,. m%w • % -#"TO5&?V!3=S3B!8S ^SS^SS^^/^^^^iC h-i&^xZBsiTi THEISM, DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL. THEISM, DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL; OB DIDACTIC RELIGIOUS UTTERANCES. BT FRANCIS W. NEWMAN. " God is Love."— Epistle of John. " Of a truth I peroeiye that God is no respecter of persons ; but in every nation lie that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." — Peter, in The Acts. " In that day the Lord of Hosts shall say: Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of iny hands, and Israel mine inheritance." — Isaiah. " Now abidcth Faith, Hope, Love, these three ; but the greatest of these is Love." — Paul to the Corinthians. I > LONDON ? JOHN CHAPMAN, KING WILLIAM ST., STRAND. MDCCCLVIII. printed by john edward taylor, little oa'een street, Lincoln's inn fields. '■? S 6> PREFACE. Nearly nine years ago I published a small treatise, entitled ' The Soul,' which was designed as an Essay towards putting Theology on its true basis. In the following pages an attempt is made considerably in advance of the former. Naturally the general outlines are the same; but on some points a careful reader will discover variations which it is not important here to specify. Nine years of closer acquaintance with the noblest kind of (self-entitling) Atheism, have enabled me, I trust, to express more simply and truly the strength of Theism. As to the Form of the present Work, I will only say that (after experi- ments of a commoner style) it was adopted for reasons which seemed to me adequate, but which it is unavailing to produce. In a matter of taste, those who are not satisfied without argument are seldom convinced by argument. December, 1857. CONTENTS. PAGE 3 Prologue, BOOK I. SJjcotn of luligion. Animal Instincts Human Instincts 4 Fbee Will 6 Man and Teuth 10 God in Conscience 12 Spiritual Pratee 16 Science of Things Outward ... 19 Intuition and Verification ... 22 Axioms of Religion 25 Fr notions of Unbelief 27 Intellectual Pantheism .... 28 Rectitude of God 30 Truthfulness of God 31 Blessedness of God 32 The Love of God 33 Sin and Holiness 37 The Letter and the Spirit ... 38 Evil 40 Childish and Manly Virtue . . 41 The Moral and the Spiritual . . 13 Instruction in Vibtue 45 Object op Teaching i,; (p. 1.) PAGE Self-convicted Teachers .... 48 Individualism and Unity .... 50 Law and Meecy 52 Death 53 Enforcement of Rule 55 Faith and Foresight 57 Retribution 59 Divine Government 61 Collective Government .... 62 Faith 64 Special Providence 68 The Material and the Moral . . 71 Immortality of God's Beloved . . 74 The Infinitude of the Finite . . 76 Soul and Body 79 Worth of the Soul 81 Animal Development 82 Bbotheehood of Men 87 The Alternatives 89 Future of the Righteous .... 91 Ft/tube of the Wicked 94 Prevenient Grace 96 W iters of Lethe 'J7 Modern Polytheism 99 vm CONTENTS. BOOK II. PAGE Abstract Truth 103 Religion 104 Eight and Righteousness .... 104 Virtue 105 Social Virtue 106 Justice 107 The Passions 109 Pleasure 110 Conjugal Relations Ill Church and State 113 The Church internally .... 114 Sacred Books 115 Teaching and Public Prater . . 116 Rebuke and Prophecy US Education Ill' Short Creeds 120 BOOK III. l\rligious ILife. Call to God's Service 122 Postures of Devotion 123 Joy and Consolation 125 Deadxess of Soul 127 Despondency of Providence . 129 Modern Martyrdom 130 1'erfect and Imperfect Virtue . 133 Moral Contagion 136 Foundation of the State .... 138 Loyalty and Allegiance .... 140 Patriotism 142 Capital Punishment 143 Prevention of Crime 147 The Twofold Law 148 Pomps and Vanities 150 Luxury 151 The Elect 152 Political Expediency 154 Political Vacillation 156 The Order of Progress .... 158 Vitality of Sin 161 Strength out of Weakness . . . 162 Lawful Obedience 164 Defensive War '. . . 166 Military Oaths 167 The Hardened Politician . . . 169 The Considerate Politician . . . 170 Truth . . .' 171 Oaths and Solemn Affirmations . 174 Cleanliness 175 Rights of Animals 179 Adoration 182 Cptlagus, (p. 184.) THEISM, DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL. ^roloflits. Virtue is Man's highest good, Justice the chief virtue between man and man. Truth makes sure the instincts of Virtue ; Free Thought is needed for the search of Truth. Man has a mind for Virtue and Truth, As truly as limbs for useful Labour, And Labour and Virtue are close akin. Labour of head or Labour of hand Are needful to health of mind and body. Either Labour is noble and right ; No rightful Labour ought to be debasing. Freedom to be virtuous is for ever man's right ; And whatever or whoever forbids it, is vicious. Never can Society be propped by Vice, For all Vice is weakness and rottenness. Civilization must breed noble citizens : Degraded classes never build it up, But always undermine and ruin it. Degradation is unnatural, and therefore unnecessary. THEISM. Man's higher Instinct leads to lofty aspiration, To generous sentiment and boundless desire, Till he seeks and finds the Author of his Soul. In seeking for him he perfects his virtue, By finding him he is made strong within, And being strong he strengthens his brethren. For to aid the weak is the duty of the strong, And thus Virtue within becomes Justice without. Women are weakest and women most need defence, Yet in Christian cities they are trampled under foot, Through the league between Mammon and spurious Policy Nor do Time and Progi-ess in wealth and science Lessen or soften the hideous curse ; For no one attempts to prevent ox punish, While souls and bodies r.re trafficked in. When Woman is duly honoured and homes are purified, And Fiery Drink is withheld from the weak in mind, And the traffickers in Sin are pursued as Felons, And Truth is open-mouthed, and Thought is Free ; God shall soon bless the land with blessiugs undreamed of. Labour shall be honoured and enmity of classes cease, Poverty shall be light-hearted, Pauperism shall wane, Beggary and Roguery shall be trades extinct, The jails and the houses of the Insane shall be idle, Health shall be robuster and Orphanhood rare, Orphans shall meet new love in families, Youth shall be reared to pure thought, pure fancy, High hope, high desire and tender piety. Religion shall grow wise and Knowledge religious, Atheism shall waste away, and Selfishness learn to blush, And God shall be our God and we will be his people. \ \ FIRST BOOK. THE THEORY OE BELIGION. Animal Instinct. To know thoroughly the passions and emotions of animals, Is a study vast and various to the learned naturalist. Yet even the common mind and the untutored savage In every age and land discerns and marvels at Instinct; Observes the clever beaver, the provident ant and bee, Maternal affections and maternal solicitudes. Closer observation everywhere shows to the more thoughtful, That a wisdom higher than the animal's guides the animal. The hen who sits upon eggs to hatch her chickens, Sits also on strange eggs or on eggs of chalk ; Nor will any one assert that in her silly brain Is knowledge to foresee the issue of her long patience. — That the instinct is blind, by which animals are multiplied, And that male parents have no longings for a noble posterity, Perhaps no one hitherto, sane or insane, has questioned. — The geometry is celebrated, which constructs the honeycell, Husbanding the wax with scientific thrift, Yet none imagine that the bee is mentally a geometer : Nor, when the salmon of the briny sea, untaught by parents, Struggle up sweet torrents and leap the lashers, Will it be thought that they know the true purposes of their pilgrimage. In these and in very many other instincts of animals Mankind discerns a Mind higher than of the animal, Which plans and decrees, and orders a beautiful world ; A Mind assuredly not lodged in the narrow animal brain, Nor born with its Organs, nor decaying with its death ; is 2 I THEORY OF RELIGION. A 'Mind, visible as directly as each man's mind to his fellow , Yet not restricted to the limits of a visible body, Nor otherwise dependent on any known organism. So false is the assertion strangely current with some men, That "Experience shows ns mind nowhere except in Brains." Contrariwise, Experience