(pp. 207-253,) is to be rejected because it "is not an authentic
utterance of Divine knowledge, but a human utterance, which it has
pleased Providence to use in a special way for the education of
mankind." (p. 253.) We are invited to "a frank recognition of the
_erroneous views of Nature_ which the Bible contains." (p. 211.) Thus,
_all_ miraculous transactions will have to be explained away. The volume
of Prophecy will have to be regarded as a volume of History. The very
History will have to be read with distrust. Like other records, it is
subject to the conditions of "knowledge which existed in an early stage
of the world." (p. 411.) It does not even begin to be authentic, until
B.C. 1900; or rather, until B.C. 900[241]. What remains is to be looked
upon as "the continuous witness in all ages of the higher things in the
heart of man," (p. 375,)--(whatever that may happen to mean.) The Gospel
is to be looked upon as "a life of CHRIST in the soul, instead of a
theory of CHRIST which is in a book, or written down," (p. 423.) "The
lessons of Scripture, when disengaged from theological formulas, have a
nearer way to the hearts of the poor." (p. 424.) Even "in Missions to
the heathen, Scripture is to be treated as the expression of universal
truths, rather than of the tenets of particular men and Churches."
(p.423.) It is anticipated that this "would remove many obstacles to the
reception of Christianity." (_Ibid._) "It is not the Book of Scripture
which we should seek to give the heathen;" "but the truth of the Book;
the mind of CHRIST and His Apostles, in which all lesser details and
differences should be lost and absorbed;" "the purer light or element of
Religion, of which Christianity is the expression." (p. 427.) ... Such
is the ghostly phantom, by the aid of which the Heathen are to become
evangelized!
But this historical Bible is not to be regarded as the rule of a man's
life, or indeed as an external Law at all. (pp. 36, 45.) "We walk now by
Reason and Conscience _alone_." (p. 21.) The Bible is to be identified
"with the voice of Conscience," (p. 45,)--which it has "to evoke, not to
override." (p. 44.) "The principle of private judgment ... makes
Conscience the supreme interpreter." (p. 45.) Ours is "a law which is
_not imposed upon us by another power_, but _by our own enlightened
will_:" (p. 35:) for the "Spirit, or Conscience" "legislates" henceforth
"_without appeal except to himself_." (p. 31.)
Having thus disposed of "Traditional Christianity," (p. 156,) it is not
obscurely hinted that something quite different is to be substituted in
its place. And first, next to "a frank appeal to Reason, and a frank
criticism of Scripture," (p. 174,) the nature and "office of the Church
is to be properly understood." (p. 194.)
The Church then is a spontaneous development of the State, as "part of
its own organization," (p. 195,)--a purely secular Institution. The
State will "develop itself into a Church" by "throwing its elements, or
the best of them, into another mould; and constituting out of them a
Society, which is in it, though in some sense not of it (?),--which is
another (?), yet the same." (p. 194.) The nation must provide, from time
to time, that the teaching of one age does "not traditionally harden, so
as to become an exclusive barrier in a subsequent one; and so the moral
growth of those who are committed to the hands of the Church be
checked." (_Ibid._) The Church is founded, therefore, not upon "the
possession of a supernaturally communicated speculation (!) concerning
GOD," but "upon _the manifestation of a Divine Life in Man_."
"Speculative doctrines should be left to _philosophical schools_. A
national Church must be concerned with the _ethical development_ of its
members." (p. 195.) It should be "free from dogmatic tests, and similar
intellectual bondage;" (p. 168;) hampered by no Doctrines, pledged to no
Creeds. These may be retained indeed; but "_we refuse to be bound by
them_." (p. 44.) The Subscription of the Clergy to the Articles should
also be abolished: for "no promise can reach fluctuations of opinion,
and personal conviction." (!!!) _Open_ heretical teaching may, to be
sure, be dealt with by the Law; but the Law "should not require any act
which appears to signify 'I think.'" (p. 189.) Witness "the reluctance
of the stronger minds to enter an Order in which their intellects may
not have _free play_." (p. 190.) ... Such then is the Negative Religion!
Such is the new faith which Doctors Temple and Williams, Professors
Powell and Jowett, Messieurs Wilson, Goodwin, and Pattison, have
deliberately combined to offer to the acceptance of the World!
