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 BX 9815 .M318 1845 
 Martineau, James, 1805-1900 
 The rationale of religious 
 enquiry 
 
|M^^ 
 
THE 
 
 RATIONALE OF RELIGIOUS ENQUIRY 
 
 THE QUESTION STATED OF REASON, THE BIBLE, AND THE CHURCH 
 IN SIX LECTURES. 
 
 BY JAMES'MARTINEAU. 
 
 "To seek our Divinity mtrely in Books and Writings, is to seek the living among 
 the dead : we do but in vain seeli God many times in these, where his trath too 
 often is not so much enshrined as entombed. No ; ' intra te quaere Deum,' seek 
 for GoAwithin thine oivn soul: he is best discerned voep<^ STracpy, as Plotinus 
 phraseth it, Inf an intellectual touch of him."—I)i. Smith of Cambridge, Select 
 Discourses, 1673, p, 3. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN CHAPMAN, 121, NEWGATE STREET. 
 M.DCCC.XLV. 
 
LO.NDO.N : 
 
 tUlU'l'^D hX KICHAKU KINDKl:. GUE£N 
 
TREFACE 
 
 TO THE THIRD EDITION, 
 
 Soon after the publication of the first edition of this book, 
 the author was asked by a friend, whether he thought that 
 the opinions which characterized the volume could be re- 
 garded as " tdtimate.'' As no one can foresee the future 
 changes of his own mind, he answered with an affirmative. 
 But the expression remained in his memory ; and now that 
 he is obliged to re-open his half-forgotten work after the lapse 
 of so many years, he is struck with the pertinence of the 
 question, and sees how much more sagaciously a man may 
 be interpreted by his critics than by himself. In fact, it is 
 not without hesitation that he has consented to re-issue a book, 
 of whose faults he has acquired so profound a sense, and in 
 which few topics are presented in the manner that now seems 
 to him the best. 
 
 On reflection, however, he is convinced that the prepara- 
 tion of this new edition is an act not in any way unfaithful 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 to irulh, but only humilialing lo hlniseK. For, llie alteration 
 ill liis point of view which somewhat estranges him^rom this 
 volume, consists not in the reversal, but in the further unfold- 
 ing and prosecution, of its judgments ; and in the acquisition 
 of other views so related to these, as to form their complement, 
 and greatly to diminish their apparent magnitude. The path 
 which he has indicated, through the controversies and sophis- 
 tries of the day, he still believes to be a right one; and though 
 well aware how small a way it leads, he leaves it open for 
 those to whose doubtful feet it may afford true, though tem- 
 poiary, guidance. 
 
 The same considerations which have prevailed with the 
 author to re-issue this book, have induced him to leave it 
 without material alteration. Had it contained opinions which 
 he deemed false, and arguments which he perceived to be un- 
 sound, the duty would have been imperative, and the difficulty 
 irivial, of recanting the opinions and refuting the arguments. 
 But to render the volume an expression of his present modes 
 of thought would have required much less than this in one 
 way, and much more in another ; without involving the recal 
 of any important statement, it would have demanded such a 
 recast of the whole construction, and such a change in the 
 complexion of the sentiment and language, as could not have 
 been made without destroying the identity of the book. Other 
 occasions either have arisen, or may arise, for supplying what 
 is most defective, and limiting what is loo absolute, here. 
 Every one whose mind goes through any thing like a history, 
 must be content either lo remain silent, or to say one thing at 
 a time. 
 
PREFACE. Vn 
 
 There is, however, one opinion maintained in the preface to 
 the second edition, and omitted in this, which it would be 
 disingenuous to pass w ilhout a word. The name Christian is 
 there denied to the class of persons usually called Antimper- 
 tuxturaUsts ; and for Jhat denial reasons are given which the 
 Author does not now think to be conclusive in their whole 
 extent. He was not at that time acquainted with any form of 
 Antisupernaturalism but one : that which professes to account 
 for Christ and Christianity, and to discern the system of 
 second causes to which all the characteristics of the religion and 
 its author may be referred. To this scheme of belief he still 
 thinks it improper to apply the term Christian. Those who 
 hold it may entertain opinions concurrent with the views of 
 Christ ; but perceiving clearly, as they imagine, how he came 
 by them, they regard him, at best, not as the Master of their 
 faith, but as fellow -pupil with them of the same arguments. 
 Whoever sees in Christ, not an original source of truth and 
 goodness, but only a product of something else, is destitute of 
 the altitude of mind constituting religious c/Z^ajo/esAip; which 
 implies, not that we have been convinced by the reasoning of 
 an equal, but that we have been subdued by the authority, and 
 possessed by the intuitions of a higher mind. To take some- 
 thing on trust, to feel its self-evidence, to bend before its 
 revealer as above ourselves — human indeed as he speaks to 
 our consciousness, divine as he transcends our analysis — ap- 
 pears to be essential to the disciple, and to constitute the 
 difference between scientific agreement and religious faith. 
 This state of mind, however, w hich recognizes what is beyond 
 nature in Christ, and owns a divine and "supernatural" 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 authority in his religion, may co-exist with douht, or even dis- 
 belief, in the miracles recorded in the Scriptures. Such 
 scepticism may arise in an enquirer's mind without altering 
 in any way his religious classification. Nothing more is im- 
 plied in it than simply a new estimate of certain historical 
 testimony, a new conception of the manner in which the early 
 Christian literature assumed its present form, without the 
 slightest change of reverential posture towards the great Object 
 which this medium presents. This species of doubt consti- 
 tutes, therefore, no disqualification for discipleship ; and those 
 who are possessed by it may be as truly Christian as the 
 stoutest believer in the plagues of Egypt and the demons in the 
 swine. 
 
 There is a broad distinction to be drawn between philoso- 
 phical anti-snpernaturalism, which regards a miracle as 
 per se incredible, and disowns whatever is irreducible to 
 necessary causation, and historical anti-siqjernaturalism, 
 which, from a critical estimate of testimony, questions certain 
 particular miracles, without any abatement of the preternatural 
 claims of the religion in whose records they appear. The 
 former wholly excludes the idea of revelatio7i, and gets rid of 
 every thing that presents itself as an object of wonder and wor- 
 ship ; it is, therefore, in the author's opinion, essentially irreli- 
 gious, and is prevented, only by the want of logical strength and 
 clearness in those who hold it, from lapsing into materialistic 
 Atheism. The latter in no way interferes with the persuasion 
 of an inspiration from the living God ; it rather shifts the 
 ground than lessens the amount of supernatural belief, and 
 transfers to the soul of Christ whatever wonder has been lost 
 
PRF.FACE. "^ 
 
 Crom his outward life. Hence it is peifcclly compatible with 
 the ackuowledsment of his divine aalhority to any required 
 extent, and leaves the Christian characteristics wholly undis- 
 turbed. 
 
 Tiie matter which is here adverted to has its roots too deep 
 \vilhin the very substance of religious philosophy, to admit of 
 its being further pursued in this place. The foregoing hints 
 ^vill suifice to show how far the author's assent is given and 
 how far denied, to the reasonings of a very remarkable letter 
 from the late Blanco White, which he presents in the Appendix 
 to this edition. It was that letter to which he considered 
 himself as replying in the preface of the second edition. It 
 will now be seen by his readers, as well as by himself, how 
 imperfect and unsatisfactory was that reply ; and though he 
 is still far from concurring in all the statements of the letter, 
 he laments that his friend and correspondent is beyond the 
 reach of this partial confession. The wisdom of that accom- 
 plished man, however, was of an order to win posthumous con- 
 verts, in tardy compensation for contemporaneous oblorpiy. 
 Liverpool, Jan. ^27, 1845. 
 
JAN 2 7 m5 
 
 ■ ^ — 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 PAGE 
 INSPIRAIION 1 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 Catholic Infallibility 19 
 
 LECTURE IIL 
 Protestant iNFALLinniTY 37 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 Rationalism 53 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 Relation of Natchal Rkhgion to Christianity . . .74 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 Influence of Christianity on Morality and Civilization . . 89 
 
 AI*PE>DIX. 
 
 Portion of a Letter to tue Author, from the Rev. .1. Blanco 
 White 1''5 
 
 Notes 1'>3 
 
LECTUKE L 
 
 I NSP I RAT 10 IN. 
 
 John xiv. 26. 
 
 BUT THE COMFORTER, WHICH IS THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHOM THE FATHER 
 WILL SEND IN MY NAME, HE SHALL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, AND 
 BRING ALL THINGS TO YOUR REMEMBRANCE, WHATSOVER I HAVE 
 SAID TO YOU, 
 
 Near the eastern margin of the gigantic empire of Rome, 
 lay a small strip of coast which had been added to its domi- 
 nion by Pompey the Great. The accession had excited little 
 notice, eclipsed and forgotten amid the crowd of greater 
 acquisitions, and in itself too insignificant to excite even the 
 ready vanity of conquest. The district had nothing in it to 
 draw towards it the attention of a people dazzled by the mag- 
 nitude and splendour of their own power. Remote from the 
 existing centres of opulent and cultivated society, with a lan- 
 guage unknown to educated men, destitute of any literature to 
 excite curiosity, or any specimens of art to awaken wonder, it 
 would have lain in exile from the great human community, 
 had not the circulation of commerce embraced it, and self- 
 interest secured for it a surly and contemptuous regard. It 
 lay between the fallen kingdoms of Egypt and Assyria, but 
 derived no distinction from its position ; it seemed covered 
 with the dust, without sharing the glories of their ruined 
 magnificence. Its inhabitants were the most unpopular of 
 nations ; — a people out of date, relics of a ruder period of 
 the world, — having the prejudices of age without its wisdom, 
 
 B 
 
2 ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 and the superstitions of the East without its loftiness : — they 
 had long been deserted by the tide of civilization, now tlowing 
 on other shores, and were left witliout the refreshment of a 
 sympathy. And as hatred stimulates ferocity, and contempt 
 invites men to be mean, they retreated into the seclusion of all 
 unsocial passions. They detested : they despised: they suspected : 
 ihey writhed under authority : ihey professed submission only to 
 obtain revenge : they had no heritage in the present ; content 
 with nothing which it brought, they had no gratitude to 
 express : their affections were for the past and the future ; and 
 I heir worship was one of memory and of hope, not of love. 
 Fair and fertile as were the fields of Palestine, it was held to 
 be the blot of the nations, the scowl of the world.* 
 
 In a hamlet of this country, sequestered among the hills 
 which enclose the Galilean lake, a peasant, eighteen centuries 
 ago, began to fill up the intervals of worldly occupation with 
 works of mercy and efforts of public inslruction.f Neglected 
 by his own villagers of Nazareth, he took up his residence in 
 llie neighbouring town of Capernaum ; and there, escaped 
 from the prejudices of his first home, and left to the natural 
 influence of his own character, he found friends, hearers, fol- 
 lowers. He mixed in their societies, he worshipped in their 
 synagogues, he visited their homes, he grew familiar with 
 their neighbourhood, he taught on the hill side, he watched 
 llieir traffic on the beach, and joined in their excursions on 
 
 * Dum Assj rios penes Medosque el Persas Oriens fuif, despectissima pars 
 s-ervinitium. Postquam Macedones praepotuere, rex Aniiochus demere 
 superslilionem, et mores Graecorum dare adnixus, quo minus teterrimam 
 jrenf'nn in melius mutaret, Parlhorum bello prohibilus est. 
 
 Quia apud ipsos fides obstinala, misericordia in promtu, sed adversus omnes 
 alios hostile odium. — Tacitus, Hist. v. 8. 5. 
 
 t The tradition which represents Jesus as sharing the calling of Joseph 
 rests upon a passage of Justin Martyr : — ravTa yap to. rtKToviKa tpyct 
 hpyai^iTO iv dv^puj—oiQ ujv, dporpa Kal ^vyci. ^id tovtujv, kuI rd 
 rriQ OiKaioavvrjQ (rvfilSoXa ci^dcTKUJV Kai tvepyi] j3i6v. — Dial, cum 
 Tryph. 88. 
 
ON INSPIRATION. O 
 
 ihe lake. He clothed himself in their affections, and they 
 admitted him to their sorrows, and his presence consecrated 
 their joys. Their Hebrew feelings became human, when he 
 was near ; and their rude nationality of worship rose towards 
 the filial devotion of a rational and responsible mind. Nor 
 was it altogether a familiar and equal, though a profoundly 
 confiding sympathy, which he awakened. For power more 
 than human followed his steps ; and in many a home there 
 dwelt living memorials of his miracles : and among his most 
 grateful disciples there were those, who remembered the bit- 
 terness of the leper's exile, or shuddered at the yet unforgotten 
 horrors of madness. That the awe of Deity which ^Yas kindled 
 by his acts, and the love of goodness which was excited by 
 his life, might not be confined to one spot of his country, 
 twelve associates were first drawn closely around him to 
 observe and learn, and then dispersed to repeat his miracles, 
 report and teach. They were with him when the recurring 
 festivals summoned him, in common with his fellow-cilizens, 
 to leave awhile Capernaum for Jerusalem. They beheld how 
 his dignity rose, when his sphere of action was thus enlarged, 
 and the interest of his position deepened ; — when the rustic 
 audience was replaced by the crowd of the metropolis, and 
 village cavillers gave way to priests and rulers, and the hand- 
 ful of neighbours in the provincial synagogue was exchanged 
 for the strange and gaudy multitudes that thronged the vast 
 temple at the hour of prayer. In one of these expeditions, 
 the fears of the established authorities, and the disappointment 
 of a once favouring multitude whose ambition he had refused 
 to gratify, combined to crush him. It was soon done ; the 
 Passover at Jerusalem was its assizes too : the betrayal and the 
 trial over, the execution was part of the annual celebration, a 
 spectacle that furnished an hour's excitement to the populace. 
 But there were eyes that looked on with no careless or savage 
 gaze ; — of one w ho knew what he was in childhood ; — of 
 many that had seen his recent life in Galilee. The twelve, too, 
 
 B 2 
 
-I ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 lingered closely around the event ; and tliei/ say iliat he came 
 l)ack from death, spake to them oft for forty days, and was 
 cariied before their view beyond the precincts of this earth. 
 
 Here is a series of events deeply intcresling indeed to those 
 who were immersed in them ; but of which, even on the spot 
 where they occurred, it might have been expected, ihat wilhin 
 one generation their very rumour would have died away, lost 
 in the stir and cares of life. A few months began and ended 
 them ; an obscure recess of the wojld was acted upon by them. 
 They concerned one of a social class, which is beneath the 
 proud level of history, and whose vicissitudes, after a few- 
 years, are added to that dark abyss of forgotten things, above 
 wiiich gigantic vices and ambitious virtues struggle to be seen. 
 They are, moreover, the simple record of a private life, coming 
 in almost at the death of ancient history, and overshadowed 
 by its pageantry, the miracles themselves rendered insipid, 
 except for their benevolence, by its prodigies. Yet this frag- 
 ment of biography did not die ; it not only lived, but it gave 
 life ; it recast society in Europe, and called into being a new 
 world. 
 
 Providence then sent out these events upon a mission. 
 They had some function and olfice. What were they for ? 
 To inquire after their end, to go in quest of the design 
 which they were to accomplish, is to seek a rej>ly to the 
 (|uestion, IV/i«^ is Christianity? If we discover the purpose 
 of Christ's life, we have found (Ihrislianity. 
 
 How are we to elfecl this discovery ? what direction must 
 our minds take, in order to learn what this history is for ? 
 what resources are at hand for this purpose ? w hat materials 
 exist, and what method must be followed, for the investiga- 
 tion? The problem is, what was the intent of Christ's 
 coming? The preliminary question is, what are our instru- 
 ments for solving the problem, and what kind and degree of 
 value must be set on each ? 
 
 First, we have the books which, when bound up together. 
 
ON INSPIRATION. 5 
 
 arc callod llie New Testament ; books written by persons wlu) 
 saw Clirisl and talked with him, or at any rate loved him, and 
 instructed others of the first age respecting him. These must 
 iielp us to learn the aim of Providence in this remarkable 
 piece of history. 
 
 Secondly ; the Pope and the authorities of the Romish 
 Church assure us, that they can whisper the secret in our 
 ears ; that they have private sources of information, on whicli 
 we may certainly depend. 
 
 Thiidly ; Pmtestants of all grades declare that, though lliey 
 should be ashamed to talk about the kind of private informa- 
 tion before mentioned, they have yet paid a great deal of 
 attention to the subject, and are quite sure they have made 
 ihe whole thing clear ; indeed so demonstrably clear, that it 
 is by far the most prudent course for a man not to encourage 
 scruples about the creeds and articles, in which they have 
 explained the truth. 
 
 Fourthly ; our own reason steps in, and entreats to 
 have a voice in the decision. It urges us not to adopt any 
 theory about Christ's mission, which does violence to the con- 
 clusions it has already drawn from other quarters. It begs 
 to preserve entire its own faith, and to hold every interpreta- 
 tion of this history false, which cannot consist with it. Therti 
 are, in particular, two sets of notions which reason thinks it 
 ought not to be required to part with in favour of any theoi y 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 First, the ideas of religion and morals which it has learnt 
 by the study of nature and of human life ; in other words, 
 natural religion : it protests against all contradiction to these, 
 unless they can be disproved. 
 
 Secondly, the ideas it has acquired of what Christ was sent 
 to accomplish, from observing what he actually has accom- 
 plished ; for, it urges, it would be absurd to make out by 
 laborious study that the Gospel was meant for one purpose, 
 and then, on turning to experience, to find that it has effected 
 
6 ON INSPIRATIOR. 
 
 quite another. In other words, it petitions that we will 
 attend to the influence of Christianity on morality and 
 civilization. 
 
 These several claims, these professed sources of knowledge, it 
 will be the business of these lectures to examine and estimate ; 
 so that the course collectively may be regarded as designed 
 to determine the best tyiethod of solving the problem, What is 
 Christianity? Having settled the plan of proceeding, perhaps 
 the actual solution may be attempted in a future course. In 
 the present lecture we examine the first of these instruments, 
 viz., the books of the New Testament, with a view to learn, 
 how we are to use them, in order to obtain an answer to the 
 great question. 
 
 Let me then conceive myself to take up the Christian 
 records for the first time, strip off the feelings with which 
 habit has invested them, and lay open my mind freely to the 
 impressions which they would make. Let me know nothing 
 of them, but that they are the genuine productions of the age 
 of Christ, and the work of disciples who won by bonds and 
 death a title to be believed. Let me be a stranger to every 
 actual Church, — a dweller in some island of the sea, visited 
 only by faint rumours of the faith, — but with the eye and mind 
 of a novice, called to read its documents at last. Oh, enviable 
 state ! would that that freshness were not a dream ! 
 
 It is obvious at once, that in the New Testament I have a 
 composite work, whose unity is purely nominal ; or a collec- 
 tion of separate writings, as different from each other as 
 Cicero's Letters and Livy's Histories, possessing no common 
 end, proceeding from men who had no knowledge of each 
 other's labours, still less any idea that the results of these 
 labours would ever be congregated into one work. Thou- 
 sands of Christians there must have been, whom neither the 
 sight nor the report of any of them ever reached ; multitudes 
 of churches familiar only with one or two ; and a century of 
 Christianity without the entire collection. They exhibit a 
 
ON INSPIRATION. / 
 
 picture of two successive periods, the two consecutive parts of 
 the original development of Christianity ; first, the personal 
 biography of Christ, sketched by four different hands in a 
 manner evidently fragmentary, for one narrative contains 
 incidents and discourses principally unknown to the others : 
 secondly, this account of the Gospel at home is followed by 
 the journal of its trials abroad ; when its first missionaries 
 bare it to the nations, and threw it into the arena of the 
 world to do battle with ancient superstitions, and — like its 
 persecuted disciples who in the Roman amphiihealre met the 
 beasts of the forest face to face — to grapple with those animal 
 passions which vice had torn from their natural range, and 
 enhungered to feed on innocence and life. The notices of 
 this second stage appear, partly in a short diary of apostolic 
 wanderings ; partly in a series of letters, written chiefly by 
 the most enterprising of the Christian emissaries, to churches 
 of his own founding, and containing incidental sketches of his 
 preaching and their condition, of his difficulties and their 
 prejudices, of the questions which the new faith suggested to 
 their minds, and the inlelleclual and moral errors which the 
 old ones tended to preserve. Moreover, in this set of writings, 
 it is not easy to discover any principle which determined their 
 selection ; there is no visible line which separates them from 
 the others, probably equally ancient, which have been left 
 out ; and if we could recover the Gospel to the Hebrews, and 
 that of the Egyptians, it would be difficult to give a reason 
 why they should not form a part of the ^'ew Testament ; and 
 a letter actually exists by Clement, the fellow-labourer of Paul, 
 which has as good a claim to stand there, as the letter to the 
 Hebrews or the Gos[)el of Luke. If none but the works of l\ie 
 twelve Apostles were admitted, the rule would be cle^ir and 
 simple : but what are Mark and Luke, who are received, 
 more than Clement and Barnabas, w ho are excluded ? ^ The 
 book, then, is a somewhat casual association of faithful records, 
 the veneriible remains of the early Christianity, the production 
 
O ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 of Us fiesh and earnest lime, born in the midst of its conflicts, 
 and impressed with the energy of its youth. 
 
 My next impression is, that in these writings 1 have to do 
 with realities. They are natives of the scenes which they 
 describe ; for no one but a Hebrew of that one age could so 
 conduct me through his country as it then was, making me 
 see everything by siiiiply following his own accidental rambles, 
 any more than a German could be my guide through Rome. 
 If ever there was anything real, it is the emotions and impres- 
 sions of which those works are the record. Only look at those 
 silent pictures of localities, and living attitudes of events ; — 
 intervening seas and countries sink, and we are there! — 
 actually tossed upon the lake, and trembling at the gale in 
 which Jcbus sleeps ; or on the Mount of Olives, the incense of 
 the temple below curling upwards in the morning light ; or in 
 the very streets of Jerusalem at the hour of prayer, entering 
 with Peter the beautiful gate, and startled to see the well- 
 known cri[)ple leaping to his feet. There is that sabbath day 
 of mercy and instruction at Capernaum, when Jesus in the 
 synagogue interpreted the duties of the day, and rebuked his 
 sanctimonious observers, by curing the man with the withered 
 hand. Why, we almost hear Jesus call the poor beggar from 
 the door, and bid him stand forth in the midst of the assembly, 
 and penetrate the Sabbatarian spies by the puzzling question, 
 " Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath day, or to do evil?" 
 we see their shrinking eyes, as he looked slowly round upon 
 them for an answer, and feel the silence amid which the 
 withered limb was stretched forth, soon broken by the mur- 
 murs and restlessness of imbecile rage.- The different classes, 
 too, whom Christ addressed on several occasions, the Pharisee, 
 the Sadducee, the Samaritan, and his own immediate 
 followers, are made known to us, — their prejudices, their 
 characters, their condition distinctly indicated, without 
 a sentence of description ; revealed simply by the diffe- 
 rent trains of thought which Jesus unfok's before each, the 
 
ON INSPIR\TION. 
 
 different points from which he commences his addresses, 
 and the dififerent forms of life whicli appear in his illustrations. 
 And this knowledge which the writei^ possess is clearly nol 
 systematic and theoretical, but incidental and practical ; theirs 
 not by acquisition, but by right of birth. It is the kind 
 of knowledge of human opinions and feelings, which is gained 
 by men of traffic in the world ; and it comes out in brief ex- 
 pressions with plebeian rudeness and simplicity. Moreover, 
 this air of reality would disappear, if there were not discre- 
 pancies in the writings which record the same transactions; — 
 such discrepancies as must lake place among the witnesses of 
 an event, who bring to it different feelings, who give a dispro- 
 porlioned attention to its several parts, or from whom the 
 fluctuation of an eager crowd may intercept the sight of some 
 short movement, or the sound of some short word. That 
 these variations, continually amounting to positive, sometimes 
 to imjwrtant, inconsistencies, are not more noticed, only shows 
 how languidly, with how little acuteness of discrimination or 
 energy of fancy, we read the gospel history. Let any one care- 
 fully study the account in the several Evangelists of the calling 
 of the Apostles, attending to time, place, and order, or the 
 narratives in Matthew and in Luke of the casting of the demons 
 into the swine, and he will see indeed the sanie events, the 
 same basis of reality in all, but regarded from different points 
 of view, and not only conceived of differently, but in some im- 
 portant parts actually misconceived, from the different posi- 
 tions of the observers.^ 
 
 Yet, amid all the varieties of these writings, and notwiili- 
 slanding the complete individuality of each of their authors, 
 there is one impression which, by all of them, is fixed upon 
 the mind with perfect unity. A pure, vivid, and single image 
 of Christ is reflected from each, and the forms entirely coalesce 
 in outline, though the colouring is somewhat brightened, as 
 each in turn is superimposed upon the others. The writings 
 have various and doubtful reasonings: they have inconclusive 
 
 £5 
 
10 ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 appeals to the Old Testament : they have partial misconceptions 
 of fact : they have evident misrepresenlations of miracle : they 
 have strong traces of the peculiarities of the minds from which 
 they spring, — the confused, yet technical, order of Matthew, — 
 the exaggerations of Mark, — the distinctness of Luke, — the 
 tenderness and Orientalism of John, — the impetuosity of Paul, 
 with thought at the bottom, and confusion and genius on the 
 surface, and affectionate vigour everywhere : — but, through 
 all the errors and delusions which were rife in that age and 
 country, and all the singularities of individual minds, the cha- 
 racter of Jesus shines forth in beauty identical and unique ; as 
 if it had left an impression which it was impossible to mistake. 
 It is the solitary universality amid the traces of time and place ; 
 the single line of moral unity which runs through the varieties 
 of the Christian records. 
 
 The general impression, then, which I should derive from 
 this first survey of the books of the New Testament is, that 
 they are perfectly human, though recording superhuman 
 events ; that they were written by good and competent men, 
 who reported from their own memory, reasoned from their 
 own intellect ; who received impressions modified by their 
 own imagination, who interpreted the ancient scriptures by 
 their own rules, and retained the notions of philosophy which 
 they had been taught, and of morals which approved them- 
 selves to their own conscience. They saw and felt what they 
 wrote, and they wrote it truly. 
 
 This belief is evidently all that is necessary to constitute a 
 disciple of Cbrist. One who admits that Christ really wrought 
 the miracles ascribed to him, delivered the discourses re- 
 ported in his name, rose from the dead, and ascended into 
 heaven, must evidently be a Christian. If not, ivhat else is 
 lie? Belief in a revelation is obviously quite independent of 
 any theory respecting the manner in which the books record- 
 ing it were written. For are we not to class among believers 
 those thousands who worshipped in the Christian Church, and 
 fought the good fight of Christian faith, before the hooks were 
 
ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 il 
 
 written, ^-ixl least before ihey were known, or had given rise 
 to any notions about their composition? 
 
 But I am assured lliat my first impressions of the Christian 
 writings are wrong ; that there is nothing human in their 
 whole contents ; that the persons who wrote them'performed only 
 the material part of the operation, and were passive agents 
 of the Holy Spirit, — amanuenses, in fact, to its dictation : or, 
 at all events, if they must be admitted to have furnished the 
 ideas and language, as well as the mechanical process of 
 writing, that their ideas were rendered infallibly correct, and 
 the natural causes of error altogether excluded. This being 
 the case, to penetrate to the ideas of the authors is in all 
 cases to attain unerring truth ; and we have nothing to do, 
 but to understand the propositions, and then believe them. 
 Interpret a portion of history, and you have a narrative perfect 
 from the memorj^ of God ; — a piece of argument, and you 
 have the reasoning of the Infinite intellect ; — an expression of 
 expectation, and you have a prediction from the prescience of 
 the Most High ; — a sentence of precept, and you have a posi- 
 tive command from the Divine will. If this be true, the 
 feelings which in the first instance were indulged towards 
 these works must be entirely changed. They must not be 
 embraced with human sympathy, but approached with Divine 
 awe. To praise their simplicity, to admire their beauty, to 
 judge of their moral excellence, to point out the ingenuity 
 and adroitness of their arguments, is as presumptuous and 
 absurd as to question their accuracy, and discover in them 
 traces of erroneous thouizht. What kind of critics are we of 
 the ability of the Holy Spirit for narration, for precept, or for 
 the exercise of logical art? We must take up the book, as 
 we would a thing fallen from heaven ; consult it, as the 
 Roman would consult a Sibyl's leaf; read it as an oracle, 
 borne to the daylight from the dark cavern of things invisible; 
 — read it, however, ere it be seized by the winds of human 
 doctrine, and thenceforth rendered incomprehensible. 
 
12 
 
 ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 Now, when tins representation is made to me, the first 
 thing that occurs to my mind is, that it musl be proved. It 
 is not by any means self-evident, and therefore I can hardly 
 be expected to admit it to be true, simply on being told so ; 
 and though my informants should become very angry at this 
 hesitation, and tell me that this (which is really a demur to 
 their assertion) is a denial of the word of God, an insult to 
 the sacred Scriptures, nay, even the sin against the Holy 
 Ghost, still, as it is useless trying to believe without any per- 
 ception of evidence, I wait till this holy wrath is over, and ask 
 and listen for a reason. 
 
 The next idea that presents itself is, that this kind of inspi- 
 ration must, from the nature of the case, be exceedingly 
 difficult to prove. Let us approach the subject a little more 
 closely, and think what kind of evidence would be sufficient. 
 The point to be established, let it be distinctly remembered, 
 is this : that all the ideas in the minds of certain authois have 
 been rendered infallibly correct. By what means could we 
 be made to perceive that they are so ? 
 
 It is obvious, that a truth which is announced from heaven 
 in one age, may be discovered by man in another. A truth is 
 a real and actual relation of things, subsisting somewhere, — 
 either in the ideas within us, or in the objects without us, — 
 and capable therefore of making itself clear to us by evidence 
 either demonstrative or moral. We may not yet have ad- 
 vanced to the point of view from which it opens upon us : 
 but a progressive knowledge must bring us to it ; and we 
 shall then see that which hitherto was sustained by authority, 
 resting on its natural support ; we shall behold it, indeed, in 
 tlje same light in wiiich it has all along appeared to the 
 su;)erior Intelligence who tendered it to our belief. Thus, 
 revelation is an anticipation only of science ; a forecast of future 
 intellectual and moral achievements ; a provisional authority 
 for governing the human mind, till the regularly constituted 
 powers can be oiganized. Now, the moment the second 
 
ON INSPIRATION. 13 
 
 period, of natural discovery, arrives, we perceive ihat it was 
 an absolute truth wliicli had been communicated ; we learn 
 then the perfect correctness of the revealer's conceptions : the 
 response having proved true, the trustworthiness of the oracle 
 with respect to it is established. But it is clear, that this 
 evidence of his exemption from error conies too late ; the 
 truth is now reposing on its natural evidence, and needs no 
 further support from authority ; the precise use of his inspira- 
 tion was, to uphold an undiscovered reality, till its natural 
 evidence could be found. Its efficacy, therefore, depends 
 entirely on the date of its proof; and if the revelation and the 
 thing revealed come to light at the same point of time, — the 
 moment the infaUibility is made out, its necessity ceases to 
 exist. 
 
 Perhaps, however, it will be urged that the correctness of 
 some one announcement being once established, all others 
 made by the same person are worthy of reliance ; that his 
 authority, proved in one case, extends to all ; so that truths, 
 not yet resting upon their natural evidence, may be accepted 
 as certain from his hands. Thus if a man predicts one his- 
 torical event, and it comes to pass, we are to conclude that he 
 knows all other futurities of which he may happen to speak ; 
 that he is equally infallible in his interpretations of ancient 
 literature ; and that his ideas on subjects of science and 
 morals are to be accepted as disclosures from the omniscient 
 Mind. This position, however, cannot be maintained, unless 
 it is held that inspiration is necessarily universal in its extent, 
 that God cannot correct one error of a human mind without 
 erasing all, or open one truth to it, before the time without 
 visiting it with a blaze of boundless knowledge. Once admit 
 that the gift of infallibility may be limited (and who so unrea- 
 sonable as to deny it?), and you cannot argue from the 
 inspiration of one proposition to the inspiration of any 
 more. Each one requires its own separate and individual 
 proof. 
 
 This kind of evidence of inspiration, then, which arises from 
 
14 ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 the discovery that its communications were true— this posthu- 
 mous proof of it — is of no service. We must have some 
 earlier, some antecedent proof, enabling us to rely upon it as 
 soon as its announcements have been sent forth. In order to 
 serve any purpose of illumination and authority, inspiration 
 must be rendered credible to us as soon as it takes effect. 
 
 Shall we then admit in proof the assertion of the pei^son 
 claiming inspiratioti ? Is it consistent with the principles of 
 evidence to receive his testimony in his own cause ? INo ; — 
 not even if he be the most veracious of men. It is not a case 
 for testimony at all, or in which veracity, by itself, can be of 
 use. For when any one brings to me the statement, " I liave 
 these ideas from God," his integrity will indeed persuade me 
 that he affirms nothing w liich he does not believe ; but that 
 he possesses sufficient grounds for this belief, it is impossible 
 for me to feel, unless he has submitted them to my judgment, 
 and rendered their adequacy clear. Indeed his assertion is in 
 reality composed of two parts — a statement of fact, and a 
 statement of opinion. Whfact is, that he has the ideas, the 
 doctrines ; his opinion is, that their origin is divine. The 
 former is absolute knowledge, which I cannot deny without 
 impugning his veracity ; the latter is inference, which I may 
 dispute with no harsher feeling than that of speculative dis- 
 sent. That he may have sound reason for his assertion, and 
 be able to convince me of it, I do not deny. My present 
 position is simply this ; that the claim of the most upright 
 man to inspiration amounts to no more than a statement of 
 his own opinion about the origin of his ideas ; that his moral 
 character gives it no title to our admission ; and that it is 
 necessary to ask him for evidence before we render him our 
 credit. If you acknowledge any other rule, and say, that 
 personal attestation is sufficient in a question so momentous, 
 you must admit the claims of Joan of Arc, and Joanna South- 
 cote, and Mr. Irving, and every other enthusiast who may be 
 self-deluded into the belief of a heavenly mission. 
 
 To apply this to the New Testament. First, however, lei 
 
ON INSPIRATION. 15 
 
 me say, that (excluding the Book of Revelations, which 1 do 
 not pretend to undersland), from the beginning to the end, I 
 can find no claim put forth to inspired composition or senti- 
 ment for any one of its wrilings. The very few passages from 
 which such a pretension has been inferred appear to afford no 
 ground for the inference. I will take the two which seem to 
 be most decided. 
 
 2 Tim. iii. 16 (the translation should run thus): "All 
 scripture, given by inspiration of God, is also profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
 ness." ^ 
 
 First, the Apostle speaks only of the Old Testament, the 
 writings in which Timothy had been instructed from his 
 youth. 
 
 Secondly, the word rendered " given by inspiration of 
 God," is applicable to human poetry and any compositions of 
 a loftier order. It therefore determines nothing respecting 
 the miraculous origin of the writings. 
 
 Thirdly, even if the word did not admit of this reading, 
 the passage would contain Paul's opinion on a point, respecting 
 which we have no proof that he was anything more than a 
 human judge. 
 
 My text requires a few words of explanation, to relieve it of 
 the misconceptions which have arisen from inattention to the 
 general scope of the passage of which it is a part, and from 
 erroneous interpretations of the phrase " Holy Spirit." The 
 Apostles were perplexed by the position in which they stood ; 
 their confident hope of a temporal kingdom on the verge of 
 extinction — their Master whom they had held to be the 
 undying Messiah, w ithin sight of the cross, and actually taking 
 leave of the companions who had been looking to share his 
 glory. Their minds were not in a state sufficiently calm and 
 clear to take in any further instruction, or embrace any juster 
 and more comprehensive views of their Master's office, and 
 their own destination ; nay, already his attempts to enlighten 
 
16 
 
 ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 them had fallen without effect upon them ; many of his 
 sayings they had failed to comprehend. In the text, com- 
 bined with a similar passage in John xvi. 13, Jesus stales two 
 things : first, that when they have been embarked awhile upon 
 their missionary labours, these faint and forgotten impressions 
 will be revived, and become intelligible ; secondly, that the 
 many things which he might tell them now, but which they 
 could not bear, will then be suggested to their minds, and the 
 blank which they now feel respecting the future will clear 
 itself away. And these things will be effected by the Holy 
 Spirit, i. €., by their Divine commission to preach the Gospel; 
 so that he means, that that commission, once put in act, will 
 sweep away the obscurities, and supply the deficiencies which 
 distress them. Many a saying, lost for a while from their 
 incapacity to understand it, w ill rush back upon their thoughts, 
 illuminated by the interpretation of events ; and many an 
 omission, which their state of mind renders necessary, will be 
 made up by the natural suggestions of experience in their 
 noble and holy office.^ 
 
 Shall we say that miracles are an evidence of inspiration 
 in the person who performs them ? And must we accept, 
 as infallible, every combination of ideas which may exist in 
 his mind? If we look at this question abstractedly, it is not 
 easy to perceive the necessary connection between superhuman 
 power, and superhuman wisdom; many ends are accom- 
 plished by miracles, and must have been contemplated in their 
 appointment, besides that of drawing attention to the agent's 
 instruction. Why, for example, may they not have been de- 
 signed to attract notice to his character ? And when we 
 look more closely to the fact, did not the minds of the Apostles 
 retain some errors, long after they had been gifted w ith preter- 
 natural power? Did they not believe in demons occupying 
 the bodies of men and of swine? Did they not expect Christ 
 to assume a worldly sway ? Did not their master strongly re- 
 buke the moral notions and feelings of two of them, who were 
 
ON INSPIRATION. ^ ' 
 
 for calling down fire from heaven on an offending village. It 
 is often said, lliat whenever a man's asseveration of his infalli- 
 bility is combined with the support of miracles, his inspiration 
 is satisfactorily proved : and this statement is made on the 
 assumption that God would never confer supernaluial power 
 on one who could be guilty of a falsehood. What, then, are 
 we to say respecting Judas and Peter, both of whom had been 
 furnished with the gifts of miracle, and employed them during 
 a mission planned by Christ f and of whom, nevertheless, 
 one became the traitor of the garden, and the other uttered 
 against his Lord three falsehoods in one hour ! 
 
 Can there then be no external evidence of inspiration? 
 There might be one perfectly decisive, though of little use 
 where there is no concurrent perception of internal proof; an 
 audible voice, clearly supernatural, heard by a sufGcient 
 number of witnesses, and announcing a person to be infallible. 
 If, however, the inspiration is not universal, extending through- 
 out the whole mind, and rectifying every species of error, it 
 would be needful that the department to which it is restricted 
 should be specified. Such a voice fell upon no Apostle ; such 
 a voice did fall upon Christ, at his baptism and transfigura- 
 tion, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased ;" 
 words not vague ; not aflirming universal inspiration ; but dis- 
 tinctly singling out the one infallihle point, when they pro- 
 nounce him beloved, the object of perfect moral approbation, 
 the image of finished excellence, on whose fair majesty even 
 the eye of God cannot rest without delight. 
 
 If, then, the only adequate evidence of inspiration (by which, 
 be it remembered, I mean the Divine correction of intellectual 
 and moral error) was not given to the Apostles ; if their mira- 
 cles do not prove it, and if they do not assert it for themselves, 
 —and had they done so, we should still have required further 
 satisfaction,— the first impressions received from their writings 
 
 • Luke ix. 1—10. 
 
48 
 
 ON INSPIRATION. 
 
 return upon us in full force ; and we must pronounce them 
 uninspired, but truthful ; sincere, able, vigorous, but fallible ; 
 all in them that depends upon veracity to be received, all 
 else open to examination ; their statements of fact to be 
 admitted, their interpretations of them to be criticised ; their 
 reasonings to be respected, but sifted ; their morality to be 
 reverenced, but studied in its adaptation to their own age and 
 position. Venerable and holy men ! how would they disclaim 
 any other dignity than that of indicators to point us to their 
 Lord ! and how shrink from otherwise acting upon our minds, 
 than by breathing into us that trustful reverence for his 
 character, which is itself belter than intellectual inspiration, 
 and which fdled their reason with energy, their afiections with 
 fervor, and their will with human omnipotence ! 
 
LECTUEE 11. 
 
 CATHOLIC INFALLIBITY. 
 
 Matthew xyi. 18. 
 
 AND I SAY ALSO UNTO THEE, THAT THOU ART PETER ; AND UPON THIS 
 ROCK \riLL I BUILD MY CHURCH ; AND THE GATES OF DEATH SHALL 
 NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT. 
 
 No instructed man can deny that the Roman Catholic Church 
 presents one of the most solemn and majestic spectacles in 
 history. The very arguments which are employed against its 
 rites remind us of the mighty part which it has played on the 
 theatre of the world. For w hen we say that the ceremonies 
 of its worship, the decorations of its altars, and the evolu- 
 tions of its priests, are conceived in the spirit of Heathenism, 
 how can we forget, that it was once the witness of ancient 
 Paganism, the victor of its decrepit superstitions, the rival, 
 yet imitator of its mythology ? When we ask the use of the 
 lights that burn during the mass, how can we foil to think of 
 the secret worship of the early Christians, assembled at dead 
 of night in some vault beyond the eye of observation ? When 
 we wonder at the pantomimic character of its services, its long 
 passages of gesticulation, are we not carried back to the time 
 when the quick ear of the informer and persecutor lurked 
 near, and devotion, finding words an unsafe vehicle of thought, 
 invented the symbolical language which could be read only by 
 the initiated eye? Long and far was this Church the sole 
 vehicle of Christianity, that bare it on over the storms of ages, 
 and sheltered it amid the clash of nations. It evangelized the 
 
20 
 
 CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 philosophy of the East, and gave some sobriety to its wild and 
 voluptuous dreams. It received into its bosom the savage con- 
 querors of the North, and nursed them successively out of utter 
 barbarism. It stood by the desert fountain, from which all 
 modern history flows, and dropped into it the sweetening 
 branch of Christian truth and peace. It presided at the birth 
 of art, and liberally gave its traditions into the young hands of 
 Colour and Design. Traces of its labours, and of its versatile 
 power over the human mind are scattered throughout the 
 globe. It has consecrated the memory of the lost cities of 
 Africa, and given to Carthage a Christian, as well as a classic, 
 renown. If in Italy and Spain, it has dictated the decrees of 
 tyranny, the mountains of Switzerland have heard its vespers 
 mingling with the cry of liberty, and its requiem sung over 
 pati'iot graves. The convulsions of Asiatic history have failed 
 to overthrow it ; on the heights of Lebanon, on the plains of 
 Armenia, in the provinces of China, either in the seclusion of 
 the convent, or the stir of population, the names of Jesus and 
 of Mary still ascend. It is not difficult to understand the 
 enthusiasm which this ancient and picturesque religion kindles 
 in its disciples. To the poor peasant who knows no other 
 dignity it must be a proud thing to feel himself the member of 
 a vast community, that spreads from Andes to the Indus ; that 
 has bid defiance to the vicissitudes of fifteen centuries, and 
 adorned itself with the genius and virtues of them all; that 
 beheld the transition from ancient to modern civilization, and 
 forms itself the connecting link between the old world in 
 Europe and the new ; the missionary of the nations, the asso- 
 ciate of history, the patron of art, the vanquisher of the 
 sword. 
 
