hold to be a beginning _at the wrong end_. At the same time, all of
Professor Powell's opening remarks, in which he insinuates that the
Church would bar, or would stifle discussion concerning the evidences of
Religion, are obviously untrue. No scrutiny of Christian Miracles,
however rigid, is stopped by the admonition that such narratives "ought
to be held sacred, and exempt from the unhallowed criticism of human
Reason." (p. 110.) We do not, by any means, "treat all objections as
profane, and discard exceptions unanswered as shocking and immoral."
(p. 100.) Neither does the Church think herself "omniscient and
infallible;" (p. 96;) though she holds Omniscience to be an attribute of
GOD; and Infallibility, of the Bible. But she deprecates in the
strongest manner vague insinuations and unsupported doubts of the
reality of her LORD'S Miracles, sown broad-cast over the land; and she
is at a loss to understand how the "difficulties" of any, can be in this
manner "removed;" (p. 96;) except by a process analogous to that which
would cure a malady by taking away the life of the patient. We are not
in fact at all disposed to admit that "Miracles, which in the estimation
of a former age were among the chief _supports_ of Christianity, are at
present among the main _difficulties_, and hindrances to its
acceptance," (p. 140,)--although Professor Powell and Dr. Temple say so.
This Essay in fact is full of incorrect, or objectionable statements.
Thus Professor Powell asserts that since "evidential arguments are
avowedly addressed to the intellect, it is especially preposterous to
shift the ground, and charge the rejection of them on _moral_ motives."
(p. 100.) And yet it is worthy of notice that our LORD Himself assures
us that the reception of Truth depends on our moral, rather than on our
intellectual condition. "How can ye believe," (He said to the Jews,)
"which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that
cometh from GOD only[72]?"
This writer reasons also with singular laxity and inaccuracy. After
quoting the dictum that "on a certain amount of testimony we might
believe any statement, however improbable," (pp. 140-1,) he scornfully
adds;--"So that if a number of respectable witnesses were to concur in
asseverating that on a certain occasion they had seen two and two make
five, we should be bound to believe them!" (p. 141.) Does he fail to
perceive, (1) that mathematical truths do not come within the province
of probable reasoning, and (2) are not dependent on testimony?... Again,
"The case of the _antecedent_ argument of Miracles is very clear,
however little some are inclined to perceive it. In Nature and from
Nature, by Science and by Reason, _we neither have nor can possibly have
any evidence of a Deity working by Miracles_;--for that, we must go out
of Nature, and beyond Science." (pp. 141-2.) Very true. We must go _to
Scripture_. We must have recourse to testimony. This is precisely what
we are maintaining.... But,--"Testimony, after all, is but a second-hand
assurance; it is but a blind guide; testimony can avail nothing against
Reason." (p. 141.) True. But this, if it is intended as an argument
against the reasonableness of admitting the truth of Miracles, is a mere
_petitio principii_.... Again. "It is not the _mere fact_ but the
_cause_ or _explanation_ of it, which is the point at issue." (p. 141.)
Admitting then, as the learned author here does, that when CHRIST said
"Lazarus, come forth," "he that was dead," (though he had been buried
four days,) "came forth, bound hand and foot with
grave-clothes[73];"--admitting these "facts," I say,--what other
"cause," or "explanation" does the reverend gentleman propose to assign
but the supernatural power of the Divine Speaker?
Far graver exception, however, must be taken against certain parts of
Professor Powell's labours, which betray an animus fatally indicative of
the tendency of such Essays and Reviews as these. Witness his assertion
that "it is now acknowledged that 'Creation' is only another name for
our ignorance of the mode of production;" (p. 139;) and that a recent
work on the Origin of Species "substantiates on undeniable grounds the
very principle so long denounced by the first naturalists,--_the
origination of new species by natural causes_;" (p. 139;) and that the
said work "must soon bring about an entire revolution of opinion in
favour of the grand principle of the _self-evolving powers of Nature_."
(p. 139.)
