living power of the gospel had evaporated into the formalism of
scholastic learning and a mechanical ritualism. A reaction was
set on foot by =John Wesley=, born A.D. 1703, a young man of
deep religious earnestness and fervent zeal for the salvation
of souls. During his course at Oxford, in A.D. 1729, along with
some friends, including his brother Charles, he founded a society
to promote pious living.[509] Those thus leagued together were
scornfully called Methodists. From A.D. 1732, =George Whitefield=,
born in A.D. 1714, a youth burning with zeal for his own and his
fellow men’s salvation, wrought enthusiastically along with them.
In A.D. 1735 the brothers Wesley went to America to labour for
the conversion of the Indians in Georgia. On board ship they met
Nitschmann, and in Savannah Spangenberg, who exercised a powerful
influence over them. John Wesley accepted a pastorate in Savannah,
but encountered so many hindrances, that he decided to return to
England in A.D. 1738. Whitefield had just sailed for America, but
returned that same year. Meanwhile Wesley visited Marienborn and
Herrnhut, and so became personally acquainted with Zinzendorf. He
did not feel thoroughly satisfied, and so declined to join the
society. On his return he began, along with Whitefield, the great
work of his life. In many cities they founded religious societies,
preached daily to immense crowds in Anglican churches, and when
the churches were refused, in the open air, often to 20,000
or even 30,000 hearers. They sought to arouse careless sinners
by all the terrors of the law and the horrors of hell, and by
a thorough repentance to bring about immediate conversion. An
immense number of hardened sinners, mostly of the lower orders,
were thus awakened and brought to repentance amid shrieks and
convulsions. Whitefield, who divided his attentions between
England and America, delivered in thirty-four years 18,000
sermons; Wesley, who survived his younger companion by twenty-one
years, dying in A.D. 1791, and was wont to say the world was
his parish, delivered still more. Their association with the
Moravians had been broken off in A.D. 1740. To the latter, not
only was the Methodists’ style of preaching objectionable, but
also their doctrine of “Christian perfection,” according to
which the true, regenerate Christian can and must reach a perfect
holiness of life, not indeed free from temptation and error,
but from all sins of weakness and sinful lusts. Wesley in turn
accused the Herrnhuters of a dangerous tendency toward the errors
of the quietists and antinomians. Zinzendorf came himself to
London to remove the misunderstanding, but did not succeed.
The great Methodist leaders were themselves separated from one
another in A.D. 1741. Whitefield’s doctrine of grace and election
was Calvinistic; Wesley’s Arminian.--From A.D. 1748 the =Countess
of Huntingdon= attached herself to the Methodists, and secured an
entrance for their preaching into aristocratic circles. With all
her humility and self-sacrifice she remained aristocrat enough
to insist on being head and organizer. Seeing she could not
play this _rôle_ with Wesley, she attached herself closely to
Whitefield. He became her domestic chaplain, and with other
clergymen accompanied her on her travels. Wherever she went she
posed as a “queen of the Methodists,” and was allowed to preach
and carry on pastoral work. She built sixty-six chapels, and in
A.D. 1768 founded a seminary for training preachers at Trevecca in
Wales, under the oversight of the able and gentle John Fletcher,
reserving supreme control to herself. After Whitefield’s death,
in A.D. 1770, the opposition between the Calvinistic followers
of Whitefield and the Arminian Wesleyans burst out in a much more
violent form. Fletcher and his likeminded fellow labourers were
charged with teaching the horrible heresy of the universality of
grace, and were on that account discharged by the countess from
the seminary of Trevecca. They now joined Wesley, around whom the
great majority of the Methodists had gathered.
§ 169.5. The Methodists did not wish to separate from
the episcopal church, but to work as a leaven within it.
Whitefield was able to maintain this connexion by the aid of
his aristocratic countess and her relationship with the higher
clergy; but Wesley, spurning such aid, and trusting to his great
powers of organization, felt driven more and more to set up
an independent society. When the churches were closed against
him and his fellow workers, and preaching in the open air was
forbidden, he built chapels for himself.[510] The first was
opened in Bristol, in A.D. 1739. When his ordained associates
were too few for the work, he obtained the assistance of lay
preachers. He founded two kinds of religious societies: The
_united societies_ embraced all, the _band societies_ only the
tried and proved of his followers. Then he divided the _united
societies_ again into _classes_ of from ten to twenty persons
each, and the _class-leaders_ were required to give accurate
accounts of the spiritual condition and progress of those under
their care. Each member of the _united_ as well as the _band
societies_ held a _society ticket_, which had to be renewed
quarterly. The outward affairs of the societies were managed by
_stewards_, who also took care of the poor. A number of local
societies constituted a _circuit_ with a superintendent and
several itinerant preachers.[511] Wesley superintended all
the departments of oversight, administration, and arrangement,
supported from A.D. 1744 by an annual conference. Daily preaching
and devotional exercises in the chapels, weekly class-meetings,
monthly watchnights, quarterly fasts and lovefeasts, an
annual service for the renewing of the covenant, and a great
multiplication of prayer-meetings, gave a special character
to Methodistic piety. Charles Wesley composed hymns for their
services. They carefully avoided collision with the services
of the state church. The American Methodists, who had been up
to this time supplied by Wesley with itinerant missionaries, in
A.D. 1784, after the War of Independence, gave vigorous expression
to their wish for a more independent ecclesiastical constitution,
which led Wesley, in opposition to all right order, to ordain for
them by his own hand several preachers, and to appoint, in the
person of Thomas Coke, a superintendent, who assumed in America
the title of bishop. Coke became the founder of the Methodist
Episcopal Church of America, which soon outstripped all other
denominations in its zeal for the conversion of sinners, and
in consequent success. The breach with the mother church was
completed by the adoption of a creed in which the Thirty-nine
Articles were reduced to twenty-five. At the last conference
presided over by Wesley, A.D. 1790, it was announced that they
had in Britain 119 circuits, 313 preachers, and in the United
States 97 circuits and 198 preachers. After Wesley’s death,
in A.D. 1791, his autocratic supremacy devolved, in accordance
with the Methodist “Magna Charta,” the _Deed of Declaration_
of A.D. 1784, upon a fixed conference of 100 members, but its
hierarchical organization has been the cause of many subsequent
splits and divisions.[512]
§ 169.6. =Theological Literature=--=Clericus=, of Amsterdam, died
A.D. 1736, an Arminian divine, distinguished himself in biblical
criticism, hermeneutics, exegesis, and church history. =J. J.
Wettstein= was in A.D. 1730 deposed for heresy, and died in
A.D. 1754 as professor at the Remonstrant seminary at Amsterdam.
His critical edition of the N.T. of A.D. 1751 had a great
reputation. =Schultens= of Leyden, died A.D. 1750, introduced a
new era for O.T. philology by the comparative study of related
dialects, especially Arabic. He wrote commentaries on Job and
Proverbs. Of the Cocceian exegetes we mention, =Lampe= of Bremen,
died A.D. 1729, “Com. on John,” three vols., etc., and =J. Marck=
of Leyden, died A.D. 1731, “Com. on Minor Prophets.” In biblical
antiquity, =Reland= of Utrecht, died A.D. 1718, wrote “_Palæstina
ex vett. monum. Illustr. Antiquitt. ss._;” in ecclesiastical
antiquity, Bingham, died A.D. 1723, “Origines Ecclest.; or,
Antiquities of the Christian Church,” ten vols., 1724, a
masterpiece not yet superseded. Of English apologists who
wrote against the deists, =Leland=, died A.D. 1766, “Advantage
and Necessity of the Christian Revelation;” =Stackhouse=, died
A.D. 1752, “History of the Bible.” Of dogmatists, =Stapfer= of
Bern, died A.D. 1775, and =Wyttenbach= of Marburg, died A.D. 1779,
who followed the Wolffian method. Among church historians,
=J. A. Turretin= of Geneva, died A.D. 1757, and =Herm. Venema= of
Franeker, died A.D. 1787.--The most celebrated of the writers of
sacred songs in the English language was the Congregationalist
preacher =Isaac Watts=, died A.D. 1748, whose “Hymns and Spiritual
Songs,” which first appeared in A.D. 1707, still hold their
place in the hymnbooks of all denominations, and have largely
contributed to overthrow the Reformed prejudice against using
any other than biblical psalms in the public service of praise.