 No one who has faith in the Providence of history, and 
 believes that, even in the successions of error, there is some 
 adaptation to human wants, can persuade himself to speak with 
 contempt of a religion which has been permitted to occupy 
 such a place in the world's annals. As surely as there is a 
 
CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 21 
 
 Ruler of life, and a Father of Jesus, He would never suffer a 
 system utterly depraved to fill the human mind, and be the 
 sole conservator of the gospel, during such a reach of ages. 
 It is not to be supposed that he has been baffled all this time 
 in his pur[)Oses, and compelled to witness a useless Christian- 
 ity ; or why did he not reserve the gift, till it would no longer 
 fail of accomplishing its mission? From a religion which 
 has had to wind its way through the darkest ages and the 
 foulest recesses of society, it is no doubt very easy to gather a 
 multitude of superstitions and crimes ; and there are clerical 
 agitators, who assume the office of theological censors of anti- 
 quity, and find a pleasant occupation, in sweeping together 
 the errors, and scandal, and enormities of a thousand years, 
 and leaving them as a disgrace at the door of the Vatican. 
 With such a temper I have no sympathy. Rather would I 
 seek to discover what function God has assigned to this faith 
 in the economy of the world. Nor perhaps is this impossible 
 to discover. In society and nations, as in individuals, the 
 human capacities unfold themselves in succession ; memory, 
 imagination, passion, before intellect. And during the period 
 when those earlier faculties held the ascendency, and, in fixing 
 on objects of veneration, the understanding was not yet con- 
 sulted, the Catholic religion was well suited to human wants. 
 Folded in the mystic mantle of tradition, or secreted in the 
 forms of picturesque ceremony, or visible through the glow of 
 affectionate tiction, the essential truths of Christianity found a 
 liviiifif access to the heart and conscience of mankind. 
 
 At this hrst stage, however, of human progress, w^e no 
 longer stand. To our acts of veneration now, the suffrage of 
 the understanding has become indispensable. No fascination 
 of the fancy can now be so complete, no preoccupation of the 
 feelings so triumphant, as to be secure against all disturbance 
 from the reason. The ideas of faith and of truth have ap- 
 proached more and more nearly to each other ; and however 
 much imagination there may be in our belief, there must at 
 
22 CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 least be soine logic. It is here that the Roman Catholic 
 system (in common, liowever, with most of its Protestant 
 rivals) breaks down. It professes to assist us in our search 
 after truth ; to possess a private oracle of its own, whose 
 answers to every inquiry are inspired : it tenders to us, not 
 doctrines, whose evidence we are to examine ; but decisions, 
 before whose authority we are to bow. It assumes the perfect 
 inspiration of the Apostles, and takes it for granted, that to 
 reach their ideas is to attain unquestionable truth. Even this 
 fundamental position was shown in my last lecture to be false ; 
 for while the Apostles' assertions of fact are to be received, 
 their statement of opinions and system of inferences are open 
 to investigation. But we may allow this to pass. The know- 
 ledge which the Roman Catholic Church promises to give, is, 
 at all events, of extraordinary value ; it offers to put us in 
 possession, by peculiar and infallible sources of information, 
 of the apostolic ideas. Before we accept its oifer, it will be 
 well to inquire whether it really has the means of performing 
 what it promises. 
 
 The following is the theory of the Roman Catholic faith. 
 The Apostles of Christ delivered their instructions in two 
 difterent ways : by writings, designed for churches at a dis- 
 tance ; and by speech, addressed to disciples near. Both 
 these were of the same value ; nor did the society which re- 
 ceived a letter under the hand of an Apostle, possess any 
 advantage over one that listened to his living voice. Hence, 
 from these two methods of tuition, we have two distinct depo- 
 sitories of Christian truth, of precisely co-ordinate rank : 
 scripture, or the recorded thoughts of the Apostles; and tra- 
 dition, embodying their oral instructions. Once reach these 
 and understand them, and you have guides infallible. But 
 there is the difficulty ; for there are flilse scriptures, forged 
 and apocryphal books, which it would be fatal delusion to 
 confound with the true : and there are false and worthless 
 traditions, the inventions, not of Apostles, but of heresiarchs. 
 
CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 25 
 
 and leading directly away from the source of Iruth. More- 
 over, when all spurious authorities have been rejected, and 
 none but genuine scripture and tradition are before us, to 
 interpret them is found no easier task than it was to select 
 them : ambiguities and obscurities bewilder us ; of a multitude 
 of possible meanings, we know not which to prefer ; we are 
 distracted with the anxieties of doubt which perils salvation. 
 Were there no further resource, Christianity must teem with 
 contradictions, and crumble instantly into innumerable here- 
 sies. It cannot be thus, that Christ would fulfil his promise, 
 to " be with" his disciples " always, to the end of the world." 
 The inspiration of the Apostles did not die with them ; they 
 transmitted it to their successors, — an ultimate appeal to the 
 end of time. Somewhere, within the circle of the Church, 
 their infallibility survives ; the unerring oracle for the solution 
 of doubt, and the determination of faith. Respecting the 
 precise seat where this divine attribute resides, the opinions 
 of Roman Catholics are divided : some affirmins; that it is 
 centred in the Bishop of Rome ; others ascribing it to the 
 ecclesiastical councils, which are summoned to represent 
 the universal Church, the decisions of which, however, are 
 not infallible, till they have received the Papal sanction.^ 
 Is it an unholy curiosity that tempts one to ask where ex- 
 actly, in this latter case, the inspiration dwells? Inspiration 
 means a preternatural correction or exclusion of error, and 
 communication of truth ; it denotes a positive ^Divine action 
 upon the mind. An infallible man, then, is something in- 
 telligible ; but when you tell me of an infallible assembly — 
 an inspired parliament, whose decrees are nevertheless liable 
 to error, till confirmed by the signature of a certain bishop, I 
 try in vain to conceive, where the divine agency can take place, 
 of what separate atoms of inspiration the collective miracle is 
 made up, from what distribution of influence on the faculties 
 of the several parties the elimination of error results. Every 
 individual member in his separate capacity, and before he 
 
91 
 
 CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 entered the assembly, is perfeclly fallible ; when there, he 
 utters the very opinions which he brought thither, and tenders 
 the vote which he previously designed ; yet the aggregate of 
 these fallibilities is inspiration ! And if the Pope should see 
 fit to put his veto on the decision of the majority, forthwith 
 the inspiration is metamorphosed back into error ! iXor do 
 the ecclesiastical Fathers help us to any solution of the diffi- 
 culty ; for one of the historians of the iSicene council, — the 
 most important council ever held, which determined the 
 triumph of Trinitarian over Arian Christianity, — assures us 
 that in the tumult of angry voices, multitudes of reverend 
 bishops fouglit the battles of the faith in the dark, understand- 
 ing nothing of the propositions before them, — passive vehicles, 
 no doubt, of a wisdom not their ow n.- For myself I confess, 
 that the mere difficulty of conceiving this miracle would pro- 
 duce an incredulity, which scarce any evidence would over- 
 come. When I remember the motives which actuate the 
 members of such assemblies, and of the vehement operation 
 of which no reader of ecclesiastical history can doubt ; — the 
 anxiety for imperial favour, or dread of popular displeasure ; — 
 the love of display, the passion for influence, the ambition of 
 promotion ; — the dread of episcopal molestation, and the hope 
 of parly triumph, and the horror of the reputation of heresy, 
 — 1 look in vain for the resting-place of the divine and guiding 
 light ; it escapes me like an ignis fatims, quilting every point 
 on which I gaze ; and goes out at last in these mists and 
 marshes of human corruption ! ^ 
 
 Leaving, however, this difficulty, which attaches only to one 
 view of Catholic infallibility, I ask, what is the use of this 
 inspired oracle, supposing it to exist? what is the peculiar 
 office which it is fitted to perform ? The answer is easy ; the 
 object is, to supply us with an authority, to whose announce- 
 ments reason must absolutely submit ; to deliver us from the 
 precarious and capricious tribunal of private judgment ; to 
 give us certainty in the place of probability, and Divine 
 
CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 2fJ 
 
 evidence instead of human. The faith thus administered is 
 imagined to be a gift from the mind of God, enjoying perfect 
 immunity from the instability of human inference ; and it is 
 the function of this unerring guide, to rescue us from our own 
 understandings, and impart a conviction more than rational. 
 
 "Sow when we use this language, and talk of the submission 
 of our belief, we employ a metaphor which is deceptive and 
 mischievous. Belief cannot submit ; belief is an act of the 
 understanding, submission an act of the will ; belief is per- 
 fectly involuntary, and is determined by evidence ; submission 
 perfectly voluntary, and is determined by motives. I believe 
 my friend to be an upright man ; without some apparent 
 change in him, no effort of will can make me think him a 
 knave. I believe the pyramids of Egypt to be the work of 
 human hands ; no volition of mine can persuade me that they 
 have stood there from eternity. 1 believe the letters to the 
 Corinthians to have been written by Paul ; and while the 
 evidence of their genuineness remains before my mind, I can- 
 not think them spurious ; bribes and fears are lost upon me ; 
 and whatever I may profess, I cannot will any change of 
 opinion : submission is impossible. There is but one way in 
 which a renunciation of belief can take place ; viz., by pre- 
 senting a balance of proof against it : the impression of one 
 set of evidences cannot be overpowered, but by the stronger 
 impression of opposite evidence ; and this is all that can be 
 meant by the submission of reason : it is the exchange of one 
 judgment of the mind for another, which seems better sup- 
 ported. There is no cessation of the faculty, no deliverance 
 from the understanding ; but simply a transference of its 
 assent from one proposition to another, a transference occa- 
 sioned by the occurrence of new considerations of evidence to 
 the mind. 
 
 If, then, you wish me to relinquish a credible doctrine, the 
 nature which God has given me leaves you but one method : 
 you must present me with something contradictory to it which 
 
 c 
 
Zb CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 is more credible. If it is to some autliority that the conces- 
 sion is to be made, you must establish the authority on better 
 evidence than can be claimed by the doctrine. I cannot 
 renounce a conviction on the bare assertion of your inspira- 
 tion ; give sounder reasons for your inspiration than I have 
 for my conviction, and my understanding will yield at once. 
 We have to do then, after all, with a bah^nee of judgments, a 
 question of natural evidence, a deliberation of fallible reason. 
 It is to this tribunal that inspiration itself must be brought ; 
 its existence hangs on a link of human inference : to the chain 
 of doctrines which it sustains it can impart no stability supe- 
 rior to its own ; the fragility, the uncertainty, of the first 
 process descends, by inevitable necessity, to them ; all alike 
 are human and fallible. The response can have no greater 
 certainty than belongs to the oracle that utters it. Where, 
 then, is the boasted security from error, if infallibility itself 
 must be discovered /«//?6/y, if the source of certaintif be itself 
 but 2i prohahility, if that which emancipates us from the perils 
 of inference is an inference itself? Vain and futile is the 
 attempt to get rid of the exercise of reason, and replace it by 
 any thing of higher authority. Ingeimily can do no more than 
 thrust back the appeal a step or two. And all that we gain 
 by the theory of divine authority is this : that we resort to 
 evidence in choosing our autliority, instead of in choosing our 
 doctrine ; our faith is still staked, whole and entire, upon the 
 decisions of our fallible understandings. In every endeavour 
 to elevate ourselves above reason, we are seeking to rise 
 beyond the atmosphere, with wings which cannot soar but by 
 beating the air. 
 
 This consideration deprives the doctrine of infallibility of all 
 its peculiar value, even if it can be established. It can no 
 longer impai t credibility to any thing which is self-contradictory 
 and wholly irrational : it can no longer assume the tone of 
 command to the intellect, insist on its prostration, and de- 
 mand that the impressions of doubt and perplexity be dismissed. 
 
CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 27 
 
 as the suggestions of a sinful understanding. My belief in the 
 sacred oracle is on a level with those haled impressions them- 
 selves — a conclusion of the same sinful understanding from 
 which they proceed. However probable the existence of an 
 inspired aulhorily may be rendered, it cannot lead me to 
 renounce a tenet which is equally jnohahle; and if the 
 evidence agahist any doctrine appears greater than that for 
 the authority which recommends it, it has no conceivable 
 claim upon my belief. A divine right, therefore, to dictate 
 a perfectly unreasonable faith cannot exist ; its office must he 
 limited to the recommendation of points already possessing 
 intrinsic evidence. The utmost that it can do is, by its own 
 clear proof, to turn a weak probability into a strong one. 
 Having thus restricted the possible functions of this divine 
 commission, we may proceed to sift the evidence of its exist- 
 ence, as a fact, in the Roman Catholic Church. The theory, 
 be it remembered, is this : both scripture and tradition are 
 liable to distortion by individual reason, and therefore useless 
 by themselves as guides to truth ; to give them efficacy, Christ 
 and the Apostles have bequeathed to the hierarchy of Rome, a 
 divine right and power to interpret and define their meaning. 
 I. — This claim is rested upon scripture. Yet, in the same 
 breath, we are assured that scripture can prove nothing till 
 this claim is established. How is this infallibility to have its 
 origin in writings whose first use and meaning originate in its 
 decrees? Turn which way he will, the Roman Catholic 
 becomes involved in the circuit of this rotatory reasoning ; he 
 ascertains his inspired guide by the sense of scripture, and the 
 sense of scripture by his inspired guide. In his first search, 
 then, in the process of discovering the unerring guide, in his 
 scriptural investigation of its seat, he is abandoned to his own 
 resources, a follower of his individual judgment, a dependant 
 on private interpretation ; he descends by necessity to a level 
 with the Protestant, quitting his oracular elevation, and 
 standing on the unconsecraled ground of reasoning and good 
 c 2 
 
28 CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 sense. The more, therefore, he says of the iricks and phanta- 
 sies of private judgment, the more he laments the depravation 
 of the human understanding, the more he expatiates on the 
 ambiguity and insufficiency of the Bible, without a divine 
 expounder, and derides its perversion by the fancy of meddling 
 interpreters — the deeper does he involve his own discovery in 
 doubt, and challenge contempt upon his own oracle. What 
 security can he possess that his own construction of the sacred 
 writings — the construction on which he stakes everything in 
 his subsequent faith — is not one of those tricks, and dis- 
 tortions, and heresies, which he charges upon the natural 
 interpretations of reason ? Or, if he insists that his unaided 
 faculties are worthy of confidence, when they extract from 
 scripture the notion of church infallibility, why not, when they 
 elicit any other doctrine? The charge of insecurity against 
 our conclusions recoils directly upon his own ; and the 
 boast of confidence for his own is equally available for ours. 
 
 Still it is maintained, that the Apostles bequeathed their 
 inspiration to posterity, and handed it down by a lease of lives 
 renewable for ever. We ask the title, and are referred to the 
 scriptures. To the scriptures let us go. 
 
 1. My text is adduced as the strongest proof of this divine 
 gift — as indeed the original form of bestowment. The entire 
 passage must be taken into consideration. The Apostles, just 
 returning from a missionary excursion, had been repeating to 
 Christ the several popular opinions respecting his character 
 and office. Peter, personally appealed to, avows his belief 
 that they all fall short of the truth, and that Jesus is no other 
 than the Messiah : and in answer, (Christ exclaims (Matt. xvi. 
 17-19), " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jona; for flesh and 
 blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which 
 is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter 
 (a rock) ; and upon this rock I will build my church : and 
 the gales of death shall not prevail against it. And I will 
 give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and what- 
 
CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 29 
 
 soever ihou shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; 
 and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in 
 heaven." 
 
 Now, whatever promise may be contained in this obscure 
 announcement, one thing is evident ; that it makes no men- 
 tion of any one person beyond the individual Apostle ; it is 
 perfectly silent respecting any official successor, or any 
 particular locality, or any future age ; unless, indeed, by the 
 word Peter we understand the Bishops of Rome for evermore ! 
 Unhappily, however, Peter held an office that was neither 
 localised nor transferable. It was not localised, for the apos- 
 tolic commission was, to go to all nations, testifying everywhere: 
 whether he was ever in Rome, except to undergo imprison- 
 men, is altogether doubtful ; and he was no more Bishop of 
 Rome (/. e., president over its church) than he was of Antioch 
 or of Damascus. It was not transferable ; for its sole func- 
 tion was to hear testimony, to carry about the attestation of 
 an eye and ear witness to the facts and labours of Christ's life, 
 and the reality of his resurrection. He could no more there- 
 fore transmit his office to a successor, than give his own senses 
 to another. Nor is there the slightest reason for limiting to 
 Peter individually the announcement of Christ, and excluding 
 his companions in the apostolic office ; for in another con- 
 versation, recorded in Matt, xviii. 18, the very same investiture 
 w ith authority is tendered to them all : " Whatsoever ye bind 
 on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye loose 
 on earth shall be loosed in heaven." With respect to the 
 signification of the whole passage — mystification apart — it is 
 not difficult to discover it. Christ first praises the faith of 
 Peter, because it has not been revealed by flesh and blood, but 
 by the Father in heaven : was not of human, but of holy 
 origin ; not worldly, but sacred ; not borrowed from other men's 
 opinions (for it had just appeared, that no one held Jesus to 
 be of higher dignity than John or Elias), but deduced by the 
 natural influence of good sense and honest piety from the 
 
30 C.VTKOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 power of God in the miracles of Christ. Such a temper is 
 the gospel's rock, on which it may abide the storms of perse- 
 cution and the tide of time. To such a mind may be safely 
 intrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; — not any con- 
 trol over the dispensations of the future life, but the adminis- 
 tration and government of the Christian churches ; for who 
 that reads the scriptures with an open eye needs to be told, 
 that the kingdom of heaven means the new religion, the bene- 
 ficent sway of Christianity in the world? To his Apostles, 
 then, represented at that moment by Peter, Jesus consigns full 
 discretionary power to direct, as they will, the aftairs of his 
 church, and superintend the dilTusion of the glad tidings ; 
 they may bind and loose, i. e., open and shut the door of 
 admission to their society, as their judgment may determine : 
 employing or rejecting applicants for the missionary olfice ; 
 receiving with openness, or dismissing with suspicion, candi- 
 dates for instruction, according to their estimate of the qualifi- 
 cations of the one and of the motives of the other. Their 
 uprightness of conviction and singleness of heart are a proof 
 that they are worthy of this confidence, and will keep only the 
 great ends of truth in view. 
 
 This promise, then, v,as not limited to Peter, but belonged to 
 all the Apostles. 
 
 It had exclusive relation to the office which they personally 
 held. 
 
 That office had no reference to the awards of a future 
 life. 
 
 It was in its own nature absolutely untransferable, and 
 incapable of being bequeathed. 
 
 And Peter's share of it was never localised in Rome. 
 
 2. In the second letter of Peter, i. 20, are the celebrated 
 words which declare, that " no scripture is of any private 
 interpretation." If by this be understood, that no private 
 individual, by the exercise of his natural faculties, can ascertain 
 the true meaning of the sacred writings, the whole passage is 
 
CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 31 
 
 turned into incoherence and absurdity; for the Apostle is 
 actually exhorting the disciples to whom he writes to consult 
 and study those very books which, according to this view, 
 would be unintelligible, and, possibly, misleading to them. 
 The whole appearance of argumentative force in these words 
 depends upon a mistranslation so considerable, as to leave the 
 entire passage without discoverable meaning. The Apostle 
 having appealed in proof of the divine mission of Christ to the 
 miracle of the transfiguration, of which he was himself a 
 witness, passes on to the evidence which his Lord's prophe- 
 cies, and those that were supposed to announce his coming, 
 afforded. He very accurately defines the nature of prophetic 
 evidence, when he compares it to a light that shines at first in 
 darkness, but gives way at length to perfect illumination : for 
 awhile the predicted event is unintelligible and obscure ; but 
 when at length it actually occurs, the darkness clears away, 
 and the verification is as clear as the day ; the announcement 
 has no intrinsic solution, but is interpreted by its own 
 accomplishment. " We have also the sure word of prophecy ; 
 to which ye do well that ye attend, as to a lamp shining in a 
 dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your 
 hearts ; knowing this, that no prophecy of scripture containeth 
 its own solution." 
 
 II. — The scriptural evidence of Catholic infallibility failing, 
 the claim takes refuge with tradition. We are assured that 
 there is ancient and venerable tradition in favour of the Roman 
 See, affirming it to be " the greatest and most ancient and 
 illustrious church," and ascribing to it a " superior head- 
 ship." * Now this new appeal is liable, at the outset, to the 
 same objection as the argument from scripture. The very use 
 of the inspired authority of which we are in quest is, to pro- 
 nounce upon the truth and value of tradition ; so that this 
 reasoning proposes to prove infallibility by tradition, and tradi- 
 tion by infallibility ; and, if, in order to magnify the impoi- 
 
02 CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 tance of this unerring criterion of truth, you declaim on the 
 uncertainty of tradition without it, you sap the very founda- 
 tion on which you now offer to rest the stupendous structure 
 of Romanism. Here is the dilemma. Is unaided tradition 
 precarious? Tlien so is the oracle which you adduce it to 
 prove. Is it definite and unambiguous ? Then there is no 
 enigma for the oracle to solve. 
 
 But let us look a little more closely into this mysterious 
 tradition, and endeavour to estimate it at its worth. It is a 
 name for a multitude of tales and reports that were afloat in 
 the early ages of Christianity, — the hearsay of the church, — 
 compounded of fact and fiction, of the marvellous and the sober, 
 of the probable and the absurd, thrown together in one indis- 
 soluble mass. To confide the perpetual miracle of infallibility 
 to such proof as this, betrays surely extraordinary notions of 
 the value of evidence. You say, those reports are ancient, 
 running back into actual contact with the apostolic generation. 
 Possibly ; and the practice of rejecting the authority of Paul, 
 and of drunkenness at the Lord's Supper, were more ancient 
 still, as well as the tradition, that there was no resurrection ; 
 for in the very writings of Paul they stand rebuked. As there 
 is nothing so ancient as absurdity and sin, apostolic antiquity 
 is no proof of apostolic truth and righteousness. 
 
 These traditions are embodied in the writings of a class 
 of persons called the Fathers.^ I have called them a 
 class ; but in truth they have about as little in common with 
 each other as the authors whom we call classical. Some wrote 
 in Greek, others in Latin ; some composed histories, some 
 poems, some works of philosophy ; most, treatises of theology. 
 T(^ey severally lived in the towns of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 
 
 * For an acute and highly interesting answer to the question, " Who are 
 the Fathers?" I would beg to refer my readers to Rev. J. Blanco "WTiile's 
 " Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion." Vol, I. 
 Chap. 7. 
 
CATHOLIC INTALLIBILITT. 33 
 
 and were scattered over many centuries. In original charac- 
 ter, in attainments, in intellectual and moral excellence, they 
 differed, of course, as widely as any equal number of men of 
 any other time or place. Their voluminous and tedious 
 writings are valuable as furnishing a picture of the times, and 
 showing the progress of ecclesiastical corruption, and tracing 
 back, by an ascending chain, the books of the New Testament 
 towards the apostolic age. But that any one who has really 
 read much of these productions can think with respect of the 
 authors' judgment, or without disgust of their temper, or 
 without suspicion of their morals, is one of many wonders of 
 theology. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Eusebius, may 
 perhaps be regarded as exceptions. But that the silly credu- 
 lity of Epiphanius, the implacable fui^ of TertuUian, the 
 frantic bigotry of Jerome,^ should have received the canoni- 
 zation of Christendom, is a profanation of the name of sanc- 
 tity, and an insult to the understanding and conscience of 
 mankind. The following may be taken as specimens of the 
 venerable traditions with which we are furnished by these 
 authors, and among which is ranked the infallible authority of 
 Rome. 
 
 Irenseus, called the Divine, was acquainted with many who 
 conversed familiarly with the Apostles, and thence became a 
 great collector of apostolical traditions. He affirms that our 
 Saviour lived to an old age, or was at least fifty years old at 
 the time of his crucifixion ; this he asserts, first, from the 
 reason of the thing ; for, " as Christ came to save all men 
 of all ranks and degrees, so it was necessary that he shouki 
 pass through all the several stages of life, that he might be a 
 pattern to them all ; secondly, from the unanimous tradition 
 and positive testimony of all the old men, who had lived with 
 St. John and the other Apostles, and from whom, he says, 
 they all received this account, and constantly bore witness to 
 the truth of it." " Yet," says Middlelon, " this unanimous 
 
34 CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 tradition, so solemnly vouched by this venerable Father, is 
 as certainly false as the Gospels are true."* 
 
 TerluUian, one of the most popular of the Christian Fathers, 
 reports that St. John was tlirown, without injurious effect, into 
 a vessel of boiling oil ; he came out, says Jerome, in finer and 
 more vigorous condition than before.f 
 
 He assures us, that for forty days a fine city was seen sus- 
 pended over Judaea, and the miracle acknowledged by a mul- 
 titude of Gentile witnesses.;;]; 
 
 Jerome, the favourite writer of Roman Catholic antiquity, 
 the author of the Latin version read in their Churches, 
 solemnly declares, that he had been castigated all night by 
 angels for reading the heathen works of Cicero and Virgil. § 
 
 Is it possible that, after all, the infallibility of Rome is to 
 descend to the level of these absurdities, to repose on the same 
 traditional authority ? How are the mighty fallen ! 
 
 In our search after Christianity, then, no help can be 
 afforded us by the pretensions of infallible authority. They 
 can neither deliver us from the imperfections of our own 
 reason, nor bear the test to which our reason insists on sub- 
 mitting them. Indeed, the extreme weakness of the arguments 
 by which the theory of Church Inspiration is supported, is, to 
 
 * Iren. lib. ii. c. 39, quoted by Middlelon, in his " Free Enquiry into the 
 Miraculous Powers, &c." p. 45. London, 1749. 
 
 t Refert autem TertuUianus, quod Romse missus in ferventis olei dolium, 
 purior et vegelior exiverit, quam intraverit. — Hieron. op. Tom. IV. par. 2. 
 Edit. Benedict, p. 169. 
 
 X Constat enim, ethnicis quoque teslibus, in Judaea per dies quadraginla 
 matutinis momentis civitatem de coelo pependisse, omni maeniorum habilu, 
 evanescenle de profectu diei, et alias de proximo nuUam. 
 
 § Inter verbera, — clamare coepi, 'miserere mei, Domine ; miserere mei.' 
 Heec vox inter flagella resonabal. Tandem ad pra?sidentis genua provoluti 
 qui adstiterant, precabantur ut veniam tribueret adolescentiae, et errori locum 
 poenitentiae commodaret : exacturus deinde cruciatum si gentilium literarum 
 libros aliquando legissem. — Hieron. op. Tom. IV. par. 2. Edit. Benedict. 
 p. 414. 
 
CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 35 
 
 one who loves lo think well of his fellow-men, a consideration 
 profoundly melancholy. In studying the history of human 
 opinion, the most satisfactory phenomenon which can present 
 itself, next lo the wide prevalence of comprehensive and bene- 
 ficent truths, is the existence of sturdy and plausible errors ; 
 of errors so akin to reason, with structure so intricate and 
 foundation so deep, that few understandings could be expected 
 to analyse them and lay them bare. Such fallacies, while 
 they remind us of the difficulties which impede the progress 
 of human knowledge, leave unharmed our more generous 
 estimates of human virtue : for they excite no suspicion against 
 the universal sincerity of those who have professed them, and 
 suffer us lo believe that even the acutest intellects have been 
 fairly mastered by their subtleties. But the hypothesis of 
 ecclesiastical infallibility is really so untenable — it so com- 
 pletely defies the utmost ingenuity to give it a decent show of 
 probability, and falls so ready a victim to the first threat of 
 tbought — as to render the impression irresistible, that multi- 
 tudes who have upheld it must have seen its hollowness, and 
 maintained it, not as an honest truth, but as a legal fiction — 
 justified, not by its evidence, but by its expediency.^ How- 
 ever astonishing may be the triumphs of sincere fanaticism — 
 however great the power of religion to introduce absurdities 
 into the mind under cover of its sanctity — it is too much to 
 suppose, that of the long line of Roman Pontiffs, not one 
 should have been conscious of his fallibility, while adopting 
 the style of inspiration. The triple crown has encircled many 
 a strong head, astute and ambitious in the diplomacy of courts, 
 and little penetrated with the enthusiasm of the devotee : and 
 by these men, as well as by numbers of the more intelligent 
 among both priesthood and laity, the theory of Churcli Infal- 
 libility must have been regarded as a mere contrivance of 
 policy, useful for managing the mass of the population. Com- 
 pared with this enormous immorality, all error is innocuous. 
 It implies a preference of fictions over realities — a distrust of 
 
36 CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 truth, which is the worst form in which scepticism of Provi- 
 dence can break out. It indicates an antisocial contempt for 
 the human mind, a suspicion respecting the stability of the 
 great principles of morals, a disbelief in the progressiveness of 
 the higher civilization, which are the most fatal of all vices in 
 those who rule mankind. The church or the nation that relies, 
 for the maintenance of its faith or institutions, on principles 
 of influence so ignoble, fosters within it the inevitable causes 
 of decrepitude and decay. 
 
LECTUEE III. 
 
 PROTESTANT IIS FALLIBILITY. 
 
 Romans xiv. 4. 
 
 WHO ART THOU THAT JUDGEST ANOTHER MAN's SERVANT ? 
 
 That was a noble fight, which ^Yas fought by Luther and his 
 printing press, when they rescued the Bible from the grasp of 
 priests, and turned it from the charter of an incorporated 
 tyranny into the patent of universal freedom. If the most 
 solemn aera of the world's history was that in which Christ 
 himself walked its fields in Palestine, and refreshed its weary 
 heart with the living spectacle of heavenly virtues, and en- 
 tered death that he might illustrate life, and, as he ascended, 
 bequeathed to all generations the dignity and responsibility of 
 an immortal hope ; the next in interest is the period when 
 the true record of those things was brought again beneath 
 the eye of men, and to the ear of thought the voice of Christ 
 was made to speak once more, and the image of his mind was 
 sent round the homes of the people, and went about, like 
 himself, doing good. If that book is to fulfil its appointed 
 function, as the sinner's conscience, and the mourner's friend, 
 and the oppressor's foe, it must be accessible to all men, in all 
 stations of life and moods of mind ; not dealt out only in the 
 place of pulpits, and spoiled by the voice of preachers, and 
 
58 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 selected by llie will of priests ; but abandoned, whole and 
 entire, warning and promise, history, parable, miracle and 
 prophecy, to the reason and the heart of all whom it may 
 concern. The inquirer must have it, whenever the anxiety of 
 doubt, or the spirit of speculation, urges him to its page ; and 
 he can borrow from it the solution of some perplexity, or shed 
 on it the illumination of fresh thought. The sorrowing must 
 have it, whenever the waywardness of grief may make it wel- 
 come, and to the touched heart there may be a gentleness in 
 its voice of comfort, and a brilliancy in its scenery of hope, 
 that may make them sacred to the memory for ever. The 
 proud must have it, that, when no eye is on him but that of 
 God, he may hear the withering words with which Christ 
 could blight the Pharisee, and witness how mean is every 
 distinction compared with that moral dignity which could 
 raise the outcast from the dust, and seek the friendship of the 
 pubhcan, and praise the virtues of the Samaritan. The peni- 
 tent must have it, that, at the happy moment, the eye of Christ 
 may look into his heart, and bid it sin no more ; and when 
 the first effort is tempted to relax, his spirit of untiring duty 
 may put weariness to flight ; and when the self-gratulation of 
 victory creeps in, the immense ambition of future progress 
 may absorb the silly vanity of present attainment. The tyrant 
 must have it, — he that tramples on happiness and life for his 
 own vile greatness, and hews a way of guilt and woe to an 
 eminence of praise and hate, — that he may learn of a tribunal 
 above, which frowns while it forbears, and waits only till the 
 last drop of his brother's blood shall have cried to it from the 
 ground. Tlie slave, too, must have it, to tell him the incre- 
 dible story of his origin and his end, — to w hisper to him (if he 
 can but believe so strange a thought to be a truth and not a 
 mockery) the equal responsibility of all men ; to persuade him 
 that the end is not yet, nor this earth an image of the skies ; 
 that w bile here he is degraded, abandoned to an animal nature, 
 sometimes pampered, and sometimes tortured, left without 
 
PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 59 
 
 duties because without rights, he goes in the great multitude 
 of bond and free to that world where he will discover what he 
 is worth in the creation of God, feel the mighty stirrings of a 
 moral nature within him, and find, in verity, that of one blood, 
 of one law, of one destiny, has God made all nations. 
 
 So far then as the Reformation effected the diffusion of the 
 scriptures,— the book of duty, the book of liberty, the book of 
 life —it should be regarded with gratitude by all times. But 
 there is room for much delusion, and there is much affectation, 
 ill the fiishionable panegyrics on the Reformation. In order 
 to produce its beneficent effects, the Bible must be left to its 
 natural agencv ; must fairly come in contact with the open 
 and unbiassed mind of men, and deliver its own reports un- 
 questioned, and exercise its own influence unwalched. There 
 must be no meddling with its genuine and simple impression. 
 Without this the dissemination of the scriptures is a mere 
 mockery ; and yet of this we have enjoyed no experience to 
 this day. The Reformers emancipated the Bible from Catho- 
 lic theology ; but it was only to enslave it to their own. They 
 did not, i^'ndeed, adopt the suspicious-looking plan of partially 
 withholding the book from the popular eye, and avowedly re- 
 serving in their own hands the administration of its contents ; 
 the Protestant churches have discovered other and more wily 
 ways of giving currency and authority to their own interpreta- 
 tions. There is no need to print them in the scripture itself ; it 
 is as well to get the credit of circulating it wilhoutnole or com- 
 ment. What can seem fairer or more truth-loving than this 
 compact and complete Bible, without a remark, without even a 
 running title, with nothing but the old and venerable words 
 from Genesis to Revelation (except, indeed, certain spurious 
 passages, still thought to be convenient by those who know 
 them to be forgeries) ? But do you suppose this book will be 
 trusted to go by itself among the people ? It would be a great 
 mistake. Preachers will go before it, and tell them what they 
 are to find in it ; creeds will go after it, and ask them if they 
 
40 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 have found it. If not, intimations are given that they had 
 better look again ; and while the search is going on, a clamour, 
 as of a multitude, is kept up ; on the one side a chorus of sweet 
 promises announces all templing things in earth and heaven, 
 to him that finds the pearl ; on the other a discoid of ill 
 names, and insults, and horrors, and holy condolence, and 
 assurances of absolute perdition, to him that misses it. All 
 these oral notes are exceedingly effective ; they are as powerful, 
 without being quite so barefaced, as the ingenuous pretension 
 to infallibility. They keep the Bible surrounded with a whole 
 atmosphere of commentary, invisible itself, but colouring every- 
 thing. They betray a rooted and irreverent distrustof the scrip- 
 tures, a determination to haunt their steps, and privately 
 overhear their teachings, and poison their pure and simple 
 impression wherever they go. With all their boasting, not a 
 book exists of which Protestants are so much afraid as the 
 Bible. 
 
 I propose to illustrate this ; and to show that wherever one 
 particular interpretation of the scriptures is held to be essen- 
 tial, all the evils which arise from ascribing inA\llibility lo a 
 common human mind exist without abatement. With this 
 view, let us take to pieces the theories of the Roman Catholic 
 and Protestant religions ; examine their fundamental prin- 
 ciples ; trace them so long as they agree, and point out pre- 
 cisely where they diverge, especially seeking to discover the 
 supposed seat of certainty in each. 
 
 All men, except the atheist, will agree that there is infalli- 
 bility somewhere ; a mind, that is, all whose ideas are in the 
 order of truth, and all whose emotions in the beauty of excel- 
 lence. The supreme intelligence of God, within whose 
 immensity the scheme of creation was projected as a magnifi- 
 cent picture, ere it was executed as a living reality, can 
 mistake nothing within its circuit. Every leaf in the immense 
 forest of events was present to his view ere the first seed was 
 dropped on the bleak mountains of time. Those material 
 
PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 41 
 
 forces which the collective genius of man is toiling for cen- 
 turies to compute, are, with all their vastness and all their 
 subtilty, for ever pierced by his solitary intuition. The far 
 spaces of which science labours to reach some faint vision, 
 the theatre of other worlds, the regions of stellar light, lie, 
 with ourselves, as a vivid point within his consciousness. Our 
 minds — the minds of all created beings, their rapid glances of 
 thought, their successions of emotions, their flutterings of 
 desire, their silent sorrows, their aspirations of duty, their 
 order of progress, and speed of ascent up the heights of the 
 future are unforgotten scenes in the great drama, whose evolu- 
 tions he is leading on. God, indeed, the primal cause of all, 
 does not discover outward truth, but invent it ; does not per- 
 ceive relations, but devise them ; does not behold the beautiful, 
 but create it ; does not admire objective goodness, but originate 
 it. Yet it is in the process of discovery that fallacies creep in ; 
 in the perception of relations that errors find a place ; in the 
 estimate of beauty that perversions of fancy intrude ; in the 
 verdict of moral sentiment that the judgments of conscience 
 mistake. He whose nature can receive no impressions, for 
 he is the source of all ; he to whom the very universe is not 
 an external thing, but an object of introspection, for his mind 
 embraces it ; he, to whom neither past nor future are distant 
 obscurities, for they consist of events stirring within his present 
 thought, is by his own nature without possibility of error. 
 There, at least, in that inaccessible abyss of glory, infallibility 
 exists. 
 
 Both the Catholic and the Protestant are further possessed 
 with the idea, that this infallibility is communicable ; that there 
 is a depository of it somewhere upon the earth ; that by the 
 transference of some portions of it thither, it is brought within 
 reach of man ; and that, when we have once found its ap- 
 pointed vehicle, it is accessible to our minds. They agree, 
 moreover, that its seat is in the Scriptures. The Catholic 
 indeed instals tradition in the same rank of oracular certainty, 
 
42 
 
 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 and thus creates a partnership of inspiration ; but both base 
 their systems on this fundamental proposition ; that in the 
 scripture resides the infallibility of God. One step further 
 they proceed together ; they both maintain, that a reception 
 of the ideas embodied in the sacred writings is indispensable ; 
 that its truths are essential, i. e., belief of them a fixed con- 
 dition of salvation ; so that to deny the sense of Scripture, is 
 to rebel against the unerring authority of God, and cast oneself 
 into the eternal gulf. Between the two rival churches, then, 
 there is an accordance in these two ideas ; that infallibility 
 resides in the Scriptures ; and that an assent to their teachings 
 is necessary to the immortal life in heaven. 
 
 Here, however, a separation takes place. For while the 
 Catholic maintains the infallibility of scripture, he maintains 
 also its impenetrable obscurity ; the original ideas are un- 
 erringly true, but are embodied in language which is open to 
 misconception, and may excite in us notions different from 
 those that dwelt in the apostolic mind. The inspiration is 
 real, but out of reach ; the truth is there, but it is veiled ; the 
 oracle speaks, but in a half-known tongue. H^nce to trans- 
 late the sacred words, to unveil the truth, to draw forth 
 the inspired announcements into practical use, an infallible 
 interpreter is needed ; and such an interpreter, we are as- 
 sured, God has provided in the inspired Bishop or hierarchy 
 of Rome. Without their aid, as secondary guides, the Bible 
 itself would be without its use, — its voice a source of discord, 
 its truth an unapproachable reality ; they give definiteness to 
 its instructions, completeness to its defective parts, and make 
 the final choice from its ambiguities. According to this 
 theory of two inspirations, it is obvious that it is only a 
 virtual and unavailable infallihiliti/ of which the Scrip- 
 tures are the seat, the actual and serviceable infalUhiUty is 
 in the priesthood. It is to them, in fact, that the final appeal 
 is made ; for their decision that authority is claimed ; to their 
 decree that submission is enforced. Whoever disobeys the 
 
PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 45 
 
 authority of the church, rejects the voice of God, and forfeits 
 his hope of heaven. 
 
 Now the Protestant withdraws this infallibility from the 
 priesthood and the church, and totally destroys it ; he denies 
 the existence of any such prerogative in any living man or men 
 of Christendom. With him, therefore, the whole infallibility 
 reverts to the Scriptures ; all inspiration, all authority, is con- 
 centrated there. About the Catholic offence of disregard to 
 the authority of the church, he knows nothing. With him 
 it is replaced by another, rejection of the sense of Scripture. 
 Whoever does this, offends not merely against sound reason, 
 but against the word of God ; he resists his ^laker ; he disowns 
 the tribunal of his judge ; he repudiates the esseiuials of faith, 
 and is lost for ever. Here, then, we reach the two ideas of 
 heresy, which belong respectively to the rival systems. The 
 Catholic's heretic is a man who rejects the authority of the 
 church ; the Protestant's heretic is a man who rejects the 
 sense of scripture. Proceeding upon this definition, we are 
 encountered by two important questions: who, practically, 
 are the heretics in the two cases ; and how are they likely to 
 be treated by their respective churches. 
 
