possession of the gift of miracle-working was _prima facie_ evidence of
the soundness of the faith of the miracle-workers. The supposition that
miraculous powers might be wielded by heretics (though it might be
supported by high authority) led to consequences too frightful to be
entertained by people who were busied in building their dogmatic house
on the sands of early Church history. If, as the Romanists maintained,
an unbroken series of genuine miracles adorned the records of their
Church, throughout the whole of its existence, no Anglican could lightly
venture to accuse them of doctrinal corruption. Hence, the Anglicans,
who indulged in such accusations, were bound to prove the modern, the
mediæval Roman, and the later Patristic, miracles false; and to shut off
the wonder-working power from the Church at the exact point of time when
Anglican doctrine ceased and Roman doctrine began. With a little
adjustment--a squeeze here and a pull there--the Christianity of the
first three or four centuries might be made to fit, or seem to fit,
pretty well into the Anglican scheme. So the miracles, from Justin say
to Jerome, might be recognised; while, in later times, the Church having
become "corrupt"--that is to say, having pursued one and the same line
of development further than was pleasing to Anglicans--its alleged
miracles must needs be shams and impostures.
Under these circumstances, it may be imagined that the establishment of
a scientific frontier between the earlier realm of supposed fact and the
later of asserted delusion, had its difficulties; and torrents of
theological special pleading about the subject flowed from clerical
pens; until that learned and acute Anglican divine, Conyers Middleton,
in his "Free Inquiry," tore the sophistical web they had laboriously
woven to pieces, and demonstrated that the miracles of the patristic
age, early and late, must stand or fall together, inasmuch as the
evidence for the later is just as good as the evidence for the earlier
wonders. If the one set are certified by contemporaneous witnesses of
high repute, so are the other; and, in point of probability, there is
not a pin to choose between the two. That is the solid and irrefragable
result of Middleton's contribution to the subject. But the Free
Inquirer's freedom had its limits; and he draws a sharp line of
demarcation between the patristic and the New Testament miracles--on the
professed ground that the accounts of the latter, being inspired, are
out of the reach of criticism.
A century later, the question was taken up by another divine,
Middleton's equal in learning and acuteness, and far his superior in
subtlety and dialectic skill; who, though an Anglican, scorned the name
of Protestant; and, while yet a Churchman, made it his business, to
parade, with infinite skill, the utter hollowness of the arguments of
those of his brother Churchmen who dreamed that they could be both
Anglicans and Protestants. The argument of the "Essay on the Miracles
recorded in the Ecclesiastical History of the Early Ages" [60] by the
present [1889] Roman Cardinal, but then Anglican Doctor, John Henry
Newman, is compendiously stated by himself in the following passage:--
If the miracles of Church history cannot be defended by the
arguments of Leslie, Lyttelton, Paley, or Douglas, how many of the
Scripture miracles satisfy their conditions? (P. cvii.)
And, although the answer is not given in so many words, little doubt is
left on the mind of the reader, that in the mind of the writer, it is:
None. In fact, this conclusion is one which cannot be resisted, if the
argument in favour of the Scripture miracles is based upon that which
laymen, whether lawyers, or men of science, or historians, or ordinary
men of affairs, call evidence. But there is something really impressive
in the magnificent contempt with which, at times, Dr. Newman sweeps
aside alike those who offer and those who demand such evidence.
Some infidel authors advise us to accept no miracles which would
not have a verdict in their favour in a court of justice; that is,
they employ against Scripture a weapon which Protestants would
confine to attacks upon the Church; as if moral and religious
questions required legal proof, and evidence were the test of
truth[61] (p. cvii).
"As if evidence were the test of truth!"--although the truth in question
is the occurrence, or the non-occurrence, of certain phenomena at a
certain time and in a certain place. This sudden revelation of the great
gulf fixed between the ecclesiastical and the scientific mind is enough
to take away the breath of any one unfamiliar with the clerical organon.