§ 170. NEW SECTS AND FANATICS.
The pietism of the eighteenth century, like the Reformation of the
sixteenth, was followed by the appearance of all sorts of fanatics and
extremists. The converted were collected into little companies, which,
as _ecclesiolæ in ecclesia_, preserved the living flame amid prevailing
darkness, and out of these arose separatists who spoke of the church as
Babylon, regarded its ordinances impure, and its preaching a mere jingle
of words. They obtained their spiritual nourishment from the mystical
and theosophical writings of Böhme, Gichtel, Guyon, Poiret, etc. Their
chief centre was Wetterau, where, in the house of Count Casimir von
Berleburg, all persecuted pietists, separatists, fanatics, and sectaries
found refuge. The count chose from them his court officials and personal
servants, although he himself belonged to the national Reformed church.
There was scarcely a district in Protestant Germany, Switzerland, and
the Netherlands where there were not groups of such separatists; some
mere harmless enthusiasts, others circulated pestiferous and immoral
doctrines. Quite apart from pietism Swedenborgianism made its appearance,
claiming to have a new revelation. Of the older sects the Baptists and
the Quakers sent off new swarms, and even predestinationism gave rise to
a form of mysticism allied to pantheism.
§ 170.1. =Fanatics and Separatists in Germany.=--Juliana =von
Asseburg=, a young lady highly esteemed in Magdeburg for her
piety, declared that from her seventh year she had visions and
revelations, especially about the millennium. She found a zealous
supporter in Dr. J. W. Petersen, superintendent of Lüneburg.
After his marriage with Eleonore von Merlau, who had similar
revelations, he proclaimed by word and writing a fantastic
chiliasm and the restitution of all things. He was deposed in
A.D. 1692, and died in A.D. 1727.[513] =Henry Horche=, professor
of theology at Herborn, was the originator of a similar movement
in the Reformed church. He founded several Philadelphian societies
(§ 163, 9) in Hesse, and composed a “mystical and prophetical
bible,” the so called “Marburg Bible,” A.D. 1712. Of other
fanatical preachers of that period one of the most prominent
was =Hochmann=, a student of law expelled from Halle for his
extravagances, a man of ability and eloquence, and highly
esteemed by Tersteegen. Driven from place to place, he at last
found refuge at Berleburg, and died there in A.D. 1721. In
Württemberg the pious court chaplain, =Hedinger=, of Stuttgart,
died A.D. 1703, was the father of pietism and separatism. The
most famous of his followers were =Gruber= and =Rock=, who,
driven from Württemberg, settled with other separatists at
Wetterau, renouncing the use of the sacraments and public worship.
Of those gathered together in the court of Count Casimir, the
most eminent were =Dr. Carl=, his physician, the French mystic
=Marsay=, and =J. H. Haug=, who had been expelled from Strassburg,
a proficient in the oriental languages. They issued a great
number of mystical works, chief of all the Berleburg Bible,
in eight vols., 1726-1742, of which Haug was the principal
author. Its exposition proceeded in accordance with the threefold
sense; it vehemently contended against the church doctrine of
justification, against the confessional writings, the clerical
order, the dead church, etc. It showed occasionally profound
insight, and made brilliant remarks, but contained also
many trivialities and absurdities. The mysticism which is
prominent in this work lacks originality, and is compiled from
the mystico-theosophical writings of all ages from Origen down
to Madame Guyon.
§ 170.2. =The Inspired Societies in Wetterau.=--After the
unfortunate issue of the Camisard War in A.D. 1705 (§ 153, 4)
the chief of the prophets of the Cevennes fled to England. They
were at first well received, but were afterwards excommunicated
and cast into prison. In A.D. 1711 several of them went to
the Netherlands, and thence made their way into Germany. Three
brothers, students at Halle, named Pott, adopted their notion
of the gift of inspiration, and introduced it into Wetterau in
A.D. 1714. =Gruber= and =Rock=, the leaders of the separatists
there, were at first opposed to the doctrine, but were overpowered
by the Spirit, and soon became its most enthusiastic champions.
Prayer-meetings were organized, immense lovefeasts were held, and
by itinerant brethren an _ecclesia ambulatoria_ was set on foot,
by which spiritual nourishment was brought to believers scattered
over the land and the children of the prophets were gathered from
all countries. The “utterances” given forth in ecstasy were calls
to repentance, to prayer, to the imitation of Christ, revelations
of the divine will in matters affecting the communities,
proclamations of the near approach of the Divine judgment upon a
depraved church and world, but without fanatical-sensual chiliasm.
Also, except in the contempt of the sacraments, they held by the
essentials of the church doctrine. In A.D. 1715 a split occurred
between the _true_ and the _false_ among the inspired. The true
maintained a formal constitution, and in A.D. 1716 excluded all
who would not submit to that discipline. By A.D. 1719 only Rock
claimed the gift of inspiration, and did so till his death in
A.D. 1749. Gruber died in A.D. 1728, and with him a pillar of
the society fell. Rock was the only remaining prop. A new era of
their history begins with their intercourse with the Herrnhuters.
Zinzendorf sent them a deputation in A.D. 1730, and paid them
a visit in person at Berleberg [Berleburg]. Rock’s profound
Christian personality made a deep impression upon him. But he
was offended at their contempt of the sacraments, and at the
convulsive character of their utterances. This, however, did not
hinder him from expressing his reverence for their able leader,
who in return visited Zinzendorf at Herrnhut in A.D. 1732. In the
interests of his own society Zinzendorf shrank from identifying
himself with those of Wetterau. Rock denounced him as a new
Babylon-botcher, and he retaliated by calling Rock a false
prophet. When the Herrnhuters were driven from Wetterau in
A.D. 1750 (§ 168, 3, 7), the inspired communities entered on
their inheritance. But with Rock’s death in A.D. 1749 prophecy had
ceased among them. They sank more and more into insignificance,
until the revival of spiritual life, A.D. 1816-1821, brought them
into prominence again. Government interference drove most of them
to America.
§ 170.3. Quite a peculiar importance belongs to =J. C. Dippel=,
theologian, physician, alchemist, discoverer of Prussian blue and
_oleum dippelii_, at first an orthodox opponent of pietism, then,
through Gottfr. Arnold’s influence, an adherent of the pietists,
and ultimately of the separatists. In A.D. 1697, under the name
of _Christianus Democritus_, he began to write in a scoffing
tone of all orthodox Christianity, with a strange blending
of mysticism and rationalism, but without any trace profound
Christian experience. Persecuted on every hand, exiled or
imprisoned, he went hither and thither through Germany, Holland,
Denmark, and Sweden, and found a refuge at last at Berleberg
[Berleburg] in A.D. 1729. Here he came in contact with the
inspired, who did everything in their power to win him over; but
he declared that he would rather give himself to the devil than
to this Spirit of God. He was long intimate with Zinzendorf, but
afterwards poured out upon him the bitterest abuse. He died in
the count’s castle at Berleberg [Berleburg] in A.D. 1734.[514]
§ 170.4. =Separatists of Immoral Tendency.=--One of the worst was
the =Buttlar sect=, founded by Eva von Buttlar, a native of Hesse,
who had married a French refugee, lived gaily for ten years at
the court of Eisenach, and then joined the pietists and became
a rigid separatist. Separated from her husband, she associated
with the licentiate Winter, and founded a Philadelphian society
at Allendorf in A.D. 1702, where the foulest immoralities were
practised. Eva herself was reverenced as the door of paradise,
the new Jerusalem, the mother of all, Sophia come from heaven,
the new Eve, and the incarnation of the Spirit. Winter was
the incarnation of the Father, and their son Appenfeller the
incarnation of the Son. They pronounced marriage sinful; sensual
lusts must be slain in spiritual communion, then even carnal
association is holy. Eva lived with all the men of the sect
in the most shameless adultery. So did also the other women
of the community. Expelled from Allendorf after a stay of six
weeks, they sought unsuccessfully to gain a footing in various
places. At Cologne they went over to the Catholic church.
Their immoralities reached their climax at Lüde near Pyrmont.
Winter was sentenced to death in A.D. 1706, but was let off
with scourging. Eva escaped the same punishment by flight,
and continued her evil practices unchecked for another year.
