Inspiration and Interpretation
by John William Burgon · English · Gutenberg #31090 · 981,533 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Inspiration and Interpretation
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Inspiration and Interpretation
Author: John William Burgon
Release date: January 26, 2010 [eBook #31090]
Most recently updated: January 6, 2021
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31090
Credits: Produced by Colin Bell, Daniel J. Mount, Dave Morgan and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSPIRATION AND INTERPRETATION ***
Produced by Colin Bell, Daniel J. Mount, Dave Morgan and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net
$Inspiration and Interpretation:$
SEVEN SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD:
WITH PRELIMINARY REMARKS:
BEING AN ANSWER TO A VOLUME ENTITLED
"Essays and Reviews."
BY THE
REV. JOHN WILLIAM BURGON, M.A.,
FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, AND SELECT PREACHER.
* * * * *
I CANNOT HOLD MY PEACE, BECAUSE THOU HAST HEARD, O MY SOUL,
THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET, THE ALARM OF WAR.
Oxford & London:
J. H. and Jas. PARKER.
1861.
$Printed by Messrs. Parker, Cornmarket, Oxford.$
TO THE REVEREND
WILLIAM SEWELL, D.D.,
FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE: LATE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD; AND LATE WARDEN OF ST. PETER'S COLLEGE, RADLEY.
* * * * *
MY DEAR FRIEND,
Let me have the satisfaction of inscribing this volume to yourself. I
know of no one who has more faithfully devoted himself to the sacred
cause of Christian Education: no one to whom those blessed Truths are
more precious, which of late have been so unscrupulously assailed, and
which the ensuing pages are humbly designed to uphold in their integrity.
Affectionately yours,
JOHN W. BURGON.
* * * * *
ΔΕΙ ΓΑΡ ΚΑΙ ἉΙΡΕΣΕΙΣ ἘΝ ὙΜΙΝ ΕΙΝΑΙ, ἹΝΑ ΟΙ ΔΟΚΙΜΟΙ ΦΑΝΕΡΟΙ ΓΕΝΩΝΤΑΙ ἘΝ
ὙΜΙΝ.
Ac si diceret: Ob hoc hæreseôn non statim divinitus eradicantur
auctores, ut probati manifesti fiant; id est, ut unusquisque quam tenax,
et fidelis, et fixus Catholicæ fidei sit amator, appareat. Et revera cum
quæque novitas ebullit, statim cernitur frumentorum gravitas, et levitas
palearum: tunc sine magno molimine excutitur ab areâ, quod nullo pondere
intra aream tenebatur.--VINCENTIUS LIRINENSIS, _Adversus Hæreses_, § 20.
PREFACE.
I am unwilling that this volume should go forth to the world without
some account of its origin and of its contents.
I. Appointed last year, (without solicitation on his part,) to the
office of Select Preacher, the present writer was called upon at the
commencement of the October Term to address the University. His Sermon,
(the first in the volume,) was simply intended to embody the advice
which he had already orally given to every Undergraduate who had sought
counsel at his hands for many years past in Oxford; advice which, to say
the truth, he was almost weary of repeating. Nothing more weighty or
more apposite, at all events, presented itself, for an introductory
address: nor has a review of the current of religious opinion, either
before or since, produced any change of opinion as to the importance of
what was on that first occasion advocated.
Another, and another, and yet another preaching turn unexpectedly
presented itself, in the course of the same Term; and the IInd, IIIrd,
and IVth of the ensuing Sermons, (preached on alternate Sundays,) were
the result. The study of the Bible had been advocated in the first
Sermon; but it was urged from a hundred quarters that a considerable
amount of unbelief prevailed respecting that very Book for which it was
evident that the preacher claimed entire perfection and absolute
supremacy. The singular fallacy of these last days, that Natural
Science, in some unexplained manner, has already demolished,--or is
inevitably destined to demolish[1],--the Book of Divine Revelation,
appeared to be the fallacy which had emerged into most offensive
prominence; and to this, he accordingly addressed himself.--It will not,
surely, be thought by any one who reads the IInd of these Sermons that
its author is so weak as to look with jealousy on the progress of
Physical Science. His alarm does not arise from the cultivation of the
noblest study but one,--viz. the study of GOD'S Works; but from the
prevalent _neglect of the noblest study of all_,--viz. _the study of
GOD'S Word_. His quarrel is not with the Professors of Natural Science,
but with those who are mere _Pretenders_ to it. Moreover, he makes no
secret of his displeasure at the undue importance which has of late been
claimed for Natural Science; and which is sufficiently implied by the
prevalent fashion of naming it without any distinguishing epithet,--as
"Science," absolutely: just as if _Theology_ were not a Science also[2]!
It is not necessary to speak particularly of the contents of the next
two Sermons; except to say that the train of thought thus started
conducted the author inevitably over ground which was already occupied
in the public mind by a volume which had already obtained some
notoriety, and which has since become altogether infamous. Enough of the
contents of that unhappy production I had read to be convinced that in a
literary, certainly in a _Theological_ point of view, it was a most
worthless performance; and I recognized with equal sorrow and alarm that
it was but the matured expression of opinions which had been fostering
for years in certain quarters: opinions which, occasionally, had been
ventilated from the University pulpit; or which had been deliberately
advocated in print[3]; and which it was now hinted were formidably
maintained, and would be found hard to answer. Astonished, (not by any
means for the first time in my life,) at the apathy which seemed to
prevail on questions of such vital moment, I determined at all events
not to be a party to a craven silence; and denounced from the University
pulpit with hearty indignation that whole system of unbelief, (if system
it can be called,) which has been growing up for years among us[4]; and
which, I was and am convinced, must be openly met,--not silently ignored
until the mischief becomes unmanageable: met, too, by building up men
in THE TRUTH: above all, by giving Theological instruction to those who
are destined to become Professors of Theological Science, and are about
to undertake the cure of souls.... In this spirit, I asserted the
opposite fundamental verities; and so, would have been content to
dismiss the "Essays and Reviews" from my thoughts for ever.
But in the meantime, the respectability of the authors of that volume
had attracted to their work an increasing share of notice. An able
article in the 'Westminster Review' first aroused public attention. A
still abler in the 'Quarterly' awoke the Church to a sense of the
enormity of the offence which had been committed. It was not that
_danger_ was apprehended. There could be but one opinion as to the
essential impotence of the attack. But the circumstances which aroused
public indignation were twofold. First,--Here was a _conspiracy_ against
the Faith. Seven Critics had _avowedly combined_ "to illustrate the
advantage derivable to the cause of Religious and Moral Truth from a
free handling, in a becoming spirit, of" what they were pleased to
characterize as "subjects peculiarly liable to suffer by the repetition
of conventional language, and from traditional modes of treatment[5]."
They prefixed to their joint labours the expression of a "hope that
their volume would be received as an attempt" to do this. That their
allusion was to the Creeds, Articles, Book of Common Prayer and
Administration of the Sacraments,--was obvious. Equally obvious was the
_un_-becoming spirit, the arrogance and the hostility,--with which all
those sacred things were handled by those seven writers.
Secondly,--"Essays and Reviews" attracted notice because six of its
authors were _Ministers of the Church of England_. Here were six
Clergymen openly making light of their sacred profession, and apparently
worse than regardless of their Ordination vows. As an infidel but
certainly in this instance most truthful as well as able Reviewer,
remarked concerning the work in question,--"In their ordinary, if not
plain sense, there has been discarded the Word of GOD, the Creation, the
Fall, the Redemption, Justification, Regeneration, and Salvation,
Miracles, Inspiration, Prophecy, Heaven and Hell, Eternal punishment and
a Day of Judgment, Creeds, Liturgies, and Articles, the truth of Jewish
History and of Gospel narrative; a sense of doubt thrown over even the
Incarnation, the Resurrection, and Ascension, the Divinity of the Second
Person, and the personality of the Third. It may be that this is a
_true_ view of Christianity; but we insist, in the name of common sense,
that it is a _new_ view. Surely it is waste of time to argue that it is
agreeable to Scripture, and not contrary to the Canons[6]!"
This twofold phenomenon, which has shocked the public conscience and
perplexed common sense, has been _the sole_ cause of the amount of
attention "Essays and Reviews" has excited. Laymen might have combined
to produce this volume, almost unheeded. An obscure Clergyman might
possibly have published any one of these seven papers; and with a rebuke
for his immorality or his insolence, he would probably have been
unnoticed by the world. But here is a combination of Doctors of
Divinity; Professors; Fellows, nay Heads of Colleges; Instructors of
England's Youth; Teachers of Religion; Chaplains to Royal and noble
personages!
The Jesuitical notice prefixed to the book, (deprecating the idea that
its authors should be held responsible, except severally for their
several articles,) completed the scandal. As if seven men, each armed
with his own appropriate weapon of violence, breaking into a house, and
spreading ruin around them, could "readily be understood," (to quote
their own language,) to incur each a limited responsibility!... Charity
doubtless would have rejoiced to spread her mantle over any one or more
of the number, "who, on seeing the extravagantly vicious manner in which
some of his associates had performed their part, had openly declared his
disgust and abhorrence of such unfaithfulness, and had withdrawn his
name[7],"--with some expression of sorrow for the irreparable mischief
which he had actively helped to occasion. But long before _nine_
editions of "Essays and Reviews" had appeared, it became apparent that
each of the living authors, (for one, alas, has already gone to his
account!) has made himself responsible for the _whole_ work[8]. Nay,
there are some of the number who make no secret of their satisfaction
at what has happened; and seem desirous only that their volume should
obtain a yet wider circulation[9].
"Essays and Reviews," as already stated, with the turn of the year,
experienced a vast increase of notoriety. The entire Bench of Bishops
condemned the book; and both Houses of Convocation endorsed the
Episcopal censure. A very careful perusal of the volume became
necessary; and it proved to be infinitely weaker in point of ability,
infinitely more fatal in point of intention, than could have been
suspected from the known respectability and position of its authors. A
clamour also arose for a Reply to these Seven Champions,--not exactly of
Christendom. "You _condemn_: but why do you not _reply_?"--became quite
a popular form of reproach.
It was useless to urge, in private, such considerations as the
following:--To reply to a volume of 433 pages, each of which contains a
fallacy or a falsity,--while some pages are packed full of both,--is a
serious undertaking.--Besides, the book _has been_ replied to already;
for there is scarcely an objection urged within its pages which was not
better urged, and effectually disposed of, in the last century. Nay,
every good Review of "Essays and Reviews" has _answered_ the book: for
what signify the details, if the fundamental lie has been detected, and
unrelentingly exposed? The man who plants his heel on the serpent's
head, and refuses to withdraw it, can afford to disregard the tortuous
writhings of the long supple body.--Again. These attacks are seven. Must
seven men _with_ "concert and comparison,"--with leisure and inclination
too,--be procured to _demolish_ this flimsy compound of dogmatism and
unbelief? to disperse these cloudy doubts, and to analyse and repel
these many ambiguous statements?--Once more. A fool can assert, and in a
moment, that 'There is no GOD.' But it requires a wise man to refute the
lie; and his refutation will probably demand a volume.--I say, it was in
vain to urge such considerations as these. "Why does no one _reply_ to
these 'Essays and Reviews?'" was asked,--till, I apprehend, pens enough
have been unsheathed to do the work effectually.
It struck me, in the meantime, that I should be employing myself not
unprofitably at such a juncture, if (laying aside all other work for a
month or two) I were to attempt a short reply to the volume in
question, myself; and to combine it with the publication of the Sermons
I had already preached; and which I had the comfort of learning had not
only been favourably received by some of those who heard them, but had
attracted some slight notice outside the University also. Accordingly,
with not a little reluctance, in the month of February I began. The
_Destructive_ part of the argument, I determined to address to the
younger members of my own College,--men with whom I live in daily
intimacy, and on terms of private friendship; and whom, above all, I
desired to protect against the influence of that "moral poison," (as the
Bishop of Exeter describes it,) of which the world has lately heard so
much. The _Constructive_ part of the argument, I resolved to complete as
opportunities might offer, in my Sermons. One such opportunity presented
itself early in Lent; of which I availed myself to establish some
fundamental truths relative to the Interpretation of Holy Writ[10]. By
favour of the Vice Chancellor, the promise of yet another preaching turn
was obtained. It appeared best to avail myself of the opportunity to
consider the chief objections which have been brought against the Bible
from the _marvellous_ character of some of its contents[11]. An
University Sermon preached exactly ten years ago, (on the Doctrine of
Accommodation,) supplied an important link in the argument.... Thus the
unscientific shape in which the present volume appears, is explained;
and its want of exact method is accounted for. Let me add, that but for
the forward state of what I like to regard as the _Constructive_ part
of the present volume,--(and which I am not without a humble hope will
secure for the rest a more than ephemeral interest,)--I should have been
slow indeed to undertake the distasteful task of answering a work of
which I have long since been heartily weary.
II. And now, for a few words on the general question which has called
out these "Sermons" and "Preliminary Remarks."
At the root of the whole mischief of these last days lies _disbelief in
the Bible_ as _the Word of GOD_. This is the fundamental error.
Dangerous enough is it to the moral and intellectual nature of Man, when
the authority of the Church is doubted: or rather, this is _the first_
downward step. Not to believe that Christ bequeathed to His Church a
Divine form of polity: not to believe that He set officers over His
Kingdom, of which He is Himself the sole invisible Head: not to believe
that He invested His Apostles with authority to delegate to others the
Commission He had Himself conveyed to them; and that, by virtue of such
transmitted powers, the Church has authority in the Ministration of
GOD'S Word and Sacraments: not to believe that He vouchsafed to His
Church extraordinary guidance at the first, and that He vouchsafes to
His Church effectual guidance still:--an utter want of faith in the
Church and her Ordinances, is the first step, I repeat, in a soul's
downward progress.
Next comes an impatience of Creeds. It has been falsely asserted by an
Essayist and Reviewer that "Constantine inaugurated the principle of
doctrinal limitation[12];" by which is meant that definitions of Faith
date from the Council of Nicæa, A.D. 325: the truth being that the
famous Oecumenical Council which was then held did but rule the
consubstantiality of the SON with the FATHER: whereas elaborate Creeds
exist of a far earlier date; as all are aware. Creeds indeed are coeval
with Christianity itself[13]. What need to add that when the decree of
the first Oecumenical Council concerning the true faith in the
adorable Trinity has been set at nought, all other decisions of the
Church are disregarded also?
That marvellous concrete fact, the Bible,--has next to be encountered.
Unmethodical as it seems to be, the Bible arrests a man in his impatient
course with many a significant History,--many an unmanageable precept.
Much of its contents, it is true, are of such a nature that they may be
glossed over,--explained away,--ignored,--set aside. The reading is
doubtful: or there are two opinions, (perhaps twenty,) concerning it: or
the language may be figurative: or the words are not to be pressed too
closely: or a perverse logic may pretend to find in it agreeable
confirmation, instead of stern reproof. Not a few places there are,
however, which defy any such handling; stubborn rocks which refuse to
yield a single trace of the wished-for vegetation, in return for the
most determined husbandry. Nothing of the kind ever will or can be made
to germinate upon them. They are absolutely unmanageable, and hopelessly
in the way of the man who is determined to cast off restraint,--whether
spiritual, intellectual, or moral. He is for being lawless; or at
least, without law: but _the Bible_ is unmistakably _an external Law_,
and is opposed to him. The Bible is his enemy, and the Bible claims to
be Divine.... What need to state that to deny the Inspiration of the
Bible, and to undermine its authority, and to explain away its
statements, becomes the next object of the unbeliever? It is precisely
at this stage of his downward progress that public attention is excited,
and public indignation aroused. The Church, (like its Divine Author,)
may be outraged, and few will be found to remonstrate. The Creeds may be
assailed, (especially "one unhappy Creed!"), and it is hinted that these
are speculative matters, on which none should pronounce too
dogmatically. But (thank GOD!) Englishmen yet love their Bible; and
Common Sense is able to see that an uninspired Bible is _no Bible at
all_. At the assault upon the Bible, therefore, as I said, an indignant
outcry is raised,--as _now_.
Systematically to cope with such irreverence, such entire ignorance
rather of all the questions at issue, from the pulpit, would be clearly
impracticable. Men require to be taught "which be the first principles."
They require to be educated in Divinity. And thus we come back to the
fontal source of all the mischief of our own Day. We, in Oxford, give no
systematic training to our Candidates for Holy Orders. We do not even
attempt it. Nay, incredible to relate, _we do not give them any training
at all_. And the fatal consequences of this omission are to be seen on
every side. A youth no sooner gets through "the Schools," and graduates
in Arts, than he inquires for a Curacy. During the three months, perhaps
six, of interval, he makes himself sufficiently acquainted with the
Alphabet of Divinity to enable him to satisfy the very modest
requirements of the Bishop's examination; after which he finds himself
at once actively engaged in the Bishopric of souls and the profession of
Theology. It is probable that the realities of the Ministerial calling,
and the eminently practical nature of such an one's daily life, will
keep _this_ man from error. Not so his--more, shall I say, or
less?--fortunate fellow-student; who, by hard self-relying labour,
having obtained distinction in the Schools, finds himself in the
enjoyment of a fellowship, and straightway engages in the work of
tuition. This man, whose fellowship is his "title" for orders, studies
Divinity, or neglects it, at pleasure: and if he studies it, he studies
it in his own way. He has read a little of heathen Ethics with great
care; or he has trained himself to the exactness of mathematical
inference. With the purest idiom of ancient Greece he has also made
himself very familiar. He is besides a Master of Arts. What need to add
that such an one is not therefore a Master of _Divinity_? possesses no
qualification which authorizes him to dogmatize about any one department
of _Theological Science_?
The plain truth is, (and it is really better to speak plainly,)--the
plain truth is, that the offensive Sermons one sometimes hears from the
University pulpit,--the offensive Essays and Reviews which have lately
occasioned so much public scandal,--are the work of men who discuss that
which they do not understand; profess that which they were never, at
any time of their life, taught. Their method of handling a text is
altogether unique and extraordinary. Their remarks concerning Divine
things are even puerile. Their very citations of Scripture are
incorrect. Their cool affectation of superiority of knowledge, their
claim to intellectual power, would be laughable, were the subject less
solemn and important. Speculations so feeble that they sound like the
cries of an infant in the dark, are insinuated to be the sublime views
of a bold and original thinker, who _"has by a Divine help been enabled
to plant his foot somewhere beyond the waves of Time!"_--Doubts so badly
expressed that they read like the confused utterance of one in his
sleep, claim to be regarded as the legacy of one who is about to
_"depart hence before the natural term, worn out with intellectual
toil[14]!"_ ... In a word,--Men who have never been taught and trained,
but have grown up in a miserable self-evolved system of their
own,--(with a little of Hegel, and a little of Schleiermacher, and a
little of Strauss,)--cannot _but_ trouble the peace of the Church. They
deny her authority. (They are not aware of her claims.) They cavil at
her Creeds. (They are not acquainted with their history.) They doubt the
authenticity of the very Bible. (They know wondrous little about
it.)--How did the Bible attain its actual shape? They cannot tell. How
has it been guarded? They are careless to inquire. How does it come to
us as 'the Bible,'--_the_ Book of all books? It is best not to discuss a
question which must infallibly bring forward _the Church_ as "a witness
and a keeper of Holy Writ[15]." Men are even impatient to publish their
private prejudice that it is to be interpreted like any other book; that
it is inspired in no other sense than Sophocles and Plato. "The
principle of private judgment," (it is said,) "puts Conscience between
us and the Bible, making Conscience _the supreme interpreter[16]_."
"Hence," it is said, "we use the Bible,--some consciously, some
unconsciously,--not to override, but to evoke the voice of Conscience."
(p. 44.) "The Book of this Law," (as Hooker phrases it,) is dethroned;
and Man usurps the vacant seat, and becomes a Law unto himself! GOD
Himself is dethroned, in effect; and Man becomes his own god.
To cope systematically with all this from the University pulpit, as
already remarked, is plainly impossible. The preacher must take up the
question at some definite stage, and arrest the false teachers _there_.
"That wicked,"--or rather "THE LAWLESS ONE," (ὁ ἄνομος, as he is
called in 2 Thess. ii. 8,)--must be bound, hand and foot, _somewhere_ in
his career of lawlessness; and in these Sermons _the threshold of the
Bible_ has been chosen as the place for the conflict. My life for his
life. I will slay or be slain on the very portal of Holy Scripture. With
the young, you begin at the beginning,--"the Creed, the LORD'S Prayer,
the Ten Commandments;" and they must be further instructed in the Church
Catechism. But the foundation cannot be laid afresh with the full-grown.
It is idle to talk about the authority of _the Church_ to men who do not
believe in the Bible. It is useless to dispute about Creeds with men
who know nothing of the origin and history of Christianity. Reserving
the _true_ method of teaching for those who alone are capable of being
taught, we are constrained to argue with men of full age about _the
Inspiration and Interpretation of the Bible_.--If in the ensuing Sermons
the principles handled are so very elementary, it is because the
available limits were so very narrow,--while the field over which
Unbelief has spread itself, is so very broad.
