (Forming a Volume of "Keys to Christian Knowledge.") Small Svo. 2J. bd. " Of cheap and reliable text-books of this nature there has hitherto bee?t a great ivant. We are often asked to recommend books for nse in Church Sunday-schools, and lue there- fore take this opportunity of saying that ive know of none more likely to be of service both to teachers and scholars than these ' Keys.' " — Chunchman's Shilling Magazine. " This is another of Mr. Blunt's most use- ful majiuals. zvith all the precision of a school book, yet diverging into matters of practical application so freely as to make it most service- able, either as a teacher s suggestion book, or as an intelligent pupil's reading book."— Literary Chiikchman. " Will be very useful for the higher classes in Sunday-schools, or rather for the fuller instruction of the Sunday-school teachers themselves, luhere the parish priest is luisc enough to devote a certain time regularly to their preparatiofi for their voluntary task."— Union Review. "Another of the many useful books on theological and Scriptttral subjects -which have been written by the Rev. John Hettry Blunt. The present is entitled ' A Key to Christian Doctrine atid Practice, foufided on the Church Catechism,' and luill take its place as an elementary text-book upon the Creed in our schools and colleges. The Church Catechism is clearly and fully explained by the author in this 'Key.' Numeral^ re- ferences. Scriptural and othcrivise, are scattered about the book." — PuuLic Opinion. THE PSALMS. Translated from the Hebrew. With Notes, chiefly Exegetical. By William Kay, D.D., Rector of Great Leighs; late Princi- pal of Bishop's College, Calcutta. Svo. \2.s. bd. "Dr. Kay's exegetical notes, thotipfi brief, are for the jnost part admirable, atid ive can on the whole cordially recommend this portion of the word." —Chvkch Times. "Like a sound Chitrch/nan, he reverences Scripture, upholding its authority against sceptics ; and he does not dcjtouttce stich as differ from him in opinion with a dogmatism unhappily too common at the present day. Hence, readers will be disposed to consider his conclusions worthy of attention ; or perhaps to adopt them without inquiry. It is super- fluous to say that the translatioi is better and jnore accurate on the whole than our received one, or that it often reproduces the sense of the original happily." — Athen.eum. "Dr. Kay has profound reverence for Divine truth, and exhibits considerable read- ing, with the power to make use of it." — BRITISH Quarterly Review. " 'J'he execution of the work is careful and scholarly." — Union Review. " To mention the name of Dr. Kay is enough to secure respectful attention to his new translatiott of the Psalms. It is en- riched ivith exegetical notes containing a wealth of sound learning, closely occasionally, perhaps too closely condensed. Good care is taken of the student not learned in Hebrew; we hope the Doctor's example will prevetit any abuse of this consideration, and stimulate those who profit by it to follow him into the very text of the a?icient Kevelatiort." — John Bull. HISTORICAL NARRATIVES. From the Russian. By H. C. Romanoff, Author of "Sketches of the Rites and Customs of the Greco- Russian Church," &c. Crown Svo. 6s. " These narratives have been translated from the Russian by 71/. Romanoff. 1 hey relate to certain Russian customs, and to one or two Russian celebrities. English readers will be most interested by the sketches giz'en of the lives of the Empress Catheritce and the Emperor Paul. The partictclars given of Catherine's peculiarities and habits of life, and of her favourites, are curious, and very characteristic of t lie Semiratnis of the North. Two of her favourites are glanced at — Orloff and Potetnkin— and we are told that when Catherine, at the age of sixty-two, heard of the death of the latter, she felt it so keenly that she wept. The narratii'es are from sources of undoubted veracity." — St A nua r d. " 1 he reader will find ' Historical Narra- tives ' an entertaining and instructive book, and will not regret the few hours spent in its perusal." — Nation (N. Y.) RECOLLECTIONS OP OBER-AMMERGAU IN 1871. By Henry Nutcombe Oxenham, M.A., late Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. Crown Svo. 3^. bd. iHcsBvs. ^ibington's JpubUcatiotts CONSOLING THOUGHTS IN SICKNESS. Edited by Hknry Bailev, B.U., Warden of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. Large type. Fine Edition. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. Also, a Cheap Edition, is. bd. ; or in paper cover, \s. AIDS TO PRAYER ; OR. THOUGHTS ON THE PRAC- TICE OF DEVOTION. With Forms of Prayer for Private Use. By Daniel Moore, M.A., Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, and Vicar of Holy Trinity, Paddington, Author of " Sermons on Special Occasions," Hulsean Lectures on " The Age and the Gospel," &c. Second Edition. Square 32mo. 2s. 6d. " The valuable characteristic of this work luill be recognised by every serious, thoughtful Christian, in a -word, by all who perceive and lament the growing tettdency to prefer the claims of external service, ecclesiastical con- troversy, or micltiplied activities to the practice of private devotion. 'Aids to Prayer' offers both enconragemefit and help to those ivho aspire to higher attainments in the Divine Life. Every page bears the impress of THE TWO BROTHERS, and other Poems. By Edward Henry BiCKERSTETH, M.A., Vicar of Christ Church, Hampstead, and Chaplain to the Bishop of Ripon, Author of " Yesterday, To-day, and for Ever." Second Edition. Small 8vo. 6s. a }itatured judgment, and of an experimental acquaintance loitli a subject conj'essedly dif- ficult, and of supreme importance."— "RkcorD-^ '^Eloquently, ably, attdpractically written.''' — English Churchman. " 'Aids to Prayer' has deservedly reached a second edition. The sermon method oft>-eat- jnent has been wisely discontinued." —John Blll. "Mr. Bickerstcih is already known to fame as the author of a very .'successful and beautiful epic poem on the difficult subject of ' Yesterday, To-day, and for Ever.' His verses have the genuine ring of poetry, and his touch is often delicate and masterly, always truthful and tasteful. . . . The more recent poems of Mr. Bickersteth a7-c instinct ivith the spirit of true poetry, full of original power and con- ception, and are often imbued with a delicate sweetness and truth of feeli>tg all tlieir own. Eike Keble, Mr. Bickersteth is essentially a Christian poet, and the greater part of these poems appeal, and with success, to the deepest and tnost devotional sympathies of the soul. In many of the more recent poems we find 7nuch that reminds tis of Tennyso>i." — Standard. " Carefully written, with soiite mastery of langttage ajid versification, and with some rhetorical force'' — Spectatoh. " We therefore gladly commend to our readers this pleasant volume, which embodies many holy and tender thoughts, and gathers up tnany waifs and strays of past years which ought not to perish." — Christian Observer. A KEY TO THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By John PiLKlNGTON NoRRIS, M.A. (Forming a Volume of "Keys to Christian Knowledge.") -Small Svo. 2s. 6d. ' ' Eew books have ever given us more un- mixed pleasure than this. It is faultlessly written, so that it reads as pleasantly and enticingly as if it had not the least intention of being an ' educational' b'ook. It is complete and exhaustible, so far as the narrative aud all its bearings go, so that students may feel that they need not be hunting 7tp other books to supply the lacunae. It is the work of a classical scholar, and it leaves nothing wanting in the way of classical illustrations, which in the case of the Acts are of special importatice. And, lastly, it is theologically sound."— Liter- ary Churchman. " 'This is a sequel to Cano7iNorris's ' Key to the Gospels' which was published two years ago, and which has become a general fajiouriie with those who wish to grasp tlie leading features of the life and word of Christ. The sketch of the Acts of the Apostles is done in the same style ; there is the same reverent spirit and quiet enthusiasm running through it, and the same instinct for seizing the lead- ing points in the narrative." — Record. "It is a remarkdi'v -■:■":■' Utrn and interesting account oj : ' I lie Book of the Acts,' giving u ■ .:.:\- of St. Euke with exactly what .iv .l,.;. .' in the way of connecting links and illustrations. One most notable and praiseworthy characteristic of the book is its candour. . . . The book is one which we can heartily recommend." — Spectator. " Of Canon Norris's ' Key to the Narrative of the Four Gospels,' we wrote in high approval not many months ago. The present is not less carefully prepared, and is full of the unosten- tatious results of sound learning and patient thought." —l.oKDOK Quarterly Review. " This little volume is one of a series of ' Keys' of a more or less educational character, iL'hich ai'e in the course of publication by Messrs. Kivington. It gives apparently a very fair and tolerably exhaustive resume of the coiitents of the Acts, with which it deals, not chapter by chapter, but consecuti^iely in the order of thought." — School Board Chron- icle. MtBBXB, Jltbtngtott'B f ubiicntiotts BRIGHSTONE SERMONS. By George Moberly, D.C.L., Bishop of Salisbury. Second Edilion. Crown 8vo. Js. 6d. THE SAYINGS OF THE GREAT FORTY DAYS, Between tlie Resurrection and Ascension, regarded as the Outlines of the Kingdom of God. In Five Discourses. With an Examination of Dr. Newman's Theory of Development. By George Moberly, D.C.L., Bishop of Salisbury. Fourth Edition. Uniform with Brighstone Sermons. Crown 8vo. 7^. 6d. A SELECTION FROM THE SPIRITUAL LETTERS OF S. FRANCIS DE SALES, BISHOP AND PRINCE OF GENEVA. Translated by the Author of " Life of S. Francis de Sales," " A Dominican Artist," &c., &c. Crown 8vo. 6s. " This is a necessary sequel, and appropriate companion, to the ' Life of S. Francis de Sa/es,' by the same able translator, which was published a few months since. It is a collection of epistolary correspondence of rare interest and ejrcellence. With those zvho have read the Life, there cannot but have been a strong- desire to kno7v more of so beautiful a character as S. Francis de Sales. He was a model of Ch7-istian saintliness and religious virtue for all time, and one everything relating towhotn, so great were the accomplishments of his mind as well as the devotion of his heart, has a charm zvhich delights, instructs, and elevates." ^Church Herald. "A few monttis back we had the pleasure of welcoming the Life of S. Francis de Sales. Here is the promised seqiiel:— the 'Selection f7-om his Spiritual Letters ' then announced :— and a great boon it will be to 7nany. The Letters are addressed to people of all sorts : — to men and to women : — to laity and to ecclesiastics, to people living in the world, or at court, and to the inmates of Religious Houses. A nd what an idea it gives one of the widely rantifying influence of one good man and of the untiring diligence of a man, who in spite of all his external duties, could find or make the time for all these letters. iVe hope that with our readers it may be totally need- less to urge such a voliane on their notice." — Literary Churchman. S. FRANCIS DE SALES, BISHOP AND PRINCE OF GENEVA. By the Author of "A Dominican Artist," "Life of Madame Louise de France," &c., &c. Crown 8vo. gj-. soul, has been permitted to live upon earth. The example of this gentle but resolute and energetic spirit, wholly dedicated to the high- est conceivable good, offering itself, with all the temporal uses of mental existence, to the sendee of infinite a?id eternal beneficence, is extremely touching. . . . It is a book worthy of acceptance." — Dailv News. "One cannot wonder at its having been thought desirable to introduce so excellent a work as this to English Churchmen. IVe say to English Church>nen, because it tnust be especially, although it is intended, we learn, that his life shall be immediately followed by a translation of the ' Spiritual Letters of St. Francis de Sales,' together with the ' Esprit de S. Franfois de Sales' and the ' Traite de I'Amottr de Dieu,' by Bishop Belley — works ■which the perusal of the present volume must create a strong desire to possess.'' — Church Review. " The accomplished author to whom we owe the recent life of Pere Besson, the Dominican, has laid ns under afresh debt of gratitude by a later work, a biography of S. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Frittce of Geneva. It is not a translation or adaptation, but an origi- nal work, attd a very charming portrait of one of the most wiiming cliaracters in tlie long gallery of Saints. A nd it is a matter of entire " To those wlw have read the previous works by the author of this Life of S. Francis de Sales, it is untiecessary for us to say a word of canmendation of the firesent volume. It is -written with the delicacy, freshness, and absence of all affectation which characterised the former works by the same hand, and which render these books so very much more pleasant reading than are religious bio- graphies in general. The character of S. