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1911

LECTURES

ON THE

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

DBLIVEEE.D IN PHILADELPHIA,

BY CLERGYMEN OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY
ALONZO POTTER, D.D., LL.D.,
BISHOP OP THE DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

NEW YORK:
JAMES MILLER, PUBLISHER,
647 BROADWAY. 1873.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, tn the year 18i , by
E. H. BUTLER & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennslyvania.

CONTENTS.

PAGK
INTRODUCTION— APOLOGETICS .... . 7
By Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D., LL.D.
I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION  57
By Rev. Abram N. Littlejohn.
II. PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM  83
By Rev. Edwin Harwood.
III. ON MIRACLES  101
By Rev. Charles Mason.
IV. IMMUTABILITY OE NATURAL LAWS .... . 125
By Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D., LL.D.
V. PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT  15
By Rev. M. A. De W. Hoive, D.D.
\
VI. ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT ...... 171
By Rt. Rev. Thomas Atkinson, D.D.
VII. RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT ... . .187
By Rev. Samuel Fuller, D.D. (3)

iv CONTENTS. PAGE
VIII. THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES . . - -225
By Rev. John B. Kerfoot, D.D.
IX. ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S WORLD AND WORD . . .257
By Rev. G. M Butler, D.D.
X. RELATION OF THE OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS IN
REVELATION  .281

By Rev. Charles Minnegerode.
XI. THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT AGAINST THE
GOSPEL .  303
By Rt. Rev. George Burgess, D.D.
XII. SOCIALISM  323
By Rev. Francis Vinton, D.D.
XIII. SCIENCE AND REVELATION ... .337
By Rev. A. H Vinton, D.D.
XIV. HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY . 363
By Rt. Rev. Jofrn Henry Hopkins, D.D., LL.D.
XV. INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY  335
By Rev. Gregory T. Bedell.
EXTRACT FROM BISHOP POTTER'S ADDRESS TO THE DIOCESE
OF PENNSYLVANIA, MAY, 1854 ...... 407

ADVERTISEMENT.
ABOUT a year since, the Editor of this volume, in con
junction with the Rev. Dr. Morton (President of the
Standing Committee), and the Rev. Dr. Stevens (Secretary
of the Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania), pro
jected a Course of Lectures on the Evidences of Religion,
to be prepared with special reference to the present exi
gencies of that subject, and to the wants of young men of
cultivated and thoughtful habits. The following List of
Subjects was proposed :
1. Philosophy of Religion. 2. Philosophical Scepticism
(Historical, Critical). 3. Pantheistic Idealism. 4. Mate
rialism (Life, Soul). 5. Spiritualism. 6. Socialism. 7.
Relation of the Objective and Subjective Factors in Revela
tion. 8. Inspiration. 9. Natural and Revealed Religion.
10. Fatalistic Tendency of Modern Science. 11. Revela
tion confronted with Ethnology. 12. Revelation con
fronted with Astronomy. 13. Revelation confronted with
Archeology. 14. Revelation confronted with Philology.
15. Revelation confronted with Geology. 16. Historical
Evidences of Christianity (Character and Value) . 17. In
ternal Evidences of Christianity. 18. Theory of Prophecy
(5)

ADVERTISEMENT.

(Structure, Use, Inspiration). 19. Theory of Miracles.
20. Theory of Development (Newman, Schaff).
Invitations to take part in this course, were addressed to
a considerable number of the Bishops and Clergy — the
names of others being reserved for subsequent Courses.
These invitations were accepted by the authors of the fol
lowing Lectures, and by a few others, of whom some were
providentially hindered from fulfilling their engagement;
the rest have not found it convenient to prepare their
manuscripts in time for this publication. Bishop Elliott
gave two Lectures, and Bishops Otey and Potter, the Rev.
Doctors Morton, Goodwin, Coit, and T. M. Clark, and the
Rev. A. C. Coxe, each delivered one Lecture in addition
to those which are contained in the present volume.
Some of these it is expected will be published hereafter.

Jntakttioit.

INTRODUCTION.

APOLOGETICS.
THE history of Auguste Compte is instructive. It is
now more than a quarter of a century since he appeared
in France as the Reformer and Legislator of the Science of
the World. His boldness was great, and yet it was hardly
greater than his genius. Though long neglected by the
savans of his own country, and hardly known abroad, he
has gradually won a proud position among the thinkers of
our time, and in some respects he has vindicated his claim to
a place above them all.
But he was far from happy in choosing the first principles
of his Philosophy. They belonged to the narrowest and
coldest of the systems which have been erected on the basis
of Locke. He assumed the entire incompetency of the
human mind to penetrate beyond the relative and phenome
nal, and excluded Metaphysics and Theology from the sphere
of human science, in a tone so peremptory and contemp
tuous, that nothing but the transcendent ability with which
he wrote could have saved him from instant banishment
from the pale of philosophy. On this contracted basis he
2 (»)

10 INTRODUCTION.
has toiled, with titanic strength and patience, to rear a
complete system of Science, now commonly known as Posi
tivism. The Gours de Philosojphie Positive commenced the
series of his publications more than twenty years ago; the
Cours de Politique Positive, not yet completed, forms the last
of his contributions to Philosophy that we have seen. In
France, M. Letre- has been the popular expounder of his
doctrines. In England, that office has been assumed by
Miss Harriet Martineau, and by Mr. Lewes.
In comparing his last with his first work, it becomes
manifest that an essential change has come over the spirit
of his speculations. He has had experiences, which demon
strate how impotent a mere theory may become when it
stands face to face with the great moral facts and sentiments
of our existence. M. Compte, as he more than once tells
us, was inspired with a passionate attachment for Madame
Clotilde de Vaux, who died in 1846. That attachment
taught him that " sentiment" as well as intellect was enti
tled to a place in the domain of reasoning, and her death,
with other personal causes, and with despair of regenerating
society through mere science alone, seems to have induced
at last the conviction that Religion of some kind was the
indispensable condition of attaining to a truly normal state.
Hence, after rejecting that Religion, at the outset of his
career, as a mere dream of humanity in its childhood, we
find him towards its close re-constituting it (in a shape in
deed most absurd and fantastic), as one of the great ideas
of the soul and as one of the necessary constituents of the
highest condition of society.
A fact like this needs no comment. It teaches, more im
pressively than volumes, what man needs in the moral
crises of his being, and it demonstrates that a merely specu
lative philosophy is not the safest foundation for a science

INTRODUCTION. 11
which would comprehend all the facts and necessities of
humanity. The same truth is taught most significantly by the specu
lations of Kant, who ranks second to no modern as a
profound philosophical thinker, and who proposed, in his
Critic of the Reason, to ascertain the entire resources of the
human mind. He came to the conclusion that we possess
no faculty capable of reaching outward reality,* and at
the end of his critical examination of the Pare Reason,
found directly before him " the yawning abyss of an ab
solute subjectivity.""]- From this his vigorous and earnest
soul recoiled. Hence, in his Critique of the Practical Rea
son, the result of maturer contemplations, he builds his
theory on those same necessary convictions of mankind
which he had previously rejected. He insists on the moral
exigencies of humanity, and finds in them a guarantee for
the objective validity of those grand ideas, — God, Immor
tality, Recompense, — which the speculative reason, accord
ing to him, does, indeed, project, but cannot legitimate.
In this reaction from speculative idealism towards a quasi
mysticism, Kant exhibits in his own career one of the
leading characteristics of speculative philosophy, — the his
tory of which is little more than a history of vibrations
* We ought, perhaps, to except the existence of the external -world ; hut Sir
Wm. Hamilton well observes, "The proof of its reality which Kant attempted
(independently of the necessary belief of mankind), is now admitted by one and
all of his disciples to be so inconsequent, that it may be reasonably doubted
whether he ever intended it for more than an exoteric disclaimer of the esoteric
idealism of his doctrine. But the philosopher who deemed it a scandal to
philosophy and human reason to found the proof of a material world — in itself
to us a matter of supreme indifference on belief ;— on belief, on feeling, after
wards established the proof of all the highest objects of our interest— God, Free
Will, and Immortality."— Notes on Reid, p. 792, 2d ed. 1849.
f Jacobi.

12 INTRODUCTION.
between the extremes of sensualism or idealism on one
side, and those of scepticism or mysticism on the other.
These remarks will prepare us for a distinction which
we conceive to be all-important in discussing the subject of
Apologetics, or the Evidences of Religion. There are two
points of view from which the whole subject of Evidence
must be considered, if we would understand properly the
entire scope of its principles and relations. The one is prac
tical, the other is purely speculative, or theoretical. The
latter belongs to science; the former to life.
We shall accordingly offer some remarks upon what, for
the sake of convenience, we may designate as the Practical
and Speculative Problems pertaining to the whole matter
of belief and scepticism, and we shall then suggest a few
considerations bearing more immediately upon Religious
Scepticism, and especially upon the religious scepticism of
our own day. 1. The Practical Problem.
When we come to act, we all necessarily proceed upon
the supposition that there is such a thing as truth, and
that this truth can be so ascertained, as to justify and
imperatively require, o*n our part, a corresponding conduct.
The evidence on which we proceed rarely amounts to
demonstration in the proper sense of that term. It
amounts only to a probability, which varies in different
degrees from the highest moral certainty to the lowest pre
sumption. On such probabilities, all men, whether peasants or
philosophers, are accustomed to act with spontaneous and
unhesitating alacrity. " Nature," says Pascal, " confounds
the Pyrrhonist." In other words, the absolute sceptic, who
on speculative grounds holds that there is no certainty, is
a sceptic only in theory. Neither Hume, Bayle, ^Enesede-

INTRODUCTION. 13
mus, nor Pyrrho, ever pretended to incorporate their specu
lative doubts into their daily life. If wronged, they went
like other men to the law for redress, nor did they ever
question that the principles of Evidence, which were applied
in ascertaining the reality and extent of their wrongs, were
founded in truth and reason.
The Practical Problem presented by Apologetics is this :
can the Christian's faith be vindicated on those principles of
Evidence, which, in respect to this life men accept and act
upon without distrust or hesitation ? It is the province of
Apologetics, as a branch of Practical Philosophy, to main
tain the affirmation of this question.
The weight which is to be attached to testimony, oral or
circumstantial, is a question with which we constantly deal ;
and the criteria which ought to determine our judgment
have been developed, especially in connexion with Practical
Jurisprudence1 — with a fulness and precision which leaves
us little to ask. In respect to the signs that foreshadow
coming events, and those that point to the operation of
certain causes and powers, we have also rules of judging on
which we act without hesitation. Thus we are supplied
with principles of evidence or tests of truth, the use and
application of which form no small part of our moral
education. They are evidently intended to regulate not
only our opinions, but yet more our practice. In enabling
us to pronounce on the probability of any statement that
pertains to the present, the past, or the future, they make
it our duty to recognise the influence which that statement
ought to exercise now and hereafter upon our actions.
This holds in respect to every subject that can by possi
bility involve our duty or welfare.' If the historical state
ments, for example, which we find in the Bible will bear
the various tests of credibility laid down by such writers as
Starkie and Phillips on the Law of Evidence, then they be-

14 INTRODUCTION.
come at once entitled to our acceptance. If the Gospel of
John has every mark of veracity which can be found in
the Annals of Tacitus and more besides, then he who
receives the latter has already concluded himself against
rejecting the other. He convicts himself of flagrant incon
sistency if he adopt, and then at pleasure repudiate the
same criteria of judging; if at one moment he rest on these
criteria as unquestionable and important, and at the next
moment — because a subject presents itself which he happens
not to relish — treat them with neglect or disdain.
So in regard to the testimony yielded by our own souls
to the moral contents of Scripture, and the attestations
supplied by these souls, and by the world without, to the
existence of God, to Immortality, and Retribution. Did
such attestations have respect only to an impending and
eventful trial in this life, which is fast approaching, no sane
man would deny that they ought to command our instant
and profound consideration. In respect to interests that
press upon our senses, that are urged upon our notice by
the counsel and example of all men, we spontaneously
yield, not merely our judgment, but our conduct to the in
fluence of these laws of evidence. But it is part of our
trial as candidates for* a higher life, that we are able to
overlook and disregard objects in proportion as they recede
from our grosser perceptions or belong to a remoter future.
And does it not convict us of being under some sore delu
sion, in respect to " heavenly things," that where they are
concerned we can coolly reject, or accepting, can calmly
and habitually disregard, the very same principles which in
respect to " earthly things" we constantly and heartily act
upon ?
Apologetics deal mainly with those who profess to disbe
lieve ; the pulpit and the religious press, in their practical
lessons, deal with those who, believing in name, still live

INTRODUCTION. 15
for the most part as if they believed not. The evidences
of Religion, as usually taught, rest their appeals mainly on
the argumentum ad hominem. They do not enter into
metaphysical speculations respecting -the validity of all
knowledge, and respecting the nature of the religious prin
ciple in man. They simply labour to bring the great
Christian verities into the same general category with be
liefs on which we are all content and glad to rest every
day. The difficulties in the way of the Christian faith are
shown to be of the same kind with those that attach to
many of the convictions and presumptions that we are
compelled to proceed upon in " the life that now is."* The
positive proofs in the shape of historic evidence, — the attes
tations given by our own hearts to the truths of Natural
Religion, the inward witness of the soul to the words of
Christ as words of soberness and Divine truth, — the monu
mental confirmations that speak to us from mouldering ruins,
from hoary traditions, from institutions and ordinances and
commemorative observances, coeval with the very infancy of
our faith, — these together form a majestic and solid mass
of evidence before which, in respect to " things seen," the
hardiest scepticism would shrink back. The grounds on
which Strauss would invalidate the Gospel History must,
if properly extended, prove fatal ultimately to all historical
documents whatever.
Thus then stands the case, when considered in the only
light which is really important — the light of interest and
duty. Men, even those least prone to credulity, or most in
clined to scepticism, constantly treat as incontestable, evi
dence which is vastly less clear and cogent than that which
* These difficulties are also met by showing that they are vastly less formi
dable than those which must be encountered if we resort to unbelief.— Sec Faber
on the Difficulties of Infidelity .

16 INTRODUCTION.
authenticates the Christian Revelation. As a matter which
comes home to " men's business and bosoms" it is, as Butler
has said, "fully sufficient for all the purposes of pro
bation," " purposes which it answers (he adds) in several
respects, which it would not do, if it were as overbearing
as is desired."* To make it more overbearing might not be
consistent with a proper degree of freedom in man's will ;
it clearly would not be consistent with a proper culture
through the intellect of his heart and his conscience. Faith,
to be a true and ennobling power, must be compounded of
acts, which are moral as well as intellectual; it must be
grown to some extent as the fruit of conflict between oppo
sing probabilities and between the lower and higher prin
ciples of our nature. Religious faith, above all needs, the
development which comes only through discipline and trial.
And hence the wisdom of the following admirable hints
from the same source. Though we have not faculties to
distinguish different degrees of evidence with perfect exact
ness, "yet," Butler urges, "in proportion as they are dis
cerned they ought to influence our practice. For it is as
reed an imperfection in the moral character not to be influenced
in practice by a lower degree of evidence when discerned, as
it is in the understanding not to discern it. And as in all
subjects which men consider, they discern the lower as well
as higher degrees of it proportionably to their fairness and
honesty, and as in proportion to defects in the understanding
men are unapt to see lower degrees of evidence, are in
danger of overlooking evidence when it is not glaring, and
are easily imposed upon in such cases — so in proportion to
the corruption of the heart they seem capable of satisfying
themselves with having no regard in practice to evidence
acknowledged real, if it be not overbearing. From these
things it must follow that doubting concerning religion
* Analogy, part II., oh. V.

INTRODUCTION. 17
implies such a degree of evidence for it, as, joined with the
consideration of its importance, unquestionably lays men
under the obligations before mentioned, to have a dutiful
regard for it in all their behaviour.*
"Persons who speak of the Evidence of Religion as
doubtful (Butler says again, in another place), and of this
supposed doubtfulness, as a positive argument against it,
should be put upon considering what that evidence indeed
is which they act upon with regard to their temporal inte
rests. For it is not only extremely difficult, but. in many
cases absolutely impossible, to balance pleasure and pain,
satisfaction and uneasiness, so as to be able to say on which
side the overplus is. There are the like difficulties and
impossibilities in making the due allowances for a change
of temper and taste, for satiety, disgusts, ill health — any
of which render men incapable of enjoying, after they have
obtained what they most eagerly desired. Numberless, too,
are the accidents, besides that one of untimely death, which
may even probably disappoint the best concerted schemes,
and strong objections are often seen to lie against them not
to be removed or answered, but which seem overbalanced
by reasons on the other side, so as that the certain difficul
ties and dangers of the pursuit are by every one thought
justly disregarded, upon account of the appearing greater
advantages in case of success, though there be but little
probability of it. Lastly, every one observes our liableness,
if we be not upon our guard, to be deceived by the false
hood of men, and the false appearance of things ; and this
danger must be greatly increased if there be a strong bias
within, suppose from indulged passion, to favour the deceit.
Hence arises that great uncertainty and doubtfulness of
proof, wherein our temporal interest really consists, what
are the most probable means of attaining it, and whether
* Butler's Analogy, p. 270.
3

18 INTRODUCTION.
those means will be eventually successful. And number
less instances there are in the daily course of life in which all
men think it reasonable to engage in pursidts, iliough the pro
bability is greatly against succeeding, and to make such pro
vision for themselves as it is supposable th<ey may have occasion
for, though the plain acknowledged probability is that they
never shall."*
To these passages, so well calculated to provoke thought,
let us add one more from a contemporary and correspondent
of Butler (Dr. Samuel Clarke) : " Were there hardly any
other evidence at all than barely the excellency and rea
sonableness of the great truths of religion, together with
the consideration of the vast importance of them, yet even
in that case it would be infinitely wisest and most agreeable
to reason for men to live according to the rules of the Gos
pel. And though their faith extended no further than
only to a belief of the possibility of the truth of the Chris
tian revelation ; yet even this alone ought in all reason to
have weight enough to determine reasonable creatures to
live soberly, righteously, and godly. For is it not plainly
most reasonable, as an ancient writerf expresses it, ' if each
of the opposite opinions were equally doubtful and uncer
tain, yet by all means to embrace that which brings some
hope along with it, rather than that which brings none.
For on one side of the question there is no danger at all
of incurring any calamity, if that which we believe and
expect should at last prove false ; but on the other side,
there is the greatest hazard in the world of the loss of eter
nal life, if the opinion which unbelievers rely upon should
at last prove an error. And again, what say ye, 0 ye
ignorant men ! ye men of miserable and most deplorable
folly ! can ye forbear fearing within your hearts, that at
least these things may possibly prove true which ye now
* Analogy, part II., ch. 6. f Arnobius.

INTRODUCTION. 19
despise and mock at ? Have ye not at least some misgiv
ings of mind, lest possibly that which ye now perversely
and obstinately refuse to believe, ye should at last be con
vinced, by sad experience, when it will be too late to
repent?' Nor is this the judgment of Christian writers
only, but also of the wisest and most considerate heathens.
' We ought to spare no pains,' saith Plato, ' to obtain the
habits of virtue and wisdom in this present life. For the
prize is noble, and the hope is very great.' And Cicero —
' They have gained a great prize, indeed, who have per
suaded themselves to believe that when death comes, they
shall perish utterly. What comfort is there ; what is there
to be boasted of in that opinion ?' And again : ' If after
death,' saith he, ' as some little and contemptible philoso
phers think, I shall be nothing, yet there is no danger that
when we are all dead, those philosophers shall laugh at me
for my error.' "*
In tracing the history of Apologetics, we find that it has
been generally discussed as a practical question. Objections
have been made, doubts insinuated; and the friends of Chris
tianity have come forward to repel them, and to show that
the difficulties which embarrass Faith are insignificant when
compared with those which encompass Infidelity. In its
early infancy, the doctrine of Christ and Him crucified was
foolishness to one party, and a stumbling-block to another.
Yet it was preached, and that preaching vindicated itself
by arguments addressed to the understanding as well as by
miraculous demonstrations from Heaven. He who spake
with a Divine authority and power, spake also with a logic
so close and pungent that it often sent away his adversaries
covered with shame. So he who in his preaching renounced
all dependence on " enticing words of man's wisdom" va-
* Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, p. 454. Lond. 1738.

20 INTRODUCTION.
liantly faced every objector on his own ground, and instead
of simply dogmatizing, confounded both Jews and Greeks,
proving that Jesus was the very Clmst. In his steps trod
Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Arnobius, and the other early
Apologists of the Church. They met Judaism and Pagan
ism face to face, confiding in the power of truth properly
presented to vanquish, under God, the stoutest unbelief.
Their arguments were not such as we learn by rote in schools
of Theology, or from bodies of Divinity : arguments which
we reproduce with little reference to the special wants of
those around us. They were such as can be evolved only
by deep reflection on the pressure of sore emergencies, from
the depths of souls rich in Divine and human love, and
burning with an intense zeal for God and his truth. And
these trials of our faith, these onsets of a captious and un
relenting criticism — coupled often with a bloody persecution,
have been rich in blessing to our faith. They have put to
flight a dead and arrogant dogmatism. They have com
pelled polemics to hunt up their best weapons, long per
haps disused, and to lay aside all that are of doubtful
temper. They have stimulated research in every branch
of knowledge that can by any possibility cast new light
on the claims of the Gospel, and they thus add from age to
age new materials to the stupendous mass of evidence
which testifies in favour of Jesus of Nazareth. In this way
the enemies of Religion often do it a service more essential
than can be rendered to it by its friends.
Christianity is a Religion which courts inquiry. It in
sists, as was never done before, on an " honest and sincere
heart," as the condition precedent of all proper appreciation
of its nature and all effectual reception of its spirit and
power. But at the same time it also insists upon its right
to consideration and obedience, on the single ground of its
objective proofs — proofs which are fitted to convince even

INTRODUCTION. 21
the most unspiritual, if they only give them heed. It has
arguments adapted to every variety of capacity, tempera
ment, and culture. And there is the crowning argument
of all, which is supplied by the lives of its disciples, and
which grows stronger just in proportion as we most need
it. " By their fruits shall ye know them," is the test of
tests for a principle or a system of doctrine, and never has
our faith emerged so triumphantly from the application of
this test as in her times of fiercest trial. Her power to con
quer foes and extend her sway over ignorance and sin, her
ability to convince gainsayers and win over scoffing scepti
cism, have never shone out so brightly as when, to human
eye, all things seemed to, be against her. Then it is that
her people, purged of earthly passion, and inspired with a
divine enthusiasm, mount up as on eagles' wings, to a
more than earthly virtue. And then, if ever, our faith
might renounce all dependence on dialectics, while it de
monstrates on the open arena of toil and travail, the celes
tial spirit it breathes, and the superhuman energy with
which it is endowed. Yet even at such seasons, Christi
anity is still ready to give reasons for the hope that is in
her. Even then her sons argue, while they suffer, and at
no periods in the history of the Church have they done it
more acutely or profoundly than when they had in full
view the fagot and the stake.
The days on which we have fallen are not days of perse
cution. They are days of ease; and therefore days of
languid faith. Even among those who profess Christ,
religious service, whether in the sanctuary, or in the duties
and charities of daily life, is sadly marred by a spirit of
epicurean self-indulgence. The robust and lofty zeal which
loves to encounter foes, and is prodigal of self-sacrifice, is
now replaced too often, by a sordid spirit, which shuns
hardship, and cares only to escape perdition at last. On

22 INTRODUCTION.
the other hand, among those who decline submission to the
word of Christ, many of the amenities and graces of the
Christian character are affected. Many too, who as Deists
or avowed Sceptics, would have poured coarse ridicule and
invective on the doctrines of the Cross in a former age,
now profess and call themselves Christians. They cannot
away with its distinguishing doctrines, but they honour the
morality of the New Testament — they are willing to uphold
the religion of their country, and they condescendingly
admit, that when properly retrenched and amended by the
aid of their spiritual insight, the Gospels afford the best
Republication of Natural Theology, the nearest approach to
the one absolute religion that the world has seen. This
spurious Christianity naturally amalgamates with the
cultivation of letters and the progress of science. Suavity
and delicacy of thought are recommended. Profligacy is
represented as losing all its deformity when it loses half its
grossness. The individual conscience is put forward as
supreme arbiter of all our conduct, and the instinctive im
pulses of the soul as carrying with them a sufficient pledge
of their own lawfulness. Measuring all things by itself,
the mind is given over* to self-laudation and self-idolatry.
Every declaration of God is to be examined by the finite
measure of our understanding. Rationalism is substituted
for faith, and just so much of religious sentiment retained,
as the mind of man can comprehend and the natural heart
approve. What is to be expected of such a Christianity? " While the
gentle gale breathes sweetly, and the bright sun shines, none
of the monsters of the deep will rise to view. So long as
these shadows of Christian virtue continue the world's
favourites, this substitute for our faith will retain its cha
racter of decorum and amiability, but no longer. Let sen
suality command profit or applause, the gifted poet be-

INTRODUCTION. 23
comes the willing pander to the lowest appetites of human
nature. Is the established order of civil subjection con
demned by the opinion of the world ? The philosopher
will serenely assist in delivering up to slaughter those who
refuse to join the ranks of anarchy. Is the Church or the
cloister stigmatized by the multitude as the stronghold of
superstition? Those who frequent them will be surren
dered to violence even by the advocates of a high civiliza
tion with as little remorse as the Inquisition once immolated
the heretic. No form of faith branded as hostile to human
progress by these ' friends of light' will escape the utmost
extremity of hatred and persecution if it shall dare to be
loyal to its convictions."*
It becomes the guardians of truth then, to be on the alert.
They will be cajoled if possible — into a surrender of the only
part of Religionf which is worth contending for. They will
be urged and entreated to accept the sophistries of earthly
wisdom, as an adequate compromise ; to seek toleration for
Christianity as a favour from enlightened unbelief; to pur
chase a truce, at any price, from those who despise the law
of the Lord. Let none of those things move them. Their
province in these days is to stand fast by the old land-marks.
Are the noblest bulwarks of our Faith assailed ? even belief
* Sir Francis Palgrave, altered.
f Lessing, the poet and philosopher, though a religious sceptic, thus speaks
of Neologists :
" A botch-work of smatterings and half-philosophy is that system of religion
whioh people now want to set up in the place of the old one; and with far more
invasion upon reason and philosophy than the old one ever pretended. If Christ
is not the True God, the Mahommedan religion is indisputably far better than
the Christian, and Mahommed himself was incomparably a greater and more
honourable man than Jesus Christ; for he was more truth-telling, more cir
cumspect in what he said, and more zealous for the honour of the one and only
God, than Christ was, who, if he did not exactly give himself out for God, yet
at least said a hundred two-meaning things to lead simple people to think so ;
while Mahommed could never be charged with a single instance of double-
dealing in this way."

24 INTRODUCTION.
in the Divine Personality, in a Sovereign and all perfect
Will — in the Supernatural, as the great element in Miracle,
Prophecy, and Providence — in the Gospel, as a medicine for
diseased and all but dead humanity — in the mission of the
Comforter, and in the regeneration which he, through
Christ's truth, works in our poor souls and bodies — are these
the great fundamentals of our Faith assailed ? Let those
who have been set for the defence of the Gospel see to
it that they are not wanting. These grand verities must
be intensified with a new life in our owrn souls. They must
be evolved with new clearness and force on the conscious
ness of others. That we may feel and comprehend more
adequately the glory that there is in Christ's Cross, we
must study it more profoundly, look to it more earnestly
and confidingly as our souls' only hope, and pray without
ceasing that through it the world may be crucified unto us
and we unto the world.
We see reason, then, why the evidences of religion should'
from time to time be examined anew. The whole question
between faith and unbelief needs to be re-argued now as a
momentous issue that belongs to life, and to the most urgent
wants of mankind. The world is full of sophists, like those
who provoked the chastisement of Socrates. It contains
many, too, who are astray only through perplexity, and
who yearn for emancipation from the pangs of suspense
and incertitude. That relief the Church is bound to afford
to the utmost of her ability. She is not,- of course, to
suffer discussions of the evidences to supersede her grand
mission, as the bearer of overtures of pardon and grace
from her Divine Lord ; as the expounder of an all-compre
hending morality, which is summed up in that best of
words, Love ; as the advocate for an unreserved surrender
to Christ of all our faculties — soul, body, and spirit. But
she is to show her credentials. She is to instruct those.

INTRODUCTION. 25
who believe, also, in the nature and value of those creden
tials. Laymen, not less than clergymen, need this instruc
tion. It is their duty, no less than ours, to be ever ready
to give, to all who ask or need it, a reason for their faith.
They, besides, have opportunities for discovering the exist
ence of doubts and difficulties among unbelievers which no
clergyman can enjoy. They meet — as he cannot — the
multitudes who are tempted by the strange pretensions and
monstrous absurdities, which are abroad in this age of intel
lectual and moral chaos. At such a time the faith of many
is insensibly shaken ; and we must make our election be
tween the forecast which anticipates, and to the utmost of
its power prevents apostasies, and the tardy and expensive
zeal which devotes itself to the much harder work of re
claiming them. No man can number those whom a word
in season, from well instructed and earnest lips — whether
spoken publicly or from house to house — might have saved
from the greatest.and most perilous of defections.
It is not only, however, as we have already intimated,
from monstrous delusions or impious self-conceits, that our
faith is in danger. It suffers also from those who think
themselves its friends. Errors in philosophy, which involve
the very corner-stone of a true Christian theism, are em
braced unconsciously by many who honestly love the pu
rity and world-wide humanity of the Gospel. More than
once, within the enclosure of the'Church, and in discussions
among churchmen, has a virtual Pantheism crept in. It
was so in the case of John Scotus Erigena (9th century),
who has been compared to a sphynx, stationed at the
threshold of the Middle Ages. It was so again with the
ideal pantheism of De Chartres (13th century), and a little
later with the material pantheism of his disciple, David do
Dinant. It is so now. This philosophy, so fatal to all
active piety and virtue, has infected not a little of our
4

28 INTRODUCTION.
science. It has insinuated itself still more widely through
our literature. Who can - turn from Cowper or Milton to
some of the most gifted seers of our own time, and not see
that in respect to the great issues between Theism and
Pantheism, Freedom and Fatalism, Materialism and Imma-
terialism, Redemption and Development, their position is
too often equivocal ? It is not so much that they are open,
flagrant errorists,, as that their conceptions of the beautiful
and good are often materially tinged, and sometimes wholly
interpenetrated, by speculations which substitute abstrac
tions for persons, and cloudy dreams of a spontaneous virtue
for a stern and holy sense of duty and responsibility.
But now, as always, Christianity has most to fear from
those whose orthodoxy is unquestionable. Its authorized
or self-constituted champions inflict the deepest wounds —
for those wounds are inflicted in the house of its friends.
Open enemies it can overpower, or defy — but treacherous
watchmen surrender its strongholds^ and leave it no hope
but in God. As treason, in one who has proclaimed him
self a patriot, makes patriotism itself suspected, so recre
ancy in life or manners, on the part of those who have
been put in trust of the Gospel, causes the very Gospel
itself to be scorned and profaned. Hardly less mischief is
sometimes done through misj udgment, and a reckless de
fence. When any cause is upheld by fallacious arguments,
or incorrect statements, we are not to wonder that the fault
should be attributed, not to the incompetency of the advo
cate, but to the essential weakness of the position he holds.
Much of the same evil results from violence or insolence
in debate, on the part of. those, who profess principles which
ought to soften the asperity and rebuke the arrogancy of the
natural heart. When they can so far forget the proprieties
of debate as to substitute coarse personalities for calm and
weighty argument, the conclusion is drawn unjustly, but

INTRODUCTION. 27
naturally, not that they are mere pretenders to an influ
ence which is real and most benign, but that the influence
itself is a chimera. Against such an inference, so injurious,
and often so fatal, the Gospel ought to be protected. They
who are looked to as its special expounders and guardians,
cannot overrate the importance of recommending it by a life
beyond reproach, and by arguments that may defy scrutiny.
This is always necessary — it is rarely more so than now.
Those who hold essential error in our time, are often dis
tinguished by elegant accomplishments and by exemplary
lives. They devote themselves to works of charity. They
win respect by amiable manners and rational tastes ; they
compass sea and land to augment the treasures of science,
and swell the triumphs of civilization. Let it not be said
that with all their unbelief, they merit more esteem than
the defenders of the faith, or that their learning or their
logic is more than a match for ours who are under vows
the most solemn, to be ready "with all faithful diligence"
"by doctrine and by life" to refute all erroneous and strange
teaching contrary to God's word.
2. The Speculative Problem.
In turning from Apologetics as a branch of Practical
Divinity, to its place in a system of Scientific or Speculative
Theology, we encounter at once some of the profoundest
difficulties in Metaphysical Philosophy. Whether there is
a proper scientific basis for any of our knowledge, or whe
ther, in its first principles, it be not essentially empirical ;
whether our subjective impressions are in any case a
rigorous guarantee for our objective beliefs ; whether our
faith, for example, in the existence of the external world is
capable of being vindicated by an indisputable logic, and if
so, in what way ; these are questions which have divided phi
losophers almost from the time that abstract speculation

28 INTRODUCTION.
first began. If such questions have been mooted in respect
to material and visible objects, we need not wonder that
they have been urged still more in respect to invisible
realities ; such as Beauty, Goodness, Immortality, and God.
The first principles of Ethics, ^Esthetics, and, Religion,
stand on nearly the same ground as the primary questions
touching our own existence and the existence of the world
without. Let the ultimate reason be stated for believing
that the book which seems tc be lying before me is more than
a phantasm, that it has objective reality, and a position,
form, and size, such as my senses indicate ; — let the ground
of this belief, I say, be stated formally by any school in
philosophy, and there are other schools ready to contest
that ground. One class of thinkers propose to raise the
whole fabric of human science upon the basis of rigorous
demonstration, thus giving to physical, psychological, ethi
cal, and theological beliefs, the same character as that which
belongs to mathematical truths. Another class appeal for
the first principles of all knowledge, whether it pertain to
things material or things spiritual, to primordial concep
tions and intuitive beliefs, which are to be assumed as
above question and incapable of demonstration. A third
undertake to evolve these conceptions and beliefs, by a
process of extended reasoning from a few simple facts given
in sensation and experience.
The difference here is not in respect to the practical
regard which should be given to the various beliefs, which
are all but universal among men, but in respect to their
origin and scientific value. All admit that he would be a
madman, who should proceed in his daily conduct on
the principles of absolute scepticism; who should meet
every emergency and every incident with a negation or a
doubt. The main controversy respects the method of lay
ing, for that which we are to assume as true, a proper

INTRODUCTION. 29
scientific foundation; and we ought to anticipate that, in
proportion as questions withdraw themselves from the
sphere of our senses and of our grosser necessities, they will
become, in the same proportion, the battle-ground of these
disputes. They are controversies not likely to terminate
soon. An absolute criterion of certitude, if found at all,
must evidently be found in the constitution of the human
mind ; but the science (psychology) which undertakes to
unfold that constitution, is still immature. So long as this
continues to be the case, we must reconcile ourselves to the
same imperfections in the theory or Philosophy of Religion
which we find in the theories of ^Esthetics, Ethics, or Poli
tics. The first truths and fundamental notions which per
tain to each, will still vindicate their power over all minds,
though the extent to which ideas thus held implicitly by
all will be developed and formally maintained, must greatly
vary. The genesis and scientific value of these fundamen
tal truths and notions, will still be a fruitful subject of dis
cussion among those who claim to be philosophical thinkers ;
and in such discussions the sceptical mind finds abundant
food for doubt and disbelief. The strife of pens and tongues
which has been renewed from age to age, often with no
conclusive result, is appealed to as evidence that all search
for a true philosophy must be fruitless. The assurance
too, with which dogmatism puts forth her bold assumptions,
and the intolerance with which she pursues those who
presume to question them, is another ground, to some
minds, of hopeless incertitude. Add to these the absurd
and perhaps monstrous consequences which can be shown
to be embedded in various doctrines and systems, and we
need not wonder that minds which depend only on logic,
and value subtlety of reasoning more than common sense,
come at length to have no speculative faith. They turn
in disgust from all philosophy except as the subject of a

30 INTRODUCTION.
relentless criticism, and denounce the very foundation on
which it rests, as sand. We are to act in respect to life
here, indeed, as if our subjective impressions had objective
counterparts ; but we are to expect no rigorous and scien
tific guarantee for the procedure. This is Speculative or
Philosophical Scepticism.
It is to be carefully distinguished from Religious Scep
ticism. The latter does not necessarily reject the grounds
on which our other knowledge rests. It may merely dis
allow the evidence which is claimed sometimes for Revela
tion, sometimes for Natural Religion merely, and some
times for both. The Religious Sceptic may unite Avith the
vast majority of mankind in accepting, on other subjects,
the evidence of the senses, of testimony, or of reasoning ;
and he may hold that in doing so he is open to no assault
on speculative more than on practical grounds. The Phi
losophical Sceptic occupies a wholly different position. On
the question of the validity of all human knowledge he
boldly takes the negative, and he contends that our only
hope of rest is to be found in abjuring all philosophy ; if
not in renouncing, so far as we may, all faith. We are to
surrender ourselves to current beliefs which are perhaps
irrepressible, but we are to hold that on no subjects are
they necessarily more than illusions; while, in matters
pertaining to the spiritual world, they are least of all
entitled to claim a valid science for their support. Such a
state of mind impeaches its own capacity and the capacity
of all men, to think and reason with any reliable accuracy.
It even sweeps away every foundation on which it under
takes to erect its own pyrrhonism ; for, in reaching that
pyrrhonism, it passes through a process of reasoning each
step of which, on its own principles, must be worthless, and
yet each one must be accepted, if it would give force or
value to the conclusion in which it professes to find repose.

INTRODUCTION. 31
When held, therefore, in an absolute form, Philosophical
Scepticism stultifies itself, while it offers to the deepest
convictions and aspirations of the soul a ruthless violence.
Hence it is that, instead of the absolute, it generally takes
the relative form. It assume's the principles of some reign
ing philosophy to be the best which the mind of man can
reach, and then, by a process analogous to the reductio ad
absurdum, shows that these principles mutually destroy
each other. In proportion as such philosophy is universally
received, whatever is fatal to it seems to be fatal to- all
speculative thinking, and thus leaves the mind a prey to
profound distrust. In this state it sometimes takes refuge,
as we shall see hereafter, in supernatural aid ; sometimes
abandons itself to indifference or despair. More frequently,
however, the hostility of the Sceptic aims not So much at
the disparagement of all truths, as at the discrediting
of some particular system, then in the ascendant. Is
it one which ascribes to the senses a too exclusive agency
in originating our knowledge, he aims to demonstrate its
narrowness and insufficiency. Is it one which aims to
trace that knowledge almost altogether to intuitional pro
cesses, he pursues it with the same unsparing criticism.
If this criticism aims not merely to destroy error but also
to build up truth, it may result in substituting for one phi
losophy its opposite, or in replacing both with a system of
greater comprehensiveness. But if, on the other hand, the
leading aim be destructive, the result will be a state of sus
pense, — mainly in respect to the system assailed, but par
tially also in respect to all philosophic inquiry.
The writer then stands in such a position, that those who
read may doubt, and he himself may not know, whether
he does really hold the cheerless creed of the sceptic. Thus
it is questioned whether, even in a speculative sense, Hume
was more than a relative sceptic. He had assumed the

32 INTRODUCTION.
Representative theory of Perception as the best and only
one that philosophy could furnish. In deducing from it
sceptical conclusions, it may merely have been his object to
demonstrate its utter insufficiency, and to press upon phi
losophers the necessity of replacing it with a better. Such
was undoubtedly its practical effect. Dr. Reid, the founder
of what has been called the Scottish Philosophy, clearly
saw that, in granting to Hume the first principles which
he borrowed from the current theory of perception, it became
impossible to withstand the sweeping conclusions of his
scepticism. He therefore subjected those theories to a new
and searching criticism. He demonstrated that they rested
on mere assumptions which had been handed down from
age to age without scrutiny, and that, when they came to
be analyzed and compared with facts, they proved to be
baseless dreams. He then substituted his doctrine of
immediate instead of representative perception, and in
doing so, cut away the foundation of the most formidable
theory of universal disbelief which the world had seen.
Whenever the human mind attempts to realize to itself
a speculative science, various causes of scepticism begin at
once to operate. In each of these attempts, men usually
grasp some great truth, but grasp it only in one of its
phases, and disconnected from other truths not less essential.
They discern one great power or principle, in the mind
considered as an instrument of cognition, but in the con
templation of it they become so absorbed, and perhaps so
entranced, that they overlook some other power equally
real and important. Hence result partial and one-sided
systems of philosophy, which are often positive and peremp
tory in their tone, in proportion as they are narrow and
exclusive in their views. Such systems cannot possibly
exist long without arousing an antagonist philosophy.
The controversies between the Physical and Metaphysical

INTRODUCTION. 33
Eleatics ; between the followers of Aristotle and those of
Plato; like more modern disputes between the disciples
respectively of Leibnitz and of Locke, are specimens of what
has transpired in every age and every land that has reached
the reflective or philosophic steep of culture. And each
party naturally provokes scepticism, for each exaggerates
the extent and importance of its own principles ; each is
relentless in its animadversions upon the rival theory;
while both, by the violence with which they wage their
controversies and the apparent barrenness, often, of their
results, — suggest doubts whether all kindred inquiries be
not destined to end in greater doubts and uncertainties.
Thus scepticism in Philosophy, which by a logical neces
sity involves speculative scepticism in Theology, may often
be traced to a Dogmatic Philosophy. It is a natural reac
tion from it. Go where we will in the History of Philo
sophy, a reactionary Disbelief presents itself; now distrust
ing all knowledge, now rejecting that only which claims a
scientific basis. Thus it was with the Vedantas in India;
thus with Empedocles and Heraclitus in Greece, who
recoiled from the warfare waged between the two Eleatic
schools, and from the crude but arrogant pretensions of
earlier sects. So also it was with the later sceptical school
founded by iEnesedemus in the time of Cicero, and extend
ing to Sextus Empiricus, who lived in the reign of Marcus
Aurelius. In the four great philosophic sects, Epicureans,
Stoics, Peripatetics, and the followers of the New Academy
— in their endless debates, apparently as fruitless as they
were violent — this School found ample provocation for an
active and polemic scepticism. It is the same in more
modern times. Montaigne, Bayle, Hume, with many more,
profess to justify their speculative doubts by the errors
and conflicts of prevailing schools in Metaphysical Philo
sophy. 5

34 INTRODUCTION.
It is curious to observe the different tempers with which
this negation of all philosophy and all science is possessed.
In some sceptics it is essentially frivolous, making sport of
all truth, laughing at reason, and delighting in a Rhetoric
and a Logic which can uphold by turns, and with equal
success, each side of a question. Such were the Sophists,
who found in Socrates their remorseless and irresistible foe.
In others it is a gloomy and suicidal despair, which, hope
less of all other resources, sets itself calmly to demonstrate
that doubt and uncertainty represent the normal condition
of man's soul. Such was the school of Sextus Empiricus.
But in others it does not end in mere suspense or negation.
It revolts against Dialectic Science, but it cannot accept
a cheerless theory of Disbelief as the substitute. In
renouncing Science or Philosophy in its dogmatic or dialec
tic forms, it has recourse now to what Heraclitus called
" The Universal and Divine Reason ;"* now to what
Pyrrho regarded as practical and moral in opposition to that
which is merely speculative ; now to instincts and intui
tions which are to be regarded as the voice of the Divinity
in our hearts; and now to Revelation, which, being the
Divine Word in an objective and pre-eminently authorita
tive form, is to be helcf paramount as a criterion of truth.
In Philosophy as in Theology, Scepticism is a natural
recoil from Dogmatism, which at one time affirms what it
ought to prove, while at another it aspires to prove that
which it. can only affirm. It is also a natural recoil from
Mysticism, which would dispense with proof altogether, and
resolve all knowledge into intuitive beliefs and internal
revelations. We are thus brought to the three grand
systems — Dogmatism, Mysticism, and Scepticism —which
have unfolded themselves wherever Philosophy was earnestly
studied. These three systems represent three grand ele-
* Whatever was universally believed, as distinguished from individual opinions.

INTRODUCTION. 35
ments in the Constitution of the Human Mind, each of
which has its legitimate sphere and office. There is in
man, first, a disposition to believe, which, pushed to excess,
is, in common life, credulity; in philosophy, mysticism.
There is also a critical or logical understanding, which would
scrutinize the grounds and reasons of our belief, and which,
pushed beyond its appropriate province, may land us, as
believers, in Rationalism ; as unbelievers, in universal
Scepticism. And this holds true of Philosophy and Theo
logy alike. It is the work of the sober and large-minded
thinker, so to combine these elements in the construction
of scientific systems, that those systems shall be free alike
from blind credulity, presumptuous rationalism, and captious
scepticism. Thus, and thus only can we vindicate, in our
philosophy and theology, a place for each one of these prin
ciples, and establish through the agency of a legitimate
criticism, a final reconciliation between Faith and Reason.
To effect this reconciliation, has always been an object
among philosophers who recognised the existence, in the
soul, of an intuitional element. It has been sought, still
more earnestly, among those who accepted the idea of a
supernatural and objective Revelation. The effort springs
up inevitably under every form of Religion which claims
to have Sacred Books, and in the Christian church it has
taxed the powers of her noblest thinkers. It doubtless
owes much of its difficulty to the ambiguity of the two
principal terms employed. Where the English tongue is
spoken, the first idea which these terms probably convey
to most minds is, that the one refers only to such know
ledge as we gain through Revelation; the other only to
that which we gain independently of it. By others fami
liar with the recent discoveries or pretensions of Physical
Science, and with discrepancies alleged to exist between
them and the teachings of Revelation, these terms will

36 INTRODUCTION.
suggest only ideas connected with the adjustment of such
discrepancies. In Speculative Philosophy, as we have already intimated,
these terms are often employed to indicate the two leading
organs which the soul naturally employs in the discovery
and apprehension of truth. In Dogmatic Theology they
are used to designate, on the one hand, such truths as can
be vindicated on rational grounds, and reduced to some de
finite place in a system — on the other, those which have
no guarantee at all except Revelation. In Practical Reli
gion, again, we use these terms to express a distinction of
vast importance to the life and power of Christianity. It
is, that there are truths which cannot be entirely compass
ed by a merely logical understanding or intuitional con
sciousness; for the proper apprehension of which there must
be a special and preternatural capability, — a subjective pre
paration, — which, beginning in the honest and sincere heart
of the natural man, is taught more and more by the Divine
Spirit, till it ends in that power of discerning and relishing
the peculiar glory of the Gospel, which characterizes the
new man in Christ Jesus. It is evident that the respective
functions of Faith and Science, and their essential harmony,
will never be thoroughly established till these various
meanings are more clearly and carefully discriminated.
We have already expressed our conviction that the hu
man mind has original functions that pertain both to Faith
and Reason, and that, as well in Philosophy as in Theology,
there is a legitimate place for both. He who ignores wholly,
or in great part, the sphere of the intuitional faculty, and
attempts to establish everything by proof, is justly stigma
tized as a rationalist, because he charges reason with more
than its proper share of responsibility, and offers to it an
extravagant homage. In his blind zeal, too, he overlooks
the fact that, in the beginning of its operations, the mind

INTRODUCTION. 37
must proceed upon belief, which it accepts for the time
merely upon the strength of intuitive impressions, but which
it may afterwards subject to various critical or logical tests.
On the other hand, he who appeals only, or chiefly, to in
stinctive convictions or spontaneous impressions, is justly
termed a mystic, since he withholds these convictions and
impressions from the scrutiny which is necessary, in order
to ascertain their validity, and to discriminate those which
are merely personal and individual from those which, in a
more or less developed form, belong to man everywhere,
and at all times. The rationalist, whether in Philosophy
or in Theology, says, Understand that you may believe ; the
mystic, on the other hand, cries out, Believe that you may
understand* Both are right, and both wrong — right, in
so far as they would make faith and reason complemental
each to the other ; wrong, so far as they contend that either
is wholly paramount over or independent of its comple
ment. Philosophical Scepticism, which founds its doubts exclu
sively on speculative considerations, may, as we have
said, be merely theoretical. In respect to many matters
it must be so. In regard, for example, to the life that
now is, no man is a practical sceptic, nor even in respect
to the life which is to come, if his soul be suddenly
confronted with its more awful realities. But we are far
from intimating that speculative scepticism is therefore
innocuous. In regard to the more spiritual truths that per
tain to the soul's welfare, it is easy to suppress, and, by
degrees, almost eradicate them. The habit of doubting
and cavilling about evidence is one, too, that soon engen
ders either a profane levity or a profound despondency.
Mr. Hume's death-bed, signalized by coarse jests about the
Styx, Charon and his boatmen, seems no unnatural conclu-
*¦ Crede ut intelligas— tbe maxim which St. Anselm professed and made
famous in the schools, in opposition to that of Abelard,— Intelligc ut credas.

38 INTRODUCTION.
sion to a life so much of which bad been devoted to unset
tling the very foundations of all belief. Pliny the Elder
gives utterance to the dismal sense of incertitude which
haunted many a thoughtful mind in his day, in some such
words as the following : " What God is, if he be distinct
from the world, no human understanding can know. To
suppose that such an Infinite Spirit, be it what it may, can
trouble itself with the miserable affairs of men, is a foolish
fancy, proceeding from the helpless weakness of human
nature. . . . Man is full of contradictions — full of wishes
and desires, running into infinity, which can never be
gratified, and his nature is a lie ; the greatest poverty
united with the greatest pride."*
When minds have had experience of these horrors of a
sceptical delirium, and are brought to accept Revelation, it
is not surprising that they often attempt to put honour upon
it by depreciating man's unaided reason. In this way a
peculiar modification of scepticism springs up, which works
entirely in the interests of Revealed Theology. It has no
respect for Natural Religion. It pours contempt on all the
efforts of Speculative or Metaphysical Philosophy. Even
Physical Science it is prone to denounce, as full of unwar
rantable assumptions and profane self-confidence. It falls
back entirely on authority, now that of the Church, now
that of the Written Word, and now that of inward Reve
lations, which ought, in its judgment, to supersede alike the
dogmas of Ecclesiastical tradition and the letter of a mere
Book-revelation. It is curious to observe how this phase
of Philosophic Scepticism has, under two of these forms
found its ablest advocates among Christian Divines and
Theologians of the most orthodox school .f In many cases,
* Hist. Nat., lib. II., c. 7, lib. VII., &e.
t Wherever there are sacred books claiming to be from Heaven (as in India
and Arabia), there we shall find a corresponding phenomenon. Thus, among

INTRODUCTION. 39
it has been tne last resource of men who had previously
sought rest only in philosophy. Thus the great work of
Huet,* on " The Weakness of the Human Understand
ing," is from the pen of one who had rested at first in the
philosophy of Des Cartes, but had been driven by its de
fects to embrace the antagonist system of Gassendi. Here,
again, he found no rest; and at length, in his despair of
human reason, gave himself over to the Idolatry of Reve
lation. It was much the same with Pascal. , The sublime
but exaggerated strains in which he expatiates upon the
impotence of man's reason, may be traced to the discon
tent with which, turning from the rigorous methods of
Geometry to the Moral Sciences, he discovered that they,
independently of Revelation, conducted him to no demon
strative certainty. The same causes seem to have been at
work in the case of Glanville, who was Court Preacher to
Charles II., and author of the Scepsis Scientifica, or Con
fessed fgnorance, the Way to Science, and in that of Count
de Maistre, who in his zeal for the Church as man's only
authorized teacher, has proclaimed the imbecility of the
intellect with great eloquence in his work entitled Evenings
at St. Petersburg, &c. Thus it is, that while the disciples
of a' narrow Philosophy sometimes land in religious unbe
lief, the Religionist, on the other hand, is not without dan
ger from a species of speculative or philosophical scepticism,
which, if it were consistent with itself, would be as fatal to
Theology as to Philosophy.
the most eminent of Arabian ' philosophers, in the eleventh century, was one
(Al Gazel), who, after having displayed himself in the characters of a dog
matic philosopher and a defender of Islamism, became at last " a sceptic phi
losopher in the interest of Theology." In his book on the Destruction of Philo
sophers, he employed all the resources of dialectics to batter down all dogmatic
systems, from whence resulted, according to him, the necessity of resorting to
the revelations of the Koran, in order to avoid absolute scepticism.
* Peter Daniel Huet, Bishop of Avranches, born in Caen, 1630.

40 INTRODUCTION.
For, if the human reason be indeed utterly powerless,
how is it to distinguish a true Revelation from a spurious
one ? How discriminate the works of Beelzebub from those
of God ? Or, granting that we have a Revelation properly
authenticated, how, without reason, are we to compass its
true meaning ? The Bible contains much that is plain, but
plain mainly because it commends itself intuitively to an
inward witness in the soul which we call Reason. The
Bible contains much also that is obscure, as is proved by
the many various and contradictory interpretations which
have been proposed. How are these obscurities to be
cleared away, and these contradictions and variations (the
reproach not only of Protestantism, but of all Christendom)
— how, without the earnest, persevering, and laborious use
of the highest as well as the lowest reason, are these to be
reconciled? If, instead of the Bible, we substitute the
Church as our authoritative guide, we only complicate the
difficulty ; for more than one Church presses forward to
demand from us the obedience of the faith, and what but
this same despised and outlawed reason can distinguish be
tween the legitimate Sovereign and the mere Pretender?
He, then, who, in the service of Religion, proposes to bring
dishonour on Reason as wholly imbecile and incompetent,
pulls down the very bulwarks which he is most anxious to
strengthen and build up.
In matters pertaining to the soul, there is abundant need,
no doubt, of a Revelation ; and, to make that Revelation
answer its full purpose there is need, also, of all the help
that Reason can give us in studying its contents. The
Bible was given to Man to be, with Nature, his Educator.
It would build him up from weakness to strength by the
one only way — effort — effort earnest and prolonged — effort
that leans continually on God for efficient strength, but
that subserves its grand end only as it enlists all the powers

INTRODUCTION. 41 '
of the soul — Reason, Conscience, Sensibility, Will. Hence
Revelation, like Nature and Providence, has its difficulties.
0 the depths ! is the cry that comes up from the largest and
the most enlightened mind, when pondering over the con
tents of Holy Scripture. And so it will ever be. There
is no greater or more perilous delusion than that which
now possesses many Christians on this subject. The
assumption — that, if a Revelation be given at all it must
needs be attended with certain evidence — is granted even
by Protestants as if it expressed an incontestable truth.
It contains the very essence of the Absolutism of Papal
Infallibility. God has given Nature to' be a Teacher, and
that teacher at every step raises questions which it does not
i answer. At every step it plants difficulties in our path,
and these difficulties are seen to be useful, both to our in
tellects and to our moral nature. In the task of clearing
away one after another of these difficulties some of our
highest enjoyments are found, and some of our most im
portant advances in speculative and practical wisdom are
made. And shall it not be so with the greatest of all
teachers, even Christ ? Is He to leave nothing to task our
faith — nothing to exercise our patience as inquirers —
nothing to discipline our humility as thinkers— nothing to
develop and improve our investigating powers ? While
He solves many a doubt for which Nature had no answer,
is He to dissipate all ignorance, and invest even finite minds
with an Infinite Wisdom ?
Revelation does, indeed, promise rest ; but it is, not the
rest of omniscience. It is the rest of the confiding child
reposing without fear on a Father's wise and unalterable
love ; it is the rest of a redeemed captive that feels the arm
of the great Deliverer to be near, and all-sufficient for the
remaining toils and dangers of the way to its free home.
It is the rest of a liberated soul, that delights in beholding
6

42 INTRODUCTION.
one after another barrier of ignorance and uncertainty give
way, as it uses faithfully the powers that have been be
stowed upon it. Intellectual anarchy is a characteristic of
our times ; and it is, we firmly believe, through a proper
acceptance of Revelation that each one is for himself to
terminate that anarchy. Here, as elsewhere, we believe
that Christ is the great centre of mediation, but we also
believe that, to borrow the words of another, " it is utterly
to mistake the true character of that reconciling power
which lies in Christianity, to ascribe to it a purely intel
lectual as well as moral force. Christ came not to resolve
the enigmas of human philosophy, but to restore the har
mony of human life. If the Christian, therefore, finds a
refuge in the Gospel from the oppression of those intel
lectual contradictions which have been in all ages the
torture of speculation, — it is not because he is enabled to
see with the intellectual eye more clearly than others, but
because he is enabled to repose in the perfect peace which
flows to him from the Cross, amid all speculative difficulties
whatever. We would not say with Vinet, therefore, ¦' this
word (the Cross) re-organizes thought and the world,' but
simply this word re-organizes the world, and, through the
practical unity which it brings, prepares the way, if not for
speculative unity, yet for speculative submission. To pro
claim anything more than this is, we believe, radically to
misrepresent the Truth, and to gainsay the most obvious
and undeniable evidence all around us. A Christian Phi
losophy, — a satisfactory solution of the problems which
meet us whenever we penetrate to the depths of Christian
Thought,— is still notoriously a desideratum ; and if the
traces of it may be discerned at length by the patient and
thoughtful eye among the suggestions of a more genial, and
reverent, and comprehensive philosophic spirit, it assuredly

INTRODUCTION. 43
does not yet present itself as a clear and complete doc
trine."* 3. Religious Scepticism.
One who holds to absolute scepticism must, of course,
maintain that the Evidences of Natural and Revealed
Religion are essentially defective when tried by a scientific
or strictly philosophical standard. But, as in things per
taining to this world, he does not allow theoretical doubts
to interfere with practical beliefs, so it may be, and often is,
in religious matters. Berkeley, though he denied that, on
the principles of the philosophy then current, we had any
proper evidence of the existence of matter, wras yet a firm
believer in Revelation. So Hume, though he went further,
and contended that, on the same principles, we are without
adequate proof even of our own existence, or of any truth
whatever, still claimed to be a theist in his practical con
victions, and, while sitting amidst the Atheistic philosophers
of Paris, boldly avowed his conviction that a real Atheist
did not exist. j- In truth, in asserting, on abstract grounds,
the incompetency of human reason, the sceptic Hume and
the extreme supernaturalist Huet or De Maistre occupy
* North British Review, No. XLII.
f Said Diderot to Sir Samuel Romilly, " Je vous dirai un trait de lui, mais il
vous sera un peu scandaleux peut-Stre, car vous Anglais vous croyez unpen en
Dieu ; pour nous autres nous n'y croyons gueres. Hume dina avec une grande
eompagnie chez le Baron D'Holbach. II etait assis a c6t6 du Baron ; on parla
de la religion naturelle : ' Pour les Athees,' disait Hume, ' je ne crois pas qu'il
en existe ; je n'en ai jamais vu.' ' Vous avez ete un peu malheureux,' repondit
l'autre, ' vous voici a table avec dix-sept pour la premiere fois.' " Memoirs of
Romilly, Vol. I. p. 179. On turning to the late life of Hume by Burton (Vol.
II. pp. 141, 451-2, &c.) the reader will see still more striking evidence to the
same point. On one occasion Hume will be found denying that he is even a
Deist; on another, when walking with a friend (Adam Ferguson) on a clear
and beautiful night, suddenly stopping, looking up to the starry sky and ex
claiming, " 0 Adam ! can any one contemplate the wonders of that firmament
and not believe that there is a God !"

44 INTRODUCTION.
positions by no means dissimilar. Hence it is to be re
membered that speculative or philosophical scepticism is an
aberration for which we are to look within as well as with
out the Church.
Religious scepticism, whether founded in philosophy or
otherwise, is of various degrees. In its lowest form, it is
the mere negation of religious in common with all other
belief. In its next higher form, it recognises the existence
of a religious Power, but denies with Fatalism, its freedom,
or with Pantheism, its personality. As Deism, it rises to
the recognition of a personal God but rejects Revelation.
As Supernaturalism, it accepts Revelation but professes at
the same time profound distrust in all Indications of a Crea
tor which are presented by Nature or by Man. And we
find these gradations not merely in Christian countries, but
also among JeAvs, Mahommedans and Pagans. There are,
moreover, corresponding varieties even among those who
profess to be believers. In Judea, in the time of Christ,
we find Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, just as now we
find throughout Christendom, the Orthodox or dogmatic,
the Rationalistic or sceptical, and the Mystic or inner-light
schools. Wherever a positive system of Religion — whether Chris
tian, Pagan or Mahommedan — exists and gradually shapes
itself into a dogmatic or systematic form, there the innate
tendencies of the human mind to critical inquiry will
develop a certain amount of objection and unbelief. If
the system as held by its disciples is intolerant of dissent,
the scepticism will be concealed; but in the degrading
necessity which compels silence, it often finds a reason for
increased strength and virulence. We hardly read of such
a thing as avowed religious scepticism in Christendom
during the Middle Ages ; and yet we know enough of the
activity of the human mind in speculative inquiries during'

INTRODUCTION. 45
a part of that time, and we hear enough now of Italian and
Spanish Ecclesiastics who are Deists or Atheists at heart,
to be assured that it existed even then in no scanty mea
sure. When the Revival of Letters and the Reformation
of the 16th Century had given back intellectual freedom to
the Christians of Europe, the open avowal of doubts in
respect to Religion was to be expected. The Scholastic
Philosophy had accepted without question certain first
principles in Religion, on the simple diction of the Church.
When the authority of that dictum' came to be rejected,
many minds would reject at the same time most of the
beliefs which it enjoined. Others reach religious scepticism
at all periods, by the abuse of Metaphysical Speculations.
Others embrace it as a recoil from some narrow system of
theology, which, in its unrelenting austerity, ignores some
of the noblest powers and gentlest instincts of our nature.
Others abjure all forms of Christianity, because Christianity
becomes associated in their minds with the ferocious in
tolerance with which those who profess special zeal for
Christ or his Church, trample down all freedom of worship
or thought. Others again become disgusted with the end
less schisms, debates and oppositions of those who profess
a Religion of peace and good-will ; and others, as before
the French Revolution, reject. the reigning faith in con
sequence of the immorality of the Clergy. General licen
tiousness of manners, also, naturally favours infidelity,
because men steeped in immorality feel that they need
it as a shelter against the misgivings and protests of Con
science, which otherwise would poison their pleasures. To
conclude, we must; remember that a large portion of the
Religious Unbelief of any one time or place is inherited
from the past. This is the case with the French Infidelity
of our day, which is but a sad legacy from a former genera
tion — the result, for the most part, of early prejudices and

46 INTRODUCTION.
associations. Whoever travels for a few hours with a
Frenchman, who represents the average opinion and feeling
of France, will see that the nation at large have hardly
heard of Christianity, except as a superstition which merits
consideration only from priests and women.
We see, then, why it is that Religious scepticism holds
a place in the Literature of Christian nations, since the
10th century, altogether more prominent than before.
We also see why in Protestant countries, practising the
toleration which their principles compel them to profess,
Infidelity declares itself much more frankly and openly
than in countries where intolerance is held to be a duty.
There is little doubt that the last two centuries have given
birth, in England and in this country, to more anti-christian
Literature, than had appeared in all Christendom previously
for thrice that time. It is hardly to be regretted. An
open is better than a secret enemy ; a foe without the citadel
is to be preferred to a traitor within it. Christianity
always gains ultimately from a direct assault on the ground
of Evidence and argument. Her disciples then tax their
energies and resources. Investigation serves the double
purpose of reassuring her friends and disheartening her
foes, for it discloses her'own abounding resources, and the
inherent weakness of every weapon which has, thus far,
been formed against her. What our faith has most to dread,
is a disguised unbehef wrhich deals in honeyed phrases, and
affects, in the name of Reason, to patronize the Bible. Her
next most deadly enemy is an insidious immorality, which
creeps in under the dishonoured names of thrift and enter
prise. Industry is to be honoured; a far-reaching and
frugal enterprise is to be held in reverence ; but alas ! for
a land which is making haste to be rich; which, in its
insatiate greed, invokes the sacred names of patriotism
and rehgion; which must and will have money, not so

INTRODUCTION. 47
much to hoard as to spend ; and which, that it may com
pass its ends, carries votes, principles, and even faith in
God, to the shambles !
Thus far there is much to inspire hope. Those countries
in which there is the most of avowed unbehef are the very
countries in which there is most of earnest and practical
Religious Faith. But there is enough always, in the best
state of Christian Society, to warrant solicitude and to
excite to increased effort. In this land our faith is assailed
within the Church by Scepticism on one side, by Dogmatism
and Mysticism on the other. It is also assailed still more
by a sordid and earthly spirit which professes to despise
enthusiasm and casts contempt on the heroic virtues.
Beyond the great congregation of " those who profess and
call themselves Christians" there are some who think that
they honour Natural Science by casting dishonour on Re
vealed Religion. Others have brought from transatlantic
countries the worst elements of a ferocious impiety, and
openly profess neither to fear God nor to regard man.
There are those, again, who, in their sublimated dreams of
man's destiny, and in their too exalted conceptions of man's
rights, think little of our duties and responsibilities, and
make altogether too light of the deep foundation which has
been laid in man's soul for an active, all-pervading religious
faith. And, finally, there are many who, in their philo
sophic theories, start from conceptions of the human mind
and its capabilities, which necessarily involve self-idolatry
and the rejection of all authoritative teaching from any
objective source.
In this state of things, what is our duty ? What is in
cumbent now on all ministers, and on intelligent laymen
who bear the name and vows of Christ? To despise
danger is the way to make it formidable. To look down
with supercilious contempt on an adversary, brings with it

48 INTRODUCTION.
neglect of all proper precaution against his arts and his
violence. The cause of Revelation is doubtless safe in the
hand of God. But, to divest those who have been ex
pressly charged with the duty of defending it and of
spreading its truths over the world — to divest them of all
care and concern, and then expect that the Most High will
be its defence, is to disregard all the lessons of experience and
all the teachings of the Divine Word. God honours those
who, as his stewards, are striving most earnestly to honour
him. By. neglect, at a juncture like this, we may incur,
for'our own generation, the heaviest of all penalties — in the
loss of the Divine Presence and Benediction,, and we may
give over the fairest earthly, heritage in Christendom to be
a prey to the spoiler. Ultimately, the faith of Christ,
however cast down, shall doubtless rise again' and go forth
to reconquer the power it may have lost, and. mount up
slowly to the dominion which might have, been hers at a
much earlier day had we been faithful. But, meanwhile,
what triumphs will have been won by unbelief — what
grievous wounds inflicted on the best hopes of Humanity
for many generations — what passions left untamed — what
vice and immorality left unopposed to carry desolation into
unnumbered homes and hearts !
We have, then, in respect to the great issue between
Faith and Unbelief, our part to act, and it behooves us to
understand it well, and to fulfil it with a brave heart. Our
first and most imperative duty, as we have already said, is
to illustrate Christianity in our lives. It is a Power through
which the evil in our hearts and in the world ought to be
subdued, and the reign of truth, and holiness, and love
made universal among men. The reality of this Power
can become evident only through its effects on the practice
of those who own its influence, as compared with theirs
who own it not. No more impressive historical argument

INTRODUCTION. 49
for the Divine Origin of Christianity, can be found than
the marvellous revolution which it wrought, at first, in the
principles and conduct of individuals and of societies. Its
early history is one before which sceptics and scoffers are
dumb. Other forms of religious zeal have inspired men
with an enthusiasm which could stand firm against perse
cution and death. But none, before that which the Gospel
kindled, enabled men to rule their own spirits, to triumph
over carnal appetite, to rise superior to hatred, envy, and
malice, to burn with an all-comprehending love for men, to
attain to a true meekness and humility, and to reach the
highest eminences of personal sanctity before God, without
one touch of spiritual pride or self-sufficiency. In making
common such transformations as was wrought on Saul of
Tarsus, the doctrine of Christ and Him crucified put to
silence the foolishness of gainsaying men, and wrung from
multitudes the exclamation, we will go toilh you, for God is
with you of a truth. That renewing and transforming power,
then, has only to be demonstrated now ; men have only to
see beyond peradventure that the Faith of Christ is a living
spring from which all that is amiable, lovely, and of
good report, wells out — a force which impels all on whom
it acts to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with
God ; and forthwith they shall yield to it the homage of
their hearts. They shall not ask whether that Gospel
which we offer them, is from Heaven or of men. Gladly,
eagerly they shall press towards its waters of life, and
drink that they may thirst no more. Here, then, is our
grandest need — a new baptism for the members and minis
ters of Christ, that they may be quickened to a devoted-
ness in the performance of every good work, which shall
leave no room for doubt whether they walk after the flesh
or after the Spirit.
Our next need is a more thorough study of the Evidences
7

50 INTRODUCTION.
of Religion in the light of existing facts and necessities.
The progress of Natural Science has supplied us with new
materials for the arguments of Natural Theology. Even
the argument for Design, which, in this branch of Apolo
getics, has been most largely developed, needs, in its con
nexion with Physiology, to be amended and enlarged. A
new principle has been unfolded in the kingdoms of organic
nature, under the name of Homology, which reveals de
signs of a broader kind than ordinary adaptations, and
which needs to be kept steadily in view in reconstructing
the doctrines of Teleology. Those doctrines need, also, to
be extended by drawing more largely on the Psychological
and Ethical departments of our own nature, and by an
ampler and more searching review of the course of Human
History. They need, also, to have added to them those
evidences for the Divine Existence and Character which are
furnished in the primordial conceptions and unalterable
moral convictions of our race. We owe, moreover, to this
branch of the Evidences a clearer apprehension of the ob
jections started by modern unbelief, and a more full and
precise refutation of them.
The Evidences in favour of Revealed Religion, as con
tained in the Old and New Testaments, have been discussed
with surpassing power and ability within the last two cen
turies. Such books as Butler's Analogy, Clark's Natural
and Revealed Religion, Lardner's Credibility, and Paley's
Evidences, never become obsolete. But we must consider
that the Internal Evidences of Christianity have never
yet been largely and thoroughly discussed in the light of
Psychology. We must also consider that historical criticism,
researches in Geology, Ethnology and Archaeology, and a
rigorous exegesis, have raised questions peculiar to our own
time — questions which are not to be disposed of by a sneer
or a denunciation. We must remember, too, that it is not

INTRODUCTION. 51
every one who speaks or writes on Christianity that is quite
competent to deal with these questions. The cavils and
criticisms even of able and learned men are sometimes ex
tremely, shallow. But, in other cases, they are the result
of actual difficulties which are permitted by the Author of
Revelation to try our faith, and stimulate our researches
and reflections. They demand, therefore, a thorough,
manly treatment. They deserve to be approached with
the utmost calmness and patience, — in no spirit of appre
hension, but with a profound confidence, that, like a thou
sand difficulties which have preceded them, they are
destined to disappear before resolute inquiry. All past ex
perience proclaims that the authority of the Bible is safe.
Science has been invoked, over and over again, to convict
it of anachronisms, and of being false to nature. The ap
peal has been made to wear a still more forbidding aspect,
through the tenacity with which believers have insisted on
current but unauthorized interpretations of Scripture. But
the result thus far has been invariable. It has rebuked
alike the scientific sciolist and the biblical sciolist. The
one has been taught that his crude generalizations are not
always, or even generally truth. The other has learned
that his renderings of obscure passages, and his inferences
from incidental hints, are not necessarily an expression of
the mind of the Spirit. It would be well if the inquirers
of our time would learn wisdom from all this dear-bought
experience. It would protect the friends of the Bible from
prematurely pledging themselves to views as Divine which
are merely human. It would save the votaries of science
and erudition from unwarrantably assailing God's Word
with speculations about His works, which time and inquiry
soon brand as puerilities. There is, even now, between phi
losophers on the one hand, and theologians on the other,
an acrimony which is wholly unnecessary, and which can

52 INTRODUCTION.
only do mischief. It disturbs the serenity which is neces
sary to the acquisition of truth. It tends to induce an
estrangement which ought to be deplored by every friend
of Religion and of Learning. The Revelation made through
Nature and Man cannot be really at war with that which
the same Infinite Intelligence has made through Scripture.
To have the Students, then, of these two Revelations ar
rayed against each other, and bent upon extracting from
them opposite and contradictory readings, is only condemn
ing themselves to disgrace and disappointment. It is to
obstruct, in the most direct and effectual manner, the very
work to which they profess to have devoted themselves.
Dr. Wichern, at one of the meetings in behalf of the Inner
Mission in Germany, declared that the friends of the Bible
and of a high spiritual piety, had all the Science, Art, and
Literature of the Empire against them. It was an exaggera
tion natural to an earnest mind, bent on rousing itself and
others to a just comprehension of their duty and responsi
bility. It is, happily, less true of Germany now than it was
when he gave utterance to the remark. But it does apply
to that land to a degree which is truly appalling, though
we firmly believe that its propriety is daily becoming less.
Let it never be the reproach of the land in which we live.
Nothing could well bode worse for a nation of readers like
ours, stimulated by their institutions and their material
position to an intense activity, than to have its cultivated
intelligence at war with its piety. Religion hails learning
and intellectual force as her best earthly allies. When she
parts with them she not only parts with her main arms
for defence and aggression, but she condemns herself, almost
inevitably, to be the prey of superstition and fanaticism.
Such divorce, too, is full of peril for Science and Literature.
Neither of them pursues its work well and wisely, unless
its love of truth is purified by a Divine Wisdom and

INTRODUCTION. 53
exalted by a Divine Faith. He who begins any work of
inquiry, fearing to find the footsteps of God and loathing
the offence of the Cross, has not a soul opened as it should
be, to the light. Even when he is looking only after
natural truth or human lore, he is often in the sad condi
tion of those who, seeing, see not; who have ears, but
hear not ; and hearts, but understand not.
It is hardly to be hoped that these lines will be read by
those who are pursuing scientific researches, under the
influence of sentiments unfriendly to Revelation. If they
are, it would be presumption to expect that such minds
would be greatly moved by them. Yet we may venture
to suggest that, even where this hostility to Revelation
does exist, it can rarely promote the interests of Science
to obtrude it into discussions, which ought to be kept
strictly to their object. If, for example, the unity of
the human race be a delusion, it can be exposed by the
appropriate evidence. To adjourn the question from the
bar of nature to that of Biblical learning, and then disfigure
the debate with flippant sneers at the superstition and
ignorance of those who reverence the Scriptures, is to lose
sight of the very object professed, while it raises passions'
wholly incompatible with the rapid advancement of truth.
This course is not confined to the enemies of Revelation.
Its friends, unhappily, sometimes adopt a corresponding
course ; and the inevitable consequence is that they dis
credit the Bible, while they obstruct the progress of calm
and rigorous inquiry. We must confess, however, that we
have never, in the whole extent of our reading, met anything
which, in this respect, is so offensive to good taste and to
the first principles of Inductive Philosophy, as the elaborate
work recently given to the world under the title of Types
of Mankind. Written under the influence of avowed pre-
judices against certain races of men, and descending to the

54 INTRODUCTION.
use of caricature in order to bring them into disrepute, it
stops at hardly anything which can cast reproach on Scrip
ture. No jests are too coarse, no revilings too bitter or
contemptuous, no special pleading too perverse. It is mourn
ful to find that such names as those of Morton and
Agassiz are destined to go down to posterity, associated
with such unseemly exhibitions of spite and intolerance.
A cenotaph to Morton, one of the calmest and most dig
nified philosophers that any age or country has seen, should
be stained by no scurrility, defamed by no violence. It is
an insult to his memory to suppose that he could have
desired his unpublished writings to be given to the world,
in close connexion with an attack on the Bible, the ma
levolence of which is only equalled by1 its impotence.
Let no such example be followed. It is undoubtedly
provocative in its influence, and was, we fear, intended to
be so. But truth could gain nothing from retaliation,
while decency and charity would lose much. , If the Bible
is to be assailed in this spirit by men of science, its friends
have only to be patient. But we hope better things. We
much mistake the disposition of the ablest representatives
of Physical Science, on both sides of the Atlantic, if it be
not more penetrated with religious convictions at this time
than it was fifty years since. Many of them are more
than ever satisfied that such convictions are an essential
auxiliary and a crowning grace to their work. But they
ask that issues which are merely scientific should not be
obscured and complicated with considerations that are
wholly extrinsic, and that only tend to rouse angry pas
sions. And in this they are right. It is wholly to mis
conceive the nature and object of the Bible, as -we think,
to offer it as an arbiter in controversies which are properly
physical. It exhibits nature as it exhibits man — not in
the abstract, but in the concrete — not with the precision

INTRODUCTION. 55
of science, but with the fulness, freshness and force, which
best commend it to the business and bosoms of men ; and
it is thus most admirably fitted not merely to inform the
understanding, but also to exalt the imagination, to fire
the affections, and to constrain the will. To these, the
highest purposes of our existence, let it be held sacred.