 1. Wlio are the heretics? How is the definition of the 
 offence to be applied to the detection of the offender? 
 
 In the Catholic communion, there can be no difficulty. To 
 deny the authority of the church is a definite and intelligible 
 act ; for the church means the pope and the priests ; and 
 they are men, with a will of their own, which can be collected 
 and expressed ; they are living judges of the acts and ideas 
 which do, or do not, accord with that will. By the very 
 meaning of the terms, it appears that every man must be 
 veritably a heretic whom those persons feel and pronounce 
 to be such. But with Protestants the case is different. Their 
 heretic is he who rejects the se.isc, not of the priests, but of 
 the scriptures: and the Bible cannot speak for itself, and tell 
 us who the offender is ; it cannot go to him and say, Thou art 
 
■44 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 the man. I ask then again (and I put the question to the 
 orthodox Protestant), how are we to find out the unhappy 
 delinquent ? Where is the sense of scripture against which 
 it is so terrible to rebel ? There are the words, but that is 
 not what you mean ; they are accepted by the heretic, no less 
 than by yourself, and are only the material symbols of the 
 meaning, — which must have its seat in some mind. The 
 sense of a book then must be, either the ideas of the wnter, 
 or those of the reader, — either those which suggested the 
 words, or those which the words suggest. To get at the 
 former, w hen the author is gone, is clearly impossible ; the 
 tlioughts of John, and Peter, and Paul, at the moments when 
 ihey wrote their works, are beyond our reach. The sense 
 of scripture then denotes your sense ; the notions which it 
 awakens in your mind. The denier of the word of God is the 
 reader, to whom the Bible suggests ideas different from yours. 
 The oppugner of divine authority is the recusant of your in- 
 terpretation ; the rejecter of infallible certainty is the disputer 
 of your constructions ; the unbeliever in the essentials is the 
 questioner of your favourite conclusions. In short, God has 
 made the salvation of all men depend on their seeing your 
 notions in the Bible. Who now can deny that the infallibility 
 which the Roman Catholic gives to the Pope and the church, 
 the Protestant takes home to his own individual mind ? 
 
 The real state of the case then may be comprised in a few 
 words. In the process of divine instruction there are three dis- 
 tinct steps ; 1st. there are certain ideas in the mind of Christ ; 
 2nd. there are certain words used to embody those ideas ; 3rd. 
 this form of speech is so imperfect a vehicle of thought, that in 
 six different persons it excites six different senses. The real seat 
 of unerring truth is in the original conceptions of Christ's under- 
 standing ; the infallibility which resides there alone, the Pro- 
 testant transfers to his own particular favourite among the six 
 senses ; he assumes it as an absolute fact, not merely that the ideas 
 of Christ were true, but that his own are identical with Christ's. 
 
PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 45 
 
 He evidently imagines, that he has possession of some cer- 
 tainty more than human, something much more secure than a 
 [)robable opinion. He comes to me with the air, not of a 
 man who desires to recommend a rational conviction, but of 
 one who is charged with a message of inspiration. He calls 
 himself an ambassador of heaven, and speaks as if he were ; 
 he assures me that I am in the bondage of iniquity, and treats 
 me as if I were. He tells me that he approaches me in the 
 spirit of a divine love, — which he proves by showing me no 
 human respect. He brings me his own peculiar notions 
 which he denominates " the truth of God, that cannot lie ;" 
 he proposes to eradicate mine, which he entitles " delusions 
 of Satan." His are the breathings of the Holy Spirit, mine 
 the offspring of a carnal understanding. Instead of reasoning 
 with me, he prays for me ; feeling, I suppose, that he has 
 greater influence on the mind of God, than on that of man. 
 He avoids the usual means of persuasion, and, passing by my 
 understanding, goes direct to my will, wielding not arguments 
 but motives, not evidence but fears, telling me not of proofs 
 but of perils, not of reasons but of ruin ; and aiming to throw, 
 not my judgment into a calm, but my feelings into a tempest. 
 Now I ask, whether this is the spirit in which one erring 
 man would address another ; whether it is the manly and re- 
 spectful appeal of equal to equal ; and not rather the dictation 
 of a superior, the oracle of a divine missionary, the utterance 
 of conscious infallibility? Has this man the least idea, that 
 he has any thing to learn in religion, as one human mind may 
 learn from another? Is his the air of one who seeks truth, 
 or of one who enlightens ignorance? If his interpretations 
 were actually the gifts of direct and exclusive inspiration, 
 could be possibly ascribe to them a more absolute certainty ? 
 And could he endure that I should retort upon him the very 
 language which he applies to me, and call his creed a soul- 
 destroying heresy, a growth from the hardness of his heart, a 
 snare of hell, the dictate of a proud and corrupt nature? 
 
46 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 Would he not feel this language to be an intolerable insult, 
 turn away in an agony of honor, and never offer me again his 
 contemptuous compassion? Nay, more, would he not call 
 this calumny on his notions a blasphemy against heaven, and 
 pronounce the contumely of his opinions, a wilful rebellion 
 against inspiration ? Does he not then identify his private 
 mind with the unerring intellect of God, and clolhe himself 
 with the attributes of infallibility.^ 
 
 After all, in the midst of this acrimony, and notwithstand- 
 ing the dreadful intervals, the appalling contrasts, said to exist 
 between the different creeds, these Christians look so sur- 
 prisingly like one another! All professing to follow the same 
 guide, and for the most part thinking well of the same actions, 
 and deriving from their faith very much the same comfort ; 
 it is astonishing to think of the difference hereafter, among a 
 people that have so strong a resemblance here ! When I see 
 one of them rising up before his companions, and telling 
 them, that what he perceives in scripture is the only certain 
 truth, that they are wasting their reverence upon phantasms 
 of their own reason, that they do not discern the same saving 
 faith, or even worship the same God, with himself, I am im- 
 pelled to think of the following incident. It is a parable of 
 orthodoxy, which perhaps will render my meaning clear. 
 
 During a night of interrupted and cloudy moonlight, a 
 company of travellers are journeying over an open plain, 
 towards a city of refuge, which all desire to reach. The plain 
 is wide, and the tracks across it difficult to find ; and during 
 some moments of darkness the way seems to be lost, and all 
 further advance to be impossible. The moon, however, breaks 
 partially forth from behind a cloud, and reveals at some dis- 
 tance an elevated object, which promises help to the bewildered 
 pilgrims. They all agree that it is intended as a guide to the 
 wayfarer, and that it is as well to make use of it for that end. 
 This, one would think, should be enough to send them cheerily 
 on their road again ; nor could one imagine, that the kind 
 
PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. ^47 
 
 office of ihis visible object as a guide can have any particular 
 dependence on its shape. The travellers, however, think 
 otherwise ; and as the thing is imperfectly seen by that misty 
 light, they fall into vehement disputes about its form. Every 
 one is perplexing himself about what it is, though they are all 
 agreed iL'hat it is for. One pronounces it an obelisk ; another 
 takes it for a sign-post ; a third is confident that it is a tree. 
 The man who declares it to be an obelisk becomes eager and 
 vociferous ; he is persuaded, that the ruler of the country 
 would never set up a delusion to guide the wanderer ; what 
 he sees before him must then be a real thing ; and what he 
 sees is an obelisk ; w ithout doubt, therefore, the obelisk is the 
 real thing. That his companions fail to acknowledge this, is 
 owing to their uncommon confidence in their eyesight ; they 
 exalt their own impressions above the reality ; they attend to 
 the phantasies of their own sensorium, instead of abandoning 
 themselves to the light that is reflected from the object. If 
 they will but try to see the obelisk, instead of retaining so 
 obstinate a preference for a sign- post or a tree, they will find 
 nothing clearer. He warns them to beware of their alarming 
 condition ; for a man that sees phantasms, and mistakes his 
 own conceptions for realities, what is he but a madman, or 
 the subject of some dreadful malady ? In fact, it is evident, 
 that the true light is intercepted by their own wilful fancies, 
 and, intently as they seem to be looking, not a ray from the 
 real object reaches them.* And when they arrive at the city 
 of refuge, they will find themselves shut out ; it is no place 
 for those who see shapes in their own thoughts ; and however 
 truly their course may have been steered, and however noble 
 the offering they bring, the city opens its gates to none but 
 those that see the obelisk.^ 
 
 * " The Socinian and Trinitarian, noiwiihstanding Iheir verbal agreement, 
 having a dijferent object of worship, and a difFerenl ground of confidence, 
 must be allowed to be of different religions."—" Robert Hall's Review of Zeal 
 without Innovation," p. 94. 
 
48 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 Behold here a mirror of orthodoxy ; and an exposition of 
 the Protestant's notion of a heretic. Every one receives this 
 opprobrious name and all its catalogue of annoyances, who 
 rejects any body's sense of scripture. Every Prolestant who 
 produces a creed, as containing ideas necessary to acceptance 
 with God, thereby claims infallibility. He may talk, to save 
 appearances, of the infallibility of the Bible ; but he means, 
 as we have seen, his own. Every such creed is virtually a 
 Papal manifesto ; nor does any thing protect us from a mise- 
 rable subjection to spiritual despotism, except the multitude of 
 rival claimants on inspired authority. We live amid a compe- 
 tition of infallibilities, which prevents any one from making 
 successful head against the rest. In the Boman Catholic 
 church there is a priesthood that commands, and a laity that 
 submits : the authority claimed on the one hand is recognised 
 on the other. But among Protestants there is no subject class : 
 there is pretension everywhere, submission nowhere ; and 
 hence, instead of the apparent unity and real apathy of the 
 ancient faith, we have the busy race of zealots, the contentions 
 of sects, the passions of party, in which, whatever may be the 
 triumphs of faith, the peaceful pursuer of truth is thrust aside 
 and lost. 
 
 2. Having answered our first question, "Who are the 
 heretics?" let us proceed to the second: "How are they 
 likely to be treated by the churches against which they 
 respectively offend?" 
 
 The answer is short and plain : both Catholic and Pro- 
 testant churches will persecute their heretics till they find 
 out that persecution is of no use. By persecution, I mean 
 the employment of any pains or penalties, the administration 
 of anv uneasiness to body or mind, in consequence of a man's 
 belief, or with a view to change it. Its essential feature is 
 this ; that it addresses itself to the will, not to the under- 
 standing; it seeks to modify opinion by the use of fears, 
 instead of reasons — of motives, instead of arguments. The 
 
PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 49 
 
 feelings which lead lo persecution are very various. It has its 
 origin in the irritation and resentment natural lo ignorant and 
 vulgar minds when their opinions are disputed, and harassing 
 doubts suggested lo them. This anger is often supported, as 
 well as diffused, by the contagion of sympathy, which leads 
 men who feel their flivourite sentiments in danger to herd toge- 
 ihei", and work up a collective enlhusiasm, which, in the single 
 individuals, would be speedily borne away by the increasing 
 inroads of reason. These fanatics, secretly conscious that 
 their own faith is artificially, and not rationally, sustained, 
 attribute the same u'ilfiibiess to others, and aim to run doicn 
 llie opinions of opponents, as they have run up their own. 
 And even when the discovery is made, that perseculion, 
 oficring no evidence lo the intellecl, cannot operate on the 
 offender's belief, and makes hypocrites instead of converts, it 
 is still kejit up as a warning to observers to hold themselves 
 aloof from the haled sentiments, and remove from all chances 
 of being convinced. Every man who has any interest, either 
 personal or fanatical, in the suppression of particular opinions 
 — every one, that is, who imagines that he will himself be 
 injured in this life, or that his fellow-men will be injured in 
 another, by the diffusion of those opinions — is naturally, and 
 almost necessarily, a persecutor. 
 
 Now of the personal inducement to persecution, I say no- 
 thing. It exists wherever there is an incorporated clergy, 
 whose chuich embodies a creed in its constitution. T\\q fana- 
 tical inducement is found in full strength, wherever the 
 salvation of human beings is held lo be dependent on their 
 belief. Where eternity is at stake, and the question is to be 
 decided between heaven and hell, there must be no refined 
 economy of men's happiness ; to be over tender to them here, 
 is lo sacrifice them hereafter : no pain must be spared, no 
 scrupulosity indulged, no complaint regarded : it is all trifling, 
 compared with the dreadful future ; souls are not to be ruined 
 out of good nature ; and, at all hazards, the heresy must be 
 
 h 
 
50 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILISM. 
 
 Stopped. The only question is, how much suffering will be 
 most conducive to the end ; for there is no occasion to inflict 
 wanton and gratuitous misery. The whole amount of pain 
 which will tend to arrest the progress of obnoxious tenets, 
 always has been, and always will be, created by those who 
 imagine their consequences to be fatal hereafter. The punish- 
 ment of death for heresy was not abandoned till it was found 
 that it defeated its own end, and excited sympathy for those 
 whom it was designed to point out to execration. The ten- 
 dency to sympathize with suffering increasing with the advance 
 of civilization, milder pains are now resorted to. But still the 
 rule is the same ; give as much suffering as will help to put 
 down the disagreeable sect. 
 
 Now, as the idea of the dependence of salvation on belief be- 
 longs to the orthodox Protestant churches no less than to the 
 Roman Catholic, we should expect, if the foregoing remarks 
 are true, to find the spirit of persecution pervading both 
 systems equally. And I affirm that we do, and appeal with 
 confidence to history in proof. Tlie only differences are the 
 two following : the Roman Catholic church has passed through 
 a darker and more ferocious period of society than its rival ; 
 and through the greater part of its existence it has been with- 
 out competitor ; so that its cruelties have been more revolting 
 in kind, and less checked by the fear of enemies. But in 
 modern times, and in countries of equal civilization, the two 
 religions have no distinction of merit in this respect. The 
 Reformation, and all the churches it created, are full of the 
 history of persecutions, which for cold-blooded atrocity were 
 never surpassed. I ask in vain for more than a single name 
 among the first Reformers, whose reputation is free from the 
 disgrace of confounding heresy and crime. Socinus defended 
 the use of force in the suppression of error ; Luther employed 
 it ; Calvin, Beza, and Melanclhon dealt relentlessly in the 
 persuasion of the prison and the slake.^ Their hands were 
 dipped in blood ; when we praise them, fetters clank in the ear 
 
PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 51 
 
 of memory, and interrupt US. But I forbear; there is a tribunal 
 above to which they have all been summoned ; Luther has 
 already answered there for the banishment of 3iuncer ; Calvin 
 has told to the unerring confessional of the Universal Father 
 I be Jale of the tortured and murdered Servelus; and I there- 
 fore close my accusation against their Protestant infallibility by 
 quoting the noble rebuke which it received from one contempo- 
 rary pen, tiiat was never dipped in gall, or sold to Mammon, or 
 lipped with fire. There was a reformer in Hungary of the 
 name of Dudith. He recoiled from the horrors of his com- 
 panions in the Reformation, and dared to expostulate with 
 Beza, of Geneva, in these bold terms: "You contend," he 
 says, " that scripture is a perfect rule of faith and practice. 
 But you are all divided about the sense of scripture, and you 
 have not settled who shall be judge. You say one thing, 
 Stancarus another. You quote scripture, he quotes scripture. 
 You reason, he reasons. You require me to believe you. I 
 respect you : but w by should 1 trust you rather than Stancarus ? 
 You say he is a heretic ; but the Papists say you are both 
 heretics. Shall I believe them ? They quote historians and 
 fathers, so do you. To whom do you all address yourselves? 
 Where is the judge? You say the spirits of the prophets are 
 sulsject to the prophets : but you say I am no prophet ; and I 
 say you are not one. Who is to be judge? I love liberty as 
 well as you. You have broken off your yoke ; allow me to 
 break mine. Having freed yourselves from the tyranny of 
 Popish prelates, why do you turn ecclesiastical tyrants your- 
 selves, and treat others with barbarity and cruelly for only 
 doing what you set them an example to do? You contend 
 that your lay hearers, the magistrates, and not you, are to be 
 blamed ; for it is they who banish and burn for heresy. 1 
 know you make this excuse : but tell me, have not you instilled 
 such principles into their ears? Have they done anything 
 more than put in practice the doctrine that you taught them ? 
 Have you not told them how glorious it was to defend the 
 d2 
 
52 PROTESTANT INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 faith ? Have you not been the constant panegyrist of sucli 
 princes as have depopulated whole districts for heresy ? Do 
 you not daily teach, that they who appeal from your confessions 
 to scripture ought to be punished by the secular power? It 
 is impossible for you to deny this. Does not all the world 
 know that you are a set of demagogues, or (to speak more 
 mildly) a sort of tribunes, and that the magistrates do nothing 
 but exhibit in public what you teach in private? You try to 
 justify the banishment of Ochin, and the execution of others, 
 and you seem to wish Poland would follow your example. God 
 forbid ! When you talk of your Augsburg confession and your 
 Helvetic creed, and your unanimity, and your fundamental 
 truths, I keep thinking of the sixth commandment, ' Thou 
 shalt not kill.' " 
 
 Blessings on the memory of this good foreigner! May 
 God make his spirit less foreign to our churches !* 
 
 * In a letter to Wolff, he says, " Tell me, my learned friend, now that the 
 Calvinists have burnt Servetus, and beheaded Gentilis, and murdered many 
 others, and banished Bernard Ochin, with his wife and children, from your 
 city in the depth of a sharp winter; now that the Lutherans have expelled 
 Lasco, with the congregation of foreigners that came out of England with him, 
 in an extremely rigorous season of the year; having done a great many such 
 exploits, all contrary to the genius of Christianity, how, I ask, how shall we 
 meet the Papists? With what face can we tax them with cruelly? How dare 
 we say 'our weapons are not carnal?' How can we any longer urge, 'Let 
 both grow together till the harvest ?' Let us cease to boast that failh cannot 
 be compelled, and that conscience ought to be free." — Socini Opera, lom L, 
 quoted in Robinson's " Ecclesiastical Researches," pp.592, 593. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 RATIONALISM. 
 
 1 ConiNTHIANS, XIV. 20. 
 
 BRETHREN, BE NOT CHILDRKX IN UNDERSTANDING ; HOWBEIT IN MALICE 
 BE YE CHILDREN, BUT IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN. 
 
 If we were asked lo describe the kind of revelation we should 
 expect from the Infinite Creator to the human mind, we should 
 have little difficulty in stating at least the faculties and senti- 
 ments of our nature, which it would be most likely to stimulate. 
 It would restrain the merely animal tendencies, which sub- 
 serve the purposes of physical existence, and from whose 
 disordered ascendancy the saddest evils and most complete 
 degradation of humanity arise. It would appeal sparingly to 
 fear ; for this is the coarse argument of mere power, which, it 
 it produces submission, excites alienation, and is ill suited to 
 the purposes of One who would win created minds to sym- 
 pathy with himself, who holds in his hands unlimited means 
 of touching the springs of better affection, and capturing all 
 souls by the power of veneration. It would indulge that 
 vearning after exhibitions of power more than human, whicli, 
 in the absence of the reality, has given birth to fiction, and 
 taken refuge, for want of better shelter, in the niands of 
 mythology and romance. It would pay respect to that melan- 
 choly feeling of moral imperfection which all noble minds 
 
M 
 
 RATIONALISM. 
 
 carry from llie world to the converse of their own thoughts, 
 and woukl prove how true has been their dark and instinctive 
 lieehng after a purer and greater virtue. It would show 
 that the consciousness of mighty but undeveloped elements, of 
 sublime though latent affections, in human nature was no 
 delusion ; that a mind lifted above the arts of selfishness, 
 penetrated with a wise and generous love, possessing a pro- 
 found unison of will with God, and while invested with the 
 majesty of faith, not losing the meekness of mercy, is not 
 merely a possibility, but a reality. It would not be silerit to 
 those human affections which, since the fathers fell asleep, 
 have been plaintiffs against death, and stood on the brink of 
 the invisible, crying in vain over its abyss for tidings of the 
 treasures it conceals. Yet, in its answer to those eager in- 
 quiries, it would still leave scope for that imaginative faculty, 
 \vhose office it is to people the unknown, and shadow forth the 
 future, and urge on our progress by conceptions of better life. 
 And it would invite the understanding of man to all topics 
 which are great and inspiring ; encouraging him to examine 
 what it most befitted him to learn, and to reason on that of 
 which it was needful that he should be convinced ; aiding him 
 to solve the mighty problems of life, and unfold the ideas of 
 duty, and pierce the penetralia of his nature, and aspire for 
 ever to worthier conceptions of the Infinite Mind. It would 
 ask for the devotion of a free and fearless mind, whose facul- 
 ties moved in the liberty of love, and whose only act of self- 
 sacrifice consisted in turning out the whole intellect upon the 
 field of nature and of history, to seek whatever God has made 
 true and good. It would never aim at suspending speculation 
 on any subject, except by superseding it — by exhausting dis- 
 coveries upon it — by satiating curiosity — by presenting, as 
 he who is Lord of the mind well may, such overpowering 
 evidence, such clear illumination, as will set to rest the 
 anxieties, and command the willing conviction, not of this or 
 that small section of mankind, but of all whom it mav concern. 
 
RATIONALISM. 
 
 55 
 
 Unsatisfied curiosity is itself a proof of defective information ; 
 the mere desire for knowledge indicates the capacity to receive 
 it ; and the eagerness to inquire constitutes a perfect title to 
 research. 
 
 If we are to trust to the popular description of the gospel, 
 Christianity is almost the complete reverse of this picture of a 
 revelation, and disappoints all these expectations. It invades 
 every faculty of the human mind, and watches it with an 
 inquisitor's eye. It suppresses the sentiment of duty, by 
 representing us as incapable of putting it into action. It con- 
 founds the understanding and the will, and brandishes terrors, 
 which address themselves to the latter, in the face of belief, 
 which flows from the foiiner. It forbids speculation upon 
 everything, and gives the knowledge which supersedes it upon 
 nothing. For, while no churches give the same report of its 
 essential doctrines, they all agree that those doctrines must be 
 kept safe from the approaches of reason. Its only acceptable 
 worship is, not a free and progressive mind, open to new 
 light and loving it, bending before what it knows not in holy 
 listening for fresh revelations, but a mind with an old creed 
 engraved upon it. We are therefore left in this condition : the 
 subjects into which, before the rise of Christianity, the under- 
 standings of reflecting men used to inquire are still perfectly 
 unsettled, and represented in as many different ways as theie 
 are churches in Christendom ; and yet philosophy is put out, 
 and may no longer concern itself with the character of God, 
 the administration of Providence, the duty of man, and the 
 hopes of immortality. 
 
 Let us attempt to rescue the Gospel from the imputation of 
 this effect, and ascertain whether it does not accord with our 
 first conceptions of what a revelation is likely to be ; whether 
 it is not a system of perfect rationalism, and does not encourage 
 the unreserved application of our understandings to its records, 
 and their various contents of history, miracle, and doctrine. 
 
o6 RATIONALISM. 
 
 When the scriptures are placed in our hands we have iwo 
 operations to perform on them ; first, to draw forth their 
 meaning, i. e., to reach the original ideas of the authors ; 
 secondly, having ohtained those ideas, as nearly as we can, to 
 yield to them the right treatment, and determine whether we 
 are to look for additional evidence of tlieir truth, or to receive 
 them without further demur. I propose to explain what should 
 be the proper conduct of the understanding in both these 
 processes, — with respect, first to the interpretation of the Bible, 
 then to the admission of its statements. 
 
 1. There is a prevailing notion, that in the process of inter- 
 pretation there is very little for the understanding to do. The 
 scriptures we are everywhere told, are so plain, that he who 
 runs may read, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot 
 err therein. And yet, the wayfaring man, if a Catholic, has, 
 we are incessantly assured, finally erred therein. So has he, 
 if an Arminian ; so has he, if an Antinomian ; so has he, 
 if a Sabellian ; so has he, if a Unitarian. Each of these has 
 Ijis separate theory of Christianity, which is so exceedingly 
 obvious, that none but the blind can miss it ; yet each does 
 miss all but his own. — Whence comes this diversity of inter- 
 pretation, if the Bible be so easy to understand ? Do you say, 
 it is all from the diversity of men's understandings ? It is not 
 the difficulty of the book, but their mode of legarding it, that 
 is in fault? That is to say, if they were in your state of mind, 
 they would find your discoveries in the scriptures ; — if ihey 
 looked through your eyes, they would have no difficulty in 
 seeing what you see. INo doubt; and it is possibly to this 
 that the declamation respecting the plainness of the sacred 
 writings reduces itself; that they readily suggest to every one 
 the notions which he is already persuaded are to be found 
 there ; and excite most forcibly in his mind the ideas of 
 which his mind is already full. For what do we mean, when 
 we say that any document is easily understood ? — that it sug- 
 
RATIONALISM. 57 
 
 gests tvith great certainty the original ideas of the writer. 
 Amid llie uncerlaiiily of theological inlerpretalion, with what 
 justice can we apply the description to the Bible ? * 
 
 Surely, then, it is time to turn to a different view, and what- 
 ever may be our wishes, to look the truth stedfastly in the 
 lace, — that the scriptures are a collection of writings singularly 
 difficult to understand ; whose true meaning has proved lar 
 more inaccessible than that of any other ancient work, and 
 which requires stiil the further elucidation of history, and 
 strenuous exercise of judgment, to increase our knowledge of 
 its sense. Till we fairly realize this feeling, we shall make no 
 advance towards any better familiarity with the Christian 
 records. There is not a more falal obstacle to the improve- 
 ment of our views of revelation than this maxim, that the 
 Bible is as plain as noon-day. Be assured, it is often ihe 
 advice by which the partisan attempts to lull your reason l<» 
 sleep, and make you indolently receive whatever he may com- 
 municate ; it is the frequent prelude to something peculiarly 
 absurd, which he knows you will resist, unless you are thrown 
 off your guard. When, therefore, he tells you, that " nothing 
 can be clearer," prepareyourself for what is specially obscuie; 
 when he insists that " there is nothing more certain," look for 
 what is singularly doubtful ; when he announces " a positive 
 essential," expect a contradiction. 
 
 Before passing on to notice the office of reason in the in- 
 terpretation of revelation, a few words may be necessary to 
 overcome the reluctance which many may feel in admitting that 
 the scriptures are so hard to comprehend. The statement itself 
 indeed seems hardly capable of denial ; it is not an assertion ; 
 it is not an opinion ; it is a fact. In the minds of the sacred 
 
 * " Open your Bibles, take (he first page that occurs in either Testament, 
 and tell me, without disguise, is there nothing in it too hard for your under- 
 standing ? If you find all before you clear and easy, you may thank God for 
 giving you a privilege which he has denied to so many thousands of sincere 
 believers." — " Discourses," by Dr. T. Balguy. 
 
 D 5 
 
58 RATI0NALIS3I. 
 
 authors, there was but one meaning, when they wrote ; in the 
 minds of their disciples, in all ages, there have been many sets 
 of ideas, when they read ; and let the true inlerpretalion be 
 where it may, it is but a very limited portion of the Cln-istian 
 world that is united in its reception. If the essential ideas 
 of Christianity lay in any of these disputed interpretations, if 
 it was designed to impart, as truth, any one of those notions 
 which still exist as controverted opinions, tiiis confession 
 would be fatal to the evidence of the Gospel ; it would prove 
 lliat the institution had failed in its primary intent, had kept 
 in darkness that which it proposed to bring to light, had mis- 
 understood the minds it was addressing, and consigned its 
 truth to a vehicle not fitted to convey it ; and, therefore, that 
 it could not possibly be divine. So that whoever represents 
 any peculiarity of his own or his church's creed as an essential 
 part of the Gospel, thereby subverts the Gospel itself as a 
 divine institution ; he caimot he right, imless Christianiti/ be 
 false. But the essence of the system may be sought else- 
 where ; in those ideas which, from having been never dis- 
 puted, have been little noticed; in the historical and spiritual, 
 not the doctrinal, portion of the scriptures ; in the character, 
 and miracles, and resurrection of Christ ; and the thoughts 
 and feelings which they have awakened in all ages and 
 churches. If this be so, vast portions of the Ciiristian 
 writings may be almost irremediably obscure; and yet Ciiris- 
 lianity itself have wound its unobstructed way through the 
 quiet recesses of history, — a lucid and fertilizing stream of 
 thought. 
 
 The office of the understanding in the interpretation of the 
 scriptures is, to abandon itself freely to the impression which 
 they produce. That the impression may have the greatest 
 chance of being correct, two conditions are needful ; that the 
 mind be charged with ancient knowledge, and emptied of 
 modern theories. We must become penetrated with the sen- 
 timents of the age of Christ ; feel the impatient expectation of 
 
RATIONALISM. 59 
 
 lliose wliO were looking for the consolation of Israel ; buin 
 willi hope at every new rumour of the Deliverer, and despond 
 again as the rumour dies away. We must go forth to labour 
 in the fields of Galilee, and overhear the peasants talk of the 
 new prophet of Nazareth : how some are elated by the thought 
 that their despised district had, perhaps, given birth to the 
 Messiah, while others plead against this meek claimant the 
 splendour of the royal race of Judah ; and provincial vanity 
 gives way to national ambition. We must tremble with the 
 superstition that turned madness into an incarnate fiend, and 
 treated the diseases of this upper world as stray terrors escaped 
 from the invisible abyss. We must mingle with the caravan 
 of pilgrims to the holy city that winds its way from the heigiils 
 above Capernaum, and bears through the plains below, and to 
 Jerusalem, the first tidings of the deeds of Christ. The locali- 
 ties, the passions, the controversies, the forms of social life in 
 that city of priests must be familiar to us as household memo- 
 ries. The ravine of Kedron, and the j^lount of Olivet, must be 
 like an evening walk, and the shady rills of Siloam like a 
 noon-day rest ; the " Beautiful Gate" must be too familiar to 
 dazzle us with its golden reflection of the dawn ; the levelled 
 rock of Moriali our feet must daily climb, and pace the cloister 
 of Solomon in frequent meditation ; and before our eyes the 
 cloud of the morning offering must curl and kindle in the sun, 
 and the veil of the temple wave, as if from a breath within the 
 Holy of Holies. We must share the party feelings of the 
 times ; and listen to Jesus with eagerness to learn wiiether he 
 favours the intellectual conceit of the Sadducee, or the sancti- 
 monious ambition of the Pharisee, and see them both reiire 
 abashed from his prompt dignity, or crouch before the rending 
 invective by which he tare open the " whited sepulchres." 
 With Paul flying in rage from Jerusalem, and arriving humbled 
 and blind at Damascus, and for three days beholding nothing 
 but the vision that had struck him to the earth, his conflict of 
 
60 RATIONALISM. 
 
 emolions must become ours. Watcliing him at liis work as a 
 lent-maker at Corinth, or hearing him in the school-room at 
 Ephesus, or restraining him from rushing into the theatre in 
 that cily of Diana, that he might confront the craftsmen of 
 superstition assembled there ; wrecked with him on t!ie rocks 
 of Malta, or in audience before the Emperor at Rome ; we must 
 adopt his experience, encounter iiis dangers, study with him 
 the varieties of character and the attitudes of society, and lose 
 the sympathies of the present in the vivid creations of the past. 
 Nor is the assumption of these foreign sentiments more difficult 
 than the complete deposition of our own ; and yet it is only 
 in proportion as the mind is disrobed of all preconceived 
 notions, that it enjoys the possibility of receiving a correct im- 
 pression from the records of Christianity. It signifies not what 
 those notions may be. The Calvinist goes to the scriptures 
 with his thoughts full of a scholastic creed, and he discovers 
 in them a scheme like the philosophy of the middle ages. 
 The Unitarian takes with him the persuasion that nothing can 
 be scriptural which is not rational and universal, and he finds 
 a preceptive system, in which local and circumstantial beauties 
 are frittered into cold ethical generalities, and a doctrinal 
 theory, in which burning orientalisms are turned into pale 
 and sickly truisms. The German Anti-supernaturalist sets 
 out with the prejudice that a miracle is a thing incredible ; 
 and he tortures the narrative to reduce its events to the level 
 of every-day life, and refines away every trace of a divine 
 origin from the Gospel ; turning it, in fact, into a piece of 
 ordinary biography, distinguished for nothing but the excel- 
 lence of the character which it describes, and the extraordinary 
 etfects which it has produced in the world. All these are 
 illustrations of the evils arising from forming our own notions 
 of Christianity first, and proceeding to the interpretation of 
 its records afterwards. There must be no reservation or 
 restriction in the openness of our mind to the impressions of 
 
RATIONALISM. t)l 
 
 the work we sludy ; there must be no tacit exclusion of 
 certain meanings as impossible ; the Calvinisl must not turn 
 away from any system of ideas because it is heterodox, nor 
 the Unitarian from any because it is not rational. The sole 
 task of the interpreter is to reach the meaning of the 
 author. 
 
 If, then, this be all that is mean!, when we are exhorted 
 to prostrate our reason before scripture ; if this high-sounding 
 phrase simply intimates that we are not to take our specula- 
 tions to the ?s^ew Testament, and then palm them upon the 
 sacred writers, the principle is both tiue and important. But 
 the rule is not confined in its application lo this one book ; it 
 is the fundamental canon of all interprelation. We must, in 
 like manner, prostrate our reason before Xenophon, and 
 Cicero, and Sliakspeare, and Voltaiie, and every other writer ; 
 for if we torture their language so as to make it speak our 
 prejudices, we violate our duty as expounders. The respect 
 which we pay to the Bible is, in this view, precisely that 
 which is due to every other collection of writings, simply to 
 give it the best chance of speaking for itself. 
 
 Now it is perfectly tiue that many of the vagaries of theolo- 
 gical belief have arisen from the neglect of this rule, — from 
 the determination of men to find their own fancies in the 
 scriptures. But lo exclaim in consequence, " See the effect 
 of applying reason to the illustration of scripture, is lo 
 bestow upon these aberrations a dignity which they ill 'de- 
 sene." It is precisely because the method which leads to 
 them is perfectly irrational, an absurd mistake of the whole 
 business of an interpreter, a means that infallibly leads you 
 directly away from the end, that it is to be repudiated ; in 
 order to penetrate lo the sense of an author, you make up 
 your mind that he shall mean whatever you please. But the 
 application of the word reason to this system is far less 
 astonishing than the remedy which frightened orthodoxy is 
 
62 RATIONALISM. 
 
 constantly proposing for it ; it is to be cured by wiiat is called 
 (with great simplicity) ^^ the leading power of articles which 
 guide men's faith."* In order, tliat is, to prevent men see- 
 ing their own ideas in scripture, they must be led to see 
 Luther's or Cranmer's ; in order to open their minds to the 
 teachings of Christ, indoctrinate them assiduously with 
 Calvin ! That Paul may find their thoughts unbiassed, 
 school them well with Melanclhon first ! That the complaint 
 of torturing scripture into accordance with previous prejudices 
 should proceed from University pulpits, and be uttered by 
 men who are actually bound hand and foot to the service of a 
 creed, who sign articles first, and study the Bible aflerwai ds, 
 is a temerity wliich would be amusing if it were not melan- 
 ciiolv. It is not then that there is any objeclion to twisting 
 scripture to suit human hypotheses ; it is only that every man 
 must not be allowed to fit it to his own ; for then the thing 
 becomes too palpable ; and in the multitude of individi al 
 Christianities, the prevailing absence of truth and call for 
 further researches are obvious. But great advantage arises 
 when a whole church or nation takes up some one man's 
 reason instead of their own (as the English Episcopalians have 
 selected Cranmer's), and agrees to see it evei-y where in the 
 Bible ; for by this device the hoUowness of the system is 
 plausibly covered over, a respectable uniformity is pioduced, 
 which looks something like the singleness of truth, and an im- 
 posing array of suffrages is ready to scare away all solitary 
 intrepidity of research. Whether truth advances or not, at 
 all events appearances are kept up, and trouble is avoided. 
 
 The business, then, of the understanding in the interpreta- 
 tion of scripture, is the same as in the case of any other book, 
 to furnish itself well with all such knowledge of language, of 
 
 * The phrase will be found in p. 12 of Rev. Hugh James Rose's " Slate of 
 the Protestant Religion in Germany, in a Series of Discourses preached before 
 the University of Cambridge." 
 
RATlOiNALISM. 
 
 63 
 
 histor}', of localilies, of ihe senlimenls of the age and nation, 
 as may have any bearing upon the writings ;, and then to give 
 itself freely up to the impression which ihey convey, without 
 any attempt to modify it by any notions, whether derived 
 from an ecclesiastical creed or an individual theory, previously 
 in the mind. But the more important question remaiiis. 
 Suppose that we have fixed on our own. inlerprelalion ; that 
 we have reached, as far as we can asceitain, the original ideas 
 of the sacred authors ; liow are we to treat them ? You 
 will say, perhaps, that will depend on llie view which you 
 take of the writers' mission and authoiily. If, as tiie lijst 
 Lecture attempted to show^, they were upright and able icit- 
 7iesses of Christ, but not exempt from the possibility of error, 
 their notions cannot be received as oracles, but must be 
 judged of by their intrinsic evidence and merits. But if you 
 are satisfied that they were inspired men, you must receive 
 their announcements as authoritative ; they possess the highest 
 proof, and are recommended by the attestation of God. You 
 have no further occasion, no longer any right, to sift their 
 evidence, or ask for natural indications of their truth. What- 
 ever may be the light in which they would appear to your 
 uncorrected understanding, whatever tlicir seeming improba- 
 bility, or even absurdity, you may not hesitate ; reasoning is 
 set aside, its impression must be swept away by the over- 
 powering reverence for revelation. \Viih the internal cha- 
 racter of the communication you have no further concern, 
 when its external vehicle is inspiration. Its impossibility, iis 
 seeming contradiction to known truths can, at best, be but an 
 inference of your own intellect, whose erring perceptions you 
 are not, for a moment, to put into competition with the infalli- 
 bility of God. When a human judgment is at variance with 
 a divine certainty, there is no doubt which must give way. 
 
 This argument has been almost universally held to be satis- 
 factory. Its force has been admitted by Unitarian, no less 
 than by orthodox Christians : and, in accordance with it, the 
 
64 RATIONALISM. 
 
 former have repeatedly said, if we could find llie docliines of 
 the Trinity and the Atonement, and everlaslinii; torments in 
 the scriptures, we should believe them ; we lejecl them, not 
 because we deem them unreasonable, but because we perceive 
 them to be unscripiuial.i For my own part, I confess myself 
 unable to adopt this language. Not that I entertain any 
 hesitation in pronouncing these notions, in the form in which 
 they now exist, to be unscriptural, or doubt the importance of 
 relieving the Christian records of all responsibility for them. 
 But I am prepared to maintain, that if they were in the Bible, 
 they would siill be incredible; that the intrinsic evidence 
 against a doctrine may be such as to baffle all the powers of 
 exleinal proof; and that, in every case, the natural improba- 
 bility of a tenet is not to be set aside as a forbidden topic, 
 but to be weighed as an essential part of the evidence which 
 must detennine its acceptance or rejection. And in order to 
 sustain this position, it is not necessary to interfere with the 
 question of inspiration. Let the case be put in this form. 
 Suppose the strongest conceivable probability to have been 
 established that a man is inspired ; suppose that, with this 
 probability in your mind, you discover in his writings what 
 appears to you absurd. The question is this; are you to 
 receive the absurdity, because it is an inspiration ; or to 
 discard the inspiration, because it is an absurdity. The 
 question is intricate : but I will endeavour to make it clear, 
 that no apparent inspiration whatever can establish anything 
 contrary to reason; that reason is the ultimate appeal, the 
 supreme tribunal, to the test of which even scripture must !)e 
 brought.^ 
 
 The whole force of tlse argument on which 1 am about lo 
 animadvert depends on this; that the truth of the doctrine is 
 guaranteed by inspiration ; its falsehood is guaranteed by 
 reason only ; and, it is urged, in proportion as the Divine 
 Mind is more unerring than the human, must our assent to 
 its truth overpower the perception of its absurdity. — Nor 
 
RATIONALISM. 65 
 
 could any fault be found wilh ihis conclusion, if the inspira- 
 tion could be assumed as a starling point, entirely beyond 
 the reach of doubt, as a fixed certainty, lifted above the 
 region of evidence. If the existence of the inspiration be 
 a thing absolutely self-evident, all the statements which it re- 
 commends possess the force of axioms ; if it be probable, it 
 imparls a similar probability to them ; if it be doubtful, they 
 must be questionable in the same degree. The whole security 
 of the communication is hung on the infallibility of their 
 authority ; their safety must be measured by its stability. 
 The inspiration indeed vouches for the doctrine ; but what 
 is to vouch for the inspiration ? 
 
 INow no one will be found to maintain, that the inspiration 
 of those who speak to us in the scriptures is a self-evident and 
 axiomatic certainty. It requires to be supported by some 
 arguments, and recommended by proofs ; and it is worthy of 
 reliance, in proportion to the validity of those proofs. In 
 short, it is a moral probability, the strength of which depends 
 upon the evidence which can be adduced in its favour. Lei 
 this evidence exist in the grealesl conceivable amount : 
 suppose that a voice is heard beneath a serene sky, and un- 
 derstood, by a nmltilude of wilncsses, to be a voice not 
 human, pronouncing the unlimited infallibility of some one 
 j)resenl : and suppose further, that one of the bysianders 
 reports to us the circumstances of this miraculous scene. It 
 is obvious that everything is now thrown upon his tesliniony; 
 on this rests the supernatural fact which supports the inspi- 
 ration adduced as the foundation of the doctrine. Respecting 
 the circumstances which are essential to the credibility of 
 this leslimony, there is little need to speak at length. Every 
 one would intuitively ask the requisite questions, before he 
 yielded his assent to the account of an event so extraordinary. 
 Is the reporter a man of sound observation, and habitually 
 correct perception ? Has his general integrity been so tried 
 as lo be above suspicion ? and was he, in this particular 
 
66 
 
 RATIONALISM. 
 
 instance, in a position wliich presented no strong motive to 
 deceit ? Let all these inquiries be satisfactorily answered ; 
 and the competency and veracity of the witness may be ac- 
 cepted, as very probable indications that the testimony before 
 us is true. 
 