As if, one may retort, the assumption that miracles may, or have, served
a moral or a religious end, in any way alters the fact that they profess
to be historical events, things that actually happened; and, as such,
must needs be exactly those subjects about which evidence is appropriate
and legal proofs (which are such merely because they afford adequate
evidence) may be justly demanded. The Gadarene miracle either happened,
or it did not. Whether the Gadarene "question" is moral or religious, or
not, has nothing to do with the fact that it is a purely historical
question whether the demons said what they are declared to have said,
and the devil-possessed pigs did, or did not, rush over the heights
bounding the Lake of Gennesaret on a certain day of a certain year,
after A.D. 26 and before A.D. 36: for vague and uncertain as New
Testament chronology is, I suppose it may be assumed that the event in
question, if it happened at all, took place during the procuratorship of
Pilate. If that is not a matter about which evidence ought to be
required, and not only legal, but strict scientific proof demanded by
sane men who are asked to believe the story--what is? Is a reasonable
being to be seriously asked to credit statements, which, to put the case
gently, are not exactly probable, and on the acceptance or rejection of
which his whole view of life may depend, without asking for as much
"legal" proof as would send an alleged pickpocket to gaol, or as would
suffice to prove the validity of a disputed will?
"Infidel authors" (if, as I am assured, I may answer for them) will
decline to waste time on mere darkenings of counsel of this sort; but to
those Anglicans who accept his premises, Dr. Newman is a truly
formidable antagonist. What, indeed, are they to reply when he puts the
very pertinent question:--
whether persons who not merely question, but prejudge the
Ecclesiastical miracles on the ground of their want of resemblance,
whatever that be, to those contained in Scripture--as if the
Almighty could not do in the Christian Church what He had not
already done at the time of its foundation, or under the Mosaic
Covenant--whether such reasoners are not siding with the sceptic,
and
whether it is not a happy inconsistency by which they continue to
believe the Scriptures while they reject the Church[62] (p. liii).
Again, I invite Anglican orthodoxy to consider this passage:--
the narrative of the combats of St. Antony with evil spirits, is a
development rather than a contradiction of revelation, viz. of such
texts as speak of Satan being cast out by prayer and fasting. To be
shocked, then, at the miracles of Ecclesiastical history, or to
ridicule them for their strangeness, is no part of a scriptural
philosophy (pp. liii-liv).
Further on, Dr. Newman declares that it has been admitted
that a distinct line can lie drawn in point of character and
circumstance between the miracles of Scripture and of Church
history; but this is by no means the case (p. lv) ... specimens are
not wanting in the history of the Church, of miracles as awful in
their character and as momentous in their effects as those which
are recorded in Scripture. The fire interrupting the rebuilding of
the Jewish Temple, and the death of Arius, are instances, in
Ecclesiastical history, of such solemn events. On the other hand,
difficult instances in the Scripture history are such as these: the
serpent in Eden, the Ark, Jacob's vision for the multiplication of
his cattle, the speaking of Balaam's ass, the axe swimming at
Elisha's word, the miracle on the swine, and various instances of
prayers or prophecies, in which, as in that of Noah's blessing and
curse, words which seem the result of private feeling are expressly
or virtually ascribed to a Divine suggestion (p. lvi).
Who is to gainsay our ecclesiastical authority here? "Infidel authors"
might be accused of a wish to ridicule the Scripture miracles by putting
them on a level with the remarkable story about the fire which stopped
the rebuilding of the Temple, or that about the death of Arius--but Dr.
Newman is above suspicion. The pity is that his list of what he
delicately terms "difficult" instances is so short. Why omit the
manufacture of Eve out of Adam's rib, on the strict historical accuracy
of which the chief argument of the defenders of an iniquitous portion of
our present marriage law depends? Why leave out the account of the "Bene
Elohim" and their gallantries, on which a large part of the worst
practices of the mediæval inquisitors into witchcraft was based? Why
forget the angel who wrestled with Jacob, and, as the account suggests,
somewhat over-stepped the bound of fair play, at the end of the
struggle? Surely, we must agree with Dr. Newman that, if all these
camels have gone down, it savours of affectation to strain at such gnats
as the sudden ailment of Arius in the midst of his deadly, if
prayerful,[63] enemies; and the fiery explosion which stopped the Julian
building operations. Though the _words_ of the "Conclusion" of the
"Essay on Miracles" may, perhaps, be quoted against me, I may express my
satisfaction at finding myself in substantial accordance with a
theologian above all suspicion of heterodoxy. With all my heart, I can
declare my belief that there is just as good reason for believing in the
miraculous slaying of the man who fell short of the Athanasian power of
affirming contradictories, with respect to the nature of the Godhead, as
there is for believing in the stories of the serpent and the ark told in
Genesis, the speaking of Balaam's ass in Numbers, or the floating of the
axe, at Elisha's order, in the second book of Kings.
