that the apparent reality of this world is _māyā_, i.e., deceit,
illusion, jugglery: "naught besides _the One_ exists:" the world was
made out of nothing and is nothing. "All that is real in this visible,
is the God who is invisible." See Ballantyne's "Christianity compared
with Hindu Philosophy," pp. xxxi-xxxvii, 43-50.
[30] It is the examination of these moral and spiritual faculties which
makes it so probable that man possesses something more than a highly
organised body and mental powers, which, though superior in degree, are
still of the same kind as those possessed by the animals. And it should
be remembered that the proof that man possesses a soul, and that the
soul is immortal, is entirely independent of revelation. It is based
upon the intelligent study of the facts of psychology. If, however, it
is said that man does not really possess, but only seems to possess
these faculties, I answer that then nature is a mere deceiver, and its
works a sham: and that, consequently, all physical science would be the
study of the illusive.
[31] Though we draw a distinction between the natural and the
supernatural, this distinction is tenable only when we look at things
from below, and not when we look at them from above. We call those
processes natural of which we know or might know the secondary causes.
[32] It is no argument against revelation that it does not make us all
holy and devout. It is not the law of this present state of things that
all men attain to the highest possible physical and mental excellence.
All that we can say is, that they ought to aim at nothing less. So
neither do all men attain to moral and religious excellence. Equally it
ought to be their aim; but why they so often fail in attaining to it is
more than any one can answer. The failure of individuals to attain to
the highest good possible for the species is one of nature's universal
laws. Why this present state of things is so constituted is a mystery,
which cannot be solved here; but which will certainly be solved when we
have the perfect knowledge promised us in 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
[33] Professor Huxley considers that man is a bungle. At all events he
would be glad to be "turned into a sort of clock, and wound up every
morning before he got out of bed," on condition that he should always
"think what is true, and do what is right." (Lay Sermons, p. 373.) I
suppose this means that we should like to be governed by very perfect
instincts, but I question whether he would not find his new kind of
life dull. At present both right thinking and right doing require of
him an effort, which, from the spirit of his writings, I should think
he enjoys. But, after all, what he says has a true foundation. Sin
is not a necessary part of man's lot. It cleaves to him because he
is fallen; and this world apparently offers us a state of moral and
religious discipline, by the aid of which, in a future state, we shall
be free from sin. But those who do not wish to retrograde would prefer
to have this freedom by the force of perfected habits than by the force
of instinct.
[34] "Essays and Reviews" (Baden Powell), p. 133. The italics are mine,
simply to call attention to the point of the quotation.
[35] De Gen. An. II. iii. 10. See article by Sir Alexander Grant in the
_Contemporary_, May, 1871, p. 277.
[36] Since writing the above, I have lighted on the following passage
in an able university sermon by one of the lecturers in the present
course. I am glad to confirm what had struck my own mind, by quoting
the words of so careful a reasoner. In reference to philosophic doubts
directed against the idea of design, and the analogy between human
and natural productions, he remarks: "This is evidently a very hard
question, and if it properly belonged to the province of physical
inquiry I should shrink from hazarding any investigation of its merits.
But the question has overstepped the boundary of such sciences, and
become a branch of philosophy. I may seem obscure in making this
assertion, but you will see its truth if you consider for a moment the
limit which divides science from philosophy. Sciences are often content
to accept their principles, the lower from the higher (as Aristotle
puts the case) in an ascending scale up to metaphysic, which, if it is
anything at all, is the philosophy of first grounds so far as they are
discoverable. While the various kinds of inquiry assume their several
grounds as postulates, each keeps its separate and subordinate place.
But one prime impulse of the human mind is unification, and thus, in
every science, there springs up a tendency to ground itself. The moment
this attempt is made, a science becomes a philosophy, and must be
tested by the ordinary criteria of philosophic procedure."--_Right and
Wrong_, by the Rev. W. Jackson, M.A.
[37] _Westminster Review_, Oct., 1860. Art. on New Christianity.
[38] Mill's "System of Logic," ii., 160.
[39] "The argument in Hume's celebrated Essay on Miracles was very far
from being a new one. It had, as Mr. Coleridge has pointed out, been
distinctly indicated by South in his sermon on the incredulity of St.
Thomas; and there is a remarkable statement of much the same argument
put into the mouth of Woolston's Advocate, in Sherlock's Trial of the
Witnesses."--Art. on Miracles in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible."
[40] See Martensen's "Christian Dogmatics," 222.
[41] I must here refer to Dorner's "Doctrine of the Person of Christ,"
where evidence is afforded of what I say.