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, is a charming one; a more simple, pure, and pious life it would be difficult to conceive. His unaffected humility, his freedom from dogmatism in an age when dogma was placed above 7-eligion, his freedo/n fro7/i bigotry /« an age of persecutiofi, were alike ad7nirable." — Standard. " 'The author of 'A Dominican Artist,' in wi-iti7ig this 7iew life of tlie wise a7id loving Bishop and Prince of Ge/ieva, has ai7/ied less at historical or ecclesiastical investigatio7i tha7i at a vivid and 7iatu7-al representatio7i of the inner 77ii7id a7id life of the subject of his biography, as it can be traced z« his own wi'-itings a7td in those of his 77tost i7iti77tate and a ffcctio7iate friends. The book is written with the grave and quiet grace which charac- terizes the productions of its author, and ca7i- 7iot fail to please those readers who can sy7/!pathize with all for77is of good/iess a7id devotio7i to noble purpose." — Westminster Review. " A book which contai7is the record of a life as sweet, pU7-e, arid noble, as any rnan by divirie help, granted to devout sincerity of tha/ikfuhiess to us to find a distirictively A7tglican writer setting for^uard the good Bishop's work amo7tg Protestants, as a true missio7iary task to reclai/n souls from deadly error, a7td bring tliein back to the truth." — Union Review. lO MtQBVs, |S.ibington'j5 Jublimtions RIVINGTON'S DEVOTIONAL SERIES. Elegantly printed with red borders. i6mo. 2s. 6d. each. THOMAS A KEMPIS, OF THE IMITATION OP CHRIST. Also a Cheap Edition, without the red borders, is., or in Cover, 6cl. " A very beautiful edition. Wc commend it to the Clergy as an excellent gift-book for teachers and other workers." — Church Times. " This work is a precious relic of mediaval times, and will contimte to be valued by every section of the Christian Church."— Wekkly Review. " A beautifully printed pocket editiofi of this 7na7 ve I lous production of a man, who, out of ike dark mists of popery, saw so much of experimental religion. Those who are well gromided in evangelical truth may use it with profit."— Kecoud. "A very cheap a?id handsome edition." — Rock. " This ne7v edition is a marziel of cheapness." — Chukch Review. "Beautifully printed, and very cheap edi- tions of this long-used hand-book of devotion." — Literary World. THE RULE AND EXERCISES OP HOLY LIVING. By Jeremy Taylor, D. D., Bishop of Down and Connor, and Dromore. Also a Cheap Edition, without the red borders, is. THE RULE AND EXERCISES OP HOLY DYING. By Jeremy Taylor, D.D., Bishop of Down and Connor, and Dromore. Also a Cheap Edition, without the red borders, is. The ' Holy Living' and the One Volume, 5^. : ■ Holy Dying ' may be had bound together in or without the red borders, 2s. 6d. "An extremely well-printed and 7vell got ■up edition, as pretty and graceful as possible, and yet not too fine for real use. We wish the devotions of this beautiful book were more cotnmonly ?ocms and the ' Jacula Prudentum,' in a very neat volume which does much credit to the publishers ; it will, ive hope, meet with extensive circulation as a choice gift-book at a moderate price."— Christian Observer. " This beautiful little volume will be found specially convenient as a pocket manual. The '■Jacula Prudentum' or proverbs, deserve to be jnore widely known than they are at present. In many copies of George Herbert's •writings these quaint sayings have beefi un- fortunately omitted." — RoCK. "George Herbert is too much a household name to require any introduction. It will be sufficient to say that Messrs. Rivington luive published a most compact and convenient edition of the poems and proverbs of this illus- trious English divine." — English Church- man. "An exceed itigly pretty edition, the most attractive form we have yet seen from this de- lightful author, as a gift-book."— Mmoti Review. 12 iHcssrs. ^ibingtoit's J3ubIirations NEW THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. DICTIONARY OP DOCTRINAL AND HISTORICAL THEOLOGY. By various writers. Edited by the Rev. John Henry Blunt, M.A., F.S.A. Editor of the Annotated Book of Common Prayer. Second Edition. Complete in one volume of 833 pages, imperial %vo {equal to six Zvo volumes of 400 pages each), and printed in large readable type, 42s.' or half-bound in morocco, ^2s. dd. I. Nature of the work. This Dictionary consists of a series of original Essays (alphabetically arranged, and 575 in number) on all the principal subjects connected with the Doctrines of the Christian Church. Some idea of the subjects, and of the length of the articles, may be formed from the following titles of those which occupy the work from page 700 to page 720. Sign. Simony. Sin. SiNAiTic Codex. socinianism. solifidianism. Soul. Spinozism. Spirit. Spirit, The Holy. Sponsors. subdeacons. Sublapsarianism. Substance. Suffragan. Sunday. Supererogation. Supernatural. Superstition. Supralapsarianism. Supremacy, Papal. 2. Object of the Work. The writers of all the Essays have endeavoured to make them sufficiently exhaustive to render it unnecessary for the majority of readers to go further for information, and, at the same time, sufficiently suggestive of more recondite sources of Theological study, to help the student in following up his subjects. By means of a Table prefixed to the Dictionary, a regular course of such study may be carried out in its pages. 3. Principles of the Work. The Editor and his coadjutors have carefully avoided any party bias, and consequently the work cannot be said to be either "High Church," "Low Church," or "Broad Church." The only bias of the Dictionary is that given by Revelation, History, Logic, and the literary idiosyn- cracy of each particular contributor. But the Editor has not attempted to assist the circulation of the book by making it colourless on the pretence of impartiality. Errors are freely condemned, and truths are expressed as if they were worth ex- pressing ; but he believes that no terms of condemnation which may be used ever transgress the bounds of Christian courtesy. 4. Part of a Series. The Dictionary of Theology is complete in itself, but it is also intended to form part of a Series, entitled, "A Summary of Theology," of which the second volume, "A Dictionaiy of Sects, Heresies, and Schools of Thought," is in the press. " Taken as a luhole the articles are the •work 0/ frractised writers, and tuelt itiforined and sotid theologians. . . . We know no book of its size and bulk which supplies the information here given at all ; far less which supplies it in an arrangement so accessible, with a completeness of information so thorough, and 7vith an ability in the treatment of pro- found subjects so great. Dr. Hook's most useful volume is a work of high calibre, but it is the work of a single mind. We have here a wider range of thought frotn a greater variety of sides. We have here also the work of men who evidently know wfuit they write about, and are somezohat more profound {to say the least), than the writers of the current Dictionaries of ^ects arid Heresies.'" — Guar- dian. ' ' Mere antiquarianism, hmvever interesting, has little place in it. But for all practical MtSBXs. I^ibiitgtott'js |3ublkatian5 13 purposes its historical articles are excellent. They are 0/ course, and of necessity, a good deal condefised, yet they are wonder/ully complete ; see for example such articles as 'Atheism,' 'Cabbala' 'Calvinism^ 'Can- onization,' 'Convocations,' 'Evangelical,' ' Fathers,' ' Infa7it Baptism,' &^c., 6r'c. But the strength of the book lies in the theology proper, mid herein more particularly in 7uhat one may call the metaphysical side of doctrine : — see the articles on ' Conceptualism,' ' Doubt,' ' Ditalism' ' Election,' ' Eternity ^ ' E^ierlast- ing Punishme7it,' 'Fatalism,' and the like. We mention these as clmracteristic of the book. At the same time other more practical mailers are fully dealt -with. There are ex- cellent and elaborate papers on such words as 'Eucharist,' 'Confession,' 'Blood,' 'Cross,' ' Antichrist,' iosay nothing oftlie host oj mitior jnatters on which it is most convenient to be able to turn to a book which gives yon at a glance the pith of a whole library in a column or a page. Thus it will be obvious that it takes a very vtuch wider range than any nndertaking of the same kind incur language ; and that to those of our clergy who have not the fortune to spend in books, and would not have the leisure to use them if they possessed them, it will be the most serviceable and re- liable substitute for a large library we can think of. And in viatiy cases, while keeping strictly zvithin its province as a Dictionary, it contrives to be maniellously suggestive of thought and refections, which a serious minded man will take with him and ponder over for his oiun elaboration a7id future use. As a>t example of this we may refer to the whole article on Doubt. It is treated of under the sjiccessive heads of, — (i) its nature ; (2) its origin ; (3) the history of the principal periods of Doubt; (4) the consciousness — or actual experience of Doubt, atidhov/ to deal with its diffej-eitt phases and kinds ; (5) the relations of Doubt to action and to belief. To explain a little we will here quote a para- graph or two, which may not be unacceptable to our readers. . . . The variety of the references given ift the cou7-se of this article, and at its conclusion, shoT.u ho%v carefully the writer has thought out and studied his subject in its various manifestations in tnatiy varioics minds, and illustrate very forcibly how tnuch reading goes to a very small amoutit of space in anything worth the name of 'Dictionary of Theology.' IVe trust most sincerely that the book may be largely used. For a present to a clergyman on his ordination, or from a par- ishioner to his pastor, it would be most appro- priate. It may indeed be called 'a box of tools for a working clergyjiiati'" — Literary Chukchman. ' ' Seldom has an English work of equal magnitude been so permeated with Catholic instincts, and at the same time seldom has a work on theology been kept so free from the drift of rhetorical incrustation. Of course it is not meant that all these remarks apply in their full extent to every article. In a great Dictionary there are compositions, as in a great house thei-e are vessels, of various ki/uls. Some of these at a future day may be replaced by others more substatitial in their build, jnore proportionate in their outlitie, and viore elaborate in their detail. But admitting all this, the whole remains a home to which the student will constantly recur, sure to find spacious chambers, substantial furtiiture , and (which is most important) no stinted light." — Church Review. " The secoid andfijial instalment of Mr. Bhtnt's useful Dictionary , itselj but apart of a more comprehensive plan, is nowbefore the pub- lic, and fully stcstains the mainly favourable impression created by the appearajice of the first part. Within the sphere it has marked out for itself, no equally useful book of reference exists in English for the elucidation of theolo- gical problems. . . . Entries which dis- play much care, research, and judgment in cotnpilation, and which will make the task oJ the parish priest who is brought face to face with any of the practical questions which they involve far easier t/ian has been hitherto. The very fact that the utterances are here and there somezvhat more guarded and hesitating than quite accords with our judgment, is a gain in so far as it protects the work from the charge of inczilcating extreme viezvs, and will thus secure its admissio>t in many places where moderation is accoutUcd the crowjiiiig grace.' — Church Tihies. " The writers who are at work on it are scholars and theologians, and earnest de- fenders of the Christian faith. 'J hey evi- dently holdfast thefundameiital doctrines oJ Christianity, and have the religious instruc- tion of the rising ministry at heart. More- over, their scheme is a Jioble one ; it does credit not only to their learning and zeal, but also to their tact and discretion. ' — London Quar- terly Review. " Infnitely the best book of the kind in the language ; and, if not the best conceivable, it is perhaps the best we are ez'er likely to see within its compass as to size and scope. Accu- rate and succinct in stateme^it, it may safely be trusted as a handbook as regards facts, ■while in 02ir judgment, this second part still ■maintains the character we gave the first, 7iamely, of shoi-ving most ability in its way of treatitig the more abstract and metaphysical side of theological questions. The liturgical articles also in this part deserve especial men- tioji. The book is sure to make its owti way by sheer force of usefulness." — Literary Churchman. "It is not opeti to doubt that this work, of which the second aiid concluding part has just beefi issued, is in every sense a valuable and important one. Mr. Blunt's Dictionary is a most acceptable addition to English theological literature. Its general style is terse and vigorous. Whilst its pages are free from •wordiness, there is none of that -ufidue conden- sation which, tmder the plea of judicious bre- vity, ve-ls a mere empty jotting down of fami- liar statemetits [and mis-statements), at second or, it Jitay be, third Itand from existing works. Dean Hook's well-known Dictionary jnakes the nearest approach to the one naiu before us, but Mr. Blunt's is decidedly the better of t/ie two." — English Churchman. " It will be found of admirable service to all students of theology, as advattcing and tnain- taining the Church's views oti all subjects as fall within tlie range of fair argument anc inquiry. It is not often that a work of so comprehensive attd so profound a nature is viarked to the very etid by so many signs oJ wide and careful research, sound criticism, and well-founded a7id well-e.xpresscd belief." — Standard. 