of every animal existence Displays abundantly on all sides Mind that urges the brute, Exterior, older, higher and overruling. That this Mind is moral, is not clear from the instincts of brutes ; And those who study these alone, might rest as Pantheists. Discerning a World- Spirit, mighty, wise and provident. Yet not ascribing to him approval of human virtue. Rut Atheism which denies all higher mind whatsoever, And pretends that Thought is limited to tangible organs, Starts from arbitrary falsehood, and has no standing ground. Man's lower instincts, equally as those of brutes, Even when unchecked by man's wisdom, are subject to a higher wisdom, Which overrules ferocity, ambition and pride, As in the wars of savages, heartless as wolves or lions. Yet out of fierceness rises the dominion of Energy, And the most energetic tribes are otherwise the noblest : Thus the noblest bear rule, and mankind is advanced, Even before Conscience has ripened to guide them to a better waj And in the infancy of self-consciousness, man dimly sees God, A God of wisdom and of energy, a God of war, Nor can Atheism ever take root in the intellect, though barbaric : So plain and so striking arc the proofs of superior Mind, And of the Power which guides and rules, as Lord of life. hitman Instincts. Wild men yield themselves to the guidance of instinct, And gratify impulse as they have might and means. Then instinct fights against instinct and force against force, HUMAN INSTINCTS. I ut i I self- restraint is imposed by necessity and by shame : And from suffering rises wisdom, which puts forth novel precepts, And separates the instincts into baser, nobler, and noblest, And honours the higher, and sets limits for the lower. Then profligates are punished, and patriot warriors are praised, And the sage and the artizan have their several meed of esteem. False prophets haply arise then, to teach ascetic follies, As though man, by ceasing to be man, could come nearer to God, And earn the favour of the Highest by sacrificing nature. But the stoutest souls of mankind and the loftiest minds everywhere Scorn to be crippled and mutilated as victims for God's altar ; And know that what is meaner, or is meanest, or is highest, Has each its place in the world, rightful and needful. But afterward come philosophers, who study the world of matter, Who are wise about the body and its influence on the mind, Who are skilled in science and in knowledge multifarious, And from honest love of truth long to explode delusion. When they find the nations beguiled by a hundred superstitions, They pity men's ignorance ; and to cure our follies, they say : " Listen not to priests, who forbid the pious to marry, Who make merit of fasting, who bid you to renounce vanities, Who talk against riches, and against enjoyment of ear and eye ; As though the senses were impure, and affection blamable, The indulgence of taste a weakness, and ease ignominious. Wherever enjoyment is lawful, enjoy ye with a good conscience. Of one instinct only take heed and beware ye, — for it is dangerous, - The instinct of religion, which seeks after God. Cripple it, crush it, tear it out by the roots ; For from it have come wars and controversies and exclusions And heartburnings endless; but Truth it will never reach." Instinct is but a dumb pointer ; this know we very well : It cannot guide reasonings, nor frame thought into sentences, Nor interpret its own movements, nor verify its suggestions : The work of establishing Truth falls alway to the Intellect. But take away the instincts, and man has no desire. No passion, no emotion, no approvals and no will 6 THEORY OF RELIGION. No material can remain to be carved into moral science, Sharp tool as tlie mind may be, if moral instinct be destroyed. And the instinct of religion is the noblest of them all, The bravest, the most enduring, the most fruitful in mighty deeds, The source of earliest grandeur, unitress of scattered tribes ; Even in the crudeness of its infancy, when nnpurified by Science, Yet teeming with civilization, with statesmanship, with letters, Mistress of all high art, and parent of glorious martyrs. And if from it have come wars and bigotries and cruelties, Through infantine hot-headedness and unripeness of the mind, We take your aid, O sceptics ! to purge it from all such evils, And kindly honour we pay to you for your battles against superstition : Yet the very evils ye deplore, prove religion's mighty energy And the grasp deeply seated which she has within human hearts. Nor ma}- wc esteem your philosophy, when you uphold the lower instincts, And praise tasteful enjoyment, and all the pleasures of sense, And the sweetness of human love, and the case of wealth and luxurj ; Yet are fain to blot out and quench the highest instinct of man, Life to his purest morals, feeder of his noblest hopes, Fountain of his deepest joy, and centre of his richest love. jfrce Religion is an absurdity, if Duty be a net , And Duty is a fiction, if man has no choice, If he is but a machine, a helpless slave of fate, A straw driven by the wind, a puppet pulled by strings. Broad common sense knows that all this is folly; And yet many acute men, wishing to be philosophic. Talk high of Necessity, and deny man's freedom ; Sometimes perhaps involved in controversy of words, And maintaining as their own what belongs alike to all; Yet often also asserting what is wholly false, And what, if true, would make Moral Effort impossible. FREE WILL. One may read from able writers, that the uniformity of crime, Which year after year is yielded in steady crop, Disproves man's freedom and shows the crimes to he inevitable. The Averages (say they) are relentless : France every year claims Her fixed tribute of murders, of suicides, of burglaries, Of thefts, of forgetfulness, so many from men, so many from women. By this " marvellous and unexpected " result of " Positive " statistics All older morals and metaphysics (they think) are overthrown, And that in the "law of the Averages" constraint of the Will is deep written. But the result is not marvellous, nor at all unexpected : From a nation that changes slowly assuredly we expect That alike its rice and virtue should show equability. But let some prophet's voice awaken new virtue in the people, And quickly the Averages will sink with the change in morals. Or is it forsooth imagined, that if one man will not sin, This causes another to sin, because "the Averages are relentless "'< He who believes this, let him believe that in a weather-glass The rise of the quicksilver causes a screner sky. No one at all pretends that Free Will guides all action, Nor can our doctrine be refuted by refuting that notion. Many actions of man, as of other animals, are instinctive, Born of casual desire, or prompted by habit, Without moral choice or even moral debate. Also the fulness of Freedom belongs only to adult virtue. Habits of evil conduct enchain the Will, And little Free Will against a vice is kept by its votary. Infants moreover, like to brutes, are but drawn by desire, And the child only by degrees ascends into moral action. In all imperfect virtue the power of the Will has its limits; For it may be overcome, until Virtue is loved as the chief good Hence the worldly-minded have believed, that every man has his pi Only, the virtuous are more cunning and haggle for greater payment. But against such base follies we disdain to reason; Follies, which it behoves the Necessarian to refute. That belief in Freedom is instinctive, Necessarians do not deny, Nor can they themselves shake it off, while they assert Necessity. 