~/4&ra> '/rvf. // A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF EVIL. LONDON : C. EOWORTH AND SONS, PRINTERS, BELL YAHO, TKMPLE BAR. A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON THE PEINCIPLES OF EVIL MANIFESTING THEMSELVES IN THESE LAST TIMES IN RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY, AND POLITICS. BY S. R. BOSANQUET, ESQ. " AND I SAW THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS LIKE FROGS COME OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON, AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST, AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE FALSE PROPHET. "FOR THEY ARE THE SPIRITS OF DEVILS, WORKING MIRACLES, WHICH GO FORTH UNTO THE KINGS OF THE EARTH AND OF THE WHOLE WORLD, TO GATHER THEM TO THE BATTLE OF THE GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY." REV. XVI. 13, 14. LONDON: JAMES BURNS, 17, PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE. 1843. JBRLF 1/RL NOTICE. THE first pages of this Work have already appeared in the BRITISH CRITIC. It was neces- sary to reprint them (with additions), in order to complete the series of Essays. a2 CONTENTS. ESSAY I. INTRODUCTORY. Signs of Improvement Signs of Decline Page 1 ESSAY II. THE FORCE OF FASHION. In Dress In Morals In Opinions In Religious Doctrines and Observances 11 ESSAY III. FAILURE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. In the Pursuit of Wealth Of Happiness Of Political Improve- ment Of Wisdom 21 ESSAY IV. DECLINE OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND. In the Government In the Legal and Mercantile World In the Habits of Private Life 31 Vlll CONTENTS. Page ESSAY V. ENGLAND THE LEAST RELIGIOUS COUNTRY. General Opinion of Foreigners The English in the Colonies Small Time set apart for Religion at Home Practices of the Mahometans, the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Greek Church, and others Inadequate Provision for the Clergy Liberality of the Hindoos Religious Practices of the Greeks, and Ro- mans, and other Ancient Nations 41 ESSSAY VI. THERE IS NO FAITH. The Bible practically denied Excuses for this in the Habits of Public and Private Life Motives of Conduct What Faith is Examples Scepticism in History Scepticism produces Credulity The Position of England 55 ESSAY VII. NEED OF A MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. Want of Unity Promises to the Church Mixture of Heathen- ism Christianity not the Ruling Principle Doctrine imper- fect The Bible a Sealed Book Seeming Paradoxes and Inconsistencies Language, Reasoning, and Figures of Scrip- ture Our Minds and Tastes formed upon the Classics Our Habits Heathen The Classics corrupt us Opinion of Jose- phus Of Jones of Nayland A better Literature wanted The Asiatics European Civilization Chinese Civilization Jewish Literature 66 CONTENTS. IX Page ESSAY VIII. THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. Spiritual Incest The Revival and Use of Heathen Learning and Principles The Healing of the Beast Perfected after the Reformation Aristotle the Father of Infidelity In Succes- sive Ages Opinions of Priestley, Fleury, Luther, Dr. Arnold Rome revived Classical Liberty Dignity and Worship of Human Nature Age and Authority slighted Liberty oppressive Poor and Poor-laws of Athens and Rome Corruption of Capital Cities Theatres Gladiatorial Shows Hearing and seeing some new Thing Spirit of Untruth Quaker Education 107 ESSAY IX. CONSUMMATION OF THE FINAL APOSTASY. Character and Signs of the Times First Epistle to Timothy Romish Errors Second Epistle to Timothy The Final Apostasy Second Epistle of St. Peter Epistle of St. Jude Quotation from the Rev. E. Bickersteth ,..--, .139 ESSAY X. FALSE PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY. LIBERTY. Liberty the Ruling Principle In Morals The Selfish System of Morals Liberty in Education Books teach better than Men Liberty is Sin Democracy Modern Liberty means Power Ambition a Virtue Liberty is Licentiousness Money-making a Virtue Luxury a Virtue Vanity a Virtue Liberty in Religion Christianity a Step No Man answer- able for his Creed Impunity of Crime What real Liberty is 166 X CONTENTS. Page ESSAY XI. FALSE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICS. PARTY. Government independent of Religion All Secular Governments must fail All Governments good Asiatic Governments European Governments Party Spirit inherent in these Manufactures and Agriculture Machinery Self-adjusting System of Political Economy Government the Umpire Machinery over much encouraged Its rapid Extension an Evil Machines ought to be taxed 195 ESSAY XII. FALSE SYSTEM OF TRADE. Decline of Profits Bad Practices among Manufacturers Mer- chants Tradesmen Monopoly of Cheapness Advertising System An Old English Tradesman Decline of Honesty and Character Excessive Competition Fictitious Capital Joint Stock Companies Lowering of Prices Cheapness not Quality Purchasers encourage the existing Evils The Duties of Purchasers Luxuries become Necessaries, and make a Country Poor How to be Rich The Evils are general . .219 ESSAY XIII. ENGLAND IS SOWING THE PRINCIPLES OF EVIL IN THE WORLD. Present Improvement fallacious England perfects the Inven- tions of other Nations England the Example to other Nations Is reviving the Principles of the French Revolution The Commercial Principle The Power of Money The Prerogative of Trade Fraternity of Trade and Missions Civilise first then Christianise The Missionary Williams The Contact of Civilisation and Barbarism is exterminating Commercial Barbarism Tyranny of Commerce 253 CONTENTS. XI ESSAY XIV. THE COMMERCIAL EMPIRE. Aristotle's Opinion of Commerce and Trade Opinions of other Writers, Sacred and Profane, Modern and Ancient, respecting Trade and Riches Great Riches an Evil to Individuals and to States History of the Dominion of the Sea Commercial Empires always tyrannical Maritime Warfare more cruel than Continental Warfare The last War a War between the Empires of Commerce and Arms The Orders in Council The Colonial System Manufacturing Monopoly Machinery Political Economy Money-Worship, its Perpetual Sa- crifice . 279 ESSAY XV. THE PROPHETIC HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE OF COMMERCE. The Typical Empire of Tyre The King of Tyre a Type of Antichrist The Typical Empire of Babylon The Ephah of Wickedness of Zechariah Commercial Wickedness The Judgment of Typical Babylon Of Typical Tyre The Mys- tical Babylon of Revelations The Doom of Avarice Of the Commercial Empire 323 ESSAY XVI. THE NOISOME AND GRIEVOUS SORE. Cruelties and Horrors in Civilised France Recent Cruelties and Horrors Crimes and Disorders of Modern Society, in England In France Social Disorganization Civil Wars and Revolutions Commercial Distresses Miseries of the Work- people Demoralization of the Working classes National Debts Commercial Frauds American Banks Increase of Crime Pauperism The New Poor-law The Workhouse Test Its Effects . . 347 Xll CONTENTS. Page ESSAY XVII. THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. Another Dark Age possible The Press no Guarantee against it Ephemeral Literature may destroy the Higher Tastes Knowledge our Summum Bonum Science makes us Blind Moral Philosophy is extinct among us Philosophy is shallow and Puerile Tends to Indifferentism and Confusion Our Idea of Education confounds Religion and Learning Which are opposite Principles The Education Heresy Education increases Crime Apostasy of Learning 393 ESSAY XVIII. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. His number is Six Hundred Threescore and Six . . . 426 ESSAY I. INTRODUCTORY. SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT SIGNS OF DECLINE. NOTHING is more difficult than to determine whether society is advancing or retrograding : in another view, whether there is more good or evil in the world ; which of them is increasing the most rapidly, and which is predominating. Perhaps this is a question which it is beyond the province of sound wisdom to endeavour to decide. It may be wiser to leave all comparisons, and to combat evil and promote good simply, wherever the opportunity may be found. It is also most difficult to compare past time with the present, and to resolve, upon the whole balance sheet of failings and improve- ments, whether the present times are worse or better than those which have last, or long before, preceded them. " Say not, Why were the former days better than these ? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." Nevertheless in particulars we may praise or blame, B 2 INTRODUCTORY. [ESSAY I. and hold up the mirror to society, and show to it its features in all their beauty and deformity, actual and comparative ; and if our own opinions should creep out, of all or each of them, why, we need not much care to disguise or qualify them, when we see that a good purpose may be served by the disclosure. Let us first review in outline the broad and promi- nent features to which those men would refer who con- tend that the world is advancing, and on which they rest their case, that it is tending to perfection. Let us then place before us some of the most obvious circum- stances which make it doubtful, whether we be indeed advancing so rapidly and successfully as many sanguine theorists delight to hope, and venture to be assured of. One thing that we are most certain of, is the great advance in civilization ; the morals and manners of the world are year by year much refined and softened. I have especially the testimony of an officer who has been thirty years in India, and he assures me that the manners of the people are very greatly improved since he left England. Among the rich there is less swearing, drinking, indecency of habits and conversa- tion. At table, or in the club-room, not an improper word is uttered, and religious topics may be discussed freely. In the streets the common people are well- behaved and orderly, and both in language and manners are becoming and decent. This is confirmed by other septuagenarians. Look at the order with which the business, and the vast concerns and trade of this mighty empire, and its metropolis, are conducted ; the ten thousands of vehi- ESSAY I.] SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT.' 3 cles, and the hundreds of thousands of persons who daily crowd each other in our streets and offices, almost without inconvenience or impediment ; uninterrupted by the pressure and importunity of thronging mendicants, and the sight of squalid misery, and say, is not this the triumph of civilization ! Look at the increased width of our main streets, the magnificence of the shop- fronts (2000 pounds for the front of a gin-palace, and 120 guineas for a single pane of glass), the splendour and taste and beauty of the articles exposed in them, the sewers, the water companies, the gas lights, the wood pavements, and say, are not these the triumph of civilization ! Look at the general diffusion of com- forts and luxuries, the lowest orders well clothed, and making common use of the productions of the East and West Indies ; the increased length of life, and great improvements in surgery and medicine, the accumu- lation of wealth, the extension of empire, the steam- engines, the rail-roads, the new sciences, the rapid discoveries, the progress of the fine arts, the power of machines, the triumph of mind over matter, the exalta- tion of the human mind, the triumph of intellect, and say, is not all this perfect civilization ! But there are other points which philosophic and thinking men will approve even more highly than these. The progress in legislation and legislative wisdom stamps the era with a still higher character. The broad base which is being given to political govern- ment, by the extension of rights to the people ; the elevation of the people to a fitness for thpse rights by political knowledge and education ; the greater cheap- 4 INTRODUCTORY. [ESSAY I. ness of knowledge ; the appetite and effort to enjoy it, in mechanics' institutes and other societies ; the dispo- sition to associate in large and friendly bodies for com- mon purposes, whether clubs or otherwise ; the won- derful uniformity and simplicity the very triumph of mechanic art now being introduced into administrative government ; the solution of the deep perplexing pro- blem of the poor, and poor relief; the substitution of a simpler and better scheme of provision for the Church than that of tithes the expediting and cheapening of law proceedings ; the humanizing and softening the public mind and disposition, by a more lenient code and less frequent executions : by reformation instead of punishment ; all these are proofs of unexampled pro- gress in legislative wisdom and operation. And even these are exceeded by the ground gained in establishing the grand principle of toleration, the emancipation of the human mind from the dogmas of sects, and the authoritative opinions of churches in matters of religion, which can never attain to its power and perfection except under the perfect freedom and unfettered exalta- tion of the human mind and intellect the great doc- trine of liberty ! Let the still more sober and serious thinking ob- servers reflect on the decline of avowed infidelity scarcely such a person is to be found as a professed unbeliever ; let them consider the much greater activity of the clergy; let them witness the increased number of church-goers, not women only, but men ; the vast subscriptions for building churches, which are rapidly growing in number on every side ; the increase of ESSAY I.] SIGNS OF DECLINE. 5 charities ; the greater attention to the poor by visiting societies, and to their children in the factories; the missions extending into and rooting themselves in all parts of the world, as though the conversion of the nations were now immediately to be accomplished ; the free, rapid, and constantly growing communication be- tween the most distant parts of the earth ; the abolition of the slave trade ; the emancipation of slaves ! We must be dull and obstinate not to be concluded by all these evidences. But, nevertheless, as there must always be two sides to a question, I will first mention a few of the most obvious points which render the conclusion less certain at least ; afterwards I shall enter more searchingly into the particular principles by which the question must ultimately be resolved, whether we be indeed advancing, by long and hasty strides, to perfection, or to ruin. One thing is certain, that we are progressing rapidly. Whether in luxury and wealth, or knowledge, or art, or invention and discovery, or liberty and liberality, all must confess that the ratio of advance has been and is increasing, and must increase with accelerating velo- city ; and that the tendency, if not the end of all this, must very soon prove itself, for good or for evil. Let us endeavour to outstrip the very rapidity of this flight by a free but reasoned anticipation. I will now invite attention to a few of the most pro- minent points which make it doubtful, whether our improvement in morals, religion, and prosperity, be really so rapid or general ; reserving, for more particular and detailed inquiry, the questions which must determine, 6 INTRODUCTORY. [ESSAY I. upon grounds of reason and principle, whether in each department and topic, and on the general balance of the movements of the social machine, things are in reality progressing towards a good or a bad conclusion. The general morals are improved ; but drunkenness is so increased that 30,000 persons are estimated to die annually from intemperance. The general manners are softened ; but crime continually increases ; and a new police force is required, both in town and country, to repress the increasing crime and turbulence of the population. " The riots and alarm consequent upon public meetings have increased the demands for the military force." And as Lord John Russell goes on to say, in moving (July, 1839) for the rural police, " Many districts have in the present time become peopled with a manufacturing and mining population, and in one of them the want of a police force has been so much felt, in consequence of the great increase in the number of crimes and depredations, and in the law- less habits of the disorderly part of the community, that, after two or three years' complaints, two bills have been introduced into parliament during the present ses- sion, with the view of meeting the evil." The wealth of the nation is increasing vastly ; but the revenue is hardly collected; the public debt in- creases in time of peace ; and the country is more and more pauperized annually and hourly. Trade is more active and extensive, and shops are more splendid ; but profits are everywhere lowered ; the difficulties of trade are greater; and bankruptcies are multiplied. Luxuries and comforts are more in number in houses ESSAY I.] SIGNS OF DECLINE. 7 and dress ; but rents are lower ; and every one has greater difficulty in living, and maintaining himself in his own station. The poorest persons have shoes and stockings, and the labouring classes have comfortable and even elegant clothing; but labourers' wages are reduced from the value of twenty-four loaves to that of twelve and fifteen, in a period of a hundred and fifty years. Where once was sociable and merry England, we have care and caution in the countenance of the rich man, in the working man discontent, in the poor man misery and depression. Hospitality is well nigh forgotten. Education is extended, and political know- ledge ; but classes are more separated and distinct from one another; men are more solitary, selfish, and individualized ; and chartists and socialists and pan- theists rise up to deny the principles of society and humanity ; and the only excuse we have for it is, that we must go through great struggles and evils before we can arrive at the happy consummation. The struggles continue, but the end does not appear in sight. Our political wisdom and mercantile progress have taught the world to cultivate the arts of peace ; but the largest standing armies are maintained that ever existed ; the train has been laid for war and lighted, with every neighbour of our vast empire, and others than our neighbours ; and of late we were ready to fight with our most powerful ally, for the mode of effecting an object in which we were, agreed. The emancipation of slaves is a great measure ; but let us look at the children in our factories. Longevity is in- creased among the richer classes ; but in Glasgow the INTRODUCTORY. [ESSAY I. mortality has grown from one in thirty-six to one in twenty-five, in seventeen years; and in other towns nearly in the same proportion. After the moral and social and political, we come to the religious improvement. And of this we must remark, that it cannot be classed with the rest, and used in aid of them ; for it is antagonist to them. The religious movement is carried on by an opposite party to those who would rest the improvement of mankind upon the points which we have adverted to. The increased acti- vity and influence of the Church is dreaded by these men. The clergy are hateful to them ; and their name and opinions are hooted at in the House of Commons, by those who would halloo and hasten on the prevailing movement of society to the perfection towards which they think it tends, and deem it capable of. The question here then is, whether religion and reli- gious influence is able to contend with its opponent : is increasing faster than its antidote ? Men are confess- edly choosing their side; activity is in all quarters; each side is rallying itself and gathering strength; we are increasing our standing armies ; we are ready and eager to rush to battle with a mighty and deadly collision, though we are agreed upon the topic of improving and perfecting the condition of human nature. The activity of the Church is greater than it was ; but so is that of Popery, Dissent, and Unitarianism. Many new churches are being erected ; but the popula- tion increases faster than the churches increase. Fresh attention is given to the poor by visiting societies ; and inquiry is made into the condition of the children in ESSAY I.]. SIGNS OF DECLINE. factories ; but are any of these adequate to the growth of the evil, or are all of these things more than the neces- sities arising out of a very bad state and system ? or are they proofs of progress and soundness, any more than the use of doctors and strong medicines is the evidence of health ?* Where two spring up in the place of each one, the cutting off one or more of the hydra's heads is no evidence of his destruction. The Sabbath is more strictly observed by some few ; but Sunday travelling has very greatly increased. A few country towns have refused to receive letters on Sunday; it is because the government proposed to transmit letters through London on that day. The tithe question is settled by a commutation ; it is be- cause the very name of tithes is hated; and people were more ready to pay tithes even to the absentee lay-rector than to the resident clergyman. Pledges of temperance are taken, and of total abstinence; but they are strong and artificial medicines, proving the aggravation of the disease. Our missions of Christianity are extended every- where ; but the curses of our commercial spirit always attend them, and are so great, that the monarchs of China and Sandwich are forced to prohibit on pain of death the gin and opium which the propagators of Christianity introduce ; and contact between European * " Where laws are many, voluminous, and intricate, 'tis a certain sign of a very unsound constitution : like a sick man's apartment filled with glasses and gallipots." The Art of Government by Parties, 8vo. 1701, p. 82. The vast digests of the Roman law were made in the decline of the empire. B5 10 INTRODUCTORY. [ESSAY I. and barbarous manners is not productive of civilization, but extermination. These are some points which warrant us in doubting the rapid approach towards perfection with which we are urged to flatter ourselves. They do by no means conclude the question. We must continue to pursue the subject by a more perfect exposure of the changing habits and principles of European society, and a more intimate dissection of them. ESSAY II. THE FORCE OF FASHION. IN DRESS IN MORALS IN OPINIONS IN RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES AND OBSERVANCES. To ENABLE us to take a dispassionate view of the general tendency of society, it is necessary that we should have a correct knowledge of the influence of fashion, and make a just estimate of its force in forming our opinions upon all subjects. In common and passing topics this force need hardly be considered. In matters of great and permanent concern, it requires to be observed and estimated almost more than any other. The moon has one motion round the earth ; which is sufficient to be considered, in calculating the changes during one single revolution of it. But it has another motion round the sun, under the influence of the earth, and as its satellite ; and this requires to be considered, in estimating its power and place at different seasons. Neither ourselves nor the earth have any perceptible motion round its axis, or round the sun; and no use could arise from considering any such motion, in reckoning our day's march, or the projection of a cannon ball. But if the question were to be, whether we should fall within the 12 THE FORCE OF FASHION. [ESSAY II. lash of the tail of a comet, or should have light for three hours more, or summer three months hence, this consideration would be the chief and most important topic ; and any one who calculated by clocks only, or the last week's experience, would be deceived greatly. So it is in topics of high interest and importance in the affairs of life. Nothing can be a higher treason against taste than to call a lady's new bonnet whimsical ; though two months ago she would not have endured to look at such a thing, and in two months more she will call it hideous. Nothing can be a greater offence against the enlighten- ment of the age, and the majesty and wisdom of society, than to question the capability to arrive at all truth by pursuing the train of thought, and the course of study and investigation, in which the world is at present busy, and occupied expectingly. It is in the nature of things, that the public mind should not be able to perceive its own errors and de- ficiencies. Individual minds may sometimes distrust their own views and opinions, by collision and com- parison with other opinions and minds, exercising an antagonist influence. But the general mind, being one and alone, and having and desiring no subjects of com- parison, is led onward, and leads on those who follow and are governed by it, irresistibly, in a blind, and as if infallible course. The mind which gives itself up to be ruled by fashion and the force of example, being completely enveloped by the medium in which it is suspended, is like one in a balloon, unconscious of the motion of the vehicle ESSAY II.] THE FORCE OF FASHION. 13 which bears him onward. The only possible means by which he can ascertain his direction and progress is by keeping his eye fixed on some known objects, the facility of which is diminished in proportion as they become distant. But if the shades of night should overtake the aeronaut, or even if a mist or gloom should shut out distant objects from distinct vision, the voyager must pursue his course in perfect ignorance ; the winds and currents may sweep along, but he cannot perceive them ; storms may rush over the earth, spreading ruin and producing changes and devastation, but he must be unconscious of them ; he feels no storm or current rushing beside him ; he cannot tell, having no relative motion with the medium he is dependent in, whether his course is backward or onward, or what is the rate of it, or even whether he and all nature be not still and stationary; for all around him at least is calm, and constant, and peaceful, and contenting.* But even should he be able to guess rightly the direction of his motion, how can he estimate the rapidity and extent of it.*j- " Add to this the uncertainty that from henceforth began to pervade the whole of our course, an uncertainty that every moment increased as we proceeded deeper into the shades of night, and * " The absence of all currents of air is one of the peculiar cha- racteristics of aerial navigation." Monck Mason's Description of the Nocturnal Voyage of the Nassau Balloon, (at the average rate of about thirty miles an hour,) p. 32. Thirty miles an hour is the rate at which the wind travels in a moderate storm. f " To this step, the uncertainty in which we necessarily were, with respect to the exact position we occupied, owing to our ignorance of the distance we had come, especially determined us." Ibid. p. 38. 14 THE FORCE OF FASHION. [ESSAY II. became further removed from those land-marks to which we might have referred in aid of our conjectures, cloth- ing everything with the dark mantle of mystery, and leaving us in doubt more perplexing even than igno- rance, as to where we were, and whither we were pro- ceeding."* How true and lively a picture does this description present of the benighted mind, travelling onward, on- ward, with the current of fashion and opinion : ever thought the best, while always shifting; and all its greater and more permanent changes unperceived by those who look not out of the mist of doubt and igno- rance which partially, at all events, envelopes all sub- jects of human knowledge and occupation. *f- In the Saturday Magazine, No. 428, for March 2, 1839, there is a frontispiece of about twenty different * Monk Mason's Description, &c., p. 28. t In the British Critic, No. 61, pp. 241, 242, there is a forcible passage upon this subject of the effect of habit in opinion. " When any evil has existed for a great length of time it becomes self-sup- ported and self-defensive. One ramification balances another. Col- lateral forms of the error, like the bastions of a fortification, furnish mutual protection. A wide-spread contagion corrupts both the ordinary ways of action, and the rules of judgment, practice as well as theory. Words, works, and thought, are brought into perfect unison. Every avenue of sense and reflection is vitiated. The heresy produces the medium through which it is seen, &c." " Error becomes then at last, we say not so specious and plausible, but so absolutely, so sensibly, so demonstrably true, that it is as difficult to doubt one's own existence, as the existence of those manifest axioms and realities with which one's own existence seems inseparably connected, and which appear the very elements of our being, &c." " Hence may be seen what a work of works it is to oppose with effect any long standing spirit of error." The whole passage is worth consulting. ESSAY II.] IN DRESS. 15 ladies' head-dresses, of the 15th, 16th, and 18th centuries. One only differs from another, throughout, in the oppositeness of absurdity. One is like a coach- box and hammercloth ; another like a pyramid ; a third is an inverted pyramid, with a fat cushion at top; a fourth has a thick club pigtail ; a fifth has lappetts three quarters of a yard long on the sides ; another the same at the back ; another is square behind the head ; another is round at the top of it ; in one the face is looking out as if at a tent door ; and each and all of them together have much more cushion than head to them. At one season, about fifty years back, it was the fashion for ladies to have the two sides of their head dressed in different modes ; the one side was plain, the other frizzed and curled ad libitum. Now all these patterns of outward fashion and dress, are just so many parallels and representations of as many fashions of mind and opinion, which have severally prevailed, at so many similar intervals of time, perhaps not much further apart than those at which these dif- ferent head-dresses have been approved and adopted. Each of these was admired in its time, and thought alone consistent with good taste, and was necessary to a walk in good society; and without as great an ac- commodation to the current opinions of the world, in philosophy and morals, we are equally unfitted to mix with and to pursue our walk creditably in it. We are not easily made aware of the rapid and sudden effects of fashion, and of its irresistible influence. Even the most violent and the most unwelcome changes, though at first they may be highly offensive, and ridi- 16 THE FORCE OF FASHION. [ESSAY II. culed, are, through example, in a very short time adopt- ed. These are great and rapid it is true, in proportion to the weakness of mind and character of those who are led captive by them ; but still we are all weak, and as children, in this respect, and the strongest mind ultimately yields itself their prisoner. Fashion makes every strange thing agreeable and acceptable. The usual process is this : We at first ridicule a new fashion in dress, and resolve never to adopt it ; next, the eye becomes accustomed to it ; then it becomes tolerable ; soon after, we admire it ; and, lastly, we order the very same thing ourselves. It is the same with vice. At first we are disgusted by it ; by frequently seeing it, it becomes less offensive in our eyes ; next it seems tole- rable ; then excusable ; and very soon after we like and approve ; and lastly we practise it.