[42] See again Martensen's "Christian Dogmatics," 220.
[43] I would also mention "The Divine Origin of Christianity," by John
Sheppard. A work less known than it deserves to be.
[44] Wagenseil's Confutation of the Toldoth Jeschu: Sheppard's "Divine
Origin of Christianity," ii. 205, _et seq._
[45] Lessons on Christian Evidence, 33.
[46] Celsus in Orig., L. i., § 28.
[47] Hieron, T. ii. 334.
[48] Cyril contra Jul., L. vi., p. 191. See, respecting these and
similar passages, Lardner's Credibility, vii. 225, 442, 627.
[49] "Essays and Reviews" (Baden Powell), 107.
[50] That Rénan should treat the Resurrection of Lazarus as a pious
fraud, and the one moral blot in the story of Christ, is the greatest
literary, as well as moral, blot in his "Vie de Jésus." See Hutton's
Essays, i., 297.
[51] See Art. on Miracles in Smith's Dic.
[52] Niebuhr's "Lebensnachrichten," quoted in Luthardt's "Apologetic
Lectures," 200.
[53] Mozley's "Lectures on Miracles," 120.
[54] "Lectures on Miracles," 5.
[55] Coleridge's "Friend," iii., 104-6.
[56] Dr. Vaughan's "Christ the Light of the World," 172.
[57] Ad. Gen. 1. i. c. 42, _et seq._
[58] Inst. L. iv. c. 25.
[59] Dorner, in his _Person of Christ_ (Clark's Trans.), ii. 254,
dwells upon this subject as unfolded by Athanasius. See also
Athanasius' third discourse against the Arians, § 32.
[60] In Johan. Evan. Tract, 16, 24, 49.
[61] See Brachet's "Dictionnaire Etymologique," sub voc: _Developper_.
[62] "Essay on Development," page 35.
[63] I will here quote the words of a great man, who has for many years
been one of the chief scientific ornaments of this country, and whose
departure from this life, at the ripe age of seventy-nine years, I see,
with much sorrow, recorded in the _Times_ of this day.
Speaking of the manner in which the universe has come into its present
condition, and is preserved in that condition, and of the possibility
of collision amongst the constituent bodies, Sir John Herschel says:
"Ages, which to us may well appear indefinite, may easily be conceived
to pass without a single instance of collision, in the nature of a
catastrophe. Such may have gradually become rarer as the system has
emerged from what must be considered as its chaotic state, till at
length, in the fulness of time, and under the pre-arranging guidance
of that DESIGN which pervades universal nature, each individual may
have taken up such a course as to annul the possibility of further
destructive interference."--_Outlines of Astronomy_, p. 600.
I quote these words for the sake of the phrase which they contain,
and the importance of which it is impossible to exaggerate, "The
pre-arranging guidance of that DESIGN which pervades universal nature."
[64] "Le Genie du Christianisme," Bk. iv., chap. v.
[65] "Descent of Man," p. 208.
[66] Report of Evidence, 1870:--
Q. 376. I thought you said Bishop Butler had been excluded?--It is
not excluded, but being an optional subject it is one that has been
discouraged.
Q. 377. Why?--He is gone out of fashion; I do not know why.
Q. 378. Who makes the fashion?--I suppose the particular set of
examiners at one time.
Q. 379. What are the works of Bishop Butler which have so gone out of
fashion?--The Analogy and the Sermons were the books which we used to
take up.
[67] The subject of this Lecture is touched upon, but not expanded,
in the following pregnant passage of Butler's _Analogy_: "The thing
objected against this scheme of the Gospel is, that it seems to suppose
God was reduced to the necessity of a long series of intricate means
in order to accomplish His ends, the recovery and salvation of the
world: in like sort as men, for want of understanding or power, not
being able to come to their ends readily, are forced to go roundabout
ways, and make use of many perplexed contrivances to arrive at them.
Now, everything which we see shows the folly of this, considered as
an objection against the truth of Christianity. For, according to our
manner of conception, God makes use of a variety of means, what we
often think tedious ones, in the natural course of providence, for the
accomplishment of all His ends. Indeed, it is certain there is somewhat
in this matter quite beyond our comprehension: but the mystery is as
great in nature as in Christianity."--_Analogy_, Part II., chap. iv.
[68] Philos. of Univ. Hist. i. p. 191.
[69] Manuel d'Histoire, tom. ii. p. 16.
[70] Zeitschrift f. Œgypt. Sp. Nov. 1868.
[71] Colenso. "The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua."
[72] Gen. xlvi. 27; compare Ex. i. 5.
[73] Gen. xlvi. 7.
