¥ * % m ■ Wtt m!^- D I S C 0 U 11 S E MATTERS TERTAmiNG TO RELIGION. THEODORE PARKER MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH IN ROXBURY, MASS. " If an offence come out of the Triitli, better is it that the offence Cfmie, than tlie Truth be concealed." — Jerome. BOSTON: CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWlf. MDCCCXLII. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by Theodore Parker, in tlie Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of tlie District of Massacliusetts. B O S '1' O ^ : PKINTED BV FREEMAN AND BOLLES, WASHINGTON STREET. THE rr^EFACE. The following pages contain the substance of a series of five lectures delivered in Boston, during the last autumn, at the request of several gentle- men. In preparing the work for the press I have enlarged on many subjects, which could be but slightly touched in a brief lecture. It was with much diffidence that I then gave my opinions to the public in that form; but considering the state of theological learning amongst us, and the frequent abuse of the name of Religion, I can no longer vvithold my humble mite. It is the design of this work to recall men from the transient shows of time to the permanent sub- stance of Religion ; from a worship of Creeds and empty Belief, to a worship in Spirit and in Life. If it satisfy the doubting soul, and help the serious inquirer to true views of God, man, the relation between them, and the duties which come of that relation ; if it makes Rehgion appear more conge- nial and attractive, and a divine life more beautiful and sweet than heretofore — my end is answered. I have not sought to pull down, but to build up ; IV PREFACE. to remove the rubbish of human inventions from the fair temple of divine truth, that men may enter its shining gates and be blessed now and forever. I have found it necessary — though painful — to speak of many popular delusions, and expose their fallacy and dangerous character, but have not, I trust, been blind to " the soul of goodness in things evil," though I have taken no great pains to speak smooth things, or say Peace, peace, when there was NO peace. The subject of Book IV. might seem to require a greater space than I have allowed it, but a cursory examination of many points there hinted at, would require a volume, and I did not wish to repeat what is said elsewhere, and therefore have referred to an " Introduction to the Old Tes- tament on the basis of De Wette," which is now in the press, and will probably come before the public in a few months. Some of the thoughts here set forth have also appeared in the Dial for 1840-42. I can only wish that the errors of this book may find no favor, but perish speedily, and that the truths it humbly aims to set forth, may do their good and beautiful work. West Roxeury, Mass. 7th May, 1842. CONTENTS. Page The Introduction ....... 3 BOOK I. OF RELIGION IN GENERAL ; OR A DISCOURSE OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS. Chap. I. An Examination of the Religious Elements in Man, and the Existence of its object . H Chap. II. Of the Sentiment, Idea and Conception of God 20 Chap. III. Extent and Power of the Religious Sentiment 29 Chap. IV. The Idea of Religion connected with Science and Life 44 Chap. V. The three great Historical Forms of Religion 51 Chap. VI. Of certain Doctrines connected with Religion. I. Of the Primitive State of Mankind, ii. Of the Immortality of the Soul . . • 112 Chap. VII. The Influence of the Religious Sentiment on Life ....••• 132 BOOK II. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIBIENT TO GOD, OR A DISCOURSE OF INSPIRATION. Chap. I. The Idea and Conception of God . . 159 Chap. II. The Relation of Nature to God . . 170 VI CONTENTS. Page Chap. III. Statement of the Analogy drawn from God's Relation to Nature 181 Chap. IV. The General Relation of Supply to Want 183 Chap. V. Statement of the Analogy from this Relation 190 Chap. VI. The Rationalistic View, or Naturalism . 197 Chap. VII. The Anti-rationalistic View, or Supernatur- alism 207 Chap. VIII. The Natural-Religious View, or Spiritu- alism ....... 215 BOOK III. THE RELATION OF THE KELIGIOUS SENTIMENT TO JESUS OF NAZ- ARETH, OR A DISCOURSE OF CHRISTIANITY. Chap. I. Statement of the Question and the Method of Inquiry 237 Chap. II. Removal of some Difficulties. Character of the Christian Records .... 246 Chap. III. The Main Features of Christianity . 253 Chap. IV. The Authority of Jesus, its Real and Pre- tended Source ..... 262 Chap. V. The Essential Peculiarity of the Christian Religion 281 Chap. VI. The Moral and Religious Character of Jesus of Nazareth 289 Chap. VII. Mistakes about Jesus — his Reception and Influence 299 BOOK IV. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT TO THE GREATEST OF BOOKS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE BIBLE. Chap. I. Position of the Bible — Claims made for it — Statement of the Question . . . 317 Chap. II. An Examination of the Claims of the Old Testament to be a Divine, Miraculous, or In- fallible Composition .... 327 CONTENTS. VU Page Chap. III. An Examination of tlie Claims of the New Testament to be a Divine, Miraculous, or In- fallible Composition .... 351 Chap. IV. The Absolute Religion Independent of His- torical Documents — the Bible as it is . 364 Chap. V. Cause of the False and the Real V^eneration for the Bible 369 BOOK V. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT TO THE GREATEST OF HUMAN INSTITUTIONS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE CHURCH. Chap. I. Claims of the Christian Church . . 381 Chap. II. The Gradual Formation of the Christian Church 388 Chap. III. The Fundamental and Distinctive Idea of the Christian Church — Division of the Christian Sects 405 Chap. IV. The Catholic Party .... 408 Chap. V. The Protestant Party .... 436 Chap. VI, Of the Party that are neither Catholics nor Protestants ...... 477 Chap. VII. The Final Answer to the Question . 482 The Conclusion 489 THE INTRODUCTION. # " To false Religion, we are indebted for persecutors, zealots and bigots ; and perhaps human depravity has assumed no forms, at once more odious and despicable, than those in which it has appeared in such men. I will say nothing of persecution ; it has passed away, I trust forever ; and torture will no more be inflicted, and murder no more committed, under pretence of extending the spirit and influence of Christianity. But the temper which produced it still remains ; its parent bigotry is ^till in exist- ence ; and what is there more adapted to excite thorough disgust, than the disposition, the feelings, the motives, the kind of intellect and degree of knowledge, discovered by some of those, who are pretending to be the sole defenders and patrons of religious truth in this unhappy world, and the true and exclusive heirs of all the mercy of God.'' It is a particular misfortune, that when gross errors in religion prevail, the vices of which I speak, shew themselves especially in the clergy ; and that we find them ignorant, narrow-minded, presumptuous, and as far as they have it in their power, oppressive and imperious. The disgust which this charac- ter in those who appear as ministers of religion, naturally produces, is often transferred to Christianity itself. It ought to be associated only with that form of religion by which those vices are occasioned." — Andrews Norton, Thoughts on true and false Religion, second edition, pp. 15, 16. THE INTRODUCTION. The history of tlie world shows clearly that Re- liction is the highest of all human concerns. Yet the greatest good is often subject to the worst abuse. The doctrines and ceremonies that repre- sent the popular religion at this time, offer a strange mingling of truth and error. Theology is often con- founded with religion ; men exhaust their strength in believing, and have little Reason to inquire with, or solid Piety to live by. It requires no prophet to see that what is popularly taught and accepted as religion is no very divine thing ; not fitted to make the world purer and man more w^orthy to live in it. In the popular theology of the present, as of all time, there is something mutable and fleeting; something also which is eternally the same. The former lies on the surface, and all can see it ; the latter lies deep and often escapes observation. Our theology is mainly based on the superficial and transient element. It stands by the forbearance of the skeptic. They who rely on it, are always in dan^jer and always in dread. A doubt strongly put, shakes the pulpits of New England, and wakens the thunder of the church. Do men fear lest the THE INTRODUCTION. mountains fall ? Tradition is always uncertain. "Perhaps yes, perhaps no," is all we can say of it. Yet is it made the basis of religion. Authority is taken for Truth, and not Truth for Authority. Belief is made the Substance of Religion, as Author- ity its Sanction and Tradition its Ground. The name of Infidel is applied to the best of men, the wisest, the most spiritual and heavenly of our brothers. The bad and the foolish naturally ask. If the name be deserved, what is the use of religion, as good men and wise men can be good and wise, heavenly and spiritual without it ? The answer is plain — but not to the blind. Practical Religion implies both a Sentiment and a Life. We honor a phantom which is neither life nor sentiment. . Yes, we have two Spectres that often take the place of Religion with us. The one is a Shadow of the sentiment ; that is our creed, belief, theology, by whatever name we call it. The other is the Ghost of Life ; this is our ceremo- nies, forms, devout practices. The two Spectres by turns act the part of Religion, and we are called^ Christians because we assist at the show. Real piety is expected of but few. He is the Christian that bows to the Idol of his Tribe, and sets up also a lesser, but orthodox idol in his own den. One word of the Prophet is true of our religion — Its voice is not he rd in the streets. Our Theology is full of confusion. They who admit Reason to look upon it confound the matter still more, for a great revolution of thought alone can set matters right. THE IiNTRODUCTION. Religion is separated from Life, divorced from bed and board. Wc think to be religious without love for man, and pious with none for God ; or, which is the same thing, that we can love our neighbor without helping him, and God without having an idea of him. The prevailing theology represents God as a being whom a good man must hate ; Religion as something alien to our nature, which can only rise as Reason falls. A despair of man per- vades our theology. Pious men mourn at the fam- ine in our churches ; we do not believe in the inspi- ration of goodness now ; only in the tradition, of goodness long ago. For all theological purposes, God might have been buried after the ascension of Jesus. We dare not approach the Infinite One face to face ; we whine and whimper in our brother's name, as if we could only appear before the Omni- present by Attorney. Our reverence for the Past, is just in proportion to our ignorance of it. We think God was once everywhere in the world ; in the Soul ; but has now crept into a corner as good as dead ; that the Bible was his last word. Instead of the Father of All for our God, we have two Idols, the Bible, a record of men's words and works ; and Jesus of Nazareth, a man who lived divinely some centuries ago. These are the idols of the reli- gious ; our standard of truth; the gods in whom we trust. Mammon, the great Idol of men not religious — who overtops them both, and has the truest worshipers — need not now be named. His votaries THE INTRODUCTION. knoio they are idolaters ; the others worship in ig- norance, their faith fixed mainly on transient things. I know there are exceptions to this rule. Saints never fail from the earth. Reason will claim some deserted niche in every church. But wise men grieve over our notions of religion ; so poor, so alien to Reason. Pious men weep over our practice of reli- gion ; so far from Christianity. What passes for Christianity in our times is not reasonable ; no man pretends it. It can only be defended by forbidding a reasonable man to open his mouth. We go from the street to the church. What a change ! Reason and good sense and manly energy, which do their work in the world, have here little to do ; their voice is not heard. The morality, however, is the same in both places ; it has only laid off its working dress, smoothed its face, put on its Sunday- clothes. The popular Religion is hostile to man ; tells us he is an outcast ; not a child of God, but a spurious issue of the devil. He must not even pray in his own name. His duty is an impossible thing. No man can do it. He deserves nothing but dam-, nation. Theology tells him that is all he is sure of. It teaches the doctrine of immortality ; but in such guise, that, if true, it is a misfortune to mankind. Its heaven is a place no man has a right to. Would a good man willingly accept what is not his ? Pray for it ? This theology rests on a lie. Men have made it out of assumptions. The conclusions came from the premises ; but the premises were made for the sake of the conclusions. Each vouches for the .* THE INTRODUCTIOX. / Other's triitli. But what else will vouch for either? The historical basis of popular doctrines, such as Depravity, Redemption, Resurrection, the Incarna- tion ; is it formed of Facts or of No-Facts ? Who shall tell us ? Do not the wise men look after these things ? One must needs blush for the pa- tience of mankind. But has Religion only the bubble of Tradition to rest on ; no other sanction than Authority ; no sub- stance but Belief? They know little of the matter who say it. Did religion begin with what we call Christianity ? Were there no Saints before Peter ? Religion is the first thing man learned ; the last thing he will abandon. There is but one Religion, as one Ocean ; though we call it Faith in our church, and Infidelity out of our church. It is my design in these pages to recall men from the transient Form to the eternal Substance ; from outward and false Belief to real and inw^ard Life ; from this partial Theology and its Idols of human device, to that universal Religion and its ever living God ; from the temples of human Folly and Sin, which every day crumble and fall, to the inner sanc- tuary of the Heart where the still small voice will never cease to speak. I would show men Religion as she is — most fair of all God's fairest children. If I fail in this, it is the head that is weak, not the heart that is wantinjr. BOOK I " Who is there almost that has not opinions planted in him by educa- tion time out of mind; which by that means came to be as the municipal laws of the country, which must not be questioned, but are then looked on with reverence, as the standard of right and wrong, truth and false- hood, when perhaps these so sacred opinions are but the oracles of the nursery, or the traditional grave talk of those who pretend to inform our childhood ; who receive them from hand to hand without ever examining them? .... These ancient preoccupations of our minds, these several and almost sacred opinions, are to be e.xamined if we will make way for truth, and put our minds in that freedom which belongs and is necessary to them. A mistake is not the less so, and will never grow into a truth because we have believed it a long time, though perhaps it be the harder to part with ; and an error is not the less dangerous, nor the less contrary to truth because it is cried up and had in veneration by any party." — Locke, in King's Life of him, second edition; Vol. I. pp. 188, 192. BOOK I. OF RELIGION IN GENERAL ; OR A DISCOURSE OF THE RELI- GIOUS SENTIMENT AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS. CHAPTER I. AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN MAN, AND THE EXISTENCE OF ITS OBJECT. As we look on the world which man has added to that which came from the hand of its Maker, we are struck with the variety of its objects, and the contradiction between them. There are institutions to prevent crime ; institutions that of necessity per- petuate crime. This is built on selfishness ; would stand by the downfall of Justice and Truth. Side by side therewith is another, whose broad foun- dation is universal love, — love for all that are of woman born. Thus we see palaces and hovels ; jails and asylums for the weak, arsenals and churches, huddled together in the strangest and most intricate confusion. How shall we bring order out of this chaos ; account for the existence of these contradictions? It is serious work to 12 THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. decompose these phenomena, so various and con- flicting ; to detect the one cause in the many results. But in doing this, we find the root of all in man him- self. In him is the same perplexing antithesis which we meet in all his works. These conflicting things existed as ideas in him before they took their pre- sent and concrete shape. Discordant causes have produced effects not harmonious. Out of man these institutions have grown ; out of his passions, or his judgment ; his senses or his soul. Taken together they are the exponent which indicates the character and degree of development the race has now attained ; they are both the result of the past and the prophecy of the future. From a survey of society, and an examination of human nature, we come at once to the conclusion, that for every institution out of man, except that of Religion, there is a cause within him, either fleet- ing or permanent ; that the natural wants of the body, the desire of food and raiment, comfort and shelter, have organized themselves, and instituted agriculture and the mechanic arts ; that the more^ delicate principles of our nature, love of the Beauti- ful, the True, the Good, have their organization also ; that the passions have their artillery, and each of the gentler emotions somewhat external to represent themselves, and reflect their image. Thus the institution of Laws, with their concomi- tants, the Court-house and the Jail, we refer to the moral sense of mankind, combining with the des- potic selfishness of the strong, whose might usurps THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. 13 the place of justice. Factories and Commerce, Railroads and Banks, Schools and Shops, Armies and Newspapers, arc quite easily referred to some- thing analogous in the wants of man ; to a lasting principle, or a transient desire which has projected them out of itself. Thus we see that these institu- tions out of man are but the exhibitions of what is in him, and must be referred either to eternal principles, or momentary passions. Society is the work of man. There is nothing in society which is not also in man. Now there is one vast institution, which extends more widely than human statutes ; claims the larger place in human affairs ; takes a deeper hold on man than the terrible pomp of War, the machinery of Science, the panoply of Comfort. This is the institution of Religion, coeval and coextensive with the human race. Whence comes this ? Is there an eternal principle in man's nature, which legiti- mately and of necessity leads to this ; or does it come, like Piracy, War, the Slave-trade, and so much other business of society, from the abuse, misdirection and disease of human nature ? Shall we refer this vast institution to a passing passion which the advancing race will outgrow, or does it come from a principle in us deep and lasting as man ? To this question, for many ages two answers have been given — one foolish, and one wise. The foolish answer, which may be read in Lucretius and elsewhere, is, that Religion is not a necessity of man's nature, which comes from the action of eter- 14 THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. nal demands within him, but is the result of mental disease, so to say ; the effect of fear, of ignorance, combining with selfishness ; that hypocritical Priests and knavish Kings, practising on the ignorance, the credulity, the passions and the fears of men, in- vented for their own sake, and got up a religion, in which they put no belief, and felt no spiritual con- cern. But judging from a superficial view, it might as well be said that food and comfort were not ne- cessities of man's nature, but only cunning devices of butchers, mechanics and artists, to gain wealth and power. Besides, it is not given to hypocrites under the mitre, nor over the throne, to lay hold on the world and move it. Honest conviction and living faith are needed for that work. To move the world of man firm footing is needed. The hypo- crite deceives few but himself, as the attempts at pious frauds, in ancient and modern times, abun- dantly prove. The wise answer is, that this institution of Reli- gion, like Society, Friendship, and Marriage, comes out of a principle, deep and permanent in the heart ,* that as humble, and transient, and partial institu- tions come out of humble, transient, and partial wants, and are to be traced to the senses and the phenomena of life ; so this sublime, permanent, and universal institution, came out from sublime, per- manent, and universal wants, and must be referred to the soul, and the unchanging realities of life. Looking, even superficially, but with earnestness, upon human affairs, we are driven to confess, that THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. 15 there is in man a spiritual nature, which directly and legitimately leads to Religion ; that as man's body is connected with the world of Matter ; rooted in it ; has bodily wants, bodily senses to minister thereto, and a fund of external materials, wherewith to gratify these senses, and appease these wants ; so man's soul is connected with the world of Spirit ; rooted in God ; has spiritual wants, and spiritual senses, and a fund of materials wherew ith to gratify these spiritual senses, and appease these spiritual wants. If this be so, then do not religious institutions come equally from man ? May it not be that there is nothing in Religion, more than in Society, which is not implied in man ? Now the existence of a reli- gious element in us, is not a matter of hazardous and random conjecture, nor attested only by a superficial glance at the history of man, but this principle is found out, and its existence demon- strated in several legitimate ways. We see the phenomena of w^orship and reli- gious observances ; of religious wants and actions to supply those wants. Work implies a hand that did, and a head that planned it. A sound induc- tion from these facts, carries us back to a relijrious principle in man, though the induction does not determine the nature of this principle, except that it is the cause of these phenomena. This common and notorious fact of religious phenomena being found everywhere, can be explained only on the supposition that man is, by the necessity of his na- ture, inclined to Religion ; that worship, in some 16 THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMEJNT. form, gross or refined, in act, or word, or thought, or life, is natural and quite indispensable to the race. If the opposite view be taken, that there is no rehgious principle in man, then there are perma- nent and universal phenomena without a corres- ponding cause, and the fact remains unexplained and unaccountable. Again, we feel conscious of this element within us. We are not sufficient for ourselves ; not self- originated ; not self-sustained. A few years ago, and we were not; a few years hence, and our bodies shall not be. A mystery is gathered about our little life. We have but small control over things around us ; are limited and hemmed in on all sides. Our schemes fail. Our plans miscarry. One after another, our lights go out. Our realities prove dreams. Our hopes waste away. We are not where we would be, nor what we would be. After much experience, men powerful as Napoleon, victorious as Caesar, confess, what simpler men knew by instinct long before, that it is not in man that walketh, to direct his steps. We find our cir- cumference very near the centre, every where. An exceedingly short radius measures all our strength. We can know little of material things ; nothing but their phenomena. As the circle of our know- ledge widens its ring, we feel our ignorance on more numerous points, and the Unknown seems greater than before. At the end of a toilsome life, we confess, with a great man of modern times, that we have wandered on the shore, and gathered here THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. 17 a bright pebble, and there a shining shell — but the ocean of Truth, shoreless and unfathomed, lies be- fore us, and all unknown. The wisest Ancient knew only this, that he knew nothing. We feel an irresistible tendency to refer all outward things and ourselves with them, to a power beyond us, sublime and mysterious, which we cannot measure, nor even comprehend. We are filled with rever- ence at the thought of this power. Outward mat- ters give us the occasion which awakens conscious- ness, and spontaneous nature leads us to something higher than ourselves, and greater than all the eyes behold. We are bowed down at the thought. Thus the sentiment of something superhuman, comes natural as breath. This primitive, spiritual sensation comes over the soul, when a sudden ca- lamity throws us from our habitual state ; when joy fills our cup to its brim, at " a wedding or a funeral, a mourning or a festival ;" when we stand beside a great work of nature, a mountain, a waterfall ; when the twilight gloom of a primitive forest sends awe into the heart ; when we sit alone with our- selves, and turn in the eye, and ask. What am I ? Whence came I ? Whither shall I go ? There is no man who has not felt this sensation, this myste- rious sentiment of something unbounded. Still farther, we arrive at the same result from a philosophical analysis of man's nature. We set aside the Body with its senses as the man's house, having doors and windows ; we examine the Un- derstanding, which is his handmaid ; we separate 18 THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. the Affections which unite soul with soul ; we dis- cover the Moral Sense, bj which the man can dis- cern between right and wrong as by the body's eye ; between black and white, or night and day ; and behind all these, and deeper down, beneath all the shifting phenomena of life, we discover the reli- gious SENTIMENT OF MAN. Lookiug carcfully at this sentiment ; separating this as a cause from its actions, and these from their effects ; stripping the faculty of all accidental circumstances peculiar to the age, nation, sect, or individual, and pursuing a sharp and final analysis till the subject and predi- cate can no longer be separated ; we find as the ultimate fact, that the religious sentiment is this : A SENSE OF DEPENDENCE.^ This Sentiment does not, itself, disclose the character, and still less the nature and essence of the object on which it depends ; no more than the senses disclose the nature of their objects ; no more than the eye or ear discovers the essence of light or sound. Like them, it acts ' The religious and moral elements mutually involve each other in practice ; neither can attain a perfect development without the other ; but they are yet as distinct from one another as the faculties of sight and hearing, or memory and imagination. Perhaps all wWl not agree with that analysis which makes a sense of dependence the ultimate fact in the case. This is the statement of Schleiermacher, not to mention more ancient authorities. See his Christliche Glaube nach der GrundsJilzen der ev. Kirche. B. I. § 4, p. 15, et seq. in his Works; 1 Abt. B. III. Berlin, 1835. of course a sense of infinite as well as finite dependence is intend- ed. Others may call it a conscio7isness of the infinite ; I contend less for the analysis than for i\\e fact of a religious element in man. This theory has been assailed by several philosophers, amongst others by Hegel. See his Philosophic der Religion, 2d improved edition, B. I. p. 85, et seq. in B. XL of his works, Berlin, 1840. THE RELIGIOUS SEJNTIMENT. 19- spontaneous and unconsciously, soon as the outward occasion offers, with no effort of will, forethought, or making up the mind. Thus, then, it appears that induction from noto- rious fiicts ; consciousness spontaneously active, and a philosophical analysis of man's nature, all lead equally to some religious sentiment or principle as an essential part of man's constitution. Now when it is stated thus nakedly and abstractly, that man has in his nature a permanent religious element, it is not easy to see on what grounds this primary quality can be denied by any thinking man, who will notice the religious phenomena in history, trust his own consciousness, or examine, and ana- lyze the combined elements of his own Being. It is true, men do not often say to themselves, " Go to now. Lo, I have a religious sentiment in the bottom of my heart." But neither do they often say, " Behold, I have hands and feet, and am the same being that I was last night or forty years ago." In a natural and healthy state of mind, men rarely speak or think of what is felt unconsciously to be most true, and the basis of all spiritual ac- tion. It is, indeed, most abundantly established, that there is a religious element in man. CHAPTER II. OF THE SENTIMENT, IDEA AND CONCEPTION OF GOD. Now the existence of this religious element — of this sense of dependence, this sentiment of some- thing without bounds, is itself a proof by implication of the existence of its object, — something on which dependence rests. A belief in this relation between the feeling in us and its object independent of us, comes unavoidably from the laws of man's nature. There is nothing of which we can be more certain.^ A natural want in man's constitution implies satis- faction in some quarter, just as the faculty of seeing implies something to correspond to this faculty, namely, objects to be seen and a medium of light to see by. As the tendency to love implies some- ' The truth of the human faculties must be assumed in all arguments, and if this be admitted we have then the same evidence for spiritual facts as for the maxims or the demonstrations of Geometry. On this point see some good remarks in Cudworth's Intellectual System, Andover, 1838, 2 vols. 8vo. Vol. II. p. 135, et seq. If any one denies the trustworthiness of the human faculties, there can be no argument with him ; the axioms of morals and of mathematics are alike nonsense to such a reasoner. Demonstration presupposes something so certain it requires no demon- strating. So Reasoning presupposes the trustworthiness of Reason. IDKA OF GOD 21 thing lovely for its object, so the religious sentiment implies its object : if it is regarded as a sense of abso- lute dependence, it implies the Absolute on which this dependence rests, independent of ourselves. Now spiritual, like bodily faculties, act jointly and not one at a time, and when the occasion is given from without us. Reason, spontaneously, independ- ent of our forethought and volition, acting by its own laws, gives us, by intuition, an idea of that on which we depend. To this Idea we give the name of God or Gods as it is represented by one or several separate conceptions. Thus the existence of God is implied by the natural sense of depend- ence, in the religious sentiment itself; it is expressed by the spontaneous intuition of Reason. Now men come to this Idea early. It is the logical condition of all other ideas ; without this as an element of our consciousness, or lying latent, as it were, and unrecognised in us, we could have no ideas at all. The senses reveal to us something external to the body, and independent thereof, on which it depends ; they tell not what it is. Con- sciousness reveals something in like manner, not the soul, but its absolute ground, on which the soul de- pends. Outward circumstances furnish the occasion by which we approach and discover the Idea of God ; but they do not furnish the Idea itself. That is a fact given by the nature of man. Hence some philosophers have called it an innate idea ; others a reminiscence of what the soul knew in a higher state of life before it took the body. Both opinions 22 IDEA OF GOD. may be regarded as rhetorical statements of the truth that the Idea of God is a fact given by man's nature, and not an invention or device of ours. The belief in God's existence therefore is natural, not against nature. It comes unavoidably from the legitimate action of Reason and the religious senti- ment, just as the belief in light comes from using the eyes, and belief in our existence from mere existing. The knowledge of God's existence, there- fore, may be called an intuition of Reason in the language of Philosophy ; or a Revelation from God, in the language of the elder Theology.^ If the above statement be correct, then our be- lief in God's existence does not depend on the a posteriori argument, on considerations drawn from the order, fitness and beauty discovered by obser- vations made in the material world ; nor yet on the a priori argument, on considerations drawn from the eternal nature of things, and observations made in the spiritual world. It depends primarily on no argument whatever, not on ixasoning but Reason. The fact is given outright, as it were, and comes to ' English writers, in general, have rarely attempted to account philo- sophically for the origin of the Idea of God. They have usually assumed this, and then defended it by the various arguments. See Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, Book I. eh. IV. ; and Cousin's Psychology, Henry's translation, Hartford, 1S34, p. 46, et seq. and 181, et seq. See some valuable remarks in Cudworth's Intellectual System, &c.. Vol. II. p. 134, et seq. See the Christian Examiner for January, 1S40, p 309, et seq., and the works there cited. See also the article of President Hop- kins in American Quarterly Observer, No. II., Boston, 1833, and Ripley's Philosophical Miscellanies, Vol. I p. 40, et seq. and 203, et seq. ^ IDEA OF GOD. 23 , the man, as soon and as naturally, as the belief of his own existence, and is indeed logically insepa- rable from it, for we cannot be conscious of ourselves except as dependent beings. This intuitive perception of God is afterwards fundamentally and logically established by the a priori argument, and beautifully confirmed by the a posteriori argument ; but we are not left without the Idea of God till we become metaphysicians and naturalists and so can discover it by much think- ing. It comes spontaneously, by a law of whose action wc are, at first, not conscious. The belief always precedes the proof; intuition gives the thing to be reasoned about. Unless this intuitive function be performed, it is not possible to attain a knowledge of God. All arguments to that end must be ad- dressed to a faculty which cannot originate the Idea of God, but only confirm it when given from some other quarter. Any argument is vain when the logical condition of all argument has not been com- plied with.^ If the reasoner, as Dr. Clarke has done, presuppose that his opponent has " no tran- scendent idea of God," all his reasoning could never produce it, howsoever capable of confirming and legitimating that idea if already existing in the consciousness. As we may speak of sights to the ' Kant has abundantly shown the insufficiency of all the philosophical arguments for the existence of God, the physico-theological, the cosmo- logical and the ontological ; Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 7th edition, p.444,et seq. But the fact of the Idea given in man's nature cannot be got rid of. 24 IDEA OF GOD. blind, and sounds to the deaf, and convince them that things called sights and sounds actually exist, but can furnish no Idea of those things when there is no corresponding sensation, so we may convince a man's understanding of the soundness of our argu- mentation, but yet give him no Idea of God unless he have previously an intuitive sense thereof. With- out the intuitive perception, the metaphysical argu- ment gives us only an idea of abstract Power and Wisdom ; the argument from design gives only a limited and imperfect cause for the limited and im- perfect effects. Neither reveals to us the Infinite God. The Idea of God then transcends all possible ex- ternal experience and is given by intuition, or reve- lation, which comes of the joint and spontaneous action of Reason and the religious sentiment.^ Now theoretically this Idea involves no contradiction and is perfect : that is, when the proper conditions are complied with, and nothing disturbs the free action of the soul, we receive the Idea of a Being, infinite in Power, Wisdom and Goodness ; ^ that is infinite, or perfect, in all possible relations. But practically, in the majority of cases, these conditions are not observed ; men attempt to form a complex and de- finite conception of God. The primitive Idea, eter- ' The idea of God, like that of Liberty and Immortality, may be called a judgment a, priori, and from the necessity of the case transcends all ob- jective experience, as it is logically anterior to it. * See Ciidworth's Intellectual System, Chap. IV. § 8—10, Vol. I. p. 213, et seq. CONCEPTION OF GOD. 25 nal in man, is lost sight of. The conception of God, as men express it in their language, is imper- fect, sclf-contradictorj and impossible. Human actions, human thoughts, human feelings, yes human passions and all the limitations of mortal man, are collected about the Idea of God. Its primitive simplicity and beauty are lost. It becomes self- destructive and the conception of God, as many minds set it forth, like that of a Griffin, or Centaur, or " men whose heads do grow beneath their shoul- ders," is self-contradictory ; the notion of a being who, from the very nature of things, could not exist. They for the most part have been called Atheists who denied the popular idea of God, showed its inconsistency, and proved that such a being could not be.^ The early Christians and all the most dis- ' The best men have often been branded as Atheists. The following benefactors of the world have borne that stigma : Thales, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophanes, and both the Zenos; Cicero, Seneca, Abelard, Gallileo, Kepler, Des Cartes, Leibnitz, Wolf, Locke, Cudworth, Samuel Clarke, Jacob Bohme ; Kant, and Fichte, and Schelling, and Hegel are still under the ban. See some curious details of this subject in Keimmann's Historia Atheismi, &c., 1725, a dull book but profitable. Sec also " Jlistorical Sketch of Atheism/' by Dr. Pond, in American Piiblical Repository, for Oct. ]839, p. 320, et seq. Possevin, in his Bibliotheca, puts Luther and RIelancthon among the Atheists. Mersenne, in his Comment, in Geneseos, says, that in 1G22, there were 50,000 Atheists in Paris alone, often a dozen in a single house. See some curious details respecting the literary treatment of the subject in J. G. Walch's Philosophisches Lexicon, 2d ed. Leip. 1733, pp. 134-146. Dr. Woods, in his translation of Knapp's Theology, New York, 1831, 2 vols. 8vo, in a note borrowed from Halm's Lehrbuch der Christ. Glaubens, p. 175, et seq. places Dr. Priestley among the modern Atheists, where also he puts De La Mettrie, Von Holbach, (or La-Grange), Helvetius, Diderot and d'Alembert. Such catalogues are instructive. But see 4 26 CONCEPTION OF GOD. tinguished and religious philosophers have borne that name, simply because they were too far before men for tlieir sympathy, too far above them for their comprehension, and because, therefore, their Idea of God was sublimer and nearer the truth than that held by their opponents. Now the conception we form of God, under the most perfect circumstances, must, from the nature of things, fall short of the reality. The finite can form no adequate conception or imagination of the Infinite. All the conceptions of the human mind are conceived under the limitation of Time and Space ; of dependence on a cause exterior to itself; while the Infinite is necessarily free of these limita- Clarke's Classification of Atheists at the beginning of his discourse, above quoted, in his Works, Vol. II. p. 521, et seq. The charge of impiety is always brought against such as differ from the public faith, especially if they rise above it. A curious old writer says, " among the Grecians of old, those Secretaries of Nature, which first made a tender of the natural causes of lightnings and tempests to the rude ears of men, were blasted with the reproach of Atheists and fell under the hatred of the untutored rabble, because they did not, like them, receive every extraordinary in nature as an immediate expression of the power and displeasure of the Deity." Spencer, Preface to his Discourse concerning Prodigies, London, 1665. Diodorus Siculus, Lib. I. p. 75, (ed. Rhodoman), relates an instructive case. A Roman soldier, in Egypt accidentally killed a cat; killed a God, for the cat was a popular object of worship. The people rose upon him, and nothing could save him from a violent death at the hands of the mob. All religious persecutions, if it be allowed to compare the little with the great, may be reduced to this one denomination. The heretic, actually or by implication, killed a conse- crated cat, and the orthodox would kill him. But as the same thing is not sacred in all countries, (for even asses have their worshipers), the cat- killer, though an abomination in Egypt, would be a great saint in some country where dogs^ are worshiped. CONCEPTION OF CiOD. 27 tions. Man can comprehend no form of being but his own finite form, which answers to the Supreme BeiniT even less than a G,rain of dust to the world itself. There is no conceivable ratio between Finite and Infinite.^ Our human personalit}' ^ gives a false modification to all our conceptions of the Infinite. But if, not resting in the sentiment of God, which is vague, and leads rather to pantheistic mysticism than to a reasonable faith, w'e take the fact given in our nature ; the primitive Idea of God, as a Being of infinite Power, Wisdom and Goodness involves no contradiction. This is, perhaps, the most faith- ful expression of the Idea that words can convey. This language does not define the nature of God, but distinguishes our Idea of Him, from all other ideas and conceptions whatever. Some great re- ligious souls have been content with this native idea; have found it satisfactory both to Faith and Reason, and confessed with the ancients, that no man by searching could perfectly find out God. Others project their own limitations upon their con- ' M. Cousin thinks God is comprehensible by the human spirit, and even attempts to construct the " intellectual existence " of God. Crea- tion he makes the easiest thing in the world to conceive of! See his Introduction to the History of Philosophy, Linberg's Translation, p. 132- 143. One would naturally think human presumption could go no farther; but this pleasing illusion is dispelled by the perusal of some of his oppo- nents. See also Ripley, 1. c. Vol. I. p. 271, et seq. ' Zenophanes saw farther into the secret than some others, when he said, that if Horses or Lions had hands and were to represent each his Deity, it would be a Horse or a Lion, for these animals would impose their limitations on the Godhead just as man has done. See the passage in Eusebius, Prcep. Ev. XHI. 13, and Clemens Alex. Strom. V 14. 28 CONCEPTION OF GOD. ception of God, making him to appear such an one as themselves ; thus thej reverse the sajing of Scripture, and creating a phantom in their own image, call it God. Thus while the Idea of God, as a fact given in man's nature, and affording a consistent representation of its Object, is perma- nent and alike in all ; while the Sentiment of God, though vague and mysterious, is always the same in itself, the popular Conception of God is of the most various and evanescent character, and is not the same in any two ages or men. The Idea is the substance ; the Conception a transient phenomenon, which at best only imperfectly represents the sub- stance. To possess the Idea of God, though latent in us, is unavoidable ; to feel its comfort is natural ; to dwell in the Sentiment of God is delightful ; but to frame an adequate conception of Deity, and set this forth in words, is not only above human capa- bility, but impossible in the nature of things. The abyss of God is not to be fathomed save by Him who is All-in-all. CHAPTER III. EXTENT AND POWEK OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. Now this innate religious sentiment is the basis and cause of all religions. Without this internal religious element, either man could not have any religious notions, nor become religious at all, or else religion would be something foreign to his na- ture, which he might yet be taught mechanically from without, as Bears are taught to dance, and Parrots to talk ; but which, like this acquired and unnatural accomplishment of the beast and the bird, would divert him from his true nature and perfec- tion, rendering him a monster, but less of a man than he would be without the superfetation of this religion upon him. Without a moral nature, we could have no duties in respect to man ; without a religious nature, no duties in respect of God. The foundation of each is in man, not out of him. If man have not a religious nature, miraculous or other revelations can no more render him religious than fragments of Sermons and leaves of the Bible can make a Lamb religious when mixed and eaten with 30 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT its daily food. The Law, the Duty and the Des- tiny of man, as of all God's creatures, is writ in himself, and by the Almighty's hand.^ The religious element existing within us, and this alone, renders religion the duty, the privilege and the welfare of mankind. Thus Religion is not a superinduction upon the race, as some would make it appear ; not an after-thought of God interpolated in human affairs, when the work was otherwise complete ; but it is an original necessity of man's nature ; the religious sentiment is deep and essentially laid in the very foundation of man. I. Now this religious element is universal. This may be proved in several ways. Whatever exists in the fundamental nature of one man, exists like- wise in all men, though in different degrees and variously modified by different circumstances. Hu- man nature is the same in the men of all races, ages and countries. Man remains always identical, only the differing circumstances of climate, condi- tion, culture, race, nation and individual, modify the manifestations of what is at bottom the same. Races, ages, nations and individuals differ only in the various degrees they possess of particular facul- ' See the treatise of Cicero on the foundation of duties in the essay De Legibus, Lib. I. It may surprise some men that a Pagan should come at the truth which lies at the bottom of all moral obligation, while so many moralists have shot wide of the mark. See the discussion of the same subject, and a very different conclusion, in Paley's Moral Philoso- phy, and Dymond's Essays. UNIVERSAL IN MAN. 31 ties, and in the development, or the neglect of these faculties. When, therefore, it is shown that the religious sentiment exists as a natural principle in any one man, its existence in all other men, that are, were, or shall be, follows unavoidably from the unity of human nature. Again, the universality of the religious element is confirmed by historical arguments, which also have some force. We discover religious phenomena in all lands, wherever man is found. They appear alike in the rudest and most civilized state ; among the cannibals of New Zealand, and the refined vo- luptuaries of old Babylon ; in the Esquimaux fisher- man and the Parisian philosopher. The history of man shows no period in which these phenomena do not appear. Man worships in spirit ; feels depend- ence, and accountability, and gives signs of these spiritual emotions all the world over. No nation has been found so savage that they have not attained this ; none so refined as to outgrow it. The widest observation, therefore, as well as a philosophical and necessary deduction from the nature of man, warrants the conclusion that this sentiment is uni- versal.^ But there are some apparent exceptions to this rule, at first glance. A few persons from time to ' Empirical observation alone would not teach the universality of this element, unless it were delected in each man, for a generalization can never go beyond the fads it embraces ; but observation, so far as it goes, confirms the abstract conclusion which we reach independent of obser- vation. 32 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT time arise and claim the name of Atheist. But even they admit they feel this religious tendency ; they acknowledge a sense of dependence, which they refer, not to the sound action of a natural element in their constitution, but to a disease of the soul, to the influence of culture, the instruction of their nurses, and count it as an obstinate disease of their mind, or else a prejudice, early imbibed and not easily removed.^ Even if some one could be found who denied that he ever felt any religious emotion whatever, however feebly, this would prove nothing against the universality of its existence, and no more against the general rule of its manifestation, than the rare fact of a child born with a single arm proves against the general rule, that man by nature has two arms.^ Again, travellers tell us some nations have no God, no Priests, no Worship, and therefore give no sign of the existence of the religious element in them. Admitting they state a fact, we are not to conclude the religious element is wanting in the savages ; only that they, like infants, have not at- tained the proper stage, when we could discover ' See Hume's Natural History of Religion, Introduction. Essays, Lond. 1822, Vol. II. p. 379. * One of the most remarkable Atheists of the present day is M. Comte, author of the valuable and sometimes profound work Cours de Philoso- phie positive, Paris 1830-41, 6 vols. 8vo. He glories in the name, but in many places gives evidence of the religious element existing in him, in no small power. See Cudworth's Intellectual System, &c., Ch. IV. § 1 — 5. Some one says " No man is a consistent Atheist — if such be possible — who admits the existence of any general law." UNIVERSAL IN MAN. 33 signs of its action. But these travellers are mis- taken.^ Their observations have, in such cases, been superficial, made with but a slight knowledge of the manners and customs of the nation they treat. And, besides, their prejudice blinded their eyes. They looked for a regular worship, doctrines of religion, priests, temples, images, forms and cere- monies. But there is one stage of religious devel- opment in which none of these signs appear ; and yet the religious sentiment is at its work. The travellers, not finding the usual signs of worship, denied the existence of worship itself, and even of any relio;ious element in the nation. But if they had found a people ignorant of cookery and without the implements of that art, it would be quite as wise to conclude from this negative testimony, that the nation never ate nor drank. On such evidence,^ the early Christians were convicted of Atheism by ' It seems surprising so acute a philosopher as Locke (Essays, B. I. ch. 4, § 8,) should prove a negative by hearsay, and assert on such evidence as Rhoe, Jo. de Lery, Martinierc, Torry, Ovington, &c, that there were " whole nations amongst whom there was to be found no notion of a God, no religion." See the able remarks of his friend Shaftesbury, who is most unrighteously reckoned a speculative enemy to religion. Against this opinion, in his Characteristics, ed. 1758, Vol. IV. p. 8I,etseq. 8th Letter to a Student, &c. Some writers seem to think Christianity is never safe until Ihey have shown, as they fancy, that man cannot, by the natural exercise of his faculties, attain a knowledge of even the simplest and most ob- vious religious truths. Many foolish books have been based on this idea, which is yet the staple of many sermons. See on this head the valuable remarks of M. Comte, ubi supra. Vol. V. p. 32, et seq. It is not long since the whole nation of the Chinese were accused of Atheism, and that by writers so respectable as Le Pere de Sainte Marie, and Le Pere Longobardi. See, who will, Leibnitz's refutation of the charge. Opp. ed. Dutens, Vol. IV. Part I. p. 170, et seq. 5 34 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT the Pagans, and subsequently the Pagans by the. Christians.^ There is still one other case of apparent excep- tion to the rule. Some persons have been found, who, in early childhood were separated from human society and grew up towards the years of maturity in an isolated state, having no contact with their fellow mortals. These give no signs of the religious sentiment in their nature. But other universal faculties of the race, the tendency to laugh, and to speak articulate words, give quite as little sign of their existence.^ But when these unfortunate per- sons are exposed to the ordinary influence of life, the religious, like other faculties, does its work. Hence we may conclude it existed, though dormant until the proper conditions of its development were supplied. These three apparent exceptions serve ' Winslow, with others, at first declared the American Indians had no religion or knowledge of God, but he afterwards corrected his mistake. See Francis's Life of Eliot, p. 32 et seq. Even Meiners, Kritische Ges- chichte der Religionen, Vol. I. p. 11-12, admits there is no nation with- out religious observances. See also Catlin's Letters, &c. on the North American Indians, New York 1841, Vol. I. p. 156. See also in Pritchnrd's Physical History of Mankind, 4th ed. London. 1841, Vol. I. p. 188, the statements relative to the Esquimaux, and his correction of the erroneous and ill-natured accounts of others. If any nation is destitute of religious opinions and observances, it must be the Esquimaux, and the Bushmen of South Africa, who seem to be the lowest of the human race. But it is clear, from the statement of travellers and missionaries, that both have religious sentiments and opinions. See some of the most important evi- dence collected in Pritchard. The Heathen philosophers, admitted it as a fact universally acknoicledged that there was a God. * See a collection of the most remarkable of these cases in Jahn's Appendix Hermeneuticse, etc. Viennse, 1815, Vol. II. p. 208, et seq. and the authors there cited. ^ UNIVERSAL IN MAN. 35 only to confirm the rule that the religious senti- ment, like the power of attention, thought and love, is universal in the race. However, like other faculties this is possessed in dift'erent degrees by different races, nations and individuals, and at particular epochs of the world's or the individual's history acquires a predominance it has not at other times. It seems God never cre- ates two races, nations, or men with precisely the same endowments. There is a difference, more or less striking, between the intellectual, aesthetic, and moral development of two races, or nations, or even between two men of the same race and nation. This difference seems to be the effect, not of the different circumstances whereto they are exposed, but of the different endowments with which they set out. If we watch in history the gradual devel- opment and evolution of the human race, we see that one nation takes the lead in the march of mind, pursues science, literature and the arts; another in war, and the practical business of politi- cal thrift, while a third nation alike destitute of science and political skill, takes the lead in Religion, and in the comparative purity of its religious con- ceptions surpasses both. Three forms of monotheistic Religion have, at va- rious times, come up in the world's history. Two of them at this moment outnumber the votaries of all other religions, and divide between them the more advanced civilization of mankind. These 36 THl:'. RKI.IOIOUS KLEMENT three are the Mosaic, the Christian, and the Maho- metan ; all recognising the unity of God, the reli- gious nature of man, and the relation between God and man. All of these, surprising as it is, came from one family of men, who spoke, in substance, the same language ; lived in the same country, and had the same customs and political institutions. Even that wide-spread and more monstrous form of Religion, which our fathers had in the wilds of Eu- rope, betrays its likeness to this Oriental stock ; and that form, still earlier, which dotted Greece all over with its temples, and filled the isles of the Mediterranean with its solemn and mysterious chant, came obviously from the same source.^ The beautiful spirit of the Greek, modified, enlarged and embellished what oriental piety alone called down from the Empyrean. The nations now at the head of modern civilization, do not appear possessed of creative religious genius, so to say, for each form of worship, that has prevailed with them, is derived from some other race, and has lost more than it has gained by the transfer. These nations are more scientific than religious ; reflective rather than spon- taneous ; utilitarian more than reverential ; and, so far as history goes, have never created a mode of Religion. Their faith, like their choicer fruits, is an importation from abroad, not an indigenous plant, though now happily naturalized, and rendered pro- ' This Orientalism of the religious opinions among the Europeans has led to some very ahsiird conceits ; see a notorious instance in Davie's Mythology of the Druids. INDESTRUCTIBLE ]\ MAX. 37 ductive ill their soil. Of all nations hitherto known, these are tlie most disposed to reflection, literature, science, and the practical arts, while the Shemitish tribe is above all others religious. They have an influence in history entirely disproportionate to their numbers, their arts, their science, or their laws. Out of the heart of this ancient people flowed forth that triple stream of pious life, which even now gives energy to the pulsations of the world. Egypt and Greece have stirred the intellect of mankind ; and spoken to our love of the Grand, the Beautiful, the True, faculties that lie deep in us. But this Oriental people have touched the soul of man, and awakened reverence for the Good, the Holy, the Altogether Beautiful, which lies in the profoundest deep of all. The religious element appears least conspicuous, perhaps, in some nations of Australia ; with savages in general it is in its infancy, like all the nobler attributes of man.^ II. Again ; this element is indestructible in hu- man nature. It is not in the power of caprice within, nor external circumstances, war or peace, freedom or slavery, ignorance or refinement, wholly to abolish or destroy it. Its growth may be retard- ed, or quickened ; its power misdirected, or suffer- ed to flow in its proper channel. But no violence from within, no violence from without, can ever de- ' M. Comte takes a very different view of the matter, and has both fact and philosophy against him. 38 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT stroj this element. It were as easy to extirpate hunger and thirst from the sound living body, as this sentiment from the soul. It may sleep. It never dies. Kept down by external force today, it flames up to heaven in streams of light tomorrow. When perverted from its natural course, it writes, in devastation, its chronicle of wrongs, — a horrid page of human history, which proves its awful and mysterious power, as the strength of the human muscle is proved by the distortions of the maniac. Sensual men, who hate the restraints of Religion, who know nothing of its encouragements, strive to pluck up by the roots this plant which God has set in the midst of the Garden. But there it stands — the tree of Knowledge, the tree of Life. Even such as boast the name of Infidel and Atheist find, unconsciously, repose in its wide shadow, and refreshment in its fruit. It blesses obedient man. He who violates the divine law, and thus would wring this feeling from his heart, feels it, like a heated iron, in the marrow of his bones. III. Still farther. This religious sentiment is the strongest and deepest element in human nature. It depends on nothing outside, conventional or arti- ficial. It is identical in all men ; not a similar thing, but the same. Superficially, man differs from man, in the less and more ; but in the nature of the sentiment all agree, as in whatever is deepest and most divine. Out of the profoujidest abyss in man proceed his worship, his prayer, his hymn of THE STRONGEST IN MAN. 39 praise. The histoi}' of tlie world shows us what a space Religion fills. She is the mother of Philo- sophy and the Arts ; has presided over the greatest wars. She holds now all nations with her un- seen hand ; restrains their passions, more powerful than all the cunning statutes of the lawgiver ; awak- ens their virtue ; allays their sorrows with a mild comfort, all her own ; brightens their hopes with the purple ray of faith, shed through the sombre cur- tains of necessity. Religion founds society, inspires the Lawgiver and the Artist — is the deep-moving principle. Religion has called forth the greatest heroism of past ages ; the proudest deeds of daring and en- durance have been done in her name. Without Religion, all the sages of a kingdom cannot build a city ; but with it, a rude fanatic sways the mass of men. The greatest works of human art have risen only at Religion's call. The marble is pliant at her magic touch, and seems to breathe a pious life. The chiseled stone is instinct with a living soul, and stands there, silent, yet full of hymns and prayers ; an embodied aspiration, a thought with wings that mock at space and time. The Temples of the East, the Cathedrals of the West ; Altar and Column and Statue and Image — these are the tribute Art pays to her. Whence did Michael Angelo, Phidias, Praxiteles, and all the mighty sons of Art, who chronicled their awful thoughts in stone, shaping brute matter to a divine form, or building up the Pyramid and Collonade, 40 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT or forcing the hard elements to swell into the arch, aspire into the dome or the fantastic tower, — whence did they draw their inspiration ? All their greatest wonders are wrought in Religion's name. In tlie very dawn of time, Genius looks through the clouds and lifts up his voice in hymns and songs and stories of the Gods, and the Angel of Music carves out her thanksgiving, her penitence, her prayers for man, on the unseen air, as a votive gift for her. Her sweetest note, her most majestic chant, she breathes only at Religion's call. Thus it has always been. Men are found without cities, towns, houses ; without lights for the dark, or clothes for the cold ; without Religion — no nation. A thou- sand men will become celibate monks for Religion. Would they for Gold, or Ease, or Fame ? The greatest sacrifices ever made are offered in the name of Religion. For this man will forego ease, peace, friends, society, wife and child, all that mortal flesh holds dearest ; no danger is too dan- gerous ; no suffering too stern to bear, if Religion say the word. Simon the Stylite will stand years long on his pillar's top ; the devotee of Budha and Fo tear off his palpitating flesh to serve his God. The Pagan idolater, bowing down to a false image of Stone, renounces his possessions, submits to bar- barous and cruel rites, shameful mutilations of his limbs ; gives the first-born of his body for the sin of his soul ; casts his own person to destruction, be- cause he dreams Baal, or Saturn, Jehovah or Mo- loch demands the sacrifice. The Christian idolater, THE STRONGEST IN MAN. 41 doing equal homage to a Ijiiig tlioiiglit, gives up Common Sense, Reason, Conscience, Love of his brother, at the same fancied mandate ; is ready to credit most obvious absurdities ; accept contradic- tions ; do what conflicts witli the moral sense ; be- lieve dogmas that make life dark, eternity dreadful, man a worm and God a tyrant ; dogmas that make him count as cursed half his brother men, because told such is his duty, in the name of Religion. In this name Thomas More, the ablest head of his times, will believe a bit of bread becomes the Al- mighty God, when a lewd priest mumbles his jug- .gling Latin and lifts up his hands. In our day, heads able as Thomas More's believe doctrines quite as absurd, because taught as Religion, and God's command. In its behalf, the foolishest teach- ing becomes acceptable ; the foulest doctrines, the grossest conduct, crimes that, like the fabled ban- quet of Thyestes, might make the sun sicken at the sight and turn back affrighted in his course, — these things are counted as beautiful, superior to Reason, acceptable to God. The wicked man may bless his brother in crime ; the unrighteous blast the holy with his curse, and devotees shall shout " Amen," to both the blessing and the ban. On what other authority have rites so bloody been accepted ; or doctrines so false to reason, so libellous of God? For what else has man achieved such works, and made such sacrifice ? In what name but this, will the man of vast and far out- stretching mind, the Counsellor, the Chief, the G 42 THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT Sage, the native King of men, forego the vastness of his thought, put out his spirit's eyes, and bow him to a drivelling wretch who knows nothing but treacherous mummery and juggling tricks ? In re- ligion this has been done from the first false prophet to the last false priest, and the pride of the Under- standing is abased ; the supremacy of Reason de- graded ; the majesty of Conscience trampled on ; the beautifulness of Faith and Love trodden down into the mire of the streets. The hand, the foot, the eye, the ear, the tongue, the most sacred mem- bers of the body ; judgment, imagination, the over- mastering faculties of mind ; justice, mercy and love, the fairest affections of the soul, — all these have been reckoned a poor and paltry sacrifice, and lopped of! at the shrine of God as things unholy. This has been done, not only by Pagan polytheists, and savage idolaters, but by Christian devotees, accomplished scholars, the enlightened men of en- lightened times. These melancholy results, which are but aberra- tions of the religious sentiment, the disease, not the soundness of mankind, have often been confounded with Religion itself, or regarded as its legitimate fruit. Hence men have said, such results prove that Religion itself is a popular fury ; the foolish- ness of the people ; the madness of mankind. They prove a very different thing. They show the depth, the strength, the awful power of that ele- ment which thus can overmaster all the rest of man, passion and conscience, reason and love. Tell THE STRONGEST IN MAN. 43 a man his interest requires a sacrifice, he hesitates; convince him his Religion demands it, and crowds rush at once, and jojful to a martyr's fiery death. It is the best things that arc capable of the worst abuse ; the very abuse may test the value. ^ ' On this theme, see tlie forcible and eloquent remarks of Professor Whewell, in his Sermons on the foundation of morals, 2d edition, p. 28, et seq. a work well worthy, in its spirit and general tone, of his illustrious predecessors, " the Latitude men about Cambridge," in the brightest noon of England's intellect. CHAPTER IV. THE IDEA OF RELIGION CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE AND LIFE. Now the legitimate action of the religious ele- ment produces reverence. This may ascend into Trust, Hope, and Love, which is according to its nature ; or descend into Doubt, Fear and Hate, which is against its nature. It thus rises, or falls, as it coexists in the individual, with wisdom and goodness, or with ignorance and vice. Its legiti- mate action leads straightway and of necessity to reverence, absolute trust, and perfect love of God. Thus, there can be but one kind of Religion, as there can be but one kind of lime and space. It may exist in different degrees, weak or powerful ; in combination with other sentiments, love or hate, with wisdom or folly, and thus it is superficially modified, just as Love, which is always the same thing, is modified by the character of the man who feels it, and by that of the object to which it is directed. Of course, then, there is no difference but of words between revealed Religion and natural Religion, for all actual Religion is revealed in us. IDEA OF RELIGION. 45 or it coukl not be felt, and all revealed religion is natural, or it would be of no use.^ What is of use to man lies in tlie plane of his consciousness, neither above it, neither below it. We may regard it from different points of view, and give corresponding names to our partial conceptions, which we have purposely limited, and so speak of natural and re- vealed Religion ; Monotheistic, Polytheistic or Pan- theistic, Pagan, Jewish, Christian, Mahometan Re- ligion. But in these cases the distinction, indicated by the terms, belongs to the thinker's mind, not to Religion itself, the object of thought. Historical phenomena of Religion vary in the more and less. Some express it purely and beautifully ; others mingle foreign emotions with it, and but feebly represent the pious feeling. To determine the question what is Absolute, that is perfect Religion, we are not to gather to a focus the scattered rays of all the various forms under which Religion has appeared, in history, for we can never collect the Absolute from any number of im- perfect phenomena ; and, besides, in making the search and forming an eclecticism from all the histori- cal religious phenomena, we presuppose in ourselves the criterion by which they are judged, namely, the Absolute itself, which we seek to construct, and thus move only in a circle, and end where we ' This distinction between natural and revealed religion is very old. But it is evidently a distinction in form not in substance. The terms seem to have risen from taking an exclusive view of some positire and historical form of religion : all religions claim to have been revealed. 46 IDEA OF RELIGION. began. To answer the question, we must go back to the primitive facts of religious consciousness within us. Then we find religion is voluntary OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW OF GoD, INW^\RD AND OUT- WARD OBEDIENCE to that law he has written on our nature, revealed in various wajs through Instinct, Reason, Conscience, and the Religious Sentiment. Through it we regard Him as the absolute object of Reverence, Faith and Love.^ This obedience may be unconscious, as in little children who have known no contradiction between duty and desire ; or in the perfect saint, to whom all duties are de- sirable, who has ended the contradiction by willing ' The above definition or Idea of Religion is not given as the only or the best that can possibly be given, but simply as my own, the best I can find. If others have a better I shall rejoice at it ; I will give some of the more striking that have been set forth by others. Plato : " A Like- ness to God, according to our ability." John Smith : •' God is first Truth and primitive Goodness. True Religion is a vigorous efilux and emana- tion of both upon the Spirit of man, and therefore is called a participa- tion of the divine nature Religion is a heaven-born thing ; the seed of God in the spirits of men whereby they are formed to a simili- tude and likeness of Himself." Kant: "Reverence for the moral law as a divine command." Schelling : " The union of the Finite and the In- finite." Fichte : " Faith in a moral government of the world." Hegel: " Morality becoming conscious of the free universality of its concrete essence." This will convey no idea to one not acquainted with the pecu- liar phraseology of Hegel. It seems to mean, Perfect mind becoming conscious of itself. Schleiermacher : " Immediate self-consciousness of the absolute dependence of all the finite on the infinite." Hase : " Striv- ing after the Absolute, which is in itself unattainable ; but by love of it man participates of the divine perfection." WoUaston : " An obliga- tion to do what ought not to bo omitted, and to forbear what ought not to be done." Jeremy Taylor : " The whole duty of man, comprehending in it justice, charity and sobriety." For the opinions of the ancients, see a treatise of Nitzsch, in Studien und Kritiken for 1828, p. 527 et eeq. RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 47 himself God's will, and thus becoming one with God. It may be conscious, as with many men whose strife is not yet over. Now there are two tendencies connected with Religion, one is speculative ; here the man is em- ployed in matters pertaining to Religion, to God, to man's religious nature, and his relation and con- nection with God. The result of this tendency is theology. This is not Religion itself. It is man's thought about Religion ; the philosophy of divine things ; the science of Religion. Its sphere is the mind of man. Religion and Theology are no more to be confounded than the stars with astronomy. Religion itself is always the same. Theology chan2;es from ape to aiie. The most various doc- trines may exist in connection with Religion. But it depends not on them.^ The other tendency is Practical ; here the man is employed in acts of obedience to Religion. The result of this tendency is morality. This is not Religion itself, but the hfe Religion demands. There may be morality deep and true with Uttle ' Mucli difficulty has arisen from this confusion of Religion and Theol- orry ; it is one proximate cause of that rancorous hatred which exists be- tween the theological parties of the present day. Each connects Rehgion exclusively with its own sectarian theology. But there were great men before Agamemnon ; Good men before Moses. Theology is a natural product of the human mind. Each man has some notion of divine things; that is, a theology; if he collect them into a system, it is a system of theology, which differs from that of every other man living. There is but one Religion, though many theologies. Sec de Wette Ueber Religion urid Theologie, Part 1. Ch. I. — 111. ; Fart II. Ch. I.— III. ; his Dogiiiatik, § 4-d. 48 RELIGION AND MORALITY. Religion, for a sharp analysis separates between the religious and moral elements in man.^ Morality is the harmony between man's action and God's law. It is the sign of Religion. In its highest and only true form, it implies Religion just as Wis- dom implies love. Piety or Love of God is the substance of Religion ; morality, or love of man, its form. They mutually involve one another, still experience shows that man may see and observe the distinction between right and wrong, clearly and disinterestedly, without feeling as such, rever- ence, or love of God ; that is, he may be truly moral up to a certain point, without being religious, though he cannot be truly religious, without at the same time being moral also. But in a harmonious man, the two are practically inseparable as substance and form. The purely moral man, in the actions, thoughts, and feelings which relate to his fellow mortal, obeys the eternal law of duty, revealed in his nature, as such, and from love of that law, with- out regard to its Author. The religious man obeys the same law, but regards it as the will of God. One rests in the Law, the other only in its Author. Now Religion itself must be the same thing in each man ; not a similar thing, but just the same ' It seems plain, that the ethical and religious element in man are not the same ; at least, that they are as unlike as Memory and Imagination, though, like those, they act most harmoniously in conjunction. It is true we cannot draw a line between them as between sight and hearing, but this inability to tell where one begins and the other ends, is no argument against the separate existence of the faculties themselves. See Kant, Religion, Vorrede. DIFFERENCES IN RELIGION. 49 thing, differing onlj in degree^ not in kind, and in its direction towards one or many objects, in both of which particulars it is influenced, in some mea- sure by external circumstances. Now since man exists under most various conditions, and in widely different degrees of civilization, it is plain that the religious element must appear under various forms, accompanied with various doctrines, as to the num- ber and nature of its Objects, the Deities ; with various rites, forms and ceremonies, as its means, to appease, propitiate and serve these Objects ; with various organizations, designed to accomplish the purposes which Religion is supposed to demand, and in short, with various and even opposite effects upon life and character. As all men are at bottom the same, but as no two nations or ages are exactly alike in character, circumstances, or development, therefore, though the religious element be the same in all, we must expect to find that its manifesta- tions are never exactly alike in any two ages or nations, though they give the same name to their form of worship. If we look still more minutely, we see that no two men are exactly alike in charac- ter, circumstances and development, and therefore that no tVA^o men can exhibit their Religion in just the same way, though they kneel at the same altar, and pronounce the same creed. From the differ- ence between men, it follows, that there must be as many different subjective conceptions of God, and forms of Religion, as there are men and women who think about God, and apply their thoughts and 50 RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA. feelings to life. Hence, though Religion itself is always the same in all, the doctrines of Religion, or theology; the forms of Religion, or mode of wor- ship ; and the pra-ctice of Religion, which is morality, cannot be the same thing in any two men, though one mother bore them, and they were educated in the same way. The conception we form of God ; our notion about man ; the relation between him and God ; the duties which grow out of that relation, may be taken as the exponent of all the man's thoughts, feelings and life. They are therefore alike, the measure and the result of the total development of a man, an age, or race. If these things are so, then the phenomena of Religion — like those of Science and Art — must vary from land to land, and age to age, with the varying civilization of mankind ; must be one thing in New Zealand, and the first century, and something quite different in New England, and the fifty-ninth century. They must be one thing in the wise man, and another in the foolish man. They must vary also in the same individual, for a man's wisdom, goodness, and gen- eral character, affect the phenomena of his Religion. The Religion of the boy and the man, of Saul the youth, and Paul the aged, how unlike they appear. The boy's prayer will not fill the man's heart ; nor the stripling son of Zebedee comprehend that devo- tion and life, which he shall enjoy when he becomes the saint mature in years. CHAPTER V. THE THREE GREAT HISTORICAL FORMS OF RELIGION. Looking at the religious history of the race, and especially at that portion of the human race which has risen highest in the scale of progress, we see that the various phenomena of Religion may be summed up in three distinct classes or types, cor- responding to three distinct degrees of civilization, and almost inseparable from them. These are Fetichism, Polytheism, and Monotheism. But this classification is imperfect, and wholly external, though of use for the present purpose. It must be borne in mind that we never find a nation in which either mode prevails alone. Nothing is truer than this, that minds of the same spiritual growth, see the same spiritual truth. Thus, a savage saint, living in a nation of Idolaters or Polytheists, wor- ships the one true God, as Jesus of Nazareth has done. In a Christian land, superstitious men may be found, who are as much Idolaters as Nebuchad- nezzar, or Jeroboam. I. Fetichism denotes the worship of visible ob- 52 FETICHISM. jects, such as beasts, birds, fish, insects, trees, mountains, the stars, the sun, the moon, the earth, the sea and air, as types of the infinite Spirit. It is the worship of Nature.^ It includes many forms of rehgious observances that prevailed widely in ancient days, and still continue among savage tribes. It belongs to a period in the progress of the indi- vidual, or society, when civilization is low, the manners wild and barbarous, and the intellect, act- ing in ignorance of the causes at work around it ; when man neither understands nature, nor himself. Some writers suppose the human race started at first with a pure Theism ; for the knowledge of truth, say they, must be older than the perception of error, in this respect. It seems the sentiment of man would lead him to the one God. Doubtless it would if the conditions of its action were perfectly fulfilled. But as this is not done in a state of ig- norance and barbarism, therefore the religious sen- timent mistakes its object, and sometimes worships the symbol more than the spirit it stands for. In this form, not only the common objects above enumerated, but gems, metals, stones that fell from * It will probably be denied by some, that these objects were wor- shiped as symbols of the deity. It seems, however, that even the most savage nations regarded their Idols only as Types of God. On this sub- ject, see Constant, Religion, &c. 5 vols. 1824. Oldendorp, Geschiehte der Mission — auf— St. Thomas, &c. Barby. 1777, p. 318, et seq. Comte, Cours de Philosophic Positive, Vol. V., Stuhr. Allg. Gesch. der Religionsformen, 2 vols. Berlin, 1838, 8vo. Meiners, ubi supra, and the numerous accounts of the savage nations, by missionaries, travellers, &c. Catlin, ubi supra, Vol. 1. p. 35, et seq p. 88, et seq. p. l.")6, et seq. &c. FETICHISM. 53 heaven/ images, carved bits of wood, stuffed skins of beasts, like the medicine-bags of the North American Indians, are reckoned as divinities, and so become objects of adoration.^ But in this case the visible object is idealized ; not worshiped as the brute thing it really is, but as the type and symbol of God. Nature is an Apparition of the Deity, God in a mask. Brute matter was never an object of adoration. " Thus the Egyptians, who worshiped the Croco- dile, did not worship it as a Crocodile, but as a symbol of God, an appropriate one," says Plutarch, " for it alone, of all animals, has no tongue, and God needs none to speak his power and glory." Similar causes, it may be, led to the worship of other animals. Thus the Hawk was a type of divine foresight; the Bull of strength ; the Serpent of mystery. The Savage did not worship the Buf- falo, but the Manitou of all Buffaloes, the universal cause of each particular effect. Still more, there is something mysterious about the animals. Their ' These Stone-fetiches are called Baetylia by the learned. Cybele was worshiped in the form of a black stone, in Asia Minor. Theophrast. Charact. 