THE IDEAL

OF A

CHEISTIAN CHURCH

CONSIDERED

CONTAINING

A DEFENCE OF CERTAIN ARTICLES IN

THE BRITISH CRITIC

IN REPLY TO REMARKS ON THEM IN
MR. PALMER'S < NARRATIVE.'

BY THE REV. W. G. WARD, M.A.

FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD.

LONDON:

JAMES TOOVEY, 192, PICCADILLY.

M.DCCC.XLIV.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IN the Preface to the First Edition of the following
work, I apologised for the irregularity of its structure,
and the admixture of temporary and accidental matter
with the general statement of principles. These
defects I had hoped to remedy, as far as my ability
extends, in a second edition. In particular, I had
hoped to omit all allusion to Mr. Palmer and the
British Critic (as belonging to an ephemeral contro-
versy, the interest of which had passed away) ; to ex-
tend the eighth chapter into a more substantive form ;
and, above all, to enlarge the last chapter to at least
double its present size, in order that the statement
might be more clear and intelligible of principles,
which appear to me of all the most important, in the
present circumstances, not of our own Church only,
but of ' the Holy Church throughout all the world.'

These intentions, however, I have been compelled
for the present to abandon; because the recent proceed-
ings at Oxford necessitate the immediate appearance

of a Second Edition, and also make it desirable that
the said Second Edition should be, as nearly as pos-
sible, a fac-simile of the first. No alteration what-
ever, then, has been made, except the correction of
typographical errors.

Of course no apology is intended for the substance
of the work, as distinct from its form. As to the
sentiments contained in the propositions which have
been officially called into question, I have only to
say that my conviction of their truth, for a long time
past, has grown deeper and more undoubting ; that
they were expressed with the most perfect delibera-
tion ; and that with the same deliberation they are
here distinctly re-asserted.

Balliol College, Oxford,
Dec. 10, 1844.

PREFACE.

THE following work has grown under my hands into
dimensions which I had been very far from expecting.
When I spoke at the outset of ' trespassing at greater
length than I could wish on the public attention,' an
unusually long pamphlet was the utmost which I anti-
cipated as likely to follow. The result of this mode of
composition has necessarily been, to introduce an ad-
mixture of temporary and accidental matter with the
general statement of principles ; an admixture, which
in many respects may increase the reader's difficulty in
following the course of the argument. On the other
hand, without the justification which arises from having
been made the subject of severe censure, I could not
have brought myself to so bold a step, as publishing
opinions which, however deeply and fixedly entertained,
in many respects differ from those more generally held
in our Church. This reason has made me feel it quite
necessary to my own comfort, that I should retain the
allusions to Mr. Palmer's 'Narrative;' whatever the
incidental inconveniences which may be so entailed on
me.

To speak of more important matters than the form
of the work. The one object which has been nearest

Vlll

my heart throughout, has been the attempting to lay
down a sufficient basis, on which all who profess what
are called ' high-church ' sentiments might be able to
cooperate, without compromise on any side : and I
hope that the second chapter, the fifth chapter as far as
p. 260, the sixth and the seventh chapters, may on the
whole meet with their concurrence. The principles,
which I have laboured there to establish, are such as
these : that careful and individual moral discipline is
the only possible basis, on which Christian faith and
practice can be reared that our Church at present
performs the duty with deplorable inadequacy, or rather
makes no attempt to perform it ; that, in consequence,
our standard of holiness, and also our average of Chris-
tian attainment, are miserably low ; and our belief even
in such a truth as our Blessed Lord's Divinity, very far
less firmly rooted than we are apt to think that to
remedy these defects is an object of so much magnitude,
as to offer the fullest scope for all our energies that
to act heartily and unsuspiciously on our points of
agreement, is the sure mode of arriving at agreement
on matters which are now points of difference.

At the same time, for various reasons (some of which
are expressed in the work) I have felt it a positive duty
in no way to conceal my own deeply and deliberately
entertained opinions, on the ultimate result which will
ensue from all wisely-directed endeavours to reform
and purify our Church. But so far from having felt it
a duty to give reasons why I so think (though it can-
not but happen that some of my reasons will incidently
appear), the very object, to which I desire humbly to

invite the concurrence of ' high-churchmen,' is, that we
should not trouble our minds with the ultimate result ;
but perform our immediate duties, under the full con-
viction that, in proportion as we do so, the ultimate
result must be such as God in His Wisdom desires.

The discussion of the Lutheran doctrine of Justifi-
cation became necessary, not only from the accidental
circumstance, that I had used such strong language on
the subject in the British Critic ; but much more, be-
cause that doctrine formally denies the truth, which
seems to me the key to all moral and religious
knowledge, and which accordingly I lately mentioned
as the leading idea of the present work ; the truth,
namely, that careful moral discipline is the necessary
foundation, whereon alone Christian faith can be
reared.

I am well aware that there are several passages in
the following pages, which admit of being extracted
and circulated with great promise of success : but I
would beg to urge on the attention of those who might
be inclined to such a course, that all who circulate
extracts from a work, incur the responsibility of im-
plying, that such extracts give a fair and just idea
of its general contents. I here then enter my protest,
that no series of extracts will, in my opinion, convey
this fair and just idea, if they do not include such
passages as that in p. 81, beginning, 'And I will say
plainly,' in p. 23, beginning, 'to all these I would
add,' in p. 459, beginning, 'Such religious practices.'
Those who may read the work, will see that these are no

more than samples of similar expressions in every part
of it.

A friend who has seen the sheets thinks that
there may be a misapprehension of my meaning in
p. 288-9. I have more fully expressed what I there
intended, in p. 576 582.

In conclusion I most earnestly desire the reader to
believe and remember, that the feeling expressed at the
outset, (p. 5 8.) was present to my mind in every
sentence that I have written from first to last.

Balliol College, Oxford,
June 6, 1844.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS,
p. 18.

CHAPTER II.

OF WHAT KIND WILL BE THE IDEAL OF A CHURCH IN
CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE OURS?

PAGE

Sect. 1 . Ideal of a Christian Church ... 9

Sect. 2. Ideal of a Christian Church in imparting Moral

Discipline . . . . . .11

Sect. 3. Ideal of a Christian Church in imparting Orthodox

Doctrine . . . . . .18

Sect. 4. Ideal of a Christian Church in gratifying our

aspirations and affections . . . .24

Sect. 5. Ideal of a Christian Church in her relations to

the poor ...... 26

Sect. 6. Ideal of a Christian Church in her relations to

the rich ...... 33

Sect. 7. Ideal of a Christian Church as educator of the higher

classes ...... 34

Sect. 8. Ideal of a Christian Church in her intellectual duties 35
Sect, 9. Ideal of a Christian Church in her political duties . 45
Sect. 10. Inference from this review . . .50

CHAPTER III.

IS IT UNDUTIFUL TO THE ENGLISH CHURCH TO AIM
AT SUCH AN IDEAL ?

Sect. 1. Has the tone of the British Critic latterly been dis-
loyal to our Church ? . . . . . 53
Sect. 2. Has it tended to perplex the humble? . . 57
Sect. 3. Has it tended to encourage the undutiful ? . . 67

XI 1

PAGE

Sect. 4. Consideration of the dilemma proposed by Mr.

Palmer ...... 70

Sect. 5. Has the tone of the British Critic shewn absence of

humility? ...... 74

Sect. 6. On what account is the Church of Rome to be

considered our fitting model '{ . . . .47

Sect. 7. In what manner may loyalty to our Church be dis-
played by those who deplore its corruptions ? . .93

Sect. 8. On what ground can attachment to our Church be

really felt by such persons ? . . . .102

CHAPTER IV.

DOES OUR EXISTING SYSTEM RESEMBLE THAT OF THE
EARLY CENTURIES ?

Sect. 1 What is meant by ' the early centuries ?' . . 104

Sect. 2. Does our existing system resemble theirs in Church

government? . . . . . .105

Sect. 3. Does our existing system resemble theirs in our

formularies ? . . . . . .111

Sect. 4. Does our existing system resemble theirs in formal

discipline ? . . . . . .114

Sect. 5. Does our existing system resemble theirs in recog-
nised ecclesiastical principles ? . . .117

Sect. 6. Does our existing system resemble theirs in our tone

and temper of mind ? . . . . .133

Sect. 7. Augury as to future course of the contro-
versy . . . . . . .165

CHAPTER V.

ON THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION.

Sect. 1. Bishop O'Brien's views on the matter stated and

considered . . . . . .168

Sect. 2. Statement of the two questions which it is necessary
to bring to issue, and of the Lutheran answer to one of
them . . . . . . .185

Sect. 3. Answer to objections that may be raised against
being the allegation that this is necessarily the Lutheran
answer . 191

xin

PAGE

Sect. 4. Hypothetical effect of the Lutheran principle, if it

were possible to act on it consistently . . .194

Sect. 5. Practical effect of the Lutheran principle as actually

witnessed ...... 205

Sect. 6. Statement of the vitally fundamental truth which

Lutheranism denies, and defence of it against a popular

objection ...... 247

Sect. 7. The extremely important and practical results which

flow from this fundamental truth . . . 260

Sect. 8. The sacredness of hereditary religion . . 279

Sect. 9. Application of the principles just established to our

present circumstances .... 290

Sect. 10. Answer to the second of the two questions raised in

Sect, 2 ...... 293

Sect. 11. Proofs of the real nature of Catholic doctrine on

'self-righteousness' . . . . .296

Sect. 12. Enumeration of some among the principles of

natural religion, which Lutheranism denies . . 299

CHAPTER VI.

ON OUR EXISTING PRACTICAL CORRUPTIONS.

Sect. 1 . Probability of corruptions .... 306
Sect. 2. Absence of all system of moral discipline for the

poor ....... 306

Sect. 3. Absence of all system of moral discipline for the

rich ....... 334

Sect. 4. Our Church's total neglect of her duties as guardian

of, and witness to, morality . . . .386

Sect. 5. Our Church's total neglect of her duties as witness

and teacher of orthodoxy . . . .389

Sect. 6. Powerlessness of our Church to perform the other

duties, especially in protecting and helping her poor,

while these are neglected . . . .409

Sect. 7. Rationalism prevalent in our Church . . 422

CHAPTER VII.

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS IN THE WAY OF REMEDY.

Sect. 1. Preliminary observations .... 430

XIV

PAGE

Sect. 2. Remedies in the power of those who have spiritual

care of the poor ..... 438

Sect. 3. Remedies in the power of those who have spiritual

care of the rich ..... 446

Sect. 4. Benefits that may be conferred on our Church by

all humble and orthodox Christians . . . 460

Sect. 5. Benefits that may be conferred on our Church by

those whose life is chiefly speculative . . 460

Sect. 6. The absence of any present external model to guide

our Church in the performance of her ' intellectual' and

' political' duties ..... 470

Sect. 7. The ultimate result if our Church were to perform

her present duties . . . . .472

CHAPTER VIII.

A FEW WORDS ON OUK AUTHORITATIVE FORMULARIES.
474481.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SUPREMACY OF CONSCIENCE IN THE PURSUIT OF
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH.

Sect. 1. The principle of free enquiry stated . . 482

Sect. 2. The principle of free enquiry considered with the

view of refuting it . . . . .487

Sect. 3. The principle of faith stated and illustrated . 508

Sect. 4. Enumeration of certain canons which follow from

this principle . . . . . .516

Sect. 5. Application of these canons to the enforcement of

the reverence due to Scripture . . .533

Sect. 6. Application of these canons to the vindication of the

course adopted by the Church towards her members ;

and of her development of Christian doctrine . .545

Sect. 7. Application of these canons to the vindication of the

course adopted by the Church in gaining converts . 558
Sect. 8. Application of these canons to the vindication of our

position in the English Church . . . 562

Sect. 9. Conclusion of the work . . . 587

THE IDEAL OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

MR. PALMER'S pamphlet has, as might have been expected,
been so widely circulated, and read with so much interest,
that some notice of it, on the part of those against whom it
is principally directed, seems almost imperatively called for.
Who these are, Mr. Palmer makes no secret. ( It is the de-
sign,' he says in his preface, at the very outset, ' of the fol-
lowing pages to clear those who uphold Church principles
from the imputation of approving certain recent tendencies
to Romanism ;' ' to draw a line of demarcation between our
principles and those of the British Critic.' (p. v.) The pe-
riodical in question he considers to have been marked of late
by an ' impetuosity and recklessness,' ' better fitted to revo-
lutionize than to reform.' (p. ix.) The feelings with which
' the friends of Church principles contemplate ' such 'aberra-
tions,' are those of ' sorrow, and even indignation ;' although,
as the author ' most firmly and humbly trusts,' ' in no degree
mingled with hostility to those brethren.' (p. 46.) The
most favourable interpretation which can be given to ' lan-
guage and conduct which has deeply shocked every sober-
minded and orthodox believer,' is the attributing it to ' the
indiscretions of youthful and ardent minds ; inability to cope
with controversial difficulties; a too great readiness to receive
without examination any thing which may be plausibly ad-
vanced ; too great confidence in intellectual powers and theo-
logical attainments.' (pp. 46, 7.) But it admits, in the author's
opinion, of a very different construction, which ' appearances

seem to justify,' but of which he ' cannot bring himself to
entertain the notion;' a construction which would imply, on
the part of the writers whom he censures, ' revolting iniquity,'
' disgraceful and detestable treachery and hypocrisy.' (p. 68.)
These are very serious charges ; and, as being one of those
against whom they are brought, I am quite confident that
the love of justice, so characteristic of Englishmen, will insure
for me a patient hearing, if in the attempt to meet them I
should find it necessary to trespass at greater length than I
could wish on the public attention. And if it be asked
why I come forward on the occasion, not having been
Editor of the British Critic, nor in any way responsible
for its general tone, the reply is easy ; viz. that if we except
the article on Bp. Jewel, the writer of which has already
published a formal defence and explanation of its language,
a greater number of the other passages, selected by Mr.
Palmer for reprobation, were written by myself, than by all
the other contributors put together. At the same time, of
course, I am only professing to defend those articles for w r hich
I am myself responsible ; and my doing so will be no impedi-
ment in the way of any other writer in the British Critic, who
may wish to do the same in his own behalf. Nor, much less, is
it at all necessary to allude to any other of the various matters
which Mr. Palmer's pamphlet embraces. Whether or no
' some of the principles advocated in the British Critic are
displeasing to the authors of the Tracts,' (p. vi.) is a matter
on which they should speak, not the contributors to that
Review, nor yet Mr. Palmer himself. Whether or no any
principles ' adopted by the ' same periodical, be * wholly
subversive of doctrines 'inculcated in the Tracts,' (p. 45,
note,) is a question which I cannot be called on to discuss,
for I never either wrote in the Tracts, or professed to follow
their teaching in every particular. And so much of my own
writing has been in various other quarters the subject of very
pointed and severe censure, that I shall have quite enough
to do in defending myself. At the same time, I am par-
ticularly glad of the opportunity to come forward and
take on myself the full responsibility which is justly mine ;

as far as I may be involved in Mr. Palmer's allusion,
(p. 83,) I can assure him that I have no wish whatever to
avail myself of the shelter of the anonymous, or shrink from
avowing what I have not shrunk from publishing. 3

The articles which I have contributed to the British
Critic are those on 'Arnold's Sermons,' (October, 1841,)
' Whately's Essays,' (April, 1842,) ' Heurtley's four Sermons,'
(April, 1842,) ' Goocle's Divine Rule,' (July, 1842,) ' St.
Athanasius,' (October, 1842,) ' Church Authority,' (Jan.
1843,) < The Synagogue and the Church,' (July, 1843,) and
' Mill's Logic' (October, 1843). On looking them over with
a view to the present object, I find nothing in them of a
doctrinal nature which I can retract, except part of the
second note in p. 52, of No. Ixiii., in which I think I have
overstated the weight due to internal evidence on the
canonicity of Scripture ; and except also that I could not,
as at present minded, use the expressions at the bottom
of p. 333, and also of p. 355, in No. Ix. ; neither of which
passages, as far as my knowledge extends, has been made
matter of comment. b

a "As a general rule it may be said, that no man writing upon controverted
questions without the constant sense of responsibility which publicity entails,
will write with the same degree of caution, the same degree of considerate fore-
thought, the same degree of tenderness for the weak, and of wise and compre-
hensive charity, to which he would attain if he had that aid. An increased
severity of judgment, a higher strain of invective, a more copious use of rhetorical
colouring, a more artful and constant recourse to dialectic subtleties, a greater
recklessness of consequences, and a blunted instinct for pure truth, commonly
distinguish anonymous authorship upon matters deeply moving the nature of
man. The anonymous writer conducts a process, that ought to be judicial, in
the dark ; in the dark he condemns, he lashes, and he stabs ; unseen himself, he
sees, and he acts without the salutary check which the consciousness of being
seen imposes." Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review for October, 1843, p.
596. These most forcibly and justly expressed dangers have been, in my own
case, considerably counteracted by that necessity of avoiding individual pecu-
liarities of opinion, which results from writing in a Review. Certainly I am
bound to state, that I can find no instances in which I have overstated my own
convictions ; but a considerable number in which I have much understated
them.

b Since writing the above, I observe that Mr. Palmer (p. 51) has expressed a
criticism on the former of these passages. That particular opinion however there
implied, to which he objects, is one which I do not retract.

B 2

In defending these articles, I" conceive that I have mainly
to prove two points. First, that the various expressions and
sentences quoted by Mr. Balnier and others, which seem to
have shocked and startled so many excellent men, were not
put forth wantonly and without careful deliberation ; but
were no more (often less) than the adequate exponents of my
own deep, intimate, deliberate, and habitual conviction.
Secondly, that they are not inconsistent with a genuine
' allegiance ' and attachment ( to the Church of England,' (see
Palmer, p. 50,) in the truest sense of the words. I cannot
profess that I am surprised, or have any right whatever to
complain, if my own articles in general have given a very
different impression. This may have arisen in part from the
circumstance, that (in consequence of having ordinarily
treated on subjects put before me by others, and of having-
been also precluded from the distinct expression of any
sentiment which might directly clash with those advocated
by other contributors), I have never hitherto had the op-
portunity of putting forth a connected and methodical view,
on the present condition and prospects of our Church.
I cannot but hope that many statements, when viewed in
their proper place and connection with reference to such a
view, may appear, even to those wholly unprepared to
receive them, as not destitute of reason and probability ;
which yet might of themselves, without such explanation,
most naturally convey the impression of being wild, violent,
and eccentric ; of being introduced in a spirit of wantonness,
and maintained in a spirit of exaggeration. Such then is the
task to which I must necessarily apply myself: to draw out
such a theory on our present circumstances, as may give a
natural, unexaggerated meaning to the sentiments of which
complaint has been made, and shew their consistency with a
hearty loyalty to our own Church. For such a theory, al-
though it most certainly was implied in the various articles I
have written, still, I most readily acknowledge, could not
have been deduced from them without a far closer attention
than I had any right to expect ; even if it should have oc-
curred to readers (which is not very likely) to distinguish

the contributions of one writer from those of another. Nor,
of course, can I be accused of egotism, if from time to time
1 quote, either in the text or notes, such parts of what I
have written in the British Critic as bear some relation to
what I may be at the time saying ; for it is the very object of
my publication to exhibit such relation.

And the same defence, which I am putting forward for
using expressions liable to misconstruction, I am very de-
sirous also to urge for the apparent immodesty of address-
ing the public at all, on subjects of such overwhelming
magnitude and importance. I have been drawn, as it were,
into the position which makes it necessary, without my
knowledge and against my will. To undertake a review on
such works as ' Whately's Essays,' or 'Goode's Divine Rule,'
or even on writings so superior to them, as Dr. Arnold's or
Mr. Heurtley's Sermons, will not, I would fain hope, be
generally considered an act of unwarrantable presumption.
But it so happened, that I found myself unable to comment
as I wished on what appeared to me defects in those works,
and to draw out consistently the antagonist truth, without
implying a general view of things, differing in many particu-
lars from that with which I ordinarily met among ' high
churchmen.' This led to misconception ; and this again to
the necessity of explanation : and thus I find myself involved
in an undertaking, from which two years back I should have
recoiled in alarm. One disclaimer especially I am still most
anxious to make explicitly ; a disclaimer which, in more than
one article, I have expressed as clearly as the anonymous per-
mitted, and which I wished the readers of the British Critic
to understand by the following passage in my last article : a
passage which, without this clue, might seem unnecessarily
introduced, or even unmeaning.

" A person who shall have no more power than would be given
him by such occasional periods of moral action" (I had just spoken
of acting for a single day, with a reasonable constancy, in disregard
of other inclinations and with a single eye to duty) " in under-
standing and sympathising with moral goodness, and who should be
very far from having attained that ' patient continuance in well-

doing* which is absolutely required for salvation ; so only he have
mastered this great principle, that holy and self-denying men are
the real fountains from which moral truth flows to the world, and
so only he have access to the company of such men ; such a person,
if endued with great powers of observation and analysis, may define
and adjust moral truth, trace it to its ultimate laws, and compare
it in its different aspects, with a depth and precision beyond the
reach of very many who are incomparably his superiors in all that
is strictly valuable"

And in an earlier article I introduced a similar disclaimer,
which I shall also beg leave to quote.

" In very many cases absolute and great defects of character,
and in a vast number circumstances utterly independent of the
degree of their moral advancement, will be the natural occasions of
bringing home to men's consciousness this sense (whether warranted
or not) of their Church's deficiency. ... A few instances may
serve partially to illustrate this. In some men, according to the
old division, the irascible, in others the concupiscible, part of their
nature predominates. Set before men of the former class a high
aim and a stern rule, they lack little else ; they devote themselves
with a deep and self-forgetting earnestness, to their task, and press
sturdily and resolutely onward. The latter class is far more liable
to be assailed by temptation, drawn back by sloth, cowed by want
of sympathy, repelled by the appearance of opposition, allured by
those outward objects which tend in an opposite direction. No one
can call men of this character more exalted and virtuous than of
the former ; rather the reverse : yet it is these, and not the others,
who will especially desiderate such a protection against self, as
would be provided by the habit of regular and periodical confession
to a priest, or occasional retirements from the world, with an
appointed round of prayer and meditation ; it is these again, and
not the others, who will be so sensible of a deficiency, should it
exist, in that varied and majestic ceremonial, which the Church in
her deep wisdom has devised, that she may encounter and over-
come the world with the world's own weapons, and draw her
children only the more closely to their and her Lord, by those
addresses to the eye and ear which are felt to be so ravishing and

c ' On Mill's Logic, 1 p. 409.

transporting. And this, be it observed, will be still more felt, in
proportion as habits of past sin have made the road to virtue more
rugged and thorny ; have increased the power of temptation, and
lessened the habit of resistance. Would not any system be con-
sidered most maimed and imperfect, which, succeeding to the very
utmost in all else, should fail in its addresses to the returning
penitent ? yet by the very hypothesis, none would be conscious of
its defects, save him who should have deeply sinned. Another,
it is matter of neither praise nor blame, may have a more quick
and penetrating intellect than ordinary ; to him, confusion and
inaccuracy of expression, inconsistency of parts, and the like, would
be far more readily perceptible, and far more a cause of stumbling,
than to those destitute of this qualification. A third has studied
history ; and though studying it with a predisposition in favour
of the existing system, still has experienced in the circumstances
attending its establishment a cause of distrust, which otherwise he
would not have experienced ; or else has found the aspect of those
earlier ages, to which he has been referred, to be widely different
from his anticipations. Another has travelled abroad ; and though
he went there with a strong prejudice against other Churches, as
was probably his duty, still he can no longer possibly give credence
to those tales of exclusive purity at home and corruption abroad,
which he has hitherto rightly taken on trust. Another again has
been thrown by circumstances into positions, where his right course
of action was very difficult of discovery ; he has learned by expe-
rience the little sympathy felt at home for distresses of conscience,
and the inestimable value of foreign works on casuistry. Another
is gifted with an especial and yearning eagerness for sympathy ;
this is not surely the highest character ; yet in consequence of it,
he has within himself the most certain and sad evidence, how
unfounded are the dreams, suggesting that real unity exists among
the several members of his own Church, which delight the repose of
many of her children. One and all of these persons may, if the
reader will, be ever so widely mistaken, but at least, in lamenting
the condition of the English Church, they do any thing rather than
lay claim to an especial and peculiar sanctity." d

In a word, the charge of intellectual presumption to any
extent, (though I trust that it is not deserved,) will give

* ' On Church Authority,' pp. 225, 6.

me very little pain or uneasiness : but should it be imagined
that the free strictures and confident opinions, in which I may
indulge, imply any arrogation to myself of moral superiority
over those whom I criticise ; should it be imagined that,
when I acknowledge the English system to be in many par-
ticulars uncongenial with my own feelings, I allude to the
impediments by which it thwarts the aspirations of a holy
mind after saintliness, rather than the absence of such helps
as may support an erring and sinful mind in the most
ordinary path of salvation ; should this be imagined, I
should be almost overpowered with shame and confusion.

CHAPTER II.

OF WHAT KIND WILL BE THE IDEAL OF A CHURCH IN
CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE OURS ?

1. A VERY convenient introduction to the matter in hand
will be found in an extract from the British Critic of several
years since, on Mr. Palmer's treatise, in which indeed the
writer professes to draw out not his own view, merely, of the
Church's office, but Mr. Palmer's also :

" Men find themselves in this world with many spiritual wants,
with a consciousness that they need a revelation, and a desire to
receive it. For a long while Providence left them in this unsatis-
factory state, with no certain communications from Him ; nay, to
this day, such is the state of the greater part of the world. But
He has blessed us with a message from Him, the Gospel, to teach
us how to please Him and attain to Heaven. He has given us
directions what to do. . . . And now comes the question, where
those directions are, and what ? . . . The Church is, in matter of
fact, our great divinely appointed guide unto saving truth, under
Divine grace. . . . The Church is practically ' the pillar and ground of
the truth,' an informant given to all people, high and low, that they
might not have to wander up and down and grope in darkness, as
they do in a state of nature. Then comes the question at once, where
is the Church ? what are the criteria by which she is discriminated
and known to be God's appointed messenger or prophet ? And here,
at very first sight, it is plain that, if the Church is to be an available
guide to poor as well as rich, unlearned as well as learned, its notes
and tokens must be very simple, obvious, and intelligible. They
must not depend on education, or be brought out by abstruse reasoning ;
but must at once affect the imagination and interest the feelings.
They must bear with them a sort of internal evidence, which super-

sedes further discussion, and makes their truths self-evident. . . Such
evidences we are bound to find of the Church's divinity ; not such
as cannot possibly be explained away or put out of sight, but which
if allowed room to shew themselves, will persuade the many that
she is what she professes to be, God's ordained teacher in the way
to heaven." a

In this passage of course is involved the further prin-
ciple, that those who have yielded their assent to the evi-
dence thus characterized, shall find that very thing to be
true on trial, which they had received on faith ; that ' high
and low, rich and poor, one with another/ shall have the
great principle daily and hourly impressed on their minds by
the Church, of their soul's salvation being the one thing
needful ; and shall be guided, encouraged, cheered, helped,
and protected in the way of that salvation. Such is the
form with which we should expect and desire to see the
Church invested, if she is to perform those very functions
for which she was given : a form which may proclaim to the
world that treasure of grace which she is really privileged to
dispense ; by which, as on the one hand she may bear with
her plain marks of her divine commission, sufficient to ac-
credit her at once to all serious and humble persons as God's
appointed representative ; and may also oifer its fitting place
in His service to every faculty of every mind, moral or intel-
lectual ; so, on the other hand, (without which indeed the
former cannot exist,) she may be so consistent, plain, deep,
and sound in the teaching which she dispenses, that she may
unite to herself more and more firmly the hearts of all, in
proportion as they have earnestly and confidingly submitted
themselves to her guidance, by the 'threefold cord which
cannot be broken,' of conscience, Scripture, sanctity : i.e. [1.]
by their perceiving with daily increasing certainty how ex-
quisitely her system corresponds and answers externally to
the internal voice of conscience ; [2.] how deep and entire the
harmony of her doctrines with Scripture ; [3.] how high and

a British Critic for October, pp. 3.54, o.

unapproachable by other systems the sanctity which is her
witnessed result. " Now we believe not because of thy say-
ing, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is
indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." b

Let us carry with us then this simple and obvious ideal of
the Church's office, (which, of course, like other ideals, is no
where realized in perfection, but towards which indefinite
progress may be made,) that her one only object shall be to
save the souls of those committed to her charge ; and that
the very proof which she offers to her children of her divine
authority, shall be the sense entertained by them of the
spiritual benefits she imparts ; that her voice shall be as the
Voice of God heard amidst the din of this restless and sinful
world, guiding us in perplexities, soothing us in distresses,
strengthening us in temptations, alarming the careless and
worldly, cheering the contrite and humble of heart. And
let us apply this ideal in detail to the principal circum-
stances of our age and country.

2. The great truth, which a Church following such a
model, and established in the midst of a fallen world, will
ever have to proclaim in the loudest and most articulate voice,
will be the intrinsic hatefulness and peril of sin. Before this
gigantic and paramount evil, all others shrink into infinite
insignificance. In educating the young, whatever else might
or might not be taught, this at least will be impressed on
their minds in every variety of shape ; on their conscience,
on their imagination, on their reason. They will learn to
connect indissolubly their idea of beauty with holiness, of
deformity with vice. What these duties are in their respective
circumstances, which they cannot omit without the temporary
loss of God's grace, or at least imminent peril of such loss,
no pains and trouble will be considered excessive, in order
that they may adequately know ; what those temptations are
to which throughout the day they will probably be exposed,
to what evil tempers and dispositions they are most liable, by
what rules and pious practices they may best overcome such

b ' On Goode's Divine Rule,' p. 82.

temptations, and be faithful to the grace which God so boun-
tifully gives them ; instruction in all this will be fully recog-
nised as so absolutely the principal object in education, that
whatever of mental cultivation must needs be sacrificed in
order to its adequate reception, without thought or de-
liberation will be Sacrificed. To implant principles, and in-
culcate habits of daily observance, which may be the Chris-
tian's safeguard against temptations from within or from
without, which may be God's instruments in preserving him
unharmed and unsullied in an evil world, and in enabling
him to persevere even to the end, this will be not professed
only but fully realized, as the one principal purpose towards
which every branch of education shall converge ; differences
of opinion may exist on matters of detail and application, but
this great principle will be assumed, not in word only but in
habitual act, as an axiom.

And the same principle will be extended to more general
ministrations. To arouse the confessedly irreligious and pro-
fane from their fatal lethargy, and sound the trumpet of
Christ's judgment, as if by anticipation, in their ears ; this is
a very necessary part of the Church's duty, and will by no
means be neglected. Still it will not occupy her chief at-
tention ; for it seems absolutely impossible that persons who
never come to Church nor profess to pray, should deceive
themselves into the notion that they are safe from God's
vengeance. Much greater care will be employed with those
who do come to Church lest they be betrayed into the de-
lusion, that a regular attendance at Christian ordinances
can compensate for open and deliberate habits of sin. Such
an idea, at all events as regards certain sins, is very widely
prevalent in England, as all experienced clergymen combine
in assuring us ; but it will fill with dismay the watchful and
anxious priest. He will be * instant in season and out of
season ' in warning them of their fearful peril ; and would
rather even die a death of torment, than so far encourage
them in their miserable infatuation, as to admit them to the
Lord's table, or recognise them as in any full sense Chris-
tian brethren.

Even this, however, is comparatively a very easy task.
To impress on the mind of the offenders, at every possible
occasion, the general principle of which they appear igno-
rant, is all that is required : the individual application, in
the case of wilful and open sin, will be readily made by each
one for himself. Far more subtle and specious is the snare
of Satan, in cases where deadly sin exists, unknown, nay, un-
suspected by the sinner himself; where wealth is idolatrously
prized or pursued ; or love of power or of ease wholly banish
from the soul any real love of God ; or men admit maxims
and practices in their daily calling, indefensible on grounds
of morality ; or allow themselves in resentment or absence of
forgiveness to some one, at least, of their fellow men ; or
pursue some habitual course of action which they are afraid
steadily to look in the face, lest they be compelled to acknow-
ledge it wrong ; or where thoughts of pride and self-com-
placency, or of envy and malice, or of another and more
dangerous kind, are permitted in a degree which constitutes
a deadly sin ; or the like.

Nor indeed are the triumphs of Satan confined to cases of
deadly sin. How often do habits such as I have described,
though they fall short of this extreme character, and do
not actually obstruct the avenues of grace, still more or
less, as it were, choke them up ; so that no principle of
growth displays itself ; so that the spiritual stature remains
dwarfish, disproportioned, and unshapely ; and even though
they continue in a sense to enjoy the means of grace
here, the final salvation of the offenders is placed in the
most imminent jeopardy. Such perils as these will at all

c Spiritual writers lay great stress on the arduous contest which we shall all
have to wage against Satan, at the moment of death ; and say that he will put
forth his utmost strength, at the moment when the prey is on the point of escap-
ing his snares. Our Prayer-book in like manner says, " God most mighty,
Holy and Merciful Saviour, Thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer us not,
at our last hour, for any pains of death to fall from Thee." This is one great
reason why a prayer for final perseverance should form part of the daily devotions
even of the most advanced Christians. The thought altogether is very awful
and sobering to all of us ; but for those who content themselves with languid and
remiss efforts after self-mastery and growth in grace, it is a ground for the most
lively alarm.

times be among the most dangerous pitfalls in the Chris-
tian's course ; but in an age of civilization they will assume
a shape of hundred-fold importance. At a period of com-
parative refinement like the present, when ' the regime of
public opinion is adverse to at least the indecorous vices ;'
when ' breaches of the tenth commandment of the Decalogue
will be encouraged in proportion as the open violation of the
three preceding is discountenanced by public opinion ;' when
from the fact that ' overt acts of passion are restrained' by
ten thousand motives wholly independent, or at least short,
of the fear and love of God, the temptation to ' wilful, pro-
tracted, and therefore ruinous sins of thought' or of secret
transgression, will be indefinitely increased ; wjien the strict
claims of duty to God will be continually put in the back-
ground, from the very circumstance of the prominence given
to a certain half-selfish, half-indolent benevolence towards
man ; at such a period, the sins above described will be to an
ideal Church objects of the most incessant care and watchful-
ness. To see persons regular at Church and Sacrament, in
whom he has reason to fear the existence of such secret sins,
will fill the faithful priest with misgiving and alarm. No
sense of any temporal or prudential advantages, derivable
from their presence there, will have the faintest efiect in
deadening his sense of fear for himself ; lest, by encouraging
or allowing them in their most perilous self-deceit, he may
have to give account for their souls at the Great Day. What
he can, he will, do, by the plainest and simplest expositions
from the pulpit, of the fearful character of those evil tenden-
cies and dispositions, which he may suspect to exist within
them. But he will most sensibly feel the need of some far
more penetrating and efficacious weapon, in order to pierce
the crust of obdurate self-complacency and self-ignorance,
with which he has to deal. To the discovery of some such
spiritual weapon, if such be not already possessed, the most
gifted spirits within the Church will direct the utmost vigour
of their mental resources. It will be felt by all around, that
the whole Church is pervaded by no deeper anxiety, no more
incessant and corroding care, than the supplying of this de-

ficiency : that in no one other point will her eagerness be
greater and more sustained, than in carefully examining the
records of past and present times, and in zealously following
the slightest and most distant ray of light on the subject ; in
order that from any possible quarter she may discover
some means for adequately coping with this subtle snare,
which, to her most bitter sorrow, is enmeshing the souls
of so many among her dear and beloved children in the
faith.

Again, a Church which is ever on the watch to catch souls,
will take especial advantage of those moments, when from
reverse in worldly business, or sickness, or sorrow, or from
some temporary religious impression, an impulse towards
good is felt by one who has hitherto led a worldly or an
openly immoral life. She will ' fall on the neck,' as it were,
of such an one, ' and kiss him ;' she will endeavour to place
religion before him in a light as attractive as truth will per-
mit ; and to make that task as easy and joyous to him as the
case allows, which at best must be most wearisome and
grievous, of retracing his steps, and disentangling himself,
under God's grace, from the miserable thraldom of sinful
habits. At the same time, some wisely and religiously consti-
tuted system of observance must be always at hand, to fan the
embers of piety into a steady glow ; to obtain possession of
him, as it were, and secure him from the world, before the
latter has had time to reassert its dominion ; to bring before
him religious truths and sanctions, and impress them on his
whole nature ; to strengthen and protect him in holy seclu-
sion ; till he may be able again to go forth into the world,
without imminent danger of falling a second time away from
the narrow path.

But the father who fell on the younger son's neck and
kissed him, said also to the elder, " Son, thou art ever
with me, and all that I have is thine." An object then still
dearer to her heart even than comforting and retaining the
penitent, will be to guide those aright, who have never wholly
withdrawn themselves from under her Lord's light yoke ; to
relieve their perplexities, point out their duties, direct their

obedience, shew them their spiritual dangers, guide their
penitential acts, and mould their habits after the Christian
model. And all this, without cramping or fettering, while she
directs, the free and natural development of their character ;
or interfering with that endless diversity of opinion, which
must ever exist, on the application of true principles in each
particular case. This diversity was plainly intended by God,
and is an important means whereby He works out His pur-
poses in our regard; nor could the Church more seriously
mistake her duty, than by any attempt to substitute, on
such matters, arbitrary Ecclesiastical dictation for well-
regulated individual responsibility.

A function of the Church, even more important than any
that we have yet named, is what may be briefly described as
the training up of Saints ; the sedulously tending of those
who, whether in reward for a consistently holy walk in time
past, or by the free workings of God's grace, have aspirations
within them which tend to a high and noble strictness of life,
and who thirst for a far more entire self-abnegation and devo-
tion to God's will, than that for which the ordinary walks of
life afford sufficient scope. To place before Christians such
as these the opportunity, of consecrating wholly to heavenly
realities those ardent and enthusiastic feelings, which men
among us ordinarily squander on earthly and transitory
objects, objects which neither are worthy of them, nor can
possibly satisfy or repay them ; this is an office which an
ideal Church will prize and cherish to her heart of hearts,
as her noblest and most transporting privilege ; she will feel
it as the greatest of all the mercies that she has received
from God, that she is allowed, in return as it were for His
infinite loving-kindness, to offer before Him specimens of the
capabilities of our common nature, and visible proofs of the
inexhaustible power of His wonder-working grace. But in
times like the present, (as indeed at all times more or less,)
for the mere purposes of practical efficiency, such institu-
tions will have an absolutely inappreciable value. We are,
if I may use a homely expression, at a perfect stand-still for
want of saints and saintly men ; surrounded and menaced on

all sides by dangers the most imminent ; from which, humanly
speaking, we see no means of escape, until it shall please God
to raise up for our needs, and to do His work among us, in-
trepid, self-devoted, ardent, enthusiastic, humble, holy, hea-
venly-mirided men. A truth, to which I shall have occasion
more than once to recur in what will follow.

From what has been said, it results that a Church such
as we are now contemplating, will possess a profound and
accurate system of moral, of ascetic, and of mystical theology.
On every other subject except theology it is an universally
admitted axiom, and I suppose even in theology few would
deny it in terms, that empirical knowledge is worth very
little, but that scientific knowledge may be worth a very
great deal. It seems very plain, that a person whose peculiar
study it is to gather facts from all quarters, to examine them
carefully, to classify and arrange them, is likely to take a
veiy much more enlarged view of any given phenomenon,
than one whose experience is partial and (as it were) acci-
dental : that one whose special business it is to speculate,
whose education has been directed to that very object, and
whose life is one continued practice in its performance, will
certainly speculate to very much better purpose, than one
whose habits have been in quite a different direction : lastly,
that principles formed after deep and patient study, under
no present bias, and with a single eye to truth, may possibly
be very good ; but that principles extemporized on the spur
of the moment, to meet a present emergency, and under the
bias caused by the peculiar circumstances of that emergency,
will to an absolute certainty be altogether bad. But how much
stronger does the contrast become, when we remember that
the phenomena now in question are not those accumulated
by one man, however candid, observant, and indefatigable,
but the recorded experience of all past ages of the Church ;
and that the speculation is not that of one thinker, however
gifted, but of a series of doctors, each one reviewing, and
modifying or confirming, the dicta of those who have preced-
ed him ; and whose theories are confronted and verified every
year by an almost innumerable number of practical appli-

cations. This then being granted, it follows that, whereas
the Church witnesses in the midst of us the great principles
of morality ; and is bound moreover to assist her children in
applying them to their peculiar circumstances, in knowing
what is and what is not sin, and how grievous in themselves
are particular sins ; she must needs have a recognised body
of moral theology : that whereas she is bound to guide them
to the various moral and theological virtues, to all holy and
Christian tempers of mind ; and to implant maxims of conduct
and inculcate practices of piety, which shall lead to those
virtues and tempers ; her ministers must be sufficiently versed
in a certain uniform and recognised body of ascetic theology :
that whereas her highest office is to train, not ordinary
Christians, but those predestined to be Saints, and whereas
those of her children, who are climbing up that arduous and
dizzy path, are free in great measure from the temptations
which beset ordinary men, but exposed to perils of a more
subtle indeed and transcendental, but no whit of a less fatal,
character ; whereas they require to be warned against the
very masterpieces of Satan's subtlety, who would fain ' trans-
form' himself even ' into an angel of light,' if by so doing he
may rob but one among those exalted spirits of the crown
prepared for him ; and whereas their salvation (speaking
generally) is no more assured before the end of their pil-
grimage than that of the humblest Christian ; she must
possess a certain number of thorough proficients in the noble
and wonderful science of mystical theology.

3. Further. * The duty of a Christian (as distinguished from
his gifts and privileges) may profitably be contemplated
according to the well-known division of faith and obedience.
In the former is included (though much more is also in-
cluded) knowledge of the great Christian doctrines. Christian
precept and Christian doctrine, these are the two great ex-
ternal facts which essentiaUy claim the Christian's attention
and allegiance.' And in a very remarkable manner they
react on, and correspond to, one another. Pure doctrine
requires for its reception a purified heart ; a purified heart
requires for its support and progress in holiness pure doctrine.

* In no other way than by the habit of strict and anxious
conscientiousness, can that faculty be acquired, which alone
hears God's voice where others hear it not, or interprets His
words aright where all hear them.' In no other way than by
the contemplation, reception, and hearty appropriation of
sound doctrine, is this conscientiousness made really Christian
obedience ; preserved in its first fervour, or rather in a con-
tinually increasing degree strengthened, deepened, extended ;
led forth into a wider range, and endued with a higher and
more generous quality; adding refinement and delicacy to
zeal and warmth, confident hope to godly fear, joyous ex-
ultation to deep contrition and humility. ' Other studies,
however profitable ; even the religious study of Holy Scrip-
ture ; much more its critical examination, or the knowledge
of Christian antiquities, or of Church History; still more
again the evidences of religion, or the geography of the
Holy Land, or the harmony of sacred with profane history
no part of which latter class indeed has any pretension to be
considered any part or parcel of theology at all; but all
these, except so far as they are contained in one of the two
first named classes, are no essential part of the Christian's
knowledge. " Many barbarous nations," says St. Irenseus,
" believe in Christ without written memorial, diligently
preserving the old traditions :" without reading Scripture,
or knowing a word of it, men may be good Christians ;
without obeying Christ's commandments and believing in
His doctrines, they cannot. And the Church from the first
has acted upon this principle. She has never thought of
authoritatively determining the sense of any one text in
Scripture, however sacred. She has excommunicated those,
and those only, who were sinful in life or heretical in
doctrine.' f

The drift of this theorizing is to explain the intimate and
indissoluble connection which exists, between the combats
sustained by a pure Church against sin, (which we have
already viewed in some of their multiform aspects,) and the
witness borne by her. to Christian doctrine. There is perhaps
no one principle in all history, on which there is so surprising

f ' On St. Athanasius,' pp. 389, 90.

a consilience of a priori reasonings with observed phenomena,
as on this ; that any Church, which shall not contain at her
centre a deep dogmatic theology, exuberant with life, indo-
mitable in energy, that Church is languid in her spiritual
functions, wavering and unauthoritative in ruling her own
subjects, feeble and prostrate in her external relations. And
what the wonder ? Saints are the very hidden life of a Church ;
and Saints cannot be nurtured on less than the full Catholic
doctrine. Nay, even Christian obedience, in an earlier or
lower stage of growth, so far as it is really Christian, must
be in one certain given direction, not in some other. Nor is
there any one object which an ideal Church will recognise as
more vitally important, or to the attainment of which she will
direct more unwearied and incessant efforts, than the providing
that all her children shall have placed before them, necessarily
indeed in very varied degrees of advance and of refinement,
but still in whatever degrees of advance the very same doc-
trine, the one real, consistent, orthodox faith.

As to that faith itself, as stored up in its whole fulness
within the Church, an ideal Church will be no one whit less
sedulous in preserving the * unitatem in necessariis ' than the
' libertatem in dubiis.' By ' necessaria ' she will understand
such doctrines as in any way concern the moral and spiritual
development, even in its most exalted state : by * dubia ' those
many points of minor importance, which are deduced by the
intellect, not impressed on the spiritual nature ; or again,
those cases in which the moral impression on holy minds is
absolutely one and the same, but the intellectual interpre-
tation of that impression varies, according to the accident of
education, habit of mind, mental cultivation and powers.
Whether the differences of opinion still allowed within the
Roman Church, on the subject of predestination, be of this
latter class, is a suggestion which I throw out with the
utmost diffidence, and submit to the judgment of those who
may be able to decide on it. g Again : how far from the
vital and fundamental importance of the great office of the

e Mr. Newman says somewhere (though I cannot at the moment refer to the
passage), that the Augustinian doctrine is merely the form into which minds, cast
in a certain mould, throw the eternal truth, that the way to Life is narrow.

Church whereof I have been just speaking, taken in connec-
tion with the absolute impossibility of its fit performance by
any human wisdom, a probability accrues of the opinion
being well founded, which has so generally prevailed in the
Church, that a special and divine help is continually im-
parted to her supreme authority, (whatever that authority
may be,) enabling it to decide on doctrines with unfailing
accuracy ; this is a question which I am not bound to
discuss, but throw out for the consideration of those whom it
may concern.

Next, as to the Church's method of impressing these great
truths on her children one by one. In one of my Articles
I have ventured to express an opinion, that in every one who
has cure of souls, ' dogmatic theology, an accurate and habi-
tual knowledge of the Church's formal statements of doctrine,
will be an essential part of his qualifications. It will be im-
possible for him otherwise to dispense religious truth to his
flock as their spiritual necessities require it ; and he may thus
most seriously injure the harmonious development of their
inward life." h One advantage resulting from this, and by no
means an insignificant one, will be, that parish priests will
practically realize the fact, which persons who have not at
least mastered its elementary principles will never believe,
that there is such a science as dogmatic theology ; and, there
being such, that they who have devoted their lives to its
study, when accordant with each other, should meet with
absolutely implicit deference on the subject from those who
have not. Hence a priest will very carefully and habitually
use language precisely orthodox, even on details whereof his
own spiritual advancement or else intellectual acumen has
not yet enabled him to discern the essential importance.
Without this universal and harmonious accuracy of language,
unless every thing which comes from authority, authoritative
teaching, prayers, ceremonial, conspire with one consent to im-
press on their conscience, imagination, and reason, one and the
same religious faith, one and the same religious character, the
Church's task, in itself sufficiently arduous, of providing her
h ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 52.

children with Christian doctrine suitable to their needs, would
be rendered absolutely hopeless. It is a certain fact, however
we account for it, and a fact which throws very considerable
light indeed on the present condition of the English Church,
that in innumerable cases, where spiritual addresses are more
or less discordant from one another on important points, those
submitted to their influence experience no conscious dissatis-
faction, (which would be incomparably better, for it would lead
to inquiry and interest,) but rather that these various addresses
in great part neutralize each other ; and that to a miserable
extent the people fall into a habit of hearing religious words
without attaching to them any definite meaning, and the voice
of the preacher becomes to them almost as ' sounding brass
or a tinkling cymbal.'

What I have said shews to a certain extent the rationale
of w T hat is continually exemplified, in Ecclesiastical History ;
viz. that certain modes of expressing doctrine, which as used
by this or that person may have a precisely orthodox mean-
ing, are nevertheless, in the performance of her bounden duty,
proscribed by the Church. The reason being, that if their
use be allowed to any Christians, (though they may be neu-
tralized by the spiritual discernment in the case of eminently
religious persons, and though of course they will produce no
direct effect whatever on the unintellectual, still) they will to
a most lamentable extent either baffle and confuse, or else
pain and distress, many an excellent Christian, who carefully
and habitually endeavours to perform the essential duty of
realizing and dwelling upon the religious expressions he is
taught. Nay, infinitely worse than this is the ultimate result ;
for if allowed to circulate among the mass of educated be-
lievers, much more if carried into their consequences by
profound thinkers, they will introduce into the community
feelings and methods of thought wholly inconsistent with the
true Christian element, and thus sap the very foundations of
the faith. This danger can of course be seen, in a particular
case, only by those who are deeply versed in dogmatic the-
ology ; and this will still further illustrate the indispensable
necessity of that implicit deference to the united decisions of

such men, which the Catholic Church has ever yielded. It
must not be forgotten in conclusion, that to proscribe, in the
case of a body whose sanctions are wholly spiritual, is to
anathematize.

Of course, as was just now implied, the number of those
who are directly guided into orthodoxy by means of orthodox
statements is comparatively limited. In what manner the un-
learned and unintellectual are to learn orthodoxy, indeed
' the whole subject of the religious knowledge of a saint-like
and heavenly-minded believer, who should be wholly without
intellectual cultivation, is full of importance, interest, and
(we may add) mystery, and well deserves a separate dis-
cussion by itself.'' On this discussion I have no room nor
inclination here to enter ; nor to pursue into their ultimate
elements, even so far as might be done, the phenomena in
question. A very few words however on the matter do seem
called for. Mr. Newman lays down, as a foundation for their
reception of such knowledge, that ' i would not be safe to
deny to the illuminating grace of Baptism a power at least
of putting the mind into a capacity for receiving impressions ;'
a sentiment which, if he had not stated it thus problemati-
cally, I confess I should not have hesitated to express confi-
dently. ' The secondary and intelligible means,' he goes on
to say, ' by which we receive the impression of Divine Veri-
' ties, are such as the habitual and devout perusal of Scripture,
' which gradually acts upon the mind : again, the gradual in-
'fluence of intercourse tvith those who are themselves inposses-
' sion of the sacred ideas ; . . . again, a continual round of de-
* votion ; or again sometimes in minds both fitly disposed and
' apprehensive,' I should be inclined to say especially among
the very religious poor, ' the almost instantaneous operation
' of a keen faith." 4 To all these I would add, as one most
especial means of effecting the object desired, what is some-
times called the preaching Christ. I mean, putting Him
before the people as the principal object for their contem-
plation ; leading them on to meditate in private on the
various circumstances of His life, under the habitual im-
1 ' On St. Athanasius,' p. 419. k University Sermons, pp. 334, 5.

pression that it is God to Whose acts and words they listen ;
to address Him spontaneously in all troubles and distresses ;
to keep ever present in their mind a sense that He, of Whom
they hear or read, created them one by one ; that at this very
time He knows all their thoughts, governs all the events which
meet them in their daily course, feels for all their trials, gives
them strength for victory, will judge them at the Great Day.
If His real and proper Divinity be by such methods as this
deeply and firmly imprinted on their mind ; if they be carefully
taught from the very first the most elementary expressions of
orthodoxy on the two principal doctrines of Revelation, such
as '' Three Persons, One God,' and 'One Person, Two Natures;'
and are habituated to the frequent recitation of our ordinary
doxology ; then the natural use, in sermons and the like, of such
Scripture language as " God sent His Son into the world."
" The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name,"
" He shall glorify Me ; for He shall receive of Mine and shall
shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine :
therefore said I that He shall take of Mine and shew it unto
you " and other similar expressions ; the use, I say, of such
language, joined with the most careful and undeviating ortho-
doxy of expression in all that is said to them, will lead them
forward, in proportion to their spiritual growth, (so at least I
cannot but think,) into full implicit belief in the Trinity and
the Incarnation. And when Christians, who are proceeding
in the path of holy obedience, have realized so much as this,
I sometimes fancy that they would almost anticipate the fur-
ther doctrine of the Atonement, even were it possible that
they should not have heard it from without. Certainly, be-
coming, as they do, daily more conscious of their miserable
sinfulness, and of the deep corruption of their nature ; after
they have once mastered, in some not wholly insufficient mea-
sure, the before incredible truth that God became Man, an
equally real apprehension, and an unspeakably deep and grate-
ful appreciation, of the further and now most credible truth,
that His death was our redemption, will most easily follow.

4. Such then is the essential and fundamental duty of the
Church ; the united maintenance of these two objects, which

cannot by possibility be maintained separately, holiness of
life and orthodoxy of faith. Second to this in importance,
but second only to this, is the attempt to give to all our high
aspirations and affections their adequate and fullest satisfaction,
where only it can be found, in God's service. I will instance,
as the principal particular under this head, public prayer ;
or to speak more accurately, the provision of a public office
for prayer, praise, and thanksgiving in its various shapes.

This doubtless, if not closely connected with a strict
government of the inward life, by an inevitable necessity de-
clines more or less into hollowness and formalism ; but not-
withstanding, when based upon right individual faith and
practice, it supplies us with a most invaluable vent for our
social regards and sympathies. In order however that this
may be so, it is of primary importance that the accessories of
this service shall be divested of every approach to gloom,
constraint, pedantry, or formality ; that f the mould into
which the united prayers of the Church are thrown shall ' not
' be destritute of poetical beauty,' nor 'offend the spiritual taste
by inflated declamation, lengthy verbosity, tedious sameness,
wearisome repetition ;' that it shall ' give sufficient utterance
to all those feelings and desires which Christians in public
prayers would wish to express,' and ' all the great doctrines
of revelation which they would desire to honour ;' lastly, that
the people shall not be unduly ' restrained by forms ; that
they' shall be ' allowed and encouraged to vent their warm
devotional feelings in such external acts and gestures as na-
turally express them,' not be ' bound by harsh and cruel
custom to an exterior of polite indifference, a cold, cramping,
stifling uniformity.' 1 But the principles which a true spi-
ritual wisdom would apply, to the setting in order of the
services of the sanctuary, have been so admirably expressed
in several articles of the British Critic, that it is not neces-
sary here to say more on the subject.

But not only in religious celebrations, universally, the
sense of the sublime and beautiful will be one very principal
means, whereby the Church will impress on the minds of her
' ' On the Synagogue and the Church, 1 pp. 24, 5.

children those superhuman realities, which it is her office to
witness. ' Those mysterious feelings which are called forth
by the sense of beauty, are media by which heavenly and
supernatural truths are, in various measures, shadowed forth
to the believer's mind ; by which are impressed faint, con-
fused, and unconnected ideas of that unknown Beauty,
whose intuition in its full and harmonious completeness is
reserved for a future existence.' 01 ' Whether it be solemn
ceremonial, or music, or architecture, or again poetry, which
draws forth the sense of beauty in the particular case, so it
is that he w T ho patiently continues in w r ell-doing and in wait-
ing upon God, is addressed by Him through some peculiar
channel, and receives "through a glass darkly" perceptions
of eternal and heavenly truth.' A Church then, fully fur-
nished for her high calling, will have a school of architecture,
of music, of painting, perhaps of poetry, of her own ; each
setting forth in its peculiar method, and impressing on those
who are open to its peculiar influence, the one essential and
unalterable stamp of the Christian faith and character. Nor
should we suppose, that in times past the accomplishment of
this high object has been left to unassisted human agency.
' The vast ceremonial, ritual, liturgical system which is her
heritage, the noble building, the solemn procession, the
ravishing chant, are, to an indefinite extent, the suggestions
of the Spirit Himself to the beloved Bride of Christ. And if
to the deep prejudices of modern Englishmen this statement
appears at once utterly extravagant, let them read their
Bibles, and remember the case of Bezaleel ; nay, let them
ask themselves whether, in plain reason, the fit outward ex-
pression of the Church's feeling, e. g. on Good Friday,
would not be an object so far surpassing all other outward
things in majesty and sublimity, as to be a worthy occasion
for special interposition.' 11

5. But the ideal I am endeavouring to draw out, though
even at last it must needs be very incomplete, still will be
far from sufficiently specific to suit the necessary exigencies

m ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 398.

n ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' pp. .9, 12, 13.

of my purpose, unless I proceed from these generalities, to
consider the peculiar circumstances of some among the
various classes into which England is divided ; and trace in
imagination the demeanour of an ideal Church under those
circumstances. And first I will consider those, far the
dearest objects of affection to the Church as to her heavenly
Master, the little ones of Christ, the poor ; that class to whose
number belonged the Apostles, St. Mary, our Blessed Lord
Himself; that class whom He begins by pronouncing
blessed ; that class whom he vouchsafed to single out from
the rest, and say especially that to them the Gospel was
preached. And in default of practical knowledge, let me
make my statements on the authority of a work recently
published, which can labour under no possible suspicion of
advocating the general views which I humbly support ; but
which, I believe, has received a very general testimony from
the public on the substantial truth of its statements, and
which shews indeed, in its whole composition, that the writer
has been at the utmost pains, to unite dispassionate accu-
racy of statement with that warmth of benevolence and zeal
against oppression, which are such attractive characteristics
of his production.

" In England, the population compelled to labour for daily bread
may be arranged generally under the following heads ; manufacturing,
mining, commercial, and agricultural." p. 15.

" The Manufacturing Poor. The employment in nearly all its
branches is unhealthy, wearisome, and irksome ; the confinement
severe, and the numbers crowded into a given space, such as to
impregnate loth the physical and moral atmosphere with poisonous

qualities Twelve hours in the twenty-four is the minimum

for young persons in the mills and factories, which constitute a main
department of this branch, and no precise limit is set to the toil of

adults The ordinary day's labour in these employments,

with the time required for going and returning, occupies fourteen

or fifteen hours out of each four and twenty What distinction

can be drawn between the forcible wresting away of a poor man's
Bible, and the exhaustion of his bodily powers to such a degree,

'The Perils of the Nation.' Seeley, London, 1843.

that the very little time allowed him for rest scarcely suffices to
recruit them, and leaves him neither leisure nor ability for intellectual
or spiritual improvement ?

" Vice and demoralization reign unchecked in these establish-
ments. . . . There are masters who take an interest in the well-being
of their servants, .... but what proportion do they bear to the
bulk of their brethren ? Is it as one to twenty ? one to fifty ? one
to a hundred ? we fear it is not. This then is the all but universal
character of a factory : the labourers consist of persons of both
sexes and of all ages, from the hoary transgressor, whose .... long
experience in iniquity renders him no less effectual in Satan's service,
down to the little child that cannot yet attach a meaning to the
foul expressions which its ears drink in. These persons, con-
tributing each some share to the common stock of evil communi-
cation, .'. . . from the element in which they live, an ocean of
reckless, raging profligacy, are prepared to overpower and engulph
every new victim cast upon the surface of its bottomless abyss."
pp. 1824.

" Mining Poor. The horrors of this department have, like their

sable treasuries, been long hidden from the light of day In

many of the mines now working the roads or passages do not
exceed eighteen inches in height. The closeness of the place would

speedily produce suffocation, were it not ventilated from above

If the ventilation be imperfect, the heat in the workings becomes
most offensive; and the character of the gases combined, the
moisture where the drainage is not very complete, and animal
effluvia, render it the most noisome, most horrible atmosphere that

man's lungs can inhale No ray of natural light, no breath of

unfettered air, .... ever visit the miner's place of work ; but
perils fearful to contemplate impend over him, requiring above
almost any other predicament of human life, that his way amidst
the bowels of the earth should be cleared of all unavoidable entice-
ments to transgression, and the solemn truth allowed to bear with
full force upon his conscience, that ' there is but a step between
him and death.' ....

" The nature of the ordinary employment in coal mines is to the
stout heart of man appalling, to his vigorous intellect debilitating,

to his sinewy frame, in its full maturity, exhausting What

a man by the utmost efforts of willing labour can earn, is often
utterly insufficient ; whence it follows, that ere his wife and babes

can eat, they must be immersed in the untold horrors of those

subterranean hells Little creatures of eight, five, yea, four

years are chosen, whose fathers carry them down to the pit even in
their night gowns, as the evidence has shewn, place each poor babe
behind a door, and leave it, crying with cold and terror, in total
darkness for twelve or fourteen hours, with no one variation of its
wretched employment.

" The most abandoned vice reigns in the mines, transforming the
female character into something so depraved, that their language and

conduct are far worse than the men's Added to the powerful

influence of constant persuasion to sin, is the total absence of all
restraining principle." pp. 29 46.

" Workshop Labourers. In the iron manufactures . . . the chil-
dren are put to the vice as early as seven years of age One

even of the more respectable employers admits .... that he has
carried on his works sometimes for nineteen or twenty hours a day,
boys as well as men,

" In screw manufactures \hefemales constitute 80 or 90 per cent,
of the whole number employed." In manufacturies generally " these
poor children (girls and boys) are subjected to the" most incredibly
" brutal treatment, ' beaten with a seat-rod a stick as thick as a
' finger every week,' with ' a whip with four lashes to it and tied
' in knots ;' one boy's master ' cut his head open five times, once
' with a key and twice with a lock ; knocked the corner of a lock
' into his head twice :' another's ' hit him on the head with a ham-
naer the blow cut his head open and he fainted away.'

" Dreadful also are the sufferings of these poor children from the
mere want of food.

" The inevitable consequence of this utter disregard of all the
obligations of parent or employer, is seen in the fearful depravity

which prevails among these poor creatures ' Moral feelings

and sentiments do not exist among them. They have no morals.' "
pp. 5062.

" The Commercial classes. A young man opens a small shop : . . .
in former times what would have been his plan ? He must have
commenced in a moderate way according to his means ; and by
sound goods, fair prices, and steady attention, endeavoured to esta-
blish a character, &c. Such times however are unhappily at an end ;
a new system is in operation, &c. A young man . . . cannot long
contend against present loss, decreasing custom, and the feverish
anxiety inseparable from so exciting a conflict. He perhaps be-

comes more reckless in his dealings, and by the discovery of
unequivocal frauds is overwhelmed with disgrace, &c. What his
future lot may be, no one can predict ; but the ranks of our army,
the walls of our workhouses, and, alas ! the hulks of our convict- ships,
could exhibit many a living illustration of this statement.

" Another class more extensive : to begin with stationery .... a
reduction, the amount of which we should be ashamed to calculate,
enables the epistolary world to save a farthing on every dozen
billets they dispatch, at the trifling cost of driving to starvation,
prostitution, or some summary mode of self-destruction, the succour-
less young females whose bread is thus wrested away." pp. 68 73.

" Agricultural poor. The distress existing among the agricultural

poor is great ; it is also increasing The utter absence of any

powerful motive to honest labour, resulting from the fact that
nothitfg to which he puts his hand is or can be his own, ... is enough
to cramp the energies and deaden the feelings of any man. He
feels himself a supernumerary on the earth's surface ; he has no
proprietorship in any thing, save perhaps in a helpless family,

whose hunger he knows not how he can appease He becomes

a reckless, if not a demoralized being ; and the contrast which
he cannot but draw between his own condition and that of the
landed proprietor whose soil he tills, engenders feelings of envy,
hatred, and a disposition to violence, of which many are eager
to take advantage Our agricultural poor are wholly and hope-
lessly dependent on what they can gain by toiling for others ; they
dwell in hovels, single or clustered, destitute of comfort, cramping
the body and depressing the mind. .... And thus, as among the
other working classes, personal respectability becomes a chim&ra :
they follow the lowest instincts and impulses of animal life, and are
perfectly prepared to become the scourges of those orders in society
who have trampled them down to so wretched a level." p pp. 81 87.
" England is one vast mass of superficial splendour, covering a body
of festering misery and discontent. Side by side appears, in fearful
and unnatural contrast, the greatest amount of opulence, and the
most appalling mass of misery. . . . Where once was sociable and
merry England, we have care and caution in the countenance of
the rich man, in the working man discontent, in the poor man misery
and depression." p. xv. 8.

P See British Critic, No. Ixv. pp. 271, 2. Indeed the whole of that very beautiful
article ' on agricultural labour and wages,' forcibly illustrates the positions of the
writer whom I am quoting.

It has been most justly and admirably said, that * the
Church is the poor man's court of justice. He has no other.
It is a saying in the mouth of every one, that laws are
made to protect the strong, not the weak. The laws cannot
concern themselves with small things. They assert principles,
and so are a political testimony to the obligation of justice.
They can do little more, as far as the poor are concerned.
Nor should we wish to see it otherwise. A multiplicity of
particular laws made for the poor, would increase their misery,
and be utterly ineffective ; for law cannot reach their po-
sition, any more than it can the relations of parent and child,
husband or wife. Law protects chiefly its own creations, wealth

and privilege Generally speaking, the rights of the rich

can be asserted by law ; generally speaking, the rights of the
poor cannot, because they are matters, not of positive institu-
tion, but of nature, of feeling, and of custom. When the
moral tone of the country is unchristianized, it is all one
whether the poor are serfs by law, or citizens by law. Their
poverty in both cases is equally weak, contemptible, and
ridiculous. It devolves on the Church, therefore, to assert
in her own courts the rights of the poor. She must exhibit
a picture of Christian equality, as an edifying lesson to the
world; and put her poor and helpless in that honourable
position, which shall render any thing which injures or de-
grades them an obvious offence against the Church, and
shocking to the common feelings of Christians.' a

And it is for such reasons, among others, that ' the Church
when free, has ever assigned to Christ's poor a quasi-sacra-
mental character." b

Truly, this being so, to discuss how an ideal Church would
comport herself, if co-existing with such tremendous evils as
those just enumerated, involves the same sort of difficulty,
which Aristotle notes as to the parallel inquiry, in what
manner a perfectly virtuous man would repent. A perfectly
virtuous man would have done nothing to repent of; and in
like manner, a pure Church could not have co-existed with
such tremendous evils. ' The sufferings of the poor, in (even
very corrupt) Catholic times, are at once known and felt by

a British Critic, No. Ixiv. p. 489. b ' On Arnold's Sermons,' p. 303.

the clergy, and it is their province to proclaim those sufferings
in the ears of the civil rulers.' No one can even plausibly
accuse cur civil rulers of wanton and deliberate cruelty ;
neglect and thoughtlessness are all which can be laid to their
charge, and are quite enough, alas ! to account fully for our
present extremity of evil. But such neglect and thoughtless-
ness could have had no existence, had a pure Church then
energized in our country ; for a pure Church's heart beats
with the most ready and spontaneous sympathy with all the
troubles of the poor ; and she would with eager and
urgent zeal have pleaded, clamoured, threatened in their
behalf, ' to help the fatherless and poor to their right, {hat
the man of the earth be no more exalted against them.'

Let us suppose, however, an ideal Church to be suddenly
placed in charge with a country, in which such a state of
things had been allowed to grow up unchecked. What a
scene presents itself to the imagination ! How careful at once
her inquiry, what may be those branches of labour in which,
whether from the kind or the amount of toil, the leading of a
Christian life would be impossible ; and how stern the pro-
hibition, enforced by all spiritual sanctions, against any of
her children engaging in those branches ! In less ex-
treme cases, how loving and considerate her tenderness to
the poor sufferers ! with what profound wisdom would an
early education be imparted, which might prepare them for
the life to which they are destined ! with what urgency and
care would such holy practices be taught them, as might pro-
tect them against the spiritual dangers which surround them
on all sides ! with what zeal and though tfulness would such
religious services be prepared for their one day of rest, as
might cheer, soothe, and refresh them ! Religious ceremonial,
in other cases but an accessory, (though a most important
one,) becomes in these an absolute essential; for in what
other way can religious truths be possibly impressed deeply
on those whose minds are worn down by unceasing anxiety
and care, and whose bodies are exhausted with severe and
protracted toil ? Then what employment would she not make
of her spiritual censures, in directing them against the op-

c ' On Goode,' p. 79.

pressors of the poor; what loud and clamorous appeals to
our civil rulers ; what addresses to those of her own children
who are influential in a worldly point of view! Such a sketch
may suffice as a faint outline of the picture, and a means of
suggesting to the reader numberless points of detail.

6. From the poor we proceed to the rich. And here, when
we bear in mind the appalling denunciations against wealth
which we read in Scripture, how marked and authoritative
an attitude should we not expect such a Church to assume,
in her dealings with this class of her children !. how urgent
and impressive her admonitions to them, to ' place no trust '
in those riches, but live as ' poor in spirit.'

A careful and accurate observer of men and things in their
secular phase, I should say the most so of any contemporary
English writer, I mean Mr. John Mill, gives us the following
result of his experience :

' There has crept over the refined classes, over the whole class of
gentlemen in England, a moral effeminacy, an inaptitude for every
kind of struggle. They shrink from all effort, from every thing
which is troublesome and disagreeable. When an evil comes to them,
they can sometimes bear it with tolerable patience (though nobody
is less patient, when they can entertain the slightest hope that by
raising an outcry they may compel somebody else to make an effort
to relieve them). But heroism is an active, not a passive quality ;
and when it is necessary not to bear pain but to seek it, little need
be expected from the men of the present day. They cannot undergo
labour, they cannot brave ridicule, they cannot stand evil tongues ;
they have not hardihood to say unpleasant things to any one whom
they are in the habit of seeing, or to face, even with a nation at
their back, the coldness of some little coterie which surrounds them.
This torpidity and cowardice, as a general characteristic, is new in
the world ; but (modified by the different temperaments of different
nations) it is a natural consequence of the progress of civilization,
and will continue until met by a system of cultivation adapted to
counteract it.' d

And what is to supply such a system except the Church ?
So capital an evil, so enfeebling us in all our efforts to benefit
d London and Westminster Review, April 1836, p. 13.

the poor or spread the Gospel, so crushing to all growth of
Christian perfection, nay, so contradictory to the elementary
idea of the Christian character, which is, to fight Christ's
battle here on earth, will not long continue uncontrolled,
when a pure Church confronts it. Bringing from her treasure
things new and old, she will be at no loss for a remedy ; nor
will she be, from respect of persons, lukewarm or hesitating
in its application.

The same accurate and dispassionate observer remarks :

" As civilization advances, . . . the only motive to action which
can be considered as any thing like universal, is the desire of wealth ;
and wealth being in the case of the majority the most accessible
means of gratifying all their other desires, nearly the whole of the
energy of character which exists in highly civilized societies concentrates
itself in the pursuit of that object. . . . Thus it happens that, . . .
particularly among ourselves, the energies of the middle classes are
almost confined to money-getting^ and those of the higher classes are
nearly extinct." p. 12.

And 'the love of money is the root of all evil!' With what
unremitting urgency and intentness of purpose, by what varied
machinery, by sermons, by personal addresses, by the ex-
hibitions of voluntary poverty, by setting forth the claims of
the poor, by putting forward other pursuits as objects for
this energy, which thus does far worse than run to waste,
will not an ideal Church oppose herself to this most baneful
and anti-Christian tendency?

7. Having mentioned the upper classes of society, let us
consider the Church's dealings with them, as being the edu-
cated classes; and first let us conceive an ideal Church, which
should virtually possess a control over the whole education
of those classes. We should find in such a Church, united
with a profound appeciation of the very important place in
mental culture held by the study of heathen literature and phi-
losophy, a very keen sense also of the spiritual dangers thence
accruing. I speak not only of peril to that, almost highest of
all graces, the perfect purity which consists in the absence of
the power to realise practically what is sinful and corrupt : e
e See Newman's Parochial Sermons, vol. vi. p. 287.

this of course is the greatest danger, but there are other very
real and formidable dangers also. There is danger, e. g. lest
unconsciously young persons adjust their idea of the heroic,
the sublime, and the beautiful, to a heathen not a Christian
standard; lest the highest evangelical virtues, spotless purity,
voluntary poverty, extreme sensitiveness of conscience, re-
joicing in shame, reproach, and suffering, be rather allowed
for or excused, even if not despised and repudiated, than
honoured with that artless and enthusiastic admiration, which
the Gospel requires, and which is so graceful and salutary in
the young. For dangers such as these an ideal Church will
have devised, with pains and sagacity, deep and efficacious
remedies ; she will have ( spoiled the Egyptians,' and made
the treasures of heathen antiquity subservient to that Divine
fabric which was reared on its ruins.

Here, too, is another most grave circumstance, which the
Church in her capacity of educator should most seriously
weigh. If there be a character peculiarly removed from human
sympathies, peculiarly inaccessible to religious motives, pe-
culiarly proud, selfish, unbelieving, almost diabolical, it is
that of one who, with uninterrupted health and prosperity,
and vigorous intellectual powers, devotes himself to congenial
studies as the one pursuit of his life, without submitting him-
self to the special discipline suited to his case. In Catholic
ages, intellectual studies were indissolubly connected with a
range of religious exercises and offices ; and a pure Church
will be most forward and earnest in training up those, who
are called to such a life, in self-denial on small matters, much
religious meditation, and frequently-repeated prayer.

8. Again, * each succeeding age has its own intellectual de-
velopment, and theology ' scientiarum omnium domina et
magistra' is most deeply concerned in such development.
New modes of philosophy, deeper views of history, fresh dis-
coveries and a higher criticism in philology, all should offer
their choicest treasures at the feet of Revelation ; and yet,
when left in the hands of heretics and unbelievers, they fail
of doing so. Rather, whether from inadequate premises, or
faulty inferences, or at least (which will quite certainly be

D 2

found in such persons) deficiency in the true philosophical
temper, they will frequently appear to issue in conclusions at
variance with revealed doctrine, and will foster, consciously
or not, in the minds of the intellectual world the monstrous
notion, that increase of knowledge tends to diminish rather
than enlarge the sphere of heavenly truth. Systems will be
found, most dazzling and imposing from the depth, brilliancy,
and varied ability of their devisers, which will strike with
dismay the humble and gentle believer, which will deal rudely
with his most sacred associations, and sport with his deepest
and most certain convictions. And the result must be, that
such persons will be led by their very virtues to (what we
must call in itself) a narrow-minded and morbid dread of the
spread of knowledge, a flurried and excited denunciation of
the use of God's gifts of reason and intellectual power ; that
is, in other words, holiness and mental cultivation must be
brought into a state of hopeless and ever-increasing opposition ;
unless there be some visible tabernacle of the truth, towards
which the alarmed and disquieted soul may turn for peace
and light to guide him through the entanglement.' . . . Ac-
cordingly, to meet this danger, * the Church, in her high and
palmy state, displays an antagonist literature and philosophy
of her own ; and for such schools of thought as are without
her pale, she calmly and soberly surveys them; absorbing
from them into herself such high and important principles as
they may have introduced ; so disentangling them from error
and uniting them with other truths, as to lead them forward to
more legitimate inferences ; and thus using them, to display
the treasure committed to her charge, in new and ever-varying
lights, and to increase it by new acquisitions and results.' f

I will proceed to give a few applications of this, without
professing in the least to exhaust the subject.

I. The circumstances of the last three centuries have given
both increased interest and very remarkably a new character
and development to the study of Biblical Criticism. Pro-
testants have accordingly, I believe, pursued this study with
great ability and success; while they have, from the necessity

f ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' pp. 36, 7.

of their Creed, more or less pressed it into the service of
rationalism and heresy. I have no wish to assign an undue
place to this study ; doubtless, it is among the more humble
sciences, and to dream of comparing it, in interest and es-
sential dignity, with the great fundamental and normal science
of dogmatic theology, would be like comparing the power to
spell syllables with the Christian Gift of Faith. Still, in its
place it has importance ; and it most justly claims at the
hand of an ideal Church, a full recognition, and a deliverance
from the power of those who now (unintentionally) abuse it
to dangerous purposes and results.

Moreover, the surface of the New Testament presents to
the unbiassed critic an appearance of contradiction to several
Catholic truths ; for instance, the Christian Priesthood, the
Eucharistic Sacrifice, the duty of penance, the honour due
to St. Mary : nay, even to undoubted facts ; such as the fact
that baptized Christians are very frequently found in deadly
sin, and again, that the duration of the world has outlasted
all the Apostles and first Christians. Doubtless, it is a very
sinful course, to adopt an exegetical interpretation of Scrip-
ture, as any part of our rule of faith ; still it is a duty to
dimmish as much as possible the temptations to sin. And
over and above this, the superficial meaning of the New
Testament (the meaning, that is, which may be obtained
from it by principles of criticism) cannot in reality con-
tradict doctrines which are from the same Author ; or, in
other words, there must be a sound method of critical in-
terpretation, which admits of being opposed to the unsound.
For both these reasons then a Church ought, I do not say to
make it at all a primary object, but still not to neglect the
task, of gradually discovering and illustrating this method.
For reasons not very dissimilar, a good commentary on the
' Romans' and ' Galatians' would be an acceptable service.

II. Here I may mention Physical Science, now so generally
and necessarily cultivated, and the peculiar intellectual mis-
takes concerning its province and capabilities, which in one
way or other militate against Christian truth, and against
which the Church is bound to warn its votaries.

III. History is another study which is assuming considerable
importance at the present time ; and that under two distinct
aspects. The first may be called critical, and is both absolutely
necessary, and I suppose principally important, as preparing
the way for the other. I allude to the study which concerns
itself with discovering the real circumstances of past ages,
' detecting the meaning of small things, and dragging to
light the forgotten elements of a gone-by state of society,
from scattered evidences which the writers themselves who
recorded them did not understand ;'* distinguishing truth
from fable, plain fact from allegorical ' myth,' and the like ;
and thus preparing the materials, by which the philosophical
mind may test and verify its theoretical deductions. High
and rare powers of mind have been beyond doubt devoted to
these inquiries ; Niebuhr, judging from what is said of him
by competent persons, is the great model and example of an
historian of the kind ; though he seems considered to have
occasionally taken a higher range also.

These writers are brought into direct contact with the Old
Testament, and have started many difficulties on the right
mode of understanding its historical narratives. But an ideal
Church would have interpreters ready at hand, both to solve
these difficulties, and to avail themselves of the science itself,
as might so advantageously be done, for the purpose of illus-
trating and clearing up many parts of our earlier sacred
books.

A much higher science of history however is in gradual
progress of formation, which has a far nearer connection
both with poetry and with philosophy. It aims at ' realizing
a true and living picture of times past, clothed in their cir-
cumstances and peculiarities ;' at probing to the bottom,
in regard to those times, 'not the intellectual life of in-
tellectual men, not the social life of the people, but their
internal life ; their thoughts and feelings in regard to them-

y The passages marked as quotations, in this and the two following paragraphs,
are taken from a most interesting article on Michelet's History of France in the
Edinburgh Review for January: the authorship of which it is not very difficult to
discover.

selves and their destinations ; the habitual temper of their
minds;' the causes of their highest joys and sorrows, hopes
and fears. Nay, more than this ; it regards ' the whole of
the events which have befallen the human race, and the
states through which it has passed, as a series of phenomena,
produced by causes and susceptible of explanation. All
history is conceived as a progressive chain of causes and
effects ; or (by an apter metaphor) as a gradually unfolding
web, in which every fresh part that comes to view is a pro-
longation of the part previously unrolled, whether we can
trace the separate threads from the one to the other or not.'
It makes its chief aim ' to find on what principles, derived
from .the nature of man and the system of the universe, each
state of society and of the human mind produced that which
came after it ;' and to discover how far ' any order of pro-
duction can be traced sufficiently definite, to shew what
future states of society may be expected to emanate from the
circumstances which exist at present.'

To regard indeed the successive stages of society as con-
nected, in some degree at least, by an ascertainable order of
advance, appears at first sight contradictory to the deep and
sure knowledge which all Christians possess, of God's parti-
cular providence towards individuals, and generally of His
ceaseless intervention, for His moral purposes, in the affairs of
the world ; and the same apparent inconsistency exists in the
case of physical science, as at present studied. That there
is no real inconsistency I fully believe ; and in an ideal
Church there would exist a recognised theory, explaining
fully the principles on which, and the degree in wliich, the
Christian can apply himself to the processes of experimental
philosophy, with the hope of a true result.

Historical science then being attainable, we see at once the
peculiar interest which it will have for the Christian, and the
great benefit the Church may reap from the study of it. To
have brought before our eyes a successive picture of the past
ages of the Church, viewed as a Catholic would view them,
and glowing with life and reality ; to have made clear and
transparent, in the record of past facts, the essential and all-

important distinctions of character, which have separated the
heretic from the orthodox ; to witness, as if present at succes-
sive periods, the gradual and orderly development of Christian
doctrine ; to have brought before our minds, in all their dis-
tinctness and in all their agreement, the great worthies of the
Church ; to have a Catholic portraiture of such scenes, as 'those
produced in Rome by the conflict of opinion and character,
which accompanied the first rise of Christianity, or of the con-
test between St. Athanasius and Constantius, or between St.
Gregory VII. and Henry, or of the reign of St. Louis, similar
in kind to Mr. Carlyle's portraiture of the scenes of the French
Revolution ; to follow into public worship, at some great
festival, a religious Catholic in the ages of faith, and learn
to understand his feelings, thoughts, and aspirations ; or to
see in detail all the daily scenes of the monastic life ; such
fancies as these almost take away our breath. But to do
even more than this ; to unfold the connection between the
various ages of the Church, and to trace out the mighty
results, permanent as the world itself, wrought for her
by her great champions ; to exhibit distinctly how the
seed, sown amidst tribulation and persecution, and to all
appearance wasted, springs up a hundred-fold in some mar-
vellous way at a future period; to put in clear and full
light the most momentous effects produced on European
civilization by the agency of the Church, and the causes
which for so many years have so grievously impaired her
influence on the course of social and political life ; such are
the achievements the Church should perform, if she is to
preserve Christian literature on a level with the age.

IV. But by far the most important service to the intel-
lectual world which the Church is called on to perform, and
the most parallel to the previous course of her intellectual
efforts, is connected with the present state of moral and
metaphysical science. Whether dogmatic theology would
ever have been brought into shape, except for the presence
of heresy, belongs to a larger class of questions ; such as
whether anatomy or physiology would ever have been
scientifically studied, had it not been for the existence of

pain and disease : nor, in a world so very full of evils, is it a
question likely to admit of a crucial experiment. Certain it
is, that in point of fact each new theological development
has been closely connected with contemporary error; the
Athanasian with that of Arius, the Augustinian with that
of Pelagius, the especial honour of St. Mary with that of
Nestorius : even what might appear an exception, the
methodical scholastic system, which finds its most fit and
glorious representative in St. Thomas, is stated by an in-
telligent writer in the British Critic not really to be an
exception ; but to have had its origin in the great honour
paid by contemporary heretics to Aristotle, and the conse-
quent necessity of giving a Christian interpretation to the
writings of that philosopher. 2 Protestantism accordingly }
being intellectually 'the subtlest and most extensively poi-
sonous' of heresies, just as Lutheranism is morally," has
opened questions of even far deeper interest and moment
than any previous extravagance. The whole inquiry con-
cerning the original elements of moral and religious belief,
the evidence appropriate to them, and the moral or intellec-
tual process by which it becomes evidence ; why heresy is a
sin, and what sort of ' ignorance ' is ' invincible ; ' all this must
sooner or later be resolved by a Church, which shall be
brought into collision with Protestant principles. It must
be resolved, first, in such a manner as to justify the habitual
conduct of the Church in past ages ; for in this, as in every
similar case, the office of the existing Church is but to draw
out into consciousness and into form, the principles which, in
their wwconscious and zmformed condition, have ever animated

z British Critic, No. Ixv. p. 139.

a ' By the Protestant principle, I mean the principle which encourages or
allows the examination of those moral and religious doctrines, which we have
learnt, and which those who act consistently upon them find more and more satis-
factory, the examination of these (I mean for the purposes of acceptance or rejection)
by some external test, available to the person who has not so acted ; whether that
test be apparent expediency, or the prima facie appearance of Scripture, or the
general consent of non-religious men, or our private interpretation of the works of
the fathers, or any other whatever.' (' On Goode,' p. 75.) In other words, the
principle of making the intellect an arbiter of moral and religious truth, instead of
the conscience.

the Christian community. Next, they must be resolved also
and expressed, in the terms introduced by modern science :
for more than one rival philosophy is in possession of the
field, giving its own decision upon all these points ; and in
order to enforce an intelligent protest against existing error,
the one eternal Truth must be stated as a function (or I may
say in the calculus) of these respective philosophies.

Moreover, it is of great importance that this shall be
done as soon as possible. If ever there were a period, when
great hope existed that sceptics or infidels might be caught,
as it were, in the rebound, that period is the present. A re-
action is in course, of the most lively and energetical character,
against the stiff, meagre, negative philosophy of the last
century. * The Protestant and infidel philosophies have had
full scope to exhibit themselves ; and the miserable issue to
which they are tending is displayed, with more or less dis-
tinctness, to numbers who have been nurtured in them, or
have been seduced by their shew of wisdom and depth. The
eyes of men seem turned, in a certain inexplicable manner,
towards the Catholic Church, as though expecting some
unknown good to come forth from her bosom, to help us
in our present extremity of both social and speculative per-
plexity.' But ' if she is to fulfil her appointed office, if she
is to be a haven to which those may flee for refuge, who are
wearied and exhausted with doubt and speculation ; if she is
to be a light, whither those may resort for guidance, who
have lost their way in the maze of human philosophies ; she
must be prepared with a view, on the relative position due
to the respective tenets of these philosophies ; she must be
enabled to satisfy inquirers, that the doctrines they have
therein learnt, and of whose partial truth at least they have
obtained a certain conviction, the methods of inquiry, the
principles of evidence, need not, so far as they are true, be
neglected (rather may be the more effectually cherished)
when philosophers shall receive her authority.' b

But it must not be dissembled, that there is also an exactly
opposite evil to be dreaded : if old philosophical systems are
b ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 426.

breaking up, so also are old religious prepossessions. ' We
have been detained by circumstances, or, as I may say, frozen
in an intermediate state between Protestant principles and
their rightful inferences. Those circumstances are now, after
several centuries, dissolving ; and we are gradually gaining a
free course, and may choose our haven for ourselves.' If a
warmer and more persuasive form of religion be springing
up, calculated to attract the deserters from dry Bentham-
ism or Conservatism ; so is there, on the other hand, (as
implied a few pages back,) a more dazzling and specious phi-
losophy, which solicits very powerfully those who have
gradually or suddenly broken off from ' Anglicanism ' or
' Establishmentism.' There is a spirit of free and independ-
ent inquiry, among the more intelligent and imaginative
in various quarters, which is as yet but little understood,
and which no one can contemplate without being led to
very serious musings and questionings. Nor is it necessary
to add, what is so very obvious, that independently of that
consideration, infinitely the most important, the rescuing of
their souls from fearful peril ; and over and above the very
extensive influence, which such intellectually powerful minds
always exercise over the coming generation ; considering only
our existing exigencies, there is no class of ministers whom
the whole Church at the present time so preeminently needs,
as men of original, sagacious, and philosophical minds, who
shall be really penetrated with the religious spirit.

I shall have to return to this subject again : here therefore
I will only add, that this consideration affords a still further
argument, for the incalculable importance of the intellectual
task I have advocated ; of digging, as it were, about the founda-
tions of the fabric of Catholic Truth, that the indestructible
composition of their materials, and exquisite suitableness of
their construction, may be made as clear to the eyes of men, as
have long been, to all fitted to discern them, the supernatural
harmony, proportion, and majesty of the fabric itself. Two
principles especially, closely and indissolubly connected with
each other, seem to me so vitally important at the present
c Newman's Justification, p. 141. edition of 1838.

time, that I could wish their very names were familiar to us
all ' as household words :' the one, the absolute supremacy of
conscience in moral and religious questions, 1 * the other, the
high sacredness of hereditary religion. It will be indeed one
great object of the present work to enforce and illustrate, di-
rectly or indirectly, these great principles. For I am deeply
convinced, that if fully apprehended and honestly applied,
they will furnish a remedy for all our spiritual and intellectual
evils ; while should they be discredited or put out of view,
firm belief in Theism itself will not very long prevail,
with the more inquiring and philosophical. It may be added,
that when we consider how signally and conspicuously the
English Reformation transgressed those great principles,
(more so indeed than any other event on a similar scale in
the history of the world,) one part of the reason will be seen,
for the deep and burning hatred, with which some members
of our Church (including myself) regard that miserable
event. 6

d " A truth ... is implied all through Scripture as a basis on which its doctrine
rests, viz. that there is no necessary connexion ' between the intellectual and moral
principles of our nature ; that on religious subjects we may prove any thing, or over-
throw anything, and can arrive at the truth but accidentally, if we merely investigate
by what is commonly called Reason ; which is in such matters but tte instrument,
at best, in the hands of the legitimate judge, spiritual discernment.'''' Newman's Uni-
versity Sermons, p. 40 (preached in the year 1831). The two or three following
pages should be read.

e It always appears to me, that a great distinction ought to be made in this re-
spect between the English and the Foreign Reformation. In the latter, moral feel-
ing, partly healthy, in greater part perverted, seems to have been the principal agent
in forwarding the revolt. Under the first head would be included that zealous
and energetic protest against practical corruption, which, rightly regulated, is even
a high virtue ; and in regard to which, the example of St. Gregory VII. alone is
BO inestimably valuable, as shewing how fully the feeling may be exercised with-
out impairing the Christian duties of reverence and humility. Under the second
head we must class those tendencies (of various kinds) which led to the invention
and defence of Luther's doctrine of Justification. No one can suspect me of under-
ating the extreme sinfulness of that most hateful heresy, or if so, the fifth chapter
of the present work will fully vindicate me from the imputation ; still it does
appear that the Continental Reformers had submitted themselves to the discipline
under which God's Providence had placed them, until their conscience (most ill-
directed, I admit, and morally perverse, but still honestly) seemed to them to com-
mand its abandonment. But in England, I cannot find that, among the leaders
at least of the Reformation, there was even the allegation, that some doctrine in

9. And now, in the last place, let us consider under some
few aspects, what" may be called the Church's political duties;
those duties, namely, which require that she should enlist
in her service a knowledge of political science, and the prac-
tical affairs of life. Now first, under our present circum-
stances, how can she teach aright that so essential Christian
duty, Almsgiving ; the right performance of which in its wide
extent is so extremely difficult of discovery, amidst the com-
plications of our social system, and the allegations of political
economy ? It would seem absolutely impossible that the
purest and most efficient Church should bring any vast and
powerful machinery to bear on existing misery, until we
obtain the facts, which constitute that misery, brought be-
fore us in a connected and scientific shape. I am not
now speaking of tendencies or remedies, that is a different
matter : I confine myself to what Mr. John Mill would call
the statics, not dynamics, of the case. That we, who are in
the midst of it, should be able to see, what the Angels now
are able to see, the connection of cause and effect, of action
and re-action, subsisting between the various branches of

the Ancient Theology was at variance with spiritual truths, which they deeply
cherished and prized. They objected indeed to the prevalent corruptions ; but
even against these I can find no trace whatever of that single-minded and honest
indignation, which animated, e. g. Luther : and their real grounds of offence seem
to have been mainly of a political order ; such as the interference (often I dare
say very vexatious) of a foreign court with English Ecclesiastical arrangements.
Their principle seems to have been, so far as they had any, that men may without
grievous sin, nay innocently, nay laudably, leave the system in which God has
placed them, without ever having honestly and heartily tried it, and thus spiritually
apprehended its real nature, from having intellectually compared its external ap-
pearance, (I mean the appearance it presents to those who have not tried it, and
therefore a very false appearance,) with some external standard : in other words
that not conscience but intellect is supreme judge of religious truth. It will be seen,
then, that I cannot at all agree with those who prefer the English Reformation to
the Foreign ; so far from it, I know no single movement in the Church, except
Arianism in the fourth century, which seems to me so wholly destitute of all claims
on our sympathy and regard, as the English Reformation. I am not here express-
ing any judgment on individual Reformers, but on certain plain and acknowledged
facts ; nor am I at all denying (nor yet maintaining) that the course of events here
has been divinely overruled to less disastrous results than among the Foreign
Protestants.

commerce and trade ; with what phenomena in other di-
rections the fluctuation of each such branch is bound up ;
what are the contemporaneous circumstances throughout the
industrial world when the labourers are in a state of com-
petence, what when in a state of distress ; this is the object
of which I am now speaking. Nor do I see how the Church
can possibly give more than very distantly approximate and
altogether empirical rules, on the mode of performing the
great duties of almsgiving and personal attention to the
poor, until she have at least such a synoptical view of facts
as this in her possession.

Again, the education of the whole people is now allowed,
by very general consent, to be in itself the legitimate office of
the Church. But to perform this duty aright, she must have
a very extensive and accurate knowledge of the various
callings, which she must prepare her children to fulfil. I do
not of course mean that she is to teach them land-surveying,
or book-keeping by double entry ; this of course could
always be done, when necessary, by special instructors : but
she must know the peculiar dangers, not only of a spiritual
but also of an intellectual kind, to which their way of life is
likely to expose them, in order to prepare them against their
influence, and give them that special discipline of which they
stand in need. Let us take an instance, that we may the
more precisely fix our ideas.

Suppose that the increasing tendency of modern civiliza-
tion is truly expressed in the following passage, taken from
a French political writer ; surely an educational body is in
duty bound most carefully to ascertain the real extent of the
evil, meditate on the causes which produce it, and devise
deep and powerful remedies which may be applied to it, by
anticipation, in training the young.

" The increasing speciality of men's habitual ideas and daily re-
lations must inevitably tend, in every class, to blunt more and more
the understanding as a whole, while it sharpens it without cessation
in one particular direction ; and more and more to separate off
private interest from a public welfare, which becomes continually

less visible and direct. In the mean time, the social affections are
gradually confined to men of the same profession, and more and
more estranged from all other classes, from a want of any sufficient
similarity of manners and thoughts. Thus it is that the very
principle, which alone has rendered possible the development and
extension of the general society, threatens, under another aspect,
to decompose it into a multitude of corporations, possessed of no
common bond of union, and which hardly seems to belong to the
same species. So also it is, that the first elementary cause of the
start and gradual growth of human art, seems destined at last to
produce those minds, very clever in one particular, and monstrously
incapable under all other points of view, which are now-a-days too
common among the most civilized nations, where they excite uni-
versal astonishment. If a just complaint has been often made
that, in the material order of things, the workman is occupied ex-
clusively during his whole life in making the handles of knives or
pins' heads, sound philosophy ought not, at bottom, to regret less
what happens in the intellectual order ; the exclusive and long-
continued employment of a human brain on the resolution of certain
equations, or the classification of certain insects. The moral effect,
in either case, is unhappily very similar ; it is an essential tendency
to inspire most deplorable indifference for the whole course of human
affairs, so only that there may be supplied, without ceasing, equations
to solve, and pins to manufacture. Although this sort of human
automatism constitutes fortunately only an extreme case of the dis-
persive influence of civilization, still its realization, already too fre-
quent, and continually more imminent, should make us attach a real
scientific importance to the appreciation of such a case ; as one
eminently fitted to characterize the general tendency of society,
and to shew in a more lively manner the indispensable necessity of
its permanent repression."

The writer himself goes on to say, that the only means for
such a repression would be a Society, holding precisely the
same relation to the civil government, which the Church held
in the Middle Ages ; though his irreligious opinions un-
happily forbid him to consider the Christian Church at
present, as capable of becoming such a Society. It is very
plain, if the description I have quoted be acknowledged as
on the whole very accurate, that nothing could oppose so
powerful a check to the lamentable tendency in question,

4.8

as education really based on religion ; and that it would
be incumbent on the Church, if performing her rightful
part in society, to adapt her education to meet this evil
among others. But with how great power of thought, and
how wide a knowledge of practical life, must some who work
in her service be endowed, if she is really to devise a satis-
factory remedy !

Then again, her close relation to her children by no means
ceases, when they go forth into the busy world : she must still
set before them plain duties, and warn them against plain sins.
Now partly from this 'dispersion' and 'specialization' just
mentioned, and partly from other causes, so it happens that
almost every different trade or profession seems to have its
peculiar maxims, and generally immoral ones. There has
arisen throughout England a certain (to use a happy name
which has been given it) ' class-morality.' But if the Church
is really to possess a sound moral theology, and inculcate
precepts based upon it, it is included as part of this that she
should have a view, and should proclaim it, on the moral
value of these maxims; that she should authoritatively
declare what sort of causes a barrister ought to plead,
and what sort of books a bookseller ought to sell. Such
questions as these are very far from being among the
number, which are left more wisely to individual conscience
and responsibility : there are general principles involved in
them, which admit of being stated with the most perfect
accuracy ; and general rules, which admit of being applied in
every particular case. These principles and rules the Church
is bound to proclaim in men's ears, * whether they will hear
or whether they will forbear :' and though the number of
those who ' forbear' will at first very greatly preponderate
in due course of time the most salutary results will certainly
follow, not less as regards the practice of the many, than as
regards the conscience of the few. Now in order rightly to
adjust these principles and state these rules, to how con-
siderable an extent must practical and secular experience be
exercised in the service of the Church !

And now to speak of her highest political duty, her
demeanour towards the civil power. In addressing an indi-

vidual, as I implied a few pages back, the Church will put
before him general principles, and the application of those
principles to what may be called his general circumstances ;
e. g. as being rich or poor, a merchant, or a landed pro-
prietor, or a physician : moreover, individual acts, which are
plain and deadly sins, she will punish by her inherent power,
in denying him absolution until his repentance and promise
of amendment. But the infinitely various particular applica-
tion of true principles, to particular circumstances and events ;
that immensely large class of moral acts, on which it is impos-
sible for one man to judge what is right in his neighbour's
case ; all this she will leave mainly to his individual responsi-
bility and sense of right. God has made men infinitely
distinct from each other in character and in circumstances ;
His Church must not stifle their free growth, or attempt to
mould them into a stiff uniformity. Now her addresses to
the civil power will, I conceive, be of the same kind. The
very idea of attempting to draw into her own hands the
actual administration of state affairs, would be no less insane
as a matter of Christian policy, than utterly indefensible as a
matter of Christian duty. Nor did I ever hear of a single
passage in history, in which there was so much as the most
distant appearance of such a desire on the part of the
Church. 8 But she will feel it her duty, to proclaim aloud
the general application of Christian principles to political
government ; and plain undeniable sins, such as a flagrantly
unjust war, or a measure conspicuously oppressive to the poor,
she will fearlessly denounce. Against sinful government, of
a less glaring and overt character, she will not be sparing in
her secret but urgent remonstrances ; nor will she consider it
any derogation whatever from her proper functions, to direct
her children in the wise employment of such constitutional
privileges as may be entrusted to them, with the view of
obtaining amelioration or redress. The office of protecting
the poor against wrong is especially her own ; nor will she
consider any one of her attributes more noble, precious, or

8 It is of course evident, that the circumstance of an individual ecclesiastic acting
;is a king's minister, is a thing loto caelo different.

inalienable. But, on the other hand, should the civil power
appear actuated by a real desire to govern religiously and
well, she will herself set the example to all her children of
the most dutiful and reverential loyalty. She will still re-
serve it, as her high privilege, to represent in detail a'nd
with earnestness the distresses and sufferings of the poor, to
those governors who, as she believes, are so willing and
desirous to alleviate them ; but will, in that case, submit her
judgment, on the appropriate remedies, to the bearers of the
temporal sword.

But though an ideal Church will never aim at any po-
litical position whatever, but occupy herself wholly in per-
forming the various duties of her office, it must be expected,
in matter of fact, that her ordinary condition will be one
of opposition to those high in worldly station. For her
tenderness and loving-kindness will most effectually retain
the affections of the poor, while her plain protests against
evil will affront and irritate the powerful. ' The world is
strong : men of the world have arms of the world ; they
have swords, they have armies, they have prisons, they have
chains, they have wild passions. The Church has none of
these, and yet it claims a right to rule, direct, rebuke,
exhort, denounce, condemn. It claims the obedience of the
powerful ; it confronts the haughty ; it places itself across the
path of the wilful ; it undertakes the defence of the poor ;
it accepts the gifts of the world, and becomes involved in their
stewardship ; and yet it is at the mercy of these said powerful,
haughty, and wilful men, to ill-treat and to spoil. Can it be
otherwise, but that a kingdom which claims so much, which
professes so much, yet can resist so little ; which irritates the
world's pride, which inflames its cupidity, which interferes
with its purposes, which terrifies its conscience, yet does
nothing in its defence but threaten ; which deals with unseen
ill and unseen good, whose only arms are what an unbelieving
world calls priestcraft is it not certain that such a kingdom
will be the prey and sport of the world ?' h

10. I have now gone through sufficiently for my purpose,

h Newman's Sermons on Subjects of the Day, pp. 293, 4.

though most insufficiently as compared with the mighty
theme itself, some of the principal positions which would be
assumed by an ideal Church, were such to exist among us at
the present time. In most cases, I think, what I have said
will be seen at once to follow, from that fundamental view of
the Church's office with which we started; where the con-
nection was not so obvious, I have endeavoured to state suffi-
ciently the reasons for what I have said. And now I will
make one remark ; viz. that even those who may dissent
most widely from Catholic principles, will see, by what has
gone before, that those who for some years past have been
industriously advocating the revival of the idea of a Church
as the only remedy for existing evils, have not at all events
raised a merely vague, thoughtless, clamour; that at least
there is a very definite meaning in such a sentiment, whether
the sentiment itself be considered true or otherwise. Some
years ago, after a most interesting and touching account of
the religious state of the manufacturing poor, it was said :

" Nothing strange has happened to us. No church ever yet
succeeded in retaining the allegiance of the people without a larger
and stronger, more searching and more elastic apparatus, than is
ours. The extent of the popular apostacy in our days is indeed
wonderful ; but not more wonderful than the degeneracy of the
Church's present ways and means. Christianity did once wear
that very guise which, while it was good for the rich, was also of
that very sort which most appeals to the prejudices and sympathies
of the poor. It was once a religion of visible self-denial and
holiness, that willingly took on itself the sorrows which to the
multitude are inevitable, and lightened their sufferings by its own
pain and privation. It was not once that umbratile thing, that
feeble exotic, shut up in churches, parsonages, and parlours ; but
walked abroad, made the multitude both the receivers, the col-
lectors, and distributors of her bounties ; compelled cities to wear
her livery, and dared to inherit the earth. She once provided
homes and forms of operation for the heroic virtues, for lofty aims,
and firm resolves, making their torrents flow in the manifold
channels of mercy, instead of suffering them to waste the land with
a baleful magnificence. She once gave names, and methods, and

E 2

ancient sanctions, and solemn order, and venerable holiness, and
every quality men love and obey, to the pious bearers of spiritual
and temporal aid to the ignorant and poor ; as even the many
sacred titles, which our streets, our gates, and our bridges are still
suffered to bear, do testify. She once did so combine and temper
these works of benevolence with other holy employments, with
frequent daily prayer, and oft-heard choral praise, that the social
acts of temporal and ghostly relief seemed no separate adventitious
work, no petty craft of artificial goodness, no capricious adventure
or trick of interference, but rather flowing from a something holy,
natural, and complete in all its parts. She once had officers and
employments for all, that all, however humble in rank, or wealth,
or mental culture, might be personally interested in the Church's
work. She once could claim her own from every rank, teach all
her holy characters, make all acknowledge her marks and passports
of sacredness and authority. We cannot bring back those days
again ; who would wish that man should have this power ? but
still they may come back to us. The times are dark, and a curtain
of gloom hangs over the future; but on its dark face we may
discern brightening in prismatic hue a vision of past beauty, the
Holy Catholic Church." a

a British Critic, No. Ivi. pp. 370, 1.

CHAPTER III.

IS IT UNDUTIFUL TO THE ENGLISH CHURCH TO AIM AT
SUCH AN IDEAL ?

1 . IF it be maintained that an ideal of the Church, agreeing
in substance with that drawn out in the last chapter, is not
the highest and the most fitting to be aimed at, there can be
no fairer point on which to join issue ; and any argument
addressed to it shall meet with my most attentive consider-
ation. All that concerns my present purpose, however, is to
say, that such was my own view during the time I wrote in
the British Critic, and to submit (which will I think hardly
be denied), that the conception of such an ideal is at least
not extravagant nor irrational. But if any one should
acknowledge it to be higher than any which he can oppose
to it, but should accuse me of disloyalty to my own Church,
because it is seen, on its very statement, to follow the Roman
not the English pattern, I would beg such an one to recon-
sider the latter opinion, as it is a very important one in the
argument. If on reconsideration he withdraw it, the charge
of disloyalty, of course, falls with it ; but if he repeat it, (and
I confess that it is an opinion in which I myself agree,) then
let me observe that it is he and not I, who has given a most
unassailable reason for preferring the Roman to the English
system ; a reason wholly untouched by any amount of practi-
cal corruption which so many Englishmen attribute to the
Roman Church : viz. that Rome has preserved in the main,
and we have not, what is so inestimably precious, the high

and true idea of a Church ; that whatever may be the present
lukewarmness of her children, (of which for myself I really
cannot judge, nor have ever expressed an opinion,) whenever
zeal, energy, and piety revive, they can act immediately on
the Church by means of the system they find, while among
us they must begin by attacking the system they find. In no
one of my articles have I expressed or implied any compari-
son more pointed than this ; which yet, as I have shewn, is
necessarily implied in that very objection, which is most cer-
tain to be brought. If this is to be disloyal to the English
Church, the supposed objector is as disloyal as I. And I
consider that Mr. Palmer should have attempted to prove
this, not taken it for granted. He has shewn, by unanswer-
able evidence, what I can hardly fancy any body reading one
of my articles without discovering, and what on one occasion
I have asserted in terms, viz. that on a great number of
points I conceive that the English Church would act wisely
in making Rome her model ; whereas he has merely assumed,
what was the only real point at issue, that such an opinion
argues want of patriotism in an English Churchman. Yet in
parallel cases we find the very opposite held universally.
No one would call an American of the present day unpatri-
otic, because he very much indeed prefers the state of things
which existed before the revolt, and because he is anxious to
do his utmost in restoring, if possible, constitutional mon-
archy. An Englishman is not patriotic, in that he believes
and propagates the belief of one Englishman beating ten
Frenchmen; but in that he makes England the one great
sphere and centre of his energies ; loves to study the feelings,
habits, opinions of Englishmen, and brings whatever know-
ledge he possesses of other countries to bear upon this his
favourite subject of thought ; is more pained by the vices
and more delighted by the virtues of Englishmen, than by
those of French, Germans, or Italians. I am not attempting
to decide, how far we are justified in allowing patriotism
to supersede universal philanthropy : all acknowledge that
we are in some degree, and all acknowledge that we are
not entirely ; but so far forth as we are patriotic, so far have

we such sentiments as I just described. On the other hand,
to intoxicate ourselves in insular pride, to hug ourselves
in the thought of England's real and supposed excellencies,
to be blind to her failings, and to believe, even in the ut-
most simplicity of heart, that she is the envy of surrounding
nations and eighth wonder of the world, this is no real
patriotism ; it is at bottom but base pride and vulgar
nationality.

Again, to continue the same illustration, considering the
tendency always and every where to national pride, there
must ever be extreme danger in using habitually an inflated,
boastful, way of speaking concerning our country's great-
ness. But if the very besetting fault of our country, the
very fault against which all our feelings of patriotism calls us
to contend, be that very national pride, how infinitely stronger
the case becomes ! And to speak plainly, believing as I most
firmly do, that ever since the schism of the sixteenth century,
the English Church has been swayed by a spirit of arrogance,
self-contentment, and self-complacency, resembling rather an
absolute infatuation than the imbecility of ordinary pride,
which has stifled her energies, crippled her resources, frus-
trated all the efforts of her most faithful children to raise her
from her existing degradation, I for one, however humble my
position, will not be responsible for uttering one word, or im-
plying one opinion, which shall tend to foster this outrageous
delusion. The disease has been too deeply seated to yield to
ordinary remedies : experience has shewn that mere hints
and implications, especially when united with disclaimers of
superior admiration for other systems, have wholly failed in
their objects : and even had the British Critic during its two
last years performed no other service, it has at least succeeded
in this ; in impressing on the most careless and inobservant
minds this fact, that certain members of the Church of Eng-
land, be they more or fewer, do raise their voices in indig-
nant protest against the system and spirit which so exten-
sively energize within her, and do wish to raise the sympa-
thies of her many holy and devoted children to some higher
object, than the maintenance and praise of that system.

Still an objection has been taken, to the tone in which my
humble yet zealous protests have been made. A word has
been used in a private communication, which I have not seen
in print, but which, I suppose, expresses the sort of feeling :
it has been said, then, that they appear couched not in
sorrowful but in ' spiteful ' terms. I think I perceive what
that element is in them, which has given rise to such a feel-
ing, and I humbly trust that it is neither wrong nor unbe-
coming.

In the first place, most certainly it does not shew that
what appear to me the corruptions in question give me no
pain. For years, consciously or not, and in various shapes
not recognised by me at the time as modifications of the
same symptoms, had my feelings been oppressed and (I may
really say) tortured, by this heavy, unspiritual, unelastic,
prosaic, unfeeling, unmeaning Protestant spirit ; all this time
my ears were stunned with the din of self-laudation, with
the words ' pure and apostolical,' ' evangelical truth and
apostolical order,' and the like most miserable watchwords :
those, from whom I learned at one moment some high and
elevating truth, at the next crushed and overwhelmed me by
some respectful mention of our existing system ; with the
single exception of Mr. Froude's work, no external response
could I find to my ceaseless and ever-increasing inward re-
pugnance, against the habits of thought and action prevalent
in our Church. At length I was able to fix, with some
definiteness, on the particular cause of my annoyance ; and
soon afterwards (in writing two pamphlets three years ago)
I had the opportunity of speaking out. To say that the
hearty and energetic tone, with which I did speak out, indi-
cates my real feeling of sorrow to have been shallow and
trifling, is an allegation which I will meet by a parallel
case. Let us suppose any one to have been afflicted by
some most painful illness for many weeks, but to have
been compelled to restrain his outcries hitherto, because of
dangerous illness in the next house : the impediment being
removed, he cries out with no subdued tone, and with great
relief of mind ; on which he is accosted by a stranger with

the observation, " Sir, your pain really cannot be very se-
rious, or you would not cry out with so good a heart, and
with such evident satisfaction."

And, secondly, I trust that allowing myself to speak in
such a tone, was not in itself wrong or unbecoming. When
the evils to which one desires to draw attention, are facts
whose existence has hitherto been unknown, all men's natural
feelings conspire with the obvious rule of right, and the com-
munication is made in a sorrowful and subdued spirit. But
when the facts have been known from the first, but not re-
cognised to be evils, then I conceive that words of zealous,
indignant, declamatory, remonstrance are generally allow-
able, and are often the most fitting of all possible methods.

2. It will be said, perhaps, that various things I have
written have tended to cloud with perplexities many an
humble and retiring spirit, who wished but to know his duty
and to do it ; but was filled with misgiving and alarm, at
the strange and fierce denunciations he found in the British
Critic. If this were true, great cause would there be for
sorrow and repentance ; but that at least the duty of guard-
ing, to the best of my power, against such a result, had not
escaped my notice, the following extract, from the second
article I wrote, will sufficiently evince.

" In how many quarters do we not hear, and in how many do
there exist without being heard of, humble and teachable disciples
of Christ, who have but one wish, to be taught the truth that they
may follow it ; but who shrink back in dismay from the ' strife of
tongues,' so busy and restless in all quarters of the religious world,
and seem almost to look in vain for some intelligible guidance,
amidst the innumerable confident and conflicting pretensions to
which 'our unhappy divisions' have given birth in these later times.
Nor is it from one quarter alone that these troubles proceed : one
person has been taught by our Catechism and other similar instruc-
tion to aim, by God's grace, at ' living a righteous and sober life,'
to ' learn and labour truly to get his own living,' to make advances
towards ' believing in God, fearing and loving Him with all his
soul and strength ;' and is told that all this ' avails him nothing/

nay, less than nothing, since it deadens the conscience, unless he
has been conscious of certain definite feelings and impressions,
which are the real mark of God's presence. Another has been
brought up in fear and shrinking indefinable aversion from every
thing connected with Roman theology, and hears of certain new
teachers who have come forward to say that the foreign churches,
whatever their practical corruptions, have retained many great
truths which we in our practical corruptions have lost ; or has been
brought up to think of our separation from Rome as a ground for
triumph and just thankfulness, and hears of its being spoken of as
at once a punishment and a sin ; nay, hears of serious and devoted
members of his own communion praying daily for the reunion of
Christendom, as the great remedy for our evils and distresses.

Now in respect to that one of these two classes of teachers, for
whom we profess ourselves especially interested, if it be imagined
in any quarter that those, who have felt it their duty to make such
statements, are insensible to the misery of such cases as we have
described, great injustice is done them. It is highly improbable of
course, that in so extensive a movement several persons may not
have said harsh and unkind things, have thoughtlessly suggested
scruples and doubts to the humble believer, or unnecessarily shocked
prejudices which are the result of very docility and reverence ; and,
of course, so far as this has been done, individuals have laid up for
themselves materials for deep repentance and humiliation. But
let it be considered, in defence of both the one class and the other,
both of those calling themselves Evangelicals and of those called
by their opponents Papists, whether at last it can have been possible
to rouse our Church from what all parties seem to consider the
carelessness and worldliness of the last century, without causing
her to pass through perhaps more than one stage of great trouble
and anxiety : whether it be not with societies as with individuals,
that sharp pangs and trials are in the way, which leads from the
lethargy of sloth and self-ignorance to the quiet and assured peace
of an awakened conscience

How then do we apply our principle ? a private individual has, by
whatever means, the circumstance brought home to him of the extent
and uncertainty of religious controversy at the present time ; he
becomes anxious and excited, suspicious alternately of the doctrines
which he has been taught, and of those which are newly suggested to

him ; this at least he earnestly desires to be told, what is his duty
in consequence of having heard them. We answer, his duty is with
himself ': to leave the course of simple obedience for that of argument
and conscious investigation, is to search for truth by abandoning
the very path which leads to it ; for it is not by inquiry and specu-
lation, but by the practice of good, that truth is attained. Let him
be led the more watchfully to guard his own progress in humility,
meekness, purity, self-restraint ; let him dwell the more lovingly
on those good examples which, wherever he is placed, may probably
be brought to his notice from among all the existing religious
parties ; let him look on himself with suspicion, on others with con-
fiding love. Then let him pray habitually, and that not with formal
and lifeless devotion, but eagerly and from the heart, for gradual
guidance into the truth wherever it may be. Let him, as ability
and opportunity exist, meditate on Holy Scripture, with the view of
discovering what light may be thrown upon its inspired language,
by the new faculties he is acquiring wherewith to apprehend it. In
proportion as he is honestly and actively following such a course of
religious action, he may with a safe conscience dismiss from his
thoughts at once any religious sentiment, which meets him from
whatever quarter, should it at present shock his conscience or jar
against his moral feelings ; or rather indeed he is bound as a point
of duty to dismiss it, to strive against the intrusion of perplexities
arising from it, as he would against any confessedly wicked
thoughts. It may be, if he be true to God's guidance, that the
time will come when some doctrine so dismissed will return to him
as sent from God, and as commending itself to his whole nature ;
when he f who thought its voice strange and harsh at first, will
wonder he could ever so have deemed of sounds so musical and
thrilling.' a

We are not speaking as though there were any certainty,
that even by these means an individual will be in fact led into
the whole truth ; this depends, as before observed, not only on
the inherent excellence of the true religion, not only on the moral
condition of the recipient, but also on the clearness with which it
is brought before him. But were it only for the intellectual pre-
judices with which each one of us has been educated, it would be
impossible to form any judgment whatever, in the case of this man
or that, how far such may be the case; and, in addition to this,

a Newman's Prophetical Office, &c., Introduction.

surely no one, Anglican or Roman, can maintain, that any where
in England is Catholicism exhibited so purely and genuinely before
the world, as to force on ordinary minds the perception of its true
character. This then cannot be promised ; what can be promised
is, that in proportion as the inquirer pursues such a course of conduct
as we have sketched, the real doctrines on which his spiritual life
is supported will be, so far as they go, true and sound ; and his
conscience may be in perfect tranquillity and stayed upon God,
considering that if ever there were a case of what theologians call
' invincible ignorance,' such a case is his."

It is indeed observable, that the only two passages quoted
by Mr. Palmer from my own articles, as tending to shake the
faith of humble Christians in our own Church, are found in
the British Critic, in the immediate neighbourhood of similar
statements. One of them (Palmer, p. 53,) is close to the
passage I have just cited ; and the other (Palmer, p. 51,) to
a paragraph (' On Arnold's Sermons,' pp. 334, 5,) of a similar
tendency, which I shall have to quote hereafter. If my
readers would take the trouble of looking through my arti-
cles, they would be surprised to find how much there is
of similar language. For instance, two of them (on Mr.
Goode and on ' Church Authority ') are, to a great extent,
taken up with the methodical expression of the principle,
implied in the citation I just made. A statement, which
seems to have startled many more than any thing else I have
said, is my defence of the language used towards the Blessed
Virgin by St. Bonaventure and St. Bernard: in that very
place I take care to say, " so long as" the professor of ' high-
Church' principles " acts carefully up to the principles he has
been taught, and in so acting feels himself in no way attracted
towards these ways, so long it would be a plain sin in him
to resort to them."* In an article on the ' Church and Syna-
gogue,' which, as a whole, has been considered by many to
be more Roman in tendency than any other, I have also ex-
pressly observed, " if persons, who keep their consciences
in a pure and healthy state by attempting a consistent and
uniform obedience to God's commandments, feel that a new

a ' On St. Athanasius,' p. 410.

doctrine, proposed to them on its own grounds, threatens
rather to chain them earthwards and fetter their spiritual
development, than afford it scope and direction; we know
not how any amount of external evidence can justify them in
receiving it." b Moreover, in the same article, I have taken
especial pains to shew, that " we are defending a class of
doctrines, which have the distinct sanction both of our
Church's formularies and of our ' standard divines'."

All this, I really think, proves sufficiently, that I have not
at least wantonly and carelessly outraged men's most sacred
and cherished prepossessions : persons may still think that
I have been injudicious, but they can hardly think that I
have been cruel. Moreover, a great deal must depend on
the seriousness of the evil, which appeared to me to require
a remedy. No doubt the appearance of a slight disorder or
unhealthy symptom, on the surface of our Church, could
never justify such extreme and decided language as that
which I have adopted ; but believing, as I do from my in-
nermost heart, that our system labours under no superficial
disease, but is corrupt to its very core ; that " the whole
head is sick and the whole heart faint ;" that the generally
received form of religion among us is " another Gospel,
which is not another," for it is no Gospel at all ; believing
all this, it was a direct duty to use language, which under
other circumstances might have justly appeared wanton,
cruel, and extravagant. But it is plain that principles, once
lost, could never by possibility be recovered, if it were ad-
mitted as a final bar against earnest discussion of their va-
lue, that incidental scandal may possibly be given in the
course of such discussions. How can those be defended,
who, half a century ago, called on all Christians to believe,
that, unless they were conscious of a sudden conversion, they
could not hope for heaven ? Or those, who, at a later period,
called on their brethren at once to take up an opinion,
founded on arguments from the Fathers, that Presbyterians
are not within the Christian Covenant? And both these

*> ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 7.
c Ibid. p. 5.

classes seemed by their language to imply, that it was the
duty of 'high and low, rich and poor,' at once to receive
these respective theologies, so utterly astounding and revolt-
ing to all their early prepossessions ; whereas in my own case
I continually went out of my way to urge on them, that it
would be absolutely sinful if they did so ; and that their
duty was to act conscientiously on their existing principles.

But we shall see the whole matter in a clearer light, by
observing a mode of action, which has ever obtained in the
Catholic Church. ' The Church's system alone assigns its
rightful place to intellect and practical ability : she uses
them, hallows them in using, and yet assigns to them a place
far lower than the highest. And for what great purpose has
the Church always employed these two classes of character ?
For this ; to guard in peace and tranquillity from the world
without (the one from its rude violence, the other from its
restless questionings ; the one by the barrier of spiritual power
and the exercise of political wisdom, the other by that of
well-digested, subtle, and deep statements of doctrine) the
weak and uneducated poor in Christ; or again, the pure-
minded and contemplative few, whom their very protectors
feel to be called to a higher and more heavenly lot than them-
selves. ,' d

Putting aside the question of ecclesiastical power, which
does not here concern us ; let us consider what will be the
place, held by thoughtful and argumentative Christians in
a corrupt Church, corresponding to that held by them in
a pure one. It is evident that there is a certain class of men,
called by their peculiar endowments to the office of sifting
principles, classifying phenomena, analyzing and deducing
truths, and the like. These may be considered as making
up a certain community by themselves, and separate from
others ; so that each one of them, in dealing with the rest,
may do the most important service, by comparing statements ;
putting forward plainly the ultimate ends he may wish ;
enforcing, by means of argument, the desirableness and
practicability of those ends ; and, with those who agree with

d ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 39.

him, concerting plans for success in their joint desire. But
the multitude of Christians is called to a far nobler and
more heavenly lot. Infinitely nobler surely it is, to believe,
and act, and grow in faith and knowledge by action, than
to criticise, doubt, compare, argue. Let us call these two
classes, for the present purpose and to make my reasoning
clearer, by the respective names of the ' scientific' and the
' favoured' class.

To revere at a humble distance the more heavenly spe-
cimen of the latter class, is the highest honour and truest
wisdom of the former ; and the whole of that class must be
regarded with respectful and affectionate interest, by ' scien-
tific ' men ; who should acknowledge it as their very vocation
to labour for their spiritual welfare. No conduct then can be
more inexcusable or more unchristian, than to address these
' little ones of Christ ' in terms calculated, in any the slightest
degree, to do violence to their prepossessions, or pain their
best and purest feelings. ' Scientific' men, who desire to
draw these others in the right direction, will apply them-
selves to the task of pressing on their attention precepts,
which, when stated, cannot but have the full sanction of their
conscience, but which had not been sufficiently considered ;
or of putting before them doctrines fitted to satisfy spiritual
aspirations, which have been already excited and are wan-
dering, as it were, in search of an object; or again, to evoke
for the first time that very craving, which they will also
satisfy. Such is the course by which these humble souls, so
dear to Christ, and with the ' offending ' of whom He has con-
nected so fearful a sentence, will be gradually trained towards
the full truth. Such is the course, which, if we were wise, we
should all regard with a holy covetousness, as by far the happiest
and most blessed path, even though we may feel ourselves called
by God (in consequence of the faculties He has given us) to
serve Him in a lower and more earthly position. Now I have
published two little works, directly addressed to this class ;
one called ' Questions for Self-Examination,' addressed to all
Christians ; another called ' Questions and Answers on the
Church Catechism,' addressed to Christians who are prepared

by education to accept ' high Church' doctrine. And I am
sure no one can possibly accuse me, in either of those pub-
lications, of introducing one single remark, which would tend
to unsettle or distress the mind of either of those classes.
And what is true of those little works, is true of a work of
far higher value and scope ; published by one more fitted for
such a task, and who also has been accused of disturbing the
minds of men by his articles in the British Critic : I mean,
' Devotions on the Holy Communion.' A more salutary, edi-
fying, and comforting book for members of our Church trained
in ' high Church' principles it is impossible to conceive.

From what has been said, it is sufficiently clear how
eminently valuable, or rather indispensably necessary, are
the services of this ' scientific' class, and how incalculable the
importance of indoctrinating them with Catholic sentiments.
Were a large body of such men to exist ; on the one hand
deeply penetrated by Catholic Truth, and on the other hand
endowed with a most tender and considerate regard, a most
deep and accurate knowledge, of the educations, preposses-
sions, tendencies, desires, habits of ordinary men, one by
one ; soon, by their united and well-devised efforts, would the
holy flame spread from soul to soul ; soon would all serious
Christians begin to see their real and deep unity of feeling,
and once more to ' love one another.' And now, if any one
thing is clear in the whole world, it is clear that it was to
this object that I directed my articles in the British Critic.
The style of writing, so argumentative, methodical, and un-
rhetorical ; the language so harsh, dry, and repulsive, as I have
continually heard it called ; all this shews that I addressed my
words to those who professed argument and analysis, and not to
those who take the higher path of following their wwanalyzed
conscience. It seems really too much, that men should claim
at once the right of reasoning, and the privilege of intellectual
weakness ; that they should bring to % bear, with great pomp
and elaboration, a series of patristic or Anglican arguments ;
and then, when they are unable to parry the reply made to
them, should, as it were, plead their infancy, and claim the
prerogative of being shocked and distressed. Let them either

form their opinions by argument, and meet the British Critic
in argument ; or else let them be contented with following
their conscience, and not express a judgment on matters,
which, by their own confession, they cannot understand. As
I said in a passage I just quoted, they may know that various
doctrines are, as yet, wholly beyond the range of, and wholly
unattractive to, their spiritual nature ; and this is quite
sufficient to determine their conduct. But when they speak
of them as superstitious, idolatrous, and I know not what,
(unless indeed they merely profess to take up such an
opinion on the authority of teachers in whom they repose
confidence, which course, if avowed, would be altogether
defensible ; but otherwise) they assume the power of appre-
ciating religious tenets, in cases where they have not yet
morally apprehended either the tenets themselves or their
contradictories. But to do this, (I will not say in any ade-
quate measure, but,) even in such measure as to avoid the
most extravagant misconceptions, requires intellectual power
of the rarest and most exalted order. And if they possess
such power, we have a right to call on them not to use the
language of which I speak, without being able to place before
us a sufficient defence of it, drawn up in accurate and me-
thodical expression.

It will not, I trust, be imagined, that I am either main-
taining the intellect to be, even in the smallest degree, an
independent judge of moral and religious truth, or denying
the disapprobation of a spiritually enlightened conscience to
be a conclusive disproof of any alleged doctrine ; supposing
only that the doctrine be rightly understood, and the voice of
conscience rightly interpreted. But then the right per-
formance of these two functions frequently requires an intel-
lectual exercise of the greatest complication and difficulty.
Conscience reigns alone supreme in all these matters ; but when
conscience has at its command a minister so active, compre-
hensive, powerful, and versatile, as the intellect, the range of
its judgments is infinitely enlarged, and the external value
of its dictates infinitely increased. So much as this indeed is
implied in the very objection : for the objection, which I am

considering, is not that the statements in the British Critic
shock religious men who rightly understand them ; (to that
objection this whole \vork is in} 7 attempt to reply ;) but that
they shock large numbers of holy and humble men of heart,
who do not profess that intellectual power, which might
enable them to appreciate doctrines widely foreign to their
moral experience, or expressions of doctrine widely different
from their traditionary expressions ; and to whom, in conse-
quence, these statements cannot but appear harsh, paradoxi-
cal, nay profane. If then such a person should read these
pages, I would take the liberty of speaking to him plainly,
yet with much reverence, as follows : You complain that you
make no profession of argumentative powers ; and that you
have just reason for dissatisfaction, if expressions are put in
your way, which you cannot understand, which do violence
to early and holy associations, which perplex, alarm, shock
you. I ask, who put these expressions in your way ? Not
only were the articles, which you criticise, written in a tone
and language which might have made it clear, that they
presupposed in the reader those very powers, which you
disclaim in yourself; but also in almost every article,
sometimes in almost every page, they enforce the duty,
incumbent on such as you, to confine your thoughts either
to the doctrines you have been taught, or to those which
gradually recommend themselves to your conscience in propor-
tion to your spiritual development. Of course many passages,
written primarily with a controversial object, might contain
edification to like-minded Christians ; and might well be
a matter of interest, if recommended to you by a teacher in
whom you repose confidence. But when on your own
responsibility you enter on the field of controversy, and think
of comparing doctrine with doctrine, argument with argu-
ment, you descend from that high position in which God has
placed you : your proceeding is like that of some hitherto
religious hermit, who should leave his peaceful desert, and
become candidate for an earthly crown. You are called to
a more heavenly course, you wilfully place yourself in a
more earthly course ; you are called to the life of simple

obedience, you descend by your own act to the life of
argument and inquiry ; and in one sense I am even glad,
should the result of your free inquiry be perplexity and
confusion ; because it may awaken you to a sense of your
misconduct, and teach you to value better the high and noble
privileges of your calling." 1

3. Next let me apply myself to the parallel objection which
has been raised: for frequently it has been said, not only
that the British Critic has scandalized the humble, but that
it has encouraged the undutiful ; that it has sanctioned a spirit
of wanton criticism, exercised on the system and formularies
of our Church, or even has been an active instrument in
fomenting such a spirit. Now that the claim of the English
Church on our allegiance has not been a subject neglected in
the British Critic, is at once evident from the fact, that, on
looking over my own articles for the purpose, I find not so
much as one in which that claim is not directly enforced ;
while in several I have gone to great length and detail in
enforcing it. I am quite confident, that the representation
which follows is a fair exponent of the consistent and un-
deviating view, on the matter, which has been there main-
tained. I can perfectly understand then, that a deeply
religious person may, under present circumstances, entertain
the most serious and anxious doubts, whether he be not in
duty bound at once to join the Roman Church. But I cannot
understand that a religious person should, for any length of
time, doubt, that, if he do remain in our Church, he must re-
main as her faithful and attached son ; not standing, as it were,
with one foot in England and the other in Rome, but devoting
himself with undivided loyalty to his immediate mother. And
if it be asked what definite meaning can be attached to these
words, let us, for example's sake, take such particulars as the
following. He will " fix his affections" immediately " on the

<l I mentioned at starting that it is no business of mine to defend the works
of other writers ; but I cannot forbear from adding here, that the other articles
in the British Critic, almost without exception, seem to me so carefully and
habitually deferential towards our Church, that I cannot fancy they would have
been even accused of an unsettling or disturbing tendency, had they not been
coloured, in the reader's mind, by the tone or expressions of my own articles.

F 2

Church wherein God has placed him," and only " through that,
on the great Catholic community throughout the world;" 6 the
English Church will be to him the visible embodiment and
channel of his Lord's presence. 2. Her morning and evening
prayer will be the central points of his public and social de-
votions ; he will offer up those prayers, not as one of the acci-
dentally present congregation, nor yet as one of the Catholic
Church; but more definitely, as a member of the English
Church: through her, with her, and for her, will his addresses
ascend to God day after day, in the language she has placed
in his mouth. In like manner, should there be prayers for
Catholic unity used by certain members of our own Church as
such, and others used by Roman Catholics as such, he will unite
in the former rather than in the latter. And, 3. the sphere
of his practical energies, the turning point of his hopes and
fears, interests and disquietudes, the central position from
which his view grows forth and expands, will be the Church
through which he was regenerated, through which he has
communion with the Body and Blood of Christ. He will
be careful to make the most of all the salutary privileges
she offers him ; he will fight without ceasing against any
disposition to repine at the comparative paucity of means
of grace ; he will love to contemplate, with humble and
affectionate veneration, the admirable patterns of holiness
he may find within her pale, nor suffer any difference
of opinion, on a matter of minor importance, to lessen his
keen perception of their heavenly graces.

I would gladly add, that he will accept the teaching of
the English Church in the first instance, and should he
become unable to accept it, leave her communion ; if I could
attach any sense whatever to those often-repeated words
' teaching of the English Church.' That the phrase ' teaching
of the Prayer-book' conveys a definite and important meaning,
I do not deny : considering that it is mainly a selection from
the Breviary, it is not surprising that the Prayer-book should
on the whole breathe an uniform, most edifying, deeply
orthodox, spirit ; a spirit, which corresponds to one particu-
e ' On -Church Authority,' p. 222.

lar body of doctrine, and not to its contradictory. Again,
that the phrase ' teaching of the Articles' conveys a definite
meaning, I cannot deny ; for (excepting the first five, which
belong to the old theology) they also breathe an uniform,
intelligible spirit. But then these respective spirits are not
different merely, but absolutely contradictory ; as well could
a student in the heathen schools have imbibed at once the
Stoic and the Epicurean philosophies, as could a humble mem-
ber of our Church at the present time learn his creed both from
Prayer-book and Articles. This I set out at length, in two
pamphlets with an appendix, which I published three years
ago ; and it cannot therefore be necessary to go again over the
same ground : though something must be added, occasionally
in notes, and more methodically in a future chapter. The
manner in which the dry wording of the articles can be
divorced from their natural spirit, and accepted by an ortho-
dox believer ; how their prima facie meaning is evaded, and
the artifice of their inventors thrown back in recoil on them-
selves ; this, and the arguments which prove the honesty of
this, have now been for some time before the public. Others
have not been equally open ; and we can therefore form no
judgment, what the success of * Evangeli cals ' would be, in
shewing how they give their full assent and consent to the
Prayer-book. But it is plain, if there be force in the argu-
ments used three years ago, that even omissions in the Prayer-
book cannot be taken as any direct voice of the English
Church ; nor can it be said that prayers for the dead or
Invocations of Saints are condemned by her, merely be-
cause she has dropped such addresses from her service/ For
if those omissions were the result of a disingenuous com-
promise, (as I endeavoured to shew in my former pamphlet,)
and if the very men, who made the omissions, wished to
include within our Church Christians who would have pre-
ferred their retention ; it is plain that there can be no
colour for the allegation, that we are bound to withdraw
from the English Church, should we be led forward to such
practices and devotions.

f This has indeed been decided by the Ecclesiastical Court on the former subject.

Having alluded to the subject of our Articles, it may be
as well to add, that so far has Mr. Palmer been from ar-
guing against the British Critic on the ground of alleged in-
consistency with those formularies, that he quotes as a part of
his indictment a passage (not written by myself) in which
Mr. Oakeley is quoted as having " proved historically that
the Articles were not designed to exclude Roman Catholics,"
(p. 66,) and attempts no refutation whatever of the position.

But even were the formularies of our Church accordant
instead of discordant, urgent instead of wavering, definite
instead of vague, still so long as her practical teaching is in
the highest degree uncertain, conflicting, and contradictory ;
when members of our Church seem hardly to agree in one
matter of positive opinion that can be named, except the
purity of our Church ; and when, even as to that, each party
maintains that our Church would be most zwzpure if she
taught doctrines, which the other party strenuously contends
she does teach ; I can see no possible defence for the position,
' that her formularies, in their prlma facie bearing, demand
implicit reception from her children. Surely, until she is
able so far to invigorate her discipline, as that one and one
only doctrine in essentials shall be taught within her pale,
she can have no warrant in making this demand. How can
that sacredness and divine authority, which attaches to our
first instructors, be fairly claimed for the English formu-
laries in their natural sense, when in point of fact they are
not our first instructors ? It is the creed of our parents,
which first introduces us to the Creed of our Church, and
colours the latter with its own hues. And when our moral
development has compelled us to desert that creed, those do
not fairly challenge our adherence, who give to our formu-
laries their most literal sense, but those who give to them
that sense which promises most fairly as a rest and satis-
faction to that development.' 5

4. The two objections I have just considered are rather
implied by Mr. Palmer, than distinctly stated. There is
indeed only one passage, in all his pamphlet, which bears
' On Church Authority,' pp. 231, 2.

with it the profession of reasoning against the course adopted
by the British Critic : h in all the remainder he merely
expresses his own opinion, that such a course is undutiful
and inexcusable. In the passage to which I refer, he pro-
poses three exhaustive alternatives : of which I will proceed
to quote that which concerns myself.

" If men are satisfied that it is a matter of duty to remain in the
English Church, then I say, that it is wholly inconsistent with that
duty to excite a spirit of doubt and dissatisfaction in the Church,
and to tempt its members, in every possible way, to secede from
its communion. Nothing can be more inconsistent than the practice
of disregarding its authorities, encouraging disobedience and dis-
respect to its prelates, and discontent within the Church itself, as if
the great mass of its members were engaged in measures hostile to
the true faith. It is sinful even to contemplate the possibility of
voluntarily separating from the Church under circumstances of
persecution or obloquy. Notions of this kind tend to diminish the
horror which every Catholic should feel at the very notion of
schism." p. 67.

This, I say, is that part of the dilemma, proposed by
Mr. Palmer, which includes my own case. I suppose indeed
that, considering all the various proposals which have been
made, and all the various measures which have been ru-
moured as in contemplation, and considering too some among
the apparent tendencies of our existing condition, the num-
ber is very far from small of those, who have had more or less
misgiving, what at some future time might possibly become
their duty. But I can most truly say, that the very idea of
leaving our Church has never been before my own mind as
an immediately practical question ; that my present feeling
is (without for one moment judging others), that I should
myself commit a mortal sin by doing so; and that it has
been my uniform endeavour to divert my imagination from

h Mr. Palmer's remarks on ' development' shall be considered before I conclude :
but they are directed against the truth of opinions advocated in the British Critic ;
not against the legitimacy of English Churchmen advocating such opinions. The
latter is the point now in hand.

dwelling on such a contingency, even as a future possibility.
It is very plain then that the paragraph I have quoted
contains, if any part of the pamphlet contains, Mr. Palmer's
grounds for thinking that ' the tone ' of my articles ' cannot
be excused,' p. 68.

First then, is it wrong in me to ' encourage' to the utmost
of my humble power and opportunities ' discontent with the
Church itself, as if the great mass of its members' are ' en-
gaged in measures hostile to the true faith ? ' The answer
to this must surely depend on the truth of the allegation.
I willingly adopt Mr. Palmer's happy expression ; I do
believe that the * mass of our Church's members' are un-
consciously and unintentionally, but most effectually, ' en-
gaged in measures hostile to the true faith ; ' this I believe,
and hope before I end to prove. And believing this, it would
surely be the strangest possible mode of shewing loyalty to the
English Church, were I to remain perfectly quiet, enjoying the
proceeds of my Fellowship, or (to use the ordinary language)
' eating the bread of the Church,' and abstain from drawing
attention to evils, which appear to me so imminent, so fearful,
so destructive of the very life and essence of a Church. Nor
yet do I seek to encourage discontent with our Church her-
self, but only with that miserable system, to which, for three
hundred years, she has been so unfortunately committed.

Secondly, is it wrong in me to ' disregard the authorities of
our Church ? ' This must surely depend on the dicta of those
authorities. The Roman Catholics indeed generally say, that
Christians are, in matters of doctrine, bound to receive im-
plicitly the decrees of St. Peter's Chair ; but those who so
think, think also that, by a Divine promise, that Chair is in-
fallibly saved from teaching error. But to reject the doctrine
of the Church's infallibility as a figment, to proclaim as a
great and glorious truth, that all Bishops are but fallible men,
and that the chief Bishop on earth sanctions, nay, prac-
tises, idolatry ; and at the same time to call for implicit
deference and submission to the doctrinal statements of a
certain small body of bishops, who are indefinitely at variance
with each other, and who, according to Mr. Palmer's own

theory, are separated off from the great body of the Catholic
Church; this is a flight of conservative extravagance, an
assumption of spiritual despotism, which can find no parallel
beyond the circle of Anglican ' high-Churchmen.' My own
sentiments on the subject I have already expressed, and find
nothing to alter.