It is high time to conclude. I cannot lay down my pen however until I
have re-echoed the sentiments of one with whom I heartily agree. I
allude to Dr. Moberly; who professes that he is "struck almost more with
what seems to him the hardheartedness, and exceeding unkindness of this
book, than with its unsoundness. Have the writers," (he asks,)
"considered how far the suggesting of innumerable doubts,--doubts
unargued and unproved,--will check honest devotion, and embolden timid
sin? _For whom_ do they intend this book? Is it written for the mass of
general readers? Is it designed for students at the Universities? Do
they suppose that this multitude of random suggestions will be carefully
wrought out by these readers, and be rejected if unsound; so as to leave
their faith and devotion untarnished?... Have they reflected how many
souls for whom CHRIST died may be slain in their weakness by _their_
self-styled strength?"
"Suppose, for a moment, that the Holy Scriptures _are_ (p. 177,) the
Word of the Spirit of GOD,--that the Miracles, (cf. p. 109,) including
the Resurrection of CHRIST, are actual objective facts, which have
really happened,--that the Doctrines of the Church are true, (p. 195,)
and the Creeds (p. 355,) the authoritative expositions of them,--and
that men are to reach Salvation through faith in CHRIST, Virgin-born,
according to the Scriptures, and making atonement (cf. p. 87,) for their
sins upon the Cross. ON THIS SUPPOSITION,--_Is not the publication of
this book an act of real hostility to GOD'S Truth; and one which
endangers the Faith and Salvation of Men?_ And is this hostility less
real, or the danger diminished, because the writers are, all but one,
Clergymen, some of them Tutors and Schoolmasters; because they wear the
dress, and use the language of friends, and threaten us with bitter
opposition if we do not regard them as such[242]?"
* * * * *
With this I lay down my pen. My last words shall be simple and
affectionate, addressed solely to yourselves.
I trace these concluding lines,--(of a work which, but for _you_, would
never have been undertaken,)--in a _quite_ empty College; and in the
room where we have so often and so happily met on Sunday evenings. Can
you wonder if, at the conclusion of what has proved rather a heavy task,
(so _hateful_ to me is controversy,) my thoughts revert with
affectionate solicitude to yourselves, already scattered in all
directions; and to those evenings which more, I think, than any other
thing, have gilded my College life?... In thus sending you a written
farewell, and praying from my soul that GOD may bless and keep you all,
I cannot suppress the earnest entreaty that you would remember the best
words of counsel which may have at any time fallen from my lips: that
you would persevere in the daily study of the pure Book of Life; and
that you would read it, _not_ as feeling yourselves called upon to sit
in judgment on its adorable contents; but rather, as men who are
permitted to draw near; and invited _to listen_, and _to learn_, and _to
live_. And so farewell!... "Watch ye, stand fast in the Faith,"--nay,
take it in the original, which is far better:--=Grêgoreite, stêkete en tê
pistei andrizesthe, krataiousthe. panta hymôn en agapê ginesthô. Hê charis
tou Kyriou Iêsou Christou meth' hymôn. hê agapê mou meta pantôn hymôn.=
Your friend,
J. W. B.
ORIEL,
_June 22nd_, 1861.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] I abstain from enumerating Dr. Temple's mistakes,--for such things
do not belong to the essence of a composition. And yet I must remark
that it is hardly creditable in a Doctor of Divinity to write as he
does. "In _all_ (!) the doctrinal disputes of the fourth and fifth
centuries, the decisive voice came from Rome. Every controversy was
finally settled by her opinion, because she alone possessed _the art of
framing formulas_," &c. (p. 16.) Would the learned writer favour us with
_a single warrant_ for this assertion?... At p. 9, Dr. Temple mistakes
for Micah's, words spoken 700 years before by Balaam. At p. 10, he says
that "Prayer, as a regular and necessary part of worship, first appears
in the later books of the Old Testament."--His account of the papacy is
contained in the following words:--"Law was the lesson which Rome was
intended to teach the world. Hence (?) the Bishop of Rome soon became
the Head of the Church. Rome was in fact the centre of the traditions
which had once governed the world; and their spirit still remained; and
the Roman Church developed into the papacy simply because a head was
wanted (!), and no better one could be found."--p. 16. At p. 10 we have
a truly puerile misconception of the meaning of 1 Cor. xv. 56, &c., &c.