She afterwards returned to Altona, where with her followers
leading outwardly an honourable life, she attached herself
to the Lutheran church, and died, honoured and esteemed, in
A.D. 1717.--In a similar way arose in A.D. 1739 the =Bordelum
sect=, founded at Bordelum by the licentiates Borsenius and Bär;
and the =Brüggeler sect=, at Brüggeler in Canton Bern, where
in A.D. 1748 the brothers Kohler gave themselves out as the
two witnesses (Rev. xi.). Of a like nature too was the =sect
of Zionites= at Ronsdorf in the Duchy of Berg. Elias Eller, a
manufacturer at Elberfeld, excited by mystical writings, married
in A.D. 1725 a rich old widow, but soon found more pleasure in a
handsome young lady, Anna von Buchel, who by a nervous sympathetic
infection was driven into prophetic ecstasy. She proclaimed the
speedy arrival of the millennium; Eller identified her with the
mother of the man-child (Rev. xii. 1). When his wife had pined
away through jealousy and neglect and died, he married Buchel.
The first child she bore him was a girl, and the second, a boy,
soon died. When a strong opposition arose in Elberfeld against
the sect, he, along with his followers, founded Ronsdorf, as
a New Zion, in A.D. 1737. The colony obtained civil rights,
and Eller was made burgomaster. Anna having died in A.D. 1744,
Eller gave his colony a new mother, and practised every manner
of deceit and tyranny. After the infatuation had lasted a long
time, the eyes of the Reformed pastor Schleiermacher, grandfather
of the famous theologian, were at last opened. By flight to the
Netherlands he escaped the fate of another revolter, whom Eller
persuaded the authorities at Düsseldorf to put to death as a
sorcerer. Every complaint against himself was quashed by Eller’s
bribery of the officials. After his death in A.D. 1750 his
stepson continued this Zion game for a long time.
§ 170.5. =Swedenborgianism.=--=Emanuel von Swedenborg= was born
at Stockholm, in A.D. 1688, son of the strict Lutheran bishop
of West Gothland, Jasper Swedberg. He was appointed assessor
of the School of Mines at Stockholm, and soon showed himself to
be a man of encyclopædic information and of speculative ability.
After long examination of the secrets of nature, in a condition
of magnetic ecstasy, in which he thought that he had intercourse
with spirits, sometimes in heaven, sometimes in hell, he became
convinced, in A.D. 1743, that he was called by these revelations
to restore corrupted Christianity by founding a church of the
New Jerusalem as the finally perfected church. He published the
apocalyptic revelations as a new gospel: “_Arcana Cœlestia in
Scr. s. Detecta_,” in seven vols.; “_Vera Chr. Rel._,” two vols.
After his death, in A.D. 1772, his “_Vera Christiana Religio_”
was translated into Swedish, but his views never got much hold
in his native country. They spread more widely in England, where
John Clowes, rector of St. John’s Church, Manchester, translated
his writings, and himself wrote largely in their exposition and
commendation. Separate congregations with their own ministers,
and forms of worship, sprang up through England in A.D. 1788,
and soon there were as many as fifty throughout the country.
From England the New Church spread to America.--In Germany it
was specially throughout Württemberg that it found adherents.
There, in A.D. 1765, Oetinger (§ 171, 9) recognised Swedenborg’s
revelations, and introduced many elements from them into
his theosophical system.--Swedenborg’s religious system was
speculative mysticism, with a physical basis and rationalizing
results. The aim of religion with him is the opening of an
intimate correspondence between the spiritual world and man,
and giving an insight into the mystery of the connexion between
the two. The Bible (excluding the apostolic epistles, as merely
expository), pre-eminently the Apocalypse, is recognised by him
as God’s word; to be studied, however, not in its literal but
in its spiritual or inner sense. Of the church dogmas there is
not one which he did not either set aside or rationalistically
explain away. He denounces in the strongest terms the church
doctrine of the Trinity. God is with him only one Person,
who manifests Himself in three different forms: the Father is
the principle of the manifesting God; the Son, the manifested
form; the Spirit, the manifested activity. The purpose of the
manifestation of Christ is the uniting of the human and Divine;
redemption is nothing more than the combating and overcoming of
the evil spirits. But angels and devils are spirits of dead men
glorified and damned. He did not believe in a resurrection of the
flesh, but maintained that the spiritual form of the body endures
after death. The second coming of Christ will not be personal
and visible, but spiritual through a revelation of the spiritual
sense of Holy Scripture, and is realized by the founding of the
church of the New Jerusalem.[515]
§ 170.6. =New Baptist Sects= (§ 163, 3).--In Wetterau about
A.D. 1708 an anabaptist sect arose called =Dippers=, because they
did not recognise infant baptism and insisted upon the complete
immersion of adult believers. They appeared in Pennsylvania
in A.D. 1719, and founded settlements in other states. Of the
“perfect” they required absolute separation from all worldly
practices and enjoyments and a simple, apostolic style of dress.
To baptism and the Lord’s supper they added washing the feet
and the fraternal kiss and anointing the sick. The =Seventh-day
Baptists= observe the seventh instead of the first day of the
week, and enjoin on the “perfect” celibacy and the community of
goods. New sects from England continued to spread over America.
Of these were the =Seed= or =Sucker Baptists=, who identified the
non-elect with the seed of the serpent, and on account of their
doctrine of predestination regarded all instruction and care of
children useless. A similar predestinarian exaggeration is seen
in the =Hard-shell Baptists=, who denounce all home and foreign
missions as running counter to the Divine sovereignty. Many,
sometimes called Campbellites from their founder, reject any
party name, claiming to be simply =Christians=, and acknowledge
only so much in Scripture as is expressly declared to be “the
word of the Lord.” The =Six-Principles-Baptists= limit their
creed to the six articles of Hebrews vi. 1, 2. The brothers
Haldane, about the middle of the eighteenth century, founded
in Scotland the Baptist sect of =Haldanites=, which has with
great energy applied itself to the practical cultivation of
the Christian life.--Continuation, §§ 208, 1; 211, 3.
§ 170.7. =New Quaker Sects.=--The =Jumpers=, who sprang up among
the Methodists of Cornwall about A.D. 1760, are in principle
closely allied to the early Quakers (§ 163, 4). They leaped
and danced after the style of David before the ark and uttered
inarticulate howls. They settled in America, where they have
adherents still.--The =Shakers= originated from the prophets of
the Cevennes who fled to England in A.D. 1705. They converted
a Quaker family at Bolton in Lancashire named Wardley, and the
community soon grew. In A.D. 1758 Anna Lee, wife of a farrier
Stanley, joined the society, and, as the apocalyptic bride,
inaugurated the millennium. She taught that the root of all sin
was the relationship of the sexes. Maltreated by the mob, she
emigrated to America, along with thirty companions, in A.D. 1774.
Though persecuted here also, the sect increased and formed in the
State of New York the _Millennial Church_ or _United Society of
Believers_. Anna died in A.D. 1784; but her prophets declared
that she had merely laid aside the earthly garb and assumed the
heavenly, so that only then the veneration of “Mother Anna” came
into force. As Christ is the Son of the eternal Wisdom, Anna is
the daughter; as Christ is the second Adam, she is the second
Eve, and spiritual mother of believers as Christ is their father.
Celibacy, community of goods, common labour (chiefly gardening),
as a pleasure, not a burden, common domestic life as brothers
and sisters, and constant intercourse with the spirit world, are
the main points in her doctrine. By the addition of voluntary
proselytes and the adoption of poor helpless children the sect
has grown, till now it numbers 3,000 or 4,000 souls in eighteen
villages. The capital is New Lebanon in the State of New York.
The name Shakers was given them from the quivering motion of
body in their solemn dances. In their services they march about
singing “On to heaven we will be going,” “March heavenward, yea,
victorious band,” etc. Like the Quakers (§ 163, 6) they have
neither a ministry nor sacraments, and their whole manner of life
is modelled on that of the Quakers. The purity of the relation of
brothers and sisters has always been free from suspicion.[516]
§ 170.8. =Predestinarian-Mystical Sects.=--The =Hebræans=,
founded by Verschoor, a licentiate of the Reformed church of
Holland deposed under suspicion of Spinozist views, in the end
of the seventeenth century, hold it indispensably necessary
to read the word of God in the original. They were fatalists,
and maintained that the elect could commit no sin. True faith
consisted in believing this doctrine of their own sinlessness.