III. When a few words have been added concerning the manner in which I
have executed my task, this Preface shall be brought to a close.--If the
style of the present SERMONS,--considering the auditory, and above all
considering the subject,--shall be thought by competent judges not
sufficiently dignified in parts, I will bow to their decision without
remonstrance. Everybody can divine the defence which would be set up;
but perhaps it may not be quite a valid defence. A man feels strongly
and warmly; writes fast and freely; is determined to be clearly
understood: is weary of the dignified conventionalities under which
Scepticism loves to conceal itself when it comes abroad. Perhaps some
expressions which may be permitted in delivery, ought to be remodelled
when a Sermon is sent to the press.
But with regard to the ensuing PRELIMINARY REMARKS, I shall not so
easily be persuaded to think that I am mistaken as to the style in which
Essayists and Reviewers are to be dealt with[17]. Some respectable
persons, I doubt not, will think my treatment of them harsh and
uncharitable. I invite them to consider that we do not expect blasphemy
from Ministers of the Gospel,--irreligion from the teachers of
youth,--infidelity from the Professor's chair: nor are we called upon to
tolerate it either. I have the misfortune to concur entirely with the
verdict pronounced by the Bishop of Exeter on the subject of 'Essays and
Reviews.' Let those who feel little jealousy for GOD'S honour measure
out in grains their censure of a volume, the confessed tendency of which
is to sap the foundation of Faith, and to introduce irreligion with a
flood-tide. Such shall not, at all events, be _my_ method. Private
regard, if it is to weigh largely with him who stands up for GOD'S
Truth, should first have weighed a little with those by whom it has been
most grievously outraged. It may suit these Authors to wrap up their
shameful meaning in a cloud of words; but their Reviewer avails himself
of that Christian liberty to which they themselves so systematically lay
claim, mercilessly to uncover their baseness, and uncompromisingly to
denounce it. If I may declare my mind freely, punctilious courtesy in
dealing with such opinions, becomes a species of treason against Him
after whose Name we are called, and whom we profess to serve. Seven men
may combine to handle the things of GOD, it seems, in the most
outrageous manner; while _themselves_ are to be the objects of
consideration, tenderness, respect! I cannot see their title to any
consideration at all.
It will be found, it is hoped, that when these writers have the courage
to descend to argument, _there_ I have gladly met them on their own
ground, and sought to refute them: but _to reason_ is no part of their
plan. Unsupported dicta on every subject on which they treat: doubts
promiscuously insinuated, but never once openly and honestly maintained:
cool assumptions of intellectual superiority for themselves and their
infidel allies: contemptuous allusions to the names which the
respectable part of mankind agrees to hold in honour: foul imputations
against the honesty of the Clergy:--_this_ is all their method! The
favourite _cant_ of these writers is, that no one should shrink from
free discussion, or fear the results of Criticism. Why then do not they
themselves criticize? Why do not _they_ reason? Charity herself after
weighing these Essays carefully has no alternative but to assume that
the Authors either have not the courage, or that they lack the ability,
to descend to a free discussion, and risk all on a stand-up fight. A
kind of guerilla warfare: half a dozen arrows, and a hasty retreat:
_such_ is their mode of attack! But this method, though it may occasion
annoyance, is quite unworthy of an honest inquirer, and never can be
decisive of anything. It is the cowardly expedient of men who shrink
from scrutiny, and dread exposure. Nothing so easy, for example, as to
repeat the old commonplace about "irreconcileable discrepancies" in the
"Synoptical Gospels:" but why, instead, are we not told, _which these
irreconcileable discrepancies are_? For my own part, I freely renew in
this place the challenge I gave in my IIIrd Sermon[18]. Let any one of
these Gentlemen publicly and definitely lay his finger on one or more
of these contradictory statements in the Gospels, during term-time; and
within a week I hereby undertake publicly to refute him in the Divinity
School of this University: and our peers shall be our judges.
Gentlemen who come abroad in the fashion above described, have no right
to complain if they encounter rough usage on the road. When Critics are
clamorous for the "free handling" of Divine Truth, they must not be
surprised to find themselves freely handled too. If free discussion is
to be the order of the day, then let there be free discussion of "Essays
and Reviews," _as well as of_ THE BIBLE. Six Clergymen of the Church of
England who enter upon a crusade against the Faith of the Church of
England must not be astonished if they are looked upon in the light of
immoral characters, and treated as such. Accordingly, I have handled
_them_ just as freely as _they_ have handled the Prophets, Apostles, and
Evangelists of CHRIST.
I cannot therefore pretend to offer anything in extenuation of the style
in which I have examined the statements of these Essayists and
Reviewers. Perfectly sensible as I am of the gracefulness of highly
courteous language in controversial writing, I will not so far violate
my own conviction of what is right as to bandy compliments on such an
occasion as _this_. This is no literary misunderstanding, or I could
have been amicable enough: no private or personal matter, or I could
have flung it from me with unconcern. No other than an attempt to
destroy Man's dearest hopes, is this infamous book: no other than an
insult, the grossest imaginable, offered to the Majesty of Heaven; an
attack, the more foul because it is so insidious, against the
Everlasting Gospel of JESUS CHRIST. In such a cause I will _not_ so far
give in to the smooth fashion of a supple and indifferent age, as to pay
these seven writers a single compliment which they will care to accept.
The most foolish composition of the seven is Dr. Temple's; the most
mischievous is Professor Jowett's: but the germ of the last Essay is
contained in the first; the foolishness of the first Essay is abundantly
shared by the last: while the evidence of correspondence of sentiment
between the two writers is unmistakable. The most unphilosophical Essay,
(where _all_ are unphilosophical,) is Professor Powell's: the most
insolent, Dr. Williams': the most immoral, Mr. Wilson's: the most
shallow, Mr. Goodwin's; the most irrelevant, Mr. Pattison's. Not one of
these writers shews himself capable of recognizing the true logical
result of his own opinions: of drawing from his own premisses their one
inevitable issue. Not one of them has had the manliness to _speak out_,
and to _say plainly_ what he means. They seem to deny the Divinity of
CHRIST, and the Personality of the HOLY GHOST: but how reluctant is a
reader to believe that they really _mean_ it! Quite inevitable is it
that these clerical critics must choose between two alternatives. Either
they hold opinions which make it impossible that they should retain
Orders in the Church of England, and yet be honest men; or they have
expressed themselves with such culpable inaccuracy and ambiguity, as
shews that they are altogether incompetent to handle the Science of
Theology.--Gladly would one give them the benefit of a third
alternative: but I see not that any remains.
If it should be thought strange that one thinking so meanly of 'Essays
and Reviews' should have produced a yet larger volume in reply to them,
it must suffice to point out that the refutation of a fallacy is almost
of necessity the ampler writing.--Or again, if it be remarked that by
far the largest part of what I have written is directed against the
hundred pages of Professor Jowett, the explanation is still obvious. For
not only does that concluding Essay of his bring to a terribly practical
issue the speculative doubts and difficulties which had been started by
all his predecessors; (namely, doubts as to (1) the relation in which
the Bible stands to Man;--(2) the nature of Prophecy;--(3) the reality
of Miracles;--(4) the worth of Creeds and formularies;--(5) the
authenticity of Genesis;--(6) the basis on which Revelation is by the
Church of England supposed to rest;)--by proposing that we should
henceforth regard the Bible as a book _no otherwise inspired than
Sophocles and Plato_:--not only does Professor Jowett's essay discharge
this fatal office; but his style is somewhat peculiar; and what he says,
cannot always be effectually disposed of by a few words. Let me explain.
There is a certain form of fallacy of statement in which this
Gentleman's writings abound, which calls aloud for notice and signal
reprobation. He has a marvellous aptitude, (one would fain hope through
some intellectual infirmity,) of connecting together in the same
sentence two or three clauses; one or two of which shall be true as
Heaven, while the other is false as Hell. The reply to such a sentence
is impossible, without many words,--far more than Mr. Jowett's sentences
commonly deserve.--Sometimes he strings together several heads of
thought; of which enumeration the kindest thing which can be said is
that it betrays an utter want of intellectual perspective. To unravel
even a part of this tangled web so as to expose its argumentative
worthlessness, soon fills a page.... But there is another kind of
fallacy which the same gentleman wields with immense effect, and in the
use of which he is a great master; which, because it was absolutely
impossible to handle it fitly in the proper place, shall be briefly
adverted to, here. I proceed to describe it not without indignation; for
I am profoundly struck by the intellectual perversity, not to say the
moral obliquity, which has so entirely made this vile instrument its
own.
The fallacy then is of this nature. When Professor Jowett would put
forth something especially deserving of reprehension,--some sentiment or
opinion which he either knows, or ought to know, that the whole Church
will resent with unqualified abhorrence,--he assumes a plaintive manner,
and puts himself into an interesting attitude; sometimes even folds his
hands, as if in prayer. He then begins by (1) throwing out a remark of
real beauty, and so conciliating for himself an indulgent hearing; or
(2) he goes off on some Moral question, and so defeats attention; or
(3) he delivers himself of some undeniable truth, and so disarms
censure; or (4) he says something of an entirely equivocal kind, and so
leaves his reader at fault. Candour, of course, gives him the benefit of
the doubt. It is not till the sentence is well advanced, or till it is
examined by the fatal light of its context, that one is shewn what the
ambiguous writer really was intending. A cloven foot appears at last;
but it is instantly withdrawn, with a shuffle; and you experience a
scowl or a sneer, as the case may be, for your extreme unkindness in
inquiring whether it was not a cloven foot you saw?... Meanwhile, the
learned Professor has gone off _in alia omnia_, with a look of
earnestness which challenges respect, and a vagueness of diction which
at once discourages pursuit and defeats inquiry. The fish invariably
ends by disappearing in a cloud of his own ink.
It shall suffice to have said thus much. These pages must now be
suffered to go forth; not without a hearty aspiration that a blessing
may attend them from Him _sine Quo nihil est validum, nihil sanctum_;
and that what was intended for the strength and help of those who want
helping and strengthening, (I am thinking particularly of what has been
offered on the subject of Inspiration,) may not prove misleading or
perplexing to any.
_Oriel, June 24th, 1861._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The reader is invited to refer to the passages cited in the present
volume, at pp. lxxxvii. and lxxxviii.
[2] See p. 47 to p. 50. Also Appendix (B.)
[3] In illustration of what is meant, may be particularized a highly
objectionable Sermon which Dr. Temple preached before the University
some years ago, and which occasioned no small offence to many who heard
it,--as all in Oxford well remember. It was almost as unsound as the
same writer's Essay "On the Education of the World," which, to the best
of my remembrance, it strongly resembled.--A printed Sermon by Dr.
Temple may also be referred to, "preached on Act-Sunday, July 1, 1860,
before the University of Oxford, during the Meeting of the British
Association," entitled _"The present Relations of Science to
Religion."_--Professor Jowett's handling of the Doctrine of the
Atonement, needs only to be referred to.
[4] Page 80 to 82.
[5] "To the Reader," prefixed to _Essays and Reviews_.
[6] 'Neo-Christianity' in the _Westminster Review_, No. 36.--How true is
what follows:--"The Bible is one; and it is too late now to propose to
divide it. We shall only point out that the _moral value of the Gospel
teaching becomes suspicious_ when the whole miraculous element is
discarded.
"We certainly do think that the Gospels assert a miraculous Incarnation,
Resurrection, and Ascension; and that the Epistles teach Original Sin,
and a vicarious Sacrifice. If this be doubted by our authors, it is
sufficient for us to say that such is the impression they have created
on all ages of Christians."
"We desire that if the Bible, or any part of it be retained as Holy
Writ, it be defended as a miraculous gift to Man, and not by distorting
the principles of modern Science. Let the Essayists be assured that
there exists _no middle course_; that there is no Inspiration more than
is natural, yet not supernatural; _no Theology which can abandon its
doctrines and retain its authority_."
Lastly, with what sickening and almost Satanic power, does the same
writer invite the Essayists and Reviewers to make shipwreck of their
souls in the following terrible passage. And yet, who sees not that _on
their principles_ absolute and professed unbelief is _inevitable_? He
says:--"How long shall this last? Until men have the courage to bury
their dead convictions out of sight, and the greater courage to form
new. All honour to these writers for the boldness with which they have,
at great risk, urged their opinions. _But what is wanted is strength_
not merely to face the world, but _to face one's own conclusions_. We
know the cost. It must be endured. Let each who has thought and felt for
himself, ask himself first what he _does not_ believe, and then, if wise
or needful, avow it. Next let him ask himself what he _does_ believe,
and pursue it to its true and full conclusions. Neither loose
accommodation nor sonorous principles will long give them rest. It is of
as little use to surrender the more glaring contradictions of Science as
it is to evaporate discredited doctrine into a few vague precepts. That
end will not be attained by our authors by subliming Religion into an
emotion, and making an armistice with Science. It will not be obtained
by any unreal adaptation; _nor by this, which is, of all recent
adaptations_, at once the most able, the most earnest, and _the most
suicidal_."
[7] The Bishop of Exeter to Dr. Temple.
[8] The Bishop of Manchester exactly expressed the general opinion, when
he said,--"Nor will I for a single moment, however my personal feelings
might interfere, conceal my deliberate conviction that every partner in
that work is equally guilty."--(_Guardian_, Ap. 10, 1861, p. 341.) But
the most faithful language of all came from the Bishop of Exeter in his
crushing reply to an inquiry put to him by Dr. Temple. "I avow that I
hold every one of the seven persons acting together for such an object
to be alike responsible for the several acts of every individual among
them in executing their avowed common purpose."
[9] A letter from Dr. Rowland Williams, which has appeared in the
newspapers, contains the following language with reference to the
American reprint of "Essays and Reviews:"--"I confess myself personally
gratified that my own work, and that of my far more distinguished
coadjutors, with whom it is sufficient honour for me to be included in
the same volume, should have obtained the honour of a reprint in another
hemisphere. Still more would I hail the circumstance as an auspicious
token of the sympathy which should prevail between kindred nations, as
regards subjects of the highest import, and as a sign of the prospects
of Christian freedom beyond the Atlantic....
"I have not yet discovered any community or individual possessing the
right to cast the first stone at those who interpret the Bible in
freedom, and who subordinate its letter to its spirit, or its parts to
its whole. Even if Holy Scripture were, as is popularly fancied, the
foundation,--and not, as I believe, the expression and the memorial,--of
Religious Truth in man, it would be absurd to render it honours
essentially different from those which it claims for itself, or to make
it a master, where it claims only to be a servant."
[10] Serm. V.
[11] See Sermon VII.
[12] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 166.
[13] See p. clxxvii. to p. clxxxiii.
[14] Mr. Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, p. 433.
[15] Article XX.
[16] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 45.
[17] It should perhaps be stated that the edition of "Essays and
Reviews" which I have employed is _the Third_ (1860.)
[18] pp. 72-3.
CONTENTS.
DEDICATION.
PREFACE. I. Some account of the present Volume.
II. Growth of irreligious Opinion.
III. 'Essayists and Reviewers' to be as 'freely-handled'
as the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles of
CHRIST.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON "ESSAYS AND REVIEWS." PAGE
I. Examination of the contribution of Rev. F. Temple, D.D. ii
II. Rev. Rowland Williams, D.D. xxx
III. Rev. Professor Baden Powell, M.A. xlvi
IV. Rev. H. B. Wilson, M.A. lxiv
V. C. W. Goodwin, M.A. lxxxvi
VI. Rev. Mark Pattison, B.D. cxii
VII. Rev. Professor Jowett, M.A. cxxxix
In what sense Mr. Jowett's fundamental principle, (that
"Scripture is to be interpreted like any other book,") may
be cheerfully accepted cxl
Mr. Jowett's main assertion that "Scripture has one and only
one true meaning," shewn to be founded on his assumption
that the Bible is _uninspired_,--"like any other book" cxlii
1. Eight Characteristics of the Bible enumerated, which shew
that it is _unlike_ "any other book" cl
But the distinctive characteristic of the Bible, is, that _it
professes to be the work of the HOLY GHOST_ clx
Mr. Jowett's syllogism corrected, in consequence clxii
2. Mr. Jowett's proposal accepted, that we should "Interpret
Scripture from itself." Notion of _Interpretation_ obtained
from the volume of _Inspiration_ clxii
3. In addition to the testimony of Scripture, we have to
consider the testimony of Antiquity clxix
Remarks on primitive Patristic Interpretation clxx
This part of the subject misunderstood by Mr. Jowett clxxiii
Remarks on primitive Tradition.--The Creeds, the records of
Primitive Christianity clxxvii
This part of the subject also misunderstood by Mr. Jowett clxxix
4. Examination of some of Mr. Jowett's reasons for rejecting
that method of Interpretation which has been (=1=)
Established by our LORD; (=2=) Employed by His Apostles;
(=3=) Universally adopted by the primitive Church; and (=4=)
Accepted by the most learned and judicious of modern
Commentators clxxxvi
The peroration of Mr. Jowett's Essay examined and commented on ccvi
Retrospect of the entire subject ccxvi
Conclusion ccxxvii
SERMON I.
ST. JOHN vi. 68. _LORD, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of Eternal Life._
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE RECOMMENDED; AND A METHOD OF STUDYING
IT DESCRIBED.
The Gospel, as a written message, meets with the same
reception at the hands of the World now, as in the days of
the Son of Man 1
Some points of analogy between the Written and the Incarnate
WORD 2
Difficulties and seeming contradictions in the Gospel 3
Unattractive aspect.--Union of the Human and Divine 4
The Bible is generally little read.--Its preciousness 6
The age unlearned as well as unfaithful 7
Want of preparation for the Ministry.--The question of
preparation narrowed to the duty of studying the Bible 8
Conditions of successful Study:--a fixed time for reading the
Bible, and a fixed quantity to be read 9
Vigilance, and independent inquiry 10
Consecutive reading.--The first chapter of Genesis 11
Nothing to be skipped.--Result of such a method 12
The Bible is to be read, not in the same manner, but with at
least the same attention, as a merely human work 13
A caution 14
Men not competent to make their own Religion out of the Bible 16
The advantages of such a study of the Bible as has been here
recommended, explained 17
SERMON II.
HEBREWS xi. 3. _Through Faith, we understand that the worlds
were framed by the Word of GOD._
NATURAL SCIENCE AND THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE.
Special act of Faith assigned to ourselves in Hebrews xi. 23
The first Chapter of Genesis considered: Verse 1 24
Province of Geology 26
The Work of the First Day 28
--------------- Second and the Third Day 29
--------------- Fourth and the Fifth Day 30
--------------- Sixth Day 31
The Mosaic History of the Creation true 33
Objections considered 34
Speech ascribed to GOD 35
Adam's knowledge 36
The first pair.--The days of Creation real days 37
Objections of pretenders to Natural Science 39
The plea that the Bible is not a scientific book 40
The historical truth of the Bible insisted upon 44
Natural Science not undervalued 46
The term "Science" not to be opposed to "Theology" 47
Theology the Queen of Sciences 48
SERMON III.
2 TIM. iii. 16. _All Scripture is given by inspiration of
GOD._
INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE.--GOSPEL DIFFICULTIES.--THE WORD OF
GOD INFALLIBLE.--OTHER SCIENCES SUBORDINATE TO THEOLOGICAL
SCIENCE.
The meaning of 2 Tim. iii. 16 53
St. Paul nowhere disclaims Inspiration 54
Holy Scripture is attributed in Scripture to the HOLY GHOST 56
Forms of unbelief concerning Inspiration 57
Impertinence of the modern way of speaking of the Evangelists 60
Supposed inaccuracies, slips of memory, misstatements 61
The Gospels not _four_ but _One_ 62
A principle laid down for the reconcilement of all Gospel
difficulties 63
Illustration from a supposed case of testimony 64
Computation of the hours in St. John's Gospel 66
The accounts of the blind man restored to sight at Jericho,
harmonized 67
Characteristics of an Inspired narrative 68
The mention of "Jeremy the prophet," and of Cyrenius,
considered 70
Faultlessness of the Gospel 72
Absurdity of the common allegations against it 73
The absolute Infallibility of Scripture maintained 74
Every syllable of Holy Scripture inspired 75
The nature of Inspiration illustrated 76
Theology, the noblest of the Sciences 79
Insubordination in these last days of Physical Science 80
The infidel spirit of the Age, protested against 81
Theological Science can never be called upon to give way
before Physical Science 83
Relations of Morals to Theology 84
Conscience and the Moral Sense have been informed afresh by
Revelation 87
SERMON IV.
ST. JOHN xvii. 17. _Thy Word is Truth._
THE PLENARY INSPIRATION OF EVERY PART OF THE BIBLE, VINDICATED
AND EXPLAINED.--NATURE OF INSPIRATION.--THE TEXT OF
SCRIPTURE.