' One of the many difficulties,' I say, ' which press upon us in the
present most unhappy state of our Church, is the question of the
proper course to be pursued hy Churchmen, when a bishop delivers
ex cathedra doctrines which are in fact heretical. There is no
difficulty of course when the points at issue are short of fundamental
articles of faith ; for silent submission to his diocesan's will, sup-
posing an injunction to have been laid upon him, is then the
clergyman's plain duty : nor again, in .the case of fundamentals is
the question one of principle ; for learned persons tell us, that, ac-
cording to the uniform tradition of antiquity, even laymen have not
the right only but the duty of contending for the faith openly and
uncompromisingly, by whomsoever it may have been assailed, and
under whatever circumstances. But the when and the huw no doubt
present matter for grave deliberation ; and which perhaps at last
must be decided in each case, as it separately arises, by reference to
its own peculiar facts.' '

Thirdly is it right to ' tempt ' members of the English
Church ' in every possible way to secede from its communion ? '
Certainly not. That, for myself, it was in some sufficient
measure impressed on my own mind, how serious responsi-
bility on this head is incurred by all who express publicly
their opinion on present circumstances, will, I hope, be evinced
by the fact, which I lately mentioned, of my constant enforce-
ment throughout my articles, of our Church's claim on our
allegiance. But fully acknowledging (which I do), that frank
and bold protests against the English Reformation, and the
system introduced by it, have an indirect and accidental ten-
dency, in some cases, to hasten, or even to cause, a separation
from our Church, I would still most fearlessly meet Mr. Palmer
on his own ground and by his own theory ; and I would ask
him, whether in any age of the Church it would be thought
even tolerable in individuals, to be in any way less diligent
1 ' On Whately's Essays, 1 p. 225.

and energetic in their protests against heresy, deeply-seated,
subtly-insinuating, and widely-extending heresy, because
such protests had the accidental effect of inducing one or
two orthodox to join a foreign communion? My defence
then entirely depends on the truth or falsehood of the views
I hold, as to the amount of corruption existing in and ruling
our Church. If the evils be such as I suppose, I was justi-
fied in denouncing them as loudly as I did.

5. But although what I have said seems sufficiently to
answer Mr. Palmer's observations, I feel deeply that there is
a natural reason, for great dislike and suspicion of statements
such as I have made ; and a reason far more serious, and re-
quiring far greater deference of tone in meeting it, than any
of the objections which have occurred to Mr. Palmer. It is
thought that the most ordinary reverence and docility of
mind would secure a willing reception of those principles
under which one is born ; and that to allow one's self in open
dissatisfaction with, or even hatred to, those principles, must
imply much holiness, or else little humility. " We do not
augur much good," says a writer in the British Critic, " of any
one, who does not in the first instance throw himself into the
system under which he is born, accept the voices of the
teachers, divines, and pastors, by whom he is providentially
surrounded, as the voice of heaven, and identify their pat-
tern and their faith, with the holy doctrine which they have
been the instruments of conveying to him." k This general
principle, thus stated, is that very principle, ' the high
sacredness of hereditary religion,' w r hich I singled out in the
last chapter, as all-important at the present moment; and
which it was the miserable sin of our Reformers, so grievously
to violate. In fact, I wrote an article in the British Critic
(that on ' Church Authority') with the main object of en-
forcing, illustrating, and vindicating this principle ; in which
article I extended it to its legitimate consequence, the case
of Dissenters of whatever kind. Still, as the writer just
quoted proceeds to say, " of course such implicit confidence
cannot last in all cases, as time goes on ; for there is but one
truth whatever it is, whereas there are ' many kinds of voices

k No. Ixii. p. 385.

in the world,' and it is not to be anticipated that all minds,
every where, as they grow, will just happen felicitously to
concur with the system in which they find themselves." " It
is the trial and mystery of our position in this age and coun-
try, that a religious mind is continually set at variance with
itself, that its deference to what is without contradicts sugges-
tions from within, and that it cannot obey what is over it with-
out rebelling against what was before it" And as to the origin,
again, of such ' suggestions from within,' in the article of my
own to which I just alluded, a passage occurs, quoted in the
first chapter of this work, arguing with great earnestness,
that ' absolute and great defects of character ' frequently oc-
casion them. Certainly, so far is it from being the case,
that the idea of corruptions within our Church was a con-
genial idea to my own mind, that I suffered innumerable
troubles and perplexities, before it even occurred to me to
seek for their cause in its true quarter ; the radically corrupt
and heretical nature of the system which I had been taught.

A sentiment is often expressed and often implied, not un-
like the preceding, which, though substantially refuted by
what has just been said, still deserves an explicit notice. We
often hear admonitions of this kind, addressed to the ' discon-
tented young men ' in the English Church. ' Act up to the
provisions of the Prayer-book ; when you regularly attend
morning and evening prayer, observe rigorously all the fasts
in the calendar, and realise that type of character which the
Prayer-book implies, then, if still dissatisfied with the English
system, you may perhaps deserve a hearing ; but not till
then.' Now I will not be betrayed, by the wish of defending
myself, into any such concession, as that the English system
does place before her children a sufficiently high standard, or
that holy men, who shall have complied with the conditions
above specified, will not be even more dissatisfied than they
were before. But I will fully acknowledge, that the Prayer-
book puts before us a very high standard, and one indefinitely
above my own humble aspirations or attainments: but so
also, let it be carefully observed, did the Jewish Law. ' To
keep alive, throughout one nation at least, these truths (the

m p. 225.

perfection of God's law and our own miserable sinfulness)
in all their native freshness and distinctness, to preserve man's
conscience from becoming hardened, and his perception of re-
ligious truth deadened, over the whole world, was one especial
cause, St. Paul seems to say, of the Jewish economy.'" " Ever
since the Fall, man, viewed in himself, has remained knowing
the law, but not doing it ; admiring, not loving ; assenting,
not following ; with the Law not within him, but before
him ; not any longer in the heart, but departing from him
and moving away and taking up its place, as it were, over
against him, and confronting him as an enemy, accuser, and
avenger." Christianity then was essentially and funda-
mentally a remedial religion; nor has it any object more
closely connected with its whole scheme of doctrine and
discipline, than that of bringing our power to do right
into some illimitably increasing proportion with our power
to perceive it. To take a strong instance ; the superiority
itself of celibacy over marriage, I have confidently stated
to be a dictate of the natural conscience ; p but the power
of leading blamelessly a single life, is one of the highest
and most precious Gospel gifts. Those then who hold such
language as that above described, should in all consistency
have held the same to the Jews also : Christ came to enable
them to fulfil the Law, but these objectors should have
said, 'fulfil the Law first, and join Christ afterwards.' Whe-
ther or no indeed the English Church does give such helps
towards the most ordinary Christian life, as frail and humble
believers seek at her hands, is a question which will come
under our consideration in a future chapter : but unless she
does so, though the character she held up for reverence and
imitation were really the true evangelical pattern ; though
she encouraged her children to honour austerity, celibacy,
voluntary poverty, as much as she in fact (practically at
least, and in her authoritative teaching) encourages them to
despise or revile those graces ; even then, there would not be
so much as an approach to a proof, that she even tolerably
fulfils the very primary object, for which the Church was

n ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 28.
Newman's Parochial Senn. vol. v. Senn. xi.P ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 406.

founded ; nor would her children have any reason for with-
holding their most bitter complaints, if they meet not at her
hands with that protection and support, which shall shield
them from the implacable enemies of their salvation.

6. " Granting, however, that our corruptions may be as
grievous as the British Critic has represented, still," it may be
asked, " why is Rome to be taken for our model in the needful
task of reform and purification ? Why not rather go back to
more early and primitive times, than endeavour to place before
the minds of Englishmen in such favourable colours a system,
which practically issues in the deep superstition and idolatry
which we witness abroad ? " Such will be the language of
many members of our Church ; and it certainly requires a
reply. The inquiry indeed deserves most careful considera-
tion, whether the Church of the fourth century, (did we see
it really reproduced amongst us, instead of being known to us
through the less distinct and impressive media of historical
documents,) would appear on the whole much less idolatrous
and superstitious than modern Rome herself. Waiving how-
ever this question, (towards the elucidation of which some-
thing may be done in the next chapter,) and moreover with-
out professing to give either, or even the principal, reasons,
which lead me to consider the existing Church abroad as the
fit model to regard, those which follow will amply suffice to
support that opinion. It must be observed, however, that
the idea of introducing, as it were, bodily among us some
foreign pattern, according to the best conception we are able
to form of it, would be absolute insanity ; to think of it would
be most extravagant, even to attempt its execution absolutely
impossible. No ! the one principal object of our observation
must ever be our own Church ; to study the nature and ex-
tent of her corruptions, and the remedies for them which her
present resources are capable of supplying, this must be, be-
yond any comparison, our principal task ; the only question
is, in what quarter are we to look for the suggestion of ap-
propriate remedies ? And the Church abroad is the point to
which we are in duty bound first to turn our eyes, were it
only for the plain dictates of Christian love and charity.
All our existing most unhappy divisions cannot efface the

obligation of that primary Gospel duty, which requires us to
consider as brethren all who bear the name of Christ, so only
they be not heretical in some essential particular. Now all
English ' high Churchmen' agree in denying that Roman
Catholics are so to be regarded ; the plain duty then remains,
to consult first of all with our brethren, in any difficulty
wherein we may be placed ; and only in the event of failing
to find in them what we seek, to turn our thoughts in any
other direction. Another reason, which may be given, is the
undoubted fact, that great as are the difficulties in either
case, they are incomparably less in the way of our right-
ly understanding a contemporary, than an ancient, system,
Those innumerable details which, small in themselves, go so
very far, when taken together, in constituting the real nature
of an institution as a fact in history ; and the knowledge of
which is so indispensably necessary in order to the practical
working of any imitation ; all these we may study on the spot,
if we follow a living example ; but can by no possible efforts
rescue from the abyss of time, when we desire to make the
past our guide.

But over and above these considerations, there is another
quite decisive on the subject. If our Church be so corrupt
in her practical working as I have represented her, we should
expect d priori, what we find in fact, that we must look for
the source of her corruptions in no less vital part, but in the
very foundation of all ; her system, or rather her total ab-
sence of system, of moral discipline. That this is the real
truth, it will be the main object of the following pages to
shew ; and if it be so, until this fountain-head of evil be
closed up, the application of any number of more superficial
and external remedies will be wholly fruitless. Now it is
plain at once, that there is no subject in the whole range of
theology, which varies more indefinitely, according to the
indefinite varieties of man's inward character, (varies, that is,
in every particular excepting the most general and funda-
mental principles,) than this very subject. And this being
so, considering how closely bound up in all the more essen-
tial features of their civilization, (whatever important minor
differences may exist,) are all the countries of the great

European family, to look for our guide, in the task of con-
structing a system of moral discipline for modern England,
in the Church of fifteen centuries or even of five centuries
since, when a Church exists before our eyes in modern France
or modern Italy, this would be nothing short of absolute
infatuation. To mention only one particular where very
many might be mentioned ; every one knows that there is
no more essential and important characteristic, which dis-
tinguishes modern civilization from all former periods, than
the vast increase of what is called subjectivity : the very
much greater portion of man's life and interest which is
occupied in observation of his own thoughts, feelings, and
actions ; the very much less part which is occupied in action
unaccompanied by self-consciousness, or uninterrupted con-
templation of external objects. We might have been certain
then beforehand that, supposing the ancient Church, which
we regard, to have been really pure and efficient, the effect of
appropriating its discipline to ourselves would be, to lay far
too much stress on outward action and devotion, and far too
little on the conscious regulation of the thoughts. This is
perhaps a partial account of the accusation of formalism, so
often brought against the Church by Protestants. They find
much less said by early writers, than by Christians of the pre-
sent day, on the inward life of the soul ; and failing to see
that this was the necessary result of the habits and tendencies
of the time, and that spiritual habits and desires do not the
less exist, because men do not contemplate, analyze, and de-
scribe them, they attribute it to something of a deadening
and unspiritualizing character in the creed then professed.
As though, from the time that subjectivity has obtained so
complete an entrance, the works of any other writers could
bear even a moment's most distant comparison with those of
Roman Catholics, in profound acquaintance with the inmost
recesses of the human heart. q

i ' A sentiment is commonly found in Mr. Maurice's writings, which puz-
zles us more than any other of his sentiments ; viz. that " the truths, which
constitute Protestantism, are those which concern man as a personal being, which
assert his individual responsibility and relation to God, and provide that this
responsibility and relation shall be realities, and not dreams." We should not

However, if Antiquity is to be our guide in this matter, let
us make it fairly and honestly our guide : let us look fully
in the face those bodily privations and inflictions, which to us
seem so incredibly severe ; and wfiich nevertheless were not
the choice of eminently holy men who had a special vocation,
and went on towards perfection, but were appointed as the ordi-
nary lot of penitents, nay, in great measure, of all Christians.
But if there appears small chance of introducing any approach
to the like among ourselves, insomuch that the most sanguine
can entertain no hope of its possibility ; (those even, I mean,
who think their general introduction among us, in the abstract,
desirable ; a sentiment against which I most warmly protest ;)
if this be so, we confess with our own lips that we cannot
make the ancient Church our model, in supplying our one pri-
mary deficiency ; for we cannot hope to introduce that, which
was her very principal instrument in performing the work,
which we desire to be done. On the other hand, I know no more
noble and wonderful event in the whole history of the Church,
than the mode in which the Roman Church has applied her-
self, to meet this new and most conspicuous phenomenon
which crossed her path. About the time when the Church
of Christ was harassed, and outraged, and insulted, by the
foreign Reformers, within the Church appeared the spiritual
exercises of St. Ignatius ; a work, which all who have given
deep and careful attention to it, and, far more, those who have
used it practically, extol in terms of eulogy, which those who
(like myself) have not done so, can hardly bring ourselves to
believe is not exaggerated. On the basis of that miraculous
work has been reared the whole scheme of occasional retreats,

be more surprised than pleased, if Mr. Maurice could shew us in Protestant
writers any knowledge or realization of these subjects, which can for very shame
be compared with that displayed scientifically by St. Thomas and the moral
theologians who have followed him ; and practically by a hundred such works as
' The Spiritual Combat,' St. Francis de Sale's ' Love of God,' St. Alphonsus
Liguori's Sermons, and * Preparation for Death,' Salazar's ' Sinner's Conversion
Reduced to Principles ;' we may be allowed to add Mr. Newman's Sermons.
We keep St. Ignatius's ' Spiritual Exercises' for a separate place, since the
wonderful insight into such subjects which that work displays, has led many to
think it inspired, in a lower sense of the word.' ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 409,
note.

daily meditation, daily general examen of conscience, par-
ticular examen, and the rest, which is at present the very
vital principle of the Roman religious system. This scheme
it is, from which we may really hope to derive remedies for
our present need, of proved efficacy, and of the profoundest
wisdom ; not by the insane course of servile and literal imita-
tion, but by bringing with us to the study of that scheme a
deep and habitual knowledge of the English feelings and
habits of the day, and carefully adapting whatever proposals
we may make to the exigencies of those feelings and habits.

It will be a great relief to many, who justly claim at our hands
the deepest reverence and sympathy, when they are told that
the name of St. Mary is so little prominent in these exercises,
or generally in the whole scheme of discipline founded on
them, that it hardly escapes omission. And I will say plainly
that nothing, in my judgment, would be fraught with more
omnigenous mischief, or would deservedly incur God's heavier
displeasure, than any attempt to introduce generally among
us at the present time any of those devotions to the Blessed
Virgin, which occupy so prominent a place in foreign Churches.
But having said this boldly, I will also say with equal bold-
ness, that this opinion implied no adverse criticism whatever
on foreign systems as they exist. On this subject I have
really seen no evidence, which enables me to have so much as
a bias one way or the other ; nor indeed is it at all practicaUy
important that a member of our Church should have such a
bias : we know our own duty, and we need know no more.
If indeed some religious and unusually intelligent person
were to live for a considerable time, say in some particular
part of Italy ; if he were able, by a strong and sustained
effort of the imagination, to realise and sympathise with the
habitual emotions, desires, aspirations of the people ; if he
were to follow them into their retirement and their home,
converse familiarly with them, and live almost as one of
themselves ; and if, after having done all this, his opinion
were unfavourable, it would justly deserve the very greatest
attention. But the mere random observations of those who
go abroad mainly for recreation, and presume to pass judg-

ment on a nation's religion by such mere external forms as a
rapid passage through the country enables them to perceive,
can surely have no weight whatever, in the mind of any
candid and reasonable inquirer. As to stories they hear,
they are still less trustworthy than appearances they see ;
for it is well known that Italian guides continually invent
false tales against their countrymen, with the view of obtain-
ing better pay from the English traveller.

Observe, the question to be considered is this ; not whether
Roman Catholics address very frequent devotions to St.
Mary, (this is allowed on all hands,) but whether those de-
votions tend to cloud or supersede in their minds the thoughts
of their and her Creator ; whether the form, as it were, in
which she is habitually present to their imagination, is as
kneeling with uplifted hands to her Son, praying for those
favours which they beg from her ; or, on the other hand, as
scattering down on them those favours from her own treasury.
If the former be the case, every invocation they address to
her not only does not put her before their minds in the place
of Christ, but imprints more deeply on their conscience and
imagination her infinite inferiority to Him. For instance,
the Rosary, the use of which is continually thrown in their
teeth, would most certainly tend very powerfully to this latter
result. It consists in meditation on fifteen mysteries of St.
Mary, in all of which, except two, our Blessed Lord Him-
self must be in the mind of those who meditate ; and in
almost all of these, must be so in their mind as forcibly to
impress it with a sense of her infinite subordination to Him.
Indeed it must not be supposed, notwithstanding the incalcu-
lable obstacles in the way of a fair judgment, on people so
unlike ourselves in every particular, which is presented by
all our prejudices of habit and education ; it must not be
supposed that the English are always unfavourably impressed
with what they see abroad. When the Queen was in Belgium
last year, even the newspaper reporters seemed struck by the
peculiarly religious character of the people. And I have
put down in an appendix several accounts, given by acquaint-
ances of my own, of their personal experience, that it may be

seen how much there is which presents itself even to English-
men in a favourable light.

However, it is continually supposed, that a refusal to ad-
mit, without proof, the practical corruption of foreign systems,
implies some desire of seeing those systems introduced here.
Thus, for example, I have seen questions like this : "Is it
possible that writers in the British Critic can desire the
introduction among us of the state of things we witness
in Belgium or Normandy, nay, in Naples or Palermo?"
The very question points to the answer that must be given.
The respective Churches of Belgium, Normandy, Naples,
Palermo, differ from each other in numberless matters of cere-
monial and observance, of usage, discipline, ecclesiastical taste,
nay, and in many minor points of religious opinion : which
then of the four are we to adopt ? What can be more prepos-
terous than the fancy of our gravely endeavouring to imitate
the external gestures, as it were, and demeanour of some
foreign system, while all the habits of our mind, all our
thoughts, feelings, and dispositions are in marked contrast
with that system ?

The only legitimate office of the external framework and
constitution of a Church, is to be, first, the expression,
mould, and protection of a certain given religious spirit;
and, secondly, the mode by which this spirit is brought
to bear upon a certain given condition of society ; to pay
any serious regard to it, on any other principles, is the
certain road to the hollowest and most hideous formalism.
First then let us endeavour to secure what comes first ;
let us learn, to the best of our power, to understand and
appreciate the various exigencies, tendencies, tastes, ca-
pabilities of the modern English character : and in pro-
portion as we succeed in our attempts, by help of such
knowledge, to promote and forward the growth of this same
Catholic spirit, the latter will clothe itself in whatever
external envelopment may be found ready at hand, which it
will quicken, enliven, and re-create, adopting it as the organ
of its expression, and the minister of its will. What outward
shape this envelopment will ultimately assume, in what

degree Catholicism will modify our existing institutions, in
what degree it will itself receive a colour from those institu-
tions, and from our national character and dispositions ; all
this, and much more of the same kind, it is vain and useless
to conjecture before the event. We must learn to content
ourselves \\ith what lies before us, and not dissipate our
energies in barren and unprofitable speculations.

What will be the external manifestation of Catholicism in
England, is a question then which it is idle to ask ; but we
may be very certain what it will not be ; it will not be the
same with its manifestation in Belgium or Normandy, Naples
or Palermo ; much less, with that assumed by it in its conflicts
with the expiring efforts of a Paganism, powerful even in its
decline ; or in its attempts to humanise and soften the wild
and lawless hordes, who at a later period became nominal
adherents of the Church. Catholicism is something moral
and spiritual, not formal, external, circumstantial ; in doc-
trine, in sentiment, in principle, ever one and the same ;
but elastic and pliant to adapt itself to all conceivable circum-
stances, vigorous and full of life to cope with all conceivable
emergencies. Take the case of an individual, whose
religion shall assume a more earnest or more orthodox
character : we do not find that his recognisable identity
of mind is affected, any more than of body. His numberless
peculiarities of feeling and disposition, taste and imagination,
intellectual cultivation and power, still remain undiminished
in their native distinctness and energy ; although at the
same time a new and authoritative element has been intro-
duced, which, to an illimitably increasing extent, controls,
harmonizes, and colours those peculiarities. Let a number
of serious and Catholic minded men meet together : how
very far will they be from exhibiting any artificial con-
formity to some external and partial standard ! and yet for
all this, a like-minded observer will very easily discern, by
means of indications far too ' subtle, delicate, indirect, and
spiritual,' to admit of analysis and formal expression, the
essential oneness of principle, which animates and informs
those accidental diversities of character. What then would

be thought of some disciple in the school, who being desirous
of conforming more fully to the Catholic model, should copy
the expressions and gestures, or even the argumentative
methods and political opinions, of some one amongst their
number, instead of attempting, by legitimate means, to lodge
more deeply within his heart that essential principle, which
is common to them all ? The application of this, from indi-
viduals to Societies, is obvious.

Nor is it only external habits, which are thus intimately
connected with the inward principle; doctrines also, as I
said in the last chapter, are in many cases the spontaneous
evolution, in all the appropriate correlative, of a certain
moral character. This truth is the foundation of the
' disciplina arcani ' which existed in earlier ages ; and (what-
ever real and serious difficulties are in the way of its
application on vital and fundamental articles of the
Creed) when we are considering subordinate and accessory
religious opinions, it is our one chief guide and protection.
In proportion as any primary religious principle takes deep
root in the mind, or any cardinal doctrine is realised, con-
templated, and habitually appropriated, an indefinite number
of minor opinions and practices start into existence : of which
some are the simple and legitimate result of this doctrine
or principle ; but other some result, not from it as iso-
lated and energizing by its own power, but as taken in
connection with current opinions and feelings, which however
deeply and widely rooted in the popular mind, are pecu-
liarities of a nation or of a period, and have an origin
wholly independent of revelation/ We may apply this at
once, to that very class of doctrines and practices so lately
mentioned. Nothing can be further from the truth, than
the supposition that the British Critic has ever advocated
their introduction among ourselves. Speaking only for
myself, in July last I say, ' so far as later introductions are
concerned, such as Images and Indulgences, and habitual
Invocation of Saints, we should certainly be travelling out
of our way to notice them.' 8 In January, ' Those who are

r See this stated at somewhat greater length ' on Church Authority,' p. 218.
' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 7.

pained and distressed by some circumstances in which the
mediaeval system differs from antiquity, have a most legiti-
mate satisfaction in the history of the early Church, which
exhibits Catholic faith as truly active and energizing, at a
time when such peculiarities (we allude, e. g. to the pointed
and habitual invocations of the Blessed Virgin and Saints)
are not prevalent.' 4 In the previous October, in a passage
quoted by Mr. Palmer, I go still further ; ' So long as an
' English Churchman acts carefully up to the principles he
' has been taught, and in so acting feels himself in no way
' attracted towards these ways, so long it would be a plain
' sin in him to resort to them.' 1 Nay more ; not only have
I never expressed a wish (but the reverse), that these devo-
tions should be generally practised by us at present, I have
never even implied an opinion that, as popularly adopted,
they are not mischievous and dangerous abroad ; though
neither have I, so at least I trust, implied the opposite
opinion. What I have said is, (and no greater proof can
be given of our degraded and unchristian temper of mind,
than that it is necessary to say what all ought to admit as a
first principle,) that Saints, in using the high and glowing
language which is found in their writings, have not made
even the most distant approach to superstition or idolatry.
Why I was called upon to say this, will appear in the course
of the work, when I hope to touch on the general subject
with which it is connected ; I mean, the authority of holy
men on questions of religious truth. Here I will only add
so much as closely concerns the matter now in hand.

Roman Catholics say, that it is impossible for the Church
heartily to emb'race and dwell upon the great and fun-
damental truths of our Lord's Divinity, the indwelling of His
Spirit in the souls of His Disciples, and the importance of
gaining to ourselves intercessors against His final judgment,
without being led on in course of time to similar devotions.
And certainly our experience in England does not enable us
to deny this ; for, as I shall presently have to urge, those
great doctrines are either practically disbelieved or most

' ' On Church Authority,' p. 215. ' On St. Athanasius,' p. 410.

insufficiently held, by the great body of members of our
Church. On the other hand, whether or no these devotions
necessarily spring from fundamental doctrines, most certainly
in themselves they are not fundamental ; as Roman Catholics
themselves are forward in assuring us. Let us then fairly
and honestly try the experiment. ' High Churchmen' of
all grades profess belief in the fundamental Verities to
which I just now alluded ; let them unite in the use of
all such means as are in our power, which, I hope to shew in
a future chapter, are very far from inconsiderable, to imprint
these doctrines on the innermost hearts of our fellow-
churchmen, as living and absorbing realities; and let them
'leave the result with perfect calmness, contentment, and
tranquillity of heart in His hands, who, by His Apostle
has praised Abraham's faith, in that he went out, not
knowing whither he went.'" Should it be found that the
more deeply and practically English Christians embrace these
essential truths, so much the more powerfully they are
attracted to such usages and devotions as are now in
question ; no stronger proof can be devised that those
devotions are not injurious, but ministrative, to the central
and paramount doctrines of the Gospel. Should the opposite
be found the case, I suppose there is no one member of
our Church, who would desire their adoption : and the
conclusion as to any given foreign country would be, that in
its case either their use is attributable to particulars in the
national history and character, wherein it differs from
England ; or else (which is of course perfectly conceivable),
that it is a real practical corruption, to which we may
fitly desire that the Church should apply a remedy.

It will be well, however, to enforce still further this very
important truth, that Catholicism (should it ever again
exist actively in England) will no more destroy English
peculiarities of habit or opinion, than it does in the parallel
case, which I put above, of an individual adopting a more
Catholic view of things. And the same considerations will
also shew, how utterly fallacious is that mode of judging

' On Church Authority,' p. 211.

as to the merits of some religious system, which is founded
on the superficial observation of the various sentiments and
practices, which are seen in some particular country to be
coexistent with it. Let it be observed then, that there is not a
single event which has happened to a nation in the earliest ages,
before Christianity had existence, which has not had its perma-
nent and abiding influence in constituting the nation's present
character. Without refining however so much as to take this
into account, (though all this must be taken into account, if
we desire a really accurate appreciation of the subject,) such
circumstances as the following are not permanent only but
most essential, most fundamental, most vital elements, in the
formation of that character : the race or mixture of races
from which the nation has its origin : the climate ; not only as
affecting the mind directly, and disposing it to this vicious
excess rather than that; but also as obliging the lower classes,
when unemployed, to keep mainly within doors, or else
allowing and alluring them to meet together in large bodies
for recreation in the open air; (the former leading to the
more domestic, the latter to the more social life ;) as making
a certain quantity of food and clothing more or less indis-
pensable, and so giving or not giving an unceasing stimulus
to labour ; and so with other particulars : then again, the
nature of the soil and the geographical position of the country,
as directly fixing the principal employments pursued by the
people, commercial, agricultural, or the like : the various
other countries, with which, in times past, whether by war or
by commerce, the nation has been brought into close contact;
and the peculiar character of those countries : the nature of
the civil government, past or present, and the degree in
which it has made the people's welfare its principal ob-
ject: the number of men gifted with great originality and
genius who have flourished in the nation, and the respective
bent of their minds ; the number of Saints and saintly men
who have been raised up among them, and in what rank of
life they have principally been. This list might be very
much increased; but enough has been said to indicate the
extreme complexity of any problem, which proposes to derive

a practical result, from the observation of social and political
facts in the concrete. Of these elements, the only one, with
which a religious system has any direct connection, is the last ;
and even with the last its connection is very precarious : for
we have no reason at all to believe (orthodoxy and Catho-
licity being supposed), that a practically pure Church will be
honoured by the presence of Saints more often than one of
an opposite character : rather God raises up Saints where
He will, according to the inscrutable laws of His providence.
Yet all of these elements, especially the two latter, have a
very much indeed more deep and intimate share in the form
assumed even by religion itself, than, I suppose, any one
like myself, who has not deeply studied history, can at all
realise.

And now, to see more clearly what it is which a religious
system is called on to accomplish, let us conceive an ima-
ginary hypothesis ; let us suppose that these various causes
had by themselves been operating for a long period, and
issuing in those results which would follow their combined
operation ; and that then, for the first time, such a system
were projected. It has to act on a large body of men, who
are and have been exposed to certain most powerful in-
fluences, while the very ministers, by whom it is obliged to act
on them, have themselves been exposed to the same influences.
A system might be absolutely the very best possible, which
yet, when acting under this double disadvantage, would pre-
sent to those, who have themselves been governed by a life-
long bias of the most opposite character, an objectionable, not
to say repulsive, appearance. And again, it is very plain that
precisely the same religious system, acting on a people and by
means of ministers, who, in all the particulars above specified
or nearly all of them, differ from that former nation, would
wear an external dress so absolutely different also, that it
would almost require a practised eye, to recognise through
that dress the same essential principles at work.

We shall the better understand this, by fixing our ideas on
one out of those numberless elements of a national character,
and tracing in greater detail the degree of its influence ; and

there is more than one reason which induces me to select, for
that purpose, the different effect caused by difference of race.
' The division between the Teutonic and the Roman
nations is, both in itself the most striking in modern Europe,
and also acquires additional interest from the almost universal
adoption of the Reformation by those of the former stock,
its almost universal rejection by those of the latter. And
if we examine the moral character of those nations, as
they are exhibited in their most complete specimens ; on the
one hand in England and Germany, on the other hand in
Spain and Italy ; we shall find, amidst the general resemblance
which binds together all the parts of European Christendom,
marked diversities, which cannot readily be ascribed to any
other cause than their original difference of race. Of France
it is the less necessary to speak, because the less strongly
denned character of the French people, in the leading points
which distinguish generally the Teutonic and Roman nations,
is exactly what might be expected from a country in which
the two elements were from the first most inseparably and
equally blended ; and exactly accords with the doubtful con-
test, there maintained so long, between the two contending
principles of the sixteenth century, which in the other states
of Europe so soon obtained mastery over the national
mind. It is not then too much to say, that the two great
divisions, before mentioned, coincide as nearly as possible
with two of the chief tendencies which divide the human
race itself; and in which, so far as we can trace them back to
their origin, we find on the one side the ideas of truth and
justice, on the other side, those of beauty and love ; wliich,
when separated from each other, and exposed to evil in-
fluences, are liable to be corrupted, the one into selfish
Atheism, the other into a bloody and lying idolatry.* It
will be sufficient for the present purpose, to dwell on the
exemplification of these tendencies under their more favour-
able aspect, in each of these two great branches of the Euro-
pean commonwealth.

' Long before the introduction of Christianity among the
x See the Preface to Dr. Arnold's fourth volume of Sermons.

German races, Tacitus had contrasted their truthful and
independent spirit with the servility of his own country-
men. The English, whilst they are often regarded in the
East as a people without religion and without morality,
are yet known emphatically as the truth-speaking nation.
The Saxon race has been pronounced to be the only one, in
which veracity is regarded as an undoubted virtue. On the
other hand, it is no less notorious that our very idea and
standard of beauty has been derived from Italy that what-
ever elements have been powerful in refining and softening
the harshness of the northern nations, have been derived
almost entirely from the south. How different would have been
Shakspeare's mind, without the conception of the Italian at-
mosphere which breathes through Romeo and Juliet ! How
different would have been all the poetry of Christendom, had
it not found its first voice in the immortal work of Dante !

* In each of these two divisions, the best man will of course
rise above the failings of his nation, and the worst will sink
below its virtues ; but the character of the mass must be
judged by the ordinary temptations, and the ordinary stand-
ard of excellence, in the race to which they belong. The
mere Englishman is consious of no struggle when he tells
the truth the mere Italian is conscious of no victory when
he burns with passionate enthusiasm. The mere English-
man will never be a treacherous assassin the mere Italian
will never be a drunken sot. No Englishman would have
written Machiavelli's ' Prince' no Italian would have written
Bentham's Deontology. ' y It is no testimony to his religious
system that an Englishman is veracious, nor yet that an
Italian is ardent and reverential.

This consideration of the extensively important results, de-
rived from one only among the numberless constituent ele-
ments of national character, will sufficiently shew the extremely
arduous nature, under any circumstances, of the attempt to-
draw general lessons from social phenomena : and still more
when those who observe them do not suddenly descend from

* The passage within inverted commas has been supplied me by a friend who
understands the subject, which I do not.

the moon, but are predisposed by their origin, and have
been strengthened in their predisposition by every early
association, either to undue sympathy, or undue antipathy.
No one will at any time be able to make real progress
in such a study, to make way against the unavoidable
temptations whether to over-lenient or over-severe judg-
ment, unless he unite, in a very high degree, powers of mind
seldom found together in any degree : painful abstraction,
vivid imagination, accurate observation. But in the present,
hardly even nascent, state of the social science, no one, even so
endowed to the uttermost extent, can derive any general con-
clusions from these phenomena, except with extreme diffidence
and doubtfulness. No ! the history of past ages and foreign
countries is not as yet productive of results, which may be
separated, as it were, from the concrete mass, and applied as
general maxims for the guidance of a nation or a national
Church. Its benefits are very considerable, but do not amount
to this. They are principally the two following. First, such
studies protect us against a certain pusillanimity and nar-
rowness of mind, incidental to merely personal experience ;
on the present subject, they save us from that deep de-
spondency which might otherwise bow us to the earth, that
oppressive and stifling fear lest it should be true that
Christian doctrines cannot, from their very nature, be the
leaven and animating principle of society ; it saves us from
this, by putting before us in all their details, so as to satisfy
our imagination and affections no less than our understanding,
the picture of those glorious ages, when religion was " a living
power, kindling hearts, leavening them with one idea, moulding
them on one model, developing them into one polity ; when it
was the life of morality, gave birth to power, wielded empire." 1
And secondly, acquaintance with past ages or foreign countries
may suggest to us, in abundant profusion, remedies for those
unparelleled irregularities and distresses which now surround
us : remedies, however, which it can only suggest ; whose
efficacy can be tested by reference to no such merely external
sources, but must be determined by the general principles of

1 Letters of Catholicus.

human nature, and by a deep and penetrating insight, if it be
attainable, into men and things as they really exist in the
midst of us.

7. Thus then every thing seenis to throw us back on that
course of action, which feelings of natural affection would in
themselves suggest ; viz. the making our own Church our one
great centre of thought, as it must inevitably be our one great
sphere of action. We must learn to dismiss all otiose and un-
fruitful contemplation of external models, whether primitive
or foreign, and apply ourselves to the more homely task of
labouring by their help, to introduce among ourselves that
vital principle, which has had so great a share in organizing
those models. And just as we should encourage in our minds
a warm and hearty affection for serious Christians throughout
all the world; (being confident of this, that so far forth as
they are really serious, they have a true principle and sound
faith, practically, even if unconsciously, energizing within
them ;) so we should also cherish a regard in some respects
even more especial and peculiar, to all serious Christians
among ourselves, who join with us in affection to the English
Church. All who seriously and unaffectedly desire to see
that Church such in action, as every Christian Church is in
profession, and who are ready to devote their utmost energies
to the accomplishment of that object, have in point of fact,
and should be made more and more to feel that they have,
a very real bond of union and sympathy ; however widely
they may differ as to the means of that accomplishment.
And if this be so, as it plainly is, even in cases where there
is a radical contrariety of doctrinal profession, how much
more will it be so, in cases where such profession is in funda-
mentals accordant ! ' Numbers there are among ourselves,
who fully agree in the profession of attachment to the early
Church, and a real wish to conform to its standard ; in the
desire to lay far greater stress than heretofore on prayer,
obedience, and self-denial ; in zeal for the Sacraments and
other Church ordinances ; and a deep sense of the unspeakable
blessings which God gives us through their channel. And
how painful a reflection to any one, who has imbibed so much

the moon, but are predisposed by their origin, and have
been strengthened in their predisposition by every early
association, either to undue sympathy, or undue antipathy.
No one will at any time be able to make real progress
in such a study, to make way against the unavoidable
temptations whether to over-lenient or over-severe judg-
ment, unless he unite, in a very high degree, powers of mind
seldom found together in any degree : painful abstraction,
vivid imagination, accurate observation. But in the present,
hardly even nascent, state of the social science, no one, even so
endowed to the uttermost extent, can derive any general con-
clusions from these phenomena, except with extreme diffidence
and doubtfulness. No ! the history of past ages and foreign
countries is not as yet productive of results, which may be
separated, as it were, from the concrete mass, and applied as
general maxims for the guidance of a nation or a national
Church. Its benefits are very considerable, but do not amount
to this. They are principally the two following. First, such
studies protect us against a certain pusillanimity and nar-
rowness of mind, incidental to merely personal experience ;
on the present subject, they save us from that deep de-
spondency which might otherwise bow us to the earth, that
oppressive and stifling fear lest it should be true that
Christian doctrines cannot, from their very nature, be the
leaven and animating principle of society ; it saves us from
this, by putting before us in all their details, so as to satisfy
our imagination and affections no less than our understanding,
the picture of those glorious ages, when religion was " a living
power, kindling hearts, leavening them with one idea, moulding
them on one model, developing them into one polity ; when it
was the life of morality, gave birth to power, wielded empire."*
And secondly, acquaintance with past ages or foreign countries
may suggest to us, in abundant profusion, remedies for those
unparelleled irregularities and distresses which now surround
us : remedies, however, which it can only suggest ; whose
efficacy can be tested by reference to no such merely external
sources, but must be determined by the general principles of

1 Letters of Catholicus.

human nature, and by a deep and penetrating insight, if it be
attainable, into men and things as they really exist in the
midst of us.

7. Thus then every thing seems to throw us back on that
course of action, which feelings of natural affection would in
themselves suggest ; viz. the making our own Church our one
great centre of thought, as it must inevitably be our one great
sphere of action. We must learn to dismiss all otiose and un-
fruitful contemplation of external models, whether primitive
or foreign, and apply ourselves to the more homely task of
labouring by their help, to introduce among ourselves that
vital principle, which has had so great a share in organizing
those models. And just as we should encourage in our minds
a warm and hearty affection for serious Christians throughout
all the world; (being confident of this, that so far forth as
they are really serious, they have a true principle and sound
faith, practically, even if unconsciously, energizing within
them ;) so we should also cherish a regard in some respects
even more especial and peculiar, to all serious Christians
among ourselves, who join with us in affection to the English
Church. All who seriously and unaffectedly desire to see
that Church such in action, as every Christian Church is in
profession, and who are ready to devote their utmost energies
to the accomplishment of that object, have in point of fact,
and should be made more and more to feel that they have,
a very real bond of union and sympathy ; however widely
they may differ as to the means of that accomplishment.
And if this be so, as it plainly is, even in cases where there
is a radical contrariety of doctrinal profession, how much
more will it be so, in cases where such profession is in funda-
mentals accordant ! ' Numbers there are among ourselves,
who fully agree in the profession of attachment to the early
Church, and a real wish to conform to its standard ; in the
desire to lay far greater stress than heretofore on prayer,
obedience, and self-denial ; in zeal for the Sacraments and
other Church ordinances ; and a deep sense of the unspeakable
blessings which God gives us through their channel. And
how painful a reflection to any one, who has imbibed so much

those very measures of whose propriety they have the most
certain conviction.

It will of course be at once asked, if this be so, why is it
that so much has been said on these ultimate points ? why is
it that we have not been content with dwelling on points of
agreement? why is it that the English Reformation has been
so warmly attacked ; monastic institutions, voluntary poverty,
celibacy, and every thing, most plainly and directly opposed
to the spirit of that Reformation, so warmly eulogized ? I
answer in the first place, speaking still only for myself, that
I have not at all professed sympathy, even on matters of im-
mediate practice, with the course now adopted by most ' high
churchmen;' rather, I hope to establish, that the principles
they profess ought to lead them to an extremely different course.
Since then it seems to me absolutely necessary, were it only
with a view to most immediate and daily duties, to defend
most earnestly and uncompromisingly the position, that our
Church, in her present practical working, is radically and
vitally corrupt, I am not aware that I add materially to the
odium necessarily incurred by such a statement, when I go
on to the further acknowledgment, that I cannot but consider
even the professed principles of most ' high churchmen ' to be,
in some important respects, erroneous or deficient.

In the next place, I have to submit, that the number is
perhaps not small of those who, like myself, are so utterly
averse to the peculiarities, whether in the Church's constitu-
tion, or in Churchmen's general profession, introduced by
the Reformation, that so long as our Church is identified in
their minds with those peculiarities, it is literally impossible
for them to indulge in that affection towards her, which would
otherwise be natural. Moreover, many of these are endued
with qualities, to which I can lay no sort of claim ; ardent and
enthusiastic love of God, intense, self-sacrificing, self -forgetting
benevolence to man. These high qualities they are ready,
nay most anxious, to devote ungrudgingly to the service of
their immediate Mother ; but to cheer them in their thank-
less labours, to support them against so much of hostility,
detraction, and reviling as will surround them on all sides, their

imagination must be allowed to rest, as on the ideal towards
which they tend, on a vision far more bright, glowing, and
cloudless, than may consist with the continued presence
amongst us of any part of the spirit now triumphant, or of
the external forms, positive or negative, in which for three
hundred years it has learned to clothe itself. One of their
number has given expression to this feeling. After stating,
in language now by frequent repetition familiar to the
public, the very serious evils involved in the present ne-
cessary struggle, " all this," he adds, " has been done,
and all this is worth hazarding, in a matter of life and
death ; . . . . But if, after all, we are not to be carried
above the doctrine and tone of the English Reformers ; if
we are but to exchange a congenial enthusiasm for a timid
moderation, a vigorous extreme for an unreal mean, an
energetic Protestantism for a stiff and negative Anglicanism,
we see but poor compensation for so extensive and irrepa-
rable a breach of peace and charity." b

Others, again, who have not yet seen their way to
adopt ' high Church ' principles in any shape, will often
be much more readily drawn to them, when exhibited in
what I must beg leave to call a simply Catholic and ho-
mogeneous dress, than when mixed up with foreign and
incongruous elements. Nor, when wishing to give the
former class of men that encouragement which results
from a knowledge how many hearts beat in unison with
their own ; and to enable the latter to understand what
that system is, which one wishes to propose for their
acceptance ; is it possible to succeed in these indispensable
objects, without causing alarm to more timid and cautious
minds ? The very attempt leads precisely to that practice of
significant hints and implications, which has given so great
offence. If then objectors say, ' why do you use language
so vehement, so unmeasured, so intense ? ' one answer ready
at hand is, you have made it necessary, who so much
dislike a tone of caution, suggestion, and (as it were) irony.
We wish to convey to others certain strong feelings which
we entertain : we must do so directly or indirectly ; you

b Article on Bp. Jewel.

complain most grievously if we choose the latter ; pray then
moderate your indignation when we prefer the former.

But this is far from being even the most important answer
that may be given. The points at issue between ' high
churchmen/ though not at this moment externally practical,
must be at all times, as I have hinted above, internally
so in a very high degree. Take, merely as instances, those
particular opinions just now mentioned ; the admiration
of monastic institutions, of celibacy, of voluntary poverty.
Is it not plain, on being once stated, that these opinions
spring from real and important peculiarities of mind ; from
a far deeper sense than is now common among us of the
supernatural character of Christian obedience, of the cor-
rupting tendency of this world's goods, of the extreme
arduousness of the path to heaven, of the peculiar beauty of
virgin purity, of the inestimable value of habitual and
abstracted spiritual contemplation ? It cannot be of little
moment, were it only for their own sakes, whether indi-
viduals do or do not entertain opinions such as these ; for
without them the Christian character is in a fair way to
lose all that is most heavenly and most peculiar to itself.
And believing, as we do most firmly, that in proportion
as the Christian walks more steadily and consistently in the
path of ordinary conscientiousness, he is likely to be attracted
the more forcibly to these opinions, provided only they be
fairly placed before him ; it would be impossible to reconcile
our conduct with the most obvious principles of duty, were
we parties to any compromise, which might tend to with-
hold the knowledge of them, from any who may be pre-
pared to receive them. And the same considerations render
it equally impossible to refrain from the most earnest and
almost indignant disavowals of the language, adopted by
many ' high churchmen' towards Rome. A small, very
small, knot of individuals, in using such language, intend
only to attack certain modern developments of doctrine,
which they consider corruptions ; but with the general body
the case is very far different. ' High churchmen' of the
present day are not in general (nor have any need to be)
subtle and accurate theologians ; in attacking Rome, they

attack not this or that particular, but a certain general spirit,
to which Rome has ever most prominently and honourably
witnessed ; that very spirit of which I spoke above. It is
a mere theory, refuted by the smallest practical experience,
to suppose that these peculiarly Christian tempers of mind
can ever be held in due honour and reverence, I do not say
by a very few individuals, but by any numerous class, while
such language towards Rome, as that to which I allude,
receives encouragement or indeed tolerance. Nor in like
manner can the all-important principles of dutifulness and
faith be apprehended in their true colours, so long as it is sup-
posed to be an acknowledged fact, that the English Reforma-
tion (which to me appears the very embodiment of the sins most
opposed to those principles) is to be regarded with respect.

Such then is the alliance which, as I cannot but think, may
without difficulty be maintained among ' high churchmen.'
They will be surprised to find how little necessity there
is, for introducing any doctrine or sentiment, which is
controverted between us, into the discussion of matters
of immediate practice ; but, if it is to be a real and
lasting alliance, there must be the fullest permission on
both sides to state plainly our sentiments on questions
of (what some might call) a more speculative character.
Let us agree with each other from our innermost heart,
as serious and truth-seeking men, to test the value of our
respective views on points of difference, by discovering which
alternative those adopt, who carry out into most earnest prac-
tice our points of agreement. Let Mr. Isaac Williams, if he
so please, still publish his opinion, that " human support and
human comfort " were needful to St. Mary, after our Lord's
Ascension, while the promise of the Holy Ghost was the
sufficient consolation of His disciples ; let Dr. Hook continue
to call Roman Catholics Mariolaters ; let Mr. Wilson exercise
his judgment on a Pope's bull, and characterize it as almost
worthy of a 'railing' censure; but let others have equal
liberty, and with no greater remonstrance, to honour St.

c ' On the Passion,' p. 336. ' Preface to translation of Quesnel's Commentary on
St. Matthew.

H 2

100

Mary as the highest and purest of creatures ; to regard the
Roman Church with affection and reverence ; and to hold a
Pope's dogmatic decree, as at least exempt from our
criticism and comment.* 1 It is impossible for our opinions to

d It has been considered by some, that subscription to our XlXth Article
requires the formation and expression of an opinion that the formal doctrine of
the Roman Church is erroneous in some particular ; but a very little consider-
ation will shew, that no one is at all committed by this Article to so painfully
presumptuous a sentiment. The Article gives a definition of the Visible Church,
and then at once proceeds to call the Church of Rome a Church ; so much
then at once follows, that the Article implies the (local) Church of Rome to be
part of that " congregation of faithful men, in the which tJie pure Word of God
is preached, and lite Sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's
ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same*'" It then
asserts that, like other Churches the Church of Rome hath erred "not only in
their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith." Even
without commenting on the significant use of the word 'their,' which really
seems to me at once to point to members of the Church of Rome, the general
scope of the Article is quite sufficient for my purpose. For, as is plain, the
Church of Rome is here asserted to have erred in 'matters of faith,' exactly in
the same sense in which she is asserted to have erred in 'living.' Now there is
literally no meaning in the assertion, that the abstract Church of Rome has
erred in ' their living ; ' it must by absolute necessity be certain of her concrete
members who have so erred: certain of her concrete members then it is, who are here
asserted to have erred in matters of faith, i. e. of religious belief. This sentiment
I most fully hold ; for instance, many of the opinions held by some in Rome, at
various times, on the subject of purgatory, are held, I suppose, by very few
educated Roman Catholics at the present day.

I subscribe then the Article in the following sense : I take it to affirm,
that whereas the Visible Church of Christ is a certain congregation of faith-
ful men, &c., every local Church, included in that body, will contain members
not only who act wickedly, not only who are superstitiously addicted to out-
ward observances, but also who err on one point or other of religious belief. If
this appears the solemn enunciation of a mere truism, I quite admit that it is
so : but so far am I from allowing that a probability thence follows of its not
having been a sense intended by the Convocation of the time to be admissible,
that, on the contrary, nothing seems so natural, as that when a large num-
ber of persons meet together, of most opposite opinions, each protesting against
what clashes with his own, the result of the various eliminations shall be a
formula, which gives no offence to any, because it contains no specific mean-
ing whatever. The reader should be reminded, that in my pamphlets, three
years since, I distinctly charged the Reformers with fully tolerating the absence
from the Articles of any real anti-Roman determination, so only they were
allowed to preserve an apparent one : a charge which I here beg, as distinctly,
to repeat. I should not close this note without observing, that at first sight of
the Latin Version, (which according to Bp. Burnet's account is neither of
greater nor of less authority than the English,) the interpretation I have given

101

pain them, more than theirs pain us ; yet it will I think be
confessed by all, that the British Critic has, in a surprising
degree, refrained from all unfavourable comment on ' high
churchmen' of a different complexion. Speaking again
merely of myself; I have used language of very consi-
derable respect and deference to Archdeacon Manning,
Mr. Dodsworth, Mr. Heurtley, Dr. Hook, Dr. Jelf, Mr.
Ernest Hawkins ; and have in no one instance spoken
of such divines in a different tone ; and so, with regard to
the other two writers I just now mentioned, for Mr. Wilson,
though most slightly acquainted with him, I entertain feelings
of extreme regard and respect ; to Mr. Williams I look up
with (I trust) single-minded love and reverence. On any
positive doctrine which persons, such as some of these,
should maintain as dear and precious to them, it would
indeed be a matter of long and painful deliberation before
I could bring myself to dissent from their judgment ; but I
have pleasure in believing that such is not the case : on the
other hand, even Saints may be wholly mistaken on matters
beyond their personal experience ; much less can I follow even
such excellent men as these, when they venture to attack
Saints. But why may we not hold our respective opinions

appears less obvious than it does in the English ; mainly from the words 'agenda'
and ' credenda,' which seem at first sight to speak of formal appointment.
This mistake however is removed on closer inspection ; for the words are ' quae
credenda sunt," 1 not fuerunt ; things which are matters of belief, or things which
(as being true) ought to be believed.

I am of course quite aware that the whole of the present argument will be con-
sidered as dishonest special pleading by those, who will not give themselves the
trouble to look candidly at the wording of our Articles, and fairly to examine the
allegation of disingenuousness brought against their framers. Nor do I deny, rather
I have plainly said, that the first blush of the Article appears to imply some re-
flection on the formal doctrine of the Church of Rome : this indeed will make it a
more unexceptionable evidence, for the truth of the view which I maintain. For I
challenge any objector to give any meaning to the Article, word by word, which can,
by possibility, brine/ the formal doctrine of Rome within its scope. For example, if
the phrase had been 'their precepts," 1 although the pronoun 'their' would still
have been a difficulty, it might have been plausibly enough maintained, that the
formal teaching of Rome on moral points is condemned in the first clause, and
by parity of reasoning her formal teaching on doctrinal points in the last. But
the phrase being, as it is, ''their living,' any such attempt is impossible.

102

in mutual love and charity, and possess our souls in peace ?
Why may we not hope, that by building on our many sub-
jects of agreement, their number may be even increased?
Why, when heresy and infidelity are at our very doors, shall
we waste that force in intestine divisions, which should rather
be directed by our united efforts against the common foe ?
When the Spartan in time of war was challenged by a fellow-
soldier to single combat, ' rather,' he replied, ' let us decide the
quarrel, by our comparative prowess in to-morrow's engage-
ment with the enemy.' Let our zeal, accordingly, whether
for the more Anglican or more Roman phase of doctrine,
lead us not to barren and wasteful invectives ; but to a fair
trial of the experiment, which will give us the most effectual
help in evangelizing our large towns, in promoting holiness
of life, in restoring essential orthodoxy of faith.

8. In a word then, if it be asked by ' high-churchmen' of
what are called more moderate opinions, on what grounds a
person can feel real attachment to our Church, who should
hold such opinions as those maintained in several parts of the
British Critic, how he can defend himself for remaining in
our Church, and in what course of action such attachment
will display itself; the following answers may be given.

I. We feel attachment to our Church, because through it
we were born again, and because through its ordinances we
obtain Communion with Christ. I have never for one
moment wavered in this conviction, from my first article in
the British Critic to my last ; and here is a marked difference
between the attachment entertained by English Churchmen
to their Church, and that felt by Dissenters of various classes
to their respective Societies. If Dissenters enjoy Communion
with Christ, (and I rejoice in believing that very many do
enjoy it,) it is not through their Church that they enjoy such
Communion, nor do they profess it to be so ; but our Church
is a channel of Sacramental grace.

II. On the second head, an answer to the objectors, is
equally ready. The English Church, they are even forward
in asserting, had not its origin in the Reformation, but has
existed from far earlier times. Whereas then no one accuses

103

them of disloyalty in preferring the seventeenth century to the
nineteenth, what shadow of ground can there be for accusing
us of disloyalty any more, in preferring the thirteenth century
to either ?

III. To the last question the foregoing pages, for some way
back, have been one continued reply. In addition to the
other demonstrations of attachment, specified in an earlier
part of the chapter, we now see much more strongly, how
great a scope her children have at the present time for indulg-
ing that sentiment : by fixing their thoughts mainly on the
circumstances of her position ; by studying foreign systems,
past and present, with the one object of gathering from them
what may be suitable to these circumstances ; by endeavour-
ing to obtain some little insight into that hitherto unexplored
abyss, our doctrinal and practical corruptions ; above all, by
endeavouring to save her from that root of all other national
and ecclesiastical sins, which for three hundred years has been
our peculiar note of disgrace, I mean pride.

CHAPTER IV.

DOES OUR EXISTING SYSTEM RESEMBLE THAT OF THE EARLY
CENTURIES ?

1. THAT our Church differs, in a vast number of most
important particulars, from the Church abroad, is agreed on
all hands ; but it is usual for * high-churchmen' to say,
that Rome has departed from the primitive model, and Eng-
land has not. This is an opinion, which stands directly in
our way, before entering on the proposed examination of the
English practical system; for certainly, if that system be
substantially the same which prevailed in the Church of the
Fathers, the most ordinary modesty must forbid one from
assailing or questioning it. By ' primitive model,' it may be
taken for granted, is meant ' the first five centuries' at least ;
for although Mr. Stanley Faber speaks of the fourth century
as ' grossly apostatical,' and one or two other modern ' high-
church' writers may hold similar language, nothing can be
adduced in proof of our Church professing to follow An-
tiquity at all, which does not include those centuries under the
name of Antiquity. The period of the four first Councils, on
this, if on any, has the English ' high-churchman* ever taken
his stand. ' In this moderately sized volume of sermons, [the
Homilies,] says Mr. Perceval, I have noted forty citations from
Augustine onl/.' It is not necessary however to say more on
so plain a matter. This opinion then, which maintains the
substantial agreement of our present system with the primi-
tive, must be briefly considered ; not that I profess in the least
to exhaust the subject, but, on the contrary, only to throw
out hints, which others may follow up who are versed in the
history of those times.

105

2. First then, let us consider whether our Church agrees
with Antiquity in the matter of Church government. For a
statement of the primitive constitution of the Church in this
particular, I can refer to no better or clearer authority than
Mr. Froude: and I must be excused the length of the
quotation, in consideration of the importance of the subject ;
being indeed no less, than whether the Church of Christ be
by right an independent society or no. Mr. Froude then
observes as follows :

' Though it might be no difficult task to elicit from Scripture
precepts sufficient to satisfy this inquiry, it may perhaps be a
shorter and a surer process, to refer to the interpretation put upon
these precepts by persons better qualified than ourselves to judge of
them : and for that I shall refer to one of acknowledged learning,
and who will not be suspected of any religious prepossession, the
historian Gibbon.

' " The distinction," says he, " of spiritual and temporal powers,
.... was introduced and confirmed by the legal establishment of

Christianity In the Christian Church, which entrusts the

service of the Altar to a perpetual succession of consecrated
ministers, the monarch, whose spiritual rank is less honourable
than that of the meanest deacon, was seated below the rails of the
sanctuary, and confounded with the rest of the faithful multitude.
The emperor might be saluted as the father of his people, but he
owed a filial duty and reverence to the fathers of the Church ; . . .
the opposition or contempt of the civil power served only to cement
the discipline of the Primitive Church. The Christians had been
obliged to elect their own magistrates, to raise and distribute a pecu-
liar revenue, and to regulate the internal policy of their republic
by a code of laws which were ratified by the consent of the people
and the practice of three hundred years. When Constantine em-
braced the faith of the Christians, he seemed to contract a perpetual
alliance with- a distinct and independent society, and the privileges
granted or confirmed by that Emperor or by his successors, were
accepted, not as the precarious favours of the court, but as the just
and inalienable rights of Ecclesiastical Order. The Catholic Church
was administered by the spiritual and legal jurisdiction of eighteen
hundred years. .... The important review of their station and
attributes may be distributed under the following heads : 1. Popular

106

Election. 2. Ordination of the Clergy. 3. Property. 4. Civil
Jurisdiction. 5. Spiritual Censures. 6. Exercise of Public Oratory.
7. Privilege of Legislative Assemblies." Of these the 1st and 5th
are the ones which require attention.

' " 1. The freedom of elections subsisted long after the legal
establishment of Christianity, and the subjects of Rome enjoyed in
the Church the privilege which they had lost in the Republic, of
choosing the magistrates whom they were bound to obey. As soon
as a Bishop had closed his eyes, the Metropolitan issued a com-
mission to one of his Suffragans, to administer the vacant See, and
prepare within a limited time the future election. The right of
voting was vested in the inferior Clergy, who were best qualified to
judge of the merits of the candidates ; in the Senators or Nobles
of the city, all those who were distinguished by their rank or pro-
perty ; and finally, in the whole body of the people, who on the
appointed day flocked in multitudes from the most remote parts of

the Diocese The authority of the Provincial Bishops who

were assembled in the vacant Church to consecrate the choice of
the People, was interposed to moderate their passions and to correct
their mistakes. The Bishops could refuse to ordain an unworthy
candidate, and the rage of contending factions sometimes accepted
their impartial mediation. The submission or the resistance of the
Clergy and People, on various occasions, afforded different pre-
cedents, which were insensibly converted into positive laws and
provincial customs, but it was everywhere admitted as a fundamental
maxim of religious policy, that no Bishop could be imposed on an
Orthodox Church, without the consent of its members. The
Emperors, as the guardians of the public peace, and as the first
citizens of Rome and Constantinople, might effectually declare
their wishes in the choice of a Primate ; but those absolute monarchs
respected the freedom of ecclesiastical elections ; and while they
distributed and resumed the honours of the state and army, they
allowed eighteen hundred perpetual magistrates to receive their
important offices from the free suffrages of the People

' " 5. The Bishop was the perpetual censor of the morals of his
people. The discipline of penance was digested into a system of
canonical jurisprudence, which accurately defined the duty of
private and public confession, the rules of evidence, the degrees
of guilt, and the measure of punishment. It was impossible to
execute this spiritual censure if the Christian Pontiff, who punished

107

the obscure sins of the multitude, respected the conspicuous vices
and destructive crimes of the magistrate : but it was impossible
to arraign the conduct of the magistrate without controlling the
administration of civil government. Some considerations of religion?
or loyalty, or fear, protected the sacred persons of the Emperors
from the zeal or resentment of the Bishops ; but they boldly
censured and excommunicated the subordinate tyrants who were
not invested with the majesty of the purple. St. Athanasius ex-
communicated one of the ministers of Egypt ; and the interdict
which he pronounced of fire and water, was solemnly transmitted to
the Churches of Cappadocia. Under the reign of the younger
Theodosius, the polite, the eloquent Synesius, one of the descend-
ants of Hercules, filled the episcopal seat at Ptolemais, near the
ruins of the ancient Gyrene, and the philosophic Bishop supported
with dignity that which he had assumed with reluctance. He van-
quished the monster of Lybia, the president Andronicus, who abused
the authority of a venal office, invented new modes of rapine and
torture, and aggravated the guilt of oppression with that of sacrilege.
After a fruitless attempt to reclaim the haughty magistrate by mild
and religious admonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict the last
sentence of ecclesiastical justice, which devotes Andronicus with
his associates and their families to the abhorrence of earth and
heaven. The impenitent sinners . . . are deprived of the name
and privilege of Christians, of the participation of the Sacraments,
and of the hope of Paradise. The Bishop exhorts the clergy, the
magistrates, and the people, to renounce all society with the enemies
of Christ ; to exclude them from their houses and tables ; and to
refuse them the common offices of life, and the decent rites of burial.
The Church of Ptolemais, obscure and contemptible as she may
appear, addresses this declaration to all her sister Churches of the
world, and the profane who reject her decrees will be involved
in the guilt and punishment of Andronicus and his impious fol-
lowers.""

' Such was the independent power asserted by the Church when
its champions emerged from the bracing air of persecution, with their
armour bright and their loins girded.

' 1. The whole body of Christ's Church asserted and maintained
to themselves the right of freely choosing those who were to be

a Gibbon, Roman Empire, c. 20.

108

their Spiritual Rulers. This right they did not think it 6t to make
over either to the Emperor's ministers or to the Emperor himself.
It was their own ; it had been bequeathed to them by the Apostles :
and they would not sell the inheritance of their fathers. 2. The
persons so elected, after they had received the spiritual gift which
qualified them for their high office, deemed it in no wise incumbent
on them, or consistent with their duty, to consult their civil governors
as to the manner in which they should administer it. The sword
of the Holy Spirit was in their hand, and they turned it against
whomsoever that Spirit pleased.

' I hope then, that when I maintain the incompetence of our
present Governors to represent Christ's flock in the choosing who
shall be Bishops, and to represent a higher power in controlling
them when they are Bishops, I shall escape the imputation of speak-
ing lightly of the Powers that be

' In the long and obscure interval between the fifth and thirteenth
centuries, however unjust and oppressive may have been the en-
croachments made on the independence of different national Churches
by the policy of the Roman Pontiff, still it does not appear that the
Church as such had effected any material aggression on the Rights
of Christian States. Indeed, if we compare the claims of Gre-
gory VII. and his austere successors, with those which Gibbon alloics
to have been conceded by Constantine and other Emperors to the
Patriarchs of the Primitive Church, it may be thought on the whole
that their policy, with respect to Civil Governments, was directed
rather to recovering losses than extending conquest.' a

Looking not at theories, but (which is my subject) at our
practical system in England, do we find anything even in
the remotest degree similar to this ? A contemporary writer,
who professes to be strictly in accordance with our ' divines of
the seventeenth century,' pronounces at least his own opinion,
that ' the King has power, if he shall see cause, to suspend
any Bishop from the execution of his office. >b No single
Bishop can so much as appoint the Ember Day prayer to be
used on the week, preceding his day for ordination, should
he see cause to change the latter. The only alterations, now
ever made in our Prayer-book, are made by an Order of the

a Froude's Remains, part II. vol. i. pp. 215 221.

h Quoted from the Quarterly Review iu British Critic, vol. xxxii. p. 222.

109

Queen in Council. Simply to remind us, and bring home to
our feelings what we all so well know, let us take by way of
illustration a very few specimens of the ordinary way of pro-
ceeding among us. A Privy Council meets, and issues a
document such as the following :

' It is ordered by their Lordships, that his Grace the Archbishop
of Canterbury do prepare a form of prayer and thanksgiving ....
and that such form of prayer and thanksgiving be used in all churches
and chapels in England and Wales ;' or, ' Whereas by the late
Act of Uniformity which established the Liturgy, and enacts, that
no form or order of prayer be openly used, other than what is pre-
scribed or appointed to be used in and by the said book ; it is not-
withstanding provided, that in all those prayers, litanies, and
collects, &c., &c., her Majesty was pleased this day in Council to
declare her royal will and pleasure, that in all the prayers, litanies,
and collects, &c., &c. And her Majesty doth strictly charge and
command that no edition of the Common Prayer be from henceforth
printed without this amendment ; and that in the mean time, till
copies of such edition may be had, all parsons, vicars, and curates
in this realm do (for the preventing of mistakes) with their pen
correct, &c. And for the better notice thereof, that this order be
forthwith printed and published, and sent to the several parishes,
and that the Right Reverend the Bishops do take care that obedience
be paid to the same accordingly.' c

And of the perfect deference with which our Bishops re-
ceive such commands, also, I believe, in the strictest ac-
cordance with precedent, take this as a specimen :

' To the Archbishop of Canterbury.

' Victoria R.

' Most Rev. Father in God, &c. Whereas the incorporated
National Society, &c. have, by their petition, humbly represented
to us, &c., [inter alia,] that the general principles upon which the
Society has conducted its operations have now received the sanction
of the legislature, as well as the approbation of our subjects at

c The Latter of these is copied from the London Gazette of Dec. 14, 1841, the
former about a fortnight earlier ; but they are, I fancy, strictly in accordance with
the precedent.

110

large' . . . . ' We taking the premises into our Royal consi-
deration ... do hereby direct you, that these our letters be com-
municated to the several suffragan Bishops within your province,
expressly requiring you and them to take care that publication
be made hereof on such Sunday, &c., and that upon this occasion
the ministers in each parish do effectually excite their parishioners
to a liberal contribution, &c.

' By her Majesty's command,

' J. R. GRAHAM.'

Sir James Graham signs this as home-secretary : he is
himself, no doubt, a very sincere member of our Church ;
but the office may be held by a Socinian. The Archbishop,
accordingly, addresses his individual clergy as follows :

' Rev. Sir,

' In obedience to the commands of her Majesty, I require you to
read from the desk,' d &c.

Mr. Perceval is proceeding with his motion in the House of
Commons for a national fast, but is stopped by the intimation
that her Majesty's ministers agree to the proposal ; e and ac-
cordingly, in due time, a fast is appointed by the King in
Council. The Archbishop of Canterbury desires to enter into
active communion with the Scotch and American Episcopal
Churches ; accordingly he brings in an Act of Parliament
to allow him to do so. A weekly newspaper, of considerable
authority on subjects of this kind, has been of late expressing
a strong doubt whether the English Bishops would be able
to refuse institution to a clergyman, excommunicated by
a Scotch Bishop in full communion with themselves. Mr.
Froude, in one of the Tracts for the Times, among other
striking observations, reminds us that * a large proportion of
our benefices are in the hands of laymen, who may be of any

d The Times, Saturday, Dec. 9, 1843.

e See the Mirror of Parliament, Jan, 26, 1832. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer (an officer who may be a Socinian, but who in this instance was the pre-
sent Lord Spencer) ends a short speech on the subject by saying, ' This mode of
proceeding (moving the previous question) will not at all imply that the King, ifJie
pleases, may not order a general fast ; and, in point of fact, it is tlie intention of govern-
ment that a day of fasting shall be appointed.''

Ill

religion under heaven ; and the laws of England watch so
jealously over the interests of the patrons, and so little over
those of the Church, that they compel the Bishops, except in
cases so outrageous that they can hardly ever occur, to accept
at once the person first presented to him, and commit the
care of souls to him by the process of institution.' But the
following summary exhibits the whole contrast in a pointed
way ; nor am I aware of any attempt that has been made to
answer it, so far as concerns the question here at issue. ' The
primitive Bishops were appointed by the members of their own
order, with the approbation of the people of the diocese :
Bishops in England are appointed solely by the Crown. . . .
The primitive Bishops fixed the doctrine of their churches,
and ordered their ceremonies : no single Bishop, nor all the
Bishops in England united, can order a single prayer to be
added to or taken from the Church service ; nor can they so
much as alter a single expression in its language. No Bishop
can ordain any man, unless he will take certain oaths imposed
by Act of Parliament, and subscribe to the Articles of re-
ligion as required by Act of Parliament. No Bishop can
refuse to institute any man, regularly ordained, to the cure of
souls in his diocese, to which he may be appointed by the
patrons : nor can he, except as patron, and not as Bishop,
confer the cure of souls on any one.' f

3. In the matter of Church Government, then, it is impos-
sible to discover the faintest resemblance between the existing
and the ancient system. Turn we now to our formularies.
Here, first of all, one most remarkable circumstance presents
itself to our notice ; viz. that Subscription to certain 'Articles
of religion' is required of all the clergy. The laity then are
prevented from hearing any doctrine urged upon them, that
may be inconsistent with certain propositions, which no one
professes to be matter of Divine Revelation, or more than
human deductions from the Inspired Word. This may all be
very right and necessary ; that is a different question : but
what approach to the most distant parallel can be found in
ancient times ? When in the first five, or the first fifteen cen-
turies, was such a course ever heard of, as requiring a totally

1 Arnold's Principles of Church Reform, pp. 102, 3.

distinct religious profession in clergymen, over and above that
which is required in laymen ? or making any belief necessary
to the clerical office, which was not also (in its implicit shape at
least) considered necessary to Christian salvation? The only
approximation to such a course, I believe, that can be pointed
out, is in St. Athanasius' not requiring the word ' opoounov '
to be adopted by those who might scruple at it, while he
forbade such persons to hold offices in the Church : but the
very essential ground of that distinction was, that they really
did hold the doctrine intended by the word ; and that recep-
tion of the doctrine (though not of the word) is essential to
salvation. Mr. Palmer ('On the Church,' vol. ii. p. 2GG
281, first edit.) brings many instances to support the principle
adopted in our Church : but the very earliest of them belongs
to the latter part of the fifteenth century ; and much as it
may be a matter of rejoicing to find points of sympathy be-
tween the English and Roman Churches, this throws no light
at all on the subject of our agreement with Antiquity. Again,
recent investigations have proved, certainly to my own com-
plete satisfaction, that subscription to the Articles is really
very far from a stringent test ; but, in the first place, that
does not alter the principle, and, in the second place, those
with whom I am now in controversy, do not at all admit
those methods of interpretation, which give the Articles so
extraordinary a latitude.

Indeed two opinions, very prevalent within our Church,
when taken together, land us in rather extraordinary con-
clusions. For it is frequently considered (1), that the Eng-
lish Church is the only ordinary way of salvation in this
country, and (2), that the ministers of that Church are
bound, by subscription of the Articles, to teach certain ' dis-
tinctive doctrines,' which are indeed represented as the very
pride and glory of our Church. It follows then, that no
Englishman can hope for salvation, (except on the plea of
invincible ignorance,) unless he submit himself to the guid-
ance of ministers, who are required to teach him, over and
-above the general Catholic Faith, certain characteristic doc-
trines; doctrines for whose truth there is absolutely no warrant,
except that certain Bishops and others, three centuries since,

113

lor whom no one claims any covenanted divine illumination,
and who were called upon very suddenly to make most ex-
tensive changes, considered at the moment that these doctrines
were derivable from Scripture and Primitive Antiquity. A
violation this of the sacred rights of conscience, which stands
in most startling contrast to all the maxims of Antiquity, as
well as to those of the modern Church of Rome.

On proceeding from our Articles to our Prayer-Book, and
looking first at the most sacred portion of the latter, the
order for Holy Communion, we find alterations so great to
have been made by our Reformers, that even in an apologetic
letter, deprecating the suspicion of Roman tendencies, nothing
but the most indignant language could express Mr. New-
man's feelings on the subject. ' The original Eucharistic
form is with good reason assigned to the Apostles and Evan-
gelists themselves. This sacred and most precious monument
of the Apostles our Reformers received whole and entire
from their predecessors ; and they mutilated the tradition of
fifteen hundred years. Well was it for us that they did not
discard it, that they did not touch any vital part ; we have
it at this day, a violently treated, but a holy and dear pos-
session.' s

In the following instances too our variations of ritual are
very great from the Church of the Fathers, and which I men-
tion on the authority of a friend, (a clergyman of our Church,)
who is very well versed in their writings, and is ready to
mention his name and defend his statement should it be
called in question. He says that universally in early times
Confirmation was given to infants immediately after Baptism,
and the Eucharist immediately after that ; that unction was
used both in Baptism and in Confirmation ; that Exorcism
was also used in Baptism ; that the Consecrated Host was re-
served for the sick and the dying ; that water was invariably
mixed with the wine ; that solitaries frequently, for a length
of time together, received only under one kind ; that prayers
for the dead were universal in the Ancient Liturgies. Now
is it not plain, on its very statement, that such ordinances
as these imply an habitual feeling, on the subject of the

e Letter to the Rev. Dr. Faussett, pp. 46, 7-

114

Sacraments and other similar particulars, which bears a most
striking resemblance to that prevalent among Roman Catho-
lics at the present day ; and at the same time, by no means in
harmony with the ordinary sentiments of * high-churchmen '?

Our Prayer-book, as a whole, is so very dear to every
Catholic-minded member of our Church, and, taken alto-
gether, is in essentials so accordant with the old Catholic
services, that I shall not allude to minor differences in detail
and even in spirit ; which, however, are very far from incon-
siderable.

4. From formularies of worship we naturally turn to in-
stitutions of formal discipline ; and here again the same friend
must be taken as authority for the following statements.
Public penance was universally required for public sins ;
no one might receive the Eucharist otherwise than fasting ;
it was necessary to go through certain minor orders, before
admission was possible to the diaconate or the priesthood.
On the celibacy of the clergy, I cannot do better than quote
part of a note to the Oxford Translation of ' Fleury's Ec-
clesiastical History,' which I have already introduced in the
British Critic. " Earnestness and persecution seem at first
to have superseded the use of canons, and all but readers
and singers preserved continence. But no sooner had Con-
stantine granted the Christians in Spain liberty of worship,
A.D. 306, than we find a council at Eliberis requiring con-
tinence of all clerks, ' positis in ministerio ;' and no sooner
was universal toleration proclaimed, A.D. 312, than we find
two councils at Neocaesarea and Ancyra, both A.D. 314,
enforcing the law of continence." g Can any thing shew more
distinctly than this, not the difference, but the fundamental
opposition, of our present feelings and habits to those of
primitive times ?

The fearfully severe penitential discipline which prevailed
in the early Church, is matter of universal notoriety ; I will
merely, then, make a short quotation from Marshall's ' Peni-
tential Discipline of the Primitive Church,' to call more dis-
tinctly into our memory facts which are acknowledged by all.
' This discipline (how much soever the zeal of those times

e p. 182.

115

might induce people to desire coming under if) was in reality
very severe and rigorous ; not only in the Church, but out
of it, &c. Origen will tell us, that ' the hardships are very
great which the man must submit to, who should not be
discouraged by the regards of shame from opening his case
to the ministry of God, and from seeking relief at His hands ;
that, according to that of the Psalmist, he must * water his
couch with his tears, and that they must be his meat both
day and night.' " Tertullian, speaking of the practice which
existed in the Catholic Church concerning penitents, says,
" They sit in sackcloth, they are covered with ashes, they
entreat with sighs, and groans, and bended knees to their
common mother." . . . . " The public exomologesis extends
its rigour even to his garb and diet, and to lay him in sackcloth
and ashes ; it obliges him to neglect all dress and ornament,
to afflict his soul with melancholy meditations, and to reverse,
by a quite contrary practice, the example of his former mis-
behaviour. As to meat and drink, to use none for pleasure,
but merely for sustenance ; to keep up the fervour of his
piety with frequent and assiduous fastings; to groan, and
weep, and cry unto the Lord his God both night and day ;
to prostrate himself before the Presbyters of the Church,
and to beg of the servants of God in the humblest posture,
that they would intercede for his pardon. All this the public
exomologesis requires the Penitent to submit to." (pp. 76 78.)
None can deny, that the view taken at any time of Chris-
tian repentance is more deeply and intimately bound up with
the acknowledged type of the Christian's inward life, than
almost any other that can be named ; and that two systems,
which radically differ in that particular, are quite certainly
opposed to each other on the very elementary principles of
religion. It is plain, then, that those who think such rules
as these wrong in point of principle, profess nothing less than
a different Gospel from that professed in the early ages :
they may say, indeed, that theirs is the true Gospel, and the
antagonist a counterfeit ; but they cannot say that both are
the Gospel. 8 On the other hand, as I said in the last chapter,

8 For instance, a writer in the British Magazine,) which professes ' high-church '
principles,) in the following passage distinctly repudiates the principle of volun-

116

a difference on matters of particular application and ar-
rangement, which should even extend very far indeed,
would be no presumption at all that there is any real differ-
ence of principle ; and accordingly no one who reveres the
Ancient Church is at all bound, in consequence of that
reverence, to suppose that the discipline, which was most
suitable then, would now be even endurable. But surely
those who not merely revere the Ancient Church, but take it
as their model in contradistinction to modern Rome, are bound
to suppose this. What meaning is there in the very words
' taking the early ages for our model,' if on a matter which
no other can exceed in practical importance, we are at liberty
to choose for ourselves some other standard ? Nor indeed will
this dilemma be at all confined to the case of penitents ; the
extreme austerity of life, practised by Christians who were
not penitents, is equally difficult of adoption among modern
Englishmen. If it be replied that circumstances are most
widely changed, that is of course the very reason why the
Ancient Church should not be our model ; but it is no proof
that we can, without a contradiction in terms, take it for our
model, and yet not imitate it. Let those then who wish to
recal writers in the British Critic to what they consider a
purer and holier standard, seriously consider how much would
be involved in the accomplishment of their wish; and let
those who dream of our being already not very different from
Antiquity, steadily contemplate the real features of the An-
cient Church. 11

tary self-chastisement, which is involved in the whole Ancient penitential discipline ;
whereas it is no disparagement whatever of the principle, to say that in^ our
times its application ought to be most widely different. The writer in question
protests against that ' notion of holiness ' which ' is formed on the routine of
monastic life, 1 and against the sentiments of those who 'hoped to extract from
sufferings which they inflicted on themselves, the benefits attainable from such as He
inflicts on those whom, loving, He rebukes and chastens.' April, 1844.

h ' If it is our ambition to follow the Christians of the first ages . . . they had

the discomfort of this world without its compensating gifts If we have

only the enjoyment and none of the pain, and they only the pain and none of the
enjoyment, in what does our Christianity resemble theirs ? . . . Why do we not
call theirs one religion, and ours another ? . . . How do the two agree, except
that the name of Christianity is given to both of them ? ' Newman's Sermons on
Subjects of the Day, p. 415.

117

5. In government then, in authoritative formularies, in
discipline, the differences in question are most extensive,
deep, fundamental; amounting, indeed, rather to absolute and
pointed opposition. Next let us consider what maybe called
the ecclesiastical principles, which are maintained by ' high-
churchmen ' in defence of our position. Of these, there is none
in the whole range of Anglican theology, so deep, so all-per-
vading, so indispensably necessary for an essential support of
the entire superstructure, as this : viz. that when the ' holy
Church throughout all the world' (or at least that which has
been hitherto believed to be such) with one voice propounds
a certain scheme of doctrine for acceptance, a local Church is
at liberty to throw off such doctrine, (not because religious
men among her members have heartily accepted it, and then
find by experience that it offends against sacred and inviolable
principles of conscience, but) because, in the judgment of that
local Church, such doctrine is not sufficiently supported by
the testimony of early ages. It will not be denied, that it is
on this single principle that the English Reformation (J. will
not say was brought about, but) is by high-churchmen justi-
fied. On this principle they praise Cranmer and his associ-
ates ; on this principle they defend our continued separation
from Rome ; on this principle they challenge for our Church
the allegiance of her members. It cannot then be called a
subordinate or secondary maxim ; and to shew still more that
it cannot so be called, I will recal to the reader's memory
what I said on the subject in the second chapter. In that
chapter I implied, as my deep conviction, that this funda-
mental principle of ordinary ' high-church' theology, con-
sidered in the temper of mind to which it fitly appertains,
is simply Anti-Christian, and, considered in its inevitable
tendency, is destructive of all religious belief whatever.

Such being the extreme view which it is at least possible
to take of this principle, it is a matter deserving of most
serious consideration for those many admirable men who hold
it, (wholly unsuspicious, as I should say, of its real nature
and results,) it is deserving, I say, of their most serious con-
sideration, what warrant have they for holding it ? In that
Antiquity to which they appeal, what single feature is there,

118

which can, with any possible show of plausibility, be taken to
give it the most distant sanction ? True that the Church
of the fourth and fifth centuries always professed, that her
decrees were only exponential of the doctrine handed down
from the first ; but so also did the Church of the sixteenth
century. Now in the sixteenth century, the Ecclesiastical
definition on the Real Presence was rejected by the English
Reformers; and the rejection is defended, because some of
the Fathers hold language which appears inconsistent with it.
Let us conceive as a parallel case, that some small Church,
one hundred years (say) after the Nicene Council, when the
whole Catholic Body had given their joyful witness to the
6ju,oGvo-*ov, and after that this supposed local Church inclu-
sively had herself received it, should have rejected the word,
and thrown off communion with the rest of Christendom be-
cause they maintained it. Let us then further conceive, that
in justification of so wild and wicked a procedure, they should
have drawn attention to the language of several Ante-Nicene
Fathers, apparently inconsistent with the Council's decree ;
and moreover (which is really a strong fact) to the circum-
stance, that a local Council of some repute was generally con-
sidered to have condemned the word 6/x,oou<nov, as savouring of
Sabellianism. b What, think we, would have been the ge-
neral voice of Antiquity, in speaking of that local Church ?
It is a matter for grave thought.

I am well aware that it will be said by many in parallel
instances (though it cannot be urged in this 1 ), that where the

h The Council of Antioch, towards the end of the third century.

1 That cannot be said in this case, for Mr. Palmer admits ('On the Church,
vol. i. p. 211), that the Greek Church does use the word ' Transubstantiation.' It
seems necessary to add here one or two observations, lest I be supposed in the
text to contradict the Articles of our Church. ' High-churchmen' will, I sup-
pose, with one consent agree, that the doctrine denied by our Church, under the
name ' Transubstantiation,' is the doctrine of our Lord's Body being present
after Consecration, in such sort, that if our senses were not miraculously with-
holden, they would perceive it. But that doctrine is virtually denied by the
Roman formularies, as well as by our own : for, according to the scholastic use
of the words ' substance ' and 'accidents,' the latter alone can by possibility fall
under the cognizance of the senses : and it is a ruled point that they are not
changed. The ' substance,' in the case of any body whatever, is wholly un-
known to us, and its real nature is just as mysterious, without supposing any
change, as it will be with that supposition. The Catechism of the Council of

119

Greek Church has given no sanction, there has been no judg-
ment of the Universal Church on the matter ; and therefore
that the case is wholly different. That answer does not, I
must say openly, in the very least remove my own deep-seated
hatred of the principle in question ; but it doubtless makes,
in the judgment of English ' high-churchmen,' a plain dis-
tinction between the cases : still let it be most carefully ob-
served, that this answer does not even remotely affect the
purpose for which I have brought the case forward. So far
as such an answer is valid, doubtless it tends to remove that

Trent says, ' that Christ the Lord is not in this Sacrament as in a place . . . nor
as He is great or small, which belongs to quantity ; but as He is a substance. 1
And again, the accidents of the Bread and Wine, after Consecration, ' beyond all
the ordinary course of nature support themselves, and rest on no other thing.'
(De Eucharistia, xliv. xlv.) The substance of a body then, in scholastic lan-
guage, is that wholly unknown and inconceivable thing, (not inclosed in, or refer-
able to, space) which is the ' substratum' of ' accidents,' or of what we now-a-days
call ' phsenomena.' Nor have I ever been able, by the utmost stretch of my
abilities, to understand how English Churchmen, in saying that the ' bread '
remains, can possibly mean any thing different, from what Roman Catholics
mean in saying that the ' accidents of the bread' remain.

It must be fully acknowledged, that one hears of a popular notion in the middle
ages, contradictory to this doctrine ; a ' notion that Christ's body in the Eucharist
is " carnally pressed " with the teeth ; that it is a body or substance of a certain
extension and bulk in space, and a certain figure and due disposition of parts.'
How far such a notion may have received more or less countenance from theo-
logians, (e. g. Bellarmine,) I am not prepared with an opinion. Such popular
notion, however, is plainly that which is condemned in our twenty-eighth Article ;
it is one which all members of our Church do readily condemn, and which, as I
have said, the formularies of the Roman Church are very far indeed from counte-
nancing or supporting.

I cannot refrain from adding another passage from the ' Catechism,' in regard
to the accusation so commonly brought against the Roman doctrine, that it affects
to explain a mystery ; whereas it only affects to do, what the Nicene doctrine
does, define a mystery. ' Let not the faithful too curiously inquire how that
change can take place : for neither can it be perceived by us, nor have we
any example of it, either in natural changes or in the creation of the world itself.
But what this is must be known by faith ; how it takes place must not be
too curiously inquired.' (xlii.) After what is here said, I hope that a pas-
sage in one of my articles is sufficiently intelligible, which, though not in
the number of Mr. Palmer's extracts, I have seen quoted in more than one
other quarter as peculiarly objectionable. 'The idea that to a Christian, be-
lieving all the astounding mysteries which are contained in the doctrine of
the Incarnation, the further belief in the Real Presence, even to the extent of
the Tridentine definition, is a serious additional " tax on his credulity," is
not tenable for one moment.' 'On Goode,' p. 71.

120

appearance of contradiction to Antiquity, which is otherwise
presented by this principle ; but it does not tend to give it any
support from Antiquity. Taking then the most favourable view
of such an answer that its advocates can desire, this undoubt-
ed, startling fact remains, that the very foundation on which
those theologians rest, who claim special and paramount
authority for Antiquity, is a doctrine of their own invention,
self-devised for their purpose, without the slightest particle of
sanction or encouragement from that Antiquity. In a future
chapter I hope to press this point further.

In close connection with this last, is another sentiment,
which has more to do than any other element, perhaps more
than all other elements put together, in giving its peculiar
features and complexion to ' high-church' theology. The
very expression used by advocates of that theology would
be, that we remain separate from other branches of the
Catholic Church, because of their extreme corruptions and
superstitions, and their very close approximation to direct
idolatry. Mr. Palmer uses even much harsher language. 1
Now here again I am not criticising this sentiment, but
merely drawing attention to its utter repugnance to all
primitive maxims. A local Church remains separate from
all the remaining Catholic Body, the Roman See inclusive,
on the ground of the very grave and serious doctrinal errors,
enforced by that body as truths necessary to salvation. Such is
the * high-church' theory at its greatest advantage ; and, for
all that I am here saying, it may be very true and ' necessary
for these times :' but what, think we, would St. Augustine
have said of a local Church, which should have allowed itself
to form such an opinion, concerning those whom it acknow-
ledges to be branches of the Catholic Church ? St. Augustine,
with his vehement denunciations of the Donatists, with his
* securus judicat orbis terrarum' ?

Further, there is no more remarkable and interesting fea-
ture in the early Church, than the wonderful degree in which
they realise St. Paul's language, ' if one member suffer, the
whole body suffers with it.' The total want of any such
mark of Catholicity among ourselves, follows no doubt by
k 'On the Church,' vol. i. p. 282, 1st ed.

121

inevitable consequence from the principles above stated, and
is perfectly legitimate if they be so. We cannot possibly
desire the prosperity, or lament the adversity, of a religious
community, which prominently upholds corrupt and super-
stitious practices; the difficulty is, how we can reconcile it
to ourselves to attribute so serious blame to Societies, which
we acknowledge as Christian Churches. Whichever opinion
then is to be censured, the thinking them so corrupt, or
the thinking them Churches, I am merely mentioning the
result as another instance of our marked opposition to An-
tiquity. Never perhaps in the history of the Church has there
been a more vital and deeply interesting struggle, than that
now depending between the Church of France and the Uni-
versity ; can it be said that English Churchmen in general feel
any very lively or personal concern in any part of the matter ?
So far as they do think of it, their sympathies are perhaps on
the whole rather more strongly (I fully grant through a mis-
understanding of its real character) with the Infidel than with
the ' Popish' party. Truly, a Church which (for such is the
ordinary ' high-church ' view of the matter) considers herself
so pure, that she cannot even actively sympathise with those,
whom she considers her Sister-Churches, in their conflicts
against an oppressive civil government, or some other ma-
nifestation of evil, presents in herself a very remarkable
spectacle. But when she professes to be an exact copy of the
Primitive Church, (in which the possible existence of such
a phenomenon could never have been conjectured by the
most lively imagination,) she contrives to unite in her theory
so many apparent contradictions, that we cannot wonder at
the difficulty which all other Christians over the whole world
experience, be they Catholic or Protestant, in understanding
so much as the honesty of these most perplexing professions.
Consider indeed the very idea of the Christian Church, as it
existed in early times ; which cannot be better described than
in the following passage : ' Even in the Apostles' life -time
the Gospel had spread East, West, and South, far and wide,
and the Church with it. Multitudes had been converted in
all nations, and the Apostles were the acknowledged rulers of
those multitudes. So wide and well-connected a polity there

was not on the earth, even before their martyrdoms, except
the Roman empire itself which was the seat of it.' ... And
' has there not in fact been a great corporation or continuous
body politic, all over the world, from the Apostles' days to
our own, bearing the name of Church ; one and one only ?
Has it not spread in spite of all opposition, and maintained
itself marvellously against the power of the world ? Has it
not ever taken the cause of the poor and friendless against
the great and proud? Has it not succeeded by the use of
weapons, not earthly and carnal, but by righteousness and
mercy, as was foretold ? Has it not broken in pieces num-
berless kingdoms and conquerors which opposed it, and risen
again, and nourished, more than before, after the most hopeless
reverses ? Has it not ever been at war with the spirit of the
world, with pride, and luxury, and cruelty, and tyranny, and
profaneness ?' L Yes ; one ' great corporation,' one ' continuous
body politic ;' containing within ' governors and governed,
with determined relations, with a fixed constitution and laws,
with sanctions and punishments ; ' carrying with it * the ex-
hibition to those without of an united body acting exter-
nally in a specific and corporate character;' with ' the fullest
sympathy and intercommunication of its respective members,
and united zeal against their common antagonist ;' with ' observ-
ances, forms, what we may call etiquettes, nay, even a language
of its own, by help of which its subjects have the bonds of union
more closely drawn, and more fully realize their separation from
those without.' m Such is the picture of the Church Catholic,
which any ordinary inquirer would derive from all primitive
Antiquity : not very different from this in substance is the
Church Catholic, according to the Roman doctrine, at the pre-
sent day ; but most strikingly, broadly, signally contrasted with
this is the present face of the Church, on any Anglican theory.
We count ourselves a branch of the Catholic Church, yet
* we are in fact cut off from the whole of the Christian world ;
nay, far from denying, in a certain sense we glory in, that
excommunication, and that under a notion that we are so
very pure, that it must soil our fingers to touch any other

1 Newman's Sermons on Subjects of the Day, pp. 264, 5.
" ' On Whately's Essays,' p. 260.

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Church whatever upon the earth, in North, East, or South.
How is this reconcilable with St. Paul's clear announcement,
that there is but one body as well as one spirit ; or our Lord's,
that "by this shall oilmen know," as by a note obvious to
the intelligence even of the illiterate and unreasoning, that
ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another ;" or, again,
His prayer that His disciples might all be one, ". that the world
might know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as
Thou hast loved Me ? " Visible unity would seem then to be
both the main evidence of our religion, and the sign of our
spiritual adoption ; whereas we English despise the Greeks,
and hate the Romans, and turn our backs on the Scotch, and
do but smile distantly upon the Americans. We throw our-
selves into the arms of the State, and in that close embrace
forget that the Church was meant to be Catholic ; or we call
ourselves the Catholics, and the local Church our Catholic
Church," [i.e. as though our Church were Catholic in some
higher sense than e. g. the Spanish or the Neapolitan Church
is Catholic] as if forsooth by thus confining it all to ourselves,
we did not ipso facto forfeit for it all claim to be considered
Catholic at all. What increases the force of this argument
is, that St. Augustine seems, at least at first sight, virtually
to urge it against us in his controversy with the Donatists,
whom he represents as condemned simply because separate
from the orbis terrarum, and styles the point in question
' questio facillima,' and calls on individual Donatists to decide
it by their private judgment. . . .

' Flagrant evils cure themselves by being flagrant ; and we
are sanguine that the time is come when so great an evil as
this is, cannot stand its ground against the good feeling and
common sense of religious persons. . . . Our eyes and ears

n Thus Mr. Palmer objects (p. 56) to my saying, that ' the exemption by
special gift from venial sin is believed by most Catholics to be a privilege apper-
taining to the Blessed Virgin' as ' identifying ' ' Romanism with Catholicism.'
Now certainly upon ' high-church' principles my statement is literally true : all
Roman Catholics, and all the Greek separated Church, hold the belief in question ;
and, upon such principles, these together certainly amount to ' most Catholics.'
It is plain then that Mr. Palmer's objection is to calling foreign Catholics by
the simple name O f Catholics; while he himself employs that name (p. 67) in
speaking of members of our Church. This is precisely an instance in point.

are filled with the abuse poured out by members of our
Church on her Sister-Churches in foreign lands. . . . We
act as if we could do without brethren, as if our having
brethren all over the world were not the very tenure on which
we are Christians at all, as if we did not cease to be Chris-
tians, if at any time we ceased to have brethren. Or again,
when our thoughts turn to the East, instead of recollecting
that there are Christian Churches there, we leave it to
the Russians to take care of the Greeks, and the French
to take care of the Romans, and we content ourselves with
erecting a Protestant Church at Jerusalem, or with helping
the Jews to rebuild their temple there, or with becoming the
august protectors of Nestorians, Monophysites, and all the
heretics we can hear of, or with forming a league with the
Mussulman against Greeks and Romans together. Can any
one doubt that the British power is not considered a Church
power by any country whatever into which it comes ? and if
so, is it possible that the English Church, which is so closely
connected with that power, can be said in any true sense to
exert a Catholic influence, or deserve the Catholic name ?

On all this, however, it is really not necessary for my pur-
pose to express any opinion whatever, beyond this obvious
one ; that whether or not a great deal may be said in defence
of our present position, this one thing cannot be said in its
defence, that it is at all like any thing which we find existing
in primitive times. p

British Critic, No. lix. pp. 121,2, 3.

P An interesting little work has been published, breathing a most truly re-
ligious spirit, with the name ' offices of prayer for private devotion,' and with the
profession that these offices ' have been compiled from Catholic sources. ' As
one instance among several that might be given of the false position in which
members of our Church are necessarily placed, when they exercise their private
judgment on Antiquity, and dare to speak, on the strength of that judgment, against
the Church abroad, let us observe in p. 85, such a prayer as this : ' I earnestly pray
Thee to remove all scandals and offences . . . the scandalous use of images in divine
worship, &c.' Who does not at once see the absolutely different element intro-
duced into the writer's theology, compared with any which existed in early times,
by such an allusion as this to the formal ordinances of a body, which he would
himself acknowledge as a Sister-Church ? What would have been thought in
early times, if a local Church had abrogated usages which prevailed through the
Church Catholic, and then an individual member of that Church had had the pre-
sumption to call those usages scandalous ?

But not only were these extremely high views held in
primitive times, on the essential importance of Catholic
sympathy and visible unity, q the Bishop of Rome was also
held in very peculiar honour and regard. Here again, as I
do not profess to go at all deeply into the question, it will be
sufficient to put together a very few passages, from the notes
or text of the Oxford translation of St. Athanasius's Histori-
cal Treatises ; but the whole of that volume will give a far
more lively impression of the high preeminence yielded to
that Bishop, than any possible number of quotations.

"Socrates says, .... 'Julius (the Pope) wrote back that they
acted against the Canons .... the Ecclesiastical Canon com-
manding that the Churches ought not to make Canons beside the
will of the Bishop of Rome.' Sozomen in like manner, ' for it was
a sacerdotal law, to declare invalid whatever was transacted beside
the will of the Bishop of the Romans' (p. 56.)

" ' Petri in sede sua vivit potestas et excellit auctoritas,' Leon.
Serm. iii. 3."

" ' They' (the deposed Bishops) ' acquainted Julius the Bishop
of Rome with the case ; and he, according to the prerogative of
the Church in Rome, fortified them with letters in which he spoke
his mind, and sent them back to the East, restoring each to his
own place, and remarking on those who had violently deposed
them. They then set out from Rome, and on the strength of the
letters of Bp, Julius, take possession of their Churches.' Socr.

ii. 15 Sozomon says, ' Whereas the care of all pertained to

him on account of the dignity of his see, he restored each to his
own Church,' iii. 8." (p. 80.)

" Julius, (the Pope) to the Presbyters, &c., of Alexandria.

. . . ' He (Athanasius) returns to you now more illustrious than

when he went away from you How can one describe the

worth of such a man who .... is now restored to you, being
pronounced innocent, not by my voice only, but by the voice of the
whole Council. . . Receive therefore your Bishop Athanasius,' " &c.
(p. 81.)

" ' I have always entertained some doubts,' says Gibbon, ' con-
cerning the retractation of Ursacius and Valens ' [who were
Bishops]. ' Their epistles to Julius Bishop of Rome, and to

i The Fathers generally, I believe, laid far more urgent stress on the doctrine of
Visible Unity, than on that of Apostolical Succession.

126

Athanasius himself, are of so different a cast to each other,
that they cannot both be genuine' .... Surely [remarks the
editor] this is just the difference of tone in which an apology is
made to a superior, and to an equal, except by very generous, or
by deeply repentant, persons." (p. 86.)

What I have urged then under the present head, comes to
this ; that three different and most important ecclesiastical
principles are involved in the * high Church ' defence of our
position, of which one has no shadow of support from Anti-
quity, and the other two are directly counter to Antiquity.
T he first principle, that it is lawful to criticise a religious
system, handed down by our fathers, and under which God
has placed us, by some external standard, without that neces-
sity for so doing, which results from having heartily obeyed
it in the first instance, and having been unable to find in it
an anchorage for our spiritual nature ; the second, that a
local Church may consider all the rest of what it acknowledges
as the Catholic Body to be superstitious and erroneous in
doctrine, from a comparison of its tenets with (what appear
to the said local Church) the tenets of Antiquity ; the third,
that the claims of the Bishop of Rome to authority may be
summarily set aside on a similar allegation. But a still more
important circumstance remains behind. The reasonings of
English ' high churchmen,' who criticise Roman doctrine by
a comparison with Antiquity, derive their whole force from a
denial of the doctrine of ' development.' This is obvious ;
and Mr. Palmer by implication confesses it, in such passages
as the following. The italics are my own.

" Modern defenders of Romanism have adopted a new theory,
which is essentially opposed to those of their predecessors. They
have adopted the bold expedient of avowing that their doctrines
receive but little aid from the testimony of primitive antiquity
that, in fact, the early Church was perhaps unacquainted with
those doctrines, since it is the nature of Christianity to develop
itself gradually in the course of ages, and under change of cir-
cumstances ; so that Christianity in the middle ages, teas more
perfectly developed than in the primitive times : it was the
expansion of a system which existed at first, merely in germ ; and
probably, on the same principle, the existing system of the Roman

127

Catholic Church may be still more perfect than that of the middle
ages, and be itself less perfect than that which is to be hereafter.

" Undoubtedly there is much in this theory which is pleasing to
the imagination. The notion that Religion that Divine truth,
is capable of continual progress ; that we may look for develop-
ments corresponding to the advance of art and science, and
analogous to the process of change which we see operating in the
natural world around us, has very great temptations to the human
mind. That it has, we need no further proof than the fact that
this theory is upheld by Socinians and other Rationalists ; the
principal difference between their system and that of the philo-
sophical Romanists above alluded to, being, that the latter
attribute to the Church that office of development, which the
former assign to the reason of individuals. This is not the only
affinity between the systems : it is the well known tendency of
Rationalism to disregard the sentiments of former ages ; to esteem
itself superior in knowledge to the primitive Church. Now the
doctrine of development has the same tendencies ; it leads to the
conclusion, that the religion of the present day is more perfect than
that of the early Church : it teaches us so far to set aside the
testimony of Catholic Antiquity, on pretence that religion was then
but imperfectly understood.

" It is not easy to see what may be the termination of such
theories. Romanism may not be the only eventual gainer from
that theory of Christianity, which supposes it to have existed
originally in germ only. There is a subtle Rationalism in such a
notion ; nay, something still worse if possible. If the Gospel is to
be developed by reason ; if its lineaments are to be filled up by the
human mind; if it was originally imperfect; is there not some
danger of supposing that, after all, it is only a philosophy, a
science, a creation of the intellect ? And again, if its processes are
analogous to those which we see in nature, may not the inference
be drawn that, like them, it has its period of decay as well as
perfection ; of extinction as well as of germination ? A germ
infers growth indeed, and change, but it also infers corruption
and death." pp. 57, 58, 61, 62.

Mr. Palmer then considers this doctrine to have been
invented by modern advocates of Roman sentiments ; and
thinks it most dangerous, as being not less likely to subserve
the cause of Rationalism than of ' Romanism.' Now what

128

writer in all Antiquity can be taken for our guide, with less
objection from English ' high-churchmen,' than St. Vincen-
tius Lirinensis, the great witness to the famous phrase, ' quod
semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus'? His Commonito-
rium is the very text-book of that theology. Let us hear
then his sentiments on this important matter, and see how
far it is possible to distinguish them from this * modern
theory.' I quote from the Oxford translation.

' But peradventure some will say, shall we then have no ad-
vancement of religion in the Church of Christ ? Surely let us have
the greatest that may be. For who is either so envious of men, or
hateful of God, which would labour to hinder that? But yet in
such sort that it may be truly an increase in faith, and not a
change ; since this is the nature of an increase, that in themselves
severally things grow greater ; but of a change, that something be
turned, from one thing which it was, to another which it was not.
Fitting it is, therefore, that the understanding, knowledge, and
wisdom, as well of every man in particular, as of all in common ;
as well of one alone, as of the whole Church in general, should by
the advance of ages abundantly increase and go forward ; but yet
for all that, only in its own kind and nature : that is, in the same
doctrine, in the same sense, in the same judgment. In this case,
let the religion of our souls imitate the nature of our bodies, which
although with process of time they develope and unfold their pro-
portions, yet they remain the same that they were. There is great
difference betwixt the flower of youth and the ripeness of age, yet
the self-same men become old which before were young ; so that
although the state and condition of one and the self-same man be
altered, yet one and the self- same nature, one and the self-same
person, doth still remain. The limbs of infants be small, of young
men great ; yet not divers, but the same. So many joints as
young children have, so many have they when they be men ; and
if any parts there be, which with increase of more mature years
spring forth, those before were in man virtually planted in manner
as the seed, so that no new thing do come forth in old men, which
before had not lain hid in them being children. Wherefore there
can be no doubt but that this is the due and right rule of growing,
the fixed and goodliest order of increasing, if the increase of age
complete over these members, those parts and joints, which the
wisdom of our Creator before framed, when we were yet but little

129

ones. But if a human form be afterward changed into some other
likeness not of its own kind, or at least if any thing be added to
the number of its members or taken from it, then of necessity the
whole body must either perish, or become monstrous, or at least be
weakened. In like manner, Christian doctrine must follow these
laws of increasing, to wit, that with years it wax more sound, with
time it become more ample, with continuance it be more exalted,
yet remain incorrupt and entire, and continue full and perfect in
the proportions of each of its parts, and, as it were, with all its
members and proper senses. And that it admit no further change,
sustain no loss of its propriety, no variety in definition. For ex-
ample' sake ; our forefathers in old time in this field of the Church,
sowed the wheaten seed of true faith ; it were now very injurious
and inconsistent, that we their posterity, instead of the perfect and
true grain, should reap the spurious error of cockle : and contrari-
wise, it is reason and very consistent that, the beginning and
ending not disagreeing with each other, we should of the increase
of wheaten teaching reap the fruit of wheaten doctrine ; so that
when, with tract of time, any of those first seeds begin to bud and
come forth, and now flourish and receive culture ; yet there be no
change of the propriety of the germ ; and albeit fashion, shape, and
distinction be added, yet the nature of each kind remain the same.
For God forbid that those rosy plants of Catholic doctrine should
be changed into thistles and thorns ; God forbid, I say, that in the
very spiritual paradise of the slips of cinnamon and balsam, should
suddenly grow up darnel and aconite. Therefore whatever hath by
our fathers' faith been sown in this Church, the field of God's
husbandry, reason it is, that the same be cultivated and maintained
by the industry of the children, that this same flourish and wax
ripe, that this same grow and come to perfection ; lawful indeed it
is, that those ancient articles of heavenly philosophy be, in process
of time, trimmed, smoothed, and polished ; but unlawful that they
be changed, unlawful that they be mangled and maimed. And
albeit they receive perspicuity, light, and distinction, yet of ne-
cessity must they retain their fulness, soundness, and propriety.
For if once this licentiousness of wicked fraud be admitted, I tremble
to speak what danger is like to ensue of extirpating and abolishing
religion ; for if we give up any part of the Catholic Faith, straight-
way other parts, and after that other, and again other, and that
now as it were of custom, and by a kind of law, shall be given up.

130

And further, what followeth, when the parts, by little and little,
have been set aside ; but that, in conclusion, the whole in like
manner must be set aside ? And, contrariwise, if new things and
old, foreign and domestic, profane and sacred, begin once to be
confounded together, then must needs this custom generally creep
on, that nothing hereafter remain in the Church untouched, no-
thing without corruption, nothing sound, nothing pure ; and so
where before was the sanctuary of chaste and immaculate truth,
there shall be a very brothel-house of wicked and filthy errors. But
God of His goodness deliver his servants from such minds, and let
such madness be rather for the impious !

4 For the Church of Christ, a careful and diligent keeper of doc-
trines committed to her charge, never changeth any thing in them,
diminisheth nothing, addeth nothing.' pp. 104 9.

I have added this last sentence, to shew plainly how little
any of the Fathers, when they speak of ' adding nothing to
the faith,' imply any contradiction to the doctrine here so
clearly set forth : and my readers cannot but have been struck
with the very curious similarity of the language used re-
spectively, by St. Vincentius in advocating a doctrine which
Mr. Palmer considers worse, if possible, than rationalism,
and by Mr. Palmer in endeavouring to hinder that, which he
who hinders is regarded by St. Vincentius as 'envious of men
and hateful of God.' z

Again : the deep feeling of love and union, which existed
throughout the various branches of the Church, say in the

1 What has been here said is sufficient of itself to supersede the necessity of for-
mally examining a theory often propounded by members of our Church ; viz. that
our own Church authoritatively refers us to Antiquity as our standard of doctrine
and practice. Without entering then into the other reasons which make me con-
sider this theory wholly untenable, it is obvious here to remark that Antiquity itself
remands us back again, as it were, to the existing Church. There is no one truth
more plain on the very surface of the history of the early ages, than the exceeding
deference which they considered due from each local Church to the whole Catholic
Body, and to the Bishop of Rome. And the last quotation in the text shews in
addition, if we may take St. Yincentius as a fair representative of their doctrine,
that so far from considering the existence of doctrinal developments to be an excuse
from the performance of this duty, they would, on the contrary, have considered
the Church to have failed in her duty, if she had not given birth to such develop-
ments.

131

time of St. Augustine, when the Arian troubles had been for
some time brought to a close, displayed itself outwardly, as
all real feelings among men do display themselves, in various
observances, regulations, and formal results. One of these
would even necessarily be, that a Christian, whether in his
own country or in any other, who should separate himself
from the Communion of the local bishop and join some other
body, would be treated by the whole Church as a schismatic,
and considered most justly to have excluded himself from
the ordinances of grace. Such a rule had a deep meaning
and value, under the circumstances which then existed ; but
'high-church' Anglicanism has its being, its only possible
life, in most zealously maintaining that those circumstances
have wholly changed. If therefore a maxim formerly in
force, which had its origin, nay its very meaning, in that
particular state of things which has now passed away, be
itself retained or rather revived, such revival may on other
grounds be wise and proper, or it may not ; but to defend it
by appeal to Antiquity is absolutely ludicrous It will be at
once seen, that the allusion is to that principle, very generally
prevalent among ' high-churchmen,' and so startling and
astonishing to an ordinary mind, that English Catholics,
who are in Communion with the See of Rome, are in a
state of schism. Here again I am not saying whether this
principle should stand or fall, but that on its own merits
it must stand or fall ; that to adopt at random, as it were,
from early ages some external rule, when the very spirit
which gave life to the rule has gone away from us, is not to
follow, but to abandon, the principles of those ages ;
which shrank from no one thing more sensitively, than from
a carnal and ceremonial resting in outward ordinances and
appointments.

It will be well, however, to state as accurately as may
be what this principle is ; and I suppose it will be ad-
mitted on all hands to be this : viz. that a French clergy-
man, e. g. who says mass at Calais to-day and crosses the
water, should he say mass at Dover to-morrow with the
same intention and in the same state of mind, (unless he can

K 2

132

plead invincible ignorance,) commits a mortal sin ; re-
ceives the Lord's Body to his condemnation; and were he
to die without repenting of such sin, would be consigned to
everlasting torments. Mr. Palmer adds a still further step ;
for he denies that invincible ignorance itself can excuse one,
who in England remains separate" from our Church. Whether
or no, however, others may follow him in the latter view, the
sentiment which he holds in common with other high-church-
men, leads by necessary consequence to a very serious result.
The deliberate intention of committing mortal sin under
certain conceivable circumstances, is, as every one knows,
itself a mortal sin. Now there is not a Roman Catholic
living, who does not most fully purpose, should he come to
England, to communicate with the Roman Catholics, not

a Objection " xii. Papists do not admit that the members of the British Churches
can be saved, while the latter allow that Papists can be saved. Therefore it is plain
that there is greater safety in the Papal communion.

" Answer. The argument ought to be directly reversed, thus : Papists allow
that the members of the [English] Church can be saved. They cannot allow that
Papists are in the way of salvation ; therefore the communion of the [English]
Church is safer than that of the Papal schism. I prove the two first propositions
thus. (1.) Papists allow that we can be saved. Dr. Milner says : ' Catholic
divines and the holy fathers .... make an express exception in favour of what
is termed invincible ignorance ; which occurs when persons out of the true Church
are sincerely and firmly resolved, in spite of all worldly allurements on the one hand,
and of all opposition on the other, to enter into it, if they can find it out ; and when
they use their best endeavours for this purpose. Our great controversialist Bellar-
mine asserts that such Christians, in virtue of the disposition of their hearts, belong
to the Catholic Church.' 1 (2.) On the other hand, the Church of England excom-
municates any one who shall dare to affirm that the Romish community in these
countries is a true Church ; and as we therefore cannot allow Romanists to be in
the Church, and as we have no right to admit that any persons out of the Church
are or can be in the way of salvation, it is plain that there is much the greatest
safety in adhering to our communion, in which alone both parties allow that sal-
vation may be obtained." ' On the Church,' vol. i. p. 254, first edit. Mr. Palmer
seems unwilling to speak quite plainly : but his distinct argument is, that Roman
Catholics admit the salvability of members of our Church, in a sense in which
Engb'sh Churchmen do not admit the salvability of Roman Catholics in England.
But the sense in which Roman Catholics admit the salvability of members of our
Church, according to Mr. Palmer's quotation, is merely that invincible ignorance
forms a ground of excuse ; therefore it is Mr. Palmer's opinion, that English Church-
men do not admit that, in the reverse case, invincible ignorance forms a ground of
excuse. Q. E. D.

133

with the English Church : it follows then by inevitable con-
sequence from this theory, that all Roman Catholics through-
out the world are in mortal sin ; either simpliciter, as Mr.
Palmer must say, or saving invincible ignorance, which is, I
suppose, the more ordinary sentiment. To base a maxim
thus pregnant with consequences on so precarious a foundation
as that above described, does seem an inconceivable pro-
cedure : but how much stronger does the case against it be-
come, when we call to mind that, on referring to the chief ex-
ample in Antiquity which presents any distant parallel to our
present condition, and which in consequence has to support no
little weight of argument and inference, (the example of St.
Meletius of Antioch) we find no appearance whatever (but
the very reverse) of the prevalence of such a maxim ; " there
is not the faintest trace of any idea, prevailing in any quarter
at that time, of casting so strange an imputation on Paulinus
and his followers." b

6. Let so much have been said on the ecclesiastical prin-
ciples appertaining to, and adducible in defence of, the
respective systems which I am comparing together. The
most important particular of comparison, however, is of course
that which still remains ; a comparison as to the general
tone and temper of mind on doctrinal and practical subjects.
This comparison has already indeed been incidentally carried
out in one or two particulars : nor again shall I here attempt
to trace it upwards to its ultimate elements, for that would
necessarily imply a discussion on the primitive doctrine of
justification ; a discussion which on the one hand would lead
us far more into controverted matters than is necessary for
my purpose, and, on the other hand, would in some respects
anticipate what will find a more fitting place in the next
chapter. Let us rather, then, confine our attention to various
salient points of usage or common language, of whose
existence no one entertains a doubt, and which will never-
theless be acknowledged by all candid inquirers, to indicate
conclusively the presence and energy of a certain definite
character among Christians of that day.

b ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 45.

134

I. At the risk of appearing fanciful, 1 will begin by
speaking of the tendency so universally found among the
Fathers, as among holy men in all periods of the Church, to
think the religion of their own age and country the most
corrupt that has ever existed, and not worthy to be even
mentioned in comparison with that of other times. It should
of course be fully acknowledged, that this tendency, even if
existing most actively, will in times like the present receive
a very decided check, from the growth of historical studies,
and our consequent knowledge of the prevalence of similar
complaints at other periods. Such causes, however, though
they may well prevent the tendency from growing into an
opinion, will not help at all in accounting for an absence
of the tendency itself; nor does it require any very deep re-
search into human nature, to discover how necessarily a high
standard of religious obedience, when brought into contrast
with that miserable amount of practical evil which must
always and everywhere be found here below, will produce
this tendency in the serious mind. And if, in addition to
this previous probability, the fact adduced be itself found
historically true, as on examination it most certainly will ; if
a continued inclination to think our Church peculiarly corrupt
has ever been an especial note of our own religion being
pure ; what reason have not those for suspecting the real
spirituality of their desires and religiousness of their views,
who are so little conscious of such an inclination, as the
ordinary professors of ' high-church ' principles appear to be !

II. This deep principle of human nature has also borne a
very chief part, in producing that continual expectation of
our Lord's immediate coming to judgment, which so much
astonishes all modern readers of early religious writings.
Mr. Newman, in his works, fully accounts for and defends
this expectation ; of whose existence, even in Apostolic times,
certainly the New Testament itself bears on its surface very
apparent and obvious marks. If then in our own days we are
disposed to simple astonishment, not to say contempt, when

c Parochial Sermons, vol. vi. Serm. 17 and 18.

135

we hear of its prevalence, what else can this possibly shew,
except that the habitual character of our religion is wholly
wanting in some important element or other, which has ex-
ercised an active influence in all other ages of the Church ?

III. If there be one fact more than another in early cen-
turies, which even forces itself on the mind of the most
superficial reader, it is the extreme stress laid by holy men
on what appear at first sight minute points of faith, and the
surprising hold over the popular mind possessed by disputes
concerning s ; ach points. We find even the unlearned and
rude multitude sensitive to the slightest breath of heresy,
perplexed by novel statements of doctrine, ready to die for
an article of the Creed, miserable under the ascendancy of
Arians, filled with joy at the triumph of the orthodox.
How completely opposite this is to our present way of think-
ing, needs not be told ; insomuch that modern historians,
while they cannot fail to observe, make in fact no attempt
whatever to explain the phenomenon. If there be a view of
religion held at the present day, which gives a fair and
natural account of this fact, nay, by means of which the fact
might have been readily foretold before the event, while the
more popular views wholly fail of giving any such account ;
then, whether or not this view be true, it cannot be fairly
questioned that in its characteristic points it agrees with that
prevalent in the early ages. It need hardly be added, that
such a view does exist, and that it is essentially contradictory
to that now dominant in England. Hear the Christian Re-
membrancer, in an article distinguished by peculiar kindness
of language and earnestness of purpose, but protesting withal
very strongly against Rome and the British Critic, and
therefore the more unsuspicious witness.

' Would it not be possible to preach every heresy condemned by
the first four general Councils in nine pulpits out of ten in England,
without a murmur) to say nothing of a censure ? Nay, is it not
a fact, that the clearest heresies, condemned over and over again,
are taught not only orally but in print ; and this, too, without an
attempt on the part of the Church, at canonical and ecclesiastical

136

branding ? Would the Church of the Fathers have permitted, with-
out formal protest, one half of its Clergy to deny Baptismal Re-
generation, and the Apostolic Succession ? Can we conceive the
early Church disputing and questioning whether it did or did not
hold the simplest fundamentals of the Christian faith ? Would not
the communion of Athanasius have risen as one man, with a voice
alike indignant and uniform, against what is now passed over un-
questioned ? a Church claiming ' authority in controversies of Faith,'
and yet without a voice ; assuming to be the source and bond of
unity, and yet permitting not merely discordant, but contradictory
doctrines to be taught. . . . Surely we must be deficient, and that
to no slight extent, in the temper and in the rigid faithfulness of
the primitive times.' d

It will not be denied that even * high-churchmen ' in
modern England are very far less sensitive and keen-sighted
on what they would regard as minute points of doctrine,
than were the early Christians. So that, whereas we have
already seen how fundamental is the opposition between
ancient and modern views of repentance and of obedience,
we now see the same in respect to faith. Surely it is in
mockery that our Church is ever called 'primitive and
patristic,' whether she do or do not deserve the name of
' Scriptural and Apostolical.'

IV. Then, again, is there any thing more extraordinary to
our modern ideas, than the mode universally prevalent in
Antiquity of regarding Scripture ? When appealing to it
indeed in proof of doctrine, for instance in St. Athanasius's
works, very great power is evinced in the way of what is
now called ' exegesis ;' but when merely applying it to prac-
tical purposes, they seem very often hardly to think of the
context, but to take some one individual verse, and see be-
neath it the most surprising depth of meaning and allusion.
The discussion in No. 89 of the Tracts for the Times will
sufficiently explain what is here meant ; and not a word more
need be said, to prove how extremely repulsive to our modern
taste is this whole method of procedure, how extravagant,

d Christian Remembrancer, Nov. 1843, pp. 557, 8.

137

arbitrary, disrespectful to the sacred text itself we are tempted
to consider it. Many interpretations most gravely propounded
by the greatest fathers, St. Ambrose or St. Augustine, would
naturally appear to us rather like the ravings of madmen,
than the dicta of sober Scripture expositors. Nay, even in
formal argument against heretics, great stress is frequently
laid on these mystical interpretations. Now as it is very plain,
from other of their writings and from their whole lives, that
such men were in an eminent degree holy, sober-minded,
prudent, highly-gifted, it follows that there was something very
remarkable in their state of mind, which we have wholly lost.
Whether or no the whole system of ' double interpretation'
be intended by God's Providence to nourish in any modern
ages of the Church, or whether the knowledge, then pos-
sessed, of the deep mysteries concealed beneath the Scrip-
ture text, be connected in some wonderful way with the then
existing state of opinion and civilization, we are not perhaps
in a condition to pronounce. It is certainly very much to be
observed, that it has in no shape been fixed by any Ecclesi-
astical decree, as part of the inalienable dogmatic heritage,
which is to the end of time to be the highest object of con-
templation in the Church Catholic. But however this may
be, this mode of interpretation was so universal and all-pene-
trating, that it must, by absolute necessity, correspond to
some very important element of character pervading the
early Church : which element may indeed very possibly ex-
hibit itself under a different shape in modern times, but cannot
be absent from any modern community without constituting a
most deep mark of separation between it and the primitive
Church. To shew what is meant, it has been, said that the
very general Invocation of Saints, and religious use of images
and pictures, existing in the Church abroad, is the outward
display of the very same inward principle. How far this
may be so, is of course no special concern of ours ; what is
our concern, is to look about carefully in every direction
among ourselves, and inquire whether we can fairly say that
any feeling, widely spread in our religious world, looks at

138

all like the counterpart of this ancient habit of mind. For
instance, if religious ceremonial in any shape were ex-
tremely popular, that might conceivably be an answer to
the inquiry. If nothing of the sort can be found, (and,
myself, I know not where to look for it,) here is another
contrast between the English and the Ancient Church.

V. Speaking of Scripture, one is led to another curious fact.
Antiquity with one voice pronounced the Song of Solomon
the most sacred and evangelical book in all the Old Testa-
ment ; and the same have all Saints done from that day to
this. An eminent Dissenter, now living, has formally rejected
it from the Canon ; but, waiving such extreme cases, religious
men among ourselves, as is quite notorious, are, to say the
least, very far from affixing the same habitual value to this
Inspired Poem. Considering its peculiar nature, I do not see
how any one can fairly doubt that this spontaneous and
unconscious opposition of procedure corresponds to a subtle
indeed, but very real and extensive opposition of inward
character.

VI. Miracles were believed to exist in the fourth and fifth
centuries, to a very far greater extent than in Roman Catholic
countries at the present day. The most prejudiced observer
could not by possibility give any such account of contem-
porary Roman Catholics, as Gibbon has given of Christians
of that period.

" The grave and learned Augustine, whose understanding scarcely
admits the excuse of credulity, has attested the innumerable prodi-
gies which were performed in Africa by the relics of St. Stephen.
He solemnly declares, that he had selected those miracles only
which were publicly certified by the persons, who were either the
objects or the spectators of the power of the martyr. Many prodi-
gies were omitted or forgotten ; and Hippo had been less favourably
treated than the other cities of the province. And yet the Bishop
enumerates above seventy miracles, of which three were resurrec-
tions from the dead, in the space of two years, and within the limits
of his own diocese. If we enlarge our view to all the dioceses and
all the Saints in the Christian world, it will not be easy to calculate

139

the fables and the errors which issued from this inexhaustible
source." 8

It is plain of course, and has very often been, observed, that
in an uncritical age the existence of a large number of real
miracles, will most inevitably lead to the popular belief in
a prodigious number of imaginary ones. The present Church
of Rome (partly from the progress of physical science and of
the critical spirit, partly from the great care and profound
wisdom with which certain miraculous allegations are ex-
amined at the Court of Rome, partly perhaps from the
circumstance that miracles really are less frequently vouch-
safed in these latter days, but from whatever cause) certainly
exhibits no such belief in the universal prevalence of miracles.
Yet the feelings with which we are inclined to regard even her
miraculous stories (such, for instance, as that of St. Janua-
rius's blood), the readiness with which we are tempted at
once to disbelieve them before examining the evidence on
which they rest, all this shews very plainly, how much more
shocked and offended we should have been by the belief of
early centuries on the subject, and by consequence how very
widely we have departed from the spirit of those centuries.

VII. The universal prevalence of monasteries or other like
institutions, nay, of solitaries in the desert, must be imme-
diately felt by all as indicative of a spirit directly at variance
with that prevalent in the English Church. On this subject
I cannot do better than make the following quotation.

' The history of the Church affords us an additional

lesson of the same serious truth. For three centuries it was ex-
posed to heathen persecution ; during that long period God's Hand
was upon His people : what did they do when that Hand was taken
off? How did they act when the world was thrown open to them,
and the Saints possessed the high places of the earth ? did they
enjoy it? far from it, they shrank from that, which they might,
had they chosen, have made much of; they denied themselves
what was set before them ; when God's Hand was removed, their
own hand was heavy upon them. Wealth, honour, and power,

Gibbon, vol. v. pp. 129, 30.

140

they put away from them. They recollected our Lord's words,
" How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of
God I" h And St. James, " Hath not God chosen the poor of this
world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom ?"' For three centuries
they had no need to think of those words, for Christ remembered
them, and kept them humble ; but when He left them to them-
selves, then they did voluntarily what they had hitherto suffered
patiently. They were resolved that the Gospel character of a
Christian should be theirs. Still, Christ, in the Gospels, makes
His followers poor and weak, and lowly and simple-minded ; men
of plain lives, men of prayer, not " faring sumptuously," or clad in
" soft raiment," or " taking thought for the morrow." They recol-
lected what He said to the young Ruler, " If thou wilt be perfect, go
and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me." And so they put off
their " gay clothing," their " gold, and pearls, and costly array ;"
they " sold that they had, and gave alms ;" they " washed one
another's feet ;" they " had all things common." They formed
themselves into communities for prayer and praise, for labour and
study, for the care of the poor, for mutual edification, and prepara-
tion for Christ ; and thus, as soon as the world professed to be
Christian, Christians at once set up among them a witness against
the world, and kings and monks came into the Church together.
And from that time to this, never has the union of Church with
State prospered, but when she was united also with the hermitage
and the cell.' k

VIII. The same writer proceeds at once to another sin-
gular feature of early times.

' Moreover, in those religious ages, Christians avoided greatness
in the Church as well as in the world. They would not accept rank
and station on account of their spiritual peril, when they were no
longer encompassed by temporal trials. When they were elected
to the episcopate, when they were exhorted to the priesthood, they
fled away and hid themselves. They recollected our Lord's words,
" Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant ;"
and again, " Be not ye called Rabbi ; for one is your Master, even

h Mark x. 23. ' James ii. 5. k ' Plain Sermons,' vol. v. pp. 44, 5.

141

Christ, and all ye are brethren." k And when discovered and forced
to the eminence which they shunned, they made much lament, and
were in many tears. And they felt that their higher consideration
in the world demanded of them some greater strictness and self-
denial in their course of life, lest it should turn to a curse, lest the
penance of which it would defraud them here, should be visited on
them in manifold measure hereafter. They feared to have " their
good things" and "their consolation" on earth, lest they should not
have Lazarus's portion in heaven. That state of things indeed is
now long passed away, but let us not miss the doctrinal lesson
which it conveys, if we will not take it for our pattern.'

But why need I say more? why speak at length of the
burning desire or rather passion for martyrdom, so common
in the ages of persecution ? or of the unbounded veneration
for relics ? or the universal honour paid to celibacy, and the
habit of solemnly before the Church making vows of con-
tinence ? or of the great prominence given to that feature
in the Church, which is now called priestcraft ? or of the cir-
cumstance that presbyters were so generally called priests,
and that their office was considered to consist more essentially
in offering Sacrifice than in any other function ? or the habi-
tual thought and remembrance of Angels, and belief in their
guardianship both over individuals and over countries ?
Enough surely has been already detailed, to impress on
the most unimaginative and insensible the wide contrariety,
between the religious spirit which ruled respectively Nicene
Christendom and modern 'high -church' Anglicanism.

But sufficient justice will not be done the subject, without
drawing the attention of learned men in our Church, who
protest against Roman practices, to the following long extract
from the Dublin Review. The Roman Catholics have been
so long challenged to join issue on the question of Antiquity,
that they have a right to claim the most careful consideration
of their arguments, when they do enter upon that field of
discussion. It occurs in a criticism on a little work, called,
' A voice from Rome ;' which, while it displays a remarkable
desire to do justice to the Roman system, complains in very

k Matt. xx. 27 ; xxiii. 8.

142

severe terms of many practices which flourish at Rome. The
Reviewer thus proceeds :

' We may imagine, if we please, some Persian gentleman, of
ancient days, going on his travels, through Christian countries,
with that instinctive horror of idolatry, and of worship through
visible symbols, which became one accustomed to feed his piety
only on the ethereal subtlety of the solar rays ; most anxious to
collect all possible evidence why he should not be a Christian. It
is true, he understands very little of the languages of the countries
through which he passes, and cannot be supposed to enter much
into the habits, the ideas, and the feelings, of their inhabitants ;
but, with the help of a dictionary, and a valet de place, he can
make his way ; and, at any rate, he can see what the people do,
and read their books and inscriptions. What place does Christ
hold in their worship ? How does God appear in relation to men ?
Surely, we could easily imagine him struck with the prominent
place which the martyrs occupy in all the worship, in the
thoughts, and words, and feelings, of Christians ; whether clergy
or laity, learned or simple. Not a town does he come to but
he finds the church most frequented, nay, crowded with wor-
shippers, to be that of some martyr ; while smaller oratories,
in every direction, are favourite places of prayer, because they
commemorate some other Saint, or contain a portion of his ashes.
Not an altar does he any where see, which is not consecrated by
their relics. Before them hang lamps, garlands, and votive
offerings ; around them are palls of silk, and richest stuffs ; their
shrines are radiant with gold and jewels ; the pavement of the
temple is covered with prostrate suppliants, with the sick and
afflicted, come to ask help and consolation from Christ's servant :
the pilgrim from afar, scrapes, with simple faith, some of the dust
from the floor or from the tomb ; the preacher, ay, a Basil, or a
Gregory, or a Chrysostom, or an Ambrose, instead of cooling their
fervour, adds confidence, earnestness, and warmth to it, by a
glowing and impassioned discourse in its favour. 1 And if he after-
wards goes and interrogates these holy men, who, he might think
were carried off by their eloquence and the heat of discourse, what

1 See inter alia the Homilies of S. Chrys. on SS. Bernice, &c. torn. ii. p. 645,
ed. Bened. ; of St. Basil in xl. Mart. torn. ii. p. 149, ed. Bened. ; of St. Gregory
Nyssen on St. Theodoras, torn. iii. p. 580, ed. 1638.

143

is their real belief, as he cannot bring himself to go as far as they
seem to do, in veneration of saints and relics, he receives some
such answer as this : " What ? will you not reverence, but rather
contemn, those by whom evil spirits are expelled, and diseases
cured ; who appear in visions and foretel in prophecy ; whose very
bodies, if touched, or even honoured, are gifted with as much
power as their holy souls ; the drops of whose blood, or the
smallest symbol of whose sufferings, have as much efficacy as
their entire bodies ?" m Or what will he say if one of these grave
and learned men shall say to him, by way of extolling the glory
and merit of the martyrs : " Perhaps, as we were purchased by the
precious Blood of Jesus ... so some may be purchased by the
precious blood of martyrs ?" n Surely he may, at first sound of such
words, exclaim, that the saints are made equal to their Lord, and
that this must be a sad and an idolatrous departure from what He
may be supposed to have taught. And if he stops his ears, and
does not admit or accept of explanation, what must we expect
from him but a most mistaken report ?

" Again, he looks about him. At Antioch he finds the church
of St. Barlaain richly decorated with paintings ; but all represent-
ing the life and death of the saint : Christ is introduced, but as if
in illustration, or by chance, into the picture. At Nola he finds a
magnificent basilica, literally covered with mosaics and inscriptions,
full of the praises of saints, and especially martyrs. p At Rome he
sees the basilicas of the Apostles, of St. Lawrence and others,
adorned with similar encomiastic verses. Surely if he sends forth
" a voice from Rome," it will be to proclaim that, to him, all this
seems excessive reverence, and, if you please, worship, of men, no
matter how holy. We should like to know how some great
Father would have answered him : for that answer would just
serve our case at present. If he descend into the catacombs, the
favourite retreat of devout Christians, what does he find ? Martyrs
every where, their tombs hallow each maze of those sacred laby-
rinths, and form the altar of every chapel. Their effigies and
praises cover the walls ; prayers for their intercession are inscribed

m St. Gregory Naz. Or. ii. adv. Julian, Op. torn. i. p. 76, Par. 1609.
n Origen Exhort, ad Martyr. Op. torn. i. p. 309. Ed. De la Rue.
See the Homily probably by St. John Chrysostom, in St. Basil's works, torn. ii.
p. 141. Ed. Garnier.

P S. Paulini Op. Ep. xxxii. Ed. Murat. p. 194.

144-

on their tablets. He goes into the houses of believers ; memorials
of the saints every where. Their cups and goblets are adorned with
their pictures ; for one representation of our Saviour he finds
twenty of the Blessed Virgin, or of St. Agnes, or St. Lawrence, or
the Apostles Peter and Paul. q What shall his " voice " pronounce
these ? What encouragement will it give to his brother fire-wor-
shippers to embrace the Christian religion ? Once more, we should
have liked to See St. Jerome's answer to it.

' Certainly, if we had nothing remaining from the early Church
except the Liturgy, the ancient Christians would stand before us,
just as we do before others when they look only at our solemn
worship. In fact, the two Liturgies, theirs and ours, are the same.
An Anglican fancies that so far, and no further, are we conformable
to the practice of antiquity ; and he will agree with us ; unless he
takes objection to the prayers for the departed, and the com-
memoration of martyrs, invariably found in every ancient Liturgy,
as in ours, though carefully expunged by the wicked pretenders
to reform the perpetual practice of the Church of God those who
spoke of the Spouse of Christ as Pilate did of her Lord : " emenda-
tum ergo ilium dimittam." r But fortunately we have plenty of
other documents to shew us what the belief and practice of the
ancient Fathers was on extra-liturgical matters, such as form the
staple of publications like that before us. We have their homilies,
to which we have already referred ; but we have what, in this
respect, is even more interesting, a great body of familiar and
anecdotic matter in their epistles and biographies, which, more
than any thing else, enable us to judge whether those great and
holy men thought and felt Catholicly or Protestantly ; or, if you
please, Romanly or Anglicanly. The evidences of popular religion
(such is the term which Tract 90 most unfortunately brought into
vogue) are sought now-a-days in documents such as would and
could only be similarly preserved. The conversion of M. Ratisbonne,
for instance, will have probably to be found in after ages, in the
letters and brochures of the present day, or in some collection of
edifying histories ; and many of the verses and descriptions which
so much scandalize our modern traveller will possibly fall before a
change of taste, or edax vetustas ; and unless found worthy of a
place in the laborious collection of some Fabretti or Muratori,

i See Buonarotti's Osservazioni sopra alcuni Frammenti di vetri antichi.
r uc. xxiii. 16.

145

posterity will only know of them through the gleanings of curious
pryers into such matters for controversial purposes. In like manner,
many of those lesser feelings, those more homely sentiments and
thoughts, which were interwoven with the every-day religion of the
ancients, those tales which simple piety recorded for edification, not
for evidence, are not to be sought in the solemn records of public
deeds, nor often in earnest treatises on great dogmatical contro-
versies, but in the unbosoming of friend to friend in familiar letters,
or in the narrative of private virtues and domestic histories. If
much of these has been lost, sufficient remains to shew us the great
men of the Church bending from their doctor's chair to the warm-
hearted simplicity (called, in our age, credulity) of their poorest
children ; believing and proclaiming, with unsuspicious confidence,
tales of wonder, whereby God seemed glorified in His Saints ; and
telling them in such manner, that they form most interesting tests
for ascertaining with whom their feelings and belief accorded Rome
or England ; trustful, faithful, joyful Rome, or doubting, suspecting,
moody England.

' But we are not acting up to our promise. Let us, therefore,
come to the point. In proof that the Blessed Virgin is " worshipped
as the mother of mercies, temporal and spiritual," the author before
us appeals to the Baron de Bussiere's account of M. Ratisbonne's
conversion from Judaism, " which he distinctly attributes to the im-
mediate operation of the Virgin Mary; for he relates, that it was
effected by her actual appearance to him." (p. 16.) Now what is
meant to be granted, and what to be doubted here, we do not
know. We suppose no one doubts that M. Ratisbonne, from a
Jew, did become a Christian, and has become a religious ; having
abandoned home and friends, and given up a long-cherished- alli-
ance. Any one might as well deny that Sir R. Peel is prime min-
ister. That he went into the Church of St. Andrew a Jew, and
came out a Christian, is attested upon evidence as certain as any
fact can well be that of trustworthy and honest men, who saw
him and spoke with him before and after. For the change some-
thing must account. That it was a true conversion from Judaism
to Christianity, with great temporal sacrifices, is clear ; and such
a conversion must have been the work of Divine grace. How
communicated is the question. The only witness can be the con-
vert. He tells us it was through an apparition of the Mother of
God, who instructed him in the mysteries of our holy religion.

146

Are we to believe that a person is chosen by the Divine goodness
for an object of a most singular act of grace, at the moment that
he devises and tells an abominable falsehood, to rob Him of the
glory of it, and give it to another; by feigning a vision of the
Blessed Virgin ? What does the author of the " Voice" mean to
throw doubts on? On the apparition, as for such a purpose im-
possible ? Or on the consequences drawn from it ? Surely not
on the latter; for if the vision was true, it was right to consider
the blessed Mother of God, not as the source, but as the channel,
of a great " spiritual mercy."

< If he wish to insinuate that it would be derogatory to God's
honour, or incompatible with His revealed doctrines, to believe such
a mode of communicating grace and religious instruction possible ;
and, consequently, that the whole must be a figment or a delusion ;
we will, in answer, relate another similar story, in which not a Jew,
but a Bishop, was the party, and we will premise that we have it
on the best authority.

' The person to whom we allude was a young man of singular
piety and virtue. Left young an orphan, he devoted his youth to
study, in a celebrated university. There his assiduity in learning
was only surpassed by the purity and innocence of his life, which
stood the test of severe trials, and escaped the snares laid for him
by profligate companions, jealous of his virtue. Having made
himself master of all profane learning, he entered on a course
of sacred studies, under the most celebrated professor of the day,
and soon made considerable progress. He was, however, while yet
young, put into Orders, and even named Bishop, before he con-
sidered himself well enough grounded in theological knowledge ;
though probably his humility led him to exaggerate his deficiencies.
He found himself quite unequal to the task of preaching the
Divine Word, and on the eve of his first undertaking this duty, he
lay sleepless on his bed, in agitation and anxiety. Suddenly he
saw before him a venerable figure of an old man, whose counte-
nance, attitude, and garb, bespoke great dignity, but who, at the
same time, appeared most gracious and affable. Terrified with
this appearance, he leapt from his couch, and respectfully asked
him who he was, and for what purpose he had come. The old man
replied, in a gentle voice, that he had come to calm his doubts, and
solve his difficulties. This declaration soothed his fears, and made
him look toward his visitor with a mixture of joy and awe ; when

147

he perceived that by steadily pointing with his hand towards the
other side of the apartment, he seemed to wish to turn his attention
in that direction. Thither he consequently turned his eyes, and
there he beheld a lady of peerless majesty, and of more than human
beauty, so resplendent, that his eyes could not bear the brightness
of the vision, but he must needs bend them and his countenance
down, in reverential awe. Thus he listened to the conversation of
these two heavenly beings, which fully instructed him on the
subjects whereon he felt anxious, and at the same time informed
him who his gracious visitors were. For the lady, addressing the
other by the name of the Evangelist John, requested him to in-
struct the youth in the mystery of heavenly piety ; and he re-
plied, " that he was ready to do even this, to please the Mother
of his Lord, seeing that she desired it." And accordingly he
did so.

' Such is our counterpart to the narrative objected to by our
author respecting M. Ratisbonne's conversion. Now before giving
the names of our authority for this wonderful history, or of the
person to whom it refers, we will only beg our reader, if not
sufficiently versed in ecclesiastical biography, at once to answer
both points, to say to what Church or religion he considers either
the writer or the subject of this anecdote belongs. Could he
believe us if we told him that it happened to Bishop Ken, or
Bishop Wilson, or Archbishop Laud, or that we had transcribed
it as gravely told by some Anglican clergyman in a life of any of
them ? We are sure he could not. The idea of a Protestant
Bishop's learning his faith from a vision of the Blessed Virgin,
would be deemed repugnant to every principle and every feeling
of the religion. But were we to tell the reader that the Bishop
spoken of was St. Alphonsus Liguori, or even St. Charles, and
the narrator an Italian monk or priest, he would at once allow
that such an account from such a pen, concerning such a person,
was perfectly consistent with the principles of both ; and though,
if a Protestant, he might declare that he does not believe the
story, he will acknowledge that it does nof surprise him to find it
in such a place. It must be then a Catholic, and not a Protestant,
who thought or said he saw such a vision ; and it must be a
Catholic, and not a Protestant, who has recorded it as believing it.
And so it was. The Bishop who thus learnt his faith was St.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, only little more than two hundred years

148

after Christ, and the recorder of the vision is the brother of the
great St. Basil, St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa.* This would have
been a nice anecdote for our ancient note-taker upon the doctrines of
Catholics.