16. Lucian Psudoinant, § 30. The ancient Laplanders, also worshiped large stones, called Seiteh. See SchefFer's Lappland. In the time of Pausanias. at Phorae, in Achaia, there were nearly thirty square stones, called by the names of the Gods, and worshiped. Lib. VII. ch. 22, ed. Lips. 1838, Vol. II. p. CIS. Rough stones, he adds, formerly received divine honors universally in Greece. * See Catlin, ubi supra. See also Legis Fundgruben des Alten Nor- dens, 2 vols. 8vo. Leip. 1829, and his Alkuna, Nordische und Nord- Slawische Mythologie, Vol. I., 8vo. Leip. 1831. Mone Geschichte der Heidenthums in Nordlichen Europa, 2 vols. 8vo. Leip. 1S22. See Grimms Deutsche Mythologie, Gott. 1835, for this worship of nature in the North. 54 FETICHISM. instinctive knowledge of coming storms, aad other events ; the wondrous foresight of the Beaver, the Bee ; the sagacity of the Dog ; the obscurity at- tending all their emotions, helped, no doubt, to procure them a place among powers greater than human. It is the Unknown they worship in com- mon things ; at this stage, man, whose emotions are understood, is never an object of adoration. Feticism is the infancy of Religion.^ Here the religious sentiment is still in the arms of rude, savage life. Sensation prevails over reflection. It is a deification of nature, " All is God, but God him- self." It loses the Infinite in the finite ; worships the creature more than the Creator. Its lowest form — for in this lowest deep, there is a lower deep — is the worship of beasts; the highest the sublime, but deceitful reverence which the old Sa- baean paid the host of Heaven, or which some Grecian or Indian philosopher offered to the Uni- verse personified, and called Pan, or Brahma. Then all the mass of created things w^as a Fetiche. God was worshiped in a sublime and devout, but bewildering Pantheism. He was not considered as distinct from the Universe. Pantheism and Feti- chism are nearly allied.^ ' Some writers have supposed there was a state anterior to the fetichistic, in which man had no religious ideas, or emotions whatever. But the supposition is not only gratuitous, but unphilosophical, also, for man being always the same, his essential wants are likewise the same, and differ only in the degree of their development. ^ In consequence of the opinion in fetichistic nations, that external things have a mysterious life, M. Comte, ubi supra, Vol. V. p. 36, et seq. FETICHTSM. 65 In the lowest form of this worship, so far as we can gather from the savage tribes, each individual has his own peculiar fetiche, a beast, an image, a stone, a mountain, or a star, a concrete and visible tjpe of God ! For it seems, in this state, that all, or most external things, are supposed to have a life analogous in kind to ours, but more or less intense in degree. The concrete form is but the veil of God, like that before Isis, in Egypt. There are no priests, for each man has access to his own deity at will. Worship and prayer are personal, and without mediators. The age of the priesthood, as a distinct class, has not come. Worship is entirely free ; there is no rite, established and fixed. Theo- logical doctrines are not yet formed. There are no mysteries in which each may not share. This state of Fetichism continues as long as man is in the gross state of ignorance which renders it possible. Next, as the power of abstraction and generalization becomes enlarged, and the qualities of external nature are understood, there are con- crete and visible Gods for the family ; next for the tribe ; then for the nation. But their power is supposed to be limited within certain bounds. A subsequent generalization gives an invisible but still concrete Deity for each department of nature ; the earth ; the sea ; the sky. discozers traces of it in animals. When a savage, a child, or a dog, first hears a watch tick, each supposes it endowed with life, " whence re- sults, by natural consequence, a Fetichism, which, at bottom, is common to all three I' Here he confounds the si7, ed. 157'J. 9 gg POLYTHEISM. palm tree at noon day, was the melody of the God of sounds.^ A beautiful form of man or woman was a shrine of God.^ The storms had a deity. Witches rode the rack of night. A God offended roused nations to war, or drove Ulysses over many lands. A pestilence, drought, famine, inundation, an army of locusts, was the special work of a God.^ ' See the beautiful lines of Wordsworth, Excursion, Boston edition, 1824, Book IV. p. 159, et seq. See also Creutzer's Symbolik und Mythol- ogie, third edition, Vol. I. p. 8-29. •■^ See Herodotus, V. 47. The Greeks erected an altar on the grave of Philippos, the most beautiful of the Greeks, and offered sacrifice. See Wachsmuth, Antiquities of Greece, Vol. II. 2, p. 315, on the general adora- tion of Beauty with the Greeks, Hegel calls this worship the Religion of Beauty. Phil, der Religion, Vol. II. p. 96, et seq. National charact'sr marks the religious form. 3 A disease was sometimes personified and worshiped, as Fever at Rome. See ^lian Var. Hist. XII. 11, p. 734, et seq. ed. Gronovius. Valerius Maximus, XX. Lib. II. Ch. V. 6, Vol. I. p. 126, et seq. ed. Hase. Temples were erected to Shame and Impudence, Fear, Death, Laughter and Gluttony, among the Heathen, as shrines to the Saints among Christians. Pausanias, Lib. IV. Ch. XVII. says, the Athenians had a Temple for Mercy. See, however, the ingenious remarks of M. Cousin, Journal des Savans, March, 1835, p. 136, et seq. and Creutzer's animadversions thereon, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 135-6. In India, each natuial object is the seat of a God. But in Greece the worship of nature passed into the higher form. See some curious remarks of Hermann on the most ancient mythology of the Greeks in his Opuscula, Vol. II. p. 167. It is a noticeable fact that some of the old polytheistic theogonies spoke of a gradual and •progressive development of the Gods ; the creator keeps even pace with the creation. The explanation of a fact so singular as the self-contradictory opinion that the Infinite is not always the same, may be found in the history of human conceptions of God, for these are necessarily progressive. See Aristotle, Metaphysica, IV. p. 1091, et seq. and Hesiod's Theogony everywhere, and note the progress of the divine species from Chaos and Earth, to the moral divinities, Eunomia, Dike, Eirene, &c. In some of the Oriental theogonies, the rule was inverted, the first emanation was the best. POLYTHEISM. 67 No ship is called by the name of Glauciis because he offended a deity. ^ Arts also have their patron divinity. Phoebus- Apollo inspires the Poet and Artist ; the Muses — Daughters of Mercury and Jove — fire the bosom from their golden urn of truth ; " Thor, Ares, Mars, have power in war ; a sober virgin-goddess directs the useful arts of life ; a deity presides over agriculture, the labors of the smith, the shepherd, the weaver, and each art in life. He defends men engaged in these concerns. Every nation, city or family has its favorite God ; a Zeus, Athena, Juno, Odin, Baal, Jehovah, Osiris, or Melkartha, who is supposed to be partial to the nation which is his " chosen people." Now perhaps no nation ever be- lieved in many separate, independent, absolute dei- ties. All the Gods are not of equal might. One is King of all, the God of Gods, who holds the others with an iron sway. Sometimes he is the All- Father ; sometimes the All-Fate, which, in some ages, seems to be made a substitute for the one true God.^ Each nation trusts its own chief God ' Herodotus, Lib. VL 86, relates the beautiful story of Glaucus, so full of moral Irutli. Compare with it, Zechariah V. 3-4, Job XV. 20, et seq. XVIII, et seq. wliere tlie same beautiful and natural sentiment appears. - See the strange pantlieistic account of the origin and liistory of Gods and all things in the Orphic poems and Mythology. These have been collected and treated of with great discrimination by Lobeck, Aglaopha- inus, Vol. I. p. 473, et seq. See the more summary account in Brandis, Geschichte der Philosophie, Vol. I. p. GO, et seq. ' Men must believe in somewhat that is Absolute; if their conce|)tion of the Deity be imperfect, they unavoidably retreat to a somewliat supe- rior to the Deity. Thus for every defect in the popular conception of 68 POLYTHEISM. is greater than the Gods of all other nations, or, in time of war, seeks to seduce the hostile Gods by sacrifice, promise of temples and ceremonies, a pil- grimage or a vow. Thus the Romans invoked the Gods of their enemy to come out of the beleagured city, and join with them, the conquerors of the world. The Gods were to be had at a bargain. Jacob drives a trade with Elohim ; the God re- ceives a human service as adequate return for his own divine service.^ The promise of each is only " for value received." In this stage of religious development each Deity does not answer to the Idea of God, as mentioned above ; it is not the Being of infinite power, wisdom and love. Neither the Zeus of the Iliad, nor the Elohim of Genesis, nor the Jupiter of the Pharsalia, nor even the Jehovah of the Jewish Prophets is always this. A transient and complex conception takes the place of the eternal Idea of God. Hence his limitations ; those of a man. Je- hovah is narrow, Zeus is licentious, Hermes will lie and steal, Juno is a shrew. The Gods of polytheistic nations are in part deilied men.^ The actions of many men, of differ- Zeus, some new power is added to Fate. " It is impossible even for God to escape Fate," said Herodotus. See also Cudworth, Ch. I. § 1-3. > Genesis XXVIII. 10-12. ^ TertuUian De Anima, CJi. 33. See Meiners, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 290, et seq- Pindar. Olymp. II. fiS, et seq. ed. Dissen and his remarks, Vol. II. p. 36, et seq. This Anthropomorphism took various forms in Greece, Egypt and India. In the former it was the elevation of a man to the Gods ; in the latter the descent of a God to man. This feature of Orien- POLYTHEISM. 69 ent ages and countii(^s, are united into one man's achievement, and we have a Hercules, or an Apollo, a thrice-great Hermes, a Jupiter, or an Odin. Tlie inventors of useftd arts, as agriculture, navigation; of the plough, the loom, laws, fire and letters, sub- sequently became Gods. Great men, wise men, good men, were honored while living ; they are deified when they decease. As they judged or governed the living once, so now the dead. Their actions are idealized ; the good lives after them ; their faults are buried. Statues, altars, temples are erected to them. He who was first honored as a man, is now worshiped as a God.^ To these per- sonal deities are added the attributes of the old Fe- tiches, and still more the powers of nature. The attributes of the moon, the sun, the lightning, the ocean or the stars are transformed to a personal being, conceived as a man. To be made strong he is made monstrous, with many hands, or heads. In a polytheistic nation, if we trace the history of the poptdar conception of any God, that of Zeus among the Grecians, for example, we see a gradual advance, till their highest God becomes the Abso- lute. Then the others are insignificant ; merely his servants, like colonels and corporals in an army, are parts of his state machinery. The passage to tal worship furnishes a fruitful hint as to the origin of the doctrine of the Jjicarnation, and its value. The doctrine of some Christians unites the two, in the God-vum. ' See the origin of Idolatry laid down in Wisdom of Solomon, Ch. XIV. 17-19. Warburton, Divine Legation, Book V. § II. [111.] 70 THE PRIESTHOOD Monotheism is then easy.^ The spiritual leaders of every nation, — obedient souls, into whom the- spirit enters and makes them Sons of God and prophets, — see the meaning which the popular no- tion hides ; they expose what is false, proclaim the eternal truth, and as their recompense, are stoned, exiled or slain. But the march of mankind is over the tombs of the prophets. The world is saved only by crucified redeemers. The truth is not silenced with Aristotle ; nor exiled with Anaxago- ras ; nor slain with Socrates. It enters the soul of its veriest foes, and their children build up the monuments of the murdered Seer. We cannot enter into the feelings of a polythe- ist ; nor see how morality was fostered by his re- ligion. Ours would be a similar puzzle to him. But Polytheism has played a great part in the de- velopment of mankind — yes, in the development of morality and religion.^ Its aim was to " raise a mortal to the skies ; " to infinitize the finite ; to bridge over the great gulf between man and God. Let us look briefly at some of its features. I. In Polytheism we find a regular priesthood. * There are two strongly marked tendencies in all polytheistic reli- gions— one towards pure Monotheism, the other to Pantheism. See an expression of the latter in Orpheus, ed. Hermann, p. 457, " Zeus is the first, Zeus the last," &c. &c., cited also in Cudworth, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 404. See Zeno, in Diogenes Laertius. ed. Habner. Lib. VII. Ch. 73, Vol. II. p. 186, et seq. Clemens Alexand. Stromat. VII. 12. See also Cudworth, Ch. IV. § 17, ct seq., and Mosheim's Annotations. * M. Cotnte tiiinks this the period of the greatest religious activity! The facts look the other way. UNDER POLYTHEISM. 71 This is sometimes exclusive and hereditary, as in Egypt and India, where it establishes castes, and founds a theocracy ; sometimes not hereditary, but open, free, as in Greece.^ When " every clove of garlic is a God," as in Fetichism, each man is his own priest. But when a troop of Fetiches are condensed into a single God, and he is invisible, all cannot have equal access to him, for he is not infi- nite, but partial ; choses his own place and time. Some mediator, therefore, must stand between the God and common men." This was the function of the priest. Perhaps his office became hereditary at a very early period, for as we trace backward the progress of mankind, the law of inheritance has a wider range. The priesthood, separated from the actual cares of war, and of providing food — the two sole departments of human activity in a barba- rous age — have leisure to study the will of the Gods. Hence arises a learned class, who gradually foster the higher concerns of mankind. The effort to learn the will of the Gods, leads to the study of nature, and therefore to Science. The attempt to please them by images, ceremonies, and the like, ' Even in Greece some sacerdotal functions vested by descent in cer- tain families, for example, in the lambides, Branchides, t]uinolpides, As- clepiades, Cerycides, Clitiades. See them in Wachsmuth, Vol. I. P. I. p. 152. See Grimm, Deutsche IMythologie, Ch. V. Meiners, Vol. II. Book XII. ^ See Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, Liv. XXV. Ch. IV. See Priestley's Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos, &.c. Northumberland 1799, § X. for the esteem in which the sacerdotal class was held in India. Also Von Bohlen Das alte Indien, Vol. I. p. 45, et se(] , Vol. II. p. 12, et seq. 72 THE PRIESTHOOD leads to architecture, statues, music, poetry and hvmns — to the elegant arts. The priesthood fos-- tered all these. It took different forms to suit the genius of different nations ; established castes and founded the most odious despotism in Egypt and the East, and perhaps the North, but in Greece left public opinion comparatively free. In the one, change of opinion was violent and caused commo- tion, as the fabled Giant buried under iEtna shakes the island when he turns ; in the other it was nat- ural, easy as for Endymion to turn the other cheek to the Moon. Taken in the whole, it has been a heavy rider on the neck of the nations. Its virtue has been, in a rude age, to promote Science, Art, Patriotism, Piety to the Gods, and in a certain fashion, love to man. But its vice has been to grasp at the . throat of mankind, control their thoughts and govern their life, and be the Will of the World. When it has been free, as in Greece, its influence has been deep, silent and unseen ; blessed and beautiful. But when it is hereditary and exclusive, it preserves the form, ritual and creed of barbarous times in the midst of civiliza- tion ; separates morality from religion, life from be- lief, good sense from theology ; demands horrible sacrifices of the body, or the soul ; and, like the angry God in the old Pelasgic fable, chains for eternal damnation the bold free spirit which, learn- ing the riddle of the world, brings down the fire of Heaven to bless poor mortal men. It were useless to quote examples of this influence of the priest- WAR IN POLYTHEISM. 73 hood. It has been tlie burthen of Fate upon the human race. Each age has its Levites ; instru- ments of cruelty are in their habitations. In many nations their story is a tale of blood ; the tragedy of Sin and Woe.^ II. In the polytheistic period, war is a normal state and almost constant. Religion then unites men of the same tribe and nation ; but severs one people from another. The Gods are hostile, Jeho- vah and Baal cannot agree. Their worshipers must bite and devour one another. Strangers are sacrificed in Tauris and Egypt, and the captives in war put to death at the command of the Priest. But war at that period has also a civilizing influ- ence. It was to the ancient world what Trade is to modern times : another form of the same selfishness. It was the chief method of extending a nation's influence. The remnant of the con- quered nation was added to the victorious empire ; became its slaves, or tributaries, and at last shared its civilization, adding the sum of its own excel- lence to the moral treasury of its master. Con- quered Greece gave Arts and Philosophy to Rome; the exiled Jews brought back from Babylon the great doctrine of eternal life. The Goths conquered ' See the one-sided view of Constant, wiiich pervades his entire work on Religion. See his Essay on the " Progressive Development of Re- ligious Ideas," in Ripley's Philosophical Miscellanies, Vol. II. p. 2;}2, et seq. Virgil, in his description of the Elysian fields, assigns the first place to Legislators, the magnanimous Heroes, who civilized mankind ; the next to Patriots, and the third to Priests. Aen. VI. 661, et eeq. 10 74 WAR IN POLYTHEISM. Rome, but Roman Christianity subdues the Goths. Religion, allied with the fiercest animal passions, demanded war ; this led to science. It was soon seen that one head which thinks is worth a hundred hands. Science elevates the mass of men, they perceive the folly of bloodshed, and its sin. Thus War, by a fatal necessity, digs its own grave. The art of production surpasses the art to destroy.^ All the wars of polytheistic nations have more or less a religious character. Their religion, however, favored less the extermination of enemies than their subjugation. While Monotheism — denying the existence of all deities but one — when it is super- induced upon a nation, in a rude state — like Fetichism itself, butchers its captives, as the Jews, the Mahometans, and the Christians have often done ; a sacrifice to the blood-thirsty phantom they call a God. In the ruder stages of Polytheism, war is the principal occupation of man. The Mili- tary and the Priestly powers, strength of Body and strength of Thought, are the two Scales of Society. Science and Art are chiefly devoted to kill men and honor the Gods. The same weapons which con- quer the spoil, sacrifice it to the Deity.^ III. But as Polytheism leads men to spare the life ' M. Montgery, a French Captain, touchingly complains " that the art to destroy, though the easiest of all from its very nature, is now much less advanced than the art of production, in spite of the superior difficulty of the latter." Quoted in Comte, ubi supra, Vol. V. p. 167. =* M. Comte, Vol. V. p. lG5,et seq., has some valuable remarks on this stage of human civilization. See also Vice, Nuova Scienza. Bib. II. Cap. I-IV, SLAVERY IN POLYTHEISM. 75 of the captive, so it leads to a demand for his ser- vice. Slavery, therefore, like war, comes unavoid- ably from this form of Religion, and the social sys- tem which grows out of it. At this day, under the influence of Monotheism, we are filled with deep horror at the thought of a man invading the person- ality of a man, to make him a thing — a slave. The flesh of a Christian creeps at the thought of it. But yet slavery was an indispensable adjunct of this rouHi form of society. Between that Fetich- ism which bade a man slay his captive, eating his body and drinking his blood as indispensable ele- ments of his communion with God, and that Poly- theism which only makes him a slave, there is a great gulf which it required long centuries to fill up and pass over. Anger has given place to Inter- est ; perhaps to Mercy. Without this change, with the advance of the art to destroy, the human race must have perished. By means of slavery the art of production was advanced. The Gibeonite and the Helot must work and not fight. Thus by forced labor, the repugnance against work which is so powerful among the barbarous and half-civilized, is overcome ; systematic industry is developed ; the human race is helped forward in this mysterious way. Both the theocratic and the military caste demanded a servile class, inseparable from the spirit of barbarism, and the worship of many Gods ; which falls as that spirit dies out, and the recogni- tion of one God, Father of all, drives selfishness out of the heart. In an age of Polytheism, Slavery 76 SLAVERY IN POLYTHEISM. and War were in harmony with the institutions of society and the spirit of the age. Murder and Can- nibalism, two other shoots from the same stock, had enjoyed their day. All are revolting to the spirit of Monotheism ; at variance with its idea of life ; uncertain and dangerous ; monstrous anoma- lies full of deadly peril. The Priesthood of Poly- theism — like all castes based on a lie — upheld the system of slavery, which rested on the same foun- dation with itself. The slavery of sacerdotal gov- ernments is more oppressive and degrading than that of a military despotism. It binds the Soul — makes distinctions in the nature of man. The Prophet would free men ; but the Priest enslaves. As Polytheism does its work, and man develops his nature higher than the selfish, the condition of the slave is made better. It becomes a religious duty to free the bondsmen at their master's death, as formerly the priests had burned them on his funeral pile, or buried them alive in his tomb to at- tend him in the realm of shades.^ Just as civiliza- • See, who will, the mingling of profound and superficial remarks on this subject in Montesquieu, ubi supra, Liv. XV. Grotius, De jure Belli ac Pacis, Lib. III. Ch. VII.-VIIl. Selden, De jure naturali, «fec. ed. 1680. Lib. I. Ch. V. p. 174, and Lib. VII. VIII. XII. et al. We need only compare the popular opinion respecting slavery among the Jews, with that of the Greeks or Romans, in their best days, to see the influ- ence of Monotheism and Polytheism in regard to this subject. See some remarks on the Jewish slavery in Michaelis's Laws of Moses. Slavery in the East has in general been of a much milder character than in any other portion of the world. Wolf somewhere says the Greeks received this relic of barbarism from the Asiatics. If so, they made the evil institution worse tlian they found it. According to Burckhardt, it exists in a very mild form among the Mahometans, every where. Of TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL POWER. 77 tion advanced and the form of Religion therewith, it was found difliciilt to preserve the institution of ancient crime, which sensuality and sin clung to and embraced.^ IV. Another striking feature of polytheistic influ- ence, was the union of power over the Body, with power over the Soul ; the divine right to prescribe actions and prohibit thoughts. This is the funda- mental principle of all theocracies. The Priests were the speculative class ; their superior knowl- edge was natural power ; superstition in the people and selfishness in the Priest, converted that power into despotic tyranny. The military were the ac- tive caste ; superior strength and skill gave them also a natural power. But he who alone in an age of barbarism can foretell an eclipse, or poison a flock of sheep, can subdue an army by these means. At an early stage of polytheism, we find the political subject to the priestly power. The latter holds communion with the Gods, whom none dare disc- course his remarks do not apply to the Turks, the most cruel of Mussel- men. No code of ancient laws (to say nothing of modern legislation.) was so humane as the Jewish in this respect. * See Comte, ubi supra, Vol.V., p. 186, et seq. On this subject of slavery in Polytheistic nations, see Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ed. Paris, 1840, Vol. I. ch. n. p. 37, et seq , and the valuable notes of Milman and Gui- zot. For the influence of Monotheism on this frightful evil, compare Schlosser, Geschichte der Alten Welt. Vol. III. Part IIL ch. IX. § 2, et al. ; in particular the story of Paulinus. and Deo gratias, p. 284, et seq. and p. 334, et seq. p. 427, et seq. ; and compare it with the conduct of Cato, as given by Plutarch, Life of Cato the Censor, and Schlosser, ubi supra, Vol. II. Part II. p. 189, et seq. 78 TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL POWER. bey. Romulus, .^acus, Minos, Moses, receive their laws from God. To disobey them, therefore, is to. incur the wrath of the powers that hold the thunder and lightning. Thus manners and laws, opinions and actions are subject to the same external au- thority. The theocratic governor controls the con- science and the passions of the people. Thus the radical evil, arising from the confusion between the Priests of different Gods, was partially removed, for the spiritual and temporal power was lodged in the same hand. In some nations the Priesthood was inferior to the political power, as in Greece. Here the sacerdotal class held an inferior rank, from Homer's time to that of Laertius. The Genius of the na- tion demanded it ; accordingly there sprang up a body of men, neither political, sacerdotal, nor mili- tary, the philosophers.^ They could have found no place in any theocratic government but have done the world great religious service, building " wiser than they knew." It was comparatively easy for Art, Science, and all the great works of man, to go forward under such circumstances. Hence comes that wonderful development of mind in the country of Homer, Socrates, and Phidias. But in countries where the temporal was subject to the spiritual power, the reverse followed ; there was no change ' Perhaps none of the polytheistic nations offers an instance of the spiritual and temporal power existing in separate hands, when one party was entirely independent of the other. The separation of the two was reserved for a different age, and will be treated of in its place. WORSHIP OF MEN. 79 without a revolution. The character of the nation becomes monotonous ; science, literature, morals, cease to improve. When the nation goes down, it " falls like Lucifer, never to hope again." The story of Samuel affords us an instance, among the Jews, of the sacerdotal class, resisting, and success- fully, the attempt to take away its power. Here the Priest, finding there must be a King, succeeded at length in ])lacing on the throne a " man after God's own heart," that is, one who would sacrifice as the Priest allowed. The effort to separate the temporal from the spiritual power, to disenthrall mankind from the tyranny of sacerdotal corporations, is one of the great battles for the souls of the world. It begins early, and continues long. The contest shakes the earth in its time. V. Another trait of the polytheistic period is the deification of men. ^ Fetichism makes gods of cattle ; Polytheism of men. This exaltation of men ex- erted great influence in the early stage of polythe- ism, when it was a real belief of the people and the priest, and not a verbal form, as in the decline of the old worship. Stout hearts could look for- ward to a wider sphere in the untrod world of ' See Farmer on the Worship of human spirits. London, 1783. Plutarch, ([sis and Osiris,) denies that human spirits were ever worshiped, but he is opposed by notorious facts. See Creutzer, ubi supra, p. 137, et seq. The deification of human beings, of course implied a belief in the immortality of the human soul, and is one of the many standing proofs of that belief See Heyne's remarks, on Iliad, XXIII. 64 and 104. Vol. VIII. p. 368, 378, et seq. 80 WORSHIP OF MEN. ft spirit, where they could wield the sceptre of com- mand, and sit down with the immortal Gods, re-- newed in never ending jouth. The examples of iEacus, Minos, Rhadamanthus, of Bacchus and Her- cules— mortals promoted to the Godhead, by merit, and not birth — crowned the ambition of the aspiring. The kindred belief that the soul, dis- lodged from its " fleshly nook," still had an influ- ence on the aflairs of men, and came, like guardian spirits, to bless mankind, was a powerful auxiliary in a rude state of religious growth — a notion which has not yet faded out of the civilized world. ^ This worship seems unaccountable in our times; but when these men were supposed to be descendants of the Gods, or born miraculously, and sustained by super- human power ; or mediators between these and the human race ; when it was believed they in life had possessed celestial powers, or were incarnations of some deity or heavenly spirit, the transition to their Apotheosis is less violent and absurd ; it fol- lows as a natural result. The divine being is more glorious when he has shaken off the robe of flesh.^ Certain it is, this belief was clung to with aston- ishing tenacity, and, under several forms, still re- tains its place in the Christian church.^ ' The Christians began at an early age to imitate this, as well as other parts of the old polytheistic system. Eusebius, P. E. XIII. II. Au- gustine, De Civ. Dei. VIII. 27. '' On this subject, see Meiners, ubi supra, Vol. I. B. III. Ch. I. and II. 3 See in Gibbon, (Decline and Fall, Ch. XLVII. § III.) the lament of Serapion at the loss of his concrete Gods. But it was only the Arian notions that deprived him of his finite God. Jerome condemns the MORALS OF POLYTHEISM. 81 The moral effect of Polytheism, on the whole, is difficult to understand. However, it is safe to say it is greater tlian that of Fetichism. The constant evil of war in public, and slavery in private ; the arbitrary character assigned to the Gods ; the influ- ence of the priesthood, laying more stress on the ritual and the creed than on the life ; the exceed- ing outwardness of many popular forms of worship ; the constant separation made between Religion and Morality ; the indifference of the priesthood, in Greece, their despotism in India, — do not offer a very favorable picture of the influence of Polytheism in producing a beautiful life. Yet, on the other hand, the high tone of morality which pervades the literature of Greece, the reverential piety displayed by poets and philosophers, and still more the un- deniable fact of characters in her story, rarely sur- passed in nobleness of aim, and loftiness of attain^- ment, — these things lead to the opinion that the moral influence of this worship, when free from the shackles of a sacerdotal caste, has been vastly under- rated by Christian scholars.^ Anthropomorphism of the Polytheists as stultissimam hccrcsin, but be- lieved tlie divine incarnation in Jesus. See, also, Prudcntius, Apotheosis, 0pp. I. p. 430, et seq. London, 1S24. ' The special influence of Polytheism upon morals, differed with the different forms it assumed. In India it sometimes led to rigid asceticism, and lofty contemplative quietism ; in Rome, to great public activity and manly vigor; in Greece, to a gay abandonment to the natural emotions ; in Persia, to ascetic purity and formal devotion. On this subject see the curious and able, but one-sided and partial treatise of Tholuckon Moral Influence of Heathenism, in the American Biblical Repository, Vol. II. He has shown up the dark side of heathenism, but seems to have no 11 82 MORALS OF POLYTHEISM. To trace the connection between the public vir- tue and the popular theology, is a great and difficult- matter, not to be attempted here. But this fact is plain ; that in a rude state of life, this connection is slight ; scarce perceptible. The popular worship expresses Fear, Reverence it may be ; perhaps a Hope ; or even Trust. But the services it demands are rites and offerings, not a divine life. As civili- zation is advanced. Religion claims a more reasona- ble service, and we find enlightened men, whom the spirit of God made wise, demanding only a divine life as an offering to Him. Spiritual men, of the same elevation, see always the same spiritual truth. We notice a gradual ascent in the scale of moral ideas, from the time of Homer, through Solon, Theognis, the seven wise men, Pindar, ^Eschylus, Sophocles, and the philosophers of their day.^ The philosophers and sages of Greece and Rome re- commend absolute goodness as the only perfect service of God. With them Sin is the disease of the soul ; Virtue its health ; a divine Life the true good of mankind ; Perfection the aim. None can set forth this more ably.^ In the higher stages of Polytheism, man is re- garded as fallen. He felt his alienation from his true conception of ancient manners and life. See Ackermann, das Christliche, in Plato, &c. Ch. L (See below, note 2.) 1 See the proof of this in Brandis, Geschichte der Philosophic, Vol. L § 24, 25. 2 See, on the moral culture of the Greeks, in special, Jacobs, Ver- mischte Schriften, Vol. IIL p. 374. He has done justice to both sides of this difficult subject. MORALS OF POLYTHEISM. 83 Father. Religion looks back longingly to the Golden Age, when Gods dwelt familiar with men. It seeks to restore the links broken out of the divine chain. Hence its sacrifices, and above all its mysteries,^ both of which were often abused, and made substitutes for holiness, and not symbols thereof. When War is a normal state, and Slavery is com- mon, the condition of one half the human race is soon told. Woman is a tool or a toy. Her story is hitherto the dark side of the world. If a dis- tinction be made between public morality, private morality, and domestic morality, it may safely be said that Polytheism did much for the outward regulation of the two first, but little for the last. However, since there were Gods that watched over the affairs of the household, a limit was theoreti- cally set to domestic immorality, spite of the temp- tations which both slavery and public opinion spread in the way. When there w ere Gods, w hose special vocation was to guard the craftsmen of a certain trade, protect travellers, and defenceless men ; when there were general, never-dying avengers of wrons;, who stopped at no goal but justice, — a bound was fixed, in some measure, to private op- ' Cicero, De Legg. II. See on this subject of the mysteries in gen- eral, Lobeck, Aglaophamus, sive de theologiae mystics causis, &c., Pars III., ch. III. and IV. The mysteries seem sometimes to have offered beautiful symbols to aid man in returning to union with the Gods. Waiburton, in spite of his erroneous views, has collected much useful information on this subject. Divine Legation, Book II., § IV. But he sometimes sees out of him what existed only in himself. 84 MORALS OF POLYTHEISM. pression. Man, however, was not honored as man. Even in Plato's ideal State, the strong tyrannized over the weak. Human selfishness wore a bloody robe. Patriotism was greater than Philanthropy. The popnlar view of sin and holiness was low. It was absurd for Mercury to conduct men to hell for adultery and lies. Heal thyself, the Shade would say. All Pagan antiquity offers nothing akin to our lives of pious mcn.^ It is true, as St. Augustine has well said, " that matter, which is now called the Christian religion, was in existence among the an- cients ; it has never been wanting, from the begin- ning of the human race."^ There is but one Reli- gion, and it can never die out. Unquestionably there were souls beautifully pious, and devoutly moral, who felt the Kingdom of Heaven in their bosom, and lived it out in their lowly life. Still, it must be confessed, the beneficial influence of the public Religion of Polytheists on public and private virtue, was sadly weak. The popular life is de- termined, in some measure, by the popular concep- tion of God, and that was low, and did not cor- respond to the pure idea of Him f still the senti- ment was at its work. 1 But see in Plutarch the singular story of Thespesius, his miraculous conversion, &c. De sera Numinis Vindicta, Opp. IL, Ch. XXVIL p. 5G3, et seq. ed. Xylander. * Retract. I. 13. See also Civ. Dei. VIIL and Cont. Acad. IIL 20. ' Plato is seldom surpassed in his conception of the Divine Being, by any one since his day. He was mostly free from that anthropomor- phitic tendency, which Christians have derived from the Old Testament. See Rep. Lib. VJ. MORALS OF POLYTHEISM. 85 But Religion was more woven up with public life under this form than under that which sub- sequently took its place. A wedding or a funeral, peace and war, seedtime and harvest, had each its religious rite. It was the mother of philosophy, of art, and science, though, like Saturn in the fable, she sought to devour her own cliildrcn, and met a similar and well-merited fate. Classic Polytheism led to contentedness with the world as it was, and a sound cheerful enjoyment of its goodness and beauty. Religion itself was glad and beautiful.^ But its idea of life was little higher than its fact. However that weakish cant and sniveling senti- mentality of Religion, which disgrace our day, were unknown at that stage.^ The popular faith oscillated between Unbelief and Superstition. Plato wisely excluded the mythological poets from his ideal commonwealth. The character of the Gods as it was painted by the popular mythology of Egypt, Greece and India, like some of the legends of the Old Testament, served to confound moral distinctions and encourage crime. Polytheists themselves confess it.^ Yet a distinction seems ' See the pleasant remarks of Plutarch on the cheerful character of public worship, Opp. Vol. 11. p. 1101, et seq. Strabo, Lib. X. Ch. IH. IV. Opp. IV. p. 1G9, ct seq. ed. Siebenkees and Tschucke. 2 Many beautiful traits of Polytheism may be seen in Plutarch's Moral Works, especially the treatises on Superstition. That it is not possible to live well according to Epicurus ; of Isis and Osiris ; of the tardy vengeance of God, see the English version, Lond. ICDl, 4 Vols. 8vo. ^ Xenophanes, a contemporary of Pythagoras, censures Homer and Hesiod for their narratives of the Gods, imputing to them what it was 86 MORALS OF POLYTHEISM. often to have been made between the private and the official character of the deities. There was no devil nor pandemonium in ancient Polytheism as in the modern Church. Antiquity has no such dis- grace to bear. Perhaps the poetic fictions about the Gods were regarded always as fictions, and no more. Still this influence must have been per- nicious.^ It would seem, at first glance, that only strong intellectual insight, or great moral purity, or a happy combination of external circumstances could free man from the evil. However, in form- ing the morals of a people, it is not so much the doctrine that penetrates and moves the nation's soul, as it is the feeling of that sublimity which re- sides only in God, and of that enchanting loveliness which alone belongs to what is filled with God. Isocrates well . called the mythological tales blas- phemies against the Gods. Aristophanes exposes in public the absurdities which were honored in the recesses of the temples. The priesthood in Greece had no armor of offiince against ridicule.^ But goodness never dies out of man's heart. shameful for a man to think of. See Karsten, Phil. vett. Reliquse, Vol. I. p. 43, et seq. See Plato, Repub. IL p. 377. Pindar, Oljmp. I. 28. But no religion was ever designed to favor impurity, even when it allows it in the Gods. See the fine remarks of Seneca De Vita beata, Ch. XXVL § 5-C. Even the Gods were subject to the eternal laws. Fate punished Zeus for each offence. He smarted at home for his infidelity abroad. » See the classic passages in Aristophanes, Clouds. 1065, et seq. " It still remains unexplained how the Athenians, on a religious fes- tival, could attend the exhibitions of the comic drama, which exposed the popular mythology to ridicule, as it is done in the Birds of Aristophanes, to mention a single example, and still continue the popular worship. DUALISM. • 87 Mankind pass slowly from stage to stage " Slowly as spreads the green of earth O'er tlie receding ocean's bed, Dim as the distant stars come fortli, Uncertain as a vision lied," seems the gradual progress of the race. But in the midst of the absurd doctrines of the priests, and the immoral talcs wherewith mistaken poets sought to adorn their conception of God, pure hearts beat, and lofty minds rose above the grovelling ideas of the temple and the market-place. The people who know not the law, are often better off than the sage or the soothsayer, for they know only what it is needed to know. " He is oft the w'isest man that is not wise at all." Religion lies so close to man, that a pure heart and mind, free from prejudice, see its truths, its duties, and its hopes. But before mankind passes from Fetichism to pure Monothe- ism, at a certain stage of religious progress, there are two Subordinate forms of religious speculation, which claim the attention of the race, namely, Dualism and Pantheism. The one is the highest form of Polytheism ; the other a degenerate ex- pression of Monotheism, and both together form the logical tie betw cen the two. Dualism is the deification of two principles, the Absolute Good, and the greatest Evil. The origin of this form of religious speculation has been already hinted at. Philosophically stated, it is the 88 - DUALISM. recognition of two absolute beings, the one Su- preme Good, the other Supreme Evil. But this in- volves a contradiction ; for if the Good is abso- lute, Evil is not, and the reverse. Another form, therefore, was invented. The Good Being was absolute and infinite ; the Evil Principle was origi- nally good, but did not keep his first estate. Here also was another difficulty ; an independent and divine being cannot be mutable and frail, therefore the evil principle must of necessity be a dependent creature, and not divine in the proper sense. So a third form takes place, in which it is supposed that both the Good and the Evil are emanations from one Absolute Being, that Evil is only negative, and will at last end ; that all wicked, as all good princi- ples are subject to the Infinite God. At this point Dualism coalesces with the doctrine of one God, and dies its death. This system of Dualism, in its various forms, has extended widely. It seems to have been most fully developed in Persia. It came early into the Christian church, and still retains its hold throughout all Christendom, though it is fast dying away before the advance of Reason and Faith.i • The doctrine of two principles is older than the time of Zoroaster. Hyde, Hist. Religionis vet. Persarum. Ch. IX. and XX. XXII. Bayle's Dictionary, article Zoroaster, Vol. V. p. G3G. See also Cudworth, Ch. IV. § 13, p. 2S9, et seq., and Mosheim's Notes, Vol. I. p. 320, et seq. Rhode, Heilige Sage der Zendvolks, B. II. Ch. IX. X. XII. Brucker, His- toria Philosophise, Vol. I. p. 176, et seq. Plutarch was a Dualist though in a modified sense. See his Isis and Osiris, and Psychogonia. Marcion, among the early Christians, was accused of this belief, and indeed the e.vistence of a devil is still believed by most Christian divines, to be second PANTHEISM. 89 Pantheism has, perhaps, never been altogether a stranger to the world. It makes all things God, and God all things. Tiiis view seems at first con- genial to a poetic and religious mind. If the world be regarded as a collection of powers, — the awful force of the storm, of the thunder, the earthquake ; the huge magnificence of the ocean, in its slumber or its wrath ; the sublimity of the ever-during hills ; the rocks, which resist all but the unseen hand of time ; these might lead to the thought that they were God. If men looked at the order, fitness, beauty, love, everywhere apparent in nature, the impression is confirmed. The All of things ap- pears so beautiful to the comprehensive eye, that we almost think it is its own Cause and Creator. The animals find their support and their pleasure ; the painted leopard and the snowy swan, each liv- ing by its own law ; the bird of passage that pur- sues, from zone to zone, its unmarked path ; the summer warbler which sings out its melodious ex- istence in the woodbine ; the flowers that come unasked, charming the youthful year ; the golden fruit maturing in its wilderness of green ; the dew and the rainbow ; the frost-flake and the mountain snow ; the glories that wait upon the morning, or only in importance to the belief of a God ; at the very least a scriptural doctrine, and of great value. See a curious book of Mayer, (Historia Diaboli) who thinks it a matter of divine revelation. See also the inge- niou-; remarks of Professor Woods, in his translation of Knapp's Theology, New York, 18:51, Vol. I. et seq. § G2-6G. See the early forms of Dual- ism among the Christians, in Bcausobre Histoire de Manichee et du Man- cheieme, 2 Vols. 4to. 12 90 PANTHEISM. sing the sun to his ambrosial rest ; the pomp of the sun at noon, amid the clouds of a June day; the awful pomp of nigl>t, when all the stars with a serene step come out, and tread their round, and seem to watch in blest tranquillity about the slum- bering world ; the moon waning and waxing, walk- ing in beauty through the night; — daily the water is rough whh the winds ; they come or abide at no man's bidding, and roll the yellow corn, or wake religious music at night-fall in the pines ; these things are all so fair, so wondrous, so wrapt in mystery, it is no marvel that men say, This is di- vine. Yes, the All is God. He is the light of the morning, the beauty of the noon, and the strength of the sun. The little grass grows by his pres- ence. He preserveth the cedars. The stars are serene because he is in them. The lilies are redo- lent of God. He is the One ; the All. God is the mind of man. The soul of all ; more moving than motion ; more stable than rest ; fairer than beauty, and stronger than strength. The power of nature is God. The universe, broad and deep and high, a handful of dust, which God enchants. He is the mysterious magic that possesses the world. Yes, he is the All ; the Reality of all phenomena. But an old writer thus pleasantly rebukes this conclusion, " Surely, vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good things that are seen, know him that is . . . but deemed either Fire, or Wind, or the Swift Air, or the Circle of the Stars, or the violent Water, or the MATERIAL PANTHEISM. 91 Lights of Heaven, to be the Gods, which govern the world. With whose beauty if \hvy being de- lighted took them to be Gods ; let them know how much better the Lord of them is, for the first Author of Beauty hath created them."^ To view the subject in a philosophical and ab- stract way. Pantheism is the worship of All as God. He is the One and All ; not conceived as distinct from the Universe, nor independent of it. It is said to have prevailed widely in ancient times, and, if we may believe what is reported, it has not ended with Spinoza. It may be divided into two forms, Material Pantheism, sometimes called Hylozoism, and Spiritual Pantheism, or Psycho Zoism. Ma- terial Pantheism affirms the existence of matter, but denies the existence of spirit, or any thing be- sides matter. Creation is not possible ; the Phe- ' Wisdom of Solomon, Ch. XIII. l,etseq. At the present day Pantheism seems to be tlie bugbear of some excellent persons. They see it every- where except on the dark walls of ibeir own churches. The disciples of Locke find it in all schools of philosophy but the Sensual ; the followers of Calvm see it in the liberal churches. It has become dangerous to say " God is Spirit ."a definite God, whose personality we understand, is the orthodox article M. Maret, in his Essai sur le Pantheisme dans lea Societes Modernes, Paris, 1840, 1 vol. bvo, finds it the natural result of Protestantisii), and places before us the pleasant alternatives, cither the Catholic Church or Pantheism. Preface, p. xv. et al. The rationalism of the nineteenth century must end in skepticism, or leap over to Pan- theism. According to ium all the philosophers of the Spiritual School in our day are Pantheists. Formerly Divines condemned Philosophy because it had too Utile of God ; now because it has too much. It would seem difiicult to get the orthodox medium ; too much and too little are found equally dangerous. See the pleasant remarks of Hegel on this charge of Pantheism, Encyclopadie der philosoph. Wissenschaften, &c., third edition, § 573. 92 SPIRITUAL PANTHEISM. nomena of nature and life are not the result of a " fortuitous concourse of atoms," as in Atheism, but - of Laws in nature itself. Matter is in a constant flux ; but it changes only by laws which are them- selves immutable. Of course this does not admit God as the Absolute or Infinite, but the sum total of material things. He is limited both to the ex- tension and the qualities of matter. This seems to have been the Pantheism of Strato of Lampsacus, of Democritus, perhaps of Hippocrates, and as some think, though erroneously, of Xenophanes, Parmenides, and, in general, of the Eleatic Philoso- phers in Greece,^ and of many others whose ten- dency is more spiritual.^ Its philosophic form is the last result of an attempt to form an adequate Con- ception of God. It has sometimes been called Kosmo-theism, (World-Divinity,) but it gives us a world without a God. Spiritual Pantheism affirms the existence of Spirit, and sometimes, either expressly, or by im- plication, denies the existence of matter. This makes all Spirit God ; always the same, but ever unfolding into new forms, and therefore a perpetual ' See Karsten, ubi sup. Vol. I. and II. See the opinions of these men ably summed up by Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie, Vol. 1. B. V. and Brandis, ubi sup. Vol. I. § G6-72. Cud worth has many fine obser- vations on this sort of Pantheism, Vol. I. Ch. IV. § 15-26, and else- where. He denies that this school make the deity corporeal, and charges this upon others. See Ch. III. ' See Jasche, Der Pantheismus, Constant, Liv. X. Ch. VI. treats this subject with a superficiality unusual even with him, and concludes the doctiine of a Fall is a device of the Priesthood. See some admirable remarks on the savage state in de Maistre, Soirees de St. Petersburg, Vol. I. See also Leroux's criticism on the opinions of Jouffroy and Pascal. Refutation de I'Eclecticism, 1840, p. 330, et seq. Leroux believes in the progress of all species, Man, the Beaver, and the Bee. M. Maret, ubi sup., p. 30 et seq. and 240, et seq. makes some very judicious observations. IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 119 nations, in whom instinct seems to predominate, trust the spontaneous belief. They construct an ideal world, in which the sliade of the departed pursues his calling and finds justice at the last; re- compense for his toil ; right for his earthly wrongs. The conception of the form of future life depends on the condition and character of the believer. Hence it is a state of war or peace ; of sensual or spiritual delight ; of reform or progress, with different na- tions. The notion formed of the next world is the index of man's state in this. Here the Idolater and the Pantheist, the Mahometan and the Chris- tian, express their conflicting views of life. The Sentiment and Idea of immortality may be true, but the definite conception must be false. In a low stage of civilization the doctrine, like Religion itself, seems to have but little influence on life. It presents no motive to virtue, and therefore does not receive the same place in their system, as at a sub- sequent period. In rude ages, men reason but little. As they begin to be civilized they ask proofs of Immortality, not satisfied with the instinctive feeling ; not con- vinced that infinite goodness will do what is best for all and each of his creatures. Hence come doubts on this head ; inquiries ; attempts to prove the doctrine ; a denial of it. There seems an an- tithesis between instinct and understanding. The reasoning of men is then against it, but when an accident drives them to somewhat more funda- mental than processes of logic, the instinctive belief 120 OPINION OF THE HEBREWS does its work. Here then are three distinct things ; a belief in a future and immortal state ; a definite conception of that state ; and 'a proof oi the fact of a future and immortal state. The two latter may be fluctuating and inadequate, while the former remains secure. Now it may be considered as pretty well fixed, that all nations of the earth believe this doctrine ; at least, the exceptions are so rare, that they only confirm the rule. However, it is often difficult, and sometimes impossible to determine the popular con- ception, and the influence of this belief at a par- ticular time and place. But the subject demands a more special and detailed examination. Let us look at the opinion of the ancients. I. Opinion of the Hebrews respecting a Future State. It has sometimes been taught that this doc- trine was perfectly understood, even by the Patri- archs ; and sometimes declared altogether forei2;n to the Old Testament. Both statements are incor- rect. In some parts of the Hebrew Scriptures we find rude notions of a future state, but a firm belief in it ; in others doubt, and even denial thereof. In the early books, at least, it never appears as a motive. It has no sanction in the law ; no symbol in the Jewish worship. The soul was sometimes placed in the blood, as by Empedocles ; ^ sometimes ' Gen. IX. 4 ; Lev. XVII. 1 1 ; Deut. XII. 23. See Cicero, Tusc. Lib, I. Ch. 9, 10. RESPECTING THE FUTURE STATE. 121 ill the breath ; ^ the heart, or the bowels were sometimes considered as its seat.- The notion of immortality was indefinite in tlie early books ; there are cloudy views of a subterranean world,^ which gradually acquire more distinctness. The state of the departed is a gloomy, joyless conscious- ness ; the servant is free from his master ; the king has a shadowy grandeur.^ The dead prophet can be called back to admonish the livinji. Enoch and Elijah, like Ganymede with the Greeks, being fa- vorites of the deity, are taken miraculously to him.^ Others deny the doctrine of immortality with great plainness.^ After the return from exile, the doctrine appears more definitely. Ezekiel, and the Pseudo-Isaiah^ allude to a resurrection of the body, a notion which ' Gen. 11. 7; Ps. CIV. 29, et al. " Deut. XXXII. 4G; Ps. XCV. 10; Ps. XVI. 7 ; Prov. XXIIl. 16, et al. » Gen. XXV. 8, XXXVII. 35 ; Num XVI. 30, 33. In Job, Isaiah, and the Psalms this becomes more definite. Job X. 21, XXXVIII. 17. * Job III. 19; Isaiah XIV.; Ezek. XXXII.; 1 Sara. XXVIII. See Homer, Od. XI. Virgil, ^neid. VI. * See also Ps. XVII. 1-5; LXXIII. 24. See the mistakes of Michaelis respecting this doctrine of immortality, in his Argumenta immortalitate, ... ex Mose coUecta, in his Syntagma Comment. Vol. I. p. ^0, et seq. See his notes on Lowth, p. 403, ed. RosenmQller. Warburton founds hia strange hypothesis on the opposite view. See on this point, Bauer Dicta clara. Vol. II. § 5G, et seq, de Wette, ubi sup. § 113, et seq. Lessing Beytragen aus der Wolfenbuttelschcn Bibliolhek. Vol. IV. p. 4.-'4, et seq. See the moderate and judicious remarks of Knapp, ubi sup. Vol. II. § 149. « Eccles. III. 19-21, IX. 10. ' Ezek. XXXVII. ; Isa. XXVI. 19. See Gesenius in loco. 16 122 OPINION OF THE HEBREWS is perhaps of Zoroastrian origin.^ Perhaps older than Zoroaster. But it is only a doubtful immor-- tality that is taught in the apocryphal book of Ec- clesiasticus, though in the Wisdom of Solomon,^ and in the fourth book of Maccabees, it is set forth with great clearness.^ The second book of Maccabees teaches in the plainest terms the resurrection of all ; the righteous to happiness, the wicked to shame. ^ They will find their former friends, and resume their old pursuits.^ Nothing is plainer. At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the body ; a state of rewards and punishments.^ Some of them connected it with the common notion of the transmigration of souls ; ' perhaps with that of preexistence. The Essenes, still more philosophically, taught the im- mortality of the soul, and the certainty of retribu- tion, without the resurrection of the body. The soul is formed of the most subtle air, and is con- fined in the body as in a prison ; death redeems it ' Rhode, ubi sup. p. 494, Nork, Mythen der alten Perser, 1835, p. 148, et seq. Priestley, ubi sup. § XXIII. 2 I. 15, 16 ; 11. 22; III. et seq. ; V. 15; VI. 18. It is connected with a prefix istent state, VIII. 19-20. 3 XV. 3 ; XVI. 25 ; XVII. 18, et al. de Wette, ubi sup. * VII. 9,11,14,23; XII. 43, et seq. ; XV. 12, etseq. * See in Eichhorn, ubi sup. Vol. IV. p. 653, et seq., a valuable contri- bution to the History of this doctrine by Frisch. He makes an ingenious comparison of passages from the Apocrypha, and the New Testament, The same doctrine is taught in both. 6 Acts XXIII. 6-8 ; XXIV. 15 ; Math. XXII. 24, et seq. ; Mark XII. 19, et seq. '^ Josephus, Wars, II. 8, 14. Josephus may have added the Metempsy- chosis to suit the taste of his readers. RESPECTING A FUTURE STATE. 123 from a long bondage, and the living soul mounts upward rejoicing.^ We find similar views in Philo.^ Perhaps they were common in reflecting minds at the time of Christ, who always presupposes a be- lief in immortality. The Sadducees alone opposed it. Such were the beginning and history of this dogma with the Jews. Its progress and formation are obvious. II. Of this Doctrine among the Heathen Nations. Amone: savaae nations this belief is common. It appears in prayers and offerings for the dead ; in the mode of biuial. The savage American deposits in the tomb the bow and the pipe, the dress and the tomahawk of the deceased warrior. The Scythian, the Goth, the Indian, and the half-bar- barous Greek, burned or buried the horse, or the ' Josephus, Wars. II. 8, 11. Josephus himself seems to agree with this opinion, when he " talks like a philosopher " in his pretended speech. Wars. III. 8, 5. See Buddeus, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 1202, et seq., Paulus Memorabilia, Vol. II. p. 157, et seq. and de Wette, ubi sup. § 178, et seq. 2 See also the views of Philo, De Somniis, p. 586, De Abrah, p. 385. De Mundi opif, p. 31. The soul is immortal by nature, not hy grace. See Dilhne Geschichtliche Darstellung dor Judischen, Ale.xand. Philoso- phic, «&c., 1834, Vol. I. p. 330, et seq , 405, 485, et seq., who cites the above and other proof passages. Rittcr, ubi sup. Vol. IV. See Weizel on the primitive doctrine of immortality among the Christians, in Theol. Stud und Kritiken, for 1836, p. 957, et seq. Constant, Liv. IX. Ch. VII. makes some just remarks on this subject. On the state of opinions in the time of Christ, see Gfrorer, Jahrhundert des Heils, 1838. Vol. II. Ch. VII. Triglandius de tribus Judffiorum sectis, in quo Serarii, Drusii, Scaligeri, Opuscula, etc., 1703, Vol, I. Part 1, Lib. II. and III. Part II. Lib. II — IV. and Scaliger's Animadversions ; and the very valuable treatise of Leclerc, Prolegomena ad Hist. Eccl. Lib. I. Chap. I. 124 OPIIMION OF THE HEATHEN servant, the wife, or the captive of a great man at his decease, that he might go down rojally attended ' to the realm of shades. Metempsychosis ; the deification of the dead ; ceremonies in their honor ; gifts left on their tombs ; oaths confirmed in then- name, are all signs of this belief.^ The Egyptians, the Gauls, and Scandinavians spoke of death as the object of life. Lucan foolishly thinks the latter are brave because they believe in endless existence. Each savage people has its place of souls. Death with them is not an extinction, but a change of life. The tomb is a sacred place. No expense is too great for the dead. Their picture of Heaven is earth embellished. At first, the next world is not a domain of moral justice ; God has no tribunal of judgment. But with the advance of the present, the conception of a future state rises also. The Paw- nees have but one place for all the departed. The Scandinavians have two, Nifleheim and Nastrond ; the Persians seven ; the Hindoos no less than twen- ty-four, for different degrees of merit. ^ With many savages, the good and evil become angels to bless, or demons to curse mankind.^ ' See Lafitau, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 387, et seq., 410, et seq., 420, et seq. , 444, et seq. Vol. I. p. 359, et seq., 407, et seq. Catlin, ubi sup. Vol. I. Bancroft's Hist. Vol. III. Ch. XXII. Constant, Livre IX. Ch. VII. VIII. Livre II. Ch. IV. ^ Constant, ibid. Meiners, ubi supra. Vol. I. Book III. See Leroux, De rHumanit6, etc. Vol. II, p. 4G8, et seq. 3 Meiners, p. 302, etsup. Farmer, On the Worship of Human Spirits, passim. I have mentioned a few books on this subject, which have fur- nished the facts on which the above conclusions rest. I can refer to books of Travels, Voyages in general, the Lettres Edifiantes, descriptions of RESPECTING THE FUTURE STATE. 125 To come to the civilized states of antiquity, In- dia, Egypt, Persia, we find tlie doctrine prevalent in the earliest time, even in the ages when My- thology takes the place of History. In India and Egypt it was most often connected with transmi- gration to other he dies. Herodotus says, the Egyptians first taught the doctrine.^ But who knows? Pausanias is nearer the truth when he refers it to India,^ where it was taught before the birth of Philosophy in the West.^ It begins with the beginning of the nations. In Greece we find it in a rude form in Homer ; connected with Metempsychosis in Orpheus, Py- thagoras, and Pherecydes ; assuming a new form in Sophocles and Pindar, and becoming a doctrine fix- ed and settled with Socrates, Plato, and his school in general. In Homer the future state is a joyless existence. Achilles would rather be king of earthly men for a day, than of spirits forever. Like the future state of the Jews, it offers no motive, and presents no terror. The shades of the weary came together from all lands into their dim sojourn. foreign countries, which furnish the facts in abundance. The works of Meiners, Constant, and Lafitau are themselves but a compilation from these sources. ' Lib. II. Chap. 123. See Creutzer's note, in Bahr's edition. * The date of all things is uncertain in the East. I cannot pretend to chronological accuracy, but see Asiatic Researches, Vol. V. p. 3G0. VII. 310, VIII. 448, et seq. Priestley, ubi sup. § XXIII. Ritter, Vol. I. p. 132. ' Stanley's History of Philosophy, Part XIII. Sect. II. Chap. X. Hyde, ubi supra. 126 OPINION OF THE HEATHEN Enemies forgot their strife; but friends were joined.^ The present life is obscurely renewed in the next world. But the more especial friends or foes of the Gods are raised to honor, or condemned to shame. The transmigration of souls is perhaps derived from the wondrous mutation in the vegeta- ble and animal world, where an acorn unswathed becomes ah oak, and an egg discloses an eagle.^ In Hesiod, the condition of the dead is improved with the advance of the nation. The good have a place in the isles of the blest.^ In the later poets, the doctrine rises still higher, while the form is not always definite.'^ Pindar celebrates the condition of the Good in the next life. It is a state where the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punish- ed, until sin is consumed from their nature, when they come to the divine abode.* 1 See Iliad, XXIII. et seq. et al. Odyss. XI. passim, and Heyne, Ex- cursus on Iliad, XXIIl. 71 and 104, Vol. VIII. p. 368, et seq. See the eimilar views of the North American Indians, in Schoolcraft's Algic Re- searches. Wachsmuth, Vol. II. Part II. p. 106, 244, 290. Potter, Anti- quities. Gorre's Mythengeschichte, passim. 2 See Xenophon, Memorab. ed. Schneider, 1829, Lib. I. Chap. III. § 7, and the Note of Bornemann. '•' Opera et Dies, vs. 160, etseq., and the Scholia in Poet. Min. ed. Gais- ford. Vol. II. p. 142, et seq. * See the Gnomic poets in general, for the moral views of life ; for the immortality of the soul, Simonides, Frag. XXX. (XXXIII.) Tyr- tacus III. In Gaisford, Vol. III. p. 160,242. See Orpheus, as cited by Lobeck, Aglaoph. p. 950. See Cudworth, Chap. I. § 21,22; and Mo- sheim in loc. See the indifferent book of Priestley, Heathen Philo- sophy, Part 1. §111. V. ; Part II. § III. V. ; also page 125, et seq. 197, et seq. 265, et seq. * Olymp. II. vs. 104, et seq. (57-92, in Dissen.) See Cowley's wild im- itation in hisPindarique Odes, Lond. 1720, Vol. II. p. 160, et seq. See sim- ilar thoughts in Propertius, Lib. III. 39, et seq , and Tibullus, Eleg III. 58. RESPECTING THE FUTURE STATE. 127 To pass from the Po(}ts to the Pliilosophcrs ; the Immortality of the Soul was taught continually, from Pherecydes to Plotinus. There were those who doubted, and some that denied ; yet it was defended by all the greatest philosophers, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch, Epictetus,^ and by the most influential schools. No doubt it was often connected with absurd notions, in jest or earnest. But when or where has its fate been different ? Bishop War- Virgil, ^Eneid, VI. See also Pindar's Fragment. II. Vol. III. p. 34, ed. Heyne, Leips. 1S17. Frag. III. p. 36; Frag. I. p. 31, et seq. ; and the notes of Dissen, in his edition of Pindar, Vol. II. p. 643, et seq. ; and Lobeck, ubi sup. See, who will, a treatise in the Acta Eruditorum for August, 1722, de Statu Animce separatee post mortem, &c. ' Cicero, Tusc. Lib. I. Chap. XVI., says Pherecydes was the first who taught this doctrine. See also Diogenes Laert. Thales, Lib. I. § 43, p. 27, et seq., and Plutarch, De Placitis. Phil. Lib. IV. Ch. II.-VII. Opp Vol. II. p. 898, et seq. It has been thought doubtful that Aristotle believed in immortality, and perhaps it is not easy to prove this point. See De AnL- ma. III. 5; But compare Ethic. Nicom. Lib, III. Chap. VI. which denies it. See again De Anima, II. 2. De Gen. Anim. II. 4. Plato teaches immortality with the greatest clearness. See the Pliwdo, passim. Apo- log. Laws, (if they are genuine,) Lib. X. XII. Epinorais, Timaeus, Rep. X. p. 117. Plato makes the essence of man purely spiritual : Tim. p. 69, C. et seq. 72, D. etseq. Rep. IV. p. 431. A. He was opposed to the Materialists; Soph. p. 246. A. However, he did not condemn the body. His argument in favor of immortality, like many later arguments on the same theme, creates more questions than it answers. The form of the doctrine, its connection with prci'xistence and transmigration, like many doctrines still popularly connected with it, serve only to disfigure the doctrine itself, and bring it into reproach. The opinion of Cicero is so well known, that it is almost superfluous to cite passages ; but see Tusc. X. Lib. I. De Senectute, Chap. XXL, et seq. Somnium Scipionis et al. See Seneca, De Ira, I. 3. Consolatio ad Helv. Chap. VI. De Vita beata, Chap. XXXII. Ep. 50, 102,117. Sometimes he speaks decid- edly, at other times with doubt. See Lipsius Physiol. Stoic. Lib. III. Diss. VIII.-XIX. See Locke, Essay, Book IV. Chap. III., and Letters to Bishop of Worcester. 128 OPllNION OF THE HEATHEJS burton thinks it no part of natural Religion ; Dod- well thinks immortality is only coextensive with Christian baptism, and is superinduced upon the mortal soul by that dispensation of water. Could a Heathen be more absurd ? If the popular doc- trine of the Christian church, which dooms the mass of men to endless misery, be true, then it is a mis- fortune to the race. The wisest of the Heathen taueht such a dooma as little as did Jesus of Naza- reth. We must always separate the doctrine from its proof and its form ; the latter is often imperfect while the doctrine is true. Since the time of Bishop Warburton, it has been common to deny that the Heathen were acquainted with this doctrine.^ " It was one guess among many," has often been said. But a man even slightly acquainted with ancient thought and life, knows it is not so. God has not made truth so hard to come at, that the world of men continued four thousand years in ignorance of a future life. Before the time above named, it was taught by scholars, even scholars of the clerical order, that the doctrine was well known to the Heathen. Cud- worth and More, Wilkins, Taylor and Wollaston, ' Warburton has the merit of framing an hypothesis so completely original that no one (except Bishop Hnrd) has ever shared it in full with him. Part of his singular theory is this : A belief in a future state wa? found necessary, in Heathen countries, to keep the subjects in order ; the philosophers and priests got up a doctrine for that purpose, teaching that the soul was immortal, but not believing a word of it. Moses, xoho be- lieved the doctrine, yet never taught it, hut controlled the people by means of his inspiration, and the perfect Law. RESPECTING THE FUTURE STATE. 129 to mention only the most obvious names, bear testi- mony to the fact.^ To sum up in a few words the history of this doctrine, both among Jews and Gentiles, it seems that rude nations, like the Celts and the Sarma- tians, clung instinctively to the sentiment of im- mortality. That the doctrine was well known to the pliilosoj)hers, and commonly accepted ; that some doubted, and some denied it altogether. A few had reached an eminence in philosophy, and could demonstrate the proposition, and satisfy their logical doubt, thus reconciling the instinctive and reflective faculty. From the first book of Moses, to the last of Maccabees ; from Homer to Cicero, there is a great change in the form of the doctrine. All other forms also had changed. But how far was the doctrine diffused among the people ? We can tell but faintly from history. But Avhat nature demands and Providence affords, lingers longest in the bosom of the mass of men. ' See Cudworth and More, passim. Wilkins, Principles and Duties of Natural Religion, &c., Book I. Ch. XI. See also Ch. IV. and VIII. Taylor's Sermon, preached at the Funeral of that worthy Knight, Sir George Dalston, &c. Wollaston, Religion of Nature, Sect. IX. It would be eas}' to cite passages from the early Christians, testifying to the truth possessed by the Heatliens B. C. I will mention but one from Minucius Felix. " A man might judge either that the present Christians are philosophers, or else that the old philosophers were Christians." See likewise Brougham's Discourse on Natural Theology. Note VI. -IX. in Appendix. Polybius, ubi supra, VI. Ch. 54-55, thinks the legisla- tors got up the doctrine, with no faith in it, except a general belief it would make men submissive. See Timeeus De Anima Mundi. 17 130 INFLUENCE OF THE BELIEF The doctrine was not strange to the fishermen of Galilee. Was it more so to the peasants of Greece ?'• The early Apologists of Christianity found no diffi- culty from the unity of God, and the immortality of the soul ; both are presupposed by Jesus and Paul. How far it moved men in common life can be told neither from the courtiers of Pagan Caesar Augus- tus, nor from those of Christian Louis the Well-be- loved. A Roman, and a Christian Pontiff — how much are they moved by the tardy terrors of future judgment?- Juvenal could repeat his biting sneer in more ages than one.^ Was the argument of the Pagan philosopher unsatisfactory ? It was never otherwise. Mr. Strauss declares it has not yet been demonstrated ; Mr. Locke that it cannot be proved. The sentiment does its work with few words. Who. shall demonstrate for us a fact of consciousness, or prove our personal identity ? But the doctrine was connected with gross errors, — preexistence and metempsychosis. Has the doc- trine ever been free of such connection ? In more than a single historical case ? It does not appear. The doctrine of inherited sin, of depravity born in the bones of men ; the notion that the mass of men are doomed by the God of Mercy to eternal woe — ' The resurrection of the body, seerns to have been the doctrine that offended Paul's hearers at Athens; that of immortality alone was well known to the Stoics (some of whom believed it) and the Epicureans, who rejected it. Acts, XVIL IG, et seq. See Wetstein in loc. 2 See Horace, Epist. Lib. I. Ep. XVL Juvenal, Satir. XIIL Per- sius, Satir. IL How far do these express the popular sentiment ? 3 Satir. H. 149, et seq. IN A FUTURE STATE 131 immortal onlj to be wretched — is not a stran«;c thing, in the nineteenth centurj, though uniicard of in the first. Modern savages have foul notions of God ; ancient civilization has sins enough on its head, hideous sins unknown even in our day, for the world has been worse, but both are free from such a stain.' ' Leclerc, ubi sup. gives a bird's-eye view of the state of the world at the commencement of the Christian period, perhaps the most faithful that has been given, of manners and opinions. The popular in^^thology was in about the same estimation among cultivated men, as the popular theology at the present time with men of piety and good sense. Leroux de IHumanite, Vol. I., p. 302, et seq., makes some observations, on this doctrine among the ancients, not without interest. CHAPTER VII. THE INFLUENCE OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT ON LIFE, Man is not a being of isolated faculties, which act independently. The religious, like each other element in us, acts jointly with other powers. Its action therefore is helped or hindered by them. The Idea of Religion is only realized by an harmo- nious action of all the faculties, the intellectual, the moral. Yet the religious sentiment must act, more or less, though the understanding be not cultivated, and the moral elements sleep in Egyptian -night ; in connection therefore with Wisdom, or Folly, with Hope or Fear, with Love or Hate. Now in all periods of human history Religion demands something of her votaries. The ruder their condi- tion, the more capricious and unreasonable is the demand. Though Religion itself be ever the same, the form of its expression varies with man's intel- lectual and moral state. Its influence on life may be considered under its three different manifesta- tions. SUPERSTITION. 133 I. Of Superstition. Combining with ignorance and Fear, the reli- gious sentiment leads to Superstition. This is the vilification and debasement of man. It may be de- fined as Fear before God. Plutarch, though himself religious, pronounced it worse than Athe- ism. But the latter cannot exist to the same ex- tent ; is never an active principle. Superstition is a morbid state of human nature, where the con- ditions of the religious sentiment are not fulfilled; where its functions are impeded and counteracted. But it must act, as the heart beats in the frenzy of a fever. It has been said with truth, " Perfect love casts out fear." The converse is quite as true. Perfect fear casts out Love. The superstitious man begins by fearing God, not loving him. He goes on, like a timid boy in the darkness, by pro- jecting his own conceptions out of himself; con- juring up a phantom he calls his God; a Deity capricious, cruel, revengeful, lying in wait for the unwary ; a God ugly, morose, and only to be feared. He ends by paying a service meet for such a God, the service of Horror and Fear. Each man's con- ception of God is, his conception of a man carried out to infinity ; a human personality added to the pure idea. This conception therefore varies as the men who form it vary. It is the index of their Soul. The superstitious man projects out of him- self a creation begotten of his Folly and his Fear; calls the furious phantom God, Moloch, Jehovah ; 134 THE UNNATURAL SACRIFICES then attempts to please the capricious Being he has conjured up. To do this, the demands his Su-' perstition makes are not to keep the laws which the one God wrote on the walls of man's being ; but to do arbitrary acts which this fancied God de- mands. He must give up to the deity what is dearest to himself. Hence the savage offers a sa- crifice of favorite articles of food ; the first fruits of the chase, or agriculture ; weapons of war which have done signal service ; the nobler animals ; the skins of rare beasts. He conceives the anger of his God may be soothed like man's excited frame, by libations, incense, the smoke of plants, the steam of a sacrifice. Again, the superstitious man would appease his God, by unnatural personal service. He under- takes an enterprize, almost impossible, and suc- ceeds, for the fire of his purpose subdues and sof- tens the rock that opposes him. He submits to painful privation of food, rest, clothing ; leads a life of solitude ; wears a comfortless dress, that girds and frets the very flesh ; stands in a painful posi- tion ; shuts himself in a dungeon ; lives in a cave ; stands on a pillar's top ; goes unshorn and filthy. He exposes himself to be scorched by the sun, and frozen by the frost. He lacerates his flesh ; punc- tures his skin to receive sacred figures of the Gods. He mutilates his body, cutting oft' the most useful or most sacred members. He sacrifices his cattle, his enemies, his children ; defiles the sacred temple of his body ; destroys his mortal life to serve his OF THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN. 135 God. In a state more refined, Superstition de- mands abstinence from all the sensual goods of life. Its present pleasures are a godless thing. The flesh is damned. To serve God is to mortify the appetites God gave. Then the superstitious man abstains from comfortable food, clothing, and shel- ter ; comes neither eating nor drinking, watches all night absorbed in holy vigils. The man of God must be thin and spare. Bernard has but to show his neck, fleshless and scraggy, to be confessed a mighty saint. Above all, he must abstain from marriage. The Devil lurks under the bridal rose. The vow of the celibate can send him howling back to hell. The smothered volcano is grateful to God. Then comes the assumption of arbitrary vows ; the performance of pilgrimages to distant places, thinly clad and barefoot ; the repetition of prayers, not as a delight, spontaneously poured out, but as a pen- ance, or work of supererogation. In this stage, Superstition builds convents, monasteries, sends An- thony to his dwelling in the desert ; it founds orders of Mendicants, Rechabites, Nazarites, Encraiites, Pilgrims, Flagellants and similar Moss-troopers of Religion, whom Heaven yet turns to good account. This is the Superstition of the flesh. It promises the favor of its God on condition of these most use- less and arbitrary acts. It dwells on the absurdest of externals. However, in a later day, it goes to still more subtle refinements. The man does not mutilate his body, nor give up the most sacred of his mate- 136 SACRIFICES OF THE SUPERSTITIOUS. rial possessions. That was the Superstition of savage life. But he mutilates his soul; gives up- the most sacred of his spiritual treasures. This is the Superstition of refined life. Here the man is read J to forego R,eason, Conscience and Love, God's most precious gifts ; the noblest attributes of man; the tie that softly joins him to the eternal world. He will think against Reason ; decide against Conscience"; act against Love, because he dreams the God of Reason, Conscience and Love demands it. It is a slight thing to hack and muti- late the body, though it be the fairest temple God ever made, and to mar its completeness a sin. But to dismember the soul, the very image of God ; to lop off most sacred affections ; to call Reason a Liar, Conscience a devil's-oracle, and cast Love clean out from the heart, this is the last triumph of Superstition ; but one often witnessed, in all three forms of Religion, Fetichism, Polytheism, Mono- theism ; in all ages before Christ ; in all ages after Christ. This is the Superstition of the Soul. The one might be Superstition of the Hero ; this is the Superstition of the Pharisee. A man rude in spirit must have a rude conception of God. He thinks the Deity like himself. If a Buffiilo have a religion, his conception of Deity would be a Buffalo, fairer limbed, stronger and swifter than himself, grazing in the fairest meadows of Heaven. If he were superstitious, his service would consist in offerings of grass, of water, of salt ; perhaps in abstinence from the pleasures, comforts. NATURAL SACRIFICE. 