It is one of the peculiarities of a really sound argument that it is
susceptible of the fullest development; and that it sometimes leads to
conclusions unexpected by those who employ it. To my mind, it is
impossible to refuse to follow Dr. Newman when he extends his reasoning,
from the miracles of the patristic and mediæval ages backward in time,
as far as miracles are recorded. But, if the rules of logic are valid, I
feel compelled to extend the argument forwards to the alleged Roman
miracles of the present day, which Dr. Newman might not have admitted,
but which Cardinal Newman may hardly reject. Beyond question, there is
as good, or perhaps better, evidence of the miracles worked by our Lady
of Lourdes, as there is for the floating of Elisha's axe, or the
speaking of Balaam's ass. But we must go still further; there is a
modern system of thaumaturgy and demonology which is just as well
certified as the ancient.[64] Veracious, excellent, sometimes learned
and acute persons, even philosophers of no mean pretensions, testify to
the "levitation" of bodies much heavier than Elisha's axe; to the
existence of "spirits" who, to the mere tactile sense, have been
indistinguishable from flesh and blood; and, occasionally, have wrestled
with all the vigour of Jacob's opponent; yet, further, to the speech, in
the language of raps, of spiritual beings, whose discourses, in point of
coherence and value, are far inferior to that of Balaam's humble but
sagacious steed. I have not the smallest doubt that, if these were
persecuting times, there is many a worthy "spiritualist" who would
cheerfully go to the stake in support of his pneumatological faith; and
furnish evidence, after Paley's own heart, in proof of the truth of his
doctrines. Not a few modern divines, doubtless struck by the
impossibility of refusing the spiritualist evidence, if the
ecclesiastical evidence is accepted, and deprived of any _a priori_
objection by their implicit belief in Christian Demonology, show
themselves ready to take poor Sludge seriously, and to believe that he
is possessed by other devils than those of need, greed, and vainglory.
Under these, circumstances, it was to be expected, though it is none the
less interesting to note the fact, that the arguments of the latest
school of "spiritualists" present a wonderful family likeness to those
which adorn the subtle disquisitions of the advocate of ecclesiastical
miracles of forty years ago. It is unfortunate for the "spiritualists"
that, over and over again, celebrated and trusted media, who really, in
some respects, call to mind the Montanist[65] and gnostic seers of the
second century, are either proved in courts of law to be fraudulent
impostors; or, in sheer weariness, as it would seem, of the honest dupes
who swear by them, spontaneously confess their long-continued
iniquities, as the Fox women did the other day in New York.[66] But,
whenever a catastrophe of this kind takes place, the believers are no
wise dismayed by it. They freely admit that not only the media, but the
spirits whom they summon, are sadly apt to lose sight of the elementary
principles of right and wrong; and they triumphantly ask: How does the
occurrence of occasional impostures disprove the genuine manifestations
(that is to say, all those which have not yet been proved to be
impostures or delusions)? And, in this, they unconsciously plagiarise
from the churchman, who just as freely admits that many ecclesiastical
miracles may have been forged; and asks, with calm contempt, not only of
legal proofs, but of common-sense probability, Why does it follow that
none are to be supposed genuine? I must say, however, that the
spiritualists, so far as I know, do not venture to outrage right reason
so boldly as the ecclesiastics. They do not sneer at "evidence"; nor
repudiate the requirement of legal proofs. In fact, there can be no
doubt that the spiritualists produce better evidence for their
manifestations than can be shown either for the miraculous death of
Arius, or for the Invention of the Cross.[67]
From the "levitation" of the axe at one end of a period of near three
thousand years to the "levitation" of Sludge & Co. at the other end,
there is a complete continuity of the miraculous, with every gradation,
from the childish to the stupendous, from the gratification of a caprice
to the illustration of sublime truth. There is no drawing a line in the
series that might be set out of plausibly attested cases of spiritual
intervention. If one is true, all may be true; if one is false, all may
be false.
