who ever breathed the air of this lower world, of making light of the
sentiments of true genius. I can respond with my whole heart to the
passion-stricken cry of one who, when "regarded with suspicion by many
of his contemporaries," is observed to hail his fellows with confidence,
across the gulph of Time; and as it were implore them, after many days,
to do him right. Nay, were I to behold a man of splendid, but misguided
powers, elaborating from GOD'S Word a plausible system of his own,
whereby to bring back the Golden Age to suffering Humanity; and
insisting that he beheld in the common revelations of the SPIRIT, the
unsuspected outlines of such a form of polity as Man never dreamed
of,--(nor, it may be, Angels either;)--I should experience a kind of
generous sympathy with this bright-eyed enthusiast; even while I
proceeded to test his wild dream by what I believed to be the standard
of right Reason. Then, as the specious fabric was seen suddenly to
collapse and melt away, should I not, with affectionate sorrow, secretly
mourn that such brilliant parts had not been enlisted on the side of
Truth? and feel as if I could have been content to go about for life
maimed in body, or hopelessly impoverished in estate, if so great a
disaster could but have been prevented as the loss of one who ought to
have been a standard-bearer in Israel?
Once more. Although the cold shade of unbelief has never for an instant,
(thank GOD!) darkened my spirit; so that one may not be very apt to
sympathize with men who walk about hampered with a doubt; yet, were one
to know, (as one has often known,--_too_ often, alas!) that the arrow
was rankling in a friend's heart,--who by consequence shunned the
society of his fellows, and walked in moody abstraction,--looking as if
life had lost its charm, and as if nothing on the earth's surface were
any longer to him a joy;--would one not be the first to go after such a
sufferer; and seek whether a firm hand and steady eye might not avail to
extract the poisoned shaft? If that might not be, at least by daily acts
of unaltered kindness, and the ways which brotherly sympathy suggests,
_who_ would not strive to recover such an one? If all other arts proved
unavailing, it would remain for a man with the ordinary instincts of
humanity, in silence and sorrow at least, to look on, while the solitary
doubter was paying the bitter penalty,--doubtless, of his sin.
But how widely different,--rather, how utterly dissimilar,--is the
phenomenon before us! Here is a singularly confused and shallow thinker
oppressed with the vastness of his discovery, that the Bible--_has
nothing in it!_ Here is a Clergyman of the Church of England, and a
Lecturer in Divinity, whose difficulty is how he shall convince the
world that the Bible is--_like any other book!_ Here is the sceptical
fellow of a College, conspiring with six others, to produce a volume of
which Germany itself, (having changed its mind,) would already be
ashamed!... Mr. Jowett is enthusiastic for _a negation!_ Without belief
himself, he cannot rest because Christendom has, on the whole, a good
deal of belief remaining! If he may but _unsettle somebody's mind_,--his
Essay will have achieved its purpose, and its author will not have lived
in vain!... Sublime privilege for "the only man in the University of
Oxford who" is said to "exercise a moral and spiritual influence at all
corresponding to that which was once wielded by John Henry Newman[232]!"
I shall be thought a very profane person, I dare say, by the friends and
apologists of Mr. Jowett, if I avow that the passage with which he
concludes his Essay, instead of sounding in my ears like the plaintive
death-song of departing Genius, sounds to me like nothing so much as the
piteous whine of a schoolboy who knows that he _deserves_ chastisement,
and perceives that he is about to experience his deserts. System, or
Theory, the Reverend Gentleman has none to propose. Views, except
negative ones, Mr. Jowett is altogether guiltless of. Can anybody in his
senses suppose that a man "has, by a Divine help (!), been enabled to
plant his foot _somewhere beyond the waves of Time_," (p. 433,) who
doubts everything, and believes nothing? Can any one of sane mind dream
that posterity will come to the rescue of a man who, when he is asked
for his story, rejoins, (with a well-known needy mechanic,) that he has
"none to tell, Sir?" _What_ then is posterity to vindicate? _What_ has
the Regius Professor of Greek written so many weak pages to prove? Just
nothing! If Mr. Jowett's Essay could enforce the message it carries, the
result would simply be that the world would become _dis_believers in the
Inspiration of the Bible: they would _dis_believe that Scripture has any
sense but that which lies on the surface: they would therefore
_dis_believe the Prophets and Evangelists and Apostles of CHRIST: they
would _dis_believe the words of our LORD JESUS CHRIST Himself!... Has
Mr. Jowett, then, grown grey under the laborious process of arriving at
this series of negations? When he anticipates "departing hence before
the natural term," does he mean that he is "_worn out with the
intellectual toil_" of propounding _nothing!_ and that he expects the
sympathy and gratitude of posterity for what he has propounded?