137 necessiiios of a bison's life. His devil also would be a Buffalo, but of anotlier color, lean, vicious and ugly. Now when a man has these rude concep- tions, inseparable from a rude state, offerings and sacrifice are natural. When they come spontaneous, as the expression of a grateful or a penitent heart ; the seal of a resolution ; the sign of J'aitli, Hope and Love, as an outward symbol which strengthens the indwelling sentiment — the sacrifice is pleasant and may be beautiful. The child who saw God in the swelling and rounded clouds of a June day, and left on a rock the ribbon-grass and garden roses as mute symbols of gratitude to the Great Spirit who poured out the voluptuous season ; the ancient pagan who bowed prone to the dust, in homage, as the sun looked out from the windows of morning, or offered the smoke of incense at nightfall in grati- tude for the day, or kissed his hand to the moon, thankful for that spectacle of loveliness passing above him : the man who with reverent thankfulness or penitence, ofl'ers a sacrifice of joy or grief, to express what words too poorly tell ; he is no idol- ater, but Nature's simple child. We rejoice in self- denial for a father, a son, a friend. Love and every strong emotion has its sacrifice. It is rooted deep in the heart of man. God needs nothing. He cannot receive ; yet man needs to give. But if these things are done, as substitutes for holiness, as causes and not mere signs of reconciliation with God ; as means to coax and Avhecdle the Deity and bribe the All-Powerful, it is Superstition, rank and 18 138 ABRAHAM AND AGAMEMNON. odious. Examples enough of this are found in all ao-es. To take two of the most celebrated cases,' one from the Hebrews, the other from a Heathen people. Abraham would sacrifice his son to Jeho- vah, who demanded that offering,^ Agamemnon his daughter to angry Diana. But a Deity kindly in- terferes in both cases. The Angel of Jehovah res- cues Isaac from the remorseless knife ; a ram is found for a sacrifice. Diana delivers the daughter of Agamemnon and leaves a hind in her place. No one doubts the latter is a case of superstition most ghastly and terrible. A father murder his own child — a human sacrifice to the Lord of Life! It is rebellion against Conscience, Reason, Affection ; treason against God, though Calchas, the anointed minister, declared it the will of Heaven. There is an older than Calchas who says, It is a Lie. He that defends the former patriarch, counting it a blameless and beautiful act of piety and faith per- formed at the command of God — what shall be said of him ? He proves the worm of Superstition is not yet dead, nor its fire quenched, and leads weak men to ask, Which then has most of Religion, the Christian, who justifies Abraham, or the Pagan > Gen. XXII. 1-14. The conjectures of the learned about this mythi- cal legend, which may have some fact at its foundation, are numerous, and some of them remarkable for their ingenuity. Some one supposes that Abraham was tempted by the Elohim but Jehovah prevents the sacrifice. It is easy to find other Heathen parallels, that of Cronus in Eusebius, P. E.I. 10; of Aristodemns, of which Pausanias tells a curious story, IV. 9. See the case of Helena and Valeria Luperca, who were both miraculously saved from sacrifice, in Plutarch, Paralel. Opp.Vol. II. p. 314. SUPERSTITIOJN OF OUR TIME. 139 Greeks, who eondemned Agamemnon ? He leads weak men to ask ; the strong make no question of so plain a matter. But why go back to Patriarchs at Aulis or Mo- riali; do we not live in New England and the nine- teenth cenrury ? Have the footsteps of Superstition been effaced from our land ? Our books of theolo- gy are full thereof ; our churches and homes not empty of it. When a man fears God more than he loves him ; when he will forsake Reason, Con- science, Love — the still small voice of God in the heart — for any of the legion voices of Authority, Tradition, Expediency, which come of Ignorance, Selfishness and Sin ; whenever he hopes by a poor prayer, or a listless attendance at church, or an aus- tere observance of Sabbath and Fast-days, a compli- ance with forms ; when he hopes by professing with his tongue the doctrine he cannot believe in his heart, to atone for wicked actions, wrong thoughts, unholy feelings, a six-days' life of meanness, de- ception, rottenness and sin, — then is he supersti- tious. Are there no fires but those of Moloch ; no idols of printed paper, and spoken wind ? No false worship but bowing the knee to Baal, Adonis, Pri- apus, Cybele ? Superstition changes its fotins, not its substance. If he were superstitious who in days of ignorance but made his son's body pass through the fire to his God, what shall be said of them in an age of light, who systematically degrade the fairest gifts of man, God's dearest benefaction ; who make life darkness, death despair, the world a 140 FANATICISM. desert, man a worm, nothing but a worm, and God an uglj fiend, who made the mass of men for utter wretchedness, death and eternal hel! ? Alas for them. They are blind and see not. They lie down in their folly. Let Charity cover them up. II. Of Fanaticism. There is another morbid state of the religious sen- timent. It consists in its union with Hatred and other malignant elements of man. Here it leads to Fanaticism. As the essence of Superstition is Fear coupled with religious feeling ; so the essence of Fanaticism is Malice mingling with that sentiment. It may be called Hatred before God. The Super- stitious man fears lest God hate him ; the Fanatic thinks he hates not. him but his enemies. Is the Fanatic a Jew ? — the Gentiles are hateful to Jeho- vah. A Mahometan ? — all are infidel dogs who do not bow to the prophet, their end is destruction. Is he a Christian? — he counts all others as Heathen whom God will damn; of this or that sect — he condemns all the rest for their belief, let their life be divine as the prayer of a saint. Out of his sel- fish passion he creates him a God ; breathes into it the breath of his Hatred ; he worships and prays to it, and says " Deliver me, for thou art my God." Then he feels — so he fancies — inspiration to visit his foes with divine vengeance. He can curse and smite them in the name of his God. It is the sword of the Lord, and the fire of the Most High that drinks up the blood and stifles the groan of the wretched. POWER OF FANATICISM. 141 Like SiipcM-stition, it is found in all ages of the world. It is the insanity of mankind. As the richest soils grow weij^htiest harvests, or most nox- ious weeds and poisons the most baneful ; as the strongest bodies take disease the most sor(;ly, so the deepest natures, the highest forms of religion, when once infected with this leprosy, go to the wildest excess of desperation. Thus the fanaticism of wor- shipers of one God has no parallel, among idolaters and polytheists. There is a point in human nature where moral distinctions do not appear, as on the earth there are spots where the compass will not traverse, and dens where the sun never shines. This fact is little dwelt on by philosophers ; still it is a fact. Seen from this point. Right and Wrong lose their distinctive character and run into each other. Good seems Evil and Evil Good, or both are the same. The sophistry of the Understanding sometimes leagues with appetite and gradually en- tices the thoughtless into this pit. The Antinomian of all times, turns in thither, to increase his faitli and diminish his works. It is the very cave of Trophonius; he that enters loses his manhood and walks backward as he returns ; his soul, so filled with God, ^^'hatever the flesh does cannot be wrong, though it break all laws, human and divine. The fanatic dwells continually on this point ; God de- mands of him to persecute his foes. The thought troubles him by day, and stares on him as a spectre at night. God or his angel, appear to his crazed fancy and bid him to the ^vork with promise of re- 142 THE WORK OF THE FANATICS. wards, or spur him with a curse. Then there is no lie too mahgnant for him to invent and utter ; no curse too awful for him to imprecate ; no refinement of torture too cruel or exquisitely rending for his fancy to devise, his malice to inflict ; Nature is teased for new tortures ; Art is racked to extort fresh engines of cruelty. As the jaded Roman oflered a reward for the invention of a new pleasure, so the fanatic would renounce Heaven could he give an added pang to hell. Men of this character have played so great a part in the world's history, they must not be passed over in silence. Tiie ashes of the innocents they have burned, are sown broad-cast and abundant in all lands. The earth is quick with this living dust. The blood of prophets, and saviours they have shed still cries for justice. The Canaanites, the Jews, the Saracen, the Christian, Polytheist and Idolater, New Zealand and New England are guilty of this. Let the voice of the Heretic speak from the dun- geon-racks of the Inquisition ; that of the " true believer" from the scaffolds of Elizabeth — most Christian Queen ; let the voices of the murdered come up from the squares of Paris, the plains of the Low Countries, from the streets of Antioch, Byzantium, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Damascus, Rome, Mexico ; from the wheels, racks and gib- bets of the world ; let the men who died in re- ligious wars, always the bloodiest and most re- morseless ; the women, whom nothing could save from a fate yet more awful ; the babes, newly born, THE FANATICISM OF OUR TIME. 143 who perished in the sack and conflagration of idola- trous and heretical citi(>s, when lor the sake of Re- ligion men violated its every precejjt, and in the name of God broke down his Law, and trampled his image into bloody dust ; — let all these speak, to admonish, and to blame. But it is not well to rest on general terms alone. Paul had no little fanaticism, when he persecuted the Christians ; kept the garments of men who stoned Stephen. JMoses had much of it, if as the story goes, he commanded the extirpation of na- tions of idolaters, millions of men, virtuous as the Jews ; Joshua, Samuel, David, had much of it, and executed schemes bloody as a murderer's most san- guine dream. - It has been both the foe and the auxiliary of the Christian church. There is a long line of Fanatics, extending from the time of Justin, reaching from century to century, marching on from age to age, with the banner of the Church over their heads, and the Gospel on their tongues, and fire and sword in their hands. The last of that Apoca- lyptic rabble has not yet past by. Let the clouds of darkness hide them. What need to tell of our own fathers ; what they suffered, what they in- flicted ; their crime is fresh and unatoned. Rather let us take the wings of an angel, and fly away from scenes so awful, the slaughter-house of souls. But the milder forms of Fanaticism we cannot escape. They meet us in the theological war of extermination, in which sect now wars with sect, pulpit with pulpit, man with man. If one would 144 THE FANATICISM OF OUR TIME. seek specimens of Superstition in its milder form, let him open a popular commentary on the Bible,' or read much of that weakish matter which circu- lates in what men call, as if in mockery, good pious books. If he would find Fanaticism in its modern and more Pharisaic shape, let him open the " religious " newspapers, or read theological po- lemics. To what mean uses may we not descend ? The spirit of a Caligula and a Dominic, of Alva and Ignatius, stare at men in the street. It can only bay in the distance ; it does not bite. Poor craven Fanaticism ! fallen like Lucifer, never to hope again. Like Pope and Pagan in the story, he sits chained by the way-side, to grin and gibber, and howl and snarl, as the Pilgrim goes by, singing the song of the fearless and free, on the highway to Heaven, w'ith his girdle about him and white robe on. Poor Fanaticism, who was drunk with the blood of the saints, and in his debauch, lifted his horn and pushed at the Almighty, and slew the children of God, — he shall revel but in the dreamy remembrance of his ancient crime ; his teeth shall be fleshed no more in the limbs of the living. These two morbid states just past over, represent the most hideous forms of human degradation ; where the foulest passions are at their foulest work ; where Malice, which a Devil might envy, but which might make Hell darker with its frown ; where Hate and Rancor biiild up their organiza- tions and ply their arts. In man there is a mixture SOLID PIETY. 1 15 of good and evil. " A being darkly wise and poorly great," he has in him somewhat of the Angel and something of the Devil. In Fanaticism, the Angel sleeps and the Devil drives. But let us leave the hateful theme. ^ III. Of Solid Piety. The legitimate and perfect action of the religious sentiment takes place when it exists in harmonious combination w^ith Reason, Conscience, and Affec- tion. Then it is not Hatred, and not Fear, but Love before God. It produces the most beautiful development of human nature ; the golden age, the fairest Eden of life ; the kingdom of Heaven. Its Deity is the God of Love, within whose encircling arms it is beautiful to be. The demands it makes are to keep the Law he has written in the heart, to be good, to do good ; to love man, to love God. It may use forms, prayers, dogmas, ceremonies, priests, temples, sabbaths, festivals and fasts ; yes, sacrifices if it will, as means, not ends ; symbols of a sentiment, not substitutes for it. Its substance is love of God ; its form love of man ; its temple a pure heart ; its sacrifice a divine life. The end it proposes is, to reunite the man with God, till he ' A powerful priesthood has usually had great influence in promoting fanaticism of the most desperate character. One need only look over the history of persecutions in all ages to see this. We see it among the Hebrews, the Germans, the Druids ; the nations that opposed the spread of Christianity. The Christian church itself has erected monuments enough to perpetuate the fact. The story of Haman and Mordccai is no bad allegory of the conflict between the orthodox priesthood and the un- organized heretics. 19 146 THE HAPPY CONDITION thinks God's thought, which is Truth ; feels God's feeling, which is Love ; wills God's will, which is the eternal Right ; thus finding God in the sense wherein he is not far from any one of us ; becoming one with him, and so partaking the divine nature. The means to this high end are an extinction of all in man that opposes God's law ; a perfect obedience to him as he speaks in Reason, Conscience, Affec- tion. It leads through active obedience to an absolute trust, a perfect love ; to the complete harmony of the finite man with the infinite God, and man's will coalesces in that of Him who is All in All. Then Faith and Knowledge are the same thing, Reason and Revelation do not conflict. Desire and Duty go hand in hand, and strew man's path with flowers. Desire has become dutiful, and Duty desirable; The divine spirit incarnates itself in the man. The riddle of the world is solved. Perfect love casts out fear. Then Religion demands no particular actions, forms, or modes of thought. The man's ploughing is holy as his prayer; his daily bread as the smoke of his sacrifice ; his home sacred as his temple ; his w^ork-day and his sabbath are alike God's day. His priest is the holy spirit within him ; Faith and Works his communion of both kinds. He does not sacrifice Reason to Reli- gion, nor Religion to Reason. Brother and Sister, they dwell together in love. A life harmonious and beautiful, conducted by Rectitude, filled full with Truth and enchanted by Love to man and God, — this is the service he pays to the Father of All. OF THR REMC.IOUS MAN. 147 Belief does not take the place of Life. Capricious austerity atones for no duty left undone. He loves Religion as a bride, for her own sake, not for what she brings. He lies low in the hand of God. The breath of the Father is on him. If Joj comes to this man, he rejoices in its rosy light. His Wealth, his Wisdom, his Power, is not for himself alone, but for all God's children. No- thing is his which a brother needs more than he. Like God himself, he is kind to the thankless and unmerciful. Purity without and Piety within ; these are his Heaven, both present and to come. Is not his flesh as holy as his soul — his body a temple of God ? If trouble comes on him, which Prudence could not foresee, nor Strength overcome, nor Wisdom escape from, he bears it with a heart serene and full of peace. Over every gloomy cavern, and den of despair, Hope arches her rainbow ; the ambrosial light descends. Religion shows him, that, out of desert rocks, black and savage, where the Vulture has her home, where the Storm and the Avalanche are born, and whence they descend, to crush and to kill ; out of these hopeless cliffs, falls the river of Life, which flows for all, and makes glad the peo- ple of God. When the Storm and the Avalanche sweep from him afl that is dearest to mortal hope, is he comfortless ? Out of the hard marble of Life, the deposition of a few joys and many sorrows, of birth and death, and smiles and grief, he hews him the beautiful statue of religious Tranquillity. It 148 INFLUENCE OF ADVERSITY Stands ever beside him, with the smile of heavenly satisfaction on its lip, and its trusting finger point- ing to the sky. The true religious man, amid all the ills of time, keeps a serene forehead, and entertains a peaceful heart. Thus going out and coming in, amid all the trials of the city, the agony of the plague, the hor- rors of the thirty tyrants, the fierce democracy abroad, the fiercer ill at home, the Saint, the Sage of Athens, was still the same. Such an one can endure hardness ; can stand alone and be content ; a rock amid the waves, lonely, but not moved. Around him the few or the man}' may scream their screams, or cry their clamors ; calumniate or blas- pheme. What is it all to him, but the cawing of the sea-bird about that solitary and deep-rooted stone ? So swarms of summer flies, and spiteful wasps, may assail the branches of an oak, which lifts its head, storm-tried and old, above the hills. They move a leaf, or bend a twig by their united weight. Their noise, fitful and malicious, elsewhere might frighten the sheep in the meadows. Here it be- comes a placid hum. It joins the wild whisper of the leaves. It swells the breezy music of the tree, but makes it bear no acorn less. He fears no evil, God is his armor against fate. He rejoices in his trials, and Jeremiah sings psalms in his dungeon, and Daniel prays three times a day with his window up, that all may hear, and Nebu- chadnezzar cast him to the lions if he will ; Luther ON TIIR RRI.IGIOrS MAN. 149 will £;o to the Diet at Worms, if it rain encmios for nine days running ; " though the Devils be thick as the tiles on the roof." Martyred Stephen sees God in the clouds. The victim at the stake glories in the fire he lights, which shall shine all England through. Yes, Paul, an old man, forsaken of his friends, tried by many perils, daily expecting an awful death, sits comforted in his dungeon. The Lord stands by and says, Fear not, Paul, Lo, I am with thee to the world's end. The tranquil saint can say, I know whom I have served. I have not the spirit of fear, but joy. I am ready to be sacri- ficed. Such trials prove the Soul as Gold is prov- ed. The dross perishes in the fire ; but the virgin metal — it comes brighter from the flame. What is it to such a man to be scourged, forsaken, his name a proverb, counted as the offscouring of the world? There is that in him which looks down millions. Cast down, he is not in dismay ; for- saken — never less alone. Slowly and soft the Soul of Faith comes into the man. He knows that he is seen by the pure and terrible eyes of Infinity. He feels the sympathy of the Soul of All, and says, with modest triumph, I am not alone, for Thou art with me. Mortal affections may cease their melo- dy ; but the Infinite speaks to his soul comfort too deep for words, and too divine. What if he have not the Sun of human affection to cheer him ? The awful faces of the Stars look from the serene depths of divine Love, and seem to say, " Well done." What if the sweet music of human sympathy van- 150 POWER OF RELIGION. ish before the discordant curse of his brother man ? The melody of the spheres — so sweet we heed it not when tried less sorely — rolls in upon the soul its tranquil tide, and that same Word, which was in the beginning, says, " Thou art my beloved Son and in thee am I well pleased." Earth is over- come, and Heaven won. It is well for mankind that God now and then raises up a hero of the soul ; exposes him to grim trials in the fore front of the battle ; sustains him there, that we may know what nobility is in man, and how near him God ; to show that greatness in the religious man is only needed to be found ; that his Charity does not expire with the quivers of his flesh ; that this hero can end his breath with a " Father, forgive them." Man everywhere is the measure of man. There is nothing which the Flesh and the Devil can inflict in their rage, but the Holy can bear in its exceed- ing peace. The Art of the tormenter is less than the Nature of the suflering soul. All the denunci- ations of all that sat in Moses's seat, or have since climbed to that of the Messiah ; the scorn of the contemptuous ; the fury of the passionate ; the wrath of a monarch, and the roar of his armies ; all these are to a religious soul but the buzzing of the flies about that mountain oak. There is nothing that prevails against Truth. Now in some men Religion is a continual growth. They are always in harmony vi^ith God. Silently THE STRUGGLE WITH SIN. 151 and unconscious, erect as a palm tree, thoy grow up to the measure of a man. To them Reason and Religion are of the same hirth. They are born saints; Aborigines of Heaven. Betwixt their Idea of Life and their Fact of Life there has at no time been a gulf. But others join themselves to the Armada of Sin and get scarred all over with wounds as they do thankless battle in that leprous host. Before these men become religious, there must be a change, — well-defined, deeply marked, — a change that will be remembered. The Saints who have been sinners — tell us of the struggle and desperate battle that goes on between the Flesh and the Spirit. It is as if the Devil and the Arch- angel contended. Well says John Bunyan, The Devil fought with me weeks long, and I with the Devil. To take the leap of Niagara, and stop when half-way down, and by the proper motion reascend — is no slight thing, nor the remembrance thereof like to pass away. This passage from sin to salvation ; this second birth of the Soul, as both Christians and Heathens call it, is one of the many mysteries of man. Two elements meet in the soul. There is a negation of the past ; an affirmation of the future. Terror and Hope, Penitence and Faith rush together in that moment and a new life begins. The character gradually grows over the wounds of sin. With bleeding feet the man retreads his way, but gains at last the mountain top of Life and wonders at the tortuous track he left behind. 152 THE JOYS OF LIFE. Shall it be said that Religion is the great refine- ment of the world ; its tranquil star that never sets ? Need it be told that all nature works in its behalf; that every mute and every living thing seems to re- peat God's voice, Be perfect; that Nature, which is the out-ness of God, favors Religion, which is the in-ness of man, and so God works with us ? Hea- thens knew it many centuries ago. It has long been known that Religion — in its true estate — created the deepest welfiu'e of man. Socrates, Seneca, Plutarch, Antoninus, Fenelon can tell us this. It might well be so. Religion comes from what is strongest, deepest, m.ost beautiful and divine ; lays no rude hand on soul or sense; condemns no faculty as base. It sets no bounds to Reason but Truth ; none to Affection but Love ; none to Desire but Duty ; none to the Soul but Perfection ; and these are not limits but the charter of infinite freedom. No doubt there is joy in the success of earthly schemes. There is joy to the miser as he satiates his prurient palm with gold : there is joy for the fool of fortune when his gaming brings a prize. But what is it ? His request is granted ; but lean- ness enters his soul. There is delight in feasting on the bounties of Earth, the garment in which God veils the brightness of his face ; in being filled with the fragrant loveliness of flowers ; the song of birds ; the hum of bees ; the sounds of ocean ; the rustle of the summer wind, heard at evening in the pine tops ; in the cool running brooks ; in the ma- jestic sweep of undulating hills ; the grandeur of e. THE JOYS OF LIFE. 153 untamed forests ; the mnjesty of the mountain ; in the morning's virgin beauty; in the maternal grace of evenine;, and the sublime and mystic pomp of night. Nature's silent sympathy — how beautiful it is. There is Joy, no doubt there is joy, to the mind of Genius, when thought bursts on him as the tropic sun rending a cloud ; when long trains of ideas sweep through his soul, as constellated orbs before an angel's eye ; when sublime thoughts and burning words rush to the heart ; w hen nature un- veils her secret truth, and some great Law breaks, all at once, upon a Newton's mind, and Chaos ends in light ; when the hour of his inspiration and the joy of his genius is on him, 'tis then that this child of Heaven feels a godlike delight. 'Tis sympathy with Truth. There is a higher and more tranquil bliss, when heart communes with heart : when two souls unite in one, like mingling dew-drops on a rose, that scarcely touch the flower, but mirror the heavens in their little orbs ; when perfect love transforms two souls, either man's or woman's, each to the other's image ; when one heart beats in two bosoms ; one spirit speaks with a divided tongue ; when the same soul is eloquent in mutual eyes, there is a rapture deep, serene, heartfelt and abiding in this myste- rious fellow-feeling with a congenial soul, which puts to shame the cold sympathy of Nature, and the extatic but short-lived bliss of Genius in his high and burning hour. 20 154 THE WELFARE OF RELIGION. But the welfare of Religion is more than each or all of these. The glad reliance that comes upon- the man ; the sense of trust ; a rest with God ; the soul's exceeding peace ; the universal harmony ; the infinite within ; sympathy with the Soul of All — is bliss that words cannot portray. He only knows, who feels. The speech of a prophet cannot tell the tale. No : not if a seraph touched his lips with fire. In the high hour of religious visitation from the living God, there seems to be no separate thought ; the tide of universal life sets through the soul. The thought of self is gone. It is a little accident to be a king or a clown, a parent or a child. Man is at one with God, and He is All in All. Neither the loveliness of nature ; neither the joy of genius, nor the sweet breathing of congenial hearts, that make delicious music as they beat, — neither one nor all of these can equal the joy of the religious soul that is at one with God, so full of peace that prayer is needless. This deeper joy gives an added charm to the former blessings. Nature undergoes a new transformation. A story tells that w^hen the rising sun fell on Memnon's statue it wakened mu- sic in that breast of stone. Religion does the same with nature. From the shining snake to the water- fall, it is all eloquent of God. As to John in the Apocalypse, there stands an angel in the sun ; the seraphim hang over every flower ; God speaks in each little grass, that fringes a mountain rock. Then even Genius is wedded to a greater bliss. His thoughts shine more brilliant, when set in the THE WELFARE OF RELIGION. 155 light of Religion. Friondshij) and Love it renders infinite. The man loves God when he loves his friend. This is the joy Religion gives ; its peren- nial rest ; its everlasting life. It comes not by chance. It is the possession of such as ask and toil and toil and ask. It is withheld from none, as other gifts. Nature tells little to the deaf, the blind, the rude. Every man is not a genius, and has not his joy. Few men can find a friend that is the world to them. That triune sympathy, is not for every one. But this welfare of Religion, the deepest, truest, the everlasting, the sympathy with God, lies within the reach of all his Sons. BOOK II. "Reason is natural Revelation, whereby tlie eternal Fatlier of Light and Fountain of all Knowledge, communicates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid within the reach of their natural faculties. Revelation is natural Reason enlarged by a now set of discoveries, com- municated by God immediately, which Reason vouches the truth of, by the testimony and proofs it gives that they come from God. So that he that takes away Reason, to make way for revelation, puts out the light of both, and does much-what the same, as if he would persuade a man to put out his eyes, the better to receive the remote light of an invisible star by a telescope." — Locke, Essay, I'ook IV. Chap. XIX. § 4. BOOK II. THE RELATION OF THE RELICxIOUS SENTIMENT TO GOD, OR A DISCOURSE OF INSPIRATION. CHAPTER I. THE IDEA AND CONCEPTION OF GOD. Two things are necessary to render Religion pos- sible ; name!}', a religions nature in man, and God out of man as the object of that religions nature. The ex- istence of these two facts admitted, Religion follows necessarily, as vision from the existence of a seeing faculty in man, and that of light out of him. Now the existence of the religious element, as it was said before, implies its object. We have naturally a Sentiment of God. Reason gives us an Idea of Him. These are founded in our nature, and are in themselves unchangeable, always the same. But to these we superadd a Conception of him. Can this conception be adequate ? Certainly not. The Idea of God, as the Infinite, may exhaust the most transcendent Imagination ; it is the highest Idea of ^^hich man is capable. But is God to be measured 160 OOD NOT PERSONAL by our Idea ? Shall the finite ch'cumscribe the Infinite ? The existence of God is so plainly and deeply writ both in us and out of us, in what we are, and what we experience, that the humblest and the loftiest minds may be satisfied of this reality, and may know that there is an absolute Cause ; a Ground of all things ; the Infinite of Power, Wisdom, Love, whereon we may repose, wherein we may confide. This conclusion comes alike from the spontaneous sentiment, and premeditated reflection ; from the intuition of Reason, and the process of Reasoning. This Idea of God is clear and distinct ; not to be confounded with any other idea. But when we attempt to go farther, to give a logical description of Deity, its nature and essence ; to define and classify its attributes ; to make a conception of God as of the finite objects of the senses or the understanding, then we have nothing but our own subjective notions, which do not, of necessity, have an objective reality corresponding thereto. All men may know God as the Infinite. His nature and essence are past finding out. But we know God only in part — from the manifestations of divinity, seen in nature, felt in man. Are these the whole of God ; is man his measure ? Then is He exhausted, and not infinite. We affix the terms of human limitation to God, and speak of his Per- sonality ; some limiting it to one, others extending it to three, to seven, to thirty, or to many millions of persons. Can such terms apply to the Infinite ? We talk of a personal God. If thereby we only NOR IMPERSONAL. 161 deny that lie has the limitations of matter, no wrong is done. But our conception of Personality, is that o^ finite personality, limited by human imperfec- tions ; hemmed in by Time and Space ; restricted by partial emotions, displeasure, wrath, ignorance, will. Can this be said of God ? If matter were conscious, as Locke thinks it possible, it must predi- cate materiality of God as persons predicate person- ality o^Wm^. We apply the term impersonal. If it mean God has not the limitations of our personality it is well. But if it mean that he has those of un- conscious matter, it is worse than the other term. Can God be personal and conscious, as Joseph and Peter ; unconscious and impersonal as a moss or the celestial ether ? No man will say it. Where then is the philosophic value of such terms ? The nature of God is past finding out. *' There is no searching of his understanding." As the ab- solute cause God must contain in himself, poten- tially, the ground of consciousness, of personality, yes, of unconsciousness and impersonality. But to apply these terms to Him, seems to me, a vain, attempt to fathom the abyss of the God-head and report the soundings. Will our line reach to the bottom of God ? There is nothing on Earth, or in Heaven, to w^hich we can compare him ; of course we can have no image of him in the mind.' ' There has been some controversy on this question of the personality of God in modern times. The writings of Spinoza, both now and formerly, have caused much discussion of this point. The capital maxim of Spinoza on this head is, all attempts to determine the nature of God, 21 162 GOD'S ESSEJMCE NOT TO BE KNOWN. There has heen enough dogmatism respecting the nature, essence, and personality of God ; re- specting tlie Metaphysics of the Deity, and that by men, who, perhaps, did not thoroughly under- stand all about the nature, essence, and meta- physics of Man. It avails nothing. Meanwhile the greatest religious souls that have ever been, are content to fall back on the Sentiment and the Idea of God, and confess that none by searching can perfectly find out God. They can say, there- fore, with an old Heathen, '* Since he cannot be fully declared by any one name, though compounded of never so many, therefore is he rather to be called by every name, he being both one and all things ; so that [to express the whole of God,] either every thing must be called by his name, or he by the name of every thing." ^ "Call him, therefore," are a negation of him. Deter minatio ncgatio est. See Ep. 50, p. 634, ed. Paulus. He thinks God has sclf-co7iscious personality only in self-con- sciovis persons, i. e. men. Ethic. 11. Prop 11. and Coroll. Some have thought to help the matter by the Trinitarian hypothesis. If there were but one man in the universe, he could not indeed, it is said, have our conception of personality, which demands other persons. This condition is fulfilled for the divine Being soon as we admit a trinity in unity. Mystical writers have always inclined to a denial of the per- sonality of God. Thus Plotinus, Dionysius the Areopagite, Scotus Ex- igena, Meister Eckart, Tauler and Bohme, to mention no more, deny it. On this subject see Hegel, Lectures on the proofs of the existence of God, at the end of Philosophie der Religion, Encyclopadie, § 562, et seq., 2d ed. See the subject touched upon by Strauss, Glaubenslehre, § 33. See also Nitzsch's review of Strauss in Studien und Kritiken for Jan. 1, 1842. In reference to Spinoza, see the controversial writings of Messrs. Norton and Ripley, above referred to. ' See the Asclepian Dialogue, and also the passages from Seneca and Julian, cited in Cudworth, A'ol. II. p G79, et seq , Ch. IV. § 32. GOD'S KSSENCE NOT TO BE KNOWN. 163 saj's another Pagan, " l)y all names, for all can ex- press but a whisper of Him ; call Him rather by no name, for none can declare his Power, Wisdom, and Goodness." IMalebranche says, with as much philosophy as piety, " One ought not so much to call God a spirit, in order to express positively what he is, as in order to signify that he is not matter. He is a being infinitely perfect. Of this we cannot doubt. But in the same manner we ou2;ht not to ima2;ine . . . that he is clothed with a human body . . . under color that that figure was the most perfect of any ; so neither ought we to imagine that the Spirit of God has human ideas, or bears any re- semblance to our Spirit, under color that we know nothing more perfect than the human mind. We ought rather to believe that as he comprehends the perfection of matter, without being material, . . so he comprehends also the perfections of created spirits without being spirit, in the manner we con- ceive spirit. That his true name is, He that is, or in other words being w^iihout restriction, All Being, the Being Infinite and Universal." ^ Still we have a positive Idea of God. It is the most positive of all. It is implied logically in every idea ' Rechcrches de la Veritc, Liv. III. Ch. IX. as cited in Ilumc, Dia- logues, concerning Nat. Rel. Vol. II. p. 469. See Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, p. 44I-.'j40, 7th ed. Weisse Die Idee der Gottheit, IS;}.!. Some have been unwilling to attribute being to the Deity, since we have no conception nor knowledge of being in itself, still less of infinite being. Our knowledge oi' being is only ol being tkis and that, a conditioned being, wliich is not predicable of God. 164 IDEA OF GOD. that we form, so that as God himself is the being of all existence ; the back-ground and cause of all- things that are ; the reality of all appearance, so the Idea of God is the central truth, as it were, of all other ideas whatever. The objects of all other ideas are dependent, and not final ; the object of this independent and ultimate. This Idea of an Independent and Infinite Cause, therefore, is neces- sarily presupposed by the conception of any de- pendent and finite effect. For example, a man forms a notion of his own existence. This notion involves that of dependence, which conducts him back to that on which dependence rests. He has no complete notion of his own existence without the notion of dependence ; nor of that without the ob- ject on which he depends. Take our stand where we may, and reason, we come back logically to this which is the primitive fact in all our intellectual conceptions, just as each point in the circumference of a circle, is a point in the radius thereof, and this leads straightway to the Centre, whence they all proceed.^ But the Idea of God as a Being of Infinite Power, Wisdom, Love, — in one word, the Ab- ' This is not the place to attempt a proof of God's existence. In Book 1. Ch. II. I could only hint at the sources of argument. See in Weisse, Kant, and Strauss, a criticism on the various means of proof resorted to by different Philosophers. Weisse divides these proofs into three classes. 1. The Ontolngical argument, which leads to Pantheism. II. The Cos- tnological, which leads to Deism; and III. the Theological, which leads to pure Theis;n. See Leibnitz, Theodicee, Pt. I. § 7, p. 50G, ed. Erd- mann, 1H40, and his Epist. ad Bierlingium, in his Epp, ad div. ed. Kor- tholt, Vol. IV. p. 21, (cited by Strauss, ubi sup.) HUMAN PERSONIFICATION OF GOD. 165 solute — dors not satisfy. It seems cold ; we call it abstract. We arc not beings of Reason alone; so are not satisfied with mere Ideas. We have Imagination, Feelings, limited Affections, Under- standing, Flesh and Blood. Therefore we want a conception of God which shall answer to this com- plex nature of ours. Man may be said to live in the World of Eternity, or abstract truth ; that of Time, or historical events ; that of Space, or of con- crete things. Some men want, therefore, not only an Idea for the first, but a Conception for the second, and a Form for the third. Accordingly the feelings, Fear, Reverence, Devotion, Love, naturally person- ify God ; humanize the deity, and represent the In- finite under the limitations of a finite and imperfect being, whom we " can know all about." He has the thoughts, feelings, passions, limitations of a man ; is subject to time and space ; sees, remem- bers, has a form. This is anthropomorphism. It is well in its place. Some rude men seem to require it. They must paint to themselves a deity with a form ; the Ancient of days ; a venerable monarch seated on a throne, surrounded by troops of followers. But it must be remembered all this is poetry ; this personal and anthropomorphitic con- ception is a phantom of the brain that has no ex- istence independent of ourselves. A poet personi- fies a mountain or the moon ; addresses it as if it wore the form of man ; could see and feel, had human thoughts, sentiments, hopes, and pleasures, and expectations. What the poet's fancy does for 166 ANALYSIS OF ANTHROPOMORPHITIC the mountain, the feelings of reverence and devo- tion do for the Idea of God. They clothe it with a human personality, because that is the highest which is known to us. Men would comprehend the deity; they can only apprehend him. A Beaver, or a Reindeer, if possessed of religious faculties, would also conceive of the deity with the limitations of their own personality, as a Beaver or a Reindeer — whose faculties as such were perfect, but the conception, like our own, must be only subjective, for man is no measure of God.^ Now by reasoning we lay aside the disguises of the Deity, which the feelings have wrapped about the Idea of Him. We separate the substantial from the phenomenal elements in the conception of God. We divest it of all particular ^?'m ; all sensual or corporeal attributes, and have no image of God in the mind. He is Spirit,^ and therefore free from the limitations of space. He is nowhere in particular, but everywhere in general, essentially and vitally omnipresent. Denying all particular form, we must affirm of him Universal Being. The next step in the analysis is to lay aside all partial action of the deity. He is equally the cause of the storm and the calm sunshine ; of the fierce- ness of the Lion and the Lamb's gentleness so long as both obey the laws they are made to keep. All ' See Xenophanes as cited above by Eusebius, P. E. XIII. 13. See Karsten, ubi sup. Vol 1. p. 35, et seq. - I use the term Spirit simply as a negation of matter. We cannot tell the essence of God. CONCEPTIOiNS OF GOD. 1G7 the natural action in tlio material world is God's ac- tion, wlietlier tlu^ wind blows a plank and the ship- wrecked woman who grasj)s it, to the sliore, or scatters a fleet and sends families to the bottom. But Infinite Action or Causation must be attributed to Him. Then all mental processes, like those of man, are separated from the Idea of Him. We cannot say he thinks ; that is to reason from the known to the unknown, which is impossible to the omnis- cient ; nor that he plans or consults with himself, for that implies the infirmity of not seeing the best way all at once ; nor that he remembers or fore- sees, for that implies a restriction in time, a past and a present, while the Infinite must fill Eternity, all time, as well as Immensity all space. We can- not attribute to Him reflection, which is after- thought, nor imagination, which is forethought, since both imply limited faculties. Judgment, fancy, comparison, induction — these are the operations of finite minds. They are not to be applied to the divine Soul except as figures of speech ; then they merely represent an unknown emotion. We have got a name but no real thing. But Infinite Know- ing must be his. We go still farther in this analysis of the concep- tion of God, and all partial feeling must be denied. We cannot say that he hates ; is angry, or grieved; repents ; is moved by the special prayer of James and John ; that he is sad today and tomorrow joy- ful ; all these are human, limitations of our per- 168 MAN NO MEASURE OF GOD. sonality, and are no more to be ascribed to God than the form of the Reindeer, or the shrewdness of the Beaver. But Love implies no finiteness. This we conceive as Infinite. At the end of the Analysis, what is left? Being, Cause, Knowledge, Love, each with no conceiva- ble limitation. To express it in a word, a Being of Infinite Power, Wisdom and Goodness. Thus by an analysis of the conception of God, we find in fact or by implication, Just what was given synthetically by the intuition of Reason. But do these qualities exhaust the Deity ? Surely not. They only form our Idea of Him. It is idle, impious in man to say, the finite creature of yesterday can measure Him who is the All in All, the True, the Holy, the Good, the Altogether-Beautiful. Let a man look into the milky-way, and strive to conceive of the Mind that is the Cause, the Will, of all those centres to un- known worlds, and ask What can I know of Him ? Nay, let a man turn over in his hand a single crystal of snow, and consider its elements, their history, transformation, influence, and try to grasp up the philosophy of this little atom of matter, and he will learn to bow before the thought of Him, and say there is no searching of his understanding. If there are other orders of beings higher than ourselves, their Idea of God must include elements above our reach. The finite approximates, but cannot reach the Infinite. In criticising the conception of God, I would not attempt the fool's task, to define and describe God's MAN NOT THL: MEASURE OF GOD. 169 nature, but to separate man's Idea of II im from all Other ideas ; not to tell all in God that answers to the Idea in man, — that of course is impossible, but to separate the eternal Idea from the transient con- ception ; to declare the positive and necessary exist- ence of this Idea in man ; of its Object out of man, while I deny the existence of any limitation of hu- man personality, or of our anthropomorphitic con- sciousness in the Deity. 22 CHAPTER II. THE RELATION OF NATURE TO GOD. To determine the relation of man to God it is well to determine first the relation of God to Na- ture — the material world — that we may have the force of the analogy of that relation to aid us. Conscious man may be very dissimilar with unconscious matter, but yet their relations to God are analogous. Both depend on him. To make out the point and decide the relation of God to Nature we must start from the Idea of God, which was laid down above, a Being of Infinite Power, Wisdom and Goodness. Now to make the matter clear as noonday, God is either present in all space, or not present in all space. If infinite, he must be present everywhere in general, and not limited to any particular spot, as an old writer so beautifully says : " Even Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Him."^ Heathen writers are full of such expressions.^ God, then, is universally pres- ent in the world of matter. He is the substantial- ity of matter. The circle of his being in space ' See, too, the beautiful statement in Ps. CXXXIX. 1-13. * See those in Cudworth, Chap. IV. § 2t?, and elsewhere. GOD WORKS IN NATURE. 171 has an infinite radius. We cannot say Lo here or lo there, for he is everywhere. He fills all nature with his overflowing currents ; without him it were not. His Presence gives it existence ; his Will its law and force ; his Wisdom its order ; his Good- ness its beauty. It follows unavoidably, from the Idea of God, that he is present everywhere in space ; not tran- sienthj present, now and then, but immanentlij present, always; his centre here; his circumfer- ence nowhere ; just as present in the eyelash of an emmet as in the Jewish holy of holies, or the sun itself. We may call common what God has cleansed with his presence ; but there is no corner of space so small ; no atom of matter so despised and little but God, the Infinite, is there. ^ Now, to push the inquiry nearer the point. The nature of God, as represented by our Idea of him, is divisible or not divisible. If infinite he must be indivisible, a part of God cannot be in this point of space, and another in that ; his Power in the sun, his Wisdom in the moon, and his Goodness in the earth. He must be wholly, vitally, essentially pres- ent as much in one point as in another point, or all points ; as essentially present in each point at any one moment of time as at any other or all moments of lime. He is there not idly present but actively, as much now as at creation. Divine omnipotence can neither slumber nor sleep. Was God but tran- ' See the judicious remarks of Lord Brougham, Dialogue on Instinct, Dial. II. near the end. 172 GOD THE LIGHT OF NATURE. siently active in matter at creation, his action now passed away? From the Idea of him it follows his- activity is immanent in the world. " Our Father worketh hitherto," and for this reason Nature works, and so has done since its creation. There is no spot the foot of hoary Time has trod on, but it is instinct with God's activity. He is the ground of Nature ; what is permanent in the passing ; what is real in the apparent. All nature then is but an exhibition of God to the senses ; the veil of smoke on which his shadow falls ; the dew-drop in which the heaven of his magnificence is poorly imaged. The Sun is but a sparkle of his splendor. End- less and without beginning flows forth the stream of divine influence that encircles and posseses the all of things. From God it comes, to God it goes. The material world is perpetual growth ; a contin- ual transfiguration, renewal that never ceases. Is this without God ? Is it not because God, who is ever the same, flows into it without end ? It is the fullness of God that flows into the crystal of the rock, the juices of the plant, the life of the emmet and the elephant. He penetrates and pervades the world. All things are full of Him, who surrounds the sun, the stars, the universe itself; "goes through all lands, the expanse of oceans, and the profound Heaven."^ ' Virgil, Georgic, IV. 222. See many passages cited by Cudworth, Chap. IV. § 31, p. 664, et seq. 455, et seq., and the passages collected from Tschaleddin Rumi by Rilckert, in his Gedichte, and Tholuck BlU- thensammlung aus der morgenlandischen Mystik. C;OD REVEALED IN NATURE. 173 Inanimate matter, by itself, is dependent ; inca- pable of life, motion, or even existence. To assert the opposite is to make it a God. In its present state it has no will. Yet there is in it existence, motion, life. The smallest molecule in a ray of polarized light and the largest planet in the system exist and move as if possessed of a Will, powerful, regular. Irresistible. The powers of Nature, then, that of Gravitation, Electricity, Growth, what are they but modes of God's action ? If we look deep into the heart of this mystery, such must be the conclusion. Nature is moved by the first Mover ; beautified by him who is the Sum of Beauty ; ani- mated by him who is of all the Creator, Defence, and Life.^ Such, then, is the relation of God to matter up to this point. He is immanent therein and perpet- ually active. Now to go farther, if this be true, it would seem that the various objects and things in nature were fitted to express and reveal different degrees and measures of the divine influence, so to say ; that this degree of manifestation in each de- pends on the capacity which God has primarily bestowed upon it f that the material but inorganic, ' Cud worth makes three hypotheses ; either,!. All things happen in nature by the fortuitous concourse of atoms, and this it is Atheism to sup- pose ; or, 2. There is in Nature a formative faculty, " a plastic nature," which does the work ; or, 3. Each act is done immediately by God. He, it is well known, adopts the second alternative. See Chap. III. § 37. See also More's FJnchiridion Metaphysicum, Antidote against Atheism, Book II. Apol. pro Cartesio. p. 115, ct seq. * I will not say there is not, in the abstract, as much of divine influ- ence in a wheat-straw as in a world. But in reference to ourselves there appears to be various degrees of it. 174 NATURE OBEYS GOD'S PERFECT LAW. the vegetable but inanimate, and the animal but irrational world, received each as high a mode of divine influence as its several nature would allow. Then, to sum up all in brief, the material world, with its objects sublimely great, or meanly httle, as we judge them ; its atoms of dust, its orbs of fire ; the rock that stands by the seashore, the water that wears it away ; the worm, a birth of yesterday, which we trample under foot ; the streets of constel- lations that gleam perennial over head ; the aspir- ing palm tree, fixed to one spot, and the lions that are sent out free, these incarnate and make visible all of God their natures will admit. If man were not spiritual and could yet conceive of the aggre- gate of invisible things, he might call it God, for he could go no farther. Now, as God is Infinite, imperfection is not to be spoken of Him. His Will therefore — if we may so use that term — is always the same. As Nature has of itself no power, and God is present and ac- tive therein, it must obey and represent his unalter- able will. Hence, seeing the uniformity of opera- tion, that things preserve their identity, we say they are governed by a law that never changes. It is so. But this Law — what is it but the Will of God ; a mode of divine action ? It is this in the last analy- sis. The apparent secondary causes do not prevent this conclusion. The things of Nature, having no will, obey this law from necessity.^ They thus reflect God's im- ' I use the term obedience figuratively. Of course there is no real obe- dience without pozcer to disoley. NATURE OBEYS GOD'S PERFECT LAW. 1 75 age and make real his conception — if we may use such language with this application. We never in Nature see the smallest departure from Nature's law. The granite, the grass, keep their law ; none go astray from the flock of stars ; fire does not refuse to burn, nor water to be wet. We look backwards and forwards, but the same law records everywhere the obedience that is paid it. Our confidence in tlie uniformity of Nature's law is complete, in other words, in the fact that God is always the same ; his modes of action always the same. This is true of the inorganic, the vegetable, the animal w^orld.^ Each thing keeps its law with no attempt at violation of it.^ From this obedience comes the regularity and order apparent in Nature. Obeying the Law^ of God, his omnipotence is on its side. To oppose a law of Nature, therefore, is to oppose the Deity. It is sure to redress itself. But these created things have no consciousness, so far as we know, at least nothing which is the ' M. Leroux, an acute and brilliant but fanciful writer, thinks the ca- pabilities of man change by civifraation, and, which is to the present point, that the animals advance also ; that the Bee and the Beaver are on the march towards perfection, and have made some progress already. However he may make out the case metapliysically, it would be puzzling to settle the matter by facts. But if his hypothesis were admissible, it would not militate with the doctrine in the text. ^ From this view it does not follow that animals are mere machines, with no consciousness, only that they have not i'ree-will. However, in some of the superior animals there is some small degree of freedom apparent. The Dog and the Elephant seem sometimes to e.\ercise a mind, and to become in some measure emancipated, from their instincts. On this curious question, see Descartes, Epist. P. I. Ep. 27, 07. Henry More, Epist. Ad. Cartesium. 176 NATLTRE OBEYS GOD'S PERFECT LAW. same with our self-consciousness. They have no moral will ; no power in general to do otherwise than as they do. Their action is not the result of forethought, reflection, judgment, voluntary obe- dience to an acknowledged law. No one supposes the Bison, the Rosebush, and the Moon, reflect in themselves ; make up their mind and say, " Go to, now, let us bring up our young, or put forth our blossoms, or give light at nightfall, because it is right to do so, and God's law." Their obedience is unavoidable. They do what they cannot help doing.^ Their obedience, therefore, is not their merit, but their necessity. It is power they pas- sively yield to ; not a duty they voluntarily and consciousl y perform. A the action, therefore, of the material, inorganic, vegetable, and animal world is mechanical, vital, or, at the utmost, in- stinctive ; not self-conscious, the result of private will.^ There is, therefore, no room for caprice in ' This point has been happily touched upon by Hooker, Eccles. Polity, Book I. Chap. III. § 2. See his curious reflections in the following sections. ^ I have not the presumption to attempt to draw a line between these three departments of Nature, nor to tell what is the essence of mechanical, vital, or instinctive action. I would only indicate a distinction that, to my mind, is very plain. But I cannot pretend to say where one ends and the other begins. Again, it may seem unphilosophical to deny con- sciousness, or even self-consciousness to the superior animals ; but if they possess a self-consciousness, it is something apparently so remote from ours, that it only leads to confusion if both are called by the same term. The functions of a plant we cannot explain by the laws of me- chanical action ; nor the function of an animal, a Dog for example, by any qualities of body. On this subject see Whewell, Hist. Inductive Sciences, Book IX. Chap. I.-III. Cudworth,Chap. III. § 37, No. 17, et eeq., has shown that there may be sentient, and not mere mechanical life, GOD'S PERFECT LAW. 177 this department. The Crystal must form itself after a prescribed pattern ; the Leaf assume a given shape ; the Bee build her cell with six angles. Tiie mantle of Destiny is girt about these things. To study the laws of Nature, therefore, is to study the modes of God's action. Science becomes sacred, and passes into a sort of devotion. Well says the old sage, " Geometry is the praise of God." It reveals the perfections of the divine Mind, for God manifests himself in every object of science, in the half-living IMolccules of powder-wood ; in the Comet with its orbit which imagination cannot surround ; in the Cones and Cycloids of the Mathe- matician, that exist nowhere in the world of con- crete things, but which the conscious mind carries thither. Since all these objects represent, more or less, the divine mind, and are in perfect harmony with it, and so always at one with God, they express, it may be, all of deity which matter in these three modes can contain, and thus exhibit all of God that can be made manifest to the eye, the ear, and the other senses of man. Since these things are so, Nature is not only strong and beautiful, but has without consciousness, and therefore without frec-jcill. Is not this near the truth, that God alone is absolutely free, and man has a relative free- dom, the degree of which may be constantly increased ? Taking a certain stand -point, it is true, Freedom and Necessity are the same thing, and may be predicated or denied of Deity indifferently, thus if God is per- fect, all his action is perfect. He can do no otherwise than as he docs. Perfection therefore is his necessity, but it ia his freedom none the less. Here the difference is merely in words. 23 178 RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE likewise a religious aspect. This fact was noticed in the very earliest times ; appears in the rudest worship, which is an adoration of God in Nature. It will move man's heart to the latest day, and exert an influence on souls that are deepest and most holy. Who that looks on the ocean, in its anger or its play ; who that walks at twilight under a mountain's brow, listens to the sighing of the pines, touched by the indolent wind of summer, and hears the light tinkle of the brook, murmuring its quiet tune, — who is there but feels the deep Religion of the scene ? In the heart of a city we are called away from God. The dust of man's foot,' and the sooty print of his fingers are on all we see. The very earth is unnatural, and the Heaven scarce seen. In a crowd of busy men which set through its streets, or flow together of an holiday ; in the dust and jar, the bustle and strife of business, there is little to remind us of God. Men must build a cathedral for that. But every- where in nature, we are carried straightway back to Him. The fern, green and growing amid the frost ; each little grass and lichen is a silent me- mento. The first bird of spring, and the last rose of summer ; the grandeur or the dulness of evening and morning ; the rain, the dew, the sunshine ; the stars that come out to watch over the farmer's rising corn ; the birds that nestle contentedly, brooding over their young, quietly tending the little strug- glers with their beak, — all these have a religious significance to a thinking soul. Every violet blooms •* OF NATURAL SCENERY. 179 of God, each lily is fragrant with the presence of deity. The awful scenes, of storm, and lightning and thunder, seem but the sterner sounds of the great concert, wherewith God speaks to man. Is this an accident ? Ay, earth is full of such acci- dents. When the seer rests from religious thought, or when the world's temptations make his soul tremble, and though the spirit be willing the flesh is weak ; when the perishable body weighs down the mind, musing on many things ; when he wishes to draw near to God, he goes, not to the city ; there conscious men obstruct him with their works ; but to the meadow, spangled all over with flowers, and sung to by every bird ; to the mountain, " visited all night by troops of stars ;" to the ocean, the undying type of shifting phenomena and un- changing law ; to the forest, stretching out moth- erly arms, with its mighty growth and awful shade, and here in the obedience these things pay, in their order, strength, beauty, he is encountered front to front, with the awful presence of Almighty power. A voice cries to him from the thicket, " God will provide." The Bushes burn with deity. Angels minister to him. There is no mortal pang, but it is allayed by God's fair voice as it whispers, in na- ture, still and small, it may be, but moving on the face of the deep, and bringing light out of darkness. " Oh joy that in our embers, Is something that doth live, That Nature yet remembers What was so fujjitive." 180 ^ GOD IN NATURE. Now to sum up the result. It seems from the very Idea of God that he must be infinitely present in each point of space. This immanence of God in matter is the basis of his influence ; this is modi- fied by the capacities of the objects in nature ; all of its action is God's action ; its laws modes of that action. The imposition of a law then, which is perfect, and is also perfectly obeyed, though blindly and without self-consciousness, seems to be the mea- sure of God's relation to matter. Its action there- fore is only mechanical, vital, or instinctive, not voluntary and self-conscious. From the nature of these things, it must be so. CHAPTER III. STATEMENT OF THE ANALOGY DRAWN FROM GOD's RELATION TO NATURE. Now if God be present in matter, the analogy is that he is also present in man. But to examine this point more closely, let us set out as before from the Idea of God. If he have not the limitations of matter, but is Infinite, as the Idea declares, then he pervades Spirit as well as Space ; is in man as well as out of him. If it follows from the Idea that he is immanent in the material world — in a moss ; it follows also that he must be immanent in the spiritual world —in a man. If he is immanently ac- tive, and thus totally and essentially present, in each corner of space, and each atom of creation, then is he as universally present in all spirit. If the re- verse be true, then he is not omnipresent, therefore not Infinite, and of course not God. The Infinite God must fill each point of Spirit as of Space. Here then in God's presence in the soul, is a basis laid for his direct influence on man ; as his presence in Nature is the basis of his direct influence there. As in nature his influence was modified only by 182 GOD IN MAN. the capacities of material things, so here must it be modified only by the capabilities of spiritual things ; there it assumed the forms of mechanical, vital and instinctive action ; here it must ascend to the form of voluntary and self-conscious action. This conclusion follows undeniably from the anal- ogy of God's presence and activity in matter. It follows as necessarily from the Idea of God, for as he is the materiality of matter, so is he the spiritu- ality of spirit. ,* CHAPTER IV. THE GENERAL RELATION OF SUPPLY TO WANT. We find in Nature that every want is naturally supplied. That is, there is something external to each created being to answer all the internal wants of that being. This conclusion could have been anticipated without experience, since it follows from the perfections of the Deity, that all his direct works must be perfect. Experience shows this is the rule in nature. We never find a race of ani- mals destitute of what is most needed for them, wandering up and down, seeking rest and finding none. What is most certainly needed for each, is most bountifully provided. The supply answers the demand. The natural circumstances, there- fore, attending a race of animals, for example, are perfect. The animal keeps perfectly the law, or condition of its nature. The result of these per- fect circumstances on the one hand, and perfect obedience on the other, is this, — each animal in its natural state, attains its legitimate end, reaches perfection after its kind. Thus every Sparrow in 184 ANIMAL WANTS SUPPLIED. a flock is perfect in the qualities of a Sparrow, at least, such is the general rule ; the exceptions to it are so rare they only seem to confirm that rule. Now to apply this general maxim to the special case of man. We are mixed beings, spirits wedded to bodies. Setting aside the religious nature of man for the moment, and for the present purpose dis- tributing our faculties into the animal, intellectual, affectional and moral, let us see the relation be- tween man's fourfold wants and the supply thereof. We have certain animal wants, such as the desire of food, shelter and comfort. Our animal welfare, even our animal existence, depends on the relation of the world to these wants, on the condition that they are supplied. Now we find in the world of nature, exterior to ourselves, a supply for these de- mands. It is so placed that man can reach it for himself. To speak in general terms, there is not a natural want in our body which has not its corres- ponding supply, placed out of the body. There is not even a disease of the body, brought upon us by disobedience of its law, but there is somewhere a remedy, at least an alleviation of that disease. The peculiar supply of peculiar wants is provided most abundantly when most needed, and where most needed : furs in the North, spices in the South, antidotes where the poison is found. God is a bountiful parent and no step-father to the body, and does not pay off, to his obedient children, a penny of satisfaction for a pound of want. Nat- ural supply balances natural want the world over. INSTINCT AND UNDERSTANDING. 185 But this is not all. IIow shall man find the supply that is provided ? It will be useless unless there is some facnlly to mediate between it and the want. Now man is furnished with a faculty to perform this office. It is instinct which we have in common with the lower animals, and understanding which we have more exclusively, at least no other animal possessing it in the same degree with our- selves. Instinct anticipates experience. It acts spontaneously where we have no previous know- ledge, yet as if we were fully possessed of ideas. It shows itself as soon as we are horn, in the im- pulse that prompts the infant to his natural food. It appears complete in all animals. It looks only forward, and is a perfect guide so far as it goes. The young chick pecks adroitly at the tiny worm it meets the first hour it leaves the shell. ^ It needs no instruction. The lower animals have nothing but instinct for their guide. It is sufficient for their purpose. They act, therefore, without reflection ; from necessity, and are subordinate to their instinct, and therefore must always remain in the instinctive state.^ Children and savages — who are in some respects the children of the human race — act ' See Lord Brougham, Dialogues on instinct, for some remarkable facts. « Whewell, ubi sup. Vol. II. Pt. I. Book IX. Ch. III. Man may sub- due the instinct of an animal, and apparently improve the creature, by superinducing his own understanding upon it. The pliant nature of dogs and horses enables them to yield to him in this case. But they are not rtally improved in the qualities of a dog or a horse, but only become caricatures of their master's caprice. 24 1 86 A GUIDE TO THE SUPPLY. chiefly by instinct, but constantly approach the de- velopment of the understanding. This acts in a different way. It generalizes from experience ; makes an induction from facts ; a de- duction from principles. It looks both backwards and forwards. The man of understanding acts from experience, reflection, forethought and habit. If he had no other impelling principle, all his action must be of this character. But though understand- ing be capable of indefinite increase, instinct can never be wholly extirpated from this compound being, man. The most artificial or cultivated feels the twinges of instinctive nature. The lower ani- mals rely entirely on instinct; the savage chiefly thereon, while the civilized and matured man de- pends mostly on understanding for his guide. As the sphere of action enlarges, which takes place as the boy outgrows his childhood, and the savage emerges from barbarism, instinct ceases to be an adequate guide, and the understanding sponta- neously develops itself to take its place. ^ In respect then, to man's animal nature, this fact remains, that there is an external supply for each internal want, and a guide to conduct from the want to the supply. This guide is adequate to the purpose. When it is followed, and thus the con- ditions of our animal nature complied with, the want is satisfied, becomes a source of pleasure, a ' See some profound remarks on the force of the instinctive life among savages, in Bancroft, ubi sup. Ch. XXII. INTELLECTUAL WANTS SUPPLIED. 187 means of development. In this case there is no- thing miraculous intervening between the desire and its gratification. ]\Ian is hungry. Instinct leads him to the ripened fruit. He eats and is ap- peased. The satisfaction of the want comes natu- rally, by a regular law, which God has imposed upon the constitution of man. He is blessed by obeying, and cursed by violating this law. God himself does not transcend this law, but acts through it, by it, in it. We observe the law and obtain what we need. Thus for every point of natural desire in the body, there is a point of natural satisfaction out of the body. This guide conducts from one to the other, as a radius connects the centre with the cir- cumference. Our animal welfare is complete when the two are thus brought into contact. Now the same rule may be shown to hold good in each other department into which we divided the human faculties. There is something without us to correspond to each want of the intellect. This is found in the objects of nature ; in the sublime, the useful, the beautiful, the common things we meet; in the ideas and conceptions that arise unavoidably when man, the thinking mihject, comes intellectually in contact with external things, the object of thought. We turn to these things instinctively, at first, " The eije, — it cannot choose but see, We cannot bid the ear be slill ; Our bodies feel where'er they be. Against or with our will." 188 INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND Man is not sufficient for himself intellectually, more than physically. He cannot rely wholly on what he is. There is at first nothing in man but man himself, a being of multiform tendencies, and many powers lying latent, germ sheathed in germ. With- out some external object to rouse the senses, ex- cite curiosity, to stimulate the understanding, in- duce reflection, exercise reason, judgment, ima- gination, — all these faculties would sleep in their causes, unused and worthless in the soul. Obey- ing the instinctive tendency of the mind, which impels to thought, keeping its laws, we gain satisfaction for the intellectual desires. One af- ter another the faculties come into action, grow up to maturity and intellectual welfare is com- plete with no miracle, but by obedience to the laws of mind. The same may be said of the affectional and moral nature of man. There is something with- out us to answer the demands of the Affections and the Moral Sense, and we turn instinctively to them. Does God provide for the animal wants and no more ? He is no step-father, but a bountiful parent to the intellectual, affectional and moral elements of his child. There is a point of satisfaction out of these, for each point of desire in them, and a guide to mediate be- tween the two. This general rule may then be laid down, That for each animal, intellectual, af- fectional, moral want of man, there is a supply set .* AFFECTIONAL WANTS SUPPLIED. 189 within his reach, and a guide to connect the two ; that no miracle is needed to supply the want ; but satisfaction is given soon as the guide is followed and the law kept, which instinct or the under- standing reveals. CHAPTER V. STATEMENT OF THE ANALOGY FROM THIS RELATION. Now it was said before, that the religious was the deepest, highest, strongest element in man, and since the wants of the lower faculties are so abund- antly provided with natural means of satisfying them, the Analogy leads us irresistibly to conclude, that the higher faculty would not be neglected ; that here as elsewhere there must be a natural and not miraculous supply for natural wants ; a natural guide to conduct from one to the other, and natural laws, or conditions, to be observed and natural satisfaction to be obtained in this way ; that as God was no step-father, but a bountiful parent to the lower ele- ments, so he must be to the higher ; that as there was a point of satisfaction out of the body, mind and heart, for each desire in it, so there must be a point of satisfaction out of the soul, for each desire in the soul. Is it God's way to take care of oxen and leave man uncared for ? In a system where every spot on an insect's wing is rounded as dili- gently, and as carefully finished off as a world, are SUPPLY FOR SriRlTUAL WANTS. 191 wc to suppose the Soul of man is left without natu- ral protection ? If there is a law, a permanent mode of divine action, whereby each atom of dust keeps its place and holds its oAvn, surely we are not to dream the soul of man is left with no law for its religious life and satisfaction. To draw the parallels still closer. By the reli- gious consciousness we feel the want of some assured support to depend on, who has infinite Power to sustain us, infinite Wisdom to provide for us, infinite Goodness to cherish us ; as we must know the icill of Him on ichom ive depend, and thus determine what is religious truth and religious duty, in order that we may do that duty, receive that truth, obey that will, and thus obtain rest for the soul, and the highest spiritual welfare, by knowing and fulfilling its conditions, so Analogy teaches that in this, as in the other case, there must be a supply for the wants, and some plain, regular, and not miraculous means, accessible to each man, whereby he can get a knowledge of this Support, discover this Will, and thus by observing the proper conditions, obtain the highest spiritual welfare. This argument for a direct connection between man and God, is only rebutted in one of these two ways. Either, first, by denying that man has any religious wants ; or secondly, by affirming that he is himself alone a supply to them, without need of reliance on any thing independent of himself. The last is contrary to philosophy, for theorelicallij speaking, by nature, there is nothing in man, but man 192 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. himself, his tendencies, and powers of action and reception ; in the religious element there is nothing but the religious element, as, theoretically speaking, by nature, there is in the body nothing but the body ; in hunger nothing but hunger. To make man dependent on nothing but man ; the rehgious sentiment on nothing but the religious sentiment, and therefore sufficient for itself, is quite as absurd as to make the body dependent only on the body ; the appetite of hunger on nothing but hunger, suffi- cient to satisfy itself. Besides, our consciousness, and above all our religious consciousness, is that of dependence. The soul feels its direct dependence on God, as much as the body sees its own direct dependence on matter. If the one statement is contrary to philosophy, the other is contrary to fact. We feel religious wants ; the history of man is a perpetual expression of these wants ; an effort for satisfaction. It cannot be denied that we need something that shall bear the same relation to the religious sentiment, which food bears to the palate, light to the eye, sound to the ear, beauty to the imagination, truth to the understanding, friendship to the heart, and duty to conscience. How shall we pass from the want to its satisfaction ? Now the force of the Analogy is this, it leads us to expect such a natural satisfaction for spiritual wants, as we have for the humbler wants. The very wants themselves imply the satisfaction ; soon as we begin to act, there awakes by nature, a Sentiment of God. Reason gives us a distinct Idea SUPPLY FOR SPIRITUAL WANTS. 193 of Him, and from this Idea also it follows that he must supply these wants. The question then comes as to the fact, Is there, or is there not a regular law, by which the religious wants are supplied, as by a regular law^ the body's wants are met? Now animated by the natural trust, or Aiith, which is the spontaneous action of the religious sentiment, we should say, Yes, it must be so. God takes care of the sparrow's body ; can he neglect man's soul ? Then reasoning again from the general analogy of God's providence, as before shown, and still more from the Idea of God, as above laid down, we say again. It must be so. Man must, through the religious sentiment, have a connection w^ith God, as by the senses with matter. He is, relative to us, the object of the soul, as much as matter is the object of the senses. As God has an influence on passive and unconscious matter, so he must have on active and conscious man. As this action in the one case is only modified by the conditions of matter, so will it be in the other, only by the conditions of man. As no obedient animal is doomed to wander up and down, seeking rest, but finding none ; so no obedient man can be left hopeless, forlorn, without a supply, without a guide. Now it might be supposed that the spontaneous presentiment of this supply for our spiritual de- mands ; this twofold argument from the Idea of God and the Analogy of his action in general, would satisfy both the spontaneous and the reflective mind, 25 194 DOUBTS OF THrJMKING MEN convincing them of man's general capability of a connection with God, of receiving truth, in a regu- lar and natural way from him, by revelation, inspi- ration, suggestion, or by what other name we may call the joint action of the divine and human mind. Such indeed is the belief of nations in an early and simple state. It is attested by the literature, tradi- tions and monuments of all primitive people. They believed that God held converse with man. He spoke in the voices of nature ; in signs and omens ; in dreams by night ; in deep, silent thoughts by day ; skill, strength, wisdom, goodness, were referred to Him. The highest function of man was God's Gift. He made the Laws of Minos, Moses, Numa, Rha- damanthus ; He inspires the Poet, Artist, Patriot ; works with the righteous everywhere. Had Feti- chism no meaning ? Was Polytheism only a lie with no truth at the bottom ? Prayers, sacrifices, fasts, priesthoods, show that men believed in intercourse with God. Good, simple-hearted men and women, who live lives of piety, believe it now, and never dream it is a great philosophical truth, which lies in their mind. They wonder any body should doubt it. But yet among thinkirig men, who have thought just enough to distrust instinct, but not enough to see by the understanding the object which instinct discloses, especially among thinking Englishmen and Americans, a general doubt prevails on this point. The material world is before our eyes ; its phenomena are obvious to the senses, and most ,* FAVORED BY THE BIGOTS. 195 men having active senses, which develop before the understanding, and the lower faculties of intel- lect also, somewhat active, get pretty clear notions about these phenomena, though not of their cause and philosophy. But as the soul is rarely so active as the senses ; as the whole si)iriiual nature is not often so well developed as the sensual, so spiritual phenomena are little noticed ; very i'ew men have clear notions about them. Hence to many men all spiritual and religious matters are vague. " Per- haps yes and perhaps no," is all they can say. Then again the matter is made worse, for they hear extravagant claims made in relation to spirit- ual things and intercourse with God. One man says, he was healed of a fever, or saved from drowning, not by the medicine, or the boatman, but by the direct interposition of God ; another will have it that he has direct and miraculous illu- minations, though it is plain he is still sitting in darkness. This bigot would destroy all human knowledge that there may be clean paper to receive the divine word, miraculously written thereon ; that fanatic bids men trust the wisdom that is miracu- lous an4 even at variance with human faculties. Both the bigot and the fanatic condemn Science as the " Pride of Reason," and talk boastingly of their special revelations, their neiv light, the signs and wonders they have seen or heard of to attest this revelation. The sincere man of good sense is dis- gusted by these things, and asks if there be no Pride of Folly as well as Reason, and no revelation 196 MATERIAL NOTIONS FIXED. of nonsense from the man's own brain, that is mis- taken as an eternal truth coming winged from the Godhead? He rests, therefore, in his notions of mere material things ; will see nothing which he cannot see through ; believe nothing he cannot handle. These material notions have already be- come systematized ; and so far as there is any phi- losophy accredited amongst us, it is one which grows mainly out of this sensual way of looking at things ; a philosophy which logically denies the possibility of inspiration, or intercourse with God, except through a miracle, that shall transcend the faculties of man. Now on this subject of inspiration there are but three views possible. Each of these is supported by no one writer exclusively or perfectly ; but by many taken in the aggregate. Let us examine each of them as it appears in recent times, with its philosophy and logical consequences. However, it is to be remembered that all conclusions which fol- low logically, are not to be charged on men who admit the premises. CHAPTER VI. THE RATIONALISTIC AHEW, OR NATURALISM. This allows that the original powers of Nature, as shown in the inorganic, the vegetable, and the animal world, all came from God at the first ; that he is a principle, either material or spirit- ual, separate from the world, and independent thereof. He made the world, and all things, in- cluding man, and stamped on them certain laws, which they are to keep.