* Again, likewise, in a new science, or theory, or opinion ; at first the new style of thought, and reasoning, and language, is diffi- cult and absurd. By the time we have mastered the few first principles, the train of thought becomes intel- ligible ; then ingenious ; then curious and interesting ; at length, when the theoiy has been completely mastered, the principles are admired and approved, and lauded to the skies as most true and certain, and im- * The lines of Pope will be recollected : " Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen ; But seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." Essay on Man, 2nd book, 1. 216. See Archdeacon Samuel Wilberforce's Sermon, on the Danger of De- praving the Moral Sense. ESSAY II.] IN MORALS IN OPINIONS. 17 portant, and masterly. Lastly, in doctrine and contro- versy, if fashion will but lay before us, and induce us to give attention to the positions of the least approved and most opposite party, then we shall first listen to them with the smile of pity and incredulity, as to the language of a madman ; then we shall begin to under- stand, and shall confess that at least there is a shape and method in the madness ; then the parts will be seen to fit and cohere together, and to form a rational system ; then it is a beautiful ; then a sublime system ; and then at length it sets at nought all other systems, and is absolute truth, and wisdom, and perfection. Fashion can give an infallible interpretation to a text : as in the doctrine of the keys, and transubstan- tiation. Fashion can blind our eyes to a positive com- mand : as when the Jews kept neither the sabbatical year, nor the passover. The feast of tabernacles was never kept from Joshua to Nehemiah.* Fashion can kill or give life to a prophecy or a type. We are now interpreting as of the Jews promises which had for ages been applied to Christians generally. The Mahometans are now giving a spiritual interpretation to the sensual promises and threatenings of their Koran. Ten years ago the Christians were called dogs by the Turks ; now they are admired by them and imitated in everything. Ten years since the Roman Catholics and Dissenters were trodden underfoot; since that they have been almost uppermost; and the Dissenters, at least, are now very likely to lose all, and more than all their * Nehem. viii. 17. 18 THE FORCE OF FASHION. [ESSAY II. ground again. At the same time, the Methodists, not many years since entirely condemned by the Church, are of late years considered to have revived its spirit, and supplied its deficiency. Twenty years since benefices were generally regarded merely as livings, as much the property of the clergy as any estate, the only tenure of which was the duty on a Sunday ; but now the spiritual cure is being regarded as the principal, and is extended through every week-day, and the duties of it are wear- ing out the clergy by excessive labour. Even church- building and almsgiving might become as common and generally esteemed as party spirit and education. These changes are not all for the better and the wiser; and there is no security in the dismissal and despising of a fashion, that it may not come back, and be as highly approved again, or that the most modern fashion may not be as absurd as any of the preceding. Among the Greek and the Russian priests, the beard is the sign of dignity. In England, we have cut off the beard ; and we have since put our judges into wigs : preferring the artificial to the natural ensign of age and gravity. The Chinese despise us for being, as it appears to them, naked; and Lord Amherst was forced to envelope himself in a doctor's robe, in order to present himself with decency to his Celestial Majesty. In 1811, our ladies dressed nearly as tight as our men; but now they swell and bustle themselves out nearly to a Chinese corpulency. Was the use of trunk hose, in which you might carry a wardrobe, a greater absurdity ? The dresses of our great- grandmothers have very nearly returned into use ; and even, instead of a hoop, we have ESSAY II.] IN MORALS IN OPINIONS. 19 now only substituted a horse-hair petticoat. There is not much to choose between these several modes and tastes. One is not much better or wiser than another. The only error can be in supposing the prevailing taste to be most rational and the best. In fashions of mind and opinion we change and re-change with a no less rapid facility; only the subjects are apt to be more serious, and of more important consequence. The last fashion and theory in politics, in geology, in mesmerism, in phrenology, and often in theology, is just as wise and stable, and as well founded in reason, as your wigs and whimples, and your low heads and high heads, and short waists and long waists, and large bonnets and little bonnets, and your hoops, and flounces, and trains, and tails, and hair petticoats. If such be the effect of fashion where the changes are sudden and rapid, if its power be so great to reconcile us to subjects which have once been hateful and opposite to us, what must its strength be where there has been no opposition, no apparent error or con- trariety ; but every change has been gradual and pro- gressive : each stage and step rising up out of the last with an easy gradation ; and no ascent has ever been steep enough to cause a stumble or exertion, or even to draw notice and attention. So the human reason has gradually gained ascendancy over revelation and faith, in England; so the Genevan Church have gradually digressed from Calvinism to Unitarianism ; the Luthe- rans to Mysticism. With these likelihoods and illustrations, and these 20 THE FORCE OF FASHION. [ESSAY II. examples before us, let us allow something at least for this prejudice, against ourselves, and the present fashion in opinion, in all our discussions of the great topics upon which our judgment must turn in estimating our political, moral, and religious state and progress, and comparing them with those points in which other people and nations, and other generations, differ from us in opinion, manners, habits, and principles. ESSAY III. FAILURE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. IN THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH OF HAPPINESS OF POLITICAL IMPROVEMENT OF WISDOM. WE have noticed above, in the first Essay, when com- paring some of the most obvious symptoms of decline and improvement, the increase of pauperism, the de- crease of religious reverence and good will towards the clergy, the difficulties of trade, the increase also of crime, of drunkenness, turbulence, and the greater separation of the different orders ; so that we cannot with reason call ourselves a happy, quiet, and contented people. I will now endeavour, by a somewhat closer and more intimate view, to show that those points in which we most particularly pride ourselves that our riches and wisdom are not altogether so prosperous and great; and that far from leading us to the many great results which we fondly attribute to them, they are producing many of the opposite effects to those for which we ex- pressly and confidently pursue them. Power, pro- sperity, happiness, ease, contentment, freedom, stability, permanence, virtue, truth, are among the ends which we would set before ourselves, as the results of all our labours, in learning and philosophizing, and political 22 FAILURE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. [ESSAY III. economy and money-getting. It will appear that these ends are not arrived at, but are defeated and thwarted and placed further off at an immeasurable distance, by the very instruments and means which we choose and exercise, with the confident assurance of their attain- ment. The use of riches is to spend them to spend them according to our wishes and choice, and without com- pulsion of another man's will, of authority, or circum- stance. What we pay in taxes and rates is not enjoyed ; it is a diminution of our fortune for the protection of the remainder. What is paid in rent is scarcely more willingly paid than the mortgage interest of a debt, contracted for past pleasures, or the mortgaged taxes annually and everlastingly due, for former national excesses and aggrandizement. Nor is the enjoyment of a grand and roomy house and grounds, when by use it has become necessary to us, greater than that of a trim and tiny box, or snug villa, at fifty or thirty pounds a-year, when we have been used to nothing more grand and ennobling. All our luxuries and comforts are growing more and more into the nature of necessaries, and current expen- diture ; so that, though comfort and luxury and magni- cence are incomparably greater at this time, in compari- son with any other former time in England, or any other country, yet the proportion and amount which in each rank and station any person can call his own, and use at any given moment according to his discretion and as it pleases him, is daily diminishing. There never was a time when greater indisposition was shown to pay tithes ESSAY III.] IN THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH. 23 and taxes and rates and public imposts. The revenue is most difficult to raise, and, even in the time of peace, is by no means equal to the expenditure. We are getting deeper into debt. Rich folks cannot afford to be liberal and hospitable ; the current expenses and style of living, and their establishment, is too great to bear it. We cannot provide sufficiently for our poor. The clergy are very inadequately paid; and yet their endowments are called enormous, and are grudged to them. There never was a time when liberality could less be attributed, as giving a name and character to the age or habits of the nation. Economy is the national ensign and watchword and characteristic. Anything that tends to economy in expenditure, that is, not to the moderation of expenses, but to the attaining of the greatest possible amount and quantity of luxury at a given cost, that is, at the full extent of our incomes, is accepted and hailed as wise and admirable. Luxury and economy, namely, the producing of the greatest possible amount of magnificence and comfort, of envied appearance and style, and personal enjoyment, at the least possible expense, is the great problem for solution, the great aim and object in private life. And in public life and government, whatever is free and liberal, and self-denying and moderate, is shunned and avoided and out-reasoned, and is not found consistent with sound policy, and modern enlightenment, and the wis- dom of the age, and the general good of mankind, and political economy. How can a country and age be en- joying its riches, in which economy is almost the only thing valued and vaunted, and is of absolute necessity ? 24 FAILURE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. [ESSAY III. Such is the condition and character of the rich. If we descend to the poor, there we shall find every suffer- ing and consequence of poverty increased, and con- stantly increasing with every increase of riches, and always in the greatest intensity in the very neighbour- hood of the greatest accumulation of riches, and riot of luxury. Certainly, if the use of riches is the enjoyment of them, the increase of them, in this country at least, has miserably failed in its intention and object. It has been too much lost sight of, that the prosperity and riches of the country ought not to be promoted irrespective of the prosperity and happiness of the peo- ple. But there is no difference. It is impossible for that to be wise and just and politic in a state, which is not just and politic in the case of a private person. But upon the facts it appears, and it may be made more clearly and fully to appear, by pursuing the sub- ject, that neither individually nor nationally, is the country happier or more prosperous, from great and unlimited increase of riches, and its rapid accumulation. The riches and luxuries of the country are increased about one-fifth perhaps in ten years,* the taxes in the same time are diminished : yet retrenchment is the one thing called for, and the sufficient answer when any good thing is required to be done, as to build and endow churches ; the collection of the revenue is so difficult as to be the ground of many demoralising provisions, such as the spirit duties and beer shops, to support it, and many grievous fetters upon trade and Col. Sykes's Paper, Trans, of the Statistical Society, 1839. ESSAY III.] IN THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH. 25 maijufactures ; the toil and uncertainty of getting a fail- subsistence by trade and labour is increased and in- creasing, so that agriculture and manufactures are alike calling out for protection and extension, lest they should be ruined ; and the hours of rest and religion, and the season of youth and growth, must be trenched upon, and not too much protected by the legislature, lest the making a sufficient gain and profit should be- come impossible. Is it not strange, that in these ad- vanced times, this march of civilization, riches, and wisdom, we should not be able to sacrifice anything to happiness or duty, but must be struggling for existence ! The one prevailing character of the men of the pre- sent day, is a credulous belief in systems, and a scep- tical blindness towards facts. Thus, it is proved upon system, that machinery must create employment for a greater number of workmen ; must bring more leisure to those employed, by giving greater effect to their labour; must create a demand more than propor- tioned to the increased supply ; and render profits easier. And we are by no means shaken in this theory, by seeing that wages are constantly becoming lower and lower; that the means of living are more difficult ; that more and more work-people are out of employment ; that men have less leisure than ever for religious duties, for good offices to the public and the poor, and for amusement ; that machines glut the mar- kets, being subject to no control or limit, and bring loss upon the whole trade, which agriculture never can do ; that improvements are so rapid, that each new in- c 26 FAILURE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. [ESSAY III. vention overtakes the last, before the profits have fairly paid the prices of the old machines. Reforms and revolutions are projected and carried out, for the sake of promising theories; people are enamoured of them of experiment and change. The machine of society is convulsed and shattered. Oh ! we have a great deal to go through first, before the new order of things can be settled, and the blessings of it be made apparent. Another new reform is again pro- jected and insisted upon ; old things are passed away, and the new ones have not yet obtained for themselves the respect of time ; and the new theory and experi- ment is carried into effect. The machine is again convulsed and dislocated. Oh ! we have still a great deal to go through, it is said again, before a complete regeneration. The promise and fancy of future bless- ings obtains multitudes of worshippers, with an implicit and zealous credulity: the experience of a reign of terror, the mutual malice and butcheries of a civil war, the organization of armed conspiracies and insurrections, the present miseries, discontent, hatred, fear, contempt of law and government, all that is seen and felt, and all realities and present effects, are disregarded as proofs, and held to be deceptive ; but the expectations of theory, however long delayed, are held certain. On this ac- count we do not perceive, that modern constitutions are, like modern houses, built less and less for stability : being of plaster for stone, and set upon stilts, and pulled about and rebuilt to suit the changes of fashion and taste ; and that while the ancient states of Christendom have been established for ages, the modern govern- ESSAY III.] IN THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. 27 ments are, like the modern houses, most sure to be overthrown, so soon as the moral earthquake shall in- vade them which is coming over the earth. Respect for parents and governors is an antiquated prejudice ; and equality of children and subjects to their parents and governors, is now an established maxim of liberty and enlightenment. The correcting operation of filial piety and obedience, among those nations which encourage it, and the simple fact of the perpetual exist- ence of the Chinese government, which is entirely founded upon this principle, is not of the value or weight of a straw, to prove to us, that our contrary course is tending to a total disunion and disintegration of society, and to insure, like every other branch of our policy, the instability and dissolution of our empire. The same ultra-liberty and conceit of itself makes the present generation, and each individual of it, rise up against the parental authority and wisdom of all former times, and deem its own knowledge superior to their experience; not considering or comparing the simple matter of fact probability, of the experience and infor- mation of one individual or generation being equal to that of a hundred generations of able and active men, urged onward by the same motives and impulses as themselves. May we not perchance lose more by de- spising the ancient wisdom and learning, and the accu- mulated stores of ages, than we can gain, however well directed and diligent, by depending upon ourselves. But in fact, when rebelling against antiquity, we remain its slaves; and slaves to a meaner and less venerable master, namely, to some one generation or c2 FAILURE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. [ESSAY III. fragment of the same antiquity. For rebels are the most servile of men, and liberals are the greatest imi- tators ; and are abject followers of the worthless and vile : as those who throw off reverence for the might and majesty of God, become the worshippers of men. However free and self dependent, we are not so inven- tive as to be able to strike out some new path, which has never been trodden before. The greatest efforts of us moderns are imitative. We exult with rapturous conceit in the progress of the fine arts ; yet at the best it is a humble and distant aspiration after the ancient perfection. We cannot invent a new order in architec- ture : we can only endeavour to revive, as students and imitators, some portion of the spirit and taste which created the ancient models of Christianity and heathen- ism; and this, though we have the occasion that calls for it, and the material, in the use of iron, which admits of a new and more slender proportion ; and the basis of such a new order, in the slender and graceful stems of the cocoas and palms for the columns, and their fruits for the capitals, and their long shadowing leaves for the vaultings and tracery. When rebellion against God and man subverted all laws divine and human, and left the age of reason and invention, in France, entirely free, they at once became servile copyists of one or two generations of Romans and Greeks ; worshipping a fragment of antiquity with a servile wor- ship. Thus the proud are the most mean, the rebellious the most submissive, the independent the most depend- ent, the sceptic the most superstitious and credulous, and of the meanest objects. Strange ! that we should ESSAY III.] IN THE PURSUIT OF WISDOM. '29 boast ourselves of our title to the greatest wisdom, as living when the world is matured, and constituting its manhood, and yet should throw off the very means and advantages which could give us this right. The old man is wiser than the young man, by living according to the maxims and corrections that his experience has taught him. But we condemn the maxims as vain and childish, and reject the experience ; yet we claim the fruits of it.* We claim that the experience of this one generation is sufficient, and act upon it, and thereby put ourselves in the position of the first generations, the very childhood of the world ; for they too could think for themselves even then, and reason upon their little gleanings of knowledge, which were their toys, and build their plaything towers and castles. We boast that the world is again in its infancy ; it is our delight and triumph to think that we are beginning a new career of science and improvement which is to lead us on to perfection. This is the world's Second- Childhood. The rest of the principles which characterize our modern policy and philosophy, are all of the same na- ture, shallow, conceited, exclusive, tyrannical. Several of them require a particular analysis ; and the above chosen subjects require to be more fully exhibited. I shall conclude this general view and opinion of them * Nothing is more characteristic than the present practice of found- ing a report, full of conclusions of triumph and success, upon a single year's or even a six months' experience ; a new prison or workhouse system ; a new school system ; a home colony. It is in simple truth just like the reasoning and conclusions and pride and positiveness of children. Exs. 1st Rep. on Parkhurst Prison Norwood Schools New Poor Law Reports, &c. 30 FAILURE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. [ESSAY III. with the support of Niebuhr's judgment, whose " high admiration of England had turned to mistrust if not to aversion." In his opinion, all was disorganized, de- generate, verging to decay and ruin. The very rapid fall of England, he says, is a very remarkable and me- lancholy phenomenon ; it is a deathly sickness without remedy. " I compare the English of the present day," he says, "to the Romans of the third century after Christ." In all this he premised the still greater fall and de- gradation of the rest of Christendom. He had else- where spoken of the deep decline of religion in Europe ; from which he at that time excepted England. " In Catholic countries," he said, " the priesthood is dying out. We have the name and the form, with a general dull consciousness that all is not right ; every one is uncomfortable ; we feel like ghosts in a living body."*' I shall proceed to show, in the next Essay, that Eng- land has no claim to boast itself against the conti- nent in respect of the warmth and fulness, whatever it may have in respect of the purity, of its religion. * Quarterly Review, No. 132, p. 556, 560. ( 31 ) ESSAY IV. DECLINE OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND. IN THE GOVERNMENT IN THE LEGAL AND MERCANTILE WORLD IN THE HABITS OF PRIVATE LIFE. IF England be the stronghold of religion in the world, it is important for us to ascertain the real measure of it ; and whether it is an increasing or declining prin- ciple, and whether it exercises a growing or a decreasing influence in human affairs, private and political. We must not be deceived by any very recent change, and any movement which has been made within our own late experience, however rapid, into a belief that we have gone beyond all former times in religious reve- rence ; or even have recovered all the ground that we may have lost in the course of ages : any more than the increased contributions towards church building is suffi- cient to prove that we equal the liberality of our an- cestors, when they furnished the whole land, in town as well as country, with its complement of churches, adequate and ample in size, and costly in style and execution, out of their narrow resources. Formerly people built chapels and altars, and founded churches and religious houses, on occasions of any signal deliverance, and both town and country were fully furnished with places of worship. Now, not only DECLINE OF RELIGION. [ESSAY IV. are churches insufficient in number, in the newly built towns, but we are discovering that they are too nume- rous in the old ones. Two churches were lately taken down in the neighbourhood of the Bank of England. Both have given place to mercantile offices. This practice began at the Reformation. Three churches and convents were taken down to give room for Somer- set House in the reign of Edward VI. The same cause is progressing now in the rest of Europe. The following is announced under the head of Spanish Im- provements. " Madrid. Upwards of thirty huge con- vents have been within the last four years pulled down to make room for elegant rows of houses, bazaars, galeries, markets, and squares, with trees in the centre."* An account of similar spoliations of church property at Rome is contained in Froude's Remains. The same is going on in Switzerland. In London, a church tower has given place to one angle of the New Royal Exchange. But there is a general impression that we are con- tinually improving, and have always been improving, in religious respect and observance, from the earliest times. It is my intention to show that this is not the case ; that we have a long arrear to make up before we can begin to talk of improvement ; and there is little likelihood of this being done, if we already begin with self-congratulation and boastfulness. This is a subject of evidence, and of simple history. The influence of the clergy in government must have been greater when the judges and ministers of the Mechanic's Mag. No. 886, p. 192. ESSAY IV.] IN THE GOVERNMENT. 33 crown were ecclesiastics, and the greater part of the House of Lords, at that time the branch of the legis- lature which had the chief influence, were bishops and abbots. At the time of the Reformation, Henry VIII. abolished and deposed twenty-eight priors and abbots who had seats in the House of Peers. The whole number of lay peers at that time was thirty-six ; of spiritual peers forty-nine ;* so that the ecclesiastical bore to the lay power, in that house, the proportion of four to three, without reckoning the comparative weight and preponderance of personal influence. I use this vast curtailment of the influence of the clergy as a fact, not an accusation. The cause' may have been good or bad, but the fact remains the same ; and the effect has been corresponding. In those times the law terms, or periods for business, were appointed so as to correspond with the vacations from religious fasts and festivals, the observance of which was deemed of first importance ; and acts of parliament used to com- mence with religious expression, and confession that all government was from God. Now that the clerical in- fluence is depressed, and is expelled from the legal profession, and almost from the legislature, the current practice is most opposite ; whether it proceed from this cause, or any other, or be said to be fortuitous.f * Henry VII. had only twenty-eight temporal peers, and Henry VIII. but thirty-six, in their first parliaments; Charles II., 154; in 1841, there were about 450. As many as fifty-six spiritual peers once sat, in Edward III.'s reign. t " The act (24 Hen. VIII.), the Statute of Appeals, which took away the jurisdiction of the pope over spiritual causes in this realm, limited the cognizance of spiritual matters to spiritual persons, giving c5 34 DECLINE OF RELIGION. [ESSAY IV. The daily prayers in the two Houses of Parliament are a mere form and interruption, and are rarely and unwillingly attended. Religious rule and argument are out of place in the House of Commons, except for the abstract premiss, that Christianity is a part of the law of the land. A schoolmaster at one time might not teach without a licence from a bishop.* Now the superintendence of the clergy over education is looked upon with jealousy. Judges feel it a burden to begin their solemn office at each assize town by attending divine worship, and for the most part one of them ab- sents himself, t These old customs, and others, stand to the archbishop jurisdiction in the last resort. In the following year, the ultimate cognizance of all such causes was given to the King. Yet, as Gibson assures us (Codex, Inst. Disc. 22), there are no footsteps of any of the nobility or common-law judges being ap- pointed, till the year 1604 (seventy years after the erecting of the Court) ; nor from that time are they found in above one commission in forty, till the year 1639, when all ecclesiastical, especially episcopal authority, began to be contumeliously struck at. Still, even in the beginning of the last century, when Gibson compiled his Codex, the number of lay judges bore only a fair proportion to the spiritual. The proportion, however, gradually increased ; till at length it seems to have been regarded as useless to observe even the semblance of consideration of the spiritualty in adjudicating on appeal in spiritual causes. In 1833, the Judicial Committee of Privy Council was made the court of ultimate appeal in all such causes, of which court not a single spiritual person was constituted a member." (Bishop of Exeter's Charge, 1842, pp. 45-47.) * Rex v. Hill, 2 Ld. Raym. Rep. t A custom seems to have existed of one of the judges preaching a sermon, each in his turn, in Serjeant's Inn Chapel, to the rest of his brethren. Of late years they did it by deputy, appointing and paying a preacher. But that they once did it in person seems to be evidenced by the expression used, " It is Mr. Justice 'a turn to preach!" ESSAY IV.] IN THE GOVERNMENT. 35 as land-marks, to show plainly what our former prin- ciples must have been, and how we have departed from them.* And in the meantime we have arrived at these maxims of government, that the government ought to take cognizance of no person's creed ; that governments have no conscience, nor any opinion in religion ; that Sabbath observance is not a subject for the legislature ;t that prosecutions for blasphemy are impolitic, and en- courage the evil, and obtain for the victims the respect of martyrs, thus placing Satan on a level with Christ, wrong with right, the fruit of a lie with the sacred treasure and prerogative of truth. Other symptoms in government are of the same cast and complexion. We have now lately seen the Sad- ducees in power.J Not only have Unitarians, though not in the cabinet perhaps, been exercising the chief influence in subordinate offices, and by their semi- This custom must have arisen when the judges were ecclesiastics. It was altogether discontinued, even by deputy, in the time of Mr. Jus- tice Lawrence, who was the last judge who furnished a preacher, at the beginning of the present century. * When lately the daily prayers were established at Lincoln's Inn Chapel, they found that the chapel bell was already rung regularly every morning at eight o'clock ; witnessing that the practice of daily morning prayers had formerly existed, and been discontinued. f An effort was made by the late government to transmit letters through London on a Sunday. I A cabinet minister, in his place in the House of Commons, when speaking of religious differences, inquired tauntingly, " What is truth?" making his own the words of the crucifier of our Lord. This is an occurrence well suited to the period in which the event has been acted over again, in the persons of Romanists and infidels, through the instrumentality of ministers, and for the purpose of destroying what is good of Herod and Pilate being made friends together. 