About the same time sprang up the =Hattemists=, followers of
_Pontiaan von Hattem_, a preacher deposed for heresy, with
fatalistic views like the Hebræans, but with a strong vein
of pantheistic mysticism. True piety consisted in the believer
resting in God in a purely passive manner, and letting God alone
care for him. The two sects united under the name of Hattemists,
and continued to exist in Holland and Zealand till about A.D. 1760.
§ 171. RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND LITERATURE OF
THE “ILLUMINATION.”[517]
In England during the first half of the century deism had still
several active propagandists, and throughout the whole century efforts,
not altogether unsuccessful, were made to spread Unitarian views.
From the middle of the century, when the English deistic unbelief had
died out, the “Illumination,” under the name of rationalism, found an
entrance into Germany. Arminian pelagianism, recommended by brilliant
scholarship, English deism, spread by translations and refutations,
and French naturalism, introduced by a great and much honoured king,
were the outward factors in securing this result. The freemason lodges,
carried into Germany from England, a relic of mediævalism, aided the
movement by their endeavour after a universal religion of a moral
and practical kind. The inward factors were the Wolffian philosophy
(§ 167, 3), the popular philosophy, and the pietism, with its
step-father separatism (§ 170), which immediately prepared the soil
for the sowing of rationalism. Orthodoxy, too, with its formulas that
had been outlived, contributed to the same end. German rationalism is
essentially distinguished from Deism and Naturalism by not breaking
completely with the Bible and the church, but eviscerating both by its
theories of accommodation and by its exaggerated representations of
the limitations of the age in which the books of Scripture were written
and the doctrines of Christianity were formulated. It thus treats the
Bible as an important document, and the church as a useful religious
institution. Over against rationalism arose supernaturalism, appealing
directly to revelation. It was a dilution of the old church faith by
the addition of more or less of the water of rationalism. Its reaction
was therefore weak and vacillating. The temporary success of the
vulgar rationalism lay, not in its own inherent strength, but in the
correspondence that existed between it and the prevailing spirit of the
age. The philosophy, however, as well as the national literature of the
Germans, now began a victorious struggle against these tendencies, and
though itself often indifferent and even hostile to Christianity, it
recognised in Christ a school-master. Pestalozzi performed a similar
service to popular education by his attempts to reform effete systems.
§ 171.1. =Deism, Arianism, and Unitarianism in the English Church.=
1. =The Deists= (§ 164, 3). With Locke’s philosophy (§ 164, 2)
deism entered on a new stage of its development. It is
henceforth vindicated on the ground of its reasonableness.
The most notable deists of this age were =John Toland=,
an Irishman, first Catholic, then Arminian, died A.D. 1722,
author of “Christianity not Mysterious,” “Nazarenus, or
Jewish, Gentile, and Mohametan Christianity,” etc. The Earl
of =Shaftesbury=, died A.D. 1713, wrote “Characteristics of
Men,” etc. =Anthony Collins=, J.P. in Essex, died A.D. 1729,
author of “Priestcraft in Perfection,” “Discourse of
Freethinking,” etc. =Thomas Woolston=, fellow of Cambridge,
died in prison in A.D. 1733, author of “Discourse on the
Miracles of the Saviour.” =Mandeville= of Dort, physician in
London, died A.D. 1733, wrote “Free Thoughts on Religion.”
=Matthew Tindal=, professor of law in Oxford, died A.D. 1733,
wrote “Christianity as Old as the Creation.” =Thomas
Morgan=, nonconformist minister, deposed as an Arian, then
a physician, died A.D. 1743, wrote “The Moral Philosopher.”
=Thomas Chubb=, glover and tallow-chandler in Salisbury, died
A.D. 1747, author of popular compilations, “The True Gospel
of Jesus Christ.” Viscount =Bolingbroke=, statesman, charged
with high treason and pardoned, died A.D. 1751, writings
entitled, “Philosophical Works.”--Along with the deists
as an opponent of positive Christianity may be classed the
famous historian and sceptic =David Hume=, librarian in
Edinburgh, died A.D. 1776, author of “Inquiry concerning
the Human Understanding,” “Natural History of Religion,”
“Dialogues concerning Natural Religion,” etc.[518]--Deism
never made way among the people, and no attempt was made
to form a sect. Among the numerous opponents of deism these
are chief: Samuel Clarke, died A.D. 1729; Thomas Sherlock,
Bishop of London, died A.D. 1761; Chandler, Bishop of Durham,
died A.D. 1750; Leland, Presbyterian minister in Dublin,
died A.D. 1766, wrote “View of Principal Deistic Writers,”
three vols., 1754; Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester,
died A.D. 1779; Nath. Lardner, dissenting minister,
died A.D. 1768, wrote “Credibility of the Gospel History,”
seventeen vols., 1727-1757. With these may be ranked
the famous pulpit orator of the Reformed church of France,
Saurin, died A.D. 1730, author of _Discours hist., crit.,
theol., sur les Evénements les plus remarkables du V. et N.T._
2. =The So-called Arians.= In the beginning of the century
several distinguished theologians of the Anglican church
sought to give currency to an Arian doctrine of the
Trinity. Most conspicuous was =Wm. Whiston=, a distinguished
mathematician, physicist, and astronomer of the school of
Sir Isaac Newton, and his successor in the mathematical
chair at Cambridge. Deprived of this office in A.D. 1708
for spreading his heterodox views, he issued in A.D. 1711 a
five-volume work, “Primitive Christianity Revived,” in which
he justified his Arian doctrine of the Trinity as primitive
and as taught by the ante-Nicene Fathers, and insisted upon
augmenting the N.T. canon by the addition of twenty-nine
books of the apostolic and other Fathers, including the
apostolic “Constitutions” and “Recognitions” which he
maintained were genuine works of Clement. Subsequently
he adopted Baptist views, and lost himself in fantastic
chiliastic speculations. He died A.D. 1752. More sensible
and moderate was =Samuel Clarke=, also distinguished
as a mathematician of Newton’s school and as a classical
philologist. As an opponent of deism in sermons and
treatises he had gained a high reputation as a theologian,
when his work, “The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity,”
in A.D. 1712, led to his being accused of Arianism by
convocation; but by conciliatory explanations he succeeded
in retaining his office till his death in A.D. 1729. But the
excitement caused by the publication of his work continued
through several decades, and was everywhere the cause of
division. His ablest apologist was Dan. Whitby, and his
keenest opponent Dan. Waterland.
3. =The Later Unitarians.= The anti-trinitarian movement
entered on a new stage in A.D. 1770. After Archdeacon
Blackburne of London, in A.D. 1766, had started the idea,
at first anonymously, in his “Confessional,” he joined
in A.D. 1772 with other freethinkers, among whom was his
son-in-law =Theophilus Lindsey=, in presenting to Parliament
a petition with 250 signatures, asking to have the clergy of
the Anglican church freed from the obligation of subscribing
to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Liturgy, and to have the
requirement limited to assent to the Scriptures. This prayer
was rejected in the Lower House by 217 votes against 71.
Lindsey now resigned his clerical office, announced his
withdrawal from the Anglican church, founded and presided
over a Unitarian congregation in London from A.D. 1774, and
published a large number of controversial Unitarian tracts.
He died in A.D. 1808. The celebrated chemist and physicist
=Joseph Priestley=, A.D. 1733-1806, who had been a
dissenting minister in Birmingham from A.D. 1780, joined
the Unitarian movement in 1782, giving it a new impetus by
his high scientific reputation. He wrote the “History of
the Corruptions of Christianity,” and the “History of Early
Opinions about Jesus Christ,” denying that there is any
biblical foundation for the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity,
and seeking to show that it had been forced upon the church
against her will from the Platonic philosophy. These and
a whole series of other controversial writings occasioned
great excitement, not only among theologians, but also
among the English people of all ranks. At last the mob rose
against him in A.D. 1791. His house and all his scientific
collections and apparatus were burnt. He narrowly escaped
with his life, and soon after settled in America, where he
wrote a church history in four vols. Of his many English
opponents the most eminent was Bishop Sam. Horsley, a
distinguished mathematician and commentator on the works
of Sir Isaac Newton.