[20] Deut. vi. 4.
[21] 1 Sam. xv. 22, where see the places in the margin.
[22] Hos. vi. 6, quoted by our LORD, St. Matth. ix. 13: xii. 7.
[23] Consider Ps. xxvi. 6: l. 13, 14: li. 16, 17: cxvi. 15: cxix. 108:
cxli. 2, &c.
[24] St. Matth. xvi. 4: xii. 39. Compare St. Mark viii. 38.
[25] St. James iv. 4.
[26] St. Matth. xxiii. 33.
[27] Ezek. xvi. 47-52.
[28] Is. i. 4, 6, 15.
[29] St. John viii. 9. "I cannot but speak my mind," (says Josephus,
after taking a survey of the extreme wickedness of his countrymen, in
connexion with the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem,) "and it is this:
I suppose that if the Romans had delayed to come against these sinners,
either the earth would have swallowed them up; or the city would have
been swept away by another Flood; or it would have been consumed, like a
second Sodom, by fire from Heaven."
[30] S. John xii. 38-40. "_They have blinded_ their eyes," &c. (See the
place in the LXX.:) sc. =ho laos houtos.=
[31] "Had the revelation of CHRIST been delayed till now, assuredly it
would have been hard for us to recognize His Divinity.... We, of course,
have in our turn counterbalancing advantages. (!) If we have lost that
freshness of faith which would be the first (_sic_) to say to a poor
carpenter,--Thou art the CHRIST, the SON of the living GOD,--yet we
possess in the greater cultivation of our religious understanding, that
which perhaps we ought not to be willing to give in exchange (!) ...
They had not the same clearness of understanding as we; the same
recognition that it is GOD and not the Devil who rules the World; the
same power of discrimination between different kinds of truth.... Had
our LORD come later, He would have come to mankind already beginning to
stiffen into the fixedness of maturity.... The truth of His Divine
Nature would not have been recognized." (pp. 24-5.)--Is this meant for
bitter satire on the age we live in; or for disparagement of the
Incarnate WORD?... But in the face of such anticipations, the keenest
satire of all is contained in the author's claim to a "religious
understanding, cultivated" to a degree unknown to the best ages of the
Church; as well as to surpassing "clearness of understanding," and
"powers of discrimination." Lamentable in _any_ quarter, how deplorable
is such conceit in one who shews himself _unacquainted with the first
principles of Theological Science_; and who puts forth an Essay on the
Education of the World, which would have been discreditable to an
advanced school-boy!
[32] Quite ineffectual, at the very close of this unhappy composition,
as a set off to the compacted and often repeated asseverations of his
earlier pages, is the amiable author's plaintive plea for "even the
perverted use of the Bible;" adding,--"And meanwhile, how utterly
impossible it would be in the manhood of the world to imagine any other
instructor of mankind!" (p. 47.) It is one of the favourite devices of
these seven writers, side by side with their most objectionable
statements, to insert isolated passages of admitted truth,--and
occasionally even of considerable beauty: which however are _utterly
meaningless_ and out of place where they stand; and (like the sentence
above written,) powerless to undo the circumstantial wickedness of what
went before. I repeat, that the words above-written are meaningless
_where they stand_: for if Dr. Temple really means that it is "_utterly
impossible in the manhood of the world to IMAGINE any other instructor
of mankind_" than THE BIBLE,--what becomes of his Essay?
[33] =paratêreisthe=: i.e. "ye _mis_observe," "keep _in a wrong way_."
[34] Gal. iv. 1-10.
[35] Gal. iii. 24, 25.
[36] Gal. v. 1.
[37] 2 St. John v. 10, 11.
[38] Rom. viii. 21.
[39] It is presumed that the article in the _Dict. of Antiquities_ will
be held unexceptionable authority as to the office of the
=paidagôgos=.--"Rex filio pædagogum constituit, et singulis diebus ad
eum invisit, interrogans eum: Num comedit filius meus? _num in scholam
abiit? num ex scholâ rediit_?"--Wetstein, in loc.--So Plato _Lysis_, p.