36 DECLINE OF RELIGION. [ESSAY IV. official writings, which are accepted as the groundwork of legislation, but unbelievers also have been among the most forward supporters and friends of ministers. Religious and moral character has been held to have no connexion with politics, and the notorious want of principle in the friends of government has been a laugh and a joke. The annual advance by government to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, has been of late years discontinued. A part of the money sent for the relief of the sufferers by the hurricane at Bar- badoes being unspent, the government refused a peti- tion to apply it to the repair of the churches, which had been injured by the same hurricane. Marriage has been divested of its religious character, and made a mere civil contract, and the holy sacrament of baptism practically endangered, by act of parliament. The House of Commons has voted to open the theatres in Lent. But perhaps these so recent instances ought not to be mentioned, since the evidence of recent reaction towards religious observance has been rejected. I be- lieve that the above related acts and evidences are real symptoms of the condition we are in, and of the change we have undergone ; and that these symptoms will not be soon removed, but be confirmed and increased. We will leave these, however, and descend to ordinary affairs, and the practices of business, and the habits and usages of private life. The forms used in mercantile transactions, being founded upon ancient custom, and legal forms, which are of all things the most fixed and unchangeable, bear ESSAY IV.] IN THE LEGAL AND MERCANTILE WORLD. 37 witness to the decline in religious reverence ; it being certain that the same devotional expressions would not now be introduced, and are not in fact introduced into modern forms employed for similar purposes. Indictments for murder charge, that the prisoner had not " the fear of God before his eyes," and was " insti- gated by the devil." Bills of lading begin, following the old form, " Shipped by the grace of God ;" and conclude, " And so God send the good ship to her desired port in safety. Amen." Bottomry bonds used to contain these forms of ex- pression, " I A. B. &c. do send greeting in our Lord God everlasting :" " The first good wind that God shall send :" " The ship whereof W. T. is master under God." But they are now discontinued. Every one in drawing his will, even by the hand of an attorney, began it by commending his soul to God. The sanction of an oath was looked for, as the best security from persons in all situations : from church- wardens, merchants, servants, soldiers, tenants attorn- ing to their lands.* Now, the salary is looked upon as the best security. The judges' charges to the jury used to be fortified by quotations from Scripture. *|- The forms of enfranchisement of slaves expressed that it was done upon religious motives J and the peti- Book of Oaths, Edit. 1715. t An example of such a charge may be seen in Kitchen on Courts, p. 14. Edit. 1675. J Guizot on Civilization, Sect. 6. 38 DECLINE OF RELIGION. [ESSAY IV. tions of the suitors to the lords and stewards of the manor courts did not conclude without a prayer " for your worship's most prosperous welfare and lyfe, the whiche I praye God presarve and long to continue unto Hys blessed pleasure. Amen."* Petitions to the Houses of Lords and Commons are records of the same cus- tom ; but they stop short at " Your petitioners will ever pray, &c " A physician's prescription of 1642, given by a Dr. Bray to Mr. Powell, an ancestor of Mrs. Taddy, and now in Serjeant Taddy's possession, concludes thus, " And by God assisting, you shall enjoy your health and breath."f There is an entry by the churchwarden in the Hampton Wick parish book, of the year 1699, to the following effect, December, the 26th day, Payed to Mr. Thomas Uvedale an apotacary for phisseck and all other necessary means aplouyed to Thomas Tread- well in his sickness to have preserved his life if it had plesed God 01 : 15 : OO/'J Formal and familiar letters did not conclude with- out some devotional reflection or allusion ; and doubt- less the conversation was similar in this respect, if it were in like manner recorded. A letter of Henry V., * Watkins on Copyholds, vol. 2, p. 48, tern. Hen. VIII. t Mr. Powell was no Puritan himself, but a staunch royalist. I A short time since a very eminent physician was called in at night to a child which was in a very alarming state. He thus related the circumstance. " I saw at once what was the matter, and admi- nistered the proper remedy ; and the child recovered. As soon as we saw him out of danger, we retired into the next room, and before I knew where I was, I found myself upon my knees, with the whole family ; and the father offered up an extemporary thanksgiving to God for the recovery of his child : but he said nothing about me !" ESSAY IV.] IN PRIVATE LIFE. 39 then Prince Henry, to his father, ends thus, " I sin- cerely pray that God will graciously show His mira- culous aid towards you in all places : praised be He in all His works."* There are many similar ones. Wal- singham's Letters, Goodman's Letters, afford the like examples. But they are to be found everywhere. The daily services in colleges and cathedrals, and which, according to the Rubric, ought to be used in all churches, are a notice of the stricter religious ob- servances of our " pious ancestors."*!- In Christ's Hos- pital, founded by Edw. VI., there are stated religious observances four times a day. In other times, public prayers were offered by the whole army before engaging in battle ; and sometimes they received the Sacrament. These things are so altered, that it was lately declared by a correspondent of the leading newspaper, and it was not even met by an observation, that it was impossible for the crews of the Egyptian fleet to fight, for that they prayed five times a day, and that must of necessity destroy all dis- cipline. * Tyler's Henry V. vol. i. p. 203. See other religious expressions of Henry IV. and Henry V., and also of the speaker of the House of Commons, in the same work, pp. 138, J39, 193, 194, 203, 223, 309. f See Wordsworth's Sonnet, " Decay of Piety." In the old time Lent was not more honoured in the breach than the observance. We find from the household book of the Earl of Northumberland, which was kept in 1512, that throughout Lent, "be- ginning at Shrovetide and ending at Easter," the breakfast (a great meal in an ancient family) consisted, " for my Lord and Lady" of " two pieces of salt fish, four herrings, or a dish of sprats;" instead of the customary allowance at other seasons of " half a chine of mutton or a chine of beef;" and the food at a lenten supper was equally meagre. 40 DECLINE OF RELIGION. [ESSAY IV. I have observed, that if England be the stronghold of religion in the world, it is important to ascertain whether it be progressing. But what if this be not the fact ! What if, however other countries and Churches be growing careless and worldly, England and the English be proved to surpass them all in lukewarmness and indifference ! I will now proceed to institute this comparison, and to ascertain the fact by a reference to numerous instances. The result will be a step gained in our inquiry, and important towards ascertaining our real present position. The conclusions to be drawn will be matter of less difficulty. ESSAY V. ENGLAND THE LEAST RELIGIOUS COUNTRY. GENERAL OPINION OF FOREIGNERS THE ENGLISH IN THE COLONIES SMALL TIME SET APART FOR RELIGION AT HOME PRACTICES OF THE MAHOMETANS, THE HINDOOS, THE CHINESE, THE GREEK CHURCH, AND OTHERS INADEQUATE PROVISION FOR THE CLERGY LIBE- RALITY OF THE HINDOOS RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF THE GREEKS, AND ROMANS, AND OTHER ANCIENT NATIONS. IT is a well-known fact, that in all other countries which the English frequent, and this is every country and people whatsoever in the habitable world, they are always considered as a people without religion. This is said and thought of them by the Mahometans, in Turkey and India; by the Hindoos; by the Italians, the French, the Spaniards and Portuguese; and by every other part of Christendom, with the exception perhaps of the Germans. Such a reputation does not conclude the question, it does not establish the fact ; though it must be con- fessed that it is a strong presumptive evidence of it. What it does establish is, that there is less appearance of religion, less outward evidence of religious reverence among us, than amongst almost any other people on the earth : not excepting the Chinese. Religion does not consist in outward appearance. But the absence of it may be carried too far ; as we say ourselves of the 42 THE ENGLISH LEAST RELIGIOUS. [ESSAY V. Quakers. And the question is, whether a certain degree of ceremony is not necessary to keep up religious im- pression and motive in our hearts ; and whether it can remain in full force when every thing around us is worldly; when the whole of the outward senses are occupied and engrossed by things that are of temporal use and concern; when religious observance never stands in the way of, or in competition with, human interests ; when all hours and minutes of the day are assignable and assigned to business, and none is set apart for religion, but if employed for that use, must be stolen out of business hours, contraiy to the usages of society : whether, in short, religious observance and ceremony can be excluded and out of place, in the habitual intercourse and arrangements of life, and yet that the people which has chosen and arranged those habits, should be at heart a religious people. When in addition to the want of religious observance, the Eng- lish in our colonies and elsewhere, are notoriously the most profligate of all people, being as much beneath the natives, (barbarous though they be called,) in moral conduct as in religious practices, it cannot be wondered at that these natives, (barbarous though they may be, as respects physical philosophy and commerce, and the arts of war and luxury,) should consider that our want of religion is actually as great as the want of appear- ance, and that our practice is altogether consistent with and a proof of it.* * " Doubtless the dissipated conduct of the bulk of the European troops in India, contrasted as it is with the externally moral behaviour of the sepoys of our native regiments, (I speak of those of the Bengal ESSAY V.] IN THE COLONIES AT HOME. 43 So far they are justified in their opinion, according to the facts which are before them. We doubtless shall reason and conclude differently, in accordance with the difference of facts ; and say, that in this country, among the English at home, at least, there is more morality than in any other nation on the earth, and more reli- gious ceremony than we can practise abroad, for want of opportunity. Our superior morality and good con- duct stands confessed ; (at least our breaches, if any, are somewhat different in character from those of other nations,) and we have certain public ceremonies of religion, as the observance of Sunday, though more and more trenched upon, (I do not speak of the last two or three years,) the saying grace at meals, even on public occasions, and perhaps the increasing prac- tice of family worship may be rightly set down to this class. But the question is of the degree and number of religious observances, and their comparative exercise and influence ; and I shall proceed to show, by some examples, how studiously and zealously these are ex- cluded in this country, and as it were with aversion, as compared with other nations. And if this be proved, and if it be made to appear that religion itself is con- Presidency, amongst whom drunkenness is a vice never witnessed,) must tend greatly to prejudice the native mind against the religion professed by those exhibiting such sad proofs of inconsistency." Missionary Gleaner, No. 33, p. 13, Communication from an officer of the Indian army. A few years ago every officer in India had his concubine. The English are the importers of gin and opium, for the love of money, and are practically the encouragers of drunkenness and vice in every colony. 44 THE ENGLISH LEAST RELIGIOUS. [ESSAY V. sidered an impediment and a burden, and is less loved in this than in other nations, then it should be a subject for reflection, whether our morality be less dependent upon religious rule and motive than upon worldly wisdom, and whether it be likely to stand its ground against the increasing assaults which are yearly and hourly making inroads upon it, from the continual growth of our riches, our love of and dependence upon them. And if the examples used should seem to have been drawn from distant places and times, and to bear the appearance of solitary instances, it must be noted that this is the only mode in which a universal habit can be shown ; and that it would be tedious to multiply instances in each country ; and that one constant and revered practice could hardly exist among a people, without other feelings and practices existing which would be in accordance with it ; and what is more, in most of the examples which will be given, it will be obvious that they are but examples, and exhibitions of the real and well-known characters of the nations alluded to; and further still, and this is the chief point, it cannot but be confessed, that almost all the ceremonies and practices which will be referred to, would be quite irrelevant and abhorrent to our own habits and dispositions, and tastes, and conveniences. Roman Catholics, Mahometans, Hindoos, and other idolaters, agree in thinking that the English have not any religion. The first thing they see is, that we have no processions; no outward ceremonies presented to the eye, and arresting it in the midst of worldly objects. We have no festivals set apart for religious purposes ; ESSAY V.] THE MAHOMETANS. 45 no days or hours exempted from business. No : we believe that religion would be desecrated by being brought into sight ; not that it would hallow our com- mon occupations. As for festivals, they are excuses for idleness, and are a waste of business hours ; and so we are much more careful not to abstract any the least thing from what is the right and property and the just due, in the service of Mammon, than we are in guard- ing the claim and property of God, in the Lord's Day. We may have processions of schools, and clubs, and societies, and political associations; but no one such thing in the honour of God ! That would be quite out of place. As for religious festivals, it is not mere taste and opinion, but we should grudge such a tribute and sacrifice to God's honour and service : it would be throwing good time away. The Mahometans, of India especially, tell us that we pray only once a week. It is obvious enough to tell them, that we pray every morning and night in private. But where is the sign and the effect of it ? They will doubt the universality of even this extent of our profession, when they see no trouble or inconvenience incurred; and who can charge them with injustice ! They them- selves pray five times a day ; and they do it moreover, at the stated times, wherever they may be, in public or in private. The Muezzins call them to their mosques, at the stated hours of prayer, twice in every day of the week ; and they obey the call eagerly. I have already observed that the sailors in their fleets prostrate themselves in worship, at the five stated periods of the twenty-four hours. Among the persons received a short time since 46 THE ENGLISH LEAST RELIGIOUS. [ESSAY V. at the Sailors' Home in the Thames, were some Lascars. The Lascars made their devotions strictly and punc- tually morning and evening : the English sailors were smoking their pipes. A resident for twelve years among the Mahometans says, " the people really seem to make religion their study, and the great business of their lives."* " Nothing, however trifling or unimportant, according to their praiseworthy ideas, should ever be commenced without being first dedicated to God."-j- Eveiy meal and cup of water is preceded and succeeded by their grace, " Glory be to God ;" and so devotional are their feel- ings, that they have not any expression corresponding to " I thank you," but for every gift or service they say " All thanks to God," acknowledging that eveiy, the smallest thing, comes directly from Him, though received by the hands of mortals. J The Mahometans even show greater respect than we do ourselves to the name of " Jesus." As the Jews never mention the name of God, without adding " Blessed be He," or of Moses, without saying " Peace be with Him," or the Messiah, without saying " May He redeem us;" so the Mahometans never name the name of " Jesus," even in speech, without stopping and adding to it, with upraised hands and an inclination of the head, " On Him be peace." Mrs. Meet Hassan Ali, p. 155. f Ibid. 157. The similar practices of the early Christians may be seen in Fleury, Moeurs des Chretiens, pt. 1, s. 5. J Ib. 256. When the distressed inhabitants of Acre first received their rations from the Turks after its capture by the English, they fell on their faces and gave thanks to God ; as reported in the Morning Herald, December 18, 1840. ESSAY V.] THE CHINESE. 47 The watchmen in the camp of the caravans, says Tavernier, go their rounds, crying one after another, " God is one," " He is merciful."* Their fasts also are most self-denying, and of the most rigorous kind, ex- tending especially, even among the women, to the total laying aside of all comforts and ornaments, to both which they are at other times most strongly addicted.f When a motion was made in the House of Com- mons for a public fast, on account of the cholera, it was met with coldness ; and it was only upon after reflection that the ministers acceded to the proposal. When a public calamity takes place in China, the emperor himself sets the first example, and mortifies and fasts, and exercises acts of clemency, as considering that the scourge may be on account of his own sins and maladministration ; J and if this be not actually done, but be only an official report, yet it has the effect of turning the minds of the people to serious reflections, and sets them an example of religious reverence, the most weighty and influential, such as is always in the hands of every government and crowned head, if they should choose to exercise it. The Queen's speech of the session 1841 contained no single expression of thanks to Almighty God for the very signal successes of our forces in all parts of the world, which it noticed with a tribute of praise to our forces for their skill and bravery. Public thanks have been rendered to our commanders and troops, but not * Voyage de Perse, liv. i. c. 10. f Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, p. 42. rindo-Chinese Gleaner, vol. 1, pp. 50, 51, 89, 433. /48 THE ENGLISH LEAST RELIGIOUS. [ESSAY V. any to the God of Battles, for two of the greatest and most critical successes of our arms contemporaneously during the last year. There is a custom in the Greek Church, and it used to be common in all parts of Christendom, for persons meeting on Easter day, to say to each other, " Christ is risen." The answer was, " He is risen indeed." And then even enemies were in the instant reconciled to one another.* Similar religious customs formerly existed in numbers, and are still to be met with in some places.f They all take their departure first from England. Bremer speaks with pleasure of witnessing the sing- ing of the Soldier's Evening Hymn, by 12,000 men, after a review, in Sweden. This beautiful custom of joining together in praise of Almighty God, at the fall of night, is said to be universal among the troops in Sweden and Norway. It is a ready and plausible defence, to call all such practices superstitious ; and we could not find place here for a comparison between superstitious and vulgar re- ligion, and civilized, sensible indifference and rational- * Prasca Loupouloff, p. 44. The boys in the Blue-coat School, when they walk in procession to the Mansion House, on Easter Monday, have a printed paper, " He is risen," on their breasts. The origin of this custom is, that Edward Arris, surgeon, in the year 1669, left 6 per annum for ever to the Hospital, on condition, that each boy, at Easter, should have a pair of white gloves, and wear a paper bearing the inscription, " He is risen," somewhere upon the person, so as to be distinctly visible ; and this to be done on Easter Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, on which three days formerly they used to go in procession, and three spital sermons were preached. Many years since the Wednesday was cut off from vhe ceremony. t See Bourne's Antiquities of the Common People. ESSAY V.] SMALL PROVISION FOR THE CLERGY. 49 ism. The ultimate effect upon our lives and conduct is no doubt the principal test of the reality of religion. And there are many reasons, independently of anything that has been mentioned above, for believing that the influence of religious motive upon our conduct is not great, and but weak in comparison of worldly obli- gations, when Englishmen are separated in foreign countries from the control of opinion, and the rules and requirements of English society. At present we are engaged with the question of the existence and depth of religious impression; and there are some branches of conduct and practices, which are so immediately connected with this subject, as to afford indications in themselves of the force and operativeness of our religious belief and feelings. It is a very remarkable fact, that there is no country which provides so inadequately for its clergy, and for the offices of religious instruction and worship. In the midst of our enormous and rapidly increasing wealth, we find a less facility and willingness in devoting a fair and adequate proportion of our national revenue, and other funds of a public character, to the building and support of churches, the endowment of them, and the maintenance of a sufficient body of clergy to perform the offices of religious worship, and to instruct the people. We have no occasion to go into particulars, and a detailed comparison on this subject, for we have the result furnished to our hand from the very highest authority. The Duke of Wellington, who had taken a view of all nations, and had an extensive experience himself of very many, expresses himself thus, in his D 50 THE ENGLISH LEAST RELIGIOUS. [ESSAY V. speech to the House of Lords upon the Ecclesias- tical Duties and Revenues Bill : " The measures must be found for preaching the word of God to the people of this country. * * In so doing they would not only be doing a duty which was incumbent upon them, but following the example of every nation in the world. It had been his lot to have lived amongst many idola- trous nations, and people of all sorts of creed, but he never knew an instance of sufficient public means not being found to teach the religion of the country. There might be false religions indeed he knew but one true one there might be idolatrous religions, but still the means in all cases are found to teach that religion, whatever it was; and he hoped that their lordships would not have done with this subject until they had found the means of teaching the people of this country their duty to their Maker and to one another."* It is related of the Hindoos, that " the bulk of the people, rich and poor, expend by far the greater part of their earnings or income on offerings to idols, and the countless rites and exhibitions connected with idol wor- ship. At the celebration of one festival, a wealthy na- tive has been known to offer after this manner : eighty thousand pounds weight of sweetmeats, eighty thousand pounds weight of sugar, a thousand suits of cloth garments, a thousand suits of silk, a thousand offerings of rice, plantains and other fruits. On another occasion, a wealthy native has been known to have ex- pended upwards of thirty thousand pounds sterling on the offerings, the observances, and the exhibition of a Speech, July 30, 1840. ESSAY V.] THE HINDOOS. 51 single festival, and upwards of ten thousand pounds annually ever afterwards to the termination of his life. Indeed such is the blindfold zeal of these benighted people, that instances are not unfrequent of natives of rank and wealth reducing themselves and families to poverty by their lavish expenditure in the service of the gods, and in upholding the pomp and dignity of their worship. In the city of Calcutta alone, at the lowest and most moderate estimate, it has been calculated that half a million at least is annually expended on the celebration of the Durga Poojah festival. How vast how inconceivably vast, then, must be the whole sum expended by rich and poor on all the daily, weekly, monthly and annual rites, ceremonies and festivals, held in honour of a countless host of gods."* But a great degree of religious devotion and reve- rence, such as is quite opposite to our notions and customs, has extended not only to all places, but to all times.'!' The Egyptians were a most religious people. The Greeks and Romans were most religious. J Not * Dr. Duff. Missionary Gleaner, No. 24, pp. 60, 61. The offer- ings are given to the priests and the poor. No part of them is re- turned to the worshipper. f The Spinetans (of Spina, at the mouth of the Po) raised such considerable revenues by commerce, that they sent very liberal tenths to the temple of Apollo, at Delphos. (Strabo, lib. 5 ; Dion. Halic. de Orig. Rom. lib. i.) Quoted, Sea Laws, p. 22. J " Les Egyptiens et plusieurs autres Orientaux gardoient encore leur abstinences superstitieuses. L'abstinence des Pythagoriciens etoit fort estimee, comme il paroit par 1'exemple d'Appollonius de Tyane, et par les ecrits de Porphyre.'' Fleury, Mceurs des Chretiens, pt. i. s. 9. D2 52 THE ENGLISH LEAST RELIGIOUS. [ESSAY V. only was Athens, according to the testimony of an apostle, " in all things most religious,"* but the Greeks generally, as well as the Romans, were strongly ad- dicted to religious observances and ceremonies ; and their habits of life were formed upon this principle. Every battle was preceded by a sacrifice, every vic- tory was followed by a thanksgiving. Their feasts and festivals, and almost every public transaction and meet- ing, had a religious object and character. At Rome, most of the year was taken up with sacrifices and holy days, till Claudius abridged their number.f Niebuhr particularly mentions the practice amongst the Romans of offering up sacrifices in the time of calamity.^ Both in Greece and Rome, the games and the dramatic re- presentations originally constituted a part of the religious worship.^ And Potter, in his Antiquities of Greece, thus describes this point particularly in the Grecian character. "The piety of the ancient Grecians, and the honourable opinion they had conceived of their deities, doth in nothing more manifestly appear than in the continual prayers and supplications they made to them ; for no man amongst them that was endued with the smallest prudence, saith Plato,|| would under- take any thing of greater or less moment without having first asked the advice and assistance of the Gods." * * " It seems to have been the universal practice of all na- f, Religiosiores. Sclirev. Scap. f Dio. 60, 17, ap. Adams's Rom. Ant. i. 311 J Hist, of Rome, ii. 508510. Adams's Rom. Ant. i. 311 ; Potter's Grec. Ant. i. 415, 495. || In Tima-o. ESSAY V.] THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 53 tions, whether civil or barbarous, to recommend them- selves to their several deities morning and evening. Whence we are informed by Plato,'* that at the rising both of the sun and moon, one might everywhere be- hold the Greeks and barbarians, those in prosperity as well as those under calamities and afflictions, prostrating themselves, and hear their supplications. "f Doubtless the religious festivals and holidays became more numerous, and were made the occasion of idleness and ill-habits, both in Greece and Rome, as religion be- came debased. Originally their religious ceremonies and solemnities consisted in little else besides offering a sacrifice to the gods, and after that making merry with their poorer friends, with temperance and propriety .J Afterwards they tended to riot and idleness and ex- pense, whilst they increased in frequency, as religion degenerated into superstition and idolatry.^ And it seems as if it might almost be said with truth, that de- votedness to religious services has at all times increased and extended itself in proportion to the degree of cor- ruption and error in religion which has existed in each place and people. Doubtless this is still a great problem to solve ; though it is necessary that religion should become more acceptable to the natural and cor- * De Legibus, lib. 10. t Pott. Grec. Ant. i. 278, 279. Hooker, in his Eccles. Polity, bk. i. s. 8, refers to tbe same passage in the Timseus. J Pot. Grec. Ant. i. 415. According to Numa's institutions, and for nearly 200 years, the Romans used no images of their gods. Vurro. August, de Civit. Dei, lib. 4, c. 11, 31 ; Gray's Connect, vol. i. p. 108, 136. 54 THE ENGLISH LEAST RELIGIOUS. [ESSAY V. rupt taste of men, as itself grows more corrupt, and according to their own inventions. The true desire must be, that religion should be pure, and that men should nevertheless be fond of it, and still continue to be religious. As things are, the choice is of two evils. Superstition and infidelity, these are the weights in the two scales. I shall proceed still further to show, that it is not only in outward act and appearance, but in inward thought, and motive, and conduct, that we are far behind in the operation of religion. It will then be for us to judge what we have to fear or boast, as a nation and individually, upon this awful and moment- ous subject and crisis. ( 55 ) ESSAY VI. THERE IS NO FAITH. " WILL HE FIND FAITH ON THE EARTH. " LU. XVlii. 8. THE BIBLE PRACTICALLY DENIED EXCUSES FOR THIS IN THE HABITS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIFE MOTIVES OF CONDUCT WHAT FAITH IS EXAMPLES SCEPTICISM IN HISTORY SCEPTICISM PRODUCES CREDULITY THE POSITION OF ENGLAND. WANT of faith is the very characteristic of this genera- tion. Concurrent and consistent with this is a want of charity : the charity which believeth all things. We have no charity, or kindness, or confidence in our re- ception of other people's assertions and evidence ; but our study is to guard ourselves against deception to receive as little as we can ; and as much only as is forced upon us by imperative proof and irresistible con- viction. Not that we receive and act upon no more than this : this is not the fact ; since it is impossible. But that we endeavour after this, and profess it to our- selves, and believe that we act upon it. It is a system of war and defence that we maintain ; and, as in the case of war, our interchange of goods and useful pro- duce is greatly impeded, and to our infinite loss fettered 56 THERE IS NO FAITH. [ESSAY VI. by it and restricted ; but, nevertheless, there is much traffic in contraband goods, which are both smuggled and adulterated. But the want of faith is more open and direct than this ; and it is the most obvious and pointed upon religious subjects. The Bible is boldly and practically denied in every particular. No class or body of men believe and obey it. And strange as it may seem, it is by no nation, or people, or churches, or sects of men less implicitly believed and followed, than by those very people and sections of the Church who talk so much about it. There are no persons less obedient to the plain sense and mandates of the written word of God, than those who most speak of and uphold it as the sole authority and standard, and reject all assistance from the history of the Church, and what is spoken against as tradition. Every class of persons reject some por- tion or other of the sacred Scriptures. If you talk to some of temporal honour and rewards, and the observ- ance of a day of rest, and the patriarchs, they will say, Oh ! that is the Old Testament, and is abrogated. If you speak to others of good works, Oh ! they will say, that is only in the Gospels ; and the Epistles carry us much beyond that, and are superior to it. Unitarians, again, receive a bible of their own, that is, just so many passages are excluded as ill-suit their own belief and purpose. Others, of numerous sects, dwell each upon some half-dozen chapters, or passages, or phrases, or words of Scripture, of the Epistles especially, and dwell upon them idolatrously and devotedly, to the exclusion ESSAY VI.] THE BIBLE PRACTICALLY DENIED. 