But this is not all. Instead of coming abroad, (if come abroad he must,)
in that garb of humility which befits doubt,--that self-distrust which
becomes one whose fault, or whose misfortune it is, that he simply
cannot believe,--Mr. Jowett assumes throughout, the insolent air of
intellectual superiority; the tone of one at whose bidding Theology must
absolutely 'keep moving.' A truncheon and a number on his collar, alone
seem wanting. The menacing voice, and authoritative air, are certainly
not away,--as I proceed to shew.
"It may be observed that a change in some of the prevailing modes of
Interpretation, is not so much a matter of expediency as _of necessity_.
The original meaning of Scripture _is beginning to be understood_."
(p. 418.)
"Criticism has _far more power_ than it formerly had. It has spread
itself over ancient, and even modern history.... _Whether Scripture can
be made an exception to other ancient writings_, now that the nature of
both is more understood; whether ... _the views of the last century will
hold out_,--these are questions respecting which" (p. 420.) it is hard
to judge.
"It has to be considered whether the intellectual forms under which
Christianity has been described, may not also be _in a state of
transition_." (p. 420.)
"Now, as _the Interpretation of Scripture is receiving another
character_, it seems that distinctions of Theology which were in great
measure based on old Interpretations, are _beginning to fade away_." ...
"There are other signs that times are changing, and we are changing
too." (p. 421.)
"These reflections bring us back to the question with which we
began,--_What effect will the critical Interpretation of Scripture have
on Theology?_" (p. 422.)
Again:--"As the time has come when it is no longer possible to ignore
the results of criticism, it is of importance that Christianity should
be seen to be in harmony with them." (p. 374.) (The sentences which
immediately follow shall be exhibited in distinct paragraphs, in order
that they may separately enjoy admiration. Each is a gem or a curiosity
in its way.)
"That objections to some received views _should be valid_, and yet that
they should be always held up as _the objections of Infidels_,--is a
mischief to the Christian cause."
"It is a mischief that critical observations which any intelligent man
can make for himself (!), should be ascribed to Atheism or Unbelief."
"It would be a strange and almost incredible thing that the Gospel,
which at first made war only on the vices of mankind, should now be
_opposed_ to one of the highest and rarest of human virtues,--_the love
of Truth_."
"And that in the present day the great object of Christianity should be,
not to change the lives of men, but to prevent them from changing their
opinions; _that_ would be a singular inversion of the purposes for which
CHRIST came into the world."
We are really constrained to pause for a moment, and to inquire what
this last sentence means. Are not "the lives of men" mainly _dependent_
on "their opinions?" Why then contrast the two? And _which_ of our
"opinions" does Mr. Jowett desire to see changed? Would he have us
resign our belief in the Atonement? reject the Divinity of CHRIST? deny
the Personality of the HOLY GHOST? put the Bible on a level with
Sophocles and Plato? ridicule the idea of Inspiration?... How would it
be a "singular inversion of the purposes of CHRIST'S Coming," that
Christianity should "prevent" mankind from "changing" such "opinions" as
_these?_
"The Christian religion is in a false position when _all the tendencies
of knowledge are opposed to it_." (_All the tendencies of knowledge,
then, are opposed to the Christian Religion!_)
"Such a position cannot be long maintained, or can only end in the
withdrawal of the educated classes from the influences of Religion." (So
we are to look for "_the withdrawal of the educated classes from the
influences of Religion_[233]!") After anticipating "religious
dissolution," because of "the progress of ideas, (!) with which
Christian teachers seem to be ill at ease," (!) Mr. Jowett, (who we
presume is speaking of himself,) says, "Time was when the Gospel was
before the Age:" (The Gospel is therefore now _behind_ the age!)--"when
the difficulties of Christianity were difficulties of the heart only:"
(When was that?)--"and _the highest minds_ found in its truths not only
the rule of their lives, but a well-spring of intellectual delight."