One object of the present Essay is to insist that since Miracles belong
to the world of matter, "we must recognize the due claims of Science to
decide" upon them. We are reminded that "beyond the domain of physical
causation and the possible conceptions of _intellect_ or _knowledge_,
there lies open the boundless region of spiritual things, which is the
sole dominion of Faith:" (p. 127:) and that "Advancing knowledge, while
it asserts the dominion of Science in physical things, confirms that of
Faith in spiritual." (p. 127.) It is proposed that "we thus neither
impugn the generalizations of Philosophy, nor allow them to invade the
dominion of Faith; and admit that what is not a subject for a problem,
may hold its place in a Creed." (p. 127.)
But the fatal consequences of this plausible fallacy become apparent the
instant we turn the leaf, and read that "the more knowledge advances,
the more it has been, and will be acknowledged, that Christianity, as a
real religion, must be viewed apart from connexion with physical
things." (p. 128.) That "the first dissociation of the spiritual from
the physical was rendered necessary by the palpable contradictions
disclosed by astronomical discovery with the letter of Scripture.
Another still wider and more material step has been effected by the
discoveries of Geology. More recently, the antiquity of the Human Race,
and the development of Species, and _the rejection of the idea of
'Creation'_ (!) have caused new advances in the same direction."
(p. 129.) ... From this it is evident, not only that the object of
Science in thus taking the Miracles of Scripture into her own keeping,
is (like an unnatural step-dame) to slay them; but that downright
Atheism is to be the attitude in which men are expected to survey that
"boundless region of spiritual things" which is yet proclaimed to be
"the sole dominion of Faith!"
Faith, on the other hand, does not object to the constant visits of
Science to any part of _her_ treasure. She does but insist that all
discussion shall be conducted _according to the rules of right Reason_.
Vague insinuations about "a progressing Age," (p. 131,)--"new modes of
speculation," (p. 130,)--"the advance of Opinion," (p. 131,)--and so
forth, are as little to the purpose, _apart from specific objections_,
as sneers at "the one-sided dogmas of an obsolete school, coupled with
awful denunciations of heterodoxy on all who refuse to listen to them,"
(p. 131,) are unsuited to the gravity of the occasion. Faith insists
moreover that a divorce between the miraculous parts of Scripture, and
the context wherein they stand, is simply impossible. The unbeliever who
boldly says, "I disbelieve the Bible,"--however much we may deplore his
blindness and pity his misery,--is yet intelligible in his unbelief. But
the man who proposes to believe _the narrative_ of the Exode of Israel
from Egypt, (for instance,) apart from the supernatural character of the
events which are related to have attended it; who believes _the history_
of the Gospels, (holding the Evangelists to have been veracious
writers,) yet rejects the Divine nature of the Miracles which the
Gospels relate; and proposes, after eliminating from the historical
narrative everything which claims to be miraculous, to make what
remains of that historical narrative, the strength and stay of his soul
in life and in death:--_that_ man we boldly affirm to be one who cannot
have studied the Bible with that ordinary attention which would entitle
him to dogmatize concerning its contents: or else, whose logical faculty
must be so hopelessly defective that discussions of this class are
evidently not his proper province.
Finally, we are presented in this Essay with the same offensive
assumption of intellectual superiority on the part of the writer, which
disfigures the entire volume. "It becomes _imperatively necessary_ that
views should be suggested really suitable _to better informed minds_."
(p. 126.) "Points which may be seen to involve the greatest difficulty
to _more profound inquirers_, are often such as do not occasion the
least perplexity to _ordinary minds_, but are allowed to pass without
hesitation." (p. 125.) (And this, from one of those "profound
inquirers," one of "those who have reflected most deeply," (p. 126,) who
yet cannot get beyond a resuscitation of Hume and Spinoza's exploded
objections to the truth of Miracles!)--Butler's unanswerable arguments,
(for the allusion is evidently to _him_,) are spoken of as "a few trite
and commonplace generalities as to the moral government of the World and
the belief in the Divine Omnipotence; or as to the validity of human
testimony; or the limits of human experience." (p. 133.) And yet the
author is for ever informing us that his hostility to Miracles "is
essentially built upon those _grander conceptions_ of the order of
Nature, those comprehensive primary elements of all physical knowledge,
those ultimate ideas of universal causation, which can only be familiar
to _those thoroughly versed in cosmical philosophy in its widest
sense_." (p. 133.) "All _highly cultivated minds_, and _duly advanced
intellects_," are supposed to find their exponent in Professor Baden
Powell. All other thinkers have "_minds of a less comprehensive
capacity_," "accustomed to reason on _more contracted views_." (p. 133.