57 of all the rest, so far as the authority of Scripture is concerned, from belief and practice. This is even in the religious world the thinking and the reasoning world. Let us now turn our observation to the world itself; to the working and practical. The Bible is denied in every particular. Men do not believe that we are really to be Christians ; that we are to imitate our Lord. They do not believe that the world could possibly go on, if all men were to act upon pure Christian motives, and up to a perfect Christian rule ; if they were to forgive and forget injuries ; if they were not to resent an affront ; if they were to give to people because they asked them ; if they were to lend money without looking for interest ; if we were all to give up luxuries, and style, and costly furniture and equipage ; if we, our cattle and servants, were strictly to observe the day of rest. How many are they among us who believe, that the " tree of knowledge" is not an absolute good ? or, that we ought to receive the Gospel with the simplicity of little children ? Who be- lieves that we ought to honour our father and mo- ther, and our sovereign ? Who is there that acts up to the precept, that we ought not to judge others in their character ? How many are there who appear to believe that it is not right to be anxious about the future ; that riches are not a good thing; that the entrance into heaven is easier to the poor man ; that slavery is not unfavourable to the knowledge and dispositions be- coming a Christian ;* that we ought to return a tenth * Even a commentator on the Bible can use the following senti- ment in the way of explanation and instruction : " The slavery they D5 58 THERE IS NO FAITH. [ESSAY VI. to God ; that it would bring a blessing, to give freely and largely to the poor ; that children are a blessing and a gift from the Lord, and that the man is happy who has his quiver full of them ? It is evident that in all these points the Bible is disbelieved, and is practi- cally denied ; and does not control or guide us in our habits and principles of life and society. Still less do we believe that the public measures, the laws and government of the state, and the intercourse with other nations, ought to be, or can be, carried on and conducted upon Christian principles. What num- ber or classes of persons believe that righteousness exalteth a nation ? that we are punished according to the national sins of the people, and for the sins of the rulers ? and that if wicked and irreligious men preside over our councils we shall as a nation suffer the penal- ties of it ? for that the conscience of the government is the conscience of the people, and that our rulers are bound to take the first care for the pure religion and morals of the country, and that if they so do, their righteousness will bring down a blessing upon the na- tion. To come again to more direct practice, and to our own habits of life. Who is there who thinks first what is right, and according to the pattern of Christ, and had so long endured had served to debase their minds, and to render them incapable of every high and dignified sentiment, and of every generous act." Comprehensive Bible, at Num. xi. 11, note (6). Whereas God afflicted and afflicts His people for their very correction and improvement, and for the purpose of bringing them into that state of mind which He approves and honours. See St. Chrysostom on 1 Cor. vii. 20, et seq. ESSAY VI.] IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 59 after the will of God, in what he is about to do ; and not what is wise and expedient ? Who seeks first the kingdom of God, and God's rule of righteousness, and trusts that all temporal good consequences will follow upon it ? Who is there who thinks and abides only by the rule of what is right and commanded ? We may almost answer in the words of Scripture, " There is none righteous, no, not one." Who believes in and trusts to the assistance and suggestions of the Spirit in his designs and undertakings, and believes and acts and writes and thinks as believing, that the most useful and important and influential suggestions of our thoughts and invention, come to our mind by the in- spiration of the Holy Spirit, more than by our own cleverness and exertion and memory ; and prays for Divine help upon commencing every task, or writing, or undertaking, accordingly.* Who forbears strictly, and endeavours to expel at once all thought, and every suggestion of the mind in worldly matters on a Sunday, with confidence and faith that the same and more useful thoughts will be supplied on the succeeding week days ; and that the unqualified dedication and, sanctification of the Lord's Day will make the labour of the six days more effectual and fruitful than would be that of the seven ? Who would believe now that a Sabbatical year would not necessarily be impracticable and ruinous ; or * " On prioit en commenjant a batir une raaison, ou a 1'habiter, a faire une piece d'etoffe, ou un habit, ou a s'en servir, et ainsi de toutes les autres choses les plus communes." Fleury, Maurs des Chretiens, pt. 1, s. 5. " The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord." Prov. xvi. 1. 60 THERE IS NO FAITH. [ESSAY VI. that a populous country could exist under such a rule ; or that it would not produce a debasing and demoraliz- ing idleness ? To mention a few more subjects, though further ex- amples seem to be almost unnecessary. We no longer believe and obey the precept, to use the rod to the child ; for that we shall save his soul by so doing.* Now we have discovered and believe that such correc- tion is against the dignity of human nature, and is injurious and degrading to the character. The com- mandment, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," is not now respected. We find various reasons and excuses which render it not imperative ; and in wholesale political murders in ge- neral, it is now, as of course, acknowledged that capital punishment ought not to follow, for that enough blood has already been shed. Again, who can bear to be- lieve now, that St. Paul was mean-looking and not eloquent ? Who believes that Solomon was really the wisest man that ever lived, and respects and studies his writings accordingly, more than those of other teachers of prudence and wisdom ? Who believes prac- tically or theoretically, that riches, honour, and life, come by the fear of the Lord, and humility ?f It may be well to mention here two or three cases and examples just to show what faith is, lest it should by disuse have altogether lost its meaning. It would have been faith in the Jews for all the male population to have gone up three times a year to Jeru- * Prov. xiii. 24 ; xxiii. 13, 14. f Prov.. xxii. 4. ESSAY VI.] WHAT FAITH IS. 61 salem, not fearing that their affairs must necessarily go wrong while they were away, or that their enemies might invade them : according to the promise given them in Exodus, xxxiv. 24. It would have been faith in them, not to have sown on the seventh year j be- lieving that the six years would then produce an abun- dance for them. It was faith, not to gather of the manna more than the food of one day, though they had no other store or reserve, or remedy against hunger ; and to gather double on the day before the Sabbath, not fearing that, as on other days, it would stink and become corrupt. It is faith in the working-man, who lives from hand to mouth, and is always cheerful, and trusts that God will give him his next day's meal.* It was faith in a poor woman who gave away her last six- pence, saying that she knew that God would return it her. It would be faith in a man, when he found that his affairs had prospered, and that his returns were large beyond his expectation, to consecrate a considerable portion in charity, saying that, God will provide ; and feeling that in so doing he was making more than by investing the whole of it. It is faith to believe that our successful efforts, that our clever thoughts, and answers, and inventions, and writings, and acts of me- mory, are from God ; and that we shall prosper more in them for depending upon his assistance ; and pray accordingly for it, on the commencement of every undertaking or act however small, and upon every oc- casion. * As Henry Wm. Wilberforce says, it is only the poor man who can pray with real meaning, " Give us our daily bread." Parochial Sys- tem, p. 72. 62 THERE IS NO FAITH. [ESSAY VI. It would be faith in a nation, to forbid all trading and labour on Sundays and other holy days, except where necessity and mercy require them ; to discourage luxury and extravagance, and immoral trades and practices, however seemingly prejudicial to trade and commerce ; believing that it would result in the real increase and advance of prosperity in the nation. The prevailing want of faith in religious truth and precepts, concurs with a general sceptical disposition in other matters and evidences. We mistrust one another. We set aside whole authors as false and worthless, on occasion of some one or two subjects of doubt as Herodotus, Bruce, Du Halde, Baronius, and most writers of a different sect or party or school of philo- sophy from ourselves. The result of such a practice is ignorance and credulity in the greatest measure, inde- pendent of the error and bigotry and impenetrable con- ceit, which are the more obvious fruits of such a system. Not to enter again upon the denial of the Scriptures, and the number of passages and relations which must needs be subjected to forced interpretation, in order to suit them to our present belief, and the experience of the existing generation as, the sons of God, giants, God walking upon the earth, witchcraft, demoniacs disbelief of matters of history and fact, and consequent ignorance, has been the characteristic of the last cen- tury ; and the credulity of the same period has of ne- cessity run parallel with its ignorance : for the following reasons. The rejection of the entire writings of an author, upon the ground of certain erroneous parts of them, ESSAY VI.] SCEPTICISM IN HISTORY. 63 proceeds upon the supposition that men's works are uniform ; and that faulty statements or reasoning, in some parts and passages, are conclusive against all the rest, and disqualify them from being a fit study or au- thority. This is founded upon an entire mistake, and ignorance of human nature, the first quality of which is imperfection, and want of consistency and uniformity. But the belief that a whole author is to be rejected on account of certain imperfections and blemishes, is ne- cessarily accompanied with the idea that there are some authors which are perfect ; and the consequence is, that those books and writings which are approved and admitted to favour, are embraced with an entire con- fidence and ardour of belief, and as free from all sus- picion and imperfection. Such works and authorities are received with a respect and confidence quite beyond their merit, and with a credulity approaching to worship. Even sceptics cannot but believe some things to be true ; or at least they must follow something, and trust to it as if they believed in it. Therefore rebels against authority and power, and political apostates, follow their party leaders and demagogues blindly, and with an abject servility. In snatching at entire liberty they fall into perfect slavery. Those who mistrust and rebel against the authority of the Church, place their implicit reliance upon some master of their own choosing, and submit themselves under the power of so many unau- thorized popes. Those who assert an entire liberty of private opinion, and conscience, and reason, to the de- posing of Scripture truth and the authority of revelation, worship all of them some of their fellow contemporary 64 THERE IS NO FAITH. [ESSAY VI. mortals, and those often the very worst of them. So sceptics are the most timid and fearful of all men in the dark, and the most credulous and suspicious of influences which they cannot understand or interpret.* Ignorance, and error, and credulity, therefore, are the necessary effects and accompaniments of want of faith, and of the narrowing down our reception of truths and facts to the limits of reason of our own more or less shallow individual reason, and the experience of our own single generation of our own individual ex- perience : which is made the test of the possibility of all truths, and facts, and statements, and evidences. And these are the characteristics of this present boastful, proud, self-sufficient, contemptuous generation. Mr. Palmer has concluded his comprehensive and succinct analysis of Church History, by drawing a fear- ful picture of infidelity upon the Continent. With reverential regard he draws a veil over the present state of the Church in this country, and expresses the faint outline of his observations on this head only by a sug- gestion and a hint. " Though England," he says, " has, through the infinite mercy of God, been com- paratively unvisited by the scourges which have so * " Behold yon wretch, by impious fashion driven, Believes and trembles, while he scoffs at Heaven; By weakness strong, and bold thro' fear alone, He dreads the sneer by shallow coxcombs thrown ; Dauntless pursues the path Spinoza trod, To man a coward, and a brave to God." Brown, Essay on Satire. See the superstitions of the infidel D'Argens described in the Edinb. Rev. No. cli. p. 245. ESSAY VI.] THE POSITION OF ENGLAND. 65 horribly afflicted the nations of the Continent, and though open infidelity has been always met, confronted, and subdued by the energy of religious zeal, it cannot but inspire alarm to behold the wide dissemination of principles which tend, by a very short descent, to the overthrow of all faith." Yet in the fact that, while yet young, Voltaire retired to England, where he became acquainted with several unbelievers like himself, and, in effect, completed his education in the school of unbelief, and that there he formed his resolution to destroy Christianity, is indi- cated the part which England has been acting in this crusade against the faith. I trust that it is not less consistent with a filial reve- rence and love of one's country, and of the branch of the Church in these realms, to fill up this picture, and to place before men's eyes the full and fearful truth ; which unless they see and know, and confess, and be ashamed of, they cannot correct it. ESSAY VII. NEED OF A MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. WANT OF UNITY PROMISES TO THE CHURCH MIXTURE OF HEATHEN- ISM CHRISTIANITY NOT THE RULING PRINCIPLE DOCTRINE IM- PERFECT THE BIBLE A SEALED BOOK SEEMING PARADOXES AND INCONSISTENCIES LANGUAGE, REASONING, FIGURES OF SCRIPTURE OUR MINDS AND TASTES FORMED UPON THE CLASSICS OUR HABITS HEATHEN THE CLASSICS CORRUPT US OPINION OF JOSEPHUS OF JONES OF NAYLAND A BETTER LITERATURE WANTED THE ASIATICS EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION CHINESE CIVILIZATION JEWISH LITE- RATURE. WE must look for a more perfect Christianity, both in doctrine and practice, than that which characterizes the present generation, and, perhaps, than has existed, except in a very few small societies, or among a few individuals, whose examples have been solitary ; and who have never formed a component part of their gene- ration. Such rare instances of religious perfection could be but imperfectly understood by the rest of the world and but imperfectly recorded. But further than this, it is even to be apprehended, that the present current of principles and opinions is not in the direction towards, but away from, this desired end ; and that a great re- vulsion and moral regeneration must take place before we shall know fully, and be able to appreciate, in effect, what real Christianity is. ESSAY VII.] WANT OF UNITY. 67 At all events we are not agreed among ourselves upon this subject; and those who assert that Christianity in its highest essence is universal equality and philanthropy, and those who assume that it is a realizing of faith in the Atonement, and those who say that it is works as well as faith, and those who insist that real Christianity is wholly spiritual, and is consistent with nothing that is outward or ceremonial, will respectively say that those who hold the other doctrines have need of a higher in- struction ; and therefore it may not be so absurd to conjecture, that there may be error in all these, and in all the other systems of Christianity which have, each in their turns, asserted their own perfection. When our Lord was asked by the woman of Samaria, whether Samaria or Jerusalem were the place where men ought to worship, he did not approve of either as exhibiting a sufficient standard of worship ; but referred her to a yet unseen and more perfect form of worship. And this very circumstance of the existence of divisions in the Christian world, the fact that there is a want of unity in the Church, that Christ is divided, is of itself a sufficient evidence that the doctrine and practice must be corrupt, and that the Church is degenerate. It is truly said by Mr. Newman, in one of his most highly esteemed works, " that purity of doctrine is one of the privileges thus infringed, is plain from the simple fact, that the separate branches of the Church do disagree with each other in the details of faith : discordance, which once was not, among the witnesses of the truth, being the visible proof of its being impaired." And again, " It is upon this very fact of the schism that I ground 68 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. the corruption of doctrine; the one has taken place when and so far as the other has taken place."* In approaching this subject, it must be further ob- served, that those who are of opinion that Christianity was never more perfect than at the present moment, must submit the whole of Christianity, as hitherto ex- emplified, to the tests and scrutinies which it is purposed to apply to the existing state of it ; and those who, on the other hand, believe that primitive Christianity was different from that which now is, and altogether pure and perfect, must see and feel that we have now no knowledge of it : no capability to measure and appre- ciate it ; but that as regards us it is, as it were, a hidden thing and a mystery. If we have misunderstood and departed from the perfection of the Gospel, we must have misunderstood and departed from that also. But the following remarks are chiefly directed to those persons who think that Christianity, as enforced and illustrated in the Bible, has already arrived at its perfection, and who are looking for something further and more exalted, as an attainment of human nature, towards which the present revealed Christianity is but a step. And I earnestly intreat, that when I speak of a more perfect Christianity, I may not be misunderstood as supposing that religion, like sciences, improves by discovery, or as looking, with pretended foresight, beyond that which is revealed ; but that I may be considered as proposing proofs only of this assertion, that Christi- anity, as revealed in the Old and New Testaments, is as * Newman on Romanism and Popular Protestantism, p. 246, 249- See the whole passage, p. 243 to 249. ESSAY VII.] PROMISES TO THE CHURCH. 69 yet imperfectly practised and appreciated, and that there is need that the Christian world should attain to a much higher standard of it, before we may look for a fulfilment of those greater promises of redemption of the body, and regeneration of the whole creation, which, in that same revelation, are held out to us. Christianity then as it is, and as compared with the Bible, is our proper topic ; and to this comparison there- fore let us address ourselves. Where is the fulfilment of the promise, to tread on serpents and scorpions, to go upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon, and that nothing shall harm us ? It is said, that miracles are for signs, and they are extinct therefore among believers. Nay, But the ser- pent is the evil one, and the scorpious are his ministers, and " Behold I give you power against serpents the Devil, and scorpions his angels and instruments, and over all the power of the enemy." These are not for signs, but for the triumphs of Christian warfare : and where are these victories and triumphs ? Not in the modern armies of Christendom. There is abundant authority in Holy Scripture for the expectation of a more operative and perfect Chris- tianity. In our daily use of the Lord's Prayer we acknowledge this truth. When our Lord commands us to make use of the expression, " thy kingdom come," does he not bid us daily to look to the regeneration, and the adoption, and the redemption of the body, which we are elsewhere said to groan for, and to desire to bring forth ? And if this regeneration be but to take 70 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. place here on earth, it differs not that it should be at the time of the second coming of our Saviour, or that it should precede the day of coming to the final judg- ment; if it be a regeneration and perfecting of human nature, it is what we ought to look to, and hope for, and strive after, if we might attain to, or approach, or comprehend, even if it were but a part of it ; and I shall endeavour to make it plain, that we are not doing this in any proper degree, but quite the contrary of it. Also the Bible tells us some particulars of this rege- neration. For wars shall cease in the world ; and nation shall not lift up sword against nation ; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, neither shall they learn war any more. These words are not yet accomplished, or accomplishing. On the contrary, larger armies and armaments than were ever before known, have been preparing and in- creasing, both by sea and land ; and we are inventing and improving and practising more arts and instru- ments of violence and destruction than ever, and we call this being at peace. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard with the kid, the calf with the lion, and the little child shall lead them; the cow and the bear shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the child shall play upon the serpent's den, they shall not hurt nor destroy, the counsel of peace shall be between the king and the priest, between the clergy and the state, throughout all the holy mountain and empire of Christ, his church and his kingdom. But this is not fulfilled, or fulfilling, either literally or figuratively, for the rich are more and more separated from the poor, and the distinctions ESSAY VII.] MIXTURE OF HEATHENISM. 71 and distance between classes are widening daily, and growing more and more cmel and unnatural.* What progress or approach has Christianity yet made towards these objects ? In the first centuries it tri- umphed over heathenism and idolatry, and overcame many devilish vices and practices. Would that it had extinguished them ! But very soon the heathen wis- dom and manners mingled themselves with it; and ever since they have been growing into closer union; and it is still now to be seen, more than ever, that the church of Gentile-Christendom is governed by heathen motives and rules of action, and is filled with heathen practices and principles. I shall enter upon this point more particularly presently. At this time it is sufficient to observe, that it is remarkable at least, that we should be able so much to admire and accommodate ourselves to the writings of heathen authors, and to make their teaching so much the basis and principle of our own conduct. But we will defer this topic ; and confine our present attention to the practical estimation of Christianity in the world, and its real and actual influence upon the affairs of men, in their public and private conduct, and habitual intercourse. * " It was announced beforehand to the Christian Church, that ' her people should be all righteous, 'whereas iniquity has abounded. ' The wolf was to dwell with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down with the kid;' and there have been endless wars and fightings." " As well may we imagine it was God's intention that the temple should be burned, and the Jews should go into captivity, as that Christendom should be what we see it is at this day." Neicmun on Romanism, p. 240, 242, ed. 1838, 72 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. It certainly cannot be said, that religion is the pri- mum mobile among men, or that religion is the first rule and motive in governing our private conduct ; much less the public concerns, and the affairs of the state. The force and effect of religion, as leading to right judgment in human affairs, is decried and doubted; and according to the prevailing opinion, it is now conceived to have more power for evil than for good in public concerns; and its dictates and suggestions, through the clergy, are considered as mischievous, and counteract- ing all improvement.* The doctrine of seeking first the Kingdom of God, and through faith expecting that temporal good will follow, is scouted from public life, and is not much more received in the private walks of individuals. Faith, which is the distinctive essence of religion, and of Christianity in particular, is practically held to be a delusion ; and every thing is brought to and estimated by the highly approved test of self- " sufficient reason." Nothing is considered more chi- * This remark is more particularly applicable to the period of Whig government and influence, at which time this was written, and when the clergy were considered the most determined and influential body to counteract all reforms. But I do not consider this remark, and others made under the same circumstances, as inapplicable on account of any present reaction ; because I apprehend that such reaction will be only temporary, and I see the same causes and principles in operation which brought the late government into power, and which must con- tinue, after a temporary suspension, if even such there be, to forward and establish their policy and principles, if not to bring themselves again into the government. The project of increasing the number of spiritual peers to its former proportion would still be looked upon as monstrous ; though by divine appointment, among the Jews, the priests were made the proper judges of the law in every controversy. Deut. xxi. 5. ESS. VII.] CHRISTIANITY NOT THE RULING PRINCIPLE. 73 merical and absurd than the notion of governing a country, or even the details of private life, by the perfect law of the Gospel. What absurdities would it be supposed to lead to, if we were to give to him that asked us! to give up our coat and our cloke ! to turn the other cheek ! and to observe the Sabbath-day strictly. The world could not go on under such a rule and discipline. Happy are they that mourn : Happy are the poor in spirit : The meek shall inherit the earth : Happy are ye when men shall persecute you : It is more happy to give than to receive. If these are accepted by any one, it is by a few solita,ry indi- viduals only. The plain maxims of Christianity are looked upon as hyperbolical, and are not thought compatible with modern civilization and enlightenment. We have made so great discoveries, and such wonderful progress, that human nature is re-established upon a new basis, and is no longer subject to the same rules of action as when it was in its infancy;* but now it is able to walk alone, upon the ground of the knowledge of its own true in- * Similar to this in spirit was the Puritan opinion, which Fuller found it necessary to combat, (in his Triple Reconciler,) that the Lord's Prayer was imperfect, because Jesus Christ composed it in his minority, before he was arrived at his full perfection. p. 130. Evil tendencies present themselves most nakedly and glaringly in the first development of principles and diseases : as in the first here- sies, the first rise of English commerce, the French Revolution; the principles of which are still governing our counsels in the present day. The principles are not the less operative and deadly, because, while seemingly stifled, they afterwards advance more covertly and insidi- ously, and possess by a slow and general invasion all the vital parts of the system. E 74 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. terests ; and its appetite is now cultivated and corrected accurately to estimate, and naturally to desire, that which is its real good. As for loving our enemies, we need not even love our brethren. But party and op- position are the principle and the essence of all good policy and wise conduct: society must be sustained by a balance of opposite interests, and a system of counter- actions, by a war system. The nearest in opinion and belief are the hottest in hatred of one another, especially in the matter of religion; and every heathen and in- fidel looker-on may point out a European Christian by this sign, and exclaim with wonder and admiration and astonishment, See, how these Christians hate one another ! What has been just now said has reference to prac- tice. I fully believe that in doctrine also there will be a more perfect Christianity, exhibiting itself in greater beauty, consistency and simplicity, and bringing greater satisfaction, conclusiveness and confidence to the minds of men, then duly patterned and prepared to receive and appreciate it. The low conduct and principles of Christians make it impossible for them clearly to under- stand the sacred truths of Revelation. Where perfect practice is, there alone can true Christian doctrine be really seen and believed, and duly appreciated. The doctrine also re-acts upon the principles and practice ; and both must be perfected together, when the body and mind shall be redeemed from the bondage of sin and blindness which oppresses them. Let us look at some of the symptoms of our condition, and of the deviousness of our course: though we have . ESSAY VII.] DOCTRINE IMPERFECT. 