2. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. -iV 
 
 BR 123 .C67 1884 
 Cotterill, Henry, 1812-1886 
 Revealed religion expounded 
 oy Its relations to the 
 

 
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THE BEDELL LECTURES 
 

 / V ^^^ '^ 1911 
 
 TH£ BEDELL LECTURE for 1883 ^^/CiL 'sEVA'?"^ 
 
 Revealed Religion 
 
 EXPOUNDED BY ITS RELATIONS TO THE 
 
 Moral Being of God 
 
 BY 
 
 THE RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 
 
 Bishop of Edinbzirgh, Scotland 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK : 27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET 
 LONDON: 25 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 
COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 1884 
 
 Press 0/ 
 
 G. P. Putnam s Sons 
 
 New York 
 
REVEALED RELIGION, EXPOUNDED BY 
 
 ITS RELATIONS TO THE MORAL 
 
 BEING OF GOD. 
 
 CORRIGENDA. 
 
 Page 3, note 4, fo7- dvx^o? read Xvxvo?. 
 
 II, line 16, for Him, not read Him not. 
 
 21, " 8, /(?/- truth, and ?ra^/ truth. And. 
 
 23, note, for narSo'S read nocrpoi. 
 " 24, line 8, for God, and read God. And. 
 
 27, " 2, omit it is evident. 
 
 3i> " 10, Z^'' compensation read confirmation. 
 
 37, " 8, for tlie ri?^^ His. 
 
 39. " 23, /(?r not r<?(7</ but. 
 
 41. " 2, for fact, that r^a^/ fact of. 
 
 48, note, for Linlethan read Linlathen. 
 
 64, line 4, for xocpocnxT}'; read Xf^pocKxi^p. 
 
 70, " 7, ^w// redemption, of. 
 " 71, note 52, for XVIII rm^ XVII. 
 
 95, line 22, for an rm^ our. 
 ''102, " 5, after epistle insert to the Hebrews. 
 
EXTRACTS 
 
 From the communication of the donors to the 
 Board of Trustees of the Theological Semi- 
 nary of the Diocese of Ohio and Kenyon Col- 
 lege. 
 
 Cleveland, June 21, 1880. 
 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 We have consecrated and set apart for the service 
 of God the sum of $5,000, to be devoted to the estab- 
 lishment of a lecture or lectures in the Institutions 
 at Gambler on the Evidences of Natural and Re- 
 vealed Religion; or the Relations of Science and 
 Religion. 
 
 We ask permission of the Trustees to establish the 
 lecture immediately, with the following provisions: 
 
 The lecture or lectures shall be delivered bien- 
 nially on Founders' Day (if such a day shall be 
 established), or other appropriate time. During our 
 lifetime, or the lifetime of either of us, the nomination 
 of the lectureship shall rest with us. 
 
 The interest for two years on the fund, less the sum 
 necessary to pay for the publication, shall be paid to 
 the Lecturer. 
 
 The Lecturer shall also have one half of the net 
 profits of the publication during the first two years 
 after the date of publication. All other profits shall 
 
EXTRACTS. 
 
 be the property of the Board, and shall be added to 
 the capital of the lectureship. 
 
 We express our preference that the lecture or 
 lectures shall be delivered in the Church of the 
 Holy Spirit, if such building be in existence; and shall 
 be delivered in the presence of all the members of 
 the Institutions under the authority of the Board. 
 
 We ask that the day on which the lecture or the 
 first of each series of lectures shall be delivered, shall 
 be declared a holiday. 
 
 We wish that the nomination to this lectureship 
 shall be restricted by no other consideration than the 
 ability of the appointee to discharge the duty to the 
 highest glory of God in the completest presentation 
 of the subject. We desire that the lectures shall be 
 published in uniform shape, and that a copy of each 
 shall be placed in the libraries of Bexley Hall, Ken- 
 yon College and of the Philomethesian and the Nu 
 Pi Kappa Society. Asking the favorable consider- 
 ation of the Board of Trustees, 
 
 We remain with great respect, 
 
 G. T. Bedell, 
 Julia Bedell. 
 
 The Board accepted the gift, approved the 
 terms, named All Saints' Day. November the 
 first, as Founders' Day, and made it a hoh- 
 day. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF THE SCIENCE 
 OF THEOLOGY. 
 
 I. It cannot be doubted that, of all the evi- 
 dences of Christianity, the clearest and the 
 most convincing is Christianity itself, when its 
 distinguishing characteristics are manifested in 
 the lives of those that profess the name of 
 Christ. When Jesus Christ gave to His dis- 
 ciples " a new commandment, that ye love one 
 another, even as I have loved you"'; or as 
 St. Paul expounds it : " Bear ye one another's 
 burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ,"' 
 He added further : " By this shall all men 
 know ye are my disciples, if ye have love one 
 
 ' St. John XIII. 34. 35- 
 
 * Gal. VI. 2 ; compare also Rom. XV. 2, 3 ; " Let each one of us 
 please his neighbor for his good, which is unto edifying, for Christ 
 also pleased not himself." 
 
2 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 to another." They would thus exhibit to the 
 world the true meaning, as well as the reality 
 and spiritual power of faith in Christ, and win 
 others to the Saviour. And for this reason, 
 when our Blessed Redeemer, before offering 
 Himself on the cross as the propitiation for the 
 sins of the world, presented at the throne of 
 His Father His intercessory prayer for all who 
 should hereafter believe on Him through His 
 disciples' word, He prayed above all things : 
 "That they may all be one; even as Thou, 
 Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
 may be one in us, that the world may believe that 
 thou didst send me." The truth on which 
 Christ's Church is founded, that the Father and 
 the Son are one, has to be manifested to the 
 world by the unity of those who through Christ 
 have access in one spirit to one God and Father 
 ofall.3 
 
 2. But while no witness to Christianity can 
 be so powerful in its influence on the world, or so 
 distinctly manifest, as that which it bears to itself 
 through its practical results being exhibited in 
 the lives of Christ's disciples, it must be remem- 
 bered, that the practical Christian life is nothing 
 
 • Ephes. II. i8, and III. 3-6. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 3 
 
 else than the outcome of the spiritual truth, which, 
 being received into the heart by faith, renews 
 and transforms the character by assimilating to 
 itself the motives and principles of the soul. 
 So that, after all, it is only as being an emphatic 
 and conspicuous representation of the truth 
 itself that the Christian life can be the con- 
 clusive proof to the world of His divine mission, 
 which our Lord declares it to be. The man 
 himself, however brightly and distinctly the 
 light may shine forth in him, is (like John the 
 Baptist) nothing more than the '' lamp'' \'' the 
 light itself is the truth to which he bears wit- 
 ness, the revelation which God has made of 
 Himself in His Son Jesus Christ. That which 
 our Lord said when speaking of the Baptist's 
 testimony to Him is equally true now: "The 
 witness which I receive is not from man ; how- 
 beit, I say these things (of John) that ye may 
 be saved " ; or, as St. Paul says of the truth to 
 which he and other Apostles gave testimony : 
 "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that 
 the exceeding greatness of the power may be 
 of God, and not from ourselves."^ This truth, 
 
 * QvXVOi, St. John V. 35. 
 
 * 2 Co:. IV. 7. 
 
BEDELL TECTURES. 
 
 however manifested, is self-evident to all, ex- 
 cept those who, through their own love of evil 
 and of darkness, wilfully close their hearts and 
 minds against the light.^ 
 
 3. It therefore follows that although the 
 witness to Christianity is of all the most 
 effective, which is given by the unity in love 
 of those that believe on Christ's name, because 
 it is (as we must infer from Christ's words) such 
 a manifestation of the light as is apparent to 
 all men ; the evidence which will have the 
 highest value next to this must be the distinct 
 exhibition, in the teaching of His Church, of the 
 Truth, which is the quickening power of the 
 Christian life. Indeed without this, Christianity 
 could not be a witness to itself in the lives of 
 Christians : first of all because it always is, and 
 always must be, very imperfectly represented 
 in the lives of those who profess to be, and 
 even of those who really are, disciples of 
 Christ ; and that, from no defect in Christianity, 
 but from the nature and the will of man. And 
 then, further, because of the inability of those 
 who do not understand the true principles of 
 the Christian life to appreciate the whole of the 
 
 St. John III. 19. 2 Cor. IV. 3. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. $ 
 
 Christian character/ So that, in fact, an exposi- 
 tion of that truth, which is the root from which 
 the Christian hfe springs, is absolutely essential 
 to supplement and confirm any testimony which 
 can be given by the fruits of this truth. I mean 
 such an exposition as shall represent clearly the 
 living principles of that truth ; what St. Paul has 
 called the spirit, as distinguished from the 
 lette7\ It is our first duty, no doubt, to bear 
 witness for Christ to the world by a life con- 
 formable with the holy doctrine which we have 
 received ; and our Lord Himself teaches that 
 the first and most characteristic feature of such 
 a life is that love of which He, in His own life 
 on earth, has given us the example. But, as 
 Christ Himself was the Light of the World 
 when He dwelt among men, not only by His 
 life of love, but also by His teaching, of which 
 He said : " The words that I have spoken unto 
 you are spirit and are life " ; so, also, it is the 
 duty of His Church to exhibit in its teaching, as 
 distinctly as possible, what are the spiritual 
 principles — the fundamental laws, we may call 
 them — of that revelation of God in His Son 
 Jesus Christ, from which the faith and doc- 
 
 ^ Both these questions will be fullv discussed in my Third Lecture. 
 See Lect. Ill, § 17. 
 
6 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 trine of His Church are derived. These spirit- 
 ual laws are contained in the Holy Scriptures, 
 in which is embodied the whole of that truth 
 the knowledge of which is eternal life. But 
 they are contained there, at least so far as the 
 greater part of Holy Scripture is concerned, 
 somewhat as God's laws of the visible universe 
 are to be found in nature. Occasionally in the 
 teachinof of our Lord Himself, and that of some 
 of His apostles, we find them more or less 
 expressly enunciated ; but generally, the mind of 
 the believer learns them, or at all events learns 
 to apprehend them fully and distinctly, only 
 through a patient, prayerful, perhaps a life-long 
 study of the Word of God, " comparing spirit- 
 ual things with spiritual " ; and so " beholding 
 as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, he is 
 transformed into the same image from glory to 
 glory," and the light shines forth more and 
 more brightly, even to the end, in his life and 
 conversation. Nor will it ever be possible for 
 the individual soul to become changed into the 
 very form of the doctrine of Christ's Gospel 
 except through such a process. 
 
 4. But to make intelligible to the world the 
 spiritual character of Christian faith and doc- 
 trine, so that Christianity may be its own wit- 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. "J 
 
 ness to men, and commend itself to every man's 
 conscience in the sight of God, it may be asked 
 whether Christian theology has done all that 
 might be done, and that ought to be done, in 
 order that the Church may fulfil the duty which 
 it owes to its Lord ? As regards the exhibition 
 of the dogmatic truths of Christianity the 
 Church has from the beginning set them forth, 
 in simple compendious forms, in which the one 
 faith into which we are baptized is briefly 
 enunciated, for the most part, in the very words 
 of Holy Scripture. But precious and necessary 
 as the Creeds are for the purposes for which the 
 Church has put them forth, it is obvious that 
 they do not supply that which is needed, viz. : 
 such a representation of the spiritual principles 
 of Christianity as shall make it a witness to it- 
 self to the conscience of man. Indeed, the 
 Creeds are not intended for this purpose ; 
 and taken alone they are sometimes mis- 
 undertood by the world, — indeed by many un- 
 spiritual Christians also, — as if Christianity were 
 a reliction which demands of men belief in 
 mysterious doctrines as a mere act of passive 
 obedience to the authority of the Revealer, 
 without any apprehension, through our spiritual 
 faculties, of the necessary truth of the revelation. 
 
8 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 Ought not, I say, theology to supply this great 
 want of a simple, clear, and comprehensive ex- 
 position of the spiritual principles which under- 
 lie and pervade with their divine vitality all the 
 dogmatic verities of Christianity ? It is, no 
 doubt, the very purpose of every true and faith- 
 ful and duly qualified Minister of the New Tes- 
 tament, so to make manifest the truth in his 
 preaching, taking the veil off its outward form,, 
 and being a Minister of the spirit, not of the 
 letter, that if the Gospel is veiled it may be 
 only in those whose own minds are bHnded 
 by having given themselves over to the 
 power of darkness.^ But is it not the function 
 of Theology, the science of religion, to aid this 
 work systematically ; to investigate these inner 
 principles and laws, to trace and expound the 
 harmony and consistency of those laws, and 
 thus to make the revelation of God distinct to 
 the conscience of man, even as physical science 
 expounds nature to the reason of man ? 
 
 5. It is a remarkable fact, but undoubtedly it 
 is true, that in this scientific age there is a strong 
 tendency, not only among those who do not 
 believe in Christianity, — where we might expect 
 it, — but even among many sincere and earnest 
 
 ' 2 Cor. IV, 1, etc. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 9 
 
 if not very profound Christians, to disparage, as 
 unprofitable if not injurious to spiritual life, the- 
 ology, the science of religion. Whatever causes 
 may have contributed to produce this feeling, 
 the result is very serious loss, both to the 
 cause of Christianity as against infidelity, and 
 not less to Christians themselves, and to the 
 whole practical life of the Christian religion ; for 
 all knowledge is effective and profitable in pro- 
 portion not only as it is exact and definite, but 
 also (and yet more) as it is seen to be related to 
 central and fundamental principles ; by which 
 two elements, exactness and unity, science is 
 distinguished from other knowledge. It is in- 
 deed often supposed, and sometimes argued, 
 that religion is intended only for the heart and 
 its emotions ; and that, therefore, as soon as it 
 is treated scientifically, it is changed from living 
 principles into dry and barren formulas, so that 
 its spiritual power is enfeebled if not altogether 
 lost. This, however, is to misapprehend the 
 very nature of Christianity, which addresses not 
 the feelings and affections only, but the whole 
 spiritual being of reasonable man, and produces 
 its effects through the knowledge of truth. Yet 
 must not theology be itself somewhat in fault, if 
 it gives occasion for such an objection ? If it 
 
10 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 be a profitless study as regards the practical 
 Christian life, — as many, even sincerely religious 
 men imagine, — must not the cause be some 
 serious defect in the scientific treatment of 
 a subject, in itself of the profounded inter- 
 est and highest value to man ? And may 
 we not learn a lesson from the history of 
 science in another department of human knowl- 
 edge ? Physical science is nothing else than 
 the interpretation of the wisdom of God in 
 His works in the natural world, even as the- 
 ology is, or ought to be, the interpretation 
 of His spiritual wisdom in His revelation of 
 Himself and of His relations to us. And we 
 know that formerly physical science was a bar- 
 ren and dead study, because it was merely the 
 knowledge of disconnected, unharmonized phe- 
 nomena. But we know also that when general 
 principles or laws were determined, which en- 
 abled the reason of man to trace the connections 
 of the different phenomena of nature, and to 
 conceive the complete unity of the whole sys- 
 tem of the visible creation, through sequences 
 of cause and effect, then physical science had a 
 life and reality, such as it never before possessed. 
 Then also it became a study fruitful of practical 
 benefits in human life. And is it not possible 
 
Ji T. RE V. HENR V CO TTERILL, D.D. II 
 
 that the science of religion has been wanting, both 
 in profit and in interest, from a somewhat sim- 
 ilar cause ? That is, have we not studied Christi- 
 anity too much as a revelation of isolated and 
 almost independent verities, and not sufficiently 
 as Science now studies God's wisdom in the 
 natural world ? 
 
 6. It may be urged indeed with much appar- 
 ent force, that in regard to the mysteries of 
 revealed truth the exercise of human reason is 
 not only presumptuous, but being beyond its 
 own sphere, cannot lead to trustworthy conclu- 
 sions ; that in the oft-quoted words of Hooker: 
 *' Although to know God be life, and joy to 
 make mention of His name, yet our soundest 
 knowledge is to know that we know Him, not 
 as indeed He is, neither can know him ; and our 
 safest eloquence is our silence, when we confess 
 without confession that His glory is inexplicable, 
 His greatness above our capacity and reach." 
 But, while we must ever bear in mind the duty 
 of reverence and caution in speaking of the 
 things of God, yet it has been truly said ^ that if 
 we should take these words of Hooker in their 
 literal meaning, viz.: "that divine and human 
 reason are different in kind, and God cannot be 
 
 * Caird's Hegel, p. 140. 
 
12 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 known, religion would be an impossibility." In 
 fact, agnosticism would be the only possible 
 condition of man. Undoubtedly we have in 
 Holy Scripture abundant warnings against sub- 
 stituting the conclusions of a defective, and 
 partial, and often sin-clouded reason — infinitesi- 
 mally small in the extent of its range compared 
 with that of divine wisdom — for the teaching 
 of God's Word ; and especially against suppos- 
 ing that our minds C2in fathom God's ways or 
 God's purposes. But, when the principles from 
 which the conclusions are drawn are those 
 which God's Word itself reveals, and the infer- 
 ences those which that Word itself asserts, and 
 recognizes, as following from the fundamental 
 truths which God has made known to us, can we 
 do wrong in seeking, in all humility and simple 
 dependence on the teaching of His Word and the 
 guidance of His Spirit, to exhibit the consistency, 
 the harmony, the unity, of the revelation which 
 he has made to us. His children, of Himself our 
 Father in Heaven ; and if through the use of 
 that gift of reason, which is the light in us of 
 His own divine wisdom, we endeavor to clear 
 away some of those mists and fogs that rise out 
 of the carnal mind and obscure His truth from 
 the eyes of men, may we not humbly trust that 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. I 3 
 
 He, the Father of Light, will direct, assist, and 
 bless this our feeble attempt ? 
 