^ He was but transiently present and active in nature at creation ; is not immanently present and active therein. He has now, nothing to do with the world but — to see it go. Here, then, is God on the one side ; on the other, Man and Nature. But there is a great gulf fixed between them, over which there passes, neither God nor man. ' There is another form of Naturalism which denies tlie existence of a God separate, or separable from the universe. Since this system would annihilate all Religion, it may be called irreligious Naturalism ; with that 1 have now nothing to do. Some have been called Rationalists, who deny that God is separate from the world. See above, Book I. 198 METAPHYSICS OF NATURALISM. This theory teaches that man, m addition to his organs of perception, has certain intellectual facul- ties by which he can reason from effect to cause ; can discover truth, which is the statement of a fact ; from a number of facts in science can discern a scientific law, the relation of thing to thing ; from a number of facts in morals, can learn the relation of man to man ; deduce a moral law, which shall teach the most expedient and profitable way of managing affairs. Both its scientific and its moral statement, of facts rest solely on experience, and never go beyond their precedents. Still farther, it allows that man can find out there is a God, by reasoning experimentally from observations in the material world, and metaphysically also, from the connection of notions in the mind. But this con- clusion is only to be reached, in either case, by a process that is long, complicated, tortuous, and so difficult that but one man in some thousands has the necessary experimental knowledge, and but one ill some millions, the metaphysical subtlety re- quisite to go through it, and become certain that there is a God. Its notion of God is this, a Being who exists as the Power, Mind and Will that caused the universe. The metaphysical philosophy of this system may be briefly stated. In man, by nature, there is nothing but man. There is but one channel by which knowledge can come into man, that is sensa- tion ; perception through the senses. That is an assumption, nobody pretends it is proved. This ITS SCIENCE. MORALS, GOD. 199 knowledge is modified hy reflection, the mind's pro- cess of ruminating upon the knowledge which sen- sation affords. At any given time, therefore, if we examine what is in man, we find nothing which has not first been in the senses. Now the senses con- verse only with finite phenomena. Reflection — what can it get out of these ? The Absolute ? The premise does not warrant the conclusion. Something " as good as Infinite ? " Let us see. It makes a scientific law a mere generalization from observed facts, which it can never go beyond. Its science, therefore, is in the rear of observation ; we do not know whether the next stone shall fall to the ground or from it. All it can say of the universality of any law of science, is this, " So far as we have seen, it is so." It cannot pass from the Particular to the Universal. It makes a moral law the result of external experience ; merely an induction from moral facts ; not the affirmation of man's moral nature declaring the eternal rule of Right. It learns morality by seeing what plan suc- ceeds best in the long run. Its morality, therefore, is Selfishness. A man in a new case, for which he can find no precedents, knows not what to do. He is never certain he is right till he gets the re- ward. Its moral law at present, like the statute law, is the slowly elaborated product of centuries of experience. It pretends to find out God, as a law in science, solely, by reasoning from effect to cause ; from a plan to the designer. Then on what does a man's belief in God depend ? On 200 ITS PROOF OF A GOD. man's nature, acting spontaneously ? No ; for there is nothing in man, but man, and nothing comes in but sensations, which do not directly give us God. It depends on reflection, argument, that process of reasoning mentioned before. Now ad- mitting that sensation affords sufficient premise for the conclusion, there is a difficulty in the way. The man must either depend on his own reasoning, or that of another. In the one case he may be mistaken, in an argument, so long, crooked, and difficult. ' T is at best an inference. The " Hy- pothesis of a God," as some impiously call it — may thus rest on no better argument than the hypothesis of Vortices, or Epicycles. In the other case, if we trust another man, he may be mis- taken ; still worse, may design to deceive the in- quirer, as, we are told, the Heathen Sages did. Where, then, is the certain conviction of any God at all ? This theory allows none. Its " proof of the existence of God " is a proof of the possibility of a God ; perhaps of its probability. Surely no more. But the case is yet worse. In any argumenta- tion there must be no more expressed in the con- clusion than is logically and confessedly implied in the premises. When finite phenomena are the only premises, whence comes the Idea of Infinite God ? It denies that man has any Idea of the Absolute, Infinite, Perfect. Instead of this, it allows only an accumulative notion, formed from a series of con- ceptions of what is finite and imperfect. The little ITS GOD ONLY FINITE. 201 we can know of God came from reasoning about objects of sense. Its notion of God is deduced from empirical observation. What notion of a God can rest legitimately on that basis ? Nature is finite. To infer an infinite Author is false logic. We see but in part, and have not grasped up this sum of things, nor seen how seeming evil consists with real good, nor accounted for the great amount of misery, apparently unliquidated, in the world ; therefore Nature is imperfect to man's eye. Why infer a perfect Author from an imperfect work ? Injustice and cruelty are allowed in the world. How then can its Maker be relied on as just and merciful ? Let there be nothing in the conclusion which is not in the premises. This theory gives us only a finite and imperfect God, which is no God at all. He cannot be trust- ed out of sight ; for its faith is only an inference from what is seen. Instead of a religious sentiment in man, which craves all the perfections of the God- head ; reaches out after the Infinite " first Good, first Perfect, and first Fair," it gives us only a tenden- cy to reverence or fear what is superior to ourselves, and above our comprehension ; a tendency which the Bat and the Owl have in common with Socrates and Fenelon. It makes man the slave of his or^an- ization. Free-will is not possible. His highest aim is self-preservation ; his greatest evil death. It denies the immortality of man, and foolishly asks " proofs" of the fact. Its finite God is not to be 26 202 ITS MORALS AND RELIGION. trusted, except under bonds to give us what we ask for. It makes no difference between Good and Evil ; Expedient and Inexpedient are the better words. These are to be learned only by long study and much cunning. All men have not the requisite skill to find out moral and religious doctrines, and no means of j^roving either in their own heart ; therefore they must take the word of their appoint- ed teachers and philosophers, who " have investi- gated the matter;" found there is " an expedient way" for men to follow, and a "God" to punish them if they do not follow it. In moral and reli- gious matters the mass of men must rely on the authority of their teachers. Millions of men, who never made an astronomical observation, believe the distance between the Earth and the Sun is what Newton or Laplace declares it to be. Why should not men take moral and religious doctrines on the same evidence ? It is true, astronomers have differed a little — some making the Earth the centre, some the Sun — and divines still more. But men must learn the moral law as the statute law. The State is above each man's private notions about good and evil, and controls these, as well as their passions. Man must act ahvays from mean and self- ish views, never from Love of the Good, the Beau- tiful, the True. This system would have religious forms, and ceremonies to take up the mind of the people ; ITS IDEA OF GOD. 203 moral precepts, and religious creeds, " published by authority," to keep man iVoni unprofitable crimes ; an established Church, like the Jail and the Gal- lows, a piece of state-machinery. It is logical in this, for it fears that, without such a provision, the sensual nature would overlay the intellectual ; the few religious ideas common men could get, would be so shadowy and uncertain, and men be so blind- ed by Prejudice, Superstition, and Fancy, or so far misled by Passion and ignorant Selfishness, that nothing but want and anarchy would ensue. It tells men to pray. None can escape the conviction that prayer, vocal or silent, put up as a request, or felt as a sense of supplication, is natural as hunger and thirst, or tears and smiles. Even an Atheist^ talks of the important physiological functions of prayer. This theory makes prayer a Soliloquy of the man ; a thinking with the upper part of the head ; a sort of moral gymnastics. Thereby we get nothing from God. He is the other side of the world. " He is a journeying, or pursuing, or perad- venture he sleepeth." Prayer is useful to the wor- shiper as the poet's frenzy, w^hen he apostrophizes a Mountain, or the Moon, and w^orks himself into a rapture, but gets nothing from the Mountain or the Moon, except what he carried out. In a w^ord, this theory reduces the Idea of God to that of an abstract cause, and excludes this cause both from man and the world. It has only a finite ' M. Comte. 204 REPRESENTATIVE OF NATURALISM. God, which is no God at all, for the two terms can- cel each other. It has only a selfish morality,' which is no morality at all, for the same reason. It reduces the soul to the aggregate functions of the flesh ; Providence to a law ; Infinity to a dream ; Religion to priestcraft; Prayer to an apostrophe; Morality to making a good bargain ; Conscience to cunning. It denies the possibility of any connec- tion between God and man. Revelation and In- spiration it regards as figures of speech, by which we refer to an agency purely ideal what was the result of the senses and matter acting thereon. Men calling themselves inspired, speaking in the name of God, were deceivers, or deceived. Pro- phets, the religious Geniuses of the world, mistook their fancies for revelations ; embraced a cloud in- stead of a Goddess, and produced only misshapen dreams. Judged by this system, Jesus of Nazareth was a pure-minded fanatic, who knew no more about God than Peter Bayle and Pomponatius, but yet did the world service, by teaching the result of his own or others' experience, as revelations from God, accompanied with the promise of another life, which is reckoned a pleasant delusion, useful to keep men out of crime, a clever auxiliary of the powers that be. This System has perhaps never been held in all its parts, by any one man, but each portion has often been defended, and all its parts go together and come unavoidably from that notion, that there AT THE ROOT OF OUR THEOLOGY. 205 is nothing in man which was not first in the senses.^ The best representatives of this school were, it may be, the French Materialists of the last century, and some of the English Deists. The latter term is applied to men of tlie most various character and ways of thinking. Some of them were most excel- lent men in all respects ; men who did mankind great service by exposing the fanaticism of the Su- perstitious, and by showing the absurdities embrac- ed by many of the Christians. Some of them were much more religious and heavenly-minded than their opponents, and had a theology much more Christian, which called Goodness by its proper name, and worshiped God in lowliness of heart, and a divine life. But the spirit of this system takes different forms in different men. It appears in the cold mo- rality and repulsive religion of Dr. Priestley, who was yet one of the best of men ; in the skepticism of Hume and his followers, which has been a useful medicine to the Church ; in the selfish system of Paley, far more dangerous than the doubts of Hume or the scoffs of Gibbon and Voltaire ; in the coarse, vulgar materialism of Hobbes, who may be taken as one of the best representatives of the system. It is obvious enough, that this system of Natural- ism is the philosophy which lies at the foundation of the popular theology in New England ; that it is very little understood by the men, out of pulpits ' See tlie judicious observationa of Shaftesbury', eighth Letter to a Student. 206 ITS NEGATIVE MERIT. and in pulpits, who adhere to it ; who, while they hold fast to the theory of the worst of the English' Deists — though of only the worst ; while they deny the immanence of God in matter and man, and therefore take away the natural possibility of inspi- ration, and cling to that system which justifies the Doubt of Hume, the Selfishness of Paley, the coarse Materialism of Hobbes, — are yet ashamed of their descent, and seek to point out others of a quite different spiritual complexion, as the lineal descend- ants of that ancient stock. This system has one negative merit. It can, as such, never lead to fanaticism. Those sects, or individuals, who approach most nearly to pure Naturalism, have never been accused, in religious matters, of going too fast or too far. But it has a positive excellence. It lays great stress on the human mind, and cultivates the understanding to the last degree. However, its Philosophy, its The- ology, its Religion, are of the senses, and the senses alone.^ ' I have not thought it necessary to refer particularly to the authors representing this system. I have rather taken pains to express their doctrine in my own words, lest individuals should be thought responsible for the sins of the system. One may read many works of divinity, and see that this philosophy lay unconsciously in the writer's mind. I do not mean to insinuate, that many persons fully and knowingly believe this doctrine, but that they are yet governed by it, under the modifica- tion treated of in the next chapter. Locke has sometimes been charged with follies of this character, but unjustly, as it seems to me, for though many passages do certainly look that way, others are of a quite spiritual tendency. See King's Life of Locke, Vol. I. p. 3G6, et seq. and his the- ological writings. mf CHAPTER VII. THE ANTI-RATIONALISTIC VIEW, OR SUPERNATURALISM. This system differs in many respects from the other ; but its philosophy is at bottom the same. It denies that by natural action there can be any thing in man which was not first in the senses. Whatever transcends the senses can come to man only by a miracle. To develop the natural side of the theory it sets God on the one side and man on the other. However it admits the immanence of God in mat- ter, and talks very little about the laws of matter, which it thinks require revision, amendment, and even repeal, as if the nature of things changed, or God grew^ wiser by experiment. It does not see that if God is always the same, and immanent in nature, the laws of nature can neither change nor be changed. It limits the power of man still far- ther than the former theory. It denies that he can, of himself, discover the existence of God ; or find out that it is better to love his brother than to hate him, to subject the Passions to Reason, Desire to Duty, rather than to subject Reason to Passion, 208 ABSURDITY OF SUPERNATURALISM. Duty to Desire.^ Man can find out all that is needed for his animal and intellectual welfare,' with no miracle ; but can learn nothing that is needed for his moral and religious welfare. He can invent the steam engine, and calculate the orbit of Halle j's comet ; but cannot tell Good from Evil, nor determine that there is a God. The Unneces- sary is given him ; the Indispensable he cannot get by nature. Man, therefore, is the veriest wretch in creation. His mind forces him to inquire on religious matters, but brings him into doubt, and leaves him in the very slough of Despond. He goes up and down sorrowing, seeking rest, but finding none. Nay ; it goes farther still, and de- clares that, by nature, all men's actions are sin, hateful to God. On the other hand, it teaches that God works a miracle from time to time, and makes to man a positive revelation of moral and religious truth, which man could not otherwise gain. Its history of revelations is this : God revealed his own exist- ence in a visible form to the first man ; taught him ' Some Supernaturalists admit that man by nature can find out the most important religious truths, in the way set down before, and some admit a moral sense in man. Others deny both. A recent writer denies that man can find by the light of Nature anv theological truth. Natural theology is not possible. See Irons On the whole Doctrine of Final Causes. Lond. 1836, p. 34, 129, and passim. His introductory chapter on modern Deism is very curious. He has some excellent re- marks, for there are two kingdoms of philosophy in him, but wishes to advance what he calls revealed religion, at the expense of the founda- tion of all religion. The Ottoman King never thinks himself secure on the throne till he has slain all his brothers. REVELATIO?^ BY MEDIATORS. 209 religious and moral duties by words orally spoken. Tlie first man communicated the knowledge to his descendants, from whom the tradition of the fact has spread over all the world. Men know there is a God, and distinction between right and wrong, onlv by hearsay, as they know there was a Flood in the time of Noah, or Deucalion. The first man sinned, and fell from the state of frequent commu- nion with God. Revelations have since become rare ; exceptions in the history of man. However as man without a connection with the Infinite must soon perish, God continued to make miraculous revelations to one single people. To them he gave laws, religious and civil ; made predictions, and accompanied each revelation by some miracu- lous sign, for without it none could tell truth from a lie. Other nations received reflections of this light, which was directly imparted to the favored people. At length he made a revelation of all religious and moral truth, by means of his Son, a divine and mi- raculous being, both God and man, and confirmed the tidings by miracles the most surprising. As this revelation is to last forever, it has been recorded miraculously, and preserved for all coming time. The persons who received direct communication miraculously from God, are of course mediators be- tween Him and the human race. Now to live as religious men, we must have a knowledge of religious truth : for this we must de- pend alone on these mediators. Without them we have no access to God. They have established a 27 210 THE SAD CONDITION OF MAN. new relation between man and God. But they are mortal, and have deceased. However, their say- ings are recorded by miraculous aid. A knowledge of God's will, of morality and religion, therefore, is only to be got at, by studying the documents which contain a record of their words and works, for the Word of God has become the letter of Scripture. We can know nothing of God, religion or morals at first hand. God was but transiently present in a small number of the race, and has now left it altogether. This theory forgets that a verbal revelation can never communicate a simple idea, like that of God, Justice, Love, Religion, more than a word can give a deaf man an idea of sound. It makes inspiration a very rare miracle, confined to one nation, and to some scores of men in that nation, who stand be- tween us and God. We cannot pray in our own name, but in that of the mediator, who hears the prayer, and makes intercession for us. It exalts certain miraculous persons, but degrades man. In prophets and saints, in Moses and Jesus, it does not see the possibility of the race made real, but only the miraculous work of God. Our duty is not to inquire into the truth of their word. Reason is no judge of that. We must put faith in all which all of them tell us, though they contradict each other never so often. Thus it makes an antithesis be- tween Faith and Knowledge, Reason and Revela- tion. It denies that common men, in the nine- teenth century, can get at Truth, and God, as Paul FOUJ^DATION OF SUPERNATURALISM. 21 1 and John in the first century. It sacrifices Reason, Conscience and Love to tlic words of the miraculous men, and thus makes its mediator a tyrant, who rules over the soul by external authority, restricting Reason, Conscience and Love ; not a brotiier, who acts in the soul, by waking its dormant powers, disclosing truth, and leading others by a divine life, to God, the Source of Light. It says the words of Jesus are true because he spoke them ; not that he spoke them because true. It relies entirely on past times ; does not give us the absolute Religion, as it exists in man's nature, and the Ideas of the Al- mighty, only an historical mode of ^^ orship, as lived out here or there. It says the canon of Revelation is closed ; God will no longer act on man as here- tofore. We have come at the end of the feast ; are born in the latter days and dotage of mankind, and can only get light, by raking amid the ashes of the past, and blowing its brands, now almost extinct. It denies that God is present and active in all spirit as in all space — thus denies that he is Infinite. In the miraculous documents it gives us an objective standard, " the only infallible rule of religious faith and practice." These mediators are greater than the soul ; the Bible the master of Reason, Con- science, and the Religious Sentiment. They stand in the place of God. Men ask of this system. How do you know there is in man nothing but the product of sensa- tion, or miraculous tradition ; that man cannot ap- proach God except by miracle ; that these mediators 212 THE TRUTH IN SUPERNATURAL! SM received truth miraculouslj ; taught all truth ; no- thing but the truth ; that you have their words,' pure and unmixed in your scriptures ; that God has no farther revelation to make ? The answ^er is — we find it conveniefit to assume all this, afid ac- cordingly have banished Reason from the premises ; she asked troublesome questions. We condescend to no proof of the facts. You must take our ivord for that. Thus the main doctrines of the theory rest on assumptions ; on no facts. This system represents the despair of man grop- ing after God. The religious sentiment acts, but is crippled by a philosophy poor and sensual. Is man nothing but a combination of live senses, and a thinking machine, to grind up and bolter sensa- tions, and learn of God only by hearsay ? The God of Supernaturalism is a God afar off; its Religion worn out and second-handed. We cannot meet God face to face. In one respect it is worse than Naturalism ; that sets great value on the faculties of man, which this depreciates and profanes. But all systems rest on a truth, or they could not be ; this on a great truth, or it could not prevail widely. It admits the immanence of God in Nature, and declares, also, that mankind is dependent on Him, for religious and moral truth as for all things else ; has a connection with God who really guides, edu- cates and blesses the race, for he is transiently pre- sent therein. The doctrine of miraculous events, births, persons, deaths and the like, this is the veil of Poetry drawn over the face of Fact. It has a DENIES THE LIGHT OF NATURE. 213 truth not admitted by Naturalism. Now only a few " thinking''^ men even in fancy can be satisfied with- out a connection with God, so Naturahsm is always confined to a few reflective and cultivated persons ; while the mass of men believe in the supernatural theory, at least, in the truth it covers up. Its truth is of great moment. Its vice is to make God transiently active in man, not immanent in him ; restrict the divine presence and action to times, places and persons. It overlooks the fact that if religious truth be necessary for all, then it must either have been provided, for and put in the reach of all, or else there is a fault in the divine plan. Then again, if God gives a natural supply for the lower wants, it is probable, to say the least, he will not neglect the higher. Now for the religious con- sciousness of Man, a knowledge of two great truths is indispensable ; namely, a knowledge of the ex- istence of the Infinite God, and of the duty we owe to Him, for these two are implied in all religious teaching and life. Now one of two things must be admitted, and a third is not possible ; either man can discover these two truths hy the light of nature, or he cannot. If the latter be the case, then is man the most hopeless of all beings. Revelation of these truths is confined to a few ; it is indispensably ne- cessary to all. Accordingly the first hypothesis is generally admitted by the supernaturalists, in ]^ew England — though in spite of their philosophy — that these two truths can he discovered by the light of nature. Then if the two main points, the prem- 214 NATURALISM AND SUPERNATURALISM. ises which involve the whole of Morals and Reli- gion, lie within the reach of man's natural powers, how is a miracle, or the tradition of a miracle ne- cessary to reveal the minor doctrines involved in the universal truth ? Does not the faculty to dis- cern the greater include the faculty to discern the less ? What covers an acre will cover a yard. Where then is the use of the miraculous interposi- tion ? Neither Naturalism nor Supernaturalism legiti- mates the fact of man's religious consciousness. Both fail of satisfying the natural religious wants of the race. Each has merits and vices of its own. Neither gives for the Soul's wants a supply analo- gous to that so bountifully provided for the wants of the Body, or the Mind. .* CHAPTER VIII. THE NATURAL-RELIGIOUS VIEW, OR SPIRITUALISM. This theory teaches that there is a natural sup- ply for spiritual as well as for corporeal wants ; that there is a connection between God and the soul, as between light and the eye, sound and the ear, food and the palate, truth and the intellect, beauty and the imagination ; that as we follow an instinctive tendency, obey the body's law, get a natural supply for its wants, attain health and strength, the body's welfare ; as we keep the law of the mind, and get a supply for its wants, attain wisdom and skill, the mind's welfare, — so if, follow- ing another instinctive tendency, we keep the law of the moral and religious nature, we get a supply for their wants, moral and religious truth, obtain peace of conscience and rest for the soul, the high- est moral and religious welfare. It teaches that the world is not nearer to our bodies than God to the soul ; " for in him we live and move, and have our being." As we have bodily senses to lay hold on matter and supply bodily wants, through which we 216 INSPIRATION UNIVERSAL. obtain, naturally, all needed material things ; so we have spiritual faculties, to lay hold on God, and sup-- ply spiritual wants ; through them we obtain all needed spiritual things. As we observe the condi- tions of the body, we have nature on our side ; as we observe the Law of the Soul, we have God on our side. He imparts truth to all men who observe these conditions ; we have direct access to Him, through Reason, Conscience and the religious Sen- timent, just as we have direct access to nature, through the eye, the ear, or the hand. Through these channels, and by means of a law, certain, regular and universal as gravitation, God inspires men, makes revelation of truth, for is not truth as much a phenomenon of God, as motion of matter ? Therefore if God be omnipresent and omniactive, this inspiration is no miracle, but a regular mode of God's action on conscious spirit, as gravitation on unconscious matter. It is not a rare condescension of God, but ci universal uplifting of man. To ob- tain a knowledge of duty, man is not sent away, outside of himself to ancient documents, for the only rule of faith and practice ; the Word, is very nigh him, even in his heart, and by this Word he is to try all documents whatever. Inspiration, like God's omnipresence, is not limited to the few writers claimed by the Jews, Christians, or Mahometans, but is coextensive with the race. As God fills all space, so all spirit ; as he influences and constrains unconscious and necessitated matter, so he inspires and helps free and conscious man. MEDIATOR NOT NEEDED. 217 This theory does not make God limited, partial, or capricious. It exalts man. A\ liile it h )nors the excellence of a religious genius, of a Moses or a Jesus, it does not pronounce their character mon- strous, as the supernatural, nor fanatical, as the rationalistic theory ; but natural, human, and beau- tiful, revealing the possibility of mankind. Prayer, whether conscious or spontaneous, a word or a feeling, felt in gratitude or penitence, or joy, or resig- nation,— is not a soliloquy of the man, not a phy- siological function, nor an address to a deceased man ; but a sally into the infinite spiritual world, whence we bring back light and truth. There are windows towards God, as towards the world. There is no intercessor, angel, mediator between man and God ; for man can speak and God hear, each for himself. He requires no advocate to plead fcr men, who need not pray by attorney. Each soul stands close to the omnipresent God ; may feel his beautiful presence, and have familiar access to the All-Father ; get truth at first hand from its Author. Wisdom, Righteousness, and Love, are the Spirit of God in the soul of man ; wherever these are, and just in proportion to their power, there is inspiration from God. Thus God is not the author of confu- sion, but Concord ; Faith, and Knowledge, and Revelation and Reason tell the same tale, and so legitimate and confirm one another.^ ' See Jonathan Edwards's view of Inspiration, in his sermon on A divine Light imparted to the Soul, &c. Works, cd. Lond. 1840. Vol. II , p. 12, et seq., and Vol. 1., p. cclxix. No. [20]. 28 218 BUT ONE KIND OF INSPIRATION. God's action on matter and on man is perhaps the same thing to Him, though it appear differently ' modified to us. But it is plain from the nature of things, that there can be but one ki7id of Inspira- tion, as of Truth, Faith, or Love. It is the direct and intuitive perception of some truth, either of thought or of sentiment : there can be but one mode of Inspiration ; it is the action of the Highest within the soul, the divine presence imparting light ; this presence as Truth, Justice, Holiness, Love, infusing itself into the soul, giving it new life ; the breathing in of Deity ; the in-come of God to the soul, in the form of Truth through the Reason, of Right through the Conscience, of Love and Faith through the affections and religious sentiment. Is Inspiration confined to theological matters alone ? Most surely not. Is Newton less inspired than Simon Peter ?^ ' So long as inspiration is regarded as purely miraculous, good sense will lessen instances of it, as far as possible ; for most thinking men feel more or less repugnance at believing in any violation, on God's part, of regular laws. As spiritual things are commonly less attended to than material, the belief in miraculous inspiration remains longer in religious than secular affairs. A man would be looked on as mad, who should claim miraculous inspiration for Newton, as they have been who denied it in the case of Moses. But no candid man will doubt that, humanly speaking, it was a more difficult thing to write the Prin- cipia than the Decalogue. Man must have a nature most sadly anoma- lous, if, unassisted, he is able to accomplish all the triumphs of modern science, and yet cannot discover the plainest and most important princi- ples of Religion and Morality without a miraculous revelation ; and still more so, if being able to discover, by God's natural aid, these chief and most important principles, he needs a miraculous inspiration to disclose minor details. Science is by no means indispensable, as Religion and Morals. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, if it is a real advan- tage, follows unavoidably from the Idea of God. The Best being, he DEGREES OF INSPIRATION. 219 Now if the above views be true, there seems no ground for supposing tliere are different kinds or modes of inspiration in different persons, nations or ages, in Minos or Moses, in Gentiles or Jews, in the first century or the last. If God be infinitely perfect. He does not change ; then his modes of action are perfect and unchangeable. The laws of mind, like those of matter, remain immutable and not transcended. As God has left no age nor man destitute, by nature, of Reason, Conscience, Reli- gion, so he leaves none destitute of inspiration. It is, therefore, the light of all our being ; the back- ground of all human faculties ; the sole means by which we gain a knowledge of what is not seen and felt, the logical condition of all sensual knowledge ; our highway to the world of spirit. Man cannot exist without God more than matter. Inspiration then, like vision, must be everywhere the same thing in kind ; however it differs in degree^ from race to race, from man to man. The degree of inspiration must depend on two things ; first, on the natural ability, the particular intellectual, moral, and religious endowment, or genius, wherewith each man is furnished by God ; and next, on the use each man makes of this endowment. In one word, it depends on the man's Qumitity of Being, and his Quantity of Obedience. Now as men differ must will the best of good things ; the Wisest, he must devise plans for that effect ; the most Powerful, he must bring it about. None can deny this. Does one ask another " proof of the fact?" Is he so very full of faith who cannot trust God, except he have His bond in black and white, given under oath and attested by witnesses ! 220 CONDITION OF INSPIRATION. widely in their natural endowments, and much more widely in the use and development thereof, there must of course be various degrees of inspiration, from the lowest sinner up to the highest saint. All men are not by birth capable of the same degree of inspiration ; and by culture, and acquired character, they are still less capable of it. A man of noble intellect, of deep, rich, benevolent affections, is by his endowments capable of more than one less gifted. He that perfectly keeps the soul's law, thus fulfilling the conditions of inspiration, has more than he who keeps it imperfectly ; the former must receive all his soul can contain at that stage of his growth. Thus it depends on a man's own will, in great measure, to what extent he will be inspired. The man of humble gifts at first, by faithful obedi- ence may attain a greater degree than one of larger outfit, who neglects his talent. The Apostles of the New Testament, and the true saints of all coun- tries, are proofs of this. Inspiration, then, is the consequence of a faithful use of our faculties. Each man is its subject ; God its source ; Truth its only test. But as truth appears in various modes to us, higher and lower, and may be superficially divided, according to our faculties, into truths of the Senses, of the Understanding, of Reason, of Conscience, of the Religious Sentiment, so the perception of truth in the highest mode, that of Reason, Morals, Reli- gion, is the highest inspiration. He, then, that has the most of Wisdom, Goodness, Religion, the most of Truth, in the highest modes, is the most inspired. .♦ VARIOUS FORMS OF INSPIRATION. 221 Now infallible inspiration can of course only be the attendant and result of a perfect fulfilment of all the laws of mind, of the moral and the religious nature ; and as man's faculties are limited, it is not possible to man. A foolish man, as such, cannot be inspired to reveal Wisdom ; nor a wicked man to reveal Virtue ; nor an impious man to reveal Religion. Unto him that hath more is given. The poet reveals poetry, the artist art, the philosopher science, the saint religion. The greater, purer, loftier, more complete the character, so is the inspi- ration ; for he that is true to Conscience, faithful to Reason, obedient to Religion, has not only the strength of his own virtue, wisdom and piety, but the whole strength of omnipotence on his side ; for goodness, truth and love, as we conceive them, are not one thing in man, and another in God, but the same thing in each. Thus man partakes the divine nature, as the Platonists, Christians and Mystics call it. By these means the Soul of all flows into the man ; what is private, personal, peculiar, ebbs off before that mighty influx from on high. What is universal, absolute, true, speaks out of his lips, in rude, homely utterance, it may be, or in words that burn and sparkle like the lightning's fiery flash. This inspiration reveals itself in various forms, modified by the country, character, education, pe- culiarity ot him who receives it, just as water takes the form and the color of the cup into which it flows, and must needs mingle with the impurities 22SI DOES NOT DESTROY FREEDOM. it chances to meet. Thus Minos and Moses were inspired to make laws ; David to pour out his soul' in pious strains, deep and sweet as an angel's psal- tery ; Pindar to celebrate virtuous deeds in high heroic song ; John the Baptist to denounce sin ; Gerson, and Luther, and Bohme, and Fenelon, and Fox, to do each his peculiar work, and stir the world's heart, deep, very deep. Plato and Newton, Milton and Isaiah, Leibnitz and Paul, Mozart, Raphael, Phidias, Praxiteles, Orpheus, receive into their various forms, the one spirit from God most high. It appears in action not less than speech. The spirit inspires Dorcas to make coats and gar- ments for the poor, no less than Paul to preach the Gospel. As that bold man himself has said, " there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit ; diversities of operations, but the same God who worketh all in all." ^ In one man it may appear in the iron hardness of reasoning, which breaks through sophistry, and prejudice, the rubbish and diluvial drift of time. In another it is subdued and softened by the flame of affection ; the hard iron of the man is melted and becomes a stream of persuasion, sparkling as it runs. Inspiration does not destroy the man's freedom, that is left fetterless by obedience. It does not reduce all to one uniform standard, but Habbakuk speaks in his own way, and Hugh de St. Victor in his. The man can obey or not obey ; can quench ' 1 Cor. XII. 8, et seq. EFFECT OF INSPIRATION. 223 the spirit, or feed it, as ho will. Thus Jonah flees from his duty ; Calchas will not tell the truth till out of danger; Peter dissemhles and lies. Each of these men had schemes of his own, which he would carry out, God willing or not willing. But when the sincere man receives the truth of God into his soul, knowing it is God's truth, then it takes such a hold of him as nothing else can do. It makes the weak strong ; the timid brave ; men of slow tongue become full of power and persuasion. There is a new soul in the man, which takes him as it were by the hair of his head, and sets him down where the idea he wishes for demands. It takes the man away from the hall of comfort, the society of his friends ; makes him austere and lonely ; cruel to himself, if need be ; sleepless in his vigilance, un- faltering in his will ; never resting from his work. It takes the rose out of the cheek ; turns the man in on himself, and gives him more of truth. Then, in a poetic fancy, the man sees visions ; has wondrous revelations ; every mountain thunders ; God burns in every bush ; flames out in the crim- son cloud ; speaks in the wind ; descends with every dove ; is All in All. The Soul, deep-wrought in its intense struggle, gives outness to its thought, and on the trees and stars, the fields, the floods, the corn ripe for the sickle, on man and woman it sees its burthen writ. The Spirit within constrains the man. It is like wine that hath no vent. He is full of the God. While he muses the fire burns ; his bosom will scarce hold his heart. He must 224 POWER OF INSPIRATION. speak or he dies, though the earth quake at his word.^ Timid flesh may resist, and Moses say, I am of slow speech. What avails that ? The Soul says, Go and I will be with thy mouth, to quicken thy tardy tongue. Shrinking Jeremiah, effeminate and timid, recoils before the fearful work. " The flesh ivill quiver when the pincers tear." He says, I cannot speak. I am a child. But the great Soul of All flows into him and says. Say not " I am a child ! " for I am with thee. Gird up thy loins like a man, and speak all that I command thee. Be not afraid at men's faces, for I will make thee a defenced city, a column of steel, and walls of brass. Speak, then, against the whole land of sinners ; against the kings thereof, the princes thereof, its people and its priests. They may fight against thee, but they shall not prevail ; for I am with thee. Devils tempt the man, with the terror of defeat and want, with the hopes of selfish ambi- tion. It avails nothing. A " Get-thee-behind-me, Satan," brings angels to help. Then are the man's lips touched with a live coal from the altar of Truth, brought by a Seraph's hand. He is baptized with the spirit of fire. His countenance is like lightning. Truth thunders from his tongue ; his words elo- quent as Persuasion ; no terror is terrible ; no fear formidable. The peaceful is satisfied to be a man of strife and contention, his hand against every man, to root up and pluck down and destroy, to ' See Lucan IX. 564, et seq. TREATMENT OF PROPHETS. 225 build with the sword in one liand and the trowel in the other. He came to bring peace, but he must set a fire, and his soul is straitened till his work be done. Elisha must leave his oxen in the furrow ; Amos desert his summer fruit and his friend ; and Bohme, and Bunyan, and Fox, and a thousand others, stout-hearted and God-inspired, must go forth of their errand, into the faithless world, to accept the prophet's mission, be stoned, hated, scourged, slain. Resistance is nothing to these men. Over them steel loses its power, and public opprobrium its shame ; deadly things do not harm them ; they count loss gain — shame glory — death triumph. These are the men who move the world. They have an eye to see its follies, a heart to weep and bleed for its sin. Filled with a Soul wide as yesterday, today and forever, they pray great prayers for sinful man. The wild wail of a brother's heart runs through the saddening music of their speech. The destiny of these men is forecast in their birth. They are doomed to fall on evil times and evil tongues, come when they will come. The Priest and the Lcvite war with the Prophet and do him to death. They brand his name with infamy ; cast his unburied bones into the Gehenna of popular shame ; John the Baptist must leave his head in a charger ; Socrates die the death ; Jesus be nailed to his cross ; and Justin, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and millions of hearts stout as these and as full of God, must mix their last prayers, their admonition, and farewell blessing, with the 29 226 INFLUENCE OF GOD IN NATURE AND IN MAN. crackling snap of fagots, the hiss of quivering flesh, the impotent tears of wife and child, and the mad roar of the exulting crowd. Every path where mortal feet now tread secure, has been beaten out of the hard flint by prophets and holy men, who went before us, with bare and bleeding feet, to smooth the way for our reluctant tread. It is the blood of prophets that softens the Alpine rock. Their bones are scattered in all the high places of mankind. But God lays his burthens on no vulgar men. He never leaves their souls a prey. He paints Elysium on their dungeon wall. In the po- pulous chamber of their heart, the light of Faith shines brioht and never dies. For such as are on the side of God there is no cause to fear. The influence of God in Nature, in its mechani- cal, vital, or instinctive action, is beautiful. The shapely trees; the leaves that clothe them in loveli- ness ; the corn and the cattle ; the dew and the flowers ; the bird, the insect, moss and stone, fire and water, and earth and air ; the clear blue sky that folds the world in its soft embrace ; the light which rides on swift pinions, enchanting all it touches, reposing harmless on an infant's eyelid, after its long passage from the other side of the universe, — all these are noble and beautiful ; they admonish while they delight us, these silent coun- sellors and sovereign aids. But the inspiration of God in man, when faithfully obeyed, is nobler and far more beautiful. It is not the passive elegance INFLUENCE OF GOD IN NATURE AND IN MAN. 227 of unconscious things which we see resulting from man's voluntary obedience. That might well charm us in nature ; in man we look for more. Here the beauty is intellectual, the beauty of Thought which comprehends the world and understands its laws ; it is moral, the beauty of Virtue, which overcomes the world and lives by its own laws ; it is religious, the beauty of Holiness, which rises above the world and lives by the law of the Spirit of Life. A single good man, at one with God, makes the morning and evening sun seem little and very low. It is a higher mode of the divine Power that appears in him, self-conscious and self-restrained. Now this it seems is the only kind of inspiration which is possible. It is coextensive with the faith- ful use of man's natural powers. Men may call it miraculous, but nothing is more natural ; or they may say, it is entirely human, for it is the result of man's use of his faculties ; but what is more divine than Wisdom, Goodness, Religion ? Are not these the points in which man and God conjoin ? If he is present and active in spirit — such must be the perfect result of the action. No doubt there is a mystery in it, as in sensation, in all the functions of man. But what then ? As a good man has said : " God worketh with us both to will and to do." Reason, Conscience, Religion, mediate between us and God, as the senses between us and matter. Is one more surprising than the other ? Is the one to be condemned as spiritual mysticism or Pantheism ? Then so is the other as material mysticism or Pan- 228 INSPIRATION COMMONLY BELIEVED. theism. Alas, we know but in part, our knowledge is circumscribed by our ignorance. Now it is the belief of all primitive nations that God inspires the wise, the good, the holj.^ Yes, that he works with man in every noble work. No doubt their poor conceptions of God degraded the doctrine and ascribed to the deity what came from their disobedience of his law. The wisest and holiest men have spoken in the name of God. Minos, Moses, Zoroaster, Confu- cius, Zaleucus, Numa, Mahomet, profess to have re- ceived their doctrine straightway from God. The sacred persons of all nations, from the Druid to the Pope, refer back to the direct inspiration of Him. From this source the Sibylline oracles, the responses at Delphi, the sacred books of all nations, the Vedas and the Bible, alike claim to proceed. Pagans tell us no man was ever great without a divine affla- tus falling upon him.^ Much falsity was mingled » On this doctrine see Sonntag, Doctrina Inspirationis, &c. 1803, § I, et seq. and the authors he cites. De Wette, Dogmatik, § 85-96, and § 143-148, gives the Old Testament doctrine of Inspiration. See also Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, § 41, Dogmatik, § 8. Rretsclineider ubi sup. Vol. I. § 14, et seq. and Baumgarten-Crusius, Dogmengeschichte, Vol. II. p. 775, et seq. Much useful matter has been collected by these writers, and by Manscher, Bauer, Von-Colln and Strauss, but a special history of the doctrine is still a desideratum. 2 See the opinions of the ancients in the classic passages, Cicero de Nat. Deorum, II. 6G. Orat. pro. Arch. c. 8, Tusc. V. 4. Xenophon Me- morab. 1. 1. Seneca, Ep. XLI. See many passages collected in Sonntag. See also Barclay's Apology for the Quakers, Prop. I.-III. XI. Sewel's History of the Quakers, B. IX. X. XI. XII. and p. 693, and George Fox's Journal, passim. •• INSPIRED MEN NOT GOD. 229 with the true doctrine, for that was imperfectly un- derstood, and violence, and folly and lies were thus ascribed to God. Still the popular belief shows that the human mind turns naturally in this direc- tion. Each prophet, f^dse or true, in Palestine, Nubia, India, Greece, spoke in the name of God. In this name the apostles of Christ and of Mahomet, the Catholic and the Protestant, went to their work.^ A good man feels that Justice, Goodness, Truth, are immutable, not dependent on himself; that certain convictions come by a law over which he has no control. There they stand, he cannot alter though he may refuse to obey them. Some have considered themselves bare tools in the hand of God ; they did and said they knew not what, thus charging their follies and sins on God most high. Others, going to a greater degree of insanity, have confounded God with themselves, declaring that they were God. But even if likeness were per- fect, it is not identity. But a ray from the primal light falls on man. No doubt there have been men of an high degree of inspiration, in all coun- tries ; the founders of the various religions of the world. But they have been limited in their gifts, ' The history of the formation of the ecclesiastical doctrine of inspi- ration, which is the Supernatural View, is curious. It did not assume its most exclusive shape in the early teachers. In John of Damascus it appears in its vigor. In Abelard and Peter Lombard, it is more mild and liberal. Since the Reformation, it has been violently attacked. Luther himself is fluctuating in his opinions. As men's eyes opened they would separate falsehood from truth. The writings of the English deists had a great influence in this matter. See Walch's Religions- Streitigkeiten, Vol. V. Ch. VII. Strauss also, Vol, I. § 14, et seq. gives a brief and compendious account of attacks on this doctrine. 230 INSPIRATION UNIVERSAL. and their use of them. The doctrine they taught had somewhat national, temporal, even personal, in it, and so was not the Absolute Religion. No man is so great as human Nature, nor can one finite being feed forever all his brethren. So their doc- trines were limited in extent and duration. Now this inspiration is limited to no sect, age, or nation. It is wade as the world, and common as God. It is not given to a few men, in the infancy of mankind, to monopolize inspiration and bar God out of the soul. You and I are not born in the dotage and decay of the world. The stars are beautiful as in their prime ; " the most ancient Heavens are fresh and strong ; " the bird merry as ever at its clear heart. God is still everywhere in nature, at the line, the pole, in a mountain or a moss. Wherever a heart beats with love ; where Faith and Reason utter their oracles there also is God, as formerly in the heart of seers and prophets. Neither Gerizim nor Jerusalem, nor the soil that Jesus blessed, so holy as the good man's heart; nothing so full of God. This inspiration is not given to the learned alone, not to the great and wise, but to every faithful child of God. The world is close to the body ; God closer to the soul, not only without but within, for the all-pervading current flows into each. The clear sky bends over each man, little or great; let him uncover his head, there is nothing between him and infinite space. So the ocean of God encircles all men ; uncover the soul of its sensuality, selfishness, sin, there is THE DOCTRINE OF EXPERIENCE. 231 nothing between it and God, wlio flows into the man, as light into the air. Certain as the open eye drinks in the light, do the pure in heart see God, and he that lives truly feel him as a presence not to be put by.^ But this is a doctrine of experience as much as of abstract reasoning. Every man who has ever prayed — prayed with the mind, prayed with the heart greatly and strong, knows the truth of this doctrine, welcomed by pious souls. There are hours, and they come to all men, when the hand of destiny seems heavy upon us ; when the thought of time misspent; the pang of affection misplaced or ill-requited ; the experience of man's worse nature and the sense of our own degradation, come over us. In the outward and inward trials, we know not which way to turn. The heart faints and is ready to perish. Then in the deep silence of the soul^ when the man turns inward to God, light, comfort, peace dawn on him. His troubles — they are but a dew-drop on his sandal. His enmities or jeal- ousies, hopes, fears, honors, disgraces, all the un- deserved mishaps of life, are lost to the view ; diminished, and then hid in the mists of the valley he has left behind and below him. Resolution comes over him with its vigorous wing; Truth is clear as noon; the soul in faith rushes to its God. The mystery is at an end. ' Such as like to settle questions by authority, will see that this is the doctrine of the more spiritual writers of the Old and New Testaments, especially of John and Jesus. 232 POPULAR DOUBTS THEREOF. It is no vulgar superstition to say men are in- spired in such times. Tliej are the seed-time of' life. Then we live whole years through in a few moments, and afterwards, as we journey on in life, cold, and dusty, and travel-worn and faint, we look to that moment as a point of light ; the remem- brance of it comes over us like the music of our home heard in a distant land. Like Elisha in the fable, we go long years in the strength thereof. It travels with us, a great wakening light ; a pillar of fire in the darkness, to guide us through the lonely pilgrimage of life. These hours of inspiration, like the flower of the aloe tree, may be rare, but are yet the celestial blossoming of man ; the result of the past, the prophecy of the future. They are not numerous to any man. Happy is he that has ten such in a year, yes, in a life-time. Now to many men, who have but once felt this; when heaven lay about them, in their infancy, before the world was too much with them, and they laid waste their powers, getting and spending, when they look back upon it, across the dreary gulf, where Honor, Virtue, Religion have made ship- wreck and perished with their youth, it seems vis- ionary, a shadow, dream-like, unreal. They count it a phantom of their inexperience ; the vision of a child's fancy, raw and unused to the world. Now they are wiser. They cease to believe in inspira- tion. They can only credit the . saying of the priests, that long ago there were inspired men ; but none now ; that you and I must bow our faces to CiOD READY TO AID US. 233 the dust, groping like the Blind-worm and the Beetle ; not turn our eyes to the broad, ire?, heaven; that we cannot walk by the great central and celes- tial light that God made to guide all that come into the world, but only by the farthing-candle of tradi- tion, poor and flickering light which we get of the priest, which casts strange and fearful shadows around us as we walk, that " leads to bewilder and dazzles to blind." Alas for us if this be all. But can it be so ? Has Infinity laid aside Its omnipresence, retreating to some little corner of space ? No. The grass grows as green ; the birds chirp as gaily ; the sun shines as warm ; the moon and the stars walk in their pure beauty, sublime as before ; morning and evening have lost none of their loveliness ; not a jewel has fallen from the diadem of night. God is still there ; ever present in matter, else it were not ; else the serpent of Fate would coil him about the All of things ; would crush it in his remorseless grasp, and the hour of ruin, strike creation's knell. Can it be then, as so many tell us, that God, im- manent in matter, has forsaken man ; retreated from the shekinah in the holy of holies to the court of the Gentiles; that now he will stretch forth no aid, but leave his tottering child to wander on, amid the palpable obscure, eyeless and fatherless, without a path, with no guide but his feeble broth- er's words and works ; groping after God if haply he may find him ; and learning, at last, that he is but a God afar off, to be approached only by medi- 30 234 GOD JNOT AFAR OFF. ators and attorneys, not face to fare as before ? Can it be that Thought shall fly through the Heav- en, his wing glittering in the ray of every star, burnished by a million suns, and then come droop- ing back, with ruffled plume and flagging wing, and eye that once looked undazzled ( n the sun, now spiritless and cold ; come back to tell us God is no Father ; that he vails his face and will not look upon his child ; his erring child ! No more can this be true. Conscience is still God-with-us ; a Prayer is deep as ever of old ; Reason as true ; Religion as blest. Faith still remains the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Love is yet mighty to cast out fear. The soul still searches the deeps of God ; the pure in heart see him. The substance of the Infinite is not yet exhausted, nor the well of Life drunk dry. The Father is near us as ever, else Reason were a traitor. Morality a hollow form. Religion a mockery, and Love an hideous lie. Now, as in the days of Adam, Moses, Jesus, he that is faithful to Reason, Conscience, and Religion, will, through them, re- ceive inspiration to guide him through all his pil- grimage. BOOK III. " Where there is a great deal of smoke and no clear flame, it argueth much moisture in the matter, and yet it witnesseth certainly that there is fire there; and therefore dubious questioning is a much better evidence, than that senseless deadness which most men take for believing. Men that know nothing in sciences have no doubts." Leighton, cited by Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, American edition, 1829, p. 64. " He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own Sect or Church, better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all." Coleridge, uhi sup. p. G4-G5. " While every body wishes to believe rather than examine and decide, a just judgment, is never passed upon a matter of the greatest import- ance ; our opinion thereof is taken on trust. The error of our fathers which has fallen into our hands whirls us round and drives us headlong. We are ruined by the example of others. We shall be healed if we separate from the rabble. Now the people, in hostility with Reason, stand up as the defence of what is their own mischief." Seneca, De Vita bcata, Ch. I., a free translation. BOOK III. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT TO JESUS OF NAZARETH, OR A DISCOURSE OF CHRISTIANITY. CHAPTER I. STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION AND THE METHOD OF INQUIRY. It was said before, that Religion, like Love, is always the same thing in kind, though both are necessarily modified by other emotions combining therewith and by the conception of the object to which the emotion is directed. Thus Love is modi- fied as it chances to coexist with weakness or strength, folly or wisdom, selfishness or morality, — qualities in the subject who loves. By these qualities the degree of Love is determined. It is modified also by the qualities of the object ; as love is directed towards a child, a wife or a friend. Hence come the different modifications of Religion as it coexists with faith or fear, wisdom or ignorance, love or hate in the worshiping subject, and again as the object of worship, is conceived to be one being, or many beings, or all being ; as he is conceived of as 238 RELATION OF THE RELIGTOUS the absolutely Perfect : or represented as finite, cruel, capricious and unlovely. The only perfect form of Religion is produced by all the principles of man's nature, acting harmoniously together. All manifestations of Religion proceed from the religious sentiment in man, and are, more or less, imperfect representations of that sentiment, as its action is more or less impeded or promoted by various causes. If this be so, it follows that the religious Senti- ment or principle in man bears the same relation to each and all particular forms and teachers of Reli- gion, that Reason bears to each and all particular systems or teachers of Philosophy. That is, as no one teacher or system of Philosophy, nor all teach- ers and systems taken together have exhausted Rea- son, which is the groundwork and standard-measure of them all, and is represented more or less partially in each of them, and therefore as new teachers and new systems of Philosophy are always possible and necessary until a system is discovered which em- braces all the facts of Science, sets forth and legiti- mates all the laws of Nature, and thus represents the Absolute Science, which is implied in the Facts of nature, or the Ideas of God ; so no one teacher or form of Religion, nor all teachers and forms put together, have exhausted the religious Sentiment, which is the groundwork and standard-measure of them all, and is represented more or less partially in each, and so new teachers and new forms of Reli- gion are always possible and necessary, until a form is discovered, which embraces all the facts of man's SENTIMENT TO A FORM OF RELICUON. 239 moral and religious nature, sets forth and legitimates all ilie laws thereof, and thus represents the Absolute Religion, as it is implied in the Facts of man's na- ture, or the Ideas of God. As no system or teacher of Philosophy is greater than Reason, and compe- tent to give laws to nature, but at the utmost is only coordinate w^ith Reason, and competent to dis- cover and announce the laws of nature previously existing ; so no form or teacher of Religion can be greater than the religious Sentiment, and competent to give laws to man, but at the utmost is only coor- dinate with the religious Sentiment, and competent to discover and announce the laws of man previously existing. In one word, Absolute Science answers exactly to Reason, and is what Reason demands ; Absolute Religion answers exactly to the religious Sentiment, and is what the religious Sentiment de- mands. Therefore until Philosophy and Religion attain the Absolute, each form or teacher of either is subject to be modified or supplanted by any man who has a truth not embraced by the Philosophy or Reli- gion at that time extant. However, there are certain primary truths of Science and Religion, which alone render the two possible, and which are possessed with more or less of a distinct understanding by all teachers of the two, and attain greater prominence with some. Though the system may have many faults accidentally connected with it ; though others may point out the faults and develop the system still farther, yet the first principles remain. Thus in Science, the maxims of Geometry, in Morals the first truths thereof, must reappear in all the systems. 240 CHRISTIANITY AJND THE ABSOLUTE. Now to make a special application of these gen- eral remarks ; Christianity can be no greater than the religious sentiment, though it may be less, as the water can of itself rise no higher in the pipe than in the fountain, though if the pipe be defec- tive it may fail of its former height. Religion is the universal term, and absolute Religion and Mo- rality its highest expression ; Christianity is a par- ticular form under this universal term ; one form of religion among many others. It is either absolute Religion and Morality, or it is less ; greater it can- not be, as there iS no greater. Christianity then is a form of Religion. As it is actual, it must have been revealed ; if it is true, it must be natural. It is therefore to be examined and judged of as other forms of Religion, by Reason and the religious Sentiment. It is true or false ; perfect or imperfect. The question then reduces itself to this. Is Christianity the Absolute Religion ? To answer the question we must know, first, what Christian- ity is ; secondly, what absolute Religion is : If Christianity is not the Absolute, we must of course look for a more perfect revelation of Religion, just as we look for improvements in Science till Philoso- phy becomes absolute. But if Christianity be this, or involve it, and nothing contradicts or impedes this, then we can expect nothing higher in Religion, for there is no higher ; but have only to understand this, and develop its principles ; applying it to life, in order to attain perfect religious welfare. To ascertain what is absolute Religion is no METHOD OF INQUIRY. 241 difficult matter ; Tor Religion is not an external thing, like Astronomy, to be learned by long obser- vation, and the perfection of scientific instruments and algebraic processes ; but something above all, inward and natural to man. As it was said before, absolute Religion is perfect obedience to the Law of God ; perfect Love towards God and man, ex- hibited in a life allowing and demanding a harmo- nious action of all man's faculties, so far as they act at all. But to answer the historical question ; Did Jesus of Nazareth teach absolute Religion ? is a matter vastly more difficult, which it requires learning, critical skill, and no little pains-taking to make out. To answer the first question. What is Christianity P is a very difficult thing. No two men seem agreed about it ; the wickedest of wars have been fought to settle it. To answer the query, are we to take what is popularly called Christian- ity ? No Protestant thinks the Christianity of the Catholic Church is absolute Religion ; nor will the Catholic think better of the Protestant faith. A pious man, free from bigotry, and capable of judg- ing, would surely make very short work of the question, and decide that Christianity, as popularly taught by both these churches, taken together, is not absolute Religion. But we must look deeper than Catholicism and Popery. We must distinguish Christianity from the popular Conceptions of Christianity, from its Proof and its Form. To do this, we must go back to the fountain-head, the words of Jesus. We must 31 242 RELIGIOUS TRUTH ETERNAL. then take these words in the abstract, separate from any church ; apart from all authority, real or pretended ; without respect of any application thereof to life, that was made by its founder or others. If all churches have believed it, if miracles have been wrought in its favor, if its application have been good in this or that case, it does not fol- low that Christianity is absolute and final. The Church has been notoriously mistaken on many points. Miracles are claimed for Judaism, Mahom- etanism, and Idolatry, each heresy is thought by its followers to work well. We must look away from all these considerations. If Jesus of Nazareth lived out his idea, and was the greatest of saints, it does not follow his idea was absolute, and therefore final. If he did not perfectly live it out, the reverse does not follow. The good life of a teacher proves nothing of any speculative doctrine he entertains, either in morals or mathematics. A man would be thought insane who should say Euclid's demon- stration of the forty-seventh problem was true, be- cause Euclid lived a good life, and raised men from the dead ; or that it was false, because he lived a bad life, and murdered his mother. If Christianity be the Absolute, it is independent of all circum- stances ; eternally true, as much before its revelation as after it is brought to light and applied to life.^ Before its revelation it was active, but unknown ; ' See this point touched in a pamphlet entitled " The Previous Ques- tion between Mr. Andrews Norton and his Alumni, moved and handled, by Levi Blodgett." Boston, 1840. RELIGIOUS TRUTH ETERNAL. 243 afterwards known to be active. To illustrate this point ; the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. This is eternally true ; and ap- plies to all triangles that were, are, or are to be con- ceived of. It was just as true before any one dis- covered and declared it, as afterwards. Its truth depends not on the fact that Thales or Stilpo de- monstrates the theorem, nor on the authority of him who asserts it. Its truth exists in the very nature of things, or, to use other words, in the ideas of God. It was just the same before creation as afterwards. Other things remaining the same, even Omnipo- tence cannot make these three angles to be more or less than three right angles, for Infinite power of course excludes contradictions. Now there are two things ; first. Religion as it exists in the facts of man's soul, and secondly, Re- ligion as taught by Jesus of Nazareth. The first must be eternally true. But it follows from no premise that the second is eternally true. He may have taught absolute Religion, or an imperfect form ; he may have omitted what was essential, or have added what was national, temporal, personal. In either case Christianity is not the Absolute Religion. But if it have none of these faults, and really con- forms with this ideal standard, or involves this, and if nothing therein contradicts it, then Christianity is the Absolute Religion, eternally true ; before reve- lation, after revelation, — the Law God made for man, and wrote in his nature. Then again if the character of Jesus was not a 244 TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY perfect manifestation of this perfect Religion which he taught or implied ; if his application of it to life, was limited by his position, his youth, his in- discretion, fanaticism, prejudice, ignorance, selfish- ness, as some have contended, it does not make the Religion he taught any the less perfect in itself; if true at all it is eternally true. If Christianity be true at all, it would be just as true if Herod or Cat- iline had taught it. Therefore if the intellectual character of Jesus had never so many defects, if he entertained false notions about himself, his office, ministry, destination ; respecting ancient history and Jewish literature ; the existence and agency of devils, and in general, respecting things past, pre- sent, and to come ; if he entertained the absurdest notions ajL the same time, with his pure doctrine ; nay, if he had never so many moral deficiencies, if he denounced his enemies, and was frighted at danger, and fled away from death, or had even recanted his most vigorous statements, still his religious doctrine remains unaffected by all of these circumstances. To make this point clear by recurring to a former illustration, a philosopher may show that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, yet lead an immoral life, believe in witches, devils, the philosopher's stone, and imputed righteousness. His absurd belief and wicked life, do not affect the truth of his theorem. Now then to determine what Christianity is, we must remove all those extraneous matters relating to the person, character, and authority of him who DEPENDS NOT OS JESUS. 245 first tauglit it ; we must separate it from all appli- cations thereof which have been made to life ; must view it by itself, as doctrine, as life, and measure it by this ideal standard of absolute Religion. After we have determined this question, we may then judge of the applications of Christianity to life, of the character of its revealer, and try both by the standard he offers. CHAPTER II. REMOVAL OF SOME DIFFICULTIES. CHARACTER OF THE CHRIS- TIAN RECORDS, The method of acquiring a knowledge of abso- lute Religion is plain and easy, but to get a knowl- edge of the doctrine taught by any teacher of ancient times is more difficult. This, however, may be said in general, that there are three sources of knowledge accessible to men, two of these are direct, and one indirect. First, Perception through the senses ; by this we only get an acquaintance with material things and their properties. Second, Intuition through Reason, Conscience, the Religious Senti- ment, by which we get an acquaintance with spi- ritual things, which are not objects of sense. Third, Reflection, a mental process, by which we unfold what is contained or implied or suggested in per- ceptions or intuitions. Then as a secondary, but not ultimate source, there is Testimony, by which we learn what others have found out, through per- ception, intuition, or reflection. Now thoughts or objects of thought may be classified in reference to CHARACTER OF THE TESTIMONY. 247 their sources. The truths of absolute Religion are not matters of sense, it is plain. If objects of re- flection or intuition, they must be obvious to all who have the intuitive or reflective faculty, and will use it. They therefore are matters of direct personal experience ; not so a knowledge of any given his- torical form of Religion. As it has been before said, the great truths of Religion are matters of in- tuition, God helping the faithful, who use their faculties justly. Therefore, theoretically, each may depend on his own intuitions, as each thinker on his own reflections. If not faithful, the aid, the coun- sel, the example of the good man help us to the truth. The wise and the pious are the educators whom God appoints for the race. By their supe- rior gift, they help feebler men to understand, what else the latter might never have reached. The same rule holds good in both Philosophy and Reli- gion ; the weak need the help of the strong ; youth of experience ; the faithless of the faithful. The works and words of the saint help the sinner to the source of truth. This is the office of prophets and apostles. In historical questions, respecting events that took place out of the sphere of our observation, we must depend on the testimony of others who report what they have seen and heard, felt or thought. To determine what Christianity is, we must depend on the testimony of the Evangelists, who profess to relate the works and words of Jesus, and the Apos- tles, who reduced his thought to organization and 248 DEFECTS OF THE EVIDENCE. applied it to life. To speak of the four Evangel- ists, admitting, for the sake of the argument, we have their evidence, and the books in our hands come really from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and that they bore the relation to Jesus which they claim ; the question comes, Are they competent to testify in the case ? Can we trust them to give us the whole truth and nothing but the truth ? Ad- mitting they were honest, yet if they were but men, there must be limitations to the accuracy of their testimony. They must omit many things that Jesus said and did, perhaps both actions and words important in estimating his doctrines. They can express only so much of their teacher's opinions as they know ; to do this they might perhaps modify, at least color, the doctrine in their own mind. They might not always understand what they heard ; mistake a general for a particular state- ment, and the reverse ; a new doctrine of the teacher might accidentally coincide in part with an old doctrine, and he be supposed to teach what he did not teach ; a parable or an action might be mis- understood; a quotation misapplied or forgotten, and another put in its place ; a general prediction, wish, or hope referred to a specific time, or event, when it had no such reference. He may have merely allowed things which he was afterwards supposed to have commanded. The writers might unconsciously exaggerate or diminish the fact ; they might get intelligence at second hand, from hear- say, and popular rumor. Their national, sectarian, DEFECTS OF HISTORICAL TESTIMONY. 249 personal prejudices miist color their narrative. They might confound their own notions with his, and represent him as teaching what he did not teach. Tliey miglit not separate fact from fancy. Their love of the marvellous might lead them astray. If they believed in miracles they would ascribe prodigious things to their teacher. Had they a faith in ghosts and devils they would natu- rally interpret his words in favor of their own no- tions, rather than in opposition thereto. If the writers were ignorant men ; if they wrote in one language and he spoke in another ; still more, if they wrote at some distance of time from the events, and were not skilled in sifting rumors and separating fact from fiction, the difficulty becomes still greater. These defects are common, more or less, to all historical testimony. In the case of the Evangelists, they constitute a very serious difficulty. We know the character of the writers only from themselves ; they relate much from hearsay ; they mingle their own personal prejudices in their work; their testimony was not reduced to writing, so far as we know, till long after the event ; we see they were often mistaken, and did not always under- stand the words or actions of their teacher ; that they contradict one another, and even themselves ; that they mingle with their story puerile notions and tales which it is charitable to call absurd. Such testimony could not be received if found in Valerius, Maximus, and Livy, or offered in a court 32 250 INCONSISTENCIES IN THE RECORDS. of justice, when only a few dollars were at stake, without great caution. Now the difficulty in this case is enormous. It has been felt from an early age. To get rid of the evil, it has been taught and even believed, that the Evangelists and Apostles were miraculously inspir- ed to such a degree that they could commit no mis- take of any kind in this matter, and had none of the defects above hinted at. The assumption is purely gratuitous. There is not a fact on which to base it. From the doctrine of inspiration as before laid down, it appears such infallibility is not possible, and from an examination of the facts of the case, it appears it was not actual ; the Evangelists differ widely from the Apostles ; the Synoptics^ give us in Jesus a very different being from the Christ whom John describes, and all four make such con- tradictory statements on some points, as to show they were by no means infallibly inspired ; for in that case, not only the smallest contradiction would have been impossible, but, without concert, they must all have written exactly the same thing, yet John omits the most surprising facts, the Synoptics the most surprising doctrines. What has been said is sufficient to show that we must proceed with great caution in accepting the statements of the gospels. The most careless ob- server sees inconsistencies, absurd narrations ; finds actions attributed to Jesus, and words put in his ■ Matthew, Mark, and Luke. RESULT OF THE EVIDENCE. 251 mouth, which arc directly at variance with his great principles, and the general tone of his character. Still there must have been a foundation of fact for such a superstructure ; a great spirit to have com- menced such a movement as the Christian ; a great doctrine to have accomplished this, the most pro- found and wondrous revolution in iiuman affairs. We must conclude that these writers would de- scribe the main features of his life, and set down the great principles of his doctrine, its most salient points and his most memorable sayings, such as were poured out in the highest moments of inspi- ration. If the teacher were true, these sayings would involve all the rest of his doctrine, which any man of simple character, religious heart, and mind free from prejudice, could unfold and develop still farther. The condition and nature of the Christian records will not allow us to go farther than this, and be curious in particulars. Their le- gendary and mythical character does not warrant full confidence in their narrative. There are certain main features of doctrine in which the Evangelists and the Apostles all agree, though they differ in most other points.^ ' The character of the record is such that I see not how any stress can be laid on particular actions attributed to Jesus. That he lived a divine life, suffered a violent death, taught and lived a most beautiful religion, this seems the great fact about which a mass of truth and error has been collected. That he should gather disciples, be opposed by the Priests and Pharisees, have controversies with them — this lay in the nature of things. His loftiest sayings seem to me the most likely to be genuine. The great stress laid on the person of Jesus by his followers, shows what the person must have been. They put the person before 252 LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT. the thing, the fact above the idea. But it is not about vulgar men that such mythical stories are told. See, wlio will, the recent literature on this subject, Strauss, Leben Jesu, 4th cd. 1840. Hase, Leben Jesu, 3d ed. 1840. Theile, Zur Biographie Jesu, 1837. Weisse, Evangelische Geschichte, »S:c., 1838. Paulus, Leben Jesu, 1828. Gfrorer Urchris- tenthunis, &c., 1830. Hennel, Inquiry concerning the origin of Chris- tianity, Lond. 1838. Harwood, German Anti-supernaturalism, Lond. 1840. CHAPTER III. THE MAIN FEATURES OF CHRISTIANITY. Now to leave out of mind the notions about Christianity which prevail in this or that church, age, council, or writer ; to get clear of the pecu- liarities of this or that apostle and evangelist ; to make a separation from the opinions of Jesus about prophecy, demonology, and other matters but ac- cidentally connected with Religion ; to take his own highest statement, the thing in which all the evan- gelists and apostles agree, and which has been the heart of the Christian movement, — we find the doc- trine of Jesus is a simple thing : Love to Man — Love to God. The whole of Christianity is sum- med up in these two elements, its moral, its re- ligious side, practical and contemplative. All the moral and religious teaching of Jesus ; the sermon on the mount — so called; the parables of the Synoptics ; the discourses of John, are but an am- plification of these ; an application of them to life ; a statement of the blessedness of obedience, the 254 THE SUM OF CHRISTIANITY. sadness of disobeying. To take the account as it stands. A man asks what he shall do to fulfil thfe idea of man, and have " eternal life ?" He bids him keep the moral law, written eternally in the nature of man ; specifies some of its plainest prohibitions, and adds, Love your neighbor as yourself. When asked the greatest commandment of the Law, he sums up all the Law and the Prophets also : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."^ Here is the sum of Christian doctrine. He gives the highest aim for man, Be perfect as God. He declares the blessedness, present and eternal, of such as do the Will of God ; the Spirit of God shall be in them, revealing Truth ; the kingdom of God shall be theirs. He gives no extended form of his views in Theology, Anthropology, Politics, or Philosophy. But the great truth of God's goodness, and man's spiritual nature, are implied in all his teachings. He dwells little on the Immortality of the Soul ; much less than some " Heathens " before him ; but it is everywhere implied. As the doctrine was fa- miliar, he dwells little upon it. In the course of his teaching, he dwells much upon sin, for it was all around him. Taking the highest view of man's nature, power, and duty, he must above all mourn at man's lot when not faith- ful, and call loudly on his brothers to flee from a state so sad. Matthew would make his first ad- ' Matlli. XXIl. 37, 39, and the parallels in Mark and Luke. JESUS KOT THE ONLY SON OF GOD. 255 dress to be, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.^ He speaks of the cliangc from sin to a divine life, as a 7ieiu birth, a common expression, to denote the greatness of the change. He promises reconciliation with God on condition of a new life. He speaks of himself — if we may trust the words of the record so minutely — as the life, the light, the only way to salvation, that is, the teacher who shows the only way. He considers himself as sent by God, his doctrine and works not his own, but the Father's. Yet he never speaks of his con- nection with God as peculiar ; never calls himself the Son of God in any sense wherein all good men are not also sons of God ; never speaks of his doc- trines or his works, as peculiar to himself, which others could not do and teach. He promises that his disciples shall do greater works than his, the Spirit of Truth shall teach them more than he had done. Since he never speaks of his relation to God, as peculiar to himself, but on the contrary as shared by all ; since he calls the peace-makers God's children ; says the pure in heart, and all who are of God, shall see him ; that God abides in the heart of all who love him. And, since he defends ' This phrase, the Kingdom of Heaven, is one of no little ambiguity, and it is certainly possible that, like the Psalms of David, it meant one thing to the writer and another to us. In some places it certainly cannot mean a state of rewards and punishments in another life, even if it ever have this meaning. Can it be, that Jesus expected a visible kingdom on the earth ; or were his followers perpetually mistaking his meaning .' There can be no doubt the writers of the New Testament sometimes un- derstood, by the Kingdom of Heaven, a local kingdom on the earth. 