75 scarcely any thing external to us and fixed, and not coloured by our own minds and the atmosphere about us, by which to examine our health and complexion, and to measure our position. And I do not pretend to define or to distinguish the doctrine at which we may hope to arrive, or scarcely to anticipate the nature of it. We are all surrounded and nourished by the same atmosphere of habit and error, from which every thought and action receives an impress, and some false colour- ing. Neither would I be misunderstood as believing or expecting, that Christianity is only a step and passage to something higher than it reveals, in conduct or doc- trine ; as those who define its ultimate perfection and end to be universal equality and philanthropy. I mean only to say, that Christianity will be better explained and appreciated hereafter, both in its letter and spirit: not that the Bible, no not even the letter of it, will be superseded, or a sentence added to it ; but that, when fully understood, it will be found to contain much deeper and wider and higher truth and consistency, than we have now any conception of, and be a grand and suffi- cient fund and study for all purposes of instruction in the highest wisdom. There seems to be an incapability, as Christianity now exists, that it should show itself entire and com- plete in any one church or person. Each person and each church seems to develope some one principle of the Christian doctrine more fully and perfectly than the rest. One portion of the Church exhibits Faith more fully ; another, Works ; another, the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit ; our own Church must E2 76 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. be admitted to be practically deficient in self-denying Faith and Love, and spirituality and devotedness. The Bible is full of seeming inconsistencies to the reasoning mind, in regard to doctrines which we deem essentially important. One rule seemingly contradicts another; one doctrine another; the same fact is dif- ferently described in different places, which seems to be contradictory to truth. As it is said, Believe and thou shalt be saved; and, Do the Commandments and thou shalt live: and again, By grace are ye saved: and again, Ye shall be judged by your works. And then again The Father and the Son have both created : and the Father has sanctified : and Christ Jesus sanctifies : and we are sanctified by Faith : and the Holy Spirit intercedes;* and thus the different offices of the Three Persons seem to be confounded. And, the Son is equal and inferior: and He knoweth all things, and knows not the Day of Judgment : begotten again and He was begotten before the world, and He was at the Resurrection. And still more in regard to moral precepts : Answer a fool according to his folly, Answer not a fool accord- ing to his folly : He that is not against us is with us, He that is not with us is against us : The hand of the diligent maketh rich, The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich : All of you be subject one to another, &c. c. These sorts of moral and doctrinal oppositions and paradoxes are continually invading and disturbing our minds and consciences ; and are perplexing us in our * Jude, i. ; 1 Cor. i. 30 ; Acts, xxvi. 18. ESSAY VII.] SEEMING PARADOXES. 77 endeavours to fix rules and definitions of doctrine and conduct. We feel as if in an atmosphere which is not congenial to us, as in an element in which we cannot breathe freely; as in a strange climate and country, where the manners and modes of thought and action are a constraint and impediment to us. But more than all, the language and reasoning, and the figures of Scripture, are not clear and comprehensi- ble to us. They do not run on all fours, like Aristotle's metaphors. There is an involution, and complexity, and a double intent and aspect, and a want of order and method and completeness, in the types and prophecies, and promises, and images, that quite perplexes and bewilders our senses and understandings, and leads and leaves us in difficulty and doubt, and distraction and amazement. The Bible is a sealed book to every one of us. And those who have the greatest attainments in it confess, much more than any beginners, that they are continually picking up only some few bright, newly discovered, un- expected gems, which shine upon them more and more at every step, even in the most trodden paths, each of them being but indicators of the vast, unattainable depths and mountains of treasure from which they have been extracted. Every searcher into revealed Truth perceives, what- ever may be the stage of his attainments, that there are rich treasures beyond his present knowledge, and fresh paths opening themselves for the discovery of them. Every such person finds that there are multitudes be- hind him, to whom his present pursuits appear delu- 78 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. sive ; and he himself is apt to think that others more advanced are wandering in mazes of vain curiosity and imagination. It would be adventurous to advance much in the way of example and illustration, lest it should be looked upon as the flights of vision and imagination. But what a field of wonder and desire and admiration opens upon us, when we first begin to be instructed in the typi- cal signification of the different parts of the Tabernacle : The Holy of Holies Heaven, where God is enthroned invisible: The ark his heavenly Church, where Christ the heavenly Manna, and the Rod that budded is laid up: The Holy Place his Church on earth, fed by the shew bread, by Christ, the Bread of Life, illuminated by the seven gold candlesticks, the Holy Spirit: ap- proached by the laver of Baptism, and the altar of Christ's atonement : _ together with the exact typical allusion of each of the parts of the several sacrifices : when we first begin to perceive that every incident in Elisha's life, even to the weeping over the city of his de- voted country, exhibits him as a prefigure of our blessed Saviour ; and that every word and answer of our Lord himself has a deep prospective and prophetic meaning ; and that every sentence in Scriptnre is pregnant in like manner, and waiting for the birth; we rest asto- nished and stunned at the vastness and depth of the ocean of divine truth, and must confess that it is an immense field of literature and wisdom, in itself suffi- cient to occupy a whole life in the attainment ; and when a life so occupied should be at an end, we should still only the more earnestly be convinced that we were as yet at the threshold of that truth which is laid up ESSAY VII.] THE BIBLE A SEALED BOOK. 79 for our acceptance and use in that vast treasury of Revealed Wisdom.* But how can we open and unseal this Treasure-house? We have no key fitted to it. Our understandings are cast in another mould, and can never fit the form and rule and fashion of the language and matter of inspired teaching. We cannot now realize or believe the seeming para- doxes and contradictions which we meet with at every step in religious and moral truth. We cannot reconcile the doctrine of a special Providence in all minute and every-day concerns, with the law and order of nature. We cannot reconcile Predestination and the Foreknow- ledge of God with our Freewill. We cannot reconcile the operation of learning and thought and talent with the influence of the Holy Spirit in the thoughts and over the mind. We cannot conceive that Bezabeel and Aholiab should be inspired by the Spirit of God to work beautiful works of art, and to have a correct and inven- tive taste in designing tools and patterns. We cannot conceive that demons should possess people with dis- * See particularly the Epistles to the Galatians and the Hebrews ; Mather on Types ; Jones of Nayland's " Book of Nature," and " Figti- " rative Language of Scripture;" and Sir George Rose's "Scriptural Researches." But none of these do more than open the door. Much more profound aspirations are found scattered in the older writers; but the subject has not attained to its proper eminence as an entire study. A recent writer, after enumerating some others of those more hidden and mystical figures and fore-shadowings, well remarks, " Dare any man deny that these are great marks of Truth, even according to our modern measures, incompetent as they obviously are to these inves- tigations?" (Tracts for the Times, No. 89, p. 37.) The whole matter of this Tract bears forcibly and convincingly upon the topic before us. 80 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. eases and madness. We cannot believe that wizards and witches and familiar spirits altered the course of nature, and afforded opportunity of commerce with the unseen world. We cannot conceive that angels should have married women, that God and angels should have walked and conversed familiarly on earth. The power of Faith over the works and laws of nature is too difficult to be believed by us. So also is it to reconcile the ways and omniscience of God with the efficacy of Prayer. Even the compatibility of Tradition with the exercise of judgment is so subtle as to elude our unpractised understandings. The Proverbs of Solomon are as a sealed book, and by no means come home to us as the writings of the wisest of men. The form and figure of them is at once common and dull, and repulsive to our tastes ; and a great part of them is incomprehensible. It is the same with the figures and metaphors and reasoning through- out Scripture. When it is said, " This shall be a token unto thee ; when thou hast brought forth the chil- dren of Israel out of Egypt, thou shalt serve God in this mountain," that is, some months hence, we are startled and perplexed and hesitating. So likewise, " This shall be a sign," " A virgin shall conceive," that is, after some hundreds of years. And so likewise, for another sign, " Thou shalt eat this year that which groweth of itself; and the next year that which spring- eth thereof; and the third year sow ye and reap," &c. The argument and reproof to Jonah from his gourd, is to most of us an enigma. The reception of children enjoined by Christ, to enforce humility; the giving ESSAY VII.] DIFFICULTIES FIGURES LANGUAGE. 81 water to a disciple, to show ourself a disciple; the proof to Simon from the principle, that those who are forgiven most love most, this woman loved much, therefore her sins are forgiven; the proof from the Samaritan acting the part of a neighbour to the Jew, that the Jews were to acknowledge the Samaritans as neighbours, are examples of an inverse form of argu- ment and metaphor which is most common in Scrip- ture, but is abhorrent to the approved form of reasoning among us, and is unconvincing to our understandings. The reason is that our minds are so formed upon Grecian models, and the fashion and taste of Grecian and Roman literature, that we cannot accommodate them to the form of argument and thought of Eastern nations ; to which in most parts the language of Holy Scripture has been assimilated. It is impossible that our minds should be trained and rehearsed, from infancy to manhood, in the language and ideas and opinions of the classic authors, and that our minds and tastes should not grow into accordance and unison with them, and habitually love and relish that which resembles these, and dislike the contrary. But it is not merely from the knowledge and under- standing of the highest doctrines and arguments of Holy Writ, that this classical, Aristotelic colour and habit of mind excludes us. The apprehension of argu- ments and doctrines is so connected with duty and precept, that the one cannot be impaired or blunted, without the other being invaded. Our moral sense and apprehension is much blunted by our Grecian form of mind and habit of reasoning. The Asiatics have noto- 82 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. riously a much greater fondness for moral studies than Europeans, and a much keener penetration into human nature and character. Also, the vices of the heathen character are prominent throughout the writings of the ancients, and it is impossible for us to be reconciled and be familiar and intimate with the principles and gross practices of the Greeks and Romans, without having our own principles infected by the filthy con- tact. The notorious profligacy and corruptions of the era of philosophy and fine writing in Greece, and of the much vaunted Augustan age in Italy, might have been sufficient to warn us against such company and evil communications; and to prove to us that the highest excellence of taste and genius, and the greatest attain- ment in learning and refinement, is not incompatible with the debasement of moral principles, and the grossest and most disgusting vices.* The reading the opinions and reasonings of heathen philosophers and poets, and being familiar with the systems and usages of idolatry from the cradle, and being taught in them from infancy to manhood, more than in the precepts of Christianity, these things cannot be, without the poison being im- bibed, and becoming part of the nature, and of the life* and inherent in the system. No wonder that idolatry still exists and riots in the Gentile-Christian world, in essential union with the clas- * "Les Remains etoient abimez dans les delices, et se piquoient d'une mauvaise delicatessc." Fleury, ^laurs des Chretiens, sect. 44. See the article on "Alexandria and the Alexandrians," in the Quart. Rev. No. 131, which exhibits that city as at once the seat of every perfection of learning and refinement, and the grossest vices and sensuality. ESSAY VII.] OUR HABITS AND TASTES HEATHEN. 83 sics and the fine arts; and maintains that indissoluble bond which the devil has joined, and man cannot put asunder. No wonder that heathen vices are rife ; and that faith is extinct ; and that religion declines ; and the power of Christianity is denied; and men and nations are governed by heathen principles of utility and selfishness ; and that society is united, and the peace of nations maintained, upon a system of war and opposition, and the principles of disunion. No wonder that the Bible is still a sealed book ; and its parables inexact and misapplied ; and that poverty and the cross, which it reveals, is foolishness still ; and its precepts an enigma. This is not an entirely new or unproved opinion ; neither is this state of things wholly without precedent or example, so that we might have nothing by which to measure and judge of it. Neither has it passed un- noticed in former times, or in its present growth and operation ; so that we might say that we were without warning and instruction, and were taken and caught by it unawares and without suspicion in our ignorance. " They were mingled among the heathen and learned their works : insomuch that they worshipped their idols." " Ye shall not inquire, saying, How did those nations worship their gods? so will we do likewise." But with more direct application to the present case, Josephus relates, that the Jews were paganized, and their habits and ideas assimilated to the Greeks and Romans, through their contact with the empire.* And were the Jews im- * " Mattathias, urging on his soldiers to battle, instigated them to the attainment of glory : meaning, earthly glory." Joseph. Ant. lib. 12, c. 6, s. 3. 84 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII, proved in religion or morals by this enlightenment, and enlargement of their education ? They grew more and more selfish, cruel, proud, corrupt, and abandoned, till their wickedness became intolerable. At least this addi- tional and perfected civilization did not arrest their pro- gress towards that degree of wickedness and blindness which brought down the Divine vengeance upon their heads, and their utter destruction. The literature and civilization of Greece were then as complete as that which we now have for our study and imitation. That of Rome was in its most palmy state of vigour and perfection. Josephus himself partook largely of the tastes and impressions necessarily engendered by this contact with heathen habits and modes of thinking ; but he saw and lamented its effects upon his countiymen. No one has depicted with greater force and disgust the mischiefs and absurdity of their whole religious system. After summing up some of the attributes and immoralities ascribed to their gods and goddesses, he thus completes the picture: " Which of their own wise men," he says, " among the Greeks, has not condemned their poets and legislators for spreading such notions of the gods among the com- mon people? making their number to be just as many as you please : saying that they were begotten of one another, and that by all manner of births : assigning to them different fixed places of habitation and modes of life, like the different species of animals : placing some of them under the earth, some of them in the sea, and the oldest of them bound in chains in hell. As for ESSAY VII.] THE CLASSICS CORRUPT US JOSEPHUS. 85 those to whom heaven is assigned, they set over them one whom they call father, but they attribute to him the actions of a tyrannical despot ; insomuch that his own wife, his brother, and his daughter (whom he brought forth from his own head), make a conspiracy against him to seize him and shut him up, as he had done his father before him. These are the sort of things that wise men have justly thought worthy of their blame and contempt : and such things as these besides, that they make some of their gods to be beardless and deli- cate youths, others to be aged, with long beards : others again to be set to trades: one god to be a smith: another goddess to be a weaver : one god is made to be a warrior, and fights with men : some of them are harpers : others archers. Besides this, they have seditions and parties among them, and they quarrel about the affairs of men ; so that they not only lay hands on one another, but they are wounded even by men, and complain of their pains and sufferings. But the most flagrant of all are their lusts and lascivious amours, which they attribute to almost all their gods, male as well as female. * * Nay, some of the gods are servants to men, and some will turn builders for them for hire ; and some will be shepherds : while others of them, like malefactors, are bound in fetters of brass. Now, what person in his senses would not be provoked at such stories, and condemn both those who invented them and those who believed them to be true. There are some too who have fashioned fear, and terror, and fraud, and madness, and which not of their vilest passions, into the nature and form of gods; and have persuaded whole 86 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. cities to offer sacrifices to the better sort of them. Whence of necessity they must call some gods the givers of good things, and others the averters of evil things ; and then, in the next place, they offer them gifts and favours, as they would to the veiy worst of men ; and look for some great mischief from them if they withhold their wages." * Now there is no considerable portion of classical lite- rature into which religious opinion and fable does not enter as an ingredient ; at least those selections which are made and used for the instruction of our youth, are of this description. The Greeks were so superstitious a people, that they could not pursue any subject without reference to religion ; and the Romans, whether as fol- lowing their masters the Greeks, or from their original constitution, have their writings similarly characterized by superstitious and idolatrous fable, and still more by immorality and indecency. The necessary ill effect of such evil communications upon the religious impres- sions, and moral habits of all those who are educated in them, must be too obvious for denial to those who have a knowledge of the effect of habit upon the mind, and an ordinary insight into character. " They recommended believers," says Fleury, of the early Christians, "to refrain from reading the books of the pagans, as being sufficient to shake the faith of weak minds, and altogether worthless." t Jones * Joseph, con. Apion. f " On recommendoient aux fideles de s'abstenir des livres des Payens, comme tant capable de renverser la foi des foibles, et d'ail- leurs inutiles." Fleury, Maurs des Chretiens, part 1, s. 7. ESSAY VII.] THE CLASSICS CORRUPT US. 87 of Nayland thus comprehensively grasps and expresses his own opinion upon the whole subject: " As there was a remnant of the Canaanites, to whom the people were frequently joining themselves in mar- riage, and consequently relapsing into idolatry, accord- ing to that of the psalmist ' They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works, and they served their idols, which were a snare unto them :' so the works of heathen authors, with the fables of their false gods, the abominable rites of their religion, and the obscenity and immorality of their practices, are in like manner remaining among Christians ; and it has been the custom for ages, all over Europe, to commu- nicate the rudiments of languages and learning to young minds from heathen books, without due care to caution them against imbibing heathen principles ; by which thousands of minds are corrupted, and through early prejudice rendered incapable of understanding the value of truth, and the abominable nature of heathen error. How frequently are heathen moralists applied to, when the finest rules of human prudence for the conduct of life are to be found in the Scripture. But to go to the heathens for divinity, as some authors do, is intolerable. They blow out the candle of revelation, and then go raking into the embers of paganism to light it again. Many good and learned men, of the first ability and taste, have observed and lamented the bondage we are under to heathen modes of education ; but custom is a tyrant which hears no reason." * * Rev. W. Jones's Works, vol. iv. lect. 7, p. 165. 88 NEED OF MORE PERFECT. CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. Yet we are commanded to look up to the Greeks and Romans for the pattern of every thing that is great and noble in conduct, and excellent in taste and man- ners, and wise in reasoning. We are taught from the cradle to manhood to form our minds and tastes upon the model of the classics, and our manners upon those of " the Greeks and Romans : two peoples," as we have it impressed upon us continually, " renowned for every art and accomplishment that can raise or adorn our nature." * Even the clergy are infected by the same sentiments ; and are drawn in by the vortex ; and draw in others after them. How can the young mind be expected to distinguish between what is good in taste, and bad in manners ; between what is good in reasoning and bad in conclusion and belief? The praise and poi- son is continually inculcated and administered : the caution and antidote is not insisted on; so that we are brought up from our birth more as heathens than Christians. The first evil engendered by this heathen system of education is, that heathen objects and desires become our aim, and heathen motives of action are used and approved, and impel us to the attainment of them : the Pursuit of Happiness, the Dignity of Human Na- ture, Riches, Ambition, Rank, Liberty, Popu- larity. The next evil is, that logical and Aristotelian forms of reasoning are required ; and none others are found satisfactory and convincing. A syllogism is more ap- proved than a proverb or a parable ; especially such parables as the types and figures of Scripture, which Uvedale Price, on the Picturesque, p. 300, 1796. ESSAY VII.] THE CLASSICS CORRUPT US. 89 are oftentimes inexact in their application, have each of them many different allusions and aspects, and are at once as unsearchable and as superior to a simple and perfect metaphor, as life and its motions is to a machine.* Sermons are approved therefore in proportion as they are clear and lucid, elegant and well-arranged, logical and classical. St. Paul did not put forth such principles of taste and reasoning, or exhibit such a classical perspicuity and elegance : of whom St. Jerome said, " St. Paul does not know how to develope an hyperbaton, nor point a sentence ; and having to do with vulgar minds, he has made use of ideas, which, if he had not in the first place been careful to prepare us for, by stating that he spoke after the manner of men, might have been an offence to persons of sound judgment."f * Exs. of double types and figures. " Who turned the hard rock into a standing water, and the flint stone into a springing well :" the flint stone is the heart of flint, and " that rock was Christ." The living bird set free, was a type of our redemption by Christ our bro- ther's blood (Cowper), and of Christ's resurrection from death (Ma- ther). So the scape goat. The seven candlesticks, or lamps, signified the seven churches (Rev. i. 20) ; and immediately after, the seven spirits of God (Rev. iv. 5). "I have brought my son out of Egypt:" of Christ, and of the children of Israel. " To day have I begotten thee :" of the resurrection, and of Christ's High Priesthood; see Ps. ii. ; Acts, xiii. 33 ; Heb. i. 5, and v. 5. " Art thou Elias? No." " This is Elias." The various and opposing offices and characters of Christ sinless and yet sinful, the Lamb without spot, yet punished for sin, the Victim, and Himself released, the Redeemer, and Himself the first fruits of the Redemption, and the First Born of His Church. These have not been fully explained with reference to the types and passages which bear upon them. t Quoted, Theopneustia, by L. Gaussen, p. 122. Transl. 1841. 90 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. St. Augustine called his Professorship of Rhetoric, " The chair of lies."* A third taste which we imbibe from heathen litera- ture is for definition and classification. Our belief is not satisfied unless all meanings are definite and dis- tinct, and all senses and applications square exactly ; unless all the parts of religious truth are capable of being arranged according to a plan and scale, every pro- phecy referred to a certain order, time, and place ; every word to a simple interpretation.^ Hence in part arose " Of St. Paul's preaching their very bye-word was, Xoyo? e9tv>i/xivo?, addle speech, empty talk ; his writings full of great words ; but in power of miraculous operations, his presence not like the rest of the apostles." Hooker's Eccles. Pol. bk. iii. s. 8. * Confessions, bk. ix. s. 4, p. 158. Transl. 1838. Libr. of Path. f I find the following table or classified plan of the Holy Sacra- ments proposed as of great use in a recent publication. SACRAMENTS. BAPTISM. i Outwa Bread a LORD'S SUPPER. I Outward part. Water. i Inward grace. Death unto sin and new birth unto righteousness. r rd part. nd wine. i Thing signified. Body and Blood of Christ. Requisites. 1. Repentance. ) , r , T> i v 1- Repentance. 2-r* -ii i V iue iStiptisnia.1 \ ow. T? . . faith. } 2. raith. 3. Charity, i Beneficial Results or Benefits. I ' 1 1. A member of Christ. The strengthening and re- 2. A child of God. freshing of our souls. 3. An inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. (Educational Mag. No. 2, vol. ii. N. S. p. 108.) ESSAY VII.] INFLUENCE OF CLASSICS ON DOCTRINES. 91 the questions about Homoousion and Homoiousion, and the definition of the Son as of one Substance* or Essence with the Father ; and as Begotten before the worlds. Hence the exact distinctions and definitions of Justifi- cation, Sanctification, and Salvation. When St. Paul says, " Who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification," we make a distinction and a theory of it. Transubstantiation is a doctrine having in part the same origin. The Athanasian Creed contains a series of op- posite propositions, as that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are Eternal, and yet they are not Three Eternals, (in Latin and Greek, " Three Eternal,") which, being couched in logical form of expression, and suited to logical taste and theory of thought, may at the same time be made logically and technically to disprove one another ; and which, though needful as denials of par- ticular heresies, are signs of the logical, scientific, clas- sical, and false taste of the age, of which the religion of that as well as this day partook, and out of which the heresies themselves had arisen. The obligatory pro- minence given to the " Proceeding" of the Holy Ghost, attributed as a distinctive property to the Third Person, opposed to " made" and " begotten," is of a similar character.-f- * The word " substance" was introduced into the Nicene Creed at the instance of Constantine. Libr. of Fath. St. Athanasius, p. 61, 66, n. t The word is " sxwofEusrai" wapa -ra Harps?. Our Blessed Lord ap- plies to Himself the expression, e^xflov wapo. ra narpof, " I came out" from the Father, three times at least. Learned men point out no definite distinction between these two expressions. So that this obli- gatory form of doctrine is rested upon a word not applied distinctively to the Holy Ghost. If it were said, tbat the Holy Ghost " proceedeth from the Father," or, " is sent by the Son from the Father," it would 92 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. I would not be understood as saying that there is one word of error in the Athanasian Creed, but only that the language in which it was thus found necessary to negative errors, itself perpetuates a false and philo- sophic habit of thought ; and that I feel convinced, that in after times, of a more vital Christianity, this form will not be in unison with the doctrinal habits of thought of the most advanced Christians. The Jews are said to have forbidden that any exposition of doctrine should be written down, even in contradiction of a heresy; so that when heresies died away, they expired altogether, with their effects, and the Scriptures alone remained in their purity.* be the language of Holy Writ. But to say, emphatically, and ab- stractedly, not "made," nor "begotten," but "proceeding," seems to savour rather more of the "oppositions of science," than of the "form of sound words," and the traditionary " faith, once delivered to the saints." * The following is an offspring of this incestuous union between Christianity and heathen learning : From " The Golden Remains of the ever memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eton College." First printed about 1759. "MR. 11 ALLS'* CONFESSION OF THE TRINITY. " The sum of whatsoever either the Scriptures teach, or the schools conclude, concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, is comprised in these few lines. " God is One ; numerically One ; more One, than any single man is one, if unity could suscipere majus et minus ; yet, God is so One, that He admits of Distinction ; and so admits of Distinction, that He still retains Unity. " As He is One, so we call Him God, the Deity, the Divine Nature, and other names of the same signification : as He is Distinguished, so we call Him Trinity ; Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. " In this Trinity there is One Essence ; Two Emanations ; Three Persons; Four Properties; Five Notions. ESSAY VII.] INFLUENCE OF CLASSICS ON DOCTRINES. 