(All this then has _ceased to be the case!_ "The highest minds" being of
course represented by--Mr. Jowett!)
"Is it to be held a thing impossible that the Christian Religion,
instead of shrinking into itself, (!) may again _embrace the thoughts of
men upon the earth?_" (that is to say, "embrace the thoughts" of--Mr.
Jowett!)--"Or is it true that _since the Reformation 'all intellect has
gone the other way_?'"
"But for the faith that the Gospel might win again the minds of
_intellectual men_," (such men as Mr. Jowett?)--"it would be better to
leave Religion to itself, instead of attempting to draw them together."
(p. 376.)
Now this kind of language, in daily life, would be called sheer
impertinence; and the person who could talk so before educated gentlemen
would probably receive an intimation that he was making himself
offensive. He would certainly be looked upon as a weak and conceited
person. I really am unable to see why things should be _written and
printed_ which no one would presume _to say_! ... Encircled by a little
atmosphere of fog of his own creating, Mr. Jowett is evidently under the
delusion that his own confused vision and misty language are the result
of the giddy eminence to which, (leaving his fellow-mortals far behind
him,) he has contrived, all alone, to soar. He anticipates the complaint
of some unhappy disciple, that he "experiences a sort of shrinking or
dizziness at the prospect which is opening before him:" whereupon Mr.
Jowett invites the "highly educated young man," (p. 373,) to consider
"that he may possibly not be the person who is called upon to pursue
such inquiries." Who are they _for_, then? "No man should busy himself
with them who has not clearness of mind enough to see things as they
are." (p. 430.) The clearness of mind, for example, which belongs to Mr.
Jowett!
True enough it is that had such airs been assumed by such an one as
Richard Hooker, who achieved the first four books of his 'Laws of
Ecclesiastical Polity' before he was 40; and dying in his 46th year,
proved himself to be the greatest genius of his age:--had language like
Mr. Jowett's been found on the lips of Joseph Butler, who when he was 44
produced his immortal 'Analagy,' and at the age of 26 delivered his
famous Rolls 'Sermons:'--had Bishop Bull been betrayed into the language
of self-complacency when, at the age of 35, he made himself famous by
his 'Harmonia Apostolica:'--the proceeding would have been intelligible,
however much one might have lamented such an exhibition of weakness....
But when the speaker proves to be one of the very shallowest of
thinkers, and most confused of reasoners;--a man who, although
grey-headed, has done nothing whatever for Literature, sacred or
profane;--nor indeed is known out of Oxford except for having been
thought to deny the Doctrine of the Atonement;--a man who dogmatizes in
a Science of which he clearly does not know so much as the very
alphabet; and presumes to dispute about a Bible which he has evidently
not read with the attention which is due even to a first-rate uninspired
book;--_then_, one's displeasure and impatience assume the form of
indignation and disgust. The Divine who, purposing to prove that Holy
Scripture is in kind like any other book, does so _by inveighing against
those who treat it differently_; and indeed, on every occasion, _assumes
as proved_ the thing he has _to prove_[234]:--is obviously the very man
to vaunt the privileges of the intellect. The student of the Bible who
mistakes the utterance of a lying prophet for the language of Amos, and
then boldly charges the lie upon the inspired author of a book of
Canonical Scripture;--is of course a proper person to discuss the
Prophetic Canon. The gentleman who flatters himself that he has been
_sweeping the house_ to find _the pearl of great price_, (p. 414,) is a
very pretty person, truly, to lecture about the Gospel!... I forbear
reproaching Mr. Jowett with his _invariable_ misapplications or
misapprehensions of the meaning of Scripture: his false glosses, and
truly preposterous specimens of exegesis[235]. I am content to take
leave of him, while he is flattering himself that he has "_found the
pearl of great price, after sweeping the house_:" (p. 414:) and under
that melancholy delusion, I fear he must be left,--holding the broom in
his hands.
* * * * *
On a review of these Seven Essays, few things strike one more forcibly
than the utterly untenable ground occupied by their authors. They are
"in a position in which it is impossible to remain. The theory of Mr.