§ 171.2. =Freemasons.=--The mediæval institution of freemasons
(§ 104, 13) won much favour in England, especially after the Great
Fire of London in A.D. 1666. The first step toward the formation
of freemason lodges of the modern type was taken about the end of
the sixteenth century, when men of distinction in other callings
sought admission as honorary members. After the rebuilding
of London and the completion of St. Paul’s in A.D. 1710, most
of the lodges became defunct, and the four that continued to
exist united in A.D. 1717 into one grand lodge in London, which,
renouncing material masonry, assumed the task of rearing the
temple of humanity. In A.D. 1721 the Rev. Mr. Anderson prepared
a constitution for this reconstruction of a trade society into
a universal brotherhood, according to which all “free masons”
faithfully observing the moral law as well as all the claims of
humanity and patriotism, came under obligation to profess the
religion common to all good men, transcending all confessional
differences, without any individual being thereby hindered from
holding his own particular views. Although, in imitation of the
older institution, all members by reason of their close connexion
were bound to observe the strictest secrecy in regard to their
masonic signs, rites of initiation and promotion, and forms
of greeting, it is not properly a secret society, since the
constitution was published in A.D. 1723, and members publicly
acknowledge that they are such.--From London the new institute
spread over all England and the colonies. Lodges were founded
in Paris in A.D. 1725, in Hamburg in A.D. 1737, in Berlin in
A.D. 1740. This last was raised in A.D. 1744 into a grand lodge,
with Frederick II. as grand master. But soon troubles and disputes
arose, which broke up the order about the end of the century.
Rosicrucians (§ 160, 1) and alchemists, pretending to hold the
secrets of occult science, Jesuits (§ 210, 1), with Catholic
hierarchical tendencies, and “Illuminati” (§ 165, 13), with
rationalistic and infidel tendencies, as well as adventurers of
every sort, had made the lodges centres of quackery, juggling,
and plots.[519]
§ 171.3. =The German “Illumination.”=
1. =Its Precursors.= One of the first of these, following in
the footsteps of Kuntzen and Dippel, was =J. Chr. Edelmann=
of Weissenfels, who died A.D. 1767. He began in A.D. 1735
the publication of an immense series of writings in a rough
but powerful style, filled with bitter scorn for positive
Christianity. He went from one sect to another, but never
found what he sought. In A.D. 1741 he accepted Zinzendorf’s
invitation, and stayed with the count for a long time. He
next joined the Berleberg [Berleburg] separatists, because
they despised the sacraments, and contributed to their
Bible commentary, though Haug had to alter much of his work
before it could be used. This and his contempt for prayer
brought the connexion between him and the society to an
end. He then led a vagabond life up and down through Germany.
Edelmann regarded himself as a helper of providence, and at
least a second Luther. Christianity he pronounced the most
irrational of all religions; church history a conglomeration
of immorality, lies, hypocrisy, and fanaticism; prophets
and apostles, bedlamites; and even Christ by no means
a perfect pattern and teacher. The world needs only one
redemption--redemption from Christianity. Providence,
virtue, and immortality are the only elements in religion.
No less than 166 separate treatises came from his facile
pen.--=Laurence Schmidt= of Wertheim in Baden, a scholar
of Wolff, was author of the notorious “Wertheimer Bible
Version,” which rendered Scripture language into the dialect
of the eighteenth century, and eviscerated it of all positive
doctrines of revelation. This book was confiscated by the
authorities, and its author cast into prison.
§ 171.4.
2. =The Age of Frederick the Great.= Hostility to all positive
Christianity spread from England and France into Germany.
The writings of the English deists were translated and
refuted, but mostly in so weak a style that the effect
was the opposite of that intended. Whilst English deism
with its air of thoroughness made way among the learned,
the poison of frivolous French naturalism committed
its ravages among the higher circles. The great king of
Prussia =Frederick II.=, A.D. 1740-1786, surrounded by
French freethinkers Voltaire, D’Argens, La Metrie, etc.,
wished every man in his kingdom to be saved after his own
fashion. In this he was quite earnest, although his personal
animosity to all ecclesiastical and pietistic religion made
him sometimes act harshly and unjustly. Thus, when Francke
of Halle (son of the famous A. H. Francke) had exhorted
his theological students to avoid the theatre, the king,
designating him “hypocrite” Francke, ordered him to attend
the theatre himself and have his attendance attested by the
manager. His bitter hatred of all “priests” was directed
mainly against their actual or supposed intolerance,
hypocrisy, and priestly arrogance; and where he met with
undoubted integrity, as in Gellert and Seb. Bach, or simple,
earnest piety, as in General Ziethen, he was not slow in
paying to it the merited tribute of hearty acknowledgment
and respect. His own religion was a philosophical
deism, from which he could thoroughly refute Holbach’s
materialistic “_Système de la Nature_.”--Under the name
of the German popular philosophy (Moses Mendelssohn,
Garve, Eberhard, Platner, Steinbart, etc.), which started
from the Wolffian philosophy, emptied of its Christian
contents, there arose a weak, vapoury, and self-satisfied
philosophizing on the part of the common human reason.
Basedow was the reformer of pedagogy in the sense of the
“Illumination,” after the style of Rousseau, and crying
up his wares in the market made a great noise for a while,
although Herder declared that he would not trust calves, far
less men, to be educated by such a pedagogue. The “Universal
German Library” of the Berlin publisher Nicolai, 106 vols.
A.D. 1765-1792, was a literary Inquisition tribunal against
all faith in revelation or the church. The “Illumination”
in the domain of theology took the name of rationalism.
Pietistic Halle cast its skin, and along with Berlin took
front rank among the promoters of the “Illumination.” In the
other universities champions of the new views soon appeared,
and rationalistic pastors spread over all Germany, to preach
only of moral improvement, or to teach from the pulpit about
the laws of health, agriculture, gardening, natural science,
etc. The old liturgies were mutilated, hymn-books revised
after the barbarous tastes of the age, and songs of mere
moral tendency substituted for those that spoke of Christ’s
atonement. An ecclesiastical councillor, Lang of Regensburg,
dispensed the communion with the words: “Eat this bread! The
Spirit of devotion rest on you with His rich blessing! Drink
a little wine! The virtue lies not in this wine; it lies in
you, in the divine doctrine, and in God.” The Berlin provost,
W. Alb. Teller, declared publicly: “The Jews ought on
account of their faith in God, virtue, and immortality, to
be regarded as genuine Christians.” C. Fr. Bahrdt, after he
had been deposed for immorality from various clerical and
academical offices, and was cast off by the theologians,
sought to amuse the people with his wit as a taphouse-keeper
in Halle, and died there of an infamous disease in A.D. 1792.
§ 171.5.
3. =The Wöllner Reaction.=--In vain did the Prussian government,
after the death of Frederick the Great, under Frederick
William II., A.D. 1786-1797, endeavour to restore the church
to the enjoyment of its old exclusive rights by punishing
every departure from its doctrines, and insisting that
preaching should be in accordance with the Confession.
At the instigation of the Rosicrucians (§ 160, 1) and of
the minister Von Wöllner, a country pastor ennobled by the
king, the =Religious Edict of 1788= was issued, followed
by a statement of severe penalties; then by a _Schema
Examinationis Candidatorum ss. Ministerii rite Instituendi_;
and in A.D. 1791, by a commission for examination under the
Berlin chief consistory and all the provincial consistories,
with full powers, not only over candidates, but also over
all settled pastors. But notwithstanding all the energy
with which he sought to carry out his edict, the minister
could accomplish nothing in the face of public opinion,
which favoured the resistance of the chief consistory.
Only one deposition, that of Schulz of Gielsdorf, near
Berlin, was effected, in A.D. 1792. Frederick William III.,
A.D. 1797-1840, dismissed Wöllner in A.D. 1798, and set
aside the edict as only fostering hypocrisy and sham piety.
§ 171.6. =The Transition Theology.=--Four men, who endeavoured to
maintain their own belief in revelation, did more than all others
to prepare the way for rationalism: Ernesti of Leipzig, in the
department of N.T. exegesis; Michaelis of Göttingen, in O.T.
exegesis; Semler of Halle, in biblical and historical criticism;
and Töllner of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, in dogmatics. =J. A.
Ernesti=, A.D. 1707-1781, from A.D. 1734 rector of St. Thomas’
School, from A.D. 1742 professor at Leipzig, colleague to Chr. A.