%\t f jiikf jig of f ifigion.

BY REV. ABRAM N. LITTLEJOHN,
RZCTOE OF BT. PAUL'S CHURCH, NEW HAVE.V, CONN.

I.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
•< Thy ivnvd is Lndhr Ut. John, xvii: 17.
THE Philosophy of Religion, as a whole, is not so much
one theme as the verbal enclosure of many. Our aim
will be accomplished if we shall succeed in handling some
one of these with even partial thoroughness. The Philoso
phy of Religion, strictly defined, signifies neither the general
relation of speculative thought to religion, nor the more
particular one of reason to revelation : nor yet does it re
quire us to search after that form and style of philosophy
which most nearly accords with religion. Rather would it
seem to invite an effort so to unfold and exhibit the structure
and powers of religion as to elucidate its fitness to the end
for which it claims to work.
The philosophy of a system commonly falls under three
divisions : 1st, an inquiry into its structure or organization ;
2d, an inquiry into the mode by which such structure or
organization manifests itself; and 3d, an inquiry into its
adaptation to the end for which it was instituted. Thus, with
regard to the external world, we ask, first, what it is, next,
how it works, and, lastly, for what it works, and whether
it is likely to answer the purpose for which it was created.
Each inquiry is quite independent of the others, and yet
taken together, they cover the whole ground which a phi
losophy of nature can legitimately claim. Now it is under
one or the other of these three forms of investigation, that
(59)

fit) THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
the Philosophy of Religion must be treated. We may ex
amine the structure of revealed religion as a spiritual or
ganism : and this would lead us to inspect its several parts
and the law of their combination ; to ask, for example,
whether an external revelation is possible; and if so, in
virtue of what attributes in its author, and what capacities
in man its recipient. Or, omitting the structure, we might
inquire into the method of its operation on the human heart ;
and this would suggest questions on the theory of grace
as a supernatural influence, and on the condition of the soul
as demanding such an aid. Or, again, we might seek after
the tokens which religion furnishes of its suitableness to
the being whom it labours to redeem and to regenerate.
These several inquiries, fully carried out, would exhaust the
Philosophy of Religion.
Now, as the limits of a single discourse forbid our attempt
ing to pursue more than one of these, we shall take the
last as the subject of present remark. And we do so for
the reason that the other lines of thought stretch necessarily
into the region of metaphysical discussion. Still we would
not intimate that they are less important than the one we
propose to follow, or that they less deserve to be wrought
out. Indeed, questions of the weightiest character are con
cerned in their determination. The doctrine of inspiration,
philosophically examined, leads of necessity to an inquiry
into the relation of the subjective to the objective — of what
is in man to what is without him — of the internal faculty
to the external truth : an inquiry lying at the root of the
most obscure and knotty problem in metaphysical science.
Necessary as such an examination may be, and properly as
it comes within the scope of our subject, it is too subtle and
intricate, and, except we were to follow a process at once
tedious and technical, promising too little tangible fruit to
be introduced on an occasion like this. We prefer, there-

LITTLEJOHN. 61
fore, instead of examining the abstract rationality of the
structure and method of Christianity, to unfold its suitable
ness to the end for which it professes to work. The ques
tion of adaptation is always a palpable one, and leads to
results immediately appreciable.
It will be our purpose, then, to demonstrate the general
fitness of Christianity to its end, by demonstrating that fit
ness in three most essential particulars. We shall endeavour
to show, 1st, its adaptation to bring man under its power;
2d, its adaptation to keep him there, not only as an indivi
dual, but as a race ; and, 3d, its adaptation to elevate and
transform his whole nature.
And we would so far anticipate our remarks as to observe
that the leading inference we wish to draw from the argu
ment is this, that, inasmucji as it is granted that such a
regeneration of the ruined nature of man as Christianity
proposes can be accomplished by no human or earthly
means, therefore, if Christianity demonstrates its power to
accomplish such a result, it may justly claim not only a
single supernatural element in its structure, but a divine
origin for its whole system as well in its institutional, as in
its doctrinal and preceptive, character. We may say more
over, that we have no hope to be able to elaborate any new
evidence. Our utmost wish is to uncover and brighten up,
by the attrition of analysis and illustration, some links in
that indestructible chain of proofs which binds our Holy
Faith, at once and immortally, to the throne of God and
to the destiny of man.
The first point, then, to which we invite attention, is
the adaptation of the Christian religion to bring man under
its influence. The Christian religion finds man its natural
enemy, and, to reach his character, it has to deal with hiin
as one capable of resistance. Now, to overcome positive hosT
tility, and to secure, in its place, and, in such a creature, as

62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
man, an equally positive and voluntary obedience, is a task
from which any system less than divine might well shrink.
Christianity in its conquest of human nature might have
opposed one kind of force to another, and have presented
itself exclusively in an aspect which is now only one among
many. It might have come as a message offering only its
own intrinsic authority, and uttered as a naked command
ment. It might have addressed the being whom it would
save only as the fiat of a supreme will addresses an inferior
will. But this it has not chosen to do. Without bating
its imperative tone as a commandment, it offers itself as a
system challenging the assent of the human understanding,
and, as a form of truth, asserting its power to reach the
heart through the intelligent convictions of the reason.
Though in its heights and depths a mystery, yet it scorns
to plant itself on mere credulity or passive acquiescence :
and while it calls for faith, it is- a faith allied to and sup
ported by conscious thought. In fine, its formula is not
only " thou shalt not," as speaking to the will ; but, " come
let us reason together," as addressed to the intellect. Such
being its character, it aims to bring man under its influence,
1st, by moving his will through the preventing grace of
the Holy Spirit, thus disposing him to a voluntary recipi
ency of the truth; 2d, by convincing his understanding
through the instrumentality of evidence — thus adding the
sanctions of reason to the motions of an external spiritual
power. In the further discussion of this point, we shall confine
ourselves to the mechanism of Christian evidence as adapted
to satisfy every rational expectation of man, and to convince
him of his obligation to accept the Gospel as a mode of
belief and as a rule of life. In pursuance of this end, we
shall note the quality and variety of Christian evidence.
And, first, the quality or kind. It is well known that

LITTLEJOHN. 63
the evidence which Christianity offers, rests on probability,
not demonstration ; and it is sometimes matter of complaint
that it is so. It is urged that on a theme of such absorbing
interest the proof should be so conclusive as to leave no
room for doubt : whereas, in this case, it is claimed that
the proof is such that it may be rejected even after fair
examination. Still, the evidence offered is, on all sides,
regarded as possessed of more than ordinary cogency ; and,
on a subject involving a lower claim, as amply sufficient.
Now there are three considerations on this point which should
ever be vividly and fully before the mind. But unfortu
nately it is just these three that the objectors to the valid
ity of Christian evidence alwaj^s forget, and forgetting, arrive
necessarily at the most illogical as well as perilous conclu
sions. The considerations to which we refer are these : 1st,
that none other than probable evidence could be had or
given for a spiritual system like that of Christianity, com
posed, as it is, of appeals to the moral rather than the
intellectual nature of man ; of truths which the awakened
conscience can alone properly authenticate, and of myste
ries which lie beyond the range of the understanding ; 2d,
that absolute certainty of proof would be incompatible with
the probationary character of the present life of man.
It wTould be absurd to tie up a free agent to an absolute
demonstration on a subject involving the settlement of his
moral character. It would be quite as much in place to
urge the force of strictly moral proof in the solution of a
geometrical theorem. On all moral subjects where the will
must act, the only appropriate evidence is that which leaves
open a broad margin for the play of that faculty. Its free
dom forbids constraint, and to leave that freedom untram
melled, the proof offered must be such as to be capable of
denial. The conclusions of the rational faculty are but so
many intellectual motives presented to the will to aid it in

64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
its decisions. If these conclusions be demonstrative rather
than probable, they exclude the possibility of choice, and
hence leave the will or moral nature nothing to do. But to
that nature Christianity appeals, and the proof it offers to
the understanding is given to assist the will in choosing,
not to deprive it of choice ; and therefore that proof must
rest on probability, not demonstrative certainty.
The 3d consideration referred to as usually forgotten by
sceptics, is, that demonstrative proof, though it could be
had, would not be so absolutely satisfactory as they sup
pose. Consciousness is surer than demonstration, for it fur
nishes the axioms on which every demonstrative process ne
cessarily rests. And wherever the two come into collision,
we uniformly prefer the witness of consciousness to that of
demonstration. We are taught, for instance, on the autho
rity of positive demonstration, that a polygon with an inde
finite number of sides is exactly coincident with an inscribed
or circumscribed circle. Now consciousness laughs at such ,
a result. We do not believe Such a mathematical fiction
any more because dressed up in lines, figures, and formulas,
for it contradicts an intuitive conviction of the mind.
But though demonstrative evidence were all that some sup
pose, it would, as already observed, be as much out of place
in the sphere of moral conduct and spiritual determinations
as mere probability would be in that of exact science.
It is too generally forgotten by the assailants of Christianity
that the questions which it proposes to man, in the way of its
own authentication, are in no respect different in nature from
those which he is called to decide every day of his life. The
historian cannot write a page, the advocate cannot plead a
case, nor can judges and courts of law adjudicate upon a dis
puted claim, without meeting just such questions. They are
questions into the decision of which other ingredients besides
evidence have a chance to enter. Interest may blind, passion

LITTLEJOHN. 65
may warp, wickedness may utterly vitiate the mental pro
cess which they demand. They are questions such as these :
" Whether a certain amount and complexity of testimony
are likely to be false : whether it is likely that not one, but
a number of men, would endure disgrace and martyrdom
in support of an unprofitable lie : whether such a scheme
as that of Christianity is likely to have been the production
of unlettered peasants : whether anything so sublime was
to be expected from fools, or anything so holy from knaves :
whether illiterate fraud was likely to be equal to such a
stupendous and symmetrical fabrication : whether infinite
artifice may be expected from ignorance, or a perfectly na
tural and successful assumption of truth from imposture."*
Now, on issues like these, were they submitted to a court
of law, there is not an intelligent judge or respectable jury
in the land who would not be ready to render a verdict
without leaving their seats. The probabilities of the case
are overwhelming ; and, were it not that infidelity actually
exists among us, we might suppose that no sane mind
could, for a moment, resist their force. But alas ! when
you throw into the scale a bad heart, there is no telling
what amount of evidence will give truth an abiding hold
on the intellect and the conscience.
For this reason we regard infidelity not so much as a
conviction to be argued against, as a sin to be denounced.
It is an exhalation from a moral miasma. Its power of
diffusion lies in its power of appeal to the very distemper
of soul out of which it springs. It feeds on the principle
that produces it. Consistencies, either moral or logical, it
has none. What seem such are but the distortions of right
reason. The few sparks floating over its darkness only
number its thefts from the flaming altars of Christianity.
We may conclude on this branch of our subject with the
* Rogers's Essays.

66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
suggestive aphorism of Pascal, " God has afforded sufficient
light to those who wish to see, and left sufficient obscurity
to perplex those who love the darkness." And this, we add,
is the only kind and degree of light that God could give,
and at the same time respect the freedom and anticipate
the voluntary worship of man ; and here it is that we dis
cover the admirable adaptation of Christian evidence to
bring him under the power of the Gospel.
But this conviction will be strengthened if we further
more consider the variety which characterizes that evidence.
Christian evidence is nearly as various as the sources of
certainty in human knowledge. These sources are com
monly reckoned to be consciousness, reasoning, and exter
nal testimony. Now, on most subjects, the authority of
any one of these, clearly expressed, is deemed sufficient to
establish credibility. Usually men are satisfied with the
voice of consciousness, or with the logical result of a course
of reasoning; but when to both these are united the affir
mation of the senses and the seals of external testimony, to
doubt is considered absurd. But it is just such a union of
separate authorities, each conclusive in its own sphere,
that Christianity presents to the human mind to certify its
heavenly origin. Indifferent as to where the proof begins,
it is willing to appear before any of these tribunals, and is
equally ready to appeal first to external testimony, or to
consciousness, or to the senses, or to reasoning, and to vin
dicate its pretensions on any or on all these grounds. It calls
upon consciousness, and that informs us that Christianity
harmonizes with its intuitive convictions, and uncovers to
the light its profoundest depths. It calls upon the under
standing — the faculty of formal argumentation — and that
testifies to the logical congruity of its parts, as well as to
the antecedent probability of its structure and mission. It
calls upon analogy : that principle which carries us around

LITTLEJOHN. 67
the many-sided majesty and power of God. And it assures
us that the Christian religion is the culmination of that
wisdom whose lower forms are seen in all the complicated
arrangements of matter and spirit. And, with the same
confidence, it enters the domain of history, and challenges
the sharpest art of scepticism to detect a flaw in its claim
as the supreme fact and controlling force of the world's
record. And then, to all this variety of appeal, Christianity
superadds the visible sanction of miracles, and the most
startling verifications of prophecy.
Thus does our holy faith answer the highest conditions
of certainty in human knowledge ; covering at once, and
with a sublime fulness, the whole ground of consciousness,
analogy, logic, and history. Thus does the Christian reli
gion, by the quality and variety of the evidence it offers — a
quality fitted to a being possessed of freedom and set upon
a career of trial — a variety so rich as to satisfy every de
mand of the intellect — prove its ability to bring under its
power the whole nature of man. By these, moreover, does
it assert its profound relationship to human intelligence,
and, generally, the absolute rationality of its structure and
method of operation ; and, doing this, answers, from the
sphere of action rather than that of abstract thought, the
leading question proposed by the Philosophy of Religion.
We now proceed to the second branch of our argument,
which was to show that Christianity is adapted not only
to bring man under its influence, but to keep him there,
both as an individual and as a race. It is easy to conceive
how a system of thought or discipline might by authority,
or tradition, or naked force, deeply affect the character of
man, and yet be unable to retain him permanently in its
grasp ; and it is equally easy to see how a system might take
hold of the individual, and yet be impotent to perpetuate
its hold on the race. Hence it is of some importance to

68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
note the fitness of Christianity in this particular. We have
not to ask whether Christianity can do this, for the expe
rience of nearly nineteen centuries has made such a ques
tion needless. We have only to inquire how it does it — in
virtue of what functions and properties. And we may re
mark that in no other aspect does it tower so loftily above
all schemes and devices of the world for a similar end ; in
none is the hand of God so visibly made bare as its author
and finisher. Who can resist the conclusion to which so
many other considerations point, when he sees every other
mode of culture — every other plan for elevating our race
— sharing the vicissitudes of mankind, decaying as they
decay, and dying as they die : while he sees this system of
faith and discipline perpetually renewing its youth, and
with it the youth of the race, amid the ruins of nations and
the ashes of buried civilizations — dealing with change in
all its shapes and issues, itself unchanged — mating with
earthly corruption, itself without soil or blemish — feeding
our wasted arteries with life, itself unexhausted — kindling
on the graves of empire the flame of a personal immortality,
and stamping the symbols of hope on human despair as it
crawls away from battle-fields and scenes of prostrate
liberty and vanquished knowledge — we say who that sees
this (and to see it we have only to look about us), can resist
the conclusion that it was the Ruler of heaven and earth,
and He only, that wove the sinews and knit the joints of
such a scheme of faith and discipline ? If He did not, then
let it be told who did. Let the inferior intelligence, the
lower force, be named, that has so arched the ages with
glory, and spread over human graves, and toils, and woes,
such a bow of promise. Let the builder of such a structure
come forth and take the crown, and accept the love and
adoration of uncounted millions of beneficiaries.
But if Christianity so grasps the human race, and so in
terweaves itself as a disciplinary power with the whole

LITTLEJOHN. 69
series of human generations ; in virtue of what attributes
and functions does it do it ? We say then, first, that it is
able to do this work because of the form it assumes when
taken into the soul as a personal attribute. It then passes
into the form of a regenerating and sanctifying power — a
form which instinctively guards itself from corruption, and
carefully transmits its own peculiar type. It neither parts
with anything of its own, nor accepts anything not its
own, but goes on from heart to heart, and from age to age,
unaltered and unalterable. Christianity, when taken into
the soul as a personal experience, is neither a sentiment,
nor a knowledge, nor a belief only, but essentially an act,
an energy, a force ; and hence, as distinguished from mere
feeling, or knowing, or believing, requires of the soul the
union of its inward states and tempers with outward con
duct, or, in other words, the blending of the contemplative
with the active, the abstract with the practical, the spiritual
with the visible. Now from the disturbance, or rather
rupture, of the relations which Christianity has established
between .these issues of the soul and the world of positive
action, have sprung the worst assailants of the Gospel life.
We refer to superstition, quietism, and fanaticism. " To
rely on outward acts or outward rites, or things severed
from the inward and spiritual reality, is superstition, which
is the idolatry of the senses. To trust to the inward and
spiritual sundered from action is quietism, which is the
idolatry of the intellect, giving us meditations for charities,
and dreams for virtues. While, on the other hand, to
assume the feelings as the true and only exponents of spi
ritual realities, is fanaticism, the idolatry of inward frames
and tempers."* Superstition leaves us only the skeleton
of religion, quietism thins it away to a shadow, fanaticism
burns it to ashes.
* Coleridge's " Scriptural Character of the Church of England."

70 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
Now behold how admirably the Gospel life maintains its
equipoise against these disturbing forces. It binds together,
as mutual aids and correctives, the outward and the inward,
the external rite or action with the spiritual frame. Ever
pointing to a hidden power beneath all its visibilities of
administration, it also manifests itself through, and de
mands the use of, symbols, services, and sacraments. It
saves itself from evaporating into quietism or fanaticism,
by giving to the inward a fixed and visible medium of
communication with the outward, consisting of the active
duties of the Christian profession, and of established sym
bols and authorized memorials. It saves itself, too, with
equal success, from petrifying into the gross sensuousness
of superstition, by drawing a broad distinction between
form and spirit, the sign and the thing signified.
Now there are many sorts of life besides the Gospel life.
There is the life of the senses, the life of the imagination,
the life of the intellect; but none of them has its own
unalterable type, nor the power to perpetuate an uncor-
rupted germ. They are well nigh what circumstances
make them. It is only the gospel life, whose centre and
source are the God-man Christ Jesus, that has this fixed
type — this indestructible virtue — this quick resiliency from
corruption — this power to cast out alien elements, and
transmit itself through individuals and through generations.
It is, as it were, a fire of God's own kindling, and this
attribute shows it. Nor will He suffer it to be quenched.
Here and there along the centuries, and around the margin
of this great human camp, it may, now and then, burn
dimly ; or, like the binnacle of a sinking ship, flash out on
the devouring sea only an occasional and spasmodic glare ;
yet, somewhere on this earth, its purging flame shall be
evermore bursting out on the pathway of man.
We remark, in the second place, that the Christian n li-

LITTLEJOHN. 71
gion is adapted to deal with mankind as a race, because
it is, in a peculiar sense, a religion of light. It alone, of
all systems, gives a rational account of the origin and
destiny of man, and sets forth the tests and elements of
real progress. It knocks at the door of his narrow abode,
built on the quicksands of guesses and speculations, and
calling him out on the broad earth, and under the open
sky, tells him who made this universal frame, and why it
was made, and what shall be its end. " Come to me," is
its language, " and I will give you a knowledge beyond the
reach of crucibles and telescopes; I will explain to you
your own wants and wishes, and put an end to toils that
yield only the agony of doubt and the pain of disappoint
ment." Thus Christianity endears itself to the race, and
grasps its mind. It comes as a superior knowledge, a
higher and surer truth, and, as such, bends charitably
over its errors, assuring it of so much that is essential to
its peace, that the race cannot afford to part with it. The
race, as a whole, yearns to be educated, to be lifted to
higher grades of knowledge, and to see its manifold powers
more thoroughly developed ; but, to be educated, in this
broad sense, there must be a school and a teacher. And
well mankind know, from bitter experience, that to expel
or to ignore Christianity, is to shut the doors of the one
and the mouth of the other. A disagreeable teacher is
sometimes endured for his gifts. And so, though the
Gospel were repulsive in all other respects, human nature
is selfish enough to cling to it, because it is a lamp in a
dark place, a key to a world of enigmas.
But if Christianity grasps the continuous mind of the race
because it is a Religion of Light, so, in the third place, we
say it grasps the heart of the race, because it is a Religion
of Love. That it is a religion of love is a necessary inference
from its being a religion of light : for, whatever man may

72 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
do, God never sends light into the soul without heat, nor
plants there a thought which, if it be suffered to ripen, will
not also become a feeling. Emphatically is this true of
Christianity, which is the wisdom of God. It is as mighty
to warm the heart as it is to illuminate the intellect. It is
no mere bundle of rays, no mere shining surface flashing
here and there an idle radiance, but rather a central flame,
self-feeding and self-diffusing, warming every soul it enters
with the glow of God's infinite love. Once seated in the
hearts of enemies, it makes them friends. Discord cannot
abide it, selfishness cannot resist it; never yet did malice
create a desert or a ruin, in the hearts of men, which Chris
tian love could not people with living forms. Christianity
is a religion of love, because, where it works, it never fails
to make love the supreme affection of the soul. It lifts
man above himself to God, and out of himself to his fellow :
and hence it spontaneously asserts itself not only as a wor
ship of somewhat higher than man, but also in the sym
pathies of brotherhood. By these sympathies, which, though
a part of human nature, are yet ever a dormant part save
when animated by the inspirations of a supernatural order,
the Christian religion has softened the asperities, and to
some extent levelled the inequalities of moderr- civilization ;
bringing down the rich to mate with the poor ; lifting up
the slave to a fellowship of destiny and privilege with the
master; lighting the torch of knowledge in the haunts of
ignorance and superstition; spreading the wisdom of the
wise downward through all the groping millions ; teaching
all classes their duties and their rights, and that the doing
of the former is the only sure method of winning the latter;
following in the wake of trade and war, of disease and
want and misfortune, to gather up their victims for the
solace of a divine charity. Strange would it be if a sys
tem of faith productive of such works, and operating through

LITTLEJOHN. 73
such sympathies, should not grasp the common heart of
man and hold it through all vicissitudes ! Extreme would
be that infatuation which would induce the race to give up
the only assuager of its woes, and the only source of its
serenest, noblest joys !
We have spoken of the Christian religion as spontaneously
developing into an associative life, as gathering together
in the bonds of paternal sympathy and on the basis of an
organized spiritual fellowship, all sorts and conditions of
mankind. We would now proceed to name a fourth reason
why that religion is competent to deal with the race as a
series of generations. That reason is to be found in the
fact that it offers itself to man as an institution having an
effective power for guidance and discipline. Christianity
objectively viewed, contains thought, life, precepts, and
principles, but is an institution — an embodied power. It is
so as truly as it is a revelation. It was not in its origin,
as some would have us believe, a mere dogma floating about
the world and slowly elaborating its body out of historic
accidents ; nor a mere string of virtues and charities await
ing a chance consolidation into a life and visible discipline.
It started not only as a message, but as a kingdom set up
among men to declare a message. It began with the
functions of active governance. It came forth from the
hands of its founder a Church complete in its attributes:
with a worship, with sacraments and a ministry to admin
ister them, and with all needful discipline. " Repent ye,"
was the cry of the Forerunner in the wilderness, for not
only a Gospel from Heaven, but " the Kingdom of Heaven,
is at hand." Miraculous powers were given to introduce
the Gospel ; a visible church was ordained to continue it.
Once introduced, and it became a kingdom not only in vir
tue of an ordinance of God, but also by the necessity of
self-preservation. 10

74 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
In this respect how marked its eminence over all other
faiths and disciplines which have attempted the religious
training of mankind. They, without an exception, exhibit
the patched and halting process by which they were rounded
out from the human mind ; and by the rude mechanism of
their instituted forms betray their origin from social for
tuities, or stale enactments, or private interests.
Christianity alone evinces that its structure as an insti
tution was the spontaneous product of its own organic life.
Now this circumstance secures to it a peculiar fitness for
dealing with the human race. This will appear if we look,
for a moment, at some of the features of Christianity re
garded as a kingdom or institution. Take, for instance, its
universality ; and by this we mean not only the capacity,
but the tendency to become universal. We find both in
the very nature of the Catholicity claimed by the kingdom
of Christ. In virtue of this note the Church is so consti
tuted that all its parts cohere in each other, and so cohere
that all are the equal recipients of a common life. It is a
society whose centre is to be found wherever it manifests its
life, and exerts its lawful powers. It matters not what
latitude, or climate, or race — wherever the cross is truly
planted and a Christian fellowship properly organized, there
is the Church's centre. Thence stream forth, like so many
radii, its multitudinous gifts and prerogatives.
And here we cross the track of that huge lie of Popery
which gravely tells us that all the parts of the Church
cohere not in each other, but in one part ; that they are all
dead except they act in subordination to that one part;
that the church's centre is the Pope, and that it shifts with
his wanderings and accidents. A strange catholicity that,
which thus ties the centre of God's spiritual empire to the
fortunes of a mortal man : of a man, too, whose double office
as a religious head and a civil ruler engages him in a per-

LITTLEJOHN. 75
petual scramble after temporal goods, and renders him the
patron of usurpations, and tyrannies, and cabinet intrigues !
A strange catholicity of temper, that — to lift up one branch
of Christ's mystical body through the degrading vassalage
of all the rest ! But we only name this bastard theory of
Catholic visibility, as the naming of a great truth suggests
its base counterfeit.
It was our remark, that this attribute of universality
eminently adapted Christianity as a kingdom to deal with
the whole race. It does so, because it qualifies it to deal
with man under all varieties of character, condition, and
culture, and under all forms of social and political life.
And in this regard we must not fail to note the transcend
ent superiority of the Christian system over every other
that has ever assumed to be the religious guide of our
nature. If we examine the systems of the best of the
ancients, we find them all alike characterized by intense
localism and nationality. The Greek religion could find
no home beyond the bounds of Greece. It was a lifeless
thing away from the social usages and forms of art by
which it was fed, and to which it in turn ministered. The
Roman could not cross the bounds of the empire. Roman
law, Roman literature, and Roman policy followed the vic
torious eagle, and grafted themselves on the vanquished.
Not so the religion. Stationary and torpid, with no inter
nal strivings for diffusion, it hung for centuries around the
same altars, shut up to a round of idle pomp and supersti
tious observance. If we look to the lower and grosser
faiths of the world, we find the same features. Africa's
faith can breathe only amid barbarism and darkness. The
Asiatic systems are all tied up to their birthplaces. Hin-
dooism cannot travel away from the Ganges, nor create a
discipleship except amid the heats of a sultry climate.
And Mohammedanism, though in some respects a higher

76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
religion, lives and flourishes only by the inspirations of
violent conquest; peace is its paralysis, enterprise and
social activity its death.
It is, then, in the broad and vital sense suggested by this
contrast, that we affirm the peculiar adaptation of the
Christian system to deal with mankind as a race, to tri
umph over the hindrances interposed by geographical posi
tion, or national temperament, or peculiarities of political
organization, and to gather together as one people, and on
the basis of a redeemed and regenerate nature, all the dis
persed tribes of the world. Superior to all other faiths in
the capacity to include all men, it is also their superior in
the tendency to include them. Its power in this direction
is neither hidden nor dormant, but ever visible and active.
Its every disciple is a teacher and a missionary. Its life is
the life of propagation. It gathers strength by expansion,
and fulness by what it gives. This, in contradistinction to
all societies and polities of human device, is the exclusive
property of the kingdom of Christ. If, now, we add to this
property of Christianity as a kingdom, its admirable combi
nation of permanence with flexibility — its capacity to be as
the solid rock amid the mutations of the world, and at the
same time to move through and control them with the per
vasive force and silent invisibility of the atmosphere ; and
if, moreover, we reflect on the entireness and depth with
which, through its doctrine, ritual, and fellowship, it grasps
the intellect, the imagination, and the affections ; we shall
have before us some of the elements of that conviction
which assures us of the supernatural adaptation of the
Christian scheme to the wants of man, regarded not only
as an individual, but as a series of generations.
We shall now proceed to the third and last branch
of our subject, namely, the suitableness of Christianity to
elevate and transform the human character. We shall

LITTLEJOHN. 77
only indicate, without discussing, the several points sug
gested by this part of our theme. Among the more striking
adaptations of the Gospel in this direction, we observe, first,
that it is fitted to elevate and expand the mind, because it
encourages rational inquiry in every department of thought,
and accepts, as illustrative of, and in harmony with, its
own teaching, the doctrines of a true philosophy ; because
it emancipates the reason from the bondage of the senses ;
because of the sacredness it attaches to truth, and the
thoughtful activity it promotes by the grandeur and import
ance of the questions it proposes for contemplation.
We observe, second, that it is adapted to the affections,
because it fortifies them against the trials of the present
life, by certifying the existence of a future state, and lead
ing them up out of earthly vicissitudes to an object infinite,
perfect, and unchangeable.
We remark, third, that the Gospel is adapted to the will
and the conscience, because it provides for the pardon of
sin, and effectively aids them in the struggle in which it
calls them to engage ; because of the power of its sanctions,
and the infinite value of the interests it puts at stake ;
and, finally, for the reason that its teachings, on nearly all
subjects of human concernment, are by facts and manifest
ations in action, as in the personal history of our Lord,
and not by general rules and abstract propositions.
Such, then, is the Christian religion in its power to reach
the soul through the medium of rational conviction, and
to exhaust the sources of proof ; such in its power to arrest
human intelligence and satisfy it that it came from God ;
such in its power to develop and train the intellect and
will of humanity — a power springing out of the life it gene
rates, out of the light it spreads, out of the charity it fosters,
and out of the guidance and discipline supplied by positive
institutions.

78 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.
Such, in other words, is the religion we profess, in its
power of attestation, diffusion, and perpetuation. What
a structure ! so perfect in finish, yet so stupendous in
magnitude, so complicated yet so balanced, so special in
its operation upon individual man, yet so boundless in its
reach over the moral interests of the race ; its summit and
foundation shadowed by mystery, yet the whole, from top
to bottom, luminous with spiritual light. Wonderful are
all God's works, and in wisdom has he made them all;
but neither life, nor nature, nor humanity, nor the universe,
can show aught like unto this.
And now, as we stand on the height to which this course
of thought has lifted us (and it is only one avenue out of
a hundred leading to the same elevation), how like a thing
of weakness crawl at our feet the most formidable shapes
of unbelief; how like a pigmy's straw appears its boasted
enginery of assault; how puerile its efforts in piling up
against the base of that everlasting rock, as if to overthrow
it, fossils and skeletons, and chronological tables, and sup
posed discoveries in ethnology and physiology ! Infidelity,
whatever its polish, acuteness, and erudition, we fear not,
for any damage it may do the Faith in itself considered ;
but only for the " mad woe* it breeds in the souls it conquers.
Like the assassin, it ever courts the unguarded spot in
the object of assault. Like the assassin, it strikes, regard
less of the value of the life it destroys. Like the assassin,
it walks with masked visage and stealthy tread ; and its
wages are the price of blood. Powerful only when con
cealed, its exposure is its defeat. In the sunlight, a harm
less monster which a child might sport with, it wields in
the dark a scorpion's sting. The last and worst issue of a
fallen nature, it is also the most stupendous of sins ; for it
is the deliberate embodiment, in the forms of the intellect,
of the moral alienation from truth of a depraved heart.

LITTLEJOHN. 79
As such let us brand it with reprobation ; let us battle for
every inch of the ground over which it would pass. Let
the soul that receives it remember that it thereby tears up
the seminal principle of its greatness, and sunders itself
from the foundations of truth and order. Let tbe people
that wink at it, or fondle it, remember that every thread
woven into its texture is one added to their shroud. For
nothing is surer than that every step away from God or
from Christianity, which is the wisdom of God, on the part
of individuals or nations, is a step toward destruction.
As for the coming fortunes of the Gospel, they are easily
told. Its felt and demonstrated might to cleanse and
transform the world ; its potent mastery over human hopes
and sorrows ; its marvellous adaptation to the deepest
wants of man, must ever render it to human history "what
the Nile is to Egypt, springing from hidden sources above
it, flowing through its entire length, and, while ever hold
ing on its own heaven-descended course to a wider ocean,
sending off unnumbered tributaries through all the chan
nels of life, to give impulse and advancement to all that
contributes to the happiness and perfection of society."

Pjikopjjkal Stfjjtrrism.

BY REV. EDWIN HARWOOD,
KEOTOR OP THE CHURCH OP THE DJCARNATION, NEW TORS.

11

II.

PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
SCEPTICISM is a disease peculiar to civilization and
civilized life ; a disease which marks the old age of
nations. It is really foreign to the tone and temper of a
young and growing people. The founders of great empires
always labour in faith : in the might of their convictions,
too strong ever to be wiped out, they fulfil their appointed
task. Their aims are always positive ; they live to build
up, not to destroy : to plant, to tend, not to root out and
neglect the interests of mankind.
Want of faith can fall only upon a people wrhose mission
is ended : who have nothing to look forward to : when
their toils and battles have been accomplished : when lux
ury and amusement characterize the life and form the main
objects of the public ambition. In the hour of danger,
when Hannibal threatened the existence itself of Rome, the
Senate, in solemn session, passed a vote of thanks to Varro,
their general, because, amid the fears of the time, he did
not despair of the commonwealth. Yet, in the course of
some hundreds of years, that Senate would hasten to pay
obsequious court and to decree divine honours to the vilest
creatures ever born. Consider what changes must have
taken place in the habits, the pursuits, the life of the Ro
man, before the old Senate, in its sublime confidence, could
be transformed into a fawning, imbecile conclave, trembling
at the frown of some brutal master, and dependent for its
(83)

84 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
existence upon his arbitrary whims. It shows you the
difference between the youth and old age of a nation : be
tween a nation in the period of its belief, and of its unbelief.
You may ask, if unbelief be characteristic of nations in
their old age, can it find a home among us at present ? It
certainly should not be found here, yet, nevertheless, it is
flourishing in the midst of us, and that, too, with consider
able vigour. This would seem to contradict the statement
previously made. For we are a young race : our commerce,
our agriculture, our enterprises of every description reveal
an immense energy, and intelligence full of promise for the
future. We feel our strength, and are not slow in proclaim
ing it. But we present this curious anomaly, that, while
in all our material interests we are free, independent, young,
and fresh, in our intellectual and spiritual relations we
depend almost entirely upon the old world. We have no
schools of thought, of letters, which may in just propriety
of speech be called our own. Our opinions are based upon
European training. European thought encounters us
everywhere, especially in matters connected with theology
and philosophy. It forms and moulds the speculative mind
of the country, and, through that, the popular mind itself.
But, as is well known, the thought of Europe — its specu
lative philosophy — is largely unbelieving: its unbelief is
carried over into and lodged within the mind and heart of
this country. The spectacle presented, then, is not that
of youth seated at the feet of a venerable, ripened wisdom,
but rather led by a worn-out, hollow, unbelieving, despair
ing worldliness — by an atheistic temper, to which all faith,
whether in God or man, seems impossible. This is, I repeat,
the spectacle presented now upon our soil. The unbelief
of worn-out empires is working its way into the heart
of this youthful commonwealth, with this difference, which
only heightens the anomalous character of the whole phe-

HARWOOD 85
nomenon, viz., that, while in Europe it is not confined to
Christianity simply, but comprehends politics and political
institutions, our people have enthusiastic faith in our de
mocratic system, but are unbelieving as yet only in the
sphere of religion and theology.
It is necessary, now, that we form a clear notion of scep
ticism. It is in itself the negation of belief: it is not mis
belief, not false faith as distinguished from real faith, but
the absence of all faith, whether true or false. In its largest
sense the word scepticism denotes circumspection. The
mind looks around upon all subjects, without accepting or
rejecting them. It keeps itself in a state of suspense over
against them. It satisfies itself with a consideration of all
objections and perplexities, but refuses any effort to remove
them. It is an everlasting No — an interrogation — a doubt ;
the negation of thought under its positive forms.
Such a state of mind is, to say the least, unhealthy. We
must judge of it by falling back at last upon the unwaver
ing, ineradicable convictions of humanity at large. Man
does not believe, will not allow, that the end of all thought
is a mere negation ; that the world of truth is revealed to
the thinking powers only to awaken their questionings ;
that truths, which concern the power of man here and his
blessedness hereafter, must stand in mute, inexpressive
mystery over against the mind, forbidding any near access,
throwing no light, ever present only as enigmas or riddles.
We must form our estimate of the proper functions and
destiny of the mind by and from the sure instincts of the
mind itself. And these carry the mind onward in utter
defiance of the conclusions of scepticism. Scepticism, being
at war thus with the universal aspirations of humanity,
must be a disease, an abnormal posture of the mind itself.
Hence, the question arises, is this disease seated primarily
in the head or in the heart, in the understanding or in the

80 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
will ? For myself, I have no hesitation in answering this
question : I feel compelled to explain it by reference to the
condition of the will or heart. For, first, the course of
modern thought shows us that thought must end in the way
of mere negation, unless the will, our principle of person
ality, be felt as an essential factor in the sphere of specu
lation, and, secondly, the history of modern scepticism
shows also that it takes its rise only when a lethargy rests
upon the spiritual life of the nation or nations.
1. And first, to consider the observation — that thought
must end in the way of mere negation, unless the will, our
principle of personality, be felt as an essential factor in the
splwre of speculation.
He who occupies his mind with the causes of things, finds
himself drawn to a consideration of an original, absolute
cause ; the fountain and energizing source of all individual,
finite life. Reason, by an inherent law of its own pro
cesses, mounts to, or rather finds at hand, the idea of this
absolute cause. It cannot rest in the notion of many
causes, or of secondary causes : it must seek the first, must
acknowledge it. But philosophically, as has been remarked
by Fr. Schlegel, "this conception of a first cause is of a
totally undecided character, and admits of a double, indeed
of varied significations, and everything lies in the choice
between these various significations." It must be obvious
to you that the conception of a first cause is one thing,
and the character or attributes given to this first cause
quite another. Reason in itself is indifferent in the mat
ter, so far as any attributes are concerned, distinct from
the idea of immanent power. Of itself, and by itself,
reason may, in fact, following its own bent, take into
consideration simply and solely the idea of power and
substance. The one absolute cause may appear to it
essentially under this form. For, manifestly, whether
God be a person or a power, can be a question of no

HARWOOD. 87
moment to the speculative reason in itself, which looks
simply for the ground of things under its abstract form,
and not otherwise. If, then, it do not occupy itself, so far
as its own undisturbed processes are concerned, with the
idea of God as a person, but rather as power and cause,
the result of all discursive thinking upon the subject must
end in a negation. Conclusions must be reached utterly
at war with the convictions, the aspirations, the wants of
man as a moral, accountable, spiritual being; for a per
sonal God will be set aside or ignored, and with Him all
the moral life of humanity, which is based upon and flows
from the relation subsisting between the accountable crea
ture and the law-giving, truth-revealing Creator. Modern
speculative thought, under some of its highest as well as
deepest forms, verifies this ; it has reached this goal, and
stands in clear hostility to the ethical, spiritual view of
life, which the wants and conscious convictions of the soul
require. According, then, to my former remark, everything de
pends upon the choice made at the outset of thought,
between the varied significations attached to the conception
of the first original cause of things. Shall we or shall we
not make, from the starting point, any provision for the
moral, spiritual convictions of human nature ? Shall wTe
or shall we not allow the fact of our personality to have
its weight by clothing God with the attributes of person
ality, by considering Him as the Father Almighty, maker
of heaven and earth, and not merely as infinite substance,
without will, without personality, after the fashion of Pan
theism ? But to this result we must come if we ignore the
necessities of the moral nature ; if we overlook the ele
ments of our personality, and think as if we were mere
thinking creatures, without hopes and fears, without duties
and responsibilities, without yearnings and aspirations

88 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
toward God as a holy person. We must, I repeat, be
driven to logical conclusions utterly at variance with the
deepest convictions of our being. How then shall we act
in this case ? One of the two opposing powers must con
quer. Shall we adopt the one-sided conclusions of the
speculative faculty, to the loss of our moral being? or
shall we stand firmly upon the latter, in the full conviction
that thought must be radically vicious, which would leave
the soul without a God whom it could love and worship ?
Humanity cries out against thought which shall end in
the gloom of featureless abstractions. It is not the kind
of thought which can carry the life of man onward and
upward ; which can give stimulus to his powers of mind
and heart. It girdles him round about with infinite
nothing. Of course I must be understood to speak here of Pan
theism only in so far as it is destructive — destructive of
the moral life of man, of his hopes and joys; and in this
view of it, as pure scepticism, by withdrawing the grounds
of moral obligation, without any capacity to annihilate
the moral being of man; in a word, as the negative of his
spiritual instincts. I hav£ alluded to it as authenticating
the assertion that thought ends in the way of negation,
unless the principle of our personality be admitted as an
essential factor in the sphere of speculation.
The truth of this will appear further by an illustration
which may be deemed more simple. The common sense
of Christendom finds in man's consciousness full and suffi
cient proof of the independent life of the soul. Suppose
now an anatomist, paying no attention to his own con
sciousness, resolved that, unless he can, by ocular demon
stration, prove this, he will not believe it. We know what
the result will be ; we know he cannot find the mind in
the brain ; he will find simply and only material substance.

II A R W 0 0 D. 89
He may be viewed already as committed to a foregone con
clusion. The knife cannot detect the soul. Is there,
therefore, nothing of us but body ? Is our frame, with all
its wonderful organization, and powers, and functions, our
all ? If any anatomist say, yes, he is flying in the teeth
of the consciousness of the soul itself — he is destroying its
life ; he, too, is at war with the wants and convictions of
the soul. He, likewise, believes nothing; is afloat as a
spiritual being upon a shoreless sea. The skill and intelli
gence with which he handles the dissecting knife, the
strong emotions of his heart wThen confronted with human
suffering, his delight in the knowledge of human goodness,
his abhorrence of crime and tyranny, the ebb and flow of
his being in the presence of spiritual, beauty — all these are
but the properties and sensations of flesh and blood, because
he cannot find the soul; because he accepts as realities
only whatsoever is comprehended within the region of
sense. It would seem, therefore", that the character, as well as
issues of thought, depends upon the presence and power
of a certain somewhat in the thinker, which indeed under
lies, and is antecedent to, all thought. Its entire worth,
for himself and for the world, depends upon the recogni
tion of the moral and spiritual wants of the soul. It must
be based upon, and proceed from, a conviction of their
reality. Nothing else can save the mind, either from uni
versal scepticism, or from positive misbelief. Now scepti
cism utterly sets aside this requisition. It overlooks or
denies the real ethical constitution of man. It makes it
of no account. And here we are in full hostility with it.
For we say to the sceptic, what right have you to overlook
in your supercilious style the convictions of our moral
man ; to turn a deaf ear to the longings of the soul after
God; to refuse all exertion to satisfy its cravings after
12

90 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
Him, whom it must love if it shall ever carry with it a
sense of blessedness? Obviously, it is an arbitrary pro
ceeding to cast aside the demands of a portion of our
being, and to make everything of only another portion,
and then to avow that all has been done. For the pur
poses of science the wants of the spirit are as fully autho
ritative as those of the mind, taken by itself simply.
And the reality of that authority is attested in the nega
tions and ghastly shadows which the neglect of it upon
the part of a thinker is sure to beget. But scepticism dis
appears when the spiritual- necessities of the soul find a
full recognition ; therefore we may say that in the neglect
of these it has its being ; it lives in so far as the soul dies.
It says, perhaps I should love God, perhaps not ; perhaps
I am immortal, perhaps not ; perhaps God is a personal
being, perhaps not. It has no yes !
And here lies the difference between the doubter and the
sceptic. The doubter may, if I be allowed the expression,
have faith and yet no belief A strong conviction may
dwell in him that God has not willed His creatures to
spend their days in ignorance of Him, to wander about
hopelessly in quest of tyiths, which, when seen, are mute ;
or, on the other hand, to live as the beasts that perish. He
believes there is a truth, which he may know. Aspiration
mounts upward upon the wings of faith. Holy reverence
for the undiscovered realities glows within the heart. It
can worship : yet from certain peculiarities of mind, from
the bias given it by education, from the books it may have
studied, from these and kindred causes, the mind may be
perplexed, may question and find no immediate response ;
and thus be a sojourner amidst uncertainties, not knowing
its position, not able to perceive what it needs. Still this,
which is the lot of almost every earnest thinker during
some portion of his life, will finally pass away, if the deeper,

HARWOOD. 91
underlying principle and power continue to make itself
felt. The sceptic, however, has no such feeling. No sacred
faith beams within him ; no hope cheers his spirit. Vague,
blank, unending, unsatisfying hesitation concerning all
things spiritual has seized him. Turn as he may, he be
holds some insurmountable difficulty : think as he will, he
arrives at the same powerless conclusion. And of all this
we can be well assured, before his unbelief finds an utter
ance. In the next place, in further proof that scepticism, as a
disease, is seated in the will or heart, we may refer to the
history of modern scepticism itself. Under what circum
stances has it made itself felt? Not in the days of the
Luthers, the Calvins, the Hookers, nor the Bossuets of
modern Europe ; not when the nations, under the sway of
great ideas, have "mewed their mighty strength," nor when
they have battled with idols and corruptions of the truth
of God ; not when churches and senate chambers have rung
with the eloquence which faith inspires ; not when self-
sacrificing pastors have fed the flocks of God committed to
their care — not then and so. Under far different circum
stances from these has it done its work. Its stammering
voice has been heard, when a shallow philosophy and a
dead orthodoxy have ruled the public mind ; when John
Locke was the oracle in England to whom all aspirants
after philosophic culture turned ; when David Hume, who
carried onward the notions of Locke to their destructive
issues, became the great light in which not only England,
but France, and through France a portion of Germany also
rejoiced ; when the churches of Europe held the form of
the truth in a frigid, formal way, not seeking to penetrate
its inner meaning; when the pulpits sent forth weekly
messages, in the shape of pointless generalizations concern-

92 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
ing right conduct, or else of bald, formal, doctrinal state
ment ; when the Church of England was so far blinded as
to cast forth John Wesley — in a word, when all spiritual
life was stagnant, and a living faith driven from the sanc
tuary. It was then that doubt spread ; and uttered itself,
now in sophistries, now in blasphemies, now in sentimen
talities, and now in despairing cries. The mind of Europe
was sick and its heart faint. It had no faith — no resting-
place for the sole of its foot. In England scepticism as
sumed the form of a cold, godless, sneer : in France it
assisted at the orgies of a blasphemous court, was seated
in the temples of God, and finally presided over the fires
and fury of the Revolution : in Germany it grew melan
choly and despairing, "until at last it was seized at the heart
and strangled under its old form by a master mind, who
thought he had reared upon its ruins a fabric for all time.
Hume and Voltaire were dethroned ; the sceptre departed
from them ; but scepticism itself was not rooted out from
the heart of Europe. With all sympathy I say it, the
mystery of the Tower of Babel has been acted over again
during these fifty years past. Men of extraordinary gifts
and culture have attempted to rear absolute systems, deep
as death, high as Heaven : one has followed another only
to be overthrown, causing confusion and contention, calling
forth dismay ending in bewilderment. They have toiled
with positive aims, they have reached negative results. At
this moment no one man controls the mind of Europe ; no
philosophic system can be said to be in power. Precious
fragments lie strewed about the ground, destined indeed to
live. ' But the mind of Europe is still borne on the dark
waves of uncertainty. The demon of unrest still drives it
onward : it wanders, not, alas ! as a pilgrim, but like an
exile. Enough has been said, I trust, to make it apparent now

H A R W 0 0 D. 93
that scepticism, as a disease, is seated primarily in the will
or heart ; that it is grounded in a denial, not indeed of
any of the laws of thought as such, but of the wants and
fixed characteristics of the ethical and spiritual portion of
our being; that it .flourishes when and where these are
overlooked. Thus far we have been concerned with it
only generally. It is necessary now that we view it more
closely in its details, in the particular phenomena brought
to light by it.
What form may it be said to have assumed now in the
sphere of theology ? This is the question most serious in
its issues for us and for our children. In all Protestant
countries, then, where, of course, the Bible is formally
acknowledged as the sole authoritative rule of ffcith and
practice, scepticism comes forward with a denial of this
acknowledgment. It denies that the Holy Scriptures are
of any binding authority upon the mind and heart of the
world, and this denial is supported by a searching critique
of the Bible itself. So far, then, as the principle of
authority is concerned, it meets it in this way. In Roman
Catholic countries, it would meet that principle by denying
the divine institution of the church. Whether, therefore,
the church, or the Scriptures, or both, combined after the
Anglican method, be the formal symbol whereby the
objective authority of Christianity is acknowledged, it
receives a flat denial. But this denial does not rest so
much upon the insufficiency of each or of all these to be
an authority, as upon the antecedent ground that there
can be no authoritative power of any sort in the sphere of
faith. To fight against the idea of authority may not
answer its purposes : it therefore attacks the particular
symbols which bring that idea to a particular form — the
symbols whereby it is authenticated and embodied.
It has, then, assailed the Bible in the particular of its

94 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
credibility; arguing that, inasmuch as miracles are con
trary to experience, any record of miraculous transactions
must be false, and therefore cannot be of any validity to
the mind and conscience of man. This is the substance
of Hume's theory, which we need not notice here ; for the
ground of controversy has changed since his day, and we
meet with a denial of the authority of the Scriptures under
a new and more imposing form. A much more learned
and acute criticism than was ever dreamed of by English
or French deists, has made itself heard through Europe ;
it has penetrated the very forests of the New World.
True, it starts from a certain theory gathered not from,
but formed antecedently to, a study of the Bible itself. It
holds strictly to the impossibility of a supernatural revela
tion, to the impossibility of a miracle. It holds, still far
ther, that the phases and forms of religion, are but the
product of the natural processes through which humanity
is passing from one stage of its development to another.
Armed thus with certain foregone conclusions, which
themselves are the negation of all authority inhering in
the Bible, it has applied itself to a study of it. Obviously,
then, all statements of supernatural fact or revelation, of
miracle and heavenly sigft, are denied — denied flatly ; are
viewed as pure myths, embodying the religious conceptions
of the age in which they were written. They are either
fictions invented to give pith and point to a notion of the
writer, or have been inserted as true by the writers, who
were not sufficiently critical to distinguish between actual
fact and legend. In this way all the miracles in the Bible
are disposed of. By this process it is placed in the same
category with the primitive traditions of the rude, barbaric,
dawning ages of the world. A parallel criticism is applied
to the New Testament. All that is deemed an interference
with the natural order of the world is summarily rejected :

HARWOOD. 95
all that remains is accepted as true, iii so far as it corres
ponds with the present opinions of this criticism; is set
aside in so far as it is opposed to them. Nevertheless, it
claims that it recognises the moral grandeur of Prophet,
of Evangelist, of Apostle. It is by no means churlish of
its praises : it does not weigh its words in fear that by
chance it may allow too much weight to the Bible. It
will not refuse to speak even of the inspiration of an Isaiah
or of a Paul. It grows quite indignant over the sneers
with which English and French sceptics treat the Holy
Book ; it cannot ridicule what has been deemed sacred by
saints and wise men; it will drink of the fountains of
Scripture, and seek even to comprehend such of its truths
as, in its judgment, are veritable reflections of the One
Eternal Reason. No one book, it will readily acknowledge,
contains so much of the life and power of the Religion of
the Absolute as this. Yet, in the mean while, it will not
hesitate utterly to set aside all the statements in the Bible
of supernatural fact; at one fell swoop, by one foregone
conclusion, it clears the ground of every semblance of a
supernatural revelation, at least to its own satisfaction.
David is inspired, so also is Homer ; Isaiah, and Jeremiah,
and Paul, and John are teachers of the world, but not in
any higher sense than Plato and Aristotle. Of course this
criticism destroys, in so far as it is accepted, all the differ
entia of Christianity, strips it of its essential, historical
facts, and then tells men to retain the ideas which underlie
or are embodied in the sacred legends and mythical crea
tions of Holy Writ. No matter how positive its forms of
expression, they contemplate and reach simply a negative
result — the denial of Christianity as an objective, historical
revelation ; and with such denial, conies inevitably incerti
tude, not only in the way of thought, but of spiritual

96 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
action. It takes from the soul the only foundation upon
which piety can rest, and then calls upon men to live
piously. It is essentially under this form that the latest unbelief
has come to light. The way in which it handles the
details of Scripture, this particular miracle or that, does not
concern us here. It becomes us to see and to knoAV that
its rejection of the truth and reality of the record of
supernatural fact rests upon, and proceeds from, an antece
dent, speculative principle, viz., that an objective revelation
and a miracle are both equally impossible. Manifestly,
the controversy with unbelief cannot rest upon the letter
of Scripture ; it must be met antecedently to a study of the
Scripture ; since the statements of Scripture have neither
produced unbelief, nor afford any shadow of hope that
unbelief can be removed by it. The letter of Scripture
is of authority only to those" who recognise that autho
rity: its meanings cannot settle a struggle between two
parties, one of whom accepts, while the other refuses them.
We may employ Scripture in our contest with errorists,
within the pale of a common faith : but, mark it well,
brethren, unbelief, undei; its present form, totally rejects
Scripture as an authority for the mind and conscience ; and
at once, therefore, dismisses any appeal to it which faith
may make ; and, with that rejection, it ignores the entire
supernatural life and order of the Gospel. It presents
itself clearly to our minds, then, as a denial of Christianity
in its historic sense, grounded on the antecedent theory
of the impossibility of a revelation. It matters little whe
ther, in the hands of Strauss, this unbelief take a Panthe
istic form, or in the hands of Francis William Newman a
Theistic form ; it destroys everything like certitude and
leaves the soul without a revealed Father. When Mr.

HARWOOD. 97
Newman says, with reference to the soul's immortality,
" Confidence thus there is none, and aspiration is her (the
soul's) highest state ;" he affords a striking instance of the
highest posture the soul may reach without an historic
belief. He aspires to immortalitj-, but he cannot say that
he is immortal ; he hopes he shall not be annihilated, but
he knows not. Perhaps he shall live — perhaps ! but he
cannot, when doubt assails him, stand on those words of
the blessed Lord, " Because I live, ye shall live also."
In its completed forms, such scepticism is a manifest
overlooking of the wants and yearnings of the soul : a
search, not for concrete fact, corresponding to inward neces
sities, but only for such abstract forms as may satisfy the
mind, considered in itself: ending in notions and denials,
and leaving the heart to its fate ! It may hunger and
thirst; it may stretch forth its hands and cry after the
living God ; but the heavens are voiceless ! the Father
Almighty is not revealed !
I need not dwell here upon the evils and dangers to be
apprehended from a growth of scepticism in our midst. It
has indeed a charm for the young, for the well educated,
for the adventurous of thought and fancy. Clad in brilliant
rhetoric, adorned with learning, pursuing its way with a
certain beauty of motion, it seems an angel of light. For
it promises men a solution of their anxious questionings ;
it undertakes to open to their mind the mysteries of heaven
and earth ; it offers them dominion and power ; it holds
out the hope of destroying all superstition and of securing
the sway of righteousness and judgment and mercy upon
the earth. But, in the mean while, the real work of destruc
tion is going on. The cultivated become supercilious and
selfish, having for ever at their tongues' end the formulas
of their favourite teachers, with no holy calm in the sane-
13

98 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
tuary of the soul ; never dreaming of sacrifice, ignorant of
the life of love : the uncultivated become fierce in their
hatred of the rich and favoured, abominable and gross in
their pleasures ; denying the very being of the great God,
and living as the beasts that perish. Of its effects, I repeat,
I cannot now speak. It becomes us rather to consider the
way in which it must be met.
Certainly it cannot be by abstractions. Bald affirma
tions over against denials are not needed now ; are not at
all adequate to the exigencies of the crisis towards which
the church is now driven. We may expose the falsities
and sophistries of unbelief; ma}' drive it from its strong
holds, strip it of its fair disguises, clear away the obstruct
tions which serve it as barricades in all its revolutionary
and destructive movements ; we may even do all this, and
yet unbelief itself may flourish, may break forth in ever-
changing forms. Our labour will be useless. For scepti
cism is essentially a spirit, not simply an intellectual form
of unbelief. It furnishes incontestable evidence of disease
at the heart of a people, and we must meet it as such, else
we fail to counteract it. And how then are we to do bat
tle with it ? By the positive, living power of faith.
The day has come when we must be against unbelief
what the early disciples were; what the people of God
have ever been, in times when the cause of truth has tri
umphed in their hands. We must show forth Christ Jesus
as the real, not merely nominal, mediator between God and
man. In such an hour of distraction and strife, this will
meet our wants and the wants of the world, and this only.
For it is utterly hopeless, and betrays an ignorance of the
pass to which men are now brought, to suppose that God's
cause can triumph in this day, by the mere repetition of
the forms of divine truth. The world is rebelling against

HARWOOD. 99
those forms; we must translate them into action. Our
Incarnate Lord must be our real Sovereign and Head ; the
foundation of our hope, the well-spring of our joy. This is
and must ever be the keystone in that arch of Christian
evidence which no man can break. It is positive : it moulds
the spirit into a positive form ; endues the church with the
attributes of Christ's real body, so that she will speak His
truth, will do His work, and will move among men as a
divine presence. The logic of action is resistless. Thin
metaphysics, cavilling niceties disappear from before it.
Its tread is that of a victorious power : its thought reaches
its goal, like an arrow winged by a hand and directed by
an eye that never misses its mark. And this is the logic
of the spirit — action ! action ! action !
Let me not be misunderstood, however. I do not hold
that we must rush blindly into action because it is neces
sary. It must be action such as Christ wills, not such as
our self-will might dictate; action grounded in love and
faith ; the action of a God-inspired, a heaven-taught faith,
such as saints and holy men have ever exhibited ; the pro
duct of living thought and pious feeling. This alone can
overthrow unbelief and master the heart of the world, by
creating the conviction that the wants, the aspirations, the
blessedness of this poor human race are bound up in Christ
our Lord; and that unbelief is powerless to throw light
into the darkness of time or eternity, to infuse warmth and
life into humanity.
Standing upon this ground, our way will be clear to deal
with scepticism in its actual forms. To meet this end, we
must have an intellectual ministry, as well as one distin
guished for its piety. And by an intellectual ministry I
mean one which shall have, besides book-learning, a mind
trained to familiarity with the thought of the age ; brought

100 PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.
up to the full measure of participation in that thought ;
able to battle with it if false, able to roll it onward if true ;
able to detect its worth as well as its defects. This, then,
will lead us to the truth, will enable the advocates of the
faith to be just and candid, to move onward in the true
spirit. By these means we shall transmit the legacy, be
queathed to us, unto our children, unimpaired, unbroken,
in its rich and life-giving fulness.

it Miracles.

BY REV. CHARLES MASON,
RECTOR OF GRACE OHUUCH, BOSTON.

III.

ON MIRACLES.
He cried with a loud voice., Lazarus, come forth. And lie that was dead came foiih, hound hand and
foot, with graveclothcs. — John, n. 43.
"VT 0 one, at all familiar with the history of opinions, can
JJM fail to observe how the great questions, which involve
the chief speculative difficulties in moral and religious truth,
after certain intervals, return, as if subject to some law of
periodic revolution, back upon the human mind, and de
mand renewed examination. We find ourselves still under
the necessity of discussing, as if doubtful, questions agitated
and regarded as settled ages ago ; and, in different lands,
Christian scholars are at this moment engaged in subjecting
to fresh and severe investigation, truths held by our fathers
as for ever established among the very principles of morals
and religion. Not many years have passed since the im
pression seemed general, that we might quietly repose upon
the idea that the great battles with infidelity had been
fought through, and a final victory gained. We saw,
gathered together in the arsenals of the church, such tro
phies, won by the giants of former clays, and such mighty
weapons laid up in store, that it was almost imagined the
very sight would intimidate similar enemies from ever
renewing the attack. The battles with infidelity, like the
battles of the Reformation, had been fought, and for ever
ended !
But alarming experience has proved the folly and danger
(103)

104 ON MIRACLES.
of such exultation, and compelled the conviction that the
great questions at issue in such subjects lie deep in the
tendencies of the human mind ; so that though the elements
of strife may be lulled upon the surface, the depths may
again at any period be moved, and that, as in practical
religious character the price of safety is watchfulness at all
times against every enemy of our salvation, so in the church
there must be eternal vigilance against even those old
errors which have been often overthrown, but by which
many who felt strong in the faith have been taken captive,
even while proclaiming their superiority to danger.
It is doubtless true that each age adds some new element
to such questions ; that by renewed and earnest inquiry
some advance is made ; and that afterwards the mind rests
upon a firmer foundation, even if only because this has
been again thoroughly tried, and found secure, the tradi
tional assurance of its strength being confirmed by actual
experience, gained by new danger met and overcome.
These remarks apply, with unqualified force, to the subject
now to be discussed — that of "Miracles, with especial
reference to objections most current at the present day."
The attacks now made# upon the evidence of Christianity
derived from miracles, involve no new principles, though
they gain additional effect from the setting in upon the age
of new currents of knowledge, and the prevalence of new
habits of thought. Old objections take a new form and
dress, and borrow enough of prevailing truth to preserve
the disguise. The works of a noted English infidel,* writ
ten early in the last century, contain the essential features
in the system of onef of the most prominent advocates of
infidel principles in our own country at the present day.
That system is, in brief, as follows : "Christianity, stripped
* Tindal. f Theodore Parker.