 It is possible, however, that, from living in a different age, 
 we may be beyond the reach of oral attestation. And in the 
 place of it, a document may be put into our hands, purporting 
 to be the production of the original observer, and to have faith- 
 fully transmitted his report. In this case a new task is laid 
 upon us. All the proofs which had been collected from his 
 history, that he was an able and honest man, wdl be of no 
 service, till we have ascertained that the writing before us is 
 really A/s; that we are actually reading his testimony, and 
 not the assertions of some inventor, whose fictions have be- 
 come, by fraud or accident, associated with his name. In 
 other words, we must examine the reasons for confiding in the 
 authenticity of the work. 
 
 A moment's reflection will show that this is no easy task. 
 That the words of the document were written, and the ideas 
 which they express conceived, by some human being is clear ; 
 that they proceed from one acquainted with the Greek language 
 may be evident from the character in which they are composed : 
 but out of all the vast successions of men to whom this de- 
 scription applies, to fasten the document even to one particular 
 generation ; from the several nations of that generation to fix 
 it on a single locality ; from the whole population of that 
 locality to trace it to a solitary individual, is a task which 
 apparently threatens to baffle the resources of human ingenuity. 
 INeveiiheless, it may be affected so as to yield a high degree of 
 probability. The writing is found to be quoted by an author 
 who lived w ithin four generations of the original reporter ; by 
 another who was separated from him but by three ; by a third 
 a generation higher ; till at length it is chased back to the 
 very confines of its own alleged period. The ascription of it 
 
RATIONALISM. 
 
 67 
 
 to the person whose name it bears appears to have been 
 general and public. And if wilh all this the entire character 
 of the work should remarkably coincide, there ensues a high 
 probability that it veritably contains the testimony which we 
 seek. 
 
 If, however, it should appear that the ecclesiastical writings 
 which we have called to our bar to establish this position are 
 themselves forgeries, their evidence becomes worthless, and 
 the correctness of our conclusion is once more thrown mlo 
 doubt. Hence the authority of these subordinate works 
 presents us still with a further series of investigations, each 
 of which must be conducted like that which 1 have sketched. 
 
 The conclusion, then, to which I would direct your attention 
 is this ; that though the doctrine of the scriptures may rest on 
 the inspiration of those who speak in them,— that inspiration 
 itself rests on a miracle ; that miracle on testimony ; the worth 
 of the testimony on the ability and veracity of the witness ; 
 and its very existence in our hands on the authenticity of a 
 document, which again rests on the genuineness of several 
 others. Each of these steps is but a human probability, ascer- 
 tained by the exercise of ordinary judgment, and possessing 
 whatever uncertainty results from the natural liability to err. 
 We have a concatenation of reasonings, principally historical, 
 whose last link is this golden one of inspiration, sustaining the 
 doctrine which we are required to embrace. But the gold, 
 however it may adorn, cannot strengthen the structure ; and 
 whatever instability may belong to the historical research at 
 one extremity, belongs equally to the tenet which is found in 
 the other. It is only by hiding in darkness the human poition 
 of the chain, that the careless observer is deluded into the 
 belief, that the alleged truth is linked securely to the throne 
 of God. 
 
 This process, then, yields no superhuman certainty with 
 which natural evidence cannot presume to contend ; but 
 simply one process of common inference, which there is no- 
 
RATIONALISM. 
 
 thing to prevent some other course of argument from encoun- 
 tering with possible success. A proposition may surely be so 
 absurd, so contradicted by physical and moral evidence around 
 us, so totally at variance with the analogy of nature, that the 
 reasonings by which it is disproved altogether exceed in force 
 those to which inspiration is confided. In Aict, it is absurd to 
 treat the proof of inspiration as complete till you have looked 
 into the interior of the doctrines which it teaches ; the internal 
 evidence may materially lessen the external, or even sweep 
 away its whole effect. It is useless to reiterate the statement, 
 you are setting up your fallible reason against divine attesta- 
 tion ; for the very existence of this attestation is nothing but a 
 deposition given in by human reason. The more you revile 
 the natural understanding, the more do you undermine the 
 proof of inspiration. It is a plain balance of evidence ; a 
 judgment respecting the probability of the doctrine, against 
 another judgment respecting the probability of the inspiration. 
 It is worthy of remark, that this appeal to the character of 
 tenets professing a divine origin is admitted, with the usual 
 theological justice, on the one side of the controversy, while it 
 is denied on the other. When a Christian advocate wishes to 
 prove the divinity of his religion he does not content himself 
 with the external proofs, but proceeds to make reference to 
 the doctrine so worthy of God, the morality so pure and sanc- 
 *^^y^"g» the views of human nature so just and elevated, the 
 hopes of futurity so rational and fitted to our nature, the de- 
 meanour of Christ so majestic and yet tender. In this he does 
 perfectly right ; and the argument is to my mind decisive. 
 But surely he here assumes, that the human understanding is 
 capable of perceiving the worth and tendency of Christian 
 doctrine, the adaptation to our wants of Christian hopes, the 
 dignity and excellence of Christian virtue. And when an 
 oj)ponent, following the same course, says, here is a notion 
 which is absurd and unreasonable — here a sentiment that 
 tends to evil — here a representation of God which violates the 
 
RATIONALISM. 69 
 
 analogies of nature, with what justice can the Christian turn 
 round and declaim against the weakness and presumption of 
 human reason and the depraved judgments of the human 
 heart ? 
 
 Tlie conclusions wiiich the foregoing reasoning aims to 
 establish are tlie following : that it is impossible to attain to 
 any conviction more than rational ; that there can exist no 
 obligation, moral or logical, to set aside the suggestions of the 
 understanding in obedience to external authority ; that no 
 seeming inspiration can establish anything contrary lo 
 reason ; that the last appeal, in all researches into religious 
 truth, must be to the judgments of the buman mind ; that 
 against these judgments scripture cannot have any authority, 
 for upon this authority they themselves decide. The rule is 
 unsound which require us, as soon as we have ascertained the 
 existence of a revelation, to confine ourselves to tbe office of 
 interpreters, and to yield implicit Aiith to the ideas, be they 
 what ihey may, which the record contains. Let us not fall 
 into a snare of words. The existence of a revelation cannot 
 be " ascertained,^'' except as a probability ; no force of exter- 
 nal proof can elevate it into a certainty, and plant it aloft 
 above the action of new evidence. If the rule in question is 
 of any value it goes this length ; that the feeblest balance of 
 external probability may overpower the weightiest prepon- 
 derance of internal improbability. Suppose that a work, 
 professing to contain a revelation, is placed in the hands of an 
 inquirer ; that he takes up the investigation of its claims ; 
 rises from the task persuaded that it is the authentic produc- 
 tion of men who gave evidence of honesty in their lives, and 
 of a divine commission in their miracles ; that he is conscious, 
 however, of great deficiencies in some poilions of the proof, 
 and great difficulties in others ; and that his judgment, alier 
 being long poised in uncertainty, finally sways, by a mere 
 atom of evidence, into assent. In this state of mind he 
 acknowledges the existence of the revelation, and is therefore 
 
70 RATIONALISM. 
 
 under an obligation, we are told, to receive, without canvassing, 
 all its contents. Suppose him, then, in interpreting the book, 
 to meet with such statements as these — " that God is a malig- 
 nant deslroyer, who will cause all things to issue in perfect 
 ill ; that man is infinitely hateful to his Creator, and to be 
 thrust through the grave into the dungeons of creation ; that 
 only the blood and agony of God can quench the fury of 
 Omnipotence, and lay its vengeance into the sleep of satiety ;" 
 — is the inquirer to bow before this, and ask no questions ? Is 
 a feather of historic evidence to weigh against this solid mass of 
 horrors? Or nmst he suspect his own first judgment in favour 
 of the revelation, seeing that it is opposed by another set of 
 judgments, respecting the character of God, and the constitution 
 and hopes of man ? Talk not of presumptuous confidence in 
 human reason. The inquirer has but this alternative ; he 
 must choose on which of two judgments he will rely, — 
 the historical on one side, the moral and philosophical on the 
 other : nor can this choice be made in any other way than 
 by eslimating the respective amounis of the conflicting forces. 
 In the place, therefore, of the rule, that having ascertained 
 the existence of revelation, we must believe all its con- 
 tents, may be substituted another ; that the credibility of the 
 conlenls must be examined before the existence of the revela- 
 tion can be ascertained. And since the probability that the 
 system is divine depends jointly on the external testimony of 
 the history, and the internal reasonableness of the doctrine, 
 no sentiment can be admitted as revealed, which is opposed 
 by a mass of pliilosophical evidence exceeding the documen- 
 tary proofs. 
 
 This principle, which vindicates the prerogative of reason to 
 apply ilself to the interior, as well as to the exterior, of reve- 
 lation, is properly described by (he word Rationalism : and 
 constitutes the only essential feature of the system of German 
 Theology which passes under that name. The other chief 
 peculiarity of the Rationalist interpreters, — by which almost 
 exclusively, from its startling character, they are known in this 
 
RATIONALITY. 7 1 
 
 country, — their anti-supernaturalism, is no necessary part of 
 their system, but an accidental accretion, hastily attached to 
 it in the exaggerating spirit of a new theory. It is an illogical 
 and mischievous application of the principle of rationalism, 
 for which that principle itself refuses to be responsible. That 
 no external testimony can establish a fact or a doctrine intrin- 
 sically absurd and incredible is a sound canon of evidence : 
 that a miracle is a thing thus absurd and incredible is a false 
 and rash assumption, — an assumption for w hich no ingenuity 
 has ever been able to procure the sanction of philosophy. 
 Were it true, Rationalism and Deism would mean the same 
 thing. Were it true, not only would Christianity instantly 
 descend to the level of human institutions, but even the fun- 
 damental princij)les of Theism could no longer be consistently 
 maintained. I do not indeed say, that no attempts should 
 be made to explain the alleged supernatural events of 
 scripture by the operation of natural causes : for every 
 record of a miracle, like every assertion of personal in- 
 spiration, really consists of two parts, — a statement of fact, 
 and a statement of opinion, — an account of the witness's sen- 
 sible impressions, and a reference of those impressions to a 
 direct volition of Deity as their cause. It is to the first 
 of these only that his testimony reaches, and for which his 
 veracity is guarantee ; his senses gave him, and their report 
 can give us, no perception of the heavenly antecedent ; the 
 miraculous effect of the occurrence arises, not from the 
 observed presence of extraordinary Divine agency, but from 
 the apparent absence of any other suflicient cause : it involves 
 therefore a process of inference ; and for us, no less than 
 the original observer, it remains to consider, whether the 
 phenomena are such as to demand a supernatural origin. But 
 should these attempts succeed in reducing the sources of our 
 religion to a series of common influences and events, the 
 Gospel falls : nor is there any intelligible sense in which one. 
 
72 RATIONALISM. 
 
 wlio lliinks lliat the preternatural may be thus banished from 
 t!ie birlli and infancy of our fiiitii, can continue to take the 
 name of ClnMslian."' Neither the first principle, then, of the 
 German Rationalists, that reason must judge of the contents 
 as well as ihe outward structure of revelation ; nor their 
 secondary rule, that the resources of natural causation must 
 be exhausted before recourse is had to the preternatural, 
 in the explanation of historical phenomena, can be proved 
 unsound. But they are exposed lo just animadversion, for 
 having preferred, by convulsive efforts of inlerprelation, to 
 compress the memoirs of Christ and his Apostles into the 
 dimensions of ordinary life, rather than admit the operation of 
 miracle on the one hand, or avow their abandonment of 
 (Ihrislianity on the other. The signal failure of the school of 
 interpreters who have sought to pare away the miraculous 
 from the New Testament, appears to have linally established 
 this positive result; that it is impossible at once to maintain 
 the veracity of the historians, and to exclude the supernatural 
 from the religion.* 
 
 Already the extravagances to which I have alluded, appear 
 10 have almost passed away from the country in which they 
 had their birth : and the true principle of Rationalism, of 
 which they were never legitimate productions, to be taking 
 a more sober direction, and elaborating more useful results. 
 It-s spirit has emancipated Germany from the intolerance of 
 Luther, while it has given new life to his law of liberty ; and 
 that country, which was the cradle of the Reformation, pro- 
 mises to be the first witness of its maturity. Refusing lo 
 dissociate philosophy and Christianity, its genius has seized 
 the glorious conception of a progressive religion, ever in 
 advance of the understastding, and dilating the heart of indivi- 
 dual man ; — presiding over the civilization, and guardian of 
 
 • On Ihe subject of this paragraph see (in the Appendix), a Letter from the 
 late Rev. J. Blanco White; aud compare the remarks in the Preface. 
 
ON RATIONALISM. 73 
 
 the order, of society. There, if anywhere, will be exhibited 
 that truly sublime slate of mind, faith — absolute faith — in 
 truth : and the great problem will be solved, how to combine 
 the freest intellect with the loftiest devotion ; — and while 
 inquiring always, to love and worship still.* 
 
 * This delineation of the spirit of an ideal church I still allow to stand. The 
 hope of its early realization in Germany, however, it seems impossible 
 longer to entertain. 
 
LECTURE Y. 
 
 RELATION OF NATUR.'AL RELIGION TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Romans i. "20. 
 
 THK INVISIBLE THINGS OF GOD FROM THE CREATION OF THE ^VORLD 
 ARE CLEARLY SEEN, BEING UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE 
 MADE, EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER AND DEITY. 
 
 Religion is the name of those ideas and feelings which the 
 Imman being entertains with respect to invisible and superior 
 natures ; and consists essentially in the conception of intelli- 
 gent mind, presiding over the departments of creation to which 
 the worshipper belongs. Among the disclosures which have 
 been the consequence of an extended knowledge of the surface 
 of the globe, those who esteem the faculties and character of 
 man a higher object of study than the rocks and vegetation of 
 the earth, will reckon not the least interesting the discovery 
 that the religious sentiment appears to be universal ; — per- 
 vading barbarous and cultivated life ; the forests of the West, 
 no less than the plains of the East; the unsettled tribes whose 
 history has not the memory of five hundred years, and the 
 venerable nation whose traditions perple.v us by their anti- 
 quity, whose primitive forms of civilization seem to have 
 become immutable, and whose ideas may be a wreck from the 
 faith of a still youthful world. The only instances in which 
 all notions of superhuman beings have been ascertained to be 
 absent, are the few in w Inch some member of our species lias 
 
RELATION OF NATURAL RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 75 
 
 been cul off from his own kind, and left in the self-dependence 
 of a briile existence ; as if the reljoious conceptions were the 
 birth of the social emotions, and the feelings of love and fear 
 nmsl train themselves with man before they can lake refuge with 
 God, and the faculties of our nature refused to unfold themselves 
 in any but that appointed order, in which self-regard mellows 
 into the sympathies of kindred and of kind, and tl/e blessed ties 
 of earth draw forth the affections to God. In savage races of 
 men whom our common heart of humanity bleeds to contem- 
 plate, whose ferocious passions and wretched condition have 
 obliterated the diviner lineaments of their nature, this is often 
 the redeeming point which brings us back to hope, the solitary 
 exercise of ideal power which persuades us that they have 
 something in common with ourselves ; we see them worship, 
 and know them to be men. The worship may be superstitious 
 and puerile, its creed may be false, its rites may be dark and 
 ibul: no matter— this is ignorance: the sentiment is there, 
 ready to attach itself to better ideas ; the feeling of awe, of 
 reverence, which, though it may crouch in terror before a 
 tyrant-spirit now, shall at length, when the understanding is 
 opened to a wider survey of creation, and the heart softened 
 by better emotion, and the moral sense capable of juster 
 estimates, erect itself into a dignified veneration, embodying 
 the conception of perfect excellence in the image of a Pater- 
 nal God. 
 
 Piel.gion, however, has a more extensive sense than when 
 applied to denote our perception of Deity. It includes under 
 it many, and indeed all, subjects of thought which present 
 themselves to our mind in close association with the idea of 
 God. There are certain portions of time, both past and 
 future, there are certain localities, there are certain events, 
 our conceptions of which are held to be a part of our religion ; 
 nor IS there any other reason for their being thus singled out 
 from other periods, and [)laces, and transactions, than thai 
 they are blended closely with the thought of the Grealor. Our 
 
 E^2 
 
lb RELATION OF NATURAL 
 
 anticipations of immortalily are a part of our religion ; because 
 ihougli every portion of the future is equally replete with the 
 energy of the Infinite Will, and every allotment of this world, 
 no less than of the next, is the decree of His providence, and 
 his presence is as actual to-day and to-morrow as in eternity, 
 — our imaginations enthrone him peculiarly in the ages be- 
 yond the grave, and think of him as perceptibly presiding over 
 their vicissitudes. Our retrospect of the birth of Christianity 
 is a part of our religion ; not that, in truth, God had any less 
 concern with other portions of the world's history than with that, 
 or planned them with less wisdom, or turned them into realities 
 with less beneficence ; for he was good when he gave men the 
 virtue of Socrates, and the genius of Plato, and the discoveries 
 of Newton, as well as when he inspired the soul and published 
 the miracles of Christ ; but simply because we are more dis- 
 tinctly conscious of the Divine benignity, and more fully 
 realize his positive intention, in the glad tidings of the Gospel, 
 than in the other voices, glad no less could we interpret them, 
 which history sends forth. Our memory of Christ, and con- 
 ception of his character are part of our religion ; — of ours, 
 who do not regard him as invested with the attributes of 
 Deity, but clothed with the perfection of humanity, and who 
 might therefore be expected to place our connection with him 
 among our social rather than devotional relations, and to 
 render him emotions rather human than holy. But though, 
 in strictness of philosophy, every human being is, in common 
 with Christ, sent forth on a mission by Providence, and placed 
 in his position, and endowed with his qualities of mind and 
 heart, that he may perform his part in the scheme of the 
 Universal Ruler, and help forward the tide of tendencies to 
 its great issues of good ; yet the Divine origin of Christ's 
 office is so singularly conspicuous, his miracles, emblems of 
 power over creation, his character, pure reflection of the 
 spirit of God's administration, so urge us to regard him as 
 the special gift and representative of Deity, that our reverence 
 
RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 77 
 
 passes the limits of social veneration, lifts our hearts to the 
 Parent Mind, and mingles an affectionate sentiment of 
 humanity with our prayers. By a similar association even a 
 part of our geography is transmuted into religion ; and there 
 is a land which we call the Holy Land ; we scarcely think of 
 it as of oilier regions of the globe, or ascribe to its mountains, 
 and lakes, and rivers, the material reality of Snowdon, and 
 Grassmere, and the Thames ; it is enveloped with a visionary 
 lififht, and seems to be bevond and above the circuit of this 
 familiar map of earth and waters. Yet it is not that God was 
 there, any more than in Athens or in Rome ; or that his step 
 was on its hills, more than on the unconsecrated heights of 
 Alps or Andes ; or his terror in its whirlwinds, more than in 
 the sweep of the lonely Atlantic ere Columbus had explored 
 its ways ; or his voice in its atmosphere, more than in the 
 breeze which moans in the forests of the new world : but only 
 that our minds can belter interpret the vicissitudes of Palestine 
 into acts of God, and feel the appeal to gratitude and devotion 
 in the blessings which have radiated from that spot. Religion, 
 tlien, is the name for every subject of contemplation which 
 vividly suggests the idea of God. This association makes place 
 and time, and history, memory, and hope, into religion. And 
 if our sentiment of religion be not universal, attached to every 
 thing of which we think, if it singles out peculiarly one train 
 of events, and one class of objects, as its exclusive receptacles, 
 this must be ascribed not to our wisdom, but our ignorance, 
 not to our piety, but our indevoulness, not to our expansion 
 of mind, but its contraction. We see God some where, because 
 we are incapable of tracing him every where. 
 
 Revealed Religion comprises the ideas of God derived from 
 the Bible, considered as the record of a supernatural Provi- 
 dence. It is the name for the notions and feelings suggested 
 by a line of Hebrew history, from the [iatriarchal age to the 
 death of the last Apostle. 
 
 Natural religion comprises the ideas of God, derived from 
 
78 . RELATION OF NATURAL 
 
 every other quarter. It is the name for the notions and feel- 
 ings suggested by every other thread of history found among 
 the community of nations, or by the evolutions of the material 
 universe ; or by the objects, as well as the events^ of creation, 
 the structures of organized beings, and the mental and moral 
 constitution of man. 
 
 The former of these is obviously much the smaller of the 
 two sources of religion ; it embraces only one of the innume- 
 rable trains of occurrences in the world's history. It is, 
 however, copiously instructive ; for it contains that set of 
 events which Cod puis forth for the special purposes of in- 
 struction, — I mean, miracles. It is a peculiarity and an in- 
 firmity of our nature, an infirmity not to be overcome without 
 considerable effort of reflection, that only unusual and startling 
 phenomena seem to be of divine origination, and expressive of 
 the divine character and will. When, therefore, he who im- 
 planted in us this tendency acts miraculously, i. e. unusually, 
 he knows, and therefore designs, that we shall ascribe the 
 event emphatically to him ; he issues it as an expository fact ; 
 as indicative of the character which we are to attribute to 
 him. It is a selected lesson, a special example, for the child 
 who is generally too inattentive to his parent's conduct to 
 gather from it the sentiment of reverence and the principles 
 of duly. But surely it is not to be received as a prohibition, but 
 rather as an incentive, to the study of his ordinary administra- 
 tion. When the Almighty Father awakens us with an unex- 
 pected expression of his character, it is that we may seek the 
 traces of that character wherever it is less startlingly im- 
 pressed, and understand and interpret the government under 
 which we live. W hen he scatters to the winds the doubts of 
 materialism, and rends with the flash of life ihe scorn of the 
 misanthropist, and snatches the Christ from the grave, and 
 through a host of impossibilities at which philosophy had 
 shaken the head in sadness, bears him visibly to the immortal 
 land, it is that we may go in quest of other pointings to futurity, 
 
RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 79 
 
 and explain the scenes of earthly life afresh, and discern the 
 prospective attitude of providence in the wants and capacities 
 of our nature, in the progress of our kind, in the sorrows and 
 inequalities of our mortality. Revealed religion is not an 
 interdict from the study of natural, but an invitation to it. 
 
 It is a noble testimony to the impression which the order 
 of creation is calculated to produce, that those who have un- 
 derstood it most profoundly have had the loftiest appreciation 
 of the religion of nature. Some, indeed, there are in the 
 catalogue of philosophers (such was La Place) who despised 
 all religion from whatever source derived ; who became so 
 enamoured of mechanism, that it haunted their understand- 
 ings and drove out the higher perceptions of intellectual and 
 moral relations ; who had so habitually paced in the solid 
 steps of material causation, that the agency of anything so 
 impalpable as mind seemed like a phantom of superstition ; 
 who, having persuaded themselves by physiological specula- 
 lion that their own souls were but an organism, and thought 
 an ether, and feeling a fluid, reduced God to universal gravita- 
 tion, and Providence to an all-pervading electricity. But 
 those men of science, who have possessed any sense of religion, 
 have, in the most distinguished instances, yielded their 
 reverence to the teachings of nature. Why need I go for ex- 
 amples beyond the most familiar names of our own country? 
 Locke, the father of modern intellectual philosophy, while he 
 was also one of the most successful elucidators of Christianity, 
 recognised the impress of divine wisdom in that human under- 
 standing whose mysteries he interpreted ; in the process by 
 which the infant's senses grow into the soul of man, and from 
 the rude materials of our early experience arise the subtile and 
 symmetrical order of the cultivated mind, he beheld the 
 spiritual architecture of God ; in the laws of intellect he 
 traced intelligence, and detected a divine thinker in the 
 powers of thought. And is it not a noble thing, when Newton 
 in his immortal work has led you through the travels of his 
 
80 RELATION OF NATURAL 
 
 patient and mighty thought, when, with wise precaution, hav- 
 ing firmly fastened his thread of calculation on the globe he 
 goes with it to the moon, and paces with you the solar tracks 
 from planet to planet, and toils in the twilight confines of the 
 system, till he has twined a web of beautiful relations around 
 all, embracing earth and ocean, and suns and satellites, as 
 in a tissue of light, which links and illuminates at once; 
 when he has reached the limits of finite magnificence, and 
 amid the scene of material sublimity stands, himself the sub- 
 limest object, as the emblem of godlike intellect : is it not a 
 noble thing to see him at last burst into the infinite, and 
 kneel?! 
 
 While philosophers have attached themselves specially to 
 natural religion (with a profound love however, in the cases 
 I have mentioned, to Christianity), divines, for the most part, 
 have had an exclusive appreciation of the Gospel. Their faith 
 and piety have adverted only to those expressions of divine 
 character with which they were specially familiar, the history 
 and teachings of Christ and the Apostles. The natural con- 
 clusion from this would surely be, that from each class of 
 God's operations, the miraculous or the natural, might the 
 feelings of trust and devotion flow ; that those who looked 
 most closely into either saw there the greater indication of 
 the qualities that call forth reverence ; that the Providence of 
 God is beneficent in giving us both, in order that, the one 
 having illustrated the other, the ditferent wants of different 
 minds may find a suitable supply ; and that as the emotion, 
 the state of affection, is the needful thing, it matters not from 
 from which quarter it has its derivation, provided it really 
 exists in vividness and power. 
 
 But the orthodox divine will not hear of this. He sneers 
 at all natural religion, as not of the " vital " sort, treats it as 
 a delusion of his arch enemy, Reason, and with the air of 
 the Pharisee, calls it pride. His most moderate assertion is, 
 that it is ivorthless. If asked ivhi/, he will say perhaps first, 
 
RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 81 
 
 because the teachings of nature are so uncertain, that it is 
 impossible to learn anything satisfactory from them. Next 
 press upon him this question ; if a man liappens not to think 
 these things uncertain, and draws from them a faith highly 
 satisfactory to his own mind, if he takes from them the very 
 same views of the divine character and a future life, which 
 many Christians take from the scriptures, is that man's reli- 
 gion worthless ? He will at length come to the point and say, 
 that in all this there is no saving faith, and that everything is 
 useless, if there be not faith in the atoning sacrifice. It is 
 not without example for theologians to go beyond this assertion 
 of inutility, and to pronounce " ynere naturalism,'^ as they 
 term it, positively pernicious. Give me, they exclaim, for a 
 pupil the sheer, blank Atheist ; and away with the mischievous 
 sentimentalism of natural piety.^ 
 
 We cannot meet these assertions respecting the worthless- 
 ness or even mischief of natural religion, without adverting to 
 the question, in what consists the value of religion ? how- does 
 it benefit us ? To this there are two answ ers. 
 
 The prevailing notion is, that a certain state of mind, belief 
 in the vicarious merits of Christ, directly procures eternal life, 
 and transfers the destination of the possessor from hell to 
 heaven. No relation of cause and effect can be discovered 
 between the condition and the consequence, the faith and the 
 reward. Why the sanguinary sacrifice is to benefit only those 
 who are aware of it, why God restricts his salvation to those 
 who have a perception of his method in accomplishing it, why 
 this unintelligible crime, of not seeing the atonement, happens 
 to be the only sin for which there is no atonement, it is im- 
 possible to say. We are only told that the wrath of God rests 
 upon it ; and that the single act of faith, that one conjunction 
 of ideas in the mind of the worshipper, dissipates the cloud 
 of divine anger, and draws down the smile of heaven. The 
 agency then of this kind of religion is upon the mind of God, 
 and it operates as a charm, without any perceptible causation, 
 
 e5 
 
82 DELATION OF NATURAL 
 
 but mysteriously and magically. The moment we have 
 possessed ourselves of this wonderful belief, we carry about 
 with us a spell, which renders us invulnerable by the ills 
 of futurity. 
 
 The other view of the value and influence of religion sup- 
 poses it to act, not on the mind of God, but on the character 
 of man ; and conceives it to be essential to the loftiness, re- 
 finement, and energy of that character. Religion may be 
 regarded as a form of truth, the reception of which is requi- 
 site lo the progress of the human intellect ; it unfolds relations 
 the most majestic, blending the past, the present, and the 
 future, in one sublime and harmonious plan, and making the 
 material and the visible, but the vestibule to the spiritual and 
 the unseen ; and the understanding which embraces not these 
 relations is destitute of the conceptions which inspire and 
 expand it most. Religion may be regarded as a fonn of 
 emotion, the experience of which is needful to the powerful 
 action of human affections ; it adds the element of infinitude 
 to the objects of love, and trust, and hope, and dignifies the 
 tenderness of our nature, and deepens its tones of reverence, 
 and imparts to it that serenity of power which descends, 
 wherever mighty expectations look down on the pleasures and 
 sufferings of the present hour. Religion may be regarded as 
 a jn-mciple of duty, the operation of which is indispensable 
 to the supremacy of the sense of right ; it tempts the moral 
 sentiments for ever to aspire, leads the mind to adore goodness 
 under the name of God ; plants the will on a stage of action, 
 which throws contempt on all littleness of aim, and spreads 
 around it a silent canopy of lofty desires, quenchless and 
 eternal as the heavens. In this view, religion is simply a 
 part of the development of our mental and moral nature, the 
 last and noblest exercise of reason, and love, and conscience. 
 It is conducive and essential to our happiness hereafter, pre- 
 cisely as it is needful to our happiness here, because without 
 it we are bereft of the most blessed portion of our being, 
 
RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 85 
 
 llie highest knowledge and noblest synipatliies. It saves us 
 by improving us ; by rescuing us from the tyranny of low 
 desires, and calling down upon us the peace of a well-ordered 
 nature, which is the peace of God. It saves us, as the slave 
 of animal passions is saved, when he is inspired with the new 
 love of intellectual pleasures ; as the selfish heart is saved, 
 when melted at length by some affectionate delight, and 
 glowing from the first effort of disinterested will ; as the 
 creature of irregular impulse is saved, when the sense of 
 responsibility awakens and begins to set all things in order, 
 and the principles of right are consulted instead of the gushes 
 of feeling, and a thoughtful reverence for human happiness 
 succeeds to the chance triumphs of generosity. It saves us, 
 by enabling us to fulfil the purposes of our being ; not by 
 adding one department of knowledge to our attainment, or a 
 detached principle to our character ; but by pervading the 
 whole mind and heart, as the universe is pervaded by God 
 himself; ordering and exalting everything ; and silently con- 
 ducting the evolutions of our entire nature with harmony, 
 power, and precision. 
 
 Now, if the value of religion is of the former kinJ, and 
 consists in the belief of the merits of Ghrisl's blood acting as 
 a charm on the mind of Deity, of course natural religion, 
 being destitute of this belief, must be useless ; though still it 
 is ditficult to see how it can be pernicious. If, on the other 
 hand, the value of religion consists in its elevating influence 
 on human character, it cannot matter whether its fliith and 
 feelings are suggested by nature or by scripture, provided the 
 essential instruments of influence are lliere. And if two 
 minds possess the same strength of belief in a perfect God, a 
 universal Providence, and human immortality, and the one has 
 derived his faith from scripture, the other from observation 
 of creation and life, those mhidsare in stales equally eligible. 
 
 Stili the question is unanswered why the orthodox often treat 
 natural religion not simply as useless, but as absolutely perni- 
 
84- RELATION OF NATURAL 
 
 cious. The reason, 1 apprehend, is ihat it indisposes the mind 
 lo make use of their charm. Not only is it empty of it, but 
 it is found by experience to be positively opposed to it. Most 
 of those who have entertained a high respect for natural 
 religion have been heterodox in their Christian theology. 
 Clarke, the representative of the metaphysical school of writers 
 on natural theology, was an Arian, and therefore without 
 belief in the Infinite sacrifice ; Paley, the representative of the 
 practical school, was avowedly a Conformist from poverty, not 
 from principle. Locke maintained that no seeming revelation 
 could render anything credible that is not reasonable. Newton 
 is known to have been infected by the Unitarian heresy. All 
 this experience proves, that w herever the habit and the taste 
 have been acquired, of exercising the reason on the moral and 
 religious relations of the human being, the saving faith loses 
 its chances of acceptance ; that the evidence of nature cannot 
 be made to succumb before fancied essentials of scripture ; 
 and that, with whatever ingenuity and sincerity inspiration 
 may be called in to thrust back the encroachments of the 
 understanding, the result in the long run of any competition 
 with the natural reason of mankind will inevitably be defeat. 
 It is the intuitive perception of this danger, the consciousness 
 that their favourite spell of belief in the vicarious merits of 
 Christ is contradicted by the analogy of nature, and will give 
 way before that contradiction, which determines the orthodox 
 to cry down the religion derived by the natural mind from the 
 common works and ways of God. If nature be not stifled, 
 their faith is gone. 
 
 This contradiction of our creed by our natural judgments is 
 indeed frequently acknowledged, and is set dow n to the score of 
 human corruption and fallibility. This appeal was discussed 
 in my last Lecture ; and it was shown that, as inspiration 
 itself is a probability resting on our judgment, it can never 
 prove anything which, on the evidence of a yet higher proba- 
 bility, that judgment deems false. Whenever, therefore, a 
 
RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 85 
 
 contradiction lakes place between the attestation of nature and 
 that of scripture, the opposite evidences must be weighed, and 
 llie decision given, wherever the preponderance lies. 
 
 On which side, in the present instance, the preponderance 
 lies, it is astonishing that any one can even pause to consider. 
 If Christianity really staked every one's eternal happiness on 
 his belief of a sacrifice for sin, which, according to the un- 
 perverted moral feelings of nine people out of ten, would itself 
 be the most gigantic of all sins, no evidence that can be con- 
 ceived, far less any that exists, could render Christianifv 
 credible. That God should make any form of opinion, even 
 the most reasonable, a condition of immortal well-being, that 
 he should seek to persuade us by brandishing terrors in our 
 view, would imply such an ignorance of our nature, such a 
 poverty of reason, such a confusion of the functions of the 
 understanding and the will, such a barbaric exercise of sheer 
 power, that in proportion as we ascribe to him the attributes 
 of wisdom and of goodness, we shall feel it to be impossible. 
 And that he should select for his condition of salvation a 
 doctrine which is not only unsupported by any analogy of 
 nature, but absolutely contradicted by all ; which is metaphy- 
 sically absurd, for guilt and innocence are no more trans- 
 lierable than intellect or eyesight ; which is morally absurd, 
 for it represents Christ as crucified undei' remorse for the sins 
 of men, which he never committed, and of which therefore he 
 had neither memory nor consciousness ; which denies the 
 moral excellence of God, for it represents him as conferring 
 boundless blessedness on the wicked, and venting the tempest 
 of infinite vengeance on spotless innocence, — precisely the 
 most shocking crime which our imaginations can invent ; — 
 that God should choose this faith as the only access to his 
 mercy, may be admitted when language ceases to have mean- 
 ing, and reason abdicates its seat. Such a doctrine would 
 weigh down, by its internal incredibility, the whole mass of ex- 
 ternal evidence by which a revelation could be supported. 
 
86 RELATION OF NATURAL 
 
 And easy indeed would be the triumph of the opponents of 
 the Gospel, had ihey this lever with which to upset its 
 truth. 
 
 Natural religion, then, cannot be objected to, on the ground 
 that it indisposes us to receive the su])posed point of saving 
 faith ; for if Christianity demands the faith (which it does 
 not), Christianity is false, and the demand may be neglected ; 
 and if it does not, its feelings and requirements cease to be at 
 variance with the dictates of natural piety. 
 
 Revelation, then, is not a contradiction to the great princi- 
 ples of natural religion ; this would destroy its evidence. 
 Neither is it a mere record of them ; this would render it 
 useless. The true light in which to regard it is, that it is an 
 assumption of some, and an anticipation or confirmation of 
 others. 
 
 I say, it is an assumption of some. It does not prove, it 
 takes for granted, the grand fundamental principles ofTheisni, 
 that there is a God, and that he is one. Little reflection is 
 needed to convince any one that of these the scriptures do 
 not, and could not, offer any evidence. In order to perceive 
 this, conceive a mind to be destitute of these ideas, and im- 
 mersed in Atheism ; and suppose a revelation to be presented 
 to it. The communication must be guaranteed by miracle ; 
 but what is miracle to one who has no previous conception of 
 a God? It is but a strange and curious fact, no more suggest- 
 ing to his thought any religious ideas, than if water were to 
 freeze on his fire, or a tree of his garden to blossom in the 
 frost. It would imply, indeed, some power in nature with 
 which he was not familiar ; but that that power was an intelli- 
 gent will, and not rather a mechanical force, could not 
 possibly be inferred by him. It would teach him that there 
 was something hidden, but would only drive him lo hisexperi- 
 menls again to discover in what region of science it lurked. 
 A miracle, indeed, simply as miracle, is a memento, not a 
 proof, of God ; for the existence of mind is to be evidenced. 
 
RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 87 
 
 not by displays of power, but by syiiiploms of design. And 
 that the Unity of the Deity cannot be established by miracle 
 is no less certain. For supernatural facts might exist where 
 there is a multitude of supernatural powers, wiih at least as 
 great probability as where there is but one. Of these two 
 trntiis, then, revelation presupposes us to be possessed. It 
 relies upon their recognition by our minds ; it appeals lo their 
 power over our thoughts. And thus the very existence of 
 I'evelation is a solemn sanction to the sublime and simple 
 elements of natural religion ; it proclaims us competent U) 
 their discovery ; it invites us to ascertain and trust their 
 truth. 
 
 And while I admit, and indeed earnestly maintain, that to 
 Christianity we are indebted for the knowledge at an early 
 period, and the diffusion, by the power of its authority through 
 myriads of minds, otherwise unreclaimed, of all the other 
 gi-eat principles of religion ; — though the blessed failh in a 
 universal providence would not, I believe, have descended 
 from the inaccessible heights of a few philosophical minds, 
 had not Christ told us of Him that paints the lilies of the field, 
 and watches the sparrow as it fails ; — though the inspiring 
 anticipation of immortality would not have penetrated the 
 heart of society, and illumined the recesses of misery, and 
 nerved the arm of virtue, had not Christ achieved the triunjph 
 of the tomb ; still, acknow ledging the Cospel to be the record, 
 the register of sacred truths, I cannot forget that creation is 
 the scene of their exhibition, the residence of the reality. 
 God's name is in the Bible ; his presence is in the world. 
 Inspiration speaks of his power ; creation exemplifies it. 
 Sacred men declare his wisdom ; a more sacred universe dis- 
 plays it. In the delicate organisms of the animal world, 
 whose variety outnumbers our com[)Utation ; in the earth, 
 which is prepared for their habitation, — its parts no less 
 various than they ; in the relations which unite their instincts 
 with its changes of light and darkness and heat and cold ; in 
 
88 RELATION OF NATURAL RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tliat most wonderful model of sentient being, perceiving, 
 reflecting, feeling, and prospective man ; in the process by 
 which lie passes from the animal into the reasoning creature, 
 from the sellish to the afiectionate, from the mechanical to 
 the responsible, from the earthly almost to the divine ; in the 
 knowledge which enraptures his intellect, and the ties which 
 capture his affections, and the hopes which cheer his griefs ; 
 does that goodness of God act of which Prophets and Apostles 
 speak. And in the history of nations, in their birth from 
 barbaric elements, but tendencies to progressive civilization ; 
 in the successive encroachments of arts on arms, and reason on 
 force, and the welfare of the many on the interests of the few ; 
 in the mighty agencies by which tyranny is made to quail, 
 and superstition beaten back in its triumph, and ignorance 
 driven from its throne ; in the raising up of gifted individual 
 minds, and the adaptation of their genius and their characters 
 to the wants of their generation ; in the creation of a Luther 
 to shake the sleep of corruption by the thunder of his voice ; 
 of a Washington, endowed with the imperturbable patience 
 and disinterested wisdom needful to baffle the will and disap- 
 point the arts of practised oppressors, and generate, by the 
 force of pertinacity, the liberty of a new w orld ; of a Scott or 
 a Wordsworth, commissioned to refresh a people's heart with 
 the sympathies of the past and the humanities of the present, 
 and soothe the impatience for things yet to be, by drawing 
 forth the beauty of what has been and what is, and thus 
 breathe the spirit of reverence over the spirit of improvement, 
 we behold the real and living operation of that Providence 
 of which Christ was the proclaimer and the impersonation. 
 And in the quenchless capacities of human nature, in the 
 aspiring of its understanding, in the peace of virtue, in the 
 terrors of sin that cannot stand the calm gaze of God, we see 
 the predictions which life gives of immortality, the signatures 
 which our Creator has impressed on our constitution, of his 
 glorious intentions, and our eternal progress. 
 
LECTUKE YI 
 
 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON MOR^LIIT AND 
 CIVILIZATION. 
 
 John i. 17. 
 grace and truth came hy jesus christ. 
 
 During eighteen centuries of very various history, the ex- 
 periment of Christianity must be regarded as having been 
 fairly tried. Sixty successive generations and a multitude of 
 contemporaneous tribes have been educated under its in- 
 lluence, constituting no trivial proportion of the present 
 population, and the past duration of the world. No one, 
 indeed, can look at the vast portions of mankind yet unre- 
 claimed by its power, or reflect what a mere point two decades 
 of ages may be in the whole range of providential design, 
 without being prepared for new and startling developments of 
 this religion, as it falls upon modifications of character which 
 it has never tried, and conditions of society yet uncreated. 
 Still, however large a future history may be in reserve for our 
 religion, it is not to be doubled that already ils prevailing 
 tendencies, its most potent energies must have betrayed them- 
 selves ; its mission can no longer be a secret, nor all that it 
 has yet accomplished be regarded as its mere preliminaries. 
 Whatever it has effected, it must have been designed to 
 
90 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 effect : in llie providence of God, llie contemplated can be no 
 other than tlie actual result. And from the new elements 
 which Christianity has introduced into the history of the 
 world, from its past operation on the intellect and affections of 
 individual men, and the social spirit and institutions of com- 
 munities, we may learn what is the errand on which it is 
 sent, and the influences which it is its essential function to 
 exert. 
 