[74] Gen. xlvi. 5. The word _taph_ (טף) here, translated "little ones"
means "households." The Septuagint translate it by οἰκία [Greek: oikia]
or συγγένεια [Greek: sungeneia].
[75] Payne Smith, "Bampton Lectures." p. 89.
[76] History of Old Covenant, vol. ii. p. 149. E. T.
[77] Ex. xii. 40, 41.
[78] Essay on Population, vol. i. p. 8; Encycl. Brit. vol. xviii. p.
340.
[79] It was on the 5th of January, 1771, the _day_ appointed by the
high priests, that Oubacha began his march, _with seventy thousand
families_. Most of the hordes were then assembled in the steppes,
on the left bank of the Volga, and _the whole multitude followed
him_."--Hommaire de Hell, Travels, p. 227, E. T.
[80] Num. xxxi. 32, 33.
[81] F. Newman's "Hebrew Monarchy," pp. 160, 161.
[82] "Dictionary of the Bible," ad voc. SHISHAK.
[83] "Geographische Inschriften," vol. ii., p. 32, _et seq._
[84] 2 Kings xv. 19.
[85] 2 Kings xxiii. 29; Ezra vi. 22.
[86] Isaiah xx. 1.
[87] 2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 7, 11.
[88] Von Lengerke, "Das Buch Daniel; Einleitung," § 13; p. lxiii.
"De Wette, Einleitung in d. Abte Testament," p. 225, a; Davison,
"Introduction to the Old Testament," vol. iii. pp. 174-192.
[89] 2 Kings xxv. 23.
[90] Dan. iii. 2. אתשדרפניא translated in our version, "princes," but
really the Hebrew equivalent of the Persian _khshatrapa_, "satraps."
[91] Dan. v. 31.
[92] Dan. ix. 1.
[93] See Pusey's "Lectures on Daniel," pp. 124, 125. 3rd edition.
[94] H. N. vi. 27.
[95] Dan. v. 11.
[96] Herod. iii. 31.
[97] De Wette, "Einleitung," p. 267.
[98] Ibid. loc. cit.
[99] Gen. xli. 42, 43.
[100] Dan. v. 29.
[101] Strauss, "Leben Jesu," § 32.
[102] Strauss, "Leben Jesu," § 44.
[103] See Krafft, "Topografie Jerusalems," Inscr. 29.
[104] Strauss, L. J. § 32.
[105] Ibid. § 34.
[106] Those who wish to see the cumulative force of the entire argument
will find it in "the Jesus of the Evangelists." It is impossible to
compress its reasonings.
[107] See Appendix to "St. John's Testimony to Christ," in Professor
Leathes' Boyle Lectures. No one who has not read this can form an idea
of the extent of similarity of thought and expression to the fourth
Gospel which underlies the Synoptics.
[108] To give precision to the argument, it is necessary to determine
its definite character. But it is impossible to do so within the limits
of a single lecture.
[109] "Jesus of the Evangelists," chap. x.
[110] See "Jesus of the Evangelists," chap. v.
[111] "Jesus of the Evangelists," p. 381. The entire collection of
apocryphal Gospels has been translated by Mr. Cowper. I am sure
that their perusal will greatly confirm our faith in the historical
character of the true. The order of mind which invented the one could
not have invented the other.
[112] "Jesus of the Evangelists," chap. xvii.
[113] Acts xxiv. 27.
[114] 1 Cor. xv. 6.
[115] 1 Cor. xv. 12.
[116] 2 Cor. v. 17.
[117] For evidence as to the authenticity of this Gospel see the Boyle
Lectures for 1870, "The witness of St. John to Christ."
[118] 1 Cor. xv. 4.
[119] 1 Cor. xi. 27.
[120] 1 Cor. xv. 4.
[121] 1 Cor. xv. 5-8.
[122] 1 Cor. xv. 9.
[123] 2 Cor. xii. 2.
[124] 1 Gal. ii. 1, and i. 18.
[125] Gal. ii. 20.
[126] Rom. vi. 10.
[127] Rom. vi. 23; i. 3, 4.
[128] Rom. xv. 23.
[129] Rom. i. 8.
[130] Rom. i. 4; vi. 6-9; viii. 34.
[131] Rom. viii. 14, 16, 17.
[132] Rom. v. 1.
[133] Rom. i. 3, 4.
[134] Rom. vi. 3; 1 Cor. i. 13; Gal. iii. 27; cf. 2 Cor. i. 22.
[135] 1 Cor. xi. 23.
[136] 1 Cor. xi. 26.
[137] 1 Cor. i. 17.
[138] Gal. i. 13.