8 THEORY OF RELIGION. They praise and they censure ; they talk of Virtue, and of what Ought to have been. But if only one way is possible, and there is no room for choice, Then nothing ought to have been, but that which has been ; Nor is it virtuous, but only necessary, as a Planet's path. To praise it or to blame it, — to exhort to greater speed, Or to a change of course, — would be simple absurdity. But man must renounce both his instinct and his virtue, If he may not praise and blame and exhort himself or others, And believe in Duty, in Right and Wrong, and in Desert. Nor do Necessarians ever talk of the virtue of brute animals. They neither call wolves unjust, nor dogs virtuous : Yet, if their theory be correct, men and brutes arc alike unmoral, Nor is it more improper to call a wolf than a man unjust. Was there ever any reasonable theory of the Universe, But presumed a harmony between Nature and man's faculties? Any which taught that our faculties are tools of delusion ? Sense truly may err, and Reasonings deceive us, Nor is Instinct infallible, but we are fallible on all sides. But the faculties must be believed, except when disproved, Else no window of the mind is open on the world without ; Else the world is but a dream, the reflection of our thoughts, And truth is unattainable and philosophy superfluous, And those sceptics were wise, who knew that nothing could be known, And were certain of their own uncertainty, and uncertain of all beside. Such is the only issue, if freedom of choice is a dream, If all action is necessary and self-guidance impossible. The impugners of Free Will say that action is predetermined By circumstance, by motive, and by previous state of mind ; But their word is not confirmed, it is denied, by Experience. When temptation assaults the heart in which virtue is weak, It may be that the tempted yields to the seduction at once. But often the soul hovers awhile in perplexed hesitation,* Fearing to sin, yet drawn by desire, distracted doubtfully. While this distraction abides, neither side of motives is stronger, * This argument from hesitation is well developed in Mr. II. Sutton's ' Quinquenergia ;' an eccen- tric book, Btuddedwith passages of great beauty ami power, and of high moral value. FREE WILL. Neither that which seduces, nor that which urges rightfully. If one side were stronger already, action would ensue at once, As the needle must at once swerve to the stronger magnet : But which set of motives shall be stronger, the Mind is deciding. Motives are not like magnets, a force unchanging; Their force varies often with the same man from day to day : And when the tempted decides, he assigns to them their respective force, Settled by his own Free Choice ; through which he becomes worse or better. Surely in the struggles of the tempted and their long hesitation Experience disproves Necessity and displays man's Freedom. Freedom of choice is a belief needful to the moral sense, To right and wrong, and to practical daily virtue. For, could it be disbelieved, no man woiild strive bravely To conquer harmful temptation and indolent desire. When a prisoner knows that his bands are too strong to break, No valiant effort will he make against their constraint; And the bondsman of this doctrine, while he really believes it, AVill yield to the forces which he supposes irresistible, And will act as a wise man or as a fool or as a profligate, As the better desires or the worse may happen to prevail. No virtue can be militant, progressive, encroaching, Except during the moments when man believes himself Free. Also, when man has sinned, Conscience attacks him With eludings, with reproach, or with bitter remorse ; And homely wisdom demands contrition of offenders, And mercy pities the contrite and forgives his evil. Likewise, the stability and the tenderness of virtue, Its vigour and its sweetness, arc fostered by those rich juices, That ooze up from the heart which contrition has wounded and healed. Yet if we have no Free Choice, contrition is an absurdity, A vain self-torment, a pitiable delusion : The sinner could not help sinning, and insanely blames himself! And are Man and Morals matched in a wedding of falsehood ? Can the doctrine of Free Will be needful to praise and blame, Needful to exhortation, to repentance, to self-conscious effort, Needful to virtue's tenderness, needful to our heart of hearts, 10 THEORY OF RELIGION. And yet be vain superstition, which philosophy will explode ? Or has God so made man, that he cannot help believing delusion, And vainly tormenting himself more, the more he seeks to be virtuous ? Poor is that philosophy, which scorns our inward convictions, And would tangle nature in a maze of absurdity, If we must take shelter in false theory to escape foolish practice. Man an* tJTrutfj. The sage of Athens who first made Morals a philosophy, Had abandoned in despair the ungrateful study of Physics ; Because students on opposite sides taught things incongruous, Being related, one to another, as madman to madman. For some thought the Universe to be single, others that it was infinite in number ; Some, that everything was in motion ; others, that motion was impossible ; Birth and Death seemed to some to go on always, to others never. Socrates therefore wondered, that to the thoughtful it was not manifest, How impossible it is to man to attain Truth in Physics. But what things are moral, what the Gods have purposed and approve, On this he judged that a wise man should bestow his study. Some philosophers of modern times woidd reverse his doctrine. They abandon in despair the ungrateful study of Religion ; Because students on opposite sides teach things incongruous, Being related, one to another, as madman to madman. For some think the Church to be single, others that it is infinite in number ; Some, that the Pope is infallible, others that infallibility is impossible; Miracles seem to some to go on in every age, to others never. These philosophers therefore wonder, that to the thoughtful it is not manifest, How impossible it is to man to attain Truth in Religion. But what things are tangible, measurable, ponderable, computable, On this they judge that a wise man should bestow his study. Both the one aud the other enact arbitrary exclusion, If the same God made the outer world and made the human heart. He who studies the forces of Planets, studies a force of God ; MAN AND TRUTH. 11 And lie wlio studies the energies of Conscience, studies an energy of God. Each is a Divine study, each is a Theology. All knowledge is partial, and ignorance is everywhere infinite : If man cannot know God wholly, neither can he wholly know himself. Complete knowledge is not given to us, hut partial knowledge is given, Alike in Physics and in Morals and in the spiritualism of Theology ; Such knowledge as suffices for life and godliness. For moral law is a revealing of inward sentiment, And God's moral laws are legible both in the heart and in the world ; And when one knows another's sentiments and powers and ways, He knows him enough both for confidence and for love. If Galileo and Kepler had desponded of Truth with Socrates, Never would they have laid the foundations of modern Physics. But they had fait h that man's mind was made to attain Truth, And that the Universe was fitly propounded to his study ; Else never would their patience and zeal have lasted out. So too, if any one despond of Religious truth, He enfeebles his own efforts, and is little likely to attain it ; And such despondency is irrational now, When Astronomy and Geology have achieved such conquests. — " Oh God ! I think thy thoughts after thee !" Said Kepler, on getting a small glimpse of a vast theory. But now that so many of "God's thoughts" are revealed Through ages long past and in the distant heavens, Beyond Arcturus, beyond the Pleiades, Before man's birth, and before the mountains were reared ; Who shall think man's mind uncognizant of God's laws? Faith in the harmony of Earth and Heaven has opened Nature, Faith in the same harmony is the key to Religion. If the laws of Mechanics which ride on Earth ruled not in Heaven, Never could physical astronomy have taken its first step, Nor Newton have revealed Heaven's laws by genius. And if the laws of Goodness ruling within Man ruled not in Heaven, Never could moral theology take a single step, Nor could genius be inspired nor revelation have value. But if tlie law of the Conscience is God's command to virtui 12 THEORY OF RELIGION. Then the same law of Goodness rules in Heaven and iu Earth ; And by the study of Goodness we learn the mind of God, As from action on Earth's surface we learn the Mechanics of Heaven. Light is natural to the Eye, and the Eye improves