14 McBSxs, IXibiitgton's Jubliatiotts SERMONS. By Henry Melvill, Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. 5^. each. Sold separately. " Messrs. Rhiington have published very opfiortunely, at a time when Churchmen are thinking with satisfaction of the neiu blood- infused into the Chapter of St. Paul's, sermons by Henry Melvill, who in his day was as cele- brated as a preacher as is Canon Liddon now. The sermons are not only couclied in elegant language, but are replete with matter which the youfiger clergy would do well to study." — John Bull. " Henry MelviWs intellect was large, his imagination brilliant, his ardour intense, and his style strong, fervid, and picturesque. Often he seemed to glow ^vith the inspiration of a prophet."— AuE-mcKn Quarterly Chukch Review. " /t would be easy to quote portions of ex- ceeding beauty and power. Itwasnot, however, the charm of style, nor wealth of words, both which Canon Melvill possessed in so great abundance, that he relied oti to wi>i souls; but the power and spirit of Him who said, ' /, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to Me.'" — Kecokd. ' '■ Every one who can remeinber the days when Canon Melvill was the preacher of the day, will be glad to see these four-and- twenty of his sermons so nicely reproduced. His Ser- B.D., late Canon of St. Paul's, and New Edition. Two vols. Crown 8vo. vtons were all the result of real study and genuine reading, with far more theology in them than those of many who make 7nuch more profession of theology. There are sermons here which we can personally remember; it has been a pleasure to 71s to be reminded of them, and we are glad to see them brought before the present generation. We hope that they viay be studied, for they deserve it tho- roughly." — Literary Churchman. "Few preachers have had tnore admirers tJian the Rev. Henry Melvill, and the new edition of his Sermons, in two volumes, will doubtless find plenty of purchasers. The ser- mons abound in thotight, and the thoughts are couched ifi English which is at once elegant in construction and easy to read." — Church Times. " The Sermons of Canon Melvill, now re- published in two hattdy volutnes, need only to be me?itiotted to be sure of a hearty welcome. Sound learning, well weighed words, calm and keen logic, and solemn devoutness, jnark the whole series of masterly discourses, which etn- brace some of the chief doctrines of the Church, and set them forth in clear and Scriptural strength." — Standard. A HELP TO CATECHISING. For the Use of Clergymen, Schools, and Private Families. By James Beaven, D.D., Professor of Divinity in the University of Toronto. New Edition. i8mo. 2s. THE FIRST BOOK OP COMMON PRAYER OP EDWARD VI., and the Ordinal of 1549, together with the Order of the Communion, 1548. Reprinted entire, and Edited by the Rev. Henry Baskerville Walton, M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Merton College. With an Intro- duction by the Rev. Peter Goldsmith Medd, M.A., Senior Fellow and Tutor of University College, Oxford. Small 8vo. 6j. " A volume like this is worth two of Church History. In many respects, indeed, it is the subject of history itself; aiidwith Mr. Medd's introduction and Mr. Walton's editorial work we maybe said to have both subject and history thereof. The volume should be in the hands of every member of the Church of England: we may say, it should be in those of every student of Church History." — Athenaeum. " We welcome the seasonable appearance of this work, which indeed supplies a longfelt want, for ' the First Book' has been hitherto accessible to very few. . . . It is especially important at the present time that the princi- ples of the first Reformers should be under- stood ; and no one can look through this edition without gaining some definite bifor- mation on that point. We commoid this new edition of the First Prayer Book, with its introduction to tlie study of all that are desirous of understanding the principles of those who originated the reform of our public Services." — Church News. " The more that English Churchmen be- come acquainted with the Reformed Prayer Book, as our English Divines reformed it, apart from the meddling of foreigners — i.e., the better people became acquainted with ' Edward VI's first book,' the better both for thentselves and for the English Church at large. We are therefore delighted to welcome this handy and handsome reprint, 7uith which every pains has been taken to make it as accurate a% possible.'" — Literary Church- man. " Mr. Walton deserves tlie very best thaiiks of Anglican Churchmen, for putting this most itnportant volume within their reach in so convenient andhandsotne aform." — Church Review. INSTRUCTIONS POR THE USE OP CANDIDATES POR HOLY ORDERS, And of the Parochial Clergy ; with Acts of Parliament relating to the same, and Forms proposed to be used. By Christopher HODCisoN, M.A., Secretary to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. Ninth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 8vo. i6j-. Mtssvs. JS^ibtngtott's fublicatiotts 15 THE PRAYER BOOK INTERLEAVED ; With Historical Illus- trations and Explanatory Notes arranged parallel to the Text. By the Rev. W. M. Campion, D.D., Fellow and Tutor of Queen's College, and Rector of St. Botolph's, and the Rev. W. J. Beamont, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. With a Preface by the Lord Bishop of Ely. Sixth Edition. Small 8vo. ys. (id. A PLAIN ACCOUNT OP THE ENGLISH BIBLE. From the Earliest Times of its Translation to the Present Day. By John Henry Blunt, M.A., Vicar of Kennington, O.\ford; Editor of "The Annotated Book of Common Prayer," &c. Crown 8vo. 3J. dd. ANCIENT HYMNS. From the Roman Breviary. For Domestic Use every Morning and Evening of the Week, and on the Holy Days of the Church. To which are added, Original Hymns, principally of Commemora- tion and Thanksgiving for Christ's Holy Ordinances. By Richard Mant, D. D., sometime Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. New Edition. Small 8vo. 5J-. " Real poetry wedded to words that breathe have no hesitation in awarding the palm to tfie the purest and the sweetest spirit of Christian latter, the/ormer are an evidence 0/ the earli- devotion. Tlie translaiiotisfrojn the old Latin est germs 0/ that yearning 0/ the devout fnind Hymnal are close afid/aith/itl renderings." — /or something better tlian Tate and Brady, Standard. andtvhtchis now so richly supplied."— (ZnVKCH " As a Hymn writer Bishop Mant deserv- Times. edly occupies a prominent place in the estean "This ^'aluable manual will be of great of C hurchfnen, and we doubt not that many assistance to all compilers of Hymn-books. will be the readers who will welcome this nctu The translations are graceful, clear, and edition of his translations and original com- forcible, and the original hymns deserve the positiojis." — English Churchman. highest praise. Bishop Ma?it has caught the " A new edition of Bishop M ant's 'Ancient very spirit of true psalmody, his metre flows Hymns from the Roman Breviary ' forms a musically, and there is a tuneful ring in his handsome little volume, and it is interesting verses which especially adapts t/iem for con- to compare some of these trajislations with the gregational singing." — Rock. }nore modern ones of our own day. While we PARISH MUSINGS; OR, DEVOTIONAL POEMS. By John S. B. MoNSELL, LL.D., Rural Dean, and Rector of St. Nicholas, Guildford. Fine Edition. Small Svo. 5^. Cheap Edition, i8mo, limp cloth, \s. 6d.; or in Cover, is. ENGLISH NURSERY RHYMES. Translated into French. By John Roberts, M.A., Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Square i6mo. 2s. 6d. SACRED ALLEGORIES. Illustrated Edition. By the Rev. W. Adams, M.A., late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. The SHADOW of the CROSS. Illustrated by Birket Foster and G. E. Hicks. The DISTANT HILLS. Illustrated by Samuel Palmer. The OLD MAN'S HOME. Illustrated by J. C. Horsley, A.R.A., and Birket Foster. The KING'S MESSENGERS. Illustrated by C. W. Cope, R.A. New Editions. Square crown Svo., 2s. 6d. each. The Four Allegories in one Volume. Square i6mo. 5^-. The Cheap Editions may still be had, iSmo., is. each, or 6d. in Paper Covers. A MEMORIAL VOLUME OF SERMONS. By the late Rev. John Henry Holford, M.A. With a short Biographical Preface by the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth, M.A. Small Svo. 5^-. THE HOME LIFE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH, &c. By the Rev. Aikiustus Gurney, M.A., Vicar of Wribbenhall, Kidderminster, in the Diocese of Worcester. Crown Svo. ^s. PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS FOR THE HOLY COM- MUNION. WithaPrefacebyC. J. Ellicott, D.D., Lord Bishop of Glouces- ter and Bristol. With rubrics and borders in red. Royal 32mo. 2s. 6if. " Dezio lit beauty is the special character of Holy Co77i7ntinion.^ ititended as a 7nantialfor this 7iew 77ia7iiial, a7id it ought to be afavoitr- the recently C07ifir7>ied, 7iicely pri/tted, a7id ite. Rarely has it happe7ied to 7ts to 77ieet ' theologically sound." — Church Times. ■with so re/Tzarkable a co77ibi7iatio7i of thorough " hi f res/mess a7idfervo7ir of devotio/i, few practicahicss with that al77wst poetic 7var77iih modern 7/ia/ntals of prayer are to be co7iipared ivhich is the highest flower of genui7ie devo- ivith it. Its faults are a too exclusive sub- tio7t. It deserves to be placed cdong with the jectivetiess, and a iva/it ofrealisi/ig the higher 7na7tual edited by Mr. Keble so shortly before Catholic teachi7ig. Thus, the Holy Sacrifice his decease, tiot as S7tpersedi7igit,for the scope has 7iot its due pro77ti7ie7ice, the sacra7/te7it of of the two is differe7it, but to be take/t alo/tg Pe/ia7ice is igytored, ourfull co7/t7nunio/i wiih •with it. Nothi/tg can exceed the beauty a7id the sai7its departed is obscured, a/td the fubiess of the devotio7is before co7/z77tu7iion /« Catholic Church 07i earth as a7i outirard Mr. Keble's book, but we thi7tk that i7i so7/ie orga7iisation is put too 7/iuch /k the back- poi7its the devotio7is here given after Holy groU7id. The book, z« short, is strictly Co/7i77tu7iion are eve7t superior to it." — Litek- A7tglica/i, but wiih a strong te/idency to ARY Churchman. 77iysticis77i. For all that, it has a war7nth of "Bishop Ellicott has edited a book oj feeli7ig a7id a reality of devotio7i which will ' Pi-ayers a/id Meditations for the Holy e7tdear it to the hearts of 77ia7iy Catholics, atid Co7ti77iujiio7i,^ ivhich, a77iong Ejtcharistic 77tan- will 77take it especially a 7/wsi welco7ne co7)i- uals, has its oivti special characteristic. The pa7iion to those a7/!07ig the you7ig who are Bishop reco7it/uends it to the 7iewly C07ifir//ied, ear7iestly strivi7ig after the spiritual life." — to the tender-hearted a7td the devotit, as Church Herald. havi/tg bee7i co/npiled by a youthful perso7t, " A7no7tg the supply of Eticharistic Mami- a7td as being 7nar/ied by a peculiar 'fresh7tess.' als, 07ie deserves special atte7itio7i a7id co7n- Having looked through the volu77ie,we have 77ie7idatio7i. ' Prayers a7td Meditatio7is' 77ierits pleasure in seco7idi7ig the reco77Z7/ze7idations of the Bishop of Gloucester's epithets of ' 7i,'ar7>i, the good Bishop. IVe k7i0T.v of no 7nore suit- devout, a7id fresh.' A7td it is thoroughly E7ig- able 77ia7iual for the 7tewly C07ifir77ted, and lish Church besides." — Guardian. nothi7tg 7/iore likely to e7igage the sy7iipathies " We are by no 7itea7is sztrprised that of youthful hearts. There is a 7i7iio7i of the Bishop Ellicott should have bee7i so 7/i7tch deepest spirit of devotio7i, a Tnch expression of struck zvith this little work, on accide7itally experi77ie7ital life, with a due recog/iitioti of seei7ig it z'« 7!ta7iuscript, as to urge its publica- the objects of faith, such as is 7iot always to be Hon, a7id to preface it with his co7nT7ie7idaiio7i. found, but which characterises this 77ia!iual in The devotio7i which it breathes is tritly fervent, an e77tine7it degree." — Church Review. a7id the la7iguage attractive, and as proceed- " The Bishop of Gloucester's i7ttpri77iatur is ittgfro7?i a young perso7t the work is altogether attached to ' Prayers a7id Meditatio7isfor the ttot a little striki7tg." — Record. THE STORY OF THE GOSPELS. In a single Narrative, combined from the Four Evangelists, showing in a new translation their unity. To which is added a like continuous Narrative in the Original Greek. By the Rev. William Pound, M.A,, late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Principal of Appuldurcombe School, Isle of Wight. 