Jowett and his fellows is as false to philosophy as to the Church of
England. More may be true, or less; but to attempt to halt where they
would stop is a simple absurdity[236]."
To exactness of method or System, their work can hardly pretend; and yet
they _have_ a system,--which has only not been rounded into symmetry, by
the singular circumstance that these seven writers "have written in
entire independence of one another, and without concert or comparison."
They _avow a common purpose_, however; for they "hope" that their joint
labours "will be received as an attempt to illustrate," (whatever _that_
may mean,) "the advantage derivable to the cause of Religion and Moral
Truth" from what they have here attempted; and which they justly
characterize as "_free handling_." Putting oneself in their position, it
is easy to imagine the sorrow and concern,--the _horror_ rather,--with
which a good man, when the first edition of 'Essays and Reviews' made
its appearance, would have discovered the kind of complicity into which
he had been inadvertently betrayed; and how eagerly he would have
withdrawn from a literary partnership which had resulted so
disastrously. At the end of nine large editions, however, the corporate
responsibility of each individual author has become fully established;
and besides the many proofs of sympathy between the several authors
which these pages contain[237], it is no longer doubtful that the
sentiments of the work are to be quoted without reference to the
individual writers. It would be unfair to assume that not one of these
seven men has had the manliness to avow that his own individual
convictions are opposed to those of his fellows. We are compelled to
regard their joint labours as _one_ production. It is the _corporate
efficacy_ of the several contributions which constitutes the chief
criminality of the volume. It is to the respectability and weight of the
_conjoined_ names of its authors, and to their _combined_ efforts, that
'Essays and Reviews' are indebted for all their power.
What then is the system, or theory, or view, advocated by these seven
Authors?--They are all agreed that we are "placed evidently at an epoch
when Humanity finds itself under new conditions, to form some definite
conception to ourselves of the way in which Christianity is henceforward
to act upon the world which is our own." (p. 158.) To do this, we must
emerge from our "narrow chamber of Doctrinal and Ecclesiastical
prepossessions." (_Ibid._) Accordingly, we find insinuated "a very
wide-spread alienation, both in educated and uneducated persons, from
the Christianity which is ordinarily presented in our Churches and
Chapels." (p. 150.) There has been "a spontaneous recoil." (p. 151.) We
cannot "resist the tide of civilization on which we are borne."
(p. 412.) "The time has come when it is no longer possible to ignore the
results of criticism." It is therefore "of importance that Christianity
should be seen to be in harmony with them." (p. 374.) "The arguments of
our genuine critics, with the convictions of our most learned clergy"
(p. 66) are all opposed to the actual teaching of the Church. Meantime,
"the Christian Religion is in a false position when all the tendencies
of knowledge are opposed to it." (p. 374.) "Time was when the Gospel was
before the age: ... when the highest minds found in its truths not only
the rule of their lives, but a well-spring of intellectual delight. Is
it to be held a thing impossible that the Christian Religion may again
embrace the thoughts of men upon the earth?" (pp. 374-5.)
In the mean time, THE BIBLE is a stubborn fact in the way of the new
Religion. Nay, the English _Book of Common Prayer_ is a great hindrance;
for those "formulæ of past thinkings, have long lost all sense of any
kind;" (p. 297;) so that the Prayer-book "is on the way to become a
useless encumbrance, the rubbish of the past, blocking the road."
(_Ibid._) But the Prayer-book confessedly stands on a different footing
from the Bible. The Bible erects itself hopelessly in the way of "the
negative religion." (p. 151.) O those many prophecies, which for 4000
long years sustained the faith of GOD'S chosen people, and at last found
fulfilment in the person of CHRIST, or in the circumstances which
attended the establishment of His Kingdom! O that glorious retinue of
types and shadows which heralded MESSIAH'S approach!... And then,--O the
miraculous evidence which attested to the reality of His Divinity[238]!
O the confirmation, (to those who needed it,) when He walked the water,
and stilled the storm, and cast out devils by His word, and by one
strong cry broke the gates of Death, and caused Lazarus to "Come forth!"