256 JESUS, HIS NATION AND TIMES. his divine Son-ship on the ground that the Jewish Scripture calls men sons of God, to whom the Word of God came, it is plain that he represents himself as but the type of that relation which all good men sustain to God ; that his strength, inspi- ration, exceeding tranquillity, his rest of soul, and union with God, are what all men may share. To sum up the main points of the matter more briefly ; in an age of gross wickedness, among a people arrogant, and proud of their descent from Abraham — a mythological character of some ex- cellence ; wedded to the ritual Law, which they professed to have received, by miracle from God, through Moses — another and greater mythological hero — in a nation of Monotheists, haughty yet cunning, morose, jealous, vindictive, loving the little corner of space, called Judea, above all the rest of the world ; fancying themselves the " chosen peo- ple " and special favorites of God ; in the midst of a nation wedded to their forms, sunk in ignorance, precipitated into sin, and, still more, expecting a Deliverer, who would repel their political foes, re- unite the scattered children of Jacob, and restore them to power ; conquer all nations ; reestablish the formal service of the Temple in all its magnifi- cent pomp, and exalt Jerusalem above all the cities of the earth forever, — amid all this, and the oppo- sition it raised to a spiritual man, Jesus fell back on the moral and religious sentiment in man ; ut- tered their oracles as the Infinite spoke through them ; taught absolute Religion, absolute Morality, PRACTICAL LOVE OF GOD. 257 nothing less, nothing more ; laid down j)rinciples wide as the Soul, true and eternal as God.' Such then is the religious doctrine of Jesus. It was always taught with direct application to life ; not as Science, but as daily Duty. Love of God was no abstraction. It implied love of Wisdom, Justice, Purity, Goodness, Holiness, Charity. To love these is to love God ; to love them is to live them. It implies abhorrence of evil for its own sake ; a desire and effort to be perfect as God, to have no wrong action, wrong thought, or wrong feel- ing ; to make the heart right, the head right, the hand right ; to serve God, not with the lips alone, but the life, not only in Jerusalem and Gerizim, but everywhere ; not by tithing mint, anise and cummin, but by judgment, mercy and faith ; not by saying " Lord, Lord," " Save us, good Lord," but by do- ing the Father's will. It implies a Faith that is stronger than Fear, prevails over every sorrow, grief, disappointment, and asks only this ; Thy will be done ; a love which is strongest in times of trouble, which never fails when human affection goes stoop- ing and feeble, weeping its tears of blood ; a love ' In estimating the religious doctrine of Jesus, it should be remember- ed, that the Synoptics had all strong Jewish prejudices, and therefore give a Jeioish coloring to the doctrine of Jesiis, which does not appear so strongly in the fourth Gospel, or the writings of Paul. The careful in- terpreter will make allowance for this. But, after all, the question, Whether this or that historical person taught Absolute Religion, is of small consequence to the race. 33 258 PRACTICAL LOVE OF MAN. which annihilates temptation, and in the hour of mortal agony brings a fair angel from the sky ; an absolute trust in God ; a brave unconcern for the morrow, so long as the day's duties are faithfully done. It is a love of Goodness and Religion for their own sake, not for the bribe of Heaven, or the dread of Hell. It implies a reunion of man and God, till we think God's thought, and will God's will, and so have God abiding in us, and become one with Him. The other doctrine, Love of man, is love of all as yourself, not because they have no faults, but in spite thereof. To feel no enmity towards enemies ; to labor for them with love ; pray for them with pitying affection, remembering the less they de- serve, the more they need ; this was the doctrine of love. It demands that the rich, the wise, the saint, help the poor, the foolish, the sinful ; that the strong bear the burdens of the weak, not bind them anew. It tells a man that his excellence and ability are not for himself alone, but for all mankind, cf which he is but one, beginning first with the nearest of the needy. It makes the strong the guardians, not the tyrants of the weak. It said. Go to the publicans and sinners, and call them to repentance ; go to men trodden down by the hoof of the oppressor, rebuke him lovingly, but snatch the spoil from his bloody teeth ; go to men sick with desolation, covered all over with the leprosy of sin, bowed to- gether and squalid with their inveterate disease, bid them live and sin no more. It despairs of no man ; BAPTISM AND THE SUPPER. 259 sees the soul of goodness in things evil ; knows the soul in its intimate recess never consents to sin, nor loves the Hateful. It would improve men's circumstances to mend their heart ; their heart to mend their circumstances. It does not say alone, with piteous whine, God save the wicked and the weak, but puts its own shoulder to the work ; divides its raiment and shares its loaf. To say all, in brief, these two cardinal doctrines demanded a divine life, where every action of the hand, the head, the heart, is in obedience to the Law of the Soul ; in harmony with the All-per- fect. This was Christ's notion of worship. It asked for nothing ritual, formal ; laid no stress on special days, forms, rites, creeds. Its rite, its creed, its substance and its form, are all contained in that one command, love man as yourself, God above ALL. Thus far the application was universal as the doctrine. But he taught something which is ritual. Baptism and the Supper. The first was a common rite at the time, used even by the " heathens." In a nation dwelling in a warm climate, and so fond of symbols as the Jews, it was a natural expression of the convert's change of life. Sensual men must interpret their Religion to the senses, as the Hol- landers have their Bible in Dutch. It seems to have been an accommodation to the wants of the times, as he spoke the popular language. In the same spirit he keeps the Passover, and bids the 260 BAPTISM AND THE SUPPER. restored leper offer the customary sacrifice. Did he lay any stress on this watery dispensation ? count it valuable of itself? Then we must drop a tear for the weakness ; for no outward act can change the heart, and God is not to be mocked, pleased or served with a form. Is there any reason to suppose he ever designed it to be permanent ? It is indeed said that he bade the disciples teach all nations, " baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and the Holy Ghost." ^ But since the Apostles never mention the command, nor the form, since it is opposite to the general spirit of his pre- cepts, it must be put with the many other things which are to be examined with much care before they are referred to him. But if it came from him, we can only say, There is no perfect Guide but the Father. The second form, — was it of more account than the first ? Who shall tell us the " Lord's Supper " was designed to be permanent more than washing the feet, which the Pope likewise imitates ? Did he place any value on the dispensation of wine ; design it to extend beyond the company then pre- sent ? If we may trust the account, he asks his friends, at supper, to remember him, when they break bread. It was simple, natural, affectionate, beautiful. Was this a foundation of a form ; to last forever; a form valuable in itself; essential to man's spiritual welfare ; a form pleasing to Him ' Math. XXVIII. 19, and the parallels. .* BAPTISM AND THE SUPPER. 261 who is All in All ? To say Jesus laid any stress on it as a valuable and perpetual rite is, to go beyond what is written. It needs no reply. The thing may be useful, beautiful, comforting to a million souls ; truly it has been so. In Christianity there is milk for babes and meat for m(>n, that the truth may be given as they can receive it. Let each be fed with the Father's bounty. " Behold the child by nature's kindly law. Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw ; Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite." Thus, the dispensations of water and of wine are, perhaps, the only limitations set to the universal application of his great doctrines ; and if the above views are correct, the limitation does not come from Jesus, and these forms are no more essential or valuable in themselves, no more designed to be permanent than the Syro-chaldaic tongue in which he spoke. Christianity having no forms essential, can accommodate itself to all, but these being its only sensuous appendages, no w^onder sensual men cling to them as the fetichist to his idol, the poly- theist to his sacrifice. Render unto the senses what are theirs, and to the soul its own. CHAPTER IV. THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS, ITS REAL AND PRETENDED SOURCE. On what authority did Jesus teach ? On that of the most high God, as he expressly states, and often. But to have the authority of God, is not that miraculous ? How can man have God's author- ity in a natural way ? Let us look at the matter. I. The only Authority of Christianity is its Truth. Truth is the relation of things as they are ; false- hood as they are not. No doctrine can have a higher condemnation than to be convicted of false- hood ; none an higher authority than to be proved true. God is the author of things as they are ; therefore of this relation, and therefore of Truth. He that delivers the Truth then has so far the au- thority of Truth's God. Then it will be asked, How do we know Christianity is true or ; that it is our duty to love man and God ? Now when it is asked. How I know that I exist ; that doubting is KNOWLEDGE OF RELIGIOUS DUTY. 263 doubting ; that half is less than the whole ; that it is impossible for tiie same thin^i; to be and not to be ? the questioner is set down as a strange man. But it has some how come to pass, that he is reckoned a very acute and Christian person, who doubts moral and religious axioms, and asks. How do I know that right is right, and wrong wrong, and goodness good ? Alas, there are men among the Christians, who place virtue and religion on a lower ground than Aristippus and Democritus, men branded as Heathens and Atheists. Let us know what we are about. It was said above, there are, practically, four sources of knowledge, direct and indirect, primary and secondary, namely, perception for sensible things; wii?«7zo7i for spiritual things; reflection for logical things ; and testiinony for historical things. If the doctrines of Christianity are eternal truths, they are not sensible things, not historical things, and of course do not depend on sensual perception, nor historical testimony, but can be presented directly to the consciousness of men at one age as well as another, and thus if they are matters of reflection, may be made plain to all who have the reflective faculty and will use it ; if they are matters of intui- tion, to all \v ho have the intuitive faculty, and will let it act. Now the duty we owe to man, that of loving him as ourselves ; the duty we owe to God, that of loving him above all, is a matter of intuition ; it proceeds from the very nature of man and is inseparable from that nature ; we recognise the 264 TRUTH ETERNALLY TRUE. truth of the precept as soon as it is stated, and see the truth of it soon as the unprejudiced mind looks that way. It is no less a matter of reflection like- wise. He that reflects on the Idea of God as given by intuition, on his own nature as he learns it from his mental operations, sees that this twofold duty flows logically from these premises. The truth of these doctrines then may be known by both intui- tion and reflection. He that teaches a doctrine eter- nally true, does not set forth a private and peculiar thing resting on private authority and historical evi- dence, but an everlasting reality, which rests on the ground of all truth, the public and eternal authority of unchanging God. A false doctrine is not of God. It has no back ground of Godhead. It rests on the authority of Simon Peter or Simon Magus ; of him that s&ts it forth. It is his private, personal property. When the Devil speaks a lie, he speak- eth of his own ; but when a Son of God speaks the truth, he speaks not his own word but the Father's. Shall man endorse God's word to make it current ? Again, if the truth of these doctrines rest on the personal authority of Jesus, it was not a duty to observe them before he spoke ; for he, being the cause, or indispensable occasion of the duty, to make the cause precede the eflect is an absurdity too great for modern divines. Besides, if it de- pends on Jesus, it is not eternally true ; a religious doctrine that was not true and binding yesterday, may become a lie again by to-morrow ; if not eter- nally true, it is no truth at all. Absolute truth is TRUTH STANDS THOUGH GOSPELS FALL. 265 the same always and everjwhere. Personal author- ity adds nothing to a mathematical demonstration ; can it more to a moral intuition ? Can authority alter the relation of things ? A voice speaking from Heaven, and working more wonders than iEsop and the saints, or JMoses and the Sibyl relate, cannot make it our duty to hate God, or man ; no such voice can add any new obligation to the law God wrote in us. When it is said these doctrines of Christianity, like the truths of Science, rest on their own au- thority, or that of unchanging God, they are then seen to stand on the highest and safest ground that is possible ; the ground of absolute truth. Then if all the Evangelists and Apostles were liars ; if Jesus was mistaken in a thousand things ; if he were a hypocrite ; yes, if he never lived, but the New Testament w^ere a sheer forgery from end to end, these doctrines are just the same, absolute truth. But, on the other hand, if these depend on the infallible authority of Jesus, then if he were mistaken in any one point his authority is gone in all ; if the Evangelists were mistaken in any one point, we can never be certain we have the words of Jesus in a particular case, and then where is " historical Christianity ? " Now it is a most no- torious fact, that the Apostles and Evangelists were greatly mistaken in some points. It is easy to show, if we have the words of Jesus, that he was mis- taken in some points, in the interpretation of the Old Testament, in the doctrine of demons, in the 34 266 THE BASIS OF MIRACLES. celebrated prediction of his second coming and the end of the world, within a few years. If Christi- anity rest on his authority, and that alone, it falls when the foundation falls, and that stands at the mercy of a schoolboy. If he is not faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall commit to him the true riches ? II. Of the Authority derived from the alleged Mira- cles of Jesus. Of late years it has been unpopular with di- vines to rest the authority of Christianity on its truth, and not its truth on its authority. It must be confessed there is some inconvenience in the case, for if this method of trusting Truth alone and not Authority be followed, by-and-by some things which have much Authority and no Truth to support them, may come to the ground. The same thing took place in the middle ages, when Abelard looked into Theology, and explained and defended some of the doctrines of the Church by Reason. The Church said, If you commend the Reasonable as such, you must condemn the Not-Reasonable, and then where are we ? A sig- nificant question truly. So the Church " cried out upon him " as a heretic, because he trusted Reason more than a bhnd belief in the traditions of men, which the Church has long had the impudence to call " Faith in God." It is often said, in our times, that Christianity rests on miracles; that the author- MIRACLES IN ALL RELIGIONS. 2G7 ity of the miracle-worker authenticates his doctrine ; if a teacher can raise the dead, he must have a commission from God to teach true doctrine. His word is the standard of truth. Here the fact and the value of miracles are both assumed outright. Now if it could be shown that Christianity rested on IMiracles, or had more or less connection with them, it yet proves nothing peculiar in the case, for other religions, fetichistic, polytheistic, and mono- theistic, appeal to the same authority. If a nation is rude and superstitious, the claim to miracles is the more common ; their authority the greater.^ To take the popular notion ; the Jewish Religion began in miracles, was continued, and will end in miracles. The Mahometan tells us the Koran is a miracle ; its author had miraculous inspiration, vis- ions, and revelations. The writings of the Greeks, the Romans, the Scandinavians and the Hindoos, the Chinese and Persians, are full of miracles. In Fetichism all is miracle, and its authority, there- fore, the best in the world. The Catholic Church and the latter-day saints still claim the power of working them, and, therefore, of authenticating whatever they will, if a miracle have the alleged ' See a curious story respecting an Eastern Calif and his decision be- tween the conflicting claims of the Christians and Mahometans, in Marco Polo, ed. Marsdcn, Book I. Ch. VIII. p. G7-G9. See also Book II. Ch. II. p. 275, et seq. Book III. Ch. XX. § 4, p. 648, et seq. See the nu- merous miracles collected by Valerius Maximus in his treatise, De Prodigiis, Opp. ed. Hase, Vol. I. Lib. I. Ch. VI. ; De Somniis, Ch. VII.; De Miraculis, Ch. VIII. Spencer's discourse concerning Prodi- gies, Lond. 1CG5. 268 PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MIRACLES. virtue. Now in resting Christianity on this basis we must do one of two things : first, we must admit that Christianity rests on the same foundation with the lowest Fetichism, but has less divine authority than the latter, for if miracles constitute the au- thority, then that is the best form of Religion which counts the most miracles ; or, secondly, we must deny the reality of all miracles except the Christian, in order to give exclusive sway to Christianity. But the devotees of each other form will retort the denial, and claim exclusive credence for their favor- ite wonders. The serious inquirer will ask, If such be the Evidence, what is Truth, and how shall I get at it ? And if he does not stop for a time in skepticism, at best in indifference, why he is a very rare man. In this state of the case theolo- gians have felt bound, in logic, either to prove the superiority of Christian miracles, or to deny all other miracles. The first method is not possible, the Hindoo Priest surpasses the Christian in the number, and magnitude, and antiquity of his mira- cles. The second, therefore, is the only method left. Accordingly most ingenious attempts have been made to devise some test which will spare the Christian and condemn all other miracles. The Protestant saves only those mentioned in the Bible; the Catholic, more consistently, thinks the faculty immanent in the Church, and claims miracles down to the present day. But all these attempts to es- tablish a suitable criterion have been fruitless, and even worse, exposing more than the folly of their DEFINITION OF A MIUACLIi. 269 authors.^ However, they who argue from the mira- cles alone, assume tuo things ; first, that miracles prove the divinity of a doctrine ; secondly, that they were wrought in connection with the Christian doc- trine. If one ask proof of these significant pre- mises, it is not easy to come by. This subject of miracles demands a careful attention. Here are two questions to be asked. First, Are miracles pos- sible ? Second, Did they actually occur in the case of Christianity ? I. Are Miracles Possible ? The answer depends on the definition of the term. The point we are to reason from is the Idea of God, who must be the cause of the miracle. Now a miracle is one of three things : 1. It is a transgression of all Law which God has made ; or, 2. A transgression of all known laws, but obe- dience to a law ivhich ive may yet discover ; or, 3. A transgression of all law known or knowable by man, but yet in conformity icith some laiv out of our reach. 1. To take the first definition. A miracle is not possible, as it involves a contradiction. The infinite God must have made the most perfect laws admis- ' See Douglas's Criterion, or Miracles Examined, I.ond. 1734, and Les- lie's Short Method with the Deists. See an ingenious illustration of the folly of one of Leslie's canons in Palfrey, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 150, note n. 270 , POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES. sible in the nature of things ; it is absurd and self- contradictory to suppose the reverse. But if his laws are perfect and the nature of things unchange- able, why should he alter these laws ? The change can be only for the worse. To suppose he does this is to accuse God of caprice. If he be the ulti- mate cause of the phenomena of the universe, to suppose in a given case he changes these pheno- mena, is either to make God fickle and therefore not worthy to be relied on ; or else inferior to na- ture, of which he is yet the cause. 2. To take the second definition. It is no miracle at all, but simply an act, which at first we cannot understand and refer to the process of its causation. The most common events, such as growth, vitality, sensation, affection, thought, are miracles. Besides, the miracle is of a most fluctuating character. The miracle-worker of today is a matter-of-fact juggler tomorrow. The explosion of gunpowder, the pro- duction of magnified images of any object, the phe- nomena of mineral and animal magnetism, are mira- cles in one age, but common things in the next. Such wonders prove only the skill of the performer. Science each year adds new wonders to our store. The master of a locomotive steam-engine would have been thought greater than Jupiter Tonans or the Elohim thirty centuries ago. 3. To take the third hypothesis. There is no antecedent objection, nor metaphysical impossibility in the case. Finite man not only does not, but cannot understand all the modes of God's action ; OBJECTIONS TO THE MIRACLES. 271 all the laws of His Being. There may be higher beings, to whom God reveals himself in modes that we can never know, for we cannot tell the secrets of God, nor determine (i priori the modes of his manifestation. In this sense a miracle is possible. The world is a perpetual miracle of this sort. Na- ture is the Art of God ; can we understand it ? Life, Being, Creation, Duration, do we understand these actual things ? How then can we say to the In- finite, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther ; there are no more ways wherein thy Being acts ? II. Did Miracles occur in the case of Christianity ? This question is purely historical ; to be answered, like all other historical questions, by competent testi- mony. Have we testimony adequate to prove the fact ? Antecedent to all experience one empirical thing is probable as another. To the first man, with no experience, birth from one parent is no more sur- prising than birth from two ; to feed five men with five ship-loads of corn, or five thousand with five loaves ; the reproduction of an arm, or a finger nail ; the awaking from a four days' death, or a four hours' sleep ; to change water into wine, or mineral coal into burning gas ; the descent into the sea, or the ascent into the sky ; the prediction of a future or the memory of a past event ; — all are alike, one as credible as the other. But to take our past expe- rience of tlie nature of things, the case wears a 272 WEAKNESS OF THE EVIDENCE different aspect. We demand more evidence for a strange than a common thing. From the very con- stitution of the mind a prudent man supposes that the Laws of Nature continue ; that the same cause produces always the same effects, if the circum- stances remain the same. If it were related to us, by four strangers who had crossed the ocean in the same vessel, that a man, now in London, cured dis- eases, opened the blind eyes, restored the wasted limb, and raised men from the dead by a mere word ; that he himself was born miraculously, and attended by miracles all his life, — who would believe the story? We should be justified in demanding a large amount of the most unimpeachable evidence. This opinion is confirmed by the doubt of scientific men in re- spect of animal magnetism — where no law is vio- lated but a faculty hitherto little noticed is disclosed. Now if we look after the facts of the case, we find the evidence for the Christian miracles is very scanty in extent, and very uncertain in character. We must depend on the testimony of the epistolary and the historical books of the New Testament. Now it is a notorious fact that the genuine Epistles, the earliest Christian documents, make no mention of any miracles performed by Jesus ; and when we consider the character of Paul, his strong love of the marvellous, the manner in which he dwells on the appearance of Jesus to him after death, it seems surprising, if he believed the other miracles, that he does not allude to them. To examine the testi- mony of the Gospels. Two profess to contain the FOR THE CHRISTIAN MIRACLES. 273 evidence of eye-vvilnesscs. But we are not certain these books came in their present shape from Jolin and Matthew; it is certain they were not written till long after the events related. But still more, each of them relates what tiie writers could not have been witness to ; so we may have nothing but hearsay and conjecture. Besides, these authors shared the common prejudice of their times, and disagree one with the other. The Gospels of Mark and Luke — who were not eye-witnesses — in some points corroborate the testimony of John and Mat- thew ; in others add nothing. But there are still other accounts — the Apocryphal Gospels — some of them perhaps older than the Gospels of Matthew and John, and these make the case worse by dis- closing the fondness for miracles that marked the Christians of that early period. Taking all these things into consideration, and remembering that the three first Gospels are but one witness, adding the current belief of the times in favor of miracles, the evidence to prove their historical reality is almost nothing, admitting we have the genuine books of the disciples. It is such evidence as would not be considered of much value in a court of justice. How- ever the absence of testimony does not prove that miracles were not performed, for a universal negative of this character cannot be proved.^ If one were to look carefully at the evidence in ' See some just remarks in Hennel, ubi sup Ch. VIII. ; Strauss Leben Jesu, § 1-15, § 90-103, § 132-13'.); Glaubcnslehre, § 17, and on the other hand Neander and Tholuck. 35 274 MIRACLES OF ST. BERNARD. favor of the Christian miracles, and proceed with the caution of a true inquirer, he must come to the conchision, I think, that they cannot be ad- milted as facts. The Resurrection — a miracle alleged to be wrought upon Jesus, not hy him, — has more evidence than any other, for it is attested by the Epistles, as well as the Gospels, and was one corner stone of the Christian church. But here, is the testimony sufficient to show that a man thoroughly dead as Abraham and Isaac were, came back to life ; passed through closed doors, and ascended into the sky ? I cannot speak for others — but most certainly I cannot believe such facts on such evidence. There is far more testimony to prove the fact of miracles, witchcraft and diabolical possessions in times comparatively modern, than to prove the Christian miracles. It is well known, that the most credible writers among the early Christians, Irenseus, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, Chrysos- tom, Jerome, Theodoret and others, believed that the miraculous power continued in great vigor in their time.^ But to come down still later, the case of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, is more to the point. He lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. His life has been written in part by William, Abbot of ' On this subject of the miraculous power in the early church, see the celebrated treatise of Middleton, A free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers in the Christian Church, &c , Lond. 1749, in his Works, Lond. 1752, Vol. I. See Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Pt. I. Ch. I. § 8, and Mur- dock's note. The testimony of Chrysostoni is fluctuating. See above, Vol. I. p. 105, et seq. ,♦ TENDENXY TO EXAGGERATE. 273 St. Thierry, Ernald, Abbot of Bonnevaux, and Geoffrey, Abbot of Igny, " all eye-witnesses of the saint's actions." Another life was written by Ala- nus. Bishop of Auxerre, and still another by John the Hermit, not long after the death of Bernard, both his contemporaries. Besides, there are three books on his miracles, one by Philip of Clairvaux, another bv the monks of that place, and a third by the above mentioned Geoffrey. He cures the deaf, the dumb, the lame, the blind, men possessed with devils, in many cases, before multitudes of people. He wrought thirty-six miracles in a single day, says one of these historians ; converted men and women that could not understand the language he spoke in. His wonders are set down by the eye-w^itnesses themselves, men known to us by the testimony of others.^ I do not hesitate in saying that there is far more evidence to support the miracles of St. Bernard than those mentioned in the New Testa- ment. But we are to accept such testimony with great caution. The tendency of men to believe the thing happens which they expect to happen ; the tendency of rumor to exaggerate a real occurrence, ' See these books in Mabillon's edition of Bernard, Paris, 1721, Vol. II. p. 107I,etseq. See Fleury, Histoire Ecclesiastique, Liv. LXVI. at seq., and especially LXIX. Ch. XVII. ed. Nismes, 1770, Vol. X. p. 147, et seq., where is a summary of some of his most important miracles. See likewise Les Vies dcs Snints, Paris, 1701, Vol. II. p. 2rid-32() ; But- ler's Lives of the Saints, Lond. 1815, Vol. VIII. p. 227-274; Milner's History of the Church of Christ, &c. Vol. III. Christian Examiner for March, ld41, Art. I. 276 AS MUCH EVIDENCE FOR into a surprizing or miraculous affair, is well known. A century and a half have not gone by since witches were tried by a special court in Massachusetts ; convicted by a jury of twelve good men and true ; preached against by the clergy, and executed by the common hangman. Any one who looks care- fully into the matter sees more evidence for the reality of those " wonders of the invisible world " than for the Christian miracles. Here is the testi- mony of scholars, clergymen, witnesses examined under oath, jurymen and judges ; the confession of honest men ; of persons whose character is well known at the present day, to prove the reality of witchcraft and the actual occurrence of miraculous facts ; of the interference of powers more than hu- man in the affairs of the world. ^ The appearance of the Devil, as "a little black man," of spectres and ghosts ; the power of witches to ride through the air, overturn a ship, raise storms, and torture men at a distance, is attested by a cloud of wit- nesses, perfectly overshadowing to a man of easy faith.^ In the celebrated case of Richard Dugdale, ' See, who will, Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World. Boston, 1G93, and Increase Mather's Cases of Conscience, &c., and the learned authors in Diabology therein cited. See also Hale's Modest En- quiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, &c., Boston, 1702. Calef, More Wonders from the Invisible World, London, 1700. Upham's Lectures on Witchcraft, &c. Chandler's Criminal Trials, p. 65, et seq. Bancroft, ubi supra, Ch. XIX. See many curious particulars in Hutchinson's Es- say concerning Witchcraft, &c. sacond edition, London, 1720. * Henry More has made a pretty collection of cases out of authors now forgotten, in Antidote against Aiheism, Book III. Ch. I. -XIV. Appendix, Ch. XII. XIII; Immortalitas Animas, Lib. II. Ch. XV- XVII ; Lib. HI., Ch. IV. ; See his Enchiridion Metaphysicum, Pars I. Ch. XXVI. WITCHCRAFT AND I'OSSESSIONS. 277 the " Surey Demoniack," or " Surey Impostor,"^ — wliicli occurred in the latter part of the seven- teenth centm-y, in England, and was a most noto- rious affair, — we have the testimonv of nine dis- senting clergymen, to prove his diaholical miracles, all of them familiar with the " Demoniack ;" and also the depositions of many " credible persons,'''' sworn to before two magistrates, to confirm the wonder. Yet it turned out at last that there was no miracle in the case.^ It is needless to mention the " miracles " wrought at the tomb of the Abbe de Paris, during the last century, nor those of father Matthews in Ireland, and the Mormonites in New England. A miracle is never looked for but it comes. No man can say there was not something at the bottom of the Christian " miracles," and of witchcrafts and possessions ; perhaps something not * " The Surey Demoniack, or an Account of Satan's Strange and Dreadful Actings in and about tlie Body of Ricliard Dugdale, &c. &c." London, 1G'J7. ' See Taylor's " The Devil turned Casuist," «&c. London, 1697. " Lancashire Levite Rebuked," 1G98, and "The Surcy Impostor." The latter I copy from citations in " A Vindication of the Surcy Demo- niack," &.C. London, 1698. Such as wish to see melancholy specimens of human folly may consult also Barrows' "The Lord's Arm stretched out," &c. &c. London, 1664. " The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson," &c. «Sz,c. London, 1698. "A Relation of the Diabolical Practices of above twenty \Vitches of Renfreu, «&c. contained in their tryals, &c. and for which several of them have been executed this present year," 1697. London, 1697. " Sadducismus Debellatus, Narrative of the Sorceries and Witchcrafts of the Devil upon Mrs. Christian Shaw, «tc. of Renfreu," &c. London, 1698. Howell estimates that thirty thousand suffered death for Witchcraft, in England, during one hundred and fifty years. State Trials, Vol. II. p. 105], as cited by Chandler, ubi supra, p. 69. 278 MIRACLES OF NO USE. yet fully understood ; but to suppose, on such evi- dence, that God departed from the usual law of the world, in these cases, is not very rational, to say the least. But now admitting in argument that Jesus wrought all the miracles alleged ; that his birth and resurrection were both miraculous ; that he was the only person endowed with such miracu- lous power — it does not follow that he shall teach true doctrine. Must a revealer of transient mira- cles to the sense necessarily be a revealer of eternal truth to the soul ? It follows no more than the reverse. But admit it in argument. Then he must never be mistaken in the smallest particular. But this is contrary to fact; for he taught that he should appear again after his ascension, and the world would end in that age. Practically speaking, a miracle is a most dubious thing ; in this case its proof the most uncertain. But on the supposition our conviction of the truth of Christianity rests on the fact that Christ wrought the alleged miracles, then is Christianity itself a most uncertain thing. We in this age can never be so sure of Religion, though our soul testify to its truth, as the old Jews, who rejected Christianity, and yet had their senses to testify to the miracles. The proof of Christianity was the sensation of the evangelists ; we can be no more certain of its truth than of the fact that Jesus had no human father ! But this question of miracles, whether true or false, is of no religious significance. When Mr. CHRISTIANITY TRUE IN ITSELF. 279 Locke said the doctrine proved tlio miracle, not the miracle the doctrine, he admitted their worthless- ness. They can be useful only to such as deny our internal power of discerning truth. ^ Now the doc- trine of Christianity is eternally true. It requires only to be understood to be accepted. It is a mat- ter of direct and positive knowledge, dependent on no outside authority, while the Christian miracles are, at best, but a matter of testimony, and there- fore of secondary and indirect knowledge. The thing to be proved is notoriously true ; the alleged means of proof notoriously uncertain. Is it not ' " Let us see how far inspiration can enforce on the mind any opinion concerning God or Jiis worship, when accompanied with a power to do a miracle, and here too I say, the last determination must be that of reason. 1. Because reason must be the judge what is a miracle, and what is not, which — not knowing how far the power of natural causes do extend themselves, and what strange effects they may produce — is very hard to determine. 2. It icill ahcays be as great a miracle that God should alter the course of natural things, as overturn the principles of knowledge and understanding in a man, by setting up anything to be received by him as a truth which his reason cannot assent to, as the miracle itself ; and so at best it icill be but one miracle against another, and the greater still on reason's side ; it being harder to beheve that God should alter and put out of its ordinary course some phenomenon of the great world for once, and make things act contrary to their ordinary rule, purposely, that the mind of man might do so always afterwards, than that this is some fal- lacy or natural effect, of which he knows not the cause, let it look never so strange .... I do not hereby deny in the least, that God can do, or hath done, miracles for the confirmation of truth ; but I only say that we can- not think he should do them to enforce doctrines or notions of himself or any worship of him not conformable to reason, or that we can receive such for truth for the miracle's sake ; and even in those books which have the greatest proof of revelation from God, and the attestation of mira- cles to confirm their being so, the miracles are to be judged by the doctrine, and not the doctrine by the miracle." King's Life of Locke, Vol. I. p. 231, et seq. 280 TRUTH COMES FROM GOD. better, then, to proceed to Christianity at once, for when this is admitted to be as true as the demon- strations and axioms of science, as much a matter of certainty as the consciousness of our existence, then miracles are of no value. They may be in- teresting to the historian, the antiquary or physiolo- gist, not to us as Christians. They now hang as a millstone about the neck of many a pious man, who can believe in Christianity, but not in the trans- formation of water to wine, or the resurrection of a dead body. Jesus, then, is not the Author of Christianity, but its revealer ; not its sanction and authority, but the messenger through whom God spoke it to man- kind. We verify its eternal truth in our soul. The pure water of life must come from the well of God ; if it be this it matters not through what channel it comes. Let it be shewn, if it can be, that the Gospels are false, and Jesus mistaken, still Christianity is eternally true if it be the Absolute Religion ; if not this we need none of it. CHAPTER V. THE ESSENTIAL PECULIARITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Christianity agrees generically with all other forms in this, that it is a Religion. Its peculiarity is not in its doctrine of one Infinite God ; of the immortality of man, nor of future retribution. It is not in particular rules of morality, for precepts as true and beautiful maybe found in Heathen writers, who give us the same view of man's nature, duty and destination. The great doctrines of Chris- tianity were known long before Christ, for God did not leave man four thousand years unable to find out his plainest duty. There is no precept of Jesus, no real duty commanded, no promise offered, no sanction held out, which cannot be paralleled by similar precepts in heathen writers before him. The pure in heart saw God before as well as after him. Every imperfect form of Religion was, more or less, an anticipation of Christianity. So far as a man has real Religion, so far he has Christianity. This is as old as the human race.^ By its light '■ See Tindal, Christianity as Old as the Creation, «S:c. 36 282 CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE. Zoroaster, Confucius, Socrates, with many millions of holy souls, walked in the early times of the world. By this they were cheered when their souls were bowed down, and they knew not which way to turn. They and their kindred, like Moses, were schoolmasters to prepare the world for Christianity ; shadows of good things to come ; the day-spring from on high ; the Bethlehem star announcing the Perfect Religion which was to follow. Modern Christians love to deny that there are points of agreement between Christianity and its predeces- sors. The early apologists took just the opposite course. Now Christianity really differs specifically from all other forms of Rehgion in this respect ; it is Absolute Religion and Absolute Morality. From this capital distinction there proceed several subordinate differences. 1. It differs in regard to the point whence it sets out. They start from something bounded and defi- nite. Judaism and Mahometanism, each sets out from the alleged words of one man, which are made the only measure of Truth for the whole human race. There can be no progress. The devotee of Judaism or Mahometanism must logically believe his form of Religion perpetual. So if a man teach what is hostile to it, he must be put to death, though his doctrine be true. Christianity sets out from nothing external and limited, but from the Spirit of God in the soul of SOURCE OF CIIRISTIAMTY. 283 man, speaking through Reason, Conscience, and the rehgious Sentiment. Its Source, therefore, is the Absolute. Other forms of Religion depend on a transient and finite person ; this on the Infinite God. Whatever is consistent with Reason, Con- science, and the religious Sentiment, is consistent with Christianity, all else is hostile ; whoever obeys these three oracles is essentially a Christian, though he lived ten thousand years before Christ, or living now, does not own his name. Let men improve in Reason, Conscience, Religion, in what most be- comes a man — they outgrow each other form of worship ; they pass by all that rests on historical things, signs, wonders, miracles, all that does not rest on the eternal God, ever acting in man ; yet they are not the farther from Christianity, but all the nearer by this change. These things are left behind, as the traveller leaves the mire and stones of the road he travels and shakes off the dust of his garments as he approaches some queenly city, throned amid the hills, and looks back with sorrow on the crooked way he has traversed, where others still " drag their slow length along." Men must come to Christianity when they come to real manly excellence. Is not this the meaning of the words : I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh to the Father but by me ; and of the many kindred j)assages in the most spiritual of the Gos- pels ? No friend of Religion and of man can be hostile to the Christianity of Christ. This pro- poses no partial end, but an absolute Object — the 284 CHRISTIANITY NOT A SYSTEM. perfection of man, or oneness with God. There- fore it leaves man perfect freedom ; the liberty that comes of obedience to the Law of the Spirit of Life. All other forms of worship, ancient and modern, con- fine men in a dungeon ; make them think the same thought, and speak the same word, and worship in the same way ; Christianity gives them the range of the world, scope and verge enough. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty ; the liberty of perfect obedience ; the largest liberty of the sons of God. Reason and Love are hostile to a limited religion, which says, Believe, Believe ; they wel- come the Religion of Jesus, which says. Be perfect as God. 2. A second peculiarity is this : It is not a Sys- tem of Religion and Life, but a Method of Religion and Life. It lays down no positive creed to be believed in ; commands no positive action to be done ; it would make the man perfectly obedient to God, leaving his thoughts and actions for Reason and Conscience to govern. It widens the sphere of thought and life ; it reaffirms the great religious truths implied in man's nature ; shows their practi- cal application and its result. A religious system, with its forms, ritual, creeds, lops off the sacred peculiarities of individual character; chains Reason and fetters the will ; seeks to unite men in arbi- trary creeds and forms — where the union can be but superficial and worthless — and it lays stress on externals. Christianity insists on rightness before God ; ties no man down to worship in this BCT A METHOD OF RELIGION. 285 mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem ; on tlie first day of the week, or the last day ; in the church, or the fields ; socially or in private ; with a creed, ritual, priest, symbol, spoken prayer, or without these. It breaks every yoke, seen or invisible ; bids man worship in spirit and in truth. It does not ask a man to call himself a Christian, or his Religion Christianity. It bids him be perfect ; never says to Reason, Thus far and no farther; forbids no freedom of inquiry, nor wide reach of thought ; fears nothing from the Truth, or for it. It never en- courages that cowardice of soul which dares not think, nor look facts in the face, but sneaks behind altars, texts, tradition, because they are of the fathers ; that cowardice which counts a mistake of the apostles better than truth in you and me, and which reads both Piety and Common Sense out of its church because they will not bow the knee nor say the creed. Christianity asks no man to believe the Old Testament, or the New Testament, the divine infallibility of Moses or Jesus, but to prove all things ; hold fast what is good ; do the will of the Father ; love man and God. The method of Christianity is a very plain one. Obedience, not to that old teacher, or this new one ; but to God, who filleth all in all, to His Law written on the tablets of the heart. Its Method, therefore, like its Source and its Object and its Aim, is absolute ; the method of God revealed in the law of the Soul. It exhorts men to a divine life, not as something foreign but as something na- 286 ITS PRACTICAL CHARACTER. tive and welcome to man. It is the life of many Systems of Religion, Theology, and practical Mo- rality, as the ocean has many waves and bubbles ; but these are not Christianity more than a wreath of foam is the Atlantic. 3. It differs from others in its eminently practical character. Since Christianity is the absolute Re- ligion, starts from the absolute source, proposes an absolute object, pursues the absolute method, it must lay most stress on things most valuable. Hence it counts a divine life better than saying " Lord, Lord ; " puts mercy before sacrifice, and pro- nounces a gift to man better than a gift to God. It dwells much on the brotherhood of men ; anni- hilates national and family distinctions ; all are sons of God, and brothers ; man is to love his brother as himself, and bless him, and thus serve God. It values man above all things. Is he poor, weak, ignorant, sinful, it does not scorn him, but labors all the more to relieve the fallen. It sees the " archangel ruined " in the sickly servant of Sin. It looks on the immortal nature of man, and all little distinctions vanish. It bids each man labor for his brother, and never give over till Igno- rance, Want, and Sin are banished from the earth ; to count a brother's sufferings, sorrows, wrongs, as our sufferings, sorrows and wrongs, and redress them. It says. Carry the Truth to all. Before Jesus, the Greek, the Roman, and the Jew, went to other lands to learn their arts, customs, and laws, study their religion. Who ever went to teach re- •* NOTHING BETWEEN MAN AND GOD. 287 ligion, not for his own, but his brother's sake ? History is silent. Christianity allows no man to sever himself from the race, making this world an Inn for him to take his ease. It does nothing for God's sake, each for its own sake ; sends the devotee from his prayers to make peace w'ilh his brother; does not rob a man's father to enrich God ; nor fancy He needs any thing, sacrifice, creeds, fasts, or prayers. It makes worship consist in being good, and doing good ; faith within and works without ; the test of greatness the amount of good done. Thus it is not a Religion of temples, days, ceremonies, but of the street, the fire-side, the field-side. Its temple is all space ; its worship in spirit and truth ; its ceremony a good life, blameless and beautiful ; its priest the Spirit of God in the soul ; its altar a heart undefilcd. It places duty above cant. It promises as the result of obedience — oneness with God, and inspiration from Him. It offers no sub- stitute for this, for nothing can do the work of goodness and Religion but goodness and Religion. It offers no magic to wipe sin out of the soul, and ensure the rewards of Religion without sharing its fatigues ; knows nothing of vicarious goodness. Its Heaven is doing God's will now and forever, thus it makes no antithesis between this and the next life. It puts nothing between man and God ; makes Jesus our friend not our master ; a teacher who blesses, not a tyrant who commands us ; a brother who pleads with us, not an Attorney who 288 PECULIARITIES OF CHRISTIANITY. pleads with God, still less a sacrifice for sins he never committed, and therefore could not expiate. These are not the peculiarities oftenest insisted on, and taught as Christianity ; it is not the mys- tery, the miraculous birth, the incarnation, the God-man, the miracles, the fulfilment of prophecy, the transfiguration, the atonement, the resurrection, the angels, the ascension, the " five points ; " other religions have enough such things — but it is the Absolute Religion in Christianity that is peculiar. Alas, such is not the Christianity of the Church, at this day, nor at any day since the crucifixion ; but is it not the Christianity of Christ, the one only Religion, everlasting, ever blest ? CHAPTER VI. THE IMORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. Reverence and Tradition have woven about Jesus such a shining veil, that with the imperfect and doubtful materials in our hands, it is not easy to determine in detail and with minuteness, the character that moved and lived among his fellow men, and commenced what may be called the Christian movement. The difficulty is twofold : to get rid of traditional prejudice, and to get at the facts. Perhaps it is impossible to separate the pure fact from the legendary and mythological drapery that surrounds it. Besides, the Gospels pretend to cover but a few months of his active life. Still some conclusion may be reached. From Christianity we have separated the life and character of Jesus, that we might try the doctrine by absolute Religion ; it now remains to examine the life of the man by the standard himself has given. 37 290 ALLEGED ERRORS OF JESUS. I. The Negative Side, or the Limitations of Jesus. It is apparent that Jesus shared the erroneous notions of the times respectine; devils, possessions, and demonologj in general. If" we may credit the Evangelists, he was in error on these points. But he never set up for a teacher of physiology. The acceptance of this popular error is no impeachment of his moral and religious excellence, no more than ignorance of the steam-engine. The errors of great men are the glory of dunces, but of dunces alone. He was mistaken in his interpretation of the Old Testament, if we may take the word of the Gos- pels. But if he supposed that thc^ writers of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophecies, spoke of him ; if he- applied their poetic figures to him- self, it is yet but a trifling mistake, affecting a man's head not his heart. It is no more necessary for Jesus than for Luther to understand all ancient literature, and be familiar with criticism and anti- quities, though with men who think Religion rests on his infallibility, it must be indeed a very hard case for Christianity. Sometimes he is said to be an enthusiast, who hoped to found a visible kingdom in Jndea, by mi- raculous aid, as the prophets had distinctly foretold their "Messiah" should do; that he should be a King on earth, and his disciples also, not forgetting Judas, should sit on twelve thrones and Judge the restored tribes ; that he should return in the clouds. *.♦ ALLEGED FAULTS OF JESUS. 291 Certainly a strong case, very strong, may be niade out from the Synoptics to favor this cliarge. But what then? Even if the fact were admitted, and the dull evangelists h:ive not thrust their own fan- cies into his mouth, it does not militate with his morality and religion. How many a saint has been mistaken in such matters! His honesty, zeal, self- sacrifice, heavenly purity still shine out in every word and work of his life.' Another charge, sometimes brought against him, and the only one at all affecting his moral and reli- gious character, is this ; that he denounces his op- ponents in no measured terms ; calls the Pharisees " hypocrites " and " children of the devil." We cannot tell how far the historians have added to the fierceness of this invective, but the general fact must probably remain, that he did not use courteous speech. We must Judge a man by his highest moment. His denunciation of sleek, hollow Pha- risees, is certainly lower than the prayer, " Fa- ther forgive them ; " not consistent with the highest thought of humanity. Considering the youth of the man, it was a very venial error, to make the worst of it. The case called for vigorous treat- ment. Shall a man say, " Peace, peace," when there is no peace ? Sharp remedies are for invete- rate and critical disease. It is not with honied ' On this point see, who will, the charges against Jesus in the Wolf- enbdttel. Fragmente ; in the Wrilingi of Wtinsch, Rahidt, Paalzow, and Salvador. See also Hennell, ubi supra, Ch. XVI., and, on the other hand, Reinhard's Plan of the Founder of Christianity. Andover, 1831. 292 THE BEAUTY OF LOVE IN HIM. words, neither then nor now, that great sins are to be exposed. It is a pusillanimous and most mean- spirited wisdom that demands a religious man to prophesj smooth things, lest Indolence be rudely startled from his sleep, and the delicate nerves of Sin, grown hoary and voluptuous in his hypocrisy, be smartly twitched. It seems unmanly and ab- surd to say a man filled with divine ideas should have no indignation at the world's wrong. Rather let it be said. No man's indignation should be like his, so deep, so uncompromising, but so holy and full of love. Let it be indignation ; not personal spleen ; call sin 5m, sinners by their right name. Yet in this general and righteous, though it might seem too vehement, indignation against men when he speaks of them as a class and representa- tives of an idea, there is no lack of charity, none of love, when he speaks with an individual. He does not denounce timid Nicodemus, who came by night, for fear of the Jews ; does not speak harshly to that young man who went away sorrowful, his great possessions on the one hand and the King- dom of Heaven on the other; does not call Judas a traitor, and Simon Peter a false liar as he was ; says only to James and John — ambitious youths — they know not what they ask ; never addresses scornful talk to a Pharisee, or long-robed doctor of the law, Herodians or Scribes, spite of their wide phylacteries, their love of uppermost seats, their de- vouring of widows' houses in priv^ate, their prayers and alms to be seen of men. He only states the .* WISDOM COMES LATE IN LIFE. 293 fact, but plainly and strongly, to their very face. Even for these men his soul is full of affection. He could honor an Ilerodian ; j)ray for a Scribe ; love even a Pharisee. It was not hatred, personal indignation, but love of man, u hich lit that burning zeal, and denounced such as sat in Moses' seat, boast- ing themselves children of Abraham, when they were children of the Devil, and did his works daily — dutiful children of the father of lies. How he wail- ed like a child for the mother that bore him : " Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee ! " How he prayed like a mother for her desperate son, " Fa- ther forgive them for they know not what they do." Are these the words of one that could hate even the wickedest of the deceitful ? Who then can love his fellow-men? Arrogance, personal animosity, selfish- ness— of all these not the faintest shadow falls on him. H. The Positive Side, or the Excellencies of Jesus. In estimating the character of Jesus it must be remembered that he died at an age when man has not reached his fullest vigor. The great works of creative intellect ; the maturest products of man ; all the deep and settled plans of reforming the world, come from a period, when experience gives a wider field as the basis of hope. Socrates was but an embryo sage till long after the age of Jesus. Poems and Philosophies that live, come at a later 294 HOLY WISDOM OF JESUS. date. Now here we see a young man, but little more than thirty years old, with no advantage of position ; the son and companion of rude people ; born in a town whose inhabitants were wicked to a proverb ; of a nation above all others distinguished for their superstition, for national pride, exaltation of themselves and contempt for all others ; in an age of singular corruption, when the substance of religion had faded out from the mind of its anointed ministers, and sin had spread wide among a people turbulent, oppressed, and down-trodden ; a man ridiculed for his lack of knowledge, in this nation of forms, of hypocritical priests and corrupt people, falls back on simple Morality, simple Religion, unites in himself the sublimest precepts and divin- est practices, thus more than realizing the dream of prophets and sages ; rises free from all preju- dice of his age, nation, or sect ; gives free range to the spirit of God in his breast ; sets aside the law, sacred and time-honored as it was, its forms, its sacrifice, its temple and its priests ; puts away the doctors of the law, subtle, learned, irrefragable, and pours out a doctrine, beautiful as the light, sublime as Heaven, and true as God. The Phi- losophers, the Poets, the Prophets, the Rabbis, — he rises above them all. Yet Nazareth was no Athens, where Philosophy breathed in the circumambient air ; it hiid neither porch nor portico, not even a school of the Piophets. There is God in the heart of this youth. Old teachers, past times, the dead letter of forms a century deceased, enslaved HIS TREATMENT OF SINNKRS. 295 his fellow-men, the great, the wise ; what were they to him ? Let the dead bury their dead. Men had reverence for institutions so old, so deep-rooted, so venerably bearded with the moss of age. Should not he, at least, with that sweet conservatism of a pious heart, sacrifice a little to human weakness, and put his zeal, faith, piety, into the old religious form, sanctified by his early recollections, the ten- der prayer of his mother, and a long line of saints ? New wine must be put into new bottles, says the young man, triumphing over a sentiment, natu- ral and beautiful in its seeming; triumphant where strife is most perilous, victory rarest and most diffi- cult. The Priest said Keep the law, and reverence the Prophets. Jesus sums up the excellence of both. Love man and love God, leaving the chaff of Moses, and the husk of Ezekiel, with their " Thus- saith-the-Lord," to go to their own place, where the wind might carry them. He looked around him and saw the wicked, men who had served in the tenth legion of sin, pierced with the lances and torn with the shot ; men scar- red and seamed all over with wounds got dishonor- ably in that service ; men squalid with this hideous disease, their moral sense blinded, their nature per- verse, themselves fallen from the estate of Godli- ness to which they were made, and unable, so they fancied, to lift themselves up ; men who called good evil, and evil good, — he bade them rise up and walk, waiting no longer for a fancied redeemer that would never come. He told them they also were 296 TREATMENT OF THE OPPRESSOR. men ; children of God, and heirs of Heaven, would they but obey. So corrupt were they, there was no open vision for them. The voice of God was a forgotten sound in their bosoms. To them he said, 1 am the good Shepherd ; follow me. At the sight of their penitence he says. Thy sins are for- given thee. Is not penitence itself the forgive- ness of sins, the dawn of reconciliation with God ? He showed men their sin, the disease of the soul living false to its law ; told them then* salvation ; bade them obey and be blessed. He saw the oppressor, with his yoke and heavy burthen for man's neck ; the iron that enters the soul ; men who were the corrupters, the bane, the ruin of the land ; base men with an honorable front; low men, crawling, as worms, their loathesome track in high -places ; deceitful hucksters of salva- tion, making God's house of prayer a den of thieves, fair as marble without, but rottenness within. What wonder if Love, though the fairest of God's daughters, at sight of such baseness, pours out the burning indignation of a man stung with the tyran- ny of the strong, ashamed at the patience of man- kind ; the word of a man fearless of all but to be false when Truth and Duty bid him speak ? To call the Whelp of Sin a devil's child — is that a crime ? Doubtless it is, in men stirred by passion ; not in a soul filled to the brim and overflowing with love. He looks on the nation, the children of pious Abraham ; men for whom Moses made laws, and JESUS AND Tin: PHARISEES. 297 Samuel held the sceptre, and David prayed, and prophets admonished in vain, pouring out their blood as water ; men for whom psalmist and priest and seer and king had prayed and wept in vain, — well might he cry, " Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem." Few heard his cries. That mightiest heart that ever beat, stirred by the Spirit of God, how it wrought in his bosom ! What words of rebuke, of comfort, counsel, admonition, promise, hope, did he pour out ; words that stir the soul as summer dews call up the faint and sickly grass ! What profound instruc- tion in his proverbs and discourses ; what wisdom in his homely sayings, so rich with Jewish life ; what deep divinity of soul in his prayers, his action, sympathy, resignation ! Persecution comes, he bears it ; contempt, it is nothing to him. Persecuted in one city, he flees into another. Scribes and Phari- sees say He speaketh against Moses ; he replies. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. They look back to the past, and say. We have Abraham to our father ; he looks to the Comforter, and says, Call no man your Father on Earth. They say, He eats bread with unwashed hands, plucks corn and re- lieves disease on the holy Sabbath-day, when even God rested from his labors ; he says. Worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They look out to their Law, its Festivals, its Levites, its Chief Priests, the Ancient and Honorable of the earth, the Temple and the Tithe ; he looks in to the Soul, Purity, Peace, Mercy, Goodness, Love, Religion. 38 298 JESUS AND THE PHARISEES. The extremes meet often in this world. Comedy and Tragedy jostle each other in every dirty lane.' But here it was the Flesh and the Devil on one side, and the Holy Spirit on the other. CHAPTER VII. MISTAKES ABOUT JESUS — HIS RECEPTION AND INFLUENCE. We often err in our estimate of this man. The image comes to us, not of that lowly one ; the car- penter of Nazareth ; the companion of the rudest men ; hard-handed and poorly clad ; not having where to lay his head ; " who would gladly have stayed his morning appetite on wild figs, between Bethany and Jerusalem ; " hunted by his enemies ; stoned out of a city, and fleeing for his life. We take the fancy of poets and painters ; a man clothed in purple and fine linen, obsequiously attended by polished disciples, who watched every movement of his lips, impatient for the oracle to speak. We conceive of a man who was never in doubt, nor fear ; whose course was all marked out before him, so that he could not err. But such it was not, if the writers tell truly. Did he say, I came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass, than for one jot or tittle of the Law to fail ? Then he must have doubted, and thought often and with a throbbing heart, before ^^ * 300 JESUS NOT NOW APPRECIATED. he could say, I am not come to bring peace, but a sword ; to kindle a fire, and would God it were kindled — many times before the fulness of peace dwelt in him, and he could say. The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshiper shall worship in spirit and in truth. We do not conceive of that sickness of soul which must have come at the cold- ness of the wise men, the heartlessness of the ■worldly, at the stupidity and selfishness of the dis- ciples. We do not think how that heart, so great, so finely tuned, and delicately touched, must have been pained to feel there was no other heart to give an answering beat. We know not the long and bitter agony that went before the triumph-cry of faith, 1 am not alone, for the Father is with me ; we do not heed that faintness of soul which comes of hope deferred,. of aspirations all unshared by men, a bitter mockery, the only human reply, the oft- repeated echo to his prayer of faith. We find it difficult to keep unstained our decent robe of good- ness when we herd only with the good and shun the kennel where sin and misery, parent and child, are huddled with their rags ; we do not ap- preciate that strong and healthy pureness of soul which dwelt daily with iniquity, sat at meat with publicans and sinners, and yet with such cleanness of life as made even sin ashamed of its ugliness, but hopeful to amend. Rarely, almost never, do we see the vast divinity within that soul, which, new though it was in the flesh, at one step goes before the world whole thousands of years ; judges JESUS THE HOPE OF MANKIND. 30] the race ; decides for us questions we dare not agitate as yet, and breathes the very breath of heavenly love. The Christian world, aghast at such awful beauty in the flesh ; transfixed with wonder as such a spirit rises in his heavenly flight, veils its face and says, It is a God. Such thoughts are not for men. Such life betrays the God. And is it not the Divine which the flesh enshrouds ; to speak in figures, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person ; the clear resemblance of the all-beautiful ; the likeness of God in which man is — "*• made ? But alas for us, we read our lesson back- ward ; make a God of our brother, who should be our model. So the new-fledged eaglets may see the parent bird, slow rising at first with laborious efforts, then cleaving the air with sharp and steady wing, and soaring through the clouds, with eye un- dazzled, to meet the sun ; they may say, We can only pray to the strong pinion. But anon their wings shall grow, and flutter impatient for con- genial skies, and their parent's example guide them on. But men are still so sunk in sloth, so blind and deaf with sensuality and sin, they will not see the greatness of man in him, who, falling back on the inspiration God imparts, asks no aid of mortal men, but stands alone, serene in awful loveliness, not fearing the roar of the street, the hiss of the temple, the contempt of his townsmen, the cold- ness of this disciple, the treachery of that ; who still bore up, had freest communion when all alone ; was deserted, never forsaken ; betrayed, but 302 HIS ONENESS WITH GOD. Still safe ; crucified, but all the more triumphant. This was the last victory of the soul ; the highest type of man. Blessed be God that so much man- liness has been lived out, and stands there yet, a lasting monument to mark how high the tides of divine life have risen in the world of man. It bids us take courage, and be glad, for what man has done, he may do. " Jesus, there is no dearer name than thine, Which Time has blazoned on his mighty scroll ; No wreaths nor garlands ever did entwine So fair a temple of so vast a soul. There every Virtue set his triumph-seal ; Wisdom conjoined with Strength and radiant Grace, In a svi'eet copy Heaven to reveal. And stamp Perfection on a mortal face ; Once on the earth wert thou, before men's eyes, That did not half thy beauteous brightness see ; E'en as the Emmet does not read the skies. Nor our weak orbs look through immensity." The doctrine he taught was the Father's, not his ; the personal will did not mingle its motes with the pure religious light of Truth ; it fell through him as through void space, not colored, not bent aside. Here was the greatest soul of all the sons of men ; one before whom the majestic mind of Grecian sages, and of Hebrew seers must veil its face. His perfect obedience made him free. So complete was it that but a single will dwelt in him and God, and he could say, I and the Father are one. For this reason his teaching was absolute. God's Word was in him. Try him as we try other teachers. They deliver their word, find a few waiting for THE OPPOSITION 111: MET. 303 the consolation, who accept the new tidings, follow the new method, and soon go beyond their teacher, though less mighty minds than he. Such is the case with each founder of a school in philosophy, each sect in Religion. Though humble men, we see what Socrates and Luther never saw. But eighteen centuries have past since the Sun of humanity rose so high in Jesus ; what man, what sect, what church has mastered his thought ; com- prehended his method, and so fully applied it to life ! Let the world answer in its cry of anguish. Men have parted his raiment among them ; cast lots for his seamless coat ; but that spirit which toiled so manfully in a world of sin and death ; w hich did and suffered, and overcame the world, — is that found, possessed, understood ? Nay, is it sought for and recommended by any of our churches ? But no excellence of aim ; no sublimity of achieve- ment could screen him from distress and suffering. The fate of all Saviours was his — despised and rejected of men. His father's children " did not believe in him ;" his townsmen " were offended at him," and said " whence hath he this wisdom ? Is not this the son of Joseph, the carpenter r" Those learned scribes who came all the way from Jerusa- lem to entangle him in his talk, could see only this, " He hath Beelzebub." " Art thou greater than our father Jacob r" asked a conservative. Some said " He is a good man." " Ay," said others, but "He speaketh against the temple." The sharp- 304 MISREPRESENTATION OF THE PRIESTS. eyed Pharisees saw nothing marvellous in the case. Why not ? They were looking for signs and won- ders in the heavens ; not sermons on the mount, and a " Wo-unto-you, Scribes and Pharisees ;" they looked for the Son of David, a king, to rule over men's bodies, not the son of a peasant-girl, born in a stable ; the companion of fishermen ; the friend of publicans and sinners, who spoke to the outcast ; brought in the lost sheep, and so ruled in the soul, his kingdom not of this world. They said, " He is a Galilean, and of course no prophet." If he called men away from the senses to the soul, they said " He is beside himself." " Have any of the rulers or the pharisees believed on him ?" asked some one who thought that settled the matter. When he said if a man live by God's law, " he shall never see death," they exclaimed, those precious shepherds of the people, " Now we know thou hast a devil, and art mad. Abraham is dead, and the prophets ! Art thou greater than our father Abraham ? Who are you, sir ?" What a faithful report would Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law, have made of the Sermon on the Mount ; what omissions and redundancies would they not have found in it ; what blasphemy against Moses and the Law, and the Ark of the Covenant, and the Urim and the Thummin, and the Meat-offering and the New-moons ; what neglect to mention the phylacteries, and the shew-bread and the Levite, and the priest and the tithes, and the other great essentials of Religion ; what " infidelity " must THE TRIE HEAR THE TRUTH. 305 these pious souls have dctinted ! How must they have classed him with Korah, Dathan and Abiram, the mythological "Tom-Paines" of old time ; with the men of Sodom and Gomorrah ! The popular praise of the young Nazarcne, with his divine life and lip of lire ; the popular shout, " Hosannah to the Son of David," was no doubt " a stench in the nostrils of the righteous." " When the Son of Man Cometh, shall he iind fi\'n\\ on the earth r" Find Faith? He comes to bring it. It is only by cru- cified redeemers that the world is saved. Prophets are doomed to be stoned ; apostles to be sawn asunder. The Avorld knoweth its own, and loveth them. Even so let it be ; the stoned prophet is not without his reward. The balance of God is even. Yet there were men who heard the new word. Truth never yet fell dead in the streets ; it has such affinity with the soul of man, the seed, how- ever broad-cast, will catch somewhere, and produce its hundredfold. Some kept his sayings and pon- dered them in their heart. Others heard them gladly. Did priests and Levites stop their ears? Publicans and harlots went into the kiniidom of God before them. Those blessed women, whose hearts God has sown deepest with the orient pearl offoith; they w^ho ministered to him in his wants, washed his feet with tears of penitence, and wiped them with the hairs of their heard, was it in vain he spoke to them ? Alas for the anointed priest, the child of Levi, the son of Aaron, men who shut 39 306 RECEPTION OF HIS WORDS WITH up inspiration in old books, and believed God was asleep. Tbej stumbled in darkness, and fell into the ditcli. But doubtless there was many a tear- stained face that brightened like fires new stirred as Truth spoke out of Jesus' lips. His word sway- ed the multitude as pendant vines swing in the summer wind ; as the spirit of God moved on the waters of chaos, and said " Let there be light," and there was light. No doubt many a rude fisherman of Gennesareth heard his words with a heart bound- ing and scarce able to keep in his bosom, went home a new man, with a legion of angels in his breast, and from that day lived a life divine and beautiful. No doubt, on the other hand, Rabbi Kozeb Ben Shatan, when he heard of this elo- quent Nazarene, and his Sermon on the Mount, said to his disciples in private at Jerusalem, This new doctrine will not injure us, prudent and edu- cated men ; we know that men may worship as well out of the temple as in it ; a burnt-offering is nothing ; the ritual of no value ; the Sabbath like any other day ; the Law faulty in many things, of- fensive in some, and no more from God than other laws equally good. We know that the priesthood is a human affair, originated and managed like other human affairs. We may confess all this to ourselves, but what is the use of telling of it? The people wish to be deceived ; let them. The Phari- see will conduct wisely like a Pharisee — for he sees the eternal fitness of things — even if these doctrines should be proclaimed. But this people, .* THE PHARISEE AND THE FISHERMAN. 307 who know not the law, what will become of them ? Simon Peter, James and John, those poor uidct- tered fishermen, on llic lake of Galilee, to whom we gave a farthing and the priestly blessing in our summer excursion, what will become of them when told that every word of the Law did not come straight out of the mouth of Jehovah, and the ritual is nothing ! They will go over to the Flesh and the Devil, and be lost. It is true, that the Law and the Prophets are well summed up in one word. Love God and man. But never let ?/5 sanction the saying, it would ruin the seed of Abraham ; keep back the kingdom of God, and " destroy our use- fulness." Thus went it at Jerusalem. The new word was " Blasphemy," the new prophet an " In- fidel," " beside himself, had a devil." But at Gal- ilee, things took a shape somewhat different ; one which blind guides could not foresee. The com- mon people, not knowing the Law, counted him a prophet come up from the dead, and heard him gladly. Yes, thousands of men, and women also, with hearts in their bosoms, gathered in the field and pressed about him in the city and the desert place, forgetful of hunger and thirst, and were fed to the full with his words, so deep a child could understand them ; James and John leave all to fol- low him who had the word of eternal life ; and when that young carpenter asks Peter, Whom saycst thou that I am ? it has been revealed to that poor un- lettered fisherman, not by flesh and blood, but by the word of the Lord, and he can say. Thou art 308 FIRST EFFECT OF CHRISTlAJSITy. the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Phari- see went his way, and preached a doctrine that lie knew was false ; the fisherman also went his way, but which to the Flesh and the Devil ? ^ We cannot tell, no man can tell the feelings which the large free doctrines of absolute Religion awakened when heard for the first time. There must have been many a Simeon waiting for the consola- tion ; many a Mary longing for the better part ; many a soul in cabins and cottages and stately dwellings, that caught glimpses of the same truth as God's light shone through some crevice which Piety made in that wall Prejudice and Superstition had built up betwixt man and God ; men who scarce dared to trust that revelation — " too good to be true " — such was their awe of Moses, their rever- ence for the. priest. To them the word of Jesus must have sounded divine ; like the music of their home sung out in the sky, and heard in a distant land, beguiling toil of its weariness, pain of its sting, affliction of despair. There must have been men, sick of forms which had lost their meaning ; pained with the open secret of sacerdotal hypocrisy ; hungering and thirsting after the truth, yet whom Error, and Prejudice, and Priestcraft had blinded so that they dared not think as men, nor look on the sun-light God shed upon the mind. ' See in the Dial, for January, 1812, the article on Primitive Chris- tianity, for some similar thoughts on this subject. CHRISTIANITY AGAINST THK WORLD. 309 But see what a work it has wrouglit. Men could not hold the word iu their bosoms ; it would not be still. No doubt they sought — those rude disciples — after their teacher's death, to quiet the matter and say nothing about it ; they had nerves that quivered at the touch of steel ; wives and children whom it was hard to leave behind, to the world's uncertain sympathy ; respectable friends it may be, who said The old Law did very well. Let well enough alone. The people must be deceived a little. The world can never be much mended. No doubt Truth stood on one side, and Ease on the other ; it has often been so. Perhaps the dis- ciples went to the old synagogue more sedulous than before ; paid tithes ; kept the new-moons ; were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice ; made low bows to the Levite ; sought his savory conver- sation, and kept the rules a priest gave George Fox. But it would not do. There was too much truth to be hid. Even selfish Simon Peter has a cloven tongue of fire in his mouth, and he and the disciples go to their work, the new word swelling in their laboring heart. Then came the strangest contest the world ever saw. On the one side is all the strength of the world — the Jews with their Records, from the hand of Moses, David, and Esaias ; supernatural records, that go back to the birth of time ; their Law derived from Jehovah, attested by miracles, upheld by prophets, defended by priests, children of Levi, sons of Aaron, the Law which was to last 310 THE CONTEST BETWEEN forever ; the Temple, forty and seven years in be- ing built, its splendid ceremonies, its beautiful gate and golden porch ; there vi^as the wealth of the powerful ; the pride, the self-interest, the prejudice of the priestly class ; the indifference of the world- ly ; the hatred of the wicked ; the scorn of the learned ; the contempt of the great. On the same side were the Greeks, with their Chaos of Reli- gion, full of mingled beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice, piety and lust, still more confounded by the deep mysteries of the priest, the cunning spec- ulations of the sophist, the awful sublimity of the sage, by the sweet music of the philosopher, and moralist and poet, who spoke and sung of man and God in strains so sweet and touching ; there were rites in public ; solemn and pompous ceremonies, processions, festivals, temples, games to captivate that wondrous people ; there were secret myste- ries, to charm the curious and attract the thouo^ht- ful ; Greece, with her Arts, her Science, her He- roes and her Gods, her Muse, voluptuous and sweet. There too was Rome, the Queen of nations, and Conqueror of the world, who sat on her seven-hilled throne, and cast her net eastward and southward and northward and westward, over tower and city and realm and empire, and drew them to herself, a giant's spoil ; with a Religion haughty and inso- lent, that looked down on the divinities of Greece and Egypt, of " Ormus and the Ind," and gave them a shelter in her capacious robe ; Rome, with her practised skill ; Rome, with her eloquence ; THE WORLD AIND CHRISTIANITY. 