Cavils against the Bible 92
Absolute infallibility of every 'jot' and every 'tittle' of
Holy Scripture 94
The popular view of Inspiration stated 95
No middle state between Inspiration and non-inspiration 96
The popular theory applied and tested 96
A different view of the nature and office of Inspiration
stated 100
Inspiration still the same, however diverse the subject-matter 102
What is meant by 'a Prophet' 104
The message still GOD'S, whatever its nature may be 106
Note of Inspiration in the Historical Books of the Bible 108
The Title on the Cross 109
Remonstrance 110
Theories of Inspiration to be rejected 115
Remarks on the nature of Inspiration 116
Proof that men generally hold that _the words_ of Scripture
are inspired 117
Absolute irrelevancy of objections drawn from _the state of
the Text_ of Scripture 118
The Substance of Scripture inseparable from the Form 120
Antichristian spirit of the age 121
The Study of Scripture in a childlike spirit recommended 122
SUPPLEMENT TO SERMON IV.
A favourite view of Inspiration stated 126
Vagueness of this theory 127
The theory practically tested, and found unmanageable 128
Further examination of the theory 132
Our SAVIOUR'S reasoning as difficult as that of St. Paul 134
SERMON V.
ST. MATTHEW iv. 4. _It is written, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
GOD._
INTERPRETATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.--INSPIRED
INTERPRETATION.--THE BIBLE IS NOT TO BE INTERPRETED LIKE ANY
OTHER BOOK.--GOD, (NOT MAN,) THE REAL AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE.
Interpretation described 140
Three sources of Interpretation compared 141
Eusebius on "the Captain of the LORD'S Host" 143
The principle must be ascertained, on which Inspiration is to
be conducted 144
How this is to be done 145
This question may not be needlessly encumbered with
difficulties 147
The HOLY SPIRIT'S method of Interpretation must be the _true_
method 148
Specimens of Inspired Interpretation 149
The very narrative of Scripture mysterious 152
Divine exposition of the history of Melchizedek 152
Further proofs of the mysterious texture of Holy Scripture 156
Moses wrote concerning CHRIST 157
Two propositions established by the foregoing inquiry: (1) That
the Bible is _not to be interpreted like any other book_:
(2) That _the meaning of Scripture is not always only one_ 160
Scripture to be interpreted literally 160
The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife remarked upon 162
The Bible is the Word of GOD 163
Bishop Butler on Inspiration 165
Unbelief remonstrated with from the analogy of Nature and of
Providence 168
How the inspired writers may be supposed to have understood
what they delivered 171
The question of Interpretation not be argued on _à priori_
grounds 173
Interpretation would be hopeless, but that the fountain of
Inspiration is _one_ 174
An apology for these Sermons 177
Exhortation to transmit the Faith 180
SERMON VI.
ROMANS x. 6-9. _But the Righteousness which is of Faith
speaketh on this wise,--'Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend into Heaven?' (that is, to bring CHRIST down from
above:) or, 'Who shall descend into the deep?' (that is, to
bring up CHRIST again from the dead.) But what saith it?
'The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thine
heart:' that is, the word of Faith, which we preach; that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the LORD JESUS, and shalt
believe in thine heart that GOD hath raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved._
THE DOCTRINE OF ARBITRARY SCRIPTURAL ACCOMMODATION CONSIDERED.
Many insidious methods of denying the Inspiration of Scripture 184
The most subtle method of all, characterized 185
The term "Accommodation" not in itself objectionable 187
Arbitrary Accommodation explained 188
Reasons for rejecting this theory 189
Learned research proves that the theory is gratuitous 190
St. Paul's exposition of a passage in Deuteronomy xxx, (Rom.
x. 6 to 9,) proposed for examination 191
License of Inspired quotation 194
How the phenomenon is to be regarded 195
St. Paul's exposition examined by the light of unassisted
Reason 198
Shewn not to be an instance of arbitrary Accommodation, but of
genuine Interpretation 211
The success or failure of such inquiries, unimportant 212
No "Accommodation" when an inspired writer quotes Scripture 213
Remarks on Inspired Reasoning 215
SERMON VII.
ST. MARK xii. 24. _Do ye not therefore err, because ye know
not the Scriptures, neither the power of GOD._
THE MARVELS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE,--MORAL AND PHYSICAL.--JAEL'S
DEED DEFENDED.--MIRACLES VINDICATED.
Sadduceeism of the day 221
The Moral and Physical Marvels of Scripture proposed for
consideration 222
Moral Marvels:--Jael.--How her story is to be read 223
History of Jael. Her conduct explained and defended 224
Jacob,--the Canaanites,--Abraham,--David 230
Physical Marvels:--The greatest of those in the Old Testament
are witnessed to in the New 232
Design of the quotations in Holy Scripture 234
Dr. Arnold and the Book of Daniel 235
Miracles are not to be called violations, &c. of Nature 237
Law in relation to GOD 238
An objectionable Theory of Miracles exposed 239
Bishop Butler on Miracles 240
Miracles may be pared down, but cannot be explained away 242
"Ideology" applied to the explanation of Miracles 243
Ideology explained and exposed 245
The Resurrection of CHRIST the foundation-truth of
Christianity 248
False and true Charity 250
A parting Exhortation 252
APPENDIX.
A _Bishop Horsley on the double sense of Prophecy_ 257
B _Bishop Pearson on Theological Science_ 258
C _The Bible an instrument of Man's probation_ 260
D _St. Stephen's statement in Acts vii. 15, 16, explained_ 261
E _The simplest view of Inspiration the truest and the best_ 265
F _The written and the Incarnate Word_ 267
G _The volume of the Old Testament Scriptures, indivisible_ 268
I _Remarks on Theories of Inspiration.--The 'Human Element'_ 269
J _How the Inspired Authors of the New Testament handle
the writings of the Inspired Authors of the Old_ 271
K _Bishop Bull on Deuteronomy_ xxx 273
L _Opinions of commentators concerning Accommodation_ 277
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
ON A VOLUME ENTITLED
"ESSAYS AND REVIEWS:"
ADDRESSED TO THE
UNDERGRADUATE MEMBERS OF ORIEL COLLEGE.
My Friends,--I have determined to address to yourselves the present
remarks; their subject, a volume which has recently obtained such a
degree of notoriety that it is almost superfluous even to specify it by
name.
With unfeigned reluctance do I mix myself up in this strife; but the
course of events, when I first took up my pen, left me almost without an
alternative. Far more reluctant should I be to seem to make yourselves
the arbiters of Theological controversy. But in truth nothing is further
from my present intention. As a plain matter of fact, you are called
upon weekly, at St. Mary's, to listen to Sermons which indicate plainly
enough the troubled state of the religious atmosphere; and which, of
late, (too frequently alas!) have inevitably assumed a controversial
aspect. The Sermons here published, (which form the constructive part of
the present volume,) were preached expressly with an eye to _your_
advantage, and were intended to warn you against (what I deemed) a very
serious danger. It is only natural therefore that I should desire to
address to yourselves the present remarks likewise. _You_ are,
naturally, objects of special solicitude to myself in this place,--you,
with whom I live as among friends, and for not a few of whom I entertain
a sincere affection. And in addressing you, I am not by any means
inviting you to exercise your own theological judgment; for _that_ would
indeed be an absurd proceeding. I am simply seeking to instruct you, and
to guide you with mine.
The case of "Essays and Reviews" is, in fact, altogether
exceptional,--whether the respectability of its authors, the wickedness
of its contents, or the reception which it has met with, is considered.
That volume embodies the infidel spirit of the present day. Turn where
you will, you encounter some criticism upon it. No advertizing column
but contains repeated mention of its name. To ignore so flagrant a
scandal to the Church, is quite impossible. I have thought it better,
therefore, to encounter the danger in this straightforward way; and I
proceed, without further preamble, to remark briefly on each of the
Seven "Essays and Reviews," in order.
I. The feeblest essay in the volume is the first. It is not without
grave concern that I transcribe the name of its amiable, and (in every
relation of private life) truly excellent author,--"FREDERICK TEMPLE,
D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen; Head Master of Rugby School;
Chaplain to the Earl of Denbigh." Under the imposing title of "THE
EDUCATION OF THE WORLD," we are presented with a worthless allegory,
which has all the faults of a schoolboy's theme, (incorrect grammar
included;) and not one of the excellencies which ought to characterize
the product of a ripened understanding,--the work of a Doctor of
Divinity in the English Church[19].
Dr. Temple's opening speculations are at once unintelligible,
irrelevant, and untrue. But they are immaterial; and serve only to lug
in, (not to introduce,) the assumption that the "power, whereby the
present ever gathers into itself the results of the past, transforms the
human race into a colossal man whose life reaches from the Creation to
the day of Judgment. The successive generations of men are days in this
man's life. The discoveries and inventions which characterize the
different epochs of the world's history are his works. The creeds and
doctrines, the opinions and principles of the successive ages, are his
thoughts." [Alas, that the Creeds and Doctrines of the Church should be
spoken of by a Professor of Divinity as the "thoughts" of men!] "The
state of society at different times are (_sic_) his manners. He grows
in knowledge, in self-control, in visible size, just as we do. And his
education is in the same way and for the same reason precisely similar
to ours. All this is no figure, but only a compendious statement of a
very comprehensive fact." (p. 3.) "We may then," (he repeats,) "rightly
speak of a childhood, a youth, and a manhood of the world." (p. 4.) And
the process of this development of the colossal man, "corresponds, stage
by stage, with the process by which the infant is trained for youth, and
the youth for manhood. This training has three stages. In childhood, we
are subject to positive rules which we cannot understand, but are bound
implicitly to obey. In youth we are subject to the influence of example,
and soon break loose from all rules, unless illustrated and enforced by
the higher teaching which example imparts. In manhood we are
comparatively free from external restraints, and if we are to learn,
must be our own instructors. First comes the Law, then the Son of Man,
then the Gift of the Spirit. The world was once a child under tutors and
governors until the time appointed by the Father. Then, when the fit
season had arrived, the Example to which all ages should turn was sent
to teach men what they ought to be. Then the human race was left to
itself, to be guided by the teaching of the Spirit within." (p. 5.)--So
very weak an analogy, (where everything is assumed, and nothing proved,)
singular to relate, is drawn out into distressing tenuity through no
less than 49 pages.
The ANSWER to all this is sufficiently obvious, as well as sufficiently
damaging; and need not be delayed for a minute.
That the Human Race has made considerable progress in Knowledge, from
first to last,--is a mere truism. That, in the civilized world, one
generation is the heir of the generations which went before it, is what
no one requires to be told. Thus the discovery of the compass, of
printing, and of the steam-engine, have been epochs in human knowledge
from which a start was made by all civilized nations, without
retrogression. But such facts supply no warrant for transforming the
whole Human Race into one Colossal Man; do not constitute any reason
whatever why the 6000 years of recorded time should be divided into
three periods corresponding with the Infancy, Boyhood, and Manhood of an
Individual.
To this theory, however, Dr. Temple even ostentatiously commits himself.
It is the purpose of his entire Essay, to establish the fanciful analogy
already indicated,--which is proclaimed to be "no figure" but a "fact."
(p. 3.) But an educated man of ordinary intelligence, on reaching p. 7,
(where the writer first discloses his view,) summons the known facts of
History to his recollection; and before he proceeds any further, reasons
with himself somewhat as follows:--
The Human Race had inhabited the Earth's surface for upwards of sixteen
hundred years, when it was destroyed by the waters of the Flood. After
that, the descendants of Noah peopled the earth's surface; a transaction
of which the sole authentic record is to be found in the xth chapter of
the Book of Genesis. Egypt first emerged into importance,--as history
and monuments conspire to prove; having had a peculiar language and
literature, Arts and Sciences, anterior to the period of the Exodus,
viz. B.C. 1491. Meanwhile, the chart of History directs our attention to
four great Empires: the Assyrian Empire, which was swallowed up by the
Persian; and the Persian, which was merged in the Grecian Empire. The
Roman Empire came last. [How _Law_ can be considered to be the
characteristic of all or any part of this period, I am at a loss to
discover. Neither do I see any indication of puling Infancy here.] These
four great Empires of the world had run their course when our SAVIOUR
CHRIST was born. GOD sent His own Eternal SON into the world; and lo, a
change passed over the whole fabric of the world's polity. The old forms
of social life became, as it were, dissolved; or rather, a new spirit
had been breathed into them all. A new era had commenced; and a new
principle henceforth animated mankind. That peculiar system of Divine
Laws which for 1500 years had separated the Hebrew race from all the
nations of the earth,--the Mosaic Law which had hitherto been the
inheritance of a single family, isolated in Canaan,--was explained and
expanded by its Divine Author. The ancient promises to Abraham and his
posterity were declared in their application to be co-extensive with the
whole race of Mankind by faith embracing them. Henceforth, the kingdoms
of the world were proclaimed the kingdoms of CHRIST, and _Mankind became
for the first time subject to a written Law_. The Laws of CHRIST'S
Kingdom, the doctrines of CHRIST'S Church, henceforth become supreme.
Thus, when a Christian Sovereign is crowned, the Bible is solemnly
placed in his hands; and it is required of him that he promise, on his
oath, "to the utmost of his power, _to maintain the Laws of GOD_." "When
you see this Orb set under this Cross," (says the Archbishop, on
delivering those insignia of Royalty,) "remember that the whole World is
subject to the power and empire of CHRIST our Redeemer ... so that no
man can reign happily, who ... directs not all his actions _according
to His Laws_." ... No further change in the order of things is anywhere
intimated. The Faith hath been ἅπαξ,--once and for ever,--delivered to
the Saints. Forsaken, it may be: by many, (alas!) _it will be_ forsaken
before the consummation of all things: but it will not itself cease.
Heaven and Earth shall pass away; but CHRIST'S Word, never. Not one jot
nor one tittle of _the Law_ shall fail.... Such, in brief outline, is
the World's true history,--past, present, future. Does it correspond
with Dr. Temple's account? That may be very soon seen. He calls the
human race a Colossal Man; and says that it passes through three
stages,--Infancy, Boyhood, Manhood: and that during those three stages,
it is governed by three corresponding principles,--Law, Example,
Conscience. How does Dr. Temple establish the first?
The Jews, (he says,) were subject to Law from the period of the Exode to
the coming of CHRIST.--We listen to the statement of a familiar fact
without surprise: but we are inclined to express some stronger feeling
than surprise when we discover that this is _the whole_ of the proof
concerning the infancy of the Colossal Man! Does this writer then mean
to tell us that the Jews were all Mankind? If they were _not_ the
Colossal Man,--if, instead of being the whole Human Race, they were one
of the most inconsiderable and least known of the nations,--an isolated
family, in fact, inhabiting Canaan,--what becomes of the analogy? We
really pause for an answer.... Such a theory might have been expected,
and would have been excusable if it had proceeded from a
Sunday-school-boy of fifteen,--who had read the Bible indeed, but who
was unacquainted with any book besides; and so, had jumped to the
conclusion that the Jews were "the World." But Dr. Temple is a
Schoolmaster, and therefore must surely know better. If he is fanciful
enough to regard Mankind as a Colossal Man; and unphilosophical enough
to consider that History is capable of being divided into three
periods,--corresponding with Infancy, Boyhood, and Manhood; and
forgetful enough of the facts of the case to assume that mankind was
subject to Law _until_ the coming of CHRIST, thenceforward to be
emancipated therefrom:--yet Dr. Temple ought not to be so unreasonable
as to pretend that Canaan was coextensive with the World,--the
descendants of Abraham with the posterity of Noah! This amiable writer
is inexcusable for excluding from the corporate entity of the Human Race
the four great Empires of the world, (to say nothing of primæval Egypt
and mysterious India;) and for the sake of elaborating a worthless
allegory, identifying the least of all people with the Colossal Man,
who, (according to his own account of the matter,) represents the
aggregate of all the nations.
Once more. The Mosaic Law was not given till B.C. 1491. But the world
was then upwards of 2500 years old. Far more than one-third, therefore,
of recorded time had already elapsed. How does it happen that the theory
under consideration gives no account of those 2500 years; or rather,
does not begin to be applicable, until they have rolled away?
Other inconveniences await this silly speculation. Thus, the Colossal
Man, (who was _under Law_ from B.C. 1491 to the Christian æra,) proves
to have been a marvellously precocious Infant. He wrote the Song of
Moses _in the year of his birth_. Nay, he built pyramids,--had a
Literature, Arts, and Sciences,--_ages before he was born!..._ While
yet an infant, he sang with Homer, and carved with Phidias, and
philosophized with Aristotle,--as none have ever sung, or carved, or
philosophized since. Times and fashions have altered, truly; but these
three men are still _our_ Masters in Philosophy, in Sculpture, and in
Song. Awkward fact, that the colossal Infant should have lisped in a
tongue which for copiousness of diction, and subtlety of expression,
absolutely remains to this hour without a rival in the world!
Again. At this writer's dogmatic bidding, we force ourselves to think of
Mankind as a Colossal Man, who has already gone through three
ages,--Infancy, Boyhood, and Manhood. _Old Age is therefore to come
next_. When, (if it is a fair question,) may it be expected that the sad
period of senile decrepitude will set in? What proof, in the mean time,
is there, (we venture to ask,) that this period of decay has not begun
already? Or does Dr. Temple perhaps imagine that the world is moving in
cycles, (to adopt the grotesque speculation of his own first pages); and
that after having run through the curriculum of Infancy, Boyhood, and
Manhood, the Colossal Man, (escaping, for some unexplained reason, the
penalty of Old Age,) is to grow young again,--shake his rattle and cut
his teeth afresh? There is a childish vivaciousness, a juvenile
recklessness, a skittish impatience of restraint, in this amiable
author's speculations, which powerfully corroborate such a view of the
case.
"The Childhood of the World was over when our LORD appeared on earth,"
(p. 20.) says Dr. Temple. But when at last he is compelled to introduce
to our notice his Colossal Child (p. 9, _bottom_.) now developed into a
Colossal Youth, he is painfully sensible that the Law and the Prophets,
(his schoolmasters,) (p. 8.) have not done their work quite so well as
was to have been desired and expected. Some apology is necessary, (p.
13, _bottom_.) Two great results however he claims for their
discipline:--"a settled national belief in the unity and spirituality of
GOD, and an acknowledgement of the paramount importance of chastity as a
point of morals." (p. 11.) Not however that the Law or the Prophets had
taught them even _this_. (p. 10, _top_.) "It was in the Captivity, far
from the temple and the sacrifices of the temple, that the Jewish people
first learned that the spiritual part of worship could be separated from
the ceremonial; and that of the two the spiritual was far the higher."
(p. 10.) At Babylon also the Jews first distinctly learned the doctrine
of the immortality of the soul. (p. 19.)--The Law, to be sure, had
emphatically said,--"Hear, O Israel, the LORD thy GOD is _one GOD[20]_."
The prophets, to be sure, had protested,--"Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice[21]." The Law and the Prophets, to be sure, are full of
intimations that "mercy and not sacrifice[22]" is acceptable to the GOD
of Heaven, and that GOD'S Saints well understood the Doctrine[23]; as
well as that a belief in the soul's immortality was a part of the
instruction of the Jewish people. But what is all this to one who has an
allegory to establish?...
_The facts_ of the case, in the meantime, sorely perplex the
truth-loving writer. "For it is undeniable that, in the time of our
Lord, the Sadducees had lost all depth of spiritual feeling, whilst the
Pharisees had succeeded in converting the Mosaic system into a
mischievous idolatry of forms." (p. 10.) "In short, the Jewish nation
had lost very much when John the Baptist came." (p. 11.) The hopelessly
corrupt moral state of the youthful Colossus, described with such
sickening force and power by the great Apostle in the first chapter of
the Epistle to the Romans, cannot have occurred to Dr. Temple's
remembrance, for he says nothing about it. Certain withering
denunciations of "a wicked and adulterous generation[24];"--of
"adulterers and adulteresses[25];"--"serpents," a "generation of
vipers," which should hardly "escape the damnation of Hell[26];"--ought
to have reached him with a reproachful echo; but he is silent about them
all. Still less would it have suited the amiable allegorizer to state
that _just midway_ in the educational process, his Colossal Youth, "as
if" the sins of Samaria and of Sodom "were a very little thing," "_was
corrupted more than they in all his ways_. As I live, saith the LORD
GOD," (apostrophizing Dr. Temple's Colossal Youth, in allusion to his
character and conduct in the middle of his infant career,) "_Sodom_ thy
sister _hath not done as thou_ hast done: ... _neither hath Samaria
committed half thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations
more than they_.... Bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast
committed _more abominable than they_. They are more righteous than
thou[27]!" "Ah sinful nation, laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers,
children that are corrupters!... From the sole of the foot even unto
the head,"--[these words, remember, are addressed to the Colossal Infant
just _midway_ in his career; and Heaven and Earth are called upon to
give ear, "for the LORD hath spoken!" ... From the sole to the crown,]
"there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying
sores.... Your hands are full of blood[28]!" ... About all this hideous
retrospect of what was going on at school, Dr. Temple is silent.
