THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID Barter's In Fourteen Volumes, 8vo. Cloth, 6s. each. THE COLLECTED WORKS OF THEODORE PARKER, MINISTER OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY AT BOSTON, U. S. Containing his Theological, Polemical, and Critical Writings ; Sermons, Speeches, and Addresses ; and Literary Miscellanies. Vol. I., pp. 380, arid Portrait. Cloth, 6s., DISCOURSES ON MATTERS PERTAINING TO RELIGION, Vol. ii., pp. 360. Cloth, 6s., TEN SERMONS AND PRAYERS. Vol. in., pp. 318. Cloth, 6s., DISCOURSES OF RELIGION. Vol. iv., pp. 312. Cloth, 6s., DISCOURSES ON POLITICS. Vol. v., pp. 336. Cloth, Gs,, DISCOURSES OF SLAVERY. Vol. L Vol. vi., pp. 323. Cloth, 6s., DISCOURSES OF SLAVERY. Vol. II. Vol. vii., pp. 296. Cloth, 6s., DISCOURSES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. Vol. vm., pp. 230. Cloth, 6s., MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. Vol. ix., pp. 292. Cloth, 6s, CRITICAL WRITINGS. Vol. I. Vol. x., pp. 308. Cloth, 6s., CRITICAL WRITINGS. Vol. II. Vol. XL, pp. 257. Cloth, 6s., SERMONS OF THEISM, ATHEISM, & POPULAR THEOLOGY. Vol. xii., pp. 356. Cloth, 6s., AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. Vol. xin., pp. 236. Cloth, 6s., HISTORIC AMERICANS. Vol. xiv, pp. xx. and 332. Cloth, 6s, LESSONS FROM THE WORLD OF MATTER AND THE WORLD OF MAN; being SELECTIONS FROM THE UNPUBLISHED SERMONS OF THEODORE PARKER. LONDOX : TRUBNEH & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL, E.G. A DISCOURSE MATTERS PERTAINING TO RELIGION. BY THEODORE PAEKEE. " If an offence come out of the Truth, better is it that the offence come, than the Truta be concealed." JEBOME. J LONDON : TEUBNEE & CO., LUDGATE HILL. BRITISH AND FOREIGN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, 37, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND. 1876. 23 7f PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE following pages contain the substance of a series of five lectures delivered in Boston, during the last autumn, at the request of several gentlemen. In preparing the work for the press I have enlarged on many subjects, which could be but slightly touched in a brief lecture. It was with much diffidence that I then gave my opinions to the public in that form ; but considering the state of the- ological learning amongst us, and the frequent abuse of the name of Religion, I can no longer withhold my humble mite. o It is the design of this work to recall men from the tran- sient shows of time, to the permanent substance of Keli- gion ; from a worship of Creeds and empty Belief, to a o worship in the Spirit and in Life. If it satisfy .the doubt- ing soul, and help the serious inquirer to true views of God, Man, the Eelation between them, and the Duties which come of that relation ; if it make Religion appear more congenial and attractive, and a Divine Life more beautiful and sweet than heretofore my end is answered. > I have not sought to pull down, but to build up ; to re- move the rubbish of human inventions from the fair temple of Divine Truth, that men may enter its shining gates and be blessed now and for ever. I have found it necessary, though painful, to speak of many popular delusions, and expose their fallacy and dan- ( gerous character, but have not, I trust, been blind to ( ' the soul of goodness in things evil," though I have taken no great pains to speak smooth things, or say Peace, Peace, when there was NO peace. The subject of Book IV. might seem to require a greater space than I have allowed it, but a cursory examination of many points there hinted at M313841 PREFACE . would require a volume, and I did not wish to repeat what is said elsewhere, and therefore have referred to an " Intro- duction to the Old Testament on the basis of De Wette," which is now in the press, and will probably come before the public in a few months. Some of the thoughts here set forth have also appeared in the Dial for 1840 1842. I can only wish that the Errors of this book may find no favour, but perish speedily, and that the Truths it humbly aims to set forth may do their good and beautiful work. "WEST EOXBURY, MASS 7th May, 1842. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. IT is now fourteen years since I prepared the first edi- tion of this volume. In that time laborious Germans, some of them men of great genius, have investigated the history of the first and second centuries of the Christian Era with an amount of learning, patience, sagacity, and freedom of thought never before directed to that inquiry. Partly by their help, and partly by my own investigations, I have been led to conclude that the fourth Gospel is not the work of John the Disciple of Jesus, but belongs to a later period, and is of small historical value. This conclusion and its consequences will appear in some alterations made in this volume, which I have carefully revised in the light of the theological science of the present day. I know there are Truths in the Book which must prevail ; the Errors con- nected therewith I invite men to expose and leave them to perish, that the Truths may the more readily do their work. I commit both to the Justice of Mankind. BOSTON, Dec. 25, 1855. CONTENTS. PAOE THE INTRODUCTION ... ... ... .." ... j x BOOK I. OF RELIGION IN GENERAL : OR A DISCOURSE OF THE RELIGIOUS ELE- MENT AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS. CHAP. I. An Examination of the Religious Element in Man, and the Existence of its Object ... ... ... 1 II. Of the Sentiment, Idea, and Conception of God ... 7 III. Power of the Religious Element ... ... ... 13 IV. The Idea of Religion connected with Science and Life 23 V. The three great Historical Forms of Religion ... 28 VI. Of certain Doctrines connected with Religion, I. Of the Primitive State of Mankind. II. Of the Immortality of the Soul ... ... ... ... ... 70 VII. The Influence of the Religious Element on Life ... 84 BOOK II. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT TO GOD, OR A DISCOURSE OF INSPIRATION. CHAP. I. The Idea and Conception of God ... ... ... 103 II. The Relation of Nature to God ... ... ... 110 III. Statement of the Analogy drawn from God's Relation to Nature ... ... ... ... ... 117 IV. The General Relation of Supply to Want ... ... 118 V. Statement of the Analogy from this Relation ... 122 VI. The Rationalistic View, or Naturalism ... ... 126 VII. The Anti-rationalistic View, or Supernaturalism ... 133 VIII. The Natural-Religious View, or Spiritualism ... 138 CONTENTS. BOOK III. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT TO JESUS OF NAZARETH, OR A DISCOURSE OF CHRISTIANITY. PAGE CHAP. I. Statement of the Question and the Method of Inquiry 153 II. Removal of some Difficulties. Character of the Christian Records ... ... ... ... ... 158 III. The Main Features of Christianity ... ... ... 163 IV. The Authority of Jesus, its Real and Pretended Source 172 V. The Essential Excellence of the Christian Religion ... 187 VI. The Moral and Religious Character of Jesus of Naza- reth ... ... ... ... ... 192 VII. Mistakes about Jesus his Reception and Influence ... 198 BOOK IV. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT TO THE GREATEST OP BOOKS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE BIBLE. CHAP. I. Position of the Bible Claims made for it Statement of the Question ... ... ... ... ... 211 II. An Examination of the Claims of the Old Testament to be a Divine, Miraculous, or Infallible Composition ... 218 III. An Examination of the Claims of the New Testament to be a Divine, Miraculous, or Infallible Composition ... 231 IV. The Absolute Religion independent of Historical Docu- ments The Bible as it is ... ... ... 242 V. Cause of the False and the Real Veneration for the Bible 245 BOOK V. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT TO THE GREATEST OF HUMAN INSTITUTIONS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE CHURCH. CHAP. I. Claims of the Christian Church ... ... ... 253 II. The Gradual Formation of the Christian Church ... 258 III. The Fundamental and Distinctive Idea of the Christian Church Division of the Christian Sects ... ... 269 IV. The Catholic Party ... ... ... ... 271 V. The Protestant Party ... ... ... 289 VI. Of the Party that are neither Catholics nor Protestants 316 VII. The Final Answer to the Question 319 THE CONCLUSION ... ... 325 THE INTRODUCTION. "To false Religion we are indebted for persecutors, zealots, and bigots ; and perhaps human depravity has assumed no forms, at once more odious and despicable, than those in which it has appeared in such men. I will say nothing of persecution ; it has passed away, I trust, for ever ; and torture will be no more inflicted, and murder no more committed, under pretence of extending the spirit and influence of Christianity. But the temper which produced it still remains; its parent bigotry is still in existence ; and what is there more adapted to excite thorough disgust, than the disposition, the feelings, the motives, the kind of intellect and degree of knowledge, discovered by some of those, who are pretending to be the sole defenders and patrons of religious truth in this unhappy world, and the true and exclusive heirs of all the mercy of God ? It is a particular misfortune, that when gross errors in religion prevail, the vices of which I speak show themselves especially in the clergy ; and that we find them ignorant, nar- row-mirided, presumptuous, and, as far as they have it in their power, oppressive and imperious. The disgust which this character in those who appear as ministers of reli- gion naturally produces, is often transferred to Christianity itself. It ought to b-j associated only with that form of religion by which those vices are occasioned." ANDREWS NORTON, Thoughts on true and false Religion, second edition, p. 15, 10. THE INTRODUCTION. THE history of the world shows clearly that Religion is the highest of all human concerns. Yet the greatest good is often subject to the worst abuse. The doctrines and ceremonies that represent the popular religion at this time, offer a strange mingling of truth and error. Theology is often confounded with Religion ; men exhaust their strength in believing, and so have little Iteason to inquire with, or solid Piety to live by. It requires no prophet to see that what is popularly taught and accepted as Religion is no very divine thing ; not fitted to make the world purer, o and men more worthy to live in it. In the popular belief of the present, as of all time, there is something mutable and fleeting ; something also which is eternally the same. The former lies on the surface, and all can see it ; the lat- ter lies deep, and often escapes observation. Our popular theology is mainly based on the superficial and transient element. It stands by the forbearance of the sceptic. They who rely on it, are always in danger and always in dread. A doubt strongly put, shakes the pulpits of I^ew England, and wakens the thunder of the churches; the more reasonable the doubt the greater the alarm. Do men fear lest the mountains fall : Tradition is always uncertain. " Perhaps yes, perhaps no," is all we can say of it. Yet it is made the basis of Religion. Authority is taken for Truth, and not Truth for Authority. Belief is made the Substance of Religion, as Authority its Sanction and Tra- dition its Ground. The name of Infidel is applied to the best of men ; the wisest, the most spiritual and heavenly THE INTRODUCTION. of our brothers. The bad and the foolish naturally ask, If the name be deserved, what is the use of Religion, as good men and wise men can be good and wise, heavenly and spiritual, without it ? The answer is plain but not to the blind. Practical Religion implies both a Sentiment and a Life, o We honour a phantom which is neither life nor sentiment, o Yes, we have two Spectres that often take the place of Re- ligion with us. The one is a Shadow of the Sentiment ; that is our creed, belief, theology, by whatever name we call it. The other is the Ghost of Life ; this is our cere- monies, forms, devout practices. The two Spectres by turns act the part of Religion, and we are called Christians because we assist at the show. Real Piety is expected of but few. He is called a Christian that bows to the Idol of his Tribe, and sets up also a lesser, but orthodox Idol in his own Den. One word of the Prophet is true of our re- ligion Its voice is not heard in the streets. Our theology is full of confusion. They who admit Reason to look upon o it confound the matter still more, for a great revolution of thought can set affairs right. Religion is separated from Life ; divorced from bed and board. We think to be religious without love for men, and pious with none for God ; or, which is the same thing, that we can love our neighbour without helping him, and God without having an idea of Him. The prevailing the- ology represents God as a being whom a good man must hate j Religion is something alien to our nature, which can only rise as Reason falls. A despair of Man pervades our Theology. Pious men mourn at the famine in our churches ; we do not believe in the inspiration of goodness now ; only in the tradition of goodness long ago. For all theological purposes, God might have been buried after the ascension of Jesus. We dare not approach the Infinite One face to face ; we whine and whimper in our brother's name, as if we could only appear before the Omnipresent by At- torney. Our reverence for the Past is just in proportion to our ignorance of it. We think God was once everywhere in the World and in the Soul ; but has now crept into a corner, as good as dead; that the Bible was his last word. Instead of the Father of All for our God, we have two THE INTRODUCTION. Idols ; the Bible, a record of men's words and works ; and Jesus of Nazareth, a man who lived divinely some centu- ries ago. These are the Idols of the religious ; our standard of truth; the gods in whom we trust. Mammon, the great Idol of men not religious who overtops them both, and has the sincerest worshippers need not now be named. His votaries know they are idolaters ; the other worship in ignorance, their faith fixed mainly on transient things. I know there are exceptions to this rule. Saints never fail from the earth. Reason will claim some deserted niche in every church. But wise men grieve over our notions of Religion so poor, so alien to Reason. Pious men weep over our practice of Religion so far from o Christianity. What passes for Christianity in our times is not reasonable ; no man pretends it. It can only be de- fended by forbidding a reasonable man to open his mouth. We go from the street to the church. What a change ! o Reason and good sense and manly energy, which do their work in the world, have here little to do ; their voice is not heard. The morality, however, is the same in both places ; it has only laid off its working dress, smoothed its face, put on its Sunday clothes. The popular theology is hostile to man ; tells us he is an outcast ; not a child of God, but a spurious issue of the devil. He must not even pray in his own name. His duty is an impossible thing. No man can do it. He de- serves nothing but damnation. Theology tells him that is all he is sure of. It teaches the doctrine of immortality but in such guise that, if true, it is a misfortune to man- kind. Its Heaven is a place no man has a right to. Would a good man willingly accept what is not his ? Pray for it ? This theology rests on a lie. Men have made it out of assumptions. The conclusions came from the premises; but the premises were made for the sake of the conclu- sions. Each vouches for the other's truth. But what else will vouch for either ? The historical basis of popular doctrines, such as Depravity, Redemption, Resurrection, the Incarnation is it formed of Facts or of No-Facts ? Who shall tell us ? Do not the wise men look after these things ? One must needs blush for the patience of man- kind. THE INTRODUCTION. But has Religion only the bubble of Tradition to rest on ; no other sanction than Authority ; no substance but Belief ? They know little of the matter who say it. Did Religion begin with what we call Christianity ? Were there no saints before Peter ? Religion is the first spiritual thing man learned ; the last thing he will abandon. There is but one Religion, as one Ocean ; though we call it Faith in our church, and Infidelity out of our church. It is my design in these pages to recall men from the transient Form to the eternal Substance; from outward and false Belief to real and Inward Life ; from this partial Theology and its Idols of human device, to that universal Religion and its ever-living Infinite God ; from the temples of human Folly and Sin, which every day crumble and fall, to the inner Sanctuary of the Heart, where the still small voice will never cease to speak. I would show men Religion as she is most fair of all God's fairest children. If I fail in this, it is the head that is weak, not the heart that is wanting. BOOR I. " Who is there almost that has not opinions planted in him by education time out of mind ; which by that means came to be as the municipal laws of the country, which must not be questioned, but are then looked on with reverence, as the standard of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, when perhaps these so sacred opinions are but the oracles of the nursery, or the traditional grave talk of those who pretend to inform our childhood ; who .jceiv( tl em from hand to hand without ever examining them? .... These ancient pre-occupations of our minds, these several and almost sacred opinions, are to be examined if we will make way for truth, and put our minds in that freedom which belongs and is necessary to them. A mistake is not the less so, and will never grow into a truth, because we have believed it a long time, though perhaps it be the harder to part with; and an error is not the less dangerous, nor the less con- trary to truth, because it is cried up and had in veneration by any party." LOCKE, in KING'S Life of him, second edition, Vol. I. p. 188, 192. BOOK I. OF RELIGION IN GENEEAL : OR A DISCOURSE OP THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS. CHAPTER I. AN EXAMINATION OP THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN MAN, AND THE EXISTENCE OP ITS OBJECT. As we look on the world which Man has added to that which, came from the hand of its Maker, we are struck q with the variety of its objects, and the contradiction be- tween them. There are institutions to prevent crime ; in- ! stitutions that oTnecessity perpetuate crime. This is built ' on Selfishness ; would stand by the downfall of Justice and Truth. Side by side therewith is another, whose broad foundation is universal Love, love for all that are of woman born. Thus we see palaces and hovels, jails and asylums for the weak, arsenals and churches, huddled to- gether in the strangest and most intricate confusion. How shall we bring order out of this chaos ; account for the ex- o istence of these contradictions? It is serious work to decom- o pose these phenomena, so various and conflicting ; to detect ~> the one cause in the many results. But in doing this, we find o the root of all in Man himself. In him is the same per- o plexing antithesis which we meet in all his works. These conflicting things existed as ideas in him before they took their present and concrete shape. Discordant causes have produced effects not harmonious. Out of Man these in- stitutions have grown ; out of his passions, or his judg- ment ; his senses, or his soul. Taken together they are 1 2 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT. the exponent which indicates the character and degree of development the race has now attained ; they are both the result of the Past and the prophecy of the Future. From a survey of Society, and an examination of human nature, we come at once to the conclusion, that for every 3 institution out of Man except that of Religion, there is a cause within him, either fleeting or permanent ; that the natural wants of the body, the desire of food and raiment, comfort and shelter, have organized themselves, and in- stituted agriculture and the mechanic arts ; that the more delicate principles of our nature, love of the Beautiful, the True, the Good, have their organization also ; that the pas- sions have their artillery, and all the gentler emotions somewhat external to represent themselves, and reflect their image. Thus the institution of Laws, with their con- comitants, the Court-house and the Jail, we refer to the Moral Sense of mankind, combining with the despotic self- ishness of the strong, whose might often usurps the place of Justice. Factories and Commerce, Railroads and Banks, Schools and Shops, Armies and Newspapers, are quite easily referred to something analogous in the wants of Man ; to a lasting principle, or a transient desire which has projected o them out of itself. Thus we see that these institutions out of Man are but the exhibitions of what is in him, and must be referred either to eternal principles, or momentary pas- sions. Society is the work of Man. There is nothing in society which is not also in him. Now there is one vast institution, which extends more widely than human statutes ; claims the larger place in human affairs ; takes a deeper hold on men than the terri- ble pomp of War, the machinery of Science, the panoply of Comfort. This is the institution of Religion, coeval and co- extensive with the human race. Whence comes this ? Is there an eternal principle in us all, which legitimately and of necessity leads to this ; or does it come, like Piracy, War, the Slave-trade, and so much other business of Society, from the abuse, misdirection, and disease of human nature ? Shall we refer this vast institution to a passing passion which the advancing race will outgrow, or does it come from a principle in us deep and lasting as Man ? To this question, for many ages, two answers have been THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT. 3 given one foolish, and one wise. The foolish answer, which may be read in Lucretius and elsewhere, is, that Religion is o not/a necessity of Man's nature, which conies from the action of eternal demands within him, but is the result of spiritual disease, so to say ; the effect of fear, of ignorance, combin- ing with selfishness ; t ;s and knavish Kings, practising on the ignorance, the credulity, the pas- sions, and the fears of men, invented for their own sake. and got up a religion, in which they put no belief and felt no spiritual concern. But judging from a superficial view, it might as well be said that food and comfort were not necessities of our nature, but only cunning devices of but- chers, mechanics, and artist.?',, to gain wealth and power. Besides, it is not given, to hypocrites under the mitre, nor over the throne, to lay hold on the world and move it. Honest conviction and living faith are needed for that work. To move the world of men firm footing is needed. The hypocrite deceives few but himself, as the attempts at pious frauds, in ancient and modern times, abundantly prove. o The wise answer is, that this institution of Religion, like Society, Friendship, and Marriage, comes out of a principle deep and permanent in the constitution of man ; that as humble, and transient, and partial institutions come out of humble, transient, and partial wants, and are to be traced to the senses and the phenomena of life ; so o this sublime, permanent, and universal institution came out from sublime, permanent, and universal wants, and must be referred to the Soul, the religious Faculty, and so belongs among the unchanging realities of life. Look- ing, even superficially, but with earnestness, upon human o affairs, we are driven to confess, that /there is in us a spiritual nature, which directly and legitimately leads to Religion ; that as Man's body is connected with the world of Matter ; rooted in it ; has bodily wants, bodily senses to minister thereto, and a fund of external materials where- with to gratify these senses and appease these wants ; so Man's soul is connected with the world of Spirit ; rooted in God ; has spiritual wants, and spiritual senses, and a fund of materials wherewith to gratify these spiritual o senses and appease these spiritual wants. If this be so, then do not religious institutions come equally from Man ? i * 4 THE KELIGIOUS ELEMENT. Must it not be that there is nothing in Religion, more than in Society, which is not implied in him ? Now the existence of a religious element in us, is not a matter of hazardous and random conjecture, nor attested only by a superficial glance at the history of Man, but this principle is found out, and its existence demonstrated in several legitimate ways. We see the phenomena of worship and religious observ- ances ; of religious wants and actions to supply thoso wants. Work implies a hand that did, and a head that planned it. A sound induction from these facts carries us back to a religious principle in Man, though the in- duction does not determine the nature of this principle, except that it is the cause of these phenomena. This common and notorious fact of religious phenomena being found everywhere, can be explained only on the supposi- tion that Man is, by the necessity of his nature, inclined to Religion ; that worship, in some form, gross or refined, in act, or word, or thought, or life, is natural and quite in- dispensable to the race. If the opposite view be taken, that there is no religious principle in Man, then there are permanent and universal phenomena without a corre- sponding cause, and the fact remains unexplained and unaccountable. Again, we feel conscious of this element within us. We are not sufficient^ for ourselves ; not self- originated; not self- sustained. A few years ago, and we were not ; a few years hence, and our bodies shall not be. A mystery is gathered about our little life. We have but small control over things afounct us^ are limited and hemmed in on all sides. Our schemes fail. Ourplans miscarry. One after another our lights ^gcT'out. Ouf~realities prove dreams. Our hopes waste away. We are not where we would be, nor^ what w~e woulabe. After much experience, men powerful as Napoleon, victorious as Cassar, confess, what simpler men knew by instinct long before, that it is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps. We find jour cir- cumference very near the centre, everywhere? An exceed- ingly short radius measures all our strength. We can know little of material things ; nothing but their phenomena. As the circle of our knowledge widens its ring, we feel our THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT. 5 ignorance on more numerous points, and the Unknown seems greater than before. At the end of a toilsome life, we confess, with a great man of modern times, that we have wandered on the shore, and gathered here a bright pebble, and there a shining shell but an ocean of Truth, boundless and unfathomed, lies before us, and all unknown. ' The wisest Ancient knew only this, that he knew -nothing-. o We feel an irresistible tendency to refer all outward things, and ourselves with them, to a Power beyond us, sublime and mysterious, which we cannot measure, nor even com- prehend. We are filled with reverence at the thought of this power. Outward matters give us the occasion which awakens consciousness, and spontaneous nature leads us to something higher than ourselves, and greater than all the eyes behold. We are bowed down at the thought. o Thus the sentiment of something superhuman comes na- tural as breath. This primitive spiritual sensation comes over the soul, when a sudden calamity throws us from our habitual state; when joy fills our cup to its brim; at "a, wedding or a funeral, a mourning or a festival ; " when we" stand beside a great work of nature, a mountain, a water- fall; when the twilight gloom of a primitive^ forest sends awe into the heart; when we sit alone witt ourselves,' and turn in o the eye, and ask, What am I ? Whence came I ? Whither shall I go ? There is no man who has not felt this sensa- tion ; this mysterious sentiment of something unbounded. J o Still further, we arrive at the same result from a philoso- phical analysis of Man's nature. We set aside the Body with its senses as the man's house, having doors and win- dows ; we examine the Understanding, which is his hand- maid; we separate the Affections, which unite man with man; o we discover the Moral Sense, by which we can discern be- tween right and wrong, as by the body's eye between black and white, or night and day ; and behind all these, and deeper down, beneath all the shifting phenomena of life, o we discover the EELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF MAN. Looking care- fully at this element ; separating this as a cause from its actions, and these from their effects ; stripping this faculty of all accidental circumstances peculiar to the age, nation, sect, or individual, and pursuing a sharp and final analysis till the subject and predicate can no longer be separated ; o we find as the ultimate fact, that the religious element first 6 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT. manifests itself in our consciousness by a feeling of need, of want; in one word,, by A SENSE OF DEPENDENCE. 1 This primitive feeling does not itself disclose the character, and still less the nature and essence, of the Object on which it de- pends; no more than the senses disclose the nature of their objects ; no more than the eye or ear discovers the essence of light or sound. Like them, it acts spontaneously and un- o consciously, soon as the outward occasion offers, with no effort of will, forethought, or making up the mind. Thus, then, it appears that induction from notorious facts, ^consciousness spontaneously active, and J a philo- sophical analysis of our nature, all lead equally to some re- ligious element or principle as an essential part of Man's constitution. Now, when it is stated thus nakedly and abstractedly that Man has in his nature a permanent re- ligious element, it is not easy to see on what grounds this primary faculty can be denied by any thinking man, who will notice the religious phenomena in history, trust his own consciousness, or examine and analyze the combined elements of his own being. It is true, men do not often say to themselves, " Go to now. Lo, I have a religious element in the bottom of my heart." But neither do they often say, ' ' Behold, I have hands and feet, and am the same being that I was last night or forty years ago." In a natural and healthy state of mind, men rarely speak or think of what is felt unconsciously to be most true, and the basis of all spiritual action. It is, indeed, most abundantly established, that there is a religious element in Man. 1 The religious and moral elements mutually involve each other in practice ; neither can attain a perfect development without the other ; hut they are yet as distinct from one another as the faculties of sight and hearing, or memory and imagination. Perhaps all will not agree with that analysis which makes a sense of dependence the ultimate fact of consciousness in the case. This is the statement of Schleiermacher, not to mention more ancient authorities. See his Christliche Glauhe nach der Grundsatzen der ev. Kirche, B. I. 4, p. J5, et seq. in his Works', 1 Abt. B. III., Berlin, 1835. Of course a sense of infinite as well as finite dependence is intended. Others may call it a consciousness of the Infinite ; I contend more for the fact olTa. religious element in man than for the above analysis of that element. This theory has been assailed by several philosophers, amongst others by Hegel. See his Philosophic der Eeligion, 2nd improved edition, B. I. p. 87, et seq., in B. XI. of his Works, Berlin, 1840, B. XVII. p. 279, et seq.; Rosenkrantz, Lehen Hegels, Berlin, 1844, p. 341, et seq. See also Bretschneider, Handbuch der Dogmatik, Leip. 1838, Vol. I., 12, 6. See Studien und Kritikcn, fiir Oct. 1846, p. 845, et seq. for a defence of the opinion of Schleiermacher. CHAPTER II. OF THE SENTIMENT, IDEA, AND CONCEPTION OP GOD. o Now the existence of this religious element, our expe- rience of this sense of dependence, this sentiment of some- thing without bounds, is itself a proof by implication of the existence of its object^ something on which dependence J rests. A belief in this relation between the feeling in us and its object independent of us, comes unavoidably from the laws of Man's nature ; there is nothing of which we can be more certain. 1 A natural want in Man's constitu- tion implies satisfaction in some quarter, just as the faculty. of seeing implies something to correspond to this faculty* namely, objects to be seen, and a medium of light to see by. As the tendency to love implies something lovely for its object, so the religious consciousness implies its object. If it is regarded as a sense of absolute dependence, it im- plies the Absolute on which this dependence rests, inde- pendent of ourselves. Spiritual, like bodily faculties, act jointly and not one at a time, and when the occasion is given from without us, o the Reason, spontaneously, independent of our forethought and volition, acting by its own laws, gives us by intuition o an IDEA of that on which we depend. To this idea we give the name of GOD or GODS, as it is represented by one or f' several separate conceptions. Thus the existence of God is implied by the natural sense of dependence ; implied in 1 The truth of the human faculties must he assumed in all arguments, and if this he admitted we have then the same evidence for spiritual facts as for the maxims or the demonstrations of Geometry. On this point see some good re- marks in Cudworth's Intellectual System, Andover, 1838, 2 vols. 8vo, Vol. II. p. 135, et seq. If any one denies the trustworthiness of the human faculties, there can he no argument with him ; the axioms of morals and of mathematics are alike nonsense to such a reasoner. Demonstration presupposes something so certain it requires no demonstrating. So Reasoning presupposes the trustwor- thiness of Itcason* 8 IDEA OF GOD. the religious element itself; it is expressed by tlie spon- taneous intuition of Reason. Now men come to this Idea early. It is the logical con- dition of all other ideas ; without this as an element of our consciousness, or lying latent, as it were, and unre- cognized in us, we could have no ideas at all. The senses reveal to us something external to the body, and independ- ent thereof, on which it depends ; they tell not what it is. Consciousness reveals something in like manner, not the human spirit, in me, but its absolute ground, on which the spirit depends. 1 Outward circumstances furnish the occa- sion by which we approach and discover the Idea of God ; but they do not furnish the Idea itself. That is a fact given by the nature of Man. Hence some philosophers have called it an innate idea ; others, a reminiscence of what the spirit knew in a hig-her state of life before it took the body. Both opinions may be regarded as rhetorical statements of the truth that the Idea of God is a fact given by Man's nature, and not an invention or device of ours. The be- lief in God's existence therefore is natural, not against na- ture. It comes unavoidably from the legitimate action of the intellectual and the religious faculties, just as the be- lief in light comes from using the eyes, and belief in our existence from mere existing. The knowledge of God's existence, therefore, may be called in the language of Phi- losophy, an INTUITION OF REASON; or in the mythological language of the elder Theology, 2 a REVELATION FROM GOD. If the above statement be correct, then our belief in God's existence does ^ not depend on the d posteriori ^argument, 1 I use the word Spirit to denote all the faculties not material as distin- guished from Body. 2 English writers have rarely attempted to account philosophically for the origin of the Idea of God. They have usually assumed this, and then defended it by the various arguments. See Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, Book I. ch. IV. ; and Cousin's Psychology, Henry's Translation, Hartford, 1834, p. 46, et seq., and 181, et seq. See some valuable remarks in Cudworth's Intellectual System, &c., Vol. II. p. 143, et seq. See the Christian Examiner for January, 1840, p. 309, et seq., and the works there cited. See also the arti- cle of President Hopkins in American Quarterly Observer, No. II., Boston, 1833; and Ripley's Philosophical Miscellanies, Vol. I. p. 40, et seq., and 203, et seq. Some valuable thoughts on this subject may also be found in De Wette, Das Wesen des Christlichen Glaubens, vom Standpunkte des Glaubens daro-es- tellt, Basel, 1846, 4, et ant. See too Wirth, die speculative Idee Gottes Stuttgart, 1845 ; and Sengler, die Idee Gottes, Heidelberg, 1845. IDEA OF GOD. 9 on considerations drawn from the order, fitness, and beauty discovered by observations made in the material world; on considerations drawn and observations made o in the spiritual world. It depends primarily on no argu- ment whatever ; not on reasoning but Reason. The fact is given outright, as it were, and comes to the man, as soon and as naturally as the consciousness of his own existence, o and is indeed logically inseparable from it, for we cannot be conscious of ourselves except as dependent beings. 1 This intuitive perception of God is afterwards fundament- ally and logically established by the a priori argument, and beautifully confirmed by the a'posteriori argument; but we are not left without the Idea of God till we become meta- physicians and naturalists, and so can discover it by much thinking. It comes spontaneously, by a law, of whose o action we are, at first, not conscious. The belief always precedes the proof, intuition giving the thing to be reason- ed about. Unless this intuitive function be performed, it o is not possible to attain a knowledge of God. For all ar- guments to that end must be addressed to a faculty which cannot originate the Idea of God, but only confirm it when given from some other quarter. Any argument is vain when the logical condition of all argument has not been o complied with. 2 If the reasoner, as Dr. Clarke has done, 3 presuppose that his opponent has ( ' no transcendent idea of God," all his reasoning could never produce it, howso- ever capable of confirming and^ legitimating that idea/ if already existing in the consciousness. As we may speak of sights to the blind, and sounds to the deaf, and convince them that things called sights and sounds actually exist, 1 This doctrine seems to be implied in the writings of the Alexandrian fathers. 2 Kant has abundantly shown the insufficiency of all the philosophical argu- ments for the existence of God, the physico-theological, the cosmological, and the ontological. See the Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 7th edition^ p. 444, et seq. But the fact of the Idea given in man's nature cannot be got rid of. It is not a little curious that none of the Christian writers seem to have attempted an ontological proof of the existence of God till the eleventh century, when Anselm led the way. See Bouchitte Histoire des Preuves de 1'Existence de Dieu de- puis les Temps les plus recules jusqu'au Monologium d'Anselme, in the Mem. de PAead. des Sciences Morales, &c., Tom. I. Savants Etrangeres, Paris, 1841, p. 395, et seq., and his second Memoire, p. 461, et seq., which brings the his- tory down to that time. Tom. II. p. 59, et seq., 77, et seq. 3 In his Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God. 10 IDEA OP GOD. but can furnish no Idea of those things when there is no corresponding sensation, so we may convince a man's un- derstanding of the soundness of our argumentation, but yet give him no Idea of God unless he have previously an intuitive sense thereof. Without the intuitive perception, the metaphysical argument gives us only an idea of abstract Power and Wisdom ; the argument from design gives only a limited and imperfect Cause for the limited and imperfect effects. ' Neither reveals to us the Infinite God. The Idea of God then transcends all possible external experience, and is given by intuition, or natural revelation, which comes of the joint and spontaneous action of reason and the religious element. 1 Now theoretically this Idea in- volves no contradiction and is perfect : that is, when the proper conditions are complied with, and nothing disturbs the free action of the spirit, we receive the Idea of a Being, infinite in Power, Wisdom, ana )dne_ss \ that is. in finite. or perfect, in all possible relations. 2 But practically, in the 2 majority of cases, these conditions are not observed; men at- tempt to form a complex and definite conception of God. The primitive Idea, eternal in Man, is lost sight of. The con- ception of God, as men express it in their language, is always imperfect ; sometimes self- contradictory and inipos- sible. Human actions, human thoughts, human feelings. yes, human passions and all the limitations of mortal men, are collected about the Idea of God. Its primitive simplicity and beauty are lost. It becomes self-destructive ; and the D conception of God, as many minds set it forth, like that of a Griffin, or Centaur, or ' ' men whose heads do grow be- neath their shoulders," is self- contradictory ; the notion of a being who, from the very nature of things, could not ex- ist. They for the most part have been called Atheists who denied the popular conception of God, showed its incon- sistency, and proved that such a being could not be. 3 The 1 The Idea of God, like that of Liberty and Immortality, may be called a -, judgment d priori, and from the necessity of the case, transcends all objective experience, as it is logically anterior to it. 3 See Cudworth's Intellectual System, Chap. IV. 810, Vol. I. p. 213, et scq. 3 The best men have often been branded as Atheists. The following benefac- tors of the world have borne that stigma : Thales, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, So- crates, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophanes, and both the Zenos ; Cicero, Seneca, Abe- lard, Galileo, Kepler, Des Cartes, Leibnitz, Wolf, Locke, Cudworth, Samuel CONCEPTION OF GOD. 11 early Christians and all the most distinguished and religi- ous philosophers have borne that name, simply because they were too far before men for their sympathy, too far above them for their comprehension, and because, there- fore, their Idea of God was sublimer and nearer the truth than that held by their opponents. Now the conception we form of God, under the most per- fect circumstances, must, from the nature of things, fall short of the reality. The Finite can form no adequate con- ception or imagination of the Infinite. All the conceptions of the human mind are conceived under the limitation of AxAM Time and Space ; of dependence on a cause exterior to itself; Clarke, Jacob Bohme ; Kant, and Fichte, and Schelling, and Hegel, are still under the ban. See some curious details of this subject in Reimmann's Historia Atheismi, &c., 1725, a dull book but profitable. See also a Dissertation by Buchwaldius, De Controversiis recentioribus de Atheismo, Viteb. 1716, 1 vol. quarto, and " Historical Sketch of Atheism," by Dr Pond, in American Bibli- cal Repository, for Oct. 1839, p. 320, et seq. Possevin, in his Bibliotheca, puts Luther and Melancthon among the Athe- ists. Mersenne (in his Comment, in Geneseos) says, that in 1622 there were 50,000 Atheists in Paris alone, often a dozen in a single house. Biographic Universelle, Tom. XXVIII. p. 390. See some curious details respecting the literary treatment of the subject in J. G. Walch's Philosophisches Lexicon, 2d ed., Leip. 1733, pp. 134 146. Dr Woods, in his translation of Knapp's Theology (New York, 1831, 2 vols. 8vo), in a note borrowed from Hahn's Lehrbuch des Christ. Glaubens, p. 175, et seq., places DR PRIESTLEY among the modern Atheists, where also he puts De La Mettrie, Von Holbach (or La- Grange), Helvetius, Diderot, and d'Alembert. Such catalogues are instructive. But see Clarke's Classification of Atheists at the beginning of the discourse, in his Works, Vol. II. p. 521, et seq. The charge of impiety is always brought against such as differ from the pub- lic faith, especially if they rise above it. Thus Hicks declared Tillotson " the gravest Atheist that ever was." Discourse on Tillotson and Burnet in Lechler, Gesch. Englischen Deismus, Stuttgart, 1841, p. 150, et seq. In 1697, Peter Browne, for a similar abuse of Toland, was rewarded with the office of a Bishop. Ib. p. 195. A curious old writer says, " among the Grecians of old, those Se- cretaries of Nature, which first made a tender of the natural causes of lightnings and tempests to the rude ears of men, were blasted with the reproach of Atheists, and fell under the hatred of the untutored rabble, because they did not, like them, receive every extraordinary in nature as an immediate expression of the power and displeasure of the Deity." Spencer, Preface to his Discourse concerning Prodigies, London, 1665. Diodorus Siculus, Lib. 1, p. 75 (ed. Rhodoman), relates an instructive case. A Roman soldier, in Egypt, accidentally killed a cat S killed a god, for the cat was a popular object of worship. The people rose^frW/ upon him, and nothing could save him from a violent death at the hands of the mob. All religious persecutions, if it be allowed to compare the little with the great, may be reduced to this one denomination. The heretic, actually or by implication, killed a consecrated cat, and the Orthodox would fain kill him. But as the same thing is not sacred in all countries (for even asses have their wor- shippers), the cat-killer, though an abomination in Egypt, would be a great saint in some lands where dogs are worshipped. 12 CONCEPTION OF GOD. while the Infinite is necessarily free from these limitations. / A man can comprehend no form of being but his own finite 7 form, which answers to the Supreme Being even less than 4 a grain of dust to the world itself. There is no conceiva- ble ratio between Finite and Infinite. 1 Our human per- sonality 2 gives a false modification to all our conceptions of the Infinite. But if, not resting in a merely sentimental consciousness of God, which is vague, and alone leads rather to pantheistic mysticism than to a reasonable faith, we take the fact given in our nature the primitive Idea ( of God, as a Being of infinite Power, Wisdom, and Good- / ness, involves no contradiction. This is, perhaps, the most t faithful expression of the Idea that words can convey. This language doe^^pjd^fin^^he^mtu^e^p^^ojl, but dis- tinguishes our Ideaofhim ft^omalTotherideas and con- ceptions whatever. Some great religious souls have been content with this native Idea ; have found it satisfactory both to Faith and Eeason, and confessed with the ancients, that no man by searching could perfectly find out God. Others pi^ojjsc^jjhgirjoj^ of God, malcm^Tuml^ ; tTmTthey reverse the saying of Scripture, and creating a phantom in their own image, call it God. Thus, while the Idea of God, as a fact given in man's nature, and affording a consistent representation of its Object, i^ermanent^and alikekiallj while a merely sentimental consciousness or feel- ing of God, though vague and mysterious, is always the same * n itself; the popular Conception of God is of the most vari- ous and evanescent character, and is not the same in any two ages or men. (The IdeaSis the substance : thefconcerj- . ^"^ -* ' ^-- r 1 M. Cousin thinks God is comprehensible hy the human spirit, and even at- tempts to construct the " intellectual existence " of God. Creation he makes the easiest thing in the world to conceive of! See his Introduction to the History of Philosophy, Linberg's Translation, pp. 132143. See also Ripley, 1. c. Vol. I. p. 271, et seq. One would naturally think human presumption could go no further ; but this pleasing illusion is dispelled by the perusal of some of his opponents. 2 Zenophanes saw further into the secret than some others, when he said, that if Horses or Lions had hands and were to represent each his Deity, it would be a Horse or a Lion, for these animals would impose their limitations on the Godhead just as man has done. See the passage in Eusebius, Prasp. Ev. XIII. 13, and Clemens Alex. Strom. V. 14. The late excellent Dr Arnold goes to the other extreme, and says, " It w only of God in Christ that I can, in my present state of being, conceive anything at all" (!) Life, &c., New York, 1845, Chap. VII. Letter 61, p. 212. THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT. J3 tion) is a transient phenomenon, which at best only imper- fectly represents the substance. To possess the Idea of God, though latent in us, is unavoidable ; to feel its comfort is natural ; to dwell in the Sentiment of God is delightful ; c but to frame an adequate Conception of Deity, and set this forth in words, is not Only above human capability, but im- possible in the nature of things. The abyss j)f GocLis not to be fathomed save by Him who is^M^in-allT" CHAPTER III. TOWER OP THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT. Now this inborn religious Faculty is the basis and cause of all Religion. Without this internal religious element, either Man could not have any religious notions, nor be- come religious at all, or else religion would be something foreign to his nature, which he might yet be taught me- chanically from without, as bears are taught to dance, and parrots to talk ; but which, like this acquired and unna- tural accomplishment of the beast and the bird, would divert him from his true nature and perfection, rendering him a monster, but less of a man than he would be without the superfetation of this Religion upon him. Without ajnoral i faculty^ we^ could have noduties jn r^s^e^t^Q^ien^^witn- s e y ^ ouaTmigious lacl^^T^^^^^ The foundation of each is in Man, not out of him. If man have not a religious element in his nature, miraculous or other ' ' revelations " can no more render him religious than frag- ments of sermons and leaves of the Bible can make a Lamb religious when mixed and eaten with its daily food. The Law, the Duty, and the Destiny of Man, as of all God's creatures, are writ in himself, and by the Almighty's hand. 2 1 See Parker's Sermons of Theism, Atheism, and the Popular Theology, Boston, 1853, Serm. I. 2 See the treatise of Cicero on the foundation of duties in the essay De Legi- 14 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT , The religious elejnent ejx^tinjp^^ithjii^u^s, and this alone, I renders Religion theduty/the privilege, and the welfare * of mankind. Thus Religion is not a superinduction upon the race, as some would make it appear; not an after- thought of God interpolated in human affairs, when the c work was otherwise complete ; but it is an original neces- sity of our nature; the religious element is deep and es- sentially laid in the very constitution of Man. I. Now this religious element is universal. This may be proved in several ways. Whatever exists in the funda- mental nature of one man, exists likewise in all men, though in different degrees and variously modified by different cir- cumstances. Human nature is the same in the men of all races, ages, and countries. Man remains always identical, only the differing circumstances of climate, condition, cul- ture, race, nation, and individual, modify the manifesta- tions of what is at bottom the same. Races, ages, nations, and individuals, differ only in the various degrees they possess of particular faculties, and in the development or the neglect of these faculties. When, therefore, it i.s shown that the religious sentiment exists as^jQatural innciplejn .an^ Qne .man, its existence in allothermeii. iSST" are,^were, or shall be> follows unavoidably from tho of human nature. Again^ tlie universality of the religious element is con- firmed by historical arguments, which also have some force. We discover religious phenomena in all lands, wherever Man has advanced above the primitive condition of mere animal wildness. Of course there must have been a period in his development when the religious faculties had not come to conscious activity : but after that state of spiritual infancy is passed by, religious, ejmotiqns^ appear in the rudest and most civilized^ "state ; among" ttiecannibals of ^ JNew IZeatand and the refined voluptuaries of old Babylon ; in the Esquimaux fisherman and the Parisian philosopher. The subsequent history of men shows no period in which bus, Lib. I. It may surprise some men tbat a Pagan sbould come at the truth which lies at the bottom of all moral obligation, while so many Christian moral- ists have shot wide of the mark. See the discussion of the same subject, and a tvery different conclusion, in Palcy's Moral Philosophy, and Dymond's Essay?. See the heathen witnesses collected in Taylor, Elements of the Civil Law ; Lond. 1786, p. 100, et seq. UNIVERSAL IN MAN. 15 o these phenomena do not appear ; Mg2L5[2i^ B&ade^e^jinjd^^ religim^Te^ OT^TTopeTand gives signs of these spiritual emotions all the world over. No nation with fire and garments has been mrniH^sosavage that they have not attained this ; none so refined as to out- grow it. The widest observation, therefore, as well as a philosophical deduction from the nature of Man, warrants the conclusion that this sentiment is universal. 1 c- But at first glance there are some apparent exceptions to this rule. AjewjDersons from time to time arise and claim the name of&theisb But evn^Jjhej3e_aj3j^ reji^^usjendency ; they acknowledge a sense of depend- ence^wnichthey refer, not to the sound action of a natural element in their constitution, but to a disease thereof, to the influence of culture, or the instruction of their nurses, and count it an obstinate disease of their mind, or else a prejudice early imbibed and not easily removed. 2 Evenjf smn^wiejcouldj^e^oun^d who denied that he ever felt any religious emotion whatever, however feebly this would prove nothing against the universality of its existence, and no more against the general rule of its manifestation, than the rare fact of a child born with a single armjjrogpa against the general rule, that~Man by nature has two arms . Again, travellers tell us some nations with considerable civilization have no God, no priests, no worship, and therefore give no sign of the existence of the religious ele- ment in them. Admitting they state a fact, we are not to conclude the religious element is wanting in the savages ; only that they, like infants, have not attained the proper stage, when we could discover signs of its action. But o l Empirical observation alone would not teach the universality of this element, unless' it were detected in each man, for a generalization can never go beyond the facts it embraces ; but observation, so far as it goes, confirms the abstract con- clusion which we reach independent of observation. 2 See Hume's Natural History of Religion, Introduction. Essays: Loncl. 1822, Vol. II. p. 379. 3 One of the most remarkable Atheists of the present day is M. Cotnte, author of the valuable and sometimes profound work Cours de Philosophic -positive ; Paris, 1830 42, 6 vols. 8vo. He glories in the name, but in many places gives evidence of the religious element existing in him in no small poAver. See Cudworth's Intellectual System, &c., Ch. IV. 1 5. Some one says "No man is a consistent Atheist if such be possible who admits the existence of any general law." ]6 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT these travellers are often mistaken. 1 Their observations have, in such cases, been superficial, made with but a slight knowledge of the manners and customs of the nation they treat. And, besides, their prejudice blinded their eyes. They looked for a regular worship, doctrines of religion, priests, temples, images, forms, and ceremo- nies. But there is one stage of religious consciousness in which none of these signs appear ; and yet the religious element is at its work. The travellers, not finding the usual signs of worship, denied the existence of worship itself, and even of any religious consciousness in the nation. But if they had found a people ignorant of cookery and without the implements of that art, it would be quite as wise to conclude from this negative testimony that the nation never ate nor drank. On such evidence, the early Christians were convicted of Atheism by the Pagans, and subsequently the Pagans by the Christians. 2 1 It seems surprising that so acute a philosopher as Locke (Essays, B. I. ch. 4, 8) should prove a, negative by hearsay, and assert on such evidence as Rhoe, Jo. de Lery, Martiniere, Torry, Ovington, &c., that there were " whole nations amongst whom there was to be found no notion of a God, no religion." See the able remarks of his friend Shaftesbury who is most unrighteously reckoned a speculative enemy to religion against this opinion, in his Characteristics, Lond. 1758, Yol. IV. p. 81, et seq. ; 8th Letter to a Student, &c. Steller de- clares the Kamschatkans have no idea of a Supreme Being, yet gives an account of their mythology ! See Pritchard, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, Lond. 1841, et seq., Vol. IV. p. 499. So intelligent a writer as Mi- Norton says that " in the popular religion of the Greeks and Romans there was no recognition of God." Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, Boston, 1837, et seq., Vol. III. p. 13. This example shows the caution with which we are to read less exact writers, who deny that certain savages have any religion. See examples of this sort collected, for a diffei-ent purpose, in Monboddo, Origin and Progress of Language, 2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1774, Vol. I. book ii. chap. 3, where see much more evidence to show that races of men exist with tails. Some writers seem to think Christianity is never safe until they have shown, as they fancy, that man cannot, by the natural exercise of his faculties, attain a know- ledge of even the simplest and most obvious religious truths. Some foolish books have been based on this idea, which is yet the staple of many sermons. See on this head the valuable remarks of M. Comte ubi supra, Vol. V. p. 32, et It is not long since the whole nation of the Chinese were accused of Atheism, and that by writers so respectable as Le Pere de Sainte Marie, and Le Pere Longobardi. See, who will, Leibnitz's refutation of the charge, Opp. ed. Du- tens, Vol. IV. part i. p. 170, et seq. 2 Winslow, with others, at first declared the American Indians had no reli- gion or knowledge of God, but he afterwards corrected his mistake. See Fran- cis's Life of Eliot, p. 32, et seq. See also Catlin's Letters, &c., on the North American Indians, New York, 1841, Vol. I. p. 156. Even Meiners, Kritisclvi Geschichte dor Religionen, Vol. I. p. 11, 12, admits there is no nation without VMVEKsJAL IN MAN. ^ _ Q^inatimtv_in_an isolated state, having ncTc onTac t AVI th ~tlieir~TeiTo\v -mortals^ TEese*ffive "no ^sjgns of any religious^ ejenient in their nature. But otner uni-( < v^Srsal Jaculties of tHe~race, the^J) eiide^ncy_tp n laugh , and toll speakarticulate wojrds, give quite as. little sign of their \t cx1stelicer i ^'Yet^wnen these unfortunate persons are ex- ! posed to the ordinary influence of life, the religious, like \ o other faculties, does its work. Hence we may conclude it existed, though dormant until the proper conditions of its development were supplied. These three apparent exceptions serve only to confirm the rule that the religious sentiment, like the power of attention, thought, and love, is universal in the race. Yet it is plain that there was a period in which the primitive wild man, without 'language or self-consciousness, gave no sign of any religious faculty at all, still the original ele- ment lay in this baby-man. However, like other faculties, this is possessed in differ- ent degrees by different races, nations, and individuals, and at particular epochs of the world's or the individual's history acquires a predominance it has not at other times. It seems God never creates two races, nations, or men, with precisely the same endowments. There is a differ- ence, more or less striking, between the intellectual, aesthetic, and moral development of two races, or nations, or even between two men of the same race and nation. This difference seems to be the effect, not merely of the religious observances. See in Pritchard, 1. c. Vol. I. p. 188, the statements re- lative to the Esquimaux, and his correction of the erroneous and ill-natured ac- counts of others. If any nation is destitute of religious opinions and observ- ances, it must be the Esquimaux, and the Bushmans of South Africa, who seem to be the lowest of the human race. But it is clear, from the statement of travellers and missionaries, that both have religious sentiments and opinions. The Heathen philosophers admitted it as a fact universally acknowledged that there was a God. 1 See a collection of the most remarkable of these cases in Jahn's Appendix Hcrmeneuticae, &c., Vienna, 1815, Vol. II. p. 208, et seq., and the authors there cited. Monboddo, Ancient Metaphysics, &c., Edinburgh, 1779, et seq., can Geog. Soc., Dec. 185o. 18 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT different circumstances whereto they are exposed,, but also of the different endowments with which they set out. If we watch in history the gradual development and evolu- lution of the human race, we see that one nation takes the lead in the march of mind, pursues science, literature, and the arts ; another in war, and the practical business of political thrift, while a third nation, prominent neither for science nor political skill, takes the lead in Eeligion, and in the comparative strength of its religious consciousness surpasses both. Three forms of monotheistic Eeligion have, at various times, come up in the world's history. Two of them at this moment perhaps outnumber the votaries of all other religions, and divide between them the more advanced civilization of mankind. These three are the Mosaic, tho / Christian, and the Mahometan; all recognizing the unity ) of God, the religious nature of Man, and the relation be- j tween God and Man. All of these, surprising as it is, came from one family of men, the Shemitic, who spoke, in substance, the same language, lived in the same country, and had the same customs and political institutions. Even that wide-spread and more monstrous form of Religion, which our fathers had in the wilds of Europe, betrays its likeness to this Oriental stock ; and that form, still earlier, which dotted Greece all over with its temples, filling tho isles of the Mediterranean with its solemn and mysterious chant, came apparently from the same source. 1 The beauti- ful spirit of the Greek, modified, enlarged, and embellished what Oriental piety at first called down from the Empy- rean. The nations now at the head of modern civilization have not developed independently their power of creative religious genius, so to say ; for each form of worship that has prevailed with them was originally derived from somo other race. These nations are more scientific than reli- gious; reflective rather than spontaneous; utilitarian more than reverential ; and, so far as history relates, have never yet created a permanent form of Eeligion which has extended to other families of men. Their faith, like their 1 This Orientalism of the religious opinions among the Europeans has led to some very absurd conceits ; see a notorious instance in Davie's Mythology of tha Druids. See also La Religion des Gaulois, &c., par le 11. P/Dom [Jacques Martin] ; Paris, 1727, 2 vols. 4to. INDESTRUCTIBLE IN MAX. 1U choicer fruits, is an importation from abroad, not an indi- genous plant, though now happily naturalized, and ren- dered productive in their soil. Of all nations hitherto known, these are the most disposed to reflection, litera- ture, science, and the practical arts ; while the Shemitish tribes in their early age were above all others religious, and have had an influence in .religious history entirely dis- proportionate to their numbers, their art, their science, or their laws. Out of the heart of this ancient family of nations flowed forth that triple stream of pious life, which even now gives energy to the pulsations of the world. Egypt and Greece have stirred the intellect of mankind ; and spoken to our love of the Grand, the Beautiful, the True, to faculties that lie deep in us. But this Oriental people have touched the Soul of men, and awakened re- verence for the Good, the Holy, the Altogether Beautiful, which lies in the profoundest deep of all. The religious element appears least conspicuous, it may be, in some nations of Australia perhaps the most barbarous of men. With savages in general it is in its infancy, like all the nobler attributes of Man, 1 but as they develope their nature, this faculty becomes more and more apparent. II. Again; this element is indestructible in human nature. It is not in the powei^7)T*clipnce*"w^ ternaT circumstances, war or peace, freedom or slavery, ignorance or refinement, wholly to abolish or destroy it. Its growth may be retarded, or quickened; its power mis- directed, or suffered to flow in its proper channel. But no violence from within, no violence from without, can ever destroy this element. It were as easy to extirpate hunger and thirst from the sound living body, as this element from the spirit. It may sleep. It never dies. Kept down by external force to-day, it flames up to heaven in streams of light to-morrow. When perverted from its natural course, it writes, in devastation, its chronicles of wrongs, a horrid page of human history, which proves its awful power, as the strength of the human muscle is proved by the distortions of the maniac. Sensual men, who hate the restraints of Religion, who know nothing of its en- 1 M. Comte takes a very different view of the matter, and has both fact and philosophy against him, 20 THE BELIGIOUS ELEMENT couragements, strive to pluck up by the roots this plant which God has set in the midst of the garden. But there it stands the tree of Knowledge, the tree of Life. Even such as boast the name of Infidel and Atheist find, uncon- sciously, repose in its wide shadow, and refreshment in its fruit. It blesses obedient men. He who violates the divine law, and thus would wring this feeling from his heart, feels it, like a heated iron, in the marrow of his bones. III. Still further ; this religious element is the strong. -, -. , 1 T, 1 1 *-^^^W^l , c ist^ anodi se^cst ijn^hujnjin^mt u^e . It depends on nothing " o^utsTaS^conventionaloi 1 'artificial. It is identical in all men; not a similar thing, but the same. Superficially, man differs from man, in the less and more ; but in the nature of the primitive religious element all agree, as in whatever is deepest. Out of the profouiidest abyss in man proceed his worship, his prayer, his hymn of praise. The history c rv % ^v* L ^'/f^i 1S tf*^ I over the greatest j her unseen hand ; restrains their passions, more powerful >, than all the cunning statutes of the lawgiver; awakens * their virtue ; allays their sorrows with a mild comfort, all her own; brightens their hopes with the purple ray of faith, shed through the sombre curtains of necessity. Religious emotion often controls society, inspires the lawgiver and the artist is the deep-moving principle ; it has called forth the greatest heroism of past ages; the proudest deeds of daring and endurance have been done in its name. Without Religion, all the sages of a kingdom cannot build a city ; but with it, how a rude fanatic sways the mass of men. The greatest works of human art have risen only at Religion's call. The marble is pliant at her magic touch, and seems to breathe a pious life. The chiselled stone is instinct with a living soul, and stands there, silent, yet full of hymns and prayers ; an embodied aspiration, a thought with wings that mock at space and time. The Temples of the East, the Cathedrals of the S West; Altar and Column and Statue and Image, these j are the tribute Art pays to her. Whence did Michael An- gelo, Phidias, Praxiteles, nnd nil the mighty sons of Art, THE STRONGEST IN MAN. 21 who chronicled their awful thoughts in stone, shaping brute matter to a divine form,, building up the Pyramid and Parthenon, or forcing the hard elements to swell into the arch, aspire into the dome or the fantastic tower, whence did they draw their inspiration ? All their greatest wonders are wrought in Religion's name. In the very dawn of time, Genius looks through the clouds and lifts up his voice in hymns and songs and stories of the Gods ; and the Angel of Music carves out her thanksgiving, her penitence, her prayers for Man, on the unseen air, as a votive gift for her. Her sweetest note, her most majestic chant, she breathes only at Religion's call. Thus it has always been. AlujBa^j^ bate o iThe greatest sacrifices lever made are offered in the name / of Religion. For this a man will forego ease, peace, I friends, society, wife, and child, all that mortal flesh holds / dearest; no danger is too dangerous, no suffering too stern to bear, if Religion say the word. Simeon the Sty- lite will stay years long on his pillar's top ; the devotee of Budha tear off his palpitating flesh to serve his God. The Pagan idolater, bowing down to a false image of stone, renounces his possessions, submits to barbarous and cruel rites, shameful mutilation of his limbs ; gives the first- born of his body for the sin of his soul ; casts his own per- son to destruction, because he dreams Baal, or Saturn, Jehovah, or Moloch, demands the sacrifice. The Christian idolater, doing equal homage to a lying thought, gives up Common Sense, Reason, Conscience, Love of his brother, at the same fancied mandate; is ready to credit most obvious absurdities ; accept contradictions ; do what con- flicts with the moral sense ; believe dogmas that make life dark, eternity dreadful, Man a worm, and God a tyrant ; dogmas that make him count as cursed half his brother men, because told such is his duty, in the name of Reli- gion. In this name Thomas More, the ablest head of his times, will believe a bit of bread becomes the Almighty God, when a lewd priest but mumbles his juggling Latin and lifts up his hands. In our day, heads as able as Thomas More's believe doctrines quite as absurd, because o taught as Religion and God's command. In its behalf, the 22 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT foolisliest teaching becomes acceptable; the foulest doc- trines, the grossest conduct, crimes that, like the fabled banquet of Thyestes, might make the sun sicken at the sight and turn back affrighted in his course, these things are counted as beautiful, superior to Reason, acceptable to God. The wicked man may bless his brother in crime ; the unrighteous blast the holy with his curse, and devotees shall shout " Amen," to both the blessing and the ban. On what other authority have rites so bloody been accept- ed ; or doctrines so false to reason, so libellous of God ? For what else has Man achieved such works, and made such sacrifice ? In what name but this, will the man of vast and far outstretching mind, the counsellor, the chief, the sage, the native king of men, forego the vastness of his thought, put out his spirit's eyes, and bow him to a drivel- ling wretch who knows nothing but treacherous mummery and juggling tricks ? In Religion this has been done from the first false prophet to the last false priest, and the pride of the Understanding is abashed; the supremacy of Reason de- graded ; the majesty of Conscience trampled on ; the beau- tifulness of Faith and Love trodden down into the mire of the streets. The hand, the foot, the eye, the ear, the tongue, the most sacred members of the body ; judgment, imagination, the overmastering faculties of mind; justice, mercy, and love, the fairest affections of the soul, all these have been reckoned a poor and paltry sacrifice, and lopped off at the shrine of God as things unholy. This has been done, not only by Pagan polytheists, and savage idolaters, but by Christian devotees, accomplished scholars, the enlightened men of enlightened times. These melancholy results, which are but aberrations of the religious element, the disease of the baby, not the soundness of mankind, have often been confounded with Religion itself, regarded as the legitimate fruit of the re- ligious faculty. Hence men have said, Such results prove that Religion itself is a popular fury; the foolishness of the people ; the madness of mankind. They prove a very different thing. They show the depth, the strength, the awful power of that element which thus can overmaster all the rest of Man Passion and Conscience, Reason and Love. Tell a man his interest requires a sacrifice, he hesi- tates ; convince him his Religion demands it, and crowds IDEA OF EELIGION. 23 rush at once, and joyful, to a martyr's fiery death. It is the best things that are capable of the worst abuse ; the very abuse may test the value. 1 CHAPTER IY. THE IDEA OP EELIGION CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE AND LIFE. THE legitimate action of the religious element produces reverence. This reverence may ascend into Trust, Hope, and Love, which is according to its nature ; or descend into Doubt, Fear, and Hate, which is against its nature : it thus rises or falls, as it coexists in the individual, with wisdom and goodness, or with ignorance and vice. How- ever, the legitimate and normal action of the religious ele- ment leads ultimately, and of necessity, to reverence, absolute trust, and perfect love of God. These are the result only of its sound and healthy action. Now there can be but one kind of Religion, as there can be but one kind of time and space. It may exist in different degrees, weak or powerful; in combination with other emotions, love or hate, with wisdom or folly, and thus it) is superficially modified, just as Love, which is always tho same thing, is modified by the character of the man who feels it, and by that of the object to which it is directed. Of course, then, there is no difference but of words be- tween revealed Religion and natural Religion, for all actual Religion is revealed in us, or it could not be felt, and all revealed Religion is natural, or it would be of no use. 2 1 On this theme, see the forcible and eloquent remarks of Professor Whewell, ih his Sermons on the Foundation of Morals, 2nd edition, p. 28, et seq., a work well worthy, in its spirit and general tone, of his illustrious predecessors, " the Latitude men ahout Cambridge." See also Mr Parker's Sermon Of the llela- tion between the Ecclesiastical Institutions, and the Religious Consciousness of tiic American People, 1855; and that Of the Function of a Teacher of Keli- gion, 1855 ; Sermons of Theism, Atheism, and the Popular Theology, 1855, fcermons III., IV., V., VI. 2 This distinction between natural and revealed religion is very old ; at least 21 IDEA OF RELIGION. What is of use to a man comes upon the plane of his con- sciousness, not merely above it, or below it. We may regard Religion from different points of view, and give corresponding names to our partial conceptions, which we have purposely limited, and so speak of natural and re- vealed Religion; Monotheistic, Polytheistic, or Pantheistic, Pagan, Jewish, Christian, Mahometan Religion. But in these cases the distinction, indicated by the terms, belongs : to the thinker's mind, not to Religion itself, the object of thought. Historical phenomena of Religion vary in the more and less. Some express it purely and beautifully ; others mingle foreign emotions with it, and but feebly re- present the pious feeling. To determine the question what is Absolute, that is, per- o feet Religion, Religion with no limitation, we are not to gather to a focus the scattered rays of all the various forms under which Religion has appeared in history, for we can never collect the Absolute from any number of imperfect phenomena ; and, besides, in making the search and form- ing an eclecticism from all the historical religious phenom- ena, we presuppose in ourselves the criterion by which they are judged, namely, the Absolute itself, which we seek to construct, and thus move only in a circle, and end where we began. To answer the question, we must go back to : the primitive facts of religious consciousness jodtliiiL- us. Tlyn we find reEgion" is VOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW o^troV/iNWAlsD AND OUTWARD OBEDIENCE to that law he has written on our nature, revealed in various ways through Instinct, Reason, Conscience, and the Religious emotions. Through it we regard Him as the absolute object of Rever- - ence, Jb'aith, and Love. 1 This obedience may be unconsci- as old as the time of Origcn. But it is evidently a distinction in form not in substance. The terms seem to have risen from taking an exclusive view of soino positive and historical form of religion. All religions claim to have been miracu- lously revealed. 