endeavours to do, the Catholic element of the last century and the early
part of the present, is extremely unfair. There had _never failed_ in
the Church of England a succession of illustrious men, who transmitted
the Divine fire unimpaired, down to yesterday. Quenched in some places,
the flame burned up brightly and beautifully in others. As for the
'Tracts for the Times,' they speedily assumed a party character: and by
the time that ninety-seven of them had appeared, the series was
discontinued by the desire of the Diocesan,--who was yet the friend of
its authors. The Tracts do not all, by any means, represent Anglican
(i.e. Catholic) Theology. They were written by a very few men; while the
greatest of those who had materially promoted the Catholic movement out
of which they sprang, (_not_ which they _occasioned_,) were dissatisfied
with them; would not write in them; kept aloof; and foresaw and foretold
what would be the issue of such teaching[135]. And yet, 'Tracts for the
Times' did more good than evil, I suppose, on the whole.
The truth is, that in every age, (and the last century forms no
exception to the rule,) the history of the Church on Earth has been a
_warfare_. Mr. Pattison says contemptuously,--"The current phrases of
'the bulwarks of our faith,' 'dangerous to Christianity,' are but
instances of the habitual position in which we assume ourselves to
stand. Even more philosophic minds cannot get rid of the idea that
Theology is polemical." (p. 301.) And pray, whom have we to thank, but
such writers as Mr. Pattison, that it is so? I am one of the many who at
this hour are (unwillingly) neglecting _constructive_ tasks in order to
be _destructive_ with Mr. Pattison and his colleagues! So long as
Infidelity abounds, our service _must_ be a warfare. 'The Prince of
Peace' foretold as much, when He prophesied to His Disciples that it
would be found that He had "brought on earth, a sword." As much was
typically adumbrated, I suspect, (begging Mr. Jowett's pardon,) when, at
the rebuilding of the walls of the Holy City, "they which builded on the
wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with
one of his hands wrought in the work, and _with the other hand held a
weapon_. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side,
and so builded[136]." May I not add that the unique position which the
Church of England has occupied, ever since her great Reformation in
respect both of Doctrine and of Discipline three centuries ago,--is of a
nature which must inevitably subject her to constant storms? An object
of envy to 'Protestant Europe,'--and of hatred to Rome;--exposed to the
hostility of the State, (which would trample her under foot, if it
dared,)--and viewed with ill-concealed animosity by Dissenters of every
class;--admitting into her Ministry men of very diverse views,--and
restraining them by scarcely any discipline;--allowing perfect freedom,
aye, licentiousness of discussion,--and tolerating the expression of
almost any opinions,--_except those of Essayists and Reviewers_:--how
shall the Church of England fail to adopt 'the bulwarks of the faith'
for one of her current phrases? how not, many a time, deem 'dangerous to
Christianity' the speculations of her sons?... Nay, polemics _must_
prevail; if only because, in a certain place, the Divine Speaker already
quoted foretells the partial, (if not the _entire_,) obscuration even of
true Doctrine, in that pathetic exclamation of His,--"When the Son of
Man cometh, shall He find the faith upon the Earth[137]?" ... In the
face of all this, it is to confuse and mystify the ordinary reader to
draw such a picture of the last century as Mr. Pattison has drawn here.
As dismal a view might be easily taken of the first, of the second, of
the third, of the fourth, of the fifth century. What Mr. Newman once
designated as "ancient, holy, and happy times," might very easily indeed
be so exhibited as to seem times of confusion and discord, blasphemy and
rebuke. A discouraging picture might be drawn, (I suppose,) of every age
of the Church's history. But in, and by itself, it would never be quite
a _true_ picture. For to the eye of Faith there is ever to be descried,
amid the hurly-burly of the storm, the Ark of CHRIST'S Church floating
peacefully over the troubled waters, and making steadily for that
Heavenly haven "where it would be." ... Yes, there is ever some blessed
trace discoverable, that this Life of ours is watched over by One whose
Name is Love; whether we con the chequered page of History,
Ecclesiastical or Civil; or summon to our aid the story of our own
narrow experience. From the fierce and fiery opposition, Good is ever
found to have resulted; and _that_ Good was _abiding_. Out of the weary
conflict ever has issued Peace; and _that_ Peace was of the kind which
'passeth all understanding;' a Peace which the world cannot give,--no,
nor take away. There are abundant traces that in all that has happened
to the Church of CHRIST, from first to last, there has been a purpose
and a plan!... No one knows this better than Mr. Pattison. No man in
Oxford could have drawn out what I have been saying into a convincing
reality, better than he, had he yielded to the instincts of a good
heart, and directed his fine abilities to their lawful scope.