 7. In order that theology may be a real 
 science, and enable us to exhibit the revela- 
 tion of God as one consistent and harmonious 
 system of spiritual truth, it is necessary first of 
 all to find some fundamental spiritual law or 
 principle, and that, as the preceding considera- 
 tions show, distinctly revealed as such, to which 
 it will be the function of theology to expound 
 the relation of all Christian faith and doctrine. 
 Is there any such fundamental and central truth 
 revealed to us in Holy Scripture? It is evident, 
 when we consider the question, that since the 
 revelation is a revelation of God Himself, the 
 truth must relate to the Being of God ; and 
 although we need not be surprised if it is one 
 which the unaided reason of man could not of itself 
 discover much less expound, for otherwise why 
 should a revelation be necessary ? yet it must 
 be a truth which, when revealed, and especially 
 when expounded by Christianity, its expo- 
 nent, and in a certain sense its development, 
 must commend itself to every man's conscience; 
 so that Christianity when exhibited as the out- 
 come of this principle shall be a witness to itself? 
 
 8. In the Old Testament, we need not expect 
 
14 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 to find any distinct revelation of such a funda- 
 mental principle. As the apostolic author of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us, " God 
 of old time spoke to the fathers by the prophets 
 by divers portions, and in divers manners." '° 
 The revelation was fragmentary, and its numer- 
 ous separate parts were diverse in form. It re- 
 vealed God as the Creator, making all things by 
 His word, and man in His own image and like- 
 ness ; the Giver of Laws to man, even from the 
 beginning, disobedience to God's laws being 
 followed by death ; the Holy and Righteous, the 
 Merciful and Good, the Sovereign and Father of 
 His people. All these spiritual perfections of 
 God shone forth in the history of the chosen 
 nation, in inspired psalms and songs of praise, 
 and in the various prophecies of those ser- 
 vants of God by whom from age to age His 
 Spirit spoke. But it would have been impos- 
 sible for the mind of man to have brought 
 together all the partial lights and the various 
 and very different aspects of the character ot 
 God, and of His relations to man, in one central 
 and comprehensive idea. There was indeed the 
 one incommunicable name (Jehovah) by which 
 He revealed Himself to His people, — a name 
 
 '° Heb. I. I. 
 
R T. RE V. HENR V CO TT BRILL, D.D. I 5 
 
 which seems to express the Being of God, as 
 the one self-existent, eternal, and infinite Spirit. 
 But although this divine name was, through the 
 teaching of the law and the prophets, and by 
 His covenant with His people Israel, intimately 
 related to the moral attributes of God, which the 
 Old Testament expounded, yet of itself it does 
 not, so far as we can judge, express these attri- 
 butes. The fuller proclamation of the " name 
 of the Lord" which was made to Moses on 
 Mount Sinai when the law was oriven the second 
 time," is, we may say, a brief summary of the 
 whole revelation of God under that dispensation; 
 and, like that revelation, it contains elements 
 which, under that imperfect economy, might 
 have appeared inharmonious, if not contradic- 
 tory. 
 
 9. When we proceed to the New Testament 
 to seek there for the fundamental principle as 
 to the Being of God which lies at the basis of 
 Christianity, we must bear in mind that as God 
 is eternally the same and unchangeable, the 
 truth for which we look must be not only the 
 central truth of the Gospel, and of that part of 
 the Old Testament revelation which anticipates 
 the Gospel, but such as will also unite in one 
 
 " Exod. XXXIV. 6, 7. 
 
1 6 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 harmonious whole the entire revelation, both 
 of the Old and of the New Testament, and all 
 the separate parts which under the law appeared 
 to be diverse. This consideration would be of 
 itself sufficient to show that the truth which 
 some have hastily assumed as the central prin- 
 ciple of Christianity, I mean " the Fatherhood " 
 of God, is not that which the science of theol- 
 ogy can accept as its fundamental law. Un- 
 doubtedly our Divine Redeemer came into the 
 world to manifest the Father, and we shall find 
 that the Christian *' doctrine of the Father and 
 the Son " is a primary truth of revealed relig- 
 ion, because it is the first and immediate infer- 
 ence from that revelation of the moral and 
 spiritual Being of God which is itself the central 
 and primary principle of all true knowledge of 
 God. But the result of assuming a particular 
 inference instead of the fundamental truth itself, 
 is necessarily that the theology which is derived 
 thence leads to partial, defective, if not abso- 
 lutely false, conclusions, as indeed has been ex- 
 emplified in this instance. For every one whose 
 mind is thoroughly imbued with the teaching 
 of Holy Scripture as a whole, must admit that 
 the religious teaching which is based solely on 
 the truth of the Fatherhood of God, fails to ex- 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 1/ 
 
 hibit clearly or expound fully the relation of the 
 law of God to the rest of Christian theology. 
 
 lo. It may of itself indicate in which direc- 
 tion we should look for this fundamental princi- 
 ple, that our Lord points to one result in the 
 practical Christian life, which, above all others, 
 is to be the evidence to the world of the divine 
 origin of His religion. If the love of Christians 
 one to another is to be the witness to the world 
 in the Christian life, the love of God, which is 
 the source and well-spring of all the love which 
 can animate the Christian heart, must surely be 
 that character of God the revelation of which 
 is the central principle of the Christian faith, and 
 therefore of true theology. In fact, that apostle 
 of Christ, who was especially and peculiarly 
 6 ©foAovos"^ the truest and profoundest theologian 
 of all the ages of the Church, has expressly di- 
 rected us (in his First Epistle) to the truth that 
 " God is Love," as the foundation truth of the 
 Christian faith. His language implies not 
 merely that this is one particular aspect of the 
 moral and spiritual character of God, but much 
 more, that His whole Being, so far as its spir- 
 itual perfections and attributes are concerned, is 
 comprehended in that one word. All that God 
 is ; the Infinite, Eternal, Self-existing Spirit, who 
 
15 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 " is and was and is to come," is Love. And 
 since love is the very Being of God, it must be 
 the apjvof all divine revelations as well as of all 
 divine operations and manifestations, and there- 
 fore certainly of all theology. In the light of 
 this truth, St. John expounds, in a few com- 
 prehensive words, the whole of man's redemp- 
 tion from its origin to its consummation, as the 
 manifestation in time of this eternal Being of 
 God. And since love is the character of God, 
 it must also be the spiritual character of those 
 who are in fellowship with God. The old law 
 indeed taught this same truth in its own form ; 
 for the sum of all the commandments was, (our 
 Lord reminds us,) that we should love the Lord 
 our God with all our heart, and our neighbor as 
 ourselves. But the Gospel teaches the true ra- 
 tionale of this, and supplies the motive spiritual 
 power. The redemption of Christ being the 
 manifestation of love as the character of God, 
 by believing and confessing the love thus mani- 
 fested, we know and have spiritual fellowship 
 with divine love itself in its source and fount- 
 ain-head. St. John's argument, therefore, is in 
 the strictest sense logical ; it is a complete sum- 
 mary of the science of Christian theology in all 
 its main features. The very purpose of his 
 
I^T. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 1 9 
 
 argument is to exhibit and prove in a rational 
 way the consistency of the whole scheme of 
 Christian faith and doctrine as a manifestation 
 of the love of God. But to make for ourselves, 
 under the guidance of this spiritual teaching, 
 further use of this central principle of revelation, 
 and to enable us distinctly to exhibit Christianity 
 as not merely consistent with this truth as to the 
 Being of God, but as logically and indeed neces- 
 sarily related to it, so that we cannot conceive 
 the one without accepting the other, we must 
 first examine carefully what is the particular 
 meaning and force of this apparently simple, yet 
 most profound and most comprehensive truth, 
 that God is Love. 
 
 1 1 . It has been often noticed, as providen- 
 tially ordered, that the Greek language, the lan- 
 guage of the New Testament, and (we may 
 say) of the civilized world at that period of its 
 history, is, above all other languages that have 
 ever existed, the one in which scientific and phil- 
 osophical distinctions might be most accurately 
 expressed. And it was the better suited for 
 Christian philosophy, because it was the only 
 language into which the Hebrew Scriptures had 
 been translated ; so that it formed a link not 
 only between the revelation of Christ and Gen- 
 
20 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 tile literature on the one hand, but also between 
 the theology of the New Testament and the 
 teaching of the Old on the other. In no other 
 language could the truth implied in those words, 
 '0 0£o? ay am-} iariv^ have been expressed 
 with the same distinctness and exactness. 
 Neither of the Hebrew words used in the Old 
 Testament for "love" could have been used 
 without some ambiguity. The history of the 
 Greek word aydm] is very instructive. The 
 classical words for " love " had become (as Trench 
 observes ") " so steeped in earthly passion and 
 carried such an atmosphere of unholiness about 
 them, that the truth of God abstained from the 
 defiling contact with them, — yea, devised a new 
 word for itself rather than betake itself to one 
 of these. For it should never be forgotten that 
 AyocTti] is a word born within the bosom of re- 
 vealed religion ; it occurs in the Septuagint, 
 but there is no example of its use in any heathen 
 writer whatever." It must, however, be ob- 
 served, that even in the Septuagint, in which 
 ayocTti] and ^iXia are used almost promiscu- 
 ously, '^ the former has none of that distinctive 
 
 " " New Testament Synonyms." 
 
 ^^ E. g. in Prov. X. I2, "love covereth sins," the word ^i\ia 
 is used in the Septuagint : in the parallel passages in I Cor, XIII. 7, 
 and I Peter IV. 8, both apostles use ayani]. On the other hand, in 
 II Samuel XIII. 6, ayani] is used in a totally different sense. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 21 
 
 force and meaning that it has obtained in the 
 New Testament. There, in the writings of 
 apostles and evangelists, especially those of St. 
 Paul and St. John, the word stands out with a 
 holy meaning altogether its own ; distinct from 
 all earthly feeling and carnal passion, sanctified 
 and consecrated to God and His service and 
 His truth, and yet, as the Spirit of God speaks 
 to us in the language of the children of men, we 
 must refer to Greek literature, in order to com- 
 prehend the true force of the word, and why it 
 is selected as the term most suitable to express 
 the moral character and being of God. For al- 
 though the noun ayanrj, which was adopted by 
 New-Testament writers to express an idea 
 specially and, indeed, exclusively Christian, does 
 not appear in heathen literature, the cognate 
 verb [pcyanaod) and the adjective {jLyanrixo^) oc- 
 cur frequendy with a distinctive meaning, which 
 sufficienriy explains the use of the noun itself in 
 Christian teaching. The root of the word,'^ in- 
 stead of indicating mere affection as its primary 
 idea, points rather to those of regard and satis- 
 faction '5; to a love founded on the consciousness 
 of the excellence and preciousness of its object. 
 
 " Which is the same as that of ayi^ and ayaj-lOil. 
 '* Liddell and Scott on ayaTtaoJ. 
 
22 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 In the adjective form {ayam-jroz) this idea is 
 brought out both in classical literature and in 
 the Septuagint, so as to illustrate in a very re- 
 markable manner the truth which St. John 
 teaches. Both Homer and Hesiod and later 
 Greek writers use the adjective as specially ap- 
 plicable to an " only child," so that it is taken by 
 the grammarians as synonymous with fj.ovoyevy'ii 
 "only begotten." In the Septuagint the He- 
 brew word for an " only son " is generally ren- 
 dered by ccyaTtriroi, and only twice by /xovoyevrj?.^^ 
 From all these considerations it is evident that 
 the primary idea in aya7t7] must be that love 
 which is affection for one regarded as surpass- 
 ingly precious and therefore " dear,'' — love such 
 as that with which a father regards an only son, 
 the heir to his estate and his hopes and his hon- 
 ors ; one who represents, if not in their actuali- 
 zation, yet in their promise, all the excellences 
 which he most values. Such was Isaac, the 
 heir of promise to his father Abraham '7; and 
 
 ^' Cf. especially of Isaac. Gen. XXII. 2, i6 ; also Jerem. VI. 26 ; 
 Amos VIII. 10 ; Zech. XII. 10 ; Prov. IV. 3. {^aya7tOi}}ASVOZ). In 
 Ps. XXII. 21, XXXV. 17, where the English version has " my dar- 
 ling " the Septuagint has jJ.OVOy£VJj?. 
 
 '^ As a parallel in heathen literature, see the interesting and sug- 
 gestive passage in Horn., II. VI. 400-4S0 where Andromache brings 
 in her arms to Hector his aya7tr/T0? to plead for herself and the 
 
/^ T. RE V. HENR V CO T TERILL ,D.D. 23 
 
 the love which filled Abraham's heart for his 
 " only son Isaac whom he loved " answers to, 
 and most nearly represents, the love which is 
 the Being of God. We shall find indeed that 
 whatever may be the various aspects of divine 
 love, in its manifestation in Christian faith and 
 doctrine, this idea is always involved both in 
 its origin and its ultimate purpose. 
 
 It is necessary, however, for the exact in- 
 vestiofation of the relation of this fundamental 
 truth to the whole system of Christianity, that 
 this character of God which the Gospel reveals 
 should be carefully distinguished from other 
 notions as to God, which are too often con- 
 founded with it in popular and even in religious 
 thought. 
 
 12. It is, for example, totally different from 
 the notion, which is very commonly entertained 
 by persons who do not think much about the 
 subject, that " the only character of the Author 
 of Nature is that of simple, absolute benevo- 
 lence ; which, considered as a principle of ac- 
 tion and infinite in degree, is a disposition to 
 
 infant, that her husband would not throw away in battle his life, so 
 precious to them both ; and in reply he prays to the gods for his son, 
 that he might not only equal but excel his father as a warrior. 
 
 Hoi Ttori Ti? eiTrrjGi, 7tar<i6i S* oye TtoXXov ajAeivcoVy 
 
 £H TtoXijuov ayioj'Ta. 
 
24 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 produce the greatest possible happiness, without 
 regard to persons' behavior otherwise than as 
 such would produce higher degrees of it." Of 
 this Bishop Butler truly says '^ : " Surely this 
 ought not to be asserted, unless it can be 
 proved " ; and certainly it is wholly different 
 from that which St. John teaches as to the 
 Being of God, and in nothing more than this, 
 that love implies a relation between persons, 
 whereas goodness or benevolence might be in 
 a certain sense the character of an impersonal 
 law, conferring general and universal benefits ; 
 as God by His laws in nature makes His sun to 
 shine on the evil and the good, and sends His 
 rain on the just and the unjust. But the lan- 
 guage of divine love is personal : " / have 
 loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore 
 with loving-kindness have / drawn theey And 
 the response of the heart that believes in the 
 love of God is : " He hath loved me, and given 
 Himself for me!' And as these words of the 
 Apostle Paul remind us, love, being personal, 
 is also in its very nature self-sacrificing. This 
 indeed is the distinctive character of true love, 
 of which Christianity is the manifestation and 
 exponent,'^ and it is this which makes love the 
 
 " " Analogy " I. iii. " St. John III. 16-19. 
 
R T. RE V. HENR V CO TTERILL, D.D. 2$ 
 
 highest and most real of all virtues, indeed the 
 one moral excellence which comprehends and 
 includes all others. 
 
 13. On the other hand, there are many who, 
 feeling how shallow and impotent is the Chris- 
 tianity, so called, that is built on some vague 
 and general notion of the goodness of God, fall 
 into an opposite error, and misrepresent the 
 truth no less seriously by insisting on God's 
 love being what they call sovereign and free, 
 which would be undoubtedly true if they did 
 not mean by such language that it is arbitrary 
 and partial and without reason. They seem to 
 suppose that the intensity and value of God's 
 love to themselves can only be realized in pro- 
 portion to its limitations ; as if, like human 
 affection, it were a stream that runs deeper and 
 strono^er in a narrow channel. But if God is 
 love, that love, like Himself, must be infinite at 
 the same time as it is personal ; which means 
 that God's love to myself personally is none the 
 less than if there were in the whole creation no 
 other object of the love of God. It can have 
 no other limitations than those which are 
 essential to its being truly divine love ; that 
 is, reasonable and spiritual, for it is not one 
 aspect of the character of God, but his Being 
 
26 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 itself. And it is evident that the conception of 
 divine love which some form, as choosing, with- 
 out reason, a select few for its objects, and reject- 
 ing, equally without reason, all besides, far from 
 being any witness to Christianity as a revelation 
 suitable for man, presents to the world an idea 
 of God calculated to prejudice fatally the human 
 mind against such a revelation as inconsistent 
 with justice. At the same time, while the con- 
 ception of divine love, as stated above and 
 accepted by not a few pious minds, is radically 
 defective and, we might almost say, a self-con- 
 tradiction, yet it cannot be doubted that in 
 proportion as each man, even by a distorted 
 form of truth, does spiritually realize the love of 
 God as personal to himself, such faith supplies, 
 to some extent, a remedy for the practical 
 errors which, logically, seem to be the neces- 
 sary consequence of such a perversion of the 
 truth. 
 