1 The above definition or Idea of Religion is not given as the only or the best that can possibly be given, but simply as my own, the best I can find. If others have a better I shall rejoice at it. I will give some of the more striking defini- tions that have been set forth by others. Plato : " A Likeness to God, according to our ability." John Smith :' " God is First Truth and Primitive Goodness. True lleligion is a vigorous elilux and emanation of both upon the Spirit of man, and therefore is called a Participation of the Divine Nature .Reli- gion is a heaven-born thing ; the seed of God in the spirits of men whereby they IDEA OF EELIGIOX. 25 ous, as in little children who have known no contradiction between duty and desire ; and perhaps involuntary in the perfect saint, to whom all duties are desirable, who has ended the contradiction by willing himself God's will, and thus becoming one with God. It may be conscious, as o with many men whose strife is not yet over. It seems the highest and completest mode of Religion must be self-con- scious, free goodness, free piety, and free, self-conscious trust in God. 1 o Now there are two tendencies connected with Religion ; o one is speculative : here the man is intellectually employed in matters "pertaining to Religion, to God, to Man's religi- ous nature/ and his relation and connection with God. The result of this tendency is Theology. This is not Re- ligion itself. It is men's Thought about Religion : the Phi- losophy of divine things; the science oi' .Religion. Its sphere is the mind of men. Religion and Theology are no more to be confounded than the stars with astronomy. 2 While the religious element, like the intellectual or the moral, or human nature itself, remains ever the same, the Religious Consciousness of mankind is continually progress- ive ; and so Theology, which is the intellectual expression are formed to a similitude and likeness of Himself." Kant : " Reverence for the moral law as a divine command." Schelling : "The union of the Finite and the Infinite." Fichte : " Faith in a moral government of the world." Hegel : "Morality becoming conscious of the free universality of its concrete essence." This will convey no idea to one not acquainted with the peculiar phraseology of Hegel. It seems to mean, Perfect mind becoming conscious of itself. Schleier- macher : "Immediate self-consciousness of the absolute dependence of all the finite on the infinite." Huso : "Striving after the Absolute, which is in itself unat- tainable ; but by love of it man participates of the divine perfection." "Wollas- ton : " An obligation to do what ought not to be omitted, and to forbear what ought not to be done." Jeremy Taylor: "The whole duty of man, compre- hending in it justice, charify, and sobriety." For the opinions of the ancients, see a treatise of Nit/sch, in Studien und Kritiken for 1828; p. 527, et seq. 1 See Parker's Sermons of Theism, &c., Serin. V. and VI. 2 Much difficulty has arisen from this confusion of Religion and Theology ; it is one proximate" cause of that rancorous hatred which exists between the t/tco- logical parties of the present day. Each connects Religion exclusively with its own sectarian theology. 15nt there were great men before Agamemnon ; good men before Moses. Theology is a natural product of the human mind. ISach man _h as some notion of di tine things that is, a theology ; if he collect them in- to a system, it is .a .system oftfieoZof/y, which differs 'in some points from that of every otTTcr man living. xHereiSDUt one Religion, though many theologies. See de Welte, Ueber Religion and Tbeologie, Part I. Ch. I. III. ; Part 11. Ck. I. III. j his Dogma', ik, 48. 26 LDJEA OF EELIGIOX. ', advances, like all other science, from age to age. The most various theological doctrines exist in connection >vith religious emotions, helping or hindering man's general development. The highest notion I can form of Religion ' is this, which I called the Absolute Religion : conscious service of the. In finite God by keeping every lawnJjTTias enacted into the constitution of the Universe, service of < Blmn^l^'liol-m^^ de- night of every limb of the body, every faculty of the spirit, iand so of all the powers we possess. The other tendency is (practical^ here the man is em- o ployed in acts of obedience to Religion. The result of this o tendency is Morality. This alone is not Religion itself, o but one part of the life Religion demands. There may be o Morality deep and true with little or no purely religious consciousness, for a sharp analysis separates between the religious and moral elements in a man. 1 Morality is the o harmony between man's action and the natural law of God. It is a part of Religion which includes it " as the Sea her waves." In its highest form Morality doubtless implies o Religious emotions, but not necessarily the self-conscious- ness tliereof. For thoughCPietv) the love of God, and BcMicvulciH/oMlio love of Man, do logically involve each other, yet experience shows that a man may see and ob- serve the distinction between right and wrong, clearly and disinterestedly, without consciously feeling, as such, rever- ence, or love of God ; that is, he may be truly moral up to a certain point, without being consciously religious, though he cannot be truly religious without at the same time being JJJJmoral also. But in a harmonious man, the two are prac- tically inseparable as substance and form. The merely moral man, in the actions, thoughts, and feelings which relate to his fellow-mortal, obeys the eternal law of duty, revealed in his nature, as such, and from love of that la\v. 1 It seems plain that the ethical and religious element in Man are not the same; at least, they are as unlike as Memory and Imagination, though, like these, they act most harmoniously when in conjunction. It is true we cannot draw a line between them as between Sight and Hearing, but this inability to tell where one begins and the other ends is no argument against the separate existence of the faculties themselves. See Kant, Religion innerhalbder Grenzcn dei blossen Vernunft ; 2nd ed. 179-i, Pref. p. iii., et seq. Still Religion and Morality ave to be distinguished by their centre rather than their circumfer- ence ; by their type more than their limit. IDEA OF RELIGION. without regard to its Author. the same^law, but reards it as in*lfaeTaw the ^ o Now in all forms of Religion there must be a common element which is the same thing in each man ; not a simi- lar thing, but just the same thing, different only in de- gree, not in kind, and in its direction towards one or many objects, in both of which particulars it is influenced in some measure by external circumstances. Then since men exist under most various conditions, and in widely different degrees of civilization, it is plain that the religious consci- ousness must appear under various forms, accompanied with various doctrines, as to the number and nature of its Objects, the Deities; with various rites, forms, and cere- monies, as it means to appease, propitiate, and serve these Objects; with various organizations, designed to accom- plish the purposes which it is supposed to demand ; and, in short, with apparently various and even opposite effects upon life and character. As all men are at bottom the same, but as no two nations or ages are exactly alike in character, circumstances, or development, so, therefore, though the religious element be the same in all, we must expect to find that its manifestations are never exactly alike in any two ages or nations, though they give the same name to their form of worship. If we look still o more minutely, we see that /no two men are exactly alike in character, circumstances, and development, and there- fore that no two men can exhibit their Religion in just the same way, though they kneel at the same altar, and pro- o nounce the same creed. .From the difference between men,t it follows that there mustbe &s i_many " "^ _ , an ct" "Jorms^o men w a\ir*w7m7eiT*who think about God, and apply thei thoughts and feelings to life. Hence, though the religi- ous faculty be always the same in all, the Doctrines of Religion, or theology; the Forms of Religion, or mode of worship ; and the Practice of Religion, which is Morality, cannot be the same thing in any two men, though one mother bore them, and they were educated in the same way. The conception we form of God ; our notion about 1 Sec Mr Parker's Ten Sermons, Sermons I. to V. 28 DIFFERENCES IN RELIGION. Man ; of the relation between him and God ; of the duties which grow out of that relation, may be taken as the ex- ponent of all the man's thoughts,, feelings, and life. They are therefore alike the measure and the result of the total development of a man, an age, or race. IfjhesgJ^liings *]eso.t^nt like those of S^cience^nuArfr mustvary from land to land, and age to v age, with the varying civilization of mankind; must bo ^ the wise man, anoanother in the foolish man. They must vary also in the same individual, for a man's wisdom, goodness, and general character, affect the phenomena of his Religion. The Religion of the boy and the man, of Saul the youth, and Paul the aged, how unlike they appear. The boy's prayer will not till the man's heart ; nor can the stripling son of Zebedee comprehend that devotion and life which (he shall enjoy when he becomes the Saint mature in years. CHAPTER V. THE THREE GREAT HISTORICAL FORMS OF RELIGION. LOOKING at the religious history of mankind, and espe- cially at that portion of the human race which has risen highest in the scale of progress, we see that the various c phenomena of Religion may, for the present purpose, be summed up in three distinct classes or types, corre- sponding to three distinct degrees of civilization, and almost inseparable from them. These are FETICHISM, POLY- THEISM, and MONOTHEISM. But this classification is imper- fect, and wholly external, though of use for the present purpose. It must be borne in mind that we never find a c nation in which either mode prevails alone. Nothing is truer than this, that niinds of the same spiritual growth FETICH ISM. 29 see the same spiritual truth. Thus, a savage Saint, living in a nation of Idolaters or Polytheists, worships the one true God, as Jesus of Nazareth has done. In a Christian land superstitious men may be found, who are as much Idolaters as Nebuchadnezzar or Jeroboam. o I. Fetidnsm__denotes the worship of visible objects, such as*"x? ts, birds, fish, insects, trees, mountains, the stars, the sun, the moon, the earth, the sea, and air, as o types of the ^S n l|&J&yik' It is the worship of Nature? 1 tmcmoesinariy^^ reli gious observances that pre- vailed widely in ancient days, and still continue among savage tribes. It belongs to a period in the progress of the individual, or society, when civilization is low, the manners wild and barbarous, and the intellect acts in ig- norance of the causes at work around it ; when Man neither understands nature nor himself. Some writers suppose the human race started at first with a pure Theism ; for the knowledge of truth, say they, must be older than the perception of error in this respect. It seems the sentiment of Man would lead him to the ONE GOD. Doubtless it would if the conditions of its highest action were perfectly fulfilled. But as this is not done in a state of ignorance and barbarism, therefore the religious sentiment mistakes its object, and sometimes worships the symbol more than the thing it stands for. In this stage of growth, not only the common objects above enumerated, but gems, metals, stones that fell from heaven, 2 images, carved bits of wood, stuffed skins of 1 It will probably be denied by some, that these objects were -worshipped as symbols of the Deity. It jcems, however, that even -the most savage nations re- garded their Idols only "aT Types of God. ^ On this subject, see Constant. Reli- gion, &c., Paris, 1824, 5 vols. 8vo ; Philip Van Limburg Brauwer, Histoive de la Civilization morale et religieuse des Grecs, &c., Groningues, 1833 42, 8 vols. Svo, Vol. II. Ch. IX. X. et alibi; Oldendorp, Geschichte der Mission aufSt Thomas, &c., Barby. 1777, p. 318, et seq.; Du Ciilte des Dieux fet- iches [par De Brosses, Paris], 1770, 1 vol. 12mo ; Movers, Untersuchimg iiber die Religion und der Gottheiten dcr Phonizier, Bonn, 1841, 2 vols. Svo ; Comte, Cours de Philosophic positive, Vol. V. ; Stuhr, Allg. Gesch. der Rcli- gionsformen, Berlin, 1838, 2 vols. Svo; Mcimers, ubi supra; and the numerous accounts of the savage nations, by missionaries, travellers, &c. Catlin, ubi su- pra, Vol. I. p. 35, et seq., p. 88, et seq., p. 156, et seq., &c. 3 These Stone-fetiches are called Baetylia by the learned. Cybele was wor- shipped in the form of a black stone, in Asia Minor. Theophrast. Charact. 16. Lucian, Pseiidomant. 30. The ancient Laplanders also worshipped largo ty D 30 FETICHISM. beasts, like the medicine-bags of tlie North- American In- dians, arc reckoned as divinities, and so become objects of adoration. 1 But in this case the visible object is idealized ; o not worshipped as the brute thing* it really is. but as tho pe and symbol of God. Nature is an Apparition of tho o eity, God in a mask. Brute matter was never an object of adoration. Thus the Egyptians who worshipped tho Crocodile, did not worship it as a Crocodile, but as a svm- bol of God, " an appropriate one," says Plutarch, "for it alone, of all animals ,\ has 110 tongue jj and God needs nono to speak his power and glory." Similar causes, it may be, led to the worship of other animals. Thus the^Saw): was a type of divine foresight ; theQfolljQf strength ; theCSer- pcii^Df mystery. The Savage did not worship the BufV but the Manitou of all Buffaloes, the universal cause of each particular effect. Still more, there is something mrj- Their instinctive knowledge of ' c cmmgs l rni's , a Jioer events; the wondrous foresight the Beaver, the Bee; the sagacity of the Dog; tho obscurity attending all their emotions, helped, no doubt, o procure them a place among powers greater than human. It is the Unknown which men worship in common things ; o , . %^-^%^^^^/%^^^^ r >^x*^^x^^*-^>^^vJ^-'*^ -^ -*^-"> at this stage, man, whose emotions are never an object of adoration. 2 Fetichism is the infancy of Religion. Here the religious stones called Sciteh. See SchefFer's Lapplancl. In the time of Pausanias, at Phone, in Achaia, there were nearly thirty square stones, called by the names of the Gods, and worshipped. Opp., ed. Lips. 1838, Vol. II. Lib. vii. ch. 22, p. 618. Ivough stones, he adds, formerly received divine honours universally in Greece. The erection of such is forbidden in Levit. x\\i. 1, et al. On this form of worship, see some curious facts collected by Michelct, Hist, de France, Liv. I. Edaircissemcnts*, Oeuvres, Ed. Bruxelles, 18-10, Tom. III. p. 51, 55, 61, scq. 93 (note i.). The erection of Baetylia is forbidden by several councils of the Church, e. g. C. Arclat, II. Can. 23; C. Autoisiod. Can. 3 ; C. Tokt. XII. Can. 11. 1 See Catlin, ubi supra. See also Legis, Fundgruben dcs Alten Xordens, Leip., 1829, 2 vols. 8vo, and his Alkuna, Kordische und Nord-Slawische My- thologie, Leip., 1831, Vol. I. Svo. Mone, Gescliichte der Heidenthums "in Is ordlichen Europa, Leip., 1822, 2 vols. 8vo. See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Gott. 1835, for this wor-ship of Nature in the North. 2 But see the causes of Animal worship assigned by Diod. Sic. Lib. I. p. 76, ed. Ehodoman; the remarks of Cicero, De Nat. Deorura, Tusc. V. et al. ; Plu- tarch, De Iside et Osir., p. 72, et seq., et al. ; Wilkinson, Manners, &c., of An- cient Egypt, 2nd Series, Vol. I. p. 104, seq., and Porphyry, De Abst. IV. 9, cited by him. Jean Paul says, that " in the beast men see the Isis-veil of a Deity," a thought which Hegel has expanded in his Philos. der Pidigion. Seo C/eutzer, Symbol. 3rd ed, Vol. I. p. 30, et tcq. FETICHISM. 31 consciousness is still in the arms of rude, savage life, wliero o sensation prevails over reflection. It is a deification of Na- o ture, " All is God, but God himself." It loses the Infinite in the finite ; worships the creature more than the Creator. Its lowest form for in this lowest deep there is a lower deep worship of beasts.; the highest the sublime, but deceitful, reverence which the old Sabaean. paid the host of Heaven, or which some Grecian or Indian philoso- pher offered to the Universe personified, and called Pan, or Brahma. Then all the mass of created things was a Fetiche. God was worshipped in a sublime and devout, but bewildering, Pantheism. He was not considered as Jifj o distinct from the Universe. Pantheism and Fetichism are / nearly allied. 1 In the lowest form of this worship, so far as we can gather from the savage tribes, each individual has his own peculiar Fetiche, a beast, an image, a stone, a mountain, or a star, a concrete and visible type of God. For it seems in this state that all, or most, external things, are sup- posed to have a life analogous in kind to ours, but more or less intense in degree. The concrete form is but the veil of God, like that before Isis in Egypt. There are no priests, for each man has access to his own Deity at will. Worship and prayer are personal, and without mediators. The age of the priesthood, as a distinct class, has not come. Worship is entirely free; there is no rite, estab- 1 In consequence of the opinion in fetichistic nations, that external things have a mysterious life, M. Comte, ubi suprn, Vol. V. p. 36, et scq., discovers traces of it in animals. When a savage, a child, or a dog, first hears a watch tick, each supposes it endowed with life, " whence results, by natural conse- quence, a Fetichism, which, at bottom, is common to all three!" Here he con- founds the siyn with the cause. Pliny has a curious passage in which he ascribes to the Elephant JEquitas, Religio quoque Siderum; Solisque ac Lunoo Veneratio. Nat. Hist. Lib. Yllt.ch. 1. The notion that beasts had a moral sense appears frequently among the an- cients. Ulpinn says jus naturale is common to all animals. Origen says that Ci'lsus taught that there was no difference between the Soul of a man and that of Emmets, Bees, &c., Lib. II. Cels. Cont. Clement of Alex. (Stromt. VI. 14, p. TOo, 706, ed. Potter) says God gave the Heathen the sun, moon, and stars, that they might worship them, such worship being the way to that of God him- self. Perhaps he was led to this opinion by following the LXX. in Deut. iv. 19. Fetichism continued in Europe long after the introduction of Christianity. The councils of the Church forbid its various forms in numerous decrees, e. g. C. Turff. II. Can. 22; C. Antoisiod. Can. ]. 4; C. Quinisext. Can. 62, 65, 79; Karbon. Can. 15 ; C. Rothomag. Can. 4, 14. See in 3taudb'n, Gesch. Theol. Vol. 111. 371, ctscq. 32 FKTICHIS3I. lished and fixed. Public theological doctrines are not yet formed. There are no mysteries in which each may not share. This state of Fetichism continues as long as Man is in the gross state of ignorance which renders it possible. Next, as the power of abstraction and generalization be- comes enlarged, and the qualities of external nature are understood, there are concrete and visible Gods for the Family ; next for the Tribe ; then for the Nation. But their power is supposed to be limited within certain bounds. A subsequent generalization gives an invisible but still concrete Deity for each department of Nature the earth, the sea, the sky. Now as soon as there is a Fetiche for the family, or the tribe, a mediator becomes needed to interpret the will and insure the favour of that Fetiche, to bring rain, or plenty, or success, and to avert impending evils. Such are the angclcolts of the Esquimaux, the medicine -men of the Man- dans, the jugglers of the Negroes. Then a priesthood gradually springs up, at first possessing none but spiritual powers ; at length it surrounds its God with mysteries ; excludes him from the public eye ; establishes forms, sacri- fices, and doctrines ; limits access to the Gods ; becomes tyrannical; aspires after political power; and founds a theocracy, the worst of despotisms, the earliest, and the most lasting. 1 Still it has occupied a high and indispens- able position in the development of the human race. The highest form of Fetichism is the worship of the stars, or of the universe.'"' Here it easily branches off int o Polytheism. Indeed, it' is impossible to tell where one begins and the other ends, for traces of each of the three forms are found in all the others ; the two must be dis- tinguished by their centre, not their circumference. The 1 See at the end of Hodges' s "Elihu." &c., London, 1750, 1 vol. 4 to, a striking account of the manner in which religious forms are established, taken from a French publication which was burned by the common hangman at Paris. See also on the establishment and influence of the priesthood upon religion. Constant, ubi sup., Vol. II. Liv. iii. iv., Vol. IV. passim. His judgment of the priesthood, though often just, is sometimes too severe. Comte, ubi sup., Vol. V. p. 57, et seq. On the priesthood among savage nations, see Pritchard, ubi sup., Vol. I. p. 206, et seq. ; Meiners, ubi sup., Vol. II. p. 481602. 2 See Strabo's remarkable account of the worship of the Ancient Persians. Opp. ed. Siebenkees, Vol. VI. Lib. xv. 13, p. 221. Sec too the remarks of Herbert, De Religione GcntilHium, Amst. 1663, 1 vol. 4to, Ch. TI., XIV., ctal. FETICHISM. 33 GREAT SPIRIT is worshipped, perhaps, in all stages of Feti- chism. Tl^eFetiche^and the ^kmrtpi^jr^^ not the GrJal^Sgiritr ButTeven in^ie^woTsTn^oI'ma^ (Toa^orofoNEalone^ traces of the ruder form still linger. The Fetiche of the mdjyidual is preserved in the\A.mulet/ vrorn as a charm; in the figure of an animal painted on the dress, the armour, or the flesh of the worshipper. The Family Fetiche survives in the household Gods ; the Pe- nates of the Romans ; the Teraphim of Laban ; the Idol of Micah. The Fetiche of the Tribe still lives in the Lares of the Roman ; in the patron G od of each Grecian people ; in some animal treated with great respect, or idealized in art, as the Bull Apis, t^e_brazenSerj3ent, Horses conse- crated to the Sun in S olomon' s^Pemple ; l in an image of Deity, like the old wooden statues of Minerva, always re- ligioSisly kept, or the magnificent figures of the Gods in marble, ivory, or gold, the productions of maturest art; in some chosen symbol, the Palladium, the Ancilia, the Ark of the Covenant. The Fetiche of the Nation, almost inseparablyconnect'ed with the former, is still remembered in the mystical Cherubim and^Iost^Hply^Place amon the Jews ; in the Olympian Jav^oF^re^ceT^n^ the Capi- toline Jupiter of Rome ; in the image of " the Great God- dess Diana, which fell down from Jupiter." It appears also in reverence for particular places formerly deemed the local and exclusive residence of the Fetiche, such as the Caaba at Mecca ; Hebronj^J^riah^and Bethel in Judea ; Delphi in Greece, and the^greaT^ga^tlie^nng^pIaces oT tlie North-men in Europe, spots deemed holy by the super- stitious even now, and therefore made the site of Christian Churches. 2 Other and more general vestiges of Fetichism remain in the popular superstitions ; in the belief of signs, omens, 1 Vatke, Biblische Theologie, Berlin, 1835, Vol. I., attempts to trace out the connection of Fetichism with the Jewish ritual. 2 See Mone, ubi supra, Vol. I. p. 23, et seq., p. 43, et seq., p. 113, et seq., p. 2i9, et seq., and elsewhere. Wilkinson, ubi sup. Vol. I., Ch. xii. ; Vol. II. Ch. ii. and xiv. His theory, however, differs widely from the above. Whatever was extraordinary was deemed eminently divine. Thus with the Hebrews a great cedar was the cedar of God. Other nations had their De-wa-da-ru, (?od Timber, &c. Sea Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 41, et seq. Lucan, Phar- sal., Lib. III. 399, et seq. Mithridates, at the siege of Patava, dared not cut down the sacred trees. Appian, De Bcllo Mith. Ch. XXVII. Opp. ed. Schweig- hauser, I. p. 679, G80. 3 i JETICHISM. auguries, divination by tlie flight of birds, and other acci- dental occurrences; in the notion that unusual events, thunder, and earthquakes, and pestilence, are peculiar manifestations of God; that he is more specially present in a certain place, as a church, or time, as the sabbath, or the hour of death; is pleased with actions not natural, sacrifices, fasts, penance, and the like. 1 Perhaps no form Feti c^nsm that will long endure. 2 Under this form Religion has the smallest sound in- o fluence upon Jife ; the^ religious ^csiiot^jjid Jjie^moral element. 3 The supposed ^emandsoiJAeligion seem capri- cious to the last degree, unnatural and absurd. The im- perfect priesthood of necromancers and jugglers, which belongs to this period, enhances the evil by multiplying' rites ; encouraging asceticism ; laying heavy burdens upon the people ; demanding odious mutilations and horrible sacrifices, often of human victims, in the name of God, and in helping to keep Religion in its infant state, by forbid- ding the secular eye to look upon its mysterious jugglery, andtprohibiting the banns between Faith^ and J-vnowiedgie/ Still this class, devoted to speculation and study, does great immediate service to the race, by promoting science and art, and indirectly and against its will contributes to overturn the form it designs to support. The priesthood comes unavoidably. 4 In a low form of Fetichism, a Law of Nature seems scarce ever recognized. All things are thought to have a life of their own ; all phenomena, growth, decay, and re- production. The seasons of the year, the changes in tho 1 The great religious festivals of the Christians, Yule and Easter, are easily traced back to sucli an occasion, at least to analogous festivals of fetichistic or polytheistic people. The festival of John the Baptist must be put in this class. See some details on this subject in a very poor book of Nork's, Der Mystagog, &c. 2 See Creutzer, Symbolik und Mythologie, 3rd ed. Vol. I. p. 30, et seq. 3 The Guaycarus Indians of South America put to death all children born before the 30th year of their mother. Bartlett's Progress of^EthnologyT N. Y. 1817, p- 28. 4 See the remarks of Lafitau, Mcenrs des sauvages Ameriquains, &c., 2 vols. * 4to, Paris, 1734, Vol. I. p.- 108 456. His work is amazingly superficial, but contains now and then a good thing. FETICHISM. 35 sky, and similar things, depend on the caprice of the Deities. The jugglers can make it rain ; a witch can split o the moon ; a magician heal the sick. Law is resolved into miracle. The most cunning men, who understand the Laws of Nature better than others, are miracle-workers, magicians, priests, necromancers, astrologers, soothsayers, physicians, general mediators and interpreters of the Gods ; as the Mandans called them " great medicine-men." l Then as men experience both joy and grief, pain and pleasure, and as they are too rude in thought to see that both are but different* phases of the same thing, and afflic- o tion is but success in a mask, it is supposed, they cannot o be the work of the same Divinity. Hence comes the wido division int< ds, a distinction found in all religions, and carefully preserved in the theological doc- trines of the Christian Church. Worship is paid both to ^ the good and evil Deity. A sacrifice is offered to avert * the wrath of the one, and secure the favour of the other. The sacrifice corresponds to the character ascribed to the Deity, and this depends again on the national and personal *3> J\ character of the devotee. 2 Now in that stage of civilization where every man has his own personal Deity, and no two perhaps the same, the bond that unites man to man is exceedingly slight. Each man's hand is, in some measure, against his brother's. Opposition, or unlikeness, among the Gods, leads to hos- tility among men. Thus family is arrayed against family, tribe against tribe, nation against nation, because the peculiar God of the one family, tribe, or nation, is deemed hostile to all others. Therefore among cruel nations, whose Gods of course are conceived of as cruel, the most 1 Mr. Catlin, ubi sup., relates anecdotes that illustrate the state of thought and feeling in the state of Fctichism. Much also may be found in Marco Polo's Travels in the Eastern parts of the World, London, 1818, and in Marsden's Notes to that edition. The early Voyagers, likewise, are full of facts that be- long here. 2 The worship of evil beings is a curious phenomenon in human history. The literature of the subject is copious and instructive. Some famous men think the existence of the Devil cannot be found out by the light of Nature and unaided Reason ; others make it a doctrine of natural religion. Some think him in- capable of Atheism, though only a speculative theist. The doctrine is a disgrace to the Christian Church, and well fitted to excite the disgustTbT "thinking and pious men. But see what may be said for the doctrine by Mayer, llistoria Dia- boli, 2nd edition, 1780. See the literature iu "NYcgscheider. Institutioues, 104, 105. * 36 FETICHISM. acceptable sacrifice to the Fetiche is the blood of his ene- mies. A stranger whom accident or design brings to the devotee is a choice offering. The Saint is a murderer. War is a constant and normal state of men, not an excep- tion as it afterwards becomes ; the captives are sacrificed as a matter of course. The energies of the race are de- voted to destruction ; not to creative industry. It is the business of a man to war ; of a slave and a woman, to till the soil. The fancied God guides the deepening battle ; presides over the butchery, andjcanonizes the_bloodv^handJ He is the God of Battles, teaches men to war, inspires them to fight. It is, unfortunately, but too easy to find historical veri- cations of this phase of human nature. The Jews, in leir early and remarkable passage from Fetichism to oly theism and Monotheism if we may trust the tale solve to exterminate all the Canaanites, millions of men, iniiotfending and^peiiceJli]., because the two nations wor- shipped different Gods, Imd Jehovah, the peculiar Deity of the Jews, a jealous God, demanded the destruction of the other nation, who did not worship him. Men, women, and children must be slain. 1 The Spaniards found canni- balism in the name of God, prevailing at Mexico, and else- where. In our day it still continues in the South Sea Islands, under forms horrible almost as of old in the Holy Land. 2 the intej^^edejna^^ the s of ni^n^^n^Tp^o^^umoTdtiretln^ to ^^^..A^ ^^ ^_ -^ -^ ^ -^ ^^^ ^_ ~i ^-^ ~pi ^^^ "-! ^_ ^ L _ ^ |T^ ^ j y elevate the race and thus indirectly to promote truer no- 1 See a dreadful example of human sacrifice in 2 Kings iii. 27. This pre- vailed in many parts of America when first discovered by the Christians, who continued it in a different form, not offering to God but "Mammon. See Ban- pages. - On this passage in human history, see Comtc, Vol. Y. p. 90, et seq., p. 132, et seq., and p. 186, et scq. See F. W. Giuliani, Die Menschen-Opf. der alten Hebraer, Niirmberg, 1842, 1 vol. 8vo. He strongly maintains that human sacrifice was not forbidden by Moses, but continued a legal and essential part of the national worship till the separation of the two kingdoms. Vestiges of this he thinks appear in the conse- cration of the first-born, in circumcision, in the Paschal Lamb, &c. &c. He cites many curious facts. See p. 376. Daumer Gcheimnitze des Christlicheu Altarthums, Hamb. 1847, ch. 3, 5, 916, 74. 75, et al. PETICHISM. 37 o tions of Religion. Thus War, cruel and hideous monster | as he is, has yet rocked Art and Science in his bloody Z arms. God makes the wrath of man to praise him ; " From seeming evil still educing good, 4 And better thence again, and better still \ In infinite progression." 2- o As civilization goes forward in this rough way, the voice of humanity begins to speak more loudly, Morality is wedded to Religion, and a new progeny is born to bless the world. It begins to be felt that if the captive consents to serve his conqueror's God, the service will be more acceptable than his death. Hence he is spared; still worships his own Deity perhaps, but confesses the superi- ority of the victorious God. The God of the conquered party becomes a Devil, or a strange God, or a servant of the controlling Deity. Thus the Gibeonites and the He- lots who once would have been sacrificed to the conquer- ing God, became hewers of wood and drawers of water to the Hebrews and the Spartans, and served to develope the directly useful and creative faculties of man. The Gods demand the service, not the life-blood, of the stranger and captive. No doubt the anointed priesthood opposed this refinement with a " Thus saith the Lord/' and condemned such as received the blessing of men ready to perish. But it would not do. Samuel hews Agag in pieces, though Saul would have saved him ; but the days of Samuel also are numbered, and the theocratic power pales its ineffec- tual ray before a rising light, -w. II. POLYTHEISM is the next stage in the religious deve- o lopment of mankind. Here reflection begins to predomin- ate over sensation. As the laws of Nature, the habits and organization of animals, begin to be understood, they cease to represent the true object of worship. No man ever deified Weight and Solidity. But as men change slowly from form to form, and more slowly still from the o form to the substance, coarse and material Fetichism must be idealized before it could pass away. No doubt men, for the sake of example, bowed to the old stock and stone when they knew an idol was nothing. It might offend the weak to give up the lie all at once. 38 POLYTHEISM. Polytheism is the worship of many Gods without the o worship < TsT It may be referred to two sources, ^vorship of the IflPowers of material nature and of the ^Powers of spiritual nature. Its history is that of a con- flict between the two. 1 In the earliest epoch of Greek Polytheism, the former prevails ; the latter at a subse- quent period. The early deities are children of the Earth, the Sky, the Ocean. These objects themselves are Gods.- In a word, the Saturnian Gods of the older mythology are deified ppwers jof _ Nature : but in the mythology of the later" philosophers/nTi 8 absolute spiritual Bovver that rules the world from the top of Olympus, and the subordinate deities are the sjjiritual^Ja^ personified and ernbellislied. 3 TJattei^noiongOTWOP- hirrppSr^^^3a7srv^^o^\ r erless, and dishonoured. The animals are driven oft' from Olympus. Alan is idealized and worshipped. The Supreme wears the personality of men. Anthropomorphism takes the place of a deifica- c tion of Nature. The popular Gods are of the same origin as their worshippers, born, nursed, bred, but immortal and not growing old. 4 They are married like men and women, and become parents. They preside over each department of Nature arid each province of art. 5 Pluto rules over the abodes of the departed ; Neptune 1 In what relates to this subject, I shall consider Polytheism as it appeared to the great mass of its votaries. Its most obvious phenomena are the most valuable. Some, as Bryant, take the speculations of naturalists and make it only a system of Phytics : others, as (Judworth, following the refinements of later philosophers, would prove it to be a system of Monotheism in disguise. But to the mass Apollo was not the Sun nor the beautiful influence of God, whatso- ever he might appear to the mystic sage. 2 Julius Firmicus maintains that the heathen deities were simply deified natural objects. De Err ore prof. Religionum, Ch. I. V. But Clement of Alexandria mure wisely refers them to seven distinct sources. Cohortatio ad Gentes, Opp. 1., ed. Potter, p. 21, 22. Earth and Heaven are the oldest Gods of Greece. 3 See for example the contest of Eros and Anacreou, Carm. XIV. p. 18, 19, ed. Mobius. * See Heyne, Excursus VIII., in Iliad, I. 494, p. 189 ; Hegel, Philosophic der ReL, Vol. II. p. 96141 ; Werke, Vol. XII. ; Pindar, Ncm. VI. 1, et scq., Ulymp. XII. et seq., &c. s See Aristotle, Metaphysica, Opp., ed. Baker, Oxford, 1837, VIII. Lib. XI. 8, p. 233, et seq. In the old Pelasgic Polytheism, it seems there were no proper names for the individual Gods. The general term Gods was all. ' Hero- dotus, Lib. II. ch. 52, Opp., ed. Baehr., I. p. 606, et seq. Plato mentions the two classes of Gods, one derived from the worship of Nature, the other from that of man. Legg. Lib. XL, Opp. ed. Ast. VII. p. 344. See Plutarch ciied in Eusebius, P. E. III. 1, p. 57, Vers. Lat., ed. 1579. POLYTHEISM. 89 over tlie ocean ; Jove over the land and sky. One divini- ty wakes the olive and the corn, another has charge of the vine. One guides the day from his chariot with golden wheels. A sister Deity walks in brightness through the nocturnal sky. A fountain in the shade, a brook leaping down the hills, or curling through the plains ; a mountain walled with savage rocks ; a seques- tered vale fringed with romantic trees, each was the residence of a God. Demons dwelt in dark caves, and shook the woods at night with hideous rout, breaking even the cedars. They sat on the rocks fair virgins above the water, but hideous shapes below to decoy sailors to their destruction. The mysterious sounds of Nature, the religious music of the wind playing among the pines at eventide, or stirring the hot palm tree at noonday, was the melody of the God of sounds. 1 A beau- tiful form of man or woman was a shrine of God. 2 The storms had a deity. ' Witches rode \the rack of night/ A God offended roused nations to war, or drove Ulysses over many lands. A pestilence, drought, famine, inunda- tion, an army of locusts was the special work of a God. 3 1 See the beautiful lines of Wordsworth, Excursion, Boston, 1824, Book IV. p. 159, et seq. See also Creutzer, ubi sup., Vol. I. p. 8 29. 9 See Herodotus, V. 47. The Greeks erected an altar on the grave of Phi- lippos, the most beautiful of the Greeks, and offered sacrifice. See Wachsrauth, Antiquities of Greece, Vol. II. 2, p. 315, on the general adoration of Beauty amongst the Greeks. Hegel calls this worship the Religion of Beauty. Phil, der Eeligion, Vol. II. p. 96, et seq. National character marks the reli- gious form. 3 A disease was sometimes personified and worshipped, as Fever at Rome. See JElian, Var. Hist. XII. 11, p. 734, et seq , ed. Gronovius; Valerius Maxi- inus, Lib. II. Ch. V. 6, Vol. I. p. 126, et seq., ed. Hase. Some say a certain ruin at Tivoli is the remnant of a Temple to Ttissis, a cough. Cicero sneaks of a temple to Fever on thn 1'iilnl.inp. Nat. Deorum, III. 15, Opp. ed. Lemaire, A. 11. p. 33, where see the note. Nero erected a monument to the Manes of a crystal vase that got broken. Temples were erected to Shame and Impudence, fear, Death, Laughter, and Gluttony* amony the Heathen, as shrines to the batnts among Christians. Pausanias, Lib. IV. Ch. XVII. , says, the Athenians alone of all the Greeks had a Temple for Modesty and Mercy. See, however. the ingenious remark of Cousin, Journal des Savans', March, 1835, p. 136, et seq., and Creutzer's animadversions thereon, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 135, 136. Brou- wcr, Vol. I. p. 357. In India, each natural object is the seat of a God. But in Greece the worship of nature passed into the higher form. See some fanciful remarks of Hermann on the most ancient mythology of the Greeks in his Opus- cula, Vol. II. p. 167. It is a noticeable fact that some of the old Polytheistic theogonies spoke of a gradual and progressive devolopment of the Gods ; the creator keeps even pace with the creation. The explanation of a fact so singular as the self-contradictory opinion that the Infinite is not always the same maybe found 40 POLYTHEISM. No ship is called by the name of Glaucus because he of- fended a deity. 1 Arts also have their patron divinity. Phoebus-Apollo inspires the Poet and Artist; the Muses Daughters of Memory and Jove fire the bosom from their golden urn of truth ; 2 Thor, Ares, Mars, have power in war ; a sober virgin-goddess directs the useful arts of life ; a deity pre- sides over agriculture, the labours of the smith, the shep- herd, the weaver, and each art of Man. He defends men engaged in these concerns. Every nation, city, or family has its favourite God a Zeus, Athena, Juno, Odin, Baal, Jehovah, Osiris, or Melkartha, who is supposed to be par- tial to the nation which is his " chosen people." Now perhaps no nation ever believed in many separate, inde- pendent, absolute deities. All the Gods are not of equal might. One is King of all, the God of Gods, who holds - the others with an iron sway. Sometimes he is the All- Father ; sometimes the All-Fate, which, in some ages, seems to be made a substitute for the one true God. 3 Each nation thinks its own chief God greater than the Gods of all other nations ; or, in time of war, seeks to seduce the hostile Gods by sacrifice, promise of temples and cere- in the history of human conceptions of God, for these are necessarily progressive. See Aristotle, Metaphysica, XIV. p. 1000, et seq., Opp. II., ed.' Duval, Par. 16-9. See Hesiod's Theogony everywhere, and note the progress of the divine species from Chaos and Earth to the moral divinities, Eunomia, Dike, Eirenr, &c. In some of the Oriental theogonies, the rule was inverted, the first emani,- iion was the best. See Wartou, History of English Poetry, Loud. 1824, Vol. 1., Prcf. by the Editor. 1 Herodotus, Lib. VI. 86, relates the beautiful story of Glaucus, so full of moral truth. Compare with it, Zechariah v. 3, 4, Job xv. 20, et seq., xviii. et seq., where the same beautiful and natural sentiment appears. 2 See the strange pantheistic account of the origin and history of Gods and all things in the Orphic poems and Mythology. These have been collected and treated of with great discrimination by Lobeck, Aglaophamus, Vol. I. p. 473, et teq. See the more summary account in Brandis, Gesehichte der Philosophic, Vol. I. p. 60, et seq. There are some valuable thoughts in Creutzer's Review of the new edition of Cornutus, De Nat. Deorum, iu Theol. Stud, uud Kritikcii fur 1846, p. 208, et seq. 3 Men must believe in somewhat that to them is Absolute ; if their concep- tion of the Deity be imperfect, they unavoidably retreat to a somewhat Superior to the Deity. Thus for every defect in the popular conception of Zeus, some new power is added to Fate. "It is impossible even for God to escape Fate," said Herodotus. See also Cudworth, Ch. I. 1 3, Zenophanes makes a sharp distinction between God and the Gods. See in Clem. Alex. Strom. V. p. 60 1, and the remarks of Brandis, ubi sup., Vol. I. p. 361, et seq. note ; see also Vol. II. p. 340, et seq. See too Cornutus (or Phurnutus) De Nat. Deorum iu Gale, Opusc. Mythologica, &c., Amst. 1688. POLYTHEISM. 41 monies, a pilgrimage, or a vow. Thus the Romans invoked the Gods of their enemy to come out of the beleaguered city, and join with them, the conquerors of the world. The Gods were to be had at a bargain. Jacob drives a trade ( with Elohim; the God receives a human service as ade-/ quate return for his own divine service. 1 The promise of) each is only " for value received." In this stage of religious development each Deity does not answer to the Idea of God, as mentioned above ; it is not the Being of infinite power, wisdom, and love. Nei- ther the Zeus of the Iliad, nor the Eloliim of Genesis, nor the Jupiter of the Pharsalia, nor even the Jehovah of the Jewish Prophets, is always this. A transient and complex conception takes the place of the eternal Idea of God. Hence his limitations ; those of a man. Jehovah is narrow ; Zeus is licentious ; Hermes will lie and steal j J uno is a shrew. 2 The Gods of polytheistic nations are in -part deified men. 3 The actions of many men, of different ages and countries, are united into one man's achievement, and we have a Hercules, or an Apollo, a thrice-great Hermes, a Jupiter, or an Odin. The inventors of useful arts, as agriculture, navigation ; of the plough, the loom, laws, fire, and letters, subsequently became Gods. Great men, wise men, good men, were honoured while living ; they are deified when they decease. As they judged or governed the living once, so now the dead. Their actions are idealized ; the good lives after them ; their faults are buried. Statues, altars, tem- ples are erected to them. He who was first honoured as a man is now worshipped as a God. 4 To these personal deities are added the attributes of the old Fetiches, and still more the powers of Nature. The attributes of the moon, the sun, the lightning, the ocean, or the stars aro 1 Genesis xxviii. 1022. 2 Sermons of Theism, &c. Sermon III. and IV. 3 Tertuilian, De Anima, Ch. 33. See Meiners, ubi sup., Yol. I. p. 290, et seq. ; Pindar, Olymp. II. 68, et seq., ed Dissen., and his remarks, Vol. II. p. 36, et seq. This Anthropomorphism took various forms in Greece, Egypt, and India. In the former it was the elevation of a man to the Gods ; in the latter ( the descent of a God to man. This^ feature ^of Oriental ^vorship furnishes a fruit- V fill" hint as to the oricmrof the'doctrine of the Incarnation and its value. The ^ doctrine of some Uhristians unites the two in the God-man. * See the origin of Idolatry laid down in Wisdom of Solomon, Ch. xiv. 1719. Warbiirton, Divine Legation, iJook V. ii. [iii.] 42 THE PRIESTHOOD transferred to a personal being, conceived as a man. To be made strong he is made monstrous, with, many hands, or heads. In a polytheistic nation, if we trace the history of the popular conception of any God, that of Zeus among 3 the Grecians, for example, we see a gradual advance, till ; their highest God becomes their conception of the Abso- lute. Then the others are insignificant ; merely his serv- ants ; like colonels and corporals in an army, they are parts of his state machinery. The passage to Monotheism is then easy. 1 The spiritual leaders of every nation, obedient souls into whom the spirit enters and makes them Sons of God and prophets, see the meaning which the popular notion hides ; they expose what is false, proclaim the eternal truth, and as their recompense are stoned, exiled, or slain. But the march of mankind is over the tombs of the prophets. The world is saved only by cruci- a fied redeemers. The truth is not silenced with Aristotle ; nor exiled with Anaxagoras ; nor slain with Socrates. It enters the soul of its veriest foes, and their children build up the monuments of the murdered Seer. We cannot enter into the feelings of a polytheist; nor see how Morality was fostered by his religion. Ours would be a similar puzzle to him. But Polytheism has played a great part in the development of mankind yes, in the deveolpment of Morality and Eeligion. 2 Its aim was to "raise a mortal to the skies ;" to infinitize the finite; to bridge over the great gulf between Man and God. Let us look briefly at some of its features. I. In Polytheism we find a regular priesthood. This is sometimes exclusive and hereditary, as in Egypt and India, where it establishes castes, and founds a theocracy ; some- times not hereditary, but open, free, as in Greece. 3 When 1 There are two strongly marked tendencies in all polytheistic religions one r towards pure Monotheism,' the other to Pantheism. See an expression of the latter in Orpheus, ed. Hermann, p. 457, " Zeus is the first, Zeus the last," &c. fcc., cited also in Cudworth, ubi sup., Vol. I. p. 404. See Zeno, in Diogenes Laertius, ed Hiibner, Lib. VII. Ch. 73, Vol. II. p. 186, et seq. ; Clemens Alexand. Stromat. VII. 12. See also Cudworth, Ch. IV. 17, et seq., and Mosheim's Annotations. 2 M. Comte thinks this the period of the greatest religious activity ! The facts look the other way. 3 Even in Greece some sacerdotal functions vested by descent in certain fami- lies, for example, in the lambides, Brauchidcs, Eumolpides, Asclepiades, Cory- UNDER POLYTHEISM. 43 " every clove of garlic is a God/' as in Fetichism, each, man is his own priest ; but when a troop of Fetiches are condensed into a single God, and he is invisible, all can- iiot have equal access to him, for he is not infinite, but partial ; chooses his own place and time. Some mediator, therefore, must stand between the God and common men. 1 This was the function of the priest. Perhaps his office became hereditary at a very early period, for as we trace backward the progress of mankind the law of inheritance has a wider range. The priesthood, separated from the actual cares of war, and of providing for material wants the two sole departments of human activity in a barbarous age have leisure to study the will of the Gods. Hence arises a learned class, who gradually foster the higher concerns of mankind. Thejetfort to^JejiTn^thg ^11 of -the / Gqds, leads to the _study_ of Nature, and therefore to tSdencer^Tlie' attempt to ^^^eth^m^bv^image^c^re- monies, and the like, leads t o^rc^iTtectureJ' staue s, music, poetry, and hymns to the elegant arts. Thejriesthood. fostered all these. It took different forms to suit the ^ ; established castes and found- ed the most odious despotism in Egypt and the East, and perhaps the North, but in Greece left public opinion com- paratively free. In the one, change of opinion was violent and caused commotion, as the fabled Giant buried under ./Etna shakes the island when he turns ; in the other it was natural, easy as for Endymion to turn the other cheek to the Moon. Taken in the whole, it has been a heavy rider on the neck of the nations. Its virtue has been, in a rude age to promote Science, Art, Patriotism, I J iety to the Gods, and, in a certain fashion, Love to men. But its vice has been to grasp at the throat of mankind, control their thoughts and govern their life, aspiring to be the Will of the World. When it has been free, as in the phi- losophic age in Greece, its influence has been deep, silent, and unseen ; blessed and beautiful. But when it is hered- cides, Clitiades. See them in Wachsmuth, Vol. I. P. i. p. 152. See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Ch. V. ; Meiners, Vol. II. Book xii. ; Brouwer, Vol. I. 1 See Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, Liv. XXV. Ch. iv. See Priestley's Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos, &c., North- umberland, 1799, X. for the esteem in which the sacerdotal class was held in India. Brouwer, Vol. III. Ch. xviii., xix. Also Von Bohlen, Das alte Indien, Vol. I. p. 45, et seq. ; Vol. II. p. 12, et seq. 44 WAB IN POLYTHEISM. itary and exclusive, it preserves the form/ ritual, and creed of barbarous times in the midst of civilization ; separates Morality from Religion, life from belief, good sense from theology ; demands horrible sacrifices of the body, or the soul; and, like the angry God in the old Pelasgic fable, chains for eternal damnation the bold free spirit which, learning the riddle of the world, brings down the fire of Heaven to bless poor mortal men. It were useless to quote examples of the influence of the priesthood. It has been the burthen of Fate upon the human race. Each age has its Levites ; instruments of cruelty are in their habita- tions. In many nations their story is a tale of blood ; the tragedy of Sin and Woe. 1 II. In the polytheistic period, war is a normal state and almost constant. Religion then unites men of the same tribe and nation ; but severs one people from another. The Gods are hostile ; Jehovah and Baal cannot agree. Their worshippers must bite and devour one another. It is high treason for a citizen to communicate the form of the national Religion to a foreigner ; Jehovah is a jealous God. Strangers are sacrificed in Tauris and Egypt, and the captives in war put to death at the command of the Priest. But war at that period had also a civilizing in- fluence. It was to the ancient world what .Trade is to modern times : another form of the same selfishness. It was the chief method of extending a nation' s influence. The remnant of the conquered nation was added to the victorious empire ; became its slaves or tributaries, and at last shared its civilization, adding the sum of its own excellence to the moral treasury of its master. Conquered Greece gave Arts and Philosophy to Rome ; the exiled 'V Jews brought back from Babylon the great doctrine of eternal life. The Goths conquered Rome, but Roman Christianity subdued the Goths. Religion, allied with the fiercest animal passions, demanded war ; thiaJed, tg .ggience. o It^was joon seen that one liead^whicli thinks is worth, a 1 See the one-sided view of Constant, which pervades his entire work on Re- ligion. See his Essay on the "Progressive Development of Religious Ideas," in Ripley's Philosophical Miscellanies, Vol. II. p. 292, et seq. Virgil, in hi.s description of the Elysian fields, assigns the first place to Legislators, the mag- nanimous Ileroes who civilized mankind ; the next to Patriots, and the third to Priests, JEn. VI. 661, et seq. SLAVERY IN POLYTHEISM. 45 \itindred hands. Science elevates the mass of men, they _ perc'eYve *fhe folly of bloodshed, and its sin. Thus War, by a fatal necessity, digs_ its own^qTaxe. The art of pro- duction surpasses the art to*3estroy7 o All the wars of polytheistic nations have more or less a o religious character. Their worship, however, favoured less the extermination of enemies than their subjugation, while Monotheism, denying the existence of all deities but( one, when it is superinduced upon a nation, in a rude state, ( like Fetichism itself, butchers its captives, as the Jews, 1 the Mahometans, and the Christians have often done a sacrifice to the yblood- thirsty phantom they call a GoclJ^ c In the ruder stages of Polytheism, war is the principal occupation of men. The Military and the Priestly powers, strength of Body and strength of Thought, are the two Scales of Society ; Science and Art are chiefly devoted to kill men and honour the Gods. The same weapons which conquer the spoil, sacrifice it to the Deity. 3 III. But as Polytheism leads men to spare the life of c the captive, so it leads to a demand for his service. Slavery, th^refore^ like jwar, j^omes jinavpidably ^ from this form j^f llengion^ tmsday^ under the influence of Monotheism, we are filled with deep horror at the thought of one man invading the personality of another, to make him a thing a slave. The flesh of a relig'ious man creeps at the thought of it. But yet slavery was an indispensable adjunct of this rough form of society. Between that Fetichism which bade a man slay his captive, eating his body and drinking his blood as indispensable elements of his communion with God, and that Polytheism which only makes him a slave, there is a great gulf which it required long centuries to fill up and pass over. Anger slowly gave place to interest ; perhaps to Mercy. Without this change, with the advance of the art to destroy, the human race must have perished. 1 M. Montgery, a French captain, touchingly complains " that the art to destroy, though the easiest of all from its very nature, is now much less ad- vanced than the art of production, in spite of the superior difficulty of the lat- ter." Quoted in Comte, ubi sup., Vol. V. p. 167. 2 Here is the explanation of the given facts collected by Daumer and others. 3 M. Comte, Vol. V. p. 165, et seq., has some valuable remarks on this stage of human civilization. See also Vico, Scienza nuova, Bib. II. Cap. I. IV. 46 SLAVERY IX POLYTHEISM. By means of slavery the art of production was advanced. The Gibeonite and the Helot must work and not fight. Thus by forced labour, the repugnance against work which is so powerful among the barbarous and half- civilized, is overcome ; systematic industry is developed ; the human race is helped forward in this mysterious way. Both the theocratic and the military caste demanded a servile class, inseparable from the spirit of barbarism, and the worship of many Gods, which falls as that spirit dies out, and the recognition of one God, Father of all, drives selfishness out of the heart. In an age of Polytheism, Slavery and War were in harmony with the institutions of society and the spirit of the age. Murder and Cannibalism, two other shoots from the same stock, had enjoyed their day. All are revolting to the spirit of Monotheism; at variance with its idea of life ; uncertain and dangerous ; monstrous anomalies full of deadly peril. The Priesthood of Poly- theism like all castes based on a lie upheld the system of slavery, which rested on the same foundation with itself. The slavery of sacerdotal governments .is more oppressive and degrading than that of a military despotism. It binds the Soul makes distinctions in the nature of men. The Prophet would free men; but the priest enslaves. As Polytheism does its work, and Man developes his nature higher than the selfish, the condition of the slave is made better. It becomes a religious duty to free the bondsmen at their masters death, as formerly the priests had burned them on his funeral pile, or buried them alive in his tomb to attend him in the realm of shades. 1 Just as civilization 1 See, who will, the mingling of profound and superficial remarks on this subject in Montesquieu, ubi sup., Liv. XV. Grotius, De jure Belli ac Pacis, Lib. III. Ch. \ii. viii. Selden, De jure naturali, &c., ed. 1680, Lib. I. Ch. v. p. 174, and Lib. VII. VIII. XII. et al. See the valuable treatise of Charles Comte, Traite de la Legislation, ou Exposition des Lois generates sui- vant lesquelles les Peuples prospcrent, depeiissent ou restent stationaire, &c. &c , 3rd ed., Bruxelles, 1837, Liv. V., the whole of which is devoted to the subject of slavery and its influence in ancient and modern times. We need only com- pare the popular opinion respecting slavery among the Jews, with that of the Greeks or Itomans, in their best days, to see the influences of Monotheism and Polytheism in regard to this subject. See some remarks on. the Jewish slavery in Michaelis's Laws of Moses. Slavery in the East has in general been of a. much milder character than in any other portion of the world. Wolf somewhere says the Greeks received this relic of barbarism from the Asiatics. If so, they made the evil institution worse than they found it. According to Burckhardt, it exists in a very mild form among the Mahometans, everywhere. Of course his remarks do not apply to the Turks, the most cruel of Mussulmen. Perhaps TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL POWER. 47 advanced and the form of Religion therewith, it was found difficult to preserve the institution of ancient crime, which sensuality and sin clung to and embraced. 1 IV. Another striking feature of polytheistic influence, was the union of power over the Body with power over the Soul; the divine right to prescribe actions and pro- hibit thoughts. This is the fundamental principle of all theocracies. The Priests were the speculative class ; their superior knowledge was natural power ; superstition in the people and selfishness in the Priest, converted that power into despotic tyranny. The military were the active caste ; superior strength and skill gave them also a natural power. But he who alone in an age of barbarism can foretell an eclipse, or poison a flock of sheep, can subdue an army by these means. At an early stage of polytheism, we find the political subject to the priestly power. The latter holds communion with the Gods, whom none dare disobey. Romulus, -^Eacus, Minos, Mosej^ jjrofess tto _receive their laws from God. To disobey them," therefore, is tcTmcur tnewrathoF the powers that hold the thunder and light- ning. Thus manners and laws, opinions and actions, are subject to the same external authority. The theocratic governor controls the conscience and the passions of the people. Thus the radical evil arising from the confusion between the Priests of different Gods was partia.ly re- moved, for the spiritual and temporal power was lodged in the same hand. In some nations the Priesthood was inferior to the poli- tical power, as in Greece. Here the sacerdotal class held an inferior rank, from Homer's time to that of Laertius. a no code of ancient laws (to say nothing of modern legislation) was more humane than the Jewish in this respect. 1 See Comte, Phil, positive, Vol. V. p. 186, et seq. On this subject of lavery in Polytheistic nations, see Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ed. Paris, 1840, ^ol. I. Ch. ii. p. 37, et seq., and the valuable notes of Milman and Guizot. 'or the influence of Monotheism on this frightful evil, compare Schlosser, Ges- t..ichte der Alten Welt, Vol. III. Part III. Ch. ix. 2, et al. ; in particular the story of Paulinus, and Deogratias, p. 284, et seq., and p. 334, etseq., p. 427, et seq. ; and compare it with the conduct of Cato (as given by Plutarch, Life of Cato the Censor, and Schlosser, ubi sup., Vol. II. Part II. p. 189, st seq.. Charles Comte, ubi sup., Liv. V.), and alas, with the conduct of the American Government and the commercial churches of our large towns in 1850 1855. 2 See Demosthenes, Cont. Near. Ch. XX. in Oratores Attici, Lond. 1828 48 WORSHIP OF MEN. The Genius of the nation demanded it ; accordingly there sprang up a body of men, neither political, sacerdotal, nor military the philosophers. 1 They could have found no place in any theocratic government, but have done the world great religious service, building " wiser than they knew." It was comparatively easy for Art, Science, and all the great works of men, to go forward under such cir- cumstances. Hence comes that wonderful development of mind in the country of Homer, Socrates, and Phidias. But in countries where the temporal was subject to the spirit- ual power, the reverse followed; there was no change without a violent revolution. The character of the nation becomes monotonous ; science, literature, morals, cease to improve. When the nation goes down, it "falls like Lucifer, never to hope again." The story of Samuel affords us an instance, among the Jews, of the sacer- dotal class resisting, and successfully, the attempt to take ^awayits power. Here the Priest, finding there must be a King, succeeded at length in placing on the throne a man after God's own heart," that is, one who would (Sacrifice as the Priest allowed. The effort to separate the temporal from the spiritual power, to disenthral mankind from the tyranny of sacerdotal corporations, is one of the great battles for the souls of the world. It begins early, and continues long. The contest shakes the earth in its time. V. Another trait of the polytheistic period is the deifi- ca ti n of men. 2 Fetichism makes q-ods of cattle : Poly- theism of men. This exaltation of men exerted great in- fiuence in the early stage of polytheism, when it was a Vol. VIII. p. 391, et seq. ; Aristot. Rep. III. 14, Opp. ed. Bekker, X. p. 87. See also Cesar Cautu, Histoire Universelle, Paris, 184118-14, Vol. I. Cli. xxviii. xxix. ; Constant, Liv. V. Ch. v., and Brouwer's remarks thereon, p. 363, note. 1 Perhaps none of the polytheistic nations offers an instance of the spiritual and temporal power existing in separate hands, when one party was entirely in- dependent of the other. The separation of the two was reserved for a different age, and will be treated of in its place. a See Farmer on the Worship of Human Spirits, London, 1783. Plutarch (Isis and Osiris) denies that human spirits were ever worshipped, but he is op- posed by notorious facts. See Creutzer, ubi sup., p. 137, et scq. Thede tipn of hiiman^bj^iug^jrf c^ur^ ^ ^ nm? IjTonc^oTttuT^rumv^^^ S^rrttaaXXTl ITbT amrnrCvoT VIII. T 368 378 et se. hedeifica- MOBALS OF POLYTHEISM. 49 real belief of the people and the priest, and not a verbal form, as in the decline of the old worship. Stout hearts could look forward to a wider sphere in the untrod world of spirit, where they should wield the sceptre of command and sit down with the immortal Gods, renewed in never- ending youth. The examples of ^Eacus, Minos, Khada- manthus, of Bacchus and Hercules mortals promoted to the Godhead by merit, and not birth crowned the ambi- tion of the aspiring. 1 The kindred belief that the soul, dislodged from its te fleshly nook," still had an influence on the affairs of men, and came, a guardian spirit, to bless mankind, was a powerful auxiliary in a rude state of reli- gious growth a notion which has not yet faded out of the civilized world. 2 This worship seems unaccountable in our times ; but when such men were supposed to be de- scendants of the Gods, or born miraculously, and sustained by superhuman beings ; or mediators between them and the human race ; when it was believed they in life had possessed celestial powers, or were incarnations of some deity or heavenly spirit, the transition to their Apotheosis is less violent and absurd ; it follows as a natural result. The divine being is more glorious when he has shaken off the robe of flesh. 3 Certain it is, this belief was clung to with astonishing tenacity, and, under several forms, still retains^ its_ place J whole, is difficult to understand. However, it is safe to say it is greater than that of Fetichism. The constant evil of war in pub- lic, and slavery in private \ the arbitrary character as- signed to the Gods ; the influence of the 'priesthood, lay- ing more stress on the ritual and the creed than on the life ; the exceeding outwardness of many popular forms of worship ; the constant separation made between Religion 1 Pausanias touchingly complains that in his day mortals no longer became gods. See Lib. VII. Ch. ii. Opp. ed. Schubert and Walz. III. p. 9. 2 The Christians began at an early age to imitate this, as well as other parts of the old polytheistic system. Eusebius, P. E. XIII. 11 ; Augustine, De Civ. Dei, VIII. 27. 3 On this subject, see Meiners, ubi sup., Vol. I. B. III. Ch. i. and ii. 4 See in Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XLVII. iii, the lament of Sera- pion at the loss of his concrete Gods. But it was only the Arian notions that deprived him of his finite God. Jerome condemns the Anthropomorphism oft the Polytheists as stuUissimam haresin, but believed the divine incarnation iu* Jesus. See also Prudentius Apotheosis, Opp. I. p. 430, et seq., London, 1824. ' 4 50 MOKALS OP POLYTHEISM. and Morality ; the indifference of the priesthood in Greece, their despotism in India, do not offer a very favourable picture of the influence of Polytheism in producing a beau- tiful life. Yet, on the other hand, the hi^t^ne^Moralit y which pervades much of the literature oi'Greece^Sa.ereve- rential piety displayed by poets and philosophers, and still more the undeniable fact of chj^ra^tej^i^^ surpassed in nobleness of aim and loftiness of attainment, -^4nsinnim^s^^ of this worship, when free from the shackles of a sacerdotal caste, has been vastly underrated by Christian scholars. 1 To trace the connection between the public virtue and the popular theology, is a great and difficult matter, not to be attempted here. But this fact is plain, that in a rude state of life this connection is slight, scarce per- ceptible ; the popular worship represents Fear, Reverence it may be ; perhaps a Hope ; or even Trust. But the ser- vices it demands are rites and offerings, not a divine life. As civilization is advanced, Religion claims a more reason- able service, and we find enlightened men, whom the spirit of God made wise, demanding only a divine life as an offer- ing to Him. Spiritual men, of the same elevation, see always the same spiritual truth. We notice a gradual ascent in the scale of moral ideas, from the time of Homer, through Solon, Theognis, the seven wise men, Pindar, ^Eschylus, Sophocles, and the philosophers of their day. 3 The philosophers and sages of Greece and Rome recom- mend Absolute Goodness as the only perfect service of God. With them Sin is the disease of the soul ; Virtue is health ; a divine Life the true good of mankind ; Per- fection the aim. None have set forth this more ably. 3 1 The special influence of Polytheism upon morals, differed with the different forms it assumed. In India it sometimes led to rigid asceticism and lofty con- templative quietism ; in Rome, to great public activity and manly vigour ; in Greece, to a gay abandonment to the natural emotions ; in Persia, to ascetic purity and formal devotion. On this subject see the curious and able, but one- sided and partial, treatise of Tholuck on the Moral Influence of Heathenism, in the American Biblical Repository, Vol. II. He has shown up the dark side of Heathenism, but seems to have no true conception of ancient manners and life. See Ackermann, das Christliche in Plato, &c., Ch. I. (See below, note 2 and 3 ) 2 See the proof of this in Brandis, Geschichte der Philosophic, Vol. I. 24, 25. :< See, on the moral culture of the Greeks in snecial, Jacobs, Vermischte MORALS OF POLYTHEISM. 51 In the higher stages of Polytheism, Man is regarded as oo fallen. He felt his alienation from his Father. Religion looks back longingly to the Golden Age, when Gods dwelt familiar with men. It seeks to restore the links broken out of the divine chain. Hence its sacrifices, and above all its mysteries, 1 both of which were often abused, and made substitutes for holiness, and not symbols thereof. o When War is a normal state, and Slavery is common, the t o condition of one half the human race is soon told. Woman i is a tool or a toy. Her story is hitherto the dark side of the world. If a distinction be made between public morality. private morality, and domestic morality, it may safely bo said that Polytheism did much for the outward regulation of the two first, but little for the last. However, since there were Gods that watched over the affairs of the household, a limit was theoretically set to domestic immorality, spite of the temptations which both slavery and public opinion spread in the way. When there were Gods, whose special vocation was to guard the craftsmen of a certain trade,, protect travellers and defenceless men ; when there were general, never-dying avengers of wrong, who stopped at no goal but justice, a bound was fixed, in some measure, to private oppression. Man, however, was not honoured as Man . Even in Plato^s^deal^State, the^ str^^^rannize d ovej^the^weak ;"" numa^T^eTffl3in^sswore a bloody robe; Pa^iotisnT was greater than Philanthropy. The popular view of sin and holiness was low. It was absurd for Mer- cury to conduct men to hell for adultery and lies. Heal thyself, the Shade might say. All Pagan antiquity offers nothing akin to our lives of pious men. It is true, as iSt Augustine has well said, " that matter which is now called the Christian religion, was in existence among the Schriften, Vol. III. p. 374. He has perhaps done justice to both sides of this difficult subject. 1 Cicero, De Legg. II. See on this subject of the Mysteries in general, Lo- beck, Aglaopharaus, sive de Theologiae mysticse Causis, &c., Pars III., Ch. iii. iv. The mysteries seem sometimes to have offered beautiful symbols to aid man in returning to union with the Gods. "Warburton, in spite of his er- roneous views, has collected much useful information on this subject : Divine Legation, Book II. iv. But he sometimes sees out of him what existed only in himself. 2 But see in Plutarch the singular story of Thespesius, his miraculous conver- sion, &c. De sera Numinis Vindicta, Opp. II. Ch. xxvii. p. 563, et seq., ed. Xylandcr. 4* 52 MORALS OP POLYTHEISM. ancients ; it has never been wanting, from the beginning of the human race." 1 There is but one Religion, and it o can never die out. UnomLe^stipj^ souls beautif ullypi^uj^a^^ lel^tneJKing- (Jom^or"^e^^n~m~l;^ lived it out in their lowly life. Still, it^ nrnst^ be^coi^essedthe^ beneficjal in- flujenceofrti^^ pnva^e~vrrtue/was~ sadly wealET 2 Tmf "pbpular 'lifeisde- tenm^HT^iTsome nTeasureT^y the popular Conception of God, and that was low, and did not correspond to the pure Idea of Him ; 3 still the Sentiment was at its work. But worship was more obviously woven up with public life under this form than under that which subsequently took its place. A wedding or a funeral, peace and war, seed-time and harvest, had each its religious rite. It was the mother of philosophy, of art, and science, though, like Saturn in the fable, she sought to devour her own chil- dren, and met a similar and well-merited fate. Classic Polytheism led to contentedness with the world as it was, and a sound cheerful enjoyment of its goodness and de- light. Religion itself was glad and beautiful. 4 But its idea of life was little higher than its fact. However, that 9 we^akjsli cant and smyj^ninjjj^jsenj^ >wmcR^^sgrace_ our jdaj^ were unknown at that stage. 5 TlTe popular "taitiT oscillated between Unbelief and Super- stition. Plato wisely excluded the mythological poets from his ideal commonwealth. The character of the Gods as it was painted by the popular mythology of Egypt, 1 Retract. I. 13. Sec also Civ. Dei, VIII. and Cent. Acad. III. 20. 2 On the influence of the national cultiis, see Athenaeus, Deipnosoph. VII. Go, 66, XIV. 24, et al. ; Homeric Hymns I. vs. 147, et seq. 3 Plato is seldom surpassed, in our day, in his conception of some of tho qualities of the Divine Being. Hejvasjmiin|vfree frorn^that fore, was invented. The Good Being was absolute and o infinite; the Evil Principle was originally good, but did not keep his first estate. Here also was another difficulty : o an independent and divine being cannot be mutable and frail, therefore the evil riniple^mjis^^ a dependent creature, anct not aiv^ne^iT^n^pr^per^sen se . Soa^ferS^^orm takes place, in which it is supposed that o both the Good and the Evil are emanations from one Ab- solute Being, that Evil is only negative, and will at last end ; that all wicked, as all good, principles are subject to the Infinite God. At this point Dualism coalesces with r the doctrine of one God, and dies its death. This system of Dualism, in its various forms, has extended widely. It seems to have b een in^s^fully developed^in^er sia. It came early into tlie^tHmstiai^^ hxpldthronghout tliegreater^ j)art of C^hristendom^ tHc^ugh ir^iiT^IalsFalmwatf^^ tleasonand 1 See above, Ch. IV. 2 The doctrine of two principles is older than the time of Zoroaster. Hyde, PANTHEISM. 55 Pantheism has, perhaps, never been altogether a stran- ger to the world. It makes all things God, and God all things. This view seems at lirst congenial to a poetic and religious mind. If the world be regarded as a collec- tion of powers, the awful force of the storm, of the thun- der, the earthquake ; the huge magnificence of the ocean, in its slumber or its wrath ; the sublimity of the ever-dur- ing hills ; thej^ks, jvlnch .resist aji_bu^_jthe^n^e^njiand ofTiine ; tKse^TghTTea^Tto the thought that matter is (JocL If men looked at the order, fitness, beauty, love, everywhere apparent in Nature, the impression is con- firmed. The All of things appears so beautiful to the comprehensive eye, that we almost think it is its own Cause and Creator. The animals find their support and their pleasure ; the painted leopard and the snowy swan, each living by its own law ; the bird of passage that pur- sues, from zone to zone, its unmarked path ; the summer warbler which sings, _put Jts_ jm el odious exi stence in the woodbine; the flwj3r^haj^j3pj^^ youthful year ; the goldenfruTfc-maJuTmg^ of green ; the dew and the rainbow; the frost flake and the mountain snow ; thej^lonesjh^ ; the pomp of ^ of a June day ; the awful majesty of night, when all the stars with a serene come out, and tread their roundTand seem to blest jranquillity^bout the ^lu^erjng_world ; the moon ''cr waxmg ^ wamigancr waxmg waminbu^-though the night : daily the water is rough with the winds ; they come or abide at no man's bidding, and roll the yellow corn, or wake religious music at_ nightfall^ in_the_ pjnes these Hist. Religion, vet. Persarum, Ch. IX. and XX. XXII. Bayle's Dictionary, arti- fit seq. Plutarch was a Dualist, though in a modified sense. See his Isis and Osiris, and Psychogonia. Marcion, among the early Christians, was accused of this belief, and indeed the^xis^ejicjj^ofaj^ divinj^J.gJ^jgcrad^^ 1 (^r^scrwtitratd^ of Mayer, (Historia Diaboli,) who thinks it a matter of divine revelation. See also the ingenious remarks of Professor Woods, in his translation of Knapp's Theology, New York, 1831, Vol. I. 6266, et seq. See the early form of Dualism among the Christians in Beausohre, Histoire de Manichee et du Manicheisme, 2 vols. 4to. 56 MATERIAL PANTHEISM. things are all so fair, so wondrous, so wrapt in mystery, it is no marvel that men say, This is divine ; yes, the All is God ; he is the light of the morning, the beauty of the noon, and the strength of the sun. The little grass grows by his presence. He preserveth the cedars. The starsires ;ere TV beca us eh^is injhem . The lilies are re- All. God is the mind of man. The soul of all ; more moving than mo- tion; more stable than rest; fairer than beauty, and stronger than strength. The power of Nature is God ; the universe, broad and deep and high, a_ jiandfal of^ just, wliich^ God enchants. He is the mysterious magic that possesses th"e" v worIcL Yes, he is the All; the Reality of all phenomena. But an old writer thus pleasantly rebukes this conclu- O sion: " Surely, vain are all men by nature, who are ignor- ant of God, and could not out of the good things that are seen, know him that is ... but deemed either Fire, or Wind, or the swift Air, or the Circle of the Stars, or the violent Water, or the Lights of Heaven, to be the Gods which govern the world. With whose beauty if they being delighted took J them to be Gods ; let them know how much better the Lord of them is, for the first Author of beauty had created them." 1 To view the subject in a philosophical and abstract way, Pantheism is the worship of All as God. He is the One and All ; not conceived as distinct from the Universe, nor j/JLwr*) independent _it. It is said to have prevailed widely in ancient times, and, if we may believe what is reported, it has not ended with Spinoza. It may be divided into two 1 Wisdom of Solomon, Ch. xiii. 1, ct seq. At the present day Pantheism seems to be the bugbear of some excellent persons. They see it everywhere except on the dark walls of their own churches. The disciples of Locke find it in all schools of philosophy but the Sensual ; the followers of Calvin see it in the liberal churches. It has become dangerous to say " God is Spirit ;" a definite God, whose personality we understand, is the orthodox article. M. Maret, in his Essai sur le Pantheisme dans les Soci6tes modernes, Paris, 1840, 1 vol. 8vo, finds it the natural result of Protestantism, and places before us the pleasant alternatives, either the Catholic Church or Pantheism ! Preface, p. xv. et al. The rationalism of the nineteenth century must end in scepticism, or leap over o to Pantheism ! According to him all the philosophers of the Spiritual School in our day are Pantheists. Formerly divines condemned Philosophy because it had too little of God ; now because it has too imich. It would seem difficult to get the orthodox medium ; too much and too little are found equally dangerous. See the pleasant remarks of Hegel on this charge of Pantheism, EncyclopU'die der philosoph. Wissenchaftcn, &c., third edition, 573. SPIRITUAL PANTHEISM. 