* We do not intend to pursue any very regular order ; but just to
pick up a few incidents, such as may shew us how our fathers in
the Faith thought upon matters whereon we are so censured. And
as we have begun with the saints, and the wonders wrought by
them, we will say a few words more concerning them. Let any
one take the trouble to read any of the miracles recorded by St.
Augustine in the twenty-second book of the City of God, and let
him apply the criterion we have already given, of asking himself
in what class of modern religious writings he would expect to meet
with similar occurrences. Take for instance the history which he
gives of a certain poor tailor at Hippo, named Florentius, who
being in great want of clothing, and having no means of procuring
it, went to the Church of the Twenty Martyrs, and prayed aloud
that he might be clothed. Some young men, professed scoffers,
overheard him, and followed him, jeering him as though he had
prayed to those twenty martyrs for fifty-pence to buy a coat. The
poor old man, however, going his way, found a fish cast on shore,
yet alive, which he sold, and a gold ring was moreover found in it,
and given to him by the honest purchaser with these words : See
how the twenty martyrs have clothed you. 1 Now we are pretty sure,
that many a poor Italian would, in his distress, do just what
Florentius did, go to some Church of the B. Virgin, or of some
saint, and kneeling before the shrine, pray as he did. And we are
equally clear that a party of English Protestant youths overhearing
him (the adolescentes irrisores now-a-days of Catholic practices)
would make as good a joke of the matter as did the young Hippo
fashionables. So that it requires little to settle the dramatis
persona of St. Augustine's anecdote on transporting it to modern
times, and give Catholic and Protestant each his part. And no
doubt either an ancient or a modern collector of proofs, that the
saints are made conveyers of " temporal mercies" in the Catholic
system, would find the history equally applicable to his purpose
with this exception however, that, as St. Augustine gives it among
other proofs that the Christian religion is still evidenced by

' De Vita S. Greg. Thaumat. Op. torn. iii. p. 545. ed. Par. 1638.
1 Op. torn. vii. p. 6G8. ed. Bened.

149

miracles, the ancient traveller would have turned it against Chris-
tianity, as the modern one would against Catholicity ; so completely
are the two identified.

' Let us take a case bearing more minute comparison. In a little
work containing the history of the Medal of the B. Virgin, com-
monly known by the epithet of miraculous, there are many extraor-
dinary but well-attested cases of conversion of hardened unbelievers
through the prayers of their friends, and the application of that
blessed symbol, to the unconscious sinner. These to flesh and
blood, to the dull sense and the cold heart of the present gene-
ration, are hard to believe, and they are either silently rejected or
openly scoffed at would to God if by our adversaries only ! For
instance, a soldier, we are told, in the military hospital at Paris,
is on the point of death, and rejects every succour of religion. In
vain the sisters of charity who attend him, in vain the good curate
make every effort to bring him to a right feeling on the necessity
of making his peace with God. He rejects every offer, and at
last with violent oaths and brutal rage, imposes silence on the
subject. Reduced to extremity, the pious sisters have recourse to
prayer to the B. Virgin, not expecting him to survive the night ;
and place a medal secretly in his bed. He sleeps tranquilly, and
on awaking mildly sends for the curate, receives the sacrament
with great devotion, and dies in peace." This is only one instance
out of many;" .... Those who would join in the "Voice
from Rome," cannot be much edified, nay, on the contrary, are
likely to be shocked and scandalized by such a narrative. " What
efficacy can there be supposed to exist in a mere symbol thus

11 Notice Historique, sixth ed. p. 76.

" As regards the doctrine implied in this extract, which, at first hearing, may
perhaps pain the conscience of some who deserve the tenderest and most considerate
dealing, it must be observed, first, that the difficulty is exactly the same, when, by
means of intercessory prayer alone, a sudden conversion is effected ; and, secondly,
that in neither case is there any real difficulty, because any amount of probation may
be crowded (if I may so speak) into the smallest portion of time ; e. g. the moment
of death may be indefinitely protracted to the individual, so as to allow opportunity
for God's full trial and justification of the soul. ' He can condense into an hour a
life of trial. He who frames the world in a moment, .... more wondrously can
He deal with the world of spirits, who are never subject to the accidents of matter.
He can, by one keen pang of agony punish the earthly soul, or by one temptation
justify it, or by one vision glorify it.' Newman's Parochial Sermons, vol. v. p. 59.
[W. G. W.]

150

placed, like a charm" (so they would say) " near, or on, a person
heedless or unconscious of its presence ? Who can believe that
' spiritual mercies' will thus he granted upon prayers to a saint ?
We must enter these down in our note-book, as the deceits or the
delusions of popery."

' Be it so, but we must have a corresponding one to enter into
the tablets of our ancient inquirer, and here it is : " There was a
man at Calama of high rank, named Martial ; advanced in years,
and having a great repugnance to the Christian religion. He had a
Christian daughter and son-in-law that year baptized. They en-
treated him, with many tears, to become a Christian ; but he posi-
tively refused, and drove them from him with violent indignation.
His son-in-law bethought him of going to the chapel of St. Stephen,
and there praying for him, to the utmost of his power, that God
would give him grace to believe, without delay, in Christ. He
did so, with many sobs and tears, and with the ardour of sincere
devotion. Departing, he took with him some flowers from the
altar, and, when it was night, placed them at the sick man's head.
He slept : but, before daybreak, he called out, requesting that
they would send for the Bishop, who happened to be with me in
Hippo. On hearing of this, he begged that some of the clergy
might be sent for. They came ; he declared himself a believer ;
and, to the astonishment and joy of all, was baptized. So long as
he lived, he had in his mouth the words, ' O Christ, receive my
spirit ;' though he did not know that these were the last words of
the blessed Stephen, when stoned by the Jews. They were, like-
wise, his last, for he soon expired."* Here, then, we have our
parallel ; each part of the modern narrative has its counterpart in
the ancient ; and if one is to be rejected, so is the other. There is,
in both, an obstinate infidel, or sinner, who will not be converted to
God : there are pious persons who pray to the saints ; there is a
badge or symbol of their intercession for the flower from the altar
means the same as the medal ; in each case it is placed in the
bed of the unsuspecting patient ; and, in both instances, he awakes
at morning to ask for God's minister to administer a Sacrament of
forgiveness. Yet, the one narrative is of France, in the nineteenth
century ; the other of Africa, in the beginning of the fifth (A. D.
427). How comes it that such accidental coincidences should be

J S. Aug. lib. xxii. cap. viii. De Civit. Dei, torn. vii. p. 668.

151

found, with such distances of time and place, save as fruits of one
tree, as plants of one seed, as evidences of one system ? And do not
they who find fault with such evidences, in our times and countries,
equally censure them in others ; and thereby place themselves in
the awkward position of scoffers of Christianity not of what they
are pleased, in the later instances, to nickname Popery ?

We could carry on much further this comparison between miracles
which are considered the production of modern Catholicity, and
such as are recorded with perfect confidence by ancient writers,
and in every instance draw the same conclusion a conclusion which
goes quite as far as dogmatical texts from homilies or treatises, to
prove the identity of ancient and modern Catholicity in those mat-
ters, on which the latter is most harshly treated as being a departure
from the former.

Connected with the subject, there is a point on which we wish to
touch, as being one of common reprehension not only in the little
work before us, but in many others of a similar tendency. We
allude to that species of partiality which seems to be shewn at a
given time, to a particular sanctuary, in which some shrine or image
is found, through which God is thought to work more wonderfully
than elsewhere. Such, at this moment, is the shrine of St. Philo-
mena, at Mugnano, or the church of St. Augustine, at Rome. It
would be easy to bring together many passages from ancient writers,
that shew the prevalence of a similar feeling and its consequent
practice; indeed the book and chapter in the works of the holy
doctor just named, to which we have more than once referred, will
furnish proofs of the peculiar regard in which certain places conse-
crated by relics (as the oratories of St. Stephen) were held by him.
But such feelings of veneration, confidence, and attachment towards
one Saint and his sanctuary, are by no one so well represented as
by the learned, the holy, and the truly amiable St. Paulinus. Few
of the Fathers let us more delightfully into the secrets of the Chris-
tian life and the Christian heart in ancient days, than the Bishop and
Poet of Nola. A patrician by birth, the scholar of Ausonius (who
compares him to the ancient classics) by education, a poor monk
by choice and vocation, the delight and friend of St. Augustine
St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, Sulpicius Severus, and all the great
and good men of his day, the admiration of the whole Church,
he exhibits in his letters a simplicity of faith, a tenderness of affec-

152

tion, an innocent playfulness, a cheerfulness, and an unaffected
humility, which most pleasingly combine with the depth of his
devotion, and the richness of his sacred learning. There are few
of the Fathers who gain more upon our every day and homelier
feelings, and make themselves more familiar with their readers, than
he does. But throughout his works he is the servant of St. Felix,
the glorious martyr of Nola. Near his tomb, though himself a
native of Gaul, he resides, a poor hermit by choice (having sold
all and given the price to the poor), and priest, afterwards Bishop,
of the See. To celebrate the anniversaries of that Saint, by poems
and festivities ; to build a basilica in his honour, and adorn it with
mosaics and verses ; to make his friends love him and believe in his
power, and bring them to visit the shrine of his father and patron,
as he styles him seem his most pleasing occupations. How Catho-
lic his language every where to Catholic ears ! How Popish it
must sound to Protestant ! By way of example : the " Voice from
Rome" cries out against the following occurrence, or at least the
feelings it excited. A young woman is run over by a cart (an empty
one, but Roman carts are not very light even when empty) close
to the church of our Lady, attached to the hospital of the Con-
solazione, while holy exercises were going on within. She escapes
what every one considers an imminent danger of death ; and the
people cry out " e un miracolo della Madonna !" This is brought
as a proof that temporal blessings are sought from the Blessed
Virgin. It so happens that St. Paulinus relates a somewhat
similar accident, and reasons much in the same way as those poor
Italians did. Fortunately, he had no English Protestants near.
A person of the name of Martinianus was coming to him with
letters, or rather with a message ; and, on his way from Capua to
Nola, a distance of about twenty miles, he met a man with mules
returning home, after discharging their loads just as one may now
meet them among the Tusculan hills, after they have taken wine
to Rome so he wisely bargained for a ride, which was given him
cheap.

" Nactus vacantem sarcina mulum (ut solent
Jumenta revocari domum)

Parvo breve per iter a?re conductum sedet."

When about half-way, the mule took fright and grew restive.

153

Martinianus (who had lately been more of a sailor than of a
horseman) was thrown, and flung to a distance. But, though
he fell among stones and thorns, he was neither bruised nor
scratched. How did this happen ? St. Paulinus has no diffi-
culty about it. Had he been expressing it in prose, and in Italian,
he would have said, " e un miracolo di San Felice." As he was
writing Latin verse, he describes and explains the event as fol-
lows :

" Medioque mox spatio viae
Muli pavore sessor excussus procul

Vectore subducto cadit.
In ora lapsus ora non laesit sua,

In saxa fusus et rubos
Nee sente vultum nee lapide artus contudit,

Felicis exceptus manu ;
Qui jam propinquantem aedibus fratrem suis,

Non passus occursu mail
Suis periculum in finibus capessere

Hostem removit invidum,
Et hunc fidelem compotem voti, suis

Confessor induxit loots,
Nostrisque juxta sedibus gratum intulit

Felix patronus fiospitem.""

St. Felix, therefore, St. Paulinus hesitates not to say, prevented
this poor man's being hurt, and brought him safe to his journey's
end ; because he was within some few miles of his church, and was
journeying towards his client Paulinus. Surely St. Paulinus was
a downright Romanist !

And so he was. For he made it a point to go to Rome every
year, as he repeatedly tells us, for the festival of the holy apostles
SS. Peter and Paul ; x and he was much consoled by the kindness
which the Roman Pontiff shewed him, in inviting him to Rome, to
commemorate the anniversary of his election. Now this brings us

u Poema xxii. 405 421, Op. col. 583, ed. Murat.

* " Romse, cum solemni consuetudine ad beatorum Apostolorum natalem venisse-
mus." Ep. xx. col. 108. " Cum Apostolicam solemnitatem, voti nostri et itineris
annui socius, celebrasset." Ep. xliii. col. 254.

154

to the point for which we first referred to Sf. Paulinus ; his attach-
ment to one particular sanctuary, and his affection to one saint,
there honoured. In one of his epistles to his friend Sulpicius
Severus (whom he had been disappointed in not meeting that year
in Rome), he reproaches him, half playfully, but not without seri-
ousness, for neglecting to come and visit, as he had promised,
"his lord (St.) Felix," as he calls him (Dominum meurn Felicem).
He bids him beware how he incurs his displeasure, by promising a
pilgrimage and not fulfilling it. " Scio quidem ;" he adds, " et in
Domino meo Felice viscera pietatis affluere ; sed tu quaeso, hoc eum
magis diligas et timeas, quo melior est et indulgentior . ut

tanto magis carissimum Dei metuas offendere, quanto promptius
dignatur ignoscere." y This surely is most unprotestant, and, there-
fore, most Catholic language. We could imagine it used by the
good archpriest of Mugnano (St. Paulinus was not yet Bishop when
he thus wrote) to some friend who had promised to visit the tomb
of his patroness, St. Philomena, and had disappointed him. Had
such a letter come from him, what a rich page it would have made
in a modern English traveller's note-book ! For want of it, there-
fore, we beg to offer him that of the curate's neighbour in place and
in faith St. Paulinus.

' Before shutting up the volume of his works, there is another
topic, allied to the preceding, which we may be glad to hear him
on. But we must introduce it by a little domestic history, on which
again we will crave the reader's opinion, whether the parties in it
were Catholic or Protestant.

' There lived in retirement, in a house of religious women dedi-
cated to God, a nun of singular piety and wisdom, the sister of two
Bishops, both distinguished for the learning of their writings and
the holiness of their lives. One, the more celebrated one, was just
dead, and his loss was deplored as a public calamity by all good
men. The other, having a little leisure after this event, resolved
to go and visit his saintly sister, whom he had not seen for many
years. The distance was great: and when he was within a day's
journey from the place where she lived, he had at night a most re-
markable vision, which turned into fear the hopes of the future.
"For I seemed to myself," such is his own account, "to bear in

y Ep. xvii. col. 96.

155

my hands the relics of martyrs, from which darted forth a splendour
like that of a burnished mirror, held against the sun ; so that my
eyes were dazzled by the brilliancy of the light. Three times that
night did this vision come before me." 1 Unable to divine its mean-
ing, he looked forward to events to expound it. As he approached
the monastery, he inquired about his sister, and heard for the first
time that she was somewhat indisposed. His coming had, in the
meantime, been made known, and a large concourse of persons went
out to meet him. But the holy virgins modestly awaited him in the
church, and after he had prayed, and had given them his blessing
(they bending lowly to receive it), they retired. On entering the
convent, he found his sister very ill in her cell ; but instead of a
bed, she lay upon a plank on the ground, with another for her
pillow. We will not detain our readers with the edifying account
of her words and prayers in her last hours ; how she dismissed
her brother when the sound of the vesper's chaunt reached her cell,
that he might not omit this duty ; a how when she closed her own
sublime prayer, she signed herself with the cross on her eyes, her
mouth, and her breast ; and how her last act was to raise her hand
again to do so. b These things may serve to help the' reader in his
judgment, as to the religion of the holy persons engaged; but are not
what we are seeking. The pious virgin thus expires, and a religious
matron, the friend of the deceased, undertakes, as she had promised,
to prepare her holy remains for interment. We will now give the
words of the bishop her brother. " Vestiana arranging with her
own hands that sacred head, and having her hand under the neck,
exclaimed, looking towards me, ' See what sort of a necklace this
saint wore ; and at the same time loosening a string from behind the
neck, stretched out her hand and shewed us an iron cross and a
ring of the same metal, which both hung, by a thin cord, over
her heart. Upon this I said : ' Let us share this inheritance. You
keep the cross as a memorial ; I will be content with this ring as
my legacy, for this likewise has the cross carved upon its boss.'
Whereupon she, looking more closely at it, said to me : ' You
have not made a bad choice ; for the ring is hollow under the
boss, and in it is inserted a portion of the wood of life, (the true
cross,) and thus the cross engraved above rightly indicates that which
lies underneath.' " c

Ubi inf. p. 188. a P. 192. b P. 195.

c S. Greg. Nyss. in Vita S. Macrinae, Oper. torn. ii. p. 198.

156

' Will any reader hesitate in deciding of what religion were all
the persons here engaged ? Were they Anglicans ? We should be
indeed glad to know, how many crosses not golden ones, worn as
vain ornaments outside but of inferior metals, concealed, and ly-
ing over the heart, and how many reliquaries similarly placed,
could be collected in the households of English Bishops ? But look
at the neck of any swarthy peasant who open-breasted digs the
fields or plucks the vines of Italy, and you will find the " thin
cord" around it, that sustains some similar memorial of Christ's
passion. Nay, in either of our islands, we hesitate not to say, that
the poor Catholic might be distinguished from the Protestant by
these very badges the cross, or the relic, or the medal, or even
the ring with a cross for its posey, suspended round the neck, and
lying on the breast, in life and after death. We have known the
body of a shipwrecked Catholic so recognised at once. How tightly
and closely does a " little thin cord " like this bind together the
belief and feelings of the old and modern Church, and prove them
still the same ! How home to the Catholic heart does such a
trifling incident casually recorded come I Come, how full of con-
victions, of encouragements, of consolation I How joyfully even
can one bear to be taxed with superstition in company with the
holy Macrina, the sister of St. Basil, and her biographer St. Gre-
gory of Nyssa ! For these are the persons of whom we have been
writing.

' But if those who had chosen such complete poverty as this holy
nun, wore but a reliquary of iron, it must not be fancied that this
argued any light estimation of so precious a relic as a portion of
the holy Cross : for they that could, or might without violation of
a religious engagement, would wear it enshrined in gold. We
have a beautiful letter of St. Paulinus upon this subject. Severus
had asked him for relics of martyrs, for the consecration of a
church which he was building. He replies, that if he had but " a
scruple of their sacred ashes to spare he would send it." But as
he required all that he had for his own new church, he sends him
another present to add to the relics which he must get elsewhere ;
this was a particle of the " divine Cross." " Invenimus quod digne,
et ad basilica? sanctificationem vobis, et ad sanctorum cinerum cu-
mulandam benedictionem mitteremus, partem particular de ligno
divinae Crucis." The portion which he sends is, he informs him,
almost invisible, but he must believe it to possess all the power and

157

virtue of the entire Cross ; a present safeguard, and a pledge of
eternal life. " Accipite magnum in modico munus ; et in segmento
pene atomo astulae brevis sumite munimentum praesentia, et pignus
aeternae salutis. Non angustietur fides vestra carnalibus oculis
parva cernentibus, sed interna acie totam in hoc minimo vim Crucis
videat." The relic was enclosed in a small gold tube, <f tubello
aureolo rem tantae benedictionis inclusimus." d When afterwards
he sends Severus verses for the inscriptions in his church, he sends
two copies for the altar ; one in case he puts this particle of the
holy Cross with the other relics, the other should he prefer to keep
it to wear himself. The reasons which he gives in favour of the
latter alternative are perfectly Catholic. " If, however, you would
rather keep this blessed portion of the Cross at hand, for your daily
protection and care, lest once shut up in the altar, it may not be
ready for you and at hand, when wanted for use," e &c. f

Surely such views on the subject of our present duties,
as I sketched in the last chapter, are immensely more con-
siderate to humble and obedient members of our Church
than is the bidding them to follow Antiquity, if this be An-
tiquity.

With a few words on two more subjects I shall conclude
the present chapter.

Another friend of mine, also a clergyman of our Church,
has furnished me with the following quotations for publica-
tion, in proof of the belief, entertained by the respective
writers, of some intermediate suffering to be endured by the
soul, between the moment of death and of final bliss. He
has himself devoted his whole life to a study of the Fathers ;
and has been led by that study, without any knowledge of
later writers, to entertain a similar belief. He also is ready
to give his name, should his statement be questioned.

' In regard to intermediate suffering between death and
final bliss, it will be found that on the whole there certainly
was a strong tendency towards a belief in it, in those ages
which our Church commends to our study and admiration.
In his Commentary on the Romans, viii. . 11, Origen
speaks thus :

d Ep xxxi. col. 189. e Ep. xxxii. coL 201. . f ' Dublin Review,'

Dec. 1843.

158

" The end of all things is at hand, and in regard to such as are
blessed, whether they come from Israel or even from the Gentiles, it
is the word of Gospel doctrine in this life present which purifieth
them, to make them such as they were to whom the Lord said,
Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
But he that hath despised the purifying by the word of God and
the Gospel doctrine, reserveth himself unto sad and penal purifi-
cations ; so that the fire of Gehennah may purge him whom neither
the doctrine of the Apostles nor the word of the Gospel hath
purged, according to that which is written, ' I will purge thee with
fire unto purity.' (Is. i. 25. LXX. but the Heb. implies a purgation
by fire.) But in this same purgation, which is applied by the pe-
nalty of fire, in what long times and during how many ages the
torment will be exacted of sinners, He only can know, to whom the
Father hath delivered all judgment ; who so loved His creatures,
as to have emptied Himself for them from the form of God, and
to have taken the form of a servant, humbling Himself even unto
death, as willing that all men should be saved, and come to the
knowledge of the truth. Still we ought always to bear in mind,
that the Apostle would have the present passage (Rom. xi. 25 27)
reckoned a mystery, so that the faithful and perfect should hide
within themselves such meanings as these, as a mystery of God,
and not offer them indiscriminately to the imperfect and less
capable.'

* Here we see he contemplates a doctrine of intermediate
suffering, as held in the hearts of men : whether or no his
statement of it tallies with the subsequently expressed de-
velopment of it. It is true that St. Jerome, c. Pelag. i. 28,
speaks against some such passage as this ; yet Vallarsi has
shewn upon the place that St. Jerome himself held a similar
doctrine. He refers to the closing words of his commentary
on Isaiah.

" This ought we to leave to the knowledge of God alone, seeing
that it is not His mercies only, but His torments also, which are
justly balanced ; and that He knoweth whom to judge, and how to
do so, and for how long. Let us only say what it befits man's
frailty to say ; Lord, correct me not in Thine anger, neither chasten
me in Thy displeasure. And like as we believe that the torments
of devils and all the ungodly, that say in their heart, ' There is no

159

God/ are everlasting ; so in regard to such sinners and ungodly as
are Christians, whose works are to be tried in the fire and purged,
we suppose that the sentence of the Judge will be bounded and
mingled with clemency."

' When Jerome and Origen agree, we may be pretty sure
that the doctrine is one generally received, even if there be
no explicit statement of it sanctioned by the Church. The
notion of repentance, repentance continuing after death, is
found in St. Clement, Origen's master, Strom, iv. . 37,
p. 580, Potter. After quoting Plato's speculations on the
subject, he adds :

" There are two sorts of penitence ; the commoner one is fear,
ensuing on what has been done, but the more proper one is a dis-
gust of the soul with itself from conscience, whether in this world
or elsewhere ; for in no place is God's gracious dealing inert."

' Again, Strom, vi. .46, p. 764 :

"If the Saviour preached to all that were in prison, then all that
believed will be saved, though they be of the Gentiles, if there at
least they have confessed Him, since the punishments of God are
salutary and corrective, (Trat^euncot,) leading to a conversion and
repentance of the sinner, rather than choosing his death ; and this
[the rather], as the souls when freed from the body, darkened though
they may be by passions, are able to see more clearly from their
being no longer attached to the flesh."

' And soon after :

" I think it is thus shewn that the gracious God and the mighty
Lord saveth with justice and equity towards such as repent, whether
in this world or elsewhere ; for it is not here only that the ener-
getic Power of God reacheth, but it is every where and always
energizing."

' So too, vii. . 78, p. 879, of the perfect man he says,

" He being drawn along by his own hope, tasteth not of the
good things that be in the world, feeling a high-minded dislike for
all herein, and pitying those who after death by the correction of
punishment are brought to an unwilling confession" &c.

160

' With this last passage the following instructive passage of
St. Ephrem will come in a natural connection. It will be
seen that he considers prayers for the dead to be to procure
relief of their sufferings, which indeed is sufficiently apparent
from his frequent use of them (in his Necrosima) for others ;
though more forcibly so from the way in which he asks them
of others for himself in his last testament (ap. Assem. B.O. i.
p. 143, or, with slight variations, among the Opera Gr. ii.
p. 401).

" Come, my brethren, stretch me out, for my life is giving way,
neither am I long to stay ; by prayer, by psalms, by offerings, give
me provisions for the way ; and when my thirty days be full, make,
brethren, a commemoration for me, for the dead are profited by
offerings that the living make

" Be thou patient ; from the Scriptures, if thou wish it, will I
prove it. Moses, three generations after, to Reuben gave life by
blessings. If the dead are not profited, why should Amram's son
have blessed him? And if the departed feel not, hear the Apostle,
what he said : ' If the dead rise not, why then are they baptized
for them ;' and if the men of the house of Mattathias, (who as a
type [of us] were possessed of the feasts and commemorations, as
ye have read in the Scriptures, 2 Mace. xii. 44,) by offerings re-
mitted the sins of those that fell in the war, that were heathenish
in their deeds and evil in their conversation, how much more shall
the priests of the Son remit the sins of the departed by their holy
offerings and the prayers of their mouths ?"

' We see that St. Ephrem here contemplates Moses as
praying Reuben out of the curse under which Jacob left him,
and insists on the Apostle's words as at least implying the
power of the living to affect the state of the dead.

' To this may be appended the following passages, selected
from many out of St. Augustine, whose frequent assertion
of this doctrine is the more important, because it shews the
conviction of one who reviewed and systematized all that had
been done before him ; like St. Paul, labouring more abun-
dantly than they all.

' In his Enchiridion ad Laurent. . 29, the practices of

161

the Church for the commendation of the dead are not op-
posed to that text of the Apostle.

' We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that
every man may receive the things that he did in the body, whether
they be good or evil.' Because each must have obtained a degree
of merit while he lived in the body, that such practices may be
available to him. For it is not to all that they are availing ; and
why not, save because of the different life each has led in the
body. When the oblations, whether of the altar, or of alms of any
kind are put up for all the departed that were baptized, for the
very good they be thanksgivings ; for those not very bad, propitia-
tions ; for the very bad, if they are even no advantage to the dead,
yet they are consolatory in their way to the living. But those to
whom they are of avail, they either are so far of avail as to obtain
a plenary remission, or at all events that the condemnation itself
should be more tolerable*

' On the thirty-seventh Psalm, which, according to the
Vulgate, begins, O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine indigna-
tion, neither amend me in Thy wrath.

" Lord <kc. May I not be amongst those to whom Thou wilt
say, Go into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels I
Neither amend me in Thine anger. Purge me in this life, and
make me such as not further to need the emendatory fire, on ac-
count of there being those who are to be saved, yet so as by fire.
Why ? but because here they are building on the foundation wood,
hay, stubble ; did they build gold, silver, precious stones, they then
would be safe from both fires, not only from that eternal one which
to eternity is to torment the ungodly, but even from that which is to
amend those who are to be saved by fire. For it is said, ' Him-
self shall be saved, yet so as by fire.' And because it is said, ' shall
be saved,' that fire is made light of. So, plainly, though they be
saved by fire, yet that fire will be less bearable (gravior) than any
thing man can suffer in this life. Yet you know how much the
bad have suffered here and can suffer : but what they have suffered
is no more than the good might suffer. For what is there that any
malefactor, robber, adulterer, abandoned, or sacrilegious, man has
suffered at the hand of the law, that the martyr has not suffered

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in confessing Christ ? The evils that are here then are far the
most bearable : yet you see how men will do any thing you bid
them not to suffer these. How much better if they were to do
what God bids them, in order not to suffer those less bearable
evils !

To this may be added a vision of St. Perpetua, who teas
martyred in the year 203. I take the account from Alban
Butler, (March 7,) but another of my friends, learned in the
Fathers, has kindly consulted the original document, and is
prepared, if required, to vouch for its authenticity.

" A few days after receiving sentence, when we were all together
in prayer, I happened to name Dinocrates, at which I was astonished,
because I had not before had him in my thoughts ; and I at that
moment knew that I ought to pray for him. This I began to do
with great fervour and sighing before God ; and the same night
I had the following vision : I saw Dinocrates coming out of a dark
place, where there were many others, exceeding hot and thirsty, his
face was dirty, his complexion pale, with the ulcer in the face of which
he died at seven years of age, and it was for him that I had prayed.
There seemed a great distance between him and me, so that it was
impossible for us to come to each other. Near him stood a vessel
full of water, &c. ... By this / knew that my brother was in pain,
but I trusted I could by prayer relieve him ; so I began to pray for
him, beseeching God with tears day and night, that he would grant
my request. The day we were in the stocks I had this vision :
I saw the place which I had beheld dark before, now luminous ;
and Dinocrates with his body very clean and well-clad, refreshing
himself, and instead of his wound a scar only. I awaked, and
knew he was relieved from his pain"

Now I do entreat my readers not to put these citations
impatiently on one side ; but fairly to ask themselves the
question, is it possible that Martyrs and Doctors of the
Church should have expressed, in a natural, unsuspicious,
straightforward manner, such sentiments as these, if the
habitual feeling prevalent in the early centuries, on the
condition of ordinary Christians between death and final
salvation, had in the least resembled that current among

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English ' high-churchmen ; ' or whether it must not have
been much more nearly akin to the present belief of Roman
Catholics ?

The other subject, of which it appears to me that common
fairness requires a notice, is the controversy between Bishop
Wiseman and Mr. Palmer on the Intercession and Invocation
of Saints. Since, however, it might possibly appear to some,
that in alluding to this controversy I am going out of my
way to attack Mr. Palmer's views, I beg most distinctly to
say, that I have no personal complaint whatever to make
against Mr. Palmer; on the contrary, that his quotations
from my articles have been, on the whole, perfectly fair, and
that in using the severe language which he has adopted con-
cerning them, he has been merely performing that which,
according to his theological views, was even a duty. I can
assure him distinctly, that the great dislike I entertain to
those views existed in its full extent, before I could have
had the most distant expectation of being ever brought into
direct conflict with himself.

But on the controversy in question, I really think that
Bishop Wiseman has not received justice. The circum-
stance that several of his quotations were of very doubtful
authority, has made people forget how many remain, of
undeniable authenticity, and very cogent in their effect.
Attention has been drawn to this, in a pamphlet published
at the latter end of last year ; of which I should indeed find
it impossible to defend the tone in many parts, but which
seems so very strong in its main argument, as peremptorily
to require an answer. My business here, however, is with
the original controversy.

The following passages, quoted by Bishop Wiseman, are
allowed to be genuine by Mr. Palmer in his answer.

A monument was found at Ostia, to the following effect :
" A. A. Bassus and Honorata his wife with his children devout
to God and the Saints." (p. 39.) Mr. Palmer in his answer
' fixes the transaction alluded to in the year 433.' (pp. 38, 9.)

" St. Ambrose encourages virgins to chastity, by the thought of

M 2

164

how" St. Mary "will receive them at their deaths, and present them to
her Son as His chaste spouses," (p. 41, Palmer, p. 40.)

St. Maximus : " may this our patron " (St. Eusebius of Vercelli)
"... on our going out of this world . . . receive us into his abode and
into his bosom like Abraham, and as a happy shepherd acknowledge
us for his sheep." (p. 42, Palmer, p. 41.)

Martyrs " living in the body guard us, and going forth from the
body they receive us" (p. 42, Palmer, p. 41.)

St. Basil. " These (the Forty Martyrs) are they who, having
obtained possession of our country, like close-set towers defend it
from the incursions of our enemies." (p. 55, Palmer, p. 46.)

St. Paulinus, the friend and correspondent of St. Augustine, ad-
dressed the (departed) Confessor, Clarus : " Do thou also protect
thy equals, . . . labour in common with Martin, . . . and may your
wing ever protect us." f (p. -55, Palmer, p. 46.)

St. Prudentius, addressing (the departed) St. Lawrence : " Mayest
thou embrace thy fellow-citizens in thy bosom, and nourish them
with paternal love." ' (p. 56, Palmer, p. 47.)

St. Prudentius again. " She (St. Eulalia) placed under the feet
of God regards these things and .... cherishes her own people
(populos suos fovet" f ). (p. 57, Palmer, p. 47.)

St. Leo : " If anything is in our times rightly done by us, it is
to be attributed to [St. Peter's] work, to [St. Peter's 3 government."
(p. 58, Palmer, p. 48.)

St. Gregory of Nyssa says, that a certain person of St. Ephrem's
own name had been taken prisoner, and when in great danger and
" expecting death, he simply mentioned thy name " (he is addressing
the Saint) " saying, Holy Ephrem, help me, and he escaped the
snares of death." (p. 59, Palmer, p. 49.)

St. Gregory Nazianzen, addressing St. Cyprian : " Do thou look
down mercifully upon us, and direct our speech and life; feed or help
to fee.d this holy flock . . . drive away the wolves." (p. 60, Palmer,
p. 49.)

Pope Damasus, the patron of St. Jerome, addressing St. Felix :
" Thou who givest all things to them who diligently come to thee." f
(p. 63, Palmer, p. 51.)

St. Prudentius. " Unworthy, I acknowledge and know to be heard
by Christ Himself; but through the patronage of the martyrs he may
obtain a cure." f (p. 64, Palmer, p. 51.)

f On these quotations Mr. Palmer observes that they occur in poetry. Valeat
quantum.

165

Several more passages might be quoted, the genuineness
of which is equally acknowledged by Mr. Palmer. With-
out at all intruding myself into the controversy between
Mr. Palmer and his new assailant, which is not yet, I sup-
pose, brought to a close, the following observations of
the latter writer are surely too true to admit of any
denial.

" Let [any Anglican clergyman] in a sermon before the most
enlightened audience that England can produce, before the Uni-
versities, or the very bench of Bishops, use the expressions which
are so common in the homilies of the Fathers . . . about the inter-
cession of the Saints, their patronage and protection, the veneration
due to them and their relics ; let him even guard all these expres-
sions with explanations ; still he will be considered as broaching doc-
trines the most unsound and dangerous to the Church." *

Or, in other words, doctrines, which widely prevailed
throughout Christendom in the fourth and fifth centuries,
would not be for a moment tolerated by ordinary English
' high-churchmen ' in the nineteenth.

7. As the controversy proceeds, it will not be a matter of
surprise if ' high-churchmen ' abandon their own ground, and
take refuge in the three first centuries. Considering indeed
that the Councils, which give any sanction to the damnatory
clauses in the Athanasian Creed, belong wholly to the later
period, and considering too how firm a ' locus standi' these
Councils have been ordinarily considered by ' high-church-
men' to afford, such a step would be a bold one. On the
other hand, of course at a time when the whole Christian
world was kept in a state of separation and depression by
repeated persecutions, there was much less opportunity for
its real nature to display itself than at later periods ; and
those accordingly who are really, though most unconsciously,
opposed not merely to later developments, but to Apo-
stolical Christianity itself, will be less triumphantly and
signally refuted from the scanty remains of those centuries,

s Character of Rev. W. Palmer as a controversialist, &c. p. 5G.

166

than from the copious records of the Nicene era. However,
should such a position be openly maintained and defended
by ' high-churchmen,' then will be the time for those com-
petent to the task to assail and overthrow it.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION.

I. IT is very plain then, that our present system can lay
claim to no protection from adverse criticism, on the ground
of any supposed similarity to the system of earlier ages ;
and having therefore disposed of this obstacle in our path,
we may at once proceed with our inquiry. Moreover, since
the one vitally important question, in regard to any religious
body, is the nature of that inward and personal religion
which its system tends to foster ; and since all outward forms,
ordinances, rules, discipline, are more worthless than chaff
or dust, except so far as they minister to such religion ; the
first matter for our consideration will be, the real value of
that religious type or character now in esteem among us.
Hence we must examine at starting with some little precision,
however incompletely, the great and cardinal question of
Justification ; for the general religious character seen in any
Church, depends of course mainly on the answer given by
each one for himself to the inquiry, ' by what feelings and
acts shall I most please God ? ' or, in other words, ' whereby
am I justified?'

On the Lutheran answer to this inquiry, which has an
extensive reception and still more extensive influence within
our Church, it may perhaps be remembered, that language
has been used of no ordinary severity 3 in some articles of the
British Critic. This language (which has given occasion to
much comment) I now proceed to defend ; and in doing so,
it will be impossible perhaps to act more safely, in order to
determine the real essence of Lutheran doctrine, than by
taking along with us the remembrance, what it is which

a ' Rabid violence of language ' is imputed to me by the Bishop of Ossory.

168

Lutheranism professes to accomplish. Now its great
achievement, according to the unanimous voice of all its
advocates, is, that it provides a full security for personal
holiness, at the same time that it rescues the believer from
all fear of God's wrath to come. It is impossible then to
adopt a course more free from the possibility of cavil, than to
make this, its pretension, the test for discovering its real
nature and meaning; an attempt of no ordinary difficulty,
when we consider the cloudy language and inconsecutive
thought so prevalent among its supporters. b And not to
incur the imputation (which would indeed be well deserved)
of taking an unfair advantage, by comparing a system which
at least lives and energizes, not with another living system,
but with the uncertain and unpractical theories built by
speculative men on ancient records and writings, I will
willingly and most gladly take, as the representative of
Catholicism, the Roman doctrine, as decreed at Trent and
as practically carried out in foreign Churches : a course by
which I shall at once consult my own preference, and give to
my opponents every advantage they can possibly desire.

The fact to which I have adverted, I mean the extremely
vague and wavering statements put forth by such defenders
of Lutheran doctrine as I had met with, and the extraordinary
intellectual feebleness which seemed to characterize their
efforts, I had always felt as a painful difficulty, when duty

b Mr. Scott, of Aston-Sandford, speaks very candidly of ' that amazing diversity
of opinion, and that unaccountable inconsistence and perplexity, which are observable
in the conversation, sermons, and writings of many evangelical persons, on this appa-
rently plain and most important subject,' (viz. the nature of saving faith,) p. 691, of
the edition of 1834.

c I have read great part of Luther's Commentary on the Galatians ; none of
Calvin's works, except a few pages of his Institutes on the subject of faith, which
have been shewn me. I had no intention of alluding to Luther personally, as his
name occurs very seldom in my articles ; but as I happened to hear, that an authority
Of some weight had expressed an opinion that I had spoken against Luther, without
knowing more of him than the extracts from his writings in Mcehler's ' Symbolism ;'
and as I wish to meet all the tangible charges which I am able to hear of ; I hope
it will not appear impertinent to introduce a note here, and to defend myself from
this imputation. I answer, first, that I do know more of Luther than extracts ;
having read continuously great part of his principal work : and, secondly, that

169

seemed to require the expression of my intense abhorrence
of the doctrine itself. I will not deny at all, that I attributed

the extracts alone, with which one meets, whether in Mrehler or elsewhere, are
quite sufficient to justify all that I have ever published in his individual dispa-
ragement. First, I most certainly took up the Commentary on the Galatians, with
an expectation of finding much to agree with. I did not expect to find it very
different from other ' evangelical' works ; and in them I had often met with
very much which made me feel great sympathy with the writers, and which
deepened my perception of the points of agreement among all serious Christians ;
even though united with more or less of a painful character, and certainly with
a far lower standard of holiness, with far less realisation of the sinfulness of sin,
and far less depth of spiritual experience, than I find in Roman Catholic devo-
tional works. Alas ! I found, in Luther's commentary, no such points of sym-
pathy and agreement as I hoped. Never was my conscience so shocked and re-
volted by any work, not openly professing immorality. On looking at it again
more recently, I think I hardly did it justice in my first perusal ; probably
the naked expression of his doctrine on Justification (which, in its undisguised
deformity, had never been previously presented to my imagination) so seized
on my mind, that I did not sufficiently observe the various happy and cre-
ditable inconsistencies which were to be found in it. I now perceive in one place
(and very likely the same may be found in other passages), that he distinctly
admits that Christians after justification, continually advance in conquest over
sin ; an admission which, however inconsistent with his fundamental principle,
(on which I speak in the text,) is still a comfortable fact in judging of
his personal character. Still, however, I can see nothing in it shewing any spi-
rituality of mind whatever, or any deep and true insight even into human corrup-
tion, much less into the marvels of grace ; while there is very much of a most contrary
character.

His general principle is very plainly stated in a multitude of passages ; of
which I shall be doing him every justice in taking, as a sample, those which
follow. ' We thus teach faith and the true method of Christianity ; that man is
first instructed by the Law in knowledge of himself, that he may learn to say

"to Thee only I have sinned," &c Then at length he rightly

understands what Paul means, when he says that man is the servant and
captive of sin. . . . Here then arises a sigh of this kind : " who then can bring
me help ? " for man, thus terrified by the Law, wholly despairs of his own
strength, he looks around and sighs for the help of a Mediator and Saviour.
Here then comes in season the saving word of the Gospel, and says, " be of
good cheer, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee ; believe in Jesus Christ, crucified
for thy sins." . . . This is the beginning of salvation ; in this manner we are freed
from sin, are justified, and eternal life is given us, not for our own deservings or

works, but for the faith whereby we apprehend Christ Christ definitively is

not a lawgiver, but a Propitiator and Saviour.' On chap. ii. v. 16, vol. 5. pp. 308,9.
(The references are made to the edition in seven folio volumes, dated WitenbergEe,
1554.) 'Hence it maybe sufficiently understood what is the difference between
the Law and the Gospel. The Law does not justify, because it only

170

this cloudiness of statement and thought to the circumstance,
that no consecutive thinker could adopt this doctrine, without

teaches what we ought to do ; but the Gospel .... teaches what we ought to
receive. Therefore the Law and the Gospel are two doctrines wholly contrary.
.... Moses, with his Law, is a task-master, ordering us to work and give :
in a word, he requires of us. On the contrary, the Gospel does not require of
us; but gives grace, and desires us with outstretched hands to receive what is

offered If the Gospel is a gift, and offers a gift, therefore it requires

not/ting.' 1 (On chap. iii. v. 2, pp. 329, 330.) ' When thou seest a man filled with
fear and sorrow from the consciousness of sin, say, Thou distinguishest not rightly
brother ; thou placest the law over thy conscience (ponis legem in conscientiam)
which should have been placed over thy flesh. Awake, rise up, and think that
thou must believe in Christ, the conqueror of the Law and sin ; by that faith
thou shall pass over the Law and enter into grace, where is no Law nor sin. Al-
though the Law and sin are, yet are they nothing to thee, for thou art dead to the
Law and to sin.' (On chap. ii. v. 19, p. 316.)

' Here foolish reason is again offended, and chides us, saying, ' in that ye teach
that men should do nothing for the obtaining of so great a gift, except hearing the
word, this seems .... to make men careless, sluggish,' &c Our adver-
saries think that faith, by means of which the spirit is received, is a thing
altogether trifling and of no account.' Here then, observe, he applies himself to
meet this objection ; to explain in what the difficulty of salvation consists. ' But
how difficult and arduous a thing it is, I experience myself, and so do all who with
me seriously embrace it. It is readily said, that by the hearing of faith alone, the
Spirit is received ; but not so easily heard, received, believed, and retained as
said.' (On chap. iii. v. 2, p. 331.) In another place he explains his meaning more
clearly ; and particular attention should be paid to this passage. ' But this is the
work, this the labour, that one thus terrified and dismayed by the Law be able
again to raise himself and say : " Now I am enough bruised in heart and dis-
turbed ; the time of the law has afflicted me enough ; now is the time for grace,
and for hearing Christ, from Whose mouth proceed the words of grace.". . . Yea, so
great is the foolishness of the human heart, that not only it does not, in that conflict
of conscience, when the Law has done its duty and exercised its true function,
seize the doctrine of grace which most certainly promises and offers remission of
sins for Christ's sake, but even seeks for more of laws whereby it may provide
for itself. " If I live longer," it says, " I will amend my life ; I will do this and
that ; I will enter a monastery ; I will live most sparingly, content with bread
and water ; I will walk bare-footed," &c. Here, unless thou doest the very contrary,
unless thou dost leave Moses, with his Law, for the careless and hardened, and
in those fears and horrors of mind dost seize Christ, as having suffered, having
been crucified, and having died for thy sins, thy salvation is desperate, (plane
actum est de salute tua.)' (On chap. iii. v. 19, p. 359.) The one difficulty of
salvation, he says in another place, is to believe that our own sins, grievous as
they are, are fully forgiven for Christ's sake. It is easy to believe that lioly
men are forgiven ; but to believe that I, a most miserable sinner, am forgiven,
this is most difficult. ' Thou wouldest easily say and believe that Christ the Son of

171

being prepared to plunge, theoretically at least, into the lowest
depths of depravity ; whereas all must allow, that on every

God was given for the sins of Peter, Paul, and tlie other Saints, whom we account
worthy of such a grace. But it is most difficult that thou, who judgest thyself
unworthy of that grace, shouldest say and believe from thy heart, that Christ

was given for thy sins, thy unconquered, infinite, and vast sins Here

weak nature and reason' recoil, here they dare not approach God, nor promise

themselves that so great a treasure is to be given them freely In this

therefore is the whole force of eternal salvation placed, that these words [' for our
sins'] are taken as serious and true.'

The sins of one seeking justification are thus described in a passage
just preceding the last sentence. x ' O Satan . . . why dost thou require
from me righteousness, when I possess nothing except sins, and those true
and most grievous, not feigned or slight ? such as ... the extreme of
unbelief, (summa infidelitas,) . . . contempt of God, hatred of Him, igno-
rance of Him, blasphemy of Him,' &c. (On chap. i. v. 4, p. 281, 2.) And the
essence then of Luther's Gospel is this, that a person so affected has only
one great struggle to go through, in order that he may obtain the indefectible
promise of eternal salvation ; and that struggle is, not against those sins, but
against his own conscience, which would fain impede his full assurance of
immediate pardon. Let him only firmly believe that notwithstanding these
sins he is for certain saved, and no more, says Luther, is required ; he is for
certain saved. This doctrine does not come in accidentally here and there ; it
is the one burthen of the greater part of the commentary. When conscience has
performed its office of frightening and alarming the sinner, its usefulness is over ;
from that time it is no longer man's guide to salvation, but the one only im-
pediment in the way of his attaining salvation. Well was it for Luther that he
had enjoyed the unspeakable blessings of a Catholic education and monastic
discipline, and so had learnt to feel in some slight measure the real sinfulness
and evil of sin, before he turned his mind to the invention of these blasphemies.
He speaks, in many places, of his own great difficulty in acquiescing in the
system he had devised ; and from himself he seems to have argued to others ; so
that, as I observed in the British Critic, ' any one who knows ever so little of
Luther's writings must see how painfully aware he is of the opposition presented
by human instincts to his lax system ; and how anxiously he endeavours to de-
ceive both others and himself as to the potency of the remedy, which he had
the almost incredible boldness of devising from his own invention, against the
plainest testimonies of Scripture, against the unceasing and continuous voice of
the Church.' (On Arnold's Sermons, p. 309.) All this is very pleasing, in con-
sidering his personal character ; but what has he to say in argument against
even the shamelessly profligate Anabaptists ? Let any one read the Commentary,
from the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter, and see the miserable shifts to
which he is reduced. ' If grace or faith,' he says, ' is not preached, no one is
saved : for faith only justifies and saves. On the other hand, if faith is preached
as it must be preached, the greater part of mankind understands the doctrine
concerning faith in a carnal sense, and changes liberty of the spirit into liberty

172

single occasion I have taken the utmost possible pains to
do justice to the great amount of earnestness and self-

of the flesh. We may see this at the present day in all classes of life ....
This unworthiness sometimes makes me so impatient, that I often wish that
swine of this sort, who tread pearls under foot, Here still under the tyranny of

the Pope.' Nay, he confesses very curiously of himself, ' We ourselves

perform not our duty now that we are in the light of truth, with so much dili-
gence and earnestness as we did it formerly, when in t/te darkness of ignorance.
For the more assured we are of that liberty procured for us by Christ, the more
cold and sluggish are we in ministering the word, in praying, in doing good works,
in enduring evils.' 1 &c. (On chap. v. ver. 13, p. 413.) And he proceeds in a
similar strain. Does he give then any test, whereby true faith, which produces
holiness, may be distinguished from false faith which leads into profligacy ? He
makes no such attempt ; he passes off under the veil of vague and unmeaning
generalities as best he may.

Of course it should be most fully acknowledged, that he expresses a confident
opinion that justifying faith will always lead to good works. For instance :
' Because thou hast by faith seized Christ, through whom thou art righteous, begin
now to do good works, love God and thy neighbour, pray, give thanks, &c. These
are truly good works, which flow from that faith and joy of heart which we receive,
in that we have free forgiveness of sins through Christ.' (On chap. ii. ver. 15,
p. 309.) This also is of great importance, when the question is raised concerning
Luther individually. Several other considerations should also here be mentioned
bearing in the same direction. First : the Commentary, considered intellectually
as a theological effort, is perhaps one of the feeblest and most worthless productions
ever written ; this of course gives the greater ground for hope, that he had not at
all fully realised his own principles. Next, many indications appear from time
to time of personal amiableness and simplicity of character. Again, there is a
number of very beautiful passages, some of which are carefully brought forward
by Mr. Newman, and which certainly imply that in his vague and inaccurate
way he was dimly conscious of some very precious Gospel truths. Thus :
' Christ lives in me : he is my ' form,' adorning my faith, as when a light adorns
a wall; 'and, again, ' this gem (Christ) I possess, as though set in a ring:' and
many others in like manner, wherein he speaks of the blessedness of ' appre-
hending' Christ ; both are very beautiful in the Catholic sense of such words, and
seem to shew that he was not himself without glimmerings of that sense. Then,
again, he shews the greatest misconception of Catholic doctrine ; so as still
further to encourage us in the hope that he did not sin against full light. Thus,
over and over again, he speaks as if the very inclination to do penance, on the
one hand implied a keeping away from Christ ; and on the other hand proved the
existence of an idea that sin can be in a strict sense atoned for by penance, and
consequently proved a very inadequate perception of the heinousness of sin.
Now religious persons know full well how widely different is the real tmth ;
they know full well, that in proportion as Christians realise the deep and serious
guilt they have incurred by their sins, and throw themselves for pardon on the
merits of their Lord, in that very proportion are they more earnestly led to the

173

devotion, frequently found united with its profession. Still
it was always open for others to say, that accurate thinkers,

desire of penance and self-chastisement : those even know of this desire, who
are the most remiss in obeying it ; nay, those must know it, who, being pos-
sessed by an heretical theory, are compelled to consider it a desire which it is
wrong to gratify. The fact, then, of Luther labouring under this misconception
is fatal to the hypothesis of his having been, when he wrote the Commentary,
in any true sense a religious man : for a religious man, without experience of
Christian repentance, is the same contradiction as would be a religious man
without experience of humility, or of self-denial, or of godly fear, or of love to
God. Still on the other hand, if we bear in mind this his mistake of fact, we
shall see a very true and edifying sense in some passages, which would otherwise
altogether scandalise us. St. Augustine says, ' vis fugere a Deo, fuge ad Deum ;
and Mr. Newman, " The most noble repentance .... the most decorous
conduct in a conscious sinner is an unconditional surrender of himself to God ;
not a bargaining about terms, not a scheming (so to call it) to be received back
again, but an instant surrender of himself in the first instance." (Sermons, vol. iii.
p. 103.) Now this same doctrine seems confusedly implied in several passages
of this Commentary, such as one of those above quoted : and attaches a far more
innocent meaning to them than could otherwise be given. Lastly, he seems to
a great extent possessed by the idea (as modern ' Evangelicals'" are), that Catho-
lics are slow in confessing or seeing the miserable imperfections which sully
our best actions, and that they uphold outward works apart from inward sanctity ;
and this furnishes another excuse for many of his most offensive passages. Still
the following extract will shew that he had means of knowing, that even in
that age the ' good works' of monks were often of a very different stamp.
" Under the Papacy it was counted for a most spiritual action, when the monks
sitting in their cells meditated on God and His works ; when inflamed with the
most ardent devotion they bowed the knee, prayed, and contemplated heavenly
things with so much delight, that for much joy they shed tears. Here was no
thought of women, nor of any other creature ; but only of the Creator and His
marvellous works. And yet this thing, most spiritual in the judgment of reason,
is, according to Paul, a ivork of the flesh. Wherefore all such religion .... is
idolatry : and the more holy and spiritual it is in appearance, so much the more
pernicious and pestilential it is ; for it turns aside man from faith in Christ,' &c.
(On chap. v. ver. 20, p. 424.) In the omitted and the contiguous passage, he speaks
of these services as done ' to the exclusion of Christ the Mediator, and without the
word and commandment of God.' The meaning of this most extraordinary and
most irreligious statement, I rather fancy, from other passages, to be, that Christians
ought to meditate only on the works of redemption, not of creation.

Another short work of Luther's, which I have looked through, is his Sermo de
Matrimonio, preached, let it never be forgotten, publicly before a large congregation.
Let those who speak of him as a spiritually-minded man read that sermon. Quota-
tions, however, of that kind are better omitted. The following are extracted from
certain ' Disputationes pro Veritate Inquirenda,' vol. i. p. 54.

1 5. It is certain that thy sins are forgiven, if thou believest them forgiven.

174

if they should apply themselves to its defence, would rescue
it from the imputation of leading to such pernicious conse-

1 8. Those who found forgiveness of sins on contrition, build the faith of God on
sand, that is, on man's work.

25. The priest has before him sufficiently clear marks of contrition, if he perceives
that the sinner seeks and believes his forgiveness.

26. Indeed it is far more important to inquire whether he believe himself to be
forgiven, than whether he sorrow worthily.

40. Suppose an impossible case, that he who is to be absolved should not be con-
trite, and should yet believe himself to be absolved, lie is truly absolved.

The following quotation is made by M. Audin in his life of Luther (p. 265, English
translation) with the reference to 3 f. 1 77. 6 : but I have not access to the same edi-
tion ; so the quotation is made on M. Audin's authority. .

' Thus the human will is placed in the middle, like a beast of burden ; if God rides
on it, it wills and goes whither God will .... if Satan rides on it, it wills and goes
as Satan will ; nor is it in its own choice to run to either rider, or seek him, but the
riders themselves contend to obtain and possess it.'

The following are from Mahler's ' Symbolism,' English translation.

' Luth. in Gen. c. xix. " In spiritual and divine things which regard the salvation
of the soul, man is like to the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was changed ; yea
he is like a trunk and a stone," &c. (Moehler, vol. i. p. 124.)

' Luther de Captiv. Bab. torn. ii. fol. 264. " So thou seest how rich is the
Christian ; even if he will he cannot destroy his salvation by any sins how grievous
soever, unless he refuse to believe. For no sins can condemn him, except un-
belief alone. All others, if faith in the divine promise made at Baptism return
or remain, are absorbed in a moment through tlie same faith.' 1 '' ' (Moehler, vol. i.
p. 183.)

Here I may add a quotation I made in the British Critic, (on Heurtley's Four
Sermons, p. 438.)

' Be thou a sinner and sin boldly, but still more boldly believe and rejoice in
Christ. Sufficient is it that through the riches of the glory of God we know the
Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world ; from Him sin shall not separate
us, no, though a thousand thousand times in every day we should commit fornication
or murder.''

The following shall conclude my series of quotations. The first is from an article
in the Edinburgh Review, (October, 1834,) which it can be no discourtesy to
attribute to its universally acknowledged author, Sir W. Hamilton ; the second is
published by the same gentleman with his name. Sir W. Hamilton's authority is
a sufficient voucher for the accuracy of the quotations ; but unfortunately he does
not specify his references. He divides his classes of quotations from Luther's writ-
ings into the heads of ' speculative theology,' ' practical theology,' and ' Biblical
Criticism.'

I. God pleaseth you when He crowns the unworthy ; He ought not to dis-
please you when he damns the innocent. All things take place by the eternal and
invariable will of God, who blasts and shatters in pieces the freedom of the will.
God creates in us the evil, in like manner as the good. The high perfection of

175

quences, as appear inevitably to flow from it. It gave me
therefore peculiar gratification to fall in, a few months ago,

faith is to believe that God is just, notwithstanding that, by His will, He ren-
ders us necessarily damnable, and seemeth to find pleasure in the torments of the
miserable.'

II. ' We (Luther, &c.) cannot advise that the licence of marrying more wives
than one be publicly introduced, and, as it were, ratified by law. If anything were
allowed to get into print on this head, your Highness easily comprehends that it
would be understood and received as a precept, whence much scandal and many dif-
ficulties would arise. Your Highness should be pleased to consider the excessive
scandal ; that the enemies of the Gospel would proclaim that we are like the Ana-
baptists, who have adopted the practice of polygamy, and that the Evangelicals, as

the Turks, allow themselves the licence of a plurality of wives But in certain

cases there is room for dispensation .... In fine, if your Highness be fully and
finally resolved to marry yet another wife, we judge that this ought to be done
secretly, as has been said above, in speaking of the dispensation ; so that it be known
only to your Highness, to the lady, and to a few faithful persons obliged to silence
under the seal of confession ; hence no attacks or scandal of any moment would ensue.
For there is nothing unusual in princes keeping concubines ; and although the lower
orders may not perceive ilie excuses of the thing, the more intelligent know how to
make allowance.

III. ' The books of the Kings are more worthy of credit than the books of the

Chronicles Job spake not therefore as it stands written in his book, but

hath had such cogitations. It is a sheer argumentum fabulae. It is probable that
Solomon made and wrote this book .... This book (Ecclesiastes) ought to have
been more full ; there is too much of broken matter in it ; it has neither boots
nor spurs, but rides only in socks, as I myself when in the cloister. Solomon
hath not therefore written this book, which hath been made in the days of the
Maccabees by Sirach. It is like a Talmud compiled from many books, perhaps
in Egypt, at the desire of King Ptolemy Euergetes. So also have the Proverbs of

Solomon been collected by others The book of Esther I toss into the

Elbe I am so an enemy to the book of Esther, that I would it did not

exist ; for it Judaizes too much, and hath in it a great deal of heathenish naughti-
ness. Isaiah hath borrowed his art and knowledge from the Psalter. . . . The

history of Jonah is so monstrous that it is absolutely incredible That the

Epistle to the Hebrews is not by St. Paul, nor by any Apostle at all, is shewn by
chap. ii. 3. It is by an excellently learned man, a disciple of the Apostles. It
should be no stumbling block, if there be found in it a mixture of wood, straw, hay.
The Epistle of James I account the writing of no Apostle. It is an epistle of

straw The Epistle of Jude is a copy of St. Peter's and alledgeth stories

which have no place in Scripture In the Revelation of John much is wanting

to let me deem it Scriptural. I can discover no trace that it is established by the
Spirit.'

The next quotation I make is from a pamphlet by Sir W. Hamilton, on the Scotch
Kirk.

' There is no obligation more anxiously inculcated by the Gospel than chastity,

176

with a work written by the present Bp. of Ossory on the
subject ; and I read it through with great interest and
avidity. Dr. O'Brien lias treated, in his Charge, on one or
two subjects closely akin to this, with extreme clearness and
force of argument : d here then seemed an opportunity of

and no virtue has been regarded as more peculiarly promoted by the Reformation.
Take this precept then, and take it in the hands of the Reformed theologians.
Look to the Anabaptists but no ; this instance may be objected to and I pass
on. Look, then, to the great authors and the great guides of the great religious
revolution itself to Luther and Melancthon ; even they, great and good as they
both were, would, had they been permitted by the wisdom of the world to carry
their theological speculations into practice, have introduced a state of things, which
every Christian of every denomination will now confess, would not only have turned
the Reformation into a curse, but have subverted all that is most sacred by moral
and religious law.

* Among other points of Papal discipline, the zeal of Luther was roused against
ecclesiastical celibacy and monastic vows ; and whither did it carry him ? Not
content to reason against the institution within natural limits and on legitimate
grounds, his fervour led him to deny explicitly, and in every relation, the exist-
ence of chastity, as a physical impossibility ; led him publicly to preach (and
who ever preached with the energy of Luther ?) incontinence, adultery, incest
even, as not only allowable, but if practised under the prudential regulations
which he himself lays down, unobjectionable, and even praiseworthy. The epi-
demic spread ; a fearful dissolution of manners throughout the sphere of the Re-
former's influence, was for a season the natural result. The ardour of the bois-
terous Luther infected, among others, even the ascetic and timorous Melancthon.
Polygamy awaited only the permission of the civil ruler to be promulgated as
an article of the Reformation ; and had this permission not been significantly
refused, (whilst, at the same time, the epidemic in Wittemberg was homoeopa-
thically alleviated, at least, by the similar but more violent access in Munster,)
it would not have been the fault of the fathers of the Reformation if Christian
liberty has remained less ample than Mahommedan licence. As it was, poly-
gamy was never abandoned by either Luther or Melancthon as a religions specula-
tion; both, in more than a single instance, accorded the formal sanction of their
authority to its practice by those who were above the law ; and had the civil
prudence of the imprudent Henry VIII. not restrained him, sensual despot as
he was, from carrying their spontaneous counsel into effect, a plurality of wives
might now have been a privilege as religiously contended for in England as in
Turkey."

He afterwards mentions that he bases this opinion in part " on a Dispuiatio sive
consultatio, scripta anno 1531, die 23 Augusti,a Philippo Melancihone de Digamia
Reyis Angliae ; which advice, with the fact which it alone establishes, has remained
as far as he is aware, hitherto unnoticed, either by English historians or eccle-
siastics."

d The direct object of the Bishop's observations is an application of Catholic
principles, which differs in many particulars from the present Roman application

177

viewing the Lutheran doctrine at its best advantage ; handled
by a writer who had shewn himself fully conversant with the
laws of reasoning, and fully able to state his convictions in
the clearest and most precise language. Some of the results
of my perusal shall here be stated.

Nothing can be more unequivocal than Dr. O'Brien's ex-
pression of his principle.

' Faith in Christ is trust in Christ, or in God through Christ,
founded upon' an assent of the understanding ; ' an entire and unre-
served confidence in the efficacy of what Christ has suffered for
us ; a full reliance upon Him and upon His work.' p. 14.

' The error, by which obedience to God's will is made part of the
notion for which faith stands, .... rests exclusively upon doctrinal
views .... entirely irreconcilable to the fundamental principles
of the scheme of mercy which it is the object of the Bible to
reveal.' p. 34.

To ' apprehend that this arduous course of obedience to His will
is demanded of them as the price or condition of reconciliation' is a
' gross misconception of the true nature of the Gospel.' p. 42.

Also the following are in the number of passages from
Protestant confessions of faith which the author cites, to shew
the complete agreement of all the Reformers on the sub-
ject ; and of which passages, as of others which he quotes,
he says, ' I agree with them upon all points of real importance
connected with this doctrine.' p. 374.

' Our Churches teach that men are freely justified through faith,
when they believe that they are received into grace, and that their
sins are remitted for the sake of Christ, who by His death made
satisfaction for our sins. This faith God counts for righteousness in
His sight.' p. 362.

' But when the mind has been terrified by the voice (of con-
science) accusing of sin, let him hear the promise peculiar to the
Gospel concerning the Son of God, and let him firmly believe
(statuat) that his sins are freely forgiven him for the sake of the

of them ; so that any formal consideration of the argument in the Charge, on this
subject, does not come within my present scope. Incidentally, however, what I
shall have to say may bear more than a little on the subject.

178

Son of God, &c. ; when he is comforted by this faith, it is certain
that remission of sins is given him .... and that Christ works
within us and quickens believers by His Spirit,' &c. p. 362.

' That faith which justifies is not only a knowledge of the [Gospel]
history, but it is to assent to the promise of God, whereby remission
of sins and justification is offered for Christ's sake ; and that no one
may suspect that it is only knowledge, we add further, it is to wish
for and to receive the promise of remission of sins and of justifica-
tion.' p. 312.

' Faith is not only knowledge, &c., but also a sure confidence,
enkindled in my heart by the Holy Ghost through the Gospel,
whereby I rest in God, surely believing that not to others only but
to me also remission of sins, eternal righteousness and life, hath
been given : and that freely, from the mercy of God, for the merit
of Christ alone.' p. 314.

In like manner Melancthon, included in the author's gen-
eral approbation above quoted.

'Let there be contrition, but let faith be added, whereby each
one may truly believe and determine that to him himself his sins
are freely forgiven for the sake of the Son of God, not of any
deservings of his own. By this faith a man obtains for certain the
remission of his sins, and is comforted again and quickened; that is,
his fears are relieved, and the Holy Ghost is received, and a new
life and joy.' p. 329.

In another place Dr. O'Brien designates the objection,
that even according to his view justification is not free, in his
sense of the word free, because faith itself is a work, he
designates this objection as ' a miserable refinement,' (p.
162,) and says that,

' With less than this (act of faith required for justification) our
part in this procedure could not have been intelligent and volun-
tary.' p. 106.

In another place he makes still clearer his sentiment, that
justifying faith is prior to the most elementary Christian
virtues.

' The graces of filial love and filial fear, which is its inseparable
companion, from whence spring a genuine desire to obey, and genuine

179

sorrow at all our failures in obedience, are . . . wrought through the
Spirit of God mainly through the instrumentality of that faith
which he has bestowed. . . . And to describe the possession of
these graces as essential to the genuineness of faith, is to mistake
the nature of faith, to misrepresent the order of the Spirit's gifts,
and in its direct tendency to frustrate all the effects of faith and the
whole design of the Gospel.' p. 47.

Again he says :

' Those who are justified will certainly bring forth good works, for
such obedience to God's will is the proper consequence of the prin-
ciple by which they have been justified.' p. 125.

Again :

' The assurance with which we hold the truth of the sanctification
of believers is built upon multiplied and unequivocal promises of
God.' p. 212.

And in another place he distinctly states, what his theory
indeed implied all along, that * from believers the fear of
punishment is taken away.' p. 221.

Nothing then appears clearer than his account of the case.
Justifying faith is no general belief in Gospel truth ; but a
man's special belief that his own sins are remitted, through
no merit of his own, but wholly through his Lord's merits.
It is a self-abnegating trust in Christ ; which, though it leads
inevitably after justification to the greatest personal exertion
and self-discipline, in itself involves so little of personal
exertion, that to call it ' a work ' is a 'miserable refinement;' f
which so plainly carries with it its own evidence, that be-
lievers may always know themselves to be such ; which so
certainly, necessarily, inevitably produces final perseverance,
that believers not only know themselves to be such, but as

{ Dr. O'Brien disavows altogether such an interpretation of his words as that
faith is no work, only because it is the Holy Ghost's work and not our own. He
quotes with complete approbation Melancthon's answer : " Others say that
faith is no work, because it is the gift of God. This answer is foreign to the
purpose, for when it is said ' we are not justified by works,' those virtues also
are understood, love, chastity, patience, which are enkindled by the Holy Ghost."
p. 405.

N 2

180

such are saved from all fear of future punishment. Both
these latter sentiments are undeniably involved in the quo-
tation last made from the work.

One cannot desire certainly more complete security against
fear of wrath to come, than this doctrine, if true, would
provide. But now comes the real stress of the whole
difficulty; the security, namely, given by the same doc-
trine, I will not say for sanctity, but for the most ordinary
morality. And here a surprising change comes over the
author's whole language. Let the following passage be fairly
considered.

* Faith in the Redeemer is founded on the overthrow of pride,
and makes a provision for its extirpation.' ' It is founded upon
the ruins of human pride : for it only exists in the degree in
which self-dependence is vanquished ; and grows, advances, and
strengthens, as the subjugation is completed. It is not only
founded upon the knowledge of what the Bible communicates to
us of our nature and condition, of our guilt, degradation, weakness,
and wants but the principle requires that this conviction shall be
so complete and intimate, as to vanquish all dependence upon our-
selves or on any thing in ourselves, and lead us to rest our
eternal welfare upon the work of the Redeemer and it alone. Its
very essence consists in the abjuration from the heart of all merit
in ourselves, and unfeigned ascription of all glory to Him. What
obstinate resistance this vice makes before it surrenders, and how
often it renews the struggle, none can require to be reminded who
have ever sustained the conflict. Even where the criminality of
our conduct is too clear to be denied, &c. But if we reluctantly
condemn our known vices, how much more slowly and reluctantly do
we yield to the conviction, that the very acts upon which we most
pride ourselves partake of the same ungodly character ! ' p. 1 84.

' And even after we are convinced that if we would stand before
Jehovah, it must be in the righteousness of Another, not our own ;
that we must, before Him, withdraw all plea of merit for our works ;
how often are we found preposterously substituting for this the
merit of our faith ! And driven from this more absurd form of pride,
still clinging to the notion of some merit in the humility with
which we renounce all merit, both of faith and works ; and even
when we discern the folly of all such pretensions clearly, far from

181

being secure from a worse form of self-dependence, a reliance upon
the clearness of our religious views and the soundness of our reli-
gious principles ; whatever place our language may give to the
Redeemer, still in our inmost thoughts recurring to ourselves ....
insomuch that you will often find men, who have passed a great
part of their lives in maintaining the doctrine of justification by faith,
as much strangers to this simple exclusive trust in the Redeemer's
work, as those who have been their life long opposing it. ... It is
only through that Spirit, that a man is ever brought to come to
Christ simply as a blind and needy sinner ; to cast down himself
and all that he prides himself upon his works, his faith, his
humility, his knowledge all at the foot of the cross of the Re-
deemer glorying only in it, desiring in life and death and judg-
ment to be found in Him that suffered upon it, and in Him to find
every thing wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and
redemption. Now this and nothing short of this is faith in the
Redeemer.' pp. 185, 6.

All religious Catholics, throughout the world, would most
cordially agree with the general doctrine of this beautiful
passage ; in acknowledging, namely, the deep subtlety with
which pride ever insinuates its temptations, and the para-
mount importance of a continued struggle, by God's grace,
against its dominion. But observe the strange confusion
of ideas in the writer. This, the most arduous, the most
vital, the most lasting conflict, in which regenerate man has
to engage, is, on Dr. O'Brien's principles, to be carried on
with no assistance from Christian grace : not until it is con-
cluded, until victory is gained, and the enemy lies prostrate at
our feet, does justifying faith obtain an entrance. Certainly
this doctrine cannot be said to err on the side of laxity. What
Catholic will hesitate most fully to admit, that a Christian, in
whom every germ of pride shall have been eradicated, may
look forward with unclouded certainty (should he know the
fact) to ultimate acceptance ? Justified Christians indeed
would be absolutely sinless upon this hypothesis ; for where
pride is absent, what other sin can be present ? But then
what happiness can there be in Gospel tidings, what comfort
to the penitent, what rest to the afflicted, if no one has any

182

part in those tidings who has not faith ; and any one may
know for certain that he has not faith, if he experience even
one transient emotion of pride and self-complacency ? Com-
pare with this strange medley the Catholic doctrine.

' Men are disposed to righteousness (or justification) ; [1.] when
(dum) excited and assisted by Divine grace, conceiving faith by
hearing, they are freely moved towards God, believing those things
to be true which are divinely revealed and promised, and especially
this, that the sinner is justified by His grace, by the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus ; [2.] and when, perceiving themselves to
be sinners, from fear of Divine justice by which they are profitably
alarmed, by turning themselves to consider God's mercy, they are
raised to hope, trusting that God will be merciful to them for
Christ's sake ; [3.] and begin to love Him as the source of all
righteousness ; [4.] and are therefore excited against their sins by
a certain hatred and detestation, that is, by that repentance which
must be realised (poenitentiam quam agi oportet) before Baptism ;
[5.] lastly, when they propose to receive Baptism, to begin a new
life, and to keep God's commandments." e

Such faith as this is not built on the ruins of pride, for it
is the preparation for that grace, whereby alone pride can be
effectually combated. Love, not faith, is in the Catholic
scheme the contradictory to pride ; and whereas believers
have no promise that in this life their love can be fully ma-
tured, so neither have they a promise that their pride can be
wholly subdued : humility will grow, in proportion as other
Christian graces grow. 11 Nor yet again does such faith as
this confer a certain assurance that the believer will persevere ;
but then this is a characteristic which no Catholic applies to
faith at all in any sense, and which cannot be applied to it,
without incurring by implication the anathema of Trent.'

The subject of pride, which has a most important place in
this controversy, will presently come before us again : here it
will be better to confine ourselves to the criticism of Dr.
O'Brien's treatise. Similar representations to that above

% Sessio VI., cap. vi.

h See Newman's Sermons, vol. iii. pp. 102 105.

1 Sessio VI., cap. xvi.

183

quoted will be found in other parts of the work ; one espe-
cially in p. 60, which I had marked for quotation, but do
not think it necessary to transcribe. The first two sentences
of the above cited passage are worded as though the author
had some faint perception of the inconsistency into which he
was betrayed, and desired to guard himself against it : but
some of the words I have put in italics sufficiently shew that
I have not mis-stated his meaning. In like manner, when
about to quote some of the sentiments of the foreign Re-
formers, he seems anxious to establish some * via media'
between the intolerably lax, and the intolerably harsh,
versions of the Lutheran principle. ' They neither taught,'
he says, ' nor countenanced, under the name of faith, any
fanatical impressions of peculiar personal favour ; or allowed
as faith any confidence towards God, which was not grounded
upon a believing and intelligent application to ourselves of
the offer of mercy which His word makes alike to all.' p. 312.
All such attempts however are utterly vain ; and are in-
teresting mainly, in that they shew the struggles of a
religious man, unhappily committed to an irreligious prin-
ciple. Take one of the author's most careful and elaborate
accounts of faith.

Faith is ' the act of one who feels himself condemned by God's
righteous law, and by its sentence a sinner in thought, word, and
deed ; and who feels too the certainty of his danger as well as the
reality of his guilt ; and who seeks relief from this terror and
remorse in none of those refuges of lies by which such salutary
alarm is so often mitigated and finally extinguished ; but who,
feeling the nothingness of them all and renouncing them all, has,
under this sense of sin, and danger, and helplessness, come in sin-
cerity to Christ for every thing for safety and innocence and
strength.' p. 45.

Now there is no question at all that, in proportion as the
Christian grows in grace, this passage truly expresses his
religious experience ; that he more and more renounces, with
alarm and dismay, all thought of resting on any righteousness
of his own ; that he more and more feels Christ his only and

184

his sufficient portion, and comes to Him ' for safety, and
innocence, and strength.' But when this consciousness is re-
presented as the one characteristic of justifying faith, either
far too much is included or far too little. These words ' feels
himself condemned' and other similar expressions must ne-
cessarily mean one of two things ; either something which is
below the beginning of a Christian life, or else something
which is beyond its last earthly attainment. They must
either mean that the sinner holds the opinion, grounded on
authority, evidence, reason ; that he is by nature powerless
and exposed to God's wrath ; that his best deeds are wholly
unable to endure the severity of God's judgment, and the
like : or else they must mean that the miserable experience of
this is a most integral and intimate part of his moral nature ;
that the sense of it is deeply, practically, unceasingly present
to his mind ; that self-dependence, even in its most subtle and
plausible shapes, has wholly and for ever left him. If the
former be their meaning, they may be truly applied to
numbers who are openly and avowedly irreligious ; if the
latter, they can not be truly applied to the most holy and
humble Christian living. And the continually repeated
fallacy of Lutheran writers, the principal art by which they
bewilder both themselves and others, is, that when they are
extolling the freedom of the Lutheran scheme of salvation
they use these words in one sense, and when they are
defending its moral tendencies they use them in the other.
According to the sense in which such words are taken,
their favourite doctrine is either so immoral that the basest
of men could not bear to realise and believe it, or so strin-
gent that under it no one born in original sin could hope
for salvation ; it either asserts that a head-knowledge of the
most elementary Christian truths will lead for certain to
eternal Life, or else that one momentary lapse from the
most profound humility disproves the existence of justify-
ing faith.

Considering now that the question, on which the Bishop
has betrayed this extraordinary confusion of ideas, is no
episodical or subordinate discussion, but the very cardinal

185

point of the whole controversy, he does seem distinctly ob-
noxious to the severest charge which can be brought against
a theologian as such: for he has taken no pains whatever
to give a precise and definite sense even to the very chief
technical terms which he employs, and to keep in his mind
that sense whenever he uses those words ; and has thus
allowed his doctrinal language to be, not the accurate tran-
script of a religious man's experience, but the accidental
and frequently inconsistent reflection of external systems.
I say, as a theologian : I bring no imputation against his
private religious excellence ; for men continually act on
religious instinct, even when they write on a theory.

2. It will be better, however, before going further, to state
with some greater definiteness the points which it will be
necessary to bring to issue. In the first place then, there
need be no controversy on man's helpless and deplorable con-
dition by nature. True it is that that disregard of moral
principle, which is the very essence of Lutheranism in the
abstract, has, at some times and places, so infected its in-
dividual professors, as to lead them into the most monstrous
statements on the worthlessness of moral obedience among
heathens : still such statements are at present consciously re-
ceived, I suppose, by very few ; and no more therefore need be
said about them. Further, the following most essential and vital
truths are admitted on all hands. 1. That whatever child of
Adam, since the fall, has been saved from eternal condemna-
tion, has been so saved only through the merits (if before
His coming, through the foreseen merits) of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 2. That so much as the first impulse or inclination,
which leads towards the way of Christian salvation, cannot
be experienced, except through the express and most gra-
tuitous moving of the Holy Ghost, purchased for us by
Christ's merits. 3. That the very best and holiest Christians
(putting aside the case of St. Mary, as a matter of contro-
versy on which it is unnecessary to enter) have their very
best and holiest works defiled by numberless imperfections ;
nay more, that from the clearness of their spiritual vision
and their strict conscientiousness, so absorbed are they in the

186

thought of these, as to feel an almost irresistible tendency to
consider themselves the most wicked and offensive to God of
all living creatures : a phenomenon this last, which is ex-
emplified by the Saints of the Church, in a manner abso-
lutely peculiar and unapproached.

These are points of agreement. The controverted questions
on which it will be necessary to insist, are two : first, whether,
at the moment in which pardon is given, an ineffable and
supernatural inward spiritual gift be or be not also imparted ;
secondly, on what terms is that pardon given, and by what
evidence is its continuance known ? The latter of these
questions is even far more fundamental than the former, and
it will be well to complete its discussion separately in the
first instance : though it may occupy considerable space.

The Lutheran answer then to this inquiry must inevitably
be, 1, that the pardon is complete and final, involving no terms
or conditions whatever ; 2, that the trust in Christ, on which
it immediately follows, is a feeling which carries with it its
own evidence, and which leads necessarily, without any
special pains or effort on our part, to a holy life. This is a
perfectly consistent and intelligible answer ; and if admitted,
would fully bear out the pretensions of Lutheran doctrine :
it would unite holiness of life with security as to our future
lot. But no answer short of this is either consistent or
intelligible. The very boast of the Lutheran doctrine, let it
never be forgotten, is, that it protects serious Christians from
misgiving as to their final condition after death ; and no
formula therefore, which fails in affording such protection,
can be a legitimate exponent or representative of that
doctrine. Well indeed can I understand the feelings,
which naturally lead earnest men to seek and cherish
such a religious principle. When first the practical truth
is brought home to an individual, that an eternity of
misery may possibly be reserved for him hereafter, well
can I understand how welcome to him is any teacher,
who may promise to relieve the oppressive dismay which
overpowers him. What remedies there may be within the
range of Catholic truth, to soften and mitigate this dismay,

187

is a consideration among the most deeply interesting which
can be conceived, and something may be said on it presently;
though to treat it fully would carry us very far beyond our
present scope. That, after all possible mitigations, the con-
tinual knowledge and remembrance of so fearful a possibility
will impart a very marked and distinctive feature to the
Christian character, is a most certain and most important
truth. Nor is it to the purpose to ask, whether the spiritual
mind, in proportion to its illumination, would desire the
removal of this uncertainty ; but whether it would desire
that particular mode of removal which Lutheranism proposes,
and which alone indeed (to speak of all except very extra-
ordinary cases) is consistent with the conditions of our ex-
istence here below.

Let us then again repeat our statement of the Lutheran
doctrine ; which I have been compelled myself to put into
this shape, because I have not been able to find any con-
sistent account of it whatever in the writings of its defenders.
And the statement here framed, being the foundation of the
whole argument that is to follow, I must beg those of my
readers, who may be disposed to advocate or extenuate the
doctrine itself, to examine this statement carefully point by
point ; I must beg them to consider the reasons here adduced,
why it must be so worded as it is, if Lutheranism is to succeed
in its professed object, that of securing holiness, and yet ex-
empting believers from fear of punishment. The only con-
sistent and substantial account then, as it appears to me, which
can be given of the Lutheran theory of man's justification,
is as follows : 1 . ' pardon once given is complete and final,
involving no terms or conditions whatever ; ' 2. ' the trust in
Christ, on which it follows, is a feeling which carries with it
its own evidence, and which leads necessarily, without special
pains or effort on our part, to a holy life.' If the ' pardon
once given' be not ' complete and final,' then our anxiety is
not removed on our future lot : for it is very possible that
we may lose that pardon. If it ' involve' any 'terms or
conditions ' whatever, then the same anxiety remains : for it is
possible that we may not fulfil those conditions ; and more-

188

over in innumerable cases we shall be involved in all the
tumult and distress of a doubtful mind, from not knowing
whether or no we have fulfilled them. This objection is
pressed with great force by Lutherans against Catholic
writers: it is urged with undeniable truth, that when once
holiness is admitted as a condition, all certainty and peace
(in their sense of that word) is gone; for in proportion to
the advances made by any one in a holy life, will be his per-
ception of his own sinfulness, and of the miserable stains
which sully his best endeavours. Further ' the trust in
Christ, on which pardon follows, is a feeling which carries
with it its own evidence ; ' for if not, how do we obtain that
freedom from anxiety, which in Lutheran eyes is so inesti-
mably precious ? And, lastly, it ' leads necessarily, without
special pains or effort on our part, to a holy life.' By the
word ' special ' (which requires explanation, and which I here
use in a technical sense) I mean to express, any further
pains or effort, than that which it will be our actual
delight to give, in consequence of our gratitude for mer-
cies received, our hatred of sin, and our desire of holi-
ness. Thus a son, who is filled with love and gratitude
to his father, will go through many sacrifices for his sake,
not from any calculation of duty, but from the spontaneous
impulse of affection ; it would be painful to him to abstain
from them. But there may be other cases, in which he feels
that a certain sacrifice is called for, and makes that sacrifice ;
while yet he makes it not in consequence, but in spite of his
predominant inclination ; not as the direct and natural result
of his love, but as one principal means of increasing his love.
Sacrifices of the former kind may be calculated on with un-
erring certainty ; for he possesses a principle, of which they
are the necessary result : those of the latter kind, on the con-
trary, we cannot for certain expect, for they depend on the
question, whether or no, in particular instances one after the
other, he act conscientiously on his idea of duty ; a question
which none except God can answer before the event. No-
thing can be clearer than the distinction between these differ-
ent kinds of self-denial : nor can any thing be clearer either,

189

than that the former alone, according to the Lutheran scheme,
is required under the Gospel; that such holiness as is ne-
cessary to adorn the Christian character, must, upon that
scheme, flow forth as the direct and spontaneous result of
justifying faith. For if it be required of the Christian, that
from time to time he thwart his predominant inclination
under a sense of duty, how can he know that he may not at
some future time fail in the performance of this important
exercise ? or how can he know at any given period whether
he have sufficiently performed it ? It is plain, without saying
another word, that if self-denial in the latter sense be required
of a Christian, there can be no undoubting assurance of
safety, no unclouded prospect of heaven.

The ordinary language used by religious men who profess
the doctrine under examination, fully bears out this latter re-
mark ; which will not indeed, I fancy, be denied by any one.
No expression is so commonly heard from such persons, as that
the spiritual illumination, which follows our forgiveness, is in
itself a certain and sufficient stimulus to a holy and religious
life. Thus to open the Christian Observer almost at random :

' The justified Christian is born anew to good works ; sin has
no longer dominion over him ; and precisely for the very reason
that he is not under the Law, but under Grace. It has become his
delight, as it is always his duty, to do the will of God ; he works
cheerfully and diligently ; not to perfect his justification, but be-
cause, being justified, he is also regenerated ; and in accordance
with his renovated nature he desires to live no longer to himself,
but to Him that loved him and gave Himself for him. (Jan. 1844,
p. 48.)

The Churchman's Monthly Review :

' It is the pervading principle of Aristotle's philosophy, that we
become righteous by acting righteously ; as Luther has observed, the
converse rather is true,' (Feb. 1842, p. 86.)

In like manner Mr. Scott himself : '

1 Mr. Scott's Essay on 'Saving Faith in Christ,' from which this extract is
taken, though as an argumentative and theological work misty and confused,

190

' These affections, when vigorous and permanent, being con-
nected with a firm dependence on the promises of the new covenant,
and maintained in exercise by " communion with the Father and
with His Son Jesus Christ," through the sacred influence of the
Holy Spirit, are fully adequate to the ends for which they were
intended, and cannot but impel and constrain the lively believer to the
most self-denying and devoted obedience.' (p. 678.)

And with regard to the whole formal statement which has
just been illustrated, the phrases in common use among
' Evangelicals ' will sufficiently vindicate its accuracy , every
single particular involved in it must be carefully retained, if
there is to be any meaning in those ordinary phrases.
Nothing is more common, even in the case of those
who may have lived an utterly irreligious life, should
they have more serious thoughts on their death-bed, than
to find it regarded as sufficient ground for our most
confident belief in their salvation, the circumstance that
they have died, not with a humble and tremulous hope,
but with a full assurance of pardon. Over and over
again it is said of the departed, as if in their praise, that
they died in a frame of undoubting confidence in their per-
sonal salvation. ' The eternal law of God,' it has been
said by others, ' is not binding on the conscience of him who
has faith in Christ.' Language, again, such as the following,
is familiar to all of us. ' Other systems have attempted to
melt the heart and restore our corrupt nature by severity,
threats, or motives of expediency ; but the Gospel alone has
dared to trust itself to the principle of free and unconditional
favour, yet with success as signal as has been the failure of
all other methods ; for the mere preaching of reconciliation
with God, the doctrine of pardon, the command to take and
enjoy the blessings of redemption, has been found to act upon
the soul in a remarkable way for its conversion and renewal.'
The very mark of a regenerate mind is considered by multitudes
to be the adoption of the latter alternative. To pursue the

like the common run of ' evangelical writings,' contains very much of a practical
character, I think, with which the well-instructed believer would most deeply
sympathize.

191

path of humble, watchful, anxious, minute obedience is con-
tinually represented as the bondage of the Law ; to practise
holiness in that degree which flows from gratitude for our
free pardon, and from no other motive than that gratitude,
as the liberty of the Gospel. These statements, one and all,
are absolutely unmeaning, if any one part be subtracted
from the account of Lutheranism which I have given ; as
will at once be seen, by imagining any such subtraction.

3. Attempts indeed have been made to escape from this
plain and definite position ; but they only lead those who
make them into endless confusion and self-contradiction. We
have already seen this in the case of Bishop O'Brien ; the
present Bishop of Chester, in a tract which has made some
stir, exhibits the same spectacle. The following sentence,
if it be not presumptuous to say so, is most honourable to his
Lordship's religious feeling and principle, but surely quite
inconsistent with his Lutheran profession.

' He (the Christian) has no satisfactory evidence that he is
entitled thus to depend upon his Lord and Saviour, unless his
conscience bears testimony that, " denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts," he is living " righteously, soberly, and godly in this present
world," and striving to be " perfect, even as his Father, who is in
heaven, is perfect." ' m

Who that has any even tolerably clear view of Gospel
requirements, who that has any true perceptions of spiritual
things, who that enters even a little into the real meaning
of the words ' righteousness, sobriety, and godliness,' will

m Compare with this a sentiment quoted by Mr. Newman from Calvin. ' Equi-
dem si ab operibus aestimandum sit qualiter affectus sit erga nos Dominus, id
ne tenui quidem conjectura possemus assequi fateor ; sed quum simplici et gratuitaB
promissioni respondere fides debet, nullus ambigendi locus relinquitur." Calvin,
Instit. iii. 2. n. 38. (On Just. p. 30.)

On the other hand, Dr. O'Brien, (exhibiting the same moral superiority of opinion
over the extravagances of the sixteenth century, which our ' evangelicals,' as a
body, have so strikingly exhibited ; but losing in consistency what he gains in
morality,) observes : Good works are the 'necessary results of justifying faith,
and essential marks of justified persons ; so that, ivhen these are absent, we may
collect the absence of that infernal principle, which we can only discern in others
by its proper effects ; and what may be a guide in the case of others, answers the
far more important end of a safeguard in our own." 1 (p. 126.)

192

dare so to speak of himself ? What serious Christian is
not rather bowed down by a sense of his miserable short-
comings and imperfections, and is not inclined to confess of
himself (the more inclined so to confess and so to think in
proportion as the confession is wide of the truth), that " all
his righteousness is but as filthy rags" ? Self-loathing, self-
abhorrence, these are among the surest marks of growth in
grace ; but the more they exist, the more surely will they
indispose and incapacitate the believer's ' conscience' from
' bearing any such testimony ' as the Bishop requires. A
man's ' conscience may bear testimony,' indeed, that he is
free from external acts of gross and overt sin; but Bp.
Sumner surely would be the last man living to allow of this
as sufficient for salvation. Again : it would of course be
wholly unreal and untrue to deny that ' religious men, really
such, recollect in the course of years that they have become
very different from what they were ;' nay, it would be wholly
unreal and untrue to deny that even at an early period of
their Christian course, those who are habituated to self-
discipline and self-examination may have a sufficient con-
sciousness of being free from mortal sin, and honestly desirous
of serving God: these are among the grounds of humble
hopefulness, which Catholic doctrine supplies. Still such
tests are negative ; a Catholic Christian, who has made any
real advances in holy living, cannot bear to think of his
positive attainments, so keenly does he feel their miserable
deficiency ; nor, again, does he even dare to realise and dwell
upon the good (not his own, but of the Holy Spirit) which
in fact may be in them, lest pride take possession of him,
and he fall from grace.

I have called the tests negative, by means of which we are
able legitimately to obtain a humble confidence, whether that
we are in God's favour or that we are growing in grace, be-
cause they consist in noting, not the presence or increase
within us of given virtues, but the absence or diminution of
given defects ; and for the same reason, as was implied above,
they cannot be made available except by those, who live in
the habitual and coitstant practice of self-discipline and self-

193

examination. Whether it is to such tests as these that the
Bishop in point of fact alludes, it is difficult precisely to
know, because of the extreme generality and vagueness of
his language ; a characteristic almost universally found in
the advocacy of Lutheran doctrines. Certainly the very
ominous absence of all allusion to those religious exercises,
just mentioned as indispensable, makes it most probable that
he had no very distinct impression on his mind of any such
tests. At all events, the writer is necessarily involved in
the following dilemma ; the humble Christian who seeks in
Lutheranism some refuge from doubt and misgiving, is either
referred by the Bishop to a standard, which can give no
peace except to the most blinded and carnal conscience, (viz.
the observation of his own virtues,) or else learns from him a
doctrine, which in its substance diverges not by one hair's
breadth from that of Mr. Newman, which he professes to
oppose ; and in its expression differs only from Mr. Newman's
statement, as being indefinite, confused, and perplexing, in-
stead of precise, clear, and edifying.

It is impossible, then, to introduce any further security for
holiness of life into the Lutheran scheme, than that which is
included in the above statement of that scheme ; n the attempt

n A position is indeed conceivable, which, as being conceivable, ought perhaps
to be distinctly noticed ; though it may safely be asserted, that it has never been
maintained by so much as a single writer on the subject. It may be held then,
without any formal inconsistency, that the knowledge of our acceptance indeed
is attainable by no other means than those specified in the text ; but that cer-
tainty of salvation follows upon that knowledge, forasmuch as God preserves
from falls those who are consciously in a state of grace. This theory is no less
truly different from Lutheran than from Catholic doctrine : for the former in-
variably considers a knowledge of pardon to follow immediately on the grant of
pardon ; which is inconsistent with such a theory. It may suffice to have men-
tioned this ; or if it be worth while gravely to argue against it, we may point
out how directly it is refuted by plain facts. It is refuted, not only by the very
many unhappy instances, when those who have once attained this well-grounded
belief of God's favour have afterwards fallen from grace, but even by cases in
which, through God's infinite mercy, men have been spared this misery, but
testify with one voice that they owe their safety to the very circumstance of having
lived in habits of constant watchfulness and precaution ; habits which have been
only engendered by their deep sense that they are every moment exposed to the
danger of falling from grace.

191.

to do so destroys its very essence, and transmutes it into
Catholic and Tridentine truth. The Lutheran scheme asserts,
and must assert if it is to have any meaning or consistency,
(once more to repeat my words,) that the pardon given under
the Gospel is complete and final, involving no terms or
conditions whatever ; and that the trust in Christ, on which
it immediately follows, is one which carries with it its own
evidence, and which leads, without any special pains or effort
on our part, to a holy life. And now let us endeavour to
suppose it possible that this scheme shall be really and
heartily embraced ; and let us compare its practical results
with the working of Catholic doctrine, first in the case of
Christians before, and next in the case of Christians after,
that they have received this alleged pardon, and are conscious
of this alleged trust.

4. A religious parent, well instructed in the pure Gospel,
begins at the earliest possible period to train her child in
that which is to be the one great business of his life ; the
contending against his evil dispositions one by one, and
bringing gradually every thought into subjection to the
obedience of Christ. She well knows that one single humble
action, performed in secret from a sense of duty and against
the influence of strong temptation, is the one noblest fact in
the whole world ; that which most of all earthly phenomena
fills angels with joy and devils with dismay : and she desires
to obtain for her offspring as early as it is by any means in
her power, by means of precept and example, the blessing
and dignity of performing such acts. Careful and regular
habits of prayer, of self-examination, of repentance, of con-
fession, these are the really precious legacies which a parent
may bequeath to her child ; for they are the best, the only
path to heavenly treasures. ' Not so,' says the Lutheran :
' that faith alone is true Christian faith, which leads to holi-
ness without watchfulness or self-discipline : so long as these
are the means whereby your child seeks his sanctification, he
is a stranger to the Gospel of Christ, he is under the Law, he
is under a curse.' What means are placed, according to the
Lutheran system, wkhin reach of those who are unjustified

195

that they may obtain so great favour, it is difficult to say.
I believe it is by no means unusual for clergymen of our
Church to tell their flock, directly or by implication, that
they can do nothing, but remain quiet and expectant,
until it shall please God to visit whom He will with His
grace. Luther again and the Continental Reformers with
one voice proclaimed, so at least it seems generally acknow-
ledged, that the most abandoned sinners were as likely to re-
ceive grace, as the most moral and conscientious men living :
such indeed is the only possible meaning of their repeated
attacks on the Catholic doctrine of congruity. According to
this view of the case, the most sedulous ' training of a child
in the way he should go ' confers upon him absolutely no
benefit whatever in the way of salvation ; or indeed may be
even worse than useless, as interfering with the work of
grace. Principles substantially such as these have been
lately, I believe, in more than one case, maintained by mem-
bers of dissenting communities ; though the task even of
specifying and reciting them seems almost a pollution.

Bishop O'Brien however implies, as I understand him,
a very important modification of this view of the case. He
appears to consider (for he is very far indeed from speaking
plainly, in a case where the utmost plainness is imperatively
called for) that although in all cases full, unconditional, and
final pardon is given immediately upon trust in Christ, still
those are perhaps the more likely to be moved by the Spirit
to such trust, who have led sober and virtuous lives in times
past. This doctrine, I admit, is entirely consistent formally
with the Lutheran scheme, as stated above ; still it is very
different in spirit, and entirely contravenes the arguments on
which those of his school usually insist. For if, as Lutherans
commonly say, it is impossible, without ' self-righteousness,'
to hold that works done even in the Spirit have an effect on
our final destiny, how much less possible surely it must be,

I have not been able to light upon this passage in my subsequent reference to
the Bishop's work : but I have little doubt of having seen there some such expres-
sion as this ; that whether or not abandoned sinners are less likely to have justifying
faith, their pardon, if they have it, is in no one particular less final, complete, and
unconditional than that of others.

196

consistently with humility, to believe that works have such
an effect, done (as on this view such works are done) either
by men's unaided strength, or at least before the reception of
Christian grace ! If Catholics, who believe that no one can
know his real condition in God's sight as compared with that
of others, still must be necessarily self-complacent because
they believe that such relative conditions depend on the
respective faithfulness of Christians to God's grace given ;
how much more necessarily self-complacent will Lutherans be,
who know (so their doctrine runs), that they are in a state of
justification, if they learn that the being in such a state im-
plies a probability, that their life before justification was bet-
ter than that of others !

However, whether or no Bp. O'Brien holds this sentiment,
it is one which very easily may be held, and which therefore
requires our consideration. It must be observed however
that, so far as it goes, it is precisely the scholastic doctrine of
congruity ; and those who hold it, if they repudiate Tract
90, must reconcile the opinion with our Articles as best they
may. Of course we cannot but gladly hail all approach
to the true doctrine ; especially on the part of those whom
we would willingly honour and admire : and it is interesting
to observe that this modification, how consistent soever
it may be formally with Lutheranism, is yet greatly in
advance of the doctrines universally attributed to the here-
siarchs of the sixteenth century. Still, even taking this
estimation of the works of the unjustified, very painful
consequences cannot but follow. That the careful educa-
tion of a child in principles of obedience and devotion,
even in cases where the child himself most fully corres-
ponds with the education given, and contends against the
world, the flesh, and the devil, through his whole life,
even in this case that such education and such cooperation
will for certain lead to an escape from eternal torments, no

It should be observed, that a declaration, recently signed by a considerable body
of our clergy, and which has attracted some attention, specifies for reprobation,
among others, the following doctrine ; viz. " that works done with divine aid in
faith before justification, do dispose men to receive the grace of justification."

197

Lutheran can consistently allow. For it is a fact which no
one, I suppose, will deny, that many persons have carried on,
under God's grace, this life-long conflict, and have exhibited
to those constantly in their company the surest marks of all
Christian graces, of humility, patience, zeal, diligence, un-
worldliness, the spirit of prayer, the love of heavenly things,
who yet have lived and died without that confident assurance
of personal salvation, which, as we have seen, is inseparably
connected with justifying faith, in the Lutheran sense of
that phrase, even if it be not the very same thing. p These
then have died unjustified, and now await eternal torments.
Nay, even to those in whom justification is supposed to
follow, what will have been the value of their early dis-
cipline ? Those habits of watchfulness and self-restraint,
that sensitiveness at the very approach of evil resulting from
a fear lest it tempt to sin and ruin, the germs of habits
such as these it will be the very first object of a right-
minded parent carefully to implant ; as being the sole
foundations whereon the Christian character can be reared.
But under the Lutheran aspect their character is changed ;
no savour have they of the Gospel, no compatibility with
grace. They are not rudiments of the Christian character,
but rudiments of the world ; useful perhaps or even neces-
sary while the ' bondage of the law ' continues, but to be
changed for fearlessness and security when Gospel grace is
given. Lastly, although on this view Christian faith is more
likely to follow where the early habits have been pure, still
in those (not unfrequent) instances where those receive faith
whose past lives have been profligate, no detriment whatever
is suffered (so says the theory) in consequence of that cir-
cumstance, nor have those, who have been saved from gross
sin, in one single tittle or particular, any spiritual advantage

P The Christian Observer must be admitted as an unexceptionable witness
on this side of the Question. We read there, (January, 1844, p. 16,) 'Thousands
of deeply penitent and humble-minded persons have lived many years, and per-
haps died, in a state of deep depression, because they could not attain to that
confident assurance that their sins were pardoned, which they were told was
essential to salvation ; while murderers have gone to the gibbet exulting in strains
of rapture, as though they were being carried to the stake as faithful martyrs of
Jesus C'hrist.'

198

over those who have been most deeply plunged in its pollu-
tions. When we consider the inveterate corruption of human
nature, its obdurate resistance to discipline and restraint; and
on the other hand the unceasing energy, activity, and for-
bearance which is involved in the very idea of a good educa-
tion, both on the part of the teacher and the taught ; it
requires very little thought to see what must be the ine-
vitable result, in proportion as a doctrine should obtain
currency, which so incalculably disparages the importance
and benefits of that education.

And now let us consider the condition of those, who shall
have arrived at full maturity of years under the dominion of
habitual sin ; but who shall have been so far visited by
God's grace, as heartily to desire release from their thraldom
and admission into the glorious liberty of the children of
God. To such the Church at once unlocks her treasures of
grace ; and with Christian grace within, and the whole circle
of Christian motives acting from without, the will has fully
sufficient power, by means of unceasing care and discipline,
to effect its emancipation, and proceed onwards on its noble
course even to the end. But let us suppose, that even the
modified form of Lutheran doctrine were proposed to a
sinner so circumstanced ; let us suppose him told that justi-
fying faith may be given him at any moment, and that
when given it assures his pardon, and is accompanied by
grace which will lead him, without ' special' pains or effort,
to a holy life ; that if justifying faith be not given, no
amount of prayer and self-denial can be the means of
Christian salvation ; lastly, that such prayer and self-denial
confers this benefit and only this, that in consequence of it
the gift of justifying faith may be hoped for with greater
probability. Who is so mad as to doubt that the unhappy
victim, with habits of evil immeasurably strengthened by
indulgence, and habits of good immeasurably enfeebled by
neglect ; beset with passions ' craving like harpies for their
accustomed indulgence ;' repeatedly tempted from time to
time by the idea of sin reinvested with its brightest and most
alluring colours ; staggering and faint perhaps at the same
moment, from the weariness and arduousness of the path of

199

self-watchfulness and self-denial ; presented with nothing
which approaches to a certain promise of salvation even
should he persevere, or a certain threat of condemnation
should he give way ; receiving as an admitted truth, that if
even 011 his death-bed he can work himself into an assurance
of salvation, his salvation is assured ; who is so mad as to
doubt that this unhappy man will be paralyzed and crippled
in all his exertions by this hateful spell, that he will become
an easy prey to Satan, and return to the vomit he had left ?
And if this be so under the most favourable form of Luther-
anism, how much more will the same result follow if the or-
dinary doctrine be inculcated ; if he be told, that this prayer
and self-denial are literally of no advantage whatever in bring-
ing him nearer to Christ, or into the way of eternal salvation !

Such will be the effects of this doctrine on those whom it
considers not yet justified. What will it be on those whom
it considers justified ?

No one can be more fully aware than myself, of the com-
plete unreality both of that part of the discussion just con-
cluded, and of that now about to commence : it proceeds
upon an hypothesis, (an hypothesis, blessed be God, wholly
chimerical,) that it is possible for the abstract doctrine now
in question to be really and heartily embraced by the human
mind, and to proceed unimpeded to its legitimate effects.
The present then is a task similar to that of the mathema-
tician, who calculates the velocity of a projectile, without
taking into account the resistance of the air. That calcula-
tion is wholly theoretical, yet is an absolutely essential pre-
liminary to the discovery of results the most practical : and
in like manner the present inquiry must of necessity be first
carried through, in order that we may be prepared for that
subject which will come next in order ; the consideration
namely of the results which follow from this principle, not
imagined hypothetically as an isolated motive, but viewed as
connected with, and restrained by, those other motives which
must always be found, in varying degrees, in its company, the
desire of obeying conscience, the religious instinct, the sense of
justice, deference to public opinion, social feeling, and the like.

200

This too will be a fit place for introducing an explana-
tion, which it is very necessary to introduce. In objecting
to the position that justifying faith carries with it its own
evidence, it is not for one moment intended to deny, that
there are truths which carry with them their own evidence.
Nothing indeed could be more preposterous than such a
denial ; for as all reasoning proceeds from truths known to
truths unknown, unless there were truths known previously
to all reasoning, the reasoning faculty itself could have no
materials whereon to exercise its functions : there would be
no premises, and therefore no conclusions. I am myself in-
deed deeply convinced, that the highest and most precious
truths which can possess the mind may be received by the
religious Christian on the strongest and most certain grounds
of proof, with no support whatever from induction, or rati-
ocination, or any other form of external argument. But
we have a right to require that nothing shall be proposed
for our acceptance on such grounds as these, unless at the
same time practical rules are given, to discern truth from
falsehood, to place the dictates of conscience in strong and
unmistakeable contrast over against the capricious suggestions
of impulse or imagination. In the present instance it is a
fact acknowledged on all hands, that many, who professed a
full assurance of salvation, have lived lives of open and un-
blushing profligacy ; there is no one duty then more peremp-
torily incumbent on * evangelicals,' than the laying down some
test whereby this spurious faith shall be distinguished from
the Gospel virtue. Till this duty is performed, that very
feeling of security from fear of punishment, which is their
great boast, has no more warrant than a madman's dream ;
and yet there is no one duty (and this is saying a great deal)
in which they have so signally failed. It is of course no
matter of blame to any one, that he has failed in doing that
which is in itself impracticable ; but until they either find it
practicable, or else abandon their theory, we possess the most
undeniable right of imputing to them the position, that all
persons who confidently and without doubt expect eternal
salvation, are warranted in expecting it, and will certainly

201

obtain it. In this shape however their system, I suppose,
will find but few supporters.

This advantage, however, though most certainly legitimate,
I am content to waive ; I am content, for argument's sake,
to admit that it is possible to allow assurance to ordinary
believers, without countenancing the self-deceit of profligate
fanatics ; I am content, for argument's sake, to admit that
there is some distinct principle, called faith, which may be
recognised by its own evidence, and which warrants assurance
of salvation. It remains for them to defend the other part
of their statement ; that this principle leads, without -special
pains or effort on their part, to as much holiness as the
Gospel requires. They will not deny, indeed strangely
enough they accuse Catholics of denying, that ' the infection
of nature doth remain, yea, even in the regenerate ;' that
even justified Christians have from time to time, nay fre-
quently, a very inadequate perception of spiritual things ;
and that their evil propensities are innumerable and most
unceasingly active. Let us now therefore fix our ideas, by
imagining the statement in question carried out in a par-
ticular case and in actual life.

A believer, fully possessed by this doctrine, and consider-
ing himself endued with this principle of so-called ' faith,'
wakes in the morning, his thoughts running on some interest-
ing event of the previous day, a missionary meeting or a
charity sermon ; he finds himself altogether disinclined to
remove his mind from such interesting topics, and to fix it
wholly on God in prayer or meditation. * He will mourn
over this new proof of the strength of the flesh and weakness
of the spirit,' he will ' wish earnestly that he were more in-
tent upon things of the spirit ;' q but he will be in no way
bound to resist by an effort his predominant inclination, for
that would be one of those very acts of self-denial, as has
been fully shewn, which on Lutheran principles are not re-
quired under the Gospel. Unprotected then by that at-
mosphere of good, with which the Christian's morning de-
votions well performed encompass him, he goes forth to his
i ' On Heurtley's Sermons,' p. 438.

202

daily duties. He is tempted to exceed in eating or drink-
ing ; sometimes indeed or often it happens, (let us grant it,)
that his love of God makes him fully realise the baseness of
these gross temptations ; but there are other moments (as
our adversaries themselves must grant) in which his spiritual
emotions are not so lively, and the temptation becomes real :
when it becomes real, on these principles he is under no
obligation to resist it. His temper naturally is not happy ;
though when his affections are enkindled by the thought of
God's mercy, its influence is hardly felt. Again, there may
be many moments in which its influence is felt, but in which
he also feels an inclination to pray against its dominion ; this
inclination is a proof of the spiritual mind, and should be in-
dulged. But if he feels his temper seriously tried, while he
feels no accompanying inclination to resort for his protection
to the spiritual weapons of prayer and self-restraint, it is 110
part of his duty to do so, or to adopt any other means of
striving against his natural infirmity. It is unnecessary to
proceed farther with the picture ; it will be sufficiently seen,
that unless in very extraordinary cases, nothing less than
open and unblushing profligacy would necessarily flow, from
the consistent adoption of this doctrine.

On the other hand, the Catholic-minded Christian has
learned such lessons as the following :

Self-denial of some kind or other is involved, as is evident, in
the very notion of renewal and holy obedience. To change our
hearts is to learn to love things which we do not naturally love
to unlearn the love of this world ; but this involves of course a
thwarting of our natural wishes and tastes. To be righteous and
obedient, implies self-command ; but to possess power we must have
gained it ; nor can we gain it without a vigorous struggle, a perse-
vering warfare against ourselves.' r

He believes that to cease from ' his daily and hourly op-
position to present inclination, would be very soon to fall
from grace ; he exercises himself in such opposition, as the
one warrant for his hope of salvation. Such an one disclaims

r Plain Sermons, vol. v. p. 57.

203

then from his very innermost heart the possession of any
such principle, as will lead him without ' special ' pains or
effort to a holy life ; he disclaims, that is, the possession of
that which alone, on Lutheran grounds, is justifying faith :
and he must be regarded by the consistent ' Evangelical ' as
alien to the Gospel covenant. In what single particular then
did I overstep the truth, (though I have been accused of
' calumnious misrepresentation,'*) when I made the follow-
ing statement ? ' That obedience to the will of God, with
whatever sacrifice of self, is the one thing needful ; that sin
is the one only danger to be dreaded, the one only evil to be
avoided ; these great truths are the very foundation of natural
religion : ' but ' this modern system denies these to be essential
and necessary truths, yea, counts it the chief glory of the
Gospel that under it they are no longer truths.' 4 Is it not
as plain as day that such a Christian as I last supposed,
though he should have 'obeyed the will of God' with the
greatest ' sacrifice of self;' though he should have, by God's
grace, made almost incredible progress in the subjugation of
pride, indolence, uncharitableness, and the whole circle of
vices ; though he should be most frequent and earnest in
prayer, living in the thought of God, abounding in love to
man ; still if he believe his own salvation insecure, is, accord-
ing to the views, termed as if in mockery ' evangelical,' no
justified Christian at all ? What then can be more certain
than that, if those views were true, confidence in our sal-
vation would be a ' thing ' more * needful ' than holy ' obe-
dience,' and an alarmed conscience a * danger ' more to be
' dreaded ' than wilful ' sin ' ?

The Bishop of Ossory has introduced a very important
modification into the Lutheran doctrine, which I may quote
in his own words.

" Besides those differences in the future happiness of moral agents,
which naturally results from the difference of their moral state,
we have good reasons to look for distinctions in their con-
dition hereafter, depending also on these moral differences ; not,
however, like the former, resulting naturally from them, but from a
direct appointment grounded on them"

Bp. of Ossory ' Charge, p. 190. ' 'On St. Athanasius,' p. 390.

204

It will be felt by most that this is far from akin to the
general spirit of that doctrine ; and he frankly says, that al-
though it is * clearly taught in God's word,' ' it is likely to
startle and offend many real Christians.' (p. 408.) On the
other hand, it must be admitted to be in statement perfectly
consistent ; and I have so worded what I have said, as most
fully to include this modification in all my remarks.

It is much to be observed, that it is only in opposing our
predominant inclination, that the sense of duty can possibly
be called into practical exercise. Acts which flow spon-
taneously from present impulse, may be most fully sanctioned
by the conscience ; but it is unmeaning to speak of them as
caused by it, or as tending to strengthen and cultivate its
influence. The orthodox believer makes this sense of duty
the one prominent subject of his care ; it is the one faculty
which is visited by Divine grace, and which, under that
grace, leads him onward to salvation. Hence the extreme
advantage, in many cases, of voluntary self-denial, as a means
of giving practice and strength to that habit, which it is of
such essential importance that we preserve in full vigour and
activity. But from what has been just said, it is plain that
according to the abstract Lutheran doctrine, even with the
addition of Dr. O'Brien's supplement, a Christian may be
fully assured of salvation, who has not the slightest intention
of ever resisting the decided bias of the moment, and there-
fore of so much as calling this faculty into distinct and con-
scious existence.*

' I should be sorry to omit so justly and forcibly expressed a passage as the
following, which is found in Dr. O'Brien's work ; how utterly alien in spirit from
any part e. g. of Luther's Commentary on the Galatians ! " The unheeded
events of every day and every hour are doing something to form for eternity the
character of every human being, calling into exercise some moral principle, de-
veloping some propensity, renewing that strife between conscience and passion,
which tends to the advancement or degradation of our moral nature, according
to its conduct and its issue, strengthening some vice or confirming some virtue.
What hour in fact of our waking existence, carefully reviewed, even by ourselves,
at its close, would not be seen to have brought with it some intelligible demand
upon temperance or fortitude, or self-denial ; upon forbearance, or benevolence,
or active exertion ; upon zeal for God, or love for man ? And as these claims
are answered or not, as conscience and that Spirit who strives with our spirit
prevail over evil dispositions and indolence or yield to them, are we not plainly
advancing or retrograding in the moral course in which we are treading ; and in

205

Again, the orthodox believer, as knowing that at any
moment he may be called on to thwart and oppose his pre-
vailing inclination under a sense of duty, even in the mo-
ments of greatest relaxation preserves his feelings and affec-
tions in a real, however latent, subordination to his consci-
ence, and thus preserves his conscience itself in subordina-
tion to God. This is that virtue of watchfulness, held in so
peculiar value by all who really embrace Catholic doctrine.
There is probably no grace, which in its highest earthly per-
fection is so distinguishingly characteristic of the saintly
mind, and which in its various degrees may be taken as so
fair a measure of the degree of our Christian advancement ;
for none other is called into such habitual, such unceasing
practice. The consciousness too of its growth within us, is
the most comfortable assurance we can possibly have in
regard to our future prospects. This grace can have no
place whatever under the Gospel, according to any consistent
form of Luther anism. Its very existence implies that we
have long realised a most serious danger of our falling from
God ; the very consciousness of our justification, upon the
Lutheran theory, implies that we have held from the very
beginning of our Christian course, as a matter of divine
faith, that there is no such danger. To contend with vigour
at special seasons against evil inclinations, with the hope of
increasing our heavenly reward, this Dr. O'Brien's principles
will fully sanction ; but to watch at all seasons against the
danger of falling away, is a virtue which can be practised by
none, except by those who from their heart repudiate the
heresy of personal assurance.

5. In proceeding to the practical inferences which follow from
this theory, to the consideration of the moral effects produced
by Lutheran doctrine as actually witnessed, it is necessary to
guard at the outset against two opposite misapprehensions. On
the one side it has been supposed, that those who gladly ac-
knowledge the very great piety and seriousness of character,
which have been frequently seen in * Evangelicals,' confess
thereby that there is nothing very deeply pernicious in Lutheran

either event fitted for some station in the world that we are hereafter to inhabit,
for the society with which we shall dwell for ever? " p. 231.

206

doctrine ; on the other hand it has been thought, that this
whole method of judging doctrines by reference to their prac-
tical effects, implies that one sits in judgment, as if from some
vantage ground, on one's fellow-men, and professes to dis-
pense praise and blame to each according to his several de-
serts. The following extracts from the British Critic will,
I trust, sufficiently clear up the latter misapprehension ;
and they will include also some incidental allusion to the
former.

1 In our own age and country it is perhaps hardly too much to
say, that the greater part of high-minded and sensitive, if at the
same time strictly conscientious, men, will hardly find their rest in
any existing school of opinion, or religious system, or accurately
expressed theory. Our supposed learner then will be even compelled
to the conclusion, that he can regard no single channel as the one
appointed medium, through which God shall convey light to his soul ;
he must look for that light as transmitted to him partly from one
quarter, partly from another, refracted, as it were, in its course by
the various exhibitions of morality which surround him on all sides.
And yet in how different a spirit will his search be carried on, from
that eclectic method, which is to religion in general what Protest-
antism is to Christianity in particular I For let us compare, in imagin-
ation, the process adopted by disciples of these respective systems.
The one makes the reasoning faculty the single arbiter to which all
the remaining powers of the mind must be content to minister, the
other makes conscience such. The one regards his fellow-men as
witnesses to be called into court, and questioned at his own bidding :
the other thinks of them as his teachers, and in some sense his superiors ;
as commissioned by God, each after his measure, to build him up in
the entire truth'

' But what then ? because we cannot have all, shall we have
nothing ? . . . Because [our] Church does not teach with distinct-
ness and authority, shall we take refuge in that strange modern
doctrine of ' private judgment on the text of Scripture' ? Surely it
would be as unwise as it is undutiful to do so. True the Holv
Ghost speaks not to us now articulately through the Church to
which we belong, but does He not speak to us through the holy
men around us, whom he inhabits ? True, there is much profession

u ' On Goode,' p. 42.

207

without reality, much self-deceit, much inconsistency ; still has not
our Lord Himself said, ' by their fruits ye shall know them/ and
may not the inquirer, who is really in earnest, find on all sides
proofs of holiness not to be mistaken ; self-denial, purity, humility,
zeal ? Let this then be our protection against idiosyncrasy, self-
complacency, or a low and disproportionate standard ; let us, under
circumstances, make to ourselves in heart a Catholic Church ; let us
cling anxiously to the marks of the Holy Ghost wherever we can
find them. True it is that we shall find among religious men much
essential difference of statement, much estrangement and mutual
suspicion ; but the more gratifying will prove the task of tracing,
as best we may, the principle of goodness in its different stages,
through all this variety of external dress.

This then is the point to which for some time past our argument
has been tending ; ' the only way,' says Mr. Newman, ' in which
the members of our Church, so widely differing at this time, can be
brought together in one, is by a turning of heart to one another :

till we try to love each other, and what is holy in each

other, and wish to be all one, and mourn that we are not so, and
pray that we may be so, I do not see what good can come of argu-
ment.' No mathematical axiom is more certain than this moral
one, that where the fruits of holiness shew themselves, there is the
Holy Ghost, and there is really [so far as it goes] true doctrine ;
for the doctrine which supports men's spiritual life, the principle on
which they live, may very easily be true, while the language in
which they have learnt to clothe it, may be almost to any extent
erroneous and dangerous. We do not wish to extenuate the evil
arising from profession of false doctrines ; it must to a certain
extent, in some more in others less, vitiate the principle itself within
them : and of this we are well-convinced, that in proportion as we
correct, enlarge, strengthen our own moral feelings by this affec-
tionate throwing of ourselves on the thought and example of holy men,
and in proportion as our obedience keeps pace with our convictions,
we shall learn to appreciate the [superiority even in kind of the]
holiness which has ever on the whole accompanied the profession
and explicit belief of Catholic doctrine ; we shall fall back upon
Catholic tradition as feeling it the correlative of our nature ; and
shall be rescued from the delusive and heretical sophisms of the
Protestant schools.' *

x ' On Arnold's Sermons,' pp. 334, 5.

208

In the present profoundly disturbed and unsettled state of
theological sentiment, no one who has not the happiness of
resting with secure and undoubting confidence in some safe
harbour, will allow himself wilfully to shut his eyes to any
exhibition of virtue and self-denial, from whatever quarter it
may present itself; by so doing, he incurs serious danger of
losing hold of that thread, which can alone guide him safely
through the bewildering labyrinth of opinion which surrounds
us. But in proportion as he learns the opposite habit, as
he familiarizes himself with the reverent observation of reli-
giousness and consientiousness in all their different shapes,
he will go on more and more to discern the lineaments of the
full Catholic character. He need not look beyond our own
Church to find models of that character, which \vill still
further assist him in the study ; and the contemplation of
them will enable him to appreciate still more adequately
the same features of mind, as witnessed in their highest earth-
ly perfection by the Saints of the Church. He will more
and more understand that that character is, even in its early
rudiments, one, distinct, unmistakeable ; as truly and pointed-
ly differing from the Christian character conceived by religi-
ous Protestants, as that in turn differs from the Socinian or
Mahometan.

Having so far guarded myself against misconception, I will
relieve my own feelings by saying plainly, as I have said in
print more than once before, that though I feel bound at all
fitting occasions and in all fitting ways to protest heart and
soul against the ' Evangelical' system, I fully recognise many
who have at various times professed that system, as so ex-
ceedingly my own superiors that the very notion of even a
comparison is most painful. Who indeed can so much as
mention the names of Cecil, or Scott, or Martyn, without
adding from his heart expressions of honour and reverence ?
but I allude not only to such unusual specimens as these, but
to great numbers of admirable men, who, especially at the
latter end of the last century and the beginning of this, fol-
lowed in their train. ' Earnest persons naturally, nay,
rightly, embrace that form of opinions, which they find in

209

their own time to be coexistent with earnestness ; and in pro-
portion as the voice of their conscience is brought into dis-
tinctness, in the most heretical propositions they will see and
realise great and Christian truths.' y They learn to say that
we are justified by faith without inherent righteousness; they
mean only that holy men rest their hopes of salvation, in no
way on the thought of such inherent righteousness, but solely
and indivisibly on the merits of their Lord. They learn to say
that the justified have assurance of salvation ; they mean only
to express, as Catholics would express, their humble yet hearty
confidence, that ' He who has begun a good work in them will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,' provided only that
they remain (as, by His help, they fully purpose to remain)
faithful to His grace, watchful against the approach of sin,
diligent in the practice of virtue. Thus their conscience, and
religious instinct, and holy obedience, neutralize their heretical
creed : and the evil which accrues to them from that creed is of
a negative not a positive nature. Still very serious evil there
most certainly is ; for, unless a Christian has. either himself
intellectually embraced the whole Catholic doctrine, or else
lives under a system which is informed and animated by that
doctrine, he cannot enjoy the benefit of those various methods
of religious culture and discipline, which are indispensably
necessary for the formation, even in its very elements, of the
true Catholic character. Nay, even so much of excellence
and devotedness as I have fully acknowledged to exist in
many ' Evangelicals,' will perhaps rarely be found, unless in
cases where God by painful visitations, mercifully, however
imperfectly, supplies the absence of those salutary correctives
furnished by the Church. Have not all the great lights of
' Evangelicalism ' been sorely oppressed either by sorrow, or
bodily pain, or contempt and persecution ? or if by none
of these, then by such hardships as necessarily attend the
missionary life ? a life which, though its original choice was
voluntary and most highly admirable and honourable, yet
when chosen hardly admits of retreat, and furnishes one
continued discipline to the Christian who has had grace to
follow so high a calling.

i ' On Heurtley's Four Sermons,' p. 446.

And now, to pass by a sudden transition from the highest
to the lowest specimens of those professing * Evangelical'
principles, it must not surely be forgotten, that from the
invention of those principles to the present day there have
always been some among their professors, who (I do not say
have carried these principles to their full and true results ;
the basest of mankind could not bring themselves to that ;
but) have united a confident assurance of salvation with
open and undeniable habits of profligacy and depravity. We
see this in the abandoned Anabaptists contemporary with
Luther, and among some English fanatics contemporary with
Charles I. ; nay, I fear, from what more than one clergyman
has said, there can be no fair room for doubt, that the same
exists in a considerable degree among various classes of dis-
senters at the present time. It is very well to say that this is
a corruption or perversion of Luther's system : but he himself
deduced a sanction for polygamy from that system : and for
the reasons already given, I can only look on these disorders
as the natural, direct, and even mitigated consequences of
that doctrine, which some have dared to call the ' articulus
stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae.'

It is most fully acknowledged, however, that no members of
our Church are implicated in such extreme results. Both
the habits of education and the force of public opinion so far
enlighten their conscience, that they would recoil from open
wickedness, and instantly renounce any such principle as
appeared to them to involve it. Again, regular habits of
morning and evening prayer are, I suppose, universally con-
sidered essential ; though I have never happened to meet in
their books with any very urgent practical advice on the
extreme difficulty, and yet the indispensable importance, of
keeping our mind, at times of prayer, really fixed on the oc-
cupation. And at all events, when we consider the profound
subtlety of Satan and the complicated deceitfulness of the
human heart, we shall expect to find that those, who lay no
prominent stress on the duty of self-examination and of hearty
unremitting warfare against their old nature, remain subject
to sins of a more secret character, without being even visited
by any suspicion of their own captivity ; much more without

making any vigorous and successful struggles for liberty.
This I believe to be the case with multitudes ; and in very
many instances to an extent wholly inconsistent with Chris-
tian acceptance, or, as we say technically, to an extent
involving mortal sin. A very few examples will make clearer
the sort of sins which this statement contemplates.

Undue reliance on wealth in those possessed of it. The
Bible statements on this subject, if we would fairly listen to
them, would surely lead us to imagine, that all professing any
reverence for Scripture, who either enjoy or expect wealth,
would be filled with misgivings and dismay. Under this
feeling, holy men at various times, from an earnest desire
of salvation, have ' given all that they have to the poor and
followed' Christ, as fearing lest to possess earthly weath,
might dim their perception of the preciousness of the true
riches. Now surely such persons as experience these
misgivings, this dismay, even if they do not feel called,
or have not the heart, to follow these high examples,
will deeply reverence them, and endeavour, at least at
humble distance, to profit by their lessons. But 'Evan-
gelicals' of the present day seem unable even to conceive
any motive for such sacrifices, except a desire of ' purchasing
heaven.' A remarkable witness truly against themselves!
a witness, that declarations, perhaps the most emphatic that
are to be found in all Scripture, and uttered by our Lord
Himself, awaken no responsive chord whatever in their own
minds. And I believe it is very far indeed from an imaginary
apprehension, to feel deeply alarmed lest there be many
Christians, who would treat as a suggestion of Satan a
passing doubt on the certainty of their own salvation ; and
who yet allow themselves to take pleasure in the thought of
their own wealth, of their power to satisfy their own desires,
and to exercise an influence over others ; and to rest for sup-
port on this pleasure ; in a degree totally inconsistent with
that lively sense of dependence on God and on the merits of
Christ, which are peremptorily required for salvation.

A kindred temptation, addressed to a much larger class, is
that which leads to an idolatrous reverence of wealth, or again

p 2

rank and station, possessed by others. I willingly take the pre-
sent opportunity of expressing a very confident opinion, that
the unhappy relations, established three centuries ago between
Church and State, have had a most miserable influence in
fostering this sin ; for the effect of those relations extends
far more widely than might be supposed, and most materially
affects the respective position of squire and clergyman in
almost every parish in the land. However this may be, it is
very much indeed more difficult to prevent ourselves from
being dazzled and carried away by rank and station than
might have been supposed ; insomuch that he who is not
conscious of the difficulty, gives great ground for fearing
that he is very deeply plunged in the sin. To feel as much
abhorrence for the callous selfishness and insensibility of the
rich as for the peevishness, querulousiiess, and discontent of
the poor ; for the luxurious self-indulgence of the one as for
the more coarse and brutal sensuality of the other; for
indolent and slothful waste of time and talents in the former
as for confirmed laziness in the latter ; this is an achievement
which few of us perhaps (even though knowing the importance
of the object) have at all adequately reached. I ' am not
speaking of our outward demeanour ; which ought of course
to differ according to the difference of ranks in those whom
we address : but of inward sentiment in regard to matters of
plain right and wrong, And very few have any idea, until
they have thought of the subject, to how wonderful an extent
their judgments in such matters are distorted, by the presence
or absence of worldly and adventitious advantages. Unless
we are most carefully on our guard, there is the most serious
danger lest the habit of courting the favour or notice of such
persons, if we happen to .depend on them or to be thrown
near them, may be carried to an extent, quite irreconcilable
with the habit of making eternal salvation our principal ob-
ject ; in other words, quite irreconcilable, unless repented
of, with the hope of that salvation. ' Evangelicals ' have been
very frequently accused of courtliness and low adulation ;
and a priori there can be little doubt, unless there be far
more habitual self-discipline than I see at all enforced in

213

their writings, that they will in many cases not think of strug-
gling against the temptation, and so will forfeit grace. y

From the same cause other sinful habits also, habits of cen-
soriousness and uncharitable judgment, of pride, of envy, of
discontent, of covetousness, and the rest, exist, it is to be feared,
in several cases to such a degree as wholly to banish the pre-
sence of the Holy Spirit ; and in very many most seriously to
obstruct His gracious influence ; and that, among those who
conceal both from themselves and others the wickedness of their
heart, by a fluent use of Scripture language, and self-com-
placent eulogies on their sense of their own sinfulness. Indeed
it is a most startling consideration, and one which should
surely alarm many who expect most confidently their own
certain salvation, that no one, I suppose, embraces ' Evan-
gelical' opinions, who does not hold his own salvation to be se-
cure. Now when ' Evangelicals ' come to make up so large a
class as at the present time, it really demands the most
anxious thought, in those who remember the Scripture de-
clarations on the ' strait gate,' how they can safely stake their
eternal interests on such a doctrine ; a doctrine, which would
seem to represent the really serious as bearing so ominously
large a proportion to the worldly and irreligious.

II. It is an eternal and irreversible truth of natural
religion, that beings whose will is not as yet wholly sub-
ordinate to the rule of right and the will of God, have this
one paramount duty imposed on them before all other duties,
viz. to exercise themselves in obedience to the voice of con-
science, by unceasing efforts to reduce their will into a fuller
and more complete subjection. The form which this eternal
truth assumes under the pure Gospel, is very much as follows.
Converts to Christianity, at their Baptism, by faith are jus-

T The subject only leads me to speak in the text of ' Evangelicals ;' but be-
lieving as I do that the safeguard, given by the pure Gospel against this habit of
sycophancy, is a reverence for the spiritual power as such, I fully think that all
classes of Christians will, as classes, be greatly infected with this sin, who are not
altogether indignant and dissatisfied with the present relations of Church and State :
nor will individuals of those classes commonly escape from the infection, except
by means of anxious watchfulness directed to this special purpose. The history
of our Reformed Church may be confidently appealed to, as bearing out this re-
mark.

214

tified ; by faith receive pardon for their past sins ; by faith
are endued with a most precious inward gift, and are brought
into new relations, into a new sphere of unseen agencies.
Then begins a new course of solemn trial and conflict, far
more solemn indeed than any they can have hitherto known ;
a trial which so closely concerns them, that on their be-
haviour during its progress depends nothing less than their
everlasting destiny : and that trial is no other than this, how
carefully and watchfully they shall retain that faith which
now is theirs, and to how great an extent, by following
zealously their sense of duty, they shall engraft on it the
habit of love. And whereas, although nothing can be more
distinct than the conscience's claim to obedience, few things are
more feeble than its power of enforcing it ; whereas its very
voice is instantaneously overwhelmed by the impetuous irrup-
tion of present impulses and inclinations ; and whereas the
resistance of corrupt human nature to that discipline and re-
straint, which is indispensably requisite for the continual im-
provement required of us, is most unceasing, energetic, and
obdurate ; the Gospel directs its most powerful motives,
collected as it were from all quarters, to the strengthening of
this one faculty, which is so peculiarly in need of strength.

And if I begin by mentioning, as among the principal of
these motives, the fear of punishment, let it not be supposed,
as it is often supposed, that lovers of Ancient Truth have
low and carnal notions of the desirableness, for its own sake,
of a religious life, or the spontaneous hatred of sin as such,
which good men feel. Such passages as the following would
shew sufficiently how groundless is this imputation.

' This excellence and desirableness of God's gifts is a subject again
and again set before us in Holy Scripture. Thus the Prophet Isaiah
speaks of the " feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees ; of
fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." z And
again, under images of another kind : " He hath sent Me .... to
give . . . beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called Trees
of Righteousness." a Or again, the Prophet Hosea : " I will be as
the dew unto Israel : he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his
z Isaiah xxv. 6. a Isaiah bd. 1 3.

roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall
be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell
under his shadow shall return ; they shall revive as the corn, and
grow as the vine ; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Le-
banon." 1 ' And the Psalmist: "O that My people would have
hearkened unto Me . . . the haters of the Lord should have been
found liars, but their time should have endured for ever. He should
have fed them also with the finest wheat flour, and with honey out
of the stony rock should I have satisfied thee." c You see all images
of what is pleasant and sweet in nature are brought together to
describe the pleasantness and sweetness of the gifts which God
gives us in grace. As wine enlivens, and bread strengthens, and
oil is rich, and honey is sweet, and flowers are odorous, and dew is
refreshing, and foliage is beautiful ; so, and much more, are God's
gifts in the Gospel enlivening, and strengthening, and rich, and
sweet, and fragrant, and refreshing, and excellent. And as it is
natural to feel satisfaction and comfort in these gifts of the visible
world, so it is but natural and necessary to be delighted and trans-
ported with the gifts of the world invisible ; and as the visible gifts
are objects of desire and search, so much more is it, I do not merely
say a duty, but a privilege and blessedness to " taste and see how
gracious the Lord is." . . .

' I wish it were possible, my brethren, to lead men to greater
holiness and more faithful obedience by setting before them the
high and abundant joys which they have who serve God : " In
His presence is fulness of joy," " the well of life ;" and they are
satisfied with " the plenteousness of His house," and " drink
of His pleasures as out of a river ;" but this is, I know, just
what most persons will not believe . . . Alas ! this is the very
thing I lament, that God's service is not pleasant to you. It is
not pleasant to those who do not like it : true ; but it is pleasant to
those who do. Observe, this is what I say ; not that it is pleasant
to those who like it not, but that it is pleasant to those who like it.
Nay, what I say is, that it is much more pleasant to those who like
it, than any thing of this world is pleasant to those who do not like it.
This is the point. I do not say that it is pleasant to most men ;
but I say that it is in itself the most pleasant thing in the world.
Nothing is so pleasant as God's service to those to whom it is
pleasant. The pleasures of sin are not to be compared in fulness
and intensity to the pleasures of holy living. The pleasures of
b Hos. xiv. 57. c Ps. Ixxxi. 1316.

216

holiness are far more pleasant to the holy, than the pleasures of sin
to the sinner. O that I could get you to believe this ! O that you
had a heart to feel it and know it ! O that you had a heart to
taste God's pleasures and to make proof of them ; to taste and see
how gracious the Lord is ! ...

4 Till our eyes are opened spiritually, we shall ever think religion
distasteful and unpleasant, and shall wonder how any one can like
it. Such is our miserable state, we are blind to the highest and
truest glories, and dead to the most lively and wonderful of all plea-
sures ; and no one can describe them to us. None other than
God the Holy Spirit can help us in this matter, by enlightening
and changing our hearts. So it is ; and yet I will say one thing,
by way of suggesting to you how great and piercing the joys of re-
ligion are' And so the writer proceeds." 1

Those who cordially acquiesce in these sentiments cannot
be accused, with any fairness, of disregarding or under-
valuing the indescribable peace of mind and joy in believing,
which are the portion of an earnest Christian ; nor would I
deny for a moment that sinners even at the first moment of
their turning honestly to God, much more children who
have never altogether abandoned Him, are allowed a precious
foretaste of that heavenly gift. That which I professed lately
to establish, by an appeal to every-day experience, is not the
contradictory of this, but a very different proposition ; viz.
that this foretaste is not such, that a Christian can in any
way depend on it as a sufficient preservative against even the
most flagrant and permanent apostacy from God. The real
habit of love, the habit whereby, from the mere appreciation of
holiness and hatred of sin, we mortify the deeds of the flesh,
this can only be genuinely engrafted on a keenly sensitive
conscience ; this is increased in strength and enlarged in
range, only in proportion as watchfulness and self-denial have
wrought their perfect work. How is it possible, indeed, for
heavenly peace and love really to exist within the mind, ex-
cept, so far as carnal thoughts and affections are rooted out ;
thoughts which, from their radical contrariety, cannot but
disturb that peace and stifle that love ? Any professed feeling
of religious rapture, which grows not on this foundation,

d Plain Sermons, vol. v. pp. 124 127.

217

and which is fostered without assistance from these means,
is no holy enthusiasm, but a Satanical illusion ; such as
have often shewn plainly their real family and parentage, by
gliding almost imperceptibly into breaches of the seventh
commandment. e The question then is, what motive is
divinely vouchsafed, to help the tottering sense of duty in
the arduous task of creating, under God's grace, this
sensitiveness of conscience ; in giving the believer that deep
conviction, which can result only from personal experience,
how revolting and self-contradictory is the very idea of a
religious life, divorced from this watchful and minute
obedience ! Hope of heavenly reward, love of heavenly good,
these become in due time most powerful and efficacious
instruments in the hands of God ; but, as is evident at once,
they presuppose the existence, in some considerable measure,
of spiritual desires and affections. What is it which is to give
strength and courage to the will, in those early stages of the
conflict with our old nature, which are a previous and necessary
condition for the growth of such desires? Whil%our tastes
and likings are still so preponderatingly carnal, and while
the temptations which assail us are carnal, must not the
motive which defends us be addressed to our carnal nature
also ? No one surely can ever experience Christian love, who
has not begun with godly fear.

How strange then and unreal appears a sentiment of
Bp. O'Brien, that the efficacy of fear as a motive has been
much exaggerated by Catholics ! Take the case (which has
been the lot perhaps of most religious men among ourselves)
of one who turns to God, after having rebelled against Him
by habitual worldliness, even if not by gross sin. When the
first fervour of his conversion has subsided, and the first
disgust at past sinfulness has become far less intense, how
feeble, uncertain, fluctuating are his religious affections ! how
powerful, restless, importunate his sinful temptations ! By
what means, short of a miracle, could Almighty God support
him in his course and save him from a relapse into his for-
saken pollutions, unless by placing strongly before his mind

e See on this most important matter, Mr, Newman's ' Sermons on Subjects of the
day,' pp. 1 35, 6.

218

the fears of wrath to come ? a motive surely this, which in
power and importunity is alone fitted to carry on an active
conflict against the enemies of his salvation.

Nor, again, can there be in the whole world a more
pernicious, a more fundamental error, than to suppose that
that careful obedience to God in the details of daily life, of
which I have so often spoken, and which so peculiarly dis-
tinguishes the Catholic from all Protestant exhibitions of
Christianity, that this habit is, at best, but necessary for us
here below, through the frailty and instability of our nature.
So far from this, it is the very blessedness of Saints and
Angels, that their will, at every moment of their existence, is
wholly and unreservedly in submission to the w T ill of God.
This feature of the Catholic character is merely a conformity
with the first principles of natural religion and morality ; to
disparage it, is to blaspheme against those eternal and im-
mutable principles. It is not that Catholics consider this
feature essential, because they believe that a strict judgment
is to come,; but on the contrary God has revealed a strict
judgment to come, that our frail nature may be supported in
its efforts to attain what conscience proclaims as essential.
These efforts do not become a duty, because God has ordered
us to fear ; but God has ordered us to fear, because these
efforts are in themselves a duty. Since, then, God could not
possibly (unless again by a miracle) imprint this feature on
the mind of beings constituted like ourselves, except through
this motive of fear, it is not that he who is influenced by this
motive is below Christianity., but that he who is not in-
fluenced by it (no special revelation supposed) is below even
natural religion.

An orthodox Church then, in her anxiety to rescue her
children from the dominion of Satan, dares not to omit any
one part of man's complicated nature ; but addresses her
urgent appeals, derived from every quarter, to their hearts and
consciences. Nor does this particular motive of fear lose its
importance, even when great attainments have been made in
the Christian life, and hope and love have become very
powerful incentives to holy obedience. In one sense, indeed,
fear becomes continually more intense and absorbing; for

219

there is no surer mark of growth in grace, than that the
thought of Judgment to come is more constantly and unre-
mittingly present to the mind. And though it be true, that
in ordinary Christians that thought issues rather in reverence
and wary caution than in any transports of alarm, it is also
true that, in the case of several Saints, it has been one especial
trouble allowed for their purification, that to the very end
of their earthly life they have been visited from time to time
by violent accesses of fear, nay, by temptations to absolute
despair ; fears and temptations, which have arisen from their
power of more clearly perceiving their own miserable sinful-
ness, and the infinite holiness of their Judge.