This is, to my mind, the inevitable result of that method of reasoning
which is applied to the confutation of Protestantism, with so much
success, by one of the acutest and subtlest disputants who have ever
championed Ecclesiasticism--and one cannot put his claims to acuteness
and subtlety higher.
... the Christianity of history is not Protestantism. If ever
there were a safe truth it is this ... "To be deep in history
is to cease to be a Protestant." [68]
I have not a shadow of doubt that these anti-Protestant epigrams are
profoundly true. But I have as little that, in the same sense, the
"Christianity of history is not" Romanism; and that to be deeper in
history is to cease to be a Romanist. The reasons which compel my doubts
about the compatibility of the Roman doctrine, or any other form of
Catholicism, with history, arise out of exactly the same line of
argument as that adopted by Dr. Newman in the famous essay which I have
just cited. If, with one hand, Dr. Newman has destroyed Protestantism,
he has annihilated Romanism with the other; and the total result of his
ambidextral efforts is to shake Christianity to its foundations. Nor was
any one better aware that this must be he inevitable result of his
arguments--if the world should refuse to accept Roman doctrines and
Roman miracles--than the writer of Tract 85.
Dr. Newman made his choice and passed over to the Roman Church half a
century ago. Some of those who were essentially in harmony with his
views preceded, and many followed him. But many remained; and, as the
quondam Puseyite and present Ritualistic party, they are continuing that
work of sapping and mining the Protestantism of the Anglican Church
which he and his friends so ably commenced. At the present time, they
have no little claim to be considered victorious all along the line. I
am old enough to recollect the small beginnings of the Tractarian party;
and I am amazed when I consider the present position of their heirs.
Their little leaven has leavened, if not the whole, yet a very large
lump of the Anglican Church; which is now pretty much of a preparatory
school for Papistry. So that it really behoves Englishmen (who, as I
have been informed by high authority, are all legally members of the
State Church, if they profess to belong to no other sect) to wake up to
what that powerful organisation is about, and whither it is tending. On
this point, the writings of Dr. Newman, while he still remained within
the Anglican fold, are a vast store of the best and the most
authoritative information. His doctrines on Ecclesiastical miracles and
on Development are the Corner-stones of the Tractarian fabric. He
believed that his arguments led either Romeward, or to what
ecclesiastics call "Infidelity," and I call Agnosticism. I believe that
he was quite right in this conviction; but while he chooses the one
alternative, I choose the other; as he rejects Protestantism on the
ground of its incompatibility with history, so, _a fortiori_, I conceive
that Romanism ought to be rejected; and that an impartial consideration
of the evidence must refuse the authority of Jesus to anything more than
the Nazarenism of James and Peter and John. And let it not be supposed
that this is a mere "infidel" perversion of the facts. No one has more
openly and clearly admitted the possibility that they may be fairly
interpreted in this way than Dr. Newman. If, he says, there are texts
which seem to show that Jesus contemplated the evangelisation of the
heathen:
... Did not the Apostles hear our Lord? and what was _their_
impression from what they heard? Is it not certain that the
Apostles did not gather this truth from His teaching? (Tract 85, p.
63.)
He said, "Preach the Gospel to every creature," These words _need_
have only meant "Bring all men to Christianity through Judaism."
Make them Jews, that they may enjoy Christ's privileges, which are
lodged in Judaism; teach them those rites and ceremonies,
circumcision and the like, which hitherto have been dead
ordinances, and now are living: and so the Apostles seem to have
understood them (_ibid._ p. 65).