57 forms, Material Pantheism, sometimes called Hylozoisni, and Spiritual PantlieismTor Psycho-zoism. Material Pan- theism affirms the existence of Matter, but denies the ex- istence Spirit, or anything besides matter. Creation is not possible ; the Phenomena of Nature and Life are not the result of a " fortuitous concourse of atoms," as in Atheism, but of Laws in Nature itself. Matter is in a constant flux ; but it changes only by laws which are themselves immutable. Of course this does not admit God as the Absolute ojr_Jnfinite, but the^um^^^jof in^tejriaVthin^s ; He is IrmitecTboth to the extension and tne^jualraes of matter ; He is merely immanent therein, but does not transcend material forms. This seems to have been the Pantheism of Strato of Lampsacus, of De- mocritus, perhaps of Hippocrates, and, as some think, though erroneously, of Xenophanes, Parmenides, and, in general, of the Eleatic Philosophers in Greece, 1 and of many others whose tendency is more spiritual. 2 Its phi- losophic form is the last result of an attempt to form an adequate Conception of God. It has sometimes been called Kosmo-theism, (World-Divinity,) but i __ 'Spiritual Pan theism) affirms the existence of Spirit, and sometimes, either expressly or by implication, denies the existence of Matter. This makes all Spirit God ; always the same, but ever unfolding into new forms, and there- fore a perpetual Becoming God is the absolute substance, with these two attributes Thought and Extension. He is self-conscious in men; without self- consciousness in animals. Before the creation of men he was not self -con- scious. All beside God is devoid of Substantiality. It is^ not but only, APPEARS ; its being is its being seen. This is P^cno^STeism (Soul-Divinity) . It gives us a Gqd^with- out a World, and He is the only cause that exists, the 1 See Karsten, ubi sup., Vol. I. and II. See the opinions of these men ably summed up by Hitter, Geschichte der Philosophic, Vol. I. B. v., and Brandis, ubi sup., Vol. I. 66 72. Cudworth has many fine observations on this sort of pantheism, Vol. I. Ch. iv. 15 26, and elsewhere. He denies that this school make the deity corporeal, and charges this upon others. See Ch. III. 2 See Jiische, Der Pantheismus, &c., Vols. II. and III. passim, and the his- tories of Philosophy. If a man is curious to detect a pantheistic tendency he will find it in the Soul of-thc-world, among the ancients, in the Plastic Nature of Cudworth, or the IJylarchic Principle of Henry More. 58 SPIRITUAL PANTHEISM. Sum-total of Spirit; immanent in Spirit but not trans- cending spiritual manifestations. This was the Pantheism of Spinoza and some others. It lies at the bottom of many mystical discourses, and appears, more or less, in most of the pious and spiritual writers of the middle ages, who confound the Divine Being with their own person- ality, and yet find some support for their doctrines in the language, more or less figurative, of the New Testament. This system appears more or less in the writings of John the Evangelist, in Dionysius the Areopagite, and the many authors who have drawn from him. It tinges in some measure the spiritual philosophy of the present day. 1 But the charge of Pantheism is very vague, and is usually urged most by such as know little of its meaning. He 'who conceives of God, as transcending creation indeed, but yet at the same time as the Immanent Cause of all things, as infinitely present, and infinitely active, with no limitations, is sure to be called a Pantheist in these days, as he would have passed for an Atheist two centuries ago. 'Some who have been called by this easy but obnoxious name, both in ancient and modern times, have been philo- sophical defenders of the doctrine of one God, but have given him the historical form neither of Brahma nor Jeho- vah. 2 X 1 See the curious forms this assumes in Theologia Mystica . . . speculative . . . et affectiva, per Henric. Harph. &c., Colon. 1538. Jiische and Maret find it in all the modern spiritual philosophy. Indeed, the two rocks that threaten theology seem to he a Theosophy which resolves all into God, and Anthropo- morphism, which in fact denies the Infinite. This mystical tendency, popularly denominated Pantheism, appears in the ancient religions of the East ; it enters largely into the doctrine of the Sujfts, a Mahometan sect. See Tholuck, Blii- thensamlung aus dcr morgenlandischen Mystik, p. 33, et seq., and passim. Yon Hammer also, in his Geschichte der schb'nen Bedekunste Persens, &c., p. 340, et seq., 347, et scq., et al., gives extracts from these Oriental speculators who are more or less justly charged with Pantheism. 2 The writings of Spinoza have hitherto heen supposed to contain the most pernicious form of Pantheism ; but of late, the poison has been detected also in the works of Schleiermacher, Fichte, Schclling, Hegel, Cousin, not to mention others of less note Pantheism is a word of convenient ambiguity, and serves as well to express the theological odium as the more ancient word Atheism, which has been deemed by some synonymous with Philosophy. See the recent con- troversial writings of Mr Norton and Mr Eipley, respecting the Pantheism of Spinoza and Schleiermacher. It has been well said, the question between the , x alleged Pantheist and the pure Theist is simply this : Is God the immanent cause of the World, or is he not ? See Scugler, Die Idee Gottes, B. I. p. 10, 107, 899. MONOTHEISM. 59 III. Monotheism is the worship of one Supreme God. It may admit numerous divine beings superior to men, yet beneath the Supreme Divinity, as the Jews, the Ma- hometans, and the Christians have done ; or it may deny these subsidiary beings, as some philosophers have taught. & The Idea of God to which Monotheism ultimately attains, is that of a Being infinitely powerful, wise, and good. He may, however, be supposed to manifest himself in one form only, as the Jehovah of the Hebrews, and the Allah of the Mahometans ; in three forms, as the Triune God of most Christians ; or in all forms, as the Pan and Brahma of the Greek and Indian for it is indifferent whether we ascribe^ no form or all forms to the Infinite. Since the form of Monotheism prevails at this day, little need be said to portray its most important features. 1 It annihilates all distinction of nations, tribes, and men. o There is one God for all mankind. He has no favourites, o but is the equal Father of them all. War and slavery are repugnant to its spirit, for men are brothers. There is no envy, strife, or confusion in the divine consciousness, to justify hostility among men ; He hears equally the prayer o of all, and gives them infinite good at last. No priesthood is needed to serve Him. Under Fetichism every man could have access to his God, for divine symbols were more numerous- than men ; miracles were performed every day; inspiration was common, but of little value; the favour of the Gods was supposed to give a wonderful and miraculous command over Nature. Under Polytheism, only a chosen few had direct access to God; an appointed Priesthood ; a sacerdotal caste. They stood between men and the Gods. Divine symbols became more rare. In- spiration was not usual ; a miracle was a most uncommon thing ; the favourites of heaven were children born of the Gods ; admitted to intercourse with them, or enabled by o them to do wonderful works. Now Monotheism would & restore inspiration to all. By representing God as spirit- ual and omnipresent, it brings him within every man's reach; by making Him infinitely perfect, it shows his Wisdom, Love, and Will always the same. Therefore, it annihilates favouritism and all capricious miracles. In- spiration, like the sunlight, awaits all who will accept its 1 Sermons of Theism, &c., Sermon V. and YI. 60 MONOTHEISM. conditions. All are Sons of God; they only are Ms favoured ones who serve him best. No day, nor spot, nor deed, is exclusively sacred ; but all time, and each place, and every noble act. The created All is a Symbol of God. But here also human perversity and ignorance have done their work ; have attempted to lessen the symbols of the Deity ; to make him of difficult access ; to bar up the fountain of Truth and source of Light still more than under Polytheism, by the establishment of places and times, of rituals and creeds ; by the appointment of exclusive priests to mediate, where no mediator is needed or pos- sible; by the notion that God is capricious, revengeful, uncertain, partial to individuals or nations ; by taking a few doctrines and insisting on exclusive belief; by select- ^a-C ( ing a few from the many alleged miracles, insisting that these, and these alone, shall be accepted, and thus making the religious duty of men arbitrary and almost contemptible. Still, however, no human ignorance, no perversity, no pride of priest or king, can long prevent this doctrine from doing its vast and beautiful work. It struggles mightily with the Sin and Superstition of the world, and at last will overcome them. The history of this doctrine is instructive. It was said above there were three elements to be considered in this matter, namely, the Sentiment of God; the Idea of God; and the Conception of God. The Sentiment is vague and mysterious, but always the same thing in kind, only felt more or less strongly, and with more or less admixture of foreign elements. The Idea is always the same in itself, as it is implied and writ in man's constitution; but is seen with more or less of a distinct consciousness. Both of these lead to Unity, 1 to Monotheism, and accordingly, in i Mcincrs. in his work, Historia Doctrinse de vero Deo, &c., 1 vol. 12mo, 1780, (which, though celebrated, is a passionate and one-sided book, altogether unworthy of the subject, and "behind the times" of its composition.) maintains that the Heathens knew nothing of the one God till about 3-3-54 years afi(?7hft creation of the world, when Anaxagoras helped them to this doctrine. See, on the other hand, the broad and philosophical views of Cudworth, Ch. IV. passim, who, however, seems sometimes to push his hypothesis too far. A history of Monotheism is still to bo desired, though Tenneman, Hitter, Brandis, and eveu Brucker, have collected many facts, and formed valuable contributions to such a work. Munscher has collected valuable passages from the Fathers, relating to the history of the doctrine among the Christians, and their controversies with the Heathen, in his Lehrbuch der Christlichen Dogmengeschichte, 3rd ed., by Yon Coin, Vol. I. Ch. vi. 52, et seq. But "NVarburton, Who wrote like an MONOTHEISM OF THE JEWS. 61 the prayers and hymns, the festivals and fasts, of Fetichists and Polytheists we find often as clear and definite intima- tions of Monotheism, as in the devotional writings of pro- fessed Monotheists. In this sense the doctrine is old as human civilization, and has never been lost sight of. This is so plain it requires no proof. But the Conception of God, which men superadd to the Sentiment and Idea of Him, is continually changing with the advance of the world, of the nation, or the man. We can trace its his- torical development in the writings of Priests, and Philoso- phers, and Poets, though it is impossible to say when and where it was first taught with distinct philosophical con- sciousness, that there is one God ; one only. The history of this subject demands a treatise by itself. 1 This, how- ever, is certain, that we find signs and proofs of its exist- ence among the earliest poets and philosophers of Greece ; in the dim remnants of Egyptian splendour ; in the un- ^^^^ certain records of the East ; in the spontaneous effusions ^xOu of savage hearts, and in the most ancient writings of the A^virv/ Jews. The latter have produced such an influence on the ^*^J world, that their doctrine requires a few words on this point. The Deity was conceived of by the Hebrews as entirely separate from Nature; this distinguishes Judaism from all forms which had a pantheistic tendency, and which deified matter or men. He was the primitive ground and cause of all. But the Jewish Eeligion did not, with logical con- sistency, deny the existence of other Gods, inferior tothe highest. Here we must consider the doctrine of the Jew- ish books, and that of the Jewish people. In the first the reality of other deities is generally assumed. The first commandment of the_ decalogue^Jmplies^ the existence of n5crnlToi''tjr67t^^ falgnters of men; 2 of the divine council or Host of Heaven; 3 the contract Jacob makes with Jehovah; 4 the frequent reference to strange Gods ; the preeminence claimed for Jehovah above all the deities of the other attorney, gives the most erroneous judgments upon the ancient heathen doctrine respecting the unity of God. See the temperate remarks of Mosheim, De Re- cusante Constant, &c., p. 17, et seq. 1 See note, p. 60. 2 Q CK> v i, 2. 3 Gen. iii. 22 ; 1 Kings xxii. 19 ; Job ii. 1. 4 Gen. xxviii. 20, 22 : comp. Herodotus, IV. 179, 62 MONOTHEISM OF THE JEWS. nations 1 these things show that the mind of the writers was not decided in favour of the exclusive existence of Je- hovah. The people and their kings before the exile were strongly inclined to a mingled worship of Fetichism and Polytheism, a medium between the ideal religion of Moses and the actual worship of the Canaanites. It is difficult in the present state of critical investigation, to determine nicely the date of all the different books of the Jews, but this may be safely said, that the early books have more of a polytheistic tendency than the writings of the later pro- phets, for at length, both the learned and the unlearned became pure Monotheists. 2 At first Jehovah and the Elo- him seem to be recognized as joint Gods; 3 but at the end Jehovah is the only God. But the character assigned him is fluctuating. He is always the Creator and Lord of Heaven and Earth, yet is not always represented as the Father of all nations, but of the Jews only, who will punish the Heathens with the most awful severity. 4 In some parts of the Old Testament he is almighty, omnipresent, and omniscient ; eternal and f unalterable. But in others he is represented with limita- tions in respect to all these attributes. Not only are tho sensual perceptions of a man ascribed to him, for this is unavoidable in popular speech, but he walks on the earth, eats with Abraham, wrestles with Jacob, appears in a visible form to Moses, tempts men, speaks in human speech, is pleased with the fragrant sacrifice, sleeps and awakes, rises early in the morning; is jealous, passionate, revengeful. 5 However, in other passages the loftiest 1 See the numerous passages where Jehovah is spoken of as the chief of the Gods : 2 Chr.ii. 5: Ps. xcv. xcvii. 7. et sen.: Ex. xii. 12. xv. 11. xviii. 11. &!cTc. Strabo, ubi sup., Lib. XVI. Ch. ii. $ 35, gives a strange account of the Jewish theology. 2 Compare with the former passages, Jer. ii. 2628; Isa. xliv. 620: Dcut. iv. 28, et seq., xxxii. 16. 17, 39 ; Ps. cxv. cxxxv.. and Ecclesiasticua xxxiu. o, xlui. '2$; Wisdom ot Sol. xu. 13; "Baruch iii. 35. See de "Wette, Bib. Dogmatik, 97, et seq., and 149, et seq., who has collected some of the most important passages. See too his Wcsen des Glaubens, &c., 14, p. 72, et seq. ' See Bauer, Dicta, Classica, V. T. &c., 1798, Vol. I. 41, et seq. See also the treatise of Stahl on the Appearances of God, &c., in Eichhoru, Bibliothek der Bib. Lit. Vol. VII. p. 156, et seq. 4 See an able article on "the Relation of Jehovah to the Heathen," in Eich- horn, ubi sup., Vol. VIII. p. 222, et seq. See Ammon, Fortbildung des Christen thums, Leip. 1836, et seq., Vol. I. Book i. Ch. i. Leasing well says, the Hebrews proceeded from the p^poptinn nf tin. ./., MONOTHEISM OF THE JEWS. 63 attributes are assigned him. He is the God of infinite Love ; Father of all,, who possesses the Earth and Hea- vens. The conception which a man forms of God, depends on the character and attainment of the man himself; this differed with individual Jews as with the Greeks,, the Christians, and the Mahometans. However, this must be confessed, that under the guidance of Divine Providence, the great and beautiful doctrine of one God for the He- bre sems very early embraced by the great Jewish I^a" ?r ; incorporated in his national legislation : and c(e! irons enactions. At our day it is dim- cult to understand the service rendered to the human race by the mi ghty jjffi ul of Mosgs, and that a thousand years before AnSagoi-asy^H^name is ploughed into the his- tory of the world. His influence can never die. It must have been a vast soul, endowed with moral and religioiis_ genius to a decree extraordinary, among* men, w" licJi at thai early ap^e could attempt to found a State on tl 10 doc- trine and worship of one national God. Was he the first of the come- outers ? Or had others, too far before the age for its acceptance, perished before him in the greatness of their endeavour ? History is silent. 2 But the bodies of many Prophets must be rolled poii'crful God to that of the only God, but remained fin* a long time far below thTT thoon^truc God. " Education of the human race," \Vcrke, ed. 18'J4, Vol. AA1V. p. 43, 44. See also on this subject of Hebrew Theism, the valuable but somewhat one-sided views of Vatke, Bib. Theologie, Vol. I. 44, et seq. But see also Salvador, Hist, des Institutions de Moise, &c., Brussels, 1830, Vol. III. p. 175, et seq. At first Christian Artists found it in bad taste and even heathenish to paint / the Almighty in any form. Then, in decorating churches and MSS. with pic-| tures drawn from 0. S. stories, they of^ putjjnly^a^ffw^orGod, or omitting] that, put Christ for the Father. Sec lJumm71^ono^ra^TiTe^Ch*rc!ienne, Paris, t 1843, p. 174, et seq. See the nice distinction made by John of Damascus iu regard to images of God, Orat. I. in Imaginibus, Opp. ed. Basil, 1574, p. 701, -\ et seq. et al. Before the twelfth century it seems there were no pictures of God from Christian Artists. Aftcrwarcl- Italians painted him as ia Pone. ubi the ' san^^?ngg^o?j^the jVenchjind English as a King. Didron, ubi sup., p. 230, et seq. 1 Constant, Liv. IV Ch. xi., has some just remarks on the excellence of the Hebrew Theology. 2 It is difficult to determine accurately the date of events in Chinese history, such are the pretensions of Chinese scholai's on the one hand, and such the bigoted scepticism of dogmatists on the other ; but see the Chinese Classical AVork, commonly called the Four Books, translated by David Pollie ; Malacca, 1829, 1 vol. 8vo. See Cantu, ubi sup., Vol. III. Ch. xxi. et son.. 64 THE TRANSITION FROM into the gulf that yawns wide and deep between the Ideal and the Actual, before the successful man comes in the fulness of time, at God's command, to lead men into the promised land, reaping what they did not sow. These men have risen up in all countries and every time. In the rudest ages as in the most refined, they look through the glass of Nature, seeing clearly the invisible things of God, and by the things that are made and the feelings felt, un- derstanding his eternal power and Godhead. They adored Him as the Spirit who dwells in the sun, looks through the stars, speaks in the wind, controls the world, is chief of all powers, animal, material, spiritual, and Father of all men their dear and blessed God. In his light they loved to live, nor feared to die. There is a great advance from the Fetichism of the Caiiaanite to the Theism of Moses ; from the rude concep- tions of the New Zealander to the refined notions of an enlightened Christian. Ages of progress and revolution seem to separate them, so different is their theology. Yet the Religion of each is the same, distinguished only by the more and less. The change from one of these three religious types to the other is slow; but attended with tumult, war, and suffering. In the ancient civilized na- tions, little is known of their passage from Fetichism to Polytheism. It took place at an early age of the world, before written documents were common. We have, there- fore, no records to verify this passage in the history of the Greeks, Egyptians, or Hebrews. Yet in the earliest periods of each of these nations we find monuments which show that Fetichism was not far off, and furnish a lingering but imperfect evidence of the fierce struggle which had gone 011. The wrecks of Fetichism strew the shores of Greece and Egypt. Judea furnishes us with some familiar exam- ples. 1 1 The legendary character of the Pentateuch renders it unsafe to depend en- tirely on its historical statements. Many passages seem to have been originally designed, or at least retouched, by some one who sought to enhance the difference between Moses and the people. Still, the "general drift" of the tradition is not to be mistaken, and can scarcely be wrong. The testimony of the prophets respecting the early state of the nation is more valuable than that of the Pentateuch itself. See De AYette, Introduction to the 0. T., tr. by Theo. Parker, Boston, 1843. Vol. II. passim. See too, Ewald, Geschichte des Yolks Israel, Yol I., Gott, 1843. FETICHISH TO MONOTHEISM. 65 111 tho patriarchal times, if we may trust the mythi- cal stories in Genesis, we find sacred stones which seem to be Fetiches, Stone-pillars, 1 Idolatry, 3 worship of Ramphan and Chiun while in Egypt and the desert; 3 the Golden Calf of Aaron and that of Jeroboam; 4 and the Goats that were worshipped in the wilderness. 5 Besides, we find the worship of the serpent, 6 a relic of the superstition of Egypt or Phoenicia ; the worship of Baal in its various forms ; 7 of Astarte, " Heaven's Queen and Mother ; " of Thammuz, and Moloch; 8 all of which seem to be remains of Feti- chism. 9 In the JffiX Ljvwjitself we finjtraces^^.Feti- chism. Tne^prornDmon ancTsacrifices ; the forms of divination, the altars, feasts, sacrifices, scape-goat, the ornaments of the priest's dress, all seem to have grown out of the rude worship that formerly prevailed. The old Idolatry was spiritualized, its forms modified and made to serve for the worship "of Je- hovah. The frequent relapses of king and people prove, on the one hand, that the nation was slowly emerging out of a state of great darkness and superstition, and, on the other, that lofty minds and noble hearts were toiling for their civilization. For many centuries a most bloody contention went on between the ideal Monotheism and the actual Idolatry ; at times it was a war of extermination. This shows how dif- ficult it is to introduce Monotheism before the people are 1 Gen. xxviii. 18, xxxv. 14. 2 Gen. xxxi. 19, xxxv. 1 4. 3 See Josh. xxiv. 14; EzeV xx. 7, ct scq., xxiii. 3; Amos v. 25, 26 ; Exod. xxxii. 1; Lev. xvii. 4 Exod. xxxii. 16; I.Kings xii. 28 ; Ezck. i. 10, and x. 14. 5 Levit. xvii. 7. Devils, in our version. 6 Numb. xxi. 49 ; 2 Kings xvii. 4. _* 1 Kings xviii. 23, 26, 28, xix. 18; Jerem. xix. 5 ; 2 Kings i. 2; Judges viii. 32, ix. 4, 46; Numb. xxv. 1, etseq. 8 1 Kings xi. 33; Jorcm. vii. 18; Judges ii. 13, x. 6 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 7; Levit. xix. 29 ; Dent, xxiii. 18 ; Ezck. viii. 14 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 5, xvii. 16, xxi. 3, 5 ; Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 10; Levit. xviii. 21, xx. 2, et seq. ; Deut. xviii. 10; Jerem. vii. 31, xix. 5, xxxii. 35. Seethe testimony of the ancients and remarks of the learned on this subject in De Wette, Archuolo- gie, &c., 191, et seq., and 231, et seq. Vatke goes too far in his explana- tions, 2127 ; but his book is full of valuable thoughts. 9 There is a remarkable passage, though of but four words, in Hosea xiii. 2, which shows that one of the worst vices of Fetichism still prevailed in his time, saying, " They that sacrifice a man shall kiss the calves" i. e. the Idols of the People. This is not the common translation but it seems to me the true one. 66 NO -FORM WITHOUT TRUTH. ready to receive it. They must wait till they attain the requisite moral and intellectual growth. Before this is reached, they can receive it but in name, and are detained from the ruder, and to them more congenial, form, only at the expense of most rigorous laws, suffering, and blood- shed. Before the Exile the Hebrews constantly revolted ; afterwards they never returned to the ruder worship, but ten tribes of the nation were gone for ever. 1 In the more recent conflict of Monotheism and Poly- theism, the history of the Christian and Mahometan reli- gions shows what suffering is endured first by the advocates of the new, and next by those of the old faith, before the rude doctrine could give place to the bet- ter. War and extermination do their work, and remove the unbelieving. Many a country has been Christianized or Mahometanized by the sword. These things have taken place within a few centuries ; when the conquering religion was called Christianity. Are the wars of Charlemagne for- gotten ? Go back thousands of years, to the strife between sacerdotal Polytheism and Fetichism, when each was a more bloody faith, and imagination cannot paint the horrors of the struggle. Now, each of these forms represented an Idea of the . popular consciousness which passed for a truth, or it could not be embraced^ for a great truth, or it would not pre- vail widely ; yes, for all of truth the man could receive at the time he embraced it. We creep before walking. Mankind has likewise an infancy, though it will at length put away childish things. Each of these forms did the world service in its day. Its truth was permanent; its error, the result of the imperfect development of man's faculties. It happens in religious as in scientific matters, that a doctrine contains both truth and falsehood. It is accepted for its truth or the appearance of truth. At first the falsehood does little harm, for it conies in contact with no active faculty in man which detects it. 2 / But gradually 1 See Newman's Hebrew Monarchy, Lond. 1847, Ch. IX. E \vald, ubi sup. B. II. p. 92, et seq. Anhang zum 2ten Band. III. (1) p. 197, et seq. 2 "We often see the most strange inconsistency between a man's conduct and his creed. Roman Lucretia sacrificed to Venus. The worshipper of Jupiter did not imitate his vices ; nor does the modern devotee of some unholy creed, with a Christian name, become what the creed logically demands. A man may hold PROGRESS OF MANKIND. 67 tiie truth does its work; elevates those who receive it; new faculties awake ; the falsehood is seen to be false. The free man would gladly reject it. But the Priesthood, whom interest chains to the old ^ yet elevated enougl will not allow a man to separate the false from the true, They say to the Prophet and the Sage, "Thou shalt ac- cept the old doctrine as we and our fathers. It is from God ; the only Rule. Unless thou accept it on the same authority and in the same way as ourselves, we will burn thee and thy children with fire. Thou mayest live as likest thee ; thou shalt believe with us." The free man replies, " Burn then if thou wilt ; but Truth thou canst not burn down. A lie thou canst not build up. God does not die with his children, nor Truth with its Inen, "as Truth is stronger than everyTieTanT he that has her is mightier than all men, so the fagot of martyr- dom proves the fire-pillar ofthejiuman rac^eT^uidinff'tnem from the "bondage ancT darkneslTof "Egypt to the land of liberty and light. Truth, armed with her arrows to smite, her olive to bless, spreads wide her wings amid the out- cry of the Priest and the King. At last Error goes down to the ground, but because honoured beyond her time, takes with her temple and tower in her fall. ? The Truth represented by Fetichism is this : The un- doctrines which render virtue nugatory, which make the flesh creep with hor- ror, and yet live a divine life, or be gay even to frivolity. The late Dr Hop- tins was a striking illustration of this statement. So lon<* as the religious ientiment preponderates, the false doctrine fails of its legitimate effect. See some judicious observations on this theme in Constant, Liv. I. Ch. iii. iv., and Polytheisme Eom. Vol. I. p. 5981. M. Comte, Vol. V. p. 280, thinks the doctrine of pure Monotheism is perfectly sterile and incapable of becoming the basis of a true religious system ! Judging only from experience, his conclusion is utterly false. But such as might be ex- pected from one who is, as he boasts, " equally free from Fetichistic, Polytheistic, and Monotheistic prejudices." He looks longingly to a time when all theism shall have passed away, and the " hypothesis of a God" become exploded ! But the true man of science is of all men most modest and reverent. He who has followed Newton through the wondrous soaring of his genius comes grateful to that swan-song, beautiful as it is sublime, with which he finishes his flight, and sings of the ONE CAUSE ETERNAL and INFINITE, who rules the all. It cannot be read without a tear of joy. Principia, ed. 1833, Vol. IV. p. 199, 201. " Et hi omnes" &c. &c. See too the beautiful and pious conclusion of Mr. Whewell to his Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. II. p. 582, 583. And the re- marks of Descartes, Meditations, Med. 3, ad finem. It was worthy of Linnceus to say, as he looked at a little flower, Deum Sempiternum, omniscium, omnipoten- tem, a tcryo transeuntem vidi et obstupui. 5* 68 PROGRESS OP TRUTH. known God is present in Matter; spiritual power is the strongest of forces. Its error was to make Matter God. The truth of Polytheism is : God is present, and active, everywhere ; in Space, in Spirit ; breathes in the wind ; speaks in the storm ; inspires to acts of virtue ; helps the efforts of all true men. Its falsehood was, that it divided God, and gave but a chaos of Deity. When the falsehood was seen and felt to be such, and its truth believed in for itself, on its own authority, then was the time for Fetichism and Polytheism to fall. So they fell, never to hope again, for mankind never apostatizes. One generation takes up > the Ark of Religion where another let it fall, and carries forward the hope of the world. The old form never passes away, till all its truth is transferred to the new. These types of religious progress are but the frames on which the artist spreads the canvas, while he paints his piece. The frame may perish when this is done. Fetichism and Polytheism did good, not because they were Fetichism and Polytheism, but because Religion was in them and they were steps in the spiritual progress of mankind indispens- able steps. Such, then, are the three great forms of manifestation assumed by this religious Element. We cannot under- stand the mental and religious state of men who saw the Divine in a serpent, a cat, or an enchanted ring ; not even that of superstitious Christians, who make earth a demon- land, and the one God but a King of Devils. Yet each religious doctrine has sometimes stood for a truth. It was devised to help pious hearts, and has imperfectly accom- plished its purpose. It could not have been but as it was. Looking carelessly at the past, the history of man's reli- gious^ consciousness appears but a series of revolutions. What is to-day built up with prayers and tears, is to-mor- row pulled down with shouting and bloodshed, giving place to a new fabric equally transient. Prophets were mistaken, and saints confounded. Religious history is the tale of confusion. But looking deeper, we see it is a series o of developments, all tending towards one great and beau- tiful end, the harmonious perfection of Man; that in the- ology as in other science, in morals as in theology, the -circle of his vision becomes wider continually ; his opinions PROGRESS OF TRUTH. 69 more true ; his ideal more fair and sublime. Each form that has been, bore its justification in itself; an evil that " God winked at," to use the bold figure of a great man. It was natural and indispensable in its time and place ; a part of the scheme of agencies provided from before the foundation of the world. Each form may perish ; but its truth nevers dies. Nations pass away. A handful of red dust alone marks the spot where a metropolis opened its hundred gates ; but Religion, does not perish. Cities and nations mark the steps of her progress. A nation,, at the head of the civilized world, organizes Religion as well as it can ; perpetuates and diffuses its truth, and thus preaches the advent of a higher faith, and prepares its way. Each failure is a prophecy of the Perfect. But the change from faith to faith is attended with persecution on the one side, and martyrdom on the other. A little philosophy turns o men from Religion. Much knowledge restores them to o their faith, to the bosom of Piety. The great men of the world, men gifted with the deepest insight, and living^the in^tj.^ovalj.ife, have been Man's pioneers in these steps of progress. Moses, Hermes, Confucius, Budha, Zoroaster, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, have lent their holy hands in Man's greatest work. Religion filled their soul with strength and light. It is only little men, that make wide the mouth and draw out the tongue at pure and genuine piety and nobleness of heart. Shall we not judge the world, as a O rose, by its best side ? God, of his wisdom, raises up men of religious genius ; heaven-sent prophets ; born fully armed and fitted for their fearful work. They have an eye to see through the reverend hulls of falsity ; to detect the truth a long way off. They send their eagle gaze far down into the heart; far on into the future, thinking for ages not yet born. The word comes from God with blessed radiance upon their mind. They must speak the tidings from on high, and shed its beamy light on men around, till the heavy lids are opened, and tho sleepy eye beholds. * But alas for him who moves in such work. If there be not superhuman might to sustain him ; if his soul be not naked of selfishness, he will say often, "Alas for me ! Would God my mother had diedW ever I was born to bear all the burdens of the world, and right its wrongs." He that feareth the Lord when was not^he 70 RELIGION IN EVERY AGE. a prey ? He must take his life in his hand, and become as a stranger to men. But if he fall and perish it is his gain. Is it not also the world's ? It is the burning wood that warms men. In passing judgment on these different religious states, we are never to forget, that there is no monopoly of re- ligious emotion by any nation or any age. He that wor- ships truly, by whatever form, worships the Only (loci ; Ha hears the prayer, whether called Brahma*. Jehovah. Pan, or Lord ; or called by no name at all. Each people has its Prophets and its Saints ; and many a swarthy Indian, who bowed down to wood and stone ; many a grim-faced Calmuck, who worshipped the great God of Storms ; many a Grecian peasant, who did homage to Phoebus-Apollo when the Sun rose or went down ; yes, many a savage, his hands smeared all over with human sacrifice, shall come from the East and the West, and sifc down in the Kingdom of God, with Moses and Zoroaster, with Socrates and Jesus, while men, who called daily on the only living God, who paid their tribute and bowed at the name of Christ, shall be cast out, because they did no more. Men are to be judged by what is given, not what is withheld. CHAPTER VI. OF CERTAIN DOCTRINES CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. I. OP THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF MANKIND. II. OF THE IMMORTAL- ITY OF THE SOUL. I. Of the Primitive State of Mankind. VARIOUS theories have been connected with Heligion, respecting the origin and primitive condition of the human race. Many nations have claimed to be the primitive pos- sessors of their native soil; Autochthones, who sprang miraculously out of the ground, were descended from stones, grasshoppers, emmets, or other created things. PRIMITIVE STATE OF MANKIND. 71 Others call themselves Children of the Gods. 1 Some nations trace back their descent to a time of utter barba- rism, whence the Gods recalled them; others start from a golden age,, as the primitive condition of men. 2 The latter opinion prevailed with the Hebrews, from whom the Christians have derived it. According to them, the primi- tive state was one of the highest felicity, from which men fell ; the primitive worship, therefore, must have been the normal Eeligion of mankind. 3 This question then presents itself, From what point did the human race set out ; from civilization and the true worship of one God, or from cannibalism and the deifica- c tion of Nature ? Has the human race fallen or risen ? The question is purely historical, and to be answered by his- torical witnesses. But in the presence, and still more in the absence, of such witnesses, the a priori doctrines of the man's philosophy affect his decision. Reasoningwith no facts is easy, as all motion in vacua. Thejanalog^ of the geological formatiop^of_fche^eaijih ; its gradual prepara- tion, so to say, for the reception of plants and animals, th^mderfirst^ and then the more complex and beautiful, tuT*anast*sne opens her bosom to man, this, in con- nection with many similar analogies, would tend to show that a similar order was to be expected in the affairs of men ; dvek)Dmej3jjj^ and not the reveTse^^Instrictacc^ analogy, some have taught that Man was created in the lowest stage of savage life; his Religion the rudest worship of nature; 1 Diodorus Siculus says, somewhere, all ancient nations claim to be the most ancient. 2 See the heathen view of this in Hesiod, Opera et Dies ; Lucretius, V. 923, ct seq. ; Virgil, Gcorg. I. 125, et seq., Eel. IV. ; Ovid, Met. I. 89, et seq. ; Plato, Polit. p. 271, et seq. See Heyne, Opusc. Vol. III. p. 24, et seq. ; II e- siod's Theoo-- -521579. See other parallels in Bauer's Mythologie des A. T. c , Vol. I. v . 85, et seq. See also the curious speculations of Eichhorn (Urgeschichte ed. Gabler.), Biittmann (Mythologus), and Hartmann (iiber des Pentateuch). Compare Rosenmiiller, Alterthumskunde, Vol. I. Part i. p. 180, et seq., and the striking passage in Kleuker's Zendavesta, Vol. II. p. 211, 227, et seq. ; III. p. 85. See Ehode's remarks upon the passages, ubi sup., p. 388, et seq. See Bauer, Dicta Classica, 52. 3 See ,1 seq Darstellung the opinions of Zoroaster on this point collected by Bretschneider, ing dor Dogmatik, &c., der Apoc. Schriften, Vol. I. 52, p. 286, et 4 See Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Lond., 1844, 1st cd. p. 277, et seq., for some curious remarks. 72 PKIM1T1VE STATE OF MANKIND. his Morality that of the cannibal ; that all of the civilized races have risen from this point, and gradually passed through Fetichism and Polytheism, before they reached refinement and true Eeligion ; the spiritual man is the gradual development of germs latent in the natural man. 1 Another party, consisting more of poets and dogmatists than of philosophers, teaches the opposite doctrine, that a single human pair was created in the full majority of their powers, with a perfect Morality and Eeligion ; that they fell from this state, and while some few kept alive the lamp of Truth, and passed it on. from hand to hand, that the mass sunk into barbarity and sin, whence they aro slov/ly emerging, aided of course by the traditional torch of Truth, still kept by their more fortunate brothers. 2 1 See Comte, Vol. V. p. 32, ct al. Here arises the kindred question, Have all the human race descended from a single pair, or started up in the various parts of the earth where we find them ? The first opinion has heen defended by the Christian Church, in general with more obstinacy than argument. Prit- chard, ubi sup., derives all from one stock, and collects many interesting facts relative to the human race in various conditions. But the unity of the race is not to be made out genealogically. It is essential to the nature of mankind. Augustine has some curious speculations on this head, De Civitate Dei, XII. 21, XIII. 1923, XIV. 1012, 1626. Lactantius, Institut. II. 11, VII. 4. See the opinions of Buddcus, and the curious literature he cites, Hist. Ecclcsiast. V. T. Vol. I. p. 92, et seq. On the other hand, Palfrey's Academical Lectures, Vol. II. Lect. xxi., xxii. ; Kant, von dcr Racen dcr Mensclien, "\Vcrke, Vol. VI. p. 313, et seq. ; Begriff eincr Menschenracc, ib. p. 33, etseq. ; Muthmaas- licher Anfang der Menschcngeschichte, ib. Vol. VII. p. 363, et seq. Even Schleiermacher departs from the common view. Christliche Glaubc, 60 61. See, likewise, the ingenious observations of Samuel S. Smith, Inquiry into the causes of different Complexions, &c., of the human Race. To make out the case, that all men are descended from a primitive power, it is only necessary to assume, philosophically, a principle in the first man, whence all varieties may be derived, and then, historically, to assume the derivation, and the vicious circle is com- plete. Kames has some disingenuous remarks in his History of Man, Pre- liminary Discourse. See Memoires de 1' Academic royale des Sciences morales et politiques, (Paris,) 1841, Tom. III. p. xxiii. et seq., and the literature re- ferred to. 2 See this, which is the prevalent opinion, set forth by Knapp, ubi sup., Vol. I. 5457. Hahn, Lchrbuch des Christ. Glaub. 74, 75. Tholuck, in Bib- lical Repository, Vol. II. p. 119, et seq. ; Hopkins's System of Doctrines, &c., 2nd ed. Vol. I. Part. i. Chap. 5, 8. Bretschneider, Dogmatik, 4th ed. Vol. I. 112, et seq., gives the Lutheran view of this subject, but thinks Oken > heretic for maintaining (in the Isis for 1819, Vol. II. p. 1118) that man may have arisen from an embryo, with human qualities, in the slime of the sea ! p. 812. See Jeremy Taylor, Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, Chap. VI., and the /! j.' - - * 1 - " _ j_l O ^ j 1 1-1 l.r^. -" conflicting remarks in the Sermon at the Funeral of Sir George Dalston ; Jona- than Edwards, Original Sin, Part II. Chap, i., and Notes on Bible, Works, Lond. 1839, Vol. II. p. 689, et seq. More on the same subject may be seen hi Faber's Hor3 Mosaica) ; Edwards, On the Truth and Authority of the Scrip- PRIMITIVE STATE OP MANKIND. 73 Now in favour of this latter opinion there is no direct historical testimony except the legendary and mytlioT ufical wrj tlio Hebrews, which have no more authority in the premises than the similar narratives of the Phoenicians, the Persians, and Chinese. If we assume the miraculous authority of these legends, the matter ends in an assump- tion. The indirect testimony in favour of this doctrine is this : The 6^rmo^Tioun3in many nations that there had o qn^e been a golden^age. Now, if this opinion were uni- versal/it \vouTcTnot pro ve the fact alleged, for it can easily be explained from the notorious tendency of men, in a low <*A state of civilization, to aggrandize the past ; the senses deli^Jittor^member. That opinion only serveso^itus- tratetnlstenSency. The sensual Greek often looked longingly backward to the Golden Age; but the -moTO spiritual prophet of the Hebrews looks forward to tho Kingdom of Heaven yet to be. But theopmionprevails among; many nations, that they have slow^aJyaTice^TroKi %xK^V^ fcX ^r^r'^'l^ 1 **** "**- -**^~-^ s**-*^* " *- "* -* -*~-^ ^~-*-^~~^- a ruder state. ^^LgamTrTis often alleged, that no nation has ever risen out of the savage state except under tho influence of tribes previously enlightened an historical thesis which has never been proved. No one knows whence the Chinese, the Mexicans, the Peruvians, derived assistance. We have yet to be told who taught the Greenlander to build his boat ; the Otaheitan to fashion his war club ; the Sacs and Pawnees to handle the hatchet, cook the flesh of the buffalo, and wear his skin. Besides, it is begging the question, to say the civilization of Rome, Athens, Tyre, 1 udea, Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh, came from the tradition- ary knowledge of some primitive people. If a savage nation in seven centuries can learn to use oil and tallow for light, in a time sufficiently long it may write the Iliad, and build the Parthenon. tures ; Collier's Lectures on Scripture Facts ; Gray's Connection between Sacred and Profane Literature ; Cormack's Inquiry ; Fletcher's Appeal ; Deane's Wor- ship of the Serpent, &c. &c. ; Senac, Christianisme dans ses Rapports avec la Civilization moderne, Paris, 1837, Vol. I. Part i. ch. 2. See the opinions of the Ancients on the creation and primitive state of Man, collected in Grotius, De Veritate, ed. Clericus, Lib. I. 16. 1 Strauss, Die Christ. Glaubenslehre, 1840-1, Vol. I. 45, et seq., de- cides against the hypothesis of a single pair, and even ascribes the origin of man to the power of equivocal generation. But his arguments in favour of the latter have little or no weight, See Kamcs, ubi sup. 74 PRIMITIVE STATE OF MANKIND. Again, it is said that traces of Monotheism are found even in the low stages of our religious history. This must necessarily follow from the identity of the human race ; from the Sentiment and Idea of God, expressing themselves spontaneously. If Man is the same in all ages, differing only in degree of development, and this element is natural to him, then we must expect to find such expressions of it in the poets and philosophers ; in the religion of India, Greece, and Rome. Men of the same spiritual elevation see everywhere the same spiritual truth. If this doctrine of Monotheism proceed from tradition alone, then it must be more clear and distinct as we approach the source of the tradition. But this is notoriously contrary to facts. 1 The opposite doctrine has no more of direct historical testimony in its favour; but is supported by many in- direct testimonies : by the fact, that the greater part of the human race are still in the condition of Fetichism and Polytheism, and that the further we go back in history the worse is this state, and the ruder their religion. In the days of Herodotus, the proportion of rude and savage people was far greater than at this day. Even in that nation alleged to be most highly favoured, we find their social, moral, and religious condition is more rude the further we trace it back. They and other nations, at the time we first meet them in history, bordered close upon the Eetichistic state to which their mythology refers. No nation has ever been found in a normal state of religious culture. If we reason only from established facts, we must con- o elude, that the hypothesis of a golden age, a garden of Eden, a perfect condition of man on the earth in ancient times, is purely gratuitous. The Kingdom of Heaven is not behind but before us. No one can determine, by his- torical evidence, what was the primitive state of the human race, or when, or where, or how mankind, at the command of God, came into existence. Here our con- clusions can be only negative. 2 1 Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs, &c., edit. 1785, Vol. I. p. 17, et scq., 29, ct seq., has many just remarks on the ruder periods of society. 2 Constant, Liv. I. Ch. vi. and x. Ch. vi. treats this subject with a superficial- ity unusual even with him. lie thinks the doctrine of a Fall is a device of the Priesthood, at least, that it owes its importance and continuation to the sacer- IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 75 II. On the Immortalitij of the Soul. The doctrine that Man lives for ever seems almost as rod. _ ii etel'imP3esire* N ' in the human heart; a longing after the Infinite. In the rudest nations and the most civilized, this doctrine appears. Perhaps there has never been but a single form of Keligion among civilized men under which it was not taught plainly and distinctly, > and here it was continually implied. It seems we have by nature a sentiment of immortality ; a^ins^n^ve^eli^ therein. Rude nations, in whom insimcTseemstopre- (dominate, trust the spontaneous belief. They construct an ideal world, in which the shade of the departed pursues his calling and finds justice at the last ; recompense for his toil ; right for his earthly wrongs. The conception of the form of future life depends on the condition and character of the believer. Hence it is a state of war or peace ; of sensual or spiritual delight ; of reform or pro- gress, with different nations. Th^n^o^oj^formed_j)f iho next world is the index of man's state jnjhjs. Here the IcToIafer and the Pantheist, the Mahometan and the Chris- es tian, express their conflicting views of life. The Senti- timent and Idea of immortality may be true, but tho definite conception must be mainly subjective, and there- fore false. In a low stage of civilization the doctrine, like the religious feelings themselves, seems to have but little moral influence on life. It presents no motive to virtue, and therefore does not receive the same place in their sys- tem as at a subsequent period. In rude ages men reason but little. As they begin to bo civilized they ask proofs of Immortality, not satisfied with the instinctive feeling; not convinced that infinite Good- ness will do what is best for all and each of his creatures. o Hence come doubts on this head ; inquiries ; attempts to p prove the doctrine ; a denial of it. There seems an anti- thesis between instinct and understanding. The reasoning Lcroux believes in the progress of all species, Man, the Beaver, and the Bee. M. Maret, ubi sup., p. 30, et se([., and 240, etseq., makes some very judicious observations. 76 OPINION OF THE HEBREWS of men is then against it, but when an accident drives them to somewhat more fundamental than processes of logic, the instinctive belief does its work. Here then are three dis- ? tinct things : a Belief in a future and immortal state ; a Definite Conception of that state ; and a Proof of the fact of a future and immortal state. The two latter may be => fluctuating and inadequate, while the former remains se- cure. Now it may be considered as pretty well fixed, that all iiali^n^^f^the^ear^i, above the mere wild man, believetnTs d^trine;atleast^ the exceptions are so rare/thatthey omyconfirm the rule. However, it is often difficult, and sometimes impossible, to determine the popular conception, d the influence of this belief at a particular time and ce. But the subject demands a more special and de- tailed examination. Let us look at the opinion of the an- cients. 1. Opinion of the Hebrews respcctmy a Future State. It has sometimes been taught that this doctrine was perfectly understood, even by the Patriarchs ; and some- times declared altogether foreign to the Old Testament. Both statements are incorrect. Ins^meparts of the^He- brew Scriptures we find rude ^not^n^^raiutiire statejbut a^lminxiTte^^ In" tlie" early took s, at least, it never appears as a motive. It has no sanction in the Law ; no symbol in the lewish worship. The soul was sometimes placed in the blood, as by Empedocles j 1 sometimes in the breath;' 2 the heart, or the bowels, were sometimes considered as its seat. 3 The notion of immortality was indefinite in the early books ; there are cloudy views of a subterranean world, 4 which gradually acquire more distinctness. The state of the de- parted is a gloomy, joyless consciousness ; the servant is free from his master ; the king has a shadowy grandeur. 5 1 Gen. ix. 4; Lev. xvii. 11; Dcut. xii. 23. See Cicero, Tusc. Lib. I. Cb. 9, 10. 2 Gen. ii. 7 ; Ps. civ. 29, et al. 3 Deut. xxxii. 46; Ps. vii. 10 ; Ps. xvi. 7 ; Prov. xxiii. 16, et al. 4 Gen. xxv. 8, xxxvii 3o ; Num. xvi. 30, 33. In Job, Isaiah, and tlio Psalms this becomes more definite. Job x. 21, xxxviii. 17. 5 Job iii. 1319 ; Isaiah xiv. ; Ezek. xxxii. ; 1 Sam. xxviii. See Homer, Od. XI. Virgil, JEneid, VI. RESPECTING A FUTURE STATE. 77 Tlie dead prophet can be called back to admonish the liv- ing. Enoch and Elijah, like Ganymede with the Greeks, being favourites of the deity/ and taken miraculously to him. Other passages deny the doctrine of immortality with great plainness.'"* After the return from exile, the doctrine appears more definitely. Ezekiel and the pseudo-Isaiah 3 allude to a resur- rection of the body, a notion which is perhaps of Zoroas- trian origin. 4 Perhaps older than Zoroaster. But it is only a doubtful immortality that is taught in the apocry- phal book of Ecclesiasticus, though in the Wisdom of Solo- mon, 5 and in the fourth book of Maccabees, it is set forth with great clearness. 6 The second book of Maccabees teaches in the plainest terms the resurrection of all ; the righteous to happiness, the wicked to shame. 7 They will find their former friends, and resume their old pursuits. 8 Nothing is plainer. 1 See also Ps. xvii. 15, Ixxiii. 24. See the mistakes of Michaelis respecting this doctrine of immortality, in his Argumenta immortalitate, ... ex Mose collecta, in his Syntagma Comment. Vol. I. p. 80, et seq. See his notes on Lowth, p. 465, ed. Rosenmiiller. Warburton founds his strange hypothesis on the opposite view. See on this point, Bauer, Dicta classica, Vol. II. 56, et Philosophic, Vol. V. pt. I. p. 16, etseq., and a treatise in the Studien und Kriti- kcn for 1830, Vol. Yl. p. 884, et seq. m 2 Eccles. iii. 1921. ix. 10. In Job xlv. 1014. et al., Job distinctly de- nies the immortality which he had previously affirmed, but this shows the exquisite art of the poem. See De Wette, Introduction to 0. T., Vol. II. p. 556, 557, note a. Perhaps the opinions put into Job's mouth are not those of the Author, but such only as he thought the circumstances of his hero required. 3 Ezek. xxxvii. ; Isa. xxvi. 19. See Gesenius in loco. 4 Rhode, ubi sup., p. 494, Nork, Mythen der alten Perser, 1835, p. 148, et seq. ; Priestley, ubi sup., $ XXIII. ; Bretschneider, ubi sup., 58, p. 325, et seq. 6 i. 15, 16, ii. 22 iii. et seq., v. 15, vi. 18. It is connected with a preexistent state, viii. 19, 20. The 2nd Book of Esdras is quite remarkable for the view it presents of this doctrine. See ii. 23, 31, 34, 35, iv. 40, et seq., vii. 13, 27 35, 42, et seq., viii. 1, et seq. et al. But the character and date of the book prevent me from using it in the text. 6 xv. 3, xvi. 25, xvii. 18, et al. de Wette, ubi sup., 180. See the remarkable passage in 4th Esdras, which Fabricius has added from the Arabic Version Codex pseudepigraphus, ed alt. Hamb. 1741, Vol. II. p. 235, et seq. However, it 'may have been added by a Christian. In the Psalter of Solomon, it is said they thai fear the Lord shall rise again to everlasting life. See Ch. xiv. 2, et seq., and xv. in Fabricius, ubi sup., Vol. I. p. 926, 954, et seq. I do not pretend to determine the date of this apocryphal book. 7 vii. 9, 11, 14, 23, xii. 43, et seq., xv. 12, et seq. 8 See in Eichhorn, ubi sup., Vol. IV. p. 653, et seq., a valuable contribution to the History of this doctrine by Frisch, He make an ingenious comparison 78 OPINION OP THE HEATHEN At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees believed in the re- surrection of the body ; a state of rewards and punish- ments. 1 Some of them connected it with the common notion of the transmigration of souls ; 2 perhaps with that of preexistence. The Essenes, still more philosophically, taught the immortality of the soul, and the certainty of retribution, without the resurrection of the body. The soul is formed of the most subtle air, and is confined in the body as in a prison ; death redeems it from a long bondage, and the living soul mounts upward rejoicing. 3 We find similar views in Philo. 4 Perhaps they were com- mon in reflecting minds at the time of Jesus, who always presupposes a belief in immortality. The Sadducees alone opposed it. Such were the beginning and history of this dogma with the Jews. Its progress and formation are obvious. 2. Of this Doctrine among the Heathen Nations. Among savage nations this belief is common. It ap- o pears in prayers and offerings for the dead ; in the mode of burial. The savage American deposits in the tomb the bow and the pipe, the dress and the tomahawk of the de- of passages from the Apocrypha, and the New Testament. The same doctrine is taught in both. See Flatt, in Paulus, Memorabil. st. II. p. 157, et seq. ; Bretschneider, ubi sup., 53 58, 1 Acts xxiii. 68, xxiv. 15 ; Mattli. xxii. 24, et scq. ; Mark xii. 19, et seq. 2 Josephus, Wars, II. viii. 14. Joscphus may have added the metempsychosis to suit the taste of his readers. 3 Josephus, "Wars, II. viii. 11. Josephus himself seems to agree with this opinion, when he "talks like a philosopher," in his pretended speech, "Wars, III. viii. 5. See Buddeus, ubi sup., II. p. 1202, et seq. ; Paulus, Memorabil., Vol. II. p. 157, et seq. ; and De Wette, ubi sup., 178, et seq. 4 See also the views of Philo, De Somniis, p. 586 ; De Abrah, p. 385 ; De Mundi Opif.,'p. 31. The soul is immortal by nature, but by grace. See Diihne, Geschichtliche Darstellung der Judischen, Alexand. Philosophic, &c., 1834, Vol. I. p. 330, et scq, 405, 485, et seq., who cites the above and other proof passages ; Hitter, ubi sup., Vol. IV. See "Weizel on the primitive doctrine of immortality among the Christians, in Theol. Stud, und Kritiken, for 1836, p. 957, et seq. Constant, Liv. IX. Ch. vii., makes some just remarks on this subject. On the state of opinions in the time of Christ, see Gfrorer, Jahrhundert des Heils, 1838, Vol. II. Ch. vii.; Triglandius de tribus Judteorum sectis, in quo Serarii, Drusii, Scaligeri, Opuscula, &c., 1703, Vol. I. Parti Lib. II. and II I., Part II. Lib. II. IV., and Scaliger's Animadversions ; and the very valuable treatise of Leclerc, Prolegomena ad Hist. Eccl. Lib. I. Ch. i. See Fliigge, Geschichte des Glaubens an TJnsterblichkeit, &c. &c., Leip. 1794, Vol. I. p. 112160, 201251, et passim; Bouehitte Mem. de 1'Institut. Savans etran- geres, Tom. II. p. 621, et seq. RESPECTING A FUTURE STATE. 79 ceased warrior. The Scythian, the Goth, the Indian, and the half-barbarous Greek, burned or buried the horse, or the servant, the wife, or the captive of a great man at his decease, that he might go down royally attended to the realm of shades. Metempsychosis ; the deification of the dead, ceremonies in their honour, gifts left on their tombs, oaths confirmed in their name, are all signs of this belief. 1 The Egyptians, the Gauls, and Scandinavians spoke of death as the object of life. 2 Lucan foolishly thinks the latter are brave because they believe in endless existence. Each savage people has its place of souls. Death with them is not an extinction, but a change of life. The tomb is a sacred place. No expense is too great for the dead. The picture of Heaven is earth embellished. At first, the next world is not a domain of moral justice ; God has no tribunal of judgment. But with the advance of the present, the conception of a future state rises also. The Pawnees have but one place for all the departed. The Scandinavians have two, Nifleheim and Nastrond; the Persians seven ; the Hindoos no less than twenty-four, ?or different degrees of merit. 3 With many savages, the good and evil become angels to bless, or demons to curse man- kind. 4 To come to the civilized states of antiquity, India, Egypt, Persia, we find the doctrine prevalent in the earliest time, even in the ages when Mythology takes the place of His- tory. In India and Egypt it was most often connected with 1 See Lafitau, ubi sup., Vol. II. p. 387, et seq., 410, et seq., 420, et seq., 444, et seq., Vol I. p. 359, et seq., 507, et seq. ; Catlin, ubi sup., Vol. I. Ban- croft's Hist. Vol. III. Ch. xxii. ; Constant, Livre IX. Ch. vii. viii., Livre IT. Ch. iv. ; Martin, ubi sup., Vol. I. p. 18, 56, 32) ; Vol. II. p. 212, et seq.; United States Exploring Expedition, Phil. 1845-6, Vol. VII. p. 63, et seq., 99, et seq., et al. For the Fetichism of the Savages, see p. 16, et seq., 26, et seq., 5], et seq., 97, et seq., 110, et seq. * On the belief of the Scandinavians, the Caledonians, the Parsees, Indians, &c., see Fliigge, Vol. II. The ancient Lithuanians had some singular opi- nions and customs in relation to the dead, for which see Boemus, Omnium Gen- tium Mores, &c., Friburg, 1540, p. 182. 3 Constant, ibid. Meiners, ubi sup., Vol. I. Book iii. See Leroux, Do THumanite, &c., Vol. II. p. 468, et seq. 4 Meiners, p. 302, et seq. Farmer, On the Worship of Human Spirits, passim. I have mentioned a few books on this subject, which have furnished the facts on which the above conclusions rest. I can refer to books of Travels, Voyages in general, the Lettres Edifiantes, descriptions of foreign countries, which furnish the facts in abundance. The works of Meiners, Constant, and Lafitau are them- selves but a compilation from these sources. 80 OPINION OP THE HEATHEN transmigration to other bodies. Herodotus says, the Egyptians first taught the doctrine. 1 But who knows ? Pausanias is nearer the truth when he refers it to India, 2 where it was taught before the birth of Philosophy in the West. 3 It begins with the beginning of the nations. In Greece we find it in a rude form in Homer ; connect- ed with Metempsychosis in Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Pherecydes ; assuming a new form in Sophocles and Pin- dar, and becoming a doctrine fixed and settled with Socrates, Plato, and his school in general. 4 In Homer the future state is a joyless existence. Achilles would rather be king of earthly men for a day, than of spirits for ever. Like the future state of the Jews, it offers no motive, and presents no terror. The shades of the weary came toge- ther from all lands into their dim sojourn. Enemies forgot their strife ; but friends were joined. 5 The present life is obscurely renewed in the next world. But the more especial friends or foes of the Gods are raised to honour, or condemned to shame. The transmigration of souls is perhaps derived from the wondrous mutation in the vege- table and animal world, where an acorn unswathed be- comes an oak, and an egg discloses an eagle. In Hesiod, the condition of the dead is improved with the advance of the nation. The good have a place in the Isles of the Blest. 7 In the latter poets, the doctrine rises still higher, while the form is not always definite. 8 Pindar 1 Lib. II. Chap. 123. See Creutzcr's note, in Bahr's edition. 2 The date of all things is uncertain in the East. I cannot pretend to chrono- logical accuracy, but see Asiatic Researches, Vol. V. p. 360; VII. 310 ; VIII. 448, et seq. ; Priestley, ubi sup., XXI1L ; Bitter. Vol. I. p. 132. a Stanley's History of Philosophy. Part XIII. Sect. ii. Chap. x. Hyde, ubi sup. 4 Brouwer, Vol. II. Ch. xviii. ; "Wilkinson, Vol. IT. p. 440, et seq. Homer assigns to the Gods a beautiful abode not shaken by the winds. &c., Od. VI. 41, et seq. See the imitation of the passage in Lucretius, III. 18, et seq. Struchtmeyer, Theologia Mythica, sive de Origine Tartar! et Elysii, Libri V., Hag. Com. 1753, 1 Vol. 8vo, Lib. I. 5 See Iliad, XXIII. et seq. et al. ; Odyss. XL and XXIV. passim, and Heyne, Excursus on Iliad, XXIII. 71 and 104, Vol. VIII. p. 368, et seq. ; Diod. &c., Vol. I. p. 86. See the similar views of the North American Indi.ins, in Schoolcraft, Algic Researches; Wachsmuth, Vol. II. Part ii. p. 106, 244, 290; Potter, Antiquities; Gorres, Mythengeschichte, passim. 6 See Xenophou, Memorab., ed. Schneider, Lips. 1829, Lib. I. Chap. iii. 7,' and the Note of Bornemann. 7 Opera et Dies, vs. 160, et seq., and the Scholia in Poet. Min., ed. Gaisford, Lips. 1823, Vol. II. p. 142, et seq. 8 See the Gnomic poets in general, for the moral views of life ; for the RESPECTING A FUTURE STATE. 81 celebrates the condition of the Good in the next life. It is a state where the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished until sin is consumed from their nature, when they come to the divine abode. 1 To pass from the Poets to the Philosophers ; the Im- mortality of the Soul was taught continually, from Phere- cydes to Plotinus. There were those who doubted, and some that denied ; yet it was defended by all the greatest philosophers, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aris- totle, Cicero, Plutarch, Epictetus, 2 and by the most in- immortality of the soul, Simonides, Frag. XXX. (XXXIII.) ; Tyrtaeus III. in Gaisford, Vol. III. p. 160, 242. See the curious passage in Aristophanes, Kunae, vs. 449460, Opp. ed. Bekker, Lond. 1829, Vol. I p. 535, in which see B.'s note. See Orpheus, as cited by Loheck," Aglaoph., p. 950 ; Cudworth, Chap. I. 21, 22, and Mosheim in loc. See the indifferent book of Priestley, Heathen Philosophy, Part I. 3, 5; Part II. 3, 5; also p. 125, et sea., 197, et seq., 265, et seq. 1 Olymp. II. vs. 104, et seq. (57 92, in Dissen.) See Cowley's wild imita- tion in' his Pindarique Odes, Lond. 1720, Vol. II. p. 160, et seq. See similar thoughts in Propertius, Lib. III. 39, et seq.; and Tibullus, Eleg. Ill 58; Virgil. JEneid, VI. See also Pindar's Fragment, II. Vol. III. p. 34, ed. Heyne, Lips. 1817, Frag. I. p. 31, et seq., Frag. III. p. 36 ; and the notes of Dissen, in his edition of Pindar, Vol. II. p. 648, et seq., and Lobeck, ubi sup. See, who will, a treatise in the Acta Eruditorum for August, 1722, de Statu Animae separata? post mortem, &c. 2 Cicero, Tusc. Lib. I. Chap, xvi., says Pherecydes was the first who taught this doctrine. See the note in Lemaire's edition. See also Diogenes Laert. Thales, Lib. I. 43, p. 27, et seq., and Plutarch, De Placitis Phil., Lib. IV. Ch. ii. vii., Opp. Vol. II. p. 898, et seq. It has been thought doubtful that Aris- totle believed in immortality, and perhaps it is not easy to prove this point. See De Anima, III. 5; but compare Ethic. Nicom. Lib. III. Chap, vi., which denies it. See again De Anima, II. 2 ; De Gen. Anim. III. 4. Plato teaches immortality with the greatest clearness. See the Pluedo, passim ; Georgias, p. 524, et seq. et al. ; Apolog. Laws, (if they are genuine,) Lib. X. XII. ; Epi- nomis, Timreus, Hep. X. p. 612, et seq. Plato makes the essence of man spirit- ual; Tim. p. 69, C. et seq., 72, D. et seq., Rep. IV. p. 431, A. He was opposed to the Materialists, Soph p. 246, A. However, he did not condemn the body. His argument in favour of immortality, like many later arguments on the same theme, creates more questions than it answers. The form of the doctrine, its connection with preexistence and transmigration, like many doctrines still popularly connected with it, serve only to disfigure the doctrine itself, and bring it into reproach. The opinion of Cicero is so well known, that it is almost superfluous to cite passages ; but see Frag, de Consolat. 12, et seq., 27, et al. ; De Senectute, Chap. XXI., et seq., Tusc. I. C. 16 ; De Amicit., Ch. 3, 4 : Somnium Scipionis, et al. See Seneca, De Ira, I. 3; Consolatio ad Helv., Chap. VI'.; De Vita Beata, Chap. XXII. Ep. 50, 102, 117. Sometimes he speaks decidedly, at other times with doubt. See Lipsius Physiol. Stoic. Lib. III. Diss. viii. xix. See Locke, Essay, Book IV. Chap, iii., and Letters to Bishop of Worcester, See Plutarch, De Sera Numinis Vindicta, Morals, Lond. 1691, Vol. IV. p. 197, et seq. See too the Story of Soleus the Thespesian, ibid. p. 206, et seq. ; 1'lut. Vit. Quint. Sertorius, Opp. I. 571, 572, F & B., for an account of the 6 82 OPINION OF THE HEATHEN fluential schools. No doubt it was often connected with absurd notions, in jest or earnest. But when or where has its fate been different ? Bishop Warburton thinks it no part of Natural Eeligion ; Dodvvell thinks immortality is only coextensive with Christian baptism, and is super- induced upon the mortal soul by that dispensation of water. 1 Could a heathen be more absurd ? If the popular doctrine of the Christian Church, which dooms the mass of men to endless misery, be true, then were immortality a misfor- tune to the race. The wisest of the Heathen taught such a dogma as little as did Jesus of Nazareth. We must always separate the doctrine from its proof and its form ; the latter is often imperfect while the doctrine is true. Since the time of Bishop Warburton, it has been com- mon to deny that the Heathen were acquainted with this doctrine. 2 "It was one guess among many," has often been said. But a man even slightly acquainted with an- cient thought and life, knows it is not so. God has not made truth so hard to come at, that the world of men con- tinued so many thousand years in ignorance of a future life. Before the time above named, it was taught by scholars, even scholars of the clerical order, that the doc- trine was well known to the Heathen. Cudworth and Fortunate Islands, with which comp. Diod. Sic. Hist. II. Vol. I. p. 137, ot scq. It seems the Priests of Serapis distinctly taught the Immortality of tho Soul. Augustine says, " Many of the Philosophers of the Gentiles have written much concerning the immortality of the Soul, and in numerous books have they left it on record that the Soul is immortal. But when you come to tJie resurrec- tion of the Flesh, they do not hesitate but openly deny that, contradicting it to such a degree that they declare it impossible for this terrene flesh to rise to Heaven.'" Expos. Psalms, Ixxxviii. Justin M says the doctrine of immortality was MO new thing in Christ's time buf^vaT^TuglTl by J^iato and Pythagoras. The new elemenT (Jhnst added to the doctrine he thinks was the resurrection of the Flesh . Opp. ed. Otto. ii. p. 540. See the Literature collected on this subject by Kort- holt in his Annotations on Athenagoras, Legat., &c. &c., ed. Oxoii. 1701, p. 9-i, et seq. 1 Epistolary Discourse, &c., London, 1706. He thinks that Regular Bishops have the power of making men immortal through the "divine baptismal spirit." See for the history of opinions among the Christians, Fliigge, Vol. III. pt. 1 and 2. 2 Warburton has the merit of framing an hypothesis so completely original that no one, perhaps, (except Bishop Hurd,) has ever shared it in full with him. Part of his singular theory is this : A belief in a future state was found neces- sary in heathen countries to keep the subjects in order ; the philosophers and priests got up a doctrine for that purpose, teaching that the soul was immortal, but not believing a word of it. Moses, who believed the doctrine, yet never taught it, controlled the people by means of his inspiration, and the perfect Law. RESPECTING A FUTURE STATE. 83 More, Wilkins, Taylor, and Wollaston, to mention only the most obvious names, bear testimony to the fact. 1 To sum up in a few words the history of this doctrine, both among Jews and Gentiles : it seems that rude nations, like the Celts and the Sarmatiana, clung instinctively to the sentiment of immortality ; that the doctrine was well known to the philosophers, and commonly accepted : that some doubted, and some denied it altogether. A few had reached an eminence in philosophy, and could in their way demonstrate the proposition, and satisfy their logical doubt, thus reconciling the instinctive and reflective faculty. From the first book of Moses to the last of Mac- cabees, from Homer to Cicero, there is a great change in the form of the doctrine. All other forms also had changed. But how far was the doctrine diffused among the peo- ple ? We can tell but faintly from history. But what nature demands and Providence affords, lingers longest in the bosom of the mass of men. The doctrine was not strange to the fishermen of Galilee. Was it more so to the peasants of Greece ? 2 The early Apologists of Chris- tianity found no difficulty from the unity of God, and the immortality of the soul ; both are presupposed by Jesus - and Paul. How far it moved men in common life can be told neither from the courtiers of Pagan Cassar Augustus, nor from those of Christian Louis the Well-beloved. A Eoman, and a Christian Pontiff how much are they moved by the tardy terrors of future judgment ? 3 Juvenal could 1 See Cudwovth and More, passim; Wilkins. Principles and Duties of Na- tural Religion, &c., Book I. Ch. xi. ; see also Ch. iv. and viii. ; Taylor's Sermon, preached at the Funeral of that worthy Knight, Sir George Dalston, &c. ; "Wollaston, Religion of Nature, Sect. IX. It would be easy to cite passages from the early Christians, testify ing to the truth possessed by the Heathens B.C. I will mention but one from Minucius Felix. " A man might judge either that the present Christians aro philosophers, or else that the old philosophers were Christians." See likewise Brougham's Discourse on Natural Theology, Note VI. IX. in Appendix. Polybius, ubi sup., Lib. YI. c. 5356, seems to think the legislators got up the doctrine, with no faith in it, except a general belief it would make men submissive. See Timseus, De Anima Mundi, in Gale, ubi sup. 2 The resurrection of the body seems to have been the doctrine that offendedL Paul's hearers at Athens; that of immortality alone was well known to thoZ Stoics, some of whom believed it, and the Epicureans, who rejected it. Acts 7 xvii. 16, et seq. See Wetstein in loc. 3 See Horace, Epist. Lib. I. Ep. xvi.; Juvenal, Satir. XIII.; Persius, Satir. II. How far do these express the popular sentiment ? G * 84 INFLUENCE OF THE BELIEF IN A FUTUEE STATE. repeat his biting sneer in more ages than one. 1 Was the argument of the Pagan philosopher unsatisfactory? It was never otherwise. Mr Strauss declares it has not yet been demonstrated ; Mr Locke, that it cannot be proved. The spontaneous sentiment does its work with few words. Who shall demonstrate for us a fact of consciousness, or prove our personal identity ? But the doctrine was con- o nected with gross errors, preexistence and metempsy- chosis. Has the doctrine ever been free of such connection? in even a single historical case ? It does not appear. The doctrine of inherited sin, of depravity born in the bones of men ; the notion that the mass of men are doomed by the God of Mercy to eternal woe immortal only to be wretched is not a strange thing in the nineteenth century. Mo- dern savages have foul notions of God ; ancient civilization lias sins enough on its head, hideous sins, unknown even in our day, for the world has been worse, but both are free from such a stain. 2 CHAPTER VII. THE INFLUENCE OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT ON LIFE. MAN is not a being of isolated faculties which act inde- pendently. The religious, like each other element in us, acts jointly with other powers. Its action therefore is helped or hindered by them. The Idea of Religion is only realized by an harmonious action of all the faculti tKe intellectual, the moral. Yet the religious faculty must act, 1 Satir. II. 149, ct scq. 2 Lcclerc, ubi sup., gives a bird's-eye view of the state of the world at the commencement of the Christian period, perhaps the most faithful that has been given of manners and opinions. The popular mythology was in about the out interest. See a Sermon of Immortal Life, bv Theo. Parker, Boat. 1846. SUPERSTITION. 