And this will be a fit place to notice distinctly an objection
that may be made ; though an answer to it has been implied
in what goes before. It may be asked, if the absolute
necessity of this habit of watchfulness be a truth of natural
religion, why will not the natural conscience, without help
from this lower motive, discern it to be such, and take
measures for its acquirement ? The answer involved in our
previous statement is two-fold : first, that conscience is, from
its great feebleness, unable, unless supported by some strong
external motive, to instigate the whole man even to so much
as a gradual, however distant, approximation towards a
model which it may think desirable ; and secondly, that
natural conscience in its rudimental state, previously to moral
cultivation and spiritual enlightenment, will not perceive this
particular model to be desirable ; conscience, I say, will not
perceive it to be desirable, until so much experience has been
obtained of its real nature, as cannot be attained without the
continuous and prolonged agency of this motive of fear.
This will elucidate a statement, made a few pages back, that
on any consistent modification of the abstract Lutheran
doctrine, the virtue of watchfulness could have no place
under the Gospel. For it is not implied in this statement nor
is it true, that when this habit of watchfulness has been once
acquired, it may not be conceivably retained without further
support from that lower motive ; from the intrinsic power
possessed by it in common with all habits, and from the per-
ception, now fully possessed, of its intrinsic excellence, of its

220

indispensable necessity as a constituent of true holiness. Very
few Christians, of course, to the last, could be safely
delivered from the influence of fear, and who they are, God
only can know ; but it was incumbent to make this expla-
nation, because, as if in contrast with the Saints lately
mentioned, there have been other Saints on record, to whom
God has vouchsafed, before their death, a revelation of their
final acceptance. St. Paul has often enough been quoted as
one of their number ; who, though at an early period he
' counted himself not to have apprehended ' and made
strenuous efforts ' lest he should be reprobate,' shortly before
his death rejoices in the thought that ' he has fought the good
fight and finished his course,' and in the prospect ' henceforth
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.'

The last few pages must not be considered a digression
from the immediate subject ; for they have been quite
necesssary, that we may the more distinctly understand the
unfavourable influence exercised by Lutheran doctrine on
the moral character of its professors. And whereas the first
allegation made was, that ' Evangelicals ' remain under the
dominion, very frequently of even mortal sins, without
suspecting their bondage ; so the second shall be, that even
when aware of the sinful tendencies which possess them, they
continually remain tranquil and secure in mind, without
making any really serious effort to overcome them. Of
course the same exception must be made as before ; they
are so far unfaithful to their own theory, that they will
usually make strenuous exertions, rather than give way to
open and undeniable sins of the flesh : nor is it extravagant
to say, that it is really fortunate for an ' Evangelical' should
he, from circumstances, have serious difficulty in overcoming
such temptations ; for it familiarizes him with the idea of
conflict, and insensibly moulds his character into a more
Christian shape. But as to other sins, such as envy, sloth,
discontent, passionateness, and the like, there is every reason
to believe, that an upholder of this principle will often con-
fess to himself that they have command over his mind in no
ordinary degree ; and that after a lapse of time the same con-
Cession will be repeated ; and yet, though he does not even

fancy himself to have made any real or serious attempt in
the interval, by God's help, to subdue them, he will
experience no deep repentance in that no such attempt has
been made, but rather a certain confident self-complacency ;
as though the mere consciousness of their existence, and a
sentimental sigh breathed over their sinfulness, were a full
proof of the spiritual mind, and a full assurance of security
against future judgment. And what else can be expected than
this, if the sense of duty acting against predominant inclina-
tion be, as I have endeavoured to shew, the one special means
of conquering our spiritual enemies; and if these principles, so
far from bringing all possible helps to the support of this
sense of duty, confesssedly, and as it were boastfully, put its
idea altogether in the back ground ? The very essence of the
Gospel is considered by multitudes to be, that under it the
motive of duty is superseded by the motive of gratitude, and
they hold that so far as we act on the former we descend from
our Christian position ; in other words, as I have expressed
it in the British Critic, ' that self-denial is An ti -Christian.'
And since the real truth is completely the reverse of this ;
since it is in support of this very sense of duty, that Christian
grace is engrafted within and Christian motives addressed
from without ; and since the very condition required for our
final acceptance is, that we shall, by help of this grace and
these motives, carry on to the end an intrepid, persevering,
and successful contest against our spiritual foes ; it follows,
that those who allow themselves in the state of acquiescence
I have just described, unless they repent or have the plea of
invincible ignorance, are excluded from all hope of Christian
salvation.

The corruption indeed and sluggishness of our nature are
such, that fallen man will gladly and eagerly seize any pre-
text, to excuse himself from that painful task of self-discipline
and self-improvement, which he is sent into the world for the
very purpose of performing ; and true religion accordingly op-
poses itself at every turn to all such pretexts. It may perhaps
then almost count as the master-piece of Satan's craft, that a
system has been devised in these latter days, whereby such

222

sinful impulses are counted almost as Christian graces, and
whereby a promise is held out to self-deceiving men of en-
joying at once carnal security and spiritual peace. This is,
I fear, only too true a description of the Lutheran system
in its practical working. For, in the first place, the con-
sciousness of that struggle, described in Romans vii., is com-
monly considered by disciples of this heresy to be the de-
cisive mark of a safe spiritual condition. Yet this con-
sciousness proves nothing more, than that there is some vague,
capricious, and, it may be, wholly inoperative wish for holiness,
and some sense of the misery of sin ; whereas it is plain that
this wish for holiness may be, and is, entertained by num-
bers, who are even plunged in the pollutions of overt and
gross sin ; f while the sense of the unspeakable misery of sin
cannot but be experienced by all subject to it. How much
more then will men who, though not gross sinners, are to
the last degree sluggards and idlers in the race set before
them, how much more will these become hardened to the
voice of conscience, and confirmed in belief of their own spiri-
tuality, by the adoption of this test ! In the second place, a
strange idea is spread abroad among the same class, (1.) that
earnest and continued efforts for advancement in holiness
are connected with some peculiar danger of pride and self-
righteousness; (2.) that this danger is our one principal
spiritual antagonist ; and (3.) that we are preserved against it
by abstaining from such especial efforts. From all this it
readily follows, that our safest and humblest course is to
acquiesce in the consciousness of our evil nature, rather than
make any active and vigorous exertions for overcoming it.
Here then distinctly the sinful impulse of sloth is blasphe-
mously honoured by the sacred name of Christian humility.

Is it denied then by Catholics, it may be asked, that there
is an especial danger of pride, in those who press zealously
forward to perfection ? I answer, there is not only a danger,
but a certainty of pride existing, not only in those who are
zealous of good works but fully as much in the careless and

f Even Balaam said, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end
be like his.'

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irreligious, 8 unless special pains be adopted to guard against
its inroads. The danger of pride is not a reason for slacken-
ing our efforts, but for increasing them; we must watch
against the intrusion of self-complacent thoughts, as of other
sinful emotions ; we must pray for support against pride, as
against all other wickedness. It is plain then that they will
be most free from pride, who have acquired the greatest
power in commanding their thoughts, and governing their
emotions ; in other words, those who are the greatest profi-
cients in habitual self-denial. And the small extent to which
this self-command reaches among the great body of ' Evan-
gelicals,' is one concurrent cause of the fact, that spiritual
pride exists among them, perhaps in a more offensive and
hateful form than in any other body of religionists whatever.
III. Another concurrent cause of this pride is the absence
from their system of the duty of repentance. In religious
Catholics, the practise ends only with their life, of going over
in their mind, from time to time, all that they can remember
of their past sins, and humbling themselves before God at
the remembrance. Every advance they make in spiritual
discernment they apply to this purpose among others, that
they may understand more fully the sinfulness of those sins,
and exercise for them a less unworthy repentance. But or-
dinary ' Evangelicals ' acknowledge no such duty, as humbling
themselves before God for their individual sins. They speak
indeed sorrowfully of their sinful nature : and they say that
the love of God, which arises from pardon received, of itself
inspires them with lively grief for having in time past been
strangers to His love. But acts of penance and special
humiliation they characterise as anti-Christian : so that on the
whole they are led rather to pride than humility. For their
sinful nature is shared by them with the most holy men that
ever lived, and cannot therefore be a very humbling thought;

f " Nor yet ... is this ' self-righteousness ' greater in him who fasts and prays
formally, than in him who lives avowedly to the world ; as will be at once evi-
dent, if we consider the sensitiveness to insult, the blindness to good above their own
standard, the idolizing of such worldly virtues as they have, whether honesty, or
kindness, or honour, which is so plainly visible in irreligious men." ' On Heurtley's
Sermons,' p. 440.

224-

the sinful habit, for which they feel this lively grief, belonged
to a state which they consider to have wholly passed away,
and cannot therefore be a very humbling thought either;
while they rest with satisfaction on the thought of this sorrow
for their sin, as being in itself a proof of their present spiritual
discernment.

IV. Next let us compare the respective views of the two
religions, on the true type of the Christian character. The
most advanced Christian, according to a Catholic's judgment,
is he, who feels most deeply that it is his one great duty to
be ready at every moment to obey his Lord's bidding. Such
an one, therefore, aims unremittingly at bringing all the various
affections and propensities of his nature under the full control
of his will, in order that the whole man, without delay,
without internal discord or rebellion, may be fully prepared,
day by day, to follow every call from above. Hence he de-
vises ever fresh methods of self-denial, and subjects his lower
nature to rules more and more nearly inflexible ; h hence, in
part, the unspeakable benefit of monastic and conventual
institutions, of holy resolutions, of solemn vows. What
would be in general professed by the ' Evangelical' as his
ideal of sanctity, it is very difficult to discover : as far as I
know their writings, they seem in general very remarkably
unwilling to confess that it consists in unreserved submission,
in even the smallest particulars, to the will of God ; nay,
they seem unconsciously to regard such a view of it (fearful
to say) as legal or Jewish. 1 There is perhaps nothing which

h I mean inflexible, as against the wayward and capricious impulses of the lower
nature itself, not as against the dictates of a higher and more immediate duty.
In fact, there is a certain formalism in the earlier stages of Christian obedience,
which we observe gradually to diminish in those who make real advances in that
path ; a formalism displayed in the inability to understand aright what those cases
are, in which our positive rules should give way, in order to the more adequate
performance of some moral duty. As Christians become more confirmed in well-
doing, they are able more certainly to distinguish such instances as these from the
very different instances, in which the flesh seizes some pretext of duty with a view
to its own gratification ; and thus to act aright on the former, with less fear of con-
fusing them with the latter.

* I am not denying that vihen afflicted by sickness or sorrow, they will acknow-
ledge submission to God's will in that respect to be their only wisdom or duty ;

225

so forcibly brings home to one's mind the close affinity of
Lutheranism to Antichrist, 11 as this most truly observable
circumstance. If it is possible to analyze their way of looking
at things, it would appear that they regard complete inde-
pendence of God's will, as worldliness and carnality; complete
and (so to speak) abject dependence on it, as superstition,
legality, and monkery ; that they consider true Christianity to
consist in a certain ' via media,' whereby in very important
matters our own will goes spontaneously in the same di-
rection with God's will, in other matters we follow our own
will without fear or responsibility, but in neither case are
called on to submit our own to His.

Certainly the Protestant religionist bears witness against
himself, that he has no sympathy with the view here laid
down as Catholic : for when he hears of those who have at
various times resorted to such methods of self-discipline as I
have specified, he can find no place whatever for them in his
theory. He professes to discover, with especial quickness of
sight, the snares and temptations involved in worldly engage-
ments ; yet what is his comment, when holy men shew their
keen and vivid appreciation of the same truths, when such
men, still making the world and concourse of men the main
sphere of their exertions, take nevertheless the most infal-
lible means to escape these temptations, to prevent any worldly
affections from encumbering them in their duty of following
the Lord's call ; when they break off, accordingly, all worldly
ties, and look for rest and comfort only to spiritual exercises
and heavenly thoughts; when this takes place, what, I ask, is
the Protestant's comment ? It is not that he merely considers
such a course mistaken, (which alone indeed would be miserable
enough,) but that he can literally give no explanation of a be-
haviour which appears to him so alien to all true religion, ex-
cept by referring it to ' self-righteousness,' and to pharisaical
confidence in the merits of their own works. Nothing in-

but I deny that, speaking of them as a class, they receive the general principle,
that in all cases this slavish subjection of the will to God, is that in which alone
true holiness essentially consists.
k ' av^af,' 2 Thess.

226

deed, (not to speak here of the extreme moral sinfulness of
such an opinion,) nothing can be more extravagant intellec-
tually than this account of the case : for there is no one fact
to which history bears a more undeviating witness, than to
the unparalleled humility of such holy men ; their most
painful and ever-increasing sense of their own miserable short-
comings and imperfections ; their undivided trust for salva-
tion in Christ's Atonement.

And as to ' self-righteousness,' under which system are
we ordinary men most exposed to its inroads ? Under the
one, we look up to these exalted specimens of our common
nature with the most unbounded reverence and love ; we
regard them as called to a life far higher than we have had
the heart to pursue : we dwell on the thought of them as a
continual memento of our own sinfulness, and a continual in-
centive to our own exertion. Under the other system, should
our conscience be for a moment aroused and alarmed by the
view or thought of these eminent servants of God, of their
unwearied labours in Christ's cause, their independence of
earthly comforts, their single-minded regard of heavenly
things, their patience, humility, zeal, and devotedness, it will
be immediately lulled again by the pleasing opiate of our
Lutheran profession. We shall remind ourselves, that for
all this these men are strangers to the true Gospel, and on
their way to eternal condemnation ; while we, who avoid this
unchristian excess of self-sacrifice, who shew our knowledge
of the true Gospel by our ungrudging enjoyment of all the
various earthly blessings offered by our lot in life, and guard
against all danger of self-righteousness by recoiling with horror
from all voluntary self-denial, that we may continue the same
way of life in tranquillity of mind, enjoying our heaven-sent
confidence in the certainty of our salvation. So long as pride
and sloth are among the most dangerous and besetting sins
of our nature, and Satan retains his subtlety in the mode of
addressing himself to that nature, which system appears
most to deserve the name of ' Satanical,' 1 that or this ? m

1 Bishop of Chester's Charge.

* The following, though not a very strong, is an amusing instance of the

227

V. This leads naturally to a further observation ; viz. in
how small a degree real sanctity, in any shape, is appreciated

readiness with which the argument from practical fruits is put aside by ' evan-
gelicals,' when it seems to tell against themselves ; though none are so ready to
adopt it in their own defence. I frankly acknowledge, indeed, that I very much
deprecate the answer usually given by ' high-churchmen' to such appeals, as if
they were almost beside the true question ; whereas ' by their fruits ye shall
know them,' is the very direction given by our Lord Himself for the discernment of
truth from falsehood. The extract is from the ' Churchman's Monthly Review '
for June, 1841, (pp. 350 4,) and the article begins by making a most creditable
and honest confession of an existing evil among ' evangelicals.' The writer,
having quoted from the British Critic a satirical description of an ' evangelical '
clergyman, proceeds to say, ' It would be self-delusion to set the whole down as
a fiction, a mere calumny. . . . The lovers of Evangelical truth have been re-
joicing of late years perhaps too hastily and unthinkingly in the rapid progress
of their views almost universally has the inevitable danger been over-
looked, that as evangelical religion became more popular and more fashionable,
it might become in its turn more pliable and more accommodating. The world
could not quietly come into the Church without bringing a mass of worldly prin-
ciples and maxims along with it.' Not very far after this most honourable
avowal, the writer proceeds : ' We were much struck the other day with the
description given of a continental Romish priest, by one who had escaped the
snares of that apostate Church. He spoke with no fondness of the communion
he had left, when he said, " The priest of my parish was most laborious, most
charitable, most devoted. If he had twenty sick persons on his list, he would
allow no day to pass without seeing every one of tJiem. And I have known him
not unfrequently part with every thing lie Jiad in tfte world, except the mere
clothes he wore, in ministering to their necessities.' These ministers of Rome
are multiplying in England. Many of them are monks vowed to poverty.
Against such an one, if really enthusiastic, devoted, and laborious, what kind of
contest can be maintained by the ' flash evangelical young clergyman ' described
by the British Critic ? In estimating the powers of the opposing prin-
ciples, there is one thing which we ought never to forget ; and that is, that
while false principles generally act with their full force, the truth always acts
with diminished force. . . . Let a man lacerate his body, like the flagellants in
the Church of Rome, or like some recent followers in fasting, 'bodily exercise,'
&c. at Oxford ; and let him expect by these austerities to gain the favour of God
and a place in heaven to such attempts Satan will offer no opposition. He
will rather encourage such a worshipper in his mistaken course ; knowing that
Christ is the only Way to the favour of God ; and that all other ways, however
holy or meritorious they may appear, in reality tend from heaven and holiness

and not to them The Romish devotee, believing that his labours and his

self-denial are working out his salvation, and being left by the Tempter in this
his fatal error, swims with the stream of natural corruption, and is aided by
Satan's flatteries and counsels. The believer in the Gospel, on the other hand,
knowing that a man is not saved by the works of the Law, and shunning there-
fore all rel iance on his own doings, is immediately beset by the temptation to do

Q 2

228

by the common run of ' Evangelicals.' The religious Catho-
lic, while he enjoys a deep peace of mind unknown to the
disciple of any other religion, obtains this on the very tenure
of renouncing all carnal security : just as part of the very ha-
bitual frame of mind, which insures that peace, is a conscious-
ness that it may be his duty at any moment to follow some
new call of God : so part of it also is a consciousness that at
any moment he may be called to realise, in an increased de-
gree, some practical virtue. In all the circumstances then of
daily life, he is eager and forward to discern the indications
they may convey to him of God's will : and in like manner, on
all his fellow-men, who may be brought before his notice, he
fixes what we may call an earnest and loving attention, in the
hope that he may perhaps learn from each some new feature
of the Christian character which he has not yet considered
with sufficient distinctness, or at least obtain a warning and
incentive for the more faithful performance of those duties
which he has habitually recognised. Thus it is that he avoids
any thing ' one-sided or disproportioned in his own religious
development,' and obtains that inestimably precious gift, a
quick and true perception of the good qualities of others.
Thus also it is, that should he be habitually in the company
of eminently holy men, his contemplation of their character
grows daily in interest and intensity ; and he learns to ap-
preciate, beyond the possibility of all mistake, and with
ever-diminishing inadequacy of comprehension, its depth,
consistency, unearthliness. But the ' Evangelical ' dwells for
assurance of his salvation, on a mere inward feeling of con-
nothing to look upon his salvation as already secured, and thence to relax in
any exertions, either for his own growth in grace or for the good of others. The
corruptions of human nature and the arts of the Tempter thus help forward the de-
votees of a false religion ; while they retard, by every possible means, the pro-
gress of one who is in the right way." In other words any sanctity visible in
one, who anathematizes with abhorrence the Lutheran formula in its natural
sense, may be safely ascribed to diabolical agency. I should be very sorry not
to do justice to the great candour implied in acknowledging so much as is acknow-
ledged in this article, of the present tendency of some among the ' evangelicals ' to
unholiness and laxity ; but it is evident that such a view of the case as is here
stated, so long as it lasts, must steel the writer's conscience against all appeals
founded on the visible fruits of the Holy Spirit.

fidence, which he considers himself to recognise infallibly as
existing in his soul : and so far therefore from improving his
own most narrow and partial idea of the Christian character
by his observation of external models, he is tempted more
and more to measure and judge of them by reference to his
own dwarfish and disproportioned standard. As though
* sitting in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is
God,' he is tempted more and more to make himself the
measure and rule of holiness, whereas God alone is such ; and
to sit, as it were, apart from the vulgar herd, in judgment on
the various classes of men who are brought under his notice.
One is daily receiving some new surprise, and I have often
heard the observation from others, in seeing how little ap-
preciation of real sanctity is displayed by ' Evangelicals,' and
how indescribably low and paltry are the temptations, which
they consider unconquerable even by Christian grace ; nor
is it at all matter of wonder, that some of them go on even to
deny in terms the Pentecostal Gift, and to speak as though
internal righteousness were some mere figment or delusion.

VI. Closely connected with this habit of mind is the
' Evangelical ' rule of faith. More than once indeed in the
British Critic I have fully acknowledged, how much higher
both morally and intellectually is their doctrine on this funda-
mental question, than that adopted whether by Archbishop
Whately and his school, or else by ordinary English * high-
churchmen.' For both these latter classes undisguisedly
refer the Christian, as the ground of his belief in all that
most deeply and intimately concerns his eternal welfare, to
a methodical exercise of the intellect, to a conscious and
deliberate examination: to considerations therefore, which
are wholly inaccessible to the chosen objects of God's love,
the poor ; and which are appreciable in proportion not to
our moral, but our intellectual attainment. They openly
and undisguisedly bid us derive our knowledge of Christian
truth from a critical interpretation of the Sacred Volume,
or a careful and discriminating study of the Fathers of the
Church. It is hardly possible to use language too strong

It is desirable to lose no opportunity of impressing on our minds, how utterly

230

in expressing one's hatred of such carnal and worldly-wise
views ; which, except for our inveterate prepossessions, must
carry with them, one would think, their own condemnation
in the eyes of all serious and religious men. Still the ' Evan-
gelical rule of faith, though far removed from such lament-
able rationalism, has its own tendency to ill effects of no
ordinary magnitude, and contributes in no slight degree to
that habit of self-deification specified in the last paragraph.
The belief that individual study of the Bible, with prayer,
will lead by Divine promise to Christian truth, considering
the peculiar structure of the Sacred Volume, which is so
very far indeed from forcing its true meaning on those who
may be unprepared or unwilling to receive it, this belief
seems a certain method of still further obstructing the ave-
nues, by which new religious truths might otherwise find ac-
cess to the mind. Here, as in the former instance, if such
views be admitted, the whole company of believers become, if
I may use such a phrase, so many independent centres of
truth, when they should be rather distinct atoms tending by
the force of gravitation to the One Only Centre. For we find
by experience, as might have been safely predicted a priori,
that the vast majority of ' Bible Christians,' day after day,
rise from the perusal of their chapter of the Sacred Volume,
holding the very same religious sentiments with which they
began it; we find them reaping no other doctrinal fruit from
its habitual study tht.n this, that opinions which are in

untenable intellectually (over rnd above its moral odiousness) is this last strange
and extravagant theory. ' If any one has preserved up to this period a floating
idea, that personal study of the Fathers is capable of becoming an available
rule of faith to the private Christian, by which he can test the formularies of
his own Church, or criticise those of other Churches, this volume and these
notes (Mr. Newman's edition of St. Athanasius's Doctrinal Treatises) must,
we imagine, undeceive him. To think of an ordinary person having to examine
for himself the question, how far St. Athanasius's doctrine agrees with St. Hilary's
and St. Basil's, and how far it is the legitimate development of Ante-Nicene
statements, (in many particulars so different) ; and on what principle the va-
rious Eastern councils were not ecumenical and authoritative between the Xicene
and the Constantinopolitan, but these were : and how far St. Athanasius's
severe language towards the Arians was from the accident of his position and the
habit of his time, or how far it claims our deference, &C., &c.' (' On St Athana-
sius,' p. 412, note.)

231

reality the offspring of their education or other preconceived
bias, obtain an adventitious sanctity and importance in
their minds, as being supposed to flow directly from the
Word of God, brought home to their souls by His promised
blessing.

And the probability of this will be still more plainly seen,
when we consider what I myself most undoubtedly believe
to be the method really appointed by God, for discerning in
the Bible the principal doctrines, which, by His Providence,
it contains. No single man, (I would most earnestly main-
tain,) however wise, however intellectually gifted, however
religious, can really, even in a tolerable degree, understand
the text of Scripture, so far as to obtain from it its very
choicest and most valuable treasures ; none can ' penetrate,
and as it w r ere become diffused throughout the recesses of
God's Word, so as to apprehend the whole counsel of God
contained in it, unless it be the whole Church, the temple of
that Spirit " Who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God :" ' nor have ecclesiastical statements and decisions
on the subject, weight, or authority, except as the formal
expressions and results of this collective contemplation. Ac-
cording to that divine scheme, which we in England through
our fathers' sins have for the present forfeited, one and
the same doctrine in essentials was to be taught by an ex-
ternal living authority to all members of the Church ; and
in proportion as an individual Christian should receive and
act upon this doctrine, in connection with a generally strict
and blameless life, and should study with humble reverence
the text of Scripture, he would obtain a conviction of their
absolute harmony and agreement, incomparably deeper than
could be gathered by any collation of texts, and most utterly
beyond the power of external arguments in the opposite
direction. Hence it follows, that in our own degraded con-
dition, our best chance of discerning the precious and won-
derful truths, stored up within the bosom of Scripture, will
be not the isolated and unbiassed study of its pages, but the
very contrary ; to preserve watchfully and realise laboriously

' On Arnold's Sermons,' p. 325.

232

the doctrines we have already learned, to look out with
wistful and anxious eyes for an external guide, and to put
ourselves, as far as possible, in communion with the thoughts
and feelings of holy men throughout the Christian world.
It would not be necessary, on any other subject or with any
other opponents, to state explicitly that I am not for a
moment impugning the great and important doctrine, that
the Holy Spirit Alone teaches Christian truth, but only
speaking of the means whereby He teaches it." p

VII. Another observation naturally follows in this place,
which may be expressed in words I have used in the British
Critic. ' So long as [the Lutheran] system had undivided
sway in the religious world, so long as those who aimed at
something higher than the mere careless performance of
outward and social duties, who thirsted for a life of more
extended prayer and more spiritual contemplation, so long as
these, speaking generally, acquiesced almost as a matter of
course in this scheme of religion, doctrinal discussion was of
little importance. . . [The disciples of this system] fix their
spiritual gaze not on him ivho is without them, but on the
supposed marks of His presence within them : on those sup-
posed proofs of a renewed heart, which satisfied them both of
the soundness of their creed and the sufficient rectitude of
their conduct.' q Hence not only is their apprehension so
vague, fluctuating, and unstable of other doctrines, whether
belonging to natural or to the Christian religion, but even (a
greater matter of surprise) so comparatively little of attach-
ment to the person of our Lord, or to the thought of His
sufferings, is generally found in their writings ; though from
their professions, indeed, one might suppose that they
engrossed all such feelings to themselves, and that Catholics
have no heart, save for outward ceremonies or the worship of
Saints. But 'let us consider how certain a fact it is in

P For a fuller account of the mode in which, as appears to me, Holy Scrip-
ture may be expected under our present circumstances to lead forward rightly
disposed Christians towards a reception of the full truth, I may be allowed to
refer to the article, ' On Whately's Essays,' pp 286, and ' On Goode,' pp. 54
58.

> 'On St. Athanasius,' p. 391.

233

human nature, that love for an individual displays itself in an
anxious and eager earnestness of curiosity about all his ways
and actions ; we love to hear and dwell upon the thought
of his words, his deeds, his very gestures ; we have a relative
and subordinate love to all which has come closely into con-
tact with him. He then, who really loves his Lord, will be
expected to make the Four Gospels his principal study and
delight ; to have engraven on his heart even the little
peculiarities (if it be right so to speak) and the minute
subordinate circumstances, but much more the general tone
and bearing, of His manner of life on earth. Now it forcibly
illustrates the substantial truth of the accusation so often
brought against the ' Evangelicals,' that it is not Christ
whom they love and worship, but the supposed signs of love
for Him which they try to recognise within them, when we
observe how little is the picture [I] just now drew a true
image of their habit of mind. It is not where Christ is
mentioned in Scripture, but where faith is mentioned, that
they are active and awake and dwell with interest on the
inspired page ; it is not He whom they profess to love, but
the (supposed) absence of self-righteousness, which would
appear (as far as outward signs can shew) to engross their
regard and affection.' To what single work can they point,
written by one of their number, which exhibits, within any
assignable degree of approximation, such loving and reverent
contemplation of the details of our Lord's life and passion, as
is seen in multitudes of Catholic Works, like Father
Thomas's ' Sufferings of Christ,' St. Alphonsus's ' L' Amour
des Ames,' St. Bonaventure's * Life of Christ,' St. Ignatius's
' Spiritual Exercises,' &c., &c. ? l True love forgets self in
the thought of the object ; they forget the Object in the
thought of self. And as to the other mark of which [I]
spoke, the love, from thought of Him, of all which has come
near Him, so far are they from even professing a tender
reverence for her, in whose bosom He lay, to whom He
approached with such -ineffable proximity, that they even
(O shocking thought !) denounce such reverence as Anti-
christian.

234

" Think too, as a further instance of this lack of sensitive-
ness for his honour, that the writer who by common consent
is accounted the most orthodox of living Dissenters, and who
certainly at one time enjoyed a very high reputation within
the English Church, has been found to sanction and praise
the [language r ] of Mr. Abbot, who in speaking of him, says
that " the spectacle of this deserted and defenceless sufferer,
far exceeds that of Napoleon, or even that of Regulus," and
that from " delicacy he refrained from speaking of (His
death) to those who were to reap its fruits." And a divine
enjoying no less degree of respect and confidence in the
* orthodox Protestant' world than Dr. Chalmers (as indeed
who can speak of him without true respect ?) has been
found 3 .... to realize so little who it was that lived on
earth and died on the Cross for us men, as to call it a proud
thing for the religion He died to found, that it was embraced
by Sir Isaac Newton.' 1

In these passages, I have spoken as though this exceeding
blindness to religious truths were altogether the immediate
result of their habit of unhealthy self-inspection : whereas it
partly results from an intermediate result of the same habit ;
I mean from their great deficiency, to which I have so often
adverted, in moral and religious discipline. For it is a truth
of natural religion, that only in proportion to our attain-
ments in holy obedience, can we receive into our minds any
just and accurate representation of spiritual realities ; and
hence those who are not really zealous and careful in aiming,
by all practicable means, at this obedience, live in the dim
twilight caused by a most inadequate refraction of Gospel
rays, when they might otherwise enjoy the full effulgence
of their blaze.

It may be as well here to allude to another instance, which

r I have omitted here a harsh expression ; nor can I mention Mr. Abbott's
works at all in terms of reprobation, without alluding to that interesting letter,
sent by Mr. Newman to the ' English Churchman,' on the subject of his visit to
Littlemore. I trust he would not be pained by the tone of my remarks as they
now stand.

See British Critic for July, 1839, p. 244.

* ' On Goode,' pp. 79, 80.

235

has often of late been the subject of comment, in which
' Evangelicals' practically deny this essential truth. They
consider, namely, that men plunged in wilful and habitual
wickedness will be able at once to receive so deep and
sufficient a knowledge of our Blessed Lord's Atonement,
that the thought of it will excite in their minds the same
horror of sin and perception of its hatefulness, which that
thought does excite in Christians of practised holiness ; nay,
that it will be a fully sufficient motive, to sustain them in
life-long faithfulness to God. And I have one reason among
others for mentioning this, that I may draw a broad line of
distinction between this manifestation of their heresy, and
a practice very common among Roman Catholics of the
present day, which has been confused with it by revered
members of our own Church. This is not the place to
discuss the reasons which made the ' disciplina arcani ' of
such exceeding importance in the early ages : but whatever
may have been the reason, I would most earnestly submit
that a certain principle was not the reason, or any part of it ;
I mean the principle, that the doctrine of the Atonement
is not a most perfectly fit topic to urge, along with others,
in endeavouring to rouse sinners from their fatal lethargy.
I see no principle on which it can possibly be maintained, (it
was part of Luther s system indeed to maintain it,) that the
promises as well as threats of the Gospel should not be most
fully urged on such unhappy persons ; and I believe that in
very many cases affectionate or high thoughts, which may
have been slumbering within their breast overlaid with evil
habits and carnal tendencies, have been called into active and
intense energy, by the wonder of Redeeming Mercy ; when it
has been set before them most lovingly and tenderly, by
devoted servants of Christ, and received by them even in
such utterly inadequate and disproportioned measure, as
that in which they are capable of receiving it. The real dis-
tinction between Catholic and 'Evangelical' principles appears
at the next stage : for the ' Evangelical ' supposes that when
the sinner's heart has been reached by such appeals, his
continuance in holiness and final salvation are irreversibly

236

assured ; while the Catholic, on the contrary, regards this as
no more than the first beginning of that arduous and all-
important conflict, which is to be henceforward the great
business of his life, and on the issue of which depends his
final destiny. Accordingly, the object to which Catholic
preachers at once apply this newly awakened fervour, is to
lead the disciple into preparing himself diligently for a
general confession. Thus the fundamental necessity of
moral discipline is at once brought before his mind; and
after such light and almost nominal penance as the infancy of
his Christian habits will enable him to bear, he is then led, if
possible, into a short spiritual retreat, in order that the
great truths of death, judgment, heaven, and hell, may
be impressed on his conscience and' imagination, before he
returns to the troubles and temptations of the world. Such
seems the fit application, under present circumstances, of
the important principle we have been discussing ; but a per-
version, rather than fit application, would be a one-sided
inculcation of the severe doctrines of the Gospel on the
worldly and irreligious : an inculcation, which in many cases
might terrify and overpower them, and even quench some
faint stirrings of God's grace leading them to repentance.

VIII. Here may be fitly introduced a description, which
applies to many ' Evangelicals ' within the Establishment,
not less truly than to Dissenters without it.

' Indeed so natural is the connection between a reverential spirit
in worshipping God, and faith in God, that the wonder only is how
any one can for a moment imagine he has faith in God, and yet
allow himself to be irreverent towards Him. To believe in God, is
to believe the being and presence of One who is All holy, and All
powerful, and All gracious ; how can a man really believe this of
Him, and yet make free with Him ? it is almost a contradiction in
terms. Hence even heathen religions have ever considered faith
and reverence identical. To believe, and not to revere, to worship
familiarly and at one's ease, is an anomaly and a prodigy unknown
even to false religions, to say nothing of the true one. Not only
the Jewish and Christian religions, which are directly from God,
inculcate the spirit of " reverence and godly fear," but those other

237

religions which have existed, or exist, whether in the East or the
South, inculcate the same. Worship, forms of worship, such as
bowing the knee, taking off the shoes, keeping silence, a prescribed
dress, and the like, are considered as necessary for a due approach
to God. The whole world, differing about so many things, differing
in creed and rule of life, yet agree in this, that God being our
Creator, a certain self-abasement of the whole man is the duty of
the creature ; that He is in heaven, we upon earth ; that He is All-
glorious, and we worms of the earth and insects of a day.

But [some among us] have in this respect fallen into greater than
pagan error. They may be said to form an exception to the con-
cordant voice of a whole world, always and every where ; they
break in upon the unanimous suffrage of mankind, and determine, at
least by their conduct, that reverence and awe are not primary
religious duties. They have considered that in some way or other,
either by God's favour or by their own illumination, they are brought
so near to God that they have no need to fear at all, or to put any
restraint upon their words or thoughts, when addressing Him.
They have considered awe to be superstition, and reverence to be
slavery. They have learnt to be familiar and free with sacred
things, as it were on principle. I think this is really borne out by
facts, and will approve itself to inquirers as true in substance, how-
ever one man will differ from another in the words in which he would
express the fact itself.'"

IX. The respective peculiarities of character exhibited by
* Evangelicals ' which I have already mentioned, all tend in
various degrees to spiritual pride, or, to use their own ex-
pression, ' self-righteousness ;' a temper of mind which appears
to me generally characteristic of ' Evangelicals ' in the present
day (with whatever honourable exceptions) far more than of
any other part of the religious community. To sum up then
what has been said merely in this point of view, their system
tends to Pharisaical and complacent self-exaltation, 1. as en-
couraging self-ignorance; 2. as providing no sufficient in-
centive to self-restraint and government of the thoughts, and
so a sustained contest against the insidious and most subtle
advances of this sin of pride ; 3. as not inculcating special
remembrance, one by one, of past sins, an ever-increasing
humiliation of heart and prostration of soul before God, and
u Plain Sermons, vol. v. pp. 169, 70.

earnest cries to Him for mercy, caused by that remembrance ;
4. as tending most materially to diminish, or even destroy
that reverence for an austere and mortified life in others,
which is so great a security for personal humility in our-
selves ; 5. as fostering self-satisfaction in that it blinds its
adherents to the piety of all those whose mind is cast in
a different mould from their own ; 6. as inflating them with
an idea of their own spiritual knowledge, in that it permits
them unmolested to mistake their own prejudices for Scrip-
ture doctrines, and conceals from their view truths which are
most certainly in the Bible, and may be most distinctly and
undoubtedly there discerned by those who study it in the
right method ; 7. as depriving them of what would be so
peculiarly efficacious in inspiring lowly thoughts of tuem-
s elves, the real and unfeigned contemplation of the awful
truths of natural religion, and of the still more sublime
verities which the Gospel discloses ; and 8. as taking from
them that safeguard for humility, which would be afforded
by a spirit of reverence and self-abasement in contemplating
and addressing Almighty God. And I now add, 9thly, that
their very cardinal doctrine, their belief in justification by
a personal inward feeling, connected with no habitual self-
examination, nor carefully confronted with the whole circle
of external duties, this belief in itself and by itself, tends
mos powerfully and unceasingly to the same result, to en-
graving day by day on the heart, with ever increasing dis_
tinctness, the Pharisee's sentiment, ' Lord, I thank Thee, that
I am not as other men.'

In order that we may judge more fairly how far experience
confirms this observation, it may be useful to observe, that a
quickness to take offence, the habit of actively resenting or
else angrily brooding over real or imaginary slights and in-
juries, these are among the most infallible marks of a proud
and unhumbled spirit. On the contrary, to carry out gladly
and rejoicingly the full spirit of our Blessed Lord's precept,
" whoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him
the other also ;" to receive the most galling and contemptuous
treatment as infinitely less than the just due of their sins ;
and thus to derive even the highest joy and gratification from

239

such treatment ; this will be the demeanour of Christians, in
proportion as they are really humble. And though Protest-
ants have from time to time exhibited in their measure such
a temper of mind, I know no class of Christians whatever
where this temper shines forth in its full Christian perfection,
or of whom it can be considered as among the most prominent
characteristics, except the Saints of the Church Catholic.
Nor do the general run of Protestants leave us to derive
our knowledge of their sentiments on the subject from mere
argument or observation ; they are loud and earnest in con-
temning or denouncing all especial exhibitions of this part of
the saintly mind, as the results of formalism, or superstition,
or mental imbecility. The very idea of what Christian humi-
lity is, must be far from the mind of those, who allow them-
selves in language such as this.

X. It must not be supposed, because I have just spoken of
those defects in the ' Evangelical' character already specified,
in the particular point of view of ministering to pride, that
I forget the evil influence which they exert in numberless
other directions also ; an evil influence, frequently of a very
extreme character. They all seem very remarkably to foster
pride, but they have many other miserable results too, and
in those which remain to be mentioned, that individual evil
seems to me by no means so prominent as in those which have
gone before. The next particular I shall mention, is the
tendency of these principles to a certain indescribable and
most repulsive formalism, which results of necessity from the
empty, unreal, shadowy, delusive nature of the whole theo-
logy in question. To believe that all who really entertain a
confident expectation of salvation are warranted in this ex-
pectation, is a sentiment from which, honourably to them-
selves, the conscience of ' Evangelicals' recoils : on the other
hand, to hold that by means of habitual self-discipline a hope
of salvation may be indulged, continually better grounded
and more assured, never however, except in most extraor-
dinary cases, amounting to a certain promise, to hold this
would be to overthrow their whole structure of doctrine from
its very foundation. In this dilemma then, having no really
spiritual basis on which to rest, refusing to adopt that

240

test of holiness which Catholic doctrine would supply, and
which I have already mentioned, they are obliged to take as
their test some more external form, either necessarily uncon-
nected, or not at all necessarily connected, with the inward
life of the soul.

Of the former kind is the use of certain (as we may most
truly call them) l cant" 1 terms and phrases; the fluent and fami-
liar enunciation of which, seems considered by multitudes an
almost unfailing note of spirituality, and the absence of which
is taken as a quite unfailing note of worldliness. True it is, no
doubt, that w r hereas religious Catholics have impressed on their
moral perception various most definite, most important, most
individually distinguishable, ideas, during the course of Church
History technical terms have been invented to express those
ideas. Such terms too it is of the very utmost importance
to appropriate most scrupulously to the particular object
for which they were devised, else well-instructed Catholics
must be indefinitely baffled and perplexed, and the less-
instructed could be hardly guided into the true reception of
these ideas themselves. But though technical terms are
always confined to particular ideas, these ideas on the con-
trary are also expressed in every variety of wwtechnical
terms. St. Athanasius, (to take an extreme case,) the pro-
verbial champion of strict orthodoxy, hardly uses in his works,
so we are told by learned men, that very word 6 ( aooy<r<ov,
which was the technical term then in dispute ; and nothing is
more common than to read Catholic books, in which the deep
orthodoxy of the writer appears in every page, but into
which no terms whatever of the kind have found their way.
On the other hand, the ' Evangelical,' using his technical
terms r not to express already existing ideas, but to conceal
from others and from himself the absence of all such, is full
of trouble and dismay at the slightest variation from the
established formula. The Catholic, as being sure of his
ground, conscious of his position and of his doctrines, expa-
tiates throughout all the range of ordinary language, adopting
now this expression now that, as best may suit his momentary
purpose ; but the * Evangelical,' should you omit one single
phrase on some occasion which, according to their strange

241

and pedantic etiquette, is considered to require its use, has
no means left whereby to judge the soundness of your belief;
for he has no idea to fall back upon. No ! no one substantive
idea is in his mind, distinguishing him from the orthodox, but
only a confused medley of conflicting and inconsistent ideas,
drawing him one this way one that; some leading in all
consistency to sanctity in the fullest sense, some leading in
all consistency to wickedness of the deepest dye. He has no
idea then which he can recognise as his characteristic mark ;
and so is obliged to constitute as such, the stiff stereotyped
adoption of certain strange and uncouth expressions.

Belonging to the latter class of forms I specified, are
exercises, worthy of all honour in themselves, but which
sometimes become snares to the soul rather than means of
grace, when an external compliance with them is made the
sufficient passport to Christian brotherhood. The principal
of these is the strict observance of Sunday ; an observance
of which I would not for the whole world speak disparagingly,
and which, I cannot doubt, has been blessed as a means of
grace to thousands, and has rescued them from much of the
pernicious consequences flowing from their religious views.
It is very plain, however, that men of the most unsanctified
hearts, of the most worldly and carnal affections, will readily
compound, by a scrupulous performance of ceremonial duties
(such as going to Church and reading at home none but
religious books) on one day of the week, for the free and
unbridled exercise of their thoughts during the other six.
While on the contrary those who during the week have been
engaged, not merely in their worldly occupations, but in an
incessant struggle against the temptations, whether in a more
open or more subtle shape, which encounter them amidst
those occupations, require on their day of rest much more of
actual relaxation and refreshment than would otherwise be
needful : a circumstance this last, which on every account
deserves especial notice.

That ' self-righteousness' and ' formalism,' the very charges
which religionists of the day are so fond of bringing against
Catholics, should in so remarkable a manner recoil on them-

242

selves, is merely one instance of what seems a certain inherent
fatality. Thus, as has been often enough said, no sect is so
superstitiously formal, as the Quakers who boast of rejecting
forms ; few so unreasonable, as the Rationalists who profess
to go by reason ; none (says Mr. John Mill) are so incom-
petent judges of history, as those who think to build political
science on history ; none argue themselves so weakly, as those
who accuse Catholics of arguing weakly ; none most certainly
are so shallow intellectually, as those who dream of sup-
porting religious conviction on an intellectual basis.

XI. Again, an evil of which I spoke several pages back as
necessarily resulting from the abstract tenet of Lutheranism,
flows from it, in no small degree, as found existing in real
life. ' Evangelicals' have, I should say in general, very far
from an adequate impression, how deeply important is the
early training of their children in habits of obedience."
Some I know, perhaps many, consider all punishment as
wrong, and supply its place by prayer in their closet for the
child's conversion. This arises probably from an idea that
fear is no really Christian motive ; but it will not be con-
sidered necessary, I suppose, by any of my readers, that I
should trace in detail the most pernicious consequences that
must flow from such a course.

A further observation here suggests itself, bearing however
on the effects of * Evangelical' principles on others rather
than on their upholders. The ordinary language used by
these religionists, as to the necessity of passing through a
stage of doubt and alarm into a state of unclouded peace,
this language so unreal, so technical, so contradictory to all
genuine experience, must most seriously impair, in many
cas.es even destroy, the influence over the youthful mind
which religious precepts might otherwise attain. I know
myself a young man of extreme seriousness and strictness of

u Mr. Burns has published a beautiful little tale called ' Little Alice and her
Sister,' which impresses on the mind true ideas on this most deeply important
subject, more successfully than any other I have happened to see ; though I dare
say, if I were well acquainted with his series, others also would be found equally
excellent. There could hardly be, I should think, a more useful present to a child
than this little tale.

life, who on reading Doddridge's ' Rise and Progress of
Religion,' (a work in many respects so beautiful and so
instructive,) was perfectly bewildered and amazed by meeting
with a sentiment of the kind. It is impossible indeed to
conceive the degree in which the young may be perplexed
and confused by such statements ; nay, the more sensitive
may be brought by it almost to utter despair and recklessness
of living.

XII. Lastly, it is involved in the ' Evangelical ' theory, that
the misery of man in his natural state consists, not in the
sense of sin, but in the fear of punishment. This, I say,
is involved in the * Evangelical ' theory ; because while on
the one hand it is acknowledged by all that it is the very
object of the Gospel to relieve this misery, 'Evangelicals'
proclaim that a knowledge of our personal pardon is the
great Gospel gift, and denounce Catholics for considering
inherent righteousness to be such. Peace of mind, say they,
follows on an assurance of certain salvation, even before
sanctification has begun ; it cannot exist without that as-
surance, though an inward gift of sanctity be poured into
the soul. It is difficult to conceive any principle more
contrary to all experience, and more disparaging to the attri-
butes of God : certainly the latter, for the universal recon-
cilement of happiness with holiness may be taken as the
elementary truth of natural religion ; and certainly the
former, for it is even proverbial that sin and sorrow are
indissolubly connected, that our evil passions are our
worst and most deadly enemies. " The happiness of the
soul consists in the exercise of the affections : . . . this is our
real and true bliss, not to know, or to effect, or to pursue ;
but to love, to hope, to joy, to admire, to revere, to adore.
Our real and true bliss lies in the possession of those objects
on which our hearts may rest and be satisfied. .... The
thought of God, and nothing short of it, is the happiness of
man ; for though there is much besides to serve as subject
of knowledge, or motive for action, or instrument of excite-
ment, yet the affections require a something more vast and
more enduring than anything created. ... If we are allowed

R 2

244

to find that real and most sacred Object on which our heart
may fix itself, a fulness ' of peace will follow, which nothing
but it can give. In proportion as we have given up the love
of the world and are dead to the creature, and on the other
hand are born of the Spirit unto love of our Maker and
Lord, this love carries with it its own evidence when it
comes. " x

This being so, it follows that a continued mortification of
our earthly affections is the one only road to true peace of
mind ; for by that means alone can our heart be opened, in
ever-increasing measure, to the presence of God. But ' Evan-
gelicals' consider that peace of mind is sufficiently secured by
the emotions which follow from a knowledge of our pardon ;
and the result is, that when they feel a blank and dreary
melancholy stealing upon them, not understanding that its
remedy must be sought in a vigorous and self-forgetting con-
templation and performance of duty, they endeavour by a
direct effort of the will to stimulate and renew these emotions.
It is not necessary here to speak of the extreme and most
deplorable consequences which have at various times flowed
from this, especially among Dissenters whether here or
in America ; we may confine ourselves to what persons,
even with but little experience, have witnessed in mem-
bers of our own Church. ' A revulsion of mind ensues ;
a violent distaste for what pleased them before ; a sickness
and weariness of mind ; or a great disappointment ; or a con-
fusion and perplexity and despondence.' " The way of peace
they have not known," yet are bound by their principles to
consider themselves as infallibly knowing it. I believe that
even madness in some shape has before now ensued from a
similar state of mind.

And thus I bring to an end this most invidious part of my
task ; a part in regard to which I feel, that nothing can
excuse me for having entered upon it, except absolute
necessity : yet surely quite necessary it is. I most gladly
and willingly acknowledge it as one of the many benefits our

Newman's Sermon's, vol. v. pp. 357 363. But read the whole of this won-
derful Sermon.

245

Church has received from the ' Evangelical ' party, that they
have borne a steady and consistent witness to the extreme
importance of holiness, as a test of religious truth. So far
am I from being able to follow those who protest against such
a view, and appeal rather to the argumentative collation of
Scripture texts or patristic writings, that I know no ultimate
result, short of atheism itself, in which such a line of argu-
ment must consistently issue : as I hope to express more at
length in a future chapter. I am most deeply convinced, that
next to the plain voice of our own conscience, the one great
note given by God to guide us into the truth, is the visible
work of the Holy Ghost in others ; nay, that the latter has
no inconsiderable place in checking and directing our con-
science itself. I most fully agree with the ' Evangelicals '
then on the ground of appeal; what remains, but to join
issue on that ground ? What line of argument have I been
pursuing, which their own line of argument does not clamour-
ously call on me to pursue, when I desire to hold up to hatred
and obloquy their characteristic principles ? The Bishop of
Ohio in his charge, as one among many others, appeals to
the universal confession even of opponents on the spirituality
of ' Evangelicals,' as a proof of their doctrines ; and what
single ' Evangelical' has expressed himself on the subject,
who has not appealed to the alleged formalism and ' self-
righteousness' of Catholics as a conclusive argument against
their system ? They have themselves chosen the topic, I only
adopt their choice. That Catholics are not, as such, formal
and ' self-righteous,' it is one principal object of great part of
the present work to prove ; that ' Evangelicals ' as a body are
not in any true sense 'spiritual,' is what I have been just now
attempting to establish. Nor have I resorted for my materials
to the mere accident of chance observation, but in every case
have shewn the connection between the faults I complain of
and the doctrines of those I am accusing; nor yet have
I drawn merely theoretical deductions from abstract pre-
mises, but have laboured carefully to confine my remarks
to what I believe will on the whole be borne out by an ex-
tensive experience. That even at the present day there are

246

many ' Evangelicals,' far more attached to the truths acci-
dentally connected with their system than to the heresies which
essentially distinguish it, I most gladly believe ; nor could any
result be more deeply gratifying to my own feelings, than if
only one such should be led, by means of what I have put
forth, to perceive how much more deeply and genuinely the
same truths are witnessed, in the pure and undefiled Gospel
preserved through every age by the Church Catholic.

One misconception which might perhaps ensue, both from
what has been said and from what remains to be said, had
better be distinctly removed in this place. On looking back
at what I have written for the last fifteen or twenty pages,
I am not without fear that I may be considered as represent-
ing the Christian life in gloomy, cheerless, and repulsive
colours. Nothing, however, kas been farther from my in-
tention ; and nothing, I am quite sure, can be farther from
the truth. To take the most obvious case, all that has been
said on the perpetual watchfulness of conscience, is in no way
inconsistent with the fullest allowance of necessary relaxation
and refreshment of mind. It is not to be denied, indeed, that
saintly men find continually more delight in heavenly and
spiritual occupations themselves ; but this is no reason why
we, who are not saintly men and therefore require other en-
joyments, may not, with the fullest sanction of our conscience,
enjoy in the highest degree innocent gaiety and exhilaration
of spirits. As a father regards with affectionate complacency
the sports of his infant* children, so we may represent our
conscience, as regarding from the inward recesses of our
mind our external and superficial merriment, ready to inter-
pose at any moment, if anything dangerous or doubtful
should be introduced. And to speak of what is so infinitely
more important, true peace of mind and deep happiness ;
what is there which can compare, in that respect, with our
gradual emancipation from the power of sin? Those, too,
who are conscious to themselves (as we may be y ) of purity
of intention, derive unspeakable relief, in the midst of
their increasing perception of sin, (for the perception of sin

y See this explained and vindicated, Newman's Sermons, vol. v. serm. 16.

247

increases in a far greater ratio than conquest over sin,) from
the thought of the infinite mercy of God, shewn forth so
preeminently in our Lord's Atoning Death. Again : the
study, one by one, of the events and sufferings of His life ;
the contemplation of Christian doctrine in its full and varied
range ; the exercises of private and of public devotion ; in
their degree, even the wonders of Catholic art, and the so-
lemnity of religious ceremonial (should these be accessible) ;
above all, the reception of the most Holy Sacrament ; all
these are full of sweetness and consolation to the soul, which
is wearied with the toils and temptations of life, and with the
remembrance and deep feeling of sin.

6. Now a little consideration will shew us, that the practical
importance of the discussion just concluded extends to great
numbers among ourselves, besides those against whom it has
been more immediately directed; that the vitally funda-
mental truth, which Lutheranism formally denies, is, to say
the least, disparaged and most inadequately apprehended by
very many, who cannot with any justice be ranked in the
' Evangelical' party. There are indeed, I fear, comparatively
few among us, who do not consciously or unconsciously en-
tertain the idea, that habitual and laborious watchfulness ;
the painful effort to change our will and purify our hearts by
exercising ourselves day by day in the events of ordinary
life as they occur ; the humbling ourselves and doing pe-
nance in remembrance of our past sins, one by one ; the
labouring constantly to keep before our mind the thought of
Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell ; that all this is at least not
so imperatively required under Christianity, as under natural
religion. Whereas in truth the peculiarity of Christ's re-
ligion is not that, in any the smallest particular, it dispenses
with the obligation to obedience, (a righteous God cannot
dispense with that obligation,) but that it gives most won-
derful and unprecedented help towards carrying out obe-
dience ; and since ' to whom much is given, from him will
much be required,' it follows that the amount of obedience
which God demands at our hands is so much the greater, by
how much Christian gifts are more wonderful and transcend-

248

ant. This it is, I say, which all the various heretical parties
within our Church in one way or other disparage, and which
I heartily wish that even the more orthodox in general more
fully realised. Men speak as though, in some sense at least
and in some degree, the Gospel were a reversal of the natural
Law ; instead of being solely and exclusively its complement. 2
And I would beg of my readers to pay particular attention
to this statement; because it is the very central point of that
view of our present circumstances, which it is the object of
this work to submit with deep deference to my brethren.
And it is because this truth seems to me so all-important at
the present time, and the Lutheran doctrine of Justification
is that particular heresy which plainly and in terms denies it,
that I have felt bound from time to time in the British Critic
to protest so emphatically, and in language of such unbound-
ed and indignant reprobation, against that doctrine.

The objection which is at once in every body's mouth
against the truth I am defending, is such as the following :
that it implies some slight on the peculiar doctrines of the
Gospel, especially the Atonement and Sanctification by the
Holy Spirit, if Christians, who have been favoured with their
knowledge, are still bound not less than before to impress on
their minds an habitual sense of the truths of natural religion,
and to act laboriously on those truths ; that Christ would
almost seem to have come upon earth in vain, and the Holy
Ghost to have descended in vain, if duty, repentance, self-
denial, fear of Judgment to come, are still to remain, (as the

z 'That the Church, during her whole course from first to last, has made it
so prominent a part of her office that nothing whatever has been more so, to bear
witness to the holy and eternal Law of God ; this is very obvious, and is seen on
the very surface of her history. It is evidenced alike in the strict discipline and
careful adjustment of penitential inflictions prevalent in the early ages ; in the
scientific theory on the subject, in the detailed examination of the sources, the
comparative turpitude, and the remedies of each several transgression, which
Catholic doctors in the mediaeval period so carefully elaborated ; and in the nice
and subtle questions of casuistry, in which the same principle has naturally issued,
under the complicated and entangled circumstances of modern civilization, in the
hands, whether of foreign theologians or of those among ourselves (such as Sanderson
and Taylor) who have drank most deeply of the genuine Catholic spirit.' ' On the
Synagogue and the Church,' p. 21.

249

Church has ever proclaimed that they do remain,) so promi-
nently in the very front ground of the Gospel system, that
they may not be displaced nor set aside, no not a hair's
breadth, even by those most wonderful and gracious doc-
trines to which I have alluded. There are three several
answers which may be given to such a representation of the
case ; either of which alone would amply suffice, and which,
when taken together, issue in nothing less than a complete
and triumphant overthrow of this very plausible objection.

1. These doctrines and precepts of natural religion, to
which I have adverted, receive unspeakable accession of light
and of sacredness, by means of the Gospel ; insomuch that
the latter has no more precious peculiarity, than the super-
natural dignity and elevation which it gives to those doctrines
and precepts. For let us consider to what extent the laws
of natural religion are observed, or its truths known, in a
state of unaided nature. That man feels a most deep and
intimate perception of the ideas conveyed by the words
' right ' and ' wrong ;' that he feels the essential duty of
humbling himself and doing penance for evil deeds ; that he
has a consciousness, whether latent or developed, that it will
be the worse with him through all eternity in consequence of
these last ; all this cannot be denied, and it is very important
that it be distinctly affirmed. But over and above this, I
am sure we shall be stating the matter even beyond its best
advantage, if we suppose existing in his mind such convictions
as the following : a real and firm belief in the All-Holy, All-
mighty, All-merciful God ; a knowledge of the more promi-
nent and essential features of the natural law ; and a humble
hope that by honestly doing what may be in his own power
towards the following after blamelessness and purity of life,
even though little else than repeated failure and disappoint-
ment be the result here on earth, he may obtain some un-
known but precious reward hereafter. And if even all this
be supposed, still how miserable is his state ! The original
and deep disease of his nature remains unstaunched ; and
only inflicts on him a keener consciousness of misery, for
every new attempt he may make to escape its influence. The

250

Law stands over against him, not indeed understood in all its
fulness, but still sufficiently recognised to overwhelm him with
dismay, to make it continually clearer to him how hopeless
is the effort of making any sustained progress towards its
fulfilment. The feeling of repentance and humiliation is, by
his very aspiration after good, called into a more grievous
and ceaseless exercise ; and alternates with the renewed com-
mission of those very skis for which it has been called forth.
The consciousness of a gradual approach to his standard of
right, of evil tendencies continually weakened and good con-
tinually strengthened, of a consistent, however imperfect,
fulfilment of the whole law ; in a word, the experience of a
good conscience, which should sweeten the path of self-denial
and repentance, and impart rest and peace even in the midst
of godly sorrow and godly fear ; all this is unknown to him,
and beyond the power of his attainment. The reward held out
to him on earth for a sustained attempt at well-doing is, that
his sense of the great want of his nature shall become to a
fearful extent keener and more overpowering, and his con-
viction, how powerless man's natural strength to supply that
want, more intense and habitual. What then is even the
truly religious course for one so circumstanced ? ' Surely to
be in gloom, to view ourselves with horror, to look about to
the right hand and to the left for means of safety, to catch
at every thing yet trust to nothing, to do all we can and try
to do more than all, and after all to remain in miserable
suspense,' wholly unable to judge whether we have honestly
exerted ourselves according to our power ; to wait ' naked
and shivering, among the trees of the garden, for the hour of
His coming, and meanwhile to fancy sounds of woe in every
wind stirring the leaves about us, in a word, to be super-
stitious, is nature's best offering, her most acceptable service,
her most matured and enlarged wisdom, in the presence of a
holy and offended God. They who are not superstitious
without the Gospel, will not be religious with it.'

It is not at all necessary to discuss the question, how far
it might be humbly hoped that in point of fact spiritual aid
* Newman's University Sermons, p. 106.

251

would be extended to a heathen, who should really so exert
himself as is here supposed : for that aid would be no part
of the natural system : it would be but a partial anticipation
of Gospel gifts, and due to the foreseen merits of our Lord
and Saviour. Now let us suppose, for a moment, that
Christ's coming had done no more than this ; viz. imparted
the power of avoiding for ever, by means of prayer and
watchfulness, all mortal sin (all such sin, that is, as strictly
implies the will's rebellion against God) ; and that as regards
all other sin whatever, it had both assured men's pardon, and
given them the means of gradual victory ; that it had pro-
mised forgiveness even of mortal sin on certain conditions
of repentance and penitential exercises; that it had dis-
tinctly revealed future judgment according to works, and
promised to faithful disciples such an eternity of happiness
as consists in the perfection and full gratification of our
natural faculties ; nay, further, if you will, that in order to
give mankind a pledge in action, of what their sinful con-
sciences make them so slow to believe in promise, the death
on the Cross had followed, merely as an assurance and
visible demonstration of the loving mercy of God. Had
Christianity done no more than this, how much would it not
have done ! what a message would it not have been to the
wretched and degraded heathen, as of life from the dead!
Now for the very first time, would the natural duties of
obedience, repentance, fear, hope, diligence, love, begin to
assume, by degrees, that very shape and those very mutual
relations for which they were intended, and into which
nevertheless, without special help from God, in vain they
attempted to rise ; .now for the very first time would the
religious character display the rudiments of that harmony
and proportion, for which man had before possessed the
materials but not the power, the external form but not the
quickening, animating spirit. Every act of natural duty,
every ceremonial of natural religion, would be a fresh
homage to the wonders of revelation : and every new triumph
of nature would be a fresh ground for the thankful remem-
brance of grace.

But, blessed be His name, Christ's Gospel is all this, and
far more ; His death is not merely a pledge of God's loving
intention towards us, but the means whereby it works, the
price of our redemption ; it is the death of God, who died on
the Cross as Man, that He might make men as gods. The
power, whereby we are enabled to fulfil, consistently and
in illimitably increasing measure, the natural Law, is no
mere complement of our natural faculties, but a most marvel-
lous and supernatural gift ; ' a well of water springing up into
everlasting life ;' an inward spiritual presence, which raises
us indefinitely in the scale of creation; by means of which
our acts of penitence, self-denial, obedience, become other in
kind from what they were ; and the direct issue and con-
summation of which is no lower and less determined gift
of eternal bliss, but the ' beatific vision,' the seeing of God
face to face. The Gospel does not then remove these pri-
mary and essential duties of natural religion from their place,
but to an unspeakable extent elevates and sanctifies them in
their place ; their habitual and unceasing inculcation can
involve no disparagement of 'Christ's Atonement and the
Spirit's Mission, for they are what they are in consequence of
those great Gospel Verities.

This also must be remarked, to complete our view, that
the God of natural religion not only becomes more deeply
and intimately known to Christians because of His Presence
within them through His Spirit, but also because of His
Manifestation without them through His Son. Through

O O

His words and deeds in the flesh, our knowledge of the
Divine attributes becomes incalculably more consistent and
persuasive ; 'His Majesty, His love, His mercy, His holiness,
His fearful anger,' become ideas with a far more impressive
and definite meaning. 3 Thus then all the duties of natural
religion, worship, repentance, faith, obedience, penance, and
the rest are raised, in the case of us Christians, in regard to
our knowledge of the Object to whom they are addressed,
not less than in regard to the power whereby they are done.
Add to this, that the most solemn among all the truths

* See Newman's University Sermons, pp. 35 37.

253

of natural religion, that of Judgment to come, is emphatically
* christianized,' by our knowledge of that most encouraging,
yet almost overpowering fact, that, not God the Father, but
God the Son, He who has lived among men as he that
serveth, is to judge men one by one at the Great Day.

And as it is with the duties of natural religion, so it is also
with the precepts correlative to those duties. If consistently
obedient men be the fountains from which moral truth flows
to the world, and if, without special grace, consistent
obedience be unattainable, we shall be prepared to expect
what in fact we find, how miserably inadequate was that
knowledge and perception of the Eternal Law of God, which
was generally diffused before Christian times. It is not till
the first promulgation of the Gospel, that we find among
men in general any tolerable appreciation of the Law ; but
' from that period downwards we find that which was before
but hypothesis and capability, converted into actual achieve-
ments, into living and energizing results. For eighteen
centuries and upwards has the Church faithfully witnessed
the great truths of morality and natural religion in their full
circle, whether against Manichaean heretics in earlier, or
Lutheran in later times. She has drawn out the scientific
statement of God's nature ; b she has proclaimed and enforced
the various holy tempers required by the natural law,
explored the theory of their mutual relations and de-
pendency, discussed the mode of their application to the
outward state of things at each succeeding period of her
progress, and provided her children with invaluable help and
support for their attainment; all this she has done with
a confidence, completeness, depth, and illumination of view,
so absolutely beyond comparison with any feeble efforts in
that direction which may have existed in heathen times,

b See e. g. Petavius ' De Deo Deique proprietatibus.'

c It would of course require great acquaintance with heathen literature to
pronounce a confident opinion on their real progress in philosophy. Mr. Newman
has not hesitated to say that the ' great endowments of mind ' which existed in
those times ' had been expended on vanities or dissipated in doubt and specula-
tion.' (Univ. Serm. p. 314.) And a very different writer has drawn attention

254

as most fully to justify Bp. Butler's remark, that it would be
difficult for us adequately to appreciate the blessings we have
obtained through the Gospel, even without reference made
to the information and gifts peculiar to itself.' d

But, without doubting in the slightest degree the extreme
and indispensable importance of scientific statements, it will
not be questioned, that the idea of holiness is impressed on
our minds with incomparably greater clearness, precision, and
persuasiveness, by the presence of living examples, or the
record of such in past ages ; and in this respect, even more
signally than in the other, has Christianity established and
enforced for the first time the full truths of natural religion.

Here immediately a circumstance occurs to our mind,
which must be placed altogether by itself, as absolutely one,
singular, and unapproachable, in the whole history of the
world. The circumstance, I mean, that God has taken on
Him our nature ; that in that nature He has visited this
very earth of ours, and vouchsafed in person to represent to
us outwardly that Law which He has implanted deep within
our hearts : nor only this, but that his words and actions in
the flesh have been preserved to this day in an inspired record,
for our reverent observance and contemplation. This is that
fact, so marvellous beyond all power of our previous con-
ception, ' that it might well have been doubted by the Holy
Angels, w r hether men could bear to hear of it without losing
their senses.'* And this is that record, on which all the Blessed
Saints, as one after another they have appeared on the scene
of life, have supported their faith, by which they have
enkindled all holy affections, and which they have made
their one great model, the one great interpreter to them of
the Eternal Law of God. From the ' Mystery of His
Incarnation, His obscure birth, His hidden life, the labours
of His public ministry, His sufferings, His ignominies,

to the barrenness of heathen philosophy, with a view of gaining support, from that
consideration, to the wretched sentiments he is endeavouring to uphold. I allude to
Mr. Macauley's article on Lord Bacon.

d ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 401.

e ' On St. Athanasius,' p. 487.

255

His death, the work so merciful of our Redemption, His
all-glorious Resurrection, the earnest and lively faith of the
Saints has ever, without wearying of the occupation, derived
new feelings of gratitude and love, astonishment and shame,
contrition and confidence. That lively faith which pos-
sessed them was a restless impulse, which, from the sight
of what the Saviour had done for them, continually urged
them on to the practice of humility, of poverty, of peni-
tence, of patience ; to works of zeal, to all the labours of
a Christian and Apostolic life, and to realising in their own
hearts the mystery of his death and resurrection. It ceased
not to place before their minds Jesus Christ acting or speak-
ing, Jesus Christ praying or fasting, Jesus Christ living
among men and mixing with them, Jesus Christ preaching,
Jesus Christ enduring with incredible sweetness the revilings,
cruelty, and ingratitude of the Jews, Jesus Christ travelling,
or taking his repast, 6 &c., and they applied themselves to the
task of doing the same actions in union and conformity with
those of the Saviour.' f And for us also, to read that record
as we ought should be one habitual study of our lives : to
bring home to our feelings and imaginations the events there
described, not in that barren, lifeless, unreal manner in
which too often the sacred narrative is read, but in all fulness
of detail and circumstance as living and breathing facts ; yet,
on the other hand, to impress on our minds with equal care,
with sedulous caution, with laborious effort and meditation,
Who it is that fills the principal place in those pictures, to
what an unspeakable extent all that we read is matter of
personal interest to ourselves one by one, that each one of
us redeemed Christians was as fully the object of His love
and thought during His earthly humiliation, as though no
other being lived in the whole universe.

But just as, while acknowledging the Four Gospels to be
in a singular and peculiar degree raised above the rest of
Scripture, we yet believe all Scripture to be inspired, and

e Members of our Church may now see, in the translation of St. Bonaven-
ture's ' Life of Christ,' a specimen of this most prominent feature in the saintly
character.

f Npotien, ou PEleve de Sanctuaire, (Lyon, 1837,) p. 82.

256

endeavour to learn from every part its intended lesson: in
like manner, the recognition of the unapproached eminence,
on which our Blessed Lord's life stands out in the history of
the Church, implies no denial of the excellent fruits to be
derived from the recorded lives of all His Saints. These are
in every age the great external evidences of Christianity, the
great visible notes of the Church. They bear witness in their
own persons, a far surer witness than could be borne by any
other external sign or proof, to the depth, reality, and effica-
ciousness of Christian doctrine ; their living example is the
warrant, whereby we receive the recorded actions of holy
men in times past as possibilities and truths ; their habits
and ways of thought, their very personal presence, are as it
were the quickening and informing spirit, whereby the great
events of the Church start from the canvass, and present
themselves to our imagination as realities with a definitive
existence and meaning ; while at the same time the same holy
men, not by means of formal calculation but by the spon-
taneous impulses of the Holy Ghost within them, are the
great originators of that infinite variety of external shape,
which the one Ancient Truth assumes in every successive
period, that it may cope with the peculiar evils and meet the
peculiar exigencies of that period.

Such are the benefits which their contemporaries derive
from their life on earth ; nor is their history less productive
of fruit, when they have gone to their reward, and reign with
Christ in Heaven. In two particulars, indeed, departed
Saints may serve as our models, where their Master's ex-
ample will not in any way attain the same object. For, first,
they have been men like ourselves, born like us in original
sin, and endued with no higher privileges than are granted
to us also ; while He, though fully invested with human
nature in all its completeness, still had no human personality,
was not a man but God-man ; so that the power is granted
to ordinary Christians of indefinitely near approach to them,
while from Him they must ever remain infinitely removed :
and, secondly, our examples, whether of saintly self -discipline
or of saintly penitence, must of necessity be derived only
from them ; for they only had sins to repent, they only had

257

the rebellion of nature to keep in check. Can there be
a more deeply touching or profitable task, than to con-
template the gradual triumph of Saints over temptations,
whether from within or from without, similar to those of
which we have ourselves daily the miserable experience ; or
to study the manner and degree of their repentance for sins,
far less grievous and hateful to God than those which we
have committed in the same kind ? ' When we read how
many young noblemen and tender virgins have despised the
world and joyfully embraced the cross and the labours of
penance, we feel a glowing flame kindled in our own breasts,
and are encouraged to suffer afflictions with patience, and
cheerfully to undertake suitable practices of penance. Whilst
we see many sanctifying themselves in all states, and making
the very circumstances of their condition, whether on the
throne, in the army, in the state of marriage, or in the de-
serts, the means of their virtue and penance, we are persuaded
that the practice of perfection is possible also to us in every
lawful profession, and that we need only sanctify our employ-
ments by a perfect spirit and the fervent exercises of religion,
to become saints ourselves without quitting our state in the
world. When we behold others framed of the same frail
mould with ourselves, many in age or in other circumstances
weaker than ourselves, and struggling with greater difficulties,
yet courageously surmounting and trampling upon all the
obstacles by which the world endeavoured to obstruct their
virtuous choice, we are secretly stung within our hearts,
feel the reproaches of our sloth, and are moved from our
state of insensibility.' f Then, too, in studying the endlessly
various specimens of the saintly character, we more and
more clearly discern, ' in each one of those individuals, in-
definitely varying from each other in natural disposition,
in period, rank, education, sex, and age, a certain inward
character surprisingly similar to that of all the rest,' and
* evidencing a certain complete and singular fulfilment of
the natural law.' 8 Thus we learn the peculiar expansiveness
and elasticity of the Gospel Gift, and the wonderful capa-
bilities of human nature, so infinitely beyond all that could
f Butler's Lives, p. xlii. * ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 417.

258

have been even imagined before Christ came ; and by means of
these \ve bring home to our imaginations (which is my present
subject) the perfect and entire Law of God, with a minute-
ness, particularity, and diversity of exhibition, which could
in no other way have been attained. Above all, the lives of
Saints are as it were spiritual ladders, by which w T e rise into
a continually fuller and less inadequate appreciation of His
Life, "Who is the One Full Embodiment of that Law.

This then is the first answer that may be made to the ob-
jection in hand. To lay a very prominent stress on the pre-
cepts of natural religion, implies no blindness to the para-
mount value of Gospel peculiarities ; for that we know those
precepts as we know them, and are able to perform them in
the consistent, though imperfect, measure, and in the super-
natural manner, in w r hich we do perform them, this is one of
the most admirable among those Gospel peculiarities.

II. Next, I lately drew attention to part of our common
nature, (that nature which has been in no way reversed under
the Gospel, and of which, in this respect at least, no religious
man surely would desire the reversal,) that only in proportion
to our moral culture are we enabled to apprehend religious
truth. The Christian, who is frequent in self-examination
and constant in self-discipline, derives incomparably more of
real Christian knowledge from two or three verses of the
New Testament, or from a single repetition of the Creed,
than could be obtained by one careless in such matters, even
by perusing chapter upon chapter of Scripture, or by study-
ing whole volumes of theology : or rather indeed the latter
derives no Christian knowledge \vhatever ; however fluent
he may be in the use of sacred terms, or ready in the
citation of texts, the impression he derives from w r hat he
reads is altogether wide of the mark, altogether heterogeneous
from that real and true impression, which is received, in
various measures, by the rightly prepared disciple. It is
plain at once, then, how extravagant is the allegation, that
zeal for such culture implies indifference to revealed truth ;
for even were that culture in itself not a duty, still it would
be cherished and exercised by all Christians, exactly in pro-
portion to the earnestness of their love and keenness of their

desire for Christian knowledge. Moral culture being the
only path to Christian knowledge, he who best loves the
latter will most practise the former. Suppose (if it be not
too light an illustration) that a man should apply himself
to learning the German language, for the express and sole
purpose of reading the works of some German poet ; and
that he should be found deeply plunged in all the intricacies
and difficulties of German grammar: what sense would
there be in the charge, that all this careful and methodical
study implied some latent preference of grammar to poetry ?

III. And, lastly, I will fairly challenge objectors to devise
any other means, by which these very truths, the Atonement
of Christ and Sanctification by the Spirit, shall be (I do
not say so rightly apprehended, that I have just been urging,
but) so habitually present to the Christians consciousness as
they are by this very habit of moral watchfulness. In no
other way will the feeling be so deeply and indelibly im-
pressed on our very innermost heart, of the fearful and
miserable amount of our sins and imperfections ; for in no
other way shall we have obtained light to see one thousandth
part of those which we thus obtain the power of seeing, and
in no other way shall we be enabled to preserve the remem-
brance of them so constantly in the mind, amidst all the
tumult of the external world, the excitement of pleasure, or
the engrossing occupation of thought and study. Nothing
can effect this except habitual self-mastery ; self-mastery
comes but gradually, and only by one kind of agency, by
successive acts of conflict against dominant inclination. Now
it is plain, without saying another word, that as habitual as
is the thought of our own sinfulness, precisely so habitual is
the thought of the Atonement, and as deep as is the sense
of our own sinfulness, so deep is the sense of the benefits we
derive from the Atonement, and so real our gratitude to
Him who died for our sins. Nor is a constant remembrance
of the Holy Spirit's influence less intimately bound up with
watchfulness and self-denial, than is a constant remembrance
of Christ's Atonement. For it is those who use most constant
diligence in removing those obstacles within them which
thwart the free movings of the Holy Ghost, who are also

s 2

260

most unceasingly sensible of the presence of that supernatural -
Power; a Power, wholly alien in origin from their own
natural powers, and which carries them onwards, as if with-
out their will, from grace to grace, with no assistance on
their part beyond that negative cooperation, the unwearied
and self-mortifying exercise of which I have spoken so much.
This conciousness it is, which is the deep origin of that su-
pernatural humility characteristic of the mortified and ascetic
Christian : this it is which impels the faithful, in proportion
to their zeal, diligence, and self-denial, to use in the most
natural and straightforward way that language about their
own utter unworthiness, which many doubtless adopt from
affectation or imitation of others, and which to men of the
world appears so singularly paradoxical and extravagant.

7. The specious difficulty then, lately mentioned as stand-
ing in the way of this all-important truth, seems most
satisfactorily disposed of; nor does it appear to me any
exaggeration to say, that the neglect of the truth itself is
the sufficient cause of all the spiritual evils which surround
us. Without alluding to individuals, I can see no system
in this country, except the Roman Catholic, which attaches
any particular weight whatever to a principle, which if
true must deserve more weight than all others put to-
gether : I can see no system, which wholly or even partly
bases its inculcation of Christian truth on its careful enforce-
ment of moral discipline. The Roman Catholics indeed, in
this as in so many other respects, have witnessed the pure
Gospel to a blind and carnal age. I am told on the best
authority, that no serious Roman Catholic would omit any
one day the usual ' examen of conscience,' without making
the omission a subject of mention as a sin at his next con-
fession; while in religious houses and seminaries for the
priesthood they frequently enforce the 'particular examination'
(of which more hereafter) three times in every day. To this
we should add repeated meditations, according to a set plan,
on such subjects as 'sin,' 'death,' and 'judgment to come;'
and moreover the practice itself, which alone would so
powerfully tend to secure moral discipline, of Sacramental
Confession. But our own Church, (not to speak here of the

261

Dissenters, who are even more in fault,) whether in the recog-
nised system of education or of later instruction, most ob-
viously implies a belief, that the reading of the Sacred Volume
will convey religious and practical truth to a mind unpre-
pared by special and wisely-devised discipline. A more
senseless and perverse superstition cannot be conceived.

And what is the result of this most monstrous and fanatical
notion ? The cultivation of conscience is indissolubly bound
up with self-denial, if it be not even the same thing in
another shape ; self-denial is of all exercises the most
repugnant to man's fallen and corrupt nature ; therefore
if this duty be not enforced with the most urgent, energetic,
and repeated appeals, it will by inevitable consequence either
be performed with utter inadequacy, or wholly neglected.
The voice of conscience then, being thus allowed to remain
dormant, is confused, without possibility of distinction, with
the caprice of imagination, or with individual peculiarities
and associations. Hence it follows, that those who (like, I
suppose, most ' Evangelicals ' and Protestant Dissenters)
regard themselves as visited with some personal divine
illumination, are led to look upon even their narrowest
prejudices or absurdest imaginations, as the very dictate
of the Holy Ghost; to look upon themselves and the few
whose prejudices and peculiarities agree with their own, as
the fountain of divine truth ; to shut their eyes to the
plainest marks of sanctity in those who abhor and denounce
their ' cant ' phrases ; and to regard with a compassion closely
bordering on contempt us ordinary men, who earnestly
disclaim any such personal illumination in ourselves, and
refuse to recognise it in them. I most gladly believe that
many are more or less involved in this strange way of
proceeding from the accident of their circumstances and
position, to whose better nature it is far from congenial,
and who, consciously or otherwise, feel their system a galling
chain and grievous impediment : but I speak of the system
itself, and not of individuals ; and most sorry should I be
to appear wanting in deep respect and sympathy for such as
these.

Even this system, however, is very far from the most un-

262

spiritual which has been devised, in these dark ages wherein
we live. Here, as in so many other cases, from lowering
their practice men have gone on to lower their theory.
Having taken effectual means, from the absence of all
exhortations to moral discipline and all stress laid upon
it, that ' as many voices as there are in the world,' so many
consciences shall there appear to be, they go on to deny
plainly that conscience has, when duly cultivated, one
plain, clear, articulate voice ; and to maintain that we may
discover religious truth, without submitting ourselves, for
such truth, to its sacred dictates. Some have openly upheld
the shocking principle, that Scripture will teach us Christian
doctrine if we interpret it according to the maxims of
criticism which we apply to classical writings ; that a
knowledge of Hellenistic Greek, and a just estimate of
the force of prepositions in compound words, will give us
a more valuable proof of the Atonement, than we could
otherwise obtain. And others have referred us to a critical
study of the early Fathers, with the same object in view;
and called on us to submit both reason and conscience to
what we gather from them on sound principles of critical
interpretation. More monstrously untenable this last indeed
in one respect even than the former: for the Bible is the
Word of God, intended to illuminate and instruct the Church
in every age ; however perverse the Protestant attempts to
discern the sacred doctrine which it contains : but on what
possible principle have the writers of one particular age ' do-
minion over our faith '? Speak indeed to us of their sanc-
tity, and we acknowledge from our heart's depth their claim
to be heard with reverence and docility ; nor can there be
a task more full of interest and more pregnant with prac-
tical results, than drawing forth the deep harmony which
exists between saints of every age, their absolute agreement
in substantial truth, their interesting and even edifying
diversity in matters of inferior moment. But when, instead
of a procedure which at last involves no real difficulty
whatever, the very contrary course is adopted; when we
hear the words of early Saints wrongfully and perversely
quoted, to censure the words of men whom no one can

263

consider less holy ; when we hear St. Chrysostom brought as
an antagonist over against St. Bonaventure, or St. Cyril
against St. Alphonsus Liguori, we shudder at (the most unin-
tentional) profaneness of such daring and reckless criticism.

Nay, to such an extent has this mania for external
evidence been carried, that a principle is most plainly
implied by numbers amongst us, though its maintenance by
any sane person would have been incredible but for general
experience, that it is lawful to summon Dissenters to leave
that community wherein God has placed them, wherein they
have learned sacred truths from their parents or teachers, and
with which their most holy associations are interwoven, to
summon them, I say, to such a course, not by appeals to
their conscience ; not by leading them through their system
to another, and fixing their minds on those truths which it
contains, till from them they go on into further truths ;
nor yet, again, by awakening their spiritual desires for a gift,
which Sacramental grace can alone supply ; but by an argu-
mentative exposition of Apostolical Succession and the Divine
right of Bishops. In other words, it is considered (though I
am conscious that the naked statement looks like a burlesque)
that religious men of the lower classes cannot estimate a higher
idea of sanctity, when fairly set before them, but can do justice
to both sides on such questions as these; 1, whether Epis-
copacy, though universal in early times, be necessary, while
prayers for the dead, which were equally universal, are not so
considered ; 2, whether Episcopacy did universally exist in
early times, with an examination of the famous passage of
St. Jerome, and the famous examples of Corinth and Alexan-
dria ; 3, whether in point of fact the English Church has the
succession, with an historical digression on the Nag's Head
controversy, and a ritual discussion on the forms necessary
for ordination; 4, and chiefly of all, whether visible union
with what is considered to constitute the rest of the Church
Catholic be not also necessary; visible union, on which
learned men tell us that so much more stress was laid in
early times, than on the Apostolical Succession. And it is
seriously implied by multitudes of English Churchmen, that
Dissenters may, without grievous sin, leave the community

264

which to them has been in so high and true a sense the
ordinance of God, from no better reason than the ridiculous
child's play of professing a view on such questions as these ;
and that ministers of our Church may, without grievous sin,
tempt them to such a course. 11

h The author of the most able and valuable ' Appeal to the Members of the
Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,' (p. 11,) mentions with reprobation
a sentiment of the Bishop of Chester's, that " if a man feels that he has been
personally benefited by the instructions of a Dissenting teacher, the only
instructions within his reach, no argument can persuade him that he ought
never to have listened to them ;" and censures also the Bishop's further remark
that " perhaps it is too much to expect that .... all men should think alike
upon such subjects as diocesan episcopacy, or infant Baptism,'' &c. For one, I
incline to be more hopeful than the Bishop of the ultimate reunion, by God's
grace, of all Christians ; but take the matter in a practical light, can the ex-
cellent writer really mean that ordinary Christians are able to form a judgment
on such matters as these last, or that they are not able to form a very sufficient
judgment on the plain question, whether, by help of advice from a Dissenting
minister, they have been able to contend more successfully against habits of
sloth, or selfishness, or impurity, or anger ? It may be better, lest I be mis-
understood, to add here a note belonging to one of my articles. ' Would it
be thought a promising trait, if a Wesleyan, e. g., born of parents religious up
to the average, were, at the age of ten years, seriously to consider the question
whether or not he were in a state of schism, and how far the institution of
Bishops was apostolical ? And if not at ten years, what is the proper age for
him to call in question all that he has been taught, and sit in judgment on his
parents and elders ? On the contrary, surely the position of our Church as
regards Dissenters, if we rightly view it, is no unfavourable one. We believe
Catholic doctrine to be perfectly consistent with our formularies ; and we know
it to be such that, in proportion as it is adequately exhibited, it attracts most
powerfully the religious instincts of the serious mind, under whatever system
trained. We believe too that after the conscience has been awakened and a
course of obedience begun, the heart of those with whom we have to do, is still
unsatisfied and their mind restless, from their want (however unknown to them-
selves the cause) of that inward gift, which the English Church for one is
entrusted by God with the power of dispensing in her Sacrament. No need of a
spurious liberalism, or of any the least compromise of truth. Let us aim at
making the English Church such, that by her appearance and bearing she may
exhibit outwardly what she contains within : and let us hold, whether by words
or actions, this language to Dissenters : " We are witnesses to a doctrine and
dispensers of a blessing far higher than you can attain in your present position,
and which are the appointed medicine for the ills and miseries from which in
vain otherwise you will seek an escape. Act the more diligently, in conse-
quence of what we say, on your existing principles ; the greater your diligence,
the earlier will be your conviction of the comparative worthlessness and inefficacy
of your present system, the greater will be the eagerness with which your
whole moral nature will yearn for what we can give you." It has been said

265

However such a mistake of principle as this, however
grievous, can lead to little of practical evil, though it will most
seriously obstruct the spread of practical good. Attempts to
convert Dissenters by such methods of procedure will fail
signally, as they deserve to fail ; and very much doubtless of
energy and time, which might have been employed to great
advantage, will have been unprofitably wasted : still this is not
in itself a positive, but a negative evil. On the other hand, those
respective religious theories now so prevalent, which, as I
lately shewed, depend for any appearance of truth they may
possess on a denial of the supremacy of the well-disciplined
conscience, these are positive and very serious evils ; still
neither from them can I fancy any real danger to impend.
No ! As regards those who will influence the course of
opinion within our Church for the coming period, I have
no fear whatever that they will either adopt ' evangelical '
sentiments, or perpetuate an illusive distinction between the
earlier and later ages of the Church : nor yet again, that
they will become what is sometimes called ' sound and
attached members of the English Church,' or in other words,
that they will concur with Mr. Palmer's general views.
I am not speaking of that multitude of men, who have
neither great moral sensitiveness, nor great intellectual keen-
ness; they doubtless in every age accept very readily the
state of things in which they find themselves placed, and

that great numbers of Dissenters are in a state of the most abandoned profli-
gacy. Whether they are worse in this respect than churchmen, we have no means
and no wish to decide ; of course in such cases the English clergyman would
" be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort," as claiming
authority, and appealing to their conscience in confirmation of his words. And
should he succeed in any one such case in " converting the sinner from the
error of his way," there could not be much question that the poor rescued
soul would gladly follow, with implicit deference, the spiritual instruction of his
preserver. But he has not this argument in dealing with persons who are not
grossly vicious ; and the question before us is, how is he to address them ? . . . .
That a Dissenter may have been often enough perplexed and confused by being
confidently, and as if angrily, told he is in a state of schism (as though he had
placed himself there) we can readily conceive ; that he may have been deterred
by it from religious action altogether, under a persuasion of the impossibility of
discovering truth, this we can imagine ; but that he should have been persuaded
by it, and become a sound and docile churchman, this we cannot fancy. Can any
one ?' ' On Church Authority,' pp. 216, 7.

266

profit by it more or less according to its value and their
diligence : nor can any thing be more praiseworthy than that
they should do so, except so far as this deficiency of moral
sensitiveness is attributable to their own fault. But I
speak here of those more consistent spirits, who in every
generation determine most certainly, for good or for evil, the
character of the following generation : and of these I say,
(and I beg most earnestly to submit this to the careful
and deep consideration of those, who think that all will go
smoothly with our Church, if they can but expel from it, or
silence in it, the advocates of Roman doctrine,) that the
danger to be feared, should they by whatever motive be
repelled from the course w r hich leads to full, consistent, and
complete, Catholicism, is very far more serious and alarming
than the attempt to reinvigorate the ' Evangelical ' or ' High-
Church' party.

In truth, systems have been devised, most imposing from
the brilliancy, depth, and varied ability of their inventors,
which having 'slain their tens of thousands' in Germany
and France, are endeavouring, with secret but mighty force,
to obtain a footing here. These systems, though it would
be the most cruel injustice to charge the disciples in general
with intentional and conscious, or even as yet virtual, unbe-
lief, still are in themselves, and in their inevitable issue,
absolutely infidel in character. The name of Mr. Carlyle
will suggest one class of these systems ; the writings of Kant,
which are very much and increasingly studied in this country,
a second; Mr. Michelet's history, (which has been just
now warmly advocated as a subject for study in England,) a
third ; Mr. Milman's History of Christianity, (though less
deep than the others,) a fourth. 11 The principles, implied in
different ways and degrees through these respective writings,
are widely different indeed from the shallow, unscrupulous,
and rancorous sophisms, put forth by infidels of the last
century ; they are far deeper, and therefore far more danger-
ous. Such writers as most of those whom I just mentioned,
have the fullest disposition to do justice to Christianity, ' as

h Let me again repeat, as I have mentioned the name of a clergyman of our
Church, that I am speaking exclusively of tendencies.

267

a fact in history.' ' There are men,' we are told by the able
and interesting writer in the Edinburgh Review, ' who, not
disguising their own unbelief, have written deeper and finer
things in vindication of what religion has done for mankind,
than have sufficed to found the reputation of some of its most
admired defenders.' 1 Nay, many of such thinkers will even
admit the main facts contended for by Paley ; and will yet con-
sider the Gospel to have been rather a divine and gracious in-
terposition (for the purpose of introducing a higher range of
sentiments, and a more perfect morality 11 ) than to be authori-
tatively binding on ourselves as a law. And to shew still
more plainly, how little we can calculate that respectfulness
of language guarantees the absence of fearful error, it is to
be observed that even Strauss, who denies (if one may give
utterance to such words) the personal existence of our Blessed
Lord, writes, we are told, in a spirit of great calmness and
sobriety ; nor may it be useless to add, that a friend of
mine was told by an eminent foreign bookseller in London,
that he sold more copies of Strauss's work than of any
other in his shop. And let it not be supposed that this
leaven is not very widely working, and very rapidly
spreading, because it has not yet appeared much on the
surface ; the present state of the English mind, so unfavour-
able to all free and consecutive speculation, good or bad,
accounts sufficiently for that : and I cannot but fear, that a
wide experience will on the whole bear out the truth of what
I am now saying. I believe that the unspeculative, common
sense, Procrustean, spirit, which has hitherto governed English
thought, is most certainly destined to fall, and is even now
fast falling : it may be succeeded by something far better, or
by something far worse ; but it will certainly be succeeded
by something very different from itself. 1 This danger and

1 Jan. 1844, p. 2.

k See Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxxv. p. 99.

1 ' There seems a sort of atmosphere of unrest and paradox, hanging around
many of our ablest young men of the present day, which makes me very uneasy.
I do not speak of religious doubts, but rather of questions as to great in moral
and intellectual matters ; where things which have been settled for centuries
seem to be again brought into discussion. This restless love of paradox is, I be-
lieve, one of the main causes of the growth of Newmanism ; first, directly as it leads

268

its remedy have been observed, now seven years since, by the
great seer of our time, whose words it will be well to quote.
Having related a vision of St. Martin's, Mr. Newman pro-
ceeds :

' The application of the vision to Martin's age is obvious ; I
suppose it means in this day, that Christ comes not in pride of
intellect, or reputation for ability. These are the glittering robes
in which Satan is now arraying. Many spirits are abroad, more
are issuing from the pit : the credentials which they display, are the
precious gifts of the mind, beauty, richness, depth, originality.
Christian, look hard at them with Martin in silence, and then ask
for the print of the nails."*

I think in fact that a student of able and enlarged mind,
and endued with great intellectual ardour, who should be
mad enough and miserable enough to seek for truth by
taking up a position external to all existing systems, rather
than by humbly and diligently working in that where God
has placed him, till his conscience shall tell him to advance
from it ; that such an one would see much in Catholicism,
attractive to him in the same sense in which worldly systems
attract him. 'Evangelicalism' or ordinary 'Anglicanism' he
would altogether put aside ; for he would not understand the
moral persuasiveness exhibited by those respective schemes to
persons trained in them, while he would see very plainly their
utter theoretical baselessness and incoherency. But in Catho-
licism he would see a wonderful harmony of parts, depth of
view, and consistency of progress ; he would fairly recognise
it as the majestic and wonderful development of a real idea ;
and he would acknowledge in it a surprising suitableness to
human nature under certain aspects : he would see moreover
how plausible an account it gives of a vast number of external
facts, which it is at first sight difficult otherwise to under-
stand; and again, in an aesthetical point of view, he would do
justice to its great and perhaps unapproached excellence.

men to dispute and oppose all the points which have been agreed upon in their own
country for the last two hundred years . . . than when a man finds that he is cutting
away all the ground under his feet,' &c. Dr. Arnold's Correspondence, p. 225. I
wish ' Newmanism ' were likely to be the only gainer by this.
k ' Church of the Fathers,' p. 414.

269

Such truths as these, unbelievers and misbelievers of the
present day, unless grossly narrow-minded and uncandid,
fully admit. But notwithstanding, he would consider him-
self to see in Catholicism a certain want of enlargement and
comprehensiveness : a certain formalism, stiffness, and absence
of elasticity ; an incapability of adapting itself to circum-
stances ; an excessive regard of detail ; nay, still more than
this, a something, which would even excite his contempt, as
imbecile, superstitious, and anile. As an eminent instance of
this, what we see of the language and arguments, adopted
even by religious Protestants, may give us some little idea,
how indescribably childish and contemptible the doctrine of
the Eucharistic Presence would appear to one, who should
have been neither educated in its belief, nor disciplined by
moral and religious action. And in addition to all this is the
consciousness, most influential even though latent in deterring
him from accepting the Church's authority, that it would
curtail his licence of action and speculation ; that it requires
a submission of reason and will to no ordinary extent.

And the consequence of all this will be, that he will con-
sider it an incomparably more philosophical and more reason-
able course, to give some account of such external facts as
those I just alluded to, which may have considerable show
of reason and plausibility, and yet not imply the duty of
humbling himself before the voice of the Church; rather
than suppose that a system, as he thinks so deplorably
superannuated, has any claims on his reception. He will
avail himself of the difficulties which surround the question
of Inspiration, (difficulties wholly insuperable to the mere
intellect,) in order more certainly to convince himself and
others, how little the Bible, any more than the Church, can
have been intended to furnish a strict and inflexible rule of
faith or morals. He will enlarge on the duty of adapting
the Christian scheme to the wants of each successive period ;
and since the very circumstance, of his having taken up his
present position on merely intellectual grounds, proves him
wholly ignorant that holy obedience is the one illuminating
principle which enables us to distinguish the essential from
the accidental, and that saints are accordingly the only autho-

270

rities we can safely follow on such subjects, he will enter
on the unspeakably arrogant task, of determining for himself
these vital questions by the mere light of intellect, and under
no higher influences than the carnal spirit of the age. Should
he believe in our Lord's Resurrection (on which I suppose
the external evidence is very difficult of evasion) ; and should
he be pressed by the argument, how impossible it is to
conceive that so wonderful an event should have taken place,
and yet that the religion, founded on that event, should con-
tain no definite, substantive, unalterable body of doctrine,
to be received by faith and grown into by obedience ; this
argument, which to serious Christians appears so very cogent,
will strike him with no force whatever. He will say, that the
results of Christianity have been most glorious and noble ;
that in the early and in the middle ages it assumed that very
form which most suited those ages ; and that all he wishes
is, to adopt it himself in the form most suited to this. Nay,
he will perhaps fully acknowledge, that such events as those
to which Catholics point as marks of God's especial Provi-
dence, for instance the absence of the later emperors from
Rome and consequent growth of Papal power, are marks of
such Providence : for that the very errors of Mediaeval
Christianity were matters of salutary belief, much more was
the Church polity, then existing, admirable and beneficent in
its results.

Now I cannot deny that one cause of this painful appear-
ance, presented to such minds by the Church, is the circum-
stance, to which I must hereafter return, that Catholicism
abroad lias in the present age been very far from intel-
lectually adequate to the exigencies of its position ; and has
been, I suppose, very much excelled by human philosophies,
in the genius and powers of mind, which it has, quite of late,
called forth and cultivated. But another much more powerful
reason is the obvious fact, that these other theories have
never come in direct contact with the masses, nor influenced
at all, much less in a very wide extent, the course of practical
life. A system, which has for so many centuries acted so
conspicuous a part in the busy and practical scene of life,
must in all necessity have its prosaic side as well as its

271

poetical ; while those will naturally be more attractive to
the imagination, which have their main origin in the imagina-
tion. This reason however seems to a considerable extent
included in the two which follow, and which appear to me to
approach more nearly the bottom of the question.

First, the sacred and essential truth is cherished and dis-
played in every detail of the Catholic system, of the infinite
superiority of moral over intellectual greatness ; the truth,
that one temptation to evil consistently overcome, through
God's grace, by the humblest Christian, is an infinitely nobler
object of contemplation, than the most brilliant theories, or
the most wonderful generalizations and deductions. Now
a Christian who, to the most enlarged mind and profoundest
wisdom, should superadd the possession, so infinitely more
precious, of a tender and watchful conscience, causes in the
mind of a candid observer, who may happen not to sympathise
with this latter, a peculiar admixture of surprise and con-
tempt with whatever there may be of admiration. Such
a Christian appears, after having proposed to himself the
most exalted and comprehensive designs, to be restrained
by weak and superstitious scruples from measures which
are necessary to follow them out. Or he will neglect their
prosecution at an important moment from the call of duty,
or as it will appear to those not understanding such a call,
from the mere effect of feebleness of mind, and religious
caprice. Or his habitual trust in the aid of Providence, and
anxious dependence on slight intimations of God's pleasure,
will produce an effect, which looks like deficiency in the
power of pursuing a continued and well-planned course of
action. Or even without reference to its bearing on political
exertion, the continual check on the free course of thought
and conversation, caused by habitual watchfulness against sin ;
e. g. against any thing approaching to slander or profaneness ;
appears to ' them that are without' stiff and pusillanimous.
Again, the love and desire of suffering, to which a very
sensitive conscience infallibly leads, the hair-shirt, or self-
inflicted stripes, or long fasts, if they do not appear most
admirable and excellent, appear childish and superstitious.
Or when the worldly-wise observer, reasoning only from

analogy, may expect that some particular line of conduct,
which is expedient, will be thought wrong by such a Chris-
tian, he will find the reverse ; and the reasons given for the
distinction between this and some other line which he did
think wrong, will appear hair-splitting and frivolous in the
very highest degree. It is most important always to bear in
mind, that this last is precisely the appearance presented, by
all attempts to explain the most real and fundamental dis-
tinctions to those, who, from not having cultivated the
appropriate faculties, have not at present the power of ap-
prehending that particular class of truths. To take a very
serious instance: even the more religious men at present
have a tendency to consider the differences, between ortho-
doxy and Arianism or Nestorianism, at all events less vital
and fundamental than they were considered by contemporary
Catholics. To take a more familiar case : a person destitute
of taste for music will consider any attempt to explain, in
methodical language, the toto-coslo difference in kind between
the effect caused on the mind respectively by Beethoven's
and Rossini's music, as over-subtlety, or over- imaginativeness,
or the two united. Just so, any one who has not lived in the
habit of hourly regulating his conduct by a regard to the
rule of right, will be blind to the most essential distinctions
of morality, and will consider the attempt to explain them
sophistry, and the habit of acting on them dishonesty. 1 And
thus it will happen, that the wisest and most sagacious Saint
would be considered by the world at large, if they have not
deep faith in Catholic Christianity, to unite no small degree
of littleness of spirit, nay, of positive moral obliquity, with
his undeniable genius, greatness, and power of mind. Nor
would it be difficult, were it worth while, to draw a similar
picture, in the case where his sphere is that of abstract specu-
lation, not of practical action. And from all this, we see at
once how similar will be the effect produced by the Church
herself ; which, in her united action, may be expected to dis-
play on the whole the same principles and qualities of mind.

1 It must be observed, that I am not denying that dishonest casuistry has existed
within the Church, but am only saying that honest casuistry will certainly to multi-
tudes of men appear dishonest.

273

The other characteristic of true Christianity, to which
attention should be directed in this connection, is, that whereas
rival systems of philosophy have their seat in the fancy or
imagination, the Gospel has its seat in the affections. But,
' in the case of all our deepest emotions, it is the very law of
our nature, that those possessed by them shall appear in the
world's eye to dote on trifles and be childishly intent on
forms; that they shall cherish, with a loving and reverent
regard, every thing which may serve to remind them of,
every thing which has the most distant connection with, the
beloved object.' 1 " Now supposing hypothetically for a
moment (what is the very contrary of the truth), that such
peculiarities and tendencies implied any the slightest weak-
ness of mind, even then we know how great a part of the
interest of life in worldly men, whose minds and affections are
at all elevated above the herd, arises from the indulgence of
such feelings; nor is it obvious e. g., why to kiss fondly
a mother's portrait or lock of hair is more manly, than to
cherish and bear about a crucifix or a fragment of the true
Cross. And the contrast becomes much greater, when we
consider the common herd of irreligious men ; for surely the
taking of pains to secure the comforts of every day life,
the being solicitous about the cooking of our dinner,
the finding it difficult to refrain from unwholesome in-
dulgence in the article of food, the greediness of present
praise or posthumous renown, the powerlessness of com-
manding our temper, in the little minor miseries of life, the
difficulty of bearing sickness cheerfully, and a thousand
similar weaknesses, to which in various measures most of us,
1 suppose, must plead guilty, and to which certainly very
eminent philosophers and mathematicians have been in sub-
jection, but from which saintly men are eminently eman-
cipated, all these are surely, on any possible view of things,
incomparably lower and more contemptible, than even what
some might call a superstitious regard to sacred relics or
images. But then human philosophy, being as I have said

m ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 1 5.

274

unpractical and imaginative, puts aside from our view this
degrading aspect of human nature, it represents its hearers
as the ideal personifications of intellectual power or artistical
grace. Here then we see great cause for the ridiculous
mistakes continually committed by the Protestant or man of
the world, in judging the great luminaries of the Church.
In their case human affections and emotions indefinitely
purified and exalted, and fixed on a Heavenly Object, are
the very vital principle of their conduct. This it is which
gives unity to their life, whether speculative or active ; the
earnest habitual devotion of their whole heart and soul, not
to some abstract principle, but to a Living Person, and for
His sake to those most dear to Him. Those mental habits
then and external practices, to which in the case of worldly
heroes, philosophers shut their eyes, that they may gaze on
what appears to the carnal perception more great, splendid,
and glorious, these cannot be removed fnom public sight in
the Church of Christ ; but are then most prominently dis-
played and most zealously defended, when the most arduous
conflicts are to be waged, or the most noble deeds to be done.
To be ashamed of devotion to the Blessed Saints, or to the
relics of their earthly tabernacles, or to holy images, is to be
ashamed of the Cross of Christ, and to lower the standard of
high and heavenly philosophy before the supercilious, specious,
empty, philosophy of the world. For by so doing, we shrink
from publicly professing the great Christian truth, that ardent
personal love to Christ, whose friends those Saints are, who
has dwelt by the agency of the Holy Ghost within those earthly
tabernacles, and who is Himself represented in those images,
that this ardent personal love for Him is the very centre of
all true philosophy, and, as from an eminence commands all
the powers of our intellect and imagination submissively to
bend before it and do its bidding.

These are I think the principal reasons of the certain fact,
that ' Christ crucified,' as preached by the Church, is in great
measure 'foolishness' to the philosophical world now, as it
was in the first ages of the Gospel ; and that men of high
aspirations and capabilities, if undisciplined and unchastised,

275

will be far more readily attracted by the dazzling brilliancy
of human philosophies, than by the severe and unearthly
grace of the Bride of the Lamb. I have said, as in the first
ages ; but I should rather say incomparably more than in the
first ages ; for, in this as in very many other particulars,
there is even a marked contrast between this and the primi-
tive period on the very matter in hand, on the respective
position of the Church and those that are without : a contrast
which gives much greater force to the argument. Then
human philosophies were effete, unattractive, 'waxen old,'
while the Church came forth as it were unto an unoccupied
arena, promising to 'declare Him whom they ignorantly
worshipped;' but now, while the Church has to bear the
responsibility of all the assailable points in her past history,
which must of necessity have arisen from her long and close
proximity to the world, human systems have come out new
and glittering, and as it were with the gloss on them ; which,
as being the products of the age, have a natural suitableness
and promise of satisfaction at least to the more obvious and
superficial requirements of the age. n And thus it is now, as
I have just said, that the undisciplined and unchastised, should
they be endued with high aspirations and great capabilities,
will be attracted by the 'shams' rather than by the reality;
and for the very same reason those who are duly disciplined
and chastised will cling to the reality, and despise the 'sham.'
Those in whom powerful intellect, brilliant genius, active
imagination, lord it over the other faculties, will suffer the
penalty of their misconduct by following the ignis fatuus
which lures them from their true rest and peace ; but those
others who, whether by the right use of outward sorrow, or
the right application of inward discipline, have a sensitive
conscience, and a tender heart, will be irresistibly attracted
by such very characteristics as those I lately named, which

n Of course a very far more important point of contrast is afforded, in the high
and admirable religious attainments of great numbers among the Protestants ;
a fact forming so marked an opposition to any thing witnessed in the heathen world,
during the early conflicts of the Church. This consideration I omit in the text,
merely as not bearing on the subject I am now upon.

T 2

276

promise support and satisfaction to the conscience, and con-
solation to the heart.

But the intellectual and philosophical results, which flow
from a denial of the supremacy of conscience, must be pressed
still further ; and that alas ! not only to shew theoretically
in what direction we may be unawares going, but to shew by
living examples how far we have already gone. Now, first,
a denial of the supremacy of conscience is a denial of its
existence ; if conscience really exist, and speak with an arti-
culate voice, then in all moral and religious subjects it must
be absolutely paramount and dictatorial ; the intellect must
confine itself to the humbler, yet most honourable, office of
classifying and connecting phenomena, that they may be fairly
submitted to it ; and again of rightly interpreting its dictates,
and scientifically analyzing and expressing them. This is
evident at once : for conscience is the only guide which
even professes to give us knowledge on the invisible world,
or on the eternal laws of right and wrong ; it must be there-
fore either a delusion, or authoritative and without appeal.
This is so very obvious, that no one has ever denied it ; all
without exception who professedly deny its authority in any
particular on which it speaks, deny the very fact that it does
speak, and attribute the phenomena in question to other
causes, such as excited feelings or delusive imagination.
Now I wish to put forward plainly and in the face of day
this further truth, which is equally evident ; if conscience
does not speak, ^ve can neither apprehend the idea, nor have
any ground for believing the existence, of God Himself.
A very few words will suffice to shew this. The idea of
God has no archetype, either in the visible course of things
whereof our senses give us experience, nor yet in the a priori
field of space and time whereof alone the intellect is ex-
clusively cognizant : we can neither derive the idea then
from our intellect, nor from our senses, nor from any faculty
which does not possess the power of putting us into com-
munication with realities and essences : in other words, only

See this explained at greater length ' On Mill's Logic.' pp. 400 402, 407, 8.

277

from our conscience ; for no other faculty even professes this
power. It is accordingly acknowledged, I believe, by all
philosophers at the present day with one voice, that the
consideration of final causes is most edifying indeed to the
religious believer, and most useful as a support to languishing
faith, by exhibiting as it were a visible pledge of God's power
and attributes ; but that, as a sufficient basis for Theism,
it is absolutely and completely worthless. This is very im-
portant ; for vast multitudes are fruitlessly endeavouring to
occupy some middle position, between granting all to con-
science and denying all ; yet is it so very plain, that, not-
withstanding its great importance, I can find no words to
make it plainer. Let me then repeat what I have said.
If conscience be not on all moral and religious subjects
paramount, then it does not really exist ; if it do not exist,
we have no reason whatever, nay, no power whatever, to
believe in God.

This, I have already said, is no mere theory. I was
obliged, in writing an article on Mr. Mill's Logic, to express
a most serious doubt whether he could fairly be considered,
from his system, to possess religious belief of any kind : and
I certainly am not aware of any living English intellectual
speculator, in a non-theological line, who appears to me at
all Mr. Mill's equal in power and acquirements. Since I
wrote that review, I have read great part of a work, which
Mr. Mill cites with the warmest approbation, and without one
word of qualification as to its religious tenets. I allude to
M. Comte's * Cours de Philosophic Positive.' Here is to
be found a series of plain, direct, and even earnest disavowals
of Theism in all possible shapes, and the expression of a con-
fident expectation, that in a few centuries hence the very
existence of any religious belief will be only known as a
matter of history. Moreover, the very argument on which
M. Comte grounds his Atheism, is the one of which I have
been speaking ; the circumstance, that (as he considers) we
have no such faculty as a conscience. 11 I hardly think that

P I was told in the shop of a foreign bookseller in London that this work enjoys a
considerable sale in this country.

278

under any circumstances, such views as these can ever obtain
extensive reception ; naturam expellas,' &c., and even M.
Cointe, very much more Mr. Mill, shew plain marks that at
last conscience is more than a match for them. But though
firm and undoubting disbelief in the power of knowing
God's existence may be always rare, I fear that a very
extensive subversion of firm and undoubting belief in Him,
that belief which alone can enable man for a continuance to
resist the evil tendencies and temptations which assail him,
this I fear is very far from improbable : indeed it seems to me
the precise issue and consummation, to which the course of
speculation (judging from what one hears of it) in the Euro-
pean world is fast tending. For many years among our-
selves (who are most creditably backward in the race) phy-
sical science has been cultivated, on principles absolutely
inconsistent with belief in the efficacy of such prayers as we
have, for ' rain ' or for ' fair weather ;' and multitudes even of
clergymen have pursued scientific studies on these principles.
To the best of my belief, not one of them has ever seemed so
far to realise the doctrine of intercessory prayer and Provi-
dential interference, as even to observe this discrepancy ;
much less has any of them attempted to solve the difficulty.
In many quarters the task is in progress (I think very health-
fully in itself) of extending the principles of physical science
to psychological and political ; and Mr. Mill's Logic is a very
interesting repertory of facts illustrating this statement. Even
so admirable and high-minded a periodical as ' the Christian
Remembrancer ' contained an article on Mr. Mill's work in
the October number, the writer of which seemed to have no
suspicion of the Atheistical taint with which the work is
infected. In my article on the subject, I have endeavoured
to shew the perfect consistency between the free progress of
experimental science, and complete disbelief in that ' fatal '
course of physical nature, which had hitherto been assumed
as its fundamental tenet. But the authority whence the
principles were derived which, I really believe, establish
this most conclusively and satisfactorily, was no ' scientific '
clergyman, no writer of Bridgewater treatises, but an old

279

article of Mr. Newman's on " Milman's History of Chris-
tianity." Seeing then that even in the most unsuspected
quarters this atheistical leaven has made (of course wholly
unknown to themselves) such alarming encroachments, what
have we not to fear from the continued progress of human
thought, if we do not obtain grace from God to abandon
our proud rationalism, and restore His Voice within us to
that place of honour and supremacy, from which almost all
parties just now seem madly conspiring still further to
dethrone it ?

Such then is the course which speculation seems certain to
take among us, unless we be wise in season, and precipitately
retrace our steps. We find that even those whom so many
of us are disposed more or less to trust as our guides in
moral inquiries, the profound philosophers of this world,
will be at last but ' blind leaders of the blind,' and lead us
with continually accelerated progress towards ' the ditch.'
Moral and religious truth must be acquired by moral and
religious discipline ; we must stoop to enter by that ' narrow
way,' if we desire ever to wing a sustained and lofty flight
in the atmosphere of pure and invigorating philosophy.

8. But now when we are pressed overwhelmingly with this
preliminary difficulty, where are we to learn this inward dis-
cipline of which I speak, and in what school to practise and
foster it ? Conscience is in the main a critical not an active
faculty ; it must be cherished and supported by continued
help and motives from without, or else, almost before it be
called into conscious existence, the various evil passions and
propensities of our nature will have hurried on the whole
man, into a sinful course which will blind conscience. There
must of necessity then be for all of us some constant and
uniform external guidance from the first ; or ' the light that
is in us will be darkness,' and we shall be left to grope our
way at random. And the considerations we have been lately
pursuing, shew us that the same is the case even with those
possessed of the highest intellectual gifts. We have found
that these have no real advantage over more ordinary Chris-
tians in their means of discerning the Divine Will : there is

280

no royal road opened to the wisdom of this world ; not ' one
law for the rich and another for the poor ;' the temptations
to a false judgment are different in the two cases, but are
equally real temptations. Conscience alone can guide us
aright; and by following our intellect instead of our con-
science, we shall be led even more fearfully and widely astray,
than by acquiescing in the more humble but not more sinful
suggestions of indolence and self-interest. In what school
then, and under what instructors, are we, all of us, rich and
poor, educated and uneducated, intellectually deep and in-
tellectually shallow, to learn that degree of moral discern-
ment and self-mastery, which may enable us to see aright
what further step it may be God's pleasure that we take ?

Blessed indeed with unusual blessedness are those who,
in whatever age and country, have been placed from the
first by God's Providence within a pure and orthodox
Church, and have been led by His grace to cooperate faith-
fully with her teaching. These go on day by day purifying
their hearts more diligently by the methods wherein she has
trained them, appropriating more deeply and entirely the
doctrine she has taught them, and exercising more joyfully
and exultingly the habits of mind, acquired by these funda-
mental duties, in the exercises of private or public devotion, of
secret meditation or Solemn ceremonial, which she places before
them. And then as time goes on, and their various tendencies
and capabilities are manifested, they will find one by one the
fullest provision for their requirements in her Divine System.

Are they, for instance, endued with high and piercing in-
tellectual power ? They apply themselves to the deep study
and further development of that wonder in the world's
history, the edifice of dogmatic theology which the Church
has reared, and which all, who have given their minds to it,
with one voice proclaim, to be an intellectual prodigy, as ab-
solutely singular, as absolutely beyond all possible comparison
with the achievements of human philosophy, as heaven is
above earth, or the wisdom of God above the theories of
man. Thejintellect is then only the best of its kind, when it
rightly understands its place ; and that it should consider

281

itself as a supreme arbiter in moral and religious questions,
implies a deficiency which must unfit it for the due perform-
ance of its own functions. An intellect which oversteps its
fit province, shews itself, by that very circumstance, to be
a shallow intellect ; but placed where God would have it
placed, in humble and abject submission to the conscience,
then at length it is able to develope its wonderful powers,
and rise to those lofty heights which might have been thought
wholly beyond its range. q This then is the central position,
from which Catholic students of philosophy will view the
current theories of the day ; and the assumption of which
will enable them to impart valuable and even necessary acces-
sions to the fabric itself, from the truths accidentally dis-
covered or illustrated in those theories. Such is the legiti-
mate and most satisfactory scope for those high and rare
powers of mind, which God has granted to some, and which
so often, by being allowed to conflict with our higher
nature instead of bending before it, become a snare or
burden, rather than a blessing, to those possessed of them.

Others again, instead of this, are endued with a brilliant
fancy or warm imagination ; and these are allowed ample satis-
faction in all the aesthetical and poetical side of the Church's
ordinances. Those who are rather called to a life of practical
exertion, may kad the life of missionaries or of parish priests
almost like missionaries, by help of the admirable training
the Church has given them for that purpose, and the ad-
mirable machinery with which she puts them into connection.
Others, who are led rather to deep spiritual contemplation,
will find a sphere of mental exercise most appropriate to
their disposition, by sounding the depths of the Church's
ascetic and mystical theology, and becoming fit guides in the
spiritual life to the higher and purer souls who may desire
their help. Others, from continued sickness or sorrow, will

i The pure intellect really exhibits to the full its astonishing capabilities, I think,
only on two subjects : pure mathematics, which are its creation, and in which it
legitimately claims absolute supremacy ; and dogmatic theology, in which it submits
contentedly to the only position allowed it on the field of morals and religion, the
humble and dutiful subserviency to the spiritual nature.

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come to the Church rather for comfort than for means of
usefulness ; and will obtain what they seek. The multitude
of men again, who are immersed in secular business, will
desire from the Church, not a new calling, but continued
direction and edification in their calling; and these will
receive at her hands, through her various instruments, such
deep and holy lessons as their necessities require. But all
without exception, in proportion as they have submitted
themselves with faithful and true hearts to the lessons they
learn, from whatever side they view the great fabric in con-
nection with which God has placed them, (speaking only of
secondary causes, and without allusion to the great Gift
which gives such causes a supernatural effect,) obtain, both
from personal experience and from the mysterious sympathy
which exists with others like-minded, a conviction of the
divine and unearthly character of this ' pillar and ground of
truth,' of its claims on their hearty allegiance and unques-
tioning belief, far deeper and more intimate than any other
conviction of which our nature is susceptible/

But, alas ! speaking generally, for us English the practical
question is, not how those who have learned the pure Gospel
from their childhood acquire a conviction, which may rather
be called even knowledge, that their Church is a trustworthy
and heavenly guide, but how those who have been placed
under systems in various degrees imperfect or erroneous,
may learn to better their doctrine or even their position.
Now surely, if we would only discard theories and look at
facts as they really stand, we should have no real difficulty

at all in answering this question. The conscience, it appears,
\

r ' If any one should suppose the idea itself of unquestioning submission to
authority, in its appointed sphere, unworthy of a rational being, let him fancy
the imaginary case of a son blessed with an infallible father. With what a
confiding and enthusiastic tenderness he would regard him ! Yet how hopelessly
would he attempt to recall to his mind all those incidents, in every hour of every
day for so many years, which, taken together, justify such confidence ! how confused
would he be if questioned on the subject ! how enraged, or rather astounded, shocked,
and bewildered, if seriously advised, nay, clamorously called upon, to investigate his
father's claims on his deference, with an impartial and critical eye !' 'On Mill's
Logic,' p. 393.

283

may be called into active exercise from a very early period ;
cannot however be so called forth or fostered without a
present and active external guide ; and cannot choose for
itself, with any prospect of success, one guide rather than
another, until it has arrived to a very considerable growth
and maturity. Where can our eyes be, if we do not at once
see the fact, so signally and conspicuously placed over
against this fact, in God's dealings with the world ? Why is
the child to seek, what God has placed immediately in
contact with him ? Is not the sacred and mysterious parental
tie the holiest of all God's natural ordinances ? are not a
child's parents, according to the arrangements of Providence,
addressed by almost every imaginable motive, which can
lead them to guide him aright, at least during his earliest
years, in matters of principal importance ? and have not
children themselves, as the mysterious correlative to this
last circumstance, a deeply implanted tendency to accept
with the most implicit and unsuspicious confidence all that
their parents place before their minds ? And when we have
these plain facts before us, what madness to theorize about
Apostolical Succession, or Visible Unity, or independent
study of Scripture, and to call on the young, who have
hardly, or not yet, left the tutelage of their parents, to tear
up by the roots their most sacred prepossessions, and enter
forsooth on the solemn mockery, of a free and candid inquiry
into the religious doctrines they have learned ?

Far different is the divinely appointed method of acquiring
new religious truth. ' How early a course of probation
begins with children, need not be said ; nor what decisive
influence their deportment under that probation has on their
future fortune. The word of their parents, from the very
first, supplies to them the place of the external voice of God,
correlative and responsive to His voice within them. In
proportion to their confiding trust and ready eager obedience,
does that inward faculty give a deeper and fuller meaning to
the lessons of truth which they so acquire ; while that which is
false in statement or even in principle, as meeting with no
kindred atmosphere, like the notes of a musical instrument

284

in a space exhausted of air, convey no definite meaning to
the conscience. Such are God's ordinary dealings with
children ; nor is this process interrupted, when the parent
commits them to a school-system, or trusted friend, or
ultimately to some religious community; they repose their
confidence in this new object of regard with the same
implicit, unreserved, submission as before. How long this
simple, peaceful, heavenly, course of action will proceed,
varies of course indefinitely with all varieties of external
statement or inward endowments ; but whenever it ends, it
has left the pupil in certain and unalienable possession of an
invaluable stock of moral principles, of whose truth his
conviction is most certain and secure, and which will be in
time to come his main stay and support, in temptations from
without, in perplexities from within.' s

Whether we should endeavour spontaneously to shake the
confidence of a person, so situated, in his first instructors,
depends on the doctrines they profess. Should their teaching
express in words, more or less directly, Lutheranism or vir-
tual Antinomianism, as is the case, I suppose, with very
many dissenters, and certainly with a great number of ' Evan-
gelicals ' in our own Church; then doubtless, when the time
of full intelligence has arrived, we should appeal to the
Christian's conscience and higher feelings, either by w r ords
or by bringing before him a better system, and do our utmost
in drawing his attention to the utter incompatibility which
exists, between the doctrines he hears and the first principles
of morality. Nay, even before the period of full intelligence,
should he be seriously dispirited and perplexed by the strange,
unreal, anti-moral, language held by his instructors, we should
do well in relieving him, as far as possible, from his anxiety,
by imparting to him a knowledge of the pure Gospel ; though
we should earnestly endeavour so to guard all we say, as to
involve the least possible reflection on those, whom it is so
highly his duty to reverence. In other cases, we should
rather fix his mind on the truest and highest parts of his cx-

5 'OnGoode,'pp. 39, 40.

285

isting system ; not concealing perhaps from his knowledge
those further truths towards which we hope to attract him,
but at the same time earnestly impressing upon him the
maxim, that it would be even sinful in him to leap forward,
as it were, to reach them, before his conscience should be
fully ripe for their reception. Above all, we should, with
our whole heart and soul, urge upon him the continued
practice of such duties, as daily self-examination, habitual
watchfulness of conscience, frequent prayer ; for these are
the only safeguards he can possess, against liability to the
most outrageous and extravagant delusions. The greater
stress he lays on these duties, the deeper sense he acquires of
the sinfulness of sin and the craft and constant hostility of
his great spiritual enemy, the more zealous and earnest will
he be in pressing forward towards a new range of doctrine,
which may promise him increased help and support against
their assaults. It will frequently happen, that he will sud-
denly observe himself to have reached, by such means as
these, a series of truths, the very contradictories of which he
had otiosely held in times past : here is a most unexception-
able mode of abandoning early prepossessions. Or if he be
intellectually gifted, he may discern that the doctrines, wit-
nessed to him by his conscience, are theoretically inconsistent
with some of his traditionary opinions, to which his conscience
bears no witness : here also he will obviously please God by
giving up those traditionary opinions.

But what shall we say of other opinions he has imbibed in
a similar manner, and which have therefore the sacredness of
early association : which however conscience does not witness
on one side, nor yet does either conscience or intellectual in-
ference from conscience contradict on the other ? As a strong
illustration of what I mean, I may instance the sacredness
he may have learned to attach to the ministers or ordinances
of his religious community. Most certainly it may be his
bounden duty to abandon such opinions ; but as certainly
the ' onus probandi' lies signally and emphatically with those
who call on him to do so. He has learned these opinions from

286

God Himself, for they were part of that very system to which
God consigned him for early instruction ; nothing then short
of the most urgent and irresistible proofs, will justify him in
resigning them. This is a question of the deepest practical
importance at the present time, as is very plain ; and I hope
in a future chapter to consider it with greater particularity.
Here I will only add, that it has often struck me, as one
conceivable reason for that inscrutable dispensation of Pro-
vidence, whereby the English Church is placed in her present
most anomalous condition, gifted with the power of dis-
pensing sacramental grace, and yet wholly destitute of ex-
ternal notes, and wholly indefensible, as to her position, by
external, historical, ecclesiastical, arguments ; d one purpose,
I say, designed by this may be, that the whole Church
may have her mind attracted to those all-important truths, to
which I drew so particular attention in the second chapter, and
which there seemed great danger of many among her members
forgetting ; the absolute supremacy of conscience ; and the
high sacredness of hereditary religion. This latter most im-
portant principle is one of the two great conservative elements
in our moral nature ; the other being (what I have spoken of
* usque ad nauseam,' and only wish that I practised it as con-
stantly as I mention it) the laborious realisation of the doctrines
we profess, the careful and habitual practice of watchfulness,
self-examination, prayer : while the impulsive element arises
indeed from the last-named conservative element; and is
that tendency, whereby the spiritual mind, in proportion to

d In saying this, I am hardly saying more than Mr. Newman in his last volume,
who says, that the outward notes of our Church are ' partly gone and partly
going.' (p. 378.) The existence of those inward notes which he mentions, I most
undoubtingly believe ; the only point on which I cannot follow his teaching on
the subject (waiving perhaps one or two difficulties, which are mainly ques-
tions of words, and if the very mention of difference from him be not unpar-
donable presumption, as I humbly trust it is not) is this ; that putting aside the
outward mark which consists in the visible fruits of the Holy Ghost in others,
(a mark indeed by far the strongest in kind of all external marks,) I am wholly
unable to discern the outward notes of which he speaks, during any part of the last
three hundred years.

287

its enlightenment, presses eagerly forward in every direction
in search of fuller satisfaction, and day by day, even uncon-
sciously, develops its existing creed into fresh results, derives
more of admirable and sublime truths from Scripture, and
assimilates to itself and inwardly appropriates fresh nutriment
from every object which meets its view. The eagerness with
which this is done, is simply an excellence under the head of
a theological virtue ; being quickness of faith : nor is it pos-
sible for the mind to be too actively and unceasingly devoted
to the task, so long as it is steadied and directed by those two
conservative elements of which I have spoken.

Reverting now to the observations a few pages back, on
the inevitable consequence which would result in regard to
the more intellectual, ardent, and imaginative minds, from
that most sinful course, an unbiassed and independent search
for moral, philosophical, or religious truth ; let me again
entreat for what I have said, the careful consideration of
those, who disparage, in one way or other, the sacredness of
individual conscience, and substitute, as our guide to Christian
knowledge, criticism from without in the place of develop-
ment from within. It matters not whether they do so in the
shape of inculcating a free examination of the text of Scrip-
ture, or of the writers reputed orthodox during the early
centuries, or. of the various external notes of truth which
different bodies at this time may present. These different
applications of the principle are the symbols, as is well
known, of very different theologies : but the principle, the
most sinful principle, is common to them all. See then, I
beseech you, in what your exhortations will issue. They
will not effect the more ordinary and acquiescent minds :
these, except for strong external impulse, will always remain
contented with their existing position. Nor yet will they
affect the most spiritual and heavenly-minded Christians, who
may be ill furnished with intellectual gifts : for their mind is
wholly insensible to the force of any argument on the opposite
side, though they often fancy themselves to be influenced by
reasoning on their own side ; the real truth being, that, though
they learn parrot-like to repeat reasoning on their own side,

288

their conviction does not depend 011 argument at all, but on
far higher, more legitimate, and more satisfactory grounds.
As regards either of these two classes, your exhortations will
pass over their heads as ' idle wind,' neither controverted, nor
yet regarded, nor even understood. Others, more weak and
unstable in faith, and possessed of sufficient intellectual power
to understand a difficulty, without sufficient power to devise
its solution ; such men as these you may, in very great
numbers, frighten, perplex, and discourage, so far as to
render them faint-hearted and cowardly in their Christian
course, and distrustful of their ability ever to discern religious
truth : to that extent you will succeed in shaking them, and
no further ; and a truly honourable victory you will obtain.
But it is those of whom I was speaking a few pages back,
and whose course of opinion will be incalculably influential
on the fortunes of our Church, it is these and these only,
that you will really persuade into adopting the course you
recommend ; these will understand your meaning much better
than you do yourselves, and have already only too much of
evil inclination corresponding to your evil words. These men
you will succeed in moving ; and in what direction ? not
towards Catholicism, nor towards ' Anglo-Catholicism,' nor
towards ' Evangelicalism/ nor towards moderate ' Church-of-
Englandism :' but towards infidelity. That a nominal recep-
tion of Scripture itself is no security whatever against this,
was always evident enough from abstract reasoning; but
German examples have proclaimed the truth, beyond all pos-
sibility of doubt or mistake.

You above all, O Roman Catholics in England, what
madness urges you to a course, so contrary to your
own principles, so fatal to your own claims ? Members you
are of that Church, which, by special Divine Gift, is so
spiritually and mysteriously ordered, that the course of
submissive and dutiful loyalty to any existing system leads
forward humble Christians, in proportion, on the one hand,
to the devotedness of their spiritual exertions, and on the
other hand to their opportunity of removing misconception,
of recognising their own doctrines, and of knowing yours,

289

leads them forward, I say, in that proportion to love and
reverence for that Church. And what madness then urges
you to check their course in that very path, which is leading
them in your direction, and to impel them, of purpose
aforethought, into the highway of free inquiry and specula-
tion, where they will find other philosophies far more daz-
zling and attractive to their, as yet carnal, sight than your
own ? I am not speaking of your wish to include imme-
diately within your fold those whom in doctrine you consider
already ripe for admittance ; nor even of appealing to those
who are less advanced in opinion, still on the ground of
their sympathy with your religious system, your faith, your
sanctity : as regards these indeed I humbly but firmly ex-
press my utter dissent and bitter sorrow at many of your
usual methods of procedure ; but still I see much naturally
to be urged in your defence. I am speaking of a habit far
more obviously indefensible ; that habit whereby you sum-
mon inquirers indiscriminately, without regarding in any
way their moral preparation of heart, to a sifting investiga-
tion on the first principles of their belief ; whereby you en-
deavour, whether in print or in personal addresses, to shake
their confidence in all the doctrines and principles which
they most certainly hold, and exhort them at once to
abandon, on recognising its lack of argumentative basis,
the system they have learned to revere. That attempts
so utterly contradictory to the dispensation of nature have
hitherto met little success, I gladly acknowledge : but were
you to succeed in your baleful endeavours to unsettle
and disturb, what would follow ? For one hundred whom
you might render dissatisfied with their existing position,
I doubt if there is so much as one whom you would attract
and retain in your own Church : all classes of the commu-
nity would have cause to sorrow for your success, but none
such bitter cause as yourselves. What ! is it by means of
free inquiry that the very sympathy and reverence for
yourselves has been created within our Church, of which you
think thus to take advantage ? was it by free inquiry that
Mr. Froude was led first boldly to sound the note of love

290

and honour to Rome ? nay, was it by free inquiry that any
one of your more distinguished converts was led the first
ninety -nine of the hundred steps which placed him among
you ? You know very well how far this is from the fact ;
and be sure of this, as of a first principle, that free inquiry
may perform, and that in a very short time, the office of
making a religious people sceptical (for that, witness the Re-
formation) ; but it must be a very opposite method which
will bring them back, or give you any hope of completing
your benevolent and religious desires for our highest welfare.

9. This whole question will come before us again, and with
greater detail, in a future chapter; when I hope to shew
more at length the intellectual emptiness of this proud and
carnal philosophy : enough at all events has been said here
(and it is the purpose for which it has been introduced) to
shew the extreme importance of the subject. Such then
being the fearful mischief with which the rationalistic view is
pregnant, it bears closely on our purpose to observe, that it
never could have existed in our Church with any degree of
plausibility, but for the extensive and blighting influence of
Lutheran doctrine ; a doctrine which in its abstract profession
wholly repudiates, and in its practical effect so fatally dis-
parages, the most primary and fundamental truths of natural
religion. Had such duties as those to which I have so
repeatedly referred, watchfulness of conscience, self-examin-
ation, and the like, been enforced among us in a degree
bearing even any ascertainable proportion to their indis-
pensable necessity, the clearness and articulateness with
which conscience pronounces its dictates, and the deep unity
which really exists on moral and religious matters among all
who make holy obedience their first, their one, care, this fact
would have forced itself on the notice of many even uncandid
inquirers. At the same time ordinary Christians would have
learned to see more and more into the depth and unearthliness
of the saintly character ; and thus the religious experience of
eminently holy men would have been generally admitted, as
the appointed corrective and guide to the individual conscience.

Now how full of hopefulness is this whole view of the matter,

291

in respect to that object, which must be so very near to the
heart of all who love their Lord with any life and sincerity,
the ultimate reunion of all faithful Christians ; and the
consequent reedification of the Church in all its characteristic
glory, as the rallying point of all that is high and holy :
whereby the forces of good might be concentrated in
action against their common enemies, instead of being
weakened and exhausted by their intestine divisions, and
thus affording an easy triumph to the powers of the world !
Oh ! to whom would not the labour of a life appear but
dust in the balance,' if it were permitted before death to see
even a distant prospect of so glorious a consummation ? And
how deeply interesting then is the present discussion, if the
views here maintained be indeed well-founded ! For surely
there is no religious community in the land, among whose
members we might not be able to circulate (in writing or
otherwise) such appeals to their conscience as these ; appeals
which should make it a point of careful solicitude to avoid
all allusion to such matters of infinitely minor importance, as
external ritual or other outward forms; nay, which might
put aside matters, in themselves so vital and essential even
as sacramental grace, but which belong to a later period
in the religious course, and will be eagerly accepted, nay
sought for, by those who begin in the humble path of
obedience and self-denial ; appeals which should lay their
whole stress in enforcing on the conscience of all, those great
duties, to which the conscience of all would most surely,
sooner or later, be found to respond. I am not meaning, of
course, that such appeals should be confined to barren and
general exhortations, which would be next to useless. But
every thing surely might be hoped from more definite and
practical addresses ; as, e. g. the description, in its various
details, of the real Christian character ; of the humility, non-
censoriousness, charitableness, contentment, cheerfulness,
zealous labour in our worldly calling, humiliation for past
sin, and the rest, which are its characteristic features : again,
from the suggestion of definite practical rules, minute, accu-
rate, details and helps for the real and earnest performance, day

292

by day, of such duties as the following, and the performance
of them as being duties : careful self-examination, regular
and well-performed prayer, earnest and habitual meditation.

But if there would appear so much ground for hope even
in dissenting communities among us, how much more in that
Church where God's mercy has placed us, and where the
Prayer-book itself affords such powerful cooperation in mould-
ing the youthful mind on an anti-Lutheran model. It will be
my anxious endeavour, then, in the two following chapters,
and on a subject so painfully serious and important I earnestly
wish and pray for God's guidance to my endeavour, to
express at least in some very inadequate degree, 1st, the
extreme, the almost incredible corruption of our actual
system in such particulars ; and 2dly, the kind of practical
remedies which promise most hopefully for a gradual resto-
ration. But in addressing members of our own Church, to
God be the praise, this need not be all. A Church which,
even in the dark times that have succeeded the Great Sin of
the 16th century, has borne, in some limited measure, so
constant a witness to many great Catholic truths, affords
common-ground in several other matters, besides this great
foundation of all. I trust I may be able to shew English
' high-churchmen,' on how very wide a field, without going
one jot or tittle beyond their existing principles, they may be
able fully to cooperate with many, whom they now regard
with distrust and uneasiness ; and how willingly these last
would reciprocate any confidence that might be reposed in
them, by most strictly confining their practical exertions to
the same objects. A further point then will be, to shew how
miserably imperfect is the witness borne by our present
system to doctrines, which all ( high-churchmen ' agree in
considering paramount and essential ; I mean even such as
our Blessed Lord's Divinity itself. And from this, the subject
will naturally lead to such other particulars mentioned in
my second chapter, as cannot be considered, by any possibility,
to tend, even distantly, towards the transgression of what are
sometimes called * the distinctive principles ' of the English
Church. How far, should we ever succeed in carrying out

293

even to a limited degree, the wow-distinctive principles of
the English Church, (those I mean which ' high-churchmen '
hold in common with the whole Catholic world,) the said
' distinctive ' principles will be found to possess any solid
existence whatever; this is a question, on which I have
my own very definite opinion, but which I would most gladly
leave to be determined by the event.

And I beg in all sincerity and humility to repeat what I
said some way back. When I feel called on to use strong
language about the corruption of our own Church, or the
sinfulness of the Reformation, or similar matters, I really
am not at all conscious of being influenced either by
desire of eccentricity, or by a spirit of undutifulness. The
words I use do not even fully express the convictions that
are among the very deepest I feel. And I use them,
that I may, at fit time and place, bear my witness against
those opinions on the subject of English purity and Roman
corruption, which seem to me not only not innocent and
amiable mistakes, but among the greatest snares and tempta-
tions which lie in our path. Nay, even if any one is perfectly
convinced that he will always differ from me in his view of
such matters, I beg at least that he will prefer doing so after
consideration of what I have to urge, rather than without that
consideration.

10. I must not however conclude the present chapter, how-
ever disproportionate the length to which it has swollen,
without taking a parting view of the Lutheran doctrine. 2 We

1 In doing so, I am inclined to notice distinctly an objection to the preceding
denunciation of this doctrine, which on the surface has an ingenious appearance.
It is asked, can any one say that the average of Evangelicals is conspicuously
inferior in Christian excellence to the average of Roman Catholics ? And if not,
how misplaced all these severe attacks ! A moment's consideration shews the
fallacy. No one, I suppose, adopts ' Evangelical ' opinions, who does not profess
religion to be his chief concern ; nay, who does not consider himself quite cer-
tainly in God's favour. The only fair comparison then is, not with the mass of
worldly Roman Catholics, but with those of them who are in a similar category :
of those, that is, who are regular at Confession and Communion. Take the com-
parison in this, the only fair way, and most striking is the contrast. If we com-
pare the average specimens, multitudes of the ' Evangelicals,' from the fearful
amount of their ' self- deceit,' are in most imminent danger of eternal ruin : and

294

have just concluded our consideration of that its fundamental
extravagance, whereby it considers the Gospel to be in some
sense the reversal, and not merely the complement, of the
Natural Law. Another parallel error is, that it considers
grace in some sense the reversal, and not simply the com-
plement, of nature. The utter mistake of such a view is at
once obvious. What !

" Does then the Christian, in proportion as he is imhued with
the spirit of the Gospel, lose his appreciation of music or of natural
beauty ? does the ' monitus locorum et temporum' no longer appeal
to his affections ? does he find himself endued with some sudden
and intuitive perception of religious truth, without graduation of
progress, without medium of communication ? On such a point the
appeal is to fad,, not to reasoning ; and will any one say that the
picture we lately attempted to draw, is not true, as far as it goes, of
Christians in particular, not less than of men in general ? Those
theoretical dreamers, who speak as though they fancied that the
Christian religion revolutionizes (if we may so speak) man's moral
nature, shew the utter baselessness and unreality of their language,
exactly as often as they are compelled to confront facts. This is
one, out of the many reasons which may be given, for the signal
failure of any attempt to form a theology on ' evangelical' prin-
ciples. Certain persons have devised a theory, that under the
Gospel, whether from the nature of its spiritual influence, or (as
they more commonly represent it) of the truths which it discloses,
gratitude for mercy received is a sufficient foundation, whereon a
life of consistent holiness may be reared. And what is the result ?
This, that they cannot give one single practical rule, no not one,
for the exercise or improvement of any virtue, without plainly
abandoning their fundamental principle. No I Christianity makes
no profession of performing on any one, who may have a taste for
the experiment, an immediate, sensible, radical transformation, as
though by some magical enchantment ; ' the Kingdom of God
cometh not with observation,' whether to the individual or to the
world The natural man forms habits of virtue by single

if we compare the best specimens, on the one side we have the Saints of the
Church, on the other side a body of men who, however excellent, possess not, to
speak generally, (from what I know of their recorded lives I should incline to con-
sider the exceptions extremely few,) so much as the first rudiments of the full
Christian character.