under Light, So Truth is natural to the Mind, and the Mind improves under Truth. But the student of Goodness must himself become good, So far at least as to choose Goodness for his best portion. If base passion or worldliness is allowed to domineer, No man can gaze steadily at Purity and at God. And then perhaps he despairs of religious truth, And moralizes on man's feebleness and limited faculties, So unfitted to fathom the Divine and to know the Eternal ! He who would watch the stars, the planets and their satellites, Must keep his instruments in good state and use them to advantage, And must interpret their indications with sound good sense, With a mind mature and simple, unpreoccupied by superstition. And he who would study the morals and government of God, Must purify his conscience and apply it wisely, And must interpret its indications with sound good sense, With a mind mature and simple, unpreoccupied by superstition. The pure in heart will always know something of God, But from the perfection of the whole mind is the unveiling of religious certain - 1< (£00 in Conscience. In the Sun and Moon and Stars is an ever-acting energy, In the Tides and in the Sea Currents and in the running Rivers, In the Clouds, in the Oceanic Winds, in the Frost and Hail, In the leaves and buds of the Forest, in the Grasses and in the Seaweed. This energy is visible to savage and sage, confessed by all : Atheists call it a Law and Life, Theists hold it to be divine. There is likewise an energy and active life in every animal, Prom oyster and starfish to whale and dog and man, \ vegetative principle in the Animal as truly as in the Tree, GOD IX CONSCIENCE. 13 That force in the animal stomach which brews the juices, That force in the lungs which blends the air with the blood, Is vegetative and chemical, as the forces in the leaves of the tree, Nor can the will of the animal increase or lessen the action. This energy of life within is ours, yet it is not we: It is in us, it belongs to us, yet we cannot control it. It acts without bidding, and when we do not think of it, Nor will it cease acting at our command, or otherwise obey us. Atheists call it a Law and a Life, but say that " it is not a Mind ; " It is a brute movement of Nature, a blind eternal force:" Vet they admit that it exists, and that it is prepotent, And is a law or force pervading the Universe. They farther admit, and indeed maintain, and warn us, That man is apt to conflict with this force within him, A force eternal, irresistible, certain to defeat him. Namely, if he practise that which the Law of his health forbids, The Law will take its vengeance and will despoil him of health, And he is utterly helpless against the overmastering might. It is in him, but not of him ; he is subject to it. The Atheist adds : " It is Mind, not intelligent or moral." But not against the powers of the bodily life only do men fight ; Often also we call into conflict an inward moral power. For when we are tempted to sin and follow inclination to evil, A voice within forbids, and summons us to refrain ; And if we bid it to be silent, it yet is not still ; it is not in our control. It acts without our order, without our asking, against our will. It is in us, it belongs to us, but it is not o/us : it is above us. Perseverance in evil may deaden our ear or stifle that voice, If indeed there is wickedness to which Conscience never speaks : But ivhile it recalls from evil, and reproaches us for evil, And is not silenced by our effort, surely it is not we : Yet it is a moral force, such as pervades all moral minds, Being in you, as it is in me, and as it was in men deceased. But of what kind. is this force, withiu us, and not in our control? "Will the Atheist say, " It is blind, not intelligent or moral "? This would be absurd, opposed to the manifest reality : 14 THEORY OF RELIGION. For it is both intelligent and moral, and higher than our sinning will. Nay, and whosoever defies this inward monitor, He first sutlers pain while fighting an unnatural battle ; As when one endures the acute pains of bodily disorder. But next, as disease becomes inveterate and no longer acute, And organs degenerate, and health is permanently marred ; So the man, who has fought against the higher inward law, At length becomes callous and his moral organs are debased, And his moral health is gone, and the Law takes its revenge. This energy of the Conscience is in us, above us, and not of 'us, It is moral, it is intelligent, it is not ive, nor at our bidding ; It pervades mankind, as one Life pervades the trees ; It is mighty, it is commanding : and what then is it ? Let it not be called arbitrary, when the Theist replies : " The Life which is in all Nature is the Life within every Conscience,* "Intelligent, Moral, Mighty, and our natural Lord." Nay; arbitrary it is not, but rightfully concluded. The Power to which we ascribe these actions within the Conscience, Is ab'eady known to exist, and to be a Designing Mind, Seen to us most distinctly in the instincts of animals. The idea of such a Mind is not suggested first from Conscience, Is not a " Hypothesis" imagined to account for the phenomena ; But its existence was discovered before the Conscience was studied, Discerned as a fact, equally with the minds of other men. We descry also its action in all the fitnesses of Nature, The fitness of the Eye for Light, of Night for Sleep, With ten thousand other marks of Wisdom and Design. But this Power, though known to exist, was known imperfectly, Nor may we ever say that we know all its attributes. Previously we discovered its mightiness and ruling forethought ; And now we farther discover its moral will, As commanding the Right and forbidding us from the Wrong. The moral nature of God is made sure to us from Conscience alone. * This form of the argument is taken from a review of Theodore Parker on Atheism etc., which appeared in the 'Inquirer' (London newspaper) of Nov. 12th, 1853, and is attributed to the peu of Mr. Richard Ilutton. GOD IN CONSCIENCE. 15 Contemplate farther, that when we have descried a superior Mind Inspiring and guiding the unconscious Bee and Swallow, A Mind that dictates and governs through regions unlimited ; 1 t. were strange indeed, if this ruling Power so thoughtful Confined its cares and commands to the lower animals. Nay, but if it inspires maternal cares in the Hen, The same Mind inspires maternal love in the Woman. And all would expect, even before studying Conscience, That a Power which overrules all the lower instincts, Must exert some ride also amid the higher, And act upon Conscience, if it act for Maternal Love. Thus beforehand the thing is to be expected by good sense, And afterward observation exhibits it in fact ; Whereby the argument answers the severest claims of Science. Nor need any one wonder, that, whereas men of every age Have believed in the activity of superior Mind, — A belief characteristic of the human species, — So too the wisest have always, in some measure and degree, Ascribed to that Mind a moral will and rule. For God has not left himself unrevealed to man ; And it is no newly invented doctrine, but old and widely spread, That Conscience is to man a voice of God within. Yet those who have thus taught, (and taught, we see, cogently,) Never intended to impute to the Conscience infallibility. Let none imagine that we hold a notion so untenable, Refuted by facts too numerous and obvious to need mention. But if the Atheist, avowing that he ill understands the Conscience, Urge it3 weakness as inconsistent with our notion of the Divine, Let him remark, that in truth we arc nowise inconsistent, Who hold life and instinct and conscience to be energies of God, Alike finite, alike imperfect, alike liable to be choked, To be weakened or strengthened, or to be in some sense perverted. The physical life over which we have no control, and which is not we, Is an energy of God, say we ; but we say not, it is perfect God ; None attributes to it omnipotence or other divine perfections. Nor, the more, does any attribute to conscience divine infallibility. 