2 Vols. Svo. 36^. COUNSELS ON HOLINESS OF LIFE. Translated from the Spanish of " The Sinner's Guide," by Luis de Granada. Forming a Volume of THE ASCETIC LIBRARY, a Series of Translations of Spiri- tual Works for Devotional Reading from Catholic Sources. Edited by the Rev. Orby Shipley, M.A. Square crown Svo. $s. THE DIVINITY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST ; being the Bampton Lectures for 1S66. By Henry Parry Lid- don, D.I)., D.C.L., Canon of St. Paul's, and Ireland Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford. Fifth Edition. Crown Svo. 5^. THE HIDDEN LIFE OP THE SOUL. From the French. By the Author of "A Dominican Aitist," " Life of Madame Louise de France," &c. Crown 8vo. 5-''' '" The Hidden Life of tJie Soul,' hy the ai!t!:or of ' A Voiiiinican Artist,' is from the ivritiiiffs of Father Crou, a French refugee priest 0/1792, luho died at Luliuorth. It well deserves the character given it of being- 'ear- nest and sober,' and not 'sensational.'" — Guardian. ' ' rs'et-iveen fifty and sixty short readings on spiritual subjects, exquisitely expressed, and not merely exquisite in expression, but prc- senting a 7-are combination of spiritual depth and of strong practical common sense. iVe have read carefully a large number of them, for, after reading a few as texts, we could not lay it down without going much further than was siijftcient for the mere purpose of re- porting on the book. The author was one Fere Crou, a 7iative of Calais, born in 1731, who in T.jgi> found an asylumfrom the troubles of the French Revolution at Lulworth Castle, knozvn doubtless to many of our readers as the ancestral home ofthe old Roman Catholic family of IVeld, where he died in iZo-j. There is a wonderfjtl charm about these readings — so calm, so true, so thoroughly Christian. IVe do not know U)he7-e they would come amiss. As juaterials for a consecutive series of meditations for the faithful at a series of early celebrations they ivould be excellent, or for private reading during AdventorLent. " — Literary Church- man. " Frotn the French of Jean Nicolas Groti, a Hotis Priest, whose works teach resignation to the Divine will. _ He loved, we are told, to inculcate simplicity, freedom from all affectation and unreality, the patience and humility which are too surely grounded in self-knowledge to be surprised at a fall, but withal so allied to confidence in God as to ijiake recovery easy and sure. This is the spirit of the vohmte which is intended to fur- nish advice to those who would culti^iate a quiet, meek, atid childlike spirit." — Public Opinion. " The work is by Jean Nicolas Groii, a French Priest, who, driven to Englattd by the fl}-st Revolution, found a home with a Roma}i Catholic family at Lulworth for the ten re- maining years of a retired, studious, devout life. The work bears internal evidence of being that of a spirit which had been fed on such works as the 'Spiritual Exercises,' the ' Imitation of Christ,' and the 'Devout Life' of St. Francis of Sales, and which has here reproduced them, tested by its own life-experi- ence, and cast in the 7nould of its o%v7i i7idivi- duality. H07.U 7/i7ich the work, z« its prese7it for7n, 7/tay 07ve to ike judicious care of the Editor, ive are 7iot a2uare;but as it is pre- se7ited to us, it is, while deeply spiritual, yet so ear7test a7id sober i/i its ge7ieral tone, so free fr07n doctri/ial error or u/iwholeso7/ie setiti- jne7it, that we co7ifide7itly reco/n/zte/id it to English Ch7trch people as 07ie of the 7nost valuable of this class of books which we have metwith." — Church Builder. TH:E witness op ST. JOHN to CHRIST; being the Boyle Lectures for 1870. With an Appendix on the Authorship and Integrity of St. John's Gospel and the Unity of the Johannine Writings. By the Rev. Stanley Le.vthes, M.A., Minister of St. PhiUp's, Regent Street, and Pro- fessor of Hebrew, King's College, London. 8vo. loj. bd. CATECHETICAL NOTES AND CLASS QUESTIONS, Lite- ral and Mystical ; chiefly on the Earlier Books of Holy Scripture. By the late Rev. J. M. Neale, D.D., Warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead. Crown 8vo. 5 J. " Unless we are much t7zisiaken this will be one ofthe most practically usefil of the various posthH77iOHS works of Dr. Neale, for the publi- cation of which zve are i/tdebted to the S. J\largaret's Sisters a7id Dr. Neale' s literary executors. Besides ' class fiotes ' — lecture 7wtes as most people would call ihe77i — 071 the earlier books of Holy Sc7ipture, there are so7/ie 77iost excelle/it si7/!ilar 7ictes o/i the Sacra77te7its, and then a collect io/t of 7iotes for catechizing chil- dren. Tlirougliout these notes are supple>/ie7ited HERBERT TRESHAM. A Tale of the Great Rebellion. By the late Rev. J. M. Neale, D.D. New Edition. Small 8vo. 3.". 6d. fro7n other of Dr. Neale's papers, a7id in particular we -would specify an admirable appendix of extracts f>-o)n Dr. Neale's ser7/ions (chiefly u/ipiiblished) beari7ig 7ip07i points touc/iedon in tlie text."— Litkraky Church- man. " The writer's wide acquaintance with Mediieval theology re/tders his 7ioies on the Old Testa77te7it peculiarly valuable." — John Cull. " M'e cordially welco7ite a 7iew edition of Dr. Neale's 'Herbert Tresha77Z.' T he sce7ie is laid 771 the ti7ne of the great civil war, a7id vivid pictures are drawn of S07/te of tiie startling e7)e7tts that the/i disgraced the history of this country. The //iartyrdo7n of A rchbishop Laud is described in a 77ia7iner few besides its a7itlior could equal, while the /tarratio7i of the disas- trous battle of Naseby, and the disgraceful surretider of Bristol by Pri/ice Rupert, afford proof of t/te versatility of his genius. " — Ch u rch Times. " A pleasa7it Christ7nas prese7it is Dr. Neale's ' Herbert Trcsha/n.' Such a book is well ca leu la ted to correct curre/i t views ofiyth century /listory."— Church Review. " Nothi7ig could be 7/iore ad/nirable as a Christ/7ias present."— CnvRCH News. MtssxQ. ^ibington's Jpubliattions SELECTIONS FROM MODERN FRENCH AUTHORS. With English Notes. By Henry van Laun, Master of the French Lan- guage and Literature at the Edinburgh Academy. Crown 8vo. y. 6d. each. Honore de Balzac. H. A. Taine. " T/tt's selection answers to the require- " This is a volume of selections from the vieiits expressed by Mr, I.owe in one of his ivorks of H. A. Taine, a celebrated contein- speeches on education, luhere he recommended J>orary French author. It forms an instal- that boys sfiould be attracted to the study of tnent of a series of selections from vtodern French by meafis of its lighter literatjtre. M. French authors Messrs. Rivington are now van Laun has executed the task of selection issuing: The print, the extracts, ajid the with excellent taste. The episodes he has 7iotes, are as excellent as in a previous publi- clwsen from the vast ' Hutnan Comedy^ are cation of the same kind we lately noticed con- naturally such as do not deal vjith passions taining extracts from Balzac. The notes, in and experiences that are proper to fnature age. particular, evince great care, study, and Kven thus limited, he had an over^vhelmitig erudition. The works of Taine, front which ziariety of material to choose from ; and his lengthy quotations are gizien, are, ' Histoire selection gives a fair impression of the terrible de la Litterature Anglaise,' 'Voyage en power of this wonderftil writer, the study of Italic' and ' Voyages aux Pyrenees.' These whom is one of the most important means of compilations ivould form first-rate class-books self-education open to a cultivated -man in the for advanced French students." — Public nineteenth century."— Pall Mall Gazette. Opinion. ^WALTER KERR HAMILTON : Bishop of Salisbury. A Sketch Reprinted, with Additions and Corrections, from "The Guardian." By LL P. LiDDON, D.D., D.C.L., Canon of St. Paul's. Second Edition. 8vo. 2s. bd. Or bound with the Sermon "Life in Death," 3j-. 6r/. THE MANOR FARM : A TALE. By M. C. Phillpoits, Author of " The Llillford Confirmation. " With Illustrations. Small 8vo. y. dd. " The Manor Farm, by Miss Phillpotts, and gentle daughter. The story is a capital author of the ' Hillford Confirmation,' is a ilhistration of the value of perseverance, and pious story, which amotigst other things shows it is a book that will be very usefzil in parochial the dawning of light i7i superstitious minds." reading libraries " — John Bull. —Morning Post. "A prettily got-up and prettily written " ' The Manor Farm ' relates how, under little book abo7ie the average of the class it be- good influence, a selfish girl became a useful longs to." — Edinburgh Courant. A PLAIN AND SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND FOR CHILDREN : in Letters from a Father to his Son. By George Davys, D.D., formerly Bishop of Peterborough. New Edition. With -Twelve Coloured Illustrations. Square Crown 8vo. 3J-. 6d. SKETCHES OF THE RITES AND CUSTOMS OF THE GRECO-RUSSIAN CHURCH. By H. C. Romanoff. With an Intro- ductory Notice by the Author of "The Ileir of Redclyffe." Second Edition. Crown 8vo. ']s. 6d. " The twofold object of this work is ' to " The volume before its is anythiiig but a present the English with correct descriptions formal liturgical treatise. It might be more of the ceremonies of the Greco-Kussian Church, valuable to a few scholars if it were, but and at the same time with pictures of domestic would certainly fail to obtain perusal at the life in Russian homes, especially those of the hands of the great tnajority of those 7vho7n the clergy and the middle class of nobles ; ' ajid, writer, not Jinreasonably, hopes to attract by beyond question, the author's labour has been the tiarrative style she has adopted. What she so far successftl thai, whilst her Church has set before us is a series of brief outlines, scenes jnay be commended as a series of tnost which, by their si7nple effort to clothe the dra7)tatic a7td picturesque tableau.r , her social i7ifo7^7tatio7i give7i us i7i a livi/ig garb, sketches enable lis to look at certai/i points be- re7ni7ids us of a 07ice-popular childs' book 7ieath the surface of Russian life, and 77ia- which we re77ie7nber a ge7ieration ago, called terially enlarge our k7iowledge of a coimtry 'Sketches of Hu/nan Ma7tners.' "—Chvkch concer7ii7ig which 7oe have still a very great Times. deal to lear/i." — ATHErryEUM. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR ? By Scrutator. With an Appendix, containing Four Letters, reprinted (by permission) from the Times. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6^. FIFTEEN SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNI- VERSITY OF OXFORD, BETWEEN A.D. 1826 AND 1843. By JOHN Henry Newman, B.D., sometime Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Printed uniformly with the " Parochial and Plain Sermons." New Edition. Crown 8vo. ^s. THE MACCABEES AND THE CHURCH ; Or, the History of the Maccabees Considered with Reference to the present Condition and Pros- pects of the Church. Two Sermons preached before the University of Cam- bridge. By Chr. Wordsworth, D.D., Bishop of Lincoln. Crown Svo. 2J. 6d. YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER : A Poem in Twelve Books. By E. H. Bickerstetii, M.A., Vicar of Christ Church, Hamp- stead. Seventh Edition. Small Svo. 6s. "The most simple, the richest, and the most jierfect sacred poem which recent days have produced.'' — Mokning Advertiser. " A poem worth reading, worthy of atten- tive study ; full of tioble thojights, beaiitiful diction, and high imaginatio7i." — Standarb. "Air. Bickersteth writes like a man ivho cultivates at once reverence and earnestness of t/iought."