M A S 0 N. 105
of the additions which mistake, policy, rhetorical artifice,
the circumstances of time, the errors of interpreters, have
made it, is absolute religion — the internal revelation of the
law of nature in the hearts of men — and therefore needs
no external evidence or authority to commend it."
And the distinctive idea of the work of Strauss, who,
with such an array of learning, strives to eliminate from
the Gospel narratives everything regarded as miraculous,
was the principal point in the argument of another well-
known English infidel* of the last century, and the sub
stantial answer to both Avas then written in these words :
" By the same way of management, by arbitrary supposi
tions, and adding or altering circumstances as he judged
proper, he might have proved the most authentic accounts
in the Greek and Roman history to be false and incredible.
He might, at the same rate of argument, have undertaken
to prove that there was no such person as Jesus Christ, or
his apostles, or that they were only allegorical persons, and
that Christianity was never planted or propagated in the
world at all."f
The obvious, natural, legitimate mode of treating the
subject of miracles, as a part of the Christian evidences, is
that by way of historical testimony, — to establish their reality
as facts. This has often been done, with such accumulated
testimony as to have produced the general conviction that
the sceptical reasoning, which aims to destroy its force,
would unsettle belief in every wonderful event of history,
and even the foundation of all belief in the past. Expe
rience also brings constant proofs, that a theory in the
mind, whether relating to nature, or testimony, or language,
may practically neutralize the effect of any degree of testi
mony, though in itself absolutely conclusive. Theories or
* Wools ton.
f Leland's View of Deistieal Writers.
14

100 ON MIRACLES.
states of the mind may so pre-occupy it, and affect its whole
tone, as apparently to compel the rejection of all external
proofs not in accordance with them.
Some of these theories, bearing upon the evidence of
miracles, I propose to consider.
1. There is a theory, very ancient, and yet also very
common at the present day, which, by a priori reasoning
in regard to the laws of nature and the attributes of God,
concludes against all miracles as impossible, and therefore,
from the nature of the case, incapable of proof. This is
the source of much of the sceptical spirit of the day. By
this summary process all examination of external evidence
is superseded. If a miracle be impossible, the attempt to
prove its reality is like beating the air.
The supporters of this theory are bound, by a rigid theo
retic necessity, to get rid of the evidences of miracles in
every way possible, and they therefore bring to bear upon
them all kinds and processes of reasoning.
It is affirmed, that all the experience we have of the natu
ral world indicates the uniform constant operation of natural
laws ; that by these all the movements of the natural world
are governed with unerring exactness, as if nature, in all
its parts, and through the endless variety of its processes,
were some vast and infinitely intricate machine, moving
by certain fixed, unchangeable laws. Now, it must be
allowed, that miracles pre-suppose laws of nature, so called,
and their uniform operation, within certain limits; and
they imply, and actually are, a suspension of, or variation
from, the strict uniformity of those laws. But the whole
question, whether miracles be inconsistent with the laws
which constitute the order of the natural world, depends
upon what the laws of nature are, and upon what deter
mines and controls their operation. Our knowledge of these
laws is derived from a generalization of the facts in nature.

M A S 0 N. 107
Every age adds to this knowledge, as the field of nature is
explored more widely and minutely, and the results sub
jected to more searching analysis. From time to time,
laws, which had been supposed to be ultimate, are found
to be limited, controlled by, and, as it were, included in,
other laws of higher and more general operation.
But the knowledge of these laws is simply the result of
a generalization by the human mind, made from a wide
and exact observation of the facts of nature. We know
not in any case that the suspension of, or variation from,
the uniform operation of a certain law, may not be in obe
dience to some higher law, and in perfect harmony with
the great design of the whole system of nature. Moreover,
when we have deduced from observation of the uniform
connexion between certain facts, related as antecedents
and consequents, the reality of any law of nature, it is still
obvious that all our knowledge is limited to what we have
observed, that is, merely the uniformity. That uniform
relation we call a law of nature. But of the actual ground
or cause of the uniformity, we have made no discovery.
The fact only we know. Nothing in nature gives the
slightest evidence, that the succession of facts, from which
the law was deduced, is the result of any inherent or effi
cient power in nature, by which the facts were made so
to succeed each other. We speak indeed of the laws of
nature, as if inherent in nature. But this mode of speech
is merely an accommodation to popular impressions.
Strictly speaking, it rests upon no actual knowledge. On
the contrary, the more searching the examination of nature,
and the changes in it, the stronger does the conclusion
become, that nothing like an inherent, efficient power to
produce those changes, can be discovered in nature. The
substance, thus ever changing, is, in itself, passive, inert,
and unintelligent. The changes indicate active, intelligent

108 ON MIRACLES.
power. Those changes -must, therefore, be governed by a
power separate from, and above nature. The law which
the changes indicate is not any real power in the substance
changing, by which the successive facts observed are linked
together by a necessary connexion ; but is simply the law
or rule by which a real power above nature operates in and
through it. " Forasmuch as the works of nature are no
less exact, than if she did both behold and study how to
express some absolute shape or mirror always present
before her; yea, such dexterity and skill appeareth, that
no intellectual creature in the world were able by capacity
to do that which nature doth without capacity and know
ledge ; it cannot be, but nature hath some director of infi
nite knowledge to guide her in all her ways. Who is the
guide of nature, but only the God of nature ? Those
things which nature is said to do, are by Divine art pro
found, using nature as an instrument; nor is there any
such art or knowledge divine in nature herself working,
but in the guide of nature's work."*
" The grandest discovery ever made in natural philoso
phy, was that of the law of gravity, which opens such a
view of our planetary system that it looks like something
Divine. But the author of the discovery was perfectly
aware that he discovered no real cause, but only the law or
rule, according to which the unknown cause operates. The
haws of nature are the rules according to which the effects
are produced, but there must be a cause which operates
according to those rules. Upon the theatre of nature we
see innumerable effects, which require an agent endowed
with active power."f The same truth is still more emphati
cally expressed by another and later writer of high autho
rity. " Whence comes its (nature's) countless changes, its
* Hooker. Eccles. Pol. Book 1, Sec. 3.
t Reid. " Active Powers"— Essay 1, Ch. 6.

M A SON. 109
incessant activity and life ? It is no answer to this ques
tion to say, that events constantly succeed each other in
regular sequence, or even to give a name to that order, and
call it law, or physical cause. You cannot believe, you
cannot even imagine, that any one of these events takes
place without a real cause, an efficient energy, without
which it were not."*
The laws of nature are, then, simply the laws by which
the great Author and Ruler of nature works after the
counsel of his own will. That will, directed by infinite
wisdom, established and sustained those laws. They may
be suspended, if consistent with the eternal counsel of God
in creation. The alleged impossibility of such an event
cannot be inferred from any uniformity in the order of
nature, since this is directly dependent upon the free and
sovereign will of God. It can be maintained only by
proving that a miracle is inconsistent with the final purpose
of God in the laws of nature. And who can pretend to such
knowledge of this as will enable him to pronounce a miracle
impossible ? Who can even affirm, with knowledge, that
the temporary suspension of a natural law, so called, may
not be in perfect accordance with the Divine plan which
governed the Almighty in the creation of the world ? God
is immutable and omniscient, and will fulfil His eternal
purpose in creation. But that purpose is inscrutable ; and
no man can know that a miracle was not in the original
counsel of God, and in accordance with the eternal plan,
which all natural laws subserve. It may have been
ordained for a higher end than the strict uniformity of the
order of nature could compass. The laws of nature may
be under that law which rendered the miracle necessary.
The final cause of the uniformity itself of the movements
* Bowen. Lowell Lectures, p. 130.

110 ON MIRACLES.
of the natural world, may be the great moral ends, which
the miraculous suspension of that uniformity is designed,
and alone adapted, to secure. Some of these we can dis
cover by observation of the effects of miracles. They are
a most impressive teacher, more so than even the uniform
order of nature, that there is a great personal cause, above
nature, who site upon the throne of the universe. They
are a powerful check upon that tendency to rely upon
second causes, and to forget God and His providence, to
which man is prone to yield even through his experience of
the uniformity of the order of nature.
A divine interposition, arresting the movements of
nature, like that of the deluge, or the destruction of the
cities of the plain ; or that on Carmel, when the authority
of Elijah was confirmed, and the priests of Baal con
founded ; or that when Daniel was saved from the power
of the flames, has an effect in convincing men of the being
and power, justice and retributive judgment of God, even,
perhaps, greater than all his glory, seen in the uniform
succession of natural events.
Let it not be said, then, that a miracle is impossible,
because it is a violation of the laws of nature, or of the
divine immutability. It is a violation of no law, natural
or moral. A suspension of, or deviation from, the strict
uniformity of the order of the divine operation in nature,
it is, in obedience to the divine will, to fulfil the great,
original law of His eternal purpose.
2. The objection to miracles, on the ground of the strict
uniformity of the order of nature, is made under another
form, which derives great influence from circumstances
of the age. Such have been the amazing advances of
science, and the results developed in its progress ; so many
things have been brought to light by its researches, which
preceding generations would have pronounced impossible,

MASON. Ill
and yet which are evidently in perfect harmony with the
known laws of nature ; that the impression is awakened
or confirmed in many minds, disposed to sceptical doubt,
that even the miracles recorded in the Scriptures may be
traced to some natural law yet to be discovered. Nature
also is full of wonders which obey no discoverable law, and
which minds of a credulous tendency are inclined to regard
as supernatural. The most astounding facts, from time to
time, come under the observation of honest and discerning
men, for which, it is affirmed, no experience of the laws
of nature will account. Shall we, therefore, regard these
as miraculous ; or not rather distrust our knowledge and
sagacity, and patiently wait, till time, giving opportunity
for wider, closer, and more scientific observation, shall dis
close the mystery, and reduce these wonderful facts to
some law, either already known, or yet to be ascertained?
Certainly so, will be the reply. Why, then, may not the
same be said of all things regarded as miraculous ?
Such is a mode of reasoning now common, or gradually
taking form in many minds. Its influence is felt in weak
ening the effect of the appeal to miracles, as evidence of
the divine authority of Christianity. It tends either to
confirm that credulity, which destroys the value of the
miracle, as a distinctive and appropriate evidence of reve
lation, or that scepticism which doubts its reality.
Now, all such reasoning rests upon the facts of our igno
rance of the limits of what is possible within the laws of
nature, and of the inexplicable character of many things
which come under observation. But, does it follow that,
because I am ignorant of the utmost limits of the possible
within the domain of natural laws, and whether certain
observed facts are also within their range, that there are
no instances in which it may be perfectly evident that
those limits are exceeded, and no facts which I, can be sure

112 ON MIRACLES.
cannot be accounted for by any natural law. We may be
doubtful in many cases, and yet have reason for entire cer
tainty in others. There may be such a vast and palpable
disproportion between an effect, and any result of the
operation of natural laws, as to be a perfect proof of a
miraculous work. It may be doubtful to many, whether
the magicians of Egypt, who attempted counter works to
those of Moses, were permitted to perform actual mira
cles ; but it can never be doubted by any who allow the
fact, that when Moses stretched out his rod, and all the
waters in Egypt — in their streams, their rivers, their ponds,
their pools — thereupon became blood, that a law of nature
was suspended, and a change was produced, which was not
in accordance with any such law; or that, when he
stretched his hand towards heaven, and from that moment,
for three successive days, thick darkness covered all the
land of Egypt, the effect was miraculous. The laws of
nature will indeed account for many most wonderful things,
which for a long period remained unexplained ; and many
strange and mysterious events may now occur, for which
no principle of science will account ; and it still be as true
now, as it was eighteen centuries ago, that if a person,
unquestionably dead, should be restored to life, there would
be a miracle of divine power. No suggestion about the
marvels of science, the possible effects of occult powers
of nature, or of the strange and unaccountable agencies at
work among men, could in the least degree invalidate the
conclusion, that there is a wide and palpable distinction
between all such effects, and the restoration of a dead man
to life.
The same observation may be applied to the case of
many other miracles of the Saviour; such as restoring
sight to those born blind, and hearing to the deaf; the
vigour and freshness of health to the paralytics and lepers,

MASON. 113
by a word or a touch; or the feeding of five thousand with
five loaves and two small fishes, so that all had enough,
and yet twelve baskets of fragments remained. If these
facts be admitted, the certainty of their miraculous nature
can be affected by no reasoning such as Ave have described.
The miracles attributed to our blessed Saviour, Avith few
exceptions, do so manifestly transcend all effects produced
in accordance with natural laws ; are so entirely discon
nected with any suspicious circumstances or processes
of art ; as to make the wddest distinction betAveen them,
and any cases in which the power, to Avhich a peculiar and
wonderful effect must be attributed, is doubtful, or incapa
ble of being ascertained.
3. There is another point, which, in this connexion,
should receive attention. Because miracles are possible, and
consistent Avith the divine perfections, and have been per
formed to fulfil the purposes of divine AArisdom and mercy
in creation and redemption, it cannot, therefore, be assumed
that there is an obligation even to examine every claim,
Avhich may be made to the possession of supernatural
poAvers, on the ground of the production of inexplicable
Avorks. If such Avere the case, eA^ery accomplished juggler,
or person deeply versed in the mysteries of natural science,
miolit demand the solemn and continued attention of man-
kind in general, until the secret power at Avork could be
detected. While, upon such a supposition, miracles Avould
be utterly Aralueless as a means of conviction, because of
their supposed frequency ; so, also, such works are unde
serving attention — as presenting claim to supernatural
origin — on account of their comparatively trivial and
unimportant ends. As the stability of nature is the
appointment of a God of infinite perfections, and upon it
most momentous interests of mankind depend, that very
trust in the poAver and providence of God, which leads to
15

114 ON MIRACLES.
the conviction of the possibility of miracles, and their
effect, also assures us, that a suspension of the order of
nature would be permitted only for the greatest and most
elevated ends, and Avhen the necessity for such interposition
was exceedingly urgent. It is an argument of great weight
— preparatory to the direct examination of testimony in
favour of the reality of the miracles of Christianity — that
it can be shoAvn that the end, professedly designed by
them, Avas worthy of the infinite God, and of importance
and necessity to mankind, beyond the power of language
to express ; that, when Ave contemplate the fruitless specu
lations of the wisest of mankind, in regard to those great
subjects most closely connected Avith the character and
all the highest hopes of man, and the actual state of deep
darkness and guilt which, before Christ came, covered the
Avhole AA*orld, we can show the supreme necessity of a reve
lation from God by direct interposition. That miracles
Avere, in themselves, worthy of their divine author, and for
an end in harmony with his perfections, and essential to
the happiness and holiness of mankind, can be made evi
dent. And when the contrary of all this is apparent in
regard to Avorks Avhich jnay demand attention as superna
tural, the absence of any great and worthy end, renders it
alike the dictate of common sense and reverence for God,
to withhold attention from such claims.
4. Attention will noAv be directed to another theory, by
which much of the scepticism of the day in regard to mira
cles is fostered, and by which both their reality and value
are discredited. The most prominent advocate* of this
theory in this country, who takes the title of a Christian
minister, Avhile he disparages and ridicules the positive
institutions of the Gospel, thus presents, in substance, his
system : — * Theodore Parker.

MASON. 115
" All that is true in Christianity is a truth of absolute
religion. The truths of absolute religion are easily known,
for they are matters of > intuition. Absolute religion an-
SAvers exactly to the religious sentiment in man. This
religion is eternally true, before revelation, after revelation.
Jesus fell back on the moral and religious sentiment in
man, uttered their oracles as the Infinite spoke through
them, taught absolute religion, absolute morality, nothing
less, nothing more. Thus, Christianity being eternally
true, is a matter of direct and positiA'e knowledge, dependent
on no outward testimony. Its great doctrines and precepts
were known long before Christ. The only authority of
Christianity is its truth, and miracles can add nothing
to it."
Such is a theory which has great influence Avith many.
It has no claim to originality, but is a repetition of very
old infidel reasoning. It has, howeArer, coloured the writ
ings of some who do not doubt or deny the fact of miracles,
but who hold them to be of little importance in connexion
AA'ith religious truth.
In all the statement which we have given there is no
denial of Christianity, according to the writer's view of it.
He professes to be a Christian. But Christianity, according
to his theory, is just so much of the teaching of the New
Testament as corresponds with his standard of absolute
religion. The ideal standard is made the measure of the
actual truth in Christianity. So much of the Saviour's
teaching as he finds accordant with his ideal of absolute
religion is true, and no more. The only authority of Christ
and his Gospel is, then, to be sought in the intuitive sen
timent or judgment of mankind.
But hoAV do I knoAV that those sentiments, or ideas,
AA'hich I regard as intuitively determined to be absolute
truth, are indeed the intuitive sentiments of man ? How

116 ON MIRACLES.
can any man, " sunk in ignorance, precipitated in sin,"
arrive at the assurance that his supposed intuitive impres
sions in regard to the most elevated moral and spiritual
truth are in reality such ?
If man were perfectly pure and holy, his mind and heart
unbiassed and uncorrupted by sin, the case might be differ
ent. But that his actual state, as weak and unholy, cor
rupted throughout by sin, should not distort his moral
vision, is impossible. The idea of Avhat is called absolute
religion, supposes at least a being who retains the original
moral sentiments of human nature in their purity. Will
the author of that statement maintain that a Hottentot, or
a Thug, who practises habitually the vilest Arices, and com
mits, without a scruple, the most awful crimes, even with
a conviction of duty, can or does know, by intuition, abso
lute moral and religious truth, that which makes up
Christianity in his view ? Is it possible, in view of the
actual state of such a being, that he should form the con
ception of any such perfect standard of absolute truth?
Perhaps there may remain in all men some vague, indis
tinct impression of the being of one God. But can it be
maintained, that the intuitive impressions of all men reveal
to them the sublime moral 'perfections of that Being whom
they are to love and worship ? Can the Hottentot, in his
degraded, besotted state, know, by an intuitive process, the
nature of God, and the worship acceptable to Him ? Will
not his conception of the Divine Being be affected by his
own moral state ?
The sentiment or idea is of a moral kind, and must par
take of the defects of the moral vision. Can his intuitive
impression of the perfections of God, and that of a Christian,
correspond, and if not, how can it accord with absolute
truth ? It is an observation as true as it is common, that
the infidel borroAvs his ideas of God and right morals from

MASON. 117
the Gospel, and then uses them to weaken its authority.
He cannot rightly argue that, because he finds such ideas
in his mind, they are therefore intuitive, and absolutely
self-evident to mankind.
There are, I repeat, probably in all men, some general,
indistinct impressions of an intelligent poAver above nature.
But whether that power be one personal being or many ;
and what moral attributes belong to such being or beings;
unaided human reason has never made known to man.
Noav the love and worship of any being must be attended
Avith entirely different moral effects, according to the differ
ent impressions entertained of his nature, character, and
will. And the very love and worship of a being may be
the source of increased moral corruption. With great truth
it has been observed, "we are so accustomed to contemplate
God as invested with all those paternal and perfect moral
attributes with which Christianity clothes Him; to see
Him in that attitude of holy sovereignty and paternal
goodness in which it represents Him; that this perfect
combination of moral attributes, this completeness of moral
character in the Sovereign of the universe, such that Ave
should as soon think of adding to infinite space as of adding
anything to its perfection, seems as a matter of course, and
we do not remember how difficult it must have been to
carry out the fragmentary .revelation of nature to its abso
lute completeness, and to combine AA'ith these tremendous
natural attributes, shadowed forth in the agencies of nature,
the benignity and mercy, the justice and compassion, that
form the character of our Father in heaven.
We forget the distressing perplexity in which the greatest
and best men of antiquity were respecting the moral attri
butes of God, and the important fact that they never so
conceiA*ed of Him as to make the love of God a duty."*
* President Hopkins.

118 ON MIRACLES.
Again, it may be true that there is implanted deeply in
the being of man, an instinctive tendency pointing to a life
beyond the grave ; and some faint, obscure, uncertain an
swer may have been given by natural reason to the inquiry
of the patriarch Job, "If a man die shall he live again?"
But what that life would be, whether remembrance and
conscious identity Avould remain, Avhether the soul Avould
not migrate into some other body, Avhether there Avould be
a just recompense and retribution, Avere questions which
could not be and Avere not ansAvered by natural reason.
Yet, again, it is a uniA^ersal fact, that all men are sinners,
and of this, a state of their oavii being, they are conscious.
But hoAV man, thus conscious of sin. and guilt, could be
redeemed from their poAver ; how he could be absolved, if
there were a just God and Judge of the Avorld; conscious
ness did not, and could not determine. The evidence of
this is seen in the monstrous superstitions and abominations
of all heathen systems of religion.
Abstract reasoning upon such questions is of little value
to show AA'hat man might knoAV of absolute religious truth.
The only inquiry of practical moment is, Avhat were the
results arrived at upon such subjects before Christianity
prevailed, and what are the results now AA'here it is not
known, nor its influence in any degree felt. We need not
dwell upon the overwhelming evidence draAvn from the
state of the ancient pagan world, and that of heathen
people of the present day, to shoAv how heaven-Avide the
ideas of the Divine Being, of the perfections of His nature,
of the worship due to Him, of His will, of the immortality
of man, of the means of securing the Divine favour, and
freedom from the dominion and consequences of sin, were,
and, under such circumstances, still are, from the sublime
truths of Christianity.
As to the means of redemption, the pagan world was in

MASON. 119
utter darkness. The minds of men, disturbed by conscious
guilt and superstitious fear, saw no Avay of escape from the
bondage of sin, and of securing the pardon of a righteous
God. Even if some of the greatest sages, whose wisdom en
lightened some pagan lands, rose, in favoured moments, to
lofty speculations upon the nature of God, the immortality
of the soul, and the principles of moral duty, yet as they
arrived at no conviction of certainty, and were destitute
of all means of transforming power, so were they incapable
of authenticating the truths upon which they speculated
to the world, of establishing them in the general mind and
heart. Even Socrates, at death, spoke of immortality Avith
uncertain,^ hypothetical expressions ; and enjoined upon
his friends, as a dying request, to sacrifice a cock to JEscu-
lapius. Such is the highest certainty of the human mind
upon absolute religion, Avithout revelation, which renders the
latter needless, and authorizes unbelief, while beholding the
truth under the full and glorious effulgence of the Sun of
Righteousness, vainly to boast that all the light which
illumines the path of man proceeds from the taper of hu
man reason ! Surely we need no higher evidence of the
necessity of a Divine revelation ; and of some positive
means of establishing its truths, with a certainty above
that which fallible, depraved human nature can inspire,
and upon a foundation which its doubts, its cavils, and its
blind presumption can never destroy.
Let our thoughts iioav be given to other views of the
subject, AA'hich tend more directly to confirm and elevate
our faith in "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God."
While the evidence of the particular miraculous works,
connected Avith the origin of Christianity, depends upon
historical testimony, which loses some effect by the lapse
of time, there are other miracles Avhose influence is con-

!iO , ON MIRACLES.
firmed by time — is greater now than in the Apostolic age
— and Avhich probably produce upon the minds of men in
general the most powerful impression in convincing them of
the divine origin of our holy religion. These may be
called the permanent, standing miracles of the Gospel.
Christianity, in its very being, involves miracles. 1. The
Saviour, in his own nature and person, Avas a miracle, sur
passing all others in majesty, such as made all the other
miracles performed by him seem only the natural works
of such a being.
Infidelity, by its subtle and ingenious objections, may
disturb the faith of some in particular branches of the
external proof of the miraculous origin of Christianity;
but, it can never deprive man of the character of Christ,
recorded in the Gospels, and this bears to every truthful
mind the impress of a diATine reality. That character will
remain in the Christian world for ever, receiving the
homage of the wisest, and greatest, and holiest men of all
ages and lands, as the image of absolute perfection. And
as the reality was supernatural, so the conception and
invention of such a character, under the circumstances
AArhich it implies, exceed#the possible bounds of the human
mind. Upon this point there is a singular agreement of
testimony. Infidel philosophers, Avorldly men of the great
est acknowledged sagacity and power of mind, and the
most deA'oted Christians, here unite in one consenting voice.
Rousseau spoke with contempt of the pretence of compari
son of the life and death of Socrates — the greatest of pagan
sages — with those of the Son of God ; and declared, that
if Socrates lived and died like a philosopher, the life and
death of Jesus Christ AA-ere those of a God.
The memorable words of Napoleon were, " I know man,
and I tell you that Jesus Christ was not a man." Before
Jesus Christ, the greatest sages, statesmen, lawgivers, phi-

mason. r:i
losophers,.and moralists, asAvell as the most exalted saints,
bow in reverence and aAve, and, with one consent, confess
the superhuman majesty and loveliness of his character.
Here, then, independent of any particular miracles ascribed
to the Saviour, is a great, comprehensive, moral miracle,
around which all the others may be said to revolve, ahvays
before our view, and impressing us with the conviction that
Christianity was not of human or finite origin.
The same impression is confirmed, Avhen Ave contemplate
the teaching, the claims and design of the Saviour. When
we consider the circumstances of his earthly birth, among
an obscure people, separated by a wall of bitter and
inveterate prejudice from the Avorld — looking Avith pity
and contempt upon all others, as shut out from the favour
of heaven ; Avhen we consider, also, His condition — that
of being despised among His OAvn brethren, trained in no
human learning, and having for His chosen associates the
poor and illiterate — and then dwell upon the doctrines and
precepts of Jesus, Ave are compelled to believe that these
can be accounted for by nothing less than their superhuman
origin. A system of practical morality, springing from one
all-comprehensive principle, to Avhich no approach can be
found in any preceding teaching of man ; in which every
duty, every spiritual grace, even every refined and eleArated
emotion or sympathy, meet for any possible relation, condi
tion, or circumstance of life, are included; a system
changing essentially the highest actual moral standard of
the Avorld, by condemning, as vices or Avrongs, what Avere
regarded as exalted virtues, and placing in the rank of virtues
or graces, Avhat were regarded as weaknesses or defects ; a
system rising above all local and transient influences —
alike adapted for all persons, in all stations, in all countries,
and through all ages; which realizes all that the human
mind imagines, or the heart and conscience demand, as
16

122 ON MIRACLES.
perfect in morals, ever rising higher than the utmost prac
tical approach to perfection of character ever attained by
individuals in their striving after exalted virtue — such a
system carries Avith it the evidence that it did not originate
with man. It is, in itself, another great moral miracle,
Avhich alone has convinced the greatest among men that
the religion of Jesus is supernatural and divine.
It has, indeed, often been affirmed by infidels, that there
is no one of the precepts of Christ which cannot be found
in some pagan writer of a preceding age. But, even if
this were not a gratuitous assertion, Avithout proof, it Avould
deser\-e little weight as an attempt to sIioav the possible
human origin of the Christian system of morals. All the
colours of the rainbow may be seen separate in nature ;
but Avho but the infinite God could combine them in a
beam of light, or blend them in the glorious arch which
spans the heavens ? Not less does the perfect combination
of all virtues and graces, in their due bearing and propor
tion, Avhich we find in the Gospel of Christ, require an
elevation, comprehensiveness, and vastness of moral con
ception which bear the stamp of divinity.
The claims and design of the Saviour unite in producing
the same impression. He claimed to be a perfect, sinless
teacher of moral and spiritual truth — the Guide, the Lord,
and Sa\'iour — the life, light, and hope of all the world.
He calls upon all men to believe in and honour Him, even
as they believe in and honour the Father. He demands
their love and obedience as His right. "What,* it has
been observed, would have been thought of Socrates or
Plato, if they had not merely taught mankind, but if they
and their disciples had set up a claim that they should be
lo\red by the Avhole human race Avith an affection exceeding
* Hopkins' Lowell Lectures.

MASON. 123
that of kindred?" He claimed to be the judge of all men,
with power to pardon or condemn, and forewarned men of
the hour when they should be gathered before His throne.
He formed the design of establishing a universal kingdom,
with dominion over the hearts and liAres of men for eA'er;
a kingdom to be introduced by instruments regarded as
weak and contemptible by men, to be extended in the face
of all the temporal powers of the world, and solely by
moral and spiritual weapons. \
Such designs — conceived under such circumstances — in
their grandeur, in sublime superiority to all the schemes
ever' devised by earthly ambition, in the calm and simple
majesty Avith which they were declared, together Avith the
meek and lowly character, and humble station of their
author, bear convincing eA'idence of their superhuman
origin. And the result harmonizes Avith the design. The
kingdom of Christ prevailed; changed the institutions,
customs, manners, and spirit of the civilized Avorld ; and is
still everywhere exerting the power which, 'like leaven, is,
in the hope of all, to leaven the whole lump of worldliness
and sin. This evidence — that of an existing Christianity,
advancing over the Avorld against such mighty obstacles,
and against all earthly passions — is appealed to by several
of the fathers of the church, as conclusive of its miraculous
origin. And their declaration was echoed by the great
early poet of Italy, in the " Divina Commedia."*
* Cary's translation :
" That all the world, said I, should have been turned
To Christian, and no miracle been wrought,
Would in itself be such a miracle,
The rest were not an hundredth part so great."
Se '1 mondo si rivolse al oristianesmo,
Diss' io, senza miracoli, quest' uno
E tal che gli altri non sono '1 centcsmo.

124 ON MIRACLES.
But all these evidences that the Gospel of Christ is not
of this world, receive the highest confirmation from per
sonal experience of its power in transforming the soul, in
Avhich it is received with living faith. The source of unbe
lief is the heart, and only when " with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation." When within his own soul man
feels the power of the Gospel and spirit of his Saviour,
and Christ has become unto him " wisdom, and righteous
ness, and sanctification, and redemption" — the remedy for
every spiritual disease, the relief for every spiritual want
of the sinner — the source of the highest consolation,' and
of the only abiding hope — when he knows that through
Him he is delivered from the burden of guilt and sin which
is intolerable — death being deprived of its sting, and tbe
" dark valley" illumined by that hope which is " full of
immortality" — then only will all doubts for ever vanish
away, and his assurance become perfect, that the founda
tion on which he stands, by faith, is sure as the " Rock of
Ages," firm as the being and promises of God.

Immutability d ftateral Jams.

BY RT. REV. ALONZO POTTER, D. D., LL. D.
BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OP TIIE DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

IV.
IMMUTABILITY OF NATTJKAL LAWS.
"All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation," (flue scoffer said). — 2 Peter, in. 4.
ASK your attention, this evening, to a few reflections
on a feature in the science and literature of our day,
which can hardly have escaped your notice, but Avhich
seems to me to merit more serious consideration than it
usually receives. I allude to the disposition, ahvays pre
valent, but especially so now, to refer every phenomenon
and every eA'ent, whether it be material or moral, to causes
purely natural. I allude to that assumption — Avhich will
be found at the bottom of some of the ablest modern works,
not only in Physics and Mental Philosophy, but also in
Natural Theology — the assumption that the order andcon-
stancy, the uniformity in respect to properties, Avhich
characterizes objects, and the uniformity in respect to se
quences which characterizes events, is absolute and umrary-
ing, being liable to no interruption, either from man in the
exercise of a self-determining power, or from God in the
exercise of a miraculous or Providential agency. It is a
theory of necessity, much bolder and broader than that of
EdAvards, or of others of the same school. That great
master of metaphysics, Avhile he denied the poAver of man
to interfere with the established relation betAveen cause and
effect, Avhether such relation be material or mental, whether
it connect physical forces Avith their proper effects, or moral
(1.7)

128 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAWS.
moti\'es Avith their consequent volitions, never called in
question the fact that God may interpose to suspend or set
aside these relations. Not so with the philosophers to
Avhom Ave now refer. They insist on a constancy in nature
Avhich seems to be hardly consistent with any intelligible
theory, either of miracles or of a superintending Providence,
while it would appear to leaATe no room for liberty in man,
or for evil, physical or moral, in the universe. Thus, some
of our scientific geologists find no vestige on the earth's sur
face of any great catastrophes, read on her monumental
piles of no supernatural disturbance, nor, indeed, of any
change or physical revolution in times past, but such as
can be resolved into the operation of causes now existing.
By other naturalists this exclusion of the Supernatural is
extended to plants and animals, and their origin is ascribed
to the spontaneous deA^elopment of certain properties and
laAvs inherent in inorganic matter; while some of the most
eminent mathematicians and philosophers of Europe, in
Avorks too expressly deA'oted to a vindication of the doc
trines of Natural Theology, have attempted to include even
the miracles recorded in Scripture in the same category —
as results of natural laws of vast range and comprehensive
ness. For example, in his Avork, entitled the Ninth Bridg-
Avater Treatise, Mr. Babbage thus expresses himself, p. 45 :
" To have foreseen, at the creation of matter and of mind,
that a period Avould arrive when matter, assuming its pre
arranged combinations, would become susceptible of the
support of vegetable forms ; that these should, in due time,
themselves supply the pabulum of animal existence; that
successive races of giant forms or of microscopic beings
should, at appointed periods, necessarily rise into existence,
and as inevitably yield to decay : and that decay and death,
the lot of each individual existence — should also act with
equal power on the races which they constitute ; that the ex-

POTTER. HQ
tinction of every race should be as certain as the death of
each individual, and the advent of new genera be as inevi
table as the destruction of their predecessors : — to have fore
seen all these changes, and to have provided by one compre
hensive law, for all that should ever occur, either to the races
themselves, to the individuals of which they are composed, or
to the globe which they inhabit, manifests a degree of poicer
and of knowledge of a far higher order' than would be
manifested, &c.
" This is, perhaps, of all others, the reflection," says Mr.
Powell, in his Connexion of Natural and Divine Truth,
"which, to a thinking and philosophic inquirer, tends most
to exalt his ideas of the Divine perfections, the regulation
of all the varied and complicated actions of the material
Avorld by an unvarying system; the combination of a lim
ited number of first principles producing all the variety
and harmony of the creation : the sufficiency of a feAV
simple laAvs to regulate the entire complexity of the Arast
mechanism : tlie first constitution of the world upon a prin
ciple which, wiifiout further interposition, contains within
itself the means of perpetual renovation and stability. Noav
this conclusion rests (as we have said) on the collective
inferences of a real maintenance of inviolable order in
the material world. It is evident, then, that any event,
occurring to interrupt the preservation of this order, Avould
be a serious exception and formidable difficulty in the way
of our conclusion."
To show what sweeping applications of this principle are
sometimes made by men of science, even Avhen they think
they are vindicating the divine honour and majesty, I take
an example from the first of these two writers. In the
celebrated calculating engine of Mr. Babbage — the noblest
triumph of mathematical and mechanical skill yet known
— a machine that is to do, by itself, the Avork of calculating
17

ltO I M AI U T A B I L I T Y OF NATURAL LAWS.
the numbers used in astronomical and nautical tables, he has
found that he can so adjust the parts, that it shall, at any
future period, though ever so remote, make one or two seem
ing exceptions to that law which it has hitherto observed.
This law, he states, however, is not the full expression of
that by Avhich the machine acts, but the excepted case is
as absolutely and irresistibly the natural consequence of
its primitive adjustment, as is any individual calculation
amongst the countless multitude AA'hich it may previously
have produced. For instance, the machine can be so
adjusted as to register only square numbers for thousands
of years ; and then, in one or more instances, at any giA~en
time, can register cube numbers, returning at once, how
ever, to its previous course. And, since a property so
wonderful can be given to a piece of human workmanship,
it is suggested that what we have gazed upon as miracles
— as the actual suspensions of natural laAA' — as the mani
festations of a present overruling God — as supernatural
declarations of His ceaseless dominion over man and the
earth he inhabits — as tokens of His sleepless superintend
ence over this race of ours that He hath made, and Avhich
He Avill hereafter judges— these, ^ is suggested, after all,
are but natural results of decrees established thousands or
millions of years ago. And so of Providence. It is a Pro
vidence exerted in foreseeing, at the first, all possible con
tingencies, and in providing for them so perfectly, and with
a kindness so vigilant, that no occasion for intervention, or
even for supervision, can ever afterwards arise. And it is
contended that these are the views best calculated to
reflect honour on God — to afford exalted conceptions of
His infinite majesty.
Now that to such a mind this is the view best calculated,
as he affirms, to afford exalted conceptions of Divine wis
dom and poAver, Ave may not doubt; and there may be

POTTER. 131
many minds to whom it appears in the same light. To a
profound mathematician, employed through long and toil
some years in calculating the possible combinations of
numbers — in devising the adjustments of complicated
mechanism — in endeavouring to foresee all the disturbing
causes that can possibly arise — in striving to bring within
the performance of a machine the greatest possible range
and compass of results — that such' a mind may find itself
most awed and overpoAATered when it thinks what must
have been in the conception of that Eternal Being Avho, out
of an infinite number of different laws of gravity which
might have been selected (as Ave could easily show), chose
that one (the inverse ratio of the square of the distance),
which now obtains and Avhich NeAvton first discovered, when
such an one considers how the best intellect of the scientific
world, for the last two centuries, has exhausted itself in
tracing out but a few of the consequences of this law —
and how all its consequences, eAren the remotest (nor its
consequences only, but all the possible consequences of
each one of that infinite number of other laws which
might have been substituted for it) must have been foreseen
by Him who gave it preference — when he considers, too,
that this is but one of innumerable material laws now
in operation, and whose establishment evinces, in each
case, a like boundless foresight — and when to material
laAvs he, in thought, adds those which connect matter with
animal life, and those again that connect both with mind —
Avhen he thinks of the countless varieties of organized
beings, liA'ing or extinct — how mountain masses have been
piled up, not only out of petrified animals, but even out
of dead infusoria so small that forty-one thousand of them
make but a cubic inch — and then when he conceives that
the nature, functions, and relations of all these countless
varieties may have been foreseen and provided for in one

1E2 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAWS.
stupendous effort of inventive and creati\'e poAver, who will
not admit that here is a noble conception of God — that to
such a mind, Avith such habits, it Avould naturally seem
the noblest, the most sublime ?
But is God to be contemplated and adored by none but
mathematicians ? And are there not, in the Divine nature,
other attributes besides Wisdom and Power ? Is there not
Holiness ? Is there not Rectitude ? Is there not Parental
Love? When we conceive of Him as a mechanician
merely — arranging masses of matter — availing himself of
their pre-existing properties — adjusting them to certain
uses, how poor, how inadequate, after all, are the noblest
of such conceptions ! God not only arranged matter — He
created it. He assigned it its properties — above all he created
mind. He surrounds himself with intelligent offspring.
This material frameAVork of nature, these verdant fields,
these extended plains and towering mountains, these flow
ing rivers, this expanding ocean ; this grand array of
forces, and motions, and vicissitudes, all marshalled, as it
Avere, in order, and moving forward in harmony : what is
it all but a dwelling-place for man — the intelligent, self-
conscious, accountable chiid of God. And when does that
God shed forth the effulgence of his glory so brightly on
our minds, as when Ave contemplate Him sitting, not only
high above all the material forces that He hath made, hav
ing an immensity that neither the heavens nor the heaA^en
of heaA'ens can contain, but sending forth conscious intel
ligences as heralds of His moral perfections ?
Even heathen poets could celebrate the praises of God as
a Father. And what is our noblest conception of Father ?
When in our thoughts do we seem most to exalt the rule
of a wise, just, and loving Parent? To what should we
appeal if we were most anxious to commend him to the love
and reverence of his household ? Would it be merely to the

POTTER. 133
wisdom with which he has devised and established the regu
lations of that household ; to the sagacity with which he has
anticipated every contingency ; to the fact that he has per
fected such a system that it can dispense altogether with his
presence and agency, and that he now lives far away from
the home of his affections, never interposing in its affairs,
nor sending to it one fresh memento of his care? No! we
ask of a father regard in the first place to the moral welfare
of his children ; we ask a rule and regimen which will
contribute to form character, to ennoble sentiment, to
develop self-control, and nerve with spiritual poAver. And
we feel that this needs not only law, but the administration
of law ; not only rules but influences, and not only these,
too, but such changes, from time to time, that those rules
can adapt themselves to emergencies created by the child
himself in the use or in the abuse of his moral liberty.
Here, then, as it seems to us, is a sufficient answer to
Mr. Babbage's theory of miracles; a theory by Avhich he
Avould transform them from supernatural into natural
events. He adopts it, because to him it seems the view
which best illustrates the Avisdom of the Deity. We say,
in reply, that did the physical system of the world subsist
alone — by itself and for itself — or were it the dwelling-
place of beings, not endowed with moral natures, nor with
faculties essentially progressive, we might assent to this
opinion. But when we consider this system in its higher
relations — when Ave consider it as connected Avith another
and a nobler economy, eA'en a moral and spiritual one —
when we recollect that in assigning laws to matter and to
mind, God seems to have had special reference to the im
provement of man, in Avisdom and virtue — then a great
question arises. Suppose that those laws of nature have
failed to lead man to wisdom and virtue : suppose that in
stead of inciting him to a faithful cultivation of his poAvers.

1£4 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAAVS.
to a course of upright, beneficent, and holy living, to a
clear recognition of his Creator in the things that he hath
made, the A'ery constancy of these laAvs has contributed,
Avith other causes, to superinduce a practical atheism, .and
droAvn men in sensuality and folly. What more likely
than that this constancy should in such case be arrested;
that the same DiA'ine and miraculous power, which estab
lished the system, should now suspend it; that, having
failed to teach man by the natural, he should again invoke
the supernatural ; that, stupified as men Avere by the earthly
and the sensual, they should be startled from their guilty
slumbers by a voice from Heaven ? This seems to be the
true theory of miracles, and it invokes no impeachment of
the stability of the Divine counsels, since the same moral
purpose, Avhich assigned fixed laAvs and properties to matter
at first, now requires that, in order to the attainment of
its own high and beneficent ends, those laws should be sus
pended, just as a Avise parent, who prescribes a course of
exercises for a child, may revoke or suspend them, the mo
ment he finds that they are abused by that child to the
injury of his health or his morals.
But some one may says— let it be admitted that it is moral
disorder, chargeable only on man and on his free moral
agency, that occasions these deviations in physical laws
from their accustomed course — why not allow such devia
tions to have been appointed before the foundation of the
world, and why not recognise them when they occur, merely
as necessary and unavoidable results of the physical cha
racter, which God impressed at first upon the universe ? I
answer, by inquiring why we should adopt this view, thus
involving some of the plainest parts of the Bible in ambi
guity ? If natural theology have its own proper evidence,
so has the Bible also; and, in choosing between different
views of miraculous interposition, neither of Avhich can

POTTER. 1E5
claim demonstrative evidence, it is, surely, not too much to
ask that some respect should be paid to clear and explicit
declarations of the Sacred Books — declarations Avhich point
to miracles as direct interpositions of the Almighty, as set
ting aside natural laws and forces, in order to proclaim His
immediate presence, and His active supremacy. Waiving
this, however, let me ask if God is one who would be wea
ried if He gave constant attention to the great structure
which He once made, and Avhich He launched on boundless
space, its native element ? Or, Avould it derogate from His
greatness, though Avith a father's eye, and all a father's
heart, He should continually bend over His intelligent off
spring, and interpose when necessary to save them from
themselves — from the appropriate fruits of their folly or
their guilt ? No : concede to man so much of moral
freedom that he can sin, and then you may easily represent
to yourself an awful moral crisis, which Avould not only
justify, but also require, these miraculous suspensions of
law; and thus, while blessed spirits, beneath brighter
heavens, may be permitted to behold in new worlds, as
they rise spontaneously into being, proofs of the Eternal
Power and Godhead, man, the perverse — the erring —
the sinful — may need to be rebuked by laws disturbed — by
elements convulsed — by catastrophes that seem to attest
the utmost displeasure of that God whose wrath is con
suming fire.
But again it may be said, that though such a reason or
final cause for miracles may be assigned with plausibility,
in respect to those which occurred after man Avas introduced
upon the globe, yet it can hardly apply to those great phy
sical vicissitudes which preceded that event, and which we
are accustomed to regard as supernatural. I reply, that since
clear memorials of those vicissitudes have been engraven
on the rocks and hills, they do present to the student of

lEfi IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAWS.
nature an instructive lesson, in respect to the supernatural,
since they lead him back from one memorable era to
another — each anterior to the existence of man upon the
earth — and yet each illustrated by the exercise of God's
creative and miraculous poAver.
Independent, too, of the confirmation yielded by these
records of Creation to the records of Revelation, they teach
the further instructive lesson, that the Providence of God
is truly a superintending proA'idence — that it did not ex
pend itself in one effort of poAver and foresight — that, hav
ing interposed in ages past one after another display of its
creative energies, those energies are to be regarded as ever
active, and that man is to feel that the power in which he
lives and moves, and has his being, is as sleepless in vigi
lance as it is exhaustless in kindness and unfailing in
rectitude. I cannot dismiss this branch of the subject without say
ing one word of the entire nullity of miracles as a ground
of evidence, if they are only preordained results of physical
laAv. In such case, not only would the language in which
they are described in the Bible be deceptive, but those who
Avrought them would, in one important sense, be impostors,
and the miracles themselves a fraud. They are now
supposed to attest the agency of God in a supernatural
manner; but this theory makes them merely natural.
They come before us in the Bible, claiming regard as spe
cial signs and messengers from heaven; but if Mr. Bab-
bage is correct, neither prophecy nor the fulfilment of
prophecy — neither prediction of the wonderful works of
Christ, nor those Avorks themselves, ought to awaken more
awe, or inspire a deeper sense of God's presence, than the
daily rising of the sun. All teachers Avho make God and
immortality their theme, would be alike divine messengers,
and would stand precisely on the same level, except as

POTTER. 137
some might excel others in the matter of their instructions.
The same foreknowledge, too, which discerned occasion,
and the same ordaining power Avhich prepared the Avay for
a Jesus or a Paul, may have provided also for a Mahomet
or a Joe Smith ; and tyrant after tyrant, as he rises to
become the scourge of nations and the terror of mankind,
would have to be ranked, on this principle, amongst
apostles, as missionaries of the Most High — preadjusted
parts in nature's universal plan.
If plagues and earthquakes break not Heaven's design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline ?
This may be the philosophy of a rationalizing poet, but it
is surely not the philosophy of the Bible ; nor can it well
be his who sees in God a universal, ever gracious, and pro
vident Father.
II. I have thus spoken of the inconsistency of this theory
of causation, with Avhat would seem to be the true charac
ter of God, as gathered both from nature and from revela
tion. I come noAV to speak of its inconsistency with what
seems to me to be the nature and mission of man. It is
often said, that belief in the perfect uniformity of nature
is instinctive in man — that all our experience tends to
ripen and strengthen this belief; and that any other sup
position would render science impossible, and action but a
leap in the dark. That belief in the substantial uniformity
of nature is intuitive, I admit ; and I admit, too, that as
we extend our acquaintance with the Divine works, we
often find order and uniformity where once we saw pnly
confusion or a supposed interposition from Heaven. But I
do not conceive that this intuitive belief is a precise measure
of that uniformity which really exists in nature, any more
than our instinctiA^e fear of danger or love of pleasure is a
precise measure of that which, in the one or other of these
18

1E8 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAWS.
forms, is approaching us. Each ser\-es to admonish us of
a general fact, and each impels us to ascertain, by obser
vation and inquiry, its true character and extent. And I
would remind those who reason othenvise, and Avho think
that, if there were to be any contingency in nature, any
possibility that the regular succession of cause and effect
could be interrupted, there would then be an end of all
science and all systematic effort; to such I Avould say,
that to man's mind there must, in fact, ahvays be a Arast
world of contingencies. Whatever may be the case in
nature, considered absolutely, there is before him, hoAvever
Avide the horizon which his knowledge spreads out, an
untrodden, unseen wilderness beyond; and to him that
Avilderness is crowded with uncertainties. He knows not
what a day or an object may bring forth. Let him finish
the most consummate piece of workmanship. Let iovae
proud monument, for instance, of nautical architecture,
like that* which ten years ago attracted the regard of our
Avhole nation, be completed. Let it be conducted in tri
umph near to that nation's capitol : and there, on its gay
deck, beneath floating ensigns and a bright sun, to the
sound of martial music, AV,ith banquet all prepared, let the
highest of the land, the observed of observers, be gathered
to admire its appliances and equipments, and gratulate
each other on this noble embodiment of a nation's skill
and a nation's munificence. Science and art have now
achieved their utmost; no precautions against danger or
disappointment have been omitted ; and yet in that master
piece there are still contingencies. Some latent disturbing
cause has eluded observation; and in a moment those
fearful engines, intended only to be a terror to foes, a
strong defence to friends, send a cry of horror through
* The AVar Steamer Princeton.

POTTER. 1J9
the surrounding throng, prostrate in death some of the
most honoured of our land, and spread Availing through
many a happy household. So limited, after all, is man's
knowledge. He discoA'ers what he calls truth, but it is
only an approximation, not an exact conformity to things
as they are. It embraces some, but not all of the objective
reality. Hence the difference between laAvs as laid down
in theory, and as applied in practice. He enlarges the
boundaries of his intellectual prospect, but it is only to
find that it connects itself at innumerable points with the
yet more distant and unknoAvn. And yet he does not
therefore abandon inquiry. He does not therefore cease
to reason or to act upon the probabilities of the future.
He provides for the morrow, though he knows not that
that morrow's sun will ever rise upon him. N He engages
in the ventures of life, oftentimes when all the chances of
success are against him. And does he not do Avell ? To
omniscience only could all the issues of the future be
knoAvn — all be fixed and certain. To created minds, much
must ever appear contingent, and yet that much shall not
prevent them from acting as though it were fixed and
ascertainable. But observe, further, this belief in the uniformity of
nature, is not the only intuitive principle of the human
mind. Is there not the sense, also, of the supernatural?
the idea, instinctive in man, that there is a power above
nature, and that this power is likely, at times, to interfere
Avith the ordinary course of events ? Why is it tha,t men
in the infancy of society are so prone to ascribe umvonted
phenomena, in the heavens or on the earth, to Deities ?
Why do they hear the voice of a spirit in the howlings of
the tempest, or see his form in the clouds ? Why do they
people every groA'e, and fountain, and mountain-clift with
its appropriate divinity ? Is it not the instinctive uprising

140 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAWS. /
of the soul towards the invisible and supersensual ? Is it
not a proclamation sent forth from the innermost recesses
of our hearts, saying there is more than mere nature, more
than eye sees or ear hears — more than change follow
ing change in one eternal round. There is a power that
established that order for one wise purpose, and that may
set it aside for another. There is an eye that does not
sleep, and an arm that does not tire ; a poAver that sitteth
on the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are
as grasshoppers; and it ordereth all things according to
the counsel of its OAvn will.
This, we say, is the instinctive language of the human
heart. As . there is one intuitive principle that points
towards constancy, so there is another that points towards
a source of change. Both are liable to excess and abuse.
In the terrors and follies of superstition and fanaticism —
in the morbid fancy that sees a miracle in every eclipse,
meteor, or earthquake — a special Providence in every act
of man or nature — we see the sense of the supernatural
perverted and abused. But is there no perversion of our
faith in nature's uniformity ? Whence most of tbe disap
pointments of life ? Whence the prejudices, the misjudg-
ments of all ? Whence tne visionary schemes of practical
men — the idle speculations of theorists — the blind and
braggart confidence Avhich says all things continue as they
were from the beginning — to-morrow shall be as to-day, and
much more abundant? Where is the promise of God's
judgments? tush! he doth not regard; and through such
confidence what multitudes rush upon their own destruc
tion ! All this is but an abuse and misapplication of our
instinctive faith in nature's constancy — aJpremature infer
ence from the past to the future — from the known to the
unknown, from what has been, under certain circumstances,
to what will be under other and different circumstances.

POTTER. 141
Both of these principles, as it seems to me, have an
important office, as both are liable to perversion. We
strive to enlighten and enlarge our views of natural causa
tion, of the established order and sequences in nature, by
observation and analysis, by reasoning and experience;
and thus we gradually attain to those larger views which
characterize true philosophy, and are salutary guides in life.
Should it not be so with the instinctive sense of the super
natural ? Should science, in its truest and highest sense,
hope to adArance or to reach a large and comprehensive
vieAV of things, if it omit all reference to this deep and all
pervading element in the mind's operations ? Compte, an
atheist, may contend, as he does, that science tends regu
larly to recede from the supernatural till it plants itself on
the metaphysical ; and from the metaphysical again till it
rests finally in the physical and positive. From him this
might be expected. But is this the Arein which we should
expect from the true disciples of Bacon — of one who wrote
in this wise in his Confession of Faith .¦ — " I believe, that
notwithstanding God hath rested and ceased from creating
since the first Sabbath, yet, ne\'ertheless, He doth accom
plish and fulfil His divine will in all things, great and
small, singular and general, as fully and exactly by Provi
dence, as He could by miracle and new creation, though
His working be not immediate and direct, but by compass ;
not A'iolating nature, which is His own law, upon the
creature." In respect to Providence, different views, I am aware,
have been entertained. To some, Providence is but the
prescience that foresaw, and the preordaining power that, in
the beginning, provided for every future contingency ; so that
now the course of things flows on in obedience to nothing
but inexorable law. But is such the view which meets
the deep and irrepressible yearnings and convictions of the

142 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAAVS.
human soul? Is it only to an inflexible Law-maker that
that soul cries for relief from the depths of its distress ? Its
instinctiAre resort when awful danger threatens to a power
above nature — its appeal when struggling with fierce temp
tation, or Avith overpowering appetite for spiritual succour
to some Being that can act directly on the intellect, the
affections, and the Avill — its unshaken faith when all things
seem to be against it, that though the sea roar, and the
waves thereof are lifted up, there is One, a Father, sitting
on high, Avho is mightier, and who doeth all things well ;
these sentiments — so instinctive and ineffaceable, not learned
from Scripture, but felt AvhereA'er the human heart throbs
Avith life and emotion — were they given for nought ? Do
they point to no corresponding reality ? or is He to whom
they point one who operates on man only through fixed
laws and properties, Avhich he never modifies, never over
rules, never disturbs ?
I put the authority of the Bible, here, entirely out of
the account. The great and wise men of the world — those
who have drunk deepest at the wells of uninspired Avisdom
— who have seen, with intuitiA^e glance, farthest into the
constitution of things, and whose intuitive perceptions have
been most enlarged and 'ripened by profound observation
and reflection on the Avays of men and on the course of the
Avorld's history: Avhat has been their judgment? Have
they seen in Providence only foreknowledge and foreor
daining poAver exerted in creation ? Have they seen only
Wisdom and Might employed in establishing an irreversible
order of events, which is destined to move on for ever
without superintendence or intervention? Or have they
seen in it the supervision of an Infinite Father, Avho is
Governor as well as Creator of all His children, who does
not merely supervise, as spectator, the movements of dead
mechanism, but, as active guide and director, presides over
the voluntary agency of intelligent and moral beings; and

POTTER. 143
though he work no miracles in their behalf, yet causes
established laAvs and operations to concur and coincide
in a manner often the most remarkable? On this point
let Dr. Franklin answer. No one will accuse him of
superstition or of an undue regard for the supernatural.
All will admit that few men ever surpassed him as a shrewd
observer of life and of human affairs, or as a profound in
quirer after the causes and principles that lie at the bottom
of great eArents. And what Avas his language in the Con
vention that sat in Philadelphia in 1787 to frame our
Federal Constitution, when he rose to support his motion
for daily prayers in that body ?
It must be remembered that Aveeks had elapsed with
out the convention's having accomplished any part of its
all-important work, and that irreconcilable differences
seemed likely to defeat its purposes altogether. It was
under these circumstances that Dr. Franklin introduced
his resolution, and made the folloAving remarks : " In the
beginning of the contest with Britain," said he, " zohen
toe were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this
room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were
heard, and they wrere graciously answered. All of us
who were engaged in the struggle must have observed
frequent instances of a superintending. Providence in our
favour. To that kind Providence Ave owe this happy
opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of estab
lishing our future national felicity. And have we now
forgotten this powerful friend ? or do we imagine we no
longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time
(eighty-one years); and the longer I live the more convinc
ing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs
of man. And, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground Avith
out His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise with
out His aid ? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred
Avritino-s, ' that except the Lord build the house, they labour

144 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAWS.
in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this ; and I also
believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed
in this political building no better than the builders of
Babel ; we shall be divided by our little partial local inter
ests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall
become a reproach and a by-word down to future ages.
And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this un
fortunate instance, despair of establishing government by
human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, or conquest. I
therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers, im
ploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our
deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before
we proceed to business ; and that one or more of the clergy
of this city be requested to officiate in that service."
This is not the language of one who looked on God as
inexorable, or in other words, as a Law-giver whose system
is that of inflexible uniformity. And to whom were these
words addressed ? Need I say that it was George Washing
ton who presided over this assembly, and that his writings
are more remarkable for nothing than for their frequent and
pointed recognition of the agency of the same Divine Pro
vidence ? These venerable men had passed together through
times that emphatically " tried men's souls ;" and it was in
that hot and fiery furnace that their labouring hearts had
felt that succour from God was a necessity of our moral
nature, and that " man's extremity is God's opportunity."
Or make your appeal, if you will, from the authority of Wash
ington and Franklin to that of Shakspeare, the " myriad-
minded," of whom it hath been said : " The mind of Shak
speare was as a magic mirror in which all human nature's
possible forms, and combinations were present, intuitively
and inherently, not conceived, but as. connatural portions
of his own humanity." And what, according to him, is
the language of the human heart, when speaking from its
deepest convictions ?

POTTER. 145
" Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do pall ; and that should teach us
There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will."
A lesson so deeply imprinted on the poet's own mind, that
more than one of his dramas seems to have been constructed
for the express purpose of exhibiting the workings of this
Divine and special Providence in the affairs of men.
On this great subject I do not propose to touch any far
ther than as it connects itself Avith the present state of
science, and with some of its supposed aberrations. As
there are mathematicians and mechanical philosophers,
who, in their views of the fixed order of nature, leave no
place for miracles, so there are mental philosophers and
anthropologists who seem to leave no place for providence
or prayer. As an example of the latter, I -may mention
the writings of one well knoAvn to you by fame, and of
whom I would speak as I feel, without the least disrespect.
I mean Mr. Combe. No candid mind will deny that he de
serves, on many accounts, homage and gratitude, as one
Avho has done good service to philosophy and to mankind.
In respect to the very matter under discussion, and in con
nexion with Avhich he seems to me obnoxious to censure,
he has still inculcated with great force, both of reasoning
and of illustration, important and much-neglected lessons.
He has taught, especially in his work entitled the Constir
tution of Man, that we liA'e under a goA'ernment of law,
physical, organic, and mental, which we are bound to re
spect, and which it is not safe for us to disregard ; " that
the good and evil of life are much more in our own hands
than is generally supposed ; that many of the sufferings of
humanity — sufferings too often considered as fixed by the
Creator in the constitution of the world — admit of removal
by a greater knowledge of the Isavs of nature and a more
19

146 IM MUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAAVS.
careful application of that knowledge; that many of the
calamities of life, ascribed to an inscrutable Providence,
may, on careful examination, be traced back to misconduct,
either in ourselves or in those Avhom we might have influ
enced to better things; that an attention to one part of our
duty will not exempt us from the consequences of neglecting
another; and, generally, that increased knowledge and vir
tue must necessarily draw after them greatly increased
happiness." These are truths by no means newT, yet much
overlooked, and in urging them on our notice and in setting
forth the great command which each one has over the
sources of his happiness, Mr. Combe has rendered a useful
service to humanity.
Wherein, then, it may be asked, do we dissent from his
views ? We answer, that we dissent from the fundamental
idea of his speculations, which seems to assume that there
cannot possibly be such a thing in the universe as the in
terruption of a natural law, and also from the exaggerated
pictures of man's capabilities, and consequent temporal
responsibilities which he draws. Man, sole master of his
own destiny, at least in this world, by means of obedience to
natural laws, is the sum ajid substance of Mr. Combe's phi
losophy, in the work just referred to, and which is much
the best he ever wrote. Is it as true and comprehensive a
philosophy as Shakspeare's, who assigns to man the hum
bler office of "rough-hewing his ends," to God the higher
one of "shaping" them ? Who, that traces back his own
experience, or looks on the Avorld around him, does not see
an agency, other than man's, when availing himself of
natural laAvs? Who does not see how little way, after
all, his utmost knowledge of those laAvs, or his best obe
dience to them, can go towards compassing the good or
shunning the evils of life ? And where Avould be the use
of prayer if all things Avere ordered by fixed and irreversible

POTTER. 147
laws, that regard not individuals, but have respect to masses
only ? If nothing can ever accrue to us except through
such laws moving through one ever-recurring round, subject
in no respect whatever to modification in themselves or in
their connexion with other laAvs, then must every future
event be absolutely fixed, and prayer to have it altered
must be a sad masquerade, as deficient in taste as it is in
ingenuousness. To announce our wants to God cannot
be its office, for to an Infinite Intelligence they must be
known already. Nor, if this doctrine be true, can his
knowledge be of any avail. To importune for special bless
ings, temporal or spiritual, would be superfluous, since those
blessings, if they fall within the onward way of unalterable
laws, will become ours without prayer, and no prayer can
procure them if they do not. To exert a persuasive influ
ence on the Divine mind is impossible, since that mind is
inexorable. What, in such case, would prayer become,
but a species of pious legerdemain, where, under pre
tence of pleading with God for that which is no longer His
to dispense, we gain the chance of communing Avith his
spirit, and get grace, not from him, but by a species of
self-development ? Were such the Divine government, me
ditation, not prayer, devout contemplations, not entreaty,
not intercession, would befit alike man's estate and God's
eternal majesty.
But I must conclude. I have succeeded in exploring
but a part of the ground marked out in the beginning of
this discourse. Besides the inconsistency of these exag
gerated views of the constancy of nature, Avith any intelli
gible theory of miracles or of Providence, I intended to
have pointed out their inconsistency, also, with the moral
freedom and responsibility of man, and with the existence
of evil and disorder in our world. But these points I must
omit. My object has been to indicate a tendency toioards

148 IMMUTABILITY OF NATURAL LAWS.
fatalism, which seems to mark some of the developments
of science, both physical and metaphysical, in our day,
and which is tantamount, of course, to a disposition to
exclude the supernatural, as an element, from philosophy.
It is a tendency unfriendly, as I believe, to the best
interests of science and of life. It leads to premature
inductions, and to a presumptuous confidence that, in
nature, as she now exhibits herself, wre have a literal
transcript of all the past, and a minute circumstantial pro
phecy of all ihefutwre. It prevents us from remembering
that all truth reached by induction, when made the basis
of prediction and of prospective action, is contingent truth ;
that it becomes us not to say, that on such a day of such
a year, a certain phenomenon must be observed; but if
God so will, or if existing circumstances remain unchanged,
that phenomenon will recur. It gives us, too, — this exclu
sive reference to fixed laws, — an extravagant estimate of
the value of our own knowledge ; leading us to forget that
any formula, which the most profound philosopher may
have constructed in order to embody facts, can compre
hend, after all, but a portion of the truth, and that there
are countless facts not yet explained by any philosophy.
It sometimes contributes, too, to engender, among scientific
men, a narrowness of mind, which undervalues all other
pursuits, and looks upon inquiries not pertaining to their
favourite study, as barren and unprofitable. It is, in fine,
a tendency which, though most apt just now to infect phy
sical science, is still insidiously spreading itself through
the different branches of mental philosophy and polite
literature, thus confounding tAvo worlds, the natural and
moral, which ancient philosophers were most anxious to
keep asunder ; while its influence in theology will be seen
in an increasing disposition to eliminate the supernatural,
as Avell from the Bible as from Nature. If such be the

P 0 T T E R. 1-10
spirit and tendency of these views, I need not add that
they must have the effect of obscuring our perceptions of
God and of His agency — leading us to see Him only in the
beginning of the system of the universe ; or, if we recog
nise a, present Divine agency, leading us to view it as an
agency restraining itself by unalterable laws ; enslaved in
truth to its OAvn irreversible system, just as the ancient
poets represent the Gods of Rome as striving in vain to
save Caesar, when his ruin had been decreed by an invisible
and irresistible fate — a fate that ruled absolutely over divi
nities, as well as over men. Need I add, that, with such
views of God, there can be little of filial confidence among
his creatures — little of that life of faith, which, in the
midst of the world's vicissitudes, is the happiest, as well
as the noblest of lives; and little of that love, which,
casting out fear, is the spring of a cordial, devoted service,
that is perfect freedom to the soul.

%\t a§ jmsiral C.jjcirqj of Jltbcloprnt.

BY REV. M. A. DE AVOLFE IIOAVE, D.D.
RECTOR OF ST. LL'KE'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.

PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
IT is an obvious truth, from the application and results
of which no candid believer in revealed religion can
wish to shield the manual of his faith, that the phenomena
of the natural world (which are one record of the will of
God) cannot be contradicted by any authentic written
record of special, spiritual disclosures from the same
unchanging source. It is the doctrine of the Bible, that
there is " one God, maker of all things, visible and invisi
ble." And, from the idea of a being possessed of sufficient
Avisdom and power to haAre fashioned the material universe,
is inseparable the conviction that he is alike incapable of
mistake and of falsehood. There must, therefore, be an
actual harmony between His works and His word. And,
since nature is the first and undeniable creature of His
power, and expression of His mind, it must follow that any
system of doctrine, which purports to be a revelation from
God subsequently made known, must accord with nature,
the primitive record. None but tbe blindest and most
stupid bigotry will demand, that, if the truths engrossed
from the beginning on the tablet of material things are in
contrariety to what seems to be the later disclosure of reve
lation, the elder axioms must be at once repudiated as false.
20 (153)

154 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DE VEL OPJIENT.
Christian believers, however, are bound to take this posi
tion — that wherever the investigations of science, so called,
have conducted men to results which appear to be repug
nant to the written word of God, those results, and the
processes by which they have been reached, require a most
critical review. And, if still there be seeming discrepancy,
the common interpretation of Scripture should be carefully
reconsidered. And if yet, when all is done, there be, with
general harmony, occasional variation, which Ave are at a
loss to reconcile, it is at once manly and devout to assume
that either nature or revelation has been misunderstood,
and that riper time and better knowledge will discover
their unison.
We may venture to concede that Biblical scholars have
sometimes maintained a virtual infallibility, not only in
the Word of God (which is "sure and steadfast"), but in
their own exposition of it; and that assumptions have
been put forth as from the oracles of Heaven, which further
study of truth, in its material and its written forms, has
proved to have sprung from the ignorance and bigotry of
recognised advocates of religion on earth. The church did
imprison Galileo for asserting a theory of the movement
of the heavenly bodies, which, before his time, had not
been thought consistent with the language of Sacred Scrip
ture. But riper knowledge of nature and a less servile
study of revelation have, in time, brought the most tena
cious adherents of the old cosmology to acknowledge that
the philosopher Avas right, and that the sanctity of the
Bible was not profaned by his discovery.
With this concession on the one hand, we must be per
mitted to urge on the other, that naturalists have often
made the grossest mistakes in their observations, and
inferred general laws from data, the soundness of which
had not been adequately ascertained. They have boldly,

HO AVE. 155
I may say insolently, put forth theories, seeming careless
of their conflict with received, and even sacred truth —
theories which their more thorough followers in the same
line of research have proved to be visionary, and incom
patible with true science.
It is a comfort to the Christian to find, on reviewing the
history of natural science, so far as its record still remains,
that, while every period has been agitated by some fancied
discovery which, for the time, seemed to discredit some
declaration or allusion of Holy Writ, in longer periods these
threatening contradictions ha\~e either been withdrawn, or
superseded, or modified, or explained ; insomuch that there
is not now an opinion held among natural philosophers
which has ivitlistood the test of fifty years' investigation, by
students of physical science, that is, in anybody's esteem, at
variance with the Word of God. ! A cliff stretching out into
the restless sea of speculation, great swelling waves have
risen and threatened to engulf it, but, when they came
to beat upon its adamantine front, they have been dashed
into shivering spray, and then vanished into mist or sub
sided into the common level.
They Avho love the Bible have nothing to fear, but rather
everything to hope, from actual discoveries of the laws of
nature. Definitive results of investigation, once settled,
and commanding the suffrage of true scholars, will here
after, as heretofore, yield themselves as evidence that in
the Word of God is an outline, strictly exact, of the method
of His works. Still, sciolists will follow one another in un
broken succession, "for there is a spirit in man," though
fallen, and the "inspiration of the Almighty giveth them
understanding." The mind of man, instinctively seeking the cause of all
things (that the heart may pay homage), is diverted from
the true object of its search by pride, the earliest and most

156 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
irreparable frailty of human character. Having discovered
some antecedents to the present order of things, which are
not obvious on the face of nature, reason becomes intoxi
cated with its draught from these deeper springs of being ;
and, having gotten back two or three stages nearer to the
origin of things, it spurns to be taught, by simple precept,
Avhat lies beyond. It revolts at accepting ultimate truth.
It yearns to find a physical cause and prototype behind
every sensible development, and feels circumscribed by the
abrupt announcement — "God made this." And so, unless
there be first a thoughtful confidence in the written Word,
and a fixed habit of devout recognition of the God of the
Bible, the eager student of natural science, elated with
discoveries fresh to himself, and utterly unknown to the
common world, will groAV presumptuous, and, by hypo
thesis, will endeavour to multiply secondary causes beyond
the limit of known fact, so that a Creator shall be removed
so far from the existent, every-day world as to place him
beyond the reach of practical observance.
There is a school of philosophers now extant, by no
means contemptible in regard to talent, learning, or num
bers, who are a melancholy illustration of the truth of these
remarks. They once exerted little influence on the com
mon mind, because their Avritings were too strictly scientific
and technical to be read with interest or appreciation, by
any saA^e those who had already made some research into
the same branch of study. But, Avithin the last ten years,
their notions have been popularized, and made part of the
staple of common infidelity, in an ingenious but fallacious
work, Avhich has been extensively read, and, with rare cre
dulity, accepted. I refer to a book entitled " The Vestiges
of the Natural History of Creation."* It avows no opposi-
* I am happy here to record the declaration of a ripe scholar, who honours
the chair of Natural Philosophy in one of our universities, that the assumptions

II OWE. 157
tion to the Mosaic account of the creation ; it speaks reve
rently of the God of the Bible ; lapses into no direct denial
of the revealed doctrine of Divine Providence; but puts
forth some facts, more assumptions, and resulting theories,
in such forms as cannot be held consistently with submission
to the authority of the Bible. In regard to the planetary
system, it dignifies, Avhat Sir William Herschell hinted at as
a bare hypothesis into a positive, settled theory, to wit, that,
inasmuch as with a telescope of moderate power, certain
nebulae or luminous clouds could be discovered floating in
distant space, these are incipient planets, and that the side
real heavens, which now sparkle over our heads, were all
fashioned by the gradual condensation of such diffused ma
terial. The supposed facts on which this hypothesis was
built haAre been sensibly shaken, if not totally removed, by
more recent discoveries. The great telescope of Lord Rosse
has resolved some of these nebulae into clusters of shining
of the author of " The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" are not
now sustained by any respectable body of scientific men ; that the reviewers
exposed the spurious facts and unsound positions of that impertinent book so
fully and severely, that the deductions of science have since manifested
rather a bias in the opposite direction. I am glad if true scholars repudiate
it. Christian philosophers always have. I am not, however, dispossessed of
the apprehension that there are many individuals who purport to be scholars,
that find it convenient to propound the grossest fallacies of the book under con
sideration, as if they were established philosophical facts. Everybody knows
that there is, in this country, a class of smart men, who dish up much of our
literature, that are neither devoid of education, nor yet, in the highest sense of
the word, scholars — men who do more to tincture the public mind than their
more profound superiors, from whom they borrow just as much science as they
can get without trouble, and make sufficient to secure a reputation with the
reading public. They are the "jobbers" of the world's scientific commerce.
While they bring nothing new among us, they find out what there is, and take
and distribute what they can make profitable. Among these men, the type of
opinion which I have here endeavoured to confute, is quite current, and from
them it is taken to "retail" by their smattering readers, or my eyes and ears
are both at fault.