10 THEORY OF RELIGION. The two cases are alike, and this has no more difficulty than that : For the same reason, ancient men spoke of God's Spirit, As something short of God himself; as we say Energy and Influence. Remember also, that close observers have often moralized On the tender conscience of youth, uncorrupted as yet by the world. The Experience of life, on which some would found morality, In no respect tends to communicate the love of goodness, Generosity, self-sacrifice or other high enthusiasm. These spiritual powers, and all quick discernment of nobleness, Seem to be born in the soul from God and brought into the world, And there far oftener to be deadened than quickened. Experience informs us what results will come from certain actions, (Which is not always known beforehand) and explains many details ; And thus it is necessary, equally with right impulse, for sound judgment, Yet it cannot of itself give right impulse nor right choice. Much rather from solitude, from meditation on scenes of beauty, From adoration of that God whom we recognize as the Power in Conscience, Than from any observation of the world, is the heart made moral ; Or if it be strongly moved by teaching and by sympathy, It is not by that teaching which talks of worldly Experience and Happiness : It is the voice of the spiritual teacher, who believes in God, And avows him our inward judge, searching the heart, That awakens the dull conscience to a sounder morality. Thus is the doctrine of " God in the Conscience" suitably confirmed. Spiritual ^rayjrr. From the earliest day when Hebrew Psalmists breathed spiritual longings, (And perhaps much earlier, if Eastern documents were extant,) It is visible that pious men believed God to answer prayer. And when so many thousands, from age to age, In various nations, account prayer to be a spiritual power, We seem to have their joint attestation of its efficacy, A vabd proof which may be accepted by reasonable bystanders. SPIRITUAL PRAYER. Yet this attestation loses weight with thoughtful minds Who together with dogmas have dropt the use of Prayer, And who dread to be fanatical if they yield to inward Instinct ; It loses weight with them, I say, because the public voice of Churches Raises petition to the most High for manifold outward good ; Such petition as cannot without miracle be granted, And such as makes the common Father a partizan in human strife. When they see that devotees century after century go on, Lifting up prayers which undoubtedly receive no reply, Yet discover not their misplaced toil and their futile hopes ; Then the philosopher undervalues the attestations of the religious, If they aver that God strengthens them in reply to spiritual prayer ; But he holds that the worshipper, heated by excitement, deludes himself, And, having acted on his own heart, supposes that God has acted on it. Nor is it easy to give to such men attestations, "Which, as in other science, they must accept as "experimental proof." For they cannot themselves make the experiment, Since they have not the Faith, without which the experiment is void. Nor can they enter the heart of others who pray, And take scientific precautious lest the experiment be delusive ; And measure what was the moral strength before the prayer, And what accession of strength has come after the prayer. Nay, and what is more, those prayers, which are printed for all men, By their very universality least touch the sore places of individuals ; And the prayers which are most fervent, deepdrawn and effective, Are those which each shelters in the recesses of his soul, And seldom could lay open, even to him or her who is dearest, Without harm to the simplicity and truthfulness of prayer : So sacred and so secret is the prayer which is best answered. Yet this very thing is by the reasoner called Excitement, And he distrusts the man's judgment of such deep inward facts. Natural and innocent instinct brings with it its own warrant. In the agony of fear or of sorrow Prayer will burst forth, And even if it ask amiss, it yet may have its uses', Bearing perhaps fruit within which was not asked for. Much more the prayer which asks inward conformity to God's mind 18 THEOEY OF RELIGION. Is fully justified to every man by direct Intuition, When, pressed by spiritual instinct, he unloads his heart And pours out complaint, sorrow, desire and hope To the ear and into the bosom of the Invisible Potentate. Such prayers need no argument and no apology : Yet neither do they always accompany the highest spiritual stati Thanksgiving and Adoration are well called the Breath of the Son/, Which in man or angel show the acting of spiritual life. But could we be perfect, we should need no personal Prayer, Nor is Prayer equally needed at all times and by all men. Still, each one who knows its value must needs wish to recommend it, And to remove, if possible, the objections of the oversubtle. Lot us then calmly assay to prove this matter as a Theorem. We start with assuming what already has been proved, That the Conscience above us is an Energy of God within. Who acts on the soul, through the soul, unbidden, Just as his vegetative power, unbidden, acts in the body. He who prays for spiritual strength prays not solely to a God without, In the stars and in the sun and in the wide ocean, But to the God whom he discerns speaking to him by conscience, In him and yet not of him, a superior force. And as he who fights against conscience resists God within ; So he who lays low his heart in prayer surrenders to God, And, so far as man's will reaches, casts down the obstacles, Which are a screen against the rays of the divine glory ; Not otherwise, than as when one who is dark within his house Throws open his shutters to admit the light of the sun. Then by his own proper act he has light and warmth not his own, Poured out from a foreign source, from the luminary in heaven. So the man who has opened the window of his heart to God, (To that God who is in his conscience,) does naturally receive God's rays. And if by a mere self-surrender his prayer attains its end, As, the vanquishing of a temptation or the enlivening of a virtue, (Which the philosopher thus resolves into a purely human process,) Even so, no one who believes at all in an inward spiritual God Can hesitate to affirm that God has answered his prayer. SCIENCE OS THINGS OUTWARD. ]!) But we contend not for words and for empty phraseology. Call it Conscience or call it God ; if others can perform the same act And win the same blessing, it is so far not amiss. But if by calling it mere Conscience they fall out of both prayer and blessing, Let us not seem obtrusive in grieving at the loss. One step more must we take, and an important one. " Prayer does not only yield to a force already within, "But draws into us therewith a strengthening of that force." For if it be admitted that God dwells naturally in the Conscience And acts on the human spirit by normal natural energy, As normal and as natural as the other powers of nature, But moral and spiritual, not a mere blind force ; W hile we know that this energy is not naturally constant, But varies both from man to man, and in the same man from time to time, And is repressed by obstinate sin and often becomes weaker ; Dry Reason would expect that to obedience it would grow stronger. Who then, — having faith that God is the fountain of Holiness And approves of our virtue and enjoins its advancement, — Can doubt, that when we pray and surrender our Worse, Not only thereby do we welcome the Better that iv as within, But the living Source of that Better swells the flood of his presence, So that the Conscience itself becomes sounder and purer and stronger, Broadening, deepening, enlivening the inward moral forces ? Science of Eljtngs (Putfoarlr. Two opposite views are often heard concerning Science, In its aspect and relation towards God and things divine. There are some who suppose that the Science of things outward, Of mechanism, of chemistry, of organic and social life, Furnishes all the substance for metaphysical and religious truth, And supersedes by its registrations and observations of Quantify The inaccurate results grossly supplied by mere consciousness. They conceive