... O the solemn _independent_ testimony borne by Creeds, from the very
birthday of Christianity,--(whether planted in Syria or in Asia Minor,
in Africa or in Italy, in Greece or in Gaul; "in Germany or in Spain,
among the Celts or in the far East, in Egypt or in Libya, or in the
middle regions of the globe[239].") Lastly,--O the adoring voice of the
whole Church Catholic throughout the world, for many a succeeding
century,--translating, expounding, defining, explaining, defending to
the death!... How shall all this formidable mass of evidence possibly be
set aside?
It is plain that Prophecy must be evacuated of its meaning; or rather,
must be denied entirely: and to do this, falls to the share of the
vulgar and violent Vice-Principal of Lampeter College. Disprove he
cannot; so he sneers and rails and blusters instead. Prophecy, he calls
"omniscience;" "a notion of foresight by vision of particulars;"
(p.70;) "a kind of clairvoyance," (p. 70,) and "literal
prognostication." (p. 65.) Mr. Jowett (as we have lately seen[240],)
lends plaintive help: but indeed Dr. Williams does not lack supporters.
To deny the truth of Miracles falls to the lot of the Savilian Professor
of Astronomy. His method has the merit of extreme simplicity: for it is
based on the ground that, in the writer's opinion, Miracles are
impossible,--which of course must be held to be decisive of the
question.
The battle against the Inspiration of the Word of GOD is reserved for
the Regius Professor of Greek; who requires for his purpose twice the
space of any of his fellows. _His_ method is also of the simplest kind,
when divested of its many encumbrances. He simply _assumes it as proved_
that the Bible is a book not essentially different from Sophocles and
Plato. In other words he _assumes_ that the Bible is not inspired; and
reproaches, pities, or sneers at every one who is not of his opinion.
In the meantime, What _is_ Prophecy? What _are_ Miracles? Of what sort
is that Bible which has imposed upon mankind so grossly, and so long?
They are _facts_, and must be explained. What are they? Prophecy, then,
is "_only the power of seeing the ideal in the actual_, or of tracing
the Divine Government in the movements of men." (p. 70.) As for
Miracles, "their evidential force is wholly _relative_ to the
apprehensions of the parties addressed ... Columbus' prediction of the
Eclipse to the native islanders," (p. 115,) is advanced as an
illustration of the nature of the argument from Miracles. By whatever
method the Bible has attained its present footing in the world, it is a
book which has been hitherto misunderstood; and it must plainly be dealt
with after a new fashion. Our Lord's Incarnation, Temptation, Death and
Burial, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven,--all His Miracles, in
short, will be best interpreted _Ideologically_; in other words, by a
principle "which resolves into an ideal the whole of the historical and
doctrinal person of JESUS." (p. 200.) So interpreted, "the Gospel may
win again the minds of intellectual men;" (p. 376;) but it will find it
no easy matter. There is in fact "a higher wisdom" than the Gospel,
"which is known to those who are perfect,"--"_that_ reconcilement,"
namely, "of Faith and Knowledge which may be termed Christian
Philosophy." (p. 413.)
The great object, in short, is to bring about "a reconciliation"
(p. 375,) between "the minds of intellectual men" (p. 376,) and
Christianity. Such a reconciliation is to be regarded as a "restoration
of belief." (p. 375.) And it is to be effected by "taking away some of
the external supports, because they are not needed and do harm: also
because they interfere with the meaning." (p. 375.)--Those "external
supports" are (1) a belief in the Inspiration of the Bible;--(2) the
writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church;--(3) Creeds and the
decisions of Councils;--(4) the works of Anglican Divines;--(5)
Learning; (p. 337;)--(6) a profound acquaintance with the Greek
language; (p. 393;)--(7) a minute knowledge of Greek Grammar;
(p. 391;)--(8) the Doctrine of the Greek Article;--(9) the free use of
the parallel passages.... The Bible, when interpreted by any
self-relying young man who knows a little Greek, and attends to the
meaning _of words_,--will be seen in all the freshness of its early
beauty, like an old picture which has been recently cleaned. "A new
interest" will be excited by this new Bible, which will "make for itself
a new kind of authority." By being thus literally interpreted, it will
be transformed into "a spirit." Then, (but not before) the Bible will
enjoy the sublime satisfaction of keeping pace with the Age. It may so,
even yet, "embrace the thoughts of men upon the earth."