In like manner, the great fact that our REDEEMER came to republish His
own two primæval ordinances,--the spiritual observance of the Sabbath
and the sanctity of Marriage,--is quietly ignored. A youth utterly
degraded by sensuality[29], and blinded by unbelief[30], is a terrible
picture truly. Dr. Temple therefore boldly gives the lie direct to
History, sacred and profane; and insists that "side by side with freedom
from idolatry, _there had grown up in the Jewish mind a chaster morality
than was to be found elsewhere in the world_:" (p. 12:) that "_in
chastity the Hebrews stood alone_; and this virtue, which had grown up
with them from their earliest days (!!!) _was still in the vigour of
fresh life when they were commissioned to give the Gospel to the
nations_." (p. 13.)
Behold the Colossal Child therefore, now grown into a Colossal "Youth
too old for discipline." (p. 20, _bottom_.) "The tutors and governors
have done their work;" (p. 20;) and he is now to go through a distinct
process of training. Three tutors are now brought in to give the
finishing touches to the youth's education, and to inaugurate his new
career. Rome, Greece, and Asia,--which for some unexplained reason never
become (according to Dr. Temple) any part of the Colossal Man _at
all_,--now come in; "Rome to discipline the human will; Greece, the
reason and taste; Asia, the spiritual imagination." (p. 19.) The Law and
the Prophets had disciplined the Colossal Child's conscience,--with what
success we have seen. At all events, Moses and Isaiah are for infants:
we have passed the age for such helps as _they_ could supply. In a
word,--"The childhood of the world was over when our Lord appeared on
earth." (p. 20.) It was "just the meeting-point of the Child and the
Man; the brief interval which separates restraint from liberty." (p.
22.) "It was time that the second teacher of the Human Race should begin
his labours. The second teacher is EXAMPLE:" (p. 20:) and "the period of
youth in the history of the world, when the human race was, as it were,
put under the teaching of example, corresponds, of course, to the
meeting point of the Law and the Gospel. The second stage therefore in
the education of man was the presence of our LORD upon earth." (p. 24.)
Let not this stage of Dr. Temple's allegory suffer by being stated in
any language besides his own. "The world" had been a Colossal Child for
1490 years. It was to be a Youth for almost 100. "The whole period from
the closing of the Old Testament to the close of the New was the period
of the world's youth,--the age of examples: and our LORD'S presence was
not the only influence of that kind which has acted upon the human race.
Three companions were appointed by Providence to give their society to
this creature whom GOD was educating, Greece, Rome, and the Early
Church." (p. 26.) Behold then, our Blessed Redeemer with His "three
companions." (I reproduce this blasphemous speculation with shame and
sorrow.) What kind of Example _He_ was, Dr. Temple omits to inform us.
But Greece was "the brilliant social companion;"--Rome, "the bold and
clever leader;"--the Early Church was "the earnest, heavenly-minded
friend." (p. 26.) We are warned therefore against supposing that "our
Lord's presence was _the only influence of that kind_," (i.e. example,)
appointed by Providence for the creature whom God was educating. In a
word: "The world was now grown old enough to be taught by seeing the
lives of Saints, _better than by hearing the words of Prophets_."
(pp. 28-9.)
We come now to the conclusion of the allegory; and Dr. Temple shall
again speak for himself. "The age of reflection begins. From the
storehouse of his youthful experience the Man begins to draw the
principles of his life. The spirit or conscience comes to full strength
and assumes the throne intended for him in the soul. As an accredited
judge, invested with full powers, he sits in the tribunal of our inner
kingdom, decides upon the past, and legislates upon the future without
appeal except to himself. He decides not by what is beautiful, or noble,
or soul-inspiring, but by what is right. Gradually he frames his code of
laws, revising, adding, abrogating, as a wider and deeper experience
gives him clearer light. He is the third great teacher and the last."
(p. 31.)
And now, it will reasonably be asked,--May not the head-master of Rugby
write a weak and foolish Essay on a subject which he evidently does not
understand, without incurring so much not only of public ridicule, but
of public obloquy also? If his own sixth-form boys do not laugh at him,
need the Church feel aggrieved at what he has written? Where is the
special _irreligion_ in all this?
I answer,--The offence is of the very gravest character; and in the
course of what follows, it will appear with sufficient plainness wherein
it consists. For the moment,--singly considered,--it is my painful duty
to condemn Dr. Temple's Essay on the following grounds.
Whereas the Church inculcates the paramount necessity of _an external
authoritative Law_ to guide all her members;--Creeds to define the
foundation of their Faith,--a Catechism to teach them the necessary
elements of Christian Doctrine,--the several forms of Prayer contained
in the Prayer Book to instruct them further in Religion, as well as to
prescribe their exact mode of worshipping ALMIGHTY GOD: whereas too the
Church requires of her ministers subscription to Articles "for the
avoiding of Diversities of Opinions, and for the establishing of Consent
concerning true Religion;"--above all, since all Christian men alike are
taught to acknowledge the external guidance of the Divine Law itself
contained in Holy Scripture,--and every Minister of the Church of
England is further called upon to admit the authority of that Divine Law
as it is by the Church systematized, explained, upheld,
enforced:--notwithstanding all this, Dr. Temple, who has solemnly taken
the vows of a minister of the Church of England, and writes after his
name that he is _Sacræ Theologiæ Professor_, in his present Essay more
than insinuates, he openly teaches that Man "draws _the principles of
his life_," (not from Revelation, but) "_from_ the storehouse of
_experience_:" that we live in an age when "the spirit or conscience
having come to full strength, assumes the throne intended for him in the
soul." This "spirit or conscience" "legislates _without appeal except to
himself_." "He is the third great teacher and the last." (p. 31.) The
world, in the days of its youth, could not "walk by reason and
conscience alone:" (p. 21:) but it is not so with us, in these, the days
of the world's manhood. "The spiritual power within us ... must be the
rightful monarch of our lives." (p. 14.) _We_, (he says,) "walk by
reason and conscience _alone_." (p. 21.)
Now this is none other than a deliberate dethroning of GOD; and a
setting up of Self in His place. "A revelation speaking from without and
not from within, is an external Law, and not a spirit,"--(p. 36,) says
Dr. Temple. But I answer,--A revelation speaking from within, and not
from without, is _no revelation at all_. "The thought of building a
tower high enough to escape GOD's wrath, could enter into no man's
dreams," (p. 7,) says Dr. Temple in the beginning of his Essay, in
derision of the Old World. But he has carried out into act the very
self-same thought, himself; and his "dreams" occupy the foremost place
in 'Essays and Reviews.' He teaches, openly, that henceforth Man must
learn by "_obedience to the rules of his own mind_." (p. 34.) He is
express in declaring that "an external law" is for the age which is
past, (pp. 34-5.) Ours is "an internal law;" "which bids us
yield,"--not to the revealed Will of GOD, "but,--to the majesty of truth
and justice; _a law which is not imposed upon us by another power, but
by our own enlightened will_." (p. 35.) In this, the last stage of the
Colossal Man's progress, Dr. Temple gives him four avenues of learning:
(1) Experience, (2) Reflection, (3) Mistakes, (4) Contradiction. By
withholding from this enumeration _the Revealed Will of GOD_, and _the
known sanctions of the Divine Law_, he _thrusts out GOD_ from every part
of his scheme; denies that He is even one of the present teachers of the
Human Race,--explaining that the time has even gone by when CHRIST could
teach by example[31],--"for the faculty of Faith has turned inwards,
and cannot now accent any outer manifestations of the truth of GOD[32]."
(p. 24.)--By this Essay, Dr. Temple comes forward as the open abettor of
the most boundless scepticism. Whether or no his statements be such as
Ecclesiastical Courts take cognizance of, is to me a matter of profound
unimportance. In the estimation of the whole Church, it can be entitled
to but one sentence. "We use the Bible," (he tells us,) "not to
override, but to evoke the voice of conscience." (p. 44.) "The current
is all one way,--it evidently points to the identification of the Bible
with the voice of conscience. The Bible, in fact, is hindered by its
form from exercising a despotism (!) over the human spirit; if it could
do that, it would become an outer law at once." (p. 45.) Even if men
"could appeal to a revelation from Heaven, they would still be under the
Law (!!!); for a Revelation speaking from without, and not from within,
is an external Law, and not a Spirit." (p. 36.) "The principle of
private judgment puts conscience between us and the Bible; making
conscience the supreme interpreter, whom it may be a duty to enlighten,
but whom it can never be a duty to disobey." (_Ibid._)--Even those who
look upon the observance of Sunday "as enjoined by an absolutely binding
decree," are reproached as "thus at once putting themselves under a
law." (p. 44.) ... Dr. Temple has written an Essay which he calls "an
argument," and for which he claims "a drift." (p. 31.) _That_ argument
is neither more nor less than a direct assault on the Faith of Christian
men; and carried out to its lawful results, _can_ lead to nothing but
open Infidelity;--which makes it a very solemn consideration that the
author, (whose private worth is known to all,) should be a teacher of
the youth of Christian England. _That_ drift I deplore and condemn; and
no considerations of private friendship, no sincere regard for the
writer's private worth, shall deter me from recording my deliberate
conviction that it is wholly incompatible with his Ordination vows.
I forbear to dive into the depth of irreligion and unbelief implied in
what is contained from p. 37 to p. 40, and other parts of the present
Essay: but I cannot abstain from asking why does this author,--who, in
all the intercourse of private life, is so manly a character,--fall into
the _un_manly trick of his brother-Essayists, of insinuating what they
dare not openly avow? The great master of this cloudy shuffling art is
Mr. Jowett. Even where he and his associates in "free handling," are
express and definite in their statements, yet, as their rule is
prudently to abstain from adducing a single example of their meaning, it
is only by their disingenuous reticence that they escape punishment or
exposure. Thus, Dr. Temple speaks of "many of the doctrinal statements
of the early Church" being "plainly unfitted for permanent use;"
(p. 41;) but he prudently abstains from explaining _which_ of those
"doctrinal statements" he means. He goes on to remark:--"In fact, the
Church of the Fathers claimed to do what not even the Apostles had
claimed,--namely, not only to teach the Truth, but to clothe it in
logical statements ... for all succeeding time." He is evidently
alluding to "the forms in which the first ages of the Church defined the
Truth;" [i.e. to the Creeds;] of which he says, we "_yet refuse to be
bound by them_." (p. 44.) He goes on,--"It belongs to a later epoch to
see 'the law within the law' which absorbs such statements _into
something higher than themselves_." (p. 41.) But the writer of that
sentence ought to have had the manliness to explain _what_ that "higher
something" _is_.
Dr. Temple's estimate of the corruptions of the Papacy is of a piece
with the rest of what I must be excused for calling a most unworthy
performance. "Purgatory," &c. (he says) "was in fact, neither more nor
less than _the old schoolmaster come back_ to bring some new scholars to
CHRIST." (p. 42.) (Is the Romish fable of Purgatory then to be put on
the same footing as the Divine Revelation to Moses on Sinai?) It
follows,--"When the work was done, men began to discover that the Law
was no longer necessary." (_Ibid._) (Is it thus that the head-master of
Rugby accounts for, and explains the Reformation?) "The time was come
when it was fit to trust to the conscience _as the supreme guide_."
(_Ibid._) "At the Reformation, it might have seemed at first as if the
study of theology were about to return. But in reality an entirely new
lesson commenced,--the lesson of toleration. Toleration is the very
opposite of dogmatism." (p. 43.) "Its tendency is to modify the early
dogmatism by substituting the spirit for the letter, and practical
religion for precise definitions of truth." (_Ibid._) "The mature mind
of our race is beginning to modify and soften the hardness and severity
of the principles which its early manhood had elevated into immutable
statements of truth. Men are beginning to take a wider view than they
did. Physical science, researches into history, a more thorough
knowledge of the world they inhabit, have enlarged our philosophy beyond
the limits which bounded that of the Church of the Fathers. And all
these have an influence, whether we will or no, on our determinations of
religious truth. There are found to be more things in heaven and earth
than were dreamt of in patristic theology. GOD'S creation is a new book
to be read by the side of His revelation, and to be interpreted as
coming from Him. We can acknowledge the great value of the forms in
which the first ages of the Church defined the truth, and yet refuse to
be bound by them." (p. 43-4.) ... Who so unacquainted with the method of
a certain school as not to understand the fatal meaning of generalities,
false and foul as these?
* * * * *
It may occur to some persons to inquire whether St. Paul, in a
well-known place, does not affirm, (somewhat as it is affirmed in this
Essay,) that "the heir, as long as he is a child, ... is under tutors
and governors until the time appointed of the father?" And that, "Even
so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the
world: but when the fulness of time was come, GOD sent forth His SON
... to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons?" Does not St. Paul also go on to reproach men for
"turning again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they desired
to be again in bondage?" saying, "ye observe[33] days, and months, and
times, and years[34]." It is quite true that St. Paul says all this: and
I would fain believe that a puerile misconception of the Apostle's
meaning has betrayed the misguided author of the present Essay into a
notion that he enjoys a species of Divine sanction for what he has
written concerning "the Education of the World." I may add that St. Paul
also declares, (in the same Epistle,) that "the Law was our _pædagogus_
to bring us to CHRIST.... But after faith is come, we are no longer
under a _pædagogus[35]_." He further adds an exhortation to the
Galatians, (for it is still _them_ whom he is addressing,)--"Stand fast
therefore in the liberty wherewith CHRIST hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage[36]."--St. John moreover, in
many places, insists upon the spiritual powers and privileges of
believers, in a very remarkable manner,--the same St. John, the same
'Apostle of Love,' who says of a certain Doctrine which 'Essayists and
Reviewers' write as if they disbelieved,--"If there come any unto you,
and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him GOD speed: for he that biddeth him GOD speed is partaker of his
evil deeds[37]."
But it does not require much knowledge of Divinity to make a man aware
that St. Paul's meaning and intention is as widely removed from Dr.
Temple's, as Truth is removed from falsehood: or rather, that the
Apostle is flatly against him. St. Paul is not bent on explaining what
has been _the Education of the World_, but on pointing out in what
relation _the Gospel of CHRIST stands to the Law of Moses_. He is
reproving men who, having been converted to Christianity, were for
lapsing into Judaism. Certain of the Circumcision had been striving, in
St. Paul's absence, to bring his Galatian converts under the bondage of
the Levitical Law; assuring them that the Gospel would avail them
nothing unless they were circumcised and obedient to the Jewish ritual.
Hence the Apostle's vehemence, and the peculiar form which his
instruction assumes.
The Christian dispensation, (the scheme of Man's Justification by Faith
in CHRIST,) is the fulfilment, (St. Paul says,) of the covenant which
GOD once solemnly made with Abraham. The Mosaic Law, (which was not
given till 430 years after the time of Abraham,) is powerless to cancel
that earlier covenant of Faith. What was the use of the Law, then? some
one may ask. It was a supplementary, parenthetical, superadded thing,
which came in, as it were, accidentally, for certain assignable
purposes. But now that the original covenant of Faith has at length
found fulfilment in the person of CHRIST, it were monstrous (argues the
Apostle) to revert to Judaism: which was a species of prison-house where
we suffered bondage until MESSIAH came to set us free. We were _as
prisoners_, says the Apostle. We were also _as children_, (who,
anciently, from the age of six to fourteen, used to be consigned by
their father to the care of a slave called a 'pædagogus;' who was
neither qualified nor allowed to teach them anything; but whose office
it was _to conduct them to school_.) So _brought to the School of
CHRIST_, where learning comes _by Faith_, (such is his argument,) let
men beware how they revert to the carnal ordinances of the Jewish Law.
How different a view of our true state is thus discovered, from that
which Dr. Temple describes! A glorious liberty is _in reserve_ for us
indeed[38]: a precious freedom is ours already. But it bears no
resemblance whatever to that _lawlessness_ (ἀνομία) with which Dr.
Temple seems to be enamoured. It is the correlation of _slavery_, not of
obedience. It implies emancipation from the _Levitical_ Law, not from
the sanctions, however strict, of the _Christian Church_. The Doctrines
of Christ's kingdom are the Christian's crown and joy. _His_ "service is
perfect freedom," and imparts to life all its sweetness.--Not only,
therefore, (according to St. Paul's view of the matter,) were men _not_
released from school at "the meeting point of the Law and the Gospel,"
(p. 24,) but they only _began_ to go to School _then[39]_!
How different a view of the Education of the World does the HOLY
SPIRIT,--does our LORD Himself--furnish, from that which Dr. Temple here
advocates!... Fallen, in the person of Adam, and made subject to the
penalty of eternal death, behold Mankind from the very first taught to
believe that they should be ultimately redeemed by One born of woman.
Under the image of a son who remained in his father's house, the
favoured descendants of Abraham are set before us: while the rest of the
world is pourtrayed in the person of another son, who goes into a far
country, and there wastes his substance with riotous living. _Not_ when
grown into a colossal "youth too old for discipline," (p. 20, _bottom_,)
but in the day of his dire necessity, and when he begins to be sensible
of his utter need, behold the heathen nations, (in the person of the
poor prodigal,) arising, and going to their true Father, and in the
fulness of their misery asking for a hired servant's place in the
household. Behold too GOD'S mercies in CHRIST set forth by "the first
robe," (_that_ robe of innocence which when Adam lost he knew that he
was naked!) and the ring, and the shoes, and the fatted calf! Lastly, in
the embrace which the Father, (while yet the offending but repentant son
is a long way off,) _runs_ to bestow,--behold _how_ GOD loved the World!
But Dr. Temple may say,--_My_ parable relates to one person: that which
you have quoted pourtrays two, and thus all parallelism is lost. (In
other words, _our LORD'S picture_ of "the Education of the World" _is
altogether unlike Dr. Temple's_!)--Take, however, a parable which ought
to suit exactly; for in it mankind are exhibited in the person of "a
certain man."
This individual is represented as one who, as he travels, is by thieves
stripped, wounded, and left half dead. Such then, by nature, is the
state of the human race! Priest and Levite, who "look on him," but "pass
by on the other side," set forth the Education of the World (!) until
CHRIST came. A certain Samaritan, who has compassion on the naked and
wounded wretch, goes to him, binds up his wounds, pours in oil and wine,
sets him on his own beast, brings him to the inn, and takes care of
him:--_this_ one is CHRIST. The stranger's pence, and his promise to
repay at his second coming what shall have been over-expended,--set
forth, I suppose, _that_ ministration of CHRIST'S Word and Sacraments
which Dr. Temple exercises.... Let me dismiss the subject by remarking
that I find no countenance given by Holy Scripture to Dr. Temple's
monstrous notions concerning the Infancy, the Youth, and the Manhood of
the Colossal Man.
Our SAVIOUR CHRIST is indeed set before us in Scripture as our great
Exemplar[40]; and St. Paul calls upon us to be followers, or rather
imitators, (μιμηταί), of himself; even as _he_ was of CHRIST[41]. But
this walking by example, did not supersede the walking by precept;
neither was it to endure, (GOD forbid!) (as Dr. Temple emphatically says
it was), (pp. 26: 28-9,) only for about a hundred years: still less was
"Example," (the second Teacher of the Human Race,) straightway to find
itself supplanted by "the Spirit or Conscience" of Man,--"the third
great Teacher, and the last." What need to say that until His Second
Coming to judge the world, we shall have _no_ Teacher but CHRIST,--_no_
other way proposed to us to walk in, but that which the Gospel
discloses?
Neither is it true that the world has been old enough, for the last 1800
years, to be taught by "_seeing the lives of Saints_," (a sentiment
worthy of the weakest of Romanists!) "_better than by hearing the words
of Prophets_." (pp. 28-9.) The Church of CHRIST will for ever listen to
the blessed accents of that "goodly fellowship," until she beholds Him
by whose Spirit they spake[42], coming again to judgment. True that the
object with which she will all along _inform_ her children, will ever be
that they may become _conformed_ to the model of her Divine LORD. But
"sound doctrine[43],"--embodied in a "form of sound
words[44],"--constitutes that παρακαταθήκη, or "deposit," which is her
proudest inheritance and her greatest treasure[45]: and impatience of it
is a note of evil men, and of a season at which Prophecy points her
awful finger[46].... "Lawlessness," (ἀνομία,) is discoursed of by the
SPIRIT with a mysterious earnestness which it seems to me impossible to
survey without mingled awe and terror lest one may become oneself
involved in the threatened condemnation. I allude of course especially
to what St. Paul says in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians; the
language of which, to be understood, must be studied in the
original[47].
Conscience has her office, doubtless; and a most important one it is.