—GvAUV)i\it. "In these light miscellany days there is a spiritual refreshment in the spectacle of a ma?i girding up the loins of his mind to the task of producing a genuine epic. And it is true poetry. There is a defi-tiiteness, a crisptiess about it, which in these moist, viewy, hazy days, is no less invigorating tlian novel." — Edinburgh Daily Review. A DOMINICAN' ARTIST ; a Sketch of the Life of the Rev. Pere Besson, of the Order of St. Dominic. By the Author of the "The Tales of Kirkbeck," " The Life of Madame Louise de France," &c. New Edition. Crown Svo. ds. " The author of the Life of Pere Besson 7vrites with a grace atid refinement of devo- tional feelitig peciiliarly suited to a subject- matter which suffers beyond }>tost others from any coarseness of touch. It would be difficult to find ' the simplicity and purity of a holy life' more exquisitely illustrated than in Father Besson's career, both before and after his joining the Dotninican Order tinder th^ auspices of Lacordaire. . . . Certainly we liave never come across what could more strictly be termed iti the truest sense ' the life of a beautiful soul.' The author has done well in presenting to English readers this singularly graceful biography , in which all •who can appreciate genuine simplicity and nobleness of Christian character will find vtuch to admire and little or nothing to con- demn." — Saturday Review. ' ' It ivould ijideed have been a deplorable omission had so exquisite a biography been by any neglect lost to English readers, and had a character so perfect in its sitnple and com- plete devotion been withheldfrom our adtnira- tion. . . . But we have dwelt too long already on this fascinating book, and }nust now lea7ie it to our readers." — Literary Churchman. "A beautiful and 7nost interesting sketch of the late Pere Besson, an artist who forsook the easel for the altar." — Church Times. "A book which is as pleasant for readitig as it is profitable for meditation." — Union Re- view. " We are indebted to the graceful pen of the translator of Madame Louise de France for another Catholic Life, beautifully written, and full of the spirit of love." — Tablet. " This tastefully bound volume is a record of the life of Pere Besson. From childhood to his premature death in April 1861, at the age of forty-five, he was pre-eminently suited to a life of self-denial, and so full of lo7ie atid charity, that his saintly character calls forth i/ie warmest adtniration, and we feel sure the perusal of it will give pleasure to our readers." — Church Herald. " Whatever a reader may think of Pere Besson's profession as a monk, no otie will doubt his goodness ; no one can fail to profit zvho will patiently read his life, as here written by a friend, whose sole defect is in being slightly unctuous. " — Athen/EU m. " The life of the Rev, Pere Besson, who gave up an artist's career, to which he was devotedly attached, and a nioiher whose affec- tion for him is not inaptly liketied to that of Monica for St. Augustine, must be read in its entirety to be rightly appreciated. And the whole tenour of the book is too devotional, too full of expressions of the most touching de- pendctice on Cod, to jnake criticism possible, ez'en if it was called for, which it is not." — John Bull. " 7'he story of Pere Besson's life is one of much interest, and told with simplicity, can- dour, and good feeling. " — Spectator. "A beautiful book, describing the most saintly and very individual life of one of the compa?iions of Lacordaire." — Monthly Packet. " iVe strongly recommend it to our readers. It is a charming biography, that will delight and edify both old and young." — Westmin- ster Gazette. Mtssts, l^ibingtcrn'js lublkntiotts THE CHURCH BUILDER. A Quarterly Journal of Church Extension in England and Wales. Published in connection with The Incorporated Church Building Society. With Illustrations. Volumes for 1870 and 1871. Crown Svo. is. 6d. each. STONES OF THE TEMPLE ; OR, LESSONS FROM THE FABRIC AND FURNITURE OF THE CHURCH. By Walter Field, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar of Godmersham. With numerous Illustrations. Crown Svo. "js. 6d. "Anyonewho -wishes for shnple hifomiation on the subjects of Church-architecture and furniture, cannot do better than consult ' Stones of the Temple.' Mr. Field modestly disclaims any intention of supplanting the existing regular treatises, but his book shows an amount of research, ajid a knowledge of ivhnt he is talking about, which jnake it prac- tically useful as well as plcasatit. The wood- cuts are nu7nerous and some of them very pretty." — Graphic " A very charming book, by the Rev. Walter Field, who was for years Secretary of one of the leading Church Societies. Mr. Field has a lovitig reverence for the beauty of the domus mansionalis Dei, as the old law books called the Parish Church Thoroiighly son?id iti Church feeling, Mr. Field has chosen the medium of a tale to embody real incidents illustrative of the various portions of his subject. There is 710 attempt at elabora- tion of the narrative, which, indeed, is rather a string of anecdotes than a story, but each chapter brings hotne to the 7/tind its own lesson, atid each is illustrated with some very ittteresting engravings. . . . The work will properly cojnmand a hearty reception from Chiirchmeit. Thefoot7iotes are occasio7i- ally 77wst valuable, a7id are always perti7tent, a7id the text is sure to be popular with young folks for Siniday reading." — Standard. " Mr. Field's chapters 071 brasses, cha7icel scree7is, crosses, encaustic tiles, 77tural pai7it- iugs, porches and pavements, are agreeably written, a7id people with a ttir7tfor Ji itualism luill 710 doubt fi7id the77i eiiifyi7ig. The volinne, as we hare said, is 7tot without sig7iifica7ice for readers who are imable to sy77ipathize ivith the object of the writer. The illustrations of Church-architecture and Church or7ta77tents are very attractive." — Pali. Mall Gazette. THE HAPPINESS OF THE BLESSED CONSIDERED as to the Particulars of their State : their Recognition of each other in that State : and its Differences of Degrees. To which are added Musings on the Church and her Services. By Richard Manx, D.D., sometime Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. New Edition. Small Svo. 3J-. 6^/. "A ■welco7ne republicaiio7i of a treatise 07ice highly valued, and -which ca7i 7iczier lose its value. Ma7iy of our readers already k7iow the fulness a/iddiscri77zi7iatio7i with which the author i7-eats his sidiject, which 71171st be one of the 77iost delightful topics of 77ieditatio7i to all whose heart is where the 07ily true trea- sure is, a7id partic7ilarly to those who arc e7iteri7ig 7ip07i the eveni7ig of life." —CmjRCH Review. " The vahie of this book needs 7iot to be re- ferred to, its sta7idard character hazn7tg been for 7/ta7iy years past established. The editio7t i/t which it reappears has evide7itly been care- fidly prepared, and will be the 7/iea7is of 771 ak- i7ig it more ge7terally know/i." — Bell's Mes- senger. "All recog7iise the authority of the co77t- I7ia7td to set the affectio7is o/i things above, a7id such works as the one 7tow before us will be foti7id helpful towards this good e7td. We are, therefore, si7icerely glad that Messrs. Rivi7igto7i have broitght out a new editio/i of Bishop Ma7ifs valuable treatise." — Re- cord. " This bea7itiful a7id devotio7ial treatise, -which it is i7/i//ossible to 7-ead -without feeling a more deefe7ied i7tterest i7i the eter7ial blessed- tiess which awaits the true servants of our God, C07tcludes very appropriately with ' Mus- ings on the Church and her Services,' which we cordially reco7/i7nend to our readers."— Rock. SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. By Henry Parky Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon of St. Paul's, and Ireland Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford. P'ourth Edition, revised. Crown Svo. ^s. SERMONS BEARING UPON SUBJECTS OF THE DAY. By John Henry Newman, B.D. Edited by the Rev. W. J. Copeland, Rector of Farnham, Essex. Printed uniformly with the " Parochial and Plain Sermons." With an Index of Dates of all the Sermons. Crown Svo. 5^. iHcssvs. ^ibiugtott'js iublkittronjs 21 EXAMINATION OP CONSCIENCE UPON SPECIAL SUBJECTS. Translated and Abridged from the French of Tronson. Forming a Vohime of THE ASCETIC LIBRARY : A Series of Transla- tions of Spiritual Works for Devotional Reading from Catholic Sources. Edited by the Rev. Orby Shipley, M.A. Square Crown 8vo. s^- " It is a much larger and more elaborate ivork than is usually devoted to this subject, and arranged on a different plan. The chief virtues and sins have each a section given to tlie)n, and the examen is cast in the form of a meditation, with first, second, atid third f>oints. The enquiries made of the soul are very searching, and are so framed that self- knoivledge, atid as a consequence self-con- demnation, most necessarily result from the conscientious use of the book. It is especially adapted for those who find a diffculty in using the ordinary matatals, and who are yet aiming at a higher life than common. For Religious Houses it will be found i?tvaluable, more especially, perhaps, to jnistresses of novices. It strikes us as a book highly sugges- tive to those who conduct retreats." — Church Times. " This is volume IV. of the series known as the 'Ascetic Library,' and of all the volumes of the series yet published it strikes us as by far the most usefil. . . , Singularly practi- cal a?id judicious, so that it is difficult to say to what class of persons it will be most useful ^those 7vho take it for personal use, those who adopt it as a guide in receiving confessions, or the preacher who Jises it as a help in the cojn- position of sermons addressed to the consciettce rather than to the i>ttellect. There are some excellent pages on Devotional Reading ; while as to the subject of penitence it may give some idea of the /net hod of the book to 7ne7ition the headings of its successive sections ' Fruits of Penitence,' viz. :— Hatred of Sin, —Self- Ab- horrence, — Loz'e of the Cross, — Peace of Heart." — Literary Churchman. ' ' It is a pleasing sign to see such books as these re-edited for the supply of so great a need. No one but a tnaster of the spiritual life could have compiled a set of refiections so searching and yet so exalting as the book be- fore us. We kno^v of nothing tnore calculated to lay open to itself the mind of the most spiri- tual, to reveal the self-deceptions and snares lying in its way, and the subtle forms by which perfunctoriness insinuates itself. The book ■will be found beyond vteasure useful to all ivho desire to k7tow themselves in some degree as God knows them, while to religious and to the clergy it jfiust be an inestimable boon." — Church Review. "Louis Tronson' s self-qiiestionings and meditations range over a wide field—from faith and love to God, down to the demeanour practised in working a>td rising, cotiversation, and travelli?ig. We should be far from as- serting that his book contains nothing good; on the contrary, }nuch that is excellent in sentiment and devout in expression may be fotind in it." — Record. SERMONS ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS, By Daniel Moore, M.A., Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, and Vicar of Holy Trinity, Pad- dington; Author of Hulsean Lectures on "The Age and the Gospel," "Aids to Prayer," &c. Crown 8vo. 'js. bd. " The Sermons which Mr. Moore has here collected into a single volume, thoitgh preached to widely differing audiences, are all dis- tinguished by the domitiant characteristic which marks all his writings — a calm sobriety of thought, feeling, and expression, well be- fitting the topics which he selects, but not likely to present any very new and striking thoughts, or to tneet the special requiremetits of an eager, busy, and intellectual age. Whether preaclied before the Queen and the Royal Prince, to a more select audience, or to assembled thousands under the dome of St. Paul's, they speak the same quiet tho7ightful 7ncssage, clothed in the same chastened language, and aiming at one effect." — Stan- dard. " We do not wonder at Mr. Moore's long co)itinued popularity with so many liearcrs; there is so much painstaking and so ■mitch genuine desire to discharge his duty as a preacher visible throttgh all the volume. What we fniss is the deeper theology, and the spontaneous fiow of teaching as from a spring which cannot he\pfio2ving, which some of our preachers happily exhibit. But the Sermons may be recommended, or we would not tiotice them." — I-iterarv Churchman. " Rarely have we met with a better volume of Sermons. . . . Orthodox, affectionate, and earnest, these Sermons exhibit at the same tijue much research, and are distinguished by an elegattce and fi}iish of style often wanting in these days of rapid writing and conti?tual preaching." — John Bull. "Sermons like those of Mr. Moore are, howcc'er, still of comparative rarity — sermons in which we meet with doctrine which cannot be gainsaid ; with a knowledge of the peculiar circumstances of his ftearers, which nothing but accurate observation and long experience can secure, and a peculiar felicity of style -which many will envy, but to which it is tlie lot of few to attain."