 To determine, however, what our religion really has effected 
 in the world is a task of no ordinary difficulty. Every one 
 can point, no doubt, to the external and material changes 
 which it has introduced into human life, — tlie alterations in 
 the forms and habits of society. And were an ancient Greek 
 to be reborn in modern England, his eye would fix at once on 
 the Gothic cathedral, replacing the graceful fanes of his own 
 land. He would be struck with the sequestration of one day 
 in seven from the vulgar pursuits of gain and of ambition, and 
 the cheerful summons of the Sabbath bell, and the decent 
 throng of all social orders to one spot, not for the amusement 
 of the theatre, or the excitement of the games, but the simpler 
 ends of instruction and of prayer. He would notice the 
 altered character of our anniversaries, nor deny that our rites 
 of Christmas are not less graceful and attractive than the 
 festive days of gayer Athens. But into the system of feelings 
 and ideas of which these outward changes are the fruit, it 
 would be long before he could obtain an insight. That the 
 dim and mystic perspective of the minster is the symbol of a 
 solemn and aspiring devotion, heaving beneath the weighty 
 conceptions of infinitude and eternity ; that the Sunday 
 worship is in memory of universal providence and in an- 
 ticipation of a perpetual life ; that the warm greetings of this 
 season * are but the recognition of human brotherhood, and 
 its branch of winter green the emblem of life in death, and 
 
 * This lecture was delivered on the Sunday after Christmas day. 
 
ON MORALITY AND nVILlZATiON. 91 
 
 the joyous gathering of fiimiles about the hearth the picture of 
 llie great reunion in heaven ; these interpretations of our social 
 Ibrms would present themselves, only after he had acquired a 
 sympathy with the secret spirit of the scene amid which he is 
 thrown. Moreover, even feelings and ideas which appear in 
 intimate union with modern religion, are not always to be 
 ascribed to Christianity. For the Gospel must be modified 
 by the slate of the minds that receive it ; it does not annihi- 
 late their prejudices, their passions, their philosophy ; it does 
 not cancel the tendencies of individual organization, of country, 
 or of class ; it does not suspend the agency of those moral and 
 political causes which form the character of nations. Super- 
 induced upon all these, it becomes amalgamated with them, 
 and contributes its share, often separately indistinguishable, to 
 the production of new thoughts and emotions. There is but 
 one way of determining what particular features of our morality 
 and civilization are to be ascribed to the Gospel. We must 
 apply the tests of pennanence and universality : the notions 
 and practices which have attached themselves only to one age 
 or country must be cast aside as casual and accidental,- belong- 
 ing not to Christianity, but to the minds that received it. 
 But those great universal peculiarities of thought and action 
 which have either been constant companions of its spread, 
 travelling with it from land to land, bursting forth alike in 
 barbarism and in civilization, denizens of the East and of the 
 West, common to the free and the enthralled, — or have 
 never long been absent from its presence, as if incapable of 
 separation, and waiting ever to obey its voice of recall ; — these 
 sentiments, if we can find such, may be fixed upon as the 
 staple wealth of Christianity, — the central and indestructible 
 ideas which God sent it forth to preach to the common heart 
 of humanity. Conceive, I hen, the several pupils of Christianity, 
 however various, to be collected into one spot ; let a vast 
 assembly be formed, with a representative from every school, 
 every period, and every clime ; let the voluptuous Asiatic 
 
92 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 come, whom the Gospel turned from luxury of tlie senses to 
 luxury of soul, and who mused on the Invisible beneath the 
 dreamy starlight of his native plains : let the degenerate Roman 
 come, whose sterner qualities were kindled again by the 
 power of the new faith, whose departed patriotism it inspired 
 again with the love of a better country, and whose heroism it 
 revived in the form of martyrdom ; let the Northern chieftain 
 come, in whom the peaceful Gospel is tinged with blood from 
 his own passions, — who tramples on nations in the name of 
 Christ, and in the wilderness he makes, uplifts his savage 
 hands in prayer, and thinks his Christian veneration adequately 
 proved, if, when he overwhelms the temple, he spares the 
 church, and protects the Christian pastor, while he murders 
 the Pagan priest : let the pilgrim come, who seeks relief from 
 the burden of his sin in the toil of travel, and the outbreak of 
 local veneration at the sepulchre of the crucified : let the feudal 
 baron come, whose piety appeared chiefly in devout l)equesls ; 
 the indolent anchorite of Egypt, with the stirring reformer of 
 Germany ; the gay Cistercian with the stern Puritan : let all 
 appear in one motley multitude to tell their story, and exhibit 
 their type of the Gospel ; and when all are severally disrobed 
 of their peculiar costume of mind, whatever common features 
 of character and colours of sentiment remain still visible in 
 all, must be pronounced essentially characteristic of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 One of the universal sentiments which Christianity has 
 deeply imbedded in the human heart is that of the natural 
 equality of men. I mean by this phrase to describe, not the 
 metaphysical doctrine (which is false) that all men are born 
 with the same intellectual and moral aptitudes; nor the econo- 
 mical doctrine (which is equally false) that all men should 
 possess an equal amount of property; nor the political doctrine 
 (which can rarely be true) that all men should be invested 
 with the same civil privileges ; but the religious doctrine, that 
 all are of one blood, children of One Father, protected by 
 
ON MORALITY AND CIVILIZATION. 93 
 
 One Providence, and, consciously or unconsciously, appointed 
 to one life eternal. This truth, sublime in its simplicity, has 
 through the agency of Christianity, taken deep root in human 
 nature. It is easy indeed for the misanthropic student of 
 history (who is always its superficial reader) to produce a 
 long catalogue of crimes, which appears to throw contempt 
 upon this sentiment. He may point to slavery, — to the sale 
 of human life as a commodity, — to the barter for gold of the 
 volitions of a responsible being, in every age of Christendom, 
 from the downfall of Rome to the present disorders of the 
 American Republic ; to the long degradation of the feebler 
 half of the human race ; to the serfs of the middle ages, 
 doomed to be the labouring cattle of the soil ; to the poor of 
 all times, contemplated by other classes in the spirit of insult 
 or the pride of neglect ; their passions plied by politicians, 
 their superstitions amused by priests, their industry' taxed, 
 their minds darkened, their bodies mowed down in the war 
 of tyrants. Yet with all these things in full view, and with 
 the biting sense of shame which they fix upon one's human 
 heart, it is only truth to say, that the faith in the brotherhood 
 of men has never died out since Christianity came in. Nor 
 has it been powerless against oppression, though the oppressor 
 himself has sometimes pressed it into his service, and pro- 
 faned it into an argument for passive submission to wrong. 
 The rich and great have sent their smooth-tongued priest to 
 the hovels of the friendless, to preach the lessons of content ; 
 when extortion has made them poor in substance, to persuade 
 them that they are rich in faith ; w hen the unequal hand of 
 man is crushing them, to tell ihem of the equal eye of God 
 that is over all ; when the earth has been turned before them 
 into a desert, to keep them quiet by promising the Paradise 
 of Heaven. The most depressed and ignorant can see through 
 the sophistry of this insult ; they speedily discover, that the 
 natural use of this argument is as a two-edged sword against 
 the oppression which vainly strives to wield it. If all men 
 
9-4 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 bear the same relation to God in l)eaven, where is the tyrant's 
 title to claim the liomage of a God on eartli ? If all are ac- 
 countable to the tribunal above, shall he mock at the obligation 
 to do justice and love mercy? If the earth in its length and 
 breadth be gifted with fertility and decked with beauty for 
 the sake of all, who can wrest from labour its rewards, but 
 the offender against the impartiality of Providence? If the 
 great elements of humanity, the senses which link us with the 
 outward world, and ties which bind us to our kind, and the 
 understanding which thinks, and the heart that bleeds for 
 suffering, and the hope that aspires to God, be the heritage 
 of every soul, where can be the justice of the social position 
 which debases them all, and obliterates every trace of a 
 diviner nature? And, since the Gospel was preached, this 
 mode of reasoning has from time to time broken out, to the 
 great terror of evil doers, and the great progress of human 
 liberty. It has been incapable indeed of preventing the 
 wrongs of power ; but it has pressed, as an elastic force 
 against them, and placed a limit to their violence. For, the 
 advantage of trjie and noble principles does not vanish, even 
 when all sincere assent to them seems to be gone ; there is a 
 distance beyond which the practice of men cannot dej>arl from 
 their professions ; there is a point at which the perception of 
 inconsistency bursts into shame in the agent, and indignation 
 in the observer ; a reformation is demanded ; a leturn to first 
 principles proclaimed; and the resistless fiat of the public 
 conscience makes all things new. The great princij)le of 
 natural equality, has always had strong attractions for the 
 human heart ; it has lurked in almost evei-y struggle by w hich 
 the progress of European society has been advanced ; it has 
 breathed a spirit of dignity, and a lofty energy of principle 
 into the contlicts of class after class for social emancipation, 
 and turned them into a competition of moral with physical 
 force. No sooner had Christianity fairly pervaded the Roman 
 entpire, than uneasiness was felt respecting the disposition of 
 
ON MORALITY AND CIVILIZATION. 9o 
 
 the slaves. They seized with eagerness on the new faith ; at 
 its invitation tliey ceased to be outcasts ; they lost the passive- 
 ness of mere property; they rose to the dignity of a responsible 
 existence, and assumed its heritage of feelings, and desires, and 
 volitions ; they fell the ties that bound them to their race, 
 and were warmed by the sympathies of fellowship : publicly 
 scorned in the world, in the secret worship of the church 
 they received the honour due to all men ; suspected in all 
 things else, they were proud to be trusted with the persecuted 
 Christians' oath of mutual lidelity ; denied the citizenship of 
 Rome, they loved the citizenship of ftiith ; without a country 
 on the earth, the brethren in Christ became their countrymen, 
 and the altar their domestic hearth. They rose into the hu- 
 manities of existence, and became dangerous to those who 
 lived on its inhumanities ; they acquired a conscience, and 
 were from that moment terrible ; they learned the idea of 
 duty, w hich borders closely on the idea of rights. The same 
 sentiment inspired and ennobled the frequent struggles of the 
 serfs of feudalism. It was the theme of the orators who 
 banded together the men of Kent in the days of Wat Tyler ; 
 and when John Ball, '* a foolish priest" (I use the words of 
 the old chronicler), " preached publicly, that in the beginning 
 of the world there were no bondmen, wherefore none ought to 
 be bondman without he did treason to his Lord, as Lucifer 
 did to God ; but the peasants were neither angels nor spirits, 
 but men formed to the similitude of their lords ; — why then 
 shall they be kept under like wild beasts? And why, if they 
 laboured, should they have no wages?" — vain was it for the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury to throw the plebeian preacher into 
 his dungeon ; the magic truth had gone forlh ; the lesson 
 eternally graven on the human heart had been inlerpreied ; 
 thousands started up at the generous voice, and though 
 branded with the name of rebels, made it felt that they were 
 men. So, too, the Reformation had scarcely given to the 
 Gospel a republication, than the same spirit rallied the pea- 
 
96 INFLUENCE OF ClIllISTIANITY 
 
 sants of Germany, long ground to the earth, around the noble- 
 hearted and calumniated Muncer ; the disciple whom Luther 
 delighted to persecute, because, by more generous sympathies 
 than his own, he stole the hearts of the people. While 
 Luther was intriguing with princes and nobles, he traversed 
 the villages of his country, taught the peasantry the principles 
 of natural justice, and laid open to the men that till the earth 
 the perilous truth, that God hath made all of one blood. He 
 loudly claimed for them the rights common to mankind, and 
 explained those rights in a manifesto, which (to use the words 
 of Voltaire) " a Lycurgus miglit have signed." ^ Wherever 
 Christianity has been published, in its first diffusion by Apos- 
 tles, and its second development by reformers, this great and 
 binding truth has gone forth in power ; it has broken in upon 
 the carnival of oppression, and stopped the fierce revels that 
 made humanity their sport ; at its sound, the trampled have 
 started to their feet ; the children of the soil have looked up 
 and felt over them the canopy of heaven ; the debased have 
 grown conscious of the stirrings of a soul ; and they that had 
 been treated as the kindred of the clod, have burned with the 
 aspirings of the skies. 
 
 But this great sentiment has led to a more interesting result 
 than these struggles of the injured for their own deliverance. 
 It has produced the spectacle, which I believe to be peculiar 
 to Christian times, of one class uplifting another, the happy 
 toiling for the miserable, the free vindicating the rights of the 
 oppressed. Willi all the noble examples of disinterested 
 friendship and patriotism which ancient hislory affords, I can 
 remember no approach to that wholesale compassion, that 
 general action of one order of society on another, that system 
 of benevolent agitation in behalf of powerless and forgotten 
 suffering, which characterizes the history of modern times. 
 With what silent and irresistible power did the Gospel, where- 
 ever it travelled, raise one half of the human race into a moral 
 existence ; and, without the utterance of a single claim, with 
 
ON MORALITY AND CIVILIZATION. 97 
 
 no assumption of right, but by a spontaneous concession of 
 respect, elevate the wife from the creature to the friend of 
 man, from the source of offspring to the mother of a family, 
 and the presiding spirit of a home. And compare, too, the 
 institution of slavery, or rather the feelings with which it was 
 regarded in ancient and in modern times. Slaves constituted 
 the great majority of the population of the Roman empire ; 
 they were fed like cattle ; they were lodged in subterraneous 
 holes; they worked in the fields with chained feet ; they were 
 passed in trade from province to province, mercilessly wrenched 
 from every human tie ; goaded to despair, only to be mur- 
 dered in vengeance ; happy if they were but worn to the bone, 
 that they might not be worth tormenting, or could escape to 
 the forests to the tenderer mercies of their brute inhabitants.— 
 Who ever raised a voice for those wretched beings ? What 
 solitary remonstrance ever broke the sanction of a universal 
 silence ? What invective ever tare the heart of this corruption, 
 and kindled with its flame even a transitory shame? What 
 missionary of Pagan mercy ever crept into the groaning fields, 
 and whispered the word of peace, and fell to the earth with 
 the sob of sympathy ? Wliere werer the abolition societies of 
 the proud empire— the mistress of art, the metropolis of civili- 
 zation, the boasted inheritor of ancient virtue ? A silence as 
 of death, the stillness of universal sin, the apathy of lost hu- 
 manity, pervades its vast dominions. Yet those poor suff'erers 
 were most obviously of one blood with their possessors ; of the 
 same colour, of like features, often of the same language and 
 the same stock ; with no other separation from them than that 
 they were captives, perhaps of a revolted city, or a vanquished 
 province. Look them in the face together, and you know not 
 the slave from his master, except from his misery and his 
 chains. I do not wish to treat too leniently the prejudice of 
 colour ; but I do say that the slavery of the African, with all 
 its enormity, is removed by some shades above the slavei^ of 
 the conquered provincial of Rome ; it does not imply that 
 
1>8 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 blackest dye of guilt wliicli can be deepened by no added 
 slain, the total abdication of the last lingering mercies of the 
 hardened iieart ; it has the palliations, paltry, I admit, yet 
 real, which are derived fiom the savage life and visible traces 
 of inferior organization in its victim. For it is impossible to 
 deny that the impressions of bodily deformity, and the con- 
 viction of menial degradation, have great power to dry up 
 natural sympathies, and render the feeling of compassion less 
 prompt and deep.2 Glory, then, be to the great prophet of 
 Nazareth, that "those who are afar off" from our instinctive 
 aftinities he hath brought near by the power of his faith, by 
 the declaration of a common nature, by the appeal to a com- 
 mon responsibility, and the memory of a common Father ; 
 that, while Pagan Rome had not a tear for a very brother, his 
 religion had a flood of mercy for the negro and the alien, and 
 raised an accumulating cry of shame amongst the nations, and 
 stretched forth an arm of omnipotent deliverance across the 
 ocean. This is no triumph of mere knowledge ; no project of 
 political philosophy ; no successful game of self-interest ; no 
 intrigue of party warfare ; but one of those glorious achieve- 
 ments of national virtue, at which it is delightful to hear the 
 worldly scoff: for it proves that it is above their mark; that 
 it is another victory of lofty and disinterested beneficence ; 
 another noble response to the battle-cry of the Prince of Peace, 
 summoning his hosts to the conquest of suffering and the 
 rescue of humanity. 
 
 There is another expression of the fraternal spirit of Chris- 
 tianity which no careful observer of the composition of sects 
 can fail to notice ; 1 mean the internal morality of churches. 
 We justly lament the sectarianism of our country. We are 
 reasonably weary of the strife of tongues, whose jargon mars 
 our peace. We deplore the intolerant exclusiveness which 
 overruns society with sectional hatreds. Look at each body 
 of Christians in its relation to others and all seems dissension ; 
 religion appears as the great disuniting agency, which baffles 
 
ON MORALITY AND CIVILIZATION. 99 
 
 the projects of a wise philanthropy, and steps in to disapjjoint 
 each comprehensive hope. But turn from this wider view, 
 and from the general array of sects single out some one ; 
 penetrate to its interior spirit, its secret organization, the mu- 
 tual relations of its members ; watch how it works within 
 itself, when no known eye is on it, and the passions of contro- 
 versy are still and distant. All is peaceful, affectionate, 
 merciful ; you see a genuine and sincere association for ihe 
 attainment and exercise of Christian goodness, in which each 
 keeps a wakeful, but not malignant, eye on the conduct and 
 temper of his fellows, and a conscientious circumspection on 
 his own ; which provides its officers of instruction, and its 
 inspectors of the poor, and its visitors of the aged, and its 
 reception for the stranger, and its pity for heathen delusion, 
 and its open arms for stricken sin. There is ignorance, no 
 doubt, there is fanaticism ; there is room for evil passions and 
 the hypocrisy of designing men : but there is much love, and 
 therefore great hope ; there is a pure and fresh sincerity ; a 
 meek and silent piety ; a true and toiling beneficence, in which 
 he is to be wondered at who finds nothing to remind him of 
 Jesus the crucified.^ 
 
 Another sentiment which appears to be attributable to 
 Christianity (for it has accompanied it over the world) is the 
 imjjortance of speculative truth to the great mass of man- 
 kind. I select this idea for distinct notice, because it is 
 immediately connected with the greatest mischiefs that have 
 been charged on Christianity, mischiefs which have so absorbed 
 the attention of men, that the benefits for which we are in- 
 debted to the same cause have been little observed. It is 
 needless for me to dwell on the evils which have followed in 
 its train, and the extravagances which it has been used to 
 justify ; for of these the preceding lectures have been one 
 prolonged illustration. That speculative truth has been held 
 to be, not only important to the improvement of mankind here, 
 but absolutely essential to their acceptance hereafter; that 
 F 2 * 
 
100 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 this notion has been the parent of intolerance, and imperti- 
 nence, and pride ; has fostered the spirit, and wielded the 
 arms of persecution ; has arrested the natural progress of 
 opinion, and postponed that tranquil repose of faith on reason, 
 without which it is but a fevered dream, I have already, not 
 only admitted, but maintained. The picture, however, has 
 another side ; and from this same sentiment, so injurious in 
 one direction, have been derived, in another, two benefits, 
 which I would briefly indicate. 
 
 The extreme and exaggerated importance which men have 
 attached to the possession of speculative truth, has led them to 
 cling with invincible tenacity to their own portion of truth,— 
 i. e., to the expression of their own opinions. Believing their 
 own faith to be their great title to immortality, their solitary 
 plank of refuge amid a sea of perils, they have refused the call of 
 interest and menaces of power, and the frown of ecclesiastical 
 tyranny, bidding them quit their hold. Thus was created a 
 venerable virtue of our Fathers, — a virtue unknown in ancient 
 limes, — oi testifying to the truth ; which is only the quaint 
 and puritanical description of a resolute intellectual indepen- 
 dence, esteeming its convictions more than its interests, and 
 determined at all hazards to maintain a profound sincerity of 
 faith, and a free exercise of worship. This stern maintenance, 
 this frank publication of opinion, would never have existed, 
 but for association w ith religious sentiment ; it is a virtue born 
 of a superstition, — a virtue, moreover, of the highest order, if 
 we estimate it by the blessings which it confers upon the 
 world, by the stimulus it administers to enquiry, the accelera- 
 tion which it gives to the discovery of truth, and the feeling of 
 mutual respect which it excites between man and man. Nor 
 is there much fear that this quality will disappear, when the 
 erroneous reasons on which it rested at first have been sub- 
 verted. It has been fairly tried now ; its claims to veneration 
 rest upon experiment, and receive thence an abundant vindi- 
 cation. No one who has seen what the world owes to the 
 
OS MORiLlTV A.M' ClVlUZVriON. 'O' 
 
 dignified and unbending adherence to opinion, "» »"« -l^» 
 compares the lax professions, the accommodat.ng phdo oph 
 he Lite eonformity «ith popular supersft.on, preva.hng o( 
 o d \n Greece and Rome, «ith the spirit of n,odern d.ssent,- 
 tl t«ry of covenanted Scotland, her children hunted 
 ov moor and mountain, kneeling in the fastness, and sleep.ng 
 on he sod, rather than bow before the altar of Ep.scopaey and 
 mutter the hated prayer of hypocrisy,-with the exde of e 
 Poitans, .ho exchanged civilisation for harbansm, . e 
 domestic hearth for the Atlantic ^">™^'/''^^^='™;'''t. 
 Old England for the bleak rocks of Amer.ca, the gold n helds 
 f„ the mournful forest, that they might v.orsh,p «.a> a fr 
 1\ and be at rest ;-no one, who thus stud.es the spu-.l and the 
 Lits of guileless thought and speech, will fad to recogn.e ■„ 
 them the guardians of knowledge, the liberators of nafons, the 
 creators of New Worlds. 
 
 4.ain : this sentiment, of the importance o speculative 
 truth to the human mind, has led men, not only themselves to 
 cUn. to their convictions, but to urge them, often from mot.ves 
 of fanatical benevolence, on others. They have mtagmed a 
 parUcular system of ideas to be necessary to the salvauon « 
 E ellow- men. But a system of ideas cannot be embraced 
 e7cent by the understanding; and if men must have the 
 deas, their understandings must be open to rece.ve them 
 Hence this sentiment leads directly to the recognmon of he 
 S ctual and moral nature of all mankind ; tt contemplates 
 Ihem as capable of thought and of emotion, and as sustammg 
 rUke spirifual relation to the Father of all. Notw.thsU,nd,ng 
 all the uperstitious notions that adhere to U, U anndnlates a 
 once the disposition to regard the ignorant and depressed as 
 Ta^ng a physical existence without a soul, as mach.nes for 
 ; duction, and creatures for toil; it claims for them the 
 J at and high prerogatives of life and of futur.ty ; .t humbles 
 he monopol zing pride of knowledge, and proposes to brn.g 
 o the level of ail the portions of truth that most sanct.K- and 
 
102 
 
 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 bless. Praclically, it is this very idea wliich has led to the 
 efforts and prepares the triumphs of popular education. It 
 was the desire that all might read the scriptures, that rallied 
 together the advocates of instruction ; and had those scriptures 
 never been, who would venture to say how long Europe might 
 have remained afflicted with a besotted population, and im- 
 mersed in the darkness of barbaric life. 
 
 Such I regard as the leading principles, by which Christ- 
 ianity has exerted influence on human morality and civilization. 
 By its sentiment of universal brotherhood, it has nerved the 
 arm of the oppressed seeking to be free, it has produced the 
 benevolence of class to class, and rendered pure and affec- 
 tionate the interior morality of churches. By the sentiment 
 of the importance of speculative truth to the great mass of 
 men, it has created the virtue of honest speech, and com- 
 menced the education of the multitudes. 
 
 Who can cast his eye over the nations which profess, and 
 those which reject the Gospel, without beholding in it the 
 benignest of earthly agencies, and the divinest of heaven's 
 gifts ! Who can compare the East which it has deserted with 
 the West which it pervades, — the uniform decrepitude of 
 society in the one, with its various moral life in the other, the 
 triumph of violence and superstition there, with the gradual 
 spread of knowledge and just government here, without re- 
 cognizing in it an influence preservative of the health and 
 conducive to the progress of the general mind? Whether or 
 not its extension throughout the foremost communities of our 
 world be the chief cause of their advancement, whether it be 
 the germ or the fruit of their civilization, there is still an 
 undeniable affinity between its spirit and the noblest tenden- 
 cies of the human race. What religion ever produced so 
 little misery in its corruptions, and so lofty a virtue by its 
 native power. It has presided, like a creative energy, over 
 the moral world, and constructed new types of character, and 
 new -brms of genius, and new visions of ideal good. Science, 
 
ON MORALITY AND CIVILIZATION. 105 
 
 poetr)', and art have given it the homage of their mingled 
 voices; the sorrowful, the anxious, and the happy have kneeled 
 together at its shrine : the peasant has felt its nobility, and the 
 sage rejoiced in its illumination : and if its name has some- 
 times spread a shield over the persecutor, in its spirit the 
 persecuted have found the consolation of inward dignity, and 
 the strength of quenchless will. 
 
 Faith of our fathers ! whence they drew a divine strength 
 for their toils, and peace in their sufferings ; which gave them 
 hope when they fell asleep in Jesus, and opened the heaven 
 where now they dwell for evermore ! Faith of bards and 
 philosophers, of prophets, and martyrs, of the best friends of 
 humanity, and foes of misery and wrong ! — Faith of Milton 
 and of Howard, which inspired the muse of the one to breath.e 
 the strains of piety and liberty at once, and armed the spirit 
 of the other to brave disease, and pierce the prison gloom, 
 that no child of guilt might be without his solace? Faith of 
 the people! whose generosity priests have been unable to 
 extinguish, and with whose tendencies to freedom tyrants have 
 grappled in vain ! Not yet are all thy triumphs won ; — not 
 till the last and lowest victims of poverty, and ignorance, and 
 sin have been redeemed, and raised to the consciousness of 
 intelligence and the sense of immortality ! In meek majesty 
 hast thou been borne over the high places of our world, like 
 thy great Author on the Mount of Olives. Descend yet deeper 
 into the vales, where human suffering hides itself and weeps. 
 Still behold the city of our dwelling through tears and pity 
 and make us worthy to join in the exulting ci-y, Hosannah ! to 
 the son of David ! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
 the Lord ! 
 
 END OF THE LECTURES. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I 
 
 PORTION OF A LETTER TO THE AUTHOR, FROM 
 THE REV. J. BLANCO WHITE. 
 
 ''June, 1836, 
 
 " My Dear Friend, — The constant and almost involuntai^ 
 employment of my mind on the painful subject of the divisions 
 of Christians, produces an habitual desire to exert myself in the 
 as yet hopeless work of diminishing the som'ces of that great 
 evil. * . ♦ * . . 
 
 " There is a point from which all writers on Christian 
 liberty seem instinctively to recoil : it is the authority of the 
 Bible. And yet whilst that authority remains undefined, — as long 
 as all Christians are taught to look upon the whole collection, 
 from Genesis to the end of the book of Revelation, as the 
 immediate and direct Word of God, and oracle before which 
 human judgment is bound to submit, renouncing its natural 
 rights, — to talk of spiritual liberty, under such a mental yoke, 
 is almost mockery. I have already stated, in rny " Observa- 
 tions on Heresy and Orthodoxy," some of the results of a long 
 and anxious examination of this subject. I have proved, as 1 
 conceive, that it would be more consistent with intellectual or 
 spiritual freedom to live under the whole Mosaic routine of 
 external practices, than under the obligation of receiving the 
 philosophy, history, chronology, and astronomy of the Bible. 
 Whoever does not feel this cannot be a judge of this question. 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 Menial freedom, — the right lo give free scope to the noblest 
 powers of his nature, — ^vould be a dead letter to such a man. 
 
 " (9.) But I must condense Nvhat I have to say, and for that 
 purpose I beg to call your attention to the fact, that the 
 obscure and indefinite notions of such a moral duly in regard 
 to the Bible cannot be traced to any legitimate source. This 
 absence of an unquestionable and clear divine injunction is 
 sufficient to upset the \\hole theory which supposes Chris- 
 lianily to have ils ground in the Bible. I beg to be clearly 
 understood upon this subject. In denying that the authoriti/ 
 of the Scriptures is the foundation of Christianity, I am far 
 from asserting that the Bible is useless to Christians. ' The 
 question is not' (I will say with Barclay, the apologist of the 
 Quakers, whose work contains admirable hints on this subject), 
 ' The question is not what may be profitable or helpful, but 
 what is absolutely necessary. Many things may contribute to 
 further a work, which yet are not the main thing that makes 
 the work go on.'* What I oppose is the almost universal 
 notion, that the first and essential condition of being a Chris- 
 tian is lo submit to the authority of the Scriptures. This is 
 a gratuitous assumption. To demand respect for the various 
 books of the Bible, in proportion to the critical probability 
 that they are the writings of apostles or prophets, is rational ; 
 but respect is not submission, nor does respect exclude exami- 
 nation and dissent. The exclusion of these inalienable rights 
 of a free, rational creature, must be grounded upon direct, 
 unquestionable, and definite divine command ; and such com- 
 mand has never been made known to men. Conjecture and 
 inference are of no avail. My right to judge is clearer than 
 any conjecture that God w ishes me to renounce it. 
 
 " (10.) I have indeed been persuaded, for many, many 
 
 years (though the importance of the subject has made me try 
 
 and (as it were) ripen my persuasion by keeping it in my bosom), 
 
 that the theory which makes Christianity rest upon the infalli- 
 
 * Apology for the Quakers, Prop. II. § IV. 
 
APPENDIX. 107 
 
 bility of the Bible is much more groundless than that whicii 
 places it on the infallibility of the successor of St. Peter and his 
 Church. Both these theories want truth ; but the latter (the 
 Roman Catholic theory) is consistent within itself, and derives 
 a very great plausibility from its perfect efficiency in settling 
 questions among those that embrace it as emanated from the 
 authority of Christ. The semi-Protestant view, which, admit- 
 ting the necessity of a right faith (meaning assent to certain 
 metaphysical and historical assertions), appeals in ultimate 
 judgment to certain writings, must at once betray its ground- 
 lessness to every one who will dispassionately consider the 
 total insufficiency of the pioposed means for the attainment of 
 the desired end. Grant the most literal and minute inspira- 
 tion to the whole Bible, and it will still be found totally 
 inadequate to the purpose of settling questions as to its own 
 meaning, when such questions arise. 
 
 " (11.) It might indeed be supposed that the experience of 
 three centuries would have opened the eyes of all Protestants 
 on this point, and that they would now begin to perceive that 
 Luther fell into an egregious error when he imagined that a 
 system of orthodoxy, in the same spirit as that of the Church 
 of Rome, could be maintained upon the basis of the ivritten 
 authority of the Scriptures ; that the idea of a saving ortJio- 
 doxy could have even the slightest colouring of truth without 
 a living rule of foith. But the clearest demonstrations on 
 these subjects lose their power when superstitious fear 
 paralyzes the logical faculty. Protestants of all denominations 
 continue to denounce perdition on those who disagree with 
 them on what they themselves have decreed to be essentials ; 
 and, in spite of their long experience of the insufficiency of 
 the Bible to put an end to these disgraceful feuds, they go on 
 cr>ing and protesting that it is the fiuilt of their opponents, — 
 that if those unfortunate men would only see certain texts in 
 a certain light {i. e., the light of the divines who think them- 
 selves aggrieved by the opponents' obstinacy), the Protestants 
 might soon rival the Church of Rome in unity. 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 " (12.) But why do 1 address these obvious observations to 
 you, my dear friend, when I am fully aware that they are quite 
 familiar to your mind ? — I will tell you candidly why : because, 
 though I have read not only with pleasure but with admira- 
 tion your Rationale of Religion, I still more than doubt that 
 you have allowed the principles on which we both agree to 
 lead you into all the legitimate inferences which follow from 
 them. You still take upon yourself to deny the name of 
 Christians to men who claim it, only because their views do 
 not fully agree with your own ; you make a harsh declaration 
 against certain divines whom you describe as Rationalists. 
 Now, if by Rationalist you mean an expounder of the Scrip- 
 tures who attempts to explain the miraculous narratives con- 
 jecturally by natural means, I, for one, will join you in 
 declaring such an attempt as generally unsuccessful ; but this 
 is merely an exegetic question : I myself feel convinced that 
 such a method of interpretation is unsatisfactory in by far the 
 greater number of cases. Yet, if the liberties taken with the 
 historical documents of the Bible were still much greater than 
 those of the Rationalists, I would contend that no man has a 
 right to deny the name of Christian to another who wishes to 
 be known by that name, as long as it cannot be proved that 
 he assumes it maliciously, and for the purpose of deception. 
 To declare any one unworthy of the name of Christian because 
 he does not agree with your belief, is to fall into the intoler- 
 ance of the Articled Churches. The moment that the name 
 Christian is made necessarily to contain in its signification 
 belief in certain historical or metaphysical propositions, that 
 moment the name itself becomes a creed: the length of that 
 creed is of little consequence. 
 
 " (13.) In vain will it be said thai according to this view the 
 signification of the word Christianity may be reduced to a kind 
 of negative quantity : such an objection assumes the great 
 point in question, — namely, that Christ left di positive creed to 
 be indispensably accepted by all his disciples. Until such a 
 fact shall be proved, no man has a right to reject another from 
 
APPENDIX. i 09 
 
 ihe Christian union, on account of any abstract opinion what- 
 ever. Christ's disciples were not known by the name of 
 Christians till it was given to them, as it would appear, by the 
 public at Aniioch. This fact is important, because it prevents 
 verbal subtleties as to the original signification of that word. 
 Christian was a popular name which the disciples accepted as 
 one which avoided the invidiousness and contempt implied by 
 the earlier one of Nazarenes. Thus it appears that Christian 
 cannot be said to have had a scriptural sense, for, properly 
 speaking, it is not scriptural. A Christian was originally 
 (and should always continue to be) the designation of one who 
 separated himself from Judaism and Heathenism, and joined 
 the followers of Christ. Of the reality of his Christianity 
 none could properly judge ; for, according to the views of the 
 primitive Christians attested by Paul, those alone were pro- 
 perly disciples who showed in the temper of their minds that 
 they were under the guidance of a moral spirit similar to that 
 of Christ. It is the priestly spirit, the spirit of hierarchical 
 association, which has attached the idea of assent to certain 
 dogmas to the name of Christian. 
 
 " (14.) Nevertheless, the priesthoods have not entirely suc- 
 ceeded in that work ; the unsophisticated mass of laymen, 
 when shocked by the appellation of heretic (in such countries 
 as Spain and Italy), and of infidel (in England), do not derive 
 their feeling of disgust and horror from the idea of doctrines 
 denied by the heretic or infidel, but from a conviction that 
 those words imply an unprincipled and immoral conduct. 
 Imagine, for instance, the impression which would be produced 
 upon a servant, especially a well-inclined and modest woman, 
 who being on the point of entering the family of a Rationalist, 
 were to hear from a respectable divine, that though the person 
 in question was an honourable man, unfortunately he was not 
 a Christian, You will very naturally say, that no one but a 
 fiery enthusiast would use such language ; I certainly agree 
 with you : but the necessity which I believe you acknowledge 
 of not using it in common parlance, shows the evil of employing 
 it theologically. 
 
410 APPENDIX. 
 
 "(io.) \Yhalever errors may have crept in among the 
 simple yet sublime views published by Christ, the practical 
 moral character of His Gospel has always stood prominently 
 above the abstract doctrines. From the first publication of 
 Christianity to this very day, it may be safely asserted, that 
 no sincere convert has embraced it, allured by its creed. 
 A longing after ' whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
 are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things 
 are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,' will be 
 found more or less to be the motive of every original or 
 renewed attempt to be a Christian. There is therefore a 
 great moral responsibility in every discouragement placed in 
 the way of such moral impressions as induce men to cling to 
 the name and title of Christians. An attachment to that 
 denomination should be fostered by every friend of human 
 virtue, as being, unquestionably among Europeans, the most 
 evident sign of a living moral principle in the soul. 
 
 " (16.) Let us then anxiously reject every remnant of that 
 hierarchical, that thoroughly priestly spirit, which cares for no 
 virtue which does not bear the seal and impress of a certain 
 Church. Let us follow the example of Christ in rejecting none 
 who approached him. Such traits of benevolent liberality, 
 which abound in the Gospels, cannot rationally be suspected as 
 being part of that superstructure of pious fraud which the early 
 Christian priesthood began, and which their successors carried 
 up to a monstrous height. The genuine views of Christ, the 
 only true Christianity, will never combine with the hierarchical 
 dogmas, so as to be undistinguishable. Christ's mission was 
 evidently a reform, compared with the positive or preceptive 
 and ceremonial religions then in existence. The " Gospel of 
 God's kingdom" may be correctly called a negative system. 
 Christ published the religion of conscience, which, though 
 essentially grounded upon the nature of man, and having faith- 
 ful disciples at all times and in all nations, those men who, 
 being without a written law, " were a law to themselves,'^ 
 and were just before God, " because they obeyed the law 
 written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness," 
 
APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 — had been obscured, and almost placed beyond the mental 
 reach of the mass of mankind. Christ declared himself against 
 all religions which made salvation, or spiritual safety, depen- 
 dent on a priesthood and its peculiar offices. Hence the 
 insurmountable difficulty with which all successors, and espe- 
 cially the Episcopal Protestants, have to contend ; for if salva- 
 tion must be dispensed to mankind through the hands of a 
 legitimate priesthood, the world must be in a sad case as long 
 as the titles shall continue in a state of the most hopeless 
 litigation. 
 
 " (17.) What shall we say, then, of the still greater diffi- 
 culty of finding the learned portion of Christianity, — that 
 catalogue of historical and metaphysical propositions which 
 every man is supposed to be concerned in, as he is concerned 
 in his eternal happiness? Can a Christianity, containing a 
 philosophical and critical department, be believed to have 
 originated in that Jesus of INazareth, whose anti-hierarchical 
 and anti-rabbinical mental portrait is still transparent through 
 the thick coating of sophistical and pharisaical paint which 
 was spread over it before the middle of the second century? 
 
 " (18.) The practical meaning which the name Christian still 
 preserves in the popular language of all Christian nations, — 
 that fiict to which I have already alluded, is to me a remark- 
 able instance of the indestructible character of certain popular 
 traditions. The Christian priesthoods have exerted themselves 
 for ages in making people believe that the essence of Chris- 
 tianity consists in the belief of doctrines ; yet the great currency 
 which that notion obtained, arose exclusively from the prac- 
 tical shape in which it was preached. It was not assent to 
 certain propositions, or belief in certain facts, that Christianity 
 was said to demand ; but obedience to the church, and im- 
 plicit trust in her doctrines. This is indeed an intelligible 
 demand, which by the assistance of certain texts of Scripture, 
 has been recognized for ages by the great majority of the 
 Christian world. The supposition that Christ had laid this 
 duty upon all his future disciples is not absurd in itself; it is 
 
112 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 totally devoid of proof: but of this the mass of Christians are 
 not sufficiently enlightened judges: such a submission is, 
 indeed, much in accordance with the popular notions of reli- 
 gion among mankind ; for a religion without a priesthood was 
 scarcely conceived before Christ. But the idea of Christianity 
 consisting pre-eminently of personal belief in, and of real con- 
 viction of the truth of certain metaphysical tenets, and certain 
 historical facts, — this conviction, to be grounded on the laws of 
 historical criticism, on the intrinsic validity of certain docu- 
 ments, and the accuracy of their interpretation, — such Chris- 
 tianity, such method of spiritual safety does not, cannot exist 
 as a popular, much less as a universal religion. The mass of 
 people who call themselves, and (I am ready to grant) are 
 Christians in proportion to the sincerity of their wish to live 
 according to their notions of Christ, have no more reason to be 
 convinced of the authenticity of the Bible, than the people of 
 Ephesus had in their day, that the statue of the great Diana 
 had fallen from heaven. Even most of those who have read 
 such works as Paley's (a number, comparatively speaking, very 
 small) cannot be said to believe in consequence of a fair ex- 
 amination of the case : such an examination would require the 
 attentive perusal of the most accredited works of Infidels. 
 Such deliberate, impartial, and attentive hearing of both sides, 
 would be necessary for a well-grounded decision. How then , 
 I will ask, can it be supposed that Christ could have founded 
 his universal religion upon such a basis? The Christian 
 world, — the mass of Christians, — have never conceived anything 
 of the kind ; they think it one of their duties to treat the 
 Bible as a book from heaven : this is part of their practical 
 religion. Among Roman Catholics this duty is a branch of 
 obedience to the church ; among Protestants an early incul- 
 cated habit : but in neither case w ill the great majority pretend 
 that they have or ought to have a rational ground of conviction. 
 " (1 9.) What strange notions of God must lie at the bottom 
 of such systems of Christianity as make eternal happines 
 depend on an historical faith ! — an historical faith too, of mira- 
 
APPENDIX. 413 
 
 C'ulous facts, of facts externally alike to those which, in all other 
 histories out of the Bible, have been long stamped by all sen- 
 sible historians as pure fables ! I do not mean to rank all the 
 miracles of the Bible with the mythico-historical narratives of 
 the early history of everj- nation ; I only w ish the exteimal simi- 
 larity to be remarked ; because, owing to that likeness, consist- 
 ing of all that strikes the imagination, the work of discrimi- 
 nating and weighing the evidence for a tnie miracle must be 
 confessed to be of the most difficult nature. Nevertheless, 
 this work of thought, and profound research, is supposed to be 
 made the condition of eternal happiness by the good and gra- 
 cious Father of all mankind. Observe however, the partiality 
 implied in such a system. The difficulty of historical con- 
 viction is all for the thinking part of mankind ; among whom, 
 miracles become more and more difficult of proof, in propor- 
 tion as the knowledge of nature on the one hand, and of the 
 character of historical documents on the other increases. Here, 
 however, we are told that this apparent partiality in favour of 
 the " poor and humble," is the due reward of their moral 
 temper. But the evasion is such, that were it not for the 
 total want of reflection which attends all mysticism of this kind, 
 few would not be ashamed to avow it : for it is obvious, that 
 the advantage in question belongs equally to the mentally in- 
 dolent, to the mere man of the senses who detests the labour 
 and fatigue of attention. This is practically exhibited every 
 day before our eyes, though not so strikingly and abundantly 
 as it appears in the histoiy of the most brutal and immoral 
 times, the ages of faith and violence, of devotion and pro- 
 fligacy, — the period of chivalry. When did the * poor and 
 humble,' equal the barons and knights of those times in strong 
 unhesitating belief of the Bible, or of any thing which they 
 were told that \ivi2& pious and Christianlike to believe? What 
 candid man will deny, that if the main condition of Christi- 
 anity is unhesitating belief in historical testimony, the kingdom 
 of heaven announced by Christ, belongs as an inheritance to 
 the class of men to whose lot the possession of the earth has 
 
114- APPENDIX. 
 
 generally fiillen ; whilst the purest models of godlike humanity, 
 those in w hose composition the highest gifts of God, — intellect 
 and reason, — predominate, must at all times, but especially in our 
 own, and in the fast approaching ages of widely spread thought, 
 belong almost by a natural right to the ' devil and his angels.' 
 This may be broadly expressed, I confess ; but is it not the un- 
 varnished substance of the doctrine maintained by all articled 
 churches ; the doctrine to the root, at least, of which, I fear 
 not a few^ among us still cling, unaware that they do so ? 
 