Conscience is the very candle of the LORD within us. But, (as I have
elsewhere shewn,) it were base treason to speak of conscience as
Essayists and Reviewers speak of it. With _them_, it is indeed
impossible to argue. They must first withdraw from the cause which they
have betrayed; cease to profess the teaching which they disbelieve;
resign their commission in a Church to whose Doctrine and Discipline
they openly proclaim themselves to be opposed. I will not argue _with
them_, while they presume to write B.D. and D.D. after their
names,--hold Chaplaincies,--preside over Schools and Colleges,--profess
to lecture in Divinity,--officiate at the altars of the Church of
England,--by virtue of their sacred office, _and by virtue of that
only_, are instructors of youth. They _cannot_, (if they are in the full
enjoyment of their faculties,) they _cannot_ imagine, for a moment,
that, as honest men, they can remain where they are! They _must_ either
recal their words or resign their stations!
But speaking to others, it will abundantly suffice to point out that
such principles as the present Essay advocates are incompatible with the
profession of Christianity in _any_ country, and in _any_ age. If the
spirit or conscience of Man is to legislate "_without appeal except to
himself_;" (p. 31;) if men are to "_refuse to be bound_" (p. 44.) by the
Creeds of the Church; if the very Bible is not to be looked upon as "_an
outer law_:" (p. 45:)--how is sentence _ever_ to be pronounced with
authority? how are men to know _what_ they have to believe? how are we
to enjoy the guidance of any "outer law" _at all_? I do not ask these
questions as a clergyman; neither am I addressing those exclusively who
have been admitted to the Christian priesthood. Common sense, ordinary
piety, natural reverence, seem to cry out, and ask,--If _the Church_
have no "authority in controversies of Faith[48];" if _the three Creeds_
ought not "thoroughly to be received and believed[49];" if _the Bible_
is not "an outer Law;"--_where_ is Authority in things Divine to be
sought for? _What_ can be worthy of credit? _Where_ are we to look for
external guidance on this side the grave?... Surely, surely, common
sense is outraged when she hears it insisted that the written Bible is a
Revelation speaking NOT "from without," but "from within!" (pp. 36 and
45.) Surely it must be admitted that it were mere atheism to pretend
that Man's "spirit or conscience, _without appeal except to himself_,"
shall henceforth be the governing principle of Mankind!
Let me in conclusion do this writer an act of justice, (for which he
will not perhaps altogether thank me,) even while with shame and sorrow
I now dismiss his Essay. Unpardonable as he is for having written thus;
and _wholly_ without excuse for having suffered _nine editions_ of his
blasphemous allegory to go forth to the world without apology,
explanation, or retractation of any kind,--although he labours under a
weight of competent censure without a parallel, I believe, in the annals
of the English Church[50]: notwithstanding all this, I am bound to say
that if the unbelievers of this generation think they have an ally in
_the man_, Frederick Temple,--they are very much mistaken. That so pure
a heart, and earnest a spirit, will never work itself free of its
present bondage,--I should be sorry indeed to think. (But O the mischief
which the head-master of Rugby School will have done in the meantime!)
His misfortune (or rather fault) it has been, that he has really never
studied Divinity; nor, in fact, _knows anything at all about it_,--as a
volume of his, lately published, sufficiently shews. Apart from his
opinions (!), he is a thoroughly amiable man; and--(with the same
proviso!)--an excellent schoolmaster; but when he ventures upon the
province of Theology, he shews himself something infinitely worse than
_a very bad Divine_.
* * * * *
II. On turning the first page of the review which follows, "by ROWLAND
WILLIAMS, D.D. Vice-Principal and Professor of Hebrew, St. David's
College, Lampeter; Vicar of Broad Chalke, Wilts,"--we are made sensible
that we are in company of a writer considerably in advance of Dr.
Temple, though altogether of the same school. In fact, if Dr. Williams
had not been Vice-Principal of a Theological College, and a Doctor of
Divinity, one would have supposed him to be a complete infidel,--who
found it convenient to vent his own unbelief in a highly laudatory
review of the principles of the late Baron Bunsen. Hear him:--"When
Bunsen asks 'How long shall we bear this fiction of an external
Revelation,'--that is, of one violating the heart and conscience,
instead of expressing itself through them;--or when he says, 'All this
is delusion for those who believe it; but what is it in the mouths of
those who teach it?'--Or when he exclaims, 'Oh the fools! who, if they
do see the imminent perils of this age, think to ward them off by
narrow-minded persecution'!--and when he repeats, 'Is it not time, in
truth, to withdraw the veil from our misery? to tear off the mask from
hypocrisy, and destroy that sham which is undermining all real ground
under our feet? to point out the dangers which surround, nay, threaten
already to engulf us?'--there will be some who think his language too
vehement for good taste. Others will think burning words needed by the
disease of our time. These will not quarrel on points of taste with a
man who in our darkest perplexity has reared again the banner of Truth,
and uttered thoughts which gave courage to the weak and sight to the
blind. If Protestant Europe is to escape those shadows of the twelfth
century which with ominous recurrence are closing around us, to Baron
Bunsen will belong a foremost place among the champions of light and
right." (pp. 92-3.)
But even the Prussian infidel is not advanced enough for the Vicar of
Broad Chalke. Bunsen, it seems, was weak enough to believe that the
prophet Jonah was a real personage. This evokes the following singular
burst of critical indignation from the Reverend author of the present
Essay:--"It provokes a smile on serious topics,"--(a kind of impropriety
which the Vice-Principal of Lampeter will not commit except under
protest and with an apology!)--"to observe the zeal with which our
critic vindicates the personality of Jonah, and the originality of his
hymn, (the latter being generally thought doubtful), while he proceeds
to explain that the narrative of our book in which the hymn is imbedded,
contains a late legend founded on misconception. One can imagine the
cheers which the opening of such an essay might evoke in some of our
circles, changing into indignation (!) as the distinguished foreigner
developed his views. After this he might speak more gently of mythical
theories." (p. 77.)
For the most part, however, the Vicar of Broad Chalke is able to cite
the opinions of Bunsen with admiration and approval. They are both
agreed that the Deluge "was but a prolonged play of the forces of fire
and water rendering the primæval regions of North Asia uninhabitable,
and urging the nations to new abodes." (Of what nature this "_prolonged
play_" was, is however left unexplained: while "_the forces of fire and
water_ rendering _primæval regions_ uninhabitable," and "_urging_
nations to new abodes," has altogether a Herodotean sound.) "We learn
approximately its antiquity, and infer limitation in its range from
finding it recorded in the traditions of Iran and Palestine, (or of
Japheth and Shem), but unknown to the Egyptians and Mongolians."
(p. 56.) (A delightful method truly of attaining historical precision
in a matter of this nature!) ... "In the _half ideal, half traditional_
notices of the beginnings of our race compiled in Genesis, we are bid
notice the combination of documents and the recurrence of barely
consistent Genealogies." (_Ibid._) Praise is at hand for "the firmness
with which Bunsen relegates the long lives of the first patriarchs to
the domain of legend, or of symbolical cycle." (p. 57.) "The historical
portion begins with Abraham." (_Ibid._)--After this admission, it is
instructive to observe how the learned writer deals with the narrative.
The Exode was "a struggle conducted by human means." (p. 59.) "Thus, as
the pestilence of the Book of Kings becomes in Chronicles the more
visible angel, so the avenger who slew the firstborn may have been the
Bedouin host, (!) akin nearly to Jethro, and more remotely to Israel."
(_Ibid._) (It is really hardly worth stopping to point out that by
'Kings' the Reverend writer means 'the second Book of Samuel:' and to
remind the reader that _the Angel is mentioned as expressly in Samuel
as in Chronicles[51]_. Also, to ask what 'the Bedouin host' could have
been doing _in Egypt_ previous to the Exode?) "The passage of the Red
Sea may be interpreted with the latitude of poetry." (_Ibid._) "Moses
would gladly have founded a free religious society, ... but the rudeness
or hardness of his people's heart compelled him to a sacerdotal system
and formal tablets of stone." (p. 62.) Nay, Abraham's intended sacrifice
of Isaac was an act of obedience to "the fierce ritual of Syria, with
the awe of a Divine voice:" (p. 61:) while the Divine command, in
conformity with which Abraham spared to slay his son, is resolved into
an allegory. "He trusted that the FATHER, whose voice from Heaven he
heard at heart, was better pleased with mercy than with sacrifice, and
this trust was his righteousness." (p. 61.) Dr. Williams straightway
shews us how _we_ may tread in the steps of faithful Abraham. The
perpetual response of our hearts, (he says,) to principles of Reason and
Right of our own tracing, is a truer sign of faith than deference to a
supposed external authority. (p. 61.) ... According to this writer,
therefore, Genesis and Exodus are pure fable!
The whole of Scripture, in the hands of this Doctor of Divinity,
undergoes corresponding treatment. They who "twist Prophecy into harmony
with the details of Gospel history, fall into inextricable
contradictions." (pp. 64-5.) "The Book of Isaiah, as composed of
elements of different eras," can only be accepted with a "modified
theory of authorship and of prediction." (p. 68.) In the prophecy of
Zechariah are "three distinct styles and aspects of affairs." (_Ibid._)
"The cursing Psalms," (!!!) he informs us, were not "evangelically
inspired;" (p. 63;) and yet we are constrained to remember that the
cixth Psalm (specially alluded to) is evangelically interpreted by St.
Peter[52]. The true translation of Psalm xxii. 17, (learnedly discussed,
long since, by Bishop Pearson,) is not "they pierced My hands and My
feet,"--but "like a lion;" (notwithstanding that Pearson has shewn that
the substitution of _vau_ for _yod_ in this place is one of the eighteen
instances where the Scribes have tampered with the text[53]; and
notwithstanding that this modern corruption of the Hebrew, as every one
must see, makes the place almost nonsense[54].)--Is. vii. 14 does not
refer to the miraculous birth of CHRIST, (p. 69,) (although St. Matthew
is express in his assertion that it _does_.) There is, it seems, an
elder and a later Isaiah, (p. 71.) The famous liiird chapter does not
refer to CHRIST; but either to Jeremiah or to "the collective
Israel,"--(p. 73,) (although it is at least seven times quoted, and
expressly applied to our SAVIOUR, in the New Testament[55].) Daniel, we
are assured, belongs to different ages; and it is "certain, beyond fair
doubt ... that those portions of the book, supposed to be specially
predictive, are ... a history of past occurrences." (p. 69.) That "the
book contains no predictions, except by analogy and type, can hardly be
gainsaid." (pp. 76-7.) ... (If any of _us_ had dogmatized as to Truth as
these men do as to error, (remarks Dr. Pusey,) what scorn we should be
held up to!) ... The Reverend author insolently adds,--"It is time for
divines to recognize these things, since with their opportunities of
study, the current error is as discreditable to them, as for the
well-meaning crowd, who are taught to identify it with their creed, it
is a matter of grave compassion." (p. 77.) "When so vast an induction on
the destructive side has been gone through, it avails little that some
passages may be doubtful; one perhaps in Zechariah, and one in Isaiah,
capable of being made directly Messianic; and a chapter possibly in
Deuteronomy foreshadowing the final fall of Jerusalem. Even these few
cases, the remnant of so much confident rhetoric, tend to melt, if they
are not already melted, in the crucible of searching enquiry." (pp.
69-70.) ... Our Doctor of Divinity, having reduced the prophecies
_"capable of being made"_ Messianic, to _two_,--breaks out into a strain
of refined banter which is altogether his own, and which we presume is
intended to stand in the place of argument. "If our German, [viz.
Bunsen,] had ignored all that the masters of philology have proved on
these subjects, his countrymen would have raised a storm of ridicule, at
which he must have drowned himself in the Neckar." (p. 70.) A
catastrophe so fatal to the cause of true Religion and sound learning
may well point a paragraph!... But we must write gravely.
The absolute worthlessness of unsupported dicta such as these, ought to
be apparent to all. It is useless to reason with a madman. We desiderate
nothing so much as "searching enquiry," (p. 69,) but we are presented
instead with something worse than random assertion. If the writer would
state a single case, with its evidence,--we should know how to deal with
him. We should examine his arguments seriatim; and either refute them,
or admit their validity. From such "free handling," the cause of sacred
Truth can never suffer. But when, in place of argument and evidence, we
have merely bluster,--what is to be said? Pity and disregard are the
only reply we can bestow; or our answers must be as brief as the calumny
which provokes them. "How," (asks the Regius Professor of Hebrew,) "can
such an undigested heap of errors receive a systematic answer in brief
space, or in any one treatise or volume?"
"If any sincere Christian now asks, is not then our SAVIOUR spoken of in
Isaiah; let him open his New Testament, and ask therewith John the
Baptist, whether he was Elias? If he finds the Baptist answering _I am
not_, yet our LORD testifies that in spirit and power this was Elias; a
little reflexion will shew how the historical representation in Isaiah
liii. is of some suffering prophet or remnant, yet the truth and
patience, the grief and triumph, have their highest fulfilment in Him
who said, 'FATHER, not My will but Thine.'" (p. 74.) I have transcribed
this passage to illustrate the miserable sophistry of the author. It is
foretold by Malachi that before the great and terrible day of the LORD,
Elijah is to come back to Earth[56]. John Baptist came in his "spirit
and power[57]," but was not Elijah himself. How does it follow from this
that Isaiah may have prophesied merely of _qualities_ and not of a
person? The only logical inference from his words would surely be, that
Elijah is yet to come[58]!--Dr. Williams adds,--"We must not distort the
prophets to prove the Divine WORD incarnate, and then from the
Incarnation reason back to the sense of prophecy." (p. 74.) _Was_ not
then the Divine WORD incarnate?
The theory of one who writes like an open unbeliever concerning Divine
things is really not worth developing: and yet, as I am examining an
Essay which seems to be entirely built upon such a theory, it may be
desirable, in this instance, that the deformity of the writer should be
uncovered: especially since Dr. Williams writes such very dark English,
that, until some of his sentences are translated, they are barely
intelligible.
Anticipating that his doctrines may "alarm those who think that, apart
from _Omniscience belonging to the Jews_, (!) the proper conclusion of
reason is Atheism;"--(in other words, that the rejection of a belief in
_the inspiration of Prophecy_ will eventually conduct a man to the
rejection of GOD Himself;) the Reverend writer declares that "it is not
inconsistent with the idea that ALMIGHTY GOD has been pleased to educate
men and nations, employing imagination no less than conscience, and
suffering His lessons to play freely within the limits of humanity and
its shortcomings." (p. 77.) (In other words, that what Scripture
emphatically declares, and what men have for thousands of years
believed to be inspired predictions of future events, are none other
than the effusions of a lively imagination, or the suggestions of a
well-informed conscience.) "The prophetical disquisitions," (p. 77,)
therefore, are subject to error of every imaginable description; and
possess no higher attributes than belong to any ordinary human work by
"a master's hand." (p. 77.) "The Sacred Writers acknowledge themselves
men of like passions with ourselves, and we are promised illumination
from the Spirit which dwelt in them." (p. 78.) We may not think of the
Sacred Writers as "passionless machines, and call Luther and Milton
'uninspired.'" (_Ibid._) "The great result is to vindicate the work of
the Eternal Spirit; that abiding influence which underlies all others,
and in which converge all images of old time and means of grace now:
temple, Scripture, finger, and Hand of GOD; and again, preaching,
sacraments, waters which comfort, and flame which burns." (p. 78.) It
follows,--"If such a Spirit did not dwell in the Church, the Bible would
not be inspired, for _the Bible is_, before all things, _the written
voice of the congregation_." (p. 78.) Offended Reason, (for Piety has no
place here,) has not time to reclaim against so preposterous a
statement; for it follows immediately,--"Bold as such a theory of
Inspiration (!) may sound, it was the earliest creed of the Church, and
it is the only one to which the facts of Scripture answer." (p. 78.) ...
What reply _can_ be offered to such an outrageous statement, but flat
contradiction? What more effectual refutation of such a 'theory' (?)
concerning Scripture, than simply to state it?
Let this miserable but conceited man yet further map out the nature of
his own delusion respecting Prophecy. He applauds the wisdom of one who
"accepts freely the belief of scholars, and yet does not despair of
Hebrew Prophecy as a witness to the Kingdom of God:" (p. 70:) (that is,
of one who, like Bunsen, altogether disbelieves in prophecy _as
prophecy_, and yet is bent on finding something of an Evangelical
character in the prophetic writings.) "The way of doing so left open to
him, was to shew pervading the Prophets those deep truths which lie at
the heart of Christianity, and to trace the growth of such ideas, the
belief in a righteous GOD, and the nearness of Man to GOD, the power of
prayer, and the victory of self-sacrificing patience, ever expanding in
men's hearts, until the fulness of time came, and the ideal of the
Divine thought was fulfilled in the Son of Man." (p. 70.) In other
words, CHRIST was nothing more than the fullest development and
impersonation of the best thoughts and feelings of the (so-called)
prophets! He "fulfilled in His own person the highest aspiration of
Hebrew seers and of mankind, thereby lifting the ancient words, so to
speak, into a new and higher power; and therefore was recognized as
having eminently the unction of a prophet whose words die not,--of a
priest in a temple not made with hands,--and of a king in the realm of
thought, delivering his people from a bondage of moral evil, worse than
Egypt or Babylon." (pp. 74-5.) "A notion of _foresight by vision of
particulars_, or a kind of clairvoyance," (p. 70,)--(such is this Doctor
of Divinity's notion of the gift of prophecy!)--he deems inadmissible.
"_Literal prognostication_," (p. 65,) is his abhorrence. He would
eliminate the Messianic passages altogether. (pp. 65-6.) That Prophecy
was miraculous, was a dream of the Fathers, (p. 66.) Even the notion
that Prophecy is "a natural gift, consistent with fallibility," (p. 70,)
Dr. Williams rejects as an unwarrantable addition to the "moral and
metaphysical basis of Prophecy." (p. 70.) Bunsen was for admitting that
addition. "One would wish," (says the Vicar of Broad Chalke,) "_he might
have intended only the power of seeing the ideal in the actual_, or of
tracing the Divine Government in the movements of men. He seems to mean
_more than presentiment or sagacity_: and this element in his system
requires proof." (pp. 70-1.) ... This, from a Doctor of Divinity! a
Professor of Hebrew! the Vice-Principal of a Theological College! a
shepherd of souls!
We are left to infer that "the Fall of Adam represents ideally the
circumscription of our spirits in limits of flesh and time:" (p. 88:)
that CHRIST is "the moral Saviour of mankind;" (p. 80;) and that
Salvation from evil is to be attained by the conformity of our souls to
a "_religious idea_" which was "brought to perfection" in CHRIST.
(p. 80.) This "religious idea" "is the thought of the Eternal."
(_Ibid._) In other words, "Salvation from evil" is "through sharing the
SAVIOUR's Spirit." (p. 87.)--We are further left to infer that
"Justification by faith means the peace of mind, or sense of Divine
approval, which comes of trust in a righteous GOD:" (p. 80:) that
"Regeneration is a correspondent giving of insight, or an awakening of
forces of the soul: Resurrection, a spiritual quickening: Salvation, our
deliverance, not from the life-giving GOD, but from evil and darkness."
(p. 81.) ... And this from a Clergyman who has just subscribed,
"willingly and _ex animo_," the three Articles in the 36th Canon!...
After such specimens of Divinity, we are scarcely surprised to find that
the fires of Hell γέεννα "may serve as images of distracted remorse:"
(p. 81:) that "Heaven is not a place[59], so much as a fulfilment of the
love of GOD." (pp. 81-2.) The very Incarnation, (which he calls "the
embodiment of the Eternal Mind,") (p. 82.) is spoken of as if it were a
myth. "It becomes with our author _as purely spiritual_ as it was with
St. Paul. The Son of David by birth is the SON of GOD _by the spirit of
holiness_. What is flesh, is born of flesh; and what is spirit, is born
of Spirit." (p. 82.) Rom. i. 1-3 is quoted in support of this, which I
cannot but regard as blasphemy: for if it does not mean that our SAVIOUR
was not, in a true and literal sense, the SON of GOD at all, it is hard
to see _what_ it can mean.--As for the following account of the mystery
of the Blessed Trinity, it shall only be said that it sounds like a
denial of the Catholic doctrine altogether. "Being, becoming, and
animating; or substance, thinking, and conscious life, are expressions
of a Triad which may be also represented as will, wisdom, and love; as
light, radiance, and warmth; as fountain, stream, and united flow; as
mind, thought, and consciousness; as person, word, and life; as FATHER,
SON, and SPIRIT." (p. 88.)