The character of the last dismal century, Mr. Pattison has drawn with
sufficient vividness: but that century armed the Church, (as we shall be
presently reminded,) on the side of the "Evidences of Religion;" and if
it taught her the insufficiency of such a method, the eighteenth
century did its work. Above all, _it produced Bishop Butler_.--The
previous century, (the seventeenth,) witnessed the supremacy of
fanaticism. It saw the monarchy laid prostrate, and the Church trampled
under foot, and the use of the Liturgy prohibited by Act of Parliament.
The "Sufferings of the Clergy" fill a folio volume. But this was the
century which produced our great Caroline Divines! From Bp. Andrewes to
Bp. Pearson,--_what_ a galaxy of names! Moreover, on the side of the
Romish controversy, the seventeenth century supplied the Church's
armoury for ever,--Stillingfleet, who died in the year 1699, in a manner
closing the strife.--The sixteenth century witnessed the Reformation of
Religion, with all its inevitably attendant evils; an unsettled
faith,--gross public and private injustice,--an illiterate parochial
clergy:--yet how goodly a body of sound Divinity did the controversies
of that age call forth! The same century witnessed the rise of
Puritanism; but then, it produced Richard Hooker!--What was the
character of the century which immediately preceded the
Reformation,--the fifteenth?... A tangled web of good and evil has been
the Church's history from the very first. The counterpart of what we
read of in Eusebius and Socrates is to be witnessed among ourselves at
the present day, and will doubtless be witnessed to the end! But then,
in days of deepest discouragement, faithful men have never been found
wanting to the English Church, (no, nor GOD helping her, ever _will_!)
who, like the late Hugh James Rose, "when hearts were failing, bade us
stir up the gift that was in us, and betake ourselves to our true
Mother." Mean wilee, such names as George Herbert and Nicholas Farrar,
Ken and Nelson, Leighton and Bishop Wilson, shine through the gloom
like a constellation of quiet stars; to which the pilgrim lifts his
weary eye, and _feels_ that he is looking up to Heaven!
When the spirit of the Age comes into collision with the spirit of the
Gospel, the result is sometimes (as in the earliest centuries,)
portentous;--sometimes, (as in the last,) simply deplorable and
grievous. The battle which seems to be at present waging is of a
different nature. Physical Science has undertaken the perilous task of
hardening herself against the GOD of Nature. We shall probably see this
unnatural strife prolonged for many years to come;--to be succeeded by
some fresh form of irreligion. Somewhat thus, I apprehend, will it be to
the end: and the men of every age will in those conflicts find their
best probation; and it will still be the office of the Creator, in this
way to separate the Light from the Darkness,--until the dawn of the
everlasting Morning!
It is not proposed to enter into the Rationalism of the last century,
therefore; or to inquire into the causes of the barren lifeless shape
into which Theology then, for the most part, threw itself. I have never
made that department of Ecclesiastical History my study: and _who_ does
not turn away from what is joyless and dreary, to greener meadows, and
more fertile fields? It shall only be remarked that when the
_Credibility_ of Religion is the thing generally denied, _Evidences_
will of necessity be the form which much of the Theological writing of
the Day will assume. Let it not be imagined for an instant that one is
the apologist of what Mr. Pattison has characterized as "an age of Light
without Love." (p. 254.) But I insist that the theological picture of
the last century is incomplete, until attention has been called to the
many redeeming features which it presents, and which are all of a
re-assuring kind.
Thus, in the department of sacred scholarship, _who_ can forgot that our
learned John Mill, in 1707, gave to the world that famous edition of the
New Testament which bears his name, after thirty years of patient toil?
Who can forget our obligations in Hebrew, to Kennicott? (1718-1783.)
Humphrey Hody's great work on the Text, and older Versions of Holy
Scripture, was published in 1705.--Bingham's immortal 'Origines' began
to appear in 1708; and William Cave lived till 1714.