85 more or less,, though the understanding be not cultivated, and the moral elements sleep in Egyptian night ; in con- nection therefore with Wisdom or Folly,, with Hope or Fear, with Love or Hate. Now in all periods of human history Religion demands something of her votaries. The ruder their condition, the more capricious and unreasonable : is the demand. Though the Religious instinct itself be ever the same, the form of its expression varies with man's 1 intellectual and moral state. Its influence on life may be considered under its three different manifestations. I. Of Superstition. & Combining with Ignorance and Fear, the Religious Element leads to Superstition. This is the viHficatipn and o debasement of men. It may be denned as FEAE BEFOEE TGop. PtuTarcTC though himself religious, pronounced it worse than Atheism. But the latter cannot exist to the same extent; is never an active principle. Superstition is a morbid state of human nature, where the conditions of re- ligious development are not fulfilled ; where the functions of the religious faculty are impeded and counteracted. But it must act, as the heart beats in the frenzy of a fever. It has been said with truth, " Perfect love casts out fear." The converse is quite as true. Perfect fear casts out Love. The superstitious man begins by fearing God, not loving him. He goes on, like a timid boy in the darkness, by projecting his own conceptions out of himself | conjuring ujM^pliamom'Tie callsTiis Go 3 ; a JJeity capricious, cruel, revengefuTT Tying" 1 in 1 wait for the unwary; a God ugly, morose, and only to be feared. He ends by paying a ser- vice meet for such a God, the service of Horror and Fear. Each man's conception of God is his conception of a -man carried out to infinity ; the pure idea is eclipsed by a human personality. This conception therefore varies as the men oo who form it vary. It is the index of their Soul. The su- perstitious man projects out of himself a creation begotten of his Folly and his Fear ; calls the furious phantom God, Moloch, Jehovah ; then attempts to please the capricious Being he has conjured up. To do this, the demands his Superstition makes are not to keep the laws which the one God wrote on the walls of Man's being : but to do arbitrary 86 THE UNNATUKAL SACRIFICES. acts which this fancied God demands. He must give up to the deity what is dearest to himself. Hence the savage offers a sacrifice of favourite articles of food ; the first-fruits of the chase, or agriculture ; weapons of war which have done signal service ; the nobler animals ; the skins of rare beasts. He conceives the anger of his God may be soothed like a man's excited passion by libations, incense, the smoke of plants, the steam of a sacrifice. Again, the superstitious man would appease his God by unnatural personal service. He undertakes an enterprise, almost impossible, and succeeds, for Vthe fire of his pur- pose subdues and softens the rock that opposes^ jiini J Ie submits to painful privation of food, rest, clothing ; leads a life of solitude ; wears a comfortless dress, that girds and frets the very flesh ; stands in a painful position ; shuts himself in a dungeon ; lives in a cave ; stands on a pillar's top ; goes unshorn and filthy. He exposes himself to be scorched by the sun and frozen by the frost. He lacerates his flesh; punctures his skin to receive sacred figures of the Gods. He mutilates his body, cutting off the most useful members. He sacrifices his cattle, his enemies, his children ; defiles the sacred temple of his body ; destroys his mortal life to serve his God. In a state more refined, Superstition demands abstinence from all the sensual goods of life. Its present pleasures are a godless thing. The flesh is damned. To serve God is to mortify the appetites God gave. Then the superstitious man abstains from com- fortable food, clothing, and shelter ; comes neither eating nor drinking ; watches all night absorbed in holy vigils. The man of God must be thin and spare. Bernard has but to show his neck, fleshless and scrag'grvT to be confessed a mighty saint. Above all, he must abstain from marriage. The Devil lurks under the bridal rose. The vow of the ce- libate can send him howling back to hell. The smothered volcano is grateful to God. Then comes the assumption of arbitrary vows ; the performance of pilgrimages to dis- tant places, thinly clad and barefoot; the repetition of prayers, not as a delight, spontaneously poured out, but as a penance, or work of supererogation. In this state, Superstition builds convents, monasteries, sends Anthony to his dwelling in the desert; it founds orders of Mendi- cants, Rechabites, Nazarites, Encratites, Pilgrims, Flagel- OF THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAX. 8 lants, and similar Moss-troopers of Religion, whom Heaven yet turns to good account. This is the Superstition of the Flesh. It promises the favour of its God on condition of these most useless and arbitrary acts. It dwells on the absurdest of externals. However, in a later day it goes to still more subtle re- finements. The man does not mutilate his body, nor give up the most sacred of his material possessions. This was the Superstition of savage life. But he mutilates his soul ; gives up the most sacred of his spiritual treasures. This softly joins him to the eternal world. He will think against Reason ; decide against Conscience : act against Love ; be- cause he dreams the God of Reason, Conscience, and Love demands it. It is a slight thing to hack and mutilate the body, though it be the fairest temple God ever made, and cp to mar its completeness a sin. But to dismember the soul, the very image of God ; to lop off most sacred affections ; to call Reason a Liar, Conscience a devil's- oracle, and cast Love clean out from the heart, this is the last triumph of Superstition ; but one often witnessed, in all three forms of Religion Fetichism, Polytheism, Monotheism ; in all ages before Christ ; in all ages after Christ. This is the Super- stition of the Soul. The one might be the Superstition of the Hero ; this is the Superstition of the Pharisee. A man rude in spirit must have a rude conception of God. He thinks the Deity like himself. If a Buffalo had a religion, his conception of Doity would probably be a Buffe lo, fairer limbed, stronger, and swifter than himself, grazing in the fairest meadows of Heaven. If he were superstitious, his service would consist in offerings of grass, of water, of salt ; perhaps in abstinence from the pleasures, comforts, necessities of a bison's life. His devil also would be a Buffalo, but of another colour, lean, vicious, and ugly. Now when a man has these rude conceptions, inseparable from a rude state, offerings and sacrifice are natural. When they come spontaneous, as the expression of a grate- ful or a penitent heart ; the seal of a resolution ; the sign of Faith, Hope, and Love, as an outward symbol which strengthens the in-dwelling sentiment the sacrifice is 88 NATURAL SACRIFICE. pleasant and may be beautiful. The child who saw God in the swelling and rounded clouds of a June day, and left on a rock the ribbon-grass and garden roses as mute sym- bols of gratitude to the Great Spirit who poured out the voluptuous weather ; the ancient pagan who bowed prone to the dust, in homage, as J:he sun looked put from_ J:ho \windows of morning) or onbred the smolce "of "mcenseat nightfall in gratitude for the day, or kissed his hand to the Moon, thankful for that spectacle of loveliness passing above him ; the man who, with reverent thankfulness or penitence, offers a sacrifice of joy or grief, to express what words too poorly tell; he is no idolater, but Nature's simple child. We rejoice in self-denial for a father, a son, a friend. Love and every strong emotion has its sacrifice. It is rooted deep in the heart of men. God needs nothing. He cannot receive ; yet Man needs to give. But if these . things are done as substitutes for holiness, as causes and I not mere signs of reconciliation with God, as means to i coax and wheedle the Deity and bribe the All-po i-fiil, it ) is Superstition, rank and odious. Examples enough of this are found in all ages. To take two of the most celebrated cases, one from the Hebrews, the other from a Heathen people : Abraham would sacrifice his son to Jehovah, who demanded that offering, 1 Agamemnon his daughter to 1 Gen. xxii. 1 14. The conjectures of the learned about this mythical legend, which may have some fact at its foundation, are numerous, and some of , them remarkable" for their ingenuity, ^ome one supposes that Abraham was \ tempted by the Elohim, but Jehovah prevented the sacrifice. It is easy to find /Heathen parallels. See the story of Cronus in Eusebius, P. E. I. 10; of Aristodemus, of whom Pausanias tells a curious story, IV. 9. See the case of Helena and Valeria Luperca, who were both miraculously saved from sacrifice, in Plutarch, Paralel. Opp. Vol. II. p. 314. The Bulgarian legend of poor Lasar is quite remarkable, and strikingly analogous to that of Abram and Isaac. A stranger comes to Lasar's house, L. has nothing for his guest's supper, and therefore, at his suggestion, kills Jenko, his son ; the guest eats ; but at mid- night cries aloud that he is the LORD ! Jenko is restored to life. See the story in a notice of Patou's Servia, in For. Quart. Review for Oct. 1845, Am. ed. p. 130. Polybius says we must allow writers to enlarge in stories of miracles, and in fables of that sort, when they desire to promote piety among the people. But, ho adds, an excess in this line is not to be tolerated. Opp. Lib. XVI. ch. 11, ed. Schweighauser, Oxon. 1823, III. p. 289. Elsewhere he says, this would not be necessary in a state composed of wise men, but the people require to be managed with obscure fears and tragical stories. Ibid. Lib. VI. ch. 56, Vol. II. p. 389. Strabo is of the same opinion, and thinks that women and the people cannot be led to piety by philosophical discourses, only by Fables and Myths. Gcog. Lib. I. ch. 2, ed. Siebenkecs, p. 51-2. Dionysius Hal. speaks more ABRAHAM AND AGAMEMNON. 89 angry Diana. But a Deity kindly interferes in both cases. The Angel of Jehovah rescues Isaac from the remorseless knife ; a ram is found for a sacrifice. Diana delivers the daughter of Agamemnon and leaves a hind in her place. No one doubts the latter is a case of superstition "most ghastly and terrible. A father murder _his own ^hile^ a human sacrifice to the jjor^ofLife ! It is relDellTon*aga4nst C^scimic^^Ke^so^^^AI^c^io^J tr^spn^gSigs^ rod. TJiougli UalchasTthe^nmnfcecr ministerT^eclarecl it the~will of Heaven there is an older than Calchas who says, It is a Lie. He that defends the former patriarch, counting it a blameless and beautiful act of piety and faith performed at the command of God what shall be said of him ? Pie proves the worm of Superstition is not yet dead, nor its fire quenched, and leads weak men to ask, Which then has most of Religion, the Christian, who justifies Abraham, or the Pagan Greeks, who condemned Agamemnon? He leads weak men to ask ; the strong make no question of so plain a matter. But why go back to Patriarchs at Aulis or Moriah ; do we not live in New England and the nineteenth century ? Have the footsteps of Superstition been effaced from our land ? Our books of theology are full thereof; our churches and homes, not empty of it. When a man fears God more than he loves him; when he will forsake Reason, Con- science, Love the still small voice of God in the heart for any of the legion voices of Authority, Tradition, Ex- pediency, which come of Ignorance, Selfishness, and Sin ; whenever he hopes by a poor prayer, or a listless attend- ance at church, or an austere observance of Sabbaths ' and Fast- days, a compliance with forms; when he hopes by professing with his tongue the doctrine he cannot believe in his heart, to atone for wicked actions, wrong thoughts, unholy feelings, a six-days' life of meanness, deception, rottenness, and sin, then is he superstitious. Are there no fires but those of Moloch ; no idols of printed paper. and spoken wind ? No false worship but bowing the knee to Baal, Adonis, Priapus, Cybele ? Superstition changes its forms, not its substance. If he were superstitious who wisely, Antiq. II. ch. 1820, Opp. ed. Reiske, Lips. 1774, I. p. 271, et seq., and properly commends Ilomulus for rejecting immoral Stories from the public und official theology. 90 FANATICISM. in days of ignorance but made his son's body pass through the fire to his God, what shall be said of them in an age of light, who systematically degrade the fairest gifts of men, God's dearest benefaction ; who make life darkness, death despair, the world a desert, Man a worm, nothing but a worm, and God an ugly fiend, that made the most of men for utter wretchedness, death, and eternal hell ? Alas for them. They are blind and see not. They lie down in their folly. Let Charity cover them up. II. Of Fanaticism. There is another morbid state of the religious Element. It consists in its union with Hatred and other malignant passions in men. Here : leads to Fanaticism. As the essence of Superstition is Fear coupled with religious feel- ing; so the essence of Fanaticism is Malice mingling 1 with that sentiment. It may be called HATRED EH FOUE GOP. The Superstitious man tears lest God hate him ; the FanaTic thinks he hates not him but his enemies. Is the Fanatic a Jew ? the Gentiles are hateful to Jehovah ; a Mahomet- an ? all are infidel dogs who do not bow to the prophet, their end is destruction. Is he a Christian ? he counts all others as Heathens whom God will damn ; of this or that sect ? he condemns all the rest for their belief, let their life be divine as the prayer of a saint. Out of his selfish passion he creates him a God ; breathes into it the breath of his Hatred ; he worships and prays to it, and says " Deliver me, for thou art my God." Then he feels so he fancies inspiration to visit his foes with divine vengeance. He can curse and smite them in the name of his God. It is the sword of the Lord, and the fire of the Most High that drinks up the blood and stifles the groan of the wretched. Like Superstition, it is found in all ages of the world. It is the insanity of mankind. As the richest soils grow weightiest harvests, or niost noxious weeasanTPpoisons tly^n^^feaiT^ulr; as^flie strongest bodies take diseaselihe most "sorely ; ~~sb the deepest natures, the highest forms of worship, when once infected with this leprosy, go to the wildest excess of desperation. Thus the fanaticism of worshippers of one God has no parallel among idolaters THE WORK OF THE FANATICS. 9l and polytheists. There is a point in human nature where moral distinctions do not appear, as on the earth there are spots where the compass will not traverse, and dens where the sun never shines. This fact is little dwelt on by philo- sophers ; still it is a fact. Seen from this point, Right and Wrong lose their distinctive character and run into each other. Good seems Evil and Evil Good, or both appear the same. The sophistry of the understanding sometimes leagues with appetite, and gradually entices the thought- less into this pit. The Antinomian of all times turns in thither, to increase his Faith and diminish his Works. It is the very cave of Trophonius ; he that enters loses his manhood and walks backward as he returns ; his soul, so filled with God, whatever the flesh does, he thinks cannot be wrong, though it break all laws, human and divine. The fanatic dwells continually in this state. God demands of him to persecute his foes. The thought troubles him by day, and stares on him as a spectre at night. God, or his angel, appear to his crazed fancy and bid him to the work with promise of reward, or spurs him with a curse. Then there is no lie too malignant for him to invent and utter; no curse too awful for him to imprecate; no refine- ment of torture too cruel or exquisitely rending for his fancy to devise, his malice to inflict ; Nature is teased for new tortures ; Art is racked to extort fresh engines of cruelty. As the jaded Roman offered a reward for the in- vention of a new pleasure, so the fanatic would renounce Heaven could he give an added pang to hell. Men of this character have played so great a part in the world's history, they must not be passed over in silence. The ashes of the innocents they have burned, are sown broadcast and abundant in all lands. The earth is quick with this living dust. The blood of prophets and saviours they have shed still cries for justice. The Canaanites, the Jews, the Saracen, the Christian, Polytheist and Idolater, New Zealand and New England, are guilty of this. Let the \ ' early Christian and the delaying Heathen tell their tale. Let L the voice of the Heretic speak from the dungeon-racks of the Inquisition ; that of the ' ' true believer " from the scaffolds \ of Elizabeth most Christian Queen ; let the voices of the I murdered come up from the squares of Paris, the plains of ( the Low Countries, from the streets of Antioch, Byzantium, ' 92 THE FANATICISM OF DUE TIME. Jerusalem, Alexandria, Damascus, Rome, Mexico ; from > the wheels, racks, and gibbets of the world ; let the men S who died in religious wars, always the bloodiest and most ^ remorseless ; the women, whom nothing could save from a fate yet more awful ; the babes, newly born, who perished ) in the sack and conflagration of idolatrous and heretical ) cities, when for the sake of Religion men violated its every * precept, and in the name of God broke down his Law, and trampled his image into bloody dust ; let all these speak, to admonish, and to blame. But it is not well to rest on general terms alone. Paul had no little fanaticism, when he persecuted the Christians ; kept the garments of men who stoned Stephen. Moses had much of it, if, as the story goes, he commanded the ex- tirpation of nations of idQlaters,Vmillions of men, virtuous as the Jews / Joshua, Samuel, David, had much of it, and executed schemes bloody as a murderer's most sanguine dream. It has been both the foe and the auxiliary of tho Christian Church. There is a long line of Fanatics, ex- tending from the time"of Jesus, reaching" itury to century, marching on from age to age, ^ ier of the Cross over their heads, and the Gospel on their tongues, and fire and sword in their hands. 1 The last of that Apo- calyptic rabble has not as yet passed by. Let the clouds of darkness hide them. What need to tell of our own fathers ; what they suffered, what they inflicted ; their crime is fresh and unatoned. Rather let us take the wings of an angel, and fly away from scenes so awful, the slaugh- ter-house of souls. But the milder forms of Fanaticism we cannot escape. They meet us in the theological war of extermination, which sect now wars with sect, pulpit with pulpit, man with man. If one would seek specimens of Superstition in its milder form, let him open a popular commentary on the Bible, or read much of that weakish matter which circulates in what men call, as if in mockery, " good, pious books." If he would find Fanaticism in its modern and more Pharisaic shape, let him open the sectarian newspapers, or read theological polemics. To what mean uses may we not descend ? The spirit of a Caligula and a Dominic, of Alva 1 See the Book of Revelation, passim. SOLID PIETY. 93 and Ignatius stares at men in the street. It can only bay in the distance ; it dares not bite. Poor, craven Fanati- cism ! fallen like Lucifer, never to hope again. Like Pope and Pagan in the story, hejdtschidnjej^ grin^ and^gibber his g^dj^aB^FKIm^and.wIiite K)be Poor Fanaticism, whowas drunk with Hur""Elood of tn*ie saints, and in his debauch lifted his horn and pushed at the Almighty, and slew the children of God, lie shall revel but in the dreamy remembrance of his ancient crime ; his teeth shall be neshed no more in the limbs of the living. These two morbid states just past over, represent the most hideous forms of human degradation; where the foulest passions are at their foulest work ; where Malice, which a Devil might envy, and which might make Hell darker with its frown ; where Hate and Rancour build up their organi- zations and ply their arts. In man there is a mixture of good and evil. " A. being darkly wise and poorly great," he has in him somewhat of the Angel and something of the Devil. InF^i drives. But teVus III. Of Solid Piety. The legitimate and perfect action of the Religious Ele- ment takes place when it exists in harmonious combina- tion with Reason. Conscience, and Affection. Then it is not Hatred, and not Fear, but LOVE BEFOEE GOD. It pro- duces the most beautiful development oTTTmman nature ; the golden age, the fairest Eden of life, the kingdom of Heaven. Its Deity is the God of Infinite Power, Wisdom, Justice, Love, and Holiness Fidelity to Himself, within whose encircling arms it is beautiful to be. The demands it makes are to keep the Law He has written in the heart, 1 A powerful priesthood has usually had great influence in promoting fanati- cism of the most desperate character. One need only look over the history of persecutions in all ages to see this. We see it among the Hehrews, the Ger- mans, the Druids ; the nations that opposed the spread of Christianity. The Christian Church itself has erected monuments enough to perpetuate the fact. The story of Haman and Mordecai is no bad allegory of the conflict between the orthodox priesthood and the unorganized heretics. 94 HAPPY CONDITION OF THE RELIGIOUS MAN. to be good,, to do good; to love men, to love God. It may use forms, prayers, dogmas, ceremonies, priests, tem- ples, sabbaths, festivals, and fasts ; yes, sacrifices if it will, as means, not ends ; symbols of a sentiment, not substi- tutes for it. Its substance is Love of God ; its Piety the form, Morality the Love of men ; its temple a pure heart ; its sacrifice a divine life. The end it proposes is, to re- unite the man with God, till he thinks God's thought, which is Truth; feels God's feeling, which is Love, wills God's will, which is the eternal Eight ; thus finding God in the sense wherein he is not far from any one of us ; becoming one with Him, and so partaking the divine nature. The means to this high end are an extinction of all in man that opposes God's law ; a perfect obedience to Him as he speaks in Reason, Conscience, Affection. It leads through active obedience to an absolute trust, a per- fect love; to the complete harmony of the finite man with. the infinite God, and man's will coalesces in that of Him who is All in All. Then Faith and Knowledge are the same thing, Reason and Revelation do not conflict, Desire and Duty go hand in hand, and strew man's path with flowers. Desire has become dutiful, and Duty desirable. The divine spirit incarnates itself in the man. The riddle of the world is solved. Perfect love casts out fear. Then Religion demands no particular actions, forms, or modes of thought. The man's ploughing is holy as his prayer ; his daily bread as the smoke of his sacrifice ; his home sacred as his temple ; his work-day and his sabbath are alike God's day. His priest is the holy spirit within him ; Faith and Works his communion of both kinds. He does not sacrifice Reason to Religon, nor Religion to Reason. Brother and Sister, they dwell together in love. A life harmonious and beautiful, conducted by Righteousness, filled full with Truth and enchanted by Love to men and God, this is the service he pays to the Father of All. Belief does not take the place of Life. Capricious auster- ity atones for no duty left undone. He loves Religion as a bride, for her own sake, not for what she brings. He lies low in the hand of God. The breath of the Father is on him. If Joy comes to this man, he rejoices in its rosy light. His Wealth, his Wisdom, his Power, is not for himself alone, but for all God's children. Nothing is his which a HAPPY CONDITION OP THE RELIGIOUS MAN. 95 brother needs more than he. Like God himself, he is kind to the thankless and unmerciful. Purity without and Piety within ; these are his Heaven, both present and to come. Is not his flesh as holy as his soul his body a temple of God? o If trouble comes on him, which Prudence could not foresee, nor Strength overcome, nor Wisdom escape from, he bears it with a heart serene and full of peace. Over every gloomy cavern, and den of despair, Hope arches her rainbow; the ambrosial light descends. Eeligion shows him that, out of desert rocks, black and savage, where the Vulture has her home, where the Storm and the Avalanche are born, and whence they descend, to crush and to kill ; out of these hopeless cliffs, falls the river of Life, which flows for all, and makes glad the people of God. When the Storm and the Avalanche sweep from him all that is dearest to mortal hope, is he comfortless ? Out of the hard marble of Life, the deposition of a few joys and many sorrows, of birth and death, and smiles and grief, he hews him the beautiful statue of religious Tranquillity. It stands ever beside him, with the smile of heavenly satisfaction on its lip, and its thrusting finger pointing to the sky. The true religious man, amid all the ills of time, keeps a serene forehead, and entertains a peaceful heart. Thus going out and coming in amid all the trials of the city, the agony of the plague, the horrors of the thirty tyrants, the fierce democracy abroad, the fiercer ill at home, the Saint, n the Sage of Athens, was still the same. Such an one can endure hardness ; can stand alone and be content ; a rock amid the waves, lonely, but not moved. Around him the o few or many may scream their screams, or cry their c clamours ; calumniate or blaspheme. What is it all to him, but the cawing of the sea-bird about that solitary and deep-rooted stone ? So swarms of summer flies, and spite- ful wasps, may assail the branches of an oak, which lifts its head, storm-tried and old, above the hills. They move a leaf, or bend a twig, by their united weight. Their noise, fitful and malicious, elsewhere might frighten the sheep in the meadows. Here it becomes a placid hum. It joins the wild whisper of the leaves. It swells the breezy music of the tree, but makes it bear no acorn less. 96 ON THE RELIGIOUS MAN. He fears no evil, God is his armour against fate. He re- o joices in his trials, and Jeremiah sings psalms in his dun- geon, and Daniel prays three times a day with his window up, that all may hear, and Nebuchadnezzar cast him to the lions if he will ; Luther will go to the Diet at Worms, if it rain enemies for nine days running ; " though the Devils be thick as the tiles on the roof." Martyred Stephen sees God in the clouds. The victim at the stake glories in the fire he lights, which shall shine all England through. Yes, Paul, an old man forsaken of his friends, tried by many perils, daily expecting an awful death, sits comforted in his dungeon. The Lord stands by and says, Fear not, Paul, Lo, I am with thee to the world's end. The tranquil saint can say, I know whom I have served. I have not the spirit of fear, but joy. I am ready to be sacrificed. Such trials prove the Soul as Gold is proved. The. dross perishes in the fire ; but the virgin metal it comes brighter from the flame. What is it for such a man to be scourged, forsaken, his name a proverb, counted as the offscouring of the world ? There is that in him which looks down millions. Cast out, he is not in dismay ; for- saken, never less alone. Slowly and soft the Soul of Faith comes into the man. He knows that he is seen by the pure and terrible eyes of Infinity. He feels the sympathy of the Soul of All, and says, with modest triumph, I am not alone, for Thou art with me. Mortal affections may cease their melody; but the Infinite speaks to his soul comfort too deep for words, and too divine. What if he have not the Sun of human affection to cheer him ? The awful faces of the stars look from the serene depths of divine Love, and seem to say, "Well done." What if the sweet music of human sympathy vanish before the dis- cordant curse of his brother man? The melody of the spheres so sweet we heed it not when tried less sorely rolls in upon the soul its tranquil tide, and that same Word, which was in the beginning, says, " Thou art my beloved Son, and in thee am I well pleased." Earth is overcome, and Heaven won. It is well for mankind that God now and then raises up a hero of the soul ; exposes him to grim trials in the fore- front of the battle ; sustains him there, that we may know nobility is in Man, and how near him God ; to THE STRUGGLE WITH SIN. 97 show that greatness in the religious man is only needed to be found; that his Charity does not expire with the quiverings of his flesh ; that this hero can end his breath with a " Father, forgive them." Man everywhere is the measure of man. There is no- thing which the Flesh and the Devil can inflict in their rage, but the Holy Spirit can bear in its exceeding peace. The Art of the tormentor is less than the Nature of the suffering soul. All the denunciations of all that sat on Moses's seat, or have since climbed to that of the Messiah ; the scorn of the contemptuous ; the fury of the passionate ; the wrath of a monarch, and tho roar of his armies ; all these are to a religious soul but the buzzing of the flies about that mountain oak. There is nothing that prevails against Truth. Now in some men Religion is a continual growth. They are always^ in harmony with God. Silently and unconscious, erecT~as~ a palm tree, Ihey~grow up to the measure of a man. To them Reason and Religion are of the same birth. Aborigines of Heaven. Betwixt their Fact of Life there has^aTlio trniejbeen a gulf. But others join themselves to the Ar- inaHa of Sin, and get scarred all over with wounds as they do thankless battle in that leprous host. Before these men become religious, there must be a change, well-defined, deeply marked, a change that will be remembered. The Saints who have been sinners, tell us of the struggle and desperate battle that goes on between the Flesh and the Spirit. It is as if the Devil and the Archangel contended. Well says John Bunyan, The Devil fought with me weeks long, and I with the Devil. To take the leap of Niagara, and stop when half-way down, and by their proper motion reascend, is no slight thing, nor the remembrance thereof like to pass away. This passage from sin to salvation ; this second birth of the Soul, as both Christians and Heathens call it, is one of the many mysteries of Man. Two elements meet in the Consciousness. There is a negation of the past ; an affirm- ation of the future. Terror and Hope, Penitence and Faith, rush together in that moment and a new life begins. The character gradually grows over the wounds of sin. With bleeding feet the man retreads his way, but gains at last 98 THE JOYS OF LIFE. the mountain top of Life and wonders at the tortuous track he left behind. Shall it be said that Religion is the great refinement of the world ; its tranquil star that never sets ? Need it be told that all Nature works in its behalf; that every mute and every living thing seems to repeat God's voice, Be per- fect ; that Nature, which is the out-ness of God, favours Re- ligion, which is the in-ness of Man, and so God works with us ? Heathens knew it many centuries ago. It has long been knownbhatBelion in its true estate CTe^JttecTtlic Socrates, Seneca, Plutarch"^ An- _ tomnusTTeneion can tell us this. It might well- be so. Religion comes from what is strongest, deepest, most beautiful and divine ; lays no rude hand on soul or sense ; condemns no faculty as base. It sets no bounds to Reason o but Truth ; none to Affection but Love ; none to Desire but Duty ; none to the Soul but Perfection ; and these are not limits, but the charter of inlinite freedom. JNo doubt there is joy in the success of earthly schemes. There is joy to the miser as he satiates his prurient palm with gold : there is joy for the fool of fortune when his gaming brings a prize. But what is it ? His request is granted ; but leanness enters his soul. There is delight in feasting on the bounties of Earth, the garment in which God veils the brightness of his face; in being filled with the fragrant loveliness of flowers ; the song of birds ; the hum of bees ; the sounds of ocean ; the rustle of the sum- mer wind, heard at evening in the pine tops ; in the cool running brooks ; in the majestic sweep of undulating hills ; the grandeur of untamed forests ; the majesty of the moun- tain ; in the morning's virgin beauty ; in the maternal grace of evening, and the sublime and mystic pomp of night. Nature's silent sympathy how beautiful it is ! There is joy, no doubt there is joy, to the mind of Ge- nius, when thought bursts on him as the tropic sun rending a cloud ; when long trains of ideas sweep through his soul, like constellated orbs before an angel's eye ; when sublime thoughts and burning words rush to the heart ; when Na- ture unveils her secret truth, and some great Law breaks, all at once, upon a Newton's mind, and chaos ends in light ; when the hour of his inspiration and the joy of his genius THE JOYS OF LIFE. 99 is on Mm, 't is then that this child of Heaven feels a god- like delight. 'T is sympathy with Truth. There is a higher and more tranquil bliss when heart communes with heart ; when two souls unite in one, like mingling dew-drops on a rose, that scarcely touch the flower, but mirror the heavens in their little orbs ; when perfect love transforms two souls, either man's or woman's, each to the other's image ; when one heart beats in two bosoms ; one spirit speaks with a divided tongue ; when the same soul is eloquent in mutual eyes there is a rap- ture deep, serene, heart-felt, and abiding in this mysterious fellow-feeling with a congenial soul, which puts to shame the cold sympathy of Nature, and the ecstatic but short- lived bliss of Genius in his high and burning hour. But the welfare of Religion is more than each or all of these. The glad reliance that comes upon the man ; the sense of trust; a rest with God; the soul's exceeding peace ; the universal harmony 3 the infinite within ; sym- pathy with the Soul of All is bliss that words cannot portray. He only knows, who feels. The speech of a prophet cannot tell the tale. No : not if a seraph touched his lips with fire. In the high hour of religious visitation from the living God, there seems to be no separate thought; the tide of universal life sets through the soul. The t thought of self is gone. It is a little accident to be a king or a clown, a parent or a child. Man is at one with God, and He is All in All. Neither the loveliness of Nature, neither the joy of Genius, nor the sweet breathing of con- genial hearts, that make delicious music as they beat, neither one nor all of these can equal the joy of the re- ligious soul that is at one with God, so full of peace that prayer is needless. This deeper joy gives an added charm to the former blessings. Nature undergoes a new trans- t formation. A story tells that when the rising sun tell on Memnon^s statue it wakened music in that breast of stone. Keligion does the same with Nature. From the shining snake to the waterfall, it is all eloquent of God. As to John in the Apocalypse, there stands an jingel in the_sjan ; i the, seraphim hang ovejr every flower ; God speak s^ih each \ little grass that fringed a mountain rock. Then even Ge- nius is wedded to a greater bliss. His thoughts shine 7 * 100 THE WELFARE OP RELIGION more brilliant, when set in the light of Religion, Friend- ship and Love it renders infinite. The man loves God when he but loves his friend. This is the joy Religion gives ; its perennial rest ; it everlasting life. It comes not by chance. It is the possession of such as ask and toil and toil and ask. It is withheld from none, as other gifts. Nature tells little to the deaf, the blind, the rude. Every man is not a genius, and has not his joy. Few men can find a friend that is the world to them. That triune sym- pathy is not for every one. But this welfare of Religion, o the deepest, truest, the everlasting, the sympathy with God, lies within the rencli of all his Sens. BOOR II. " Reason is natural Revelation, whereby the eternal Father of Light and Fountain of all Knowledge communicates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid within the reach of their natural faculties. Revelation is natural Reason enlarged by ^ a new set of discoveries, communicated by God immediately, which Reason vouches the truth of, by the testimony and proofs it Rives thr.t they come from God. So that he that takes away Reason to make way for Revelation puts out the light of both, and does much-what the same as if he would persuade a man to put out his eyes the better to roc degree of which may be constantly increased ? Taking a certain stand-point, it is true, Freedom and Necessity are the same thing, and may be predicated or denied of Deity indifferently ; thus, if God is perfect, all his action is perfect. He can do no otherwise than as he does. Perfection therefore is his necessity, but it is Ins freedom none the less. Here the difference is merely in words. RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF NATURAL SCENERY. 115 tie of Destiny is girt about these things. To study the laws of Nature,, therefore,, is to study the modes of God's action. Science becomes sacred, and passes into a sort of devotion. Well says the old sage, " Geometry is the praise of God." It reveals the perfections of the Divine Mind, for God manifests himself in every object of science, in the half-living Molecules of powdered wood ; in the Comet with its orbit which imagination cannot surround ; in the Cones and Cycloids of the Mathematician, that exist nowhere in the world of concrete things, but which the conscious mind carries thither. Since all these objects represent, more or less, the di- vine mind, and are in perfect harmony with it, and so always at one with God, they express, it may be, all of deity which Matter in these three modes can contain, and thus exhibit all of God that can be made manifest to the eye, the ear, and the other senses of man. Since these things are so, Nature is not only strong and beautiful, but has likewise a religious aspect. This fact was noticed in the very earliest times ; appears in the rudest worship, which is an adoration of God in Nature. v s It will move man's heart to .the latest day, and exert an influence on souls that are deepest and most holy. Who that looks on the ocean, in its anger or its play ; who that walks at twi- light under a mountain's brow, listens to the sighing of the pines, touched by the indolent wind of summer, and hears the light tinkle of the brook, murmuring its quiet tune, who is there but feels the deep Eeligion of the scene ? In the heart of a city we are called away from God. The dust < f man's foot and the soojvr^ijiJ^fJiis fingers are onatfwe s see? TheveryearEh is unnatural, and ttte Heaven scarce seen. In a crowd of busy men which set through its streets, or flow together of a holi- day ; in the dust and jar, the bustle and strife of business, there is little to remind us of God. Men must build a cathedral for that. But everywhere in nature we aro carried straightway back to Him. The fern, green and growing amid the frost, each little grass and lichen, is a silent memento. The first bird of spring, and the last rose of summer ; the grandeur or the dulness of evening and morning ; the rain, the dew, the sunshine ; the stars that come out to watch over the farmer's rising corn j the birds \ 116 GOD IN NATURE. that nestle contentedly, brooding over their young, quietly tending the little strugglers with their beak, all these have a religious significance to a thinking soul. Every violet blooms of God, each lily is fragrant with the pre- sence of deity. The awful scenes, of storm, and lightning / and thunder, seem but the sterner sounds of the great S concert, wherewith God speaks to man. Is this an acci- l dent ? Ay, earth is full of such " accidents." When the seer rests from religious thought, or when the world's temptations make his soul tremble, and though the spirit be willing the flesh is weak ; when the perishable body weighs down the mind, musing on many things ; when he wishes to draw near to God, he goes, not to the city there conscious men obstruct him with their works but to the meadow, spangled all over with flowers, and sung to by every bird ; to the mountain, " visited all night by troops of stars ;" to the ocean, the undying type of shifting phenomena and unchanging law ; to the forest, stretching out motherly arms, with its mighty growth and awful shade, and there, in the obedience these things pay, in their \ order, strength, beauty, he is encountered front to front ^ with the awful presence of Almighty power. A voice cries to him from the thicket, " God will provide." The bushes burn with deity. Angels minister to him. There is no mortal pang, but it is allayed by God's fair voice as it whispers, in nature, still and small, it may be, but mov- ing on the face of the deep, and bringing light out of darkness. " Oh joy that in our embers Is something that doth live, That Nature yet remembers "What was so fugitive." Now to sum up the result. It seems from the very Idea o of God that he must be infinitely present in each point of space. This immanence of God in Matter is the basis of * liis influence; this is modified by the capacities of the S objects in Nature ; all of its action is God's action ; its J laws modes of that action. The imposition of a law, then, which is perfect, and is also perfectly obeyed, though blindly and without self-consciousness, seems to be the measure of God's relation to Matter. Its action there- fore is only mechanical, vital or instinctive, not voluntary GOD IN MAN. 117 and self-conscious. From the nature of these things, it must be so. c CHAPTER III. TO NATURE. Now if God be present in Matter, the analogy is that he is also present in Man. But to examine this point more closely, let us set out as before from the Idea of God. If he have not the limitations of matter, but is In- finite, as the Idea declares, then he pervades Spirit as o well as Space ; is in Man as well as out of him. If it follows from the Idea that he is immanent in the Material World in a moss ; it follows also that he must be imma- nent in the Spiritual world in a man. If he is imma- nently active, and thus totally and essentially present, in o each corner of Space, and each Atom of creation, then is o he as universally present in all Spirit. If the reverse be true, then he is not omnipresent, therefore not Infinite, and of course not God. The Infinite God must fill each point of Spirit as of Space. Here then, in God's presence in the soul, is a basis laid for his direct influence on men; as his presence in Nature is the basis of his direct in- fluence there. As in Nature his influence was modified only by the ca- pacities of material things, so here must it be modified only by the capabilities of spiritual things; there it as- sumed the forms of mechanical, vital, and instinctive ac- tion ; here it must ascend to the form of voluntary and self-conscious action. This conclusion follows undeniably from the analogy of God's presence and activity in Matter. o It follows as necessarily from the Idea of God, for as he is the materiality of Matter, so is he the spirituality of Spirit. 118 CHAPTER IV. THE GENERAL EELATION OP SUPPLY TO WANT. WE find iii Nature that every want is naturally sup- o plied. That is, there is something external to each created being to answer all the internal wants of that being. This conclusion could have been anticipated with- out experience, since it follows from the perfections of the Deity, that all his direct works must be perfect. Experi- ence shows this is the rule in nature. We never find a race of animals destitute of what is most needed for them, wandering up and down, seeking rest and finding none. What is most certainly needed for each, is most bounti- fully provided. The supply answers the demand. The natural circumstances, therefore, attending a race of ani- mals, for example, are perfect. The animal keeps per- fectly the law or condition of its nature. The result of these perfect circumstances on the one hand, and perfect obedience on the other, is this, each animal in its natural state attains its legitimate end, reaches perfection after its kind. Thus every Sparrow in a flock is perfect in the qualities of a Sparrow, at least, such is the general rule ; the exceptions to it are so rare they only seem to confirm that rule. Now to apply this general maxim to the special case of Man. We are mixed beings, spirits wedded to bodies. Setting aside the religious nature of Man for the moment, and for the present purpose distributing our faculties into the animal, intellectual, affectional. and moral, let us see the relation between our four-fold wants and the supply o thereof. We have certain animal wants, such as the de- sire of food, shelter, and comfort. Our animal welfare, even our animal existence, depends on the relation of the world to these wants, on the condition that they are sup- plied. Now we find in the world of Nature, exterior to INSTINCT AND UNDERSTANDING. 119 ourselves, a supply for these demands. It is so placed that man can reach it for himself. To speak in general terms, o there is not a natural want in our body which has not its co rpplv, placed out of the body. There is not even a disease of the body, brought upon us by dis- obedience of its law, but there is somewhere a remedy, at least an alleviation of that disease. The peculiar supply of peculiar wants is provided most abundantly when most needed, and where most needed ; furs in the North, spices in the South, antidotes where the poison is found. God is a bountiful parent and no step-father to the body, and does not pay off, to his obedient children, a penny of satis- faction for a pound of want. Natural supply balances na- ( tural want the world over. S But this is not all. How shall man find the supply that is provided ? It will be useless unless there is some o faculty to mediate between it and the want. Now Man is o furnished with a faculty to perform his office. It is in-i stinct which we have in common with the lower animals,/ and understanding which we have more exclusively, at* least no other animal possessing it in the same degree* with ourselves. Instinct anticipates experience. It acts spontaneously where we have no previous knowledge, yet as if we were fully possessed of ideas. It shows itself as soon as we are born, in the impulse that prompts the in- iur to his natural food. It appears complete in all ani- mals. It looks only "forward, and is a perfect guide so far as it goes. The young^ chick pecks adroitly at the tiny j worm it meets Trie first hour it leaves the shell. 1 It needs I no instruction. The lower animals have nothing but in- 4 stinct for their guide. It is sufficient for their purpose. * They act, therefore, without reflection, from necessity, and are subordinate to their instinct, and therefore must always remain in the instinctive state. 2 Children and savages who are in some respects the children of the human race act chiefly by instinct, but constantly ap- proach the development of the understanding. 1 See Lord Brougham, Dialogues on Instinct, for some remarkable facts. s Whewell, nbi sup., Vol. II. Ft. i. Book ix. Ch. iii. Man may .subdue the instinct of an animal, and apparently improve the creature, by superinducing his own understanding upon it. The pliant nature of dogs and horses enables them to yield to him in this case. But they are not really improved in the qualities of a dog or a horse, but only become caricatures of their master's caprice. 120 A GUIDE TO SUPPLY. This acts in a different way. It generalizes from expe- rience ; makes an induction from facts ; a deduction from principles. It looks both backwards and forwards. The man of understanding acts from experience, reflection, forethought, and habit. If he had no other impelling principle, all his action must be of this character. But though understanding be capable of indefinite increase, instinct can never be wholly extirpated from this com- pound being, man. The most artificial or cultivated feels the twinges of instinctive nature. The lower animals rely entirely on instinct ; the savage chiefly thereon, while the civilized and matured man depends mostly on understand- ing for his guide. As the sphere of action enlarges which takes place as the boy outgrows his childhood, o and the savage emerges from barbarism, instinct ceases to be an adequate guide, and the understanding spon- taneously developes itself to take its place. 1 In respect, then, to Man's animal nature, this fact re- o mains, that there is an external supply for each internal want, and a guide to conduct from the want to the supply. This guide is adequate to the purpose. When it is fol- lowed, and thus the conditions of our animal nature com- plied with, the want is satisfied, becomes a source of pleasure, a means of development. In this case there is nothing miraculous intervening between the desire and its gratification. Man is hungry. Instinct leads him to the ripened fruit. He eats and is appeased. The satis- faction of the want comes naturally, by a regular law, which God has imposed upon the constitution of Man. He is blessed by obeying, and cursed by violating this law. God himself does not transcend this law, but acta o through it, by it, in it. We observe the law and obtain / what we need. Thus for every point of natural desire in / the body, there is a point of natural satisfaction out of the body. This guide conducts, from one to the other, as a \ radius connects the centre with the circumference. Our animal welfare is complete when the two are thus brought into contact. Now the same rule may be shown to hold good in each 1 See some profound remarks on 1 savage, 1 ?, Bancroft, ubi sup., Ch. XXII. 1 See some profound remarks on the force of the instinctive life among )ft, ubi ~ ~~" INTELLECTUAL WANTS SUPPLIED. 12] other department into which we have divided the human > faculties. There is something without us to correspond to each want of the Intellect. This is found in the objects of Nature ; in the sublime, the useful, the beautiful, the com- mon things we meet; in the ideas and conceptions that arise unavoidably when man, the thinking subject, comes intellectually in contact with external things, the object of thought. We turn to these things instinctively, at first, " The eye, it cannot choose but see, We cannot bid the ear be still ; Our bodies feel, Avherc'er they be, Against or with our will." Man is not sufficient for himself intellectually, more than po physically . He cannot rely wholly on what he is. There 1 18 at first nothing in Man but Man himself; a being of multiform tendencies, and many powers lying latent germ sheathed in germ. Without some external object to rouse the senses, excite curiosity, to stimulate the understand- ing, induce reflection, exercise reason, judgment, imagina- tion, all these faculties would sleep in their causes, un- p used and worthless in the soul. Obeying the instinctive tendency of the mind, which impels to thought, keeping its laws, we gain satisfaction for the intellectual desires. One after another the faculties come into action, grow up to maturity, and intellectual welfare is complete with no miracle, but by obedience to the laws of mind. The same may be said of the affectional and moral nature o of Man. There is something without us to answer the demands of the Affections and the Moral Sense, and we turn instinctively to them. Does God provide for the animal wants and no more ? He is no step -father, but a bountiful parent to the intellectual, affectional, and moral elements of his child. There is a point of satisfaction out of these for each point of desire in them, and a guide to o mediate between the two. This general rule may then be laid down, That for each animal, intellectual, affectional, moral want of Man, there is a supply set within his reach, and a guide to connect the two ; that no miracle is needed to supply the want ; but satisfaction is given soon as the guide is followed and the law kept, which instinct or the understanding reveals. 722 CHAPTER V. STATEMENT OP THE ANALOGY FROM THIS RELATION. Now it was said before, that tlie religious was the deep- est, highest, strongest element in Man, and since the wants of the lower faculties are so abundantly provided with na- tural means of satisfying them,/the Analogy leads us irre- sistibly to conclude, that the higher faculty would not be neglected ; that here as elsewhere there must be a natural and not miraculous supply for natural wants, a natural guide to conduct from one to the other, and natural laws, or conditions, to be observed, and natural satisfaction to be obtained in this way ; that as God was no step-father, but a bountiful parent to the lower elements, so he must be to the higher; that as there was a point of satisfaction out of the body, mind, and heart, for each desire in it, so there must be a point of satisfaction out of the soul, for each desire in the soul. Is it God's way to take care of oxen and leave men uncared for ? In a system whero every spot on an insect's wing is romiot tly, and as carefully finished off', as a world, are we to suppose the Soul of Man is left without natural protection ? If there is a law, a permanent mode of divine action, whereby each atom of dust keeps its place and holds its own, surely we are not to dream the Soul of Man is left with no law for its religious life and satisfaction. To draw the parallels still closer. By the religious con- sciousness we feel the want of some assured support to depend on, who has infinite Power to sustain us, infinite Wisdom to provide for us, infinite Goodness to cherish us ; as we must know the will of Him on whom we depend, and thus determine what is religious truth and religious duty, in order that we may do that duty, receive that truth, obey that will, and thus obtain rest for the soul, and the highest spiritual welfare, by knowing and fulfilling OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 123 its conditions,, so Analogy teaches that in this, as in the other case, there must be a supply for the wants, and some plain, regular, and not miraculous means, access- ible to each man, whereby he can get a knowledge of this Support, discover this Will, and thus, by observing the proper conditions, obtain the highest spiritual wel- fare. o This argument for a direct connection between Man and God, is only rebutted in one of these two ways : Either, first, by denying that Man has any religious wants ; or, secondly, by affirming that he is himself alone a supply to them, without need of reliance on anything independent of himself. The last is contrary to philosophy, for, the- oretically speaking, by nature there is nothing in Man, but Man himself, his tendencies and powers of action and reception ; in the religious element there is nothing but the religious element, as, theoretically speaking, by na- ture, there is in the body nothing but the body ; in hunger nothing but hunger. To make Man dependent on nothing but Man ; the religious element on nothing but the re- ligious element, and therefore sufficient for itself, is quite as absurd as to make the body dependent only on the body ; the appetite of hunger on nothing but hunger, suf- o ficient to satisfy itself. Besides, our consciousness, and above all our religious consciousness, is that of depend- o ence. The soul feels its direct dependence on God, as much as the body sees its own direct dependence on matter. If the one statement is contrary to philosophy, the other is contrary to fact. We feel religious wants ; the history of Man is a perpetual expression of these wants ; an effort for satisfaction. It cannot be denied that we need some- thing that shall bear the same relation to the religious Element which food bears to the palate, li^ht^tp the jBye, ^ S9und to the, ear, beauty tojkhe knafflnatioli^tmtir foT the j understanding, fri en d sni p | ToTJie^ heart ,"an S duty to con- 7 science. How sliall we s pass irom the want to its satisfac- js o tion ? Now the force of the Analogy is this it leads us to expect such a natural satisfaction for spiritual wants as we have for the humbler wants. The very wants them- selves imply the satisfaction; soon as we begin to act, there awakes, by nature, a Sentiment of God. Reason 124 SUPPLY FOE SPIRITUAL WANTS. gives us a distinct Idea of Him, and from this Idea also it follows that he must supply these wants. The question then comes as to the fact : Is there, or is there not, a regular law, that is, a constant mode of operation, by which the religious wants are supplied, as by a regular law the body's wants are met ? Now, animated by the natural trust, or faith, which is the spontaneous action of the religious Element, we should say : Yes, it / must be so. God takes care of the sparrow's body ; can 7 he neglect Man's Soul ? Then, reasoiimg^agam from the ' general analogy ol Uod's providence, as before shown, and still more from the Idea of God, as above laid down, we say again : It must be so. Man must, through the re- ligious Element, have a connection with God, as by the senses with Matter. He is, relative to us, the object of the soul, as much as matter is the object of the senses. As God has an influence on passive and unconscious Mat- ter, so he must have on active and conscious Man. As this action in the one case is only modified by the condi- tions of Matter, so will it be in the other only by the con- ditions of Man. As no obedient animal is doomed to wander up and down, seeking rest, but finding none ; so no obedient man can be left hopeless, forlorn, without a supply, without a guide. Now it might be supposed that the spontaneous pre- sentiment of this supply for our spiritual demands, this two-fold argument from the Idea of God and the Analogy of his action in general, would satisfy both the sponta- neous and the reflective mind, convincing them of Man's general capability of a connection with God, of receiving truth in a regular and a natural way from him, by revela- tion, inspiration, suggestion, or by what other name we may call the joint action of the divine and human mind. Such indeed is the belief of nations in an early and simple state. It is attested by the literature, traditions, and monu- ments of all primitive people. They believed that God held converse with Men. He spoke in the voices of na- ture ; in signs and omens ; in dreams by night ; in deep, silent thoughts by day ; skill, strength, wisdom, goodness, were referred to Him. The highest function of men was DOUBTS OP THINKING BTEN. 125 God's Gift. He made the laws of Minos, Moses, Numa, Rhadamanthus ; he inspires the Poet, Artist, Patriot ; works with the righteous everywhere. Had Fetichism no meaning ? Was Polytheism only a lie with no truth at the bottom ? Prayers, sacrifices, fasts, priesthoods, show that men believed in intercourse with God. Good simple- hearted men and women, who live lives of piety, believe it now, and never dream it is a great philosophical truth, which lies in their mind. They wonder anybody should doubt it. But yet among thinking men, who have thought just enough to distrust instinct, but not enough to see by the understanding the object which instinct discloses, espe- cially it seems among thinking Englishmen and Americans, a general doubt prevails on this point. The material world is before our eyes ; its phenomena are obvious to the senses, and most men having active senses which develope before the understanding and the lower faculties of intellect also somewhat active, get pretty clear notions about these phenomena, though not of their cause and philosophy. But as the soul is rarely ' so active as the senses, as the whole spiritual nature is not often so well developed as the sensual, so spiritual phenomena are little noticed; very few men have clear notions about them. Hence to many men all spiritual and religious matters are vague. ' ' Perhaps yes and perhaps no," is all they can say. Then again the matter is made worse, for they hear ex- travagant claims made in relation to spiritual things and faj intercourse with. God. One man says he was healed of a/i/U* fever, or saved from drowning, not by the medicine, or the \<*>** boatman, but by the direct interposition of God ; another J r will have it that he has direct and miraculous illumina- tions, though it is plain he is still sitting in darkness. This bigot would destroy all human knowledge, that there may be clean paper to receive the divine word, miracu- lously written thereon ; that fanatic bids men trust the doctrine which is reputed of miraculous origin and even at variance with human faculties. Both the bigot and the fanatic condemn Science as the "Pride of Reason/' and talk boastingly of their special revelations, their new light, the signs and wonders they have seen or heard of to attest 126 FAVOURED BY THE BIGOTS. this revelation. The sincere man of good sense is dis- gusted by these things, and asks if there be no Pride of Folly as well as Keason, and no revelation of nonsense from the man's own brain, which is mistaken as an eternal truth coming winged from the Godhead ? He rests, therefore, in his notions of mere material things ; will see nothing which he cannot see through ; believe nothing he cannot handle. These material notions have already become sys- tematized ; and so far as there is any philosophy commonly accredited amongst us, it is one which grows mainly out of this sensual way of looking at things; a philosophy which logically denies the possibility of inspiration, or in- tercourse with God, except through a miracle that shall transcend the faculties of Man. Now on this subject of inspiration there are but three views possible. Each of these is supported by no one writer exclusively or perfectly, but by many taken in the aggregate. Let us examine each of them as it appears in recent times, with its philosophy and logical consequences. However, it is to be remembered that all conclusions which follow logically, are not to be charged on men who admit the premises. CHAPTER VI. 1. THE EATIONALISTIC VIEW, OR NATUEALISJI. THIS allows that the original powers of Nature, as shown in the inorganic, the vegetable, and the animal world, all came from God at the first; that he is a principle either material or spiritual, separate from the world, and inde- pendent thereof. He made the World, and all things, in- cluding Man, and stamped on them certain laws, \vliich they are to keep. 1 He was but transiently present and 1 There is another form of Naturalism which denies the existence of a God separate or separable from the universe. Since this system would annihilate METAPHYSICS OF NATURALISM. 127 active in Nature at creation ; is not immanently present and o active therein. He has now nothing to do with the world but to see it go. Here,, then, is God on the one side ; on the other, Man and Nature. But there is a great gulf fixed be- tween them, over which there passes, neither God nor Man. This theory teaches that Man, in addition to his organs of perception, has certain intellectual faculties by which he can reason from effect to cause ; can discover truth, which is the statement of a fact ; from a number of facts in science can discern a scientific law, the relation of thing to thing ; from a number of facts in morals, can learn the relation of man to man, deduce a moral law, which shall teach the most expedient and profitable way of managing o affairs. Its statement of both scientific and moral facts rests solely on experience, and never goes beyond the 6 precedents. Still further, it allows that men can find out there is a God, by reasoning experimentally from observ- ations in the material world, and metaphysically also, from the "connection of notions in the mind. But this conclu- sion is only to be reached, in either case, by a process that is long, complicated, tortuous, and so difficult that but one man in some thousands has the necessary experimental knowledge, and but one in some millions the metaphysical subtlety, requisite to go through it, and become certain that J there is a God. Its notion of God is this a Being who ex- ists as the Power, Mind, and Will that caused the universe. 1 The metaphysical philosophy of this system may be briefly stated. In Man, by nature, there is nothing but man ; there is but one channel by which knowledge can o come into man, that is sensation ; perception through the senses. That is an assumption, nobody pretends it is proved. This knowledge is modified by reflection the mind's process of ruminating upon the knowledge which sensation affords. At any given time, therefore, if we ex- amine what is in Man, we find nothing which has not first been in the senses. Now the senses converse only with finite phenomena. Reflection what can it get out of all Religion, it may be called irreligious Naturalism ; with that I have now nothing to do. Some have been called Rationalists, who deny that God is separate from the world. See above, Book I. 1 Dr Dewey, writing in the Christian Examiner, says the proposition that there is a God " is not a certainty:' See Examiner for Sept. 184-5, p. 197, et seq. 128 ITS SCIENCE, MORALS, GOD. these ? The Absolute ? The premise does not warrant the conclusion. Something " as good as Infinite ? " Let us see. It makes a scientific law a mere generalization from observed facts which it can never go beyond. Its science, therefore, is in the rear of observation ; we do not know thereby whether the next stone shall fall to the ground or from it. All it can say of the universality of any law of science, is this, " So far as we have seen, it is so." It cannot pass from the Particular to the Universal. It makes a moral law the result of external experience, merely an induction from moral facts ; not the affirmation of Man's moral nature declaring the eternal rule of Right. It learns Morality by seeing what plan succeeds best in the long run. Its Morality, therefore, is Selfishness veri- fied by experiment. A man in a new case, for which he can find no precedents, knows not what to do. He is never certain he is right till he gets the reward. Its moral law at present, like the statute law, is the slowly elaborated product of centuries of experience. It pretends to find out God, as a law in science, solely, by reasoning from effect to cause ; from a plan to the designer. Then on what does a man's belief in God depend ? On man's nature, acting spontaneously ? No ; for there is nothing in man but man, and nothing comes in but sensations, which do not directly give us God. It depends on reflec- tion, argument, that process of reasoning mentioned be- fore. Now admitting that sensation affords sufficient pre- mise for the conclusion, there is a difficulty in the way. The man must either depend on his own reasoning, or that of another. In the one case he may be mistaken, in an argument so long, crooked, and difficult. It is at best an inference. The " Hypothesis of a God," as some impi- ously call it may thus rest on no better argument than the hypothesis of Vortices, or Epicycles. In the other case, if we trust another man, he may be mistaken ; still worse, may design to deceive the inquirer, as, we are told, the Heathen Sages did. Where, then, is the certain con- viction of any God at all ? This theory allows none. Its " proof of the existence of God " is a proof of the possi- bility of a God ; perhaps of his probability ; surely no more. But the case is yet worse. In any argumentation there must be no more expressed in the conclusion than is lo- ITS GOD ONLY FINITE. 129 gically and confessedly implied in the premises. When finite phenomena are the only premises, whence comes the Idea of Infinite God ? It denies that Man has any Idea of the Absolute, Infinite, Perfect. Instead of this, it allows only an accumulative notion, formed from a series of con- ceptions of what is finite and imperfect. The little we can know of God came from reasoning about objects of sense. Its notion of God is deduced purely from empirical observa- tion ; what notion of a God can rest legitimately on that basis ? Nature is finite. To infer an infinite Author is false logic. We see but in part, and have not grasped up this sum of things, nor seen how seeming evil consists with real good, nor accounted for the great amount of misery, apparently unliquidated, in the world ; therefore Nature is imperfect to men's eyes. Why infer a perfect Author from an imperfect work ? Injustice and cruelty are allowed in the world. How then can its Maker be re- lied on as just and merciful ? Let there be nothing in the conclusion which is not in the premises. This theory gives us only a finite and imperfect God, which is no God at all. He cannot be trusted out of sight ; for its faith is only an inference from what is seen. Instead of a religious sentiment in man, which craves all the perfections of the Godhead, reaches out after the In- finite " first Good, first Perfect, and first Fair/' it gives us only a tendency to reverence or fear what is superior to ourselves, and above our comprehension ; a tendency which the Bat and the Owl have in common with Socrates and Fenelon. It makes a man the slave of his organiza- tion. Free-will is not possible. His highest aim is self- preservation ; his greatest evil death. It denies the im- mortality of Man, and foolishly asks " proofs " of the fact meaning proofs palpable to the senses. Its finite God is not to be trusted, except under his bond and covenant to give us what we ask for. It makes no difference between Good and Evil ; Expedi- ent and Inexpedient are the better words. These are to be learned only by long study and much cunning. All men have not the requisite skill to find out moral and religious doctrines, and no means of proving either in their own heart; therefore they must take the word of their ap- pointed teachers and philosophers, who "have investi- 130 ITS MORALS AND RELIGION. gated the matter;" found there is " an expedient way " for men to follow, and a " God " to punish them if they do not follow it. In moral and religious matters the mass of men must rely on the authority of their teachers. Millions of men, who never made an astronomical observation, be- lieve the distance between the Earth and the Sun is what Newton or Laplace declares it to be. Why should not men take moral and religious doctrines on the same evi- dence ? It is true, astronomers have differed a little some making the Earth the centre, some the Sun and divines still more. But men must learn the moral law as the statute law. The State is above each man's private no- o tions about good and evil, and controls these, as well as their passions. Man must act always from mean and selfish views, never from Love of the Good, the Beautiful, the True. This system would have religious forms and ceremonies to take up the mind of the people ; moral precepts, and religious creeds, "published by authority," to keep men from unprofitable crimes ; an established Church, like the Jail and the Gallows, a piece of state-machinery. It is logical in this, for it fears that, without such a provision, the sensual nature would overlay the intellectual ; the few religious ideas common men could get, would be so shadowy and uncertain, and men be so blinded by Prejudice, Super- stition, and Fancy, or so far misled by Passion and ignorant Selfishness, that nothing but want and anarchy would en- sue. It tells men to pray. None can escape the convic- tion that prayer, vocal or silent, put up as a request, or felt as a sense of supplication, is natural as hunger and thirst, or tears and smiles. Even a self-styled Atheist 1 talks of the important physiological functions of prayer. This theory makes prayer a Soliloquy of the man ; a think- ing with the upper part of the head ; a sort of moral gym- nastics. Thereby we get nothing from God. He is the other side of the world. " He is a journeying, or pursuing, or peradventure he sleepeth." Prayer is useful to the wor- shipper as the poet's frenzy, when he apostrophizes a Mountain, or the Moon, and works himself into a rapture, but gets nothing from the Mountain or the Moon, except what he carried out. In a word, this theory reduces the Idea of God to that of r 1 M. Comte. ITS IDEA OF GOD. 131 an abstract Cause, and excludes this cause both from Man and the World. It has only a finite God, which is no God at all, for the two terms cancel each other. It has only a selfish Morality, which is no Morality at all, for the same reason. It reduces the Soul to the aggregate functions of the flesh ; Providence to a law of matter ; Infinity to a dream ; Religion to priestcraft ; Prayer to an apostrophe ; Morality to making a good bargain ; Conscience to cunning. It denies the possibility of any connection between God and Man. Revelation and Inspiration it regards as figures of speech, by which we refer to an agency purely ideal what was the result of the Senses and Matter acting thereon. Men calling themselves inspired, speaking in the name of God, were deceivers, or deceived. Prophets, the religious Geniuses of the world, mistook their fancies for revela- tion ; embraced a cloud instead of a Goddess, and pro- duced only misshapen dreams. Judged by this system, Jesus of Nazareth was a pure-minded fanatic, who knew no more about God than Peter Bayle and Pomponatius, but yet did the world service, by teaching the result of his own or others' experience, as revelations from God accompanied with the promise of another life, which is reckoned a pleas- ant delusion, useful to keep men out of crime, a clever auxiliary of the powers that be. This System has perhaps never been held in all its parts by any one man, 1 but each portion has often been defended, and all its parts go together and come unavoidably from that notion, that there is nothing in man which was not first in the senses. 2 The best representatives of this school were, it may be, the French Materialists of the last century, and some of the English Deists. The latter term is applied to men of the most various character and ways of thinking. Some of them were most excellent men in all respects ; men who did mankind great service by exposing the fanat- icism of the Superstitious, and by showing the absurdities 1 It is instructive to see the influence of this form of philosophy in the various departments of inquiry, as shown in the writings of Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Collins, Mandeville, Hartley, Hume, Priestley, Patey, Horne-Tooke, Condillac, Helvetius, Darwin, Bentham, &c. But this philosophy could never fully satisfy the English mind. So there were such men as Cudworth, More, Cumberland, Edwards, Wollaston, Clarke, Butler, Berkely, Harris, Price, and more recently, lleid, Stewart, Brown, Coleridge, and Carlyle, not to mention the more mystical men like Fox and Penn, with their followers. 2 See the judicious observations of Shaftesbury, eighth Letter to a Student. 6* 102 ITS NEGATIVE MERIT. embraced by many of the Christians. Some of them were much more religious and heavenly-minded than their oppo- nents, and had a theology much more Christian, which called Goodness by its proper name, and worshipped God in lowliness of heart, and a divine life. But the spirit of this system takes different forms in different men. It ap- pears in the cold morality and repulsive forms of Eeligion of Dr Priestley, who was yet one of the best of men ; in the scepticism of Hume and his followers, which has been a useful medicine to the Church; in the selfish system of Paley, far more dangerous than the doubts of Hume or the scoffs of Gibbon and Voltaire ; in the coarse, vulgar material- ism of Hobbes, who may be taken as one of the best repre- sentatives of the system. It is obvious enough, that this system of Naturalism is o the Philosophy which lies at the foundation of the popular theology in New England ; that it is very little understood by the men, out of pulpits and in pulpits, who adhere to it ; who, while they hold fast to the theory of the worst of the English Deists though of only the worst ; while they deny the immanence of God in Matter and Man, and there- fore take away the possibility of natural inspiration, and cling to that system of philosophy which justifies the Doubt of Hume, the Selfishness of Paley, the coarse Materialism of Hobbes, are yet ashamed of their descent, and seek to point out others of a quite different spiritual complexion, as the lineal descendants of that ancient stock. This system has one negative merit. It can, as such, never lead to fanaticism. Those sects or individuals, who approach most nearly to pure Naturalism, have never been accused, in religious matters, of going too fast or too far. But it has a positive excellence. It lays great stress on the human mind, and cultivates the understanding to the last degree. However, its Philosophy, its Theology, its Worship, are of the senses, and the senses alone. 1 1 I have not thought it necessaiy to refer particularly to the authors repre- senting this system. I have rather taken pains to express their doctrine in my own words, lest individuals should be thought responsible for the sins of the system. One may read many works of divinity, and see that this philosophy lay unconsciously in the writer's mind. I do not mean to insinuate that many persons fully and knowingly believe this doctrine, but that they are yet gov- erned by it, under the modification treated of in the next chapter. Locke has sometimes been charged with follies of this character, but unjustly, as it seems to me, for though the fundamental principles of his philosophy, and many pas- 133 CHAPTER VII. 2. THE ANTI-RATIONALISTIC VIEW, OE SUPBRNATURAL1S3T. THIS system differs in many respects from the other ; "but its philosophy is at bottom the same. It denies that by natural action there can be anything in Man which was not first in the senses ; whatever transcends the senses can come to him only by a Miracle. And the Miracle is attended with phenomena obvious to the senses. To develope the natural side of the theory it sets God on the one side and man on the other. However it admits the immanence of God in Matter, and talks very little about the laws of Matter, which it thinks require revision, amendment, and even repeal, as if the nature of things changed, or God grew wiser by experiment. It does not see that if God is always the same, and immanent in Nature, the laws of Nature can neither change nor be o changed. 1 It limits the power of Man still further than o the former theory. It denies that he can, of himself, dis- cover the existence of God ; or find out that it is better to love his brother than to hate him, to subject the Passions to Reason, Desire to Duty, rather than to subject Reason to Passion, Duty to Desire. 