 " (20.) There is indeed only one way of getting safely out 
 of this insecure position. The following question must be 
 thoroughly examined and settled, with a manful and truly 
 Christian indifference to obloquy ; for, that all the consequences 
 of alarming inveterate prejudice will follow from such a bold 
 examination, no one can doubt who knows the nature of super- 
 stition. Such, indeed, is its power, that I foresee a difficulty 
 even in making the question which I propose intelligible to 
 persons tainted with the existing hihliolatry. But I will do 
 my best to be clear. The question is this : — 
 
 " Is it a Christian's dut} , as such Christian, to receive as true 
 whatever may be proved, by the text of our Bibles, to have 
 been considered as true by the writers, some of whose works 
 are contained in it ? In other words, are we bound as Chris- 
 tians to believe ; first, that the writers of all and each of the 
 books in the Bible were miraculously preserved from all error, 
 or at least, from errors connected with some kind of subjects, 
 which we may clearly distinguish from all other subjects, 
 so that we may be sure of the author's infallibility when he 
 speaks about them ? 2ndly. Are we bound as Christians to 
 believe with the utmost assurance that the existing books of 
 the Bible are the identical compositions which those writers 
 left to the world, and that no curtailment, addition, or inter- 
 polation, has taken place in regard to those books ? 
 
 " (21.) Here it will be absolutely necessary as an indispen- 
 sable previous step, to agree upon some general principles, 
 without establishing which we cannot expect any thing but 
 
APPENDIX. 115 
 
 pure wrangling. I conceive then, that such an obligation in 
 regard to the Bible should not be proved by inference. As I 
 have already suggested, such an obligation cannot be esta- 
 blished except by a clear and positive command of God. The 
 existence of such a command should, besides, be made clear 
 by those who contend for the above mentioned obligation. 
 Those who, as myself, deny it, are not bound to prove the 
 non-existence of the divine command. The state of the ques- 
 tion is, in fact, just the same as that of the infallibility of the 
 Church. The Church must prove its title, not by inference, 
 but positively and directly ; he that denies that infallibility is 
 not bound to prove by direct argument, that it has not been 
 granted : the want of a clear title to it, is a sufficient proof. 
 
 " (22). I also would demand, as a previous fundamental 
 principle, that no injury to the consequences of the supposed 
 privilege, be alleged as a proof of its existence. I cannot 
 find a more effectual method of making this very important 
 principle appear in a clear light than that of imagining our- 
 selves among the contemporaries of Luther's Reformation, and 
 considering the impression which arguments similar to those 
 which my rule would exclude, would make upon the generality 
 of the people. We should remember that the whole of that 
 system of religion which we call Popery had grown out of two 
 suppositions : 1st, that the salvation of mankind depended 
 upon acquiescence in certain doctrines, as true, and upon the 
 admission of certain historical facts, as real : 2nd, that there 
 existed means, suited to the capacity of all men, not to mis- 
 take the sense of the books to which those doctrines were 
 believed to have been consigned by God himself, and to pre- 
 vent all doubt as to the miraculous nature of those books. 
 The main spring of this mighty machinery was the Church, 
 which having been for many centuries at work, had raised a 
 mighty structure, of dogmas and ceremonies, long identified with 
 Christianity in the minds of all people. Habit must, in all 
 such cases, give to the growth of the original false assumption, 
 the appearance of ^ final end, while its root, — the gratuitous 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 assumption, — lakes the character of means totally indispensable 
 for the attainment of the imaginary end. Now, under such 
 circumstances, it will always happen that whenever the root of 
 the evil is touched, — whenever its legitimacy is questioned, — no 
 arguments are moi-e popularly conclusive against the objectors 
 than those which go to prove that the system which long 
 custom has consecrated cannot stand without the ground now 
 assailed. There cannot be a doubt that such arguments were 
 the strongest barrier which checked the Reformation. ' You 
 would make the Church fallible in matters of faith' (people 
 would say with alarm and indignation), 'you would question 
 her power to bind and to loose. How then can we be sure 
 that our belief is not heretical ; or how can we enjoy a com- 
 forlable assurance of the remission of our sins? Observe be- 
 sides' (they would continue to object) ' the innumerable cases 
 in which the Pope's dispensing power is required : what shall 
 we do without it, in the multitude of complicated events 
 which no law can provide for ?' I cannot conceive any thing 
 more powerful than this reasoning, to excite a general feeling 
 of abhorrence to the Reformation. Whence, I ask, does the 
 fallacy derive its strong power of delusion ? From a mere 
 winking the principle, the recognition of which I contend for : 
 the fallacy derives its power from the circumstance that the 
 growth^ or the consequences of the assailed assumption are re- 
 garded as important final ends, and the false assumption it- 
 self is defended upon the score of its being indispensable for 
 the attainment of those ends. It is perfectly true, whatever 
 the orthodoa? Protestants may say, that without an infallible 
 Church, salvation by means of an orthodox creed hangs upon 
 a desperate chance ; but, if the notion of a salvation which 
 depends on orthodoxy is the growth of hierarchical preten- 
 sions ignorantly admitted at first, and subsequently confirmed 
 by superstition, habit, and violence, the objection that if we 
 reject the infallihillty of the Church, we cannot rest our 
 orthodoxy upon the infallihility of the Church, is quite 
 ludicrous. Let us then beware of a similar reasoning respect- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 417 
 
 ing the oracular character of the Scriptures. To object that, 
 if the Scriptures are not infallible we cannot have an infalli- 
 able foundation for our religious creed, is just such an argu- 
 ment as I have staled in favour of Church infallibility. The 
 necessity of infallibility in religion, must first be proved to 
 exist ; if this cannot be done, we must not be surprised by the 
 discovery that God has not given us the means of attaining 
 what he has not demanded. 
 
 « (25). Exactly of the same logical character is the objection, 
 that such rationalism, as I contend for, renders useless all 
 God's revelations to man. ' If the Bible ' (it will be said) ' is 
 to be treated like any other collection of writings, we must 
 at once make up our minds to the melancholy slate of being 
 without a direct means of knowing the will of God, — we must 
 acknowledge that we have no advantage over the heathen 
 world.' Here again the failure of results which were ex- 
 pected upon a false assumption is charged upon those who 
 show that the assumption is groundless. It has been assumed 
 that if the Bible is inspired, mankind are brought by means of 
 it nearer to the Deity than they have been, and must remain, 
 in case such inspiration cannot be proved ; but any one who 
 shall show the fallacies upon which the supposition was made, 
 will be sure to be accused of the cruelly and impiety of de- 
 stroving the only means of direct commimication with God. 
 1 do not mention this as a peculiar hardship, to which I 
 myself must submit. At all times and in all places he who 
 ventures to disturb a flattering delusion will be described as a 
 wanton aggressor, as an enemy to the happiness of his fellow 
 men. Thank Heaven the frequenl and melancholy disappoint- 
 ments which the more civilized part of the world have expe- 
 rienced on such subjects, have opened the eyes of a sufficient 
 number to diminish the danger of those whose unwelcome 
 vocation is to contend with popular delusions. 
 
 " (-24.) In the present case I might content myself with an 
 appeal to the long and varied experience which shows that the 
 theory of inspiration (especially among Protestants), totally 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 fails of the results for the sake of whicli it has been set forth. • 
 But I wish to attack the root itself of the delusion. In my 
 view of the subject, even the most direct and personal com- 
 munication with God of any writer, could not give to his books 
 the power of conveying a supernatural, or rather superra- 
 tional conviction to the readers. In establishing this impor- 
 tant point, deep prejudice and trembling superstition present 
 the only difficulties with which intellect has to contend. As, 
 for the present, I totally despair of gaining any ground ; I shall 
 only point to principles on which men, accustomed to follow 
 reason in spite of imagination, will, I trust, readily agree 
 with me. 
 
 " The notion of a certainty above reason, — a superrational 
 certainty JI wish to call it, — is so self-contradictory, that it 
 cannot be well conceived by the mind. Yet such a notion is 
 the onlv foundation of the established supernaturaUsm. With a 
 truly infantine ignorance of man's mental constitution, people 
 continue to imagine, thai no belief can exceed in certainty that 
 which would arise from hearing God himself make a verbal 
 statement of what he wished mankind to hold as unquestionably 
 true. But there is a monstrous misconception at the bottom 
 of this notion ; for does it not suppose that God may make 
 himself an object of which our senses may judge? God, I 
 doubt not, can do all things, except what is in contradiction 
 with himself: it is He who has made our senses in such a 
 manner that they can receive only certain kind of impres- 
 sions, — impressions essentially distinct from every thing mental 
 or spiritual. The supposition then that he would resort to 
 such a medium for a more immediate and more secure com- 
 munication with man, implies a charge of ignorance of his own 
 works in the great Creator. ' God is a spirit,' is the sublime 
 fundamental principle of Christ's religion. Man too, is in 
 part a spirit ; and the communication between tlie spiritual 
 Creator, and that visible creature of His, who bears the spi- 
 ritual stamp of his likeness, would naturally be expected to be 
 between the two spirits, — the spirit of God, and the spirit in 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 119 
 
 man. But no : this could not take place except through man's 
 reason ; and that supreme power within us, is said to be too 
 weak, too much exposed to error and delusion. How shall 
 this difficulty be obviated? How shall God remove uncer- 
 tainty from his most particular and important communications 
 with man ? * Let God be seen and heard,' answers the 
 supernaturalist. In vain it is declared (though it scarcely 
 needed a declaration) that * no man has seen God at any time.' 
 The divine will confidently explain away this assertion, and tell 
 us that God was frequently seen in the time of the Patriarchs, 
 and was distinctly heard by the whole people of Israel. 
 Reason, he tells us, is a deceitful guide : but here, it seems 
 there was no room for mistake,— -a mountain was seen in 
 flames,— there was an earthquake, — a trumpet sounded,— and 
 a voice was heard speaking distinctly. Such, we are told, is 
 one of the most remarkable instances of direct communication 
 between God and man, intended to obviate the danger of our 
 being misled by reason, and to establish a certainty in reli- 
 gious matters for all ages and nations to come. This is to be 
 considered a source of certainty above all assurance which 
 could be obtained spirituaUi/, or what is the same, rationally. 
 But let us see : God spoke : are we sure that God has a voice, 
 or that when a sound like that of the human voice cannot be 
 traced to any man, it must, beyond all doubt, originate in 
 God? The world has been full of delusions, bearing internal 
 marks very like the communication in question. I will not 
 say that this is a delusion of the same kind as those which are 
 recorded in prophane history ; but the senses are subject to 
 delusions : and how can we be certain that the witnesses of 
 such manifestations of God through the senses, took every 
 reasonable precaution against mistake?— But I will not tire 
 you with a minute enumeration of the doubts which inevitably 
 surround a transaction of this kind, as soon as it is consigned 
 tohistorv, in order (it is supposed) to produce a superrational 
 conviction, at the distance of an indefinite number of years. 
 It seems quite incredible that such an ignorance of ourselves. 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 of our faculties, of the grounds of our conviction, as is betrayed 
 in the above supposition, should exist among us ! God, in the 
 first place, is asserted to have addressed himself to the external 
 senses of man, distrusting the powers which he had imparted 
 to man's mind. Such, we are told, was the Deity's pre- 
 eminent means of giving us certainty upon things on which our 
 eternal well-being depended. But, it is clear, that all this 
 contrivance of ocular and auricular certainty could reach only 
 those whose eyes and ears were affected at a certain time. 
 The benefit of that supposed certainty was confined to a small 
 number of men, upon a very limited spot. What then is to be 
 the ground of certainty for the millions of millions equally con- 
 cerned in the subject, who were not present? ' Historical 
 evidence, we are told, is enough for them* But historical 
 evidence, however complete and strong, does not address itself 
 to the senses, which the supernaturalist makes the vehicles of 
 the highest certainty, — certainty above that of which reason is 
 capable. What we and all the rest of mankind except the 
 witnesses of a miracle can examine by means of our senses, 
 are writings which can prove nothing, except by the help and 
 under the approbation of reason. The credibility of the wit- 
 nesses, the authenticity of the documents, their perfect agree- 
 ment with the original manuscripts, — are these things objects 
 of sense? Unquestionably not : the blindest enthusiast must 
 confess that reason is here to be the judge ; and since its appro- 
 bation must be at the bottom of the whole process, even the 
 blindest enthusiast, if he still preserves common sense undis- 
 turbed in the slightest degree, must confess that the supposed 
 divine contrivance to avoid the fallibility of human reason, has 
 totally failed ; and that the originally discarded reason must 
 be the foundation of belief in those miracles which were 
 intended to supersede it in matters, as they are called, of 
 revelation. 
 
 " (25.) Verbal revelation and miracles have for ages been 
 treated under the false notion whicii I have just laid before 
 you. Both have been, most unphilosophically, imagined to 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 be evidence above reason. Sucli an error would not find ad- 
 iniltaiice even inlo our nurseries, if a niosl lyiannical power, 
 supported by the popular errors it creates and cherishes, liad 
 not transmitted, I'uough a long series of generations, an inhe- 
 ritance of menial servility, of which hardly our children's 
 children will be totally free. 1 wish you to imagine what 
 would be the conduct of truly pious and unenthusiaslic men, 
 in the present day, if a case of resurrection by miracle was to 
 appear in the public journals. In the first place, there would 
 be an extreme reluctance to pay any serious regard to the 
 statement. Whence, 1 ask, this reluctance to examine into 
 modern miracles? Surely the evidence adduced for some of 
 the cures of Prince Hohenlohe, is not, prima facie, contempti- 
 ble. Still, the stoutest believers of the miraculous in the 
 Bible, would, if Protestants, look with a feeling less respectful 
 than pity, on any one, not a Roman Catholic, who should un- 
 dertake a journey for the purpose of exaniining the evidence 
 of the alleged miracle upon the spot. This mental fact, this 
 reluctance to give credit to miraculous transactions, and the 
 law of its a})pearance and growth, are things not to be over- 
 looked in the present question. Bold indeed must be tliat 
 ignorance which shall attribute it to individual perverseness. 
 Few menial phenomena can be better established, as insepa- 
 rably connected with our intellectual nature, than the attrac- 
 tion of the miraculous in the infancy of mind, and its repul- 
 siveness for the same mind, instructed and developed. To man, 
 in individual as well as in collective or national childhood, a 
 miracle is evidence to itself; and the more extraordinary the 
 miracle, the greater the certainty, which a mere narrative of it 
 will convey. Ramahoun Roy's experience coincides here most 
 satisfactorily with theory ; he has, as I remember, stated 
 somewhere, that Missionaries can produce no impression uj)on 
 the Hindoos, by means of the Bible miracles. Accustomed to 
 the extravagant magnitude of their own wonders, they smile 
 upon the insignificance of ours. Nor can any one be surprised 
 at this, considering that whatever makes a deep impression 
 
 G 
 
i^2 APPF.NriX. 
 
 upon the imaginalive Aiculty, is in ihal slate of llie luiman 
 niintl taken for absolute reality; consequently the narrative of 
 ihe miracle, vvhicli leaves deeper traces upon the fancy tlian 
 that of a more modest and unambitious wonder, must indispose 
 the undeveloped mind for a belief in ibe latter. Such then 
 being the immutable laws of the human understanding, the 
 Eternal Source of those laws, if be intended to guide mankind 
 l)y miracles (and verbal revelation is of that class) not by 
 reason, must have intended two things : First, that the great 
 mass of mankind in a low state of menial development, should 
 follow the most extravagant dreams of enlhusiasm and impos- 
 ture. Secondly, that in proj)ortion as the human mind in- 
 creased in knowledge, so it would reject the miraculous divine 
 guidance. I have examined this objection to the common 
 theological notions on Revelation and miracles, witb the utmost 
 impartiality and attention of wliich I am capable ; I bave done 
 so for manv vears, under a desii'c of finding it fallacious ; for 
 tbe superstitious fears inspired by my early education, were 
 not easily subdued ; but I never could discover even a |)lau- 
 sible answer. 
 
 " (iiG.) What I am about to say, is a result of the same in- 
 quiry, and by no means one of the concessions which the 
 opponents of religious prejudices frequently make foi- the sake 
 of allaying the alarm which their too unceremonious approach 
 to the popular idols may have raised. In the course of my 
 examination of verbal revelation and miracles, I have found 
 no convincing reason for denying that God may have, on some 
 ♦)Ccasions, put forth energies which do not belong to the 
 system of regular and invariable forces by which he conducts 
 the phenomena of nature. But I see no ground whatever 
 for believing that such extraordinary instances of occasional 
 divine activity, had human belief for their object. If God has 
 at any time acted visibly, either against or beyond the range 
 of the laws which he gave to his creation, he certainly must 
 have dcjie it for the sake of the thing thus performed ; and not 
 to give rise to historical or traditional narratives, to be believed 
 
APPENDIX. 1^5 
 
 in distant times. Within the nanow limits of the prol)ability 
 which tliese matters admit, I Ijelieve, that, besides tliat im- 
 mediate divine energy, attested hy llie recent existence of 
 nvAu on the Aice of this globe, the |iieservalion of the parents 
 of mankind, immediately after their lormalion, was an effect 
 not within the reach of the existing natural laws. Admitting 
 the immediate formation of one or more couples, especially of 
 the lower classes of animals, endowed at once with the instincts 
 which belong to their species, we may well conceive the man- 
 ner in which they would preserve themselves and propagate 
 their race. But man possesses no such instincts; and, if we 
 imagine one or more couples formed at once, in a slate of full 
 development, and then left to themselves, it w ill not be easy to 
 conjecture by what natural means, within the existing laws, 
 they could be preserved. We know how long infants are in 
 learning to see, — to measure distances, — to use their hands, — 
 and to walk. It seems indeed, very probable, that the acquisition 
 of these ])Owers would be still moie difficult to a human being, 
 who (by supposition) should have to obtain them when his 
 body had attained full growth. The provision of food for the 
 grown infants, which the fact of creation forces us to admit, 
 must have been made by an individual act of the creating 
 power, since the wonderful means provided by the law of pro- 
 creation, are totally excluded in the case before us. So far, I 
 am willing to admit, there is a strong conjectural ground for 
 the existence of a divine operation, which, like creation itself, 
 may be well ranked as a miracle ; yet not a miracle for show 
 (as the etymology of that word implies), but one which might 
 be considered as a personal act out of the reach of the laws, 
 whose operation could not commence but subsequently to thai 
 act. In a menial point of view, that is, in relation to the 
 human mind, this conjecture aflords a valuable support to the 
 vaiious grounds upon which our race, after having emerged 
 fiom that low state of intellect, which produces idolatry and 
 anthropomorphism, may, in such ages as the present, preserve 
 
\2i APPENDIX. 
 
 itself from panlheism, or the belief of an impersonal Creator, 
 — a necessarily constructive, but unconscious Deity. 
 
 " (27.) In regard to what is called revelation (nyIiIcIi to avoid 
 an^.biguity, I shall define a personal teaching of an individual 
 man by God), I feel confident that the established notions are 
 perfectly untenable. Those notions belong to a period of ini- 
 ])eifect development, and as it has been already shown, arise 
 from a gross mistake regarding the nature of belief and of evi- 
 dence. This has been more or less clearly perceived, even 
 in ages, when the belief in visions and verbal communications 
 fi'om an invisible world, was totally unshaken. We find com- 
 mon sense breaking out, and betraying its first perception of 
 the inadequacy of visions and miracles to establish truth, in the 
 Old Testament itself. Manoah, for instance, insists upon 
 having his own tests applied to the heavenly vision, that he 
 may be sure of the reality of a heavenly message. 1 cannot 
 ai this moment bring fo my recollection other instances of 
 the same kind, though I believe they are to be found in the 
 Bible ; but the suspicion of delusion is so natural, so thoroughly 
 giounded in nature, that men appear to be unable to feel 
 secure against it, except w hen, being cautioned to be upon their 
 guard on that point, superstition makes them at once impene- 
 trable to argument. Hence it is, that in appeals to nature, 
 especially to that nature which is best known to consciousness, 
 (I wish to speak without personal offence,) the very name of 
 theology deprives me of confidence ; for theology, as it is studied 
 among us generally, stifles the voice of nature within, and few, 
 even under the most sincere wish to listen to it, can perceive 
 its still small voice, drowned as it is by the loud and harsh 
 cries of authority. It is fortunate indeed, in such a case, to 
 have an attestation from nature herself, through one of her 
 most unprejudiced and distinguished favourites. Hear it then 
 in the following lines : — 
 
 ' The spirit thai I have seen 
 May be a devil, and ihe devil halh power 
 
APPENDIX. i'2.J 
 
 To assume a pleasing shape, yea, and, perhaps, 
 Out of my weakness and my melancholy, 
 (As he is very potent with such spirits) 
 Abuses me to damn me. Fll have grounds 
 More relative than this.' 
 
 The gi-ealest interpreter of nature has given us liere, her eter- 
 nal, immutable answer to tlie claims of visions and miracles 
 to be the foundations of religious truth. I will not, as I have 
 said of miracles, (for there is no essential ditference between 
 the two things in question,) I will not assert that God has 
 never used some extraordinary impressions on the senses, as 
 means of drawing attention to important truths, or rather, of 
 inclining the will of the rude and unthinking multitude to 
 follow the dictates of those whom he had endowed with the 
 high moral and intellectual qualities, which truly distinguish 
 his messengers for good to man. But in matters of truth 
 
 ' I'll hove grounds 
 More relative than this.' 
 
 The only safe grounds are those essentially connected with the 
 truth to be received. That all external phenomena, all impres- 
 sions on the senses, are irrelative to spiritual truth, is proved 
 by the crowd of impressions deemed miraculous whicli 
 the successive generations which have peopled, and at thi: 
 moment inhabit, this globe, make their ground for belief in 
 the most monstrous errors. Let us, my dear friend, have 
 grounds more relative for what we embrace as pure Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 " (f28.) And it is very remarkable, that all thinking men, 
 however prepossessed in favour of miraculous evidence, look 
 for proofs more relative to the truths in which they feel a deep 
 interest. This appears in the unconcern with which they treat 
 all miracles alleged against their settled belief. Now, if their 
 reason were thoroughly satisfied that miracles are the most 
 unquestionable stamp of divine communications, honest men 
 would not be so inconsistent as to turn away disdainfully from 
 
126 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 modern miracles ; nay, they would take sufficient pains to 
 weigh the evidence of the miracles which support the unhesi- 
 tating religious belief of olher sects, and other nations. Let 
 the supernaluralist be just upon such an important point ; let 
 him put aside that national pride, and that more extended 
 though weaker pride of race, which stand to him in lieu of 
 examination for his comfortable conviction that all miracles 
 but the Jewish and Christian, are totally unworthy of attention. 
 A man whose religious belief is founded upon the intrinsic 
 and rational worth of what he embraces as such, — he who is 
 p*u'fectly convinced that what most concerns every individual 
 man, must have been placed by the great Creator within the 
 reach of our mind, if it but honestly wish to exert its faculties, 
 — such a man may justly turn a deaf ear to those who call 
 him to examine the various and reciprocally opposed collec- 
 ti<ms of miraculous evidence, ancient and modern; for he is 
 convinced that God has not appointed that kind of evidence 
 for those at least, to whom he has not addressed it in itself 
 and originally : but it is most unreasonable, not to say arro- 
 gant, in those who contend that miraculous evidence, reduced 
 to testimony, is the direct and the highest proof of revealed 
 tiiith, to sit down contentedly in their own corner of the world, 
 closing their eyes to all other evidence of the same kind. 
 Protestants of this description are bound, at the least, to go to 
 Rome, and examine the detailed evidence of thousands of mira- 
 cles, proved to the satisfaction of a board of cardinals, who pass 
 judgment in conformity with a previously established code of 
 laws. ^lanya smile, and many a scowl too, will be raised on hear- 
 ing this invitation ; but what will the smilers and the scowlers 
 say to a similar answer from a follower of Mahomet, or of 
 Brahma, on their being invited to examine the miraculous 
 evidence of the Bible ? I, for one, well know what my address 
 would be on such occasion. I would desire the Mahometan, 
 the Hindoo, and all others, to reflect on the view of religion 
 which I myself call Christianity, — to compare it with his na- 
 tional religion, and judge between the two. If he appealed to 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 ihe wonders exhibited in past ages, I would tell liini tliat, in 
 my relative ignorance of Oriental history and total unacquain- 
 tance with the language of the documents adduced as the 
 testimony of ocular witnesses of his national miracles, I could not 
 judge their value and weight. I would mention the Christian 
 Scriptures, and my just confidence in their intrinsic value, just 
 to make him perceive the analogy of our respective situations 
 in regard to the written testimony of past ages. From the 
 certainty of this analogy, from the obviously insuperable diifi- 
 cully of his transforming himself into a Euroi)ean scholar, or 
 my becoming a learned Pundit, in good lime for making u]) 
 our minds on the respective value of our traditional evidence 
 of miracles, I hope 1 could infei' satisfactorily for a reasonable 
 man of any nation wlialever, that God cannot have made our 
 happiness depend upon the settlement of such a question. 
 Having conjured away that disturbing menial phantom, the 
 rest of the examination could not fail to be both improving 
 and satisfactory- to any couple of upright men, whatever might 
 be their respective conclusions at the end of the conference. 
 
 " (29.) Is this Rationalism, or is it already rank infidelity, — 
 a formal renunciation of all revelation ? I confess I am per- 
 fectly indifferent to the name by which others may choose to 
 express the simple fact that they do not agree with me. But 
 I am far from being indifferent to the removal of dark and un- 
 social prejudices, when there is a chance left of my being heard 
 on these important subjects. I wish, therefore, to request the 
 serious attention of men not totally blinded by the spirit of 
 orthodoxy, to a passage in the Old Testament which clearly 
 proves the infeiior value, as evidence, which Moses, or who- 
 ever was the wiiter of the book of Deuteronomy, sets on 
 miracles. The too common practice of talking a great deal of 
 the inspiration of the Old Testament, whilst by some it is read 
 in detached passages merely as a charm, and in total indiffer- 
 ence to the sense ; and by others it is kept as much as possible 
 out of view, in order to avoid the disturbance which, if read 
 attentively, it never fails to produce in the minds of thinking 
 
1-8 APPE.NDIX. 
 
 persons, — lliis practice alone is the cause of the general notion 
 that the Bible lays the ultimate foundation of religion on 
 miracle. The following passage deserves deliberate attention : 
 it is in the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy : — 
 
 " ' If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of 
 dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or 
 the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, 
 Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and 
 let us serve them ; thou shall not hearken unto the words of 
 that prophet, or of that dreamer of dreams : for tlie Lord your 
 God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God 
 with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after 
 ihe Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments 
 and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto 
 him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be 
 put to death.' 
 
 " This rationale of miraculous evidence deserves a degree 
 of consideration from those who conceive revelation to depend 
 on miracles, which they certainly have not bestowed upon it. 
 It discloses something very extraordinary relating to God, but, 
 at the same lime, most important in regard to miraculous evi- 
 dence. According to this oracular writer, God, after having 
 established a religion by miracles, may happen to assist false 
 pro])hets in the performance of really miraculous works, — or, 
 at least, may connive at the production of signs and wonders 
 perfectly undislinguishable from miracles, with a view to try 
 whether a people's belief hi their religion is proof against that 
 same kind of evidence which made them embrace it. Now 
 the question occurs : Did the Jew s act upon this revealed 
 command in regard to Christ ? Unless they were accustomed 
 to read the Old Testament like most divines amongst us, they 
 could not have overlooked a law so obviously applicable to the 
 miracles of Jesus and his apostles. Yet either the Christian 
 documents have suppressed the very perplexing argument 
 which this passage offered to the Scribes and Pharisees, or 
 both Christ and his learned contemporaries must have been 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 120 
 
 aware of the inherent and intrinsic weakness of miraculous 
 evidence. There are, indeed, in the Gospels deeply marked 
 traces of Christ's dislike to the popular notions regarding mi- 
 racles : the genuineness of the passiiges in which Jesus reproves 
 the Jews for their determination not to believe him except <»n 
 the ground of miraculous exhibitions, becomes unquestionable, 
 when we consider that those speeches are preserved by men 
 who fully partook of the popular notions in favour of miracu- 
 lous proofs of doctrine, of men who evidently did not under- 
 stand the meaning of such sayings, nor their inconsistency 
 with the abundance of miracles found in their narratives. 
 But I leave those who growid their Christianity on miracles 
 and inspired books, to grapple with these dilficulties. One 
 thing after all is evident, — that the Bible itself is not decidedly 
 in favour of the notion that the miraculous can be the ulti- 
 mate proof of a divine revelation. As to Christ himself, a 
 conviction that miracles must be the credentials of an extra- 
 ordinary messenger from God, is totally inconsistent with liis 
 reproof to the Jews, — ' except you see signs and wonders, you 
 will not believe.' If we follow up the consequences of the com- 
 monly established notions on this subject, the Jews were 
 perfectly right in not believing except under that condition. 
 But, in justice to them, it must be acknowledged that not even 
 the clearest miracles could relieve them from a most distressing 
 perplexity ; the book of Deuteronomy excludes all miraculous 
 evidence in regard to the Jews themselves, and condemns the 
 miracle worker to death. The Jew was bound to continue 
 what he was in regard to religion, even if heaven and earth 
 obeyed the voice of a reforming prophet : the sun might rise 
 in the west, and the seasons change their succession at his 
 command. The Jew, — the faithful, orthodox Jew, — would not 
 be moved at such signs, for he had the highest authority to 
 believe ' that the Lord his God was proving him.' Such was 
 his clear duty, according to the Law, even when the miracles 
 were worked before his eyes. What then can be expected 
 G 5 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 from the conscientious Israelite of our own limes, who has 
 only miracles in writing to convince him ? 
 
 " (30.) What then, I shall be asked, can prove a revelation 
 from heaven ? — 1 know nothing that can prove it except the 
 thing revealed. How the glorious thoughts, pregnant with 
 blessings to mankind, were imparled by the Father of lights 
 * at sundry times and in divers manners,' but especially ' in 
 these last days' to his greatest messenger, Christ, — whether 
 those thoughts arose according to the established laws of mind, 
 or were breathed, together with a vivifying moral spirit, into 
 the souls of the divine messengers, we have not means to 
 ascertain ; all that we are enabled to do is to appreciate the 
 value of the message itself. Revelation is precious because it 
 communicates truth. Gold might be miraculously drawn from 
 the bowels of the earth, but its miraculous origin could not 
 raise its standard when put into circulation with other gold. 
 The wisdom of God, I doubt not, has, in mercy to mankind, 
 chosen instructors, whom, by means known to God alone, he 
 has enabled to do for the world, what, as far as we can judge, 
 would be out of the power of any individual unsupported by a 
 peculiar divine assistance. Among the benefactors of man- 
 kind, I cannot find any one to compare to Jesus of Nazareth. 
 But if mankind cannot be benefitted by the truths he taught, 
 except through an historical conviction that those truths were 
 miraculously known, and miraculously proved, the truly divine 
 mission of Christ is doomed to remain without any thing like 
 an adequate result. Millions of men may continue to call 
 themselves Christians, but with no more reason than they 
 would be called Mahometans, if chance had united that name 
 with the circumstances of their birth and education. Unless 
 Christianity be what men, all over the world, may rationallif 
 accept as soon as education shall have awakened their con- 
 scientious reason, — that faculty which judges between moral 
 evil and good, — unless Christianity can be preached to the 
 poor without the assistance either of enthusiasm, or of his- 
 torical and critical proofs, we are forced to conclude that 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 151 
 
 either Chiist mistook the nature of his own religion, or that 
 his followers have perfectly disqualified it to answer the pur- 
 pose of universality for which he intended it. I know that it 
 will be said that the great mass of mankind are very imperfect 
 judges of moral truth. I answer lliat there is a still greater 
 mass, who are much less qualified to judge of historical truth. 
 I cannot conceive how the idea that Christianity must derive 
 all its efficacy as history, can maintain its hold on any mind 
 tolerably acquainted with the character of historical testimony. 
 Historical testimony in support of events analogous to those with 
 which a universal experience acquaints us is above the judgment 
 of the generality of i^eople. None but thoroughly educated men, 
 who have paid a particular attention to historical criticism, 
 can properly estimate the authority of the documents from 
 which the histor\' of England, for instance, or of France is 
 derived. How strange then is the supposition, that every one 
 who calls himself a Christian is capable of understanding the 
 reasons upon which it is asserted, that the existing historical 
 testimony to the reality of the Bible miracles is sufficient ! 
 An ingenious answer has been lately given to this difficulty, 
 by mv excellent friend Dr. H * « *, who says, * that it is 
 enough for the mass of the pec, e to know that the authen- 
 ticity of the Christian document? has stood the attacks of the 
 unbelieving writers.' But how do they know this, except 
 through tiie ccntroversionalists on their own side? How 
 can they be sure, that while the kw of the land threatens 
 with severe punishment any one who in a publication should 
 conclude against the authenticity of any considerable part of 
 the Bible, there are not many among those on whose authority 
 they rely, who secretly believe that the German critics of the 
 Rationalist school (as they are called) have had the best of the 
 argument! I cannot conceive how any unprejudiced person 
 to whom the difficulties of historical proof are known, can 
 deliberately assert, that the great mass of mankind of all 
 countries and ages can receive Christianity upon historical 
 ^rounds; especiallv, if upon such grounds it be their duty 
 
432 APPENDIX. 
 
 to believe in the miracles both of the Old and the New 
 Testament ! 
 
 I have, my dear friend, been writing on, day by day, and 
 only for a very short period each time, for my health has been, 
 and continues much worse than usual. I fear, therefore, that 
 you will find it difficult to collect any clear and distinct gene- 
 ral notion from the rambling thoughts which 1 have already 
 consigned to this letter ; as my strength does not allow me to 
 recast it, and reduce what I have said into one clear and 
 distinct view, I must take the liberty of sending to you this rather 
 loose collection of notes, requesting your attentive considera- 
 tion of them individually. It is of great importance to ascer- 
 tain whether these objections to some deeply rooted notions 
 which exist among all denominations of Christians are as 
 valid as I think, or not. [The only mahod by which we can 
 arrive at a perfect knowledge of the object of Providence in 
 the unquestionably great work which began with our era, 
 and has uninterruptedly proceeded up to the moment when, 
 in consequence of the moral impulse then given to a great 
 portion of mankind, I am anxiously exerting myself on the 
 subject of Christianity, — the only way to complete the Refor- 
 mation which Luther proclaimed, is to remove, one by one, 
 even' false notion which we may find connected with the pro- 
 fession of the gospel.] While employed in the removal of 
 individual errors, we should be upon our guard against the 
 usual bugbear, ' where shall we stop ?' — ' what will be left ?' 
 When we shall have removed what is positively not Christian- 
 ity, then, and not till then, shall we be able to perceive what 
 true Christianity is. 
 
 Ever, with sincere affection, 
 Your friend and brother, 
 
 J. BLA>XO WHITE. 
 The Uev. James Martineau. 
 
NOTE S, 
 
 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 Note I. ^^ More than Clement and Barnabas, who are excluded."— 
 Page 7. 
 
 Without entering upon the intricate question respecting the origin of the 
 first records of Christianity, and the relation of apocryphal to canonical 
 UTitings, it may be safely affirmed, that no one, at all acquainted with the 
 discussions to which they have led, can maintain the broad distinction, — the 
 distinction between inspiration and imposture, — commonly conceived to sepa- 
 rate the received from the rejected books. The external arguments usually 
 adduced, to support the authority of our present sacred writings, are reducible 
 to two: the simple antiquity of the books, attested by quotations from them, 
 and references to them, in ecclesiastical authors of the third and second cen- 
 turies : and the ascription of authority exclusively to them, by the writers and 
 the Catholic churches of the same period. The former of these evidences 
 may certainly be claimed for more than one of the apocryphal books : for 
 Epiphanius supposes " the Gospel of Cerinthus," and Jerome " the Gospel 
 acajrding to the Egyptians,*' to be of the number of those alluded to by Luke 
 in the preamble to his Gospel. And the latter of these arguments, whatever 
 weight it may have for the received Scriptures, will not be held conclusive 
 against the books now rejected and lost, by those who consider, on what 
 principles the church writers awarded their preference to certain works, and 
 their reproaches to others. Instead of dissenting from doctrines because 
 contained in apocryphal books, they threw away books as apocryphal, because 
 they contained obnoxious doctrine. Every thing which opposed the views of 
 the orthodox or dominant party, was to be put down; and the use of a Gospel 
 by an heretical (i. e., unsuccessful) sect was sufficient reason fur reviling and 
 rejecting it. For an admirable estimate of the testimony of " the Fathers," 
 respecting points of this kind, see " Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in 
 Search of a Religion," by Rev. J. Blanco White, vol. I., chap vii. 
 
134 NOTES. 
 
 Note 2. " By the murmurs and restlessness of imbecile rage^- Page 8. 
 
 Luke vi. 6 — 11. The account of this transaction by Matthew and Mark has 
 a much less vivid impress of truth and nature : see Matt. xii. 9—14 ; Mark iii. 
 1 — 6. If the enemies of Christ entertained a desire to entrap him, by taking 
 advantage of a Sabbath cure, it is surely not likely that they would themselves 
 broach the subject (as Matthew represents), and put him on his guard, by 
 directly asking his opinion about the lawfulness of healing on the Sabbath. 
 Luke's account, which exhibits our Lord, as himself observing their silent 
 curiosity on the subject, and starling the disputed question in a form which could 
 not but perplex them, is more probable. See Schleiermacher's Critical Essay 
 on the Gospel of St. Luke, in loc. 
 
 Note 3. ^^ From the different positions of the observers" — Page 9. 
 
 The calling of the first Apostles (Andrew, Peter; James, and John) is re- 
 corded in the following passages of the several Evangelists : Matt. iv. 18 — 22; 
 Mark i. 16 — 20; Luke v. 10, 11; John i. 37 — end. In comparing these 
 accounts, several discrepances present themselves, with respect to both the 
 place and the order of the transactions. 
 
 In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the scene is by the Lake of Galilee. 
 
 In John, the scene is in Judaea : the calls in Galilee being, according to this 
 Evangelist, those of Philip and Nathanael, who are not mentioned in the other 
 Gospels. 
 
 Matthew and Mark represent the two pairs of brothers as successively 
 called ; first Andrew and Peter ; then, after a short interval, James and John. 
 
 Luke makes no mention of Andrew, and represents the others as called 
 simultaneously. 
 
 John represents Andrew as called with himself (for the nameless one can 
 be no other) ; and Peter as subsequently called through the instrumentality 
 of his brother Andrew. Of James he is silent. It is obvious that this account 
 is entitled to the greatest degree of respect. 
 
 The casting of the demons into the swine is narrated in Malt. viii. 28 — 34 ; 
 Mark v. 1—20 ; Luke viii. 26-39. 
 
 According to Matthew, tiro demoniacs were cured ; according to Mark and 
 Luke, only one. Paulus and Schleiermacher suppose that the notion of 
 plurality was derived from the " Legion" of demons, and the plural form into 
 which this fancy of Ihe maniac threw the dialogue. The silence of Matthew 
 respecting the number of danons renders highly probable this explanation of 
 his number of men. 
 
 According to Luke, a considerable delay ensued between Christ's command 
 that the cure should take place, and its actual occurrence ; Matthew conveys 
 the idea that the cure followed instantly on the command. 
 
 Matthew's narrative implies, that our Lord explicitly sanctioned the belief 
 of a positive transference of demons from the maniacs to the swine, and 
 himself claimed in this event a two-fold miracle; first, the cure of the maniac; 
 
NOTES. i55 
 
 ihen, the maddening of the swine. Luke relieves us from the anxieties of the 
 latter half of this pretension ; in his narrative, Jesus himself asserts no other 
 miracle than the simple cure : all the rest may be an unauthorized inference 
 of the bystanders, suggested by a loss of some portion or the whole of the 
 herd, simultaneously with the restoration of the madman. If indeed the man 
 bad implored Christ to send the evil spirits into the swine, and the destruction 
 of the animals had instantly followed, the coincidence would perhaps have 
 been too remarkable to lie within the probable range of natural causes. But 
 it does not appear that the man preferred any such request. It is indeed said 
 (Luke viii. 32,) ^^ they [i. e. the devils) besought him, that he would suffer 
 them to enter into them" (the swine) ; but that these words describe a peti- 
 tion from the lips of the man, is an assumption not only unauthorized, but 
 plainly discouraged by the whole context. Wherever the man takes part in 
 the dialogue, (v. 28 — 30,) he is spoken of and he speaks of himself, in his o^^n 
 proper person, in the singular number; e.g. "Ae saw Jesus ;" " he cried out ;" 
 " what have / to do with thee," " / beseech thee, torment me not ;" " fit 
 said, ' Legion.' " The writer, by abandoning this form of expression in 
 V. 31, 32, indicates that he is no longer describing any speech of the maniac; 
 but a petition, which he supposes the demons themselves to convey to their 
 vanquisher ; and which, passing between superhuman spirits and the mind of 
 Christ, would be necessarily secret, imperceptible to the senses of bystanders, 
 and discoverable only by inference from the incident that followed. I admit, 
 that in Luke iv. 33, 34, we have an instance, in which a maniac personates 
 the evil spirits supposed to possess his body ; but such personation, however 
 natural in the frenzied speech of the lunatic, appears inadmissible in the sober 
 narrative of the historian. 
 