The _nebulous_ is a striking peculiarity of the style of the Vicar of
Broad Chalke[60]. He informs us that "in virtue of the identity of
Thought with Being the primitive Trinity represented neither three
originant principles nor three transient phases, but three eternal
subsistences in one Divine Mind.... The Divine Consciousness or Wisdom,
consubstantial with the Eternal Will, becoming personal in the Son of
Man, is the express image of the FATHER; and JESUS actually, but also
Mankind ideally, is the SON of GOD." (pp. 88-9.) Since this has "almost
a Brahmanical sound" (p. 89.) even to the Vicar of Broad Chalke, we are
content to pass it by in mute astonishment. He proceeds: "Both spiritual
affection and metaphysical reasoning forbid us to confine Revelations
like those of CHRIST to the first half century of our era; but shew at
least affinities of our faith existing in men's minds, anterior to
Christianity, and renewed with deep echo from living hearts in many a
generation." (p. 82.) Was our SAVIOUR then a fabulous personage,--a
virtuous principle,--and not a Man?... "Again. We find the evidences of
our canonical books and of the patristic authors nearest to them, are
sufficient to prove illustration in outward act of principles
perpetually true, but not adequate to guarantee narratives inherently
incredible or precepts evidently wrong." (pp. 82-3.) Are then the sacred
"narratives" "inherently incredible?" or the Divine "precepts"
"evidently wrong?"--These are, we presume, among the "traditional
fictions about our Canon" (p. 83.) at which the Theological Professor
sneers. "Hence we are obliged to assume in ourselves a verifying
faculty,"--(p. 83,) and so, Dr. Williams and Dr. Temple shake hands[61].
An instance of the exercise of this faculty is immediately subjoined.
"The verse 'And no man hath ascended up to Heaven, but he that came
down,' is intelligible as a free comment near the end of the first
century; but has no meaning in our Lord's mouth at a time when the
Ascension had not been heard of." (p. 84.)--"The Apocalypse" in like
manner, to "cease to be a riddle," must be "taken as a series of
poetical visions which represent the outpouring of the vials of wrath
upon the City where our LORD was slain." (p. 84.) ... (Is it possible
that a Minister of the Gospel of CHRIST can speak thus concerning the
Divine record?) ... "The second of the Petrine Epistles, having alike
external and internal evidence against its genuineness, is necessarily
surrendered as a whole." (p. 84.) (Can a man solemnly sign the vith
Article, and yet so write?)--"A philosophical view [of the doctrine of
the Trinity] recommends itself as easiest to believe." (p. 87.) The
"view" expressed in the Athanasian Creed is we presume that which is
stigmatized as "one felt to be so irrational, that it calls in the aid
of terror." (p. 87.) The Reverend writer does not _name_ the Athanasian
Creed, indeed. It is not the general fashion of Essayists and
Reviewers,--from Dr. Temple to Professor Jowett,--to speak plainly. But
common sense asks,--If Dr. Williams does _not_ allude to the Creed in
question, what _does_ he allude to? And common honesty adds,--How is
such an allusion to that formula consistent with subscription to Art.
viii.?
The Sacrament of Baptism, (he says,) has "degenerated into a magical
form," (p. 86,) since it has "become twisted into a false analogy with
circumcision,"--(twisted, at all events, by St. Paul[62]!)--and it is
merely an "Augustinian notion" that "a curse is inherited by
Infants."--How, one humbly asks, does the Reverend writer reconcile it
to his conscience not only to have signed the ixth Article, but to
employ the Baptismal Service, and to teach the little ones of the flock
their Catechism?
On reaching the last page of the present Essay, one is irresistibly led
to remark that if a single word could convey an adequate notion of the
author's manner, that word would be _Insolence_. When Dr. Williams would
express difference of opinion, he has recourse to violence and bluster:
when he would patronize, he is sure to make himself unspeakably
offensive. But he seldom agrees with anybody, even with disciples of the
same school with himself,--as Messrs. Bunsen and Arnold, Coleridge and
Francis Newman. Professor Mansel is "a mere gladiator hitting in the
dark," whose "blows fall heaviest on what it was his duty to defend."
(p. 67.) Dr. Pusey receives a menacing intimation of what his Commentary
must _not_ be. Davison's reasoning labours under the inconvenient defect
of an unproved minor premiss. (p. 66.) The majestic memory of Bp.
Pearson is insulted by this vulgar man, and the fairness of his
citations are impeached. (p. 72.)--Bp. Butler is declared to have turned
aside from an unwelcome idea (!), literature not being his strong
point (!) (p. 65.)--Justin, (p. 64,)--Augustine, (p. 65,)--Jerome, (pp.
65, 71,)--Anselm, (p. 67,)--all come in for a share of the
Vice-Principal of Lampeter's contempt. Even the Apologist of _Essays and
Reviews_ is constrained to admit that "anything more" _un_becoming "than
some of Dr. Williams's remarks we have never read, in writings
professing to be written seriously[63]."
But faults of mind and manner, however gross, do but disqualify a writer
for being the associate of men of taste and good breeding; and blemishes
of style are, at least, venial. Not so easily to be excused is the
deplorable spectacle of a Minister of the Gospel, a Doctor of Divinity
and Vice-Principal of a Theological College, lending all his critical
powers, (which yet seem to be of the most indifferent description,) in
order to undermine the authority of GOD'S Word. He has been asked,--"Do
you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament?" and he has answered,--"I do believe them." He has been
asked, "Will you be ready, with all diligence, to banish and drive away
all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to GOD'S Word?" and he has
made reply,--"I will, the LORD being my helper." He has solemnly
declared his trust that he was "_inwardly moved by the HOLY GHOST to
take upon himself this office and ministration_."--Yet this is the man
who explains away Miracles, denies Prophecy, and idealizes Scripture;
the man who disparages the formulæ he uses daily, mutilates the Canon,
and evacuates the most solemn doctrines of the Church!
I have now said as much as I think necessary concerning Dr. Williams's
Essay. The entire refutation of such a tissue of groundless assertions
and unfounded statements, and unscholarlike criticisms, and
unphilosophical views,--would fill many volumes. It is to be feared also
that, to _him_, the result would not be convincing after all. To have
stated in brief outline, as I have already done, the leading positions
to which he commits himself, ought to suffice. The mere exhibition of
such principles (?) ought to be their own abundant refutation.... GOD
give the unhappy author repentance of his errors!--And will not men
believe that in the pages of the present Essay is to be seen the lawful
development, and inevitable result of the opinions advocated _in every
other part_ of the present volume? I perceive scarcely any _essential_
difference between the views of any of these seven writers. All are
moving along the same fatal road; and are simply at different stages of
the journey. But they conduct themselves wondrous differently in their
progress, certainly; Dr. Williams being immeasurably the most offensive
of the seven,--the only one who, besides seeming blasphemous, can truly
be called _vulgar_.
* * * * *
III. The third Essay in the present volume is by "the REV. BADEN POWELL,
M.A., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of
Oxford,"--a gentleman with whose labours I shall deal briefly and gently
for two reasons. His assertions admit of summary refutation; and he has
already, (alas!) passed beyond the limit of earthly Criticism. I desire
to add concerning him, that in the private relations of life he was a
friendly and amiable person.
The solemn circumstance already adverted to, would have kept me silent
altogether. When a writer is no longer able to defend himself, it is
ungenerous to attack him: and at a time when he knows far more wonders
than are dreamed of by any one on the Earth's surface, it seems
unbecoming to stand reasoning over his grave about an "antecedent
probability." But I am addressing not the dead, but the living,--to
whom, in the pages of 'Essays and Reviews,' Professor Powell "being dead
yet speaketh."
He entitles his contribution,--"On the Study of the Evidences of
Christianity:" but, as often happens with performances of the like
nature, the title of his Essay gives a wrong notion of its contents. It
ought to have been called "The Validity of THE EVIDENCE FROM MIRACLES
considered," or rather "denied."
There is nothing new in the present attack on the Miracles of Scripture.
The author disposes of them by a single assertion. "What is alleged,"
(he says,) "is a case of the supernatural. _But no testimony can reach
to the supernatural._" (p. 107.) The inference is obvious.--Again: "an
event may be so incredible intrinsically as to _set aside any degree of
testimony_." (p. 106.) Such an event he declares a Miracle to be; and
explains that "from the nature of our antecedent convictions, the
probability of _some_ kind of mistake or deception _somewhere_, though
we know not _where_, is greater than the probability of the event really
happening in _the way_, and from _the causes_ assigned." (pp. 106-7.)
This merely amounts to asserting that the antecedent improbability of
Miracles is so great as to make them incredible. The writer does not
attempt to establish this point. "The present discussion," (he says,)
"is not intended to be of a controversial kind; it is purely
contemplative and theoretical." (p. 100.) And yet, he _cannot_ suppose
that the Universal Church will surrender its convictions and reverse its
deliberate judgment, at the merely "contemplative and theoretical"
suggestions of an individual, however respectable he may happen to be.
Against his mere assertion, we claim a right to set the result of Bp.
Butler's careful investigation of the same subject:--"_That there
certainly is no such presumption against Miracles, as to render them in
any wise incredible_: that, on the contrary, our being able to discern
reasons for them, gives a positive credibility to the history of them,
in cases where those reasons hold: and that it is by no means certain
that there is any peculiar presumption at all, from analogy, even in the
lowest degree, against Miracles, as distinguished from other
extraordinary phenomena[64]."
Professor Powell's objection against Miracles is, in fact, practically
that of the infidel Hume; who asserted "that no testimony for any kind
of Miracle can ever possibly amount to a probability, much less to a
proof." He argued that Miracles, being contrary to general experience,
are incapable of proof. He maintained also, (with Spinoza,) that
Miracles, being contrary to the established laws of Nature, imply, in
the very character of them, a palpable contradiction. This latter
position seems to be identical with that adopted by Professor Powell.
In a certain place, this author finds fault with "the too frequent
assumption ... of the part of the ... _Advocate_, when the character to
be sustained should be rather that of the unbiassed _Judge_." (p. 95.)
But what are we to think of the judicial fairness of one who is not only
Advocate and Judge in his own cause; but who even turns the Witnesses
out of Court; and will listen to no evidence,--on the plea that it
_cannot_ be trustworthy; or at least, that it _shall_ be unavailing?--"I
express myself with caution," (says Bp. Butler, with reference to
arguments against the credibility of Revelation,) "lest I should be
mistaken to vilify Reason; which is indeed the only faculty we have
wherewith to judge concerning anything, even Revelation itself: or be
misunderstood to assert that a supposed revelation cannot be proved
false, from internal characters. For it may contain clear immoralities,
or contradictions; and either of these would prove it false. Nor will I
take upon me to affirm, that nothing else can possibly render any
supposed revelation incredible. Yet still the observation is, I think,
true beyond doubt; that _objections against Christianity, as
distinguished from objections against its evidence, are frivolous[65]_."
That a certain occurrence or phenomenon "is due to supernatural causes,"
Professor Powell maintains is "entirely dependent on the previous belief
and assumptions of the parties." (p. 107.) He forgets that he grounds
his own denial of the possibility of a Miracle, on nothing stronger than
"the nature of" his own "antecedent convictions." Thus, the question
becomes merely a personal one between Mr. Baden Powell and the Apostles
of CHRIST. The reasonableness of the "antecedent convictions" in the one
case have to be set against the reasonableness of the "antecedent
convictions" in the other. Either party, (according to this view,) has
its own "previous belief and assumptions;" which, in the one case, are
known to have produced conviction; in the other, they are unhappily
found to have resulted in a rejection of Miracles. But then it happens,
unfortunately, that in the case of the Apostles and others, conviction
of the truth of our LORD'S Miracles was based on _knowledge_, and
_experience of a matter of fact_: in the case of Professor Powell,
disbelief is founded on certain "antecedent convictions" only: namely,
"the inconceivableness of imagined interruptions of natural Order, or
supposed suspensions of the Laws of matter." (p. 110.) He is never tired
of repeating that "in an age of physical research like the present, all
highly cultivated minds and duly advanced intellects (!) have imbibed,
more or less, the lessons of the Inductive Philosophy; and have, at
least in some measure, learned to appreciate the grand foundation
conception of universal Law:" (p. 133:) that "the entire range of the
Inductive Philosophy is at once based upon, and in every instance tends
to confirm, by immense accumulation of evidence, the grand truth of the
universal Order and constancy of natural causes, as a primary law of
belief; so strongly entertained and fixed in the mind of every truly
inductive inquirer, that he cannot even conceive the possibility of its
failure." (p. 109.)
I gladly avail myself of a page from the writings of a thoughtful writer
of our own, who, half a century ago, reviewed the very errors which are
being so industriously reproduced among ourselves at this
day,--certainly not with more ability than of old:--"Let us examine a
little farther into the weight of the argument derived from the supposed
immutability of the Laws of Nature. It has constantly been the theme of
modern Unbelievers, that the course of Nature is fixed, eternal,
unalterable; and that nothing which is supposed to violate it can
possibly take place. Now, we may readily allow, that the course of
Nature is unalterable by _human_ power; nay, even by the power of any
_created_ being whatsoever. But the question is,--Are these Laws
unalterable _by Him who made them_? Proof of this is requisite, before
the argument from the immutability of the Laws of Nature can have the
least force. We may safely assert, however, that proof of this is
absolutely impossible.--'Facts,' it may be said, 'daily passing before
us, warrant us in _supposing_ its laws to be unchangeable.' Perhaps so.
But if a thousand or more facts have occurred, since the Creation of the
World, in which those Laws appear to have been over-ruled, or suspended,
is such a conclusion _then_ warrantable? Even if there had never been a
single instance of a Miracle recorded, since the Creation; yet the
conclusion would not be just or logical, that no such thing is possible.
But with such a multiplicity of instances to the contrary as are already
on record, it is no better than a shameless assertion, in direct
opposition to the evidence of men's senses and experience. Nay, more;
the argument is _atheistical_. For, either GOD made and ordained these
Laws of Nature; and may, consequently, at His pleasure, unmake or
suspend them: or else, these laws are self-framed, and Nature is
independent of the GOD of Nature; which is saying, in other words, that
the material Universe is not governed by any Supreme Intelligence.
"This latter opinion appears, indeed, to be the tenet of all who resort
to arguments of this kind, in opposition to the credibility of Miracles.
Thus it is said, [by Hume,] that every effect must have a cause; and
that, therefore, a Miracle must have a cause in _Nature_; otherwise, it
cannot be effected.--But, is not the _Will of_ GOD, without any other
agency, or predisposing cause, sufficient for the purpose? When GOD
created the World out of nothing, what pre-existing cause was there,
except His own omnipotent Will to produce the effect? Why then is not
the same Will sufficient to work Miracles?
"'But,' says another Sophist, [Spinoza,]--'GOD is the Author of the Laws
of Nature; so that whatever opposes those Laws, is necessarily
_repugnant to the Divine nature_: if, therefore, we believe that GOD may
act in a manner contrary to those laws, we, in effect, believe that He
may do what is contrary to _His own nature_; which is absurd and
impossible.'
"The reasoning turns upon the supposition that GOD is actuated by an
absolute _necessity_ of His Nature, and not by his _Will_: or, rather,
that He hath neither Will, nor Intellect. Otherwise, it were easy to
perceive, that in suspending the operation of His own Laws, GOD cannot
be charged with doing anything contradictory to _His own_ nature; since
He may justly be supposed to have as good reasons for _departing_ from
those Laws, as for _framing_ them: and as we know not why He framed them
in such a manner, and no otherwise; so He may have the best and wisest
reasons for the suspension of them, which it is not for us to call in
question. To speak of the Supreme Being as actuated by a kind of
physical necessity, and not by His _Will_, is to confound the GOD of
Nature with Nature itself; which is the very essence of Atheism, and
never can be reconciled with any just notions of the Deity, as a Being
of intellectual and moral perfections[66]."
_It is by no means inconceivable_, therefore, that the great Cause of
Creation, and first Author of Law should interfere at any given time in
the established Order of Nature. Moreover, it is irrational, on
sufficient testimony, to disbelieve that He has sometimes so interposed.
To deny that this is conceivable, is to make GOD inferior to His own
decree; to pronounce it incredible that the Lawgiver should be superior
to His own Laws. "The universal subordination of causation," (p. 134,)
we as freely admit as the Professor himself: but then we contend that
_everything else_ must be subordinate to the _First great Cause of all_.
Worse than unphilosophical is it to argue as the Professor presumes to
do, concerning the MOST HIGH; but unphilosophical in the strictest sense
it is. For it is to reason about Him, (the finite concerning the
Infinite!) as if we understood Him; we, who can barely decipher a
little part of His works! A few more remarks on this subject will be
found in my viith Sermon.
We are anxious to know if the whole of the case is really before us. A
few more extracts from Professor Powell's Essay seem necessary to do
full justice to his view of the matter:--"All moral evidence must
essentially have respect to the parties to be convinced. 'Signs' might
be adapted peculiarly _to the state of moral or intellectual progress of
one age_, or one class of persons, and not be suited to that of
others.... And it is to the entire difference in the ideas,
prepossessions, modes, and grounds of belief in those times, that we may
trace the reason why Miracles, which would be incredible _now_, were not
so in the age, and under the circumstances, in which they are stated to
have occurred." (p. 117.) ... "An evidential appeal which in a long past
age was convincing, as made to _the state of knowledge in that age_[67],
might have not only no effect, but even an injurious tendency, if urged
in the present, and referring to what is at variance with existing
scientific conceptions; just as the arguments of the present age would
have been unintelligible to a former."
"In a period of advanced physical knowledge, the reference to what was
believed in past times, if at variance with principles now acknowledged,
could afford little ground of appeal: in fact, would damage the argument
rather than assist it." (p. 126.)
"It becomes imperatively necessary, that such views should be suggested
as may be really suitable to better informed minds, and may meet the
increasing demands of an age pretending at least to greater
enlightenment." (p. 126.)
There is nothing in the additional suggestions thus thrown out which in
reality affects the question at issue. Certain antecedent considerations
were before insisted on, which (it was said) "must be paramount to all
attestation." (p. 107.) These have been disposed of. The writer now
tells us that he does not question "_the honesty_ or _veracity_ of the
testimony, or the reality of the _impressions_ on the minds of the
witnesses." (p. 106.) It remains to inquire therefore to what natural
causes, events which were once thought miraculous, may reasonably be
referred; since the so-called Miracles of the imperfectly-informed age
of our LORD and His Apostles will not endure the scrutiny of the present
age of scientific enlightenment.
But this, unless it be a proposal to open the whole question afresh,--to
examine _the Miracles themselves_,--to consider them one by one,--to
inquire into their exact nature,--and to investigate their attendant
circumstances,--is unmeaning. For we cannot, as reasonable men, dismiss
a vast body of august events, differing so considerably one from
another, with a vague inuendo that there was probably "some kind of
mistake or deception somewhere, though we do not know where:" (p. 106:)
a hint that natural events may have been regarded as supernatural by an
unscientific age, (which I believe was Schleiermacher's view:) and so
forth. The two miraculous Draughts of fishes,--the Stater found in the
fish's mouth,--the stilling of the Storm,--might perhaps, by a little
rhetorical sophistry, in unscrupulous hands, be so disposed of. But the
_Creative Power_ displayed on the two occasions of a miraculous feeding
of thousands,--the giving of sight to a man born blind,--the calling of
Lazarus out of the grave where he had been for four days buried;--these
are transactions which resist every attempt of the enemy to explain
away, as unscientific misconceptions. They may be powerless to produce
conviction in some _now_, as they were powerless to produce conviction
in some _then_: but they cannot be set aside by an insinuation. There
could not have been any mistake when the Five Thousand were fed with
five loaves, and twelve baskets full were gathered up; or when the Four
Thousand were fed with seven loaves, and fragments enough to fill seven
baskets remained over[68]. There was no room for deception in the case
of the man born blind; for _that_ case immediately underwent a judicial
scrutiny[69]. Lazarus bound hand and foot with grave-clothes required
that the bystanders should "loose him and let him go[70]:" but from that
moment, neither supposed scientific necessity, nor antecedent
considerations, nor the ordinary course of Nature, nor any other
creature, will avail to bind him any more!
This may suffice on the subject of Professor Powell's Essay. On the
great question itself, I have said something in my Seventh Sermon, to
which the reader is requested to refer.--The performance now under
consideration abounds in incorrect statements, while it revives not a
few exploded objections; but I have considered the only points in it
which are material.
Thus the author assumes "that, unlike the _essential Doctrines_ of
Christianity, 'the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' those
_external accessories_, [Miracles, for example,] constitute a subject
which of necessity is perpetually taking somewhat at least of a new
form, with the successive phases of opinion and knowledge." (p. 94.)
But, (waiving for the moment the impossibility of severing the Doctrines
of the Gospel from the miraculous evidence that our LORD was a Teacher
sent from Heaven[71]), it requires no ability to perceive that although
"opinion" should alter daily, and "knowledge" increase ever so much,
yet, events professing to be miraculous, being plain _matters of fact_,
are to-day exactly what and where they were many centuries ago. Physical
Science may pretend (with Paulus) to explain them on natural principles,
truly; and while she does so, the world is sure to give her a patient,
even an indulgent hearing. But then she must let it be known _what_ she
proposes to explain, and _how_ she proposes to explain it. She must be
so indulgent also, as to listen while we, in turn, shew her _on what_
grounds we find it impossible to accept her Theory. "The inevitable
progress of research," (says this author,) "must, within a longer or
shorter period, unravel _all that seems most marvellous_; and what is at
present least understood will become as familiarly known to the Science
of the future, as those points which a few centuries ago, were involved
in equal obscurity, but are now thoroughly understood." (p. 109.) Such a
vaticination as regards Miracles, is, to say the least, premature; and
until it can appeal to incipient accomplishment, it must be regarded as
nugatory also. I am not aware, that as yet one single Miracle has been
struck off the list; yet Miracles have now been before the world a long
time, and they have not wanted enemies either.