2 Man can find out all that is sages in his \vovks, do certainly look that way, others are of a quite spiritual tendency. See King's Life of Locke, Vol. 1. p. 366, et seq., and his theological writings, passim. 1 Leibnitz, in a letter to the Princess of Wales, Opp. phil. ed. Erdmann, Ber- lin, 1840, p. 746-7, amuses himself with ridiculing this view, which he ascribes to .Newton and his followers ; " according to them," says he, " God must wind up his watch from time to time or it would stop outright. He was not far- sighted enough to make a perpetual motion." 2 Some Supernaturalists admit that Man by nature can find out the most im- portant religious truths, in the way set down before, and some admit a moral sense in man. Others deny both. A recent writer denies that he can find by the light of Nature ANY THEOLOGICAL TRUTH. Natural theology is not pos- sible. See Irons, On the whole Doctrine of Final Causes, Lond. 1836, p. 34, 129, and passim. His introductory chapter on modern Deism is very curious. L34 ABSURDITY UP SUPERNATURALISil. needed for his animal and intellectual welfare, with no miracle ; but can learn nothing that is needed for his moral and religious welfare. He can invent the steam engine, and calculate the orbit of Halley's comet ; but cannot tell Good from Evil, nor determine that there is a - God. The Unnecessary is given him ; the Indispensable he cannot get by nature. Man, therefore, is the veriest wretch in creation. His mind forces him to inquire 011 religious matters, but brings him into doubt, and leaves him in the very slough of Despond. He goes up and down sorrowing, seeking rest, but finding none. Nay; it goes further still, and declares that, by nature, all men's actions are sin, hateful to God. On the other hand, it teaches that God works a miracle o from time to time, and makes to men a positive revelation of moral and religious truth, which they could not other- wise gain. Its history of revelations is this : God revealed his own existence in a visible form to the first man ; taught him religious and moral duties by words orally spoken. The first man communicated this knowledge to his descendants, from whom the tradition of the fact has spread over all the world. Men know there is a God, and a distinction between right and wrong, only by hearsay, as they know there was a Flood in the time of Noah, or Deucalion. The first man sinned, and fell from the state of frequent communion with God. Revelations have since become rare ; exceptions in the history of men. However, as Man having no connection with the Infinite must soon perish, God continued to make miraculous revelations to one single people. To them he gave laws, religious and civil ; made predictions, and accompanied each revelation by some miraculous sign, for without it none could dis- tinguish the truth from a lie. Other nations received re- flections of this light, which was directly imparted to the favoured people. At length he made a revelation of all religious and moral truth, by means of his Son, a divine and miraculous being, both God and Man, and confirmed the tidings by miracles the most surprising. As this re- He has some excellent remarks, for there are two kingdoms of philosophy in him, but wishes to advance what he calls revealed religion, at the expense of the foundation of all Religion. The Ottoman King never thinks himself secure on the throne till he has slain all his brothers. THE SAD CONDITION OP MAN. 135 velation is to last for ever, it lias been recorded miracu- lously, and preserved for all coming time. The persons who received direct communication miraculously from God, are of course mediators between Him and the human race. Now to live as religious men, we must have a knowledge of religious truth ; for this we must depend alone on these mediators. Without them we have no access to God. They have established a new relation between Man and God. But they are mortal, and have deceased. However, their sayings are recorded by miraculous aid. A know- ledge of God's will, of Morality and Religion, therefore, is only to be got at, by studying the documents which con- tain a record of their words and works, for the Word of God has become the letter of Scripture. We can know nothing of God, Eeligion, or Morals at first hand. God was but transiently present in a small number of the race, and has now left it altogether. This theory forgets that a verbal revelation can never communicate a simple idea, like that of God, Justice, Love, Religion, more than a word can give a deaf man an idea of sound. It makes inspiration a very rare miracle, confined to one nation, and to some scores of men in that nation, who stand between us and God. We cannot pray in our own name, but in that of the mediator, who hears the prayer, and makes intercession for us. It exalts certain miraculous persons, but degrades Man. In prophets and saints, in Moses and Jesus, it does not see the possibility of the race made real, but only the miraculous work of God. Our duty is not to inquire into the truth of their word. Reason is no judge of that. We must put faith in all which all of them tell us, though they contradict each other never so often. Thus it makes an antithesis between Faith and Knowledge, Reason and Revelation. It denies that common men, in the nineteenth century, can get at Truth, and God, as Paul and John in the first century. It sacrifices Reason, Conscience, and Love to the words of the miraculous men, and thus makes its mediator a tyrant, who rules over the soul by external authority, restricting Reason, Conscience, and Love ; not a brother, who acts in the soul, by waking its dormant powers, disclosing truth, and leading others by a divine life to God, the Source of Light. It says the words of Jesus are true because he 136 FOUNDATION OP SUPERNATURALISM. spoke them; not that he spoke them because true. It relies entirely 011 past times ; does not give us the Abso- : lute Religion, as it exists in Man's nature, and the Ideas of the Almighty, only a historical mode of worship, as lived out here or there. It says the canon of Revelation is closed; God will no longer act on men as heretofore. We have come at the end of the feast ; are born in the latter days and dotage of mankind, and can only get light by raking amid the ashes of the past, and blowing its brands, now almost extinct. It denies that God is present and active in all spirit as in all space thus it denies that he is Infinite. In the miraculous documents it gives us an objective standard, " the only infallible rule of religious faith and practice." These mediators are greater than tlio soul ; the Bible the master of Reason, Conscience, and tlio Religious Sentiment. They stand in the place of God. Men ask of this system : How do you know there is in Man nothing but the product of sensation, or miraculous tradition ; that he cannot approach God except by miracle ; that these mediators received truth miraculously ; taugho all truth; nothing but the truth; that you have their words pure and unmixed in your Scriptures ; that God has no further revelation to make ? The answer is : Wo find it convenient to assume all this, and accordingly havo banished Reason from the premises, for she asked trouble- some questions. We condescend to no proof of the facts. You must take our word for that. Thus the main doc- trines of the theory rest on assumptions ; on no-facts. This system represents the despair of Man groping after God. The religious Element acts, but is crippled by a philosophy poor and sensual. Is Man nothing but a com- bination of five senses, and a thinking machine to grind up and bolter sensations, and learn of God only by hear- say ? The God of Supernaturalism is a God afar oft'; its Religion worn-out and second-hand. We cannot meet God face to face. In one respect it is worse than natural- ism ; that sets great value -on the faculties of Man, which this depreciates and profanes. But all systems rest on a truth, or they could not be ; this on a great truth, or it could not prevail widely. It admits a qualified immanence of God in Nature, and declares, also, that mankind is de- pendent on Him., for religious and moral truth as for all THE TRUTH IN SUPEENATUEALISM. 137 things else ; has a connection with God, who really guides, educates, and blesses the race, for he is transiently present therein. The doctrine of miraculous events, births, per- sons, deaths, and the like, this is the veil of Poetry drawn over the face of Fact. It has a truth not admitted by Naturalism. As only a few ' ' thinking " men even in fancy can be satisfied without a connection with God, so Natural- ism is always confined to a few reflective and cultivated persons ; while the mass of men believe in the super- natural theory, at least, in the truth it covers up. Its truth is of great moment. Its vice is to make God tran- siently active in Man, not immanent in him ; restrict tho divine presence and action to times, places, and persons. It overlooks the fact that if religious truth be necessary for all, then it must either have been provided for and put in the reach of all, or else there is a fault in the divine plan. Then again, if God gives a natural supply for the lower wants, it is probable, to say the least, he will not neglect the higher. Now for the religious consciousness of Man, a knowledge of two great truths is indispensable : namely, a knowledge of the existence of the Infinite God, and of the duty we owe to Him, for a knowledge of these two is implied in all religious teaching and life. Now one of two things must be admitted, and a third is not pos- sible : either Man can discover these two things by the light of Nature, or he cannot. If the latter be the case, then is he the most hopeless of all beings. Revelation of these truths is confined to a few ; it is indispensably neces- sary to all. Accordingly the first hypothesis is generally admitted by the supernaturalists, in New England though in spite of their philosophy that these two things can be discovered by the light of Nature. Then if the two main points, the premises which involve the whole of Morals and Religion, lie within the reach of Man's natural powers, how is a miracle, or the tradition of a miracle, necessary to reveal the minor doctrines involved in the universal truth ? Does not the faculty to discern the greater include the faculty to discern the less ? What covers an acre will cover a yard. Where then is the use of the miraculous interposition ? Neither Naturalism nor Supernaturalism legitimates the fact of Man's religious consciousness. Both fail of satisfy- 138 THE NATURAL-RELIGIOUS VIEW, Oft SPIRITUALISM. ing the natural religious wants of the race. Each has merits and vices of its own. Neither gives for the Soul's wants a supply analogous to that so bountifully provided for the wants of the Body, or the Mind. CHAPTER VIII. 3- THE NATURAL-RELIGIOUS VIEW, OR SPIRITUALISM. THIS theory teaches that there is a natural supply for spiritual as well as for corporeal wants ; that there is a connection between God and the Soul, as between light and the eye, sound and the ear, food and the palate, truth and the intellect, beauty and the imagination ; that as we follow an instinctive tendency, obey the body's law, get a natural supply for its wants, attain health and strength, the body's welfare ; as we keep the law of the mind, and get a supply for its wants, attain wisdom and skill, the mind's welfare, so if, following another instinctive tendency, we keep the law of the moral and religious faculties, we get a supply for their wants, moral and religious truth, obtain peace of conscience and rest for the soul, the highest moral and religious welfare. It teaches that the World is not nearer to our bodies than God to the soul ; " for in him we live and move, and have our being." As we have bodily senses to lay hold on Matter and supply bodily wants, through which we obtain, naturally, all needed material things ; so we have spiritual faculties to lay hold on God, and supply spiritual wants; through them we obtain all needed spiritual things. As we observe the conditions of the Body, we have Nature on our side ; as we observe the Law of the Soul, we have God on our side. He imparts truth to all men who observe these conditions; we have direct access to Him, through Reason, Conscience, and the Religious Faculty, just as we have direct access to Nature, through the eye, the ear, or the hand. Through these INSPIRATION UNIVERSAL. 139 channels,, and by means of a law, certain, regular, and universal as gravitation, God inspires men, makes revela- tion of truth, for is not truth as much a phenomenon of : God, as motion of Matter? Therefore if God "be omni- present and omniactive, this inspiration is no miracle, but a regular mode of God's action on conscious Spirit, as gravitation on unconscious Matter. It is not a rare con- descension of God, but a universal uplifting of Man. To obtain a knowledge of duty, a man is not sent away, out- side of himself to ancient documents, for the only rule of faith and practice; the Word is very nigh him, even in his heart, and by this Word he is to try all documents whatever. Inspiration, like God's omnipresence, is not limited to the few writers claimed by the Jews, Christians, o or Mahometans, but is coextensive with the race. As God fills all Space, so all Spirit ; as he influences and constrains unconscious and necessitated Matter, so he inspires and helps free and conscious Man. This theory does not make God limited, partial, or capricious. It exalts Man. While it honours the excellence of a religious genius, of a Moses or a Jesus, it does not pronounce their character monstrous, as the supernatural, nor fanatical, as the rationalistic theory ; but natural, hu- man, and beautiful, revealing the possibility of mankind. Prayer, whether voluntative or spontaneous, a word or a feeling, felt in gratitude or penitence, or joy, or resigna- tion, is not a soliloquy of the man, not a physiological function, nor an address to a deceased man ; but a sally into the infinite spiritual world, whence we bring back light and truth. There are windows towards God, as to- wards the World. There is no intercessor, angel, medi- ator between Man and God ; for Man can speak and God hear, each for himself. He requires no advocate to plead o for men, who need not pray by attorney. Each man stands close to the omnipresent God ; may feel his beau- tiful presence, and have familiar access to the All-Father ; get truth at first hand from its Author. Wisdom, Right- eousness, and Love, are the Spirit of God in the Soul of Man ; wherever these are, and just in proportion to their power, there is inspiration from God. Thus God is not the author of confusion, but Concord ; Faith, and Know- 140 DEGREES OF INSPIRATION. ledge, and Revelation, and Reason tell the same tale, and so legitimate and confirm one another. 1 God's action on Matter and on Man is perhaps the same thing to Him, though it appear differently modified to us. But it is plain from the nature of things, that there can be but one kind of Inspiration, as of Truth, Faith, or Love : it is o the direct and intuitive perception of some truth, either of thought or of sentiment. There can be but one mode of Inspiration : it is the action of the Highest within the soul, the divine presence imparting light ; this presence as Truth, Justice, Holiness, Love, infusing itself into the soul, giving it new life ; the breathing in of the Deity ; the in-come of God to the Soul, in the form of Truth through the Reason, of Right through the Conscience, of Love and Faith through the Affections and Religious Element. Is Inspiration confined to theological matters alone ? Most surely not. Is Newton less inspired than Simon Peter ? 2 Now if the above views be true, there seems no ground for supposing, without historical proof, there are different kinds or modes of inspiration in different persons, nations, or ages, in Minos or Moses, in Gentiles or Jews, in the first century or the last. If God be infinitely perfect, He 1 See Jonathan Edwards' view of Inspiration, in his sermon on A divine Light imparted to the Soul, &c. Works, ed. Lond. 1840. Vol. II. p. 12, et sccj., and Vol. I. p. cclxix. No. [20]. 3 So long as inspiration is regarded as purely miraculous, good sense will lessen instances of it, as far as possible ; for most thinking men feel more or less repugnance at believing in any violation, on God's part, of regular laws. As spiritual things are commonly less attended to than material, the belief in miraculous inspiration remains longer in religious than secular affairs. A man would be looked on as mad, who should claim miraculous inspiration for New- ton, as they have been who denied it in the case of Moses. But no candid man will doubt that, humanly speaking, it was a more difficult thing to write the Principia than the Decalogue. Man must have a nature most sadly anomalous, if, unassisted, he is able to accomplish all the triumphs of modern science, and yet cannot discover the plainest and most important principles of Religion and Morality without a miraculous revelation ; and still more so, if being able to dis- cover, by God's natural aid, these chief and most important principles, he needs a miraculous inspiration to disclose minor details. Science is by no means in- dispensable, as Religion and Morals. The doctrine of the immortality of th soul, if it is a real advantage, follows unavoidably from the Idea of God. Tin Best Being, he must will the best of good things ; the Wisest, he must deviso plans for that effect ; the most Powerful, he must bring it about. None can deny this. Does one ask another " proof of the fact ? " /* lie so very full of faith who cannot trust God, except he have His bond in Hack and white, given under oath and attested by ivitnesses ! CONDITION OF INSPIRATION. 141 does not change; then his modes of action are perfect and unchangeable. The laws of Mind, like those of Matter, remain immutable arid not transcended. As God has left no age nor man destitute, by nature, of Reason, Conscience, Affection, Soul, so he leaves none destitute of inspiration. It is, therefore, the light of all our being ; the background of all human faculties ; the sole means by which we gain a knowledge of what is not seen and felt ; the logical condition of all sensual knowledge ; our high- way to the world of Spirit. Man cannot, more than Matter, exist without God. Inspiration then, like vision, must be everywhere the same thing in kind ; however it differs in degree, from race to race, from man to man. The degree of inspiration must depend on two things : first, on the natural ability, the particular intellectual, moral, and religious endowment, or genius, wherewith each man is furnished by God ; and next, on the use each man makes of this endowment. In one word, it depends on the man's Quantity of Being, and his Quantity of Obe- dience. Now as men differ widely in their natural endow- ments, and much more widely in the use and development thereof, there must of course be various degrees of in- spiration, from the lowest sinner up to the highest saint. All men are not by birth capable of the same degree of inspiration ; and by culture, and acquired character, they are still less capable of it. A man of noble intellect, of deep, rich, benevolent affections, is by his endowments capable of more than one less gifted. He that perfectly keeps the soul's law, thus fulfilling the conditions of in- spiration, has more than he who keeps it imperfectly ; the former must receive all his soul can contain at that stage of his growth. Thus it depends on a man's own will, in great measure, to what extent he will be inspired. The man of humble gifts at first, by faithful obedience may attain a greater degree than one of larger outfit, who neglects his talent. The Apostles of the New Testament, and the true Saints of all countries, are proofs of this. Inspiration, then, is the consequence of a faithful use of our faculties. Each man is its subject ; God its source ; Truth its only test. But as truth appears in various modes to us, higher and lower, and may be superficially divided, according to our faculties, into truths of the 142 VARIOUS FORMS OF INSPIRATION. Senses,, of the Understanding, of Reason, of Conscience, of the Affections, and the Soul, so the perception of truth in the highest mode, that of Reason, Morals, Philanthropy, Religion, is the highest inspiration. He, then, that has the most of Wisdom, Goodness, Religion, the most of Truth, in the highest modes, is the most inspired. Now universal infallible inspiration can of course only be the attendant and result of a perfect fulfilment of all the laws of mind, of the moral, affectional, and religious nature ; and as each man's faculties are limited, it is not possible to men. A foolish man, as such, cannot be in- spired to reveal Wisdom; nor a wicked man to reveal Virtue; nor an impious man to reveal Religion. Unto him that hath, more is given. The poet reveals Poetry ; the artist Art; the philosopher Science; the saint Reli- gion. The greater, purer, loftier, more complete tho character, so is the inspiration ; for he that is true to Con- science, faithful to Reason, obedient to Religion, has not only the strength of his own Virtue, Wisdom, and Piety, but the whole strength of Omnipotence on his side; for Goodness, Truth, and Love, as we conceive them, are not one thing in Man, and another in God, but the same thing in each. Thus Man partakes the Divine Nature, as the Platoiiists, Christians, and Mystics call it. By these means the Soul of All flows into the man ; what is private, per- sonal, peculiar, ebbs off before that mighty influx from on high. What is universal, absolute, true, speaks out of his lips, in rude, homely utterance, it may be, or in words that burn and. sparkle like the lightning's fiery flash. This inspiration reveals itself in various forms, modified by the country, character, education, peculiarity of him who receives it, just as water takes the form and the colour of the cup into which it flows, and must needs mingle with the impurities it chances to meet. Thus Minos and Moses were inspired to make laws; David to pour out his soul in pious strains, deep and sweet as an angel's psaltery ; Pin- dar to celebrate virtuous deeds in high heroic song ; John the Baptist to denounce sin; Gerson, and Luther, and Boh me, and Feiielon, and Fox, to do each his peculiar work, and stir the world's heart, deep, very deep. Plato and Newton, Milton and Isaiah, Leibnitz and Paul, Mozart, Raphael, Phidias, Praxiteles, Orpheus, receive into their VARIOUS FORMS OF INSPIRATION. 143 various forms, the one spirit from God most high. It appears in action not less than speech. The Spirit inspires Dorcas to make coats and garments for the poor, no less than Paul to preach the Gospel. As that bold man him- self has said, et sc^. 1G8 JESUS HIS NATION AND morose, jealous, vindictive, loving the little corner of space called Judea above all the rest of the world ; fancying- themselves the " chosen people " and special favourites of God ; in the midst of a nation wedded to their forms, sunk in ignorance, precipitated into sin, and, still more, expect- ing a Deliverer, who would repel their political foes, reunite the scattered children of Jacob, and restore them to power, conquer all nations, reestablish the formal service of the Temple in all its magnificent pomp, and exalt Jerusalem above all the cities of the earth for ever, amid all this, and the opposition it raised to a spiritual man, Jesus fell back on the moral and religious Sentiment in Man ; uttered manifold Oracles of Humanity, as the Infinite spoke in his noble soul ; stirred men to deep emotions ; laid down some principles of conduct wide as the Soul of man and true as eternal God ; taught a form of Religion, Piety and Morality, far before anything known then to the world of men ; but yet mistook himself for that miraculous and im- possible deliverer of his nation whom the people waited for in vain. In an age full of veng*eance he makes love the pivotal Principle which all things must turn upon. Take one ex- ample as it stands in the Synoptics. A man asks what he shall do to fulfil the idea of Man, and have " eternal life ? " He bids him keep the moral law, written eter- nally in the nature of man ; specifies some of its plainest prohibitions, and adds, Love your neighbour as yourself. When asked the greatest commandment of the Law, he thus sums up all the Law and the Prophets also : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Here is the sum of religious doctrine. He gives the highest aim for man : Be perfect as God. He declares the blessedness, present and eternal, of such as do the Will of God. The Spirit of God shall be in them, revealing Truth ; the Kingdom of God shall be theirs. He gives no extended form of his views in Theology, Anthropology, Politics, or Philosophy. But the great truth of God's goodness, and man's spiritual nature, are implied in all his teachings. He says little of the Immortality of the Soul ; much less than some " Heathens " before him ; PEACTICAL LOVE OF GOD. 1G9 but it is everywhere implied. As the doctrine was familiar, he dwells little upon it. It is vain to deny, or attempt to conceal, the errors in his doctrine, a revengeful God, a Devil absolutely evil, an eternal Hell, a speedy end of the world ; but the actual superiority of the mode of Religion he taught, its sublime faith in God, its profound Humanity, seem also as clear as the noonday sun. Such, then, is the religious doctrine of Jesus. It was always taught with direct application to life ; not as Science, but as daily Duty. Love of God was- no abstrac- tion. It implied love of Wisdom, Justice, Purity, Good- ness, Holiness, Charity. To love these is to love God ; to love them is to live them. It implies abhorrence c f evil for its own sake ; a desire and effort to be perfect as God, to tolerate no wrong action, wrong thought, or wrong feel- ing ; to make the heart right, the head right, the hand right ; to serve God, not with the lips alone, but the life, not only in Jerusalem and Gerizim, but everywhere ; not by tithing mint, anise, and cumin, but by judgment, mercy, and faith ; not by saying " Lord, Lord," " Save us, good Lord," but by doing the Father's will. It implies a Faith that is stronger than Fear, prevails over every sorrow, grief, disappointment, and asks only this Thy will be done ; a Love which is strongest in times of trouble, which never fails when mere human affection goes stooping and feeble, weeping its tears of blood ; a Love which annihilates temptation, and in the hour of mortal agony brings as it were an angel from the sky; an absolute Trust in God, a brave unconcern for the morrow, so long as the day's duties are faithfully done. It is a love of Goodness and Religion for their own sake, not for the bribe of Heaven, or the dread of Hell. It implies a reunion of Man and God, till we think God's thought, and will God's will, and so have God abiding in us, and become one with Him. The other doctrine, Love of Man, is Love of all as your- self, not because they have no faults, but in spite thereof. To feel no enmity towards enemies ; to labour for them with love ; J)ray for them with pitying affection, remem- bering the less they deserve, the more they need; this was the doctrine of Love. It demands that the rich, the 170 PRACTICAL LOVE OP MAN. wise, the holy, help the poor, the foolish, the sinful ; that the strong bear the burdens of the weak, not bind them on anew. It tells a man that his excellence and ability are not for himself alone, but for all mankind, of which he is but one, beginning first with the neoTest of the neodv. It makes the strong the guardians, not the tyrants, of the weak. It said : Go to the publicans and sinners, and call them to repentance ; go to men trodden down by the hoof of the oppressor, rebuke him lovingly, but snatch the spoil from his bloody teeth ; go to men sick with desola- tion, covered all over with the leprosy of sin, bowed to- gether and squalid with their inveterate disease, bid them live and sin no more. It despairs of no man ; sees the soul of goodness in things evil ; knows the soul in its in- timate recess never consents to sin, nor loves the Hateful. It would improve men's circumstances to mend their heart ; their heart to mend their circumstances. It does not say alone, with piteous whine God save the wicked and the weak, but puts its own shoulder to the work; divides its raiment and shares its loaf. To say all, in brief, these two cardinal doctrines de- manded a DIVINE LIFE, where every action of the hand, the head, the heart, is in obedience to the Law of the Soul ; in harmony with the All-perfect. This was Christ's notion of worship. It asked for nothing ritual, formal ; laid no stress on special days, forms, rites, creeds. Its rite, its creed, its substance, and its form, are all contained in that one command, LOVE MAN AS YOURSELF; GOD ABOVE ALL. None can say, or need suppose, that Jesus consciously in- tended all the consequences which we see resulting from these principles, or that he even foresaw the effects there- of, more than Monk Schwarz expected the results of his invention. Thus far the application was universal as the doctrine. But he taught something which is ritual. Baptism and the Supper. The first was a common rite at the time, used even by the ' ' heathens." In a nation dwelling in a warm climate, and so fond of symbols as the Jews, it was a na- tural expression of the convert's changa of life. Sensual men must interpret their Eeligion to the senses, as the Hollanders have their Bible in Dutch. It seems to have BAPTISM AND THE SUPPER. 171 been an accommodation to the wants of the times, as he spoke the popular language. Did he lay any stress on this watery dispensation ; count it valuable of itself ? Then we must drop a tear for the weakness ; for no outward act can change the heart, and God is not to be mocked, pleased, or served with a form. Is there any reason to suppose he ever designed it to be permanent ? It is indeed said that he bade the disciples teach all nations, " baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost." But since the Apostles never mention the com- mand, nor the form, since it is opposite to the general spirit of his precepts, it must be put with the many other things which are to be examined with much care before they are referred to him. But if it came from him, we can only say, There is no perfect Guide but the Father. The second form, was it of more account than the first ? Who shall tell us the " Lord's Supper " was designed to be permanent more than washing the feet, if that be a fact, which the Pope likewise imitates ? Did he place any value on the dispensation of wine ; design it to extend beyond the company then present ? If we may trust the account, he asks his friends, at supper, to remember him, when they break bread. It was simple, natural, affection- ate, beautiful. Was this a foundation of a form ; to last for ever; a form valuable in itself; essential to man's spi- ritual welfare ; a form pleasing to Him who is All in All ? To say Jesus laid any stress on it as a valuable and per- petual rite is, to go beyond what is written. It needs no reply. The thing may be useful, beautiful, comforting to a million souls ; truly it has been so. In Christianity there is milk for babes and meat for men, that the truth may be given as they can receive it. Let each be fed with the Father's bounty. 2 * Math, xxviii. 19, and the parallels. 2 .In the first edition I inserted here these lines : ;( Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw ; Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite." The thought I wished to express was this : The two ordinances, in comparison with a religious life and character, are no more than the rattles and straws of a child, compared with the attainments of an accomplished man ; it is a beautiful feature of God's Providence, that things in themselves of no value, can yet serve 172 CHAPTER IV. THE AUTHORITY OP JESUS, ITS REAL AND PRETENDED SOURCE. ON what authority did Jesus teach? On that of tlio most high God, as he expressly states, and often. But to have the authority of God, is not that miraculous ? How can man have God's authority in the natural way ? Let us look at the matter. I. The only Authority of a Doctrine is its Truth. Truth is the relation of things as they are ; falsehood, as they are not. No doctrine can have a higher condemna- tion than to be convicted of falsehood; none a higher authority than to be proved true. God is the author of things as they are ; therefore of this relation, and therefore of Truth. He that delivers the Truth then has so far the authority of Truth's God. Then it will be asked, How do we know Christianity is true, or that it is our duty to love Man and God ? Now when it is asked, How do I know that I exist ; that doubting is doubting ; that half is less than the whole ; that it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be ? the questioner is set down as a strange man. But it has somehow come to pass, that he is reckoned a very acute and Christian person, who doubts moral and religious axioms, and asks, How do I know that Right is right, and Wrong wrong, and Goodness good ? Alas, there are men among the Christians who place virtue and religion on a lower ground than Aristippus and Democritus, so important a purpose as the intellectual, moral, and religious development of a man. The words were understood in a very different sense sometimes eveu by my Friends. I omitted them in the English edition for the publisher at first designed to have no notes in that, and I did not Avish to reprint, without explanation, what had been so much misunderstood before. KNOWLEDGE OF RELIGIOUS DUTY. 173 men branded as Heathens and Atheists. Let us know what we are about. It was said above,* there are, practically, four sources of knowledge direct and indirect, primary and secondary, namely, Perception for sensible things ; Intuition for spiritual things ; Reflection for logical things ; and Testi- mony for historical things. If the doctrines of Christianity are eternal truths, they are not sensible things, not his- torical things, and of course do not depend on sensual perception, nor historical testimony, but can be presented directly to the consciousness of men at one age as well as another, and thus if they are matters of reflection, may be made plain to all who have the reflective faculty and will use it ; if they are matters of intuition, to all who have the intuitive faculty, and will let it act. Now the duty we owe to Man, that of loving him as ourselves ; the duty we owe to God, that of loving him above all, is a matter of intuition ; it proceeds from the very nature of Man, and is inseparable from that nature ; we recognize the truth of the precept as soon as it is stated, and see the truth of it as soon as the unprejudiced mind looks that way. It is no less a matter of reflection likewise. He that reflects on the Idea of God as given by intuition, on his own nature as he learns it from his mental operations, sees that this twofold duty flows logically from these premises. The truth of these doctrines, then, may be known by both in- tuition and reflection. He that teaches a doctrine eter- nally true, does not set forth a private and peculiar thing resting on private authority and historical evidence, but an everlasting reality, which rests on the ground of all truth, the public and eternal authority of unchanging God. A false doctrine is not of God. It has no background of Godhead. It rests on the authority of Simon Peter or Simon Magus ; of him that sets it forth. It is his private, personal property. When the Devil speaks a lie, he speaketh of his own ; but when a Son of God speaks the truth, he speaks not his own word but the Father's. Must a man indorse God's word to make it current ? Again, if the truth of any doctrines rest on the personal authority of Jesus, it was not a duty to observe them be- fore he spoke ; for he, being the cause, or indispensable 1 Eook III. ch. ii, 174 TRUTH STANDS THOUGH GOSPELS FALL. occasion of the duty, to make the effect precede the cause is an absurdity too great for modern divines. Besides, if it depends on Jesus, it is not eternally true ; a religious doctrine that was not true and binding yesterday, may become a lie again by to-morrow ; if not eternally true, it is no truth at all. Absolute truth is the same always and everywhere. Personal authority adds nothing to a mathe- matical demonstration ; can it more to a moral intuition ? Can authority alter the relation of things ? A voice speak- ing from Heaven, and working more wonders than ^Esop and the Saints, or Moses and the Sibyl, relate, cannot make it our duty to hate God, or Man ; no such voice can add any new obligation to the law God wrote in us. When it is said the doctrines of Religion, like the truth of Science, rest on their own authority, or that of un- changing God, they are then seen to stand on the highest and safest ground that is possible the ground of absolute truth. Then if all the Evangelists and Apostles were liars ; if Jesus were mistaken in a thousand things ; if he were a hypocrite ; yes, if he never lived, but the New Testa- ment were a sheer forgery from end to end, these doctrines are just the same, absolute truth. But, on the other hand, if these depend on the infallible authority of Jesus, then if he were mistaken in any one point his authority is gone in all ; if the Evangelists were mistaken in any one point, we can never be certain we have the words of Jesus in a particular case, and then where is " historical Christianity ? " Now it is a most notorious fact, that the Apostles and Evangelists were greatly mistaken in some points. It is easy to show, if we have the exact words of Jesus, that he also was mistaken in some points of the greatest magni- tude in the character of God, the existence of the Devil, the eternal damnation of men, in the interpretation of the Old Testament, in the doctrine of demons, in the cele<- brated prediction of his second coming and the end of the world, within a few years. If Religion or Christianity rest on his authority, and that alone, it falls when the foundation falls, and that stands at the mercy of a school- boy. If he is not faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall commit to him the true riches ? THE BASIS OF MIRACLES. 175 II. Of the Authority derived from the alleged Miracles of Jesus. Of late years it has been unpopular with theological writers to rest the authority of Christianity on its truth, and not its truth on its authority. It must be confessed there is some inconvenience in the case, for if this method of trusting Truth alone and not Authority be followed, by and by some things which have much Authority and no Truth to support them, may come to the ground. The same thing took place in the middle ages, when Abelard looked into Theology, explaining and defending some of the doctrines of the Church by Reason. The Church said, If you commend the Reasonable as such, you must con- demn the Not-Reasonable, and then where are we ? A significant question truly. So the Church " cried out upon him " as a heretic, because he trusted Reason more than a blind belief in the traditions of men, which the Church has long had the impudence to call "Faith in God." It is often said, in our times, that Christianity rests on miracles ; that the authority of the miracle-worker authenticates his doctrine ; if a teacher can raise the dead, he must have a commission from God to teach true doctrine ; his word is the standard of truth. Here the fact and the value of miracles are both assumed outright. Now if it could be shown that Christianity rested on Miracles, or had more or less connection with them, it yefc proves nothing peculiar in the case, for other forms of Religions, fetichistic, polytheistic, and monotheistic, ap- peal to the same authority. If a nation is rude and super- stitious, the claim to miracles is the more common ; their authority the greater. 1 To take the popular notion, the 1 See a curious story respecting an Eastern Calif and his decision between the conflicting claims of the Christians and Mahometans, in Marco Polo, ed. Marsden, Book I. ch. viii. p. 6769. See also Book II. ch. ii. p. 275, et seq. ; Book III. ch. xx. 4, p. 648, et scq. See the numerous miracles collected by Valerius Maximus in his treatise, De Prodigiis, Opp. ed. Hase, Vol. I. Lib. i. ch. vi. ; De Somniis, ch. vii. ; De Miraculis, ch. viii. : Julius Obsequens, Prodigiorum, Liber impcrfectus: Jo. Laurent! Lydi, De Ostentis, Fragmenta, passim, ad calc. Opp. Val. Max. See the Incarnation and Ascension of Budha, in Upham, The Mahavansi, the Raja Ratnacari, and the Rajavali, Lond. 1833, Vol. I. p. 1, et seq. ; for miracles and marvels, passim. See Spencer's Discourse concerning Prodigies, Lond. 1665. But see Trenck, Notes on the Miracles, &c., N. Y. 1850, p. 25, et seq. ? p. 75, ct scq. 176 MIRACLES IN ALL RELIGIONS. Jewish Religion began in miracles, was continued, and will end in miracles. The Mahometan tells us the Koran is a miracle ; its author had miraculous inspiration, visions, and revelations. The writings of the Greeks, the Romans, the Scandinavians and the Hindoos, the Chinese and Persians, are full of miracles. In Fetichism all is miracle, and its authority, therefore, the best in the world. The Catholic Church and the Latter-day- Saints still claim the power of working them, and, therefore, of authenticating whatever they will, if a miracle have the alleged virtue. Now in resting Christianity on this basis we must do one of two things : either, first, we must admit that Chris- tianity rests on the same foundation with the lowest Fetichism, but has less divine authority than that, for if miracles constitute the authority, then that is the best form of Religion which counts the most miracles; or, secondly, we must deny the reality of all miracles except the Christian, in order to give exclusive sway to Chris- tianity. But the devotees of each other form will retort the denial, and claim exclusive credence for their favourite wonders. The serious inquirer will ask, If such be the Evidence, what is Truth, and how shall I get at it ? And if he does not stop for a time in scepticism, at best in in- difference, why he is a very rare man. In this state of the case theologians have felt bound, in logic, either to prove the superiority of Christian miracles, or to deny all other miracles. The first method is not possible, the Hindoo Priest surpasses the Christian in the number and magni- tude and antiquity of his miracles. The second, therefore, is the only method left. Accordingly, most ingenious at- tempts have been made to devise some test which will spare the Christian and condemn all other miracles. The Protestant saves only those mentioned in the Bible ; the Catholic, more consistently, thinks the faculty immanent in the Church, and claims miracles down to the present day. But all these attempts to establish a suitable crite- rion have been fruitless, and even worse, often exposing more than the folly of their authors. 1 However, they who 1 See Douglas's Criterion, or Miracles Examined, Lond. 1754, and Leslie's Short Method with the Deists. See an ingenious illustration of the folly of one of Leslie's canons in Palfrey, Academical Lectures, &c. Vol. II. p. 150, note 11. See Fehmelius De Criteriis Errorum circa Keligionem communibus, Lips. 1713, 1 Vol. 4to. DEFINITION OF A MIRACLE. 177 argue from tlie miracles alone, assume two things ; first, that miracles prove the divinity of a doctrine ; secondly, that they were wrought in connection with the Christian doctrine. If one ask proof of these significant premises, it is not easy to come by. This subject of miracles demands a careful attention. Here are two questions to be asked. 'First, Are miracles possible ? Second, Did they actually occur in the case of Christianity ? I. Are Miracles possible ? The answer depends on the definition of the term. The point we are to reason from is the idea of God, who must be the cause of the miracle. Now a miracle is one of three things : 1. It is a transgression of all law which God has made; or, 2. A transgression of all known laws, but obedience to a law which we may yet discover ; or, 3. A transgression of all law known or knowable by man, but yet in conformity with some law out of our reach. 1. To take the first definition. A miracle is not pos- sible, as it involves a contradiction. The infinite God must have made the most perfect laws possible in the nature of things ; it is absurd and self-contradictory to suppose the reverse. But if his laws are perfect and the nature of things unchangeable, why should he alter these laws ? The change can only be for the worse. To suppose he does this is to accuse God of caprice. If he be the ulti- mate cause of the phenomena and laws of the universe, to suppose in a given case he changes these phenomena and laws, is either to make God fickle and therefore not worthy to be relied on ; or else inferior to Nature, of which he is yet the cause. 2. To take the second definition. It is no miracle at all, but simply an act, which at first we cannot understand and refer to the process of its causation. The most com- mon events, such as growth, vitality, sensation, affection, thought, are miracles. Besides, the miracle is of a most fluctuating character. The miracle-worker of to-day is a matter-of-fact juggler to-morrow. The explosion of gun- 12 178 POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES. powder, the production of magnified images of any object, the phenomena of mineral and animal magnetism, are miracles in one age, but common things in the next. Such wonders prove only the skill of the performer. Science each year adds new wonders to our store. The master of a locomotive steam-engine would have been thought greater than Jupiter Tonaiis or the Elohim thirty centuries ago. 3. To take the third hypothesis. There is 110 ante- cedent objection, nor metaphysical impossibility in tho case. Finite Man not only does not, but cannot under- stand all the modes of God's action; all the laws of His Being. There may be higher beings, to whom God re- veals himself in modes that we can never know, for wo cannot tell the secrets of God, nor determine a priori tho modes of his manifestation. In this sense a miracle is possible. The world is a perpetual miracle of this sort. Nature is the Art of God ; can we fully comprehend it ? Life, Being, Creation, Duration, do we understand these actual things ? How then can we say to the Infinite, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; there are no more ways wherein thy Being acts? 1 Man is not tho measure of God. Let us use the word in this latter sense. II. Did Miracles occur in the case of Jesus ? This question is purely historical ; to be answered, liko all other historical questions, by competent testimony. Have we testimony adequate to prove the fact ? 1 See Babbage, Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, Pliila. 1841, p. vii. xxvi. and Sir John Herschel's Letter to Mr Lyell therein, p. 212 ; Vestiges of Nat. Hist, of Creation, p. 145, et seq. Pascal has some remarkable speculations on Miracles; Pcnsees, P. II. Art. 16, ed. Paris, 1839, p. 323, et seq. He defines a miracle as an effect which exceeds the natural force of the means employed to bring it about. The non-miracle is an effect which does not exceed the force, p. 342. He adds, they who effect cures by the invocation of the Devil, work no miracle, for that docs not exceed the Devil's natural power ! A fortiori, it is impossible for God to work a miracle. Leibnitz has some strange remarks on this subject scattered about in his disorderly writings. See what he says in reply to M. Bayle, Theodicee, Pt, III. 248-9. See too p. 776, ed. Erdmann. See the acute remarks of Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologia?, Pt. I. qu. 101, et seq. See Thcol. Quartal Schrift (Tubig.) for 1845, p. 265, et seq.;C. F. Ammon, Nova Opuscula theologica, Giitt. 1803, p. 157, et seq. See Gazzaniga, Prac- Icctions theologies, &c., Yenet. 1803, 9 vols. 4to., Vol. I. Diss. ii. c. 7, p. 71, et seq. OBJECTIONS TO THE MIEACLES. 179 Antecedent to all experience one empirical thing is pro- bable as another. To the first man, with no experience, birth from one parent is no more surprising than birth from two ; to feed five men with five ship-loads of corn, or five thousand with five loaves ; the reproduction of an arm, or a finger nail; the awakening from a four days' death, or a four hours' sleep ; to change water into wine, or mineral coal into burning gas ; the descent into the sea, or the ascent into the sky ; the prediction of a future or the memory of a past event ; all are alike, one as credible as the other. But to take our past experience of the nature of things, the case wears a different aspect. Wo demand more evidence for a strange than a common thing. From the very constitution of the mind a prudent man supposes that the Laws of Nature continue ; that the same cause produces always the same effects, if the circum- stances remain the same. If it were related to us, by four strangers who had crossed the ocean in the same ves- sel, that a man, now in London, cured diseases, opened the blind eyes, restored the wasted limb, and raised men from the dead, all by a mere word ; that he himself was born miraculously, and attended by miracles all his life, who would believe the story ? We should be justified in demanding a large amount of the most unimpeachable evi- dence. This opinion is confirmed by the doubt of scien- tific men in respect of " animal magnetism " and ' ' spirit- ualism" where no law is violated, but a faculty hitherto little noticed is disclosed. Now if we look after the facts of the case, we find the evidence for the Christian miracles is very scanty in extent, and very uncertain in character. We must depend on the testimony of the epistolary and the historical books of the New Testament. It is a notorious fact that tho genuine Epistles, the earliest Christian documents, make no mention of any miracles performed by Jesus ; and when we consider the character of Paul, his strong love of the marvellous, the manner in which he dwells on tho appearance of Jesus to him after death, it seems surprising, if he believed the other miracles, that he does not allude to them. To examine the testimony of the Gospels ; two profess to contain the evidence of eye-witnesses. But we are not certain these books came in their present shape 12 * 130 OBJECTIONS TO THE MIRACLES. from John and Matthew ; it is certain they were not writ- ten till long after the events related. The Gospel ascribed to John is of small historical value if of any at all. But still more, each of them relates what the writers could not have been witness to ; so we have nothing but hearsay and conjecture. Besides, these authors shared the common prejudice of their times, and disagree one with the other. The Gospels of Mark and Luke who were not eye-witnesses in some points corroborate the testimony of John and Matthew ; in others add no- thing; in yet others they contradict each other as well as John and Matthew. But there are still other accounts the Apocryphal Gospels some of them perhaps older than the Gospel of Matthew, certainly older than John, and these make the case worse by disclosing the fondness for miracles that marked the Christians of that early period. 1 Taking all these things into consideration, and remembering that in many particulars the three first Gos- pels are but one witness, adding the current belief of the times in favour of miracles, the evidence to prove their historical reality is almost nothing, admitting we have the genuine books of the disciples ; it at least is such evidence as would not be considered of much value in a court of justice. However, the absence of testimony does not prove that miracles were not performed, for a universal negative of this character cannot be proved. 2 If one were to look carefully at the evidence in favour of the. Christian miracles, and proceed with the caution of a true inquirer, he must come to the conclusion, I think, that they cannot be admitted as facts. The Re- surrection a miracle alleged to be wrought upon Jesus, 1 Sec these Apocryphal "Worlcs refei'red to in note on p. 163. Also Jones, Method of settling the canonical Authority of the N. T., Oxford, 1797, 3 vols. ; The Apoc. N. T., Boston, 1832 ; Wake, Epistles of the Apostolic Fathers, &c., Oxford, 1840. See Mosheim's Dissertation on the causes which led to the composition of supposititious works among the early Christians, in his Diss. ad H. E. pertinentes, Alt. 1743, Vol. I. p. 221, et seq. Mr Norton, ubi sup., Vol. III. Ch. xi., treats of the subject but not with his usual learning. 2 See some just remarks in Hennel, ubi sup., Ch. VIII. ; Strauss, Leben Jesu, 115, 90103, 132139; Glaubenslehre, 17, and on the otter hand Neanider and Tholuck. See De Wette, Wesen des Glaubcns, 60 ; Fliigge, Gesch. thcol. Wiesensoh a/ten, Halle, 1796, Vol. I. p. 97, et seq. For the value early set on miraculous evidence, see the Treatise of Theophilus, (Bp of Antioch, in the 2d cent.,) address to Autolycus, Lib. I. C. 13, ct al ; Trenck, ubi sup. MIJJACLES OF ST BERNARD. 181 not by him, has more evidence, though of the same in- ferior kind, than any other, for it is attested by the Epistles, as well as the Gospels, and was one corner-stone of the Christian chnrch. But here, is the testimony sufficient to show that a man thoroughly dead as Abraham and Isaac were, came back to life ; passed through closed doors, and ascended into the sky ? I cannot speak for others but most certainly I cannot believe such monstrous facts on such evidence. 1 There is far more testimony to prove the fact of miracles, witchcraft, and diabolical possessions in times compara- tively modern, than to prove the Christian miracles. It is well known, that the most credible writers among the early Christians, Irenseus, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, Chrysostom, Jerome, Theodoret, and others, believed that the miraculous power continued in great vigour in their time. 2 But to come down still later, the case of St Bernard of Clairvaux is more to the point. Ho lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. His life has been written in part by William, Abbot of St Thierry, Ernald, Abbot of Bonnevaux, and Geoffrey, Abbot of Igny, " all eye-witnesses of the saint's actions." Another life was written by Alanus, Bishop of Auxerre, and still another by John the Hermit, not long after the death of Bernard, both his contemporaries. Besides, there are three books on his miracles, one by Philip of Clairvaux, another by the 1 But see Furncss, ubi sup. ch. VII. VIII. XIII. See the candid remarks of De "Wette, ubi sup. 61. lie admits the difficulties of the case, and only saves the general fact of the resurrection, by rejecting the authenticity of the 4th and part of the 3d Gospel (p. 315, et seq.), for he thinks the details of their accounts are inadmissible. 2 On this subject of the miraculous power in the early church, see the cele- brated treatise of Middleton, A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers in the Christian Church, &c., Lond. 1749, in his Works, Lond. 1752, Vol. I. See Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Pt. I. ch. i. 8, and Murdock's note. The testimony of Chrysostom is fluctuating. See Middleton, Vol. I. p. 105, et seq. See New- man's defence of the Cath. miracles in the dissertation prefixed to Vol. I. of the Tr. of Fleury's History of the Church ; Conrad Lycosthenes, Prodigiovum ac Ostentorum Chronicon, Basil, 1557, 1 Vol. Fol. ;. "The treatise of St Ephraim of Cherson on the miracle wrought by Clement, at the end of Cotelerius, Pat. Apost., Ant. 1698, Vol. I. p. 811, et seq. The story of Simon Magus shows the credulity of the early Church. See it in Hegesippus, Lib. III. C. ii. See too Leo, Ep. ad Constant. Imp. ; Augustinus, Ep. 86, and Const. Apost. VI. 9 ; Bernino, Istoria, de tuttel, Hercsie, Venet. 1711, 4 vols. 4to, Sec. I. Ch. i. See the curious Miracles related by Victor Vitensis and Aeneas Gazaeus, in Gibbon, Hist. ch. XXXVII. 182 MIRACLE OF ST BERNARD. monks of that place, and a third by the above-mentioned Geoffrey. He cured the deaf, the dumb, the lame, the blind, men possessed with devils, in many cases before multitudes of people : he wrought thirty- six miracles in a single day, says one of these historians ; converted men and women that, could not understand the language he spoke in. His wonders are set down by the eye-witnesses themselves, men known to us by the testimony of others. 1 I do not hesitate in saying that there is far more evidence to support the miracles of St Bernard than those mentioned in the New Testament. 2 But we are to accept such testimony with great caution. The tendency of men to believe the thing happens which they expect to happen ; the tendency of rumour to exag- gerate a real occurrence into a surprising or miraculous affair, is well known. A century and a half have not gone by since witches were tried by a special court in Massa- 1 Sec these books in Mabillou's edition of Bernard, Paris, 1721, Vol. II. p. 1071. ct seq. See Fleury, Ilistoire Ecclesiastique, Liv. LXVI. et seq., and especially LXIX. ch. xvii., ed. Nismes, 1779, Vol. X. p. 147, et seq., where is a summary of some of his most important miracles. See likewise Les Vies dcs Saints, Paris, 1701, Vol. II. p. 288326 ; Butler's Lives of the Saints, Lond. 1815, Vol. VIII. p. 227274 ; Milner's History of the Church of Christ, &c., Vol. III., Christian Examiner for March, 1841, Art. I. At the recent exhibition of " the holy Robe of Jesus " at Treves, no less than eleven miracu- lous cures were effected, so it is said. Miracula Stultis ! See Marx, History of the Holy Robe of J. C., with an account of the miraculous cures performed by the said Robe from 18th August to 6th October, 1844, Phil. 184-5. Numerous Bishops attended the exhibition, and more than 1,100,000 persons, says the book. See p. 97, et seq. See too John Ronge, the Holy Coat of Treves and the new German Catholic Church, New York, 1845. See an account of the mira- cle wrought by Vespasian, in Tacitus, Hist. Lib. IV. C. 81, Opp. ed. Paris, 1819, III. p. 490, et seq. See several similar wonders in Ammon, ubi sup. p. 165, et seq. 2 Bernino, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 204, gives a very dramatic account of a scene between St Macarius and a Heretic, in which, to prove the truth of the catho- lic doctrine, the saint raises from the dead a monk who had been buried about a month ! For other confirmatory miracles, see Bernino, passim. It is well known that Petrarch, in the 14th century, believed the miracles of Pope Urban his own contemporary; and de Sade his biographer, writing in 1767, will have us believe that the Pope actually performed 80 miracles, besides raising two girls from the dead in the city of Avignon. Junker, in his Ehrengedachtnitz Luthcri, (p. 276289, ed. 1707,) ;says that a portrait of Luther at Ober- Rossla in Weimar, at three different times, was covered with a profuse sweat while the preacher was speaking of the sad state of the schools and churches. See Reformation Almanach fur 1817, p. xxvi. See the story of Spiridion, and his numerous miracles, in Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. Lib. I, C. xi., ed. Par. 1544, p. 14, et seq. See Wright's Essay on the Lit. and Superstitious of Eng- land in the Middle Ages, Lond. 1846, Vol. II. Essay x. xii. WITCHCRAFT AND POSSESSIONS. 183 chusetts; convicted by a jury of twelve good men and true ; preached against by the clergy, and executed by the common hangman. Any one who looks carefully and without prejudice into the matter sees, I think, more evi- dence for the reality of those " wonders of the invisible world" than for the Christian miracles. Here is the testi- mony of scholars, clergymen, witnesses examined under oath, jurymen, and judges ; the confession of honest men, of persons whose character is well known at the present day, to prove the reality of witchcraft and the actual occurrence of miraculous facts ; of the interference of powers more than human in the affairs of the world.}, The appearance of spectres and ghosts, of the Devil as " a little black man;" the power of witches to ride through the air, overturn a ship, raise storms, and torture men at a dis- tance, is attested by a cloud of witnesses, perfectly over- shadowing to a man of easy faith. 2 In the celebrated case 1 See, who will, Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World. Boston, 1693 ; Increase Mather's Cases of Conscience, &c., and the learned authors in Diabology therein cited. See also Halo's Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, &c., Boston, 1702 ; Calef, More Wonders from the Invisible World, London, 1700; Uphara's Lectures on Witchcraft, &c. ; Stone's His- tory of Beverley, Boston, 1843, p. 213, et seq. ; Mather's Magnalia, passim ; Chandler's Criminal Trials, p. 65, et seq. ; Bancroft, ubi sup. ch. XIX. See many curious particulars in Hutchinson's Essay concerning Witchcraft, &c., second edition, London, 1720. See Remigius, Demonolatrise, Libri III., Col. 1576, 1 vol. 12mo. I have not seen the book, but it is said to contain matter derived from the cases of about 900 persons executed for witchcraft in 15 years at Lorraine. See a contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery in 1324 by the Bp of Ossory, Lond. 1843, 1 vol. 4 to, Introduction. See Account of the Trial, Confession, &c., of Six Witches at Maidstone, &c., 1652, and the Trial of Three Witches, &c., 1645, Lond. 1837. In the 13th century the Cath. Church declared a dis- belief of witchcraft to be Heresy. See, who will, the Bulls of the Popes rela- tive to this from Greg. IX. down to the famous Bull of Innoc. VIII. (1484), Summis desiderantes. The celebrated work of Sprenger and Kramer, Malleus Malleficarum (1484 at Saesse), may be consulted by the curious. In 1487 this infamous work was approved by the theological faculty at Cologne, and acquired a great reputation in the church. It is remarkable that in 1650, when two J'e- suits in Germany wrote against trials for witchcraft, the most famous Protestant divines as Pott at Jena and Carpzov at Leipsic defended the prosecution, and wished men punished for disbelieving in witchcraft. See Gazzani^a, ubi sup. Vol. IV. Diss. I. C. 20, p. 44, et seq. Henry More has made a pretty collection of cases out of authors now for- gotten, in Antidote against Atheism, Book III. ch. i. xiv., Appendix, ch. xii. xiii. ; Immortalitas Ammae, Lib. II. ch. xv. xvii. ; .Lib. III. ch. iv. See his Enchiridion Metaphysicum, Pars I ch. xxvi. W. G. Solden has written a Gcschichte der Hexen-Processe, &c., Stuttgart, 1843. See too Hauber's Zauberbibliothek, 3 vols. 8vo; Horst, Zauberbibliothek, 6 vols. 8vo ; and Grasse, Bibliotheca Magica, &c., Leip. 1843. 184 POWER OF FANATICISM. of Richard Dugdale, the " Surey Demoniack," or " Surey Impostor/-' l which occurred in the latter part of the seventeenth century, in England, and was a most notorious affair, we have the testimony of nine dissenting clergy- men, to prove his diabolical miracles, all of them familiar with the " Demoniack ; " and also the depositions of many " credible persons," sworn to before two magistrates, to confirm the wonder. Yet it turned out at last that there was no miracle in the case. 2 It it needless to mention the " miracles " wrought at the tomb of the Abbe de Paris, during the last century, 3 or, in our own time, those of father Matthews in Ireland, and the Mormonites in New England. A miracle is never looked for but it comes. 4 1 "The Surey Dcmoniack, or an Account of Satan's Strange and Dreadful Actings in and about the Body of .Richard Dugdale," &c. &c., London, 1697. 2 See Taylor's "The Devil turned Casuist," &c., London, 1697 ; "Lancashire Lcvite Rebuked," 1698; and " The Surey Impostor." The latter I copy from citations in "A Vindication of the Surey Dcmoniaclc," &c., London, 1698. Such as wish to see melancholy specimens of human folly may consult also Bar- rows, "The Lord's Arm stretched out," &c. &c., London, 1664; "The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson," &c. &c., London, 1698 ; " A Relation of the Diabolical Practices of above twenty Witches of Rcnfreu, &c., contained in their Tryals, &c., and for which several of them have been executed the present Year," 1697, London, 1697 ; " Sadducismus Debellatus, Narrative of the Sorceries and Witchcrafts of the Devil upon Mrs Christian Shaw, &c., of Ren- freu," &c., London, 1698. See Glanvill, a Blow at Modern Sadducism, in some considerations about Witchcraft, &c. &c., 4th ed., London, 1668 ; Essays, &c., London, 1676, Essay VI. Against Modern Sadducism in the matter "of Witches and Apparitions ; Sadducismus triumphatus, or Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions, &c. &c., 4th* ed. London, 1726. Yet the Author was a highly intelligent man, who appreciated Bacon and applauded Descartes, and contended for free inquiry and against Superstition and Fanaticism, with wit and argument (see Essay VII.). Howell estimates that thirty thousand suffered death for Witchcraft, in England, during one hundred and fifty years. State Trials, Vol. II. p. 1051, as cited by Chandler, ubi sup. p. 69. 3 See the celebrated work of M. de Montgeron, La Verite des Miracles de M. de Paris, dumontree, &c., Utrecht, 1737, 1 vol. 4to. The Author was a Conseiller an Parlcmcnt, and himself converted by these miracles. See too the Avert issement of this ed., and the " consequens qu'on doit tirer des Miracles, &c.," with the remarkable "Pieces justificatives," at the end of the volume. See Mosheim Dissert, on this subject, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 309, et seq. It is instructive to find Irenreus (II. 57) declaring that the true disciples of Christ could work miracles in his time, and that the Dead were raised and re- mained alive some years. Eusebius, H. E. IV. 3, cites Quadratus, who lived half a century before Irenaeus, to prove that men miraculously raised from the dead lived a considerable time, ed. Heinichen, Vol. I. p. 292. See the curious papers on Folk-Lore, in the Athenaeum (London) for 1846. 4 Well says Livy, XXIV, 10, Qua? [Miracula] quo magis credebant simplices ct religiosi homines, eo plura nunciabantur ! Sec the remarkable literature MIRACLES OF NO USE. 185 No man can say there was not something at the bottom of the Christian " miracles/' and of witchcrafts and posses- sions ; 1 doubt not something not yet fully understood ; but to suppose,, on such evidence, that God departed from the usual law of the world, in these cases, is not very rational, to say the least ; to make such a belief essential to Christi- anity is without warrant in the words of Christ. Bat now admitting in argument that Jesus wrought all the miracles alleged ; that his birth and resurrection were both miraculous ; that he was the only person en- dowed with such miraculous power it does not thence follow that he would teach true doctrine. Must a revealer of transient miracles to the sense necessarily be a revealer of eternal truth to the soul ? It follows no more than tho reverse. But admit it in argument. Then he must never be mistaken in the smallest particular. But this is con- trary to fact ; for if we may trust the record, he taught that he should appear again after his alleged ascension, and the world would end in that age. Practically speaking, a miracle is a most dubious thing ; in this case its proof the most uncertain. But on the sup- position that our conviction of the truth of Keligion must rest wholly or mainly on the fact, that Jesus wrought the alleged miracles, then is Religion itself a most uncertain thing, and we in this age can never be sure thereof, though our soul testify to its truth, as the old Jews, who rejected him, and yet had their senses to testify to tho miracles. If the proof of Keligion be the sensations of the evangelists, then we can be no more certain of its truth than of the fact that Jesus had no human father ! But this question of miracles, whether true or false, is of no religious significance. When Mr Locke said tho doctrine proved the miracles, not the miracles the doc- trine, he silently admitted their worthlessness. They can be useful only to such as deny our internal power of dis- cerning truth. 1 Now the doctrine of Religion is eternally connected with what is called " Spiritualism," already so copious, especially tho works of Edmunds, Rogers, Ballon, Bell, and Hare. The writings of A. J. Davis seem to be one of the most remarkahle literary phenomena in the world, but it would be absurd to call them miraculous. 1 " Let us see how far inspiration can enforce on the mind any opinion con- cerning God or his worship, when accompanied with a power to do a miracle, and here too, I say, the last determination must be that of reason. 1. Because 18G TKUTH COMES FROM GOD. true. It requires only to be understood to be accepted. It is a matter of direct and positive knowledge, dependent on no outside authority, while the Christian miracles are, at best, but a matter of testimony, and therefore of secondary and indirect knowledge. The thing to be proved is notoriously true; the alleged means of proof notoriously uncertain. Is it not better, then, to proceed to Religion at once ? for when this is admitted to be as true as the demonstrations and axioms of science, as much a matter of certainty as the consciousness of our existence, then miracles are of no value. They may be interesting to the historian, the antiquary, or physiologist, not to us as religious men. They now hang as a mill- stone about the neck of many a pious man, who can believe in Eeligion, but not in the transformation of water to wine, or the re- surrection of a body. reason must be the judge what is a miracle, and u'hat is not, which not know- ing how far the power of natural causes do extend themselves, and what strange effects they may produce is very hard to determine. 2. It will always be as great a miracle that God should alter the course of natural things, as overturn the principles of knowledge and understanding in a man, hy setting up anything to be received hy him as a truth which his reason cannot assent to, as the miracle itself ; and so at best it will be but one miracle against another, and the greater still on reason's side ; it being harder to believe God should alter and put out of its ordinary course some phenomenon of the great world for once, and make things act contrary to their ordinary rule, purposely, that the mind of man might do so always afterwards, than that this is some fallacy or natural effect, of which he knows not the cause, let it look never so strange. ... I do not hereby deny in the least, that God can do, or hath done, miracles for the confirmation of truth ; but I only say that we cannot think he should do them to enforce doc- trines or notions of himself or any worship of him not conformable to reason, or that we can receive such for truth for the miracle's sake ; and even in those books which have the greatest proof of revelation from God, and the attestation of miracles to confirm their being so, the miracles are to be judged by the doctrine, and not the doctrine by the miracle" King's Life of Locke, Vol. I. p. 231, et seq. See the remarks of Calvin, Institutes, Dedication to Francis 1., Allen's Tr., Lond. 1838, Vol. I. p. xix. Gerhard, in his Common Places, says, " Miracles prove nothing, unless they have a doctrinal Truth connected with them." 187 CHAPTER V. THE ESSENTIAL EXCELLENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. LET us call the religious teachings of Jesus Christianity ; it agrees generically with all other forms in this, that it is a Religion. Its peculiarity is not in its doctrine of one Infinite God, of the Immortality of Man, nor of future Retribution. It is not in particular rules of Morality, for precepts as true and beautiful may be found in Heathen writers, who give us the same view of Man's nature, duty, and destination. The great doctrines of Christianity were known long before Jesus, for God did not leave man four thousand years unable to find out his plainest duty. There is no precept of Jesus, no real duty commanded, no promise offered, no sanction held out, which cannot be paralleled by similar precepts in writers before him. The pure in heart saw God before as well as after him. Every imper- fect form of Religion was, more or less, an anticipation of Christianity. So far as a man has real Religion, so far he has what is true in Christianity. 1 By its light Zoroaster, Confucius, Pythagoras, Socrates, with many millions of holy men, walked in the early times of the world. By this they were cheered when their souls were bowed down, and they knew not which way to turn. They and their kin- dred, like Moses, were schoolmasters to prepare the world for Christianity; shadows of good things to come; the day spring from on high ; the Bethlehem star announcing 1 See Tindal, Christianity as Old as the Creation, &c. See Laciantius, Hist. Div. Lib. VII. C. 7, Nos. 4 and 7, who admits that all the doctrines of Chris- tianity were taught before, but not collected into one mass. See Clem. Alex. 'Strom. I. 13, p. 349. Dr Reginald Peacock, writing in the 15th century against the Lollards, says that Christianity added nothing at all (except the Sa- craments} to the moral law, for all of that was primarily established, not on the Scriptures but on natural reason ; and adds that natural Law must be obeyed* even if Christ and the apostles had taught what was opposed thereto. Wharton in Appendix to Cave, Ilistoria litcraria, &c., Lond. 1698, Vol. I. p. 13G. 188 EXCELLENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. the Perfect Religion which is to follow. Modern Christians love to deny that there are points of agreement between Christianity and its predecessors. The early apologists took just the opposite course. 1. The religious teachings of Jesus have this chief excellence, they allow men to advance indefinitely beyond him. He does not foreclose human consciousness against the income of new truth, nor make any one fact of human history a bar to the development of human nature. I do not find that he taught his doctrines either as a Finality, or as one of many steps in the progressive Development of mankind : he gives no opinion. The author of the fourth Gospel makes him tell his disciples that he had other things to make known; that the Comforter would teach them all things, and they should do greater works than he. Paul, professing to receive new revelation from the immortal Jesus, revolutionizes the doctrines of the his- torical person; and notwithstanding the profession of " following Jesus " as the sole authority, the Christian Church has built up a " Scheme of Divinity " and a " Plan of Salvation " as much at variance with the recorded words of Jesus in the Synoptics, as repugnant to common sense. No sect has practically taken the words of Jesus for a finality, though each counts its own doctrine as the last word of God. Judaism and Mahometanism each sets out from the alleged words of one man, which are made the only mea- sure of Truth for the whole human race. There can be no progress. The devotee of Judaism or Mahometanism must logically believe his form of Religion perpetual : so if a man teach what is hostile to it, he must be put to death, though his doctrine be true. Whatever is consistent with Reason, Conscience, and the Religious Faculty, is consistent with the Christianity of Jesus, all else is hostile ; whoever obeys these three oracles is essentially a Christian, though he lived ten thou- sand years before Jesus, or living now, does not own his name. Let men improve in Reason, Conscience, Heart, and Soul, in what most becomes a man they outgrow each form of worship ; they pass by all that rests on historical things, signs, wonders, miracles, all that does not rest on CHRISTIANITY A METHOD OF RELIGION. 189 the eternal God, ever acting in Man ; yet they are not the further from this Christianity,, but all the nearer by the change. These things are left behind, as the traveller leaves the mire and stones of the road he travels, and shakes off the dust of his garments as he approaches some queenly city,, throned amid the hills, and looks back with sorrow on the crooked way he has traversed, where others still drag their slow and lingering length along. Men must come to such Christianity when they come to real manly excellence. This proposes no partial end, but an ab- solute Object the perfection of Man, or oneness with God. Therefore it leaves men perfect freedom ; the liberty that comes of obedience to the Law of the Spirit of Life. Other forms of worship, ancient and modern, confine men. in a dungeon ; make them think the same thought, and speak the same word, and worship in the same way ; Jesus would leave them the range of the world, scope and verge enough. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty ; the liberty of perfect obedience ; the largest liberty of the sons of God. Eeason and Love are hostile to every limited form of religion, which says, Believe, Believe ; they welcome that Religion of Jesus which says, Be perfect as God. 2. A second excellence is this : It is not a System of theological or moral Doctrines, but a Method of Religion and Life. It lays down no positive creed to be believed in ; commands no ceremonial action to be done ; it would make the man perfectly obedient to God, leaving his thoughts and actions for Reason and Conscience to govern. It widens the sphere of thought and life : it reaffirms some of the great religious truths implied in Man's nature ; shows their practical application and its result. A reli- gious system, with its forms, and its ritual, lops off the sacred peculiarities of Individual Character ; chains Reason and fetters the Will; seeks to unite men in arbitrary creeds and forms where the union can be but superficial and worthless and it lays stress on externals. This Christianity insists on Tightness before God ; ties no man down to worship in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem ; on the first day of the week, or the last day ; in the church or the fields ; socially or in private ; with a creed, ritual, priest, symbol, spoken prayer, or without these. It 190 CHRISTIANITY EMINENTLY PRACTICAL. breaks every yoke, seen or invisible; bids men worship in love. It does not ask man to call himself a Christian, or his Eeligion Christianity. It bids him be perfect; never says to Reason, Thns far and no further ; forbids no freedom of inquiry, nor wide reach of thought ; fears no- thing from the Truth, or for it. It never encourages that cowardice of soul which dares not think, nor look facts in. the face, but sneaks behind altars, texts, traditions, be- cause they are of the fathers ; that cowardice which counts a mistake of the apostles better than truth in you and me, and which reads both Piety and Common Sense out of its church because they will not bow the knee nor say the creed. Christianity asks no man to believe the Old Testament, or the New Testament, the divine infallibility of Moses or Jesus, but to prove all things ; hold fast what is good ; do the will of the Father ; love Man and God. The method of such Christianity is a very plain one. Obedience, not to that old teacher, or this new one; but to God, who filleth all in all, to His Law written on tho tablets of the heart. It exhorts men to a divine life, not as something foreign but as something native and wel- come to Man. It is the life of many Systems of Religion, Theology, and practical Morality, as the ocean has many waves and bubbles ; but these are not Christianity more than a wreath of foam is the Atlantic. 8. It differs from others in its eminently practical character. It counts a manly life better than saying " Lord, Lord ; " puts mercy before sacrifice, and pro- nounces a gift to man better than a gift to God. It dwells much on the brotherhood of men ; annihilates na- tional and family distinctions ; all are sons of God, and brothers ; Man is to love his brother as himself, and bless him, and thus serve God. It values Man above all things. Is he poor, weak, ignorant, sinful, it does not scorn him, but labours all the more to relieve the fallen. It sees the " archangel ruined " in the sickly servant of Sin. It looks on the immortal nature of Man, and all little distinctions vanish. It bids each man labour for his brother, and never give over till Ignorance, Want, and Sin are banished from the earth ; to count a brother's sufferings, sorrows, wrongs, as our sufferings, sorrows, and wrongs, and redress them. It says, Carry the Truth to all. Before Jesus, the Greek, NOTHING BETWEEN MAN AND GOD. 191 the Roman, and the Jew, went to other lands to learn their arts, customs, and laws, study their religion. J esus sent his disciples to teach and serve ; only Budha and his followers had done it before. This Christianity allows no man to sever himself from the race, making this world an Inn for him to take his ease. It does nothing for God's sake, each good act for its own sake ; sends the devotee from his prayers to make peace with his brother ; does not rob a man's father to enrich God ; nor fancy He needs anything, sacrifice, creeds, fasts, or prayers. It makes worship consist in being good, and doing good; faith within and works without ; the test of greatness the amount of good done. Thus it is not a Religion of temples, days, ceremonies, but of the street, the fire-side, the field-side. Its temple is all space ; its worship in spirit and truth; its ceremony a good life, blameless and beautiful ; its priest the Spirit of God in the soul ; its altar a heart undefiled. It places duty above cant. It promises, as the result of obedience oneness with God, and inspiration from Him. It offers no substitute for this, for nothing can do the work of Goodness and Piety but Goodness and Piety. It offers no magic to wipe sin out of the soul, and insure the rewards of Religion without sharing its fatigues; knows nothing of vicarious goodness. Its Heaven is doing God's will now and for ever ; thus it makes 110 antithesis between this and the next life. It puts no- thing between men and God; makes Jesus our friend, not master; a teacher who blesses, not a tyrant who com- mands us ; a brother who pleads with us, not an Attorney who pleads with God, still less a sacrifice for sins he never committed, and therefore could not expiate. These are not the peculiarities oftenest insisted on, and taught as Christianity ; it is not the mystery, the miracul- ous birth, the incarnation, the God-man, the miracles, tho fulfilment of prophecy, the transfiguration, the atone- ment, the resurrection, the angels, the ascension, the " five points ; " other religions have enough such things, Jesus had but little. Notwithstanding the anticipation of the doctrines of Je- sus centuries before him, Christianity was a new thing ; new in its Spirit, proved new by the Life it wakened in 192 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF JESUS. the world. Alas, such, is not the Christianity of the Churches at this day, nor at any day since the crucifixion ; but is it not the Christianity of Christ, the one only Reli- gion, everlasting, ever blest ? l CHAPTER VI. THE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. REVERENCE and Tradition have woven about Jesus such a shining veil, that with the imperfect and doubtful mate- rials in our hands, it is not easy to determine in detail and with minuteness the character that moved and lived among his fellow-men, and commenced what may be called the Christian movement. The difficulty is twofold : to avoid traditional prejudice, and to get at the facts. Per- haps it is impossible to separate the pure fact from the legendary and mythological drapery that surrounds it. Besides, the Gospels pretend to cover but a few months of his active life. Still some conclusion may be reached. From Christianity we have separated the life and character of Jesus, that we might try the doctrine by Absolute Reli- gion ; it now remains to examine the life of the man by the standard himself has given. I. The Negative Side, or the Limitations of Jesus. It is apparent that Jesus shared the erroneous notions of the times respecting devils, possessions, and demonol- ogy in general ; respecting the character of God, and the eternal punishment he prepares for the Devil and his angels, and for a large part of mankind. If we may credit 1 See the Critical and Miscellaneous "Writings of Theodore Parker, Boston, 1843, Art. I. and X. ; Sermons of Theism, Serin. III. VI. Also, Relation be- tween the Ecclesiastical Institutions and the Religious Consciousness of the American People j and Function of a Teacher of Religion. IMPERFECTIONS OP JESUS. 193 the most trustworthy of the Gospels,, he was profoundly in error on these important points, whereon absurd doctrines have still a most pernicious influence in Christendom. But it would be too much to expect a man (( about thirty years of age" in Palestine, in the first century, to have outgrown what is still the doctrine of learned ministers all over the Christian world. He was mistaken in his interpretation of the Old Testa- ment, if we may take the word of the Gospels. But if he supposed that the 'writers of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophecies, spoke of him, if he applied their poetic figures to himself, it is yet but a trifling mistake, affecting a man's head, not his heart. It is no more neces- sary for Jesus than for Luther to understand all ancient literature, and be familiar with criticism and antiquities ; though with men who think Religion rests on his infalli- bility, it must be indeed a very hard case for their belief in Christianity. Sometimes he is said to be an enthusiast, 1 who hoped to found a visible kingdom in Judea, by miraculous aid as the prophets had distinctly foretold their " Messiah " should do, that he should be a King on earth, and his dis- ciples also, not forgetting Judas, should sit on twelve thrones and judge the restored tribes ; that he should re- turn in the clouds. Certainly a strong case, very strong, may be made out from the Synoptics to favour this charge. But what then ? Even if the fact be admitted, as I think it must be, it does not militate with his morality and reli- gion. How many a saint has been mistaken in such mat- ters ! His honesty, zeal, self-sacrifice, heavenly purity still shine out in the whole course of his life. 2 Another charge, sometimes brought against him, and the only one at all affecting his moral and religious cha- racter, is this; that he denounces his opponents in no measured terms ; calls the Pharisees " hypocrites " and ' ' children of the devil." We cannot tell how far the his- 1 See in Eusebius, Dem. Ev. Lib. III. C. 3, the noble passage defending him from the charge, often brought of old time of seducing the people. 2 On this point see, who will, the charges against Jesus in the Wolfenbiittel, Fragmente; in the Writings ofWiinsch, Eahrdt, Paalzow, and Salvador. See also Hennel, ubi sup. Ch. XVI. ; and, on the other hand, Reinhard's Plan of the Founder of Christianity, Andover, 1831, and Furness, ubi sup. passim, and Ullmann, Siindlosigkeit Jesu. 13 191 THE BEAUTY AND LOVE IN HIM. torians have added to the fierceness of this invective, but the general fact must probably remain, that he did not use courteous speech. We must judge a man by his highest moment* His denunciation of sleek, hollow Pha- risees, say some, is certainly lower than the prayer, " Fa- ther, forgive them;" not consistent with the highest thought of humanity. But if such would consider the youth of the man, it were a very venial error to make the worst of it. The case called for vigorous treatment. Shall a man say, " Peace, peace," when there is no peace ? Sharp remedies are for inveterate and critical disease. It is not with honeyed words, neither then nor now, that great sins are to be exposed. It is a pusillanimous and most mean-spirited wisdom that demands a religious man to prophesy smooth things, lest Indolence be rudely start- led from his sleep, and the delicate nerves of Sin, grown hoary and voluptuous in his hypocrisy, be smartly twitched. It seems unmanly and absurd to say a man filled with di- vine ideas should have no indignation at the world's wrong. Eather let it be said, No man's indignation should be like his, so deep, so uncompromising, but so holy and full of love. Let it be indignation ; not personal spleen ; call sin sin, sinners by their right name. Yet in this general and righteous, though to some it might seem too vehement, indignation against men when he speaks of them as a class and representatives of an idea, there is no lack of charity, none of love, when he speaks with an individual. He does not speak harshly to that young man who went away sorrowful, his great posses- sions on the one hand and the Kingdom of Heaven on the other ; does not call Judas a traitor, and Simon Peter a false liar as he was ; says only to James and John ambi- tious youths They know not what they ask ; never ad- dresses scornful talk to a Pharisee, or long-robed doctor of the law, Herodians or Scribes, spite of their wide phy- lacteries, their love of uppermost seats, their devouring of widows' houses in private, their prayers and alms to be seen of men. He only states the fact, but plainly and strongly, to their very face. Even for these men his soul is full of affection. He could honour an Herodian ; pray for a Scribe ; love even a Pharisee. It was not hatred, per- sonal indignation, but love of men, which lit that burning EXCELLENCES OP JESUS. 195 zeal, and denounced such as sat in Moses' seat, boasting themselves children of Abraham, when they were children of the Devil, and did his works daily dutiful children of the father of lies. How he wailed like a child for the mother that bore him : " Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee ! 3 How he prayed like a mother for her desperate son, " Father, for- give them, for they know not what they do." Are these the words of one that could hate even the wickedest of the deceitful ? Who then can love his fellow- men ? II. The Positive Side, or the Excellences of Jesus. In estimating the character of Jesus it must be remem- bered that he died at an age when a man has not reached his fullest vigour. The great works of creative intellect ; the maturest products of Man ; all the deep and settled plans of reforming the world, come from a period, when experience gives a wider field as the basis of hope. Sc- crates was but an embryo sage till long after the age of Jesus. Poems and Philosophies that live, come at a later date. Now here we see a young man, but little more than, thirty years old, with no advantage of position ; the son and companion of rude people ; born in a town whose in- habitants were wicked to a proverb ; of a nation above all others distinguished for their superstition, for national pride, exaltation of themselves and contempt for all others ; in an age of singular corruption, when the sub- stance of religion had faded out from the mind of its anointed ministers, and sin had spread wide among a peo- ple turbulent, oppressed, and downtrodden; a man ridi- culed for his lack of knowledge, in this nation of forms, of hypocritical priests and corrupt people, falls back on sim- ple Morality, simple Keligion, unites in himself the sub- limest precepts and divinest practices, thus more than realizing the dream, of prophets and sages ; rises free from so many prejudices of his age, nation, or sect ; gives free range to the spirit of God in his breast ; sets aside the Law, sacred and time-honoured as it was, its forms, its sacrifice, its temple and its priests ; puts away the Doctors of the law, subtle, learned, irrefragable, and pours out doctrines, beautiful as the light, sublime as Heaven,, and true as God, 13* 190 EXCELLENCES OF JESUS. The Philosophers, the Poets, the Prophets, the Kabbis, he rises above them all. Yet Nazareth was no Athens, where Philosophy breathed in the circumambient air ; it had neither Porch nor Lyceum, not even a school of the Prophets. Doubtless he had his errors, his follies, faults, and sins even ; it is idle and absurd to deny it. But there was a divine manhood in the heart of this youth. Old teachers, past times, the dead letter of forms a century de- ceased, enslaved "his fellow-men, the great, the wise; what were they to him ? Let the dead bury their dead. Men had reverence for institutions so old, so deep-rooted, so venerably bearded with the moss of age. Should not he, at least, with that sweet conservatism of a pious heart, sacrifice a little to human weakness, and put his zeal, faith, piety, into the old religious form, sanctified by his early recollections, the tender prayer of his mother, and a long line of saints ? New wine must be put into new bottles, says the young man, triumphing over a sentiment, natural and beautiful in its seeming ; triumphant where strife is most perilous, victory rarest and most difficult. The Priest said, Keep the Law and reverence the Prophets. Jesus sums up the excellence of both, Love man and love God, leaving the chaff of Moses, and the husk of Ezekiel, with their " Thus-saith-the-Lord," to go to their own place, where the wind might carry them. He looked around him and saw the wicked, men who had served in the tenth legion of sin, pierced with the lances and torn with the shot ; men scarred and seamed all over with wounds dishonourably got in that service ; men squalid with this hideous disease, their moral sense blinded, their nature perverse, themselves fallen from the estate of Godliness for which they were made, and unable, so they fancied, to lift themselves up ; men who called good evil, and evil good, he bade them rise up and walk, waiting no longer for a fancied redeemer that would never come. He told them they also were men; children of God, and heirs of Heaven, would they but obey. So cor- rupt were they, there was no open vision for them : the voice of God was a forgotten sound in their bosoms. To them he said, I am the good Shepherd ; follow me. At the sight of their penitence he says, Thy sins are forgiven thee : go, and sin no more. Is not penitence itself the HIS TREATMENT OF SINNERS. 197 forgiveness of sins, the dawn of reconciliation with God ? He showed men their sin, the disease of the soul living false to its law ; told them their salvation ; bade them obey and be blessed. He saw the oppressor, with his yoke and heavy burden for Man's neck ; the iron that enters the soul ; men who were the corrupters, the bane, the ruin of the land ; base men with an honourable front ; low men, crawling, as worms, their loathsome track in high places ; deceitful hucksters of salvation, making God's house of prayer a den of thieves, fair as marble without, but all rottenness within. What wonder if Love, though the fairest of God's daughters, at sight of such baseness pours otit the burn- ing indignation of a man stung with the tyranny of the strong, ashamed at the patience of mankind ; the word of a man fearless of all but to be false when Truth and Duty bid him speak ? To call the Whelp of Sin a devil's child is that a crime ? Doubtless it is, in men stirred by passion ; not in a soul filled to the brim and overflowing with love. He looks on the nation, the children of pious Abraham ; men for whom Moses made laws, and Samuel held the sceptre, and David prayed, and prophets admonished in vain, pouring out their blood as water; men for whom psalmist and priest and seer and kings had prayed and wept in vain, well might he cry, " Oh Jerusalem, Jeru- salem." Few heard his cries. That mightiest heart that ever beat, stirred by the Spirit of God, how it wrought in his bosom ! What words of rebuke, of comfort, counsel, admonition, promise, hope, did he pour out; words that stir the soul as summer dews call up the faint and sickly grass ! What profound instruction in his proverbs and discourses ; what wisdom in his homely sayings, so rich with Jewish life ; what deep divinity of soul in his prayers, his action, sympathy, resignation ! Persecution comes ; he bears it : contempt ; it is nothing to him. Persecuted in one city, he flees into another. Scribes and Pharisees say, He speaketh against Moses ; he replies, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. They look back to the past, and say, We have Abraham to our father; he looks to the Comforter, and says, Call no man your Father on Earth. They say, He eats- bread with unwashed hands, plucks 198 MISTAKES ABOUT JESUS. corn and relieves disease on the holy Sabbath day, when even God rested from his labours ; he says, Worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They look out to their Law, its Festivals, its Levites, its Chief Priests, the Ancient and Honourable of the earth, the Temple and the Tithe ; he looks in to the Soul, Purity, Peace, Mercy, Goodness, Love, Religion. The extremes meet often in this world. Comedy and Tragedy jostle each other in every dirty lane. But here it was the Flesh and the Devil on one side, and the Holy Spirit on the other. CHAPTER VII. MISTAKES ABOUT JESUS HIS RECEPTION AND INFLUENCE. WE often err in our estimate of this man. The image comes to us, not of that lowly one ; the carpenter of Naza- reth ; the companion of the rudest men ; hard-handed and poorly clad ; not having where to lay his head ; ' t who would gladly have stayed his morning appetite on wild figs, between Bethany and Jerusalem ; " hunted by his enemies ; stoned out of a city, and fleeing for his life. We take the fancy of poets and painters ; a man clothed in purple and fine linen, obsequiously attended by polished disciples, who watched every movement of his lips, impa- tient for the oracle to speak. We conceive of a man who was never in sin, in error, or even in fear or doubt ; whose course was all marked out before him, so that he could not miss the way. But such it was not, if the writers tell truly ; nay, such it could not be. Did he say, I came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass than for one jot or tittle of the Law to fail ? Then he must have doubted, and thought often and with a throbbing heart, before he could say, I am not come to bring peace, but a sword ; to light a fire, and would God it were kindled : many times before the fulness of peace JESUS NOT NOW APPRECIATED. 199 dwelt in him, and lie could say, The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship in spirit and in truth ! We do not conceive of that sickness of soul, which must have come at the coldness of the wise men, the heartless- ness of the worldly, at the stupidity and selfishness of the disciples. We do not think how that heart, so sensitive, so great, so finely tuned, and delicately touched, must have been pained to feel there was no other heart to give an answering beat. We know not the long and bitter agony which went before the triumph-cry of faith, I am not alone, for the Father is with me ; we do not heed that faintness of soul which conies of hope deferred, of aspira- tions all unshared by men, a bitter mockery the only human reply, the oft-repeated echo to his prayer of faith. We find it difficult to keep unstained our decent robe of goodness when we herd only with the good and shun the kennel where Sin and Misery, parent and child, are hud- dled with their rags ; we do not appreciate that strong and healthy pureness of soul which dwelt daily with iniquity, sat at meat with publicans and sinners, and yet with such cleanness of life as made even Sin ashamed of its ugliness, but hopeful to amend. Rarely, almost never, do we see the vast divinity within that soul, which, new though it was in the flesh, at one step goes before the world whole thousands of years ; judges the race ; decides for us ques- tions we dare not agitate as yet, and breathes the very breath of heavenly love. The Christian world, aghast at this venerable beauty in the flesh ; transfixed with wonder as such a spirit rises in his heavenly flight, veils its face and says, It is a God ; such thoughts are not for men ; the life betrays the Deity. And is it not the Divine which the flesh enshrouds ; to speak in figures, the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person ; the clear resem- blance of the All-beautiful ; the likeness of God in which Man is made ? But alas for us, we read our lesson back- ward; make a God of our brother, who should be our Servant and Helper. So the new-fledged eaglets may see the parent bird, slow rising at first with laborious efforts, then cleaving the air with sharp and steady wing, and soaring through the clouds, with eye undazzled, to meet the sun; they may say, We can only pray to the strong 200 NOBLENESS OF JESUS. pinion. But anon, their wings shall grow, and flutter impatient for congenial skies, and their parent's example guide them on. But men are still so sunk in sloth, so blind and deaf with sensuality and sin, they will not see the greatness of Man in him, who, falling back on the in- spiration God normally imparts, asks no aid of mortal men, but stands alone, serene in awful loveliness, not fear- ing the roar of the street, the hiss of the temple, the con- tempt of his townsmen, the coldness of this disciple, the treachery of that; who still bore up, had freest com- munion when all alone ; was deserted, never forsaken ; betrayed, but still safe; crucified, but all the more tri- umphant. This was the victory of the Soul ; a Man of the highest type. Blessed be God that so much manliness has been lived out, and stands there yet, a lasting monument to mark how high the tides of divine life have risen in the human world. It bids us take courage, and be glad, for what Man has done, he may do ; yea more. " Jesus, there is no dearer name than thine, "Which Time has blazoned on his mighty scroll ; No wreaths nor garlands ever did entwine So fair a temple of so vast a soul. There every Virtue set his triumph-seal ; Wisdom conjoined with Strength and radiant Grace, In a sweet copy Heaven to reveal, And stamp Perfection on a mortal face ; Once on the earth wort thou, before men's eyes, That did not half thy beauteous brightness see , E'en as the Emmet does not read the skies, Nor our weak orbs look through immensity. Once on the earth Avert thou, a living Shrine, Wherein conjoining dwelt, the Good, the Lovely, the Divine/' Here was the greatest soul of the sons of men ; a man of genius -for Religion; one before whom the majestic mind of Grecian sages and of Hebrew seers must veil its face. Try him as we try other teachers. They deliver their word, find a few waiting for the consolation, who accept the new tidings, follow the new method, and soon go beyond their teacher, though less mighty minds than he. Such is the case with each founder of a school in Philosophy, each sect in Religion. Though humble men, we see what Socrates and Luther never saw. But eighteen centuries have past since the tide of humanity rose so high in Jesus ; what man, what sect, what church THE OPPOSITION HE MET. 201 lias mastered his noblest thought; comprehended his method, and fully applied it to life ! Let the world answer in its cry of anguish. Men have parted his raiment among them ; cast lots for his seamless coat ; but that spirit which toiled so manfully in a world of sin and death; which did and suffered, and overcame the world, is that found, possessed, understood ? Nay, is it sought for and recommended by any of our churches ? But 110 excellence of aim, no sublimity of achievement, could screen him from distress and suffering. The fate of all Saviours was his despised and rejected of men. His father's children " did not believe in him;" his townsmen " were offended at him/' and said, " Whence hath he this wisdom ? Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter ? " Those learned scribes who came all the way from Jerusa- lem to entangle him in his talk, could see only this, " He hath Beelzebub." " Art thou greater than our father Jacob ?" a conservative might ask. Some said, " He is a good man." "Ay," said others, but "He speaketh against the temple." The sharp-eyed Pharisees saw no- thing marvellous in the case. Why not ? They were looking for signs and wonders in the heavens ; not Ser- mons on the Mount, and a " Woe-unto-you, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites;" they looked for the Son of David, a king, to rule over men's bodies, not the son of a peasant- girl,, born in a stable, the companion of fishermen, the friend of publicans and sinners, who spoke to the outcast, brought in the lost sheep, and so ruled in the soul, his kingdom not of this world. They said, "He is a Gali- lean, and of course no prophet." If he called men away from the senses to the soul, they said, " He is beside him- self." " Have any of the Rulers or the Pharisees believed on him ?" asked some one who thought the answer would settle the matter. When he said, If a man live by God's law, "he shall never see death," they exclaimed, those precious shepherds of the people, "Now we know thou hast a devil, and art mad. Abraham is dead, and the prophets ! Art thou greater than our father ABRAHAM ? Who are you, sir ?" What a faithful report would Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law have made of the Sermon on the Mount; what omissions and redundances 202 MISREPRESENTATION BY THE PRIESTS. would they not have found in it; what blasphemy against Moses and the Law, and the Ark of the Covenant, and the Urim and the Thummim, and the Meat- offering and the New-moons ; what neglect to mention the phylacteries, and the shew-bread and the Levite, and the priest and the tithes, and the other great "essentials of Religion ;" what " infidelity " must these pious souls have detected ! How must they have classed him with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the mythological " Tom Paines " of old time ; with the men of Sodom and Gomorrah ! The popular praise of the young Nazarene, with his divine life and lip of fire ; the popular shout, " Hosannah to the Son of David," was no doubt " a stench in the nostrils of tharight- eous." " When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?" Find Faith ? He comes to bring it. It is only by crucified redeemers that the world is " saved." Prophets are doomed to be stoned ; apostles to be sawn asunder. The world knoweth its own and loveth them. Even so let it be ; the stoned prophet is not without his reward. The balance of God is even. Yet there were men who heard the new word. Truth never yet fell dead in the streets ; it has such affinity with the Soul of Man, the seed, however broadcast, will catch somewhere, and produce its hundred-fold. Some kept his sayings and pondered them in their heart. Others heard him gladly. Did priests and Levites stop their ears ? Publicans and harlots went into the kingdom of God be- fore them. Those blessed women, whose hearts God has sown deepest with the orient pearl of faith; they who ministered to him in his wants, washed his feet with tears of penitence, and wiped them with the hairs of their head, was it in vain he spoke to them ? Alas for the anointed priest, the child of Levi, the son of Aaron, men who shut up inspiration in old books, and believed God was asleep. They stumbled in darkness, and fell into the ditch. But doubtless there was many a tear-stained face that bright- ened like fires new stirred as Truth spoke out of Jesus' lips. His words swayed the multitude as pendant vines swing in the summer wind ; as the spirit of God moved on the waters of chaos, and said, "Let there be light," and there was light. No doubt many a rude fisherman of Gennesareth heard his words with a heart bounding and THE TRUE HEAR THE TRUTH. 203 scarce able to keep in his bosom, went home a new man, with a legion of angels in his breast, and from that day lived a life divine and beautiful. No doubt, on the other hand, Rabbi Kozeb Ben Shatan, when he heard of this eloquent Nazarene, and his Sermon on the Mount, said to his disciples in private at Jerusalem, This new doctrine will not injure us, prudent and educated men ; we know that men may worship as well out of the temple as in it ; a burnt- offering is nothing; the ritual of no value; the Sabbath like any other day; the Law -faulty in many things, offensive in some, and no more from God than other laws equally good. We know that the priesthood is a human affair, originated and managed like other human affairs. We may confess all this to ourselves, but what is the use of telling of it ? The people wish to be deceived ; let them. The Pharisee will behave wisely like a Phari- see for he sees the eternal fitness of things even if these doctrines should be proclaimed. But this people, who know not the law, what will become of them ? Simon Peter, James and John, those poor unlettered fishermen, on the lake of Galilee, to whom we gave a farthing and the priestly blessing in our summer excursion, what will become of them when told that every word of the Law did not come straight out of the mouth of Jehovah, and the ritual is nothing ! They will go over to the Flesh and the Devil, and be lost. It is true, that the Law and the Pro- phets are well summed up in one word, Love God and Man. But never let us sanction the saying ; it would ruin the seed of Abraham, keep back the kingdom of God, and destroy our usefulness." 1 Thus went it at Jerusalem. The new word was " Blas- phemy/-' the new prophet an " Infidel/' " beside himself/' had " a devil." But at Galilee, things took a shape some- what different ; one which blind guides could not foresee. The common people, not knowing the Law, counted him a prophet come up from the dead, and heard him gladly. Yes, thousands of men, and women also, with hearts in their bosoms, gathered in the field and pressed about him in the city and the desert place, forgetful of hunger and thirst, and were fed to the full with his words, so deep a child could understand them ; James and John leave all to 1 Tarker, Miscellanies, Art. VII. j and Speeches, Vol. I. Art. I, 204 P;EST EFFECT OF CHRISTIANITY. follow him who has the word of eternal life ; and when that young carpenter asks Peter, Whom sayest thou that I am ? it had been revealed to that poor unlettered fisher- man, not by flesh and blood, but by the word of the Lord, and he can say, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Pharisee went his way, and preached a doctrine that he knew was false ; the fisherman also went his way, but which to the Flesh and the Devil ? 1 We cannot tell, no man can tell the feelings which the large free doctrines of such humane Religion awakened when heard for the first time. There must have been many a Simeon waiting for the consolation ; many a Mary longing for the better part ; many a soul in cabins and cottages and stately dwellings, that caught glimpses of the same truth as God's light shone through some crevice which Piety made in that wall Prejudice and Superstition had built up betwixt Man and God ; men who scarce dared to trust that revelation "too good to be true" such was their awe of Moses, their reverence for the priest. To them the word of Jesus must have sounded divine; like the music of their home sung out in the sky, and heard in a distant land, beguiling toil of its weariness, pain of its sting, affliction of despair. There must have been men, sick of forms which had lost their meaning ; pained with the open secret of sacerdotal hypocrisy; hungering and thirsting after the truth, yet whom Error, and Prejudice, and Priestcraft had blinded so that they dared not think as men, nor look on the sunlight God shed upon the mind. But see what a work it has wrought. Men could not hold the word in their bosoms ; it would not be still. No doubt they sought those rude disciples after their teacher's death, to quiet the matter and say nothing about it ; they had nerves which quivered at the touch of steel ; wives and children whom it was hard to leave behind, to the world's uncertain sympathy ; respectable friends, it may be, who said, The old Law did very well ; let well enough alone ; the people must be deceived a little ; the world can never be much mended ! No doubt the Truth stood on one side, and Ease on the other ; it has often been so. 1 Parker, Miscellanies, Art, XI. CHRISTIANITY AGAINST THE WORLD. 205 Perhaps the disciples went to the old synagogue more sedulous than before ; paid tithes ; kept the new-moons ; were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice ; made low bows to the Levite ; sought his savoury conversation, and kept the rules Avhich a priest gave George Fox. But it would not do. There was too much truth to be hid. Even selfish Simon Peter has a cloven tongue of fire in his mouth, and he and the disciples go to their work, the new word swelling in their labouring heart. 1 Then came the strangest contest the world ever saw. On the one side was all the strength of the world the JEWS with their Records, from the hand of Moses, David, and Esaias ; " supernatural records/' that go back to the birth of time ; their Law derived from Jehovah, attested by miracles, upheld by prophets, defended by priests, children of Levi, sons of Aaron, the Law which was to last for ever; the Temple, forty and seven years in being built, its splendid ceremonies, its beautiful gate and golden porch ; there was the wealth of the powerful ; the pride, the self-interest, the prejudice of the priestly class ; the indifference of the worldly ; the hatred of the wicked ; the scorn of the learned ; the contempt of the great. On the same side were the GREEKS, with their Chaos of Eeligion, full of mingled beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice, piety and lust, still more confounded by the. deep mysteries of the priest, the cunning speculations of the sophist, the awful sublimity of the sage, by the sweet music of the philosopher, and moralist and poet, who spoke and sung of man and God in strains so sweet and touching; there were rites in public; solemn and pompous ceremonies, processions, festivals, temples, games, to captivate that wondrous people ; there were secret mysteries, to charm the curious and attract the thoughtful ; Greece, with her Arts, her Science, her Heroes and her Gods, her Muse voluptuous and sweet. There too was ROME, the Queen of nations, and Conqueror of the world, who sat on her seven-hilled throne, and cast her net eastward and south- ward and northward and westward, over tower and city and realm and empire, and drew them to herself a giant's spoil ; with a form of Religion haughty and insolent, that 1 See Sermon of the Relation of Jesus to his Age and the Ages, by Theodore Parker, in Speeches, Vol. I. Art. I. 206 THE CONTEST BETWEEN looked down on the divinities of Greece and Egypt, of ' ' Ormus and the Ind," and gave them a shelter in her capa- cious robe : Rome,, with her practised skill ; Rome, with her eloquence ; Rome, with her pride ; Rome, with her arms, hot from her conquest of a thousand kings. On the same side were all the institutions of all the world ; its fables, wealth, armies, pride, its folly, and its sin. On the other hand, were a few Jewish fishermen, un- taught, rude, and vulgar ; not free from gross errors ; de- spised at home, and not known abroad ; collected together in the name of an enthusiastic young carpenter, who died on the gallows fancying himself the Messiah and that the world would perish soon and whom they declared to be risen from the dead ; men with no ritual, no learning, no .books, no brass in their purse, no philosophy in their mind, no eloquence on their tongue. A Roman Sceptic might tell how soon these fanatics would fall out, and de- stroy themselves, after serving as a terror to the maids and a sport to the boys of a Jewish hamlet, and so that " detestable superstition " come . to an end ! A priest of Jerusalem, with his oracular gossip, could tell how long the Sanhedrim would suffer them to go at large, in the name of " that deceiver," whose body " they stole away by night ! " Alas for what man calls great ; the pride of prejudice ; the boast of power. The fishermen of Galilee have a truth the world has not, so they are stronger than the world. Ten weak men may chain down a giant ; but no combination of errors can make a Truth or put it down ; no army of the ignorant equals one man who has the Word of Life. Besides, all the old Truth in Judea, Greece, Rome, was an auxiliary to favour the new Truth. The first preachers of Christianity had false notions on many points ; they were full of Jewish fables and techni- calities; thought the world would soon end, and Jesus come back " with power and great glory." Peter would now and then lie to serve his turn; Paul was passionate, often one-sided, dogmatic, and mistaken; Barnabas and Mark could not agree. There was something of furious enthusiasm in all these come-outers. James thunders like a "Fanatic" or " Radical " at the rich man, not without cause ; they soon had divisions and persecutions among themselves, foes in the new household of Christianity. THE WORLD AND CHRISTIANITY. 207 But, spite of tlie follies or limitations of these earnest and manly Jews,, a religious fire burned in their hearts; the Word of God grew and prevailed. The new doctrine passes from its low beginnings on the Galilean lake,, step by step, through Jerusalem,, Ephesus, Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome, till it ascends the throne of the world, and kings and empires lie prostrate at its feet. 1 But alas, as it spreads it is corrupted also. Judaism, Paganism, Idolatry, mingle their feculent scum with the living stream, and trouble still more and further the water of Life. Christianity came to the world in the darkness of the nations; they had outgrown their old form, and looked for a new. They stood in the shadow of darkness, fearing to go back, not daring to look forward ; they groped after God. The Piety and Morality which Jesus taught and lived came to the Nations as a beam of light shot into chaos; a strain of sweet music, so" silvery and soft we know not we are listening, to him who wanders on amid the uncertain gloom, and charms him to the Light, to the River of God and the Tree of Life. It was the fulfilment of the prophecy of holy hearts, human Religion, human Morality, and above all things revealing the Greatness of Man. It is sometimes feared that Christianity is in danger; that its days are numbered. 2 Of the Christianity of the Churches, no doubt it is true. That child of many fathers cannot die too soon. It cumbers the ground. The errors which Jesus taught will also fall and die. But Absolute Religion, Absolute Morality, cannot perish ; never till Love, Goodness, Devotion, Faith, Reason, fail from the heart of man ; never till God melts away and vanishes, and nothing takes the place of the All-in- All. Religion can no more be separated from the race than thought and feeling ; nor Absolute Religion die out more than wisdom perish from among men. Man's words, thoughts, churches, fail and pass off like clouds from the sky that leave no track behind. But God's Word can 1 Parker, Miscellanies, Art. I. and XI. 2 See Comte and Leroux, ubi sup. passim, and de Potter, Hist. Philosophise politique et critique du Christianisrne j Bmxelles, 1838, Vol. I. Introd. 1. 208 CHRISTIANITY NOT TRANSIENT. never change. It shines perennial like the stars. Its testimony is in man's heart. None can outgrow it ; none destroy. For eighteen hundred years, this Christianity of Christ has been in the world, to warn and encourage. Violence and Cunning, allies of Sin, have opposed. Every weapon Learning could snatch from the arsenals of the past, or Science devise anew, or Pride, and Cruelty, and Wit invent, has been used by mistaken men to destroy this fabric. Not a stone has fallen from the heavenly arch of real Religion ; not a loophole been found where a shot could enter. But alas, vain doctrines, follies, absurdities, without count, have been piled against the temple of God, marring its beauteous shape. That Religion continues to live, spite of the traditions, fables, doctrines wrapped about it is proof enough of its truth. Reason never warred against love of God and Man, never with the absolute Re- ligion, but always with that of the Churches. 1 There is much destructive work still to be done, which scoffers will attempt, if wise religious men withhold the medicative hand. Can Man destroy Absolute Religion ? He cannot with all the arts and armies of the world destroy the pigment that colours an emmet's eye. He may obscure the Truth to his own mind. But it shines for ever unchanged. So boys of a summer's day throw dust above their heads, to blind the sun ; they only hide it from their blinded eyes. 2 1 Even M. do Potter was only against Christianity " hierarchically organized." " Jesus and his principles of social equality, of universal brotherhood, are to him the meek, sublime manifestation of the moral man," ubi sup., Vol. I. p. ii. 2 Parker, ubi sup., Art. VI., Of the Transient and Permanent in Christian- ity See also Speeches and Occasional Sermons, Vol. I. Art. i. ii. xii. ; Sermons of Theism, &c., Serm. Ill VI. BOOK IV. "No man would bo so ridiculous as (since Columbus discovered the new world of America, as big as the old, since the enlarged knowledge of the North of Europe, the South and East of Asia and Africa, besides the new divisions, names, and inhabitants of the old parts,) to forbid the reading of any more Geography than is found in Strabo, or Mela; or, since the Portuguese have sailed to the Indias by the Cape of Good Hope, to admit of no other Indian commodities than what are brought on Camels to Aleppo ; or if posterity shall find out the North-east or North-west way to Cathajo and China, or shall cut the Isthmus between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, will it be unlaw- ful to use the advantage of such noble achievements P If any man love acorns since corn is invented, let him eat acorns; but it is very unreasonable he should forbid others the use of wheat, "Whatever is solid in the writings of Aristotle, these new philo- sophers will readily embrace ; and they that are most accused for affecting the new, doubt not but they can give as good an account of the old philosophy as their most violent accusers, and are probably as much conversant in Aristotle's writings, though they do not much value these small wares that are usually retailed by the generality of his interpreters." A brief Account of the new sect qfLatitudemen, by G. B. Oxford, 1C62, p. 13, 14. BOOK IV. THE RELATION OP THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT TO THE GREATEST OF BOOKS, OR A DISCOURSE OP THE BIBLE. CHAPTER I. POSITION OF THE BIBLE CLAIMS MADE POR IT STATEMENT OP THE QUESTION. VIEW it in what light we may, the Bible is a very sur- prising phenomenon. In all Christian lands, this collec- tion of books is separated from every other, and called sacred ; others are profane. Science may differ from them, not from this. It is deemed a condescension on the part of its friends, to show its agreement with Reason. How much has been written by condescending theologians to show the Bible was not inconsistent with the demonstra- tions of Newton ! Should a man attempt to reestablish the cosmogonies of Hesiod and Sanchoniathon, to allego- rize the poems of Anacreon and Theocritus as divines mystify the Scripture, it would be said he wasted his oil, and truly. 1 This collection of books has taken such a hold on the world as no other. The literature of Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of temples and heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book from a nation alike despised in ancient and modern times. It is read of a Sun- day in all the thirty thousand pulpits of our land. In all 1 See the recent literature relating to a Plurality of Worlds for another illus- tration. 14 * 212 THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE. the temples of Christendom is its voice lifted up, week by week. The sun never sets on its gleaming page. It goes equally to the cottage of the plain man and the palace of the king. It is woven into the literature of the scholar, and colours the talk of the street. The bark of the mer- chant cannot sail the sea without it ; no ship of war goes to the conflict but the Bible is there ! It enters men's closets ; mingles in all the grief and cheerfulness of life. The affianced maiden prays God in Scripture for strength in her new duties ; men are married by Scripture. The Bible attends them in their sickness ; when the fever of the world is on them, the aching head finds a softer pillow if such leaves lie underneath. The mariner, escaping from shipwreck, clutches this first of his treasures, and keeps it sacred to God. It goes with the peddler, in his crowded pack ; cheer him at eventide, when he sits down dusty and fatigued ; brightens the freshness of his morning face. It blesses us when we are born ; gives names to half Chris- tendom; rejoices with us; has sympathy for our mourn- ing; tempers our grief to finer issues. It is the better part of our sermons. It lifts man above himself; our best of uttered prayers are in its storied speech, wherewith our fathers and the patriarchs prayed. The timid man, about awaking from this dream of life, looks through the glass of Scripture and his eye grows bright ; he does not fear to stand alone, to tread the way unknown and distant, to take the death-angel by the hand and bid farewell to wife, and babes, and home. Men rest on this their dearest hopes. It tells them of God, and of his blessed Son ; of earthly duties and of heavenly rest. Foolish men find it the source of Plato's wisdom, and the science of Newton, and the art of Raphael ; wicked men use it to rivet the fetters on the slave. Men who believe nothing else that is spiritual, be- lieve the Bible all through ; without this they would not confess, say they, even that there was a God. Now for such effects there must be an adequate cause. That nothing conies of nothing is true all the world over. It is no light thing to hold, with an electric chain, a thousand hearts though but an hour, beating and bound- ing with such fiery speed. What is it then to hold the Christian world, and that for centuries ? Are men fed with chaff and husks ? The authors we reckon great, ITS DEEP AND LASTING POWER. 213 whose word is in the newspaper and the market-place, whose articulate breath now sways the nation's mind, will soon pass away, giving place to other great men of a season, who in their turn shall follow them to eminence, and then oblivion. Some thousand " famous writers " come up in this century, to be forgotten in the next. But the silver cord of the Bible is not loosed, nor its golden bowl broken, as Time chronicles his tens of centuries passed by. Has the human race gone mad ? Time sits as a refiner of metal ; the dross is piled in forgotten heaps, but the pure gold is reserved for use, passes into the ages, and is current a thousand years hence as well as to-day. It is only real merit that can long pass for such. Tinsel will rust in the storms of life. False weights are soon de- tected there. It is only a heart that can speak, deep and true, to a heart ; a mind to a mind ; a soul to a soul ; wis- dom to the wise, and religion to the pious. There must then be in the Bible, mind, conscience, heart and soul, wisdom and religion. Were it otherwise how could millions find it their lawgiver, friend, and prophet ? Some of the greatest of human institutions seem built on the Bible ; such things will not stand on heaps of chaff, but mountains of rocks. What is the secret cause of this wide and deep influence ? It must be found in the Bible itself, and must be adequate to the effect. To answer the question we must examine the Bible, and see whence it comes, what it contains, and by what authority it holds its place. If we look super- ficially, it is a collection of books in human language, from different authors and times j we refer it to a place amongst other books, and proceed to examine it as the works of Homer and Xenophon. But the popular opinion bids us beware, for we tread on holy ground. The opinion com- monly expressed by the Protestant churches is this : The Bible is a miraculous collection of miraculous books ; every word it contains was written by a miraculous inspiration from God, which was so full, complete, and infallible, that the authors delivered the truth and nothing but the truth ; that the Bible contains no false statement of doctrine or fact, but sets forth all religious and moral truth which man needs, or which it is possible for him to receive in, 21 i MASTEE OP THE SOUL. and no particle of error : therefore that the Bible is tho only authoritative rule of religious faith and practice. 1 To doubt this is reckoned a dangerous error, if not an unpar- donable sin. This is the supernatural view. Some scholars slyly reject the divine authority of the Old Testament. Others reject it openly, but cling strongly as ever to tho New. Some make a distinction between the genuine and the spurious books of the New Testament ; thus there is a difference in the less or more of an inspired and miraculous canon. The modern Unitarians have perhaps reduced the Scripture to its lowest terms. But Protestants, in general, in America, agree that in the whole or in part the Bible is an infallible and exclusive standard of religious and moral truth. The Bible is master to the Soul ; superior to Intel- lect; truer than Conscience; greater and more trust- worthy than the Affections and the Soul. Accordingly, with strict logical consistency, a peculiar method is used both in the criticism and interpretation of the Bible ; such as men apply to no other ancient docu- ments. A deference is paid to it wholly independent of its intrinsic merit. It is presupposed that each book within the lids of the Bible has an absolute right to be there, and each sentence or word therein is infallibly true. 2 Reason has nothing to do in the premises, but accept the written statement of " the Word ; " the duty of belief is just tho 1 It is scarce necessary to cite authorities to prove this "statement, as it is a notorious fact. But see the most obvious sources, Westminster Catechism, Quest. 2 ; Calvin's Institutes, Book I. ch. vi. ix. ; Knapp, ubi sup., 1 13, especially Vol. I. p. 130, et seq. See also Gaussen's Theopneusty, or the plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, translated by E. N. Kirk, New York, 1842. The latter maintains that " all the written Word is inspired of God even to a single iota or tittle," p. 333, and passim. See Musculus, Loci communes, ed. 1564, p. 178. But see also Faustus Socinus, De Auctoritate Sac. Scrip, in Bibliotheca Fratrr. Polon. Vol. I. ; Limborch, Theol. Lib. I. ; Episcopius, In- stit. P. IV. a The writings of most of the early Unitarians are exceptions to this general rule. They attempted to separate the spurious from the genuine. See earlier numbers of the Christian Examiner, passim ; Norton, Statement of Reasons, fec., p. 136, et seq. ; Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, Vol. I. p. liii. et seq. See especially p. Ixi. Vol. II. p. cliv., clxii., cxciii., and the whole of the additional note on the 0. T., p. xlviii., et seq. ; Internal Evidences, &c. (1855), p. 13; and Translation of the Gospels (1855), Vol. II. note E. See also Stuart, Critical History and Defence of the 0. T. Canon, Andover, 1845. Dr. Palfrey, ubi sup., denies the miraculous inspiration of all the Old Testament, except the last four books of Moses, and there diminishes its intensity. METHOD OF PKOVING ITS DIVINITY. 215 same whether the Word contradicts Eeason and Conscience, or agrees with them. 1 This opinion about the Bible is true, or not true. If true it is capable of proof, at least of being shown to be pro- bable. Now there are but four possible ways of establish- ing the fact, namely : 1. By the authority of Churches, having either a mira- culous inspiration, or a miraculous tradition, to prove the alleged infallibility of the Bible. But the Churches are not agreed on this point. The Eoman Church very stoutly denies the fact, and besides, the Protestants deny the au- thority of the Roman Church. 2. By the direct testimony of God in our Consciousness assuring us of the miraculous infallibility of the Bible. This would be at the best one miracle to prove another, which is not logical. The proof is only subjective, and is as valuable to prove the divinity of the Koran, the Shaster, and the Book of Mormon, as that of the Jewish and Chris- tian Scriptures. It is the argument of the superstitious and enthusiastical. 3. By the fact that the Bible claims this divine infalli- bility. This is reasoning in a circle, though it is the method commonly relied on by Christians. It will prove as well the divinity of any impostor who claims it. 2 4. By an examination of the contents of the Bible, and the external history of its origin. To proceed in this way, we must ask, Are all its statements infallibly true ? But to ask this question presupposes the standard-measure is in ourselves, not in the Bible ; so at the utmost the Book can be no more infallible, and have no more authority, than Reason and the Moral Sense by which we try it. A single mistake condemns its infallibility, and of course its divinity. But the case is still worse. After the truth of a' book is made out, before a work in human language, like other books, can be referred to God as its author, one of two things must be shown : either That its contents could not 1 See Gaussen, ubi sup. ; Home, Introduction to the Holy Scriptures, Philad. 1840, Vol. I. p. 1187. 2 See this claim made in the Koran, Salcs's translation, London, new edition, p. 162, et seq., 206, 372, 400, 152, &c., 219, 127, et al., and the Book of Mormon, (Nauvoo, 1840,) passim. 216 THE BIBLE A HUMAN WORK. have come from man, and then it follows by implication that they came from God ; or That at a certain time and place, God did miraculously reveal the contents of the book. Now it is a notorious fact, first, that it has not been and cannot be proved, that every statement in the Bible is true ; or, secondly, that its contents, such as they are, could not have proceeded from man, under the ordinary influence of God ; or, finally, that any one book or word of the Bible was miraculously revealed to man. In the ab- sence of proof for any one of these three points, it has been found a more convenient way to assume the truth of them all, and avoid troublesome questions. 1 Laying aside all prejudices, if we look into the Bible in a general way, as into other books, we find facts which force the conclusion upon us, that the Bible is a human work, as much as the Principia of Newton or Descartes, or the Vedas and Koran. Some things are beautiful and true, but others no man, in his reason, can accept. Here are the works of various writers, from the eleventh century before to the second century after Christ, thrown ca- priciously together, and united by 110 common tie but the lids of the bookbinder. Here are two forms of Religion, which differ widely, set forth and enforced by miracles ; the one ritual and formal, the other actual and spiritual ; the one the religion of Fear, the other of Love ; one final, and resting entirely on the special revelation made to Moses, the other progressive, based on the universal reve- lation of God, who enlightens all that come into the world; one offers only earthly recompense, the other makes im- mortality a motive to a divine life ; one compels men, the other invites them. One half the Bible repeals the other half. The Gospel annihilates the Law ; the Apostles take the place of the Prophets, a*nd go higher up. If Chris- tianity and Judaism be not the same thing, there must be hostility between the Old Testament and the New Testa- ment, for the Jewish form claims to be eternal. To an unprejudiced man this hostility is very obvious. It may indeed be said Christianity came not to destroy the Law 1 See some pertinent remarks in J. H. Thorn's Life of Joseph Blanco White, London, 1845, Vol. I. p. 275, et seq., Vol. II. p. 18, et seq., and the remarks of Mr Norton, p. 250, et seq. ; De Wette, Wesen, 6. ITS CONFLICTING CONTESTS. 217 and the Prophets, but to fulfil them, and the answer is plain, their historic fulfilment was their destruction. If we look at the Bible as a whole, we find numerous contradictions ; conflicting Histories which no skill can reconcile with themselves or with facts ; Poems which the Christians have agreed to take as histories, but which lead only to confusion on that hypothesis; Prophecies that have never been fulfilled, and from the nature of things never can be. 1 We find stories of miracles which could not have happened ; accounts which represent the laws of nature completely transformed, as in fairy-land, to trust the tales of the old romancers ; stories that make God a man of war, cruel, capricious, revengeful, hateful, and not to be trusted. We find amatory songs, selfish proverbs, sceptical discourses, and the most awful imprecations human fancy ever clothed in speech. Connected with these are lofty thoughts of Nature, Man, and God ; devo- tion touching and beautiful, and a most reverent faith. Here are works whose authors are known ; others, of which the author, age, and country are alike forgotten. Genuine and spurious works, religious and not religious, are strangely mixed. But the subject demands a more minute and de- tailed examination in each of its main parts. 1 It is instructive to see that the Greeks sometimes regarded the writings of Homer with the same superstitious veneration which is often paid to the Bible. They found therein the Neptunian and Vulcanian theory ; the sphericity of the earth ; the doctrines of Democritus, Heraclitus, and of Socrates and Plato in their turn. See Heraclides Ponticus, Alleg. Horn, in Gale, ubi sup. p. 436, et scq., 488, et seq. Pausanias, IX. 41, p. 452, ed. Schubert, seriously urges the question whether any works from the Shop of Vulcan were then in existence. According to Aristotle, (de Part. Animal. III. 10, p. 87, ed. Bekker,) some con- cluded in his time that the human head could speak when separated from the body and that on the authority of Homer, "And while he spcalcs his head was mingled with the dust" Ilias X. 427. Some quoted Homer to show that Horses had spoken as some divines quote Moses to prove the same of the Ass. 218 CHAPTER II. AN EXAMINATION OP THE CLAIMS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO BE A DIVINE, MIRACULOUS, OK INFALLIBLE COMPOSITION. IT is not possible to prove directly the divine and mi- raculous character of the Old Testament by showing that God miraculously revealed it to the writers thereof, for we do not know who were the writers of the greater part of the books ; and when the authors are known, it is only by their own testimony, which we have no right to assume to be infallible. We have not the faintest direct evidence to show there was anything miraculous in their com- position. The indirect evidence may be reduced to two branches : first that which shows that all the statements of the Old Testament are true, and second that which shows it contains statements of things above human ap- prehension. From the nature of the case, the former pro- position cannot be proved, since many things treated of in the Bible are known to us by that book alone. To say they are true, is to assume the fact at issue. Besides, a true statement is not necessarily miraculous ; if it were, the multiplication table of Pythagoras would be a divine and miraculous composition. The latter proposition has also its difficulty. How do we know its statements are above human apprehension ? But suppose they are, how do we know they are true ? These difficulties are insu- perable. To assume the divinity of the Old Testament is quite as absurd as to assume the same for the next book that shall be printed ; to declare it miraculous on account of the beautiful piety in some parts of it is as foolish as to make the same claim for the Geometry of Euclid and tho Poems of Homer, on account of their great excellence ; to admit this claim because made by some of the Jews, is no more wise than to admit the claims of the Zoroastrian. BIBLE NOT INFALLIBLE. 219 records and the Sibylline oracles, and the religious books of all nations ; then,, among so many, one is of no value, for the very excellence of a miraculous work is thought to consist in the fact of its being the only miraculous work. To leave these assumptions and come to facts, this general thesis may be laid down, and maintained : Every book of the Old Testament bears distinct marks of its human origin ; some of human folly and sin ; all of human weakness and imperfection. If this thesis be true, the Bible is not the direct work of God ; not the master of the Mind and Conscience, Heart and Soul of man. To prove this proposition it is necessary to go into some details. The Hebrews divided their scriptures into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, to each of which they assign- ed a peculiar degree of inspiration. The Law was infallibly inspired, God speaking with Moses face to face ; the Pro- phets less perfectly, God addressing them by visions and dreams; the Writings still more feebly, God communicating to their authors by figures and enigmas. 1 This ancient division may well enough be followed in this discussion. I. OftheLaiv. This comprises the first five books of the Bible. They are commonly ascribed to Moses ; but there is no proof that he wrote a word of them. Only the Decalogue, in a compendious form, and perhaps a few fragments, can bo referred to him with much probability. From the use of peculiar words, from local allusions, and other incidental signs, it is plain here are fragments from several different writers, who lived no one knows when or where, their names perfectly unknown to us. They all bear marks of an age much later than that of Moses, as any one familiar with ancient history, and free from prejudice, may see on examination. 2 But if they were written by Moses, we are not, on the bare word of a writer, to admit the miraculous infallibility 1 Sec Thilo, De Monarch. I. p. 820 ; De Vita Mosis, III. p. 681, II. p. 656, et scq. ; Josephus, Cont. Apion, I. 8. 2 The proofs of this assertion cannot be adduced in a brief discourse like the present ; see thereon de Wette, Introduction to the 0. T., tr. by Theo. Parker, Vol. II. 138, et seq. 220 THE LAW AT VARIANCE WITH SCIENCE. of his statements. Besides, the character of the books is such that a very high place is not to be assigned them, among human compositions, measured by the standard of the present day. The first chapter of Genesis, if taken as a history, in the unavoidable sense of its terms, is at variance with facts. It relates that God created the sun, moon, stars, and earth, and gave the latter its plants, ani- mals, and men, in six days j while science proves that many thousands, if not millions of years must have passed between the creation of the first plants, and man, the crown of creation ; that the surface of the earth gradually received its present form, one race of plants after the other sprang up, animals succeeded animals, the simpler first, then the more complex, and at last came man. This chap- ter tells of an ocean of water above our heads, separated from us by a solid expanse, in which the greater and lesser lights are fixed ; that there was evening and morning before there was a sun to cause the difference between day and night ; that the sun and stars were created after the earth, for the earth's convenience; and that God ceased his action, and rested 011 the seventh day and re- freshed himself. Here the Bible is at variance with science, which is Nature stated in exact language. Few men will say directly what the schoolmen said to Galileo, "If Nature is opposed to the Bible then Nature is mistaken, for the Bible is certainly right;" but the popular view of the Bible logically makes that assertion. Truth and the book of Genesis cannot be reconciled, except on the hypothesis that the Bible means anything it can be made to mean, 1 but then it means nothing. A similar decision must be pronounced upon many accounts in the Law, on the creation of woman; the 1 See Augustine, Confessiones, Lib. XII. C. 18, et al. See in Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Lond. 1840, Vol. II. p. 137, et seq., the remarkable chapter on " the Relation of Tradition to Palaeontology." He thinks the interpretation of the Scriptures ought to change to suit the advance of physical science ; and quotes, approvingly, the celebrated expression of Bel- larmine: "When a demonstration shall be found to establish^ the Earth's motion, it will be proper to interpret the Sacred Scriptures otherwise than they have hitherto been interpreted in those passages where mention is made of the stability of the Earth and movement of the Heavens." Thus he makes the in- terpretation of the Bible purely arbitrary : you can interpret into it, or out rf it, what you will. If you may so deal with the Bible why not with Homer, Plato, Milton, and Hobbes ? In fact, the sound interpretation of the Bible is no more arbitrary than that of Lyttleton's Tenures, and that of Nature itself. THE LAW AT VARIANCE WITH SCIENCE. 221 story of the garden, tlie temptation and fall of man ; the appearances of God in human shape, eating and drinking with his favourite, and making covenants ; the story of the flood and the ark ; the miraculous birth of Isaac ; the pro- mise to the patriarchs ; the great age of mankind ; the tower of Babel and confusion of tongues ; the sacrifice of Isaac ; the history of Joseph ; of Moses ; the ten plagues miraculously sent ; the wonderful passage of the Eed Sea ; the support of the Hebrews in the wilderness on manna ; the miraculous supply of food, water, and clothing, and the delivery of the Law at Mount Sinai. 1 On these it is needless to dwell. But there is one account in the Law too significant to be passed over. It is briefly this. 2 As the Jews approached the land of Canaan, Moses sent twelve men, " heads of the children of Israel," to examine the land, and report to the people. They spent a long time in their tour, reported that the land was fertile, exhibited specimens of its productions, but added, it was full of warlike nations. The Jews were afraid to invade it; " They wept all night and said, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt." They rebelled, and wished to choose a leader and return. Moses and Aaron, and Caleb and Joshua two of the twelve messengers urge them to battle, and say, " Jehovah is with us." The people refuse, and would stone them. Then the glory of Jehovah appeared before the face of the people, and God says to Moses, " How long will this people provoke me ? . . . I will smite them with the pestilence and disin- herit them, and make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." But Moses, more merciful than his God, attempts to appease the Deity, and that by an appeal to his vanity ; And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyp- tians shall hear of it, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. . . . Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations will speak, saying, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them." Then }ie proceeds to soothe his Deity ; ' ' Pardon the iniquity of this people ; " " Jehovah is long-suffering and of great 1 See Geddes, Critical Bemarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, Lond. 1800; Holy Bible, &c., &c. See some valuable remarks in Palfrey, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 133 ; Norton, Vol. II. Note D. * Numbers xiv. 222 A REVENGEFUL CHARACTER ASCRIBED TO GOD. mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty." Jehovah consents, but adds, " As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah," but " because all these men . . , have tempted me now these ten times, . . . surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, . . . your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, . . . in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." If an unprejudiced Christian were to read this for the first time in a heathen writer, and it was related of Kronos or Moloch, he would say, What foul ideas those heathens had of God ; thank Heaven we are Christians, and cannot believe in a deity so terrible. It is true there are now pious men, who believe the story to the letter, profess to find comfort therein, and count it part of their Christianity to believe it. But is God angry with men; passionate, revengeful ; offended because they will not war, and but- cher the innocent ? Would he violate his perfect law and by a miracle destroy a whole nation, millions of men, wo- men, and children, because they fall into a natural fit of despair, and refuse to trust ten witnesses rather than two witnesses ? Does God require man's words to restrain his rage, violence, and a degree of fury which Nero and Cara- calla, butchers of Men though they were, would have shuddered to think of? Is He to be teased and coaxed from murder? Are we called on to believe this in the name of Christianity ? Then perish Christianity from the face of earth, and let Man learn of his Religion and his God from the stars and the violet, the lion and the lamb. View this as the savage story of some oriental who attri- buted a bloodthirsty character to his God, and made a Deity in his own image, and it is a striking remnant of barbarism that has passed away, not destitute of dramatic interest; not without its melancholy moral. There are some things which may be true, but must be rejected for lack of evidence to prove them true ; but this story no amount of evidence could make credible. Throughout the whole of the Law, fact and fiction, his- tory and mythology, are so intimately blended, that it seems impossible to tell where one begins and the other ends. The laws are not perfect ; they contain a mingling THE EARLY PROPHETS. 223 of good and bad, wise and absurd, and if men will main- tain that God is their author, we must still apply to them the words which Ezekiel puts in his mouth : l "I gave them statutes that were not good, and* judgments where- by they should not live ;" or say with Jeremiah, " I spake not unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, concerning burnt- offerings, or sacrifices." II. Of the Prophets. The Hebrews divide the prophets into the earlier and the later : the first including the four historical works of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and the Kings ; the second, the prophets properly so called, with the exception of Daniel, the three major, the twelve minor prophets. 1 . Of the Early Prophets. No one knows the date or the author of any one of these books ; they all contain historical matter of doubt- ful character, such as the miraculous passage of the Jordan ; the destruction of Jericho ; the standing still of the sun and moon at the command of Joshua ; the story of Samson ; the destruction of the Benjamites ; the birth and calling of Samuel; the wonders wrought by the Ark ; the story of Saul, David, and Goliah, the miracu- lous pestilence, of Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, and others. Of all these, perhaps the story of Samson is the most strikingly absurd, a man of miraculous birth and mira- culous strength, whose ability lay in his long hair, and which went from him when his locks were shorn off. When we read in Hesiod and elsewhere, the birth and exploits of Hercules, who bears a resemblance to Samson in some respects, though vastly his superior on the whole we refer the tale to human fancy in a low stage of civilization; a mind free from prejudice will do the same with the story of Samson. 2 No one can reasonably contend that it re- quires a mind miraculously enlightened to produce such books as these of the early prophets. They belong to the 1 Ezekiel, ch. xx. 25; Jcr. vii. 22. 2 See Palfrey, ubi sup., Vol. II. p. 194, etseq., and on these books in general, p. 134300 ; Home, ubi aup., Vol. II. p. 216, et seq. 224 THE EARLY PROPHETS. fabulous period of Jewish history. Mythology, poetry, fact, and fiction, are strangely woven together. The au- thors, whoever they were, claim no inspiration. However, as a general rule, they contain less to offend a religious mind than the books of the Law. 2. The Prophets, properly so called. It may be said of these writings, in general, that they contain nothing above the reach of human faculties. Here are noble and spirit-stirring appeals to men's conscience, patriotism, honour, and religion ; beautiful poetic descrip- tions, odes, hymns, expressions of faith, almost beyond praise. But the mark of human infirmity is on them all, and proofs or signs of miraculous inspiration are not found in them. In the minor prophets, there is nothing worthy of special notice in this place, unless it be the story of Jonah, which is unique in the ancient Hebrew literature, and tells its own tale. 1 These books do not require a de- tailed examination. 2 The greater prophets, Isaiah, Jere- miah, and Ezekiel, are more important, and require a more minute notice. In these, as well as in other prophetical books, and the Law, claim is apparently made to miracu- lous inspiration. " Thus saith Jehovah," is the authority to which the prophet appeals ; " Jehovah said unto me," " The command of Jehovah came unto me," " I saw in a vision," " The spirit of Jehovah came upon me." These and similar expressions occur often in the prophets. But do these phrases denote a claim to miraculous inspiration as we understand it ? We limit miraculous inspiration to a few cases, where something is to be done above human ability. Not so the Hebrews ; they did not make a sharp distinction between the miraculous and the common. All religious and moral power was regarded as the direct gift of God ; an outpouring of his spirit. God teaches David to fight ; commands Gideon to select his soldiers, to arise 1 Fausanias says he saw a dolphin carry a boy on his back as a recompensb for being healed of a wound by the boy ! Lib. III., C. 25, p. 573. A man who should believe such a story on such evidence would be thought not a little cre- dulous by the men who declare it dangerous to doubt the stories in Jonah and Daniel. See too Pausanias, Lib. I. C. 44, 8, and X. C. 13, 10. 