295

acts of obedience and self-denial, looking to God for help, and with
his thoughts fixed on heavenly truths ; so also does the Christian :
but, beyond any comparison, the spiritual influence which acts on
his soul is more mighty and ' instrengthening,' a and the heavenly
truths, on which his faith is supported, more awful and trans-
porting." b

But it will be here very pertinently and justly asked, if
nature be not changed by grace, what force can be given
to such very primary and important passages of Scripture, as
those which speak of the ' new creation/ ' all things be-
coming new,' our being ' born again ' ? nay, is not the very
phrase ' change of nature ' adopted by both parties in modern
controversy ? The reply to this, includes in it a reply to the
remaining one of those two fundamental questions at issue,
which I mentioned towards the beginning of this chapter; and
this reply though I have been compelled in several places
already to forestal it, it may be better to repeat once for all.
Since the Day of Pentecost, our justification has consisted, not
in the mere forgiveness of sins, (which indeed is all that the
word itself means in Scripture, ) but in the presence of the
Holy Ghost himself within us. He does not supersede
our natural faculties, but the very contrary : He elevates,
invigorates, quickens, and informs them, making them in a
very true sense His own organs and ministers ; d He develops
their hitherto latent capabilities, and moulds them into forms,
which, but for His Presence, would be unsustainable. That
the result of this His wonderful working is a most sufficient
fulfilment of these texts, the Protestant himself bears a most
unsuspicious witness. For when he reads of mortified hermits,
or missionary monks, or holy ascetics ; their enthusiastic hu-
mility and self-abnegation ; their love of suffering, contempt,
privation, celibacy ; their deep-seated love of orthodoxy, as

a Dr. Pusey's translation of i^vvx^autiri in one of his sermons.

b ' Church and Synagogue,' pp. 11, 12.

c See Newman on Justification, chap. 3.

d See an expression, parallel to this, defended and shewn to be consistent with
the fullest and most entire recognition of the freedom of the will, in Suarez de
Gratia, lib. vi. chap. 5, 6, 7.

296

some most dear personal possession, and repugnance for
heresy, as for some distasteful and deadly poison ; their life
of unwearied labour, devotedness, prayer, and their joyous-
ness in that life ; their most tender and unspeakable love of
the brethren, as witnessed in the incredible pains they will
take to turn only one sinner from the error of his ways ; their
love above all things, and in all things, of their Saviour,
insomuch that the thought of Him is the one great vision
whereon they support life, and the moment in each day of
receiving Him in the Eucharist is felt as the most sufficient,
nay, superabundant, refreshment for all their toils and sor-
rows; when the Protestant reads or hears of all this, he
half-pities and half-despises them, and calls their life * un-
natural.' ' Unnatural ' is the misbeliever's way of expressing
the idea ' supernatural. 1

11. It may be as well to mention, in order to prevent mis-
conception, that in speaking of the Catholic doctrine, in the
particular of pride and 'self-righteousness,' I rest not merely
on the formal decrees of the Council of Trent, but also on all
the devotional works that have repute and celebrity in the
Roman Church, and on the universal sentiments of all Saints,
whether in early or later ages. I mention this, because I
am not prepared to deny that in one or two dogmatic treatises
there may be expressions on the subject of merit, which are
more or less painful to the ear ; expressions which probably
have their origin in the circumstance, that the writers did not
see at the moment the precisely fitting and sufficient answer, to
those Lutheran blasphemies which they were called on to op-
pose. One or two quotations had perhaps better follow here,
from works which enjoy the very highest authority; but
must be taken merely as specimens of an innumerable multi-
tude.

The first is from Rodriguez on ' Spiritual Perfection.' The
author is a Jesuit, and the work is generally considered, I
believe, the best practical ascetic work in the Church.

" How just and holy men may, with truth, look upon themselves
as the worst and last of men ; and style themselves the greatest
sinners in the world.

297

" Having shewn that we ought to try to arrive so far, as to
reckon ourselves the least of all, and to look upon ourselves as the
greatest sinners in the world ; it will not be a vain curiosity, but a
very profitable inquiry, to explain how the greatest saints could

truly have such thoughts of themselves as these To him

that is truly humble, it is easy to look upon himself as the least of
all. For, in his brethren he sees nothing but what is good, and
nothing in himself but his own faults ; and he is so taken up in
considering, and seeking how to amend them, that believing he has
cause enough to weep for them, he never looks up, to behold what
is amiss in others ; and for that reason he has a good opinion
of all his brethren, and an ill one of himself alone ; nay, the
more he increases in sanctity, the more easy he finds it, to humble
himself in this matter ; not only because, as he makes proficiency
in other virtues, he does so in humility, and in the knowledge of
himself, and comes thereby to have a greater contempt of himself;
but also because the more sensible he is of the goodness and
mercy of God, the more acquainted he is with his own misery ; and
thus, one abyss carrying him into another ; from the abyss of the
gratness of God, into that of his own nothingness ; he sees by the
light of grace into the very least of his own imperfections. Now,
if we set any value upon ourselves, the reason is, because we have
little knowledge of God, and are not illuminated with light from
heaven ; the rays of the Sun of Justice have not yet penetrated into
our soul ; and so far are we from being able to discover the least
atoms of dust, which are our small faults, that we become so
blind as not to discern the greatest imperfections. . . .

" St. John Climacus says, that the devil, who seeks nothing but
our destruction, endeavours to set continually our virtues and good
actions before our eyes, that so he may make us proud ; and that
God on the contrary, who desires only our salvation, gives particu-
lar light to His elect, to make them perceive even the least of their
imperfections ; and hides the favours He bestows upon them in
such manner, that often they perceive not when they receive them.
All holy writers teach the same doctrine ; and St. Bernard says,
that it is by a particular disposition of the divine goodness, which
is pleased to keep us humble, that the greater progress one ordi-
narily makes in perfection the less he thinks he has made ; for when
any one is arrived to the highest degree of virtue, God permits that
something of the perfection of the lowest should yet remain to be

298

acquired, that he may not think he is advanced so far as he is.
Thus the comparison, which is made between humility and the
sun, is a very just one ; for as the stars disappear, and hide them-
selves before the sun, so when humility shines truly in souls, all
other virtues hide themselves before it in such manner, that they
who are humble indeed, seem to themselves to have no virtue at all.
They are the only persons, says St. Gregory, who see not in them-
selves the exemplary virtues which all the world admires. When
Moses came down from Mount Sinai, where he had forty days
conversed with God face to face, his countenance shone so bright,
that all the children of Israel, says the Scripture, beheld it, and he
alone knew not that his face was shining, because of the conversation
he had had with the Lord. So it is with the humble man ; he alone
sees not his own virtues ; and whatever he does see in himself,
appears full of imperfections ; nay, he even thinks, that he sees but
the least part of his faults ; and that those which he sees not, are
much more numerous ; and thus can he easily look upon himself as
the least of all his brethren, and believe that he alone is the greatest

sinner in the world

" When St. Francis was one day pressed by his companion
to tell him, how he could have so low an opinion, and speak
of himself as he did, I am, said the saint, fully convinced,
that had the greatest sinner received the same favours that I
have, he would have made better use of them than I have done ;
and, on the contrary, I firmly believe, that did God withdraw His
hand from me but one moment, I should fall into the most extra-
vagant enormities in the world, and be the worst of men ; therefore
do I look upon myself as the greatest and most ungrateful of all
sinners. This answer is very just, and flows from a great stock of
humility, and at the same time contains admirable doctrine. For
it is thoughts of this kind moved the saints to humble themselves,
and to stoop to the very centre of the earth ; and made them fall
down at every one's feet, and truly reckon themselves the greatest
sinners. The knowledge of our own weakness, which is the root of
humility, was so fixed in their hearts, that they easily distinguished
what they were in themselves, from what they were by grace ;
wherefore considering, that if God had left them but one moment,
they might have grown the greatest sinners, they always looked
upon themselves as such ; and upon the gifts of God, as borrowed
favours, which instead of making them less humble, did, on the

299

contrary, inspire them with a more profound sense thereof. Because
they always thought, that they made not that use they ought, of the
benefits they had received ; so that on whatever side we turn our
eyes, whether we cast them down upon what we have of ourselves,
or lift them up to behold what we have received from God ; we shall
always find occasion, to humble and esteem ourselves less than all
others." 6

The following is from that celebrated little work, ' The
Spiritual Combat;' a work which every Roman Catholic,
I suppose, of any seriousness, has in his possession.

" The third kind of temptation is vain-glory. Dread nothing so
much as giving the least way to an opinion of yourself and your
good works. Take no glory but in the Lord, and acknowledge that
all is due to the merits of His life and death. To the utmost/- verge
of life, look upon yourself only with hatred and contempt ; let your
humility increase every moment, and never cease giving thanks to
God, as the author of all the good you have ever done. Beseech
Him to succour you ; but beware of esteeming His assistance to be
the reward of your merits, even though you may have gained the
most signal victories over yourself. Be ever in fear, and confess
ingenuously, that all your endeavours would be vain, unless God, in
whom is all your hope, crowned them with success. Follow this
advice, and rest secure that your enemies cannot hurt you." a

The last shall be from St. Bonaventure's Life of Christ.

" As pride is the groundwork of all sin, so is humility of all virtue,
and the first step to salvation. It is but a tottering edifice that is
not built upon the foundation of humility. Trust not then to your
chastity, to your poverty, or to any other virtue you may possess,
except it be joined with humility ." b

12. It may be observed that I have avoided in this chapter
all discussion of the Scripture argument, and all allusion to
the Sacraments. In any case the former argument would

e Vol. ii. pp. 247252.
a Chap. Ixv.

b p. 72. (New Translation " For Members of the Church of England," 1844.)
c A short allusion however in a note to the latter subject may be perhaps
allowable ; to point out how singularly inconsistent are ' Evangelicals,' in ob-

300

have been out of place, in a work like tins : for there is of
course no room for a commentary on the Epistles to the
Romans and Galatians ; and except some chapters of these
Epistles, and one or two of our Lord's parables and sayings,
I know not any part of the New Testament which can appear
to any mind, not absolutely blinded by prejudice, as sanc-
tioning the Lutheran doctrine. I should as soon think of
setting to work gravely to prove from Scripture our Lord's
Resurrection, or St. Paul's Conversion, as of proving from
it the truths which that doctrine contradicts. Since how-
ever, when orthodox persons acknowledge the difficulties in
St. Paul's Epistles, notwithstanding they have the sanction
of St. Peter's authority, it is often regarded by ' Evan-
gelicals ' as a confession of weakness ; I beg to state my
strong conviction, that those very chapters in those Epistles
on which they rely, present incomparably more formidable
difficulties in the way of Lutheran than in the way of Catholic
doctrine.

But the main reason is the same for both omissions ; I am
very anxious to urge the certain truth, that Lutheranism is
not chiefly a heresy against revealed, but against natural,
religion. To denominate it, as some excellent men do, the
* anti-baptismal ' heresy, is to say what is true, but absurdly
less than the truth. Doubtless it disparages a principal
ordinance of the Gospel ; but in addition to this, it denies
essential and fundamental truths of natural religion, and
contradicts eternal and immutable principles of morality.
Without caring to distinguish accurately here between these
really distinct classes, and including both under the common

jecting to the Scriptural doctrine of the ' opus operatum.' They continually
complain of Catholic theology, as tending towards Pelagianism, and leading men
to forget the necessity of grace and the helplessness and sinfulness of unaided
nature. Now no doctrine can be devised, which would more habitually impress
on the memory and imagination the very truth, for which Evangelicals contend,
than does the ' opus operatum ;' the very meaning of which is, that grace comes
wholly from without, and that men, though afterwards under an obligation of faith-
fully cooperating, are in the first instance wholly passive recipients of the Christian
Gift ; who may indeed oppose a barrier to its entrance by means of mortal sin,
but have no active work whatever in its first admission.

301

head * natural religion,' I will mention two or three among
the great number of such truths, which the abstract Lu-
theran doctrine denies and the practical Lutheran doctrine
disparages.

I. That to do what is right because it is right and from
a motive of duty, is the highest and noblest of all habits ; for
example, far nobler than the doing what is right out of
gratitude for free pardon or for other mercy received. Or in
other words, that beings, whose will is not as yet wholly
subordinate to the rule of right and the will of God, have
this one paramount duty imposed on them before all other
duties, viz. to employ unceasing efforts in the task of reducing
their will into a fuller and more complete subjection. Or
again, (which comes to very much the same thing, and is the
mode in which I have expressed it in the British Critic,) that
obedience to the rule of right, at whatever sacrifice of self, is
the one thing needful, and that sin is the one only danger to
be dreaded, the one only evil to be avoided.

II. That deep repentance, self-abasement, and the spirit of
penance, is an indispensable and primary duty in all who
have seriously sinned.

III. That moral and religious truth can only be appre-
hended in proportion to moral discipline.

IV. That holiness and happiness are indissolubly con-
nected ; insomuch that every sinful act or thought lessens the
happiness of our final lot, and every good act or thought
increases it.

V. That in no other way than a course of right acts, can a
habit of acting rightly be acquired.

VI. That the true misery of unregenerate nature is not the
fear of punishment, but the consciousness of sin ; and conse-
quently that a revelation would afford no relief to that misery,
which should remedy the former evil and not the latter;
which should give assurance of pardon, without infusing
inherent righteousness.

Lutheranism then is wholly inconsistent with the essential
principles of natural religion. Again, considered in its Chris-
tian aspect, * it corrupts,' as I have expressed myself in the

302

British Critic, ' the very principle of orthodoxy itself.' For in
the first place it leads its victims to fix their gaze on the in-
ternal workings of their own minds, instead of the great Object
of Revelation, as their main stay and encouragement : and in
the next place, orthodoxy has neither meaning nor basis, except
as the correlative of holy obedience ; and a theory therefore
which disparages the paramount duty of obedience, is equally
hostile to the whole fabric of Christian doctrine. And lastly,
Lutheranism is also a specific heresy ; for it denies the essen-
tial dogma of inherent righteousness. I trust then that
I have sufficiently explained the meaning of various most
severe expressions, which I have used on the subject in the
British Critic; explained them at least so far as this, that
even those who may continue to dissent from the views I hold,
will acknowledge that I used such expressions with a precise
and definite meaning, not with inconsiderate and hasty vehe-
mence. Since however these expressions have been so often
quoted, I think it will be better again to put down on paper
the principal among them ; as a proof that I have every desire
to repeat, in my own name, the extremely condemnatory lan-
guage which I have used anonymously.

* The two grand heretical paradoxes prevalent among serious
minds in this age and country are ... . 1. That the news of
forgiveness of sins can convey peace to the afflicted soul before
holiness is implanted; or, in other words, that man's misery in his
natural state is fear of punishment only, and not consciousness of
sin : 2. that such news of forgiveness, if really apprehended, will
lead, without pains and trouble on our part, to obedience and holi-
ness ; or, in other words, that self-denial is anti-christian.' d

' In the Catholic church, from first to last, there has been one
and only one consistent type of the interior life. The Christian
pilgrim has felt himself placed in this world in the midst of a severe
and unceasing conflict, his demeanour under which determines his
lot hereafter ; contending for a prize which needs all his efforts to
secure it; climbing up towards it by a severe and rugged path
(certain indeed of saving him, be he true to himself and faithful to
God's guidance, yet so arduous that sluggishness or self-security

d ' On Arnold's Sermons,' p. 38.

303

will be certain ruin) ; surrounded on all sides by supernatural
agencies, evil angels assailing him, good angels supporting him ; a
spectacle in his struggles to the whole heavenly court ; gifted
indeed by God with blessings the most ineffable and transporting
even here, even in his pilgrimage, yet but faint foretastes these of
the far greater bliss in store for him when he shall reach his
Home : every suffering rightly endured, every exertion daringly
and religiously ventured, increase, as he feels, the reward purchased
for him by One who " first bore His own cross," a cross infinitely
heavier and more grievous than He has laid on any that follow
Him. Apostles, prophets, saints of the early, of the mediaeval, of

the later Church, whatever differences they may have

had in their objective theology, (differences however in no way
affecting the highest Object of faith,) have had this one uniform
subjective view of the Gospel scheme ; and this the Lutheran
system cuts down at its very root. For labour cheered by hope, it
substitutes the listlessness caused by assurance ; in the place of sin
as the one only evil to be dreaded, the one only enemy to be feared,
it puts its absurd chimera of " self- righteousness" (as though there
were almost as much danger in obeying too much as too little) ;
for spiritual blessings reaching to the very innermost heart and
soul, it speaks of the cold knowledge of our external and forensic
pardon ; for a noble and sustained triumph over the old man, it has
as if peevish and querulous complaints of his power. To speak
as if this latter scheme of doctrine were in itself otherwise than
radically and fundamentally monstrous, immoral, heretical, and
anti-christian, shews but an inadequate grasp of its antagonist
truth ....

' And in proportion as we believe that this hateful incubus
cripples the noblest energies, stifles the loftiest aspirations, op-
presses the tenderest feelings of those whom it has claimed as its
own, will we from time to time lift up our voice in plain and intel-
ligible warning, if haply its victims may bethink themselves of testing
its strange and arbitrary decrees by we care not what standard
which even professes to be divine, by Scripture, by conscience, by
the voice of the Church.' 6

' The very first aggression then of those, who labour to revive
some degree at least of vital Christianity, (in the room of those
gross corruptions and superstitions, which have in these latter days

e ' On Heurtley's four Sermons,' pp. 445, 6, 7, 8.

. 304

among ourselves overlaid and defaced the primitive and simple
truth,) their very first aggression must be upon that strange
congeries of notions and practices, of which the Lutheran doctrine
of Justification is the origin and representative. Whether any
heresy has ever infested the Church so hateful and unchristian as
this doctrine, it is perhaps not necessary to determine: none
certainly has ever prevailed so subtle and extensively poisonous.
It is not only that it denies some one essential doctrine of the
Gospel (as, e. g. inherent righteousness) ; this all heresies do : it is
not only that it corrupts all sound Christian doctrine, nay the very
principle of orthodoxy itself ; though this also it certainly does :
but its inroads extend further than this ; as far as its formal state-
ments are concerned it poisons at the very root, not Christianity
only, but natural religion. That obedience to the will of God, with
whatever sacrifice of self, is the one thing needful ; that sin is the
one only danger to be dreaded, the one only evil to be avoided ;
these great truths are the very foundation of natural religion : and
inasmuch as this modern system denies those to be essential and
necessary truths, yea counts it the chief glory of the Gospel that
under it they are no longer truths, we must plainly express our
conviction, that a religious heathen, were he really to accept the
doctrine which Lutheran language expresses, so far from making
any advance, would sustain a heavy loss, in exchanging funda-
mental truth for fundamental error. Our readers must admit that
we have never been slow in acknowledging how much of sincerity
and self-devotion there has in fact been among those who have
embraced this heresy, and to how very great an extent, where that
has been the case, individual conscientiousness has neutralized the
anti-religious infection. But neither may we forget, on the other
hand, how miserably also has this same system in its turn crippled
and enchained the religious instinct of its victims, and prevented
them from carrying that instinct forward to its legitimate develop-
ment, the Catholic scheme. Hence the inconsistency, both moral
and intellectual, which is so surprising a phenomenon among the
" evangelicals ;" surprising, that is, at first sight, but no longer
surprising, when we regard them as possessed really with religious
feelings which draw them to Christ, but possessed also by a human,
traditionary, and most unscriptural system, which draws them
directly from Him. Hence that feebleness, ambiguity, uncertainty
of doctrinal statement, that inequality, unshapeliness, dwarfishness

305

of spiritual stature, which persons at all conversant with Catholic
models are so pained and disappointed in finding (with very few
exceptions) in what they hear or see of religious Protestants/

' ' Evangelicals' . . . cleave to the soul-destroying heresy of Luther
on the subject of Justification. ' s

' A religious person who shall be sufficiently clear-headed to un-
derstand the meaning of words, is warranted in rejecting Lutheranism
on the very same grounds which would induce him to reject Atheism ;
viz. as being the contradiction of truths, which he feels on most
certain grounds to be first principles.' 1 '

' If it be true that the idea of duty is more deeply rooted in our
nature even than that of God (though it is painful to make such
comparisons) a serious result follows in regard to Lutheranism. . . .
When ... we speak of Lutheranism, we speak of an abstract doc-
trine, which cannot, we verily believe, be held consistently even by
the devils ; but which is held to an alarming extent among ' Evan-
gelicals' though inconsistently. And of this abstract doctrine we
now say, that the considerations in the text shew it to be worse, that
is, to be more fundamentally at variance with our higher and better
nature, than Atheism itself.' '

And speaking still of the said abstract Lutheran doctrine,
there is no one circumstance connected with my humble
efforts in the British Critic, on which I look back with so
much satisfaction as on this ; that I have ventured to charac-
terise that hateful and fearful type of Antichrist in terms
not wholly inadequate to its prodigious demerits.

f 'On St. Athanasius,' pp. 90, 91.

s ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 63.

h ' On Church Authority,' p. 232.

1 ' On Mill's Logic,' pp. 406 407.

CHAPTER VI.

ON OUR EXISTING PRACTICAL CORRUPTIONS.

1. IT now becomes my business, in accordance with my
promise in the last chapter, to enter upon the more directly
practical part of the present inquiry. It might have been
expected indeed with the utmost confidence, that such duties
as those on which this repeated stress has been laid,
would be most inadequately practised in a Church, where a
doctrine had been allowed extensively to nourish, formally
denying their paramount necessity. For so repulsive are
these duties to our fallen and corrupt nature, that nothing
but the most urgent and strenuous exhortations, the most
careful discipline, can ensure so much as their tolerable per-
formance. No wonder then, when principles have been so
long tolerated among us, which expressly discourage, nay
denounce, such exhortations, that the pure Gospel should
have been darkened and overgrown by human traditions and
practical corruptions.

2. To ascertain this fact in detail, let us first turn our
eyes to that most essential of all a Church's duties, the
education of the poor. Other duties are very holy and im-
portant, but none so holy and important as this. Incalculable
as is the value of a religious education to all men, to the poor
it is far, far greater than to any. For men of other ranks
have their intellect in numberless ways sharpened and
quickened, so as to retain the power of apprehending in a
general way new ideas that may be laid before them; and
thus their mind always remains open, in a certain sense, to
religious appeals : and moreover should they, either in
consequence of such appeals, or by the internal workings of
their own mind, be led to take a serious turn, they have
sufficient access to means of instruction and edification. But

307

for the poor, it is a matter of common experience, how
infallibly, unless their mind be softened and disciplined by
early education, a torpor creeps over the faculties, and the
very avenues are frozen up by which religious truth might
find access to the mind ; while the heart within is, on
spiritual subjects, cold as a very stone. Add to this, that
from the absence of taste for more refined enjoyments,
the lower propensities of our nature, at their appointed
season, assail them with overwhelming force ; and, unless
they be protected by confirmed habits of obedience and
self-mastery, hurry them madly along at their pleasure. On
the Church then, to an indefinite extent, hangs the alternative,
whether in the midst of the cheerless and ill-requited toil to
which they are called, they may be allowed the unspeakable
peace imparted by the Holy Ghost to a good conscience, a
peace whose depths remain unruffled by all the external
tumult, anxiety, and pain, which agitate the surface ; or
whether their lot shall be the dark, sullen, indescribable
misery, which results from the union of moral wickedness
with physical suffering, and which is relieved only by
momentary snatches of feverish and unlawful gratification.
Such is the issue which depends to so great an extent on the
Church's system of education. Full-grown men, hardened in
insensibility to religion, are almost beyond her reach ; but
those inestimably precious years, when the character is easily
impressed, the affections easily moved, and habits of docility
and obedience easily implanted, these years are her own.
On every account, too, the poor must be considered the
objects of her tenderest care ; both because that condition of
life has been so especially singled out by our Lord Himself
as sacred, and because of that helplessness and dependence
which so touchingly appeal for guidance and direction. Can
there be a fairer test of the purity or corruption of a Church,
than the success with which she acquits herself of this most
urgent, most solemn duty ?

The habits whereby a religious life is secured, or in which
it consists, are such as these. Chiefly of all, the power of
resisting evil inclination, the wandering eye, the hasty word,

x 2

308

the slothful or discontented thought ; and, as indispensably
necessary for this purpose, habitual watchfulness of con-
science and remembrance of God's presence ; regular and
earnest prayer ; deeply-imprinted knowledge of our own
peculiar weaknesses, whereby the enemy of our souls finds
the readiest access ; a profound sense of our miserable
sinfulness, and utter powerlessness to support ourselves, even
one moment, against serious temptation, by our own unaided
strength. I am speaking, it will be observed, only of moral
and religious habits, not of Christian doctrine ; but it is only
by means of these, as I argued at length in the last chapter,
that Christian doctrine can so much as find an entrance into
the mind in any true shape : these therefore it will be
necessary to consider first in order ; and reserve the question
of doctrine for a connected view, at a later period of the
present chapter. Here then will be the first object of every
right-minded Church; to make this her one principal and
paramount care, that Christians shall not be removed from
her more immediate guidance and launched into the turmoil
and trials of life, until chiefly by the initial acquirement of
such habits, and partly also by receiving at her hands wise
and admirably adjusted rules for their future conduct, there
may be every reason to anticipate that, so only they do their
part in faithful co-operation, they may by God's infinite
mercy stand unharmed against the temptations which will
assail them. Let us consider therefore how this may best be
done ; for it is plain that habits such as these, are so pointedly
and directly antagonist to the whole family of evil inclinations
let loose by original sin, that their acquirement will be a mat-
ter of incomparably greater labour, and to instruct in their
acquirement an office of incomparably greater arduousness
and difficulty, than in the case of any other habits whatever.

We desire to impress on the Christian's mind a deep sense
of his sinfulness, when by nature he is proud and * self-
righteous.' How is it possible to do this, except by carefully
instructing him day by day in the primary duty of self-
examination ; beginning by the more open and obvious sins
of his daily life, ill-temper, sloth, gluttony, and going on

309

by degrees into the more refined and subtle forms of evil? a
We wish to teach him gradually the habit of self-mastery ;
we must carefully then impress the habit on his mind, not
by theorising about it, but by shewing him its practical ap-
plication in small matters ; encouraging, praising, and assisting
him, when he is using his best endeavours to acquire it ; re-
buking him and remonstrating, with tenderness indeed, yet
with the most earnest warmth, when he relaxes such endea-
vours. We wish him to learn the all-important habit of
regular prayer : we must begin then by teaching him short
prayers ; we must continually examine him as to the progress
he makes in giving them his undivided attention, interrogate
him as to the principal difficulties which impede him in the
effort, and give him practical rules for the removal of these
difficulties. We feel it to be of great importance that he
should bear about with him a continual sense of God's pre-
sence : daily self-examination will help him in this ; but a very
necessary help also will be, that he should be taught for some
short period in the day or in the week to employ himself
exclusively in meditating on God's Presence. 5 We know it
to be indispensable, that when he is of mature years he may
be well acquainted with all the more material particulars,
which make up his duty to his neighbour : we must begin
then now by carefully teaching him his present duty ; the
duty of honesty, veracity, fidelity, courteousness, obliging-
ness ; for in this manner, as his duty gradually grows and
expands, so also will his knowledge of its extent. Of this
nature is the fundamental and most absolutely indispensable
part of Christian education ; and any Church, not perversely
corrupt will feel such exercises as these to be so primarily
important, that to their due performance every other branch

* The strange idea that humility can be implanted in the mind by telling men
the doctrine of the Atonement, or that the Holy Spirit will ever implant it in the
mind by bringing home to it that doctrine, independently of careful self-discipline in
the Christian himself; this immoral and fanatical delusion has been fully exposed in
the last chapter.

b I will make it plain, further on, that meditation on some part of our Lord's life
is one very good, probably the best, way of performing this duty.

310

even of Christian knowledge, much more of secular, must
yield the undisputed precedence.

I fear I shall appear jesting on a very serious matter, when
I simply express what appears, as far as I can discover, the
view taken of her duties on this head, by a Church calling
herself pure above other Christian Churches. Our practical
system, I believe, professes to prepare Christians for a manly
behaviour in the great conflict which we are sent on earth to
wage, by teaching them to read, putting before them the
Scriptures, and then (for I will suppose the most favourable
case) explaining them as clearly as they admit of being ex-
plained to minds not disciplined in holy obedience ; or, for in
my opinion it comes to the same thing, not explaining them
at all. c Now to judge of this conduct as it deserves, I will
be content to admit for argument's sake the supposition, that
Holy Scripture was intended or adapted to teach ordinary
Christians, one by one, their practical duty : a most pre-
posterous supposition indeed, still for argument's sake I am
content to admit it. And now let us suppose that those who
wished to teach a child the art of baking, should first teach
him to read, then put into his hands the best rules that have

c As about the most favourable example that can be taken, let us refer to the
'Scheme of Lessons, 1 mentioned in the Report of the National Society for 1843,
as existing ' in the boys' central school : ' which I understand to be appended as a
kind of official model for other schools. The ' Religious Instruction ' is specified
as follows : ' For the fourth class " Catechism, with Analysis. The Psalter
read daily with Catechetical explanations." For the third class " The Cate-
chism with Analysis and Scripture proofs ; Types, &c. The New Testament
read every day. The Gospels." For the second class " The Catechism with
Scripture proofs and Analysis. Liturgy, and Sacred Chronology. The New
Testament read daily. The Evangelists or Acts of the Apostles." For the
first class " Catechism with Scripture proofs ; Liturgy ; Prophecies ; Types ;
Chronology, &c. The Holy Bible read daily. One chapter in the Old Testa-
ment, and one in the New, alternately ; occasionally the Books of the Prophets
and the Epistles." ' (pp. 49, 50.) Not the most distant allusion to such matters as
' examen of conscience,' ' mental prayer,' or the like ; and yet without such
foundations as these, what, alas ! is the sort of paper theology here expressed, but
as ' sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal' ? " Music " is taught both in " theory and
practice;'''' for small indeed would be the musical attainments of the pupils, if they
were taught music as they seem to be taught religion. I have not alluded to Cate-
chisms, &c. in the text, because they only profess to bear on ductrine, not in any way
on moral tliscijilinc*

311

been yet devised for making a loaf, explain them with the
utmost clearness compatible with the absence of practical
guidance and instruction, and then, having placed him in a room
with the necessary ingredients, expect him without further
help to produce a loaf. The reader perhaps is tempted to
laugh at the illustration. "Well ! That method which, from its
intense absurdity, we cannot hear of without laughing, in the
lowest and most mechanical art, we apply with no conscious-
ness of the ridiculous, with no sense of shame, to the noblest,
the most all -important, and very far the most difficult and
complicated of all arts ; the art .of holy living. We dream,
like madmen, that the deep corruption of human nature can
be remedied by so superficial an application, as the head-
knowledge of Scripture texts ; that we can teach men religion,
without instructing them, one by one, in individual habits of
religion ; that men can learn to recognise the first approaches
of sin, to flee temptations, to fix their thoughts on God in
prayer, to order their daily life as in His Presence, to open
their heart by self-discipline to the gracious, cheering, and
peace-bearing influences of the Holy Ghost; that men can
learn all these most difficult acquirements instinctively, or by
accident ; certainly without any methodical discipline ad-
dressed to the object. When such has been our idea of
education in Christianity, it is not so very extravagant as
it seems at first sight, that not many years since a multitude
of well-intentioned and respectable persons were found, who
thought to benefit the poor by superseding, at least to some
extent, education in Christianity, by education in physics.
But I beg the candid inquirer fairly to consider, whether
I go in the least beyond the limits of sober judgment in
making the following statement. " Should the pure light
of the Gospel be ever, by God's grace, restored to
this benighted land," d I do believe that our posterity,
when they hear that two rival parties, in the earlier portion
of the nineteenth century, to a great extent divided the
country between them ; one of whom sought to train the
people in habits of self-denial and virtue by teaching them
d ' On Arnold's Sermons,' pp. 339, 40.

312

to read Scripture, and understand its meaning in that sense
in which alone the carnal mind can understand it, and there
leaving them, while the other sought to remedy this deficiency
by teaching them mechanics and astronomy ; moreover
that the age of which the latter party was the product
boasted of peculiar enlightenment, and the Church of which
the former party was the representative claimed as its distin-
guishing characteristic the epithet ' pure and apostolical :'
and lastly, that both age and Church looked down with no
little contempt on the thirteenth century, as barbarous in
comparison with the nineteenth ; I do believe, that when
they hear of this, they will be tempted rather to suppose all
the documents spurious which assert it, than to believe it pos-
sible that partakers of our common nature, much less men
possessed of so very much practical wisdom in other ways
as the English most undeniably display, could, on this one
subject, have sunk into such ignorant and infatuated arro-
gance, such abject imbecility of intellect.

I have not here alluded to the great excitement now ex-
isting within our Church on the subject of education, because
it hardly seems to bear 011 the subject. It is very well known
that our Church for years most shamefully neglected this
duty; but that of late she has been wonderfully awakened
to its importance, and that much admirable munificence and
admirable zeal are now devoted to its full performance. It is
well known also that * high-churchmen' contended as zealously
and jealously for her 'purity and apostolicity ' at a time
when, according to the present confession of her function-
aries, she most sinfully neglected her very principal duty, as
they do now, when she is very religiously attempting to
execute it. The subject however leads me only to consider,
not the amount of diligence with which, at any particular
time, her system may be carried out, but the value of that
system itself.

Take the following, and contrast it with our own method
of teaching the young. A friend of mine went into a Roman
Catholic school in Lancashire, where he found a troop of
very young children, quite lately taken in from the streets,

313

and not yet so much as knowing their alphabet. His
conductor asked them in his presence the following
questions : " How many gods are there ? " "How many
Persons are there in the Godhead ? " " Where will you
go, if yo take care to do what is right ? " " Where will
you go, if you do what is wrong ? " They answered
these, of course, very accurately ; and when mentioning
Heaven, appeared very much impressed with the great hap-
piness reserved for them there. My friend's conductor told
him, that they impress these fundamental truths on their
minds in every variety of shape, so that they thoroughly ap-
prehend them, before they proceed further. In the mean
time they were occupied in learning their letters, and had
got as far as F. But when the truths above mentioned had
sunk deeply into their hearts, their instructor would then
proceed to explain to them a few more of these funda-
mental Verities of the Faith. Then at the age of seven
the practice of confession ordinarily begins ; a practice
which not only disciplines the young in the duty of self-
examination with an efficacy to which no other institution
could bear a moment's comparison, but also, by means of the
peculiarly confidential intercourse between priest and peni-
tent, gives the full opportunity of training the pupil in such
other duties as I specified above, with an union of authori-
tativeness, afiectionateness, and minute particularity, which
no other machinery could possibly admit.

The same substantial account is furnished me by a Roman
Catholic priest, who has had a very wide experience in paro-
chial ministrations.

" The first things," he says, " taught to [a child] .... are the
Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, the Angelical Salutation, and
the acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition, which afterwards
became the necessary part of his morning and evening prayers. So
also the first book he is taught to spell is the catechism-book, or an
abridgment of the four parts of the doctrine of our religion, namely,
the doctrine concerning faith, hope, charity, and grace : hence it
generally happens, that when a Catholic child reaches the age of
reflection, which, according to the discipline of the Church, is the

314

age of seven years, a child is prepared for Confession ; and every
parish priest in the Catholic Church takes care every year, that all
children who are arrived to that age should go first every day for
two or three weeks to the parish church to be instructed, and then
should go to Confession.

" Children go to Confession at that age in which they may be
deceived by Satan ; in order to make peace again, if necessary, with
God by a sincere repentance, a purpose of amendment, and the
Sacramental Absolution by which Christ cleanses their souls in His
infinitely precious blood. Thus, as they are apt to relapse by the
inexperience and ignorance of their age, as well as by the tempta-
tions of the world and the violence of their youthful passions, so they
are taught to go often to Confession ; because Confession is not only
a remedy for sins committed, but a preservative from relapsing into
sin. Then it is that they receive a great deal of advice ; and not in
general^ but in particular) for their own spiritual wants. Then it is
that they are directed in the path of virtue ; then that they are
taught to love God above all things, and to hate sin ; to fear hell ;
the judgment of God ; and so to live, as not to fear death, which at
every moment may be at hand ; and then it is, that, in order to im-
press the more their minds with these truths, they are taught to
meditate ; namely, they are instructed in mental prayer.

" Another pious practice we very much insist upon is the exa-
mination of conscience at night ; and children are taught to direct
their attention to the resolutions taken in the morning meditation,
and to examine themselves first on them, and then on the faults they
have committed against the Ten Commandments, and the others of
the Church.

" I say nothing of the continual instructions on morality that
are given to them, by which they are accustomed to admire, love,
and esteem virtue, and to have a horror and detestation for vice;
but I will only say, that the Catholic Church, whilst it does not
neglect the cultivation of the mind, takes particular notice of the
hearts of her children, and directs every attainment of their mind
to the improvement of the other. Man is not made for this world,
but for heaven ; he must be then educated for heaven, and not for
the world ; this is the principle of the Church, and the desertion
from this principle is the cause why we see no education at all.
But man cannot be educated for heaven, unless he is taught and
brought up in the principles and practice of true religion. Hence

315

it is, that children are brought up in the practice of vocal and
mental prayer, in the practice of examining their conscience, and of
frequenting the sacrament of Confession, which is the medicine of
our spiritual infirmities."

And now, as this mention has been made of it, a word on
the subject of Sacramental Confession. The next chapter
will shew, that I feel as strongly as any one can feel, the
fearful evils which would inevitably result from the prema-
ture introduction amongst us of its compulsory performance ;
and the writer of the admirable and most tenderly considerate
article on the subject in the British Critic has very strongly
expressed the same opinion. Let us only in some poor mea-
sure learn to realise the inveterate corruption of our own sys-
tem, and the excellent lessons we may learn from the Roman
Church, towards supplying our deficiencies on such points as
these : let this be really acknowledged ; and it is hardly
possible that the actual introduction of external and formal
changes can be too gradually or cautiously made. On the
other hand, many serious objections are made by most ex-
cellent men to the practice itself in the abstract ; objections
which appear to me, I confess, worthy of no consideration at
all, when comparison is made with its great recommendations. 11
But in this, as in so many other cases, argument in point
of fact appears superfluous ; the truly difficult and important
step (and it is indeed most difficult and most important) is to
introduce a full recognition of the primary necessity of this
habit of self-examination ; let this only be accomplished, and
for one I have no belief at all in so much as the possibility of
our remaining content without the Sacramental ordinance.

But when the poor man has gone forth into the world, pre-
pared by the best education that can by possibility be given,
and furnished with the best rules for guidance that theory
can furnish, how innumerable are the temptations which
beset him in his course, not only unknown to those more
favoured by fortune, but which it is most difficult for them

d On the commonest class of these objections I need hardly refer the reader to
what he probably knows very well, the most excellent observations in the British
Critic, No. Ixvi. pp. 325 8.

316

in any degree, even by laborious effort, to understand and
realise ! Frequent want, importunate anxiety, corroding care,
these are his appointed lot ; he has neither the opportunity
nor the taste for many innocent enjoyments ; nor has he that
great assistance, which the restraints of society and the cul-
tivation of mind give to those above him in earthly sta-
tions, in preferring the future to the present, the real to
the apparent. Thus is he situated throughout his weary
pilgrimage : with little power of choosing either his occupa-
tions or his companions: fighting his forlorn battle in the
midst of a hostile world as best he may : every thing around
soliciting him towards sin ; oppression or harshness towards
sullenness, anger, or discontent ; friendly companionship to-
wards sloth or sinful gratification ; nay, the mere force of
suffering towards the omission of spiritual duties and forget-
fulness of God. Against this he has to support an unceasing
conflict, in which even one failure exposes him to the most
fearful danger of not recovering his footing ; and in which,
nevertheless, continued success, even with full help of the
Holy Ghost, seems to his desponding mind far more than
the frailty of human nature can possibly hope. Oh ! how
unspeakably cheering, refreshing, soothing, comforting to
the Christian so circumstanced, is the Confessional ! to the
careless and worldly, the proud, selfish, and luxurious, an
object doubtless of unmixed distaste and repulsiveness ; but
to the weary servant of God, trying with a faithful heart to
serve Him in the heat and dust of the world, a very harbour
of rest and refuge. Here he may find that ' prime want of
man,' ' true guidance in return for loving obedience ;' e here
he may find a friendly ear into which, with perfect security,
he may pour his tale of temptations, perplexities, and mis-
givings, perhaps of serious sins; here may he listen to a
friendly voice, which he may safely hear without danger of
being led astray, and whose accents will comfort and reassure
him, and pour peace into his troubled soul; here he may
gain some support to his languid faith, by spiritual intercourse
with the priest, who stands before him as the visible repre-

e Carlyle.

317

sentative of God in an evil and treacherous world, How
incalculable the help he may obtain for his daily efforts
against sin, by the thought of this one period in the week,
and the censure or praise he may then receive !

What help do we give the poor man similar to this ? In
the first place, how many of our clergy believe and realise,
that to urge their flock, one by one, to a life of daily conflict
with their sins, open and secret, and to encourage, direct,
and assist them in that conflict, is so absolutely their prin-
cipal duty, that all others are utterly, nay immeasurably, sub-
ordinate ? This is a question on which it is better to leave
readers to answer according to their own experience, than to
venture on a positive opinion : though we may quite safely say,
that clergymen who do not see the indispensable necessity of
disciplining the young carefully in habits of prayer and self-
mastery, will not commonly see the desirableness of carrying
on such discipline in after life. It is, however, a less invi-
dious test as involving less of comment on individuals, while
it is even more to my purpose, to inquire what means are
resorted to in our Church for indoctrinating our clergy with
a sense of the unparalleled importance of the methodical
moral training of their flock one by one. And to give this
inquiry all the force of a practical comparison, I will append
an account sent me for publication by the Superior of a
priests' seminary in France, who is describing a system of
which he has had for years the personal cognizance and
direction. It must be acknowledged, I think, that priests
so trained are likely to enter on their parochial ministrations,
with no very inadequate conception of the primary necessity
of spiritual discipline, and no very inadequate power of un-
derstanding and sympathizing with the spiritual difficulties
and distresses of the humblest of their flock.

" In order to form our candidates for the priesthood to the holiness,
necessary to the state of life for which they are destined, the rule
prescribes the following methods :

1. " Vocal prayer at half past five in the morning. It is short,
and proceeds as follows : 1. The student puts himself in the presence
of God, by a special act of faith in the truth of His universal pre-

318

sence, and adores Him. 2. He thanks God for the gift of the day,
thus beginning, and consecrates to Him, all its actions, promising
to do them all in imitation of Him. 3. He recites in the ecclesi-
astical language the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Credo. 4. He
commends himself to the Blessed Virgin, to his patron Saint, to his
guardian Angel, that they may watch over and protect him during
the day, and by their prayers obtain for him the grace of which he
has need. The whole concludes with acts of faith, hope, and
charity, of contrition and renewal of baptismal promises.

II. " Mental prayer or a meditation : in which the student first
bows down in adoration before God, acknowledging himself unworthy
of keeping himself fixed in His divine presence, and calling upon the
Holy Spirit to help him in his meditation. He then enters on
the consideration of the object proposed for meditation, all the
while frequently entering into himself, by acts of humiliation, by
making good resolutions, and one special good resolve for that very
day. These two exercises, the vocal prayer and meditation, last
half an hour. In those seminaries directed by the community of
St. Sulpice they last an hour.

III. " The holy sacrifice of the Mass. It is offered up imme-
diately after the meditation. During the first part each one present,
by prayers and special thoughts, offers himself up with our Lord
Jesus Christ. At and after the Consecration, each one adores
Christ really present on the Altar ; immolates himself with Him ;
and communicates in His Sacrifice, either sacramentally, if he has
permission from his Confessor, or spiritually.

IV. " Holy Scripture. Every one is in the morning to read a
chapter of the Old Testament, and in the Evening one of the New.
The rule warns us that the object to be sought for is the quickening
of the heart (vie pour le coeur). It would be a departure from this
object, if any one were to read the Scriptures at this time in order
to improve himself in learning, or to satisfy his curiosity.

V. " Spiritual reading. This takes place either in the morning,
or in the evening. The books recommended, are the Imitation, the
Spiritual Combat, the Christian perfection of Rodriguez, the Memo-
riale vita? Sacerdotalis, &c.

VI. " Examination of conscience. A quarter before twelve all
go to the chapel for the particular examination. This means an
examination as to the progress made in some virtue specially pro-
posed by each for his own acquisition, or in conquering some vice

319

proposed in the same way for correction. The book used in this
exercise is Father Tronson's ' Exaraens Particuliers,' a work full of
profit for the ecclesiastic. This particular examination does not
supersede the general examination made in the evening, and which
includes all the thoughts, feelings, words, and actions of the day.

VII. " Visit to the Holy Sacrament. Each student is bound to
go every day for a quarter of an hour into the presence of the Holy
Sacrament. This exercise, the special joy of the devout soul,
consists in adoring our Lord present under the eucharistic elements
(especes), in thanking Him for the happiness of being in His holy
presence, in begging His pardon for the faults which we have com-
mitted, in asking of him to grant us the graces of which we have
need, and in praying that He will deign to manifest to us His holy
will, and lead us on to do it.

VIII. " Spiritual conference. This name is applied to a religious
discourse spoken every evening by the Superior to the whole com-
munity, from half past six to a quarter to seven. It is a familiar
instruction on the duties of a Christian, and of a Clergyman in
particular.

IX. " The Chapel. After the discourse of the Superior, each
student recites five decades (dixaines) of the Pater Noster, and Ave
Maria. These prayers are sweet to a Christian's mouth, and never
seem long, however often they may be repeated. Advice is given
that at each decade the person reciting the chaplet should think
upon some virtue which he would acquire, and beg of God to grant
it to him by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.

X. " Evening Prayer. This finishes the day. The prayers then
said are the Lord's Prayer, the Angelical Salutation, the Apostles'
Creed. The confession of sin is made by a prayer, called the
Confiteor ; then acts of faith, hope, and charity, and of contrition,
are made. Prayers are offered up for the dead. In conclusion,
the Superior gives out the subject for next day's meditation.
Sometimes the choice of it is left to the students. The rule advises
them to fix their thoughts upon it just before going to sleep and as soon
as they awake.

XL " I had almost forgotten to say, that the studies, lectures,
(classes,) and meals, are begun and concluded with prayer. Also,
in the morning, at mid-day, and in the evening, the prayer called the
Angelus is recited, and this is done to pay honour to the mysteries
of the Annunciation and Incarnation.

320

XII. " Confession. Every student is bound to confess at least
once a fortnight. Few of them wait so long. The object of this
confession is, to obtain absolution, and leave to communicate.

XIII. " Holy Communion. The rule does not prescribe Com-
munion, but it expresses a wish that all should communicate at least
every Sunday. The Confessor, in the secrecy of the holy tribunal,
determines how often the holy Sacrament should be received. He
judges by the state of the penitent's soul. In order to communicate
frequently, it is requisite that the recipient lead a life of faith (vie de
la foi), and that by his spiritual progress he make it evident that this
heavenly food does him good. For some years past we have had the
comfort of seeing our students communicate some two, others three,
four, five, or six, times a week. We are indebted for this consola-
tion to the good state of the smaller seminary, from which ~our stu-
dents come to us almost entirely formed.

XIV. " The monitor. Every pupil is bound to choose one of his
fellows for a monitor. The pupil who agrees to undertake the office
is obliged to warn him to whom he is monitor of all that he sees
wrong in him. This advice given in a spirit of charity, is commonly
of great benefit.

XV. " The spiritual director. Every pupil is also obliged to take
from among his masters a director, to whom he from time to time
applies to confer with him on his spiritual state (ses dispositions inte-
rieures) on the way to correct, improve, and perfect it. This laying
bare of the heart to the director thus chosen, contributes in an espe-
cial way to the spiritual welfare of the students, provided it is made
in a great spirit of faith. Generally each pupil makes choice of his
Confessor for his director.

XVI. " The relations with the superior. The rule advises the
student to enter into communication with the superior, to visit him
often in order to receive his advice, and if need be his private rebuke.
This wise provision enables the superior to gain a knowledge of the
pupils, to form them, and to assure himself of their vocation.* For
this reason his door is never shut against them : and he feels him-
self called upon to give them all his time. The Superior of a semi-
nary must thus cease at once to be a man of study. He must give
up the notion of being a learned man, otherwise he will not be able
to do the good which the diocese expects of him.

XVII. " The retreat. The year commences and finishes with a

f i. e. to the high and laborious office of a Roman Catholic priest.

321

retreat. The retreat which ensues on the meeting of the seminary
after the vacation lasts three days, exclusive of the day which opens
and that which closes it. All these days are passed in silence.
Each one then examines his conscience, confesses, makes plans for
the good employment of his time, and prescribes himself with this
object in view a special rule, in order to help himself on in the ways
of Christian and clerical perfection. In some seminaries the retreat
lasts nine days. The retreat at the end of the year is shorter. Its
object is the good employment of the vacation.

XVIII. " The vacation. It lasts three months. The rule makes
them long, less for the sake of giving rest to the students, than in
order to give them an opportunity of trying their faith in the world.
During this time their superiors are the priests of their respective
parishes, who have them in charge, and from whom they are obliged
to bring a certificate to bear witness to their life.

<c This is what the rule prescribes ; but all the students add to
this a certain number of little schemes practised by them in private.
These consist in frequent liftings up of the heart to God, little
visits to the chapel, spiritual conversations with their superiors in
recreation time, conventional means to recall a sense of the presence
of God. They place on their table for this purpose small crucifixes,
pictures of the Holy Virgin, or of those Saints with whose history
they are best acquainted. A number of them agree to pray together
or to give each other charitable warnings, and these associations have
the happiest results."

I have sufficiently explained on former occasions, that in
proposing similar examples, I am very far from meaning to
imply, that the particular details there mentioned could be
suitably introduced among ourselves ; but am only bringing
it forward as a clear and distinct indication of principles,
which are as necessary for us as for them. I can hear
no where in our Church of any establishment, for training
whether the clergy or other educators, where it seems in the
least understood, that personal religion is in no way secured
by bringing pupils together for public worship, with what-
ever help from the charms of music or of architecture : nor
can it be secured, unless the chief pains be bestowed on what
must be the basis of the whole, the formation of a spiritual
and devotional character in individuals. And those who

322

have been taught on a radically vicious method, will teach
others on a similar method; so that the matter is one of most
overwhelming interest and importance.

It must be acknowledged then, that whatever proportion
of our clergy there may be, who feel the direction and as-
sistance of the individual conscience to be their one primary
duty, they have certainly not learnt that opinion from our
Church ; her whole system tends in the opposite direction.
And such being the case, we might fairly anticipate, that
neither does the same system furnish any very efficacious
machinery for carrying out this opinion. Accordingly, there
is no one thing on which the voice of all such clergymen
is so unanimous, as on this. They complain that our Church
has absolutely no hold at all on the popular mind ; that the
poor man goes on day after day, cold, hard, utterly insensible
to religious considerations, and that they know not how to
reach his heart and conscience. They say that our Church-
service passes as it were, over his head; that it interests
neither his feelings nor his imagination, and is not even
partially received by his understanding. Were it in an
unknown tongue, helps, translations, paraphrases, would be
offered him in great abundance : some of which might suit
his particular bent or capacity, and give him an interest in
divine worship : but as it is, the service professes to be
intelligible to him, and therefore the clergyman gives him no
substantial help; while Latin itself could hardly be more
foreign to his daily habits of thought.

It will be replied perhaps that, though it may be true that
few clergymen really feel the paramount necessity of personal
and individual intercourse with the several members of their
flock, still those who do feel this have the means in their
own hands of supplying the omission. That this is partially
true, I hope even to urge in the next chapter : but it must
be wholly by methods of their own devising ; there is no
part of our system which gives them any help whatever in
this fundamental duty. What our Church has formally
done on the subject is, to abolish the obligation of Sacra-
mental Confession : while she bears witness against herself, by

enunciating in the Prayer-book the principle of Confession
and Absolution, and thus shewing that it was through no
deliberate adoption of a wrong opinion, that she has allowed
the practice to fall into desuetude. Let us consider then
what is the value of so much religious communication as oc-
casionally takes place between our clergymen and their adult
parishioners, under our present loss of compulsory Confession.
The ordinary domestic visit, which is all that is left, will
seldom surely afford scope for communications on matters of
such deep moment; and even when it does, when the clergy-
man's advice is asked on some point of conscience or on the
means of encountering some temptation, (though on minor
matters he may often be of great service,) if it be really a
case which is closely bound up with the whole spiritual being
of the applicant, no real benefit will be obtained. For no
advice can be given with any ground for believing that it
may not be even most pernicious, unless there is a far
greater security for the whole circumstances being fully
and fairly put before him, than can possibly be obtained,
where confession is not sacramental ; where there are not the
most powerful spiritual sanctions, to break through that
barrier of false shame, which restrains the penitent from
the temporary misery of a full disclosure, and also to ensure,
on the part of the priest, the most sacred and inviolable
secrecy. Then even were this difficulty surmounted, it
is essential that the faithful Christian shall have had
cause to repose such entire confidence in the priest's com-
petence, that his injunction shall be, without doubt or
question, at once obeyed. Further ; for one person who
is bold enough to ask advice in a spiritual difficulty,
there will ever be a million who are sunk in carelessness and
disregard of religious obligation, who yet might possibly be
reclaimed if confession were required of them ; and hun-
dreds who may feel a strong desire to unburden their souls,
but cannot force themselves to the requisite effort. In
both these cases our present system is confessedly power^
less ; the clergy must stand looking on with folded arms,
while these classes are, the one daily more hardened in their

y 2

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careless way of life, the other from want of that support
which our Church does not give them, are carried away, at
some fatal moment, by the eddy of temptation, and from
that time forward seek in vain to recover their firm anchorage.
So that, with the exception of a few most rare and fortunate
cases, a really confidential communication with the priest
does not take place, till heavy sickness comes on, and death
and judgment seem close at hand; w r hen advice is asked, not
that the conflict on earth may be less unworthily sustained,
but that the approach of death may be less tremblingly and
cheerlessly expected.

But now, even supposing a most extreme and imagi-
nary hypothesis : supposing that compulsory confession of
penitent to priest were suddenly resumed on a wide scale
among us : the effect would be most mischievous. Why ?
Because the nature of those perplexities which cloud the
conscience and bewilder the judgment of faithful servants of
God in the lower ranks of life, or of those sins which oppress
their memory, cannot be understood in their real nature, or
rather will be most utterly misunderstood, by one whose
whole past experience has been of the most opposite
character; unless indeed he unite the rarest moral and
intellectual gifts. Unless you expect every parish priest
to combine the highest qualities of genius and imagination
with the most winning gentleness, tenderness, forbearance,
compassionateness, he will chill the heart of Christ's little
ones, by treating as light and fantastical, perplexities, which
they feel deeply to be most serious and to require most
careful consideration ; or he will crush and overwhelm them
by forming a harsh and severe judgment on sins, quite
opposite in character to those towards which he has ever
been tempted, but which, if he were able distinctly to place
before his imagination the whole circumstances of the case,
he would at once feel were rather subjects for tender and
loving expostulation than for stern rebuke. Nothing can
possibly prevent this, except what I mentioned in my second
chapter, the existence of a recognised body of moral and
ascetic theology ; and the making it among the most essential

325

parts of a priest's whole education, that he shall be sufficiently
versed in the main particulars of these sciences. In foreign
Catholic countries this is made more prominent than any
other single study, in preparing a priest for his high office ;
insomuch that M. Gueranger, who desires to claim a larger
share for liturgical studies than has of late been given,
addresses the French clergy even in complaint of their too
exclusive devotion to preparation for the Confessional. With-
out giving any opinion on the justice of this remonstrance, it
shews us in the most lively manner how singular a stress they
lay on it ; and it is plain that a priest of no uncommon abili-
ties, who learns by such an education the ordinary temptations
and sins of humble life, their relative magnitude, and the fit
conduct of a Confessor in dealing with them, and who after-
wards adds to this theoretical knowledge daily practice in the
Confessional, will dispense on all sides of him the highest and
most admirable blessings ; and that he will naturally draw to
himself from the flock that deep affection and reverence
which is so proverbially the general lot of Catholic priests.

Here it may be objected, that from time to time there must
still be instances which, whether from peculiarities of out-
ward circumstances or of inward character, will exceed the
competency of an ordinary priest ; which will refuse to admit
of solution, either from the formal system he has learnt, or
from the resources of his own mind. This is most true ; but
it does not interfere at all with the general statement, that the
vast majority of serious Christians in the lower ranks will be
almost certainly directed right by priests who have been
carefully trained for the Confessional, and will be almost
certainly directed wrong by those who have not been so
trained. Again, should an exceptional case derive its dif-
ficulty from some unusual complication of external facts, the
priest will of course forward it to the recognised body of
doctors in moral theology ; who give themselves wholly to
its study, and are ready to bring its general principles and all
the other facts whereof they are cognizant, fully to bear on
any new case brought before them. It is by this very mode,
by hearing continually of new cases, that their science con-
tinually enlarges its grasp and completes its view.

326

But it may easily happen that Christians here and there
shall exist, who are perplexed by unusual and eccentric
troubles of mind, and whose mental disease is of a more
recondite and anomalous character ; or again, who, from
walking constantly by God's grace in the higher paths of
devotion and obedience, are brought within the sphere of
temptations and troubles unknown to more ordinary Chris-
tians. In such case the good Roman priest, who may feel
himself unequal to the task of disciplining and directing such
souls, will think no pains too great, no arrangement too
troublesome, that he may accomplish the object of bringing
such Christians into communication with some one, more
deeply acquainted than himself with the mysteries of the
human mind, and more profoundly versed in the deep secrets
of ascetic theology/ What is the existing practice of the
Roman Church in such cases, I do not happen to know : but
if my readers are at first tempted to consider it a fanciful
refinement to suppose that the course of active life is seriously
to be interfered with, that a weak brother's scruples may be
alleviated, or that advice may be given under temptations
and distress which they may be inclined to fancy equally
imaginary ; if that thought cross their minds, they bear
against themselves stronger evidence than words or argu-
ments of mine can bear. They shew themselves to be so
spiritually blinded by the carnal and worldly atmosphere of
our Church-system, by the foul atmosphere of Lutheranism

f In case my observations in the second chapter may not have sufficiently ex-
plained the distinction between moral and ascetic theology, it may be as well to say
here a few words on the subject. The former (in technical language) is an a priori,
the latter an experimental science ; the former decides on ends, the latter on
means. What thoughts, words, or actions are right or wrong, and in what degrees,
whether to societies or to individuals, and under every variety of external cir-
cumstance, all this is contemplated by moral theology ; which includes, accord-
ingly, casuistry as a small part of itself, and contains also the very interesting
controversies of the last and previous centuries on probabilism. Ascetic theology
considers such questions as these ; what habits, observances, rules, method of
self-discipline, will best help to the attainment of certain qualities which moral
theology teaches to be virtues, or the abandonment of certain others which
moral theology teaches to be sins. And mystical theology is the ascetic theology of
those, who are unusually advanced in the Christian course, and leading a life of
unearthly and noble sanctity.

327

which as some pestilential vapour overspreads us, that the
sight which God and the Holy Angels behold with far more
interest and sympathy than any other earthly object, the
solitary and severe conflicts of a holy and spiritual soul, they
think of little moment, when compared with the undisturbed
and unruffled course of this world's affairs.

It must not be forgotten, that in many parts of Catholic
Christendom a poor man who, at any period of his life, is
strongly impressed by religious truth, and moved by the
Holy Ghost to a higher and stricter life, may join a religious
order, in which, without at all diminishing the amount of
manual labour which his earthly vocation involved, he may
add to it devotional and penitential exercises of inestimable
value, and may have the blessing of a Confessor who is no
ordinary parish priest, but (as Confessors to monastic bodies
are bound) deeply versed, not in ascetic only, but in mystical
theology. A community of this kind may now be seen in
Leicestershire by any who have the curiosity ; and a con-
versation with any of the monks (who are all of the lowest
classes, and work all day long in the fields) will afford matter
both of surprise and edification . g And if in early years a
strong religious disposition is evinced, in all Roman Catholic
countries a ready access is open, even from the humblest ranks
of life, (nay the more ready from the humblest ranks,) to the
priesthood ; the aspirant is separated from an early age for his
future calling, and receives a careful and complete education.

I should not conclude this part of my subject, without giving
two different accounts, received from the best authority,
on the subject of institutions, which the Roman Catholics
call ' missions ;' the object of which is to revive the embers
of piety, and powerfully summon the multitude to more
serious thoughts. Let it be observed, how much of family
likeness there is to the ' religious revivals' of dissenting com-
munities; and yet how securely it is protected against the
fearful dangers which attend those religious observances, by
the uniformly moral character of the preaching : how the

8 Those who have been struck by the picture of monastic habits in the life of St.
Stephen Harding, will be peculiarly interested in the strict observance of the Cister-
cian rule by these monks.

328

' missionaries' speak not of feelings but of duties; not of
experiences but of sins : how all, whose mind is awakened,
are at once relegated to the Confessional, that their good de-
sires may not remain inoperative, but be committed at once
to good effects. The latter of the two accounts has come
into my possession from a priest who has frequently conduct-
ed a * mission.'

I. " There are several religious orders, and associations of secular
priests, for the purpose of giving missions ; i. e. of preaching during
a limited number of days in a town or village, on the great truths of
salvation. Such are the Missionaries (the religious of St. Vincent
of Paul) as they are called in Italy, from being specifically devoted
to this duty, the Jesuits, the Redemptorisls, (founded expressly for
this purpose by St. Alphonsus Liguori see the lessons of his office
in the Brev. Aug.) the Passionists, &c. Among recent associations
of priests is that of " the most precious Blood of our Lord" esta-
blished by the Canon Del Buffalo, who lately died, 28 Dec. 1837,
at Rome, in the odour of sanctity, and by whose intercession a
splendid miracle was last year wrought at Nice, and at whose
preaching the writer has had the happiness of attending. (It may
be observed how the very names of every one of these orders declare
that Christ Crucified is the subject of their preaching, and that they
do not lose sight of Him and His merits.) Besides these, the
Capuchins, Reformed Franciscans of the B. Leonardo a Porta
Maurizio, and other religious orders, are ever ready when called to
give missions.

II. " The entire lives of St. Francis de Girolamo above referred
to, and that of Ven. Paul of the Cross, the Founder of the Passion-
ists, may be said to be made up of the details of the missionary
life. The xxix. chap, of b. i. of the latter (p. 116, Rome, 1786,)
gives the method which he pursued.

III. " In general a mission is composed of at least two, generally
more, priests. They make a solemn entry into the town or village,
being met outside by the people, clergy, and authorities, and con-
ducted chaunting to the Church, or often, for want of room there, to
some public square or open space. This is in the afternoon, and an
introductory discourse, at the foot of a large crucifix, is delivered,
upon a platform, round which the members of some confraternity
stand. The mission is in fact the Spiritual Exercises [see postea]
preached, instead of meditated on. In country places and small

329

towns they are divided between early in the morning and late in
the evening, that the people may be able to attend to their work.
As early as four a.m. they assemble in the Church, and an energetic
discourse is delivered on one of the great Truths as death, or
sin, &c. A familiar catechetical address follows, expounding some
great duty in a popular way, then mass. In the evening, there is
another catechetical discourse generally on preparation for Con-
fession and Communion, then another sermon on a great truth of
salvation. The rest of the day is filled up with the Confessional,
reconciling feuds, (a particular duty of the missionary,) instructing
the children, seeking the conversion of notorious sinners, and the
correction of scandals ; perhaps in giving some retreat in a convent,
or in preaching to prisoners or the sick. In this way Del Buffalo
used, when in mission, to preach ten, twelve, and sixteen times in
one day. (Short MS. inedited life in writer's possession.) The
lives before referred to, and those of St. Alphonsus and many
others, furnish most interesting examples of the wonderful and often
miraculous success of these missions. But they are of ordinary
occurrence. The writer has seen the congregation of an entire village
crowded in its church, all melted in tears, sobbing aloud, and calling
on God for pardon. The mission ends by a general communion,
and bad books, cards, and dice, and unlawful arms, are often
publicly burnt in the market place. A marked improvement in the
moral condition of the population is sure to follow ; and many a per-
manent conversion follows.

IV. " Bishops who are zealous for their flocks will procure such
a mission in every town and village at least every three or four years.
The missionaries go from place to place, and sometimes are out for
many months without rest. Not only is the machinery there and
at work, but so far from there being any lukewarmness in the mis-
sionaries, there is perhaps a more active spirit among them than there
has been at any former period."

" These retreats [see postea] are one of the most powerful means
to convert sinners, to enlighten penitents, and to make the perfect
advance rapidly in the way of sanctity ; hence it is, that in every
Catholic community, regular or secular, a retreat is performed once
a year, and in some of them twice ; and, that those who do not live
in communities should not be deprived of so great a blessing, it is
customary in Catholic countries to give a retreat at different times to
whole parishes, or villages, or towns.

330

" A retreat in such a case is called a mission, because three, four,
five, or more priests are sent by the Bishop to assist in so holy a
practice.

" A mission is a body of reserve, in the continual war that the
militant Church wages against sin. When, for some cause or other,
or by the natural weight of our corruption, the Christian fervour
decays in a parish or a town, the Bishop sends a mission, as the only
remedy against all evils, and the effect is infallible.

" The mission is announced a month or two before, that every
one may so arrange his temporal occupation, as to be present
at it.

" Then, at the appointed day, the whole clergy of the town or
parish go forth in procession with all the confraternities to meet
the missionaries, who many times travel the whole or a great part
of the way on foot ; and as soon as they arrive, all the bells are
rung, and without declining to the right or to the left, they repair
with the procession to the church, or to the spot where they have to
preach, (if the mission is to be given in the open air,) and im-
mediately begin, by inviting all the town to come every day to listen
to the word of God, to the embassy that they have to deliver to them
in the name of Christ, saying, that the Lord sends peace to them,
and mercy, that He does not wish to punish them, but to call them
to repentance. Then they give them a rule of life, to be followed
during the ensuing days, and the distribution of hours for the spiritual
exercises during the retreat.

" Four sermons are delivered to them ; two in the morning, and
two in the evening. Masses and prayers are said in the morning
before and after the sermons, and in the afternoon psalms and
canticles are said or sung, and a spiritual book is read at different
times suitable to the occasion ; so that the people continue in the
church almost all the day long in a succession of different spiritual
exercises.

" It would be long to give all details ; but I will only say, that
after a few days you would say that the face of the earth there is
changed. Public houses are deserted, enemies are reconciled,
stolen things restored, wrong connections given up, bad books
burnt, detractions retracted, children asking pardon of parents
for their bad conduct, the town solemn and still ; passing along
the shops, you would hear men at work saying prayers; some ask
publicly pardon of the whole town for their scandals ; others resolve

331

to leave the world and become monks or nuns ; the covetous give
abundance of alms to the poor ; several poor girls are married who
otherwise would be in danger of seduction ; the baptismal promises
are solemnly renewed ; the confessionals crowded day and night ;
so that, like St. Peter, the missionaries are obliged to send for all
the clergy of the neighbouring parishes, and to beckon to them for
assistance to draw the nets to the land ; and in the last day, after
all being reconciled with God, they all go to communion. Then you
would see thousands and thousands approaching the holy table, in
tears of such devotion and such fervour, that you are overpowered,
and cannot refrain from shedding with them tears of consolation,
and blessing the Lord, saying, This is the change of the right hand
of the Most High.'

" A procession takes place in the afternoon to some spot, where
a large cross is carried and planted, as a memorial of the mission
given in such or such a year, and as a monument of the covenant
renewed by the people of that place with God. There the resolu-
tions are publicly and solemnly repeated, and offered to God, and
then blessed by the missionary, who implores the peace of God and
His blessings upon the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of the place,
upon all parents, upon all children, upon the poor, &c., &c. ; and
after having sung a solemn Te Deum, the mission finishes.

" You may understand that such a work (which, after all,is the
work of God, and His grace) is not like a passing storm, but it con-
tinues to stand for years, and sometimes for many years ; and when
at last is forgotten, it is revived by another mission."

And what is the effect on the general character of our
poor, resulting from this absence of spiritual discipline ?
Here there is an universal agreement as to phenomena, how-
ever wide the differences or the cause of the phenomena. It
seems agreed on all hands, that our agricultural poor, con-
sidered as a class, are oppressed by a dull, heavy, torpid
stagnation of the faculties, which renders all attempts to in-
terest them in religious subjects hopeless ; while the most
frightful immorality extends in all directions, which even
those who do not practise it hardly feel to be sinful. It seems
agreed that our manufacturing poor, taken as a class, if their
intellect be sharper, are only in consequence more actively

332

inimical to religion ; if they be less obtuse and unimpres-
sible, are only the more arrogant, self-conceited, and turbu-
lent. God forbid that we should exercise any severity of
judgment, on that which to so fearful an extent is our own
work ! no, not even in those extreme cases, when self-defence
requires vigorous measures of repression and punishment.
Without presuming to sound the unfathomable abyss of
God's judgments and dealings with man, or conjecturing
what unknown means of probation He may have in store for
those, who seem here on earth to sink, almost without fault
of theirs, into the gulf of wickedness, opening wide its jaws to
receive them, it will be well at all events to impress on our
minds the following passage of Scripture : " When I say
unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die : and thou givest him
not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked
way, to save his life : the same wicked man shall die in his
iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hands"

We make our boast of professing what we are pleased to
call a Scriptural religion: let us compare our system with the
test of Scripture. Some years since a member of our Church
was so unhappy as to imply, that " the highest state of mo-
ral and religious elevation can be attained only by the edu-
cated and polished classes of society, and even among these
by none except persons of higher intellectual powers ; " while
the " less abstracted and contemplative minds " are capable
only of " strong though not refined feelings of devotion."
On this Mr. Froude, burning with holy indignation, expresses
himself as follows :

" What ! are we to be told that the fishermen of Galilee were
strangers to the high devotion of a modern philosopher ? Is the
Gospel of St. John a methodistical rhapsody, resulting from ' strong
though not refined feelings of devotion ? ' and what shall we say of
Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and of the other Mary, whom ' all
generations shall call blessed ? ' and who are they that shall ' sit on
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,' when ' the last shall be
first and the first last ? '

" In fact, this notion is one which cuts at the very root of the
Christian spirit ; and instead of teaching us to love the things

333

which Christ commands, and desire that which He doth promise,
proposes to us a new calling, whereunto He has not called us.
' Ye see your calling, brethren,' says one, ' incapable of abstracted
contemplation ;' ' how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that
are mighty ; and the base things of the world and the things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, the things that are not, to bring
to nought the things that are ; that no flesh should glory in His
presence.'

" The religion of Jesus Christ is in an especial manner the religion
of the poor ; and it was to these that the Gospel was first preached ;
it was these that heard it gladly. The fisher's cot by the lake of
Gennesareth, the shop of the wandering tent-makers at Corinth,
and of the purple-sellers of Thyatira, these were the good ground
where the seed of the true Faith fell, and brought forth its thirty,
its sixty, and its hundredfold." k

Now let us fairly ask ourselves the question, Have we
ever realised the fact, or when we look at the poor as we
find them around us, can we by ever so great an effort bring
ourselves to realise the fact, that the Mother of God, the
holy Apostles, the great body of early Christians, belonged
to the same class with our agricultural and manufacturing
poor ? Would it not involve a revolution in all our habits of
thought, fully to believe that those devoted to life-long
manual labour may contemplate heavenly things as habitually,
desire spiritual blessings as earnestly, and despise earthly
joys or sorrows as triumphantly, as the most educated of us
all ? Would it not be our immediate tendency to ridicule the
idea of a man with rough hands, soiled dress, and homely
speech, oppressed with bitter sorrow for some deficiency in
the hearty performance of the labour covenanted with his
employer, or for some one discontented or angry thought,
or seriously complaining of the aridity which he from time
to time experiences in prayer and meditation ? Yet such is
the account we over and over again read, of Saints or saintly
k Remains, 2d part, vol. i. pp. 306 8.

334

men in the Catholic Church. How deeply and fundamentally
opposed then are our habits and tendencies to that Scriptural
standard, which Protestants profess to follow, but to which
the Church Catholic alone has faithfully witnessed !

3. Let us now turn our eyes to the educated classes ;
and let us again begin with the beginning; viz. the care
taken by the English Church of their education. Here as
before Confession enters into the foreign system with the
greatest advantage. If either of the parents have a pro-
fession of religiousness, her Confessor impresses on her the
duty of carefully training her child in habits of prayer and
obedience, and instructs her in the best means of training
him. At the age of seven, the child's own time of confession
begins ; and thus the Church brings to bear directly upon
him, through her specially educated minister, those maxims
and rules, by means of which his whole education, secular or
theological, may be throughout leavened with a religious
spirit, and wholly grounded on a religious basis. This
affords us an excellent test, to discover what are the real
reasons for that dislike of Sacramental Confession, so general
among us ; whether we really agree with Roman Catholics
on the paramount importance of moral discipline, and only
object to Confession because of evils supposed to attend it
(' priestcraft ' or others) ; or whether we are in real truth
miserably blind to the fundamental duty of early inculcating
moral and religious habits. For if the former were the case,
how zealous would our Church be in supplying by other
means the need which she so deeply regrets her inability to
supply by this means ! how numerous would be the manuals
of self-examination placed in the hands of the young, or
books devised for the purpose of instructing parents in the
best mode of religiously educating their children ! How
systematically and uniformly would the priest lay before
those parents in his parish, who do not send their children
to the church school, the indispensable importance of at least
carefully disciplining them at home in prayer, religious
meditation, hatred of sin, self-denial, penitence !

Instead of all this, what do we find ? in what single

335

particular can our Church be said so much as to concern
herself with the education of those above a state of pauperism ?
She acts, as though her authoritative scheme of instruction
were very well for those who could get for themselves no
better; but that where she is not asked to give education
gratuitously, 1 she has no duty of labouring that it be given
religiously. Nay, even if a parent be earnestly desirous of
doing her duty in this particular, and painfully and dis-
tressingly conscious of its unspeakable importance, what
systematic, well-devised scheme, complete in its parts
theoretically, adjusted to human nature practically, does our
Church offer ? where is this or any thing like this to be
found ? On questions so essential above all others as whether
punishment be necessary or even allowable, whether even the
most essential duties should be directly taught the young or
they should be left to gather them from personal study of
Scripture, whether they ought or ought not to be at least
encouraged to confess particular sins which they may have
committed, such questions as these, with a multitude of
others, are as freely discussed and as variously decided, as
though there were nobody among us at all, which professed
it as her function to educate the young. And, in recipro-
cation, our Church seems to look on as contentedly and
unconcernedly, while these discussions proceed, as though
she were in no way called on to arbitrate in the matter ; as
though she laid no real claim to the prerogative of educating
her own children ; but only professed such a claim, as if by
a sort of etiquette, when any overture to Dissenters is made
by the civil power.

Let us now contemplate members of the same class, who
have advanced from a state of childhood. The tempta-
tions which beset these as they advance in years, are
strikingly opposite in character to those experienced by the
poor. The sins to which these latter are solicited, are of a
nature which are at once recognised as sins by all whose
conscience is not absolutely hardened ; for even sullenness,

1 I am not quite sure that the word ' gratuitously' is strictly correct ; I have
heard, at least, that a nominal sum is frequently exacted, on the principle that people
in England value nothing but what they pay for.

336

discontent, sloth, anger, in the shape they wear among the
poor; or again, neglect of daily and regular devotion, these
impress their real nature even on men under their influence,
unless they "nave fairly abandoned the very profession of a re-
ligious character. Far different is the case with those who have
a competent provision of the necessaries of life. In these, first
of all, as I said more at length in the second chapter, a deep,
subtle, all-pervading worldliness may exist, wholly unsus-
pected by themselves, sullying their best actions, nay even
fatally tainting them, and depriving them of real acceptable-
ness in God's sight. The poor, speaking generally, have no
present enjoyment to tempt them, which does not bear on its
very surface the brand of sin ; if they preserve respectability,
decorum, and a formal observance of religious duties, they
preserve very much more also ; if they do what is externally
right, they do it on high and religious grounds. While
those who live in the midst of gratifications which are
attractive and absorbing, and yet not in themselves sinful,
may be well assured, that unless they be provided with some
special and sharp discipline, their affections and interests will
be centred on things of earth, without any violent shock
being given to their moral feelings ; and they will be led on
to the most fearful peril of forfeiting their salvation.

In exercises of what kind should this special discipline
principally consist ? Before considering this, let us observe
a farther contrast which exists between the higher and lower
classes, not unlike that which I mentioned in a previous
chapter as distinguishing later from earlier times ; I mean,
the great prominence given among the former to self-con-
sciousness : the circumstance, that the observation and know-
ledge of their own thoughts, habits, feelings, and acts, will be
immeasurably greater in educated men than in uneducated ;
in refined than in rude ; in those who, as being free from
external anxiety of an overpowering and absorbing nature,
have leisure to look within, than in those whose life is an
unceasing conflict with the inclemency of their outward lot.
Over and above this, as though God would impress on our
minds at every turn the impossibility of avoiding misery here
below, unless we place our trust and rest in Him, it is found

337

universally, that as men are brought beyond the range of one
kind of distresses or temptations, they are only brought within
the sphere of another, which are neither understood, nor even
suspected to exist, by those not exposed to their influence.
In the former rank may be placed the pang of unrequited
affection, the keen sense of loneliness and yearning for sym-
pathy, sorrow from domestic trouble, the mere feeling of
unhappiness without assignable cause, perplexing and dis-
turbing scruples of conscience, peculiar agitations of mind
connected with the anxious conflict of opinion now proceeding,
and a thousand others; in the latter, (what is included in the
observations of the last paragraph,) idolatry of family and
friends ; and, again, the more subtle, but often even more
deadly, forms of envy, pride, vanity, discontent, sloth, self-
complacency, disregard of others, not to mention that most
fearful of all, scepticism of one or other kind. These often
assail the mind of those removed from more ordinary trials,
with an acuteness and intensity of torment, which naturally
enough has no justice done to it, nor receives any adequate
sympathy, from those who have not experienced it. While
then the rich are exposed to a most powerful and continued
temptation, from which the poor are free, viz. to seeking a
refuge for their sorrows in the thought or enjoyment of
worldly goods, instead of applying to them the true medicine ;
it seems really to admit of fair doubt, whether in all cases
those sorrows themselves are less oppressive and severe.

For both these reasons, then, it appears that the primary
discipline, under our present circumstances, should be a
mental discipline. For the first, because if we must un-
avoidably dwell more or less constantly on the thought of
ourselves, the task is one of no ordinary labour and difficulty
to take care that we think not on our own good qualities, but
on our bad ; not on the slights we may have received from
others, but on the slights we have ourselves offered to God ;
not on the sufferings God may have sent us, but on the
benefits with which He has so abundantly blessed us : and
also, because if we are almost compelled in so great a measure
to know our own thoughts, the duty is on that ground the

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more incumbent, in an equally increased measure to watch
and regulate our own thoughts. For the second; because
the only real remedy for mental disorders is the re-establish-
ment, by the agency of the Holy Ghost, of that inward
harmony of our nature, and subordination of our will and
affections to God, which was lost by the fall. The secondary
means, therefore, which those must apply, who suffer under
these peculiar troubles and distresses, are such as may best
provide, that the first-fruits of these more recondite and
complex feelings, now first called into active energy, should
be more and more undividedly offered to God ; in other
words, these means must be mental, rather than bodily,
observances. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten
that, without constant discipline, it is quite impossible for
us to grow in faithfulness to our Master's service, or
rather quite certain that we shall decline in it. Those
whose mind is thronged by sinful, by painful, by busy
thoughts, have abundant scope for the exercise of this dis-
cipline, in resisting the first, preserving the sense of over-
flowing thankfulness to God notwithstanding the second, and
at fixed times by a strenuous effort banishing the third, that
the mind may be given wholly to God. But so far as this is
not the case with any one of us, and so far as severe and
continued external sufferings sent by God do not supply the
place for purposes of discipline, in that proportion the neces-
sity of serious bodily self-inflictions becomes more obvious
and undeniable.

Two different kinds of mental discipline, prominently
enforced by the Roman Church, seem fitted in a very
peculiar way to these two kinds of mental peril, each to
each ; i. e. to the peril arising from self-consciousness, and
that arising from what we may call intellectual and imagina-
tive refinement of the feelings. The first kind is the system
of self-examination, on which such careful guidance is given ;
and of which a very general outline shall here follow, not
derived from any recondite sources, but from the ' Garden of
the Soul :' the manual which is in the hands of nearly all
Roman Catholics in this country.

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" An Examination of Conscience for every night.

[" First place yourself in the presence of God ; humbly adore
Him, and give Him thanks for all His blessings, especially those
bestowed on you this day.]

" ' O Almighty and eternal God, whose majesty filleth heaven
and earth, I firmly believe Thou art here ; that Thy adorable eye is
on me ; that Thou seest and knowest all things, and art most
intimately present in the very centre of my soul. I desire to bow
down all the powers of my soul to adore Thee ; I desire to join my
voice with all the angels and saints, to praise Thee and glorify
Thee now and for ever. I give Thee thanks from the bottom of my
heart, for all Thy mercies and blessings bestowed upon me and upon
Thy whole Church ; and particularly for those I have received from
Thee this day, in Thy watching over me, and preserving me from
so many evils, and favouring me with so many graces and inspira-
tions, &c. O let me never more be ungrateful to so constant and
liberal a Benefactor I And now, dear Lord, add this one blessing to
the rest : that I may clearly discover the sins that I have committed
this day, by thought, word, and deed ; or by any omission of any
branch of my duty to Thee, to my neighbour, or to myself; that no
part of my guilt may be hidden from my own eyes ; but that I may
see my sins in their true colour, and may detest them as they ought
to be detested.'

[" Then examine yourself, how you have passed the day ; how
you have performed your prayers, and other spiritual exercises ; in
what manner you have acquitted yourself of the duties of your
calling ; what care you have taken to perform well your ordinary
actions of the day ; what company you have been in, and what your
conversation has been ; and, in particular, how you have behaved
yourself with regard to your customary failings and your predominant
passions.

" After having diligently examined your conscience, and dis-
covered the faults you have been guilty of, endeavouring to be
heartily sorry, humbly beg pardon of the Divine Majesty for them,
saying for this purpose the psalm ' Miserere, Have mercy on me,
O God,' &c.

" Then make a firm purpose of amendment for the future, and
especially resolve to be more watchful over yourself the following
day ; to be more diligent in flying the occasions of your sins, and to

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take such and such precautions with regard to the faults you are
most subject to.

" Conclude this exercise by endeavouring to put yourself, as much
as possible, in the condition you would be glad to be found in at
the hour of your death : in order to this, make the best acts you are
able, of a lively Faith, of an humble Confidence in God, and of a
perfect Resignation to His holy will : embrace with all the affections
of your soul Christ crucified, and aspire to an eternal union with
Him. For which end you may pray as follows, &c.]"

" This or the like examen of conscience," adds the writer,
" ought never to be omitted by such as desire to serve God in
good earnest, and to secure their soul's eternal welfare."

This account includes what is called the 'particular ex-
amination.' A few words, however, may be added on the
latter subject, from that most admirable and standard work,
the ' Treatise on Spiritual Perfection' by Rodriguez.

" The Devil takes all care imaginable to know the most feeble
part of our souls, to make his attack afterwards in that part, that
thereby he may more easily reduce us to his subjection. Let us
make use of this admonition, to keep ourselves on our guard, and to
take precaution against our enemies. Let us attentively seek and
find out which is the weakest part of the soul, and the most naked of
virtue ; let us see where our natural inclination renders an attack
more easy, and what part is most of all decayed and ruined by ill
habits ; and let us labour everywhere to repair and fortify the weakest
places by strong ramparts . . . Let us overcome that vice in vis which
is king of all the rest, and we shall easily tame and vanquish all the
others.

11 When we have any exterior defects that offend and scandalise our
neighbours, it is these that we must begin to retrench by means of
our particular examen, though we should have interior defects far
more considerable. For example, if one speaks too much, or too
harshly, or too sharply to his brethren ; or lets himself be carried so
far, as to say things that affect their reputation ; and, in fine, if one is
subject to other failings that may hurt the neighbour, reason and
charity oblige us first to correct ourselves in what may give pain' or
trouble to our brethren." vol. i. pp. 352, 4.

" There are three times for this examen, [he is speaking directly
of regulars, who of course are bound by a much stricter rule than those

341

who live in the world,] and of these three there are only two in
which we can examine ourselves. The first is in the morning when
we awake ; at which time we have nothing else to do, but to make a
firm purpose to abstain during the day, from what vice or imperfection
we aim at correcting. The second time is at noon before dinner. . . .
the third time is at night before we go to bed ; and then we must

renew the examen we made at noon But to root out still more

readily any vice or defect, which we wish to free ourselves from,
St. Ignatius gives us four excellent instructions. The first is, that
every time we fall into the defect or vice, we presently make an act
of repentance, laying our hand upon our breast ;... secondly, that after
the examen of night we compare the points we have noted with those
noted in the morning, to see if after dinner there be an amendment ;
the third and fourth, that in like manner we compare the points of
the day with those of the day before, and those of that week with
those of the week before." p. 370.

" We must take particular notice that ... all the virtue and efficacy
of our examen consist in compunction and true repentance for our
faults and in a firm resolution not to relapse into them ... A real
compunction and true repentance of our faults is a powerful remedy
to hinder us from relapsing ; and it is [of the greatest] importance
to dwell sometime and remain hereupon in our examens." pp. 372, 4.

" There are five points in the general examen of conscience. The
first is to give thanks to God for the benefits we have received ; and
this is put in the first place, that by afterwards comparing His
benefits with our sins, we may be moved to greater sorrow and con-
fusion The second point is to beg grace to obtain a perfect

knowledge of all the sins we have committed. . The third, to call
ourselves to account how often we have sinned, since the last re-
solution and good purpose we made ; beginning with the examination
of our thoughts, and afterwards continuing it on our words and actions.
The fourth is to beg pardon of God for all those sins into which we find
we have fallen, and to repent and conceive a great sorrow for them.
The fifth is, to purpose a firm amendment, and afterwards end with
reciting the Lord's Prayer. This general examen ought always to
be joined to the particular ; and to this end the first thing we ought
to do every morning when we get up, is to offer to God all the
actions we shall do during the day. For though in speaking of the
particular examen I have said that as soon as we awake we should
purpose to abstain from that vice we have undertaken to correct and

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that in this we should employ the beginning of our examen ; yet this
ought not to be done, till after we have offered up to God all our
thoughts, words, and actions, referring them all beforehand to His
greater glory. And having made a firm purpose and resolution not
to offend Him, and having begged His grace for this end., we must
afterwards twice a day, at noon and night, join the general examen
with the particular." p. 378.

"Sickness itsdf, which dispenses with our ordinary hour of mental
prayer, dispenses not with our general or particular examens. We
must hold it therefore for an infallible maxim, that we must never
exempt ourselves from it on any account whatever." p. 351.

This examen, as I lately observed, is considered so essen-
tial by Roman Catholics, that the omission of it on any one
day would be made a subject of confession. There is
a different exercise also, called by the same name of par-
ticular examination, commonly adopted, I believe, in Semi-
naries over and above the other. It consists in taking the
various parts of the Christian character in succession, and
making them the subject of meditation ; so as to impress our
minds at once with the full idea of what we ought to be,
and also our own miserable short-comings and imperfections.
The book commonly used in France on this subject is
M. Tronson's ' Examens particuliers sur divers sujets pro-
pres aux Ecclesiastiques, et a toutes les personnes qui veulent
s'avancer dans la perfection.' (Lyon.) In fact, much the
greater part bears practically on all serious Christians, as
well as on regulars or seminarists. To shew the plan of this
work, I cannot do better than take, almost at random, a few
specimens.

" 107^ Examen. On conformity to the will of God.

" First point.

" Let us adore our Lord ; who during his whole life, but especially
at the approach of His Passion, shewed forth a wonderful conformity
to the will of His Father. The most cruel torments and most
terrible afflictions present themselves in a crowd before His eyes,
and however the lower part of His soul may shrink from them, He
submits Himself to them with a loving resignation. O rare and
beautiful example of conformity to the will of God !

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" Second point.

" Let us examine ourselves if we have had a perfect conformity to
the will of God.

" Have we not desired other places or employments, than those
which God's providence has given us, and should we not have been
well-pleased to choose for ourselves those which might be to our
taste and inclination ?

" Have we been satisfied with the talents which we have received
from His divine goodness, without complaining that we had not as
much as some others ?

" Have we been contented with the condition in which He has
placed us ? and have we not wished some other more convenient,
more conspicuous, or more suitable to our fancy ?

" Have we received all troubles as coming from the hand of God ;
and instead of wasting the time in complaining of them and thinking
of them, have we considered that God sent them for our salvation and
for His glory ?

" When we have thought of death and contemplated its approach,
have we done so without trouble or murmuring, and with a perfect
resignation ?

" Have we had the same resignation in public calamities ; such as
wars, pestilences, famines ; looking on all these calamities as flowing
from the will of God, who disposes them according to the secret
counsels of His wisdom, and to derive from them the advantages
most suitable to His glory and His service ?

" Have we not desired with inquietude spiritual enjoyments ; so as
to be discontented, uneasy, and despondent, when God has permitted
us to be deprived of them ?

" Finally, have we adored the Providence of God in adversity as
in prosperity ; in spiritual aridity as in spiritual consolations ; in
privations as in enjoyments ; and have we put our trust in Him for
time and for eternity ?

Third point.

" O my God, since it is certain that nothing can happen in the world
except by Thy governance, and that worldly blessings and sufferings,
death and life, poverty and wealth, come equally from Thee, it is
most meet that we submit ourselves to Thy hand with love and with
reverence, and receive with grateful heart all that happens, painful
or pleasing. This it is, O my God, which I am resolved to do in
future by means of Thy holy grace. ' My heart is ready, O Godj

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my heart is ready ; it is ready for adversity, it is ready for prosperity.'
Augustine.

" 109^ Examen. On the love of our Lord. (The 108th was on the
same subject.)

" First point.

" Let us adore our Lord, resplendent in the glory of His Father,
and possessing the fulness of His treasures. Nothing so beautiful,
so worthy of love, as this divine Jesus. ... In Him His Father is well
and fully pleased ; is it not right that He should be the only object
of our love ? He is our Father, our Saviour, our Master, our
Shepherd, our Head, our Spouse, our All. Let us love Him, love
Him again, embrace him as nearly as we can.

" Second point.

" Let us examine if we have conceived for Him all the love that
His attributes deserve.

" Have we loved Him as Man-God, above all things, more than
all creatures and than ourselves ?

" Have we had delight in considering that He is the very Living
God ; and have we had supreme joy in gazing on all the greatness
and perfection which He possesses in that respect ?

" Have we loved Him as our Saviour, being ready to do all and to
suffer all in return for what He has vouchsafed to do and suffer for
our salvation ?

" Have we loved Him as our Sovereign Lord, having towards Him
the obedience of a servant, the faithfulness of a subject, the depend-
ence of a slave, and being enraptured to think that He has over us
that right of life and death which His sovereign power confers ?

" Have we loved Him as our Master, submitting teachably to His
instructions, embracing His maxims, maintaining His doctrine, and
having no greater wish than to see it spread over all the world ?

" Have we loved Him as our Head, wishing to receive from Him
alone movement and life, offering all that we have to defend His
glory, as the members offer themselves to defend the head ?

" Have we loved Him as our Shepherd, who nourishes us with His
own blood? and have we been disposed to give Him our blood in
return, and to shed it for His love ?

" Have we taken delight in listening to His Voice and following it,
and sought no other pastures except those to which He guides us ?

" Have we loved Him as the best of Fathers, having for Him a

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love of tenderness, reverence, and trust ; and fearing no one thing so
much as to displease Him ?

" Have we loved Him as the only Spouse of our soul ; have we no
other interests at heart but His ; desiring only what He wills, and
placing all our idea of happiness for time and for eternity in being
inseparably united to Him ?

" Lastly, have we loved Him as our All ; Who wishing to be every
thing to us, ought Alone to occupy our hearts and fill our affections ?
' He who gave Himself for us, seeks from us our heart also whole.'
St. Bernard.

" Third point.

" When I consider, O my Jesus, on how many grounds Thou
deservest to be loved ; and that Thou dost without ceasing solicit us
to give Thee all our affections, and that Thou dost cover those who
love Thee with grace and favours : what sorrow ought I not to feel,
to find myself as yet so little affected with love for Thee I Grant,
O my God, that my heart may be wholly enkindled with love of
Thee, and that I may not be so miserable as to be included in the
anathema pronounced by Thy Apostle, ' If any man love not the
Lord Jesus, let him be Anathema Maranatha.'

"11 Oth Examen. On the love of our neighbour.
" First point.

" Let us adore the infinite wisdom of our God which shines forth
with lustre in the manner whereby He commands us to love one
another. He knows the great benefits which we should derive" from
that love ; but since He foresees that the flesh and the Devil will
exert all their effort to destroy it, or at least greatly to lessen it,
not only He makes it an express commandment ; but He wills that
the love which we have for ourselves should be the measure of that
which we shall have for our neighbour. ' Thou shalt love,' He says,
' thy neighbour as thyself.' Let us return thanks to this God of
goodness and of love.

" Second point.

" Let us examine ourselves whether we have loved our neighbour
as ourselves.

" Have we entered heartily into all his interests, and made them
our own personal concern ?

" Have we rejoiced at his blessings, and taken as much interest in
the good that befals him as though it befel ourselves ?

" Have we felt as sensibly his sufferings and annoyances as our own ?

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" Do we take as much care of him as of ourselves ? Do we seek
the means of being able to help him ? are we beforehand with him
in his necessities ? Are we always ready to serve him ?

" In all the conversations, work, business, in which we come in his
path, do we shew him a great deference, a Christian courtesy ; do we
carefully avoid all that may pain him ?

" Is his reputation as dear to us as our own ? Have we endeavoured
whenever we could do it without failing in our duty, to hide his
faults, excuse them, extenuate them, and turn the conversation when
others speak of them ?

" Do we interest ourselves with love and zeal for his health and all
that concerns him?

" Have we his salvation at heart? do we make aspirations and
prayers in his behalf? do we shed tears for the faults or sins which he
commits ? do we observe with joy the graces which he receives, and
his faithfulness in corresponding to them ?

" Lastly, have we followed those two great rules which the Scrfpture
gives us : Do not to another what you would not have done to you,
and do to him what you would have done to you ?
" Third point.

" O my God, how well do we learn the manner in which Thou
desirest that we should love our neighbour, from what Holy Scripture
says of the love of Jonathan for David ! ' The soul of Jonathan was
knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own
soul.' Thus it is that we desire henceforward to love our neighbour :
we most humbly beg this grace of Thee, O my God, and we beg it of
Thee by the great love which Thou Thyself hast borne to us."
[There are nine further examens on this subject.]

Such exercises as these must have the most powerful
tendency towards the due regulation of our thoughts, words,
and actions ; being a remedy mainly founded in that very
self-consciousness, from whence flow the evils to be reme-
died. From the other characteristic of the refined classes
to which I drew attention, arises that unprecedented
divergence of individual character, so observable in our
times; the very great extent to which peculiarity and
' individuality' of mind extend on all sides of us. Now
the soul, as I just now observed, cannot receive aright the
Spirit of God, and thus obtain that wholesome and invigo-

rating quality which alone will brace and strengthen it against
the temptations peculiar to such a character, unless the first-
fruits of these habits of mind be offered up more and more
undividedly to God. It is quite necessary then that the
Church should teach and encourage a practice, of more
individual, free, natural, unrestrained, heartfelt, personal
prayer, than consists with the exclusive adoption of ap-
pointed forms ; that to divergence of individual character
should correspond variety of individual devotion; and that
each peculiarity of mind should have its full and unfettered
scope, in fastening itself on some Heavenly Correlative. On
the other hand, Mr. Newman in one of his Sermons 1 has
drawn out a formidable array of the evils which may probably
result, from the use of such individual and self-devised prayer;
irreverence, wandering thoughts, over-excited feelings, and
others. Now is it possible for human wisdom to conceive
a plan more fitted to meet the necessity for such prayer
which I just now urged, while it guards against those
dangers which Mr. Newman urges, than the whole system
of meditation, as practised in the Roman Church ; and
which I believe there are very few of the educated classes,
who think of going on at all into real strictness of life, who
would not be earnestly exhorted by their Confessors to
practise ? If it be said that religious men are, without taking
all this pains about it, at spare moments throughout the
day praying in a natural, unconscious manner, this only makes
such discipline as I speak of more important, in order that
such habitual prayer may be of higher and more practised
quality.

In this, as in the former instance, the advice placed before
ordinary English Roman Catholics in the ' Garden of the
Soul,' will be the most appropriate account with which to
begin : though indeed to understand at all fully the various
counsels which have been given to secure concentration of the
mind in mental prayer, the various editions of the * Spiritual
Exercises ' should be read.

1 Vol. I. Sermon xx.

348

" Instructions for Meditation, or Mental Prayer, proper to be
made every Morning.

" I will meditate on thee in the morning. Psalm Ixii. 7.

" The wise man will give his heart to resort early to the Lord
that made him, and he will pray in the sight of the Most High.
Eccles. xxxix. 6.

" Meditation, consisting of considerations on the great truths of
Christianity, pious a/ections, and manifold elevations of the soul to
God, and serious resolutions of devoting one's self to Him, is allowed
to be one of the most important exercises of a Christian life, and
such as ought to be performed daily, by as many as would serve
God in good earnest. The time most proper for it is the morning ;
the most proper place one's closet, or any other where one can be
most recollected. The chief subjects to be meditated on, especially
for beginners, are, the end for which we came into this world : the
benefits of God, and the many motives we have to love and serve
Him : the vanity of the honours, riches, and pleasures of this life ;
and how very suddenly all these things vanish away : the enormity
of sin, and the multitude of our own sins in particular : the certainty
and uncertainty of death ; and the necessity of preparing for it :
the account we must one day give to an all-seeing Judge : the
eternal joys of heaven, and the eternal torments of hell : the
presence and majesty of God : the life and death of Jesus Christ :
the examples of His saints : the state of our own interior, in order
to the knowledge of ourselves, our passions and vices, &c.

" The method of meditation prescribed by that great master in
spirituality, St. Francis de Sales, in his Introduction, part the 2d,
is as follows : First, Place yourself in the presence of God, by a
lively faith that He sees and beholds you, and is most intimately
present in the centre of your soul : prostrate yourself in spirit before
Him, to adore this sovereign Lord, whose majesty fills heaven and
earth ; make an offering of your whole being to Him ; and humbly
beg His pardon for all your past treasons and sins.

" Secondly, Implore with fervour and humility His light and
grace, that you may perform this important exercise as you ought.

" Thirdly, Consider attentively upon the subject which you have
chosen for your meditation (which you ought to have prepared over
night), and let the truths of heaven sink deep into your soul.
Dwell most upon such points as you find yourself most affected
with.

349

" Fourthly, From these considerations draw pious affections of
the love of God, of gratitude for His benefits, repentance for your
sins, and the like, which are the principal part of mental prayer, and
what you ought most to insist upon.

" Fifthly, From these affections pass on to good resolutions of a
serious amendment of your life, particularly with regard to such
failings as you are most subject to : and determine with yourself to
begin that very day to put these good purposes in execution on such
occasions as shall offer.

" Sixthly, Conclude by thanksgiving to God for the affections
and resolutions He has given you : offer them to Him, and beg His
blessing on them.

" Seventhly, Lay up in your mind such points of your meditation
as have touched you most, and oftentimes in the day reflect upon
them : which the saint compares to gathering, as it were, a nose-
gay, in the garden of devotion, to smell at all the day.

" Eighthly, Such as find difficulty in meditation may help them-
selves by using some good book, reading leisurely, and pausing
upon what they read, and drawing proper affections and resolutions
from it."

Then follow ' Ten Meditations out of the first part of
St. Francis de Sales' Introduction : which may serve as
examples of this exercise ; and are very proper to bring a
soul to a resolution of serving God:' which it is not necessary
to transcribe.

The following is a valuable account, in short space, of
' mental prayer :' it is taken principally from the works of
St. Alphonsus Liguori, and is prefixed to the English trans-
lation of his ' Preparation for Death.'

" Mental prayer is not absolutely necessary ; but it certainly is
morally necessary in order to obtain perseverance. This necessity
arises from two causes : the first is, that the eternal truths are seen,
not with the eyes of the body, but by the reflection of the under-
standing. Hence he who neglects meditation does not see these
truths ; and, in consequence of not seeing them, he shall scarcely
see the importance of salvation, the means which he ought to
adopt, and the obstacles which he has to overcome ; and thus he
shall scarcely be saved. Secondly, the soul that neglects medita-

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lion does not pray for God's graces ; but to pray for them is neces-
sary, not only because it is strictly commanded, but also because it
is a means without which we cannot observe the Divine precepts,
since God does not ordinarily give His graces to any adult unless
he prays for them. Now, he who does not make mental prayer,
neither sees his spiritual wants, nor the necessity of asking aid
from God to resist temptations and save his soul. Hence he seldom
or never prays for God's assistance, and, by neglecting to pray
for it, he is lost. They who neglect mental prayer, pray with a
distracted mind ; hence many who say the Rosary, the Office of
the Blessed Virgin, and other prayers, continue to live in the state
of sin. But it is impossible for him who continues to make mental
prayer to remain in sin ; he shall either give up meditation, or
renounce sin.

" Mental prayer contains three parts : the preparation, the medi-
tation, and the conclusion. In the preparation there are three
acts : first, an act of faith of the presence of God : secondly, an
act of humility ; thirdly, a petition for light. They may be made
in the following manner. 1. My God, I believe you present
within me, and I adore you from the abyss of my nothingness.
2. Lord, I ought now to be in Hell on account of my sins ; I am
sorry for having offended You ; pardon me in your mercy. . Eter-
nal Father, through the merits of Jesus . . . give me light, that I may
draw fruit from this meditation . . . The preparation should be short,
but made with fervour.

" In the meditation, after reading the points, reflect on the part by
which you feel your devotion most excited. But remember that the
advantage of mental prayer does not consist in reflecting on the
truths of faith, so much as in the three great fruits of meditation.
More of the time of mental prayer should be given to reflections on
the eternal maxims by those who live in the world, than by those who
live in religious communities, and devote a good deal of time each
day to spiritual reading and other devout exercises.

"The three principal fruits of meditation are first, pious affect ions;
secondly, fervent petitions to God for all the graces necessary for
our salvation ; thirdly, firm resolutions to perform some particular
acts of virtue, or to avoid some particular defect. The first fruit of
meditation consists in pious affections; that is, in making interior acts
of the different virtues, such as acts of adoration and praise of God's
majesty, acts of thanks for His infinite benefits, acts of love of His

351

infinite goodness and perfection, and desires to love Him as much as
He wishes and deserves to be loved by us ; acts of acknowledgment
of our unworthiness to receive from Him- any thing but Hell : ac-
companied with acts of confidence in His infinite goodness, mercy,
and power, and in His promises to save all who invoke His aid, and
in the Passion of Christ, and the intercession of His mother and
the saints ; acts of sorrow for our past sins ; acts of resignation to
the Divine will in all things ; and acts of oblation of ourselves to
God, that He may dispose of us as He pleases. Some of these, or of
similar acts suggested by our reflections, should be made in all our
meditations. But there are three of them which should never be
omitted in any meditation. First, acts of sorrow for all our past
sins ; secondly, acts of resignation to the Divine will, and of oblation
of ourselves, and of all that we are and have, to the love and glory of
God for time and for eternity ; thirdly, acts of the love of God, and
desires to love Him as much as the angels love Him in Heaven, and
as much as He deserves to be loved by us. These acts must be
made with the heart ; but they may be also expressed in words.

" The second fruit of mental prayer consists in fervent petitions to
God for the lights and graces which we see in our meditations that
we stand in need of, and for all the graces necessary to bring us
infallibly to eternal life. This is, perhaps, the most important and
essential part of meditation, or mental prayer ; because, of all the
different kinds of prayer, that which is called PETITION is the most
indispensable. It is this kind of prayer that all theologians commonly
teach to be as necessary for the salvation of adults, as baptism is for
that of infants : and as no infant can enter the kingdom of Heaven
without baptism ; so no adult shall obtain eternal life without asking
of God the graces necessary for salvation. Hence St. Liguori relates
that the celebrated Father Segneri said of himself, that, until he
studied theology, he was accustomed to spend the greater part of the
time of his meditations in reflections and pious affections ; but that
afterwards God opened his eyes, and thenceforward he employed
himself generally in asking God's graces. And he adds, ' If there is
any good in me, I ascribe it to this practice of recommending myself
to God. St. Liguori tells the reader to do the same. On account
of this strict and indispensable necessity of asking God's graces,
St. Liguori says that he made it a rule of his Order, that in every
mission conducted by the members of his Congregation, there should
be a sermon on prayer. Hence he says that every preacher should

352

in almost all his sermons, exhort his hearers to the practice of
prayer, and should admonish them never to cease to call for aid in
all their temptations . . . Hnce he concludes his book on prayer in the
following words : ' I say, and I repeat, and I shall repeat while I
live, that our salvation depends altogether on prayer, and that, on
that account, all writers in their books, all preachers in their ser-
mons, and all Confessors in the tribunal of penance, should con-
tinually exclaim and repeat : Pray, pray, and never cease to pray ;
for, if you continue to pray, your salvation is secure : if you give up
prayer, your perdition is inevitable.'

" In our meditations we should ask, not one, nor two, nor a
thousand graces, but all the lights and graces, without a single ex-
ception, which are necessary to bring us, and to bring us efficaciously
and infallibly, to eternal glory. ' All things, whatsoever you ask
when ye pray, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come
unto you.' c The Son of God was not content with saying, all things,
or, whatsoever; but, to exclude the possibility of a single grace being
excepted, he said, All things, whatsoever you ask when ye pray,
shall come unto you. Prayer, then, is an universal means, by which
every single grace necessary to bring us infallibly to eternal life, may
be obtained as infallibly as that the Son of God cannot be a liar.
In this respect it differs from the Sacraments, from penitential works
and the other means which God has given us in order to obtain
eternal life. These are particular means, each producing or procuring
particular graces ; Baptism produces one grace, and Penance another ;
the same for the other Sacraments or means of salvation. But, to
none of these, nor to all put together, without prayer, has God
promised all the graces necessary for eternal life. Prayer is the only
means to which He has promised all the efficacious helps and graces
necessary for our salvation. Hence, in meditation, when the heart is
excited to fervour by the consideration of the eternal truths, we
should make frequent and fervent petitions in the name of Jesus
Christ, for all the efficacious lights and helps and graces which are
necessary to secure infallibly our eternal happiness. These petitions
must be always made in the heart, but may also be expressed with
the tongue. But, though we should ask in our meditations for all the
graces we stand in need of, and especially for the graces suggested by
our reflections, we must be careful to pray in every meditation for
three graces in particular, first, for the pardon of our past sins ;

c Mark xi. 24.

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secondly, for the gift of the love of God ; and thirdly, for the gift of
final perseverance. We should ask these three graces not only in
our meditations, but also at mass, after communion, and in all our
spiritual exercises. We ought first to pray for the pardon of all our
past sins ; because we do not know, and shall not know till death,
whether they have been pardoned or not. The Scripture tells us
that we know not whether we are worthy of love or hatred.* 1 And
though God had revealed to us that our sins were forgiven, we
should still continue till death to beg of Him to wash us still more from
our sins, and to cleanse us from our iniquities; for, after the guilt of
sin has been remitted, the temporal punishment due to it frequently
and generally remains. Among the temporal punishments due to
sin, after the remission of its guilt, the Saints count the withholding
of many of God's graces. From eternity God prepared for us all
abundant graces to work out our salvation. Some of these graces
were necessary to lead us to a high degree of perfection, and to make
us Saints; 'others were so necessary for our salvation, that without
them we should not be saved. In punishment of sin, even after its
guilt has been remitted, God sometimes withholds both these classes
of graces ; and, therefore, our past sins, after they have been forgiven,
may be the cause of our damnation, by preventing God from bestow-
ing upon us certain graces, without which we shall be certainly lost.
Hence the Holy Ghost tells us not to be without fear about sin
forgiven. " De propitiate peccato noli esse sine timore." 6 In order
then to secure not only the pardon of all our past sins, but also
the graces which may be withheld in punishment of them, and
particularly the graces without which we should be lost, we must
pray frequently and fervently in our meditations for the complete
and entire remission of all our sins, and of all the penalties due to
them. By frequent and fervent petitions for these objects, every one,
even the most abandoned sinner, however enormous his crimes may
have been, can easily and infallibly avert the chastisement of sin,
which consists in the withholding of God's graces ; and may thus
infallibly prevent the danger of his past sins being the cause of his
damnation, after their guilt had been remitted. Secondly, we must
ask with fervour the gift of God's love. St. Francis de Sales
says, that the gift of Divine love should be the object of all our
prayers, because it brings with it all the other good gifts of God.
In begging the grace of God's love, we ought to ask the gift

d Eccl. ix. 1. e Eccl. v. 5.

2 A

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of perfect resignation and conformity to the Divine will in all things,
particularly in all crosses and afflictions. Thirdly, we must, above
all, pray with great fervour in our meditations for the grace of
final perseverance. This is the grace on which our salvation de-
pends : if God gives it to us, we shall be saved ; if not, we shall be
lost. This is the gift which distinguishes the elect in Heaven from
the reprobate in Hell : if the elect had not got it, they should be
lost ; and if the damned had received it, they should now be in
glory. It crowns all the other gifts of God : without it they
shall be a source of greater damnation. This gift God gives to
infants without any co-operation on their part, by taking them
out of life before they lose their baptismal innocence. But St. Au-
gustine teaches that God never gives it to any adult that does not
pray for it. The Council of Trent has declared that the grace of
final perseverance is a special gift, which we cannot merit by good
works. We cannot merit it by the sacraments, nor by penitential
austerities, nor by almsdeeds. God has given us only one means of
infallibly obtaining it, and that is by praying for it continiciH//
till our last breath. It is not enough to ask this gift once, nor
twice, nor for a year, nor for ten years : our petitions for it must
cease only with our life, and must be frequently offered in medita-
tion, which is the fittest time for asking God's graces : we should
also often ask the grace to persevere till death in praying for God's
graces. This part of mental prayer, which consists in asking of
God all the graces which we stand in need of, is most important
for all Christians, but particularly for priests, who are exposed to all
the dangers of persons living in the world, and who are at the
same time bound by the obligations of the priesthood and by the
daily and hourly and awful obligations arising from the care of souls.
It is by attending to this part of meditation that we acquire a
habit and a facility of turning to God for help in all difficulties,
dangers, and temptations : without attending to it, we shall scarcely
ever acquire this habit and facility. Now, without this habit, it
will be impossible to avoid mortal sin in the discharge of our duties,
and in the difficult temptations by which we are often assailed.
St. Augustine teaches that ordinarily God does not give, even to
the Saints, grace to fulfil difficult precepts or duties, unless they
pray for it. Without our asking it, God gives us all grace to do
what is easy, but not what is difficult. Even to the Saints He only
promises to give grace to pray for strength to do what is difficult.

355

and to conquer violent temptations : and this grace He grants to
the pagan as well as to the saint, and has given it to every adult
that ever lived, from the time of Adam to the present day. Now,
all Christians, and particularly Priests, whose obligations are all
very difficult, have frequently to discharge duties which are painful
and very difficult to flesh and blood, and to combat with violent
temptations to neglect these duties and to offend God. If then we
do not send up frequent petitions for it, God will not give us the
strength necessary to fulfil these difficult obligations, and to resist
these violent temptations. Moreover, every human being, the mo-
ment he arrives at the use of reason, engages in a warfare with
the world, the flesh, and the devil, three powerful enemies, who
are actively employed every instant of his life, in laying snares for
the destruction of his soul. This warfare shall cease only with his
life. Can he expect to be victorious in his daily and hourly strug-
gles with these enemies, unless, by unceasing petitions to the throne
of mercy, he obtains the omnipotent grace of God to enable his
weakness and sinfulness to conquer, and to persevere till death
in conquering, such powerful opponents ? Of the rebel angels, St.
Gelasius says that, ' receiving the grace of God in vain, they could
not persevere, because they did not pray.' The rebel angels were
pure spirits ; they were more perfect than we are ; they had not to
contend with the corruption of their own flesh, for they had no
bodies : but our flesh is constantly rebelling against the spirit.
They were not subject to the corrupt inclinations of concupiscence;
all their natural inclinations led them to love God above all things :
our inclinations constantly draw us away from God, and lead us to
sin. They had no temptation from the world ; for all creatures
only served to inspire them with sentiments of admiration of the
power and goodness of the Creator : but every object around us
fixes our heart on the world, and takes away our thoughts and
affections from Heaven and God. Neither had they any devil to
tempt them : but all the devils in Hell are leagued against us ; they
are constantly going about like roaring lions, seeking whom they
may devour. Now, if, in spite of all their perfection, though free
from all the attacks of the enemies by which we are constantly
assailed, the angels fell, and could not but fall, because they did
not pray, shall we, who are all weakness and corruption, without
continual prayer, be able to persevere till death in victoriously re-
pelling the unceasing assaults of the world, of the flesh, and of the

356

devil ? No ; unless, by making, in our meditations and other spiri-
tual exercises, frequent petitions to God for His graces, we acquire
a habit and a facility of turning to Him for help against our enemies
in all difficulties and temptations, it will be morally impossible for
any Christian, and particularly for any Priest charged with the
care of souls, to persevere till death in the faithful discharge of all
the difficult duties and obligations that shall fall upon him, and in
escaping all the dangers of perdition to which he shall be exposed.
To enable weakness and sinfulness like ours to conquer till death
the enemies that are constantly opposed to us, God must impart to
us His own omnipotent grace ; and that He will not do unless we
ask it continually. To preserve and perfect and render permanent
the habit acquired in meditation, of begging God's graces, it will be
very useful to accustom ourselves every day to raise our hearts to
God at least once in every hour, when we hear the clock strike,
and to offer to Him ourselves, and all our thoughts and words and
actions, through Jesus Christ, to His glory, and to obtain for our-
selves the grace of eternal life, and always to accompany that obla-
tion with a secret petition for the three graces mentioned above ;
that is, for the pardon of all our sins, for the gift of God's love, and
for the gift of final perseverance. In the chapter on meditation,
in the Nun Sanctified, etc., St. Alphonsus recommends religious to
raise their hearts to God every quarter of an hour. By this custom
we shall fulfil the obligation of praying always ; because by offer-
ing all our actions to God through Jesus Christ, in order to obtain
eternal glory, we make every act of our life a prayer for the grace
of eternal life. The third fruit of mental prayer consists in making
a firm resolution to do some particular good acts, or to avoid some
particular defects. It is always necessary to ask God's help to be
faithful to our resolutions ; otherwise we shall certainly violate them.
" The conclusion contains three acts : first, an act of thanksgiving
to God for the lights received in meditation ; secondly, a firm
purpose to practise the resolutions made; thirdly, a petition to

the Eternal Father, through the merits of Jesus,

for grace to be faithful to them. Let the meditation be closed
with a Pater and Ave, to recommend to God the souls in Pur-
gatory, the Prelates of the Church, all sinners, and all our rela-
tives, friends, and benefactors. We should never omit to pray at the
end of our meditation for the holy souls in Purgatory, and for poor
sinners. At the end of our meditation, we should, according to

357

St. Francis de Sales, gather a nosegay of flowers ; that is, we should
call to mind some sentiment which we would remember during the
day, and thus excite our fervour in God's service. St. Alphonsus re-
commends all to make two meditations every day, each of half an
hour, or, at least, one meditation of half an hour every morning."

. It is shewn still further, how carefully, in giving rules for
meditation, attention is bestowed upon the object which I just
now mentioned, viz. giving scope for the peculiar taste and
bias of individuals, by the continually repeated precept, to
dwell on any point which comes home to your feelings and
interests you deeply, even though you spend all the time that
remains of the meditation in that one particular. Thus M.
Tronson's work, from which I lately quoted, in the examen
on mental prayer, asks the question :

" Have we profited by the advice given by masters of the spiritual
life, not so far to attach ourselves to these various acts of devotion
[which have been just recounted one after the other] as to go on to
perform them all, even ivhen God gives us a particular taste for some
in particular, which are of themselves sufficient to occupy us in
prayer ?"

In saying, some pages back, that mental discipline appeared
more directly and primarily important than bodily, under our
present circumstances, I did not rest on so precarious a basis,
as the conclusion which a private individual might draw from
his own theories on the human mind ; but on the plain fact,
corroborating such theories, that the Roman Church has so
decided. When we observe how completely at variance is
the modern Roman practice with that of Antiquity, and on
the other hand when our reasonings from probability and
experience would precisely lead us to expect such variance,
here is surely proof of the strongest and most cogent sort.
This variance has been frequently mentioned, sometimes as
a reflection upon Antiquity, oftener upon modern Rome; but
surely it is both happier and more reasonable, rather to con-
sider that at each period the Church adopted that discipline,
which was most adapted to her children's spiritual needs.
' If there be one problem more deep and inscrutable than
another in the science of mind, it is the apprehension of the

358

recondite and subtle principles which are at the bottom of
that external fact, the change which human nature itself
almost seems to undergo, from change of manners and habits.' f
As great and striking as is the contrast between modern and
ancient character and way of life, so great and striking is the
contrast between the modern and ancient discipline of the
Church in Communion with Rome : can we have a stronger
corroboration of the divine wisdom of both ? It must be
remembered indeed, that it is only as regards the great body
of serious Christians, that the Roman Church has so re-
markably relaxed her discipline ; that the rules which she
has almost revolutionised, are those only, which are binding
on her members without exception, who are not incapable of
observing them by reason of bodily infirmity. But those who
desire a more stringent and severe discipline, she in every
way cheers and encourages : as men go on to perfection, now
as of old, they in a degree almost miraculous forsake and
renounce the ordinary supports of life; nor can any one
observe the slightest inferiority of bodily austerities in her
later Saints, as compared with those of far earlier times.

What judgment has our own Church passed on this most
essential and practical question ? Here again, notwithstanding
the extreme seriousness of the subject, one cannot express
the inquiry without a consciousness of the ridiculous. As far
as her formularies go, she advocates the stricter determina-
tion : for all the fast days remain in the Calendar, exactly
as they were 300 years ago. But then the question is, how
far circumstances, which have reached their present state since
that period, affect the subject ; and on that matter, the very
few changes she has made during the interval cannot be said to
imply any authoritative view ; while for the last almost 200
years she has preserved a profound silence. And certainly,
if we turn to living authorities, we should not gather the
conclusion that our present rulers desire to enforce those
'antiquated' laws; for, not to mention more familiar facts
which are known to all, the greatest of all the extraordinary
festivals which have occurred for fourteen years, the Queen's
Coronation, was fixed, apparently with the full sanction of
f ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' p. 27.

359

the dignitaries of pur Church, on a day marked in the
Prayer-Book as a fast. Some again of those high in station
among us would deprecate all special discipline whatever,
and urge us, if we would lead a religious life, to stimulate
our affections by the thought of the Atonement. However,
that in point of fact the anxious soul, who may be tossed
about by a tempest of most oppressive and bewildering
troubles, will meet with neither guidance, advice, nor even
sympathy, from any recognised function of our Church, this
may be asserted without the possibility of contradiction.

Turn now to our public Schools and Universities ; the
acknowledged seminaries of the principal part of our clergy,
as well as a great proportion of our laity, and placed almost
exclusively under the control of ministers of the Church.
It would be most unfair to deny the surprising improvement
which has taken place of late years, in the religious discipline
of those bodies, and the great amount of piety and zeal which
have been brought to their support. In speaking of these
in connection with public schools, the lamented name of
Dr. Arnold will at once be in every one's thoughts ; nor can
we either read his Sermons or his Letters, without being
deeply impressed with his great and paramount anxiety to
make his school a place of really religious education : while
from Dr. Moberly's interesting and most honourable avowal,
(Arnold's Life and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 171 3, g ) one is
confirmed in the opinion, that Dr. Arnold was the one great
and sole originator of the new life now breathed into public
schools. Let us take then Rugby at its best ; what were the
means which our system placed at Dr. Arnold's disposal, in
order to leaven his boys with religious principles and habits ?
A very striking and plain sermon once in the week ; two or
three lessons in the Greek Testament ; the imperceptible in-
fusion of more or less of a religious tone into the ordinary
lessons ; and an appeal to religious rather than secular motives
in cases which came before him for censure or punishment. To
this may be added, the very important and unusual influence

s Had some of the materials in this work been accessible to me when I wrote on
Dr. Arnold's Sermons in the British Critic, I should not have used one or two of the
expressions in pp. 361, 2.

360

exercised by him, over the affections of those who were high
enough in the school to be acquainted with him personally.
Now it is obvious at once to remark, that all the more essential
particulars here mentioned had no reference whatever to the
English system, and could not outlive the individual. Very
few clergymen indeed, as all the world knows, possess the
gift of preaching sermons, which will in the least interest
boys or young men ; not one schoolmaster in a million will
have Dr. Arnold's power of influencing minds by the mere
instrumentality of ordinary conversation, as distinct from the
Confessional ; and as to the remaining principal agency, viz.
the infusion of a religious spirit into classical teaching, on
which I shall presently speak more at length, when did our
Church, as a whole, ever consider this most important sub-
ject ? what combination of wisdom has been devoted to its
deep and methodical investigation ? what uniform view is
recognised throughout our Church ? or rather, as Dr. Arnold
might have his theory on the best mode of doing so, and
Dr. Moberly his, is it not equally certain that Dr. Arnold's
successor will also have his, and Dr. Moberly's successor (if
by accident he be equally impressed with the importance of
the subject) will have his ? And all these theories, grant-
ing fully the very best intentions in the teachers them-
selves, will be thoroughly mixed up with the individual
peculiarities of each, and will to a perfect certainty, be most
miserably inadequate to the necessity of the case. To a per-
fect certainty ; because in so very difficult and complicated
a question, no one individual can ever approach to a true re-
sult : this result must be the ultimate issue of long continued
labours, undertaken by a series of profound and highly -gifted
men.

But, again, let us take the system as practically worked by
Dr. Arnold himself. We all understand the careful practice
and discipline, by which the schoolboys one by one learned
the difficult art of construing or of wo-iting Greek ; how the
first poor efforts gradually improved, from the master being
ready at hand to correct mistakes; and how the student,
when quite at a loss how to perform his appointed task, was
able at once to apply to some master for help and instruction.

361

But where was this common-sense process adopted, in teaching
them the far more difficult art of daily examining their
consciences, of fixing their thoughts on God while at prayer,
of keeping in their minds a constant sense of God's presence,
of recognising the first approach of a sinful thought, of fight-
ing against it when it persists in knocking for admittance ?
You will say that this art, however difficult, cannot be taught
in class : so / say ; therefore you must have the Confessional.
Here will be another very seasonable opportunity, for dis-
covering the real cause of that aversion to Sacramental
Confession, which is so general amongst us. For if it really
arises from some innocent motive, and not rather from a
most sinful disregard to the necessity of moral discipline,
what zeal would not have been displayed in all directions, to
supply the absence of this efficacious instrument, by other
methods which should most nearly approach it in potency
and comprehensiveness ! Has this, or any thing like this,
been the case ? Public opinion will give a sufficient answer
to the question.

Every one knows, how loudly the praises of our public schools
have at various times been sounded, as affording so admirable
a preparation for the busy scene of life, in that they impart ha-
bits of manly independence, vigorous exertion, sturdy reliance
on self. I am not here inquiring whether such praises have been
well deserved, though presently I may have something to say
on the subject : certainly if the system has been good, it has
been so by a surprisingly happy accident; though on the other
hand it cannot be denied, that there is at first sight much
plausibility in the grounds of defence above stated. However,
the chief object of a school is not to prepare men for active
life in this world, but for active Life in the next ; and the
most bigotted of Conservatives cannot gravely maintain, that
to this object any happy accident has adapted our school
system : no one can say, that the habits of boys at our public
schools are eminently fitted to discipline them for an Eternity
of praise and divine contemplation. The chapter of accidents
then having here at least confessedly failed, whither are we
to look for the deep spiritual wisdom which certainly does

362

seem a more promising agent for such a task ? Those who
have had influence in our public schools, have not trusted to
accident for the pupil's progress in Greek or Latin ; but to
what else have they trusted for his progress in all holy living ?
Can there be a more striking or more unspeakably disgraceful
contrast, than that which exists between the stream of Lexi-
cons, Grammars, Prefaces to Hecuba, Editions of ^Eschylus,
&c. which has perennially flowed, and the most ominous
dearth (ought we not rather to say total absence) of works in-
tended to teach the young what sins are most likely to assail
Christians placed in their position ? what will be the fittest
remedies against them ? what will be the best mode of per-
forming that duty, (difficult beyond all others to a serious
boy, placed in the midst of a multitude far from like-minded
with himself,) the uniting deep and watchful conscientious-
ness with the absence of all that is peevish and puritanical ?
How infinitely more precious in God's sight is the Chris-
tian course of one single boy, amidst such temptations
trying to serve Him, than the progress of hundreds in
Latin Verses or English Essays ! but can it be said that our
system is formed on such a principle ? I most willingly
admit, that very admirable and praiseworthy efforts have
been lately made, to amend the more atrocious part at
least of this great wickedness ; and sorry indeed should
I be, to forbear from expressing all gratitude and honour
to those who have made them. 8 But taking all that has
been done at its utmost, can it even now be said with any
approach to truth, or would not the very idea excite un-
bounded astonishment, that a boy entering one of our
public schools would be daily impressed with the supreme
and unapproached importance of religion ? that he would
feel the spiritual welfare of himself and his fellow scholars to
be the one central object on which the whole system con-

S Dr. Moberly has republished an excellent work of Bp. Ken's for the use
of the Winchester scholars ; a devotional and practical work has been compiled,
by desire of the present head master of Rugby, for the use of the boys there,
which contains very much of an edifying and improving tendency ; a manual, in-
tended to give help in the methodical practice of self-examination, has been ex-
tensively circulated in Eton school : all these are cheering movements in the r'ght
direction.

363

verges ? that he would find no questions meet with so ready
and full an answer from his instructors, as applications for
advice under the influence of this or that temptation ?

Consider, as a contrast to this, some particulars in the plan
pursued at St. Mary's, Oscott ; which I the rather mention,
because I may add from my own personal observation, (when
I was there more than a whole day nearly three years ago,)
that a more lively and joyous assemblage of boys and young
men, with greater appearance of youthful happiness and buoy-
ancy, and more complete absence of the most distant approach
to gloom or restraint of manner, I can never expect to behold.
All, at a fixed time in each evening, perform their examen of
conscience. All above the age of seven go regularly to Con-
fession ; few, I believe, less frequently than once in a fortnight :
insomuch that the routine of study is altogether interfered
with on the Saturday, that time may be given for this holy
exercise. Every time they go into the public study or to a
class, a prayer, with ' Veni Sancte Spiritus,' &c. is recited
by the person on duty or the Professor ; so that every new
act of study is commenced by prayer. At the three different
times in the day when the ' Angelus ' sounds, the appropriate
prayer is recited; if it be in recreation time, play is for
the few minutes suspended. In the course of every day all
attend Mass, hear a chapter of the New Testament, a visit
is made to the Blessed Sacrament with an appropriate prayer,
and part of some spiritual work is read, and explained, if
necessary, by each master to his class. It need hardly be
said, of course, that the priest who hears their Confession at
stated times, would be most ready and delighted to give
them advice and help at any time ; nor would there be any
backwardness on their part in consulting him.

Two particulars there are of extreme moment, which it is
impossible to leave the question of public schools without
briefly noticing. The first will be fitly introduced by a
passage from one of Mr. Newman's Sermons, which was cited
in a former chapter, but shall here be given at length.

" Men who indulge their passions have a knowledge, different in

364

kind from those who have abstained from such indulgence; and when
they speak on subjects connected with it, realize them in a way in
which others cannot realize them. The very ideas which are full of
temptation to the former, the words which are painful to them to
utter, all that causes them shame and confusion of face, can be said
and thought of by the innocent without any distress at all. Angels
can look upon sin with simple abhorrence and wonder, without humi-
liation or secret emotion : and a like simplicity is the reward of the
chaste and holy ; and that to the great amazement of the unclean,
who cannot understand the state of mind of such a one, or how he
can utter or endure'thoughts which to themselves are full of misery
and guilt. And hence sometimes you find men of these days, in
which the will of the natural man is indulged to the full, taking up
the writings of holy men who have lived in deserts or in cloisters, or
with an angel's heart have ruled Christ's flock, and broken with holy
hands the Bread of life, and viewing their words in their own murky
atmosphere, and imputing to them their own grossness ; nay, carping
at the words of Holy Scripture, which are God's, and at the words
of the Church, as if the sacred mystery of the Incarnation had not
introduced a thousand new and heavenly associations into this ivorld
of sin." 1 '

The inestimable value of the high and lovely grace here
eulogized, and the absolute impossibility of regaining it if it
be once lost ; not to mention the misery beyond expression
of the remorse stored up for future years, by those acts or
thoughts which destroy it (that is, if the unhappy victims
are to be penitent and to save their soul) ; all this must ever
place its careful preservation and culture among the dearest
objects proposed to herself by any Church, not utterly blind
to her primary duties. An ignorance, indeed, that might be
simply admirable in one destined for a life of monastic seclu-
sion, is full of imminent danger for those who are to mix in
the world, whether as priests or laymen; for they might perish
almost without knowledge of their danger. 'But though it is
quite necessary that their mind be carefully and deeply
impressed with a sense of the peril which awaits them, nay,
and of the dazzling and attractive dress which it often wears

h Vol. vi. pp. 287, 8.

365

in order that the mode of encountering it may be the
better understood ; it is only for that reason the more im-
portant, that during the season of youth it may never be
placed before them, surrounded with any other associations
than the hideousness and depravity of its own natural shape.
It is deadly poison to the soul, that for one moment it should
consider this most hateful enemy, as either on the one hand
a matter for mirth and merriment, or on the other hand as
connected with aught that has any attraction either for the
affections or the imagination. Now it would, I suppose, be
difficult to find books which more contravene this principle,
which tend more to lessen the reader's horror of wickedness,
by either treating it in a light mirthful tone, or clothing it in
an attractive garb, than some of those commonly read in
schools. To suggest distantly as a reply to this, that
classical taste cannot be acquired without real danger of
this kind, is merely to acquit yourself of a charge of gross
neglect by pleading guilty to a sin of deliberate and set
purpose. As soon as indignation allows one to find words,
one asks, which will be most important to a Christian for all
Eternity, a pure soul, or a classical taste ? or which would
a teacher have rather to confess at the Great Day, neglect in
the former or in the latter particular ? If such an answer
be given, so far from extenuating, it increases the sin ten-
fold.

Let it be observed, however, that I by no means ac-
knowledge the justice of the allegation, that a classical taste
cannot be implanted with perfect freedom from all stain of
sinful suggestion : I feel convinced that it can ; though it
would carry me too far to pursue the subject. Nor yet am
I complaining, that the Church of England takes a different
view of this matter from that which appears to me the true
one. If, under the implicit and practical sanction of the
English Church, a number of religious men, fairly and in
the presence of God, set themselves to consider the subject,
and came to the conclusion, that to read works, in which
immorality is made the occasion of exquisite wit and humour,
or else is decked out in all the graces of poetry, that this is

306

not deeply and irretrievably injurious to the youthful mind,
my present charge would not be preferred. I must be al-
lowed, indeed, altogether to doubt the probability of such
being their decision ; but that is another matter : the charge
I am now bringing is, that whereas the system, pursued at
our public schools under the sanction of ministers of our
Church, has on the surface every appearance of transgressing
Christian rule, and of most seriously impairing the Christian
character, there has been given no deep and methodical
discussion of the subject whatever. A question, as import-
ant in its bearing on the final destinies of all her children as
any that imagination can conceive, seems to have excited no
deep and permanent interest in her authorities ; but the
present system is left to take its own course, as the accident
of the moment, or the taste and judgment of an individual
schoolmaster may happen to decide.

It may very probably be replied, that however desirable is
this innocence of mind in itself, in a miscellaneous body, con-
ducted on the plan of our present public schools, it is unat-
tainable ; that the boys must learn evil from each other, even
if not from any recognised part of the system. I do not
deny this allegation : I admit it. Then pray let us put this
overwhelming and prodigious evil, side by side with the
' manly independence, vigorous exertion, sturdy reliance on
self,' which have been the subjects of such' unbounded eulogy.
There are two opposite ideas of a great school, which it is
impossible to combine together; we must choose between
them. The one considers the boys, out of school-hours, to
form a sort of little commonwealth together; a few being
entrusted by the master with power over the rest. He him-
self very seldom interferes with anything which takes place
in those hours, unless especially called in ; and then appears
as a magistrate, to perform a judicial act, and to be guided by
a fixed code of rules. And exactly as in civil society, accord-
ing to the common remark, punishments, and not rewards, are
the main-spring of the whole machinery ; exactly so ; however
full he may himself be of the milk of human kindness,
he is compelled by his very office to retain an external front

367

of dignity and severity ; to act as a judge rather than a
father; to punish extreme cases of turbulence and disobe-
dience, rather than by encouraging smile, gentle accent, af-
fectionate interest, support and cheer the gentle, conscientious,
and sensitive. Except in the case of boys very high up in
the school, he cannot, without certain imputation of favour-
itism, notice any one more than his companions on any such
ground. This is the idea of an English public school. Its
advantages, as stated at their very best, have been just recited.
Its disadvantages are such as these : that a false standard
of right and wrong is by absolute necessity most widely dif-
fused; that the many bad are overbearing and tyrannical,
the few good pusillanimous, timid, enfeebled ; that the great
majority, who are open to impressions either way, and whose
course is. the peculiar test of the value of the system, are
generally turned to bad rather than good ; that that part of
school-life which is really moral discipline, (for good or bad,)
is far more at the ' arbitrium ' of the boys than of the
masters, and is unrestrainedly swayed to and fro, by the
mere accident of the character of the more influential members
at any particular time ; that in most cases (I think Dr. Ar-
nold has shewn that it need not be so necessarily in all) that
sort of purity which I before mentioned is an unattainable
virtue.

The opposite idea requires, for its tolerable fulfilment, a
much greater proportion of masters to boys, and a much more
carefully-disciplined class of men for masters. Its principle is
to make the master as nearly as possible supply the place of
the parent ; that he should sympathize fully, even when he
does not share with all the amusements of the boys ; that he
should be always in their company, insensibly guiding their
thoughts and ideas to good, while he is no check whatever to
their gaiety or exuberance of spirits. Punishment of course
will not be omitted ; but the chief agent at work will be affec-
tionate help and encouragement. It is plain at once, that to
unite firm and uncompromising principle with a perfect ab-
sence of pedantry or formality, is the indispensable requisite
for a master under such a system ; and indeed there would

368

be commonly special discipline for the education of such
masters. I have been told, that those abroad who have
given their mind to the subject of education, apart from re-
ligious considerations, on the mere principle of fitness and
expedience, adopt more and more such a view as here stated ;
and the name of M. Fellenberg has been mentioned as a very
prominent instance of this. What may be the value of his
authority, I know not ; but my informant told me, that his
pupils in all their after-life retain even a passionate attach-
ment both to the school and master. In one particular, the
statement went on, M. Fellenberg confesses failure ; he con-
fesses that when his pupils arrive at a certain age, he has
discovered hitherto no method of restraining them from open
sin. Strong testimony indeed to the powerlessness of all,
save Christian, methods to effect this object ! JJowever,
whether or not M. Fellenberg's name deserve weight, such
on the whole as I have described, seems the general system of
Roman Catholics ; and it is plain at once that the ordinance
of Confession harmonizes most appropriately with such a
scheme of discipline.

The question between these two respective ideas is one of
very considerable importance ; though like so many of a
similar nature, it will be far more satisfactorily solved by
experience than by argument. To me it does seem most
plainly a providential appointment, if anything in the
whole world deserves that name, that young persons
shall not be exposed, without human protection, to the
assaults of evil, until, by long discipline in a peaceful
and holy moral atmosphere, they shall be sufficiently
clothed in that panoply of grace, which may resist with-
out receiving injury the 'fiery darts' of the evil one. And
to reverse that appointment, in the degree our public schools
do reverse it, to open so wide an access at so early an age to
the polluting and degrading knowledge of evil, seems a
degree of hardihood, which could not have been expected in
ministers of a Christian Church. However, the one method
which carries God's blessing with it of reforming a bad
system, is first of all to load the existing framework with all

369

possible good : if it bear it, well ; if not, God Himself has
solved for us the question, and the system breaks down with
no direct agency of ours. Our gratitude then to those emi-
nent men, who have been or are engaged in the great work of
reforming English education, need not be one jot qualified
or disturbed, by any serious doubts we may entertain of the
possibility of that precise task they are at present proposing ;
nor will the fruit of Dr. Arnold's labours be less immensely
great, though their ultimate (or even early) result should be,
not the firmer establishment, but the more speedy overthrow,
of the whole system of our public schools, as it now exists.

The second question to which I was proceeding, when I
was drawn aside by this digression, is the general effect of
classical reading on the student's character. If the religious
belief, prevalent at some period, has so great a share as we
all think in forming the habits of that period ; if its influence
be so deep and extensive on the conceptions not less of the
admirable and of the beautiful than of the good ; surely it
must be a matter requiring the gravest consideration, that
the higher classes of .this country have placed before them,
as the principal instrument of their education, a heathen
literature and philosophy. There can, I fear, be no fair
doubt, that the majority of young men leave a public school,
with their ideas of beauty and of virtue formed far more on
a heathen than on a Christian model ; and that they are
wholly unprepared to regard with that deep reverence which
is its due, (can it be said that they are even prepared to re-
gard without pity or contempt,) that character which should
be the most perfect fulfilment of our Lord's precept : " Who-
soever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also." I am not saying, that a less proportion of clas-
sical instruction should be given; I have formed no such
opinion : I am not here even saying, that at least a most
powerful corrective is imperatively required ; though on that
I have formed a very decided opinion : I am only drawing
attention to the total indifference of our Church on so mo-
mentous a subject. The flower of the English youth, at
that age when impressions are most readily and permanently

370

received, and the character most easily moulded for good or
bad, are supplied by ministers of our Church, from heathen
Antiquity, with the principal objects on which their aspira-
tions, tastes, and affections may rest. And though this most
astonishing fact be undoubtedly true, and has been so for a
long series of years, in vain do we look for any trace of that
anxious solicitude as to the possible results, or the appro-
priate remedies for such results, which one could not have
thought it possible, before the event, that any Church calling
itself Christian could have failed to display.