118.
[40] 1 St. Peter ii. 21. Comp. St. James v. 10.
[41] 1 Cor. xi. 1: iv. 16. Phil. iii. 17. 2 Thess. iii. 9. Heb. xiii. 7,
&c.
[42] 1 St. Pet. i. 11.
[43] 1 Tim. i. 10: iv. 6. Tit. i. 9: ii. 1. Comp. 2 St. John v. 10.
[44] 2 Tim. i. 13.
[45] 2 Tim. i. 13, 14: ii. 2. Also 1 Tim. vi. 20. On both places, Dr.
Wordsworth's _Notes_ may be consulted with advantage.
[46] 2 Tim. iv. 3.
[47] 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8, &c.
[48] Art. XX.
[49] Art. VIII.
[50] I allude especially to the terrible castigation he has individually
received at the hands of the Bishop of Exeter. See _the Times_, of March
4th, 1861.
[51] "And when the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to
destroy it, the LORD ... said to the Angel that destroyed the people,"
&c. "And the Angel of the LORD was by the threshing-place of Araunah the
Jebusite."--2 Sam. xxiv. 16.
"The Angel of the LORD stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the
Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the Angel of the LORD
stand between the Earth and the Heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand
stretched out over Jerusalem."--1 Chron. xxi. 15, 16.
[52] Acts i. 20.
[53] _On the Creed_, Art. iv. p. 244, _notes_ (_u_) and (_x_).
[54] "It would take no great space," (says Dr. Pusey,) "to shew that the
rendering 'as a lion,' is unmeaning, without authority, against
authority; while the rendering 'they pierced' is borne out alike by
authority and language."
[55] Ver. 1,--St. John xii. 38. Rom. x. 16. Ver. 4,--St. Matth. viii.
17. Ver. 4 to 11,--1 St. Pet. ii. 24, 25. Ver. 7 and 8,--Acts viii. 32.
Ver. 12,--St. Mark xv. 28. St. Luke xxii. 37.
[56] Mal. iv. 5.
[57] St. Luke i. 17.
[58] As the Fathers generally teach. See Brown's _Ordo Sæclorum_,
pp. 702-3, &c., &c.
[59] And yet,--"I go to prepare _a place_ for you!"--St. John xiv. 2.
[60] See, for example, p. 60, (_lower half_,) p. 62, (_middle_,) &c.
[61] Comp. p. 45.
[62] Col. ii. 11, 12. Rom. ii. 29. Phil. iii. 3, &c.
[63] _Edinburgh Review_, (Ap. 1861,) p. 429.
[64] _Analogy_, P. II. ch. ii., _ad fin._
[65] _Analogy_, P. II. ch. iii., _ad init._
[66] Van Mildert's _Historical View of the Rise and Progress of
Infidelity_, &c. Serm. xxi., (ed. 1806,) vol. ii. pp. 313-17.
[67] "Columbus' prediction of the eclipse to the native islanders, was
as true an argument to them as if the event had really been
supernatural." p. 115.
[68] St. Mark viii. 19, 20.
[69] St. John ix.
[70] St. John xi. 44.
[71] Consider St. John iii. 2, (referring to ii. 23 and iv. 45.) So ix.
16: x. 21 and 38: xiv. 10, 11. Also xv. 24; and consider St Luke vii.
16: also 21, 22: St. Matth. xii. 22, 23: St. John vii. 31: xii. 17-19.
[72] St. John v. 44. Comp. vii. 17: viii. 12. St. Matth. v. 8. Ps. xix.
8: cxix. 100. Also, Ecclus. i. 26: xxi. 11.--"There is," (says an
excellent living writer,) "scarcely any doctrine or precept of our
SAVIOUR more distinctly and strongly stated, than that the capacity for
judging of, and for believing the Truths of Christianity, depends upon
Moral Goodness, and the practice of Virtue."--Let us hear our own Hooker
on this subject:--"We find by experience that although Faith be an
intellectual habit of the mind, and have her seat in the understanding,
yet an evil moral disposition obstinately wedded to the love of darkness
dampeth the very light of heavenly illumination, and permitted not the
Mind to see what doth shine before it."--_Eccl. Pol._, B. v.c. lxiii.