311 Rome, with her pride ; Rome, with her arms, hot from the conquest of a thousand kings. On the same side are all the institutions of all the world ; its fables, wealth, armies, pride, its folly and its sin. On the other hand, are a few Jewish fishermen, untaught, rude and vulgar ; not free from gross errors ; despised at home, and not known abroad ; collected together in the name of a young carpenter, who died on the gallows, and whom they declared to be risen from the dead ; men with no ritual, no learning, no books, no brass in their purse, no philosophy in their mind, no eloquence on their tongue. A Roman Ske})tic might tell how soon these fanatics would fall out, and destroy them- selves, after serving as a terror to the maids and sport to the boys of a Jewish hamlet, and so that " detestable superstition " come to an end ! A priest of Jerusalem, with his oracular gossip, could tell how long the Sanhedrim would suffer them to go at large, in the name of " that deceiver," whose body " they stole away by night" ! Alas for what man calls great ; the pride of prejudice ; the boast of power. These fishermen of Galilee have a truth the world has not, so they are stronger than the world. Ten weak men may chain down a giant ; but no combination of errors can make a truth or put it down ; no army of the ignorant equal one man that has the Word of Life. Besides, all the truth in Judea, Greece, Rome, was an auxiliary to favor the new doctrine. The first preachers of Christianity had false no- 312 CHRISTIANITY THE LIGHT OF THE NATIONS. tions on many points ; they were full of Jewish fables and technicalities ; thought the world would soon end, and Jesus come back " with power and great glory." Peter would now and then lie to serve his turn ; Paul was passionate, often one-sided ; Barnabas and Mark could not agree. There was something of furious enthusiasm in all these come- outers. James roars like a fanatic radical at the rich man. But, spite of the follies or limitations of these earnest and manly Jews, a religious fire burned in their hearts ; the Word of God grew and pre- vailed. The new doctrine passes from its low be- ginnings on the Galilean lake, step by step, through Jerusalem, Ephesus, Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome, till it ascends the throne of the world, and kings and empires lie prostrate at its feet.^ But, alas, as it spreads it is corrupted also. Judaism, Paganism, Idolatry, mingle their feculent scum with the living stream, and trouble the water of Life. Christianity came to' the world in the darkness of the nations ; they had outgrown their old form, and looked for a new. They stood in the shadow of darkness, fearing to look back, not daring to look forward ; they groped after God. Christianity came to the Nations as a beam of light shot into chaos ; a strain of sweet music, — so silvery and soft we know not we are listenine;, — to him who wanders on ' See, who will, the Dial for October, 1840, Article " A Lesson for the Day." FEARS FOR CHRISTLVNITY. 313 amid the uncertain gloom, and charms him to tlic Light, to the River of God and the Tree of Life. It was the fulfilment of the prophecy of holy hearts. It is human Religion, human JMorality, and above all things reveals the greatness of man. It is sometimes feared that Christianity is in dan- ger ; that its days are numbered.' Of the Chris- tianity of the church, no doubt it is true. That child of many fathers cannot die too soon. It cum- bers the ground. But the Christianity of Christ, absolute Religion, absolute Morality, cannot perish; never till Love, Goodness, Devotion, Faith, Rea- son, fail from the heart of man ; never till God melts away and vanishes, and nothing takes the place of the AU-in-All. Religion can no more be separated from the race, than thought and feeling, nor absolute Religion die out more than wisdom perish from among men. Man's words, thoughts, churches, fail and pass off like clouds from the sky that leave no track behind. But God's Word can never change. It shines perennial like the stars. Its testimony is in man's heart. None can outgrow it ; none destroy. For eighteen hundred years, the Christianity of Christ has been in the world, to warn and encourage. Violence and Cunning, allies of Sin, have opposed it. Every weapon Learning could snatch from the arsenals of the past, or Sci- ence devise anew, or Pride, and Cruelty, and Wit ' See Comte and Leroux, ubi sup. passim, and de Potter, Hist. Philo- Bophique politique et critique du Christianisnio, liru.xellcs, ]83^, Vol. I. Introd. § 1. 40 314 CHRISTIANITY NOT TRANSIENT. invent, has been used by mistaken man to destroy this fabric. Not a stone has fallen from the heavenly arch of real Religion ; not a loop-hole been found where a shot could enter. But alas, vain doctrines, follies, absurdities, without count, have been piled against the temple of God, marring its beauteous shape. That Christianity continues to live, spite of the traditions, fables, doctrines wrapped about it — is proof enough of its truth. Reason never warred against love of God and man, never with the Christianity of Christ, but always with that of the church.^ There is much destructive work still to be done, which scoffers will attempt. Can man destroy absolute Religion ? He cannot wuth all the arts and armies of the world destroy the pigment that colors an emmet's eye. He may obscure the Truth to his own mind. But it shines forever unchanged. So boys of a summer's day throw dust above their heads, to blind the sun ; they only hide it from their blinded eyes. ' Even M. de Potter wars only against Christianity " hierarchically organized." "Jesus and his principles of social equality, of universal brotherhood, are to him the meek, sublime manifestation of the moral man " ubi sup. Vol, I. p. II. BOOK IV " No man would be so ridiculou3 as (since Columbus discovered the new world of America, as big as the old, since the enlarged knowledge of the North of Europe, the South and East of Asia and Africa, besides the new divisions, names and inhabitants of the old parts,) to forbid the reading of any more Geography than is found in Strabo, or Mela ; or, since the Portuguese have sailed to the Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, to admit of no other Indian commodities than what are brought on Camels to Aleppo; or if posterity shall find out the North-east, or North west way to Cathajo and China, or shall cut the Isthmus between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, will it be unlawful to use the ad- vantage of such noble achievements ? If any man love acorns since corn is invented, let him eat acortis ; but it is very unreasonable he should forbid others the use of wheat. Whatever is solid in the writings of Aristotle, these new philosophers will readily embrace ; and they that are most accused for affecting the neio, doubt not but they can give as good an account of the old philosophy as their most violent accusers, and are probably as much conversant in Aristotle's writings, though they do not much value these small wares that are usually retailed by the gen- erality of his interpreters." A brief Jiccount of the neic Sect of Latitude- men, by G. B. Oxford, 1662, p. 13-14. iSt BOOK lY. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT TO THE GREAT- EST OF BOOKS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE BIBLE. CHAPTER I. POSITION OF THE BIBLE CLAIMS MADE FOR IT STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. View it in what light we may, the Bible is a very surprising phenomenon. In all Christian, lands, this collection of hooks is separated from every other, and called sacred ; others are profane. Science may differ from them, not from this. It is deemed a condescension on the part of its friends, to show its agreement with Reason. How much has been written by condescending theologians to show the Bible was not inconsistent with the de- monstrations of Newton. Should a man attempt to reestablish the cosmogonies of Hesiod and San- choniathon, to allegorize the poems of Anacreon and Theocritus as divines mystify the Scripture, it would be said he wasted his oil, and truly. This collection of books has taken such an hold 318 THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE. on the world as no other. The literature of Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of tem- ples and heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book for a nation alike despised in ancient and modern times. It is read of a Sabbath in all the ten thousand pulpits of our land. In all the temples of Christendom is its voice lifted up, week bj week. The sun never sets on its gleaming page. It goes equally to the cottage of the plain man and the palace of the king. It is woven into the literature of the scholar, and colors the talk of the street. The bark of the merchant cannot sail the sea without it ; no ship of war go to the con- flict but the Bible is there. It enters men's closets ; mingles in all the grief and cheerfulness of life. The affianced maiden prays God in Scrip- ture for strength in her new duties'; men are mar- ried by Scripture. The Bible attends them in their sickness, when the fever of the world is on them. The aching head finds a softer pillow when the Bible lies underneath. The mariner, escaping from shipwreck, clutches this first of his treasures, and keeps it sacred to God. It goes with the ped- lar, in his crowded pack ; cheers him at even-tide, when he sits down dusty and fatigued ; brightens the freshness of his morning face. It blesses us when we are born ; gives names to half Christen- dom ; rejoices with us ; has sympathy for our mourning ; tempers our grief to finer issues. It is the better part of our sermons. It lifts man above himself; our best of uttered prayers are in its ♦ *» ITS DEEP Ai\D LASTING POWER. 319 Storied speech, wherewith our fathers and the patri- archs prayed. The timid man, about awaking from this dream of life, looks through the glass of Scrip- ture and his eje grows briglit ; he does not fear to stand alone, to tread the way unknown and distant, to take the death-angel by the hand and bid fare- well to wife, and babes, and home. Men rest on this their dearest hopes. It tells them of God, and of his blessed Son ; of earthly duties and of heav- enly rest. Foolisli men find it the source of Plato's wisdom, and the science of Newton, and the art of Raphael. Men who believe nothing else that is spiritual, believe the Bible all through ; without this they would not confess, say they, even that there was a God. Now for such effects there must be an adequate cause. That nothing comes of nothing is true all the world over. It is no light thing to hold, with an electric chain, a thousand hearts, though but an hour, beating and bounding with such fiery speed. What is it then to hold the Christian world, and that for centuries ? Are men fed with chaff' and husks ? The authors we reckon great, whose word is in the newspapers, and the market-place, whose articulate breath now sways the nation's mind, will soon pass away, giving place to other great men of a season, who in their turn shall follow them to eminence, and then oblivion. Some thousand fa- mous writers come up in this century, to be forgot- ten in the next. But the silver cord of the Bible is not loosed, nor its golden bowl broken, as Time 320 CLAIMS MADE FOR THE BIBLE, chronicles his tens of centuries passed bj. Has the human race gone mad ? • Time sits as a refiner of metal ; the dross is piled in forgotten heaps, but the pure gold is reserved for use, passes into the ages, and is current a thousand years hence as well as to- day. It is only real merit that can long pass for such. Tinsel will rust in the storms of life. False weights are soon detected here. It is only a heart that can speak, deep and true, to a heart ; a mind to a mind ; a soul to a soul ; wisdom to the wise, and religion to the pious. There must then be in the Bible, mind, heart and soul, wisdom and reli- gion. Were it otherwise how could millions find it their lawgiver, friend and prophet ? Some of the greatest of human institutions seem built on the Bible ; such things will not stand on heaps of chaff but mountains of rock. What is the secret cause of this wide and deep influence? It must be found in the Bible itself, and must be adequate to the effect. To answer the question we must examine the Bible, and see whence it comes, what it contains, and by what authority it holds its place. If we look superficially, it is a collection of books in human language, from different authors and times; we refer it to a place amongst other books and proceed to examine it as the works of Homer or Xenophon. But the popular opinion bids us beware, for we tread on holy ground. The opinion commonly expressed by the Protestant churches is this : The Bible is a miraculous collec- MASTER OF THK SOUL. 321 tion of miraculous books ; every word it contains was written by a miraculous inspiration from God, which was so full, complete, and infallible, that the authors delivered the truth and nothing but the truth ; that the Bible contains no false statemcrit of doctrine or fact, but sets forth all religious and moral truth which man needs, or which it is possible for him to attain, and no particle of error. Therefore that the Bible is the only authoritative rule of reli- gious faith and practice.^ To doubt this is reck- oned a dangerous error, if not an unpardonable sin. This is the supernatural view. Some churches sljly reject the divine authority of the Old Testament. Others reject it openly, but cling strongly as ever to the New. Some make a distinction between the genuine and the spurious books of the New Testament; thus there is a difference in the less or more of an inspired and miraculous canon. The modern Unitarians have perhaps reduced the Scrip- ture to its lowest terms. But Protestants, in gen- eral, in America, agree that in the whole or in part the Bible is an infallible and exclusive standard of religious and moral truth. The Bible is master ' It is scarce necessary to cite authorities to prove this statement, as it is a notorious fact. But see the most obvious sources, Westminster Catechism, Quest. 2 ; Calvin's Institutes, Book I. Ch. VI. — IX. ; Knapp, ubi sup. § 1-13, especially Vol. I. p. 130, et seq. See also Gaussen's Theopneusty, or the plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, trans- lated by E. N. Kirk, New York, 1842. The latter maintains that " all the written Word is inspired of God even to a single iota or little," p. 333. and passim. See Musculus, Loci communes, ed. I.'ti-l, p 178. Put see also Socinus, De Auctoritate, Sac. Scrip, in Biblioihcca Fratrr. Polon. Vol. I. ; Limborch, Theol. Ch. I. ; Episcopius Inslit. P. IV. 41 322 THE METHOD OF PROVIJNG to the soul ; superior to Reason; truer than Con- science ; greater and more trustworthy than the religious Sentiment. Accordingly, with strict logi- cal consistency, a peculiar method is used both in the criticism and interpretation of the Bible ; such as men apply to no other ancient documents. A defer- ence is paid to it wholly independent of its intrinsic merit. It is presupposed that each book within the lids of the Bible has an absolute right to be there, and each sentence or word therein is infallibly true.^ Reason has nothing to do in the premises, but ac- cept the written statement of " the Word ; " the duty of belief is just the same whether the Word contradict Reason and Conscience, or agrees with them.^ Now this opinion about the Bible is true, or not true. If true it is capable of proof, at least of be- ing shown to be probable. Now there are but four possible ways of establishing the fact, namely: 1. By the authority of the Church, which has either a miraculous inspiration, or a miraculous tra- dition, to prove the alleged infallibility of the Bible. But the church is not agreed on this point. The ' The Writings of the Unitarians are exceptions to this general rule. They attempt to separate the spurious from the genuine. See the Chris- tian Examiner, passim; Norton, Statement of Reasons, &c. p. 136, et seq. Evidences of the genuineness of the Gospels, Vol. I. p liii. et seq. See especially p. Ixi. Dr. Palfrey, ubi sup. denies the miraculous inspiration of all the Old Testament, except the last four books of Moses, and there diminishes its intensity. ^ See Gaussen, ubi sup. Home, Introduction to the Holy Scriptures, Philad. 1840, Vol. I. p. 1-187. THE DIVINITY OF THE BIBLE. 323 Roman churcli, very stoutly denies the fact, and besides, the Protestants deny the authority of the church. 2. B]) the direct testimony of God in the hearty as- suring us of the miraculous infallibilitv of the Bil)Ie. Here is one miracle to prove another, which is not logical. The proof is only subjective^ and is as valuable to j)rove the divinity of the Koran, the Shaster and the Book of Mormon, as that of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. It is the argu- ment of the superstitious and enthusiastical. 3. By the fact that the Bible claims this divine infallibility. This is reasoning in a circle, though it is the method commonly relied on by Christians. It will prove the divinity of any impostor who claims it.' 4. By an examination of the contents of the Bible, and the external history of its origin. To proceed in this way, we must ask ; Are all its statements infallibly true? But to ask this question presup- poses the standard-measure is in ourselves, not in the Bible ; so at the utmost the Book can be no more infallible, and have no m )re authority than Reason and the moral Sense by which we try it. A single mistake condemns its infallibility, and of course its divinity. But the case is still worse. After the truth of a book is made out, before a work in human language like other books, can be referred ' See tills claim made in the Koran, Sales's translation, London, new edition, p. 1G2, et seq. 20G, 372, 400, 152, JScc. 2l'J, 127, et al. 324 BIBLE A HUMAN WORK. to God as its author, one of two things must be shown : either That its contents could not have come from man, and then it follows by implication that they came from God, or That at a certain time and place, God did miraculously reveal the contents of the hook. Now it is a notorious fact, first, that it has not been, and cannot be proved, that every statement in the Bible is true, or, se- condly, that its contents, such as they are, could not have proceeded from man, under the ordinary in- fluence of God, or, finally, that any one book or word of the Bible was miraculously revealed to man. In the absence of proof for any one of these three points, it has been found a more convenient way to assume the truth of them all, and avoid troublesome questions. Laying aside all prejudices, if we look into the Bible in a general way, as into other books, we find facts which force the conclusion upon us, that the Bible is a human work, as much as the Prin- cipia of Newton or Descartes. Some things are beautiful and true, but others no man, in his reason, can accept. Here are the works of various writers, from the eleventh century before to the second cen- tury after Christ, it may be, thrown capriciously together, and united by no common tie but the lids of the book-binder. Here are two forms of Reli- gion, which differ widely, set forth and enforced by miracles ; the one ritual and formal, the other actual and spiritual ; the one the Religion of Fear, the other of Love ; one finite, and resting entirely on the special ITS CONFLICTING CONTENTS. 325 revelation made to Moses, the otlier absolute and based on the universal revelation of God, ulio en- lightens all tluit come into the world ; one offers only earthly recompense, the other makes immor- tality a motive to a divine life ; one compels men, the other invites them. One half the Bible repeals the other half; the Gospel annihilates the Law; the apostles take the place of the prophets, and go higher up. If Christianity and Judaism be not the same thing, there must be hostility between the Old Testament and the New Testament, for the Jewish form claims to be eternal. To an unprejudiced man this hostility is very obvious. It may indeed be said Christianity came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them, and the answer is plain, their fulfilment was their destruction. If we look at the Bible as a whole, we find nu- merous contradictions ; conflicting histories which no skill can reconcile with themselves or with facts ; Poems which the Christians have agreed to take as histories, but which lead only to confusion on that hypothesis ; Prophecies that have never been ful- filled, and from the nature of things never can be. We find stories of miracles which could not have happened ; accounts which represent the laws of nature completely transformed, as in fairy-land, to trust the tales of the old romancers ; stories that make God a man of war, cruel, capricious, revenge- ful, hateful, and not to be trusted. We find ama- tory songs, selfish proverbs, skeptical discourses, and the most awful imprecations human fancy ever 326 CONTENTS OF THE BIBLE. clothed in speech. Connected with these are lofty thoughts of nature, man and God ; devotion touch- ing and beautiful, and a most reverent faith. Here are works Avhose authors are known ; others of which the author, age and country are alike forgot- ten. Genuine and spurious works, religious and not religious are strangely mixed. But the subject de- mands a more minute and detailed examination in each of its main parts. CHAPTER II. AX EXAMINATION OF THE CLAIMS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO BE A DIVINE, MIRACULOUS, OR INFALLIBLE COMPOSITION. It is not possible to prove directly the divine and miraculous character of the Old Testament by show- ing that God miraculously revealed it to the writers thereof, for ice do not knoiv who ivere the writers of the greater part of the books ; and when the authors are known, it is only by their own testi- mony, which we have no ri!2;ht to assume to be in- fallible. We have not the faintest direct evidence to show there was anything miraculous in their composition. The indirect evidence may be re- duced to two branches, that which shows that all the statements of the Old Testament are true, or that which shows it contains statements of things above human apprehension. From the nature of the case, the former proposition cannot be proved, since many things treated of in the Bible are known to us by that book alone. To say they are true, is to assume the fact at issue. Besides, a true statement is not 328 BIBLE NOT INFALLIBLE. necessarily miraculous ; if it were, the multiplica- tion table of Pythagoras would be a divine and miraculous composition. The latter proposition has also its difficulty. How do we know its statements are above human apprehension ? But suppose they are, how do we know they are true ? These diffi- culties are insuperable. To assume the divinity of the Old Testament is quite as absurd as to assume the same for the next book that shall be printed ; to declare it divine on account of the beautiful piety in some parts of it, is foolish as to make the same claim for the Geometry of Euclid and the Poems of Homer, on account of their great excellence ; to admit this claim because made by some of the Jews, is no more wise than to admit the claims of the Zoroastrian records and the Sibylline oracles, and the religious books of all nations ; then, among so many, one is of no value, for the very excellence of a miraculous work consists in the fact of its being the only miraculous work. To leave these assumptions and come to facts, this general thesis may be laid down, and maintained : Every book of the Old Testament bears distinct marks of its huinan origin ; some of human folly and sin ; all of human weakness and imperfection. If this thesis be true, the Bible is not the direct work of God ; not the master of Common Sense, Reason, Conscience, and the religious Sentiment. To prove this proposition, it is necessary to go into some details. The Hebrews divided their scrip- tures into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writ- OF THE LAW. 329 ings, to each of which tliey assigned a pecuHar degree of inspiration. Tlic Law was infallibly inspired, God speaking with Moses face to face ; the Prophets less perfectly, God addressing them by visions and dreams ; the Writings still more feebly, God communicating to th(;ir authors by figures and enigmas.^ This ancient division may well enough be followed in this discussion. "b" I. Of the Law. This comprises the first five books of the Bible. They are commonly ascribed to Moses ; but there is no proof that he wrote a word of them. Only the Decalogue, in a compendious form, and perhaps a iew fragments, can be referred to him with much probability. From the use of peculiar words, from local allusions, and other incidental signs, it is plain here are fragments from several dilTerent writers, who lived no one knows w hen or where, tiieir names perfectly unknown to us. They all bear marks of an age much later than that of Moses, as any one familiar with ancient history, and free from j)rejudice, may see on examination. - But if they were written by Moses, we are not, on the bare word of a writer, to admit the miracu- • See Philo, De Monarch. I. p. 820. De Vita Mosis, III. p. 081. II. p. 656, et seq. Josephus, cont. Apion, I. 8. * The proofs of this assertion cannot be adduced in a brief discourse hke the present; they may be found in tlic work announced in the preface. 42 230 ACCOUNTS IN THE LAW lous infallibility of his statements. Besides, the character of the books is such that a very high place is not to be assigned them among human compositions, measured by the standard of the pre- sent day. The first chapter of the book, if taken as a history, in the unavoidable sense of its terms, is at variance with facts. It relates that God cre- ated the sun, moon, stars, and earth, and gave the latter its plants, animals, and men, in six days ; while science proves that many thousands, if not millions, of years must have passed between the creation of the first plants, and man, the crown of creation, that the surface of the earth gradually received its present form, one race of plants after the other sprang up, animals succeeded animals, the simpler first, then the more complex, and at last came man. This chapter tells of an ocean of water above our heads, separated from us by a solid ex- panse, in which the greater and lesser lights are fixed ; that there was evening and morning, before there, was a sun to cause the difference between day and night ; that the sun and stars were cre- ated after the earth, for the earth's convenience ; and that God ceased his action, and rested on the seventh day. Here the Bible is at variance with science, which is nature stated in exact language. Few men will say directly what the schoolmen said to Galileo, " If Nature is opposed to the Bible then Nature is mistaken, for the Bible is certainly right;" but the popular view of the Bible logically makes that assertion. Truth and the book of Gen- AT VARIANCE WITH SCIENCE. 331 esis cannot be reconciled, except on the hypothesis that the Bible means anvthing: it can be made to mean/ but then it means nothing. A similar decision must be pronounced upon nu- merous accounts in the Law, on the creation of woman ; the story of the garden, the temptation and fall of man ; the appearances of God in human shape, eating and drinking with his favorite, and making covenants; the story of the flood, and the ark ; the miraculous birth of Isaac ; the promise to the patriarchs ; the great age of mankind ; the tower of Babel, and confusion of tongues ; the sac- rifice of Isaac ; the history of Joseph ; of Moses ; the ten plas^ues, miraculously sent ; the wonderful passage of the Red Sea ; the support of the He- brews in the wilderness on manna ; the miraculous supply of food, water and clothing, and the delivery of the Law at Mount Sinai. ^ On these it is need- less to dwell. But there is one account in the Law too significant to be passed over. It is briefly this.^ As the Jews approached the land of Canaan, Moses sent twelve men, " heads of the children of Israel," to examine the land and report to the people. They spent a long time in their tour, re- ported that the land was fertile, exhibited speci- mens of its productions, but added, it was full of ' See Augustine, Confess. Lib. XII. Chap. 18, et al. * See many valuable remarks'in Palfrey, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 1-133. His is, perhaps, the only book in the English tongue which attempts to look the Old Testament in the face. ^ Numbers, XIV. 332 A REVENGEFUL CHARACTER warlike nations. The Jews were afraid to invade it ; " They wept all night and said, would God we had died in the land of Egypt." They rebelled, and wished to choose a leader and return. Closes and Aaron, and Caleb and Joshua — two of the twelve messengers — urge them to battle, and say, " Jehovah is with us." The people refuse, and would stone them. Then the glory of Jehovah ap- peared before the face of the people, and God says to Moses, " How long will this people provoke me ? ... I will smite them with the pestilence and dis- inherit them, and make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." But Moses, more merci- fid than his God, attempts to appease the Deity, and that by an appeal to his vanity. " And Moses said unto Jehovah, then the Egyptians shall hear of it, and they. will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. . . . Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations will speak, saying. Be- cause Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them." Then he would soothe his Deity. " Pardon the iniquity of this people." " Jehovah is long suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty." Jehovah consents, but adds, "As truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah," but " because all these men . . . have tempted me now these ten times, . . . surely they shall not see the land which 1 sware unto their fathers, . . . your carcasses shall fall in this wil- ASCRIBED TO GOD. 333 deniess, ... in tliis wilderness they sliall be con- sumed, and there they shall die." If an unprejudiced Christian were to read this for the first time in a heathen writer, and it was relat- ed of Kronos or Moloch, he would say. What Ibul ideas these heathens had of God ; thank Heaveu we are Christians, and cannot believe in a deity so terrible. It is true there are now pious men, who believe the story to the letter, ])rofess to find com- fort therein, and count it part of their Christianity to believe it. But is God angry with men ; pas- sionate, revengeful ; offended because they will not war and butcher the innocent ? Would he violate his perfect law and by a miracle destroy a whole nation, millions of men, women and children, be- cause they fall into a natural fit of despair, and refuse to trust ten witnesses rather than two wit- nesses ? Does God require man's words to restrain His rage, violence, and a degree of fury which Nero and Caracalla — butchers of men though they were — would have shuddered to think of? Is He to be teazed and coaxed from murder ? Are we called on to believe this in the name of Christian- ity ? Then perish Christianity from the face of earth, and let man learn of his Religion and his God, from the stars and the violet, the lion and the lamb. View this as the savage story of some oriental who attributed a blood-thirsty character to his God, and made a Deity in his own image, and it is a striking remnant of barbarism that has passed aw ay, not destitute of dramatic interest ; not with- 334 THE EARLY PROPHETS. out its melancholy moral. There are some things which may be true, but must be rejected for lack of evidence to prove them true ; but this story no amount of evidence could make possible. Throughout the whole of the Law, fact and fic- tion, history and mythology, are so intimately blended, that it seems impossible to tell where one begins and the other ends. The laws are not perfect ; they contain a mingling of good and bad, wise and absurd, and if men will maintain that God is their author, we must still apply to them the words which Ezekiel puts in his mouth : ^ " I gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live ; " or say with Jere- miah, " 1 spake not unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings, or sacrifices." II. Of the Prophets. The Hebrews divide the prophets into the earlier and the later : the first including the four historical works of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and the Kings, the second, the prophets properly so called, with the exception of Daniel, the three major, the twelve minor prophets. 1 . Of the Early Prophets. No one knows the date or the author of any one of these books ; they all contain historical matter » Ezekiel, Ch. XX. 25, Jer. VII. 22. THE EARLY PROPHETS. 335 of doubtful character, such as the miraculous pas- sage of the Jordan ; the destruction of Jericho ; the standing still of the sun and moon at the command of Joshua ; the story of Samson ; the destruction of the Bf ujamites ; the birth and calling of Samuel ; the wonders wrought by the Ark ; the story of Saul, David and Goliah, the miraculous pestilence, of Solo- mon, Elijah, Elisha and others. Of all these, per- haps the story of Samson is the most strikingly absurd. A man of miraculous birth and miraculous strength, whose ability lay in his long hair and which went from him when his locks were shorn off. When we read in Hesiod and elsewhere, the birth and exploits of Hercules, — who bears a re- semblance to Samson in some respects, though vastly his superior on the whole — we refer the tale to human fancy in a low stage of civilization ; a mind free from prejudice will do the same with the. story of Samson.^ No one will contend that it requires a mind miraculously enlightened to pro- duce such books as these of the early prophets. They belong to the fabulous period of Jewish history. Mythology, poetry, fact and fiction, are strangely woven together. The authors, whoever they were, claim no inspiration. However, as a general rule, they contain less to offend a religious mind than the books of the Law. ' See Palfrey, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 194, et seq., and on these books in general, p. 134-300. Home, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 21G, et seq. 336 IKSPIRATION OF THE PROPHETS. 2. The Prophets, pro])e7iy so called. It may be said of these writings, in general, that they contain nothing above the reach of human facuhies. Here are noble and sjDmt-stirring appeals to men's conscience, patriotism, honor and religion ; beautiful poetic descriptions, odes, hymns, expres- sions of faith, almost beyond praise. But the mark of human infirmity is on them all, and proofs or signs of miraculous inspiration are not found in them. In the minor prophets, there is nothing wor- thy of special notice in this place, unless it be the story of Jonah, which is unique in the ancient He- brew literature, and tells its own tale. These books do not require a detailed examination.^ The greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, are more important, and require a more minute notice. In these, as well as in other prophetical books, and the Law, claim is apparently made to miraculous inspiration. " Thus saith Jehovah," is the author- ity to which the prophet appeals, " Jehovah said unto me," " The command of Jehovah came unto me," " I saw in a vision," " The spirit of Jehovah came upon me." These and similar expressions oc- cur often in the prophets. But do these phrases denote a claim to miraculous inspiration as we un- derstand it ? We limit miraculous inspiration to a few cases, where something is to be done above ' For this, see the work referred to in the preface, and Palfrey, ubi sup. Vol. II. p. 362, et seq. LANGUAGE OF THK PROPHETS. 337 human ability. Not so the Hebrews ; they did not make a sharp distinction between the miraculous and the common. All religious and moral power was regarded as the direct gift of God ; an outpouring of his spirit. God teaches David to fight ; com- mands Gideon to select his soldiers, to arise in the night and attack the foe. The Lord set his ene- mies to fight amongst themselves. He teaches Bezalcel and Aholiab. They, and all the ingenious mechanics, are filled with " the spirit of God." The same « spirit of the Lord " enables Samson to kill a lion, and many men. These instances show with what latitude the phrase is used, and how loose were the notions of inspiration.^ The Greeks also referred their works to the aid of Phoe- bus, Pallas, Minerva, Vulcan, or Olympian Jove, in the same way. It has never been rendered pro- bable that the phrase. Thus saith the Lord, and its kindred terms, were understood by the prophets or their hearers to denote any miraculous agency in the case. They employ language with the greatest freedom. Thus a waiter says, " I saw Jehovah sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple; above it stood the sera- phim." No thinking man would suppose the prophet designed to assert a fact, or that his coun- trymen understood him to do so. Certainly it is insulting to suppose a Christian would believe God See Glassius Philologia sacra ed. Dathc, Vol. !I, p. 81.5, et scq. Bauer Theologie des A. I. § 51-54, et al. 43 338 PREDICTIONS NOT COMMON. sat on a throne, with a troop of courtiers around him, like a Persian king. When a prophet says Jehovah appeared to him in a dream, he can only mean, either he dreamed Jehovah appeared, which is somewhat different, or that he chose this sym- bolical way of stating his opinion. Thus a Grecian prophet might say, " The Muse came down from high Olympus' shaggy top, and whispered unto me, her favorite son."^ Not stating a fact, he would give an outness to what passed in his mind. How- ever, if these writers claimed miraculous inspiration ever so strongly, we are not to grant it unless they abide the test mentioned above. If they utter predictions — which they rarely at- tempt — we are not to assume their fulfihuent, and then conclude the prophet was miraculously inspired, common as the method is. But what is the value of the claim made for them ? Has any one of them ever uttered a distinct, definite and unambiguous predic- tion of any future event that has since taken place, which a man without a miracle could not equally well predict ? It has never been shown. Most of the prophetic writings relate to the past and the present ; to the political, civil and moral condition of the people, at the time ; they exhort backsliding Israel to forsake his idols, return to Jehovah, live wisely and well. They state the result of obedi- ence or of disobeying for individuals and the nation. It is rare they predict distinctly and definitely ' See Cicero De Nat. Deoruin, Lib. I. Ch. I. and II. Ovid, Meta- inorph. Lib. II. G40, et seq. PREDICTION OF THE EXILE. 339 any specific event ; sometimes they declare, in the most general terms, good or ill I'ortune, the destruc- tion of a city, the defeat of an army, the downfall of a king. But in case the prediction came to pass, who shall tell us, at this distance of time, that it was not either a lucky hit, or the result of saga- cious insight? Certainly the supposition is against a miracle. The Tripod of Delphi delivered some oracles that were extraordinarily felicitous; Seneca made a very clear prediction of the discovery of America, and Lactantius of the rise and downfall of Napoleon, and Lotichius of the capture of Mag- deburg. Does the fulfilment prove the miraculous inspiration of the oracle in these cases ?^ ~ But to recur to the other test, there are state- ments in the prophets which are not true ; predic- tions that did not come to pass. Under this rubric, may be placed three of the most celebrated predic- tions in the Old Testament. 1. Jeremiah's Prediction of the Seventy Years of Exile. It was an easy thing in Jeremiah's position to see that the little nation of Judea could not hold out against the Babylonian forces, and therefore must experience the common fate of nations they con- quered, and be carried into exile.- But would ' See the work announced in the preface. * On this custom of the Chaldees, see Heeren, Ideen, Vol. I. Gesenius On Isa. XXXVI. 16. 340 ORACLE AGAINST TYRE. the Lord forsake his people ; the seed of Abra- ham ? A pious Jew could not believe it. It was unavoidable, with the common opinion of his coun- trymen, that he should expect their subsequent restoration. But why predict an exile of just seventy years, unless miraculously directed ? ^ He may have used that term for an indefinite period ; a common practice. In that case there is no mir- acle. But on the other hand, if he predicted an exile of just seventy years, the oracle w^as a failure. The people were not carried into captivity all at once. From which of the two or three times of deportation shall we set out ? The books of Kings and Chronicles differ somewhat.^ But to take the chronology of Jeremiah himself, if the passage be genuine f the exile began in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, 599 before Christ ; it was con- tinued in the year 588, and concluded in 583. The exile ended in the year 536. The longest period that can be made out extends to but sixty- three, and the shortest to but forty-seven years. To make out the seventy years we must date arbi- trarily from the year 606. 2. EzekiePs Oracle against Tyre. This prophet predicts that Nebuchadnezzar shall destroy Tyre.'' The prediction is clear and dis- 1 Jer. XXV. '•i See 2 Kings, XXIV. XXV. 2 Chron. XXXVI. 3 Jer. LII. 28 - 30 ; but see verses 4-15. See the forced combinations in Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth, Ch. V. § 43. * XXVI. l,et seq. ORACLF. ACIAINST 'I'YRK. 3U tinct ; the destruction is to be complete and total. " With the hoofs of liis horses shall he tread down all thy streets ; he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrison shall go down to the ground. . . 1 "will make thee like the top of a rock ; thou shalt be to spread nets upon ; thou shalt be built up no more." But it was not so. Nebuchadnezzar w^as obliged to raise the siege after investing the city for thirteen years, and go and fight the Egyptians. Then sixteen years after the first oracle, Ezekiel takes back his own words. " The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar . . caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus ; every head was made bald," with the chafing of the helmet, " every shoulder was peeled," with the pressure of burthens ; " yet he had no wages, nor his army from Tyrus. . . . Therefore, behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar." ^ These things speak for themselves, and show the nature of the prophetic discourses ; that they were moral addresses, or poetical odes. Ezekiel's cele- brated prediction of an impossible city,^ is a stand- ing monument of the prophetic character, and of the lasting folly of interpreters. It were easy to collect other instances of palpable mistake.^ ' XXIX. 17, et seq. See Isaiah, XXIII. and Gesenius's remarks, in his Coramentar. Vol. I. p. 711, et scq. RosenmOller, Alterth. Vol. II. Pt. I. p. 34. "^ Ch. XL.-XLVIII. ^ On the Prophecies in general, see the Essay of Prof. Sluarl, in 342 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES. 3. The alleged Predictions of Jesus as the Messiah. The Messianic prophecies are the most famous of all. It is commonly pretended that there are in the Old Testament clear and distinct predictions of Jesus of Nazareth. But I do not hesitate to say, it has never been shown that there is, in the whole of the Old Testament, one single sentence that in the plain and natural sense of the words foretells the birth, life, or death of Jesus of Nazareth. If the Scriptures have seventy-two senses, as one of the Rabbins declares, or if it foretells whatever comes to pass, as Augustine, and means all it can be made to mean, as many moderns seem to think, why predictions and types of Jesus may be found in the. first chapter of Genesis, in Noah and Abraham and Samson, as well as in Virgil's fourth Eclogue, the Odes of Horace, and the story of the Trihemerine Hercules. The Messianic expectations and prophecies seem to have originated in this way : After the happy and successful period of David and Solomon, the kingdom was divided into Judah and Israel, the two tribes and the ten, the national prosperity declined. Pious men hoped for better times ; they naturally connected these hopes with a personal deliverer ; a descendant of David, their most popular king. The Bib. Rep. Vol. II. p. 217, et seq. of Hengstenberg, ibid. p. 139, et seq. See also the able Essay of Knobel Prophetismus der Hebraer, Vol. I. Einleit. .* MESSIANIC PROPHECIES. 343 deliverer would unite the two kingdoms under the old form. A poetic fancy endowed him with won- derful powers ; made liim a model of goodness. Different poets arrayed their expected hero in imaginary drapery to suit their own conceptions. Malachi gives him a forerunner. The Jews were the devoutest of nations ; the popular deliverer must be a religious man. They were full of pious faith ; so the darker the present, the brighter shone the Pharos of Hope in the future. Some- times this deliverer was called the Messiah ; this term is not common in the Old Testament, how- ever, but is sometimes applied to Cyrus by the Pseudo-Isaiah.^ These hopes and predictions of a deliverer in- volved several important things : A reunion of the divided tribes ; a return of the exiles ; the triumph and extension of the kingdom of Israel, its eternal duration and perfect happiness ; idolatry was to be rooted out ; the nations improved in morals and religion ; Truth and Righteousness were to reign ; Jehovah to be reconciled with his people ; all of them w ere to be taught of God ; other nations were to come up to Jerusalem, and be blessed. But the Mosaic Law was to be eternal ; the old ritual to last forever ; Jerusalem to be the capital of the Messianic kingdom, and the Jewish nation to be reestablished in greater pomp than in the times of ' Many chapters of Isaiah have been shown to be spurious. Tlie pas- sages, Chap. XLI.-LXVI.; XIII.-XIV. ; XXIII.-XXVII.; XXXIV. XXXV., are of this character. 344 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES. David. Are these predictions of Jesus of Naza- reth ? He was not the Messiah of Jewish expecta- tion ; of the prophets' foretelling. The farthest from it possible. The predictions demanded a po- litical and visible kingdom in Palestine, with Jeru- salem for its capital, and its ritual the old Law. The Kingdom of Jesus is not of this world. The ten tribes — have they come back to the home of their fathers ? They have perished and are swal- lowed up in the tide of the nations, no one know- ing the place of their burial. The kingdom of the two tribes soon went to the ground. These are notorious facts. The Jews are right when they say, their predicted Messiah has not come. Does the Old Testament foretell a suffering Saviour, his kingdom not of this world ; crucified ; raised from the dead f The idea is foreign to the Hebrew Scriptures. Well might a Jew ask, " Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ? " To trust the uncertain record of the New Testament, Jesus was slow to accept the name of the Messiah ; he knew the " people would take him by force and make him a king." But what means the triumphal entry into Jerusalem ? He forbids his disciples to speak of his Messiahship : " See that thou tell no man of it ;" only proclaims it at Samaria ; lets John draw his own inference, whether or not he must " look for another ;" thinks Simon Peter could only find it out by inspiration. Was it not that he knew he was not the Messiah of the prophets, so never formally assumed the title ; but, knowing that he Till". WRITINGS. 345 was the true and only dclivcror, a thousand times greater than tlieir impossible Messiah, suffered the name to be affixed to him, and made the most of the popuhir Idea ? Or, was he himself mistaken ? It concerns us little ; but this remains, that he was much more than the Jews looked for. The Jewish Christians mistook the matter ; Paul would prove that he was the Messiah of the prophets. Mistakes in Theology, like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, are repeated again and again, in fantastic combina- tions.^ III. The Writings. Under this head are comprised the remaining books of the Old Testament. Here is the dra- matic poem of Job, a work of surprising beauty, and full of truth. But its author denies the im- mortality of the soul, and though he attempts " to justify the ways of God to man," he yet leaves the question undecided as he found it. In the Psalms we have beautiful prayers, mixed up with their local occasions ; penitential hymns, songs of praise, expressions of hope, faith, trust in God, that have never been surpassed. The devotion of some of these sweet lyrics is beyond praise. But at the ' See De Wette, Dogmatik, §137-142. Opuscula, I. p. 23-31. The numerous Christologies of modern times, and the Introductions to the Old Testament. See also Strauss. Leben Jesu. § 60-68. Hcnnell, ubi sup. Chap. I -II. and XII. -XIII. See also Bretschneider, Dogmatik, §30, 34, (p. 356, ctseq.) §137, (p. 166, et scq ) Hahn, Knapp, Hase, VVegBcheider, &.c., and Hengstenberg's Christology. 44 346 THE WRITIJNGS. same time here are the most awful denunciations that speech ever spoke. In the following passage the writer denounces his enemies.^ " Set thou a wicked man over him. Let Satan stand at his right hand ; when he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few ; let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg. . . . Let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children." These are the words of a man angry and revengeful. The Psalms abound with similar imprecations. To maintain they came directly from the God of love is to forget Reason, Conscience, and Religion, which teach us to love our enemies, to pray for them that persecute us. The book of Proverbs and the Song of Songs speak for them- selves, and neither need nor claim any more inspi- ration than other collections of Proverbs or Oriental amatory Idyls. The latter belongs to the same class with the writings of Anacreon. The some- what doubtful book of Ecclesiastes seems to be the work of a skeptic. He denies the immortality of the soul with great clearness ; thinks wisdom and folly are alike vanity. Though he concludes most touch- iugly in praise of virtue on the whole, and declares the fear of God, and keeping his commandments is the whole of man, yet this conclusion is vitiated ' Ps. CIX. 6, et seq. See also Ps, CXXXVII. .* THR BOOK OF DANIEL. 347 by the former precept, " Be not righteous over much." The Lamentations of Jeremiah have as little claim to inspiration.' Tlie historical books of this division present some peculiarities. Ezra and Nehemiah are valuable historical documents, though imj)licit faith is by no means to be placed in them. The book of Esther is entirely devoid of religious interest, and seems to be a romance designed to show that the Jews will always be provided for. The brief book of Ruth may be an historical or a fictitious work. The book of Daniel is a perfect unique in the Old Testament. It professes to have been written by a captive Jew, at Babylon, in the beginning of the sixth century before Christ ; it contains ac- counts of surprising miracles, dreams, visions, men cast into a den of lions and a furnace of fire, yet escaping unhurt ; a man transformed to a beast, and eating grass like an ox for some years, and then restored to human shape ; a miraculous and spec- tral hand-writing on the palace wall ; grotesque fancies that remind us of the Arabian Nights, and the Talmud. To judge from internal evidence, it was written in the first part of the second century, perhaps about one hundred and eighty-seven years before Christ, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. The author seems to have a political and moral end in view, and to write for the encouragement of his ' See Leclerc's Five Letters concerning the Inspiration, &c., Lond. 1G90, and on the other hand, William Lowth's vindication of tlie Divine Authority, &c. Lond. 1G99, and Gaussen and Home, ubi sup. 348 THE CHRONICLES. countrymen, perhaps designing his work shoukl pass for what it is, a politico-religious romance.^ All of the books hitherto mentioned seem written by earnest men, with no intention to deceive. Their manly honesty is everywhere apparent. But the book of Chronicles is of a very different character. Here is an obvious attempt on the writer's part to exalt the character of orthodox kings, and depress that of heretical kings ; to bring forward the Priests and the Levites, and give every thing a ceremonial appearance. This design will be obvious to any one who reads the stories in Chronicles, and then turns to the parallel passages in Samuel and Kings.^ To take but a single instance ; the writer of the book of Samuel gives an account of David ; tells of his good and evil qualities ; does not pass over his cruelty, nor extenuate his sin. But in Chronicles there is not a word of this ; nothing of the crime of imperial adultery ; nothing of Nathan's rousing apologue, and Thou-art-the-man. The thing speaks for itself. Now if these books have any divine authority, what shall we do with such contradictions ; deny the fact ? We hve too long after Dr. Faustus for so easy a device. Shall we say, with a modern divine. The true believer will accept both state- ments with the same implicit faith ? This also may be doubtful. • See the work announced in the preface, Vol. II. § 253, et seq. ' The passages are conveniently arranged for this purpose, side by side, in Jahn's edition of the Hebrew Bible. MYTHOLOGY IN THE BIBLE. 349 To look back upon the iicld we have passed, it must be confessed that the claims made for the Old Testament have no foundation in fact ; its books, like others, have a mingling of good and evil. We see a gradual progress of idi^as therein, keeping pace with the civilization of the world. Vestiges of ignorance, superstition, foil j, of unreclaimed selfish- ness, yet linger there. Fact and fiction are strangely blended ; the common and miraculous, the divine and the human run into one another. We find rude notions of God in some parts, though in others the most lofty. Here, the moral and religious senti- ment are insulted ; there, is beautiful instruction for both. Human imperfections meet us everywhere in the Old Testament. The passions of man are ascribed to God. The Jews had a mythology as well as the Greeks. They transform law into mir- acles ; earth into a dream-land ; it rains manna for eight and thirty years, and the smitten rock pours out water. We see a gradual progress in this as in all mythologies. First, God appears in person; walks in the garden in the cool of the day; eats and drinks ; makes contracts with his fav'orites ; is angry, resentful, sudden and quick in quarrel, and changes his plans, at the advice of a cool man. Then it is the angel of God who appears to man. It is deemed fatal for man to see Jehovah. His messenger comes to Manoah, and vanishes in the flame of the sacrifice ; the angel of Jehovah appears to David. Next it is only in dreams, visions, types, and symbols that the Most High approaches his 350 PROGRESS OF IDEAS. children. He speaks to them by night ; comes in the rush of thoughts, but is not seen. The per- sonal Form, and the visible Angel, have faded and disappeared as the daylight assumed its power. The nation advanced ; its Religion and mythology advanced with it. Then again, sometimes God is represented as but a local deity ; Jacob is surprised to find Him in a foreign land ; next he is only the God of the Hebrews. At last, the only living AND TRUE God. There is a similar progress in the notions of the service God demands. Abraham must offer Isaac ; with Moses, slain beasts are suffi- cient ; Micah has outgrown the Mosaic form in some respects, and says, " Shall Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams ; shall I give the first-born of my body for the sin of my soul ? What doth Jehovah requirfi of thee, but to do Justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?" A spiritual man in the midst of a formal people saw the pure truth which they saw not. Does the Old Testament claim to be master of the soul ? By no means ; it is only a phantom conjured up by super- stition that scares us in our sleep. Does the truth it contains make it a miraculous book ? It is poor logic which thinks what is false can cease to be false, though never so many wonders are wrought in its defence.^ ' On the Old Testament, its authors' inspiration, &c. see some valua- ble remarks in Spinoza, Tract, theol. polit. Ch. I.-X. XII.-XIII. CHAPTER III. AN EXAMINATION OF THE CLAIMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TO BE A DIVINE, MIRACULOUS, OR INFALLIBLE COMPOSITION. Let us look the facts of the New Testament also in the face. Some men are glad to abandon the Old Testament to the Jews, but fear to look into the foundation of the Christian Scriptures, lest it be found sandy. Does much depend on the New Testament? Then the more carefully must its claims be examined. Truth courts the light, its deeds never evil. Are the writings of the New Testament divine, miraculous, and infallible com- positions; if the Old Testament fail — the only infallible rule of religious faith and practice? Such is the prevalent opinion with us.^ After what was said above respecting the points to be proved before such a conchision could be admitted, it becomes less difficult to decide this question. The general remarks respecting the inspiration of the Old Tes- ' See Faustus Socinus De Auctoritate Sac. Script. Ch. I. Here he defends the Scriptures against Christians, and Ch. II. against tlie not Christians. 352 SPURIOUS BOOKS. tament apply also to the new,^ and need not be re- peated. Bearing these in mind, let us subject these writings to the same test. To do this we must examine the works themselves. This general thesis may be laid down : All the writings in the New Testament, as well as the Old, contain marks of their human origin, of human weakness and im- perfection. Now in the New Testament as in the Old, w^e have spurious works mixed with the genuine. To separate the former from the latter, is not an easy work, perhaps not possible, at this day. How- ever there are some books of unquestionable genu- ineness, and others whose spurious character is almost demonstrated. Modern criticism and an- cient authority seem to decide that the Epistle to the Hebrews is not the work of Paul, but of some unknown author ; that the second Epistle of Peter is not from that apostle, but from one who, as Scaliger said, "abused his leisure time ;" the se- cond and third of John ; the Epistles of James and Jude are not from the apostohc persons whose names they bear ; and that the book of the Revela- tion is not the w^ork of John the Evangelist. Ob- jections have been brought against some other epis- tles, which however do not appear so well founded, and against some of the Evangelists which will be presently alluded to. Then, if the above remarks be correct, there are seven works in the New Testament whose claim to apostolical authority is ' See above, B. IV. Ch. I. and II. THE LETTERS OF THE APOSTLES. 353 doubted with more or less reason. As these dis- puted writings themselves are not of any great practical importance in this connection, even if gen- uine, they may be neglected in the present exami- nation.^ If the other writings, whose claim to an apostolic origin is stronger, are not found miraculous and infallible, still less shall be expected of these. The rest of the New Testament may be divided into the epistolary and the historical wntings. I. Of the Epistolary Writings of the New Testament. These are the oldest Christian documents ; the works of Paul, Peter, and John, the most illustrious of the early disciples, the " chiefest apostles," and most instrumental in founding the Christian church. If any of the early Christians received miraculous inspiration, it must be the apostles ; if any of the apostles, it must be one, or all, of these three. To determine their claims, the works of the three may be examined together, for the sake of brevity. Now at the first view of these fifteen epistles, it does not appear that any miraculous inspiration was required to wiite these more than the letters of St. Cyprian or Fenelon. They contain nothing above the reach of human faculties, and to assume 1 The non-apostolical origin of these seven books is by no means f zed and agreed upon by all the critics. See, who will, the discussions in the Introductions of Michaclis, Hug. do Wette, and the numerous mono- grams on these points. Some information may be found in a popular shape, in the little work of Olshauscn, Genuineness of tlie New Testa- ment ; Andover, 1838. 45 354 IJNSPIRATION OF THE APOSTLES. a miraculous agency is contrary to the inductive method, to say the least of it. Do the writers ever claim a. peculiar and miracu- lous inspiration ? The farthest from it possible. Paul speaks of his inspiration, but admits that, of all Christians, " No man can say Jesus is the Lord," that is, Christianity is true, " but by the Holy Ghost." He refers wisdom, faith, eloquence, learning, slUU in the interpretation of tongues, ability to teach, or heal diseases, to inspira- tion. " All these worketh that one and self-same spirit."^ The Spirit of Christ was in all Christian hearts ; they all received the " Spirit of God." That was Paul's view of inspiration. He and his fellow-apostles were servants that helped others to believe. He had the gift of teaching in a more eminent degree, and enjoyed a greater " abundance of revelations," and therefore taught. John carries the doctrine of the universal inspiration of Christ- ians still farther. Now, if the apostles had this miraculous and peculiar inspiration, and through modesty, did not state it, they must yet have known the fact. But it is notorious they taught not in the name of any private inspiration, but in that of Jesus.^ But even if the apostles claimed miraculous and 1 1 Cor. XII. 1, et seq. * This point has been ably touched by Spinoza, Tract, theol. polit. Chap. XI. ed. Paulus. Vol. I. p. 315, et seq. From him both Leclerc, (Lettres des quelques Juifs), Rich. Simon, (Hist. Grit, du V. T.) seem to have drawn some of their stores. See also the acute remarks of Les- sing, Werke, ed. Carlsruhe, 1824, Vol. XXIV. p. 84, et seq. DIFFICULTIES OF THE APOSTLES, 355 infallible inspiration, and taught with authority they pretended to derive therefrom, still their claim could not be granted, for, if infallibly inspired, they must be ready for all emergencies. Now a prac- tical question arose in a novel case, which was a test of their inspiration : Should they admit the Gentiles to Christianity ? The book of Acts re- lates, that Peter required a special and miraculous vision to enlighten him on this head. He seems surprised to find that " God is no respecter of persons," but will allow all religious men of any nation to become Christians.^ Had he been mira- culously inspired before, to what purpose the vision ? If the apostles were infallibly inspired, they could not disagree on any point. Now another question comes up : Shall the Gentiles keep the old ceremo- nial Law of Moses, and be circumcised ?" It would seem that men of common freedom of thought, who had heard the sermon on the mount, would not need miraculous help to decide so plain a question. If they had the alleged inspiration, each must know at once how to decide, and all would decide in the same w^ay without consultation. But such was not the fact ; they were divided on this very question — plain as it is — and held a meeting of the Christians ; the " apostles and elders came to- gether to consider this matter." It was not a plain case, there was " much disputing " about it. Peter, ' Acts X. 1, et seq. From this we need not conclude, with Hennel, tliat Jesus was of the same narrow way of thinking with his disciples. ^ Acts XV. ],et seq. 356 MISTAKES OF THE APOSTLES. Barnabas, and Paul, spoke against the Law ; James, as chairman of the meeting, sums up the matter before putting the question, takes a middle ground, proposes a resolution that all the Mosaic ritual should not be imposed upon the Gentile con- verts, but only a few of its prohibitions, which he reckons " necessary things." He comes to this con- clusion, not by special inspiration — of which no mention is made in the meeting — but from Peter's statement of facts, and from a passage in the Pro- phet who says, that " all the Gentiles might seek after the Lord." The question was put ; the chair- man's motion prevailed ; a circular was drawn up in the name of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, and sent to the Churches. But Paul and Peter seem to have disregarded it, one going beyond, the other falling short of its requisitions. Then, again, the apostles differed on some points. Paul and Barnabas had a sharp discussion, and se- parated.^ Could infallible men fall out ? Paul had little respect for those " that were apostles before him," and " withstood Peter to the face." ^ These Apostles were mistaken in several things ; in their interpretation of the Old Testament, as any one may see by examining the passages cited by Peter in the Acts,^ or those of Paul.'' They were all mistaken in this capital doctrine : That Jesus ' Acts XV. 39. « Gal. I. ll-H. 14. » Acts II. 14-21, 25-34, III. 18, 21-24, IV. 25, 26, et al. * Gal. IV. 24, et seq. ; 1 Cor. X. 4, et seq., et al. THE EVANGELISTS. 357 would return to Judea, the general resurrection and judgment take place and the world he destroyed within a very few years, during the life-time of the Apostles. This is a very strongly marked feature in their teaching.^ From the douhtful epistle ascrihed to Peter, it seems that as times went by and the world continued, scoffers very naturally doubted the truth of this opinion,^ but were assured it would hold good. II. Of the Historical IVritings of the New Tes- tament. Here we have, apparently, the works of Matthew and John, two of the immediate disciples of Jesus, and of Mark and Luke, the companions of Peter and Paul. The first question is, have we really the works of these four writers ? It is a question which can by no means be readily and satisfactorily answered in the affirmative. However, it cannot be entered upon in this place ;' but admitting, in argument, the works are genuine, at the first view. ' See the essay of Mr. Norton on this point, in Statement of Reasons, &c., p. 297, et seq., and De Potter, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. cxl. et seq. ' 2 Pet. II. 4, et seq. ' On the afSrmative side, see Paley, Evidences, Pt. I.; the masterly Treatise of Mr. Norton, Genuineness of the Gospels ; Prof. Stuart's Review of it in Bib. Rep. for 1S37-8 ; and Lardner's Credibilit}', &c. See, on the other side, the popular but important remarks of Hennel, ubi sup. Ch. III.- VI. Strauss. Glaubenslehre, § 15; and the Life of Jesus, by Strauss, Theile, Neander, &c., «fec. ; the Introductions of Hug. De Wette and Credner. See also Bruno Baur's Kritik der evang. Geschichte des Johannes, 1840. 358 THE STRIKING DISAGREEMENT there seems no need of miraculous inspiration in the case of honest men wishing to relate what they had seen, heard or felt. It is not easy to see why miraculous and infallible inspiration was needed to write the memoirs of Jesus and the Acts of the Apostles more than the memoirs of Socrates, or the Acts of the Martyrs. The writers never claim such an inspiration. Matthew and Mark never speak of themselves as writers ; Luke refers to certain " eye- witnesses and ministers of the Word " as his au- thority for the facts of the Gospel. John claims it as little as the others, though an unknown writer, at the end of his Gospels, testifies to the truth of the narrative.^ But even if they made this claim, so often made for them, it could not be granted, for their testimony does not agree. The Jesus of the Synoptics differs very widely from the Jesus of John, in his actions, discourses and general spiritual character, as much as the Socrates of Xenophon from that of Plato. This point was acknowledged by the Fathers. But not to dwell on a general disagreement, nor to come down to the perpetual and well known disagreement in minute details, there is a most striking differ- ence between the genealogies of Jesus, as given by Matthew and Luke. Both agree that Jesus was descended from David by the father's side : but Matthew counts twenty-five ancestors between David and Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Luke enu- ' Luke I. 1, et seq. (See Acts I. 1, et seq ) John XXI. 24. ,ip' OF THE EVANGELISTS. 339 merates forty-two ancestors, of whom thirty-eight arc never mentioned by Matthew ; one derives his descent from the ilhistrious Solomon, the other from the obscure Nathan ; one makes Nazareth his birth- place, the other Bethlehem. They disagree, like- wise, in numerous particulars of the early history, such as the miraculous appearance of the star, the Magi, the flight into Egypt, the songs, the angels and the dreams.^ Yet notwithstanding these gene- alooies, both agree that Jesus had no human father, a fact never referred to by Mark or John, by Peter or Paul, nor by Jesus himself, or the people about him, who took him for the son of Joseph the car- penter. If he had no human father, how was he descended from David ? Are we to believe a mira- cle so surprising, on the doubtful statement of two men whom we know nothing of, but who contradict themselves and one another, and relate the strangest marvels ? Is it a part of Religion to believe such stories ? What else would we believe on such evi- dence ? It were easy to point out other disagree- ments in the words, and actions, and predictions ascribed to Jesus ; in the accounts of his resurrection and the impossible events of his subsequent history, but it is not needed for the present purpose.^ The 1 See these discrepancies ably stated by Mr. Norton, ubi sup. p. liii. et seq. , and Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 19-38, and the popular statement in Harwood, ubi sup. p. 20, et seq. ; Hennel, ubi sup. Ch. III. V. Compare the Apocryphal Gospels in Theile, Codex Apocryphus, N. T. Leips. 1832, Vol. I. " See, who will, Evanson, Dissonance of the Evangelists, Gloucester, 1805; Strauss, § 132-142; Wolfenbattel. Fragment. UeberAuferstehlungs- geschichte, and the numerous replies. 360 CHRISTIAJMITY AND ITS DOCUMENTS. book of the Acts, of a mjthical and legendary char- acter, requires no special examination. These things do not militate with the fairness of the Evangelists. Had they been deceivers, we should not have had their narrative, — so beautiful, so touching, so stamped with reality in some parts, with simple-heartedness in all, — but a consistent and lawyer-like " statement of facts " with reflec- tions. But throughout the whole there is not a word of admiration or even sympathy bestowed upon Jesus. The honesty of the writers seems beyond question. This, however, must be admitted, that the facts of the case will not warrant the claim of miraculous and infallible inspiration that is made for them, and that w^e are to examine with great caution before we accept their statements, which, in detail, have but a low degree of historical credi- bility. These facts cannot be hushed up, nor put out of sight ; we must look them in the face. They have pained already many a breaking heart, who could not separate the truth of Christianity from the errors of its record — felt with groans that could not be uttered. It need not be so. Christianity is one thing ; the Christian documents a very different matter. In them, as in the Old Testament, there is a mythology ; the natural and the supernatural are confounded. The Gospels cannot be taken as historical " authorities," until a searching criticism has separated their mythological and legendary nar- NATURAL ORIGIN OF THE RECORD. 361 ratives, for what is purely a matter-of-fact. Some attempt to remove the difficulty by striking out the offensive passages/ and others by e.\i)laiirmg them away, and still claim miraculous infallibility for all the rest, which the writers never claim for them- selves nor allow one another. Let us rest on things as they are ; not base our church on things that are not. It may be asked : If there is no foundation of fact for the miraculous part of the narrative, why did the writers dwell so much on this part ? The question may be asked in the case of the catholic miracles; those of St. Bernard; of witchcraft and pos- sessions before named. It is difficult at least to de- termine what lay at the bottom of the matter. But this is a fixed point, that Devils, Ghosts and Witches only appear where they were previously believed in, and there they continually appear ; " imagination bodies forth the forms of things not seen." The Catholic sees the Virgin, and the Mormonite finds miracles today. Will not the same cause — what- ever it be — help to explain the visions of Paul, the angels, and miracles of the New Testament ? It is not many years since the divines of New Eng- land made collections of accounts of the devil appearing to men. If a religious teacher should appear at the time and place as Jesus appeared, it would be surprising, almost beyond belief, if mirac- ulous tales were not connected with his birth, life ' See Norton, Genuineness, p. liii. et seq. 46 362 GOSPELS DO JXOT EXAGGERATE. and death. Antiquity is full of sons of God, and wonderworkers. The story of Lazarus, and even that of the Ascension, is not without its parallels. But if all the charges against the New Testament are true, what then ? Why, this ; honest men ; noble, pious, simple-hearted men ; the zealous Apostles of Christianity ; the first to espouse it ; willing to leave all, comfort, friends, life for its sake, after all, were but men, such as are born in these days, fallible, like ourselves ; they shared like us, the ignorance and superstition of the times, and though earnest in looking saw not all things, but, as the wisest of them said, " through a glass, darkly," and made some confusion among things they did see. Do we ask infallible evidence to prove that Jesus lived a divine life ? We can have no such testimony. We know that if he taught absolute Religion, Christianity is absolutely true ; that if he did not teach it, still absolute Religion remains, the everlasting Rock of Faith, in spite of the defects of historical evidence, or the limitations of this or lhat man. Has the New Testament exaggerated the greatness and embellished the beauty of Jesus ? Measure his religious doctrine by that of the time and place he lived in, or that of any time and any place ! Yes, by the doctrine of eternal truth. Con- sider what a work his words and deeds have wrought in the world ; that he is still the way, the truth and the LIFE to millions ; that he is reckoned a God by the mass of Christians, his Word their standard of THE GREATNESS OF JESUS. 363 truth, his Life the Ideal they see too for above them in the Heavens for their imitation ; remem- ber that the greatest minds have seen no farther, and add(>d nodiing to the doctrine of Religion ; that the richest hearts have felt no deeper, and added nothing to the sentiment of Religion ; have set no loftier aim, no truer method than his of perfect LOVE TO GOD AND MAN, and then ask, Have the Evangelists overrated him ? We can learn few facts about Jesus ; but measure him by the shadow he has cast into the world ; no, by the light he has shed upon it, not by things in which Hercules was his equal, and Vishnu his superior. Shall we be told, Such a man never lived ; the whole story is a lie ? Suppose that Plato and Newton never lived ; that their story is a lie. But who did their works, and thought their thought ? It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus ? None but a Jesus. CHAPTER IV. THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION INDEPENDENT OF HISTORICAL DOCU- MENTS THE BIBLE AS IT IS. This doctrine of the infallible inspiration of the Scriptures has greater power with Christians at this day than in Paul's time. In the first ages of Christianity, each apostle was superior to the Old Testament. There were no Scriptures to rely on, for the New Testament was not written, and the Old Testament was hostile. The Law stood in their way, a law of sin and death ; the greatest prophets were inferior to John the Baptist, and the least in the Christian kingdom was greater than he ;^ all before Jesus were " thieves and robbers " in comparison. Yet Christianity stood without the Old Testament. It went forward without it ; made converts and produced a wondrous change in the world. The Old Testament was the servant, not the master of the early Christians. Each church ' The opinion of some disciples about the excellence of that kingdom may be seen in Irenaeus, Lib. II. Ch. 33, where he speaks of the Vine- Stocks. THE BIBLE AS IT IS. 365 used what it saw fit. Some had the whole of the Old Testament ; some but a part ; others added the Apocrypha, for tliere was no settled canon, " published by authority, and appointed to be read in churches." So it was with the New Testament. Some received more than we, others less. Such men as Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, refer to some other books, just as they quote the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament was less certain than the Old. Men followed usage, tradition, or good sense in this matter, and at last the present collection was fixed by authority. But by what test were its limits decided ? Alas, by no certain criterion.^ Let us look at things as they are. Here is a collection of ancient books, spurious and genuine, Hebrew and Greek. The one part belongs to a mode of worship, formal, and obsolete ; the other to a relio;ion, actual, spiritual, still alive. The one gives us a Jehovah jealous and angry ; the other a Father full of love. Each writer in both divisions proves by his imperfections that the earth did not formerly produce a different race of men. They contradict one another, and some relate what no testimony can render less than absurd ; but yet all taken together, spite of their imperfections and ' On the use of the New Testament in the early times, see Credner, Beitrilge zur Einleit, in biblischen schriften. Ch. I. p. ] - 90. MOnscher Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte, Vol. I. § 30-84. Augusti, Christli- chen Archftologie, Vol. VI. p. I -244, and tiie work referred to in tlie Preface, Vol. I. § 18-29. 363 WISE USE OF THE BIBLE. positive faults, form such a collection of religious writings as the world never saw, so deep, so rich, so divine. Are not the Hebrew Psalms still the best part of the Sunday service in the church ? Truly there is but one Religion for the Jew, the Gentile and the Christian, though many theologies for each. Now, unless we reject this treasure entirely, one of two things must be done : either we must pretend to believe the whole, absurdities and all ; make one part just as valuable as the other, the Law of Moses as the Gospel of Jesus, David's curse, as Christ's blessing, — and then we make the Bible our mas- ter, who puts Common Sense and Reason to silence, and drives Conscience and the religious Sentiment out of the church : or else we must accept what is true, good and divine therein ; take each part for what it is worth ; gather the good together, and leave the bad to itself — and then we make the Bible our servant and helper, who assists common Sense and Reason, stimulates Conscience and Reli- gion, CO working with them all. A third thing is not possible. Which shall be done ? The practical answer was given long ago; it has always been given, except in times of fanatical excitement. Because there is chaff and husks in the Bible, are we to eat thereof, when there is bread enough, and to spare ? Pious men neglect what does not edify. Who reads gladly, the curses of the Psalmist ; chapters that THE BIBLE QUESTION. 367 make God a man of war, a jealous God, the butcher of the nations ? Certainly but few. Let them be exhorted to repentance. Men cannot gather grapes of thorns, grasp them never so lovingly ; honest men will leave the thorns, or pluck them up. Now Criticism — which the tiiinking character of the age demands — asks men to do consciously, and thoroughly what they have always done imperfectly and with no science but that of a pious heart ; that is, to divide the Word rightly ; separate mythology from history, fact from fiction, what is religious and of God, from what is earthly and not of God ; to take the Bible for what it is worth. Fearful of the issue we may put off the question a few years ; may insist as strongly as ever on what we know to be false ; ask men to believe it, because in the records, and thus drive bad men to hypocrisy, good men to madness, and thinking men to " infidelity ;" we may throw obstacles in the way of Religion and Morality, and tie the millstone of the Old and New Testaments about the neck of Piety as before. We may call men " Infidels and Atheists," whom Reason and Religion compel to uplift their voice against the idolatry of the church ; or we may at- tempt to smooth over the matter, and say nothing about it, or not what we think. But it will not do. The day of Fire and Fagots is ended ; the tooth- less " Guardian of the Faith " can only bark. The question will come, though alas for that man by whom it comes. 368 THE BIBLE AND THE KORAN. Other religions have their sacred books, their Ko- rans, Vedas, Shasters, which must be received in spite of Reason, as masters of the soul. Some would put the Bible on the same ground. They glory in believing whatever is prefaced with a Thus-saith- the-Lord ; but then all superiority of the Bible over these books disappears forever ; the day-light gives place to the shadow ; the Law of Sin and Death casts out the Law of the Spirit of Life. Let honest Reason and Religion pursue their own way. CHAPTER V. CAUSE OF THE FALSE AND THE REAL VENERATION FOR THE BIBLE. The indolent and the sensual love to have a vis- ible master in spiritual things, who will spare them the agony of thought. Creduhty, Ignorance, and Superstition conjure up phantoms to attend them. Some honest men find it difficult to live nobly and divine ; to keep the well of life pure and undisturb- ed, the inward ear always open and quick to the voice of God in the soul. They see too, how often the ignorant, the wicked, the superstitious and the fanatical confound their own passions with the still small voice of God ; they see what evil, deep and dreadful, comes of this confusion. Such is the force of prejudice, indolence, habit, they find it sometimes difficult to distinguish between right and wrong ; they love to lean on the Most High, and the Bible is declared His word. They say, there- fore, by their action. Let us have some outward rule and authority, which, being infallible, shall help the still smallness of God's voice in the heart ; it 47 370 CONSEQUENCE OF THIS DOCTRINE. will bless us when weak ; we will make it our master and obey its voice. It shall be to us as a God, and we will fall down and worship it. But alas, it is not so. The word of God — no Scripture will hold that. It speaks in a language no honest mind can fail to read. Such seem the most prom- inent causes that have made the Bible an Idol of the Christians. No doubt it will be said, " Such views are dan- gerous, for the mass of men must always take Au- thority for Truth, not Truth for Authority." But are they not true ? If so the consequences are not ours ; they belong to the Author of truth, who can manage his own affairs, without our meddling. Is the wrong way safer than the right ? No doubt it was reckoned dangerous to abandon the worship of Diana, of the cross, the saints and their re- liques ; but the world stands, though " the image that fell down from Jupiter " is forgotten. If these doctrines be true, men need not fear they shall have no " standard of religious faith and practice." Reason, Conscience, Religion still remain ; God's voice is Nature ; His Word is the Soul. His Laws remain ever unchanged, though we set up our idols or pluck them down. We still have the same guide with Moses and David, Socrates and Zoroas- ter, Paul and John and Luther, Fenelon, Taylor and Fox ; yes the same guide that led Jesus, the first-born of many brothers, in his steep and lonely pilgrimage. EXCELLENCE OF THE BIBLE. 