 14. But above all it is necessary, in order to 
 form a true idea of the principle that " God is 
 Love," to bear in mind the special and essential 
 distinction between love and every other similar 
 quality or principle ; I mean, that love, by its 
 very nature, demands reciprocity ^ and cannot be 
 completed or satisfied except by the return of 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTER ILL D.D. 2'J 
 
 love, and fellowship with the person who is 
 loved. And, it is evident, that this does not 
 arise from any defect or imperfection in love, 
 but is essential to its purity and reality, 
 and is not less true of divine love than of 
 the counterpart of this in the human affec- 
 tion, is evident. For the first and greatest 
 commandment of the Law of God, in which 
 is summed up our whole duty to God, is 
 this : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy mind." There cannot, indeed, be a more 
 distinct proof that the truth which St. John 
 teaches as the origin of man's redemption is 
 really the central principle of the whole of 
 Christianity, when we find that it accounts for 
 the Law of God no less completely than for the 
 Gospel of Christ. And we must further observe 
 that as God is Love, the demand of the Law 
 on man for the return of love is as truly and fully 
 divine, as is the manifestation of the love of 
 God in the Gospel of His Son. For love is at 
 the same time affection for those that are its ob- 
 jects; and also (and equally) hatred of every 
 thing that interferes with that return, which is 
 essential to itself. In other words, love and 
 jealousy are nothing else than two opposite 
 
28 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 forms of one and the same principle, the two 
 opposite poles of one and the same magnet. 
 Indeed, the truth that " God's name is yealous'''"' 
 is the form which the truth that "God is Love" 
 must assume in the dispensation of law ; and it 
 is that without which the opposite principle has 
 no real existence. And the very essence of all 
 sin being that it contradicts and resists the Love 
 which God is, the hatred of sin must be as in- 
 finite as the Being of God. Or in the language 
 of Holy Scripture,^' if "love is as strong as 
 death" and " many waters cannot quench love, 
 neither can the floods drown it," it is also true 
 that "jealousy is as cruel as the grave ; the coals 
 thereof are coals of fire." That " our God is a 
 consuming fire,"" is therefore not only no con- 
 tradiction of the truth that "God is Love," but 
 it is identically the same truth. There is a unity 
 in God's Being which includes the two apparent 
 contradictory truths. The one principle cannot 
 exist without the other ; and only as we realize 
 the one can we truly know the other. And 
 surely a principle which explains and reconciles 
 such apparent contradictions cannot be other 
 
 "" Exod. XXXI v. 14. "The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a 
 jealous God." 
 
 =" Cant. VIII. 6. 7. =» Heb. XII. 29. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL,D.D. 29 
 
 than fundamental in the science of Christianity. 
 Nor can it be by other wisdom than that of the 
 Spirit of God, that the teaching of St. John 
 directs us to that idea of God's Being which is 
 found to comprehend in itself the whole moral 
 character of God, as its different and apparently 
 opposite aspects, and its varied applications and 
 manifold relations to man, are expounded by all 
 the inspired writers of Holy Scripture from 
 Genesis to Revelation.^^ 
 
 1 5. We also learn from this that the law of 
 God is not any thing arbitrary or external, or 
 even (as some speak) ^'^ an unchangeable order 
 that God imposes on Himself, for the govern- 
 ment of His universe, "by His own free and 
 voluntary act " ; much less, as some of the Cal- 
 vinistic school seem to represent it, a law in 
 accordance with which God is constrained, as it 
 were, by a necessity above Himself, to direct 
 His own acts and operations. But His law is 
 nothinof else than the revelation of His own 
 eternal Being; and that which demands con- 
 demnation of sin is not some principle outside 
 His own Being, but that which God is. Because 
 He is love, we must conclude that Wis primary 
 
 '' See note at the end of this Lecture. 
 "^Hooker, E. P., Lib. L IL 5, 6. 
 
30 BEDELL LECTURES, 
 
 purpose in all the revelation of His righteous 
 anger against sin, must be, in reference to man 
 himself, the removal of sin and all its effects, and 
 reconciling the sinner to God. In this light 
 "the exhortation which reasoneth with us as 
 sons " acquires additional force. " My son, re- 
 regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, 
 nor faint when thou art reproved of Him. For 
 whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and 
 scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." But 
 we must not presumptuously suppose, as men 
 are apt to do, that we know all the purposes of 
 God, when one is apparent; and thus draw con- 
 clusions not warranted by His own Word. The 
 question still remains. What if chastisements prove 
 to be profitless, and the effect of them, as on 
 Israel in Isaiah's time, is that men only sin more 
 and more? If the love of God be rejected, and 
 a will that chooses death instead of life renders 
 the fulfilment of the primary purpose of God's 
 love not possible, in that case, as Holy Script- 
 ures remind us, the very love of God itself 
 must become a fiery indignation "to devour the 
 adversary" of God, who has finally rejected that 
 infinite love.'^ 
 
 ''^Heb. X. 26, 31. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 3 1 
 
 NOTE TO LECTURE I. 
 
 I had not seen, when I wrote this Lecture, 
 the Rev. John Wordsworth's Bampton Lectures 
 for 1 88 1, in one of which a passage occurs ^^ 
 which expounds with much force and distinct- 
 ness the truth to which I have referred, that the 
 moral Being of God as Love includes the two 
 opposite poles of the divine character. The 
 purpose of the lecturer is different from mine, 
 and therefore of more value as a compensation 
 of my argument. His is to answer the objection 
 that the doctrine of the atonement is incon- 
 sistent with the love of God. 
 
 " What shall we say, then, to those who think 
 the Atonement a hard and unloving doctrine, 
 and desire rather a proclamation of pure benev- 
 olence as characteristicof our heavenly Father? 
 
 " This difficulty seems to arise from an inade- 
 quate idea of the nature of love.^^ It is confused 
 with a mere dispassionate benevolence, with a 
 general wish to make every thing comfortable, 
 with a state of mind and feeling not very far re- 
 moved from the quiet restfulness of the gods of 
 ancient Greece, as conceived by the philoso- 
 
 *'Lect. VI. pp. 191, 192. 
 
 '^ Cf. on this topic Martensen, Christian Dogmatics , § 157, p. 303 
 foil., E. T., and p. 280 foil, of the German ed. (Berlin, 1870). 
 
32 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 phers. * * * But the true God is very different 
 from these. He not only wills that we should 
 know Him, but that we should love Him. ' We 
 love Him because He first loved us,' and willed to 
 make a conquest of us by His love. It is this 
 expansive, penetrating, fiery love of God that is 
 the hope of the Christian, and supplies the ex- 
 planation of his attitude toward the mystery of 
 the Incarnation and Atonement. 
 
 " True love is not benevolence : it is a burning 
 fire, a passionate eagerness to possess the souls 
 of those whom it loves, a grasping after love in 
 return. 
 
 *' It is, therefore, closely allied in God to anger. 
 For He who loves us for our entire good, can- 
 not but be indignant at any hindrances which 
 we create to baulk Him. He is wroth with those 
 who love Him not, with those whose sins inter- 
 pose a thick cloud, so that His grace cannot 
 shine through. Such love is akin also to grief : 
 it chafes at the barriers set up by self-will ; it 
 is distressed by the meanness, the impurity, the 
 deadness of those objects on which we set so 
 much affection, on which we waste so much of that 
 power of loving, which was created to return to 
 Him who gave it. It is this fuller and riper 
 idea of love that enables Prophets and Psalmists 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL. D.D. 33 
 
 to Speak in such glowing terms both of God's 
 love and God's anger, without seeing any con- 
 tradiction between the two. Thus, in the great 
 proclamation made to Moses, we have the attri- 
 butes, ' merciful and gracious, long-suffering 
 and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping 
 mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and 
 transgression, and sin,' followed without a break 
 by the other side, ' and that will by no means 
 clear (the guilty) ; visiting the iniquity of the 
 fathers upon the children, and upon the chil- 
 dren's children, unto the third and to the fourth 
 generation.' (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.) The same 
 lips which asserted the solemn truth, *' our God 
 is a jealous God,' and * our God is a consuming 
 fire,' found nothing in this belief to prevent 
 them ascribing the tenderest mercy and compas- 
 sion to the Lord." 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 THE RELATION OF THIS PRINCIPLE TO THE CHRIS- 
 TIAN DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 
 
 I. It will, of course, be impossible in these 
 Lectures to do more than mark out, with such 
 explanations as may be necessary to prevent 
 misapprehension, the several lines of argument 
 to be followed in the exposition of Christianity 
 which is required — viz. : one which shall repre- 
 sent the whole system of Christian faith and 
 doctrine in relation to the central truth, that 
 God is Love. Indeed, the more simple, and (sa 
 to speak) popular, that any such exposition can 
 be made, the greater will be its value as a wit- 
 ness to the world of the truth of Christianity. 
 While we claim for such theology the character 
 of a true science, it should be science with- 
 out scientific terminology ; philosophy without 
 technical distinctions : it must deal with sub- 
 jects that are the profoundest of all mysteries, 
 even as the inspired Apostle John speaks of 
 them in language which, so far as God's 
 
 34 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 35 
 
 Spirit enables us to follow the example of 
 that divinest of all merely human theologians, 
 shall be plain and easy to be understood of 
 all men, while it shall direct those who are 
 seeking after truth to the infinite depths of 
 spiritual wisdom. And, if we consider how 
 such an end is to be attained, we shall find 
 that Holy Scripture suggests that our argu- 
 ments, in order to be both intelligible and con- 
 vincing, should be, not addressed to the logical 
 faculty merely ,^^ but, spiritual and moral argu- 
 ments ; that is, founded on those principles in 
 man's spirit which reflect God's moral being, 
 and therefore speaking with a power really 
 divine, an authority which no logical conclu- 
 sions of the intellect can ever possess ; such 
 principles being indeed the witness to God 
 within our own hearts. 
 
 2. And it must be noticed, that as regards 
 the science of theology we are directed, and 
 indeed determined, to arguments of this char- 
 acter by that fundamental truth as to the moral 
 Being of God, which is the central principle for 
 this science. For the truth that God is Love is 
 emphatically and distinctly, and indeed exclu- 
 sively, a moral principle ; a principle intelligible 
 
 " Cf. I. Cor. II. 1-5. 
 
36 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 to the mind of every man, having its counterpart 
 in the heart of man himself. The only difficulty 
 regarding it, as we have found in our preceding 
 investigations, is to prevent our idea of divine 
 love from becoming confused or obscured 
 through our experience of the same affection 
 in the earthly relations of those who, though 
 made in the image of their Creator and there- 
 fore reflecting His Being, yet are body as well 
 as spirit ; finite, not infinite ; creatures of a 
 day, not eternal ; and (yet more) polluted by 
 sin and evil, instead of being, like Him of whom 
 we speak, infinitely and absolutely holy. We 
 need, therefore, when we assume this truth as 
 the central principle of theology, continually to 
 test all our inferences, and, so to speak, apply 
 corrections to them, from God's own revelation 
 of Himself. At every step of our argument we 
 must examine carefully whether the super- 
 structure and the foundation agree together. 
 But so lonof as w^e confine ourselves to that 
 spiritual sphere of thought which the revelation 
 itself assumes as common to man, and to Him 
 who is the Father of our spirits, we may pro- 
 ceed, without fear or hesitation, trusting in His 
 aid and direction. 
 
 3. It is indeed obvious, on the least con- 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 3/ 
 
 sideration, that if, as St. John's teaching implies, 
 love comprehends the whole moral Being of 
 God, and is not merely one partial aspect of 
 His character, we must conclude that whatever 
 is revealed on the subject of distinctions and 
 relations in the infinite existence of the Eternal 
 Godhead, must of necessity be connected with 
 the moral Being, and be revealed not to satisfy 
 our curiosity or excite speculation on a subject 
 beyond the sphere of a finite understanding, but 
 because of this connection. It cannot be sup- 
 posed that the revelation is made merely that 
 we may intellectually believe some incompre- 
 hensible mysteries as to what we may call — to 
 speak after the manner of men — the constitu- 
 tion of the Divine Existence. It must be in 
 order that we may attain a fuller and more 
 distinct knowledge of His moral Being through 
 this revelation, for this alone is really spiritual 
 knowledge. Indeed, we cannot but conclude 
 that God being a Spirit, His moral and (what 
 for want of another term we may call) His 
 natural Being are so involved one in the other 
 that they cannot be separated. And this is our 
 answer to those who consider it almost profane, 
 and at all events unprofitable, to reason on a 
 truth so mysterious as the doctrine of the Trin- 
 
38 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 ity ; who imagine, perhaps, that our only duty in 
 regard to such a subject must be to submit our 
 reason unreservedly and absolutely to divine 
 revelation. But as life eternal consists in the 
 spiritual knowledge of God, and as we are 
 exhorted in Holy Scripture not to be content 
 with the first principles of divine truth, but to 
 press on to perfection, it must certainly be our 
 duty to exercise, humbly and reverently, and 
 relying on God's Spirit, the faculties which He 
 has bestowed, in regard to that truth which He 
 has revealed to the spirit of man in order that 
 it may be spiritually apprehended and thus be- 
 come our life. And although intellectual specu- 
 lations on those things that are out of the 
 range of the finite understanding cannot profit, 
 yet so long as we only seek to know more 
 fully and more distinctly the moral Being of 
 God in His relations to us men, it cannot be 
 either presumptuous or profitless to use in that 
 sphere of thought in which this knowledge is 
 life to our souls, the rational faculties which are 
 the reflection of God's own wisdom. This 
 question, however, requires somewhat more 
 consideration before we proceed with our argu- 
 ment, which it will touch on several points. 
 4. It has been truly observed,^^ that the chief 
 
 '' Coleridge, Aids to Reflection. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 39 
 
 difficulties which sincere and inquiring minds 
 feel in regard to Christianity are moral difficul- 
 ties, and not merely those that are raised by 
 the articles of the Christian faith being incom- 
 prehensible to the understanding. Indeed, a 
 religion not based on truths beyond the range 
 of the understanding, or in modern language 
 " unthinkable," could not possibly be a true 
 revelation of the Creator. If creation itself is 
 full of mysteries, how much more must the 
 Creator be ? The first principles of physical 
 science, on which its apparently most intelli- 
 gible, and simplest, and, to our minds, almost 
 self-evident, interpretations of natural phenom- 
 ena are founded, are perceived, when we look 
 at all below the surface, to be absolutely unthink- 
 able. And science, the more that it advances, 
 instead of solving these mysteries, as superficial 
 thinkers suppose, only increases them.3° " In- 
 stead of science holding out any prospect of 
 making all the problems of nature intelligible to 
 the human understanding, on the contrary the 
 explanation of that which is explicable does not 
 bring out into greater clearness the inexplicable- 
 ness of that which remains behind." It has 
 
 ^° See H. Spencer's First Principles, Chap. III., on " Ultimate 
 Scientific Ideas." 
 
40 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 been truly said by Herbert Spencer of the man 
 of science, that, " in all directions his investiga- 
 tions eventually bring him face to face with an 
 insoluble enigma ; and he ever more clearly 
 perceives it to be an insoluble enigma. * * * 
 He realizes with a special vividness the utter in- 
 comprehensibleness of the simplest fact consid- 
 ered in itself. He, more than any other, truly 
 knows that in its ultimate essence nothing can be 
 known." When we pass from inanimate nature 
 to the sphere of organic life, its incomprehen- 
 sibleness is yet more apparent to every thought- 
 ful mind. Evolution, by which some imagine 
 that all is made plain and easy, is, when we 
 look beyond the mere phenomena of its order, 
 and inquire into the causes of the growth even 
 of a single plant, found to be a mystery wholly 
 inscrutable. 
 
 Flower in the crannied wall, 
 I pluck you out of the crannies ; 
 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 
 Little flower, — but if I could understand 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 I should know what God and man is. 
 
 And it must be remembered that the mysteries 
 of nature are such, not merely as being beyond 
 the sphere of human experience, so that we 
 can gain no relative knowledge of them through 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 4 1 
 
 comparison with other objects of knowledge ; 
 but, from the fact, that the human mind not be- 
 ing capable of the absolute knowledge of things 
 in themselves, the truths seem often paradoxical, 
 or self- contradictory. All the theories that 
 science or philosophy can form on such appar- 
 ently simple questions as the constitution of 
 matter, the nature of force and of motion, the 
 unity of each individual living organism, are not 
 merely incomprehensible to the intellect, but 
 seem to it to involve contradictions. What 
 Spencer says of the first of these is true of all : 
 " Frame what suppositions we may, we find on 
 tracing out their implications that they leave us 
 nothing but a choice between opposite absurdi- 
 ties." In fact, the intellectual knowledge of any 
 ideal truth being, at the most, but a partial aspect 
 of the truth, cannot comprehend at the same time 
 the opposite truth necessary to its completeness. 
 And if this is the case in nature, that no pro- 
 found truth is one-sided and without paradoxes, 
 it cannot be a surprise that the same should be 
 the case concerning the truths contained in a 
 revelation of the Infinite and Eternal God. It 
 could not be a real revelation, if to the intellect 
 the profoundest and most comprehensive of all 
 truths should appear simple. The intellectual 
 
42 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 difficulties, therefore, which the Christian faith 
 presents to the mind, in such doctrines as the 
 unity of three personahties in one Divine Being ; 
 or in the incarnation of the Son of God — that is, 
 the union of infinite and finite being, of the self- 
 existing and the created, in one Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; or the efficacy of the atonement to put 
 away the sin of man ; or the supremacy of the 
 divine will, and at the same time the self-deter- 
 mination of the human will, — cannot to 
 any sincere and thoughtful mind be a reason- 
 able cause of offence. We might with equal, 
 indeed with more, justice refuse to accept any 
 of the conclusions of physical science on the 
 ground that its first principles are " unthink- 
 able." 
 