It will not be necessary to speak at any length of our
University system ; for all that could be said on the subject
has been already implied. On every account, indeed, our
existing evils are very much less here than in schools. An un-
dergraduate at the University is able to command the fullest
privacy, and to choose to a very great extent his own society ; he
is saved from the necessity of witnessing any public exhibition
or defence of evil ; while, again, he is less exposed to danger
from its assaults. Add to this, that from his being older
and the tutor younger, very much more of confidential and
intimate acquaintance between them is possible than at
school; a circumstance which, I conceive, bears far more
closely on the real religious advantage of the place, than do
the lectures, whether theological or other. Here, however,
the same melancholy contrast is exhibited, to which I just
now drew attention. How many are the books published
almost every year, with the object of giving facilities for the
examination or other similar purpose ! and where is there so
much as one, which a tutor can place into the hands of an un-
dergraduate on his arrival, advising him as to the details of his
daily life ; how much time he should devote to prayer ; what
will be the most favourable time to choose ; whether his
prayers should be mainly mental or vocal, or on what prin-
ciple the choice between those two classes should depend ;
what will be the fittest method for daily self-examination,
and what the especial sins to which his new way of life is
likely to expose him ; on what principles he should decide
the proportion of his money to be given away in charity, and

371

other like particulars ? The scheme which I lately mentioned
of self-examination and mental prayer, would be of the
greatest service to young men at the age they come to Oxford
and Cambridge; but special advice might well be added,
suited to the peculiarities of their position. Merely as one
instance, where very many might be given, who can deny
the most real and serious danger which exists, that even
those who are considered the most praiseworthy and exemplary,
may habitually pursue their studies even more from a desire
of human distinction, than from the wish to do right and
please God ? Most unwilling should I be to appear at all
harsh or inconsiderate, in judging of temptations different
from my own. But surely, if the chief thought which en-
courages the student to rise early, to avoid late hours and
much company, and to apply himself diligently and inces-
santly to his studies, if the chief vision which floats before his
eyes while he does all this, be the prospect of Academical dis-
tinction ; and if the thought of God be plainly secondary and
subordinate in the whole matter ; I do not see how it is possible
to call his condition by a less severe name, than an habitual
state of mortal sin. What powerful machinery have the
clergymen in our colleges devised, to guard the souls of those
committed to them from a sin, which in some respects is even
more deadly than others, in that it does not so plainly carry
with it its own condemnation ? Of course Confession not
being supposed I am not dreaming that they should en-
deavour to find out, whether this or that pupil on the whole
pursues his studies with a pure intention; the question I
ask is, what powerful machinery have they adopted to im-
press on all the students the danger which threatens them,
and so, it may be, awaken the conscience of individuals to the
fatal nature of a habit, into which they might otherwise fall,
with no suspicion of its real character ? In truth, however
undoubted and important in itself is the obligation to culti-
vate and invigorate the understanding, still, considering
the absorbing interest and self-exalting tendency of such
pursuits, until we have some discipline incomparably more
efficacious for preserving to conscience its despotic supremacy,

2u2

I do not see how we could regard a sudden revival of intel-
lectual ardour at our Universities as less than a public ca-
lamity. We shall be fit for the vigorous and independent
thought which is said to have characterized Oxford in the
middle ages, when we shall have regained the habits of prayer
and religious belief inculcated in the middle ages.

The absence of Confession indeed is an evil felt, not by one
age or profession, but by all ages and all professions. I
spoke in the second chapter of the duty incumbent on a
Christian priest, to admonish most constantly and impressively
the wealthy who may be under his care, of the very serious
perils which attend their worldly calling ; of the rocks, all
the more dangerous from being sunken, which threaten to
make shipwreck of their religious course. Should he fail in
this most important duty; much more should he accept of
help for religious purposes from, and allow himself to mix
in familiar society with, one, whom he has some reason to
think really possessed by the secret yet most deadly sins of
deep pride and selfishness, and whom he has nevertheless not
yet warned plainly of his danger, (whether in plain and
direct addresses from the pulpit, or in other ways,) surely
he almost makes himself partaker of his sins. Now the
Roman discipline of Confession affords a ready method to
acquit himself of this difficult and necessary task, without
compromise and yet without any sense of awkward intrusion.
Communion, and Confession as preliminary to Communion,
is required by the Roman Catholic Church of all her mem-
bers once in every year. If a wealthy man, in his un-
christian pride and arrogance, refuse compliance, he is ipso
facto excommunicate: he may still externally attend the
religious assemblies of the Church, but he is severed from
the heavenly body and from the ordinary path to salvation.
He has had then his warning ; he knows that the Church
has denounced him; and she, in denouncing him, acquits
herself of responsibility for his sin. On the other hand, if
he obey her requirements, here is the very opportunity the
faithful priest desired ; an opportunity, to warn him solemnly
of his especial danger, to interrogate him on such particulars

373

as tend to prove the justice of the suspicion, and, if necessary,
even to defer his absolution till he may give proof of his in-
tention to amend.

Indeed, let us place before our minds the ideal picture of a
wealthy man, encrusted in all that intense pride and selfish-
ness, which so naturally results from the unlimited power of
gratifying his wishes, and from his habit of seeing all men
and things around him placed at his disposal. Conceive him
kneeling before a humble priest, praying absolution at his
hands, answering his questions on the habits of his daily life,
receiving stern rebukes or earnest exhortations ; who can fail
to see that this is the very medicine suited to his disease, the
very moral discipline which may at least make a beginning of
that necessary task, (and the beginning is proverbially the most
difficult part of any task,) the gradual overthrow of his anti-
christian habits and principles ! Well the English Church
has destroyed this discipline ; what has she substituted in its
place ? She cannot destroy the unparalleled denunciations
found in Scripture against the rich as a class; and she
professes herself preeminently a Scriptural Church ; in what
single particular does her practical system recognise those
denunciations? It has been profoundly observed by Mr.
Froude, that obedience to spiritual rulers is the same trial to
the rich, that obedience to temporal rulers is to the poor:
but our Church has sunk all claim to the former, in her
earnest and repeated inculcation of the latter ; she has given
up that part of the Ancient System then which bore hardly
on the rich, and added new strength to that which bears
hardly on the poor. This does not seem in accordance with
the Scriptural model.'

There is no particular in which the depraving effect of
riches is more signally displayed, than the habit of mind,
whereby the wealthy man tends unconsciously to consider

1 " Our Church bears and has ever borne the marks of her birth ; the child of
regal and aristocratical selfishness and unprincipled tyrrany, she has never dared to
speak boldly to the great, but has contented herself with lecturing the poor. ' I will
speak of Thy testimonies even before kings, and will not be ashamed,' is a text which
the Anglican Church, as a national institution, seems never to have caught the spirit
of." Life and Correspondence of Dr. Arnold, vol. ii. p. 372.

374

the poorer classes of society almost as beings of a different
nature from himself ; to fancy that they are bound from their
very position to labour incessantly for his convenience and
enjoyment, while he incurs from his position no corresponding
duty of self-denying labour for their benefit. The only
effective manner, of course, in which a Church can possibly
witness against, and tend to remedy, this miserable sin, is by
displaying the opposite principle in the most lively and
energetic manner in her own practical action ; by shewing, in
a manner not to be mistaken, how dear to her are the poor,
with what sympathy she regards their sorrows, with what
consummate wisdom, with what ungrudging devotedness of
purpose, she labours for their removal. That this cannot be
said of our own Church at present with the most distant
approach to truth, seems now pretty generally acknowledged.
On her then, far more than on any other body, (as professing
to be the National Church,) lies the grave and serious respon-
sibility, of that wide gulf of separation between rich and
poor; that contrast of selfish and careless neglect on one
side, with the union of rankling suspicion and hollow, cow-
ardly servility on the other; which (whatever honourable
exceptions may exist) is now so actively and increasingly
mischievous throughout our social system. But if a Church
should be not even content with this acquiescence in evil ; if
in urging on the rich the Christian obligation of educating
the poor, she lay her principal stress, not on the duty of
repairing in some very slight degree their most wicked
negligence in times past, but, instead of this, on the un-
utterably base motive, that unless the poor be rightly
educated the rich cannot hope for secure enjoyment of their
earthly goods; in such a case, she would distinctly imply,
that the rich may without grievous sin make their own
enjoyment the main object of their dealings with the poor ;
and she would thus overtly and directly sanction that prin-
ciple, which it is a sin and a shame to her that she does
not actively and energetically denounce.

To come now to another class, very different in many
respects are the temptations of those who are enjoying wealth,

375

and those who are acquiring it. The latter are ordinarily
exposed to such passions as these ; feverish thirst of gain ;
corroding care and anxiety, arising from the fluctuations of
prosperity and the vicissitudes of trade ; sour, uneasy, envious
dislike of their neighbour's gains. Such temptations as these
are, in the main, common to those who are playing for a
stake of millions or of hundreds of pounds ; whatever
minor difference there may be between the two cases.
Truly ' the love of money is the root of all evil ;' for can
there be more formidable obstacles than these, to the
peaceful and equable Life of God in the soul of man ? Even
a secular writer (as I quoted in the second chapter) has been
able to see, that the desire of wealth is, to speak generally,
the only principle which acts at present with real life and
energy on the middle and upper classes. Has our Church
seen this? If so, where are we to look for her wise and
watchful agency in applying remedies to so fatal a disease,
and in guarding the minds of the rising generation against
its infection ? It will be in place here to mention more par-
ticularly the Roman discipline of the Spiritual Exercises ; for
it will, I think, be acknowledged, that they are hardly less than
a Divine medicine for the disease on which I have been speak-
ing ; and that no system could have been devised by human
wisdom, more exquisitely adapted to calm the tumult of the
soul, and still the throb of trouble, restlessness, and anxiety.

On the present discipline in the Roman Church on this
matter, and the facilities afforded, I cannot do better than
insert the following communication which has been made me
on authority that may be relied on.

I. In every College and religious house, whether of men or
women, there is at least one spiritual retreat every year. In Italy
in Colleges there are two ; one at the commencement of term after
the long vacation, another before Easter. One of them is generally
of ten days', the other of three days' duration. In most religious
houses it is the same. Thus the Sisters of Mercy have one full
spiritual retreat in August ending with the Assumption, and another
at Christmas for the renewal (as it is called) of the vows. Besides
which they must devote the first Sunday in every month, to pre-

376

paration for death, in retirement. (La Regola e la Costituzione delle
Religiose nominate Sorelli della Misericordia. Parte I. Cap. x.)

II. Before receiving the tonsure or minor orders, a retreat of three
days is usual, but not obligatory. Before each of the three holy
orders a retreat of ten days is of obligation. This is enjoined in
the Constitution of Alexander VII. Apostolica Solicitudo,' Aug. 7,
1662, and by the Decree of the Congregation of Bishops and
Regulars (a Congregation of Cardinals that administers affairs
involving their rights) issued by order of Innoc. XI. 9 Oct. 1682.
(V. Monacelli Formularium Legale practicum Fori ecclesiastici
torn. i. p. 61.) The Epist. Encyclica Clem. XI. 1 Feb. 1710, enjoins
that Regulars also make the same spiritual retreat before orders,
only in their own houses ; a privilege likewise granted to some
Colleges, as the German, English, Irish, and Scotch. Otherwise the
retreat for orders must be made in the house of the Congregation of
the Mission (the order of St. Vincent of Paul) in Rome.

" Exercitia Spiritualia ante Diaconatum, aliquando a Vicario
Urbis, vigore Rescript! (a special rescript from the Pope) dis-
pensantur, sed in iis duntaxat, qui Apostolicam dispensationem
super extra tempora obtinuerunt, ac insuper ratione Canonicatus,
Beneficii seu Cappellanise ad Sacros Ordines arctantur, tempusque
habent valde limitatum. Non sic Exercitia Siibdiaconatus et Pres-
byteratus, quse nunquam omnino dispensata aut diminuta fuerunt,
etiamsi supra dicta aliseque causa intervenerint." Praxis Secretarise
Tribunalis Cardinalis, Urbis Vicarii, auctore Romualdo Honorante,
Roma, 1772, p. 59. All this is in force, and rigidly observed.

III. In many dioceses (indeed wherever there is convenience for
the necessary arrangements) there is a spiritual retreat for the
clergy generally every year. This is the case in all the dioceses of
Ireland, and in England. This year there have been retreats for
the Clergy, during the vacation at most of the seminaries, for the
London, Central, Yorkshire, and Northern Vicariates. The present
Cardinal Feretti, when Bishop of Rieti, built and endowed from his
own patrimony a house for the retreat of his clergy, having three
retreats of ten days a year, so that all might have opportunity for
going through one, he joining all three. There is an admirable
pastoral of Bened. XIV. while Archbishop of Bologne, (Institutiones
Ecclesiaticae P. Lambertini, &c. Romae, 1747, fol. Inst. c. iv. p. 512,)
in which he strongly exhorts all parish priests to retire into retreat
once a year as advised by Clem. XI. in his Encycl. " ut semel per

377

annum Jiaec Spiritualia Exercitia aggrediantur." ... " Insuper
omnibus Ecclesiasticis plurimum commendamus, ut conveniant fre-
quentes ad spiritualia exercitia," &c. [In the same Institution or
pastoral he lays down the rules for retreats before orders as given
above, and quotes in addition the decree of St. Charles Borromeo in
the 5th Provinc. Synod of Milan in 1576, to the same effect.] His
Institutio XLI. is on the establishment of an annual retreat for the
Clergy. (p. 263.) Many, indeed most, of the clergy, including
Cardinals and Prelates, even where it is not obligatory, make an
annual retreat, as do many laymen.

IV. For this purpose there are houses in great Catholic cities
for the purpose of allowing persons of different ranks to make
retreats. This distinction is of course necessary, as the order
followed and the instruction given must vary according to the state
of life and education of the parties.
In Rome there are the following :

I. The house of St. Eusebio, conducted by Fathers of the Society
of Jesus for ecclesiastics and persons of education. A director and
assistants reside there entirely devoted to this purpose. Persons
are admitted singly, or in companies of about thirty, at certain
stated periods. Perhaps it may not be out of place to refer to the
history of Dr. Augustine Theiner as related by himself. He was
brought up a Catholic, but with his brother (Professor in the Uni-
versity of Breslaw) took the lead in the semi-protestant movement
against celibacy, the Roman liturgy, &c., in Silesia about 1820-27,
and published several very learned works on Canon-law. He
quite lost his religion, and travelled in England and France, and
at last came to Rome in a most unhappy frame of mind. He
allowed himself to be persuaded to go into this house in holy week
1 833 ; and entered chiefly through curiosity and the idea of writing
a description in some paper of what he should see. Before many
days were over, his heart was completely changed, and he came
out quite a new man. He lived for some time with the Jesuits, and
then joined the Oratorians, having a deep veneration for their
founder St. Philip Neri, and the Ven. Card. Baronius. He has
received orders, and is now engaged in continuing the Annals of
that great historian. See the full account in his " Seminario
Ecclesiastico,'' Rome, 1834, pp. 1 41.

II. Ponte Rotto, a house so called from being near the remains
of a ruined bridge, a large establishment for retreats for the poor

378

and soldiers. The latter are paid for by the Government, the
former by charity of the rich. The house is conducted by priests
who gratuitously devote themselves to it. The good done by this
house is incalculable, among both classes : and the eagerness of
persons to get tickets of admission is truly great. Some go in
perhaps from curiosity, others are sent in by authority, (e. g. all
who have not fulfilled the precept of paschal communion,) some
enter from the worst motives, (some have been sent in by secret
societies to disturb the retreat, &c.) but it is rare if they come out
unreformed and unconverted. I do not know what to compare them
to better than to the water one sees in the filtering machines in
shop windows mud when it goes in, and pure crystal water when
it comes out. The conversions made are remarkable for their dura-
bility. The writer has had much consolation in attending the
soldiers in the great hospital of the Holy Ghost in Rome, when
sick or dying, and has been surprised to find many leading the most
regular and truly Christian life ; but in every instance this had
begun with a spiritual retreat.

III. A house for laymen, similarly conducted in the street of Le
Mantellate.

IV. For ladies, besides two public retreats each year in the
Oratory of the Caravita, there are several convents to which they
may retire for the purpose of making one.

V. And for both ecclesiastics and laity, there are many houses
of religious communities which are always open to persom wishing
to make a retreat. The lessons of St. Vincent of Paul in the
Breviary (July 1 9. lee. v ) mentions this of his order the Lazarites.
The same may be said of the Jesuits, Passionists, Redemptionists,
and many others.

VI. It is customary in Catholic countries (and in some places at
least in England) to make a spiritual retreat before the first com-
munion. In Rome there are two houses expressly devoted to this
purpose for boys. One is part of the Roman College, contiguous
to the cell (now a chapel) of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, thence called
"Le Camarette di S. Luigi," the other is near the Basilica of
St. Maria Maggiore, and has the same name, from being destined
to the same purpose. For young people of the other sex there is
the house of the " Divino Amore," the " Bambino Gesu," and
others conducted by religious women.

One of the best books for explaining the system or mechanism

379

of the Spiritual Exercises, is the Abbate Rosmini's " Manuale dell'
Exercitatore," in addition to the Directorium usually annexed to St.
Ignatius's Exercitia. There are many works in which the medi-
tations are expanded, among which the most distinguished are
Bellecius, Siniscalchi, the younger Segneri, Daponte, &c., &c.

There is an interesting work by Rosignali, entitled " Notizie
memorabili degli Exercizi Spiritual!," printed in the third volume
of his works, Venice, 1723, and lately published separately in Rome.
It contains accounts of the wonderful effects of the Exercises. See
also the " Vita di S. Francesco di Girolamo," libro i. cap. viii. His
entire life (4to. Rome., 1839,) is most interesting, respecting
Missions, &c.

As to the course of the exercise, an analysis of it is given
in the ordinary French edition of the ' Spiritual Exercises,'
a small part of which it may be better to insert. The original
plan was disposed for a month's course ; and the writer I
quote expresses a doubt, whether its present compression into
a week or ten days be not very seriously detrimental to its
fruits. It would be better, he considers, if, instead of com-
pressing the whole four weeks' course into little more than
one, some one of the four weeks were chosen, and its course
given entire.

' One person,' he says, ' for instance, makes a retreat, to fit
himself for a good Confession : he needs only the exercises of the
first week. Another wishes to retire some time from the world,
that he may make choice of his state in life, or to examine his
present state and amend : the exercises of the second week will suit
him. A pious soul is in trouble : the exercises of the third week
may give him rest. If one desires only to purify himself, and go on
more and more unto perfection, after having taken up some exercises
chosen from the first three weeks, it is those of the fourth to which
he should unite himself.' p. xxvi.

' By the word ' week' is not understood [in the original exercises]
the precise space of seven days : some of these weeks may be
shorter and others longer. To obtain remission of sins, which is
the end of the first week, some may require much more than seven
or eight days ; others much less. The weeks then must be length-
ened or shortened according to the needs of those who perform the
exercises.' p. xxiv.

380

First Week.

The foundation of all the exercises, or the fundamental exercise
by which we ought always to begin, is the end of man. It is essen-
tial to penetrate our minds deeply with this truth.

The next meditations are on sin : plans for a first and second
meditation on sin, and two repetitions of those exercises.

Then a meditation on hell : plan of this meditation.

To this it will be well to add, meditations on death, judgment,
in a word, on all the great truths of religion.

St. Ignatius supposes that these meditations will occupy the
whole first week, until the Confession is made. But if they do not
suffice, it will be possible, in order to prepare one still more in
detail for Confession, to meditate on the Commandments, the dif-
ferent kinds of sin, &c. These meditations will help greatly for
the examen of conscience, p. xxix.

Rules to be followed in the Meditations of the First Week.

To avoid all thoughts which can cause joy ; however pious the
thoughts may be.

To deprive one's self during the meditation, as far as possible, of
the light of day.

To avoid all laughter and cheerful discourse.

To look at no one without indispensable necessity.

Objects to be 'proposed to one's self in the First Week. p. xxx.

We have already said, that the object of the first week is to
purify our conscience by contrition and confession of sins.

All the subjects of the meditation tend to inspire us with contrition.

The means of arriving at a good confession, is to dispose our-
selves for it by an exact and rigorous examen. St. Ignatius gives
two methods of examen.

[Confession, particular examen, external penances and morti-
fications, here follow.]

But since it is hardly possible that a soul should think seriously
of conversion, without being at once exposed to the suggestions of
the evil spirit, who seeks to disgust or at least disturb it by violent
temptations, by scruples, sometimes even by illusions, our Saint
gives the most exact and wisest rules about scruples. In the
same way he gives them admirable protection against all the snares
of the devil, by his rules on the discernment of spirits, p. xxxi.

381

Second Week.

After having exactly purified the* conscience, by the exercises of
the first week, our business now is to begin to govern our life. To
govern it well, it is Jesus Christ whom we must take for our example.
He gives us two different models of life ; one of simple and common
life, all the merit of which consists in observing the necessary com-
mandments of God ; the other of a life which reaches forward to
evangelical perfection.

The first of these two states is necessary for all ; we must make
up our mind absolutely to embrace it ; then we must examine
whether God does not call us to the second state, and how far He
calls us.

This week then must be divided into two parts. During the
first days we make our resolution to practise faithfully the es-
sential part of Christianity, on the model of the thirty years of the
hidden life of Jesw Christ, which He passed wholly in obedience
and submission. St. Ignatius consecrates the first three days
to exercises bearing on this object. The rest of the second week is
employed in examining what God requires of us ; and consequently
in choosing for ourselves a state of life, if we have not yet decided,
or in strengthening ourselves in what we have chosen, if it be irre-
vocable.

St. Ignatius gives the wisest rules to determine well and surely
what God requires of us. p. xxxiii.

Subject of the Meditations of the Second Week.

The first is the foundation of all the others. To determine our-
selves to imitate the obedience of Jesus Christ to all the will of
His Father, and even of His parents after the flesh, we begin by
realising to ourselves that Jesus Christ is our King, whom Only
we ought to follow. Then we meditate on His Incarnation, Birth,
Presentation, Flight into Egypt, and the other mysteries of His
hidden life, &c.

The fundamental meditation for the second part of the week, is
that of the two standards ; one of Jesus Christ our King, the other
of the Devil His enemy. It is followed by another, hardly less
essential, on the three different classes into which we may reduce
all men.

We can hardly give sufficient attention to what St. Ignatius says
on the manner of making a good choice. We may employ all the

rest of the week upon it ; but we must at the same time meditate
in detail on all the mysteries of^lhe public life of Jesus Christ, &c.,
&c. p. xxxv i.

Third Week.

. . . Jesus Christ is still the model which we should place be-
fore our eyes. During the second week we have meditated on the
mysteries of His life ; the third is fixed for meditation on those of
His passion and death. These objects, still more interesting and
touching, are beyond doubt the most fit for strengthening us in the
good resolutions which the meditation on the actions of His life have
led us to form.

All the meditations then of this week are on the passion of Jesus
Christ.

During all this week we should endeavour to procure ourselves
inward sadness and desolation by the memory of what Jesus Christ
suffered for us ; and absolutely banish from our mind every con-
soling thought, p. xxxix.

Fourth Week.

The exercises of the first week are those of the ' via puraativa,'
of the second and third the ' via illuminativa,' of the fourth the
' via unitiva.' The object of these last is to put the crown and
finish to the spiritual work ; Jesus Christ Risen is the model of it ;
it is the mysteries of Jesus Risen which should be the subjects of
meditation during its course.

The essential exercise of the ' via unitiva' is doubtless charity.
It is then to the object of extending, purifying, perfecting, charity,
that our constant study should be given ; to that end all the other
exercises should be referred. For that purpose, it will be very im-
portant to make carefully and often repeat the beautiful meditation
on the ' love of God/ &c., p. xlii.

The priest who gives the exercises adjusts them to what
he discovers to be the moral and religious needs of the re-
cipient ; again, to his power of mind and body, &c. The
Confession is very useful in guiding him as to the future
course.' And it is of course understood, that during the

" The following extract of a letter from a Roman Catholic priest illustrates
the benefit of these exercises, even under very disadvantageous circumstances :
" I remember that Archbishop Folding, when he was in England, stated that
the [Roman] Catholic convicts [in Australia] had for a time been placed en-

383

whole retreat there is an absolute retirement from the world
without, and all thoughts, not bearing on the exercises for
the day, are sedulously banished from the mind.

These retreats are admirably fitted also to answer another
purpose, which I specified in the second chapter. I have heard
it stated, that there is no more common cause of insanity in
England at the present time, than sudden reverse in worldly
business. An unhappy man feels that the very object, on
which his interests and desires have been mainly anchored,
gives way ; he is adrift, as it were, in a barren and
pathless sea ; his affections wander to and fro in search of
an object, and find not what they seek. Who can tell the
blessing such a man would derive, were access at all times
open to some place of holy seclusion, where those heavenly
objects might be placed before his mind which are best fitted
to step, as it were, into the vacant throne, and placed before
it in that very manner which shall be most winning and -
attractive ? Or perhaps from some other cause a sinner's
heart is softened ; he begins to feel that in being * troubled
about many things' he has ' forsaken the better part,' and to
desire to make peace with God whom he has left and
insulted. Surely, if he be wise, he will be anxiously desirous
to save himself from the temptation caused by the imme-
diate presence of those objects, which have been hitherto the
resting-place of his affections ; he will wish not to expose
himself again to their influence, till he may have, in some
faint measure, known the power of those truths which he
now hopes may be the guiding star of his life, and been
disciplined in those religious habits which he now hopes may
continue even to the end. He will at once seek then, if it may

tirely under him and his priests, at certain hours, for several days together. The
poor men had, by the neglect of their religious duties, and by the contagion of
their companions, fallen into a frightful state of spiritual sickness, and this in-
duced the worthy prelate, whom God had sent to t!ii-a, to petition that it might
be permitted that he might give his full attention to them, and they their full
attention to him. The authorities kindly consented ; and so happy were the
results, that every facility has since been given to the priests in their labours
amongst these unhappy men perhaps I should call them happy men. Thousands of
them now approach the Sacraments, who, in the state of things that existed a few
years ago, could not possibly have done so." The ' Sacraments' include Confession.

384

be found, an institution where holy men, instructed both by
theory and experience in the needs and temptations of
penitent souls, may bring their power to bear in his own
behalf, and prepare him for the arduous and relentless con-
flict he has now before him.

Arduous indeed and relentless may the conflict well be
called, even when holy men have done with him their best, and
he returns to the sights and sounds of earth. We all know
the strange untowardness with which a man in advanced life
applies himself to the acquirement of some new habit ; of
reading, say, or writing : how difficult he finds it to accom-
modate himself to these new ways ; and how uncouth,
probably, even to the last, are his attempts at the exercise.
But in this case the new habit to be acquired is not merely to
be occasionally practised or displayed, it is to be a new habit
of thought throughout the day : it is not to be added to the
existing stock of habits, but substituted in their place : to
the exceeding difficulty of cultivating and directing the new,
is added the still greater difficulty of combating and sup-
planting the old. Those who have deferred repentance " are
overwhelmed with the arrears of their great work ; they are
entangled and stumble amid the intricacies of the Divine
system which has progressively enlarged upon them." Under
such circumstances as these, the very alternative of success
or failure in the attempt at consistent obedience may depend,
humanly speaking, on the question, whether a spiritual
adviser be at hand, well versed in the depths of the human
character, and the multiform arts of Satan : a Confessor, who
will, by his advice, guard the penitent faithfully from
relapse into wilful sin, without attempting to hurry him
prematurely into high and austere virtue; who will direct
and chasten the first transports of conversion ; who will
carefully distinguish between the sloth of lukewarmness or
indifference, and the feebleness and tenderness which result
from the worldly life he has in time past pursued. Where
has the English Church her training-school for such spiritual
advisers ?

In allusion to the subject of insanity from mental distress,

Newman's Sermons, vol. i. p. 1 20.

385

to which I lately adverted, the following extract from the
Dublin Review, which I give as I find it, deserves notice.
The writer says, that the number of serious Roman Catholics
who go out of their mind, is far smaller, in proportion, than
of other classes : but statistics of this sort always require
ample examination and confirmation, before a wise man will
place any confidence in them. The other observations are as
follows :

' A mind well disciplined in our religion can scarcely ever fall
a victim to mental disease, unless it arises from the irresistible
pressure of positive physical causes. Cases of this kind are
wonderfully few, in comparison with the number of those that are
produced by imaginary woes ; by mere want of power to resist the
temptations to evil ; ... by the state of nervous excitement to which
uncertainty as to salvation often gives birth ; by the absolute want
of any substantial light for the intellect to turn to, when its path
becomes clouded by misfortune ; and by the destitution of all re-
source when the poor, hunted, wearied stag falls trembling in its
agonies on the ground.

. . . ' For the more deeply seated maladies of the intellect, those
that are traceable chiefly to the wants of the mind itself ; to fears
connected with future stages of existence ; to the absence of any firm
reliance upon modes of faith which . . . are destitute of the great
charm of truth ; the medical practitioner has no remedy what-
ever. All cases of this character belong to the Divine. It is he
who must administer to minds affected by diseases of this class ;
diseases much more numerous than many persons suspect or will
easily believe : and we will take it upon ourselves to assert, that it is
in the bosom of our Church alone, are to be found the ministers,
who can really afford substantial relief in all such maladies as these,
or indeed, in any of the intellectual maladies arising from other than
mere physical causes.

' The soothing language of our Church spoken by her clergy,
generally men mild in their demeanour and most conversant, from
their practice in the Confessional, with the human heart, having
no object to promote save the eternal welfare of those committed
to their guidance, would seldom fail of finding its way even to that
reason wandering through the labyrinth in which despair, grief,
misfortune, passion, disappointed ambition, ill-requited affection,

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386

jealousy, or remorse may have involved it. The very grandeur of
our public worship . . . would of itself dissipate from the oppressed
bosom a thousand woes.' May, 1841, pp. 368 371.

In connection with the class of subjects I have been dis-
cussing, as an illustration of the sympathy which deep and
poignant feelings of repentance are themselves likely to
receive in general amongst us, let me ask whether there are
not multitudes, even of the more religious^ who, on
hearing of the practices adopted by individuals in Roman
Catholic countries and sanctioned by the Church, of scourging
themselves, or walking barefoot in penance for sin, will not
at first experience a feeling far more nearly akin to contempt,
than is any of which they are conscious on hearing of some
serious sin ? As though, not the commission of grievous sin,
but the avenging it on ourselves, were really unworthy our
Christian illumination.

In conclusion, a biief allusion may be made to two further
and very important purposes, which are answered by Sacra-
mental Confession : viz. that those whose pursuits are
mainly intellectual, are saved by it, in some degree, from the
evil tendencies to which, as I said, in the second chapter,
(p. 35,) such men are peculiarly liable ; and secondly, that the
great encouragement held out to making, from time to time,
a general confession of their whole past life, is of the utmost
benefit in deepening and realising repentance for past sin.
It is hardly necessary to observe that the English Church
has taken no measures for securing either of these benefits.

4*. The topics on which I have now touched, will suggest
to the reader's mind a vast number of similar particulars,
which it is not necessary individually to rehearse. My
object has been, to shew the miserable failure of that system

A friend of mine was told by an eminent London physician whose practice
has been in cases of insanity, that he considered its chief causes in England to
be, 1, the unsettled state of religion, and, 2, the pressure of our commercial
system upon weak minds, both from the ruin in which it sometimes involves
whole families, and from the constant strain upon the faculties in the endeavour
to get on.

387

which has oppressed our Church and nation a long three
hundred years, in performing one of the two fundamental
and essential duties incumbent on every Church ; and that
duty too, which is the necessary basis and condition for the
other : I mean, the duty of moral and religious discipline.
What has been the result in these our days of this most
sinful neglect, I am spared the invidious task of reciting at
length. Holy men in our Church (including some in their
number whose deep attachment to her no one can dispute) have
lifted up their voice in solemn admonition and complaint ;
they have deplored the absence among us of so much as an
appreciation of even the most obvious and striking features
of the saintly character; the low and carnal standard of
religion which has prevailed; the positive discouragement
offered to those who are impelled, by aspirations within
them, towards a higher mark. Most humiliating facts indeed
if true ; and I see not how their truth can be doubted.
The task I have here undertaken then has been wholly of a
subordinate character : theirs has been the responsible office
of protesting loudly and zealously against the spirit they
have found predominant ; I have humbly endeavoured to
specify those defects and corruptions in our system, which
will have amply sufficed to produce that spirit. In one
sense indeed what I have said may be considered to corro-
borate their conclusions i for taking my stand on facts which
no one can dispute, I have endeavoured to shew a priori that
certain results must, to a practical certainty, follow ; and
these are the very results, to which, as matters of their own
experience these writers had drawn attention. The reason-
ings then here contained may strengthen their testimony to
facts they conceive themselves to have observed ; while that
in turn adds increased probability to the justice of these
reasonings.

If our Chuch has been so incredibly supine and indifferent
to her very principal duty, as guardian of, and witness to,
, morality, that of carefully training her children one by one
in holy living, it is not to be supposed that she would
have taken any pains in the performance of other duties
incumbent on her in that capacity, but which are of a less

2 c 2

388

vitally momentous character. Accordingly, to choose one
from a multitude of cases, when subjects have been discussed
so closely connected with right moral action as the question,
to what extent the duty of a barrister towards his client
supersedes his general duty to society ; the very idea seems
never to have occurred to any of her authorities, that it is a
matter with which, as a national Christian Church, she has
any concern or interest. Or to turn our thoughts into a
different channel; when the most grave and serious doubts
have been entertained, whether the principles on which our
Indian Empire has been acquired, and on which it is retained,
are justifiable on grounds of Christian morality, or whether
we are not, as a nation, daily committing a grievous sin in our
demeanour towards the subjects of that Empire ; any such
conception, as the duty of a national Church to protest (if so
be) against a national sin, seems never to have practically
found admittance into the mind of either Church or nation.
It is very questionable indeed on which side the surprise
would be greatest, the Church-authorities or the State-
authorities, if a proposal were gravely made, to begin a
solemn inquiry, with the view to an Ecclesiastical decision on
this great question. I must guard myself against being
supposed to have any bias, which way a fair inquiry would
be likely to terminate ; for I really have none : but the
doubt has been felt in many a Christian mind, and affords
therefore matter for illustration, on the general ' blindness
which prevails to the very existence of so important a part
of the Church's duties. Nor can it be either expected or
desired that she should turn her thoughts to such questions,
while her apathy remains unshaken, on duties so incom-
parably, I may with truth say so infinitely, more momentous,
as those on which the present chapter has been hitherto
occupied.

In like manner, since the origin of every science has
ordinarily been the practical requirements of some art, it
was not to be expected that a Church which has taken so
little pains in teaching her children the art of holy living,
should have given herself any particular pains to cultivate
the corresponding sciences. Accordingly few English clergy-

389

men, I suppose, have so much as heard the name of moral
or ascetic theology ; and as to mystical theology, since it has
been for some time past the common belief in England that
Saints and saintly men do not exist in the later ages of the
Church, it is hardly to be supposed that attention would
have been given to the investigation of principles, for the
religious discipline of these holy men.

5. Let us now turn our thoughts to the other primary
duty of a Church ; the preservation of orthodox doctrine.
And here at first sight my task might seem easier ; for
although, as is natural, members of our Church are very
unwilling to admit that we are inferior to earlier times in
cultivation of the inward life, they almost make it matter of
boast that we are less zealous than Christians of a former age
in laying stress on what they would call the more minute
peculiarities of the Gospel Creed. Every one knows how
languidly a charge of Sabellianism or Nestorianism is
responded to by the ' religious world ; ' and how general the
opinion, that belief in these heresies is perfectly consistent
with spirituality and heavenly-mindedness. However, one
doctrine there happily is, which is still maintained among us
as essential, as placed beyond the sphere of lawful compromise
or concession : I mean, of course, the doctrine of our Blessed
Lord's Divine Nature. It will be well then to base the
present inquiry on an examination of this particular ; of the
faithfulness with which the Church of England has really
guarded this most precious deposit ; for we shall thus mea-
sure the value of her system by that very test which the
advocates of that system would most desire. I am not
of course really conceding, that Nestorians and Sabellians
can possibly believe the doctrine of the Incarnation ; but
only arguing 'ad homines' against religionists of the day,
that we may see whether they can defend their position on
the very ground they have themselves chosen. The well-
instructed believer will indeed enter upon this inquiry, with
the decided anticipation of an adverse result; for where there
is no provision for ensuring a strict life or a sensitive con-
science, the very soil is not supplied, in which alone a sound
faith can firmly plant its roots : while on the other hand,

390

those who by habitual discipline are ever actively engaged in
weeding out all carnal desires and affections, these have
heavenly truths brought before their spiritual sight with
a liveliness, power, and keen reality, of which we ordinary
men can form no conception : though even from our own ex-
perience, on occasions of increased watchfulness and care,
(independently of the great moral principle involved in this
statement,) we should be fully prepared and disposed to
receive the testimony of holy men to that effect. Such
subjects of contemplation as the protecting arm of God
the Father, ' the Horn of our salvation and our Refuge : '
or the human nature of God the Son ; the unspeakable
beauty of his human soul, and sweetness of His human
affections : or the inward presence of God the Holy Ghost,
binding all Christians into one mystical body : such subjects
as these fill pure and mortified souls with indescribable peace
and delight. To defend the Faith is with them not merely a
labour of love, it is a struggle for the only objects they value
in the whole world. No wonder then that the monastic bodies
have in every age been the great defenders and champions of
orthodoxy ; for they have been also the great witnesses and
exemplars of an austere and supernatural life. But we have
no monasteries, no recognised exemplars of the supernatural
life ; what then is to be the security for our orthodoxy ; who
is to be the guardian of our faith ? Still it is quite possible
to preserve one's judgment unbiassed in the inquiry; how-
ever strong may be the prepossession, that it will issue in one
particular result.

The doctrine that He, Who was born in a manger, Who
was subject to St. Mary and St. Joseph, Who mixed familiarly
and conversed with sinners, Who died on the Cross, is Al-
mighty God, the Creator of His disciples, and His murderers,
nay and of the Holy Angels ; Who was from all eternity
in the bosom of His Father, when space and time did not
exist ; this is surely most difficult to believe, and one might
think almost impossible in any degree to realise : nor can it
be impressed, in any real measure, on the moral nature of an
individual, without the most careful and diligent labour be-
stowed for that end. This is quite plain at starting : and the

391

only question which can be doubtful is, whether our Church
has bestowed this great labour. And let us, as before,
begin with the highest class in Christ's Kingdom, the
poor.

It will be urged at once, that the New Testament reveals
our Lord's Divinity, and that our Church is now at least, in
every quarter, more effectually performing the duty of
teaching her children to read the New Testament. That
this doctrine is contained in almost every sentence of the
New Testament, and will be more and more seen there by
the well-grounded Christian in almost every sentence, I do
not admit only, but most earnestly maintain. But it is
a widely different thing to say, that a poor uneducated person,
who is by degrees taught to read, and then, as long as his
parents can leave him at school, spells text after text, that
such a person as this will learn, from such reading as this,
so wonderful, so inconceivable, a mystery. To suppose that
such a result is possible, seems paradoxical almost to the
degree of insanity ; unless it be alleged, that by special
Divine promise, the efforts of all, who open the New Testa-
ment to learn for themselves Christian truth,? will be super-
naturally blessed and directed. However, we may let this
pass, to go to a much more important subject. For surely
all serious Christians will agree, that as well might this awful
truth be disbelieved altogether, as believed only by the head;
that a practical realisation of it is the object to be desired :
a hearty appropriation of these most blessed and incredible
tidings ; a living and energetic consciousness, that He Whose
words and acts they may learn one by one, is a Living Friend,
Who created them, Who redeemed them, Who had them,
one by one, in His thoughts, during His agony, and His
passion ; Who is ever close to them seeking for admittance,
labouring to soften their hearts, to shield them from tempta-
tion, to give them final perseverance ; and Whom they may

P On this, not uncommon, allegation, I spoke in the last chapter ; where
I said that, however unable to adopt such a sentiment myself, nay, however
persuaded that most serious and multiform mischief must come from it, I still
cannot but very much prefer it to either of the views which may be respectively
called by way of distinction, Archbishop Whately's view, and the ordinary ' high-
church' view. Sec pp. 229232.

392

address in prayer with the sure confidence of being heard and
loved. Now it is quite plain, as I said at starting, that a fact,
so utterly diverse in kind from all sights and sounds of this
world, cannot be constantly in their mind, nor can a habit so
alien to all their naturally acquired habits be really formed
within them, unless by some special discipline suited to the
purpose. For instance, if it were the habit of the teacher,
after they have read some miracle or other action of our Lord,
to impress on their imaginations the scene of which they have
been reading, as a living and breathing fact : and then, while
our Lord's very figure and gesture, as it were, remain full
in their thoughts, to teach them to kneel down and pray to
Him for help against the trials and temptations of life. Or
again, if for only so much as five minutes in each day a child
were taught to fix his attention on the thought of his Lord,
as revealed in any part of the Gospels, and then, with that
thought deeply impressed on his mind, confess before Him
his sins, and pray for strength to resist them. And there
may be probably many other methods for reaching the same
result;* 1 but to say that the mere reading of Scripture is such
a method, shews that he who says so has never fairly placed
before his imagination the object to be attained.

How widely a belief in the statement, that our Blessed Lord
is God, extends among the poor, I cannot tell ; that among the
educated classes of our Church it is general, and caused
by the agency of our Church, I willingly admit. At the
same time, as to them also, no pains whatever is taken by our
Church to indoctrinate them with that kind of belief, which
alone is of real importance. For instance, a very common
subject among Roman Catholics for such daily meditations as
I lately spoke of, is some event in our Blessed Lord's life ;

1 I have already protested in the strongest terms, against any attempt to intro-
duce among us directly the devotion to St. Mary, which exists so extensively
abroad. I shall not be misunderstood then when I say, that as the Church's
protest against Nestorianism is considered by learned men to have occasioned
the special and peculiar devotion offered by Christians of later ages to the
Blessed Virgin, so that devotion (whatever may be its incidental dangers) must
be at all times a very strong and unfailing defence against the inroads of that
same Nestorian heresy, from which our Church at this time is so deeply suf-
fering.

393

which they thus view intently for half an hour or an hour to-
gether as the case may be, making it the central point, for the
time, of their devotions and religious affections, and bringing
before their imagination, in every possible way, the truth that
the Principal Agent in these scenes is Almighty God. A work
in eight volumes by Pere Nouet, called ' L'homme d'oraison '
is wholly occupied by meditations of this kind, arranged for
every day in the year ; so also is a small work in one volume
in English called ' The Journal of Meditations ;' so, again, is
that exquisite book, St. Bonaventure's * Life of Christ ;' r we
have seen how great a part of the ' Spiritual Exercises' is
similarly arranged ; and there are other books with a like object.
All this is plainly a most powerful instrument for impressing
the minds of Christians, in continually increasing measure,
with this fundamental Verity; but I know no instrument
whatever, employed by our own Church for a similar purpose.
And it might be concluded almost with unfailing certainty,
even before recurring to practical experience, that a truth,
which requires such effort and habitual discipline in any
degree to master, as does this awful mystery, will, in cases
where this effort and discipline have not been bestowed,
possess no real hold on men's minds ; that it may be professed
with their lips, and received in a certain most inadequate
sense by their understanding, but will be in no true sense
apprehended by its only appropriate correlative, the spiritual
nature. And the mere fact that English Churchmen still
w r ith one accord profess belief in it, is plainly no presumption
whatever against what I have said ; for nothing is more
common, in every age and on every subject, than for a dry
formal statement to be nominally received, while the vital
spirit which ought to animate it has almost or even wholly fled.
Members of our Church are fond of pressing this undoubted
principle against the Church of Rome ; they are fond of
urging, that to profess in words our Lord's supreme Divi-
nity, is in itself no guarantee that He reigns supreme in
their hearts. The principle, I say, is undoubted, whatever

r Except that in this latter instance there is no orderly arrangement for successive
days.

394

force there may be in their particular application of it; and
they can make no complaint therefore, when I adopt the same
principle in arguing against themselves.

But it may be objected to this representation, that members
of our Church not only profess in words this belief, but are
most honourably and eagerly zealous for it in act and protest.
But here is no valid objection ; for this phenomenon, again,
constantly recurs : men learn from their fathers, not the
statement only of some principle, but zeal for that state-
ment; while yet the principle itself has almost entirely
escaped them. The Roman emperors never dared assume
the title of king ; so zealous were the people for the name of
liberty, years after they had lost the reality without a
struggle. However, in this instance there is a further reason ;
which by itself fully accounts for that zeal, without imply-
ing any real attachment to the doctrine. For the statement
of our Lord's Divinity is absolutely necessary, as a condition
for the statement of His Atonement : and the latter state-
ment again is absolutely necessary, in order to belief in the
non-necessity of careful self-discipline, and of penitential
exercises ; and in order to the habit of pitying, or even con-
demning, an austere and monastic life, in the place of reve-
rencing it with deep humility and awe. To say that the
sacred doctrine of the Atonement is wrested to such a pur-
pose, implies no disparagement to that marvellous and ever-
blessed work of mercy ; nor yet, again, any extenuation of
these unchristian tempers of mind. No doctrine can be con-
ceived more essential, than that of God's mercy, or, again,
than that of God's justice ; yet open Antinomians pervert the
former to serve the cause of immorality, and Novatians
have before now perverted the latter to serve the cause of
heresy : and the very zeal and affection we entertain for the
truths themselves, make us more uncompromising and ardent
in opposing their wicked distortion. Nay, it has often most
truly been said, that Antinomians and Novatians do not hold
really the very truth they seem to hold exclusively ; and, in
like manner, those who, consciously or unconsciously, are
more or less deeply tainted by the Lutheran heresy, do not

395

rightly apprehend that very doctrine of the Atonement, on
which they profess to build their system. The deeper then
our sense of the unspeakable sacredness of this doctrine, (the
central point, as it has been well called, on which the whole
Christian scheme converges,) the more will our holy indigna-
tion be roused against that miserable perversion, which would
make it the minister of lukewarmness and carnal-mindedness.
Still if it be true, that a very large portion of our Church is
really, in one degree or other, inoculated with this fatal in-
fection, one symptom of their very disease will be, a self-de-
ceiving zeal for the formal statement of our Lord's Divinity.

It is plain that to prove demonstratively the prevalence of
a certain temper of mind among large classes of men, is from
the nature of things impossible ; one may have the strongest
grounds, from observation and experience, to hold an opinion
on the subject, and yet have comparatively little of pro-
ducible evidence to bring fo-rward. It happens however in
the present case, that there is much more evidence, and of a
more cogent character, than could a priori have been expected,
from the very nature of that allegation which I desire to
maintain. And first, I will mention a work, to which I al-
luded in my last chapter, which, in one of its most prominent
and most striking passages, said, in speaking of our Lord,
that the " spectacle of this deserted and defenceless sufferer
. . . far exceeds that of Napoleon, or even that of Regulus :"
the spectacle of God Incarnate 'far exceeds even that of
Regulus ! ' I am most anxious to avoid any disrespectful
allusion whatever to the writer of the work himself; I wish
to think merely of its reception here, as a test of the sensi-
tiveness to our Lord's honour, really felt by our ' religious
world.' Where was the loud protest, or the silent distress ?
where the stern rebuke ? or where the deep-felt pity for the
state of mind indicated by such a sentiment ? Where indeed ?
The ' Evangelicals ' as a body praised the book in very high
terms, and circulated it in all directions ; nor did any ex-
posure of its real nature come from what are called the more
sober members of the ' high-church ' party ; until a Tract for
the Times spoke plainly and strongly on the question. It is
not often that so decisive a proof can be brought to bear on

396

so indefinable and indeterminate a matter, as the practical
belief of a class of men.

But other instances are ready at hand ; and in citing them,
I beg to say, once for all, that neither here nor elsewhere
had I ever the most distant intention of charging any clergy-
man of our Church with conscious Socinianism, with in-
tentional denial of our Lord's Divinity or of His Atonement :
I firmly believe that there is not one of her ministers, who
would not recoil from the very idea of formally contradicting
those doctrines. I may have elsewhere spoken of the direct
implication or meaning of particular passages, and here I am
speaking of the wraconscious and practical belief which really
energizes in some men's minds ; but in neither case have I
even dreamt of imputing the deliberate and conscious denial
of these solemn Verities. Let me now draw attention to a
view, taken by Archbishop Whately in many parts of his
works, and to which I alluded in my article on ' St. Athana-
sius.' The main object of his second * Sermon ' is, to prove
that Christ is the authorized image of God ; insomuch that
on that ground we are bound to pay Him divine worship.
" The question is," he says, " whether God was with Jesus
of Nazareth only as with a most eminent prophet, or in some
such manner as authorizes and requires us to worship God in
Christ" (p. 40.) It is sometimes, he says, replied by Trinitarians
to those who charge them with idolatry, that it cannot be
idolatry, since we intend to direct our worship to God ; but this
is no valid reply, for idolatry has its very essence in the worship
of the true God in some unauthorized image, emblem, or re-
presentation ; and " the same act may be idolatrous or not,
according as this divine appointment is wanting or not."
For instance, when God first revealed Himself to Moses, " in
the appearance of a flame of fire" . . . Moses "fell on his face
and worshipped. Now if Moses had . . . himself kindled a
fire, and worshipped before it as a suitable emblem of the
Lord, he would clearly have been guilty of idolatry." He
proceeds with other illustrations, and then " applies " what
he has said " to the great question," which he thinks will " be
settled by these considerations. . . . Those who pay divine
worship to Christ Jesus .... are cleared, if the Scriptures

397

authorize and enjoin us to worship God in Christ. . . . We
differ from the worshippers of any mere man, ... or of a
graven image, or of a fire, in this the essential circum-
stance, that their worship is unauthorized, presumptuous, and
vain, while ours is divinely appointed." Moreover, " Jesus
Himself describes Himself, as not only conveying to us a
notion of the Father's character, but as possessing the Father's
power, offices, and attributes, and claiming the honour due to
the Father," so that he is " an image in which God is to be
adored." (pp. 40, 55.) ' It is pretty clear from all this, that
supposing any baptized Christian to have lived, by special
privilege, free from venial as well as mortal sin, and fully
possessed by the Spirit of God, the author would consider it
as a matter of formal and positive commandment, not of
abstract propriety, whether God might not appoint that He
should be worshipped in that Christian ; and when we have
imagined this hypothesis, and supposed further some indefi-
nite and provisional communication of Divine " power, offices,
and attributes," we shall have formed the whole idea which
Dr. Whately thinks deducible from Scripture, of our Lord's
Divine Nature.' 1 "

Now the belief, which the religious Christian, who has
once learned it, would rather die a death of torment, than
abandon the belief enshrined in the very depth of his
spiritual nature ; the belief which is the one main external
motive animating his courage, elevating his religious per-
ceptions, drawing his affections to the invisible world, is
a belief that He, who lived and died on earth for us, is
not an authorized image only, or emblem, of Almighty God,
but is Almighty God. The difference between these two is
absolutely infinite : we love our Blessed Lord as a Person ;
is His Personality human or divine ? This is no question of
scholastic subtlety: but it is the question, whether the
Christian's most cherished affections and aspirations have been
rightly bestowed or wrongly ; whether he be allowed to retain
that belief which is the happiness of his life, or be rudely
summoned to part with it. And should such a summons
come from those who profess, nay, consider themselves, to
r On St. Athan. pp. 3, 7.

398

agree with him in all essential matters, but who call on him
not to refine unduly, nor insist on a particular form of
words, if it come from these, rather than from the profes-
sors of open heresy, surely the attack is even more painful
and distressing. " It is not an open enemy that hath done
me this dishonour, for then I could have borne it; but it
was even thou, my companion we walked in the house of
God as friends."

The contrast between the Archbishop's statement and
the Catholic doctrine will be placed in a striking light,
as I observed in the British Critic, if we take the instance of
our Blessed Lord's prayers. " When He prayed to His
Father," says Mr. Newman, " it was not the prayer of man
supplicating God, but of the Eternal Son of God, Who had
ever shared the glory of His Father, addressing Him, as
before, but under far other circumstances, and in a new way ;
not according to those most intimate and ineffable relations
which belonged to Him Who was in the bosom of the Father,
but in the economy of redemption, and in a lower world, viz.
through the feelings and thoughts of human nature" But the
Archbishop had before ruled, that to suppose that God,
when He said " Let us make man," addressed himself to
the Son, approaches very closely to the Arian Tritheism,
(Logic, Article, " Person") ; and according to his statement
just quoted, what can these prayers have possibly been (if
they were not a mere external representation and mockery)
but prayers of the Man Christ Jesus to that God, Who
dwells in Him without measure ; Whose authorized image He
has been constituted ? What real or substantial difference is
there between this and the Socinian statement? what dif-
ference is there not, as the very instinct of a well-instructed
Christian will perceive, between this statement and the Ca-
tholic Faith ?

The object of this examination is not the comparatively
unimportant and very invidious one of commenting on the
belief of an individual, but the object, extremely important
and free from all personal invidiousness, of commenting on
the belief prevalent in our Church. For the Archbishop of
Dublin, however much his opinions have been disliked

399

on various matters of minor importance, most certainly
is not generally considered unsound on the highest points
of faith ; or in other words, language, which would inex-
pressibly shock the highest feelings of those who practically
believe and realise our Lord's Divinity has not, in point of
fact, at all shocked the great body of even serious and re-
ligious persons in our Church. Again, the sentiment just
quoted had been expressed many years ago still more plainly
by Dr. Hinds, whose works are frequently referred to by the
Archbishop, and with great praise.

' In Christians, as in Christ Himself, there is an union of the
Godhead with man ; but we must beware of supposing that in the
two cases it is the same. Scripture declares that it is different ; but
does not further explain the difference, than by intimating that He
was individually, we only collectively, the temple of God. " T

A pamphlet, published nine years since, drew attention to
this quotation among others, and made the plain comment,
that " no Socinian that ever lived would scruple to acknow-
ledge " our Lord's Divinity in such a sense.* However this
may be, here was the passage fairly exhibited to the public,
and their judgment, as it were, demanded on it. Every one
knows, that that pamphlet was considered by numbers of
serious persons at the time to state things a great deal too
strongly ; while on the other hand no general feeling even of
alarm, much less of horror, seems to have been elicited by
such a passage as that of Dr. Hinds. The same tone, again,
is remarkably exhibited by Mr. Milman in his " History of
Christianity," as I observed in the same article. ' As in-
stances where this tone breaks out into the language of open
disbelief in His proper Divinity, I may mention such as
the following ; though they might be multiplied, I believe,
indefinitely, for I have almost taken the first which came to
hand. After the murder of St. John Baptist, " indications
of hostility from the government seem to have put Jesus on

' Hinds' Three Temples, p. 48.

' ' Foundation of the Faith assailed in Oxford,' p. 31.

400

His guard" (p. 240.) Shortly before our Lord's Passion,
" at every step He feels Himself more inextricably within
their toils:" He dwells with a profound, though chastened
melancholy on His approaching fate."' (p. 300.) And in this
instance too, though 011 other grounds the work has been un-
popular, this, infinitely its most serious defect, has hardly, I
believe, received notice. In other words, the majority of
those who have read it, have not themselves any deep and
practical perception of that truth, which such a tone as I
speak of essentially contradicts.

It will now be clearer to the reader's mind, what is the
sort of practical unbelief which I impute to vast numbers in
our Church. From my own observation I should say, that
among many who would be reputed even preeminently ' safe
and orthodox,' there is a great repugnance to the use of
such plain and straightforward expressions, as ' God died
for us,' ' God was smitten on the face,' or St. Paul's own
phrase, ' God's Blood.' I do not mean that such persons
would merely shrink from using such expressions on light
and trivial occasions ; but that they would dissuade us from
framing them in our own heart at the most serious moments ;
in solemn addresses, prayers, or meditations. They would
prefer confining themselves to the phrase, ' Son of God ;'
which of course was amply sufficient before heresy rose, nay,
would be amply sufficient in a Church not pervaded by a
deeply heretical atmosphere ; but which, in such cases as I
speak of, cannot be even plausiby attributed to any other
cause, than an unwillingness fully to look in the face the
true doctrine, that ' The Man Jesus,' is not only the Son of
God, but is God ; and that He is the Son of God, not in that
He is Man, but in that He is God.

Mr. Oakeley has expressed the same opinion with great
clearness of language.

' Among the heresies, upon the brink of which we stand, a certain
Nestorianism is far from being the least rife, as it is certainly one of
the most fearful. This peculiar spirit, the absence of a firm and
confident grasp of the great doctrine of our Lord's Divine

401

Personality, seems to operate in different ways, according to the
character of the mind which it influences. The less reverent fall,
under it, into a painfully familiar way of speaking upon our Lord's
actions as Man, just as if ... He were ' a man,' as any other man,
and not God made Man. Thus persons speak of Him in words which
can be hardly breathed without profanation, as ' the greatest of
men,' or the like ; as though mere heroism might be predicated of
Him, who was Perfect God in every the least and lowliest of his
actions on earth. . . . With reverent minds this loose hold of
Catholic doctrine operates in quite another, far less dangerous, and
yet very dangerous, way. Not starting with a confident possession
of the great Athanasian Verity, that our Lord was one Christ,
. . . ' by taking of the manhood into God,' they are, so to say, shy
of confronting the doctrine of the Perfect Humanity in all its
bearings and necessary consequences. They cannot think of our
Blessed Lord, at least in detail, as Perfect Man, without an
apprehension, (worthy in them of all respect,) lest what they give
to the idea of His Humanity should be so much taken from His
Divinity. Thus they tend, however unconsciously, and at whatever
distance from formal heresy, to reduce the Manhood of our Lord to
a kind of shadowy existence.' *

Let us now then once more revert to the proofs which may
be adduced for the justice of this allegation.

Another very significant symptom of the same disease is
the general feeling towards the Gospels. If we in real truth
heartily believed, that the words and acts of God Incarnate
are, by the unspeakable mercy of God, preserved for our
reverent contemplation, we should look upon that record
with feelings wholly different in kind from our regard to the
rest of Scripture, however great should be our veneration for
the whole : other parts we should read, but this part we
should, as it were, pore over and spell. And this has been
found to result, in times or countries in which men have
really believed in Him as God. They have dwelt on every
little particular of the visit of the Shepherds, and worship
of the Magians ; or they have counted His last words, and
honoured, one by one, His adorable wounds ; just as they have
looked with feelings of awe and love towards the ground

' Introduction to translation of Life of Christ,' p. xxiv.

2 D

402

which His sacred feet trod, and felt it a scandal and a shame
that infidels should possess it. But so far is this from being
the case amongst ourselves, that men of very different religi-
ous parties have united in professing that the Epistles are
even a. preferable study for the Christian. They defend this
statement, by saying that Christian doctrines will there be
found most clearly drawn out : were we to grant this for argu-
ment's sake, what would follow, but that they love our Lord's
doctrines more than His Person ? the very charge childishly
and absurdly brought against Catholic believers. And if we
love His doctrines more than His Person, we either love cer-
tain doctrines more than we love God, or we do not practi-
cally believe in Him as God.

Again, observe to how great an extent the very idea had
gone out from our Church, until quite lately, of afflicting
ourselves at stated times in sympathy with His sufferings,
or of so realising His sufferings as to make the thought of
them a matter of personal sorrow and depression of heart.
Is it in human nature to read such accounts as those con-
tained in our services for Holy Week, and to know that each
sin of ours bore its part in aggravating the pangs He en-
dured, and yet feel nothing like distress and anguish of mind,
if we really love Him ? or shall we say, that those multitudes
in our Church, to whom the notion of such distress and an-
guish has seemed strange, fantastical, unaccountable, contain
in their number none who really love God ? If this be, as I
most readily acknowledge, an unbearably harsh censure, what
follows (as in the last case) but that they do not really feel
that He is God ?

To the same head may be referred the strange misconcep-
tion, so common among Protestants, on the Catholic belief in
the Real Presence. Members of our Church have quite com-
monly regarded the doctrine in question, as being nothing more
(if such words may be uttered) than a sort of unmeaning con-
juration ; and have felt no little contempt for those, who
could erect it into a sacred article of faith. Now, whether
or not they ought themselves to accept this doctrine (which
is another matter), that this should be their opinion of its
real nature, is a fact which I find it very difficult indeed to

103

reconcile, with any real belief on their part (speaking of them
as a class) in another doctrine which they do consider them-
selves bound to accept. For if union with God be our only
happiness here below, a belief in that closer and more intimate
union, which must result from His mixing, as it were, His
human nature with ours, and thus drawing us into ineffable
proximity with the Divine Essence, such a belief must be to
those able to receive it an occasion for the liveliest joy and
gratitude. And those who are unable to fancy that any real
value is attached to it, and regard the zealous and unflinching
maintenance of it as the mere mark of formalism and unspiri-
tuality, afford surely the strongest presumption, that they have
no real and true grasp of that fundamental doctrine, which gives
this other belief its meaning and its preciousness, the union of
the divine and human natures in One Divine Person. In-
deed, there is no subject on which the contrast is so striking,
to which I have had formerly to draw attention, between the
intellectual apprehension of those who spiritually realise a
doctrine and of those who do not. For a religious Catholic
regards this miracle as the very master-piece, the very crowning
instance, of exuberant love ; beyond which even God's Infinite
Mercy can hardly find it possible to have vent: and its
scientific discussion and definition he contemplates with that
deep and breathless emotion, which is naturally called forth
by the mere circumstance of the mind being occupied, for a
length of time, in the thought of what it prizes beyond words.
And as the believer regards this as the sublimest display of
Divine Mercy, so does the unbeliever (may he be forgiven the
blasphemy !) as the lowest exhibition of human imbecility. The
astonishment of the Infidel or the Protestant is as full of
bitter contempt, as the wonder of the Catholic is animated by
the highest emotions of love, gratitude, and adoring awe.

Lastly, the circumstance of the question being even en-
tertained, whether modern Unitarians are in any true sense
Christians, implies, in those who entertain it, a strange ig-
norance of the truth which Unitarians deny ; for surely their
point of difference with orthodox Christians, is incomparably
more momentous than their point of difference with avowed

2 D 2

404

infidels. In fact, who can compare in moment the question,
whether God has, or has not, made, by His servant, a special
revelation, with that other question, whether He has, or has
not, Himself taken on Him our nature and visited this earth ?
or how is it possible for those, who answer the latter question
in the affirmative, to regard their opponents in any other
light, than as rejecting that one fact, which gives to human
nature itself its unapproachable interest and importance?
If those are looked upon as on the whole brethren, who agree
with us in the external visible facts of Christianity, but who
differ, not less than infinitely, as to the real meaning of those
facts; while those are looked upon as adversaries, who dis-
believe the external facts also ; those who take such a view
of things (considering them as a class, and allowing for in-
dividual instances of prejudice or intellectual indistinctness)
bear witness against their own belief, and testify that they
have hardly a more real appreciation of the meaning of those
facts, than have the Unitarians themselves. But that a pro-
fessed Unitarian should come among a body, which claims to
be the chief pillar of an orthodox Church, and should re-
ceive at their hands, not courtesy merely or attention, but
public honour ; that in a place where the students recite
many times in the year the Athanasian Creed, with its dam-
natory clauses, and where a profession is made of teaching
them accordingly, of teaching them that, except for invincible
ignorance, an Unitarian is wholly out of the way of Christian
salvation, that in such a place a project should have been
entertained of introducing an individual openly avowing that
heresy into the Academical assembly, with a highly eulogistic
speech, and placing him 'honoris causa,' before the eyes of
those students, in the highest rank; nay, that this project
should either have succeeded, or have failed of success only
by an unforeseen accident ; this is a circumstance, which of
itself might lead one seriously to ask, how soon open apostacy
from the faith is likely to take the place, among us, of the
huge mass of secret and unconscious unbelief.

I trust no one can attribute either this statement, or the
course taken on the occasion to which I allude, to feelings of

405

personal hostility or Academical discontent. Those who
then acted a most painful and trying part, certainly took
every means in their power to guard against such a miscon-
ception. And again, speaking for myself, I am sure that the
language I have used in the British Critic towards Mr. John
Mill, whom his writings have compelled me to charge with
far worse unbelief than Unitarianism, may shew that I have
no desire to join in an indiscriminating and fanatical outcry.
But surely it is one thing to make every allowance for indi-
viduals, under the fearful eclipse which the Truth now suffers,
or even to be ready and anxious in displaying all courtesy
and considerateness in our private demeanour ; and quite a
different, or rather a very contrary thing, to allow them to
forget that we consider the matter at issue between us as in-
finitely momentous, or to give them public honour in an in-
stitution founded on Christian belief. The very contrary
thing, I say ; for it is precisely that feeling of personal con-
siderateness and tenderness inclining us to the first, which
would also at once forbid the last. They may be wholly
blameless in their unbelief; it is impossible to form even a
guess whether they are not so ; but we cannot be blameless,
if, seeing the truth, we take one single step which may lessen
their sense of the importance of seeking it. u

Indifference then to the very central Verity of the Gospel
being prevalent among us, to the fearful extent I have
endeavoured to describe, we cannot wonder, however keenly
we may mourn, at the decline and fall of dogmatic theology.
When the faith itself becomes again precious in our eyes, so
also will that superhuman science, which alone can defend
and secure it. As it is, the great body of ' high Churchmen'
seem hardly more alive to its preeminent dignity than others.
For example, Mr. Newman's translation and notes on St.
Athanasius' doctrinal treatises, have hardly excited the least
sensation ; though that work (to say nothing more) is certainly

u ' Seeking it :' 1 mean, of course, not by Scripture exegesis or free inquiry,
but by more earnestly acting on their existing principles ; by self- discipline, much
prayer, devotional reading of Scripture, and studying the life and the belief of holy

406

the most remarkable accession to dogmatic theology that has
been made within our memory, and is perhaps the greatest
of all his works. Nay, and the very authorized education for
Orders seems to consist far more (a thing that would have
been thought incredible in other ages) in the exegetical
interpretation of Scripture, or else the discussion of such
merely ecclesiastical subjects as Episcopal jurisdiction and
the validity of lay Baptism, than in the scientific analysis
and exposition of those great Mysteries, the Trinity and the
Incarnation ; those Mysteries, the science of which has ever
been considered in the Church the one fit and adequate ob-
ject for the Christian intellect, as the thought of them is the
life and happiness of the Christian soul. All our attention
seems directed to the outworks ; while we leave the world to
wonder, what can be the cause of that jealous care with which
we labour to preserve them, when we ourselves speak so little,
and seem to think so little, of the very treasure which they
were given to defend. Dr. Wordsworth, as one symptom of
this, publishes a volume, (Theophilus Anglicanus,) ' the occa-
sion and object of which,' so his preface tells us, ' is to supply
a book suited to the purpose of catechizing scholars in the
highest class of a Grammar School ' such as Harrow. The
whole work is, if I may use such a phrase, ecclesiastical :
no methodical teaching about sin, original and actual; the
efficacy of prayer ; the gift of grace ; the union of the Divine
and Human natures in our Blessed Lord ; the mysterious
Trinity in Unity ; or whatever else most closely concerns the
inward life : but all his energy is directed to such matters, as
' lawful ministry,' ' uninterrupted succession,' ' Church and
State ;' topics in themselves quite essential to be considered
in due time and place, but which cannot surely be made
the prominent features of any exhibition of Christianity,
' without causing our notions of religious faith and precept
to be stiff, barren, and most distressingly formal.'

I cannot be supposed to mean any thing disrespectful to
Dr. Wordsworth personally ; for I am merely citing this work
as an example, ready at hand, of a method of procedure, which
seems even on the increase among us, as 'high-Church'

407

principles advance. And what can be the result of all this in
our pulpits and general teaching, except that, according to a
quotation I lately cited from the Christian Remembrancer,
doctrines are held by our flocks, according to the accident
of their locality and opportunities, irreconcilably discordant
from each other on matters which are the most intimately
bound up with the life of the soul; nay, on all matters,
except only our Church's immaculate purity and Rome's
incurable corruptions. And hence it further follows, by
necessary consequence, as I said in the second chapter, that
to a miserable extent the people fall into a habit of hearing
religious words without attaching to them any definite mean-
ing, and the voice of the preacher becomes to them almost
as ' sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.'

Such being the practical disbelief of English Churchmen
in the truth, which they consider themselves to prize beyond
all others, it will not astonish us that in particulars, which
they themselves consider less important, as till greater indif-
ference exists. The doctrine, which may be perhaps con-
sidered to come nearest in practical moment to that which we
have been discussing, is the Indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
This is almost in terms denied by numbers, who preeminently
claim the character of spiritual Christians ; they plainly pro-
fess, that our works done under the Gospel are, as a matter of
doctrine, 'filthy rags:' or in other words, are not intrinsically
acceptable to God. Since then they cannot believe that the
Holy Ghost is the Agent of these works, they are led to con-
fine his office to the inspiration of good desires ; and since it
is certain that Christians have the Holy Ghost in some distinct
sense from heathens, the more clear-sighted and consecutive are
led on to Luther's shocking sentiment, that the heathens had
no good desires. So few are sometimes the steps, which lead,
from abstract heresy, to practical paradoxes the most repulsive
and demoralizing. Yet even of those among us who are not
avowedly infected with this heresy, numbers are so far at
least tainted as to shrink from calling it heresy ; or, in other
words, to be unconscious of its utter irreconcilableness with
the most essential principles of the Gospel. In like manner,

a doctrine which, as belonging to natural religion, is even
more primary than the most sacred of Revelation, I allude
to future judgment according to works, is formally repu-
diated as antichristian by multitudes of the same class ; and
even those who do not proceed to such utterly fanatical and
immoral lengths, are sometimes slow, in positively affirming
that our future reward is proportioned to our works done in
the Holy Ghost on earth ; and still oftener slow, in affixing
the brand of heresy on the error which denies this.

We cannot wonder then that a dimness of spiritual vision,
which could not beforehand have been thought possible in
ordinarily serious Christians, does in fact characterise great
part of the more religious among ourselves. Nothing, e. g., is
more common, in attacking Roman Catholics, than to say that
Purgatory (as it is more ordinarily received among them) is
a frightfully cruel doctrine, because it speaks of purgatorial
flames as being equal in intensity to those of Hell. Roman
Catholics answer, that souls in purgatory preserve not faith
only and hope, but even the love of God; and that this
makes the widest possible difference between the two cases.
But such a reply is continually treated as a * hair-splitting '
subterfuge, a mere evasion. Yet St. Alphonsus, like other
spiritual writers, not once only, but repeatedly expresses the
sentiment, that where love of God exists, there must be
really happiness, whatever the accompanying pain ; and that
where it is absent, there must be misery, whatever the accom-
panying pleasure. The distinction then between having and
not having the habit of love, is not merely not unimportant,
but beyond all others important ; yet Protestants (even some
who appear not destitute of religious seriousness) continually
speak, as though the very idea of the happiness caused by
this habit were a stranger to their mind. What I have said
will probably recall to the reader's mind a number of similar
instances, which are perhaps more often met in this particular
controversy than in any other ; but which it is not necessary
to specify.

Lastly, when a Church not only omits to take the neces-
sary means for teaching orthodoxy, but manifestly and in

409

the face of day tolerates heterodoxy, a still graver matter
is suggested for our consideration. It is a notorious fact that
from the Reformation downwards three parties have, in
varying measures, divided among them the English Church ;
the 'high-church,' the ' evangelical,' the ' latitudinarian :' and
all have received practical toleration. Those who graft the
Gospel on natural religion, those who have devised or in-
herited a Gospel which contradicts natural religion, and
those who deny that there is any one assemblage of doctrines
which possesses an exclusive right to be called the Gospel, all
these it has been sometimes, in the blindness of our arrogance,
made a matter of boast that the English Church includes within
her pale. And to go to other controverted questions, (not so
vitally important indeed as these, but still of exceeding im-
portance,) the experience of the last few months shews, that a
public denial of Sacramental grace, and an assertion of the
right possessed by each man to draw his faith for himself from
Scripture, may be publicly and formally put forward by a
number of her ministers, with no censure from ecclesiastical au-
thority. The extracts again, which I made from Archbishop
Whately, have received no formal censure or disavowal ; nay ?
a writer, whom the present Bishop of London characterises
as a Socinian, died a Bishop of our Church. x A Society so
ordered, may be still, by God's inscrutable mercy, a channel of
Divine grace, as our Church is ; but it is literally unmeaning
to speak of it as a Dispenser or Witness of religious Truth.
We cannot learn doctrine from the English Church, if we
would ; for she teaches no uniform doctrine to be learned.

6. So powerless has our Church been to train her children
in these most essential of all requisites, an obedient life and
an orthodox faith ; it is no matter of wonder then that we
see among us so few who exemplify, nay, who possess the
power of appreciating, the true Catholic character. For we

* Bishop Hoadley. The Bishop of London compares with this case that of
Pope Leo X., whom he represents to have been an infidel. Waiving the historical
controversy, such an opinion could not be based on his writings or on any overt act,
but only on surmises and rumours, well or ill-founded. But this makes the whole
difference between cases which a Church can notice and those which it cannot.
Bishop Hoadley's heretical opinions were plainly avowed, and yet not censured.

410

shall perhaps not wander far from the truth, if we say that
wherever such characteristics are found as the following;
1. a consistent, however frail and imperfect, fulfilment of the
whole law ; 2. a belief (implicit or explicit matters not) in
such fundamentals as the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the
Office of the Holy Ghost ; 3. a practical realisation of the
Communion of Saints in daily devotion and daily action ;
there the Catholic character exists in all its essential and
universal features: and most certainly we shall not wander
from the truth, when we confidently assert the converse ;
that wherever any one of these features should be absent,
(supposing the impossible case that one could be absent while
the others remain intact,) an indispensable constituent of that
character would be wanting. Now on the mutual action and
reaction of the first two, among the three characteristics just
recited, enough has been said in what has gone before : while
the last may readily be implanted as an offshoot from either
of those two ; from the first, as springing from that veneration
of the saintly character which holy obedience inspires ; from
the second, as intimately connected with a fit appreciation of
the Office of the Holy Ghost. It follows then at once, as
I started by saying, that it is no possible matter of surprise,
when we observe how little the Catholic model is understood
among us, and how small the amount of gratitude due to our
present system even for that little. It follows also, that those
who desire, in their place and according to their power and
opportunity, to assist in the great task now in progress of
building up our unhappy and prostrate Church, must con-
centrate their energies on this one object; the object of
devising the means whereby, saving her existing framework,
she may be able to perform, with less deplorable inefficiency,
these her primary duties.

Indeed until these are in some adequate measure per-
formed, others are incapable of performance. For instance,
that attention to the public Service of the Church both in
its more frequent and more solemn celebration, which is
doubtless one of the many cheering features of our time,
must surely be considered rather as encouraging for the

411

future, than conferring any extensive benefit for the present ;
and must so be considered, until our attention shall have
been more generally and methodically directed to the main-
tenance and cultivation of personal obedience and personal
orthodoxy: for, as I observed in the second chapter, any
formal and stated service of prayer, ' if not closely connected
with a strict government of the inward life, by an inevitable
necessity declines more or less into hollowness and formalism.'
On the other hand, it must never be denied or concealed ' that
an ordered and minute ceremonial, solemn ministrations, pros-
trations, obeisances, and other external signs of our religion,
that all these, which to the world appear but the dictates of
a miserable and contemptible formalism, are full of beauty
and delight to the Catholic mind. It is the very charac-
teristic of all beauty, that those who happen not to have
a temperament disposed to receive its impressions, regard
those impressions as absurd and fantastical. What can ap-
pear more trifling and childish, than the love of natural
scenery, except to those who feel it as beautiful and trans-
porting ? That a rational being shall derive pleasure from
fixing his eyes on a mere assemblage of trees, hills, and
hedges, nay, shall go a journey of many days, and of much
trouble and expense, with the sole object of enjoying such
a sight, how weak and ridiculous ! Just so argue men of
the present day, when there is a question about Catholic
Ceremonial; they fall into the common mistake of the
bigotted and narrow-minded, and fancy that external objects
cannot be to others most ravishing and transporting, merely
because to them they are but empty husks and an unsub-
stantial outside. Even of Shakspeare's often-quoted eulogy
on music (' the man that hath not music,' &c.) a celebrated
commentator has been found to say :

* This passage . . .furnishes the vacant fiddkr with something to say
in defence of his profession, and supplies the coxcomb in music with
an invective against such as do not pretend to discover all the
various powers of language in inarticulate sounds ;"

> Steevcns ad locum.

412

where we find that tone of bitter and contemptuous sarcasm,
even in regard to so very general a taste as that for music,
which will at once remind my reader of the would-be philoso-
phical Protestant, in his remarks whether on the Athanasian
Creed, or (which is more to the present purpose) on the
Apostolical Liturgies.

However, as I began by fully acknowledging, nothing but
formalism can result, if we make outward ceremonial our
first or most prominent object ; nor can we therefore revive
it with any advantage, until we have made a foundation for
it by implanting the first elements of the Catholic character.
Take, again, such other duties of a Church as I specified in
my second chapter ; and first consider what may be called her
intellectual duties. For example, how can an authorized
view of Biblical Criticism be obtained, unless that science be
wholly based on a living, energetic, and consistent fabric of
dogmatic theology ? Until we have deeply and fully realised,
as a whole, the faith which St. Paul preached, how can we
profitably distribute it, as it were, rightly among the various
passages of his Epistles ? Who would tolerate a similar ab-
surdity in common life ? who would profess to interpret the
letters addressed by some human philosopher to the students
he has instructed, without first acquainting themselves, by
every attainable means, with the philosophical doctrines he
had taught ? Nor is this any denial of the truth, that Scrip-
ture furnishes a sufficient proof of Christian doctrine to those
who have learned it from the Church ; so far from it, that in
the parallel case there could not be devised by possibility a
more satisfactory proof, that the inquirers had rightly under-
stood the philosophical system, than the circumstance, that it
would give a meaning to these letters, so far deeper and more
pregnant than they would otherwise receive. Biblical Criti-
cism then will ever remain on the whole a delusive science,
(whatever valuable materials may be in course of preparation
for the Catholic Expositor, through the intellectual power
and activity of Protestant inquirers,) until it shall be culti-
vated by thinkers, who have been, as a preliminary, deeply
imbued with the Catholic Faith. Just as no one could un-
derstand the spirit and drift of Luther's expressions, one by

413

one, except he who shall have laboured to imbibe what may
be calle*d the Lutheran atmosphere of thought ; so neither
can any one enter into the deep words of Scripture, except in
proportion as he shall have been indoctrinated in the faith by
a pure and Scriptural Church. And as to Catholic history
and Catholic philosophy, it is still more evident, on the very
statement, that they can be only promoted by one deeply
rooted in the Catholic Faith.

And this is even more the case, with what I have called
the Church's political duties. How can she hope to obtain
so much as a hearing from a luxurious nobility, or from a
legislature almost compelled to be the slave of momentary
shifts and time-serving expedients, or from a middle class
wholly absorbed in the ceaseless press of secular business
and the feverish thirst of worldly gain, how can she, I say,
hope to obtain so much as a hearing, (not from this or that
individual, but) from these classes of men, when she endea-
vours, as God's Vicegerent on earth, to impress on their con-
sciences the duties of their several stations, and eagerly and
clamorously warns them against their besetting sins ? How
can she hope to 'cry aloud and spare not,' and meet with
aught in return save insolent contempt or forcible suppression
of her voice ? There is only one fashion of instruments, which
will avail her ; of one and one only kind are the weapons, which
she can oppose to worldly haughtiness and cruelty : these in-
struments, these weapons, are Saints and saintly men. The
very presence of a class of Christians, who shew in their
whole lives and demeanour that they are dead to secular cares
and pleasures, and that their hearts and aifections are ab-
sorbed in Heavenly realities ; men who live a mortified life, a
life above the world ; who choose poverty, and vow celibacy,
and refuse wealth and distinction even when offered ; this it
is, which is an evidence of the unseen world that none can
gainsay or resist, and which exercises an influence over the
most careless or the most obdurate, against their will, almost
without their knowledge. Contempt here is impossible ;
respect and admiration are extorted from the mass of men,
in spite of themselves. And for that other alternative, to

414.

which I just alluded, the silencing them by force, (an alter-
native, in respect of which we have already very significant
indications, how far greater a tendency there will be to its
adoption, than the maxims now generally current would lead
us to imagine,) let it be remembered, that such men as I
describe will impose on their oppressors the full labour and
odium of persecution carried to its extreme length. Nothing
will stifle their importunate clamours, except irresistible
physical force ; and it is by this time pretty well understood
in politics, that such force, when exerted against a righteous
cause, inflicts on the individual a suffering which he covets,
and carries forth to every corner of the land the truth which
he witnesses.

Still more obvious is the truth here maintained, in regard
tp by far the most important part of all a Church's political
duties ; the protection and consolation of the poor. On this
subject, human science is even at the present moment
brought to a stand, like some powerful steam-engine with-
out hands to work it, for want of a mass of data, which, with
our present machinery, cannot by possibility be supplied.
Let us see a band of enthusiastic men, self-devoted to the
cause, many of them following at an infinite distance the
steps of Him ' who, though He were rich, yet for our sakes
became poor,' all of them like to the poor in their manner of
life, and like to the rich in their knowledge and education,
except that the latter is deeply impregnated, in every par-
ticular, with the Catholic doctrine and spirit; let us see such
men as these dispersed, as one may say, in swarms, among
our crowded manufacturing towns, bringing by their very
presence both encouragement and edification ; full of that
tender loving-kindness, which Catholic discipline alone im-
plants ; and looking on the poor, in the light which Catholics
do look on them, as sacramental tokens of the Lord's nearer
presence ; what would not be the result ? Soon would that
suspicion dissolve, which is perhaps even the most fearful
sign of the times, that deep and rankling suspicion enter-
tained by the poor, that those above them are not really
interested in their happiness and well-being ; soon would

4-15

they open all their griefs to these loving and intelligent sympa-
thisers : what distresses, bodily or mental, most severely press
upon them ; what are their chief spiritual or temporal
enemies; what the causes of their most corroding anxiety,
or their most desponding apathy ; these and a thousand
other particulars, now so hopelessly concealed from those
who might devise a remedy, would come forth to light ; and
human science, powerless while confined to definitions and
abstractions, might now at length exert its mighty aid in
devising means of solace and relief.

Nor are these holy men, or again, devoted women, less
imperatively required as ministers of relief, than as investi-
gators of distress. Science is no less hopelessly unequal to
the task of relieving without a body of special and trained
ministers, than to that of theorizing without a body of
diversified and well-authenticated facts. Never has there
been a more ill-omened separation, than that which has
taken place of late years, between the spirit of exuberant
and religious charity and the deliberate calculations of
methodical and cool-headed science. It is perfectly con-
ceivable, for all that I know it may be quite true, that the
existing race of political economists have been shallow and
superficial ; but to deny that there is a science on the
subject, and one most closely concerned with human happi-
ness in such a state of Society as our own, this is one
of the most extraordinary allegations that has been made
even in our age ; an age so fertile in extraordinary alle-
gations. y And on the other hand, to dream that such a
science can in any the slightest degree supersede, or can
have by possibility a more worthy or more important func-
tion than to direct and facilitate, the personal self-sacrifice
and self-devotion of the rich, is a fancy that tends even to
excuse the former allegation ; and is the dictate of a more
stupid and bigotted fanaticism, than any of which I ever
heard in the history of religions, true or false. The presence

y See an admirable article of Mr. John Mill's on the province of Political Economy,
in the London and Westminster Review : now published separately with a few '
other essays.

416

of such men as I have described, among our crowded and
miserable population ; imparting such spiritual discipline
and instruction, as that to which I have alluded in the early
part of this chapter; and administering also the temporal
relief supplied by the Church's richer members, according to
a wisely-devised and well- digested plan ; their presence,
I say, would be as some fertilizing and irrigating stream,
which should be caused to flow upon a parched and dreary
waste. True comforters would they be, true ministers of
the Holy Ghost in His Blessed Office ; performing, as His
instruments, the work which the Church in communion with
Rome yearly prays Him to perform :

" O Lux Beatissima, reple cordis intima tuorum fidelium.

" Sine Tuo Numine nihil est in horaine nihil est innoxium.

" Lava quod est sordidum, riga quod est aridum, sana quod

est saucium,
" Flecte quod est rigidum, fove quod estfrigidum, rege quod est

devium" z

When we consider the festering mass of misery prevailing
among our poor population, of which I gave a few specimens
in the second chapter, and which even the most reckless
begin now to regard with something like dismay, insomuch
that the continued preservation among us of our idolized
' peace and order,' seems almost a standing miracle ; surely
the promise of rearing such a body of men is one which the
mere worldly politician will hail with sympathy, and with an
anxious hope to find the promise fulfilled. But the notion of
rearing them without the discipline of the Confessional, or
without the inculcation of the full Orthodox Faith, is a theory
than which no dream of Utopia was ever more fantastical ;
reason disproves it, experience refutes it. Strange as it
might have seemed, the science of dogmatic theology has a
more essential place in the conferring of temporal benefits on
our large towns, than (what I am sure I have shewn no
disposition to under-rate) the science of political economy

z Sequence on Whitsunday. This most beautiful hymn, ' Veni Sancte Spiritus,.
is attributed to Innocent III.

417

itself. The indispensable and paramount importance of the
former science, is indeed a subject of which I must not be
considered to have exhausted my defence, in the few hints I
have thrown out in the present work ; so far from it, that I
have only touched the more superficial features of the sub-
ject. To draw out the full case for it, would require by itself
not less than a volume : and it would both take me much too
far from more immediate and pressing matters, and would
also require the application of more careful thought and
analysis, than my present time allows. Even in the political
world, Mr. John Mill has made the striking observation,
that, " speculative philosophy, which to the superficial ap-
pears a thing so remote from the business of life and the out-
ward interests of man, is in reality the thing on earth which
most influences them ;" and when the facts are brought into
full light which corroborate this remark, it will be a compara-
tively easy task to shew, how far more deeply and extensively
true would be the same observation, applied to dogmatic theo-
logy. Having guarded myself then against misconstruction,
I will here add another incidental benefit of this study,
closely bearing on the present subject.

If any one supposes, that we can enjoy the services of a
large class of men, who shall be ardent and enthusiastic
in their devotional feelings, and yet precise, technical, and
measured in the language of their religious and practical
addresses, he is of course extravagantly mistaken. Those
who are really, and not as a mere matter of words, impressed
with the necessity of unremitting individual exertion in order
to escape condemnation, will call on their hearers, like
St. Paul, to save themselves; those who really feel the
efficacy of personal ministrations, will speak, with the same
holy Apostle, of saving others ; those who desire that their
hearers shall understand the great benefit of preaching or
the unspeakable power of prayer, will say, with St. James,
that ' the word ' or that ' prayer ' is able to ' save ,-' a those

' By hope we are saved' (Rom. viii. 24) ; ' In doing this thou shalt sure
thyself (1 Tim. iv. 16) ; ' The word is able to save your souls,' (James i. 21) ;
' If by any means / might save some of them' (Rom. xii. 14) ;' How knowest

418

whose thoughts are ever with the citizens of the New and
Heavenly Jerusalem, will exhaust the human language in
finding epithets to praise worthily the Blessed Saints and
their Queen. And so far will all this be from implying a
momentary forgetfulness of the doctrine of the Atonement,
or of the infinite superiority of God over His Saints, that on
the contrary the deep and habitual impression of these truths
on their mind, the full possession and appropriation of them
as of first principles, will prevent them from even suspecting
the possibility of such language leading to misconception:
nor, in a healthy state of things, will it lead to misconception
unless indeed possibly in the last case, of which more a few
lines on. But among us at present, ordinary Christians,
nay, men of a confessedly indevout and careless life, have
the effrontery to carp at such expressions as those just
cited, and to criticise the individual phrases of holy and mor-
tified men ; not as calling them injudicious, (which is quite
a different matter,) but as gravely imputing to them unsound-
ness of faith. This habit of wanton and most presump-
tuous suspicion must cease to receive one moment's tolera-
tion from our rulers, if they desire really to obtain the
services of holy and devoted men. It is impossible for
Christians to ripen into Saints, if ordinary men are allowed
to sit in judgment on their conduct and expressions ; any
more than in practical life a man could learn a difficult art,
if he were required to adjust his course of study to the wishes
of the uninstructed multitude. There must be the fullest
and liveliest acknowledgment, that self-discipline and holy
obedience are the only keys which will unlock the treasure
of religious truth ; and that the multitude have to learn from
them, not they from the multitude. We cannot unite con-
tradictories ; we cannot have Lutheran doctrine and saintly

thou whether thou shalt save thy husband ' (1 Cor. vii. 16.) ; ' The prayer of
faith shall save the sick' (James v. 15) ; ' He shall save a soul from death '
(ib. 20) ; ' Others save with fear' (Jude 23) ; ' By hope we are saved' (Rom. viii.
24) ; ' By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost he saved
us' (Tit. iii. 5) ; ' Baptism saves us' (1 Pet. iii. 21).

These instances, except the last, are taken from Dr. Pusey's first Appendix to his
Sermon for the 5th of November.

419

practice: we cannot have Christ and Antichrist; we must
make our choice between them.

Now as to those who cannot fairly say that, in any true
sense, the doing of God's will is one principal object of their
life day by day, when such men express an opinion on
their own responsibility as to religious doctrine, they perpe-
trate the same absurdity, as if a person who has not learned
his letters were to criticise another's orthography ; and they
should receive no reply, except stern rebuke and reprehen-
sion. But it is a very different matter with serious and
earnest Christians ; nor can any thing be more deeply de-
plorable, than that Christ's true servants should be kept
asunder by mutual misunderstandings and suspicions, in-
stead of uniting as one body against sin and the world.
Such men should remember, that however invaluable their
conscience may be as a guide to themselves in important
matters, and however quick and sagacious in recognising
holiness and detecting unreality and hypocrisy, it can give
them no help whatever in understanding the individual
statements of a holy man. And this they would learn, to
come to the more immediate point, if there were an author-
ized body of doctors, who have made dogmatic theology the
one study of their lives, and whose practical pursuit is to
keep guard on it, as it were, throughout the Church. No
one hears of a vulgar prejudice against Newton's theory,
however strange or paradoxical it must appear to the popular
mind ; and theological prejudice would be equally rare, if
there also a body of instructors existed, accordant in their
decisions, and possessed of the people's confidence. These
would be able by deep acquaintance with the subject, and
a practised habit of observing the phenomena connected with
it, to see at once the real and deep orthodoxy of such holy
men ; an orthodoxy so incalculably more real and deep
than that of the objectors. And seeing this, they would lead
the praiseworthy zeal for purity of faith, which they have
found existing, into a more wholesome channel, by directing
it against those who, possessed neither of a single-minded
zeal nor of lofty spiritual aspirations, are in real truth

2 K 2

420

sapping the foundations of religion by introducing the intel-
lect as lord of the spiritual heritage ; and whose sentiments
are the more poisonous, from the very circumstance that the
abstract discussion turns on points, whose unspeakable im-
portance cannot be made clear to the non-theological eye.
At the same time this body of dogmatic teachers, while
doing the fullest and most loving justice to the deep ortho-
doxy and holiness of these quasi-missionaries, might exercise
their judgment on a farther point, viz. how far such language
about the blessed Saints might at least be of a misleading
tendency : and thus it might quite possibly happen, that
certain expressions, fully allowed and approved for private
devotion, should be proscribed by the Church's rulers, acting
under the advice of these theologians, as addressed indiscri-
minately to the people.

I must not however quit the subject, from which I have
been led into this digression, without one additional course
of remark. For it has been so generally professed of late
years, that a Christian Society is bound to be a 'poor man's
Church,' and that it is the high and peculiar prerogative of
the Church to alleviate the misery of the humble and
oppressed, that the task seems incumbent on me, however
ungracious, of estimating the praises heaped on the English
system, by this standard also. Let me ask then, while all
the frightful and accumulated mass of misery which now
oppresses our land, was gradually during the last sixty years
growing to a head, where was the voice of the National Church
heard in drawing attention to its growth ? That the civil
government, who are obliged to cope day by day with present
and passing emergencies, should not have had the leisure or
the thought to take a deliberate and far-seeing view of our
social condition, this is hardly a matter of blame : but where
was the ' poor man's Church' ? How is it conceivable that she
can at that time have really thought or cared for the poor,
without becoming cognizant of the fatal disease in progress,
and loudly proclaiming its existence to the country and to
the world? What other appellation than that of 'grossly
and miserably corrupt' can we give to a system, under which

421

such monstrous neglect was so much as possible ? Well, at
length, through no agency of hers, the attention of the
whole nation has been called in some insufficient measure to
the perils under which we lie ; all honour to Lord Ashley
and his precursors and coadjutors in the noble task ! Has
the English Church at least exhibited the grace of humili-
ation and repentance ? Has the blush of shame been visible
on our cheek ? have her ministers sorrowfully and contritely
confessed their sinful and unpardonable dereliction of duty,
and taken on themselves bitter shame, as fact after fact was
brought to light ? facts, which it was their bounden duty long
since to have dragged into the face of day, and which place
in still stronger colours the godlessness and depravity of vast
portions of her flock. Incredible as it might have appeared,
the very conception would seem never to have occurred to
them ; with unruffled brow and complacent voice they have
still repeated the insane watchwords ' pure and apostolical,'
' holy and venerable,' Church, and have dared to speak of
the corruptions of other Christian bodies, when they should
rather have been in lowly and penitential abasement, mourning
those of their own.

Or again, have we witnessed on the whole within our
Church, since the existence of this misery has been un-
derstood, an anxious desire to make the services of the
one day of rest as soothing and refreshing, as our cur-
taile d ritual will allow, to these afflicted souls ? Has there
been an anxious and burning desire to crowd every innocent
gratification into our service, while we endeavour to keep
alive their views of religious truth on the Lord's Day ? By
what process of effrontery can we bring ourselves so much as
to breathe the name of ' the poor man's Church ' in connection
with our own system, if we are compelled to acknowledge
that nothing like this has been the case ? For more than ten
years the great principle has been echoed from mouth to
mouth, that our Church is no creature of the State, that she
derives her duties and her privileges from a far Higher and
more August Authority. Has the zeal, displayed f r this
principle, been only caused by our desire of having some-

thing to say which shall close the mouth of Roman Catholic
and Dissenter ? Or if not so, how is it that we have failed to
see, that the more triumphantly we vindicate this great truth,
the more plainly we publish our own shame ? for if it be
directly by God, and not by the State, that the poor are
committed to our charge, no supineness or neglect of our
civil governors can do aught but even aggravate our own
guilt, in that we did not compensate for their slackness and
insensibility, by a double measure of zeal and watchfulness.
When members of a Church, which has thus basely betrayed
her trust, find it even difficult to conceive that some among
their brethren can, without the most serious moral delin-
quency, abhor and denounce the system, under which such
betrayal was possible ; when they accuse us of violence, eccen-
tricity, and paradox, because we cannot consider a Church
pure, which neither bears witness against wealth, nor protects
poverty ; I can only say, that our hatred of the existing
system cannot more offend them, than their toleration, nay,
admiration of it, perplexes and astonishes us.

7. The sum then of this most painful review of our
present system has been, that it most signally fails in
performing, or more truly makes no efforts whatever to
perform, those very duties, without which it can perform no
other duties aright. One observation is so painfully forced
on my mind by this review, that I cannot conclude without
giving it expression. There has arisen during these later
times, as we all know though we give very different accounts
of its origin and real nature, a very hateful habit of mind,
which we call Rationalism. Perhaps no better definition
can be given of its essence, than that it consists in an exalt-
ation of the claims of reason over those of conscience.
Hence immediately follows a denial of the all-important
truth, that the spiritual discernment of a holy man is
the one fountain-head, from which true interpretations of
Scripture as a whole, and indeed true doctrines on all
religious subjects, flow forth to the Church ; and again,
that the edification of the faithful is the one object, w y hich
every part of a pure Christian system, every intellectual

423

effort, every practical exertion, ought directly or indirectly
to subserve.

Now the sciences on which I have already so often spoken,
dogmatic, moral, ascetic, mystical theology, most especially
the former, are model-instances of the fitting application of
intellectual power to religious inquiries. For all of them,
though the first certainly calls forth in its service, and
gives full scope to, higher mental powers than does any
human philosophy, all, I say, nevertheless, compel the
intellect, while engage^ on them, into not less than slavish
subordination to the conscience ; while again the one central
and paramount object, on which their separated streams con-
verge, is the spiritual benefit of the little ones of Christ's
flock. These sciences therefore the rationalist neglects and
despises, that he may occupy himself in a more congenial
field. First of all, whereas it is a labour of love with
Catholics, to contemplate the deep oneness of faith, spirit,
and principle, implanted by the Holy Ghost, in every age
and country wherein His abode, the Church, has taken up
her position; and to see daily with greater clearness, how
wholly unaffected, in the case of saintly men, is this vital
unity, by the accidental variety of external circumstances, of
doctrinal statement and development, (a variety indeed
which serves only to place in clearer and fuller light this real
and profound agreement,) the opposite process is the first
achievement to be attempted by the Rationalist. That the
intellect may find admission as judge and arbiter on sacred
ground, this 'great sight,' the wonderful and mysterious
harmony which exists in the voice sent forth by the
conscience of holy men, must be concealed from our eyes,
and its very existence denied. Accordingly the rationalist
takes up a position ab extra, and is copious in his comments
on the different dress worn by Christianity at the different
periods of its progress: this he does, that he may deny the
real identity of inward character and faith impressed by
means of a religious life ; that he may claim the right
of calling holy men as witnesses, before the tribunal of his
own intellect : that he may criticise the fourteenth or the

424

eighteenth century by an argumentative comparison with the
fourth and fifth, or these last again by an argumentative
comparison with the first three, or (to which it soon comes)
all ages of the Church indiscriminately by his own critical
interpretation of the sacred text.

Here then we have already the 'mouth speaking great
things ; ' here we behold Antichrist ' sitting in the temple
of God ; ' he has effected his entrance ; what shall be
his next step ? The rationalist has come to think, that a
grammar and dictionary are fitter exponents of the words of
Revelation, than is the conscience of a humble and holy man,
inhabited, after his measure, by the Spirit which inspired
those words ; but how can he rest here ? A further question
remains to be decided ; what claim has Scripture itself on
his deference and regard ? The grammar or dictionary then
are put on one side, till sufficient progress may have been
made in this inquiry ; and accordingly he soon doubts this
book of Scripture, makes a distinction in the case of a
second, absolutely rejects a third. In the mean time his
intellect, now more unblushingly asserting its usurped and
baleful supremacy, grapples with that phantom, which has so
long baffled and perplexed its inquiries, the belief in inspira-
tion. A shadowy and unsubstantial phantom this in truth,
when projected, as it were, on the range of the carnal,
unchastened, unhumbled intellect ; and weak and poor are
the efforts it can make in that most uncongenial sphere, for
resistance and self-protection. The extreme issue of this
unhappy history, is when the victim of his principle sees the
necessity of fairly grappling with the preliminary question of
all, the trustworthiness of his impressions on duty and on
God; when he finds still less of reality in them even than in
his former subjects of inquiry; (for on the one hand surely
there is much less of external evidence for them than for
Scripture, and on the other hand he has become by habit
more insensible to the kind of proof really appropriate to
these inquiries ;) and he becomes a feeble, irresolute sceptic,
neither daring wholly to disbelieve, nor able wholly to
believe, and seeking perhaps, in the pursuit of gain or of

sensuality, to drown the misery brought on him by his per-
verse and unhappy speculations.

All these are but different stages in the same ladder,
different links in the same chain. And now, being uncon-
scious of any save the simplest and most loving intention,
I would, with the utmost earnestness and importunity of
supplication, beg those many most excellent men, who are
disposed to defend or extenuate the English Reformation
and the system which it has introduced, fairly and impar-
tially to consider, in how great a degree we have been
involved by that movement in the very same spirit. In con-
sidering its ultimate results among ourselves (just as we do
in considering foreign rationalism) and viewing therefore the
spirit, which has had almost undisputed possession of our
Church from 1688 to 1833, what essential difference do we
find between Reformed England and Protestant Germany ?
Holiness of life and orthodoxy of faith cannot have been less
cared for abroad than here : for here the inculcation of them
has been utterly neglected ; and more cannot by possibility
be said of any Society calling itself Christian. Dogmatic,
moral, ascetic, mystical theology, are as strange to us as to
the German Protestants. Who can affirm that the worse than
Sabellianism of Archbishop Whately has excited greater
distress or commotion in England, than the (I believe not
worse than) Sabellianism of Schleiermacher, in Germany ?
Who can affirm that the perplexities of a sensitive conscience,
or the distresses of the poor, or the meek cry of the gentle
and humble, have received from us a more tender, loving, and
considerate response, than from the most hardened and un-
spiritual rationalist of the whole number ? Who can affirm
that saintliness has been more reverenced, celibacy more
honoured, earnest and habitual prayer more cultivated and
cherished, by the school of Tomline, or of Warburton, or of
Tillotson, than by that of Neander, or even of Paulus ? Nay,
to come to a more shocking thought still ; English * high-
churchmen' are in the constant habit of attributing to the
most holy and mortified men, to St. Bonaventure, to St.
Bernardine of Sienna, to St. Alphonsus Liguori, a close ap-

426

proach at least to positive idolatry ; what more fearful
approximation to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost has the
wildest German ever devised ?

If it should be objected, that in dating the full development
of this spirit from 1688, I have implied that the political
events of that period, rather than the Reformation, were its
main origin, I answer that such an objection cannot be fairly,
nor even plausibly, maintained: there is no fact in history
clearer, than that this spirit has had a very deep and exten-
sive influence in our Church from the very first dawn of the
Reformation ; as indeed must have inevitably followed,
putting aside all other considerations, from the mere fact
of Puritans and Latitudinarians having been crowded into
the same Society with * high-churchmen' of all various grades.
Again, that very feature of our theology, with which, as with
the most fearful of all, I concluded the last paragraph, is
alas! even more signally characteristic of 'high-churchmen'
than of others. I have no desire to impute any blame to
those most admirable persons, who have but dutifully handed
down what they have received, and have in no way personally
realised their statements ; I am speaking only of the class,
without occupying myself with the invidious task of adjusting
and distributing the individual blame. But I do most
earnestly submit, that the class, as a whole, have invented
for themselves a principle, new in the history of Christian
theology, and in many respects even more conspicuously
offensive in God's sight than the more avowed results of the
rationalistic spirit. For surely it does seem even more wil-
fully and presumptuously sinful, more justly provocative of
God's wrath, to appreciate and reverence, in some sufficient
measure, the graces of Athanasius or Augustine, and then
bring ' railing accusations' against Hildebrand or Bonaven-
ture, than to put out of sight altogether the very idea of
Catholic sanctity, and to profess that the whole Church, from
the death of the Apostles to the birth of Luther, was little
better than a manifestation of Antichrist.

If there is one feature more than another in rationalism
grossly repulsive to the serious mind, it is this; that men,

427

highly gifted with learning and ability, are not carefully
trained to a deep veneration for uneducated sanctity, nor to
feel it the highest honour if they may be allowed to exercise
the humblest ministration in its service ; but on the contrary,
are allowed to indulge in arrogant and besotted dreams of
exaltation, and to consider that they have peculiar access to
the fountains of religious and moral truth, while such access
is barred against the unintellectual. Hence they fancy that
they may, without grievous sin, criticise the faith of humble
and devout believers ; not as being imperfectly analysed and
erroneously expressed, (for to analyse and express is an office
of the intellect,) but as being, even in matters which bear
the weight of daily and hourly spiritual action and reali-
sation, erroneous, superstitious, nay, contemptible. This
is that self-exalting spirit of Antichrist, which, in these
our days, has been unchained among us ; and where has
it exercised more certain and unmistakeable influence,
than in our own ' high-Church ' theology ? It is the very
principle on which this theology is based, that men, whose
lives have displayed a love of God beyond our power even
to apprehend ; a love of man venting itself in the most
incredible and sustained toils for the service of their bre-
thren ; a profound humility ; a rejoicing in contempt, and
persecution, and suffering ; a mortification of the senses, nay,
an unceasing crucifixion of self ; that these men, whose ' con-
versation is in Heaven,' whose thoughts and affections have
rested without interruption on the invisible world, have had }
for all this, their spiritual vision so dim and clouded, that
they were (not mistaken in this or that minor particular,
nor again injudicious and unguarded, for the sake of others,
in this or that expression, but were) in the habitual com-
mission of that cardinal sin, giving to the creature the
honour due only to the Creator: that they, whose spiritual
gaze was for ever fixed in heaven, mistook the comparative
radiance of heavenly objects ; b and that it requires only

b In a future chapter I hope to give a few quotations, merely by way of
specimen, to shew the words of fervent, and tender, and glowing, love and de-
votion, with which St. Alphonsus Liguori was in the habit of speaking of our

428

a critical knowledge of the Fathers of the early centuries, to
justify ordinary men in taxing them with this sin, and in
claiming for themselves, in consequence of these studies, a
higher degree of spiritual illumination. Who can wonder at
the small degree of favour which God seems to have shewn to
the Anglican ' high-Church ' principle, when it has its very
origin and life in this appalling blasphemy ?

At an earlier part of this volume, I implied that I was
unprepared with an opinion, whether or no the course of
Protestantism had been more disastrous here or abroad.
This doubt arose, I trust, from no absence of hearty admira-
tion and reverence for the noble and most evangelical virtues
of Andrews, or Ken, or Wilson, or Butler ; c much less from
any insensibility to the wonders which God is now working
in the midst of us. But considering, not individual instances,
but the general atmosphere which has pervaded our Re-
formed Church, and remarking that the natural tendency
of Germans is towards being too exclusively intellectual, of

Blessed Lord ; a devotion, to which, I believe, one may read the whole works
of English 'high-church' theologians, without finding the most distant parallel:
and I say this with a full remembrance of Bp. Andrews's most beautiful
Preces.' Here indeed I may as well add, that St. Alphonsus, in his Sermons,
urges on all his hearers without exception, as a primary duty, that every day of
their lives they should meditate intently at least a quarter of an Jtour on our
Blessed Lord's Passion. How many of those who censure him as dishonouring
our Lord, teach such doctrine as this ? I hope it may not be irreverent to him, if
I put forth what some may mistake for a defence or an apology ; but it is of course
simply our loss and not his, if we fail in giving him his fitting honour ; and it is
wholly for our sake and not for his, that I wish to remove stumbling-blocks from
members of our Church, to do what may lie with an individual, that they may
be saved from the most grievous sin under which so many unconsciously lie, of
criticising, nay condemning, Saints. Mr. Palmer, who has read his life, and
does not profess any doubt of its trustworthiness, speaks against the Blessed
Saint in language, which I should myself be unwilling to use, in speaking of the most
ordinarily serious Christian.

c If my preceding observations appear to imply the reverse of this, let it be
remembered, (as I have often enough observed in the British Critic,) that it is no
disrespect whatever to good men if we hold opinions (such as I may hold about
the Saints) which they merely did not hold ; that is, of which they did not hold the
contradictories. But it is the most blasphemous irreverence to think, on our own
responsibility, that a belief is idolatrous which Saints lave held. I believe that
good men in our Church have inherited this shocking sentiment, and not held it on
their own responsibility.

429

English towards being too exclusively practical, I should
be glad to feel more assurance than I do at present, that
there is any greater difference between the two cases than
this : that the same evil spirit, which in them has led to a
self-willed and arrogant questioning of all that has been re-
ceived as most sacred, has led among us (in accordance with
our national character) to such phenomena as those with
which we are familiar : an unbridled thirst for gain ; selfish
neglect of the poor ; disregard of the claims and of the dis-
tresses of conscience ; a habit of miserable and cowardly com-
promise ; a deeply and widely extending secularization of the
Church. To be lukewarm, to be insensible of her own cor-
ruptions, to be loud in her own praise, are the notes given in
Scripture of that Church, which our Blessed Lord will ' spue
out of His mouth ' (Rev. iii. 16, 17) ; to retain the faith and be
zealous against doctrinal error, (Rev. ii. 6, 13,) as redeeming
features even in the midst of many corruptions. What is
His judgment of our Church's practical system ? a system,
under which she tolerates almost every variety of condemned
and branded heresy ; and under which her authorities seem
really offended and disgusted at one only class of opinions,
those which speak of her present condition as corrupt and
almost apostate. The closest approximation to denial of
our Lord is permitted, as I have shewn, without protest,
much more without condemnation ; but an imputation on
herself she cannot forgive.

CHAPTER VII.

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS IN THE WAY OF REMEDY.

AN article appeared in the ' Foreign and Colonial Quarterly
Review' for October, 1843, from which I have already made
one quotation ; an article distinguished for a peculiar kindness
of language and tone, in regard to a class of theologians, from
whom the writer himself widely differs in many most im-
portant particulars. There has hardly yet appeared so
encouraging an omen on the prospects of our Church, as
is afforded by such thoughtful considerateness : surely if all
serious persons among us would but agree to put aside the
spirit of anger and acrimonious censure, to dwell with loving
eagerness on their points of agreement, and aim at obtaining
a full comprehension and appreciation of each other's mean-
ing on points of difference, daily would our points of agree-
ment increase in number, and our points of difference
diminish ; and the eyes of us all would be gradually opened
to discern, what is that body of external and substantive
doctrine, which really corresponds to the perceptions, the de-
sires, and the aspirations, of the holy and spiritual mind. I
wish that the writer of that article, and those who agree with
him, could fully understand, how acute is the pain which many
who dissent from their views experience, when a plain sense
of duty urges us to put forward direct and open statements,
which we cannot but know will occasion them much distress
and misgiving ; and how earnestly we desire them to believe,
that the most frank and uncompromising opposition to their
fundamental views, on what may be termed ecclesiastical
politics, implies no want of the deepest respect and sympathy,
not only for their high personal character, but also for the

431

straightforward and unflinching zeal, with which they bear
witness to the claims of religion in the face of statesmen and
worldly politicians.

The immediate reason of my allusion to this article, is the
writer's mention (p. 595) of ' that deadly chill with which
many of our ' ordinary writings' in the British Critic ' freeze
the very life's blood of many that repair to them to be
taught, how they may unite loyal love to their own immediate
mother, with a true acknowledgment of brotherhood to the
Roman Church.' If I wished to be critical, I should rather
demur to the last expression ; I trust certainly for myself,
that none even of my earlier writings in the British Critic
imply any such equality of the English Church to the Roman,
that I should presume simply and without qualification to
call Roman Catholics, as such, brethren ; and indeed all
through his comments on the * extreme section of theo-
logians within the Church of England,' he understates the
amount of reverence, gratitude, sympathy, and faith, which
for myself certainly I always desire to feel towards Roman
doctrine. In this particular, I am bound to acknowledge
Mr. Palmer's description as more just and accurate than
the Reviewer's ; for when the former says that ' it is quite
curious to observe how on all occasions this devotion to the
Papal See manifests itself,' (p. 55, note,) though the imme-
diate occasion of the remark is an article by another .hand,
it does no more than justice to my own habitual wish and
intention. It is plain however that this very under-state-
ment in the Review, of which in reference to my own
feelings I should be tempted to complain, is itself caused
by the writer's kind and friendly disposition towards the
objects of his criticism.

The general bearing, however, of the objection which he
makes, so far as it has not been already met in the third
chapter, is, I suppose, such as follows : that the British Critic
has confined itself to bitter and sweeping denunciations of
our existing system, without taking any pains to suggest
definitive remedies ; that those who might desire on the whole
to concur with the principles there advocated, and to serve the

432

English Church with earnest and affectionate zeal on those
principles, instead of being guided, cheered, and inspirited
in their most admirable and necessary course, would rather be
depressed and repelled, through the representation, there so
frequently implied, on the hopelessness of our prospects and
the imminent approach of our fall. Should such be indeed a
faithful account of the general tone of the British Critic, it is
most deeply to be lamented ; for I am fully persuaded that
there is hardly one Englishman living, perhaps not one,
whatever his position in Church or State, whatever his
intellectual powers and peculiarities, whatever his degree of
moral advancement, who has not opportunity, if he will, of
bearing his part in the great task now in progress ; the task
of endeavouring to restore our Church to a more Christian
position, and to eradicate one by one those evils, which the
Reformation, and our other sins, national, ecclesiastical, per-
sonal, have let loose upon us in such fearful profusion. I hope
indeed that what has been already said, especially the pre-
ceding chapter, has sufficed in great measure to evince the
truth of this remark ; while on the other hand to draw out
in detail the various particulars of every kind which would
place it in the fullest and most unclouded light, would both
require volumes, and would imply a far greater amount of
practical knowiedge and experience than any to which I lay
claim. All that can be further expected is, that I shew the
kind of remedies which are within the reach of the respective
classes of churchmen, and the promise which they hold forth
of efficaciousness and success.

Were I called upon indeed to shew, that it is possible to
w r ork the machinery of our existing religious Societies with
any prospect of a good result, I should indeed be met by
insurmountable difficulties. If there be any truth in the re-
presentation I have made, that at least two principles most
vitally and fundamentally opposed to each other (to omit here
any mention of the Latitudinarian party) are struggling with-
in our Church for mastery, it is plain how idle, or rather
how deeply sinful, is any idea of compromise or conciliation.
Those who graft the Gospel 011 the law of nature, (to

433

repeat a classification already introduced,) and those who
have devised or inherited a Gospel opposed to the natural
law, profess doctrines which, as doctrines, must ever wage an
unrelenting and internecine war one with the other. I am
not for a moment implying, that we should put from us the
hope of conciliating religious ' Evangelicals ; ' so far, so ex-
ceedingly far, from it, that, as has been observed by the
author of the article on Bishop Jewel in his * explanation,'
there is no more auspicious result which may be hoped from
a fuller and freer development of Catholic Truth, than that
an embodiment and visible witness of Divine wisdom and
holiness will be shewn forth, which will more and more
persuade and absorb into itself the more religious minds
from among all parties of our Church. But ' Evangelicals'
must be reclaimed, not by mitigating our expressions of
abhorrence and detestation for the abstract principles which
characterise their profession, but by shewing them more and
more, how utterly at variance are those principles with their
religious instincts and aspirations. To unite with their pro-
fessors in the prosecution of religious measures on a large
scale, would be insane as a matter of policy, and misprision
of heresy as a matter of morality. I am not speaking of
a momentary combination, for some one defined and specified
object : but I say, that we cannot unite in ' propagating the
Gospel,' with those who differ from us fundamentally as to
what the Gospel is ; or in forwarding the great work of educa-
tion, with those whom we deem mistaken on the very first
principles of education ; or in * promoting Christian know-
ledge,' with those who uphold, as Christian truth, principles
which we anathematize as condemnable heresies. And if there
be one class of men with whom each party would be still more
unwilling actively to cooperate than with the party most
opposed to itself, it would be the class who regard the matters
at issue as secondary or unessential. None who shrink from
fairly anathematizing Lutheran doctrine as a heresy (saving
individual cases of intellectual weakness and misconception)
can have any real hold, as a body, on Catholic and Christian
truth. And the whole of the last chapter is one continued

2 F

434

comment on this sentiment ; for who can say that those who
have been opposed to the ' Evangelical' party in our Church,
have displayed any enlightened zeal, nay, on the whole any
more zeal than 'Evangelicals' themselves, in raising a firm
and stable foundation of moral and religious discipline,
whereon Christian doctrine may in safety repose ? Or who
can say that those Societies, to which allusion has just been
made, have given proof of so much as a passing thought
bestowed in that direction, anymore than if 'Evangelicals'
themselves, who professedly disparage the truths of natural
religion, alone made up the entire sum of their members ?
No ! those who hold Lutheran doctrine, or those who refuse
to denounce it as heretical, may be very probably innocent
in their sad error ; but they can be no fit parties for the
practical cooperation of orthodox Christians. We may love
and admire the various graces which distinguish members
of their body ; but they differ from us, in external pro-
fession, as to first principles. While on the other hand
those who embrace and realise this one great unalterable
axiom, which it has been my one object in this work to
illustrate and enforce, however they may differ as to the
ultimate results they expect, agree in first principles. All
' high- churchmen' then who are prepared to embrace this
axiom and act on it, may I think confidently indulge in the
hope that a lasting and cordial union will be the result ; they
may confidently expect that when certain further questions,
from being theoretical, shall have become immediately prac-
tical, it will not be until, from having been points of dif-
ference, they shall have become points of agreement.

The same consideration leads to a remark in another di-
rection. A very general sense has been quite of late mys-
teriously growing up, of the incalculable benefits that might
be derived under our present circumstances from the revival
of monastic bodies ; a most cheering circumstance indeed as
a sign of the times, and a most honourable opinion to those
who entertain it. Now, considering that our Reformed
Church had its beginning in the overthrow of these institu-
tions, and has had its continuance in the contempt and slander

of them, it might have been confidently anticipated, that this
opinion at all events implied some adequate consciousness of
our deplorable defects and corruptions. But no. The blind
idolatry of our present system, so carefully instilled from his
earliest years into the mind of the English Churchman, has
shewn itself, in dreaming that we are already prepared for
such institutions on a large scale. The same arrogance and
self-complacency, which till lately impelled our Church to
denounce the word Catholic, is now in many places only at
work under another shape in urging her to claim it. Ex-
cellent men have omitted to consider the profound sagacity
and experience, required for the ordering and governance of
such institutions as those which I have mentioned, and the
unbounded humility and self-sacrifice indispensable in their
inmates : or if they have not omitted to consider it, they
fancy that such qualities are readily and widely attainable
among ourselves at a moment's notice ; or at least without any
long course of previous preparation, which might be founded
on a new and wisely- devised system of education and moral
culture. Nay, as if it were their wish to bring our Church
into contempt, they have talked of appointing our present
Bishops visitors of such bodies ; prelates of whom surely it
is no disrespect to say, that they have not, as a body, dis-
played in their public language any deep and unquestioning
reverence for the doctrines . of asceticism and mortifica-
tion, nor professed any profound and systematic acquaint-
ance with the science of saints. Surely the very dilemma
involved, either in proposing such an arrangement, or in pro-
jecting an extensive monastic scheme without it, should shew
how little prepared our Church is at present for such a
sudden development. I am not of course denying, that in-
dividual Christians, who share in the Catholic feeling which
now springs up on all sides of us, will derive great benefit,
and edification, and happiness, from uniting themselves
voluntarily into small societies bound together by definite
rules and frequent offices of devotion ; but arrangements of
this kind may be quite safely, and will be far more profitably,
left to adjust themselves : while any expectation of esta-

2 F 2

436

blishing such a system on a fixed and recognised basis within
our Church is altogether visionary, until many well and
wisely employed years shall have elapsed. No ! we must
direct all our energy to devise some really powerful and
available machinery for the moral education of the many, if
we desire to reap any sufficient harvest of the mortified and
contemplative few.

And on similar grounds, in consequence of the deplorable
disorganization which prevails among us, and the fearful
heresies which are allowed to remain without authoritative
check or discouragement, many ordinary maxims of ecclesi-
astical order become altogether obsolete and inappropriate.
I will mention one instance, that I may more precisely
illustrate the principle for which I am contending. If things
were so ordered among us, that one doctrine in essentials were
inculcated throughout our Church, there would be no more
obvious and natural duty, than attending ordinarily divine
worship, each one in his own parish ; while under our present
circumstances no precept could be more extravagant and
paradoxical. If a preacher enforces doctrines which, in your
certain deep conviction, are adverse to the first principles of
morality, and destructive to the souls of men, (and such are
the doctrines you will frequently hear from ' Evangelical '
pulpits,) it seems at first sight almost a dereliction of duty to
afford so much encouragement to these impieties, as must
result from being present without remonstrance during their
utterance. Add to this, that not a few Catholic-minded
persons experience, from the mere sound of very extreme
heresy, a keen and piercing distress, differing in kind from
any other to which our nature is exposed. If it be replied,
that suffering is our very condition here below, I answer,
that there is one kind of suffering, from which it has always
been the very office of a pure Church to protect her children ;
and in regard to which, the most direct and certain proof
must be given, before we believe even in any single case that
duty requires our exposure, to its infliction : I mean the suf-
fering which arises from the near presence of heresy and im-
morality. Let it be distinctly observed, that I am only ad-

437

vocating a general principle, not attempting to deal with in-
dividual cases of casuistry, for which this is not the place.
Each case must be decided on its own merits as it arises,
and there are various conflicting considerations which we
must endeavour to take into account. Those who have
families and dependents, will shrink from exposing them to
spiritual danger, even when not unwilling to expose them-
selves to pain. Of those again who have only themselves to
consider, some will attend the Church prayers under such
circumstances, and attempt to leave the Church unnoticed
before the Sermon begins ; or will abstract their mind from
the Sermon, and read the Bible or some Spiritual book; but
others again endure a similar suffering in kind, however in-
ferior in degree, from the very mode of ordering and per-
forming the service which heretical principles occasion. It
is plain, that those who are so keenly sensitive, should feel it
their bounden duty to take very considerable trouble, and
expose themselves to very considerable worldly sacrifice, that
they may not be exposed to this dilemma; while, on the
other hand, I quite believe that there may be several cases,
in which an individual will most fitly perform his duty to our
Church, by remaining at home, and reciting throughout the
Church of England office for the day ; putting himself into
spiritual communion with the various members of our Church,
who, throughout the land, are at the same time putting up
the same prayers, reciting the same Psalms, pondering on
the same passages of Scripture.

One last preliminary remark shall here be made. An
individual Christian, on first turning to God from evil
courses, will practise himself for some considerable time in
the duties of obedience and repentance, before he will think,
unless imperatively required, of so marked a profession as
is implied in rebuking or publicly witnessing against his
brother's sin. The case is not materially different with
Societies ; and the English Church, after having so long neg-
lected so much of her duty, must begin by teaching the
teachable, and affectionately warning the reclaimable, before
she thinks of putting herself forward in the way of public pro-
tests, before she attempts to exercise acts of discipline ; acts

438

which may hereafter indeed be just and salutary, but which ill
correspond with her present degraded and corrupt condition.
When she has, by a long course of moral training and of or-
thodox teaching, established her empire over the hearts of a
faithful and orthodox laity, she may be able gracefully, and
we may humbly hope successfully, to declare war in the name
of the Lord against wickedness in high worldly places ; and
to draw the spiritual sword, which has so long rusted in its
scabbard.

2. In proceeding now to the general and merely super-
ficial task which, as I have said, is all there can be room for
in a work like this, let us take as the first instance the priest
of a country parish. If he should be persuaded of the
general truth of such principles as have been hitherto
enforced, the effect on his practical conduct is not difficult to
conceive. He will endeavour to lay his foundation within
the heart of his flock ; he will not consider any attendance
of theirs on Divine Service, even the most regular, even (if
so be) daily as well as on Sunday, to be any real security
for so much as the beginning of a truly Christian life. It is
the feeling of accountableness throughout the day, the
habitual thought of judgment to come, the careful regulation
of thoughts, words, and actions, which he will impress on
his flock as the one thing needful. Their presence in Church
may be useful as giving him the power to address them, but
he will use that power for the very purpose of impressing on
their mind, that true religion must have its spring from
within. With those who are more promising, he will most
earnestly seek opportunities of private and confidential con-
versation: and in such conversation, he will endeavour to put
before them the duties one by one of their daily life ; the
duty of combating against sloth, against discontent, against
anger, or other worse thoughts ; the duty of fixing their
whole mind at stated times, by ever so great an effort, on
God ; the duty of avoiding all evil conversation, and the
demeanour which they ought to adopt when such conversa-
tion is hazarded by others in their presence ; and the rest.
From this he will seek to instruct them in the indispensable
habit of daily self-examination ; that habit which alone can

439

succeed, and which by itself is almost certain to succeed, in
impressing on the conscience and imagination of Christians
an unceasing sense of their accountableness and responsibility.
Again, he will teach them to understand how sacred and
inviolable is his obligation to secresy, in the case of any
confidential communication in their spiritual perplexities and
distresses, which they may desire to impart ; he will make
them understand that no earthly compulsion whatever can
make it lawful for him, and that none shall in fact induce
him, to violate the sacramental trust they may repose in him.
He will make them clearly see, that no one subject has more
engrossing interest with him, is more certain immediately to
arrest his deepest attention, than any communication they may
wish to make, any question they may wish to ask, on the right-
governing of their daily thoughts and acts. He will en-
courage them more and more to look on him as their truest
and most unfailing earthly friend ; and to fix their thoughts,
through him, on that their Heavenly Friend, who has deputed
him to act towards them in His behalf, and as His visible
representative, till He come again and claim His own.

But of course he will have, beyond any possible com-
parison, better hope of influencing the young, than those who
have grown up in habits of carelessness and indifference. In
the schools under his direction, the children will feel deeply,
that the training them up in habits of careful conscientious-
ness is the one object, on which every single detail and
particular of the system converges. To perform aright their
daily examen of conscience ; to fix their thoughts on God in
prayer without distraction ; to contend one by one against
evil thoughts ; to imbibe habits of humility, reverence, and
docility ; they will be conscious every moment, that no
interest is so near the heart of those set over them, as that
they may learn ever to make advance in such holy and
necessary exercises as these. It will be impressed on them
beyond the possibility of mistake, that their priest is in-
finitely more anxious that they should pray well, than that
they should spell well ; that they should know their own
faults habitually, than that they should read the Scriptures
fluently ; that they should open their heart to the influences

440

of the Holy Spirit, than that they should trouble their heads
with adducing texts which prove His Personality. At the
fit age he will encourage and counsel them, so far as he feels
that he safely can do so, to the practice of Sacramental
Confession ; but he will so deeply feel the serious evils which
may flow from misdirection, and the serious danger, arising
from his deficiency in any special education directed to that
object, of his possibly directing them amiss, that he will be
even forward in urging on them, that they should cease from
the practice, if they find on a fair trial that they do not
profit by his advice. By such methods as these, their hearts
will become that well cultivated and rich soil, in which the
seed of Divine truth takes a firm and abiding root; and their
acquirement of Christian doctrine, their religious perusal of
the text of Scripture, will spring up in fruit thirty-fold,
sixty-fold, one hundred-fold. 3

It has often struck me, that w r e do not at all make that use
of the four Gospels, in addressing the poor, which their capa-
bilities, and their very structure, seem almost clamorously to
suggest. Roman Catholics of the educated classes, as I said
in the last chapter, are very much in the habit of meditating
methodically day by day on the sacred narrative ; but even
among them much use hardly seems made of them for the
poor. Now surely it is the merest truism to say, that no one
possible habit could be so beneficial to the poor, could serve
them so w r ell as a preservative against every kind of sin, a se-
curity for the growth of every kind of virtue, a charm to soothe
and relieve every kind of sorrow, as the unceasing thought
of our Lord's intimate and mysterious presence, so to speak,

a The two little works of my own, which I mentioned in an earlier chapter,
were occasioned by my strong conviction of these principles. The first was in-
tended as a manual of self-examination, for young persons even in the lower ranks
of life ; the second as an illustration of the sort of Christian doctrine which, as
appears to me, the same class may most profitably learn, and the great use which
may be made of our Catechism as the means of instruction in such doctrine. As
to this latter work, (Questions and Answers on the Church Catechism,) I derived
the greatest help from a little work by another hand, which was withdrawn soon
after its publication ; the compiler of which deserves the undivided credit of the
suggestion, and most part of the credit of the execution. But both his work, and
also my own on self-examination, were almost exclusively adapted from the most
ordinary Roman Catholic sources.

441

close beside them; the thought of Him as of their Living
Friend, who created them, redeemed them, and loves them
with unspeakable love. True it is, that any thing in the
way of formal meditation would be probably unsuitable
to their circumstances and to their intellectual powers ;
but what if, before going forth to their daily work, pains
were taken to put before them some miracle or other
event in our Lord's life, in all the reality and indivi-
duality, which such a work, e. g., as St. Bonaventure's ' Life
of Christ ' is eminently calculated to ensure ? Particularly if
from their early years they were exercised in such a practice,
this one scene would be, as it were, the central picture
present throughout the day to their mind's eye, on which
all their acts of meditation, worship, self-restraint, watch-
fulness against evil thoughts, would converge ; and which,
before the day ended, would be indelibly impressed on their
memory and imagination. When we consider the surprising
diversity and variety of character, so conspicuous in the
pictures presented to us by the Evangelists, and the mys-
terious and unearthly stamp with which they are impressed,
it can hardly I think be doubted that the acquisition of this
habit would most powerfully tend to refresh and support the
spirits ; to cheer the most monotonous employment ; to pre-
serve them even against the more subtle temptations of pride
or self-will, much more against the grosser forms of evil
which are their more frequent assailants. And this is the
more true and important, in proportion as the employment of
the steam-engine, and other causes, confine the ordinary work-
man more and more to a class of labour, in which his mind
is unoccupied, and in imminent danger of becoming torpid and
stagnant, even when his hands are most busily and fatiguingly
employed. Nor should we forget, that the essential truth of
our Blessed Lord's Divinity, which, as I said in the last
chapter, we just now incur such alarming danger of letting
slip, would by such means as this be really impressed on the
mind of the poor, in the most healthful, natural, and persua-
sive manner that can be possibly conceived.

The people are now so generally taught to read, (in itself
a very great matter of thankfulness, if more important things

had not been neglected,) that the object would be sufficiently
attained, if some work were carefully written, most closely
adapted to their capacities and habits of thought, which
might assign for the diiferent days in the year portions of
our Lord's history, and give such hints in each section as
might best help the reader to call up into his imagination the
scene described ; and if the portion for each day were read
by them every morning, before going to their worldly occu-
pations. There can be no question however, that this would
be more effectually done, if a priest, thoroughly fitted for
such a task, were to read the passage viva voce, and supply
such comments at the moment, as his knowledge of the indi-
viduals present might suggest as most calculated to arrest
their attention. Did a clergyman feel himself capable of
doing this, I conceive that there is nothing in the Ecclesias-
'tical Laws now existing which would at all interfere with his
desire. He might fix the daily service at so early an hour,
as to meet the convenience of those engaged in work ; and
might preface the service with a short lecture of the kind
here in question. Nor would it at all follow, that all who came
for the benefit of the lecture would be expected to remain
throughout the service : on the contrary, after having, e. g.,
joined in the early penitential part and in the Psalms, as
many as pleased might reverently withdraw. There is no
allusion in our prayer-book to any obligation of individuals
(not clergymen) remaining through the entire service ; and
indeed the daily prayers are plainly not arranged on a model
at all appropriate for such a requisition.

This subject indeed deserves mention as a separate parti-
cular. I cannot but fear that multitudes absent themselves
wholly from daily service, in parishes where it is celebrated,
who would most gladly avail themselves of some short por-
tion, but have really not the time to give from labour and
necessary refreshment, which is occupied by our entire office
of morning prayer. This will in one way be even more felt,
should vital religion, by God's blessing, gain ground among us;
for many will learn that there are other religious duties of far
greater importance even than public worship, because more
immediately personal ; such, e. g., as private self-examination

443

and prayer : and these duties, having by right a prior claim
on them, will still more completely prevent them from attend-
ing the whole public service. And surely it might very easily
be understood that no disrespect or irreverence whatever is
implied, but the veiy reverse, in coming to Church for the
privilege of reciting even a single prayer or a single psalm, in
company with our brethren, and ' in the courts of the house
of our God.' Till this principle indeed be fully admitted, at
least as regards week-day prayers, we shall never succeed in
getting rid of that chill air of stiffness and formality, which
now hangs, like a dead weight, on all the ministrations of our
Church, repelling the affections of the humble, and oppressing
the aspirations of the ardent and devotional.

Another great difficulty which parish priests will more and
more feel, on the subject of the public services attended by
our poor, will be the impossibility of their following the
words of our prayers. To keep up our attention, as one idea
follows another in the Prayer-book, requires an intellectual
strain and effort of no ordinary kind ; insomuch, that those
of us even who are habitually versed in intellectual studies,
find it, I suppose, a matter of extreme difficulty. I am not
here speaking of the moral difficulty, implied in keeping our
thoughts arid affections away from earthly objects while we
are engaged in prayer; this is a moral difficulty, and is con-
quered only by religious means: it is not the educated,
but the obedient and the spiritual, who are more and more
emancipated from its influence. But I here speak of a matter
altogether distinct, the intellectual difficulty which arises
from the quickness with which one idea follows another in
our Prayer-book, and the consecutiveness of thought, the
quasi-aryumentativeness, of great part of our prayers. Until
some remedy for this has been devised, surely it will be next
to impossible to make Divine Service a really devotional act
to the poor ; for they neither understand what is going on
there, nor yet are they taught how to occupy their thoughts
devotionally while it is going on. Here I think we may
learn a very important lesson from the Roman Catholics.
Their mass-service, in itself, is fully as unintelligible to the
poor as our Prayer-book ; some will say more so, because it

444

is in Latin ; and others, because many parts of it are even
ordered to be said ' secreto.' What is the course adopted,
in order that hearing mass may be a really intelligent and
devotional exercise ? The faithful are carefully taught the
meaning of each part of the ceremonial they witness, and are
ordered at definite times to join their intention with that of
the priest. This gives the service its congregational character.
At other times, they use prayers accommodated to each suc-
cessive stage of the Holy Sacrifice ; but by no means all the
same prayers. It is plain that one kind of language is best
adapted to impress devotional ideas on the educated, another
on the uneducated ; one on the old, another on the young ;
nay, that each variety of character has its peculiar needs and
requirements. In the case then of the poor, who have not
the opportunity of choosing for themselves, the Confessor
puts into their hands such books, to accompany the mass, as
he thinks best adapted to their individual 'captus.' And
thus we have one way, whereby this great difficulty is sur-
mounted ; the service is in one sense congregational, while
yet each individual Christian is able also to make it, in the
fullest sense, personal and individual. If a similar plan were
not considered objectionable among ourselves, I conceive that
the very greatest benefit might be derived from it'; from put-
ting into the hands of our poor short sentences of prayer,
which might be used by them when their attention is fatigued,
in lieu of their attempting to follow in their mind the whole
prayer read by the priest. For instance, one penitential sen-
tence, such as, ' Forgive me and all my brethren our grievous
sins, O Lord, for Jesus Christ's sake,' might be recited to him-
self over and over again by an uneducated person, while the
'general confession' is going forward. By such means he
would be not the less fully conscious of his communion with
all present, for he would know that the meaning of the public
prayer is the very same ; while he would have time, in some
sufficient measure, to realise and ponder on the devotional
act itself, instead of being, if I may so speak, utterly be-
wildered, hurried, and confused, in the devotional act, by the
arduousness of the intellectual act. A similar plan might
surely be adopted for all the different prayers; and again,

445

some acts of prayer on the subject of Holy Scripture might
be given him, in order that he may make use of them, in
case, which must so commonly happen, that great part, e. g.,
of the first lesson, is wholly unintelligible, and as such un-
profitable.

In this respect, then, the Roman Church seems an ad-
mirable model for our imitation ; in another, (if I may ven-
ture on imperfect knowledge to express a criticism,) she seems
hardly herself to have framed a definite and uniform plan of
action : I mean, training her poor in a devotional use of the
psalms. In some cathedrals abroad, indeed, I have heard of
the whole people chaunting the Latin Psalms with one voice
and with every appearance of enthusiasm ; as though, by
help of the vernacular translation, they were able to enter into
them and enjoy them. But in England, they often substitute
some English service on the Sunday afternoon for the regular
Vespers ; and again, where the latter are recited, the people
in no way join in them, but meditate, as at mass, from their
private devotional books. The whole subject indeed of the
desirableness of public services in the vernacular (as distinct
from the mass) is, I believe, one on which there is a very
growing spirit of inquiry among Roman Catholics, in
whatever way it may be likely to terminate. Certainly
the Psalms, as being poetical rather than, like the rest of our
Prayer-book, (what I have called) argumentative; and, again
in consequence of the quality which seems to characterize
more or less, every part of the Inspired Volume ; require,
for their fit apprehension and appreciation, far more an obe-
dient life and a spiritual mind, than a cultivated understand-
ing. Under our present circumstances, we hear of the very
religious poor being wonderfully affected by various parts of
their contents ; and the same edification and enjoyment would
spread far more widely, if they were carefully taught the
Christian meaning of such phrases as ' Israel,' ' Jerusalem,'
' our enemies,' * the arrow and the bow,' and other like ex-
pressions. A still further help towards the purpose of re-
ceiving readily the Christian sense of the Psalms, would be
a practice, advocated in one of those beautiful articles in the
British Critic on the Church service ; I mean, if the people

446

were taught to vary the application according to the season
of the Christian year ; to recite the Psalms during Lent in
the person of Christ Suffering, during Easter of Christ
Triumphant, in the weeks after Pentecost of the Church left
behind Him and fighting in His name and strength against
her spiritual and worldly enemies.

It is quite unnecessary to add the very great desirable-
ness of making our services attractive to the poor, by all out-
ward emblems and lively ceremonial ; and still more of
teaching them music, and encouraging them to devote the
knowledge to religious celebrations ; for all this is much and
increasingly felt among us ; there is far ^less danger at present
of our neglecting such helps as these, than of our fancying
that we can make the flock good Christians, without some far
deeper and more personal cultivation.

3. In turning now to the corresponding task, of throwing
out hints for the consideration of those clergymen who are
brought more directly into connection with the educated
classes, it is necessary to repeat, with much greater promi-
nence and distinctness, a warning already given in the last
section ; a warning against any attempt, under our present
circumstances, I will not say to make Sacramental Con-
fession compulsory, but even to urge it strongly and perse-
veringly on those who feel unwilling to adopt it. How
sensitive is the Roman Church on the sacred rights of the
individual conscience, will appear from an anecdote, in which
two Saints are the parties mainly concerned. St. Jane Frances
de Chantal and St. Francis de Sales, before they ever met,
saw each other severally in visions ; and though the former
Saint had made a vow to her original director that she would
never submit herself to other guidance, yet as his spiritual
counsel was not found adapted to her needs, St. Francis con-
sidered that this vision was sufficient warrant for considering
the vow dispensed with. The result was, that she derived
the greatest benefit from his direction. It is not necessary
to discuss the truth of this story with Protestants, who will
of course disbelieve it ; because the fact of its commonly re-
ceiving credit among Roman Catholics is amply sufficient for
the point I desire to establish. It appears then, that not

447

only every penitent has the privilege of irresponsibly choosing
his own director, but also even a vow of obedience to some
particular director should rather be violated, than a holy
soul left in the hands of one, who is not able rightly to un-
derstand the case with which he has to deal, and so will be
deficient in that deep tenderness, wisdom, considerateness,
which are so indispensably necessary. Nor does the existence
of a precept of confession at all interefere with this argu-
ment : for in the first place the hearing of a Confession by
no means implies of necessity so much as spiritual direction ;
and in the second place, considering the multitudes of priests
in every rank of life, and with every variety of bias and natu-
ral disposition, who are educated for the Confessional, it is
indeed an extravagant supposition to imagine, that one may
not easily be found, competent to deal even with the more
eccentric tendencies of individual minds.

With us it is unnecessary to say how striking is the
contrast. The most competent Confessors we could possibly
supply, can have had extremely little of practical ex-
perience ; and there is literally no theoretical system re-
cognised among us, to fall back upon in default of such
experience. Surely then it is impossible to be too wary
and cautious in feeling our way. Grievous as are the
evils which flow from our present anomalous and anar-
chical condition, great as is the amount of careless and
unholy living it has engendered, even more fearful and
miserable would be the result, if there were any approach to
an attempt on the part of any section of our clergy to ex-
ercise arbitrary or dictatorial power. Can we, by the utmost
stretch of our imagination, conceive any misery (not resulting
from sin) more exquisite, than that of one who with a sen-
sitive conscience, shrinking delicacy of mind, and strong tend-
ency even to morbid peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, should
be subjected to the irresponsible power of some (say) con-
ceited young clergyman, who might entertain strong views
on ' the power of the keys,' and little sense of the fearful
magnitude and importance of the task he undertakes ? And
most serious as is this evil in any case, there are circumstances
in our position which make it very far more serious in our

448

own. A Roman Catholic will have been at least educated
in a strict and definite system of moral discipline; and even
though he should fall from grace and remain long a stranger
to God, still, on his return, he will have his early habits and
associations to fall back upon. But I fear it is no exaggeration
to say, that in our own Church the very idea of responsibility
for our acts of every hour of the day will come on us at first
quite by surprise ; and our first effort to act on such an idea,
will bring us into a region of scruples and harassing anxieties
of mind, which we had little suspected. Every one knows
how great is the blankness and dreariness of feeling, which
attends the first attempt to adjust our feelings and habits to
any wholly new manner of life; precisely similar will the
case be, though in a far more grievous degree, in the present
instance. Here then is a fresh and very great evil, which
must result from any attempt to enforce a rude and indis-
criminating rule of arbitrary dictation : for these perplexities,
of which I speak, will vary indefinitely in each individual
case, according to the particular direction which licence
and self-indulgence may have taken ; and in many cases
they will not be at all understood, except by a director, who
shall have devoted the rarest powers of mind, joined with
the most affectionate and anxious watchfulness, to the
inquiry.