93 We distinguish and define the nature and use of (" A Notion is that by which any Person is known or signified.) " The One Essence is God, which with this Relation, that it doth Generate or Beget, makes the Person of the Father: the same Essence, with this Relation, that it is Begotten, maketh the Person of the Son : the same Essence, with this Relation, that it Proceedeth, maketh the Person of the Holy Ghost. " The Two Emanations are, to he Begotten ; and to Proceed, or to be Breathed out : the Three Persons are, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit : the Three Relations are, to Beget ; to be Begotten ; and to Proceed, or to be Breathed out : the Four Properties are, the First, Innascibility, and Inemanability : the Second is, to Generate; these belong to the Father : the Third is, to be Begotten ; and this belongs unto the Son : the Fourth is, to Proceed, or to be Breathed out ; and this belongs unto the Holy Spirit. The Five Notions are, First Innascibility; the Second is, to Beget ; the Third, to be Begotten ; the Fourth, Spiratio Passiva, to be Breathed out ; the Fifth, Spiratio Activa, or to Breathe; and this Notion belongs to the Father and the Son alike ; for Pater et Filius spirant Spiritum Sanctum. " Hence it evidently follows, that he who acknowledged thus much, can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God. " If any man think this confession to be defective, (for I can con- ceive no more in this point necessary to be known,) let him supply what he conceives to be deficient, and I shall thank him for his favour." Though Mr. Hales thinks that those Essences, Emanations, Persons, Properties, and Notions, are all that is necessary to be known on this point, this point itself is surely little necessary to be known in com- parison with these other notions and operations; The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth, Who gave Himself for us, and died for us, Who rose again for us, and ascended up on high and obtained gifts for us, Who feeds us with the heavenly food of His own body and blood, Who is exalted at God's right hand with our nature, the Head over all, the Alpha and Omega, having the keys of death, God blessed for ever: The Love of God, God is Love, and He first loved us, and gave His Only Begotten Son to die for us, and willeth not the death of any sinner, but that all should be converted and live through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ : The Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, 94 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. Prayer, till we reason ourselves out of its efficacy,* the nature of a Special Providence, of Election, of the Holy Spirit, of Miracle, till we reason ourselves out of the belief of their existence, the time and operation of the New Birth, till we ask a second time with Nico- demus, " How can a man be born again ?" Propo- sitions the most easy and acceptable to the unlettered and untutored understandings of the common people, are full of difficulty to such minds, and almost irrecon- cileable. A fourth evil is, that we seek after doctrine and not truth. The difference between these two is itself be- come incomprehensible to us. Our study is speculative, not practical. We do not understand the meaning or possibility of " doing the truth ;" or how it can be the the Comforter, the Helper of our infirmities, the Sanctifier of our hearts, the Enlightener of our understandings, the Worker of miracles, the Guider into all truth, the Giver of manifold good gifts, but the same Spirit. The debate and dwelling upon those Essences, and Emanations, and Persons, and Properties, and Notions, and the engrossing controversies which they require, lead our attention astray from these other more vital and practical operations, which are to be learned otherwise than by reasoning, and respecting which there is little controversy. These can be felt and understood by the rude and uneducated mind ; those cannot be determined and fixed by the most scientific and learned. * A zealous and devoted clergyman, averse in general to philo- sophical religion, reasoned with me that the use of prayer was to bring the mind into such a state in which God could grant to us what is good for us. Our Saviour says, "Ask, and ye shall receive;" and this, because of your importunity. " Do the gods delight in prayer?" was an inquiry by Stilpo, the later Platonist. The Epicureans notoriously denied entirely the effi- cacy of prayer. ESSAY VII.] A BETTER LITERATURE. 95 work of God to believe in Jesus Christ. We cannot understand or believe how there can be more right ways than one ; how Wisdom can warrant her disciples and votaries in opposite rules of life, and be justified of all her children. If it be asked what literature might be adopted as a substitute for the Greek and Latin Classics, which have been the groundwork of our modern civilization, I say that we were better without enlightenment and educa- tion than to purchase it at such cost of the purity of religious doctrine and principle. Besides this, the lite- rature of modern Europe may fairly be supposed by this time to have extracted and borrowed all that is good and enlightening from the dead languages, and to be sufficiently matured to throw off this pupilage and vassalage. But the languages and literature of the East are an almost unexplored field ; and they have greater stores of riches than are generally ascribed to them. They have this remarkable and valuable cha- racteristic, that the Asiatics are by far more sagacious studiers of human nature than Europeans. Their penetration into character, and discernment of the mind and motives, are quite beyond the standard of European attainment in this respect. But more than this, their fondness for figure and parable and allegory, and their exercise in that style and form of writing and thinking, peculiarly fit them for the office of interpreting the language and imagery of the Scriptures. It cannot be but that intercourse with the Chinese should exercise a most powerful influence over the habits of thought, and manners of nations now living un- 96 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANIY. [ESSAY VII. der the European system. The Chinese have all the good qualities belonging to the other Asiatics, and have them in a still higher degree. They have in addition a most perfect language, of ideas and not of sounds : a desideratum, even according to our own estimation : capable of being the foundation of a universal language. And they are the most generally educated people in the world. The collision of the two halves of the civilized world, cannot but be productive of a mighty conflict. In both the hemispheres, civilization is carried to the highest pitch : upon totally opposite systems. Our own is thus imperfect and insufficient, as has been described. It is not an easy task to picture what civili- zation will be, when it is based upon the real principles and undistorted precepts of Christianity. But it is sufficient that we already have an example of a higher standard than our own ; and it may be expected that we should undergo the influence of that for a time, and in some measure, before we take the final step towards man's ultimate attainment. The principles and manners of the Chinese are apparently such as to fit them pecu- liarly for the reception and practice of the precepts of the gospel ; and, having received them, to become more perfect in their use and understanding of them, than the nations brought up under European principles have proved themselves. European civilization is altogether of a low order and character. Riches, comfort, luxury, pride, vanity, ambi- tion, warlike courage, national and personal aggrandize- ment by force and conquest: these are considered, if not signs of civilization, at least not opposite to or incon- ESSAY VII.] EUROPEAN AND CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 97 sistent with it. European civilization is low and brutal. To be able to make money rapidly, and to fight fiercely, are our pride and our boast; and are considered evidences of it. A philosophy which says that population is an evil to be repressed, and that almsgiving is culpable, is not inconsistent with it. The Chinese are pitied by us for their great population ; and despised by us, not for their want of fortitude and courage, but because, being cultivators of peace, they were inferior to ourselves in instruments of destruction.* With the Chinese, money is not considered as the most desirable attainment. Poverty is no reproach among them. Holding the precepts of the Gospel, though not taught by it, even better than ourselves, they consider that happiness is more consistent with a middle than with a high station, f " It may be considered as one proof of social advance- ment on the part of the Chinese, that the civil authority is generally superior to the military; and that letters always rank above arms."J A national education is provided for every one. * The natives of Loo-choo declared to the English, that they had no weapons. Indo-Chinese Gleaner, ii. 6. t Davis's China, i. 20, 196, 200, 243, 250. t Ibid. i. 210 ; Nic. Trigautius, pp. 92, 94, Lug. Bat. 1639. Ibid. i. 154, 197, 272. " The proportion of the educated to the uneducated men, is said to be as four to one." Gvtzluff's China, Introd. by Rev. W. Ellis, p. 10, ed. 1834. Ib. 107. The same account is given of them in the ninth century : " The Chinese, both poor and rich, great and small, learn to read and to write." "There are schools in every town for teaching the poor and their children to write and read, and the masters are paid at the public charge." Account of India and China, by a Mohammedan Traveller, written in the year of the Hegira 237, A.D. 851. Ed. 1733; pp. 22, 29, 40. 98 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. People are educated in those arts and branches of know- ledge which they are to practise in domestic and public life. Office is conferred, not according to favour and interest, but according to the proficiency in knowledge, under repeated trials and examination; and this is the only road to it. We do not know in what true knowledge and educa- tion consists ; but this the Chinese know and inculcate eminently. They teach that the economy and govern- ment of a family or country must originate in the govern- ment of oneself.* " Moral instruction is ranked by them above physical. The consequence is, that industry, tranquillity and content, are unusually prevalent in the bulk of the population."t " Confucius lays at the bottom of his system, not the visionary notions (which have no existence in nature) of independence and equa- lity, but principles of dependance and subordination."^; The result of these opposite principles, in the two hemi- spheres of civilization, does not need a comparison. " Superior and alone, Confucius stood, And taught that useful science, to be good " The Chinese standard of morals and manners is even * Davis's China, i. 193 ; ii. 40, 46. f Dr. Morrison, ap. ibid. i. 239. " The object of the government, as Dr. Morrison justly observes, in making education general, is not to extend the bounds of knowledge, but to impart the knowledge already possessed, to as large a portion as possible of the rising gene- ration, and to pluck out true talent from the mass of the community, for its own service." Ibid. i. 273. See Gutzlaff's China, pp. 112, 165, 167, 170; Nic. Trigaut. p. 71. J Davis's China, ii. 44. $ Pope, Temple of Fame. The third division, " Man," is by far the most copious in their Encyclopedia. Ibid. ii. 259. ESSAY VII.] EUROPEAN AND CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 99 more Christian like than our own. As already observed, poverty is with them no reproach ; and happiness is held to be consistent with a humble station. " It is a general rule with them in visits, to contend for the lowest seat."* In private life and in government, their principle is to rule less by fear and force, than by the arts of love and affection. The Chinese study more than we Christians, to love one another. The emperor, in 1713, directed his ambassador to give the following summary of the Chinese moral system to the Russian government. " If you are asked, what we principally esteem and reverence in China, you may thus reply : ' In our empire, fidelity, filial piety, charity, 1 ]* justice and sincerity , are esteemed above all things. We revere and abide by them. They are the principles upon which we administer the empire, as well as govern ourselves. We likewise make sacrifices and oblations ; * Davis's China, i. 295. " They exhibit an urbanity of manner and courtesy of behaviour highly commendable ; and in some respects a degree of refinement and civilization beyond what has been attained by the most intelligent and powerful nations of the earth. The Chinese, as Dr. Morrison observes, teach contempt of the rude, instead of fighting with them ; and the man who unreasonably insults another has public opinion against him; whilst he who bears and despises an affront, is esteemed." " A Chinese would stay and reason with a man, when an Englishman would knock him down, or an Italian stab him. It is needless to say which is the most rational mode of proceeding." Gutzlaff's China, Introd. by Rev. W. Ellis, p. 6, ed. 1834. See Indo- Chinese Gleaner, i. 52, 202; vol. ii. 6, 20, 81, 121, 135, 227, 425. Nic. Trigaut. 141. t Gutzlaff's China, 134; Indo-Chinese Gleaner, i. 47, 180,181, vol. ii. 49, 235, 292. J GutzlafF's China, pp 112, 161. F2 100 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. we pray for good things, and we deprecate evil things. But if we did not act honestly, if we were not faithful, pious, charitable, just and sincere, of what avail would be our prayers and sacrifices ?' "* The Chinese have aggrandized their empire less by war than by the arts of peace. Several nations have joined themselves to them of their own accord, as being the most happy empire, and the most paternal govern- ment. In 1771, 50,000 Tartar families from the banks of the Wolga and afterwards 30,000 more emigrated, and put themselves under the government of the Chinese Emperor Kien Long, instead of the Russian govern- ment.t The Tourgouth Tartars, in like manner, did not emigrate, but they sent an embassy, and put them- selves under the Chinese dominion ; though the Chinese could not even send an embassy to them, without asking leave of the Russians, and going through their dominions. The maxims of the Chinese government are amiable, enlightened and good.J One of the first and best is, that the government itself sets an example, and endea- deavours by its own acts to encourage goodness. The emperor sometimes styles himself in his public writings, * Gutzlaff's China, ii. 154. t Vint's Geography, Turkey in Asia, vol. ii. p. 80, ap. Compre- hensive Bible, at Num. i. 46, marg. n. &. The Chinese never aggran- dize their empire by war. Nic. Trigaut. p. 130. I Davis's China, vol. i. 189, 194, 234, 235, 236, 243, 260, 278, ,'352, 383, vol. ii. 13. Gutzlaff's China, 153, 154; Indo-Chinese Gleaner, i. 186, 187, vol. ii. 23, 33, 69, 347, 352, 407, 412, 413; ibid. ii. 51, 89, 180,433. ESSAY VII.] CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 101 "the imperfect man."* "The island Formosa has flourished greatly since it has been in possession of the Chinese, who go thither generally from Tung-an, in Fuhkean, as colonists. "f A similar account is given of the improvement of Loo-choo, since they have adopted the principles of the Chinese government. J The Chinese emblems of happiness, are a child, a mandarin, and a stork. Namely, they esteem and desire children in the first place, white we falsely charge them with infanticide. On the contrary, we condemn propagation, and esteem children an evil. The other " two things they most respect, are station derived from personal merit ; and the claims of venerable old age." || The Chinese make no naked statues.^]" In China there are few or no beggars.** And they have no slaves. They esteem a man the most valuable commodity in the empire ; and do not put him in com- parison with a machine. * Davis's China, i. 204, 373, 375, vol. ii. 72; Indo-Chinese Gleaner, i. 50, vol. ii. 407, 411, 413, 414. f GutzlafFs China, p. 119; ibid. 157. I Indo-Chinese Gleaner, ii. 8, 10. Ibid. i. 286. || Ibid. i. 243. 1f Indo-Chinese Gleaner, ii. 255. The use of naked figures in sculp- ture and painting is merely alow and sensual taste borrowed by us from the Greeks; but I cannot either contain or express the abhorrence that I conceive, when I see our Saviour's passion made the subject of an anatomical exercise; and to see painters and patrons and virtuosos met together to examine the muscular development of our blessed Lord's naked body. ** Sir George Staunton, ap. ibid. i. 235. 102 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. The Chinese do not consider luxury useful, and a virtue ; or that it tends to the support of the poor ; but the contrary.* Sir George Staunton says, " in the course of our journey through the Chinese empire, I can recall to my recollection (the seaport of Canton of course excepted) but very few instances of beggary or abject misery among the lower classes, or of splendid extragavance among the higher ; and I conceived myself enabled to trace almost universally throughout China, the unequivocal signs of an industrious, thriving and contented people."f Almost all modern travellers agree in this view of the Chinese. Mr. Ellis says, " I have been much struck with the number of persons apparently in the middle classes; from which I am inclined to infer a wide diffusion .of the substantial comforts of life." Van Braam observes, that " it was easy to perceive that the inhabitants are strangers to poverty," and that " every- thing bore the appearance of plenty and happiness :" Barrow, that the countenances of the peasants were cheerful, and their appearance indicative of plenty: and Sir George Staunton again, that " the cottages are clean and comfortable." While, of the alleged infanti- cide, De Guignes declares, that in his route through the whole extent of China, he never met with an instance of it ; and Mr. Ellis, giving the same testimony, adds, that " supposing any of the statements of it to have been well founded, it was scarcely to be believed that in passing over its populous rivers, through upwards of Indo-Chinese Gleaner, i. 184, vol. ii. 59. f Davis's China, i. 235. ESSAY VII.] JEWISH LITERATURE. 103 1600 miles of country, we should find no proof of its mere existence."* Again, "careworn and half-starved faces are rare things in China. A plumpness of fea- ture, cheerfulness of mien, and a gait full of animation, though without hurry, bespeak a condition of mind that looks on to-day's supply with complacency, and for- ward to to-morrow's chances without apprehension. The happiness and general prosperity of the Chinese are conspicuous."f The Bishop of Sodor and Man, and Sir George Rose, both consider that the lengthened existence of the Chi- nese empire has been a fulfilment of the Scripture pro- mise of long-living in the land, to those who keep that first divine commandment of the second table, to honour and obey parents.^ Upon the whole, it appears that the Chinese have attained to a better and more Christian like civilization than Europeans ; yet imperfect ; and it seems likely that, as the Israelites from the beginning became better Christians than the Gentiles, so the Chinese will show themselves better Christians than the Europeans, among the Gentile nations, when converted. But the Jews more especially have a language, and in some measure a literature, which peculiarly fit them for becoming the great and authorized interpreters of the * Ap. Mr. Sadler's Life, p. 160. No doubt it will prove to be the case tbat infanticide has existed to some extent in certain parts of China. Du Halde says, " In the great cities, such as Peking and Kanton, this shocking sight is very common ; but in other places it is very rare." t The Chinese As They Are, by G. Tradescant Lay, p. 260. J What is Christianity? p, 145 ; Scriptural Researches, 174, 194, &c. 104 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. Sacred Writings. Every thing in prophecy and circum- stance marks them out as likely to take an important place, and to act a prominent part, in the events which are shortly coming upon the earth. They have been once, if they be not now, the wisest and most enlightened people. Salvation is of the Jews. Their uninspired lite- rature contains, as it always did, many valuable instruc- tions and maxims, especially with regard to moral and religious practice, and the conduct of life. Their long period of affliction and persecution is likely to have dis- ciplined and instructed their hearts and dispositions, and prepared their minds for the reception at length of pure religious truth and wisdom. Salvation is of the Jews. And whether the Redeemer himself shall first come to Zion again, and rule over his people from thence, and from thence send forth the true and perfect law, and the pure word and river of life, flowing from a full interpre- tation and comprehension of the Bible as a fountain, or whether the Jews shall first return to their land and be converted, and devote their studies and zeal to the eliciting and illustration of Christianity from every word of the Old and New Testaments, preparatory to His second coming, in either case, the Jews seem to be destined to act a glorious part in extracting the abun- dant and overflowing riches of Divine wisdom and Christian truth, which are hidden, as in an inexhaustible mine, in all the types and figures, and precepts and para- bles, and ceremonies and prophecies, and lives of saints and patriarchs, and every event of history, as recorded in Holy Scripture, from the beginning of creation to the times coincident with the first coming of our Lord. ESSAY VII.] ANTICIPATION IMPOSSIBLE. 105 We cannot even approach to forming an adequate conception of the sight, when we shall see clearly and know perfectly the word of truth and revelation, as it shall be fully developed to us. We can just perceive some symptoms of the errors of our present systems and opinions, as being opposed to the spirit and form of Scripture truth, and some small signs of the direction which sounder views and interpretations might take, in approach towards the true spirit and wisdom of revealed truth. We can perceive that the Bible is an immense treasure of hidden wisdom, because each person, as he penetrates further into it, is only more convinced that he is still but on the threshold ; and that more faithful practice and obedience must be the key,* for that the whole book is sealed to us by our self-chosen principles of conduct, and practices ; and that the Jews are not only the natural interpreters, if they could but be weaned from their traditions, and be brought to it with a right intention and spirit, but that they are more likely to be disciplined at length into this right course of thought and a suitable teachableness, by their loner chasteniners * / and afflictions, because we find that all our worldly advancements and growth in wealth, luxury, power, prosperity and civilization, only lead us farther from the maxims and spirit and motives and rules of Christianity, and the capability of obeying or believing them. We know nothing of the real nature of our ultimate regene- ration, or of the manner of the second coming, more "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Matt. v. 8. " Every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself' even as He is pure," 1 John, iii. 3. 106 NEED OF MORE PERFECT CHRISTIANITY. [ESSAY VII. than the Jews knew and believed of the manner of the first coming to redemption, or whether our Lord will bring it at once and immediately by Himself, or first by his ministers ; but we feel and groan under the desire of a further redemption and regeneration of the body and mind and spirit and understanding, and of the knowledge and practice of a more real and perfect Christianity. It may be, that the temple of God is already opened in heaven, and there is seen in his temple the ark of his testament: that is, the first signs and leaven of perfect Christianity. But no one can enter into the temple, till the plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled. But now at this time, by the pouring out of the sixth vial, it seems that the great river Euphrates (the great flood, or ocean) is drying up, that the way of the kings of the East may be prepared. The Eastern habits of thought and conduct must first take their due share, in forming our minds, and the perfecting of civilization. After that, the seventh vial shall be poured out into the air ; and then shall the spirit of religion become pure and perfect ; and then, and not till then, shall the true believers in Christ enter into the temple of God, and worship him in spirit and in truth.* * Rev. xi. 19 ; xv. 5, 8 ; xvi. 12, 17. ( 107 ) ESSAY VIII. THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. " THAT WAS, AND IS NOT, AND YET IS." REV. XVli. 8. SPIRITUAL INCEST THE REVIVAL AND USE OF HEATHEN LEARNING AND PRINCIPLES THE HEALING OF THE BEAST PERFECTED AFTER THE REFORMATION ARISTOTLE THE FATHER OF INFIDELITY IN SUCCESSIVE AGES OPINIONS OF PRIESTLEY, FLEURY, LUTHER, DR. ARNOLD ROME REVIVED CLASSICAL LIBERTY DIGNITY AND WORSHIP OF HUMAN NATURE AGE AND AUTHORITY SLIGHTED LIBERTY OPPRESSIVE POOR AND POOR LAWS OF ATHENS AND ROME CORRUPTION OF CAPITAL CITIES THEATRES GLADIATORIAL SHOWS HEARING AND SEEING SOME NEW THING SPIRIT OF UN- TRUTH QUAKER EDUCATION. BUT there is a still heavier charge, which lies against the ruling principles in Christendom ; for if certain not lightly pondered surmises be correct, they realize the renewal and re-establishment of the Greek and Roman Empires, and the revival of the heathen beast prophe- sied of in Revelations. It may not be easy to place the right crown precisely upon each head of the anti-christian beast. But the Protestant Churches have felt no scruple in affixing the crowns of the Greek and Roman Empires upon the Greek and Roman Churches, which renew and glory in the same respective names of those two heathen and op- 108 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. posing empires, which Christ came to put down; and if, in some sort, the same circle of regal dignity were said to embrace the head and horns of the Protestant Kingdoms and Churches, it would not be more impossible on the ground of promised infallibility, nor improbable on the ground of lamb-like meekness, and absence of pre- sumption. Sir George Rose, in his " Scriptural Researches," has supported views hardly, if at all, falling short of this proposition ; arid he seems to look forward to that final consummation of wickedness in the Gentile Churches, which it is foretold shall bring down the most signal punishment upon them.* He speaks respecting the essential imperfections of the Gentile-Christian Church in this manner : " It appears therefore, that the Chris- tian Church, the Bride of Christ, which from the first would have been Jewish, had not Israel resisted and rejected its Redeemer, and would have existed in the most intimate union with him, passed into the hands of the Gentiles, and became weak and corrupt in their possession, one in some sense scarcely legal, and always imperfect. And all that we learn from prophecy, and have hitherto seen with our own eyes, demonstrates to us, that this Church, as long as she is under Gentile headship, will be fallen and degraded ; and it is brought distinctly to our view by Holy Writ, that it will never be seen in a perfect and beatific state, until Israel, hav- ing received the Gospel, shall assume its long-destined pre-eminence in the universal Church, under the rule * Dan. ix. 27, Marg. upon the desolutor. Luke, xxi. 24. ESSAY VIII.] SPIRITUAL INCEST. 109 of the prophesied David, its Messiah and Redeemer, with whom that Church will then be united by the closest and most endearing ties, as those of a bride to the bridegroom. The Church, whose husband is the mighty Head of Israel, becoming Gentile and corrupt, could no longer claim that holy tie, though still in rela- tionship to him. She was as it were denied by him."* The same author, throughout his fourth chapter, goes on to show, that Jewish idolatries and apostacies are characterized as adulteries, being a pollution of that which was pure and holy only in a secondary degree, namely, the ceremonial law, the shadow and forerunner of a perfect and heavenly; but that idolatries and infidelities in the Christian Church are aptly charac- terized as incest, being typified by the Moabites and Ammonites, the incestuous progeny of Lot and his daughters-^ And though he considers that the offspring of the respective sisters typify primarily the incests of the sister Churches of Rome and Greece, he does not consider that the reformed churches are free from similar reprehension. " The churches which broke and threw off the Romish yoke at the Reformation, have by God's blessing, it is true, substituted a very far purer worship to that which they abjured ; but their divisions, and sects, and heresies, present a picture lamentably unlike that of such a Church, as could, in the character of a * Scriptural Researches, ch. 3, p. 37. f Ibid. ch. 4, p. 44, &c. " The most despicable and deplorable being under heaven is a pagan in a Christian land." " What guilt so deep as that of a baptized infidel ?" Young's Letters, Lett. 6, Works, vol. ii. p. 108, 110,ed. 1798. 110 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. bride, in humble confidence claim the Redeemer as its bridegroom." " Nor is it assuredly," he continues, " on the score of their morality, that the Christian na- tions can venture to appeal to the Gospel, as honouring and obeying its precepts. St. Paul in a few words (Romans, xi. 13 15) signifies to us, that the Gentile Church, at the time of the reception of the Gospel by the Hebrews, will be in a state of death."* There is a passage also in a Sermon by the Rev. Thomas Dale, with which I would fortify myself in the outset, before proceeding more particularly to illustrate and support the proposition which I have undertaken. After referring to the graphical description of the cor- ruptions and impurities of the heathen world, in the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, he proceeds to ask, " Is there any such moral or intellectual improve- ment among the ungodly and unchristianized of our own population, as to warrant the indulgence of a hope, that, under parallel circumstances, such they would not be again ? Our mighty metropolis combines within her- self the commerce of Tyre, the magnificence of Babylon, the philosophy of Athens, and the proud pre-eminence of Rome republican, if not the usurping and devouring rapacity of Rome imperial ; and can we think, that, if infected by the contagion of their infidelities, she would not concentrate the pollution of their crimes.''