37 1 This doctrine takes nothing from the Bible but its errors, which only weaken its strength ; its truth remains, brilliant and burning in the light of life. It calls us away from each outward standard to the eternal truths of God ; from the letter and the im- perfect Scripture of the Word to the living Word itself. Then we see the true relation the Bible sustains to the soul ; the cause of the real esteem in which it is held is seen to be in its moral and re- ligious truths ; their power and loveliness appear. These have had the greatest influence on the loftiest minds and the lowliest hearts for eighteen hundred years. How they have written themselves all over the world, deepest in the best of men ! What greatness of soul has been found amid the fragrant leaves of the Bible, sufficient to lead men to em- brace its truths, though at the expense of accepting tales which make the blood curdle ! Take the Bible for what is true in it, and the first chapter of Genesis is a grand hymn of crea- tion, a worthy prelude of the sublime chants that follow ; it sings this truth : The world was not always ; is not the work of chance, but of the living God. All things are good, made to be blest. The writer — who, perhaps, never thought he was writing " an article of faith " — if he were a Jew, might superstitiously refer the Sabbath to the time of creation and the agency of God, just as the Greek refers one festival to Hercules, and another to Bacchus. Then oriental Piety comes beautiful from the grave hewn in the rock by our dull The- 372 EXCELLENCE OF THE BIBLE. ology ; utters her word of counsel and hope ; sings her mythological poem, and warms the heart, but does not teach theology, or physical science. The sweet notes of David's prayer ; his mystic hymn of praise, so full of rippling life ; his lofty Psalm, which seems to unite the warbling music of the wind, the sun's glance, and the rush of the lightning ; which calls on the mountain and the sea, and beast, and bird, and man, to join his full heart, — all these shall be sweet and elevating, but we shall leave his pernicious curse to perish where it fell. The excellence of the Hebrew devotional hymns has never been surpassed. Heathenism, Chris- tianity, with all their science, arts, literature, bright and many-colored, have little that approach these. They are the despair of imitators ; still the uttered prayer of the Christian world. Tell us of Greece, whose air was redolent of song ; its language such as Jove might speak ; its sages, heroes, poets, honored in every clime, — they have no psalm of prayer and praise like these Hebrews, the devoutest of men, who saw God always before them, ready to take them up when father and mother let them fall. The old prophets were men of stalwart and robust character, set off by a masculine piety that puts to shame our puny littleness of heart. They saw hope the plainest when danger was most im- minent, and never despaired. Fear of the people, the rulers, the priests, could not awe them to silence, nor gold buy smooth things from the EXCELLENCE OF THE BIBLE. 373 prophet's tongue. They left Hypocrisy, with his weeds and weepers, and feigning but unstained handkerchief, to follow the coffin he knew to be empty, and went their own way, as men. What shall screen the guilty from the prophet's word ? Even David is met with a Thou-art-the-man. What if they were stoned, imprisoned, sawn asun- der ? It was a prophet's reward. They did not prophecy smooth things ; they gave the truth and took blows, not asking love for love. If these men are set up as masters of the soul, Justice must break her staff over their heads. But view them as patriots whom danger aroused from the repose of life, — as pious men awakened by concern for the public virtue, and nobler men never spoke speech. Out from the heart of Nature rolled The burdens of the Bible old. Little needs now be said of the New Testament, of the simple truth that rustles in its leaves, its parables, epistles, where Paul lifts up his manly voice, and John pours out the mystic melody of his faith. Why tell of the deep words of Jesus ? Have we exhausted their meaning ? The world — has it outgrown love to God and man ? They still act in gentle bosoms, giving strength to the strong, and justice and meekness and charity and faith to beau- tiful souls, long tried and oppressed. There is no need of new words to tell of this. Now it is not in nature to respect the false, and yet reverence the true. Call the Bible master — 374 SINS JUSTIFIED BY THE BIBLE. we do not see the excellence it has. Take it as other books, we have its beauty, truth, Religion', not its deformities, fables, and theology. We shall not believe in ghosts, though Isaiah did ; nor in devils, though Jesus teach there are such. We shall see the excellence of Paul in his manly char- acter, not in the miracles wrought by his apron ; the nobleness of Jesus, in the doctrine he taught and the life he lived, not in the walk on the water or the miraculous draughts of fish. We shall care little about the " endless genealogies and old-wives' fables," though still deemed essential by many — but much for being good and doing good. Our faith — let him shake down the Andes who has an arm for that work. On the other hand, he that accepts the monstrous prodigies of the Gospels ; is delighted to believe that Jesus laid stress on forms, damning all but the baptized ; that he gave Peter authority to bind and loose, on earth and in heaven ; commanded his disciples to make friends of " the mammon of un- righteousness ;" to tease God, as an unjust judge, into compliance, with vain repetitions — can he ac- cept so purely the absolute Religion ? It is not possible, for a long time, to make serious things of trifles, without making trifles of serious things. Cannot drunkenness be justified out of the Old Testament; the very Solomon advising the poor man to drown his sorrows in wine ? Jeremiah curses the man that will not fight.^ Is not Sarah ' Proverbs XXXVI. 6, et seq. Jer. XLVIII. 10. .* CAUSE OF ITS L\FLUi:iNCE. 375 commended by tlie Fatlicis of the church, and Abraham by the Sons ? Men justify slavery out of the New Testament, because Paul had not his eye open to the evil, but sent back a fugitive. It is dangerous to rely on a troubled fountain for the water of life. The influence of the Bible, past and present, rests on its profound religious significance. Its truths not only sustain themselves, but the mass of errors connected therewith. Truth can never pass aw^ay. Men sometimes fear the Bible will be destroyed by freedom of thought and freedom of speech. Let it perish if such be the case. Truth cannot fear the light, nor are men so mad as to forsake a well of living water. All the free-think- ing in the world could not destroy the Iliad ; how much less the truths of the Bible. Things at last will pass for their true value. The truths of the Bible, which have fed and comforted the noblest souls for so many centuries, may be trusted to last our day. The Bible has already endured the greatest abuse at the hands of its friends, who would make it an idol, and have all men do it hom- age. We need call none our Master but the Fa- ther of All. Yet the Bible, if wisely used, is still a blessed teacher. Spite of the superstition and folly of its worshipers, it has helped millions to that fountain where Moses and Jesus, with the holy- hearted of all time, have stooped and been filled. We see the mistakes of its writers, for though noble and of great stature, they saw not all things. W^e 376 LASTING TRUTHS OF THE BIBLE. reject their follies ; but their words of truth are still before us, to admonish, to encourage, and to bless; From time to time God raises up a prophet to lead mankind. He speaks his word as it is given him ; serves his generation for the time, and falls at last, when it is expedient he should give way to the next Comforter God shall send. But mankind is greater than a man, and never dies. The experi- ence of the past lives in the present. The light that shone at Nineveh, Egypt, Judea, Athens, Rome, shines no more from those points ; it is every- where. Can Truth decease, and a good idea once made real ever perish ? Mankind, moving solemnly on its appointed road, from age to age, passes by its imperfect teachers, guided by their light, blessed by their toil, and sprinkled with their blood. But Truth, like her God, is before and above us forever. So we pass by the lamps of the street, with wonder at their light, though but a smoky glare ; they seem to change places and burn dim in the distance as we go on ; at last the solid walls of darkness shut them in. But high over our head are the un- sullied stars, which never change their place, nor dim their eye. So the truths of the Scriptures will teach forever, though the record perish and its au- thors be forgot. They came from God, through the soul of man. They have exhausted neither. Man is greater than the Bible. That is one ray out of the sun ; one drop from the infinite ocean. The inward Christ, which alone abideth forever, has much to say which the Bible never told, though it BIRLE MADE FOR MAN. 377 may imply the whole. The Bible is made for man, not man for the Biblo. Its truths are old as the creation, repeated more or less purely in every tongue. Let its errors and absurdities no longer be forced on the pious mind, but perish forever; let the Word of God come through Conscience, Reason, and holy Feeling, as light through the windows of morning. Worship with no master but God, no creed but Truth, no service but Love, and we have nothing to fear. 48 BOOK V " When the Church, without temporal support, is able to do her great works upon the unforced obedience of man, it argues a divinity about her. But when she thinks to credit and better her spiritual effica- cy, and to win herself respect and dread, by strutting in the false vizard of worldly authority, it is evident that God is not there, but that her apostolic virtue is departed from her, and hath left her key-cold ; which she perceiving, as in a decayed nature, seeks to the outward fer- mentations and chafings of worldly help, and external flourishes, to fetch, if it be possible, some motion into her extreme parts, or to hatch a counterfeit life with the crafty and artificial heat of jurisdiction. But it is observable, that so long as the Church, in true imitation of Christ, can be content to ride upon an ass, carrying herself and her government along in a mean and simple guise, she may be, as he is, a Lion of the tribe of Judah; and in her humility all men, with loud hosannas, will confess her greatness. But when, despising the mighty operation of the Spirit by the weak things of this world, she thinks to make herself bigger and more considerable, by using the way of civil force and jurisdiction, as she sits upon this Lion, she changes into an Ass, and instead of ho- sannas, every man pelts her with stones and dirt." Milton. The Rea- son of Church Government urged against Prelacy, Chap. IIL BOOK V. THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT TO THE GREAT- EST OF HUxMAN INSTITUTIONS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. The Catholic church, and most if not all the minor Protestant churches, claim superiority over Reason, Conscience, and the religious Sentiment in the individual soul, assuming dominion over these, as the state justly assumes authority over the passions and selfishness of men. Now since the former are not, like the latter, evils in themselves, the church, to justify itself, must denounce them either as children of the devil, or at best uncer- tain and dangerous guides. The churches make this claim of superiority, either distinctly in their creeds and formularies of faith, claiming a divine origin for themselves, or by implication, in their actions, when they condemn and blast with curses such as differ from them in religious matters, and 382 CHURCH CONDEMNS THE HEATHEN. teach doctrines they disapprove. In virtue of this assumed superiority the Christian church, as a whole, denies vs^hat it calls "salvation" to all out of the Christian church — excepting the Jew^s before Christ — though their life be divine as an angel's. Hov\^ often have Socrates and that long line of noble men that honor Greek and Roman antiquity, been damned by the hirelings of the church ? The Catholic church denies salvation to all out of its pale, and in general each church of the straiter and more numerous sects confirms the damnation of all who think more liberally. Men who expose to scorn the folly of their assumptions, the Bayles, the Humes, the Voltaires ; men who will not accept their pretensions, the Nevvtons, the Lockes, the Priestleys, have the warrant of their eternal dam- nation made out and sealed ; not because their life was bad, but their faith not orthodox ! Supported by this claim of superiority on the church's part, canonized Ignorance may blast Learning ; eccle- siastical Dulness condemn secular Genius ; and sur- pliced Impiety, with shameless forehead, may damn Religion, meek and thoughtful, who out of the nar- row church, walks with beautiful feet on the rug- ged path of mortal life, and makes real the king- dom of Heaven. For many centuries it has been a heresy in the Christian church to believe that any out of it, could expect less than damnation in the next world ; it is still a heresy. It is taught with great plainness by the majority of Christian churches, that God will A MODEL-MAJN IIN THF', CHURCH. 383 damn to eternal torments the majority of his child- ren, because they are not in the Christian church.' If we look into the value of this claim of supe- riority, we shall find the foundation on which it rests, it must be either in the idea of a church, or in the fact of the Christian church receiving this delegated power from a human or a divine founder. I. Of the Idea of a Church. We do not speak, except figuratively, of a church of Moses or Mahomet. It seems to be necessary to the idea of a visible and historical church, that there should be a model-man for its central figure, around whom others are grouped. He must be an example of the virtues Religion demands ; an in- carnation of God, to adopt the phrase of ancient India, which has since become so prevalent among the Christians. Now Moses, viewed as a mytho- logical character, and Mahomet, as an historical per- son, were not model-men, but miraculous characters whose relation to God and perfection of life each faithful soul might not share, for it was peculiar to themselves. Their character was not their own work. It was made for them by God, and therefore they could not be objects of imitation. It would be ' For the opinion of the Catholics on this point, see instar omnium Bossuet Hist, des Variations, Liv. II. et al. ; for that of the Protestants, see their various confessions, &c. conveniently collected in Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionum in Ecclesiis reformatis, Lips. 1S40. Hahn, § 103 and 143. Bretschneider, ubi supra, Vol. II. § 204, p. 174,etseq. But see Ilase, Hutterus redivius, § 88. 384 CHRIST THE MODEL-MAN. impious madness in the Mussulman or the Jew, to aim at the perfections of the great prophet who stood above him. Now there is this peculiarity of the majority of Christians, that while they affirm Jesus to be God, by the divine side, they yet claim him as a model- man, on the human side, and so call him a God- man} About this central figure, the Christian church is grouped. The New Testament repre- sents him as the Way, the Truth and the Life, for all men. The church also assumes that he is to be imitated. But it assumes this in defiance of logic, for Jesus is represented as born miraculously, en- dowed with miraculous powers, and separated from all others by his peculiar relation to God, in short, as a God-man. Of course he must be a model only to other God-men, who are born miraculously, endowed and defended as he was. He is no model to men born of flesh and blood, who have none but human powers. Still more if the Chris- tian church view him as the infinite God with all His Infinity, dwelling in the flesh, it is absurd to make him a model for men. But the church has rarely stopped at an absurdity. It " calls things that are not as if they were." Yet since the life of Jesus appears so entirely human in his friend- ships, sorrows, love, prayer, temptation, triumph ' This term God-man, is of Heathen origin, and involves a contradic- tion as much as the term Circle-triangle. The common mistake seems to arise from taking a figure of speech for a matter of fact, which leads to worse confusion in Theology than it would in Geometry. CHRIST FOUNDED NO CHURCH. 385 and death, and since he never claims any peculiar re- lation to God, and the Apostles now and then repre- sent liim as the great example — the church could not forbear making- him the model-man. Hence the homilies of the Preacher ; the disquisition of the Schoolmen ; the glorifying treatise of the Mystic ; the painting of the Artist, giving us his Triumph, Transfiguration, Farewell Meeting and Crucifixion — all aim to bring the Great Exemplar distinctly before human consciousness, in the most prominent scenes of his life, and always as a man, that the lesson of divinity might not be lost. Now if he be this model-man, and the church is but an assembly of men and women grouped about him, to be instructed by his words, and warned by his example, it is not easy to see what authority it naturally has over the individual soul. II. Of the Fact of the Christian Church. If Jesus were but a wise and good man, no word of his could have authority over Reason and Con- science. At best, it could repeat their oracles, and therefore he could never found an institution which should be master of the Soul. But if he were what the church pretends, it does not appear that he has given this authority to any on earth, if we may credit the Gospels. Christ established no or- ganization ; founded no church in any common sense of that term. He taught A^hcnever men would listen ; to numbers in the synagogue, tem- 40 386 THE APOSTLES HAD NO pie and fields ; to a few in the little cottage at Bethany, and in the fisher's boat. He gave no- instruction to his disciples to found a church ; he sent them forth to preach the glad tidings to all mankind. The Spirit within was their calling and authority ; Jesus their example ; God their guide, protector and head. In all the ministrations of Je- sus, there is nothing which approaches the forma- tion of a church. What was freely received was to be given as freely. Baptism and the Supper were accidents. He appointed no particular body of men as teachers, but sent forth his disciples all of them, to proclaim the truth. The twelve had no authority over others ; no preeminence in spreading the Gospel. Had they authority to bind and to loose ? Let Paul answer the question.^ The first martyr, the most active Evangelist, and the greatest Apostle were not of the twelve. Excepting Peter, James and John, the rest did little that we know of." Did Christ say — as Matthew relates — that he would found a church on Simon Peter? Paul did not fear to withstand him to the face. It must have been a sandy foundation.^ Jesus appointed neither ])lace nor dmj for worship. All the com- mands of the decalogue are reinforced in the New Testament, excepting that which enjoins the Sab- ' Galdt. I.-II. et al. 2 See in Gieseler, Text-book of eccles. Hist. Philad. 1836. Vol. I. § 25-27. 3 Matth. XVI. 18-19. See the various opinions of interpreters of this passage so improperly thrust into the mouth of Jesus, in De Wette, Ex- egetische Handbuch ziir N. T. AUTHORITY TO BIND AND LOOSE. 387 bath ; all the rest are natural laws. Religion with Jesus was a worship in s])irit and in truth ; a ser- vice at all times and in vAcry place, lie fell back on absolute Religion and Morality, demanding a divine life, purity without and piety within ; but he left the When, the Where and the How to take care of themselves. A church, in our sense of the term, is not so much as named in the Gospels. But Religion, above all emotions, brings men together. Uniting around this central figure, bound by the strongest of ties, their spiritual sympathies fired with admiration for the great soul of Jesus, relying on his authority, there grew up, unavoidably, a body of men and women. These the Apostles call the Church of Christ. Absolute Religion as it de- scends into practice, takes a concrete form, which depends on the character and condition of the men who receive it. Hence come the rites, dogmas and ceremonies which mark the church of this or that age and nation. The Christian Church may be defined as a body of men and women assembling for the purposes of worship and religious instruction. It has the pow- ers delegated by the individuals who compose it.^ ' See the various opinions of the Catliolics and Protestants on this point collected in Winer, Comparative Darstellung der Lehrbegrifts, Leip, 1837, § 19. CHAPTER II. THE GRADUAL FORMATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. In the earliest times of Christianity, there were no regular systems of doctrine, to bind men to- gether. The truths of natural Rehgion, and a somewhat indefinite behef in Jesus, were the cardinal points and essentials of Christianity. The public religious service seems perfectly free. Where the spirit of the Lord was, there was lib- erty. No one controlled another's freedom. The much-vaunted " form of sound words" was notori- riously different with different teachers. Paul, who came late to Christianity, boasts that he received his doctrine straightway from God, not from those " who were apostles before him," whom he seems to hold in small esteem. The decision of the coun- cil at Jerusalem did not bind him. The practical side of Christianity was developed more than the theoretical. The effect of the truth proclaimed with freedom, was soon manifest ; for the errors and superstition of the apostles could not chain the truth. Love increased ; Christianity bore fruit ; .* THE EARLY CHURCH. 389 the Church spread wide. It emancipated men from the yokes of a sacerdotal class. The Christ- ians were " a royal priesthood ;" all were " kings and priests," appointed to oflfer a " spiritual sacri- fice." The apostles, who had seen Jesus, or un- derstood his doctrine, naturally took the lead of men they sought to instruct. As the number of Christians enlarged, some organization was needed for practical purposes. The pattern was taken from the Jewish synagogue, which claimed no divine authority ; not from the Temple, whose officers made such a claim. Hence there were elders and deacons. One of the elders was an overseer, like the "speaker" in a legislative assembly. But all these were chosen by the people, and as much of the people, after their choice as before. There was no clergy and no laity ; all were sons of God, re- cipients of inspiration from Him. The Holy Ghost fell upon all. The wish of Moses was complied with, and God put his spirit upon each of them ; the prediction of Joel was fulfilled, and their sons and their daughters prophesied ; the word of Jere- miah had come to pass, and God put his Law in their inward parts, and wrote it on their heart, and they all knew the Lord from the least to the greatest. They were " anointed of God," and " knew all things ;" they " needed not that any man should teach them." Christ and God were in all holy hearts. The overseer, or bishop, claimed no power over the people ; he was only first among his peers ; the greatest only because the servant of all. Even 390 THE EARLY CHURCH. Apollos, Cephas, Paul, who were they but ser- vants, through whom others believed ? The bishop had no authority to bind and loose in heaven or earth ; no right to enforce a doctrine. He was not the standard of faith ; that was " the Mind of the Lord," which He would reveal to all who sought it. There was no monopoly of teaching on the part of the elders. A bishop, says Paul, " must be able to teach," not the only teacher, not necessarily a teacher at all ; but a " minister of silence as well as speech." Inspiration was free to all men. " Quench not the Spirit ;" " prove all things ;" "hold fast what is good;" "covet earnestly the best gifts," — these were the watch-words. Under Fetichism, all could consult their God, and be in- spired ; miracles took place continually. Under Polytheism, only a few could come to God at first hand ; they alone were inspired, and miracles were rare. Under Christian Monotheism, God dwelt in all faithful hearts ; old covenants and priesthoods were done away, and so all were inspired.^ The New Testament was not written, and the Old Testament was but the shadow of good things to come, and since they had come, the children of 1 On the state of the early Church, and the Bishops, Elders, and Dea- cons, which is sti'l a matter of controversy, see Campbell, Lectures on Eccl. History, Lect. IL-XIII. Gieseler, ubi sup. § 29. Mosheim, ubi sup. Book I. Art. H. Chap. IL Neander, Allg. Geschichte der Christ- lichen Religion, Hamb. 1835, Vol. L Part I. Chap. IL Gibbon, Chap XV. Schleiermacher, Geschichte der Christlichen Kirche, Berlin, 1840, p. 86, et seq. Among the modern writers Milman takes the other side. History of Christianity, Lond. 1840, Book U. Chap. IL p. 63,etseq. .* CAJN'ON OK SCRIPTURE. 391 the free woman wore not to sit in the shadow, but to stand fast in tlie liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. JVTan, the heir of all things, long time kept under task-masters and governors, had now come of age and taken possession of his birth- right. The decision of a majority of delegates assembled in a council, bound only themselves. Then the body of men and women worshiping in any one place was subject neither to its own officers, nor to the church at large ; nor to the Scriptures of the Old or the New Testament. No man on earth, no organization, no book was master of the Soul. Each Church made out its canon of Scripture as well as it could. Some of our canon- ical writings were excluded, and apocryphal writ- ings used in their stead. Indeed, respecting this matter of Scripture, there has never been a uniform canon among all Christians. The Bible of the. Latin differs from that of the Greek Church, and contains thirteen books the more. The Catholic differs from the Protestant ; the early Syrians from their contemporaries ; the Abyssinians from all other churches, it seems. The Ebionites would not receive the beginning of Matthew and Luke ; the Marcionites had a Gospel of their own. The Socinians, and perhaps others, left off the whole of the Old Testament,^ or count it unnecessary. The followers of Swedenborg do not find a spiritual sense in all the books of the canon. Critics yearly ' See Faustus Socinus, ubi sup. p. 27], ct al. 392 CORRUPTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. make inroads upon the canon, striking out whole books or obnoxious passages, as not genuine. In the first ages of Christianity, the Bible was a sub- ordinate thing. In modern times it has been made a vehicle to carry any doctrine the expositor sees fit to interpret into it.^ The first preachers of Christianity fell back on the authority of Jesus ; appealed to the moral sense of mankind ; applied the doctrines of Christianity to life as well as they could, and with much zeal, and some superstition and many mistakes, developed the practical side of Christianity much more than its theoretical side. But even in the Apostles, Christianity had lost somewhat of its simplicity. It was not the perfect Religion and Morality coming from the absolute source, and proceeding by the absolute method to the absolute end. It is taught on the authority of Christ. The Jews must believe he was the Mes- siah of the prophets. " Salvation " is connected with a belief in his person. " Neither is there sal- vation by any other," says Peter in a different sense from the words, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." The Jewish doctrine of " Redemp- tion" and reconciliation by sacrifice appear more or less in the genuine works of the Apostles, and very clearly in the Epistle to the Hebrews. We may explain some of the obnoxious passages as " figures of speech," referring to the " Christ born in us ; " but a fair interpretation leaves it pretty certain the ' See, on this point, some ingenious remarks of Hegel, Philosophie der Religion, Vol. I. p. 29, et seq. ,# CORRUPTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 393 writers added somewhat to the absolute Religion, though they did not share the gross doctrines often taught in their name. Christ is in some measure a mythological being, even with Paul ; he was with the Jews in the desert, and assisted at the creation. The Pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection of the body appears undeniably ; a local heaven and a day of judgment, in which Jesus is to appear in person and judge the world, are taught very clearly. The fourth gospel speaks of Jesus as he never speaks of himself; the Platonic doctrine of the Logos appears therein. We may separate the apostolic doctrine into three classes : The Judaizing, the Alexan- drine, and the Pauline, each differing more or less essentially from the absolute Religion of the ser- mon on the mount.^ Already with the Apostles Jesus has become in part deified, his personality confounded with the infinite God. Was it not be- cause of the very vastness and beauty of soul that was in him ? The private and peculiar doctrines of the early Christians appear in strange contrast with the gentle precepts of love to man and God, in which Jesus sums up the essentials of Religion. But, alas, what is positive and peculiar in each form of worship, is of little value ; the best things are the commonest, for no man can lay a new foundation, nor add to the old, more than the wood, hay and stubble of his own folly. The great excellence of ' The Epistle to the Hebrews and the earher Apocrj'phal Gospels and Epistles are valuable monumenis of the opinions of the Christians at the time they were written. 50 394 THE CLERGY IN THE CHURCH. Jesus was in restoring natural Religion and Moral- ity to their true place ; an excellence which even the Apostles but poorlj understood.^ In their successors Christianity was a very differ- ent thing, and in the course of a few years, — alas a very few, — it appeared in the mass of the Churches, an idle mummery ; a collection of forms and superstitious rites. Heathenism and Judaism, with all sorts of superstitious absurdities in their train, came into the Church. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem clung to the most obnoxious feature of Judaism. Christianity was the stalking- horse of ambition. A man stepped at once from the camp to the Bishop's mitre, and brought only the piety of the Roman Legion into the Church. The doctrine of many a Christian writer was less pure and beautiful than the faith of Seneca and Cicero, not to name Zoroaster and Socrates. After a couple of centuries there was a distinction be- tween clergy and laity. The former became " Lords over God's heritage," not " ensamples unto the flock." They were masters of the doctrine ; could bind and loose on earth and in heaven. The majority in a council bound the minority, and the voices of the clergy determined what was " the mind of the Lord." Thus the clergy became the Church, and were set above Reason and Conscience in the individual soul. They were chosen by themselves, 1 See the impartial remarks of Schlosser respecting the origin and subsequent fate of Christianity, in his Geschichte der alten Welt, Vol. III. Pt. I. p. 24!)-274, Pt. II. p. 110-129, 381-41G. A RITUAL WORSHIP. 395 and responsible to none on earth. Private inspira- tion was reckoned dangerous. Freedom of con- science was forbidden ; he who denied the popular faith was accursed. The organization of the Church was then taken from the Jewish temple, not the synagogue. The minister was a priest, and stood between God and the people ; the Bishop, an high- priest after the order of Aaron, his kingdom of this world. He was the " Successor of the Apostles ; " the Viceirerent of Christ. Men came to the cleri- cal office with no Christian qualification.^ Baptism atoned for all sins, and was sometimes put off till the last hour, that the Christian might give full swing to the flesh, and float into heaven at last on the lustral waters of baptism. Bits of bread from the " Lord's table," were a talisman to preserve the faithful from all dangers by sea and land. Prayers were put up for the dead ; the cross was worshiped ; the bones of the martyrs could work miracles; cast out devils; calm a tempest, and even raise the dead. The Eucharist was forced into the mouths of children before they could say, " my father, and my mother." The sign of the cross and the " sacred oil " were powerful as Canidia's spell. In point of toleration the human race went backward for a time, far behind the Athenians and men of Rome.^ The clergy assumed ' The histories of Synesius and Ambrose afford a striking picture of the clerical class in their time. * See the writings of Tertullian and Cyprian, passim, for proofs of this. 396 NUMBERS NO TEST OF TRUTH. power over Conscience ; power to admit to Heaven, or condemn to hell ; and not only decided in matters of mummery, whereof they made " divine service " to consist, but decreed what men should believe in order to obtain eternal life ; an office the sublimest of all the sons of men — modest because he was great — never took upon himself. They collected the writings of the New Testament, and decided what should be the " Standard of Faith," and what not. But their canon was arbitrary, including some spurious books of small value, and rejecting others more edifying. However, they allowed some latitude in the interpretation of the works they had canonized. But next they went farther, and de- veloped systematically the doctrines of the Scrip- ture, on points deemed the most important, such as the " nature of God " and Christ. Thus the " mind of the Lord " was determined and laid down, so that he might read that ran. The mys- ticism of Plato, and the subtleties of the Stagirite afforded matter for the pulpits and councils to dis- cuss. This method of deciding dark questions by plu- rality of votes has always been popular in Christen- dom. In some things the majority are always right ; in some always wrong. The four hundred prophets of Baal have a " lying spirit" in them. Micaiah alone is in the right. The college of Padua, and the Sorbonne would have voted down Galileo and Newton, a hundred to one, but what then ? Majority of voices proves little in morals or mathematics. A .* SIN IN THE CHURCH. 397 single man in Jerusalem on a certain time had more moral and religious truth than Herod and the San- liedrim. Synods of Dort and assemblies of Divines settle nothing but their own opinions, which will be reversed the next century, or stand, as now, a snare to the conscience of pious men. In the early times of Christianity, the teachers in general were men of little learning, imbued with the prejudices and vain philosophies of the times ; men with passions, some of them quite untamed, notwithstanding their pious zeal. In the first cen- tury no eminent man is reckoned among the Chris- tians. But soon doctrines, that played a great part in the heathen worship, and which do not ap- pear in the teaching of Jesus, w ere imposed upon men, on pain of damnation in two w^orlds. They are not yet extinct. Rites were adopted from the same source. The scum of idolatry covered the well of living water. The Flesh and the Devil sat down at the " Lord's Table " in the Christian church, and with forehead unabashed, pushed away the worthy bidden guest. What passed for Chris- tianity in many churches duiing the fourth and a large part of the third century was a vile supersti- tion. The image of Christ was marred. Men paid God in Ceesar's pence. The shadows of great men, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato ; yes, the shades of humbler men, of name unknown to fame, might have come up, disquieted like Samuel, from their grave, and spit upon the superstition of the Chris- 398 THE WORLD MOVES SLOW. tians defiling Persia, and Athens, and Rome. It deserved the mockery it met. Christianity was basely corrupted long before it gained the Roman Palace. Had it not been corrupted, when would it have reached king's courts ; in the time of Constan- tine, or of Louis XIV. ? The quarrels of the Bishops ; the contentions of the councils ; the su- perstition of the laymen and the despotism and ambition of the clergy ; the ascetic doctrine taught as morality ; the monastic institutions with their plan of a divine life, are striking signs of the times, and contrast wonderfully with that simple Nazarene and his lowly obedience to God and manly love of his brothers. Yet here and there were men who fed with faith and works the flame of piety, which, rising from their lowly hearth, streamed up towards heaven, making the shadows of superstition and of sin look strange and monstrous as they fell on many a rood of space. These were the men who saved the Sodom of the church. Did Christianity fail ? The Christianity of Christ is not one thing and human nature another. It is h[iman Virtue, human Reli- gion, man in his highest moments ; the eflect no less than the cause of human development, and can never fail till man ceases to be man. Under all this load of superstition the heart of faith still beat. How could the world forget its old institutions, riot and sin in a moment ? It is not thus the dull fact of the world's life yields to the divine idea of a man. The rites of the public worship ; the clerical POWER OF PERSECUTION. 399 class ; the stress laid on dogmas and forms ; all this was a tribute to the indolence and sensuality of man- kind. The asceticism, celibacy, mortification of the body, contempt of the present life ; the hatred of an innocent pleasure ; the scorn of literature, science and art, — these are the natural reaction of mankind, who had been bid to fill themselves with merely sensual delight. The lives of Mark Antony, Sallust, Crassus ; of Julius Caesar, Nero and Domi- tian explain the origin of asceticism, and monastic retirement better than folios will do it. The wri- tings of Petronius Arbiter, of Apuleius and Lucian, render necessary the works of Tertullian, Cyprian, Jerome, and John of Damascus. Individuals might come all at once out of Egyptian darkness into the light of absolute Religion, but the world moves slow, and oscillates from one extreme to the opposite.^ For a time the leaven of Christianity seemed lost in the lump of human sin ; but it was doing its great work in ways not seen by mortal eyes. The most profound of all revolutions must require centu- ries for its work. The good never dies. The Per- secutions directed by tyrannical emperors against the new faith, only helped the work. What is written in blood is widely read and not soon forgot. Could the " holy alliance " of Ease, Hypocrisy, and Sin put down Christianity, which proclaimed the One God, the equality and brotherhood of all men ? ' But see how reluctantly Syncsius comes to the duties of a bishop. Ep. 105, cited in Hampden, Bampton Lectures. Lend. 1837, p. 407, et seq. 400 THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST, Did Force ever prevail in the long run against Reason or Religion ? The ashes of a Poljcarp and a Justin sow the earth for a Cadmean harvest of heroes of the soul ; a man leaving wife and babes and djing a martyr's death — this is an eloquence the dullest can understand. If a fire is to spread in the forest let all the winds blow upon it. Even a bad thing is not put down by abuse. However, to see the earnest of that vast result Christianity is destined to work out for the nations, we must not look at kings' courts, in Byzantium or Paris ; not in the chairs of bishops, noble or selfish ; not at the martyr's firmness when his flesh is torn ofi", for the unflinching Tuscarora surpasses " the noble army of martyrs " in fortitude ; but in the common walks of life, its every day trials ; in the sweet charities of the fireside and the street ; in the self-denial that shares its loaf with the distressful ; the honest heart that respects others as itself. Looking deeper than the straws of the surface we see a stream of new life is in the world, and, though choked with mud, not to be dammed up. The history of Christianity reveals the majestic preeminence of its earthly founder. In him it is noon-day light, absolute Religion ; no less ; no more. Come to the later times of the Apostles, the sky is overcast and doubtful twilight begins. Take another step and the darkness deepens. Come down to Justin Martyr, it is deeper still ; to Ireiiceus, Tertullian, Cyprian ; to the times of the Council of Nice ; read the letters of Ambrose, Jerome, A^D OF HIS FOLLOWERS. 401 Augustine, the Apologies of Christianity, the fierce bickerings of strong men about matters of no mo- ment,— we should think it the midnight of the Christian church, did we not know that after this " woe was past," there came another woe ; that there was a refuge of lies remaining where the black- ness of darkness fell, and the shadow of death lin- gered long and would not be lifted up. It is not necessary to go into the painful task of tracing the obvious decline of Christianity, and its absorption in the organization of the church, which assumed tlie Keys of Heaven, and bound and tor- tured men on earth. It is beautiful to see the free- dom of Paul, — a man to whom the world owes so much,^ — and the happy state of the earlier churches ; when no one controlled another, except by Wisdom and Love ; when each was his own priest, with no middle-man to forestall inspiration, and stand between him and God ; when each could come to the Father, and get truth at first-hand if he would. Christ broke every yoke, but new yokes were soon made, and in his name. He bade men pray as he did ; with no mediator, nothing between them and the Father of all ; making each place a temple and each act a divine service. With the doctrines of absolute Religion on their tongue ; the example of Jesus to stimulate and encourage them ; the certain conviction that Truth and God were on ' See some remarks on his character and influence in the Dial, for Jan. 1842, p. 303, et seq. 51 402 INTRODUCTIOJN OF THE CLERGY. their side ; going into the world of men sick of their worn-out rituals, and hungering and thirsting after a religion they could confide in, live and die by ; having stout hearts in their bosoms which dan- ger could not daunt, nor gold bribe, nor contempt shame, nor death appall, nor friends seduce — no wonder the Apostles prevailed ! An earnest man, even in our times, coming in the name of Religion, speaking its word of fire, and appealing to what is deepest and divinest in our heart, never lacks au- ditors, though a rude man like Bohme, and Bunjan, and Fox. No wonder the Apostles conquered the world. It were a miracle if they had not put to flight " armies of the aliens," the makers of " silver shrines," and " them that sold and bought in the temple." Man moves man the world round, and Religion multiplies itself as the Banian tree. Men with all the science of the nineteenth century, but no Religion, can scarce hold a village together, while every religious fanatic, from Mahomet to Mormon, finds followers plenty as flowers in summer, and true as steel. Can no man divine the cause ? Blessed was the Christian church while all were brothers. But soon as the Trojan Horse of an organized priesthood was dragged through the rup- tured wall, there came out of it, stealthily, men cunning as Ulysses, cruel as Diomed, arrogant as Samuel, exclusive and jealous, armed to the teeth in the panoply of worldliness. The little finger of the Christian priesthood was found thicker than the loins of their fathers — the flamens of Jupiter, Qui- CHRISTIAJNITY AND THE WORLD. 403 rinus, tlie Levitical priests oi' Jcliovali. Then Ue- lict' began to take the phice of Life ; the priest of the man ; the church of home ; the Fk^sii and the Devil, of the Word and the Holy Spirit. Divine service was mcclianlsm; Religion priestcraft ; Chris- tianity a thing for kings to swear by, and to help priests to wealth and fame. But a seed remained that never bowed the knee to the idol. Righteous men, they are cursed by the church, and blessed by the God of Truth. We are to blame no class of men, neither the learned who were hostile to Chris- tianity, nor the priests who assumed this power for the loaves and fishes' sake ; they were men, and did as others, with their light and temptations, would have done. Tiooking with human eyes, it is not possible to see how the evil could have been avoided. The wickedness long entrenched in the world ; that under-current of sin which runs through the nations ; the low civilization of the race ; the self- ishness of strong men, their awful wars ; the hid- eous sins of slavery, polygamy ; the oppression of the weak ; the power of lust, brutality, and every sin, — these W'ere obstacles that even Christianity could not sweep away in a moment, though strong- est of the daughters of God. Men could sail safely for some years in the light of Jesus, though seen more and more dimly. But as the stream of time swept them farther down, and the cold shadow came over them anew, they felt the darkness. Let us judge these men lightly. Low as the church was in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, it "404 A TRUTH IN THE CHURCH. yet represented the best interests of mankind as no other institution. Individuals but not societies rose above it, and soared away to the Heaven of peace, amid its cry of excommunication. Let us give the church its due. Now^ as no institution exists and claims the unforced homage of men unless it have some real ex ellence, in virtue of which alone it holds its place, being hindered, not helped by the error, falsity and sin, connected therewith ; and since the church has always stood, in spite of its faults, and filled such a place in human affairs as no other in- stitution, it becomes us to look for the Idea it repre- sents, knowing there must be a great truth to stand so long, extend so wide, and uphold so much that is false. CHAPTER III. THE FUNDAMENTAL AND DISTINCTIVE IDEA OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DIVISION OF THE CHRISTIAN SECTS. All religions have this common point, an ac- knoicledged sense of dependence on God, and each religion has some special peculiarity of its own, which distinguishes it from all others. Now the essential peculiarity of Christianity is indeed its absolute character, but the formal and theoretic peculiarity, which contradistinguishes it from all other religions, is this doctrine ; that God has made the highest revelation of himself to m.an through Jesus of Nazareth. This doctrine — which does not proceed from the absolute character, but from the historical origin of Christianity — is the com- mon ground on which all Christian sects, the Cath- olic and the Quaker, the Anabaptist, the Rationalist and the Mormonite, are agreed. But as this is logically affirmed by all theoretical Christians, it is as loo-icallv denied bv all not-theoretical Christians. Thus the Jews and Mahometans, think their pro- phets superior to Jesus. When we find a man who 406 IDEA OF THE CHURCH. is an higher " incarnation of God ;" one who teaches and lives out more of Religion and morality than Jesus, we are bound to admit that fact, and then cease to he theoretical Christians. Men may now be essential and practical Christians, if they regard Christianity as the absolute Religion, and live it out, or live the absolute Rc^ligion, and give it no name, though not theoretical Christians. This distinctive doctrine of Christianity appears in various forms in the different sects. Thus some call Jesus the Infinite God; others the Jirst of created beings; others a miraculous being of a mixed nature, and hence a God-man, the identity of man and God ; others still, a mortal man, the most perfect representation of Goodness and Religion. These may all be regarded, excepting the last, as more or less mythological statements of this distinc- tive doctrine. Now if Christianity as the absolute Religion, with this theoretical peculiarity, be developed in a man, it has an influence on all his active powers. It affects the Mind, he makes a Theologv ; the Conscience, he lives a divine life ; the Imagination, he de- vises a symbol, rite, penance, or ceremony. The Theology, the Life and the Symbol, must depend on the natural endowments, and artificial culture of the individual Christian, and as both gifts and the development thereof differ in different men, it is plain that various sects must naturally be formed, each of which, setting out from the first principle common to all religions, and embracing the great theoretical CHRISTIAN PARTIES. 407 doctrine of Christianity — a\ Iiicli cVistingnishes it iVoin all not-Christian relif2;ions — has besides, a certain peculiar doctrine of its own which separates it from all otlun- Christian sects. These sects are the necessary forms Religion takes in connection w ith the varvino condition of men. The Christian church as a whole is made up of these parties, all of whom, taken together, w^th their Theologies, Life and Symbols, represent the amount of absolute Re- ligion which has been developed in Christendom, in the speculative, practical, or aesthetic way. To un- derstand the Christian church, therefore, we must understand each of its parties, their truth and error, their virtue and vice, and then form an appreciation of the whole matter. In making the estimate, however, we may neglect such portions of the Christian church as have had no influence on the present development of Christianity amongst us. Thus we need not consider the Greek and Oriental churches after the sixth century, as their influence upon Christianity ceased to be con- siderable, in consequence of the superior practical talents of the Western church. The remaining por- tions may be classified in various ways ; but, for the present purpose, the following seems the best ar- rangement, namely : I. The Catholic Party. II. The Protestant Party. III. Those neither Catholics nor Protest- ants. These three will be treated each in its turn. CHAPTER IV. THE CATHOLIC PARTY. The Catholic church is the oldest, and in num- bers still the most powerful of all Christian organi- zations. It grew as the Christian spirit extended among the ruins of the old world, by the might of the truth borne in its bosom, overpowering the old worship, the artifice of priests, the selfishness of the affluent, the might of the strong, the cherished forms of a thousand years, the impotent armies of purple kings. It arose from small beginnings. No one knows who first brought Christianity to Rome ; nor who planted the seed of that hierarchic power which soon became a tree, and at length a whole forest, stretching to the world's end, enfolding chapels for the pious, and dens for robbers. The practical spirit of old Rome came into the church. Its power grew as Christian freedom declined. The mantle of that giant genius, which made the seven-hilled city conqueror of the world ; the belt of power which girt the loins of her mighty men, Fabius, Regulus, Cicero, Caesar, passed to the Christian bishops, as that genius f\ed from the GREEK AND LATIN CHURCH. 409 earth, howling over his crumbkHl work. The spirit of those ancient heroes came into the church ; tlieir practical skill ; their obstinate endurance ; their power of speech Avith words like battles ; their lust of power; their resolution which nothing could overturn, or satisfy. The Greek Christians* were philosophic, literary ; they could sling stones at a hair's-breadth. In the early times they had all the advantage of position ; " the chairs of the apos- tles;" the Christian scriptures written in their tongue. Theirs were the great names of the first centuries, Polycarp, Justin, the Clements, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories, Chry- sostom. But the Latin church had the practical skill, the soul to dare, and the arm to execute. The power of the Roman church therefore ad- vanced step by step. Its chiefs were dexterous men, with the coolness of Caesar, and the zeal of Hannibal. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, would have been great men anywhere ; in the court of Sarda- napalus, or a college of Jesuits. They brought the w^orld into the church. 'T was the world's gain, but the church's loss. The emperor soon learned to stoop his conquering eagles to the spiritual power, which shook the capitol. The church held divided sway with him. The spiritual sceptre was wrested from his hands. Constantine fled to Byzantium as much to escape the Latin clergy as to defend him- self from the warriors of the North. ^ ' See the external causes of the superiority of the Roman church, in Rehm, Geschichte des Mittelalters, Vol. I. p. 510, et seq. 52 410 IDEA OF THE CATHOLICS. Now the Catholic church, held to the first truths of Relio;ion and of Christianity, as before shown. Its ])ecnliar and distinctive doctrine was this, that God still acts upon and inspires mankind, being in some measure immanent therein. This doctrine is broad enough to cover the world, powerful enough to annihilate the arrogance of any church. But the Roman party limited this doctrine by adding, that God did not act by a natural law, directly on the mind, heart and soul of each man, who sought faithfully to approach Him, but acted miraculously, through the organization of the church on its mem- bers and no others, and on them, not because they were men, but instruments of the church ; not in proportion to a man's gifts, or the use of his gifts, but as he stood high or low in the church. The humblest priest had a little inspiration, enough to work the greatest of miracles ; the bishop had more ; the Pope, as head of the church, must be infallibly inspired, so that he could neither act wrong, think wrong, nor feel wrong. Christianity as the absolute Religion and mo- rality, necessarily sets out from the absolute source, the spirit of God in the soul revealing truth. The Catholic church, on the contrary, starts from a finite source, the limited work of inspired men, namely, the traditional ivord preserved in Scripture, and the unscriptural tradition, both written and not written. But then, laying down this indisputable truth, that a book must be interpreted by the same spirit in which it is written, and therefore that a book writ- ^* THF.IR CONSISTENCY. 411 ten by miraculous and superhuman inspiration can be understood only by men inspired in a similar way, and limiting the requisite ins})iration to itself, it assumed the oflicc of sole interpreter of the Scriptures ; refused the Bible to the laymen, be- cause they, as uninspired, could not understand it, and gave them only its own interpretation. Thus it attempted to mediate between mankind and the Bible. Then again, relying on the unscriptural tradition preserved in the Fathers, the Councils, the organiza- tion and memory of the church, it makes this of the same authority as the Scriptures themselves, and so claims divine sanction for doctrines which are nei- ther countenanced by "human Reason," nor " di- vine Revelation," as contained in the Bible. This is a point of great importance, as it will presently appear. Now the Catholic church was logically consistent with itself in both these pretensions. Each indi- vidual church, at first, received what Scripture it saw fit, and interpreted the Word as well as it could. Next the synods decreed for the mass of churches, both the canon of Scripture and the doc- trine it contained. The catholic church continued to exercise these privileges. Then again, taking the common notion, the church had a logical and speculative basis for its claim to inspiration, though certainly none in point of fact. If God inspired Jesus to create a new religion, Peter, Paul and John to preach it, and Matthew, Mark and Luke 412 THE CHURCH'S THREE SOURCES to record the words and works of Christ and other Christians, when did the inspiration cease ? With the Apostles or their successors ; the direct or the remote ? Did it cease at all ? It did not appear. Besides, how could the inspired works be interpreted except by men continually inspired ; how could the church, founded and built by miraculous action, be preserved by the ordinary use of man's powers ? Were Jude and James inspired and Clement and Ambrose left with no open vision ? Such a conclu- sion could not come from a comparison of their works. Did not Jesus promise to be with his church to the end of the world ? Here was the warrant for the assumptions of the catholic party. So it, with logical consistency, claimed a perpetual, miraculous and exclusive inspiration, on just as good ground as it allowed the claim of earlier men to the same inspiration ; it made tradition the mas- ter over the soul, on just the same pretension that the Bible is made the only certain rule of faith and practice. As the only interpreter of Scripture, the exclusive keeper of tradition, as the vicar of God, and alone inspired by Him, it stood between man on the one side, and the Bible, Antiquity and God, on the other side. The church was sacred, for God ivas immanent therein ; the world profane, de- serted of Deity. The church admits three sources of moral and religious truth, namely : 1 . The Scriptures of the Old and Netv Testament and Apocrypha. It declares these are good and OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 413 wise, Imt ambiguous and obscure, and by themselves alone incomplete, not containing the whole of the doctrine and requiring an inspired expositor to set forth their contents. 2. The unscriptiual tradition, oral and ivriiten. This is needed to supply what is left wanting through the imperfection of Scripture, and teach the more recondite doctrines of Christianity, such as the Trinity, Redemption, the Authority of the church. Purgatory, Intercession, the use of Confes- sion, Penance and the like, and also to explain the Scriptures themselves. But tradition also is imper- fect, ambiguous, full of apparent contradictions, and impossible for the laity to understand, except through the inspired class, who alone could reconcile its several parts. 3. The direct inspiration of God acting on the official members of the church ; that is, on its coun- cils, priests, and above all on its infallible head. The church restricted direct inspiration to itself, and even w ithin the church the action of God was limited, for if an individual of the clerical order taught what was hostile to the doctrine of the church, or not contained therein, his inspiration was referred to the Devil, not God, and the man burned, not canonized. Thus inspiration was subjected to a very severe process of verification even wdthin the church itself. It forbid mankind to trust Reason, Conscience, and the religious Sentiment ; to ap- proach God through these, and get truth at first hand, as Moses, Jesus and the other great men of 414 MASTER OF THE SOUL. antiquity had done. For this the layman must de- pend on the clergy, and the clergyman must depend on the whole church, represented by the Fathers or councils, and idealized in its head. Thus the church was the judge of the doctrine and the practice ; in- vested with the Keys of Heaven and Hell ; with power to bind and loose, remit sins, or retain them, and authority to demand absolute submission from the world, or punish with fagots and hell men who would not believe as the church commanded. In this way it would control private inspiration. But not to leave the heretics hopeless, or drive them to violence, it assumes the right to restore them, and pardon their sins, on condition of submission and penance. The Saviour, the Martyrs, the Saints, had not only expiated their own sins, but performed works of supererogation, and so established a sink- ing-fund to hquidate the sins of the world. This deposite was at the disposal of the church, who could therewith — aided by the intercession of the beatified spirits — purchase the salvation of a peni- tent heretic, though his sins were as crimson. The church assumed mastery over all souls. The individual was nothing ; the church was all. Its power stood on a moral basis ; its authority was derived from God. The humblest priest, in cele- brating the mass, performed a miracle greater than all the wonders of Jesus, for he only changed water into wine, and fed five thousand men with five loaves ; but the priest, by a single word, changed bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Almighty .f THE CHURCH AND HERETICS. 415 God. It Styles itself God's vicegerent on earth, and as Christ was a temporary and partial incarna- tion of the deity, so itself is a perfect and eternal incarnation thereof. Tlius the church became a Theocracy. It was far more consistent than the Jewish Theocracy, for that allowed private inspira- tion, and therefore was perpetually troubled by the race of prophets, who never allowed the priests their own way, but cried out with most rousing in- dignation against the Levites and their followers, and refused lo be put down. Besides, the Jewish Theocracy limited infallibility to God and the Law, which was to be made known to all, and though inspired could be easily understood by the simple son of Israel. It never claimed that for the Priest- hood. Now there are but two scales in the balance of power ; the Individual who is ruled and the Institu- tion that governs, here represented by the Church. Just as the one scale rises, the other falls. The spiritual freedom of the individual in the church is contained in an angle too small to be measurable. Did men revolt from this iron rule ? There was the alternative of eternal damnation, for all men were born depraved, exposed to the wrath of God ; their only chance of avoiding hell was to escape through the doors of the church. Thus men were morally compelled to submit for the sake of its " redemption." Did they throw themselves on the mercy of the Holy Ghost, penitent for their disobe- dience of the church ? They were told that mercy 416 MERITS OF THE CHURCH. was at the church's disposal. Did they make the ap- peal to Scripture, and say, as in Adam all die, soin Christ shall all be made alive ; that he had expiated all their sins ? The church told them their exe- gesis of the passage was wrong, for Christ only expiated their inherited sins, not the actual sin they had committed, and for which they must smart in hell, atone for in purgatory, or get pardoned by sub- mitting to the vicar of God, and going through the rites, forms, fasts and penances he should prescribe, and thus purchase a share of the redemption which Christ and the saints by their works of su- pererogation had provided to meet the case. This doctrine was taught in good faith and in good faith received.^ * I. The. Merits of the Catholic Church. As we look back upon the history of the church, and see the striking unity of that institution, we naturally suppose its chiefs had a regular plan, but such was not the fact. The peculiar merit of the Catholic church consists in its assertion of the truth, that God still inspires mankind as much as ever ; that He has not exhausted himself in the creation of a Moses, or a Jesus, the Law or the ' See, who will, Rehm, ubi sup. Vol II. p. 541, et seq., and Vol. III. p. 1, et seq. for the political aspect of the Roman Church. Guizot, Ilis- toire de la Civilization, &c. Leqon II. -VI. X.-XII. Hallam, state of Europe during the middle ages, Ch. VII. Gibbon, ubi sup., Ch. XV. XVI. XVIII. XXI. Comte, ubi sup,. Vol. V. Le<;on, LIV. LV. who, in some respects, surpasses all his predecessors. SPIRITUAL AND TEMPOKAL POWER. 417 Gospel, but is present and active in spirit as in space, admitting this truth, so deep, so vital to the race — a truth preserved in the religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and above all in the Jewish faith — clothing itself with all the authority of ancient days ; the word of God in its hands, both tradition and Scripture ; believing it had God's in- fallible and exclusive inspiration at its heart, for such no doubt was the real belief, and actually, through its Christian character, combining in itself the best interests of mankind, no wonder it prevail- ed. Its countenance became as lightning. It stood and measured the earth. It drove asunder the na- tions. It went forth in the mingling tides of civ- ilized corruption and barbarian ferocity, for the sal- vation of the people, — conquering and to conquer ; its brightness as the light. It separated the spiritual from the temporal power, which had been more or less united in the theocracies of India, Egypt and Judea, and which can only be united to the lasting detriment of man- kind. This was a great merit in the church ; one that cannot be appreciated in our days, for we have not felt the evil it aimed to cure. The church, in theory, stood on a basis purely moral ; it rose in spite of the state ; in the midst of its persecutions ; at first it shunned all temporal affairs, and never allowed a temporal power to be superior to itself. The department of political action belonged to the state ; that o{ intellectual action — the stablest and strongest of power — to the church. Hence its 53 418 ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. care of education ; hence the influence it exerted on literature. We read the letters of Ambrose arid Augustine and find a spirit all unknown to former times. ^ Tertullian could oppose the whole might of the state with his pen. That fierce African did not hesitate to expose the crimes of the nation. The Apologetists assume a tone of spiritual authority surprising in that age. The church set apart a speculative class, distinct from all others, including the most cultivated men of their times. It provided a special education for this class, one most admirably adapted, in many points, for the work they were to do. Piety and genius found here an asylum, a school, and a broad arena. Thus it had a troop of superior minds, ed- ucated and pious men, who could not absorb the political power, as the sacerdotal class of India, Egypt and Judea had done ; who could not be in- different to the social and moral state of mankind, as the priesthood had been in Greece and Rome. Theoretically, they were free from the despotism of one, and the indifference of the other. The public virtue was their peculiar charge. Rome was the city of organizations, and practi- cal rules. War, Science and Lust of old time had here incarnated themselves. The same practical spirit organized the church, with its Dictator, its Senate, and its Legions. The discipline of the ' See this point ably though briefly treated in Schlosser, ubi sup. Vol. Ill Pt. III. p. 102-151, and IV. p. 25-75. See also Pt. II. p. 167, et seq. CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY 419 clerical class, their union, zeal, and commanding skill gave them the solidity of the Phalanx, and the celerity of the Legion. The church prevailed as much by its organization as its doctrine. What could a band of loose-girt apostles, each warring on his own account, avail against the refuge of Lies, where Strength and Sin had intrenched themselves, and sworn never to yield ? An organized church was demanded by the necessities of the time ; an association of soldiers called for an army of saints.^ A sensual people required forms, the church gave them ; superstitious rites, divination, processions, images, the church, — obdurate as steel when occa- sion demands, but pliant as molten metal when yielding is required — the church allows all this. Its form grew out of the wants of the time and place. Was there no danger that the priesthood, thus able and thus organized, should become ambitious of wealth and power ? The greatest danger that fathers should seek to perpetuate authority for their children. But this class of men, cut off from pos- terity by the prohibition of marriage, lived in the midst of ancient and feudal institutions, where all depended on birth ; where descent from a success- ful pirate, or some desperate freebooter, hard- handed and hard-hearted, who harried village after village, secured a man elevation, political power and wealth ; the clergy were cut off from the most ' See Guizot and Cornte. 420 CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. powerful of all inducements to accumulate author- ity. In that long period from Alaric to Columbus, when the church had ample revenues ; the most able and cultivated men in her ranks, so thoroughly dis- ciplined ; the awful power over the souls of men, far more formidable than bayonets skilfully plied ; with an acknowledged claim to miraculous inspiration and divine authority, were it not for the celibacy of the Christian priesthood — damnable institution, and pregnant with mischief as it was — we should have had a sacerdotal caste, the Levites of Christianity, whose little finger would have been thicker than the loins of all former Levites ; who would have flayed men with scorpions, where the priestly des- pots of Egypt and India only touched them with a feather, and the dawn of a better day must have been deferred for thousands of years. The world is managed wiser than some men fancy. " He mak- eth the wrath of man to praise him, and the rem- nant of wrath he will restrain," said an old writer. The remedy of inveterate evils is attended with sore pangs. These wretched priests of the middle ages bore a burthen, and did a service for us, which we are slow to confess. The church, reacting against the sensuality and excessive publicity of the heathen world, in its establishment of convents and monasteries, opened asylums for delicate spirits that could not bear the rage of savage life ; afforded a hospital for men sick of the fever of the world, worn out and shattered in the storms of state, who craved a little rest for • * POWER OF THE CHURCH. 421 charity's sweet sake, before they went where the wicked cease IVom troubling, and the weary are at rest. Among the sensual the Saint is always an Anchorite ; Religion gets as far as possible from the world. ^ Rude men reijuire obvious forms and sensible shocks to their roughness. The very place where the Monks prayed and the Nuns sang, was sacred from the ruthless robber. As he drew near it, the tiger was tame within him ; the mailed war- rior kissed the ground, and Religion awoke for the moment in his heart. The fear of hell, and rever- ence for the consecrated spot, chained up the devil for the time. Then the church had a most diffusive spirit ; it would Christianize as fast as the state would con- quer ; its missionaries are found in the courts of barbarian monarchs, in the caves and dens of the savage, diffusing their doctrine and singing their hymns. Creating an organization the most perfect the world ever saw ; with a policy wiser than any monarch ever dreamed of, and which grew more perfect with the silent accretions of time ; with address to allure the ambitious to its high places, and so turn all their energy into its deep wide chan- nel ; with mysteries to charm the philosophic, and fill the fancy of the rude ; with practical doctrines for earnest workers, and subtle questions, always skil- fully left open for men of acute discernment ; with rites and ceremonies that addressed every sense, ' To illustrate this point see, instar omnium, the works of St. Bernard. 422 HUMANITY OF THE CHURCH. rousing the mind like a Grecian drama, and pro- mising a participation with God through the sacra- ment ; with wisdom enough to bring men really filled with Religion into its ranks ; with good sense and good taste to employ all the talent of the times in the music, the statues, the painting, the archi- tecture of the church, thus consecrating all the pow- ers of man to man's noblest work; with so much of Christian truth as the world in its wickedness could not forget, — no wonder the church spread wide her influence ; sat like a queen among the na- tions, saying to one go, and it went, to another COME, and it came. Then, again, its character, in theory, was kindly and humane. It softened the asperity of secular wars ; forbid them in its sacred seasons ; establish- ed its Truce of God, and gave a chance for rage to abate. It espoused the cause of the people. Com- ing in the name of one " despised and rejected of men," " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; " of a man born in an ox's crib, at his best estate not having where to lay his head ; who died at the hangman's hand, but who was at last seated at the right hand of God, and in his low estate was deemed God in humiliation come down into the flesh, to take its humblest form, and show he was no respecter of persons, — the church did not fail to espouse the cause of the people, with whom Chris- tianity found its first adherents, its apostles and de- fenders. With somewhat in its worst days of the spirit of him who gave his life a ransom for many ; HUMANITY OF THE CHURCH. 423 with much of it really active in its best days and its theory at all times, tiie church stood up, for long ages, the only bulwark of freedom; the last hope of man struggling but sinking as the whelming wa- ters of barbarism whirled him round and round. It came to the Baron, haughty of soul, and bloody of hand, who sat in his cliff tower, as a hungry raven ; who broke the poor into fragments, ground them to powder, and spurned them like dust from his foot ; it came between him and the captive, the serf, the slave, the defenceless maiden, and stayed the insatiate hand. Its curse blasted as lightning. Even in feudal times, it knew no distinction of birth ; all were " conceived in sin," " shapen in iniquity," alike the peasant and the peer. The distinction of birth, station, was apparent, not real. Yet were all alike children of God, who judged the heart, and knew no man's person ; all heirs of Heaven, for whom prophets and apostles had up- lifted their voice ; yes, for whom God had worn this weary, wasting weed of flesh, and died a cul- prit's death. Then while nothing but the accident of distinguished birth, or the possession of animal fierceness could save a man from the collar of the thrall, the church took to her bosom all who gave signs of talent and piety ; sheltered them in her monasteries ; ordained them as her priests ; wel- comed them to the chair of St. Peter ; and men who from birth would have been companions of the Galilean fishermen, sat on the spiritual throne of the world, and governed with a majesty which Caesar 424 ITS GOOD IJNFLUENCE. might envy, but could not equal. Priests came up from no Levitical stock, but the children of cap- tives and bondmen as vt^ell as prince and peer. When northern barbarism swept over the ancient w^orld; when temple and tower went to the ground, and the culture of old time, its letters, science, arts, were borne off before the flood, — the church stood up against the tide ; shed oil on its wildest waves ; cast the seed of truth on its waters, and as they gradually fell, saw the germ send up its shoot, which growing while men watch and while they sleep, after many days, bears its hundredfold, a civilization better than the past, and institutions more beneficent and beautiful. The influence of the church is perhaps greater than even its friends maintain. It laid its hand on the poor and down-trodden ; they were raised, fed, and comforted. It rejected, with loathing, from its coffers, wealth got by extortion and crime. It touched the shackles of the slave, and the serf arose disenthralled, the brother of the peer. It annihila- ted slavery, which Protestant cupidity would keep forever.^ It touched the diadem of a wicked king, and it became a crown of thorns ; the monarch's ' See, in Comte, ubi sup. Vol. V. p. 407, et seq., some Reflections on the milder Character of Slavery in Catholic America, compared with Slavery in Protestant America ; and yet Comte is hardly a Theist. For the influence of Christianity on Slavery, see the accounts of Paulinus, Deogratias, Patiens, and Synesius, in Schlosser, Vol. III. Part III. p. 284, et seq. Gibbon, in his heartless way, passes over, with scarce a notice, the beautiful spirit Christianity brought into Rome, and its influence on the condition of slaves. Hallam, in his one-sided appreciation of the Catholic church, has done no more justice to its merits. ITS GOOD INFLUENCE. 426 sceptre was a broken reed before the crosier of the church.^ Its rod, like the wand of Moses, swal- lowed up all hostile rods. Like God himself, the church gave, and took away, rendering no reason to man for its gifts or extortions. It sent missiona- ries to the east and the west, and carried the waters of baptism from the fountains of Nubia, to the roaring Geysers of a Northern isle. It limited the power of kings ; gave religious education to the people, which no ancient institution ever aimed to impart ; kept on its sacred hearth the smouldering embers of Greek or Roman thought ; cherished the last faint sparkles of that fne Prometheus brought from Gods more ancient than Jove. It had cere- monies for the sensual; confessionals for the pious — needed and beautiful in their time — labors of love for the true-hearted ; pictures and images to rouse devotion in the man of taste ; churches whose as- piring turrets and sombre vaults filled the kneeling crowd with awe ; it had doctrines for the wise ; rebukes for the wicked ; prayers for the reverent ; hopes for the holy, and blessings for the true. It sanctified the babe, newly born and welcome ; watched over marriage with a jealous eye ; fostered good morals ; helped men, even by its symbols, to partake the divine nature ; smoothed the pillow of disease and death, giving the Soul wings, as it ' See an early instance of the collision between the spiritual and tem- poral power, in the case of Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, and the Queen Justina, in Fleury, ubi sup. Liv XVIII. Chap. 32, et seq. ; and also in Gibbon. CJiap XX VII. 426 MAIN ERROR OF THE CHURCH. were, to welcome the death-angel, and gently, calmly pass away. It assured masculine piety of its re- ward in Heaven ; told the weak and wavering, the divine beings would help him, if faithful. In the honors of canonization, it promised the most lasting fame on earth ; generations to come should call the good man a blessed saint, and his name never perish while the years went round. Heroism of the Soul took the place of boldness in the Flesh. It did not, like Polytheism, deify warriors and states- men— Attila, Theodosius, Clovis, their kingdom was of this world — but it canonized martyrs and saints, Polycarp, Justin, Ambrose, Paulinus, Bernard of Clair-vaux.^ Such were some of the excellen- cies, theoretical or practical, of the church. This hasty sketch does not allow more particular notice of them. II. The Defects and Vices of the Catholic Party. But the church had vices, vast and awful to the thought. As its distinctive excellence was to pro- claim the continuance of ins|)iration, so its sacra- mental sin was in limiting this inspiration to itself thus setting bounds to the Spirit of God and the Soul of man. Who shall say to the Infinite God, Hitherto shah, thou come, but no farther ; Thou hast inspired Moses and Jesus, the Apostles, and ' Canonization among the Catholics seems to come from the same root with the Apotheosis of the Polytheists. Both, no doubt, exerted an in- fluence on men who asked a recompense for being good and religious. VlCli OF TUK rillKSTHOOl). 427 llic; chmcli ; well done, now rest from thy work, and ii\)vdk no more, except as we prescribe ? The church did say it. The wondrous mechanism of the church and much of its power came from this false assumption, that it alone had the Word of God. So its organization was based on a lie, and required new lies to uphold, and prophets of lies to defend it. Its servants, the })riests, became proud of sj)irit. Tiie only keepers of scripture and tradi- tion ; the only recipients of inspiration, they forbid free inquiry as of no use ; stifled Conscience as only leading men into trouble ; and excommunica- ted Common Sense, who asked " terrible ques- tions," calling for the title-deeds of the church. They went farther, and forbid the bans between Reason and Religion ; and when the parties insist- ed on the union, turned them both out of doors with a curse. The laity must not approach God, as the clergy ; must only commune with Him " in one kind." The church forgot God grants inspira- tion to no one except on condition he conforms to the divine law, living pure and true, and grants it only in proportion to his gifts and his use thereof; so, relying on the ojfice and " apostolical succes- sion " for inspiration, the priests lived shameless and wicked lives, rivalling Sardanapalus and Domi- tian in their cruelty and sin. They forgot God withholds inspiration from none that is faithful ; so they stoned tlu; prophets who rebuked their lies and published their sin ; they shamefully entreated men whom God sent of his errands to these unwor- 428 WORLDLINESS OF THE CHURCH. thy husbandmen. They became spiritual tyrants, forcing all men to utter the same creed, submit to the same rite, reverence the same symbol, and be holy in the same way. In its zeal to separate the spiritual power from temporal hands it took what was not its own— power over men's bodies ; and made laws for the state.^ In its haste to give preeminence to spiritual things, it made its offices a bribe, greater than the state could give. The honor of sainthood — what was the fame of king and conqueror to that ? It promised the honors of high clerical office, and even of canoniza- tion to the most mercenary and cruel of men, whose touch was pollution. Its list of saints is full of knaves and despots. The state was taken into the church, — a refractory member. The Flesh and the Devil were baptized ; " took holy orders ;" governed the church in some cases, but were still the Flesh and the Devil, though called by a Christian name. That divine man, whose name is ploughed into the world, said. If a man smite the one cheek, turn the other ; but if a man lifted his hand or his voice against the church, — it blasted him with damnation and hell. Christ said his king- dom was not of this world ; so said the church at first, and Christians refused to war, to testify in the courts, to appear in the theatres, and foul their hands with the world's sin. But soon as there was an organized priesthood, to defend themselves from * See Hallam, ubi supra, Ch. VII. ed. Paris, Vol. I. p. 373, et seq. TYRANNY OF THE CHURCH. 