Another admonition of considerable importance may also
be derived from contemplation of the Roman model ; and it
will be fitly introduced by a quotation from the British
Critic. ('On Mill's Logic,' p. 409.)

' The art of morals, be it then observed, while making incidental
use of an indefinite number of other sciences, employs as habitually
the science of psychology, as that of morality itself. For instance,
I have injured my neighbour's fame by random talking ; the science
of morality pronounces as the dictate of natural justice, that I am
bound to make him restitution, humble myself before God for my
sin, and take pains to reform my character in respect of unguarded
use of the tongue. Waiving the second of these duties ; to perform
the first, I must have recourse to a knowledge of practical life ; to
perform the last, I consult the study of psychology. In the first, 7
receive no help from practical religious works ; nor witt a serious

449

Christian be likely to understand better, rather worse, than others
the best means of performing the object in view : in the last, on the
contrary, I receive every help from such books ; and religious men,
from the interest and care which they, and they only, take in such
matters, understand the way to such an object incomparably better
than other men : but in either case the source of the knowledge is
experience'

My readers, who remember a note in the last chapter, will
at once see that it is ascetic theology which treats on such
subjects as these last mentioned. Now it is the dictate of
common sense, that a priest shall decide very far more
peremptorily on subjects which he has studied, than on
subjects which he has not; and it is his province to study
both moral and ascetic theology. Accordingly -a very little
observation of Roman practice will shew us, thft priests
not unfrequently exercise a judgment altogether final and
authoritative, not only in ruling certain classes of words,
thoughts, and acts, to be sinful, but in dictating the means
whereby a cure may be best effected ; in deciding the signs
of repentance and amendment to be required, before they
will give absolution ; in ordering this or that penance ; and
in giving other rules of a similar kind. On the contrary,
as I observed in the second chapter, ' the infinitely various
particular application of true principles, to particular circum-
stances and events ; that immensely large class of moral acts,
on which it is impossible for one man to judge what is right
in his neighbour's case ; all this is left mainly to his indi-
vidual responsibility and sense of right.' It will continually
happen, that on questions like these the penitent (even
under all the risk of dealing unfairly with himself) will be
a far better judge than the priest: because he has much
more of that knowledge of the course of worldly things
which gives their whole character to acts of the kind ; and
again, a much, very much, more lively perception of the
various facts of the case, than he can by possibility communi-
cate to another. It will generally happen then that on such
matters as these, whether a man ought to enter upon this or
that line of business, fix his residence in this or that place,
live in this or that degree of external splendour, and a

450

thousand other particulars, a priest will not wish to intrude
advice at all ; and, if specially consulted, give it only with
great qualification and reserve. It may quite possibly indeed
happen, that circumstances of this kind do turn on questions
absolutely within the priest's sphere and cognizance ; and
when the case is otherwise, a faithful director would con-
tinually put general principles before the mind of his penitents,
which he might think them in danger of forgetting, even
where he might altogether leave the particular application
to themselves. Now I believe, both from probability, and
from my knowledge of individual cases, that there is no
effect which the earnestness now reviving within our Church
will more certainly be found to produce, than the craving for
spiritual direction and for habits of confidential communica-
tion with* a religious guide. If this be so, it is difficult to
exaggerate the importance of the consideration I have just
been urging; the neglect of which might entail more evil
than they suppose, both on the director and the directed.
And if it be further granted as true, that it is any attempt
of priests to overstep the line here laid down, which in a
very peculiar degree excites the jealousy and suspicion of
worldly men, another reason will have appeared for its im-
portance ; because, though, if a thing be right the world's
hatred of it ought only to brace and invigorate us in the
task of more zealously doing it ; if it be wrong, it is doubly
wrong when raising obstructions to the advance of truth and
of sound doctrine.

The distinction between Sacramental Confession and spiri-
tual direction, to which I lately alluded, corresponds in some
measure to that between moral and ascetic theology : the
former is required of all in the Roman Church ; the latter is
offered to those who desire it, and I suppose in various de-
grees of urgency and minuteness. There may be some per-
haps in our own Church who might receive the greatest benefit
from the first, though they may not be able to trust any
English priest in the second ; or on the contrary who might
occasionally consult a priest for advice and direction, though
unable to bring themselves to that unreserved openness abso-
lutely requisite for Sacramental Confession.

451

But if cautions such as those which have preceded be
requisite, even in regard to confidential spiritual advice ; if
the cases be so numerous, in which, with all the advantage
of unreserved disclosure of facts, it is an impossible task to
understand rightly the peculiarities of individual character
or circumstances; how far greater is the danger of un-
charitable judgment, if bystanders allow themselves in severe
comments, who cannot even know so much as the external
circumstances, past or present, which influence their brother's
conduct ! Never was there, perhaps, a time, in which it was
necessary so carefully and prominently to enforce the dis-
tinction between acts that are undeniably wrong, and those
which are not so in themselves, but which there is a natural
tendency to regard as marks of a worldly or irreligious
mind. At the present time numbers have come or are
coming to a reception of the pure Gospel, who, perhaps
under the impulse of those very ardent aspirations which
have at last impelled them towards their true rest, have
been given up to every variety of self-will, in the way of
speculation, of feeling, of action. The cases are many, and
will be continually increasing, in which the mere endeavour
to impress on the mind a sense of constant responsibility, to
perform religious exercises with strict and punctual regu-
larity, and to keep himself unspotted by mortal sin of
thought or action, when this is in itself so anxious, laborious,
dreary a task, to the humble beginner, that any attempt to
press him unduly forward into modes of action or be-
haviour not absolutely required for his salvation, would be
unspeakably harsh and inconsiderate ; nay, might have the
result of overstraining the bow, of ' breaking the bruised
reed,' and of ' quenching the smoking flax.' To conceive, even
within any assignable degree of approximation, the trials and
distresses of those, who in temperament and habit of mind
widely differ from ourselves, is an intellectual task so difficult,
as to be within the reach of very few ; but all may cherish
the virtue of Christian charity, which will accomplish the
same object far better than any merely intellectual candour ;
charity, which loves to believe all that is good of a brother's
state, and will shrink with alarm and repugnance from the

2 r, 2

452

formation of a harsh judgment, till the proofs of misconduct
are flagrant, palpable, incontrovertible.

All that I have said in the way of dissuasive against too
eager exhortations on the part of clergymen to the practice
of Sacramental Confession, make it the more important to
urge on the consideration of religious and Catholic-minded
laymen the inestimable value of that holy practice ; and the
great importance, that they should use serious efforts to get
rid of any feelings of false shame or delicacy which might
prevent them from obtaining the benefit they really might
derive from its performance. That which in prospect appears
inexpressibly formidable and repulsive, will often afterwards,
when they have forced their resolution up to the mark and
boldly unveiled to some orthodox, considerate, and affection-
ate priest their secret sins and temptations, prove full of
sweetness and consolation. ' I state my deep conviction,'
says Mr. Newman, ' when I say, that nothing healthy can
be expected in the religion of the community, till we learn
that we cannot by our private judgment manage ourselves ;
that management of the heart is a science which it needs to
learn ; and that even though we have paid attention to it, we
are the least able to exercise it in our oa'n case, that is, when
we most need it. We must use in religious matters that
common sense, which does not desert us in matters of this
world, because we take a real interest in them ; and as no
one would ever dream of being his own lawyer or his own
physician, however great exposures, whatever sacrifice of
feeling, may be the consequence ; so we must take it for
granted, if we would serve God completely, that we cannot
be our own divines, and our own casuists.' It may be, as I
have most fully admitted, a duty to abstain from this
attempt, because of the impossibility of reposing sufficient
confidence in any priest to whom we have access ; but we
must learn to impress on our minds, that if it be so, it is
a duty which summons us to the renouncement of a very
high privilege and very signal blessing. To set this in a
clearer light, the reader cannot be referred to any more
satisfactory authority, than the admirable article on the

e ' Sermons on Subjects of the Day, 1 p. 57.

453

subject in the British Critic, which I have already mentioned.
Here it will suffice, to specify two spiritual maladies of a very
opposite character, which stand peculiarly in need of this
salutary and invigorating medicine.

There are perhaps several persons, endued with that noble
and most precious treasure, a keenly sensitive conscience,
who suffer, and severely, from the evil tendencies which ac-
company this blessing, as some evil or other accompanies all
blessings in this fallen world. There are persons who brood
over faults of thought, word, or act, committed in time past,
with an intensity of sorrow and remorse, which forbids them
to see any extenuating circumstances, which magnifies the
sinfulness of those faults in a degree utterly disproportionate
(not to the faults themselves no one living sees even in
approximately true colours the sinfulness of sin but) to
their comparative magnitude as placed in the scale even with
other of their own faults, much more with faults of other
men. From this, a sort of what may be almost called
monomania may occasionally follow ; and more miserable
still, there may be a very real danger, lest the heart be
closed against a grateful reception of the Gospel message
of mercy, and the unhappy person fall from the Christian
virtue of hope. Much to be desired indeed it is, that there
were far more danger of mental disease in this shape among
the world at large than there is ; many, I suppose, find the
account of it so utterly heterogeneous from any feeling of
which their own consciousness gives them experience, that
they regard the very notion of such a suffering with a kind
of disdainful compassion. Blind and miserable are such
men : the callousness of a hardened and indifferent conscience
is a misery, which would be dearly purchased by ten thou-
sand times the heaviest agony inflicted by scrupulousness
and morbid anxiety. Still such pangs as I have mentioned
are fearfully severe ; while, as is evident, they take their
origin in no circumstance so much as in this, that the sufferer
is shut up in the region of his own consciousness, is unable
to find any with whom to communicate his gloomy thoughts,
nay, has not the courage even fairly to raise them as it
were to the surface for his own inspection. But the effort

454

required by Sacramental Confession; the intellectual task
of putting into shape and expression the sins whose memory
tortures him ; much more than all, the mere recital of them
for the first time in the ear of another human being ;
all this, even prior to any active ministration and advice
from the priest, strips them of the exaggerated and fan-
tastic colouring with which his imagination had invested
them, and at once dissolves the spell which had so long
enchained him.

An opposite evil is perhaps more frequent: namely, that
a penitent may see in the clearest intellectual light the
wickedness of past misdeeds, but cannot bring himself to
realise morally their offensiveness to God ; he cannot be full
of shame, as he feels he ought to be ; but enjoys life with all
its blessings, as naturally as though he had riot grievously
sinned. Here too, as the author of the article alluded to
points out, the Confessional is the very remedy suited to his
disease : the shame he feels from reciting them in the pre-
sence of a fellow -sinner will impress on his imagination and
feelings, in a degree otherwise unattainable, the shame which
he ought to feel from having committed them in the presence
of God and of the Holy Angels.

In proceeding to the other religious exercises, which are
fully in the power of educated persons, and are most likely
to succeed in training them on the true Christian and Catholic
model, but little can be added to what was said in the last
chapter. Nor in what I may say further, do I profess any
further responsibility, beyond the mere endeavour to trans-
late, as it were, practices, which bear so rich fruit in the
Roman Church, into the language of our own habits and
country. As I observed then, daily self-examination assumes
even a more prominent importance with the higher classes
than with the poor, and requires still greater care and pre-
cision in its performance : both in consequence of the far
subtler nature of the sins to which they are in bondage, and
also the increased amount of self-consciousness which their
education entails. Those who have not hitherto regularly
observed this practice, will do more wisely perhaps if they
make a beginning with only the daily general examen ; but

455

should make it an unde via ting rule under no circumstances to
omit it. When they have sufficiently disciplined themselves in
this foundation, the first class of particular examination
(see p. 340) will naturally and readily follow : and, when
once begun, should never be omitted without indispensable
necessity. The natural time for both these exercises is of
course the evening : but there is no reason why some other
part of the day (e. g. the morning) might not be chosen for
good reasons ; e. g. if our fatigue be often too great at night.
It is plain, however, that the time once chosen should be
faithfully adhered to.

According to the observations of the last chapter, the next
place should be given to meditation. And some very admi-
rable remarks, addressed to members of our Church who are
beginners in this holy exercise, will be found in the new
translation of St. Bonaventure's Life of Christ: remarks
which I wish there were room to extract in this place.

As a starting-point, perhaps a quarter of an hour at the
beginning of each day will be sufficient ; especially when the
task is found irksome and difficult. But we should not rest
content, till we have brought up our habit at all events to
Aa^-an-hour ; for this is the time recommended in Roman
Catholic books to all who perform the exercise at all. As
regards the subjects of the meditation, no book perhaps can
be mentioned likely to be by itself altogether satisfactory :
one of the most interesting and available is the ' Journal of
Meditations,' u which assigns some event in our Blessed Lord's
life for meditation almost every day in the year. Many
persons will probably prefer selecting from several books,
according to the particular bias of their mind and dis-
position ; a consideration this last, which from the very ob-
ject of the exercise, ought to be considered beyond every
other. Only the subject ought to be carefully chosen and
considered over night, that it may be present to the mind
the first thing in the morning, and that we may not rush as
it were unprepared into the presence of God. St. Alphon-
sus's ' Preparation for Death ' is another work, extremely
liked by some who have seen it, while others again are not
ll ' Grace and Son, 45, Capel-street, Dublin, 1834.'

456

so much affected by it : the various editions of the ' Spiritual
Exercises' will furnish again further materials. It has some-
times occurred to me that an arrangement of this sort (with
whatever modifications) would he on the whole suitable to
the circumstances and needs of many among us ; if some
competent person would take the pains to compile such a
work. From Christmas to the Epiphany, the circumstances
of our Blessed Lord's Infancy : thence to Septuagesima the
most signal manifestations of His glory during His life among
men : from that time to Lent, His general sufferings on
earth, (as set forth in the latter part of the first volume of
Father Thomas's work,) such as ' Christ in His obedience,'
' Christ in His poverty,' ' Christ in the austerity of His life,'
' the obligation of living among sinners,' ' the rudeness of
His disciples,' ' the obstinacy of the Jews,' ' the false judg-
ments that were made of His actions,' &c. &c. : from Ash-
Wednesday to the first Sunday in Lent inclusive, the suffering
in particular (viz. the fasting in the wilderness) with which
His ministry began : from that day onwards the details of
that with which it ended : at Easter His glorious appear-
ances, including perhaps that to St. Paul; and as this would
not naturally fill up all the time, some passages from our
Blessed Lord's discourses in the third, fifth, sixth, fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of St. John might afford in-
expressibly interesting texts, on which meditations might be
founded, on those great doctrines the Trinity, the Incar-
nation, the Eucharistic Presence, which are enigmatically
there contained, and which our Blessed Lord may be con-
sidered to have revealed more clearly to his Apostles in those
mysterious forty days: Ascension-tide and Whitsuntide
supply their own subjects : from Trinity to All-Saints per-
haps the subject of meditation might be the second class of
particular examination, (see p. 342,) going over in our mind
the various Christian tempers, and making a practical com-
parison of them with our own conduct : (this would be no
interference whatever with the habit already spoken of in
regard to the poor, of still choosing some event in our Blessed
Lord's life to keep in our mind during the day ; for there is
no necessary inconvenience in making the subject of our

457

recurrence, so to speak, through the day, different from that
of our morning meditation :) from All-Saints to Christmas,
the various topics involved in what is called the ' Via
Purgativa,' and which are contained indeed in the ' Journal
of Meditations ;' such as the sinfulness of sin, mortal or
venial ; and of our chief sins, one by one ; Death, Judgment,
Heaven, Hell ; and all this interspersed, as Christmas comes
nearer, with meditations on the events which preceded our
Lord's birth; and perhaps on one or two principal pro-
phecies or types of Him in the Old Testament.

The habit of meditation will be peculiarly valuable to
those, who are immersed in the turmoil of commercial life ;
and who, in consequence of the incessant anxiety and com-
petition now prevalent, have more difficulty than others are
able even to conceive, in reposing their mind throughout the
day on their True Good. Indeed, after no long time, their
welfare might be still further consulted, by the establishment,
here and there, of something in the nature of ' Spiritual
Retreats :' for the fit performance of which the habit of
meditation will have been so excellent a preparative.

Under the head of mental prayer, must also be classed the
regular and methodical performance of the duty of interces-
sion. Another kind is, where continuous help and guidance
is given by a book : a beautiful work of this kind, which
contains nothing that any ' high-churchman ' can object to, is
Gother's ' Sinner's Complaint.'

According to the advice given from Rodriguez and St.
Alphonsus in the last chapter, it would appear that daily
self-examination should be considered an indispensable duty
even in sickness ; and that, in cases where one or other must
be given up, mental prayer should be retained rather than
vocal. Of vocal prayer, of course our own Church Service
has the first claim upon us : and, as I said some way back,
should be recited by each one of us, as members, and in the
name, of our own English Church. A further manual of
vocal prayer, which will be of great help in impressing us
with a deep sense of the Communion of Saints, is the Roman
Breviary. How much of this there will be time for in the
day, varies of course in every degree. Some may find great

458

happiness and refreshment from reciting at night Vespers and
Compline, who may have time for no more ; others will per-
haps add over-night the next day's Matins ; others again will
recite in the morning Lauds, with or without the Nocturns,
and Prime. The present Roman practice of always antici-
pating even the Lauds of the following day, depends on the
principle, that our mind is fresher in the morning and fit for
intent mental prayer ; while in the evening the use of a form,
and the sense of communion with the Church in what we recite,
sustains the flagging spirits and attention. As our own
service is recited in communion with our own Church, the
Breviary service would be of course recited in communion
with ' the Holy Church throughout all the world ;' while at
the same time each individual would most carefully, as a
matter of the plainest duty, omit any Invocations or the like,
for which his mind is not fully prepared ; or which would have
in his case any the most remote tendency to obscure the Vision
of the Son of God. This caution understood, there are still
two different arrangements of the Breviary service, which
find favourers in our Church. The first of these takes ordi-
narily the ferial office ; and introduces the festivals of those
Saints only, who are mentioned either in Scripture, or in our
calendar (including of course the 'black letter' days), or in our
prayer-book and homilies ; the other prefers following simply
the Roman arrangement of festivals, and taking the authorized
' ordo recitandi' as its guide. The advantage of the first is
considered to be, that the ferial office is much more frequently
retained than according to the existing Roman practice, and
that it keeps more carefully within the limits prescribed by
our Church ; the advantage of the last, that it enables us to
be more simply and heartily in communion with the Church
Catholic, and implies less of a critical and eclectic spirit.

It may be confidently hoped, that by a continued course of
such devotional exercises, those three elements of the Catholic
character which I mentioned in the last chapter, strict con-
scientiousness of daily walk, strict orthodoxy on the principal
Gospel Truths, and a full consciousness of the Communion
of Saints may be realised with daily increasing depth and
comprehensiveness ; while on the other hand no part of what

459

is here suggested can surely have any tendency to frighten
the timid spirit, or to assail early prepossessions with hasty
and rude violence.

Such advice then as this may surely be given with every
prospect of success, in those instances, already numerous and
daily increasing in number, where feelings of acute re-
pentance have been excited, and trembling anxiety as to
spiritual prospects aroused, while on the one hand there is a
keen perception of the hollowness and worldliness of Lutheran
profession, and yet on the other hand a most natural misgiving,
as to the possible consequences of prematurely closing with
what are called extreme opinions. Such religious practices
as I have mentioned, carry with them their own evidence
and warrant; and they bring comfort to the mourner, the
power of repentance to the sinner, the power of perseverance
to the weak, the power of discerning religious truth to the
feeble and perplexed. To do no more than realise
gradually those truths, which we have always professed with
the lips what is there in this which can alarm the most
cautious ? and yet what more is wanted as the true medicine
for all spiritual evils ? Such is the great blessing we derive
from that profession of orthodoxy, which our Church has
retained : the Creeds and the prayer-book have stored within
them all that the sorrowful or sinful soul can need ; all,
that is, except supernatural grace ; and that our Church is
also privileged to dispense. Why should we be downcast
and dispirited, however fearful the corruptions which abound
among us, when we have such vantage-ground as this ? what
need we, but firm faith in our position, and in the presence
of Christ with us His outcast flock ?

Two more observations will bring to a close this part of
the subject. Great as would be the care taken that humble
and dutiful Christians be not pressed unduly forward to
doctrines for which they may not yet be ripe, another pre-
caution should be even more sedulously maintained; viz.
that all their religious and devotional reading should breathe
the one true Catholic spirit. The possession of Mr. Newman's
Sermons is a most truly happy circumstance for our Church ;
and many of the more ordinary Roman Catholic works, by

460

means of suitable omissions, will be very available for the
purpose. The other observation, to which I alluded, is
this, that parents in the higher ranks of life will be fitted
for a charge, which could hardly be intrusted with safety to
the uneducated classes ; and one of considerable importance.
They will be fully able to train their children in the habit of
regularly confessing to them their more serious faults, and to
give them suitable advice as to repentance and amendment.
I have known of this practice being adopted with the very
best effect ; nothing indeed can be more fitted for implanting
habits of careful conscientiousness, and preparing them per-
haps for regular Confession to a priest, should the opportunity
be presented.

4. Thus inestimable are the benefits which may be con-
ferred, on the spread of the Gospel within our Church, by
those who, from their position and their powers of mind, are
able to exercise an influence on 'holy and humble men of
heart.' Nor let these latter think that they have no share
in forwarding the great work. So far from it, that there is
no more efficacious instrument for removing misconception
and softening prejudice, than the personal presence of such
as these. A humble Christian, who shews in his whole
demeanour a profound humility and consciousness of sin;
thoughtful, unselfish, unceasing considerateness for all around
him ; a reverent sympathy for good from whatever quarter
it presents itself; an unpretending zeal in performing all the
duties of his state of life ; such an one (little as he dreams of
exercising any influence upon others) avails more than a
thousand controversial arguments. He proves to those who see
him, that the love of Catholic doctrine arises, neither from
blind and carnal formalism, nor from sectarian bigotry, nor
from a puerile love of splendour and external ornament, nor
from the dreams of a poetical temperament, nor from the rea-
sonings of deep erudition, but from a most deep and experi-
mental conviction, that this doctrine gives help, such as no
other doctrine in the world can give, towards rescuing the
soul from the power of Satan, and promoting its progress in
every Christian virtue.

5. That such are our present duties and privileges, will be at

461

once admitted by all who have concurred with the general
statement of principles which has gone before. That very
much more is also required, if the work is really to be accom-
plished which we may humbly hope that God is performing
for us, if genuine Catholicism is to be restored to our desiring
eyes, this the same principles also establish. But in all such
cases, God carefully keeps from man the power of positive
cooperation : what will be His times and instruments in
forwarding His own cause ; when and in what degree He will
raise up men in the midst of us fitted for carrying out His
gracious purpose ; and on what part of our existing system
these men will firmly take their stand ; all this we must
dutifully leave to Him. To trouble our minds with con-
jectures on such questions as these, much more to think of
taking the matter out of God's hands into our own, would
be a mark of that worldly and scheming spirit, which occa-
sionally pains us in passages of the Church's history ; and
which is, of all tempers of mind, the most certain to fail in
bringing down blessings, that are really blessings, on the
Church. By labouring, each in his place, to keep his con-
science pure, and seeking to know and do His will, members
of our Church are fitting themselves to be His instruments,
should He require their services ; they are placing themselves
as it were, in that position for which He has predestined them,
and where, if He needs them, He will look to find them.
Nay, should the glorious work be really consummated, in what
degree each one has been an instrument, in what measure his
prayers or efforts may have contributed to the result, will be
among the secrets reserved for the Great Day. That there
may be individual exceptions to this, K admit ; but surely, on
the whole, such is the sober and simple truth.

But on the other hand, what may be called negative
cooperation is in our power ; nay, is incumbent on many,
according to their tastes and capabilities. We may have a
most certain conviction, that under such circumstances as
ours the existence of one or other definite class of spiritual
instruments, at present wanting, is indispensably necessary,
that the pure Gospel may really energize in our Church ;
and we may most firmly and acceptably labour in our

462

respective spheres, in following out this conviction. Of what
kind, in my own judgment, these instruments are, the preced-
ing pages will have sufficiently shewn ; while the great space
I have already occupied, forcibly urges the necessity of brevi-
ty. I will merely then recapitulate, as concisely as possible,
the desiderata to which I have already alluded.

I. It is absolutely necessary, that there be manuals, from
which those educated for Orders may be scientifically and
accurately instructed in the primary elements of moral,
ascetic, and dogmatic theology. It is of course quite certain
that educated men will really (whether or no they do so
professedly) lay far more stress on, have a far greater portion
of their minds occupied with, subjects which they have studied
methodically, than subjects on which they merely pick up in-
formation at random for themselves. Till quite lately, nothing
was taught methodically to the future clergy as such : so that
at least all subjects had their fair chance. But now there is
a rising tendency, to train them with pains and precision in
the theory of Apostolical Succession, or the ecclesiastical con-
troversies with Roman Catholics and Dissenters, while those
other, infinitely more important, sciences are still wholly
neglected. Uuder such a system, zealous and active young
clergymen may spring up, who have acquired habits of mind
which it makes one uneasy to contemplate ; clergymen, who
are far more anxious to draw their flock to Church, than to
train them in the daily battle against sin ; who are far more
deeply impressed with the sin of joining Dissenters, than with
the sin of habitually neglecting self-examination and prayer ;
who are keenly sensitive to the most distant suggestion which
tends to extenuate the sin of schism, but remain quiet, un-
concerned, and conservative, though Sabellianism and Nes-
torianism be rampant at their very doors. It is perfectly
consistent to say that the Scripture, humbly studied, will
teach all essential truth ; but to abandon this principle, and
teach one minor class of truths methodically, while those that
are the most vital and essential are still left to be gathered by
individual perusal of Scripture, this is a course self-condemn-
ed of formalism and bigotry.

For dogmatic theology, it would be no difficult matter,

463

I conceive, to a person sufficiently versed in theology, to
compile a work, which might answer a similar purpose with
us, that Perrone's lectures do abroad ; it would be of course
much less extensive in scope ; but should contain a clear and
methodical statement of the acknowledged Catholic doctrines
on the Trinity, Original Sin, the Incarnation, and Grace
a statement, not professing to go deeply into the matter, but
accurate and precise, and fitted for the ordinary student ;
while at the same time it should refer those, who may be dis-
posed to go more thoroughly into any particular topic, to
such larger works, as are most valuable and authoritative.

For ascetic theology, 6 the regular, careful, and methodical
study of such a work as Rodriguez on ' spiritual perfection,'
would be of the utmost value to a candidate for Orders ; and
would powerfully impress on his mind the reality and high
importance of ascetic science. It is true that this work is
intended rather to teach Christians generally how to direct
themselves, than to teach priests how to direct others : and
the same must be said of other works, which I have heard
most highly praised ; such as the two great works of Father
Lewis of Granada, * the sinner's guide ' and ' the memorial
of a Christian life : ' but this would be no sufficient objection
to its use/ I am told however on the best authority, that
there is a very admirable scientific work, intended for directors
of consciences as such, called the ' Direttorio Ascetico/ by
Scaramelli, 2 vols. 4to. ; in which directors are instructed how
to act, from the fruits of an immense experience collected

e ' Ascetic theology is the science of conducting to a holy life. It treats of the
obstacles to perfection, of temptations, of -sin, of the world, &c. ; of the means of
perfection, as prayer, meditation, mortification, &c. ; of virtues, their characteristics*
degrees, and means of attainment.' See also p. 326.

f It would be very desirable, that any one who should translate such a work as
this of Rodriguez for the use of members of the English Church, should omit, not
only any expressions about the Blessed Virgin, which might pain English
Churchmen, (of which indeed there are in this work few or none,) but also
a great number of legends, which in the present state of feeling among us would
rather cause ludicrous than edifying associations. I cannot forbear from adding
here, how very important a service must be in course of time rendered to our
Church, by the series now in progress of translation from books of Catholic
devotion. The editor of this series is thereby adding to his claims on the deep
reverence and gratitude of English Churchmen, which might have seemed hardly
to admit of increase.

by the pious and zealous author, a most distinguished
missionary.

On moral theology, it will not perhaps be so easy to com-
pile a serviceable manual. The work reviewed in the British
Critic, ' le Manuel des Confesseurs,' would doubtless afford
many most useful hints to clergymen, who wish to make
some beginning in directing individual souls, but are at a loss
for counsel or assistance. But our circumstances are in many
respects so peculiar, that it can hardly be until after much
feeling of their way and personal experience, on the part of
Catholic-minded clergy in various parts of the kingdom, that
any really valuable rules can be given for general guidance.

Such are the most immediately pressing of our desiderata.
Since, however, I have alluded so frequently to mystical
theology, and it is to be hoped that the science of directing
men in the higher paths of Christian sanctity may become
every day more practically needful, it will be better to add
on this subject also, what I have received from trustworthy
authority.

Mystical theology is the science of comparatively few. It may
be said to begin where the ascetic ends ; its object is to carry for-
ward souls, specially favoured, into the sublimer regions of contem-
plative devotion, " supernatural and infused" as it is called. For
though the science of directing rightly such gifts may be taught, the
gifts themselves cannot be taught or communicated. Such are the
twelve degrees of contemplation, the intellectual vision of God,
ecstacies and rapture ; and connected with these are the mysterious
trials and purifications, by which the soul is prepared for them, or
humbled under them ; like the sting of the flesh inflicted on St. Paul.
Standard works on this branch of theology are the writings of
St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, St. Peter of Alcantara, &c. But
here again the most , practical and classical work is Scaramelli's
" Direttorio mistico," 4to. Venice, 1754. In this, everything is laid
down simply but fully, and so as to guide the director in leading souls
through this higher walk of rare and sublime perfection.

Connected with this science is another branch of theology, which
may be said to be common to both the ascetic and the mystical. It
is what is known by the name of " Discretio spirituum," or the rules
for distinguishing the inspiration of the Holy Spirit from the illusion
of the enemy. This is a study most useful in ascetic, and absolutely

465

necessary in mystical, theology. Some excellent rules for the pur-
pose will be found at the end of St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises.
The best modern treatise is again Scaramelli's " Discernimento de
Spirit!," 4to., Venice, 1800. There is a work also by Cardinal
Bona, " De Discretione Spirituum."

3. These studies are by no means confined to the directors of
religious houses, but may be useful, and sometimes necessary to a
general confessor. Scaramelli gives as the experience of his many
missions, that " in almost every place there are souls which God leads
forward through those extraordinary ways to high perfection,''
(D. M. p. 1,) and whose Confessors therefore ought to understand
their direction.

, II. But such manuals as I alluded to above, on dogmatic
and ascetic theology, would be the mere hollow reflections of
an external system, rather than an exhibition of life among
ourselves, unless we possess also those among us, who devote
themselves to a really scientific and profound study of such
subjects. On the objective doctrines of theology, there will
be no difficulty at all in this ; or rather such is actually in
a degree the case with us at present. I believe I am correct
in saying, that the part of Petavius's great works to which
Bishop Bull objects, is an extremely small portion ; and when
in addition to this we consider the circumstance, that Petavius
is considered by learned men to have been the great reviver
of patristic studies in Christendom, it is plain that no ' high-
Churchmen' could at all object, were the careful study of his
works, (with the correction, as they might say, of Bp. Bull's
' Defensio,') to become an acknowledged practice of leisured
students of Divinity in our Church. Nor must we forget
that, over and above the possession of Petavius's works, when
Mr. Newman's translation and notes of St. Athanasius's
doctrinal treatises, with the prefatory matter promised, shall
have been brought to a close, we shall possess in our own
Church a work on the Trinitarian controversies, which may
amply suffice for the most keen and ardent inquirer.

But on the subjective doctrines of theology, since they have
been only called into controversy in these later times, times

2 H

466

in which ' high-Churchmen ' are not in the habit of consider-
ing Church-decrees to have been authoritative, these will
offer a very much greater difficulty. The objection indeed,
to which I have alluded, is probably not insurmountable;
even in very moderate quarters (Mr. Holden is a striking
example) the idea is becoming not uncommon, that there is
nothing in the abstract decrees of Rome on Justification, to
which English 'high- Churchmen' can fairly object ; and the
idea will probably become universal, in proportion as both
sides explain their own meaning. Still, for many reasons, it
would be impossible to name any existing work on these
subjects, which would of itself be fitted for the English
student, In the first place, the sort of objections and mis-
apprehensions which we in England are required to encounter,
are very different from those which would be contemplated
and allowed for in such books : for here one principal duty
is, to shew those who are implicitly orthodox, that they have
no real difference at bottom from Catholic doctrine ; while
abroad the duty is mainly incumbent on them, of exhibiting
the immorality and profaneness of the heretical systems they
oppose. In the second place, the science of these doctrines
is intimately connected with metaphysical questions ; and
foreign works could not be rightly understood here, unless
there were a full preliminary account of the system of
philosophy which they presuppose. On the other hand, if
it be true, which is at least probable, that much of new light
has been, quite of late years, thrown on the subject of
psychology, then it would be rather necessary to adapt these
treatises to the present state of metaphysical science ; a course
which would involve a considerable modification of their
language. A third particular deserving mention, is one to
which I must hereafter allude ; that on a most important
doctrine connected with these controversies, no foreign theo-
logical writer seems to have carried the analysis so far as is
absolutely required for these times. On these and other
grounds, no more valuable service could be conferred on our
Church, than a deep and comprehensive treatise on the

467

doctrines of grace ; nor would the labour of a life be ill-
bestowed, if one competent to such a task were to devote
himself to this one object.

It is worth while to remark, that in such a work as is here
supposed, would be included the scientific statement of these
truths, which are the subject-matter of ascetic theology.
Moreover, closely connected with the psychological exposition
which must be its basis, would be the discussion of such ques-
tions as one to which I have before alluded, I mean, the
dangers resulting to the mind from an unmixed devotion to
physics ; and the best remedies for those dangers. A question
this, on which the admirable letters of " Catholicus" leave
nothing for future writers to do, except to systematize and
develope the views there brought forward. There are a vast
number too of other inquiries of a similar sort, connected
with the spiritual dangers of our present stage of civilization,
which clamorously call for a scientific and dispassionate study.

A full and systematic moral theology must be still more
exclusively our own work. A study of the treatises on the
subject in repute abroad, would no doubt be of the utmost
value ; but still, so far as my own knowledge or information
extends, I should altogether doubt whether any of them
singly is even fitted to form the basis, on which a work
should be built, which might be adapted to satisfy our
existing requirements in England. It is very important,
moreover, that much more ground should be covered, than
is, I believe, covered by Roman works on moral theology : I
mean, that questions of right and wrong connected with the
various employments of man in our present state of society, or
again with international morality, should be probed far more
deeply, and considered under the light of a far wider and more
generous induction, than, as far as I know and believe, has
ever hitherto been attempted. The parts of Paley's ' Moral
Philosophy' which treat on such matters, are in many
respects an insult to common-sense ; so superficial are the
arguments by which they are illustrated : nor can I find or
hear of any successful efforts in the same direction, on the
part of Roman Catholic writers. Nothing would be more

2 H 2

468

appropriate, both as a cause and also as a sign of increased
attention being paid, in public affairs and the throng of prac-
tical life, to the category 'right and wrong,' than such a
work as is here specified.

III. Such particulars as I have mentioned, may in their
genera] outline be considered as indispensable necessaries for
a pure Church. Under our present circumstances it is hardly
less necessary, that some Christianly-minded and most ten-
derly compassionate, if at the same time clear-headed and
precise, thinker should betake himself to the study of poli-
tical economy. It is merely idle to suppose, that we can
really and permanently benefit the poor in their temporal
relations, unless we bring all the lights of science and of
system to bear on the subject.

IV. The office of christianizing the study of the classics
is a most important subject, to which those who are both
Christians and scholars might, with the utmost advantage,
devote the whole power of their mind. Hitherto, since the
' revival of letters,' the effect of classical studies seems to
have been in a very high degree anti- Catholic and anti-
Christian.

V. I spoke in the second chapter on the great importance
which historical studies are just now assuming. Most re-
markable it is, that anti-Catholic writers have been the main
instruments of bringing into clear light the momentous
influences of the Church on European civilization. This is
eminently true of such historians as Thierry and Michelet ;
and those who have read Guizot's works say the same of
him. By far the most striking instance however with
which I am acquainted, is that of a writer whom I have
already mentioned, M. Comte. He professes unbounded
obligations to M. de Maistre for having directed him into
that line of historical investigation ; but as far as one wholly
unversed in history can judge, I should say that he very far
exceeds his instructor in depth and enlargement of view, as
to the political effects wrought by the peculiar relation of
Church and State in the mediaeval period. I had hoped to
quote part of his work ; but find that I must hurry rapidly

469

over what remains of ground to be trodden. It is a very
anxious thing indeed to say any thing which can lead to the
study of M, Comte's work ; not that his irreligious argu-
ments have any weight, for an atheism more bigotted,
fanatical, and unreasonable cannot be conceived: but the
mere reading such works is a pollution to the mind, unless
guarded by special devotional exercises. However, any one
who will be aware of the danger, and will read the work
merely as a conscientious duty, may derive from it, I think,
invaluable help towards the discussion of a question, the full
consideration of which is daily more necessary ; the question,
namely, of the effects on the temporal happiness of man, pro-
duced respectively by 'Church and State according to the
idea of each.' And as to the new historical school generally,
it would be a very great help towards the great object of
unheathenizing our literature, and thus uriprotestantizing our
Church, if those who should be the first to introduce
generally among us the works of the school, were Catholic-
minded and Christian men ; who should be able to supply
that other side of the picture, which anti-Catholic writers can
never understand. Thus we might learn at once to read
of the ideas which constitute the life and support of Chris-
tian energy, which were those, at each particular period, im-
pressed with especial distinctness on the mind of religious
men within the Church, the subject of their controversy, the
matter of their devotions ; and also what were the external
efforts of the same Church, at the same period, in humanizing,
softening, and christianizing the world. 8

VI. The desirableness of much deeper and more en-
lightened principles of 'exegesis' than have hitherto pre-
vailed among us, has been already alluded to.

Such are some of the discussions, into which those may
enter with every prospect of conferring inestimable benefit
on our Church, whose power of mind and opportunities lead
them to a life of abstract study. Many of them are such,

X Under the term ' the world,' I am, as is plain, including, for convenience'
sake, baptized persons, who had not as yet been fully indoctrinated with the
Christian ideas.

470

that it is impossible to pursue them without having laid the
foundation in a general knowledge of dogmatic theology.
The history of any particular age of the Church cannot be
understood, even in its most essential features, unless the
principal stress be laid on that particular Christian doctrine,
whose intellectual formation and development was at the
time mainly engrossing the thoughts of holy men ; nor again
can this be understood, without a general knowledge of that
system whereof it forms a part. Again, no Catholic Chris-
tian would study morals or psychology, except in the closest
relation to direct theology ; and in Biblical Criticism I have
already made the same observation. (See p. 412.) But I
should be inclined, with deference, to submit, that all thinkers,
endued with vigorous intellectual and scientific power,
would do far more wisely in making some course of dogmatic
theology part of their preparatory education ; there will be
otherwise, I cannot but think, very serious danger lest they
become less sensible of the reality and transcendent claims
of religious truth, and acquire the habit of balancing the
questions which come before them by other weights than
those of the sanctuary. 8

6. The considerations in the last section lead to a reflection,
which it would be wrong to suppress. In looking for
guidance in that quarter, where my own eyes are always first
directed when in search of spiritual wisdom, 11 I mean the
Church of Rome, one cannot but painfully feel, that on such
subjects as have been just discussed we find there at present
no sufficient model to follow. However the fact is to be
accounted for, we cannot conceal from ourselves, that in
those subordinate duties of a Church which I have called

t The subject does not call on me here to allude to what I have already men-
tioned more than once ; the very serious danger of deep and ardent intellectual
pursuit, whatever its subject, hardening the conscience and the heart : a danger
this, which nothing except an unremitting and vigorous course of Christian discipline
can avert.

h I mean to which, as an organized Society, my eyes are so directed : many, I sup-
pose, will understand and echo my feeling when I say, that the first quarter, to which
I always look for spiritual wisdom, is nearer home.

471

' intellectual ' and * political,' the Roman Catholic Church
has, in these later ages, assumed a most widely different po-
sition, from that which it occupied in the mediaeval period.
This it is, which makes worldly men, who do not understand
that the real life of a Church lies in the performance of
higher and more sacred functions, look upon that Holy
Church as decrepid, and tending rapidly to decay: and all
of us must surely acknowledge with sorrow, that the fuller
possession of ' such accidental and superabundant gifts as
are not absolutely necessary to the Church's essence,' would
be still of the very utmost benefit towards spreading the
pure Gospel ; and is an object worthy of the labours and
prayers of all serious and Catholic-minded Christians. As to
' political ' duties, who can say that Rome, at the present
day, is actively influential in leavening European politics
with Christian principles, in protesting against unjust wars,
in securing subjects from oppression? And as to 'intel-
lectual ' duties, the following has been drawn up by a friend
of mine as a sample, not an exhaustive enumeration, of the
sort of questions, primarily important in their bearing on
religion, which have arisen in these centuries ; and to which
her doctors have not as yet appeared to give any methodical
and scientific consideration.

I. ' There has been no attempt to exhibit the past influence of
Christianity on the social and moral state of the world.

II. ' There has been neglect of the study of Exegesis and of His-
tory ; so that the literal meaning of the text of the Scriptures, and
the points of resemblance or dissimilarity between the Scriptures and
human historians, have to be sought from other writers.

III. ' There has been no indication of the proper use to be made
of the heathen classics.

IV. ' There has been no attempt to point out the nature or the
remedies of any of the great social evils which have grown up during
the last three centuries.

V. ' The allegations brought, in reference to Scripture interpreta-
tion, from Mythical History, have not been met.'

472

And another omission, still more important than these,
remains to be considered in a future chapter.

On the other hand, in those two necessary and fundamental
duties of a Church the maintenance of moral and religious
discipline, and of an orthodox faith, never in any period has
the Roman Catholic Church shone with a brighter lustre,
than since the Reformation. The whole system connected
with the ' Spiritual Exercises ' is a standing memorial of the
first particular ; and such great names as Petavius, Suarez,
Vasquez, with a host of others, a lasting attestation of the
second.

7. I trust then, that during the present chapter I have
kept sufficiently to the engagement which I made. I trust
that such particulars as those which I have specified, imply
no allusion to any matters of doctrine, which are at issue
between ' high-churchmen ' of different complexions. Wiry
then may we not all combine in the prosecution of such de-
signs as these, and leave the questions, on which we differ,
to be decided by the practical effect which may be produced,
by actively following out the principles on which we agree ?
If it be granted, that the aiming at such objects as I have
ventured to put forward as desirable, implies of itself no set
purpose of ' Romanizing ' our Church, I must beg leave
to doubt whether any single one of her members entertains
any such purpose. For as to secret negotiations and under-
standings with members of that Church, these and similar
rumours, to the best of my own knowledge, are without the
very slightest foundation in fact. And surely, if high- church-
men are slow to cooperate in the prosecution of objects,
which on their own principles are desirable, from a fear of
the direction in which such a course might tend, they are
taking the most effectual way to confirm us in what they
consider our most serious error ; our belief, namely, that
high- church principles, honestly carried out on their posi-
tive side, must lead to Rome. If ' high-church ' principles
be really substantive and distinct, what possible danger can
there be in heartily and ungrudgingly carrying them forward

473

to their results ? and if they be not substantive, who could
grieve that this fact should be established by means of a
fair trial ? For my own part, I think it would not be right
to conceal, indeed I am anxious openly to express, my own
most firm and undoubting conviction, that were we, as a
Church, to pursue such a line of conduct as has been here
sketched, in proportion as we did so, we should be taught
from above to discern and appreciate the plain marks of
Divine wisdom and authority in the Roman Church, to
repent in sorrow and bitterness of heart our great sin in
deserting her communion, and to sue humbly at her feet for
pardon and restoration.

CHAPTER VIII.

A FEW WORDS ON OUR AUTHORITATIVE FORMULARIES.

THE same reasons, which made it necessary to compress
the last part of the preceding chapter, compel me to put here
the merest sketch, in the place of a fuller discussion which I
had intended.

Complaint is often made against maintainers of Roman
doctrine, that they evade the spirit of the Articles in a very
disingenuous way, and ought not to subscribe them. It is
answered by many of these, that they do evade the spirit but
accept the statements ; that the original sanctioners of the
Articles intended those who held Roman doctrine to sub-
scribe them ; but that from various causes, partly the dis-
ingenuousness of the Reforming party, the general spirit and
flow of them is Protestant. This has been plainly put forth
three years ago, (not to mention No. 90,) by Mr. Oakeley and
myself; by the former historically, by myself from the in-
ternal evidence of our formularies. An answer soon appeared
to mine, to which I at once rejoined, and was not further
replied to. Now considering how plainly and argumenta-
tively those things have been said in the face of day, and
how extremely little has been said in the way of answer, I
am at a loss to understand the denunciations I hear about
dishonesty and the like. I have seen it said, that we profess
to be justified in subscribing, through the witness of our
conscience : I began my second pamphlet with expressly
repudiating any such ground ; I said it was a question for

475

external argument alone ; and by external argument alone I
considered it. Our adversaries profess to go by argument :
for three years they have made no reply to Mr. Oakeley's
pamphlet or to mine : if they must denounce, pray let them
at least argue first, and denounce afterwards.

The Bishops of Exeter and Ossory have answered No. 90 ;
but not having happened, I suppose, to fall in with the two
pamphlets I speak of, they leave their line of argument un-
touched. On the twenty-second article, e. g., I shall quote a
few sentences from my first pamphlet, to which I can find
no answer at all in either of those works ; premising that in
all ages the practical system of a Church will be more or
less corrupt, though doubtlessly at that time it was most
distressingly so.

' I have heard it said in the last fortnight, that the same prin-
ciples which reconcile subscription to the twenty-second Article
with the opinions maintained in the Tract, might reconcile sub-
scription to the second Article with the Socinian heresy. Now I
would almost stake the whole case on the fair issue of that question.
Can any thing be more dissimilar in manner and tone than those
two Articles ? The second contains an accurately drawn up dog-
matic positive statement of the high mystery on which it treats,
such as the Church has ever had recourse to for the preservation of
the Faith committed to her, and such as it is the tendency of the
present day to consider subtle and overstrained. The twenty-second
contains no one positive statement : it puts together four or five
topics, which cannot be said to be all very closely connected with
each other, and declares that ' doctrina Romanensium' on those
topics is a fond thing, &c. Would not any one naturally infer
from this opposition what Mr. Newman does infer ? that the framers
of the Articles see two things before their eyes, the Creeds which
have come down to them from the early ages of the Church, and
the corrupt system in existence practically to a great extent over-
laying these Creeds ; that the former they hand down as they have
received them, the latter they protest against, as they see it,
generally, and in the mass : not being careful to draw up accurate
statements of those true principles which are contradictory to the
existing abuses, nor again tracing up the latter to their [supposed]

476

ultimate principles and condemning them ; but without busying
themselves with such investigations, requiring as they would leisure,
accuracy of thought, and unity of opinion, condemning what they
saw as they saw it, energizing and practically active throughout
the Church.'

Now let me carry the war into the enemy's camp ; and first
into Dr. O'Brien's. The two fundamental principles of his
theology are, 1st, that nominal Christians are divided into
two classes ; the justified, who also know themselves to be
justified, and the unjustified; 2d, that the quality on our
part which indicates acceptance with God, is undivided trust
in the Atonement : and that to say that keeping of the com-
mandments is that quality, is carnal and anti-Christian.

Take the first of these. What would be the public wor-
ship of a Church, which held such an opinion ? It is very
difficult to fancy : it would, I suppose, as in Scotland and
Germany, consist mainly in preaching ; that the justified
may receive comfort, and the unjustified warning. How can
there be ' common prayer' at all ? for the one great devo-
tional act of the justified would be to thank God for their
justification ; and of the unjustified, to pray for justification :
no necessity for the former to pray for holiness, since it is
quite certain to follow; no use in the latter doing so, for
holiness before ' justification' is 'hollow and carnal.' But cer-
tainly such worship would not most distantly resemble our own
Prayer-book. To use the language of those who personify
' our Church's doctrine,' as though there existed some such
substance, if our Church held any such doctrine as this
division of Christians into two such classes, every page of the
Prayer-book must shew it: but, in fact, every page of the
Prayer-book negatives it. I wish there were room to illus-
trate this at length : but we have only to look through
prayers and litany to see it. " Create and make in us, &c.

that we worthily lamenting, &c. may obtain perfect

remission." Those who, on Dr. O'Brien's theory, know that
they have remission, and those who may know that they
have not, unite in praying that they may have it. In the

477

Cathechism all the children ' thank God' for being * called' to
a ' state of salvation,' and pray Him to give them ' grace' to
' continue in the same :' in both points contradicting Dr.
O'Brien: asserting that all the baptized are justified, and
that justification does not involve perseverance. And in the
Visitation of the Sick the priest, instead of trying to discover
whether the sick man is justified or not, ' exhorts' him to
remember the profession' made to God in Baptism ; and
then proceeds, ' forasmuch as after this life there is an ac-
count to be given unto the righteous Judge, ... I require
you to examine yourself and your estate,' Sec. Here, at the
most solemn moment of a Christian's whole life, words are
put into a priest's mouth in addressing him, which no ' Evan-
gelical' could willingly use : for surely his wish must be, to
discover whether the sick man is in the number of the justi-
fied ; and if so, there is no such fear as the Prayer-book
expresses, lest he be ' accursed and condemned in that fearful
judgment.' Let me ask, how many ' Evangelical' clergymen
could bring themselves to read this exhortation to their
parishioners at the point of death ?

The second principle is even more plainly at variance with
the Prayer-book. Instead of all the unjustified praying God
for this one grace, (Lutheran ' faith') and all the justified
thanking God for it, I doubt if the very idea of ' renouncing
trust in our own merits' is met with explicitly in the Prayer-
book ; except indeed in the Collect, where the whole congrega-
tion says, ' O God, who seest that we put not our trust in any
thing that we do,' which must prove, on Lutheran principles,
that the English Church supposes every one of her members
justified. In the Office for adult Baptism ( we call upon
Thee for these persons, that they coming to thy Holy Bap-
tism may receive remission of sins.' And whereas presently
the Office speaks of ' these present persons truly repenting
and coming unto Him by faith,' it very soon makes clear
whether the latter word be used in the Lutheran sense ; for
the testing questions asked them are, ' Dost thou renounce
the Devil . . . the world . . . and the flesh ?' ' Dost thou
believe in God the Father,' &c. (the Atonement not even

478

expressly specified,) ' Wilt thou be baptized in this faith ? '
' Wilt thou obediently keep God's holy will and command-
ments?' In the Athanasian Creed 'Whosoever will be
saved before all things it is necessary' that he renounce all
trust in his own merits ? that he close with the Gospel offer ?
that he believe himself freely pardoned by Christ's Atone-
ment ? No: but 'that he hold the Catholic Faith:' 'to
believe not 'to trust' is the Prayer-book version of 'faith;'
and among the objects for belief which follow in the Creed,
the Atonement only receives a passing allusion. In the
Visitation of the Sick again, there is no attempt either
to find whether the sick person has a fiduciary appre-
hension of Christ's merits, or to teach him how best he
may obtain it : in other words, the priest at that awful
moment is called on to pursue a course, which neglects the
only particular that Dr. O'Brien thinks essential. The
priest examines him, whether he 'believes as a Christian
man should do,' (and then follows the Creed as before, with
not so much as an explicit mention of the Atonement,) and
whether 'he repent him truly of his sins;' he 'earnestly
moves' him 'to be liberal to the poor,' and 'moves' him 'to
make a special Confession of his sins.' But of renouncing
trust in his own merits, apprehending Christ's Atonement,
and the rest not one word. Surely if our leading Re-
formers were serious men and cared for religion on its own
account (which of course I do not myself think the case ;
but if so,) this proves to demonstration that their principles,
on the fundamental question of Bishop O'Brien's theology,
were precisely contradictory to Bishop O'Brien.

I make no imputation at all against the Bishop of Ossory ;
I quite understand how naturally persons retain what they
have received, without realising its full force. I see the same
among our own friends ; many of whom are as firmly, and
to me as astonishingly, convinced that the Articles in their
natural meaning are Catholic, as the Bishop seems to be
that the Prayer-book is Protestant. But I do think that Bishop
O'Brien, who has given his full assent and consent to the
Prayer-book and has declared that there is nothing in it

479

contrary to the word of God, is not the person who ought to
have started such an idea as that of ' shifting, evasive, and
disingenuous sophistry' in interpreting formularies which
one has subscribed.

Now take the case of anti-Roman ' high-churchmen.' Their
controversy with ' evangelicals' turns on the question, whether
self-denial and a repeated exercise of the will be necessary to
holy living, or whether the justified possess a principle which
will carry them into a good life by itself. Our twelfth Article
is as plain as words can make it on the ' evangelical' side :
(observe in particular the word ' necessarily' :) of course
I think its natural meaning may be explained away, for
I subscribe it myself in a non-natural sense : but I know
no Article which ' Romanizers' have to distort so much, as
all ( high-churchmen' have to distort this. Bishop O'Brien
in his work on Faith (pp. 121 4, 389 396) argues very
powerfully on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth Articles ;
and ends with thus summing up the matter : There is a
'justification, which we have by faith only, (Art. XI.) which
good works follow, (Art. XII.) which no good works pre-
cede, (Art. XIII.)' I strongly urge the passages above cited
on those, who think that ' high-churchmen' can subscribe our
Articles, without violently distorting, and, as I may say, dis-
locating them. The very phrase 'justification by faith only,'
invented by Luther for his heresy, is incorporated ; nay,
Art. XIII. seems directly to assert that Cornelius, notwith-
standing the angel's address to him, (Acts x. 4,) was no
more ' meet to receive grace,' than the most proud and
blinded Pharisee. I repeat it : any one who shrinks from
this last atrocious and most immoral sentiment, has a far
greater difficulty in subscribing Art. XIII. than I have
in subscribing the most apparently anti-Roman of the
number. The twenty-first Article on General Councils is
curiously enough left unnoticed by the Bishop of Exeter ;
and numbers of ' high- churchmen' wish, I suppose, to believe
that certain General Councils are infallible. Unless indeed
we think so, we fall against another rock : for who could
subscribe the anathemas of the Athanasian Creed, unless he

480

believed that its statements are more than mere human ex-
positions of Scripture ? Yet the twenty-first Article is far
more difficult of explanation to such 'high-churchmen,' than
the nineteenth Article (' the Church of Rome hath erred') is
to me. (see p. 100.) So the notice at the end of the Com-
munion Service is far more difficult to reconcile with any
belief in the Real Presence of our Lord's Body, than the
twenty-eighth Article with the Roman belief, (see p. 118.)
As to the twenty-second Article ('on Purgatory,' &c.) the
real distortion seems to be the applying it to abstract Roman
doctrine at all : this seems to me quite a forced and unna-
tural construction : as much so as the construction which
/ put on the twelfth Article. So again a comparison of
the sixth Article, the twentieth, and the twenty-first, will shew
them utterly irreconcilable in spirit with the idea of any au-
thorized interpreter of Scripture in times past, whether Pope,
Council, or consent of the Fathers ; and quite as irreconcil-
able with the last as with the first. Yet a Canon came out at
the same time ordering authority to be given to the Fathers,
and the Homilies exemplify the same in their language.

In some particulars 'high-churchmen ' adopt a less reasonable
interpretation than any others at all. For instance, the oath
of supremacy may most naturally be understood as denying
spiritual authority to the Pope, and attributing it to the
King : only in Article XXXVII. the Reformers shrink back
again from this; for 'ministering of the Sacraments' is pre-
cisely that prerogative in which spiritual power consists. So
again it is reasonable, much more consistent with Article
XXXVII., though much less consistent with the more obvious
meaning of the oath of supremacy, to interpret the latter as
Dr. Pusey interprets it, considering the word ' spiritual ' in
that oath to be merely synonymous with ' ecclesiastical ;' like
the other synonyms ' power, prince, potentate,' &c., so as
merely to refer to power in the ecclesiastical courts, &c. :
temporal power in things spiritual. But what is so absurdly
untenable, is the ordinary interpretation of this oath ; which
introduces into an oath of royal supremacy a determination on
the respective place of Pope and Bishop; which tries to

481

impose a yoke on our conscience, and make us believe that
in that oath we deny something to the Pope which yet we do
not attribute to the King. An extravagance this, which need
only be stated to be refuted.

Are the Latitudinarians then better off in their subscrip-
tion ? Allusion to the Athanasian Creed, and to the strong
language of the Prayer-book on Baptismal Regeneration,
sufficiently disposes of that question.

In a word. I am firmly convinced that no one clergyman
of our Church, who will look honestly in the face the formu-
laries which he is called on to subscribe, will be able to sub-
scribe them all in a natural and straightforward sense. I
attribute this fact to the utter want of fixed religious prin-
ciples displayed by the leading Reformers ; a and I attribute
to it much of the disingenuous and unmanly spirit, which has
so often been the shame of religious controversy in our
Reformed Church. But how those who look on the leading
Reformers as serious men, as having been zealous for doc-
trine, and as having realised their religious expressions, how
these can subscribe our formularies, it is for themselves to
consider.

a Hear an admirer of the English Reformation. In that movement Dr.
Arnold " used to say it was necessary, above all other historical periods, ' not
to forget the badness of the agents in the goodness of the cause, or the goodness
of the cause in the badness of the agents.' " Arnold's Life and Correspondence
vol. ii. p. 290.

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE SUPREMACY OF CONSCIENCE IN THE PURSUIT OF
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH.

1. ATTACKS are continually made on integral parts of the
received Christian system, which imply such a maxim as the
following ; viz. that a fair, and unbiassed, and searching ex-
amination of any doctrine we have been accustomed to hold,
is under all ordinary circumstances a means of increasing the
certainty of our religious knowledge ; and that he, who when
fairly challenged to the task of investigation refuses to com-
ply, exhibits a consciousness of the weak basis on which his
faith rests, and a marked deficiency in the true philosophical
spirit. On this principle it must be, that the rationalist is so
loud in his complaints, or so contemptuous in his comments,
when notwithstanding the very serious and numerous dif-
ficulties he succeeds in raising on the genuineness and the
authority of the various books in Scripture, and the inex-
tricable confusion in which he is able to involve the whole
question of inspiration ; notwithstanding the unanswerable, or
at least unanswered, difficulties which he is able to place
in the way of those who maintain the ancient reverence for
the inspired volume ; Christians nevertheless proceed to read
the Bible as devotionally, or to draw doctrinal truths from
its individual texts with as much of unconcern, as much of
humble and unquestioning reverence, as though he had spared
himself the trouble of his deep research ; and as though all
the labours of the modern German school had been devoted
to some subject wholly unconnected with religion, to mathe-

483

matics, or to astronomy, or to gunnery. On the same prin-
ciple the Socinian enlarges, with no modified feeling of
contempt, on the bigotry and narrow-mindedness which
the orthodox display. In vain does he put in the clearest
light the difficulties which surround their doctrine ; in vain
does he shew them, that their tenets are simply unmeaning
and self-contradictory, unless they go on to admit the whole
patristic scheme of technical theology; a and that no two
things can be more openly and undeniably opposed in spirit
and general bearing, than the text of the New Testament and
the technicalities of the fourth century ; in vain does he
bring before them passage after passage in Scripture, of
which it seems to him absolutely inconceivable that it could
have been so worded, were the Trinitarian doctrine Apostolic ;
in vain does he adduce texts to shew how little need be un-
derstood by the high and glow r ing language, here and there
applied to our Blessed Lord ; he cannot obtain from them
even a confession that there is the slightest difficulty in the
matter. ' They take for granted,' he says, ' the truth of
their own interpretation as unblushingly, as though they had
most carefully examined the whole question for themselves, or
as though the whole world agreed with them in opinion on
the subject. Not one in ten thousand will so much as take
the trouble to find out that there are any arguments on the
opposite side ; and of those even who go so far, not one
hundredth part will take the further step, of fairly giving
their mind to the task of appreciating the force of those
arguments.'

Nor are similar comments confined to unbelievers. The
Protestant is not less excited to anger, or contempt, or a mix-
ture of the two, by what appears to him the strangely arro-
gant and inconsecutive course adopted by ' high-churchmen.'
They profess, in the main, to base their belief on the faith of
the primitive ages. Now it is well known that many Pro-
testant thinkers, of most undeniable qualifications for histo-
rical research, and certainly no more (indeed much less) fairly
chargeable with prejudice than 'high-churchmen,' have come

a An observation of Mr. Blanco White's.

2 i 2

484

to conclusions on the history of these times widely different
from theirs. Yet will these theologians, with unruffled brow,
nay with professions on their lips of the deepest and most
shrinking humility, speak of their opponents as 'unhappy
men,' or 'miserable men,' or ' misguided men,' and of them-
selves as beyond any possible question in possession of the
truth ; nay more, private Christians, who do not profess to
have studied the matter at all, but take their opinions on
trust from others, will speak of their peculiar doctrines
(e. g. the Eucharistic Presence) with as much undoubting
dogmatism, as though these doctrines rested for support,
not on a difficult and disputed historical inquiry, but on the
clearest and simplest mathematical proof. ' What can we
do with such men ? ' say the Protestant world ; ' we drive
them in argument from one position to another ; yet they
still confront and attack us as resolutely as ever. After all
their confident and boastful language on the favourable and
striking contrast afforded by their doctrines to the Roman
schools, we find them not only softening their tone every
year, but quietly giving up, one after another, points which
they had maintained as confidently as any which they still
maintain; nay, we find them remaining silent under the
irresistible attacks of Roman theologians, and yielding them
the victory without a struggle. Looking at the opposite
quarter in the midst of their assumptions on the impreg-
nable nature of the historical ground they have occupied,
we obtain from them by the way the cool admission, that at
last the evidence is no more than enough to prove, that
" there are three chances (so to say) for revelation, and only
two against." b And yet for all this, there they remain as
pertinaciously and undoubtingly upholding their present
views, and as unreservedly charging with moral culpability
all departure from them, as though they had made good
their historical argument to the satisfaction of all; and as
though they had never hitherto been mistaken, in a single
position which they confidently maintained."

Nay, the ' high-churchman ' himself, who, one might have
b Tracts for the Times, No. 85, p. 112.

485

thought, would have remembered the proverb about glass
houses, attacks unfortunate Roman Catholics in the same
strain. ' You invoke St. Mary, as the ordained channel of all
grace ; prove to my satisfaction from Church History your
warrant for doing so. Or if you cannot, listen to me, and
I will shew you, that for five, six, seven, or eight centuries'
(whatever the number is) 'such a belief was never heard of
in the Church. Nay, consult your Bibles, which in England
your priests dare not take from you, and see that there
seems an intentional harshness in the very manner in which
she is addressed ; as though to protest against the great heresy,
which should arise in the Church in these later days under
the pretence of doing her honour. ' c And when the answer he
gets to such language is the recoil of horror, and a natural
and praiseworthy indignation at such a tone of language and
such a line of argument, he too follows the example of the
Zuinglian, the Socinian, the Rationalist; he moralizes on
the narrow bigotry of the Roman Catholic Creed, and the
* superior purity of our Apostolic Church.'

It must be acknowledged, that all this affords a strong
prima facie presumption against the maxim in question :
every one seems to act upon it, in dealing with those who
believe more than himself; and every one still more plainly
to neglect it, in dealing with those who believe less. Let us
now proceed with other presumptions in the same direction.
For that this maxim, as popularly received, is utterly false and
pernicious, is perhaps the deepest conviction I entertain ; and
when its untenable nature has been shewn, our course will
be clear, and we may proceed to consider the principles
which really do lead to the acquisition of moral and religious
truth. Nor should it be omitted, as a further preliminary,
that although there has been perhaps generally on both sides
some considerable confusion of ideas, this maxim is at
bottom that very principle of private judgment, which has

4 Such words as these have, alas ! been used by members of 'our Church, whom
their high spiritual attainments have not wholly rescued from the influence of our
tainted atmosphere.

486

been so hot a subject of debate between writers of Protestant
and of Catholic sentiments.

It may be observed that the statement of this principle
with which I began, is far from being either full or precise.
In fact, no task is more invidious, than that of attempting to
give expression to your adversary's views ; and I am very
glad to be spared the difficulty and responsibility of such a
task, by finding it done very sufficiently to my hand. The
present Archbishop of Dublin has written an essay on the
subject, in which the following very plain statement is to be
found : and should it appear, as I fully anticipate, axiomatic
rather than paradoxical, I shall be wholly saved from an
imputation very frequently cast on those who anathematize
the Protestant principle ; the imputation of attributing to
their adversaries some extreme and distorted sentiment, that
they may proceed to make therefrom very extravagant and
senseless deductions, which in real truth are no necessary
results of the principle itself.

The Archbishop's statement is as follows :

" One who has an aversion to doubt and is anxious to make up
his mind and come to some conclusion on every question that is
discussed, must be content to rest many of his opinions on very
slight grounds. Such a one therefore is no lover of truth, nor in the
right way to attain it on any point. He may more reasonably hope
this, who, though he may on many points perceive some (and perhaps
a great) preponderance of probability on this or that side, is contented
to come to a decisive conclusion only on those few, which he has been
enabled thoroughly to investigate." And a few passages earlier :
" A good man will indeed wish to find the evidence of the Christian
religion satisfactory : but a wise man will not for that reason think
it satisfactory, but will weigh the evidence the more carefully, on account
of the importance of the question"*

I trust then that I may consider myself to have overcome
the temptation to unfairness, when I state the Protestant
maxim as follows: 'it should always be the object of our
careful endeavours, that our belief, on subjects of religion,
shall be as nearly as possible proportioned to our evidence.'

d Essays, (second series,) pp. 36, 24.

487

2. Having obtained then a sufficient statement of this
principle, let us proceed to consider its worth.

I. The first result that it occurs to mention as flowing
from the adoption of such a theory, is, that a stop would be
at once put to all moral and religious action. Let us take two
particular doctrines, which I therefore choose, because the
denial of them is more familiar to English minds, than are
fortunately the more extravagant and fanatical excesses of un-
belief : let us take the Divinity of Christ, and the Eucharistic
Presence. Defenders of -the last doctrine ordinarily base it
on tradition as well as on Scripture ; defenders of the
former doctrine sometimes do the same, but sometimes also
they support it on the critical collation of Scripture passages.
It does not at all matter for my present purpose which
alternative be adopted : for in either case the truth depends
on a kind of proof, generically distinct from demonstrative or
mathematical reasoning. Take even the traditionary argu-
ment, which seems to admit of more certainty. When we
consider the Arianism attributed by so many writers to
several of the early Fathers, and the great delicacy and com-
plexity of the task of investigating this allegation ; when we
consider how many learned and accomplished men have
altogether denied the sufficiency of any traditionary argu-
ments as a proof of Apostolic teaching ; nay, when a writer,
who has been prominent in upholding these very doctrines,
and, if any, is deeply versed in primitive antiquity, says, (as
just now cited,) that the historical evidence at last is only
such that ' there are (so to say) three chances for revelation,
and two against ;' it must be the very extreme of narrow-minded
bigotry to deny, that there is, at all events, much to be said
on both sides; even though it be thought, on the whole,
clear in which direction probability preponderates. And if
any one says, that on the former subject, at least, the
Scripture evidence is more decisive ; that the study of the
New Testament, on the principles of exegesis, will prove,
with the force of demonstration, that our Blessed Lord's
Divinity is taught in the New Testament ; he only shews
(what is very far from an imputation), that he has never

488

fairly given his mind to the arguments adduced on the
Socinian side. 6

Now, not to speak here of the outrageous paradox in-
volved in the idea, that men, immersed in worldly business,
are able rightly to hold the balance between conflicting
arguments of this nature, let us confine our view to the
studious and philosophical. These then are not to have a
certain conviction of the two doctrines above specified, but
only a probable conviction : a conviction proportioned to the
degree in which one side of the -argument outweighs the
other. Let us try and bring this strange idea home to our
imaginations. Let us try and conceive a person meditating
on the events in our Blessed Lord's life, while he endeavours,
as a duty, to preserve in his mind an abiding impression, that
the probability of His Divine Nature is three to two : or
praying God through our Lord's merits, under the considera-
tion urged by the Archbishop, that it is, at all events, the safer
course to do so, and that there is, moreover, a preponderance
of probability, that his words have a meaning. The very
idea of so much as the possibility of all this is so wild, that
we cannot form any sober conception of its hypothetical

e Consider, for instance, (as I urged in the article on Mr. Goode, p. 73,) how
such a passage as John x. 34 36, must strike those not previously prepossessed
in favour of our Lord's Divinity, not merely as in itself opposed to that doctrine,
but also as taking away the effect of other texts which might else appear to
support it ; for it appears to shew that our Lord Himself claims the appellation
' God,' and yet claims it only in a figurative sense. We shall see more plainly
how natural would -be this effect of the text, by observing how precisely in the
same manner (as observed in Mr. Newman's Sermons, vol. vi. p. 161,) Protest-
ants pervert the parallel passage, John vi. 63, into an explaining away of His
declarations on the Real Presence. I alluded in the same article to such other
texts as Luke ii. 52 ; Mark xiii. 32 ; John xx. 17 ; 1 Cor. xv. 28 ; while the
negative evidence would strike such unhappy persons still more forcibly. Mr.
B. White again adopts the following argument : * is it conceivable that if the
Apostles preached in public our Lord's Divinity, the unbelieving Jews would not
have put, in the very front ground of their objections, the apparent interference
of such a belief with the doctrine of the Divine Unity, to which they were
so zealously devoted ? And does not the total absence of such objection prove to
demonstration, that no such doctrine was preached in public ? * I confess that thi 8
argument appears to me extremely forcible, as against those who deny that the
Apostles reserved this great doctrine ; that they unfolded it only by degrees to
their converts.

489

results ; and again, there is the most imminent danger of
appearing irreverent ourselves, in the straightforward exposi -
tion of an irreverent theory started by others. Still as it is
very important that my readers should understand this prin-
ciple in its true light, let me ask, how could an earnest and
eager love for our Blessed Lord grow up in a Christian, whos e
belief should be so fantastically ordered ? nay, how could it
be even safe for one so minded to give himself up to such a
feeling, bound as he is ever to remember the adverse pro-
bability (two chances to three) that the solemn doctrine which
sanctions that love is not true ? Any one who, from his
habit of mind, is exposed to such temptations, knows very
well the misery he experiences from sceptical thoughts: he
knows how their intrusion falls like ice upon his heart; and
threatens to paralyze all vigorous and healthy action of the
moral nature. A right-minded person indeed, on the mo-
ment, by prayer and an exercise of the will, aims at their
violent expulsion ; and the principle shall be presently
stated, on which this prayer and these efforts are his duty.
But should he, in their stead, resort to the means of argu-
ment, and inquiry, and careful deliberation, the necessary
result must be, that in the place of a momentary chill, there
would grow up a callous insensibility of heart to all the
wonders of Redeeming Love ; and those doubts, which at
their first coming threatened, by their continued presence
would enforce, a final abandonment of Christian action and
devotion.

In like manner, those who rest their belief in the Catho-
licity of the English Church on private judgment, that is,
on an examination (in person or by proxy) of historical and
ecclesiastical arguments, are involved in the same dilemma.
They cannot, for very shame, say that the proof from those
grounds is simply demonstrative : they may say that such
objections as those contained for example in the fourth
chapter of this work, have by no means the same force
in their eyes that they have in mine ; but they cannot say
that they have no force whatever : they cannot say, that our
deficiency in all regular provision for moral discipline, our

490

toleration, or rather encouragement, of almost omnigenous
heterodoxy, our loss of all visible union, nay, sympathy,
with those which we claim as sister-churches, they cannot say
that these considerations are of no weight at all, when the
question is to be decided on the principles of Antiquity. The
arguments then for our Catholicity outweigh the arguments
against it, in some definite and proximately ascertainable
proportion ; and those therefore who profess to rest their
belief on those arguments, are bound to attend the Lord's
Table in our Churches, not with a simple, undoubting belief
that they there receive His Body and Blood ; that would,
on such views, be utterly unreasonable : no, but with an
opinion that they receive this Gift ; an opinion, the strength
of which must be adjusted to the balance of evidence in its
favour. I look up, of course, far too lovingly and respect-
fully to many English ' high-churchmen,' to doubt for a mo-
ment that they would indignantly repudiate such an unreal
and hollow mockery of all religion as this absurd fancy ; but
what does this prove, except the very point for which I am
so anxious ? it proves that they radically and fundamentally
misstate, in their intellectual exposition, the real nature and
quality of their spiritual conviction ; that they profess to
build on history and antiquity, while they really and truly
adopt no such (in result) Antichristian and immoral course,
but build on conscience and on faith ?

II. Next let me draw attention to an acknowledged prin-
ciple of human nature ; viz. that persons are utterly unable to
form an unbiassed judgment, on questions in which their
feelings are really and deeply interested. To some who are
so affected, the strongest arguments will appear worthless and
contemptible ; to others, the weakest will appear sufficient
grounds for disquiet and alarm : nay, frequently the same
person will be swayed to and fro, between the former state of
mind and the latter. The most able and accomplished
physician loses all his power of judgment and true discern-
ment, when the question is, whether the child, in whom all
his hopes and affections are centred, be really on the bed of
death. Or, to take a still closer parallel, the miser, who

491

year after year has devoted all the powers of his mind to the
one purpose of accumulating wealth, may be at times visited
with dismal and oppressive doubts, whether the object have
been worth the labour ; while at other times the same object
rises up before his imagination, clothed in the most dazzling
colours of reality and attractiveness : but who would look to
him for a calm and dispassionate summing up of the evidence
on both sides, and a decision upon that evidence, as to the
existence and worth of that supposed good to which he has
devoted his life ? Now it is plain that the utmost devotion
to wealth, which miser ever displayed, cannot even admit of
comparison with that devotion to heavenly treasure, which is
the Christian's true wisdom. The self-sacrifice of the very
highest Saint in the Christian Church, whose life has been
given us in detail and full particulars, falls short surely of
that, which plain reason would dictate on the hypothesis of
Christianity being true. Here then we see another instance
of the hollowness of Archbishop Whately's strange theory,
that we should act indeed on the safer side, but believe
according to the evidence. To act on the safer side, will
make it impossible to form a judgment on the evidence :
unless the Archbishop supposes, contrary to the experience
and the dicta of all mankind, that when a certain object
has been, and is, the one absorbing, animating principle
of a man's every thought, feeling, and action, he is in a con-
dition to balance evidence on the trustworthiness of that
object; that we may expect a philosophical view on the
value of glory, from a commander flushed with conquest and
pursuing his successes, or of physical knowledge, from one
who has devoted every waking hour of his life to its pursuit.
So much as this is plain on the surface, (though much more
may be said with truth,) that in order to form a judg-
ment on the external evidence, whether of Christianity, or
our Lord's Divinity, or our Church's Catholicity, we must,
by a violent effort, suspend for some considerable time the
stress and impetus of our Christian action ; that we must lie
on our oars, as it were, till we have become cool ; that we
must cease for the time to pray God in the name of Christ,

492

cease to look to Him as God for protection when temptations
assail us, cease to seek strength in our Church's ordinances
against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

III. Further ; were this principle of private judgment
true, not the good but the clever, not the spiritual but the
intellectual, not the heavenly-minded but the well-educated,
would be the real originators of moral and religious truth ;
the real fountains, whence its streams flow forth to the
world. Those would best know whether to accept or reject
Christianity, who by natural power and acquired habit are
best fitted to deal with historical investigations ; those would
best know whether or not to worship Christ as God, who are
greatest proficients in Hellenistic Greek ; those would best
know whether to remain in our Church or to leave it, who
have the greatest genius in applying principles and under-
standing facts. And the poor and uneducated in every
country, in every age, would be drifted at random from one
belief into another, according to the accidental bias of the
philosophical world for the time being. The very idea of
such a dispensation fills me with such horror and detestation,
that I should not perhaps be able, even were it necessary, to
discuss it calmly ; I borrow therefore with great gratification
a passage from a most able and thoughtful article, in an old
number of the British Critic.

'Now it certainly would involve great disadvantages, if moral
knowledge was gained by mere intellectual processes. Uneducated
people would be more unable than ever to judge themselves between
right and wrong, and those who were most capable of guiding them
would not necessarily be inclined to guide them right, nay, by
that very knowledge would be enabled more easily to guide them
wrong. Much knowledge of good would be wasted on men who did
not wish to profit by it ; and clever persons, without much energy of
character, would be overwhelmed by seeing at once the extent of that
change of nature which they had to effect in themselves if they were
to conform themselves to what was really right.

' Now, so far as moral discrimination is acquired by practice and not
by reasoning, these imperfections are avoided. Viewed as a means
of improvement for ourselves, knowledge is given where it will be

493

used ; of power over others, where it will not be misused ; viewed as
a blessing, it is given to the deserving ; viewed as a trial, it is accom-
modated to the infirmity of the weak.

' And on the other hand, who are they who require the brand of
ignorance to mark them in the sight of their fellow-creatures, who
deserve to be left without knowledge of any thing beyond their own
miserable desires, but those who have refused to obey such know-
ledge ? What wiser, and what juster, and what more really mer-
ciful law, than that man shall not be able to receive into his head
what he will not receive into his heart also ? What less to be
wondered at, than the sentence, dreadful as it is, that if man
hardens his will, God will harden his intellect against truth?
Surely the true difficulty in the world, if we are to find one, is not
that such a law exists, but that it does not exist more exclusively.
Surely it is only the unwarrantable value which is set on intellect
in this particular age, which prevents us from seeing how very
strange it would be, if knowledge of this kind were given only, or
even chiefly, to the wise in this world, to the sharp, clear-headed,
and argumentative, and not to the humble and conscientious lover
of goodness ? What business would they have with such advan-

IV. These considerations will, I hope, be sufficient to
alarm several most excellent persons who have unawares
committed themselves to this spurious philosophy, and to
induce them to reconsider the question and retrace their
steps. But more extreme disciples of the school will be
even confirmed by them in their evil ways of thinking : for
as to the last argument, they will say, that they consider
nothing more desirable than for intellectual philosophers to
be acknowledged as the oracles of moral and religious truth :
and as to the two former, those only furnish an additional
reason for what they have long held, the unreasonableness
of any firm belief in revealed religion ; "a belief," said one
of their number/ " which I will then entertain, when I see
a message from God written on the sun." Such topics as
I have already mentioned do not affect the trustworthiness of

f British Critic for January, 1841, pp. 35, 6.
K I think, Paine.

494

their intellectual arguments; and it is on these, as on an
impregnable ground, that they take their stand. It will be
however an imputation on their intellectual acumen, if they
be shewn inconsistent with themselves. This therefore I
shall next attempt to do ; taking in an inverse order the four
classes with which I started.

To those then who call on the Roman Catholic to produce,
from Scripture or Antiquity, definite and tangible grounds
for his belief in the universality of St. Mary's intercession,
I would say, have you ever thought of producing definite
and tangible grounds, from Scripture and Antiquity, for your
own articles of belief ? That you have read both Scripture
and Antiquity, and seen much which coincides with your
views, I do not deny; but we know very well, that if all the
evidence bearing on a subject were produced in Court ever so
fully, yet if Counsel were heard only on one side, there is not
much doubt of the decision. Many learned and most able
men have thought, that there is no sufficient evidence from
Antiquity for the Apostolic origin of the principal doctrines
you hold; many other learned and most able men have
thought, that there is evidence from Antiquity for the indi-
visibility and infallibility of the Church in every age, and
her power therefore, in any century, of developing new results
(about St. Mary or any other subject), and imposing* 1 them
on her children. You have been habituated probably for
many years in a view of history distinct from either ; it is
perfectly idle and absurd therefore to imagine that you can
really judge of the evidence, unless, by a sustained and
prolonged effort of the imagination, you have supposed
yourselves in the respective position of your opponents, and
have endeavoured to read the examples and innumerable
facts of the time from their point of view. Unless you have
done this on principle, and not once only but repeatedly, it
is ridiculous to say that you ground your opinions on
Antiquity. If you will not accept the high ground of

h It must not be supposed from this, that the Roman Church has imposed on her
children the belief that St. Mary is the ordained channel of all grace ; it is a very
general subject of belief with them, but no article of faith.

495

conscience, nothing is left for you but the low ground of
prejudice. Will you answer that not one man in a million
is capable of the task I suppose ? I think you have under-
stated the matter ; and should doubt if a man ever lived
who was competent to perform it. 1 This however is no

* The argument from Antiquity of the ' high-churchman ' with one class of his
opponents, I have drawn out at some little length in the British Critic, and shall beg
leave to append it.

' First, let it be observed, that the question which he is to consider is one of
history ; a science whose real difficulties, uncertainties, and perplexities are
every day more clearly seen, and of which we predict that it will be one triumph
achieved by the present generation, that its real nature will be more fully under-
stood. It is getting more and more to be perceived, that the historian requires
not merely a profound, accurate, and most miscellaneous knowledge of facts ;
not merely a great measure of what is commonly called " knowledge of the
world," by which is meant an ever energizing insight into the motives of action,
the sentiments, the habits, the tendencies, of the crowd of ordinary men (though
this is indeed indispensable) ; if he is to be really such, he needs much more than
this ; he needs even more absolutely a deep and penetrating knowledge of the
innermost recesses of the human heart. The real movers of great events are
ordinarily great men ; he must have then a glowing appreciation and hearty
sympathy for greatness ; he must be able fully to recognise, understand, and
assign to its due place in the scene of life, the eccentricities of genius, the way-
wardness of keen sensibility. Then the subtle influence of mind upon mind, the
process whereby national character is formed, or again whereby each several
age is distinguished by that assemblage of notions and instincts peculiar to itself,
which by so universal and felicitous a figure is called its atmosphere ; this is
closely connected with the deepest metaphysical problems, and yet meets the his-
torian at every step, as one of the very principal facts, which claim his recognition,
comprehension, and explanation. But in ecclesiastical history, the powers of
mind he requires are even rarer, by how much he has to do with a more unfathom-
able element, and with phenomena less open to the ordinary view. Who shall
analyse the secret communings of the holy and mortified soul with its God ? Yet of
this kind are the materials which have even the principal share in those events,
which are the objects of his science.

' To shew this more in detail, take the case of an inquirer pursuing the investi-
gation marked out for him in this sermon. (Dr. Jelf's 'Via Media.') First will
come the necessary task of obtaining a thorough and comprehensive knowledge
of all the religious writings and proceedings of the period. This, if he includes
the fourth and fifth centuries (which he must do if he is to defend, on historical
grounds, the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, as our Church receives
them) will, with indefatigable diligence, be the labour of many years. Next
comes the task of penetrating below the surface of these words and actions, and
imprinting on his mind a vivid and accurate picture of the whole current of
religious thought and feeling then prevalent ; to the achievement of this he will
direct all his powers of analysis and of imagination, nor can he place any con-

fault of mine, but of the worthless principle you desire to
maintain.

Now let me ask the ordinary Protestant ; have you ever
carefully and deliberately, as in the sight of God, endeavoured
to understand the method of Scripture interpretation on
which the Socinian relies? Have you endeavoured to do
justice to his reasons for not seeing what you see in the
passages to which you appeal, and to apprehend clearly and
distinctly the light in which he regards those to which he

fidence in the success of his efforts, until he arrive at a view, which shall bear
with it this argument for its truth, that he will see all the religious sayings and
doings of the period, as natural and obvious results, which might on the whole
have been even predicted to follow from this their supposed habit of mind, when
taken in connection with their outward circumstances. But every age, as every
individual, has numberless peculiarities of its own, quite irrespectively of its
religious creed : there are ten thousand modes of thought, of expression, and of
action, which would have existed had a revelation never been given ; which,
though indefinitely affected by its influence, still exist altogether independentlv,
and can be in no way called part of it: while on the other hand, those very
truths, which the revelation has brought to light, will be necessarily viewed
through the colouring of this medium, and will, according to all probability, be
carried by the unanimous consent of the age into certain consequences, which,
true or not, were yet never part of revealed truth. Now it will be remembered
that Dr. Jelf has not sanctioned the principle of considering ChurcJi decrees as the
appointed method, to assist us in separating the divine from the human element, in
distinguishing the doctrines which are ever to remain part of the Church's heritage
from temporary and (to use such an expression) relative opinions. Hence our
inquirer will next have to discover for himself, as best he may, the nature and
extent of this human element ; he must study deeply the contemporaneous philo-
sophy, the poetry (so far as it exists), laws, institutions, language, the habits of
mind in which converts from heathenism have been educated, and the whole
range of similar disturbing forces ; for the effects of these must be all deducted
from the received opinions and practices of the time, in order that we may be at
last presented with real, vital, unadulterated Christianity. When this process
has been adequately performed for the ages which Dr. Jelf considers pure, it
must be repeated all over again for those which he considers corrupt ; and the
comparison then made between the two residua, in order that the final question
may be resolved, whether the latter be a legitimate and true development of the
former. Merely to state this is of course sufficiently to expose the extravagance,
amounting almost to insanity, which could consider one poor, frail, fallible man com-
petent to such a task ; sufficient to shew how presumptuous, beyond our ordinary
conceptions of the possible extent of human audacity, will be his procedure, who shall
think of taking up a position for himself apart from all early associations, and of
criticising one whole age of saints by his personal comparison of them with another.'
' On Church Authority,' pp. 217-19.

497

appeals ? Have you, as a matter of principle, read Socinian
books of controversy with serious and methodical attention ?
Have you, in short, contended by every possible way against
the misleading effects of those prepossessions, in which you
have been so carefully educated ? If not, surely the texts
you adduce are not really the grounds of your belief; the
two are as it were stereotyped in your mind together ; you
learn your doctrines, and you learn the texts to prove them,
just like an undergraduate preparing for examination. And
with what front then can you blame the ' high-churchman,'
for regarding as little your Scripture arguments against our
Lord's Presence in the Eucharist, as you do the Sociniari's
against His Divine Nature ?

And joining ordinary Protestant with Socinian, let me far-
ther ask them : Have you fairly investigated the origin
and authority of the Bible? Have you done every justice to
Schleiermacher's view, and Paulus's view, and Strauss's view ?
Or, otherwise, how can you blame those who believe, as you
think, without Scripture proof, when you believe Scripture
itself without any proof ? You will answer, perhaps, that
the Bible commends itself to your conscience : a very excel-
lent answer indeed, but one that suits strangely with your
philosophy. If the Bible commend itself to the conscience
of one, why may not the Eucharistic Presence to that of a
second, and the doctrines about St. Mary to that of a
third ? You are bound then to give some note whereby the
dictates of the conscience may be truly discerned, or some
proof why your conscience is good and your neighbour's bad.
If any note or proof of this can really be devised, except that
which it has been throughout my one great object to enforce,
the keeping of the commandments of God, it will surprise
me not a little.

And now to consider the school itself of Schleiermacher,
or of Paulus, or of Strauss. Surely if they proceed on un-
considered presumptions, they are of all men the most un-
reasonable : for it is their very boast that they probe things
to the bottom : and it is the very reproach they cast upon
others, that the world at large proceeds on an unreasoning

498

faith. Now in all their criticisms on the Sacred Volume,
they assume of course, as a matter beyond dispute, the doc-
trines of Theism : I would ask, have they ever systematically
examined those doctrines ? have they ever made the deliberate
and methodical attempt, to resist the incalculable influence
which they well know must be exercised on their judgment
by all the prejudices of early habit and education, to do full
justice, both in their reason and in their imagination, to such
arguments and sentiments, e.g., as those of M. Comte, and
in fine, only to believe in God with that degree of belief, which
the preponderance of argument on that side justifies ? And
even supposing them to have done this ; have they done the
same as to the first principles of morality ? ' Naturam ex-
pellas,' &c., man cannot bring himself to this. Philosophers
examine the question, perhaps, whether Christian humility
be really a virtue, and assume in the discussion that justice,
liberality, veracity, are such ; yet what ground have they
for this belief more than for that, except the mere accident
that, in their time and country, one has been brought into
question and not the other ? Let me repeat a quotation I
made in the British Critic, to shew the result of this principle,
according to the confession of a very friend to the Reformation.

" The Reformation (which was the vehement protest that au-
thority was no longer the ground of belief, but that reason alone
could claim that title) had stirred all minds to new and vigorous
action ; and the philosophy of Descartes is the most striking product
of the newly enfranchised reason. Dissatisfied both with the scep-
ticism and dogmatism he saw around him ; unable to find any firm
ground in any of the prevalent systems ; distracted by doubts of every
thing high or loie, holy or trivial ; mistrusting the conclusions of his
own understanding, and seeing that his own senses often deceived
him ; he resolved to make his mind a tabula rasa, and reconstruct
his knowledge. He resolved to examine the pretensions of every con-
clusion, and to believe nothing but upon the clear evidence of his
reason. He began by universal doubt. He not only cleared his
mind of all his previous stock of opinions, but pursued his doubts
to the very verge of self -annihilation" 1

J Westminster Review for May, 1843, p. 383.

499

V. And now let us seriously consider, to the best of our
ability, the chief question of all : how much knowledge
should we really possess, if this principle were consistently
carried out ? Consider the solemn truth, Theism, of which
I have been just speaking, what are the grounds on which
we receive it ? Now I will allow for the moment far greater
force than I believe justly due, to the argument from final
causes; and I will waive also the reasoning which I used iu
p. 276, to shew the necessity of consulting conscience for so
much as the very idea of God. Still Paley's argument can-
not at all events be considered to prove much more than
God's Power and Wisdom ; qualities which in fact we believe
Satan to possess in great excellence. But what are those at-
tributes of God which really interest ourselves as moral
and rational agents ? Goodness, (I mean, His being the per-
fect Concentration and Embodiment of our scattered and un-
connected ideas of the good and the beautiful,) Justice,
Mercy. Now when we consider the fearful amount of suf-
fering, mental and bodily, which exists in every direction,
even after giving its fullest weight to Paley's ingenious plea,
we cannot profess, with the slightest colour or plausibility,
that from the Visible Creation alone we should obtain a belief
in the Creator's infinite love for man and for His creatures ;
while those other attributes, Goodness and Justice, have no-
thing even commensurate with such arguments as Paley
adduces. And, in the last place, where in the natural world
shall we see indications of God's Personality ? k Accordingly,
it is, I fancy, universally acknowledged by thinkers of the
present day, that we must look to our moral nature for such
a real and convincing proof as we are in search of. Nor can
there be a more satisfactory response than we shall obtain
from that nature ; I believe, without any admixture of doubt,
that he who lives daily in the thought and fear of God, and
presses forward in all virtuous and godly living, has a know-
ledge of God's existence, which belongs to a kind, not less
than infinitely more certain and direct than any other kind of
knowledge whatever. But then a religious Catholic has the

k See Newman's University Sermons, pp. 23, 24.

2 K 2

500

very same, on the doctrine of the Trinity, of the Incarnation,
and of its necessary complement the Eucharistic Presence ;
and, moreover, it rests at all events with ' high- churchmen'
to shew, that the Roman Catholics may not have a similar
knowledge of various doctrines connected with the Blessed
Virgin.

It may be said indeed that Catholic believers have some-
times confessed to the occasional intrusion of doubts ; and I
confessed this myself, two or three pages back. But these
were doubts which, even when present, differ in kind from
the certainty which we feel, and which, paradoxical as it may
appear, have no real power to overcloud it : for they are ad-
dressed to the intellect or the imagination ; while the spiritual
knowledge is seated in the spiritual nature. If they are
treated, indeed, not as trials or temptations, but as just and
lawful arguments which we are to ponder and consider ; in
other words, if we suspend that course of moral and religious
action, which calls forth into distinct and unmistakeable con-
sciousness the dictates of our spiritual nature ; then I fully
acknowledge that they may overthrow the firmest faith :
which is precisely tantamount to acknowledging, that a con-
tinued admission of angry thoughts will overthrow the
deepest patience. All this, however, may be more fitly con-
sidered hereafter ; the matter I wish now to urge is, that
doubts of the very same kind frequently knock for admit-
tance, on Theism as well as on Trinitarianism, on God's
mercy as well as on Christ's Atonement. It may be perhaps
true, that at a time like the present doubts on the latter
subject are more frequent. If so, this is only because belief
in a God is universal, at least on the surface of Society,
while the disbelief of many in the Atonement is matter of
notoriety: so that both our imagination is more impressed
with the uncertainty of the latter, because we know that it
is not considered certain ; and our understanding is per-
plexed with its difficulties, because we have been in the way
of hearing them. But this, even if true, shews no real
difference between the basis on which the respective doctrines
rest : had we lived five centuries ago, we should have as little

501

dreamed of doubting the Trinity as the Unity ; should things
go on in their present course for two centuries more, un-
questioning belief of the latter will be as difficult as it is now
of the former. And certainly, if I may speak from my own
personal experience, being by temperament exposed to the
irruptions of speculative doubt, I must fairly say that the
case is not with me as the objection supposes. I have had
not a few visitations of intellectual and imaginative perplexity
on Theism, though even when upon me their shadowy and
unreal nature was very obvious, and they did not even tend,
as I have said, to affect my most unclouded, most certain,
most undoubting, conviction of that great truth. But I have
never had, since I turned my mind to the subject, even in
this form, even as addressed to the imagination or under-
standing, any doubt, that if Theism be true, (that is, if the
spiritual nature may be trusted,) Trinitarianism is true, and
Sabellianism, Arianism, Nestorianism, are in various ways
God-denying heresies, and St. Mary is the highest and purest
of all creatures, and so with other doctrines that might be
named.

But now let me draw out an incidental observation in the
last paragraph. I said lately, that a habit of energetic
obedience and devotion will supply us with a spiritual and
infinitely certain knowledge of this fundamental doctrine of
all true religion. But it is a very different question indeed,
whether such knowledge be attainable, even with all the help
derivable from internal consciousness, on the principle of private
judgment, on the principle of requiring examination before
action, and proof before belief. It is most difficult indeed to
try the question with so much as an approximation to fairness
and reality ; for so distinct and unequivocal is Nature's protest
against this outrageous extravagance, that the habit of belief
is most deeply rooted in our mind from our very earliest years,
while the idea of examination and the search for proof enters
not at all till at a far later period, and then very partially and
disproportionately. It is not difficult, however, to see, that if
the real proof of Theism must be found, where I have placed
it, in moral and religious action, he who has grown up to

502

maturity without that safeguard, has within himself no really
stable proof on which he may rely. It follows then, that if
he be in the small number of those intellectually gifted men,
who are able really to inquire into the grounds of their
hereditary belief, (instead of playing at inquiry, while in
fact they merely learn by heart a parrot-like repetition of
professed arguments, and rest on the authority of others, for
their proof as well as for their doctrine,) if he be in this small
number, and if he have not the grace to discern the ridiculous
incompetency for such inquiries which his bad habits have
entailed on him, he must fairly give up all belief in Theism
to its full extent : he must content himself with an uncer-
tain and wavering suspicion, that there may probably be an
unseen world beyond this visible sphere ; and that the marks
of design, observable in the universe, have probably some
other origin than the unbending agency of natural laws. But
of what nature this unseen world may be, or this mysterious
agency, are questions, he will add, which it is our wisdom to
put from us, as admitting of no solution while we remain sub-
ject to the conditions of time and space.

But let a man have grown up in habits of constant prayer,
of the fear and of the love of God, and thus penetrated to
his very innermost heart with a sense of his Personality and
His Attributes ; will it follow that even such a believer as
this, should he be led captive in his mature years by this
spurious and worldly philosophy, should he be tempted to
exercise bona fide the Protestant's highest prerogative of
consciously examining the grounds of his belief, will be able
to retain that belief in its full security and completeness ? It
must be carefully observed indeed, that the very circumstance
of his possessing this evidence must be attributed to a
practical neglect of his present theory ; for it has been
obtained by a faithful and undoubting obedience to God's
commands, exercised previously to any inquiry on His
nature and their obligation. Then again, his power of fairly
estimating the testimony borne to religious truth by his
inward nature, will be indefinitely impeded by the well-
known constitution of our mind, that ' those thoughts

503

which are most really precious, shrink back, as it were, the
more from observation, in proportion to the intensity of the
effort made to gaze fixedly upon them.' k But this is very
far from being the most efficacious instrument employed by
Satan, to hide religious truth from the inquirer. The one
phenomenon in the whole world most hateful to him and
to his ministers, as I have urged throughout the work, is a
course of consistent obedience against the influence of passion
and temptation. Now in proportion as any one masters the
theory of private judgment, which so many profess without
mastering, or rather indeed with the deepest ignorance of its
real nature, he suspends that very course, in order that he
may inquire into its warrant and no longer prosecute it in
blind faith. Indeed, as I urged some way back, and as is quite
plain, he cannot inquire with any thing like impartiality,
until he shall have for some time discontinued any vigorous
course of action presupposing that doctrine, which is to be
the subject of inquiry. 1 He gives Satan then in his own case
that very advantage, which of all others the latter most
ardently seeks ; he gives him in his own case that fulcrum,
by means of which, were it universally given him, he could
move the world from all genuine knowledge of God. From
the moment this course ceases, the course of earnest obe-
dience, habitual prayer, continual thought of God, unceasing
reference to future judgment, from that moment belief in
God is not a present consciousness, but the result of memory
and of reflection ; while those difficulties, from the intellect
or the imagination, which had been chained down and unable
to stir under the force of religious action, that being
removed break their bonds, and start up before the mind,
fearful in their stature and alarming in their menaces." 1 And

k On ' Mill's Logic,' p. 390.

' See pp. 490 492. I wish the reader would, in this place, look over that para-
graph again ; as illustrating my present position : viz. that in order to examine the
evidence for religious truth, we must cease some sufficient time from religious action ;
and that by ceasing from religious .action, we lose the evidence itself. Hence a real
examination of the evidence is simply impossible.

m ' I believe that any one can make himself an atheist speedily by breaking off his
own personal communion with God and Christ.' ' When a man's religious practice

504

as day after day the same principle is allowed, the memory
of past religious experience becomes fainter and more un-
certain, and the difficulties, of which I speak, more definite
in their lineaments and consistent in their mutual relations ;
while, for want of the accustomed motives to self-discipline,
the standard of morality becomes daily lower, and the power
of acting even on his low standard becomes daily weaker :
until he is tempted into that delusion, the very favourite
snare spread by Satan for men of powerful and irreligious
minds," the attribution of the clear voice of conscience to
highly wrought feelings, or to morbid imagination, or to un-
founded traditionary impression. Unless, before it be too late,
the unhappy victim feel the misery of his case, abandon
with terror and with anathema private judgment, that great
principle of the Reformation, and cling in faith to his early
creed, that once more by prayer and obedience he may learn
to know and realise the presence of God, unless he be so
favoured, what awaits him, except a gloomy and cheerless
scepticism, and the indescribable misery of sinking farther,
day by day, first from good habits, and next from good
desires ?

An argument in all respects precisely similar admits of
being carried out, on our knowledge of duty, of there being
such a thing as * right and wrong.'

It would appear then, from what has been said, that the
Protestant principle, consistently adopted, must lead us
to M. Comte's philosophy ; it must lead us, so it would
appear, to hold that the invisible world is radically inacces-
sible to our faculties ; that 'God' is a word to express 'not
our ideas, but our want of them;' and that if we are wise,

has degenerated, when he has been less watchful of himself, and less constant and
earnest in his devotions . . . his impression of God's real existence, which is kept up
by practical experience, becomes fainter and fainter ; and in this state of things it is
merely an accident that he remains nominally a Christian.' Dr. Arnold's Life and
Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 56, and vol. i. p. 280.

n A memorable lesson to those, who, having neither powerful nor wholly irreli-
gious minds, dabble some little way in the same philosophy, and require intellectual
proof for religious principles and doctrines.

This is a sentiment of the elder Mr. Mill's, in his ' Analysis of the human
mind.'

505

we shall confine ourselves to those branches of knowledge
which are realities and not illusions, those, namely, which are
conversant wholly with phenomena, and which are advanced
by means of a further acquaintance with those fixed and
unalterable laws which regulate the universe. But is this
really so ? or how can we possibly know that fixed and
unalterable laws regulate the universe ? I know no more
wonderful fact in the whole history of philosophy, than the
simple, easy, natural, unsuspicious manner, in which M.
Comte, after having declaimed and argued against all a
priori ideas, subsides as a matter of course into the a priori
idea of fatalism. What, let me ask, do we know about fate,
on his principles, any more than about God? about fixed
and unalterable laws of phenomenal succession, any more than
about regular and undeviating principles of moral govern-
ment ? So necessary to all science is the assumption of some
first principle ; and so stupid and contemptible may be the
intellectual exhibition presented by the most powerful minds,
when influenced by the narrow bigotry of unbelief.

Waiving however the ' argumentum ad hominem,' it is
really of great importance seriously to consider the question,
whether we have any means of knowing, what all experi-
mentalists assume ivithout proof as a locus standi, that nature
proceeds, not in a capricious and arbitrary course, but on
definite and established laws ; laws which may accordingly be
a subject for investigation and for gradual discovery. Now
whether or no we have at present any really sufficient proof
of this, it is virtually confessed by Mr. John Mill himself, the
prominent champion of experimental science and of free in-
quiry, that when first physical investigation began, there was
not sufficient proof; he confesses that the proof, which we
now have, is owing to the discoveries made by those, who
believed the principle before it was proved. p Let this be
observed : physical science, the very result and energizing
testimonial, as it is generally considered, of the principle
of free inquiry, could not have had existence except for

P Logic, vol. ii. pp. 114, 15.

506

the principle of faith : belief without proof is the very basis
on which it has been reared.

But have we now sufficient proof of this, and of what
nature ? From the progress which physical science has made
under the assumption of this principle, from the very great
number of seemingly unconnected facts which it has suc-
ceeded in grouping together, and of apparent exceptions to
general laws which it has been able to explain, let us grant
it to have been made in the highest degree probable, that
from remote antiquity up to this time there have been estab-
lished laws of nature. Now does this, by itself, warrant so
much as even the faintest presumption, that such law will
continue^ and so consequently that physical science can at
any given moment be prosecuted with reasonable hope of a
true result? Surely as useless as would be the experience
of external phenomena, unless we had the a priori idea of
space wherein to locate them, just so unavailable for any
practical conclusion would be the knowledge of past uni-
formity, except for the a priori idea we possess, that consist-
ency, harmony, regularity, are in themselves heavenly and
majestic qualities, and specially appropriate to the works of
God. Suppose two persons, one having an ear for music,
and the other totally destitute of it, were both listening to a
symphony ; the former would consider himself warranted in
confidently expecting the continuation of harmony, while the
latter would be in no way surprised by a sudden change into
the most barbarous and clashing dissonance.* 1 And, in like
manner, the most constant experience of undeviating regu-
larity in the course of nature up to this time, would be no
ground whatever for expecting its continuance, except to those
who should perceive something of itself more admirable in
order than in disorder, in harmonious government of the whole
than in the chance and random dispersion of parts. Will it be
said, that this natural judgment of mankind would be itself one
of the premises on which free inquiry would ground its con-

i This illustration is borrowed and adapted from Archbishop Whately in his notes
on King's * Predestination'.

507

elusion? I ask, how is it to be shewn, that such a judgment
has any real value or authority ? Grant us indeed the prin-
ciples of Theism, or the trustworthiness of conscience, and
the whole is plain enough ; but excluding these, how can we
possibly form even a conjecture whether this sentiment,
however universal, may not have its origin in these very
fixed laws of the universe, or in the accidental disposition of
phenomena, or in the handywork of some lying spirit who
implants it in order to deceive ?

Have we now carried to its extreme point the scepticism in
which free inquiry must plunge us? By no means. For
what warrant have we for trusting our mental faculties, unless
there be one in their number which is cognizant of eternal
truth ? To take one instance, where the conception of the
difficulty will be less bewildering perhaps than in others
on what ground do we trust our memory ? ' There is no one
thing' on such a principle ' of which we are absolutely certain,
except our present consciousness. That doubtless admits of
no error ; that at this moment of time I am writing, that my
mind is occupied with certain ideas, that when I look at my
desk I perceive the colour of green, that on looking up I re-
ceive an immediate impression which I take to be that of
distance, that I believe in a certain chain of events as being
those of my past life, all this is the mere statement of a
matter of fact ; but when I proceed beyond this, when I
think that those events really had existence, when, e. g., I call
to mind that an hour ago I was taking a walk and pursuing a
certain train of thought, much more when I infer from past re-
membrances that walking is good for health, and also for think-
ing, and so on, for anything that the argument from experience
has to tell me to the contrary, how can I know that I am not
the victim of some miserable and complete delusion ? how can I
know that an hour since I was not seated on Mount Vesuvius, or
carried beyond the bounds of space and time?'? Grant indeed
the doctrines of Theism, and we cannot be wrong in trusting
the faculties which God has given us ; q but then these doc-

P 'On Mill's Logic,' p. 371.

i Sec Newman's University Sermons, p. 351.

508

trines, as I just now argued, depend, for their establishment,
on the renouncement pro tanto of free inquiry, and on the
adoption of the principle of faith. And this brings me to the
climax of the argument. If faith be admitted, the whole
structure of Catholic doctrine rests on a basis which cannot be
shaken ; and if it be denied, we have no reason for believing
so much, as that we were in existence one minute ago.

3. It is very plain then that the principle of private judg-
ment, of proportioning belief as far as possible to evidence,
cannot be accepted as a full account of the process which leads
to moral and religious truth. That it has a place, and that an
important one, I am far from denying; but it has not the
chief place. And so long as it is acknowledged that no sight
in the world is more contemptible than a boaster who fails
egregiously in those very qualities which have been his
boast, it must also be acknowledged that those who have
allowed themselves in a spirit of scoffing derision at the
' credulity ' of Catholics, while their whole studies have taken
for granted the trustworthiness of our intellectual faculties
and the permanence of the laws of nature, that these men are
far more appropriate objects of contempt and ridicule, as
having professed free inquiry to be their very forte : or rather
that they would be objects for this, ' except that on so
awfully serious a subject the sense of the lamentable over-
powers that of the ridiculous.' M. Comte sneers at M-
de Maistre, half-bitterly, half-compassionately, for invoking
the Blessed Virgin ; what prevents Christians from return-
ing in kind his self-complacent arrogance, except that on the
one hand religion inculcates humility, and that on the other
hand Atheism is so fearful an exhibition of Satan, that we
may not ridicule even its intellectual blunders ?

Let me now endeavour to sketch in its elements the an-
tagonist principle of faith, to shew its reasonableness, and to
trace the progress by which it leads to truth.

In the British Critic I have advocated in some detail the
position, that a habit of acting throughout the day under a
sense of responsibility, of doing what we think right because
we think so, that this habit, as it grows up within us, in an

509

illimitably increasing extent purifies and illuminates the
conscience/ Over and above this, it has another very im-
portant effect ; that of humbling the mind, and disposing it
to look in all directions for external guidance. A study of
the visible universe tends to engender pride : for we obtain
a continually deeper knowledge of the laws by which it is
governed ; s and we are thus able to influence or make use of
it more efficaciously for our own purposes, by summoning the
phenomena, as it were, before the tribunal of our intellect,
collecting and weighing evidence, balancing probabilities,
and pronouncing a verdict according to the result of our
inquiry. The visible world seems placed around us, as it
were, for the very purpose of being made subject to our
arbitrary and despotic investigations and researches : we
examine what part of it we please, and when we please ;
every day we receive fresh indications of the supremacy of
the intellect and the sovereignty of man.* But a course of
moral action leads us to know the existence of realities
and of essences, as opposed to mere shadows and phe-
nomena ; it leads us to know that, wholly without those limits
of space and time which bound the intellect, there exists
an Objective Somewhat, call it, if you please, Moral Truth ;
that the real form and lineaments of this Somewhat are abso-
lutely beyond the reach of our faculties ; that we cannot pos-
sibly know more of it here on earth, than that (in all proba-
bility) infinitely small part, which happens to come in contact
immediately or mediately with our own conscience ; lastly,
that our knowledge however of that part may increase with
rapidly advancing progress, in proportion as we bring the

r ' On Mill's Logic,' pp. 397 406. ' A mind, habitually and honestly con-
forming itself to its own full sense of duty, will at length enjoin or forbid with an
authority second only to an inspired oracle.' Newman's University Sermons,
p. 22.

' How far the instinctive reliance which all persons have, good or bad, in the
permanence of the laws of nature, throws discredit on the theory which I have
thrown out, that the proof of them depends on moral considerations, this is a ques-
tion which most certainly requires discussion : I only wish that I had the space here
to consider it.

* See Letters of " Catholicus" passim.

510

intellect and the lower part of our nature into servile sub-
jection to our will, and that again into servile subjection
to this external law. Knowledge of phenomena is obtained
by the intellect, knowledge of realities by the conscience;
knowledge of phenomena by inquiry, knowledge of realities
by obedience ; knowledge of phenomena is obtained by us as
masters and as judges, knowledge of realities is obtained by
us as disciples and as slaves ; the one pursuit tends to pride,
the other indispensably requires and infallibly increases
humility.

He who is thus disciplined, who feels deeply his exceeding
blindness, helplessness, and ignorance, and the existence
without him of an unknown and unspeakably precious
Reality, will eagerly believe and appropriate whatever is
placed before him in the course of nature, professing to be a
voice from, or an economical representation of, that Reality.
Again, he will have fully learnt that real truth is acquired,
not by an enlarged view of phenomena, but by individual
acts of duty and sense of responsibility : that duty lies where
trials and occasions of obedience lie, that is, in behaving
rightly towards those circumstances with which we are placed
in immediate connection, not in voluntarily leaving their
sphere : that the real nature of any external doctrine cannot
be even approximately understood, until it has been received
and carried into practical action ; lastly, that the mere act of
argumentative deliberation on the authority which he is to
follow, suspends that very course of believing and un-
suspicious obedience, which is the one illuminating principle
of the moral nature. From all this it will follow as a
primary axiom, that a system of whose real nature, as having
practically obeyed it, he can know something considerable,
must not be left for another, of which he can really know
nothing, without some singularly plain and indubitable
reason ; in a word, that should his parents have brought him
into connection with some body professing to teach with
authority, so long as he is able to repose unchanged con-
fidence in that body, it is that very oracle for the conveyance

511

to him of eternal truths, before which duty requires him to
bow." Should the case be otherwise, in a heathen country
' he will be able to discriminate with precision between the
right and the wrong in traditionary superstitions, and will
thus elicit confirmation of his faith,' and accessions to it,
' even out of corruptions of the truth.' x But rather would he
anticipate, that there is some home in which this moral
Reality may have a secure rest and lodgment, that it may be
dispensed to men according to their needs ; or at least he would
be drawn with a most eager and spontaneous longing towards
any body, which should profess to be that home. And those
marks, in any Society, would especially attract his view, which
appear to be most kindred in their natures and origin to
Eternal Truth itself; for instance, to use Ecclesiastical
language, Unity, in doctrine throughout all ages, Sanctity,
Catholicity, its proclaiming one and the same message in
all lands Apostolicity, its referring back to some signal in-
terference with the visible course of things from the world
' beyond the veil.'

The highest and most principal of the facts which faith
thus learns, I need not say, is the Personality and character
of God. That the very idea of a Law implies a Lawgiver,

u That I may not be misunderstood here, the following extract will be in place :
" It may have been, that proceeding onwards in a tranquil and unsuspicious course
of obedience, he has come to the knowledge of some (to him) new and surprising
system ; or has become acquainted with the person or writings of some distinguished
individual : or in some other way has been brought to the perception of a
range of external ideas, which reveal to him depths in his own heart formerly
concealed from his observation ; which are the objective embodiment of truths,
floating hitherto in his mind unrecognised, nay, unsuspected ; or which promise
the satisfaction of feelings iind needs, of which, up to this time, he has been uncon-
sciously conscious. If indeed those truths, which he has already recognised and
appropriated, be not also a real and solid portion of this new system, he can give to it
no implicit trust ; and thus we see one most important protection he has already
obtained, against the temptations of dreamy sentimentality or the deceit of unreal
speculation. But otherwise, after due and cautious deliberation, or very possibly
indeed by an almost unperceived process, his confiding allegiance will be transferred
to this new authority, the object varied, but the sentiment of trust the same."
' On Goode,' p. 40.

* Newman's University Sermons, p. 22.

512

is a proposition with which I am not prepared to concur ;
but that it predisposes the mind, in a most signal and peculiar
degree for the reception of that idea, cannot surely admit of
doubt. And the knowledge of God, when fully realised by
faith and devotion, will of course give an indefinitely higher
sacredness to such particulars as those just mentioned. It is
no unknown Somewhat for whose indications the disciple
watches in the path of obedience, but the Voice of God
w r hose accents he desires to recognise; the Church of his
birth is not merely the oracle before which duty summons
him to bend, but it is the ordinance of God ; his parents God's
Visible Representatives ; and when he is summoned forth in
search of a new guide, those external marks of w r hich I spoke
are no mere vestiges and ' indicia' of Eternal Truth, but are
symbols of God's Presence and notes of His Church.

We are now then able to see, with some distinctness, the
fundamental maxims of the philosophy of faith. Conscience,
viewed in the abstract, has no power of discovering more
than the immutable principles of morality. But in pro-
portion as it is pure and well-disciplined, it discriminates
and appropriates moral and religious truth of whatever
kind, and disposes the mind to listen to this external message
rather than to that ; while each new truth thus brought
before it from without, in proportion as it is deeply received
and made the subject of religious action and contemplation,
elicits a deep and hitherto unknown harmony from within,
which is the full warrant and sufficient evidence of that truth.
Viewed then in the concrete, as found in the devout believer,
we may regard conscience and faith to be one and the same
faculty : considered as submissively bending before external
authority and ever deriving more of doctrinal truth, we call
it faith ; considered as carefully obeying the precepts of
which it has knowledge, and as laboriously realising and
assimilating the truths of which it has possession, we call it
conscience. 7 And thus w r e see in part the reasonableness

1 In the case of Christian doctrine ' whereas the information is supernatural, so also
a most wonderful gift is poured into the Christian's heart, whereby the moral action '
which appropriates it is 'supernatural al.~o.' 'On Mill's Logic,' p. 402.

513

of unquestioning belief ; for, on the one hand, it is by this
very act of firm belief, that we are able really to grasp a
moral opinion, and derive from it the full treasure of truth
with which it is charged; while, on the other hand, our pre-
servative against real error, is not the balancing of evidence,
but the witness of a good conscience. The external opinion
may be in greater or less degree erroneous ; but the inward
belief, the impression which we derive from it in our in-
nermost heart, in our spiritual nature, (so only our conscience
be pure,) may be inadequate indeed, but so far as it goes is
true and sound.

Another illustration of the reasonableness of unquestioning
belief, is derived from the circumstance that (continuing to
use the words in the same sense as in the last paragraph) by
that means our belief continues to increase in amount, and
our opinions to approach without limit, towards true opi-
nions. For it is the very characteristic of erroneous opinions,
so far as they are such, that they present no substance which
may be grasped by the spiritual nature ; hence, in proportion
to the action of a pure conscience upon external doctrines,
the attention is absorbed and engrossed by that part of them
which is true, while the error contained in them, even if not
consciously discarded, is made no account of nor practically
remembered ; while if there be great intellectual powers, its
inconsistency with the spiritual impression is discerned, and
it is openly banished and rejected from the mind. At the
same time all serious believers, whether intellectual or unin-
tellectual, are obtaining from all quarters fresh religious
truth, which will still further draw the mind away from
erroneous views ; and which moreover disposes them, both
to apprehend, and to feel, the superior attractiveness of any
religious creed, which may be more simply from God than
that which they have hitherto followed. It is a great relief
to be able to state the sort of shape which this process would
take among ourselves, in other words than my own.

4 Nothing is more common than to think that we shall gain reli-
gious knowledge as a thing of course, without express trouble on

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our part. Though there is no art or business of this world which is
learned without time and exertion, yet it is commonly conceived that
the knowledge of God and our duty will come as if by accident or
by a natural process. Men go by their feelings and likings ; they
take up what is popular, or what comes first to hand. They think
it much if they now and then have serious thoughts, if they now and
then open the Bible ; and their minds recur with satisfaction to such
seasons, as if they had done some very great thing, never remem-
bering that to seek and gain religious truth is a long and systematic
work. And others think that education will do every thing for
them, and that if they learn to read, and use religious words, they
understand religion itself. And others again go so far as to main-
tain that exertion is not necessary for discovering the truth. They
say that religious truth is simple and easily acquired ; that Scripture,
being intended for all, is at once open to all, and that if it had diffi-
culties, that very circumstance would be an objection to it. And
others, again, maintain that there are difficulties in religion, and that
this shews that it is an indifferent matter whether they seek or not as
to those matters which are difficult.

* Doubtless, if men sought the truth with one-tenth part of the
zeal with which they seek to acquire wealth or secular know-
ledge, their differences would diminish year by year. Doubtless, if
they gave a half or a quarter of the time to prayer for divine
guidance which they give to amusement or recreation, or which
they give to dispute and contention, they would ever be ap-
proximating to each other. We differ in opinion : therefore we
cannot all be right ; many must be wrong ; many must be turned
from the truth ; and why is this, but on account of that unde-
niable fact which we see before us, that we do not pray and seek for
the Truth ?

* No one who does not seek the truth with all his heart and
strength, can tell what is of importance and what is not ; to
attempt carelessly to decide on points of faith or morals is a
matter of serious presumption ; no one knows whither he will
be carried if he seeks the Truth perseveringly, and therefore,
since he cannot see at first starting the course into which his
inquiries will be divinely directed, he cannot possibly say before-
hand whether they may not lead him on to certainty, as to things
which at present he thinks trifling or extravagant or irrational.
" What I do," said our Lord to St. Peter, thou knowest not now,

515

but thou shalt know hereafter." " Seek and ye shall find ;" this is the
Divine rule " If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice
for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her
as for hid treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord,
and find the knowledge of God." z

' This is a subject which cannot too strongly be insisted on. Act
up to your light, though in the midst of difficulties, and you will be
carried on, you do not know how far. Abraham obeyed the call
and journeyed, not knowing whither he went ; so we, if we follow
the voice of God, shall be brought on step by step into a new world,
of which before we had no idea. This is His gracious way with us :
He gives, not all at once, but by measure and season, wisely. To
him that hath, more shall be given. But we must begin at the
beginning. Each truth has its own order ; we cannot join the way
f life at an y point of the course we please ; we cannot learn ad-
vanced truths before we have learned primary ones. " Call upon
Me," says the Divine Word, " and I will answer thee, and shew
thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." a Religious
men are always learning ; but when men refuse to profit by light
already granted, their light is turned to darkness. Observe our
Lord's conduct with the Pharisees. They asked Him on what
authority He acted. He gave them no direct answer, but referred
them to the mission of John the Baptist " The baptism of John,
whence was it ? from heaven or from men ?" b They refused to say.
Then He said, " Neither tell I you by what authority I do these
things." That is, they would not profit by the knowledge they al-
ready had from St. John the Baptist, who spoke of Christ there-
fore no more was given them.

' All of us may learn a lesson here, for all of us are in danger of
hastily finding fault with others, and condemning their opinions or
practices ; not considering, that unless we have faithfully obeyed
our conscience and improved our talents, we are no fit judges of
them at all. Christ and His Saints are alike destitute of form or
comeliness in the eyes of the world, and it is only as we labour to
change our nature, through God's help, and to serve Him truly,
that we begin to discern the beauty of holiness. Then, at length,
we find reason to suspect our own judgments of what is truly good,
and perceive our own blindness ; for by degrees we find that those
whose opinions and conduct we hitherto despised or wondered at as

1 Prov. ii. 3 5. a Jer. xxxiii. 3. b Matt. xxi. 25.

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516

extravagant or unaccountable or weak, really know more than our-
selves, and are above us and so, ever as we rise in knowledge
and grow in spiritual illnmination, they (to our amazement) rise
also, while we look at them. The better we are, the more
we understand their excellence; till at length we are taught
something of their Divine Master's perfections also, which be-
fore were hid from us, and see why it is that, though the Gospel
is set on a hill in the midst of the world, like a city which cannot
be hid, yet to multitudes it is notwithstanding hid, since He
taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the pure in heart alone
can see God.

' Let not the diversity of opinion in the world dismay you, or
deter you from seeking all your life long true wisdom. It is not a
search for this day or that, but as you should ever grow in grace, so
should you ever grow also in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. Care not for the perplexing question which many
will put to you, " How can you be sure that you are right more
than others ?" Others are nothing to you, if they are not holy and
devout in their conversation and we all know what is meant by being
holy ; we know whom we should call holy ; to be holy is to be like
an Apostle. Seek truth in the way of obedience; try to act up to
your conscience, and let your opinions be the result, not of mere
chance reasoning or fancy, but of an improved heart.

' Those who thus proceed, watching, praying, taking all means
given them of gaining the truth, studying the Scriptures, and doing
their duty ; in short, those who seek religious truth by principle and
habit, as the main business of their lives, humbly not arrogantly,
peaceably not contentiously, shall not be ' turned unto fables."
" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him ;" but in
proportion as we are conscious to ourselves that we are - indolent,
and transgress our own sense of right and wrong, in the same
proportion we have cause to fear, not only that we are not in
a safe state, but, further than this, that we do not know what is a
safe state, and what an unsafe, what is light and what is darkness,
what is truth and what is error, which way leads to heaven and
which to hell. " The way of the wicked is darkness ; they know
not at what they stumble." ' c

4. From this view of things, if once admitted to be true,

c Prov. iv. 19. Plain Sermons, vol. 5, pp. 291295.

517

corollaries follow, or as I may call them canons, of the most
unspeakable importance in religious inquiries. It would re-
quire volumes to illustrate and apply these in any sufficient
measure ; here therefore I must'perforce content myself with
stating some among their number, and applying them merely
in one or two questions, which are of pressing importance at
the present moment.

I. Holy men are the great fountains, from which moral
and religious truth flows to the world : d if a Revelation be
given, they are its authorized interpreters ; if there be a
living authoritative tribunal, their spiritual experience fur-
nishes materials for the decrees of that tribunal ; if no special
Revelation, on them must the task be imposed of collecting
and discriminating the various scattered traditions, which are
afloat in the current of human speculation.

II. In order however to apply the principles which they
originate, intellectual gifts of the highest and rarest kind
must be called into exertion. As one instance out of many
it is necessary to appreciate rightly, 1. the circumstances
under which they were placed when they gave expression
to some concrete opinion, not only as to their external
and more obvious features, but (what is very far more
important) as to the general habits of thought, action, and
feeling then prevalent, which make up the very atmosphere,
as it were, in which alone their words would carry to our
ears their true sound : and 2. the circumstances under which
we are placed, as to the same particulars. So difficult it may
be, on some occasions, from their expressions to learn their
opinions, and from their opinions their moral judgments.

d ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 339. ' The man of the world goes on from day to
day without even the thought of thwarting his present inclination, except for the
prospect of some other worldly good, health, wealth, respectability : the Saint
every minute of every day is sacrificing his own will to considerations of right.
Is there any other faculty we possess, of which the cultivation is one thousandth
part so disproportionate in different men, as this is ? and if not, we are abso-
lutely introducing no new law whatever into the theory of our nature, when we
assert that the Saint possesses within himself a guidance on moral subjects, in its
own sphere next to infallible ; while the man of the world has inherited this
punishment from his way of life, that the " light within him" has almost become
" darkness."

518

III. Their moral judgments are themselves authoritative, in
proportion as the whole circumstances, bearing on the case,
were fairly presented to them. Hence it is highest, and it
may be truly said infallible, on subjects simply divine,
contemplative, devotional; the Trinity; the Incarnation;
the Eucharistic Presence ; Grace ; the immutable obligation
of the Moral Law ; the glory of celibacy ; the prerogatives
of St. Mary and other Saints ; and many others.

IV. Next to such matters as these, their judgments de-
serve our submission, in proportion as they refer to a
state of external things habitually present to their minds:
while even on these, an inferiority on their part of intellec-
tual power will most materially affect their authority; as
making it less probable that the facts of the case have been
brought before them, as it \vere for judgment, in their true
colours, and with all their mutual relations explained or
understood.

V. On a state of things, in the midst of which they have
not practically energized, unless they had a very high and
unusual degree of genius and imagination, their judgments
may be (if the expression be irreverent, may their powerful
intercession prevail on God to pardon it ! but I do not mean
it so) even utterly baseless, mistaken, untrustworthy. For
example, their judgment on the moral and religious character
of some heretical body, living and acting in the midst of
them, would probably be altogether final and decisive ; while
their judgment on a similar body, at a distance from their
own experience and sphere of action, might be of no real
weight whatever.

VI. I have already mentioned (II) one class of subjects, in
which it frequently requires the highest intellectual power,
to derive a knowledge of the moral judgment of Saints from
their expressions or even from their opinions. Under quite a
different head, the same difficulty is experienced; viz. in rightly
understanding what those Heavenly Objects are on which
their faith and spiritual life was fed, in the midst of the vague
and sometimes discordant intellectual shapes into which they
may have learned to throw their religious impression.

519

" A very little thought will suffice to shew, how frequent a
case it is for men to take up externally a set of notions, which are
far from the rightful property of their moral nature. We are not
now speaking, be it observed, merely of inaccurate expressions, but
what may be called inaccurate opinions. A man may think himself
all his life long an utilitarian, or a disciple of Locke ; and yet were
a party to arise, to whom such principles were really congenial, and
who should accordingly fully appropriate them and carry them
forward, he might be the first to shrink back from so repulsive
an exhibition. Great numbers of men profess one system as it
were on the surface, of which alone they are conscious, and which
they put into formal expression; while a far higher and truer doc-
trine is really energizing within them, and carrying them on from
truth to truth without their knowledge. It is a far better test of a
man's real sentiments that he joins the right party, than that he
professes the right opinions. Let us apply then a similar principle
to theology. The impression conveyed, on the highest doctrines of
the Gospel, by the Apostles to their disciples, was surely far more
accurate, subtle, and delicate than any words can express, and they
did not directly use words." e

' Such was the feeling of awe and love mingled together,' says
Mr. Newman, f ' which remained for a while in the Church ....
There was silence, as it were, for half an hour.' ' I avow my belief
that freedom from symbols and articles is abstractedly the highest
state of Christian communion, and the peculiar privilege of the pri-
mitive Church ; . . . . because technicality and formalism are in their
degree inevitable results of public confessions of faith.' e

' What might be almost expected to follow from this, before the
Church had promulgated formal decisions on such matters ? Mr.
Goode (e. g, vol. i. p. 288) accuses some of the Ante-Nicene
Fathers of Nestorian language. Now, nothing is more common in
the present day than certain modes of thought, as regards our
Lord's acts and words, which display themselves in such ways as
speaking of ' His prudence/ His forethought,' or ' His infinite
superiority over other men,' expressions which may bear an innocent
meaning, but of which, as used, the real account is the Nestorian
heresy ; yet if those who are enslaved to such habits were asked,

f Sermons, vol. ii. p. 28. * Arians, &c., p. 14.

520

' Do they or do they not hold a human personality of our Lord?'
they might know the right answer to give, though they would
probably regard the question as scholastic trifling. Others, on the
contrary, may habitually so act and speak, as to make it clear to
the religious mind, that they do realise the Agent of those works to
be Almighty God; and yet may use the words ' nature' and ' person'
in a manner abstractedly heretical. Yet what can be more ex-
travagant than acquitting the former or accusing the latter of real
heresy ? And if Churchmen from the very first uniformly exhibited
this solemn, reverential, and awful tone in speaking of our Lord,
which sufficiently shews their deep impression how intimately His
Divine Nature was connected with all that He did in the flesh,
what an absurd, unmeaning, and narrow-minded procedure, to
make them the objects of our criticism, because some of them, if so
be (which Mr. Goode however has not attempted to prove), may
have fallen into language, which at a later period became the
symbol of heresy I In like manner the Apostles may have im-
pressed on the Church the full idea, that our Lord is Very God,
and yet God the Son; and it may be true also that the detailed
system, afterwards sanctioned by the Church, alone rightly expresses
this truth, so as neither on the one hand to involve logical contra-
dictions, nor yet on the other hand to lead, by necessary moral or
intellectual process, to an absolutely heretical result. All this may
be most true, as it is ; and yet the earlier Fathers, who may have
had the true id.ea most fully impressed on their whole being, may
yet have adopted certain notions, which in themselves were liable to
one of these two objections. How can it be any want of reverence
for those holy men to think so ? no one has claimed for them either
inspiration or infallible powers of logical discrimination ; while at the
same time had they seen the moral or intellectual consequences
contained in these notions, much more had they been witnesses of
a party embodying them and carrying them out, they would have
disavowed them with horror. But heresies had not arisen in their
time to require wary thought on such matters ; while even when
heresy was active and energetic, and the whole Church in consulta-
tion, it was found no easy matter to harmonize and draw into system
the Revealed Truth." h

11 ' On Goode,' pp. 93, 4. ' In the early centuries writers of the Church used
language which may bear an Arian appearance ; after the Council of Nicea thev do

521

I have said, that it is difficult to discern the real Objects
of their faith, amidst the indistinctness of their opinions and
expressions : I should rather have said, impossible to those
who have not in other ways (e. g. as being taught by the
existing Church and having acted on her teaching) mastered
the sacred ideas ; but, on the other hand, not very difficult, if
there be sufficient intellectual power, to those who in their
measure have so done.

VII. It would appear then, that there are many cases, in
which the particular course adopted, or opinions expressed,
by a Saint, is of little or no authority, while the principles,
which led him to that course or those opinions, might probably
be of the greatest. There are other cases in which the very
reverse is true ; viz. when the circumstances, under which
the action took place or the opinion was given, were matters
with him of daily and most intimate experience ; part, as it
were, of the very atmosphere he breathed. The right action
in such cases as these is the spontaneous result of a holy in-
stinct ; the reason given is an after-thought, framed perhaps
on even a hurried and superficial analysis of his real state of
mind when he acted. The reason then is so far only au-
thoritative, as we have ground to consider the analysis really
sufficient for our purpose ; which it will very seldom indeed
be, except so far as the point now at issue had been then a
matter of controversy, and the intellect of the Saint was
subtle and penetrating.

VIII. From the circumstance that some doctrine, wholly
foreign to our own moral experience, appears to us to have
literally no foundation whatever either in reason or in Scrip-
ture, not even the faintest probability arises that it may not
be true. And if holy men, who have cherished and acted
on it, profess to prize it most dearly, and to view it as the
necessary result of acknowledged Scriptural principles, while

so no longer : the earlier Greek Fathers fall into expressions with a Pelagian sound ;
after a certain epoch such expressions cease.' On the other hand, during all the early
centuries, the intellectual expressions of doctrine on the Eucharistic Presence were
different with different writers.

522

no holy men can be found who have realised it by spiritual
action and yet thought otherwise ; if this be so, it is the
wildest and most extravagant presumption, to hesitate for a
moment in accepting it.

IX. A reason, incomparably more worthy of respect and
sympathy, is sometimes given, for demurring to tenets which
appear witnessed by holy men ; viz. that they seem to con-
tradict doctrines, which we most fully and entirely realise
as true and divine. Thus the view taken by many Saints of
Predestination frequently oppresses ordinary men, as if it were
inconsistent with such certain truths as free will, human
responsibility, God's earnest desire that all men should be
saved, Christ's death on the Cross being an Atonement for
all. Again, the belief entertained, it may be said, by all
the Saints of later times, on the peculiar privileges and pre-
rogatives of the Blessed Virgin, is, it is well known, extremely
painful to many most admirable Christians who have been
differently educated, as being inconsistent with our Blessed
Lord's sole Mediation, or other fundamental Verities. But
when we consider the mystery and unearthliness of the
saintly character ; and the extreme fanaticism of the sup-
position that ordinary men can really scan their thoughts,
or again, measure them by their own standard, (so as to
suppose opinions to be inconsistent with each other in the
case of Saints because they find it so to be in their own
case,) it will readily appear, that to take exceptions on such
a ground would be a most exceedingly unreasonable and
arrogant procedure. Rather our course should be, to take
for granted that nothing, really held by Saints as part of
their spiritual nature, can be contradictory to doctrines which
we know for certain to be true ; to cherish these latter the
more watchfully and carefully, as though to assure ourselves
that we really possess them ; and to take it on faith, if we
do not at once see the proof, that these most precious and
holy truths were really valued by the Saints whose senti-
ments at first sight would seem to contradict them ; valued
by them, I say, not only as dearly as by ourselves, but

523

rather by so much the more dearly, by how much their
habits and desires were more heavenly and spiritual than our
own. The result of this, the only humble and religious
course, will often be that we shall go on more to find that
true in fact which we had believed on principle ; and not
impossibly, that we shall discover in addition, that those very
truths, which we had fancied in peril, had been held by our-
selves in a disproportionate and one-sided shape, rather than
in their full orb and heavenly completeness.

X. I have already said, that the mere circumstance of
there being no producible proof whatever for a tenet
which believers have learned to hold, does not imply even
the faintest probability that it may not be true ; and that for
the simple reason, that religious truths are their own evi-
dence. On the other hand, if we consider certain errors of
opinion to be really injurious to the spiritual growth, it must
be because they interfere, either with the reception, or with
the full action, of some important doctrine. For both these
reasons, as Mr. Newman has continually remarked, the true
way of opposing error, is to place before its victims, by every
attainable means, the truth in all its fulness and harmonious
beauty. For instance, many excellent persons, whose opinion
deserves great respect, consider that the Catholic peasantry,
in parts of the continent, are superstitious on the subject of
relics or miracles to a very injurious degree. Supposing, for
argument's sake, that this be so, the evil of their superstition
arises from its contrariety to a certain higher and more truly
religious habit of mind. The right course then of those who
may desire to benefit them must be, not merely to oppose
their particular errors in fact or doctrine, (for were we ever
so successful in that, so long as their defective habit of mind
remains, similar or worse errors would take their place,) but
to implant by positive, not negative addresses that higher
tone of mind which we desire. Let that be done, and these
particular errors will at once fall off; as the very objector
bears witness : they shock the objector, as being inconsistent
with a certain high tone of religious purity ; give the peasant

524

that tone, and they will shock him too. Let me again repeat,
I am not at all granting the justice of the accusation :
I really have no opinion on the subject : I am only
granting it for argument's sake, that I may join issue on
the principle. And in like manner, if I had to give advice
to a person, in whom I fancied myself to perceive too great
and exclusive prominence given to the thought of the
Blessed Virgin, I should set him to meditate for half-an-hour
in every day on the truth that our Blessed Lord created
her ; or that He redeemed her ; or again, that all blessings
whatever flow from God as from their first source ; or that
our Blessed Lord died for us on the Cross. As to the last
particular alone, I can hardly fancy any one following St.
Alphonsus's earnest exhortations, and meditating for at least
a quarter of an hour in every day on that inconceivable
miracle of love, who could be in real danger of eclipsing the
constant vision of Him by other objects of regard. In a
word, our endeavours should be, in such cases, to increase
their devotion to the highest Object, not diminish it to the
lower ; to take care that they honour, not the Saints less, but
God more.

XI. The same humility, w r hich leads sensible Christians to
understand their complete inability to pass judgment on
doctrines foreign to their moral experience, leads them also
another step ; it leads them (though in a far less degree) to
feel, how difficult and complex a question it is, to discrimi-
nate, among religious men whose character is known to them
only at second-hand, who are, and who are not, so fully
endowed with the whole circle of Christian graces, so com-
plete in all the constituent parts of a Christian temper, so
mortified, so saintly, as fairly to claim at their hands that
deference, of which so much has been said. They will be
anxious then, where it may be possible, to repose confidence
in some external body, which exhibits on its very front a most
loving sympathy and reverence for saintliness, and which
may shew them other sufficient marks that their confidence
will be well-placed ; rather than venture by themselves, with-

525

out necessity, on so hazardous an inquiry. I have said
' among religious men whose character is known to them only
at second-hand :' for those of whom we have an habitual
and practical knowledge, we may justly and unfailingly ap-
preciate, without reference to an external body ; much less,
as in the case I am glancing at, to a body whose members
very frequently decide on the character of such men, on no
ground of personal experience, but on a priori considerations.
It admits of great question indeed, whether any body whose
relations to us are merely external, can exhibit such trust-
worthy signs of divine Authority, as holy men in whose
presence or close proximity we may constantly live. 1 But
however this may be decided, there is a circumstance which
will weigh far more than any other consideration with religious
minds, viz. that it is under their influence, as it were, that
God Himself has placed us ; an influence which we will then
neglect, when the said external body shall bring before us,
carried out into living and energetic action, a higher con-
ception of the Christian character.

XII. This leads to a remark on the word 'private
judgment.' The real idea, which has possession of serious
men, when they speak of this habit of mind in terms of
extreme disparagement, whether or no they are able them-
selves to disentangle it, is perhaps on the whole such as the
following. That religious truth is obtained by humbly
obeying God, and following every ascertainable trace of His
adorable will. So far as individuals forsake this path and
take the matter into their own hands instead of leaving it
with God whether by deciding on argumentative questions
for which they are incompetent, or by any other mode, in
that degree they act sinfully. Hence a faulty exercise of
private judgment may quite as easily take place, in deserting
guides placed over us by God for some other authority, as in
taking up opinions of our own without reference to any
authority ; though whether, in this or that person, any sinful

1 This will be estimated differently by different minds. In my own case I should
feel this, I think, not merely doubtful, but impossible.

526

element has been mixed up with his procedure, is a question
on which it is our happiness to know that we cannot form
the most distant conjecture.

XIII. It is plain, that in proportion as we give ourselves
up to an uninterrupted course of religious action, we realise
and dwell upon our positive doctrines, and forget what
may be called our negative opinions. To hold negative
opinions indeed, except on authority, is unphilosophical and
unreasonable ; because we cannot form even a guess on the
value of a doctrine, until we have morally apprehended either
that doctrine or its contradictory. But over and above this
it appears also that to lay any stress on them, (even though
we do hold them on authority,) is a sure mark of carnal-
mindedness and sluggishness in the spiritual life. There
would be apparent exceptions to this statement, in the case of
some most admirable men, who may have been taught to
lay stress on these negations, and who fancy that they do so ;
but these are not real exceptions, for it will be found that in
proportion as they talk naturally rather than on a theory,
they sufficiently shew how little real connection there is,
between the language they have learnt and their spiritual
nature.