To begin Divinity with a discussion of the "Evidences," we do indeed
hold to be a beginning _at the wrong end_. At the same time, all of
Professor Powell's opening remarks, in which he insinuates that the
Church would bar, or would stifle discussion concerning the evidences of
Religion, are obviously untrue. No scrutiny of Christian Miracles,
however rigid, is stopped by the admonition that such narratives "ought
to be held sacred, and exempt from the unhallowed criticism of human
Reason." (p. 110.) We do not, by any means, "treat all objections as
profane, and discard exceptions unanswered as shocking and immoral."
(p. 100.) Neither does the Church think herself "omniscient and
infallible;" (p. 96;) though she holds Omniscience to be an attribute of
GOD; and Infallibility, of the Bible. But she deprecates in the
strongest manner vague insinuations and unsupported doubts of the
reality of her LORD'S Miracles, sown broad-cast over the land; and she
is at a loss to understand how the "difficulties" of any, can be in this
manner "removed;" (p. 96;) except by a process analogous to that which
would cure a malady by taking away the life of the patient. We are not
in fact at all disposed to admit that "Miracles, which in the estimation
of a former age were among the chief _supports_ of Christianity, are at
present among the main _difficulties_, and hindrances to its
acceptance," (p. 140,)--although Professor Powell and Dr. Temple say so.
This Essay in fact is full of incorrect, or objectionable statements.
Thus Professor Powell asserts that since "evidential arguments are
avowedly addressed to the intellect, it is especially preposterous to
shift the ground, and charge the rejection of them on _moral_ motives."
(p. 100.) And yet it is worthy of notice that our LORD Himself assures
us that the reception of Truth depends on our moral, rather than on our
intellectual condition. "How can ye believe," (He said to the Jews,)
"which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that
cometh from GOD only[72]?"
This writer reasons also with singular laxity and inaccuracy. After
quoting the dictum that "on a certain amount of testimony we might
believe any statement, however improbable," (pp. 140-1,) he scornfully
adds;--"So that if a number of respectable witnesses were to concur in
asseverating that on a certain occasion they had seen two and two make
five, we should be bound to believe them!" (p. 141.) Does he fail to
perceive, (1) that mathematical truths do not come within the province
of probable reasoning, and (2) are not dependent on testimony?... Again,
"The case of the _antecedent_ argument of Miracles is very clear,
however little some are inclined to perceive it. In Nature and from
Nature, by Science and by Reason, _we neither have nor can possibly have
any evidence of a Deity working by Miracles_;--for that, we must go out
of Nature, and beyond Science." (pp. 141-2.) Very true. We must go _to
Scripture_. We must have recourse to testimony. This is precisely what
we are maintaining.... But,--"Testimony, after all, is but a second-hand
assurance; it is but a blind guide; testimony can avail nothing against
Reason." (p. 141.) True. But this, if it is intended as an argument
against the reasonableness of admitting the truth of Miracles, is a mere
_petitio principii_.... Again. "It is not the _mere fact_ but the
_cause_ or _explanation_ of it, which is the point at issue." (p. 141.)
Admitting then, as the learned author here does, that when CHRIST said
"Lazarus, come forth," "he that was dead," (though he had been buried
four days,) "came forth, bound hand and foot with
grave-clothes[73];"--admitting these "facts," I say,--what other
"cause," or "explanation" does the reverend gentleman propose to assign
but the supernatural power of the Divine Speaker?
Far graver exception, however, must be taken against certain parts of
Professor Powell's labours, which betray an animus fatally indicative of
the tendency of such Essays and Reviews as these. Witness his assertion
that "it is now acknowledged that 'Creation' is only another name for
our ignorance of the mode of production;" (p. 139;) and that a recent
work on the Origin of Species "substantiates on undeniable grounds the
very principle so long denounced by the first naturalists,--_the
origination of new species by natural causes_;" (p. 139;) and that the
said work "must soon bring about an entire revolution of opinion in
favour of the grand principle of the _self-evolving powers of Nature_."
(p. 139.)
One object of the present Essay is to insist that since Miracles belong
to the world of matter, "we must recognize the due claims of Science to
decide" upon them. We are reminded that "beyond the domain of physical
causation and the possible conceptions of _intellect_ or _knowledge_,
there lies open the boundless region of spiritual things, which is the
sole dominion of Faith:" (p. 127:) and that "Advancing knowledge, while
it asserts the dominion of Science in physical things, confirms that of
Faith in spiritual." (p. 127.) It is proposed that "we thus neither
impugn the generalizations of Philosophy, nor allow them to invade the
dominion of Faith; and admit that what is not a subject for a problem,
may hold its place in a Creed." (p. 127.)
But the fatal consequences of this plausible fallacy become apparent the
instant we turn the leaf, and read that "the more knowledge advances,
the more it has been, and will be acknowledged, that Christianity, as a
real religion, must be viewed apart from connexion with physical
things." (p. 128.) That "the first dissociation of the spiritual from
the physical was rendered necessary by the palpable contradictions
disclosed by astronomical discovery with the letter of Scripture.
Another still wider and more material step has been effected by the
discoveries of Geology. More recently, the antiquity of the Human Race,
and the development of Species, and _the rejection of the idea of
'Creation'_ (!) have caused new advances in the same direction."
(p. 129.) ... From this it is evident, not only that the object of
Science in thus taking the Miracles of Scripture into her own keeping,
is (like an unnatural step-dame) to slay them; but that downright
Atheism is to be the attitude in which men are expected to survey that
"boundless region of spiritual things" which is yet proclaimed to be
"the sole dominion of Faith!"
Faith, on the other hand, does not object to the constant visits of
Science to any part of _her_ treasure. She does but insist that all
discussion shall be conducted _according to the rules of right Reason_.
Vague insinuations about "a progressing Age," (p. 131,)--"new modes of
speculation," (p. 130,)--"the advance of Opinion," (p. 131,)--and so
forth, are as little to the purpose, _apart from specific objections_,
as sneers at "the one-sided dogmas of an obsolete school, coupled with
awful denunciations of heterodoxy on all who refuse to listen to them,"
(p. 131,) are unsuited to the gravity of the occasion. Faith insists
moreover that a divorce between the miraculous parts of Scripture, and
the context wherein they stand, is simply impossible. The unbeliever who
boldly says, "I disbelieve the Bible,"--however much we may deplore his
blindness and pity his misery,--is yet intelligible in his unbelief. But
the man who proposes to believe _the narrative_ of the Exode of Israel
from Egypt, (for instance,) apart from the supernatural character of the
events which are related to have attended it; who believes _the history_
of the Gospels, (holding the Evangelists to have been veracious
writers,) yet rejects the Divine nature of the Miracles which the
Gospels relate; and proposes, after eliminating from the historical
narrative everything which claims to be miraculous, to make what
remains of that historical narrative, the strength and stay of his soul
in life and in death:--_that_ man we boldly affirm to be one who cannot
have studied the Bible with that ordinary attention which would entitle
him to dogmatize concerning its contents: or else, whose logical faculty
must be so hopelessly defective that discussions of this class are
evidently not his proper province.
Finally, we are presented in this Essay with the same offensive
assumption of intellectual superiority on the part of the writer, which
disfigures the entire volume. "It becomes _imperatively necessary_ that
views should be suggested really suitable _to better informed minds_."
(p. 126.) "Points which may be seen to involve the greatest difficulty
to _more profound inquirers_, are often such as do not occasion the
least perplexity to _ordinary minds_, but are allowed to pass without
hesitation." (p. 125.) (And this, from one of those "profound
inquirers," one of "those who have reflected most deeply," (p. 126,) who
yet cannot get beyond a resuscitation of Hume and Spinoza's exploded
objections to the truth of Miracles!)--Butler's unanswerable arguments,
(for the allusion is evidently to _him_,) are spoken of as "a few trite
and commonplace generalities as to the moral government of the World and
the belief in the Divine Omnipotence; or as to the validity of human
testimony; or the limits of human experience." (p. 133.) And yet the
author is for ever informing us that his hostility to Miracles "is
essentially built upon those _grander conceptions_ of the order of
Nature, those comprehensive primary elements of all physical knowledge,
those ultimate ideas of universal causation, which can only be familiar
to _those thoroughly versed in cosmical philosophy in its widest
sense_." (p. 133.) "All _highly cultivated minds_, and _duly advanced
intellects_," are supposed to find their exponent in Professor Baden
Powell. All other thinkers have "_minds of a less comprehensive
capacity_," "accustomed to reason on _more contracted views_." (p. 133.
See also p. 131, _top_.) Is this the modesty of real Science? the
language of a true Philosopher and Divine?
Finally, after all that has gone before we are not much astonished, but
we _are_ considerably shocked, to read as follows:--"The Divine
Omnipotence is entirely an inference _from the language of the Bible_,
adopted _on the assumption_ of a belief in Revelation. That 'with GOD
nothing is impossible' is the very declaration of Scripture; yet on
this, the whole belief in Miracles is built[74]." Now, it happens that
'the whole belief in Miracles' is built on nothing of the kind: but the
point is immaterial. By no means immaterial, however, is the intimation
that the Divine attribute of Omnipotence is a mere inference from the
language of Revelation,--the very belief in which is also a mere
"assumption." _If belief in Holy Scripture_ is to be treated as _an
assumption_,--without at all complaining of the unreasonableness of one
who so speaks,--we yet desire that he would say it very plainly; and let
us know at least _with whom_ we have to do, and _what_ we are expected
to prove. We do not complain, if any one calls upon us to shew that a
belief in the Bible cannot be called an assumption; but it makes us very
sad: and when the challenge comes from a Minister of the Church, we are
unable to forbear the remark that there is something altogether
immoral[75] in the entire proceeding. On the other hand, to find
ourselves involved in an argument on questions of Divinity with one _who
believes nothing_, is in a manner absurd; and provokes a feeling of
resentment as well as of pity.... What need to add that life is not long
enough for such processes of proof? "He that cometh unto GOD _must
believe that He is_!" We cannot be for ever laying the foundation. The
building must begin, at last, to grow. And when it _has_ grown up, and
is compact as well as beautiful, it _cannot_ be necessary to pull it all
down again once or twice in every century in order to ascertain whether
the strong foundations be still there!
* * * * *
IV. The next performance is mainly directed against faith in the Church,
as a society of Divine origin. "The Rev. HENRY BRISTOW WILSON, B.D.,
Vicar of Great Staughton, Hunts," claims that a National Church shall be
regarded as a purely secular Institution,--the spontaneous development
of the State. "If all priests and ministers of religion could at one
moment be swept from the face of the Earth, they would soon be
reproduced[76]." The Church is concerned with Ethics, not with Divinity.
It should therefore be "free from dogmatic tests, and similar
intellectual bondage:" (p. 168:) hampered by no traditional Doctrines;
pledged to no Creeds: but, on the contrary, should be subject to
periodical doctrinal re-adjustments. "Doctrinal limitations" (i.e. the
Creeds) "are not essential to" the Church. "Upon larger knowledge of
Christian history, upon a more thorough acquaintance with the mental
constitution of man, upon an understanding of the obstacles they present
to a true Catholicity (!), they may be cast off." (p. 167.) "In order to
the possibility of recruiting any national Ministry from the whole of
the nation, ... no needless intellectual or speculative obstacles should
be interposed." (p. 196. So at p. 198.)
To all this, the answer is very obvious. Viewed as an historical fact,
the Church is _not_ of human origin. The Church _is_ a Divine
Institution. That a Priest of the Church, charged with a cure of souls,
should desire her annihilation,--the reversal of the facts of her past
History,--her reconstruction on an unheard-of basis, without even Creeds
as terms of communion with her,--and so forth; all this may suggest some
very painful doubts as _to the objector's honesty_ in continuing to
employ the formularies of that Church, and in professing to teach her
doctrines;--but it can hardly be supposed to have any effect whatever on
the question at issue.
Foreseeing this, Mr. Wilson begins by asserting,--(for to insinuate is
not for so advanced a disciple of "the negative Theology,") (p.
151,)--"the fact of a very wide-spread alienation, both of educated and
uneducated persons, from the Christianity which is ordinarily presented
in our Churches and Chapels." (p. 150.) "A self-satisfied Sacerdotalism,
confident in a supernaturally transmitted illumination," may amuse
itself in trying to "keep peace within the walls of emptied Churches:"
(p. 150:) but the day for "traditional Christianity" (p. 149.) has gone
by. We may no longer ignore "a great extent of dissatisfaction on the
part of the Clergy at some portion, at least, of formularies of the
Church of England,"--especially at the use of "one unhappy creed." (p.
150.) There has been "a spontaneous recoil" from some of the old
doctrines: a distrust of the old arguments: and a misgiving concerning
Scripture itself. "In the presence of difficulties of this kind, ... it
is vain to seek to check open discussion." (p. 151.)
Why then does not this man proceed openly to discuss? is the obvious
rejoinder. Instead of vaguely hinting that either the Reason or the
Moral sense is shocked by what people hear "in our Churches and
Chapels,"--why has not this writer, first, the honesty to withdraw from
the Ministry of the Church of England; and next, the courage to indicate
the particular doctrines which offend? To say that "the ordinances of
public worship and religious instruction provided for the people of
England" are not "really adapted to the wants of their nature as it is,"
(p. 150,) is a very vague and unworthy style of urging an objection. Why
does not the reverend writer explain _wherein_ the Doctrine and
Discipline of the English Church are not really adapted to the actual
wants of Man's nature?
Let every unbeliever however be allowed to state his difficulties in his
own way. Mr. Wilson's difficulties certainly take a very peculiar shape.
The increased _Geographical_ knowledge of the present generation has
evidently disturbed his faith. "In our own boyhood, the World as known
to the ancients was nearly all which was known to ourselves (!). We have
recently become acquainted,--intimate,--with the teeming regions of the
far East, and with empires, pagan or even atheistic, of which the
origin runs far back beyond the historic records of Judæa or of the
West, and which were more populous than all Christendom now is, for many
ages before the Christian era." (p. 162.) Such a statement is soon made;
but it ought to have been substantiated. I take the liberty of doubting
its accuracy.
But granting even that the heathen world "for many ages before the
Christian era" _was_ more populous than all Christendom now is:--what
then? This fact "_suggests questions_ to those who on Sundays hear the
reading and exposition of the Scriptures as they were expounded to our
forefathers, and on Monday peruse the news of a World of which our
forefathers little dreamed." (pp. 152-3.)--And pray, (we calmly
inquire,) _Why_ are the Scriptures to be read or expounded after a novel
fashion, even though our geographical knowledge _has_ made a
considerable advance? To this, we are favoured with no answer. The
"questions" suggested are, we presume, the same which are contained in
the following sentence. "In what relation does the Gospel stand to these
millions[77]? Is there any trace on the face of its records that it even
contemplated their existence[78]? We are told, that to know and believe
in JESUS CHRIST is in some sense necessary to Salvation. It has not been
given to these. Are they,--will they be, hereafter,--the worse off for
their ignorance?" (p. 153.) ... "As to the necessity of faith in a
SAVIOUR to these peoples when they could never have had it, no one,
upon reflection, can believe in any such thing. Doubtless they will be
equitably dealt with." (p. 153.)
These last seven words, (which scarcely seem of a piece with the rest of
the sentence,) we confess have always seemed a sufficient answer to the
badly-expressed speculative difficulty which immediately precedes; a
difficulty, be it observed, which does not depend _at all_ on the
popular advancement of Geographical knowledge; for it was urged with the
self-same force anciently, as now; and was met by Bp. Butler, almost in
the self-same words[79], upwards of a hundred years ago. But Mr. Wilson
to our surprise and sorrow proceeds:--"We cannot be content to wrap this
question up and leave it for a mystery, as to what shall become of those
myriads upon myriads of non-Christian races. First, if our traditions
tell us, that they are involved in the curse and perdition of Adam, and
may justly be punished hereafter individually for his transgression, not
having been extricated from it by saving faith,--we are disposed to
think that our traditions cannot herein fairly declare to us the words
and inferences from Scripture; but if on examination it should turn out
that they have,--we must say, that the authors of the Scriptural books
have, in those matters, represented to us their own inadequate
conceptions, and not the mind of the SPIRIT of GOD." (pp. 153-4.)
I forbear to dwell upon the grievous spectacle with which we are thus
presented. Here is a Clergyman of the Church of England deliberately
proposing the following dilemma:--Either the Prayer Book is incorrect in
its most important doctrinal inferences from Holy Scripture; or else,
the Authors of Holy Scripture itself are incorrect in their statements.
The morality of one who declares that he finds himself placed between
the horns of this dilemma, and yet retains his office as a public
teacher in the Church of England,--it is painful to contemplate. But
this is only _ad hominem_. The Reverend writer's difficulty remains.
And it seems sufficient to reply:--It is not _we_ who "wrap up the
question," but GOD. As a mystery we find it; and as a mystery, we not
only "can," but _must_ be content to "leave it." Further, it is not
"_our traditions_," but Holy Scripture itself which tells us that "by
one man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin; and so Death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned[80]:"--that "in Adam all
died[81]:"--that "we were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others[82]:" and the like. Scripture, on the other hand, as
unequivocally assures us that GOD is good, or rather that He is very
Goodness. We are convinced, (in Mr. Wilson's words,) "that all shall be
equitably dealt with according to their opportunities." (p. 154.)
Moreover, _he_ would be a rash Divine who should venture to adopt the
opinion so strenuously disclaimed by Bp. Butler, "that none can have the
benefit of the general Redemption, but such as have the advantage of
being made acquainted with it in the present life[83]." ... How, in the
meantime, speculative difficulties concerning the hereafter of the
unevangelized Heathen are affected by the fact that our population now
"peruse the news of a World of which our forefathers little dreamed,"
(pp. 152-3,)--it is hard to see. Equally unable am I also to understand
how the discovery that a larger number of persons are the subjects of
this speculative difficulty than used once to be supposed, can
constitute any reason why Scripture should not still be read and
expounded on Sunday "as it used to be expounded to our forefathers."
We have been so particular, because whenever any of these writers
condescend to be argumentative, _we_ are eager to bear them company. No
wish at all have we, in the abstract, to stifle inquiry; no objection
whatever have we to the principle of free discussion. And yet, as a
clergyman, I cannot discuss such questions as these with a _Minister of
the Church of England_, except under protest. I deny that these are in
any sense open questions. To dispute concerning them,--εἰ μὴ θέσιν
διαφυλάττων,--one of the disputants must first, at least, resign his
commission. It is simply dishonest in a man to hold a commission in the
Church of England, under solemn vows, and yet to deny her doctrines. An
Officer in the Army who should pursue a similar line of action, would be
dismissed the Service,--or worse.--Under protest, then, we follow the
Rev. H. B. Wilson, B.D.
Next come three other specimens "of the modern questionings of
traditional Christianity," "whereby observers are rendered dissatisfied
with old modes of speaking:" (p. 156:) viz. (1) St. Paul "speaks of the
Gospel 'which was preached to every nation (_sic_) under heaven,' when
it has never yet been preached to the half[84]." (2) "Then, again, it
has often been appealed to as an evidence of the supernatural origin of
Christianity, and as an instance of supernatural assistance vouchsafed
to it in the first centuries, that it so soon overspread the world:"
(p. 155:) whereas "it requires no learning to be aware that neither then
nor subsequently have the Christians amounted to a fourth part of the
people of the Earth." (_Ibid._) (3) So again, "it has been customary to
argue that, _à priori_, a supernatural Revelation was to be expected at
the time when JESUS CHRIST was manifested upon the Earth, by reason of
the exhaustion of all natural or unassisted human efforts for the
amelioration of mankind;" (pp. 155-6;) whereas "our recently enlarged
Ethnographical information shews such an argument to be altogether
inapplicable to the case." "It would be more like the realities of
things, as we can now behold them, to say that the Christian Revelation
was given to the Western World, because it deserved it better and was
more prepared for it than the East." (p. 156.)--The remedy for the first
of these difficulties (says Mr. Wilson,) is, "candidly to acknowledge
that the words of the New Testament which speak of the preaching of the
Gospel to the whole world, were limited to the understanding of the
times when they were spoken." The suggestions of our own moral instincts
are rather to be followed, "than the express declarations of Scripture
writers, who had no such knowledge as is given to ourselves of the
amplitude of the World." (p. 157.)