— Christian Observer. " We. have had real pleasure, hoivever, in reading these sermons. Here are most of the elements of a preacher's power and usefultiess : skilful arrangement of the subject, admirable clearness of style, earnestness, both of thought and language, and the pri>?ie qualification of all, ' itt doctrine, uncorniptness.'" — London Quarterly Review. THE SHEPHERD OP HERMAS. Translated into English, with an Introduction and Notes. By Charles H. Hoole, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church, Oxford. Small 8vo. 4?. bd. ilTcssrjs. I^ibington's pub lixittioits CURIOUS MYTHS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. By S. Baring- Gould, M.A., Author of " Post-Media?val Preachers," &c. With Illustra- tions. New Edition. Complete in One Vol. Crown 8vo. 6s. " These Essays will be found to have some- thing to satisfy most classes of readers ; the lovers of legends proper, the curious in popular delusions, the initiated in Darwinian and Monboddpan theories ; and if, in the chapters on Tell and Geltert, we are a little struck with the close folloT.uing of Dasent's track, in his preface to the Norse tales, it tnust be o'Mtied that there arc chapters — e.g., those on the Divining Rod, the Man in the Moon, and the Seven Sleepers — which present 7teiu matter, and deseriie the praise of independe7it research." — Quarterly Review. " The author, indeed, is sotnetimes fanciful and overbold in his conclusions ; but he con- ducts us through marvellous ways — ways which he has studied well before he undertook to guide others; atid if we do tiot always acquiesce in his descriptions or arguments, we seldom differ from him without hesitation." — Athen^um. " U^e have no space to linger longer about a book which, apart from its didactic pretensions, is an exceedingly amusing and interesting collection of old stories and legends of the middle ages." — Pall Mall Gazette. " That, on his first visit to the variea field of medi(^val tnythology, Mr. Baring-Gould should have culled as samples of its richness tlie tnost brilliant of the flowers that bloomed in it, is scarcely to be wondered at. But it sho7vs how fertile is the soil when he is enabled to cull from it so goodly a second crop as that which he here presents to us. The myths treated of i>i the present volume vary in in- terest — they are all curious and well worth reading." — Notes and Queries. THE LIFE OF MADAME LOUISE DE FRANCE, daughter of Louis XV. Known also as the Mother Terese de St. Augustin. By the Author of "Tales of Kirkbeck." Crown 8vo. 6s. ' Such a record of deep, earnest, selfsacri- ficin:; pietj, beneath the surface of Parisian life, during ivhat we all regard as the worst age 0) French godlessness, ought to teach us all a lesson of hope and faith, let appearances be what they may. Here, from out of the court and family of Louis XV . there issues this Madame Louise, whose life is set before us as a specimen of as calm attd unworldly devotion —of a devotion, too, full of shre^ivd sense and practical administrative talent — as any ive have ever met with." — Literary Church- IIAN. " On the T$th of July, iTiT, Marie Leczin- ska, the wife of Louis XV., and daughter of tlie dethroned Ki}ig of Polatid, which Prussia helped to despoil and plunder, gave birth to her eighth female child, Louise Marie, krioivn also as the Mother Terese de St. A ugustin. On the death of the Queen, the princess, who had long felt a vocation for a religious life, obtained the consent of her royal father to withdraw from the world. The Carmelite coftvent of St. Denis was the chose?i place of retreat. Here the novitiate was passed, here the fnal vows were taken, and here, on the death of the Mere Julie, Madaine Louise be- gan and terminated her experiences as prior- ess. The little volume which records the simple incidents of her pious seclusion is designed to edify those members of the Church of Englajid in whom the spirit of religious self-devotion is reviving. The substance of the memoir is talien from a some^vhat diffuse ' Life of Madame Louise de France,^ compiled by a Carmelite nun, and printed at Autun." —Westminster Review. " Tliis 'Life' relates the history of that daughter of Louis XV. who, aided by the example ami instructions of a pious mother. lived an -uncorrupt life in the midst of a tnost corrupt court, which she quitted— after longing and waiting for years to do so — to enter the severe order of Mount Carmel, which she adorned by her strict and holy life. We can- not too highly praise the present work, which appears to us to be "written in the most excellejit good taste. IVe hope it viay find entrance into every religious House i?t our Comtnunion, and it should be in the library oj every youtig lady." - Church Review. " The Life of Madaine Louise de France, the celebrated daughter of Louis XV., who became a religieuse, and is known in tht spiritral world as MotJier Terese de St. Augustin. Tlie substance of the memoir is taken frojn a diffuse life, cotnpiled by a Car- melite nu)i, and printed at Autun; atid the editor, the author of Tales of Kirkbeck; was prompted to the task by the belief, that ' at the jiresejit time, when the spirit of religious self- devotion is so greatly reviving in tlie Church of England' the records of a princess who quitted a dazzling and prof igate court to lead a life of obscure piety will meet with a cordial re- ception. We may remark, that should tht evejit prove othenvise, it will not be from any fault of workmanship on the part of the editor.'— V)h\\.y Telegraph. " The annals of a cloistered life, under ordinary circumstances, would not probably be considered very edifying by the reading public of the present generation. When, however, such a history presents the novel spectacle of a royal princess of modern times voluntarily renounc- ing her high position and the splendours of a court existence, for the purpose of enduring the asceticism, poverty, and austerities of a severe monastic rule, the case may well be different." — Morning Post. THE PRIEST TO THE ALTAR ; or, Aids to the Devout Celebration of Holy Communion ; chiefly after the Ancient Use of Sarum. Second Edi- tion. Enlarged, Revised, and Re-arranged with the Secretce, Post-Corn- munion, &c., appended to the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, throughout the Year. 8vo. 7^. 6d. MtBsxs, yiijutgton's Sublkittiom HELP AND COMFORT FOR THE SICK POOR. By the Author of "Sickness; its Trials and Blessings." New Edition. Small 8vo. IS. A KEY TO THE KNOWLEDGE OP CHURCH HISTORY. (Ancient.) Edited by John Henry Blunt, M.A. (Forming the third Volume of Keys to Christian Knowledge). Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. "It offers a short and condensed account of the origin, grozvth, and condition of the Church in all parts of the world, fro>n A.D. i down to the end of the fifteenth century. Mr. Blunt's first object has been conciseness, and this has been admirably carried out, ajtd to students of Church history this feature will readily reco/mnend itself. As an elementary work ' A Key ' will be specially valuable, in- asmuch as it points out certain definite lines of thought, by which those who enjoy the opportunity may be guided in reading the state7nents of more elaborate histories. At the same time it is but fair to Mr. Blunt to remark that, for general readers, the little volume co:t tains everything that could be con- sistently expected in a volume of its character. There are tnany notes, theological, scriptural. and historical, and the 'get «/' of the book is specially commendable. As a text-book for the higher forms of schools the work will be acceptable to numerous teachers." — Public Opinion. " ft contains some concise notes on Church History, compressed into a small compass, and •we think it is likely to be useful as a book of reference." — John Bull. " A very terse and reliable collection of the maiti facts and incidents connectedwithChurch History." — Rock. " It will be excellent, either for school or home use, either as a reading or as a reference book, on all the -main facts and names and controversies of the first fifteen centuries. It is both well arranged and well written." — Literary Churchman. THE POPE AND THE COUNCIL. By Janus. Authorized trans- lation from the German. Third Edition. Cro\vn 8vo. "js. 6d. Bis/iops of the Church in general, atid consoli- dated the Papal influence. For all this, how- ever, unless we could satisfy ourselves with a " A profound and learned treatise, evidently the work of one of the first theologians of the day, discussing with the scientific fitness and precision proper to German investigation, the great doctrinal questions expected to come before the Couticil, and especially the proposed dogma of Papal Infallibility. There is pro- bably no work in existence that contains at all, still less zvithin so narrozu a compass, so complete a record of the orii:in a?id growth of the infallibilist theory, and of all the facts of Church history bearing upon it, and that too in a form so clear and coricise as to put the argument within the reach of any reader of ordinary intelligence, while tlie scrupulous ac- curacy oftlie writer, and his constant reference to tlie origi?tal authorities for every statement liable to be disputed, 7nakes the 7nonograph as a wliole a perfect storehouse of valuable infor- matioti for the historical or theological stu- dent." — Saturday Review. " Beginning with a sketch of the errors and contradictions of the Popes, and of the position which, as a matter of history, they held in the early Church, the book proceeds to describe the three great forgeries by which the Papal claims were upheld — the Isidorian decretals, the donation of Constantiue, atid the decretmn of Gratian. The last subject ought to be care- fully studied by all whn 2uish to understand tlie frightful tyranny of a complicated system of laws, devised not for the protection of a people, but as instruments for grinding t/ieni to subjection. Then, after an historical out- line of the general growth of tlie Papal power in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the writers enter upon the peculiarly episcopal and clerical question, pointing out how mar- vellously every little change worked in one direction, invariably tending to throw the rule of the Church into the power of Rome ; and liow the growtli of new institutions, like tlie monastic orders a>td tlie hiquisition, gradu- ally withdrew the conduct of affairs from tlie mere magnified table of contents, the reader must be referred to the book itself, in which he will find tlie interest sustained without flag- ging to the end." —V \\A. Mall Gazette. " In France, in Holland, and in Germany, there has already appeared a multitude of dis- quisitions on this subject. A mong these seve- ral are the acknowledged compositions of'nen of high standing in the Roman Catholic world, — tnen admittedly etititled to speak with the authority that must attach to established re- putation : but not one of them lias hitherto produced a work more likely to create a deep i7npressio7i tha7i the a7i07iy77ious Ger7/tan pub- licatio7i at the head of this 7iotice. It is 7iot a piece of 77ierely pole77tical writing, it is a treatise dealing with a large subject in an i7npressive though partisa7i 77ia7iner, a treatise grave /« to7ie, solid z« 77iatter, a7id bristli7ig with forcible a7id novel illustratio/is." — Spec- tator. " Ru77iour will, no doubt, he busy with its C07tjectures as to the 7ia7/ie which lurks be/teath the 710771 de plu77ie of ' ya7tus.' IVe do not inte7id to offer a7iy co7itribution towards the elucidatio7i of tlie 77iystery, U7tless it be a co/i- tributio7i to say tliat the book bears i7tter7ial ezddence of bei/ig the work of a Catholic, a7id tluit there are 7iot 77ia7iy Catholics /« Europe who could have writte7i it. Taki7ig it all in all, it is 710 exaggerated praise to characterize it as the 7/tost da77iagi7ig assault on Ultra- I7i07ita7iis77t that has appeared in t7iodem ti7/tes. Its Iear7ii7ig is copious a7td co77tplete, yet so ad77iirably a)^a7tged that it invariably illustrates without overlayi/tg the argu7ne7it. The style is clear a7id simple, aud tliere is 7io atte7npt at rhetoric. It is a piece of cool and masterly dissection, all tlie more tcT^ible for the passio7iless 77tan7ier in which ilie autlior co7tducts tlie operation." — Times. 