2 For this, see De Wette,. Introd. Vol. II., and Palfrey, ubi sup., Vol. II. p. 362, et seq. LANGUAGE OP THE PROPHETS. 225 in the niglit and attack the foe. Tlie Lord set his enemies to fight amongst themselves. He teaches Bezaleel and Aho- liab. They, and all the ingenious mechanics, are filled with " the spirit of God." The same " spirit of the Lord" enables Samson to kill a lion, and many men. These in- stances show with what latitude the phrase is used, and how loose were the notions of inspiration. 1 The Greeks also referred their works to the aid of Phoebus, Pallas, Vulcan, or Olympian Jove, in the same way. It has never been rendered probable that the phrase, Thus saith the Lord, and its kindred terms, were under- stood by the prophets or their hearers to denote any miraculous agency in the case. They employ language with the greatest freedom. Thus a writer says, "I saw Jehovah sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple; above it stood the seraphim."* No thinking man would suppose the prophet designed to assert a fact, or that his countrymen understood him to do so. Certainly it is insulting to suppose a philosophic man would believe God sat on a throne, with a troop of courtiers around him, like a Persian king. When a prophet says Jehovah appeared to him in a dream, he can only mean, either he dreamed Jehovah appeared, which is somewhat different, or that he chose this symbolical way of stating his opinion. Thus a Grecian prophet might say, "The muse came down from high Olympus' shaggy top, and whispered unto me, her favourite son." a Not stating a fact, he would give an outness to what passed in his mind. However, if these writers claimed miraculous inspiration ever so strongly, we are not to grant it unless they abide the test mentioned above. If they utter predictions which they rarely attempt we are not to assume their fulfilment, and then conclude the prophet was miraculously inspired, common as the method is. But what is the value of the claim made for thorn ? Has any one of them ever uttered a distinct, defi- nite, and unambiguous prediction of any future event that has since taken place, which a man without a miracle 1 Sec Glassius, Fhilologia sacra, ccl. Da the, Vol. II. p. 815, et seq. ; Bauer, Theologie des A. T., 5154, et al. * See Cicero, DC Nat. Dcorum, Lib. I. ch. i. and ii. ; Ovid, Metamorph. Lib. II 640, et seq. 220 PREDICTIONS OP THE EXILE. could not equally well predict ? It lias never been shown. Most of the prophetic writings relate to the past and the present ; to the political, civil, and moral condition of the people, at the time ; they exhort backsliding Israel to for- sake his idols, return to Jehovah, live wisely and well. They state the result of obedience or of disobeying, for in- dividuals and the nation. It is rare they predict distinctly and definitely any specific event ; sometimes they foretell, in the most general terms, good or ill fortune, the destruc- tion of a city, the defeat of an army, the downfal of a king. But in case the prediction came to pass, who shall tell us, at this distance of time, that it was not either a lucky hit, or the result of sagacious insight ? Certainly the supposition is against a miracle. The Tripod of Delphi delivered some oracles that were extraordinarily felicitous ; Seneca made a very clear prediction of the discovery of America, and Lactantius of the rise and downfal of Napo- leon, and Lotichius of the capture of Magdeburg. Does the fulfilment prove the miraculous inspiration of the oracle in these cases ? l But to recur to the other test, there are statements in the prophets which are not true ; predictions that did not come to pass. Under this rubric may be placed three of the most celebrated oracles in the Old Testament. 1. Jeremiah's Prediction of the Seventy Years of Exile. It was an easy thing in Jeremiah's position to see that the little nation of Judea could not hold out against the Babylonian forces, and therefore must experience the com- mon fate of nations they conquered, and be carried into exile. 2 But would the Lord forsake his people ; the seed of Abraham ? A pious Jew could not believe it. It was unavoidable, with the common opinion of his countrymen, that he should expect their subsequent restoration. ^ why predict an exile of just seventy years, unless miracu- lously directed ? 3 He may have used that term for an in- definite period ; a common practice. In that case there is 1 See De Wette, ubi sup., Vol. II. 201, et seq. 2 On this custom of the Chaldees, see Heeren, Ideen, Vol. I.; Gesemus On Isa, xxxvi. 16. 3 Jcr. xxv. ORACLE AGAINST TYEE. 227 no miracle. But on the other hand,, if he predicted an exile of just seventy years,, the oracle was a failure. The people were not carried into captivity all at once. From which of the two or three times of dSpDrtation shall we set out ? The books of Kings and Chronicles differ some- what. 1 But to take the chronology of Jeremiah himself, if the passage be genuine ; 2 the deportation began in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, 599 before Christ; it was continued in the year 588, and concluded in 583. The exile ended in the year 536. The longest period that can be made out extends to but sixty- three, and the shortest to but forty-seven years. To make out the seventy years we must date arbitrarily from the year 606. 2. Ezeliiel's Oracle against Tyre. This prophet predicts that Nebuchadnezzar shall destroy Tyre. 3 The prediction is clear and distinct ; the destruc- tion is to be complete and total. " With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets ; he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrison shall go down to the ground. ... I will make thee like the top of a rock ; thou shalt be to spread nets upon ; thou shalt be built up no more." But it was not so. Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to raise the siege after investing the city for thirteen years, and go and fight the Egyptians. Then six- teen years after the first oracle, Ezekiel takes back his own words : " The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar , . , caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus ; every head was made bald," with the chafing of the helmet, " every shoulder was peeled," with the pressure of burdens ; " yet he had no wages, nor his army from Tyrus. . . .Therefore, behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar." 4 These things speak for themselves, and show the nature of the prophetic discourses , that they were moral ad- dresses, or poetical odes. EzekiePs celebrated prediction 1 See 2 Kings xxiv. xxv. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 2 Jer. lii. 2830 ; but see verses 415. See the forced combinations in Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth, Ch. V. 43. 3 xxvi. 1, et seq. 4 xxix. 17, et seq. See Isaiah xxiii., and Gesenius's remarks, in his Com mcntar., Vol. i. p. 711, et seq. ; Rosenmiiller, Alterth. Vol. II. pt. i. p 34. 15 * 228 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES. of an impossible city, 1 is a standing monument of the pro- plietic character, and of the lasting folly of interpreters. It were easy to collect other instances of palpable mistake. 2 8. The alleged Predictions of Jesus as the Messiah. The Messianic prophecies are the most famous of all. It is commonly pretended that there are in the Old Testa- ment clear and distinct predictions of Jesus of Nazareth. But I do not hesitate to say, it has never been shown that there is, in the whole of the Old Testament, one single sentence that in the plain and natural sense of the words foretells the birth, life, or death of Jesus of Nazareth. If the Scripture have seventy-two senses, as one of the Rab- bins declares, or if it foretell whatever comes to pass, as Augustine has said, and means all it can be made to mean, as many moderns seem to think, why predictions and types of Jesus may be found in the first chapter of Genesis, in Noah and Abraham and Samson, as well as in Virgil's fourth Eclogue, the Odes of Horace, and the story of the Trihemerine Hercules. The Messianic expectations and prophecies seem to have originated in this way : After the happy and successful period of David and Solomon, the kingdom was divided into Judah and Israel, the two tribes and the ten, the national prosperity declined. Pious men hoped for better times ; they naturally connected these hopes with a per- sonal deliverer ; a descendant of David, their most popular king. The deliverer would unite the two kingdoms under the old form. A poetic fancy endowed him with wonder- ful powers ; made him a model of goodness. Different poets arrayed their expected hero in imaginary drapery to suit their own conceptions. Malachi gives him a forerun- ner. The Jews were the devoutest of nations ; the popular deliverer must be a religious man. They were full of pious faith ; so the darker the present, the brighter shone the Pharos of Hope in the future. Sometimes this de- 1 Ch. xl. xlviii. 2 On the Prophecies in general, see the Essay of Prof. Stuart, in Bib. Rep., Vol. II. p. 217, et seq. ; of Hengstenberg, ibid. p. 139, et seq ; Noyes in Chris- tian Examiner, Vol. XVI. p. 321, et seq. Sec also the able Essay of Knobcl, Prophetismus der Hcbraer, Vol. I. Einleit. MESSIANIC PEOPHECIES. 229 liverer was called the Messiah ; this term is not common in the Old Testament, however, but is sometimes applied to Cyrus by the Pseudo-Isaiah. 1 These hopes and predictions of a deliverer involved several important things : A reunion of the divided tribes ; a return of the exiles ; the triumph and extension of the kingdom of Israel, its eternal duration and perfect happi- ness ; idolatry was to be rooted out ; the nations improved in morals and religion; Truth and Eighteousness were to reign ; Jehovah to be reconciled with his people ; all of them were to be taught of God ; other nations were to come up to Jerusalem, and be blessed. But the Mosaic Law was to be eternal ; the old ritual to last for ever ; Je- rusalem to be the capital of the Messianic kingdom, and the Jewish nation to be reestablished in greater pomp than in the times of David. Are these predictions of Jesus of Nazareth ? He was not the Messiah of Jewish expecta- tion and of the prophets' foretelling. The furthest from it possible. The predictions demanded a political and visible kingdom in Palestine, with Jerusalem for its capital, and its ritual the old Law. The kindgom of Jesus is not of this world. The ten tribes have they come back to the home of their fathers ? They have perished and are swal- lowed up in the tide of the nations, no one knowing the place of their burial. The kingdom of the two tribes soon went to the ground. These are notorious facts. The Jews are right when they say their predicted Messiah has not come. Does the Old Testament foretell a suffering Saviour, his kingdom not of this world ; crucified ; raised from the dead ? The idea is foreign to the Hebrew Scrip- tures. Well might a Jew ask, " Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ? " To trust the uncertain record of the New Testament, Jesus was slow to accept the name of the Messiah; he knew the "people would take him by force and make him a king.-" But what means the triumphal entry into Jerusalem ? He forbids his disciples to speak of his Messiahship " See that thou tell no man of it;" lets John draw his own inference, whether or not he must ' ' look for another ; " thinks Simon Peter could only find it out by inspiration. Was it that 1 Many chapters of Isaiah have been shown to be spurious. The passages, Chapter xli. Ixvi., xiii. xiv., xxiii. xxvii., xxxiv. xxxv., arc of this character. 230 THE WRITINGS. lie knew lie was not the Messiah of the prophets, and so never formally assumed the title ; but, knowing that he was a true deliverer, far greater than their impossible Messiah, first suffered the name to be affixed to him, and then made the most of the popular Idea ? Or, was he himself mistaken ? It concerns us little ; but this remains, that he was much more than the Jews looked for. The Jewish Christians mistook the matter ; Paul would prove that he was the Messiah of the prophets. Mistakes in Theology, like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, are re- peated again and again, in fantastic combinations. 1 III. The Writings. Under this head are comprised the remaining books of the Old Testament. Here is the dramatic poem of Job, a work of surprising beauty, and full of truth. But its author denies the immortality of the soul, and though he attempts ' ' to justify the ways of God to man," he yet leaves the question as undecided as he found it. In the Psalms we have beautiful prayers, mixed up with their local occasions ; penitential hymns, songs of praise, expressions of hope, faith, trust in God, that have never been surpassed. The devotion of some of these sweet lyrics is beyond praise. But at the same time here are the most awful denunciations that speech ever spoke. In the following passage the writer denounces his enemies. 2 " Set thou a wicked man over him. Let Satan stand at his right hand ; when he shall be judged, let him be con- demned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few ; let another take his office. Let his children be father- less, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg. . . . Let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children." These are the w^ords of a man angry and revengeful. The Psalms abound with similar impre- 1 See De Wette, Dogmatik, 137142; Opuscula, I. p. 2331; the nu- merous Christologics of modern times, and the introductions to the Old Testa- ment. See also Strauss, Life of Jesus, 60 68 ; Hennell, ubi sup. Chap. i. ii. and xii. xiii. ; Bretschneider, Dogmatik, 30, 34, (p. 356, et seq.,) 137, (p. 166, et seq.); Hahn, Knapp, Hase, AVegscheidcr, &c., and Hengstenberg's Christology. 2 Ps. cix. 6, et seq. See also Ps. cxxxvii. THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 231 cations. To maintain they came directly from the" God of love is to forget Reason, Conscience, and Religion, which teach us to love our enemies, to pray for them that perse- cute us. The book of Proverbs and the Song of Songs speak for themselves, and neither need nor claim any more inspira- tion than other collections of Proverbs or Oriental amatory Idyls. The latter belongs to the same class with the writ- ings of Anacreon. The somewhat doubtful book of Eccle- siastes seems to be the work of a sceptic. He denies the immortality of the soul with great clearness ; thinks wis- dom and folly are alike vanity. Though he concludes most touchingly in praise of virtue on the whole, and declares the fear of God and keeping his commandments is the whole duty of man, yet this conclusion is vitiated by the former precept, " Be not righteous overmuch." The La- mentations of Jeremiah have as little claim to inspiration. 1 The historical books of this division present some pecu- liarities. Ezra and Nehemiah are valuable historical docu- ments, though implicit faith is by no means to be placed in them. The book of Esther is entirely devoid of religious interest, and seems to be a romance designed to show that the Jews will always be provided for. The brief book of Ruth may be an historical or a fictitious work. The book of Daniel is a perfect unique in the Old Testa- ment. It professes to have been written by a captive Jew, at Babylon, in the beginning of the sixth century before Christ ; it contains accounts of surprising miracles, dreams, visions, men cast into a den of lions and a furnace of fire, yet escaping unhurt ; a man transformed to a beast, and eating grass like an ox for some years, and then restored to human shape ; a miraculous and spectral hand writing on the palace wall ; grotesque fancies that remind us of the Arabian Nights, and the Talmud. 2 To judge from in- ternal evidence, it was written in the first part of the second century, perhaps about one hundred and eighty- seven years before Christ, in the time of Antiochus Epiph- anes. The author seems to have a political and moral end 1 See Leclerc's Five Letters concerning the Inspiration, &c., London, 1690 ; and on the other hand, William Lowth's Vindication of the Divine Authority, &c., Lond., 1699; and Gaussen, Home, and Stuart, ubi sup. 2 See De Wette, Vol. II. 257, p. 505, note a, and Pliny, VIII. 34. 232 THE CHRONICLES. in view, and to write for the encouragement of his country- men, perhaps designing his work should pass for whatsit is, a politico-religious romance. 1 All of these books hitherto mentioned seem written by earnest men, with no intention to deceive. Their manly honesty is everywhere apparent. But the book of Chro- nicles is of a very different character. Here is an obvious attempt on the writer's part to exalt the character of or- thodox kings, and depress that of heretical kings ; to bring forward the Priests and the Levites, and give everything a ceremonial appearance. This design will be obvious to any one who reads the stories in Chronicles, and then turns to the parallel passages in Samuel and Kings. 2 To take but a single instance : the writer of the book of Samuel gives an account of David ; tells of his good and evil qualities ; does not pass over his cruelty, nor extenu- ate his sin. But in Chronicles there is not a word of this : nothing of the crime of imperial adultery ; nothing of Nathan's rousing apologue, and Thcu-art-the-man. The thing speaks for itself. Now if these books have any divine authority, what shall we do with such contradictions ; deny the fact ? We live too long after Dr Faustus for so easy a device. Shall we say, with a modern divine, the true believer will accept both statements with the same implicit faith ? This also may be doubtful. To look back upon the field we have passed, it must be confessed that the claims made for the Old Testament have no foundation in fact ; its books, like others, have a mingling of good and evil. We see a gradual progress of ideas therein, keeping pace with the civilization of the world. Vestiges of ignorance, superstition, folly, of unre- claimed selfishness, yet linger there. Fact and fiction are strangely blended ; the common and miraculous, the di- vine and the human, run into one another. We find rudo notions of God in some parts, though in others the more lofty. Here, the moral and religious sentiment are in- sulted ; there, is beautiful instruction for both. Human * See De Wette, Vol. II. 253, ct seq. 8 The passages are conveniently arranged for this purpose, side by side, in Jahu's edition of the Hebrew Bible. DC Wcttc, 189, et scq. MYTHOLOGY IN THE BIBLE. 233 imperfections meet us everywhere in the Old Testament. The passions of man are ascribed to God. The Jews had a mythology as well as the Greeks : they transform law into miracles ; earth into a dream-land ; it rains manna for eight and thirty years, and the smitten rock pours out water. We see a gradual progress in this as in all my- thologies : first, God appears in person ; walks in the garden in the cool of the day ; eats and drinks ; makes contracts with his favourites ; is angry, resentful, sudden and quick in quarrel, and changes his plans at the advice of a cool man. Tlien it is the Angel of God who appears to man. It is deemed fatal for man to see Jehovah. His messenger comes to Manoah, and vanishes in the flame of the sacrifice ; the angel of Jehovah appears to David. Next it is only in dreams, visions, types, and symbols that the Most High approaches his children. He speaks to them by night ; comes in the rush of thoughts, but is not seen. The personal Form, and the visible Angel, have faded and disappeared as the daylight assumed its power. The nation advanced; its Religion and mythology ad- vanced with it. Then again, sometimes God is represented as but a local deity; Jacob is surprised to find him in a foreign land : next he is only the God of the Hebrews. At last, the ONLY LIVING AND TRUE GOD. There is a similar progress in the notions of the service God demands. Abraham must offer Isaac; with Moses, slain beasts are sufficient ; Micah has outgrown the Mosaic form in some respects, and says, ' ' Shall Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams ; shall I give the first-born of my body for the sin of my soul ? what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God ? " A spiritual man in the midst of a formal people saw the pure truth which they saw not. Does the Old Testament claim to be master of the soul ? By no means ; it is only a phantom conjured up by super- stition that scares us in our sleep. Does the truth it con- tains make it a miraculous book ? It is poor logic which thinks what is false can cease to be false, though never so many wonders are wrought in its defence. 1 1 On the Old Testament, its authors' inspiration, &c., see some valuable re- marks in Spinoza, Tract, theol. polit. Ch. I. X. XII. XIII. See Norton, Vol. II. Append. D, and his Letter to Blanco White in Thorn, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 234 CHAPTER III. AN EXAMINATION OP THE CLAIMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TO BE A DIVINE, MIRACULOUS, OR INFALLIBLE COMPOSITION. LET us look the facts of the New Testament also in the face. Some men are glad to abandon the Old Testament to the Jews, but fear to look into the foundation of tlio Christian Scriptures, lest it also be found sandy. Does much depend on the New Testament ? Then the more carefully must its claims be examined. Truth courts the light, its deeds never evil. Are the writings of the New Testament divine, miraculous, and infallible compositions ; if the Old Testament fail the only infallible rule of re- ligious faith and practice ? Such is the prevalent opinion with us. 1 After what was said above respecting the points to be proved before such a conclusion could be admitted, it becomes less difficult to decide this question. The general remarks respecting the inspiration of the Old Tes- tament apply also to the New, 2 and need not be repeated. Bearing these in mind, let us subject these writings to the same test. To do this we must examine the works them- selves. This general thesis may be affirmed : All the writ- ings in the New Testament, as well as the Old, contain marks of their human origin, of human weakness and im- perfection. Now in the New Testament, as in the Old, we have spurious works mixed with the genuine. To separate the former from the latter, is not an easy work, perhaps not possible, at this day. However there are some books of 250, et seq. See also Ewald, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, &c., Gott. 1843, ct Beq. ; B. I. Vorbereitung : all the six laborious volumes are rich in historical results. 1 See Faustus Socinus, De Auctovitate Sac. Script., Ch. I. where he defends the Scripture against Christians; and Ch. II. against the not Christians. - See above, B. IV. ch. i. and ii. THE LETTERS OF THE APOSTLES. 235 unquestionable genuineness, and others whose spurious character is almost demonstrated. Modern criticism and ancient authority seem to decide that the Epistle to the Hebrews is not the work of Paul, but of some unknown author ; that the second Epistle of Peter is not from that apostle, but from one who, as Scaliger said, " abused his leisure time ; " the second and third of John, the Epistles of James and Jude, are not from the apostolic persons whose names they bear ; and that the book of the Revela- tion is not the work of John the Evangelist. Serious ob- jections have been brought against some other epistles, many of which appear to be well founded, and against some of the Evangelists alluded to already. Then if the above remarks be correct, there are seven works in the New Testament whose claim to apostolical authority was anciently doubted with good reason. These disputed writings may be neglected in the present ex- amination. 1 If the other writings, whose claim to an apostolic origin is supposed to be stronger, are not found miraculous and infallible, still less shall be expected of these. The rest of the New Testament may be divided into the epistolary and the historical writings. I. Of the Epistolary Writings of the New Testament. These are the oldest Christian documents ; the works of Paul, Peter, and John, the most illustrious of the early disciples, the ft chiefest apostles/' and most instrumental in founding the Christian church. If any of the early Christians received miraculous inspiration, it must be the apostles ; if any of the apostles, it must be one, or all, of these three. To determine their claims, the works of the three may be examined together, for the sake of brevity. Now at the first view of these fifteen epistles, it does not appear that any miraculous inspiration was required to write these more than the letters of St Cyprian or Fenelon. They contain nothing above the reach of human faculties, 1 The non- apostolical origin of these seven books is by no means fixed and agreed upon by all the critics. There is better evidence for the Johannic origin of the Revelation, than the 4th Gospel. See, who will, the discussions in the Introductions of Michaelis, Hug, De Wette, and the numerous monograms on these points. See above, p. 162, note. 230 INSPIRATION OF THE APOSTLES. and to assume a miraculous agency is contrary to the in- ductive method, to say the least of it. Do the writers ever claim a peculiar and miraculous in- spiration ? The furthest from it possible. Paul speaks of his inspiration, but admits that, of all Christians, "No man can say Jesus is the Lord," that is, Christianity is true, ' ' but by the Holy Ghost." He refers wisdom, faith, eloquence, learning*, skill in the interpretation of tongues, ability to teach, or heal diseases, to inspiration : ' ' All these worketh that one and selfsame spirit." 1 The Spirit of Christ was in all Christian hearts ; they all received the " Spirit of God." That was Paul's view of inspiration. He and his fellow- apostles were servants that helped others to believe. He had the gift of teaching in a more eminent degree, and enjoyed a greater " abundance of revelations," and therefore taught. John carries the doctrine of the universal inspiration of Christians still further. Now, if the apostles had this miraculous and peculiar in- spiration, and through modesty did not state it, they must yet have known the fact. But it is notorious they taught not in the name of any private inspiration, but in that of Jesus. 2 But even if the apostles claimed miraculous and infallible inspiration, and taught with authority they pretended to derive therefrom, still their claim could not be granted, for, if infallibly inspired, they must be ready for all emer- gencies. Now a practical question arose in a novel case which was a test of their inspiration : Should they admit the Gentiles to Christianity ? The book of Acts relates, that Peter required a special and miraculous vision to en- lighten him on this head. He seems surprised to find that " God is no respecter of persons," but will allow all re- ligious men of any nation to become Christians. 3 Had he been miraculously inspired before, to what purpose the vision ? If the apostles were infallibly inspired, they could not 1 Cor. xii. 1, et seq. 2 Tliis point has been ably touched by Spinoza, Tract, theol. polit. chap. xi. ed. Paulus, Vol. I. p. 315, et seq. From him both Leclerc, Sentimcns de quclqucs Theologians, &c., and Rich. Simon, (Hist. Grit, du V. T..) seem to have drawn some of their stores. See also the acute remarks of Lessing, Werke, ed. Carlsruhe, 1824, Vol. XXIV. p. 84, ct seq. 3 Acts x. 1, et seq. DIFFICULTIES OF THE APOSTLES. 237 disagree on any point. Now another question comes up : Shall the Gentiles keep the old ceremonial Law of Moses, and be circumcised ? l It would seem that men of common freedom of thought, who had heard the teaching of Jesus, would not need miraculous help to decide so plain a ques- tion. If they had the alleged inspiration, each must know at once how to decide, and all would decide in the same way without consultation. But such was not the fact ; they were divided on this very question plain as it is and held a meeting of the Christians ; the " apostles and elders came together to consider this matter." It was not a plain case, there was ' ' much disputing " about it. Peter, Barnabas, and Paul, spoke against the Law ; James, as chairman of the meeting, sums up the matter before put- ting the question, takes a middle ground, proposes a reso- lution that all the Mosaic ritual should not be imposed upon the Gentile converts, but only a few of its prohibi- tions, which he reckons "necessary things.-" He comes to this conclusion, not by special inspiration of which no mention is made in the meeting but from Peter's statement of facts, and from a passage in the Prophet who says, that " all the Gentiles might seek after the Lord." The ques- tion was put ; the chairman's motion prevailed ; a circular was drawn up in the name of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, and sent to the Churches. But Paul and Peter seem to have disregarded it, one going beyond, the other falling short of its requisitions. Then, again, the apostles differed on some points. Paul and Barnabas had a sharp contention, and separated. 2 Could infallible men fall out ? Paul had little respect for those \ { that were apostles before him/-' and " withstood Peter to the face." 3 These Apostles were mistaken in several things ; in their interpretation of the Old Testament, as any one may seo by examining the passages cited by Peter in the Acts/ or the writings of Paul. 5 They were all mistaken in this capital doctrine : That Jesus would return to Judea, the 1 Acts xv. 1, ct seq. * Acts xv. 39. 3 Gal. i. 11 ii. 14. See Middlcton's Reflections on the dispute between Peter and Paul, Works, Vol. II. 4 Acts ii. 1421, 2534, iii. 18, 2124, iv. 25, 26, et al. 5 Gal. iv. 24, et seq. ; 1 Cor. x. 4, et seq., et al. 238 DISAGREEMENT OP THE EVAXGELIST3. general resurrection and judgment take place, and the world be destroyed within a very few years, during the lifetime of the Apostles. This is a very strongly marked feature in their teaching. 1 From the doubtful epistle as- cribed to Peter, it seems that as times went by and the world continued, scoffers very naturally doubted the truth of this opinion, 2 but were assured it would hold good. II. Of the Historical Writings of the New Testament. Here we have, apparently, though I think not really, the works of Matthew and John, two of the immediate disciples of Jesus, and of Mark and Luke, the companions of Peter and Paul. The first question is, have we really the works of these four writers ? It is a question which can by no means be readily and satisfactorily answered in the affirmative. However, it cannot be entered upon in this place; 3 but admitting, in argument, the works are genuine, at the first view, there seems no need of mira- culous inspiration in the case of honest men wishing to relate what they had seen, heard, or felt. It is not easy to see why miraculous and infallible inspiration was needed to write the memoirs of Jesus and the Acts of the Apostles more than the memoirs of Socrates, or the Acts of the Martyrs. The writers never claim such an inspiration. Matthew and Mark never speak of themselves as writers ; Luke refers to certain " eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word " as his authority for the facts of the Gospel. John claims it as little as the others, though an unknown writer, at the end of his Gospels, testifies to the truth of the narrative. 4 But even if they made this claim, so often made for them, 1 See the essay of Mr Norton on this point, in Statement of Reasons, &c., p. 297, et seq., and De Potter, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. cxl. ct seq. 2 2 Pet. iii. 4, et seq. 3 On the affirmative side, see Paley, Evidences, Pt. I. ; the masterly Treatise of Mr Norton, Genuineness of the Gospels ; Prof. Stuart's Review of it in Bib. Rep. for 1837-8; and Lardner's Credibility, &c. See, on the other side, the popular but important remarks of Hennel, ubi sup. ch. iii. vi. See also Strauss, Glaubenslehre, 15 ; and the Life of Jesus, by Strauss, Theile, Neander, &c. &c. ; the Introductions of Hug, Do Wette, and Credner. Bruno Baur's Kritik der evang. Geschichte des Johannes, 1840, and der Synoptiker, 1841. See above, the references B. III. ch. ii. at end. 4 Luke i. 1, et seq. (See Acts i. 1, et seq.) John xxi. 24 DISAGREEMENT OF THE EVANGELISTS, 239 it could not be granted, for their testimony does not agree. The Jesus of the Synoptics differs very widely from the Jesus of John, in his actions, discourses, and general spiritual character, as much as the Socrates of Xenophon. from that of Plato. This point was early acknowledged by Christian Fathers. But not to dwell on a general disagreement, nor to come down to the perpetual and well-known disagreement in minute details, there is a most striking difference between the genealogies of Jesus as given by Matthew and 'Luke. Both agree that Jesus was descended from David by the Father's side ; but Matthew counts twenty-five ancestors between David and Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Luke enumerates forty ancestors, of whom thirty-eight are never mentioned by Matthew ; one derives his descent from the illustrious Solomon, the other from the obscure Nathan ; one makes Nazareth Joseph's dwelling-place, the other Beth- lehem. They disagree, likewise, in numerous particulars of the early history, such as the miraculous appearance of the star, the Magi, the flight into Egypt, the songs, the angels, and the dreams. 1 Yet notwithstanding these gene- alogies both agree that Jesus had no human father, a fact never referred to by Mark or John, by Peter or Paul, nor in the recorded words of Jesus himself, or the people about him, who took him for the son of Joseph the carpen- ter. If he had no human father, how was he descended from David? Are we to believe a miracle so surprising, on the doubtful statement of two men whom we know nothing of, but who contradict themselves and one another, and relate the strongest marvels ? Is it a part of Religion to believe such stories ? What else would we believe on such evidence ? It were easy to point out other disagreements in the words, and actions, and predictions ascribed to Jesus ; in the accounts of his resurrection and the impos- sible events of his subsequent history, but it is not needed for the present purpose. 21 The book of the Acts, of a my- 1 See these discrepancies ably stated by Mr Norton, ubi sup. p. liii. et seq. ; and Strauss, Life of Jesus, j 1938 ; and the popular statement in Harwood, ubi sup. p. 20, et seq. ; Ilennel, ubi sup. ch. iii. v, ; Middleton, Reflections ; on the Variations in the Gospels, Works, Vol. II. See "Weisseler's attempt to reconcile these genealogies, Stud, und Krit. fur 1845, p. 361, et seq. Comparo the Apocryphal Gospels. * See, who will, Evanson, Dissonance of the Evangelists, Gloucester, 1805 ; 240 CHRISTIANITY -AND ITS RECORD. tliical and legendary character, requires no special exam- ination. This, however, must be admitted, that the facts of the case will not warrant the claim of miraculous and infallible inspiration that is made for them ; and that we are to ex- amine with great caution before we accept their statements, which, in detail, have often but a low degree of historical credibility. 1 These facts cannot be hushed up, nor put out of sight ; we must look them in the face. They have pained already many a breaking heart, which could not separate the truth of Religion from the errors of the Christian record felt with groans that could not be uttered. It need not be so. Christianity is one thing ; the Christian documents a very different matter. In them, as in the Old Testament, there is a mythology ; the natural and the supernatural are con- founded. The Gospels cannot be taken as historical " au- thorities/' until a searching criticism has separated their mythological and legendary narratives from what is purely a matter-of-fact. Some attempt to remove the difficulty by striking out the offensive passages, 2 and others by ex- plaining them away, and still claim miraculous infallibility for all the rest, which the writers never claim for them- selves nor allow one another. Let us rest on things as they are ; not try to base our Church on things that are not. It may be asked : If there is no foundation of fact for the miraculous part of the narrative, why did the writers dwell so much on this part ? The question may be asked in the case of the catholic miracles ; those of St Bernard; of witchcraft and possessions before named. It is at least difficult to determine what lay at the bottom of the matter. But this is a fixed point, that Devils, Ghosts, and Witches only appear where they were previously believed in, and there they continually appear ; fc imagination bodies forth the forms of things not seen." The Catholic sees the Virgin, and the Mormonite finds miracles to-day. Will Strauss, 132 142; Wolfenbiittel, Fragment. Ueber Aufcrstchungsgeschichtc, and the numerous replies. 1 On the Credibility of Historians, see Arnold, Introduct. Lcct. on Mod. Hist., Lond. 1843, Lect. VIII. See the valuable remarks of Grote, History of Greece, London, 1849, Vol. I. 2 See Norton, Vol. I. p. liii. et scq. GOSPELS DO NOT EXAGGERATE. 241 not the same cause whatever be it help to explain the visions of Paul, the angels, and miracles of the New Tes- tament ? It is not many years since the divines of New England made collections of accounts of the devil appearing to men. If a religious teacher should appear at the time and place as Jesus appeared, it would be surprising, almost beyond belief, if miraculous tales were not connected with his birth, life, and death. Antiquity is full of sons of God, and wonder-workers. The story of Lazarus, and even that of the Ascension, is not without its parallels. But if all the charges against the New Testament are true, what then ? Why, this : honest men ; noble, pious, simple-hearted men ; the zealous Apostles of Christianity; the first to espouse it ; willing to leave all, comfort, friends, life for its sake, after all, were but men, such as are born in these days, fallible, like ourselves ; often in intellectual and moral error ; they shared, like us, the ignorance and superstition of the times, and though earnest in looking saw not all things, but, as the wisest of them said, "through a glass darkly/' and made some confusion among things they did see. Do we ask miraculous evidence to prove that Jesus lived a divine life ? We can have no such testimony. We know that if he taught Absolute Re- ligion, his Christianity is absolutely true; that if he did not teach it, still Absolute Religion remains, the everlast- ing Rock of Faith, in spite of the defects of historical evi- dence, or the limitations of this or that man. Has the New Testament exaggerated the greatness and embellished the beauty of Jesus ? Measure his religious doctrine by that of the time and place he lived in, or that of any time and any place ! Yes, by the doctrine of eternal truth. Consider what a work his words and deeds have wrought in the world; that he is still the Way, the Truth, and the Life to millions; that he is reckoned a GOD by the mass of Christians, his Word their standard of truth, his Life the Ideal they see too far above them in the Heavens for their imitation ; remember that though other minds have seen further, and added new truths to his doctrine of Religion, yet the richest hearts have felt no deeper, and added nothing to the sentiment of Religion ; have set no loftier aim., no truer method than his of PEE- 16 242 THE GREATNESS OF JESUS. FECT LOVE TO GOD AND MAN, and then ask, Have the Evan- gelists overrated him ? We can learn but few facts about Jesus ; but measure him by the shadow he has cast into the world ; no, by the light he has shed upon it, not by things in which Hercules was his equal, and Vishnu his superior. Shall we be told, Such a man never lived ; the whole story is a lie ? Suppose that Plato and Newton never lived ; that their story is a lie. But who did their works, and thought their thought ? It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but a Jesus. CHAPTER IV. THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION INDEPENDENT OP HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS THE BIBLE AS IT IS. THIS doctrine of the infallible inspiration of the Scrip- tures has greater power with Christians at this day than in Paul's time. In the first ages of Christianity each apo- stle was superior to the Old Testament. There were no Scriptures to rely on, for the New Testament was not written, and the Old Testament was hostile. The Law stood in their way, a law of sin and death ; the greatest prophets were inferior to John the Baptist, and the least in the Christian kingdom was greater than he ; l all before Jesus were " thieves and robbers" in comparison. Yet Christianity stood without the New Testament. It went forward without it ; made converts and produced a won- drous change in the world. The Old Testament was the servant, not the master of the early Christians. Each church used what it saw fit. Some had the whole of the Old Testament ; some but a part ; others added the Apocrypha, for there was no settled canon " published by authority, and appointed to be read in churches." So it 1 The opinion of some disciples about the excellence of that kingdom may be Been in Irenajus, Lib. II. Ch. 33, where he speaks of the Vine-Stocks. THE BIBLE AS IT IS. 243 was with the New Testament. Some received more than we, others less. Such men as Justin, Ignatius, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, refer to some other books, just as they quote the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament was less certain than the Old. Men followed usage, tradition, or good sense in this matter, and at last the present collection was fixed by authority. But by what test were its limits decided ? Alas, by no certain criterion. 1 Let us look at things as they are. Here is a collection of ancient books, spurious and genuine, Hebrew and Greek. The one part belongs to a mode of worship, for- mal and obsolete ; the other to a religion, actual, spiritual, still alive. The one gives us a Jehovah jealous and angry ; the other a Father full of love. Each writer in both divi- sions proves by his imperfections that the earth did not formerly produce a different race of men. They contra- dict one another, and some relate what no testimony can render less than absurd ; but yet all taken together, spite of their imperfections and positive faults, form such a col- lection of religious writings as the world never saw, so deep, so divine. Are not the Christian Gospels and the Hebrew Psalms still often the best part of the Sunday service in the church ? Truly there is but one Religion for the Jew, the Gentile, and the Christian, though many theologies and ceremonies for each. Now, unless we reject this treasure entirely, one of two things must be done : either we must pretend to believe the whole, absurdities and all; make one part just as valuable as the other, the Law of Moses as the Gospel of Jesus, David's curse as Christ's blessing, and then we make the Bible our master, who puts Common Sense and Reason to silence, and drives Conscience and the religious Element out of the Church : or else we must accept what is true, good, and divine therein ; take each part for what it is worth ; gather the good together, and leave the bad to itself and then we make the Bible our servant and helper, who assists Common Sense and Reason, stimulates 1 On the use of the New Testament in the early times, see Credner, Beitriige zur Einlcit. in biblischen Schriften, Ch. I. p. 1 90 ; Miinscher, Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte, Vol. I. 3084 ; August!, Christlichen Archiiologie, Vol. VI. p. 1244 ; and De Wette, Vol. I. 1829. 16 ; 214 WISE USE OP THE BIBLE. Conscience and Religion, co-working with them all. A third thing is not possible. Which shall be done ? The practical answer was given long ago; it has always been given, except in times of fanatical excitement. Because there is chaff and husks in the Bible, are we to eat of them, when there is bread enough and to spare ? Pious men neglect what does not edify. 1 Who reads gladly the curses of the Psalmist; chapters that make God a man of war, a jealous God, the butcher of the nations ? Certainly but few ; let them bo exhorted to repentance. Men cannot gather grapes of thorns, grasp them never so lovingly; honest men will leave the thorns, or pluck them up. Now Criticism which the thinking character of the age demands asks men to do consciously and thoroughly what they have always done imperfectly and with no science but that of a pious heart ; that is, to divide the word rightly ; separate mythology from history, fact from fiction, what is religious and of God from what is earthly and not of God ; to take the Bible for what it is worth. Fearful of the issue we may put off the question a few years; may insist as strongly as ever on what we know to be false ; ask men to believe it, because in the records, and thus drive bad men to hypocrisy, good men to madness, and thinking men to "infidelity;" we may throw obstacles in the way of Religion and Morality, and tie the millstone of the Old and New Testaments about the neck of Piety as before. We may call men " Infidels and Atheists," whom Reason and Religion compel to uplift their voice against the idolatry of the Church ; or we may attempt to smooth over the matter, and say nothing about it, or not what we think. But it will not do. The day of Fire and Fagots is ended ; the toothless " Guardian of the Faith " can only bark. The question will come, though alas for that man by whom it comes. Other religions have their sacred books, their Korans, Vedas, Shasters, which must be received in spite of Rea- son, as masters of the soul. Some would put the Bible on the same ground. They glory in believing whatever is 1 See Augustine, Doct. Christiana, Lib. I. C. 39, who says a man, supported by Faith, Hope, and Charity, does not need the Bible except to teach others with. FALSE VENERATION FOR THE BIBLE. 245 prefaced with a Thus- saith-the-Lord; but then all superior- ity of the Bible over these books disappears for ever ; the daylight gives place to the shadow ; the Law of Sin and Death casts out the Law of the Spirit of Life. Let honest Reason and Religion pursue their own way. CHAPTER V. CAUSE OF THE FALSE AND THE REAL VENERATION FOR THE BIBLE. THE indolent and the sensual love to have a visible mas- ter in spiritual things, who will spare them the agony of thought. Credulity, Ignorance, and Superstition conjure up phantoms to attend them. Some honest men find it difficult to live nobly and divine ; to keep the well of life pure and undisturbed, the inward ear always open and quick to the voice of God in the soul. They see, too, how often the ignorant, the wicked, the superstitious, and the fanatical confound their own passions with the still small voice of God ; they see what evil, deep and dreadful, conies of this confusion. Such is the force of prejudice, indolence, habit, they find it sometimes difficult to distinguish between right and wrong ; they love to lean on the Most High, and the Bible is declared His word. They say, therefore, by their action, Let us have some outward rule and authority, which, being infallible, shall help the still smallness of God's voice in the heart ; it will bless us when weak ; we will make it our master and obey its voice. It shall be to us as a God, and we will fall down and worship it. But alas, it is not so. The word of God no Scripture will hold that. It speaks in a language no honest mind can fail to read. Such seem the most prominent causes that have made the Bible an Idol of the Christians. No doubt it will be said, " such views are dangerous, for 246 TKUTH AND AUTHORITY. the mass of men must always take Authority for Truth, not Truth for Authority." But are they not true ? If so the consequences are not ours ; they belong to the Author of truth, who can manage his own affairs, without our meddling. Is the wrong way safer than the right ? No doubt it was reckoned dangerous to abandon the worship of Diana, of the cross, the saints and their reliques ; but the world stands, though " the image that fell down from Jupiter" is forgotten. If these doctrines be true, men need not fear they shall have no " standard of religious faith and practice." Reason, Conscience, Heart, and Soul still remain ; God's voice in Nature ; His Word in Man. His Laws remain ever unchanged, though we set up our idols or pluck them down. We still have the same guide with Moses and David, Socrates and Zoroaster, Paul and John and Luther, Fenelon, Taylor, and Fox ; yes, the same guide that led Jesus, the first-born of many brothers, in his steep and lonely pilgrimage. This doctrine takes nothing from the Bible but its errors, which only weaken its strength ; its truth remains, brilliant and burning with the light of life. It calls us away from each outward standard to the eternal truths of God; from the letter and the imperfect Scripture of the Word to the living Word itself. Then we see the true re- lation the Bible sustains to the soul ; the cause of the real esteem in which it is held is seen to be in its moral and re- ligious truths ; their power and loveliness appear. These have had the greatest influence on the loftiest minds and the lowliest hearts for eighteen hundred years. How they have written themselves all over the world, deepest in the best of men ! What greatness of soul has been found amid the fragrant leaves of the Bible, sufficient to lead men to embrace its truths, though at the expense of accepting tales which make the blood curdle ! Take the Bible for what is true in it, and the first chap- ter of Genesis is a grand hymn of creation, a worthy pre- lude of the sublime chants that follow ; it sings this truth : The World was not always ; is not the work of chance, but of the living God; all things are good, made to be blest. The writer who, perhaps, never thought he was writing " an article of faith " if he were a Jew, might superstitiously refer the Sabbath to the time of creation EXCELLENCE OF THE BIBLE. 247 and the agency of God, just as the Greek refers one festival to Hercules and another to 'Bacchus. Then oriental Piety comes beautiful from the grave hewn in the rock by our dull Theology; utters her word of counsel and hope; sings her mythological poem, and warms the heart, but does not teach theology, or phy- sical science. The sweet notes of David's prayer ; his mystic hymn of praise, so full of rippling life; his lofty Psalm, which seems to unite the warbling music of the wind, the sun's glance, and the rush of the lightning ; which calls on the mountain and the sea, and beast, and bird, and man, to join his full heart, all these shall be sweet and elevating, but we shall leave his pernicious curse to perish where it fell. The excellence of the Hebrew devotional hymns has never been surpassed. Heathenism, Christianity, with all their science, arts, literature, bright and many- coloured, have little that approach these. They are the despair of imitators ; still the uttered prayer of the Christian world. Tell us of Greece, whose air was redolent of song; its language such as Jove might speak ; its sages, heroes, poets, honoured in every clime, they have no psalm of prayer and praise like these Hebrews, the devoutest of men, who saw God always before them, ready to take them up when father and mother let them fall. Some of the old prophets were men of stalwart and ro- bust character, set off by a masculine piety that puts to shame our puny littleness of heart. They saw Hope the plainest when danger was most imminent, and never despaired. Fear of the people, the rulers, the priests, could not awe them to silence, nor gold buy smooth things from the prophet's tongue. They left Hypocrisy, with his weeds and weepers, and feigning but unstained handker- chief, to follow the coffin he knew to be empty, and went their own way, as men. What shall screen the guilty from the prophet's word? Even David is met with a Thou-art-the-man. What if they were stoned, imprison- ed, sawn asunder ? It was a prophet's reward. They did not prophesy smooth things ; they gave the truth and took blows, not asking love for love. If these men are set up as masters of the soul, Justice must break her staff 21-8 EXCELLENCE OF THE BIBLE. over their heads. But view them as patriots whom dan- ger aroused from the repose of life ; as pious men awak- ened by concern for the public virtue, and nobler men never spoke speech. Out from the heart of Nature rolled The burdens of the Bible old. Little needs now be said of the New Testament, of the simple truth that rustles in its leaves, its parables, epistles, where Paul lifts up his manly voice, and John, or whoso wrote the words, pours out the mystic melody of his faith. Why tell the deep words of Jesus ? Have we exhausted their meaning ? The world has it outgrown Love to God and Man ? They still act in gentle bosoms, giving strength to the strong, and justice and meekness and charity and faith to beautiful souls, long tried and oppressed. There is no need of new words to tell of this. Now it is not in nature to respect the false, and yet reverence the true. Call the Bible master we do not seo the excellence it has. Take it as other books, we have its Beauty, Truth, Eeligion, not its deformities, fables, and theology. We shall not believe in ghosts, though Isaiah did : nor in devils, though Jesus teach there are such. We shall see the excellence of Paul in his manly character, not in the miracles wrought by his apron; the nobleness of Jesus, in the doctrine he taught and the life he lived, not in the walk on the water or the miraculous draughts of fish. We shall care little about the " endless gene- alogies and old- wives' fables," though still deemed essen- tial by many but much for being good and doing good. Our faith let him shake down the Andes who has an arm for that work. On the other hand, he that accepts the monstrous pro- digies of the Gospels ; is delighted to believe that Jesus had divine authority for laying on forms, and damning all but the baptized ; that he gave Peter authority to bind and loose on earth and in heaven; commanded his dis- ciples to make friends of "the mammon of unrighteous- ness," to, tease God, as an unjust judge, into compliance, with vain repetitions can he accept the Absolute Religion ? It is not possible, for a long time, to make serious things of trifles, without making trifles of serious things. Cannot CAUSE OP ITS INELUENCJ4. 249 drunkenness be justified out of the Old Testament ; the very Solomon advising the poor man to drown his sorrows in wine ? Jeremiah curses the man that will not fight. 1 Is not Sarah commended by the Fathers of the church, and Abraham by the Sons ? Men justify slavery out of the New Testament, because Paul had not his eye open to the evil, but sent back a fugitive ! It is dangerous to rely on a troubled fountain for the water of life. The good influence of the Bible, past and present, as of all religious books, rests on its religious significance. Its truths not only sustain themselves, but the mass of errors connected therewith. Truth can never pass away. Men sometimes fear the Bible will be destroyed by freedom of thought and freedom of speech. Let it perish if such be the case. Truth cannot fear the light, nor are men so mad as to forsake a well of living water. All the free- thinking in the world could not destroy the Iliad ; how much less the truths of the Bible. Things at last will pass for their true value. The truths of the Bible, which have fed and comforted the noblest souls for so many cen- turies, may be trusted to last our day. The Bible has already endured the greatest abuse at the hands of its friends, who make it an idol, and would have all men do it homage. We need call none our Master but the Father of All. Yet the Bible, if wisely used, is still a blessed teacher. Spite of the superstition and folly of its worship- pers, it has helped millions to that fountain where Moses and Jesus, with the holy-hearted of all time, have stooped and been filled. We see the mistakes of its writers, for though noble and of great stature, they saw not all things. We reject their follies ; but their words of truth are still before us, to admonish, to encourage, and to bless. From time to time God raises up a prophet to lead mankind. He speaks his word as it is given him ; serves his gener- ation for the time, and falls at last, when it is expedient he should give way to the next Comforter whom God shall send. But mankind is greater than a man, and never dies. The experience of the past lives in the present. The light that shone at Nineveh, Egypt, Judea, Athens, Rome, shines no more from those points ; it is everywhere. Can Truth decease, and a good idea once made real ever 1 Proverbs xxxvi. 6, etseq. ; Jer. xlviii. 10. 250 BIBLE MADE FOK MAN. perish? Mankind, moving solemnly on its appointed road, from age to age, passes by its imperfect teachers, guided by their light, blessed by their toil, and sprinkled with their blood. But Truth, like her God, is before and above us for ever. So we pass by the lamps of the street, with wonder at their light, though but a smoky glare; they seem to change places and burn dim in the distance as we go on ; at last the solid walls of darkness shut them in. But high over our head are the unsullied stars, which never change their place, nor dim their eye. So the truths of the Scriptures will teach for ever, though the re- cord perish and its authors be forgot. They came from God, through the Soul of Man. They have exhausted neither God nor the Soul. Man is greater than the Bible. That is one ray out of the sun ; one drop from the infinite ocean. The inward Christ, which alone abideth for ever, has much to say which the Bible never told, much which the historical Jesus never knew. The Bible is made for Man, not Man for the Bible. Its truths are old as the creation, repeated more or less purely in every tongue. Let its errors and absurdities no longer be forced on the pious mind, but perish for ever ; let the Word of God come through Conscience, Keason, and holy Feeling, as light through the windows of morning. Worship with no mas- ter but God, no creed but Truth, no service but Love, and we have nothing to fear. BOOK Y. ""When the Church, without temporal support, is able to do her great works upon the unforced obedience of man, it argues a divinity about her. But when she thinks to credit and bettor her spiritual efficacy, and to win herself respect and dread, by strutting in the false vizard of worldly authority, it is evident that God is not there, but that her apostolic virtue is departed from her, and hath left her key-cold; which she perceiving, as in a decayed nature, seeks to the outward fermentations and chaf- ings of worldly help and external flourishes, to fetch, if it be possible, some motion in- to her extreme parts, or to hatch a counterfeit life with the crafty and artificial heat of jurisdiction. But it is observable, that so long as the Church, iu true imitation of Christ, can be content to ride upon an ass, carrying herself and her government along in a mean and simple guise, she may be, as he is, a Lion of the tribe of Judah, and in her humility all men, with loud hosannas, will confess her greatness. But when, despising the mighty operation of the Spirit by the weak things of this world, she thinks to make herself bigger and more considerable by using the way of civil force and jurisdiction, as she sits upon this Lion, she changes into an Ass, and instead of Hosan- nas, every man pelts her with stones and dirt." MILTON. The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy, Chnp. 111. BOOK V. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT TO THE GREATEST OF HUMAN INSTITUTIONS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. THE Catholic church, and most if not all the minor Pro- testant churches, claim superiority over Reason, Con- science, and the religious Element in the individual soul, assuming dominion over these, as the State justly assumes authority over the excessive passions and selfishness of men. Now since the former are not, like the latter, evils in themselves, the Church, to justify itself, must denounce them either as emanations from the devil, or at best as un- certain and dangerous guides. The churches make this claim of superiority, either distinctly in their creeds and formularies of faith, claiming a divine origin for themselves, or by implication, in their actions, when they condemn and blast with curses one who differs from them in religious matters, and teaches doctrines they disapprove. In virtue of this assumed superiority the Christian Church, as a whole, denies what it calls f ' salvation " to all out of the Christian Church excepting some of the Jews before Christ though their life be divine as an angel's. How often have Socrates and that long line of noble men who do honour to Greek and Roman antiquity been damned by hirelings of the Church ! The Catholic church denies sal- vation to all out of its pale, and in general each church of 254 CHURCH CONDEMNS THE HEATHEN. the straiter and more numerous sects confirms the damna- tion of all who think more liberally. Men who expose to scorn the folly of their assumptions, the Bayles, the Humes, the Voltaires ; men who will not accept their pretensions, the Newtons, the Lockes, the Priestleys, the Channings, have their warrant of eternal damnation made out and sealed ; not because their life was bad, but their faith not orthodox ! Supported by this claim of superiority on the churches' part, canonized Ignorance may blast Learning ; ecclesiastical Dulness condemn secular Genius ; and sur- pliced Impiety, with shameless forehead, may damn Reli- gion, meek and thoughtful, who out of the narrow church, walks with beautiful feet on the rugged path of mortal life, and makes real the kingdom of Heaven. For many centuries it has been a heresy in the Chris- tian churches to believe that any man out of their walls could expect less than damnation in the next world ; it is still a heresy. It is taught with great plainness by the majority of Christians, that God will damn to eternal tor- ments the majority of his children, because they are not in ' any of the Christian churches. 1 If we look into the value of this claim of superiority, we shall find the foundation on which it rests. It must be either in the Idea of a Church, or in the Fact of the Christian Church receiving this dele- gated power from a human or a divine founder. I. Of tlic Idea of a Church, We do not speak, except figuratively, of a Church of Moses or Mahomet. It seems to be necessary to the idea of a visible and historical Church, that there should be a model-man for its central figure, around whom others are to be grouped. He must be an example of the virtues Re- ligion demands ; an incarnation of God, to adopt the phrase of ancient India, which has since become so pre- valent among the Christians. Now Moses, viewed as a mythological character, and Mahomet, as an historical 1 For the opinion of the Catholics on this point, see instar omnium Bossuet, Hist, des Variations, Liv. II. et al. j for that of the Protestants, see their various confessions, &c., conveniently collected in Niemeycr, Collectio Confes- sionum in Ecclcsiis reformatis, Lips. 1840 ; Hahn, uhi sup. 103 and 143 ; Bretschneider, uhi sup. Vol. II. 204, p. 174, et seq. But see Hase, Hutte- rus redivivus, 88. JESUS A MODEL-MAN. 255 person, were not model-men, but miraculous characters whose relation to God and perfection of life each faithful soul might not share, for it was peculiar to themselves. Their character was not their own work. It was made for them by God, and therefore they could not be objects of imitation. It would be impious madness in the Mussul- man or the Jew, to aim at the perfections of the great pro- phet who stood above him. Now there is this peculiarity of the greater part of Chris- tians, that while they affirm Jesus to be God, by the divine side, they yet claim him as a model-man, on the human side, and so call him a God-man. 1 About this central figure, the Christian Church is grouped. The fourth Gos- pel represents him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, for all men. The churches also assume that he is to be imitated. But they assume this in defiance of logic, for Jesus is represented as born miraculously, endowed with miraculous powers, and separated from all others by his peculiar relation to God, in short, as a God-man. Of course he must be a model only to other God-men, who are born miraculously, endowed and defended as he was ; he is no model to men born of flesh and blood, who have none but human powers. But he is the only God-man, and so no model to any one. Still more if the Christian churches view him as the infinite God with all His Infinity, dwelling in the flesh, it is absurd to make him a model for men. But the churches have rarely stopped at an absurd- ity. They " call things that are not as if they were/' Yet since the life of Jesus appears so entirely human in his friendships, sorrows, love, prayer, temptation, triumph, and death, and the Apostles now and then represent him as the great example the churches could not forbear making* him the model-man. Hence the homilies of the Preacher ; the disquisition of the Schoolmen ; the glorify- ing treatise of the Mystic ; the painting of the Artist, giving us his Triumph, Transfiguration, Farewell Meeting, and Crucifixion all aim to bring the Great Exemplar dis- tinctly before human consciousness, in the most prominent 1 This term God-man is of Heathen origin, and involves a contradiction as much as the term Circle- triangle. The common mistake seems to arise from taking a figure of speech for a matter-of-fact, which leads to worse confusion in Theology than it would in Geometry. 256 JESUS FOUNDED NO CHURCH. scenes of his life, and always as a man, that the lesson of divinity might not be lost. Now if he be this model man, and the churches are but assemblies of men and women grouped about him, to be instructed by his words, and warned by his example, it is not easy to see what authority they naturally have over the individual soul. II. OftJic Fact of the Christian Churches. If Jesus were but a wise and good man, no word of his could have authority over Reason and Conscience. At best, it could repeat their oracles, and therefore he could never found an institution which should be Master of the Soul. But even if he were what the churches pretend, it does not appear that he has given this authority to any on earth. If we may credit the Gospels, Jesus established no organization ; founded no church in any common sense of that term. He taught wherever men would listen ; to numbers in the synagogue, temple, and fields ; to a few in the little cottage at Rcthavy, :fO* in the fisher's boat. He gave no instruction to his disciples to found a church ; he sent them forth to preach the glad tidings to all man- kind : the Spirit within was their calling and authority ; Jesus their example ; God their guide, protector, and head. In all the ministrations of Jesus, there is nothing which approaches the formation of a church. What was' freely received was to be given as freely. Baptism and the Supper were accidents. He appointed no particular body of men as teachers, but sent forth his disciples, all of them, to proclaim the truth. The twelve had no actual authority over others ; no preeminence in spreading the Gospel. Had they a right to bind and to loose ? Let Paul 'answer the question. 1 The first martyr, the most active Evan- gelist, and the greatest Apostle were not of the twelve. Excepting Peter, James, and John, the rest did little that we know of. 2 Did Jesus say as Matthew relates that 1 Galat. i. ii. et al. ; Strauss, ch. v. ; Schwegler, Nachapost. Zeitalter, Tub. 1846, Vol. I. p. 114, et seq. ; Baur, Paulus der Apostel; Stuttgart, 1846, p. 104, et seq. 2 See in Gieseler, Text-Book of Eccles. Hist., Philad. 1836, Vol. I. 25 27. DEFINITION OF A CHEISTIAN CHURCH. 257 lie would found a church on Simon Peter ? It must have been a sandy foundation. 1 Paul did not fear to withstand him to the face. Jesus appointed neither place nor day for worship. All the commands of the decalogue are reinforced in the New Testament, excepting that which enjoins the Sabbath ; all the rest are natural laws. Reli- gion with Jesus was a worship in spirit and in truth ; a service at all times and in every place. He fell back on natural Religion and Morality,, demanding a divine life, purity without and piety within ; but he left the When,, the Where, and the How to take care of themselves. A Church, in our sense of the term, is not so much as named in the Gospels. But Religion, above all emotions, brings men together. Uniting around this central figure, bound by the strongest of ties, the spiritual sympathies fired with admiration for the great soul of Jesus, relying on his authority, there grew up, unavoidably, a body of men and women. These the Apostles call the Church of Christ. Religion, as it descends into practice, takes a concrete form, which depends on the character and condition of the men who receive it : hence come the rites, dogmas, and ceremonies which mark the Church of this or that age and nation. The Christian Church may be defined as a Body of Men and Women united in a common regard for Jesus, assem- bling for the purposes of worship and religious instruction. It has the powers delegated by individuals who compose it. a 1 Math. xvi. 18, 19. See the various opinions of interpreters of this passage so improperly thrust into the mouth of Jesus, in De Wette, Exegetische Hand- buch zur N. T. See Origen's ingenious gloss. 2 See the various opinions of the Catholics and Protestants on this point collected in "Winer, Comparativ Darstellung der Lehrhegriffs, Leip. 1837, 19, on the formation of the church. See much valuable matter in Eitsehl. Die Entstehung der Altkatholischen Kirche, Bonn, 1850, Buch II. 17 258 CHAPTER H. THE GRADUAL FORMATION OP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCIT. IN the earliest times of Christianity there were no regular systems of doctrine, to bind men together. The truths of natural Religion, the special forms of Judaism, and a somewhat indefinite belief in Jesus, were the car- dinal points and essentials of Christianity. The public religious service seems perfectly free. Where the spirit of the Lord was, there was liberty. No one controlled another's freedom. The much vaunted " form of sound words " was notoriously different with different teachers. Paul, who came late to Christianity, boasts that he received his doctrine straightway from God, not from those "who were apostles before him," whom he seems to hold in small esteem. The decision of the council at Jerusalem, even if it ever took place, did not bind him. The practical side of Christianity was developed more than the theoretical. The effect of the truth proclaimed with freedom, was soon manifest ; for the errors and superstition still clinging to the mind of the apostles could not chain mankind. Love in- creased ; Christianity bore fruit ; the Church* spread wide its arms. It emancipated men from the yokes of the ancient sacerdotal class ; but there was a fierce struggle in the new congregations before the Jewish forms could be given up. The Christians were " a royal priesthood ; " all were " kings and priests/'' appointed to offer a " spiritual sacri- fice." The apostles who had seen Jesus, or understood his doctrine, naturally took the lead of men they sought to instruct. As the number of Christians enlarged, some organization was needed for practical purposes. The pat- tern was taken from the Jewish Synagogue, which claimed no divine authority ; not from the Temple, whose officers made such a claim. Hence there were elders and deacons. THE EAELY CHURCH. 259 One of tlie elders was an overseer, like the {{ Speaker " in a legislative assembly. But all these were chosen by the people, and as much of the people after their choice as before. There was no clergy and no laity ; all were sons of God, recipients of inspiration from him. The Holy Ghost fell upon all, the same in kind, only divine in degree and mode of manifestation. The wish of Moses was complied with, and God put his spirit upon each of them ; the prediction of Joel was fulfilled, and their sons and their daughters prophesied ; the word of Jeremiah had come to pass, and God put his Law in their inward parts, and wrote it on their heart, and they all knew the Lord from the least to the greatest. They were " anointed of God," and " knew all things ; " they ' ' needed not that any man should teach them." Christ and God were in all holy hearts. The overseer, or bishop, claimed no power over the people ; he was only first among his peers ; the greatest only because the servant of all. Even Apollos, Cephas, Paul, who were they but servants, through whom others believed ? The bishop had no authority to bind and loose in heaven or earth ; no right to enforce a doc- trine. He was not the standard of faith ; that was " the Mind of the Lord," which He would reveal to all who sought it. There was no monopoly of teaching on the part of the elders. A bishop, says the author of the Epistle to Timothy, " must be able to teach," not the only teacher, not necessarily a preacher at all ; but a minister of silence as well as speech. Inspiration was free to all men. " Quench not the Spirit ; " " prove all things ; " " hold fast what is good ; " " covet earnestly the best gifts," these were the watchwords. Under Fetichism, all could consult their God, and be inspired; miracles took place continually. Under Polytheism, only a few could come to God at first hand ; they alone were inspired, and miracles were rare. Under Christian Monotheism, God dwelt in all faithful hearts ; old covenants and priest- hoods were done away, and so all were inspired. 1 1 On the state of the early Church, and the Bishops, Elders, and Deacons, which is still a matter of controversy, see Campbell, Lectures on Ecc. Hist., Lee. I. XIII. ; Gieseler, ubi sup. 29 ; Mosheim, ubi sup. Book I. Art. II. chap. ii. ; Neander, Allg. Geschicbte der Christlichen Religion, Hamb. 1835, Vol. f. Part I. chap. ii. ; Gibbon, Chap. XV. ; Schleiermacher, Geschichte der Christ- lichen Kirche, Berlin, 1840, p. 86, et seq. Among the modern writers Mil- 2 GO CANON OF SCRIPTURE. The New Testament was not written, and the Old Testa- ment was but the shadow of good things to come, and since they had come, the children of the free woman were not to sit in the shadow, but to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. Man, the heir of all things, long time kept under task-masters and governors, had now come of age and taken possession of his birth- right. The decision of a majority of delegates assembled in a council, bound only themselves. Then the body of men and women worshipping in any one place was subject neither to its own officers, nor to the Church at large ; nor to the Scriptures of the Old or the New Testament. No man on earth, no organization, no book was master of the Soul. Each Church made out its canon of Scripture as well as it could. 1 Some of our canonical writings were excluded, and apocryphal writings used in their stead. Indeed, respecting this matter of Scripture, there has never been a uniform canon among all Christians. The Bible of the Latin differs from that of the Greek Church, and contains thirteen books the more. The Catholic differs from the Protestant ; the early Syrians from their contemporaries ; the Abyssinians from all other churches, it seems. Ebionites would not receive the be- ginning of Matthew and Luke ; the Marcionites had a Gos- pel of their own. The Socinians, and perhaps others, left off the whole of the Old Testament, 2 or counted it unneces- sary. The followers of Swedenborg do not find a spiritual sense in all the books of the canon. Critics yearly make inroads upon the canon, striking out whole books or ob- noxious passages, as not genuine. In the first ages of Christianity, the Bible was a subordinate thing. In modern times it has been made a vehicle to carry any doctrine the expositor sees fit to interpret into it. 3 The first preachers of Christianity fell back on the authority of man takes the other side. History of Christianity, Lond. 1840, Book II. chap. ii. p. 63, et seq. See the recent works of Gfrorer, Hase, Schwcgler. Baur, Schliemann, Ritschl, Staudenmaier, Rotheusee, Hilgenfeld, &c., Stanley and Jowett and Martineau. 1 See in Eusebius, H. E. III. 39, the use that Papias makes of Tradition ; he stood on the debatable ground between the Bible and Tradition, and con- tinued to mythologize. Ewald, Jahrbiicher for ISol, Ch. XXXIII. 