158 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
spheres. And science dare not assert,. at this hour, that
they are not systems of stars, like our oavh, revolving round
their appropriate centres. Sir John Herschel, pursuing the
sublime studies which, before his day, made the name of
his house illustrious, has not ventured to endorse the hy
pothesis of his honoured sire, but Avaits the result of his
observations in the southern hemisphere, before he will
presume to agitate the world by theories of its history.
In regard to the animal system, the bold author of the
" Vestiges" has broached a similar scheme of development.
With his speculative predecessor, Lamarck, he asserts the
earliest organic form to have been the globule, and assumes
it to be possible, that, by galvanism, animal life can be
imparted — an assumption which no well-authenticated experi
ment can be adduced to sustain ! Beginning with this insin
uation respecting the origin of organic and animate being,
the author proceeds to declare, that all forms in nature,
living and dead, have been gradually developed from a
primitive, crude, and imperfect state, and that the higher
orders of animal life have succeeded by regular gradation
from those which Avere inferior in organization.* Geologi
cal discovery does, indeed, disclose that, in successive
periods, there haA^e been 'successive races, perhaps I may
say, orders of animals. And it may be conceded that, in
those remote and formative periods in the history of our
globe, of which its foundation rocks are the only record,
there was an adaptation of living creatures to the imper
fect abode in which they Avere placed, as there is now a
like adaptation to its improved condition. But it is not
true that there is such organic relation discoverable between
the primitive, secondary, and tertiary forms of animal life, as
to justify the assertion, that the latter vjere mere developments
* This, too, is but a speculation, which finds no sufficient warrant in the
record of nature.

HOWE. 159
of the former. There has not been that uniform improve
ment in all the orders of animal being, which would favour
the idea of a progressive, philosophical, self-adjusting growth
of nature to its present scale of advancement, and which,
once established, would give place to the theory which a
modern German philosopher* of the same school has boldly
put into words — " The eternal is the nothing of nature."
" There exists nothing but nothing, nothing but the eter
nal." "Real and ideal are no more different from each
other than ice and water."
In a discourse like the present, it would be impossible to
give extended extracts from the writings of these authors,
and neither the time, the occasion, the place, nor the
speaker, Avould be fit for entering upon a detailed and
critical notice of the scientific observations on which these
bold theories rest.-f- I am the more Avilling to omit the
recital of these things, because there is such an appetency
in the human mind for whatever may help it to be sceptical,
that the confutation of speculative follies, though it were
triumphant, and the disproval of alleged facts, though it
were annihilating, would lapse from the minds of many
hearers, while the evil suggestions of infidelity would
remain. I shall attempt, therefore, but to present a few
of the moral and rational considerations which oppose
themselves to the scheme of modern materialists.
The briefest outline of their theory, which with justice
I could sketch, is now before you. On the one hand, you
have seen that it begins by ignoring the Creator, as one
immediately concerned in the fashioning of anything as it
* Okin.
f For full exposure of the inaccuracy in fact, and unsoundness in philoso
phical deduction, which characterize the writings of these men, see Professor
Sedgwick's " Discourse on the Studies pursued at the University of Cam
bridge." ,

160 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
now exists. It interposes between us and him such an
interminable series of second causes, and removes him to
such a remote period in the dim ages of the past — it tapers
off the material universe to such an infinitesimal and un
defined shape, before it associates it with the hand of God —
that nothing is left of the incipient world or its Creator
conceivable by man, which renders it revolting to his moral
sense to say, " The Eternal is the nothing of Nature !"
On the other hand, the modern materialist not only finds
his dynamic forces essentially existent in matter, but he
presents them as capable of producing all those phenomena,
intellectual and moral, which ever are seen embodied in
man, the noblest organic form. Galvanism, which those
living contradictions, credulous sceptics, persuade them
selves can produce life in certain gelatinous globules, it is
assumed can produce thought and emotion by action on the
nervous system of man. And thus all spiritual being is
expurgated from the Universe ; — no father in Heaven, no
child on earth — but a dull, sluggish ball reeling in space — a
concrete cloud, gradually perfected into a habitable world,
and then developing out of its own substance, by a slow
accession of ennobling qualities, sentient and responsible
man. It may not be amiss to remark at this stage of our
subject, that though God and the soul are thus practically
and for all religious purposes removed from the recognition
of the materialist, yet logically the existence of neither is
thrown into doubt. For if we grant that the universe has,
in its organic and its animate forms, grown to what it is by
slow and regular development, yet the more unpromising
the germ or egg from which it sprang, the more wondrous
and complicated the latent power with which it was at first
endowed. A designer, infinite in wisdom and boundless in
power, must still be presupposed, or how could that inert

II OWE. 161
and insufficient, and sluggish matter have been impregnated
with such manifold and curious issues ? Reduce nature if
you can, like a mathematical quantity, to its loAvest terms,
and in the same proportion you make it comprehensive of
greater power — you widen the difference between that
original teeming something and the nothing that lies
beyond it !
Suppose we could follow back the process of creation
step by step, which the materialist says has been slowly
and steadily developing out of a crude and chaotic state,
through countless ages, and that these gradations were
regular, and after a common laAv of sequences, up to the
first germination of the world-seed ; yet the next move in
our backward research would launch us into an abyss Avider
and deeper than the AA'hole reach from the pregnant masses
of primeA7al chaos to the luxuriance, and beauty, and
mechanism, and life of the Avorld that now is. Oh, the
immensity of difference between nothingness and matter,
however rude and shapeless, yet, according to the theory
with which Ave are now dealing, instinct Avith the power
of organism, and capable of development into life and
thought and moral sentiment ! A God were still in
demand to have made the first material, though it were but
a dim nebula floating in space, and to have infused it Avith
those attributes of development by Avhich it has attained
to its present condition ! But, my hearers, a God whose
existence is to be proved by an intricate process of logic,
who is thrust by the impertinence of scientific hypothesis
out of a present actual universe, and recognised, if at all,
as creator but of the rough material from which the worlds
have grown, and that in the inconceivable depths of a past
eternity, is to the finite mind of man no God at all. The
faltering soul cannot grope so far to find him. The mecha
nism of such a self-existent and parturient world would
21

162 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
engross the admiration and the reverence of the thoughtful,
and perplexity and indifference would fill the void immense
between it and its remote first cause. And such has been
the practical influence of the scheme upon the leading
scholars who have constructed and promulgated it.
Lamarck, and Oken, and Comte, advert to no God as a
being of personal attributes, and the masked author of
" the Vestiges" would have had less power to injure the
morals of the reading portion of the community, and would
not have materially depreciated his own, if he too had
omitted to speak of a Deity, who is in his regard a mere
speculation !
But this modern type of materialism is to be reprobated,
not only for its practical removal of the Creator from the
cycle of time, and the compass of the known universe ; it
is subversive of any theoretical conceit of a superintending
Providence. It assumes that all things proceed as they do,
in obedience to certain determinate laws of development,
Avhich are inherent in nature ; that the universe goes on
like a clock Avound up, making its successive indications
without the care or interference of a master's hand ! The
ideal God who but now,»in the process of creation, was put
so far away, that the soul of man was beAvildered in finding
Him at the gray daAvn of material being, now appears con
gealed into a grim and iron fate Avhich rules Avithout sense
or A^ariation !
, There can be no concord betAveen the idea of a reigning
Deity, bearing the sceptre of command, and a system of
the universe Avhich invests all things with intrinsic powers
to combine, develop, and rotate in ceaseless and unfailing
order. And is it philosophically more probable that insen
sate matter, by the energy of its own qualities, evolves
such complex forms, such Avondrous harmonies, such phy
sical and spiritual life, than that a supreme mind watches

II 0 W E . 163
and directs, and an efficient hand fashions, adjusts, and
modifies the whole ? What faculty of man is better satis
fied with a divinity whose only acknowledged act (in a
period of the past too remote to be reached by the wing of
the imagination) was the flinging from his creative hand
the dust which has since condensed itself into spheres and
systems, and left the Creator an obsolete, superannuated
power? Surely our complex nature, physical, intellectual,
and moral, finds not its heavemvard aspirations met and
fulfilled by such a God as this ! Man's soul requires to be
conscious of subjection in all that concerns him, and the
globe on which he lives, to a present, superintending, and
controlling mind. Think you that all the tribes of our
race would haA'e been found offering sacrifices and Avorship
to the great unknown God, if the unsophisticated mind
could conceive of Him, as enthroned in the deepest recesses
of a past eternity, and then and there having given to the
material universe the one and only impulse it should ever
receive from his omnipotent hand? A Creator, ruled out
of the daily government of the realm of nature, by an
inexorable law of physical sequences, though he made that
law himself, has no attribute Avherewith to enlist the wor
ship of mankind. It is essential to our condition, ay, to
our moral instincts, that we regard our successive experi
ences in life, our supplies and our deficiencies, our sorrows
and our joys, as attributable to the ruling hand and intel
ligent disposal of a superior, personal poAver. We should
neither obey nor feel the impulse to offer prayer, nor the
least restraint of moral accountability, of Avhich men in all
conditions show some living traces, if the God demanded
by the religious element in our hearts were not a God of
providence. And the materialist, who conceives of the
universe as so consummate and nicely adjusted a piece of
mechanism, in which no want can exist that provident

164 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
nature with plastic grace of adaptation will not rush to
supply, is the last man who should leave this fearful gap,
this yawning hiatus, in the mutual fitness of things unpro
vided for !
As a philosophical system, the theory of material deve
lopment is obnoxious also to this objection: that, pursued a
little further in the direction of its advocates, it would
make God rather the eventual result than the first cause
of nature.
It propounds, as we have seen, the idea that the wondrous
system of the universe originated in the nearest possible
approximation to nothing ; that, from such an inception, it
has gone on developing its inherent resources of form and
beauty, and production, and life, and thought, and moral
sentiment ; that man, in all his loftiest faculties, is but an
improved animal, the progeny of apes at one stage of his
ancestry, of reptiles still further back, of fishes before, and
of mere "infusoria" at the first. Now, if such a law of
progression has been at work through the dim ages of the
past, what rational objection can be made to the presump
tion that it is still, and will be, operative, until perfection
shall be 'the issue ? And, perfection is another name for
God. Thus, we have the strange spectacle of a school of
philosophers, who have practically superseded the Deity,
by maintaining that matter is inherently possessed of all
his powers — suggesting to a mind which, from their theory
of the past, dares to look forward and anticipate the future
that, although the Infinite did not make the world the
Avorld Avill at length make him. My lips revolt at gi vino-
utterance to a sentiment so preposterous, so closely border
ing on the profane ! But it is best for us, when contem
plating a system so insidious as this modern scheme of
materialism, to look it full in the face, and to mark its most
odious lineaments. It is instructive to follow out the trail

HOWE. 105
on Avhich Ave are put, Avhen we join the rovings of men,
who enlist for scientific research with something less than
reverence for the Word of God ! The more gross of these
materialists seem to regard the present state of things as
the highest, stage of development, for Oken has actually
reduced to language the sentiment, " Man is God wholly
manifested." If this Avere true, death must be the extinc
tion of man ; for his mental and moral endowments are,
by the same scheme, only peculiar exertions of his physical
system, wrought upon by galvanism, the energizing agent
of nature. When he dies, therefore, inasmuch as no supe
rior organization is reproduced out of his material, that
Avhich distinguishes him as man, to Avit, his sentient being,
is lost. Or suppose we take the more consistent alternati\'e,
and, assuming that the uniA'erse, as it noAv is, the realm of
order, and beauty, and life, is the spontaneous development
of crude, chaotic matter, proceed to infer that higher orders
of being are yet to be evolved until perfection shall have
been reached; still, man, according to such a theory, must
suffer the loss of his individuality. His soul, while he has
a personal existence, is no spirit dwelling in his flesh as a
tabernacle ; it is only some function of his body, made to
manifest itself by the action of one of nature's mechanical
powers. The transmigration of such a soul is inconceiva
ble. The man of to-day cannot find his identity in the
demi-god of the future, any more than the dull lizard of a
more primitive age is personally present in the bold natu
ralist of our own.
I remarked, at the outset, that the materialist, though he
thus attributes thought and moral sense to the nervous
system, stimulated by galvanism, and so makes them coeval
with the body, does not logically get rid of the existence
of a human soul, for the soul may be defined as the reason
ing and moral faculty of man. He does but define, and

166 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
limit, and sensualize the mode of its existence. Yet in so
doing he sets it free from all moral responsibility. He
puts the name of God so far off in the black depths of the
past, and, betAveen, introduces so many substantial media
on the one hand, and so confronts it on the other Avith the
impending loss of its identity, that there is felt neither the
exaction of duty from the one, nor the hope of advantage
from the other.
And this introduces us to a yet further objection to the
scheme of the materialist. It extinguishes all motive in
man to act answerably to the suggestions of his moral
sense. The system forbids the apprehension of any judg
ment, or the occurrence of any future punishment or
reward. As there is no immediate laAvgiver, no moral
administrator of gOA'ernment, no spiritual subject, no future
on which this thinking evanescence, Avhich we have called
a soul, can count, from what consideration save the seeming
interests or pleasures of the hour, can spring the impulse
which shall direct and incite the action of man ? Nay, to
suppose the law of development, Avhich the materialist pro
pounds, to be perfectly triumphant, Ave must make man but
one of the little wheels in the mechanism of the universe,
and his every turn enforced by this complication with the
moving whole ! Do what he may of good or evil, it shall
be wrought not by him as an independent moral agent, but
only through him, by the necessities of time and circum
stance. If there be any responsibility allowed under such
a scheme, it must rest on the Avhole, and not on the part,
and that which it charged to the universe will not press
very heavily on the individual ! And Avhat would super
vene upon the earth, if this theory of life might obtain
among men ? The geologist, entranced Avith his discoveries
in the deep places of the sphere, or filling balloons of specu
lation in his study to launch into the deeper places of the

11 0 W E. 167
air, might do society no harm, unless it were by constantly
disturbing its accepted philosophy of nature Avith neAv and
more visionary hypotheses; but what Avould restrain the
unrefined, the sensual, the necessitous ? What shield Avould
protect Aveak innocence from mighty guilt? What threat
ening avenger AA'ould guard the rights of property and of
life, if the dread of something after death were dispelled
by the persuasion that thought and feeling are mere physical
phenomena, and will cease when dissolution shall unstring
the nerves on which they have vibrated ? Earth would
become the very vestibule of hell, and men and devils
mingle in equal intercourse, if the work of the law written
on men's hearts, and amplified on the page of revelation,
did not disseminate a loftier conceit of our nature, relations,
and destiny, than these materialists endeavour to make
current in the walks of learning.
I may detain you with but one further objection to the
theory of physical development, now attractively set forth,
and Avinning respectful attention, if not assent, in literary
circles. . It is at variance Avith the consciousness of immor
tality, Avhich seems to be inherent in the mind of man. At
any rate, the pagan sages of all times and all tribes, who
have thoughtfully considered the intellectual and moral
attributes of our race, have inferred, Avith various degrees
of confidence, that there is some ethereal part which sur
vives the body. The extent of the mind's range, the occa
sional triumph in Avhich it rises over physical suffering, the
accumulating strength and resources which it manifests
through the period of the body's decline, and down to the
moment of its dissolution, all are unaccountable, but upon
the theory that, while the soul abides in the flesh, it is a
lordly guest of higher pedigree and nobler nature, and that,
when it goes forth, " the earthly house of this tabernacle
being dissolved," it is, to find a house, not made Avith

163 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
hands, eternal. But the studious materialist, not alloAving
himself to speculate on the phenomena of his own intellec
tual being, as a special department of nature, governed,
perhaps, by its OAvn harmonious, but not identical, laAvs,
proceeds to inspect the monuments of the past ; and, finding
some tokens of progression in the lapse of the ages, with
inventive alacrity, he fills up the breaks, bridges the
chasms with bold theories of a single span, pushes further
back, with daring speculation, than the enduring record of
material nature runs, condenses all things into one pregnant
mass, and then proclaims the universality of a law of which
he has caught glimpses through the chinks of nature, that
all things have been developed by spontaneous energy, one
from another ; and, to illustrate his allegiance to this phy
sical fate, he bows his own hea\Ten-aspiring forehead to find
his ancestry among the apes and reptiles of the earth, and,
his vivid soul, panting for immortality, he constrains to be
submissive, Avhile he declares it to be nothing more than
his material form disclosing a peculiar aspect, under the
action of an extraneous physical agent! Oh ! is there any
picture of humanity more humiliating, more significant of
the depravity and morab subversion of our nature, than we
see exhibited in the scholar whose reason is hoodwinked
by his pride of attainment and invention, and who, to per
fect and maintain a favourite theory, will blink the facts
of science, invent connecting links to suit his need, spurn,
unstudied, the disclosures of God's Word, and even stifle
the revolting instincts of his own nature ? The materialist
does all this. To complete the reach of his conjectural law
of regular, successive development, he denies himself that
pleasing sense of immortality which ennobles the unread
peasant, and, to mark the triumph of his scientific skill,
reduces his soul to a thing, a clod of earth, sparkling for a

HOWE. 109
moment Avith intelligence, and then returning to its dull,
unconscious, and base condition again !
Before this assemblage I may seem to have been treating
of a type of scepticism Avhich is but rarely found, and
infatuating the minds of only a feAV enthusiastic scholars,
Avhom much or little learning has made mad. Would to
God it Avere even so ! I grant you that materialism, so
systematized and illustrated by natural and supposititious
fiicts, beguiles but a small remnant of the great multitude
of practical sceptics. The scheme is too new, its field of
research too intricate, its reasonings too subtle to have yet
been apprehended by the common mind. But materialism
in a cruder form — the Avish, half formed into a belief, that
there is no moral Governor, no living soul, no future after
death — is the sad and paralyzing scepticism which besets
every spirit consciously guilty, unrepentant, and unfor-
given ! The irreligious Avorld is on the alert for material,
however specious, to justify such grovelling opinions. And
no witness against the truth of revelation is so sure of wel
come as that old enemy, against whose sophistries Paul
cautioned the church in his day, "science falsely so
called !"
The danger from this supercilious and assuming demon
of infidelity — scholastic materialism — is the more imminent,
because it is now mingling itself Avith the popular literature
of the age ! And the age is one which loves to be flattered
with fragments of science, flung into its intellectual pabu
lum as it were, prepared to enjoy its savour and digest its
substance. Technical terms, once abhorrent, are now
affected, and serve to illuminate the pages of popular books,
and magazines and newspapers. And men who can catch
a few of them, and lard their lean thoughts, to use the
phrase of quaint Burton, with such basting, can often
impose on themseh'es the conceit, and on others the convic-

170 PHYSICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT.
tion, that they understand the science to which such nomen
clature belongs. When the literary taste of the masses
discovers such an infirmity, and infidelity disguised in the
mantle of science is attempting to tamper with it, it is
time for the advocates of revealed truth to lift up the
warning \Toice, and to demand that alleged discoveries be
well authenticated; that theory extend itself no further
than fact; and that revelation, wliich has such clustering
tokens in every department that it is of God, shall be ac
counted true in its history of the creation, in its doctrine
of Divine Providence, in its portraiture of man's complex
nature, until Science, in all her haunts, and by the voice
of all her devotees, shall proclaim, with unfaltering tongue,
through half a century, that the record is false, and that
she has deciphered Nature's Monogram, and is ready to
rehearse its infallible import !

€tthmik$i jcbelopenf.

BY RT. EEV. THOMAS ATKINSON, D.D.,
BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF NORTn CAROLINA.

VI.

ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT.
" Te should earnestly contend for Vie Faith which was once delivered unto tlie Saints." Jude, 3.
UNTIL within a comparatively recent period, it was
acknowledged by all Christians, that this injunction
was binding on the Church in every age ; that it possessed a
faith or creed Avhich had been delivered to it from above
once for all; that an essential part of its office was to
hold and transmit that faith ; and an essential part of its
duty Avas to contend strenuously for it Avhen assailed. It
Avas conceded, too, as a matter of course, that this true
Christian Faith was the doctrine held and taught by Christ
and His Apostles, that and no other. There was, indeed,
serious diversity of opinion as to the channel by which
that doctrine was derived to us; whether it flowed through
Scripture alone, or through Scripture and tradition co-ordi
nately : but there was no dispute as to its authority and
sufficiency when once ascertained. But all this is noAv
changed ; a more daring school of theology has risen up,
Avhich treats with scorn those ancient limitations of Christ
ian doctrine, and vindicates for it a domain not less bound
less than that of natural science, Avhich dissuades us from
resorting for our faith to the ancient fountains of Scripture,
or even Tradition, but bids us draw it fresh and new from
the abundant streams of the present Church. (173J

174 ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT.
In this age of progress it is supposed to have been disco
vered and even proved, that Christian doctrine did not come
down to us in its entireness from Christ and His apostles ;
that it was not revealed to these last as it is to modern pon
tiffs, doctors, and teachers ; that it is indeed communicated
to the world, bit by bit, as it is needed, and that thus, gradu
ally accumulating, it is impossible to foretell to Avhat volume
and amplitude it may at length grow. Such is the theory
of development, of which occasional glimpses seem to have
been taken by Romish divines ever since the Reformation,
but which has been more plainly indicated by the celebrated
Mohler, in his work on Symbolism, and has been at length,
Avith great elaboration of detail, great profusion of learning,
and great acuteness of reasoning, stated and defended by
Dr. NeAvman, as his justification for renouncing the Church
of England, and submitting to that of Rome. It is quite
clear, too, that this theory, though to so great an extent the
product of the teeming brain of a recent convert, is not only
tolerated, but warmly welcomed, in the Church of Rome ;
and that the leading minds of that Church are prepared
to take this very position as the battle-ground on which
they will hereafter contend for its exclusive authority and
universal domination. For Dr. Newman, on making his
submission, expressly referred this book to the judgment
of the Church he was entering ; and that Church is by no
means slow or mild in censuring when she is displeased.
On the contrary, she has a congregation or commission,
which sits for the very purpose of examining books, and
placing on the "Index Expurgatorius" those which are
considered faulty. And not only do we find on that list
treatises of Christian doctrine, but even works of science
and general literature, down even to the lightest tales of
fiction. But no unfavourable sentence has gone forth

ATKINSON. 175
.against this remarkable production. On the contrary, it
has been receiA'ed by the church to which it appealed with
the most flattering applause. A writer in the Dublin Re
vieAV, Avell understood to be Cardinal Wiseman, speaks of
the volume as " the description of the process of reasoning,
by which the author's powerful and well-stored mind was
brought to a full accordance with Catholic truth." The
Roman Catholic Bishop of Edinburgh took it as the text
for a series of lectures in the Scotch capital. And when
the author, soon after its publication, Avent on the continent,
his journey through France was illustrated by all the
honours which the most eminent of the clergy could lavish
on him ; while his reception at Rome was not that of a
penitent seeking forgiveness, but rather that of a conqueror
in the heroic age, entering the Eternal City after a glorious
campaign. The late Pope presented him with a beautiful
crucifix. The present pontiff permitted him to reside in
the College of the Propaganda, and to edify and instruct
the people by his preaching, even before he obtained the
holy orders, alone recognised in the Roman Court.* We
must infer, then, that his doctrine, just before published,
must have been adjudged by the Pope not only sound, but
unusually well fitted to enlighten and guide souls.
The Church of Rome then stands before Christendom com
mitted to this theory of development, first by its silence,
next by its action. A man of note comes bending before it,
acknowledges it as his sovereign, and brings in his hand
this book as an offering, and asks to be corrected if he has
erred in anything there taught. He receives no answer, but
an applausive, cordial welcome. This is surely an acknow
ledgment that his teaching deserves no censure. But it
does not rest there. This teaching is caught up and echoed
* AVordsworth's Letters to Gondon.

176 ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT.
and re-echoed by priest and prelate, from the pulpit and
from the press, in various countries and in different lan
guages. The doctrine, then, has ceased to be merely toler
ated, it has become authoritative; it is already half esta
blished, and its history will in time furnish another instance
of the very process of which itself is the proffered solution,
the process by Avhich an opinion groAvs and hardens into
an article of faith. Indeed, while this is a result which
Romanists do not seem to deprecate, it is one which they
probably could not avoid. They seem shut up by an inex
orable logical necessity to this doctrine of development.
It may be an unsafe harbour, but it is the only one in
which they can now anchor. For, at this day, it does not
seem possible for audacity itself to be so unblushing as to
maintain that Roman doctrine and primitiATe doctrine are
precisely one and the same; that the supremacy of the
Pope is understood now as it was by St. Polycarp, St. Hip-
polytus, and St. Cyprian ; and that the confessed deifica
tion of the Virgin, as it is in our age, was a familiar and
welcome thought to Epiphanius and Irenasus.
It is obvious, then, that Dr. Newman is only a little in
advance of the great booly of Romish controversialists, and
that they must all, hoAvever reluctantly, come up to his
stand-point, because it is demonstrable that unless the
Church of Christ has the power to develop new doctrines the
Church of Rome has not the right to teach her present doc
trines. Has, then, the Church of Christ, whether confined
as by Romanists, to their own communion, or extended to
all who believe in Him, and are baptized into His name,
has the Church any such power or right ? Now it is neces
sary to acknowledge, that there is a growth in the Church
as a body, and even an expansion of Christian doctrine as
a system, Avhich may, by a dexterous, logical legerdemain,
be made to appear to a careless observer, the same with

ATKINSON. 177
that process of development Avhich Dr. Newman advocates.
Undoubtedly our Saviour did promise that His kingdom
should increase from a very small beginning to mighty
issues, as a plant grows from a seed, or as leaven diffuses
itself through a lump, and in this, as in other things, His
AA'ord has not returned unto Him void. Mankind have
seen, with Avonder and with awe, the vision of the Babylo
nian monarch fulfilled, the stone cut out Avithout hands
break in pieces and consume the iron and the brass, the
clay, the silver and the gold, all opposing poAvers, however
august, however consolidated, and that stone itself become
a great mountain and fill the earth ; they have seen the
httle band of a hundred and tAventy disciples, beginning at
Jerusalem, the Church of Christ, enlarge itself, and crush,
one by one, all the obstacles which the fanaticism of the
Jews, afid the wisdom of the Greeks, and the policy of the
Romans, and the rude valour of the Barbarians, could rear
up against it, and extend itself northward and soutliAvard
and eastward and westward, until it occupied the whole
civilized world, and still continue to grow, daily making
new conquests from the surrounding wilderness of Heathen
dom. In this sense there has been, indeed, a mighty deve
lopment in Christianity. And amid these altered circum
stances, and because of them, the laws and institutions of
the Church have been greatly expanded. The government
of the disciples was a very simple thing when they all met
together in one upper chamber. Even during the lifetime
of the Apostles, it became more complex. Timothy at
Ephesus, and Titus in Crete, had to set in order things that
were wanting, to make rules, administer discipline. As in
process of time, new exigencies arose, so neAV laws were
required, and new tribunals and officers to promote the
peace and order of Christian society. Canon law then, and
ecclesiastical polity are now, of necessity, very different and
23

178 ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT.
far more complete than anything of the same nature which
Avas knoAA'n in the infancy of the Church. Here then is
groAvth in the body itself and in its institutions, the gar
ments, so to speak, which it wears for vigour and for beauty.
But this relates only to its outward, visible existence. We
must go further, and acknowledge that, in what more
immediately concerns its inner life, in its teaching, in its
avoAved and express faith, there has been, in the progress
of time, an- expansion Avhich he who chooses may call a
Development. It is quite obvious, e. g., to our very senses, that the
Nicene Creed is more Aroluminous than the Apostles', and
it is beyond dispute, that the Nicene is later than the
Apostles', and that the increase is not by an accumulation
of words, but by the annunciation of distinct and substantial
propositions. The faith or creed of the Church, then, in
one age, as propounded to mankind, was enlarged beyond
what it had been in a preceding. And, aftenvards, the
decrees of the Councils of Constantinople, Ephesus, and
Chalcedon, not to speak of others, were accepted by the
Church as definitions of the essential faith. Here, then, is
an advance, century after century, step by step. How.
then, is it to be distinguished from that development, the
operation of which has recently startled Christendom? This
may be offered as a short and summary answer to the
question, that the one is objective, the other subjective.
That development, as taught by Dr. Newman, is increase in
the amount of revealed truth itself, which increase the Church
generates, Avhile, on the other hand, the legitimate expansion
of the Christian faith is a better understanding, and a
clearer and more explicit statement, on the part of the
Church, of truth already, once for all, revealed by God.
True progress in Christian doctrine is found in a more per
fect apprehension of what already exists ; development is

ATKINSON. 179
an addition of what did not heretofore exist as revealed
truth : as a new tier of stones is laid on a temple, as a, fun
gus grows on an oak, or as alloy is poured on the fine gold.
The subjective growth in Christian doctrine, on the part
of the Church, is not only lawful but desirable, and, indeed,
inevitable. Individual Christians, as they groAV in grace
and in experience, grow of necessity, likewise, in knoAvledge,
not because more truth is given them, but because more is
received by them. The human mind, applied to Holy
Scripture, is like a cup dropped into the ocean — it draws up
more or less according to its OAvn measure, hindered by no
limit on the part of a reservoir which is itself unlimited.
So the collective mind of the Church goes on to learn from
age to age.
Prophecies explain themselves by fulfilment. Opposite
aspects of the same truth are combined and reconciled.
General propositions are drawn out, by deduction, into the
particular verities AA'hich they include, as, from axioms in
mathematics, theorems flow. Thus, we find in Scripture
a certain moral law — " Be ye therefore merciful, as your
Father also is merciful." Christians meditate on this law,
the consciousness of the Avhole Church grapples with it,
and it is traced out to its issues. It is soon discovered to
be repugnant to gladiatorial shows, to a harsh and unmiti
gated system of slavery, even to rigorous parental discipline
like that of the Romans, to aggressive warfare, and the
like ; and practices of this sort begin to be assailed, either
by express laAvs of the Church, or of Christian states, or by
the current and pressure of Christian sentiment. Here
then is a deduction of particular moral judgments from a
general principle. And thus, to take an instance from
Avhat is less ethical and more simply intellectual : Jesus
Himself declared His oneness with the Father. When
heresies arose concerning His nature, it became necessary

180 ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT.
for the Church to define in what sense He was one Avith
the Father, and it was then affirmed that He was so one
as to be of the same substance Avith the Father, and this
consubstantiality Avas made a test of orthodoxy, as it has
ever since continued.
Yet it is clear that this consubstantiality is only a par
ticular truth, embraced in the general truth that He is one
Avith the Father, not figuratively but literally ; for, if one,
then He must be of the same substance. Yet Dr. New
man does not hesitate to say that, because this doctrine
Avas defined in the fourth century, it Avas a development
of that century, as the papal supremacy and the Avorship
of the Virgin were of subsequent eras. Let them be shown
to be alike in this respect, that each flows by necessary
consequence from Scripture, and then Ave shall be con
strained to place them on the same level as of Divine
authority. Until a doctrine, hoAvever, is proved to be
taught in Scripture, either expressly or implicitly, it ought
not to be received as a part of revelation, unless it haA'e
the evidences that revelation has, miracles like those of
Christ and His Apostles, antecedent prophecies, harmony
Avith God's acknowledged word, and superhuman purity
a,nd elevation on the part of its teachers. When any
Romish doctrine comes to us with these notes of a Divine
origin, we are bound to accept it as Divine ; until then,
jealousy for the honour of God's word, as Avell as respect
for our OAvn understandings, bids us reject it. For this
notion of development, if admitted, requires us to believe
that the Church is empowered to declare from time to time
truths necessary to salvation, which are strictly new ; that
matters of doctrine are now binding on the faith of Christ
ians which were neA'er known to the Apostles and Evange
lists, actually or virtually ; never taught by them orally or
in writing; never accepted by or known to the Church iu

ATKINSON. 181
its primitive and purest state; nay, that hereof the Church
may teach Avith the penalty of eternal damnation on those
who Avill not believe it, Avhat no one at the present day
belieA-es, no one has ever heard of, no one has ever ima
gined; and is certainly a most formidable claim, and makes
Christianity scarcely less than a new religion. It binds us
doAvn to accept, not the faith which purified and saved the
soul of St. Paul, or St. Augustin, but any faith now or
hereafter to be declared by the authority of the Church.
Do these persons who offer us this new and startling doc
trine, confirm it by miracles, not of winking madonnas,
and self-inflicted stigmata, but by such miracles as become
a neAv revelation — by such miracles as those of Pentecost
and the Resurrection ? It cannot be pretended. Do they
bring their proofs from Holy Scripture ? So far from it,
that there is nothing Avhich Holy Scripture more vehe
mently affirms, and more frequently reiterates, than the
immutability of the faith. "One Lord, one Faith, one
Baptism," is what St. Paul preaches. "Contend strenu
ously for the Faith, once delivered to the saints," is St.
Jude's exhortation. And thus again St. Paul says, " Keep,
0 Timothy, that which is committed to thy trust;" "Take
heed unto thyself and the doctrine, continue in them;"
"Charge some that they teach no other doctrine." But
especially consider hoAV St. Paul fulminates against this
deadly error in his Epistle to the Galatians. " Though we,"
says he, " or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel
unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed." As Vincent of Lirins remarks, he does not
say though I, but though we, though James, though John,
though Peter himself, of course, one may infer, though any
of his successors, real or pretended ; yea, though an angel
from heaven preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed.
Nor is he content to say this once, but immediately and

182 ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT.
deliberately repeats it. As we said before, so say I noAV
again, if any man preach any other Gospel unto you than
that ye have received, let him be accursed. And thus,
as Vincent observes, " to preach anything to Christians
besides Avhat they have received, never has been lawful,
nowhere is lawful, nor ever shall be laAvful. That vessel
of election, that teacher of the Gentiles, that trumpet of
the Apostles, that herald of the lands, that confidant of
Heaven cries, and cries repeatedly, and to all, always and
everywhere, that if any shall have preached a new doctrine
let him be anathematized."
And it is to be noted that the Gospel against which St.
Paul so vehemently protests, is not one incompatible Avith
his own, but different from his own, different only if it
affirm what he did not affirm. And if we inquire into the
judgment of the Fathers on this point, we find that if they
knew more of the will of God than the Apostles did, they
Avere utterly unconscious of this superior wisdom, but sup
posed themselves only to teach what they had received by
transmission from these very Apostles. Nay, that even
the mediaeval Church Avas ignorant of its OAvn power to
originate new revelations, but considered rather that Novelty
Avas a sure sign of heresy. Here then we have a problem,
an acknoAA'ledged variation between Apostolic teaching
and Romish teaching ; Ave have a theory of development
offered us as the solution of that problem. It is a theory,
however, not countenanced by Scripture, but anathematized
thereby; not known to the primitive Church, nor the medi
aeval Church, except as a sign of heresy; not sustained by
miracles, nor any other supernatural evidence.
It rests, then, for its proof purely on its own reasonable
ness. Is it then, as it ought to be, if candid men are to
receive it, the most reasonable and the most obvious thing
imaginable ? Surely it is strange, if so, that it should be

ATKINSON. 183
so lately discovered. It is an assertion that Revelation
must groAV as natural science groAvs. But is not this, to
keep out of vieAV the essential idea of a Revelation ? What
do we mean by a Revelation ? In one sense, all knoAvledge
is revealed, for all light comes from the Father of lights.
But God communicates knowledge in different ways. Some
truths we learn mediately by inductions from facts, by
weighing probabilities, by comparison of ideas, by deduction
from general principles of nature.
But there are other truths, Avhich, from the character of
their subject-matter, could not be learned in this way : such
e. g., as pertain to His own essence and attributes, and to
the life beyond the grave, Avhich yet it exceedingly behooved
mankind to know, and which He has in His mercy conde
scended to teach us, by express oral or written messages.
If a man deny that in this last sense a Revelation has ever
taken place, Ave know what he means, he is simply an infidel.
But if he admit that this has been done, then he acknow
ledges that God does communicate religious Truth in a way
different from, and opposite to, that by which He teaches
Natural Science. Science, as it has been well said, is a
revelation in and by the reason, the Gospel is a reA^elation
to the reason. To obliterate this distinction is in its effect
to destroy all religious faith.
But, before the misguided folloAver of these new lights
reaches that quagmire of rationalism toAvards Avhich they
guide him, obser\re into Avhat odious and irreverent positions
he is conducted. Christian knowledge, say the advocates
of Development, is ever advancing. St. Paul, then, knew
less than St. Athanasius, and St. Athanasius less than St.
Bernard, and St. Bernard less than St. Alphonsus Liguori,
or Dr. Newman. Nay, that is far from being the entire
anti-climax. St. Paul, who was so ignorant of truth and

184 ECCLESIASTICAL D E VE LO P il E N T.
duty as to rebuke the Primate St. Peter openly, and to tell
him that he erred — St. Paul, who kneAv of but one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus — St. Paul,
who seems to have relied as little on the Virgin Mary to
assist in his salvation as on any A\roman then unborn — St.
Paul, who believed that all Christ's people when absent
from the body are present with the Lord, instead of being
racked by the intolerable pains of Purgatory — this man
was on Romish principles not only a less enlightened and
less accurate teacher than Dr. NeAvman, but he was a less
informed Christian than the least and lowest of Dr. New
man's disciples; than the merest girl fresh from a con\'ent;
than the rudest and poorest Irish labourer, who commits
his departing soul to the Virgin ; nay even than the Italian
bandit who kneels before an image Avliile waiting for the
traveller Avhom he intends to rob or to murder. What
ever the practices of these men may be, if the Theory of
Development be true, their knowledge of Christian doctrine
is greater than that of any ancient Father, than of any pri
mitive Saint, than of any even of the exalted Twelve who
saw and heard the Lord of life Himself, and whom He
promised to guide into* all truth. And Avhat the most
advanced Christian now knoAvs of the Christian Faith is less
than what a Tyro may know hereafter. To-morrow there
may be new discoveries in Christianity. The next steamer
may bring us in addition to the price of cotton and the
number of killed and wounded in another battle on the
Danube, intelligence of a new article of that Faith without
believing which a man cannot be saved. His doctrine may
be sufficient to-day, but when he goes abroad to-morrow
he learns that there is another Development which he must
believe or be lost. He is exposed to be anathematized, not
on the old ground pointed out by St. Paul, that he has

ATKINSON. 18,'j
received another Gospel, but on the exactly opposite ground,
that he Avould not receive another Gospel. Where is all
this to end? What sort of religion will Christianity be
when fully developed ? " When the Son of Man cometh,
shall he find faith on the earth ?" Let us, my brethren,
devoutly thank God that we belong to a Church that
adheres to the old landmarks, and is content to be no wiser
than the Apostles, and Avhich enjoins on all its ministers
and all its members to contend strenuously for the Faith
once delivered to the saints.

24

gatkaMt gt&etopent.

BY REV. SAMUEL FULLER, D.D.,
RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, AOTOVEE, MASS.

VII.

RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
" Beware, lest any man spoil you, through philosophy and vain deceit, after Ute tradition of men, after
Hie rudiments of tlie world, and not after Christ." Col. u. 8.
THE subject to Avhich I am now permitted by a merciful
Providence, and by the kindness of the founders of
this course of lectures, to invite your candid and earnest
attention, is Rationalistic Development.
In apj>roaching this difficult and important theme, it is
my fervent prayer to Almighty God that the Holy Spirit
may so direct our thoughts and rule our hearts as to render
the present occasion largely profitable to our souls, and
widely promotive of his glory ; and this for the sake of
Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord and Saviour !
At the threshold of our inquiries this primary question
presents itself: What is Rationalism ?
Rationalism is the attempted supremacy of reason in
religious matters. It is the attempted, and not the actual,
supremacy ; since, from the very nature of the case, every
effort to bring the infinite within the compass and domi
nion of the finite will ever prove a signal and instructive
failure. The renowned reformers, Luther and Calvin, had not
been long resting in their graves, Avhen the churches of
(189)

190 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
Europe were startled and appalled by such annunciations
as these from the mouths of Faustus Socinus, and the
author of the Racovian Catechism, Valentine Smalcius, the
revivers of the ancient Arian heresy, which insists that
there was a time when the Divine Word, the everlasting
Son of the Father, did not exist : " To admit any doctrines
which are contrary to common sense, we neither can nor
ought to be induced by the express words of the Spirit of
God himself."* " Whatever opinion agrees not with reason
is inadmissible in divinity, "f
The next generation heard still more hardy and irreve
rent declarations ; for Simon Episcopius, an Arminian
divine of Holland, thus dogmatizes : " Whatever the reason
of man finds out to be false, is on no account to be consi
dered as true or right in religion."
With the noted polemic, Dr. Joseph Priestly, this Avas a
favourite maxim, as unsound in principle as it is daring in
spirit : " It is now time to lay less stress on the interpreta
tion of particular texts, and to allow more weight to gene
ral considerations, derived from the whole tenor of Scripture
and the dictates of reason, and if there should be found any
difficulty in accommodafing the one to the other, the Scrip
ture, and not reason, should remain unaccounted for."|
These bold assertions of influential and leading Ration
alists very clearly discover the principle on which thev
insist the interpretation of the written Avord of God and
all religious investigation should be conducted; that the
judgment of our reason must in every case be regarded as
decisive and supreme.
If this is in brief a just definition of Rationalism, Ave
may now introduce to our notice another inquiry :
* Socinus.
t Smalcius. Smith's Scrip. Testimony to Messiah, Vol. I. p. 68.
X Hist, of Corruptions of Christianity, Vol. I. p. 261.

FULLER. 191
What is Development?
In itself, Development is simply a gradual unfolding. It
is not a creative act, but a successive opening and increase
of something already existing ; while in its manifestations,
Development is as Ararious as are the things, Avhich by
degrees unfold themselves and come to perfection. The seed
develops itself into the plant. The acorn develops itself
into the oak. The bud develops itself into the leaf. The
blossom develops itself into the fruit. The child is deve
loped into an adult. But as in these familiar instances of
development there is no new act of creation, so there is no
change of the original essence. No species ever commin
gles and becomes identical with another. " Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?"* " Can the fig-tree
bear olive berries ? Either a vine figs ?"f In the vegetable
world no such transmutation and confusion ever occur, but
each kind of plant, grain, and tree invariably produces its
like. In the animal kingdom, the same undeviating law of suc
cession also prevails; physiologists and anatomists searching
in vain for an example where a race has unfolded itself
into a neAV one. Nowhere within the sphere of the world's
observation does one form of life pass into some other.
Vegetables never become animals, nor do brutes lose their
nature, ascend in the scale of being, and obtrude themselves
into the ranks of humanity.}
Such is Development as it exists in the material creation ;
and hence we may expect that the same impossibility of
blending diverse natures preArails, as an inexorable law, in
every other department of existence.
* Matt. vii. 16. t James iii. 12.
% Baron Cuvier, Murchison, Charles Bell. Indications of the Creator, by
Geo. Taylor.

192 RATIONALISTIC DE VE LO P MEN T.
With these preliminary observations, Ave are perhaps
prepared for the reception of our principal question,
I. WHAT IS RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT ?
Development rationalistic is a theory devised by modern
rationalists, of the perpetual evolution of neAV doctrine
under new circumstances. It is the hypothesis of a develop
ing energy in the Gospel, which incessantly moulds its
original principles into novel forms of truth.
Thus Immanuel Kant, a most eminent philosopher of
Germany during the last century, and a professed rationalist,
proposes so to transmute Christianity as to free it from all
old dogmas. " Mysteries must eA'entually pass into the
form of moral notions by a metempsychosis, if they are
e\Ter to become intelligible. The Church creed contains
within the germ of a principle, whereby it is urged to a
continual and more close approximation towards pure ethics
and religion, until at length these last being attained, the
other will be superseded and dispensed with. The swad
dling bands beneath which the embryo shot up to manhood
must be laid aside when the season of maturity has come.
The leading-strings of sacred traditions, which in their time
may haA'e been of service, grow by degrees superfluous."*
This theory of indefinite progress inherent in the very
nature of the Gospel, is thus portrayed by the distinguished
American divine Avho, in the metropolis of NeAV England,
once so eloquently advocated the modification of Christi
anity, called Unitarianism :
" In the times of the early Fathers, Christianity was in
its infancy. The Apostles communicated its great truths
to the rude minds of Jews and heathens, but the primitive
Church did not, and could not, understand all that was
* Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Pure Reason, Pref. & B 3 Apot
1,2 7.

FULLER. 193
involved in those principles. In the first age, the religion
was administered with a wise and merciful conformity to
the capacity of the recipients. With the progress of intel
ligence, and the development of the moral faculties,
Christianity is freeing itself, and ought to be freed, from
the local, temporary, and accidental associations of its
childhood."* According to this theory of Development, Christianity is
not so much a body of definite doctrine, as an embryon
principle, or a prolific idea, yielding diversified products,
branching into many species and varieties, and manifesting
itself under endless modifications ; and yet under all these
infinite forms retaining its original and divine character.
Of course, at its commencement, Christianity was not fully,
but only partially revealed. As a truth it Avas only a seed,
out of Avhich it Avas subsequently to grow until it reached
maturity. To Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostles, God
imparted his Avill in such a form, that from it succeeding
ages can develop other truths, and this indefinitely, as their
aspirations prompt, or their exigencies require.^
This is the aspect of Rationalistic Development as pro
fessed by the followers of the German philosophers, Kant,
Schelling, and Hegel. But in France, and among the
admirers of the Eclecticism of Victor Cousin, Rationalistic
Development exhibits still another phase.
In the assuming and erroneous language of the disciples
of this school, " Intuition is a direct manifestation of truth.
Everything of an intuitional character unfolds itself more
and more in the individual. In proportion as our spiritual
nature is brought more into harmony with truth and with
* Dr. AV. E. Channing's AVorks.
f Letters on Development, by Rev. Wm, Archer Butler, D. D.
25

194 RATIONALISTIC D E VE L 0 P Al E N T.
God, will there be a clearer reflection within us of divine
things."* According to the imperious dogmas of this popular and
aspiring modern Platonism,-j- Ave are able by a kind of
intellectual vision, to soar, not only above the world of sense,
but beyond the sphere even of our personal consciousness,
and boldly to place ourselves at the very centre of Absolute
Being, Avith Avhich indeed reason is to be regarded as
identical ; and then from this central point sunreying
essential existence, and its various relations, Ave can next
unveil the nature of the Deity, and fully explain the deriva
tion of all things Avhich have been created by the Infinite !}
As a necessary consequence of this refined and subtle
theory, whateA'er in the Scriptures agrees Avith our innate
sense of absolute truth, Ave are for this cause to believe;
Avhile eA'erything that does not receive the spontaneous
assent of our reason, or rather is not suggested by this
faculty, Ave are to reject; the primary intuitions of the
soul, and their independent deductions, constituting both
the standard and the measure of religious truth.
Rationalistic Development, then, as the twin offspring
of Rationalism, forms with its parent a tri-corporal monster •
like the horse leech and her two daughters, " a generation
Avhose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives
to devour the Lord's poor from the earth, and needy and
perishing souls from among men."§ The voracious mother
takes her stand upon experience, making this the criterion
* Morell, Philosophy of Religion, pp. 199, 200.
t Plato taught, that the soul was an emanation from God, and that human
reason was therefore identical with the Divine. From this single frao-ment of
ancient alloy, how many attenuated and brilliant leaves have been beaten by
philosophical and theological artisans!
j Sir AVm. Hamilton's Review of Cousin's Philosophy. Edinburgh Review
October, 1829.
\ Proverbs xxx. 14.

FULLER. 195
and test of all truth, Avhile the not less sharp-mouthed
daughters, abandoning the ground of empiricism, maintain
a different doctrine : the German child, that the Gospel is
only an incipient fundamental idea or principle, a nascent
thought; the French bantling, that all possible knowledge
both of truth and duty is inherent in reason itself.
Thus diverse in the times of their ascent from the smoke
which arises from their subterranean father-land (for Ration
alism assumed its name about the middle of the seventeenth
century, while its progeny, dualistic development, is the
portentous and desolating infliction of the eighteenth and
nineteenth), the maternal parent, and her legitimate off
spring, clothe themselves Avith very different garbs of per
sonification. Sometimes Rationalism presents itself under the veteran
form of grim and sturdy Deism, armed cap-a-pie with infidel
objections, bristling Avith mighty difficulties, and marching
heavily and sternly forth with sword, and spear, and battle-
axe, to Avage a Avar of death and extermination against every
revealed truth.
But now Rationalism, the warrior and crusader, has dis
appeared. He is no longer a Bolingbroke, a Voltaire, or a
Paine; but he moves in our midst in a clerical habit;
gravely ascends the pulpit ; opens the printed Word of God ;
mysteriously waves over it his magic wand, which he calls
Accommodation ; solemnly informs us that, by this lin
guistic necromancy, he has banished from the sacred page
every superhuman presence, Avhether angelic or Divine ;
and, with the air of an oracle, assures us that the Book
now speaks only as Plato and Socrates might have spoken,
had they enjoyed the clearer light and superior illumination
of the present century !
Finding, however, that the common sense of mankind
must ever hold this as an undoubted maxim : the Ian-

196 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
guage of the Old and New Testaments is subject to the
same fixed and unalterable laws as govern the language of
all other books, and that, therefore, the inspired writers
spoke the words of truth and soberness, or else there have
never been any such words in the Avorld, Rationalism shuts
the Bible in disgust and despair, leaves the Church, re
nounces Christianity, denies the independent and personal
existence of God, and turns idealistic philosopher.
He retires to his study, and there thinks long and deeply
upon the nature of his own soul ; vainly hoping to find in
its hidden depths something which will explain the mys
teries of his own being, and the Avonderful relations in which
he stands to other things. At length, wearied with the
double exercise of tasking his intellect and of Avatching the
responses of his consciousness, he calls in the aid of his
imagination, which soon enables him to congratulate him
self upon the great and unparalleled discovery of an inward
ear, hitherto unstopped, and, therefore, deaf, and of an
internal eye, ever before shut, and, consequently, blind.
Rejoicing in the supposed possession of faculties which,
by rendering all conceivable voices audible, and all possible
truths visible and intelligible, open his soul to the whole
universe of knowledge, he covets retirement and solitude,
that, undisturbed by the occupations and distractions of
the world, he may hold spiritual and elevating converse
with nature and with himself. He withdraws to the fields
and woods, and, with rapt delight, fancies he hears instruc
tive teaching on all hands, and supposes he sees, with his
new power of abstract perception, not only the modes, but
the very essence of all beings ; mistaking, all the Avhile, the
bewitching tune his imagination plays, for this universal
music, and the illusive visions this wily enchantress dis
plays, for this unlimited intelligence.
Thus it is, that Rationalism is, in its pervading spirit,

FULLER. 197
either Deistical, holding to mere Naturalism, although not
utterly discarding the Bible ; and then it is contentious and
controversial, subtle and deceitful, acting the fierce and
bloody assailant, or the cunning and adroit conjuror, as
may best subserve its settled and relentless purpose of
separating God and man from all intercommunion, and of
hunting revealed religion from the earth : or Rationalism
is Pantheistic, blending God and the world together, and
deifying itself; and then, its self-conceit and its indifference
to all theology, and to the distinctions between right and
wrong, and good and evil, render it complacent and tole
rant, courteous and blithesome ; while its visionary tenden
cies conduct it into the region of the ideal, where, were
there really no such things as Divine justice and holiness,
and human depravity and responsibility, no eternal life nor
eternal death for every imperishable soul ; it might do but
little harm in ballooning in a thin and sublimated atmo
sphere, disporting itself Avith its OAvn fanciful creations and
logical subtleties respecting necessity and spontaneity,
myths and terminologies, quiddities and ontologies.
Were the Bible a lying fiction, and all reArealed truth but
a deceitful fantasy, we might innocently gaze in silence as
the developing idealist
" Spreads for flight and fluttering his pennons,
Uplifted spurns the ground ; thence, many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
Audacious into the wide expanse ;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
AVeighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
Ear off the empyreal Heaven extended wide."*
But we must turn our eyes aAvay from such a melancholy
spectacle, in order to inquire for
* Paradise Lost, B. n.

198 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
II. THE SOURCES OF RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
As, in tracing a river to its rise, Ave find that it does not
originate in a single head, but in many springs and lakes,
some near at hand and easy to approach, others more re
mote and difficult of access ; so the sources of Rationalistic
Development are multiform — a part of them obvious and
immediate, while another portion is obscure and distant.
Beyond all question, the mad current is, at the present
time, swollen to an overflowing flood, by the large infusion
of the speculative philosophies of Germany and France.
Further up the wild stream we can perceive Dr. Priestly
and John Solomon Semler, the sophistical German theolo
gian, and their followers, also the deists Gibbon and Hume,
and the French materialists, pouring in their bitter waters ;
while, still more remote from us, Baron SAvedenborg, a
strange and visionary personage, wonderfully resembling
the Arabian impostor, Mohammed, not, indeed, in Avarlike
disposition, but in an insane and unbridled imagination,
adds to the poisonous tide a crude and heterogeneous mix
ture of false philosophy, heretical Christianity, lawless
interpretation, and sensual mysticism, under the form of
pretended disclosures of Heavenly Secrets.
But we have not yet followed Rationalistic Development
backward to its first gushing fountain.
It is remarkable that, in observing the prevalence of this
specious and destructive error, as it now overshadoAvs some
portions of Christendom, we discover it in this country
principally among the first settlers of New England, and
among the emigrants from the land where Martin Luther
distinguished himself.
How are Ave to account for this Avell-known fact?
The Pilgrims, who came to Plymouth Rock, brought

FULLER. 199
with them from England the theological views of the early
Puritans in that island.
But that candid and truthful English divine of the six
teenth century, Richard Hooker, who Avas incapable of wilful
misrepresentation, asserts, that the first Puritans, in com
mon Avith the Anabaptists of Germany, maintained that it
Avas " the special illumination of the Holy Ghost, whereby
thev discerned those things in the Word, which, others
*/ O 7 7
reading, yet discerned them not."*
Indeed, the declarations of the Rev. John Robinson,
minister of the English congregation in Holland, to which
the first settlers of New England belonged, are, in his fare-
Avell address, delivered Avhen his flock was about embarking
for America, even still stronger than the testimony of Mr.
Hooker. " If God reveal anything to you, by any other instrument
of His, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive
any truth by my ministry; for I am ATerily persuaded,
I am very confident, that the Lord has more truth yet to
break forth out of his holy word. For my part, I cannot
sufficiently beAvail the condition of the reformed churches,
Avho are come to a period in religion, and will go, at present,
no further than the instruments of their reformation. The
Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw ;
whatever part of his Avill our good God has revealed to
Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. And the
Calvinists, you see, stick where they Avere left by that
great man of God, Avho yet saAv not all things. This is a
misery much to be lamented ; for though they were
burning and shining lights in their times, yet they pene
trated not into the whole counsel of God ; but, were they
now living, would be as willing to embrace further light,
* Eccl. Pol. Prof. c. ?., I 10. Ilartwick's Hist, of Articles, p. 96.

COO RATIONALISTIC D E VE LO P M E N T.
as that which they first received. I beseech you, remember,
it is an article of your church, covenant, ' that you will be
ready to receive Avhatever truth shall be made known to
you, from the written Word of God.' But I must hereAvith
exhort you to take heed, what you receive as truth.
Examine it, consider it, and compare it with other Scrip
tures of truth, before you receive it. For it is not possible,
that the Christian world should come so lately out of such
thick anti-Christian darkness, and that perfection of knoio-
ledge should break forth at once."*
Altogether, this is a most remarkable passage. Remarkr
able as disclosing the views of one of the founders of a
Avirle-spread theology; remarkable as evidence respecting
the religious opinions generally prevailing among certain
classes at the period Mr. Robinson lived ; remarkable as,
without doubt, containing the germinant and prolific seeds
of the pestilent errors which have grown so luxuriantly
upon the soil Avhere they were originally scattered ; and
remarkable for the high position it now occupies in the
estimation of his successors and folloAvers, Avho revive it in
new editions of history, publish it as a doctrinal model,f
circulate it in books o£ common instruction,^ and, in not
a feAV schools, require it to be carefully committed to
memory,§ and thus virtually elevate it to the rank of a
theological symbol.
As a dogmatic creed the passage embodies these several
Articles :

* AVinslow's History, John Robinson's AVorks, Vol. I. p. 44 ; Neale's History
of Puritans, Vol. II. pp. 140, 147.
f Robinson's AVorks are published by the English Congregational Union
and the Massachusetts Doctrinal Tract and Book Society.
X National Reader, by Rev. John Pierpont.
§ Rev. Joseph Emerson's Questions to Goodrich's History of United States,
p. 28.

FULLER. 201
1. The written word of God contains truths concealed
beneath the historical and grammatical sense.
2. In its literal sense, the written word of God is not
perfect. 3. Revelation has not yet ceased.
4. Ministers of certain churches are noAv the recipients
of Divine revelation.
5. Additional truths will be revealed.
6. The revelations of light from the written word of
God are gradual.
7. Every minister is the judge of the revelation he
receives. 8. His judgment is infallible.
9. The Christian religion is progressive, by means of the
gift of new knowledge, from the Spirit of the Lord.
10. Every Christian person is bound to admit the truth
of these nine assumptions.
11. All supplementary revelations he is likeAvise readily
to Avelcome and implicitly believe.
12. Their reception and belief Avill greatly improA7e his
spiritual condition.
13. By neglecting and disobeying them he will suffer a
grievous loss.
14. Their rejection is a legitimate cause of grief and
lamentation in every child of God.
From this parting discourse of Mr. Robinson to the
company of emigrants to New Plymouth, it is evident that
he regarded himself, and likewise Luther and Calvin, and
indeed every other minister of concurrent faith, as the
subjects of neAV revelations of truths fromt he Almighty ;
and that, in this respect, his Avas but the common belief of
the community of which he was so conspicuous a member.
It is also plain, that he expected still additional revelations ;
for he expresses his firm " persuasion" and strong " con-
26

C03 RATIONALISTIC DE VE L OP AI EN T.
fidence that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out
of His holy toord," by means of new disclosures. In
short, Mr. Robinson was a believer in the progressive develop
ment of Christian doctrine; for he also bitterly complains
that " the reformed churches Avould go no further, but had
come to a period in religion," and likeAvise asserts that " it
is not possible for perfection of knowledge to break forth
from tlie word, of God at once" or, in other phrase, the
word of God, in its literal meaning, is imperfect !
If the disembodied spirit of the Rev. John Robinson
has, since its departure from this troublesome life, more
than tAvo centuries ago, been witnessing the changes which,
during this period, have occurred in the theological world,
he doubtless no longer bewails the Avant of progress in the
reformed churches, as the advancement has been in a
direction he least anticipated, and reached a limit which he
most heartily abhorred, and most scrupulously avoided;
for, at the present time, the deadly spirit of Rationalism,
coeval in its manifestations with the Reformation itself,
has, in the very country of Luther, in the city of Geneva,
in the birth-land of the Plymouth pilgrims, and in their
cherished home in this Western Continent, silenced the
voice of true Scriptural teaching in thousands of pulpits,
where once the Bible was by the ministers regarded and
treated as the oracles of God, and by the people was
received Avith undoubting faith, loved with gloAving ardour,
and obeyed Avith constant and unchanging faithfulness.
Surely, the " period" to Avhich some " churches" have at
length come, is perpetually changing its position, and the
stand-point they occupy is an ever-varying cycle.
As Avas inevitable, the revelations for which the pastor
of the Leyden exiles hoped and waited, Avere eventually
realized ; not, indeed, in additional light from heaven, but
either in the wild vagaries of an excited imagination, or in

FULLER. £03
the cold and paralyzing negations of a speculative natu
ralism.* In deference, then, to the unerring voice of history, Ave
are in sorrow compelled to believe, that the theology origi
nally brought to Massachusetts, and there fostered in
subsequent years, contained a deep infusion of Rationalism,
and that this embodied and cherished leaven diffused itself,
sometimes silently, sometimes loudly,-}- until the mass of
the popular mind has been largely infected with the wasting
heresies of Arianism and Pelagianism, Swedenborgianism
and Humanitarianism, Transcendentalism and Pantheism,
which, alas ! have not yet finished their frightful Avork of
infidelity and spiritual death.
That Martin Luther was himself, intentionally, a Ration
alist, no one Avill assert ; and yet it is undeniable that he
held, published, and transmitted to posterity Rationalistic
sentiments.

* About a century since, there occurred in this country the religious excite
ment which was familiarly called the Whitfield Stir. But, like Mr. Robinson,
whose theological system he advocated, the Rev. George AVhitfield claimed for
himself a special revelation from heaven ; for these are his own words : " My
doctrines I had from Christ and his Apostles ;' I was taught them of God." (a)
" The Holy Spirit, from time to time, has led me into tho knowledge of Divine
things : and I have been directed, by watching and reading the Scriptures on
my knees, even in the minutest circumstances, as plainly as the Jews were
when consulting the Uri-m and Thummin at the High Priest's breast."(6)
Dr. Thomas Scott, tbe author of a widely circulated Commentary upon the
Bible, employs language equally positive in reference to the Divine instruction
he had himself received. " As surely as I believe him to be a God that heareth
prayers ; so surely do I believe that flesh and blood hath not revealed to me the
doctrines I now preach, but God himself by Sis Holy Spirit.(c)
t " Their precept" (that of the first settlers of New England), "like their
example, speaking, as it were, from their sepulchres, is, to follow truth now,
not as they saw it, but as we see it, fearlessly and faithfully." — Justice Story's
Misc., p. 61.
(a) Whitfield's Letters, 214. (b) Account of God's Dealings, p. 34.
(c) Force of Truth, Part III., c. 5. See also his Life, pp. 68 and 175.

204 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
With regard to ministerial inspiration, his views were
identical with those of Mr. Robinson ; for he thus records
his " general deference to Avhat the spirit teaches" at the
present time, as he evidently believed : —
" Among Christians, it would be intolerable for one man
to set up for master over others who are taught by the same
spirit. It is enough to prove the spirits, whether they are
of God ; and that being once ascertained, ive ought instantly
to show reverence, to lay aside all magisterial airs, and
humbly to sit down as scholars ; for it is impossible for the
Holy Spirit to speak, without delivering trutlis before which
every man should bow, and receive them with child-like
simplicity!'* Luther was a firm believer in his OAArn personal infallibil
ity ; a belief Avhich is not only a material ingredient, but
the very quintessence of all Rationalism. Thus convinced
that his judgments were infallible, he rejected from the
sacred canon two books of Scripture, that of Esther and
the Epistle of St. James ; while, moreover, he decided some
moral questions in direct opposition to the command of
our Saviour Christ.-|-
But if Luther claimed for himself infallibility, why
might not any other divine, a Semler, or a Paul us, an
Amnion, or a Strauss, do the same ? If two books of the
Bible can, by individual dictation, be depriA'ed of their
canonicity, Avhy may not the Avhole sixty-six? If one
mandate of the Lord may be disobeyed, Avhy may we not
disregard and repudiate all?
The removal of a single stone imperils the stability of
the entire wall, and the first handful of snow taken aAvay
from the bottom of the mountain, may set in motion the
* Letter to Brentius. Luther and Lutheran Reformation, by John Scott,
vol. IL, p. 213.
t Sir Win. Hamilton's Discussions, pp. 484-496.

FULLER. £05
overwhelming avalanche. It may be, then, that the Ra
tionalistic principles unwittingly held by the Wittemberg
Reformer, have ever since exerted upon German theology
and the Teutonic mind a most pernicious influence, not
only in Europe, but in this Republic. It may be, that the
loud and shocking clamours now heard on all hands for
the abolition of the Lord's-day, for the extinction of the
Christian priesthood, and for the destruction of the Bible,
are in reiterated and swelling echoes the doubts he whis
pered and recorded in his secret cloister.
But we are able to trace Rationalistic Development still
farther back into the field of the past.
John Robinson Avas the follower of the Genevan Re
former, Avhile both John Calvin and Martin Luther were,
in many features of their theology, the disciples of Augus
tine, of the fifth century, the celebrated Bishop of Hippo,
in Africa ; who, Avhen censured by Prosper and Hilary, the
one a layman, and the other a Bishop of the Church in
Gaul, for teaching his noA^el doctrine of predestination,
Avhile he admits the charge of novelty, defends his dogma
on the ground that "it teas a revelation from God in answer
to prayer."* It is not then improbable, that the theological school, of
which Mr. Robinson is a representative, derived their
peculiar ideas of perpetual revelation from the African
Bishop; while, likewise, as he must have been the sole
judge of the revelations he received, inasmuch as he
Avrought no miracles to prove their diA'ine origin, it may
be, that from the same Augustinian source, the German
Reformer deduced his assumption of personal infallibility.
As we ascend still nearer the Apostolic age, one other
* Si orent eum qui dat intelleclum, si quid de Prgedestinatione alitor sapiunt,
ipse illis hoc quoque revelabit. — August, de Prozdest. et Persever., lib. I. c. 1.
Opei:, Vol. VII. p. 485. Faber on Election, B. 1, c. 8, pp. 110-112.

206 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
spring-head of Rationalistic Development reveals itself in
the person of the noted Origen, of the third century, a
Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria in Egypt.
Deluded by the Platonic philosophy Avhich he adopted,
and following the speculations of his own mind, he made
additions to Divine revelation, by teaching the pre-exist-
ence of human souls, a notion recently revived in this
country;* and their incarceration in bodies for offences
previously committed, and that our senses pollute our
spirits, and must all be mortified ; Avhile he perverted the
Gospel of God by maintaining that all rational beings are
restrained only by motives, the most powerful of which is
punishment ; and that God will thus ultimately bring all
his creatures to be wise, holy, and blessed : the very seed-
ground of modern Universalisrh.*
From this single line of historical investigation, it is
clearly evident, that from a very remote date has this
enticing heresy prevailed in the Christian Church : revealed
truth is a pliant mass, to be changed and modified either by
increase or diminution, according to the notions of its pro
fessors. The introduction of this false principle has been,
and still is, the prolific source of immeasurable evil; for
while truth ever tends to life, error, however small or hoAv-
ever plausible, as inevitably works nothing but mischief
and death.
Such, then, are the sources of Rationalistic Development.
III. HOW CAN THE THEORY, IN ITS VARIOUS MODIFICATIONS,
BE PROVED TO BE FALSE AND UNTENABLE ?
By showing that it stands upon an unsubstantial basis.
Rationalistic Development rests upon two assumptions :
the assumption of boundless capacity in the human soul ;
* The Conflict of Ages, by Rev. Edward Beecher, D.D.
t Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. (Murdock's Edit.), Vol. I. p. 178.