24 MtsBVS. flibtngtmt'js JBubUcntiotts FEMALE CHARACTERS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. In a Series of Sermons. By the Rev. Isaac Williams, B.D., formerly Fellow of Trinity College, O.xford. New Edition. Crown 8vo. ^s. THE CHARACTERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. In a Series of Sermons. By the Rev. Isaac Williams, B.D., formerly Fellow of Trinity College, 0.xford. New Edition. Crown 8vo., 5^. " T/tt's ts one of tJie few volumes of piillished sermons that ive have been able to read ivith real pleasure. They are written with a chastened elegance of language, and pervaded by a spirit of earnest and simple piety. Mr. Williams is evidently what would be called a very High Chiirchma?i. Occasionally his peculiar Church vie7vs are apparent; but bating a few passages here and there, these sermons will be read with profit by all ' wlio profess and call titemselves Christians.'" — Contemporary Review. " This is a new edition of a very popular — and deservedly popular — work on the biography of the Old Testament history. The characters are ably a?td profitably analysed, and that by the hand of a master of style and thought. . . . T/ie principle of select-ion has been that of prominence ; and partly, too, that of signi- ficance in the characters so ably delineated. A more tnasterly analysis of Scriptural characters we never read, nor any which are more calculated to impress the mind oj the reader with feelings of love for %uhut is good, and ablwrrence for wltat is evil." — Rock. THE WITNESS OP ST. PAUL TO CHRIST : being the Boyle Lectures for 1869. With an Appendix, on the Credibility of the Acts, in Re- ply to the Recent Strictures of Dr. Davidson. By the Rev. Stanley Leathes, M. a., Professor of Hebrew, King's College, London, and Incumbent of St. Philip's, Regent Street. Svo. ioj-. bd. A KEY TO THE NARRATIVE OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. By John Pilkington Norris, M.A., Canon of Bristol, formerly one of Her ^Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. (Forming the Fourth Volume of Keys to Christian Knowledge.) Small Svo. 2s. 6d. " This is very much the lest book of its kind we have seen. The otily fault is its shortness, which prevents its going into the details which would support and illustrate its statements, atid which in tJie process of illustrating them would fix them -upon the minds and memories of its readers. It is hoivever, a great im- provement upon any book of its kind we knozu. It bears all the marks of being tlie condensed work of a real scholar, and of a divine too. The bulk OJ the book is taken up with a ' Life of Christ' compiled from the Four Gospels so as to exhibit its steps and stages and salient points. The rest of the book consists of inde- pendent chapters on special points." — Liter- ary Churchman. " This book is no ordinary compendium, no mere ' cram-book' ; still less is it an ordinary reading book for schools ; but the schoolmaster, the Sunday-school teacher, and the seeker after a comprehensive kno7vledge of Divine truth will find itworthyofits name. Canon Norris writes simply, reverently, without great dis- play of learning, giving the result of much careful study in a short compass, and adorn- ing the subject by the tenderness and lionesty THE PRINCIPLES OP THE CATHEDRAL SYSTEM VINDICATED AND FORCED UPON MEiMBERS OF CATHEDRAL FOUNDATIONS. Eight Sermons, preached in the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Norwich. By Edward Meyrick Goul- burn, D.D., Dean of Norwich, late Prebendary of St. Paul's, and one of Her Majesty's Chaplains. Crown Svo. 5^. with which he treats it. . . . We hope that this little book will have a very wide circulation and that it zvill be studied ; and we can promise that those who take it up will not readily put it down again." — Record. " This is a golden little volume. Having ofteti to criticise ttnsparingly volumes pub- lished by Messrs. Rivington, and bearing the deep High Church brand, it is the greater satisfaction to be able to commend this book so emphatically. Its design is exceedingly modest. Canon Norris writes primarily to help 'younger students' in studying the Gospels. But this unpretending volume is one which all students may. study with advantage. It is a?i admirable tnaniial for those who take Bible Classes through the Gospels. Closely sifted in style, so thai all is clear and weighty ; full of unostentatious learning, and pregnant with suggestion ; deeply reverent in spirit, and altogether Evangelical in spirit; Cation Norris' book supplies a 7-eal want, and ought to be welcomed by all earnest and devout students of the Holy Gospels." — London Quarterly Review. Mtssvs. Jlibiitgtou'js l^ublkutiotts 25 A THEORY OP HARMONY. Founded on the Tempered Scale. With Questions and Exereises for tlie Use of Students. By John Stainer, Mus. Doc., M.A., Magd. Coll., Oxdn., Organist to St. Paul's Cathedral. Royal 8vo. Js. 6c/. " It is the first -Mork oj its class Utat needs no apology /or its introduction, as it is really much needed especially by teachers, who would fiiil without the aid of its principles to account for many of the effects in modern >nusic, used in direct opposition to the teaching of the schools. It is difficult, if not impossible, to give a more elaborate description of a book destined to effect an entire change in musical teaching without entering into details that could not but prove uninteresting to the general readers, while to the musician ajid amateur, the possession of the book itself is recommended as a valuable confirmation of ideas that exist to a large extent in the jninds of every one who has ever thought about vtusic, and who desires to see established a more uniform basis of stiidy. The great and leadiftg cliaracteristic of the work is its logical reasoni?ig and definitions, a character not possessed by any previotis book on the stibject, ami for this Dr. Stainer's theory is certain to gam ground, and he the means of opening an easy and pleasant path in a road hitherto beset with the thorns and briars of perplexing technicalities."— yiowt-iwic Post. '''Dr. Stainer is a learned musician, and his book supplies a manual of information as well as a rich repository of musical erudition in the form of classical quotations from the great masters."— John Bull. " Dr. Stainer, in his thoughtful book, sees clearly of avialgamating opposing systems in oi-der tofoitnd a theory ofhar>nony. He bases his work on the tempered scale, and he devel- opes and illustrates his theory by questions and exercises for the use of students. His opening exposition of the rudiments of music is clear : when he reaches the regions of Iiarmony he comes on debateablc ground." — Athen.'eum. " To the student perplexed and chained do7vn by the multitttdinous rules of the old theorists, we canttot give better comfort than to advise him to read forthwith Dr. Stainer's ingenious and thoughtful book. It is exceed- ingly well got up, and from the clearness of the type used, very easy and pleasant to read." — Choir. THE ANNUAL REGISTER : A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad, for the Year 1S70. Svo. iZs. *^* All the Volumes of the Nnv Scries from 1S63 to 1S69 may he had, pi-ice \%s. each. " Well edited, excellent type, good paper, and in all respects admirably got up. Its re- view of affairs. Home, Colonial, a7id Foreigtt, is fair, concise, and completer — Mining Quarterly. " Solidly valuable, as well as interesting." — Standard. " Cotnprehensive afid well executed." — Spectator. " The whole work beifig well-written, and compiled with care and judgment, it is inter- esting reading for the present day, will be more useful as a work of reference in future years, and 'will be most valuable of all to readers of atiother generation. Every stjident of history knows the worth, for the time that it covers, of the old 'Annual Register,' and this new series is better done and more com- prehensive than its predecessor." — Examiner. " This voluine of the new series of the ' Anmtal Register'' seems well atid carefully compiled. The narratire is accurate, and it is obvious that the writers liave striven to be impartial." — Athenaeum. " The whole of the compilation, haivever, is readable, and some of its more important parts are very well done. Such is-, .-j;" -v:" other historical portions, tJie acco!(t:r . ,- :fion- in France before and at tJir . the war. The narrative of the >i::. ::.: • v , , ;,/i is clear, comprehoisive, and atzractivc." — Nation (Ne.v York). FABLES RESPECTING THE POPES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. A Contribution to Ecclesiastical History. By John J. Ign. Von DoLLiNGER. Translated, with Introduction and Appendices, by Alfred Plummer, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford. Svo. \i,s. "For that large class of English readers to whom German is still a sealed book, Mr. Plummer's clear and readable version of a work of considerable historical interest, and displaying all the profound and conscientio7is 7-esearchfor which the author is distinguished, will be a jnost valuable boon." — Saturday Review. " Those -wlio are acqiiainted 7uith the Ger- man edition of this book of Dr. Dollbiger's will be surprised, perhaps, to see the moderate pamphlet swollen in its English dress to the size of a comely volume. This may partly be itedfor by the long atid able ' Introduc- tion 'from the pen of the translator, and by Notes and Appendices with which he has elucidated portions of the text. The transla- iio/i is such as may be read easily, no slight praise by the ivay, and the side notes indicat- ing the contents of the paragraphs are highly serviceable in a work of this kind. Students of Church History who find an English book less trouble to read than a Gertnan one will thank the translator for the pains which he has taken in their behalf." — Church Times. 26 ^Ics^rs. |S,il3iit9ton'5 publimtions THOUGHTS ON PERSONAL RELIGION ; being a Treatise on the Christian Life in its Two Chief Elements, Devotion and Practice. By Edward Meyrick Goulburn, D.D., Dean of Norwich. New Edition. Small 8vo. 6s. 6d. An Edition for Presentation, Two Vohimes, small 8vo. loj. 6J. Also a cheap Edition. Small 8vo. 3J. 6d. DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL AC- CORDING TO S. MATTHEW. Translated from the French of Pasquier Quesnel. Crown Svo. "js. 6d. " ll'f can hardly give him [Pasqider Qites- ■nel': higher praise ihtm to sny that he rcini7ids 7/r in many vays cf the author of the ' Imita- tion.' Thrre is the same knowledge 0/ hnnian nature, shrewdness of oliservation, intitiiate acqiiaititance with the special trials, dijfi- Ciiliics, and temptations of the sfiritual life, and that fervour and concentration which result from habitual meditation and prayer." — Clerical Journal. " This Comtnetitary is what it purports to be 'devotional.' There is no criticism, no suggestion of difficulties, 710 groupings of 'various readings.' Its object is to give ' the spiritual sense ' of Holy Scripture, and this object is admirably carried out. IVe are glad to be able to give it our liearty and unqualified approval." — Jhhn Bull. " The wajtt which many devo7it persons feel for a Commentary on the Scriptures with in- dividual, firactical, and devotiottalapplicntion, can hardly be better satisfiea than by that of 'Quesnel.'" — Church News. " This translation is based upoti that made by the Non-juror Russell, and it has I'ecn especially adapted for the use of members of the English Church in private devotion. It is a very acceptable mmiital for tlie religious, and its siiiiple and practical character jitay be gleaned from the following comment. "—KoQK. " The Comments are brief but pointed, and there is so much to profit the reader by shoT.v- ing hi7n what a depth of spiritual wisdom is treasured up e'oen in the simplest utterances 0/ our Lord, thai we are sorry we cantioi give the book an unqnalifed recommendation. Works on the Gospels, suited to the wants oj scholars, have been tolcnbly nujnei-ous of late years, .^uch a book as this, in which consider able intellectual force is blended with devo- tional feeling, is more rare, ami would be welcome were it not that the good in it is marred by the Sacramentarianism which continually obtrudes itself." — English Inde- pendent. By M. C, THE HILLPORD CONFIRMATION: A TALE. Phillpotts. iSmo. \s. APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By the Rev. Arthur W. Haddan, B.D., Rector of Barton- on-the-Heath, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. Svo. I2J, "Mr. Haddan's estimate of the bearing of his subject, and of its special importance at the present juncture is characteristic, and will well repay attention. . . . Mr. Haddan is strictly argumentative throughout. He ab- stains with some strictness from everything which would divert either his reader or him- self from accurate investigation of his reason- ing. But his volume is thoroughly well ■written, clear and forcible in style, and fair 171 tone. J t ca7inot but render valuable service in placing the clai7ns of the Church in tlieir true light before the E7tglish public"— Guardian. " A/nong the many sta7tda>-d theological works devoted to this i/nportant subject Mr. Haddan' swill liold a highplace."—?,T ^tiv>^ RD. " We should be glad to see the vohmie widely circulated and generally read." — John Bull. "A weighty and valuable treatise, a7td we hope that the study of its sound and well- reasoned pa ^es will do 7/tuch to fix the impor- tance, and the full mea7ii7ig of the doctri7ie A MANUAL FOR THE SICK; with other Devotions. By Lancelot Andrewes, D.D., sometime Lord Bishop of Winchester. Edited with a Preface by H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon of St. Paul's. With Por- trait. Second edition. Large type. 24mo. zs. bd. in question, in the vtmds of Church people. . . . We hope that our extracts 7vill lead our readers to study Mr. Haddan for the/nselves." — Literary Churchman " This is 7iot only a very able a/id carefully written treatise upon the doctrine of Apostoli- cal .Succession, but it IS also a calm yet noble vindication of the validity of the Anglican Orders: it well sustains the brilliant reputa- tion which Mr. Haddan left behind him at O.xford, audit suppte:nents his other profound historical researches in ecclesiastical matters. 'This book will remaiti for a long tit/te the classic work upon English Orders." — Church Review. '■ A very temperate, but averywellreasoned book."