429 the tyranny of the state, to exercise authority over the soul of men, power on the earth became needed. One lie leads to many. What the church first took in self-defence it aftor^vards clung to and increased, and was so taken up witli its earthly kingdom, it quite forgot its patrimony in Heaven ; so it played a double game, attempting to serve God, and keep on good terms with the Devil. But it was once said, " no man can serve two masters." Unnatural, spiritual power could not be held without temporal authority to sustain it ; so the church look fleshly weapons for its carnal ends. Monks raised armies ; Bishops led them ; God was blasphemed by prayers to aid bloodshed. The church sold her garment to buy a sword. The church was the exclusive vicar of God ; she must have " the tonnage and poundage of all free- spoken truth." To accomplish this end and estab- lish her dogmas, she burnt men, beginning with Priscillian and " the six Gnostics," in the fourth century, at Tours, and ending no one knows where, or when, or with whom.^ It had such zeal for the " unity of the faith," that it put prophets in chains; asked the sons of God if they were " greater than Jacob." It made Belief take the place of Life. It ' See the story in Sulpitius Severus, Hist. Sac. Lib. II. Ch. 50-51. Fleury, ubi supra, Liv. XVII. Ch. 56, 57, and XVIII. Ch. 29, 30. The Pope, St. Leo, commended the action, but Gregory of Tours, and Am- brose of Milan condemned it. Idacius and Ithacious, the two bishops who caused the execution, were expelled from their office by the popular indignation. 430 ITS FALSEHOOD AND CRIME. absolved men of their sins, past, present, and future. Emancipated the clergy from the secular law, thus giving them license to sin. It sold heaven to ex- tortioners for a little gold, and built St. Peters viath the spoil. It wrung ill-gotten gains out of tyrants on their death-bed ; devoured the houses of widows and the weak ; built its cathedrals out of the spoil of orphans, thus literally giving a stone when bread was asked for, as St. Bernard honestly called it. It was greedy of gold and power, and at one time had well nigh half the lands of England held in mortmain. It absolved men from oaths ; broke marriages ; told lies ; forged charters and decretals ; burned the philosophers ; corrupted the classics ; altered the Fathers ; changed the decisions of the councils, and filled Europe with its falsehood.^ It has fought the most hideous of wars ; evangelized nations with the sword ; laid kingdoms under in- terdict to gratify its pride. The church boasts of its uniform doctrine, but it changes every age ; of its peaceful spirit, but who fought the crusades, the wars of extermination in Switzerland, France, the Low Countries ? To whom must we set down the ecclesiastical butchery that filled Europe with funeral piles ? It quarrelled with the temporal power, and built up institutions of ' See instances of this forgery in Hallam, ubi sup. Ch. VII. p. 391, et seq. et al. ; Daille, On the right Use of the Fathers, &c London, 1841, passim. Middleton, ubi supra. But see, on the side of the church, Bos- suet, Defeuse de la Tradition ct des Saints Peres, and Manzoni, Osser- vazioni suUa Morale Cattolica, Firenze, 1835. DECLINE OF THE CHURCH. 431 tyranny to suppress truth; kept tlic Bible to itself; made the Greek Testament a prohibited book ; brought dead men's bones into the churches, for the living to worship, and worked lying wonders to confirm fiilse doctrine. It loved tiie night of the dark ages, and clung to its old dogmas. The church came at length to be a colossus of crime, with a thin veil of hypocrisy drawn over its face, and that only. The vow of purity its children took, became a license for sin. The corruptest of courts was the court of the Pope. What reverence had the Archbishops for the doctrine of the church ? Cardinal Bembo bids Sadolet not read St. Paul, it would spoil his taste. In early ages the Apostles were the devoutest of men ; in later days their " successors " were steeped to the lips in crime. ^ For centuries, the church, like the Berserkers of northern romance, seemed to possess the soul and strength of each antagonist it slew. But its hour struck. The work it required ten centuries to mature, stood in its glory not one. Each transient institution has a truth, or it would not be ; an error, or it would stand forever. The truth opens men's eyes ; they see the error and would reject it. Then comes the perpetual quarrel between the Old and the New. " Every battle of the warrior," says an ' See Hallam, ubi sup. Ch. VII. De-Potter loves to dwell on the faults of the church, for which there is sufficient opportunity ; Neander, as much too lenient, errs on the other side. Much inform.ation in a popular form maj be found in AI. Roux-Fcrrand, Histoire des Progrcs do la Civil- ization en Europe, G vols. gvo. Paris, 1833-1S41, Vol. I -II. l,((.ons X.-XIl. Vol. III. Ch. IV-VI. Vol. IV. Ch. V.-VII., et al. 432 PROTESTANT REFORM ATIOJN. ancient prophet, " is with confused noise, and gar- ments rolled in blood," but the battle of the church was a devouring flame. In the time of Boniface VIII., or about the be- ginning of the fourteenth century, an eye that read the signs of the times, and saw the cloud and the star below the horizon, could have foretold the downfall of the church. Its brightest hour was in the day of Innocent III. A wise Providence gov- erns the affairs of men, and never suffers the leaf to fall till the swelling bud crowds it off. Out of the ashes of the old institution there springs up a new being, soon as the world can give it place. No in- stitution is normal and ultimate. It has but its day, and never lasts too long nor dies too soon. Judaism and Heathenism nursed and swaddled mankind for Christianity, which came in the fulness of time. The Catholic church rocked the cradle of mankind. In due season, like a jealous nurse, assiduous and meddlesome, but grown ill-tempered with age and disgust of new things, she yields up with reluctance her rebellious charge, whose vagaries her frowns and stripes will not restrain ; whose struggling weight, her withered arms are impotent to bear; whose aspiring soul her anicular and maudlin wit cannot understand. Her promise will not coax ; nor her baubles bribe ; nor her curses affright him more. The stripling child will walk alone. The Protestant " Reformation " came from the action of Ideas which had not justice done them in THE REFORMATION. 433 the Catholic church, just as the Christian Reforma- tion from Ideas not sufficiently represented in Judaism and Heathenism. It did, not more than the other, come all at once. There was " Luthcranism " be- fore Luther, as Christianity before Christ. Slowly the ages prepared for both, for each was a point in the development of man. The church educated men to see her faults ; gave them weapons to attack her. The Reformation was long a gathering in the bosom of the church itself.^ Athanasius had his Arius to contend with. There was always some Paul of Samosata, some Theodore of Mopsuestia, some Peter of Bruis, or Henry of Lausanne, to trouble the church. In the twelfth century it took all the miracles of Clairvaux and the leanness of its Abbot, to put down the heretics, who would come up again. Was there not Waldo in France, Arnold of Brescia in the papal state, John Huss at Con-- stance, and Wicliff in England, and all of them at no great distance of time ? Faustus and Gutenberg did more for the Reformation than the Diet at Worms. Luther, and Zvvingle, and Calvin, and the host of great men who grew in their shadow were only the heralds that blew the trumpet of the Reformation ; its prize-fighters, not directors of the movement. It was the God of nations that moved the world's heart. The Spirit only culminated in * Ranke in his Die romischen Pabste,«Se,c. ira IG und 17. Jarhhundert gives abundant proof of this reformatory movement in tlie church itself. See particularly Vol. I., B. II., but the tale of ecclesiastical crime is even more distinctly told. 55 434 PROTESTANT REFORMATION. Luther and his friends. It burned in holy hearts in Bohemia and Languedoc, and the valleys of the Pyrennees, and the mountains of Tyrol ; it breathed in lofty minds at Paris, Saxony, Padua, London, Rome itself. Every learned Greek the Turks frighted from Constantinople, or Italian wealth lured to the queen of cities ; every manuscript of the classics, the Fathers, the councils, the Scriptures which found deliverance from the moles and the bats ; every improvement in law, science and art ; every discovery in Alchemy or Astrology ; every invention from the mariner's compass to monk Schwartz's gunpowder, was an agent of the Re- formation. We find Reformers, from the time of Marcion to John Wessel. Some tried, as in the time of Christ, to put new wine in old bottles, but losing both, looked. round for new things. That long train of Mystics, from Dionysius the Areopagite, to Meister Eckart of Strassburg, prepared for the work that Luther built up with manly shouting. To sum up the claim of this party; the catholic church is based on the assumption that God inspires that church, miraculously and exclusively. This assumption is false. Though the oldest organiza- tion in the world, it has no right over the soul of man.' ' See, who will, the Roman doctrine thoroughly attacked in the pon- derous folio of Joh. Gerhard, Confessio Catholica, &c., &c., ike, Frank- fort, 1679; and the superficial and somewhat one-sided Essay of M PROTESTANT REFORMATION. 435 Bouvet, Du Catholicisme, du Protestantismo, et de la Philoaophie en France ; Paris, 1840. Many of the most important claims of the catholic church, that of supremacy in temporal affairs, Infallibility in spiritual matters, and the Right to enforce doctrines, are abandoned by an able Catholic writer, J. H. Von Wessenberg, the present bishop of Con- stance. See his Die grossen Kirchenversammlungen des loten und IGten Jahrhundert, Const. 1840, 4 vol. 8vo. CHAPTER V. THE PROTESTANT PARTY. The distinctive idea of Protestantism is this : the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ments are the direct Word of God, and therefore the only infallible rule of religious faith and practice. It logically denied that an inspired man was needed to stand between mankind and the inspired Word. Each man must consult the Scriptures for himself ; expound them for himself, by the common rules of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Each man, therefore, must have freedom of conscience up to this point, but no farther. God was immanent in the Scriptures ; not in the church. The ecclesias- tical tradition was no better than other tradi- tion. It might, or it might not, be true. The Catholic church had no miraculous inspiration. Now it was a great step for the human race, to make this assertion at that time ; it demanded no little manhood to make it in the sixteenth century. Where were the men who had made it in the sixth. PROTESTANTISM. 437 and all subsequent centuries ? Their bones and their disgrace paved the highway on which Luther w-alked as a giant to a fame world-wide and abid- ing. At first the work of the Protestants, like that of all Reformers, was negative, exposing the errors, sins, of the Catholic church ; clearing the spot on which to erect their church ; fighting with words and blows. In the war of the giants, sore strokes must be laid on. The ground shook and the sky rang with the quarrel. " God will see," said stout Martin, " which gives out first, the Pope or Luther." The church thundered and lightened from the sev- en-hilled city, looking with a frown towards Sax- ony. Luther gave back thunder for thunder, scorn for scorn. Did the church condemn Luther ? He paid it back in the same pence. The church says, " Luther is a heretic, and should be burned had we skill to catch him." Luther declares " the Pope is a wolf possessed with the devil, and we ought to raise the hue and cry, and tear him to pieces with- out judge or jury." I. The Merit of Protestantism. Its merit as a Reformation was both negative and positive. It was right in declaring the church, with its clergy, cardinals, councils, po])es, no more inspired than other men, and therefore no more fit than others to keep tradition, expound scripture, and hold the keys of heaven ; nay, more, that by reason of their prejudice, ignorance, sloth, amhition, 438 MERIT OF PROTESTANTISM. crime, and sin in general, they had less inspiration, for they had grieved away the Spirit of God.- It was right in denying the authority of the church in temporal matters ; in declaring that its tradition was no better than other tradition, nay, was even less valuable, for the church had told lies in the premises, and the fact was undeniable. The Pro- testants justified their words in this matter by ex- posing the weak points of the church, its lies, false doctrines, and wicked practices ; its arrogance and worldly ambition ; the disagreement of the popes ; the contradictions of the councils and fathers, and the crimes of the clergy, who make up the church. It was right in examining the canon of Scripture, casting off w^hat was apochryphal, or spurious ; in demanding that the laity should have the Bible and the Sacraments in full, and claim the right to interpret Scripture, reject tradition, relics, saints, and have nothing between them and Christ or God. It was right in demanding freedom of conscience for all men, up to the point of accepting the Scrip- tures.^ This was no vulgar merit, but one we little * It is not necessary to cite the proofs of the above statements from the Reformers, as they may be found in the dogmatical writers so often re- ferred to before. The most significant passages may be found collected in Harles, Theologische Encyclopadie und Methodologie, Leips. 1837, Chap. III.-IV. The early Reformers differed in opinion as to the author- ity of the Bible. It is well known with what freedom and contempt Lu- ther himself spoke of parts of the canon, and the stories of miracles in the Gospels and Pentateuch. But his own opinion fluctuated on this as on many other points. He cared little for Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Indeed, it would not require a very perverse ingenuity to make out, from the Reformers, a Straiissianismus ante Strmissium. DEFECTS OF PROTEST.VNTISM. 439 appreciate. The men who fight the battle for all souls, rarely get justice from the world. II. The Vice and Defect of Protestantism. Its capital vice was to limit the power of private inspiration, and, since there must be somewhere a standard external or wiiiiin us, to make the Bible MASTER OF THE SouL. Thcorcticalhj, it narrowed the sources of religious truth, and instead of three? as the Catholics, it gave us but one ; though prac- tically it did more than the Catholics, for it brought men directly to one fountain of truth. ^ Now if the Catholic had an undue reverence for the organized church, so had the Protestant for the Scriptures. Both sou";ht in the world of concrete thinjis an in- fallible source and standard of moral and religious truth. There is none such out of the Soul ; neither in the church, nor the Bible. Both must be ideal- ized to support this pretension. Accordingly as the one party idealized the church ; assumed its divine Origin, its Infallibility, and the exclusive immanence of God therein ; so the other assumed the divine origin of the Scriptures, their infallihii- ity, and the immanence of God in them. Has either party proved its point ? Neither is capable ' This is, logically speaking, the fundamental principle of the Reform- ers, though qualifications of it may be found in Luther, Melancthon, Zwingle, and Calvin, which detract much from its scientific rigor. But still the principle was laid down at the bottom of the Protestant fabric, and is still a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to free men. 440 ' PROTESTANTISM AND THE BIBLE. of proof. As the Catholic maintained, in the very teeth of notorious facts, that there was no contra- diction in the doctrines of the church, its popes and councils, and more eminent Fathers ; in the very face of Reason, that all its doctrines v^^ere true and divine ; so did the Protestant, in the teeth of facts equally notorious, deny there vras any contradic- tion in the doctrines of the Bible, its prophets, evangelists, apostles ; in the very face of Reason, declared that every word of Scripture was the word of God, and eternally true ! Nay, more, the Pro- testants maintained that the record of Scripture was so sacred, a divine Providence watched over it and kept all errors from the manuscript. What a cry the Protestants made about the " various readings." Could Cappellus get his book on the textual varia- tions of the Old Testament printed under Protest- ant favor ? A perpetual miracle, said Protestant- ism, kept the text of the Old Testament and New Testament from the smallest accident. But that doctrine would not stand against the noble army of various readings, thirty thousand strong. " Where there is no vision, the people perish." The Protestants, denying there was inspiration now as in Paul's time, yet knowing they must have reli- gious truth, or the Word of God, clung like dying men to the letter of the Bible, as their only hope. The words of the Bible had but one meaning, not many ; that was to be got at by the usual methods. Pious and honest study of the grammatical, logical, PROTESTANTISM NOT FINAL. 441 rhetorical sense thereof.^ With its word, man must stop, for he has readied tlio fountain Iiead. I3ut has the word of God become a letter ; is all trutli in the Bible, and is no error, no contradiction there- in ? So said Protestantism. This was its vice. But God has set one thing against another, so that all work together for good. It was a great step to get back to the Bible, and freedom of con- science, and good sense in its exposition. Protestantism wrought wonders, and overthrew the magicians in the Egypt of the church. It saw the ecclesiastical Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, with destruction opening its hungry jaws to devour them. But it had a mixed multitude in its own train, and left the people in the wilderness, wandering like the Gibeonites, with no power to get bread from Heaven, or water from the living rock. Its Jethros were philologists who knew no- thing of the spiritual land of hills and brooks, and milk and honey. Its leaders — men noble as Mo- ses, men of vast soul, and Herculean power to do and suffer — had a Pisgah-view of the land of promise, and wished God would put his spirit on all the people ; but they died and gave no sign. The nations are still wandering in the desert ; carrying • Chemnitz, Loci communes, Pt. III. p. 235, et al. denounces the doctrine of the church, that the Bible was "imperfect, insufficient, am- biguous and obscure." Lutlier and Melancthon condemn the old practice of allrgorizing Scripture. See the passages collected in Ilarles, ubi sup., p. 133, et seq. and the dogmatical writers above referred to. Strauss, Glaubenslehre, § 12,13, Seckendorf, De Lutheranismo, ttc.ed. IGStf, p. 10, 3?, 130, 174. 56 442 GREATNESS OF SPIRITUAL REFORMERS. the Sanctuarj, the Ark, the Table of the Law ; sometimes sighing after the leeks and garlics left behind ; now and then worshiping a calf of gold, of parchment, or spoken wind ; murmuring and re- bellious ; with here and there a Korah, Dathaii and Abiram rising up in their ranks, but with no Moses nor pillar of fire. Still, God be praised, we are no longer slaves under the iron bondage of the church. They were men who dared to come out, those heroes of the Reformation. This Protest against the Catholic church, was one of the noblest the world ever saw ; perhaps never surpassed but once, and then by a single soul, big as yesterday, today, and forever. Stout-hearted Martin Luther, with his face rugged, homely and honest, with a soul of fire, and words like cannon-shot, a heart that feared, neither Pope nor Devil, and a living faith that sang in his dungeon. " The Lord our God is a castle strong," — the greatest of the pro- phets and the " chiefest of apostles," seems little to him. We may thank God and take courage, re- membering that such men have been, and may be. There is no tyranny like the spiritual ; that of soul over soul ; no heroism like that which breaks the bonds of such tyranny. You shall find men thick as acorns in Autumn, who will wade neck-deep in blood, and charge up to the cannon's mouth, when it rains shot, as snow flakes at Christmas. Such men may be had for red coats and dollars, and " fame." It requires only vulgar bravery for that, and men who are " food for powder." But to op- GRKATNESS OF SPIRITUAL REFORMERS. 443 pose the institution which your fiithers lovod in centuries gone by ; to sweep off the altars, forms and usages wliich ministered to your motlier's piety, helped her bear the cross and bitter ills of life, and gave her winged tranquillity in the hour of death ; to sunder your ties of social sympathy ; destroy the rites associated with the aspiring dream of child- hood, and its earliest prayer, and the sunny days of youth — to disturb these because they weave chains, invisible but despotic, which bind the arm and fet- ter the foot, and confine the heart ; to hew down the hoary tree under whose shadow the nations played their game of life, and found in death the clod of the valley sweet to their weary bosom, — to destroy all this because it poisons the air and stifles the breath of the world — it is a sad and a bitter thing ; it makes the heart throb, and the face, that is hard as iron all over in public, weeps in pri- vate, weak woman's tears it may be. Such trials are not for vulgar souls ; they feel not the riddle of the world. The church — it will do for them, for it bakes bread, and brews beer. Would you more ? No. That is enough for blind-mouths. Duty, Freedom, Truth, a divine Life, what are they ? Trifles no doubt to monk Tetzel, the Leos and the Bembos, and other sleek persons, new and old. But to a heart that swells with Religion, like the Atlantic, pressed by the wings of the wind, they are the real things of God, for which all poor temporalities of fame, ease and life are to be cast to the winds. It is needful that a man be true ; 444 THE SYMBOLICAL BOOKS. not that he live. Are men dogs, that they must be happy ? Luther dared to be undone. The sacramental error of Protestantism in re- stricting private judgment to the doctrines of the Bible, was in part neutralized by admitting freedom of individual conscience, and therefore the right and the duty to interpret the Bible. Here it allowed great latitude. Each man might determine by historical evidence his own canon of Scripture, in some measure, and devise his own method of in- terpretation. Yet the old spirit of the church was still there, to watch over the exegesis. The Bible was found very elastic, and therefore hedges were soon set about it, in the shape of symbolical books, creeds, thirty-nine articles, catechisms, and confes- sions of faith, which cooped up the soul in narrower limits. But these formularies, like the Scriptures, were found also indefinite, and would hold the most opposite doctrines, for though the schoolmen doubt- ed whether two similar spirits could occupy at once the same point of space, it is put beyond a doubt that two very dissimilar doctrines may occupy the same words, at the same time. Taking " sub- stance for doctrine," any creed may be subscribed to, and a solemn ecclesiastical farce continue to be enacted, as edifying if not so entertaining as the old miracle plays. That was popular advice for theologians which the old Jesuit gave. " Let us fix our own meaning to the words, and then subscribe them." The maxim is still " as good as new." INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE. 445 This new and exclusive reverence for tlie Bible led to popular versions of it ; to a hard study of its original tongues ; and a most diligent examination of all the means of interpreting its words. Here a wide field was opened for critical study, which even yet has not been thoroughly explored. A host of theological scholars sprang up, armed to the teeth with Greek and " the terrible Hebrew," and attended by a Babylonian legion of oriental tongues and rabbinical studies, — scholars who had no peers in the church, at least, since the time of Jerome, who translated, so he says, Ecclesiasticus from the Hebrew in a day ! But this study led to extravagance. Sound principles of interpretation were advanced by some of the Reformers, but they were soon abandoned. Thus, to take a single example : Luther, Zwingle and Melancthon said, A passage of Scripture can have but one meaning.^ It is unquestionably true. But certain doctrines must be maintained, and defended by Scripture ; therefore if this could not be done by the natural meaning of Scripture a secondary sense or a type must be sought. Of course it was found. The old allegorical way of interpretation was bad, but this typical improvement and doctrine of secondary senses was decidedly worse.- In the hands of both Protestant and Catholic interpreters, the Bible ' Luther himself did not always adhere to this rule, in explaining the Old Testament. * See StrauBs, Leben Jesu, § 3-4. Palfrey, ubi sup. VoL IL Lcct. XXXIII Rosenmaller, Handbuch fdr Litcraturdcr bib. Kritik, &c. Vol. IV. p. l,et seq. 446 INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE. is clay, to be turned into any piece of ecclesiastical pottery the case may require ; persecuted in one sense they flee into another. It is a very Proteus, and takes all forms at pleasure. Now it is a river placid as starlight, then a lion roaring for his prey. Job went through some troubles in his life, as the poem relates ; but even death has not placed him where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Professors and critics have handled him more sorely than Satan, his friends, or his wife. They have made him " sin with his lips ; " his saddest disease he has caught at their hands ; his greatest calamity was his exposition. " Oh that mine adversary had written a book," said the patient man. Did he wish to explain it? Then is he rightly treated, for the explainers have ploughed upon his back ; they made long their furrows. Moses, says the Hebrew Scripture, was the most tormented of all the earth, but his trials in the wilderness were nothing to his sufferings on the rack of exegesis. The Critics and Truth have dis- puted over him as the Devil and Michael. The prophets had a hard time of it in their day and generation ; but Jeremiah was put into his darkest dungeon by Christian scholars ; Isaiah was never so painfully sawn asunder as by the interpreters, to whom facts are as no facts, and one day as a thou- sand years, in their chronology. Jonah and Daniel were never in such fatal jeopardy as at the present day. A choleric man in the Psalms could not curse his foes, but he uttered maledictions against the ene- DIVISIONS AMONG PROTESTANTS. 447 mies of tlie church ; nor speak of recovering from illness, but he predicts an event which took place a thousand years later. A young Hebrew could not write an Anacreontic, but he spoke "of Christ and the church." Nay, Daniel, Paul and John must predict the " abomination of Rome ; " all the great events as they take place, and even the end of the world, in the day some fanatical interpreter happens to live. Is the Bible the Protestant stand- ard of faith r Then it is more uncertain than the things to be measured. The cloud in Hamlet is not more variable than the " infiiUible rule " in the hands of the interpreters. The best things are capable of the worst abuse. Alas, when shall Rea- son and Religion have their place with the sons of men ? Now since Protestantism denied the immanence of God in the church, as such, and flouted the claim to inspiration when made by any modern, it is plain there could be no one authoritative church ; all were equal, resting on the same foundation. Then admitting freedom of judgment, within the limits of the Bible, and great latitude in expound- ing that ; not very often burning men for heresy, — though cases enough in point might easily be cited — and encouraging great activity of mind, it led to diversity of opinions, sentiments and prac- tice. This began in the Reformers themselves. Religion took different shapes in Ulrich von Hutten and John Calvin. Men obeyed their natural affiii- 448 PARTY THAT FEARS GOD. ities, and grouped themselves into sects, each of which recognising the great principle of all Re- ligion ; the special doctrine of Christianity ; the peculiar dogma of Protestantism, has also some distinctive tenet of its own. Soon as the outward pressure of Papal hostility was somewhat lightened, these conflicting elements separated into several churches. Now neglecting these, with which we in New England have little to do, the rest may be divided into two parties, namely : I. Those who set out from the idea that God is a Sovereign. II. Those ivho set out from the idea that God is a Father. The theology and ethics, the virtue and vice of each, require a few words. I. The Party that sets out from the Sovereignty of God. This party takes the supernatural view before pointed out. It makes God an awful king. The universe shudders at his presence. The thunder and earthquake are but faint whispers of his wrath, as the magnificence of earth and sky is but one ray out from the heaven of his glory. He sits in awful state. Human flesh quails at the thought of Him. It is terrible to fall into his hands, as fall we must. Man was made not to be peaceful and blessed, but to serve the selfishness of the All-King, to glorify God and to praise him. Originally, man was made ITS CONCEPTION OF GOD. 449 pure and upriglit. But to tempt beyond his strength the frail creature he had made, God forbid him the exercise of a natural inclination, not evil in itself. INfan disobeyed the arbitrary command. He fell, His first sin brought on him the eternal vengeance of the all-powerful King; hurled him at once from his happiness ; took from him the majesty of his nature ; left him poor, and impotent, and blind, and naked ; transmitting to each of his children all the guilt of the primeval sin. Adam was the "federal head of the human race." " By Adam's fall we sinned all." Man has now no power of himself to 4^ discern good from evil, and follow the good. His ^ best efforts are but filthy rags in God's sight ; his prayer an abomination. Man is born totally de- praved. Sin is native in his bones. Hell is his birthright. To be anything acceptable to God he must renounce his nature, violate the law of the soul. He is a worm of the dust, and turns this way and that, and up and down, but finds nothing in nature to cling by and climb. God is painted in the most awful colors of the Old Testament. The Hesh quivers while we read, and the soul recoils upon itself with suppressed breath, and ghastly face, and sickening heart. The very Heavens are not clean in his sight. The grim, awful King of the world, " a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children ; " " angry with the wicked every day," and " keeping anger forever," " of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," he hates sin, though he created it, and 57 450 CONDITION AND LOT OF MAN. man, though he made him to fall, " with a perfect hatred." Vengeance is his, and he will repay. He must, therefore, punish man with all the exquisite torture which infinite Thought can devise, and Omnipotence applj ; a Creditor, he exacts the ut- termost farthing ; a King, the smallest offence is high-treason, the greatest of crimes. His code is Draconian ; he that offends in one point is guilty of all ; good were it for that man he had never been born. Extremes! vengeance awaits him. The jealous God will come upon him in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder. Hence comes the doctrine of " eternal damnation," a dog- ma which Epicurus and Strato would have called it blasphemy to teach. But God, though called personal, is yet infinite. Mercy therefore must be a part of his nature. He desires to save man from the horrors of hell. Shall he change the nature of things ? That is impos- sible. Shall he forgive all mankind outright ? The infinite King forgive high-treason ! It is not con- sistent with divine dignity to forgive the smallest violation of his perfect law. A sin, however small, is an infinite evil. He must have an infinite " satis- faction." All the human race are sinners, by being born of woman. The damning sin of Adam vests in all their bones. They must all suffer eternal damnation to atone for their inherited sin, unless some " substitute " take their place. Now it has long been a maxim in the courts of law, — whence many forensic terms have been taken ITS DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 451 and applied to theology, — especially since the time of Anselm — that a man's property may suffer in place of his person, and since his friends may trans- fer their property to him, they may suffer in his place " vicarious punishment." Thus before Al- mighty God, there may be a substitute for the sin- ner. This doctrine is a theological fiction. It is of the same family with what are called " legal fictions" in the courts, and " practical fictions" in the street. A large and ancient family it must be confessed, that has produced great names. But no man can be a substitute for another, for sin is infinite and he finite. Though all the liquid fires of hell be poured from eternity on the penitent head of the w^hole race, not a single sin, committed even in sleep, by one man, could be atoned for. An infinite " ransom " must be paid to save a single soul. God's " Mercy " overcomes his " Justice," for man deserves nothing but " damnation," He w^ill pro- vide the ransom. So he sent down his Son, to ful- fil all the law — w^hich man could not fulfil, — realize infinite goodness, and thus merit the infinite re- ward, and then suffer all the tortures of infinite sin, as if he had not fulfilled it, and thus prepare a ran- som for all ; " purchasing " their " salvation." Thus men are saved from hell, by the " vicarious suffering" of the Son. But this w^ould leave them in a negative state ; not bad enough for hell ; not good enough for heaven. The " merits " of the Son as well as his sufferings, must be set down to their account, and thus man is elevated to Heaven by the " imputed righteousness," of the Son. 452 ITS DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. But how can the Son achieve these infinite merits and endure this infinite torment and " redeem " and " save " the race ? He must be infinite, and then it follows, for all the actions of the Infinite are also infinite, in this logic. But two Infinites there can- not be. The Son, therefore, is the Father, and the Father the Son. God's justice is appeased bj God's Mercy. God " sacrifices " God, for the sake of man. Thus the infinite " satisfaction " is ac- complished ; God has paid God the infinite ransom, for the infinite sin ; the " sacrifice " has been of- fered ; the " atonement " completed ; " we are bought with a price." " As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive." Now in the very teeth of logic this system under consideration maintains that God did not thus pur- chase the redemption of cdl, for such " forgiveness " would ill comport with his dignity. Therefore cer- tain " conditions " are to be complied with, before man is entitled to this salvation. God knew from all eternity who would be saved, and they are said to be " elected from before the foundation of the world," to eternal happiness. God is the cause of their compliance — for man has no free will, — hence " foreordination ; " they are not saved by their own merit, but Christ's, hence " particular re- demption ; " having no will, they must be " called " and moved by God, and if elected must come to him, hence " effectual calling ; " if to be saved, they must continue in " grace," hence the " per- severance of the saints." The salvation of the MERITS OF THIS PARTY. 453 " elect ; " the damnation of the non-elect, is all effected by the " decrees of God," the " agency of the Holy Spirit," the " satisfaction of Christ ; " all is a work of " divine grace." The doctrine of the " Trinity " has always been connected with this system. It does not embrace three Gods, as it has been often alleged, but one God in three persons, as the Hindoos have one God in thirty millions persons, and the Pantheists one God in all persons and all things. The Father sits on the throne of his glory ; the Son, at his right hand, " intercedes" for man ; the Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father and the Son, " calls " the saints and makes them " persevere." This doctrine of the Trinity covers a truth, though it often conceals it. Its religious significance — the same with that of Polytheism — seems to be this ; God does not limit himself within the unity of his essence, but incarnates himself in man ; hence the Son ; diffuses himself in space and in spirit, works with men both to will and to do ; hence the Holy Ghost. ^ I . Merits of this Party. This party has great practical merits. The doc- trine sketched above shows the hatefulness of sin, the terrible evils it brings upon the world. Alas, it need not look long to see them. It shows man at first the child of God ; holding daily intercourse ' See the Dial for April, 1812, "Thoughts on Theology," p. 514, et seq. 454 IT SHOWS THE EVIL OF SIN. with the Father ; enjoying the raptures of Heaven on earth, but by one step, cast out, degraded, lost, undone ! It shows the world full of sweet sun- shine, truth, beauty, love, till Sin entered, and then — " the trail of the Serpent is over it all." It tells how sin benumbs the mind, palsies the heart, and shuts out wisdom at every entrance, bringing death to the intellect, death to the affections, death to the soul. The great enemy of man is the child of sin. It tells man he is the son of God, fallen from his high estate, and crushed by the Fall ; but he may yet return. Christ will bind up his wounds ; wash away all sin, with his blood, and he may start anew. It encourages men who are steeped in sin ; tells them they may yet return. It says, " Come unto Christ." But alas, the wounded man, with no freedom, must wait till the Holy Ghost, like the good Samaritan, bind up his wounds and bid him rise and walk. If he is of the elect, the invitation will come, and each hopes he is of that blessed company. One excellence comes out of its very defect ; it thinks none can be saved but by accepting Chris- tianity, a knowledge of which comes through the letter of the Bible. Therefore it is indefatigable in sending Bibles and missionaries the world over. If they do little good where they go, the very purpose and effort are good. A man is always warmed by the smoke of his own generous sacrifice. It recommends an austere morality. It calls on men to repent ; addresses rousing sermons to the Tilt: DEFECTS OF THIS PARTY. 455 fears of the wicked, and moves men uliom liigher motives would not move ; men who ask, pay for goodness. It has a deep reverence for God ; and counts Religion a reality ; insists on a right heart. It Avatches over sin Avith a jealous eye. Coming from a principle so deep as reverence for God ; believing it has all of truth in the lids of the Bible ; confiding in the intercession and atonement of Christ ; setting before the righteous the certainty of God's aid if they are faithful, to assure their per- severance, and promising all the rewards of heaven, it makes men strong, very strong. We see its in- fluence, good and bad, on some of the fathers of New England, in their self-denial, their penitence, their austere devotion, the unconquerable daring, the religious awe which marked those iron men. 2. The Vices of this Party. Jf it have great merits, it has great faults. Its faults come from its peculiar doctrine, while its merits have a deeper source. It makes God dark and awful ; a judge not a protector ; a king not a Father; jealous, selfish, vindictive. He is the Draco of the Universe. The Author of Sin, but its unforgiving avenger. Man must hate the pic- ture it makes of God. He is the Jehovah of the book of Numbers, more cruel than Odin or Belus. He punishes sin — though its Author — for his own glory, not for man's benefit and correction. All the lovely traits of divine character it bestows upon the 456 ITS DOCTRINE OF MAJNf. Son ; he is mild and beautiful as God is awful and morose. Men rush from the father; they flee' to the Son. Its religion is fear of God, not love of him, for man cannot love vvdiat is not lovely. This system degrades man. It deprives him of freedom. It makes him not only the dwarf of himself — for the actual man is but the dwarf of the ideal and possible man — but a being hapless and ill-born ; the veriest worm that crawls the globe. To take a step toward Heaven he must deny his nature, and crucify himself. He is born totally de- praved, and laden besides with the sins of Adam. He can do nothing to recover from these sins ; the righteousness of Christ is the only ground of the sinner's justification ; this righteousness is received through faith, which is the gift of God, and so sal- vation is wholly of grace. The salvation of man is made for him, not by him. It logically annihilates the difference between good and evil, denying the ultimate value of a divine life. It takes out of the pale of manhood its fairest sons, prophets, saints, apostles, Moses, Jesus, Paul, and makes their char- acter miraculous, not human. It tears off the crown of royalty from man, makes Jesus a God ; does not tell us we are born sons of God, as much as Jesus, and may stand as close to God. It does not tell of God now near at hand, but a long while ago. It makes the Bible a tyrant or the soul. It is our MASTER in all departments of thought. Science must lay his kingly head in the dust ; Reason veil her majestic countenance ; Conscience bow him to DEFECTS OF THIS PARTY. 457 the earth ; Religion keeps silence when the priest uplifts the Bible. Man is subordinate to the apoc- ryphal, ambiguous, imperfect, and often erroneous scripture of the Word ; the Word itself, as it comes straightway from the fountain of Truth, throu2;hRea- son. Conscience, and Religion, he must not have. It takes the Bible for God's statute-book ; combines old Hebrew notions into a code of ethics ; takes figures for fact ; settles questions in Morals and Religion by texts of Scripture ! It can justify any- thin"; out of the Bible. It wars to the knife with gaiety of heart ; condemns Amusement as sinful ; sneers at Common Sense ; spits upon Reason, call- ing it " carnal;" appeals to low and selfish aims — to fear, the most selfish and base of all passions. Fear of hell is the bloody knout with which it scourges reluctant Flesh across the finite world, and whips him smarting into Heaven at last. It does not know that goodness is its own recompense, and vice its own torture; that judgment takes place daily, and God's laws execute themselves. Shall I be bribed to goodness by hope of Heaven ; or driven by fear of hell ? It makes man do nothing from the love of what is good, beautiful and true. It asks. Shall a man love goodness as a picture, /or itself? Its divine life is but a good bargain. It makes a day of judgment; heaven and hell to be- gin after death, while goodness is Heaven, and vice hell, now and forever. It makes Religion unnatural to man, and of course hostile ; Christianity alien to the soul. It 58 458 ITS HEAVEN. paves hell with children's bones; has a personal devil in the world, to harrj the land, and lure or compel men to eternal woe. Its God is diabolical. It puts an Intercessor between God and man; re- lies on the Advocate. Cannot the Infinite love his frail children without teasing ? Needs He a chan- cellor, to advise Him to use forgiveness and mer- cy ? Can men approach the Everj-where-present only by attorney, as a beggar comes to a Turkish king ? Away with such folly. Christ bears his own sins, not another's. How can his righteousness be " imputed " to me ! Goodness out of me is not mine ; helps me no more than another's food feeds me, or his sleep refreshes. Adam's sin, — it was Adam's affair, not ours. This system applies to God the language of kings' courts, trial, sentence, judgment, pardon, satisfaction, allegiance, day of judgment. Like a courtier it lays stress on forms ; baptism, which in itself is nothing but a dispensation of water ; the Lord's supper, which of itself is nothing but a dis- pensation of wine and bread. It dwells in profes- sion of faith ; watches for God's honor. It makes men stiff, unbending, cold, formal, austere, seldom lovely. They have the strength of the Law, not the beauty of the Gospel ; the cunning of the Jew, not the simplicity of the Christian. You know its hearty followers soon as you see them ; the rose is out of their cheeks ; their mouths drooping and sad ; their appearance says, Alas, my fellow worm ! There is no more sunshine, for the world is ITS HEAVEN. 459 damned. It is a faith of stern, morose men, well befitting the descendants of Odin, and his iron peers ; its Religion is a principle, not a sentiment ; a foreign matter imported into the soul, bj fore- thougiit and resolution ; not a native fountain of joy and gladness, lea])ing up in winter's frost, and summer's gladness, playing in the sober autumn, or the sunshine of spring. Its Christianity is frozen mercury in the bosom of the warm-hearted Chris- tian, who, by nature, would go straight to God, pray as spontaneous as the blackbird sings, love a thousand times where he hated not once, and count a divine life the greatest good in this world, and ask nothing more in the next. The Heaven of this system is a grand pay-day, where Humility is to have its coach and six, forsooth, because she has been humble ; the Saints and Martyrs, who bore trials in the world, are to take their vengeance by shouting " Hallelujah, Glory to God," when they see the anguish of their old persecutors, and the " smoke of their torment ascending up forever and ever." Do the joys of Paradise pall on the pleas- ure-jaded sense of the " Elect ? " They look off in the distance to the tortures of the damned, where Destruction is naked before them, and Hell hath no covering ; where the Devil with his angels stir- reth up the embers of the fire which is never quenched ; where the doubters, w^hom the church could neither answer nor put to silence ; where the great men of antiquity, Confucius, Budha, Fo, Hermes, Zoroaster, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, 460 ITS REPRESENTATIVES. Aristotle ; where the men, great, and gifted, and glorious, who mocked at difficulty, softened the mountains of despair, and hewed a path amid the trackless waste, that mortal feet might tread the way of peace ; where the great men of modern tiuies, who would not insult the Deity by bowing to the foolish word of a hireling priest — where all these writhe in their tortures, turn and turn and find no ray, but yell in fathomless despair ; and when the Elect behold all this, they say, striking on their harps of gold, " Aha ! We are comforted and Thou tormented, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and our garments are washed white in the blood of the Lamb." This system exists nowhere in its perfection ; that is, only ideal. It is incarnated imperfectly in many forms. But it is the groundwork of the popular theology of New England.^ It appears variously modified in all the chief denominations of North America and Great Britain. No one of all the sects which represents it, but has great excel- lencies in spite of this hateful system. Each of them is doing a good but imperfect work. A rude nation must have a rude doctrine. Yet such is the system on which they rest their theology. Though their Religion, say what they will, comes from no such quarter. This system is older than Protest- ' I have been careful not to cite authorities lest individual churches or 7criters should be deemed responsible for the sin of the mass. But I have not spohen without book. PATERNITY OK GOD. 461 antism, and is the child of many fiithcrs. How- ever it is continually a})proaching its end. The battering ram which levelled the philosophy of the Stagirite and the schoolmen, will beat, ere long, on the theology of the church, and how shall it stand ? It is based on a lie, and that lie under- mined. A man who loves wife and child, and would die any death to save a friend, will be slow to believe in total depravity ; he that sees a swarm of bees in summer, or hears the blackbird sing in his honey-suckle, will not believe God is a devil, though all the divines in the church quote the fathers and Scriptures to prove it. God speaks truth always, and will the pulpit prevail against him ? The sands of this theology are numbered, and its glass shaken. II. The Party that sets out from the Patern ity of God. This system makes God not a King but a Father ; infinite in power, wisdom, and love. His love rays out in every direction, seeking to bless the all of things. The world, its overarching heavens, its ocean, its mountains, its flowers that brighten in the sun-beam ; the crimson and purple that weave a lustrous veil for the face of Day, at the rising and decline of light ; the living things of earth, beast, bird, fish, insect, so full of happiness that the world hums with its joy, — all these it counts but a whisper of God's goodness, though all the babbling elements can teach. It sees the same in the Bible, for it 462 MERITS OF THIS PARTY. loill see itself, and walks in the shade of its own halo of glory, and so treads on rainbows where it steps. This doctrine of God's goodness is a mighty truth ; poorly apprehended as yet, though destined to a great work, and development which shall never end. Men can only see in God what is in them- selves. Their conception of God cannot transcend their own ideal stature of spirit. Since goodness is not active in most men, nor love predominant; they see God as Power to be feared ; at best as Wisdom to be reverenced ; not as Goodness to be loved, nor can they till themselves become lovely. 1. The Merits of this Party. The merits of this system are very great. It makes goodness the cause of all. God made the world to bless it. His love flowed forth a celes- tial stream that sparkles in the sky, surrounding the world. Apparent evils are but good in disguise, save only sin, and this man brings on himself, through the imperfection of his nature, progres- sive and free. Goodness is infinite, but sin and evil finite. It sees a perfect system of optimism everywhere. The infinite Love must desire the best thing ; the infinite Wisdom devise means for that end, and infinite Power bring about the result. All things are overruled for good at the last. Sin is a point mistaken man passes through in his de- velopment. Suffering is man's instructor. It was MERITS OF THIS PARTY. 463 good for Isaiali and Stephen and Paul to bear the burthens they bore. Affliction is success in a mask. It makes the world look fair and the foce joyful. It hears the word of love even in the voice of tlu^ earthquake, and the tread of the pestilence. Evil is not ultimate but transient. It tolls man of his noble nature ; his lofty duty ; his fair destination if faithful. It makes llcligion natural to man ; bids him obey its law and be blessed ; not to be good or do good for fear of hell or hope of heaven, but for itself. It would not have men fear God, the Religion of the Old Testament, but love him, — the Relio;ion of the New Testament. It tells us we are made for goodness here, and heaven hereafter. It denies original sin, or admitting that, makes it of no effect, for Christ has restored all to their first estate ; thus avoiding the logical absurdity of the last form. Its hell is not eternal, for the infinite love of God must make the whole of existence a blessing to each man. God is so lovely we flee, as children, to his arms, a refuge from all the trou- bles, follies and sins of life. It shows His uncon- tainable goodness in earth and sea and sky ; in the prophets and apostles, sent to bless ; in Jesus the Saviour, commissioned to redeem the world — to seek and save the lost. It fills the soul with tranquillity, peace, an exceeding trust in God. Se- renely the man goes about his duties ; is not borne down with his cross, though never so weighty ; looks on and smiles, fearing no evil but sin, and lack of faith. As he looks back, he sees an end of his 464 THEIR PRACTICAL DEFECTS. perfection, but does not despair at the broadness of the divine law, though his steps totter in this infancy of his being, for he sees worlds open before him, where a stronger sunlight and a purer sky await him ; where Reason, Conscience, and Religion shall finish their perfect work, and he shall not be weary with his walk, nor faint though he runs. This system allows no ultimate evil, as a back ground of God ; believes in no vindictive pun- ishment. The woes of sin are but its antidote. Suffering comes from wrong-doing, as well-being from virtue. If there be suffering in the next world, it is as in this, but the medicine of the sick soul. It allows no contradiction between God's goodness and mercy. We require to be reconciled with him, not he with us. We love him soon as seen. It. makes Religion inward ; of the life and heart ; the son's service, not the slave's ; a senti- ment, as well as principle ; an encouragement no less than a restraint. God seeks to pour himself into the heart, as the sun into the roses of June. These are no vulgar merits. 2. The Defects and Vices of this Party. So far as this system is derived from its funda- mental Idea, it has no defect nor vice, for the Idea is absolute and answers to the fact — God is good. But the absurdities of other forms mingle their pestilent breath with the fragrance of truth ; and the party that poorly espouses this divine idea has ITS REPRESENTATIVES. 465 its defects. Men do not see the sinfulness of sin ; underrate the strength of liuman passion, cupidity, wrath, selfishness, intrenched in the institutions of the world, and belonging to the present low stage of civihzation. They rellect too little on the evil that comes from violating the law of God ; overlook the horrors of outraged conscience, and do not re- member that suffering must last as long as sin, and man only can remove that from himself. They are not sufficiently zealous to do good to others, in a spiritual way. This party has also its redundancies. It has taken much from the ungrateful doctrines of the darker system. Its followers rely on Authority, as all Protestants have done. They make man de- pend on Christ, who died centuries ago — not on himself, who lives now ; forgetting that it is not the death of Jesus that helps us, but the death of Sin in our heart ; not the life of Jesus, the personal Christ, however divine, but the life of Goodness, Holiness, Love, in our own heart. A Christ out- side the man is nothing ; his divine life nothing. God is not a magician to blot sin out of the soul, and make man the same as if he had never sinned. Each man must be his own Christ, or he is no Christian. No sect has fully developed the doctrine that is legitimately derived from this absolute Idea. When its time comes it will annihilate this poor theology of our time, and give man his birthright. Some have attempted the work in all ages, and shared 59 466 ITS DOCTRINE POORLY SET FORTH. the fate of men before their time. Their bones lie mouldering in many a spot, accursed of men. They bore a prophet's mission, and met his fate. Were they hounds, that they must breathe, to be ? Their seed has not perished out of the earth. This doctrine in some measure tinges the faith of all sects with its rosy light. It abates the austerity of the Calvinist, the exclusiveness of the Baptist ; does a great work in the camp of the Methodist. All churches have some of it, from the Episcopalian to the Mormonite, though in spite of their theology. There is something so divine in Religion, that it softens the ruggedest natures, and lets light even into theology. The sects, however, which chiefly rely upon it, are the Universalists, the Restora- tionists and Unitarians. But how poorly they do their work ,* with what curtains of darkness do they overcloud the holy of holies ! What poor inepti- tudes do they offer us in the midst of the sublimest doctrines ; how does the timid littleness of their achievement, or endeavor, stand rebuked before absolute Religion ; before the motto on the banner of Christianity : God is Love ! What despair of man, of Reason, of Goodness ; what bowing and cringing to tradition. Are not men born in our time as of old, or has a race of Liliputs and Mani- kins succeeded to Moses, Socrates, Jesus, Paul ? But this must pass. The two former have at their basis the old supernatural theology, and differ from the strictest sect mainly in their exegesis ; they .* THE UNITARIANS. 467 would believe anything which the Bible taujiht. They are, however, doing a great work. But the latter are of more importance in this respect, and^ though few in numbers, deserve a notice by them- selves. Of the Unitarians, and their present Position. At first the " Unitarian heresy," as it was pre- sumptuously called, was a protest against the un- reasonable and unscriptural doctrines of the church ; a protest on the part of Reason and Religion ; an attempt to apply Good Sense to theology, to recon- cile Knowledge with Belief, Reason with Revela- tion, to humanize the church. Its theology was of the supernatural character mingled with more or less of naturalism and spiritualism. It held to the first positive principles of the Reformation — the Bible and Private Judgment. Contending, as it must, with the predominant sects, then more arro- gant and imperious than now, perhaps not knowing so well the ground they stood on — its work, like most Reformations, was at first critical and nega- tive. It was a " Statement of Reasons for not believing" certain doctrines, very justly deemed not scriptural. Thus it protested against the Trin- ity, total depravity, vindictive and eternal punish- ment, the common doctrines of the satisfaction of Christ, the popular character ascribed to God. It recommended a deep, true morality lived for its own sake ; perhaps sometimes confounded Morality 468 EARLY UNITARIANISM. with Religion. To make sure of Heaven, it demand- ed a divine life, laying more stress on the character than the creed ; more on honesty, diligence, charity, than on grace before meat, or morning and evening prayers. In point of moral and religious life, as set forth in the two Great Commands, its advo- cates fear no comparison with any sect. It was not boastful, but modest, cautious, unassuming ; mindful of its own affairs ; not giving a blow for a blow, nor returning abuse — of which there was no lack — with similar abuse. It had a great work to do, and did it nobly. The spirit of reformers was in its leading men. The sword of polemic theolo- gy rarely fell into more just and merciful hands. But the time has not come to celebrate with due honor the noble heart, the manly forbearance, the Christ- ian heroism of those who have gone where the weary are at rest, or who yet linger here. They fought the battle like Christian scholars, long and well. The seven-fold shield of Orthodoxy was rent asunder, spite of its gorgon head. Its ter- rible spear, with its " five points," was somewhat blunted. Thus far Unitarianism was but carrying out the principles of the Protestant Reformation, to get at the pure doctrines of Scripture, which was still the standard of faith. Some, it seems, silently aban- doned the divine and infallible character of the Old Testament — as Socinus had done — but clung strongly as ever to that of the New Testament, while they admitted the greatest latitude in the GROWTH OF UJSITARIANISM. 469 criticism and exegesis of that collection. The Uni- tarians were at first tlio most reasonahh^ of secta- rians. The Bil)Ie was their creed. Thinking men, who wouUl conclude for themselves, say the church what it mi, THE CONCLUSION. I. OF THE POPULAR THEOLOGY. Theology is the science of Religion. It treats of man, God, and the relation between man and God, with the duties which grow out of that rela- tion. It is both queen and mother of all science ; the loftiest and most ennobling of all the specula- tive pursuits of man. But the popular theology of this day is no science at all, but a system of inco- herent notions, woven together by scholastic logic, and resting on baseless assumptions. The pursuit thereof in the popular method does not elevate. There is in it somewhat not holy. It is not studied as science, with no concern except for the truth of the conclusion. We wish to find the result as we conceived it to be ; as bishop Butler has said, " People habituate themselves to let things pass through their minds, rather than to think of them. Thus by use they become satisfied merely with seeing vi'hat is said, without going any further." Our Theology has two great Idols, the Bible and 62 490 THE CONCLUSION. Christ ; by worshiping these, and not God only, we lose much of the truth they both offer us. Our theology relies on assumptions, not ultimate facts ; so it comes to no certain conclusions ; weaves cob- webs, but no cloth. The popular Theology rests on these main assump- tions ; THE DIVINITY OF THE ChURCH, AND THE DI- VINITY or THE Bible. What is the value of each ? It has been found convenient to assume both. Then it has several important aphorisms, which it makes use of as if they were established truths, to be employed as the maxims of geometry, and no more to be called in question. Amongst these are the following : Man under the light of nature is not capable of discovering the moral and religious truth needed for his moral and religious welfare ; there must be a personal and miraculous mediator be- tween each man and God ; a life of blameless obe- dience to the law of man's nature will not render us acceptable to God, and ensure our well-being in the next life ; we need a superhuman being to bear our sins, through whom alone we are saved ; Jesus of Nazareth is that superhuman, and miraculous, and sin-reconciling mediator ; the doctrine he taught is revealed Religion, which differs essentially from natural Religion ; an external and contingent miracle is the only proof of an eternal and necessa- ry truth in morals or Religion ; God now and then transcends the laws of nature and makes a miracu- lous revelation of some truth ; he does not now inspire men as formerly. Each of these aphorisms THE POPULAR THEOLOGY. 491 is a gratuitous assumption, which has never been I)roved, and of course all the theological deductions made from the aphorisms, or resting on these two main assumptions, are without any real foundation. Theologians have assumed their facts, and then reasoned as if the fact were established, but the conclusion was an inference from a baseless as- sumption. Thus it accounts for nothing. " We only become certain of the immortality of the soul from the fact of Christ's resurrection," says Theol- ogy. Here are two assumptions : first, the fact of that resurrection, second, that it proves our immor- tality. If we ask proof of the first point, it is not easy to come by ; of the second, it cannot be shown. The theological method is false ; for it does not prove its facts historically, or verify its conclusions ])hilosophically. The Hindoo theory says, the earth rests on the back of an Elephant, the Elephant on a Tortoise. But what does the Tortoise rest upon ? The great Turtle of popular theology rests on — an assumption. Who taught us the infallible divinity of the Bible, or the church ? Why, we always thought so. We inherited the opinion, as land, from our fathers, " to have and to hold, for our use and behoof, for ourselves, our heirs, forever." Would you have a better title ? We are regularly " seized " of the doctrine ; it came, with the divine right of kings, from our fathers, who by the grace of God, burnt men for doubting the truth of their theology. This is the defence of the popular theologj'. We have freedom in civil 492 THE CONCLUSION. affairs, can revise our statutes, change the adminis- tration, or amend the constitution. Have we no freedom in theological affairs, to revise, change, amend a vicious theology ? We have always been doing it, but only by halves, not looking at the foundation of the matter. We have applied good sense to many things, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, and with distinguished success ; not yet to Theology. We make improvements in science and art every year. Men survey the clouds, note the variations of the magnetic needle, analyze rocks, waters, soils, and do not fear truth shall hurt them though it make Hipparchus and Cardan unreadable. Our method of theology is false no less than its assumptions. What must we expect of the conclusion ? What we find. If a school were founded to teach Geology, and the professors of that science were required to sub- scribe the geological creed of Aristotle or Paracel- sus, and swear solemnly to interpret facts by that obsolete creed, and maintain and inculcate the geological faith as expressed in that creed, in op- position to Wernerians, Bucklandians, Lyellians, and all other geological heresies, ancient or modern ; if the professors were required to subscribe this every five years, and no pupil was allowed the name of Geologist, or permitted peacefully to ex- amine a rock, unless he professed that creed, what would men say to the matter ? No one thinks such a course strange in theology ; our fathers did so before us. In plain English, we are afraid of the THb: POPULAR THLLOLOGY. 493 truth. " God forbid," said a man famous in his day, " that our love of trutli should be so cold as to tol- erate any erroneous opinion" — but our own. Any change is looked on with suspicion. If the drift- weed of the ocean be hauled upon the land, men fear the ocean will be drank up, or blown dry ; if the pine-tree rock, they exclaim, the mountain fall- ing Cometh to nought. How superstitiously men look on the miracle-question, as if the world could not stand if the miracles of the New Testament were not real ! The popular Theology does not aim to prove ab- solute Religion, but a system of doctrines. Now the problem of theology is continually changing. In the time of Moses it was this : To separate Re- ligion from the Fetichism of the Canaanites, and the Polytheism of the Egyptians, and connect it with the doctrine of one God. No doubt Jannes and Jambres exclaimed with pious horror, What, give up the garlic and the cats which our fathers pray- ed to and swore by ! We shall never l)e guilty of that infidelity. But the Priesthood of Garlic came to an end, and the world still continued. In the time of Christ, the problem was : to sep- arate Religion from the obsolete ritual of Moses. We know the result ; the Scribes and Pharisees were shocked at the thought of abandoning the ritual of Moses ! But the ritual went its way. In the time of Luther a new problem arose ; to sepa- rate Reliirion from the forms of the Catholic church. The issue is well known. In our times the prob- 494 THE CONCLUSION. lem is to separate Religion from whatever is finite, church, book, person, and let it rest on its absolute truth. ^ Numerous questions come up for discus- sion : Is Christianity absolute Religion ? What relation does Jesus bear to the human race ? What relation does the Bible sustain to it ? We have nothing to fear from truth, or for truth, but every thing to hope. It is about Theology that men quarrel, not about Religion ; that is but one. II. OF THE POPULAR CHRISTIANITY. Coming away from the theology of our time, and looking at the public virtue, as revealed in our life, political, commercial and social, and seeing things as they are, we must come to this conclusion ; either Christianity — absolute Religion — is false and utterly detestable, or else modern society, in its basis and details, is wrong, all wrong. There is no third conclusion possible. Christianity de- mands a divine life ; society one mean and earthly. Christianity says — its great practical maxim — We that are strong ought to bear the burthens of the weak ; society, we that are strong must make the weak bear our burthens, and does this daily. The strong do not compel the weak as heretofore, with a sword, nor bind them in fetters of iron ; they compel with an idea, and chain with manacles unseen, but felt. Who does the world's work ; he that receives most largely the world's good ? It ' See thn Dial for April, 1842, p. 48.'), et seq., p. 501, et scq. THE rorULAU CMRISTIAMTY. 495 needs not that truisms be repeated. Now it is a high word of Christianity, he tliat is greatest shall be your servant. \V'iiat is the corres})onding word of society ? Every body knoAvs it. Do we estimate greatness in this way, by the man*'s achievements for the public Avelfare ? Oh no, we have no such vulgar standard ! Men of " superior talents and cultivation," do we expect them to be great by serving mankind ? Nay, by serving themselves ! Religion is love of God and man. Is that the basis of action with us ? A young man setting out in life, and choosing his calling, says this to himself: How can I get the most ease and honors out of the world, returning the least of toil and self-denial f That is the philosophy of many a life ; the very end of even what is called the " better class" of society. Who says. This will I do ; I will be a man, a whole complete man, as God made me ; take care of myself, but serve my brother, counting my strength his, not his mine ; I will take nothing from the world which is not honestly, truly, manfully earned ? Who puts his feet forward in such a life ? We call such a man a Fool. Yes, Jesus of Naza- reth is a fool, tried by the penny-wisdom of this generation. We honor him in our Sunday talk ; hearing his words, say solemnly as the parasites of Herod : " It is the voice of a God, not of a man !" and smite a man on both cheeks, who does not cry Amen. But all the week long, we blaspheme that great soul, who speaks though dead, and call his word, a Fool's talk. That is the popular Chris- 496 THE CONCLUSIOJN. lianitj. We can pray as well as the old Pharisee. Lord, we thank thee we are not as other men,- as the Heathen Socrates, who knew nothing, as the " Infidel " who cannot believe contradictions and absurdities. We say grace before meat ; attend to all the church-ordinances ; can repeat the creed, and we believe every word of both thy Testaments. What wouldst thou more ? We have fulfilled all Righteousness. Alas for us ! We have taken the name of Jesus in our church, and psalm-singing. We can say Lord, Lord. No man ever spake as thou. Our Christian- ity is talk ; it is not in the heart, nor the hand, nor the head, but only in the tongue. Could that great man, whose soul bestrides the world to bless it, come back again, and speak in bold words, to our condition, follies, sins, his denunciation and his blest beatitudes, rooting up with his " Woe-unto-you Hypocrites," what was not of God's planting, and calling things by right names — how should we honor him ? As Annas and Caiaphas, and their fel- lows honored that " Galilean and no prophet," — with spitting and a cross. But it costs little to talk and to pray. A divine manliness is the despair of our churches. No man is reckoned good who does not believe in sin, and human inability. We seem to have said, Alas for us ! We defile our week-days by selfish and unclean living ; we dishonor our homes, by low aims and lack of love ; by sensuahty and sin. We debase the sterling word of God in our soul ; we THE POPULAR CHRISTIANITY. 497 cannot discern between good and evil, nor read iialuie ariglit ; nor come at first-hand to God ; therefore let us set one day apart from our work ; let us build us an house which we will enter onlj on that day trade does not tempt us ; let us take the wisest of books, and make it our oracle ; let it save us from thought, and be to us as a God : let us take our brother to explain us this book, to stand between us and God ; let him be holy for us, pray for us, represent a divine life. We know these things cannot be, but let us make believe. The W'ork is accomplished, and we have the Sabbath, the Church, the Bible and the Ministry ; each beautiful in itself, but our ruin, when made the substitutes for holiness of heart and a divine life. In Christianity we have a Religion wide as the East and the West ; deep and high as the Nadir and Zenith ; certain as Truth, and everlasting as God. But in our life we are heathens. He that fears God becomes a prey. To be a Christian, with us, in speech and action, a man must take his life in his hand, and be a lamb among the wolves. Does Christianity enter the counting room ; the senate house ; the jail ? Does it look on ignorance and poverty, seeking to root them out of the land ? The Christian doctrine of work and wages is a plain thing ; he that wins the staple from the ma- ternal earth ; who expends strength, skill, taste, on that staple, making it more valuable ; who aids men to be healthier, wiser, better, more holy, he does a 63 498 THE CONCLUSION. service to the race ; does the world's work. To get commodities won by other's sweat, by violence and the long arm, is Robbery, the ancient Roman way ; to get them by cunning and the long head, is Trade, the modern Christian way. What say Reason and Jesus to that? No doubt the Chris- tianity of the Pulpit is a poor thing. Words cannot utter its poverty ; it is neither meat nor drink ; the text saves the sermon. But the Christianity of daily life, of the street, that is still worse, the whole Bible could not save it. The history of society is summed up in a word : Cain killed Abel ; that of real Christianity also in a word : Christ died FOR HIS brother. From ancient times we have received two price- less treasures : The Sunday, as a day of rest, social meeting, and religious instruction ; and the institution of Preaching, whereby a living man is to speak on the deepest of subjects. But what have we made of them ? Our Sabbath, what a weariness is it ; what superstition defiles its sunny hours ? And preaching — what has it to do with life ? Men graceless and ungifted make it handiwork ; a ser- mon is the Hercules-pillar and ultima Thule of dul- ness. The popular religion is unmanly and sneak- ing. It dares not look Reason in the face, but creeps behind tradition and only quotes. It has nothing new and living to say. To hear its talk one would think God was dead, or at best asleep. We have enough of church-going, a remnant of S^ THE FOPULAK CHRISTIANITY. 499 our father's veneration, which might lead to great good ; reverence still for the Sabbath, the best in- stitution the stream of time has brought us ; we have still admiration for the name of Jesus. A soul so great and pure could not have lived in vain. But to call ourselves Christians, — may God forgive that mockery ! Are men to serve God by lengthening the creed and shortening the commandments ; mak- ing long prayers and devouring the weak ; by turn- ing Reason out of doors and condemning such as will not believe our Theology, — nor accept a priest's falsehood in God's name ? Religion is Life. Is our Life Religion ? No man pretends it. No doubt there are good men in all churches, and out of all churches ; there have been such in the hold of pirate-ships and robbers' dens. I know there are good men and pious women, and I would go leagues long to sit down at their blessed feet and kiss their garments' hem ; but what are the mass of us ? Disciples of absolute Religion ? Not Christians after the fashion of Jesus of Naza- reth ; only Christians in tongue. It is an imputed righteousness that we honor ; not ours but borrowed of Tradition ; an " historical Christianity," that was, but is no more. A man is a Christian if he goes to church ; pays his pew-tax ; bows to the parson ; believes with his sect \ is good as other people. That is our religion ; what is lived, what is preached ; " like people, like priest," was never more true. 500 THE CONCLUSION. It is not that we need new forms and symbols, or even the rejection of the old. Baptism and the Supper are still beautiful and comforting to many a soul. A spiritual man can put spirit upon these. To many they are still powerful auxiliaries. They commune with God — through bread and wine, as others hold converse with Him, through the symbols of nature, the winds that wake the " soft and soul- like sound " of the pine tree ; through the earliest violets of spring and the last leaf of autumn ; through calm and storm, and stars and blooming trees and winter's snows, and summer's sunshine. A religious soul never lacks symbols of its ow^n, ele- ments of communion with God. What w^e want is the Soul of Religion, its Sign will take care of itself ; Religion that thinks and works. With us Religion is a nun ; she sits, of week- days, behind her black veil, in the church ; her hands on her knees ; making her creed more un- readable ; damning " infidels " and " carnal Rea- son ; " she only comes out in the streets of a Sun- day, when the shops are shut, and temptation out of sight and the din of business is still as a baby's sleep. All the week, nobody thinks of that joyless vestal. Meantime strong-handed Cupidity, with his legion of devils, goes up and down the earth, and presses Weakness, Ignorance and Want into his service ; sends Bibles to Africa on the deck of his ship, and Rum and Gunpowder in the hold, knowing that the church will pray for " the out- THK POPULAR CHRISTIANITY. 501 \Naid bound." He brings home, most Christian Cupidity, images of himself God lias eaived in ebony ; to Christianize and bless the sable son of Ethiopia ! Verily we are a Christian people; zealous of good works; drawing nigh unto God — with our lips. Lives there a savage tribe our shi])s have visited, that has not cause to curse and hate the name of Christians, who have plundered, polluted, slain, enslaved their children ? Not one the wide world round, from the Mandans to the Malays. If there were but half the Religion in all Christen- dom, that there is talk of it during a " Revival," in a village ; at the baseness, political, commercial, social baseness daily done in the world, such a shout of indignation would go up from the four corners of earth, as should make the ears of Cupidity tingle again and hustle the oppressor out of creation. The Poor, the Ignorant, the Weak, have we al- ways with us, inasmuch as we do good unto them, we serve God ; inasmuch as we do it not unto the least of them, we blaspheme God and cumber the ground we tread on. Was there no meaning in that old word " He that knew his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes ?" They are already laid upon us. Religion meant something with Paul ; something with Jesus ; what does it mean with us ? A divine life from infancy to age ; divine all through ? Oh, no ; a cheaper thing than that ; it means talk, creed-making, and creed-believing, and creed-defending. We Chris- 502 THE CONCLUSION. tians of the " nineteenth century," have manj " in- ventions to save labor ; " a process by which " a man is made as good a Christian in five minutes as in fifty years." Behold Christianity made easy ! Do men love Religion and its divine life, as Gain and Trade ? Is it the great moving principle with us; something loved for itself; something to live by ? Oh, no. Nobody pretends it. No wonder " ministers cannot bear to hear the truth spoken ;" five minutes' talk will not weigh down fifty years work, save in the church's balance, The Christianity of the church stands at the cor- ner of the street, and bellows till all rings again from Cape Sable to the Lake of the Woods, if a single " heretic " lifts up his voice, though never so weak, in the obscurest corner of the earth ; but Giant Sin may go through the land with his hide- ous rout ; may ride over the poor rough-shod, and burn the standing corn and poison the waters of the nation, and shake the very church till the stee- ple rock — and there shall not a dog wag his tongue. When did the Christianity of the church leave a heresy unscathed ; when did it ever de- nounce a popular sin ; the desolation of intemper- ance ; the butchery of Indians ; the soul-destroying traffic in the flesh and blood of men " for whom Christ died ? " These things need no comment. They tell their own tale. Where is the Infidelity of this age ? Read the religious newspapers. We have a theological Religion to defend with tracts, If •4 THE POPULAR CHRISTIANITY. 503 sermons, and scandal. It needs all that to defend it. No wonder young men, and young women too, of the most spiritual stamj), lose their reverence for the church, or come into it only for a slumber, irre- sistible, profound, and strangely similar to death. What concord hath freedom with slavery ? Talent goes to the world, not the church. No wonder Unbelief scoffs in the public print, " beside what that grim w'olf, with privy paw, daily devours apace, and nothing said ;" there is an unbelief, worse than the public scoffing, though more secret, which needs not be spoken of. No wonder the old cry is raised, the church in danger, as its crazy- timbers sway to and fro if a strong man treads its floors. But what then ? What is true never fails. Religion is permanent in the race ; Christianity everlasting as God. These can never perish, through the treachery of their defenders, or the violence of their foes. We look round us, and all seems to change ; what was solid last night, is fluid and passed off to-day ; the theology of our fathers is unreadable ; the doctrines of the middle-age " divines" is deceased like them. Shall our moun- tain stand ? " Everywhere is instability and inse- curity." It is only men's heads that swim; not the stars that run round. The Soul of man remains the same ; absolute Religion does not change ; God still speaks in Reason, Conscience, Faith ; is still immanent in his children. We need no new 504 THE CONCLUSION. forms ; the old, Baptism and the Supper, are still beautiful to many a soul, and speak blessed words of religious significance. Let them continue for such as need them. We want real Christianity, the absolute Religion, preached with faith and applied to life ; Being Good and Doing Good. There is but one real Religion ; we need only open our eyes to see that ; only live it, in love to God, and love to man, and we are blest of Him that liveth forever and ever. THE end. 4 ,.l DATE DUE iC^