Crusius (§ 167, 3), was specially eminent as a classical scholar,
and maintained his reputation in that department, even after
becoming professor of theology in A.D. 1758. His _Institutio
Interpretis N.T._, of A.D. 1761, made it an axiom of exegesis
that the exposition of Scripture should be conducted precisely
as that of any other book. But even in the domain of classical
literature there must be an understanding of the author as a
whole, and the expositor must have appreciation of the writer’s
spirit, as well as have acquaintance with his language and the
customs of his age. And just from Ernesti’s want of this, his
treatise on biblical hermeneutics is rationalistic, and he became
the father of rationalistic exegesis, though himself intending
to hold firmly by the doctrine of inspiration and the creed of
the church.--What Ernesti did for the N.T., =J. D. Michaelis=,
A.D. 1717-1791, son of the pious and orthodox Chr. Bened.
Michaelis, did for the O.T. He was from A.D. 1750 professor
at Göttingen, a man of varied learning and wide influence. He
publicly acknowledged that he had never experienced anything of
the _testimonium Sp. s. internum_, and rested his proofs of the
divinity of the Scriptures wholly on external evidences, _e.g._
miracles, prophecy, authenticity, etc., a spider’s web easily
blown to pieces by the enemy. No one has ever excelled him in the
art of foisting his own notions on the sacred authors and making
them utter his favourite ideas. A conspicuous instance of this is
his “Laws of Moses,” in six vols.--In a far greater measure than
either Ernesti or Michaelis did =J. Sol. Semler=, A.D. 1725-1791,
pupil of Baumgarten, and from A.D. 1751 professor at Halle, help
on the cause of rationalism. He had grown up under the influence
of Halle pietism in the profession of a customary Christianity,
which he called his private religion, which contributed to his
life a basis of genuine personal piety. But with a rare subtlety
of reasoning as a man of science, endowed with rich scholarship,
and without any wish to sever himself from Christianity, he
undermined almost all the supports of the theology of the church.
This he did by casting doubt on the genuineness of the biblical
writings, by setting up a theory of inspiration and accommodation
which admitted the presence of error, misunderstanding, and pious
fraud in the Scriptures, by a style of exposition which put aside
everything unattractive in the N.T. as “remnants of Judaism,”
by a critical treatment of the history of the church and its
doctrines, which represented the doctrines of the church as the
result of blundering, misconception, and violence, etc. He was a
voluminous author, leaving behind him no less than 171 writings.
He sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind, by which he himself
was driven along. He firmly withstood the installation of Bahrdt
at Halle, opposed Basedow’s endeavours, applied himself eagerly
to refute the “Wolfenbüttel Fragments” of Reimarus, edited by
Lessing in 1774-1778, which represented Christianity as founded
upon pure deceit and fraud, and defended even the edict of
Wöllner. But the current was not thus to be stemmed, and Semler
died broken-hearted at the sight of the heavy crop from his own
sowing.--J. Gr. Töllner, A.D. 1724-1774, from A.D. 1756 professor
at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, was in point of learning and influence
by no means equal to those now named; yet he deserves a place
alongside of them, as one who opened the door to rationalism in
the department of dogmatics. He himself held fast to the belief
in revelation, miracles, and prophecy, but he also regarded it
as proved that God saves men by the revelation of nature; the
revelation of Scripture is only a more sure and perfect means. He
also examined the divine inspiration of Scripture, and found that
the language and thoughts were the authors’ own, and that God
was concerned in it in a manner that could not be more precisely
determined. Finally, in treating of the active obedience of
Christ, he gives such a representation of it as sets aside the
doctrine of the church.
§ 171.7. =The Rationalistic Theology.=--From the school of
these men, especially from that of Semler, went forth crowds
of rationalists, who for seventy years held almost all the
professorships and pastorates of Protestant Germany. At their
head stands =Bahrdt=, A.D. 1741-1792, writer at first of orthodox
handbooks, who, sinking deeper and deeper through vanity, want of
character, and immorality, and following in the steps of Edelmann,
wrote 102 vols., mostly of a scurrilous and blasphemous character.
The rationalists, however, were generally of a nobler sort:
=Griesbach= of Jena, A.D. 1745-1812, distinguished as textual
critic of the N.T.; =Teller= of Berlin, published a lexicon
to the N.T., which substituted “leading another life” for
regeneration, “improvement” for sanctification, etc.; Koppe of
Göttingen, and Rosenmüller of Leipzig wrote _scholia_ on N.T.,
and Schulze and Bauer on the O.T. Of far greater value were the
performances of =J. G. Eichhorn= of Göttingen, A.D. 1752-1827,
and =Bertholdt= of Erlangen, A.D. 1774-1822, who wrote
introductions to the O.T. and commentaries. In the department
of church history, =H. P. C. Henke= of Helmstädt and the
talented statesman, =Von Spittler= of Württemberg, wrote
from the rationalistic standpoint. Steinbart and Eberhardt
[Eberhard] wrote more in the style of the popular philosophy.
The subtle-minded =J. H. Tieftrunk=, A.D. 1760-1837, professor
of philosophy at Halle, introduced into theology the Kantian
philosophy with its strict categories. Jerusalem, Zollikofer,
and others did much to spread rationalistic views by their
preaching.[520]
§ 171.8. =Supernaturalism.=--Abandoning the old orthodoxy without
surrendering to rationalism, the supernaturalists sought to
maintain their hold of the Scripture revelation. Many of them
did so in a very uncertain way: their revelation had scarcely
anything to reveal which was not already given by reason. Others,
however, eagerly sought to preserve all essentially vital truths.
Morus of Leipzig, Ernesti’s ablest student, Less of Göttingen,
Döderlein of Jena, Seiler of Erlangen, and Nösselt of Halle,
were all representatives of this school. More powerful opponents
of rationalism appeared in =Storr= of Tübingen, A.D. 1746-1805,
who could break a lance even with the philosopher of Königsberg,
=Knapp= of Halle, and =Reinhard= of Dresden, the most famous
preacher of his age. Reinhard’s sermon on the Reformation
festival of A.D. 1800 created such enthusiasm in favour of the
Lutheran doctrine of justification, that government issued an
edict calling the attention of all pastors to it as a model. The
most distinguished apologists were the mathematician =Euler= of
St. Petersburg, the physiologist, botanist, geologist, and poet
=Haller= of Zürich and the theologians =Lilienthal= of Königsberg
and =Kleuker= of Kiel. The most zealous defender of the faith was
the much abused =Goeze= of Hamburg, who fought for the palladium
of Lutheran orthodoxy against his rationalistic colleagues,
against the theatre, against Barth, Basedow, and such-like,
against the “Wolfenbüttel Fragments,” against the “Sorrows of
Werther,” etc. His polemic may have been over-violent, and he
certainly was not a match for such an antagonist as Lessing; he
was, however, by no means an obscurantist, ignoramus, fanatic,
or hypocrite, but a man in solemn earnest in all he did. In
the field of church history important services were rendered
by =Schröckh= of Wittenberg and =Walch= of Göttingen, laborious
investigators and compilers, =Stäudlin= and =Planck= of Göttingen,
and =Münter= of Copenhagen.--Among English theologians of this
tendency toward the end of the century, the most famous was
=Paley= of Cambridge, A.D. 1743-1805, whose “Principles of Moral
and Political Philosophy” and “Evidences of Christianity” were
obligatory text-books in the university. His “_Horæ Paulinæ_”
prove the credibility of the Acts of the Apostles from the
epistles, and his “Natural Theology” demonstrates God’s being
and attributes from nature.
§ 171.9. =Mysticism and Theosophy.=--=Oetinger= of Württemburg
[Württemberg], the _Magus_ of the South, A.D. 1702-1782,
takes rank by himself. He was a pupil of Bengel (§ 167, 3),
well grounded in Scripture, but also an admirer of Böhme and
sympathising with the spiritualistic visions of Swedenborg. But
amid all, with his biblical realism and his theosophy, which held
corporeity to be the end of the ways of God, he was firmly rooted
in the doctrines of Lutheran orthodoxy.--The best mystic of the
Reformed church was =J. Ph. Dutoit= of Lausanne, A.D. 1721-1793,
an enthusiastic admirer of Madame Guyon; he added to her quietist
mysticism certain theosophical speculations on the original
nature of Adam, the creation of woman, the fall, the necessity
of the incarnation apart from the fall, the basing of the
sinlessness of Christ upon the immaculate conception of his
mother, etc. He gathered about him during his lifetime a large
number of pious adherents, but after his death his theories were
soon forgotten.