2 See Faustus Socinus, ubi sup. p. 271, et al. 3 See, on this point, some ingenious remarks of Hegel, Philosophic der Re- ligion, Vol. I. p. 29, et seq. CORRUPTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 261 Jesus ; appealed to tlie moral sense of Mankind ; applied the doctrines of Christianity to life as well as they could, and with much zeal, and some superstition and many mis- takes, developed the practical side of Christianity much more than its theoretical side. But even in the Apostles, Christianity had lost some- what of its simplicity, much of the practical character which marks the teaching of Jesus in the Synoptics. The doc- trine of Paul was far removed from the doctrine of Jesus. It was not plain Religion and Morality coming from the absolute source, and proceeding by the absolute method to the absolute end. It is taught on the ' ' authority of Christ." The Jews must believe he was the Messiah of the prophets. ' ' Salvation " is connected with a belief in his person. " Neither is there salvation by any other," says the author who takes the name of Peter; the fourth Gospel makes Jesus declare " No man cometh unto the Father but by me," " all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers." The Jewish doctrine of "Re- demption " and reconciliation by sacrifice appears more or less in the genuine works of the Apostles, and very clearly in the Epistle to the Hebrews. We may explain some of the obnoxious passages as " figures of speech," referring to the " Christ born in us ; " but a fair interpretation leaves it pretty certain the writers added somewhat to the simpler form of Jesus, though they might not share the gross doctrines since often taught in their name. Christ is in some measure a mythological being even with Paul, he was with the Jews in the desert, and assisted at the creation. The Jesus of history fades out and the Christ of fiction takes his place. The Pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection of the body appears undeniably ; a local heaven and a day of judgment, in which Jesus is to appear in person and judge the world, are very clearly taught. The fourth Gospel speaks of Jesus as he never speaks of himself; the Platonic doctrine of the Logos appears there- in. We may separate the apostolic doctrine into three classes, the Judaizing, the Alexandrine, and the Pauline, each differing more or less essentially from the simple mode of Religion of the Synoptics. 1 Already with the 1 The Epistle to the Hebrews and the earlier Apocryphal Gospels and Epis- tles are valuable monuments of the opinions of the Christians at the time they 262 A EITUAL WORSHIP. Apostles Jesus lias become in part deified, liis personality confounded with the infinite God. 1 Was it not because of the very vastness and beauty of soul that was in him ? The private and peculiar doctrines of the early Christians appear in strange contrast with the gentle precepts of love to man and God, in which Jesus sums up the essentials of Religion. But, alas, what is arbitrary and peculiar in each form of worship, is of little value ; the best things are the commonest, for no man can lay a new foundation, nor add to the old, more than the wood, hay, and stubble of his own folly. The great excellence of Jesus was in restoring natural Religion and Morality to their true place ; an ex- cellence which even the Apostles but poorly understood. 2 In their successors Christianity was a very different thing, and in the course of a few years, alas, a very few, it appeared in the mass of the Churches, an idle mum- mery ; a collection of forms and superstitious rites. Hea- thenism and Judaism with all sorts of superstitious ab- surdities in their train, came into the Church. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem clung to the most obnoxious feature of Judaism. Christianity was the stalking-horse of ambition. A man stepped at once from the camp to the Bishop's mitre, and brought only the piety of the Roman Legion into the Church. The doctrine of many a Christian writer was less pure and beautiful than the faith of Seneca and Cicero, not to name Zoroaster, Pythagoras, and Socra- tes. After less than a century there was a distinction be- tween clergy and laity. The former ere long became ' Lords over God's heritage/' not " ensamples unto the flock." They were masters of the doctrine ; could bind and loose on earth and in heaven. The majority in a council bound the minority, and the voices of the clergy determined what was " the mind of the Lord." Thus the clergy became the Church, and were set above Reason and Conscience in the individual man. They were chosen by were written. It is a curious fact that circumcision was rigidly enforced by tlio Bishops in the Church at Jerusalem for more than a century after the death of Christ; many of the laity also wepe circumcised. Sulpitius Sevcrus, Lib. II. 1 See Dorner and Baur ; also Mass. Quarterly Review, Vol. III. Art. V., on the Christologies of N. T. 2 See the impartial remarks of Schlosser, respecting the origin and subsequent fate of Christianity, in his Geschichte der alien Welt, Vol. III. Pt. i. p. 219 274, Pt. ii. p. 110129, 381416 NUMBERS NO TEST OP TRUTH. 263 themselves, and responsible to none on earth. Private inspiration was reckoned dangerous. Freedom of con- science was forbidden ; he who denied the popular faith was accursed. The organization of the Church was then copied from the Jewish temple, not the synagogue. The minister was a priest, and stood between God and the people ; the Bishop, an high-priest after the order of Aaron, his kingdom of this world. He was the " Suc- cessor of the Apostles ; " the Vicegerent of Christ. Men came to the clerical office with no Religious qualification. 1 Baptism atoned for all sins, and was sometimes put off till the last hour, that the Christian might give full swing to the flesh, and float into heaven at last on the lustral waters of baptism. Bits of bread from the " Lord's table " were a talisman to preserve the faithful from all dangers by sea and land. Prayers were put up for the dead ; the cross was worshipped ; the bones of the martyrs could work miracles, cast out devils, calm a tempest, and even raise the dead. The Eucharist was forced into the mouths of children before they could say, "my father, and my mother.-" The sign of the cross and the "sacred oil" were powerful as Canidia's spell. In point of toleration the Christians went backward for a time, far behind the Athenians and men of Rome. 2 The clergy assumed power over Conscience ; power to admit to Heaven, or condemn to hell; and not only decided in matters of mummery, whereof they made " divine service " to consist, but de- creed what men should believe in order to obtain eternal life ; an office the sublimest of all the sons of men, modest because he was great, never took upon himself. They collected the writings of the New Testament, and decided what should be the " Standard of Faith/' and what not. But their canon was arbitrary, including some spurious books of small value, and rejecting others more edifying. However, they allowed some latitude in the interpretation of the works they had canonized. But next they went further, and developed systematically the doctrines of Scripture, on points deemed the most important, such as 1 The histories of Synesius and Ambrose afford a striking picture of the clerical class in their time. 2 See the writings of Tertullian and Cyprian, passim, for proofs of what is said above. 264 SIN IN THE CHURCH. the "nature of God " and Christ. Thus the "mind of the Lord " was determined and laid down,, so that he might read that ran. The mysticism of Plato, and the dialectic subtleties of the Stagirite, afforded matter for the pulpit and councils to discuss. This method of deciding dark questions by plurality of votes has always been popular in Christendom. In some things the majority are always right ; in some always wrong. The four hundred prophets of Baal have a " lying spirit " in them ; Micaiah alone is in the right. The col- lege of Padua and the Sorbonne would have voted down Galileo and Newton, a hundred to one ; but what then ? Majority of voices proves little in morals or mathematics. A single man in Jerusalem on a certain time had more moral and religious truth than Herod and the Sanhedrim. Synods of Dort and assemblies of Divines settle nothing but their own opinions, which will be reversed the next century, or stand, as now, a snare to the conscience of pious men. In the early times of Christianity, the teachers in general were men of little learning, imbued with the prejudices and vain philosophies of the times ; men with passions, some of them quite untamed, notwithstanding their pious zeal. In the first century no eminent man is reckoned among the Christians. But soon doctrines, that played a great part in the heathen worship, and which do not ap- pear in the teaching of Jesus, were imposed upon men, on pain of damnation in two worlds. They are not yet ex- tinct. Rites were adopted from the same source. The scum of idolatry covered the well of living water. The Flesh and the Devil sat down at the " Lord's Table " in the Christian Church, and with forehead unabashed, pushed away the worthy bidden guest. What passed for Chris- tianity in many churches during the fourth and a large part of the third century was a vile superstition. The image of Christ was marred. Men paid God in Caesar's pence. The shadows of great men, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato ; yes, the shades of humbler men, of name unknown to fame, might have come up, disquieted like Samuel, from their grave, and spit upon the superstition of the Chris- tians defiling Persia, and Athens, and Rome. It deserved THE WORLD MOVES SLOW. 265 the mockery it met. Christianity was basely corrupted long before it gained the Roman Palace. Had it not been depraved, when would it have reached king's courts ; in the time of Constantino, or of Louis XIV. ? The quarrels of the Bishops ; the contentions of the councils ; the super- stition of the laymen and the despotism and ambition of the clergy in general ; the ascetic doctrine taught as morality; the monastic institutions with their plan of a divine life, are striking signs of the times, and contrast wonderfully with that simple Nazarene and his lowly obe- dience to God and manly love of his brothers. Yet here and there were men who fed with faith and works the flame of piety, which, rising from their lowly hearth, streamed up towards heaven, making the shadows of superstition and of sin look strange and monstrous as they fell on many a rood of space. These were the men who saved the Sodom of the Church. Did Christianity fail ? The Christianity of Christ is not one thing and human nature another. It is human Virtue, human Re- ligion, man in his highest moments ; the effect no less than the cause of human development, and can never fail till man ceases to be man. Under all this load of super- stition the heart of faith still beat. How could the world forget its old institutions, riot, and sin, in a moment ? It is not thus the dull fact of the world's life yields to the Divine Idea of a man. The rites of the public worship ; the clerical class ; the stress laid on dogmas and forms ; all this was a tribute to the indolence and sensuality of mankind. The asceticism, celibacy, mortification of the body, contempt of the present life ; the hatred of all inno- cent pleasure ; the scorn of literature, science, and art, these are the natural reaction of mankind, who had been bid to fill themselves with merely sensual delight. The lives of Mark Antony, Sallust, Crassus ; of Julius Caesar, Nero, and Domitian, explain the origin of asceticism and monastic retirement better than folios will do it. The writings of Petronius Arbiter, of Appuleius and Lucian, render necessary the works of Tertullian, Cyprian, Jerome, and John of Damascus. Individuals might come swiftly out of Egyptian darkness into the light of Religion, but the world moves slow, and oscillates from one extreme to 266 POWER OF PERSECUTION. the opposite. 1 For a time the leaven of Christianity seemed lost in the lump of human sin ; but it was doing its great work in ways not seen by mortal eyes. The most profound of all revolutions must require centuries for its work. The good never dies. The Persecutions directed by tyrannical emperors against the new faith, only helped the work. What is written in blood is widely read and not soon for- got. Could the "holy alliance" of Ease, Hypocrisy, and Sin put down Christianity, which proclaimed the One God, the equality and brotherhood of all men ? Did Force ever prevail in the long run against Reason or Religion ? The ashes of a Polycarp and a Justin sow the earth for a Cad- mean harvest of heroes of the soul ; a man leaving wife and babes and dying a martyr's death this is an eloquence the dullest can understand. If a fire is to spread in the forest let all the winds blow upon it. Even a bad thing is not put down by abuse. However, to see the earnest of that vast result Christianity is destined to work out for the nations, we must not look at king's courts, in Byzantium or Paris ; not in the chairs of bishops, noble or selfish ; not at the martyr's firmness when his flesh is torn off, for the unflinching Tuscarora surpasses " the noble army of martyrs " in fortitude ; but in the common walks of life, its every-day trials ; in the sweet charities of the fireside and the street ; in the self-denial that shares its loaf with the distressful ; the honest heart which respects others as itself. Looking deeper than the straws of the surface we see a stream of new life is in the world, and, though choked with mud, not to be dammed up. The history of Christianity reveals the majestic pre- eminence of its earthly founder. In him amid all his Mes- sianic expectations, there shines a clear religious light Love to God, Love to Man. Come to the later times of the Apostles, the sky is overcast with dogmatic clouds, and doubtful twilight begins. Take another step, and the darkness deepens. Come down to Justin Martyr, it is deeper still ; to Ireneeus, Tertullian, Cyprian ; to the times of the Council of Nice; read the letters of Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, the Apologies of Christianity, the fierce bickerings of strong men about matters of no mo- 1 But see how reluctantly Synesius comes to the duties of a hishop. Ep. 105, cited in Hampden, Bampton Lectures, Lend. 1837, p. 407, et seq. THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHEIST. 237 ment, we should think it the midnight of the Christian Church, did we not know that after this c ' woe was past/' there came another woe ; that there was a refuge of lies remaining where the blackness of darkness fell, and the shadow of death lingered long and would not be lifted up. It is not necessary to go into the painful task of tracing the obvious decline of Christianity,, and its absorption in the organization of the Church, which assumed the Keys of Heaven, and bound and tortured men on earth. It is beautiful to see the free piety of Paul, amid all his dog- matic subtleties, a man to whom the world owes so much, 1 and the happy state of the earlier churches ; when no one controlled another, except by Wisdom and Love when each was his own priest, with no middle-man to forestall inspiration, and stand between him and God ; when each could come to the Father, and get truth at first hand if he would. Jesus would break every yoke, but new yokes were soon made, and in his name. He bade men pray as he did ; with no mediator, nothing between them and the Father of all ; making each place a temple and each act a divine service. With the doctrines of his Religion on their tongue ; the example of Jesus to stimu- late and encourage them ; the certain conviction that Truth and God were on their side ; going into the world of men sick of their worn-out rituals, and hungering and thirsting after a religion they could confide in, live and die by ; having stout hearts in their bosoms which danger could not daunt, nor gold bribe, nor contempt shame, nor death appal, nor friends seduce no wonder the Apostles prevailed ! An earnest man, though rude as Bohme, and Bunyan, and Fox, even in our times, coming in the name of Religion, speaking its word of fire, and appealing to what is deepest and divinest in our heart, never lacks auditors. How the zeal of the Mormons makes converts. No wonder the Apostles conquered the world. It were a miracle if they had not put to flight " armies of the aliens," the makers of u silver shrines," and "them that sold and bought in the temple/' Man moves man the world round, and Eeligion multiplies itself as the Banian tree. Men with all the science of the nineteenth century, but no Re- ligion, can scarce hold a village together, while every re- 1 See Parker, ubi sup., p. 165, et seq. 268 INTRODUCTION OP THE CLEEGY. ligious fanatic, from Mahomet to Mormon, finds followers plenty as flowers in summer, and true as steel. Can no man divine the cause ? Blessed was the Christian Church while all were brothers. But soon as the Trojan Horse of an organized priesthood was dragged through the ruptured wall, there came out of it, stealthily, men cunning as Ulysses, cruel as Diomed, arrogant as Samuel, exclusive and jealous, armed to the teeth in the panoply of worldliness. The little finger of the Christian priesthood was found thicker than the loins of their fathers the flamens of Jupiter, Quirinus, the Le- vitical priests of Jehovah. Then Belief began to take the place of Life ; the priest of the man ; the Church of home ; the Flesh and the Devil of the Word and the Holy Spirit. Divine service was mechanism ; Religion priestcraft ; Christianity a thing for kings to swear by, and to help priests to wealth and fame. But a seed remained that never bowed the knee to the idol. Righteous men, they were cursed by the Church, and blessed by the God of Truth. We are to blame no class of men, neither the teamed who were hostile to Christianity, nor the priest who assumed this power for the loaves and fishes' sake ; they were men, and did as others, with their light and temptations, would have done. Looking with human eyes, it is not possible to see how the evil could have been avoided. The wickedness long intrenched in the world ; that under-current of sin which runs through the nations ; the low civilization of the race ; the selfishness of strong men, their awful wars ; the hideous sins of slavery, poly- gamy, the oppression of the weak ; the power of lust, brutality, and every sin, these were obstacles that even Christianity could not sweep away in a moment, though strongest of the historic daughters of God. Men could sail safely for some years in the light of Jesus, though seen more and more dimly. But as the stream of time swept them further down, and the cold shadow from mountains of hoary crime came over them anew, they felt the dark- ness. Let us judge these men lightly. Low as the Chris- tian Church was in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cen- turies, it yet represented the best interests of mankind as no other institution. Individuals but not societies rose above it, and soared away to the Heaven of Peace ; amid IDEA OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 269 its cry of excommunication. Let us give the Church its due. Now as no institution exists and claims the unforced homage of men unless it have some real, permanent excel- lence, in virtue of which alone it holds its place, being hindered, not helped, by the accidental error, falsity, and sin connected therewith ; and since the Christian Church has always stood, in spite of its faults, and filled such a place in human affairs as no other institution, it becomes us to look for the Idea it represents, knowing there must be a great truth to stand so long, extend so wide, and up- hold so much that is false. CHAPTER III. THE FUNDAMENTAL AND DISTINCTIVE IDEA OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DIVISION OF THE CHRISTIAN SECTS. ALL forms of conscious religion have this common point, an acknowledged sense of dependence on God, and each has some special peculiarity of its own, which distinguishes it from all others. Now the essential peculiarity of Chris- tianity is, indeed, that moral and religious character already spoken of; 1 but the formal and theoretic peculiarity, which contradistinguishes it from all other religions, is this doc- trine : That God has made the highest revelation of him- self to Man through Jesus of Nazareth. This doctrine which does not proceed from the absolute character, but from the historical origin of Christianity is the common ground on which all Christian sects, the Catholic and the Quaker, the Anabaptist, the Rationalist, and the Mormon, are agreed. But as this is logically affirmed by all theore- tical Christians, it is as logically denied by all not theore- tical Christians. Thus the Jews and Mahometans think their prophets superior to Jesus. When we find a man who is a higher "incarnation of God;" one who teaches 1 Above, Book III. Ch. iii. 270 CHRISTIAN PARTIES. and lives out more of Religion and Morality than Jesus, we are bound to admit that fact, and then cease to be theo- retical Christians. Men may now be essential and prac- tical Christians, if they regard Christianity as the Absolute Religion and live it out ; or if they live the Absolute Reli- gion and give it no name, though not theoretical, may still be essential Christians. This distinctive character of Christianity appears in va- rious forms in the different sects. Thus some call Jesus the Infinite God; others the First of Created Beings; others a miraculous Being of a mixed nature, and hence a God-man, the identity of Man and God; others still, a mortal man, the most perfect Representation of Goodness and Religion. These may all be regarded, excepting the last, as more or less mythological statements of this dis- tinctive doctrine. Now if Christianity be taken for the Absolute Religion, with this theoretical peculiarity, and developed in a man, it has an influence on all his active powers. It affects the Mind, he makes a Theology ; the Conscience, he lives a Manly Life; the Imagination, he devises a Symbol, rite, pen- ance, or ceremony. The Theology, the Life, and the Symbol, must depend on the natural endowments and artificial cul- ture of the individual Christian, and as both gifts and the development thereof differ in different men, it is plain that various sects must naturally be formed, each of which, setting out from the first principle common to all religions, and embracing the great theoretical doctrine of Chris- tianity, which distinguishes it from all not-Christian reli- gions, has, besides, a certain peculiar doctrine of its own which separates it from all other Christian sects. These sects are the necessary forms Religion takes in connection with the varying condition of men. The Christian Church as a whole is made up of these parties, all of whom taken together, with their Theologies, Life, and Symbols, repre- sent the amount of absolute Religion which has been de- veloped in Christendom, in the speculative, practical, or sesthetic way. To understand the Christian Church, there- fore, we must understand each of its parties, their truth and error, their virtue and vice, and then form an appre- ciation of the whole matter. In making the estimate, however, we may neglect such THE CATHOLIC PAETY. 271 portions of the Christian Church as have had no influence on the present development of Christianity amongst us. Thus we need not consider the Greek and Oriental churches after the sixth century, as their influence upon the rest of Christendom ceased to be considerable, in consequence of the superior practical talents of the Western churches. 1 The remaining portions may be classified in various ways ; but, for the present purpose, the following seems the best arrangement, namely : I. THE CATHOLIC PARTY. IT. THE PROTESTANT PARTY. III. THOSE NEITHER CATHOLICS NOR PROTESTANTS. These three will be treated each in its turn. CHAPTER IV. THE CATHOLIC PARTY. THE Catholic Church is the oldest, and in numbers still the most powerful of all Christian organizations. It grew as the Christian spirit extended among the ruins of tho old world, by the might of the truth borne in its bosom overpowering the old worship, the artifice of priests, tho selfishness of the affluent, the might of the strong, the cherished forms of a thousand years, the impotent armies of purple kings. It rose from small beginnings. No one knows who first brought Christianity to Rome ; nor who planted the seed of that hierarchic power which soon be- came a tree, and at length a whole forest, stretching to the world's end, enfolding chapels for the pious, and dens for robbers. The practical spirit of old Rome came into the Church. Its power grew as Christian freedom de- clined. The mantle of that giant genius, which made the seven-hilled city conqueror of the world ; the belt of power which girt the loins of her mighty men, Fabius, Regulus, 1 See Sermons of Theism, &c., Introduction. 272 GREEK AND LATIN CHURCH. Cicero, Caesar, passed to the Christian bishops, as that genius fled from the earth, howling over his crumbled work. The spirit of those ancient heroes came into the Church their practical skill ; their obstinate endurance ; their power of speech with words like battles ; their lust of power ; their resolution which nothing could overturn, or satisfy. The Greek Christians were philosophic, literary ; they could sling stones at a hair's-breadth. In the early times they had all the advantage of position ; ' ' the chairs of the apostles ; " the Christian Scriptures written in their tongue. Theirs were the great names of the first centuries, Polycarp, Justin, the Clements, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories, Chrysostom. But the Latin Church had the practical skill, the soul to dare, and the arm to execute : its power therefore ad- vanced step by step. Its chiefs were dexterous men, with the coolness of Caesar, and the zeal of Hannibal. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, would have been powerful men any- where in the court of Sardanapalus, or a college of Jesuits. They brought the world into the Church. 'Twas the world's gain, but the Church's loss. The Emperor soon learned to stoop his conquering eagles to the spiritual power, which shook the capital. The Church held divided sway with him. The spiritual sceptre was wrested from his hands. Constantine fled to Byzantium as much to escape the Latin clergy as to defend himself from the war- riors of the North. 1 Now the Catholic Church held to the first truths of Re- ligion and of Christianity, as before shown. Its peculiar and distinctive doctrine was this, that God still acts upon and inspires mankind, being in some measure immanent therein. This doctrine is broad enough to cover the world, powerful enough to annihilate the arrogance of any Church. But the Roman party limited this doctrine by adding, that God did not act by a natural law, directly on the mind and conscience, heart and soul, of each man, who sought faithfully to approach Him, but acted miracu- 1 See the external causes of the superiority of the Roman Church, in Rehm, Geschichte des Mittelalters, Vol. I. p. 516, et seq. Constantine established public worship on Fridays and Sundays in his array, appointing Priests and Deacons, and providing a Tent for religious purposes in every Numents. Sozo- men, H. E. I. C. 8. IDEA OF THE CATHOLICS. 273 lously, through, the organization of the Church on its members and no others ; and on them, not because they were men, but instruments of the Church ; not in propor- tion to a man's gifts, or the use of his gifts, but as he stood high or low in the Church. The humblest priest had a little inspiration, enough to work the greatest of miracles ; the bishop had more ; the Pope, as head of the Church, must be infallibly inspired, so that he could neither act wrong, think wrong, nor feel wrong. The Absolute Keligion and Morality necessarily sets out from the absolute source, the spirit of God in the soul revealing truth. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, starts from a finite source, the limited work of inspired men, namely, the Traditional Word preserved in Scripture and the unscriptural tradition, both written and not writ- ten. But then, laying down this indisputable truth, that a book must be interpreted by the same spirit in which it is written, and therefore that a book written by miraculous and superhuman inspiration can be understood only by men inspired in a similar way, and limiting the requisite inspiration to itself, it assumed the office of sole interpreter of the Scriptures ; refused the Bible to the laymen, because they, as uninspired, could not understand it, and gave thorn only its own interpretation. Thus it attempted to mediate between mankind and the Bible. Then again, relying on the unscriptural tradition pre- served in the Fathers, the Councils, the organization and memory of the Church, it makes this of the same authority as the Scriptures themselves, and so claims divine sanction for doctrines which are neither countenanced by "human Reason," as true, nor " divine Revelation," as contained in the Bible. This is a point of great importance, as it will presently appear. Now the Catholic Church was logically consistent with itself in both these pretensions. Each individual Church, at first, received what Scripture it saw fit, and interpreted the Word as well as it could. Next the synods decreed for the mass of Churches both the canon of Scripture and the doctrine it contained. The Catholic Church continued to exercise these privileges. Then again, taking the common notion, the Church had a logical and speculative basis for its claim to inspiration, though certainly none in 18 274 THE CHURCH'S THREE SOURCES. point of fact. If God miraculously inspired Jesus to create a new religion, Peter, Paul, and John to preach it, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke to record the words and works of Christ and of the Christians, when did the miracu- lous inspiration cease ? With the Apostles, or their suc- cessors ; the direct, or the remote ? Did it cease at all ? It did not appear. Besides, how could the inspired works be interpreted except by men continually inspired ; how could the Church, founded and built by miraculous action, be preserved by the ordinary use of man's powers ? Wero Jude and James inspired and Clement and Ambrose left with no open vision ? Such a conclusion could not come from a comparison of their works. Did not Jesus promise to be with his Church to the end of the world ? Hero was the warrant for the assumptions of the Catholic party. So, with logical consistency, it claimed a perpetual, miracu- lous, and exclusive inspiration, on just as good ground as it allowed the claim of earlier men to the same inspiration ; it made Tradition the master over the soul, on just the same pretension that the Bible is made the only certain rule of faith and practice. As the only interpreter of Scripture, the exclusive keeper of tradition, as the vicar of God, and alone inspired by Him, it stood between man on the one side, and the Bible, Antiquity, and God, on the other side. The Church was sacred, for God was im- manent therein ; the world profane, deserted of Deity. The Church admits three sources of moral and religious truth, namely : 1. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and Apocrypha. It declares these are good and wise, but am- biguous and obscure, and by themselves alone incomplete, not containing the whole of the doctrine, and requiring an inspired expositor to set forth their contents. 2. The unscriptural Tradition, oral and written. This is needed to supply what is left wanting through the im- perfection of Scripture, and to teach the more recondite doctrines of Christianity, such as the Trinity, Redemption, the Authority of the Church, Purgatory, Intercession, tho use of Confession, Penance, and the like, and also to ex- plain the Scriptures themselves. But Tradition also is im- perfect, ambiguous, full of apparent contradictions, and MASTER OF THE SOUL. 275 impossible for the laity to understand, except through the inspired class, who alone could reconcile its several parts. 3. The direct Inspiration of God acting on the official members of the Church ; that is, on its councils, priests, and above all on its infallible head. The Church restricted direct inspiration to itself, and even within its walls the action of God was limited, for if an individual of the clerical order taught what was hostile to the doctrine of the Church, or not contained therein, his inspiration was referred to the Devil, not God, and the man burned, not canonized. Thus inspiration was sub- jected to a very severe process of verification even within the Church itself. It forbids mankind to trust Reason, Conscience, and the religious Element ; to approach God through these, and get truth at first hand, as Moses, Je- sus, and the other great men of antiquity had done. For this the layman must depend on the clergy, and the clergyman must depend on the whole Church, repre- sented by the Fathers or Councils, and idealized in its head. Thus the Church was the judge of the doctrine and the practice ; invested with the Keys of Heaven and Hell ; with power to bind and loose, remit sins, or retain them, and authority to demand absolute submission from the world, or punish with fagots and hell men who would not believe as the Church commanded. In this way it would control private inspiration. But not to leave the heretics hopeless, or drive them to violence, it assumes the right to restore them, and pardon their sins, on condition of sub- mission and penance. The Saviour, the Martyrs, the Saints, had not only expiated their own sins, but per- formed works of supererogation, and so established a sink- ing fund to liquidate the sins of the world. This deposit was at the disposal of the Church, who could therewith, aided by the intercession of the beatified spirits, purchase the sal- vation of a penitent heretic, though his sins were as crimson. The Church assumed mastery over all souls. The in- dividual was nothing; the Church was all. Its power stood on a miraculous basis ; its authority was derived from God. The humblest priests, in celebrating the mass, performed a miracle greater than all the wonders of Jesus, for he only changed water into wine, and fed five thou- sand men with five loaves; but the priest, by a single 276 THE CHURCH AND HERETICS. word, changed bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Almighty God. It styles itself God's vicegerent on earth, and as Jesus was a temporary and partial incarnation of the deity, so itself is a perfect and eternal incarnation thereof. Thus the Christian Church became a Theocracy. It was far more consistent than the Jewish Theocracy, for that allowed private inspiration, and therefore was per- petually troubled by the race of prophets, who never allow- ed the priests their own way, but cried out with most rousing indignation against the Levites and their followers, and refused to be put down. Besides, the Jewish Theo- cracy limited infallibility to God and the Law, which was to be made known to all, and though inspired could be easily understood by the simple son of Israel : it never claimed that for the Priesthood. Now there are but two scales in the balance of power: the Individual who is ruled, and the Institution that governs, here represented by the Church. Just as the one scale rises, the other falls. The spiritual freedom of the individual in the Church is contained in an angle too small to be measurable. Did men revolt from this iron rule ? There was the alternative of eternal damnation, for all men were born depraved, exposed to the wrath of God ; their only chance of avoiding hell was to escape through the doors of the Church. Thus men were morally com- pelled to submit for the sake of its " redemption." Did they throw themselves on the mercy of the Holy Ghost, penitent for their disobedience of the Church ? They were told that mercy was at the Church's disposal. Did they make the appeal to Scripture, and say, as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive ; that he had expiated all their sins ? The Church told them their exegesis of the passage was wrong, for Christ only expiated their in- herited sin, not the actual sins they had committed, and for which they must smart in hell, atone for in purgatory, or get pardoned by submitting to the vicar of God, and going through the rites, forms, fasts, and penances he should prescribe, and thus purchase a share of the re- demption which Christ and the saints by their works of supererogation had provided to meet the case. This doc- trine was taught in good faith, and in good faith received. 1 1 See, who will, Rehm, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 541, et seq., and Vol. III. p. 1 MEEITS OP THE CHURCH. 277 I. The Merits of the Catholic Church. As we look back upon tlie history of the Church and see the striking unity of that institution,, we naturally suppose its chiefs had a regular plan ; but such was not the fact. The peculiar merit of the Catholic Church consists in its assertion of the truth, that God still inspires mankind as much as ever ; that He has not exhausted himself in the creation of a Moses, or a Jesus, the Law,, or the Gospel, but is present and active in spirit as in space : admitting this truth, so deep, so vital to the race a truth preserved in the religions of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and above all in the Jewish faith clothing itself with all the author- ity of ancient days ; the word of God in its hands, both tradition and Scripture ; believing it had God's infallible and exclusive inspiration at its heart, for such no doubt was the real belief, and actually, through its Christian character, combining in itself the best interests of man- kind, no wonder it prevailed. Its countenance became as lightning. It stood and measured the earth. It drove asunder the nations. It went forth in the mingling tides of civilized corruption and barbarian ferocity, for the salva- tion of the people, conquering and to conquer ; its bright- ness as the light. It separated the spiritual from the temporal power, which had been more or less united in the theocracies of India, Egypt, and Judea, and which can only be united to the lasting detriment of mankind. This was a great merit in the Church ; one that cannot be appreciated in our days, for we have not felt the evil it aimed to cure. The Church, in theory, stood on a basis purely moral ; it rose in spite of the State ; in the midst of its persecutions. At first it shunned all temporal affairs, and never allowed a temporal power to be superior to itself. The department of political action belonged to the State ; that of intellectual and re- ligious action, the stablest and strongest of power, to the et seq., for the political aspect of the Roman Church ; Guizot, Histoire de la Civilization, &c., Leyon II. VI. X. XII. ; Hallam, State of Europe during the Middle Ages, ch. vii., and the admirably candid remarks thereon in his Sup- plementary notes. Gibbon, ubi sup. ch. xv. xvi. xviii. xxi. Comte, ubi sup. Vol. V., Legon LIV. LV., who in some respects surpasses all his predecessors. 278 ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCIT. Church. Hence its care of education ; hence the influence it exerted on literature. We read the letters of Ambrose and Augustine and find a spirit all unknown to former times. 1 Tertullian could oppose the whole might of the State with his pen. That fierce African did not hesitate to exhibit the crimes of the nation. The Apologetists assume a tone of spiritual authority surprising in that age. The Church set apart a speculative class, distinct from all others, including the most cultivated men of their times. It provided a special education for this class, one most admirably adapted, in many points, for the work they were to do. Piety and genius found here an asylum, a school, and a broad arena. Thus it had a troop of superior minds, educated and pious men, who could not absorb the political power, as the sacerdotal class of India, Egypt, and Judea had done ; who could not be indifferent to the social and moral condition of mankind, as the priesthood had been in Greece and Eome. Theoretically, they were free from the despotism of one, and the indif- ference of the other. The public virtue was their peculiar charge. Ancient Rome was the city of organizations, and prac- tical rules. Nowhere was the Individual so thoroughly subordinated to the State. War, Science, and Lust, of old time, had here incarnated themselves. The same prac- tical spirit organized the Church, with its Dictator, its Senate, and its Legions. The discipline of the clerical class, their union, zeal, and commanding skill, gave them the solidity of the Phalanx, and the celerity of the Legion. The Church prevailed as much by its organization as its doctrine. What could a band of loose-girt apostles, each warring on his own account, avail against the refuge of Lies, where Strength and Sin had intrenched themselves, and sworn never to yield ? An organized Church was de- manded by the necessities of the time ; an association of soldiers called for an army of saints. 2 A sensual people required forms, the Church gave them ; superstitious rites, divination, processions, images, the Church obdurate as steel when occasion demands, but pliant as molten metal 1 See this point ably though briefly treated in Schlosser, ubi sup. Vol. III. Pt. iii. p. 102151, and iv. p. 2575. See also Pt. ii. p. 167, et seq. 2 See Guizot and Comte, CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 279 when yielding is required the Church allowed all this. Its form grew out of the wants of the time arid place. Was there no danger that the priesthood, thus able and thus organized,, should become ambitious of wealth and power ? The greatest danger that fathers should seek to perpetuate authority for their children. But this class of men, cut off from posterity by the prohibition of marriage, lived in the midst of ancient and feudal institutions, where all depended on birth; where descent from a successful pirate, or some desperate freebooter, hard-handed and hard-hearted, who harried village after village, secured a man elevation, political power, and wealth ; the clergy were cut off from the most powerful of all inducements to accumulate authority. In. that long period from Aiaric to Columbus, when the Church had ample revenues ; the most able and cultivated men in her ranks, so thoroughly disciplined; the awful power over the souls of men, far more formidable than bayonets skilfully plied; with an acknowledged claim to miraculous inspiration and divine authority, were it not for the celibacy of the Christian priest- hood damnable institution, and pregnant with mischief as it was we should have had a sacerdotal caste, the Levites of Christianity, whoso little finger would have been thicker than the loins of all former Levites ; who would have flayed men with scorpions, where the priestly despots of Egypt and India only touched them with a feather, and the dawn of a better day must have been deferred for thousands of years. The world is managed wiser than some men fancy. " Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain/-' said an old writer. The remedy of inveterate evils is at- tended with sore pangs. These wretched priests of the middle ages bore a burden, and did a service for us, which we are slow to confess. ^ The Church, reacting against the sensuality and exces- sive publicity of the heathen world, in its establishment of convents and monasteries, opened asylums for delicate spirits that could not bear the rage of savage life ; afforded a hospital for men sick of the fever of the world, worn-out and shattered in the storms of State, who craved a little rest for charity's sweet sake, before they went where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. 280 POWEE OP THE CHURCH. Among the sensual the Saint is always an Anchorite ; Religion gets as far as possible from the world. 1 Rude men require obvious forms and sensible shocks to their roughness. The very place where the Monks prayed and the Nuns sang, was sacred from the ruthless robber. As he drew near it, the tiger was tame within him ; the mail- ed warrior kissed the ground, and Religion awoke for the moment in his heart. The fear of hell, and reverence for the consecrated spot, chained up the devil for the time. Then the Church had a most diffusive spirit ; it would Christianize as fast as the State would conquer ; its mis- sionaries were found in the courts of barbarian monarchs, in the caves and dens of the savage, diffusing their doc- trine and singing their hymns. Creating an organization the most perfect the world ever saw ; with a policy wiser than any monarch had dreamed of, and which grew more perfect with the silent accretions of time ; with address to allure the ambitious to its high places, and so turn all their energy into its deep wide channel ; with mysteries to charm the philosophic, and fill the fancy of the rude ; with practical doctrines for earnest workers, and subtle ques- tions, always skilfully left open for men of acute discern- ment ; with rites and ceremonies that addressed every sense, rousing the mind like a Grecian drama, and promising a participation with God through the sacrament ; with wis- dom enough to bring men really filled with Religion into its ranks ; with good sense and good taste to employ all the talent of the times in the music, the statues, the paint- ings, the architecture of the temple, thus consecrating all the powers of man to man's noblest work ; with so much of Christian truth as the world in its wickedness could not forget, no wonder the Church spread wide her influence ; sat like a queen among the nations, saying to one GO, and it went, to another COME, and it came. Then, again, its character, in theory, was kindly and humane. It softened the asperity of secular wars ; forbid them in its sacred seasons ; established its Truce of God, and gave a chance for rage to abate. Against the King, it espoused the cause of the People. Coming in the name of one " despised and rejected of men," " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; " of a man born in an ox's crib, 1 To illustrate this point see, instar omnium, the works of St Bernard. HUMANITY OF THE CHUECH. 281 at his best estate not having where to lay his head ; who died at the hangman's hand, but who was at last seated at the right hand of God, and in his low estate was deemed God in humiliation come down into the flesh, to take its humblest form, and show He was no respecter of persons, the Church did not fail to espouse the cause of the people, with whom Christianity found its first adherents, its apostles, and defenders. With somewhat in its worst clays of the spirit of him who gave his life a ransom for many, with much of it really active in its best days, and its theory at all times, the Church stood up, for long ages, the only bulwark of freedom ; the last hope of man strug- gling but sinking as the whelming waters of barbarism whirled him round and round. It came to the Baron, haughty of soul, and bloody of hand, who sat in his cliff- tower, a hungry giant ; who broke the poor into frag- ments, ground them to powder, and spurned them like dust from his foot ; it came between him and the captive, the serf, the slave, the defenceless maiden, and stayed the insatiate hand. Its curse blasted as lightning. Even in feudal times, it knew no distinction of birth; all were " conceived in sin," " shapen in iniquity," alike the peasant and the peer. The distinction of birth, station, was ap- parent, not real. Yet were all alike children of God, who judged the heart, and knew no man's person ; all heirs of Heaven, for whom prophets and apostles had uplifted their voice ; yes, for whom GOD had worn this weary, wasting weed of flesh, and died a culprit's death. Then while nothing but the accident of distinguished birth, or the possession of animal fierceness, could save a man from the collar of the thrall, the Church took to her bosom all who gave signs of talent and piety; sheltered them in her monasteries ; ordained them as her priests ; welcomed them to the chair of St Peter ; and men who from birth would have been companions of the Galilean fisherman, sat on the spiritual throne of the world, and governed with a majesty which Ca3sar might envy, but could not equal. Priests came up from no Levitical stock, but the children of captives and bondmen as well as prince and peer. When northern barbarism swept over the ancient world ; when temple and tower went to the ground, and the culture of old time, its letters, science, arts, were borne 282 ITS GOOD INFLUENCE. off before the flood,, the Church stood up against the tide ; shed oil on its wildest waves ; cast the seed of truth on its waters, and as they gradually fell, saw the germ send up its shoot, which growing while men watch and while they sleep, after many days, bears its hundred-fold, a civilization better than the past, and institutions more be- neficent and beautiful. The influence of the Church is perhaps greater than even its friends maintain. It laid its hand on the poor and down-trodden ; they were raised, fed, and comforted. It rejected, with loathing, from its coffers, wealth got by ex- tortion and crime. It touched the shackles of the slave, and the serf arose disenthralled, the brother of the peer. It annihilated slavery, which Protestant cupidity would keep for ever. 1 It touched the diadem of a wicked king, and it became a crown of thorns ; the monarch's sceptre was a broken reed before the crosier of the Church. 2 Its rod, like the wand of Moses, swallowed up all hostile rods. Like God himself, the Church gave, and took away, ren- dering no reason to man for its gifts or extortions. It sent missionaries to the east and the west, and carried the waters of baptism from the fountains of Nubia to the roar- ing Geysers of a Northern isle. It limited the power of kings ; gave religious education to the people, which no ancient institution ever aimed to impart ; kept on its sacred hearth the smouldering embers of Greek or Roman thought ; cherished the last faint sparkles of that fire Pro- metheus brought from Gods more ancient far than Jove. It had ceremonies for the sensual ; confessionals for the 1 See, in Comte, ubi sup. Vol. V. p. 407, et seq., some Reflections on the milder Character of Slavery in Catholic America, compared with Slavery in 1^-otcstant America ; and yet Comte is hardly a Thcist. For the influence of Christianity on Slavery, see the accounts of Paulinus, Deogratias, Patiens, and Synesius, in Schlosscr, Vol. III. Part III. p. 284, ct seq. Gihhon, in his heartless way, passes over with scarce a notice, the beautiful Christianity brought into Rome, and its influence on the condition of slaves. Ilallam makes but a one-sided appreciation of the Catholic church, and it seems to me has not done justice to its merits. But see what ample amends he makes in the sup- plementary notes. Bp England, Letters to Hon. John Forsyth, Bait. 1844, labours to show that the Catholic church has been the uncompromising Friend of Slavery. He certainly makes out a strong case, though not without a little suppression of the Truth, 'as it seems to me. 2 See an early instance of the collision between the spiritual and temporal power in the case of Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, and the Queen Justina, in Floury, ubi sup. Liv. XVIII. Chap. 32, et seq., and also in Gibbon, Chap. MAIN ERROR OP THE CHURCH. 283 pious needed and beautiful in their time labours of love for the true-hearted ; pictures and images to rouse devo- tion in the man of taste ; temples whose aspiring turrets and sombre vaults filled the kneeling crowd with awe ; it had doctrines for the wise ; rebukes for the wicked ; prayers for the reverent ; hope for the holy, and blessings for the true. It sanctified the babe, newly-born and wel- come ; watched over marriage with a jealous eye ; fostered good morals ; helped men, even by its symbols, to partake the divine nature; smoothed the pillow of disease and death, giving the Soul wings, as it were, to welcome the death-angel, and gently, calmly, pass away. It assured masculine piety of its reward in Heaven ; told the weak and wavering, that divine beings would help him, if faith- ful. In the honours of canonization, it promised the most lasting fame 011 earth ; generations to come should call the good man a blessed saint, and his name never perish while the Christian year went round. Heroism of the Soul took the place of boldness in the Flesh. It did not, like Poly- theism, deify warriors and statesmen Attila, Theodosius, Clovis, their kingdom was of this world ; but it canonized martyrs and saints, Polycarp, Justin, Ambrose, Paulinus, Bernard of Clairvaux. 1 Such were some of the excellences, theoretical or practi- cal, of the Church. This hasty sketch does not allow more particular notice of them. II. The Defects and Vices of the Catholic Parti/. But the Church had vices, vast and awful to the thought. As its distinctive excellence was to proclaim the continu- ance of inspiration, so its sacramental sin was in limiting this inspiration to itself, thus setting bounds to the Spirit of God and the Soul of Man. Who shall say to the Infinite God, Hitherto shalt Thou come, but no further ; Thou hast inspired Moses and Jesus, the Apostles, and the Church ; well done ! now rest from thy work, and speak no more, except as we prescribe ? The Church did say it. The wondrous mechanism of the Church and much of 1 Canonization among 1 the Catholics seems to come from the same root with the. Apotheosis of the Polytheists. Both, no doubt, exerted an influence on men who asked a recompense for being gocd and religious. 284 VICE OP THE PRIESTHOOD. its power came from this false assumption, that it alone had the Word of God. So its organization was based on a lie, and required new lies to uphold, and prophets of lies to defend it. Its servants, the priests, became proud of spirit. The only keepers of Scripture and Tradition ; the only recipients of inspiration, they forbid free inquiry as of no use ; stifled Conscience as only leading men into trouble ; and excommunicated Common Sense, who asked "terrible questions," calling for the title-deeds of the Church. They went further, and forbid the bands between Reason and Religion ; and when the parties insisted 011 the union, turned them both out of doors with a curse. The laity must not approach God, as the clergy; must only commune with Him " in one kind." The Church for- got God grants inspiration to no one except on condition he conforms to the divine law, living pure and true, and grants it only in proportion to his gifts and his use thereof : so, relying on the office and " apostolical succession " for inspiration, the priests lived shameless and wicked lives, rivalling Sardanapalus and Dornitian in their cruelty and sin. They forgot that God withholds inspiration from none that is faithful ; so they stoned the prophets who re- buked their lies and published their sin ; they shamefully entreated men whom God sent of his errands to these unworthy husbandmen. They became spiritual tyrants, forcing all men to utter the same creed, submit to tho same rite, reverence the same symbol, and be holy in tho same way. In its zeal to separate the spiritual power from temporal hands it took what was not its own power over men's bodies ; and made laws for the State. 1 In its haste to give preeminence to spiritual things, it made its offices a bribe, greater than the State could give. The honour of saint- hood what was the fame of king and conqueror to that ? It promised the rewards of high clerical office, and even of canonization, to the most mercenary and cruel of men, whose touch was pollution. Its list of saints is full of knaves and despots. The State was taken into the Church, a refractory member. The Flesh and the Devil were baptized ; " took holy orders ; " governed the Church in some cases, but were still the Flesh and the Devil, though 1 See Hallam, ubi supra, Chap. VII, TYEANNY OF THE CHURCH. 285 called by a Christian name. That divine man, whose namo is ploughed into the world, said, If a man smite the one cheek, turn the other ; but if a man lifted his hand or his voice against the Church, it blasted him with damnation and hell. Christ said his kingdom was not of this world; so said the Church at first, and Christians refused to war, to testify in the courts, to appear in the theatres, and foul their hands with the world's sin. But soon as there was an organized priesthood, to defend themselves from tho tyranny of the State, to exercise authority over the souls of men, power on the earth became needed. One lie leads to many. What the Church first took in self-defence it afterwards clung to and increased, and was so taken up with its earthly kingdom, it quite forgot its patrimony in Heaven ; so it played a double game, attempting to servo God, and keep on good terms with the Devil. But it was once said, "no man can serve two masters/ 1 ' Unnatural, spiritual power could not be held without temporal au- thority to sustain it ; so the Church took fleshly weapons for its carnal ends. Monks raised armies; Bishops led them ; God was blasphemed by prayers to aid bloodshed. The Church sold her garment to buy a sword. The Church was the exclusive vicar of God ; she musfc have " the tonnage and poundage of all freespoken truth." To accomplish this end and establish her dogmas, she slew men, beginning with Priscillian and " the six Gnostics," in the fourth century, at Triers, and ending no one knows where, or when, or with whom. 1 It had such zeal for the " unity of the faith," that it put prophets in chains ; asked the sons of God if they were " greater than Jacob." It made Belief take the place of Life. It absolved men of their sins, past, present, and future. Emancipated the clergy from the secular law, thus giving them license to sin. It sold heaven to extortioners for a little gold, and built St Peter's with the spoil. It wrung ill-gotten gains out of tyrants on their death-bed ; devoured the houses of widows and the weak built its cathedrals out of the spoil 1 Sec the story, in Sulpitius Severus, Hist. Sac. Lib. II. ch. 50, 51. Fleury, ubi supra, Liv. XVII. ch. 56, 57, and XVIII. ch. 29, 30. The Pope, St Leo, commended the action, but Gregory of Tours and Ambrose of Milan condemned it. Idacius and Ithacius, the two bishops who caused the execution, were ex- pcllod from their office by the popular indignation. See Jerome, lllust. Virorum, C. 122, et seq. 286 ITS FALSEHOOD AND CRIME. of orphans, thus literally giving a stone when bread was asked for, as St Bernard honestly called it. 1 It was greedy of gold and power, and at one time had well-nigh half the lands of England held in mortmain. It absolved men from oaths ; broke marriages ; told lies ; forged char- ters and decretals ; burned the philosophers ; corrupted the classics ; altered the words of the Fathers ; changed the decisions of the Councils, and filled Europe with its falsehood. 2 It has fought the most hideous of wars ; evan- gelized nations with the sword; laid kingdoms under in- terdict to gratify its pride. The Church boasts of its uniform doctrine, but it changes every age ; of its peaceful spirit, but who fought the cru- sades, the wars of extermination in Switzerland, France, the Low Countries ? To whom must we set down the ecclesiastical butchery that filled Europe with funeral piles ? It quarrelled with the temporal power, and built up in- stitutions of tyranny to suppress truth ; kept the Bible to itself; made the Greek Testament a prohibited book ; brought dead men's bones into the temples, for the living to worship, and worked lying wonders to confirm false doc- trine. It loved the night of the Dark Ages, and clung to its old dogmas. The Church came at length to be a colossus of crime, with a thin veil of hypocrisy drawn over its face, and that only. The vow of purity its children took, became a license for sin. The corruptest of courts was the court of the Pope. What reverence had the Archbishops for the doc- trine of the Church ? Cardinal Bembo bid Sadolet not read St Paul, it would spoil his taste. In early ages the Apostles were the devoutest of men ; in later days their " successors ;; were steeped to the lips in crime. 3 1 Dante touchingly complains of the evil which Constantino brought on the church by the gifts which the first tccalthy Pope received of him! Inferno, XIX. 115, et seq. 2 See instances of this forgery in Ilallam, uhi sup. Ch. VII. p. 391, et seq. et al., ed. Paris; Daille, on the right Use of the Fathers, &c., London, 1841. passim. ; Middleton, ubi supra. But see, on the side of the Church, Bossuet, Defense de la Tradition et des Saints Peres, and Manzoni, Osservazioni sulla' Morale Cattolica, Fircnze, 1835. 5 See Hallam, ubi sup. Ch. VII. De-Potter loves to dwell on the faults of the church, for which there is sufficient opportunity ; Js eander, as much too lenient, errs on the other side. Much information in a popular form may be found in M. Roux-Ferrand, Hfstoire des Progrcs dc la Civilization en Europe, DECLINE OP THE CHUECH. 287 For centuries, the Church, like the Berserkers of northern romance, seemed to possess the soiil and strength of each antagonist it slew. But its hour struck. The work it re- quired ten centuries to mature, stood in its glory not one. Each transient institution has a truth, or it would not be ; an error, or it would stand for ever. The truth opens men's eyes ; they see the error and would reject it. Then comes the perpetual quarrel between the Old and the New. ' ' Every battle of the warrior," says an ancient prophet, " is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood ; " but the battle of the Church was a devouring flame. In the time of Boniface VIII., or about the end of the fourteenth century, an eye that read the signs of the times, and saw the cloud and the star below the horizon, could have foretold the downfal of the Church. Its brightest hour was in the day of Innocent III. A wise Providence governs the affairs of men, and never suffers the leaf to fall till the swelling bud crowds it off. Out of the ashes of the old institution there springs up a new being, soon as the world can give it place. No institution is normal and ultimate. It has but its day, and never lasts too long nor dies too soon. Judaism and Heathenism nursed and swaddled mankind for Christianity, which came in the fulness of time. The Catholic Church rocked the cradle of mankind. In due season, like a jealous nurse, assiduous and meddlesome, but grown ill-tempered with age and disgust of new things, she yields up with reluctance her rebellious charge, whose vagaries her frowns and stripes will not restrain ; whose struggling weight, her withered arms are impotent to bear ; whose aspiring soul her anicu- lar and maudlin wit cannot understand. Her promise will not coax ; nor her baubles bribe ; nor her curses affright him more. The stripling child will walk alone. The Protestant l ' Reformation " came from the action of Ideas which had not justice done them in the Catholic Church, just as the Christian Reformation from Ideas not sufficiently represented in Judaism and Heathenism. It did not, more than the other, come all at once. There was " Lutheranism " before Luther, as Christianity before 6 vols. 8vo, Paris, 18331841, Vol. I. II., Logons X. XII., Vol. III. ch. iv. vi., Vol. IV. ch. v. vii., et al, and Mrs Child's Religious Ideas, N. Y. 1855, Vols. II. and III, 288 PROTESTANT REFORMATION. Christ. Slowly the ages prepared for both, for each was a point in the development of man. The Church educated men to see her faults gave them weapons to attack her. The Eeformation was long a gathering in the bosom of the Church itself. 1 Athanasius had his Arius to contend with. There was always some Paul of Samosata, some Theodore of Mopsuestia, some Peter of Bruis, or Henry of Lausanne,, to trouble the church. In the twelfth century it took all the miracles of Clairvaux and the leanness of its Abbot, to put down the heretics, who would come up again. Was there not Waldo in France, Arnold of Brescia in the papal state, John Huss at Constance, and Wicliff in England, and all of them at no great distance of time ? Faustus and Gutenberg did more for the Reformation than the Diet at Worms. Luther, and Zwingle, and Calvin, and the host of great men who grew in their shadow, were only the heralds that blew the trumpet of the Reformation ; its prize-fighters, not directors of the movement. It was the God of nations that moved the world's heart. The Spirit only culminated in Luther and his friends. It burned in holy souls in Bohemia and Languedoc, and the valleys of the Pyrenees, and the mountains of Tyrol ; it breathed in lofty minds at Paris, Saxony, Padua, London, Rome itself. Every learned Greek the Turks frighted from Constantinople, or Italian wealth lured to the queen of cities ; every manuscript of the Classics, the Fathers, the Councils, the Scriptures which found deliverance from the moles and the bats ; every improvement in law, science, and art ; every discovery in Alchemy or Astrology ; every invention from the mariner's compass to monk Schwartz's gunpowder, was an agent of the Reformation. We find Reformers, from the time of Marcion to John Wessel. Some tried, as in the time of Jesus, to put new wine in old bottles, but losing both, looked round for new things. That long train of Mystics, from Dionysius the Areopagite to Meister Eckart of Strasburg, prepared for the work which Luther built up with manly shouting. To sum up the claim of this party ; the Catholic Church Ranke in his Die romischen Pabste, &c. im. 16, und 17 Jahrhundert, gives . the church itself. See particu- rinie is even more distinctly told. abundant proof of this reformatory movement in the church itself. See particu- larly Vol. I. B. II., but the tale of ecclesiastical en. PROTESTANT PARTY. 289 is based on tlie assumption that God inspires that Church , miraculously and exclusively. This assumption is false. Though the oldest organization in the world, it has 110 right over the soul of man. 1 CHAPTER Y. THE PROTESTANT PARTY. THE distinctive idea of Protestantism is this : the canon- ical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the direct Word of God, and therefore the only Infallible Rule of religious Faith and Practice. It logically denied that an inspired man was needed to stand between mankind and the inspired Word. Each man must consult the Scrip- tures for himself; expound them for himself, by the com- mon rules of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Each man, therefore, must have freedom of conscience up to this point, but no further. God was immanent in the Scrip- tures ; not in the Church. The ecclesiastical tradition was no better than other traditions. It might, or it might not, be true. The Catholic Church had no miraculous inspira- tion. Now it was a great step for the human race to make this assertion in the sixteenth century ; it demanded 110 little manhood to do so at that time. Where were the men who had made it in the sixth, and all subsequent centuries ? 1 See, who will, the Roman doctrine thoroughly attacked in the ponderous folio of Joh. Gerhard, Confessio Catholica, &c. ^&c., Frankfort, 1679; and the superficial and somewhat one-sided Essay of M. Bouvet, Du Catholicisme, du Protestantisme, et de la Philosophic en France, Paris, 1840. But see the at- tack of Simmichius on Protestantism, Confessionistarum Goliathismus profliga- tus, &c. &c., Louvan, 1667. Many of the most important claims of the Catholic Church, that of Supremacy in temporal affairs, Infallibility in spiritual matters, and the Right to enforce doctrines, are abandoned by an able Catholic writer, J. H. Von Wessenberg, the late bishop of Constance. See his Die grosseu Kirchenversammlungen des 15ten und 16ten Jahrhundert, Const. 1840, 4 vols. 8vo. 19 200 MERIT OF PROTESTANTISM. Their bones and their disgrace paved the highway on which Luther walked as a giant to a fame world-wide and abiding. At first the work of the Protestants, like that of all the Reformers, was negative, exposing the errors and sins of the Catholic party ; clearing the spot on which to erect their Church ; fighting with words and blows. In the war of the giants, sore strokes must be laid on. Tho ground shook and the sky rang with the quarrel. " God will see/' said stout Martin, " which gives out first, the Pope or Luther/' The Church thundered and lightened from the seven-hilled city looking with a frown towards Saxony. Luther gave back thunder for thunder, scorn for scorn. Did the Church condemn Luther ? He paid it back in the same pence. The Church says, " Luther is a heretic, and should be burned had we skill to catch him/' Luther de- clares, " The Pope is a wolf possessed with the devil, and we ought to raise the hue and cry, and tear him to pieces without judge or jury." I. The Merit of Protestantism. Its merit as a Reformation was both negative and posi- tive. It was right in declaring the Roman Church, with its clergy, cardinals, councils, popes, no more inspired than other men, and therefore no more fit than others to keep Tradition, expound Scripture, and hold the keys of Heaven ; nay, more, that by reason of their prejudice, ignorance, sloth, ambition, crime, and sin in general, they had less inspiration, for they had grieved away the Spirit of God. It was right in denying the authority of the Church in temporal matters ; in declaring that its tradition was no better than other tradition, nay, was even less valuable, for the Church had told lies in the premises, and the fact was undeniable. The Protestants justified their words in this matter by exposing the weak points of the Church, its lies, false doctrines, and wicked practices ; its arrogance and worldly ambition ; the disagreement of the popes ; the contradictions of the councils and fathers, and the crimes of the clergy, who make up the Church. It was right in examining the canon of Scripture, casting off what was apocryphal, or spurious ; in demanding that the laity should have the Bible and the Sacraments in full, and claim DEFECTS OF PROTESTANTISM. 291 the right to interpret Scripture, reject tradition, relics, saints, and have nothing between them and Christ or God. It was right in demanding freedom of conscience for all men, up to the point of accepting the Scriptures. 1 This was no vulgar merit, but one we little appreciate. The men who fight the battle for all souls, rarely get justice from the world. II. The Vice and Defect of Protestantism. Its capital vice was to limit the power of private inspira- tion, and, since there must be somewhere a standard ex- ternal or within us, to make the Bible Master of the Soul. Theoretically, it narrowed the sources of religious truth, and instead of three, as the Catholics, it gave us but one ; though practically it did more than the Catholics, for it brought men directly to one fountain of truth. 2 Now if the Catholic had an undue reverence for the organized Church, so had the Protestant for the Scriptures. Both sought in the world of concrete things an infallible source and standard of moral and religious truth. There is none such out of human consciousness ; neither in the Church, nor the Bible. Both must be idealized to support this pre- tension. Accordingly as the one party idealized the Church ; assumed its divine Origin, its Infallibility, and the exclu- sive Immanence of God therein ; so the other assumed the divine origin of the Scriptures, their Infallibility, and the exclusive Immanence of God in them. Has either party proved its point ? Neither is capable of proof. As the Catholic maintained, in the very teeth of notorious facts, that there was no contradiction in the doctrines of the 1 It is not necessary to cite the proofs of the above statements from the Re- formers, as they may he seen in the dogmatical writers so often referred to before. However, the most significant passages may he found collected in Harles, Theo- logische Encyclopedic und Methodologie, Leips. 1837, Chap. III. IV. The early Reformers differ in opinion as to the authority of the Bible. It is well known with what freedom and contempt Luther himself spoke of parts of the canon, and the stories of miracles in the Gospels and Pentateuch. But his own opinion fluctuated on this as on many other points. He cared little for Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Indeed, it would not require a very perverse ingenuity to make out, from the Reformers, a Straussianismus ante Strausshun. - This is, logically speaking, the fundamental principle of the Reformers, though qualifications of it may be found in Luther, Melancthon, Zwingle, ami Calvin, which detract much from its scientific rigour. But still the principle was laid down at the bottom of the Protestant fabric, and is yet a stone of stum- bling and rock of offence to free men. 10 * 292 PROTESTANTISM AND THE BIBLE. Church, its popes and councils, and more eminent Fathers ; in the very face of Reason, that all its doctrines were true and divine ; so did the Protestant, in the teeth of facts equally notorious, deny there was any contradiction in the doctrines of the Bible, its prophets, evangelists, apostles ; in the very face of Reason, declared that every word of Scripture was the word of God, and eternally true ! Nay, more, the Protestants maintained that the record of Scrip- ture was so sacred, that a divine Providence watched over it and kept all errors from the manuscript. What a cry the Protestants made about the " various readings." Could Cappellus get his book on the textual variations of the Old Testament printed under Protestant favour ? A perpetual miracle, said Protestantism, kept the text of tho Old Testament and New Testament from the smallest acci- dent. But that doctrine would not stand against the noblo army of various readings thirty thousand strong. " Where there is no vision, the people perish." Tho Protestants, denying there was inspiration now as in Paul's time, yet knowing they must have religious truth or the Word of God, clung like dying men to the letter of tho Bible, as their only hope. The words of the Bible had but one meaning, not many ; that was to be got at by the usual methods pious and honest study of the gram- matical, logical, rhetorical sense thereof. 1 With its word, man must stop, for he has reached the fountain-head. But has the word of God become a letter; is all truth in the Bible, and is no error, no contradiction therein ? Was the doctrine once revealed to the saints, revealed once for all ? Is the Bible a Finality, and man only pro- visional ? So said Protestantism. This was its vice. But God has set one thing against another, so that all work together for good. It was a great step to get back to the Bible, and freedom of conscience, and good sense in its exposition. Protestantism wrought wonders, and overthrew the magi- 1 Chemnitz, Loci communes, Pt. III. p. 23o,et al., denounces the doctrine of the Church, that the Bible was " imperfect, insufficient, ambiguous, and obscure." Luther and Melancthon condemn the old practice of allegorizing Scripture. See the passages collected in Harlcs, ubi sup. p. 133, et seq., and the dogmatical writers above referred to, Strauss, Glaubenslehre, 12, 13, Seckendorf, De Lutheranismo, &c., ed. 1688, p. 10, 38, 130, 74. But on the other side, see Gazzaniga, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 171, etscq. PROTESTANTISM NOT FINAL. 293 cians in the Egypt of the Church. It saw the ecclesiastical Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, with destruction opening its hungry jaws to devour them. But it had a mixed multitude in its own train,, and left the people in the wilderness, wandering like the Gibeonites, with no power to get bread from Heaven, or water from the living rock. Its Jethros were philologists who knew nothing of the spiritual land of hills and brooks, and milk and honey. Its leaders men noble as Moses, men of vast soul, and Herculean power to do and suffer, to speak and be silent had a Pisgah view of the land of promise, and wished God would put his spirit on all the people ; but they died and gave no sign. The nations are still wandering in the desert ; carrying the Sanctuary, the Ark, the Table of the Law ; sometimes sighing after the leeks and garlics left behind; now and then worshipping a calf of gold, of pa.rchment, or spoken wind ; murmuring and rebellious ; with here and there a Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rising up in their ranks, clouds enough, but with no Moses nor Pillar of Fire. Still, God be praised, we are no longer slaves under the iron bondage of the Church. They were MEN who dared to come out, those heroes of the Eeformation. This Protest against the Roman Church was one of the noblest the world ever saw ; perhaps never surpassed but once, and then by a single soul, big as yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Stout-hearted Martin Luther, with his face rugged, homely, and honest, with a soul of fire, and words like cannon-shot, a heart that feared neither Pope nor Devil, and a living faith which sang in his dungeon, " The Lord our God is a castle strong," the greatest of the prophets and the UTODISC. OCT 2 1992 CI'- LD Zl-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES M313841