§ 2.
[73] St. John xi. 44.
[74] P. 113. The italics are in the original.
[75] See the _Quarterly Review_, (on Prof. Baden Powell's "Order of
Nature,")--for Oct. 1859, (No. 212,) pp. 420-3.
[76] p. 169.--"Priests have neither been, as some would represent, a set
of deliberate conspirators against the free thoughts of mankind; nor, on
the other hand," &c. _Ibid._--How partial becomes the judgment, when we
have to discuss the merits of our own order!
[77] _Ans._ Clearly in the relation of a blessing which has by all means
to be communicated to them.
[78] _Ans._ Certainly there is. Those which most obviously present
themselves are such as the following:--St. Matth. ix. 37, 38: xxviii.
19, 20. St. Luke xxiv. 47. Acts ii. 38, 39, &c.
[79] _Analogy_, P. II. c. vi.
[80] Rom. v. 12.
[81] 1 Cor. xv. 22.
[82] Eph. ii. 3.
[83] _Analogy_, P. II. c. v. note (d).
[84] Col. i. 23.--p. 155.
[85] See Nelson's _Life of Bp. Bull_, p. 245.
[86] See Nelson's _Life of Bp. Bull_, p. 242.
[87] "The horizon which his view embraced was _much narrower_ than St.
Paul's,"--who had enlarged his mind by foreign travel, (p. 168.)
In a note, we are informed that "at any rate his Gospel cannot, by
external evidence, be attached to the person (!) of St. John as its
author." "Many persons," (it is added,) "shrink from a _bonâ fide_
examination of the 'Gospel question,' because they imagine, that unless
the four Gospels are received as ... entirely the composition of the
persons whose names they bear, and without any admixture of legendary
matter or embellishment in their narratives, the only alternative is to
suppose a fraudulent design in those who did compose them." (p. 161.)
... May one who has _not_ shrunk from 'the Gospel question' be permitted
to regret that the Reverend writer has not specified the charges which
he thus vaguely brings against the Gospels? _What_, pray, is the
legendary matter; and _which_ are the embellishments?
In the same page we read of "the first, or genuine, epistle of St.
Peter." Is not his _second_ epistle genuine, then?
[88] See above, p. lviii.
[89] "Pleas for 'liberty of conscience' and 'freedom of opinion,'" (as
on excellent writer has recently pointed out,) "can have neither place
nor pretext, while there is liberty, for all who choose, to decline
joining the Church of England; _and freedom, for all who choose, to
leave her_."--Rev. C. Forster's 'Spinoza Redivivus,' (1861,) p. 6.
[90] In what part of the Bible, (one begs respectfully to inquire,) is
one called upon to "accept the story of an arresting of the Earth's
motion, or of a reversal of its motion?" ... Would it not be as well to
be truthful in one's references to the Bible?
[91] See below, p. 68.
[92] See Butler's _Analogy_, P. II. c. iii.
[93] _Quarterly Review_, Jan. 1861, p. 275.
[94] Take a few as a specimen:--"A great restraint is supposed to be
imposed upon the Clergy by reason of their subscription to the
Thirty-nine Articles. Yet it is more difficult than might be expected,
to define what is the extent of the legal obligation of those who sign
them; and in this case, the strictly legal obligation is the measure of
the moral one. Subscription may be thought even to be _inoperative upon
the conscience_ by reason of its vagueness. For the act of subscription
is enjoined, but its effect or meaning nowhere plainly laid down; and it
does not seem to amount to more than an acceptance of the Articles of
the Church as the formal law to which the subscriber is _in some sense_
subject. What that subjection amounts to, must be gathered elsewhere;
for it does not appear on the face of the subscription itself."--(p.
181. See down to page 185.) Can equivocation such as this be read
without a sense of humiliation and shame, as well as of disgust and
abhorrence?
[95] p. 180 to p. 190.
[96] Heading of the XXXIX Articles.
[97] The reader is referred to some remarks on Ideology towards the
close of Sermon VII., p. 243 to p. 251.