- Westminster Review. " I\lr. Haddan ably sustains his reputation throughout the work. His style is clear, his i7iferences are reaso/table, a/id the piddication is especially well-timed in p>-ospect of the comi/ig CEcu7iienical Council." — Cambridgb University Gazette. iltcjsstjs. flibington's |)ublixatioits 27 ARITHMETIC, THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL. By W. H. GiRDi.ESTONE, M.A., of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Principal of the Gloucester Theological College. Second Edition, Revised and En- larged. L'rown Svo. 6s. 6d. Also, a School Edition, without the Appendix. Small Svo. 3^-. 6d. ( Copies i?iay be had without the Ansivers to the Exercises. ) " We may congratulate Mr. Girdlestotie on " IVe tnust content ourselves with this brief having produced a thoroughly philosophical general notice 0/ the work, which we consider book on this most useful subject. It appears one of the higiiest order of its liind^ar, very to be especially suited lor older students, who, far superior to those of former days." — /laving been taught imperfectly and irration- Nautical Magazine. ally in tlie earlier fiart of their school career, "Mr. Girdlesti- " lyith so adtnirable an edition o/ this great glish and foreign, on Demosthenes'' famous and difficult speech of the greatest of ancient oration, and has made 7io trifling contribu- orators, there can be no valid reason why any tions of his own. . . . In purely critical schoolmaster shordd exclude the De Corona questions the 7iotes shoT.u all the subtle scholar- from the classical coune of his pupils. Its ship which we sliould expect from so re- foints of law, its historical allusions, its nn7vncd a classic as Mr. Hohnes." — Spec- illustrations of Greek scholarship, upon which TATOR. Mr. Holmes's 7iotes give every assistance, are " This is the latest of tJiat excellent series far toovaluable to be lost sight of either by pnpil 'Catena Classicorum.' . . . Mr. Hohnes or jnaster. 1 1 is by far t/ie tiiost scholarly and has a high reputatiott at Cambridge, and his the most useful edition we have yet seeti of Demosthenes." — Standard. RIVINGTON'S MATHEMATICAL SERIES ALGEBRA. Part I. By J. Hamblin Smith, M.A.,- of Gonville and Caius College, and late Lecturer at St. Peter's^College, Cambridge. i2mo. 2s. 6d. With Answers, 3^'. " The design of this treatise is to explain all studetit out of his depth by sudden plimges, but thai is co7nmonly included in a First Part of leads hi/n gradually onward, 7tever beyo7id his Algebra. I71 the arra7ige7ne7it of the chapters, depth fro7>i any desire to hurry foT-zvard. The I ha7'e followed the advice of experienced exa77iples appear to be particularly well teachers. I have carefully abstained fro7>i arra7iged, so as to afford a 7nea7is of steady 7naki/ig extracts from books in com7/ion use. progress. IVitk such books the judicio7is teacher The only work to which I am indebted for any ivill have abundant supply of exa7rtples a7td 7naterial assistance is the Algebra of the late problems for those 7vho need to have each step Deati Peacock, witich I took as the 7iiodel for e7is7(red by fa7niliarity, a7id he will be able to the C07/I77ie7tce7nent of my treatise. The ex- allow the 77iore rapid lear7ier to travel onward amples, progressive a7ideasy, hdvebee7t selected "with ease and swiftness. We cari co7ifidently fro77i U7iiversity a7id college examination reco7)ime7id Mr. Ha77ibli7iS7/tith's books. Can- papers, a7td fro7it Old English, Froich, arid didates prepari7ig for Civil Segr ice , Ger7nan works." — From the Preface. tio7is 7tnder the7iew syste7n oj pen competition " It is eziiiie/tt that Mr. Hamblin Smith is will find these works to be of great value." — a teacher, and has zvritten to meet the special Civil Service Gazette. wants of students. He does 7tot carry the EXERCISES ON ALGEBRA. Part L By J. Hamblin Smith, M.A. i2mo. is. 6d. Copies may be had without the Answers. ELEMENTARY TRIGONOMETRY. By J. LLvmblin Smith, M.A. i2mo. 4i-. 6d. ELEMENTARY HYDROSTATICS. By J. Hamblin Smith, I\LA. i2mo. T)S. ELEMENTS OP GEOMETRY. By J. Hamblin Smith, M.A. Part I., containing the First Two Books of Euclid, with Exercises and Notes, arranged with the Abbreviations admitted in the Cambridge Examinations. i2mo, 2s.; limp cloth, is. 6ii. Part IL, containing the Third and Fourth Books of Euclid, with Exercises, (S:c. l2mo, 2s. ; limp cloth, is. 6d. Parts L and H. bound together, 3^-. Part IIL, to complete the Volume, is just ready. ELEMENTARY STATICS. By J. Hamblin Smith, M.A. i2mo. 3.^. 30 Mtssxs. JS^ibtngtoit's ^ubliratiaits THE ORIGIN AND DBVBLOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. By S. Baring-Gould, M.A., Author of "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages." Vol. I. MONOTHEISM and POLYTHEISM. Second Edition. 8vo. 1 5 J. Vol. IL CHRISTIANITY. 8vo. 155. " T/ie ability -which Mr. Baring-Gould dis- plays in the treatment 0/ a topic which branches out in. so many directions, atid re- quires S74ch precise handling, is apparent. His pages abound with the results 0/ large reading and calm reflection. The man of culture, thought, philosophic cast, is jnirrored in the entire argument. The book is sottnd and healthy in tone. It excites the reader's interest, and brightens the path of inquiry opened to his z'iew. The language, too, is appropriate, neat, lucid, often happy, some- times wonderfully terse and vigorous." — Athen^iim. "Mr. Baring-Gould has undertaken a great and ambitious work. And no one can deny that he possesses some eiiunent qualifications for til is great work. Hf has a ivealth of erudition of the most ziaried descriptioii, espe- cially in those particular regions of mcdiceval legend and Teutonic mythology which are certain to tnake large contributions to the purpose he has in hand. It is a contribution to religious thought of very high value," — GUAHDIAN. "Mr. Baring-Gould's ivork, from the im- portance of its subject and the lucid force of its expositions, as well as from the clo.seness of argument and copiousness of illustration with which its comprehensive views are treated, is entitled to attentive study, and will repay the reader by atnusement and in- struction." — MoKNiNG Post. " There is very much in the book for High Churchmen to fonder over. This reinarkable book teems with striking passages and it is ivritten in a quiet, self-possessed, loving spirit, and our hofie is that if any rf our readers take up the book to read, they will read it thiough to the end, since by so doing will they alone be able to enter into the spirit of one w/io in these times will have much power for good or evil in our Anglican Church." — Church Re- view. " The book is a very remarkable one, which very Jew of our modern divines could have written, and none but those who study it with care a?td a keen intelligence will be able to understand or appreciate. IV i thin our present limits, we can but glance at its general characteristics, and must still leave the knotty problems in divinity zvhich it leaves unsettled to be discussed and settled by the more lawful Judges. . . . But in spite of tlie magni- tude of his subject, its difficulty, grandeur, and importa7tce, we are bound to add that he has managed to deal vigorously and wisely with many of these topics, and again and again opens to the reader new lines of thought of the deepest interest and most profound import- ance. Mere desultory readers it will do little more than annoy attd disappoint ; but all who are really in earnest, and love the tfuth well enough to work hard for it, will here find much worthy of their viost careful study." — Standakd. "Mr. Barijig-Gould's book is interesting, learned, ingenious; bringing contributions to his thesis from most divergent points, he fits them in with masterly coinpleteness and logical consistency." — Nonconformist. SCENES FROM GREEK PLAYS. Rugby Edition. Abridged and adapted for the Use of Schools, by ARTHUR SiDGWiCK, M.A., Assistant Master at Rugby School, and formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. ARISTOPHANES. The Clouds. The Frogs. The Knights. Plutus. EURIPIDES. Iphigenia in Taurus. The Cyclops. Small 8vo. 15. dd. each, or \s. in paper cos'er. VERSICULI ALIQUOT LATINI. By William Almack, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and one of the Masters of Bradfield College. Crown Svo. 4J. AN INTRODUCTION TO ARISTOTLE'S ETHICS. Books I. — IV. (Book X., c. vi. — ix. in an Appendix.) With a Continuous Analysis and Notes. Intended for the Use of Beginners and Junior Students. By the Rev. Edward Moore, B.D., Principal of S. Edmund Hall, and late Fellow and Tutor of Queen's College, Oxford. Crown Svo. \os. 6d. JEessra. 3S,ibin:gtaifjs fublixntions 31 CONSOLATIO ; or, Comfort for the Afflicted. Edited by the Rev. C. E. Ken.n.vw.w. With a Preface by Samuel Wilberforce, D.D., Lord Bishop of Winchester. New Edition. Small 8vo. 3^-. 6ci. "A charming colliction froin the best •writers of passages suitable in seasons of sickness and affliction." — Church Review. "A very valuable collection of extracts from writers of every school. The ziolunte is an elegant one."— Chukch Times. " A very useful collection of devotional ex- tracts from the histories of good men of very various schools of thought." — John Bull. " IV e are bound to admire the extreme beauty and tlie warm devotion of the majority of passages here collected to smooth the soul that sorrows, even though penned by men from -whom -we differ so much in doctrine."— Rock. ' ' A work -which we feel sure will find a welcome and also prove a soothing guest in the chamber of many an invalid." — Record. THE PURSUIT OP HOLINESS: a Sequel to "Thoughts on Per- sonal Reliijion," intended to carry the Reader somewhat farther onward in the Spiritual Life. By Edw.\rd Meyrick Goulburn, D.D., Dean of Nor- wich, and formerly one of Her Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary. Fouith Edition. Small 8vo. 55-. A KEY TO THE KNO^^LEDGE AND USE OP THE HOLY BIBLE. By the Rev. J. H. Blunt, M.A. (Forming a Volume of " Keys to Christian Knowledge.") Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. "Another of Mr. Bliitifs useful and work- tnanlike compilations, which will be most acceptable as a household book, or in schools a>id colleges. It is a capital book too for schooln'.astersand pupil teachers." —\.\'Y'E.K\K\ Chukchman. " As a popular handbook, setting forth a selection of facts of which everybody ought to be cognizant, attd as an exposition of the claims of the Bible to be received as of super- human origin, Mr. Blunt's 'Key' will be use- ful." — Chukchman. "A great deal of useful information is comprised in these pages, and the book will no doubt be extensively circulated in Church fafnilies." — Clerical Journal. " li'e have much pleasure in recommending a capital handbook by the learned editor of ' The Annotated Book of Common Prayer.^" — Church Times. '^ Merits cofumejuiation for the lucid and orderly arrangement z« which it presents a considerable amount of valuable and interest- ing matter." — Record. A KEY TO THE KNOWLEDGE AND USE OP THE j BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. By the Rev. J. IL Blunt, M.A. I (Forming a Volume of " Keys to Christian K\o\vledge.") I Small 8vo. 25. dd. "A very valuable and practical manual, full of infonnatioti, which is admirably cal- culated to instruct and interest those for whom it was evidently specially intended — the laity of t/ie Church of England. It deserzies high com mendaeion."^CHURCHM AN. ' ' A thoroughly sound and valuable manual." — Church Times. " To us it appears that Mr. Blunt has suc- ceeded very well. All necessary information seetns to be included, and the arrange7nent is excellent." — Literary Churchman. "It is tlie best short explanation of our offices that we k?iow of and would be invalu- able for the use of candidates for confirmation in the higher classes." — John Bull. THE ANNOTATED BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER ; being an Historical, Ritual, and Theological Commentary on the Devotional System of the Church of England. Edited by the Rev. John Henry Blunt, M.A., F.S.A., Author of "The History of the Reformation," " Directorium Pas- torale," Editor of "The Dictionary of Theologj-," &c. Si-xth edition, re- vised. Imperial Svo. 36j-., or half-bound in morocco, 48.?. ilTcjssrjs. ^ibington's publitittions THE SERVICES OP THE CHURCH. Containing the Book of Common Prayer, the Proper Lessons and Psalms for Sundays and Holy Days, and the Daily Lessons, according to the Use of the Church of England. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. THE BOOK OF LESSONS. Containing the Proper Lessons and Psalms for Sundays and Holy Days, together with the Daily Lessons from the Calendar. Crown 8vo. gs. THE BOOK OP tDAILY LESSONS. Containing the Lessons selected from the Old Testament, together with the New Testament, accord- ing to the Revised Tables of 1S71. Crown 8vo. 7^. 61/. HYMNS AND POEMS FOR THE SICK AND SUFFER- ING. In connection with the Service for the Visitation of the Sick. Selected from various Authors. Edited by T. V. 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Compiled from various Sources (chiefly from Bishop Hamilton's Manual), and arranged on the Liturgical Principle. By Edward Meyrick Gouleurn, D.D., Dean of Norwich. New Edition. Large type. Crown Svo. y. 6d. Cheap Edition, l6mo. is. ^ '>:::ft r > .. §^^^: '■