In the same connexion should be mentioned Bp. Gibson, who died in 1748,
and Humphrey Prideaux, whose 'Connexion' is dated 1715. Pococke died on
the eve of the commencement of the last century (1691); but so great a
name casts a bright beam through the darkness which Mr. Pattison
describes so forcibly. Archbishop Wake died in 1737. Warton, the author
of 'Anglia Sacra,' died at the age of 35 in 1695.
Survey next the field of Divinity, properly so called; and in the face
of Mr. Pattison's rash statement that "we have no classical Theology
since 1660," (p. 265,) take notice that Bp. Bull, one of the greatest
Divines which the Church of CHRIST ever bred, did not begin to write
until 1669, and lived to the year 1709. This was the man, remember, who
received the thanks of the whole Gallican Church for his 'Judicium
Ecclesiæ Catholicæ,' (i.e. his learned assertion of our SAVIOUR'S
GODhead[138];)--the man whose writings would have won him the reverence
and affection of Athanasius and Augustine and Basil, had he lived in
their day; for he had a mind like theirs. Bp. Pearson did not die till
1686. Bp. Beveridge wrote till his death in 1707. Fell, the learned
editor of Cyprian, died in 1686: Stillingfleet lived till 1699. Wall's
History of Infant Baptism appeared in 1705. Wheatly, who led the way in
liturgical inquiry, was alive till 1742; and Bp. Patrick was a prolific
writer till his death in 1707. May we not also claim the excellent and
learned Grabe as altogether one of ourselves?
Such names do not require special comment. They are their own best
eulogium, and present a high title to their country's gratitude. The
name of Prebendary Lowth, (the author of an excellent commentary on the
prophets,) reminds us that there was living till 1732 one who fully
appreciated the calling of an Interpreter of God's Word[139]. Bishop
Lowth his son, in his great work, (1753,) recovered the forgotten
principle of Hebrew poetry. To convince ourselves what a spirit existed
in some quarters, (notwithstanding the general spread of the very
opinions which 'Essayists and Reviewers' have been so industriously
reproducing in our own day,) it is only necessary to transcribe the
title-page of S. Parker's excellent 'Bibliotheca Biblica,' a Commentary
on the Pentateuch, 1720-1735; 'gathered out of the genuine writings of
Fathers, Ecclesiastical Historians, and Acts of Councils down to the
year of our LORD 451, being that of the fourth General Council; and
lower, as occasion may require.'--That learned man designed to achieve a
Commentary on the whole Bible on the same laborious plan; but his
labours and his life, (at the age of 50,) were brought to an end in
1730.--Dr. Waterland, born in 1683, and Dr. Jackson, born in 1686,--two
great names!--died respectively in 1740 and 1763.--In 1778, appeared Dr.
Townson's admirable 'Discourses on the Gospels.' The author lived till
1792. Pious Bp. Horne (1730-1792) has left the best evidence of his
ability as a Divine in the Introduction to his Commentary on the Psalms.
Jones of Nayland is found to have lived till 1800. Bp. Horsley, a great
champion of orthodoxy of belief, as well as an excellent commentator,
critic, and Sermon writer, lived till 1806. Not seven years have elapsed
since there was to be seen among ourselves a venerable Divine, who was
declared in 1838, by the chief promoter of the 'Tracts for the Times,'
to have "been reserved to report to a forgetful generation what was the
Theology of their Fathers[140]." Martin Joseph Routh, died in 1854,
after completing a century of years. In 1832 appeared his 'Scriptorum
Ecclesiasticorum Opuscula.' His 'Reliquæ Sacræ' had appeared in 1814.
The work was undertaken so far back as 1788. The last volume appeared in
1848, and concluded with a _Catena_ of authorities on the great question
which was denied by the unbelievers of the last century, and _is_ denied
by the 'Essayists and Reviewers' of this[141]. Here then was one who had
borne steady witness in the Church of England to what is her genuine
Catholic teaching from a period dating long before the birth of any one
who was concerned with the 'Tracts for the Times.'
More ancient names present themselves as furnishing exceptions to Mr.
Pattison's dreary sentence. From Abp. Potter and Leslie, down to Abp.
