Wherever there exists a permanent[120] learned class, having authority
and possessing the respect and confidence of the country; and wherever
the Science of Ethics is acknowledged, and taught in _this_ class as a
regular part of a learned education, to its future members generally,
but as the special study and indispensable ground-work of such as are
intended for holy orders;--_there_ the Article of Original Sin will be
an AXIOM of Faith in _all_ classes. Among the learned an undisputed
_truth_, and with the people a fact, which no man imagines it possible
to deny: and the doctrine, thus inwoven in the faith of all, and
coeval with the consciousness of each, will for each and all, possess
a reality, _subjective_ indeed, yet virtually equivalent to that which
we intuitively give to the objects of our senses.
With the learned this will be the case, because the Article is the
first--I had almost said, _spontaneous_--product of the application of
moral science to history, of which it is the interpreter. A mystery in
its own right, and by the necessity and essential character of its
subject--(for the Will, like the Life, in every act and product
pre-supposes to itself, a Past always present, a Present that evermore
resolves itself into a Past)--the doctrine of Original Sin gives to
all the other mysteries of religion a common basis, a connection of
dependency, an intelligibility of relation, and total harmony, that
supersede extrinsic proof. There is here that same proof from unity of
purpose, that same evidence of symmetry, which, in the contemplation
of a human skeleton, flashed conviction on the mind of Galen, and
kindled meditation into a hymn of praise.
Meanwhile the People, not goaded into doubt by the lessons and
examples of their teachers and superiors; not drawn away from the
fixed stars of heaven, the form and magnitude of which are the same
for the naked eye of the shepherd as for the telescope of the
sage--from the immediate truths, I mean, of Reason and Conscience to
an exercise to which they have not been trained,--of a faculty which
has been imperfectly developed,--on a subject not within the sphere of
the faculty, nor in any way amenable to its judgment;--the PEOPLE will
need no arguments to receive a doctrine confirmed by their own
experience from within and from without, and intimately blended with
the most venerable traditions common to all races, and the traces of
which linger in the latest twilight of civilization.
Among the revulsions consequent on the brute bewilderments of a
Godless revolution, a great and active zeal for the interests of
religion may be one. I dare not trust it, till I have seen what it is
that gives religion this interest, till I am satisfied that it is not
the interests of this world; necessary and laudable interests,
perhaps, but which may, I dare believe, be secured as effectually and
more suitably by the prudence of this world, and by this world's
powers and motives. At all events, I find nothing in the fashion of
the day to deter me from adding, that the reverse of the
preceding--that where religion is valued and patronized as a
supplement of law, or an aid extraordinary of police; where Moral
SCIENCE is exploded as the mystic jargon of dark ages; where a lax
System of Consequences, by which every iniquity on earth may be (and
how many _have_ been!) denounced and defended with equal plausibility,
is publicly and authoritatively taught as Moral Philosophy; where the
mysteries of religion, and truths supersensual, are either cut and
squared for the comprehension of the understanding, "the faculty
judging according to sense," or desperately torn asunder from the
reason, nay, fanatically opposed to it; lastly, where Private[121]
Interpretation is every thing and the Church nothing--_there_ the
mystery of Original Sin will be either rejected, or evaded, or
perverted into the monstrous fiction of Hereditary Sin,--guilt
inherited; in the mystery of Redemption metaphors will be obtruded for
the reality; and in the mysterious appurtenants and symbols of
Redemption (Regeneration, Grace, the Eucharist, and Spiritual
Communion) the realities will be evaporated into metaphors.
[120] A learned order must be supposed to consist of three classes.
First, those who are employed in adding to the existing sum of power
and knowledge. Second, and most numerous class, those whose office it
is to diffuse through the community at large the practical Results of
science, and that kind and degree of knowledge and cultivation, which
for all is requisite or clearly useful. Third, the formers and
instructors of the second--in schools, halls, and universities, or
through the medium of the press. The second class includes not only
the parochial clergy, and all others duly ordained to the ministerial
office; but likewise all the members of the legal and medical
professions, who have received a learned education under accredited
and responsible teachers. [See 'The Church and State,' p. 45, &c.,
third edition--H. N. C.]
[121] The author of 'The Statesman's Manual' must be the most
inconsistent of men, if he can be justly suspected of a leaning to the
Romish Church; or if it be necessary for him to repeat his fervent
Amen to the wish and prayer of our late good old King, that "every
adult in the British Empire should be able to read his Bible, and have
a Bible to read!" Nevertheless, it may not be superfluous to declare,
that in thus protesting against the _license_ of private
interpretation, I do not mean to condemn the exercise or deny the
right of individual judgment. I condemn only the pretended right of
every individual, competent and incompetent, to interpret Scripture in
a sense of his own, in opposition to the judgment of the Church,
without knowledge of the originals or of the languages, the history,
the customs, opinions, and controversies of the age and country in
which they were written; and where the interpreter judges in ignorance
or contempt of uninterrupted tradition, the unanimous consent of
Fathers and Councils, and the universal Faith of the Church in all
ages. It is not the attempt to form a judgment, which is here called
in question; but the grounds, or rather the _no-grounds_ on which the
judgment is formed and relied on.
My fixed principle is: that A CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT A CHURCH EXERCISING
SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY IS VANITY AND DISSOLUTION. And my _belief_ is,
that when Popery is rushing in on us like an inundation, the nation
will find it to be so. I say _Popery_; for this too I hold for a
delusion, that Romanism or _Roman_ Catholicism is separable from
Popery. Almost as readily could I suppose a circle without a centre.