See also p. 131, _top_.) Is this the modesty of real Science? the
language of a true Philosopher and Divine?
Finally, after all that has gone before we are not much astonished, but
we _are_ considerably shocked, to read as follows:--"The Divine
Omnipotence is entirely an inference _from the language of the Bible_,
adopted _on the assumption_ of a belief in Revelation. That 'with GOD
nothing is impossible' is the very declaration of Scripture; yet on
this, the whole belief in Miracles is built[74]." Now, it happens that
'the whole belief in Miracles' is built on nothing of the kind: but the
point is immaterial. By no means immaterial, however, is the intimation
that the Divine attribute of Omnipotence is a mere inference from the
language of Revelation,--the very belief in which is also a mere
"assumption." _If belief in Holy Scripture_ is to be treated as _an
assumption_,--without at all complaining of the unreasonableness of one
who so speaks,--we yet desire that he would say it very plainly; and let
us know at least _with whom_ we have to do, and _what_ we are expected
to prove. We do not complain, if any one calls upon us to shew that a
belief in the Bible cannot be called an assumption; but it makes us very
sad: and when the challenge comes from a Minister of the Church, we are
unable to forbear the remark that there is something altogether
immoral[75] in the entire proceeding. On the other hand, to find
ourselves involved in an argument on questions of Divinity with one _who
believes nothing_, is in a manner absurd; and provokes a feeling of
resentment as well as of pity.... What need to add that life is not long
enough for such processes of proof? "He that cometh unto GOD _must
believe that He is_!" We cannot be for ever laying the foundation. The
building must begin, at last, to grow. And when it _has_ grown up, and
is compact as well as beautiful, it _cannot_ be necessary to pull it all
down again once or twice in every century in order to ascertain whether
the strong foundations be still there!
* * * * *
IV. The next performance is mainly directed against faith in the Church,
as a society of Divine origin. "The Rev. HENRY BRISTOW WILSON, B.D.,
Vicar of Great Staughton, Hunts," claims that a National Church shall be
regarded as a purely secular Institution,--the spontaneous development
of the State. "If all priests and ministers of religion could at one
moment be swept from the face of the Earth, they would soon be
reproduced[76]." The Church is concerned with Ethics, not with Divinity.
It should therefore be "free from dogmatic tests, and similar
intellectual bondage:" (p. 168:) hampered by no traditional Doctrines;
pledged to no Creeds: but, on the contrary, should be subject to
periodical doctrinal re-adjustments. "Doctrinal limitations" (i.e. the
Creeds) "are not essential to" the Church. "Upon larger knowledge of
Christian history, upon a more thorough acquaintance with the mental
constitution of man, upon an understanding of the obstacles they present
to a true Catholicity (!), they may be cast off." (p. 167.) "In order to
the possibility of recruiting any national Ministry from the whole of
the nation, ... no needless intellectual or speculative obstacles should
be interposed." (p. 196. So at p. 198.)
To all this, the answer is very obvious. Viewed as an historical fact,
the Church is _not_ of human origin. The Church _is_ a Divine
Institution. That a Priest of the Church, charged with a cure of souls,
should desire her annihilation,--the reversal of the facts of her past
History,--her reconstruction on an unheard-of basis, without even Creeds
as terms of communion with her,--and so forth; all this may suggest some
very painful doubts as _to the objector's honesty_ in continuing to
employ the formularies of that Church, and in professing to teach her
doctrines;--but it can hardly be supposed to have any effect whatever on
the question at issue.
Foreseeing this, Mr. Wilson begins by asserting,--(for to insinuate is
not for so advanced a disciple of "the negative Theology,") (p.