Laurence and Van Mildert,--how many might yet be specified! We have not
hitherto mentioned Abp. Leighton, who died in 1684: Hickes, Johnson, and
Brett, who survived respectively till 1715, 1725, and 1743: the truly
apostolic Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man (1663-1755,)--a name, by the
way, which deserves far more distinct and emphatic notice than can here
be bestowed upon it; and Nelson, the pious author of 'Fasts and
Festivals,' who died in 1715. We had good Iz. Walton, till 1683, and
holy Ken till 1711. Richard Hele, author of 'Select Offices,' (which
appeared in 1717,) is a name not forgotten in Heaven certainly, though
little known on Earth; while Kettlewell and Scandret begin a Catena of
which good Bishop Jolly would be only one of the later links. Meanwhile,
the reader is requested to take notice that there were many other
excellent Divines of the period under consideration, (as Long and
Horbery;) men who made no great figure indeed, but who were evidently
persons of great piety and sound judgment; while their learning puts
that of 'Essayists and Reviewers' altogether to the blush.
But I have reserved for the last, a truly noble name,--which Mr.
Pattison, (with singular bad taste, to say no worse,) mentions only to
disparage. I allude to Dr. Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham; whose
'Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and
Course of Nature,'--remains, at the end of a century, unanswerable as an
Apology,--unrivalled as a text-book,--unexhausted as a mine of
suggestive thought. It may be convenient for an 'Essayist and Reviewer'
to declare that "the merit of the Analogy lies in its want of
originality." (p. 286.) There was not much originality perhaps in the
remark that an apple falls to the ground. Whatever the faults of the
Analogy, that work, under GOD, _saved the Church_. However "depressing
to the soul" (p. 293.) of Mr. Pattison, it is nevertheless a book which
will invigorate Faith, and brighten Hope, and comfort Charity
herself,--long after the spot where he and I shall sleep has been
forgotten: long after our very names will be hard to find.
Let me turn from this illustrious individual, to one whose very name is
perhaps unknown. One loves to think that there are at all times plenty
of good men, who are doing GOD'S work in the world, in quiet corners;
but whose names do not perhaps rise to the surface and emerge into
notice, throughout the whole of a long life. Conversely, how many must
there be, the blessing of whose example and influence has extended down
from the surface, (where perhaps it was acknowledged and appreciated by
all,) until it made itself felt by the humblest units of a lowly country
parish!... The obscure village of Finmere, (in Oxfordshire,) was so
happy as to enjoy for its Rector, from 1734 to 1771, the Rev. Thomas
Long, M.A.,--"a man," (says the Register,) "of the most exemplary piety
and charity." He presented to the church twelve acres of land, "charging
it with a yearly payment of fifteen shillings to the Clerk, _as a
recompense to him for attending on the Fasts and Festivals_; and
ordering sixpence to be deducted from the payment, for each time the
Clerk failed to attend on those days,--unless let by sickness." About
ten years ago, there was found in the hands of a labouring man at
Finmere, a solitary copy of a printed "Lecture," by this individual,
"addressed to the young persons" of the village, (1762,) which begins as
follows:--"I have usually, once every three years, gone through a course
of Lectures upon the Catechism; but considering my age and great
infirmities, it is not very probable I should continue this practice any
longer. I am willing therefore, as a small monument of my care and
affection for you, to print the last of these Lectures," &c.... What
heart so dull as not to admit that men like this, (and there were _many_
of them!) are quite good enough to redeem an age from indiscriminate
opprobrium and unmitigated contempt?
Shall we omit, after this enumeration, to notice the singular fact that
_Discipline_ still lingered on,--even the discipline of _public
penance_,--until within the memory of aged persons yet living? Merchants
in the city of London wore mourning during Lent, within the present
century. It is only within the last thirty years that formulæ expressive
of reliance on the Divine blessing have been expunged from
bills-of-lading, and similar printed documents. In the beginning of the
period discoursed of by Mr. Pattison, (viz. in the year 1714,) the
excellent Robert Nelson, in "An Address to Persons of Quality and
Estate," proposed as objects for the generosity of the affluent, such
institutions as the following:--"the creating of Charity Schools,"--of
"Parochial Libraries in the meanly endowed Cures throughout
England,"--of "a superior School for training up Schoolmasters and
Schoolmistresses,"--and of "Colleges or Seminaries for the Candidates of
Holy Orders." He suggested that there should be "Houses of Hospitality
for entertaining Strangers;" "Suffragan Bishops, both at home and in the
Western Plantations;" "Colleges for receiving Converts from Popery."