 Kole 4. "For instruction in righteousness." — Page 15. 
 The remark on the translation of this celebrated verse is not intended to 
 impugn the grammatical correctness of the Common Version. If indeed the 
 authority of the Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic versions, and of several early 
 ecclesiaslical writers were sufficient to justify the rejection of the Kal which 
 separates ^toirvtvaTOQ and oj(peXi[xog, the common rendering would be inad- 
 missible. But since by the general suffrage of manuscripts we must decide on 
 the retention of the particle, the two translations are critically on a par ; and 
 our preference of the one to the other must be determined by considerations 
 purely exegetical. The most plausible objection to the rendering, which for 
 reasons that were satisfactory to Grotius, Baxter, and others, I have adopted, 
 is this: — that the word " a/*o" appears to have no force in the passage, 
 which would indeed be improved, rather than injured, by its omission. The 
 function of this little word is to note the introduction of some additional 
 idea: and if we conceive the Aposlle to say, that "all divinely inspired scrip- 
 ture is also {i. e. in addition to its quality of inspiration) profitable," &:c., 
 his sentiment assumes the lameness of a truism or an anticlimax. Paul 
 
436 NOTES. 
 
 would hardly think it worth his while to announce respecting any writings, 
 that they are not only from God, but, moreover, useful. 
 
 This objection (which it is surprising that orthodox commentators have not 
 more frequently urged) appears to me conclusive against any view of the 
 passage, which represents the Apostle, in his description of certain sacred 
 books, as enumerating their excellencies in this order : 1st, their Divinity ; 
 2nd, their utility. — Yet this view has been taken, I believe, by all who have 
 adopted the altered translation. By embracing within our consideration the 
 13ih, 14th, and 15th verses, a different distribution of the author's sentiments 
 at once presents itself: v. 13. 
 
 I. — He speaks of certain selfish impostors, who will do mischief by mis- 
 leading the ignorant from the simplicity of the Christian faith. 
 
 II, — With the credulity of these victims of deception, he contrasts the 
 stability of Timothy's mind, well prepared against such seduction; 
 
 1. By the knowledge that Paul himself, the greatest living missionary of 
 Christ, bad been his instructor : v. 14. 
 
 2. By his early familiarity with such of the Hebrew scriptures, as were able 
 to prepare him wisely for the religion of the Gospel, — to light his path of 
 entrance into the peace and security of Christianity : v. 15. 
 
 Then having mentioned the importance of these writings to the pergonal 
 faith of Timothy, as an individual, Paul proceeds (v. 16,) to affirm their 
 additional importance to the public ejficiency of his pupil, as a professed 
 teacher of the Gospel among the Jews : and this I conceive to be the idea 
 introduced by the word also: all divinely inspired scriptures are useful, not 
 only as supports of your own faith, but also as instruments for convincing 
 others. The order, therefore, in which the qualities of the sacred books 
 alluded to are enumerated, is not, 1st, their Divinity; 2ndly, their utility: but, 
 1st, their usefulness to llie individual disciple ; 2ndly, their usefulness to the 
 public instructor. 
 
 If then the amended translation truly expresses the meaning of the Apostle, 
 he attempts to decide nothing respecting what books are divinely inspired ; 
 but simply points out the uses to which any books, shown to be inspired, may 
 be applied. It is true that he could not have written the passage, if he had not 
 held, that there w ere some writings for which this character might he claimed : 
 and if we proceed to determine by conjecture, what writings were in his 
 thoughts, we cannot be at any loss for probabilities to guide us. The only 
 parts of the Hebrew scriptures to which Paul's description applies, — the only 
 parts which could preserve in Timothy, and create in others, a belief that 
 Jesus was the Messiah — were obviously those which had supported the ex- 
 pectation of a Messiah, viz., the prophetical books. These writings constituted 
 the great store-house of arguments, to which the missionaries of the Gospel 
 had recourse in reasoning with Jews: and the instances are very few in which 
 appeal is made, by Christ or his Apostles, to any other portion of the Old 
 Testament, except the Book of Psalms. Historical facts are indeed alluded 
 
NOTES. 157 
 
 to, which are recorded in the Israelitish annals ; but no authority is ascribed 
 to these annals, beyond that which attaches to ordinary fidelity in narration. 
 
 The opinion of the Apostle cannot, then, be cited, except in favour of the 
 prophetical writings. And the sense in which he understood these to bo 
 inspired, was probably very different from that in which modern theologians 
 repeat the same atTirmalion. The whole extent of his doctrine we may 
 conceive to have been expressed by the Apostle Peter, (2 Pet. i. 21) : "Pro- 
 phecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake, 
 moved by the Holy Spirit ;" — that those also who recorded these speeches, 
 wrote by the Holy Spirit, — that in addition to the superhuman message, 
 there was a superhuman report of it, is a notion of which no trace can be 
 found in the apostolic writings. The whole amount, therefore, of Paul's 
 doctrine is, that the Prophets had a praeternatural knowledge of future events; 
 and that their communications were recorded in the prophetic books. By 
 the admission of these points, the theory of inspired composition obviously 
 gains nothing. 
 
 In defence of the meaning which I have assigned, in the Lecture, lo 
 ^lOTiVivcroQ, I have only to refer to Schleusner, who enumerates poets 
 among the perso»s to whom it may be applied. I shall probably be reminded, 
 however, of the technical distinction which divines have established between 
 " classical " and " theological " inspiration ; — and shall be asked, whether it 
 must not be of the latter that the Apostle speaks. The distinction is altogether 
 artificial and deceptive. It describes, not two meanings of the word inspira- 
 tion, but two very different receptions which we give to its claims. When 
 the writers of Greece or Rome intimate the pretensions of a poet, a Pythoness, 
 or an augur to divine influence, and when the Israelites affirm the inspiration 
 of their Prophets, the two claims are identical; both parties mean the same 
 thing, viz., that the sentiments and feelings of their great national authorities 
 have a superhuman origin : and the only difference (except that which attends 
 the Polytheistic nature of one religion and the Monotheistic of the other) is, that 
 we reject the first claim, and admit the second. And if we adopt the same 
 signification of such phrases in classical and in Hebrew writings, is it not 
 probable that in both they meant, neither quite so little as we ascribe lo them 
 in Pagan authors, nor quite so much as theologians extract from them in the 
 Bible ? They ascribe, indeed, a Providential origin to certain ideas ; but in 
 times and countries not enjoying much scientific cultivation, the distinction be- 
 tween the natural and the miraculous cannot be understood with any exactitude; 
 nor will that, w hich is simply providential in its effects be discriminated with 
 precision, from that which is supernatural in its cause. An interpreter who 
 assigns to this consideration its proper weight, while he avoids melting away 
 the Apostle's meaning into the supposed ^^ classical" sense of inspiration, 
 will not harden it into the rigid form of the " theological." 
 
138 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Note 5. " Experience in their noble and holy ojice." — Page 16. 
 No passages are more frequently adduced lo prove llie unlimited inspiration 
 of the Apostles, than the two, the true inlorprelation of which the foregoing 
 passage is intended to suggest. And certainly an influence that should literally 
 "teach them all things," — "bring all things to their remembrance, what- 
 soever Christ had said to Ihem,"— "guide them into all truth," — "show 
 them things locome," would amount lo the gift of universal infallibility. But 
 the very strength of the expressions, so obviously hyperbolical, far from encou- 
 raging, absolutely forbids any such construction. Understand them literally, 
 and they prove too much. The most orthodox upholder of the apostolic inspi- 
 ration will not maintain that the twelve knew "a// things" and were in posses- 
 sion of " all truth." — Some limitation then is inevitable. The promise is not 
 all-comprehensive. There will be liltlc hesitation in excluding from it sub- 
 jects of physical, chemical, physiological, and metaphysical inquiry; that Paul 
 was not acquainted with the Law of Gravitation, nor Peter with the Atomic 
 Theory, will be readily admitted. We must further proceed lo restrict their 
 acquaintance with whatsoever things Christ had said to them; for they differ 
 in their accounts of his discourses. And that they had foreknowledge of the 
 " things to come," even within the limits of their own personal history is con- 
 tradicted by Paul's assertion, that he went from city to city, " know ing nothing," 
 but that everywhere " bonds and afflictions awaited him," \N'here is this ex- 
 clusion of topics from the range of inspiration to stop? What title must be 
 shown, in order that a subject may retain undisturbed possession? By what 
 rule must we fix the line of demarkation, on one side of which every thing is 
 infallible. The usual answer is, that the Apostles' inspiration extended to 
 every subject, w ith which it befitted their mission that they should be familiar. 
 — And then the theologian proceeds lo stale the matters, of which he thinks 
 the Tw elve ought not to have been ignorant ; that is, he tells us what inspira- 
 tion he would have given, if the decision had been in his hands. It is evident 
 that by this means we make no approach lo the solution of our historical ques- 
 tion, but gain only a list of learned opinions about the fitness of things. — One 
 divine cannot conceive it to be proper that St. Peter should misunderstand a 
 Psalm ; another feels a repugnance to the idea that St. Paul could err in logic; a 
 third entertains insuperable objections lo St. James having expected to witness 
 a personal return of Christ to this world : and upon no other evidence than 
 the private feelings of individuals, one class of ideas after another is invested 
 with the dignity of inspiration, or deprived of it. To say, it was fit that on 
 certain topics Ihe Apostles should be unerring; therefore they were so; is a 
 species of reasoning, from a supposed propriety to an actual fact, which is 
 allogether inadmissible. If fitness is to be the test of inspiration, what is lo be 
 the test of fitness ? The whole advantage of inspiration disappears under the 
 operation of this rule. Its peculiar function is, to communicate truths inappre- 
 ciable by our natural faculties : but if, before we can be assured of its exist- 
 ence, we are to find out what truths are fit to be communicated, we have 
 
NOTES. 159 
 
 already perrormed for ourselves the very oflice in which it proposes to aid us ; 
 and instead of appreciating a statement, because we hold it to be inspired, we 
 hold that it is inspired, because we appreciate it. 
 
 The diflicully of laying down any rule for determining the extent of the 
 Apostle's inspiration, seems to recommend strongly a cautious interpretation of 
 our Lord's promises on the subject of their future lot. If by the " Holy Spirit " 
 which was to be their supporter or comforter, we understand their Divine 
 Commission (including the miraculous powers, and such occasional commu- 
 nications as that which sent Peter to Cornelius,) all the demands of our Lord's 
 concluding discourse appear to be satisfied. >'o preternatural inlluence upon 
 the understanding is promised ; and the natural operation of their mission 
 was sufficient to produce all the enlightening effects, of which Christ speaks 
 in the passages under consideration. It " guided them into all the truth," — 
 it "taught them all things" which their Lord had found them yet unable lo 
 bear, such as the calling of the Gentiles and the abrogation of the Law : it 
 brought to their remembrance "whatsoever things Christ had said," in re- 
 ference to these topics, and which, at the lime, had made no impression, be- 
 cause their import had not been comprehended. It " showed them," — 
 expounded to them, — "things to come," events v^hich, while Christ was 
 speaking, were approaching, \iz., his death, resurrection, and ascension; and 
 which, until their effects began to develope themselves, would remain a mystery 
 to the bewildered disciples. 
 
 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 Note 1. " Till they have received the Papal sanction," — Page 23. 
 A marked caution may be observed in recent Roman Catholic writers in this 
 country, when they speak on the subject of infallibility. Nevertheless, the 
 view which I have given of the doctrine of their church on this point, will be 
 found to receive the sanction of their most discreet representative, Mr. Charles 
 Butler : "Every ecclesiastical cause," he says, "maybe brought to him (the 
 Pope) as the last resort, by appeal; he may promulgate definitions and for- 
 mularies of faith to the universal church ; and when the general body, or a great 
 majority of her prelates, have assented to them either by formal consent or 
 tacit assent, all are bound to acquiesce in them. 'Rome,' they say, in such 
 a case, ' has spoken, and the cause is determined.' " In explaining the diffe- 
 rence between the Transalpine and Cisalpine opinions on the question of Papal 
 prerogative, Mr. Butler slates, that the advocates of the former " ascribe to 
 the Pope the extraordinary prerogative of personal infallibility, when he under- 
 takes lo issue a solemn decision on any point of faith. The Cisalpines affirm, 
 that in spirituals the Pope is subject in doctrine and discipline to the Church, 
 
i40 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 and to a general council, representing her; that he is subject to the canons of 
 the church, and cannot, except in an extreme case, dispense with them ; that 
 even in such a case his dispensation is subject to the judgment of the Church ; 
 that the bishops derive their jurisdiction from God himself immediately, and 
 not derivatively through the Pope." — " They affirm that a general council 
 may without, and even against the Pope's consent, reform the church. They 
 deny his personal infallibility, and hold that he may be deposed by the church, 
 or a general council for heresy or schism ; and they admit, that in an extreme 
 case, where there is a great division of opinion, an appeal lies from the Pope 
 to a future general council." It is obvious from this statement that theCisal- 
 pines transfer the infallibility, Mhich they withhold from the Pope "person- 
 ally" to the general council of Bishops who "derive their jurisdiction from 
 God himself immediately." — Book of the Roman Catholic Church, Letter 
 X. 6. 
 
 The Fathers of both the Greek and Latin churches speak in very magnifi- 
 cent terms of the inspiration of councils. 
 
 Symeon Slylites, the renowned ascetic, who, not content with eclipsing all 
 rivals in achievements of fasting and seclusion, crowned his virtues by chain- 
 ing himself to a rock for seven years, and living at the top of a pillar for thirty 
 more, wrote a letter to the emperor Leo in behalf of the council of Chalcedon. 
 The letter was composed about A.D. 460, and is preserved by Evagrius Scho- 
 lasticus. The council of Chalcedon (the fourth general council) was held 
 A.D. to I, for the purpose of rescinding all the acts of another of these inspired 
 assemblies previously held at Ephesus ; and in order to settle whether the 
 nonsense of Flavianus, or that of Eutyches, respecting the number of natures 
 in Christ, should be the orthodox essential to quiet in this world, and salvation 
 in the next. The Ephesian convention (called by theological courtesy " the 
 synod of robbers,") had manifested so holy a zeal for the Eutychian jargon, 
 that Flavianus died of the blows which he there received from episcopal fists. 
 The council of Chalcedon deposed and exiled his enemies. Of this assembly 
 Sj-meon Slyfites says : '* In my declared attachment to the faith of the six 
 hundred and thirty holy fathers assembled at Chalcedon, I take my stand upon 
 an actual revelation by the Holy Spirit : for if the Saviour is present among 
 two or three gathered in his name, is it conceivable, that among holy fathers, 
 so numerous and eminent, the Divine Spirit should not be present throughout ?" 
 — Evagr. Hist. Eccles. II. 10. 
 
 Note 2. ^^ Passive vehicles, no doubt, of wisdom not their own" — Page 24. 
 The words of Socrates are these : vvKToiia\iaQ ti ohliv a-iriix^ to. 
 yivofiiva. oiice yap aWrfKovQ Icpaivovro voovvTtQ, d(p' (i)V dXKrjXovQ 
 ^\a<7(p}]neli> v7re\dnJ3avov. — Hist. Eccles. i. 23. 
 
 Note 3. ^' JMists and marshes of human corruption." — Page 24. 
 For many admirable observations on ecclesiastical councils, see Jorlin's 
 
NOTES. 441 
 
 "Remarks on Ecclesiasiic.il History," vol I. p. 31. seqq. The conlcnlions 
 which disgraced these assemblies appear in some of the Fathers, to ha\e 
 wholly extinguished the belief in their infallibility. Gregory N'azianzen, at least, 
 in the following passage, declines the honour of participating in their inspira- 
 tion : " To say the truth, I have made up my mind to shun all conventions of 
 bishops ; for never did I know one that had any useful end, and did not occasion 
 an aggravation instead of a diminution of ills. For the wranglings and rivalry 
 which they excite (and you must not think that I mean to be OiTcnsive in 
 saying it) pass all the powers of description." — Epist. 55, Procopio. 42. In a 
 letter to another correspondent, he avows the same intention : " I am sick of 
 struggling against the jealousies of holy bishops, who render harmony impossi- 
 ble, and make light of the interests of the faith in the pursuit of their own 
 quarrels. For this reason I have resolved (as the saying is) lo try a new tack, 
 and to gather myself up, as they say the nautilus does, when it feels the storm ; 
 to gaze from afar at others buffetted and buffetting, intent myself on the peace 
 of heaven."* — Epist. 65, Philagrio, 59. Notwithstanding the frequency with 
 which the evidence of this Father has been appealed to against ecclesiastical 
 councils, to some of my readers, his poetical testimony on this subject may be 
 unknown ; the four most remarkable lines may be thus loosely rendered — 
 
 " Xay ask me not ; I'll never sit 
 
 AVliere geese and cranes in u.^roar fight- 
 Detected shame, and hate, and strife, 
 Assembled there, offend my sight." 
 
 Carni. x. 91. 
 
 Note 4. " * The greatest and most ancient and illustrious church,' and 
 ascribing to it a ' superior headship.' " — Page 31. 
 The whole passage of Ireneeus, in which these phrases are found, is thus 
 translated by (he author of the "Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a 
 Religion :" — " We can enumerate those bishops, who were appointed by the 
 Apostles and their successors down to ourselves, none of whom taught or even 
 knew tiie wild opinions of these men (heretics). However, as it would be 
 tedious lo enumerate the whole list of successions, I shall confine myself to 
 that oi Borne, the greatest, and most ancient, and most illustrious Church, 
 founded by the glorious Apostles Peter and Paul ; receiving from them her 
 doctrine, which was announced to all men, and which, through the suc- 
 cessions of her bishops, is come doivn to us. Thus we confound all those 
 who, through evil designs, or vain glory, or perverseness, teach what they 
 ought not ; for, to this Church, on account of its superior headship, every 
 other must have recourse, that is, the faithful of all countries ; in which 
 Church has been preserved the doctrine delivered by the Apostles."— Iren. 
 adv. Hseres. lib. iii. quoted in Travels, 6:c. vol. I. p. 30. 
 
 • It is impossible to render, without spoiling, the beautiful phrase, Ta tKi'iffi, 
 " the things yonder.*' 
 
14'2 >OTES. 
 
 Note 5. ** The silly credulity of Epiphanius , the implacable fury ofTer- 
 tullian, the frantic bigotry of Jerome" — Page 33. 
 
 The peculiar posilion which these and other ecclesiastical writers hold, as 
 the chief, and often the only, historical aulliorilies of their times, has interfered 
 scarcely less than theological prejudice itself, with the selllement of their real 
 claims to respect. To justify the epithets which I have applied to them is 
 only too easy -. the following gleanings from their writings may serve to give 
 the English reader an idea of these sainted men. 
 
 In his account of the Ebioniies, Epiphanius introduces a biographical notice 
 -of a personal friend of his, named Joseph, a convert to Christianity from Juda- 
 ism. The narrative is so illustrative of this Father's amusing credulity, that 
 were it not for its length, and the odious character of one of its episodes, I 
 would present it entire to the reader. The object of the memoir is, to set 
 forth the virtues of Joseph, and record the wonders of his conversion. Yet so 
 great is the simplicity of the pious Father, that his friend's memory profits 
 less by his eulogy, than it suffers from his statement of facts. For Joseph 
 appears (as will be seen by the following narrative) to have been singularly 
 unsusceptible of Divine illuminalion : and though, while he was tithe-proctor 
 among the Hebrews, he was favoured with four personal interviews with Christ, 
 and, by the power of Jesus, delivered from two dangerous maladies, and en- 
 abled to work a signal miracle, — he still continued a perverse disciple of Moses, 
 till a sound beating from some Jews whom he had offended in the exercise of 
 liis unpopular calling, a half-drowning in the river Cydnus, an introduction to 
 the Emperor Constanline, and a lucrative office under his administration, 
 opened his eyes to the truth. 
 
 He was originally one of the assistant officers of the Jewish patriarch Ellel 
 at Tiberias: and it was at the death-bed of that venerable person, that his 
 attention was first called to the Christian faith. The dying man sent for a 
 physician : and fortunately, at least for his soul, a Christian bishop appeared, 
 to perform the duties of medical attendant; for, under the guise of a lotion, 
 he received the holy water ; and escaped from the phials, both of medicine 
 and of wralh, by swallowing the episcopal mysteries. From this scene of 
 pious simulation all attendants were excluded : but Joseph, who appears to 
 have been of an inquisitive turn of mind, applied his eye to a crevice in the 
 door : and beholding among the mysteries within, a quantity of gold by no 
 means inconsiderable pass from Ellel's hands to the bishop's, he became ex- 
 ceedingly troubled in conscience about his continued alienation from the faith 
 of the Gospel. This uneasiness was increased when, after the patriarch's 
 death, he surreptitiously broke open the ecclesiastical treasury chest, which 
 lillel had kept sealed in his chamber, and found that the gold, though all 
 gone, had only made room for what the good bishop had justly regarded as 
 exceeding all price, — a copy of the Gospel of John, and the Acts of the Apostles. 
 The office of Hebrew Palriarcii was hereditary, and the son of Ellel, being 
 very young, was committed to the guardianship of Joseph, with others, till the 
 
NOTES. i45 
 
 age of pupilage should expire. The life of his dissipated ward proviilentially 
 carried on the guardian's prepossessions in favour of Christianity. For he 
 observed with astonishment, that while his own discipline and exhortations 
 failed to check the young man's career of vice, the magical power of Christ's 
 name and of the sign of the cross defeated his profligate designs, and super- 
 naturally protected Christian virtue from his hateful seductions. These 
 impressions, however, not being sufllcicnt to effect his conversion, our Lord 
 himself appeared t6 him, and claimed his faith. The vision was unsuccessful, 
 — even when renewed in a period of extreme illness, and accompanied with 
 a promise of recovery. A second sickness, giving occasion for a third appear- 
 ance of Christ, was followed by the same result. In these successive proffers 
 of his religion, Jesus, reversing the policy of the Sibyl, who at each return 
 with her prophetic books demanded severer terms, held forth more ample 
 promises to the unbelieving Joseph : and at the fourth visit, the gift of miracle 
 is imparted to him. Timid and hesitating, he proceeds to experiment upon 
 ju furious maniac of Tiberias; and by virtue of the sign of the cross, instantly 
 ejects the demon. Strange to say, he is still incredulous: and no further mira- 
 cles seem to have been wasted on so hopeless a subject. Indeed more 
 sublunary considerations were much better adapted to the temper of his 
 mind. Being shortly after sent on a mission to collect dues, and reform 
 abuses, for the Hebrew ecclesiastics, he incurred the enmity of some of his 
 nation, whom he had removed from places of trust and emolument. The 
 discontented forced their way to his apartment. It was at the luckless 
 moment when he happened to have before him a copy of the Gospels lent to 
 him by a Christian acquaintance. They beat him violently, carried him to 
 the synagogue, and repealed the castigation there : and, though he was 
 delivered from their hands by the friendly interposition of the bishop from 
 whom he had borrowed the Gospels, the persecution followed him on his 
 departure : and at a subsequent point of his journey, he almost lost his life by 
 being thrown into the river Cydnus. At this juncture, however, he was 
 recommended to the Emperor Constantine, — "that genuine servant of 
 Christ :" received oflTice and rank from him, with permission to prefer to him 
 any request that he might think proper. Inflamed with a sudden zeal for the 
 Gospel, he solicited and obtained a commission to build churches to Christ in 
 all the Jewish towns and villages ;— a task which no zeal had hitherto accom- 
 plished, lukev^arm Christians having excused themselves from the attempt on 
 the plea, that there was not a believer in the country.* — Epiphanius con- 
 
 • It is surjjrising, that the Irish Protestant Establishment has never availed 
 itself of so venerable a precedent, in favour of churches without congregations. 
 The words of Epiphanius are much to the point : the proposal was— citi 
 TcpocTa-^HaTOQ (SacnXUov oiKo^oi^ujcrai Xpi(7r<p iKKXnrriag sv toIq 
 ttoKkji Kai Kwjiaig tCjv lovdaiuv. iv^a Tig ovce 7roTe''i(Txv(rev oIko- 
 So^fjrrai iKKXrjaiag, ^id to fxi]Tt "EWijya, fiijTi 'Eafiape'iTtjv, i.ir}Tf 
 Xpi<TTiavbv, fikcov avTuiv tlvai. 
 
144 NOTES. 
 
 linues : "Josepli received written credentials with his appointment: and 
 went to Tiberias, carrying with him a letter of credit on the imperial treasury 
 for the expenses of the undertaking, and his own private salary. He began 
 his task in Tiberias. In that city there was already a spacious temple, called, 
 I think, the Adrianeum, which, remaining still incomplete, the citizens were 
 anxious to fit up as a public bath-house. Joseph no sooner discovered this 
 edifice, than he took advantage of it for his purpose : and finding that, up to 
 a certain height, it had been constructed of square stones, measuring four 
 cubits each, he began from that elevation to execute his design for an eccle- 
 siastical building. Quick-lime and other materials were of course indispen- 
 sable ; and he ordered six or seven lime kilns to ])e made outside the city. 
 The audacious and determined Jews resort to that black art {jinyyavi'iaQ) 
 which never fails them ; and, by tricks and magic, the brave fellows, yivva^ai, 
 contrive to damp the fire ; though their success was only temporary. At first, 
 however, the fire went down, and did no work, and appeared to have lost its 
 natural properties. Those who tended the kilns, and had the charge of the fuel, 
 finding that every thing stood still, explained the thing to Joseph, lie was 
 stung ^^i!h mortification; and burning with zeal towards the Lord, he rushed 
 out of the city, and called for water in one of those urns which the people of 
 those parts term Cacubia. A crowd of Jews had thronged to the spot, curious 
 to see what would be Joseph's resource, and the result of their own machina- 
 tions. In the presence of them all he took the urn; and with his finger having 
 made on it the sign of the cross, he loudly invoked the name of Jesus, and 
 spoke thus : * In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, w ho was crucified by the 
 common ancestors of myself and of this multitude now present, let this water 
 have power to overcome all the magic and incantations which these men have 
 practised, and to restore to the fire its natural qualities, that the house of the 
 Lord may be finished.' Ha\ing said thus, he sprinkled the water on each of 
 the kilns ; the spells were dissolved, and, in the sight of all, the fire blazed 
 up. The multitudes present, shouted, as they relumed : 'There is One God, 
 the helper of the Christians.' " — Adv. Ha-r., Lib. i. Tom. ii. Ebionai, Vol. I. 
 p. 1306, ColonicT, 1682. 
 
 Epiphanius appears to have been scarcely less credulous with respect to 
 matters under his own observation. He says, that " for the conviction of 
 unbelievers, fountains, and even rivers, are at the present day turned into 
 wine. At Cibyra, a town of Caria, there is a fountain which annually under- 
 goes this change, at the very hour when at the bidding of Christ, the atten- 
 dants at the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee, drew wine from the water 
 vessels, and presented it to the president of the feast. Another fountain of 
 the same kind exists at Gerasa in Arabia. I have myself drunk from the 
 fountain of Cibyra, and my brethren from that of Gerasa." — Adv. Har. Lib. 
 ii. Ha?r. li. Tom. i. p. 451. 
 
 The following may he taken as a specimen of this Father's skill in the inter- 
 pretation both of nature and of scripture: he says, "There is no bird that 
 
NOTES. 145 
 
 manifests such a love for its offspring as the pelican. The female, Nvhile 
 sitting on the nest to take care of her young, cherishes them with such tender- 
 ness, that she pierces their sides with her kisses, and they die of the wounds. 
 In three days the male bird visits the nest, and is deeply affected at finding 
 his young ones dead. Under the impulse of liis grief, he strikes his own side, 
 and opens wounds in il ; and the blood which flows thence, infused into the 
 wounds of the young birds, restores them to life. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ 
 had his side pierced by a spear, and immediately there came forth blood and 
 water. And he dropped his blood upon his young ones, — thai is, on Adam, 
 and Eve, and the prophets, and all the dead, — and enlightened the world, and 
 gave them life by his three days sepulture, and his resurrection. It is on this 
 account that he said by the Prophet, ' I am like a pelican in the w ilderness.' " 
 —Physiol, c. 8. 
 
 The reader will probably not think Jortin harsh in saying, that this Father 
 was " made up of hastiness and credulity," or in calling him " the father of 
 tales." 
 
 Gibbon has already enabled the English reader to form a just estimate of 
 the temper of TertuUian, by quoting a few^ sentences from the conclusion of 
 his tract upon the games. The whole passage deserves to be read : — 
 
 " What a spectacle is at hand in the Advent of the Lord, doubled, humbled, 
 withheld from triumph no longer ! What joy among the angels, what glory 
 for the saints rising to life ! What a kingdom for the just for evermore ! 
 What a city in the new Jerusalem ! For it will not be without its games ;— it 
 will have the final and eternal day of judgment, which the Gentiles now treat 
 with unbelief and scorn, — when so vast a series of ages, with all their produc- 
 tions, will be hurled into one absorbing fire. How magnificent the scale of 
 that game ! With what admiration, — what laughter, — what glee, — what 
 triumph shall I perceive so many mighty monarchs, who had been given out 
 as received into Ihe skies, even Jove himself and his votaries, moaning in un- 
 fathomable gloom. The governors, too, persecutors of the Christian name, 
 cast into fiercer torments than they had devised against the faithful, and 
 liquefying amid shooting spires of flame ! And those sage philosophers, who 
 had deprived the Deity of his offices, and questioned the existence of a soul, 
 or denied its future union with the body, meeting again with their disciples only 
 to blush before them in those ruddy fires ! not to forget the poets, trembling, 
 not before the tribunal of Rhadamanthusor Minos, but at the unexpected bar 
 of Christ ! Then is the time to hear the tragedians, doubly pathetic now that 
 they bewail their own agonies ; — to observe the actors, released by the fierce 
 elements from all restraint upon their gestures; — to admire the Charioteer, 
 glowing all over on the car of torture ; — to watch the wrestlers, thrust into the 
 struggles, not of the gymnasium, but of the flames. Yet no : even this spec- 
 tacle shall I forego, to revel with insatiable gaze in the dismay of our Lord's 
 own persecutors. * Here he is,' shall I say, * the Carpenter's Son,'—' the 
 Sabbath breaker,' — 'the Samaritan,' — 'the possessed.' Here is he, whose 
 
 H 
 
1-46 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 life you purchased from Judas ; — he, whom you buffeted, and scourged, and 
 spat upon, and presented with vinegar and gall. Here is he, whose body was 
 removed by the arts of his disciples, to support the tale of a resurrection, — or 
 by the anxiety of the gardener, lest his lettuces should be hurt by the feet of 
 visitors. What praetor or consul, or questor or priest, can purchase you by 
 his munificence a game of triumph like this? Yet we, by the imaginative 
 power of faith, enjoy a foretaste of it already. And what must we say of those 
 reserved felicities, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and it hath 
 never entered the heart of man to conceive ? I flatter myself they will be 
 more grateful than the Circus, or the Stadium, or the stage-box itself." — De 
 Spect. c 30. 
 
 No one can fail to acknowledge the pertinency of the late Dr. Arnold's ques- 
 tion, *' Who would value for any church, or for any opinion, the testimony of 
 such a man as TertuUian ?" — Life, vol. ii. letter 134. 
 
 Jerome's theological violence might receive the credit of sincerity, if his 
 whole life were not in conformity w ith the episcopal policy of siding with the 
 strongest party. The dispute which most severely agitated his times, was 
 respecting the tenets and writings of Origen. This father, during the two 
 hundred years which had elapsed since his death, had been held in the highest 
 esteem, and thought to confer great honour upon the church by his uncom- 
 mon learning, and his pretensions to philosophy. Jerome had ranked himself 
 amongst his most ardent admirers; had translated many of his works for the 
 use of the Latin churches, and promised to translate more ; had boasted of 
 being his imitator; and affirmed it to betray sheer ignorance to deny, that 
 after the Apostles, Origen was the chief glory of the church.* In the year 
 385, however, Alexandria received a new bishop, Theophilus, — a man who 
 was vehemently opposed to the followers of Origen. His hatred to the 
 Origenists proceeded, not from any religious zeal, but from some personal 
 offence which he had received from the monks of the Nitrian desert. These 
 monks had interfered with some ambitious and artful designs of the bishop ; 
 and he vented his indignation, by denouncing their favourite religious 
 tenets and writings, — which were those of Origen. Imperial edicts were 
 obtained against them; popular fury was dehberately excited ; ignorant de- 
 serters from the persecuted party were made to swear that in a certain dark 
 cavern they had seen Origen tormented in hell fire ; the books of the once 
 revered father were prohibited ; his followers driven from Egypt, Syria, and 
 Cyprus; and inhuman attempts made todeprive them of shelter and hospitalityin 
 their flight. All this Jerome not only sanctioned, but instigated ; and even wrote 
 again and again to Theophilus, reproaching him with his lenity to the heretics. 
 He boasts of his share in these proceedings : " The rescripts of the Emperors, 
 which order the expulsion of the Origenists from Alexandria and Egypt, were 
 issued at my suggestion : that the Roman bishop detests them with so in- 
 
 * Rufin. in Hieron. lib. ii. Hieron. Op. ii. torn. iv. par. 2, p. 42. — Edit. Be- 
 nedict. 
 
NOTES. i 47 
 
 tense an aversion, is Ihe effect of ray advice : that the whole world has recently 
 been in a blaze of haired against Origen, who was once read with perfect 
 composure, is the work of my pen." In a letter to Theophilus he says, 
 " Many of the saints are far from being pleased w ith your patient treatment of 
 this abominable heresy : and while you vainly expect to correct by your lenity 
 an evil that preys upon the vitals of the church, they think that, in giving an 
 opportunity for the repentance of a few, you foster the audacity of the WTetches, 
 and strengthen their faction." Whether Theophilus only wanted a flapper 
 like this, to adopt a course so truly congenial to his own temper, it is impossi- 
 ble to say : but his vigour appears shortly after to satisfy even his ardent corres- 
 pondent ; for in another letter, wTitten w ithin a year of the former, Jerome 
 says; "I write briefly to assure you, that the zeal of your emissaries for the 
 faith, their activity in exploring the districts of Palestine for heretics, their per- 
 severance in hunting the creatures to their dens and dispersing them, will 
 give a triumph to the whole world, and fiU it w ith the glory of your victories ; 
 the multitude wiU gaze with exultation at the standard of the cross lifted at 
 .Alexandria, and the brilliant trophies won from heresy. Go on in your course 
 of vigour and of zeal. You have show n that hitherto your silence has been a 
 stroke of policy, not an imbecility of wiU. For, to speak candidly to your 
 lordship, we used to lament that you were so patient ; and, ignorant of the 
 tactics of our leader, were eager for the destruction of these wretches. But I 
 see, you kept your hand aloft so long, and suspended the blow, only to strike 
 more terribly." — Epistolae 58, 59, Hieron. Op. torn. iv. part 2, pp. 597, 598, 
 Edit. Benedict. 
 
 Note 6. ^^ Justified, not by its evidence, hut by its expediency." Page 35. 
 
 This justification of the pretensions of the Roman Catholic church has been 
 occasionally insinuated by some of its less cautious defenders. One of its 
 most ingenious living advocates, the editor of " Captain Rock," has ventured 
 upon this dangerous ground. In his " Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search 
 of a Religion," he devotes a chapter (the 19th) to an inquiry info the opera- 
 lion of "human policy," "as a subordinate instrument," in maintaining the 
 " permanence, indefectibilily, and unity " of the Catholic Church : and he 
 wanders so far in tracing this course of " policy," that one wonders how any 
 one, who is found straying so near the camp of the enemy, can be received, 
 without suspicion of treachery, among his friends. 
 
 " To return," he says, "to the more directly human means, by which the 
 stability of the Catholic Church has been thus wonderfully preserved, — we 
 have seen that to the maintenance of entire and changeless unity among her 
 children, aU the energies of her most enlightened pastors have in all times been 
 directed ; and such a system of union being, in fad, indispensable both to the 
 peace and durability of their church, it is of importance to enquire by w hat 
 they so well succeeded in efl"ecting it. Was it by throwing open the scriptures 
 to the multitude ? Was it by leaving, like modern reformers, the right of 
 
 h2 
 
148 NOTES. 
 
 judgment unfellered, and allowing every man lo interpret the sacred volume 
 as he fancied ? Far from it ; they were as little Protestant on this point as on 
 all others. They asked with St. Paul, " Are all Prophets ? are all Teachers ?" 
 They knew, with St. Peter, that there are in the scriptures " things hard to 
 be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest lo their own destruc- 
 tion." They saw the consequences of the first steps of dissent in the random 
 courses of the heretics of their day." * * * * « The heads of the church con- 
 tinued invariably to act upon the- system of requiring all within the fold to 
 follow one Shepherd; and if any resisted or dissented, cast them forth from 
 the flock. To this exclusion, no less awful a penalty was attached than the 
 forfeiture of eternal salvation." 
 
 The plain doctrine of this passage is, that the rights to prohibit enquiry, to 
 withhold the scriptures, to inflict excommunication, and lo threaten damna- 
 tion, were expedient assumptions for the support of a vast ecclesiastical corpo- 
 ration. To assure the people that the heretic incurred the " forfeiture of 
 eternal salvation,"* was among " the more directly human means," of 
 upholding the church. It was then, after all, a trick, and not a truth I— 
 Travels of an Irish Gentleman, &c. vol. i. pp. 191, 194. 
 
 NOTES TO LECTURE III. 
 
 Note 1. " Clothe himself with the attributes of infallibility ." Page 46. 
 
 That the assumption of infaUibility lurks in the very principle of dogmati- 
 cal rehgion, it is easy to render evident in theory : the following remarkable 
 passage, from the pen of one of the most powerful of English writers, will ex- 
 emplify the fact. So ingenuous an avowal of the moral sentiments which cha- 
 racterize the bigot, is rarely to be found in authors of merited repute. 
 Throughout the passage, it wiU be observed, Mr. HaU not merely applies to 
 belief and unbelief epithets descriptive only of moral qualities ; but treats 
 dissent from his notions as a resistance to divine authority, and affirms that 
 the adoption of them, being a prerequisite to the divine approbation, is of more 
 transcendent merit than any personal integrity. He is passing judgment on 
 the act of Theophilus Lindsey, in resigning a benefice on his adoption of 
 Unitarian opinions : 
 
 " We cannot permit ourselves to place sacrifices to error on the same foot- 
 
 • Quisquis ergo ab hac Catholicas Ecclesise fuerit separatus, quantumlibet lau- 
 dabiliter se vivere existimet, hoc solo scelere, quod a Christi unitate disjunctus 
 est, non habebit vitam ; sed ira Dei manet super eum. This sentence is part of a 
 circular letter addressed to the Donatists by a council of Numidian bishops, 
 assembled at Zerta or Certa. Ttie letter is the production of Augustin, who had 
 himself been guilty of the Manichean heresy. — August. Op. torn. ii.p. S47, Edit. 
 Benedict. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 149 
 
 ing as sacrifices to truth, without annihilating their distinction. If revealed 
 (ruth possesses any thing of sanctity and importance, the profession of it must 
 be more meritorious than the profession of its opposite ; and, by consequence, 
 sacrifices made to that profession must be more estimable. He who suffers in 
 the cause of truth is entitled to admiration; he who suffers in the defence of 
 error and delusion, to our commiseration; which are unquestionably very 
 different sentiments. If truth is calculated to elevate and sanctify the charac- 
 ter, he who cheerfully sacrifices his worldly emolument to its pursuit, must be 
 supposed to have participated, in no common degree, of its salutary opera- 
 lion. He who suffers equal privations in the propagation of error evinces, it 
 is confessed, his possession of moral honesty ; but unless persuasion could 
 convert error into truth, it is impossible it should impart to error the effects 
 of truth. Previous to the profession of any tenets whatever, there lies an 
 obligation on all to whom the light of the Gospel extends, to believe the truth. 
 We are bound to confess Christ before men, only because we are bound to 
 believe on him. But if, instead of believing on him, we deny him in his 
 essential characters, which is the case with Socinians, the sincerity of that 
 denial will indeed rescue us from the guilt of prevarication, but not from that 
 of unbelief. It is possible at least, since some sort of faith in Christ is posi- 
 tively asserted to be essential to salvation, that the tenets of the Socinians may 
 be such as to exclude that faith : that it does exclude it, no orthodox man can 
 consistently deny ; and how absurd it were to suppose a man should be entitled 
 to the reward of a Christian confessor, merely for denying, bona fide, the doc- 
 trine which is essential to salvation I The sincerity which accompanies his 
 profession, entitles him to the reward of a confessor : the error of the doc- 
 trine he professes, exposes him, at the same time, to the sentence of con- 
 demnation as an unbeliever ! If we lose sight of Socinianism, for a moment, 
 and suppose an unbeliever in Christianity in toto, to suffer for the volun- 
 tary and sincere promulgation of his tenets, we would ask, in what rank 
 are we to place this infidel confessor? Is he entitled to rank with any ot 
 the confessors? If he is, our Saviour's terms of salvation are essentially 
 altered; and though he pronounces an anathema on him who shall deny 
 him before men, the sturdy and unshaken denial of him in the face of worldly 
 discouragement, would answer, it seems, as well as a similar confession. 
 Men are left at their liberty in this respect ; and they are equally secure of 
 eternal happiness, whether they deny or whether they confess, the Saviour, 
 providing they do it firmly and sincerely. If these consequences appear 
 shocking, and the negative be asserted, then it is admitted that the truth of 
 the doctrine confessed, enters essentially into the inquiry, whether he who 
 suffers in his opinions, is to be, ipso facto, classed with Christian confessors. 
 Let it be remembered, that we are not denying that he who hazards his worldly 
 interest, rather than conceal or dissemble his tenets, how false and dangerous 
 soever they may be, is an honest man, and, quoad hoc, acts a virtuous part ; 
 but that he is entitled to the same kind of approbation with the champion of 
 truth. That the view we have taken of the subject is consonant to the scrip- 
 
150 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 turos, will not be doubled by those who recollect (hat St. John rests his attach- 
 ment to Gaius and to the elect lady, on the truth which dwelt in ihem ; that 
 he professed no Christian attachment, but for the truth's sake ; and that he 
 forbad Christians to exercise hospitality, or to show the least indication of 
 friendship to those who taught any other doctrine than that which he and his 
 fellow Apostles had taught. The source of the confusion and absurdity w hich 
 necessarily attach to the opinions expressed on this subject, consists in con- 
 founding together moral sincerity and Christian piety. We are perfectly 
 willing to admit that the latter cannot subsist w ithout the former ; but we 
 are equally certain that the former is by no means so comprehensive as neces- 
 sarily to include the latter. We should have imagined it unnecessary to 
 enter into an elaborate defence of so plain a position as this, that it is one 
 thing to be what the w orld styles an honest man, and another to be a Christian, 
 — a dislinclion, obvious as it is, sufficient to solve the whole mystery, and to 
 account for the conduct of Mr. Lindsey, without adopting the unmeaning 
 jargon of his biographer, w ho styles him, in innumerable places, the venera- 
 ble confessor. How repugnant the language we have been endeavouring to 
 expose, is to that which was held in the purest and best ages of the church, 
 must be obvious to all who are competently acquainted with ecclesiastical 
 history. The Marcionites, we are informed by Eusebius, boasted of their 
 having furnished a multitude of martyrs, but they were not the less on that 
 account considered as deniers of Christ. Hence, when orthodox Christians 
 happened occasionally to meet at the places of martyrdom with Montanists 
 and Manicheans, they refused to hold the least communion with them, lest 
 I hey should be supposed to consent to their errors. In a word, the nature 
 of the doctrine professed must be taken into consideration, before we can de- 
 termine that profession to be a Christian profession ; nor is martyrdom entitled 
 to the high veneration justly bestowed on acts of heroic piely, on any other 
 ground than its being, what the term imports, an attestation of the truth. 
 It is the saint which makes the martyr, not the martyr the saint." — Robert 
 Hall's Review of Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey, p. 240. 
 