^ But the chief point to be insisted upon, which is the key-stone to the rest, is the predominance of heathen * Scriptural Researches, p. 36. f Sermon of the Rev. Thomas Dale, preached at St. Bride's, July 12, 1840, p. 8. ESSAY VIII.] HEATHEN LITERATURE. Ill literature and philosophy in our education ; and to show how all other heathen principles and practices have grown out of this one, till the whole of Christendom is in effect a revival and re-establishment of heathenism, with a mixed and subordinate leavening only of Chris- tian principles, disquieting and fermenting it. " Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes Didicit agresti Latio." For " artes" read philosophy, and vices, and in- fidelity, and man- worship, and other idolatries; and then, in like manner, Rome has taken captive her con- queror, the Church of Christ, and holds her in the not unwilling fetters of her philosophy and corruptions and moral system. This evil showed itself in the first beginning of the conversion of the Gentile nations, and the communica- tion with their manners and system, which grew out of it. Fleury remarks, that, from the beginning, the Israelites who were converted to Christianity, became better Christians than the Gentiles when converted.* St. Paul in some of his Epistles shows the abuses and excesses, and false systems, into which the general mass of Gentile converts were from the first disposed to rea- son themselves. But very soon the fathers themselves were drawn in by the same net ; and among them some of the most admired and influential, such as Clemens and Origen, became subject to the charge of heretical opinions, for the very cause of the too great assimilation of their reasoning to the heathen philosophy. * Mceurs des Chretiens, pt. 1, s. 2. 112 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. The disposition of philosophy and human wisdom to resist the first truths of Christianity, as foolishness, has been always the same, from the beginning up to this time. It is said, that "in the disputes between the Christian ministers and pagan priests, the teachers of philosophy were almost invariably found on the side of the latter;"* and this, though they could themselves discern and expose the absurdities of their own Pan- theon. And the certain consequences that must follow from the familiar contact, the studious admiration and imitation of the Greek and Roman writers, philo- sophers, poets, satirists, dramatists, historians, orators, must have been evident to all who had the slightest O knowledge of the delicate fabric and susceptibility of the human mind, or who had not resolved hardily to incur the risk and temptation at all hazards, for the in- dulgence of inclination. It was commanded by the highest wisdom, " Neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die ;" and " Thou shalt not covet:" and again, "Thou shalt not make a graven image :" and again, " Thou shalt not inquire, saying, How did these nations worship their gods?" because the infallible effect and consequence God knoweth of touching, will be tasting, of coveting, will be taking, Libr. of U.K., Hist, of the Church, p. 51; of the Age of Diocle- sian. Dr. Cave relates of St. Barnabas, that when he first arrived at Rome, and set forth the truths of the Gospel in a speech of great plain- ness and simplicity, which took with the populace, " the philosophers and more inquisitive heads entertained the discourse with scorn and laughter, setting upon him with captious questions and syllogisms, and sophistical arts of reasoning." Dr. Cave's Live s of the Fathers, vol. i. p. 100, ed. 1840. ESSAY VIII.] REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 113 of making, will be admiring our own creation, and worshipping the work of our own hands, of inquiring and knowing, will be explaining and excusing, and in natural and necessary course, " saying, we will do like- wise." But, fortifying ourselves, not against the temp- tation, but against the law, we have resolved, in indul- gence of our curiosity and expectations, " ye shall not surely die," " ye shall be as gods," to enter the chamber of imagery ; and we show, by this very conces- sion to our curiosity and desires, that we are already more than half enslaved, and bound in chains, the wor- shippers of the many-headed monster that rules and revels and ravens there within. The spirit of idolatry, of heresy, and infidelity, has attended the use of the classics as the foundation of learning, in each of the countries successively which have taken the pre-eminence as the seat of science and enlightenment, within the utmost limits of the European system and circle of civilization. From Rome it passed for a time to the Saracens ; from the Saracens to the Jews in Portugal and Spain ; and it was found in the metropolis and churches of the Eastern Christians. But the great and chief development, which first began to raise up heathenism to the height and position which it now assumes, as chief ruler among us, was at what is called the revival of learning. This revival took place in Italy, under the patronage and encouragement of the patriarchs of the Roman Church;* who thereby first * M. Rio, in his work, " De la Poesie Chretienne," " On the Painting of the Middle Ages," considers that what is commonly called the revival of the arts under the Medici, was a revival of paganism. 114 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. invented and forged the weapons by which she was invaded, and furnished the arms to the Reformers, by which they so much limited her empire, and weakened her strength. But Protestantism has perfected this work. It is under her auspices and encouragement that infidelity has gained its height, and developed all the mysteries of iniquity with which it has inundated the whole realm of Christendom.* Nevertheless it is * I quote a few passages from Dr. Kett's work on " Prophecy," to guard myself against some unfavourable conclusions that might be drawn from the expression in the text: " The prevalence of metaphysical disquisition powerfully assisted the growth of infidelity, in those countries where the liberal spirit of the Reformation tolerated discussion upon religious and political subjects. Considered as matters of mere speculation, and admired as enlarging the sphere of knowledge, the tendency of those writings was not always perceived by minds which religion guarded from the mischief. They saw the dazzling meteors shoot harmless into space. But infidelity saw clearly how their course might be directed to guide mankind to her dominions ; and the dissensions that prevailed among the nume- rous sects, which sprung from the doctrines of Luther and Calvin, unhappily assisted the execution of this design." The unbelieving Frederick the Great writes, " Philosophy is be- ginning to penetrate into superstitious Bohemia, and into Austria, the former abode of superstition. In our Protestant countries we go on much brisker." " The spirit of free inquiry was the great boast of the Protestants, and their only support against the Roman Catholics, securing them both in their religious and civil rights. It was therefore encouraged by their governments, and sometimes indulged to excess." (Robi- son.) " Others went further, and said, that revelation was a solecism ; and others proscribed all religion," &c. " Most of these innovations were the work of Protestant divines." " The Protestant cantons of Switzerland, particularly Berne, and the Pays de Vaud, have long been infected by the poison of infidelity, daily issuing from that polluted spring, Geneva." " Far be it from me to say, that our mountain stands strong, and ESSAY VIII.] PLATO AND ARISTOTLE. 115 one general principle of evil, spreading through all churches and denominations in the European system ; and Protestants combined with Roman Catholics, and Lutherans with Calvinists and others, to heap up the vast summit of profligacy and wickedness and infidelity which carried itself with such a lofty head and open front at the French Revolution. It has always been one principle and one system, active and eminent in different degrees and places, and in different forms and shapes, in proportion to the degree of development which it has attained ; and this generally in proportion to the degree of refinement and civilization, of which it is the foundation. Though it attained its greatest vitality and eminence at the French Revolution, it is not dead now ; and it even threatens its revival in a still more determined and dangerous shape : the evil effects of which must be proportioned to its ultimate development. The early Christian Church was led astray into Pla- tonic reveries ; but the later and steadier encroachments of heathenism have been carried on under the more headstrong and heartless rationalism of Aristotle ; with shall never be moved. The ark of the Lord was a security to the Jews, only so long as they obeyed his commandments. And the Church of England will be our protection, only so long as we feel the value of the gospel, believe in its doctrines, and obey its precepts." Kett on Prophecy, vol. ii. pp. 133, 167, 171, 272, 274. "The Bishop of Meaux, and the learned Grotius, supposed the second beast to denote philosophy, ' falsely so called.' Dr. Hartley, in the conclusion of his ' Observations on Man,' considers infidelity as the beast. Sir I. Newton and Dr. Clarke interpreted the reign of the beast to be the open avowal of infidelity." Ibid. vol. i. 389. 116 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. whose operations therefore we have chiefly to do in furnishing illustrations. The opinion of Aristotle here advanced, as well as respecting the general encroach- ment of pagan literature upon the opinions and morals and habits of Christian nations, is supported by many influential testimonies. The opinions of Josephus, of St. Augustine, and of Jones of Nayland, have been quoted in the last Essay. The following also add their testimonies in the same scale. Dr. Priestley asserts that "the great father of modern unbelievers among Mahometans and Christians, was Averroes, a Saracen Mahometan, of the twelfth cen- tury." He was devoted to the philosophy of Aristotle, whose writings are said to have made all the unbelievers in the age of Petrarch and that of Leo X.* Fleury, in like manner remarks, " that the too great subtleties of metaphysics and dialectics, which were introduced at the revival of learning, were borrowed by Europeans from the Arabians." *f- He goes on to say again, " that the casuists founded their systems of mo- rals upon human reasoning." " As if," he continues, "Jesus Christ had not instructed us in all truth, as well appertaining to manners and morals, as to faith; and as if we were to have to seek for them again among the ancient philosophers." This is what Luther proclaimed of the study of Aris- totle, and other similar writers. "Aristotle, Porphyry, * Kelt on Prophecy, vol. ii. p. 124. t Fleury, Mreurs des Chretiens, part 4, c. 53, p. 244. Bruxelles, 1726. J Ibid. p. 246. ESSAY VIII.] ROME REVIVED. 117 the theologians of the sentences, these are the fruit- less studies of the age. There is nothing I so burn for, as to strip bare that actor who has deluded the Church, in that truly Grecian mask of his, and to expose his ignominy to all mankind : that most crafty deluder of the human mind : so much so indeed, that if Aristotle had not been flesh, I should not have blushed to assert that he was the very devil." * " There is no reasoning or syllogism suited to the things of God; Aristotle is to theology as darkness to light."t The Jansenists, in like manner, are said to have laid Aristotle's doctrines to the charge of the Church. A very recent authority and testimony, pronounced in all the ripeness of age and intellect, and, though little thought or expected by those who then heard him, from within a short distance of the grave, will hardly be less respected ; and none of his inclinations or pre- dilections could have been effectual to lead his mind in that direction. Dr. Arnold thus delivered his sentiments and experience, upon the whole subject which I am treating of. "We derive scarcely one drop of 'our blood from Roman fathers; we are in our race strangers to Greece, and strangers to Israel. But morally, how much do we derive from all three. In this respect their life is in a manner continued in ours ; their influences, to say the least, have not perished. Here then we have, if I may so speak, the ancient world still existing, but with a new element added, the element of our English * Letter to John Langus, quoted, " Waddington's History of the Church," p. 67. f Idem. Exposition of his Doctrines, 1517, quoted ibid. p. 70. 118 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. race."* "The peculiar stamp of the middle ages is undoubtedly German ; the change manifested in the last three centuries, has been owing to the revival of the older elements with greater power, so that the Ger- man element has been less manifestly predominant." ~\- " For the last 1800 years, Greece has fed the human intellect ; Rome, taught by Greece, and improving upon her teacher, has been the source of law and government, and social civilization."^; Having these, among many other authorities,^ for the * Dr. Arnold's Inaugural Lecture on the Study of Modern History, delivered in the Theatre, Oxford, December 2, 1841, p. 35. f Ibid. p. 36. J Ibid. p. 38. It is said of Fox, and other eminent men, in the way of praise, that they soothed their minds when under excitement and affliction by reading the classics. If we were to hear of a Hindoo making the same use of our Scriptures, we should consider him to be more than half converted. See S. Athanas. Orat. con. Gerites ; S. August. Confess, lib. i. cc. 1 5, 1 6, 1 7. S. Gregory, in one of his Epistles, says, " That he would not have bishops teach human learning ; because they must praise Jupiter with the same mouth wherewith they sing the praise of our Lord. He says, " This is not suitable even for pious laymen." Georg. Pasor. Lexicon in Nov. Test. His whole preface, "De vera juventutis insti- tutione," is a treatise on the mischievous character and effects of hea- then literature. " Je scai ce qui a decrie les siecles dont je parle, c'est la prevention des humanistes du quinzieme sifecle, un Laurens-Valle, un Platine, un Ange Politien. Ces pretendus savans, ayant plus de litterature, que de religion etdebon sens,ne s'arretoient qu'a 1'ecorce; etne pouvoient rien gouter que les crivains de 1'ancienne Rome, et de 1'ancienne Grece. Ainsi ilsavoient un souverain me"pris pour les Merits du moyen- &ge, et comptoient que Ton avoient tout perdu, en perdant la pure Latinitr et la politesse des anciens. Ce prejuge" passa aux Protestans, qui rcgardoient le ronouvellement des etudes, comme la source de leur ESSAY VIII.] ROME REVIVED. 119 seemingly extravagant doctrine, that the image of pagan Rome is revived among us, and has received life and power again in the very midst of Christendom, I may proceed to delineate some of the features of this image ; and to show their strict resemblance with those of their progenitor and prototype. There is a Liberty in name the same proclaimed to the Christian world, as the fruit of Christian belief and practice. But the liberty which we proclaim to our- selves, and which we are making more and more the object of our idolatry, and the palladium of our citadel, is altogether founded upon a heathen model, and upon Grecian and Roman principles. We "inhale during the ardour of youth the maxims and the spirit of clas- sical freedom ;"* and our motives to it are all selfish, and none of them self-denying; but such as maybe en- gendered and fed by the study of heathen philosophers and poets, and the historians of their unceasing wars of jealousy and aggression, and civil dissensions. And reformation." Fleury, Discours sur I' Hist. Eccles. depuis 600 jusqu'a 1100, sect. 25. " Voyons done comment on etudioit la philosophic, et commen9ons par la logique. Ce n'etoit plus, comme elle etoit dans son institution, 1'art de raisonner juste et de chercher la verite par les voyes les plus sures : c'dtoit un exercice de disputer et de subtiliser a l'infini." Id. Cinquieme Discours, sect. 8. " Et en verite il est etonnant que les Chretiens ayant entre les mains 1'Ecriture sainte, ayent cru avoir besoin d' Aristote pour apprendre la morale Les peres avoient meprise ce philosophe, quoiqu'ils 1'entendissent parfaitement Au contraire nos docteurs du dou- zieme et du treizieme sibcle, qui en faisoient leur oracle, et le uom- moient le philosophe par excellence," &c. Id. ibid. sect. 9. See also Hooker's Eccles. Pol. bk. iii. s. 8. * Alison's History of Europe, vol. i. p. 41. 120 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. how has this principle operated and shown itself, in the French Revolution for example, where it once attained to ripeness ? " Religion was never once alluded to by the popular party ; classical images ; reference to the freedom and spirit of antiquity, formed the great means of public excitation ; the names of Brutus, and Cato, and Scipio, and Themistocles, were constantly flowing from their lips ; the national assembly never resounded with such tumultuous applause as when some fortunate allusion to the heroes of Greece or Rome was made ; the people never were wrought up to such a state of fervour, as when they were called on to follow the ex- ample of the patriots of the ancient republics." * I shall show, in a subsequent Essay, that we are re- hearsing over again all the leading principles of the French Revolution ; it is sufficient in this place to ob- serve, that it is pride and selfishness and the love of power which constitute liberty, according to our notion and aim, and that the whole question is among us, as it was among the Romans and Greeks, which party shall have the reins of government and its advantages, and what shall be the number of the tyrants. The same pride rules among us, and has been shown in our embassies to China, which demanded, when Timagoras the Athenian, who was sent by them as ambassador to the King of Persia, had the imprudence to degrade his country by the act of prostration, that he should be condemned to die on his return. The proud and petu- lant republicans, whose element was war and bloodshed, * Alison's History of Europe, vol. i. p. 125. ESSAY VIII.] DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE. 121 and who understood not the arts of domestic life and peace in their own countries or families, were self- applauded for calling the Asiatics barbarians, because their own ignorance and self-conceit prevented their seeing or believing the contradiction of it, in the exer- cise of the domestic arts and accomplishments, and the active performance of the social duties of life, and peace, and happiness. Our aim, like the Greeks, is to extol and exalt human nature. The human mind and spirit must not be broken, or degraded. Boys must not be chastised with the rod, because it lowers their spirit and dignity ; and no motives of fear or force must be used to elicit applica- tion and good conduct, but learning must be pursued because it is profitable and pleasant, and it must be made palateable and amusing for this purpose ; and right conduct must be shown to be our interest, and be followed from conviction and reason. Self-love and self-indulgence are better habits than the love of pa- rents, and obedience ! because the reason is left free, and exercised, and indulged ! As if the indulgence of reason and self-will were not sure to lead to pride and a tyrannical spirit ; and the indulgence of self-love and appetite to the perversion and abuse of reason. < Are we a people then that approve the precept, " Happy are the poor in spirit ?" or this, " Happy are the proud ?" Are we then more Christians ? or, are we more nearly heathens ? We extol and exalt human nature; and we revive and re-establish the Greek and Roman worship of man, and the deification of humanity. There is a new ele- 6 122 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. inent revived in our philosophical creed, and set side by side with our Christian profession, a " Faith in Hu- manity." The spirit of the phrase is in every mouth ; but it is by no one more openly enunciated than by Dr. Channing : " It shows a want of faith in God and humanity to deny to others and ourselves free scope, and the expan- sion of our best powers. " What I most lament in these apprehensions is, the utter distrust of human nature which they discover." " There is sprung up a faith, of which antiquity knew nothing, in the final victory of truth and right, in the elevation of men to a clearer intelligence, to more fra- ternal union, and to a purer worship. This faith is taking its place among the springs of human action, is becoming even a passion in more fervent spirits. I hail it as a prophecy which is to fulfil itself. .... We are beginning to learn, that the intellectual, moral, social world has its motion too, not fixed and immutable like that of matter, but one which the free-will of men is to carry on, and which, instead of returning into itself, like the earth's orbit, is to stretch forward for ever. This hope lightens the mystery and burthen of life. It is a star which shines on me in the darkest night ; and I should rejoice to reveal it to the eyes of my fellow- creatures." " I have thus spoken of the present age." * The Present Age ; by Dr. Channing. Bristol, Philp and Evans ; London, Simpkin & Co., pp. 22, 24, 34. The reprint of this par- ticular address in England, and the general circulation of Dr. Chan- ning's works, show that the sentiments are popular elsewhere than in America. ESSAY VIII.] WORSHIP OF HUMAN NATURE. 123 These sentiments are current and popular among us, though not in general so openly expressed. Man is deified and worshipped. Man is become the fellow and fellow-worker with God, as Dr. Channing frequently expresses ft. God in Christ condescended to brother- hood with his saints on earth, and we exalt ourselves to brotherhood with God in heaven. God in Christ clothed himself with our flesh, and purified and sancti- fied it, and admitted those whom he purifies in like manner, to a participation with this his nature, we have taken the fallen nature of man, and made it an image of God, and worshipped it. This proclaiming of liberty to human nature, is a pro- claiming liberty to our passions, as well bad as good ; as the proclaiming liberty and dominion to our reason, is a licence to youth and folly, to set itself against age and authority and real wisdom. Therefore age and authority are derided and dis- esteemed, parents are ridiculed and despised, and are to be instructed by their children. It is said that chil- dren ought to be taken away from the contamination of their homes and parents, and be educated by the state. This also is of Greece. Therefore antiquity is slighted : not the antiquity of Greece and Rome, and classical antiquity, because the human mind, especially the proud and untamed and ill-directed mind, is so servile that it must find a master: but ancestors and rulers are derided and slandered and degraded, and we have no reverence or respect for our fathers by nature or office, our domestic, our spi- o2 124 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. ritual, and our political fathers. The bankrupt in name and fortune keep in awe the respectable and the rich, as Aristophanes pourtrayed of the Athenians.* This also is of Greece. Well did Matthias Prideaux inquire, long since, " Whether Socinianism and slighting of all antiquity be not an introduction to paganism and atheism. "^ The effect of our liberty in religion presents one sin- gular coincidence in its operation. There are said to have been 30,000 sects in the Christian Church. This is the exact number to which the gods are said to have attained in the Roman Pantheon. J The tyrannical spirit of freedom has attained to the same results in modern states as it did in Rome and Greece, and produced the same oppression of the work- ing classes. In Athens there were some 20,000 free- men ; being one many-headed tyrant over 400,000 slaves. There was about the same proportion in Lace- daemon. The free Americans hold an overwhelming majority of black slaves under subjection ; and the tyranny and seventy of the Americans, and of the English, in the West Indies, over their slaves, has been * So Charmides, in the banquet of Xcnophon, is introduced as stating the advantage his present poverty has over his former affluence. " Now I threaten others, instead of their threatening me. I can go into or out of town without any one taking exception. The rich now pay respect to me ; they rise to me ; and offer me their chair ; they give me the wall. In a word, I am now a king, I was then a slave." Xenoph. Conviv., c. 4. t Introduction to History, p. 155, ed. 1664. J Varro. ESSAY VIII.] LIBERTY SELFISH AND OPPRESSIVE. 125 everywhere shown, as it was in Sparta and Rome, to be infinitely more selfish and cruel than that of masters towards their slaves under monarchical governments. Again, the condition of the lower orders in England at this time is closely assimilating itself to that which existed in the Roman empire at the period of their final corruption, and consequent destruction. It is related by Ammianus Marcellinus, " that when Rome fell be- fore the forces of Alaric, the whole of Italy and Africa was in the hands of 1760 great families, who resided at Rome, and cultivated their immense estates by means of slaves.*" "The race of independent cultivators had entirely disappeared before the engrossing wealth of the patrician classes.^" Now those who have acquainted themselves with the agricultural counties of England, must have perceived, how the large and important class of possessors of small landed properties have been declining rapidly during the last thirty years, till they have become almost extinct ; especially in the counties of Sussex and Devonshire, where they used to be most numerous. At the same time the landed proprietors have left their estates, and spend their time and fortunes in London and places of amusement ; and the cultivators of the land drag on a servile and hopeless existence, without the countenance and encouragement of the receivers of the produce, with constantly lowering wages, under the irretrievable oppression of high-rented and struggling farmers. I would scarcely allude to the monopolies and op- * Ammian. Marcell. 14, 6. f Alison on Population, ii. 47, 48. 126 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. pressions of the manufacturing capitalists, because the resemblance is not so exact ; but the same principle is carried out by them only to a ten-fold greater extent of selfishness and oppression. The greater capitalists are systematically overpowering and destroying the smaller manufacturers; and the labouring poor are used, and their powers and lives are sported with, as if they were cattle which we may at our will either breed and mul- tiply, or destroy; or rather as tools and machines which may be resumed or laid aside, as we please, and at our convenience. Mr. Alison gives the proportion of the class of landed proprietors in England, namely, 1 in 60, of the popu- lation, including their families.* This is a snialler pro- portion than in any other country; because we have carried the principles of modern civilization to a higher pitch, and a more classical perfection. The history of the poor and the poor laws in Greece and Rome, when verging to their decline, was almost exactly that of this country at the present moment : a grievous oppression of the poor, together with a vast distribution of public and legalized relief, which degraded and discontented and demoralized the reci- pients ; or rather, the oppression of riches and civi- lization produced that degree of poverty and misery among the working classes, which made necessary a public provision, however destructive and disorganizing, lest the people should possess themselves of the property of the country for very despair and recklessness. " The city now abounds with beggars," says Isocrates, * Alison on Population, ii. 48. ESSAY VIII.] POOR AND POOR-LAWS AT ATHENS. 127 " and the country with vagabonds." " The whole city is filled with lamentations ; the poor grieve apart, un- relieved and unnoticed." "The poor, who, whilst they were assisted by the charity of their countrymen, preserved their virtues and their industry, when they were entitled by law to a certain provision, abandoned themselves to a degrading and reckless indolence ; charity lost both its blessings. What the rich bestowed was the offering of their fears, and given without a hope or intention of doing good ; it was eagerly seized by the poor, but with feelings rather of discontent at what was withheld, than of gra- titude for what was bestowed. The poor increased in wretchedness and number, till they exceeded those who had property. One-third of the citizens were daily pro- vided with the means of subsistence as paupers, and used their leisure to support the schemes of the demagogues, which tended to make all others as wretched as them- selves. " The contentions and pauperism of the Athenians continued to augment, so that when Athens submitted to Antipater, 12,000 out of the 20,000 citizens were struck off the rolls, as unfit, on account of their poverty, to take any share in the government of the city." * The history of the poor at Rome is still more strikingly analogous. Distributions of corn to the poor began to be practised from the time of the expulsion of the kings. Afterwards it was made compulsory and regular, by the laws of the * Robinson's Ancient Poor Laws, p. 33, 34. 128 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. Gracchi, the Sempronian laws, the Octavian, and the Clodian laws.* " The quantity received by each citizen was seem- ingly the same as a slave was entitled to from his master. M. Lepidus calls it scornfully " a prison allowance ; enough perhaps to avert instant death, and to enable the poor to starve by degrees, but insufficient to maintain a family and home." " In the time of Julius Caesar, 320,000 citizens were receiving the public corn ; but after a census, in which he examined the people from house to house, he struck off from this number 170,000. The persons relieved were registered, a provision was made to supply vacan- cies occurring in the list, and the praetor was constantly to keep up the number to 150,000."f Augustus altered the distributions to four times a year; but was forced to return to the monthly distribution. The number increased to 200,000. At one time, when there remained only three days' consumption in the public granaries, he had resolved to poison himself, unless the corn fleets arrived. Several attempts were made by the emperors to recede from this destructive state of things. But " notwith- standing any endeavours to the contrary, pauperism gradually spread itself over nearly the whole popula- tion." " The distribution of corn under the Clodian law continued, with little variation, until the downfal of the empire." * * Robinson's Ancient Poor Laws, p. 38 to 43. t Ibid. p. 44. J Ibid. p. 44 to 49. ESSAY VIII.] POOR AND POOR-LAWS AT ROME. So, in spite of palliations, and remedies, and new improvements, the pauperism consequent upon the principles of Roman civilization, and the debasement and discontent and disorganization consequent upon the necessary resort to public relief, when private vir- tues and sympathies and affections became extinct, continued to be an increasing instrument for under- mining and overthrowing this once vigorous empire, and of torturing it in death. There is another feature in our poor system, which stands convicted of a resemblance to the Grecian philo- sophy. Plato recommended that all beggars should be banished from his republic; and we have not only made it criminal to beg relief, but the French Directory de- clared it a crime to give charity; and we have sub- scribed to the same law in effect by general consent and understanding. Another feature of resemblance to Rome is in the great and increasing corruption of our capital cities ; which are now generally described as the hotbeds of vice, and the receptacles of rank and fermenting masses of crime and filthiness. The great corruption which we are ready to acknowledge is among the working classes ; but independent of the rich being the cause, by their neglect, of this corruption of the lower orders, the sel- fishness and avarice of our great trading capitalists, and the degradation of the mercantile character to low trick and cunning, and of the habits of trade to practices bordering upon fraud, and to speculation bordering upon gambling, which are increasing, show G 5 130 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. that the portrait is growing not only to a likeness of particular features, but to a general resemblance. Tacitus says of Rome, that there every thing in the world that was foul and infamous resorted, and was habitually practised.