[139] St. Matt. xxviii. 15.
[140] Gal. i. 15, 16.
[141] Acts xxviii. 24.
[142] Acts xxvi. 8.
[143] It must always be remembered that Mohammed learned the best of
his morals and his theology from Jews or Christians.
[144] In answer to this theory of development or afterthought it may
be said that all the early records, the writings of the Apostles and
Evangelists, the writings of the Apostolic fathers, are clear about
the Godhead of Christ. It was comparatively late that doubters arose,
heretics like Cerinthus and Theodotus, and philosophic Christians like
Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, accepting the gospel
indeed, but diluting it by their reasonings upon it.
[145] The arguments here considered are those propounded in Lecky's
"History of European Morals."
[146] The terrible scenes just enacted, and even now enacting, in
Paris, almost seem to contradict my words concerning mercy in war,
words written and even printed before Paris was burned and wasted.
But let us remember that eighty years ago France threw away its
Christianity, and took Atheism for its creed; that in the last fifty
years it has been slowly and painfully recovering its faith; that
Paris has been the centre of the unbelief of Europe; that so, a large
portion of its inhabitants have grown up utterly without religion;
that, according to a friendly witness, "the people of Paris believe not
in any God, nor in any man;"[147] or, according to another statement,
"the Communists acknowledge no God, no man, no faith, no hope, nothing
but better wages and more pleasure;"[148] that the chief perpetrators
of the horrors of the past week not only abhorred Christianity, but
murdered priests, only because they were ministers of Christ, and
proclaimed Atheism and Materialism to be the very basis of their
theory, both in politics and in life. There is nothing to surprise
us when we find that those who deliberately cast off religion and
humanity, faith in God, and faith in man, fall lower than those who are
simply ignorant of the true principles of either. Atheists in the midst
of faith are very likely to be much worse than heathens.
[147] _Fortnightly Review_, quoted in _Times_, May 31, 1871.
[148] _Times_, May 31, 1871.
[149] Maclear's "History of the Christian Missions in the Middle Ages,"
p. 417. Macmillan, 1863.
[150] "Ecce Homo," p. 71. Second edition, 1866.
[151] Platon. Symposium. Steph. iii., 220.
[152] Midway stands Anselm, the father of modern metaphysics, with the
scientific demonstration of the two fundamental truths of all religion,
the existence of God and the Incarnation.
[153] Pascal, "Fragmens d'une Apologie du Christianisme," in the 2nd
vol. of "Pensées du Blaise Pascal." Paris, 1814.
[154] Luthardt (Apologetische Vorträge, in two parts), presents in a
form peculiarly adapted for general readers, a very complete survey
both of the internal and external evidences. Steinmeyer, Apologetische
Vorträge, in three parts, discusses the historical evidence for the
miracles, the death and the resurrection of our Lord, with special
reference to the latest criticisms. Delitzsch's System der Christlichen
Apologetik is of a more exclusively philosophical and dogmatic
character. It has been reviewed in the Studien u. Kritiken, by Dr.
Sack, of Bonn, whose own work, Christliche Apologetik, 1841, is one of
the best on the whole subject of evidences.
[155] It is well known that both Jews and Gentiles admitted that the
works were wrought, though they denied that the power came from God.
Superstition, then as ever, opposed the faith of which it is the
counterfeit.
[156] The most interesting and accessible accounts of this man are
given by M. Barthélemi S. Hilaire, "Le Bonddha et sa Religion;" and by
M. Ampère, in "La Science et les Lettres en Orient." Siddartha lived
about the end of the seventh century, B.C. The name "Sakya
Monni" is an appellative, meaning the monk or hermit of the Sakyas, the
royal race to which he belonged. The true end of all philosophy and
religion in his system is to enter into Nirvana, _i.e._ (according to
M. Eugène Burnouf, the highest authority on this subject), the complete
annihilation, not only of the material elements of existence, but
also, and more specially, of the thinking principle. In this view the
majority of Oriental scholars agree; the few who differ, as Colebrook
does, identify Nirvana with an endless and dreamless sleep. See M.
S. Hilaire, l.c., p. 133. M. Ampère (p. 215) thus characterizes the
system, "La fin suprème de l'homme â été de perdre le sentiment de son
moi, de renoncer à sa liberté, de s'élever au dessus des affections les
plus pures, d'arriver à un état, où il ne restât plus que le _vide_."