 5. And such considerations must lead to the 
 conclusion, that arguments derived from the 
 moral Being of God are by far the most 
 weighty arguments. Instead of endeavoring 
 to comprehend intellectually the mysteries which 
 revelation contains — which is impossible — if 
 only we can trace their relation to God's moral 
 Being, and thus discover their spiritual meaning 
 and value, the fact of their being to the intellect 
 incomprehensible, or even paradoxical, cannot 
 affect the moral argument. And an exposition 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 43 
 
 of the Christian faith, which meets objections 
 against it on the moral and spiritual ground, 
 must of all have the sfreatest force. For the 
 only a priori objection against Christianity that 
 could have any real weight would be that it 
 should require men to believe incomprehensible 
 doormas as to the Divine Beino-, but at the same 
 time forbid us to inquire into their spiritual or 
 moral meaning, which is, indeed, the notion some 
 form of Christianity. But this is exactly the 
 opposite of that which is required of Christians ; 
 for on nothing does Holy Scripture more 
 insist than on the necessity of spiritual knowl- 
 edge to spiritual and eternal life, and the worth- 
 lessness of the belief of the intellect and of the 
 knowledge of the letter of truth, without its 
 spirit. 
 
 6. I do not, indeed, question that, as regards 
 the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, there are 
 metaphysical considerations which, to a philo- 
 sophical mind, may so far illustrate the mystery 
 from the analogies which philosophy suggests, 
 that to such a mind it may be apparent that the 
 intellectual objections to the doctrine are un- 
 tenable. And undoubtedly the language of St. 
 John as to the " Logos" : " Who was in the 
 beginning with God, and was God," and " by 
 
44 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 whom all things were made " ; and that of 
 other teaching of Holy Scripture as to the 
 Third Person, the Spirit of God, do sufficiently 
 justify our accepting arguments, whether from 
 psychology or general philosophy, and using 
 them for the illustration and confirmation 
 of the spiritual truth. And physical science 
 also, when it is philosophically examined, un- 
 doubtedly supplies illustrations and confirmations 
 from nature, not merely of the Unity of God, 
 but also of the co-operation of the three Divine 
 Personalities in the work of creation. And yet 
 it does not appear to me, I confess, that any of 
 these arguments, however legitimate as con- 
 firming faith, can of themselves bring us one 
 step nearer that spiritual knowledge of God 
 which is the essence of Christianity. At all 
 events, my object in these Lectures is simply to 
 exhibit the relation of God's moral Being to the 
 mysteries of the Christian faith, and first of all 
 to that mystery in which all Christian doctrine 
 is founded, that which is implied in " the Name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost',' into which we are baptized. 
 
 7. As regards the Christian faith as to " the 
 Father and the Son," that the Son of God, the 
 Redeemer of man, is one God with the Father, 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 45 
 
 and yet not the same Person as the Father ; 
 this article of the faith is so immediately and 
 obviously connected (in the teaching of St. John 
 especially) with the revelation of God as Love, 
 that it seems almost unnecessary to reason on 
 the subject. And yet it is of such primary con- 
 sequence to the science of theology, that it 
 should be made distinctly manifest how essential 
 and fundamental this connection is, (for, indeed, 
 it carries with it, as we shall hereafter find, the 
 whole of Christianity,) that we cannot examine 
 too carefully how the Being of God, and the 
 Christian faith as to the true Sonship of Christ, 
 are involved one in the other. For He whom 
 Holy Scripture declares to be " the only begot- 
 ten Son," and, again, " the effulgence of His 
 glory, and the very image (or impress, as from 
 a seal) of His substance," is also expressly called 
 " the Son of His love," or, as it is figuratively, 
 but most emphatically, represented by St. John, 
 " He who was " from the beginning " in the 
 bosom of the Father y Indeed, it seems impossi- 
 ble not to recognize, — in the use of the word 
 ayaTtrjTo?, both in secular literature and in the 
 Septuagint, as almost synonymous with 
 /xoyoysy?}?, which was examined above,^' and by 
 
 •'See Lect. I. § ii. 
 
46 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 which the exact force of the word ayanrf was it- 
 self determined, — a foreshadowing in the human 
 mind of Mini whom the Gospel sets forth at the 
 same time the " only begotten " of the Father, 
 and " His beloved Son." And, we must ob- 
 serve, it is not merely that " God being Love " 
 the Son of God must be the Son of His Love ; 
 but the truth that the moral Being of God is 
 such as it is, cannot be in any degree spiritually 
 realized, except through the Christian faith as 
 to " the Father and the Son." Because there 
 could be no perfectly suitable and adequate ob- 
 ject for the Infinite and Eternal Love which God 
 is, except there were One who was both in the 
 beginning with God, and Himself God. The 
 Being of God could have no sufficient interpre- 
 tation and fulfilment, in fact it would be un- 
 meaning, and a mere form of words, unless there 
 were a Divine Son, as well as a Divine Father. 
 The intellectual difficulty involved in the belief 
 of a Second Person in the Trinity, is nothing to 
 the moral difficulty of supposing that there is 
 not ; in other words, that the moral Being 
 of God has no sufficient object for its exercise. 
 8. An argument of a somewhat similar nature 
 has been based upon the character of God as 
 goodness. Because (it is urged) there are 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTER ILL, D.D. 4/ 
 
 different forms of goodness, and if we sup- 
 pose that all these do not exist in God, 
 we make created being itself a source of 
 goodness. For " there is a goodness in 
 trust, as well as a goodness in trustworthi- 
 ness ; there is a goodness in receiving, as 
 well as a goodness in giving." And from this 
 it is argued that there must be for every active 
 form of goodness in God, a corresponding re- 
 cipient form ; consequently, that there must be 
 in the Divine nature distinct personalities rep- 
 resenting these two forms ; otherwise there 
 could be no possibility either of their exercise 
 or of their manifestation in God Himself apart 
 from the creation. That there is some force in 
 this argument, we need not question ; and yet 
 it might be with reason doubted, whether it is 
 self-evident that not only every principle but 
 QY^ry form of goodness, must be found in the 
 Divine Being. For example, oney^r/;/ of good- 
 ness in man is repentance for past sin, which 
 form cannot exist in a perfectly holy being, 
 though the principle from which it springs is 
 there. When, however, we accept the funda- 
 mental law of God's Being to be " love," the 
 conclusion as to the necessity of believing in a 
 second Divine Personality is not only obviously 
 
48 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 true, but as certain as the existence of God 
 Himself. I may, however, use the words of the 
 thoughtful writer ^'^ to whom I have referred, 
 adapting them to our argument ; and ask, 
 whether, if it be granted that the very Being of 
 God is Love, and that love necessarily demands 
 both an object of love and a return of love, we 
 must not conclude that it is even absurd to sup- 
 pose, that hi consequence of His ujiity God 
 should not have both a suitable object and an 
 adequate return within His own Being, and 
 that He should be, as it were, compelled to 
 create in order to possess it. And is there not 
 a degree of relief in the doctrine of the Eternal 
 Sonship as a deliverance from the thought of a 
 God whose very Being is Love, dwelling in ab- 
 solute solitude from all eternity without an ob- 
 ject of love ? Nor is it possible to answer to 
 this moral argument, as we may with regard to 
 metaphysical arguments from the existence of 
 God, that the idea is simply the creation of our 
 own minds and not an eternal reality. For 
 our argument is, that whatever the merely in- 
 tellectual difficulty may be — and we may fully 
 allow that it is not only great but insuperable, — 
 
 " T. Erskine of Linlelhau the author of The Spiritual Order 
 and other theological essays. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 49 
 
 yet if it is intelligible to us that God is Love, it is 
 equally intelligible that there must be a worthy 
 object of that love ; and that love is an affection 
 between what we understand by Persons. So 
 that when those distinctions which the creeds 
 define so exactly are interpreted into the moral 
 language of mankind, they are found to be no 
 metaphysical niceties for theologians to exercise 
 their intellect upon, but the simple and intelli- 
 gible and self-evident language of the human 
 affection in regard to which man is made in the 
 image of his Creator. On the other hand, the 
 heresies condemned by the Christian Church 
 are notions at variance with the principle that 
 " God is Love." Sabellianism (for example), or 
 the confusion of divine persons in the Trinity, is, 
 when regarded in this light, morally incredible. 
 It is essential to that knowledge of God which 
 is life to the soul, to maintain the true catholic 
 faith as to the personal distinction of the Father 
 and the Son ; not only because from the begin- ; 
 ning it has been the faith of the Church, nor 
 even because it is to be directly concluded from 
 Holy Scripture, but (chiefly and primarily) be- 
 cause it is only in the revelation of the Eternal 
 Son of God that we know that the truth that 
 God is Love is not a mere figure of speech, not 
 
50 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 a mere intellectual conception, but an eternal 
 reality on which our own faith and our hopes 
 for eternity may rest unreservedly. 
 
 9. That there cannot possibly be any other 
 perfectly worthy object for the Love which God 
 is, will not be questioned. Whatever created 
 intelligences have been revealed, or can be con- 
 ceived of, who, in comparison of us sinful men, 
 are pure and holy, and suitable objects of love, 
 yet as the light of a candle becomes as dark- 
 ness before the brightness of the noonday sun, 
 so are " the heavens not pure in His sight," and 
 " He chargeth His angels with folly." Certainly, 
 adapting the language of the apostle,^^ we may 
 ask : " Unto which of the angels said He at any 
 time, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased ? " Nor is it only that creation could not 
 supply a sufficiently worthy object for that Love 
 which is God's Being and is both infinite and 
 eternal, but that only in the Son of God, who is 
 ' Himself a Divine Person " equal with the Father 
 as touching His Godhead," is it possible that 
 divine love could receive its true satisfaction and 
 fulfilment by the return of love. Though all 
 created intelligences should return to God, the 
 source of love, the whole of their affection and 
 
 == Heb. I. 5. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 5 1 
 
 devotion, what would all this be in comparison 
 with the love of Him, who is the eternal and 
 only begotten Son ? What to man would be 
 the affection of all the lower animal creation, if 
 he had not the love of a friend, a brother, a son? 
 And we must conclude that even thus, since our 
 affections are but the image of the Love which 
 God is, the eternal Son must be, not only above 
 and beyond all created personalties, the primary 
 object of divine love, but, in a certain sense, the 
 only direct and immediate object. And thus Holy 
 Scripture teaches that in Him all the love of 
 God so centres and is comprehended, as to be 
 exercised toward us, the children of men, only in 
 Him. But to enlarge on this here would be to 
 anticipate the question of the redemption of 
 man as the outcome of the love of God in 
 His Son Jesus Christ. For the present it is 
 sufficient to indicate the essential relation of the 
 faith on which the Church is founded — that Jesus 
 Christ is the only begotten Son of the living 
 God — to the fundamental truth that God is 
 Love. 
 
 lo. The Christian faith as to the Third Per- 
 son of the Trinity as one God with the Father 
 and the Son is not, it might seem at first, a 
 truth so obviously related to the Being of God 
 
52 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 as Love, nor does the distinction of the divine 
 personalities follow in this case so directly, at 
 least as it appears to our reasoning faculties, 
 from the moral Beino^ of God. But assuminsf it 
 as the teaching of divine revelation, that the 
 Holy Ghost, having the same name, and the 
 same Godhead, with the Father and the Son, is 
 nevertheless not to be confounded with either, 
 there is no difficulty in recognizing that this 
 doctrine is essentially and necessarily related, as 
 a moral and a spiritual truth, with the Being 
 of God as Love, and through that relation be- 
 comes not a mere intellectual belief, but a faith 
 full of life and energy. 
 
 II. Without entering into the question 
 whether it is more exact to say of the Spirit of 
 God, that " He proceeds from the Father and 
 the Son," or "proceeds from the Father, receiv- 
 ing of the Son, "34 it is certain that the faith of 
 the universal Church, as derived expressly from 
 Holy Scripture, is that the relation of the Third 
 Person of the Trinity to God is described by 
 the word eunopEvai? ''proceeding forth!' The 
 idea in which word is, that in the Spirit of God 
 the Being of the Godhead comes forth from It- 
 self and communicates Itself. Thus, in the crea- 
 
 '^ See Pearson on the Creed — " / believe in the Holy Ghost" 
 
R T. RE V. HENR V CO TTERILL, D.D. 53 
 
 tion of the universe, it was by the Spirit as the 
 outcoming of the divine energy and Hfe, that 
 the order which was appointed by the divine 
 wisdom in the Word of God, was perfected by 
 the co-operating will and wisdom and quicken- 
 ing energy of God. But it is with man as a 
 spiritual being that the love of God is primarily 
 and directly concerned, and with respect to him 
 the distinctive office or function of the Spirit 
 who "proceeds" from God is, as the language 
 of Holy Scripture proves, to form and maintain 
 that communion or fellowship between God and 
 the soul of man in which the love of God finds 
 its own fulfilment. For, as we have already 
 seen, the love of God seeks above all things, 
 even as that human love which is the imaofe of 
 the divine, requires for its own satisfaction, both 
 a return of love, and, as the result of this, unity 
 and fellowship with the Beloved. Therefore, 
 while Holy Scripture speaks of the "grace of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," and "the love of 
 God," that which distinguishes the Third 
 Person of the Blessed Trinity is "the com- 
 munion {Koiva)via) of the Holy Spirit." We 
 are taught, therefore, that our love to God must 
 be "love in the Spirit"; and, in accordance with 
 this, St. Paul reminds us ^s that "the love of 
 
 " =' Rom. V. 5. 
 
54 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 God," — that is, the Love which God is, and which 
 God has toward us, — "hath been poured out in 
 our hearts throiigh the Holy Ghost, which was 
 given to tis." Nor is this true only of the com- 
 munion of man with his Creator, for when 
 Christ spoke to His disciples of the union of 
 Himself with the Father, as the type of their 
 unity, and therefore a union in love ; and when 
 He told them that when the Spirit should come, 
 "ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye 
 in me, and I in you " ; and when He prayed for 
 them "that they all may be one even as thou, 
 Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
 may be one in us," we cannot but conclude, as 
 the Church teaches,^^ that the Father and the Son 
 are one "in the unity of the same Spirit"; that 
 is, of that Spirit by whom we also have fellow- 
 ship with God and God has fellowship with us. 
 12. This special function of the Spirit of God 
 as the Divine Personality through whom we 
 have spiritual fellowship with the Father and 
 the Son is continually implied in the teaching 
 both of Christ Himself and of His apostles. 
 Thus when our Lord, on the eve of His pas- 
 sion, spoke to His disciples of the coming of 
 the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom (He said) 
 
 " Collect for Whit-Sunday, 
 
/? T. RE V. HENR V CO TTBR/LL, D.D. 55 
 
 *' the Father will send in my name," He taught 
 them that the effect of this divine gift of the 
 Spirit would be, above all things, the indwell- 
 ing in them of this spirit of truth and 
 power, 37 <' If a man love me, he will keep my 
 word, and my Father will love him, and wc will 
 €ome unto him and make oitr abode with him! 
 And thus St.' Paul says ^^ : " As many as are 
 led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 
 For ye received not the spirit of bondage again 
 to fear ; but ye received the spirit of adoption, 
 whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit 
 himself beareth witness with our spirit that we 
 are the children of God ; and if children, then 
 heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." 
 All this language becomes far more emphatic 
 and far more intelligible, if we consider it in 
 connection with the truth, that it is by the 
 Spirit that divine love has its communion and 
 fellowship with its objects. 
 
 13. And this explains why "prayer," in 
 which especially our spirits have intercourse 
 and communion with God, 39 is " in the Holy 
 Spirit!' And St. Paul speaks *° of the same 
 Spirit as not merely helping our infirmities by 
 
 " St. John XIV. 23. " Rom. VIII. 14. 
 
 " St. Jude, 20. " Rom. VIII. 26, 27. 
 
5^ BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 assisting us to pray aright, but as Himself, in 
 our hearts, through the medium of our own 
 thoughts and desires, '* making intercession for 
 us by groanings which cannot be uttered " ; and 
 the apostle adds : " He that searcheth the hearts 
 knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because 
 He maketh intercession for the saints according 
 to the will of God." So real is the union, which 
 the Spirit proceeding from God forms between 
 God who is Love and our spirits, in which He 
 loves to dwell and have communion with them, 
 that our prayers to Him who has loved us, and 
 our very groanings of spirit in the inmost 
 depths of our owm being, are as truly the 
 prayers and desires of God's Spirit as they 
 are our ovvn. And thus, by the Divine Spirit, 
 the love of God in us has its full satisfaction 
 and fulfilment in this most intimate spiritual 
 union and fellowship. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that the faith of the 
 Christian Church, that the Third Person in the 
 Trinity is the Spirit who proceedeth from God, 
 is not only in accordance with the fundamental 
 truth that God is Love, but is as intimately re- 
 lated to that truth, and as necessary to expound 
 to us its spiritual force, as is the doctrine of the 
 Father and the Son. We find that this funda- 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 5/ 
 
 mental truth, as to the moral Being of God, 
 throws a new and bright light on this article of 
 the faith, and gives a new significance to it, as 
 not a mere dogma to be believed because we find 
 it in Holy Scripture, but as a living principle of 
 unutterable value as regards our own relation 
 to God and our spiritual intercourse with Him. 
 