FULLER. 207
and the assumption of imperfection in the Gospel revela
tion. 1. The first foundation upon which Rationalistic Deve
lopment rears its toAvering superstructure, is then the
assumption of unlimited power in the human mind.
To the intellect of man Rationalism attributes an ability
which cannot be proved to exist.
How do Ave know Avhat powers the human intellect pos
sesses ? Not from speculation, but from consciousness.
Our mental faculties, whatever they are, cannot be con
structed by our ingenuity, like a machine, but they exist
already in their completeness, and can, therefore, only be
observed and Avatched by the inherent power of conscious
ness; Avhile the results of these conscious observations,
constitute all the knowledge we can of ourselves have of
the mechanism of our souls.
But such profound philosophers as Socrates, Aristotle,
and Pliny, such wise sages and spiritual Christians as Ter
tullian and Augustine, Chrysostom and Lord Bacon, Sir
Isaac Newton and Bishoj) Butler, were not conscious that
their intuitions unfolded themselves more and more ; they
were not conscious of possessing the faculties Rationalistic
Developers attribute to the human intellect; nor is the
mass of mankind thus conscious; and if these faculties are
not conscious and prov-able possessions, they are no facul
ties at all, and have no existence save in the imaginations
of a few idealistic dreamers. Indeed, it is not too much to
say, that not a single one of these speculatists is himself
conscious of having a mental poAver by which he can sur
vey and compass the Absolute and the Infinite; Avhile
again, if no man has this ability, it is a nonentity, so far
as we are concerned, and its existence is incapable of proof.
From this infallible testimony of our consciousness, it
follows that Rationalistic Development, so far as it is built

208 RATIONALISTIC D E VE LO P MEN T.
upon a false system of mental philosophy, is but the " base
less fabric of a dream ;" and therefore should not disturb
us, save Avith deep regrets that it has so many attached
professors and enthusiastic admirers, Avho, by their delu
sion, are estranged from Christ, and deprived of the
blessings of His salvation.
In despite, then, of the laborious efforts of Rationalism
to exalt, the office of reason, and even to elevate the faculty
to the rank of a god, this mental instrument remains
unchanged in its nature, and occupies the exact position it
has always occupied. By its own admission, it was of old
finite, ignorant, and weak, and unfit to be our highest
religious guide; and the lapse of centuries has added
nothing to its essential compass, knoAvledge, and ability.
As formerly, so noAv, reason " by searching cannot find out
God," cannot discern His nature, cannot fully discover our
relations and duty to Him, cannot clearly determine His
mind towards us, and, therefore, by its ignorance, weak
ness, and perversion, reason demonstrates the necessity of
a Divine revelation and of superhuman assistance. After
all the Rationalistic speculations and boasted developments
Avith Avhich the world ljas so long been deluded, reason is
no new faculty, nor is it capable of performing any new
work; but it is precisely the same thing it ahvays was,
and has now assigned it by its Divine Author the identical
duties which were ever required of it.
What, then, is the legitimate office of Reason, in connexion .
with the recorded oracles of God ?
In view of the finite character of all our faculties, and
the revelation contained in the Old and New Testaments, as
a limited and unchanging collection of positive objects,
lying absolutely beyond our natural observation, and for a
knowledge of Avhich we are wholly indebted to Divine con-

FULLER. £09
descension and testimony, the legitimate office of reason in
connexion with the truth and church of God, can, by the
similitude of a learned Swiss divine of the last century,*
be thus illustrated :
A King sends one of his officers to a province with autho
rity to govern it in his name. After a time this Governor
allows himself to be ensnared and perverted by a faction.
Hence the affairs of the province are very badly adminis
tered, and all things are thrown into confusion. The
sovereign being Avell apprised of all that had happened, and
perceiving that the government had not the wisdom and
firmness, the energy and authority, requisite for remedy
ing the disorders of the province, and restoring it to peace,
sends a Deputy Extraordinary, and gives orders to the
Governor to submit himself entirely to this Deputy, and to
take no measure without his direction. The Governor's
first duty is to ascertain whether the superior minister be
really sent by the King; for unless he haA'.e satisfactory
evidence of this, he would be guilty of treason in yielding
to the stranger the authority which the sovereign had com
mitted to him. But when he sees the sign-manual, and
the other unquestionable attestations of the royal com
mission, he immediately delivers up all his OAvn powers to
the Deputy, and submits in all respects to his arrangements
and decisions. Now, if I should ask, From whom does the
Deputy hold his authority over the province ? From the
King who sent him, and whose commission, signed and
sealed, he has in his hands ? Or, from the Governor, who,
on the production of those documents, received him with
due honour and acknowledgment? Every man of com
mon sense will say, From the King surely ; for to suppose
the other would be absurd.

* Samuel Werenfels, Professor of Theology at Basil, who died in 1740.
27

210 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
The application of this parable is plain. The gracious
and Almighty God has given Reason to man for the guide
of his conduct through life. But Reason has submitted to
be corrupted by sin ; and man, therefore, is fallen into a
state of extreme misery. God, of his infinite goodness, has
had mercy upon man; and seeing the insufficiency of
Reason to restore him from his fallen state, and to deliver
him from his misery, has sent Revelation, and has given
orders to Reason to yield obedience, and to take no part in
directing the conduct of man except what Revelation may
assign. What, then, has Reason to do in this case ? First of all,
she must examine whether this, Avhich claims to be a
Revelation from God, is indeed such ; for if she have not
satisfactory evidence of this, she cannot, without criminal
rashness, surrender her own authority, which the Creator
has invested her with for the government and guidance of
man. But as soon as she is satisfied from indubitable
proofs, that this is indeed a Divine Revelation, she yields
without delay, and if Reason be indeed rational, submits
herself entirely to the Word of God.*
With regard, then, tp revealed truth, the first legitimate
office of reason is most obviously this : To examine the
credentials of the men who profess to address us in the
name of Almighty God. These credentials are, the
miracles they wrought, and the prophecies they utter: a
true record of Avhich is contained in the genuine and
authentic written documents of the Old and New Testa
ments. Hav'ing satisfied itself from an unprejudiced scrutiny of
the evidences of Christianity, that this religion is super
natural in its origin, reason then must proceed to ascertain
* Smith's Scripture Testimony to Mess'ah, Vol. I. pp. 76-7.

FULLER. 211
the meaning of the inspired oracles, defend them from the
assaults of enemies, harmonize their truths, and show their
practical application to our hearts and lives.
When reason executes this fourfold office, the religious
work God assigns this faculty is fully accomplished ; because
it is unable through its weakness, perversion, and igno
rance, either to unveil the invisible, to discover the truths
the Bible discloses, to investigate their nature, to judge of
their wisdom, or to pronounce upon their importance.
Reason, Avhen faithful to her duty, conducts us to Revela
tion, existing only in the Old and New Testaments, and
opens for our admission the door of the Divine sanctuary,
where she commits us to the arms of faith, and leaves us
under her empire ; attending us afterward only as a sub
ordinate servant, and not as a sovereign master ; a sub
missive assistant, and not as an authoritatiA'e judge.*
2. The other pillar on which the theory of Rationalistic
Development founds its edifice, is the assumption of imper
fection in the Gospel revelation.
In the theory this imperfection is itself inferred from two
analogies : the one imaginary ; the other inadmissible and
without force.
We have heard the German Rationalists pronouncing
Christianity to be the " germ of a principle," and a budding
idea, thus assuming that it is imperfect; and they attempt
to justify this assumption by appealing, first, to alleged
imperfections in the material world, and then, to the actual
imperfection of the previous religious dispensations.
In the hypothetical philosophy which underlies these
assumptions, all things havre emerged from a chaotic and
unfinished state by gradual processes.^
* Bp. D. Wilson's Evidences of Christianity, Lect. 23.
t Lamarck, a French Naturalist, and his followers. Vestiges of Creation, and
Edinburgh Review for January, 1845.

212 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
Thus in several departments of natural science, especially
in Geology and Astronomy.
From the researches of Geologists these infidel philoso
phers endeavour to prove that all the present forms of
animal life, not excepting even man himself, have proceeded
from loAver and imperfect forms, and that in this way all
preceding beings originated, back through an indefinite
series of successive production, till we reach the primitive
energizing chaos itself.
From the discoveries of Astronomers, Rationalists con
clude* that the whole universe once consisted of attenuated,
cloudy matter, out of which the heavenly bodies, planets
and stars, have been gradually evolved. Thus finding, as
they suppose, essential imperfection in all material things,
they infer that the Gospel itself must in its nature be a
chaotic seed or a curdling sun.
But a profounder Geology-]" and a higher Astronomy J is
demonstrating, that neither the teeming chaos, nor the
nebulous material out of which worlds are conglomerated,
has any existence but in the brains of these shallow phi
losophers. Geologists cannot discover any blending races
of animals ; nor can Astronomers bring within the reach
of their keenest vision the slightest indication that there
are progressive formations among the bright worlds beyond
the skies.
The analogy, then, which Rationalists attempt to establish
between Christianity and the material world, is wholly
imaginary, and consequently does not in the smallest
degree sustain the assumption that the Gospel revelation is
imperfect. An attempt is likewise often made to prove the Gospel
* Nichols' Sidereal Heavens.
t Footprints of the Creator; by Hugh Miller. Sir Charles Lyell's Geology.
X Sir John Herschell.

FULLER. 213
imperfect, on the ground of the allowed imperfection of the
preceding dispensations, the patriarchal and the Mosaic.
The patriarchal religion Avas imperfect, and therefore
introductory to that of Moses ; while his as incomplete Avas
the precursor of the Christian, and as a consequence this
also partakes of the character of its predecessors, and is of
course destined to pass through the stages of infancy, child
hood, youth, and manhood, until it attains its perfection,
and is succeeded by something else.
This is the logic : but it is wholly inadmissible, and with
out force ; inasmuch as it is defective, and contradicts the
positive declarations of our Lord and his inspired Apostles.
As a logical sorites, the reasoning is inconclusive ; since it
is very far from being the case that all things which for a time
move in a series continue to do so indefinitely. Although
all vegetables and animals grow for a time by seasons and
degrees, their growth has a fixed limit, beyond which they
cannot pass ; so that, instead of inferring the farther
advancement of Christianity from the diminutive size of
its predecessors, we may rather conclude that this is itself
the perfection after which they aspired ; that Patriarchism
was the child, Judaism the youth, and Christianity the full-
grown and finished man.
But the logic is not merely defective ; it also conflicts
with the express assertions of our divine Saviour and his
holy Apostles.
This is the wonderful promise of our Lord to his chosen
followers : " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things ; he will guide you into all truth."*
St. Paul thus records the fulfilment of this promise :
* John, xiv. 26, xvi. 13.

214 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
"Jesus Christ hath abounded towards us in all wisdom,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will."*
In his address to the elders of Miletus, this Apostle utters
these declarations : " I kept back nothing that teas profitable
unto you; I have sheAved you all things."f
These Holy Scriptures prove that the Apostles both
received and communicated "all" the truth which it is
" profitable" and necessary for us to know, that the Gospel
contains all this necessary truth, and that therefore it is
actually, as it is termed in the New Testament, " the perfect
law,"J and the "perfect will of God."§
Illogical as well as useless is it then, when Inspiration
itself pronounces Christianity " perfect," to argue its imper
fection from the imperfection of the patriarchal religion
and Judaism. The Gospel might indeed have been imper
fect ; but, since it is not, it is beyond our power to overthrow
the fact by a deduction drawn from a mere conceivable pos
sibility. Thus Rationalistic Development shows itself both unphi-
losophical and antiscriptural ; for it contradicts our observa
tion as Avell as our consciousness, to whose authority we
must defer or annihilate ourselves; and it conflicts with
the revealed Avord of God, Avhose testimony we must receive,
or renounce the truth of all history.
The assumption therefore of the imperfection of the
Gospel dispensation being in all respects untenable, Christ
ianity, as an objective revelation, is not the feeble " germ
of a principle" to be developed more and more by circum
stances and the exigences of its possessors; but Christianity
is a finished and glorious galaxy of positive truths, each as
complete and entire at its, first promulgation as it ever will
* Eph. i. 8, 9. f Acts xx. 20, 35.
X James i. 25. \ Rom. xii. 2.

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be. Christianity is not an "embryo shooting up amidst
swaddling-bands and leading-strings," each of which is to
be laid aside as it advances in size and height ; but Christ
ianity is a final and perfect creation, and, like its Divine
Author and Founder, is ever the same, " yesterday, to-day,
and for ever ;" and therefore is without either infancy,
manhood, or old age, except in reference to the flight of
time, and the reception it meets with in the successive ages
of the Avorld.
As a perfect creation, the Gospel is complete in itself,
having neither deficiency nor redundancy. The finished
Avork of God, the Gospel neither requires additions of any
kind, nor allows either contraction or diminution; for,
in this divine system, nothing is superfluous, nothing is
wanting. As the creation of God, the Gospel is perfect, just as the
human frame is perfect. In the human body there are no
superfluous limbs, no superfluous members, no superfluous
senses. On the other hand, the body has no deficiencies.
It needs neither an additional head, nor an additional eye,
nor an additional heart, nor an additional faculty or instru
ment of any sort. Should any part of the human body be
removed, it would to that extent be maimed and rendered
weak and impotent ; while if it should receive additions, it
would not only become a monstrosity, but be deprived of a
measure of its strength, activity, and power.
The perfection of the human frame does in all strict
ness illustrate and define the perfection of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. In it there is nothing local and temporary,
accidental and transient. His Gospel has no non-essential
truths, no unnecessary institutions, no useless officers, no
dispensable sacraments ; for, as God is the author of every
portion of the Gospel, his infinite wisdom cannot have erred
in making any part in vain. Every doctrine, as well as

216 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
every outward ordinance, is his creature, and as such is no
more to be retrenched and cast aside than are our arms or
our heads, should we either in our stupidity or in our mad
ness attempt the suicidal or the murderous process.
On the other hand, the Gospel admits of no additions.
With the inspiration of the Apostles, the inspiration of the
new dispensation for ever ceased ;* so that, since the com
pletion of the canon of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit
has communicated no additional truth whatever, either to
individual Christians or to the Church, Avhether particular
or universal. We are no more to expect a Divine novelty
in the Gospel than we are in the human body. In each
have all creative acts absolutely terminated ; and therefore,
in each do all things remain as they were at their original
formation. Hence, there can be no development of Christian
doctrine, in the sense, either that God imparts truth not
contained in the canonical books of the Old and NeAV Tes
taments, or that the Holy Scriptures enclose a hidden
meaning, deeper than the historical and grammatical inter
pretation — a spiritual meaning, revealed only to fervent
suppliants ; for, not till the anatomist shall develop some
new sense or some new faculty in the human body, will
either philosopher, theologian, assembly, synod, council, or
* " In the primitive times, the Holy Spirit fell upon believers, and they spoke
in tongues which they had not learnt, as the Spirit gave them utterance. - These
were signs suitable to the time. For it was right that the Holy Spirit should
be borne witness of in all tongues throughout the whole world. That testimony
having been given, it passed away." — Augustine, In Evan. Johan. c. 4, Tract.
VI. 1 10.
" Let no one, therefore, brethren, say that, because our Lord Jesus Christ
does not now do these things" [miracles], "therefore he prefers the former times
6f the Church to the present. For there is a passage, in which the same Lord
sets those who do not see and yet believe, before those who believe, because
they see."— Idem, Serm. 88, de Verb. Evan. Matt. XX. \ 2.
" Of miraculous powers not so much as a single vestige remains." — Chrysos
tom, De Sacerd. lib. IV. c. 3.

FULLER. 217
college, develop any new Christian truth. Guided, as Ave
must be, exclusively by the historical and grammatical
sense, we may indeed, by diligent and prayerful study,
discern in the Gospel, truths before unseen by us, and of
these truths, we may, almost to an indefinite extent, make
new applications for instruction and edification, for reproof
and correction, for encouragement and comfort ; but these
new perceptions and these neAV purposes to which we apply
the word of God, no more create the truths Ave discover
and employ, than we create our bodies, when we investi
gate, for the first time, their intricate and wonderful con
struction, or use them in ways we had previously neglected.
The Gospel is absolutely perfect, completely finished, sym
metrically entire, Avanting nothing, and has been ever since
the last Apostle "fell on sleep and saw corruption;" just
as much so as was the human body, when, in the first
Adam, its almighty and all-wise Creator pronounced it
"very good."* This being the case, all theological eclecti
cism, gospel reform, mystical interpretation, and new arti
cles of faith, is creation-mending, as superfluous and unne
cessary as it is arrogant and sacrilegious.
What though an Augustine and a John Robinson, a
Whitfield and a Thomas Scott, and many others, assert,
that, to them, truth has " broken forth" from the written
word of God, and been "revealed to them by the Holy

* " A complete man is neither destitute of any part necessary, and hath
some parts, whereof, though the want could not deprive him of his essence, yet
to have them, standeth him in singular stead, in respect of the special uses for
which they serve ; in like sort, all those writings which contain in them the
Law of God, all those venerable books of Scripture, all those sacred tomes and
volumes of Holy Writ, they are with such absolute perfection framed, that in
them there neither wanteth anything, the lack whereof might deprive us of
life, nor anything in such wise aboundeth, that as being superfluous, unfruitful,
and altogether needless, we should think it no loss or danger at all, if we did
want it."— Hooker's Eccl. Pol. B. I. c. 13.
28

218 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
Spirit ?" we are still obliged, while we admire the sincerity
and devotion of these distinguished men, to believe that
they were, in this opinion, deluded and mistaken.
The inspiration of which the Holy Spirit is, at the present
time, the author, is not intellectual, but only moral. None
but Prophets and Apostles ever received from the Holy
Ghost intellectual illumination ; for the sole object of the
grace others possess, is not to render us either revelators,
or unerring doctrinal critics and infallible expositors, but
to remove moral darkness from our fallen nature, to teach
us self-knowledge, to open our eyes to our own utter cor
ruption and weakness, to dispel all delusive dreams con
cerning our own innate goodness and sufficiency, to cast
down every high imagination, and to show us feelingly and
practically our wretchedness through sin, that we may,
with thankful and eager desires, Avelcome the great salva
tion the Son of God offers us.
In the language of the eloquent Bishop Heber :* " By its
agency on the natural faculties of the soul, the internal
and ordinary influence of the Holy Ghost supplies us with
recollections, ever seasonable, to support or to subdue our
weak or rebellious naljjire; it hallows our thoughts by
attracting them to hallowed objects ; it strengthens our
virtuous resolutions, by renewing on our mind those im
pressions which gave them birth ; it elevates our courage
and humbles our pride, by suggesting to our recollection,
at once, our illustrious destiny and the weakness of our
unassisted nature."
By itself it teaches nothing, but without its aid all human
doctrine is but vain. It is this which gives life and strength
to every truth which we hear ; this which imprints on our
soul, and recalls to our attention, those sacred principles
* Bampton Lectures, pp. 320-323.

FULLER. 219
to which our reason has already assented. Distinct from
conscience, but the vital spark by which our natural con
science is sanctified, it both enables us to choose the paths
of life, and to persist in those paths ; and though, like the
free and viewless air, it is only by its effects that Ave discern
it, it is the principle of our moral, as the air of our natural
health; the soul of our soul, and the shekinah of our bodily
temple !
But, by itself it teaches nothing. It prepares our hearts,
indeed, for the word of life, and it engrafts the word in our
hearts thus opened; but, that living word and, whatever else
of knowledge we receive, must be drawn from external sources.
" Faith," we are told, " must come by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God ;" nor can we hear " without the voice
of a preacher."*
The inspiration of religious perception and memory,
God's ordinary grace, induces the soul to behold the truth
of those doctrines which external opportunities of know
ledge offer to her understanding ; it preserves and refreshes
in her memory those principles of action, of which Ave have
already perceived the force ; it is the blessing of God and
his pervading energy which prospers to our salvation Avhat
we learn, and what Ave haA7e learned ; but, when we pass
beyond these limits, we invade the regions of miracle and pro
phecy ; and it is no less inaccurate to suppose that in the
ordinary course of things we receive a new idea from the
grace of God, than it would be to maintain that our knowledge
is derived from t7ie lamp that lights our study.
Like that lamp, the grace of the Most High enables us
to trace, in the oracles of salvation, the things Avhich belong
to our peace; like that lamp, it helps us to renew the
decayed impression of knowledge long since obtained; and,
* Romans x. 17.

£20 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
Avithout such heavenly aid, the unassisted soul Avould be as
unequal to the pursuit or perception of her eternal inte
rests as the unassisted eye to read in darkness. But,
whether by celestial or earthly light, ive can only learn from
that which is before us ; and the one can no more be said to
communicate a new revelation to our souls, than the other to
place a fresh volume on our table.
I do not say that grace does not possess an active poAver,
Avhich not only enables us to attend and recollect, but fre
quently compels our attention and recollection. Nor am I
rash enough to deny that God may, by any operation or
any medium whatever, communicate to our souls, when he
thinks proper, any imaginable, or, to us at present, unima
ginable knowledge. But this may be without offence main
tained (and I am the more anxious to state it clearly,
because it is this particular point on which enthusiasm is
most frequently mistaken), that it is by the illustration,
not the revelation of truth, that God's Spirit ordinarily
assists us; and that the latter is one of those cases of
Divine interference, of which neither the present age of
Christianity, nor, perhaps, any preceding age since the time
of the Apostles, affords us an authentic example."*
* " The effects of the Spirit, as far as they concern knowledge and instruction,
are not 'particular information for resolution in any doubtful case, for this were
plainly revelation, but, as the angel which was sent to Cornelius informs him
not, but sends him to Peter to school ; so the Spirit teaches not, but stirs up in
us a desire to learn : a desire to learn makes us athirst after the means ; and
pious sedulity and carefulness makes us watchful in the choice, and diligent in
the use of our means. The promise to the Apostles of the Spirit whioh should
lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret inform
ing their understandings with the knowledge of high and heavenly mysteries,
which had as yet never entered into the conceit of any man. The same pro
mise is made to us. For, what was written by revelation in their hearts,
for our instruction have they written in our books ; to us, for information,
otherwise than out of these books, the Spirit speaks not. When the Spirit
regenerates a man, it infuses no knowledge of any point of faith, but sends
him to the Church and to the Scriptures. More than this, in the ordinary

FULLER. 221
Not merely Augustine and the men who embraced his
doctrinal views claimed divine inspiration in support of their
system, but the same pretensions are urged by their oppo
nents, Loelius Socinus and John Wesley, and even by the
infidel Lord Herbert. But the Holy Spirit cannot be the
author of conflicting and irreconcilable revelations; and
therefore we are compelled to deny the special intel
lectual illumination from on high of every man, no matter
how respected his name, and great his influence in the
world, until he proves by miracles that he speaks by the
movement and suggestion of the Holy Ghost.*
But after all, is there no such thing in Christianity as
Admissible Development ?
This question receives, in part, its true answer from
Vincent of Lirins, a Gallican Father of the fifth century,
who, when he is interrogated, " What ! nothing new ?
Must there be no proficiency, no improvement of religion
in the Christian Church ?"- thus most ably replies : " Yes,
without doubt, very much ; but, then we must be sure not
to change Christianity, under pretence of improving it. To
improve anything to the utmost, is to enlarge it to the just
standard and perfection of its own nature. It is the duty
of every Christian to increase and grow in understanding,
knowledge, and wisdom, but he must continue a Christian
still ; the growth must be natural, in one and the same kind
of faith, in the same meaning, and in the same mind. The
Christian faith must never admit of any alteration in its
essential properties, either by augmentation or diminution,
but its definition or essence must always continue one and
proceedings of the Holy Spirit, in matter of instruction, I yet could never
descry. AVhich I do the rather note, because by experience we have learnt,
how apt men are to call their private conceits the Spirit." — Golden Remains of
the ever-memorable John Hales of Eton College, 1659, p. 14.
* Faber on Election, pp. 59-05.

222 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
the same. Method, beauty, and clearness, and such kind
of embellishments, may be added to the word of God, but
then every kind must continue distinct and entire in its
OAvn proper nature. Succeeding ages may set off, file, and
polish the ancient doctrines, but they must never change,
never retrench, or mutilate anything, the doctrines may
admit of more evidence, clearness, and distinction, but they
must be inviolably preserved in their full, entire, primitive
perfection!'* The development of which Vincent thus speaks is evi
dently intellectual development, an increased knowledge of
revealed truth. This kind of development is not only
alloAvable, but also obligatory, as we are commanded by
an Apostle to " groiv in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, "f
But St. Peter also says in the same passage, " Grow in
grace," and therefore there is still one other kind of develop
ment which the Gospel permits and binds upon the con
science of every one of its professors. It is practical
development. The embodiment and manifestation of
Christian truth and holiness in our dispositions and con
duct ; increasing appropriation by us of the grace of Christ ;
and advancing growth in him. This species of development
we practise when we possess and cultivate the Christian
virtues : when, in obedience to the injunction of St. Peter,
we " add to our faith" these other fruits of true religion,
divinely engrafted in our hearts, " virtue and temperance,
patience and goodness, brotherly kindness and charity :"J
when, (as we pray he may,) God " increases in us his mani
fold gifts of grace, and we daily increase in his Holy Spirit
more and more."§
Of more developments than these two, growth in know-
* Commonitory, chaps. 28 and 29. f 2 Peter iii. 18.
% 2 Peter i. 5, 7. § Confirmation Office.

FULLER. 2£3
ledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and growth in grace,
Christianity knows nothing. If we seek for others, we shall
open the door to every species of error and fanaticism ; we
shall leave the narrow and safe path our Saviour Christ
hath marked out for us to walk in ; we shall depart either
to the superstitious traditions of Romanism on the one
hand, or to the freezing abstractions of Rationalism on the
other ; we shall be recreant to the faith of Christ crucified ;
we shall show ourselves untrue Avitnesses, and unfaithful
keepers of Holy Writ; Ave shall expose ourselves to the
malediction of our sovereign and jealous Lord, avIio will
not give his glory to another; "If any man add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are Avritten
in this book : and if any man shall take away from the
Avords of the book of this prophecy, God shall take aAvay
his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city."*
In vision St. John saAv war in heaven, Michael and his
angels fighting against the dragon and his angels, and pre
vailing over them. The same Avar is there now on earth,
and it will be Avaged Avith the same victorious results. It
is a contest between the Messiah and Satan, between the
Church and the Avorld, between faith and reason, between
truth and error, between holiness and sin.
Though our enemies may not yet be the Gog and Magog
of Divine prophecy, yet Infidelity, with its Rationalistic
equipments, is not only the boastful Goliath who defies the
armies of the living God, but also the desolating Babylonish
invader, who defiles the Lord's sanctuary, and fills Jeru
salem with the slain of his people.
Pledged to your incarnate and glorified Saviour by your
baptismal vows, as many of you are, beloved brethren, be
ware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
* Rev. xxii. 18, 19.

2£4 RATIONALISTIC DEVELOPMENT.
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ ; and fight manfully under
his banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and con
tend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
For this trying strife and dangerous warfare, take to
yourselves the Avhole armour of God, that you may be able
to withstand in these evil days. Clothed with his pano
ply — truth and righteousness, the peaceful gospel, a shield
ing faith, and the hope of heaven — wield these assailing
instruments ; for they are the sword and arm of the Spirit,
the word of God, and the power of prayer ; and you shall,
like Michael and his angels, preArail and conquer, through
the might of the Captain of our salvation ; Avho is with us
in all our perils, and achieves our conquests for us. Thus,
fighting the good fight of faith, laying hold upon our eternal
life, and continuing Christ's faithful soldiers and servants
unto your lives' end, you shall have the fruition of the re-
Avard he promises to unfailing zeal and devoted service, to
triumphant success and exterminating victory — " To him
that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am sit down with my Father
in his throne."* .
May this bliss and glory be ours, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen. * Rev. iii. 21.

% Inaprfion of % f olj Striptaj.

BY REV. JOHN B. KERFOOT, D.D.,'
KECTOK OP THE COHEflE OE ST. JAMES, MARYLAND.

29

VIII.
THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIP
TURES.
THE Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, duly considered,
presents itself as a Fact, and as a Doctrine.
The subject ranks, most properly, among the Evidences
of our Faith ; and yet it is one with which the Infidel can
have no rightful concern. It is only when any man has
admitted the fact of a revelation, and that the Bible is its
reliable Record, that he can in reason ask : What is the true
character of the Book which thus attests and accompanies
this revelation ? Is it, though an authentic, still, only a
human record of a Divine dispensation ? That is, such a
record as any man, with full intellectual and moral, but
yet strictly natural qualifications, might have made, if his
own observation, or the reliable testimony of others, had
given him the requisite knowledge ? Or, is the Record
itself the Word of God ? Did He write the histories ? Did
He record the oral teachings ? Did these lessons of doc
trines and duties, these prophecies of things future, come
to us, in matter and form, from God ? Is this His word,
or man's word ? In the Bible, does God speak of Himself
to man ? Or does man speak to his fellow man of God ?
Is this Book the product of human genius and piety, work
ing naturally, though extraordinarily ? Or, did God inspire
(2=7)

2£8 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
certain chosen men to utter His word, using special human
minds supernaturally, sometimes as His instruments, and
sometimes as His agents, to give to His truth a sure and
accurate utterance and record among men?
These inquiries may be fairly made by any one who has
come within the domain of belief, by accepting Christianity
as Divine, and the Bible as its true record. But, in the
mouth of unbelievers, all such questions are premature,
and therefore must be only cavils and snares. In a word,
Inspiration is not one of the outer defences of the fortress
of our Religion ; it is one of its inner strongholds, of its
holiest shrines. The believer will approach it, as such,
with great reverence and care. Investigation, nevertheless,
is here, as on other points, his duty. He needs it for the
enlightenment of his own faith ; and still more for its de
fence, just now, chiefly against men who, whether they
know it or not, are foes to the truth ; Avhose entrance among
us is insidious, and whose real end, if not their conscious
aim, must be, to betray this sanctuary, of which they claim
to be the only wise defenders. It is maintained, therefore,
that a hearty acceptance of the facts of the Sacred History
as real, of the Bible as4their Record, and of the Revelation
as supernatural, must precede any honest inquiries about
inspiration, its nature, proofs, and limits.
A preliminary glance at these will open the whole subject
to us.
To proA7e the fact, and, still more, to enable us to realize
the nature of Inspiration, we must retrace the ground over
which the argument for the fact of a Revelation would have
carried us. For, Revelation is one fact and Inspiration is
another ; and Ave must, in discussing them, sever two things
which our religion and our ordinary thoughts blend very
much into one. There is Revelation, when God speaks to

KERFOOT. 2£9
men Avithout using any one or more men specially to receive
and conA^ey His message. There is Inspiration, when His
Spirit uses human spirits — whether or not these act con
sciously or with full intelligence — as His means of sending
His Avord to other men. For example ; God spoke audibly
to the Israelites under Mount Sinai.* That was mere Re
velation. He also frequently spoke to them through Moses,
whose spirit God's Spirit taught and used. This was In
spiration, as a means of ReA'elation. Again, God wrote
fearful words on the wall before the eyes of the feasters in
Babylon !-j- That was an act of Revelation ; or, rather,
Avould have been exclusively such, if the written words
had, at once, expressed their true import to the gazers :
while His making known to Daniel the hidden meaning of
the words was Inspiration. Balaam^ was unwillingly, and
Caiaphas§ unconsciously God's prophet; and both, though
in the \rery act of sin, were inspired to utter His Truth.
A voice from heaven, or words or symbols written there
with a meaning clear to men, would be a revelation from
God. But Avhen God supernaturally selects, informs, and
attests one man as His medium of communication with
other men, then He inspires that man for such special use
and occasion. He may reveal through this inspired man,
a special, temporary command ; or some precept or truth
of permanent authority ; or some warning of events yet to
come. Or He may so inform or direct the mind that the
historical record shall ansAver its special end, and be guarded
from all error. He may direct His messenger to use
symbols, or spoken words, or written words. In any case

* Exod. xix. and xx. ; and Deut. v. 4.
f Dan. v.
X Numbers xxiii. and xxiv.
? St. John ii. 49-52.

£30 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
the Avord is from God,* and is made to come accurately and
definitely to us. Thus God spoke to men supernaturally,
and through some chosen individuals of the race.
These men, and their natural powers and personal
acquirements and habits, God prepared, and then used
supernaturally to give through them a sure and definite
utterance, by speech and by pen, to that truth which man
needs to know, and in the various ways by which he needs
to learn it : and what remains to us noAV in Holy Scripture
is God's Record of the past, and His perpetual announce
ment of what we are to believe, to do, and to look for.
The Divine and the human elements are both real in that
Book. The Divine element makes it an instruction entire
and infallible. The human element makes it available to
men, and adapts it to all their wants. Now there are, we
thus see, a Fact to be proved ; and a Doctrine to be explained
and defended.
Assuming then here that a Revelation ivas necessary, — a
point attested by all history, by the ceaseless yearnings of
man's heart and the struggles of his intellect, and by his
hopeless failures in every effort of his own to find any satis
fying, permanent solution of his spiritual difficulties ; and,
simply suggesting that the significant fact — that God sends
to us all His precious gifts by the hands of a chosen few,
whom He appoints and enables to work for the many, —
affords fair presumption that any Revelation would come
to the whole race through the agency of some persons
specially qualified; and that for a work clearly super
natural, the qualifications must be supernatural ; we may
claim all the reason of things, and the full analogy of
nature and Providence in favour of the theory we have
proposed, as consistent with a sound philosophy.
* See Bp. Ilorsley's Sermons (XV. & XVIII.) on 2 Pet. i. 20, 21.

KERFOOT. 231
We Avill pass at once to inquire into the fact, — Has God
taught men by spoken and written words of Inspired
Truth ? What are the proofs ?
In the two centuries preceding the present, unbelief
denied this fact, as neither proven nor possible. Noav it
generally admits the fact, but puts forth a doctrine which
nullifies it. To indicate, then, Avhat seems to be the true
way of proving the fact against any who resort to the old
method of denying it; and, still more, to quicken in the
mind the true idea of Inspiration, we must (as was before
said) cast our eyes over some of the ground which an
argument for a Revelation would traverse. God chose to
effect the Revelation by the supernatural inspiration of some
individuals of our race : hence the proofs of both facts are
very much the same.
The true, direct proof of Inspiration is such as this : —
Here, before and among us, is the Church of Christ, the
Adsible Body of the professors of the Faith. Nothing can
be made historically more certain than that this Christian
Church has existed for more than eighteen hundred years.
No other fact of history is so certain, save it be the con
tinuous existence of the race of man. The language of
an infidel historian best expresses our whole idea :* " The
Christian Republic, which gradually formed an independent
and increasing state in the heart of the Roman empire."
And second to this fact in certainty, and only second to
it, is the further fact that she has always had a book — this
book, the Bible — in her safe-keeping.-}- Her records prove
when and how she received it, and how carefully she has
preserved, and how deeply she has always, everyAvhere,
* Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," &c, chap. xv.
¦(• See Hooker Eccl. Pol. bk. III. viii. 14, and Butler's Analogy, Part II. ch.
i., and his sermon on Matthew xxiv. 14.

232 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
and by all her members, reverenced it as God's Book. No
other book has been so received and kept, or has so come
down to us. Choose Avhich you will as the most esteemed,
best proven book of all antiquity, it has next to no proof
along side of this, the Book which the Church has kept.
In an argument against unbelief of any grade, in behalf
of the fact of a Revelation given by means of Inspiration,
we need present the Church only as a well-organized,
permanent human society, which has all along faithfully
discharged the office here attributed to her. As Christians,
discussing among ourselves this question of Inspiration, we
might rightly go further, and claim reverence for the testi
mony of the Church as the Divinely constituted and com
missioned Conservator and Witness of the Inspired Word
among men. But in either vieAv, this Church of Christ
offers proofs regarding the authorship, preparation, delivery,
reception, and preservation of this Book, or rather collec
tion of books, such as can be adduced for no other book
extant, dating even a century back. Apply to the New
Testament (and the same is true of the Old Testament)
every criterion by which the most cautious historian can
now test any ancient record of the history of men — apply
it with the utmost stringency, and the Sacred Record will
triumph by means of the proofs which this Society, the
Church, brings out abundantly on every necessary point.
Hence, if there be anywhere any trustworthy history of
facts, we have one here. For these books and their authors
Avere fully believed in at the first. Those who knew all
about the men and the facts, trusted both. These books
are the accredited writings of the accredited witnesses, by
eye and by ear, of all they record. This permanent,
Sacred Society accredits the books and the writers. She
testifies that both came to her with unmistakeable, super-

KERFOOT. 233
natural attestation from God ; and that among her perpetual
offices, is this one — to bear such testimony to all men
through all time.
And new doctrines, offered as from God, come to us
inseparably interwoven with the facts of the history. Who
ever pronounces the doctrines to be Avilful deceits, must
deny the facts. By no rules of fair criticism can the his
tory be accepted as true, if the doctrines be rejected as
impostures. Some of the Books* record lessons of doctrine,
at first taught orally ,f others profess to be direct written
lessons of truth from God, through those writers whom He
commissioned and inspired to write them. And these doc
trines are, I say, inseparably interwoven with the facts of
the history, the history of the inspired teachers, of the
deeds done by them and their associates, and of the times
in which they lived. If they are Avilfully false teachers,
they cannot be reliable historians ; but if their facts be
accepted, their doctrines cannot be torn loose and rejected
as deceits.
Many, moreover, of these facts are miracles — unmistake
able proofs of superhuman agency. Of these miracles many
bear too evidently the impress of Heaven to be attributed
— even if viewed apart from the doctrine they attested —
to any evil poAver. But taken — as all the miracles must
be taken — in the strictest union with the doctrines, these
two — the miracles of mercy and the doctrines of truth and
holiness — mutually attest each other. Disparage the
doctrines or the miracles as any one may, we must feel as
the first converts did, that Satan never devised those doc
trines ; man never wrought those miracles ; and, therefore,
* The Gospels and the Acts.
f 1 Corinthians vii. 10, 40, and 2 Peter iii. 15, 16, on the exclusive sense in
which the word " Scripture" is used in the New Testament. See Wordsworth
on Inspiration, &c, pp. 200 and 203.
30

2"4 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
the union and mutual attestation of such miracles and
such doctrines, prove that God gave both. It was He who
Avrought, and He who spoke. The act, and the word —
written or spoken — were His. From no one source save God
could the two, the doctrines and the miracles, have come
forth thus inseparably tied together. Nay, the doctrines
and precepts, viewed by themselves, must be from heaven.
Earth had never conceived such truth or such virtue before.
Man had done his best, but he had never at all approached
this system of belief and duty, so evidently not of any earthly
origin. Any how, it never could have had any alliance
with imposture, or received any support from the powers of
evil. The attesting miracles must, then, have been real
and Divine. They were the finger of God affixing His
name, and setting His seal to the doctrines and precepts
as His. The document and the seal confirm each other's
genuineness. In either we see God. In both united, we
see such proof of His direct intervention as makes unbelief
folly. But further — What do these writers claim for themselves
and their booJcs in this respect ?
The facts and the#men are proved to be above all sus
picion. Their pure doctrines and holy precepts make all
supposition of wilful deceit impossible. Their miraculous
proofs exclude not only this supposition, but also any idea
of unconscious, enthusiastic error. God will not attest
any kind of error. What character, then, do these writers
claim for their teaching? — "We speak (say they) not in
the Avords which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth"* — " When ye received the word of
God Avhich ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word
* 1 Cor. ii. 13,

KERFOOT. 235
of men, but (as it is in truth) the word of God"* — " All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God."f
Such is their claim, often repeated, in behalf of the
word spoken, and the ivoi'd written ; and that such a claim
was so made by men commissioned openly, as they were,
by God, is proof that the claim is just. That this claim
was admitted by tens of thousands then, at the cost of
every earthly interest, and of the abandonment of all other
previous belief or unbelief, shows how overwhelming the
proofs must have been. That then, and all along, since,
and now, the purest affections of the heart, and the noblest
faculties of the intellect of man, whenever and wherever
he has appeared most like God, have accepted and adopted
these truths and precepts as most Avorthy of God as their
author, and as meeting all of man's moral and spiritual
wants, and ansAvering all the demands of his purest reason
— this voice from within proves that He made the Holy
Scriptures who made us men. And when we look out over
men and their doings, and God's Providential government,
and see these truths and precepts ruling all that is noble
and enduring in the Avorld, conquering every foe, and
elevating every friend and disciple, then we see that the
Holy Scriptures must have come from Him who rules the
world and dispenses its blessings. True enough ; a bitter
contest against this truth — of the inspiration of the Bible —
has been ceaselessly maintained. The evil heart of unbelief,
now coarse and vulgar, and now crafty and polished in its
assaults, has been ever assailing this claim of the Bible to
be, in a sense exclusively and peculiarly its own, God's
Word. Unbelieving minds are misled, and timid ones dis-
* 1 Thess. ii. 13.
X 2 Timothy iii. 16. The force of the passage is the same wherever the verb
" is" — which is not in the original, be supplied in the translation. " The whole
Scripture is inspired of God, and is," &c.,— or " The whole Scripture being
inspired of God— (i. e. because it is, &c.) is also profitable," &e.

236 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
heartened ; but, age after age, all comes to nought ; and
whatever form, or whatever course of opposition such
infidelity may adopt, all history is ever proving that " who
soever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."*
But here the question is rightly asked — " How does God
inspire men ?" What is the mode — the process, so to speak,
by and in AA'hich God inspires, breathes His Spirit into some
men's minds, thereby making them His prophets? The
right answer to such a question is not merely a point of
interest, but one of great practical importance ; because (as
Avas before said) the fashion has groAvn up to grant the fact
of a Divine Inspiration, but then so to explain it and
account for it as to leave us no one Book of God, no sure,
sacred standard of Truth. A century since, unbelief con
fessed itself Deism, or even Atheism. It knew no religion,
and often no God. But man's heart recoiled from a thing
so hideous. Nations under its sway were perishing. New
forms of unbelief had therefore to be invented; or, more
accurately, old and forgotten ones had to be revived ; less
revolting, but in fact not, in the end, less deadly. A most
subtle and plausible foijrn of unbelief noAV assails Revelation
at this vital point of its special Inspiration ; and serious-
minded men regard this assault as highly perilous because
so craftily concealed. What this false philosophy is, can be
made clearer after we have seen how the true believer would
regard and speak of Inspiration.
We know that God revealed His will by visions and by
voices, by granting special, fore-appointed signs, and by angelic
messengers. Such are the express assertions of Scripture ;
and as they admit of no denial, consistent with any acceptance
of the history as true, so, once admitted as facts, they seem
* St. Matt. xxi. 44.

KERFOOT. 237
to us to require no special explanation, because they so
much resemble our sensible modes of communication among
ourselves. But God's Spirit also acted directly and immediately on
the Spirit of the man inspired. " For the prophecy or
teaching [' of Scripture'] came not ever — at any time — by
the will of man — but holy men of God spake, being moved
(or borne onward) by the Holy Ghost."*
How, precisely, the Holy Ghost actually affected and used
the minds and faculties of His prophetic agents, we are not
told, and therefore we cannot tell. But this, though a
mystery, is no objection to the fact; for we have the like
mystery and fact united in our daily experience and inter
course one Avith another. We feel and know that among
us spirit acts on spirit. We can, it is true, name some few
instruments or media used; as, for example, words to the
eye or ear, symbols, gestures, and the like. But reflection
will show us that this use of material things to enable
spirits to communicate with each other only adds to the
mystery. And why is it that thought and feeling will flash
in the eye, and deep or wild emotion pervade the crowd,
by (what we call) sympathy ? Who can tell why or how ?
No one. The rationale men give of such things, if it ever
be more than words, merely tells of a step or two in a pro
cess whose real nature we can never fathom. And Avho
knows not that thoughts and feelings of good and evil come
— he cannot tell how — but it seems as if spirits brought them
to his spirit ? And what Christian does not delight to believe
that the Holy Spirit of God and pure angels speak with his
spirit, to warn and encourage ? Then there is no reason why
we should doubt that, even in ways and measures beyond
these, a special and pecidiar action of the Holy Spirit on cer-
* 2 Peter i. 21. See Bp. Horsley's 15th sermon, and in it his view of the
prophets' inspiration.

2C8 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
tain human spirits may occur ; that He may select and prepare
some few men to be the Channels of His Truth to all men.
Things as certainly as this within the spiritual world, and
as really beyond our poAver to explain, do occur to ourselves
every hour. There is no inherent contradiction in the act,
and all mere difficulties cease before Omnipotence. So
that, really, reason has not one well-grounded doubt to urge
when the fact is asserted by men attested as the sacred
writers were.
And what can the infidel say in explanation of the fact
that prophecies have been uttered and verified ? One pro
phecy, full and minute, and clearly beyond the reach of
human sagacity to devise or created power to accomplish,
proves, Avhen the accomplishment has come, that God has
spoken to man, and through him to his fellow-men. Now we
have many such prophecies : and, just as easily as prophecy,
may also doctrine or precept be communicated from God.
Further — in these acts of Inspiration, God has selected,
as we might expect that He would, the men and the modes
best suited to His various purposes. Different agents were
chosen, who were used in different ways, according to the
occasion and service. t Sometimes we see that the very
words were dictated ; at others, the form of the message
partook of the peculiarities of the messenger. Nay, evi
dently, these messengers Avere often chosen because of their
special qualifications in temper, intellect, or talent for a pro
posed work. Their individual peculiarities were not obli
terated, but were regarded as the reason for their selection
by God for special kinds of work. Truth and duty have
very various parts and aspects, and men vary much in their
needs. In religion, as in everything else, God mercifully
regards every man's wants, and sends what is necessary to
each nation and to each man, in the Avay and through the
agency by which it can be best transmitted and received.

KERFOOT. £39
Therefore have Ave the four histories of Christ, by four
authors, differing entirely in natural endowments and tem
peraments, as well as in training and attainments. They
wrote each to meet the wants of different classes of men
and of minds, then and to the end of time. Yet their dis
tinct portraitures of the Divine Original, and their inde
pendent records of His acts and teachings, all make up the
grand unit. The whole man of each author is seen in his
Avork, as fully as though he wrote of his own unguided
motion. And yet the One Spirit is seen in every line. The
Saviour of men, His example and lessons, are presented
in all their aspects, and the needs of all souls of men are
supplied, for the Author of all truth teaches all men through
those whom He inspires.
So, too, have we Paul and John, Peter and James,* all dis
tinctly marked as men, and not less as authors. Their
office Avas to declare and enforce the doctrines and precepts
of the new religion. To each one of them had that reli
gion come home Avith an influence suited to the needs of
the man. Each looked upon the new faith with his own
eyes, and took it into his own heart ; and each one taught
and wrote as he saw and felt. And yet, none the less, God
taught in and through them all, because he would so meet
the wants of all men to all time ; so that the subjective
faith which justifies man, the heavenly love which sancti
fies him, the burning zeal which will energize in men's
hearts and regenerate the world, and the holy obedience
which at once demonstrates man's faith and renders honour
to his God, might ever be uttering forth the voices which
men would need and long to hear, some one voice and some
another ; while all the voices together made up the one
harmony of Inspired Truth.
* See Westcott's Gospel Harmony, pp. 28-31.

240 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
Thus, every endowment and even every peculiar charac
teristic in an inspired messenger would be needed. Nothing
but infirmity was unfitted for some work or other, in some
quarter or other, of this prophetic and inspired teaching of
men. Hence, in the Old and NeAV Testament writers we
see every variety of endowment and attainment. We note
the most marked intellectual and ethical peculiarities ; and
yet every one seems, as is really the fact, chosen to do some
special office needed by some peculiar classes of men whom
God would instruct. Not the less did the message come,
in every case, by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, true
as He who sent it. Human infirmity was never allowed
to mar one lineament of Divine Truth. The message was
true in its substance and in every expression of it.* And
the Fabric of all necessary religious Truth was thus com
pleted. The Master-builder gave each man the work he
was best fitted to do, and the material most suited to his
special task. ' Lookers-on see only men running hither and
thither, as though confusedly pursuing disconnected or
inconsistent aims. But each one is on his own right errand,
and his work is appointed him. He may not himself know
all or much about its proper share or place in the edifice,
but He who plans and controls sees the end from the begin
ning ; and a glorious, a perfect, and an enduring structure
is the result. So is it ; and so Faith and Reason see it to
be in the Blessed Book of God.
Faith and Reason, I say, for they both must unite to
make up man's belief. On this point they ought to receive
the fact of inspiration, as true of all the books of the Holy
Scripture, and as true of every part of them all, as guaran
teeing on God's authority the accuracy of all the history,
the obligation of every command, the truth of every doc-
* Bp. Horsley, Ser. XVIII.

KERFOOT. 241
trine, and the certainty of every promise or prophecy.
Inspiration, to be real, must control even every word ; not
so as in any sense to make it not the word of man, but to
make it also so to be God's word as to be the most apt
and direct, and profitable expression of the Truth ; so that,
truly interpreted, no word is superfluous, and none can
mislead.* And yet the inspiration is not mechanical. It does not
make the inspired man to act as a machine ; but always as
an agent whose nature still works according to its laws,
though for the time and occasion lifted up to an use which
it could not fulfil without the extraordinary motion of God's
Spirit.f A lower theory than this may, and often does, consist
with a sincere faith ; but must keep it, I believe, in con
tinual peril. To illustrate this peril, and thereby to prove
that, since in these days we are compelled to have some
philosophy of inspiration, we can be safe in no lower
theory than such an one as has been now advocated, I
will exhibit two other views held by honest, hearty believ
ers of our own age. They will pretty Avell fill up the space
between the true philosophy on this point, and the scheme
which I shall afterwards describe and oppose as rank
unbelief, poorly disguised.
The less objectionable of these two views comes to us
* Hooker Eccl. Pol. B. V. 21 : 2 & 3." The word of God is His heavenly truth
touching matters of eternal life revealed and uttered unto men ; unto Prophets
and Apostles by immediate divine inspiration, from them to us by their books
and writings. We therefore have no word of God but the Scripture." " The
word of God for the Author's sake hath credit with all that confess it (as we all
do) to be His word ; every proposition of Holy Scripture, every sentence, being to
us a principle."
f- See Westcott's Gospel Harmony, pp. 225, 226, for " Seven Propositions"
drawn from " the primitive teaching on Inspiration."
31

242 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
with the sanction of one,* Avhose genius and sincerity all
acknowledge. He avows his deep faith in all the cardinal doctrines of
our religion, and finds in the Holy Scriptures all the guid
ance his soul craves from God. He insists on the agency
of the Church and the Ministry as essential to the Blessed
Spirit's work in enlightening us. And yet his theory of
Inspiration is one which would expel such faith as his from
most minds. He regards the Bible as only a human record
of a Divine Revelation ; though a very reliable record, and
one made under clearly Providential ordering. No words
in it are properly God's words, unless where the fact is
specially stated in any case. The historical books may,
nay, do contain errors, and are marked by the mistakes
and discrepancies to which historical writing is ordinarily
liable. The Epistles in the New Testament seem to have
no very definite authority; and to be consistent he can
allow them none properly Divine.
We are to test all Scripture by our own " secret com
muning;" and by such a use of it to draw forth gradually
whatever in it may be true, or suitable and useful to our
selves. God's will and truth are to be gathered from the
tone and spirit of the Bible as a whole, not from any expli
cit, authoritative statements, save the few specially declared
to be made in His words. There are such direct messages,
however ; and therefore the fact of a plenary Inspiration is
fully allowed. But its universality is denied. Parts of
the book, so far from being His, are erroneous. Nay, some
parts are perilous to good morals and true belief, for pre
cepts, examples, and teachings, are not merely recorded
historically, but commended (by implication, at least),
which yet our conscience and reason must reject. The
* Coleridge's " Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit."

KERFOOT. 243
Apostles treat as facts the fancies and popular traditions
of their nation. Thus, human agency brought all its
usual infirmity with it into the preparation of the Holy
Scriptures. The divine element is not merely conjoined
Avith the human, but perilously confused with it. The
" treasure is in earthen vessels" in such a sense that feAV
men Avould recognise, as Coleridge did, that therewith is
also that " excellency of power" which can come from God
only. Most of the objections which Coleridge brings against the
theory which has been now advocated, and which he con
fesses to be that sanctioned by the highest names in all
ages, lie in fairness only against misconceptions or mis
statements of it, not against a living Inspiration dwelling
in the whole written Word, in the Church, and in each
believer. Such an Inspiration does not " petrify" Revela
tion, but while it recognises in it, as in the Incarnate Word,
a definite human form, it makes that form one of beauty
and of active life. It suggests no idea of an " Automaton."
It does not confound all truths and facts as of one measure
of value and importance. God uses here human skill and
art, as various as that which works and refines the metals
He hides in the mines of the earth. The iron and the gold
are equally of God. Rudely wrought or elegantly moulded,
both are still equally His, and have their separate and most
valuable. uses for man. So is it in His Book; and in this
view we cannot " Avorship" the mere letter, for we see the
Living Spirit. We cannot make the Truth to be a dead"
thing, wholly external and objective, for we hold that the
same Spirit dwells hoav in the Church and in ourselves
Avhich wrote the word and put into it an imperishable life
and power. Nor would any sober-minded believer impose
on others his own philosophy of Inspiration as an article
of faith, though he must contend earnestly against any

244 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
philosophy or any point of faith which tends to make men
nullify all creeds. The theory commended in this lecture,
acknowledging as it does in all its fulness the human ele
ment in God's Word, gives free scope, nay utters solemn
command, to the human mind to study and investigate the
Written Word Avith all zeal and holy boldness. God's
Spirit and man's must and will witness together in such
right study. Intellect and heart Avill so advance farther
and deeper into the truth of Heaven ; and the Bible will
have all — nay more than all — the freshness and power
which other theories vainly profess to secure it ; while the
scepticism and pride of the human heart will be quelled by
the full presence of the Divine Spirit.
A sadder illustration still of the peril of a lax or wrong
philosophy of Inspiration is given by a recent Essayist^
more bold than reverent, and more misty than instructive.
IT Divine Inspiration be anything real, his view of it, inde
finite as it is, is very irreverent. It is a fearful indication
of the downward tendency of rationalism even in the
Church, that her ministers can so think and write.
The inspiration of the classic poet (he tells us) and of
the pagan oracle was a^ real, nay essentially the same as
St. Paul's. The great Apostle acknowledged this to be so,
when going forth among the heathen to preach the Gospel,
he advanced his claim as a teacher inspired from Heaven.
He then only recognised and perpetuated the old heathen
idea as true. The inspiration of the devotee of Bacchus he
claimed to have been the influence of his own Divine Master,
and therefore to be now active in himself; the only real
difference being that the gift was now more abundant.
Where reverent believers have been wont heretofore to see
human fraud or diabolical aid, there we are henceforth to
* Rev. F. D. Maurice, "Theol. Essays," Ess. XIII. on "Inspiration."

KERFOOT. 245
believe that the same Holy Spirit Avas Avorking whose guid
ance we had deemed God gave to His Church and people
through Prophets and Apostles, as it was given to no men
by any other agency. Because the word "inspiration" is
applied sometimes to the ordinary grace and guidance of
the Holy Spirit, as offered to all who seek Him, there
fore there is no such thing as an extraordinary illumination
constituting the Prophets. The gift is the same. Nay,
worse yet. When the fanatic exhibits fierce zeal, and
carries away the people, we are not to deny his claim to the
true Inspiration, but are to warn him of the sin and peril
of abusing his high gift, or rather his large measure of the
gift all have, did they but know it. The " poets, prophets,
priestesses" were inspired as truly, though not so fully as
Moses and Isaiah, as Paul and John. Fanaticism is Inspi
ration misused. The humble reader of the Bible is inspired
— not merely as truly (this we believe), but in the same
way and sense, to understand what he reads now, as the
writer was inspired to pen it. Where and how then, are
we to be assured of the truth ? All men are inspired. So
are all books. The Bible is only chief among books ; not
the Book, as none besides can be. " Common books and
the chief book, nature and grace, earth and heaven," are
before us all, that we may learn thence how to be saved.
Alas ! for the perpetuity of the Gospel among men, if this
were their view of its inspiration. Blessed indeed are
they Avho can hear or read and believe, without any
philosophy consciously developed, if the science of theology
must thus undermine the foundations of everything dis
tinctive in Christianity, and make the " testimony of Jesus,
which is the Spirit of prophecy," a mocking delusion to
bewildered man !
Such as these, then, being evidently the only theories
which an honest belief can devise, besides the one already

246 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
advocated here, are we not shut in to the stricter philosophy
on this point as the only true and safe one ? It is not
within my plan to offer any detailed proof of it from the
Scriptures. These directly assert,* what the example of
our Lordf and His ApostlesJ in quoting and arguing from
the Old Testament clearly teaches, that each word contains
as its sense and design, God's Truth. The whole method
and agency were just what, so far as our own reason can
judge, were the best for us that our God could have adopted,
and most like all His works of love for man. Objections
vanish when men come to reason fairly, or to be content
not to know what they cannot comprehend, or to await in
this, as in all things else, the growth of our knoAvledge.
God spoke and wrote; and despite all the changes and
chances of time, and the sins of men, He has by the hands
of His Church brought His Word safely and purely to us of
this age. And it comes to us now not a dry, dead thing,
but still cherished and illustrated by His Church, and still
quick and lustrous with the life and light of the Blessed
Spirit who first indited it. That same Spirit still dwells
in the Church and in each believer; and by all the means
which nature and grace provide for us, He makes the true
meaning of the word He wrote clear to the Church and to
each true heart. And so shall it be to the end of time.
All this is, of course, denied by that avowed Infidelity
which rejects Revelation. But there is a subtler unbelief,
which, on this point of Inspiration, professes and denies in
the same breath. It claims its place among the phases of
belief; but we have seen how the two theories already
noticed cover all the ground short of Infidelity. Both these
* 1 Cor. ii. 4, 13 ; Heb. iii. 7, 13, 15 ; Eph. iv. 8, 9.
t St. Matthew xxii. 31, 32; and 43-45; and St. John x. 34, 35.
.% Acts ii. 34; Rom. iii. 10-18; Heb. ii. 8, 12, 27, &c. See Gaussen's The-
opneusty, ch. vi. sec. 5.

KERFOOT. 247
acknowledge the fact of supernatural Inspiration. The
former of them confines it to some parts of the Bible, while
the latter extends it far and wide beyond the Bible and, the
Church, into all kinds of religion, and, it would almost
seem, into all departments of human knowledge. The
philosophy next to be examined lies beyond these theories ;
though in many points it is not unlike the latter of them,
the chief, difference being that it more boldly and con
sistently advances to the legitimate consequences of its own
principles, and denies that there is or can be anything
supernatural in Inspiration.
This subtle unbelief — this rationalistic philosophy* of
Inspiration, though a favourite and prevalent form of Infi
delity just now, is really but an old error revived.-]- It
doubts not (it says) that the Sacred Writers Avere inspired ;
but " So," it adds, " many men besides have been ; that in
truth all men are so in a measure." Such theorists accept
and extol, and misuse that right philosophy of man's nature
which attributes to his spirit a higher faculty than merely
that intellectual power which skilfully constructs a com
plicated machine, solves an abstruse problem in exact
science, or comprehends a fact with its proofs and conse
quences. Man has within him (they rightly say) a power
to conceive and to accept truths, that need and admit no
demonstration — the great first principles of truths of every
kind. Their abuse of this true philosophy is, that they
make this spiritual faculty within, and not the voice or teach
ing of God's Spirit from without, the source of Inspiration.
Religious Truth (they say) can address itself only to the
" Intuitional Consciousness," not to that logical understand
ing which can take cognisance of a fact, or hear enunciated
* For a full exposition and able defence of it, see Morell's "Philosophy of
Religion," ch. vi.
¦f See Gaussen's Theop. ch. v. sec. 2, XLIV.

248 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
from without a law of duty, or a principle of truth, and
the reasons and applications of both. A Revelation can
not embrace objective truth, nor any instruction, nor any
proofs by argument. " Inspired Logic" (to use their own
term) is an absurdity. Thus, the only inspiration is, that
God's Spirit awakens, purifies, and elevates some men's
"intuitional consciousness," so that they can achieve in a
very high degree, what all men do in some degree, and what
all holy and thinking men do in a good degree — they see
truth, for they see God. Inspiration is an extraordinary
elevation and energy of man's natural powers, specially
aroused by God's Spirit. There is nothing supernatural in
the influence or the result, nor can there be any supernatural
indication of the fact to others not specially inspired. There
is nothing generically different between the inspiration of a
prophet or an apostle, and that of the man who may be
sunk almost to the level of the brute.* Hence, even when
the specially inspired person speaks or writes, his can be only
a human and fallible utterance of the more or less inspired
conceptions of his intuitions. How much of Divine Truth
there was in those conceptions originally, how far his sins
blot or his words distort them, I can only guess according
to their agreement or disagreement with my own intuitions.
Therefore " Scripture" — that is, a writing, a book —
can never be in any sense inspired. It is, at best, an
authentic, human record of facts of history, and of the
spoken lessons of men supposed to be more or less specially
awakened to see truth : or some of their letters, penned by
chance and as occasion suggested, and worthy of much
regard as valuable relics of wise men, of whom we think
* Hence those who boldly and consistently pursue the theory to its legiti
mate results, regard and speak of our Blessed Lord as specially Divine, only
because pre-eminent among holy and wise men, in that excellence of which all
good men partake.

KERFOOT. 249
it probable that more than in most of their fellows, God
awakened their natural power to see truth.
But no voice or pen of man ever transmitted from with
out to me any indubitable, explicit word of God. What
men more prophetic — more inspired, perhaps, than I, have
said or Avritten, may help to elevate my intuitions towards
the high level of theirs; but there can be no such things
as creeds, out of the Bible or in the Bible. Doctrines are
statements of facts, which I am to credit if my own intui
tions conceive or perceive them to be true ; but no testimony
nor argument is to convince me. So with all parts of reli
gious truth or duty. Inspiration is entirely subjective ; its
germ exists in every man ; and there is no external revela
tion from God. There cannot, according to the laws of my
nature, any voice of God come to me from without ; and all
that men the most fully inspired can do for me, is to speak
and write their ideas of the Divine and True, as they best
can — being only men, whose utterance is unassisted, un
guided from on high.
Hence Inspiration is a kind of genius. Man's intuitions,
not God's communications, are the beginnings of religious
as of all other truths. Any man might be thus specially
inspired were his moral nature duly elevated ; and he might
be a prophet too, if his circumstances were such as to call
forth the truth from within him : that is, Inspiration is,
after all, only genius turned God-ward. Poetry, philosophy,
science, and art are of the same parentage as what we call
Revelation. Whatever their differences, they do not differ
in their origin and nature.
Now this is, I believe, a fair statement of this — not new
— but resuscitated philosophy of Inspiration in its most
favourable form. That it always sinks rapidly and surely
into the most utter unbelief, is itself a strong proof of
32

250 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
its falsity. But to consider it in this least objectionable
form : —
All error has some truth to begin with. So in this case,
the philosophy of man's nature is, as has been already con
ceded — on the whole, the right one. The evil begins in
the erroneous application of that philosophy to religion.
For we, too, believe that to man's spirit are directly
addressed many of the high truths of Revelation ; that he
must conceive and believe much that he cannot explain or
comprehend ; that moral purity clears the spiritual vision ;
that nothing really repugnant to a man's spirit can be
believed by him ; that practical, saving religion is a holy
life within, and not merely a sound creed or code of laws
without; and that all men have naturally a capacity to see
religious truth when made really present to them.
The error is in making this to be the whole history of
religious Truths and of Revelation. Clearly it is not so.
I. For, first, this philosophy is not so applied to the
reception of any of the other kinds of truth, which yet
embrace many axioms, and present many ultimate con
ceptions, which our spiritual reason must accept as self-
evident, but which are yet taught from without before they
are, or in most men can be conceiA'ed or realized within.
And, then, arguments or calculations prove truths, or indis
putable testimony proves facts, which we must therefore
believe, though they be truths or facts quite beyond the
comprehension of the mere understanding. Other truth
comes to us in various ways from without, addressing itself
to all the powers of our intellectual and spiritual nature ;
and is received by them all. Why cannot religious truth
come as does every other kind of truth ? To our spiritual
intuitions, and not less, to our logical understandings? And
from without, by external teaching ? Wherein do the truths

KERFOOT. 251
of religion differ from other truths, that they alone are
confined to this mode of access — my intuitions of the true ?
II. And, why cannot God's Spirit present truths to a
man's spirit, as one man's spirit presents them to another —
objectively? He needs not our organs of communication,
which though helps, and so, too, proofs of our infirmity, would
be hindrances to higher spirits? Surely we can receive
truths externally, and God can so offer them : and the Sacred
History proves that He did so present truths at times — if
that history be not a mere fiction.
And, if He could present in words, expressed and defined,
any truth to any men, why could he not through such men
convey His truth in like definite and permanent form?
Why should words ever be able to express His truth accu
rately and effectually, and then, of necessity, cease to do so
when perpetuated among men ?
And, lastly, why cannot God — why shoidd He not in
religion, man's highest concern, use the art of written lan
guage, which He gave as He gave all good things, and by
which He conveys to us much that is full of temporal profit
to us? — There is, therefore, no law of our nature, no prin
ciple of sound philosophy, nor even any probable presump
tion against the true old theory of Inspiration. All the
other Avay.
III. Nay, more. This whole idea of religion — as in its
essence # merely an emotional principle of religious life,
entering man only by the avenue of his intuitions — is most
unphilosophical as well as contrary to the else universal
conception of religion."* For religion, true or false, enters
man by every avenue of his nature. Be his innate capa
cities what they may, they are called into action, in this as
in all things else, by what comes to the man from without.
* See M'Cosh's " Method of Divine Government," bk. 4, ch. ii. sec. 4 (note).

252 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
Self-evident truths, or those proven by testimony or by
arguments, come to him claiming the sanction and accept
ance of his Spiritual Reason. Facts and truths, with their
testimony, present themselves to his understanding for his
investigation and study. Commands of duty appeal to his
conscience. Love and its heavenly laAvs stir up his affec
tions towards God and man ; and authority bends his unruly
will. From the first, religion comes in all of its own fulness
and variety, and demands the exercise of every endowment
of man. And it comes from without to conjoin its external
testimony from history as to its origin, miraculous proofs,
and wide acceptance, with the internal testimony of our
own spirits to its Divinity.
IV. For though our inborn convictions of the being of
God, of the reality of right, of our own immortality and
the like truths, might be said to be awakened, not pro
duced, by what we hear or read, still how could we know
that these ideas are not fancies ? All of them have been
pronounced such by one or other of the doctors of this
philosophy. Every elemental truth of natural religion
has, in its turn, been held and denied, often by the same
man. And yet such a man will pronounce these successive
bubbles of the moment to be solid orbs of abiding truth ;
and he will seem to believe them, too, to be such for the
hour, till the restlessness of an unbelieving heart has
invented some new delusion. Can the truth of God be
thus unreal and changing, thus undefined and unattested ?
V. Besides, such truths are but a small part of religion.
They are not all of what a man needs to believe; and
they tell us nothing of what we are to do. Facts of God's
nature, and of our own nature, and of the future world,
which cannot possibly lie slumbering in our intuitions,
must be made known, and therefore must come from Avith
out, taught and defined and attested. So, too, must the

KERFOOT. 253
rules of duty'; the laws Avhich form the very basis of
society and its order, of the family and its love ; while
every religious truth, by any possibility to be called intui
tional, must perish from among men, unless developed and
upheld by truths and commands which have no claim to
the title of self-evident and necessary truths.
VI. And Avhy not believe in " Inspired Logic ?" to use
the very phrase of one chief cavil of this false philosophy.
Did not our blessed Lord Himself use "inspired logic,"
when He gave careful explanations of the moral law ?* or
offered argumentative proofs of some of His doctrines ?f
or showed the reasons and limits of a positive institution ?J
or confounded objections to Himself and His claims ?§
And it is not only reasonable but necessary that a Reve
lation should involve the inspiration of the logical faculties.
A great truth might be declared on God's authority mani
fested by external proofs. But such is the nature of the
human mind that a bare proposition of a truth is not
enough. The true idea can gain form and life within the
mind only from illustration and argument. Would not
then the Divine Spirit teach in the only way which can be
effectual ? the only Avay in which a human disciple can
be indoctrinated ? by explanations and proofs guarded from
all error ?
And are not some, at least, of the relations of deep truths
to each other necessary to a correct apprehension of those
truths ? Cannot the Divine Spirit lead man's spirit to see
these relations and reasons without violating any law of
man's nature, just as well as one man may guide another

* e. g. Marriage, &c, St. Mark, x. 2-12 ; Duty to our neighbour, St. Luke,
x. 25-37 ; Love, forgiveness, &c, St. Luke, vi. 27-38.
f e. g. Life and resurrection, St. Matthew, xxii. 31-32.
X St. Matt. xii. 1-8 and 10-13.
Z St. Matt. xxii. 41-46 ; St. Mark ii. 6-12.

254 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
in any demonstration in Geometry, or any argument in
Philosophy ? Where, then, is the absurdity in the belief
that He, to whom all truths are self-eAddent and necessary,
did not only reveal to Paul truths before unknown, but did
also lead that Inspired Philosopher to see and explain the
hidden relations and reasons of those truths, so that man's
intellectual and moral nature might not be starved on the
dry husks of bald propositions, but be nourished by a quick
ening faith unto life, by means of the truth, so proven and
illustrated as to become real and nutritious food to his
spirit ?
VII. Moreover, Ave can at once see that any such phi
losophy, confining inspiration to man's intuitions, is utterly
inconsistent with the facts of our Sacred History. Not
only angelic messengers and audible Alices making revela
tions to men, but every positive institution, like the Sab
bath, and every sacramental or ceremonial ordinance, prove
that Revelation and Inspiration go beyond the province of
mere intuitions. Prophecies of the future certainly can be
in no sense among necessary truths. One prophecy, then,
fully proven, would overthrow this ivhole scheme of Inspi
ration; Avhile this lastJ#if true, must blot out every pro
phecy by denying its possibility. Still more ; the prophets
did not always,* as, surely on the true idea of Inspiration,
they need, not comprehend all of their own messages as to
future events ; a fact clearly inconsistent with the theory
that Inspiration is only our consciousness fully aAvakened
to the truth. And so far from moral purity, which is,
doubtless, essential to the clearness of our religious intui
tions, being always an essential requisite to Inspiration,
we read that bad menf were used by the Spirit to utter
the truth, which they loved even less than they understood
* 1 Peter i. 10, 11 ; and Bp. Horsley's Sermon XVIII. pp. 55, 62.
¦f Viz., Balaam, Saul, and Caiaphas.