of a Religion that shall be built up out of external fa c 2 20 THEORY OF RELIGION. Marshalled and measured by Scienec, and sharply defined, And see not that such a religion remains ever outside the heart, Having no sentiment, no self-knowledge, no spiritual access to God. There are others (partly friends, partly foes of Science,) Who maintain that Science is deadly to all Religion whatsoever. And the one wish to establish Science on the ruins of Religion, The others to fortify Religion by the demolition of Science. But both are of accord that the two are implacable enemies, Unable to exist side by side, much less to unite in harmony. Of these extreme opinions hardly could either be wholly false, Though neither is wholly true ; nay, each is more false than true. For the Science of things outward cannot give all Religious knowledge. Nor yet is it hostile to Religion, but surely to false Religion : And to think soberly of this matter is of no small value. The Science of things quantitative gives at once this vast advantage, (Peculiarly precious for religion and for practical faith,) An absolute confidence of the mind in the certainty of Truth, That it is unchangeable, and cannot be tampered with. This confidence is earned by exercise in Geometry, in Numbers, In every sort of Calculus, though dry and void of sentiment ; Also in Mechanics and Astronomy and all the branches of Chemistry, And in everything called Physics and in the study of Organic Life. Whereas those whose culture is from Poeti'y alone and Fine Art, And from History and from Oratory and from practical Politics, Are prone to believe in the universal virtue of compromise And in the absence of fixed laws and in the anarchy of genius, And to explode as Platitudes all broad moralities. And their virtue is too superficial, based on shifting opinion Or on partial expediency, all pliant and unrigid. But neither Morals nor Religion can attain spiritual vigour Without Faith in absolute Law, such as Science vehemently teaches. Science also tears down mercilessly the strongholds of superstition, And shatters Pagan idols and roots up magic and polytheism, And clears off choking nuisances, and sends in the free air, And with confidence in Law gives to men Free Thought, . And proclaims the virtue of Truth, and steels the mind to choose it, m'IENCE OF THINGS OUTWARD. 21 Though it affront our old prejudices and expose us to men's ill-will. This again is a vast service performed by Science to Religion, Which stands by Truth alone, in love of Truth, and by Free Thought. Lastly, from the great sciences which deal in the Heavens and in Time, "Which scan the farness of the Stars and the age of the Earth ; And from the science of Organic Life, which spies into tiny animals . And into the fineness of vegetation, by aid of the microscope; "We learn how measureless is God's world great and small, And its vast duration in the ages that are past ; And imagination spreads wide to clasp ideas so mighty, And clothes with new grandeur the Ruler of the Universe. Yea, though his Infinity still shoots beyond imagination, We gain thoughts less unworthy of him, more manly in growth, And we drop childish errors, and become nobler in mind, And our religion grows into manhood, without knowing how or why. To the moderns have men of science thus been true prophets of God. So from Science comes to ReUgion its bony fabric and solidity, Its simple consistent strength, its harmony and its purity, Its grandeur and dignity, its universality. But the science of matter cannot give knowledge of soul, Nor teach of Free Will and of Habit, of the Conscience, and of Right, Nor supersede all study of the mind and its actions, Nor furnish with true sentiment, with right loves and right hatreds, Nor investigate spiritual phenomena or spiritual laws; And cover our bony fabric with flesh, and fill it with life. These topics may haply be all at length grasped in one New Science, Aided by the hints of earlier science, and following their clue : But as Geometry cannot teach Optics, though it give good service, So neither can all the Physical Sciences together teach Religion. And he who, thinking himself a philosopher, studies the outer world alone. Passing by Consciousness and Conscience, the Moral and the Spiritual, lie makes himself but a half-philosopher and does no justice to Truth : But all Truth is valuable and mutually aiding; for all is harmony in Go I. 22 Intuition anD Verification. All Science presumes the accuracy of its informants, Of the eye, of the ear, of the mind which dictates axioms, Also of the mind which directs processes of reasoning ; Or of some useful tool craftily adapted, The telescope, the barometer, the thermometer, the rain-gauge, The hygrometer, the microscope, the sextant, the theodolite. Yet none of these is infallible, each needs to he verified ; Each is tried and corrected in the advances of the science. Until it has been tested, its truth is but presumptive ; But after it has stood trial, its information is trustworthy, Though it need a wise interpreter and allowance for illusions. But only the miud can direct the verifications, Differing in each science and suited to the special case ; And the mind too is fallible, and itself needs to be verified, And into many a delusion has the human mind fallen. Thus there is wheel within wheel, error tangled in error, And many a long birth-throe in the travail of science. Yea, if religion has miscarried and brought forth folly, No less has other science teemed with monstrosities, Till manifold experience and the joint work of many nations, *Many ages, many geniuses, has slowly unfolded truth. Direct perception of truth may be called Intuition, As though the mind (jazed on truth, like to an eye that sees objects. To verify the intuition and the first principles which it furnishes, The science must first go onward to practical results ; Then we put the whole science to the test of Congruity : Whether it harmonize with itself, and also with the real world. If No, then an error must have crept in somewhere. If Yes, this is by no means always cogent of truth, (For within certain limits falsehood also may be consistent,) But it is more cogent, as the intuitions are moi - e fruitful of result. For if they be fruitful and practical, any pervading error INTUITION AND VERIFICATION. 23 Must often burst into contrariety, and will somewhere be visible. A second Harmony is found in the agreement of many minds, When all students of the science have the same first perceptions, And acquiesce in the same reasonings, and attain the same results. Or sometimes the Harmony takes a special form, Yielding a third verification, more peculiarly valued, When the organ or science becomes a new Power or faculty, As, a power of predicting what can be tested in other ways. Thus the telescope unveils distant things dim to the eye, And a nearer view confirms its notices. Thus the mathematician by some short cut gives arduous results, Which by tedious trials the learner verifies. Thus the astronomer predicts eclipses and detects the longitude, And the hour brings the eclipse, and watches confirm the longitude. Hereby the science and its processes and its tools are proved. Knowledge takes many forms of power, familiar to us now ; As in navigation, and as in the telegraph, and in other wondrous chemistry. Not otherwise stand the arguments of Morality and of Religion, So far as unlike knowledge may fall under like tests. By direct perception, by rudimentary intuition, Are the first notions and beliefs conveyed to mankind. Crude may be the instinct and sometimes fallacious, Yet growing sounder and purer with moral growth ; Advancing also in reasonable self-confidence, As with scientific culture grows confidence in science. Moreover, Harmony of results unites moral thought, And the voice of mankind echoes fundamental Harmony, So that in distant ages and lands, among the cultivated, (Despite of false philosophy) there is a like belief in Free Will, Like approval of the Generous, the Brave, the Truthful, the Chaste The Temperate, the Kindly, the Industrious, the Merciful. All nations have these words, devised to