 14. There is another point to be noticed here, 
 on which the relation of the Holy Spirit to the 
 moral Being of God supplies much material for 
 thought. There are in the apostolic writings 
 several intimations as to the symptoms of the 
 spiritual state (to which I referred at the close 
 of the first Lecture) in which the soul has 
 become hopelessly barren, and is rejected as 
 finally incapable of that spiritual fellowship with 
 God which is life eternal. " For the land which 
 hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, 
 and bringeth forth herbs, meet for them for 
 whose sake it is tilled, receiveth blessing 
 from God, but if it beareth thorns and thistles, 
 it is rejected and nigh unto a curse ; whose end 
 is to be burned."^' And the state of which the 
 apostle speaks is the condition of those who, 
 having been once enlightened and made par- 
 takers of the Holy Ghost, then fall away ; and of 
 
 " Tlcb. VI. 4-S. 
 
58 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 these it is said that it is impossible to renew 
 them again unto repentance. And the same 
 apostle elsewhere says '''^ that for those who 
 " sin wilfully after they have received the 
 knowledge of the truth there remaineth no 
 more a sacrifice for sins," for that to those that 
 have done ''despite unto the Spirit of grace" 
 the fire of God's jealousy becomes the ven- 
 geance which consumes the adversary. For 
 the sinner who continues in a state of wilful 
 sin after he has known the love of God in 
 Christ, has identified himself with his sin. To 
 such identification of sin with the will of the 
 sinner our Lord referred when He spoke of the 
 sin against the Holy Ghost, which, He declares/^ 
 ** shall not be forgiven, neither in this world 
 nor in that which is to come." So that while 
 omniscience alone can determine what the state 
 is which shall at last be proved incapable of 
 spiritual fellowship with the love of God, this at 
 least is certain : that the region of man's being 
 in which, when there is such fellowship, the 
 Holy Spirit expresses Himself by our feelings 
 and thoughts and desires, and identifies them 
 with His own, is also the region in which the 
 capacity or the incapacity for this spiritual 
 
 « Heb. X, 26, 31. " St. Matt. XII. 32. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 59 
 
 union must be proved. It is the region of the 
 will, the inmost sanctuary of the spirit of man, 
 in which his true personality resides. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF MAN THE COMPLETE EXPO- 
 NENT OF THE PRINCIPLE THAT LOVE IS 
 THE BEING OF GOD. 
 
 I. The connection of the Christian doctrine 
 of the redemption of man with the truth as to 
 the Being of God to which Holy Scripture 
 directs us, is in itself sufficiently obvious. Re- 
 demption is indeed expounded, both by Christ 
 Himself and by His apostles, as the one signal 
 and sufficient evidence of God's love to man. 
 " God so loved the world," Jesus Christ said,'** 
 " that he gave his only begotten Son that 
 whosoever believeth on him should not perish 
 but have eternal life." " Herein is the love 
 manifested in us, that God hath sent his only 
 beo^otten Son into the world that we mig;ht live 
 through him. Herein is love, not that we 
 loved God, but that God loved us and sent his 
 Son to be the propitiation for our sins." "^^ It is 
 
 ** St. John III. i6. 
 
 •* I St. John IV. 9 ; cf. also Rom. V. 8 ; Ephes. I. 5 to 7 ; 
 Rev. I. 5, etc. 
 
 60 
 
J7T. REV. HENRY COTTERTLL, D.D. 6 1 
 
 needless to multiply passages. And yet a pre- 
 liminary difficulty here presents itself on the 
 very threshold of our inquiry, which it Is neces- 
 sary carefully to consider, in order to exhibit 
 the whole scheme of Christian faith and doc- 
 trine, as consistent with itself. For how can the 
 same word be used, — one the special force of 
 which, as we have seen, is so exactly deter- 
 mined, — when Holy Scripture speaks of the 
 love of God to His only begotten Son, " in 
 whom he is well pleased," and of His love for 
 a world which is by nature alienated from God, 
 and the course of which is opposed to the will 
 of God .f" What is the meaning of mankind 
 being by nature " children of wrath," and yet at 
 the same time so specially the objects of the 
 love of God, that He spared not His only be- 
 gotten Son that they might live through Him } 
 It is, indeed, the very first moral difficulty that 
 presents itself to the awakened conscience. 
 And the difficulty seems only increased by the 
 particular word that the Spirit of God has se- 
 lected to describe the love which is the Being of 
 God, — reminding us that divine love cannot be 
 like the blind, unreasoning partiality of human 
 affection, but must be in accordance with reason 
 and with truth. 
 
62 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 2. To avoid, or rather conceal, this diffi- 
 culty, theologians will sometimes speak of the 
 love of God toward mankind as a love of mercy 
 and compassion only ; and thus different in kind 
 from that love which He has toward those who 
 love Him and, above all, toward His Son Jesus 
 Christ. But such a conception of the love of 
 God is radically defective, and cannot but affect 
 detrimentally our apprehension of Christian 
 faith and doctrine. For pity, or compassion, is 
 a form of benevolence of which suffering, desti- 
 tution, or danger is the moving cause ; but it is 
 not peculiar to love, much less to be identified 
 with love. Compassion may be felt by us 
 toward a suffering animal, as truly as for our 
 own child. It is certain, therefore, that we 
 cannot, without much moral and spiritual loss 
 or without risk of grave error in the theologi- 
 cal exposition of Christianity, conceive of the 
 love of God, on which redemption is based, as 
 being nothing more than mercy, however largely 
 this element of mercy may — as it certainly does 
 — direct and, we may perhaps say, intensify that 
 love. 
 
 3. But when we refer to the primary idea in 
 the word which Holy Scripture has chosen to 
 express the love of God, the reality of His love 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 63 
 
 for man, as distinguished from mere compassion, 
 is at once apparent. For since man was created 
 originally '*in the image and likeness " of God, 
 it is certain that, on account of this spiritual re- 
 lation to his Creator, he must have a value in 
 the sight of God infinitely beyond all the irra- 
 tional creation. He is *' dear " to God, as being 
 beyond all comparison more precious than the 
 whole world besides. And further, when we 
 consider the other element in love, by which it 
 is distinguished from mere benevolence, I mean 
 the demand for the return of love in spiritual 
 fellowship and communion, we find that this 
 also must altoofether distinguish the affection of 
 God for man from that goodness of God which 
 is over all His works ; for man is created capable 
 of that spiritual fellowship with his Maker of 
 which the lower creation is wholly incapable. 
 Indeed, in the history of man's creation, lan- 
 guage is used so nearly resembling that by 
 which the relation to God of the uncreated Son 
 is expressed, as of itself to explain sufificiently 
 that which at first seems a moral contradiction ; 
 I mean, that the love of God for sinful man is so 
 truly of the same kind with His love to His 
 " only begotten Son," as to be described by 
 the very same word. *' Let us make man," 
 
64 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 God said, " in our image, after our likeness." 
 " So God created man in his own imagfe." 
 Even thus the Son is the image {siKa)v) of God 
 and " the exact representation {xapmitt]^) of His 
 substance." The language is indeed by no means 
 identical ; and we must notice that whatever 
 may be the exact difference between the words 
 sixciv and opioicoffi^^ the latter is never predi- 
 cated of the Son of God, who is not only 
 opioiovGio?, as a created and finite being may 
 be, but opioovaio?. ^^ But that man is, as a 
 created being, the very counterpart of the 
 eternal and uncreated Son, the inspired history 
 of creation plainly indicates. And that this is 
 not only true of man in the state of his inno- 
 cence, but that it also describes his relation to 
 God after his fall from that estate, is distinctly 
 taught in Holy Scripture.'*^ He is therefore un- 
 utterably precious to God because of this rela- 
 tion, and, next to His " only begotten Son," 
 His ayaTtrfzo?. 
 
 4. And yet, as Holy Scripture teaches no 
 less clearly, that the very purpose of redemption 
 in regard to man is his restoration into the 
 image and likeness of God, which only in Christ, 
 
 " St. John X. 30, iyoo Hal 6 7tarr}p ev effjuEv. 
 " Cf. Gen. IX. 6 ; St. James III. 9 ; i Cor. XI. 7. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 6$ 
 
 the Second Adam, the Son of Man, is in its per- 
 fection and complete heavenly form, it is 
 evident that since the fall of man this divine 
 likeness, which He has received by cre- 
 ation, is in him not actually, but potentially 
 only. And this is yet more apparent, when we 
 consider that the actual likeness of God in man 
 must be the Love which God is ; while, in his 
 present natural state, man not only does not 
 love God but is alienated and at enmity. So 
 that the love of God to man cannot be that of 
 satisfaction in any actual likeness to God natu- 
 rally existing in man ; but the love which, recog- 
 nizing in man the capacity for that perfect image, 
 loves him, even in his enmity, not with a mere 
 compassion, but as the father loves the prodigal 
 son, and longs for his return. That man was 
 created in God's image, explains the reality of 
 the love ; the tremendous necessity that that 
 likeness should be actually reproduced in him, 
 explains its intensity. 
 
 5. Before we consider the method, revealed 
 in Holy Scripture, which God ordained for the 
 restoration of man from a state of alienation 
 from God, which is spiritual death, to a state of 
 fellovv'ship with his loving Creator, which is 
 life everlasting, there are several truths to be 
 
66 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 borne in mind. And first of all it must be re- 
 membered that in man, as a spiritual being in 
 whom the knowledge of good and evil has been 
 awakened, there is what Holy Scripture teaches 
 us to call " the conscience." It was the express 
 purpose of the Old Dispensation to call into 
 activity this spiritual principle, the witness for 
 God within ourselves, and to enable man more 
 distinctly to recognize that the transgression of 
 God's law is worthy of death and its necessary 
 consequence. But (as St. Paul teaches '*^) man, 
 even without this revelation, had, from God's 
 works in creation, sufficient knowledge of God's 
 " everlasting power and divinity," to leave him 
 without excuse for his perversions of divine 
 truth. And the apostle adds further, that 
 "when Gentiles, which have no law, do 
 by nature the things of the law, these having 
 no law are a law unto themselves ; in that they 
 show the work of the law written in their hearts, 
 their conscience bearing witness therewith, and 
 their thoughts (or reasonings) one with another 
 accusing or else excusing them." A further pur- 
 pose of the law was to educate the conscience 
 of man as to the necessity of a sacrifice, or pro- 
 pitiation, being offered for sin, in order that the 
 
 " Rom. I. II. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERTLL, D.D. 6j 
 
 sinner may be restored into spiritual fellowship 
 and communion with a God of Love. But it is a 
 mistake to suppose that this truth was originally 
 or exclusively taught by the Mosaic law. " The 
 first impulse of men, under the dictates of nature, 
 has almost always been to acknowledge a re- 
 sponsibility to a Divine Power, and to offer some 
 expiation for the offences they have committed. 
 The sacrifices of the Jews are but a more elab- 
 orate illustration of the universal practice of 
 mankind ; and if the general prevalence of an 
 instinct can be regarded as any proof of the be- 
 lief it implies, there are few cases in which ex- 
 perience supplies a stronger argument than is 
 afforded in favor of the necessity of an atone- 
 ment by the practice of expiating sacrifices." '♦^ 
 This demand of conscience — though in hea- 
 thenism it has manifested itself in superstitious, 
 monstrous, and indeed impious forms, wholly 
 inconsistent with the truth that God is Love, 
 — is nevertheless (however defective and erro- 
 neous) a universal witness in man to the neces- 
 sity of satisfaction being made for the transgres- 
 sion of God's law ; and the demand cannot be 
 
 ** Wace's Boyle Lectures for 1874. Lecture VI., " ThePrinciple 
 of Atonement." I have taken several suggestions from this valuable 
 and interesting lecture. 
 
^S BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 satisfied except by a reality. While the express 
 purpose of the elaborate distinctions and the 
 carefully provided order, in the sacrifices com- 
 manded by the law of Moses, was to guard 
 against the heathen perversions of the idea of 
 sacrifice, and to teach that propitiation through 
 sacrifice is consistent with God's fatherly love 
 to man, yet the sacrifices themselves, though 
 ordained by divine authority, were proved by 
 their constant repetition year by year (as the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us) to be 
 wholly unable to satisfy and purify the con- 
 science, which nothing whatever but spiritual 
 and divine reality can ever absolve.^" All that 
 these sacrifices could do, was to point forward 
 to a real propitiation for sin, hereafter to be 
 manifested ; in which man's guilty conscience 
 should be once for all reconciled to its God. 
 " But Christ having come a high priest of the 
 good things to come, through his own blood 
 entered in once for all into the true holy place, 
 heaven itself, having obtained redemption for 
 us." " For if the blood of goats and bulls satisfy 
 unto the cleanness of the flesh," — purifying 
 from ceremonial defilement, — " how much more 
 shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
 
 " Heb. IX. 9, lo, 14 ; X. 1-4. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 69 
 
 eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish 
 unto God, cleanse yotir conscience from dead 
 works to serve the living God. 
 
 6. But, further, for the complete restoration 
 of man into a state of fellowship with God, it 
 was necessary not only that the conscience 
 should be cleansed by a real satisfaction for sin, 
 but also that the love of God toward us should 
 be so manifested as to be the rational ground 
 for our loving Him. It is certain that there is 
 no other religion, except Christianity, which has 
 even professed to reveal any method whatever 
 through which this moral and spiritual restora- 
 tion of man, from a condition of alienation from 
 God and His love, to one of fellowship with that 
 love, could be effected. And yet the necessity 
 for this, if man is to be a partaker of the bless- 
 edness of God, and to obtain salvation from the 
 evils with which human life is filled, as we know 
 by our own miserable experience, is obvious. 
 That is, it is obvious if we allow the funda- 
 mental principle, that the moral Being of God is 
 Love. What that method for restoring man is, 
 which is embodied in Christian faith and doc- 
 trine, and how truly and fully it is the exponent 
 of that infinite love of which the eternal Son of 
 God is the primary and all comprehensive ob- 
 ject, we must now examine more fully. 
 
70 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 7. There is no book of Holy Scripture in 
 which the subject of redemption, in its pro- 
 foundest aspects, is more completely, and (we 
 may say) scientifically expounded, than in that 
 Epistle to the Hebrews to which reference has 
 been already made as teaching the subjective 
 efficacy of redemption, of Christ's sacrifice, as 
 regards the conscience. The exposition being 
 intended for those who have been trained 
 through the teaching and the ritual of the Old 
 Dispensation, exhibits Christianity as the devel- 
 opment and only true fulfilment of the Mosaic 
 economy ; yet it is far from being a mere com- 
 mentary on that religious system, or setting 
 forth any one particular phase of Christian 
 faith and doctrine. It is as catholic, in its repre- 
 sentation of Christianity as intended for the 
 whole race of mankind, as if it had been written 
 for Gentile converts. Its primary subject is the 
 Son of God, in whom God has spoken in these 
 latter days, and through whom, in the begin- 
 ning, all things included in the conditions of 
 time and space were created ; who, being God 
 of God, Light of Light, and one God with the 
 Father, of the same almighty and universal 
 sovereignty, after that through a brief period of 
 humiliation " He had made purification of sins," 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 7 1 
 
 sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on 
 high, as being Himself superior to all the high- 
 est and most glorious of created beings. The 
 nature of this humiliation, through which He 
 made this purification of sins, is then more par- 
 ticularly described. 
 
 8. In order, however, to apprehend the rela- 
 tion of the redemption of man, as here described, 
 to the Being of God as Love, we must first recall 
 our Lord's words, when, in anticipation of His 
 death and passion. He said^': " Therefore doth 
 the Father love me, because I lay down my life 
 that I may take it again ; no one taketh it from 
 me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power 
 to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
 again. This commandment have I received of 
 my Father." The work of redemption is repre- 
 sented by Christ Himself as His own voluntary 
 fulfilment of the will of the Father, in order that 
 He might glorify the Father and Himself in 
 this marvellous work.^' And this view of 
 redemption is further explained by St. Paul 
 when 53 he speaks of our Redeemer as one who, 
 being in the form of God, might have claimed 
 equality with God as His right, yet chose 
 
 " St. John X. 17, i8. " Compare St. John XVIII. i, 2,5. 
 
 " Phil. II. 6, II. 
 