KERFOOT. £55
it. The Bible must be rejected in spite of all its testimony,
or this scheme of Inspiration fails, because utterly incon
sistent Avith the facts of the History, as it is equally incon
sistent with any true idea of Religion and of the laAvs of
our whole nature.
We, therefore, receive the whole Bible as inspired of
God. History, Doctrine, Precept, and Prophecy are all
His, and given in His words. As He spoke, so did He
write, by men. What He wrote He has preserved essen
tially unchanged through all ages, by the care of His
Church. The Spirit, who wrote the Word, has ever dwelt
in the Church, and ever dwells in each believer, to give to
the Holy Scripture its true meaning in all things essential
to salvation. This is the law of God's spiritual kingdom ;
the end of His system of spiritual teaching. And, despite
all the seeming exceptions, all the perplexities of the
honest, and all the cavils of the unbelieving, this law and
end are even now receiving their due accomplishment, in
substance and before our eyes, as regularly and: effectually
as are any of those laws of physical nature on which the
life of man chiefly depends for its sustentation and comfort.
The Holy Spirit works constantly towards this end. He
preserves the Truth as a living reality, so that whosoever
will, may find it ready to his hand, and take it into his
heart and live by it.
Such, I believe, is the true old doctrine of Inspiration,*
as, in spite of all unbelief, Christians have held it from the
first, and will still cherish it to the end of time.
How holy does it make God's Word ! Hoav does it place
that word on the throne of Judgment, forbidding anything
else to claim a place by its side ! The truth ascertained
* See Westcott's "Gospel Harmony," Appendix B., " Ante-Nicene Doct. of
Insp.," pp. 126-225 ; and, for later testimony, that of Augustine quoted by
Hooker, B. II. 4, 7.

256 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
to be primitive, and the humble, hallowed learning of our
own age, help us to understand God's word ; but nothing
may be added or subtracted or changed. The voice that
would do either is an impious voice. The man, the nation,
or the church that would do either, must perish. Our
Church, brethren, is not such ; and cannot be such, just
because she realizes the awfulness of this Inspiration of
the written word. She has, indeed, with regard to that
Avord, her office — and she shrinks not from it — as the
authorized guide and teacher, to Avhose lessons we are to
listen reverentially and thankfully, as she leads us to see
what God's Spirit did mean when He spoke or wrote. She
asserts, both in her theory in her practice, the necessity
of belief in definite, objective truth, in order to salvation.
But she neither claims nor desires, in this study, to enslave
the intellect or the conscience ; for these, to be holy, must
be free; while, to be truly free, they must be gladly taught
by the wisdom and guided by the authority which the
kingdom of grace proA'ides.
Thus, then, is the whole Bible, opened wide and illumi
nated on each page by the ever-living, ever-present Spirit,
the right of each Christian man and child. It is too holy,
too precious, as the Inspired Word of God, to be withheld
from any one. Not that it is to be given or used as an
intellectual charm to banish evil. It must be used reve
rently, prayerfully, and under a deep sense of responsi
bility for such a gift and its due improvement. Then will
the Holy Spirit, by His external guidance and internal
light, bring the humble reader into a daily growing know
ledge of the truth; and so make his Bible, his God's
Book, to be his, not only by way of duty and right and
responsibility, but his, to shed the light of Heaven into his
soul, its peace on his pathway, and its glorious hopes on
his dying-bed.

^iratops total §&'& Mmh aifo W&ttfo.

BY REV. C. M. BUTLER, D.D.,
RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCHj WASHINGTON, D. C.

DC.

ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S WORLD AND
WORD.
The kind of unbelief which prevails most in Christian
communities, is a feeling and an impression, rather than a
settled conviction and conclusion of the mind. It doubts
rather than denies. It is not so much disbelief as unbelief.
It rejects Christianity, but it does not hold to any definite
or positive system.
In many cases this feeling and impression are due to
the diffused influence of Christianity itself. Some great
moral and spiritual truth, seen to be true and thought to
be unborn, by those who never, by their own reason, could
have reached them, have been brought to bear against the
peculiarities of the Christianity from Avhich they had their
being. Unbelief derives, unconsciously, from the Christian
system, certain just and lofty views of the character of
God, and then contends that they are in conflict with that
system, and prove it to be false. By the diffused light of
the sun, it discerns the sun itself to be behind a cloud ; and
then declares that instead of being a glorious orb of light,
it is but a black and hideous mist.
Now, how shall this feeling and impression best be met ?
Shall we first show, by external evidence, that Christianity
is from God? That can be done. But shall we not more
surely aid the doubting mind into belief, by showing that
(259)

260 ANALOGIES BETAVEEN GOD'S WORLD AND AVORD.
its vague feelings and impressions are unfounded ? If it be
made to see that it has been mistaken in the character of
the alleged Revelation, it will with the more care and
candour weigh the evidences which prove its truth.
There is a vague impression that Christianity cannot be
believed by our common reason, and approved by our com
mon conscience. It is supposed that the standards and
tests in the human mind, as God made it, condemn this,
system. It is inferred, from language not intended to con-
A'ey that idea, that before Christianity can be accepted as
from God, our reason must be changed into a different kind
of reason, that it may then believe what it now rejects.
This is a mistaken impression. Our reason, as it is, is to
act, to be convinced, to be satisfied, and to approve, before
it accepts, Christianity. As in the case of all other systems
and subjects, we are to inquire what it is, how it agrees
with what we know, and what is its origin.
The case is this. We know that our World, and our
selves, its inhabitants, are from God. He created, He sus
tains, He supervises, He governs this world and its, inhabit
ants. It is those only who admit this fact with whom we
argue. We have also, a Bible, a revelation, an announced
plan of procedure and of government, which professes to
be from God. Is it from God?
I. When we look at this known and this alleged work of
God, we find that they seem as if they might have come
from the same hand. We do not now say that we find
some of the same things in both, but we say that we find
in both the same mind and heart, the same hand, the same
character, the same kind of persons, the same ways of
Avorking. The presumption then is, that they were both
the work of the same being.
We look then, at first, into these two departments of
Nature and of Redemption ; not to notice the identity or

BUTLER. 261
similarity of what Ave find in them, but to see if the same
methods of arrangement and of working prevail in both.
1 . We find that Nature and Christianity convey knowledge
in the same way. They both proclaim practical facts, with
out explaining the inner being, the reason, and the mode
of them. Nature gives us air, but does not tell us of what
it is composed, and upon which of its elements our life de
pends. She gives us water, but allows us to drink and be
invigorated without any knowledge of its constituent ele
ments. She gives us light, without informing us that in
every ray lie latent the glories of the rainbow. In the
same manner, Christianity teaches us her salutary and sav
ing facts. Everything which a moral and immortal being
needs to knoAV for his welfare, she proclaims. Our account
ability, our helplessness, our lost estate, our resurrection, our
immortality, our redemption ; the providence of God ; the
grace and salvation of the Saviour; Judgment, Heaven, and
Hell; these facts are fully and unequivocally announced.
But no pains is taken to show their harmony, or to disclose
the philosophy which lies beneath them. It proclaims neces
sary and saving facts, as they are proclaimed by Nature. It
stops where Nature stops. When, in both departments, we
proceed to inquire into the inner being, the mode, the reason,
and the final end of the great facts announced, we find our
selves, in both alike, surrounded on every hand by im
penetrable mysteries. We can go some steps back into
second causes. We may decompose some complex facts.
We may see some reasons this side of the ultimate reason.
But the last step, the last analysis, the last reason, the
ultimate why and how, we cannot detect and comprehend.
However far on the light of our single taper, or our tapers
grouped, we throw our straining vision, there is beyond its
reach a world of darkness. But in both it is not with that
Avhich lies in the darkness, that we are at present, and

£62 ANALOGIES BETAVEEN GOD'S AVORLD AND WORD.
personally, concerned. That which lies in light, AA'hich our
eyes can see and our hands handle, is that by AA'hich we
are to live. Surely we trace the same mind and hand in
these two worlds of Nature and Redemption.
2. We find that the laws which prevail in Nature and
Christianity work in. the same way, and with the same
thoroughness and perfection. There are certain laws which
extend through all nature, and control alike particles of
matter too minute to be discerned and masses of matter
too vast to be conceived. The law of gravitation holds all
worlds together, and acts alike on all masses and on every
atom. The minutest particle which floats on the air is
obedient to it in all its motions. All its mazy dancings to
and fro are made in as precise obedience to this law as are
the majestic and measured motions of the
" Planets and suns and adamantine spheres,
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense."
So does God's moral law, as revealed in Scripture, extend
to all spiritual being. It holds all spirits in its grasp, and
extends to all their thoughts, feelings, and desires. At the
same time it reaches to every human heart, and to every
thought and intent of every human heart. All spiritual
natures, and all the life and action of all spirits, are subject
to its sway. And so, likewise, God's providence, which is
over all worlds, is in every part of every world. We see,
then, the same principle of action prevail in both these
departments of Nature and of Christianity. How can we
doubt that both are conceived and executed by the same
wonder-working mind and hand ?
3. We find also that Nature and Christianity are alike
systems of means. In Nature an end is not reached by a
mere fiat of the Almighty, but by means, simple or com
plex, slow or quick of action. God does not speak a tree

BUTLER. 263
into being; but, from a little seed, slowly and by various
influences of sun and shower, He develops it into full per
fection. And so the kingdom of Heaven in the soul is
like a grain of mustard seed : under the light of God's
Spirit, and the dews of His grace, it grows gradually into
completeness. Christianity is throughout, as Nature is, a
system of means, on Avhich results depend. In both we
find the same principles, the same habits, if I may so
speak, of arrangement and of procedure. How strong,
then, is the presumption that they are both from the same
great God !
These specimens of the argument may suffice to show,
from the similar modes of working in both Nature and
Christianity, that a high presumption arises, that the
worker is in both the same. The object of the argu
ment thus far is to prove, not that there is similarity
or identity in what is found in these two departments, but
that certain general principles of procedure are traced alike
in both. And now, if we find that Nature and the Bible
coincide in their teachings, upon some important subjects, Ave
shall have an additional and vastly strengthened presump
tion, that the author of the one is also the author of the
other. II. It is found that there is nothing which Nature
distinctly teaches man — or, perhaps, we should say, nothing
which man learns from Nature — Avhich is not taught, and
that, too, with greater emphasis and clearness, in the book
of God. Nay, the truths which Nature does but whisper,
and which none but pure and earnest hearts can catch, are
proclaimed in trumpet tones by this messenger of Heaven.
When we speak of that knowledge of God and of duty,
which may be acquired by man without revelation, we use
vague Avords. Natural religion, as it is called, has no fixed
creeds and articles. Allowing to natural religion not only

264 ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S AVORLD AND WORD.
what men have actually learned from Nature, but all that
Nature actually teaches to the highest and purest reason,
we shall find that all her teachings are confirmed by the
book of God.
1. Nature and the Bible coincide in their representations
of the natural attributes of God. Both proclaim Him,
"The King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise
God." It is claimed by the students of Nature, that such
are her teachings with regard to the great Creator of all
things. By some it is denied that these conclusions could
have been reached without the aid of the diffused, but
unrecognised light of the Bible. But if we allow that
Nature teaches, and man learns from her, all these truths,
hoAV magnificently are they proclaimed in Scripture ! How
these truths, which are but whispered in Nature, so that
many never hear them, are pealed forth, as Avith melodious
thunders, in the Avord of God ! Nature and Revelation are
the oracular Urim and Thummim upon the breastplate of
Divinity — the one " truth," and the other " manifestation" —
the one containing, and the other explaining, stupendous
lessons concerning the Almighty and the Infinite. What
man learns from the book of Nature concerning the natural
attributes of God, he can best express in the language of
the Bible, and he feels that he better understands, and is
more sublimely moved by them, when he utters them in
the rapt anthems of Isaiah, and the lofty and swelling
ascriptions of St. John.
2. If it be difficult to knoAV how much natural religion
teaches as to the natural attributes of God, it is still more
difficult to define what she has taught in reference to the
moral character of the Almighty ; and in reference to the
duty of man. But we may boldly say that all that man
has learned on these subjects in Nature, he will find in the
Bible. The obscure, vague Avords Avhich Nature utters on

BUTLER. 265
these great themes, are distinctly spoken in the Word of
God. There is not a moral attribute of the Almighty, nor
a moral duty falteringly put forth by Nature, which is not
plainly announced in the NeAV Testament. Natural religion
declares that Ave know those things to be duties which are
followed by good results, and add to the welfare and the
happiness of man. On this ground it inculcates duty to
parents, and obedience to the State. Now Ave fearlessly
declare, that according to this rule, there is not a moral
duty inculcated by Scripture, which natural religion does
not sanction. " In fact," to use the language of another,
" moral philosophy, and political economy, and the science
of politics, the sciences which teach men the rules of well-
being, whether as individuals or as communities, are, so far
as they are sound, but experience and organized nature
echoing back the teachings of Christianity. What principle
of Christian ethics does Christianity now presume to call in
question? What are the general principles of political
economy, but an imperfect application to the intercourse
of trading communities of those rules of good neighbour
hood, and of that spirit of kindness, which Christianity
inculcates? What is the larger part of political science,
but a laborious and imperfect mode of realizing those results
in society, which would flow spontaneously from the uni
versal prevalence of Christian morals and of a Christian
spirit ? In regard to every cause that would lead to unhap-
piness, Christianity has stood from the first, at the entrance
of the paths, and uttered its warning cry."* Because, then,
all of human duty which Nature teaches, the Bible teaches,
and all that the Bible teaches, natural religion on its own
principles must acknowledge to be true, Ave conclude, that
their teachings on these great themes coincide.

* Hopkins's Evidences of Christianitj'.
34

266 ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S WORLD AND AVORD.
If, then we have reasoned rightly, two important truths
— confirmed by a few arguments Avhich might be expanded
into a volume — are in our possession. We find that similar
principles and modes of working prevail in Nature and in
Providence, and that the teachings of both, in some most
important particulars, coincide. Every reason is absent
which would lead us to infer that they had different authors.
Every reason is present, which would lead us to conclude
that their author was the same.
III. And now we are prepared to advance a step further
in the argument, and to show that what is taught by
Christianity, which is additional to, above, and beyond the
teachings of nature, is analogous in itself, and in its princi
ples, to Avhat is found in Nature. We see the same Worker
carrying the same kind of work, and on the same principles,
further. We see the same Governor, applying and carrying
out his laAvs in neAV fields. So we infer from finding that
all which Christianity reveals is analogous to the constitu
tion and the course of Nature. On this point, as upon the
other, we can but indicate what the argument is, and give
a few specimens of the mode in which it may be conducted.
The distinctive principles of the Bible are consonant
with the dictates of enlightened reason ; are such as God
adopts in Nature and in Providence ; such as man habitu
ally recognises as just, wise, and good.
1. The doctrine of a future state is prominent in the Bible.
Why should it seem incredible that the body, dissolved in
dust, should again be joined by the soul in a higher and
nobler state of being ? Nature is full of kindred processes
and changes. The little seed cast into the ground, mould
ers ; and lo ! in a few years, the strong oak, born from it,
throws out its giant arms, and Avrestles with the whirlwind.
An unsightly little worm dries up and dies to-day ; and to
morrow, out of it, the bright-winged butterfly comes and

BUTLER. 267
soars. How improbable, at the first view, would such a
change appear ! It is, for anything we know, quite as
wonderful as the death and resurrection of the body. In
the present life, the difference between a human being at
one period and another, may be as great as that befAveen
his life on earth and his resurrection-life. How different
is the infant from the man ! How vastly different the
unborn child and the same being ripe in years and in cul
ture ! We are the unborn children of immortality in the
Avomb of time. Who shall say, Avith such changes in this
world before his eyes, that a future state of a more
advanced life, is either impossible or improbable ? If it is
proclaimed by Revelation, then in order to receive it, Ave
need accept no new- principle, but one which Nature and
Providence havre always and uniformly proclaimed.
2. That this future state is one of rewards and punishments,
is also a peculiar doctrine of the Bible. It is one Avhich
commends itself to our inborn sense of justice, and har
monizes with God's actual dealings in the present world.
Notwithstanding the moral disorders of the world, the
often apparent or real prosperity of the wicked, and the
sufferings of the innocent, men do trace, even here, a
righteous moral government. After the transient happi
ness of the vile and wicked, we often see justice overtake
them. We see, also, as a general law, that the A'irtuous
prosper and the wicked are punished. Shall not the prin
ciple then which prevails here, and which our moral judg
ment sanctions, prevail also beyond the tomb? If the
vicious die before retribution meets them here, shall we
not expect that it will seize them hereafter? If the virtu
ous die in the midst of suffering and by injustice, shall not
their rewards greet and bless them in the other Avorld ?
If the completion of this recognised scheme of rewards
and punishments is arrested on earth, shall it not be

268 ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S AVORLD AND WORD.
realized in another state of being ? Surely this is what
Ave should be led to expect ! And how should the human
heart leap with joy to know, what Nature could only teach
us to surmise and to desire ! Hoav comforting is the reflec
tion, in a world where injustice so often rides dominant
and insulting over prostrate innocence, that in another
Avorld every inequality shall be removed ! The temple of
justice shall rise in complete beauty and proportion on the
plains of heaven. Here we see its unfinished materials
thrown together in a seemingly unmeaning and unmanage
able confusion. Some of its turret-tops lie pressed under
its intended foundation-stones ; and the fine carvings of
the architrave lie beneath the columns they were fashioned
to surmount. Yet may a studious and instructed eye dis
cerns its general plan, and in the finish and beauty of some
of its parts, scattered amid shapeless masses, we may form
some idea of its grandeur and glory when it shall be com
plete. All these materials, however rude and heterogene
ous some of them may appear, shall be made to minister to
the strength, harmony, and grace of the majestic edifice;
and on its front holiness shall be inscribed ; and under its
dome the redeemed children of God shall for ever sing,
"Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints!"
But these two doctrines of a future state of rewards and
punishments have been surmised at times by reason. Other
still more distinctive and exclusive doctrines, which natural
religion neArer reached, remain.
3. It is a peculiar and distinctive doctrine of the Bible,
that a solitary evil act — an act of disobedience to God on
the part of our first parents — was the beginning of a long
train of wretchedness which has come upon the world.
That such sad and long-continued consequences should flow
from a single act, we shall see to be in harmony with our
constant experience, and necessary to the well-being and

BUTLER. 269
existence of society. The consequences of guilt, on the
part of a parent, pass over and rest upon his children.
The intemperate man not only ruins himself, but frequently
blights the health and happiness and prospects of his chil
dren. By a single act of treason, many titled persons, in
other countries, have stripped themselves, and their chil
dren through all generations, of their privileges and
honours. The monarch who a few years since sat on the
throne of France, by a single act deprived not only him
self, but his heir, and, it may be, his descendants through
all time, of whatever glory there is in regal state. By a
single stroke of his pen, made in a moment, the forger or
defaulter brings upon himself bitter consequences for all
his life, and, it may be, upon all his family, all their lives
long. No one vindicates the robber, the murderer, or any
other culprit, on the ground that he committed his crime
quickly, in an instant. We look to his evil intent, and to
the consequences of his crime ; and the murderer by slow
poison, aftd the dealer of death by a single blow, have the
same punishment. Such punishment is necessary for the
preservation of society and of moral government. Now it
may be, that the evil consequences which flowed from the
disobedience of Adam are not greater, when A'iewed in
reference to the vastness of God's government, the eternity
of His duration, than are the consequences which Aoav from
an act of guilt against human society, viewed in reference
to its duration and extent. If it be just that such conse
quences should follow crime against human government,
it is just that a proportioned retribution should follow dis
loyalty to the government of God. If a life-long penalty
is not too great for human justice, a life-long penalty is not
too great for Divine justice, though that lifetime be eternity.
By such awful and far-reaching consequences all God's
intelligent creatures would be warned, with a solemnity

270 ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S AVORLD AND AVORD.
which Avould be likely to insure their everlasting loyalty,
that God's laws must be maintained inviolate !
4. Another distinctive doctrine of the Gospel is Redemp
tion. By Adam's fall, all mankind having become de
praved, restoration and salvation have been effected by the
agency of a Mediator. And this is in harmony with our
constant experience. Our chief blessings come to us from
God through provided media. In every period of our being
it is so. It was through the pains, cares, and watchings
of a tender mother that our infancy was guarded. If it be
God's appointment that Ave are ushered into this world
and prepared for its duties and enjoyments through the
sufferings and love of another, it is in harmony with this
arrangement that we should be prepared for another world
by the pains and love of a Redeemer. Knowledge comes
through others. Food reaches us through others. All
God's best gifts come to us through some mediate agency.
And if it be said that the doctrine of Redemption by Jesus
Christ has this peculiarity of atonement and substitution,
still, it may be shown, that every instance of substituted
sufferings, on the part of a friend, parent, or public bene
factor, is in accordance with this feature of the Divine
arrangement. Should* the cloud of Avar frown on our
coasts and darken our valleys, and our homes be filled with
fear and gloom, then, through you, patriot citizens, who
would rush to the rescue — by the pouring out of your
blood — a saved and grateful people would smile again in
peace and safety ! By mediation, by atonement, by substi
tution, God acts in the kingdom of Grace, as he does in the
kingdom of Nature.
5. To other doctrines, still more remote from man's un
aided discovery, the same remarks might be applied. That
arrangement by Avhich some nations are called to the know
ledge of Revelation and some are not, some individuals

BUTLER. 271
saved and some lost ; the doctrine of the influence of the
Holy Spirit, and other peculiar truths, which go beyond
natural religion, are yet on the same line with it, and,
when revealed, can be seen by reason to be in analogy
with Nature, though they could neA'er, by reason, have been
discovered. We find, then, that in these two departments, of Nature
and of Christianity, the same principles of procedure
prevail ; that many of their teachings coincide ; that
Christianity, Avhen it goes beyond Nature, proceeds in the
same line, and conforms to her's its arrangements. Its hard
words are made up of Nature's easy syllables. Its great
conclusions result from nature's simple and admitted pre
mises. In view of these resemblances, the probability that
they are the work of the same great heart and mind and
hand rises almost to demonstration.
IV. But there is still another step to this argument
which leads the candid mind into a conviction that Christi
anity is from God : a conviction so strong that it scarcely
feels the need of external evidence. God's Word throws
vast light on God's World. It clears up many obscuri
ties. It explains many difficulties. It enables natural
religion to reach and rest in her conclusions, with the
more assured conviction, because it removes objections
which she admitted and could not obviate. By placing the
case more fully before natural religion, disclosing the AA'ider
connexions and the remoter reasons of many facts, it
shows her how she can receive, with assured certainty,
what she before held with faltering faith. It shows her
that though some of the main conclusions which she has
reached are just and true, yet with only the knowledge,
and on the principles, in her possession, she must hold them
in connexion with such powerful difficulties and objections,
as almost shake them from her grasp.

272 ANALOGIES BETAVEEN GOD'S WORLD AND AVORD.
1. Natural religion proclaims, as an article of her faith,
that God is a just and righteous Governor. Noticing how
evil and suffering follow the violation of natural and moral
laws, how retribution dogs the footsteps of the transgressor,
she discerns, amid all the confusions of the world, a
righteous moral administration, and concludes, " Verily
there is a reward for the righteous ; doubtless there is a
God that judgeth the earth." But observe how often this
conviction must shake in the mind of the Natural Reli
gionist, when it has no other reasons to keep it firm than
those AA'hich Nature furnishes. He discerns righteousness
to be God's rule. But wheneA^er — and how often, in this
evil Avorld, does this occur ! — he observes the innocent
ultimately perish, and the vicious ultimately triumph; he
sees an inexplicable exception to the rule ! What shall he
do Avith the exception ? Perfect Justice, Divine Justice,
should have no exceptions. It should be uniform, uni
versal, irresistible in its operation. A Justice Avhich some
times slumbers, though it more often wakes, is imperfect
Justice. Omitted Justice is inflicted wrong. What shall
he do with the exceptions ? If he adopts belief in future
rewards and punishments — as some theories of natural
religion do — then many of his difficulties vanish. He
sees then that suffering innocence is finally vindicated and
rewarded, and prosperous wrong cast down beneath burning
retributions. But still a great difficulty remains. Why
should innocence, though ultimately vindicated and re
warded, suffer at all ? How is it to be reconciled to God's
Justice that they who have done no sin should suffer much
evil ? On this difficulty reason throws no ray of light !
It is compelled to build up and keep up the conviction of
God's perfect Justice, with this flaw, this gap in the founda
tions. What wonder that when struck by the storms of
passion, temptation, and despair, it falls, and crushes all

BUTLER. 273
belief, and leaves the soul broken and bleeding under its
ruins ?
But observe here hoAV God's Word affords the light by
which alone God's World can be read and comprehended.
It furnishes new facts which explain old facts, which are
otherwise inexplicable. It distinctly announces the retri
bution Avhich reason vaguely guesses. In the life and im
mortality Avhich it brings to light, it affords a field on which
all inequalities shall be adjusted. It reveals a history
which throws much light on the mystery of suffering. It
tells the story of the fall. It proves that man was not
created with the poor prone nature under which he now
stoops and staggers, but that he inherits it, by a law Avhich
runs through all God's Avorks, from his fallen first father.
It shoAvs that there are no strictly innocent human beings.
It proves that all men, having sinned, deserve, if not the
particular evil Avhich they suffer, yet an equal evil, as the
just meed of their transgressions. It displays the sweet
uses of adversity. It exhibits God's love in the discipline
of pain. It displays the All-wise " from seeming evil still
educing good." It shows that only infants are perfectly
innocent, and that they suffer under a general uniform law,
which God cannot abrogate, and that their sufferings, as
such, are temporary, and are followed by joys that make
them seem less than nothing. Hoav great, without these
explanations, are the difficulties of natural religion ! How
are they diminished by Christianity ! How slight are those
which remain ! How rapidly are they dissolving in the
light over Avhich they float ! How like the little shreds of
cloud over the pearly sky of dawn, do they catch radiance
from the orb which is still below time's horizon, and in
whose rising light they shall disappear! Surely if Christi
anity so often coincides with Nature, is always in analogy
35

274 ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S AVORLD AND AVORD.
with Nature, and explains Nature, it must be from the hand
of Nature's God !
2. Natural Religion proclaims the goodness of the Al
mighty. Benevolence is seen to be the design and rule ;
suffering and evil the contravention of the design, and the
exception to, the rule. We grant that the Natural Re
ligionist, by the exercise of right reason, can justly reach
and rest in this conclusion. But on his principles and
with his knowledge, upon this supposition of God's perfect
benevolence, the existence of sin and suffering at all, must
be inexplicable and confounding. Why any exception to
the rule ? Why any contravention of the design ? From
his position he must be led to inquire, whether God Avas not
unable to make a perfect world ; or whether His nature is
not capricious and imperfect, so that while He does good as
a rule, He sometimes yields to impulse or neglect, and lets
in evil; or whether there may not be two Gods — the evil
and the good ? He may see hoAV, in many cases, evil is
overruled for good ; but while this proves God's goodness
in His dealings with it after it has come into the Avorld,
it does not destroy its nature as evil, and does not
explain how God's goodness is reconcileable with its
coming. Here, as in fhe case of God's Justice, and by the
same history, and the same reasons, Christianity clears
up the difficulties of Natural Religion. It shows hoAV God
did make a perfect world ; how man, in the perverse
exercise of that free will, which was the perfection and
glory of his nature, and necessary to a perfect world, in
troduced into the peaceful and happy work of perfect
benevolence, sin, suffering, disorder, death. It shows God
[springing forward to meet and counterwork and educe from
the evil — which He made every provision, consistent with
His perfections, to exclude from the universe — all the good
and all the happiness to His creatures, which infinite wis-

BUTLER. 275
dom, love and power, could compass. Surely a system
which explains the difficulties and supplies the deficiencies
of Nature, must be from the God of Nature.
3. But the disorder of the material Avorld, and the suffer
ings of God's innocent animate creation, are a still greater
difficulty in vievf of the perfect power, wisdom, benevolence,
and justice of the Almighty, than is the existence of moral
evil and its attendant pains. That might possibly be ac
counted for by reason, on the ground of man's freedom.
But that this material Avorld should be in such disorder,
and that creatures incapable of sin should suffer — how can
reason give any solution to this dark enigma? It is
Christianity alone that can shed upon this subject a ray of
light. Christianity shows us how, if it does not show us
why, it occurred. Nay, it shows us why, after man in the
exercise of his perverse free will had fallen, the world
which he inhabited, became also a fallen world, that it
might be his fit abode. Matter was created in subordina
tion to the spiritual world, and adjusted to its nature and
its wants. When man was perfect, his world was perfect.
But it follows the fortunes, and reflects the features of man,
for whom it Avas created. It " was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected it" to
become a sharer of his woe. It fell with him. Its disorder
reflected his disorder. Its suffering corresponded to his
suffering. We see then the how, and the immediate and
necessary, if not remote and ultimate why of this strange,
and to reason, utterly inexplicable mystery. Nature, whose
voices must be so discordant to the ear of reason, utters a
confirming and consenting testimony to the ear of the
believer in the Word of God. In the sunshine and the
dew, in the beauty and bounty of the earth, in the happy
life of its myriad creatures, the Natural Religionist reads
God's goodness, and is charmed and grateful. But when

276 ANALOGIES BETWEEN GOD'S AVORLD AND AVORD.
he looks at wild wastes and raging seas, at the charged
cloud and the sweeping tempest, at the volcano and the
earthquake ; when he sees the sufferings, and hears the cry
of God's helpless creatures, pursued by beasts of prey, or
dying under the knife of man, then he is met by what
seems a terrifying and confounding contradiction. But to
the believer in Revelation, Earth is a solemn Teacher who
does but repeat to him the great lessons of the Bible. It
is a vast symbol of the Avorld of souls, to which it is con
formed, and by which it is inhabited. The strife and gloom
and elemental war and woe, which appear in the midst of
beauty, harmony, and joy in Nature, do but correspond to
the suffering, sin, and struggle in the mind of man, which
are seen to blend and alternate with its beautiful affections,
and its blameless joys. From every soft vale of beauty,
and from every mountain-throne of power, and from every
wild scene of elemental war, earth teaches us that our souls
groan in a state of probation and of struggle ; that our joys
ever nestle beneath toppling avalanches of Avoe ; that our
good ahvays dwells on a precipice, beneath which the inex
haustible and undermining spring of innate evil flows ; that
ours is not a perfect and happy moral world, and that to
become such it must undergo a new creation.
Now, in view of these reasonings, if it appear that in
this known World of God, and this alleged Word of God,
we find the same methods and principles of proceeding;
if many of their teachings coincide; if where the Word
adds to the teachings of the World, it teaches truths that
are analogous to hers ; and if the Word throw floods of
light upon the dark places of the World, making its truths
plainer, dissipating its obscurities, and explaining its diffi
culties, hoAV can the conclusion be avoided that this Word
must be from God ? How can we do otherwise than
expect to find the evidences for its truth satisfying and

BUTLER. 277
conclusive? The antecedent probability, the high pre
sumption, from the character merely of this Word of God,
Avithout reference to the presumption which rises from its
history, is that it must be of God.
1. Hence the power which Christianity possesses over
the convictions of mankind. Rightly and fully presented,
it vindicates by exhibiting its Divinity, even as the sun
proves its light, by shining. Itself is its evidence. As
Nature speaks of the God from whom it came, by the
marks of God's work upon it, so does Christianity speak of
God, its Author, to the minds that receive and the hearts
that feel its truths. Let us not then doubt that in exhibit
ing Christianity in all its Divine fulness, we are exhibiting
its evidences. Let it be preached, and some of its best
proofs will not be wanting.
2. Hence let not the humble believer who has received
Christianity with an earnest faith, with an undoubting
confidence, be shaken in that faith, because he has not
studied and weighed its external evidences, and been con
vinced by them of its truth. Let him not be persuaded
that his faith rests on no sure and reasonable foundations ;
and is but blind credulity. The Bible has addressed to
him the same arguments as Nature has, to prove to him
that it is from God. God is seen in the Bible in more
magnificent, moving, touching demonstrations than in the
world. It was not by syllogisms, by histories, by proofs
outside of itself, that Nature was seen to be from God. It
was Nature's self that spoke to him of God. In the same
manner has the Bible spoken. He need not be ashamed
of his conviction, nor give it up, if he never have the
poAver nor the opportunity to examine those external evi
dences Avhich so abundantly prove its truth.
3. Hence, too, the Christian must not alloAV himself to
think or speak as if it were Christianity that was chiefly

278 ANALOGIES BETAVEEN GOD'S AVORLD AND AVORD.
encumbered by inexplicable difficulties, and as if they did
not attach to Natural Religion. The difficulties of Natu
ral Religion are the great and confounding difficulties.
Reason, unaided by Revelation, has, in every system of
Religion which she can construct, real difficulties, as dis
tinguished from the mysteries and obscurities which are
found in Christianity. They are places in which we can see
that there are inconsistencies, irreconcileablenesses, things
which the reason cannot harmonize. But the difficulties
of Christianity are places in which we cannot see at all ;
they are not in conflict with reason, but beyond reason.
In the one system things which are in conflict lie in the
light before us. We see their incongruity. In the other
system certain things lie in the darkness which is beyond
us, Avhich we cannot see at all, but which we have good
evidence shall, when the light of the eternal day shall be
let in upon them, ravish us with their beauty and their
inter-harmony, their sweet accord with all the systems of
all God's worlds, and with all the principles of a perfect,
holy, and benevolent administration. In the one system
Ave stand in a temple which is unfinished ; Avhose plan we
cannot trace ; whose wnbuttressed walls we fear will.fall ;
whose incongruous construction offends our eye, and excites
our apprehensions of its stability ; but the Avhole of which
we can see. In the other system our joyful worship is
rendered and our peaceful rest enjoyed, in a grand, ordered,
and completed temple, whose harmony charms our minds,
and Avhose stability assures our hearts ; though beneath it,
under its Araulted foundations, there are dark places, into
which if we enter we cannot see ; but in Avhich, if we could
see, we should discern only majesty, stability, proportion,
power ! There are shadows in the angles and niches, and
under the crypts of the great Temple of Truth ; but it

BUTLER. 279
stands in light, and the light streams within and cheers its
happy worshippers.
And noAV, my friend, fellow-traveller through time to
eternity, what is your position in reference to these great
truths? Have you, because of the difficulties of Christi
anity, turned away from it ? Do you reject the Bible as
from God ? If Ave have reasoned well, the difficulties of
reason are far greater Avithout than with the Bible. And
then think of your position — how lonely, how cheerless,
how wrapped around Avith inexorable mysteries! There
are, indeed, curtains of mystery before the Christian's eye ;
but he sees angel hands putting them aside, and light from
Heaven gleaming through ! But you are here on this
isolated, darkened world, knoAving only that there is a(
God, and that He made you, sustains you, and governs
you. That He is perfectly good and holy you strive to
feel, though you are often made to doubt. What He is, you
cannot fully know ; you can but surmise and hope. But
the Avonder of wonders is, that He never speaks to you,
that He leaves you to yourself in this dark world, that He
never addresses a single word of teaching or encouragement
to the poor weak creature whom He has made and cast out
on a perilous Avorld, to battle alone with sin, and, at last,
to yield to the embrace of the grim and inevitable death.
When, to the dumb surrounding space, or to the speechless
stars, you send forth a cry of passionate inquiry, " Whence
and why and what am I, and whither destined ? What is
the power that made and keeps me ? What are His cha
racter, designs, and Avill ?" — there comes no reply. In vain
do you speak to your own wondering soul. In vain do
you speak to the dumb darkness. From the one you hear
only questions, and from the other comes no reply. I
should think this sense of loneliness and desertion would
be unspeakably gloomy and oppressive to your soul.

280 ANALOGIES BETAVEEN GOD'S WORLD AND WORD.
When, in its timidity, or terror, or anxious longing, it de
sired to know what it should do, whether God loved it,
whether He would make it happy hereafter, and could get
no answer, oh ! I should think God's refusal to speak, His
inexorable silence, would seem cruel, cruel ! And then,
when you sometimes think that the Bible may be true, and
unbelief in Christ a sin, and that an eternity of woe may
follow a lifetime of sin and sorrow, I should think your
heart would break with the anguish of its doubts and fears.
My brother, we, the children of God, and you, are in the
same low vale of mortal life ; but your eye and step are
aAvay from the light, in the direction where that vale de
scends into deeper glooms, until it ends, by a single step,
in the black pool of death ; but we are travelling in the
opposite direction, upwards and towards the light. The
mountains that enclose us are tipped and radiant with light
and glory from the eternal world. Beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of them that bring good tidings of
the land beyond them ; that publish peace ; that say unto
us that our God reigneth ! Turn and go with us, and we
will do you good, and you shall find peace to your souls.

iii % Jldaticrit of % ifljtttifo mttr ^ulrjcdifo
Jfattors in JleWation.

BY REV. CHARLES MINNEGERODE,
hector en? cmtisr church, Norfolk, ta.

36

X.

ON THE

RELATION OF THE OBJECTIVE AND SUB
JECTIVE FACTORS IN REVELATION.
BEFORE an audience like the present — here in the
house of God, where Ave congregate to feed the soul
with the pure word of truth, the teachings and comforts
of the Gospel — limited, as I necessarily am, to a brief space
of time, I deem it best to drop, as much as possible, the
technicalities of language, which might convey to the
minds of many but obscure ideas, or encumber the subject
Avith lengthy explanations. It will be best to fasten our
attention upon the substance rather than the form, and
single out some of the main and most salient points it
presents to our consideration. May the Spirit of Avisdom
and understanding guide me in the performance of my
duty ! and may you, my hearers, aid my humble effort by
kindly lending a patient and attentive ear to the discussion
of a subject which I hope will, before I have concluded,
be fixed in your minds as one of vast and paramount
importance. From whatever point of view Ave look upon man, as he
is presented to us in actual life, he never appears as an
isolated being. The individual is not only a link in the
indefinite chain Avhich stretches from the lowest dust to
(283)

284 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
the most highly endoAved creature verging on perfection ;
he is also the centre of a circle or many circles, which
unite upon him their converging rays. Whether we take
him in his material, his intellectual, or his moral and social
existence, he stands in the midst of a surrounding reality,
Avhich, as it is the field where his nature and individuality
develop themselves, is also a constant source of moulding
influences, sets bounds to the freedom of his movements,
and gives laAvs to his existence. Our whole life is to some
extent a play and counterplay of these elements; a
conflict, more or less hostile, between the Self of the indi
vidual and the opposing power and reality of beings and
laws that encircle him ; an antagonism, more or less embit
tered, between the forces proceeding from the individual
as the centre, upon the periphery that is described around
him by an almighty decree, and the forces which from that
periphery press upon the centre.
It is to this law of his existence that he owes his de
velopment. The influences of the surrounding world of
matter and mind are the means to call forth into action
every latent faculty. They open the avenues which lead
the human mind to knowledge and power. In the sweat
of his broAV he earned his bread, and in the struggle for his
existence he learned to engage in the re-conquest of the
dominion of the earth. These laws and his necessities
forced him to shelter himself in houses, to watch the sea
sons, to sow and reap the fruits of the ground ; they taught
him to tame the elements and make them his vassals, to
turn the devouring flame into his most useful servant, and
extract life and health from poisonous herbs and metals ;
they taught him to decipher the laws of the universe in
the stars which, with their friendly light, courted his gaze ;
they roused his energy and ingenuity to bid the ocean open
a pathway for his fleet, to rob the thunder of his bolt, and

MINNEGERODE. 285
annihilate distance. They elicited his mental powers and
Avooed him from mere animal and material existence into
the higher sphere of intellectual life, awakened in him the
thirst for knowledge and sent him in pursuit of wisdom,
to search the mind of the Creator, and think over the
thoughts of the Deity, as they stand revealed to him incor
porated in His works. They made him seek the company
of his fellows, and bound his life in the softening and en
nobling ties of human society, and developed those moral
attributes which wreathe his brow with the civic crown,
nobler than an imperial diadem — which bear witness of his
heaven-descended origin — traces of the image of God in
which he was created.
But along with the triumphant shout, which well may
ascend in honour of the high achievements and glorious
conquests of his race, is heard the note of wailing and dis
tress, the tearful cry of misery, the ravings of despair.
For man does not only, nor chiefly, move in harmony with
the conditions that are laid down for him by his Maker in
the surrounding reality; but, however obscure the fact
may appear to many in its origin, the natural result of the
untutored exercises of the individual (whether in the ma
terial, intellectual, or moral aspect) leads to a contest be
tween the tAvo forces; and hence the conflicts and the
sufferings of this life ! The great problem of life is an even
balance, the necessary equilibrium between the two ele
ments, between what we may term its objective and sub
jective factors ; the great cause of the evils Avhich fall to
the lot of man is, the disturbance of this equilibrium, the
disproportion between the respective power and claims of
the two factors.
'Tis true, in his inferior life, man generally walks quietly
in the leading strings of the laws of nature and nature's
God ; the violation of the conditions of his material wel-

286 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIA'E FACTORS.
fare brings with it a punishment too immediate and too
severe to allow him long to kick against the pricks, and
when he violates them to his hurt, he does so from moral
perversion ; witness gluttony and drunkenness ! But in his
intellectual and moral life man moves more freely ; the
reality that still binds him in laws is less plain to his per
ception — if we may say so — less tangible and visible ; and
he sins Avith less restraint, just because he moves in a
higher sphere ; a being gifted with intelligence ; a moral
agent ! But is he therefore really more free from either
their controlling or avenging power ? They are immutable,
of a duration commensurate with the existence of this
world, of power irresistible ; they are the laws of God.
Ah ! if we could have the dying confessions of all ages, we
would learn, that of all the agonies which haunt the soul
of man on earth, the sorest are those which the neglect
and contempt of those laws entail upon him, which encircle
his intellectual and moral sphere, Avhich condition the
growth and happiness of his intelligent and moral nature.
We admit all the charges which the reformers of our
days bring up against the existing order of things; we
admit and feel all its, anomalies, and to a more fearful
extent. We know that our lauded civilization is fraught
with curses as with blessings ; that as it is the glory of
man, so it is his sin and his shame ; that its gigantic progress
rests not on the basis of true happiness ; that the fearful
momentum it has acquired threatens to sweep away the
remaining barriers of all that we hold sacred and right ;
that its consolidating and concentrative tendencies per
petuate and increase the Avrongs of social inequality ; we
foresee hoAV also, in this country of many privileges and
blessings, as soon as its vast area shall be crowded Avith an
equally dense population, will be transacted the tragedy of
Dives and Lazarus, which makes the heart of Europe bleed,

M I N N E G E R 0 D E. 287
and before our anxious eye looms up the dreaded spectacle
of war — Avar to the knife — between the rich and the poor,
the Princes and the Pariahs of the earth. But we refuse
both their aims and their remedies. The statesman acts
but negatively, and at best prolongs the " status quo" by an
armed truce between the jarring elements of society. Po
litical economy applies but palliatives to evils which should
be cured in their source ; and Socialism, in its attempts at
positive reforms, only deepens the discord which exists be
tween the contending elements. It is based on the exalta
tion of self; it sanctions the passions of the individual ;
the happiness it promises is selfish, sensual ; it is impossible,
because heightening the disproportion between the mutual
demands of the individual and the eternal laws of his
existence. The reason of these failures and the insufficiency of the
attempted cure is, that the evil lies within, in the subjective,
and not in the objective factors of the human life ! And,
let it be ; let us assume, that happiness can be secured by
a one-sided triumph. What is the result aimed at ? Would
it be a happiness to satisfy the aspirations of an immortal
soul of a spirit whose longings are upAvards, and Avhose
capacities are not exhausted in the search of what Ave shall
eat, and what we shall drink, or wherewithal shall we be
clothed ? Of all the attempts to degrade man in the scale
of intelligent existences — the Socialist and the Communist
systems of the day — the utilitarian tendencies of the age
are among the worst ! This life would indeed be Avorthless,
if it gave us but the moment, and robbed us of the future ;
if it was bounded by earth and time, to the exclusion of
heaven and eternity; if its threescore years and ten of
toiling and sweating had no other aim than a membership
in a life-and-comfort insurance company !
There is a remedy, for all the ills and difficulties of this

288 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
life, a solution for all the doubts and yearnings of the soul
— but it is only found in the establishment of perfect har
mony between the subjective and objective elements of our
existence; between the world within and the world without!
And this harmony is attainable, and blessed with the
development and perfecting of all that is truly great and
heavenly in the human mind, laden Avith the realization of
every high hope, every immortal aspiration of the human
heart — but only when, leaving the lower circles of our
existence, we enlarge our horizon, and look beyond the
laws that hem us in, up to Him who made both us and
them ; when asking for Avisdom beyond that of this Avorld,
from the Father of lights, the Fountain of all wisdom, we
learn to adore " the depths both of the Avisdom and know
ledge of God ;" when we exchange the poverty of sight for
the inexhaustible riches of faith ; when, looking upon the
society of earth as only preparatory, we rise to the apprecia
tion of Heaven as our home, and seek the fellowship of the
saints in light. Only then do we take the proper stand
point, from which to survey the phenomena of life, and
understand their meaning and relative position ; only then
can we find our guide through its labyrinths, the law to
regulate our course, and discover harmony in the apparent
contradictions of this life. Religion — and religion alone —
extends our vision beyond the shadows of earth and time ;
Religion, and religion only, raises us at once into the pre
sence of the great Author of our existence, and teaches us
the proper position of the individual amidst the multi
tudes of beings, to which he gave life, and whom He bound
together in the laws of eternal harmony. Religion, only,
discloses to us the great cause of all the woes which our
race is heir to — the great sin of man — his apostacy from
God, his forgetfulness of Him who made us, and of His
will; obedience to which is the immutable condition of

M I N N E G E R 0 D E. 289
creature-happiness ! Religion alone points out its all-suffi
cient remedy.
Put God out of all the thoughts of the creature, and
self becomes his centre of gravitation ; his whole existence
becomes disordered, and the towering ambition of the indi
vidual, vainly struggling against the law of God, recoils
upon himself in the endurance of the penal evils of this
life. Put back the thought of God, and the fear and love
of His holy name, into the heart of man, and he is poised
securely in the strong arm and the everlasting love of his
Maker. 'Tis true, there is his sin, which, like a yaAvning
gulf, separates him from the favour of God, and exiles him
from His presence ! But when he sees a better than the
Roman Curtius — One radiant with divinity, yet clad in the
rags of humanity — leap into the fearful abyss ; when he
hears the voice of the Father call to him, " Return ;" when
a Saviour invites him to come, come and be saved, and
find rest for his weary, heavy-laden soul ; when the mys
tery of love is revealed to him, that " God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life ;" when the counsel of grace makes known how He
Avas made " to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him;" then
the poor sinner learns that the chasm is closed ; reconcilia
tion has taken place, harmony is restored, and that there
is now for him a free access into the presence and the
favour of God ; that " mercy and truth are met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other !"
Thus we have reached the true position which the indi
vidual occupies, and the point from which the riddle of life
must be solved. It is not so much in the relation he
sustains to the laws of matter, mind, and human society,
that the question of his existence is answered, his Avay
37

290 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
pointed out, and his steps directed, but in the relation he
sustains to his Maker ! This relation determines all others :
hoAvever much he strive to master them, he fails when he
fails in his relation to God ! If God be for him, Avho can
be against him ? but, if God be against him, Avhat would it
profit him were he to gain the whole world ? This subject
has indeed agitated mankind at all times and everyAvhere.
But Ave cannot pause now to prove that, though many may
have sought and be seeking the Lord, "if haply they
might feel after Him and find Him," yet there is but one
way; and when we speak of Religion as the answer to
all doubts, the panacea for all ills, the balm for every
wound — we mean no other than Christianity !
But what a subject is laid open before our mind, if from
the Christian point of vieAV we consider the subjective and
objective relations of human life, the position of the indi
vidual as conditioned by the reality of the Divine will in
all the laws and phenomena that surround him ! Oh, for
time and ability to unrol the book of oracular responses,
Avhich, upon a just appreciation of this relation, from a
perfect understanding of this subject, and this only, can be
given to all the questions Avhich the doubting, the fearful,
or the hopeful, the joyous or the suffering heart of man
can ask ! There is no question of humanity, no specula
tion in philosophy, no problem of society, but they find
their solution here ! There is no problem in Christianity,
but it illustrates and is illustrated by this relation. All
the questions which ever agitated the Christian Church, all
the disputes in theology, all the truths of practical religion,
are measured by the standard of this relation ! No doc
trine, no practice, no moral precept, no rite or sacrament,
no church authority, no external form of government or
worship, no internal act of adoration and obedience, of
faith or repentance; but they receive their valuation,

M I N N E G E R 0 D E. £91
their comparative importance from this stand-point : the
relative position, the mutual agency of God and man as the
objective and subjective factors of our existence. Before this
tribunal, the great question of the sovereignty of grace
and the freedom of the moral agent is to be argued ; here
the claims reconciled betAA'een faith and works; here the
laAvs of proportion laid down between the visible and invi
sible church, the external kingdom of Christ in the
world — and the kingdom of God " which cometh not with
observation, but is Avithin."
All these questions rest upon the fact of a Divine Reve
lation. The fundamental question, underlying all further
speculations on this great subject, refers to the mutual
position of the two elements in this, in Revelation ; and to
a few remarks on this relation, let us devote the remaining
portion of our time.
We Avill consider, first, the nature of the Revelation as
given to man, and then the relation sustained towards it,
both actively and passively, by man, the individual, as
the subjective factor.
I. To speak of the Revelation itself. The premise upon
which Ave proceed is, that it is objective, that is, external,
bestoAved upon man from without, and cannot originate
within his own mind. This is the assumption upon AA'hich
Ave now proceed. We cannot delay to provre the fact of
such a Divine Revelation, and thus of an objective or
external communication from God to man; however
instructive and satisfactory the task might be, to show the
absurdity and unphilosophical character of a denial of its
possibility, however triumphantly we could establish it by
analogy, this is not the question before us ; it is not the
subject of our present discussion ; Ave leave it to others :
suffice it to say, that unless the discords and enormities of
this life should be our normal condition — an external reve-

292 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
lation is, humanly speaking, necessary. The conflict
between the individual and the surrounding externality
cannot be reduced to harmony by the subjective sugges
tions, the one-sided fiat of the individual. They would only
increase the weight of self and deepen the disproportion.
If harmony is to be restored, it cannot be but by the
subjection of self upon the authoritative interposition of
the Creator; and just as our material, intelligent, and
moral nature has its external medium — its surrounding
bounds, and objectively revealed laAvs; just so and still
more must we infer is the spiritual nature of man placed
face to face with a spiritual revelation of that God, who,
after all, stands behind every existence, and both made
the individual and appointed him his sphere of action.
" The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that ,
walketh to direct his steps." " There is a spirit in man,"
saith the Scripture, "but the inspiration of the Almighty
giveth men understanding."
Noav the objective element of Revelation must be : 1. De
finite and distinct ; to use its own words, it is " sure, giving
light to the simple ;" otherwise it would be no safeguard
against the vagaries of spiritual insight and the pretensions
of fanaticism. " Divine Revelation" would be the watchword
of every impostor, the great weapon of selfishness to tread
" doAvn every right and law of God and man, were it not a
record closed and complete, from which nothing can be
taken aAvay, and to which nothing can be added. The
" Spirit," indeed, is abroad, sent from the Father and the
Son to open the eyes of man, — but, to behold the beauty of
the law here revealed ; to open the stubborn heart, but to
yield to the pleadings of this revelation ; to guide us into
all truth, but truth as contained here ; He takes of the
things of Christ, and brings all things to our remembrance
and understanding, that are here laid down; and we must

M I N N E G E R 0 D E. 293
try the spirits that speak to us out of this very volume ;
out of " the law and the testimony ; if they speak not ac
cording to these, it is because there is no light in them."
2. Again, this Revelation must be unchangeable, like its
Author and His eternal decrees towards man. All human
knowledge is but relative, and requires some fixed standard
by which it must measure itself; and here, in the Revela
tion sent from God, it is fixed immutably ! Though, for
his own wise and gracious purposes, the Creator may sus
pend the laws of the material creation and miraculously
interpose creative power, where, ordinarily, to the percep
tion of man, His sustaining laAvs prevail ; in the Revelation
which contains the expression of His will, the delineation
of that holiness which is His glory, and Avhich He demands
the rational creature to folloAv after; the promises with
which He wooes us to obedience, the threatenings by which
He would deter us from evil ; in the revelation of His own
moral attributes and of the demands He makes on His moral
creatures — there can be no variableness, neither shadow
of turning ; heaven and earth may pass away, but not a
jot or tittle of His law, till all be fulfilled ; father and mo
ther may forsjtke us, and every man become a liar, but
God is true, and all His promises are aye and amen !
3. And since this Revelation would be without purpose,
did it not meet with its field of operation in the life, the
mind, and will of man, it is plain, that it must be placed
within his reach; and if God has indeed given such a Reve
lation — such a declaration of His holy will, and of His
gracious counsel, which is to be " a lamp to our feet, and a
light to our path," a guide to holiness and heaven, a light
house in the dark days of our pilgrimage, and tempest-
tossed voyage below — then it must be evident, that He who
thought fit to give it, would also secure its propagation and
continuance among those to whom it is vouchsafed ; that

294 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
though all other records might be lost or corrupted, this
should be wonderfully preserved ; that though all other
knowledge might not only be obscured, but even extin
guished, this should be kept alive even amidst the darkest
ages and the days of overwhelming ignorance ; that, sent
by the Supreme Ruler, the Almighty Governor of the world,
it would not fail in its end ; that, if its object is declared to
be the founding and building of an holy Church, the saving
of sinners justified in Christ — if along with this declared
intention goes the promise of His continued presence, even
to the end of the Avorld — then we could trust/that though Ave
do not claim infallibility for anything but this Revelation
itself, and not for any particular society that hopes to be
founded upon it, yet the indefectibility of the Christian
Church, which is the object of this gracious Revelation, is
thereby guarantied, that the true Church shall not fail ;
that though the mass of mankind in all ages may pass by
heedlessly the claims of God and of his Church, yet in all
ages there has been a band of faithful followers of Christ
that should be saved, witnesses to His truth and power;
there is at all times the certainty to cheer the humble
seeker after truth, tha£ he is accompanied in his heaven-
Avard career by others, who like him seek Christ the Beloved,
aided by their prayers, watched oA'er by the ministering
spirits of God, rejoicing over penitent sinners ; that he may
ever trust to find those with Avhom to worship God in spirit
and in truth, and iu whose company, and by Avhose example
and conversation, he may increase in grace and knowledge
and every spiritual gift.
4. The last, but a most practically important feature in
the objective revelation, given by the Ruler of the Universe
to the children of men for their guidance and salvation,
is its supreme authority, its claims to immediate and uni
versal obedience on the part of those to whom it is sent !

MINNEGERODE. -,95
If its claims are disregarded, truly the great God will not
force free agents into an unwilling obedience, which would
be none at all. But they disobey at their own risk, the
Divine displeasure must be visited upon them. And oh !
if the violations of nature's laws bring suffering and agony
in their train, " What shall be the end of those who believe
not the Gospel ?" Yes, " if the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Revela
tion is not silent, but only when you leave this beauteous
earth behind, and bid fareAvell to its " happy sun and healthy
breezes," when you depart from all that bears the traces of
God's love and goodness, and go and ask at the gates of
Gehenna, can you fathom the import and despair of an
irremediable, everlasting, hopeless controversy with God !
In this, its supreme authority, Revelation presses itself
most closely upon man, and imposes on each individual the
necessity of knowing and holding the truth in its objective
reality and positive character.
If I had not detained you already so long that I must
economize evTery moment that is left me, I could enlarge
on this point, and prove, from the history of man and the
events of God's Church, from the beginning down to this
day, how important it is to adhere to the positive features
of Revelation. I could shoAv how the development of the
subjective element of individual freedom, to the neglect of
these positive objective features, always proved destructive
to the poAver of the Church and the vitality of religion ;
how, for instance, the strength of the Western Church, and
its all but exclusive importance as compared with the
Eastern ; how its greater power, its missionary success, its
world-wide spread and universal triumph — even whilst the
truth was overlaid with gross and false conceptions in faith
and practice ; how all was owing to the distinctness with
Avhich it held on to the positive features of Revelation (so

296 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
much so, indeed, as even to annihilate the subjective fac
tor ; and hence its apostacy from the truth) ; how, since
the Reformation, the Lutheran Church, the first to move
and boldest in the attack upon the claims of Romish priest
craft, soon yielded in importance and influence to the
Church of Geneva, because the latter developed more clearly,
and less encumbered by a subjective mysticism, the positive
realities of the Gospel. And I might be pardoned for
indulging myself here in a fond remembrance of the com
prehensive spirit of our own beloved Church, with Avhich she
unites the claims of the freedom of individual conscience
Avith the binding force of a positive Revelation ; and of the
well-balanced judgment with which she avoids the danger
of tAvo opposite extremes — antinomian licentiousness, and
an oppressive, soulless dogmatism. But I will only appeal
to the experience of every Christian man, and ask if such
positive belief is not the very soul of his prayers ; and if
he would exchange his Father in Heaven, his Comforter
and Friend and Saviour, whom he finds in the Gospel, for
a mere phantom of abstractions ? If he finds not more
comfort and better strength, when realizing the presence
of Jesus, who loved him first and sought him as he went
astray, and who, in that He himself has suffered, being
tempted, is surely willing and able to succour him in his
temptations ; when leaning on the faithful Friend that
sticketh closer than a brother, that affectionately bears
with him his sorrows and shares with him his conflicts,
who weeps with him when he weepeth, and rejoiceth with
him when he rejoiceth ; if this Christian consciousness of
the reality of spiritual communion, this realization of aid
and comfort from above, does not arm him with greater
fortitude than all the vague conceptions of mere philosophy;
if he is not safe when holding on to the positive features
of the Gospel, having the substance of things hoped for, the

M I N N E G E R 0 D E. 297
evidence of things not seen ; if he is not sure to fall when
leaving these green pastures, he feeds his soul in the sterile
wilds of speculation?
But we have thus been drawn insensibly into the con
sideration of the relation which the individual sustains to
the revealed truth.
II. The individual, as the subjective factor, may, in his
position to the objective element of Revelation, be con
sidered —
1. Actively, that is, as apprehending and constructing
the religious truths revealed. And this subjective agency is
absolutely necessary to make him a Christian. However
true it is, that Revelation comes from Avithout — that it is
bestowed upon man externally, givon him from above, and
as coming from the Sovereign of his soul, claiming his
submission ; still its truth must not remain external, but be
taken up within, and become in him the source of life and
action, a well of living water springing up into eternal life.
Faith is certainly required of him, and must stand him in
stead of sight; he must believe, where upon belief alone
his premises can rest ; he must believe where demonstration
necessarily fails ; he must live by faith and not by sight.
But this belief must not be a blind superstition, without
evidences; not a submission to what any artful deceiver
may represent to him as Revelation and God's will. He
must examine for himself, and be able to " give a reason
for the hope that is in him." And his faith must not be
dead; a lifeless creed, a mere heartless assent to some
intellectual and moral proposition; but it must become
within him a principle of action, affecting his every
thought, word, and deed ; a guide of life, an energy, a
heart-converting, life-reforming power. Man must do his
part ; he neither can believe and know, nor obey and pray,
by proxy ! He therefore must first examine the record,
38

298 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
and from it draw his knowledge of the truth ; he must
search the Scriptures, and acquaint himself with God as
there speaking to him; he must possess himself of its
contents, and, by the aid of that reason with which God
has endowed him, that he might know Him and hear
His voice, he must master their meaning. He must be
careful, indeed, to draw proper limits to the exercise of his
reasoning and imaginative powers, never placing them
above the given record ; always submitting them to its
ultimate authority ; never, indeed, cut himself loose from
this centre, and be allured into the byways and ramblings
of the undisciplined intellect and heated phantasy of man ;
never venture to make himself the judge of Revelation, or
put himself in opposition to its teachings, pretending to
discriminate between Avhat he condescends to admit as
truly Divine and what he dogmatically declares mere
human addition, and thus plunging into all the delusions
of a proud but foolish infidelity. He must take God's
declarations as he finds them, learn the mind of God from
His own words, and find out the meaning of each oracle by
the unerring light which others shed on it. He must hold
on to this rock — whicji alone can afford him a shelter
against the Avaves of doubt and delusion — but he must not
neglect the right and duty of his subjective action ; he
must make it the subject of all his most earnest efforts, and
most severe mental exercises. The Lord will not be
pleased with a service which costs us nothing ; the Lord
will not excuse ignorance where the means of knowledge
were within reach, and not allow His Avord, which is the
guide to everlasting life, His truth which sanctifies, His
love which conquers the stubborn will, to be treated with
less respect and less care than those inferior laws and
experiences which refer but to the cares and comforts of
the body ! Man is responsible for his belief! And the

M I N N E G E R 0 D E. 290
knowledge of God thus gained must be the rule of his life.
Faith is " dead, and can but lead to fear and the trembling
of devils," Avhich does not " Avork by love, and purify the
heart." Man must not only search the Scriptures, but live
the Scriptures ! " Not the hearer, but the doer, of the word
is blessed." 2.. But the subjective element may also be considered
passively, that is, as operated upon by revealed truth.
And such is the power of the objective element in Revela
tion, that it is not only evidenced in those who are its
disciples and followers, but also unconsciously, to some
extent, in others.
Its power is thus manifested in the dark groping of all
mankind after the knowledge of God; and, in fact, the
cardinal features of all religion, be they never so much
disgraced by superstitions, and debauched by abominations,
bear some traces (however faint) of the original revelation
given to the Father of our race, which no time and no
return to barbarism have entirely effaced : the sinfulness
of man and therefore the necessity of atonement, and the
incarnation of the Deity, be it in the elements, or in the
form of hero-worship, or in the Fetish of wood and stone.
There is no prayer uttered, no worship paid, no offering
brought, no victim slain, but to propitiate an offended or
thank a pardoning God : for there is no hope on earth, no
trust in heaven, but through an incarnate Saviour !
Again, it manifests itself in the search of many, amidst
the real or apparent contradictions of outward claims, after
a tangible representative of the objective factor, after an
authoritative and infallible interpreter and dispenser of
the truths and blessings of Revelation. This is the course
of the individual whom the partial knowledge of God gives
no rest; but who, unenlightened or indolent, hides the
talent of his subjective agency, and forbears to search out

TOO OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
God in His OAvn Word, and follow its guidance in the
actual duties of life, and in the relation which he occupies
directly and immediately to his God. This changes reli
gion into fear, and is the mother of all superstition : it has
at all times been the reason why people submitted to a
sacerdotal priesthood, and clung to the mediation of men
and sacramental charms ; in our days, I need not say, it is
a main cause of the lamented defections and perversions
to Rome.
But even in those who openly refuse the authority of
Revelation its power is felt. Even if man resolves, he
cannot cut himself loose from the influences of Christianity ;
and though he may ungratefully spurn them, deny their
reality, and rob God of the glory of the blessings he
unhesitatingly appropriates, he is but the stipendiary, he
is but the beneficiary of the blessings which Revelation
has brought us. Even for the infidels of our days, Christi
anity has proved the great teacher — the Bible, even for
them, is the great storehouse of the thoughts and vaunted
truths of their systems ; in all their speculations they are
influenced and irresistibly carried on by this very Revela
tion which they deny ; and owe all that they most prize
and boast of, to that religion which they persecute !
But we must conclude, and can merely point at the
Christian, the believer in the Revelation of God as affected
by its energizing power. What is it that has changed the
sinner to a saint ; that made the carnal man spiritual, and
reneAved the old man in the image of God ? What made
of the child of the devil a child of God, of the enemy of
Christ a member of his body, of the child of wrath an
inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven ? It was not self, but
God! The power of the Highest let itself down upon him.
Grace has saved him, and nothing but grace ! Grace has
freed him from the wages of sin and the bondage of death ;

M I N N E G E R 0 D E. ."Ol
grace led him to the only spot where the fallen creature
can stand — to the foot of the cross ! Grace taught his
proud and carnal mind to bow and meekly pray, " Make
me a clean heart, 0 God, and reneAv a right spirit within
me !" Grace has enlisted him in the service of God, which
alone is perfect freedom ; grace gives him the chart, by
which to steer his ark across the sea of life ! Grace leads
him on rejoicing towards his heavenly home, calms every
fear, quiets every storm, and arms him for his earthly pil
grimage. His Bible in hand, supported by love unspeak
able and wisdom unerring, he meets the questions of this
life ; its fears and terrors are gone for him ; he is secure in
the love of God ; its jarring discords are hushed as he
listens to the harmonies of Heaven ; its ills are changed to
blessings, as he sees in all the loving hand of a Father, and
learns to say, "it is good for me that I have been afflicted;"
its duties and trials are changed to scenes of triumph, as
he goes about doing the work of God, doing it now, while
it is the day, the appointed time, and doing it with all his
might, to the praise and glory of his God and Saviour,
knowing that "his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord."
He meets his fellow man, but meets him as a brother ; his
feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace,
and all social strife falls, as if touched by Ithuriel's spear,
before the talisman of the Bible — " Whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." He
rises above the wisdom of the world, and seeks that wisdom
"which makes wise unto salvation;" drawing his know
ledge from the fountain of truth, he discerns spiritual
things spiritually, and sees, reflected in the shadoAvs of
earth and time, the realities of eternity. He meets the
evils of this earthly life, but they fade before his sight as
he looks beyond, and has " respect to the recompense of
reAvard," in His presence " at whose right hand are plea-

t:02 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FACTORS.
sures for evermore." He learns that " the light affliction
here, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory ;" and rejoices that,
like his Saviour, he shall " be made perfect through suffer
ing." And when the last enemy draws nigh, and Death
throws its shadow across his path, day begins to dawn
more and more in his soul, and the last doubts are solved,
the last fear allayed ; he knoAvs " that his Redeemer
liveth, AA'hom he shall see in his flesh, and his eyes shall
behold;" from the depth of the grave ascends his Saviour's
voice — " I am the resurrection and the life ;" and from the
height the echo returns the song — " Blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord." He feels that " death is swallowed
up in victory ;" and the light of immortality breaks upon
the gloom of the grave as he sees Heaven open, and his
Redeemer standing at the right hand of poAver, the crown
of life in His hand, and the greeting of Heaven on His lips
— "Welcome, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord !"

Cjje IPJokm ftammttj no Jrpnmt against %

BY RT. REV. GEORGE BURGESS, D.D.,
BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF MAIXE.

XI.

THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT
AGAINST THE GOSPEL,
"If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by wliom do your sons cast tJiem out?" St. Luke, xi. 19.
IN the historical scenes of the New Testament, our Sa
viour stands surrounded by an afflicted multitude ; and,
with the sick, the lame, and the blind, appear the victims
possessed by evil spirits. All are received with the same
Divine compassion, and alike they all go aAvay, relieved
and rejoicing. It is a most simple and literal narrative.
The demons tormented the sufferers ; the demons spoke ;
the demons were cast out. A distinct portion of the power
given to the Apostles, and promised to them that should
believe, was to cast out devils ; and the Seventy returned
from their appointed journey through Palestine with joy,
because the devils were subject unto them, through the
name of Jesus.
For a long time after the close of the apostolic age, the
ejection of evil spirits was deemed a familiar occurrence.
That promised power was assumed with humble confidence ;
and at last the exorcist, as an ecclesiastical officer, took his
place, not necessarily to work miracles, but to perform an
act of faith and prayer to which, in such faith and prayer,
every Christian was supposed to be equal. It is hard to
assign a reason for believing that the early Christians were
39 (305)

3C6 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
mistaken in this ; or to determine, in opposition to them,
that demoniacal possession ceased with the lives of the
Apostles ; for the same primitive testimony which assures
us that the scriptural narratives of possessions and dispos
sessions were penned by certain inspired writers, affirms
that when the writers of that narrative were no more, the
Avonders were sometimes witnessed still.
The Inspired Record alludes also to other exorcisms,
besides those miraculous cures of demoniacs which were
performed by our Lord and His Apostles. The seven sons
of Sceva attempted the act, unbelievingly, but with the
name of Jesus upon their lips ; and, though they prevailed
not, the demon answered them with vehement words and a
furious assault — and the possession was as evident as if the
exorcism had been triumphant. John encountered a man
who was casting out devils in the name of Jesus, but followed
not with the disciples; and, though John forbade him,
the prohibition of the Apostle was not sanctioned by his
Master. In the text, that unerring Master ansAvered a
blasphemous charge of His enemies, by appealing to what
must have been a well-known example. They alleged that
He cast out devils by the prince of the devils ; it was the
only explanation which remained ; for the miracles could
not be denied, and, rather than submit, the Pharisees and
Scribes blasphemed. " If I," said He, in reply, " if I by
Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sorts cast them
out?" Interpreters, ancient and modern, unwilling to
imagine that this power could be wielded except by the
disciples of our Lord, have sometimes suggested that these,
as being of the Jewish nation, are here called children of
those by whom that nation was represented. But the
suggestion could never have been prompted by the Avords
themselves ; and to term the Apostles sons of the Phari
sees, is surely to do violence both to language and to

, BURGESS. 207
feeling. It may be better said that it was sufficient for the
purpose of the reply, that the Jews attempted or pretended
to cast out demons. The question then remains open,
whether the demons actually fled at their command. At
that time the general belief Avas, that such bad spirits took
possession of the bodies and souls of men ; and that they
might be and had been driven out by angelic aid, by
magic art, and by the prayers of holy persons. Whatever
be the authority of the Book of Tobit, it confirmed
opinions like these; and they were not without some
seeming support from the history of Saul. No attack
upon this popular belief is to be seen in these or in any
other words of our Saviour. They left the hearer as free
as ever, and probably even more inclined, to believe it still.
There is yet other testimony. The Jewish historian, Jo
sephus, was born Avithin some ten years after these Avords
were spoken. He says, that he had seen the expulsion of
demons through certain spells, the origin of which was
ascribed to Solomon. He relates how such an exorcism
took place in the presence of Vespasian and the Roman
army. He says that the exorcist, to assure the spectators
of the fact, set a vessel of water at a little distance, and
ordered the demon, as he passed out, to overturn the vessel ;
and that when this was done, the skill and wisdom of
Solomon, the author of the spell, were signally revealed.
It is true that ancient historians abound in stories of in
credible wonders. But the wonders related in the Bible
would not be the less true, were they told by uninspired as
well as by inspired historians; this historian, Josephus,
lived in the very times when Apostles still cast out evdl
spirits, and he speaks of just such exorcists as those whose
practices are mentioned by St. Luke at the very same
period. He is an independent Avitness to two facts, the appa
rent possession and the asserted exorcism, — both of which

308 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
are impUed in the very words of our Saviour, " By whom
do your sons cast them out ?" Had any of us been present
with Josephus and the host of Vespasian, we might, with
our present sentiments, have pronounced the exorcism an
imposture on one side or on both. But had it • occurred
forty years earlier, in the presence of the Lord Jesus, how
would He have spoken ? The incantation He might have
denounced ; the exorcist He might have condemned ; like
those whom, even though they shall cry, " Have we not
cast out devils in thy name?" He shall reject as workers
of iniquity. But there is no more cause to believe that He
would have directly denied the possession or the departure,
than to wonder that, in the text, He does not pronounce
the exorcisms of the sons of the Pharisees to be a delusion
or an imposture.
It is beyond dispute that the Scriptures introduce to our
knowledge a world of 'spirits, pushing its agency within the
borders of this visible world, without other permission than
that under which the arch enemy walks to and fro on the
earth. Distinct from the blessed ministry of angels, distinct
from the appearance of saints that have slept, this is an
agency, powerful for mischief, and yet contemptible as Avell
as horrible in its manifestation. These spirits dwelt — a
multitude at once — in one wretched man or woman. They
loved to hurl a lunatic boy into the fire or water, or stretch
him on the ground foaming. They could find relief in
driving a herd of swine down a precipice into the engulf
ing deep. They acknowledged the Lord and His servants
with cries of desperate hostility, and obeyed with every
wish to make stubborn resistance. Anguish, horror, and
madness came Avith them, and with them fled away. The
original Scripture terms them " demons ;" a name not
necessarily expressing, what was nevertheless their real
character; not necessarily identical Avith that of devils, but

BURGESS. 309
capable of being applied to any subordinate, invisible intel
ligences who could be known to man.
Such beings, half a century since, the unbeliever could
not conceive. He derided their acts and denied their exist
ence ; and some Christian divines bent to the breeze, and
Avavered. The era of materialism had hardly passed its
meridian. Men seemed not to feel that the world beyond
the senses could be as real as the world which the senses
recognise. Even Christians rather thought of the life to
come as of a distant land, the reality of AA'hich, by a strong
effort of faith, they could credit as they credited the
miracles of the Scriptures, than as of a sphere which was
all around them, close about them, as natural as Avhat they
saw, and only needing that a thin, slight veil should be
lifted, to be seen indeed.
From age to age, the human mind vibrates to and fro ;
and not without an overruling finger. When the obscure
phenomena of Mesmerism Avere whispered abroad, a revolu
tion began. Suspected, ridiculed, suppressed, revived, con
fused, perverted, exaggerated, condemned, contradicted,
they still made their way onward towards slow, but pro
bably general acceptance. The possible action of the soul
without the senses, but in intercourse with other souls and
bodies, was established. A change camo gradually over
the floating mass of popular unbelief. Before, it questioned
the possibility of a revelation ; now, it promised to reveal
more than the Gospel itself. It had attempted to under
mine the majestic walls : it now went up, as if it would
take wings, and from above poured down its darts upon the
garrison. This form of hostility, the Christianity of our age is called
to overcome. It is in vain to meet it Avith the weapons
which unbelief has just cast aside. Infidelity toas incredu
lous ; we must not simply adopt its abandoned incredulity.

310 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
That false and foolish wisdom which glories in believing as
little as it can, is unworthy of Christian imitation. The facts
of what in popular language is called Spiritualism, may be
one thing or another ; but simply to close our ears against
all evidence, can neither convince our fellow men, nor satisfy
ourselves. Feeble is the foundation of that faith, which
does not believe, concerning the spiritual Avorld, greater
things than these. It may be, too, that God has shut up
one of the paths trodden before by common Infidelity, that
it might thus be driven into another, from which the transi
tion to a true and humble faith might be more easy.
There is no necessary call, hoAvever, upon the Christian, as
such, to decide on the real characters of these appearances.
They may be natural, or preternatural; but they must
doubtless be of the same order with those which he believes
to have been witnessed in many past ages, from the days
of Job and of Abraham downward ; and they no more
touch His higher confidence, than the faith of the patriarchs
was shaken by the skill or power of magicians. Should
they be human impostures ; should they be simple delu
sions ; should they be the operations of physical or psychical
laws yet undeveloped ; should they be deceptive communi
cations from a world more evil than this ; should they be
anomalous and broken tokens from the sphere of the dead ;
or should all these characters be mingled, he is prepared
for all. They will be made tributary, in one manner or in
another, to the truth which God has revealed, and which
God will defend. It is not my present task to explain
them ; but to shoAv that, whatever be their real character,
they furnish no foundation from which the revealed word
of the living God can be successfully assailed.
I. Suppose them, if you will, mere impostures. It is a
violent supposition. It is a supposition Avhich I hold it
quite impossible to entertain. All certainty from human

BURGESS. 311
testimony is at an end, if Ave may presume that many
thousands of our fellow-men, as honest, as sagacious, and
as credible as any of the rest, have, in many different places,
Avithout concert, and without motive, unconsciously united
to force the same strange lie, in the same strange manner,
upon mankind. But, supposing imposture, can it be turned
against the Christian Revelation, as if that were of the like
nature, and sustained only by corresponding evidence ?
Place then in the balance the wonders of modern necro
mancy, if such it be, and the miracles of the Scriptures.
On one side are sounds which it is hard to distinguish from
the slightest touches of the human finger ; motions and ele
vations of a block of wood ; spasmodic penmanship, which
writes out rhapsodies or enigmas, poor common sense or
utter nonsense, facts of the smallest value, or falsehoods of
less than none. On the other side, the sick rise healed from
a thousand beds ; the blind receive their sight in an instant ;
the winds and the sea are calmed at a word; a feAv loaves
of bread become the food of thousands; water blushes
into wine ; the \7oice of God speaks from the sky ; the dead
revive; the transfigured body shines like light ; and departed
saints return and are visible to mortals. If there could be
imposture here, it must be, not in the facts, but in the
narratives. Such miracles might be told, perhaps, by an
impostor, but by no impostors would they be attempted.
Their number, their vastness, their whole creative character,
as utterly mock all ancient or modern imitation, as the
insect clouds, the darkness throughout all Egypt, and the
death of all her first-born, mocked the magicians of the
court of Pharaoh. The miracles of the Scriptures would
not feel the very breath of that storm of indignation which
might sweep away these impostures of to-day, if impostures
they were.
II. But possibly you suppose no impostures, but simple

312 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
delusions. You content yourselves, perhaps, Avith saying
that the observers and the performers imagined, you know-
not how, Avhat they neither saAV nor did; exaggerated
what they saw and did; and from some small incidents
and coincidences, explicable or inexplicable, raised their
ingenious structure, bewildering themselves by their own
interpretations. It is an easy mode of disposing of a
subject which we want leisure to examine. But then, no
possible resemblance can be found between them and the
mighty deeds of which our Redeemer said, " If ye believe
not me, beheve the works." When Lazarus came out from
the sepulchre, it could be no delusion on any side. All
men knew that, if not an abominable conspiracy, it was a
glorious miracle. When the Apostles declared that they
had conversed with their Master after His resurrection,
and had seen the wounds in His hands and side, there was
no possibility of delusion. They either promulgated a
solemn, complete falsehood, or they spoke of what they
had seen and heard, and their hands had handled, of the
Word of Life.
III. Far more probable than the supposition of simple
imposture, or of simple delusion, is that of the operation
of natural laws, physical or psychical, but as yet unde
veloped or unknown. Mind communicates with mind in
modes with which science has but the most indistinct
acquaintance. The brain, the nerves, the vital powers,
the relations between the body and the soul, the magnetism
of the human system, the channels of communication
between the inner man and the outer world, the very nature
of that world itself as contrasted with spirit ; all this is a
sphere of which little is taught us except by experience.
If new experience should decidedly affirm the most start
ling facts, the old experience is not sufficient to justify by
its own ignorance of such facts, the rejection of their

BURGESS. 313
reality. It may very well be true that these phenomena
may proceed from such causes, as well as other phenomena
which can no longer be questioned, but which were once
almost as wonderful. It may be that the mind, in certain
states, may partake the thoughts of others Avithout word
or sign. It may be that it can control the movements of
a body not its own. It may be that all the alleged disclo
sures from the world of spirits have been only the kind of
reflection of what the mind was in itself or in other minds;
a reflection clothed in fantastic forms like those of a revery
or a dream. It may even be that the soul may assume
something of the power which it shall wield in its disem
bodied state, and that the future and the distant may come
within its dim perception. We do not know the limits
beyond which our Creator may have decreed that the
natural faculties shall never advance. We cannot know,
while e\'ery other science glories in its discoveries and their
application, that the experimental science of the soul may
not bring to light its pecuhar wonders. It ill becomes us
to presume that no motions are ever to be perceiAred within
us of powers which wait to spread their wings, when the
worm shall emerge from the chrysalis, and fly upward.
When we were children, it seemed quite as probable that a
man in a trance might see what was taking place a thou
sand miles off at that moment, as that it could be told him
by a current darting along a wire as swiftly as his thought.
It is no settled law of nature that sight, hearing, and touch,
shall alone communicate knowledge ; or that the mind can
exercise no physical instrumentality but through the bodily
organs ; no more a settled law than that mechanical powers
are the only force which man can set in motion. Perhaps
all which can be proved of the marvels so often asserted,
may be but the results of laws which are yet to be deve
loped, or which are involved in no peculiar mystery.
4)

314 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
If it be so, is any unfavourable light thrown back upon
the wonders recorded in Scripture ? Could these also be
the results of such laws of nature ? The thought would
confound every conception of laws, and leave no remnant
of a distinction between the common providence of God
and His extraordinary interposition. Then, indeed, if it
were said that there could be no miracles, it would be said
with equal truth that all events were miracles. We need
not be careful to insist upon such a term as " the laws of
nature :" the question only is, whether power beyond that
which is placed within the reach of man as man has been
exerted. Those who wrought the miracles of Scripture all
professed that they wrought them by power not human,
not inherent, but communicated and Divine. Their know
ledge that such results would follow their words or acts,
was not sought but sent. They studied nothing ; they dis
covered nothing ; they felt the impulse from God, and in
His name they did the works which spoke the hand of the
Creator as clearly as these wonders which are not miracles
speak the hand of a creature. You can conceive that
beings who can by their skill construct tables, can by their
will cause them to move; but you cannot conceive that
any other but He who breathed into man the breath of
life, and made him a living soul, can breathe it into him
again when he has ceased to live. You can conceive not
only that "  old experience can attain
To something like prophetic strain,"
but also that the mind may strictly see what the eye can
not of some events which cast their shadows before ; but
you cannot conceive that any but those to whom it has
been expressly revealed should unfold the counsels of the
Most High, extending from the beginning to the end of all
things, and embracing the scheme of all events, and the

BURGESS. 315
great, gracious purposes of all. Such is Scriptural pro
phecy : not merely single facts, few or many, but the vast
chain which links together the whole destinies of a fallen
and redeemed world. Whether such miracles and prophe
cies be interruptions of the laws of nature, or dawnings of
a highest law, higher than all our visible system ; they, to
whom alone, of all mankind, the Almighty has permitted
thus to do and speak in His name, and who thus did and
spoke to teach, us that which is holier to our hearts and
souls than all else beneath the skies ; they were to us the
messengers, the accredited messengers, of God.
IV. But we pass on to another supposition, which, to
many Christians, seems by no means the least probable
of all. What if these alleged disclosures from another
world, through sounds or signs or letters, should be from
the deceptive agency of demons ? Without affirming that
they are, and I would not even seem to affirm it, we may
say that, the more wonderful they may appear, the stronger
will become the presumptive argument for that dreadful
origin. Should the appearances become such that earthly
and natural causes are plainly insufficient, there remain
but three preternatural agencies : the ministry of good
angels, the friendship of the departed, and the hatred of
evil spirits. The ministry of good angels it cannot be, be
cause it ascribes to itself a different character, and good
angels could not come under a false aspect. But if the
message proceed either from departed spirits or from de
mons, which source is most probable ? Little is proved by
the assertion of the agents themselves ; since evil spirits
would, of course, be deceivers, and might very well per
sonate saints in light. If we had reason to suspect their
presence, the very first lesson of prudence would be, to
confide in nothing. Truth would, of course, be mingled
with the falsehood ; the danger would else be too trans-

316 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
parent. Not for a moment should reliance be inspired by
their assumed characters, nor by the truths which they tell;
and as little should Ave be persuaded by the extent of their
knowledge. Were it vastly more than it appears, it ought
not to be heard with any amazement. For, to employ the
somewhat quaintly expressed sentiment of Bishop Black-
hall, " let it be considered that the Devil is very old, and
hath had long experience ;" and, we may add, let it be re
membered that, low as has been his fall, he is still a being
of faculties originally most glorious,

"  nor appears
Less than archangel ruined."
The union of falsehood and truth, of subtlety and stupidity,
of extensive knowledge and brutish grossness, of preterna
tural power and less than infantine incapacity in the use
of instruments, is exactly what the Scriptural representa
tion of evil spirits would lead us to anticipate, and is cha
racteristic of an angelic intellect overthrown. Then comes
the striking resemblance between the phenomena observed
in those who are called the media and in those who, of old,
were possessed by demons. In both, a mortal is placed
between us and the alleged agent. In both, he acts against
or without his will. In both, the effort of the unseen spirit
to communicate is rude and awkAvard, and nearly abortive.
In both, the frequent result or concomitant is lunacy, more
or less miserable. In both, there is a certain compelled
homage to the Gospel ; and yet, in both, a hostility to the
Gospel, avowed or disguised. Remember, too, that men
have been met by these revelations, if such they be, while
they were walking in paths which the Most High has
solemnly forbidden. He has denounced, as a most dreadful
sin, the practice of necromancy, which is simply seeking
oracles from the dead. They who attempt such consulta-

BURGESS. 317
tions may well encounter those whom they have not sum
moned. They may well look for the wages of their guilt
in a bitter if not a fatal deception. And what, perhaps, is
most of all, no other class of facts is knoAvn from sacred or
profane history, which can sustain any such comparison,
except those which are connected with demoniacal posses
sions. The dead have never spoken, unless when Samuel
came to Saul, and Avhen Moses and Elias were upon the
Mount; and then they appeared and were recognised.
Even if any of the tales of apparitions, by day or by night,
in waking or in sleep, could be believed, yet were they at
least apparitions, not noises, not spasms. But evil spirits,
if we credit the Scriptures or ancient authors, have used
the limbs and voices of men, to delude, to torment, and to
destroy. If these appearances should be the operations of such
spirits — a thing, which I again say, I would by no means
seem to assert — they must confirm, even Avhile they strive
to assail, the most peculiar disclosures of the Bible. It is
almost as if we were transported back to the days when
the strong man armed held his palace in peace, till the
stronger than he should approach, and Satan should fall
like lightning from Heaven.
V. We come to the utmost supposition : What if it were
even admitted that departed spirits had made some rude
efforts to communicate with the living, and had been per
mitted so far to prevail as to give a few vague answers to
vague questions, in a manner allowed to be difficult and
disturbed, and very often delusive ? There surely is no
adequate proof or plausible colour of anything like this.
But, what if there were? What if necromancy, guilty as
it is, should be but the more guilty for the reality of its
results? In the mere fact there is no contradiction to
revealed truth, could the fact be established that the dead

318 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
have spoken. The only questions would be, have they
spoken that which is beyond revealed truth? and have
they spoken that to which revealed truth is contradictory ?
To be assured of the truth of any new revelation from
sources like these, would be impossible, even though we
knew that the voices were the voices of the dead. The
channel is corrupt and forbidden, and therefore the dis
closures may be deceptive. If the dead should even tell us
that they are at rest, and describe the state in which they
dwell, who could assure us that they were not false, that
they might not be betraying us to the same ruin which had
overwhelmed them, or that they were not mischievously
sporting with our rash curiosity ? How could we be certified
that they were the persons whom they personated ? But
it is unnecessary to dwell upon the possibility of such
deceit, since the whole mass of what has been pretended
to be revealed in mere addition, not in contradiction, to the
Word of God, is only such, as were it true, would have but
the least conceivable value, would be but as the dust of the
balance. Contradictions, however, to the word of God, have been
uttered, as from the world of the dead ; and then the issue
is directly raised between the Revelation which we have re
ceived through the Prophets and Apostles and the Lord
Jesus Christ, on one side, and the disclosures Avhich pur
port to come from departed spirits, on the other. They
affirm what the Scriptures deny. They dispute what the
Scriptures declare. Which shall be believed? Some of
the very persons who are represented could claim no confi
dence Avhile they lived, and death could not hay,e entitled
them to be heard in opposition to the voice of Inspiration.
Of others we do not know whether they are indeed present,
or whether some false spirits have stolen their names and
imitated their manner and knowledge. But if they be

BURGESS. 319
present, and be they who they may, the Christian believer
can have but one answer : " Though an angel from Heaven
preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed ;" " We wrestle
not merely against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the 'rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Not
till the Redeemer shall return can any teachers, -except the
• Holy Comforter, possess authority equal to that which we
follow. The mere circumstance that the contradiction to
the truth which we have so received, is one which comes
from the invisible rather than the visible world, should
have no more power to persuade us than the temptations
to wickedness, which come directly from the Evil One,
should have beyond those which assail us through mortals
hke ourselves. Thus it is with Christians: but for him
who is not a Christian in belief, one mighty obstacle to
faith should seem to be removed when he is persuaded
that the dead are actually living. If he credit this, and
imagine that they are speaking, why should he hesitate to
allow at least the probability of a far clearer, fuller, purer
and nobler revelation ? One voice from the spiritual world
should overthrow all ,the infidelity of the Sadducees of every
generation who say that there is neither angel nor spirit.
It is even possible to imagine, in a matter so little under
stood, that several or all of these elements may be more or
less combined; human deception, delusion, laws of nature
still hidden, the influence of evil spirits, and even voices
from the grave. Let them be thus united, if they may ;
they can prove nothing and disprove nothing, except as if
they were -separate. As little as the assaults of men, so
little can the gates of Hades prevail against that pillar and
ground of truth which Christ has built upon the rock.
This is the attitude, my brethren, as it seems to me, in
which Christianity should encounter the attacks of what is

320 THE MODERN NECROMANCY NO ARGUMENT.
popularly termed Spiritualism. As at the beginning it
met the pretensions of the heathen oracles, or of Simon
the sorcerer, or of the sons of Sceva, or of the Philippian
damsel with her spirit of divination, so must it meet the
like pretensions in these latter days. When men trans
gress, it is not needful to decide whether they have more
or less assistance from a world unseen. Enough for us,
that, whatever it be, it is prohibited by a revelation which
it cannot annul, or rival, or even imitate. Enough that
we know that we have not followed cunningly devised
fables ; and that the word which we have followed shuts
the gate against all other messages till the Lord shall come
in His glory. False Christs were to arise, and false pro
phets : the one broad and safe command is, " Go ye not
after them."
But, manifest as is the duty of Christians towards their
own faith and their own souls, they have also a duty
towards their fellow men who doubt or disbelieve the
Gospel, and grasp at every other thread which can seem to
them to be let down from heaven. We, whose whole reli
gion rests upon a record so full of all which is miraculous,
ought not to scoff at» marvels because they are marvels;
to condemn with severity all belief which may seem hasty ;
or to speak of the invisible world as if it existed in the
Scriptures, and nowhere besides. The seeds of an unbe
lief even more fatal than that of Spiritualism might
thus be scattered. It has pleased God to leave it to this
day a question Avhether the rods of the Egyptian magicians
were transformed only in appearance, by sleight and skill
of hand, or in reahty by infernal sorceries. We know not
yet whether the oracle at Delphi guessed or prophesied.
It is not yet quite decided how far the witch at Endor
anticipated the actual appearance of Samuel. The same
veil may hang over similar attempts, to the end of time.

BURGESS. 321
Let it hang over them, if so it be; and let us content our
selves with pointing to the rod of Aaron, which swallowed
up the rods of the magicians; to the true revelations,
before which the oracles AA-ere silent ; and to Him who
came from the grave in the flesh, and passed into the
heavens, because He had poAver to lay down His life, and
power to take it again.
Religion suffers loss, if it place itself in a defensive posi
tion at the approach of every impostor or disputant, human
or less or more than human. Strong in its array of truths,
of Avonders, of glories, all of them so indisputfibly and so
dazzlingly Divine, it ought to come like its Master, " as
one having authority," and to demand the full submission
of reason and of conscience. We are empowered to say,
" thus saith the Lord of Hosts," Avhen Ave lift up the
standard of the Gospel ; and as at the name of Jesus the
demons of old fled howling to the abyss, so will the spirit
of delusion, AA'hether it be the spirit of erring, mortal man,
or a spirit from hell, flee before a simple, lowly, but strong,
honest, and effectual ferA'ent faith. Oh, may each hearer
of these words have that faith, which is the gift of God,
which takes its root in the heart, which lays hold upon the
Rock of salvation, which justifies the sinner, Avhich over
comes the world, and which enables us to cry, in using the
original words of the Apostle, in every sense which they
can bear, " 0 Death ! where is thy sting ? 0 Hades ! where
is thy victory ?"

41

BY REV. FRANCIS VINTON, D.D.,
I1ECT0U OF GIUCE CIHJBCII, IROOKLTX, jrrff y0HK.

XII.
SOCIALISM.
" Love tlie Bratlierhood." 1 Peteh, ii. 17.
HIGH above the walls of the Church of Christ, the
Banner of the Cross is flung to the four winds of
heaven, inscribed with the legend (which he may read,
who runs), "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away
the sins of the world ;" while, floating from the four corners
of the citadel of Christianity, are these commandments of
the Prince of the Apostles: — "Honour all men. Love the
Brotherhood : Fear God : Honour the King." They incul
cate Loyalty, Piety, Fraternity, and Philanthropy. They
prescribe the obligations of each man to the human race,
to his household, to his Maker, to his sovereign. They
embrace our relationships to the world at large, and to our
civil rulers, and to the Church Catholic here on earth, and
to our Heavenly Father. And what more than your rela
tionships, in their widest extent to humanity, in their
endearing social and domestic bonds, in their political
aspect towards the law and its executive, in their reli
gious obligations to the Holy God, can any man desire to
knoAV? Are you a Philanthropist? Judge yourself by
this test of philanthropy ; and see whether or not, in deep
humility, you " honour all men." Are you a Loyalist ?
Examine whether or not you are cultivating a spirit of
subordination and obedience to those who have the rule
(325)

3C6 S 0 C I A L I S M.
over you ; for this is to " honour the king." Are you a
religious man? Boast not of your piety, until every
thought, and word, and deed, springs out of a filial " fear
of God." Are you in the truest sense a Christian? Dare
not say so, unless a Divinely generated Socialism kindles
in your heart " love for the Brotherhood." So thoroughly
do these maxims test ourclaims and character.
"Love the Brotherhood." I am, with Divine assistance,
to enforce this text. The Brotherhood : what is it ? where
is it ? how shall we love it ? This is my theme ; and these,
the topics of my sermon.
I. What is " the Brotherhood?" Evidently the Brother
hood is something different from " all men." " All men"
we are to "honour;" while, says the Apostle, the Brother
hood we must " love." And yet, as consanguinity causes
brotherhood, so, I am free to say, that since God "hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth," all men are brethren, by virtue of
their common filiation to their father Adam. The human
race, then, is a brotherhood. But still, the Brotherhood is
something closer, dearer, more exacting of our love : more
identified with ourselves. " Honour all men." " Love the
Brotherhood." Brotherhood in the bonds of birth : the
brotherhood of our homes, the being nourished at our
mother's breast, the being nurtured at our father's hearth ;
trained and educated by parental culture, amidst the
endearments all garnered up in sweet Home — is this " the
Brotherhood" the Apostle speaks of? It is a brotherhood,
indeed, so affectionate, so lovely, so associated with every
thing which the heart delights in and memory cherishes,
that he is brutish and unnatural who loves not such a
brotherhood. Yet this is not the Brotherhood of our text. It is but a
type of the higher, holier, more enduring Brotherhood ; a

FRANCIS VINTON. S27
brotherhood emanating from a new birth — a common son-
ship, correlative with the Fatherhood of God. The Brother
hood Avhich we are enjoined to love is the fraternity in
that family, wherein Jesus, the Son of God, is the eldest
among brethren ; it is a brotherhood of Christ, a brother
hood in Christ — a membership of Him, " of Avhom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named." The Brother
hood, such as this, outgoes, in majesty and glory and im
mortality, all terrestrial companionships. It is manifested
in one body, partakes of one Spirit, is called in one hope,
obeys one Lord, confesses one faith, receives one baptism,
owns one God and Father of all, who is " above all, and
through all, and in them all."
God is its author, not by virtue of creation, but by re
demption. He has taken our nature into union with the
Godhead, and so, by the incarnation of God the Son, man
in Christ is become the Son of God; man in Christ is be
gotten of the Father, and we, by the new birth of God the
Spirit, are made "members of Christ and children of God,
and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven."
A Creator makes a being differing from Himself. But
He who is the Father begets His offspring in His oavii like
ness. It is, then, because we are " made partakers of the
Divine Nature," because we are begotten in the likeness of
God, that He is our Father, and we are brethren in Christ
Jesus ; Christ in us, and we in Him ; He the vine, and we
the branches ; He the only begotten Son of the Father, we
begotten in Him, and adopted as Sons of God; He the
heir, we joinf>heirs with Him; He the eldest among
brethren, we, in Him, the Brotherhood: this is the majestic
fraternity, the law of whose union is love, whom the
Apostle excellently styles the Brotherhood. It is the Church
of the living God.
II. But where is it ? Where is the Church of God, whose

328 SOCIALISM.
token is brotherhood in the bonds of love ? We read of it
in the Bible. The Acts of the Apostles proclaim its being
in the world. There were men, instinct with the life of
God in their souls, who, loving God supremely, loved their
neighbour as themselves ; men who believed and consorted
together, and "had all things common; who sold their
possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every
man had need ; who, continuing daily with one accord in
the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did
eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, prais
ing God, and fiaving favour with all the people." In view-
of the mercies of God they presented their bodies a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. They deemed
their devotion a " reasonable service." The poor man and
the rich man were undistinguished by either wealth or
poverty, but, recognising the true bonds of redeemed hu
manity, Avere brethren in heart and in deed. The cries of
the orphan and the sadness of the widow found a response
in Christian sympathy, relief in Christian beneficence.
The chains of the slave rested lightly on his limbs, in the
consciousness that he was the Lord's freeman. Servants
obeyed, not with eye service, but as servants of God. And
masters rendered unto servants that which was just and
equal. In honest humility each honoured all men with a
philanthropy that gathers within its circling SAveep of good
will to man, the human race. Each feared God with a
piety that penetrated the soul, filling its mysterious depths
with aAve and love and joy. Each honoured the king
wfth a loyalty subservient. Each loved the Brotherhood
with affection ardent and sincere. The Bible tells us of
these wondrous things, when Christians "continued stead
fastly in the Apostles' doctrine and the Apostles' fellow-
ship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers."
The question, therefore, returns Avith emphasis, Where

FRANCIS VINTON. 309
is the Brotherhood now ? Where is it, in this our day ?
I answer : In the Divine will, it is Avhere it ever was.
The Church of God is still man's home ; its fellowship is
still man's hope.
Yet I cannot deny that the inquirer after it will find
himself foiled in his search. He will discover, in its stead,
a thousand altars, of sects diverse, of Avorship varying, of
people marshalled in mutual warfare. Schism has rent
Christ's body, and torn the seamless garment of the com
mon Saviour. The law of Schism is, to divide ; and divi
sion ends in disintegration. So that it has come to pass
that men, in our generation, find themselves alone, with a
consciousness of individuality intense, and morbidly alive.
Feeling that " it is not good for man to be alone," they are
trying to resolve the problem, the problem of life, that stirs
up all Avithin them — How God has constituted society.
This is the vast problem of the age Ave live in. It is riot
a problem to us, brethren, who know that we have received
the Church of God in its integrity, and the truth of God in
purity. It is not a problem to us, whose distinction is,
that " we earnestly contend for the faith," whole and un
defiled, "as it was once delivered to the saints."* No well-
instructed and intelligent churchman is perplexed Avith the
question, Where the Brotherhood is to be found. He feels
it, faintly perhaps and feebly perhaps ; but he feels it as
a real thing, a life, a principle, a motive, influencing his
thoughts and shaping his conduct. Everything in his
worship, everything in the polity of the Protestant Epis
copal Church, witnesses to it. The sacraments seal the
truth of our Brotherhood in Jesus Christ.
But think not that other men are so blessed as we are.
The idea of Brotherhood floats before them. They see the
beauteous vision, and stretch forth to realize it. We ob
serve their earnestness, yea, their anguish, in trying to
42

330 S 0 C I A L I S M.
secure it. I confess a sympathy Avith them. I never read
a speculation on the theme of Socialism without a painful
condolence of pity. Fain Avould I take my brother by the
hand and lead him into the Church of Christ, and set him
by my side at the foot of the cross of the dying Redeemer
of the world, to look, believe, and live, pointing him to my
Father and his Father, to my God and his God. I Avould
tell him of all the redemptive acts of Jesus. I Avould even
dare to promise him (though all things seem to contradict
me), that with us, in the pure catholic communion of our
Church, he shall find peace and joy and Brotherhood. But
if he turns aAvay and laughs at such pretensions, if he
goes on constructing his own theories of Communism, Odd-
Fellowship, Freemasonry, Mormonism, Trade Associations,
Jesuitism, or even so-called Church Brotherhoods,* and the
like, I tell him plainly that his fraternities are shams ; his
bonds are selfishness; his union a pressure from without,
instead of the attraction of affinity ; and that, when mutual
* When this lecture was road in Philadelphia, "Church Brotherhoods" were
not included in the catalogue of reprobated societies. But, on preaching it
elsewhere, Church Brotherhoods were named with the rest. The reason for
suppressing all allusion to them I cannot now remember ; but I conjecture the
reason to have been, that I feft a reluctance to censure, by name, societies into
which many of my dearest friends were gathering together, and which, I sup
posed, the tenor and drift of my discourse opposed. But I was taught my
mistake directly I had finished my lecture in Philadelphia, being requested to
make an address at the approaching anniversary as an advocate for Church
Brotherhoods. The term " The Brotherhood," in the text, seemed to be iden
tified, in the minds of some (at least) of the "brothers," with their society. I
hence discovered the need of either a better argument than I had written, or a
specific mention of the " Church Brotherhood" societies. And as I was incom
petent to a better argument, so I was shut up to the alternative of mentioning
Church Brotherhoods among the other experiments of Socialism. Church
Brotherhoods, by their constitutions, exclude from membership young persons
(below fifteen), and old persons (above fifty years), because they cannot pay
and contribute their due quota to the treasury. Their weakness and want fail
to be their plea for " Church Brotherhood" charity. This, I think, is not sound
Christianity nor good Church charity.

FRANCIS VINTON. 331
interest shall cease to press his Societies together, the indi
vidual, prompted by his own intense consciousness of self,
will swell with self-importance and start away, as with a
centrifugal force, causing his associations to detonate into as
many atoms as they have members.
Brethren ! While I thus speak of self-Avilled associations,
I Avould also confess that Socialism seeks to supply a want
— a craving want. Some hope to find a Christian Socialism
in the Church of Rome, through the dreadful death of
consciousness, Avhere individuality and responsibility are
swalloAved up, submerged in the Confessional, Avhere man
ceases to be a man, and is only a fragment of the body ;
Avhere the stupor of the conscience, under the opiates of
priestcraft, is miscalled peace.
But others venture on new experiments of Socialism, in
Avhich the human Avill is sovereign and not killed. These
claim to have formed a Brotherhood. These boast of their
philanthropy. These evince an ardour and a purpose, that
engage the fancy, and attract the hopes of the panting
multitude. They nourish the feeble ; they tend the sick ;
they bury the dead with ostentatious demonstrations of
respect ; they support the widoAvs, and educate the orphans
of their fellows. They join themseh7es in trade-unions,
and combine their strength in strikes for wages. The poor
man sees all this, wonders and acquiesces. " Perhaps this
is the Brotherhood with whom I should enrol my name,"
he says ; " this is the Church for me." And so he buys a
portion in man's Church, and learns to despise the Church
of the Living God.
Yes ! He buys into the concern, for the profit which is
promised — then turns and tells you, "It is a Brotherhood!"
A mutual insurance company, excluding all who cannot pay
and all whose payment would not refund the cost of their
support, proclaims itself a Brotherhood, and takes profanely

332 S 0 C I A L I S M.
on its lips the sacred names of mercy, truth, and love ;
falsifying each in turn. And yet men call this The Brother
hood, which they must cherish — which they commend to
your regard and reverence — which they array against the
Church of Christ! But the humanity of Socialism has no
divinity in it. It is of the earth, earthy. It is the band
ing of men together, against the ills of life, "without God,
without Christ, without hope in the world." It battles to
the grave — and there it halts. Its heathenism, though
disguised in some of the beauteous robes of Christianity,
can go no further than the grave. There, at that dark
portal, it stops and trembles. Its vaunted Brotherhood is
finished at the tomb. " It says unto corruption, Thou art
my father; to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister."
But can you Avonder that the anxious longings for a Brother
hood should suggest these experiments of Socialism ? Is it
a marvel that men who toil for their daily bread, and earn
no more than " the crumbs that fall from the rich man's
table" — that men Avho look abroad in vain for sympathy —
who feel the woes and wants of their condition, as a cold
hand upon their hearts, chilling their affections — should
grasp the weapon (and wield it too) that defends their
weakness, and procures them hope ? Is it strange that the
instincts of self-preservation, the sentiments of fellowship,
the strong, irrepressible, invincible demands of justice
should endeavour to command the tribute of your respect,
and the recognition of their human rights ? I look upon
every combination of the trades as a protest against the
covetousness of Capital. I look upon every society, pro
posing to ameliorate the sufferings of poverty and sickness
and sorrow, as a protest against the lukewarmness of
Christians. I look upon the Social experiments of every
sort, that, in our age, are venturing to form Brotherhoods,
as the voices of nature and the voice of God, protesting

FRANCIS VINTON. 333
against the Church. All these experiments are expedients
for the realization of the Brotherhood Avhich Christ orga
nized and fixed, in the Avorld, for man.
The philosopher has torn the gown of the theologian
from him, and claims to be the better interpreter of the
will of God. He snatches the Bible from the pulpit to
preach fraternity, Avhile the dogmatizing polemic is assert
ing systems of theology that divide mankind asunder.
The philosopher perverts the word of Inspiration to give
an aspect of divinity to Socialism ; while the divine him
self is perverting Scripture to reduce religion to a carnal
philosophy, and deprave the Church to a school for dialec
tic disputation. That text which tells us how primitive
Christians sold their goods, and had all things common, is
pressed into the service of a selfish Socialism : ignoring
the rest of that same text, which tells us that primitiA-e
Christians "parted their goods to all men, as every man had
need." And on the other hand, those Scriptures which
record the love of Christ, are treated as sweet doctrines of
a beautiful religion, while the duties which Christ's love
commands, and Christ's example demonstrates for our obe
dience and imitation, are neglected in the teaching of His
ministers. The Church has suffered long enough in the stiff coils
of these skeleton systems of dry theology — these barren
inductions of false philosophy. The time is come to be at
work. The time is come to look after men's bodies as well
as souls — to deal with man's nature as God made it — to
imitate the Saviour in curing distempers, and healing dis
eases, and giving liberty to the captive, and visiting the
prison-houses of them that are bound. The time is come
when the pride of place and power is to be rebuked, and
the wages of the hireling, kept back by fraud, must be
disgorged by the monster, CoAretousness. If the true

3J4 S 0 C I A L I S M.
Christian Brotherhood be not evinced in acts of charity for
Christ's sake, a brotherhood of Socialism, that counterfeits
Christianity, will supersede it in men's affections and men's
faith. It Avill utterly blind the eyes of the multitude who
follow their infidel leaders in the confederacy of Antichrist
against the Church. Social organizations, working at first
beside the Church, will at last oppose the Church. Already
in the midst of us are societies, offering pantheistic wor
ship, pretending to philanthropic ethics ; and in training
for any enterprise, whether against the state, the family,
or the Church. Men are nourishing the viper in their bosom.
But Avhen the Church shall arise and shine — when the
Avorks of charity, and the tears of sympathy, and the self-
sacrificing endeavours of a heart in earnest shall manifest
our faith in the common Redeemer of all mankind, then
Avill Socialisms have no Avork to do, no tears to shed, no
efforts to make, no subjects to care for, no theory to demon
strate. The problem, " How God has constituted Society,"
shall be demonstrated. Men shall discover where the
Brotherhood is to be sought for, and where it shall be
found ; even in the one Holy City of our God, Avhich hath
foundations whose walls are Salvation and Avhose gates
Praise. God and the Lamb are the light thereof.
III. And hence Ave learn, finally, How we must loA7e the
Brotherhood. My brethren, I have avoided, as much as possible, all
discussion of the political and metaphysical theories of
Socialism, in order to grasp the one idea of every social
system, viz. that of Brotherhood. Hoav then shall the
Christian love the Brotherhood ? How manifest his love to
the brethren ?
1. In the first place, he must love sincerely. And to love
sincerely, he must pray sincerely for all estates and condi
tions of men. Remembering them before Him who made,

FRANCIS VINTON. 335
redeemed, and loves them. Remembering them before
Him who will not be mocked and cannot be deceived, unto
whom all hearts are open, and all desires known, you will
bear aAvay from the mercy seat that unction from the Holy
One, which will warm your heart with the love of Christ.
Prayer, then, is the foremost means of grace, whereby to
love the Brotherhood. He that loveth God will love his
brother also.
2. And next, you must begin to exercise your love for
your own kinsmen after the flesh, conquering the spirit of
contention that disturbs the fireside of your homes. And
you must learn to bear and forbear with your brethren of
the same household.
3. And, enlarging the compass of your expanding heart,
you must cease to strive Avith brethren of the same house
hold of faith ; you must think kindly of other Christians,
who, from education or from self-will, are departed from the
unity of the Body and live in Schism. Then, like the ex
tending circuit of the ripple that a stone makes when cast
upon the waters, your sympathies shall Aviden their
diameter till the circumference of your love shall embrace
the world. The Holy reform must commence in each Chris
tian heart. The Spirit of God and of Christ must be its
Author and its Finisher.
4. Besides this internal sanctification, the Christian must
look to the example of his Master, and imitate the pattern
of those primitive disciples Avho followed Him most closely.
5. And let me add that it Avould be Avise to take counsel
from the enemy, on the principle that " the children of this
world are wiser in their generation than the children of
light." Churchmen, therefore, must assert their Brother
hood, till, like living epistles, they are known and read of
all men. Is the fellowship of Socialism witnessed in tend
ing the sick ? Let communicants be ready at the call of

336 SOCIALISM.
their rector to Avatch and pray by the bedside of a brother,
and in the hovels of the outcast. Does Socialism erect its
hospitals, provide its schools, establish its funds for widoAvs
and orphans ? Let the alms of the church be copious and
overfloAving, instead of being stinted in their supply, in
order that from this source, and sanctified as gifts from off
God's altar, they may suffice for schools and hospitals and
asylums. Does Socialism display its fellowship in a
numerous train of attendants upon funerals ? Let church
men emulate each other in paying the last rites at the ob
sequies of their brethren. And in the multitudinous calls
for charity, let each be "a cheerful giver," counting his
gains as the Lord's usury, esteeming himself as the Lord's
steward. If the earnestness and the wisdom of Socialists
be transplanted into the Church, our Christian Socialism
shall flourish Avith blossoms of beautjr and of fragrance,
till they mature into the luscious fruit of brotherly love,
the celestial taste of which shall evince that they have
groAvn in the Paradise of God.
Brethren in Christ ! love the Brotherhood ! prove your
faith by love ! show your love by works ! what I have
feebly sketched exemplify ! then shall opponent fellow
ships cease, and men snail say of us, " Surely God is with
you of a truth."

klmtt atto lekMcn.

BY REV. A. H. VINTON, D.D.,
RECTOR OP ST. PAUL'S CUTTRCH, BOSTON, MASS.

43

XIII.
SCIENCE AND EEVELATION.
Tlie entrance of thy word giveth light. Ps. oxix. 130.
THE ascendancy of man over other ranks of creatures
seems to consist, not so much in what he has done
more than they, as in what he may be Avhich they cannot.
His superioritjr lies not in his past so much as in his future ;
not in his deeds, but in his capacity to do more and better.
That capacity is simply the capacity to be educated. Other
animated creatures are impulsive; he is reflective. Inani
mate things are subject to organic laws; he can conform
himself to an ideal standard. Other creatures obey the
laAV Avithin them; he can reduce all impulses and instincts
to the sovereignty of thought, and bend his consenting
nature to an aim that lies outside of him. Other things
grow; man improves. This peculiarity, while it denotes
his superior rank, reveals, by the same token, his ineffable
destiny. For, since rational principles are infinite, he may
pursue them till he shall rise so high and range so far as
to outreach our present conceptions of being. Drawn in
his career of improvement towards the great central reason,
to which, as to the inner loadstone, the universe gravitates,
we can see him moving at a rate of constant acceleration,
drawn at each advance Avith a more powerful attraction,
vibrating less and rushing faster, until, by the magnetic
affinity, he fastens himself for ever to God. (339)

340 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
I have said that this capacity of being educated has a
twofold significance. It is at once the token of man's su
premacy and the pledge of his immortality. There has
never, perhaps, been a period in history in which education,
as a means of supremacy OArer nature, has been so highly
esteemed as in this age.
But if you scan the methods and the ends of our com
mon education, you will find that the capacity of being
educated, as a pledge of man's immortality, is studiously
ignored. The public teaching of this generation belongs to
a sensual, not to a spiritual system. Physical laws are
explored with the most brilliant results of generalization.
The earth, the ocean, the air draAv near with a sort of
reverence, and lay their oblations at the feet of man's en
throned reason. Nature, in her telescopic vastness, unveils
the bosom of her firmament to the starry eye of our astro
nomy, yields up her microscopic organs to the dissection
of anatomy and geology, and betrays her hidden functions
and affinities to the tests of chemistry. In this fruitful
Eden of physical knowledge, the mind of the age revels
and feasts itself to repletion. But in that vaster realm of
metaphysics, by which I mean truths higher than physical,
the general mind is more untrained. It is more an age of
science than of principles and Divine philosophy; of ethics
more than of piety ; of things seen more than of truths
felt. We are taught vastly more of man's relation to na
ture than of his relationship to God. The capacities of
man prove that^ there must be a higher education for him
than this love of nature, and a brighter light than the
coruscations of science. For he has faculties nobler than
the perceptive. He has the power of bringing himself into
contact with eternal principles, of amalgamating his mind
by reflection with Divine truth.
He has an eye that does not blench at the living glory

A. II. VINTON. 341
Avhich floods the field of his immortality. That instruction
which meets these higher capacities of man, is knowledge
by Avay of eminence. It is education in its large and true
sense. These thoughts, not new to you, have come back
to my own mind with fresh power as I have revolved the
subject assigned me for this lecture, viz., the relation of
science to revealed religion. That relation has justly been
regarded as one of subordination. Science has been fami
liarly called the handmaid of religion. It were only well
if she Avould be contented to occupy that position. But
no person can contemplate the claims of modern Science
and not be struck with its assumption of superiority, a
certain magisterial air, as if it had a sort of pre-emption
claim to truth, as if its conclusions were not to be disturbed
by any other truth known or unknown. Its conclusions
are edicts. Its teaching is a royal proclamation. If it
notices revealed truth in any way, it is only by turning its
lantern towards the Bible just long enough to reveal a
point of difficulty, and then stirring up the dust of doubt
at every step, passes on relentlessly, as if it were under no
obligation to relieve the Word of God of the odium it had
cast about it.
It is this assumed superiority of Science over Revelation,
which has done much to weaken the faith of many in our
day. Sometimes Infidelity has levelled against the Bible
the contradictions of history; sometimes the speculations
of pure reasoning; but in our day it brings forth the
objections of Materialism, and screens itself with scientific
theory. I need not remind you how plausible and capti
vating some of these theories are. It is enough to say
that their assaults upon Revelation are point blank. They
are not content with simply maiming our faith in the Bible
by lopping off some of its truths. They aim at the very
heart of Revelation as a system of truth, so that if the

312 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
Science be true, the Bible is false, and all false. The rela
tion of Science to Revelation then, in our day, would seem
to be a relation of hostility. The position of one towards
the other is a position of antagonism. I do not forget how
often the discoveries of Science have coincided with the
statements of the Bible. The catalogue is a long one of
instances in which objections started by scientific explorers
against the history of the Bible, have been confuted by
further explorations. Many a side light of evidence for
the Scriptures has glanced from the investigations of men
who had no intention to corroborate the Word of God.
The frauds of the Hindoo astronomy have given a left-
handed authority to the chronology of the Scriptures.
Geology attests the recent origin of the human race. The
Egyptian hieroglyphics have confirmed the Exodus. Nine
veh has risen from the grave to illustrate the book of
Daniel. The Pagan oracles have betrayed to the tests of
Bishop Horsley their Israelitish pedigree. The tradition
of the nations attests the Deluge. The best generalization
of the races of men conforms to the three branches of the
stock of Noah ; and the scientific classification of the
several languages of the world runs back into an amazing
simplicity, and almost resolves the diversity into three
primary forms; while the still more radical analysis of
Kraitser traces all forms of language to their organic source,
illustrates the Tower of Babel, and makes the confusion
of tongues one of the most conceivable phenomena of
social life.
So much has scientific discovery done to elucidate the
historic past of the Bible, and it has not left the Bible
future wholly untouched; for the scientific theories of
human progress shadow forth a millennium, and the lost
Pleiad foreshows, the end of time and the conflagration of
the world. These coincidences between science and the

A. H. VINTON. 343
Bible may sometimes serve to reassure the conviction of
the believers in Revelation, and to pluck out particular ob
jections from the mouths of cavillers.
Yet, after all, both faith and unbelief are vitalized not
in the brain but in the heart of hearts, and are fed re
spectively from the purity or the corruptions of the moral
nature. And hence it happens that though the scepticism
of Science be often baffled, though its contradictions to
Scripture be often refuted, its speculations shown to be
fallacious by experiment, and its conclusions falsified by its
own maturer knowledge, still it works on unperturbed by
any discomfiture, dogmatizes its conclusions with the same
quiet air of superiority, speculates as coldly, contradicts as
boldly as if its whole history had been a refutation of the
Bible. Some illustrations of this characteristic may occur
as we proceed. Meanwhile we cannot but recollect the
almost supercilious way in which the devotees of Science
are apt, when the antagonisms between their conclusions
and the narrative of the Bible are pointed out, to content
all scruples by saying the Bible was not meant to teach
the truths of natural science. And this easy plea has too
often been borrowed into the mouths of Christians, as if it
could extenuate the heresies of scientific speculation, as
if there Avere any other way of determining what the Bible
was meant to teach than by ascertaining what it does in
fact teach. What though Ave learn from Science that it is
the earth and not the sun which revolves, is the miracle of
Joshua less imposing or true ? Because the history describes
the event as the standing still of the sun, does this language
betray an ignorance of astronomy any more than when we
describe him as rising and setting ? Yet how often is this
sample instance adduced to justify a contempt of the Scrip
tural narrative in analogous cases !
In contemplating this very striking characteristic of

344 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
modern Science, this cool assurance with Avhich the Bible
is made to take a second-rate position in every seeming
difference between them, one can hardly help holding up to
this eagle-eyed Science the text of the Psalmist, " the en
trance of thy word giveth light," to impress the lesson it
so much needs to learn, the first lesson of true wisdom, viz.
modesty. One can hardly help asking in Avhat consists the
superiority of its claims to lord it thus over the Bible.
Does its light shine further and clearer ? Is its philosophy
broader ? Are its principles of reasoning more certain, and
its results more sure ? Does it educate the better part of
man ? the whole man for his better life, for his whole life ?
If not, it has no claim to the precedency it arrogates. If
not, it is not the light of man. If not, no Christian should
feel his faith disturbed by any invasion upon it which
Science has yet made, or threatens to make. Let my follow
ing remarks be aimed at adjusting these rival claims, and
vindicating the superiority of that Revelation, which, as it
comes to us whole, cannot be disintegrated by us without
peril to every part of the Bible.
Let the first point of examination be of the comparative
certainty of Science and Revelation, its conclusions, and
its method of reaching them. If the Bible be taunted
with its sects and divisions of believers, its obscurities and
enigmas, let us see if any of our human systems of know
ledge relieve this distraction. Consider the necessary
sources of that knowledge. We receive it all from obser
vation — our OAvn or other men's. If it be our OAvn, we
lean upon a single mind, limited in its powers, if not
warped and crooked, Avhose experience, shut into the
narrow track of one man's life, is almost contemptibly
partial, and whose wisdom is apt to be in inverse propor
tion to the confidence of its conclusions. When the king
of Siam refused to believe that water could become solid,

A. II. VINTON. 345
he betrayed only the bigoted ignorance of experimental
knowledge, for there is no such bigot as the mere experi
mentalist; or if the experience be that of a philosophic
mind — clear, enlarged, logical — it is still the experience of
only one observer out of 1,000,000,000. The fixed condi
tion of the universe is, that art is long and life is short.
KnoAvledge is an abyss Avhose shores stretch into the view
less infinitude, and whose foundations are so deep that its
dark waters are to us bottomless. But suppose the learner
to mount higher. He embraces, in a bird's-eye view, the
discoveries of other generations, the reflections of other
men, the principles of General Science. Has he reached
the pitch of assurance? He has indeed larger material for
judgment; but the most remarkable effect of his enlarged
knoAvledge will be, that his judgment Avill be ten times
more cautious in its processes, and ten times less confident
in its decisions. He learns, at last, the wisdom of doubt
ing, and the folly of expecting a perfect knoAvledge of any
thing. No matter what the department of knowledge,
where springs anything like certainty ? Let it be History.
History is but a lamplight, shining always with a flicker ;
disclosing a part, and concealing the rest; touching the
topmost events with a garish light, and sinking into
shadoAvs the gentler neutral tints of life and manners
which make the true complexion of the times. History
sees only in perspective. She distorts, because she does not
disclose the relations of events, nor the symmetry and pro
portion of life. She shines again from different stand
points. Even contemporaneous histories differ beyond
reconciliation, and their unanimous statements are some
times corrected by long subsequent discoveries. Let the
subject be ethics, noblest and best, who shall guide us to
certainty Avithout a Divine teacher ? Shall it be Plato or
Aristotle, Machiavelli or the Schoolmen, or Hobbes, or
44

346 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
Butler, or Paley, or Bentham, or Owen ? Shall we learn
our moral rule of life from the outward or the inward,
from nature or ourselves ; from expediency or conscience ?
Shall A\-e infer Avhat we ought to do from what we are and
are to be, or begin at the other end of the line, and learn
what Ave are by seeing what Ave were made to do? Shall
we determine morality from its effects, or risk the conse
quences because the morality is abstractly good ? Let Avho
Avill answer these questions; if he answer them from
human oracles, he shall fortliAvith encounter a contradic
tion of equal authority, and find the thinking world rent
and riddled into sects who hold their moral theories so
profoundly that they cannot always bring them into exer
cise between each other.
Next, let the great theme be Political Science, the theory
of government. Is there a fixed form of perfection for the
state ? Is it best for all times, all conditions, all peoples ?
Which best conserves the right, and which most advances
the prosperity of a nation ? Is the end that is lost under
any given form of government more or less important than
the end gained? No man can resolve these questions
truly without a mind to contract itself to the minutest
details, dilate itself t© the broadest generalization, and
protrude itself Avith prophetic ken into the unwritten
future. He must detect affinities underneath differences,
and discriminate the real unlikeness between things that
seem the same. He must know the constitution of men,
and the constitution of the world ; the countless agencies
that have made them Avhat they are, and the not less
countless influences that are shaping them hourly into what
they shall become. The single men Avho are competent to
one-half of this are more rare than whole generations of
inferior men. The grand problem of government will not
be solved till the world's history is complete, and he who

A. II. V I N T 0 N. 347
shall solve it must be a Avorld-birth, and be endowed with
a world of AA'isdom. Meanwhile the lesser men are tugging
at the great question which they are not competent to lift,
and he Avho should ask for the truth of Political Science
turns away perplexed and baffled by mere speculation.
If from the height of this great theme Ave descend to the
narrower range of Law — from laAv making to law interpret
ing — do Ave see clearer for being nearer ? While precedent
contradicts precedent, opinion thAvarts opinion, the worse
appears the better reason ; the letter is made to neutralize
the spirit, and plausibility carries it over honesty. This
noble science, in its principles and design only next to reli
gion, becomes in its application most irreligious. As a
theory, it towers aAvay into the skies as if it emulated
Divinity, and Heaven croAvns its peak with its own glorious
, light. Yet, as it comes near to men, its base is Avrapped in
dim and disastrous fog.
So much for the certainty of those sciences — ethical,
political, and judicial — which have, one or the other, or all
together, assumed the precedence of Revelation. But these
are sciences of probability. Let us turn to those which
claim a more solid basis and exacter processes, the sciences
called Inductive. It is the boast of these that they are
progressive ; and, if movement be progress, they are rightly
named. For the history of Astronomy shows how men may
rest for ages in a theory which another generation shall
explode. Noav it shall be a Ptolemy Avho shall wield the
empire of scientific opinions, and then Copernicus shall
bring a new dynasty to the throne. One theory shall
explain the phenomena of the world, except a feAv. Ano
ther supplants it, because it seems to satisfy those feAv.
The beautiful hypothesis of the nebulae illustrates the
Avhole plan of creation, unless some unlucky telescope
pierces and dissects them, and proves that the only nebula

348 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
is the hypothesis itself. So that splendid as the facts of
Astronomy are, they are hardly more imposing for the phe
nomena they explain than for the Avonders they leave to be
guessed at, and the Avhole firmament becomes a celestial
arena, in which men's minds meet and speculate in the
battle of opinions. Descending from the sky to the earth,
Ave study the minuter organism of the world uncertain
still. Chemistry discovers a new simple suostance, and she
changes her theory of organizations, and with it her whole
nomenclature. Medicine shifts its methods and systems
like the fashions. Sthenic and asthenic divide the field
and the fees. The humours and the nerves, each claims a
theory. Pathology, with its rapid strides of progress, so
far distances therapeutics as to leave the cure of diseases
standing back at the period of Hippocrates. Onee more
descending from the earth, beneath the earth we reach the
science of Geology, sublime in its depth as Astronomy in
its height. Wrapped up in its embalmed shroud of mys
tery Ave find the earth's corpse, the dead spirit of antiquity
Avith the world for its tomb. It unbosoms its fossil history
as if the eternal Past were crystallized before our eyes ; and
scientific men would persuade us that the earth's history is
only this side of eternal. No science has been so progres
sive as this ; and there is hardly one besides which fills the
mind with such prolific suggestions of knowledge. Yet
even here there is no certainty. From the deep chambers
of the earth we hear the clash of opinions and the murmurs
of dissatisfied theory. How and by what Avere the pheno
mena of Geology wrought ? Whether by water, or by fire,
or by both? whether in succession, or simultaneously?
Avhether at a fixed rate of power, or a decreasing ? whether
by steady progress, or by volcanic starts and spasms, opi
nions have not been agreed. With all its magnificence of

A. H. VINTON. 349
subterranean light, we wait upon Geology as doubtful peti
tioners for knowledge. Yet Geology is, no doubt, the
favourite science of the times, and the one Avhich strikes in
severest collision against the statements of the Bible. Let
us dwell, then, a moment longer upon those special grounds
on which Geology rests her strongest objections to Scrip
ture. Those objections are levelled mainly, in our day,
against the Mosaic account of the creation. Noav, Avhile I
would not deny that, by the laws of language and the
usage of the Hebrew tongue, the first chapter of Genesis
will admit of an interpretation which shall make the word
" day" to signify a period of indefinite length, and so bring
the Scripture into approximation to Science, by allowing a
much greater antiquity to the creation of the earth, yet
the exactions of Geology are so minute and so stringent as
to provoke a retaliatory criticism. Is it quite plain, then,
that Geology is all right and the old interpretation of the
Bible all wrong ? Do the principles of inductive reasoning
so corroborate the claims of Geology as to entitle it to con
tradict the first chapter of Genesis ? Let us see. The cre
ation of the Avorld is explained by Geology thus : The, earth
was originally a huge mass of nebulous matter floating in
space. It parts with a portion of its caloric and becomes
more and more consolidated, until its surface is cooled into
a rocky crust, called, by the older geologists, the primitive
or granitic formation, and enclosing, as its interior, a mass
of incandescent matter in a state of fusion ; from this pri
mordial granite all the solid matter of the earth Ave tread
on Avas subsequently derived. Dissolved by rains, peeled
off by frosts, and triturated by currents, the minute particles,
thus separated from the parent rock, have become again
compacted into what are called the sedimentary formations.
This process is supposed to be closely analogous to that by
which deltas are formed at the mouths of great rivers, and

150 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
the delta is therefore the type of this whole class. This is
a very summary view of the organic constitution of our
globe according to the approved Geology. Now assuming
this explanation to be true, and assuming that the great
changes of the earth have always proceeded at the same
rate of progress as Ave see them to be hoav going on, then
a very simple arithmetic shows, beyond all peradventure,
that the age of our earth must very far transcend the period
assigned it in the Scriptures. The Scriptures therefore are
discredited unless we find for them some new interpretation.
Noav, Avhile I repeat that a different interpretation may be
both admissible and best, yet is there anything in this
theory of Geology to make it necessary ?
The first peculiarity that strikes us in this theory is, tha,t
its premises are not only unproved, but, so far as our present
knoAvledge goes, they are disproved. Its first fact is a mere
guess, which has been contradicted by experience. La
Place himself never dared to call his theory of the nebulae
anything more than an hypothesis ; and that Avhich, before
the construction of Lord Rosse's telescope, was a plausible
conjecture, has been shown by that instrument to be a pre
sumptive fallacy; so that this theory, so comprehensive
and so imposing, rests* upon a false fact. But even if its
foundation Avere more true, what shall we say of its details?
If the original crust of the earth was granitic, and all the
sedimentary formations derived from it, how do Ave explain
the immense production of limestone and of rock-salt,
Avhose elements are not contained in granite ? If the inte
rior of the globe be a mass of liquid incandescent matter,
hoAV can we account for volcanoes, since, instead of expand
ing, its tendency would be to a constant contraction by
cooling? And if deltas are to furnish the type of sedi
mentary formations, how is it that those formations grow
gradually thinner towards their edges, contrary to the

A. E. VINTON. £51
common forms and habits of the delta, which always rises
like a wall from the bottom of the sea, thickest at the
margin ? What reliance, moreover, are we to place upon
the principle, that nature, in all these formative operations,
has followed a uniform rate of movement, when it were far
more scientific to argue from the known analogy of forces,
which are always fiercest at their first combination, that
the rate of progress would be constantly decreasing ? Now,
not to insist upon objections touching the supposed cooling
of a nebula, not to dwell upon certain mechanical difficul
ties touching the supposition of an internal liquid fire, are
not those already named enough to vitiate — yea, quite
invalidate — the Avhole theory ? Beginning Avith a fallacy,
proceeding by assumptions which are irreconcileable with
knoAvn geological facts, can it conduct the inquirer to any
thing like an authoritative conclusion ?
And mark again the whole character of the reasoning
involved in this explanation. Geology professes to be a
science of Induction. The grand worth and poAver of its
objections to the Bible consists in its claims to that exact
ness Avhich belongs to Inductive reasoning. But at what
single point in this whole theory does the principle of
Induction crop out ? Induction deals only with facts ; with
present and subsisting facts. It arranges them, classifies
them, and eliminates the general principle Avhich binds
them together. But, whether in the single phenomenon
or in the general law which pervades the group, the single
aim of Induction is a present fact. The phenomenon is a
fact, and the general laAv is not less a fact. Induction may
show us convincingly, beautifully, the order and plan of the
existing universe. But when Science attempts to fathom
the modes and agencies of the past, it leaps the track of
Induction as wildly and fatally as if it should undertake to
forecast and prophesy the world's Avhole future. When it

35'2 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
infers the past from the present, it is not Induction ; it is
Deduction : a conjectural sort of reasoning which forfeits
the Avhole character of exactness. And when, besides, it
begins Avith a mere assumption of fact, and hangs its argu
ment on this single loop, the argument itself is not reason
ing ; it is speculation : the theory is transformed into a
whole unmitigated hypothesis, illustrating the adage that
if Ave begin with an if, Ave may end as Ave please.
But I have said enough, I trust, to illustrate the un
certainty that clings about the methods and conclusions of
Science, verifying the sarcasm of the poet, that " Science is
but an exchange of ignorance for that which is another
kind of ignorance." Carry your gaze where you will, and
you find this infection and rottenness in it all. A science
to be certain must not be progressive ; that is, it must not
be human. It must be divinely taught, and the truths it
teaches must not be such as are useful to one set of men in
one stage of life, one condition of the world, but touching
the interests of all men in every age, for their Avhole
existence. Look to revealed truth, and find these elements of cer
tainty there. There is certainty in the quality of the
knoAvledge. The Teacher is one Avho knows; His knoAv-
ledge is within Himself, and that which He reveals is the
counsel of His own mind, the plans of His oavii Avisdom,
the decrees of His own will.
There is certainty in the method of knowing. We have
a Teacher whom we are not afraid to trust, and we learn
not by discovery or by speculation, but by faith. We
drink in instruction implicitly. The truths revealed are so
far above our explorations that no pride of reason can Arault
up to the platform of the Bible. We are sure, because we
can never know enough to doubt, and all men stand to
gether on one footing of evidence — " Thus saith the Lord."