Some of Nelson's suggestions read like vaticinations. He points out the
need of Ladies' Colleges,--of a Hospital for Incurables,--of Ragged
Schools, (for what else is a school "for the distressed children called
the _Black-guard_?"),--and of Houses of Mercy for the reception of
penitent fallen women.--Is it right to speak of a century which could
freely contemplate such works as these and carry into execution many of
them[142], without some allusion to the leaven which was at work beneath
the dry crust of Society? the living Catholic energy which neither the
average dulness of the pulpit could quench, nor the lifeless morality
which had been popularly substituted for Divinity could destroy?
We are abundantly prepared therefore for Mr. Pattison's admission that
"public opinion was throughout on the side of the defenders of
Christianity:" (p. 313:)--that, "however a loose kind of Deism might be
the tone of fashionable circles, it is clear that distinct disbelief of
Christianity was by no means the general state of the public mind. The
leaders of the Low-Church and Whig party were quite aware of this.
Notwithstanding the universal complaints of the High-Church party of the
prevalence of infidelity, it is obvious that this mode of thinking was
confined to a very small section of society." (p. 313.)
And surely it should not escape us that the peculiar form which unbelief
assumed during the period under discussion, resulted in a benefit to the
Church. "The eighteenth century," (says our author,) "enforced the
truths of Natural Morality with a solidity of argument and variety of
proof which they have not received since the Stoical epoch, if then."
(p. 296.) "The career of the Evidential School, its success and its
failure, has enriched the history of Doctrine," not indeed "with a
complete refutation of that method as an instrument of theological
investigation," (p. 297,) (witness the immortal 'Analogy' of Bishop
Butler!)--but, certainly with very precious experience. That age has
bequeathed to the Church a vast body of controversial writing which she
could ill afford to part with at the present day.
So far, we have little to complain of in Mr. Pattison's Essay, except on
the side of omission. _But_ for the fatal circumstance of the company in
which the learned writer comes abroad, and _the avowed purpose_ with
which he is found there, a charitable construction might have been put
upon most of the present performance. The following sentences, on the
other hand, are _not_ excusable.
"In the present day when a godless orthodoxy threatens, as in the
fifteenth century, to extinguish religious thought (!) altogether, and
nothing is allowed in the Church of England but the formulæ of past
thinkings, which have long lost all sense of any kind, (!) it may seem
out of season to be bringing forward a misapplication of common-sense in
a bygone age," (p. 297.)
The "orthodoxy" of the fifteenth century is something new to us. So is
the prospect "in the present day," of an "extinction of religious
thought,"--the result of "godless orthodoxy." The fault, or the
misfortune of the Church of England then, is, that she retains "_the
formulæ of past thinkings, which have long lost all sense of any
kind_." (p. 297.) If this does not mean the English _Book of Common
Prayer_, what _does_ it mean? And if it _means_ the English Prayer-Book,
how can Mr. Pattison retain his commission in the Church of England, and
exclusively employ a Book which he presumes so to characterize?
But this is _ad hominem_. The learned writer proceeds:--"There are times
and circumstances when religious ideas will be greatly benefited by
being submitted to the rough and ready tests by which busy men try what
comes in their way; by being made to stand their trial, and be fully
canvassed, _coram populo_. As Poetry is not for the critics, so Religion
is not for the Theologians." (p. 297.)
No doubt. But does Mr. Pattison then really mean to tell us that the
proper tribunal before which the Creeds, (for example,) of the Catholic
Church,--our Communion and Baptismal offices,--the structure of our
Calendar, and so forth,--should "_stand their trial_, and be _freely
canvassed_," is, "_coram populo_?" A "rough and ready test," this, of
Truth, I grant; aye, a _very_ "rough" one. But was it ever,--can it ever
be,--a _fair_ test? Let us hear Mr. Pattison out, on the subject of
Religion:--
"When it is stiffened into phrases, and these phrases are declared to be
objects of reverence but not of intelligence, it is on the way to become
_a useless encumbrance; the rubbish of the past; blocking the road_.
Theology then retires into the position it occupies in the Church of
Rome at present, an unmeaning frostwork of dogma, out of all relation to
the actual history of Man." (pp. 297-8.)
It cannot be necessary to discuss such sentiments. With Mr. Pattison
personally, I _will not_ condescend to discuss them,--until he has
divested himself of that "useless encumbrance," and ceased to employ
daily "that rubbish of the past," which yet the two letters he subjoins
to his name indicate, in the most solemn manner, his reverence for; and
which alone make him _Reverendus_.