[157] The four books of Khung-fu-tseu were written in the second half
of the sixth century, B.C. They contain the religions and philosophy
of China in a dogmatic form. The second book, called "Tchung yung,"
represents most fully his moral code, of which the principle is
obedience to natural reason, and the rule is observance of the _via
media_, with due regard to times and circumstances. In one passage,
ccxi., iv., Confucius says a man of strong virtue goes beyond this _via
media_ which prescribes indifference and exact conformity to natural
law. For a just appreciation of the Confucian system, the reader may
consult M. Ampère, "La Science et les Lettres en Orient," p. 98 ff.
[158] For a very remarkable echo of this passage, showing the depth
and permanence of such feelings, see the words of Mr. Hutton, quoted
further on.
[159] Dante, Inferno, c. iv.
[160] Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians, accepted by all the Tübingen
School. (See Mr. Leathes' lecture.)
[161] In addition to the well-known work of Tischendorf, and German,
French, and English commentaries, attention may be called to a valuable
treatise by P. H. de Groot, of Groningen, "Basilides als erster Zeuge
des Johannesevangeliums." Leipzig, 1868. The internal evidence has
already been discussed by Dr. Lightfoot, who promises a complete
treatise on the subject, with which no one can deal more effectively.
Some good points are made by Mr. Hutton in Essays, vol. i.
[162] Essays Theological and Literary, by R. H. Hutton; vol. i., p. 282.
[163] Notice the faint condemnation, if it be a condemnation at all, of
the peculiar shame of Athens, as "greatly at variance with modern and
Christian _notions_, but in accordance with Hellenic sentiment" (vol.
i., p. 482, and compare p. 555).
[164] See the preface to the Republic, in vol. ii. Compare also the
words of Socrates on his trial (p. 40 in the Greek, vol. i., p.
354, Jowett); they probably represent his views more truly than the
brilliant speculations in the Phædo. One alternative which he seems
disposed to accept, viz., that death may be "a sleep like the sleep of
him who is undisturbed by dreams," resembles very nearly the Nirvana of
Buddhism.
[165] Ritschl shows very conclusively that the Essenian principle was
even more exclusive than the Rabbinical, and more antagonistic in
principle to Christianity. See Altkatholische Kirche, pp. 179-203.
[166] Within the few last months, Steinmeyer has published a treatise
on the history of the resurrection, with reference to the latest
criticisms, which I would commend to readers of German. Serious
attempts have been made in England to disjoin this cardinal truth
from the doctrinal system of St. Paul, attempts which seem passing
strange on the part of critics who accept him as a thoroughly truthful
man, nay, as an inspired apostle, and who must know that he makes
the resurrection the very centre or foundation of his teaching. Even
Hegel, the very Corypheus of idealism, declares "Die Auferstehung
gehört wesentlich dem Glauben an;" _i.e._, the resurrection belongs
essentially to the faith. See "Die Philosophie der Religion," p. 300.
In a note on the same page, Hegel shows that he takes it as a real
objective event: "wie alles Bisherige in der Weise der Wirklichkeit für
das unmittelbare Bewusstsein zur Erscheinung gekommen, so auch diese
Erhebung."
[167] Christian Dogmatics, § 63. (Clark.)
NOTES TO
MODERN SCEPTICISM.
NOTES.
ON POSITIVISM.
[168] "Does any one fancy that he sees a solid cube? It is easy to
show that the solidity of the figure, the relative position of its
faces and edges to each other, are inferences of the spectator--no
more conveyed to his conviction by the eye alone than they would be if
he were looking at a painted representation of a cube. The scene of
nature is a picture without depth of substance, no less than the scene
of art; and in the one case, as in the other, it is the mind which, by
an act of its own, discovers that colour and shape denote distance and
solidity. Most men are unconscious of this perpetual habit of reading
the language of the external world, and translating as they read.
The draughtsman, indeed, is compelled, for his purposes, to return
back in thought from the solid bodies which he has inferred, to the
shapes of surface which he really sees. He knows that there is a mask
of theory over the whole face of nature, if it be _theory_ to infer
more than we _see_. But other men, unaware of this masquerade, hold
it to be a fact that they see cubes and spheres, spacious apartments,
and winding avenues. And these things are facts to them, because they
are unconscious of the mental operation by which they have penetrated
nature's disguise....
"Our sensations require ideas to bind them together; namely, ideas of
space, time, number, and the like. If not so bound together, sensations
do not give us any apprehension of things or objects. All things, all
objects, must exist in space and in time--must be one or many. Now
space, time, number, are not sensations or things. They are something
different from, and opposed to, sensations and things. We have
termed them ideas. It may be said they are relations of things, or of
sensations. But granting this form of expression, still a _relation_ is
not a thing or a sensation; and therefore we must still have another
and opposite element, along with our sensations....