151,)--"the fact of a very wide-spread alienation, both of educated and
uneducated persons, from the Christianity which is ordinarily presented
in our Churches and Chapels." (p. 150.) "A self-satisfied Sacerdotalism,
confident in a supernaturally transmitted illumination," may amuse
itself in trying to "keep peace within the walls of emptied Churches:"
(p. 150:) but the day for "traditional Christianity" (p. 149.) has gone
by. We may no longer ignore "a great extent of dissatisfaction on the
part of the Clergy at some portion, at least, of formularies of the
Church of England,"--especially at the use of "one unhappy creed." (p.
150.) There has been "a spontaneous recoil" from some of the old
doctrines: a distrust of the old arguments: and a misgiving concerning
Scripture itself. "In the presence of difficulties of this kind, ... it
is vain to seek to check open discussion." (p. 151.)
Why then does not this man proceed openly to discuss? is the obvious
rejoinder. Instead of vaguely hinting that either the Reason or the
Moral sense is shocked by what people hear "in our Churches and
Chapels,"--why has not this writer, first, the honesty to withdraw from
the Ministry of the Church of England; and next, the courage to indicate
the particular doctrines which offend? To say that "the ordinances of
public worship and religious instruction provided for the people of
England" are not "really adapted to the wants of their nature as it is,"
(p. 150,) is a very vague and unworthy style of urging an objection. Why
does not the reverend writer explain _wherein_ the Doctrine and
Discipline of the English Church are not really adapted to the actual
wants of Man's nature?
Let every unbeliever however be allowed to state his difficulties in his
own way. Mr. Wilson's difficulties certainly take a very peculiar shape.
The increased _Geographical_ knowledge of the present generation has
evidently disturbed his faith. "In our own boyhood, the World as known
to the ancients was nearly all which was known to ourselves (!). We have
recently become acquainted,--intimate,--with the teeming regions of the
far East, and with empires, pagan or even atheistic, of which the
origin runs far back beyond the historic records of Judæa or of the
West, and which were more populous than all Christendom now is, for many
ages before the Christian era." (p. 162.) Such a statement is soon made;
but it ought to have been substantiated. I take the liberty of doubting
its accuracy.
But granting even that the heathen world "for many ages before the
Christian era" _was_ more populous than all Christendom now is:--what
then? This fact "_suggests questions_ to those who on Sundays hear the
reading and exposition of the Scriptures as they were expounded to our
forefathers, and on Monday peruse the news of a World of which our
forefathers little dreamed." (pp. 152-3.)--And pray, (we calmly
inquire,) _Why_ are the Scriptures to be read or expounded after a novel
fashion, even though our geographical knowledge _has_ made a
considerable advance? To this, we are favoured with no answer. The
"questions" suggested are, we presume, the same which are contained in
the following sentence. "In what relation does the Gospel stand to these
millions[77]? Is there any trace on the face of its records that it even
contemplated their existence[78]? We are told, that to know and believe
in JESUS CHRIST is in some sense necessary to Salvation. It has not been
given to these. Are they,--will they be, hereafter,--the worse off for
their ignorance?" (p. 153.) ... "As to the necessity of faith in a
SAVIOUR to these peoples when they could never have had it, no one,
upon reflection, can believe in any such thing. Doubtless they will be
equitably dealt with." (p. 153.)
These last seven words, (which scarcely seem of a piece with the rest of
the sentence,) we confess have always seemed a sufficient answer to the
badly-expressed speculative difficulty which immediately precedes; a
difficulty, be it observed, which does not depend _at all_ on the
popular advancement of Geographical knowledge; for it was urged with the
self-same force anciently, as now; and was met by Bp. Butler, almost in
the self-same words[79], upwards of a hundred years ago. But Mr. Wilson
to our surprise and sorrow proceeds:--"We cannot be content to wrap this
question up and leave it for a mystery, as to what shall become of those
myriads upon myriads of non-Christian races. First, if our traditions
tell us, that they are involved in the curse and perdition of Adam, and
may justly be punished hereafter individually for his transgression, not
having been extricated from it by saving faith,--we are disposed to
think that our traditions cannot herein fairly declare to us the words
and inferences from Scripture; but if on examination it should turn out
that they have,--we must say, that the authors of the Scriptural books
have, in those matters, represented to us their own inadequate
conceptions, and not the mind of the SPIRIT of GOD." (pp. 153-4.)