 This passage throws no disguise over the consequences which I have en- 
 deavoured to attach to the Protestant idea of orthodoxy. It appears, 
 
 That no one who disputes Mr. Hall's sense of scripture can acquire, by 
 any acts, however noble or generous, a title to " any exercise of hospitality, or 
 the least indication of friendship." 
 
 That heaven is a place for those who have alighted on the right interpreta- 
 tion of certain ancient books ; and that each man is to expect to meet there 
 with his own sect. 
 
 That hell is a place for men of " moral honesty," — for men who " act a 
 virtuous part ;" where they lament, "bona fide," that they were not able to 
 perceive the deep interest they had in being orthodox. 
 
 That the " honest man," if a heretic, loses his eternal life no less than the 
 " dissembler," who affects orthodoxy though persuaded of its falsehood : the 
 only difference being, that, during life, the dissembler gets the credit of being 
 
NOTES. 
 
 151 
 
 a saint, the honest man Ihal of being an outcast. Every wise heretic therefore 
 will be a hypocrite ; since he loses nothing in the other world, and is a great 
 gainer in this. 
 
 It is surprising that a mind so capacious as Mr. Ilall's should fail to per- 
 ceive the predicament into which the evidences of revelation are brought, by 
 ascribing to Christianity such notions as these. If this be the internal cha- 
 racter of the Gospel, no external testimony could prove it true. The moral 
 evidence against the foregoing propositions exceeds in strength any concatena- 
 tion of historical proofs, in favour of the Divine origin of the system said to com- 
 prise them. I admit that the language of scripture to which he appeals, and a 
 multitude of other passages, do offer very startling j9?7>«a facie evidence in 
 favour of his view of Christianity; that there is a salvation affirmed to be 
 absolutely dependent upon faith, and an everlasting damnation declared to be 
 consequent on mere unbelief ; that this faith and unbelief cannot, by any inter- 
 preter's wand, be conjured into virtue and sin; and that if the salvation 
 promised, and the condemnation threatened, mean the awards of a future life, 
 it is useless to mystify the fact, that Christianity is a religion strictly exclusi\e. 
 To the other life, however, these w ords have, I apprehend, no reference what- 
 ever. The explanation of them does not belong to the subject of this note : 
 but having pointed out the logical bearings of Mr. Hall's argument, it seemed 
 incumbent on me thus briefly to hint at the scriptural way of escape from 
 its most revolting conclusions. 
 
 The insulting practice of applying terms descriptive of moral depravity to 
 supposed intellectual errors was much in favour w ith Mr. Hall. It is to be 
 regretted that one who could so powerfully hurl the bolt of reason should con- 
 descend to roll these mimic thunders on the imagination. He is very angry 
 that Unitarians should not like to be called after Socinus ; and in assuring 
 them that they ought to feel honoured by association with the great heresiarch, 
 
 he says : 
 
 " In the esteem of all but themselves they have descended many degrees 
 lower in the scale of error, have plunged many fathoms deeper in the gulph 
 of impiety ; yet with an assurance of which they have furnished the only ex- 
 ample, they affect to consider themselves injured by being styled Socinians, 
 when they know, in their own consciences, that they differ from Socinus only 
 in pushing the degradation of the Saviour to a much greater length ; and that, 
 in the views of the Christian world, their religious delinquencies differ from 
 his, o7ili/ as treason differs from sedition, or sacrilege from theft. 
 Let them not be designated by a term (Unitarian), which is merely coveted 
 by Ihem/or the purpose of chicane and imposture"— ^ohen Hall's Review 
 of Gregory's Letters, p. 199. 
 
 The language of infaUibility has a tendency to spread from one subject to 
 another ; and from dogmatic theology it has recently passed into questions of 
 ecclesiastical polity. According to Rev. Mr. Gathercole, " all Dissenters are 
 actuated by the Devil ;" and " the curse of God appears to rest heavily upon 
 them ;" and " every Dissenter, in choosing his own teacher, despiseth and re- 
 
152 NOTES. 
 
 jecteth God, in despising and rejecting his regularly appointed ministers, 
 who are his representatives, acting in his name, and in virtue of the 
 authority which he has committed to them, through a medium of his appoint- 
 ment." — Galhercole's Letters to a Dissenting Minister, quoted in Rev. E. 
 Stanley's Observations on Religion and Education in Ireland, p. 18. 
 
 Mr. Hall's zeal for Christianity, and Mr. Galhercole's for his Church, exem- 
 plify two out of the three steps indicated in the Aphorism of Coleridge : " He, 
 who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by loving his 
 own Sect or Church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better 
 than all." — Aids to Reflection. Moral and Religious Aph. XXV. 
 
 Note 2. " The city opens its gates to none, but those that see the obelisk." 
 — Page 47. 
 
 I am hnppy to. be able to claim for this illustration, the sanction of an autho- 
 rity so admirable in matters either of logic or of taste, as Rev. J. Blanco 
 >Yhile. A name so grave steps in most opportunely to shelter me from the 
 charge of levity, in the use of an analogy, which from the palpable form into 
 which it throws an important principle, has long been a favourite with me ; 
 but, from the conventional solemnity of theological argument, a very timid 
 one. I believe indeed that, if there be any thing ludicrous in the illustration, 
 i! arises merely from its truth: and the reasoner would be placed under a 
 hard condition, if he were required to point out absurdity, without exciting 
 any perception of the absurd. It may not be uninteresting to my readers to 
 observe the different, and, I am conscious, the very superior manner in which 
 the idea is handled by Mr. White. 
 
 " I have already, incidentally, illustrated the theological notion of pride 
 of reason by what (if the same interests, internal and external, which occa- 
 sion this clamour against reason were involved) would certainly have been 
 c-alled the pride of sight. Allow me to dwell once more on the nature of 
 thai very considerable vice. Pride of sight would be defined, an inordinate 
 value set on the individuaV s power of vision. The most approved and 
 meritorious method to avoid this criminal excess would be to put out one's 
 eyes. The person who had performed this noble act of self-denial should be 
 entitled to declare, uncontradicted, that he never before had seen so well. He 
 should, in consequence of the superiority of this new sight, be chosen leader 
 of other men who still kept those delusive organs, the eyes. The sacrifice of 
 the eyes would be offered up as a testimony of reverence to the Creator of 
 Light, as that of reason is now considered an appropriate tribute to the foun- 
 tain of it. Of two men who looked, apparently with the same intensity, at a 
 remote and indistinct object he who asserted that he saw even the minutest 
 parts, and denied the possibility that any good and honest person could differ 
 from himself in the description, should be declared thereby to possess the 
 virtue of humbleness of sight; he, on the contrary, who confessed that his 
 eyes could not discover what the other man said he saw, but granted that he 
 
NOTES. 155 
 
 might be allowed lo enjoy his view wilhoul blame, should be charged with 
 pride of sight in a most offensive degree. Though both were exerting iheir 
 power of vision under the light of the same sun, and had their eyes equally 
 open, the latter should be accused of despising and hating the light of heaven, 
 and be strongly suspected of tvinking ; if this could not be proved externally, 
 it should be firmly believed that he had an internal power of paralyzing his 
 optic nerve, and making himself stone-blind. The happy observer of such 
 parts of the remote object as he, in the same breath, declared to be invisible, 
 should earnestly call upon the other, as if he would save him from deaih and 
 infamy, to renounce his pride of sight, and agree to see the same things 
 which he (the adviser) had, in his great humility of vision, firmly deter- 
 mined to discover. Such should be the moral law of the Pride of Sight." — 
 Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy, pp. 84, 85. 
 
 There is an amusing satirical dialogue by Erasmus, which, having suggested 
 to me the comparison between the delusions of the intellectual and the corpo- 
 real vision, deserves to be pointed out for the entertainment of my readers. 
 It is entitled 'Exorcisraus, sive Spectrum ;' and describes the arts by which 
 more than one theological hoax was once passed upon the credulous inhabi- 
 tants of Yorkshire. The usual order of things is inverted by Erasmus, who 
 makes the conjuror a layman, and exemplifies the delusion in a priest. The 
 trick, however, v^hich occupies the greater part of the dialogue, and of which 
 the priest is the object, is too long a story to admit of quotation : and indeed 
 it is another exercise of ingenuity by the same author, which alone illustrates 
 my present subject, the superstition of the eyes. Near London lived a 
 waggish country gentleman, of the name of Pool. "With him, and a parly of 
 friends," says the narrator, " we were riding to Richmond (in Yorkshire; ; 
 and of our number were several whom you could not but call sensible men. 
 The sky was singularly clear, not shaded by the shghtest cloud. Suddenly 
 Pool, looking intently overhead, crossed himself repeatedly on the forehead 
 and breast; and with features expressive of amazement, exclaimed to himself, 
 'Good God! what do I see?' — When the companions who were riding next 
 him asked, what it was that he saw, he only crossed himself more vehemently, 
 and said, * Merciful Heaven ! avert the omen !' Impatient for an explanation, 
 his companions pressed round him: and pointing with his finger to the part 
 of the sky on which his eyes were slill fixed, he said, 'Do you not see there 
 a huge dragon, armed w ith golden horns, and a tail coiled upwards ? ' When 
 they answered no ; they could not see it, he bid them look harder, and kept 
 pointing out the place : and at length one of them, afraid of seeming to have 
 no use of his eyes, protested that he saw it too. His example was followed 
 by one after another; for it appeared not creditable to miss seeing what v^as so 
 evident. And to make a long story short, in three days, all England had 
 heard the rumour of this mystery. — Nor were there wanting those, who pre- 
 pared grave commentaries on its meaning."— Colloquiorum Erasmi Opus Au- 
 reum. Exorcisraus, sive Spectrum. 
 
 H 5 
 
lo4 NOTES. 
 
 Note 3. *' Calvin, Beza, and Me land hon dealt relentlessly m the persua- 
 sion of the prison and the stake." — Page 50. 
 
 In turning from the writings to the acts of tlie Reformers, the only surprise 
 is, that they persecuted so little. The fierce language in which they describe 
 all departures from their own theology, and their constant ascription to heresy 
 of a diabolical origin and a damnable end, excite an expectation of more 
 practical cruelty than their hves exhibited; and it is satisfactory to believe, 
 that the tendencies of their personal characters interposed a check, in so many 
 instances, on the natural operation of their system. Still, there is no want of 
 instances, displaying a melancholy consistency between their conduct and 
 their bigotry of speech. Luther, who called the king of England a fool and an 
 ass, a blasphemer and a liar, and Cardinal Wolsey a public monster, detes- 
 table to God and men, was far from contenting himself with equally innocu- 
 ous displays of WTath against opponents nearer home. Carolostadt, his coad- 
 jutor, whose only offences were, that he differed from Luther about the Real 
 Presence, and dared to proceed ^^ilh the Reformation in his absence, found 
 himself an exile from Wiltemberg, through the influence of the great Reformer; 
 driven from place to place, he wrote letters to the people who had been under 
 his pastoral care ; they were summoned by the tolling of a bell to hear the letters 
 read, and when told that he had signed himself " Luther's Exile, condemned 
 without hearing," they wept aloud. In his persecution of 3Iuncer, Luther 
 cannot be justified by the pait which that remarkable man took in the insur- 
 rection of the Westphalian and Saxon peasantry ; for Muncer had not joined 
 the insurgents, when the Reformer procured his expulsion from Mulhausen ; 
 nor does any charge appear to have been brought against him, beyond that of 
 doctrinal dissent from some of Luther's notions. " He began to preach," 
 says Sleidan, " not only against the Roman pontiff, but even against Luther 
 himself." 
 
 But there is nothing in the history of Lulher, which can be compared with 
 the atrocity of Calvin, in the seizure, trial, and execution of Servetus. It may 
 be fairly doubted whether the Saxon Reformer, who died six years before this 
 tragedy at Geneva, would have sanctioned the proceedings of his Swiss fellow- 
 labourer. Perhaps, however, it is well for his memory, that he did not live 
 to be submitted to this test; for of all the distinguished Reformers living at 
 the time, there is not one, except witiiin the heretical confines of Poland and 
 Transylvania, who did not give an avowed support to Calvin. Beza wrote 
 two successive works in defence of the general doctrine that heretics ought to 
 be punished by the magistrate, and of the particular transactions in the case 
 of Servetus : " when that blasphemer, Servetus," he says, " w as put to death 
 in this city, after a vain application of milder punishments ; and when the 
 treatise so pious, learned, and elaborate, which John Calvin published in 
 defence of that affair, appeared not to satisfy the public mind, I took the same 
 argument in hand." — It is satisfactory to find that even pious, learned, and 
 elaborate reasonings, however convincing to the acuter understandings of 
 
NOTES. loo 
 
 ecclesiastics, cannot reconcile the popular mind to religious bloodshed. 
 
 Melancthon, praised as he is for his mildness, placed on record his approval of 
 the act : and practically proved the sincerity of his sympathy with such deeds, 
 by threatening a pupil of his own with a dungeon and irons, if he dared to say 
 any thing against the existence of the devil. Bucer, one should suppose, can 
 hardly have been satisfied with Calvin's treatment of Servetus, for he had 
 pronounced this poor heretic worthy of being embowelled and torn asunder. 
 
 In classing Faustus Socinus with the other Reformers of his age, as an ad- 
 vocate of persecution, I have no intention of repeating the charge, so often 
 brought against him, of being accessary to the imprisonment of his friend 
 Francis David. No evidence exists, sufficient to fix upon him so serious an 
 imputation;* but though his conduct may afford a favourable contrast (o 
 that of the German and Swiss Reformers, it is impossible to allow him the 
 credit of any enlarged notions of religious liberty. He distinctly states that 
 an heresiarch, who perseveres in teaching new doctrines, foreign to the 
 notions of his limes, and who forms his converts into a religious society, ought 
 to be treated like a maniac, — commiserated, but chained and imprisoned. 
 
 NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 Note 1. ^^ Because we perceive them to be unscriptural." — Page 6i. 
 
 That the opinions prevalent among Christians, respecting the province o( 
 the understanding in religion, are justly represented in the foregoing passage, 
 will be rendered evident by attention to the following citations : 
 
 " Let us not forget," says Dr. Wardlaw, " what is the proper province 
 of reason, with regard to Di\ine Revelation. We ought, beyond all contro- 
 versy, to exercise our reason, in determining the question, whether this book 
 contains a Revelation from God. This we must do, by an examination of the 
 evidences of various kinds, external and internal, by which its high claims 
 are substantiated. But suppose this great point fairly ascertained : what is 
 the province of reason then ? Is it not equally beyond controversy, that, on 
 this supposition, the only rational conduct is implicit faith. Once ascertain 
 the scriptures to be 'given by inspiration of God,' and nothing, can be more 
 absurd, than to erect our reason into a standard of the truth or falsehood of 
 what they contain. This would be to deify reason : to ' exalt it above all that 
 is called God, or that is worshipped.'"— Wardlaw's Discourses on the princi- 
 pal points of the Socinian Controversy, p. 24. 
 
 • Those who wish to see the only complete investigation of the evidence in 
 this case, may refer to an interesting paper by Rev. James Yates, in the Christian 
 Pioneer, vol. viii. p. 53. 
 
io6 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Robert Hall says, " Let the fair grammatical import of scriptural language 
 be investigated, and whatever propositions are by an easy and natural inter- 
 pretation deducible from thence, let them be received as the dictates of 
 infinite wisdom, whatever aspect they bear, or whatever difficulties they 
 present." — Review of Gregory's Letters, p. 183. 
 
 But the most emphatic, and I must think, the most consistent, statement 
 of this principle is to be found in Dr. Chalmers' treatise on the ' Evidence 
 and Authority of the Christian Revelation.' Other writers, by conceding thai 
 the reasonableness of its doctrines enters as an element into the evidence of a 
 Revelation, admit the competency of the human understanding to judge of 
 probabiUlies in questions of religion ; and thus lose all just title to turn round 
 upon the same understanding afterwards, and rebuke it for presuming to cri- 
 ticise a tenet claiming to be scriptural. But Dr. Chalmers repudiates all 
 internal moral evidence, rests all the claims of Christianity on the historical 
 proofs of a supernatural origin ; and demands of every enquirer who is satisfied 
 with these proofs, that when at length he opens the Bible, he should assent 
 iraphcitly to every proposition he may find, and not allow his strength of faith 
 to depend, in any degree, on the character of the communication. He says, 
 " We do not follow the example of those who have written on the Deistical 
 controversy. Take up Leland's performance, and it will be found, that one 
 half of his discussion is expended upon the reasonableness of the doctrines, 
 and in asserting the validity of the argument which is founded upon that rea- 
 sonableness. It would save a yast deal of controversy, if it could be proved 
 that all this is superfluous and uncalled for; that upon the authority of the 
 proofs already insisted on, the New Testament must be received as a reve- 
 lation from heaven; and that instead of sitting in judgment over it, nothing 
 remains on our part, but an act of unreserved submission to all the doctrines 
 and info .. alion which it offers to us." (p. 210.) — " If the historical evidence 
 of Christianity is found to be conclusive, we conceive the investigation to be 
 at an end ; and thai nothing remains, on our part, but an act of unconditional 
 surrender to all its doctrines." (p. 2i3.) 
 
 There is perhaps no point on which the individuality of opinion prevalent 
 among Unitarians is more marked, than on the authority of the Scriptures in 
 questions of doctrine. The statement which perhaps most fairly represents 
 the general sentiment among them is the following : " We are as much bound 
 to trust the declarations, and obey the precepts of Christ, as if those precepLs 
 and declarations had been communicated to each of us individually, by express 
 revelation from the Father of lights." And " the Apostles in their represen- 
 tations of Christian doctrine, and in their directions as to Christian duty, are 
 to be regarded as the ambassadors of Christ, and the oracles of God : and, 
 therefore, as soon as any book is ascertained to have been written by an 
 Apostle, its divine authority, as to faith and practice, becomes unquestionable." 
 — Carpenter's Reply to Magee, pp. 69, 82. At the same time, the excellent 
 author of this work admits that the New Testament writings contain portions 
 
NOTES. 157 
 
 that are neither declarations of Christian doctrine, nor precepts of Christian 
 duly, and which do not therefore possess this authority ; he speaks of ex- 
 pressions of Chrisl founded on prevalent opinions, and not as designed to 
 reveal or sanction them." Yet no external test is offered, by which the 
 divine portion can be distinguished from the human. To say that whatever 
 respects faith and duly, — or w hatever respects the purposes of Christ's mission, 
 is divine, — gives us no help; since the very questions to be determined are, 
 what w ere the purposes of Christ's mission, and what things belong to human 
 faith and duty. — Until some test is pointed out for separating the fallible from 
 the infallible propositions of scripture, I cannot see how Dr. Wardlaw's state- 
 ment can be confuted, that, " if while the scriptures are acknowledged to 
 contain truth from God, their proper inspiration is, notwithstanding, entirely 
 denied ;" — " whatever degree of deference we may think reasonably due to 
 them, yet as the productions of fallible men, no part of them whatever can 
 be an infallible criterion." This appears to me the inevitable consequence of 
 regarding Christianity as a didactic, instead of an historical and spiritual system. 
 With regard to what may be called the intensity of the authority of scrip- 
 lure, in its divine portions. Unitarian writers appear to entertain different 
 opinions. — The only point on which I can discover a general agreement is, 
 that no scriptural evidence can establish a self-contradictory proposition. The 
 amount of mere improbability which it can overcome is very variously esti- 
 mated. The high doctrine of which I have spoken in the Lecture is, I admit, 
 not often to be found ; and the language in which it appears to be conveyed 
 is not, perhaps, intended in all cases to be very rigidly interpreted. One of 
 the old Unitarian Tracts, in speaking of Socinians, says, " Hath the holy 
 scripture, that is, hath God, said it ? They w ill believe, though all men and 
 angels contradict it. They will always prefer the infinite wisdom of God, 
 before the fallible dictates of human or angelic reason.'' * Mr. Lindsey, 
 after acknowledging that he could not believe anything inconsistent with 
 reason (by which he evidently means, anything self-contradictory) says ; 
 " Let me but know clearly, ihat God has signified his mind and will; and 
 then, let the subject be ever so unfathomable by me, I will receive and 
 believe it ; because no better reason can possibly be given for anything, than 
 that God hath said it." — Examination of Robinson's Plea, preface, p. 24. In 
 an excellent Discourse entitled 'Christ One with God,' by Rev. J. G. 
 Robberds, occurs the following passage : " I rejoice, for my part, that in Jesus 
 Christ I have a teacher, to whose words I am required to yield iinplicit 
 faith. I rejoice, that in his school, reason has no other part than that of an 
 humble listener and learner. I rejoice, that in w hatever disposition of mind 
 I may be, and whether on Ihe great questions of moral and religious duly, 
 reason, of itself, might be more likely to act the friend or the traitor, I can go 
 and consult an instructor who " is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," 
 
 • V. i. No. 9, p. 4, quoted in 'Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism,' p. 17. 
 
158 NOTES. 
 
 — an inslruclor too, who speaks not merely as the adviser ; who proposes 
 not his sayings to be approved or rejected by the judgment of (he hearer, 
 who teaches not as the scribes and pharisees, as the reasoners, and dispu- 
 ters, and philosophers of this world; but with an authority that awes the 
 attention which it demands; and after proofs of that authority in works 
 such as no man could do unless God were with him, declares, 'I and the 
 Father are one.' — p. 18. I regret to find myself so little able to reconcile 
 these sentiments with the positions maintained in the Lecture. 
 
 Note 2. " To the test of which even Scripture must he brought.'" — 
 Page 64. 
 
 It is satisfactory to find, that for the doctrine of this passage, and of the 
 Lecture generally which contains it, the sanction of John Locke can be quoted. 
 While preparing this little volume for the press, I have met with the following 
 passage in Lord King's Life of that philosopher : 
 
 " Religion being that homage and obedience which man pays immediately 
 to God, it supposes that man is capable of knowing that there is a God, and 
 what is required by, and is acceptable to him, thereby to avoid his anger and 
 procure his favour. That there is a God, and what that God is, nothing can 
 discover to us, nor judge in us, but natural reason. For whatever discovery 
 we receive any other way, must come originally from inspiration, which is an 
 opinion or persuasion in the mind whereof a man knows not the rise nor 
 reason, but is received there as a truth, coming from an unknown, and there- 
 fore a supernatural cause, and not founded upon those principles nor obser- 
 vations in the way of reasoning which makes the understanding admit other 
 things for truths. But no such inspiration concerning God or his worship, 
 can be admitted for truth by him that thinks himself thus inspired, much less 
 by any other whom he would persuade to believe him inspired, any farther 
 than it is conformable to reason ; not only because where reason is not, I judge 
 it is impossible for a man himself to distinguish betwixt inspiration and fancy, 
 truth and error; but also it is impossible to have such a notion of God, as to 
 believe that he should make a creature to whom the knowledge of himself 
 was necessary, and yet not to be discovered by that way which discovers every 
 thing else that concerns us, but was to come into the minds of men only by such 
 a way, by which all manner of errors come in, and is more likely to let in 
 falsehoods than truths, since nobody can doubt, from the contradiction and 
 strangeness of opinions concerning God and religion in the world, that men 
 are likely to have more frenzies than inspirations. Inspiration then, barely 
 in itself, cannot be a ground to receive any doctrine not conformable to reason. 
 In the next place, let us see how far inspiration can enforce on the mind any 
 opinion concerning God or his worship, when accompanied wilh a power to 
 do a miracle ; and there too, I say, the last determination must be that of 
 reason. 
 
NOTES. 159 
 
 " 1st. Because reason must be the judge what is a miracle and what not ; 
 which, not knowing how far the power of natural causes do extend them- 
 selves, and what strange effects they may produce, is very hard to determine. 
 
 "2nd. It will always be as great a miracle, that God should alter the 
 course of natural things to overturn the principles of knowledge and under- 
 standing in a man, by setting up anything to be recei\ed by him as a truth 
 which his reason cannot assent to, as the miracle itself; and so at best it will 
 be but one miracle against another, and the greater still on reason's side ; it 
 being harder to believe that God should alter, and put out of its ordinary 
 course some phenomenon of the great world for once, and make things act 
 contrary to their ordinary rule, purposely that the mind of man might do so 
 always afterwards, than that this is some fallacy or natural effect of which he 
 knows not the cause, let it look never so strange," After slating a third 
 reason, which it is unnecessary to quote, Mr. Locke continues thus : " I do not 
 hereby deny in the least that God can do, or hath done, miracles for the con- 
 firmation of truth ; but I only say, that we cannot think he should do them 
 to enforce doctrines or notions of himself, or any worship of him not com- 
 formable to reason, or that we can receive such for truth for the miracle's 
 sake, and even in those books which have the greatest proof of revelation 
 from God, and the attestation of miracles to confirm their being so, the mira- 
 cles are to be judged by the doctrine, and not the doctrine by the miracle." 
 
 Note 3. " Can continue to take the name of Christian." — Page 72. 
 
 It is curious to observe the agreement between the two theological extremes, 
 orthodoxy and anli-supernaturalism, respecting the definition of a Christian. 
 The former, in attempting to exclude Unitarians from the definition, and the 
 latter, w hen anxious to include himself, employ the very same argument : 
 " it is not the belief that Christianity is a religion froyn God," or "of the 
 divine mission of Jesus Christ," — or " of the facts recorded by the sacred 
 historians," " that constitutes a Christian ; but the faith of Christianity 
 itself :" " being a Christian means, being a disciple of Christ, and a believer 
 of his doctrine : as an Aristotelian meant a disciple of Aristotle, and a Plato- 
 nist of Plato." By such statements as these does the " Rationalist" justify 
 his retention of the name of Christian, when, having discarded the miracles, 
 he keeps his place in the school of Christ, and assents to him, ns a Platonist 
 would to Plato. Yet the statements which I have just quoted, are not from 
 any Anlisupernaiurahst, but from Dr. Wardlaw. If, indeed, the essential 
 features of Christianity are to be found in the doctrinal or preceptive parts 
 of the scripture, it is difficult to deny to any one who holds the doctrines, and 
 venerates the precepts he finds there, the title of Christian; and it is only on 
 the supposition of the religion of Christ being, in one of its elements, essen- 
 tially historical, that we can make a belief in his reality, and an allegiance 
 to himself, the basis of our definition. 
 
{60 NOTES. 
 
 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 Note 1. " Is it not a noble thing to see him at last burst into the infinite, 
 ayid kneel r—Va^Q^a. 
 
 In the concluding pages of his immortal work, Newton breaks out into a 
 noble utterance of veneration for the Supreme Author of the magnificence 
 which he had been interpreting : — " This most beautiful system of sun, 
 planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an 
 intelligent and powerful being. And if the fixed stars are centres of other 
 like systems, these being formed by the like wise counsel, must all be subject 
 to the dominion of One. This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the 
 world, but as Lord over all : and on account of his dominion he is wont to be 
 called Lord God, Ruler Universal. — The supreme God is a Being eternal, 
 infinite, absolutely perfect." 
 
 In 1796, M. de la Place published a Synopsis of the Newtonian philosophy. 
 " In the whole of this work," says Mr. Robison, " the author misses no 
 opportunity of lessening the impression that might be made by the peculiar 
 suitableness of any circumstance in the constitution of the solar system, to 
 render it a scene of habitation and enjoyment to sentient beings, or which 
 might lead the mind to the notion of the system's being contrived for any 
 purpose whatever. He sometimes, on the contrary, endeavours to show how 
 the alleged purpose may be much better accomplished in some oilier way. 
 He labours to leave a general impression on the mind that the whole frame 
 is the necessary result of the primitive and essential properties of matter, and 
 that it could not be anything but what it is. He indeed concludes, like the 
 illustrious Newton, with a survey of all that has been done and discovered, 
 followed by some reflections suggested by this survey." He gives us to 
 understand, that astronomy has now taught us how much we were mistaken in 
 thinking ourselves an important part of the universe, for whose accommoda- 
 tion much has been done, as if we were the objects of peculiar care. " But 
 we have been punished," says he, " for these mistaken notions of self-impor- 
 tance by the foolish anxieties to which they have given rise, and by the sub- 
 jugation to which we have submitted under the influence of superstitious 
 terrors. Mistaking our relations to the rest of the universe, social order has 
 been supposed to have other foundations than justice and truth, and an 
 abominable maxim has been admitted, that it was sometimes useful to deceive 
 and to subdue mankind, in order to secure the happiness of society." 
 
 In some striking and beautiful reflections. Professor Robison proceeds to 
 comment on these sentiments of La Place. There is no doubt, that he puts 
 on them their true interpretation, when he says : " I cannot but suspect that 
 M. de la Place would here insinuate, that the doctrine of a Deity, the Maker 
 and Governor of this world, and of his peculiar attention to the conduct of 
 
NOTES. 161 
 
 raen, is not consistent with truth ; and that the sanctions of religion, which 
 have long been venerated as the great security of society, are as Utile con- 
 sistent with justice." " This accords completely with his anxious endeavours, 
 on all occasions, to flatten or depress everything that has the appearance of 
 order, beauty, or subserviency, and to resolve all into the irresistible opera- 
 tion of the essential properties of matter." " I was grieved when I saw M. 
 de la Place, after having so beautifully epitomised the philosophy of Sir Isaac 
 Newton, conclude his performance with such a marked and ungraceful parody 
 on the closing reflections of our illustrious master." 
 
 In the true spirit of this master. Professor Robison concludes : " Whoever 
 is able to follow the steps of Newton over the magnificent scene, must be 
 affected as he was, and must pronounce ' all very good.' It is peculiarly de- 
 serving of remark, that we see many contrivances in this system, which are 
 of manifest subserviency to the enjoyments of man, and which do not appear 
 to have any farther importance. Man is unquestionably the lord of this lower 
 world, and all things are placed under his feet. But we see nothing to which 
 man is exclusively subservient — nothing that is superior toman in excellence, 
 so far as we can judge of what is excellent, — nothing but that wisdom, that 
 power, and that beneficence, which seem to indicate and to characterise the 
 Author and Conductor of the whole ; I may add, that it is not one of our 
 smallest obligations to the Author of Nature, that He has given us those 
 powers of mind which enable us to perceive and to be delighted with the sight 
 of this bright emanation of all his perfections. 
 
 " Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altoe, 
 Finxit in effigiem moderantiiin cuncta Deoi'um, 
 Pronaque cum spectent animalia ceetera terram, 
 Os liomini sublime dedit, ccelunique lueri 
 Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 Allow me to conclude in the words of Dr. Halley : 
 
 " Talia raonstrantem mecum celebrate camoenis : 
 Vos 6 ccelicolum gaudentes nectare vesci, 
 Newtonum, clausi reserantem scrinia veri, 
 Newtonum, Musis charum, cui pectore puro 
 Phoebus adest, totoque incessit Xumine mentem 
 Nee fas est propius mortal! attingere dives." 
 
 HALLEY. 
 
 Note 2. " Give me, they exclaim, for a pupil the sheer, blank Atheist ; 
 
 and away with the mischievous sentiment alisvi of natural piety." — 
 
 Page 81. 
 
 " Viewed purely as an intellectual subject," says Dr. Chalmers, " we look 
 upon the mind of an Atheist as in a belter stale of preparation for the proofs 
 
1 62 NOTES. 
 
 of Christianity than the mind of a Deist. The one is a blank surface, on 
 which evidence may make a fair impression, and where the finger of history 
 may inscribe its credible and well-attested information ; the other is occupied 
 with preconceptions." — "We do not ask the Atheist to furnish himself with 
 any previous conception. We ask him to come as he is ; and, upon the 
 strength of his own favorite principle, viewing it as a pure intellectual ques- 
 tion, and abstracting from the more unmanageable tendencies of the heart 
 and temper, we conceive his understanding to be in a high state of prepara- 
 tion, for taking in Christianity in a far purer and more scriptural form than 
 can be expected from those whose minds are tainted and pre-occupied with 
 their former speculations." — " Chalmers' Evidence and Authority of the Chris- 
 tian Revelation," chap. ix. pp. 248, 258. 
 
 That the anxiety of the eloquent author of this work to destroy all natural 
 religion, arises from his consciousness, that it indisposes the mind to receive 
 the orthodox doctrines is repeatedly admitted. " It is on the character of 
 Revelation itself," he says, " that unbelievers found their objections to Chris- 
 tianity. It is on what they conceive to be the absurdity of its doctrines. It 
 is because they see something in the nature or dispensation of Christianity 
 which they think disparaging to the attributes of God, and not agreeable to 
 that line of proceeding which the Almighty should observe in the government 
 of his creatures. Rousseau expresses his astonishment at the strength of the 
 historical testimony ; so strong, that the inventor of the narrative appeared to 
 him to be more miraculous than the hero. Rut the absurdities of this said 
 revelation are sufficient, in his mind, to bear down the whole weight of its 
 direct and external evidences. There was something in the doctrines of the 
 New Testament repulsive to the taste, and the imagination, and perhaps even 
 to the convictions of this interesting enthusiast. He could not reconcile them 
 with his pre-established conceptions of the divine character and mode of 
 operation. To submit to these doctrines he behoved to surrender that Theism 
 which the powers of his ardent mind had wrought up into a most beautiful and 
 delicious speculation. Such a sacrifice was not to be made. It was too 
 painful. It would have taken away from him what every mind of genius and 
 sensibility esteems to be the highest of all luxuries. It would destroy a 
 system which had all that is fair and magnificent to recommend it, and mar 
 the gracefulness of that fine intellectual picture on which this wonderful man 
 had bestowed all the embellishments of feeling, and fancy, and eloquence." — 
 Chap. viii. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 465 
 
 NOTES TO LECTURE V I. 
 
 >'ole 1. "^ Lycurgus might have sigyied."— Page 96. 
 
 An abstract of this interesting document may be found in " Robinson's 
 Ecclesiastical Researches," p. 548, accompanied by some just comments on 
 the obscure portion of German history to 'which it belongs. That Muncer 
 has been unjustly treated by historians is evident, I think, not only from this 
 striking statement of the peasants' grievances, but even from some traits of 
 character incidentally noticed in Sleidane's account of him. That he was 
 moved by genuine compassion for an oppressed people, and that his religion 
 was the origin of that compassion, is sufficiently obvious, even from this par- 
 tial narrative. The connection between the people's Christianity and their 
 struggles for hberty is everywhere evident. " In the begjnning of the spring 
 lime, began a newe commotion of the vulgare people against the prelates of 
 the churche, pretendjiig a cause as thoughe they would defende the Gospell, 
 and brynge themselves out of bondage." Muncer's doctrine seems to have 
 been simple and austere ; and though tinged with the enthusiasm of his times, 
 essentially generous and conducive to personal virtue. A man, he says, 
 " must eschew open crymes," " chasten and make leane the body with 
 fasting and simple apparel, frame the countenance unto gravitie, speake sel- 
 dome, weare a long beard ; he must get him out of company, and thinke oft 
 of God what he is, and whether he hath any care over us." " Let us con- 
 sider," he says, in an oration to the people, " the state of our enemies. They 
 are called in dede princes, but they be very tirants : they care not for you : 
 they take your goods, and spend them wickedly in pride, riot, and voluptuous- 
 ness : and, for light causes, move warres which destroy all that the pore have 
 lefle, these be theyr princelik vertues. In the place of the widow and orphane, 
 they mainteine the Bishoppe of Romes auclhorilie, and wickednesse of the 
 cleargie, where youthe shoulde be brought up in learnyng, and the poore 
 releved, they establishe the marchandise of massing, and other abominations. 
 Thinke you your God will suffer this any longer? " 
 
 When brought as a prisoner before the magistrates, and asked why he had 
 misled the poor and simple people, " he answered that he had done nothinge 
 but his dewtie." He was put to the rack and executed. " At the houre of 
 death, beynge invironed with soldiours, he exhorted the princes that they 
 would shewe more mercy to poore men, and read over diligently the books of 
 scripture that are written of kynges. He had no sooner spoken thus, but the 
 sword was in the neck of him, and, for an example, his head set up on a pole 
 in the middes of the fcldes." — " Sleidane's Commentaries, translated out of 
 Latin into Enghsh, by John Daus. The fifthe booke." 
 
164 NOTES. 
 
 Note 2. " Render the feeling of compassion less prompt and deep^ — 
 Page 98. 
 
 For a confirmalion of Ihe view which I have given of Ihe state of slavery 
 under Ihe Roman empire, Sismondi's " History of the Fall of the Roman 
 Empire" may be consulted (chap, i.)- Had Dr. Channing's noble Treatise 
 on Slavery reached this country when I was preparing this Lecture, the fol- 
 lowing impressive picture of Roman slavery would have occupied, as a 
 quotation, the place of the foregoing passage. 
 
 "Let us now ask, WTiat was slavery in the age of Paul? It was the 
 slavery, not so much of black as of white men, not merely of barbarians, but 
 of Greeks, not merely of the ignorant and debased, but of the virtuous, edu- 
 cated, and refined. Piracy and conquest were the chief means of supplying 
 the slave-market, and they heeded neither character nor condition. Some- 
 times the greater part of the population of a captured city was sold into 
 bondage, sometimes the whole, as in the case of Jerusalem. Noble and royal 
 families, the rich and great, the learned and powerful, the philosopher and 
 poet, the wisest and best men, were condemned to the chain. Such was 
 ancient slavery. And this we are told is allowed and confirmed by the word 
 of God I Had Napoleon, on capturing Berlin or Vienna, doomed most or the 
 whole of their inhabitants to bondage ; had he seized on venerable matrons, 
 the mothers of illustrious men, who were reposing, after virtuous lives, in the 
 bosom of grateful families ; had he seized on the delicate, refined, beautiful 
 young woman, whose education had prepared her to grace the sphere in which 
 God had placed her, whose plighted love had opened before her visions of 
 bliss, and over all \^hose prospects the freshest hopes and most glowing 
 imaginations of early life were breathed ; had he seized on the minister of 
 religion, the man of science, the man of genius, the sage, the guides of the 
 world ; had he scattered these through the slave-markets of the world, and 
 transferred them to the highest bidders at public auction, the men to be 
 converted into instruments of slavish toil, the women into instruments of lust, 
 and both to endure whatever indignities and torture absolute power can 
 inflict ; we should then have had a picture, in the present age, of slavery as 
 it existed in the time of Paul."— " Channing on Slavery," p. 109. 
 
 Note 3. " Nothing to remind hiin of Jesus the crucifed." — Page 99. 
 
 I beg to direct my readers' attention to the following expression of a similar 
 sentiment, by Sir James Mackintosh : — 
 
 " It is impossible, I think, to look into the interior of any religious sect 
 without thinking better of it. I ought, indeed, to confine myself to those 
 of Christian Europe ; but, with that limitation, it seems to me that the remark 
 is true— whether I look at the Jansenists of Port Royal, or at the Quakers 
 in Clarkson, or the Methodists in the journals. All these sects which appear 
 dangerous or ridiculous at a distance assume a much more amiable character 
 
NOTES. i65 
 
 on nearer inspection. They all inculcate pure virtue, and practice mutual 
 kindness ; and they exert great force of reason in rescuing their doctrines 
 from the absurd or pernicious consequences which naturally flow fronn 
 them. Much of this arises from the general nature of religious principle ; 
 much also from the genius of the Gospel morality, so meek and affectionate 
 that it can soften barbarians, and warm even sophists themselves. Some- 
 thing, doubtless, depends on the civilization of Europe ; for the character of 
 Christian sects in Asia is not so distinguished." — Memoirs of the Life of Sir 
 James Mackintosh, vol. ii. pp. 5i, 55. 
 
LONDON : 
 
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