express approval. So too is spread abroad the belief of one Spirit in Nature, \ perfect Energy, a conscious Intellect, a pervading Law, A second verification is, from the Power of Happiness, Which the cherishing of virtue sheds into hearts. .24 THEORY OF RELIGION. For, Happiness, unaimed at* by each man for himself, Comes in no small measure to each, as he gains inward harmony, And to all parts of society from the improved morals of the rest. And because the pursuit of Happiness by each would ruin* Virtue, Therefore the more weighty testimony is its arrival unsought. Moral culture likewise gives Power to the man, Making him master of himself and of his faculties, abler on all sides, Fitter for all service -and for all pursuit of high knowledge, More valuable to other men and more independent of fortune. Nor can we believe that this inward Power is an accident, Or that it could accrue from a science false at bottom. Still higher is a like verification raised in Religion, Which even in its rudeness is always an intense Power, But in its purer spiritualism becomes a Power of Good. If Morals be true, Spiritual Worship cannot be vain : For nothing so enables man to withstand temptation, To endure calamity or to persevere in courageous virtue, As the belief in a present God, listening to our voice, Whose eye watches our conduct and approves our rectitude. This faith may at first be feeble and wavering, As is the faith of a learner in scientific processes ; But as the learner wins confidence in his theorems and in his formulas, Yes, and in his own powers of reasoning, by frequent trial ; So he who strives after virtue, learning by experience 'What is Religion's Power, gains confirmation to his faith; And the Intuitions which before were trusted, yet anxiously, By trial are proved trustworthy, and themselves also grow clearer. For as the sailor's eye learns by practice to evade illusions, And his observation becomes sensitive, and his judgment sagacious ; So does the eye of the sold and its sagacity improve by culture : And Experience strengthens Faith, until Faith grows confident, Discerning God's Goodness and Presence, as overriding and eternal. * The perfect Disinterestedness of Virtue is the main subject of the eloquent and learned " Essay on Intuitive Morals" (vol. i.), which has appeared so seasonably, in refreshing contrast to the stifling moral heresies generally dominant. It unites the rigour of the Stoic with the seraphic fire of the Calvinist and the human sympathy of the Unitarian Christian. AXIOMS OF RELIGION. 25 And when Faith becomes fruitful in gratitude and love and joy, And in other noble products more divine than those of Science ; Those who reap these, will not admit to the preachers of " Positive Science" That the foundations of Religion lack Positive and practical test. Nor would this long be denied, were not Error confused with Truth, Error inveterate, pretentious, and reeking with crimson stains. Bigotry and Superstition, dressed in Religion's garb, With hideous visage, scream curses from heaven, And spread gloom over the history and over the destinies of man, And revile Conscience, which is God's sacred seat, And with presumptuous threats invade the place of God, And thrust up individual man into unseemly eminence, And domineer over fellow-men, as judges over culprits, Trampling on Justice and Equity and Modesty. Such Bigotry and Superstition cleaves even to the pious, Eating often to the heart of Religion and marring its loveliness. These evils must be cast away, that Religion may be glorified, That God may be fitly worshipped, and man may be blessed. Axioms of Brlttjtcm. To reckon up the Axioms and Postulates of Religion, Involves no other doubt than in all the Deductive Sciences, As in Geometry or Mechanics, where controversies still linger. "Whether Axioms be two or ten, the Science is not the less stable, So that only every Axiom be surely affirmed by good sense. Yet, for the beauty of reasoning, let Axioms be few, And for its clearness, let them be simple, and in some sense co-ordinate. Until better be proposed, we may rest in the following Axioms : I. " Not blind, but intelligent, is that Omnipresent Law And that Power, which we discern to animate the universe." Also, by Definition, we entitle this Power God. II. " The God upon whose energy the human spirit depends, Must have all that spirit's faculties, and more beside." 26 THBOBY OF RELIGION. III. "God is observant of the moral action of man, And, approving our efforts for Right, disapproves our Wrong." IV. "The God who approves our Rectitude, is himself Perfect in Rectitude." V. " Adoration of God is intrinsically suitable to man." — C'oroll. Such Adoration therefore is pleasing to God. Nothing would I call an Axiom, save that which Intuition furnishes, So that thoughtful men believe it by the evidence of thought itself, Not by conscious experience and by external proof, Even though experiment and test from without be possible. Of such a kind, as it seems, are the Axioms here proposed, To which most men will assent for their intrinsic reasonableness, As to those which concern Space and Surfaces and Lines. Nor do any of them involve language doubtful or dark, Nor is their assertion wild or mysterious, more than their denial. They are denied by very few ; and most of the rejectors Reject them only in hatred of Bigotry and Superstitiou, Which Atheists, not unnaturally, confound with Religion. Yet to meet the denial, it is fitting to inquire for proof, Other than that best witness which true religion brings after it. The argument from Animal Instinct demonstrates the first Axiom ; And the arguments which we have adduced to show " God in the Conscience," Leave none of the five Axioms without powerful support. On these Axioms depends the Absolute or Abstract religion, Which belongs to every Moral being, and therefore to man. But for Human and practical religion we need also a Postulate, Separate in nature from those which we rank as Axioms : — " God gives, to those who pray to him, increase of spiritual strength." Scarcely may one say of this, that Intuition affirms the truth ; But Instinct prompts the act, and Experience affirms the truth. Such truths are Experimental, like the " Laws " in Mechanics. And yet by pure reasonings, without the distinct experience, This truth may be deduced from a simpler truth of experience, Which all ages and nations everywhere attest, — That " God within Man's Conscience commands and forbids." And to meet the secret doubts and misgivings of some, We have already assayed to prove the Postulate as a Theorem. FUNCTIONS OF UNBELIEF. 27 Junctions of SInuclicf, Man individually is imperfect, and Society collectively is imperfect, Yet collective Society is less imperfect than individual man. For the excess of one corrects the defect of another, When all co-operate in a common eflbrt : So, in the pursuit of Truth, opposite natures do good service. The cold and the cautious, the habitually incredulous, If they are morally sound, contribute eminently to truth, Making progress often slower, -yet being as ballast to a ship : Nor may believers rightly look on unbelievers as enemies, But should regard them as true friends, if their heart and eye be single. Much benefit to India might a flood of Atheism have wrought. In Europe, by long time and by the establishment of science, The gulf between Belief and Unbelief perpetually lessens, Giving hope, that as Bigotry vanishes and Love strengthens, All shall blend in one Faith, in Religion as in other Science. The Paganism of Greece was believed not by the vulgar only, But substantially also by many of the grandest intellects. As by Homer and iEschylus, by Pindar and Sophocles, Who may have rejected parts, yet received the whole. Even the noblest of the Stoics, with patriotic obstinacy, Clung to the national creed, and vainly aimed to spiritualize it. Against this extravagant and puerile mythology Unbelief rallied its forces in the school of Epicurus, Who, in name admitting gods, in fact denied them functions Or action or power, and wrought Atheism into system. Wide indeed was the gap between that religion and its