And the converse is equally true : he who resolutely puts
from his mind the mere negations of his hereditary creed,
and girds himself to the task of carrying forward boldly
and unsuspiciously the positive tenets which it contains, is,
as one may say, already a Catholic potentially. Thus the
very same outward expressions of doctrine may be held by
different persons, Catholically or heretically, Christianly or
unchristianly, according as they fix their mind on what is
affirmed or on what is denied. A most extremely important
consideration this, were there room to pursue it, in judging
of our ' high-church' theology, and of its professed agreement
with primitive Antiquity. And thus we are led to one most
distinguishing note, which has appeared in every age, between
Catholic and heretical exercises of the intellect. The Catholic
exercises his intellect philosophically ; he endeavours to con-

527

vey, as best he may through so inadequate a medium, certain
wonderful ideas which fully possess him, on which he is
energetically acting at the very time when he is scientifically
analysing them. The heretic, on the contrary, exercises his
intellect unphilosophically ; in trying to expose what appear
to him unmeaning subtleties and distinctions, in a matter on
which he has no spiritual experience ; like a blind man who
should ridicule those who possess the power of seeing, for the
unintelligible distinctions they make in trying to explain to
him what they see. The Arian ridicules the idea of the
Eternal Sonship, the Sabellian of a distinction of Persons
in One Substance, the Zuinglian of a Real Presence of
our Lord's Body. On the other hand, let us suppose the
case of a positive Arian, if I may use such a term : suppose
the case of some one whom Ulfilas should have converted
from heathenism to Arianism, and who should have no prac-
tical knowledge of genuine Christianity. I conceive that
such an one, if religious, would theorize on the idea of ' God'
now for the first time purely brought before Him ; or on
Christian morality ; or, it may be, on the doctrines of Grace :
it is even conceivable, that by religiously and heartily con-
templating the doctrine put before him, he might uncon-
sciously press it forward for himself into orthodoxy. But it
is quite certain, that when orthodoxy is fairly and fully
brought before him, to criticise it negatively would be to
contradict the whole habit of his past life ; he would see that
it is something wholly beyond his spiritual experience, and
therefore no subject for his criticism ; nay, can we doubt
that in a very short time he would heartily embrace it ?

XIV. From the truths with which we started, the rule is
very readily obtained for deciding what are those cases in
which it is unreasonable consciously to inquire and examine
into the grounds of our belief, and what are those in which
it is reasonable to do so : for where first pri uciples are
concerned, such a process will not lead to truth ; but where
the matter in hand is to apply them or argue from them,
it will. The application of this rule indeed may in some
cases occasion a good deal of perplexity ; but the rule itself

528

is very plain and simple. It will be better, however, to
subjoin a few examples. Mathematical science requires
us to concede as a first principle, the trustworthiness of
our memory and of our intellectual faculties ; physical
science, political economy, social investigations, require, as
a further first principle, a belief that fixed laws regulate
the course of the phenomenal world, whether in the physical
or in the mental order. But these principles once granted,
free inquiry has its place ; and truth is obtained by means
of the fullest and most searching investigation, on the part of
those intellectually qualified for the task. Again, if the
question be raised concerning the genuineness and authen-
ticity of the books of Scripture, it is plain that the spiritual
nature has a most important part to play in the decision.
But supposing it were ruled, that that text must be con-
sidered authentic which was most generally received in the
fourth century, the further investigation of the case would
wholly appertain to the province of free inquiry. Once
more, let us suppose that inspiration were the topic discussed,
and that here too it were decided, that the view prevalent
in the fourth century is to be considered authoritative : as
before, free inquiry will henceforth be our one instrument of
discovery. But in this instance, a very important distinction
must be observed : the most irreligious men may discuss,
with great advantage, mathematical, physical, and many parts
of political science ; or they may, with perfect success, decide
on the authority and date of given Manuscripts ; but in such
cases as the present, they will be wholly ^competent to
form a judgment on the matter : not because the inquiry
into phenomena is to be less free and unbiassed in this than
in the former cases, but because the phenomena cannot be
apprehended except by religious men ; a thinker, who has not
carefully cultivated his spiritual nature, will be no more able
to understand St. Chrysostom's or St. Jerome's implied
views on inspiration, than a tyro, ignorant of Athenian
manners and habits and ways of thought, could understand
the allusions in a speech of Pericles or of Alcibiades.

We see then how wholly unfounded is the notion, that the

529

philosophy of faith denies the trustworthiness of the in-
tellectual powers ; or involves us in inextricable confusion, as
to the occasions when we may reason and when we may not.
As to the methods of reasoning, indeed, which have given
rise to the latter allegation who considers it any disparage-
ment to the intellect, when we believe, without proof, that a
certain tree is green? The philosophy in question asserts,
first, that we have a faculty, supplying materials for the
intellect to work upon, which are altogether distinct from
the mere facts of consciousness or sensation ; and, secondly,
(which is surely a priori far most probable,) that this faculty
has an organ of acquisition, wholly different from that by
which the intellect performs its functions ; that the intellect
obtains truth by examination of evidence, but the conscience
obtains truth by obedience and belief.

The analogy between the senses and the spiritual nature,
in their relation to the understanding, has been used by
Mr. Newman with admirable success. k Let us apply it in
another particular. Suppose a person, wholly destitute of
musical ear, were obstinately to refuse belief in the existence
of such an endowment ; it is plain that when we enlarged to
him in the most glowing language, on the surpassing beauty,
majesty, suggestiveness, of a symphony of Beethoven's, he
would consider us the victims of some wild and delusive
imagination. Suppose, again, he fell in with a work on the
science of music, in which e. g. it were stated, as a matter of
theory, how exquisitely in accordance with the most joyous
feelings is some given composition ; and how, by its mere
change into a minor key, it jars irreconcilably with the
whole current of our associations ; the expression of this
in technical terms, would appear to him the mere refinement,
flowing from an over-subtle character of mind. Over-imagi-
nativeness, and over-subtlety ! by how many a ' sensible and
hard-headed' man has this charge been brought against
Catholics, when they enlarge on the surpassing delight of
meditation on some (so called) abstract doctrin e; or when
they express, in scientific language, the differences between

k University Sermons, pp. 46, 7.

530

Catholicism and Ncstorianism or Sabellianism, and proceed
to characterise those differences as so irreconcilable and so
constantly and practically energetic, that the talk of a Chris-
tian union between their professors is the wildest and most
senseless of theories.

XV. But this bigotted man could hardly fail to observe,
that these technical words are used in treatises on music
with remarkable skill and precision; and that any contra-
diction in terms is avoided, as it would seem to him, with an
unfailing art, which he would not know whether to admire
for its ingenuity, or to sigh over for its perverseness J Here
then is a most legitimate office for the intellect ; to express
these and other truths, derived from the spiritual nature, in a
consistent and scientific shape. To require intellectual proof
whether for the Personality or the Trinity of God, is
absurd ; m but an intellectual statement of these doctrines, is
among the noblest occupations in which a thinker's faculties
can be engaged. And another most fitting employment for
them, is to contemplate truths, derived from other quarters,
which seem prim a facie to conflict with these truths ; ' to fix
his mind carefully, intently, and habitually, as it were, on
both sides of the picture, until they make on it respectively
their appropriate impression. If he profess to be a philo-
sopher, the inquirer then proceeds to aim at developing, to
his own consciousness by accurate thought, and afterwards
to the world by accurate language, that wide and expansive
field of truth, which shall embrace both these seeming con-
tradictions.' The first of these functions belongs to the
science of dogmatic theology, the last to the ' architechtonic
philosophy.'"

1 A similar observation of Mr. Blanco White's, on the Catholic Theology, has
been often enough quoted.

m There is the fullest proof indeed to the believing mind, that this doctrine is the
doctrine of Scripture : (see, for the nature of this proof, the 23d Sermon of Mr. New-
man's 6th volume :) but intellectual proof implies that we shall prove the foundation ;
e. g. the Inspiration of Scripture, or, to take a still earlier stage, the Existence of a
God from whom a Revelation could proceed.

" ' The architectonic philosophy, that which assigns to all sciences and to all known
things their relative position and value.' (' On Mill's Logic,' p. 359.)

531

XVI. Hence that truth follows, to which I have before
alluded ; viz. that when sceptical thoughts assail us at the
period of prayer, or devotional meditation, or rather at any
time, (for our life at every moment ought to be a practical
prayer,) our only reasonable course is, to put them from us,
as suggestions of Satan, by an effort of the will. For on the
one hand, it is this very life of prayer, meditation, and re-
ligious action, which gives us assurance of spiritual realities ;
and to capitulate with a sceptical thought, is to intermit that
life : so that (resuming our old illustration) thus to act,
would be just as if you were to shut your eyes, that you
might do full justice to the arguments which are intended to
convince you, that a certain tree, within ten yards of you, does
not really there exist. If you keep your eyes shut for a
sufficiently long time, you might really begin to think that
there is great force in the arguments. And as to the sceptical
objections themselves, either they profess to shew that you
have no intellectual proof for what you believe, or that your
opinion is intellectually inconsistent with acknowledged truths.
The former objections, as I have sufficiently shewn, are simply
absurd and unreasonable ; but the latter have the fairest
claim on your attention: or rather indeed they demand it,
if it be your profession, and if you have sufficient intellectual
power, to enter on such inquiries. Now this allegation of
intellectual inconsistency may possibly be true, and may arise
from the circumstance that your opinion is not the adequate
exponent of your belief; in that case, obviously the reasonable
course is, not to admit doubt into your mind, but, on the
contrary, to hold your belief all the more stedfastly ; while
the intellectual difficulty in question may stimulate you, so that
you shall perceive the error of your explicit opinion earlier than
you would otherwise perceive it. Or, secondly, such an allega-
tion may be only plausible ; a case which will happen over and
over again, in these days wherein we live : here, if we give up
firm belief, it is plain that we lose our hold of truth; but if we
cleave to it, and cleave also to the truth which appears at first
sight contradictory, we have that very opportunity, to which
I lately adverted, of enlarging the sphere of the * architectonic

532

philosophy.' Lastly, the case is hypothetically conceivable,
though it never happened, and in all probability never will,
that the intellectual inconsistency is real. The only philo-
sophical inference from that would be, that our intellectual
powers are mendacious ; for we have infinitely less evidence
for their trustworthiness, than we have for those truths which
we spiritually discern. In no conceivable case then can it be
otherwise than most unreasonable, and most injurious to the
progress of truth, that we should give up, from intellectual
difficulties, any constituent part of our spiritual belief.

XVII. From all that has been said, it at once follows, that
religious persons will invariably present to the world the
appearance of acting and of believing on absurdly insufficient
grounds. To present this appearance is ever a characteristic
note of the Church.

XVIII. In all that has been said about spiritual know-
ledge and conviction, it must not be forgotten, that the
Christian Gift has imparted to this knowledge and conviction
a new and supernatural quality.

The first impression of some readers from all this,
I cannot deny it, will be that I have advocated a sort
of universal Pyrrhonism, a cheerless and desolating scep-
ticism on all moral truth ; so many are the opinions,
bearing on moral and religious subjects, on which I seem to
represent that they are unable to form a judgment; nay, so
many are the opinions, erroneous in themselves, which never-
theless, if these views be true, ought in the first instance
firmly to be believed. I answer as follows. First, the object
of moral and religious truth is religious action, and not

' So certain is this, that we hold it perfectly conceivable (we do not say
probable) that, as part of the last fierce contest on earth between the powers of
good and evil, when "great signs and wonders" shall be shewn, "insomuch that
if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect," Satan may be permitted to
bring a cloud over man's intellectual faculties, and represent, as certainly
deduced by the reasoning powers, doctrines inconsistent with revealed truth.
On such an hypothesis, it will be the evidence and the reward of men practised
in piety, that their perception of holiness shall attach them even the more indis-
solubly to the doctrines and ordinances of the Church, from the unprecedented con-
federacy of strength which would be ranged in opposition.' (' On Mill's Logic,'
pp. 410,11.)

curious speculation; no temper of mind will have God's
blessing with it in its search after such truth, or has any
chance of prospering in the search, except that which dis-
plays itself in the prayer : ' Lord, I am sinful, blind,
ignorant; what is that outward messenger of Thy Truth
before which Thou wouldest have me bow ? ' This is the
sentiment, which it has been my very principal object all
through to enforce : and such maxims as have been here
given, are most amply sufficient to guide the temper of mind
I am supposing ; most amply sufficient to determine, what
those truths are, which itis our duty at any moment to
receive and realise. But, secondly, it would be very far from
giving me pain, if a consideration of the true principles on
which religious belief is based, should impress deeply on the
minds of Englishmen, how miserable a guide is our boasted
private judgment ; and how fearful a blow was inflicted on
the progress of religious knowledge amongst us, by our
infatuated rejection of that great Gospel boon, a Living
Witness and Home of Christian Truth. The Reformation
has brought us, I willingly acknowledge, into a state, in
many respects analogous to that of heathen ; in which we
may know enough for our immediate guidance, but have no
vantage-ground, as it were, no lofty eminence, from whence
to pass judgment on that great expanse of fluctuating
opinions, which is beyond the reach of our own spiritual ken.
5. The first application which I shall make of the principle
I have been engaged in advocating, shall be to uphold the
reverence which it is the duty of all English Christians to
pay to the Sacred Volume. This is indeed no task necessarily
incumbent on myself; for the view I hold on the authority
of the Church enables me, for my own comfort and satis-
faction, to assume a far higher position. Still so deeply am
I convinced of the opinion lately implied, viz. that any class
of religionists amongst us, if they will only begin to act bon&
fide on the positive opinions they hold, are at once in the
path which most surely leads them to full Catholicity ; p and

P Lutheranism constitutes no exception to this ; let any person, not absolutely
depraved, act on it honestly, consistently, unflinchingly, he will speedily abandon it

534

again, so deeply do I fear that an attack on the full inspira-
tion and authority of the Bible itself, is more nearly impend-
ing than most of us fancy, p that I am anxious to give a
few hints, on the arguments by which that attack may be
most successfully parried. Moreover, the discussion will
give me the opportunity of expressing one or two particulars,
which are personally important, more clearly than I have yet
had an opportunity of doing. It is most truly unfortunate,
indeed, however natural, that the Protestant world has
agreed in taking as their first principle a book rather than
a doctrine ; but still we must deal with facts as we find them.
The deepest and surest conviction of which our nature is
capable, is that which is entertained by those who have
obediently followed a pure Church's training, of that Church's
Divine authority." 1 Still the belief in definite Christian doc-
trines, such as the Trinity, or the Incarnation, which is
accessible to all serious Christians, is not inferior to this in
kind, however much so in degree : it has to fight indeed single-
handed against the assaults of sight, imagination, reason ;
while a pure Church employs sight, imagination, reason, in
her own defence, thus using worldly weapons against the
world: yet the belief itself is not the less superhuman and
infallible. But this cannot be said of belief in the whole
Bible as it stands ; and those therefore who have made this
their locus standi, have chosen a less impregnable position
than might have been desired. True it is indeed that their
fathers have been probably more in fault than themselves ;
and at all events, taking the facts as they are, such Christians
may defend their ground with no contemptible advantage,
against the poisonous arrows of scepticism and unbelief.

with horror and anathema. It derives its whole influence from those who will not
act on it consistently, and yet do receive it in a great measure.

P ' Have you seen' S. T. Coleridge's ' Letters on Inspiration ? They are well
fitted to break ground in the approaches to that momentous question, which involves
in it so great a shock to existing notions ; the greatest probably that has ever been
given, since the discovery of the falsehood of the doctrine of the Pope's infallibility.'
Arnold's Life and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 358.

i See pp. 2802.

535

To shew more clearly my meaning as to the vantage-
ground which Protestants have given up, let us suppose, as
an imaginary case, that a priest is beginning to instruct
a baptized Christian in the leading facts and doctrines of
Christianity. This will represent to us, as in a figure, the
respective positions held towards each other, in one respect,
by the intellect and the conscience. For it is plain, on the
one hand, that the most mortified and conscientious man living
could never invent for himself these tidings ; they must be
taught, through the agency of the intellect, from without.
But the doctrines are apprehended and understood by the
disciple, in proportion to his moral proficiency ; and often
very far better than by the teacher. That our Saviour is
God, that He died for our sins, that the Holy Ghost is God,
and purges us from sin, all these statements are by him best
understood, who, by means of moral action, is best acquainted
with the real idea of God, and best appreciates the real nature
of sin. Let us further suppose, that the priest recounts to
the disciple, one after the other, the narratives contained in
the four Gospels, and impresses them on his memory, imagin-
ation, and understanding : these also will be far more fitly
apprehended in proportion to moral, than to intellectual,
attainments ; though the latter will have their place also.

Now if we suppose a sufficient time to have elapsed, and a
continual process to have gone on of spiritually appropriating
and realising this teaching, certain of these statements will have
been so embraced by the learner, as that he has an infallible
spiritual knowledge of their truth : they will have gradually
awakened into life and energy a responsive chord within him,
the deep and full echo of which to doctrines proposed, is the
ultimate , fact which constitutes proof ; and the analysis of
this fact would complete the analysis of the process of proof.
This faith is natural under natural religion, and supernatural
under the Gospel through the Baptismal Gift : so that Gos-
pel faith is indefinitely elevated above natural faith: but
in either case this conviction is, beyond any possible com-
parison, more reasonable and undoubted, than any derivable
from intellectual * discursus ;' because the trustworthiness

536

itself of our intellectual powers is only proved indirectly by
that very test, which proves these truths directly and imme-
diately, (see pp. 507, 8. q )

Now further which of these statements is it that are
really so proved ? I conceive such as the following : that
the subject of these various Narratives is one Person, whose
attributes are on the whole most faithfully and harmoniously
embodied in these narratives; that that Person is God ; is
the Son of God ; died as an Atonement for our sins ; is
brought into ineffable proximity to us by the agency of the
Holy Ghost; that the Holy Ghost is God; and so on
with others that might be named/ But the Scripture nar-

i "The Almighty, to impart to us the gift of faith penetrates the soul and
speaks to her ; not by reasoning, but by inspiration. He proposes to the under-
standing the objects of her belief in so gentle and persuasive a manner, that the
will is powerfully inclined to exert her freedom and authority over the under-
standing, and thereby reduce it to acquiesce unhesitatingly and fully in the truths
revealed. Notwithstanding the veils and shadows which obscure the divine
light, it no sooner beams in the soul than it exacts obedience ; it so completely
subdues the mind, that there is no opposition made to the certainty of the object
which it proposes to our belief ; which certainty is in fact superior to every other
species of conviction." St. Francis de Sales, ' Love of God, 1 English translation,
pp. 93, 4.

T The following passages, from the British Critic, will illustrate the process which
will enable those who are intellectually gifted, and have not been nurtured in the
bosom of a pure Church, to discern what those doctrines are which they believe with
a divine faith.

' Let the supposition be fairly brought home to any religious person, of a denial,
e. g. of God's existence from everlasting ; will he not at once most deeply feel, that
the idea of such denial is unspeakably painful and shocking to the imagination ? and
that, not as being an insult to some formula which he has learned to revere, but
rather as threatening to take from him the possession of a real, living, vital truth,
which he had rather die than part with. There is then such an idea the ejcperi-
mentum crucis proves it deeply implanted in the religious man's moral nature, and
precious to him beyond words, as God's eternal pre-existence ; and yet, as has been
often enough remarked, if we attempt the intellectual apprehension of this truth
if we attempt to conceive, as an external fact, of God having lived ages without
end, and then beginning to create our mind recoils, baffled in its futile attempt.
And a similar moral test may be applied to one after another of God's attributes,
notwithstanding the absolute impossibility of any attempt to reconcile with each
other, in our own minds, the expressions which are universally adopted to signify
them.'

' Are we asked for proof that there is a real assembly of truths, answering to
the ecclesiastical expressions of Christian doctrine ? We offer the very same

537

ratives themselves, one by one, most certainly are not so
proved : no ordinary Christian can say, (to make a purely
imaginary hypothesis,) that if it became on other grounds
probable that some one or more of these were spurious, he
could have any spiritual knowledge of his own, which he could
oppose confidently to such a supposition ; nor yet again, that
of those which are genuine there may not be some few, which,
at first hearing, do not altogether commend themselves, and
which he receives on the authority of the rest or of the pro-

which establishes the reality of our idea of God. The more conscientiously and
strictly the orthodox believer walks, the more chastened and mortified his life,
the more entirely by means of voluntary or involuntary suffering he is thrown on
the thought of God for comfort, the more deep and stable has ever become his
apprehension of the Christian doctrines, the more intimate and undoubting his
conviction of their truth, the more warm and absorbing his love of them, the
higher his sense of their inestimable value. Heretics, as they grow more
spiritual, grow more dissatisfied and restless, and change from one heresy to an-
other, till they find the truth ; the orthodox feel with ever-increasing confidence
that they have found it. And the proof of the reality of Christian ideas might be
considered indefinitely stronger than that of merely JTieislical, (did certainly
admit of degrees, and did not the former include the latter,) by how much Chris-
tians attain more than others to the conscientious, mortified, and contemplative
life. And, again, that each one of the more prominent dogmatic definitions in
use corresponds with a deep reality in the believer's mind ; this also we prove by
precisely the same test which we adopted in speaking of natural religion. Let
the assertion in any way be brought home to the apprehension of the religious
Catholic, that our Blessed Lord was before all creatures, but still a creature,
and not co-eternal with the Father ; or that He is not Very God as truly as the
Father ; or that there is no distinction in any sense between Him and the Father ;
or that His divine nature is not derived from the Father ; or that there are more
Gods than one ; or, again, that He had not all the feelings and infirmities of
human nature, sin only excepted ; or that He had sin ; or that the principle of
any of His actions in the Flesh was less than divine (in other words, that He
had a human personality) ; and so on with the rest: let this be done, and he will
at once feel most acutely that a vital, an 'absolutely essential, part of the one
support of his religious life is attacked ; that if he is to enjoy happiness, if he is to
advance in holiness, he must be sheltered and protected from the endurance of
such blasphemies.' ' On St. Athanasius,' pp. 414, 418, 19.

Again a most powerful support to the faith of all in Christian doctrine is
supplied by the deep and supernatural harmony between Scripture and Catholic
doctrine, which spiritual believers are ever more fully discerning. Of this a few
words presently.

All this is of course equally, or probably much more, true of a religious person
who has been nurtured within the bosom of a pure Church ; but he will have also
divine faith in that Church : so that this analysis will not to him be so important.

538

ponent. The case might possibly be different with very
heavenly-minded and saintly men ; nay, supposing a Christian
had been preserved by God's grace free from venial as well as
mortal sin, in such a case it is even highly probable that there
would be that sympathy with our Blessed Lord, which might
serve as an infallible touchstone, to distinguish the true recital
from the false : but none except the wildest fanatic will at-
tribute any such power to ordinary believers. And what is
true of this most sacred part of Scripture, is still more true
of the rest. That the volume, as a whole, presents the most
undeniable proofs of its awful character, mysterious struc-
ture, Divine origin, cannot be questioned ; but no one can
say, that there are not individual portions of it in which he
fails to recognise those marks ; or again, that passages might
not easily be brought, e. g. from Thomas a Kempis, which
he could not by his own discernment distinguish from Scrip-
ture.

We may see then the disadvantageous position into which
English Protestants have brought themselves, by taking their
stand on a book instead of on a doctrine ; and they feel it
themselves. For when they hear of the course taken by
foreign criticism; when they hear of acute and powerful-
minded men, who question the Scripture account of the
Creation, or the Fall, or the Flood; who deny Divine au-
thority to integral parts of the New Testament; who threaten,
as inquiry proceeds, to leave nothing untouched, nothing
sacred ; they seem able to utter in their defence little more,
than a vague and unreasoning clamour. I am far from de-
nying, that even this clamour is far more reasonable than that
sort of dispassionate criticism to which I have been alluding :
it arises in part doubtless from the shock received, in the
hearing of such sentiment, by their religious and reverential
instinct; even though it may arise in part also from indolent
and acquiescent conservatism. Still I think that if any of
their number should be attracted by that appearance of
depth, honesty, and unprejudiced desire of truth, which is
presented by the theory of free inquiry ; should he be tempted,
not to add to his existing creed, but to take from it ; not to

539

accept an authorized interpreter of his rule of faith, but to
question the rule itself; it is possible to put before him,
with perfect calmness and argumentativeness, grounds, which
will be sufficiently cogent, to deter even moderately religious
and conscientious men from such a course.

I would beg to ask him, in the first place, whether he aims
honestly at carrying out into lively and energetic practice
those religious truths which he does hold ; whether he be en-
deavouring, day by day, that the fear and love of God shall
be more undividedly the principle of his thoughts, words, and
actions ? If otherwise, what can he expect to meet with ex-
cept error and delusion ; what will be his fitting reward except
intellectual perverseness and judicial blindness ; if, with no
practical realisation of the truths of natural religion, he pre-
sume to criticise the documents which contain a Revelation ?
Nay, on the score of that very quality for which he takes
credit, sincere and unprejudiced desire of truth, there is
as little to be said in his defence, as on the score of piety and
reverence. For surely critical science will suffer no very
serious evil by a delay e. g. of two years : if Christianity has
gone on very well without his labours for 1844 years, it may
do so for 1846 : while we say, that those two years, spent in
retirement, and prayer, and meditation, would give him views
of truth radically different. He professes to believe in our
accountableness to God, and in judgment to come ; it is the
dictate of plain reason to act on that belief ; there are people
who say, that by so acting he would further altogether aban-
don those speculative views to which he is now attracted ;
surely, if under all these circumstances he still resolve to pro-
ceed in his free inquiries, he must give up all claim to be con-
sidered a real seeker for truth : he must be classed with those
most contemptible pretenders, who profess to think of truth,
but think rather of their own powers of mind ; and whose
ardent desire, is not to increase human knowledge, but to
gratify their own selfish taste for intellectual speculation ;
supposing, that is, that their real wish be not still baser, the
wish to gain notoriety by the propagation of a so-called phi-
losophical system.

540

But let a person submit himself to a course of such dis-
cipline, as I sketched from life in the sixth and seventh chap-
ters ; let him acquire the habit of daily self-examination ;
frequent prayer; meditation on those truths which he ac-
knowledges, the sinfulness of sin, the peril of sin, death, judg-
ment ; let him add to this, if possible, (for such a man will
probably have had hitherto little experience of life except on
its sunny side,) let him add active personal communication
with the poor ; and, if his principles do not forbid it, such
measure of bodily mortification as may be suitable to his
case ; little fear need be entertained, lest he should come
forth from the influence of such a course of treatment, with
any heart left to criticise impartially and superciliously the
evidence for an alleged revelation, or the documents which
contain it. In proportion as he shall have realised his own
exceeding sinfulness, blindness, helplessness, and the appal-
ling mass of temporal and spiritual misery which overspreads
the world, he may think of devoting his intellectual faculties
to a consideration of the means of alleviating this frightful
evil ; or to preparing the materials by which others may do
so ; or to drawing out, in their full and harmonious pro-
portion, those great truths, which have become his own rest
and refuge, and the knowledge of which he eagerly desires to
spread : but when books are placed before him which pro-
fess to contain a message from God, I conceive that his lan-
guage will be very much as follows :

' I possess a knowledge, infinitely more certain than any
intellectual inference, that there is an All-Just, All-Holy
God ; and that I am a miserable and helpless creature. The
consciousness of sin present, the memory of worse sin past,
fill my mind with anxious misgivings, in regard to the in-
visible world ; let a book be placed before me which purports
to bring me news from thence, my only reasonable course is,
eagerly to seize it, in hope that I may therein find an allevia-
tion of these misgivings. The Bible is such a book. In almost
every page I discern marks of Divine Authority ; I read my
own nature, as in a mirror, reflected to myself in its pages ;
I gather from them most precious and consoling truths ; and,

541

by acting on those truths, I obtain a most certain and in-
fallible conviction of their reality. The evidence to me of
the Bible's authority is my need and its supply. It could
be no matter of wonder, if God gave no external evidence for
it whatever: for He has given us the means of knowing the
truths of natural religion ; and he who acts on those truths,
will experience the same need, and, if he searches Scripture,
the same supply. Nor is it in any way inconsistent with His
attributes, but rather accordant with them, that those who
do not prize the truths of nature, shall have the fullest scope
allowed them, for criticising or rejecting the volume of Reve-
lation. True it is, that I find much in it mysterious and
perplexing; but in looking for expositors to help me in a
fuller understanding of its contents, I will seek for those who
recognise those truths, which I most undoubtingly know;
who sympathize with those feelings in regard to the Sacred
Volume, which my conscience tells me are the only just and
right ones; who look upon the Scriptures in that light, which
I plainly see to be the only reasonable light. The German
critics, whatever their intellectual merits, (which I have not
even a temptation to deny,) are not such expositors. They
shall be no guides to me.'

This surely is the language of common reason and common
sense. It is a fact acknowledged on all hands, that, from the
moment when Christians were first able to meet together and
compare notes down to the present day, the sacred books
have been the very same which we now retain ; r and that they
have been regarded in that point of view, which I have been
just now endeavouring to recommend as the only reasonable
point of view. 3 The New Testament again bears the same
testimony to the Old Testament in its integrity, that the

r A discussion on the 'Apocrypha' would be here out of place.

Thus : to meet an objection that has been sometimes made to this statement,
to say that the first chapter in Genesis is a myth, that each verse of it is not adapted
to convey to us truth, or does not deserve the most careful study for the purpose of
discovering its meaning, all this is inconsistent with this point of view. But to say
that passages in Scripture have been purposely so worded as to convey truth, with-
out anticipating scientific discoveries, this is no departure whatever from patristic
principles of interpretation.

542

Church has borne to both ; it speaks of Adam as simply and
naturally, as of Christ; it speaks of the Fall or the Flood,
with no more suspicion of their literal truth, than of that of
the Resurrection or the Ascension. Holy men have perused
the text of Scripture with a humble and reverent curiosity ;
and have professed to derive from every text lessons of
superhuman wisdom. I do not press any individual in-
quirer to give more weight to the authority of the Church
and of holy men, than his existing principles allow; but
I earnestly entreat him to give as much weight as these
principles require. On the other hand, as to those who
have originated the existing school of free criticism, it is
saying no more than will be acknowledged by their admirers,
if we affirm that they have not resorted to Scripture, as men
who watch with breathless interest to catch the first accents
that may be really from God, but in the very contrary
spirit: in that spirit, which, if there be force in the pre-
ceding arguments, is utterly unreasonable and unphiloso-
phical, and so likely to lead into every error ; is irreverent
and impious, and so likely to entail a special blindness of
sight, as God's appointed punishment. I am most anxious to
avoid any railing accusation against individuals, while I attack
principles: and I readily admit how much is to be said in
personal defence or praise of this or that rationalistic in-
quirer. As to those who constitute the foreign school, they
but inherit the teaching of their fathers ; and if we can
think, with thoughts altogether short of unmixed abhorrence,
even of Luther, we can have little temptation to form un-
charitable judgments on Paulus or on Strauss. Moreover,
both as to critics abroad and those at home w r ho may
be tempted to follow in their train, I gladly concede this :
that there is most undoubtedly a real and genuine science of
criticism, which has been brought into active life in these
later centuries ; and that those who, like myself, are ignorant of
its very simplest rudiments, are no fair judges of the tempt-
ations, which beset the path of those who are proficients in
its study. Still let it be remembered, that the votary of this
science has an almost boundless field before him, in applying

543

it to the carrying out of those very principles of interpre-
tation, which have been recognised from the first ; that a
commentary on St. Paul, or on the Gospels, or on the Psalms,
or on the Prophetical Books, is in principle precisely such as
might have been written by St. Athanasius or St. Augustine
or St. Thomas, but adapted to the existing far superior state
of exegetical science ; that this is an undertaking, which
would be of extreme benefit to the Church. And when such
a course as this is open, with the best wishes and gratulations
of all, that an individual should, on his own responsibility,
overstep this boundary-line, and should desert principles of
interpretation, which all, without one exception, have main-
tained, who have consulted Scripture in the fit temper of
mind ; this surely is a course, which the boldest could not
contemplate without alarm and dismay.

For my own part, when over against the views I hold on
the authority of holy men and of the Church, I place such
facts as these ; viz. the most unreasonably exaggerated im-
portance which undisciplined minds attach to a plausible
objection newly brought against some received opinion, and
again, the hasty induction, the absurd readiness to theorize,
which all seem to acknowledge as the present characteristic
of German thought, so that theory succeeds theory as wave
succeeds wave (strange and most edifying contrast to the sure
and steady march, and unceasing progressiveness of the
Church's dogmatic theology !); when I consider this, I have no
doubt at all, that when this exegetical process has been honestly
and bona fide carried out for some sufficient time, the issue
will be, not the overthrow, but the firmer reestablishment, of
all those old principles of which we have been speaking. But
if I cannot make others partakers of this conviction, they
must in fairness acknowledge so much as this : 1 . that the
temper of mind with which the rationalists have studied
Scripture, is both unphilosophical and most deeply sinful ;

2. that whether or no their researches have brought old
principles of interpretation into discredit, they must be from
the cause I just mentioned wholly worthless in devising new ;

3. that in order to judge rightly of the whole subject, full

544

justice must be done to such questions as these what is the
worth of that probability arising from the argument I just now
used, on the view of things acquired by really acting on the
truths of natural religion ? how much weight is due to the
experience of holy men, who have acquired so much of hea-
venly truths from every part of Scripture ? how great is the
improbability, that God would have suffered all Christendom
to be so long misled in a matter so closely concerning the spi-
ritual life ? and others of a similar kind ; 4. that on such
questions as these, holy men not intellectual men, are alone
qualified to form even a distantly probable judgment, and that
consequently, especially in so vitally serious a matter as mo-
difying the principles with which good men of all ages have
studied the sacred volume, no authority, except one which
should be able to collect the testimony of holy men, and which
should be supernaturally assisted in its decision, could claim
any deference at our hands ; 5. that God has placed us in a
traditionary system, where this book is put before us as very
simply sacred ; that in proportion as we live a strict and godly
life, and reverently study it, the marks of Divine authority
are more plainly traced in it ; that we have derived from it
doctrines which we now know to be most certainly and infal-
libly true ; that if we desert those principles of interpretation
which have been recognised by such august authority, no
positive principles we can adopt in their place have even the
slightest authority that a serious man can feel trustworthy.
If in the face of such considerations as these, an individual
should presume to leave the beaten track trodden by holy
men, and embark on the sea of speculation, with no safer
guide than his power of criticism, or the authority of others
who have no claim to authority except the same power to
speak plainly, he must expect to place his own salvation in
the most imminent peril.

It is generally acknowledged, that in originally fixing the
Canon, the Church took very prominently into consideration
the doctrine contained in the various books presented to her
notice. This leads to a remark of the utmost importance.
A great deal has been said in these latter days by Protestants,

545

and conceded by advocates of Catholicism, on the very great
dissimilarity on the surface, in the way of tone and general
bearing, which exists between the text of Scripture and the
dogmatic formularies of the Church. When by a deep and
habitual study of both, religious men come to perceive the
deep and wonderful harmony which really exists between
them, an evidence arises for the Divine authority of the two,
than which no external evidence can be conceived more
cogent. The proof is the same in kind with that of the
' Horae Paulinae ;' but far more persuasive and constraining
even than that exquisitely ingenious work. Neither of these
Divine oracles can be supposed to have been in matter of fact
founded on the other ; else they would not so differ on the
surface : both must come in a peculiar sense from God ; else
they would not so mysteriously agree, in the accents which
they utter to the disciplined and holy soul.

6. The next application I shall make of the Canons which
I fancy myself to have established, is one which all will have
anticipated throughout the discussion : I mean, the illustration
and defence of those maxims, on which the Church Catholic
has ever acted in dealing with her children. This is indeed
so obvious, that a few hints will suffice. The Church has
ever taught her children with authority : not imagining the
possibility of their questioning her judgment ; much less,
educating them, as in a duty, in the habit of studying impar-
tially the evidence of her claims ; but relying, for proof of
her divine mission, on the very lessons which she teaches her
children and the grace she dispenses to them. Those who
rebel against her authority, after having been educated in
her bosom, so far from considering in the light of inquirers
who have come to an erroneous conclusion on a question
which depends on argument, she has treated, as some in-
dulgent yet holy father might treat his children, who during
their childhood have refused to submit themselves to his
instructions. Catholics again, during the great controversies
which have agitated the Church, have habitually and un-
consciously regarded heretics not merely as rebels against
lawful authority, but as desiring to rob them of definite

2 N

546

doctrines which are part of their spiritual nature itself,
and which they would rather die than part with. On the
other hand, not only has the Church not exhorted or en-
couraged her children to investigate her claims, she has in
most cases forbidden it under the strongest penalties. The
very thought of unbelief has been treated as a sin ; like a
thought of anger, or pride, or impurity. Her children have
been forbidden so much as to read what has been advanced
on the other side, unless they establish, to the satisfaction of
her authorities, that they are so well grounded spiritually
in the faith, and so well furnished with intellectual power,
that they may benefit the Church without injuring them-
selves, by making so hazardous an experiment. All this
and much else of the same kind, is no doubt utterly unrea-
sonable and fanatical, if examination of evidence be our guide
to religious truth ;* but it all flows as a direct corollary from
the principles I have been labouring to illustrate.

* It is very much to be wished (to repeat what I have before said), that those
who, in some shape or other, base religious belief on private judgment, for
instance, on an opinion that certain doctrines are consistent with those of the
early Church and certain others inconsistent, would remember, how utterly
unmeaning, delusive, and wildly extravagant, are their words, unless they
inculcate the duty of doing the most careful justice to both sides of the
question. ' Was there ever heard a more preposterous notion, than that free
and impartial inquiry are to be our means of interpreting Scripture, [or the
Fathers,] and yet that our examination of arguments is to be all on one side ?
What would be said of a judge, who, having with much point and emphasis
and swelling satisfaction proclaimed his absolute impartiality, should proceed
however to intimate his intention of listening only to advocates on one side of the
question; but that they day after day, week after week, month after month,
should have ready access to his ear ? Mr. Goode advocates the establishment
of a body of clergy to enforce on the people arguments for his interpretation of
Scripture (voL ii. p. 246) ; is he prepared in consistency to provide advocates of
the opposite sentiments, that the noblest privilege of the Protestant, free and
unbiassed inquiry, may have at least some chance of legitimate scope ? Will
he insist upon the controversial works of Channing, Belsham, and Priestley, as
no less necessary parts of Christian education than those of Bull or Horsley ?
Nay, to go further back, will he enforce the necessary Protestant duty of en-
deavouring to give their full weight to the arguments of Tindal, Chubb, and
Collins, or Rousseau and Voltaire ? No ! most happily for themselves and
others, men's conscience is on the whole more than a match for their Pro-
testantism : they content themselves with recomme'nding free Scriptural inquiry
to all who differ from themselves ; they allow their Protestantism a gentle un-

547

This will be the fit place to say what little remains to be
said, on a subject which Mr. Palmer has noticed with con-
siderable emphasis ; the development of Christian doctrine.
All that I can say indeed on the matter has been pretty well
implied in what has gone before ; and nothing remains to be
done here except to notice Mr. Palmer's observations.

' There are " developments " which are inferences from Revela-
tion, and there are also "developments" which are mere expressions
of Revelation. There is a wide and essential difference between these
things. The former . . . may not have been deduced in the primitive
ages. . . . The latter have been at all times held substantially by the
Church ; they are comprised in Scripture, if not literally, yet in
its spirit and meaning ; they are mere expressions of quod semper^
ubique, et ab omnibus creditum est ; they can only be novel in form ;
they are in spirit and life identical with " the Faith once delivered to
the Saints." '

I have omitted from my quotation some expressions of
Mr. Palmer's, in which he seems to represent that later
inferences cannot be matters of faith ; because I do not
concur in that opinion : but the general distinction he makes
is undoubtedly just and of very considerable importance. It
had indeed already been made, quite as clearly in the British
Critic.

' When we speak of the Apostles having taught some principle
to the early Church, we mean what we say ; not that they gave to
their successors an embodiment of that principle carried to its
farthest limits. Every principle, which (as Mr. Carlyle would say)
is a reality not a sham, has indefinite results contained within it,
of which those who first receive it have not even the faintest
suspicion. They may hold it for some length of time in company
with other modes of thought, which are virtually inconsistent with
it ; they may so hold it through a life, through many lives ; until

disturbed slumber, in their own case and that of those who agree with them.
Was ever a more contemptible spectacle presented to the eyes of the merely
argumentative scoffer, than the claims of English Protestants to the especial
praise, as distinguished from foreign Catholics, of grounding their belief on
examination, taken in connection with the laws of religious libel, and the virtual
proscription in all religious society of books which take the opposite side ? '
' On Goode,' p. 58.

2 N2

548

gradually and unconsciously it is matured within and springs forth
into full development. Now the reverse of this is commonly as-
sumed by controversialists : they find the Fathers of some later
century far more explicit and unanimous than in earlier times, on
some great truth ; and immediately conclude, that it is the matured
fruit of some false principle which has crept into the Church. Most
illogically indeed I unless it be false principles only, which are
carried forward but slowly and by degrees to their full bearing.
Whether in this or that case it be false, is matter of evidence in
the particular instance ; but to say that d priori it probably is so,
is really to rule that the Apostles taught no principle whatever.
Real or living principles differ from mere formulae, as the works of
nature from the works of art ; a table or a chair is made once for
all, and remains stationary in size and proportions as it came from
the maker's hand ; but a small seed, small and almost impercepti-
ble, grows and expands without human cognizance, and ends not
begins by banishing all rival claimants from the space it is destined
to occupy. It may well be then, as Mr. Goode has pointed out
(vol. ii. pp. 02 214), that the fifth century was far more decided
and interested than the second in the defence of St. Mary's per-
petual Virginity, and yet may have been altogether right in such
increased love of the doctrine. Such love may well have been the
natural and legitimate development of principles taught by the
Apostles (e.g. the blessedness of celibacy, the sacramental efficacy of
proximity to our Lord, the unspeakable dignity to which human na-
ture is raised by the Incarnation, &c., &c.)- and St. Augustine may
have been most pious and wisely zealous in denouncing those as here-
tics, (vol. ii. pp.211, 213,) who did not receive a statement which
the orthodox, by that time, had discovered to have been ever morally
involved in the principles they held/rom the first'

' Again : the Apostles may not only have taught principles
without their development, but doctrines without their analysis.
A very little thought will suffice to shew,' &c. (See quotation in
pp. 519, 520.)

Where it will be observed, that the two paragraphs exactly
answer respectively to the two different ideas of ' develop-
ment' mentioned by Mr. Palmer. I am able also fully to
follow the latter in his observation, that Mr. Newman's
Sermon on the subject is on the whole confined to ' develop-

549

ments,' in that sense in which Mr. Palmer seems to admit
them ; though it is a sense in which, so we are told by
learned persons, Bp. Bull did not admit them. But the
British Critic has gone altogether beyond any thing that
Mr. Newman has stated in that sermon ; and appears to
consider it quite possible that doctrines may be ruled by
the Church as part of the necessary faith, which were not
held even implicitly by the early Fathers ; though they did
hold premises, which, by necessary consequence moral or
intellectual, lead to these doctrines. For myself, I think not
only this may be so, but that it is so. Here shall follow a
passage, in which I have stated this distinctly.

' Viewing then the Church collective starting after the Apostles'
death on her aggressive course, we find her, as might have been
expected, fully possessed of, and energizing in, those doctrines;
which are the cardinal points of faith ; e. g. the Trinity, the In-
carnation, the Eucharistic Presence. Her intimate assurance of
the truth of these, results from spiritual action ; and also, we may
add, from her perception of their wonderful accordance with the
dicta of the Sacred Volume, as viewed by holy eyes in all its depth,
fulness, and expanse. And her idea of them, the impression they
form on her mind, is infinitely indeed below the original truths
themselves, yet is it " the nearest approach to them which our
present state allows ;" as being received by the moral faculty : that
faculty, which is more truly heavenly in its origin, and in its
nature more akin to heaven, than any other part of man's constitu-
tion. On these subjects, then, the task which remains for her is,
to bring before her own notice one particular after another of her
complex and mysterious consciousness, to regard it steadily and
distinctly, to project it, as it were, from the moral on the intel-
lectual faculty, to express in accurate language the result of such
projection, and to follow out the result so obtained into those in-
tellectual consequences which necessarily flow from it. Or, to use
the words we adopted in the earlier part of our article, the science
of these doctrines (and it is a science which has been in fact
growing, we may say, almost to the present day, nay, which is still
pregnant with an indefinite number of unexplored inferences) will
consist entirely of analytical and deducible propositions. Not that
these truths are of a nature different from all other religious and

550

moral truths, so as not to grow upon the spiritual eye by contem-
plation, nor to germinate in the spiritual mind by approbation ;
but because, in point of fact, they were impressed, in their whole
fulness, on the mind of the infant Church, and, like Minerva, were
born full grown and complete in all their parts. In the mind of
individual Christians, indeed, they do so expand and germinate ;
and we may as well add, for clearness, that propositions which are
but analytical of the collective Church's experience, are synthetical
to believers one by one ; and that these dogmatic statements are, in
many cases, inestimably advantageous, in directing the disciple's
mind to a right apprehension of the revealed Objects. In the mean
time to speak at length of the gifts, moral and intellectual, called
forth by these investigations, or of their inherent dignity, greatness,
fruitfulness, would be hardly even becoming while the words remain
on record of one, who cannot at least be accused, as others might be,
of theorizing on the mere creature of his imagination, or of praising
works which he has not studied. b

' Still, though the foundations of the faith were fully realised from
the first, other principles there were no doubt, and very far from
unimportant ones, which were deposited, as it were, in germ within
the bosom of the Church; that her internal action might gradually
nurture them, or external circumstances hasten their appearance
on the surface. And on these subjects the Church herself does
form synthetical judgments, by dint of moral action and meditation.
In other doctrines, again, the spiritual experience, which she
accumulates from age to age, forms a most important part of the
premises to be taken into account; 6 here then also part of the

b See the ] 4th of Mr. Newman's University Sermons.

c The following admirable observations of Mr. Mill will illustrate the indis-
pensable importance of ever keeping alive within the Church the vivid memory of
her earlier and mediaeval period, through the din of present action and controversy ;
while they also point out the great advantage of her maintaining formulae and
expressions which have come down to her, though the present generation of
believers may be far from entering into their real force. (Vol. ii. p. 257.)
" There is a perpetual oscillation in spiritual truths, and of spiritual doctrines of
any significance, even when not truths. Their meaning is almost always in a
process either of being lost or of being recovered : a remark upon which all
history is a comment. Whoever has attended to the history of the more serious
convictions of mankind, of the opinions by which the general conduct of their
lives is, or as they conceive ought to be, regulated, is aware that while recognis-
ing verbally the very same doctrines, they attach to them at different periods
a greater or less quantity, and even a different kind of meaning. The words in

551

premises are synthetical. And it should be pointed out distinctly,
that when this theory of " development " is maintained, it is not
necessary, in order to account for it, to allege, as the cause of such
maintenance, the necessities of some immediate object, or undue
sympathy with some external system. If developments had not
existed in Christianity, it ivould have been necessary to suppose that
God worked a continued miracle, to separate off Christian from all
other religious and moral truth. It is of the very nature of moral
belief, that the same principles shall appear in each successive age,
in a new aspect, or a more advanced growth, or more harmonious
proportions.'

Here then, as in other cases, Mr. Palmer has rather under-
stated than over-stated the opinions which I, for one, enter-
tain : but I must be allowed at the same time to add, that
here, as in other cases, he does not seem to me so successful
in answering them as in stating them ; indeed it should be
said in justice to him, that he only professes to throw out
hints in the way of answer, as he ' cannot now discuss this
very extensive subject.' (p. 61.) Mr. Palmer seems to have
been hardly prepared for a plea of ' justification ; ' and has
directed, therefore, his main strength against a plea which
I by no means put forward, that of ' not guilty.'

My difficulty in defending this doctrine of * development,'
arises from my inability to conceive, how any one can have,
for a single day, pursued a course of moral and religious
action, and yet deny it. Confining our view to natural
religion, ' it is by moral action under this visible system,
and thus only, that we learn, in varying but continually in-
creasing degrees, the very meaning of those qualities which,
in their perfection, we attribute to God. From a father per-
haps we derive our first notion of justice ; from a mother, of
loving tenderness ; and thus in our gradual progress, every
perception of good in others, every growth of it in ourselves ;

their original acceptation connoted, and the propositions expressed, a complica-
tion of outward facts and inward feelings, to different portions of which the gene-
ral mind is more particularly alive in different generations of mankind. To
common minds, only that portion of the meaning is in each generation suggested,
of which that generation possesses the counterpart in its own habitual experience.
But the words and propositions lie ready, to suggest to any mind, duly prepared, the
remainder of the meaning."

552

every strengthened and confirmed habit of love, of unselfish-
ness, of diligence, of self-denial, of humility, of obedience, to
which this external and social system is, by God's appoint-
ment so well calculated to minister; all unite in this one
result, of gifting us with a deeper insight into the perfections
of the Divine Nature.' d Nor is it merely that we learn more
fully the meaning or the application of those truths we
know (though the distinction Mr. Palmer here draws is not
to me obvious) ; in the strictest sense of the word we acquire
new truths. To take one or two out of a thousand instances,
we learn that God is just : if we are careless and worldly,
the dogma remains barren and unfruitful ; but if we habi-
tually realise and contemplate it, we learn to carry on this
truth into a further development; that our conduct here
will have a decisive influence on our lot hereafter. Or we
learn that God is merciful as well as just ; we gradually
learn that such a belief involves the doctrine of a particular
Providence, and is inconsistent with the idea that the course
of phenomena is governed by fatal and unbending laws,
irrespective of that great end, our moral probation. Now no
one would say that it involved any denial of this principle, if
an inspired prophet having communicated a Revelation of
God's attributes, were to say here is * the whole truth ' or
here is ' the whole counsel of God,' or the like. Such
declarations could never be naturally taken to imply more,
than ' this is all which I tell you in the way of Revela-
tion : take it, appropriate it, develop it, for yourselves : but
I have no more to tell you than I have told you.' Nor, I
think, in the parallel case would any one naturally under-
stand those solemn texts cited by Mr. Palmer, (p. 58,) in
any different sense. To say indeed that this process of de-
velopment ceases, as if by some standing miracle, under the
Gospel, would be quite natural, if the history of the Church
appeared to require such a statement : but when the facts of
Church History precisely tally with what our knowledge of
human nature and of moral habits would lead us to expect,
some better reason surely must be given for our receiving

d ' On the Synagogue and the Church,' pp. 7, 8.

553

such a statement, than merely that its denial is absolutely
fatal to the pretensions of ' high-church ' Anglican theology.

Mr. Palmer indeed compares this doctrine to rationalism ;
nevertheless it has been the principal object of this chapter
to place these two philosophies in marked and pointed con-
trast. And in truth the question, whether we should begin
by believing and at once act ; or whether we should begin
by inquiring and abstain from moral action ; does seem
sufficiently vital and fundamental. In one point they agree,
and only in one ; in clashing with the principles of conser-
vatism. But then, how these principles can be placed on any
philosophical basis at all, or how they can be so much as
stated plainly and consistently, without disclosing features
which would repel the most cowardly and the most indolent,
I have never been able to learn. d

Lastly, Mr. Palmer and others say, that at last the prin-
ciple of development is only a negative argument in favour
of Roman doctrine. I have never claimed it as being more.
The positive arguments arise from the authority of the
Roman Catholic Church and of holy men ; whatever be the
value of those arguments, which this is not the place to
consider. But when it appears that there is no one tenet of
the Roman Church, which could not quite conceivably have
arisen from the development and combination of doctrines
declared by the Apostles, then this principle of development
does establish, that, to speak positively against these tenets
as false and corrupt, is as weak and shallow intellectually, as
I have already argued it to be arrogant and irreverent
morally. e

d See ' On Mill's Logic,' p. 352 and p. 362.

' I am much concerned at being obliged to crowd into a note the observations
I had promised on St. Alphonsus : but space forbids the enlargement on the sub-
ject which I could wish. No one affects me so much as a devotional writer ;
and I speak therefore with some claim to be heard, when I give an opinion on
matters of fact connected with his writings. Though a copious, he is very for
from a various writer : on the contrary, in all his devotional works there is a con-
tinual recurrence of four leading ideas, which seem his habitually prominent
subjects of thought. I. The miraculous love of our Blessed Lord in His Passion ;
II. in giving Himself to us as our sacramental food ; III. that union with Him
is perfect happiness, and separation from Him the only real misery ; IV. that the

554

7. The very same principles, which have actuated the
Church in her dealings with her children, have also governed

Blessed Virgin's intercession is all-powerful with Him. Of course, when one
reads the ' Glories of Mary,' one must expect that the chief subject shall be what
the title professes ; but it is impossible to read his ordinary works with any fair-
ness, and doubt for a moment, (even apart from the feeling which would lead any
ordinarily humble mind to take on faith that so great a Saint did not err in such
a particular, see pp. 427, 8,) that his feeling of ' latria' is exclusively given to God.
One illustration I may especially mention : the idea of union with our Blessed
Lord, to which I lately alluded, is peculiarly the ascription to Him of a Divine
attribute : now I will take upon myself to maintain a negative, and deny that any
expression will be found throughout his writings in regard to the Blessed Virgin,
of a similar nature.

Now take a few extracts from his writings selected almost at random.

' All the holiness, all tlie perfection, of a sold consists in loving Jesus Christ our
God, our Sovereign Lord and our Saviour. 'There are some men,' says St.
Francis de Sales, ' who place perfection in austerity of life, others find it in
prayer, others in frequenting the Sacraments, others in alms-giving ; but all are
mistaken. Perfection consists in loving God with our whole Jteart.' 1 (p. 1.)
(Pratique de 1'Amour de Jesus Christ.)

' Oh if men would but stop, when they behold a crucifix, to consider the love
which Christ bore for each one of them. " With what love," says St. Francis
de Sales, " should we not be enkindled at the sight of the flames of love which burn
in the bosom of the Redeemer ! Oh ! what blessedness to burn with the same
flame wherewith our God burns ! What joy to be united to God by the bonds of
love !" St. Bona venture called the wounds of Jesus Christ wounds which wound
the most insensible hearts, set on fire the most icy souls.' (pp. 7, 8.)

' The venerable John Avila : " In what manner, Thou who didst love me, shall
I repay Thy love ? Blood should be paid by blood. May I be covered by Thy
blood ; may I be nailed on that cross. Receive me, crown me with thorns, set
Thyself free, that I may expose my head to the thorns. O sacred nails, leave the
innocent hands of my Saviour, and pierce this heart of mine with pity and love.
My Jesus, St. Paul says that Thou didst die to make Thyself Lord of the quick and
the dead ; not by chastisement, but by love." (p. 9.)

' But to arrive at perfect love of Jesus Christ, we must employ the necessary
means. There are four mentioned by St. Thomas Aquinas : 1 . to have a con-
tinual memory of the benefits of God, as well general as particular ; 2. to con-
sider the infinite goodness of God, who is always ready to do us good, and asks
in return only our love ; 3. to avoid with care the least thing that can possibly
displease Him ; 4. to renounce all the sensible goods of this earth, riches,
honours, pleasures of the senses. Father Tauler adds, that another great
means of obtaining perfect love of Jesus Christ is to meditate on His holy
Passion.

' Who can deny that devotion to tlte passion of Jesus Christ is [of all] the most
useful, the most tender; the most pleasing to God, that which consoles sinners most
efficaciously, that which enkindles most loving souls ? And whence do we derive
certainty of pardon, strength against temptations, hope of paradise ? whence do wo

555

her proceedings in drawing towards herself the nations of the
world. At the first starting of the Gospel, circumstances were

receive so many rays of truth, so many inspirations of love, so many impulses which
lead us to change our life, so many desires of giving up ourselves to God, except
from the passion of Jesus Christ ?

' St. Bonaventure says, that there is no devotion more fit to sanctify the
soul than meditation on the passion of Jesus Christ. He therefore advises us to
meditate every day on this mystery, if we desire to advance in Divine love. . . .
St. Augustine says that one tear shed from the memory of His passion has more
merit than to fast every week on bread and water. Therefore it is that the Saints
have always employed themselves in considering the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
St. Francis of Apicium by this means became a seraph. One day he was found
weeping and exclaiming loudly. They asked him the cause of his tears. ' I weep,'
he answered, ' the sufferings and ignominies of my Saviour ; and that which makes
me weep the most bitterly is, that men, for whom He has suffered so much,
live without thinking of Him.' .... Another time, being ill, some one advised
him to have some book of devotion read to him : " My book," he answered, " is Jesus
crucified." For this reason he did nothing else but exhort his brethren always to
think of the passion of Jesus Christ.

' I see the wrong I have done Thee, my Jesus ; have pity on me. I offer
Thee this ungrateful heart : ungrateful, yet repentant. Yes, I repent, and I re-
gard it as the greatest evil that I ever spurned Thee. ..... Yes, my Saviour,

my God, I love Thee, I love Thee. Ah ! call ever to my mind how much Thou
didst suffer for me, that I may never forget to love Thee. cords which bound
Jesus, bind me to Jesus. thorns which crowned Jesus, wound me with love
for Jesus. nails which pierced Jesus, fix me to the cross of Jesus, that I may
live and die united to Jesus. O blood of Jesus, intoxicate me with holy love.
death of Jesus, make me die to all earthly affections. pierced feet of my Saviour,
I bind myself to you ; save me from the hell which I deserve. my Jesus, in hell
/ should never be able to love Thee, but I wish to love Thee for ever. my well-
beloved Jesus save me, press me to Thy bosom, and suffer me not ever to lose Thee.
Mary, refuge of sinners, mother of my Saviour, assist a sinner wJu> desires to
love God, and who commends himself to thee. Help me in the name of that love
which thou bearest to Jesus Christ.''

I have retained the last sentence, to shew the habitual connection in his mind of
the two feelings, love to our Lord and love to His Mother : the very idea of the pos-
sibility of their clashing never occurs to his mind. The following, from 'the Glories
of Mary' may be added.

' There is no doubt that figures, like hyperboles, cannot be taxed with falsehood 5
when by ilte context oftJie discourse the exaggeration is evident; as, for example, when
St. Peter Damianus says, that Mary comes to her Son commanding, not beseeching. . .
So then figures are permitted whenever there cannot be any mistake in conse-
quence.' Vol. vi. (French Edition,) p. 324.

Let it be observed also, that the Saints have their wills wholly and absolutely
subject to the will of God : theirs then is no arbitrary or capricious interference,
but they pray for those objects and in that degree, which is most fitting for
carrying out God's gracious purposes. This throws light on a form of expression

556

especially so ordered, that the best and highest minds should
be retained by no impediment in leaping forward, as it were,
to join her at her first summons. For the various forms of
heathenism were so essentially mixed up with moral depravity,
that all who had so much of moral light as to revolt from
the fearful exhibition, were eagerly looking out for some un-
known messenger of good; while the Jewish system had
from the first been so ordered, that * he derived most faith-
fully the lesson intended by it,' and gave proof that he had
most faithfully and heartily observed it, 'who was most
wearied and dissatisfied with' its bondage, and looked for-
ward most ardently to the future coming in of grace and
truth. f Under these circumstances, of what nature was the
Apostles' preaching? Let Mr. Newman answer this ques-
tion.

" The Apostles then proceeded thus : they did not rest their
cause on argument ; they did not appeal to eloquence, wisdom, or
reputation ; nay, nor did they make miracles necessary to the en-
forcement of their claims. They did not resolve faith into sight or
reason ; they contrasted it with both, and bade their hearers be-
lieve, sometimes in spite, sometimes in default, sometimes in aid
of sight and reason. They exhorted them to make trial of the
Gospel, since they would find their account in so doing. And of
their hearers ' some believed the things which were spoken, some
believed not.' Those believed whose hearts were ' opened,' who were
' ordained to eternal life;' those did not whose hearts were hardened.
This was the awful exhibition of which the Apostles and their

which I acknowledge to be at first hearing very painful. Some most admirable
Christians have at times used expressions, as though God the Father desired to
punish, but God the Son prevailed on Him to spare : yet what more frightful
heresy, than to suppose any real contrariety of will between Two Persons in the
Ever-blessed Trinity? Such expressions then, whether well or ill-advised, are
never understood by those who use them, as true ; but as economical repre-
sentations of Christ's intercessory office. And in precisely a similar manner,
where the like expressions are found concerning our Blessed Lord and St. Alary,
it is absolutely unfounded to suppose, that any opinion is implied so blasphemous, as
that the Blessed Virgin's love for us is otherwise than even infinitely less than His
who is perfect God.

f See this stated at greater length, ' On the Synagogue and the Church,'
pp. 28 30.

557

fellow- workers were witnesses; for faith, as a principle of know-
ledge, cannot be analysed or made intelligible to man, but is the
secret, inexplicable, spontaneous movement of the mind, (however
arising,) towards the external word, a movement not to the ex-
clusion of sight and reason, for the miracles appeal to both, nor of
experience, for all who venture for Christ receive daily returns of
good in confirmation of their choice, but independent of sight or
reason before, or of experience after. The Apostles appealed to
their hearts, and, according to their hearts, so they answered them.
They appealed to their secret belief in a superintending Providence?
in their hopes and fears thence resulting ; and they professed to
reveal to them the nature, personality, attributes, will, and works
of Him ' whom they ignorantly worshipped.' They came as com-
missioned from Him, and declared that mankind was a sinful and
outcast race, that sin was a misery, that the world was a snare,
that life was a shadow, that God was everlasting, that His
Law was holy and true, and its sanctions certain and terrible ;
that He also was all-merciful, that He had appointed a Mediator
between Him and them, who had removed all obstacles, and was
desirous to restore them, and that He had sent them to explain
how. They said that Mediator had come and gone ; but had left
behind Him what was to be His representative till the end of all
things, His mystical Body, the Church, in joining which lay the
salvation of the world. Thus they preached, and thus they pre-
vailed, using persuasives of every kind as they were given them,
but resting at bottom on a principle higher than the senses or the
reason. They used many arguments, but as outward forms of
something beyond argument. They appealed to the miracles they
wrought, as sufficient signs of their power, and assuredly divine, in
spite of those which other systems could shew or pretended. They
expostulated with the better sort on the ground of their instinctive
longings and dim visions of something greater than the world.
They awed and overcame the wayward, by the secret influence of
what remained of heaven in them, and the involuntary homage paid
by such to any more complete realising of it in others. They
asked the more generous- minded whether it was not worth while to
risk something on the chance of augmenting and perfecting those
precious elements of good which their hearts still held ; and they
could not hide what they cared not to ' glory in,' their own dis-
interested sufferings, their high deeds, and their sanctity of life.

558

They won over the affectionate and gentle by the beauty of holiness,
and the embodied mercies of Christ as seen in their ministrations and
ordinances. Thus they spread their nets for disciples, and caught
thousands at a cast; thus they roused and inflamed their hearers into
enthusiasm, till ' the Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence, and the
violent took it by force.' B

And such as have been the holy maxims which first founded
the Catholic Kingdom of Christ, such on the whole have been
those which in subsequent ages have enlarged its borders.
Kings have submitted to the Gospel, and their people have
at once followed their natural guides ; not led surely by in-
quiry and examination of evidence, (who so insane as to
suppose it ?) or by pondering on the notes of the Church, or
by a priori presumptions that an infallible authority is re-
quired for weak and ignorant man : no ; they have but fol-
lowed those whom they had learned to revere ; and the Church
has received them, that she may take on herself the sacred
and responsible office of imparting to them a purer moral
discipline, and indoctrinating them with a higher and truer
range of religious ideas, and moulding them under Divine
grace on a more heavenly model ; and that she may afford
them the proof of her authority in so governing them.

Or does the Church send missionaries into some distant
country, sunk in ignorance and superstition ? The guise in
which she takes especial pains to present herself, has ever
been such as is described in the following picture.

' Let us imagine Catholic missionaries, carrying with them as far
as might be the pure image of a Church. Let us picture to our
minds the men themselves, bearing in their very countenances
the marks of holy and mortified lives, exposing themselves with
eagerness to toil and danger, authoritatively teaching, reproving,
exhorting, appealing to men's consciences for warrant of the sub-
stantial truth of their doctrines, displaying that full and intimate
acquaintance with human nature which the close relation with a
flock is so well qualified to give, and bearing with them a majestic
ceremonial which shall set forth plainly before men their doctrines,
not written on paper, but exemplified, and, as it were, practically

? Lectures on Justification.

559

energizing. To which of these [Protestants who argue or Catholics
who teach~] will Dr. Whately himself promise success ? yet this is
the faiV issue : has Christ founded a religion or a Church 1 are we to
appeal to men's reasoning powers in behalf of our faith, and so shew
them what are its grounds, or to their moral faculties, and so shew
them what it is ?'

It would be absolutely insufferable indeed to dream
of confining God's grace within the limits of our narrow
theories, or of doubting that there have been numbers, in
whose case the Church's presence has at once broken the
fetters of sin, which had not hitherto even galled and fretted
them ; and has awakened high feelings and aspirations, of
which they had never before dreamed ; and has elicited
towards herself sympathies, which no inferior object had
drawn forth. But nevertheless in the long run the result of
her ministrations in a strange land has been such as follows.
If a person has heartily acted on the creed he has originally
learned, ' supposing Christian missionaries to appear and put
before him a more divine and true revelation, will he not see
here the solution of difficulties, the satisfaction of longings,
the fulfilment of desires, which have so long oppressed him ?
Will not that character which the finger of God has been
tracing within him, cling and respond to that which is ex-
hibited externally ; and will he not by almost a spontaneous
movement, feel himself drawn into the vortex of this new
attraction ? It may be so : how far it is so, will depend on
three things ; 1 . the degree of real and intrinsic superiority
in the system which they offer ; 2. the clearness with which
this is exhibited and brought to his apprehension ; 3. the
extent of the strictness and conscientiousness of his past
life." 1

That in addition, and in subordination, to such grounds of
conviction as those of which I have spoken, other appeals of
every kind would be repeatedly urged, according to oppor-
tunity and prospect of success, is of course undoubted.
Spiritual addresses alone will have little effect on the mul-
titude of men in our fallen world ; ' amidst its incessant din
11 ' On Whately's Essays.'

560

nothing will attract attention but what cries aloud and spares
not ;' the whole inert mass of sluggishness and carnal -minded-
ness cannot be moved, except by a mechanism which shall act
at once on every part of their compound nature. Thus a gift
of miracles has been commonly granted by Christ, as an at-
tendant on His Church's missions ; and, especially in dealing
with an uncivilized people, will be a most efficacious instru-
ment of success. The external notes of the Church are often
another, most powerful and constraining, topic ; whichever of
them may happen at the time to shine with greater lustre ;
whether it be the visible union and brotherly love of Chris-
tians throughout the world, or the calm and majestic progres-
siveness of her history from Apostolic times, or the heavenly
front and bearing which she displays to the world. Others
are attracted, by those addresses to the eye and ear, which
have so mysterious an influence over the minds of men.
Others will be aroused by the threat of eternal condemnation,
solemnly pressed home to their consciences as certainly im-
pending, if when a message comes before them professing
to be from God, and bearing with it so many signs of His
presence, they, from sluggishness or carnal -mindedness, fail
to give it their full and thoughtful attention. Or if there
be among the unbelievers intellectual and philosophical gifts,
argument will bear a prominent place in the great work :
the missionary will labour to shew, that the truths, already
attained by these inquirers, are not really inconsistent with
the doctrine he is commissioned to teach ; or that so far
as they are inconsistent, they are no true images of any
deep moral conviction ; or again, that those tenets them-
selves, known and realised as they are on the most certain
grounds of proof, were originally attained on a principle, which
should in consistency lead forward those who hold them, into
the acceptance of the higher doctrines now proposed. So
various are the instruments, which a true and deep spiritual wis-
dom will apply to the great task of a people's conversion : h but
in all cases the idea of conversion is one and the same. And

h I apply the word here to a process which will often continue long after their Bap-
tism ; nor am I forgetting for a moment the working of the Holy Spirit in all this ;
though the subject leads me to speak only of the secondary instruments.

561

that idea has been, the attracting to the Church that feeling
of loyalty and reverence, purified and made more intense,
which had previously at best no higher object on which to
repose, than a human and most imperfect system; and the
carrying the disciples forward, into a region of new and
heavenly doctrine, which shall contain within its sphere, and
most fully recognise, those floating fragments of truth which
may have been already acquired, disentangling them from
the vast congeries of error with which they had been inter-
mixed, and elevating and transmuting them into those fully
harmonious and absorbing Divine realities, of which they were
but the dim and distorted reflection.

Nothing however is more probable, than that in many cases
the urgency of secondary motives may have been unduly
applied, in order to attract proselytes to the Church ; though
I have no particular facts in my mind, when I make the
observation. For, on the one hand, most certainly it cannot
be maintained that all means are lawful, short of gross and
overt sin, which promise to effect this object. And in giving
one illustration of this, which may serve as a specimen of
many others, I beg to say once for all, that nothing is further
from my wish than the advocacy of any theoretical and pe-
dantic refinement : if a child, of an age to know right from
wrong, were to apply for Baptism, I am not supposing any
course so unreal, as that he should be examined on the
question, whether he have sufficiently performed his filial
duties ; the fact of his coming is a strong prima facie pre-
sumption, that he is moved by the Holy Ghost ; that either
his feelings of reverence are now first called forth, or that the
reverence, first drawn forth by his parents, has been elevated
through them to this higher object. But what if a Christian
priest were secretly to entice a child from under his father's
roof; and were to keep him, by continued artifice, separate
from his father, and gradually teach him the Christian faith ?
There is no one living surely, who would defend such a pro-
ceeding, when fairly stated in its full circumstances ; or in
other words, there is a point, beyond which the application of
secondary motives to the effecting a good end is indefensible.

2 o

562

And yet it would be almost certain (though as I said I really
am not thinking of any particular facts) that zealous mission-
aries, impressed with a deep sense of the dreadful evils caused
by superstition and idolatry, and of the power possessed by
Satan beyond the limits of the Christian Church, that mis-
sionaries, I say, impressed with a deep sense of this, and
eager to pluck souls from among them as brands out of the
fire, should frequently transgress the limits, which conscience,
if fairly consulted, would prescribe. Nor is there any sub-
ject, on which we could less calculate that the holy instincts
of the most saintly men would lead them to act on different
maxims ; for the very premisses to be considered, (viz. the
moral condition and responsibilities, in regard to each other,
of those whom he has been habituated to regard merely in the
mass as aliens from the faith) are such as w r ould not be pre-
sented to his conscience, unless by a special and laborious act
of the imagination and the understanding.

However, individual errors, if such there have been (as is
most probable), in no way interfere with the general principle
sanctioned by the Church : and the general principle has been
plainly and undeniably such as I have described. Whether
learned men, or eloquent men, or acutely disputing men, have
accompanied a mission, has ever been mainly an accident ;
whether miracles have been worked, has been in God's hand
alone ; but these two matters on the contrary, have always
been most carefully aimed at, viz. that there shall be holy
and mortified men, and that there shall be presented, to those
whom they desire to convert, the fullest practicable exhibition
of a Christian Church, in its orderly round of teaching, dis-
cipline, and worship. In other words, whether any, or what,
secondary means shall be applied, has not been a matter of
much thought; but that a higher idea of sanctity, and a
higher range of doctrine, shall be brought fairly before the
consciences of those whom they address, this has been
universally and most carefully provided.

8. It appears, then, from what has been said in the present
chapter, that our security against real religious error, is not
a free and independent enquiry into the doctrines we have

563

learnt, but the very contrary a faithful and unsuspicious
appropriation of them ; and that the temper of mind, which
really leads us towards the truth, is that which desires most
unreservedly to submit itself with all teachableness and hu-
mility to God's guidance, which anxiously and watchfully
aims at the maintenance of all God's doctrines and command-
ments according to the light vouchsafed, and which ever
presses eagerly forward towards a fuller vision of Him, to-
wards every new glimpse of religious truth which may visit
it from any quarter. I illustrated and enforced this principle,
first of all, on the surest of all grounds, that of natural religion
and morality ; and next I endeavoured to shew, how fully it
has been ever recognised by the Catholic Church. On the
one hand the one habitual and highest motive which she
proposes, in inviting unbelievers or misbelievers to forsake
their hereditary society, is that by so doing they will add
to, in no way really subtract from, their hereditary creed; she
addresses herself, I say, prominently and primarily to that
very temper of mind, firm in retaining old belief, eager in
adding to it new which I just now characterized. And on
the other hand, in dealing with her own children, so far has
she been from encouraging any conscious examination on
their part of her high and peremptory claims, that even to
doubt them has ever been considered a sin. It is not that
she has called on her children to receive her doctrines, because
they are satisfied of her authority : she has never allowed
them to examine her authority any more than her doctrines.
' Put away from you doubt,' has been her language, ' put away
from you doubt, as being sinful ; believe what you learn and
act on it ; you will sufficiently prove to yourselves, both
the truth of what I say, and my authority for saying it, by
means of believing and acting.' Such has been her confident
language ; and fully has it been in all cases justified by the
event. But the principle, implied in that language, cannot
by possibility be other, than that principle which I have so
frequently laboured to enforce ; viz. that whatever our here-
ditary principles, we must begin at once by believing and acting.
For her children at the outset have no more proof of her divine

2 o 2

564

authority, than her own word for it ; a proof (if so it can be
called) which all have in different shapes, at least as regards
their parents, under whatever circumstances their birth may
have placed them.

The very same principle has been at work throughout, in
that remarkable movement within our own Church, of which
so much has been said : as indeed it must be, in any moral or
religious movement, which is to contain an element of life and
growth. When the eyes of certain English Churchmen were
opened by God's grace some twelve years ago, to discern the
fearful precipice towards which religious opinion was hasten-
ing among us, they altogether eschewed the idle and ridiculous
child's play of examining between rival doctrines by means of
patristic and scholastic studies. 1 Had such been their course,
our Church might have been finally ruined, while they were
sitting at home and making up their mind. No ! they saw
at once that authority was the element which was wanting,
and they stepped forward as advocates for authority. There
was a recognised and standard principle of authority in the
English Church; to that they appealed, on that as on a
firm basis they took their stand, on that they planted the
lever which, so they hoped, might disturb, overthrow, revo-
lutionise, the system then dominant in the Church. To
this, the Anglican, view of doctrine, they at once summoned
others ; this view they accepted themselves ' with undoubt-
ing confidence ; well knowing, that the mere carrying it into
practical effect would sufficiently ensure its being borne
onwards into its full proportions, should it really want
consistency ; or crumbling from its own rottenness, should

1 Mr. Palmer however says, " When we associated ten years since in defence of
the Church of England, in vindication of her orthodox and primitive principles, we
had already satisfied ourselves that this Church is justified in holding her course
apart from Romish corruptions." Can Mr. Palmer really mean, that all who then
combined, or indeed any of them, had fairly weighed the arguments on both sides,
that they had taken every pains to disembarrass their minds from the influence of
early prepossession, and hold the balance impartially between Anglican and Roman
reasonings ? If he mean this, surely as regards others than himself he must be mis-
taken as to the fact : if he do not mean this, what can be the meaning of the sentence
I have quoted ?

565

it be really untenable.' 11 True it is that the language of
many among them was rather of free inquirers into the
Fathers, than of upholders of the principle of faith ; but
this is only one out of innumerable instances in every age,
where serious and holy men act rightly and defend their acts
wrongly. And whoever will at the present day carefully
peruse Mr. Newman's work on the ' Prophetical Office' (the
first attempt, I suppose, to state Anglican principles in a
definite and consistent shape) will see that he based his adhe-
rence to Anglicanism on those principles of faith, which he
has so prominently witnessed.

And what has been the result of this most pious and
religious procedure ? The course of rationalism has been
driven backward with triumph and irresistible might ; for
though it may have disclosed its real features far more
unreservedly and undisguisedly than hitherto it had done,
this was the very result of its conflict with those high
principles, which now crossed its path : again, the emptiness,
hollowness, folly, laxity, unreality of English Protestantism
has been held up to light, as it never had been before ;
a frank and uncompromising defiance has been hurled
against it; a whole range of ideas, which had appeared to
be finally banished from our theology, have returned among
us, with a constraining power and persuasiveness, with an
intensity and wide reach of influence, which we have never
witnessed since the Reformation ; event has succeeded event
with such breathless rapidity, that the very principal actors
have been startled and bewildered at the fruit of their
own labours. While on the other hand, the principles,
which have been throughout the centre, rallying-point,
and spring of the exertions that have been made, these
have so fruitfully expanded and germinated in the mind of
many who had embraced them, that we find, oh most joyful,
most wonderful, most unexpected sight ! we find the whole
cycle of Roman doctrine gradually possessing numbers of
English Churchmen ; numbers even of those, who are as yet

k ' On Goode,' p. 83. See all that I have said in the text more fully stated in the
few preceding pages of that article

566

unconscious how much of truth they hold, and may remain
so, unless some sudden crisis call on them to make an election
and to take a side. And this work has been done with no
help whatever from without : for the intellectual difficulties
that may have from time to time encountered us, we have
been left to find the intellectual solution ; in the moral per-
plexities which our position may have occasioned, we have
been left to devise for ourselves guidance and remedy : the
work going on among us was responded to at first with open
hostility, at no time with frank and hearty cordiality, from
the great body of Catholic Christendom : it has been done,
under God, by the inherent vitality and powers of our own
Church.

Whether at the present time ' high-church ' doctrines are
increasing or diminishing in numerical strength, I am unable
even to guess ; but that Roman sympathies and doctrines are
making the most rapid strides among * high-churchmen,' this
no one, who has such experience as is accessible to myself,
can for a moment doubt. The ' Christian Remembrancer ' is
no admirer of this tendency ; and yet let us hear the candid
avowal concerning its extent, made in an article, the admira-
ble spirit and temper of which I have already had occasion
most respectfully to commemorate.

Tendencies to Rome ' exist, and deeply do we deplore them. It
is no longer possible to conceal them : it is treacherous to attempt
to explain them away. We admit that they are increasing : we
by no means share in the apologetic tone adopted towards their
occurrence in the Foreign and Colonial Review. They are very
important and very alarming; they are deeply seated and widely
spreading'

' If we would retain some of our most devout and earnest mem-
bers, who are by hundreds " straggling towards Rome" some of our
most affectionate and warm-hearted, we do not say strongest-Jieaded,
children it will only be, it can only be, by becoming at once, in fact,
what we have ever been on paper.'

' Could we anticipate one state of things than another more
favourable to the most frightful growth of the present hankering
after Rome, it would be at the present moment by adopting a policy

567

dangerously conciliatory towards those who openly defy and deny
Church authority, and laugh at the very notion of Church principles.' J

That these tendencies may have been slightly and in-
directly increased by such circumstances as those to which
the Reviewer alludes, or .again, as the condemnation of Dr.
Pusey, or again, as the peculiar position assumed by those
who are regarded as principal witnesses of ' the distinctive
doctrines of our Church ' is probable enough : but there
have been far deeper causes at work : giving even to these
an efficacy, which they never otherwise could have obtained.
And while, in such persons e. g. as myself, to my own
extreme surprise, barrier after barrier fell, which I had been
told was impassable ; or distinctions on which I had heard
stress laid, proved themselves nugatory ; or principles were
shewn to be necessary in order to defend the 4th century,
against which those very persons who urged them had
protested when applied to the 18th or the 19th; a^s this
process went on, our formularies also assumed a new aspect,
and it was at last discovered how utterly lax and inoperative
our Articles really are. No secret has been made of this
conviction. It is now three years since I, a clergyman of
the English Church, writing in my own name, published an
opinion, ' that the Articles were not directed against those
who retained the old doctrines, so that they were willing to
join in a protest against the shameful corruptions in existence,
and also to give up the Pope,' (Few More Words, pp. 34 5,)
that ' the Articles do not exclude ' the opinions which * had
existed ' (at the time of the Reformation) ' in the Church for
an indefinite period.' (Appendix to do. p. 8.) No argument
has appeared of any force against these positions; and, what
is more to the purpose, no condemnation of them by any
authoritative tribunal. Three years have passed, since I said
plainly, that in subscribing the Articles I renounce no one
Roman doctrine : yet I retain my Fellowship which I hold
on the tenure of subscription, and have received no Eccle-
siastical censure in any shape. It may be said, indeed, that
individual Bishops have spoken against those opinions : but
J November, 1843.

568

where does the Institution of our Church give individual
Bishops any power of authoritatively declaring Church-of-
England doctrine ? The answer is not. doubtful : and while
so ' extreme' are the opinions which receive the fullest tole-
ration in our Church, the numbers are daily increasing who
consciously embrace them : while still more abundant is the
stream of those, who, consciously or unconsciously, are ever
pressing in the same direction ; and pressing, not by means
of independent examination and argumentative inquiry,
(which would lead them to error as probably as to truth,)
but by means of the surest guides towards sympathy with
saintly men and with Rome habitual watchfulness of con-
science, frequent prayer, ever increasing humility, a trust,
more and more undivided, in the mercy of God and in the
merits of His Son.

But a still more wonderful and constraining proof of the
signal favour with which our Blessed Lord has visited our
Church, than any that has gone before, remains to be men-
tioned. The extreme tumult and disorder, which at the
present time pervades our Church, to myself, I confess, is
simply a sign of good; and should be a matter of surprise
to those only, who have underrated the depth and wide ex-
tent of corruption, contained in that system which has so
long oppressed us. As long as peace and tranquillity seemed
to prevail, and compliments were being exchanged on both
sides between maintainers of the old conservative principle
and members of the new anti-Protestant school, (as though
there were no very substantial difference between them,) so
long doubtless there was much in the external aspect of our
Church, to awaken serious misgivings, whether the rising
principle might not be stifled, the spreading flame quenched.
But now, when opinion is pursuing its free course, and shews
plainly that it will not be stinted, when both sides are be-
ginning to discover the real points at issue, and the Reform-
ation itself is openly and undisguisedly attacked, the commo-
tion which agitates the surface might be confidently expected
from the mighty influences which are stirring the depths.
Principles and habits, which have grown through three

569

hundred years cannot be uprooted by one gentle and peaceful
effort ; and Protestantism is a demon, which will ' cruelly
rend' the body from which it is preparing to depart. k I say
then, that those various heart-burnings, misunderstandings,
perplexities, which surround us on all sides, deeply deplor-
able as they must appear to all possessed of any thoughtful-
ness, have never impressed me with any misgiving or distrust
in our Church, but the very reverse. Others, however, as is
well known, have been deeply shocked, surprised, perplexed,
by them ; and have felt the most serious questionings and
doubts, whether a Society, thus fearfully distracted, could
really be a home of Christ. Yet, on the other hand, they
had learned to regard our Church's ordinances, and most the
highest of all, the Holy Eucharist, as the very fountains
through which they derived their spiritual life : yes ; through
all the painful and anxious conflicts of which our Church
has been the scene, the Presence of our Lord in the Eucharist
had been the central figure, as it were, in the picture ; the
point, from which all peace and comfort had flowed to their
soul. Are they to regard these external disorders in our
Church as a notice conveyed to them, that they must break
from their very highest and holiest associations, and seek
His Presence elsewhere ? Such is the difficulty in which they
were placed ; and not a few members of our Church, finding
themselves brought into so critical a position, have taken that
very course, which would follow from those principles which
I have humbly attempted to advocate ; a course surely, which
must commend itself to all dutiful and serious minds, who
are not absolutely bewildered by the technicalities of contro-
versy. They have resolved to load the ordinances of our
Church, as it were, with a heavier weight : they have re-
garded the lowering aspect of things around, as a call from
God to aim at still higher and stricter obedience, to open
new paths of labour and self-denial ; that they may put the
matter to a practical issue, whether Christ will still give them
strength in our Church for this more saintly life, or will sum-

k I speak of course of Protestantism in the abstract : Archbishop Whately applies
the same image, that I have used in the text, to ' Romanism.'

570

inon them into a new position, that they may enjoy the
fulness of His grace. And the response of all (I believe),
without exception, who have made this trial, has been most
wonderfully harmonious : the more they have laboured to
chasten and deny themselves, the more they have experienced,
not a restless and uneasy desire for fuller privileges, but the
very reverse ; their treasure has been increased of heavenly
peace and joy in believing. The result then has been, that
such Christians as those I have been describing, have obtained
a deeper and more certain assurance than ever had been
before in their power ; while we ordinary men have obtained,
by means of the more visible and acknowledged austerity of
life which has been here and there brought before our view,
an external note, of a far higher and more heavenly nature,
than any which some among us may consider that we have
lost. Nor can it be necessary to point out, how that in pro-
portion as any member of our Church may have a deeper
conviction of her prostrate, miserable, and corrupt condition,
in that very proportion will such remarkable facts as those I
have mentioned, appeal to him as peculiar and most con-
straining indications of God's will.

Such being the singularly gracious manifestations of His
Presence with us which our Blessed Lord has vouchsafed, a
right-minded and humble Christian will desire some very
direct and unmistakeable personal call from God, before the
question will even occur to him of ungratefully, if I may so
say, turning his back on it. And so the question might
fairly be left : but since individual members of our Church,
as most persons know, have felt difficulties as to their po-
sition, and since Roman Catholics in general are very urgent
in taking a different view of it from that here laid down, a
few words more may be desirable, though a few will be fully
sufficient. If an individual then say, ' I have had this direct
and unmistakeable call ; for whereas I had humbly laboured
to carry into action the principles I had learnt, an external
exhibition of Christianity has been brought before me from
without, placing before my view a higher conception of
Christian sanctity than any of which I had dreamed, and

571

also witnessing a new and heavenly scheme of doctrine to-
wards which all my aspirations at once leaped forward ;' or,
again, ' I was plunged in a life of carelessness and worldly
turmoil, when my spiritual affections were elicited, and my
conscience reproved, by an external Society, which claims
Divine authority and summons me at once to join it;' if
either of these things be honestly and sincerely said, the case
does seem parallel to the ordinary cases of conversion to the
Church ; and we cannot, I think, fairly plead for so much as
delay.

Another perhaps will say : ' I see force in your argu-
ments, and recognize the truth of many of your assertions ;
I meet nowhere else with an idea of the Christian character
higher in kind than I find in my present position : I feel
in no way inclined to criticise others for staying, if they will
not criticise me for going; but in real fact I cannot myself
find that peace of mind, that consciousness of freedom from
mortal sin, whereof they speak ; the service of our Church
is a burden to me, not a privilege ; the Sacrament a dead
ordinance ; the preaching an unbearable torture ;' in such a
case as this, we have a right to call earnestly on such a person,
to take good heed that he give our system a fair trial. When
the external notes which he confesses are so singularly con-
straining to the humble and religious mind, he must make
himself very sure of the personal call ; and this is not easy.
To distinguish the voice of conscience from that of intellec-
tual inference, or feeling, or imagination, is very easy to
those who live in habitual and unceasing watchfulness of
conscience, but very difficult to all others. The fair and
reasonable course then will be, that, if such be not already
his practice, he should devote himself, for some sufficient
time, to the careful and habitual performance of such exer-
cises as were mentioned in the sixth and seventh chapters ;
examen of conscience, general and particular; mental prayer;
regular confession of sin. Should a member of our Church
do all this, and still remain convinced that God would not
have him remain among us, I doubt not at all that he may
leave us with a safe conscience.

572

As to those, again, who have at present no difficulty in
remaining with us, in what terms they would speak of that
duty, it is not easy to determine ; nor even, if it were, are
we generally fit judges of the strength of our conviction,
until the occasion arises which calls for action. In speaking
then of myself, I speak only of myself : but so confining my
words, I do plainly say, (not here to recite again those other
notes of life in our Church, to which I lately adverted,) that
when I consider the wonderful and most heavenly graces,
which distinguish certain members of our Church whom I
have the privilege to know ; when I find from those who are
incomparably my own superiors in all good living, and who
have more intimate knowledge of those to whom I allude,
that a closer and more habitual observation of their character
raises it in their eyes in a degree they could not have before
imagined ; when the freest use of Roman books of practical
religion does not give me any higher conception in kind of
holiness, than I observe to be recognized and exemplified
among ourselves ; and when, on the other hand, 1 remember
that it is within the reach of these men that God Himself has
placed me ; that any notion of attributing my own defects to
deficiency in our Church's ordinances, rather than my own
past and present habits of sinful neglect, would be contradic-
tory to most certain and definite experience ; and that those
of my own acquaintance, who have most tried those ordi-
nances, most value them ; when I consider all this, I plainly
say, that supposing, under the influence of some apparent
force of argument or some active impression on the imagina-
tion, I were to dissever myself from these objects of vene-
ration, I doubt if I should know one moment's peace of
mind during the remainder of my life.

When Roman Catholics press me with arguments from
Church History, I answer that the whole surface of Church
History reads me a very different lesson from that which
they inculcate ; and puts in the second place those external
notes, which they desire to put in the first. As far as her
children are concerned, the Church, in forbidding them to
doubt her authority, has even forbidden them from fairly

573

examining these notes at all. And in addressing those with-
out, while the exhibition of Christian doctrine and sanctity
has been her chief care in every age, the external arguments
she has used have varied in every age. In early times,
Christians 'lay most stress on the prophecies of the Old
Testament, the miracles of Jesus and the Apostles, the rapid
spread of its doctrines, and the constancy of its followers.' 1
In Arian times, preservation of the doctrine delivered them
is the orthodox watchword. When heathen persecution and
Arian dissension are happily concluded, and now for the first
time the wonderful spectacle of a consentient Church in all
lands is displayed, how can \fe wonder that St. Augustine's
eyes were dazzled with the glorious sight, and ' securus
judicat orbis terrarum' became his fixed idea ? While, later
still, the necessity of a living infallible guide, and the endless
confusion which must otherwise result, became the leading
topics of argument. Now the Church is authoritative in all
ages, not in one only: those then are likely to be eternal
principles which wejind in all ages, those are quite certainly
accidents and peculiarities of a period, which change from
age to age. And whereas there is no one external argument
which has been used in every age, this circumstance itself
points to the fact, which all our knowledge of human nature
makes sufficiently certain viz. that the success of such
arguments does not arise from their own value, but from
their being the means, whereby the internal notes, of which
so much has here been said, are definitely and impressively
brought before their mind. Nothing is more common, as we
all must know, than to fancy ourselves convinced by argu-
ment, when on looking back afterwards we see readily that a
far more persuasive agency was at work. How many of us
were first brought to an acceptance of Catholic doctrine by
this argument, that early ages are better judges than we,
as to what the Apostles taught ! Have we ever been tempted
then to think the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity less
probably Apostolic, when we have gradually learned how
much less distinctly it was witnessed by Ante-nicene Fathers ?

1 Gieseler's Ecclesiastical History, Eng. Trans, p. 95.

574

If not, we shew plainly that our real reason has not been
what we thought it was, but something altogether distinct.
And so the 'orbis terrarum' would have been but a poor
note of truth, for ' Athanasius contra mundum.' Do we
suppose that St. Augustine, had he then lived, would have
joined the Arian party ? or have doubted and hesitated as
the majority seemed to incline ? or looked upon St. Meletius
of Antioch as little better than an Arian ? or rather do we
not know, that though he and the Saints of the time should
have had to fight the battle single-handed, rather would he
have died, than renounced that truth which he knew and
experienced, and of which he Would perceive that the Arians
desired to rob him ? In like manner then, because he used
an argument of the most true and impressive bearing, against
a rebellious, self-willed, and fanatical sect, whose very bond
of union was active enmity to the Church, what can be more
unreasonable than to press his authority, for a condition of
circumstances far more unlike those of his own time, than
were the circumstances of the Arian conflict ? Let us sup-
pose that the Donatists had remained for three hundred
years practically separated from, not actively opposing, the
great body of the Church ; let us suppose that few Catholics
comparatively came across their path, and those desirous on
the whole rather to conceal than display their characteristic
marks, nay, occasionally making common cause with God-
denying heretics to oppose the dominant Society; 1 " let us
suppose that, by help of the positive doctrines they retained,
a sudden spring of Catholic life gushed forth from the
bosom of this Society in itself; that either the whole Society,
or a certain concrete mass of it as yet unascertainable in
extent, were plainly and avowedly gravitating back in the
direction of their Ancient Mother; have we any right to
infer, that under such circumstances as these, St. Augustine,
had he lived in such a time, would have summoned individual

m Some Roman Catholics, ' as a Roman Catholic newspaper mentioned a few
weeks since, gave an entertainment to a Socinian teacher, in requital of his services
in defending them from the imputations cast upon them by the emissaries of Exeter
Hall.' ' On Whately's Essays,' p. 293.

575

Donatists, one by one, to exercise their private judgment,
and come forth from a body now exhibiting such signs of fresh-
ness and of life ? The plainest common-sense answers no.

I have mentioned more particularly the case of St. Augus-
tine, because no other perhaps is so frequently urged or with
such apparent plausibility : nor should it be forgotten, how
much stronger the whole argument becomes, when we advert
to what has been so often mentioned, the inferior subjec-
tivity of those times ; and by consequence the increased un-
likelihood, that they would carefully analyse the real grounds
of their belief.

The case of the Donatists leads to a further remark. Here-
tics and schismatics, in various times, have been conspicuous
for habits of austerity and laborious activity, as is well
known : but there is one Christian virtue, in which it re-
quires but little discernment to observe their deficiency the
virtue of humility. Now not to dwell here upon considera-
tions which none but ourselves can appreciate, the singular
prominence of this grace in those members of our Church
whom we most deeply revere observe the position which
they more and more assume ; observe the whole language of
humility in reference to our own Church, and deep reverence
for the great Christian body, which is now becoming so com-
mon. Can there be a more signal contrast with the ground
taken up by schismatics in various ages of the Church ?

The authority of the existing Church may perhaps also be
quoted, against the ground that I have taken ; and it may be
said, that no slight degree of arrogance and self-will is shewn,
in not giving at least more weight to so widely spread an
opinion, than my language and tone have implied. One
answer, ready at hand, is the same which has been already
given ; for those permanent habits of action, which the Roman
Catholic Church has inherited from former ages, are beyond
any possible comparison more fully authoritative, than the
maxims which may happen to be current in the present day ;
and the former distinctly witness those very principles, which
defend us in our present position. Another answer will be,
that the opinion of good men is authoritative in proportion

576

as they have fully acquainted themselves with the circum-
stances of the case. Now the great majority of Roman
Catholics very plainly, as is indeed most natural, have no
knowledge at all of the real principles which are stirring
in our Church, and the real phenomena which (rightly or
wrongly) influence our conduct ; nor have I been able to
observe, among those, whose knowledge of facts is more
accurate, any pains-taking and laborious effort, to impress our
circumstances on their imagination, and give us such ad-
vice, as shall shew us how deeply they have pondered those
circumstances. Rather it is their habit to produce, as final
determinations, of the matter, the ordinary maxims prevalent
among them, and not give any consideration to the very
question which we should desire them to consider: viz. whether
God has not placed us in circumstances, where maxims,
generally true, cease to be available ; and where the question
must be decided, by going further back, as it were, from
maxims which are merely general and admit of exception,
to the first principles on which those maxims were founded.

It would not be necessary to mention any other reasons
than these ; and there are one or two which weigh with
myself even more deeply, which I shall not mention. But
there is one circumstance, to which I deem it most im-
portant to direct attention ; and which affords a stronger
reason than either of those which I have named, for declining
to assign any importance to the view, just now general among
Roman Catholics, as to our duties. And this circumstance
is, a principle popular with them at the present day, whether
in an open or implicit form, which, little as it interferes with
the healthy relations between Church and flock, often leads
to the most deplorable mistakes, both in opinion and action,
in their dealings with those external to their own Com-
munion.

I cannot explain this principle more clearly, than by
taking a parallel case. Every religious philosopher, who
knows what he is saying, lays the utmost stress on the truth,
that the principles of right and wrong are eternal, immutable,
and wholly independent of God's will ; which indeed, as

577

Bp. Butler tells us, ' is as certainly determined by these
principles,' as ' His judgment' is ' necessarily determined' by
' speculative truth.'" To say otherwise indeed, would be to
uphold the fearful tenet, that morality is a matter of positive,
not of necessary, obligation. Now this very sentiment, so
necessary, so certain, is at first sight almost shocking to the
ear of a religious man ; for he has long most piously and
rightly habituated himself to worship God as the Almighty
Author of all that exists, and this assertion seems to impose
some limit to His power, seems to imply some derogation
from the full circle of His attributes. Such is the natural
judgment of a religious man, before he sees what principle is
really at issue : nor is it at all necessary or desirable to perplex
him on the subject ; the real impression on his moral nature
is simply true and right, and few only are those who are
called on to analyze and systematise that impression.

But now let us suppose a Society of Theists to be brought
into the near neighbourhood of some savage tribe, who should
have preserved rough ideas of right and wrong, but had
never heard of God. This very difference of statement which
in their dealings with each other was so trifling and inoperative,
in dealing with these people becomes at once the symbol and
spring of a difference of conduct, the most vital, the most un-
speakably serious. According to the true principle, they would
say to this people, ' cultivate your moral sense diligently ;
the more you do so, the more readily you will receive, the
more intimately you will appropriate, the more satisfactorily
you will prove, the doctrine we bring you.' According to
the false principle, their language would be, ' How strangely
contradictory are your proceedings ! you talk of duty : how
can there be duty without God who originates it, or without
the promise of a future state which sanctions it ? you cannot
defend yourselves if you try. We are consistent, for we
believe in God also ; and wish you to do the same : but if
you refuse, pray do not delude yourselves by fancying you
are any the better for your self-contradictory witness to a

" Analogy, part ii. chap. 8.

578

supposed reality of moral obligation.' If such language as
this were indiscriminately held, without reference to the
moral preparation of heart in those addressed, whether so
much as one would go on to the idea of God is doubtful ;
but it is very certain that multitudes would be readily per-
suaded to give up an idea, so painful to their natural
inclinations as that of moral obligation, and would plunge
into the polluting streams of licentiousness and vice.

Now a principle, frequently implied by Roman Catholics
among ourselves, is precisely parallel to this latter : they
speak ' as though they considered there were no intrinsic
difference between true and false doctrine, no more con-
sistency, no more stability, no more real satisfaction to the
spiritual mind, in one than in the other : as though it were a
mere matter of external evidence, and (if I may so express
myself) ecclesiastical etiquette.' One can almost fancy that
if St. Meletius of Antioch were among us combating against
the Arians, instead of honour and posthumous canonization,
the only compliment he would receive from Roman Catholics
of the present day would be, to be told that he had no
sufficient reason to deny Arianism, except for the Pope's
word : and that out of communion with the Pope, one opinion
is much about as good as another. It is really difficult to say,
how far this awful language is an exaggeration of sentiments
which occasionally come from Roman Catholics ; and expres-
sions tending in the same direction are constantly heard. In
the parallel case, I have fully admitted, that a member of
their Church would derive no practically erroneous impression
whatever from such words; he has received all his doctrine
at her hands, and looks up to her as its dispenser. But
when they damp the courage of those whom they think
inconsistent, but who are travelling happily and unsuspi-
ciously in the right direction, by using to them language
which should be heard only from the lowest and basest
utilitarians, when they endeavour to make a ' tabula rasa' of
their mind, if by some possible chance the image of Rome
may be afterwards there inscribed ; then it is that they pursue

' On the Synagogue and the Church, 11 p. 32.

579

a course which I have ventured already to call indefensible
(see p. 289) but would rather characterise as deeply sinful,
and in designating this language of theirs as morally sinful,
I intend no prejudice to another very strong opinion which
I hold, viz. that, in a merely intellectual point of view,
it is baseless and unphilosophical in no ordinary degree.
The whole course of the work will have shewn, how very
unwilling I am to say one word unkind or disrespectful to
Roman Catholics ; and I speak thus plainly, only in the hope
of rousing the attention of some among them to the real
nature of a principle, which I doubt not they have received
traditionally and unconsciously, but which is fraught with
incalculable mischief to the advance of truth.

How different was the course pursued by the Church
towards the heathen ! How easy a task would it not have
been to shew, the absence of all evidence or argumentative
consistency in the various forms which religion had assumed,
whether in more refined or more ordinary minds ! on the
other hand, how well-grounded, simple, and consistent, the
Christian scheme ! Yet, so far from adopting such a course,
Catholics of those days drew the heathen towards the
Church, not by ' unclothing' them, but ' clothing upon'
them ; not by first overthrowing their existing creed, but by
seeking parts in it whereon the superstructure might be
raised. And even when these recognised the Presence of the
Lord, and bowed before the Church, so careful was the
latter not unduly to hurry them forward, or incur peril of
making a ruin of their moral nature, that only by slow
degrees and in proportion as their holy and obedient life
made it appear probable that they were able to bear it, did
she divulge to them her highest mysteries and most startling
truths. She did not rudely call on them to receive her
doctrine at once on her authority, but carefully and tenderly
disciplined their mind for its reception. P This is that
feature, in Ancient Christianity, to which I can see no
parallel in the course now habitually adopted towards mis-
believers by the Roman Church. Her officers seem to imagine

P See Newman's Arians, pp. 72 94.

2 r 2

580

that, on the authority of an external body, deep thinkers can
change at once the whole fabric and fashion of their opinions,
as they might change the fashion of their dress : that, e. g., a
Frenchman, who has learned * philosophy ' from his earliest
years, and has been reared in the lessons of a school which
regards Divine Mysteries with ineffable contempt as the
fantastical creations of an effete and imbecile superstition,
that such a man as this may be expected in one moment,
when the claims of the Church are fairly put before him,
to accept on her word the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
Doubtless the exhibition of a pure Church, in this as in
every age, performs wonders for those who, if I may so
express myself, have no speculative, opinions ; who have lived
a life of mere passion, or unconscious, mi-subjective action.
But few indeed of the educated classes in the present day
answer such a description : and it is in addressing either
those whose religious sympathies have been awakened under
an imperfect system, or those whose wickedness has de-
veloped itself into consciously unbelieving, or quasi-unbe-
lieving opinions, it is in addressing these, that such maxims
will so deplorably fail. That there may be individual cases
in which God's grace has a marvellous, a miraculous course,
I should indeed shrink from denying: but until Catholic-
priests, in such a country as France, learn that this is far
from the ordinary rule ; until they learn that the first be-
ginning of a really conscientious obedience to the voice of
duty, is a step which will infallibly carry men in their direc-
tion ; and that the obligation of so acting may be enforced,
with some considerable hope of success, on multitudes who
could not, without an absolute ruin of the inward harmony of
their nature, at once accept the teaching of a Church which
holds Transubstantiation ; until they learn this I fear the
present state of things will there continue : a state of things
in which from every other class a large and increasing num-
ber of converts seem pouring into the Church, but no impi'es-
sion at all (to speak generally) is made on men of high intel-
lectual and philosophical powers.

This current maxim, which appears so generally prevalent,

581

has, as might have been anticipated, its foundation in the
scientific instruction which Roman Catholic priests receive.
The account of ' faith,' given by scholastic writers, is most
harmonious and edifying, but it did not carry the analysis to
its extreme point. That faith is a virtue supernaturally
infused, that it is influenced by the will, that it rests for
assurance, in no degree whatever on the word of man, but
wholly on the authority of God, and so is infallible, these
are parts of its definition in which all were agreed ; and
these parts lead us at once to anticipate something radically
different in kind from intellectual conviction : wholly differ-
ent in kind, as depending on the will ; approaching with an
infinitely greater proximity to the very springs of spiritual
truth, as resting on nothing short of the authority of God
Himself. Now the ultimate step in the analysis, which was
yet wanting, has been supplied by multitudes of modern
writers in the strangest way that could have been conceived.
Their language has represented the supernatural assurance
of faith as consisting in the external evidences of the Church's
authority. ' The divine revelation,' says St. Alphonsus, ' is
not made manifest to us, except by means of the Church
which proposes the .revelations : since it is evident from other
reasons (such as prophecies, miracles, the constancy of
Martyrs, and the like), that the Church can neither be de-
ceived nor deceive.' How miserably erroneous an analysis,
of the grounds on which the Blessed Saint himself believed
the Church's heavenly doctrine ! q as though all the prophecies,

i Theologia Moralis, vol. i. p. 285. Even Bellarmine is not free from language of
the kind. In Suarez I have never observed any approach to it ; though he does not
cany the analysis of the scholastic doctrine farther than he received it.

I have already quoted a passage from St. Francis de Sales, strongly corroborating
the general view of faith that has been here taken (see p. 536). In a neighbour-
ing passage, he says ; " Were not the Jews witnesses of our Divine Redeemer's
miracles ? Why then did they not believe ? because their will was too vitiated
to relish the suavity of faith. It ia in this submission or acquiescence that the
act of faith consists ; when the mind, having been illuminated with the light of
revelation, adheres sweetly and powerfully to the known truth ; not from tfie evidence
of the reasons which incline it to believe, but from the perfect conviction and perfect
certainty it receives from the authority of Revelation." And in like manner Mr.
Newman (Prophetical Office, p. 147,) represents it as the common opinion of Roman

582

and miracles which Satan could devise, or the constancy
of numberless fanatics even unto death, would have made
him falter for one moment in his allegiance to the Church !
To argue at length against this statement, would be merely
to repeat the whole second section of this chapter ; which
the reader will perhaps kindly read over again, in this new
connection. Here I will only content myself with asking any
Roman Catholic, who may give attention to what I am say-
ing, on what principle does he consider the very comparison
of the Church with some other body, as to its prophecies,
miracles, martyrs, &c. with the view of forming a decision, in
the highest degree sinful in a member of his Church ? why
does he even forbid, in all ordinary cases, the reading of
books on the heretical side, which should occupy themselves
in nothing else than instituting this comparison ? how can
he consider the heretics at any time guilty of any greater sin,
than want of candour ? a virtue this last, far more intellectual
than moral, and by no means either universally or distinc-
tively characteristic of the saintly mind.

Now I will not shrink from avowing my belief, that this
ultimate step in the analysis has been supplied, in our own
time, by Mr. Newman : and the highest credit I claim for
any thing which has preceded in this chapter, is, that, I
have made an attempt to systematise and carry out those
truths on the subject, which I have learned solely and ex-
clusively from him/

Catholics, that Baptism infuses an inward infallible conviction of religious truth.
On the other hand, the Dublin Review censures Mr. Newman for " making a
certain inward sense (the seat of private judgment and of every religious delusion)
a surer test of truth than the great evidences and notes of the Church :" implying,
as I understand the writer, that the mode of saving our moral 'sense' from being
' the seat of a delusion,' is not the endeavour habitually to cultivate and obey it,
but an unbiassed examination of the various, 'evidences and notes' presented by
existing Societies.

r Mr. Newman's first clear statement on the matter, will, I think, be found in his
fourth Lecture on Justification : p. 306 of the first edition, p. 304 second edition.
He has spoken explicitly and at length in his later ' University Sermons :' all of
which, except the last, I had heard from the pulpit before I wrote in the British
Critic, and have, on various occasions, endeavoured, in the Critic, to apply the prin-
ciples I had derived from them.

583

Now this circumstance, of so many later theologians having
failed distinctly to perceive that the difference between
Protestants and Catholics is one of principle, not of fact,
of kind of argument, not of greater or less force in the same
kind, has affected the whole mode in which they treat the
subject of ' invincible ignorance' on matters of faith. In
reading the remarks made by their writers on the subject,
one is struck, as always in their books, by the extreme consi-
derateness and thoughtfulness of tone, and the great desire
to make it plain that no one is formally heretical except by
his own fault : still the remedy they, I think invariably pro-
pose, is merely a free and unbiassed examination of the
miracles, prophecies, visible union, &c., which are the visible
notes of the Church : a kind of argument, which has the
appearance of extreme cogency and argumentativeness to
those who already believe or who are already predisposed to
believe, but which to those of a contrary character appears
literally deserving of no weight whatever. Here then we see
the distinction I lately made, between maxims and princi-
ples : the latter are eternal and irreversible ; the former are
the application of these eternal principles to existing circum-
stances, and may alter therefore from age to age. Now what
I have been saying is, that these jnaxims, which were sub-
stantially true exponents of Catholic principles in converting
barbarians or confronting the mediaeval heretics, are rather,
in their effect, antagonist to those principles, when directed
towards religious Protestants or philosophical unbelievers.
And the question which I would submit with the deepest
deference to the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church,
is, whether an exposition of invincible ignorance substantially
resembling that quoted in pp. 57-60, be not a far truer appli-
cation of the principles on which the Church has ever acted,
than is the exposition ordinarily current among themselves.
In many respects, the task now before them resembles rather
the Church's relation to philosophical heathen, than any
later event in her history ; and whereas the ' disciplina arcani '
is now impracticable, my belief is, that a true definition of

584-

' invincible ignorance ' is the very thing requisite to supply
its place.

And so, in dealing with ourselves, surely (if it be not pre-
sumptuous in one of ourselves to offer a suggestion) if the
Reformation in fact violently dissevered from each other the
two constituent and conflicting elements of European cha-
racter, (pp. 90-1,) and if the re-union of England with the
Holy See would be the direct reversal of this evil, it is not to
be supposed, it is not what the history of the Church would
ever lead one to expect, that so wonderful an event would be
brought about by those maxims, which yet may have done
good service in less extensive and less difficult enterprises.
Surely the true \visdom of the Roman Catholic Church
would rather be, to fall back upon first principles ; and to
see how great a modification of her maxims those principles
may require, and her actual system may allow. In humble
cooperation with which work I would beg to suggest as fol-
lows : I. It has been already ruled, in the case of the con-
stitutional clergy of France, that schismatic priests consecrate
the Eucharist validly ; II. It is acknowledged that the Body
of our Lord, if really present, is received by communicants
who are not in mortal sin ; III. It has never been ruled
what is the definition of that vincible ignorance which is a
mortal sin. On the other hand, St. Alphonsus says, (I believe
after St. Thomas,)

' Mortal sin is such a horrible monster, that you could not pos-
sibly be guilty of it, and not be aware of it . , . when a person that
fears God is in doubt whether or no he has lost divine grace, it is
certain that he has not lost iY.' p

Taking these respective considerations into account, and
observing what evidence of strict and holy fear of God is
presented by various Christians who remain in our Church,
surely Roman Catholics are fully at liberty, if they will,
without violating any necessary part of their system, to hold

P Spirit of Liguori, pp. 145, 6.

585

that those are ' in invincible ignorance' (to use the technical
term) and enjoy sacramental grace, who on the one hand are
diligent in self-examination and prayer, and on the other
hand are allowed by God to retain that peace of mind which
St. Alphonsus considers so sure a mark of His favour. Or
again supposing that some Apostle had been carried by the
Spirit to America, and there founded a Church : would not
that be a truly Christian Church, though it had never heard
the name of Rome ? or at the first discovery of America,
supposing that it was not ripe for an immediate and corporate
union, would Roman Catholics have summoned its members
summarily and singly to quit its Communion ? or would they
not rather have allowed every possible time and opportunity,
that misunderstandings might be removed, and Christian
love perform its full work ? The same principles which would
allow them, in such a case, to delay rather than precipitate a
crisis and formal rupture, might enable them to extend in
our case a similar forbearance. Arid surely the Roman
Catholic Church, would far more suitably fulfil the character
she claims, by shewing herself full of love and sympathy for
holiness of life and orthodoxy of creed wherever found, and
exhorting those, in whom she finds those essential character-
istics, to persevere in their noble course, than by appearing
deficient in all regard for them, until they have developed
into their very last stage, into a craving for union with her-
self, and into what have frequently been considered her dis-
tinctive doctrines.

Nor should there be any misgiving, lest such principles as
those I have attempted to advocate should tend to justify a
permanent state of schism. It should be taken as a first
principle by all Catholic-minded men, that the true Catholic
character exists, is irresistibly attracted towards the image of
itself. If then holy living and orthodox faith actively flourish
in the Roman Church, (which I have no disposition at all to
deny,) it is plain that to implant it in our Church is to take
the merest possible means of effecting a real and lasting
union ; and if a Catholic minded individual is not attracted
at once towards Rome, it is because he is retained by an

586

attraction nearer home ; or, in other words, a leaven is work-
ing, not in himself only, but in a certain mass of which he is
part ; a leaven which will assuredly cause it to gravitate
speedily, as a whole, in that very direction. And so far
from the separated Greek Church being a difficulty in the
way of this obvious view, all the facts I am able to gather
concerning the existing condition of that Church, seem to me
forcibly to confirm the view.

In all that I have urged on this subject, nothing has been
further from my intention, (as I need hardly say,) than word
of censure on members of the Roman Catholic Church. Well
can I understand the feelings of reverence which lead them
to such a view of things as I have described : a view, which
becomes then only practically mischievous when those are
dealt with who had 110 life-long experience of the fostering
care of a pure Church.

One final word will here be in place, to those of our mem-
bers who may be tempted to infer, that because it seems
almost confessed that higher privileges are attainable in the
Roman Church than in ours, it must be the safest course to
join that Church. But surely the principle is universally
acknowledged, that gifts, which are in themselves blessings,
cease to be such when we pursue them in opposition to the
indications of God's will. And not to mention various ways
in which we can even conceive this coming to pass, (over
and above the innumerable methods by which God might
eifect it without our cognizance,) such, e. g., as that a Chris-
tian, trained in the habits and associations of our Church and
country, might possibly find much wiser and more intelligent
spiritual direction among ourselves than elsewhere, nay might
elsewhere be very dangerously misunderstood, let us con-
sider one very fearful visitation, which he might with the
utmost probability expect ; that of religious doubt. We make
it a point of duty violently to reject from our mind the in-
trusion of doubt, on such principles as were detailed in the
early part of this chapter ; that we are weak, blind, ignorant,
creatures that God alone can enlighten us that we can
only expect Him to do so, in proportion as we endeavour to

587

follow faithfully His guiding hand, and submit our under-
standings and wills to the external message which, as we have
reason to believe, comes to us from Him. It is by means of
this habitual submission to external authority, and by the
thousand associations of their past life which are connected
with reverence to that authority, that members of a pure
Church derive that deep and infallible conviction of Divine
Truth, of which I have so often spoken. But let a person
break loose, as it were, from God's direction, do violence to
his early habits of teachableness and reverence, dissever him-
self from those holy associations of which I speak ; let him
introduce intellectual argument, as arbiter instead of minister,
in discussing a point of duty, and reject the claims of faith
and conscience to be God's only vice-gerents ; then, on the
first disappointment with which he may meet, the first shock
to his high and glowing anticipations of rest and peace, the
first real trial of his stability, we may expect that intellect,
once enfranchised, will endeavour to break again from its
chains ; tliat the convert will think of criticising freely the
notes of the Roman Church, as he learned to do those of the
English ; and, even without anticipating the worst, that
frequent recurrences of gloom, perplexity, and mental dis-
order, will wage a cruel war against all enjoyment of peace,
and all progress in holy living.

9. And this discussion, brings naturally to a close the
present anxious and laborious inquiry. I have endeavoured
throughout to speak respectfully and charitably of individuals,
but plainly and distinctly of principles. Of two principles
especially, which may be considered the distinguishing cha-
racteristics of the Reformation whether here or abroad
I mean the Lutheran doctrine of Justification, and the prin-
ciple of private judgment I have argued (pp. 305, 502 4)
that, in their abstract nature and necessary tendency, they sink
below atheism itself. At the same time I have also endea-
voured to make it clear, that my intense abhorrence of the
Reformation, (whether it be considered just or exaggerated,)
at least has its origin in no fanatical antiquarianism, in no
perverse blindness to those benefits which are called, in one

588

Comprehensive word, civilization. Every age has its own
good and its own evil ; nor have I ever seen grounds to be-
lieve, that a refined age is in itself more sinful than a rude
age. That religious minds have so often held this opinion,
arises in part from that universal tendency of the holiest men,
(see p. 134,) whereby the present evil which confronts them
appears of a more malignant character than any other of
which they know merely at a distance. But, even after
taking this into account, I cannot think that the great dis-
gust felt by the best men at modern habits and ways of
thinking, will receive any sufficient explanation, until we turn
our thoughts to the distracted state of Christendom ; until
we call to mind that most unhappy fact, which all serious men
should daily deplore as the most fearful of God's judgments,
viz. that good men and faithful followers of their Saviour
dissipate their energies in contention with each other, instead
of uniting them against the social, moral, and religious evils,
which flourish in such rank luxuriance. Here must be sought
the full reason for that sort of instinct, whereby holy men
look at these latter days as especially degraded ; and the
remedy of this evil is the object, to which all who love
holiness and peace should direct their combined efforts.

That a sustained and vigorous attack on the principles of
the Reformation, is the only course by which this object can
be attained, is my deep and certain conviction. But by this
I mean, not an eloquent or argumentative denunciation of the
evils of that movement, but a far more hopeful procedure,
and one in which many may heartily join, who altogether differ
in their view of the Reformation as a fact : I mean a humble
and religious carrying out of those great principles which the
Reformation denied, obedience and faith. Never, within these
three centuries, has there been so lively a counter-movement,
at least in England, as there is now. This movement has
nothing to dread from the opposition of those who fear or dis-
like it : many of these doubtless are holy and humble men
of heart, whom we may hope to find one day fighting in our
own ranks ; but however that may be, the opposition raised
by adversaries of the truth is, in every age of the Church,

589

most wonderfully overruled to the advance of that truth which
they oppose. But God has imposed on upholders of the truth
a fearful responsibility ; he has allowed them the mysterious
power of thwarting, by their sin or perverseness, His own
gracious work. This it is alone which the cause of truth
among us has at this moment to fear : if any, from the
number of those who feel called to act in its defence, should
allow themselves to be led away, by plausibility of argument,
or by excitement of imagination, from following the plain and
certain dictates of their conscience.

APPENDIX.

REFERRED TO IN PAGE 82.

Prom accidental circumstances there are not as many communications here as
I expected : but the following may be taken as a sample of what I have from
many.

LETTER I.

MY DEAR WARD,

MY foreign travel has been confined to Italy, Switzerland, Bel-
gium, and Rhenish Prussia ; I visited Italy and Switzerland for
the first time eleven years ago, revisited them six years ago, and
spent two months in Belgium and Rhenish Prussia two years ago.
On first going abroad in 1833, I went with the impressions re-
specting the Roman Catholics and their system with which I had
been brought up, and which were current among those with whom
I associated ; I expected to find all classes irreligious or indifferent,
the poorer classes ignorant, and the priests purposely keeping them
so, and I went prepared to look at their religion and their religious
services with distaste. At first, I confess, every thing that I saw
seemed to confirm the impressions with which I started ; if I saw
people diverting themselves on Sundays, I concluded that it was a
wilful and deliberate desecration of the day ; if I saw priests walking
amongst them, I concluded they were winking at it ; if I saw a poor
person by the road-side on his knees before a cross, I concluded he
had placed himself there for us to see, and I thought all meanly clad
monks were lazy beggars ; the very constancy of the people at
Church I attributed to formalism, and I thoroughly believed they
worshipped images ; for I saw them kneeling before them, and
I thought that proved it.

The notion that I should find the foreign Catholics indifferent
was very soon dispelled ; the very manner in which I saw a French
steersman at the helm of his vessel take off his cap on passing the
large Crucifix on the pier at Dieppe surprised me, and the earnest-
ness and devotion I saw in the churches was something quite new
to me ; but then I fell back upon the idea that it was all superstition
and idolatry ; fraud in the priests and ignorance in the people.

Of the higher classes of laity in the countries in which I have

592

travelled I have seen nothing, but I have seen a good deal of the
priests, of the poor, and of the schools for the children of the poor ;
and the more I saw, the more and more I became convinced how
utterly groundless my impressions were. Of the priests (I speak
now of Belgium and Prussia where I saw them most) I have a very
pleasing recollection ; here and there I met with a mere argu-
mentative theologian, but as a body, I was struck by their kindness
of manner and simplicity of life, although in the conversations I had
with them I might not agree with them, yet the very idea that they
were not honest and sincere quite shocks and distresses me ; I felt
and still feel convinced that they were religious men.

That the poor are ignorant is, I believe, an entire misappre-
hension; I never talked to any who were so: I should say they
are far, very far better instructed in religious knowledge than our
own people of the same class, and their attention to their religious
duties is, to my mind, quite affecting. I have seen in large manu-
facturing towns hundreds upon hundreds of work-people, in their
working-dress, at mass at 5 o'clock in the morning before going into
the factories, with their books, and joining heartily in the service,
and I need scarcely say what a contrast this forms to the habits
of the same class of persons in this country.

I have visited also many Catholic schools abroad, chiefly those
under the superintendence of the Christian Brothers, and my opinion
is, that we have nothing to compare with them either as to the regu-
larity and order of the schools, the extent of the secular education,
the carefulness with which religious instruction is conveyed, or the
number and character of the teachers.

Upon the whole, my last impression, on returning from a foreign
country (Belgium) to our own, was, that I was coming out of
a religious country into one of indifference ; the open Churches of
the former, the frequent services, the constant worshippers, the
solemn ceremonial, the collected air of the clergy in their ministra-
tions, the indubitable devotion and reverence of the people, their
unhesitating confidence in their Church, has nothing approaching
to a counterpart with us ; I know nothing more disheartening
(I speak of the effect produced upon myself) than a return to
England after some time spent in Catholic countries ; every thing
seems so careless, so irreverent, so dead ; with all my heart I wish,
and especially for my children's sake, that I could see in this
country some approximation to the solemnity, reverence, devotion,
and earnestness which I have witnessed abroad.

All this may seem harsh towards my own country, and my own
Church, but they are nevertheless the impressions which I have
derived from what I have seen ; I ana of course liable to be swayed
by prejudice as well as others, but so far as I know myself, my
prejudices, both those of education and of family connection, were
all the other way, and I feel they have been overcome by facts
which were irresistible.

593

I have now given you what you asked for, my impression of the
Church on the Continent, and you are quite at liberty to make
what use you please of it.

Believe me, Dear Ward,

Yours faithfully,

LETTER II.
MY DEAR WARD,

One of the first things that struck me in France, indeed it is obvious
to any one was the behaviour of the people in the Churches. There
was something which one saw at once to be quite of another kind
from that correct demeanour which a sense of propriety dictates.
A general sense of the purpose for which we go to Church, and due
consideration for others, will lead to a regulated and attentive con-
duct when there. But an attitude of active devotion cannot be
mistaken for this ; and to see, as you never fail to do on entering
any Church, large or small, in France, many of the lowest class
wrapt in that visible absorption of mind which shews at once that
a real communication is going on between the soul and God, is
indeed a cheering sight, a spirit of prayer and supplication is
seen to belong as much now as ever to the body of the Christian
people. Often the posture of the worshipper is careless, and would
little meet the taste of those who dwell with rapture on the forms
of middle-age art, or whose ideas of prayer are formed on such
representations as in the offensive archaeological jargon are called
" a S*. Francis nimbed" the regulations of the Churches may be
thought irreverential, the system of chairs introduces a continual
traffic, and the never-ending circuits of a noisy beadle rattling the
money he is collecting sadly breaks up the ideal some are apt to
form of the still and solemn ceremonial, with all this, there is
that in the appearance of the people which shews at once that
they come there not from curiosity, from habit, or from fashion, but
for a definite act to join heart and soul at the great sacrifice
in communion with the faithful living and dead. Fashion may
carry the French to sermons, but not to mass or to private prayer
in the Church. The theory of Catholicism may be fashionable, but
submission to its rules in practice is very far from being. It is
not many years since a priest could not appear in his habit in the
streets of Paris without risk of insult and the king himself, though
suspected of going privately, durst not go publicly to mass, for
fear of losing his character for good sense. The increase of

594

popularity of the clergy, the crowds of intellectual young men,
lawyers, and students of the University, who flocked to Notre
Dame in Advent last to hear Lacordaire signs of a change of
feeling in the public which the French Catholic press is never tired
of proclaiming, these are the mere ebb and flow on the surface
far more valuable is that genuine old Christian leaven deep in the
heart of the country population, which even the Revolution could
not root out, quite distinguishable from that fickle patronage which
the present generation is disposed to hold out to a visionary middle-
age theory. I felt much less satisfaction in seeing a crowded
audience in Paris listening to a favourite preacher, than in entering
early in the morning a village Church in a distant province, and
seeing the country people drop in before going to work for a few
minutes of private devotion. This was the genuine product of the
religion the harvest where S. Martin had sown.

The same practical air was visible where I least expected it.
I had fancied a procession as merely ornamental ; a poetical
portion of the ceremonial intended to aid and captivate the ima-
gination. I was struck therefore with the business-like air it wore.
Those engaged in it seemed performing a real act of devotion, to
which they were given up, the assembly accompanying them with
their prayers the one party not thinking of admiring, the other
not aiming at effect.

Every one notices the subdued, regulated manner almost universal
in foreign priests. This arises from their habitual consideration of
the Divine Presence. It must be a very superficial observer who
can think it accounted for by the constraint of the peculiar habit.
But it is not any matter of surprise that they should be able to pre-
serve this, when one sees the education they go through for the
Priesthood. The Seminary of S. Sulpice is the principal establish-
ment for this purpose. Many persons are offended at continually
recurring comparisons between our own institutions, and the corre-
sponding Catholic ones, and attribute such to a fretful, captious
spirit. But they should remember that it is only the natural
process of the mind to judge of the unknown by the known, of the
new by the familiar. Open any book of travels, and whether he is
describing the shape of a wheel, or a mode of harnessing a horse,
the writer's first impulse is to compare it with the fashion of his
own country. It was impossible for me to see S. Sulpice without
comparing it with the education we give our clergy. There the
world was shut out, not because it was unknown, but because it
was understood that the process of hardening by exposure to it
is one incompatible with the innocence which is the required
foundation for a religious character. Here I understood for the
first time what it was to make religion the one business of
life not merely a handmaid, a means towards living well and
happily. There was no cant of language, no affectation of dis-
carding the customs of common society, but religion reigned

595

without effort in the whole system. A young man bringing up for
the priesthood where the Church is scantily paid by the State,
knows that he resigns the common objects of ambition. Hard
work and contempt is what he must expect. There is, as might be
expected, a strong esprit de corps, which gives great offence to the
world, which they vent in the epithet ' narrow-minded.' But even
were it so, habits of devotion, and a bracing religious discipline,
would be cheaply purchased at a greater sacrifice than this. An
occasional religious service introduced into a day the whole of which
is given to secular studies, secular conversation, and secular amuse-
ments, is an irksome formality. But where the whole day's business
is made one religious service, interposed, as it were, between the
hours of prayer, the mind must either openly revolt, or be raised to
partake of the pervading tone. I was edified to see many of the
students taking the brief space allowed to recreation after dinner,
for retirement to some shrine or image (with which the grounds
were filled) for prayer or recollection. It was not considered neces-
sary to avoid intruding on them they were taught to form the habit
of abstraction from what was going on about them.

The professors (though without any Gallican bias) did not at all
share in that eagerness for the visible triumph of the Church which
the L'Univers is so anxious for. There was among them no active
sympathy with any political party and that in a country where,
much more than with us, every one is a politician.

The Priests are, in general, shy of strangers, of the English in
particular. Hence the accounts of travellers of a Protestant bias
must be read backwards. If such a person falls in with a Priest
more lax than others, who is willing to converse on the topics of the
day with him, he entertains a better opinion of him as ' superior to
the prejudices of his order,' but exactly in proportion as he
observes earnestness of devotion and exclusiveness, the traveller's
anger is roused at the bigotry, intolerance, hypocrisy, &c., of the
' poor creatures.'

Yours very truly,

LETTER III.
MY DEAR WARD,

I will put down indiscriminately, as they occur to me, some
points in connection with the Church abroad which made an
impression upon me whilst in Normandy in 1842. I saw near
Rouen a College intended for young men of all professions, and
conducted by priests, and was much struck with the religious
character which seemed impressed upon every thing about it. The

596

chapel was very pleasing and reverent in its arrangements, and
bore marks of the interest which the students took in it. On the
altar were flowers placed there by them ; and over it a beautiful
picture, which was given by them. The person who took us into
it, and who was much like the porter of a College at Oxford, was
verv reverent in his behaviour, and spoke with much interest and
intelligence of the mode of life in general, and particularly of the
religious habits of the students. The grounds in which they
generally take their recreation were very nicely laid out in avenues
and walks, in which, we were told, they often practised the hymns
and other music which they used in Church. There were also little
chapels here and there about the grounds, into which they might
retire for private devotion. Each has a small private sleeping
room. Whilst they are at dinner, one of them reads some book
aloud ; one which was mentioned to us was Alban Butler's Lives of
the Saints ; others, however, which were mentioned, were of a purely
historical character.

I was also much struck with the hospitals, in which the poor
were served with the greatest care by Sisters of some religious Order,
many of whom, we were told, had been persons of great wealth
and high rank. The wards were named after different Saints, and
in each of them there was, I think, an altar, and also religious
pictures, and other objects of the same kind, which gave alto-
gether a religious air to the place, whilst the vases of fresh flowers
which were placed by them, and the airiness and cleanliness of
the rooms, and pleasant view from the windows, gave at the same
time in another way an idea of joy and cheerfulness.

At Rouen we were much struck with a person, who shewed us
over one of the Churches, and whom we had an opportunity of
seeing frequently. He was in a very low rank of life. He gave
one the idea of being a very religious person ; and we obtained from
him a great deal of information about the practices of the Church,
with which he seemed well acquainted, and he spoke of them with the
greatest interest. When we were going away, he asked us to
remember him in our prayers ; and said he would always remember
us, and would tell his children to do the same ; and the prayers of
little children, he said, are very pleasing to Almighty God. What
struck one particularly about him was an appearance of reverence
and devotion and self-forgetfulness, which jone so rarely meets with
among persons of the same condition in England.

The appearance and devotion in the people whom we saw in the
Churches was in many instances particularly striking ; and in
general the heartiness and joy with which they joined in the
religious services of the Festivals gave one an idea of their re-
garding religion as something in which they felt their happiness
to be really interested.

597

LETTER IV.

MY DEAR

I ought to say in the way of deduction from the value of my
testimony to the practical operation of the Church abroad, that I
have been in two of the foreign Catholic countries only, and in each
for a very short time. It is true that I have visited both of these
countries more than once ; but it is of my latter visits that I wish
to speak principally, since it was in these only that I was of age and
experience to form any fair idea of the state of things, or that I had
sufficient interest in ecclesiastical matters to turn my attention to points
of that sort.

The only countries of which I know any thing are France and
Belgium ; and of France, no part but Normandy, which is generally
said to be a favourable specimen. When I first visited Belgium (in
182S) it was under the disadvantages of which I have just spoken;
but even then, (though, so far as I had any religious feelings and
interests at all, they were decidedly anti-Roman,') I remember to
have been impressed, almost as it were against my wishes, with the
exceedingly religious appearance of the Flemish towns. Of course I
thought it all superstition, and so on ; but even then, I drew compari-
sons between the aspect of things abroad and at home, to the great
advantage of the former. Churches open and frequented at five or
six in the morning (when I happened to be up and about, because I
was travelling,) and a decided air of reverence in the people, especially
the females ; favoured perhaps in a degree by their dress for every
third female one met was habited like a nun. Also, (in another wav)
the state of the towns late in the evening was strikingly different from
those of any of our own, greater or smaller. No ill-conditioned
people about, (as a general rule,) and yet one could not but feel,
(especially after the appearance of the Churches in the morning,)
that all this was the fruit of something better than mere police
regulations.

To come now to my last visits. I will speak of Normandy first,
because I was there first. Now, you remember, my eyes are open,
and my sympathies Catholic, so you must allow accordingly. Yet I
do not think any one could be in Normandy a week without having
it forced upon him, that religion has a place in the hearts and affec-
tions, more or less, of the people, especially the poor. In England a
foreigner might certainly travel on six days in every week and consider
himself in a heathen country ; but you need not be abroad more than
one day, and that any day, in order to find that you are among Chris-
tians. And this, after all the miserable effects of the first French Revo-

598

lution,in banishing the external signs of religion such as processions
from that country. But still there are the crucifixes, to which mcmypay
reverence (though fewer, alas ! than formerly) ; still all churches are
open from (at least) six till twelve, and again in the evening, with a
succession of edifying Services, and an attendance of devout people.

I spent a Sunday at Bayeux, where I was fortunate enough to
come in for the Festival of the first Bishop and Patron of the place,
St. Exuperius. It is difficult to conceive a more interesting circum-
stance than that of a whole town engaged in the religious celebration
of a holyday. It did one's heart good to hear the glee with which the
people joined in the Hymns descriptive of their Saints' Christian
achievements. The noble Cathedral was filled both at the First and
Second Vespers on the Saturday and Sunday, and on the Mass on
the Sunday morning. The Service was magnificent, and most edifying,
even to those who could not well follow it, which was our case ; the
chanting of the Psalms was alternate (as is common in France)
between the choir and the congregation ; there must have been many
hundreds in the nave, who took the alternate verses, and it quite
reminded one of the " roar" of voices, which one of the Fathers, I
think, speaks of in describing the psalmody of ancient times. I do
not mean that there were not points in the Service which some might
lament ; i. e. a lighter strain of music than was always suitable, and
what seemed to us like an occasional interception of the verses and
substituting for them a shewy organ accompaniment. I speak but
of the general effect upon a stranger, which was doubtless most highly
impressive ; indeed the delight of being permitted, though but for
one hour, to join in this psalmody, with the feeling that one was so
far in active communion with the Holy Church throughout all the
world, was in the act, and is in the retrospect, of the most inspiring
kind a momentary but absolutely transporting foretaste of that
union of hearts and voices for which we all pray, and the hopes of
which seem to grow brighter and brighter.

My recollections of Normandy are simply favourable. The French
Church suffers a grievous loss in lacking the full Roman Offices ; and
their Service labours under the farther disadvantage of diocesan
varieties. Still, the general features of Catholic worship are preserved;
and to a stranger the celebrations are not visibly affected by these
peculiarities.

I must not forget a scene at Caen. We witnessed the funeral of a
person who was evidently one of the poorest in the town, perhaps a
tradesman on the smallest scale, or less. It was most pleasing to see
the exceeding care with which the whole ceremony was conducted ;
both procession and service. The latter occupied nearly two hours,
and seemed to consist in the full office for the dead, chanted with the
utmost solemnity. The procession was every where received with
great marks of reverence ; all persons on foot baring their heads
as it passed ; all vehicles stopping or slackening their pace. It
might, no doubt, have been some person who was peculiarly re-

599

spected ; but it struck us as presenting a remarkable contrast to the
funerals of the poor in this country, especially in towns. I should
add that it was at a time when some public gaieties were going on in
the town.

As to the Clergy, we understood that they were very strict in
conduct, and generally respected. They never appear at public places
of amusement, and rarely if ever dine out, except with their Bishop.
This we heard at Rouen. Of course, in judging of the Service
abroad, an Englishman is frequently called upon to make large
allowance for the peculiarity of foreign tastes and habits. I am not
speaking of the dressed figures, of which however I will say, that
in the present state of the popular taste, I think the authorities would
be very wrong in discontinuing them ; but of practices, which come
quite naturally to Frenchmen, but which are exceedingly, and very
properly disgusting to us. Yet it ought to be considered, that since
Frenchmen of the rank out of which the Priesthood is very commonly
supplied, give in to these practices even in furnished rooms and
before all companies, they cannot intend any disrespect by them.
One ought not to complain if they are as decorous in Church as in
other places, though one would wish them to be more decent every
where. In St. Paul's Cathedral I have seen people wearing their
hats. This, the same people would not have done in the pre-
sence of their betters in ordinary society. We are apt, with
our English notions, to expect gentleman-like habits in the foreign
Catholic Priest, I mean in external points ; forgetting how much
the " efficiency" of their ministrations often depends upon their
belonging to a rank short of the highest. Not, however, that
I would seem to undervalue the temper of mind which the word
" gentleman-like" expresses better than any other ; or to deny
that this temper, when combined with more obviously Christian
qualities, is of very essential use to a Clergyman in mixing
with the poor.

Now for Belgium. I thought the appearance of the people on
the whole less satisfactory in 1842 than in 1828. The towns are
evidently more flourishing in a worldly point of view since the
Revolution ; at least there is a great advance in civilization. As
they have become more commercial, they have of course so far
become less religious, and I believe this is fully acknowledged by
Catholics. An infidel spirit has sprung up, which the Church sets
herself vigorously to counteract, and I understand with increasing
effect. The king, too, professes impartiality in religious matters,
which is another trial to the Church. Still it is undoubtingly
making immense way. Comparing Belgium and France, the Church
gives greater signs of power in the former country than in the latter.
It had a great hold on the people before the political changes, and this
it still retains, with whatever drawbacks from circumstances which it
cannot control. The Services are more fully carried out and more
splendidly conducted ; the Government does not seem, as in France,

600

to attempt restrictions as to the number of Festivals, &c. ; more
priests appear in the streets ; and processions are not (as in France)
commonly interdicted.

The Clergy of Belgium impress one with the idea of being a most
devoted body. The amount of labour which they go through is pro-
digious. They rise generally at five (the Belgians are universally early
risers), and seem to have their days fully occupied with devotional and
charitable works. I remained some little time at Mechlin, where I
was most kindly treated, and had an opportunity of going over all
the principal institutions of the place, in company with a priest.
The schools for the poor seem to be admirable ; the teachers are,
I believe, for the most part members of the society of freres Chre-
tiens, and the Clergy of the place superintend and occasionally take
part in the teaching. One establishment was especially striking ;
a sort of Sunday school for young maid-servants. The demeanour
of these poor girls towards their priest was most pleasing ; when he
entered, they begged his blessing, which he gave them in the usual
form. I must not forget to add, that at one of the boys' schools
which I visited, I had an opportunity of examining some of the boys,
whom I took quite at random, upon the distinction between reverence
and worship. I may say that they (almost indignantly) repudiated
the idea of paying Divine honours to the blessed Saints.

The Churches in Belgium are open generally at six, and many persons
both assist and communicate at the earliest Mass. There cannot be a
greater mistake than to suppose that the Mass is used exclusively
or generally as a service for contemplation only. Nothing apparently
can exceed the devotion of those who so use it ; but there is a series
of Low Masses from six to ten every day, at which I think there are
always some communicants, and often many. This is a point in
which we thought Belgium superior to France.

At Antwerp, we fell in with one of the boys who officiated at Mass
in the Cathedral. Considering that he was a mere chance specimen
of his class, I cannot but augur very favourably of the attention
paid to young persons in the Belgian Church. I had a great deal
of conversation with him on two separate occasions, and was struck
and pleased beyond measure by his general tone and demeanour.
We learned that he was in the habit of confessing every fortni ut.
He was between twelve and thirteen. He spoke with delight of his
duties in the Church, and of his hope of one day attaining to the
dignity of the Priesthood. It was impossible to see that boy even
for a few hours and doubt, from his conversation and general deport-
ment, that he had been most carefully and religiously brought up.

I had the good fortune to come in for a Confirmation at Brussels.
It was a most beautiful sight, carrying one back in thought to the
days of St. Ambrose. The present Primate of Belgium bears the
highest character, and sustains his dignity with most especial majesty
and sweetness. Every child and young person knelt during the
Service, and had his, or her, sponsor standing behind, and the

601

behaviour of the whole assemblage was reverent and devout. The
children were arranged in the nave ; the choir was reserved for the
service. On entering, the Archbishop proceeded to the centre of the
Altar, and the Veni Creator was entonedto a simple Gregorian Chant.
There was no noise nor confusion of any sort ; the children did not
move from their places ; but the Archbishop and attendant Priests
came round, and administered the rite to each. The Archbishop
delivered a most affectionate and paternal address.

The Bishops of Belgium meet every year at Mechlin to confer
on the affairs of the Church, and remain there one week. They
are received and entertained by the Primate ; the days are taken up
with alternate devotions and business, and the evenings passed in
receiving the Clergy at dinner. The Archbishop exercises constant
hospitality among his Clergy ; he receives them at dinner, but his
occupations are so numerous and constant that he is generally
obliged to quit his table as soon as dinner is over, or even earlier,
leaving his Chaplain to do the honours to his guests.

I cannot think of anything else to tell you, but as you ask for
my impressions, I gladly give them, with the grounds of them,

I remain, &c.

THE END.

LONDON :
Priutcd by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, & FLEY, Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

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