So far as Nazarenism differentiated itself from contemporary orthodox
Judaism, it seems to have tended towards a revival of the ethical and
religious spirit of the prophetic age, accompanied by the belief in
Jesus as the Messiah, and by various accretions which had grown round
Judaism subsequently to the exile. To these belong the doctrines of the
Resurrection, of the Last Judgment, of Heaven and Hell; of the hierarchy
of good angels; of Satan and the hierarchy of evil spirits. And there is
very strong ground for believing that all these doctrines, at least in
the shapes in which they were held by the post-exilic Jews, were derived
from Persian and Babylonian[69] sources, and are essentially of heathen
origin.
How far Jesus positively sanctioned all these indrainings of
circumjacent Paganism into Judaism; how far any one has a right to
declare that the refusal to accept one or other of these doctrines, as
ascertained verities, comes to the same thing as contradicting Jesus, it
appears to me not easy to say. But it is hardly less difficult to
conceive that he could have distinctly negatived any of them; and, more
especially, that demonology which has been accepted by the Christian
Churches, in every age and under all their mutual antagonisms. But I
repeat my conviction that, whether Jesus sanctioned the demonology of
his time and nation or not, it is doomed. The future of Christianity, as
a dogmatic system and apart from the old Israelitish ethics which it has
appropriated and developed, lies in the answer which mankind will
eventually give to the question, whether they are prepared to believe
such stories as the Gadarene and the pneumatological hypotheses which go
with it, or not. My belief is they will decline to do anything of the
sort, whenever and wherever their minds have been disciplined by
science. And that discipline must, and will, at once follow and lead the
footsteps of advancing civilisation.
The preceding pages were written before I became acquainted with the
contents of the May number of the _Nineteenth Century_, wherein I
discover many things which are decidedly not to my advantage. It would
appear that "evasion" is my chief resource, "incapacity for strict
argument" and "rottenness of ratiocination" my main mental
characteristics, and that it is "barely credible" that a statement which
I profess to make of my own knowledge is true. All which things I
notice, merely to illustrate the great truth, forced on me by long
experience, that it is only from those who enjoy the blessing of a firm
hold of the Christian faith that such manifestations of meekness,
patience, and charity are to be expected.
I had imagined that no one who had read my preceding papers, could
entertain a doubt as to my position in respect of the main issue, as it
has been stated and restated by my opponent:
an Agnosticism which knows nothing of the relation of man to God
must not only refuse belief to our Lord's most undoubted teaching,
but must deny the reality of the spiritual convictions in which He
lived.[70]
That is said to be "the simple question which is at issue between us,"
and the three testimonies to that teaching and those convictions
selected are the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, and the Story
of the Passion.
My answer, reduced to its briefest form, has been: In the first place,
the evidence is such that the exact nature of the teachings and the
convictions of Jesus is extremely uncertain; so that what ecclesiastics
are pleased to call a denial of them may be nothing of the kind. And, in
the second place, if Jesus taught the demonological system involved in
the Gadarene story--if a belief in that system formed a part of the
spiritual convictions in which he lived and died--then I, for my part,
unhesitatingly refuse belief in that teaching, and deny the reality of
those spiritual convictions. And I go further and add, that, exactly in
so far as it can be proved that Jesus sanctioned the essentially pagan
demonological theories current among the Jews of his age, exactly in so
far, for me, will his authority in any matter touching the spiritual
world be weakened.
With respect to the first half of my answer, I have pointed out that the
Sermon on the Mount, as given in the first Gospel, is, in the opinion of
the best critics, a "mosaic work" of materials derived from different
sources, and I do not understand that this statement is challenged. The
only other Gospel--the third--which contains something like it, makes,
not only the discourse, but the circumstances under which it was
delivered, very different. Now, it is one thing to say that there was
something real at the bottom of the two discourses--which is quite
possible; and another to affirm that we have any right to say what that
something was, or to fix upon any particular phrase and declare it to be
a genuine utterance. Those who pursue theology as a science, and bring
to the study an adequate knowledge of the ways of ancient historians,
will find no difficulty in providing illustrations of my meaning. I may
supply one which has come within range of my own limited vision.