§ 171.10. =The German Philosophy.=--As Locke accomplished the
descent from Bacon to deism and materialism, so =Wolff= effected
the transition from Leibnitz to the popular philosophy. =Kant=,
A.D. 1724-1804, saved philosophy from the baldness and self-
sufficiency of Wolffianism, and pointed it to its proper element
in the spiritual domain. Kant’s own philosophy stood wholly
outside of Christianity, on the same platform with rationalistic
theology. But by deeper digging in the soil it unearthed many a
precious nugget, of whose existence the vulgar rationalism had
never dreamed, without any intention of becoming a schoolmaster
to lead to Christ. Kant showed the impossibility of a knowledge
of the supernatural by means of pure reason, but admitted
the ideas of God, freedom, and immortality as postulates of
the practical reason and as constituting the principle of all
religion, whose only content is the moral law. Christianity and
the Bible are to remain the basis of popular instruction, but
are to be expounded only in an ethical sense. While in sympathy
with rationalism, he admits its baldness and self-sufficiency.
His keen criticism of the pure reason, the profound knowledge of
human weakness and corruption shown in his doctrine of radical
evil, his categorical imperative of the moral law, were well
fitted to awaken in more earnest minds a deep distrust of
themselves, a modest estimate of the boasted excellences of
their age, and a feeling that Christianity could alone meet their
necessities.--=F. H. Jacobi=, A.D. 1743-1819, “with the heart a
Christian, with the understanding a pagan,” as he characterized
himself, took religion out of the region of mere reason into the
depths of the universal feelings of the soul, and so awakened a
positive aspiration.--=J. G. Fichte=, A.D. 1762-1814, transformed
Kantianism, to which he at first adhered, into an idealistic
science of knowledge, in which only the _ego_ that posits itself
appears as real, and the _non-ego_, only by its being posited by
the _ego_; and thus the world and nature are only a reflex of the
mind. But when, accused of atheism in A.D. 1798, he was expelled
from his position in Jena, he changed his views, rushing from the
verge of atheism into a mysticism approaching to Christianity. In
his “Guide to a Blessed Life,” A.D. 1806, he delivered religion
from being a mere servant to morals, and sought the blessedness
of life in the loving surrender of one’s whole being to the
universal Spirit, the full expression of which he found in
John’s Gospel. Pauline Christianity, on the other hand, with its
doctrine of sin and redemption, seemed to him a deterioration,
and Christ Himself only the most complete representative of
the incarnation of God repeated in all ages and in every pious
man.--In the closing years of the century, =Schelling= brought
forward his theory of _identity_, which was one of the most
powerful instruments in introducing a new era.[521]
§ 171.11. =The German National Literature.=--When the powerful
strain of the evangelical church hymn had well-nigh expired in
the feeble lispings of =Gellert’s= sacred poetry, =Klopstock=
began to chant the praises of the Messiah in a higher strain. But
the pathos of his odes met with no response, and his “Messiah,”
of which the first three cantos appeared in A.D. 1748, though
received with unexampled enthusiasm, could do nothing to exorcise
the spirit of unbelief, and was more praised than read. The
theological standpoint of =Lessing=, A.D. 1729-1781, is set forth
in one of his letters to his brother. “I despise the orthodox
even more than you do, only I despise the clergy of the new style
even more. What is the new-fashioned theology of those shallow
pates compared with orthodoxy but as dung-water compared with
dirty water? On this point we are at one, that our old religious
system is false; but I cannot say with you that it is a patchwork
of bunglers and half philosophers. I know nothing in the world
upon which human ingenuity has been more subtly exercised than
upon it. That religious system which is now offered in place of
the old is a patchwork of bunglers and half philosophers.” He is
offended at men hanging the concerns of eternity on the spider’s
thread of external evidences, and so he was delighted to hurl
the Wolfenbüttel “Fragments” at the heads of theologians and the
Hamburg pastor Goeze, whom he loaded with contumely and scorn.
Thoroughly characteristic too is the saying in the “_Duplik_:”
That if God holding in his right hand all truth, and in his
left hand the search after truth, subject to error through all
eternity, were to offer him his choice, he would humbly say,
“Father the left, for pure truth is indeed for thee alone.” In
his “_Nathan_” only Judaism and Mohammedanism are represented by
truly noble and ideal characters, while the chief representative
of Christianity is a gloomy zealot, and the conclusion of the
parable is that all three rings are counterfeit. In another
work he views revelation as one of the stages in “The Education
of the Human Race,” which loses its significance as soon as
its purpose is served. In familiar conversation with Jacobi
he frankly declared his acceptance of the doctrine of Spinoza:
Ἓν καὶ πᾶν.[522] =Wieland=, A.D. 1733-1813, soon turned
from his youthful zeal for ecclesiastical orthodoxy to the
popular philosophy of the cultured man of the world. =Herder=,
A.D. 1744-1803, with his enthusiastic appreciation of the
poetical contents of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament,
was not slow to point out the insipidity of its ordinary
treatment. =Goethe=, A.D. 1749-1832, profoundly hated the
vandalism of neology, delighted in “The Confessions of a
Fair Soul” (§ 172, 2), had in earlier years sympathy with the
Herrnhuters, but in the full intellectual vigour of his manhood
thought he had no need of Christianity, which offended him by
its demand for renunciation of self and the world. =Schiller=,
A.D. 1759-1805, enthusiastically admiring everything noble,
beautiful and good, misunderstood Christianity, and introduced
into the hearts of the German people Kantian rationalism clothed
in rich poetic garb. His lament on the downfall of the gods of
Greece, even if not so intended by the poet himself, told not so
much against orthodox Christianity as against poverty-stricken
deism, which banished the God of Christianity from the world
and set in his place the dead forces of nature. And if indeed
he really thought that for religion’s sake he should confess
to no religion, he has certainly in many profoundly Christian
utterances given unconscious testimony to Christianity.--The
Jacobi philosophy of feeling found poetic interpreters in =Jean
Paul Richter=, A.D. 1763-1825, and =Hebel=, died A.D. 1826, in
whom we find the same combination of pious sentiment which is
drawn toward Christianity and the sceptical understanding which
allied itself to the revolt against the common orthodoxy. =J. H.
Voss=, a rough, powerful Dutch peasant, who in his “_Luise_”
sketched the ideal of a brave rationalistic country parson, and,
with the inexorable rigour of an inquisitor, hunted down the
night birds of ignorance and oppression. But alongside of those
children of the world stood two genuine sons of Luther, =Matthias
Claudius=, A.D. 1740-1815, and =J. G. Hamann=, A.D. 1730-1788,
the “Magus of the North” and the Elijah of his age, of whom Jean
Paul said that his commas were planetary systems and his periods
solar systems, to whom the philosopher Hemsterhuis erected in
the garden of Princess Gallitzin a tablet with the inscription:
“To the Jews a stumbling- block, to the Greeks foolishness.” With
them may also be named two noble sons of the Reformed church, the
physiognomist =Lavater=, A.D. 1741- 1801, and the devout dreamer,
=Jung-Stilling=, A.D. 1740-1817. The famous historian, =John von
Müller=, A.D. 1752- 1809, well deserves mention here, who more
than any previous historian made Christ the centre and summit
of all times; and also the no less famous statesman =C. F. von
Moser=, the most German of the Germans of this century, who,
with noble Christian heroism, in numerous political and patriotic
tracts, battled against the prevailing social and political vices
of his age.
§ 171.12. The great Swiss educationist =Pestalozzi=,
A.D. 1746-1827, assumed toward the Bible, the church, and
Christianity an attitude similar to that of the philosopher of
Königsberg. The conviction of the necessity and wholesomeness
of a biblical foundation in all popular education was rooted
in his heart, and he clearly saw the shallowness of the popular
philosophy, whether presented under the eccentric naturalism of
Rousseau or the bald utilitarianism of Basedow. His whole life
issued from the very sanctuary of true Christianity, as seen in
his self-sacrificing efforts to save the lost, to strengthen the
weak, and to preach to the poor by word and deed the gospel of
the all-merciful God whose will it is that all should be saved.