A. II. VINTON. 353
This Science is not progressive, for we can learn no more
if we would; nor fluctuating, because not lodged in human
opinion but the Divine mind. The effect of this two-fold
certainty is signal and delightful. As nothing is more cor
roding than a doubt on a subject in Avhich we are enough
interested to be anxious, so there is no state of mind so
replete Avith satisfaction as the assurance of knoAvledge.
The affinity of the mind for truth is met and satisfied.
The truth itself has become a part of our consciousness
and our imvard life, and bestows such repose as approaches
more nearly than anything else the mind's perfected bliss.
There will be more of it in heaven, but on earth it has
been divinely provided that the assurance of faith shall be
the substitute for the certainty of heaven, and the joy of
that faith the antepast of heaven's finished bliss.
From this grand defect of human Science, in its essential
lack of certainty, let us pass, to consider more briefly
another, viz. the want of breadth and comprehension in its
principles. It is true, indeed, that the proper definition of
Science is a system of general principles. And it is true
that scientific men understand the difference betAveen a man
of rules and a man of principles. The man of rules is an
artisan, the man of principles is an artist. The former is
an empiric, the latter a philosopher. One declares the
method, the other the reasons of the method. One points
the telescope, the other discovers the solar system and in
vents the parallax. One may be very knoAving, the other
is wise. That one may be shrewd, this one is great. The
best achievements of the human intellect lie in happy
generalizations. It was the power to generalize Avhich gave
the prophetic eye to Newton, to Burke, to Washington,
each in his sphere applying the' master-key of a general
principle to unlock the dark storehouse of future and unat-
tempted things. This forecasting knowledge, although so
45

351 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
rare among men, as to be deemed almost a lucky guesl,
shows at least how a great mind soars after the universal,
and how the mind should be disciplined in order to become
great. Noav while it is true that each separate science
aims to eliminate the general laAvs Avhich govern it, yet
each one insulated from the rest, no one branch of Science
is responsible for its conclusions to any other branch, and
hence results an independency, and sometimes an oppo
sition, which quite forbids anything like a universal system.
What is Avanting is a Science of sciences, a philosophy large
enough to embrace and harmonize them all, and to bring
the results of discovery into some simple form, Avhich shall
be the philosophy of the universe. This is the grandeur
of the Bible. Considered merely as knowledge, it has
above all others the capacity of universality. All its truths
are world-Avide. If it be law, how does it distil and con
dense all forms of moral obligation into the grand essential
duty of love to God and our neighbour, the duty of all men
in all time, in both Avorlds! If it be government and
polity, how does it dispel the cloud that envelopes the do
minion of the world, and reveal the Great White Throne of
Him Avhose right it is to reign ! How it teaches the
grandest philosopher m the system of final causes ! How
it impresses us with the truth that all things are made for
God ! How it explains the changes of dynasties, the wreck
of empires, the turning and overturning of the nations,
showing that He sitteth between the cherubim, be the
people neArer so unquiet, making these commotions one and
all the permitted results of His sovereignty, permitted in
order to illustrate and to usher in the covenanted, media
torial reign of the Son of God !
Even if the subject be the motions of the physical uni
verse, how admirably the Bible connects the Divine will
with the changes of matter, and subordinates the material

A. II. VINTON. 355
to its due place of subserving the spiritual ! This is what
experimental Science of itself either cannot or will not do.
It ignores the whole doctrine of final causes. Its induction
resolves all things into men, mechanism, and law, recog
nises no oversight of nature, no changes of matter but
such as are caused by mechanical necessity, and hence
denies all miracles, and hence repudiates a special Provi
dence. Experimental Science maintains that it cannot,
consistently with the principles of Induction, go beyond
simple phenomena, and has no right to infer a moral plan
of the universe, because it cannot be weighed in balances
or tested with acids. It is such a confession of narrow
ness and partiality, as makes it unnecessary for us to
enlarge upon it in the Avay of proof. But it is this refusal to
look for moral results, Avhich renders physical science essen
tially atheistic : and this constitutes the third great defect.
In consistency with the same principle on which experi
mental Science rejects the doctrine of final causes, it may
deny a first cause. To the experimentalist, the world
stands out as mere inert bulk. In examining and dissecting
it, his mind acts mechanically, led or dragged on by one
new fact or laAv after another, until, at the last-discoA'ered
factor laAv, it halts. This is the terminus of Induction.
Its last result is a law, never a person ; an effect, not a
cause. It can go no further. It can see no further. If he
should reach fonvard one more step, to infer the unseen
cause from the seen effect, that step must be taken in the
dark. Induction holds him for ever, poised on one foot,
upon the brink of that precipice wbich separates the actual
and the possible. To recognise an Invisible Director of the
world, is to reverse the processes of experimental Science.
For the chief maxim of Science is to receive truth only on
tangible evidence. She brings forth her principles in tan
gible form. Her rule is "handle me and see." She sets the

356 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
inquirer down before the mighty machinery of the world,
and when he grows bewildered and dizzy with amazement,
she takes him to the upper platform, and shows him the one
great wheel that moves the complicated works, and. bids him
then be satisfied. This is her ultimate stand-point. She
tells no more, for she can see no more, and Science 'walks
by sight. If he asks for a First Cause, grander and higher
than this grand second cause, he asks unscientifically.
The question springs from some Divine instinct of religion
which Induction does not recognise, and must be answered
by some lore which the wisdom of this Avorld never taught.
If Science taught religion even in it's elementary form,
Ave should still have been blessed with a pious Newton, but
should never have heard of an infidel La Place.
But even when Science, either physical or moral, in the
person of some of its followers, acknowledges the fact of a
Deity, see Avith what a constrained air, with how little em
phasis, she makes the acknowledgment ! See what a jmle
reflection it is of Divine light from second-hand evidence !
How like the cold glitter of phosphorescence in the black
ocean ! It reveals no personal God ; and, least of all, does
Science constrain us to, anything like moral allegiance to its
discovered first cause. This must be so from the very nature
of the proof and the investigation. The truths which men
discover are their servants, not their masters. When a
man of science has, by the action of his own mind, deve
loped some hidden law of nature, some general principle
of life, that discovery is as if it were his OAvn creation,
which might have been lost to the generations but for him.
As one of the forces of the Avorld it is an agent, not a lord ;
to be used, not obeyed. No matter whether it be in phy
sics or in morals, the truth has been subjected to man's
authoritative tests, has been fused in the crucible of his
own mind, has passed under the die of his moulding poAver ;

A. II. VINTON. 357
and when it comes forth for the currency of general
thought, it bears the image and superscription of man, not
God. How differently does the Bible teach the truth of a
Deity ! not by the cold glitter of mere intelligence, but by
the living sunlight, whose light is warmth ; and not only
teaches, it exhibits Him. If Science ever indicates a God,
she only points to the darkness where He dwells, and leaves
us unimpassioned and unimpressed. But the Word of God
is His manifestation. He comes near to us in it, lays His
hand upon us, draAvs away the veil of conjecture from our
eyes, makes the whole splendour of His attributes shine
into us, penetrates us with a new sense. We are no longer
guessing scientifically at a simple, barren existence. He
is no longer a philosophical abstraction, a First Cause,
nameless and bodiless ; but a living, powerful, moral
Master, your Lord and mine. The profoundest instinct of
our natures, which had slept through the moonlight of our
scientific studies, is waked up suddenly by the flash of
morning, the glow of eternity. It shines out from the
mind of God, and when it penetrates the mind of man, it
stirs the world within him to live and grow. It is the
day-spring from on high.
Did Science ever dream of a God incarnate — the mind
and heart of Deity coming out to us through our OAvn warm
flesh and blood, and trying all the cords of human sympa
thy, to make us know and feel the God within us? Did
Science, physical or moral, ever hint at the august truth
of a present God, the consoling fact of a superintending
God, the sublime and terrible vieAV of a judging God, the
felt grace of a redeeming God ? Did Science ever say more,
essentially more than this : " here is something before us ;
a world, a mass of matter ; let us see if we can extract
something out of it." And that something, if it be extracted

358 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
at all, legitimately or illegitimately, what is it ? The very
zero of theological truth, viz., a possible intelligence, of
which Science can positively affirm or deny just nothing.
In this comparison of Science and Revelation, I have
thus far considered them in those points in which they
come together and stand side by side. I have aimed to
show that, regarded merely as systems of instruction, hu
man Science has no well-grounded claim which entitles it
to precedence ; that though Science and Revelation both
spring from the unity of Divinity, yet that, in the present
state of human Science, the believer in Revelation may
stand firm in his position of faith, and demand that Science
shall grow older and stronger and wiser before he will lift
one foot from the platform of the Bible ; and that until
Science shall attest itself by more certainty in its methods
and conclusions, more universality in its principles, and a
less atheistic spirit, he will still continue to wait on the
Lord and rejoice in the light that comes from the entrance
of his Word. Until that time, Revelation, as the grander
power of the two, may exercise a majestic patience. It
can afford to wait till Science has so far fledged its wings
as to soar into the skies and see by the light of God, and
then Science and Revelation will be at one.
But, before I conclude, I ought, in justice to our high
and holy theme, to glance at one consideration, which dis
plays the value and power of the Word of God, not in com
parison Avith Science, but as standing alone in a position
which Physical Science never assumed to occupy, and which
Moral Science only vainly emulates. Regarding Divine
Revelation as an agent for the education of man, we ought
to consider its character for moral influence. See how it
lays hold on all the motive powers of man, and the con
science first. Assuming the moral sense as a universal
attribute, it appeals to it directly, with such authority that,

A. II. V I N T 0 N. 359
whether man obeys or refuses, he feels that he is yielding
to or resisting his God and Maker. And, next to the con
science, the Word of God addresses the hopes and fears of
the soul by promises and threats the most soul-stirring.
The love of life, the love of happiness, the love of excel
lence, the ambition of an honourable place in the esteem
of all good beings, these are the impulses of hope, stirred
up by the promises. Oneness with God, an eternal com
panionship with him, boundless knoAvledge, boundless bliss,
and spotless purity covenanted for ever, these are the pro
mises that move the hope, powerful, ennobling, good, and
perfectly good.
On the other hand are the fears stirred up by the threats.
The dread of Avoe, dread of death, and dread of degrada
tion before the universe, these are the instincts of nature,
energized to agony by the thought of separation from God
and all the good, and of communion for ever with the foul
and the fallen, increasing hate, remorseful sorrow, world
without end. If we search our natures through, there are
no hopes and fears supreme like these. If we explore the
whole realm of thought, there are no objects of hope and
fear so commanding. And when these fail, and when they
succeed, there is one sanction more penetrating to the heaxt
and seizing the affections ; it is the appeal of gratitude to
all men for incalculable mercy to each, the appeal of re
deeming love. Wherever it is felt, it is felt beyond ex
pression and beyond resistance, with only the regret that
it cannot be felt more deeply. Nothing in earth or heaven
can take the soul captive, lead it willingly away from its
sins, bow it down in delighted adoration, melt it into a
flood of thankful penitence, and raise it up a changed and
transformed soul, like the love of a bleeding Saviour. He
who resists it resists Heaven's last attempt at moral influ
ence. He Avho obeys it yields to the moral omnipotence

360 SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
of God, exerted on the most vital forces of the human
character. And noAV, mark the operation of these forces, and trace
the growth of the character trained thus by the Bible.
While he who is educated by any form of Science alone,
without the Word of God, leans on his own understanding
and follows a fool's guidance ; while obeying his uncorrected
impulses he stumbles when he thought he was safest;
while, with no standard but his self-erected one, he may
prostrate it as he pleases ; while Avith no master but his
will, he is the foot-ball and plaything of those passions
which are more Avilful than his will ; while thoughtful only
of the world he becomes, like it, the very vanity of vanities.
Not so the faith-trained man, whose light is from the en
trance of God's word.
Seeking all things from above, he schools his spirit to the
patient waiting upon God. Strong in God, when weakest
in himself, he is fortified for trials that would else over
power him. His life is not fitful, because his standard is
unearthly, planted in the Rock of Ages. His belief is not
opinion, and does not flow and ebb with the fashion of
thinking. He is gentle from the humility that is in the
habit of bending before*God, yet courageous with the ambi
tion of having God for his own. It is the beautiful moral
of faith. It is the highest fulfilment of the law of his
being, the noblest working of regenerated manhood, than
which a seraph's is not nobler, who at the Eternal Throne
adores and burns.
And now, with another word, I close this discourse, and
with it, as I am informed, this course of Lectures. It is
fitting that the course should conclude with the Bible. It
is well that the preacher's parting word should be of faith
in the revealed Word of God, which giveth light. Hold it
in its wholeness as the. best teaching on all subjects which

A. II. VINTON. 301
the world has seen yet; true on all subjects, even though
partial on some, and full enough on every subject necessary
to educate us for immortality. Hold it supreme, sacredly
high above all other teaching, for that which the world
cannot teach, the redemption of the Avorld, which the world
never thought of, and Heaven never thought of but once.
In this one truth is the light Avhich is the life of men. In
this one truth are garnered up all human interests, all
human relations, duties, and destinies. Men have no con
cern Avith any knowledge that is so vast, so profound, so
vital. The world's existence hinges on the redemption by
Christ, and Heaven's central glory is the Crucified. He
Avho has not studied Redemption, Avhatever else he may
have learned, knows nothing yet as he ought to knoAV it-
He who has been taught this Divinely, is wise above all
other lore. It comprehends the life-principle of all other
knowledge, explains terrestrial events, will survive terres
trial things. It will be the starting point of our immortal
ized minds, will be the impulse of our immortal growth,
will make the perfection of our likeness to God, to know
Christ and Him crucified. Hold the Bible then sacredest
and best, not only for its certainty — surer than any other
knowledge — not only for its deep and wide philosophy of
men, of things, of the univeres ; but far away and above all
other reasons, hold it as the Revelation of a Saviour for the
lost.

46

©jjc jjistoriral dEbitontts of Cjjrisiiatuijj.

BY RT. REV. JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, D.D.
BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF VERMONT.

XIV.
THE
HISTOEICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
" For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon
the earth, and ask from the one side of lieaven unto the otlier, whetlier tliere hath been any such thing as
this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?" Deut. it. 32.
THE religion of the Gospel, my brethren, as presented
to us in the inspired pages of the Bible, is guarded by
every defence, and enforced by every argument, which can
be fairly demanded, either by the intellect or by the heart.
Opposed on all sides by the spiritual enemj^ of our race,
by the corrupt and sensual propensities of our fallen nature,
and by the cavils of infidel sophistry, under the abused
names of philosophy and science; it rises from each
assault with renewed confidence in the truth of God. For
no attack on Christianity has ever resulted in success. No
weapon formed against it has ever prospered. On the con
trary, it has triumphed in every contest, and still goes on,
conquering and to conquer. And how ? By Avhat human
power? By what human influence? By what human
interest ? Where are its mines of gold ? Where are its
fleets and armies? Where are its resources of earthly
government and territory? Where are its motives of
ambition, avarice, or pride ? Where are its allurements of
worldly pleasure ; its supremacy in worldly knowledge ; its
(365)

£66 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
command over worldly learning, science, or policy ? With
out any of these — nay, rather against them all — Christi
anity has gained its pure and peaceful victories through the
might of heavenly truth, and the force of the Divine
blessing. If it Avere a device of men, the hostility of men
Avould long ago have overthrown it. But because it is of
God, the opposition of the world, and the enmity of Satan,
combined together, have never been able to prevail.
It is not my design, however, on the present occasion, to
explore the vast field of evidence which is laid open by the
sublime claims of the Christian system. To other and to
abler advocates I shall leave the varied aspects of the
noble subject which the infidel tendencies of the present
day have called upon us to examine ; and I shall confine
myself to a brief review of the single proof derived from
historical facts, which no intelligent mind can question, in
the full conviction that even this alone is all-sufficient to
demonstrate the celestial origin and Divine authority of the
Gospel. May the Spirit of the living God be graciously
present with us, that the humble effort be not made in vain !
I undertake, then, to establish this broad proposition,
that the heavenly truth and power of Christianity, as it is
set forth in the Holy Scriptures, are inscribed in characters
of living light on the whole face of history. And I ask
your best attention, my brethren, to each step in the argu
ment as I pass along.
1. Commencing with the Old Testament, look, I pray
you, at the historical facts which prove its truth beyond
the possibility of refutation. For the entire nation of the
Jews are witnesses to their own marvellous descent, laws,
and religion, all mingled inseparably with prophecies and
stupendous miracles, and marked by a totally peculiar
principle of polity, standing alone amongst the families,
tribes, kingdoms, and empires of our world. No other

II 0 P K I N S. 367
people ever existed, as a distinct nation, avIio traced their
existence from one man, as they do from Abraham. No
other people of antiquity possessed the knowledge of the
one true God, clear of all idolatry. No other people were
delivered from bondage, without war or violence, by the
display of Almighty -poAver ; sustained miraculously for
forty years in the Avilderness, and established victoriously
over seven nations more powerful than themselves. No
nation beside the Jews had a form of government so free,
benevolent, and equal; where every family had its own
allotment of land; where justice was administered so
fairly ; where there was no room allowed for tyranny upon
the one hand, or licentiousness upon the other ; where bro
therly love and kindness and charity were commanded by
the very laws ; and where the whole S}*stem, from the wor
ship of the Sanctuary down to the smallest regulation of
domestic life, was all held by the express dictation of the
Almighty. No nation beside the Jews could boast of pos
sessing a clear continuous history of four thousand years ;
beginning at the creation, and proceeding almost to the
coming of their great Messiah ; all written by holy men,
who claimed the gift of Inspiration, and proved it by pro
phecies which have been so wonderfully fulfilled. And no
nation, unassisted by Divine power, could have subsisted
as they have done ; for more than seventeen hundred years
have passed away since their country was taken from
them, and their city Jerusalem, with its magnificent temple,
was razed to the ground, according to the Divine predic
tion, and they became dispersed and despised throughout
the earth. And yet they have refused to abandon their
ancient faith. They have refused to amalgamate with
others. They have remained, all over the world, a distinct
and peculiar people, for almost eighteen centuries together ;

368 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
and still continue to maintain their marvellous individu
ality eAren in our own day.
Here, then, I place the first .great series of historical
facts, which is totally incontrovertible. No cavils of infi
delity can ever overthrow it, because it stands-, like the sun
in the firmament, single and alone, as a light to tbe world.
The unbeliever, indeed, undertakes to account for the whole
by supposing that Moses, the great lawgiver and leader of
the ancient Jews, was only a skilful impostor, who deluded
the people. But it needs a thousandfold more credulity to
accept this hypothesis, than to receive the records of the
Bible. Assuredly, if we admit the being of a God, all
those wonders might have taken place without any diffi
culty ; whereas, if Ave imagine that Moses Avas an impostor,
the whole history becomes a gross and absurd impossibility.
For hoAV could any impostor persuade the nation of the
Jews, amounting to more than tAvo millions of souls, that
they Avere led out of Egypt, sustained in the wilderness,
and established in Canaan, by the very poAver of God, dis
played by the most public and open wonders, if those
wonders never took place at all ? How could an impostor
undertake such miracle/ as those which were witnessed by
that extraordinary people ? Let the infidel collect all the
lies of heathenism together, and he will find nothing to be
compared, for a moment, with the stupendous works of
God displayed in the sight of Israel. Nay, I confidently
aver that the mind of man never conceived so vast and
amazing a series of astounding manifestations. And how
could an impostor address his history to a whole people as
Moses does in the Book of Deuteronomy, appealing to them
as eye-witnesses ? How could an impostor reveal to man
kind the only system of pure religion, full of precepts of
benevolence, purity, and truth ? Would an impostor lead
a life of the utmost self-denial, labour, and simplicity, as

HOPKINS. 369
Moses did, without even leaving to his own sons any office
of pre-eminence or dignity ? Could an impostor prophesy
to his own nation a future history of calamity, oppression,
and desolation, as Moses did to Israel, all of which we
know to have been fulfilled ? Could an impostor deliver to
the Avorld laws, religion, and principles, which were adopted
in after ages by all the most favoured nations, and are
believed at this hour, as firmly as ever, though empires, and
races, and systems have risen and fallen, and three thousand
four hundred years have rolled aAvay ? Could an impostor,
with a succession of other impostors, predict the most re
markable events of all future time, — the destructions of
Ninevreh, and Babylon, and Tyre ; the debasement of
Egypt, the subversion of the Greek and Roman empires,
the ruin of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the JeAvs, the
coming of Christ, His suffering and death, and the esta
blishment of His Church, all of which we knoAV to have
been accomplished ? No, no, my brethren ! This hypo
thesis of the infidel is the Avildest of all absurdities. When
we believe that the infinite foreknoAvledge and power of
God Avere employed on behalf of His people, there is no
difficulty. But he Avho refuses to believe this, is forced to
believe a thousand impossibilities at open war with all
human contrivance and capacity.
2. Here, then, in the Avonderful career of the literal
Israel, we have the first great historical demonstration of
the truth of God, in the Old Testament. And Ave have a
parallel to it, not less convincing, in the establishment of
the Church, the Spiritual Israel, in the New Testament
Scriptures. For no man can deny the one, any more than
he can deny the other. The Church exists. This fact
is notorious. How and when did it come into being ? The
heathen historians all agree with the Bible that its founder
Avas Jesus Christ ; that He Avas crucified at Jerusalem in the
47

370 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTI ANITA*.
reign of the emperor Tiberius; that His followers were
poor unlettered men ; that their converts increased rapidly
throughout the old Roman empire ; that they were bitterly
persecuted, from time to time, during the first three hundred
years, because they opposed the heathenism which was
everywhere established. And every one knows, that soon
aftenvards their religion was triumphant over the civilized
Avorld. The Scriptures account for all this by showing that
this religion was the fulfilment and completion of the pre
vious system, given to ancient Israel ; that Jesus was the
Son of God, Avho became incarnate for the salvation of man
kind ; that His ministry was marked by constant miracles ;
that He died upon the cross as an atonement offering for the
sins of the world ; that He arose from the dead, according
to His own prediction, and ascended into Heaven ; that the
Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles, and enabled those
ignorant and humble men to proclaim the most sublime and
pure system which was ever known ; that they went from
place to place, in labours, in toils, in danger, and in suffer
ings, according to the command of their Divine Master;
and that everywhere, by their preaching and their miracles,
the power of God gave them success in converting multi
tudes from the horrible superstitions of Paganism, and a
life of sin, and thus established the Church, which has de
scended to our own day.
But all this, too, the infidel treats as an imposture. And
in so doing, as in the other case, he tries to get rid of an
imaginary difficulty, by embracing real and absolute impos
sibilities. For in truth, this difficulty of the unbeliever is
no difficulty at all, when we admit that God loved the
poor fallen world which He had once created, and designed
to give mankind a Saviour to redeem them from their sins,
and prepare them for life and happiness eternal. But how
should an impostor undertake a work like this? How

II 0 P K I N S. 371
should the unlettered son of a carpenter ha\'e invented the
sublimest system of holiness which Avas ever knoAvn amongst
mankind? And what motive could have induced our
Lord to deceive His followers ? Was it the love of wealth,
when He chose poverty for His portion ? Was it the love
of poAver, when He refused to be made a king ? Was it the
love of ease, Avhen He led a life of persecution, and submitted
to be crucified ? And what motive could have governed
His Apostles to imitate His course, and become, like Him,
willing martyrs to the cause of His Gospel ? And whence
did they derive the wondrous power which enabled the poor
fishermen of Galilee to do a mightier work beyond com
parison than all the sages, philosophers, and priests that
ever existed since the world began ?
Thus the plain truth of history stares the infidel in the
face, and demonstrates, of necessity, the Divine truth and
power of the Gospel. For the Church of Christ is esta
blished, and is, at this very moment, notwithstanding all our
faults and imperfections, the mightiest power upon the
earth. And this Church, by the infidel's own acknowledg
ment, was founded by a poor mechanic of Nazareth, who
was persecuted by His countrymen, and was crucified be
tween two thieves, in the reign of the emperor Tiberius,
and His instruments were twehre poor ignorant men, of
the lower orders, while the thirteenth, St. Paul, though
learned for his time and country, Avas utterly destitute of
rank, connexion, or authority, despised by the Romans
because he was a Jew, and hated by the JeAvs when he
became a Christian. Could it ever enter the head of
thirteen such men to go forth for the purpose of overturn
ing, by lies and imposture, the religion and philosophy of
the whole world ? Is it conceivable that these impostors
should have devoted themselves to such a wild and ridicu
lous attempt, in the service of a crucified man, whom they

372 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
must have known to be a deceiver? Is it possible that a
company of foolish and crazy knaves could have gulled
mankind so completely, that their converts were ready to
go to prison, and to death, for a lie, which any reasonable
mind might have detected, when their claims and their
actual performances were compared together ? Is it to be
believed, for a moment, that the Apostles, who must have
knoAvn the cheat, should have been themselves willing to
pass thirty or forty years of life in constant toils and
dangers, and at last become willing martyrs to the false
hood ? And could all this have succeeded throughout the
most civilized and enlightened countries of the heathen
world, in overturning the philosophy and the religion of
every nation, notwithstanding the opposition of princes and
rulers, laws and customs, arts and eloquence, in the palmy
days of the old Roman empire ?
Hence, I maintain that the infidel, in refusing to believe
the Divine truth of the Christian religion, rejects the plain
testimony of historical fact, and gives his mind up to the
most absurd impossibilities. In all the annals of our race,
there is no other instance of an assault upon the established
religion and morals of mankind, by such an instrumentality
as that of the poor fishermen of Galilee. In all the records
of humanity there is nothing to justify the preposterous
notion that such an assault, by any earthly management,
could have been crowned with success. While, on the
other hand, there is no reason whatever for doubting the
love or poAver of God. Why should not the Almighty
have pitied the fallen and ruined condition of His crea
tures ? Why should He not have revealed His truth and'
mercy, and given them the means of returning to holiness
and happiness ? Why should He not have provided them
with a Saviour, and brought life and immortality to light
in His blessed Gospel ? In believing all this, Ave believe

II 0 P K I X S. 37;!
nothing which is not perfectly accordant with the attributes
of the Almighty. While, in rejecting it, the infidel believes
a mass of absurdities, totally impossible to the powers of
human nature, and in direct and palpable contradiction to
all the motives, capacities, and conduct of mankind.
3. The third branch of this evidence of history leads us
to consider Christianity as the only moral and spiritual
enlightener of the world. Thus, it is well known to every
ordinary reader, that the old Greeks and Romans Avere
highly civilized in everything else, while they were utterly
debased in morals and religion. Their writers are used,
to this day, as masters in all our schools. Homer, iEschy-
lus, and Sophocles amongst the poets; Herodotus, Xeno-
phon, and Thucydides amongst historians ; Pericles and
Demosthenes among orators ; Aristotle, Plato, and Epic-
tetus among philosophers, gave the brightest lustre to the
literature of Greece. And, amongst the Romans, Virgil,
Horace, and Juvenal, Livy and Tacitus, Cicero and Quin-
tilian, Seneca and Lucretius, with a long list of others,
shone with equal brilliancy. In architecture, in painting,
in sculpture, these ancients were confessedly pre-eminent ;
and the world has never exceeded them in individual ex
amples of patriotism, and magnanimity, and heroic valour.
But their religious faith was a mass of falsehood and cor
ruption. Saturn, the oldest of their imaginary gods, was
believed to have devoured his OAvn children, and to have
been dethroned by his son Jupiter, who was the sovereign
of the gods, and held his court on Mount Olympus. His
history was a picture of corruption and debauchery. Juno,
his wife, was called the queen of heaven, and was a vixen
and a shrew. His daughter, Venus, was the patroness of
all licentiousness. Bacchus was the god of wine and
drunkenness. Mercury was the god of thieves. Mars and
Bellona Avere the patrons of Avar. True, indeed, the vir-

S74 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CH RISTI ANITA'.
tues had their appropriate deities likewise, but all of these
were inferior in power, and Avere held to have no dominion
or prerogative which could be compared with those of the
superior gods, whose whole administration was marked
with every crime of human profligacy. While all these
celestial powers were supposed to be subject to the Fates, or
Destiny, represented by three old women, against whose
decisions Jupiter himself could do nothing.
Of course there could be no true morality in union with
such a religion, because the gods themselves were believed
to be examples of every favourite sin. The laAvs of the land
did, indeed, preserve those precepts which were essential to
the defence of life, liberty, and property ; because, without
these, society could not be held together. The philoso
phers, also, taught many sublime and pure truths, which
were adopted by their disciples. They maintained, like
wise, a future judgment, founded on the rules of moral vir
tue. But this judgment was not committed to the gods.
Three deified mortals, who, in their lifetime, had been
kings, were supposed to be the judges; and thus virtue
was entirely divorced from religion, and only supported by
the common standard of human laAv and sentiment. Hence,
their Avisest and best men indulged, without scruple, in
unnatural lusts, despised the popular superstition, while
they honoured it outwardly, and wandered, without any
resting-place for the mind or the heart, in the midst of
spiritual darkness and confusion.
Such, briefly, was the universal condition of the most
enlightened nations of the world, during those classic ages,
whose monuments of literature, eloquence, and art we still
delight to honour. The Jews were the only exception ;
because they were taught of God. Their dispersion
throughout the countries of the heathen, though decreed
by the Divine judgment as a punishment for their sins,

HOPKINS. 375
was overruled by Providence so as to make them the
instruments to disseminate the truth among the heathen.
Their sacred writings were more ancient, by a thousand
years, than those of Herodotus, the oldest Greek historian.
Pythagoras lived five hundred years before the advent
of Christ, and all the other philosophers were still later.
The whole of these, therefore, had abundant opportunity
to learn, from the Jewish Scriptures, those principles which
so many unreflecting men have thought fit to ascribe to
the unassisted light of nature. From the books of Moses,
Lycurgus might easily have taken the best parts of his
famous system for Lacedaemonia. And Solon, the lawgiver
of Athens, had equal access to the same fountain of truth,
which was alike open to Nunia, of Rome, and all the other
sages of antiquity. So striking was the similarity between
the sacred records of Israel and the system of Plato, espe
cially, that one of the old Fathers asks, " Who is Plato, but
Moses speaking Greek ?" Besides this, however, it is ob
vious that some portion of the Divine truth, which Avas
held by the patriarch Noah, must have descended from
him to all the nations of the earth ; and hence, it is mani
fest that Ave can readily account for the historical fact that
a certain amount of God's own teaching was still retained
amongst the awful corruptions of heathenism ; enough, like
the glimmering stars in the darkness of the night, to shed
some feeble radiance upon the eyes of the spectator, but
not enough to dispel the deep obscurity, or guide the tra
veller through the prevailing gloom.
But I must ask your attention to another and a later
period in the history of Europe, when even this classic
light, such as it was, was scattered by the irruption of the
barbarian hordes upon the old Roman empire. Look back,
then, I pray you, upon the condition of Germany, Austria,
France, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, England, and the rest.

S76 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
What wrere all of these, our OAvn ancestors, eighteen cen
turies ago ? What were most of them, even four centuries
later? Every reader of history knows that they were
heathen savages, but little superior to our OAvn native
Indian tribes, in religion, learning, or civilization. And
what has made them such as we now behold, but Christi
anity ? What but the labours and the miracles and the
heavenly teachings of those poor apostles of Galilee con
quered the corruption of Greece and Rome, and enlightened
the gross barbarism of the rest of Europe ? And was not
this wondrous work of human improvement a worthy
cause for the incarnation of the Son of God, when the
subtlety of Satan, and the insane folly of the human heart,
had wrapped mankind in the thickest clouds of idolatry,
cruelty, and licentiousness, and nothing could regenerate
them but light and poAver from Heaven ?
4. And this leads me to obserAre the fourth historical
proof which demonstrates the Divine origin of our holy
religion, namely, that the Bible alone has restored to
woman her true place of dignity and importance in the
social system of the world. Search the records of all the
nations; go abroad at J;his day through the territories of
the heathen and the Turk ; and everyAvhere you will find
that woman is debased to be either the drudge and slave,
or else the sensual plaything of the stronger sex; and
nowhere but among Christians can you see her in her true
position, as our counsellor, our companion, and our help
mate ; the teacher of our early years, the dearest comfort
of our home, the encourager and supporter of piety and
religion, and the strongest bond, as well as the brightest
ornament of society. Nothing short of a Divine power
could have wrought such a revolution in the domestic and
social feelings of our race ; and the infidel, when he seeks
to discredit it, not only destroys all hope of the future life,

H 0 P K 1 N S. 377
but digs the grave of the most precious blessings of this
present world, Avhich have survived the ruins of the fall.
5. I shall only add, as the fifth and last historical proof,
the unquestionable fact that the Bible has impressed its
stamp of purity and benevolence upon all the governments,
laws, institutions, and customs of the best and mightiest
nations of the world ; and that those are the greatest among
these nations, where its Divine authority is best main
tained, according to the rule laid down by the Almighty :
" Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is the reproach
of any people ;" " Those that honour me I will honour, and
those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." I mean
not to say that any government has yet appeared, which
has been wholly guided by Christian principle. Far from
it. The Saviour himself declared, " My kingdom is not of
this world." But I do mean to say, and I say it most con
fidently, that the Christian religion has modified and
restrained the evil, and stimulated the good, in the whole
history of our race, Avherever it has planted its standard.
It has moderated the fierceness of war. It has cherished
the arts of peace. It has sweetened the bondage of the
slave, Avhen it could not free him altogether. It has puri
fied literature, painting, and sculpture from their old
licentiousness. It has abolished the ancient severities of
the rack and the prison-house. It has diffused the blessings
of education. It has guarded the oath of office, and of
judicial testimony, by an appeal to the Searcher of Hearts.
It has elevated the whole moral sense of every civilized
community. And at this moment, in spite of all the
enmity of Satan, and the opposition of misguided and
insane men, the Bible is the great book of the ruling
nations of the Avorld, and all the good attempted or achieved
among them is connected, directly or indirectly, with its
controlling influence.
48

378 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
What now, I beseech you, has the unbeliever to allege,
against this mass of historical evidence ? First, he cavils
at the Avar Avhich the Almighty directed against the wicked
and idolatrous Canaanites; as if God did not know when it
was right to exterminate a race of most flagitious sinners,
and deliver them to the SAvord of justice. Yet the infidel
himself approves the principle which governs the earthly
judge, when he condemns the murderer to death, and
orders the sheriff to execute the sentence. Why then
does he deny the prerogative of the Lord, who is the judge
of all the earth, to condemn a most abandoned and
depraved people, and commission Israel to execute the
sentence, for the very purpose of impressing them Avith a
deeper sense of hatred for the sins which had thus incurred
the Divine displeasure? So far is this from being really
open to objection, that it is a strong example to mankind
of the principle which guides the government of God. In
the same way, the Almighty has always been directing the
scourge of war, pestilence, and famine. The infliction, in
every case, is doubtless a chastisement of sin, as it was in
the case of Canaan. And here, indeed, we might well ask,
what does the unbeliever gain by supposing that all the
calamities in the world are the result of chance or accident,
or, at most, of human ignorance or folly ? He does not
deny that there is a God who created all things, and thus
far he professes to agree with the Christian. But is it not
absurd to imagine that God abandons His work to itself, as
soon as He has made it, and thinks it no longer worthy of
His government and care ? Would the infidel praise the
wisdom of a man who should employ his utmost power
and skill in constructing piece -after piece of the most
exquisite machinery, and then cast them all away without
any further attention ? Hoav infinitely more just and
rational is the doctrine of Christianity, that all the events

II 0 P K I N S. 579
of this life are subject to the controlling Providence of the
Almighty; that judgment is appointed to the rebellious,
and mercy to the obedient, and that the whole complicated
system is regulated by His wisdom, so that ultimately all
things shall Avork together for good to those that love Him.
Next, however, I may briefly notice the trivial cavils of
the infidel against the miracles, which he sagely condemns
as contrary to experience, because they were only granted
on special occasions, connected Avith the early history of
Israel, and the first establishment of the Church. But
here again he talks absurdly, because it belongs to God's
wisdom, and not to ours, to determine the times and the
seasons when the state of mankind called for those extra
ordinary manifestations. The proof of miracles is written
on the face of history, as I have already shown ; and as it
is impossible to account for the facts of the Jewish narra
tive on any other hypothesis, without utterly subverting
all the rules of human evidence, and equally impossible to
account, without miracles, for the establishment of the
Church, Ave are compelled to admit them on the highest
reason. Certainly no man who allows the being of a God,
can deny that He may work miracles when He deems it
necessary. And it is equally plain, that as God is the only
competent judge of the necessity, it is our duty and privi
lege to praise the goodness Avhich employed them for the
vindication of His government, and the establishment of
His truth and mercy in the salvation of mankind.
The third objection of the infidel is usually directed
against the fact that Christianity, in the hands of the Pope
of Rome, was the cause of innumerable Avars, persecutions,
cruelty, and bloodshed, far surpassing the worst periods of
heathenism itself. But here, too, is a most unAvarranted
assumption. None of all this was the work of Christianity,
as Ave see it in the Bible ; but, on the contrary, it Avas the

£80 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
work of reckless ambition and human policy, in alliance
Avith superstition, avarice, and pride. And the Scriptures
themselves derive from those melancholy facts a neAV evi
dence of their Divine authority, because they predicted the
falling away of the Church from its original purity, and
the reign of an antichristian power, who, sitting in the
temple of God, should bring in a long period of corruption
and iniquity. Yet even through these ages of darkness
and despotism, the religion of the Bible was transmitted
down, from generation to generation, until at length it was
reinstated in the face of the world by the glorious Reforma
tion of the sixteenth century. And since that blessed
event, it is notorious that Christianity has exerted the best
and purest influence against all that is evil, and in favour
of all that is good and true.
Lastly, the infidel objects to the strifes and discussions
among Christians themselves, and points to the blots and
imperfections of their lives as decisive proofs of the insuf
ficiency of the Scriptures, and the uncertainty of their
teaching, so inconsistent with their claims to be a Revela
tion from Heaven. But in this he ignorantly mistakes the
true principles of judgment, by confounding the Word of
God with the infirmity of men. I grant that the strifes
and discussions of Christians are sad proofs of human Aveak-
ness. I grant that the inconsistencies of professing
believers are a mournful evidence of defective faith. But
what Christian Church was ever known to cast the blame
upon the Bible ? Or what Christian man ever denied that
the fault was in himself alone ? And what right has the
infidel to say that the Scriptures, in the authority of which
all Christians agree, are the source of the varieties in
which they differ ?
So far, however, are these defects from furnishing an
argument against the Christianity of the Bible, that they

11 0 P K I X S. 331
afford, in truth, a direct evidence to demonstrate its Divine
inspiration. For there we read that, notAvithstanding the
establishment of the system of God in ancient Israel, the
tendency to corruption produced a sad decline, so that their
idolatry and wickedness brought down upon them the
severest chastisements, and finally provoked the Almighty
to give them up to national ruin. We read, also, the dis
tinct prediction, that after the decease of the Apostles, men
would arise in the Church, speaking perverse things, to
dnuv away disciples after them ; that the time should come
when men would be proud, boastful, and rebellious, having
the form of godliness but denying the power thereof; that
by reason of this, the way of truth should be evil spoken
of; that there would be a general declension of the life of
faith, so that iniquity should abound, and the love of many
should grow cold ; that before the second coming of Christ
in judgment, it should be as it Avas in the days of Noah,
when the deluge descended and destroyed them. All this,
and much more, the Bible itself declares ; and hence, the
very divisions, strifes, and Avorldliness of Christians, which
are so absurdly insisted on as an argument against the
Scriptures, are in reality a perfect demonstration that they
could only have for their author that omniscient God who
seeth the end from the beginning.
The infidel, therefore, is inexcusable in the rejection of
that only Divine religion which brings life and immortality
to light, -through the precious Gospel of our Lord and
Saviour. The differences amongst Christians, however
deplorable, only prove the more forcibly the authority of
that Bible, in which they all agree. And the absurdity of
raising an objection to the truth of religion out of these
differences is palpably evident from this, that the caviller
takes good care never to folloAv the same course in anything
else. lie knoAvs, perfectly well, that there is truth in laAv,

382 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
although lawyers disagree ; that there is truth in medicine,
though doctors differ ; that there is truth in government,
though politicians quarrel ; that there is truth in morality,
though the Avorld is full of villany and selfishness. And
he understands, likewise, that on all those subjects the best
proof of truth lies in the A'ery fact, that there is a certain
amount of authority in Avhich all parties concur, and to
Avhich they all appeal, as so much common property. Why,
then, does he refuse to apply the same reasoning to the
Bible, when he knows that all Christians, without excep
tion, acknowledge it as a revelation from Heaven, and only
dispute because they do not folloAv the same principles of
interpretation ? If we should think that man a fool or a
lunatic, Avho rejects all law, all medicine, all government,
because laAvyers, doctors, and statesmen are seen perpetu
ally to disagree, what should be thought of him who rejects
the religion of the Bible, because Christians differ ?
I have no doubt, however, after the observation and
reflection of many years, that all the infidelity of our day
is mainly attributable to" the sin of wilful ignorance.
Indeed, I believe it impossible for any man to read the
Scriptures through, with a serious and candid mind, without
a firm persuasion that they contain what they profess — the
Word of God, which maketh wise unto salvation. And in
this lies the crime of infidelity, in the sight of Heaven,
that the Divine Record is rejected at second hand, without
a fair and full examination; that the cause is decided
Avithout an impartial hearing; that Moses and the Pro
phets, the Saviour and the Apostles, Martyrs and Con
fessors, the whole Church of Christ, and the mercy and
love of God Himself, are all condemned, without a fair
and honest trial ; and thus the poor infidel treats the only
hope of a dying world, and the salvation of his own soul,
with less attention and regard than he bestows upon the

H 0 P K I N S. 383
lightest matter of earthly property. 0, hoAV shall he
answer for this high contempt, when he stands before the
Judgment Seat ? How shall he justify the devotion of his
noblest faculties to every object of sensual appetite, and
sordid gain, and fleeting honour; while he disdained to
listen to the words of God, and scorned the offered inherit
ance of life eternal? May no such criminal scorn, my
beloved brethren, be charged on any soul amongst you !
May you all have grace to acquire that knoAvledge, and
secure that happiness, which the blessed Redeemer has
promised to bestow on ev-ery sincere seeker! Then you
will see, for yourselves, the majesty, the purity, and the
wisdom of the Gospel system. You will pity and wonder
at the blindness and prejudice of unbelief. You Avill
behold the demonstration of Divine truth in all the great
events of history. And you will experience, above all, the
poAver of that precious religion, which alone can take the
sting from death, and the victory from the grave, and give
you that peace which passeth understanding, Avhich the
Avorld can neither give nor take aAvay.

%\t Internal ftti&mii of <f jraslianiig

BY REV. GREGORY T. BEDELL,
RECTOE OF THE CHURCH OP THE ASCENSION, NEW YORK.

49

XV.
THE
INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
" If any man im'U do His will, he sliall lenow of the doctrine whet/ier it be of God" St. John vji. 17.
THE internal evidences of Christianity hold an important
place in the argument for its truth and Divinity. No
amount of external evidence could prove that our religion
came from God, if its system were inharmonious or incon
sistent with itself, if it were unworthy of the Divine cha
racter, or unsuited to the condition and destiny of man.
We therefore need its internal evidences to complete its
proof. As usually stated, this argument is not sufficient inde
pendently. The purity and excellence of religion, its
utility and benevolent tendency, or its perfect consistency
and systematic beauty, prove, only, that it is worthy of
God. Although we may infer that a scheme so Godlike
did originate in the Divine mind, still, the question of fact
must be determined, as are all similar questions, by suffi
cient external evidence. In this view, the internal evi
dences are chiefly valuable to the sincere inquirer or to the
practical Christian. (387)

£88 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF C II RIS T I AN I T A".
A conviction of the inherent excellence and benevolence
of our religion prepares a sincere inquirer to receive, and
predisposes him to believe other proofs of its Divine origin.
Whilst seriously examining them, he will lightly weigh
neither historic testimony, the evidence of miracles and
prophecy, the analogy of natural religion, nor the concur
rent facts of science ; feeling that his highest interests are
vitally staked upon the conclusion to which he shall arrive.
In the view of a practical Christian, the internal and
external evidences of Christianity exchange places; the
internal become primary and positive, the external, second
ary and supplemental. For his experience of religion is
Avorth more to him than the resolution of any number of
historical or scientific doubts, or the multiplication, to any
degree, of human witnesses and miraculous testimony. A
miracle has been wrought within himself by the power of
this religion — he has a Avitness within himself to the sub
stantive value of this religion — which fully suffice for his
self-conviction. Nor is this persuasion visionary. It is
perfectly rational. It is according to a natural process.
"We are conscious in our inmost souls that, since we have
embraced this heavenly religion and faithfully followed its
precepts, we have enjoyed peace and happiness, and pos
sessed strength for holiness unknown before." It follows
that it is the only means of promoting and securing tran
quillity of mind, spiritual power, and true happiness. From
such a conviction we pass, Avithout an interval and in
despite of theoretical difficulties, to the conclusion, that
Christ's religion is true and Divine. Such a result, in-
Avrought by our experience, is quite as satisfactory to our
selves as the mere intellectual result of reasoning upon
external evidences. If there be a choice, the practical
Christian is more sure of the Heavenly origin of his religion,
from what he has felt of its effects, than the most profound

BEDELL. 389
reasoner, who, from its external proof alone, has determined
it to be a speculative certainty.
Such is our Saviour's thought. And we have placed his
language prominently before you, not properly as our text,
but simply as His expression of the value of the internal
evidences of Christianity. Nor, although we do not intend
to develop this idea, can we omit to reiterate His instruction
to every seriously-minded inquirer. If any man Avill know,
AA'ith absolute certainty, whether this doctrine be of God,
let him do God's will. It is the test of experience. The
doctrine practised will approve itself.
Yet, to set forth this value of the argument to the sin
cere inquirer and the practical Christian, is not sufficient
for our present purpose. We shall not be satisfied unless
the internal evidences of Christianity present to every
intelligent and honest hearer an argument equally logical,
Avhether he be interested to believe or disbelieve the truth
of religion. We are not content that the internal evidences
should be deemed subordinate to the external, or that they
should lose their proper influence, even upon sceptical
minds. We hold them to be co-ordinate, and, at least,
equally convincing.
There is a mode, I think, in which this argument can
be stated, so as to elevate it to its rightful position : by
which it may be taken out of the category of secondary
and probable proofs, and placed among the primary and
positive. And, for the purpose of this argument, we shall
appeal only to your knowledge of what are professedly the
characteristic doctrines and intentions of Christianity ; and
what are your experiences of the characteristics of our hu
man nature. We shall not assert that the doctrines are
true, or the intentions sure to be realized, except so far as
general experience testifies to them ; but we shall only ask
credit for the fidelity of our statements of them.

390 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
From the fitness of things, we may ahvays argue their
purpose and design. The adaptation of the eye to light,
of the ear to sound, of the lungs to the chemical properties
of the atmosphere, prove a Divine purpose in constructing
one for the other. All the adaptations of the human frame
to the external Avorld, exhibit the hand of a wise and
benevolent Designer; and the conclusion is held to be
legitimate and true, that since the world and men are what
they are, the nice fitting of their physical relations could
have proceeded from no Being less than Divine. The force
of this argument turns upon the knowledge and skill
required for adapting tAvo distinct organizations to each
other ; and its power increases in proportion to the compli
cations of the organisms. Using the familiar illustration of
a master in this logic, the construction of a time-piece
requires skill, and proves the existence of its maker. But
how much more, Ave may add, if that time-piece be so
adapted to the changes of the atmosphere, as to alter its
own power Avith each alternation of heat and cold, mois
ture and dryness! And yet how much more positively
still, if that time-piece, not only changing with the fickle
atmosphere, also follows the variations of the sun, and,
through every moment of a year, exhibits not only the
apparent, but the real time! Such illustrations indicate
the line of thought, but are feeble representatives of the
wonderful adaptations of the human body to the universe
in which it abides.
The argument rapidly increases in value, as we ascend
from the merely physical to the mental, social, or spiritual
world ; and consider how marvellously, at each step, the
relations of the human being to that which is about him,
becomes intricate and complicated. Yet to all these con
ditions he is adapted. The foresight and wisdom which
made all these worlds, physical, intellectual social, and

BEDELL. 391
spiritual, and adapted man to live in them all, are not less
than Omniscience.
If now there be any force in such an argument, to prove
that man is the offspring of Divine skill, with still greater
force does it prove, that the Christian Religion is from the
authorship of God. For, supplementary to this creation
of man, after all his relations to this various world, physi
cal, intellectual, social, and spiritual, had been fixed ; after
the complications of his being and conditions had been
made what they are, the Christian Religion Avas formed for
him, and adapted to him and to them, so as to meet every
condition of his complex existence.
Observe the problem : There is given, a world of men ;
in nature, rational, sensual, affectionate, religious, mortal,
and immortal ; in social position, bound together by curi
ously interlacing ties of family, civil and general rela
tionships; in spiritual condition, fallen and depraved
beings, yet capable of indefinite moral improvement, and
consciously destined for present and eternal happiness.
There is required, a scheme of religion, holy, benevolent,
consistent Avith itself, Godlike, which shall answer every
condition of the question, supply every spiritual necessity
arising out of whatever relation, adapt itself to every
changing mood of human thought, to every varying phase
of human manners, to each variety of Providential state ;
and, when rightly applied, according to its own laws,
capable of satisfying every human being in the world.
Will any mind less than Divine undertake to contrive such
a religion ?
Let us observe the problem worked out : The adaptation
of Christianity to mankind. Man is a rational being.
Reason, combined with the power of perceiving the moral
quality of actions, constitutes the peculiar characteristic
of humanity. The Christian Religion, therefore, presents

392 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
itself to men as rational in all its statements, and as sub
mitting all its evidences to the test of reason. But Christi
anity is consistent with itself in not submitting all its truths
to the measure of human understanding. As revelation,
and not reason, is the source of its doctrines, it is perfectly
rational that some truths, being in accordance with the
Divine, should be superior to the human reason ; not, in
deed, contrary to it, but above its sphere. 'Christianity
represents the objects of religious faith as belonging to the
spiritual world ; they are, therefore, from the very nature
of the case, incomprehensible to man; and Christianity-
would be irrational did she demand of reason to go beyond
her sphere in attempting to comprehend them. She requires
a faith Avhich is rational, i. e., which is conformed to the laws
of our thinking nature ; and she submits all the grounds
of this faith to the judgment of enlightened human reason.
To have done more or less would have been to utter a dis
cord amongst the harmonies of man's reasoning soul; to
have done this is to have adapted herself completely to his
rational nature.
Man is a being of sensation, fitted to a world of sense.
There is no greater peculiarity of his nature, than the
impossibility of communicating with the external creation,
or reaching the sources of its pleasures, except by means
of his senses. These wonderful contrivances form that
" golden bowl" by which my soul drinks from the fountains
of delight, benevolently scattered among material things ;
and when this pitcher is broken at the fountain, even before
the silver cord is loosed, my soul is separated entirely from
this fair and beautiful creation. The Christian religion,
therefore, addresses itself to cultivate and purify the plea
sures of sense. It directs the soul in the choice of proper
objects for indulging her bodily sensations ; instructs her to
discriminate between the intended and perverted employ-

BEDELL. 393
ments ; teaches her their source ; and in all, advises her to
receive these gratifications with a worshipful spirit, as
boons from a benevolent Creator. So that the Christian
may find ever neAV delight, as he goes forth into the world
of sense. His eye never tires of seeing pictures of a
Heavenly Father's skill and beautiful mind. His ear
never Avearies in listening to the harmonies of Nature, or
in drinking in the good cheer of human voices, attuned to
heavenly thoughts, or the comforts and solaces afforded by
communing with kindred spirits, in a friendship consecrated
by the love of Christ ; and every pleasant touch of a material
thing thrills through his soul as the touch of a benevo
lent Deity. If the Christian religion had neglected these
relations of man to a world of sense ; if it had omitted to
educate, elevate, and purify the pleasures of sensation, it
would have proved inadequate to its purpose. To have
dealt so wisely with man in this relation, is to have adapted
itself most perfectly to the least religious portion of his
nature. Man is an affectionate being. His capacity for enjoying
society, or appreciating religion, and his happiness in either,
depend upon the exercise of his affections. Isolate him,
where neither confidence, love, fear, reverence, nor hope,
towards God or man, may move within his breast, and his
heart becomes cold, unsympathetic, and incapable of expe
riencing the graces of Christianity ; and his life passes on
through a cheerless waste, weighed doAvn by a miserable
burden. Christianity, therefore, spends her strength in
educating the human affections. Her chief application is,
not to the mind, but to the heart ; and her most perfect
development is, not where the intellect most clearly
perceives the systematic value of truth, but where the
heart is most thoroughly consecrated, in humble, loving
sympathy and obedience, to the truth. She strives to
50

C94 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF C H RIS T I AN I T Ar.
create, not the clear, crisp, frosty air of speculative belief —
although by means of it the soul might see more distinctly
the proportions of religion — but she throws around the
newly living creature the soft, warm, glowing atmosphere
of affectionate faith; in which the soul may feel all its
liveliest emotions, and holiest impulses, and deepest sym
pathies, drawn out toAvards a Being of infinite benevolence.
Her first lesson to the infant is a lesson of love. The
mother, who for a time is her offspring's only deity, by
fostering care elicits the instinct of affection. Her gentle
teaching gradually lifts the tender emotions to a higher
source of good. She thus substitutes her God for herself
in the heart of her child, and educates the instinct into a
reverential love for its Heavenly Parent. Throughout life,
Christianity is thus engaged in transferring the affections
to their nobler objects. She does not interfere with their
natural direction, but purifies and spiritualizes it. The
confidence of man in men, in its highest exercise, becomes
the faith of man in God. The fear and hope Avhich impel
man through the strifes of life, become the higher motives
of his religious endurance. And the last lesson of Christi
anity to her aged friend, as he totters on the edge of unsa
tisfied, and treads upon the verge of satisfying hopes, is,
that since his affections have outlasted their earthly objects,
and yet have been educated to an undying strength, they
must find in an eternal world an everlasting resting-place
and reciprocation. And so a lifetime of faith, and fear, and
hope, and love, which through earthly shadoAvs has grasped
heavenly substance, well introduces the child of God into
immortal happiness. If Christianity had ignored the
affectionate nature of man, or left it to grovel amidst
unworthy objects, she would have failed to answer her high
purpose. But having devoted herself to developing the
affections, and leading them to their noblest objects, she

BEDELL. 395
has completely adapted herself to this distinguished quality
of man.
Man is a religious being. Every man must find a God,
or make one. He craves some object of reverence, devo
tion, and trust, beyond his imperfect and impotent self.
The Christian religion, therefore, meets this necessity. Need
I say how nobly ? Whatever Deity a human soul pants for,
Christianity exhibits in our God. If it be Reason, He is
the highest. If it be Power, He is the mightiest. If it be
pure Intellect, He is the unembodied Spirit. If it be Will,
His is irresistible. If it be Providence, He is the Sovereign
Disposer of all. If it be absolute Benevolence, He is Love.
This God Christianity presents in every attractive cha
racter, suited to the qualities of our nature. He is incom
prehensible, therefore reason may reA'erence and adore.
He is unchangeable, and therefore faith may repose herself
at His feet in absolute security. He is sympathizing, and
therefore imperfection may confidently approach His ear
with her tale of Avoe. He is affectionate, and therefore the
human heart may hopefully ply its arguments learned in
the school of earthly emotions. He has once condescended
to become incarnate, and therefore even the human body
can insure itself of finding a friend in God. The Avorship
and service inculcated by Christianity, in the highest degree,
educates and calls into exercise the powers of our nature.
Every faculty, sentiment, moral quality, or even bodily
habit, is demanded for consecration to Jehovah, and each
finds its greatest happiness when devoted to Him. And
that which men seek from religion, peacefulness, a quiet
conscience, sober enjoyment of life, and a tranquil hope of
immortality, all are given by Christianity. If this religion
had failed to suit itself to any one attribute of our being,
or in the effort had failed to present an adequate idea of
God it would have proved insufficient for its task. To

396 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
have presented a perfectly satisfying portion to the soul, is
to have adapted itself completely to the religious nature
of man.
Man is mortal. A brief term of years sums up his
earthly history; but it would be inconsistent Avith the
Divine benevolence, to suppose this creature placed in a
life hoAvever brief, with capacities for rational pleasure,
without the means of finding it. Our mortal nature cries
out against any view of the Divine plan which renders this
world merely an abode of sorrow and disappointment.
The Divine system of the present existence is indeed to
" make perfect through suffering ;" yet He appoints that
even grief shall have its solaces, affliction its comfort, and
sorrows their antitheses of joy. Amidst all the woes of
mortality, there is happiness enough, if only men could
find it. The Christian religion, therefore, devotes no small
portion of her precepts to teaching hoAV to extract the
sweets out of the bitter cups of life, — indeed how to turn
even the base metal of earthly unhappiness into the pure
gold of true spiritual enjoyment. She instructs us how to
deal with misfortune so as to make it a friend ; how to
find SAveet uses even in adversity ; hoAV to reap contentment
out of a seed-time of trial and grief. But more than this,
she teaches us the surest methods of avoiding earthly
trouble, by practising honesty, integrity, sobriety, patience,
forethought, forbearance, and gentleness ; and she affords
the highest solace in misfortune, by a self-sustaining con
sciousness of right. All the pure joys of wisdom, know
ledge, and friendship, she accepts. None can appreciate
them more highly than she, because of her ever calm,
intelligent, and cheerful spirit. And when at last she
addresses herself to her departure, it is not, dissatisfied
with the portion of good already vouchsafed, but hoping
for a more unmingled portion hereafter. If Christianity

BEDELL. 397
had neglected to provide for the present life, if she had not
given men a chart of the shoals, and the rocks, and the
varying winds of this existence, and taught them how to
sail, so as to escape the most stormy seas, and make the
least unquiet voyage over the waves of this troublesome
world, she would have proved greatly deficient as a guide
to those AA'ho are to live here through the experiences of
three score years and ten. To have provided for the Avants
of mortality, is to have adapted herself most wisely to the
least happy aspect of our human condition.
Man is immortal. Every aspiration of our living soul
demands it; every conclusion of our reasonable spirit
testifies it. Thought cannot die. The power of will, the
ability of compelling what is external to administer to a
conscious self Avithin, the capacity of affection, the high
faculty of discriminating between right and wrong, and
that soul, of which all these are functions, cannot die.
The seal of immortality is stamped indelibly upon our con
sciousness. The Christian religion therefore explicitly re
veals an eternal life, in terms so pure and elevating,
attractive and satisfying, that the human soul, in its least
spiritual frame, leaps to attain it. But our soul enjoys a
foretaste of happiness in this life, only in connexion with
a body ; nor have we the least experience of a disembodied
condition, nor the least ground in reasoning from expe
rience, to anticipate any perfect bliss Avithout a body. We
know nothing, and can imagine nothing concerning a purely
spiritual world. Our nature is not formed to live Avithout
some communication with material things ; but we cannot
hold intercourse with external nature apart from the body.
And therefore our prognostications of eternal life, based
upon experience, all picture an immortal being, compounded
of soul and body. The Christian religion gives substance
and shape to this natural idea ; she reveals a resurrection

398 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
and promises immortality to the whole manhood. If she
spake only of a spiritual life eternal, our souls might be
satisfied, but our humanity could not rest in hope. But
since in her representation of everlasting life she combines
the hope of resurrection with the prospect of immortality;
she adapts herself marvellously to our perception of that
eternal life, which human nature demands.
This adaptation of Christianity to mankind is equally
striking as respects our social position. We are eminently
formed for society. Creation was not perfect until a social
compact had been completed ; nor is it possible to develop
our nature in isolation. They are natural laws, not reli
gious, by which men are placed in families, and families
formed into tribes and nations. But no religion could be
intended for man, or exhibit the hand of his Creator, which
did not recognise these relations, and provide for the faith
ful discharge of the duties arising therefrom. And there
fore Christianity sets this social seal as a witness to her
truth. She devotes herself to establishing principles, and
developing them in precepts belonging to social life. The
highest possible sanction is given to the principle by exhi
biting it in the eternal existence of God. She teaches that
Jehovah never lived in" the desolate solitude of One Per
son, but that, from eternity, God existed as Three Persons
in a perfect Unity. And the absolute harmony, the com
plete oneness, the unutterable bliss of that Divine Triunity
is the model and argument for human fellowship. In hea
ven, as upon earth, solitude is unfit for a living soul. And
that is but a caricature of a religion from God, which
teaches that a creature, made in His image, can find either
purity, perfection, or spiritual happiness in seclusion and
separation from his kind. Christianity, modelling her pre
cepts upon what is seen in the perfect social state of heaven,
so arranges her instructions that every lesson tends to make

BEDELL. 399
the individual a good member of society. She paints in
fair colours the happiness of family life. She blesses the
marriage-bond. She takes under her guidance and protec
tion every interest of the household as it arises. For every
relation she inculcates specific duties ; for every violation
she has a penalty, and for every obedience a natural re
ward. And she at least permits us to anticipate that
social affections, matured according to her laws, shall be
immortal. With similar solicitude, Christianity has framed
precepts and announced their sanctions for every relation,
whether of the state, the Christian fellowship, or the gene
ral brotherhood of mankind. Every office has her holy-
sanction ; every officer her authority ; every performance
of duty, whether command or obedience, equally her ap
proval ; and every act of kindness, charity, or benevolence,
her meed of commendation. So that, if families would
live, and governors rule, and citizens obey, by her advice,
peace, and good-will, and the utmost happiness of which
human society is capable would be the possession, as it is
the heritage of man.
If Christianity had failed to see this aptitude of man for
social enjoyment, or to appease his craving for society ; if
she had omitted to give it sanction, or neglected to provide
for its right development, she Avould have proved unequal
to her claim, as sent from God. But since she has entirely-
met the case, even to deriving its holiest possible authority
from the eternal communion of Three Divine Persons in
one ever blessed Godhead; and even to descending into
minute directions for every reciprocal duty, she has shown
an adaptation to mankind inexplicable, unless her Author
be Jehovah.
We may hasten on towards our conclusion ; for the argu
ment is rapidly developing. And we need spend but few

400 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
moments in illustrating the familiar facts of the adaptation
of Christianity to our present spiritual condition.
Man is a fallen being. His present condition, superin
duced by sin, is distinguished by depravity. The chief
feature of this depravity — at least that one which must be
universally recognised — is powerlessness for good. Every
one is conscious of a capacity for moral improvement ; but
equally conscious of such an entire umvillingness to under
take it as amounts to moral inability. The spiritual defi
ciency of. our fallen nature is, therefore, not so much an
insufficient religious sense as an insufficient power of follow
ing out religious impressions and aspirations. Whose con
scious heart does not lament this insufficiency ? Now this
needed spiritual power, Christianity undertakes to give.
By revealing the offices of the Holy Ghost, she exhibits a
sufficient source for it. Its supply requires nothing less
than a re-creation of the soul ; and therefore she attributes
it to a Divine agent. Through the influences of this Holy
Spirit she entirely eradicates a birth-right depravity,
implants new holy dispositions, removes the evil bias of
affections, and directs them all towards God. The spiritual
nature of a converted man is thus renewed, and his noAV
indwelling and imvorkirig spiritual power is sufficient for
all duties. The Huly Ghost continues such a soul in this
possession of adequate power, until, by progressive steps,
under the discipline of trial, it becomes sanctified and meet
for heaven. But depravity necessarily becomes the parent
of sin ; and therefore, both natural depravity and actual
transgression separate man from God. A sinner, either by
nature or practice, cannot be complacently or favourably
regarded by a perfect Being. Consequently, the relation
of fallen man as a sinner to God cries out for a remedy.
And every man's conscience whom I address to-night echoes
that- cry. Need I tell you hoAV Christianity meets this

BEDELL. 401
call ? how the mighty energy of Heavenly love has wrought
out a sufficient salvation? The atonement of a Divine
PersOn, offered in the nature which had sinned, has been
accepted by the Triune Jehovah, as satisfactorily vindicat
ing His justice and truth ; and therefore has become the
ground of a universal proclamation of mercy. The holy
obedience of the same Divine Person in human nature,
submitting to the law to which He was in no respect sub
ject, has been accepted by the Triune Jehovah as a satis
factory righteousness, both in essential character and,
considering the dignity of the obedient Person, infinitely
more valuable than could be rendered by all men, even in
their most advanced fallen condition ; and therefore it has
become the ground of a universal offer of justification.
This justification is not the actual rendering a sinner righ
teous, Avhich could never be, except on the ground of his
personal obedience ; but it is a gracious act of God, account
ing him righteous, or treating him as if he had been righ
teous, which may reasonably be done, as well for the sake
of another as for his own sake. But this proclamation of
pardon and justification leaves men wholly to their proper
freedom of choice. The believer chooses to avail himself
of the mercy. The unbeliever chooses to refuse. After
this choice of Christ, which is an act of the highest
reason as well as of the humblest faith, the believer enters
upon the discharge of all his relations with new and in
tensely powerful motives, because he is the adopted child
of God. The profit of his godliness, in this life, and the
consequences of his faithfulness in the next, are all his
OAvn. Whilst, on the other hand, the unbeliever, left to his
voluntary moral inability, suffers all the practical evils
attending irreligion in the present, and anticipates the tre
mendous weight of misery Avhich must follow persevering
sin in an eternal existence.
51

402 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF C HRISTIANITY.
The only distinguishable note of objection to the harmony
of this scheme will not escape the ear of a sceptic, yet Ave
think it a wonderful commentary on the truth of our argu
ment. A fallen man is free to choose, and yet he will not
choose aright, unless the Holy Spirit give him poAver. It is
true. The facts are so ; on both sides, testified by expe
rience. And therefore Christianity meets them in her
remedy. If she had been a human invention, she would
have attempted to alter the nature of her man, or the
character of her God, so as to , have prevented the least
appearance of jarring in her scheme. But now Christianity,
made by God for man, approaches and deals with man as
he is. She finds him a free agent, and she leaves him so.
She finds him morally impotent, and she gives him spiritual
power. Without attempting to reconcile, she addresses
herself simply to the facts of the case ; and it is a con
vincing proof of her Divine original. If now, in any one
of these particulars, Christianity had been inadequate, she
had not been the offspring of God. But since, by her
provided plan of salvation, she has adapted herself equally
to all the attributes of God, and to all the spiritual neces
sities and natural peculiarities of fallen man, it cannot be
that her Maker is less tnan Divine.
This Christianity was not created for a class, or a nation,
or a time. She might have been divinely sent, though not
adapted for all mankind ; but how much more evident is
her divinity, when there lives not a human creature on
this broad earth for whom she has not a mission of heavenly
love, and to whom she does not bring a boon of heavenly
enjoyment ! She was created for every class. With equal
freedom, her steps bend toward either extreme of social
position ; and although she dwells more constantly Avith the
humble in rank, it is only because of their meekness and
lowliness of heart. She scorns the proud, and depresses

BEDELL. 403
all arrogance and presumption, whilst she elevates the
truly good to the highest walks of the Divine life. If
Socialism is to find a rational type, Christianity must
present it ; for there is no other system which can produce
an actual equality of character amidst necessary inequality
of condition, and harmonize the two. All orders of society
may be blest alike. All honest professions and business
may alike claim her guidance and protection ; and in every
case she advances the best interests of men.
She was created for every nation. Her language is a
universal tongue. Her heart bears universal charity ; open
ing itself with equal warmth to every people. She was
created for every time. Her religion never grows anti
quated ; neither improves by age, nor deteriorates by use ;
and knows no shadow of change. But amongst all gene
rations, showing the same foundation rock implanted deep
as the throne of God, and opening the same safe refuge
built by the unchanging hand of God, is the perpetual
security and hope of all believers. She was created for
every circumstance. Her sympathies Aoav out with equal
readiness to the sorrows or the joys of men ; and although
she lingers longest within, and oftenest frequents the house
of mourning, it is not because unsuited to the merry-
hearted, but because most sought and prized by those who
most need her consolations. And what is most remarkable,
at every time, in every nation, through all conditions of
life, a perfect reception of Christianity produces perfect
oneness of character. Everywhere the true Christian bears
a likeness to Christ Jesus. Nor is it less remarkable that
this similarity in type, is consistent with the utmost di
versity in natural characteristics. A religion of human
origin would demand in its votaries sameness. The religion
of God produces unity. A Christian man loses nothing of
his individuality, but superadds an identity of God-likeness.

404 INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
To have attempted the impossible task of so changing
human character and constitution, as to make all men look,
or think, or speak, or act alike, would have been to falsify
the claims of Christianity to a Divine original. To have
accomplished the labour of producing essential spiritual
unity amidst equally essential natural diversity, is to have
adapted itself to the varying characters and circumstances
of men, and to have vindicated in the fullest extent its
claim to be Divinely created.
Thus, then, the problem is worked out. Here is a world
of men, naturally — rational, sensual, affectionate, religious,
mortal, and immortal ; socially — bound by curiously inter
lacing ties of family, civil, and general relations ; spiritually —
fallen and depraved, yet capable of indefinite moral im
provement, and consciously destined for present and eternal
happiness. And here is a religion, holy, benevolent, con
sistent with itself, God-like, adapted to every natural pe
culiarity and providential circumstance, raising the fallen,
restoring the lost, and giving temporal and everlasting
felicity to every conscientious believer.
The present argument is not, that a religious system so
harmonious, beneficent, and pure, could not be the offspring
of human wit, but, that no being, except the Maker of man,
could so precisely adapt a religion to man. The force of
the argument lies in the adaptation, and increases in poAver
just in proportion as you multiply — and you may multiply
indefinitely — the points upon which the agreement must be
founded. Whoever was the maker of mankind was the
maker of Christianity. Indeed, you can much more easily
believe that this human being spontaneously greAV out of
the elements of a physical world with which he is entirely
kindred, than that this creature, having been found by
chance, created for himself such a religion out of the ele
ments of a spiritual world, with which he was entirely

BEDELL. 405
uncongenial. It was a Divine work to form dust into this
marvellous human body, and to breathe into it a breath
of His own eternal life. It was a Divine work to produce
unity of being out of complexity of faculties, affections,
dispositions, and relations. It was a Divine work to per
fect such a being, even in the midst of all the favouring
circumstances of a perfect Paradise. But when that being
stood outside the gates of Eden, his nature all disordered,
the image of God in his soul fractured and destroyed, a
fallen, ruined, cursed man, in the midst of a creation cursed,
a candidate for earthly sorrow, and an heir of immortal
woe ; to contrive a religion which, adapting itself entirely
to his nature and the disaster, should restore spiritual har
mony, revive the likeness to God, renew the heart, forgive
the sin, remove the worst features of the curse, and make
more than amends by an eternity of bliss ; Avhich should
reach the case of every man, under all circumstances, in
every nation, and in all time ; which should produce the
same essentially peaceful and holy results in the hearts
and lives of all who embrace it ; and yet should not force
any man out of his sphere, or alter the natural characteris
tics which give identity to each ; — to adapt such a Christi
anity to lost mankind is no other than the work of God.
If it be a proof of heavenly skill to adapt this human
being to the world in which it dwells, much more is it a
proof of heavenly skill to adapt a perfectly satisfactory
religion to the spiritual nature and the actual condition of
such a being in such a world. And if adaptation prove
design, and the accomplishment of such a design prove the
presence of an infinitely perfect Designer, then is it proved
that Christianity is from God.

Extract from Bishop Potter's Address to the Diocese of Penn
sylvania, May, 1854.
In conjunction with the Secretary of the Convention and
the President of the Standing Committee, I took measures,
last autumn, to procure a course of Sunday evening Lec
tures on the Evidences of Religion to be delivered in the
churches of Philadelphia during the winter months.
Bishops and Presbyters were invited from different parts
of the country to take part in it ; and the Discourses, marked
by great, and, in several instances, by pre-eminent ability,
were directed more especially to relieve the difficulties of
thoughtful young men whose minds, to an extent much to
be deplored, are in danger of being infected with a specious
but hollow scepticism which shelters itself under the abused
names of Science and Philosophy. The result of this
experiment has been, to exalt the estimation in which our
clergy are held for learning and mental power, and to
demonstrate how utterly disproportioned are the arrogant
pretensions of speculative unbelief to its actual resources.
In a published form these Lectures are likely to prove a
permanent and valuable contribution to a branch of Theo
logical Literature which must be revised from time to time,
if we would adapt our Apologies for Revealed Religion to
the actual, and, in some instances, most urgent, wants of
the minds with which we deal. For a Church to decline
(407)

408 EXTRACT FROM BISHOP POTTER'S ADDRESS.
considering the plausible objections which, in an age of such
prodigious intellectual activity as this, inevitably and con
tinually spring up under the pretended auspices of Physi
cal Science and Metaphysical Philosophy, is tacitly but
virtually to confess her incompetence for no small part of
her appointed work. No such Church can hope to exert a
commanding influence over the culture of our age or land ;
and its hold even upon the active energies of the people
runs the constant hazard of being weakened or destroyed
by the suspicion of incapacity. A Church which ceases to
teach, and one which does not strive to raise a portion of
its teaching to a level with the very highest intelligence
around it, is not following in the footsteps of the Apostolic
College, nor in those of that early and, in human sense,
defenceless church which went in three centuries from the
humble spot where all the disciples were "with one accord
in one place" to a more than regal sway over the heart of
the world. We owe much to the Rev. Dr. Stevens for the
enlightened suggestions and the vigilant and laborious super
vision which he gave to this enterprise.

THE END.

E. B. MEARS, STEREOTYPER. C. SHERMAN, PRINTER,

PHILADELPHIA-.
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Fleming & Tibbins' French Dictionary, Abridged.
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Donnegan's Greek Lexicon.
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Walker's Pronouncing- Dictionary.
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1
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Coleman's Historical Geography of the Bible.
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Philosophie Proverbiale :
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Church's French Spoken.
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Dixon & Kerr's Ornamental and Domestic Poultry.
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and Mrs. Neal, engraved in London in the first style of art; and two
splendid Illuminations by Devereux, all from original drawings. Ele
gantly bound in Turkey morocco, panelled sides, $6.75 ; muslin, gilt
and gilt edges, $5.62. 1 vol. imperial 8vo.

Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.
Duodecimo. Proverbial Philosophy; a Book of Thoughts and Arguments
originally treated. By Martin Farquhar Tupper, D. C. L., F. R. S.
Revised and authorized edition, splendidly illustrated with twelve
Engravings. To which is added, An Essay on the Philosophy of
Proverbs. By James Orton, Esq. 1 vol. 12mo. Bound in Turkey
morocco, gilt, $2.62; muslfb, gilt and gilt sides, $2.00.

Tupper's Poetical Works.
Tupper's Poetical Works — authorized edition. Ballads for the Times, A
Thousand Lines, Hactenus, Geraldine, and other Poems. By Martiv
Farquhar Tupper, D. C. L., F. R. S. To which is added a Biogm
phical Sketch of the Author, by William Anderson, Esq., author o1
¦' Landscape Lyrics." Illustrated with elegant Engravings. 1 vol
12mo. • Bound in Turkey Morocco, gilt and gilt edges, $2.62 ; muslii
gilt and e-ilt edges. $2.00. IB

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