opponent. The one taught Divine Caprice, the other Blind Chance. Each exposed the other's errors, to the benefit of the unbiassed : Hence both Theists and Atheists are now made wiser. The Theist disowns all caprice in the Creator and Ruler, Believes in his impartial Wisdom, and discerns- that it has Laws. The Atheist admits that Chance is never a cause of things, And that the harmony of the universe is a product of Law. 28 THEOEY OF RELIGION. Thus the contest is narrowed, and we can scan it more distinctly. That the universe is pervaded by Forces which obey fixed Laws, And that by such Forces the whole is enlivened and guided, All arc agreed ; and that these Forces have organic harmony. But the Atheist denies that the harmony implies a unity, Unity in a Divine Mind, as in individual man. Opponents thus acute undermine in us whatever is rotten, Though never can they overthrow the solid and the true. Fretted by men's bigotry, they are so eager to refute it, As to be blind to the higher Wisdom which is behind Animal Instinct And ordains the relations of the inner and the outer being : Yet some* of them already acknowledge that Moral Laws, Higher than man, ruling over man, pervade the human world. When they have admitted this, they are not far from Theism. Atheism has ever stood, only as a counterpoise to error, And will vanish, when through our wisdom its function is superfluous. Atheists are not without God, though they know him not. When they aim sincerely after Truth, having a love of Virtue, His Spirit is striving within them, and will not be wholly vain. Etttrllectual ^nntijristn. Said wise men among the Greeks, " God is Intellect ; God has no passions nor emotions nor desires, Nor loves nor hatreds, nor sentiment moral or immoral ; But he abides apart in his infinitude, solitary and eternal, Responding not to man's affections, and deaf to his cry." Yet men as wise, or the very same men, said also, and said j ustly : " Pure Intellect is the author of no deed whatsoever." Intellect reveals what is possible, but affords no spur to action : * "I for one hare more faith in the order and harmony of Nature than in the justice or \\i>lI<>iii oi men; and am rejoiced that it is not left to the latter to arrange the polities of tho ethical world at their will."— Lionel H. Iloldreth [a professed Atheist] in 'The Reasoner,' July 29th, 1857. INTELLECTUAL PANTHEISM. 29 li spreads light over the outer scene, but is no warmth within. If God had no loves and no desires, he could neither be a Creator Nor an Architect nor a Governor; but must act without Will, if at all. Pure Intellect has no will, no desire of constructions, No approval of Right, no living Force nor Motive. He who believes Intellect to be Creative, believes it to be full of Aims, Full of Desires, full of Approvals, and a student of the Good. Precisely such we otherwise know God to be, "When we discern that it is he who speaks to us by Conscience. His sentiments are moral, for he commands our morality : Nor does the Infinite One abide apart, but dwells in our bosoms, Exciting man's affections and awaiting his cry. To assign to the most High the weak passions of struggling natures, The anger and the impulse, the caprices and the partialities, AYas the error of early thought, which mature reason explodes. Nor ascribe we to his greatness the virtues of our feebleness : But that Goodness only, which fitly increases with Strength, That Purity of broad Love, which suits to the tranquil and serene. Not other can be the Intellect which has created moral man, And the Wisdom of his Goodness is the glory, before which man must worship. Modern Pantheists have adopted, as a scourge to Theists, The Greek epithet Anthropomorphous to frighten by its vagueness, AVhich strictly means, God in the shape of man. Surely none but barbarians ascribe to God a human form, Nor any human organs, though we speak of them by metaphor ; Nor, as we have said, any human infirmities. But to stigmatize by a mean epithet, used improperly, Our learning of God through Man, is weak and unworthy. Let men deny, if they choose, that man has any Creator, Or that there is any universal Spirit full of Intelligence. But let them not pretend that that Spirit does not comprize ours, And is destitute of the elements which iu us arc highest. Or if unawares we ascribe weakness to him, Let them point out the error, and call us back to reason. But to forbid us to infer the divine Faculties and Sentiments By studying the human, cautiously and thoughtfully, 30 THEORY OF RELIGION. Can be justified by nothing but pure Atheism outright. Such Pantheism is but Atheism veiled in poetry, And if it affect to be religious, is worse than Atheism ; For it leads straight to Paganism by deifying brute Force. Our knowledge of Goodness is prior to our knowledge of God ; Our reverence for Goodness is prior to our reverence of God. Fitting is it to love and revere goodness in an Atheist, But monstrous to worship a God in whom is no Goodness. ixfctttutoe Of ©ofc. The man who is in the way to improve his moral state, (And none else is in moral health,) aspires to be better than he is, And looks up to a higher rule, which he has not yet reached, A nobler ideal of goodness, vaguely grasped by his imagination. Whosoever has attained the virtue to which I do but look up, Him must I needs in my conscience either honour or revere. And such is my nature, that I can revere him only, In whom those virtues are real, which are ideal with me. If I believe that man or angel has reached such excellence As my conscience approves, and such as I desire in vain ; I may honour him with a reverence increasing ever, As the goodness rises with which my convictions clothe him. And when I believe that God possesses Goodness Absolute, — The very qualities which my conscience approves admiringly, — Then the Reverence, mounting higher, subdues the heart Into homage and prostration before Infinite Goodness. This is the only adoration possible to man, The only homage which it befits the Highest to accept : Namely, when the heart of man sincerely believes, That the virtue which is ideal in its inmost aspirations and love Is in the heart of God real and eternal and infinite. But if any teacher tell us that God ought to be called Good, (As an honour to his wisdom, and compliment to his greatness,) TRUTHFULNESS OF GOD. 31 Though he has nothing in his heart that wc mean hy goodness Nor kindness nor justice, nor moral sentiment at all ; If wc believe such a teacher, then by the necessity of our nature Wc arc disabled from adoring, and from rational moral homage ; We may bow down, awed by greatness, astounded by wisdom, Or unmanned with terror; but smitten in heart to stone. This may be called worship, but it is not loving reverence : Conscience docs not bid us revere, nor can we love such a God. Conscience is God within us, and unveils the God without us, Speaking not always clearly, yet with a voice that must not be defied. It is not the Atheist here, but the Pagan who opposes us. For the Atheist will admit, that if the Life in Nature be intelligent And designed man's goodness, it must itself be Good, Nor could anything warp the most High from perfect Rectitude. But the Pagan pretends that the Wisdom and Power beyond us Is reckless of our morality and justly shocks our conscience, Yet claims from us homage and adoration and praise. But if Conscience cannot approve him, Conscience forbids to praise him. Even Gratitude is painful, if we disesteem our benefactor, And to have needed his favours seems like a calamity. The worship of such an one is from Fear, not from Morality and Duty : The religion is devil-worship, depraving and debasing, Vile and immoral, as the worship of a Venus or of a Moloch. But with thoughtful men this fable is long exploded, And that there is no God but a good God is a chief certainty of religion. The night of Paganism is gone : light from Jerusalem has dawned, Though degenerate Christians may strive to quell it. " Be ye holy, for I am holy," — was God's precept according to the Lcvites : " We will aspire towards thy holiness," shall the heart of mankind respond. Erutljfttlncss of