He began his career as an educationist in A.D. 1775 by receiving
into his house deserted beggar children, and carried on his
experiments in his educational institutions at Burgdorf till
A.D. 1798, and at Isserten till A.D. 1804. His writings, which
circulated far and wide, gained for his methods recognition and
high approval.[523]
§ 172. CHURCH LIFE IN THE PERIOD OF THE “ILLUMINATION.”
The ancient faith of the church had even during this age of prevailing
unbelief its seven thousand who refused to bow the knee to Baal. The
German people were at heart firmly grounded in the Christianity of the
Bible and the church, and where the pulpit failed had their spiritual
wants supplied by the devout writings of earlier days. Where the modern
vandalism of the “Illumination” had mutilated and watered down the books
of praise, the old church songs lingered in the memories of fathers and
mothers, and were sung with ardour at family worship. For many men of
culture, who were more exposed to danger, the Society of the Brethren
afforded a welcome refuge. But even among the most accomplished of the
nation many stood firmly in the old paths. Lavater and Stilling, Haller
and Euler, the two Mosers, father and son, John von Müller and his
brother J. G. Müller, are not by any means the only, but merely the best
known, of such true sons of the church. In Württemberg and Berg, where
religious life was most vigorous, religious sects were formed with new
theological views which made a deep impression on the character and
habits of the people. Also toward the end of the century an awakened
zeal in home and foreign missions was the prelude of the glorious
enterprises of our own days.
§ 172.1. =The Hymnbook and Church Music.=--Klopstock, followed
by Cramer and Schlegel, introduced the vandalism of altering
the old church hymns to suit modern tastes and views. But a
few, like Herder and Schubert, raised their voices against such
philistinism. The “Illuminist” alterations were unutterably
prosaic, and the old pathos and poetry of the sixteenth and
seventeenth century hymns were ruthlessly sacrificed. The
spiritual songs of the noble and pious Gellert are by far
the best productions of this period.--=Church Music= too now
reached its lowest ebb. The old chorales were altered into modern
forms. A multitude of new, unpopular melodies, difficult of
comprehension, with a bald school tone, were introduced; the last
trace of the old rhythm disappeared, and a weary monotony began
to prevail, in which all force and freshness were lost. As a
substitute, secular preludes, interludes, and concluding pieces
were brought in. The people often entered the churches during the
playing of operatic overtures, and were dismissed amid the noise
of a march or waltz. The church ceased to be the patron and
promoter of music; the theatre and concert room took its place.
The opera style thoroughly depraved the oratorio. For festival
occasions, cantatas in a purely secular, effeminate style were
composed. A true ecclesiastical music no longer existed, so that
even Winterfeld closed his history of church music with Seb. Bach.
It was, if possible, still worse with the mass music of the Roman
Catholic church. Palestrina’s earnest and capable school was
completely lost sight of under the sprightly and frivolous opera
style, and with the organ still more mischief was done than in
the Protestant church.
§ 172.2. =Religious Characters.=--The pastor of Ban de la Roche
in Steinthal of Alsace, “the saint of the Protestant church,”
=J. Fr. Oberlin=, A.D. 1740-1826, deserves a high place of honour.
During a sixty years’ pastorate “Father Oberlin” raised his
poverty-stricken flock to a position of industrial prosperity,
and changed the barren Steinthal into a patriarchal paradise. The
same may be said of a noble Christian woman of that age, =Sus.
Cath. von Klettenberg=, Lavater’s “Cordata,” Goethe’s “Fair Soul,”
whose genuine confessions are wrought into “_Wilhelm Meister_,”
the centre of a beautiful Christian circle in Frankfort, where
the young Goethe received religious impressions that were never
wholly forgotten.--Community of religious yearnings brought
together pious Protestants and pious Catholics. The Princess von
Gallitzin, her chaplain Overberg, and minister Von Fürstenberg
formed a noble group of earnest Catholics, for whom the ardent
Lutheran Hamann entertained the warmest affection.
§ 172.3. =Religious Sects.=--In Württemberg there arose out of
the pietism of Spener, with a dash of the theosophy of Oetinger,
the party of the =Michelians=, so named from a layman, Michael
Hahn, whose writings show profound insight into the truths of the
gospel. He taught the doctrine of a double fall, in consequence
of which he depreciated though he did not forbid marriage; of a
restitution of all things; while he subordinated justification
to sanctification, the Christ for us to the Christ in us, etc.
As a reaction against this extreme arose the =Pregizerians=, who
laid exclusive stress upon baptism and justification, declared
assurance and heart-breaking penitence unnecessary, and imparted
to their services as much brightness and joy as possible. Both
sects spread over Württemberg and still exist, but in their
common opposition to the destructive tendencies of modern times,
they have drawn more closely together. In their chiliasm and
restitutionism they are thoroughly agreed.--The =Collenbuschians=
in Canton Berg propounded a dogmatic system in which Christ
empties Himself of His divine attributes, and assumes with sinful
flesh the tendencies to sin that had to be fought against, the
sufferings of Christ are attributed to the wrath of Satan, and
His redemption consists in His overcoming Satan’s wrath for us
and imparting His Spirit to enable us to do works of holiness.
The most distinguished adherents of Collenbusch were the two
Hasencamps and the talented Bremen pastor Menken.
§ 172.4. =The Rationalistic “Illumination” outside of
Germany.=--In Amsterdam, in A.D. 1791, a =Restored Lutheran
Church= or =Old Light= was organized on the occasion of the
intrusion of a rationalistic pastor. It now numbers eight Dutch
congregations with 14,000 adherents and 11 pastors. Under the
name of =Christo Sacrum= some members of the French Reformed
church at Delft, in A.D. 1797, founded a denomination which
received adherents of all confessions, holding by the divinity
of Christ and His atonement, and treating all confessional
differences as non-essential and to be held only as private
opinions. In their public services they adopted mainly the forms
of the Anglican episcopal church. Though successful at first, it
soon became rent by the incongruity of its elements. In England
the dissenters and Methodists provided a healthy protest against
the lukewarmness of the State church. In =William Cowper=,
A.D. 1731-1800, we have a noble and brilliant poet of high
lyrical genius, whose life was blasted by the terrorism of a
predestinarian doctrine of despair and the religious melancholy
produced by Methodistic agonies of soul.
§ 172.5. =Missionary Societies and Missionary Enterprise.=--In
order to arouse interest in the idea of a grand union for
practical Christian purposes, the Augsburg elder, John Urlsperger,
travelled through England, Holland, and Germany. The Basel
Society for Spreading Christian Truth, founded in A.D. 1780, was
the firstfruits of his zeal, and branches were soon established
throughout Switzerland and Southern Germany. The Basel Bible
Society was founded in A.D. 1804, and the Missionary Society
in A.D. 1816.--At a meeting of English Baptist preachers at
Kettering, in Northamptonshire, in A.D. 1792, William Carey was
the means of starting the Baptist Missionary Society. Carey was
himself its first missionary. He sailed for India in A.D. 1793,
and founded the Serampore Mission in Bengal. The work of the
society has now spread over the East and West Indies, the Malay
Archipelago, South Africa, and South America. A popular preacher,
Melville Horne, who had been himself in India, published “Letters
on Missions,” in A.D. 1794, in which he earnestly counselled a
union of all true Christians for the conversion of the heathen.
In response to this appeal a large number of Christians of all
denominations, mostly Independents, founded in A.D. 1795, the
London Missionary Society, and in the following year the first
missionary ship, _The Duff_, under Captain Wilson, sailed for the
South Seas with twenty-nine missionaries on board. Its operations
now extend to both Indies, South Africa, and North America;
but its chief hold is in the South Seas. In the Society Islands
the missionaries wrought for sixteen years without any apparent
result, till at last King Pomare II. of Tahiti sought baptism as
the first-fruits of their labours. A victory gained over a pagan
reactionary party in A.D. 1815 secured complete ascendency to
Christianity. The example of the London Society was followed by
the founding of two Scottish societies in A.D. 1796 and a Dutch
society in A.D. 1797, and the Church Missionary Society in London
in A.D. 1799, for the English possessions in Africa, Asia, etc.
The Danish Lutheran (§ 167, 9) and the Herrnhut (§ 168, 11)
societies still continued their operations.[524]--Continuation,
§§ 183, 184.