* Sallust relates, that " every one who exceeded the rest of men in depravity and profligacy, all who had lost their patrimony and character in the world, all whom wickedness or disgrace had driven from their homes, found their way to Rome, as to the common sewer of the republic." f " Under the name of Roman," said Bishop Liutprand, " we include whatever is base, whatever is cowardly, whatever is perfidious, the extremes of avarice and luxury, and every vice that can prostitute the dignity of human nature." f Fleury says of the Romans in the fourth century, " that they were immersed in luxury, and delicacy, and prided themselves upon a false refinement." If the stern Roman character could be so dishevelled and debased by riches and power and conquest, let us see whether our own British virtue and honour be not gradually relaxing, and being shattered and dissolved by the luxuries and refinements of wealth, and the pride of prosperity and empire. Our theatrical representations furnish another parallel with the manners of Rome ; which attained in this re- * Tacit. Annal. 15. f Sallust, Bell. Catalin. s. 37. J Quoted, Kett on Prophecy, vol. ii. p. 11. Moeurs des Chretiens, part 4, s. 44. ESSAY VIII.] THEATRICAL REPRESENTATIONS. 131 spect to a greater profligacy than Greece. Read the following descriptions side by side ; and they seem meant for a description of the same state of things. St. Cyprian thus laments the abuse of the Roman stage : After alluding to the gladiatorial shows, he then turns " with sorrow and shame to the theatre. It is called stage representation," " he says, " to recount in verse the enormities of former times ; the by-gone sin of parricide and incest is unfolded in representation fashioned to the life, lest the crimes which have been perpetrated should be forgotten by the lapse of time. Each succeeding age is reminded by what it hears, that what has been done before, can be committed again ; offences die not with the lapse of ages, crime is not drowned in years, nor wickedness buried in forgetfulness, deeds gone by in the perpetration, still live in the example. In mimic representations, men are drawn on, by lessons of impurity, to review openly what they have done in secret, or to hear told what they may do here- after. Adultery is learnt, while it is seen ; and while this evil, publicly sanctioned, inveigles to vice, the matron returns from the scene, with a loss of the modesty which perchance she took to it."* Let us now look again on the modern picture. In the 50th volume of the Quarterly Review (for March 1834), the state of the French drama is reviewed. The following general description of its character and features there appears. "Bastardy, seduction, rape, adultery and incest, as motives the poniard, poison- * St. Cyprian. Tract on the Grace of God. Altered from the translation in the Library of Fathers, vol. iii. THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. and prostitution, as means this is the gamut ; and even these original notes they contrive to repeat in the same monotonous succession, borrowing from them- selves, and from one another, with the least possible variety of combination."* The same passage goes on to detail more particularly, the specific facts and instances upon which this description is founded. M. Frequier also, in his recent work on "The Dan- gerous Classes of Paris," " denounces loudly the mis- chievous tendency of the French drama the malefactor, as well as the romantic division of it; for our neighbours," observes the reviewer, "at the present moment are, like ourselves, great admirers of the Newgate style of litera- ture." And the same reviewer thus describes the similar character and tendency of our own theatres. "Our ephemeral dramas are many of them mere re- modellings of the mass of periodical trash which is now poured out upon us in a still increasing flood each monthly issue more worthless than the last. How such works can be tolerated by the public is matter of absolute wonderment. Were this vulgarity and vice redeemed by any talent, any development of character, any graces of language, our surprise would be less. The writers of this class have one and only one device for obtaining popular favour that of conglomerating crimes. Every page must have its two or three catastrophes ; and they dibble in their atrocities, one to every twenty lines, as regularly as if they were planting cauliflowers. With them every thing depends upon the abundance of blood and brains, and provided the murders, robberies, rapes, * Page 210. ESSAY VIII.] GLADIATORIAL SHOWS. 133 treasons, trials and executions, are sufficiently numerous, and they can get some poor artist to prostitute his pencil for their illustration the sale is sure to be extensive, and the minor theatres lose no time in dramatizing the new masterpiece."* The gladiatorial shows however, and the fighting with wild beasts, might at least have been expected to form a contrast to the taste and habits of Christian civili- zation. But the bull-fights were the invention arid delight of one of the most civilized ages and nations of Christendom ; and above it is said, that, with us, every- thing depends upon the abundance of blood and brains; and the other day Samuel Scott hung himself (by mistake !) in the presence of three to five thousand English people ; and even now Van Amburgh has been seen, and is to be seen, fighting with wild-beasts, and being torn by them, under the patronage of nobility, and in the midst of admiring and applauding assem- blies. The increasing use and importance of newspapers, and ephemeral literature, is rapidly becoming a counter- part to the Athenian appetite for continually hearing and seeing some new thing. This is the age of news- papers. There never surely was any age so quickly and easily caught by the very phantoms of discovery and invention, the first gusts of news, and the toys of fashion. Geology, craniology, phrenology, mesmerism, electro- magnetism, Daguerreotypography, become the prevailing philosophic topic in their turn, in quick succession, and each to be laid aside for some new philosophical mania, * Quart. Rev. No. 129, p. 39, 40. 134 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. The most instructive works, and the most momentous events, when two years old, are passed by and forgotten. Tar-water, metallic tractors, electricity, galvanism, mus- tard-seed, respirators, brandy and salt, homoeopathy, hydropathy, twelve ounce doctors, St. John Long, Mor- rison, each in rapid turn, occupy the throne of medicine, and despotically sacrifice some hecatombs of lives of their free, self-devoting subjects. And the love of truth is lost in this reckless, heartless, headless search after what is new and exciting. Jose- phus notices that the Greeks were not given to truth. " Grsecia mendax" fell into a gibe and a proverb. The Greeks had received many truths historically, such as the origin of the world, the rotundity of the globe, the central position of the sun, and others ; but they phi- losophized themselves out of the knowledge and belief; and having reasoned everything backwards and forwards, and over and over again, and found that every opinion might be supported by argument, but that none could be made conclusive, they became reckless of reality and truth, as if there were no such thing in effect ; and wearied with effort and excitement, and fruitless hopes, and vain discussions, settled at length into a sceptical indifferentism. We are approaching towards the same end, by a similar process. But one marked distortion of feature, under this head, which likens us to the Grecian monster, is in respect of artistical falsehood. It is of the essence of the fine arts, and the beau ideal, to deal in untruth. This taste and acquirement we boastfully borrow from Greece ; and it has tended as much as anything, from ESSAY VIII.] WANT OF TRUTH. 135 the beginning, to draw us into kindred and unison with the Graecia mendax. The very profession of the fine arts, of poetry, painting, sculpture, the drama, is to misrepresent nature; and oratory also and rhetoric, which is " the chair of lies," bring the falsehood down to practice, and the business of life. Unities and exaggerations, of time and place, and light and colour, are required, which nature does not present. We are as false in requiring exaggeration of shade, as the Chinese in using none. Uniformity in feature and face is resorted to in sculpture, which are not found in the real example. High foreheads are pourtrayed and exaggerated, to suit an opinion, so as to falsify philosophical truth. Great minds are put into tall bodies; giving the lie to general experience. St. Paul is painted as a tall man, giving the lie to sacred history. So orators, generals, statesmen, emperors, philosophers, are made men of great stature. The most ridiculous instance is that of making a poet taller than his companions. Musssuni ante omnes ; medium nam plurima turba Hunc habet, atque humeris extantem suspicit altis.f All these things are deliberately and studiously prac- tised, and imitated from the approved example of Greece; and the world admire and doat on them ; and the artists obey the servile tastes and dicta of their patrons, and pride and pique themselves upon the purity and truth of their own work, and have not the sense and under- standing to say, " is there not a lie in my right hand ?" Even histories are written to support opinions, and for t Virgil. ;neid. 6, 667. 136 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. display, and as exhibitions of fine writing, and not as plain narratives of facts ; being in this respect also imi- tations of the Greeks, and opposite to the spirit and practice of the Asiatic nations. They are made exercises of skill and trials of ingenuity, to see how far facts may be accumulated and marshalled, to support particular theories and prejudices of parties. Josephus says, in 'like manner, of the Grecian historians, " that they were not solicitous for the discovery of truth."* This habit of mind, thus in alliance with falsehood, is praised by us, and sought after as the standard of truth in taste ; and the like taste and spirit extends to our habits of judgment in other subjects. Our prin- ciples of reasoning become artificial as our tastes in the fine arts, and as nearly bordering upon falsehood. An artificial refinement of mind, and a classical education and exercise in the habits of thought and reasoning, are considered an essential preparation for the acquisition of knowledge, and the discovery of the highest truth. A man must have a gentlemanly education to fit him for the true study and discernment of Christianity. That is, a falseness of mind is the best preparative for truth. No wonder that such a system should give the lie to the words of Gospel truth, and say, " Many wise after the flesh, many mighty, many noble are called." " It is easier for the rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." It is no wonder, that the teachers and ob- servers of such a system, should have assumed to them selves the key of knowledge ; and should neither enter Josephus con. Apion. bk. 1, s. 5. ESSAY VIII.] EDUCATION AMONG THE QUAKERS. 137 in themselves, and should hinder those who would enter in. The simplicity of the Gospel and the Cross is again to us Greeks foolishness.* If Jesus Christ were to appear again among us in poor and lowly guise, and walking in a humble station of life, is it likely that we should recognize him ? * The Quakers have, more than others in modern times, acknow- ledged the ability of the poor to comprehend the whole of Chris- tianity; and they reject the notion of using classical literature in aid of it. They say, " men of deep learning know frequently less of spiritual Christianity than those of the poor who are scarcely able to read the Scriptures." They contend, that " if the Scriptures were the most vitally understood by those of the most learning, then the dis- pensations of God would be partial, inasmuch as he would have excluded the poor from the highest enjoyment of which the nature of man is susceptible, and from the means of their eternal salvation." " They reject all school divinity, as necessarily connected with the ministry. They believe that if a knowledge of Christianity had been obtainable by the acquisition of the Greek and Roman languages, and through the medium of the Greek and Roman philosophers, the Greeks and Romans themselves had been the best proficients in it ; whereas the Gospel was only foolishness to many of these. They say, with St. Paul to the Colossians, 'beware lest any man spoil you through philo- sophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.' And they say with the same Apostle to Timothy, ' O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called ; which some professing have erred concerning the faith.'" (1 Tim. vi. 20, 21.) " We find Justin the Martyr, a Platonic philosopher, but who was afterwards one of the earliest Chris- tian writers after the apostles, and other learned men after him down to Chrysostom, laying aside their learning and their philosophy for the school of Christ. The first authors of the Reformation also contended for this doctrine. Luther and Calvin, both of them, supported it. Wickliff, the first Reformer of the English Church, and Tyndal the Martyr, the first translator of the Bible into the English language, supported it also. In 1652, Sydrach Simpson, master of Pembroke 138 THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. [ESSAY VIII. If Jesus Christ is to come again in the flesh, shall we receive and recognize him ? Will not our Lord Jesus Christ, when he shall come again, be denied in Christendom ? Hall, in Cambridge, preached a sermon before the university, contend- ing that the Universities corresponded to the schools of the prophets, and that human learning was an essential qualification for the priest- hood. This sermon, however, was answered by William Dell, master of Caius College, in the same university ; in which he stated, after having argued the point in question, that the universities did not cor- respond to the schools of the prophets, but to those of heathen men ; that Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras were more honoured there than Moses or Christ ; that grammar, rhetoric, logic, ethics, physics, meta- physics, and the mathematics, were not the instruments to be used in the promotion or the defence of the Gospel ; that Christian schools had originally brought men from heathenism to Christianity, but that university schools were like to carry men from Christianity to heathen- ism again." Clarksons Portraiture of Quakerism, vol. ii. 134, 135, 249, ed. 1807. Unhappily the Quakers have been departing from some of their best principles, of simplicity in education and manners; and hence they have given scope to the dangerous points in their system to deve- lope themselves, which are leading many of them into infidelity. ( 139 ) ESSAY IX. CONSUMMATION OF THE FINAL APOSTACY. CHARACTER AND SIGNS OF THE TIMES FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY ROMISH ERRORS SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY THE FINAL APOSTACY SECOND EPISTLE OF ST. PETER EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE QUOTATION FROM THE REV. E. BICKERSTETH. IT is fit that we should contemplate the advance of that final apostacy which shall precede the second coming of our Lord : when he shall destroy the nation or nations, the powers and principles, of the dominion of Antichrist, and establish his kingdom. It is true that the several symptoms of this evil have been observed, and their consequences predicted, each in their very first rise ; and now that the symptoms have made pro- gress, and taken hold of the system, we notice them but little, and think that as we still exist, when the disease is ten-fold greater, that all these must have been bad physicians and false prophets, and that our safety and freedom from death is demonstrated by the length of life which we have lived, and by experience. It is those who have enjoyed the greatest and the most even health, who are the most alarmed at the first appearances of illness; and it is impossible, as I have shown,* for the Essay II. 140 THE FINAL APOSTACY. [ESSAY IX. public mind, and most difficult for any individual, to per- ceive the mischief of those habits and symptoms which are become a part of the system and constitution. It must also be admitted, that great advances towards an improvement in religious activity, and liberal contri- bution to sacred objects, have to be admired of late years. But independent of the much more rapid and extensive increase of its opposites, so that it must be looked upon rather as a defensive than an aggressive movement, I fear that, like the greatest and most per- fect of all reformations in the Hebrew commonwealth, wherewith Josiah purified it more than it ever had been made pure, this present revulsion is only a prelude to like utter and irretrievable disasters to those which came upon the Jews and Jerusalem for their still ever increasing and overflowing rebellions. It is the marked feature of these, as it is to be of the last times, that many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased. These distinctions have characterized the whole of the last three centuries ; but does it not at this time look like a consummation ? Almost all the nations of the world are inwardly con- vulsed and disorganized, and fermenting with a political uneasiness and discontent, and longing after repeated changes upon changes, towards they know not what. Kings are ashamed and confounded, and thrones and governments are shaken and vacated, and they that sit in them are ready to hide themselves from the storm which is gathering over them, and the pitiless wrath. The largest armies that ever existed are collected toge- ther and maintained, by way of peace establishments, ESSAY IX.] SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 141 and for defence ; and are ready and eager to engage, and can hardly be restrained from engaging in war, with the most murderous weapons that ever were in- vented, for no one worthy or important or assignable object, at a time when it is universally pretended to be confessed, that war must bring to all disaster, and to no one profit. The churches in all countries, nationally speaking, must be considered to be going to pieces. The spoliation of church property is becoming the object and practice everywhere, in Spain, in Switzerland, in Rome, in Ire- land, in England. The clergy are looked upon with doubt and apprehension by the government: in most countries they are despised ; in England too they are hated.* Men pay tithes more cheerfully to the lay-impropriators than * Germany, &c. by Gleig, vol. i. pp. 102, 110, ct seq. Prussia. " The archbishop, being at the head of the priesthood, he was, as a matter of course, the most obnoxious person in Paris. The French don't like priests." Unit. Serv. Journ. 1830, p, 546. "It is the peculiar feature in the Popish-Protestant Church of England, that its tithe-fed priests and their country flocks are in har- mony only when mischief and injustice to the community are to be perpetrated. If we wanted proof that a law was bad, we should require nothing better than the fact that a grasping and overpaid priesthood zealously supported it." English Newspaper. A magistrate of character and influence complained at a meeting of gentlemen on public business, speaking the sentiments of those with whom he acted, that the clergy, as a body, opposed and prevented every improvement in his county. These expressions were current two or three years since, though they are not the fashion of the present season. It is not the fact of such expressions being used by individuals which indicates the temper of the times, but their being used publicly, at this period, when public men accommodate themselves so habitually to the prevailing fashion and opinion. 142 THE FINAL APOSTACY. [ESSAY IX. to the clergyman: it is the very name of tithes which is hated.* Infidelity prevails in Roman Catholic countries ; dissent, and free-thinking bordering upon Deism, in the Protestant states. Colonies and nations are peopled, without a provision being made by government for the support of churches or clergy: even the slight assistance which was formerly given to this object, is either with- drawn or diminished.^ If it is truly reported, in Nova Scotia, each clergyman has in his charge a district averaging in extent 446 square miles : in the island of Cape Breton, in the same colony, the length of which is 100 miles and the breadth 80, and the population 30,000, there are only two clergymen, j; In Australia things are rather worse than better. In Norfolk Island there is not one single clergyman of the Church of England. Five years ago, there were in the whole colony not more than eight acting and efficient clergymen. || It is charged against the English by every Mahometan and idolater with whom they come in contact, that they have no religion ; and this charge is mostly warranted and jus- tified, inasmuch as they have been as wanting in moral conduct and practice as in outward religious observance. Another marked and expressive feature is the suffer- ings and distresses, and the heartless oppressions of the poor.^I This is the certain characteristic of an over- * House of Commons Debate, June 25, 1839; Educational Grant, f The clergy reserves in Canada. The annual grant to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. J Colonial Church Record ; Ap. Soc. Gaz. No. 3, p. 45. Speech of Rev. A. M. Campbell, at Bath, Jan. 31, 1839. || Ibid. The town of Sydney alone contains 16,000 free inhabitants. In addition to and in corroboration of what I have elsewhere said ESSAY IX.] BONDS OF SOCIETY LOOSENED. 143 grown, effete, and rapidly declining state. It was so in Rome, Athens, and Judaea ; and in the last case it is expressly named as one among the chief causes of the judgments which were denounced upon that heavily afflicted nation.* The classes of society are no longer held together by any personal attachment or kindness, or affectionate intercourse. The only bond which attaches men together is party and opposition. They are united in offensive and defensive warfare. Thus it is a union of disunion. It is the friendship of a common hatred : the association of division : the concord of discord : the aggregation of repulsion. The ancient bands and obligations are dissolved ; the former duties and prin- ciples are denied ; and new rights and powers and self-formed governments are erected, in religion, in morals, and in politics. All are equally characterized by an intensity of conceit, independence, and enmity : the mark by which Christians are especially characterized is hatred and selfishness. It seems to be true, as it has been said, that " the demons of infidelity, blas- phemy, confusion and sedition, are busy in their dark deeds, and would gladly overturn all that makes life happy in church and state.f" Examples of the triumph of reason over religion, of the rights of man over the rights of God, are furnished by the recent marriage and registration acts. By the respecting the harsh feelings towards the poor, a Cabinet minister is reported to have made this answer, when it was asserted in the House of Commons that the poor were fed no better than dogs " If it were so," he said, " their masters pay for their dogs' food, but these do not pay anything for what they have to eat." * Isai. iii. 14, 15; x. 2 ; Jcr. v. 28; xxii. 3, 5, 13, 17 ; Mi. iii. 3. f Marriott's Serm. i. 258 ; "Thy kingdom come." 144 THE FINAL APOSTACY. [ESSAY IX. first of these, marriage without religious sanction and obligation is facilitated and encouraged by the authority of the legislature. In St. Pancras parish the baptisms are decreased by 600 in the year, and in St. Margaret's, Westminster, by 300. The proportion is still greater in some other parishes ; and since the passing of the act for the registration of births, this effect is general. And it is nearly certain that few if any of these numbers of children are baptized elsewhere. The civil ceremony of registering the name and the religious rite of baptism are confounded in the minds of the common people ; and they think, when the name is registered according to the provision of the legislature, that every thing is complete. These acts were a concession to the devilish preten- sion of reason and liberty, that " no man is answerable for his creed." Another rebellion against God, begun in this genera- tion, is the comparative impunity of crime: the prac- tice of examining the circumstances of crime, excusing and accounting for it by temptation, " the serpent beguiled me :" the temptations are considered to be too great, especially in political offences even to death : till the command of God is set at naught and denied, that " Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." We are not to sin, though under temptation : and without trial sin would not exist : and from every temptation there is an escape. But let us pass on to a review of that catalogue of offences, by which, St. Paul tells us, the apostacy of the last times shall be characterized. They are con- tained in the 1st and 2nd Epistles to Timothy. Let us ESSAY IX.] ROMISH ERRORS. 145 go through the whole catalogue ; and we shall see how exactly the features of society, and the habits and pas- sions which rule in these times, correspond to each of them. In the 4th chapter of the 1st Epistle to Timothy, St. Paul thus prophesies : " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speak- ing lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." I consider, with many others, that this reflects upon the Romish errors ; which precede in their rise and growth those of the very last apostacy, as this prophecy preceded that in the 2nd of Timothy, which relates to the final Antichrist. The spirit of error and deceit, and the superstitions borrowed from devils, or the heathen worship, which characterize the Romish yoke, and weave the ensnaring meshes of their net, seem to be expressly pointed out, and prophesied of, in this de- scription. The pious frauds, and false miracles, put forth for the vulgar, in which their teachers themselves do not believe, these are there expressly designated, as hypocritical lies. Such ministers of the holy things of God must indeed have their minds and consciences cauterized. And their error is not in recommending and encouraging celibacy and fleshly mortifications, but in forbidding to many, and forcing to abstain by fast- H 146 THE FINAL APOSTACY. [ESSAY IX. ing according to a set rule ; thereby returning back to the flesh from the spirit, from worship to ceremonial, and tempting to every kind of abuse and evasion, through putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear. But the 2nd Epistle to Timothy, in the 3d chapter, speaks of another apostacy, of a different and still deeper character ; and this is the one which seems to be more particularly applicable to our time.* We will pursue its track, and trace its footsteps in order. " This know also, that in the last days (lor^araif Yjp.eputs) perilous times shall come ; for Men shall be lovers of their ownselves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Disobedient to parents Unthankful Unholy Without natural affection Truce breakers False accusers Incontinent Fierce Despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady Highminded Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Men shall be lovers of their ownselves. What so marks and distinguishes the character of the present day as selfishness and self-love ? It is openly ap- plauded. It is made a virtue of. In moral philosophy, and the rule of human life, the selfish system of morals is the peculiar topic of this era ; and has been the most * Dr. Kett is of opinion, that the 1st Epistle to Timothy applies to the Papal Antichrist ; the 2nd Epistle, ch. 3 and 4, to a subsequent Antichrist; and he quotes Mede for this. The 2nd of St. Peter, and St. Jude's Epistle, do neither of them, he says, apply to Papal Anti- christ, but to infidelity. Kelt on Prophecy, vol. i. p. 387, 388. ESSAY IX.] COVETOUS BOASTERS. 147 approved and growing principle and doctrine of the present generation. In political economy, in like man- ner, the new and approved dogma is, that self-interest is the most sure to direct people right in the adjustments of trade and commerce, and all the mutual money- making dealings between man and man. Into govern- ment the same principle has entered and is prevailing, in the doctrine that people are best capable of govern- ing themselves. Covetous (<$Apyypo). This hardly needs illustrating. We are confessedly worshippers of money. Wealth is considered the strength, the palladium of the nation. As often observed, this is the only country in which it is a crime to be poor. Riches are really a virtue. In accord- ance with this, almost every crime may be expiated by riches ; therefore every thing may be obtained for mo- ney ; every desire may be accomplished; every ambi- tion achieved ; every secret may be known ; and, pro- verbially, every man in England has his price ; for if the money be but enough, every crime is palliated and ex- cused by the greatness of this temptation. So fond are we of money, and so great is our opinion of its merits and power, that paid officers are now esteemed to be better than those who give gratuitous services. Good men, it is said, will be plentiful, if good men are in demand and well paid. Boasters. The chief topic of our delight is the dig- nity of human nature : the capability of our attain- ments : the rights of man, and the eights of the H2 148 THE FINAL APOSTACY. [ESSAY IX. people : that we are fellow workers with Christ : that Christianity is but a step : that we are just en- tering upon a new era of invention and discovery, by which we shall carry the world to perfection ; and de- velope the great mystery of religion and liberty, of philanthropy and equality. Proud (wrepi)