[98] "Unhappily, together with his _inauguration of Multitudinism_,
Constantine also inaugurated a principle essentially at variance with
it, the principle of _doctrinal limitation_." (p. 166.) ... "The
opportunity of reverting to the freedom of the Apostolic, and
immediately succeeding periods, was finally lost for many ages by the
sanction given by Constantine to the decisions of Nicæa." (_Ibid._) "At
all events, a principle at variance with a true Multitudinism was then
recognised." (_Ibid._)
How does it happen, by the way, that one writing B.D. after his name,
however bitter his animosity against the Nicene Creed may be, is not
aware that Creeds are co-eval with Christianity? Thus we find the Creed
of Carthage in the works of Cyprian, (A.D. 225,) and Tertullian,
(A.D. 210, 203): that of Lyons in the works of Irenæus, (A.D. 180.) [see
Heurtley's _Harmonia Symbolica_, pp. 7-20.] We recognize fragments of
the Creed in Ignatius, (A.D. 90.) We hear St. Paul himself
saying--=hypotypôsin eche hygiainontôn logôn, hôn= (i.e. _the words_
themselves!) =par' emou êkousas ... tên kalên parakatathêkên phylaxon=--2
Tim. i. 13, 14. A few more words on this subject will be found in the
notice of Mr. Jowett's Essay.
[99] It is really impossible to argue with a man who informs us that
"_previous to the time of the divided Kingdom_, the Jewish History
presents little which is thoroughly reliable:" (p. 170:)--that "the
greater probability seems on the side of the supposition, that the
Priesthood, with its distinct offices and charge, was constituted by
Royalty, and that _the higher pretensions of the priests were not
advanced till the reign of Josiah_:" (_Ibid._:)--that, "The negative
Theologian" demands "some positive elements in Christianity, on grounds
more sure to him than _the assumption of an objective 'faith once
delivered to the saints_,' which he cannot identify with the Creed of
any Church as yet known to him:" (pp. 174-5:)--a man who can remark
concerning the Bible, that,--"Those who are able to do so, ought to lead
the less educated to distinguish between the different kinds of words
which it contains, between _the dark patches of human passion and error
which form a partial crust upon it_, and the bright centre of spiritual
truth within." (p. 177.)
[100] _Quarterly Review_, (Jan. 1851,) No. 217, p. 259.
[101] A writer in the _Saturday Review_, (April 6, 1861,) in an
admirable Article on the importance of retaining the office of 'Dean' in
its integrity, (instead of suicidally merging it in the office of
'Bishop,') speaks of there being "no English Commentary on the New
Testament brought up to the level of modern Theological Science." [As if
"the level" had been rising of late!] "Butler and Paley are still our
text-books on the Evidences; and we are defending _old beliefs_ behind
wooden walls _against the rifled cannon and iron broadsides of modern
Philosophy_."--p. 337. What a strange misapprehension of the entire
question,--of the relation of Theological to Physical Science,--does
such a sentence betray!
[102] See below, p. 235.
[103] As the excellent Townson observed long since,--"The brightness of
countenance and raiment which dazzled and overcame the sight of His
Apostles when He was Transfigured on the Mount, was to Him but _a ray of
that glory in which He dwelt before the Worlds were made_."--Sermon on
"The manner of our SAVIOUR'S Teaching,"--_Works_, vol. i. p. 282.
[104] St. Matth. xvii. 2.
[105] St. Mark ix. 3.
[106] 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16.--If it be more philosophical to suppose that
the Light which shone upon the earth during the first three days
proceeded from the Sun, (the orb of which remained invisible,) and not
from any extraneous independent source,--I have no objection whatever to
such a supposition,--or indeed to any other which suffers the inspired
record to remain intact. I am by no means clear however that Philosophy
(begging her pardon,) does not entirely mistake her office, when she
pretends to explain the first chapter of Genesis. Hence, her constrained
language, and unnatural manner, when she desires to be respectful,--her
inconsequential remarks and perpetual blunders when she rather prefers
to be irreligious. She is simply out of her element, and is discoursing
of what _she does not understand_.--Theology, dealing with a physical
problem by the method of Theological Science; and Philosophy, applying
to a chapter in the Bible the physical method,--are alike at fault, and
alike ridiculous. This truth, however obvious, does not seem to be
generally understood.