For my own part, I see not how Mr. Wilson's proposed remedy meets the
case; unless he means to say that in the time of St. Paul the Gospel had
been literally preached to the whole World _as far as the World was then
known_. If not, it is clear that recourse must be had to some other
expedient. Instead then of the "candid acknowledgment" required of _us_
by the learned writer, may we be allowed to suggest to _him_ the more
prosaic expedient (1st) of making sure that he quotes Scripture
accurately; and (2nd) that he understands it?... It happens that St.
Paul does not use the words "_every nation under heaven_" as Mr. Wilson
inadvertently supposes. The Apostle's phrase, πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει, in
Colossians i. 23, (as in St. Mark xvi. 15), means 'to the whole
Creation,' or 'every creature;' (the article is doubtful;) in other
words, he announces the universality of the Gospel, as contrasted with
the Law; and he explains that it had been preached _to the Heathen_ as
well as to the Jews. Our increased knowledge therefore has nothing
whatever to do with the question; and the supposed difficulty
disappears. The two which remain, being (according to the same writer,)
merely incorrect inferences of Biblical critics, need not, it is
presumed, be regarded as insurmountable either.
Following Mr. Wilson through his successive vagaries of religious (?)
thought, we come upon a succession of strange statements; the object of
which seems to be to cast a slur on _Doctrine_ generally.--The doctrine
of Justification by faith "is not met with ... in the Apostolic
writings, _except those of St. Paul_." (p. 160.) [A minute exception
truly!].--"Then, on the other hand, it is maintained by a large body of
Theologians, as by the learned Jesuit Petavius and many others, that the
doctrine afterwards developed into the Nicene and Athanasian, is not to
be found explicitly in the earliest fathers, nor even in Scripture,
although provable by it." (p. 160.) [Would it not have been fair,
however, to state what appears to have been the design of Petavius
therein[85]? and should it not have been added that our own Bishop Bull
in his immortal "Defensio Fidei Nicænæ" established the very reverse
"out of the writings of the Catholic Doctors who flourished within the
first three centuries of the Christian Church[86]?"] "The nearer we come
to the original sources of the History, the less definite do we find the
statements of Doctrines, and even of the facts from which the Doctrines
were afterwards inferred." (p. 160.) "In the patristic writings,
theoretics assume continually an increasingly disproportionate value.
Even within the compass of our New Testament, there is to be found
already a wonderful contrast between the words of our LORD and such a
discourse as the Epistle to the Hebrews." (pp. 160-1.) [What a curious
discovery, by the way, that an argumentative Epistle should differ in
style from an historical Gospel!] "Our LORD'S Discourses," (continues
this writer,) "have almost all of them a direct _Moral_ bearing."
(p. 161.) [The case of St. John's Gospel immediately recurs to our
memory. And it seems to have occurred to Mr. Wilson's also. He says:--]
"This character of His words is certainly more obvious in the first
three Gospels than in the fourth; and the remarkable unison of those
Gospels, when they recite the LORD'S words, notwithstanding their
discrepancies in some matters of fact, compels us to think, that _they
embody more exact traditions of what He actually said than the fourth
does_." (p. 161.) [In other words, the authenticity of St. John's
Gospel[87] is to be suspected rather than the worthlessness of the
speculations of the Vicar of Great Staughton!]
The object of three pages which follow (pp. 162-5.) seems to be to shew
that in the Apostolic Age, Immorality of life was more severely dealt
with, even than erroneousness of Doctrine. Except because the writer is
eager to depreciate the value of orthodoxy of belief, and to cast a slur
on doctrinal standards generally,--it is hard to see why he should write
thus. Let him be reminded however that our SAVIOUR makes Faith itself a
_moral_, not an _intellectual_ habit[88]; and, (if it be not an uncivil
remark,) what but an _immoral_ spectacle does a Clergyman present who
openly inculcates distrust of these very Doctrines which he has in the
most solemn manner pledged himself to uphold and maintain?
And thus we come back to the theme originally proposed. "A national
Church," we are informed, "need not, historically speaking, be
Christian (!); nor, if it be Christian, need it be tied down to
particular forms which have been prevalent at certain times in
Christendom (!). That which is essential to a National Church is, that
it should undertake to assist the spiritual progress of the nation and
of the individuals of which it is composed, in their several states and
stages. Not even a Christian Church should expect all those who are
brought under its influence to be, as a matter of fact, of one and the
same standard; but should endeavour to raise each according to his
capacities, and should give no occasion for a reaction against itself,
nor provoke the individualist element into separation." (p. 173.) Of
what sort the Ministers of such a "chartered libertine" are to prove,
may be anticipated. "Thought and speech, which are free among all other
classes," must be free also "among those who hold the office of leaders
and teachers of the rest in the highest things." The Ministers of the
Church ought not "to be bound to cover up, but to open; and having, it
is presumed, possession of the key of knowledge, ought not to stand at
the door with it, permitting no one to enter unless by force. A National
Church may also find itself in this position, which, perhaps, is our
own." (p. 174.)--What a charming picture of the duties and the method of
that class to which the Vicar of Great Staughton himself belongs!... The
writer proceeds to set an example of that freedom of inquiry which he
vindicates as the privilege of his Order; and without which he is
apprehensive of being left isolated between "the fanatical religionist,"
(p. 174,) (i.e. the man who believes the truths he teaches,) and "the
negative theologian," (i.e. those who, "impatient of old fetters, follow
free thought heedlessly wherever it may lead them.") (_Ibid._) "The
freedom of opinion[89]," (he says,) "which belongs to the English
citizen should be conceded to the English Churchman; and the freedom
which is already practically enjoyed by the members of the congregation,
cannot without injustice be denied to its ministers." (p. 180.) Let us
see how the Reverend Gentleman exercises the license which he claims:--
The phrase "Word of GOD," (he says,) is unauthorized and begs the
question. The epithet "Canonical" "may mean either books ruled and
determined by the Church, or regulation books; and the employment of it
in the Article hesitates between these two significations." (p. 176.)
The declaration of the sixth Article simply implies "the Word of GOD is
contained in Scripture; whence it does not follow that it is
co-extensive with it." (p. 170.) "Under the terms of the Sixth Article
one may accept literally, or allegorically, or as parable, or poetry, or
legend, the story of a serpent-tempter, of an ass speaking with man's
voice, of an arresting the earth's motion, of a reversal of its
motion[90], of waters standing in a solid heap, of witches, and a
variety of apparitions. So under the terms of the Sixth Article, every
one is free in judgment as to the primeval institution of the Sabbath,
the universality of the Deluge, the confusion of tongues, the corporeal
taking up of Elijah into Heaven, the nature of Angels, the reality of
demoniacal possession, the personality of Satan, and the miraculous
particulars of many events." (p. 177.) "Good men," we are assured; (the
Inspired Writers being the good men intended;) "may err in facts, be
weak in memory, mingle imaginations with memory, be feeble in
inferences, confound illustration with argument, be varying in judgment
and opinion." (p. 179.) [A "free handling" this, of the work of the HOLY
GHOST, truly!... It would, I suppose, be deemed very unreasonable to
wish that a catalogue of facts misstated,--of slips of memory,--of
imaginary details,--of feeble inferences,--of instances of logical
confusion,--and so forth, had been subjoined by the Reverend writer. I
will only observe concerning his method that such "frank criticism of
Scripture" (p. 174.) as this, is dogmatism of the most disreputable
kind: insinuating what it does not state; assuming what it ought to
prove; asserting in the general what it may be defied to substantiate in
particular.] It follows,--"But the spirit of absolute Truth cannot err
or contradict Himself; if He speak immediately, even in small things,
accessories, or accidents." (p. 179.) To this we entirely agree. Where
then are the "errors?" and where the "contradictions?"
We cannot "suppose Him to suggest contradictory accounts:" [not
_contradictory_, of course; because contradictories cannot both be
true:] "or accounts only to be reconciled in the way of hypothesis and
conjecture."--(_Ibid._) _Why_ not[91]?
"To suppose a supernatural influence to cause the record of that which
can only issue in a puzzle, is to lower indefinitely our conception of
the Divine dealings in respect of a special Revelation."
(_Ibid._)--_Why_ more of a lowering puzzle in GOD'S Word than in GOD'S
Works[92]?
Mr. Wilson proceeds:--"It may be attributed to the defect of our
understandings, that we should be _unable altogether to reconcile the
aspects_ of the SAVIOUR as presented to us in the first three Gospels,
and in the writings of St. Paul and St. John. At any rate, there were
current in the primitive Church very distinct Christologies."--(_Ibid._)
Queer language this for a plain man! _I_, for my own part, have never
yet discovered the difficulty which is here hinted at; but which has
been prudently left unexplained.
It follows:--"But neither to any defect in our capacities, nor to any
reasonable presumption of a hidden wise design, nor to any partial
spiritual endowments in the narrators, can we attribute the difficulty,
if not impossibility, of reconciling the genealogies of St. Matthew and
St. Luke; or the chronology of the Holy Week; or the accounts of the
Resurrection: nor to any mystery in the subject-matter can be referred
the uncertainty in which the New Testament writings leave us, as to the
descent of JESUS CHRIST according to the flesh, whether by His mother He
were of the tribe of Judah or of the tribe of Levi."--(pp. 179-180.) I,
for my part, can declare that I have found the reconcilement in the
three subjects first alluded to, as complete as could be either expected
or desired. The last part of the sentence discovers nothing so much as
the writer's ignorance of the subject on which he presumes to dogmatize.
Presently, we read,--"It may be worth while to consider how far a
liberty of opinion is conceded by our existing Laws, Civil and
Ecclesiastical."--(p. 180.) "As far as _opinion privately entertained is
concerned_, the liberty of the English Clergyman appears already to be
complete. For no Ecclesiastical person can be obliged to answer
interrogations as to his opinions; nor be troubled for that which he has
not actually expressed; nor be made responsible for inferences which
other people may draw from his expressions." (_Ibid._)--Surely such
language needs only to be cited to awaken indignation in every honest
bosom! "With most men educated, not in the schools of Jesuitism, but in
the sound and honest moral training of an English Education, the mere
entering on the record such a plea as this, must destroy the whole case.
If the position of the religious instructor is to be maintained only by
his holding one thing as true, and teaching another thing as to be
received,--in the name of the GOD of Truth, either let all teaching
cease, or let the fraudulent instructor abdicate willingly his office,
before the moral indignation of an as yet uncorrupted people thrust him
ignominiously from his abused seat[93]!"
The remarks just quoted serve to introduce a series of views on
subscription to the Articles, which, if they were presented to me
without any intimation of the quarter from which they proceed, I should
not have hesitated to denounce as simply dishonest[94].... The Statute
13 Eliz. c. 12, is next discussed with the same unhappy licentiousness;
and the declaration that "the meshes are too open for modern
refinements." (p. 185.) ... I desire not to speak with undue severity of
a fellow-creature: but I protest that I cannot read the Review under
consideration without a profound conviction that, (speaking for myself,)
I have to do with one whom in the common concerns of life I would not
trust. The aptitude here displayed[95] for playing tricks with plain
language, is calculated to sap the foundations of human intercourse, and
to destroy confidence. If plain words may mean anything, or may mean
nothing,--then, farewell to all good faith in the intercourse of daily
life. If Articles "for the avoiding of Diversities of Opinions, and for
the establishing of Consent touching true Religion[96],"--such Articles
especially as the IInd., "Of the WORD or SON of GOD, which was made very
Man;" and the Vth., "Of the HOLY GHOST," (which the Rev. Mr. Wilson
calls "humanifying of the Divine Word," and "the Divine Personalities,")
(p. 186,)--may be signed by one who, even in signing, resolves to "_pass
by the side of them_," (p. 186, line 6,)--then is it better at once to
admit that no Logic can be supposed to be available with such a writer;
that he places himself outside the reach of fair argumentation; and must
not be astonished if he shall find himself regarded by his peers simply
in the light of an untrustworthy and impracticable person.
The last stage of all in this deplorable paper is an application to
Holy Scripture itself of the tricks which the Vicar of Great Staughton
has already played, so much to his own satisfaction, with the Articles.
"We may say that the value of the historical parts of the Bible may
consist, rather in their significance, in the ideas which they awaken,
than in the scenes themselves which they depict." (p. 199.) To a plain
English understanding, (unperplexed with the dreams of Strauss, and
other unbelievers of the same stamp,) such a statement conveys scarcely
an intelligible notion. But we are not left long in doubt.
"The application of Ideology to the interpretation of Scripture, to the
doctrines of Christianity, to the formularies of the Church, may
undoubtedly be carried to an excess; may be pushed so far as to leave in
the sacred records no historical residue whatever.... An example of the
critical Ideology carried to excess, is that of Strauss; which resolves
into an ideal _the whole of the historical and doctrinal person of
JESUS_.... But it by no means follows, because Strauss has substituted a
mere shadow for the JESUS of the Evangelists, that there are not traits
in the scriptural person of Jesus, which are better explained by
referring them to an ideal than an historical origin: and without
falling into fanciful exegetics, there are parts of Scripture more
usefully interpreted ideologically than in any other manner,--as for
instance, _the history of the Temptation of JESUS by Satan, and accounts
of demoniacal possessions_." (pp. 200-201.) "Some may consider the
descent of all Mankind from Adam and Eve as an undoubted historical
fact; others may rather perceive in that relation a form of narrative
into which in early ages tradition would easily throw itself
spontaneously.... _Among a particular people, this historical
representation became the concrete expression of a great moral
truth_,--of the brotherhood of all human beings.... The force, grandeur,
and reality of these ideas are not a whit impaired in the abstract, nor
indeed the truth of the concrete history (!) as their representation,
even though mankind should have been placed upon the earth _in many
pairs at once, or in distinct centres of creation_. For the brotherhood
of men really depends," &c., &c. (p. 201.) "Let us suppose one to be
uncertain whether our LORD were born of the house and lineage of David,
_or of the tribe of Levi_; and even to be driven to conclude that the
genealogies of Him have _little historic value_; nevertheless, in idea,
JESUS is both Son of David and Son of Aaron, both Prince of Peace, and
High Priest of our profession; as He is, under another idea, though not
literally, 'without father and without mother.' And He is none the less
Son of David, Priest Aaronical, or Royal Priest Melchizedecan, in idea
and spiritually, even if it be unproved whether He were any of them _in
historic fact_.--In like manner it need not trouble us, if in
consistency, we should have to suppose both an ideal origin, and to
apply an ideal meaning, to the birth in the city of David, (!) and to
other circumstances of the Infancy. (!) So again, the Incarnification of
the divine Immanuel remains, although the angelic appearances which
herald it in the narratives of the Evangelists may be of ideal origin,
according to the conceptions of former days." (pp. 202-3.) "And,"
lastly,--"_liberty must be left to all as to the extent in which they
apply this principle_!" (p. 201.)
To such dreamy nonsense, what "Answer" _can_ we return[97]? Such
speculations would be a fair subject for ridicule and merriment, if the
subject were not so unspeakably solemn,--the issues so vast, and
terribly momentous. We find ourselves introduced into a new world,--of
which the denizens talk like madmen, and in a jargon of their own. And
yet, that jargon is no sooner understood, than the true character of our
new companions becomes painfully evident[98].... He who believes the
plain words of Holy Writ, finds himself called "the literalist." He who
resolves Scripture into a dream, and the LORD who redeemed him into "a
mere shadow," (p. 200) is dignified with the title of "an idealist."
"Neither" (we are assured) "should condemn the other. They are fed with
the same truths; the literalist unconsciously, the idealist with
reflection. Neither can justly say of the other that he undervalues the
Sacred Writings, or that he holds them as inspired less properly than
himself." (p. 200.) "The ideologian," (who is the same person as the
"idealist;" for the gentleman, at this place, changes his name;) "is
evidently in possession of a principle which will enable him to stand in
charitable relation to persons of very different opinions from his own."
(p. 202.) "Relations which may repose on doubtful grounds as matter of
history, and, as history, be incapable of being ascertained or verified,
may yet be equally suggestive of true ideas with facts absolutely
certain. The spiritual significance is the same of the Transfiguration,
of opening blind eyes, of causing the tongue of the stammerer to speak
plainly, of feeding multitudes with bread in the wilderness, of
cleansing leprosy; whatever links may be deficient in the traditional
records of particular events." (_Ibid._) ... I will but modestly
inquire,--What would be said of _us_, if _we_ were so to expound Holy
Scripture _in defence_ of Christianity?
But it is time to dismiss this tissue of worthless as well as most mischievous
writing;--even to exhibit which, in the words of its misguided author,
ought to be its own sufficient exposure. Do men really expect us to
"answer" such groundless assertions, and vague speculations as those
which go before? A Faith without Creeds: a Clergy without authority or
fixed opinions: a Bible without historical truth:--how can such things,
for a moment, be supposed to be[99]? What answer do we render to the
sick man who sees unsubstantial goblins on the solid tapestried wall;
and mistakes for shadowy apparitions of the night, the forms of flesh
and blood which are ministering to his life's necessities? If the
Temptation, and the Transfiguration, and the Miracles of CHRIST be not
true history, but ideological allegories,--then why not His Nativity and
His Crucifixion,--His Death and His Burial,--His Resurrection and His
Ascension into Heaven likewise? "_Liberty_" (we have been expressly
told,) "_must be left to all, as to the extent in which they apply the
principle_" (p. 201.)--_Where_ then is Ideology to begin,--or rather,
where is ideology to end? "Why then is Strauss to be blamed for using
that universal liberty, and '_resolving into an ideal the whole of the
historical and doctrinal person of JESUS_?' Why is Strauss' resolution
'an excess?' or where and by what authority, short of his extreme view,
would Mr. Wilson himself stop? or at what point of the process? and by
what right could he, consistently with his own canon, call on any other
speculator, to stay the ideologizing process[100]?"
"Discrepancies in narratives, scientific difficulties, defects in
evidence, do not disturb the ideologist as they do the literalist."
(p. 203.) No, truly. _Nothing_ troubles him; simply because he _believes
nothing_! The very Sacraments of the Gospel are not secure from his
unhallowed touch. "The same principle" (?) is declared to be "capable of
application" to them also. "Within these concrete conceptions there lie
hid the truer ideas of the virtual presence of the LORD JESUS everywhere
that He is preached, remembered, and represented." (p. 204.) ... Do we
ever deal thus with any other book of History? And yet, on what possible
principle is the Bible to be thus trifled with, and Thucydides to be
spared?--I protest, if the historical personages of either Testament may
be resolved at will into abstract qualities, and the historical
transactions of either Testament may be supposed to represent ideas and
notions only,--then, I see not why the Vicar of Great Staughton himself
may not prove to be a mythical personage also. Why need Henry Bristow
Wilson, B.D.,--who, (as "literalists" say,) in 1841 was one of the 'Four
Tutors' who procured the condemnation of Tract No. 90, on the ground
that it 'evaded rather than explained the Thirty-nine Articles;' and
who, in 1861 writes that "Subscription to the Articles may be thought
_even inoperative upon the conscience_ by reason of its vagueness;"
(p. 181.)--why need this author be supposed to be a man _at all_? Why
should he not be interpreted "ideologically;" and resolved into the
principle of disgraceful Inconsistency of conduct, and "variation of
opinion at different periods of life?"
* * * * *
V. In the present crusade against the Bible and the Faith of Christian
men, the task of destroying confidence in the first chapter of Genesis
has been undertaken by MR. C. W. GOODWIN, M.A. He requires us to "regard
it as the speculation of some Hebrew Descartes or Newton, promulgated
in all good faith as the best and most probable account that could be
then given of GOD'S Universe." (p. 252.)
Mr. Goodwin remarks with scorn, that "we are asked to believe that a
vision of Creation was presented to him by Divine power, for the purpose
of enabling him to inform the world of what he had seen; which vision
inevitably led him to give a description which has misled the world for
centuries, and in which the truth can now only with difficulty be
recognized." (p. 247.) He puts "pen to paper," therefore, (he says,) in
order to induce the world to a "frank recognition of the erroneous views
of nature which the Bible contains." (p. 211.) The importance of the
inquiry, he vindicates in the following modest terms:--"Physical Science
goes on unconcernedly pursuing its own paths. Theology, (the Science
whose object is the dealing of GOD with Man as a moral being,)
_maintains but a shivering existence, shouldered and jostled by the
sturdy growths of modern thought_, and _bemoaning itself_ for the
hostility it encounters." (p. 211.)--A few remarks at once suggest
themselves.
I cannot help thinking that if any person of ordinary intelligence,
unacquainted with the Bible, were to be left to obtain his notion of its
contents from "Essays and Reviews," infidel publications generally, and
(_absit invidia verbo!_) from not a few of the Sermons which have been
preached and printed in either University of late years,--the notion so
obtained would be singularly at variance with the known facts of the
case. Would not a man infallibly carry away an impression that the Bible
is a book abounding in statements concerning matters of Physical Science
w
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/31090