I forbear to dwell upon the grievous spectacle with which we are thus
presented. Here is a Clergyman of the Church of England deliberately
proposing the following dilemma:--Either the Prayer Book is incorrect in
its most important doctrinal inferences from Holy Scripture; or else,
the Authors of Holy Scripture itself are incorrect in their statements.
The morality of one who declares that he finds himself placed between
the horns of this dilemma, and yet retains his office as a public
teacher in the Church of England,--it is painful to contemplate. But
this is only _ad hominem_. The Reverend writer's difficulty remains.
And it seems sufficient to reply:--It is not _we_ who "wrap up the
question," but GOD. As a mystery we find it; and as a mystery, we not
only "can," but _must_ be content to "leave it." Further, it is not
"_our traditions_," but Holy Scripture itself which tells us that "by
one man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin; and so Death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned[80]:"--that "in Adam all
died[81]:"--that "we were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others[82]:" and the like. Scripture, on the other hand, as
unequivocally assures us that GOD is good, or rather that He is very
Goodness. We are convinced, (in Mr. Wilson's words,) "that all shall be
equitably dealt with according to their opportunities." (p. 154.)
Moreover, _he_ would be a rash Divine who should venture to adopt the
opinion so strenuously disclaimed by Bp. Butler, "that none can have the
benefit of the general Redemption, but such as have the advantage of
being made acquainted with it in the present life[83]." ... How, in the
meantime, speculative difficulties concerning the hereafter of the
unevangelized Heathen are affected by the fact that our population now
"peruse the news of a World of which our forefathers little dreamed,"
(pp. 152-3,)--it is hard to see. Equally unable am I also to understand
how the discovery that a larger number of persons are the subjects of
this speculative difficulty than used once to be supposed, can
constitute any reason why Scripture should not still be read and
expounded on Sunday "as it used to be expounded to our forefathers."
We have been so particular, because whenever any of these writers
condescend to be argumentative, _we_ are eager to bear them company. No
wish at all have we, in the abstract, to stifle inquiry; no objection
whatever have we to the principle of free discussion. And yet, as a
clergyman, I cannot discuss such questions as these with a _Minister of
the Church of England_, except under protest. I deny that these are in
any sense open questions. To dispute concerning them,--=ei mê thesin
diaphylattôn=,--one of the disputants must first, at least, resign his
commission. It is simply dishonest in a man to hold a commission in the
Church of England, under solemn vows, and yet to deny her doctrines. An
Officer in the Army who should pursue a similar line of action, would be
dismissed the Service,--or worse.--Under protest, then, we follow the
Rev. H. B. Wilson, B.D.
Next come three other specimens "of the modern questionings of
traditional Christianity," "whereby observers are rendered dissatisfied
with old modes of speaking:" (p. 156:) viz. (1) St. Paul "speaks of the
Gospel 'which was preached to every nation (_sic_) under heaven,' when
it has never yet been preached to the half[84]." (2) "Then, again, it
has often been appealed to as an evidence of the supernatural origin of
Christianity, and as an instance of supernatural assistance vouchsafed
to it in the first centuries, that it so soon overspread the world:"
(p. 155:) whereas "it requires no learning to be aware that neither then
nor subsequently have the Christians amounted to a fourth part of the
people of the Earth." (_Ibid._) (3) So again, "it has been customary to
argue that, _à priori_, a supernatural Revelation was to be expected at
the time when JESUS CHRIST was manifested upon the Earth, by reason of
the exhaustion of all natural or unassisted human efforts for the
amelioration of mankind;" (pp. 155-6;) whereas "our recently enlarged
Ethnographical information shews such an argument to be altogether
inapplicable to the case." "It would be more like the realities of
things, as we can now behold them, to say that the Christian Revelation
was given to the Western World, because it deserved it better and was
more prepared for it than the East." (p. 156.)--The remedy for the first
of these difficulties (says Mr. Wilson,) is, "candidly to acknowledge
that the words of the New Testament which speak of the preaching of the
Gospel to the whole world, were limited to the understanding of the
times when they were spoken." The suggestions of our own moral instincts
are rather to be followed, "than the express declarations of Scripture
writers, who had no such knowledge as is given to ourselves of the
amplitude of the World." (p. 157.)