^2 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 humiliation in our nature as the means of our 
 salvation, even though it involved obedience 
 unto death, yea, the death of the cross. And 
 in return for this, He received from God exal- 
 tation, as the Redeemer of mankind, to the 
 right hand of Majesty, and a name above every 
 name, in which all creation should recognize 
 Jesus as their Lord to the glory of God the 
 Father. There is, it will be observed, perfect 
 consistency throughout in the view of redemp- 
 tion, as given both by our Lord Himself and by 
 St. Paul ; and this view we find completed in 
 the Episde to the Hebrews. The apostolic 
 writer refers ^^ to a prophecy in the eighth 
 Psalm, of the exaltation of man by God visiting 
 him, which was to be fulfilled in Christ ; and 
 though we do not, as yet, see all things subject 
 to man, as foretold, yet we behold Him who 
 was made for a little while lower than the an- 
 gels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of 
 death crowned with glory and honor, that by 
 the grace of God He should taste death for 
 every man. " For it became Him " — that is, 
 God — " for whom are all things, and through 
 whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
 glory, to make the author (or leader) of their 
 
 " Heb. II. 6, etc. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. ^^ 
 
 salvation perfect through sufferings." In other 
 words, it was consistent with the character of God, 
 who is Love, that, in the fulfilment of His purpose 
 of love to the children of man, their Redeemer 
 should in all things be qualified for His mighty 
 work of salvation. This was to be effected 
 through suffering, even unto death, in man's 
 nature, for His suffering was essential to that 
 exaltation, by which alone His work would become 
 available for the whole family of man. And this 
 argument the apostle confirms and further illus- 
 trates, from that to which we referred, in con- 
 sidering the meaning of the love of God to man, 
 though fallen and disobedient ; I mean that 
 very intimate relation between the Redeemer 
 and the redeemed, the Sanctifier and the sanc- 
 tified, of which the incarnation and death of the 
 Son of God, for the sake of those who by crea- 
 tion are children of God, is the result. 
 
 9. In this argument it must be first noticed, 
 as regards the relation of the doctrine of 
 redemption to the fundamental principle of 
 Christian theology, that the primary purpose 
 in this divine work, as here represented, has 
 respect to Him who, (we have concluded from 
 the Being of God as Love,) must from all eternity 
 and throughout all ages be the primary object 
 
74 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 of Divine Love, which God is. There are some 
 theological explanations of redemption from 
 which it would be impossible not to draw the in- 
 ference, — which is not only absurd but impious, 
 — that when God spared not His own Son, but 
 delivered Him up for us all, Pie loved the world 
 of sinful men more than He loved His only Son. 
 Especially is this the case with some of the rep- 
 resentations of the passion and death of Christ 
 ■^i?, punishment endured as an equivalent, for that 
 which was due to God's justice on account of 
 the sins of those who are delivered from the 
 punishment through the debt being paid. This 
 mean view of redemption, which is an instance 
 of the danger of drav/Ing conclusions from the 
 mere letter of Holy Scripture,^^ jg one that has 
 often excited prejudices against Christianity ; 
 and yet it is difficult to conceive any view more 
 inconsistent with its spirit, or that tends more 
 to make the whole revelation both of God's 
 love, and of God's wrath against sin, which is 
 the necessary opposite of His love, an unreal- 
 ity. It assumes also that there is some moral 
 or spiritual value in suffering in itself, as if the 
 value were not merely in the love itself of 
 
 °* See on this, Wace's Boyle Lectures for 1874, Lect. VI. (before 
 referred to), and for a philosophical discussion of the question, Cole- 
 ridge's ^?Vj to Rejlection, 313-331. 
 
R T. RE V. HENR Y CO TTERILL, D.D. 75 
 
 which it is the exponent ; and, further, it loses 
 sight of the truth that the wrong done by the 
 sin of man, though it may be expressed meta- 
 phorically as a debt incurred, yet is a wrong 
 to love, and cannot be repaired on any such 
 principle as the payment of a debt ; for who 
 does not know that " if a man would give all 
 the substance of his house for love it w^ould be 
 utterly contemned" ? 5^ Reparation for an in- 
 jury to love can only be made by acts or other 
 proofs of love, with which he who has done the 
 wrojig is personally i7i spirit identijied. But 
 without considering further here what are the 
 fatal objections to any view of redemption in 
 which such truths as these are forgotten, it 
 seems to me, I confess, the most serious objec- 
 tion of all to that which represents the sacrifice 
 of Christ as " vicarous punishment," that it ob- 
 scures the truth that the love of God for man is 
 wholly 171 Christ the Son of His Love. In the 
 view given in the Epistle to the Hebrews this 
 truth is of all the most prominent ; Christ, the 
 eternal Son, is the one object that Holy Script- 
 ture here reveals as the representative of God's 
 love in the act of redemption. 
 
 lo. Instead, therefore, of attempting, either 
 
 " Cant. VIII. 7. 
 
76 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 on the theory before referred to, or on any- 
 other, to explain to our speculative reason the 
 mystery of the Atonement, which can lead to no 
 profitable result, but will only encumber Chris- 
 tianity with doctrines for which it is in no way 
 responsible, let us consider what is the sum 
 and substance of the whole doctrine of redemp- 
 tion, as here presented to our faith. It is that 
 for our sakes, the eternal Son of God, in whom 
 He is always well pleased, was made man, in 
 order that He might voluntarily bear the whole 
 burden of suffering and sorrow to which man- 
 kind is liable. It is impossible for any one to 
 doubt that this world is full of moral and physical 
 evil, and of suffering and death, whatever may 
 have been the origin. If revelation tells us 
 that the origin was man's own disobedience, it 
 tells us also that man is not left to struggle by 
 himself against an irresistible flood of evil, but 
 that God, his loving Father, through the sacri- 
 fice of the Son of His love, has provided the 
 remedy. This is the view of Christianity which 
 the apostle expounds in the following argument 
 of his epistle. He does not attempt to explain 
 the objective efficacy of Christ's death as the 
 propitiation for sin, beyond saying that He took 
 our nature in order "that through death He 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 7/ 
 
 might bring to naught him that had the power 
 of death, that is the devil"; which only reminds 
 us how many reasons may exist which made 
 the atonement necessary, from the constitution 
 of the unseen spiritual world, and which we at 
 present cannot understand. But he dwells 
 specially on the spiritual efficacy of the work 
 of the Redeemer as having so near and inti- 
 mate a relation with us men : ''Wherefore it be- 
 hooved him in all things to be made like unto 
 his brethren, that he might be a merciful and 
 faithful high priest in things pertaining to God 
 to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 
 For in that he himself hath suffered being 
 tempted, he is able to succor them that are 
 tempted."" And again -.^^ "For we have not a 
 high priest that cannot be touched with a feel- 
 ing of our infirmities, but one that hath been in 
 all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
 sin." And this the apostle expounds when he 
 says that this Divine Redeemer,^^ "in the days 
 of His flesh, having offered up prayers and sup- 
 plications, with strong crying and tears, unto 
 him that was able to save him from death, 
 and having been heard for his godly fear, 
 though he was a Son, yet learned obedience 
 
 "Heb. II. 17, 18. "Heb. IV. 15. "Ileb. V. 7-9. 
 
78 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 through the things that he suffered, and hav- 
 ing been made perfect, he became unto all 
 them that obey him the author of eternal sal- 
 vation." 
 
 1 1 . We are here brought to the very essence 
 of Christianity, as distinguished from all other 
 religions — I mean that it reveals God not merely 
 as perfectly just and holy, as supremely glorious, 
 as infinite in majesty and power. This, indeed, 
 it does ; but if this were all, Christianity could 
 bear no such witness to itself as when it reveals 
 God as giving His only Son, One with Himself, 
 to be "a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief"; to be "wounded for our transgressions 
 and bruised for our iniquities"; One on whom 
 was "the chastisement of our peace," and on 
 whom " the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all." 
 If the revelation had been destitute of this, it 
 might have given us a view of the Divine Being 
 to which the human mind would readily assent ; 
 the speculative reason would not be offended 
 by any incomprehensible mysteries in such a 
 religion, and might accept it as rational and 
 quite intelligible. But the revelation could 
 carry no conviction whatever to the heart and 
 conscience of man, because, however suitable it 
 be for a world without evil, without suffering, 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. "/<) 
 
 without sorrow, without death, in a world such 
 as ours actually is, the revelation of all these 
 moral perfections of Divine Being could give 
 to the spirit of man no light or life whatever, 
 but could merely intensify the darkness of death. 
 Such an idea of God would be to us no 
 revelation at all in the true sense of the word. 
 But the idea of a God who has taken our nature 
 into Himself, in order to feel for us in all our 
 sufferings and to bear them with us, is a revela- 
 tion indeed. It is the moral and spiritual solu- 
 tion, and the only solution, of the mysterious 
 problem of a world full of evil, sorrow, and 
 death. It may be incomprehensible to the in- 
 tellect, but it is, for that very cause, all the more 
 certain that it cannot be the invention of that 
 intellect, when to it the idea seems an impossi- 
 bility. In a different sense from that in which 
 the sturdy advocate of orthodoxy may have 
 used the v/ords, we may truly say : Credo quia 
 impossibile est. 
 
 And it must be observed, — and this is one 
 great advantage of regarding and expounding 
 Christianity from the stand-point of the Being of 
 God as Love, — that we thus see how essential 
 to redemption being an exponent of that love, 
 is the true and eternal Sonship of Christ. For 
 
So BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 it is the fact that God gave His own Son to 
 suffer and die for us, that alone proves the love 
 of God in redeeming us. If our Redeemer had 
 been the most exalted of created intelligences, 
 nay, even one who might be in some sense 
 divine, — His suffering for us, and His sympathy 
 with us through suffering, would indeed have 
 been a convincing proof of His own love, but 
 they would have been no manifestation at all to 
 us of the one God over all, as the God in whom 
 we might trust with confidence, unless He w^ere 
 really one God with the Father. It is evident, 
 therefore, that a belief in the true divinity of 
 Christ is of the very essence of Christianity; 
 because otherwise it is no revelation of the 
 Being of God Himself as Love. Every doctrine 
 short of that catholic faith which is confessed by 
 Christ's Church, is found, when tried by the 
 science of theology of which the fundamental 
 principle is the moral Being of God, to be 
 wholly destitute of the moral and spiritual 
 power of Christianity itself. 
 
 12. And, further, when we examine it, we 
 find that this is also the very gist of the witness 
 that Christianity bears to itself when it exhibits 
 its own characteristic features in the lives of 
 Christ's disciples, as our Lord prayed that it 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 8 1 
 
 might. For the power of the faith of Christ on 
 those that believe is derived from the revelation 
 of the love of God in Christ, as self-sacrificing 
 love ; love that does not expend itself in senti- 
 ments and feelings, but is a real sacrifice of self, 1 
 even unto death, to fulfil its ends. " Hereby," 
 St. John says, "know we love, because he laid 
 down his life for us : and we ought to lay down 
 our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this 
 world's goods and seeth his brother have need, 
 and shutteth up his compassion from him, how 
 dwelleth the love of God in him ? My little 
 children, let us not love in word, neither in 
 tongue, but in deed and truth. Hereby shall 
 we know that we are of the truth and shall 
 assure our heart before him," Such demands 
 on Christians for a life of self-denying and self- 
 sacrificing love may (as experience proves too 
 often is the case) fail to produce this effect on 
 individuals ; but, at all events, they prove what 
 Christianity itself means, and what are the 
 legitimate fruits of the religion when its real 
 spirit is apprehended. The central idea of the 
 religion is God, as one whose love for man 
 has manifested itself in a life of practical sym- 
 pathy with him in all the trials and temptations 
 to which humanity is subject. It proclaims that 
 
82 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 it is not only the duty of Christians to follow in 
 this respect the example of their Divine Master, 
 but that, if they truly believe in this manifesta- 
 tion of love for man, they must be animated by 
 the same spirit of love, without which all their 
 knowledge and spiritual attainments are worth- 
 less. And so fully Is this spirit of practical 
 sympathy for man the distinguishing spirit of 
 real Christianity, that, in the Day of Judgment, 
 the one and the sure test of acceptance with 
 God as true disciples of His Son, is represented 
 to be their having shown such sympathy for 
 their suffering and afflicted fellow-men ; in all 
 whom they could not fail, if they were Christ's 
 disciples Indeed, to have recognized those whom 
 their Lord redeemed. Or, as the Apostle John 
 says : " He that loveth not his brother whom he 
 hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath 
 not seen?" 
 
 13. It will, however, be necessary to the com- 
 pleteness of the argument, as to the witness, 
 which Christianity bears to itself as the expo- 
 nent of the truth that God is Love, to consider 
 some points more carefully. This view of Chris- 
 tianity, as spiritually and vitally connected with 
 the Redeemer's work of love for sinful and suf- 
 fering man, is distinctly exhibited in the ele- 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 83 
 
 mentary constitution of the Church, or Christian 
 Society, which was ordained by Jesus Christ 
 Himself. Nothing is more emphatically affirmed 
 in Holy Scripture than that the propitiation 
 made for sin being for the whole world, — Christ's 
 ministers are sent to proclaim this gospel of 
 salvation to all nations, and administer to all 
 who are sufficiently instructed and willing to 
 receive it, the sacrament of their adoption into 
 the family of God on earth. But it must be re- 
 membered that the rite of baptism, ordained by 
 Christ, unlike the initiatory rites of other relig- 
 ions, " is not only a sign of profession and mark 
 of difference, whereby Christian men are dis- 
 cerned from others that are not Christians," but, 
 much more, it is " an outward and visible sign 
 of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, 
 as a means whereby we receive the same, and 
 a pledge to assure us thereof " ; the grace 
 or gift of God, in the case of baptism, being "a 
 death unto sin and a new birth unto righteous- 
 ness." Thus St. Paul ^° speaks of our baptism 
 as being- " into the death of Christ " so that we 
 are " buried with him through baptism into 
 death " ; that like as Christ was raised from the 
 dead through the glory of the Father, so we 
 
 "" Rom. VI. 3, 4. 
 
84 BEDELL lectures: 
 
 also might walk in newness of life." And 
 this mystical signification of baptism explains, so 
 far as it is capable of explanation, how the humi- 
 liation and death of the Divine Redeemer on 
 behalf of man can become, really, and not by 
 a mere fiction of imputation, the atonement for 
 sin, and justification before God, for every one 
 who believes on Christ. Because faith in the 
 sacrifice of Christ's death, by which God has con- 
 demned sin in the flesh,^' and into which he is 
 baptized, spiritually identifies him with Christ in 
 that death ; as St. Paul says again :^^ "I have 
 been crucified with Christ ; yet I live, and yet 
 no loneer I, but Christ liveth in me ; and that 
 life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, 
 the faith which is in the Son of God who loved 
 me and gave himself for me." But it must be 
 observed that the language of St. Paul here and 
 elsewhere shows that this fellowship with Christ 
 in His death which is necessary in order to 
 make us partakers of the benefits of His propiti- 
 ation, must be no imagination of an excited 
 hr2Sx\,\iM\. 2^ spiritual reality ; one which trans- 
 forms our spiritual being, and pervades our life 
 with the spirit of Him who lived and died for 
 the sins of the whole world. All the personal 
 
 "Rom. VIII. 3-1 1. "Gal. II. 20. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 85 
 
 trials and chastisements of him who thus be- 
 lieves are spiritually associated, through this 
 faith, with Christ's own sufferings. Such an one 
 the apostle describes ^^ as "always bearing 
 about in the body the dying of Jesus^ that the 
 life also of Jesus maybe manifested in our mor- 
 tal body." True, visible Christianity, therefore, 
 is nothing else than the manifestation before 
 men of the Divine Redeemer's own work of 
 love for man. Christianity, far from claiming 
 for all that profess its doctrines, blessings su- 
 perior to others in the life to come, on the con- 
 trary distinctly and most emphatically teaches, as 
 a fundamental doctrine, that the benefits of re- 
 demption are possessed only by such as are in 
 spirit identified with the Redeemer Himself.^* 
 It cannot, therefore, be argued that Christianity 
 does not give, in its outward and visible form, as 
 well as by its doctrines, a patent and universally 
 intelliQ^ible witness to the world of its true char- 
 acter, as the manifestation of the love of God 
 for mankind, which Christians are bound them- 
 selves to exhibit in a life of self-denial and self- 
 
 " II. Cor. IV. 10. 
 
 '■' This fundamental truth is no less clearly set forth in the other 
 divinely ordained Sacrament of the Gospel, which is commanded to 
 be observed by all Christians, for in this we continually have com.- 
 munion with the sacrifice of Christ's Death. 
 
86 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 sacrifice for other men. And, on the other 
 hand, in its ordinances it proclaims that Chris- 
 tians are not left to themselves to fulfil, by their 
 own natural and unaided powers, these respon- 
 sibilities to which they are pledged, for the 
 promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, one God 
 with the Father and the Son, is sealed to each 
 one in these ordinances, to enable him to fulfil 
 the duties which are required of him, the duties 
 being those which are thus summed up : "Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart 
 and soul and mind, and thy neighbor as thy- 
 self" 
 
 14. It is certain, therefore, that Christianity 
 reveals God as having, in His infinite love for 
 man. done all that divine love can do, not only 
 to remedy, through sending His own Son, the 
 sorrows and evils with which this world is filled, 
 but, further, to make all that profess and call them- 
 selves Christians workers with Christ by a life 
 of self-denying sympathy for suffering man. I 
 s'a.y all tJiat love can do ; not because there are 
 any limits to that love, but omnipotence itself 
 cannot do that which is a self-contradiction. 
 Divine love, though infinite and almighty, could 
 not fulfil its purposes toward man, that is, re- 
 store God's image and likeness in him, except 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 87 
 
 he were one in whom such image and likeness 
 is possible ; which would be contradicted if we 
 should deny the reality of the will in man. It 
 is certain ^s that any view of the will which 
 represents it as incapable of resisting God's 
 grace, makes the mechanical relation of cause 
 and effect the one law of the whole universe, 
 and subjects to its mechanism the moral world 
 no less than the physical, so that it must follow, 
 from such a view, that the whole of God's crea- 
 tion, visible and invisible, is unspiritual. For 
 the reality of will, and therefore of responsi- 
 bility, alone distinguishes that which is natural 
 from that which is spiritual. The theology, 
 therefore, which makes the will of man a nullity 
 does, equally with materialism itself, deny the 
 existence of spirit, and therefore the possibility 
 of any likeness to God in man. The power of a 
 finite and created spirit to refuse to receive the 
 grace of Almighty God is, no doubt, a profound 
 mystery ; yet it is a mystery involved in the 
 very existence of spirit,— indeed, in every idea 
 of morality and religion, for the positive cannot 
 exist without the possibility of the negative. 
 Christianity certainly does not profess to be a 
 religion which denies that in man which alone 
 makes morality and reli gion possible. 
 
 " Coleridge, Aids to Reflection. 
 
88 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 1 5. Let us consider, then, what is the Chris- 
 tian doctrine on this subject ? It is expressed 
 in two opposite truths, which, though finite reason 
 cannot reconcile them intellectually, are morally 
 consistent. The one is, that all that is spir- 
 itually good, every good desire, as well as the 
 power to do that which is good, must be of the 
 Spirit of God. The other, that to the operation 
 of the Spirit in us the concurrence of our own 
 will is necessary. It was observed before,^^ in 
 regard to the fellowship of God's Spirit with 
 man's spirit in prayer, that true prayer is both 
 our own prayer and yet, at the same time, the 
 Spirit's intercession in us. Even so, St Paul 
 says, on the one hand: "To will is present 
 with me," and " with the mind / myself serve 
 the law of God"; on the other, no less dis- 
 tinctly : " Yet not I, but the grace of God that 
 is in me." And, therefore, our Lord's words 
 to the Jews at one time : *' Ye will not come to 
 me that ye may have life"; at another: "No 
 man can come to me, except the Father which 
 hath sent me draw him," far from being contra- 
 dictory one of the other, are only opposite 
 aspects of the self-same truth. For, as those to 
 whom Christ is made manifest are prevented 
 
 " Lect. II. § 13. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 89 
 
 from coming to Him solely by their own will, 
 so also none can spiritually come to Christ and 
 be made partakers of His salvation, but those 
 who are drawn not only by the revelation of 
 His love in the Gospel of His Son, but also by 
 His Spirit of Love in their hearts, by whom 
 God " worketh in us both to will and to do of 
 his good pleasure." 
 
 16. The relation of the human will to the 
 work of the infinite and almighty Spirit of God 
 in us is without doubt that which to the intel- 
 lect is incomprehensible, as are the doctrines of 
 the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atone- 
 ment. Yet the conscience has no difficulty in 
 recognizing the two opposite truths as funda- 
 mental and necessary principles, evident by 
 their own light. So that whereinsoever Chris- 
 tianity has produced the results which are the 
 legitimate and proper fruits of this revelation of 
 divine love, such results have been due to the 
 Spirit of God ; on the other hand, whereinso- 
 ever it has failed to produce such fruits, this has 
 been due solely to man, and cannot be laid to 
 the charge of Christianity itself. No doubt it 
 may often be due to misrepresentations of 
 Christianity by Christians themselves, who, in- 
 stead of teaching the Gospel of Christ as the 
 
90 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 manifestation of God's love, have too often 
 obscured and perverted it by false theology in 
 one direction or the other, teaching instead of 
 divine truth the doctrines of men. But Chris- 
 tianity must not be held responsible for those 
 things which do not in any true sense belong to 
 it. The witness which it bears to itself as the 
 revelation that God is Love is undoubtedly 
 most apparent to the world, as was said at the 
 commencement of these Lectures, when its 
 characteristic features are exhibited in the lives 
 of those who call themselves disciples of Christ ; 
 but, as has been shown, it is none the less certain 
 from the revelation itself, even when professing 
 Christians fail to be what their own religion 
 demands that they should be — nay, what they 
 could not fail to be if they sincerely believed it. 
 For the truth of God is no less certain, though 
 men do not believe. And it must be remem- 
 bered that Christ Himself foretold that " the 
 kingdom of heaven " on earth would be a 
 field in w^hich tares would grow up with the 
 good seed, and that they would not be sepa- 
 rated until the time for judgment should come. 
 Instead of anticipating that His own example of 
 love would be universally followed by those 
 who should call themselves His disciples, He 
 
R T. RE V. HENR V CO TTERILL, D.D. 9 1 
 
 foretells divisions, strifes, and false doctrines 
 amongst them ; and, as the ultimate result of 
 all, that " because iniquity shall be multiplied, 
 the love of the many shall wax cold." The 
 Divine Author of our salvation knew before- 
 hand that however clearly the love of God 
 might be revealed, and however freely the 
 Spirit of His grace might be given, whatever 
 divine love might do for man, it could not per- 
 force constrain him, against His own will, to 
 love God even though He is Love ; for love 
 must be, in the nature of things, spontaneous. 
 
 17. It must be further observed, in regard to 
 the witness which Christianity bears to itself in 
 the lives of those who reflect in themselves its 
 true characteristics, that not only is this witness 
 actually defective, because of the resistance of 
 man's own will to the grace of God ; but also, 
 as I noticed in my first Lecture,^^ ti-i^t, even 
 when there is in Christians a genuine represen- 
 tation of the love of God, and of the principles 
 of the Gospel in which that love is manifested, 
 the witness is often misapprehended by those 
 who do not appreciate or understand those 
 principles. For example, those who are by 
 faith spiritually united with Christ and like- 
 
 •^ See Lecture T. § 3. 
 
92 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 minded with Him, for the very reason that they 
 dwell in that Love which God is, must " hate 
 with a perfect hatred " the evil and sin which is 
 the contradiction of love, even as God hates it. 
 And all those errors and false doctrines which 
 directly or implicitly deny God's manifestation 
 of His love in His Son Jesus Christ, will excite 
 in those v/ho truly believe in Christ hostility 
 against such doctrines, and jealousy of those 
 that teach them, — not because they are wanting 
 in love, but for the very reason of the fervor 
 and reality of their love ; even as St. John bids 
 Christians, with regard to any one who does not 
 bring the true teaching of Christ, not to receive 
 him into their house, neither wish him God- 
 speed.^^ There is, no doubt, a false zeal for God, 
 which is not according either to knowledge 
 or to love ; but to the world in general, even 
 the zeal of the Apostle of Love appears unchari- 
 table. And so indeed it would be, were not 
 the doctrine of "■ the Father and the Son," 
 which these deceivers did not teach, necessary 
 to the faith that " God is Love." We cannot 
 expect others to recognize the charity of such 
 zeal, until they appreciate the force of this fun- 
 damental principle of Christian faith and doc- 
 
 '° 2 John, 10, II. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTER ILL, D.D. 93 
 
 trine. On the other hand, the conduct of 
 sincere and earnest Christians is Hable to be 
 misunderstood, from the world's ignorance of 
 the character of that love of God, in regard of 
 which God's servants are called to be followers 
 of Him, as His dear children. For while it is 
 revealed that God loved {}]yaTtrjae) the world 
 though at enmity with Him, the other word 
 (<?zAfz>'), which expresses the tenderer and 
 more intimate affection, is never used except of 
 God's love for Jesus Christ, His only begotten 
 Son, and for those who, by faith on Him, are 
 reconciled to God.^^ Even thus, those who are 
 like-minded with Christ have a special affection 
 for those who are the friends of God, different 
 from that with which they regard other men. The 
 former is distinguished by the word ^iXadeXqjia, 
 "brotherly love," the latter by ayocTt?]. And 
 while the first-fruits of the spirit is " love " 
 itself, ''° because without it all religion is vain, 
 yet St. Peter ^^ reminds us that in the develop- 
 ment and manifestation of the Christian charac- 
 ter, love in its perfection is the highest grace, 
 and one which " brotherly love " must precede. 
 So that oftentimes " brotherly love " is more 
 
 •' St. John XVI. 27. '" Gal. V. 22. 
 
 " 2 Peter I. 7. 
 
94 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 manifest in the character of Christians than that 
 love to man as man, which should animate 
 them to follow the example of Christ in a life of 
 self-denying love for all without exception or 
 distinction. And too often also this brotherly- 
 love takes the form of exclusiveness and par- 
 tiality, and specially of a tendency to judge 
 others, v/hich is expressly forbidden by Christ 
 Himself. Indeed, the world in general consid- 
 ers the " brotherly love " which exists among 
 Christians, — and alas ! too often not without 
 reason, — as mere party spirit and the unity of 
 those who hold the same opinions. And it is 
 important to observe, in connection with this, 
 that in our Lord's prayer for the unity of Chris- 
 tians as a proof to the world of His own divine 
 mission, the emphasis is laid on this being a 
 universal and not a partial unity ; " that they 
 all may be one, even as thou. Father, art in 
 me, and I in thee." For, in truth, the divisions 
 and strifes among even real Christians, which 
 are manifest to all men, do more, in the present 
 day especially, to obscure the witness of Chris- 
 tianity to itself, than all the " brotherly love " 
 in the several sects into which Christianity is 
 unhappily divided can do to confirm it. But 
 that unity of all that believe in one spiritual 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL. D.D. 95 
 
 body, for which our Blessed Lord prayed, — or as 
 St Paul describes it " one body and one spirit," 
 " holding the unity of the spirit in the bond of 
 peace," — cannot be the result of merely out- 
 ward ties or natural principles, which, as human 
 experience abundantly proves, are not powerful 
 enough to resist the influences which are ever 
 tending, in this sinful world, to mar the beauti- 
 ful ideal of unity which has God's special prom- 
 ise. The only power that can in any degree 
 make that ideal a reality before the world is the 
 gravitating power of genuine, vigorous love to 
 God and to Jesus Christ as the one Head of 
 His Universal Church ; which, even if the di- 
 vine order be disturbed for a time, will in due 
 time restore it. Is it too much to hope that in 
 proportion as Christianity is understood by 
 Christians as the revelation of the love of God, 
 and not a mere system of doctrines, the prayer 
 of our Divine Lord will be more and more ful- 
 filled ? 
 
 After an examination, in these Lectures, of 
 Christian faith and doctrine as the exponent and 
 manifestation of the fundamental law of God's 
 moral Being, a few remarks in conclusion will 
 be sufficient reply to some popular objections 
 
96 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 against Christianity as inconsistent with divine 
 love. 
 
 I. Of these, perhaps the most common among 
 men of the world in general is its exclusive- 
 ness ; that as the Apostle Peter said to the 
 Jews : " In none other," except Jesus Christ, 
 " is there salvation ; for neither is there any 
 other name under heaven that is given among 
 men wherein we must be saved." ^^ This, in- 
 deed, is the teaching of Christ Himself and of 
 the New Testament generally, so that it is not 
 without reason that in the XVIIIth Article of 
 Religion of the Church of England the opinion 
 is condemned as unchristian : " That every man 
 shall be saved by the law or sect which he pro- 
 fesseth, so that he be diligent to frame his life 
 according to that law and the light of nature." 
 But, first of all, if we realize the infinite magni- 
 tude of the divine sacrifice by which mankind 
 has been redeemed from sin and death, the con- 
 clusion is unavoidable, that such a sacrifice would 
 not have been made had any other method been 
 sufficient without it. Redemption through the 
 incarnation and death of the only begotten Son 
 of God is, in the nature of things, a unique act ; 
 
 "Acts IV. 12 ; St. Mark XVI. 16 ; St. John III. 18-36 ; i Tim. 
 
 n. 4, 5. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 9/ 
 
 and Christianity is, therefore, of necessity, ex- 
 clusive, if it is true. On the other hand, the 
 blessings which have been procured for man 
 through the Son of God taking into himself our 
 humanity, and bearing the sins and sorrows of i 
 mankind, and which can only be made our own 
 (as we have seen)" through that faith which in 
 spirit identifies us with the Redeemer's work ; 
 blessings which Holy Scripture describes as 
 being heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, 
 partakers of divine glory and joy, seated with 
 Christ on His throne, as He is seated with His 
 Father on His throne, are such as it is also im- 
 possible, in the nature of things, that any one 
 of God's creatures (much more one that is sin- 
 ful and fallen) could ever obtain, except through 
 such a method as the incarnation and cross of 
 Christ. So that the redemption, as regards 
 both the work itself and its results to man, alto- 
 gether is unique, and, on that account, also ex- 
 clusive ; for the same reason as the unity of 
 the Godhead is exclusive of a second God. 
 But it must be remembered that Holy Scripture 
 says nothing definitely as to the future state of 
 those who have had no knowledge in this life 
 of the Gospel of Christ. It only assures us, by 
 
 "Lect. III. § 13. 
 
98 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 all its teaching, both in the Old Testament and 
 in the New/-* that the Judge of all the Earth will 
 be both just to all without exception and without 
 partiality, and at the same time merciful and 
 compassionate beyond all that our imaginations 
 can conceive. It contains also some hints as to 
 the Gospel being " preached even to the dead," " 
 which, though they give us no encouragement 
 to speculate on a subject lying outside the work 
 of God which we are called to fulfil in this 
 world, are nevertheless sufficient to remind us 
 that the extent of the redeeming love of God 
 in Christ infinitely exceeds both our knowledge 
 and the sphere of our understanding. 
 
 II. Another objection to Christianity, or 
 rather against one partial aspect of it, is that it 
 makes God's love not universal, but special and 
 partial, and therefore unjust. I have referred 
 to this in Lecture I., but some further remarks 
 are necessary. For undoubtedly our Lord 
 Himself speaks of His people as "given to 
 him by the Father out of the world," and as 
 not having themselves chosen Him, but being 
 chosen by Him. And St. Paul^^ teaches Chris- 
 tians that " God chose us in Christ before the 
 
 '* See especially Rom. II. 6-16. 
 " I Pet. IV. 6, and III. 19, 20. •" Ephes. I. 4, 5. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. 99 
 
 foundation of the world, that we should be holy, 
 and without blemish before him in love ; havine 
 foreordained us unto adoption as sons through 
 Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the 
 good pleasure of his will." Of the truth that 
 the supremacy of the will of God does not mean 
 the disannulling of our own will, but that all 
 religion implies that the finite will is no less a 
 reality than the divine, I have already spoken. 
 But there is a further consideration which must 
 be taken into account, in reference to the lan- 
 guage of Holy Scripture on this profound and, to 
 a finite mind, necessarily incomprehensible sub- 
 ject. We must always bear in mind that God, 
 who (to use the language of the prophet Isaiah), 
 " inhabiteth eternity," sees every man, not as 
 we finite beings see him, but in the eventualities 
 of the future no less clearly than in the actuali- 
 ties of the past and the present. It is not 
 merely that the future is foreseen, but to that 
 mind to which all is present, and in which the 
 succession of time has not the kind of existence 
 that it has in the finite mind, the first germ and 
 the matured fruit are seen at once, one in the 
 other. This religious doctrine of the divine 
 foreknowledge is of course wholly beyond our 
 understanding, yet it is a truth which no one 
 
lOO BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 who believes in the existence of an' infinite and 
 eternal God can question, and it is totally dif- 
 ferent from necessitarianism or fatalism ; nor 
 does the will of God from all eternity, accord- 
 ing to His foreknowledge, that we should be 
 saved from sin and made partakers of His 
 glory, in the least interfere with the action of 
 our own will. Morally and spiritually, this truth 
 of our election before the foundation of the 
 world by the everlasting love of God, is an un- 
 speakable comfort and source of strength to 
 those who believe on Christ, " both because it 
 doth greatly establish and confirm their hope of 
 eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, 
 and also because it doth fervently kindle their 
 love toward God." " Intellectually, the doctrine 
 is " unthinkable," because infinite beine itself 
 is unthinkable ; but no man in his senses prac- 
 tically believes that the divine foreknowledge 
 of future events makes human action unneces- 
 sary or unprofitable. The truth has been, no 
 doubt, both perverted and abused ; yet in itself 
 it is nothing else than one of those mysteries of 
 infinite being which are incomprehensible by 
 every finite mind ; and the particular form 
 which it assumes in Christianity, as election by 
 
 " Article XVII. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. lOI 
 
 the grace of God from all eternity, arises en- 
 tirely from the fundamental principle that the 
 Love of God is His Being and therefore 
 eternal. 
 
 III. Of all the popular objections to Christi- 
 anity that which has most weight with many 
 minds is, that the doctrine of everlasting punish- 
 ment in another life seems a contradiction of the 
 love of God. But we have found in our exami- 
 nation of this whole subject that there are two 
 conclusions that are inevitable. The first is, 
 that the fundamental principle that God is Love 
 must involve also the opposite that His hatred 
 of sin — the contradiction of love — is as infinite 
 as God's Being itself is. His infinite love, and 
 His infinite holiness, are nothing else than two 
 opposite aspects of the same eternal and al- 
 mighty Being. The second is that love, which 
 alone is spiritual and eternal life, cannot be pro- 
 duced in man, even by omnipotence, without 
 the concurrence of his own will. And if the 
 complete manifestation of the love of God in 
 giving His only begotten Son as a propitiation 
 for our sins fails to conquer the rebellious will, 
 and we continue ^^ in a state of wilful sin, "after 
 
 " Heb. X. 26, 'EKOVffico? afiapravovTcov rf^a)v jAera ro 
 Xa/3eiv ttjv STtiyvcoffiv zr/? aXr/deia?. " Notice the present 
 
I02 BEDELL LECTURES. 
 
 we have received the knowledge of the truth," 
 there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins ; 
 there is no other method remaining by which the 
 soul can be quickened into life when love has 
 failed. In this passage from the epistle, to which 
 I have more than once referred, because it de- 
 fines more clearly and exactly than any other pas- 
 sage in Holy Scripture those cases which are 
 proved to be beyond the reach of divine love, 
 we must notice that it is assumed that the man 
 has "received the knowledge of the truth," and 
 therefore has had sufficient trial whether he will 
 accept the love of God or will refuse it. And 
 the word here used for knowledge {aTiiyvooai?) 
 implies not a mere historical knowledge of the 
 fact, which may never have- ;^ resented to the 
 conscience the spiritual meaning of the sacrifice 
 of Christ; but it assumes the " actual direction 
 of the spirit to a definite object and a real grasp- 
 ing" of the same." ^ Such are the cases in which 
 both apostolic authority and our Lord Jesus 
 Christ Himself declare that man has finally 
 identified himself with his sin, so as to be by the 
 
 not the aorist participle. It is not of an act or of any number 
 of acts of sin that the writer is speaking, which might be repented of 
 and blotted out ; but of a state of sin, in which a man is found when 
 that day shall come," — Alford. 
 
 ^' Delitsch quoted by Alford. 
 
RT. REV. HENRY COTTERILL, D.D. IO3 
 
 determination of his own will h^yond, the reach 
 of infinite love, because that love itself has be- 
 come, through his wilful rejection of the light of 
 life and love after it has shined upon him, the 
 consuming fire of divine jealousy. Who they 
 are that have thus, of their own will, chosen 
 darkness and death rather than light and life, 
 God alone can determine In that day when the 
 secrets of all hearts shall be made known be- 
 bre men and angels, and when He shall judge 
 e/ery man (as St. Paul reminds us ^°) on the 
 pinciples, not of the Law by which all are alike 
 ccidemned, but of the Gospel which reveals 
 Gd as Infinite Love. In the assurance of 
 th£ infinitely righteous and infinitely powerful 
 lov, we may well shut up all inquiries as to the 
 etenal future of other men, and to it may con- 
 fidetly entrust our own. The one truth that 
 Gocis Love, not only when rightly understood, 
 is sen to be the source of all the doctrines of 
 Chri;ianity, but also, if continually present to 
 our lind, will teach and enable us to apply 
 every^hristian doctrine in its true proportion 
 and rtition. 
 
 »» Rom. II. 16. 
 
1883. 
 FOUNDERS' DAY 
 
 AT 
 
 Gambler. 
 
 105 
 
FOUNDERS' DAY. 
 
 ORDER OF SERVICE 
 
 FOR 
 
 ALL SAINTS' DA V, 
 
 November i, 1883. 
 
 OFFICIA TING PERSONS. 
 
 The Te Deum . 
 Ante-Communion 
 
 The Epistle . 
 
 The Gospel 
 
 The Creed 
 
 Founders' Memorial 
 
 doxology. 
 
 Prayer for the Institutions. 
 
 Hymn 232 at 3D Verse. 
 
 . Kenyon College Choir. 
 
 Rev. Edward Benson, A.M., Senior 
 Professor, Kenyon College. 
 
 Rev. Abraham Jaeger, D.D., Pro- 
 fessor, Theological Seminary. 
 
 Rev. Cyrus S. Bates, D.D., Pro- 
 fessor,. Theological Seminary. 
 
 Rev. Fleming James, D.D., Pro- 
 fessor and Pastor. 
 
 Rt. Rev. G. T. BedeU, D.D., of 
 Ohio. 
 
 The Lecture 
 
 f Rt. Rev. Henry Cotterill, D.D.. 
 ■< Bishop of Edinburgh, Scotland. 
 ( (Lecture read by Pres't Bodine.) 
 
 Hymn 494. 
 
 Offertory for Founders' Scholarship. 
 
 Matriculation of the Theological Seminary. 
 
 Matriculation of Kenyon College. 
 
 Address ...... The Bishop of the Diocese. 
 
 ( The Bishop, the President, and 
 
 / the Pastor. 
 
 The Holy Communion 
 
 107 
 
FOUNDERS' DAY AT GAMBIER, 1883. 
 
 We remember before God this day the Founders of 
 these Institutions : Philander Chase, the first Bishop 
 of Ohio, clariim et venerabile nomen, whose foresight, zeal, 
 unwearied patience, and indomitable energy devised these 
 foundations, and established them temporarily at Worth- 
 ington, but permanently at Gambier ; he was the Foun- 
 der of the Theological Seminar)^, Kenyon College, and of 
 the Grammar School ; — Charles Pettit McIlvaine, 
 the second Bishop of Ohio, rightly known as the second 
 Founder of these Institutions, whose decision of charac- 
 ter and self-devoted labors saved them at two distinct 
 crises of difficulty ; he builded Bexley Hall for the use of 
 the Theological Seminary, Ascension Hall for the use of 
 Kenyon College, Milnor Hall for the use of the Grammar 
 School, and he completed Rosse Chapel on the founda- 
 tions laid by Bishop Chase. 
 
 We remember before God this day pious and generous 
 persons, contributors, whose gifts enabled the Bishops of 
 Ohio to lay those foundations, and who are therefore to 
 be named among the Founders. We make mention only 
 of those who have departed to be with Christ, and now 
 rest in Paradise. 
 
 109 
 
no FOUNDERS' DAY AT GAM BIER, 
 
 Among the many, we name only a few whose gifts are 
 noticeable because of the influence of their character and 
 position : 
 
 Henry Clay, whose introduction of Bishop Chase to 
 the Admiral Lord Gambier, of England, initiated the 
 movement in 1823 ; the Archbishop of Canterbury; the 
 Lord Bishops of London, Durham, St. Davids, Chester, 
 Lichfield ; the Deans of Canterbury and Salisbury ; 
 Lords Kenyon, Gambier, Bexley, Sir Thomas Acland ; 
 Reverend Edward Bickersteth, Henry Hoare, Marriott, 
 Pratt, William Wilberforce, Thomas Wiggin, Thomas 
 Bates ; the Dowager Countess of Rosse, who aided 
 liberally the Chapel which afterward bore her name ; 
 Hannah More, who also bequeathed a Scholarship 
 which bears her name ; and five hundred and thirty 
 others whose names are recorded in the memorial pre- 
 pared by the Rev. Dr. Bronson at the order of the 
 Trustees. 
 
 We remember before God the liberality of William 
 Hogg, from whom this domain was purchased under the 
 advice of Henry B. Curtis and Daniel S. Norton, with the 
 consent of Henry Clay ; the grantor contributing one 
 fourth of its market value. 
 
 In 1838, John Quincy Adams, the President of the 
 United States ; Mrs. Sigourney ; Arthur Tappan, who 
 originated the Milnor Professorship ; St. George's 
 Church, New York, which established a Scholarship ; 
 Rev. Drs. Milnor, Tyng, Bedell, Sparrow, Keith, Rev. I, 
 
FOUNDERS' DAY AT GAM BIER. Ill 
 
 Morse, Dudley Chase, Albert Barnes, John Trimble, 
 William Jay, Abbott and Amos Lawrence, Peter Stuy- 
 vesant, Richard Varick, and nine hundred and ninety 
 others whose names are recorded. 
 
 These were the first Founders of these Institutions. 
 
 Among those who aided Bishop Mcllvaine we men- 
 tion before God to-day, — in 1832, Bishop White, Rev. 
 Manton Eastburn and the Ascension Church, the Rev. 
 Dr. Cutler and St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, the Rev. 
 Drs. Muhlenberg and Wing, Peter A. Jay, James Len- 
 nox, Robert Minturn, Henry Codman, Robert Carter, 
 Matthew Clarkson, Charles Hoyt, I. N. Whiting, and 
 four hundred and sixty others whose names are re- 
 corded. 
 
 And in 1835, in England, Daniel Wilson, Bishop of 
 Calcutta ; the Bishops of London, Winchester, Salis- 
 bury, and Lichfield ; the Duchess of Kent, the Duch- 
 ess of Gloucester, the Princess Augusta, the Duchess 
 of Beaufort, the Earl of Carnarvon, Rev. Thomas 
 Hartwell Home, Charles Brydges, John Fox, Jerram, 
 Jowett, Baptist Noel, Dr. Plumtre, Charles Simeon, 
 Henry Thornton, Sir Thomas Baring, Henry Roberts, 
 architect, who gave the plan and working model for 
 Bexley Hall ; with four hundred and eighty-three others 
 whose names are recorded. 
 
 These are the second Founders of these Institutions. 
 
 We mention before God to-day the gifts of Bishop 
 Gadsden, Bishop Johns, Colonel Pendleton, John Kil- 
 
112 FOUNDERS' DAY AT GAMBIER. 
 
 gour, the Kinneys, Dr. Doddridge, Charles D. Betts, 
 who founded a fund for the purchase of theological 
 books ; Rev. C. C. Pinkney, who contributed for fit- 
 ting up a Laboratory ; J. D. Wolfe, who contributed to 
 found the Lorillard and Wolfe Professorships ; John 
 Johns, M.D., of Baltimore, who left a valuable legacy 
 to the Institutions ; Stewart Brown, William H. Aspin- 
 wall, and others who contributed to the building of 
 Ascension Hall ; Thomas H. Powers, Lewis S. Ashurst, 
 John Bohlen and sister, and others who founded 
 a Professorship in memory of the late Dr. Bedell of 
 Philadelphia ; Mrs. Spencer, Mrs. Lewis, who partly 
 founded a Professorship, Rev. Dr. Brooke ; Rev. Messrs. 
 Lounsberry and E. A. Strong, whose efforts brought 
 many valuable contributions to these Institutions ; W. 
 W. Corcoran, President Andrews, Rev. Alfred Blake, 
 and nine hundred and forty others who are also to 
 be counted among the Founders of these Institutions. 
 
 And last, the Philanthropist, the intimate friend of 
 Bishop Mcllvaine, who in token of that friendship 
 founded a Professorship, that now bears his name, bears 
 the name of George Peabody. 
 
 We mention before God to-day, with reasons that 
 none can better appreciate than this community, which 
 mourns their loss, two of our own citizens who are well 
 entitled to a place in the record of Founders — R. S. 
 French, who, with the assistance of friends in Gambler 
 and Mount Vernon, provided the full set of nine bells 
 
FOUNDERS' DAY AT G A MEIER: IIJ 
 
 and the clock, and placed them in the tower, with power 
 to ring the Canterbury chimes ; Martinbro White, who 
 was for twenty years Agent and Treasurer of these 
 Institutions, a man of singular probity and purity, whose 
 character and work, whose fidelity to his trust, whose 
 honesty as well as honorable dealing during difficult 
 times when these foundations were being laid, entitle 
 him not only to a place in our grateful recollection, 
 but to a place among the chief Founders of these 
 Institutions. 
 
 The donors to these Institutions who are still living 
 (many of whom have gathered on this day) unite with us 
 in praising God for the privilege of building upon founda- 
 tions which were thus so strongly laid. 
 
 Among them we mention with gratitude: — of England, 
 William E. Gladstone, Member of Parliament (at 
 present Prime-Minister), Rev, Canon Carus, and J. Pye 
 Smith ; — of the United States, Rev. Drs. Dyer and Burr, 
 Professor Francis Wharton, A. H. Moss, M. M. Granger, 
 John Gardiner, Rev. Archibald M. Morrison, who 
 founded the Griswold Professorship ; Peter Neff, Jr., who 
 gave the Telescope and Transit Instrument ; the Rev. 
 Drs. Muenscher and Bronson, and several hundred others 
 whose names are recorded. 
 
 The third Bishop of Ohio, with the aid of William H. 
 and John Aspinwall, James M. Brown, Samuel D, Bab- 
 cock, William B. Astor, and other members of the Ascen- 
 sion Church of New York, builded the Church of the 
 
114 FOUNDERS' DAY AT GAMBIER. 
 
 Holy Spirit for the use of all the Institutions ; through 
 him Mrs. Bowler founded the Professorship which bears 
 her husband's name, R. B. Bowler, who gave a philosophi- 
 cal apparatus, and who, with Larz Anderson, Henry Pro- 
 basco, William Proctor, and others, founded the Mcll- 
 vaine Professorship ; Jay Cooke founded the Professor- 
 ship which bears his father's name ; Frank E, Richmond 
 founded the Hoffman Library Fund ; Stewart Brown 
 builded the tower of the Church, to bear the name of his 
 son, Abbott Brown. By the same Bishop and his wife 
 the Organ was placed in the Church as a memorial of the 
 second Bishop of the Diocese, and the Episcopal chair 
 as a memorial of the great Founder; members of the 
 Church in Philadelphia completed the endowment of 
 the Bedell Professorship, among them chiefly William 
 Welsh, John Bohlen and his sister, and Thomas H. Pow- 
 ers, who also left a Fund in the hands of the Vestry of 
 Christ Church, Germantown, for a perpetual supply of 
 specified books for students in Bexley Hall ; and Robert 
 H. Ives and his wife, who stated that, desiring not to 
 trammel the Trustees, they placed their fund in the Treas- 
 ury without conditions. 
 
 In 1875 the Trustees determined to found a " Trustees' 
 Professorship," which is partially completed. 
 
 All these, and seventy others, are also to be counted 
 among the Founders. 
 
 We mention with gratitude the successful efforts of the 
 present President of Kenyon College to complete the en- 
 
FOUNDERS' DAY AT G A METER. 1 1 5 
 
 dowments, and the gifts which have resulted therefrom, 
 namely, from R. B. Hayes, President of the United 
 States, Peter Hadyen, Dr. I. T. Hobbs, Rev. William 
 Horton, Thomas McCulloch, Samuel L. Mather, William 
 J. Boardman, A. C. Armstrong, H. P. Baldwin ; from 
 John W. Andrews a donation in lands for the founding 
 of Scholarships in memory of his son ; from Mrs. Alfred 
 Blake donations for the purpose of founding a Scholar- 
 ship to bear her husband's name ; from Columbus De- 
 lano the Hall which bears his name ; from Mrs. Ezra 
 Bliss a Gymnasium which is being built ; and from 
 Henry B. Curtis Scholarships which from generation to 
 generation will foster sound learning. These also, with 
 thirty others, the latest givers to our Institutions, are to 
 be counted among the Founders. 
 
 The congregation rising. 
 
 For all these generous gifts of the living, and for the 
 memory of the dead who were the Founders of these 
 Institutions, we give hearty thanks to God this day ; 
 ascribing the praise of their benefactions to His almighty 
 grace, and the glory to His most holy Name, who is the 
 God of our fathers and our God, the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost, one adorable Trinity for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 prayer for the institutions. 
 
 O God the Holy Ghost, fountain of all wisdom, source 
 of all grace, be present always, we beseech Thee, with 
 
Il6 FOUNDERS' DAY AT GAMBIER. 
 
 these Institutions to direct and bless. Established in the 
 faith of the Gospel, endowed for the service of divine 
 truth, may they ever rest under Thy gracious benediction. 
 We pray Thee to use them for the glory of Christ in His 
 Church, and to make them pure fountains of heavenly 
 knowledge, holy principles, and godly learning. We be- 
 seech Thee to give to those who teach in them wisdom 
 and patience, discreetness and zeal for God; and to those 
 who are taught, aptness to learn, docility, submission 
 without servility, and manly gentleness. O Holy Spirit, 
 make these Thy servants studious, truthful, pure, obedient 
 to all who are in authority, and temperate in all things; 
 so that, by Thy grace, the same mind may be in them 
 which was in Christ Jesus our Lord, and their character 
 be formed in His holy likeness. Prosper Thou, O Lord, 
 the work of our hands upon us ! Give to Thy people a 
 liberal heart toward these Institutions. May the memory 
 of those whose gifts have enriched us be ever precious in 
 our sight, as it is blessed of God ! And may the good 
 name of these Institutions be handed down from genera- 
 tion to generation for the comfort of Thy Church, and 
 the glory of Thy Majesty, Who art, with the Father and 
 the Son, the One God whom we adore for ever and ever. 
 Amen. 
 
 THE f RAYER OF LORD BACON. 
 
 ADAPTED FOR STUDENTS. 
 
 To God the Father, God the Word, and God the Holy 
 Spirit, we pour forth most humble and hearty supplica- 
 
FOUNDERS' DAY AT GAMBIER. II/ 
 
 tions ; that He, remembering the infirmities of our minds, 
 the limits of our knowledge, and the pilgrimage of this 
 our life, in which we wear out days few and evil, would 
 please to open to us new refreshments out of the fountain 
 of His goodness and wisdom. This also we humbly and 
 earnestly beg, that human things may not prejudice 
 such as are divine ; neither that from the unlocking of the 
 gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater natural light, 
 any thing of incredulity or intellectual night may arise 
 in our minds toward divine mysteries. But rather that 
 by the cleansing of them through the study of truth, and 
 the purging them from fancy and vanities by the entrance 
 of wisdom, yet subject and perfectly given up to the 
 Divine oracles, there may be given unto our faith the 
 things that are faith's ; through Him whom truly to know 
 is everlasting life ; and to whom, with Thee O Father, and 
 Thee enlightening Spirit, we ascribe glory and praise world 
 without end. Amen. 
 
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